the Power of the Resurrection

Death has been on my mind a lot lately because I have recently experienced the death of two close relatives. I attended my uncle's funeral a few months ago, and my grandfather's funeral a few weeks ago. As the preacher spoke at my uncle's funeral, I noticed that he never once mentioned the hope of the resurrection that we have in Messiah. He seemed pre-occupied with trying to convince everyone that my uncle is now in heaven, rather than comforting us with the power of Messiah to resurrect the dead.

Mystery Babylon

Have you ever wondered about the woman who rides the beast, the woman referred to as “Mystery Babylon” in Revelation? Understanding who Mystery Babylon is will help us to better understand the times we are living in, and the spiritual implications that result from discovering her just might change some of our beliefs and perspective on things.

“Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and talked with me, saying to me, “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication.” So he carried me away in the Spirit into the wilderness. And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication. And on her forehead a name was written: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I marveled with great amazement.

But the angel said to me, “Why did you marvel? I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and the ten horns. The beast that you saw was, and is not, and will ascend out of the bottomless pit and go to perdition. And those who dwell on the earth will marvel, whose names are not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world, when they see the beast that was, and is not, and yet is. Here is the mind which has wisdom: The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits. There are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, and the other has not yet come. And when he comes, he must continue a short time. And the beast that was, and is not, is himself also the eighth, and is of the seven, and is going to perdition. The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority for one hour as kings with the beast. These are of one mind, and they will give their power and authority to the beast. These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and those who are with Him are called, chosen, and faithful.” Then he said to me, “The waters which you saw, where the harlot sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues. And the ten horns which you saw on the beast, these will hate the harlot, make her desolate and naked, eat her flesh and burn her with fire. For God has put it into their hearts to fulfill His purpose, to be of one mind, and to give their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God are fulfilled. And the woman whom you saw is that great city which has kingship over the kings of the earth.” (Revelation 17:1-18)

I want to take some time to examine this prophecy, so that we can understand what Mystery Babylon is. The Scriptures give us some very clear descriptions, and if we look with careful understanding eyes, we will better understand what is being spoken about here.

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Understanding Acts 15

Understanding Acts 15 is very important, and many people have misunderstood the decision of the Jerusalem council. Lets take a closer look at what actually happened and why.

The Christmas Lie

Should Christians celebrate Christmas? To many believers, it sounds sacrilegious to even mention the idea of not celebrating Christmas. For so many people, Christmas is a symbol of their faith. This teaching goes into great detail about the origins of Christmas and also what the scriptures say about it.

Remember that Satan is the father of lies, and has been deceiving people from the beginning. He is a master of deceit, and so we need to be very careful to seek the truth, and not be deceived. The best way to deceive someone is to make it sound like truth by mixing bits of truth into the lie. You might be shocked when you find out the Truth about Christmas, but remember that the Truth will set you free.

Growing up, Christmas was my favorite time of year. I loved everything about it. The decorations, the food, the family, the gifts; it was all so beautiful and exciting for me as a child. My love for Christmas continued into adulthood. Every year I looked forward to setting up the tree, hanging lights on the house, and buying gifts for family and friends. We were so excited about Christmas that we would start decorating at the beginning of November, and leave the decorations up until the end of January (sometimes even into February). Christmas was my absolute favorite holiday, and one of the main reasons for this was because I thought it was a celebration of Jesus birth.

You see, I have been a Christian all of my life, and I have always loved God. I have always wanted to do what was right, and do what pleased God. I thought that celebrating Christmas was something that was pleasing to God, and that, more than anything else, is why I loved Christmas so much.

Then one day, Truth came knocking on my door. Someone told me that Christmas was originally a Pagan holiday, and that it was just adopted into Church tradition hundreds of years after Jesus died. This was strange news to me, because I grew up thinking that Christmas was celebrated from the beginning of the Church, and that it was a holiday that God gave us. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

I wanted to find out the Truth about Christmas, so I started doing my own research, and was shocked at the things that I found out. I was so disgusted and shocked at the Pagan origins of some of our traditions that I began to weep and repent for my involvement in these things. I felt so deceived, and the thing that made this deceit so bad was that it came from people I trusted, family, friends, and especially the Church (who should have known better).

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False Teachers

Popular Christian Theology teaches that "we no longer need to obey the commandments", but is that really what the Bible says? Is it possible that the church is being deceived by many false teachers today?  What does the Bible say about false teachers? How can we know if someone is teaching false doctrines?

Food Blessings

While eating lunch yesterday, I said the blessing before the meal, and a thought struck me. It was on my mind all day yesterday, and again today, so I decided to write about it. This is just some random thoughts that I had, but I hope it will be beneficial for you.

Broken Telephone

Have you ever played a game called “telephone”? It is also known as “grapevine”, “broken telephone”, “gossip”, “secret message”, “chinese whispers”, and “pass the message”. In the United States, “telephone” is the most common name for the game.

Churchgoer or Disciple

I have been thinking a lot about what it means to actually be a disciple, and have come to the realization that not everyone who goes to church or calls themselves a Christian is a disciple. In my experience, we tend to think that the goal of evangelism is to get people to become regular churchgoers. We want them to attend regular weekly church services, and if someone misses a week or two, we start to wonder if they are backsliding in their faith. Why has church attendance become the litmus test for deciding if someone is walking with the Lord?

The New Reformation

It is interesting, because yesterday I heard a preacher say that we are living in the “New Dark Ages”, and I was expecting to hear a sermon about how we need a new reformation in the church, but instead he preached about how we need to cling to our “Traditions, orthodoxy, and Dogma”. He also said that anyone who tries to reform such things is being rebellious. (The very same things that the Catholic Priests were saying during the first Dark Ages about those leading church reform)

Note to Pastors

I would like to take a moment to address professional pastors and clergy in this note. Please take a moment to consider the things I am about to say with an open heart and mind. Listen to the voice of the LORD. Hear His heart, and consider how it affects the Church.

What are we saying?

I have come to realize that we regularly encounter a number of oxymorons when we discuss things relating to church. An “oxymoron” is a figure of speech that combines contradictory terms. Oxymorons appear in a variety of contexts, including inadvertent errors such as ground pilot and literary oxymorons crafted to reveal a paradox. Some examples include “controlled chaos”, “organized mess”, “accidentally on purpose”, “Dark light”, “Living dead”, “New Classic”, “Old News”, “extremely average”, “objective opinion”, and “original copy”. Oxymorons are often used to convey paradox, irony, or sarcasm.

Authority

Jesus taught a lot about authority, but his teachings differ significantly from our modern understanding of authority in the church. Basically there are two kinds of authority: authority that is taken, and authority that is given. The kind of authority that is taken by rulers who “lord it over” people is set in contrast to the authority that is given to the one who humbles himself as a servant. Jesus describes both of these types of authority in the following scripture.

When you come together

In 1 Corinthians 14, Paul is giving instructions on what the Church gatherings should look like. According to Paul, every member of the Church Body should participate in the worship and teaching aspects of the Church. Everyone has a hymn (song), a word of instruction (teaching), a revelation (what God is saying or doing in your life), a tongue or an interpretation (spiritual gifts functioning). Paul says that this is how a healthy Church should function. These things are done to so that the church will be stronger.

Role Reversal

I have been doing a lot of study of the New Testament Church and how it compares to our modern Church, and my eyes are being opened to a whole new way of understaning things. While studying the role of the preacher, I found out some very interesting things, and have realized that our modern “preaching” is very different from the New Testament preaching.

A Worker and his Wages

I have heard many preachers quote the scriptures that say “a worker deserves his wages” in reference to the pastor getting paid a salary from the church. It is interesting that the context of this verse has nothing to do with pastors, and it has nothing to do with money. The context is of a traveling evangelist, an apostle (sent one) who is traveling around from town to town preaching the good news of the Kingdom of God. When these traveling preachers enter a town, they find a home to stay in, and receive the food and shelter that is given to them as their payment. Hospitality, therefore, is the payment that is due to the gospel worker, not money. Jesus instructed them not to even take a purse along with them, so they have no way of collecting money even if it was offered to them. They were only able to collect their daily bread, eating what was placed before them.

Good Soil

Jesus often taught using parables, and one of the most popular of these stories is that of a farmer spreading seed on the ground. For many people, this parable has become so commonplace that its message is often lost in the mundane reading of it. However, I believe that this parable holds some very significant information and revelation in regard to discipleship and spiritual growth. Please read this parable again with fresh eyes, as if it were the first time you had heard it.

Charity and Christian Giving

I have been thinking about a difficult question recently - who should we give our charity to? To answer this question, I think we should take a look at the New Testament, to see how the Church handled its charitable giving in the beginning. We find in the New Testament that there were three groups that funds were given to. They gave to the needy in the church, those outside of the church who had needs, and traveling apostolic workers as they had need.

The church in Antioch

I have recently been captivated by the way the church formed in Antioch. It was quite different from the way we assume churches typically form and develop. It is a great example of how a church can form organically, without structure, leadership, or institution.

In the Name of Jesus (Authority)

What does it mean to do something “in the name of Jesus”? It is a phrase that we hear and say often in our prayers, but do we really understand what it means? Are we truly speaking and acting in Jesus Name, or are we simply giving lip service?

Burying Our Gifts

Everyone who has become a Christian has received the the Holy Spirit, and likewise, the Holy Spirit gives gifts to every member of the Body of Christ. These gifts are given for the benefit of the Church. These gifts are given to lead and strengthen and encourage and prepare the Body of Christ.