Home Blog Page 8

INTERVIEW: “Finding Full Assurance of Faith” by Pastor Bill Alderson

Matthew Schoenherr
-
0
INTERVIEW: “Finding Full Assurance of Faith” by Pastor Bill Alderson

[Matthew] Hey there. I’m Matthew Schoenherr, this is Levaire, and today, our guest is the author of “Finding Full Assurance of Faith: The New Covenant in Three Dimensions.” Bill Alderson is currently an associate pastor for Greater Grace World Outreach in Baltimore, Maryland. He and his wife have six children, 10 grandchildren, and live in Havre de Grace, Maryland. Welcome, Bill.

[Bill] Great to be with you, Matt, looking forward to our conversation.

[Matthew] Yeah. Bill, what drove you to write “Finding Full Assurance of Faith”?

[Bill] It was a long process. I’ve been studying the Word of God pretty intensely for, well, probably 40 years. About 15 years ago, 16 years ago, God started to reveal some things to me that I’d not read before in any other place, particularly as it relates to the new covenant. They were insightful things, and it just kind of led me into a deeper study. I was relying on some isogogic materials that really opened the door, opened up my mind to realities as these gospels in particular were being written, who they were being written to, and what was going on at the time that they were, that they were accounting for.

All of a sudden, it became clear to me that there was an underlying story—particularly in the gospel of John—there’s an underlying story here that’s not on the surface, you have to dig underneath. But once you do, you start to realize there’s something more going on here that brings into each believer a fullness in the relationship. This is really what God was leading me into.

It was a progressive thing, where He’d give me a season where He’d give me a lot of stuff. And then I’d have to set it aside, and then I’d pick it up again. And then I’d set it aside, and then I’d pick it up again. Never really knowing exactly how it was going to conclude. And it wasn’t until maybe six months ago that things started gel as far as, “Oh, this is how it’s supposed to end. This is what it’s supposed to look like, as a book.”

So actually, started talking to you and to others just to get some counsel on how to go about getting a book published. And here I am today. It’s done. It’s out there. I don’t like the word “proud” from a spiritual perspective, but I am proud of it in the sense that it, I believe it communicates what God wanted me to say.

So here we are. It was a long ongoing process. By the way, since I’ve written it, it’s like, now there’s more. It’s like, when He gives you something, then He says, “Okay, now you’ve got this. Now I’m going to build on that.” And I think our walk with God is kind of like that, where every day, the day before you had something, and now that becomes foundational for something else. He’s constantly building you in a process. Psalm 25:9 says, “The meek will He teach in the way.” This idea of meekness being open to hear the voice of God, let Him teach you, and then it’s a progressive thing that ultimately, it never ends. It doesn’t end until we’re in heaven, and even then, I think we’ll continue to learn more, particularly about the quality of God’s love.

[Matthew] Yes, yes. Amen to that. Now, I gotta bring you back for a second because you used a word that’s probably over a lot of heads: “isogogic”.

[Bill] Isogogics.

[Matthew] Can you expand on that just quickly?

[Bill] Yeah. The isogogics are the background of what is taking place. It’s inside information about who, you know what, when Jesus said something, what did they actually understand Him to mean? So you have to look at the context of the Hebrew mindset of His day, or who He’s communicating to. And to you get a bigger picture of actually what He is trying to deal with in a particular way.

One of the books that was really foundational for me was called the “Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah” by Alfred Edersheim, who was a 19th century scholar. He just brings out all kinds of special things that you wouldn’t read in most commentaries, that really kind of took me on this journey.

[Matthew] Yay. Nice. All right, so tell us a little more about yourself. How has your understanding of the Christian life changed as you’ve studied over the years?

[Bill] Well, it’s becoming more and more and more personal. As God gives me insights that are, as I study what other people have written before me, because I’m trying to glean from their lives, but then God says, “No, but I’m gonna give you something that you’ve never read before.”

The relationship with God, being able to hear the voice of God clearly. And for me, it happens most often when I’m studying the scripture. The Word of God is a means of God communicating heart-to-heart. He’s communicating to our hearts. And as we study, as we meditate, I think meditation is a critical part of our relationship with God, it’s not only do I read a verse and think about it, but then, okay, so what does this mean to me?

How do I apply this in a practical way in my life? And so, it’s a journey. It’s like “Pilgrim’s Progress”. Most people have at least heard of “Pilgrim’s Progress”, John Bunyan. You’re going from one city, one place to another, God’s taking you on this journey. And every city has implications for the next one.

So, it’s like there’s a process. And that’s really what God has taken me on, this amazing journey where I now see things, and He’s giving me more insights. It’s like I’m becoming comfortable being out on the end of the plank, if you know what I’m saying.

[Matthew] I do.

[Bill] He put you out there, He puts you out there, and you say, “Nobody else is here and I’m all alone.” He does that because He has a unique relationship with me, just as He does with everyone. And He wants to develop that relationship. And as we press into Him, as we draw near to Him, “You draw near to Me, I’ll draw near to you.”

That principle, everything expands, because now possibilities are endless, because you’re now outside of your own limitations. As a human being, we have very specific limitations, and each one of us has our own strengths and weaknesses and things that kind of hold us back.

But nothing is impossible with God. So you connect with Him and now you’re kind of, you’re able to operate on a higher level, but it’s His empowerment, not mine. It’s all about Him working through me in the Word of God and the truth that He delivers.

[Matthew] Yes. Oh, for sure. For sure. Yeah. Had he left us where he found us, it’d be a mess.

[Bill] Yeah, for sure.

[Matthew] Okay. So in your book, you talk about the nature and importance of the new covenant. Now, one question that comes up around this has been, if the old covenant has been replaced by a new covenant, a better covenant, why didn’t God just start with the new covenant?

[Bill] Yeah, this was a question that I kind of worked on, meditated on for a long time, because as it became more and more clear the greatness of the new covenant. It was like, no, God had pointed to this all along, this was going to be the ultimate goal, the new covenant.

In Hebrews 13:20, it’s an eternal covenant, meaning that it existed before and it’ll exist forever.

So this has always been God’s intention. But He has—I found out in my studies—He has to take us on a journey to get us to the place where we are ready to receive it.

It’s like He prepares the ground for you to be able to accept what He has for you. And that whole period of 14 or 1,500 years under the law of Moses, was all intended to prepare the Jewish nation for their Messiah.

And they had to go through this religious process before they were ready to say, “Okay, now I’m ready to set that aside because I’m interested in something even better.” And a walk with God—when you have the life of God living inside of us—it is a game changer.

The old covenant only takes you so far, because again, you’re limited by your flesh.

Romans 8:3 says the law, weak as it was through the flesh, God did, sending His own son in the likeness of sinful men.

He’s saying, “Hey, the law could only take you so far; I want to take you further. But you need to go through this process to realize that this isn’t the end of the process; there’s something even greater.”

And each day in our walk with God is intended to be that way. “He gets sweeter and sweeter as the days go by, oh, what a love between my Lord and I.”

[Matthew] Nice. You’re a poet too.

[Bill] That’s a song by the way.

[Matthew] Bill, you subscribe to a dispensational view of the Bible. Would you mind telling us what dispensationalism means to you?

[Bill] Yeah. The way I’ve studied the Bible, I come through the Scofield, Louis Barry Shafer arm of conservative Christianity that subscribes to dispensationalism, which basically says that in each period of human history, God’s way of dealing with man is different; it changes.

In the first dispensation, we’re talking about the garden, man created, and he had an awesome time in paradise. But then something happened, something changed. That period in the garden, we call it the Age of Innocence. Before there was any understanding of reality of sin. But then something happened, they were told not to do something, which they did.

And in Genesis chapter three, the devil had got in the way through the serpent, and everything changed. And in fact, they had to leave the garden, they had to leave paradise. And now they’re facing this world, which by the way, was also cursed just as man was cursed and woman was cursed, and the devil was cursed, so was the ground.

Now, man has to deal with the corruption of the sin nature, and it’s evident in everything, in the entire scope of our life. So now this is called the Age of Conscience, because now you’ve got a conscience, you’ve got something God tells you to do and you don’t do, or He tells you not to do and you do. Either way, now you’re being reminded, “Uh oh, I’m missing the mark here.” The second period is the conscience.

The third period is Genesis 11, One World Government, where all of a sudden now people are gathering together in one place, trying, “Let’s build a city. And in the middle of the city, this tower, to prove to God that we are capable of being gods,” in a sense, that’s effectively what they were trying to do. And Isaiah 14:14, the devil, Lucifer says, “I will be like the Most High.” It’s that spirit. And God had to scatter them. So that ended that.

And then the fourth dispensation begins with Abraham, and it’s called the Dispensation of Promise, where God started to make promises, and Abraham believed. And Isaac and Jacob and that whole period, which covers from Genesis 12 all the way to the end of Genesis, to the beginning of Exodus, is what we call the Age of Promise.

Then we go into the law, the law of Moses. And that covers through the time of Jesus. And then Jesus introduces a new covenant. We call it the Age of Grace, the Dispensation of Grace.

And here we are.

[Matthew] Nice. Okay. So next question. You and I both know that writing a book is a tremendous amount of work. How does “Finding Full Assurance” address some of the needs of today’s Church?

[Bill] As I have been doing a lot of studying and just observing the state of the Christian Church today, I think that there’s some really severe spiritual shortages that exist.

There’s a great book written by a guy named Francis Schaeffer. He was an apologist in the 20th century. And very intense, a very smart man, and he wrote extensively. The book that he wrote just before he died in 1984 is called the “Great Evangelical Disaster”. And in there, he highlights how liberalism had entered into the seminaries back in the late 19th century, and progressively now, the evangelical church has been influenced more and more and more by this liberalism, which basically gives license to say, you can interpret the scripture any way that kind of suits you. There are no absolutes. It’s like, no, you have room to kind of operate here.

The problem with that is that the moment you modify the truth just a little bit—we have an example of that, by the way, in Matthew chapter four, when Jesus is in the wilderness being tempted by the devil, and what does the devil do? He quotes scripture. And Jesus basically says, “No, you’re misapplying that scripture. What you’ve done, you’ve taken truth, but you’ve twisted it.” And this is what happens when you are willing to alter your interpretation of scripture to suit your particular need or your particular interest or particular agenda, whatever it may be. And I think this is where much of Christianity is today. And what I’ve tried to do in the book is to define, as scripturally as I can, each chapter is filled with scripture, as you know. And I’m trying to take the scripture and bring life to it in practical ways, comparing it to other scriptures so that it’s not just one scripture that says something. No, this is supported by other parts of the Bible so that the conclusions that you come to are consistent and they’re conservative, and they are, I believe, what God intended.

[Matthew] Yeah. Thank you for that carefulness with our Father’s Word, for sure. What is the most important point you would like people to come away with after reading this book?

[Bill] The greatness of the relationship with God. The fact that He has really taken care of all of the things that hold us back as a human being, that keep us from experiencing the greatest heights in our relationship with Him, and therefore, our happiness on this earth.

Once we realize that He is not expecting us to perform certain things in order for us to get to the highest level, when we think that God puts some conditions on us in order to get to this place, this high place in our relationship with Him.

But the fact is that the new covenant has resolved basically every issue as it relates to redemption.

And now it’s really just a matter of me trying this new relationship with God on for size. And it’s getting in my mind understanding, “Oh, this is how it works. Oh, I don’t have to do this or I don’t have to be that.”

I can rest in this perfect position that He’s prepared for me. And that’s what the new covenant relationship is all about. It’s a finished work. Jesus said in John 19:30, “It is finished.” And He wasn’t just talking about His work on the earth. He was talking about the work of redemption, that you and I now have this perfect relationship with God.

We don’t have to go through the law of Moses anymore and suffer all the consequences for our failures. We simply live in the reality that our sins are forgiven, but yet we still have a sin nature. So we live in this conundrum, if you will, and we live in a corrupt world as well, and yet, He has made our relationship with Him perfect.

It’s encouraging people to find the strength and the quality of the relationship that God has prepared for us.

And so much of it is mental, it’s not about effort. The effort is the byproduct of getting to the place where God brings me to mentally. We want to put the cart before the horse. And this is not reality. The horse is the relationship has been clearly defined. Once I get connected to that, the production of that life will be what God wishes. He wants to work through us.

[Matthew] Nice. Now, since you’ve finished this work, is there anything you would’ve added to this book?

[Bill] Are you trying to get some special insight here that you’re gonna… nothing specific, but you suggested something by the way to me a few months ago, because I’ve written a number of blogs dealing with different individuals who have experienced a high quality, one of them, I called it “Unsung Hero”. I suspect that God’s going to do that; at some point, I’ll have something like that.

But at this point, I don’t know exactly where this is taking me, I’m at the point where I don’t worry about where I’m going with it. Abraham was told, “Leave your family behind and go to this place, I’m not going to give you directions. You’re just going to have to trust me that eventually you’ll get there.”

[Matthew] Good. All right. So, what do you think people are going to find controversial about “Finding Full Assurance”?

[Bill] It’s going to blow some structures, I think. People have lots of ideas associated with their own relationship with God. Each of us comes from maybe a different community of faith based upon the teaching that we’ve been sitting under. I was brought up a Catholic. When I got saved back in 1972, that was an amazing change in my whole perspective. I want to take people out of the realm of the—I’ll use the word “religious,” because so much of Christianity remains religious—and I want to bring it into the personal, because ultimately, this is where the quality of our relationship is found.

The very last chapter of my book is entitled “The Heart of the Matter.” And, in fact, the very last statement I make in the book is “the heart of the matter is a matter of the heart.” So it’s about your heart and taking you out of that religious realm. And I’m sure I’m going to ruffle some feathers; I’m going to blow some structures. God did it to me, and it’s a healthy process actually.

[Matthew] Yes, it is. Yes, it is. Yeah, I’ll often tell folks the only thing that happens with the mind is the renewal of it. Everything else is a heart job; the Gospel is a heart job.

[Bill] That is exactly right. You’re exactly right. To get there takes courage. It’s not a frolic. It’s a process of seeking. And the more you seek—He says, “If you seek me, you will find me”—and the more you seek, the more you will find. The way I see it is, how big of a God are you seeking? If you are seeking a little God, you only ask Him to do little things, that’s what you’ll get. But if you are seeking a big God, (and he is a very, very big God—much bigger than we can imagine) that also is what you will find if you seek Him with all your heart.

[Matthew] That’s good. Preach!

[Bill] Hallelujah!

[Matthew] Hallelujah! All right. So what’s next for you? Now, you kind of alluded to this already. What are you working on now? You already foreshadowed maybe another book coming out. I guess the key question here is what are you working on now?

[Bill] This is something that I just finished on Monday. I’ve been working on this for the last three weeks. This particular blog, it’s about 3,000 words, it’s entitled “The Corruption of Mankind.” It focuses on the first 12 chapters of Genesis, the process of humankind, the infiltration of sin, then evil in the whole process and what it looked like, what it was all about, how we respond to it, and what is the ultimate conclusion for it.

As I’ve finished it—and I’m just getting ready to post it—it is something that I think is going to take me to another place, potentially, and cause me even deeper communication. I think it’s revolutionary. We don’t think about that period of time. There’s 12 chapters there, from Genesis 1 to Genesis 12. They’re not that long if you just read them, but they represent 2,000 years of human history and all of the things that took place over a 2,000-year period of time, the ups and the downs of life, the process, and how man is able to wrestle with his limitations and his weakness, given an enemy that is also working in his life, in the environment that we live.

Again, I’m not sure exactly what that’s gonna look like, but I sense there’s something much bigger that He’s gonna reveal to me through this.

[Matthew] Yay. Have fun with that journey. Looking forward to it. So, Bill, where can people buy “Finding Full Assurance of Faith” and how do they get on your mailing list?

[Bill] I have two websites, RWAlderson.com and FullAssuranceofFaith.com. There’s links to buy the book from there. It’s on Amazon, it’s on Barnes and Noble. AuthorHouse is the name of the publisher so it’s on their website as well, AuthorHouse.com. As far as getting on a mailing list, just go to my websites, and there’s a place where you can basically give us contact information and we’ll be in touch. I’m doing podcasts every week. I’m still writing blogs as well, so there’s a link to the podcast, a link to the blogs.

So, there’s lots of information there that as God’s feeding me with this truth and I’m meditating on it, and hopefully it comes out in a homogenized way, that it’s ready to be consumed. And then people can embrace it and understand it in practical ways.

[Matthew] Nice. Well, and I will be adding links to your book in this article and in the video description for sure.

[Bill] Great.

[Matthew] Yeah. Thank you, Bill. It’s been a pleasure being with you today. I truly appreciate the careful way that you’re handling our Father’s Word. And I know that the Levaire viewers and readers will too.

[Bill] Amen. That’s been a great pleasure for me too. I appreciate our friendship.

[Matthew] Yeah, absolutely. All right, folks, that’s a wrap! The book is “Finding Full Assurance of Faith: The New Covenant in Three Dimensions”, available on Amazon and at RWAlderson.com among other places. The author, and our guest today, was Pastor Bill Alderson.

Remember: It is the Truth that sets you free.

[Bill] Amen.

Burn the Witch | Are Your Kids Learning Witchcraft?

Matthew Schoenherr
-
2
Burn the Witch | Are Your Kids Learning Witchcraft?

Ah, witchcraft in the schools. Lovely.

Color guard. If you’ve ever seen high school bands or college bands marching around on a field and you saw those people waving flags and spinning rifle stocks into the air during these wonderful choreographies, you’ve seen color guard. That’s what it is.

My wife and I found ourselves at one of these competitions. These color guard performances will have themes attached to them. They might be circuses or romances or space or different social themes (some healthy, some not so healthy.)

At these competitions this year here in Michigan, we saw a truly jaw-dropping performance that stood apart from all the rest.

The teams have a moment where they’re getting everything set up for their performance, and in this particular case, we saw people scurrying around in, what I would call, Puritan outfits. We had a little campfire over in the corner, and some benches over in the other corner. It looked to me like we were going after Thanksgiving.

But that’s not what they were thinking!

Everyone takes their places, and then the announcer announces the name of the school, please help me welcome such-and-such a school, and then he gives the title. In this case, the title was “Burn the Witch”.

The music starts up and begins with these lyrics:

The flame lick at my feet,
their heart’s full of hate.
What they don’t understand, they condemn.
What they can’t comprehend must meet its end.

Up in the upper left-hand corner, we have Christians in what I would call a weekend gathering, sometimes praying with their clasped hands or they are with open hands, they’re reading imaginary Bibles.

Quickly though, one of the girls sneaks off and four more follow her to the campfire on wheels where the five of them begin to dance around the fire, obviously emulating coven activity.

Well, the Christians catch wind of this and spiritual warfare begins. Eventually, the witch hunt commences with everyone now flipping fiery flags.

The head witch is caught, dragged to the stake, and the cloth behind her is dropped, revealing this big fire. She starts thrashing and writhing, eventually collapsing to the ground. The rest of the dancers convene where?

Back at church.

Ah, those hateful, judgmental Christians, always trying to keep those nature-lovers down.

While the imagery from this performance was overt—it was clear, this is a slap at Christianity—I couldn’t assume that the music was equally a slap at Christianity, so I needed to get better grounded on the lyrics and the artist.

The musician is super talented, and the song itself is very harrowing. But let’s take a look at these lyrics. I already spoke to

their hearts being full of hate and
what they don’t understand, they condemn.

Then there’s the stand in defiance, rebellion:

but I won’t scream, won’t give them that satisfaction.
I won’t confess my false interaction, and
I hear them chant, burn the witch.

Here again, we have the return to innocence, oh no, the witch being burned at the stake is innocent:

I stand accused of being in league with Satan.
No proof for that false accusation. (I mean, other than these dancers dancing around a fire in a pentagon.)

You know, the song goes on, burn the witch, burn the witch, burn the witch.

Still, at this point, I’m trying to give the musician the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he’s just angry at the Church. Maybe he has some sort of deeper meaning than what I’m thinking. So my question becomes, well, does he explain the meaning of this song?

The musician’s name is Shawn James Mavrides and he goes by the stage name Shawn James. About the song, his Twitter account says,

“Burn the Witch’ is a song about discrimination and those who choose to stand up against it in spite of being persecuted. The idea that being from a witch’s perspective, burned at the stake made perfect sense to me.

“What are you thoughts behind the meaning of this new single?”

One of Shawn James’ audience members says on Facebook:

“Besides the song being a very important and real lesson on some of the mistakes we as a society have made in the past, I find I can relate to it on a personal level. It resonates with me because of my involvement/association with a rather unorthodox religious group, the Satanic Temple. Since coming across their work and the ideology that drives that work, I have been an open supporter. In a sense, TST is the witch. Their perspective on things, although very sensible, is more often than not not understood and is chastised by the majority. ‘What they don’t comprehend, they condemn.’ TST is literally seen as ‘being in league with Satan.’ (It could be because it’s in the name.) “But if people would take the time to educate themselves, they might find their points of view very agreeable. Overall, it is a very powerful song and I absolutely loved it.”

Shawn James writes, “I love your perspective and good points you made there. Thank you for sharing.”

The more meaningful comment for me came right after that:

“The first word that comes to mind… esoteric.”

It was the esoteric comment that received the praise emoji that got my attention. You see, I’ve splashed around in the New Age gutter long enough to recognize the word “esoteric” is a reference to something else.

So a quick glance at Wikipedia shows us that yeah, esotericism, or esotericist schools, are connected with the occult and Wicca, which is witchcraft. It also includes smatterings of Gnosticism, like what we see represented in movies like “The Matrix”, “Lego Movie” and “Truman Show”, and it’s involved with Freemasonry, which it just so happens is this school has a Facebook club page that was advertising a spaghetti dinner sponsored by their local Masonic temple. (So maybe not a big surprise there.)

As you look on further, you can go deeper into Wicca, and sure enough, there’s our five-pointed star, there’s our pentagram!

Now, obviously while I’m on this journey, I’m Googling and I’m discovering other things and I eventually see the song cover for this song. On the song cover are these hands that are bound (which makes sense; we’re talking about burning the witch, which includes binding the witch.) But there’s these tattoos, these runes tattooed onto whoever’s thumbs.

So I have the question then, are these the artist’s hands? How deep is this? Or is this just a set of hands that’s a stock graphic?

Well, no. You go to Facebook and Pinterest, and sure enough, yeah, these are indeed Shawn James’ hands.

In fact, he’s got several tattoos, including tarot cards and this esoteric dial called a vegvisir which is Icelandic for “signpost or way finder.” Now, a vegvisir is an Icelandic magical stave (which I had to look up.) What is a stave? It’s a symbol, and in this case, this magical symbol is intended to help the bearer find their way through the rougher weather of life.

Going back to the symbols on his hands, well, the next question is what do these symbols mean, because maybe they’re just stylized letters and it’s really his mom’s initials or something cute like that.

No, it wasn’t that. Thank you, Reddit:

“Those appear to be alchemical symbols for lead on the right and phosphorus on the left.”

Another contributor writes in, “Interesting thing I never noticed before seeing them presented in this way with Ma’at’s scale is that they’re both representing paths or partial paths up to the Tree of Life from the Kabbalah.”

So there’s this tension between light and dark, or as Star Wars would put it, the balance between these two forces.

And it was this comment that threw me back to go look at the album cover. I had noticed it in my searches, but I hadn’t really take any time to look at it.

Well, now I’m looking at it because somebody recognized it as Ma’at’s scale. I didn’t know who Ma’at was, and didn’t know why they had a scale.

This Egyptian illustration reads from left to right, beginning with Anubis and ending with Osiris. To the left, Anubis brings the deceased into the judgment area, and then, in comic book fashion, Anubis is also shown at the scales supervising the scales of judgment. The deceased’s heart (conscience, emotions, intellect and character) was weighed against the feather of Ma’at, an ostrich feather in this case, on scales which represented balance and justice. If their heart was found to be heavier than the feather, it was determined that the deceased had failed to live in a balanced life by the principles of Ma’at.

As a result, the deceased would have been condemned to non-existence (which I guess you would call destruction of sinners) and their heart was either thrown into a lake of fire, or devoured by the demon deity, Ammit, depicted as part crocodile, part lion, part hippopotamus. However, if the heart was balanced with the feather of Maat, the deceased would pass into eternal life.

So that largely explains the scales. We have these alchemical symbols at the bottom of it. We recognize this now as an Egyptian mystery school scale.

But then, at the bottom, you can see just for added touch, we see cloven hooves, an obvious reference to Satan and Luciferianism.

You do a quick Wikipedia on Luciferianism, and it kind of falls in line with Gnosticism, it falls in line with all of these mystery schools, the pagan, Wiccan, and all that kind of jazz.

Lucifer, called the light-bearer, also known as Saturn, is seen as the great judge with scales and a sword, and he’s been entrusted with the gateway to transcendence.

Now, because he went off-page, off-script with this overbearing God, because he and his angel friends taught divine mysteries to mankind, he’s been punished.

So we went back to this idea of reaching and attaining for esoteric, ancient wisdom, even in the face of being held down by a restrictive, punishing, dictatorial God. Lucifer wasn’t a bad guy. He and the other Watchers of Enoch and Jubilees were just trying to help humans by sharing secret knowledge including the knowledge of good and evil.

But now, cast out of their heavenly abode, they are fallen angels who have been falsely accused and who only really seek to elevate humanity.

Bleah.

I hope you guys are seeing this. I hope you’re seeing the heart behind the lyrics, the heart behind the performance.

I hope you’re seeing that, as they’re reaching for this clandestine wisdom, as they’re reaching for higher knowledge, self-actualization is all they’re after. After all, they’re made to be gods too.

So we have this false accusation theory that’s going on in Luciferianism, that’s going on in Gnosticism, that’s going on in Wicca. And so we see it here in the song.

Oh, and just so you know, the crowd cheered just as loudly for this troupe as they did for every other troupe, which is crazy when you think about it because you’ve got to figure at least probably a third to a half of those people in the audience would probably check the Christian box to say, “Yeah, we’re Christian.” At least a third of them probably go to church I’m guessing.

One final note here: During the final awards ceremony, each team was introduced and they would come up donning these crazy hats and headgear. As they would do so, a couple of members of their team at the front of the line would step forward and do some sort of flourish or salute.

Well, this group, the Wiccan group, this is their flourish.

We have the feminine truth-seeking daughter of Mother Earth being held down by the rigidity of patriarchal Abrahamic religion. The injustice of it all. She just wants enlightenment, folks.

Gross.

Open your eyes, Christians. We have this stuff going on under our noses.

Look at what your kids are reading. Sniff out the agendas that your coaches have and that your teachers have. Ask your kids how things are going at school. Bring them to material like this and say have you ever seen anything like this? Most of the kids should probably say no, but there’s been times where I’ve had to go in and speak with teachers because I’d have a kid come to me and point out that there was a book on witchcraft in the classroom. And because it had the seal of approval by Newbery—it was a Newbery award winner—it must be okay.

Trash.

I love you guys.

Hope this was informative. Hope this blew your hair back a little bit. This is a sobering video to make. It’s not the video I intended to make right now, but this is the video that came up, so this is what we’re running with.

Remember: It’s the Truth that sets you free!

The Role of Confession

Bill Alderson
-
0
The Role of Confession

Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God, got up from supper, and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself. Then He poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. So He came to Simon Peter. He said to Him, “Lord, do You wash my feet?” Jesus answered and said to him, “What I do you do not realize now, but you will understand hereafter.” Peter said to Him, “Never shall You wash my feet!” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.” Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, then wash not only my feet, but also my hands and my head.” Jesus said to him, “He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.” For He knew the one who was betraying Him; for this reason, He said, “Not all of you are clean.” So when He had washed their feet, and taken His garments and reclined at the table again, He said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? “You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am.  ‘If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. “For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you.” (John 13:3-15)

The Greek word translated sin is “hamartia” and is defined as a “falling away from or missing the right path”. In the context of the Scriptures, the right path is measured by God’s standards as revealed in the Word of God. When man operates outside the will of God, willfully or not, he is living in a state of sin. In Romans 14:23b, the Bible says, “whatever is not from faith is sin”. This means that when the believer is not believing (trusting) God, he is sinning. This speaks about our ongoing fellowship with God and the only solution to this problem for the believer is confession.

Breaking the bondage

To understand the role of confession in a believer’s life, we need to be convinced that our position “in Christ” is perfect and cannot be improved, that Jesus did pay for all my sins. My experience as a human being living in a corrupt and fallen world is not so perfect because I am subject to all of my human weaknesses. Galatians 5:17 says, “For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please”. But if Jesus paid the price for all my sins, why do I need to confess them? Because these sins have an energy, a power unto themselves and can keep me in bondage to the failures and not allow me to experience the victorious life. Confession breaks this bondage by expressing to God a desire to change, agreeing with God’s assessment of the failures. According to Frederick Buechner, “To confess your sins to God is not to tell God anything God doesn’t already know. Until you confess them, however, they are the abyss between you. When you confess them, they become the Golden Gate Bridge.”

In Mark 10:45, Jesus says, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” It was the role of a servant to wash the feet of guests since most travelled without shoes, but Jesus is again challenging the disciples’ understanding of what might be expected of them and what Jesus was willing to do to honor His Father. In John 13, He becomes a servant to illustrate the importance of confession to each believer. He accomplishes this by washing each of the disciples’ feet. A very informative exchange unfolds when He gets to Peter, who questions this whole exercise.

Agreement with God

His first response to Jesus was, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” (verse 6). He is asking the Lord why He should wash the feet of a sinner like Peter. Jesus tells Peter to wait and you will understand later, but Peter responds to Jesus that this can never happen. Jesus tells Peter that if He does not do it, Peter will “have no part with Me”. Jesus was telling Peter that everyone needs the forgiveness and cleansing that only Jesus can give. Impetuous Peter then tells Jesus to wash not only his feet, but his hands and head also. Jesus’ response is very telling, “He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you”. Jesus is teaching Peter the principles of confession, found in 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness”. He is also referencing Judas Iscariot when He said, “but not all of you”. Salvation deals with the sin condition and confession deals with our walk.

The Greek word translated confession is “homologeo” and is the combination of 2 Greek words, “homo” meaning same and “logoe” meaning to say. It literally means to say the same thing and contains the idea of agreement, consent, or admission. Confession is the process of the believer agreeing with God’s assessment that what he did was wrong. By agreeing with God in this regard, we receive cleansing from God for the thing that we did wrong. The sin was paid for, but the effect of that sin needs to be addressed. When Jesus spoke of those who have been bathed only needing their feet washed, He was teaching that a believer’s faith makes him clean in his position, but his feet, speaking of his experience, his behavior, still needs to be cleansed from unrighteousness. In John 15:3, “You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you”. Confession is the cleansing of the soul from the power that a sin can have over a believer’s life.

Put Him in charge

The illustration of confession in John 13 is a powerful one because Jesus has become our servant, to cleanse our feet every time we confess. It reminds me of another passage in Genesis 39 dealing with Joseph, son of Jacob, a type of Christ in this passage. It takes place after Joseph is sold into slavery to Potiphar, an Egyptian officer, and becomes Potiphar’s favored personal servant. In verse 2, Scripture says, “The Lord was with Joseph, so he became a successful man” and in verse 4, Potiphar saw that the Lord was with Joseph and put him in charge of everything he owned. Jesus wants us to allow Him to become our servant so that we will put Him in charge of everything. When we seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, He adds all things to us, so we do not have to be anxious about tomorrow (Matthew 6:33-34).

David is our example

King David wrote Psalm 51 and Psalm 32 in response to his failures with Bathsheba and her husband. He asks the Lord to wash him thoroughly from the effects of these sins (Psalm 51:7), knowing that the guilt associated with these sins would destroy him. In Psalm 32:5, “I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I did not hide; I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord’; and You forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah”. It was the guilt of the sin that David was addressing with his confession. He had already addressed his sin in verses 1-2 when he acknowledged that the one whose sins are covered is blessed of God, referring to himself. This Hebrew word used for guilt is “awon” and it used to reference either the sin or the effect of that sin, namely guilt. The consequence of sin in the new covenant is guilt or conviction from the Holy Spirit within each believer. David recognizes that his relationship with God has been harmed by his sins (“Against You, You only, I have sinned and done what is evil in Your sight” – verse 4) and acknowledges God’s right to judge him.

Hyssop is mentioned in verse 7 as an instrument of purification. In the ceremonial law, hyssop was used as a means by which the virtue of the sacrifice was transferred to the transgressor. This principle is a clear reference to the believer’s forgiveness coming from the shed blood of another. In 1 Peter 2:24, “and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed”.

In Psalm 51:10, David asks God for a clean heart and a steadfast spirit. So much of our ability to continue in the path God has established for each believer is to maintain a clean or pure heart. In fact, Jesus said that the one who has a pure heart is blessed and will see God (Matthew 5:8). Augustine once said, “The confession of evil works is the first beginning of good works.” Confession leads to a life that produces the fruit of God’s goodness, namely good works.

Reconciliation

The quality of confession is determined by the condition of the heart. A sincere heart is a heart that is transparent, not holding anything back, willing to admit all. It means drawing near (Hebrews 10:22) to God regularly, just as we need our feet washed often, and being confident that our willing heart will result in an internal change, “our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience”. An evil conscience is one filled with guilt, either conscious or unconscious guilt. The blood of Christ can do so much more than the blood of goats and bulls to “cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God” (Hebrews 9:13-14).

Getting back to our passage from John 13, we find Jesus commending the disciples to do to others as I have done to you (verses 14-15). I believe Paul captured the essence of what Jesus was teaching in 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 when he speaks about the ministry of reconciliation. First, as believers we are new creatures (verse 17), having a new life and a new future. In Colossians 1:21-22, “And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach”. Reconciliation means I was once alienated and hostile in my mind toward God, but a transformation took place and my fellowship with God is now restored. My response to this supernatural work of God is to accept this ministry of reconciliation (verse 18) as defined in verse 19, that it is “reconciling the world to Himself” through the word of reconciliation. As a result, we become “ambassadors for Christ” and we “beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God”.

Max Lucado once said, “We will never be cleansed until we confess we are dirty. And we will never be able to wash the feet of those who have hurt us until we allow Jesus, the one we have hurt, to wash ours.” By accepting the reconciliation offered to each believer at salvation, we are called to draw near to God to receive cleansing and be empowered to the ministry of reconciliation that allows believers to operate as ambassadors, in Christ’s place, to become representatives of His heart and life for the world to witness.

Need help getting started with confessing your sins? This sin list should help.

Post-Interview: 1 Thessalonians 4 vs 1 Thessalonians 5 (Martyn Whittock)

Matthew Schoenherr
-
0
Post-Interview: 1 Thessalonians 4 vs 1 Thessalonians 5 (Martyn Whittock)

(This is the final clip from the interview with Martyn Whittock, author of “End Times, Again?”. Here we discuss the shift between 1 Thessalonians 4 and 1 Thessalonians 5 and dialogue about our understanding of “Day of the Lord” language versus “Day of Christ”. Enjoy!)

[Matthew] One question before I let you go. So, you did mention 1 Thessalonians 4. I believe at this point—in my understanding of both 1 Thessalonians 4 and its marriage to 1 Thessalonians 5—I believe these passages are talking about two different events. There is the Day of the Lord—the national judgment that’s coming towards Israel at the time that this is being written. But then there is this “Day of Christ” that seems to be spoken to. I actually see those as two separate things. I believe that there is a Day of Christ, when the Lord comes back, that is His Second Coming. But here [in 1 Thessalonians 5], we get this Day of the Lord language mixed up with, “When we see the Son of Man coming on the clouds.”

[Martyn] My. That’s really interesting. I’ve never thought of that. I tended to think of it as being—but I’m open to be persuaded—I tended to see Day of the Lord as being a continuance of a Hebrewism in the Greek, you know, rooted in the Old Testament Day of the Lord, The Day. And I then read The Day of Christ as being, effectively, a Christianization of this, so that I would say the day of the Lord, but then I’d say, in the past, no one would’ve known what “Day of Christ” was, but now I know it’s Jesus.

So, I kind of interpreted that as being, effectively, synonyms for the same phenomenon.

[Matthew] The same event.

[Martyn] Yeah, one drawing upon, effectively, a Greek version of a Hebrewism. The Day of the Lord is obviously a very major thing in prophecy after prophecy. And that “The Day of Christ” or, you know, “The Day of Jesus,”—now, I know that that phrase doesn’t actually appear as such, but it’s effectively, “The Day of Jesus”—only fully makes sense, for me, when you understand that “The Day of the Lord” is inextricably connected with the revelation of Yahweh, God, in the person of His Son, Jesus. You see what I mean? So for me, that was something that could only make sense once people had a Christology, to be frank about it, and that’s when “The Day of the Lord” then became Christological when you could say, “Ah, that’s exactly the same as when Jesus will come back.” So I’d seen that as being synonyms, but I might be wrong. I mean, I haven’t studied enough.

[Matthew] Right, so, study out “Day of the Lord.” Actually, you know what? One of the, one of the ebooks that I just pulled down yesterday talked a little bit about this. But, yeah. ”Day of the Lord,” for me, is national judgment on Israel.

[Martyn] Right, that’s interesting.

[Matthew] And there’s plenty of cases in Old Testament for this, like Nahum, Obadiah, Isaiah.

[Martyn] Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it’s like a drumbeat, isn’t it? It’s like bam, bam, bam, the Lord, the Lord, the Day, the Day.

[Matthew] Yeah, but then we forget about it by the time we get to the Olivet Discourse, and we think it’s the literal stars and moon, you know, falling from the sky and all that. But that Thessalonians place, where 4 meets 5, read it again, because I think 1 Thessalonians 5 says, “But in that day.” I’ve got a Bible right here, I could pull it up, but I believe it says something along the lines of, “But in that day.” And therein is, these are two different events.

[Martyn] Right, that’s interesting.

[Matthew] We’re talking about the national judgment that it’s coming, that the early church knew about. Because our Lord had said, “It’s gonna happen in this generation,” they had that time clock going. And everywhere else in scripture, “this generation” means “this generation.” It doesn’t mean the generation to come 2000 years later, after Israel reforms in 1948.

[Martyn] And that’s a debate in itself, isn’t it, for “this generation.” Wow.

[Matthew] But every other place in scripture, “this generation” means “this generation,” the generations being addressed in that moment.

[Martyn] Yes, and that’s when you, of course, get into the whole preterist-futurist combination and we tend to fall into camps, don’t we? We are one or we are the other. But that’s when you think, yeah, the fall of Jerusalem A.D. 70 to 71. That clearly is part of what this is about, isn’t it? But on the other hand, is that also a foreshadow of much greater things at the end? Yeah, really interesting.

[Matthew] And that’s where we get into people trying to bring in that dual-fulfillment piece.

[Martyn] That’s right. That’s true too.

[Matthew] That we cut from this conversation, but that’s where that dual-fulfillment stuff comes in.

[Martyn] Yeah, fascinating.

[Matthew] All right, okay. Just wondered where you were at on that. You gave me a perspective that I didn’t have.

[Martyn] Yeah, and you challenged me to think more about that as well, myself.

Heaven and Earth Shall Pass Away (Free PDF)

Matthew Schoenherr
-
0
Heaven and Earth Shall Pass Away (Free PDF)

“Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.”
(Matthew 24:35)

It has been generally believed that Jesus here meant that even though these physical heavens and earth will pass away some day, that is not true about His word which will never pass away. Whether this physical earth and solar system ever passes away is not the point in this chapter. There is more to this statement of Jesus than meets the eye. Jesus has been talking in apocalyptic language, and heaven and earth passing away could mean here just what He has been talking about—that the heaven and earth of the old Jewish order will pass away, and that His word concerning all this is sure to come to pass.

At first glance, it looks as though Jesus was simply saying in this verse, “My words will be here when the world has passed away” But is the physical world or universe what Jesus had in mind? Was a literal heaven and earth in His thoughts? Remember now, what Jesus had been talking about—what He had already said in this chapter would pass away. We have been discussing the passing away of the Jewish nation, and the old religious order of things… [Read more…]

John Bray

Download the “Heaven and Earth Shall Pass Away” PDF by John Bray

References

Bray, John. Heaven and Earth Shall Pass Away. Tentmaker.org. Retrieved from https://www.tentmaker.org/books/heavenandearth.htm.

Post-Interview: Debate, Don’t Divide (Martyn Whittock)

Matthew Schoenherr
-
0
Post-Interview: Debate, Don’t Divide (Martyn Whittock)

(Sometimes, after an event has concluded, a running camera can capture just that little extra. After this interview with Martyn Whittock, author of “End Times, Again?”, we caught not one, but two salient points that bear sharing and repeating. Here is the first of those points on the importance of debate over division when believers discuss biblical differences. We hope you enjoy!)

[Martyn] One of the things that I’m really concerned about is that—if it’s just liberals who diss end times beliefs—then it’s very easy for people to say, “Well, it’s not surprising you don’t believe me; you don’t believe in the Bible anyway.”

But if, in fact, people are saying, “Look, I believe in the scriptures. I believe—and you list Second Coming, virgin birth, miracles, walking on water—yeah, I’m there absolutely. And yet, I actually think the rapture is wrong, as taught.”

Then hopefully it might just prompt a few people to say, “Oh, okay. I can’t quite dismiss that as readily as I would if you just stood up and said, ‘Oh… all scripture is a human construct, therefore I don’t believe in a second coming.'”

And so, my hope is to have conversations, but I am aware that sometimes when I am talking to some of the evangelicals, you can see shutters drop down, because I realize I’ve gone off-message. I think that’s something that we do need to challenge this on- and off-message thing. I think there are certain things that become kind of like “received wisdom,” and I think some of it is very questionable, scripturally, by people that love the Bible. You know what I mean? I respect their love for the scriptures. I’m just saying, guys, you create this composite antichrist, but actually, let’s sit down with the Bible and well, there he is, there he is, there he is. There he might be, there he might be. He might be. Daniel seven. Okay. Tell me why he’s there, because you preach him as if it was all there in one go and we’ve got the same Bible and it isn’t, is he? He actually isn’t, guys. So, let’s talk a little bit about it because, if you’re wrong on this, you might be getting quite a wrong impression. If I’m wrong, well you tell me why I’m wrong.

[Matthew] Right. And use the Word to do it.

[Martyn] Yeah. Exactly. I think that a lot of people—we all do it some extent—we kind of deal with composites. We’ve all pulled it from here, there and everywhere in the Bible. We all do it to some extent, consciously and unconsciously.

We often have composite figures of all sorts of stuff. Lots of us do the same with the gospels. We kind of meld them all together, in our own heads. And that’s fine. I am not saying that’s a problem. And suddenly you sit down and say, “I wonder why John didn’t mention that at all? Oh, okay. Maybe, maybe I need to explore that. I wonder why that was such a big issue for Luke?” Doesn’t mean to say I do or don’t believe it. It’s kind of like, “That’s really interesting. I wonder why that wasn’t a big deal in John’s teaching? Why is that a big thing for Mark?” So, it’s not some kind of highfalutin liberal criticism. It’s just: let’s read Scripture as it actually is, as opposed to what we’ve made it be. I think it’s a challenge sometimes.

[Matthew] Oh, for sure. Because we don’t know what we’re reading. We take it literally or we—I don’t know of many cases where we’re allegorizing things that are to be taken literally—I guess I haven’t run into that as much as I have run into people taking literally that which was intended to be allegory.

[Martyn] Yes. I mean, Revelation is a classic on that one, isn’t it?

[Matthew] Yeah.

[Martyn] Yeah, exactly. But people jump. People are very inconsistent; they jump from one to the other. The numerology—as I mentioned in the book—is quite extraordinary. Times, and times and half a times, well that obviously is three and a half years. Okay. Or three and a half days. And if it’s days, those are days-days; 24-hour? Or are those days in which each hour—you know what I mean? It’s a year, but is that an actual year or a thousand years?

If we were consistent, it would be interesting, but we’re not. We actually leap from one to the other depending upon what makes our timetable work. I think we have to somehow say that’s really inconsistent. That’s got to be bad exegesis, surely.

1...789...56Page 8 of 56

CATEGORIES

EDITOR PICKS

POPULAR POSTS

POPULAR CATEGORIES

ABOUT US

Christian apologetics, Bible prophecy, kingdom identity and teaching.

FOLLOW US

© 2014-2024 Levaire. | 233 N Walnut St, Lansing MI 48933