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swampy-sayin-it · 3 years

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HYPOCRITES

For as you judge, so will you be judged, and the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you. Why do you notice the splinter in your brother's eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove that splinter from your eye,' while the wooden beam is in your eye? You hypocrite, remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter from your brother's eye. Matthew 7:2-5

Hypocrites Are Only Actors

Hypocrite: the designation previously given to the scribes and Pharisees is here given to the Christian disciple who is concerned with the faults of another and ignores his own more serious offenses.

Hypocrites are nothing more than people play acting certain roles to satisfy a certain crowd for rewards. The rewards are usually fame, money and power. These people will look and act the part that how the role is supposed to be. In other words, they are mimicking and at worst stereotyping.

Hypocrites cannot survive without the approval of the masses. Think of it as working on a commission basis. The more people that are roped in their spheres of influence the more they gain. Some are very famous and some maybe just a regional "star."

Hypocrites Are Phonies

As stated before hypocrites are actors and actors are put on masks to play a part. In other words, these people are phonies and in the Church this can lead to disastrous consequences. Think Jonestown, as the most infamous example. These people will happily lead their sheep to the slaughter and not realize the fires are burning and they cannot escape.

The Church is loaded with these kinds of phonies. This does not always mean what they might be preaching is not truth, but it is truth they themselves do not follow or even believe. After all, they are playing a part.

Hypocrites Are Not The Strugglers

The Bible is loaded with men of God that struggled with portions of their lives. As it was back then still holds true today. God's people struggle everyday with their personal demons/sin. This does not make them hypocrites. When they come for serious repentance then we all need to pray for them. When they turn that into an inside joke then it is time to cast them away.

Yes, God uses those that struggle for His glory. Some of these ministers have done great things for that glory in spite of their personal struggles. Let us look through the annals of our faith and see what they went through and still made the difference in the name of Jesus.

Hypocrites and Jesus

"(But) take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them; otherwise, you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father. When you give alms, do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets to win the praise of others. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right is doing, so that your almsgiving may be secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you. "When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners so that others may see them. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you. In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Matthew 6:1-8

Jesus gives a warning against doing good in order to be seen and gives three examples, almsgiving ( Matthew 6:2-4), prayer (Matthew 6:5-15), and fasting ( Matthew 6:16-18). In each, the conduct of the hypocrites ( Matthew 6:2) is contrasted with that demanded of the disciples. The sayings about reward found here and elsewhere ( Matthew 5:12, 46; 10:41-42) show that this is a genuine element of Christian moral exhortation.

Jesus had no use for hypocrites, especially the religious groups. He made mention of them praying in public for spectacle and public affirmation. You see the phonies want you to know how spiritual they supposedly are. The real life spiritual giants are the quiet ones just praying and giving in a silent way.

Jesus was not impressed by wordiness in one's prayer. This is why He laid out a simple prayer to go by. We all call it the Lord's Prayer and is recited in many churches worldwide this day. This is the blueprint for true apostolic prayer. Then when you wish to commune with the Lord get by yourself where you can not be disturbed.

Conclusions and mask removing

Why is studying your Bible not enough for your Christian journey? The sad truth is that their are phonies in the pulpits, on the TV screen and in the tents proclaiming a truth they might not believe in themselves, but that it brings them worldly things they desire.

This does not means that ministers of God do have their personal struggles in life. They pray for the deliverance from those personal faults everytime they fall. However, it is these personal struggles that keep these ministers hungry for more of Jesus so they can minister to others.

So PRAY

For the unmasking of the phonies and their deliverance towards repentance

For the ones struggling with their "demons"

For more of the guidance of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

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armeniaitn · 3 years

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Moving documentaries confront Armenian Genocide on PBS in Montreal, Fresno in April

New Post has been published on https://armenia.in-the.news/society/moving-documentaries-confront-armenian-genocide-on-pbs-in-montreal-fresno-in-april-71838-10-04-2021/

Moving documentaries confront Armenian Genocide on PBS in Montreal, Fresno in April

With the 106th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide on April 24, a pair of moving, personal documentaries shed light on the lasting trauma, coming soon to PBS stations in Montreal and Fresno. These wounds were reopened by the recent war between Azerbaijan, backed by Turkey, and the Armenians in the contested region of Nagorno-Karabakh, also known as Artsakh, Asbarez reports.

“100 Years from Home,” produced by Lilit Pilikian and directed by Jared White, airs on Montreal’s Mountain Lake PBS on Sunday, April 18 at 5 p.m. ET. “What Will Become of Us,” directed by Stephanie Ayanian and Joseph Myers, follows directly after at 6:30 p.m. ET.

Making its California Central Valley premiere, “100 Years from Home” airs on Fresno’s Valley PBS on Thursday, April 22 at 7 p.m. PT with an encore broadcast on Saturday, April 24 at 7 p.m PT, coinciding with the anniversary of the genocide. “What Will Become of Us” follows directly after both broadcasts at 8:30 p.m. PT.

Quebec is home to one of the largest Armenian communities in the world. In October 2020, Montreal’s Armenian community joined thousands across Canada and around the world in protests against Azerbaijani aggression in Artsakh which resulted in thousands of deaths.

Thousands of Armenian immigrants flocked to Fresno and the broader Central Valley in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, making it one of the largest and oldest communities in the United States. Prominent Armenians from the area include “Alvin and the Chipmunks” creator Ross Bagdasarian, college basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian, businessman and owner of the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas Kirk Kerkorian, and perhaps most notably writer William Saroyan.

“100 Years from Home” follows Pilikian’s journey as she searches for her great-grandparents’ house in modern-day Kars, Turkey, which they were forced to abandon over a century ago during the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire that killed over 1.5 million Armenians during and after World War I. In a chilling parallel, many Armenian refugees in Artsakh today have lost their homes as a result of the most recent war.

“What Will Become of Us” is a forward-looking feature documentary produced for public television distribution that speaks to the many immigrant communities who have experienced trauma. Today, often unrecognized, these tragic events create a burden for the younger generation, discouraging them from taking up their culture.

To bring their story to life, Ayanian collaborated with long-time filmmaking partner Joseph Myers. Myers, being of Jewish decent, had an immediate connection to the story. Ayanian, whose grandparents survived the Genocide, said, “My desire as a filmmaker is to make their sacrifices count.”

In “100 Years from Home,” the blueprint for the long-lost house was passed down from generation-to-generation until finally ending up in the hands of Pilikian. She and her filmmaker husband Jared White embarked on an emotional journey to Armenia to document the tens of thousands who marched to the Tsitsernakaberd Genocide Memorial in Yerevan, Armenia on the 100th anniversary of the Genocide before venturing to Turkey in search of the house.

Turkey’s continued denial of the Armenian Genocide adds to the grief for Armenians around the world, and its lasting impact on the descendants of survivors is a sentiment that is shared by many sources throughout both films. The First Nagorno-Karabakh War in 1994 led to the closure of the Turkish Armenian border. As a result, Pilikian could only enter Turkey by way of neighboring country Georgia.

Hatred of Armenians is still very common today in Turkey, which caused apprehension for Pilikian. She was stopped for a length of time upon reaching the Turkish border because of a Nagorno-Karabakh stamp in her passport, further fueling her anxiety.

The two films shed light on the United States’ role in providing humanitarian relief during the Genocide, followed by a century of virtual silence on the matter until the U.S. Congress passed resolutions recognizing it at the end of 2019. Canada officially recognized the Armenian Genocide in 2004.

“What Will Become of Us” features slice-of-life stories with singer/songwriter Sebu Simonian of Capital Cities, housewares designer/artist Michael Aram, comedian Lory Tatoulian, political activist Aram Hamparian, John and Annie Sweers who travel to Armenia for the first time through Birthright Armenia and Armenian Volunteer Corps, and Fresno musician Richard Hagopian, a cultural icon in the community, who plays a lute-like string instrument called the oud, preserving historic Armenian folk music and passing on the techniques he’s mastered to a new generation by way of his grandson Andrew.

“100 Years from Home” features interviews with Central Valley-born historian and UCLA professor emeritus Richard Hovannisian, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, social critic Vahe Berberian, documentarian Carla Garapedian, Armenian studies scholar Shushan Karapetian, and Archbishop Pargev Martirosyan of the Armenian Apostolic Church in Artsakh.

Many of the subjects come away from the experience with a much stronger sense of themselves and their heritage. The filmmakers hope to raise awareness for Armenian issues in order to prevent further tragedies. “In light of what’s happening in Artsakh, I believe it’s more important than ever to be sharing Armenian stories,” said Pilikian.

To learn more, please visit the “100 Years from Home” and “What Will Become of Us” websites.

Jared White, Director & Co-Producer (100 Years from Home): Jared White is a writer and director from Los Angeles who makes films with a focus on empathy and the fight for justice. He started the production company Squared Pictures with his wife and frequent collaborator Lilit Pilikian. His work has premiered at highly regarded film festivals, been featured on top web platforms and received national television exposure.

Lilit Pilikian, Producer & Subject (100 Years from Home): Lilit Pilikian is an Armenian-American born and raised in Los Angeles. As an Industrial Designer, she’s primarily worked in consumer electronics, most recently on high tech toys at Mattel. She’s also worked in User Experience as part of the Innovation team at Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, and as a production designer on a host of film sets. Follow her film work with her husband and collaborator Jared White at SquaredPictures.com.

Stephanie Ayanian, Co-Director & Producer (What Will Become of Us): Stephanie Ayanian is a producer/director from the Philadelphia region. Her film “Kinderwald” screened on the closing night of the Slamdance Film Festival in 2014 and was an Official Selection of the Munich International, Seattle International, and Napa Valley film festivals. Previously, Ayanian worked as a senior producer/director for Penn State Public Broadcasting where she earned the American Association of Engineering Societies Award for Journalism while producing national television documentaries and international streaming series.

Joseph Myers, Co-Director & Producer (What Will Become of Us): Joseph Myers is a documentary film director and cinematographer. His nationally broadcast documentaries include “Telling Amy’s Story,” “A Road to Independence,” “The Grange Fair: An American Tradition,” and “World on Trial” (episodes 1 and 2). Joe’s work has been seen on PBS, WORLD, NETA, APT, and the Discovery Networks among others and earned prominent awards. Some honors include Mid-Atlantic Chapter National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Emmy awards, the Silver Screen Award, a CINE Golden Eagle, and prominent festival awards including Bare Bones, and Action on Film. Joe is a 2008 fellow of the CPB/PBS Producer’s Academy.

Read original article here.

#Armenia #Armenians #Artsakh #Karabakh #Yerevan #Society

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kristeneo-blog · 4 years

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Tuesday Word Study––January 21, 2020

I want to speak to those who feel compelled to write under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit this morning. Did you know that is a gift to the body and a much needed function in advancing the Kingdom? We tend to see it more within prophetic circles, but I believe scribes are needed in every area of ministry. We need apostolic blueprints written out with clarity to know how to build according to God's plan. We need evangelistic material written with the fire of heaven on the pages that will bring the lost into a relationship with Christ. We need teaching material created that helps unpack foundational truths so that we might be a mature body of believers. Maybe you have pastoral insight that will bring much needed encouragement to those who are shepherds of Jesus's church.

If you are motivated to write what you hear God say as you pray, or you feel compelled to write out the deep truths of the scripture for others to grasp, you may be called as a scribe. Like any gift, it needs maturing. Matthew says a scribe knows how to bring treasure out of that which is new and old. That is both knowing how to rightly teach the scriptures by reconciling the Old Testament and the New, as well as, taking the kingdom principles that have been deposited within you throughout your life time. Being trained for the Kingdom means that you have been baptized in fire. When the fragmentation of your life begins to integrate and come together, it is a sign that your scribal gift is mature and ready to be used for the Lord's purposes.

Welcome to the Kingdom Renaissance! Those scribal gifts you have not known what to do with are needed...

#prophetic #writing #writers #Kingdom #kingdomwriters #scriptures #scribes #scribal

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live4thelord · 4 years

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Cardinal Sarah’s Guide to the New Counter-Reformation

MICHAEL WARREN DAVIS

In 1577, St. John of the Cross was taken prisoner by a group of Carmelites from Toledo who were opposed to the reforms of the Order he was undertaking with St. Teresa of Ávila. For eight or nine months, he was held in a six-by-ten-foot cell. The ceiling was so low that John (not a tall man) could hardly stand up. His one tunic was constantly soaked with blood from the frequent scourgings. The food they gave him was so bad that he suspected his guards were trying to poison him; he would say an Act of Love with every bite to steel himself against calumny.

Yet it was here that he wrote the Spiritual Canticle and parts of his masterpiece, Dark Night of the Soul. He bore captivity and torture with such love, patience, and determination that the older Carmelites called him “the coward”. The younger monks—not yet poisoned by the decadence and factionalism of the 16th- century Church—wept at John’s courage in the face of suffering. “This is a saint,” they whispered among themselves.

The most moving story, in my opinion, comes near the end of his confinement. John’s spiritual daughter, St. Theresa Benedicta of the Cross—inexplicably known even to Catholics by her secular name, Edith Stein—recalls it in The Science of the Cross:

Prior Maldonado [the “Calced” leader] came to John’s prison cell accompanied by two religious. The prisoner was so weak that he could hardly move. Thinking his jailer had entered, he did not move [to stand] up. The prior poked him with his foot and asked why he did not stand up in his presence. As John begged pardon, saying he had not known who was there, Padre Maldonado asked, “What were you thinking about since you were so absorbed?” [St. John replied,] “I was thinking that tomorrow is the feast of Our Lady and that it would be a great consolation for me if I could say Mass.”

(It’s said that the Virgin appeared to him the next day and showed him how to pick the lock. Talk about a mother’s love!)

It has become common now to say that the Church faces her greatest crisis since the Protestant Reformation. We should remember that a very different priest—Martin Luther, an Augustinian friar—had a very different response to the corruption in the Church: he accused the Pope of being the Antichrist and attacked magisterial teaching, including the dogma of the Real Presence. He defied the bishops, incurred excommunication, and founded a brand-new church to propagate his teachings.

John knew there can be no authentic reform in the absence of obedience to one’s lawful superiors—even superiors as cruel and corrupt as Prior Maldonado. That’s why John is remembered as the greatest saint of the Counter-Reformation, and Luther as the most dangerous heretic in Christian history.

I thought of John as I read Robert Cardinal Sarah’s new book, The Day is Now Far Spent. It is dedicated to two very different pontiffs: Pope Benedict XVI (a “peerless architect of rebuilding the Church”) and Pope Francis (a “faithful and devoted son of Saint Ignatius”). Yet it is Sarah himself, I think, who lays out the finest blueprint we’re likely to see for ecclesial reform—or perhaps I should say counter-reform.

Today, the word “reform” drips with innuendo, just as it did in the time of St. John of the Cross. It signifies a desire to change the permanent teachings of the Church as a solution to institutional corruption. It uses a temporal crisis as an excuse to propagate spiritual errors. It uses moral confusion to camouflage innovation. It can also encourage disobedience in the name of theological purity: we shouldn’t forget that the original Protestants viewed themselves as conservatives.

Just because a man opposes the Maldonados in the Church it doesn’t make him a John of the Cross. He may very well be a Martin Luther.

I have no doubt that Cardinal Sarah, for one, is a John of the Cross. Like the Mystical Doctor, he takes seriously St. Paul’s warning to the Ephesians: “For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” Ultimately, the source of the present crisis—whether “present” means the 16th century or the 21st—isn’t new: it’s original sin.

Ultimately, then, the solution isn’t novel either: it’s the pursuit of greater holiness. As our Enemy is sin itself, the easiest sins to do battle against are those festering in our own souls. As St. Francis of Assisi put it, “the soldier of Christ must begin with victory over himself.”

The Day Is Now Far Spent is a manual for the new Counter-Reformation. As such, it’s as concerned with addressing the false solutions to the crisis as it is with the crisis itself—with refuting the Luthers as well as the Maldonados. His Eminence warns that,

No human effort, however talented or generous it may be, can transform a soul and give it the life of Christ. Only the grace and the Cross of Jesus can save and sanctify souls and make the Church grow. Multiplying human efforts, believing that methods and strategies have any efficacy in themselves, will always be a waste of time.

Cardinal Sarah isn’t recommending we ignore the crisis. On the contrary. “Let us not be afraid to say that the Church needs profound reform and that this happens through our conversion.” (Emphasis added.) “Go,” he commands; “repair by your faith, by your hope, and by your charity.”

❧

“Wait a minute, Davis,” I hear some of you saying; “This doesn’t sit right with me. What about Bergoglio? What about Pachamama and the German bishops’ ‘synodal journey’? What about the Viganò report and the unanswered dubia? Are you saying we should ignore all of this and just say the rosary?”

Well, the rosary is certainly a good place to start—and a good place to end. It’ not a bad place to stop along the way either.

It is true that no crisis has ever been solved by mere inaction. But, once we’ve resolved to act, the question becomes, How do we act most effectively? Cardinal Sarah’s answer: prayer. His book is fundamentally about the efficacy of grace.

Those who follow the daily meditations of another Discalced Carmelite, Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen’s Divine Intimacy, may remember the reflection from two Wednesdays ago on apostolic prayer. As Fr. Gabriel reminds us,

We can never be certain at all that our prayers will be answered according to our expectation, for we do not know if what we ask is conformable to God’s will; but when it is a question of apostolic prayer which asks for grace and the salvation of souls, it is a very different matter. In fact, when we pray for the aims of the apostolate, we are fitting into the plan prearranged by God Himself from all eternity, that plan for the salvation of all men which God desires to put into action infinitely more than we do; therefore, we cannot doubt the efficacy of our prayer. Because of this effectiveness, apostolic prayer is one of the most powerful means of furthering the apostolate.

For “if God has willed the distribution of grace in the world to depend upon the prayers of men,” then we can render no better service to the Church than to set about diligently distributing these graces, teaching others how to do so, and encouraging them in their efforts.

By the same token, the Enemy would be most gratified if we came to value our own “methods and strategies” above Our Lord’s. Better yet, we could distract others. We could join the secular, anti-Catholic media in amplifying the corruption within the Church, thereby leading others to become scandalized. (Nearly 40 percent of U.S. Catholics have considered leaving the Church over clerical sex abuse.) We could cause our fellow Catholics to lose faith in our spiritual fathers. (“Those who make sensational announcements of change and rupture are false prophets,” Cardinal Sarah charges.)

Our Blessed Lord’s strategy for reform is quite simple: “Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” Everything else is idle noise.

Of course, Cardinal Sarah isn’t suggesting we ignore the crisis in the Church. On the contrary, he writes: “Let us not be afraid to say that the Church needs profound reform and that this happens through our conversion.” Those last three words are crucial: through our conversion. “We do not reform the Church by division and hatred,” he warns; “We reform the Church when we start by changing ourselves!”

Where should our conversion lead us? To a deeper faith in Christ, as opposed to a prideful faith in our own schemes. What do we need to change in ourselves? Anything that separates us from Him. He attacks the spiritual and moral roots of the rot—roots that spread far wider than the Vatican and go further back than 2013.

At the heart of all modern corruption and decadence—both within and without the Church—is the problem of materialism. As Cardinal Sarah states rather movingly, “The supernatural is swallowed up in the desert of the natural.” This is why the real solution to the present crisis—namely, prayer and fasting—seems so quaint, perhaps even naïve. It’s as though we can’t tell the difference between an image of St. Michael armed for battle and one of Bouguereau’s putti.

The most obvious manifestation of this decadence, this pervasive materialism, is the smartphone. His Eminence asks us to consider how much time we spend “absorbed by the images, lights, [and] ghosts” it offers. He calls the ubiquitous screen “an eternal illusion, a little prison cell.” The cardinal warns that these devices

steal silence, destroy the richness of solitude, and trample on intimacy. It often happens that they snatch us away from our loving life with God to expose us to the periphery, to what is external to us in the midst of the world.

(By the way, that goes for tablets, computers, and televisions as well.)

Can we bring ourselves to get rid of our devices, deactivate our social media accounts, and dedicate those liberated hours to deepening our relationship with God? Can we accept that the Church will only grow bigger and stronger as we ourselves become smaller and meeker? Can we trust Christ enough to take Him up on His offer to cease carrying our burden and rest? Are we humble enough to admit that our burden is too heavy for us to carry, and to take up His easy yoke instead?

Martin Luther said No, and went on to appoint himself reformer of the Church. In his arrogance and disobedience, that one friar wounded our Holy Mother more grievously than all the Maldonados put together.

John of the Cross stood by the Church. He cleaned her wounds with the tears he wept over sins—most especially his own. He nourished her with his fasting. He strengthened her with his suffering. He kept her company in the dark night, even when Our Lord withdrew His sweet consolation. It was his patience, humility, and obedience—even towards Maldonado—that won the wicked prior’s monks to his cause.

“If you think that your priests and bishops are not saints,” Cardinal Sarah writes, “then be one for them.” Today, there’s only one Carmelite monastery in Toledo, and it’s Discalced.

There will be no shortage of Luthers in this generation. But, with The Day Is Now Spent, we know there’s at least one John of the Cross in our midst.

Cardinal Sarah's Guide to the New Counter-Reformation - Crisis Magazine

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taonganyimbili · 5 years

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In The Prophetic And Apostolic GOD Has Given Us The Ability To See Things In The Heavenly Realms And Call Things That Are Not Seen In The Natural As Though They Are Into Being On Earth As It Is In Heaven And Get The Blueprints From Heaven To Build According To The Pattern That GOD Has Shown Us on The Mountain Which Is Zion On Earth As It Is In Heaven. We Know In Part And We Prophecy In Part By The Holy Spirit That We Can Call In To Being What GOD Has Spoken By Faith By The Spirit of GOD.

“For this reason it is by faith, in order that it may be in accordance with grace, so that the promise will be guaranteed to all the descendants, not only to those who are of the Law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, (as it is written, “A FATHER OF MANY NATIONS HAVE I MADE YOU ”) in the presence of Him whom he believed, even God, who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist.”‭‭ ROMANS‬ ‭4:16-17‬ ‭NASB

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the men of old gained approval. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.” ‭‭HEBREWS‬ ‭11:1-3‬ ‭NASB

We Know By Faith That The Heavenly Realms Were Created Were Created By The Word Of GOD Creating Tangible Things That Are Seen Out of Tangible Things Unseen In The Heavenly Realms Through The Fathers Mouth Creating What We See on Earth As It Is In Heaven From Out of Heaven The Third Heavens In The Heavenly Realms From Things Which Are Not Visible To Us In The Natural Realm. The Second Heavens Exists Under The Clouds Where The Rulers And Principalities of The Enemy operate In The Heavenly Places; Which Overlap With The First Heavens The Earth In The Heavenly Realms; The Spirit Realms

GOD Is Spirit

GOD Has Seated Us In The Heavenly Realms With Christ Above All Powers, Principalities, Rulers, And Authorities In The Heavenly Realms; That Through Christ In Christ We Can Put The Enemy Under Our Feet Through Christ; That We Can Bring The Powers of The Enemy Under Subjection of Christ Through Christ In Through The Church of The Living GOD By The Power of The Spirit.

GOD Is The Architect of Our Salvation. But We Must Build According To The Pattern That GOD Has Shown Us In The Word And The Spirit By The Spirit of Revelation And Understanding In The Knowledge of Him And Each Man Must Take Care How They Build.

GOD Has Given Apostles And Prophets A Grace To Build Alongside Each Other Through The Prophetic And Apostolic To Build Church Which Is Built on The Foundations of The Apostles And Prophets. Prophets See The Blueprints Apostles Have The Grace To Build The Pattern of The Church on The Ground.

“According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it. For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”‭‭1 CORINTHIANS‬ ‭3:10-11‬ ‭NASB‬‬

“So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.”‭‭EPHESIANS‬ ‭2:19-22‬ ‭NASB

Man Shall Not Live On Bread Alone But Every Word That Proceeds From The Fathers Mouth Which Is The Proceeding Word of The LORD. Proceeds Meaning The Current Word Flowing Form The Throne of GOD By The Current of The River of Spirit.

“But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘M AN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.’ ””‭‭MATTHEW‬ ‭4:4‬ ‭NASB‬‬

GOD Has Blessed Us With Every Spiritual Blessing In The The Heavenly Realms In Christ.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,”EPHESIANS‬ ‭1:3‬ ‭NASB‬‬

We Must Align The Dimensions of Our Hearts and Minds To The Dimensions of The Father, Son and Holy Spirit; To The Dimension of The Word And The Spirit. We Have The Mind of Christ By The Spirit. We Have To Be Renewed In The Spirit of Our Mind Not Just By The Word But By The Help of The Holy Spirit Who Will Renew Us In The Spirit of Our Mind And Transform Us By The Renewing of Our Minds By The Revelation of The Word; Through The Spirit of Revelation And The Spirit of Understanding And The Spirit of Wisdom. If Dimensions Are Not In Alignment Then The House And Our House The Temple of The Holy Spirit Isn't Built According To The Pattern.

“Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, THAT HE WILL INSTRUCT H IM? But we have the mind of Christ.”‭‭1 CORINTHIANS‬ ‭2:12-16‬ ‭NASB‬‬

“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.”Romans‬ ‭12:2‬ ‭NIVUK‬‬

“and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind,” EPHESIANS‬ ‭4:23‬ ‭NASB‬‬

We Have To Align Dimensions To The Word And The Proceeding Word of The LORD Revealed By The Spirit. When We lock It In Our Hearts It's Snapped In Place On Every level In the Heavenly Places And Can't be Shaken It Has Entered In Behind The Veil Behind The Curtain And Become An Anchor That Is Secure.

The Spirit of Wisdom Gives Us The Ability To Build What Has Been Revealed By The Spirit of Revelation And That The Spirit of Understanding Has Given Us The Ability To Decode. We Have To Align And Activate Dimensions of Zion The Heavenly Jerusalem; The Third Heavens In Us That The Enemy In The Second Heavens Cannot Block Us From Receiving The Seed; Then Every Spiritual Blessing In Christ In The Heavenly Realms Can Flow Down To Us On Every Level In The Heavenly Realms Without The Interference of The Enemy.

Before The Word Of The LORD Is Spoken GOD Has To Build Up The Highway By The Word of The LORD That Has Preceded The Proceeding Word To Prepare The Way For The People. We Must Raise A Banner For The Nations.

“Pass through, pass through the gates! Prepare the way for the people. Build up, build up the highway! Remove the stones. Raise a banner for the nations.” Isaiah‬ ‭62:10‬ ‭NIVUK‬‬

“By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise; for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.”‭‭HEBREWS‬ ‭11:8-10‬ ‭NASB‬‬

“In hope against hope he believed, so that he might become a father of many nations according to that which had been spoken, “S O SHALL YOUR DESCENDANTS BE.” Without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah’s womb; yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform. Therefore IT WAS ALSO CREDITED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS. Now not for his sake only was it written that it was credited to him, but for our sake also, to whom it will be credited, as those who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, He who was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification.”‭‭ROMANS‬ ‭4:18-25‬ ‭NASB‬‬

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catholiccom-blog · 7 years

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Why I’m Catholic: Sola Scriptura Isn’t Logical, Part I

Over the course of some twelve articles I've argued that sola scriptura isn’t biblical, isn’t historical and isn’t workable, not even in principle.

Sola scriptura has been demonstrated over the course of 500 years to function as a virtual blueprint for theological anarchy. It leads inescapably to division.

As an evangelical Bible Christian and ordained minister, coming to these realizations reminded me a bit of the morning of January 17, 1994, when the Northridge earthquake hit, centered seven miles from my home, and I found myself lurching down the hallway to kids’ rooms, the entire world moving beneath my feet. It was deeply unsettling.

Same with coming to doubt the truth of sola scriptura. After all, it's not like sola scriptura is some minor doctrine within the Protestant worldview. It's the very foundation of that worldview. It was the foundation of my worldview, and when cracks and fissures began to form in it, I was shaken.

The final blow that “took out the foundation” of my worldview was coming to see that sola scriptura isn't merely unscriptural, unhistorical, and unworkable. It’s also illogical.

And I don't mean that it’s mysterious and wonderful and that it transcends human understanding. I mean that it doesn’t make sense.

The truth is that sola scriptura contains an internal logical contradiction than simply cannot be resolved. How so?

The ‘Terminator of Catholic Apologetics’

Early in my study of Catholicism, I was asked a question. I can’t remember who asked the question. It might have been Scott Hahn, an old friend from seminary days I talked to a lot at the very beginning of my search. It’s more likely that it was Jimmy Akin, someone I spent a good deal of time with those first couple years and have referred to ever since as the “Terminator of Catholic Apologetics.”

What I do remember clearly is that from the moment the question was asked me, and I began to attempt to answer it as a Protestant, I knew I was on my way into the Catholic Church.

The conversation in which the question was asked went something like this:

Jimmy: Ken, I have a question I want to ask you. But first, I want to make sure you and I are talking about the same thing when we talk about sola scriptura.

Ken: Sure. Shoot.

Jimmy: OK. Would you agree that the Bible is the believer's sole and sufficient infallible rule of faith and practice?

Ken: Yes. That's the very definition of sola scriptura.

Jimmy: In other words, when it comes to Christian doctrine, you would agree that a Christian should believe only what can be shown to be taught in Scripture?

Ken: Well, sometimes implications can be drawn from things that are explicitly taught in Scripture. These would be true as well. But, yes. Essentially, what sola scriptura means is that since everything God wants us to know in terms of revealed truth is in the Bible, no one can bind a Christian’s conscience to believe anything not taught in the Bible, either explicitly or implicitly.

Jimmy: So when it comes to revealed truth, if it isn't in the inspired Word of God, we cannot know it to be true. Right?

Ken: Yes, yes. Chapter and verse! Now, will you get to your point?

Jimmy: OK, here's my question: How do you know that the books you have in your New Testament are inspired and belong there? After all, I’ve looked through the Bible pretty carefully, and I find no passage that tells me that Matthew is an inspired book—or Mark, or Luke, or Hebrews, or Revelation. So how do you know they are inspired and belong in your New Testament?

The dilemma

Hmm. . . . Of course, I immediately understood the importance of the question. If I’m going to take the Bible as my “sole infallible rule” for Christian teaching, I have to know that the books in Scripture are inspired. I can’t very well go around saying, “I think these are the right books, and everything they teach is inspired and infallibly true!” I have to know that they are.

So how did I know?

To be consistent with my foundational commitment to sola scriptura, the answer I needed to give was, "Because the Bible tells me so. Ï know these books are inspired the same way I know that Jesus was born of a virgin, that he performed miracles, and that he died to take away the sins of the world—because the Holy Spirit has revealed this in his inspire word."

Problem was, I couldn't give that answer.

Why? Because the Bible doesn’t tell me so. There is no inspired table of contents in the Bible. Sure, St. Paul tells us “all Scripture is inspired by God” (2 Tim. 3:16). Great. But since he doesn’t also tell us which books “Scripture” comprises, how do I know I’ve got the right books in my Bible?

At this point, I think I may have responded, "Well, in the apostolic churches everyone knew which books had been authored by apostles and were inspired, and this knowledge was handed down within the churches. It’s something Christians accept on the witness of the early Church—those who were closest to the apostolic age and who looked at the evidence and knew who had written what and what books were accepted as inspired and—“

But mentally I was scrambling, because I knew that this wasn’t consistent with sola scripture. What? I insist that Christians should only believe what is taught in the Bible, and then I believe only on the witness of the early Church that Matthew, Mark, Luke, Hebrews, and Revelation are inspired?

When it comes to doctrine and morals, the Bible is my authority; but when it comes to deciding which books to include in the Bible, suddenly tradition is my authority? How can that be?

I began to read scholarly accounts of the process by which the New Testament was assembled by the early Church. I read Protestant scholars like Bruce Metzger and F.F. Bruce on the formation of the New Testament canon. And what I learned was that my "everyone knew" idea wasn't even true.

It turns out that some in the early Church held in suspicion some of the books we now have in our New Testament. And I don’t mean some individuals; I mean some areas of the Church.

Some churches rejected Hebrews. Others rejected the book of Revelation. James, Hebrews, 2 Peter, Jude, Third John, and Revelation were disputed to one degree or another in the early centuries of Christianity. Six books. There are only twenty-seven books in our New Testament. In other words, almost a quarter of the New Testament was disputed to some degree.

And the process was even more complicated than that.

Because it’s not like the early Church had only those twenty-seven books to examine and choose from. There were scads of books in circulation at the time claiming to have been written by Peter or Paul or John or the rest. And then there were books written by others that did not wind up being included in our New Testament but were considered authoritative by some and were read in the public worship. For instance, The Shepherd of Hermas, the Epistle of Barnabas, the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, the Epistle of St. Clement to the Corinthians—and there were others as well.

So it is simply not true that everyone in the early Church “knew” which books were apostolic and inspired and which were not and that this knowledge was passed down within the churches

But even if it were true that “everyone knew,” my dilemma remained. How do I say with Luther that Scripture is “my basis”—that I believe only what is taught in Scripture, that I reject tradition as human and fallible—and then turn around and accept the witness of “tradition” on the most fundamental question of all: the question of which books should be considered inspired and included in my infallible rule of faith and practice?

This was more than a dilemma. The question pointed out an inconsistency—one could say even a contradiction—in my position as a Protestant.

My sheep hear my voice

In the end, what most every Protestant will say, and what I probably said in my conversation with Jimmy, is that we know Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and the rest of the twenty-seven books in our New Testament are inspired and belong there because the Holy Spirit led the Church to select the right books. It's like Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice and they follow me.”

In other words, when pressed with the question “How do we know?”, the answer Protestants give is something like this: inspired apostles wrote the books and handed them on to the churches as inspired. The churches preserved the knowledge of which books were inspired. This knowledge was passed down within the Church. And when heresies began to arise that attacked the canon of Scripture and it became necessary for some authoritative determination to be made as to exactly which books make up the Old and New Testaments, the Church met in councils to decide. And the Holy Spirit led in this process.

In the end, the Holy Spirit led the people of God to recognize which books were inspired and apostolic and which were not. And that's how we know.

Of course there’s only one problem: this is the Catholic position.

It's the Catholic position to say that revealed truths are (a) given us in Scripture but that they are also (b) handed down in the Church as Tradition and that (c) the Holy Spirit leads the Church to a certain knowledge of these truths. And because this is the Catholic position, it isn't a problem for Catholics that the Bible doesn’t tell us that Matthew—or Mark, or Luke—is an inspired book.

But this is a massive problem for Protestants. Why? Because it’s the Protestant position to say we accept and believe and teach others to accept and believe only what can be shown to be taught in the pages of Scripture.

Protestants don’t accept the authority of Tradition (like the tradition that Matthew is an inspired book?). Protestants don't accept the authority of decisions made by councils (like the decision to include Hebrews in the New Testament canon?). Protestants don't accept the idea that the Holy Spirit leads the Church to these sorts of authoritative decisions.

For Protestantism, it’s “what saith the Scripture?”

Conclusion

At this point I was somewhat on my back intellectually.

I had to know the twenty-seven books in my New Testament were the inspired word of God in order to have my New Testament function as my infallible rule. And I believed they were the inspired word of God. But I had no idea how to answer the question of how I knew this without going beyond “Scripture alone” and beginning to talk about Tradition and the Holy Spirit’s leading of the Church’s magisterium.

As I stared beyond Jimmy, like a cow stares at a new gate, he pressed the question another step.

To be continued . . .

#Catholic Answers #Kenneth Hensley #Catholic Teaching #Sola Scriptura #Bible Study

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thekingdomofgod · 4 years

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The Apostle Paul

Paul a prototype

Paul was the first apostle to be called by the Lord after his ascension. Before this the only apostles were the disciples whom he called while on earth. Paul therefore became the prototype or model of post-ascension apostles to the present day, in fact, the prototype apostle for the mission to the gentiles, and therefore, strategic for the advance of God’s kingdom on earth.

In Acts 13 we discover him functioning first as a prophet and teacher at Antioch before being separated by the Holy Spirit as an apostle. While he was unquestionably called as an apostle from birth a process became evident for it to occur. He was not released by God to function as an apostle before being released as a prophet. My argument is that this sequence, and its restoration, is significant for the mission to the gentiles. Even so, it must not be construed as a humanly engineered career track of promotion to apostle after serving successfully as a prophet.

Prophet’s ministry

To understand this we must clarify what a prophet is. Because of our present state of recovery there is a deficit in the body of Christ in this regard. We have mistaken prophets as merely prognosticators and purveyors of personal prophecy. Prediction, however, is only one small element of their brief. In fact, this is where we have failed to distinguish between prophetic ministry and the ministry of a prophet. The former is an expression of a mature gift of prophecy, often complemented by the word of knowledge, or healing (1 Cor 12), which may generate a full-time ministry, while the latter is the Ephesians 4 ascension ministry of a prophet. You may ask how we are to tell the difference?

The ministry of a prophet is distinguished by the weight of a message. Flowing out of grace-based holiness it has gravitas, bringing revelation, correction, and alignment to the body of Christ. Through them the word of the Lord dismantles strongholds that resist the kingdom of God. They move in and impart the spirit of the fear of the Lord. A prophetic ministry, by contrast, is more focussed in personal prophecy, edification, exhortation, and comfort. The latter gets words fromthe Lord, whereas the former carries the word of the Lord.

Prophet’s message

You may also ask, what the prophet’s message is. God sends the new covenant prophet, like their old covenant counterpart, to his people as a covenant-mediator, to call them back to covenant fidelity and remind them of its stipulations (commands) and sanctions (blessings and curses).

When Jesus was asked to sum up the covenant he re-stated its stipulations, quoting from Deuteronomy 6: “to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, body and strength, and also to love our neighbour as ourselves.” This was the fulfilling of all the law and the prophets. Regardless of its various administrations (i.e. Adamic, Abrahamic, Mosaic, Davidic, Messianic, New) the ministry of the prophets has always been to call the people of God back to the Lord and to his covenant.

Paul in the mould of the prophets

Therefore, in the mould of the classical prophets, Paul encounters the Lord in a vision and is called as his voice to the nations (Acts 9:1-31; 26:12-23). Additionally, he ascends to the third heaven, receiving revelations that are unlawful to utter. He operates in the gift-mix of a prophet – in the word of knowledge, the discerning of spirits, the working of miracles and prophecy. In fellowship with the prophets of old, his prophetic witness through the proclamation of the gospel of God’s kingdom is not only accompanied by signs and wonders, but also persecution and suffering.

As a prophet Paul calls, through the gospel, a people back to the Lord and his covenant from among the nations, which in God’s timing precipitates commissioning as an apostle to a greater geographical sphere of responsibility. This is accompanied by an increased measure of grace and authority to build them as the new covenant temple in the Spirit. Also, as a prophet, Paul is regularly led through visions, angels, and prophecy in his apostolic assignment to the nations. In fact, some scholars have gone as far to describe apostles as prophets on circuit. 5 Therefore, as a prophet with an apostolic assignment, Paul received a prophetic revelation so as to lay the foundations of the new covenant, opening a new era of the kingdom of God on earth. As Rousas Rushdoony points out, commenting on the uniqueness of Paul’s call, “Paul…asserts his prophetic apostleship. The Old Testament prophets spoke directly from God… . Paul was very familiar with this prophetic power, and he himself manifests it and asserts it. He is the New Testament prophet, in that he alone, like the prophets who said, “Thus saith the Lord,” speaks from the Lord.” 6

Therefore, as demonstrated through Paul as the prototype post-ascension apostle to the gentiles, one cannot be fully apostolic without being in some measure prophetic. Consequently, when apostles emerge and function through an apostolic–prophetic paradigm there will be no tension between the two. By nature apostles will be inherently prophetic. 7

Apostolic product flows from prophetic purpose

Apostolic product will emanate from prophetic purpose. Nehemiah’s rebuilding of Jerusalem, for example, was both catalysed and contextualised by Jeremiah’s seventy-year prophecy concerning the captivity and restoration (Jer 25:8-11; 29:10). And then during the post-exilic restoration Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi continued to provide the same prophetic catalyst and context for the re-building (Ezr 5:1-2; 6:14). Likewise, in the final restoration of all things the ministry and message of the prophet will provide the necessary revelation and blueprint (Eph 2:20–3:5). Therefore, apostolic product without prophetic purpose is pointless. It is, in fact, the foundation upon which all apostles should build.

As it was with the first, so will it be with the last. The wise master-builder (architecton) of Paul’s day was both architect and builder (1 Cor 3:10). Paul, as a prophet, received the blueprint for God’s house; but as an apostle, constructed it. The former flows from the spirit of revelation; the latter from the spirit of wisdom. As a type of Christ’s apostleship, Moses also reflects this dual function. He not only received the pattern in the mount, as a prophet; but also, as an apostle, built the house (Heb 3:1-2; Deut 34:10). We can now see how easily the apostle and prophet are the joint foundation of the living temple (Eph 2:20).

Moving between the two functions

This is not to deny some are apostles and some are prophets. I am not suggesting that all prophets are called as apostles, but I am suggesting that all true apostles will function as prophets, in some measure. Apostles will move between the two functions depending on circumstances and the leading of the Spirit (the Didache also carries hints of this overlap).

Nor am I suggesting that apostles will not function in the other ascension-gift ministries of Ephesians 4. Clearly, we see today apostles who are pastors, or evangelists, or teachers to the body of Christ, which is appropriate. What I am suggesting is that as we approach this climax of the ages and the “fullness of the gentiles” (i.e. the final harvest of the nations: see Rom 11:25; Lk 21:24) we will see a restoration of the kind of apostleship that opened the gentile era. “The first shall be last” in that the first mode of apostleship will be the last to be restored.

Primary role of apostles

In concluding this chapter, a word must be said concerning the primary role of apostles as stewards of the “faith once delivered to the saints” (Jd 3). Christ sends apostles to the church and to the nations with the mandate and prime responsibility for not only the expansion, but also the continuity of Christ’s kingdom on earth (Rom 1:5, 14-16; 16:25-26). This is pre-eminently a discipling and teaching mandate and ministry. A revelation of God and his purposes was given to the first apostles and enscripturated, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, as sacred text. It is the responsibility of apostles, as teachers, to perpetuate the gospel through faithfully teaching the word of God. Christianity has content, a body of truth, which is to be conveyed to each generation. This is the true meaning of “apostolic succession”. It is not the succession of apostolic office, but of the apostolic faith. True apostles therefore are not church planters only, or entrepreneurs, CEOs, and administrators. Like Paul, they are prophets and teachers. Even so, as Paul underlined, we have many teachers but not many fathers. This calls for the disicipling side of the apostolic equation where apostles invest themselves in those who have the character and the grace to do likewise, and thus ensure the expansion and continuity of the faith.

Recalibration necessary

In light of the above some recalibration will be necessary. Many apostles, under the weight of the dominant paradigms, are prophets in denial. Many others currently graced to function apostolically may be pastor-teachers, or supports and governments, as members of an apostolic team.

We are grateful for a generation of apostles who have emerged through the pastor-teacher paradigm. Even so, as the full day comes and the body of Christ approaches full stature we will see a supernatural proliferation of apostle-prophets released in the Pauline mould. Only then will the gentile mission be completed – the fullness of Christ revealed and the nations filled with the knowledge of his glory.

I trust these brief thoughts may be sufficient to stir a fresh pursuit and a fuller appropriation of all God has destined for his people through the ministry of apostles and prophets.

May the future come today!

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igate777 · 11 months

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BY THEIR FRUITS, YOU WILL KNOW THEM.

THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IN THIS HOUR IS REVEALING THE PATTERN AND BLUEPRINT OF HIS MOVE AND PRESENCE.

By the late 1990s and early 2000s, when the Spirit of the Lord began to stir the hearts of his people regarding the coming of his prophetic emphasis in the building of his apostolic order, brethren became caught up in the fight for what name is best suited for the expressions of the Spirit until the battle began to interfere with issues of doctrine and the revelatory order of his prophetic agenda for the nations.

As a result, the Spirit of the Lord left those [in matured brethren] instruments to continue in their own ways and searched for Mengers, who would be available to carry and birth his prophetic blueprint for the restoration of creation. Identifying the move of God through the carnal lens is a terrible mistake we've seen throughout the Bible.

2 CORINTHIANS 5:16 SO FROM NOW ON WE REGARD NO ONE ACCORDING TO THE FLESH. ALTHOUGH WE ONCE REGARDED CHRIST IN THIS WAY, WE DO SO NO LONGER.

We used to know Christ after the flesh, but the day and hour came when the order of identifying Christ and his kingdom seized. This is the day when we are called to recalibrate our discerning capability and knowledge, so we may not be deceived by the scheme of religious spirit, sounding like the authentic voice of God.

Sad to say, I see the same wrong emphasis and pattern today among those who claim to be custodians of this present prophetic/apostolic emphasis of the Spirit. They too are caught up in distractive pet doctrines and humanistic expressions and impressions.

Whenever we get the impression that the move of the Spirit is not coming from a place of complete surrender to the ways and pattern of the Spirit, we should be rest assured that just as the Lord jumped out of the former vessels, we will see the Lord also leave behind these unbroken, carnal vessels, claiming to be spiritually sound.

We should not be surprised when this happens, because it is clear that the Lord is not interested in working through those who are not completely surrendered to Him.

Yes, the Father only uses broken, tried and ready instruments who understand the order, priority, and standard of his ministry. Friends, God cannot be mocked. When we say things that our hearts and thought are not aligned towards, we manifest in the spirit of hypocrisy, which is rooted in manipulative witchcraft.

When we are so fixative on names and titles without the life-nature of the Spirit to produce the fruit of the identity we align with, that itself is the fruit of insecurity directly linked to the nature of Rehoboam. The name Jeroboam means to possess the people.

The opportunity and liberty given to Jeroboam to govern the people was abused by giving the people the liberty that unleashed the spirit of false worship in the entire nation of Israel. Jeroboam offered the people the alternative to serve and worship God from the position of idolatry.

He changed the doctrine of biblical truth; brought in a different order of priesthood patterns after humanism and false worship. The insecurity in the life of this King brought damnation and division to his people.

Friends and disciples, you see, the spiritual identity we wear will ultimately be defined by the fruit we bear, and the fruit will then decide what name we decide to call what is in manifestation.

When we finally move from carnal identification by allowing the Lord to recalibrate our sights through the ministry of the wise-master builders, we can see things not in the correctness of soulish standardsd, but in the accuracy of divine order and standard.

For by their fruits, you will KNOW THEM.

#discipleship #God's move #Discerning the move of God #When God mooves #Identifying the pattern of the Spirit #Flowing in the River of the Spirit #Discerning the voice of the Spirit #Kingdom pattern #Prophetic message #Apostolic order #kingdom culture #The branding of the spirit #What is God doing today #The third day Church #the ecclesia

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djgblogger-blog · 6 years

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Pope Francis won't support women in the priesthood, but here's what he could do

http://bit.ly/2I7eYQ4

Pope Francis will not ordain women to priesthood. L'Osservatore Romano/Pool Photo Via AP

On March 13, Pope Francis will complete his first five years as head of the Roman Catholic Church. Since his election, Pope Francis has engaged the estimated 1.2 billion Catholics and innumerable non-Catholics worldwide with his frank, inclusive talk on issues as diverse as poverty and homosexuality. In fact, many observers seem confused by the church’s apparent willingness to reconsider traditions regarding some contentious issues, such as divorce.

However, Francis has drawn the line at extending full priesthood to women. Devout Catholics have spoken out boldly on both sides of this issue. But, that door, Francis has repeatedly said, “is closed.”

As a scholar specializing in both the history of the Catholic Church and gender studies, I believe Francis’ refusal comes from his unwillingness to challenge a foundational Catholic doctrine known as “apostolic succession.”

The Catholic Church has historically been unwilling to violate this doctrine.

Development of the priesthood

Based on the Gospels of Mark and Luke, it is apostolic succession that specifies how the Catholic Church acquired its authority and its ability to save souls. God gave the power of salvation – to “bind and loose” souls – to Christ who shared it with 12 male apostles. When the apostles chose their successors, the first bishops, they passed the power of salvation to those bishops through the sacrament of ordination. Through ordination, bishops have endowed priests with God’s authority up to the present day.

The origins of apostolic succession can be traced to the first centuries A.D. – a time when Christianity was illegal. Jesus had left his followers with no obvious blueprint for any type of formal church or priesthood. Christians were, thus, free to worship in their own ways, trying not to get caught.

This troubled Christian leaders such as Clement, a first-century bishop of Rome, and Irenaeus, a second-century bishop of Lyon. They believed it unlikely that such a diversity of practices could lead to heaven. Jesus, they wrote, must have left one true path to salvation. In the absence of clear direction, they traced this one path through the apostles and their recognized successors, the bishops.

This became a pivotal development in early attempts to organize a uniform Christian “church,” creating a formal clergy. Only ordained priests were authorized to celebrate the sacraments, a key source of God’s grace.

Anyone, for example, could pronounce ritualistic words over bread and wine, but unless that individual had been given the authority of the apostles through ordination, that bread and wine would remain mere bread and wine. There was no true sacrament, no saving grace. Such unauthorized persons, Irenaeus charged, were thieves, stealing the chance of salvation from the Christians they duped.

A matter of divine will

Approximately when and under what circumstances certain disciples were designated as the only “apostles,” numbered as 12, and selected as all male is a subject of much historical and theological debate. The church’s justifications for excluding women from apostolic succession have varied over centuries.

Before the 20th century, explanations for refusing women a place in the hierarchy of apostolic succession ranged from women’s inherent sinfulness to their divinely created inferiority to man.

Although the church no longer supports such reasoning, it does still exclude women from the priesthood by virtue of their sex. In its 1976 declaration, “Inter Insigniores,” the church proclaimed its loyalty to the model left by Christ to his followers – in other words, apostolic succession.

Since Christ was incarnated as male and all 12 original apostles were male, the church declared that God meant for males alone to exercise the priesthood. The church, in other words, does not consider the extension of ordination to women to be an issue of human rights but one of fulfilling the divine will, with which there can be no compromise nor accommodation.

What change-makers say

Representatives of the Women’s Ordination Conference. AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito

Many devout Catholics, even priests, disagree. Women’s Ordination Conference and Women’s Ordination Worldwide, two of the largest global organizations advocating for women’s ordination, count clerics, monks and nuns among supporters of their cause. As Benedictine nun Joan Chittister charged,

“The Church that preaches the equality of women but does nothing to demonstrate it within its own structures … is … dangerously close to repeating the theological errors that underlay centuries of Church-sanctioned slavery.”

These Catholics allege the refusal to ordain women is not God’s intent, and neither scripturally justified nor the original practice of the church.

These modern change-makers point to a body of credible scriptural, archaeological and historical evidence that women served as priests, deaconesses and even bishops alongside Jesus and during the first centuries of Christianity. Indeed, reputable evidence exists that it took centuries for male clerics to gradually exclude women from these positions.

This evidence suggests it could actually be a return to tradition to welcome women to the priesthood. The fact is that the church has changed its position on women and church roles in the past, such as when, in 1900, the church reversed its 600-year old mandate that nuns live and worship isolated behind convent walls. This freedom made new and diverse forms of religious life and service possible for women. The church could alter its position on women again, critics argue. As Roy Bourgeois, a priest defrocked for his support of women’s ordination, maintained, “There’s always the opportunity to change.”

What the pope can do

Yet the field on which such battles are fought is far from level, and those on the side of apostolic succession have the upper hand.

Although Francis is unlikely to allow women into the priesthood, it is within reason that he could lead in ordaining women to become deacons, as this would not necessarily violate apostolic succession. Deacons – along with bishops and priests – are one of the three ordained “orders” of ministers in the Catholic Church. Deacons are not priests, but they may preach, teach and lead in prayer and works of mercy.

The diaconate is often a stage on the road to ordination to the priesthood for men. During the Vatican’s Synod on the Family in 2015, Canadian Archbishop Paul-Andre Durocher of Quebec encouraged his colleagues to expand women’s opportunities for leadership, including ordination to the diaconate, “to clearly show the world the equal dignity of women and men in the Church.”

Pope Benedict XVI suggested this almost a decade ago. Durocher, like Benedict, was careful to clarify that deacons are directed “non ad sacerdotium, sed ad ministerium,” meaning “not to priesthood, but to ministry.” While Francis has been firm in protecting doctrines such as apostolic succession, this is a move he could legitimately make.

Lisa McClain does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

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profbenonyeukwu-blog · 6 years

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APPLICATION OF ANOINTING IN THE DISPENSATION OF GRACE

PROF. BEN ONYEUKWU (REV.)

NCE (English); Dip (Computer Studies); ND/HD (Journalism); Dip, BA (Theology) MA, PhD.

Call: +2348037346939 E-mail: [email protected]

APPLICATION OF ANOINTING IN THE DISPENSATION OF GRACE

MAIN TEXT:

“The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, and to preach the year of the Lord’s favour” (Luke 4:18-19).

INTRODUCTION:

For a start, and in recognition of Professor Uzoma Emmanuel, a seasoned journalist, theologian, man of God, scholar and columnist, I wish to as well disagree with him, on what he describes as, “anointing of destruction”, in his Nigeria Newspoint Newspaper article of September 19-20, 2011, which he said he released against the “household enemies” of his readers, and also charge him with dispensational error in his interpretation and application of the Scripture on the subject under review.

The Reverend Professor Emmanuel may have been taken to this exegetical blunder for the lack of dispensational principle in his interpretation of the Word of God. In the words of Edwin Hartin, “a dispensation is a period of time during which God deals in a particular way with man in respect to sin and man’s responsibility”. There are basically eight dispensations in divine calendar, namely the dispensation of innocence, from the creation of man to the fall of man, (Genesis, 1:26-2:28), the Dispensation of Conscience, from the fall of man to the flood, (Genesis 3-7), the Dispensation of Human Government, from the flood to the confusion of tongues (Genesis 8:1-11;9), the Dispensation of Promise, from the call of Abraham to the Exodus, (Genesis 11-10-15:21), the Dispensation of Law, from Sinai to Calvary, (Exodus 19:1-8), the Dispensation of Grace, from the descent of the Holy Spirit to the descent or return of Christ, (Acts and Epistles), the Dispensation of Judgment, from the Rapture of the Church to the millennium, (Rev. 6:19, Daniel 12:1; Jeremiah 30:7); and the Kingdom Dispensation, from the descent of Christ to the Great White Throne Judgment – 1000 year, (Psalm 2 and 11). However, in this work, only two dispensations will be considered, that is, the dispensation of law and grace. Having said this, please observe the application of:

ANOINTING IN THE DISPENSATION OF LAW

The application of anointing in the dispensation of law carries a “fire for fire” approach. Moses, the law giver, first demonstrates it when he handled the opposition of Korah and his men, who were buried alive, as fire consumed the rest of them, (Numbers 16:1-35). In that dispensation also, Elijah, the prophet, consumed two captains from King Ahaziah, and their bands of fifty soldiers each, (2 Kings 1:10ff). Elisha’s venom which as well claimed the lives of forty-two youths marks another application of the anointing of God for human destruction in the same dispensation, (2 Kings 2:23-24).

Therefore, if Professor Uzoma Emmanuel, whose article sparked off this discourse, and the likes, were raised prophets in the period under review, then, the claim in his write-up in the page fifteen of the Nigeria Newspoint newspaper of September 19-20, 2011 that God sent him to release what he called the “anointing of destruction” against, whosoever is a “household enemy” in our family, place of work, in the office, yard, school or even in the church… may have been true, and the name of Jesus attached to the message would have given it a seal of approval and authority. But, because Professor Emmanuel is a prophet in the dispensation of grace, his claim becomes exegetically baseless and powerless.

ANOINTING IN THE DISPENSATION OF GRACE

The coming of Jesus Christ marks the end of the dispensation of law, as well as introduces the dispensation of grace, for the Law was through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ, (John 1:17). Now, notice that a few years into the new dispensation, an attempt by James and John to re-enact the old order of applying anointing for human destruction did not get the approval of Jesus, instead, they were told, “the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them”, (Luke 9:51-56).

The foregoing shows that Professor Emmanuel did not consider the cited Bible portion in placing curses on those he refers to as “household enemies” in his article when he says, “I release the spirit of accident to them. I release the spirit of misfortune to them, I release the spirit of insanity on all your “household enemies”. They shall fall in Jesus name Amen! You enemy of destiny, your time is up, die in Jesus name. You enemy of breakthrough, your time is up, die in Jesus name…”. But, the Son of God was made manifest to destroy the works of the devil, and not human beings, (I John 3:8), and so, will not honour any prayer which seeks to destroy the lives of the people He came to save, (Luke 9:56).

Also, Professor Emmanuel was wrong in his interpretation of the Scripture, “a man’s enemies will be those of his own household, (Matthew 10:36), which simply indicates that one’s persecutor may be a member of one’s own family and does not suggest we should have them as our enemies, even if they choose to work against us, for Jesus say, “you have heard that it was said (in the law of Moses), you shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy, but I say to you (in this time of grace), love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for (and not against) those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons (and daughters) of your father in heaven, for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust, (Matthew 5:43-45).

ANOINTING IN THE MINISTRY OF JESUS

The expression, “how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him, (Acts 10:38) shows God’s blueprint in the application of anointing, since the beginning of the dispensation of grace. From the Scripture cited one deduces that the anointing of the Holy Spirit is fundamentally for the good of the people, for Jesus under the flow of the anointing went about doing good (verse 38b), providing basic necessities for families and individuals. In this connection, He provided wine for a wedding couple, (John 2:1-11) and also fed hungry persons in the wilderness, (Matthew 14:13-21). Spiritually, too, He healed those with infirmities, as well as cast out demons from the oppressed, (Matthew 17:14-23).

What Jesus did during His earthly ministry remains a shining example of what the anointed gospel ministers of today should be doing, and not channeling their anointing towards the destruction of the people they are called to save or help out of problems (Matthew 15:2-28). However, what looks like a negative use of anointing by Jesus was when He cursed the fig tree, but this was only a figurative attack on the fruitlessness of Israel, in terms of godlessness, and not on the people themselves, (Matthew 21:18-22). Similarly, the Apostle Paul’s command that Bar jesus should be blind for a season, which is also applicable today, was a measure of correction for opposing the gospel, and not a call for the extermination of his life (Acts 13:6-12). Furthermore, the application of anointing in Acts of the Apostles chapter five, by the Apostle Peter that claimed the lives of Ananias and Sapphira, his wife was an exceptional case, and took that dimension because the sin was said to have been committed against the Holy Spirit, and not man, (verses 3-4), as well as depicts the dangers of falsehood in the church, since such an action did not take place again in the apostolic era of the dispensation of grace (verses 1-10).

In conclusion, don’t forget that the mission of the devil is to steal, kill and destroy, whereas, that of Jesus Christ is to give life, and give it more abundantly, (John 10:10). So, if the minister of the gospel now uses his anointing to destroy, instead of saving lives, then he is accomplishing the purpose of Satan, and not that of Christ. BE INFORMED.

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armeniaitn · 3 years

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Moving Documentaries Confront Genocide on PBS in Montreal, Fresno in April

New Post has been published on https://armenia.in-the.news/culture/moving-documentaries-confront-genocide-on-pbs-in-montreal-fresno-in-april-71815-09-04-2021/

Moving Documentaries Confront Genocide on PBS in Montreal, Fresno in April

“100 Years from Home” and “What Will Become of Us”will be broadcasted in late April

MONTREAL, Canada & FRESNO, Calif.—With the 106th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide on April 24, a pair of moving, personal documentaries shed light on the lasting trauma, coming soon to PBS stations in Montreal and Fresno. These wounds were reopened by the recent war between Azerbaijan, backed by Turkey, and the Armenians in the contested region of Nagorno-Karabakh, also known as Artsakh.

To learn more, please visit the “100 Years from Home” and “What Will Become of Us” websites.

Read original article here.

#Armenia #Armenians #Artsakh #Karabakh #Yerevan #Culture

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