10 Medicines Used During Jesus’ Times

A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones. (KJV) Proverbs 17:22

A joyful heart is good medicine, but depression drains one’s strength. (GWT) Proverbs 17:22

It has been reported that medicine during the life and times of Jesus was strongly influenced by Greek medicinal standards [1]. The Greeks had revolutionized the concepts and practices of medicine and these new practices were adopted by the Romans of Jesus’ time. Because much of the Greek medicine revolved around the four fluids, or ‘humors’, of the human body (blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile), much of the medicine practiced at the time involved altering the levels of these fluids. Therefore, medical practices such as bloodletting, vomiting, baths, heating, cooling, and sweating were common.

However, these were not the only forms of medicine practiced. In addition to various traditional folk medicines and magical practices, numerous herbs were used to treat common conditions of the times. While few of these are mentioned in the Bible, descriptions of commonly used herbal medications were recorded in texts written by learned men of Jesus’ time. These include Di Medicina by Celsus and Naturalis Historia by Gaius Plinius Secundus (Pliny the Elder).

[1] Madsen AN. Wilt Thou Be Made Whole? In: The Lord of the Gospels: The 1990 Sperry Symposium on the New Testament. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1991, pages 113-128.

Frankincense

One of three gifts given to Jesus at the time of his birth, frankincense has been reported to have numerous health benefits. It has been used traditionally as an antiseptic to prevent infections. It has also been suggested that frankincense helps with digestive problems, coughs, colds, and that its astringent properties helps strengthen gums, hair, and skin.

Myrrh

Another of the three gifts of the Magi, myrrh also has a number of medicinal properties. Myrrh has been shown to have astringent, antibacterial, anti-fungal, and anti-inflammatory properties. This led to myrrh being traditionally used to improve circulation, boost the immune system, reduce fevers, treat digestive problems, and treat coughs and colds.

Garlic

Garlic has long been part of various traditional medicine practices due to its perceived health properties. Research over the years has confirmed that garlic has antibacterial, anti-viral, anti-parasitic, and antioxidant properties. These properties led to the use of garlic for overall health as well as digestive health.

Fennel

While traditionally thought to be beneficial for eye health according to Naturalis Historia, fennel has been shown in modern times to be a rich source of vitamin C and other antioxidant and anti-inflammatory phytonutrients. Borage

Best known today as an oil rich in omega-9 fatty acids with anti-inflammatory benefits, borage was often traditionally used to reduce fevers and rheumatisms and as an anti-depressant or relaxant. Pomegranate

During Jesus’ era, pomegranate was used for numerous remedies. The roots of the pomegranate were cooked and used to eliminate tapeworms, while the flowers were used to treat dysentery and ulcers of the mouth. Today, research has shown that pomegranates are a rich source of antioxidant phytonutrients and have a number of additional anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory health benefits.

Tarragon

Probably best known as a spice for its flavor-enhancing qualities, tarragon has several uses in traditional medicine. Tarragon leaves were used to settle an upset stomach and stimulate a lost appetite. Brewed as a tea, it was reported to help sleep troubles. It was also chewed to numb a toothache.

Cabbage

Pliny’s Naturalis Historia indicates at least 87 remedies attributable to cabbage. Eating raw cabbage was considered beneficial for headaches, poor eyesight, and organ health. Concoctions of cabbage with warm water were used as a poultice to treat wounds, sprains, and cancers (even though not called “cancer” at the time).

Blackberries Referred to as mulberries of the bramble in Naturalis Historia, Pliny indicated that blackberries were useful for many remedies including maladies of the gums and tonsils and neutralization of snake venom. Extracts of the bramble shoots were supposed to have a diuretic effect, while the leaves were used to treat diseases of the mouth and skin ulcers. Hyssop The hyssop is though of as “The Holy Herb” by many because it was used to sprinkle water and blood during ritualistic cleansing of lepers and to paint blood on homes of the Israelites during the Passover. A stalk of the hyssop plant was also used to lift a sponge soaked in wine to Jesus’ lips at his crucifixion. From a medicinal standpoint, hyssop was commonly used in tea for coughs and shortness of breath and in plasters and chest rubs as a chest decongestant. Hyssop has also been used for the relief of arthritis and rheumatism and to treat bruises, cuts, and wounds.

While medicine has change in innumerable ways since the life and times of Jesus, many of today’s modern medical practices remain rooted in many of the traditional forms of medicine, particularly those of the Greek and Roman times.

A closer look at: Frankincense

Frankincense is used in perfumery and aromatherapy. Frankincense essential oil is obtained by steam distillation of the dry resin. Some of the smell of the frankincense smoke is due to the products of pyrolysis.

Frankincense was lavishly used in religious rites. According to the gospel of Matthew 2:11, gold, frankincense, and myrrh were among the gifts to Jesus by the Biblical Magi “from out of the East.”

The Egyptians ground the charred resin into a powder called kohl. Kohl was used to make the distinctive black eyeliner seen on so many figures in Egyptian art. The aroma of frankincense is said to represent life and the Judaic, Christian, and Islamic faiths have often used frankincense mixed with oils to anoint newborn infants and individuals considered to be moving into a new phase in their spiritual lives.

The growth of Christianity depressed the market for frankincense during the 4th century AD. Desertification made the caravan routes across the Rub’ al Khali or “Empty Quarter” of the Arabian Peninsula more difficult. Additionally, increased raiding by the nomadic Parthians in the Near East caused the frankincense trade to dry up after about A.D. 300.

Traditional medicine

Frankincense resin is edible and often used in various traditional medicines in Asia for digestion and healthy skin. Edible frankincense must be pure for internal consumption, meaning it should be translucent, with no black or brown impurities. It is often light yellow with a (very) slight greenish tint. It is often chewed like gum, but it is stickier because it is a resin.

Read more: http://www.beliefnet.com/FollowingJesus/Features/10-Medicines-Used-During-Jesus-Times.aspx?p=2

Be Well! 🙂

Woman in Ministry

Paul and Women Teachers:
Understanding 1Timothy, Chapters 1 & 2

Paul has a problem. He left Timothy behind in Ephesus to deal with false teachers-both men and women. “As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain ones (“men” is not in the Greek text but “tisin” meaning ones) not to teach false doctrines any longer nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. These promote controversies rather than God’s work…” 1 Timothy 1:3-4, New International Version Bible quoted throughout.
The situation has gotten so bad that Paul writes the young minister Timothy that he must command some to stop their false teaching of “myths and genealogies”. He describes the situation further.
1 Tim 1:6-7 “Some have wandered away from these (a pure heart, a good conscience, and faith) and turned to meaningless talk. They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm.”
Paul complains that these would-be teachers don’t know what they are talking about, yet are expressing their wrong opinions confidently. Then Paul launches into a discussion of sin and the law that seems to be refuting concepts taught by these wrong “teachers of the law”. We see only Paul’s half of this communication; we do not have the message from Timothy that explains the current problems in Ephesus that Paul is responding to.
What was Ephesus like?
Ephesus was a wealthy city that revolved around the massive Temple of Diana, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Understanding the religion of Diana, also known as Artemis, is very important in understanding the background of the Ephesians. Notice in the passage below that Diana/Artemis was believed to protect women during childbirth.
“‘Artemis of the Ephesians’ was not a Greek divinity, but Asiatic. This is shown by the fact that eunuchs were employed in her worship– a practice quite foreign to Greek ideas. She was not regarded as a virgin but as mother and foster-mother, as is clearly shown by the multitude of breasts in the rude effigy. She was undoubtedly a representative of the same power presiding over conception and birth that was adored in Palestine under the name Ashtoreth. Her worship, frantic and fanatical after the manner of Asia, was traced back to the Amazons. Her temple at Ephesus was one of the wonders of the world, but its great glory was the ‘image which fell down from heaven’ (Acts 19:35).” New Unger’s Bible Dictionary published by Moody Press of Chicago, Illinois, 1988.
Thousands of women died in childbirth or in illnesses following childbirth. A goddess that could supposedly protect them would have a very loyal following.
How were men attracted to this religion of a multi-breasted goddess? Ritual prostitution was a part of the worship of Diana. Paul may be fighting these sexual practices when in chapter 1:20 he addresses “adulterers and perverts” and then urges Timothy to “fight the good fight (against wrong doctrines), holding on to the faith and a good conscience.” Some who have rejected faith and a good conscience (meaning they are engaged in sinful practices) are Hymenaeus and Alexander whose teachings are blasphemy.
Next Paul urges prayers for peaceful lives. Recorded in Acts 19:24-41 is Paul’s violent conflict with Demetrius, a silver craftsmen making shrines to Diana and the city-wide riot that followed. Paul probably has this specific episode in mind when he urges church members at Ephesus to offer “prayers…that we may live peaceful and quiet lives…” 1Tim 2:1-2. The word he uses for peaceful, (heesuchion from hesuchios, Strong’s 2272), is the male form of the word and it translates as “peaceful”. The feminine form of the same word (hesuchia, hay-soo-khee’-ah, 2271); is used twice in 1 Tim. 2:11-12 describing the atmosphere in which a woman should learn and what Paul feels should be a woman’s attitude. The same word used in the same chapter should have the same translation, “peaceful”—a peaceful learning atmosphere—the same atmosphere Paul urges them to pray for so that they might have undisturbed lives! Instead of being translated as “peaceful” as it is in the male form, the female form of the same word was translated as “silence”. There are many clues in the second chapter of 1Timothy that an angry dispute has occurred in church, and peacefulness is the exact attribute that Paul advocates for both women and men.
So in 1 Tim 2: 11 when Paul uses the female form of the same word, he is requesting a peaceful atmosphere free of anger and disputing. But lets go on with our understanding of the ideas that Paul and Timothy were fighting at Ephesus.
Myths and Genealogies
Remember when Paul argued against “myths” in 1 Tim 1:4? It was commonly believed at Ephesus that the original founders of the city were Amazons, and that the present residents were descended from these Amazons. An “AMAZON, was one of a race of warlike women who made slaves of the men they captured. According to ancient Greek tradition, ….The largest city they built was Ephesus. There they built many magnificent temples for the worship of Ares and Artemis.” The World Book Encyclopedia, Vol. 1, article by Padraic Colum, pg. 344.
The Amazons are believed by some historians to have been real women whose exploits were magnified into myth. These Amazons are reported to have believed they were not only equal to men, but far superior to men! Therefore, proponents of the Amazons’ goddess Diana taught female superiority, and this background was causing marital problems for the Christian couples of Ephesus! Paul addresses this problem in Ephesians 5:22 as he urges wives to defer to their Christian husbands. The problem was that Ephesian women had been taught in their pre-Christian days that they were descended from Amazons– a superior female race! This would explain the false teachers devoting themselves to “myths and endless genealogies” mentioned in 1 Tim 1:4. The long genealogies linked them to their Amazon predecessors, whom they believed to be real people that founded Ephesus. Paul was convinced that they were mythological.
There is another hint that there were some angry confrontations going on in the Ephesus church when Paul inserts in 1 Tim 2: 8, “I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing.” Would this comment be necessary if there hadn’t been some anger and some disputing going on? Paul is correcting the men who participated in these angry outbursts, urging prayer not anger or arguments!
What was the likely cause of these disputes? The next verses tell us. Some women were dressing immodestly, even indecently, and were dripping with gold and pearls like the prophetesses of Diana. These women were very likely advocating that one old standby of Diana’s religion…female domination! Paul upbraids them for their indecent clothing and tells them to “dress modestly, with decency and propriety, not with braided hair or gold or pearls…but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God.” Did you notice his sideways swipe at “women who profess to worship God”? Paul felt these women weren’t truly worshipping God, only professing to worship God!
A Dilemma of Unconverted Wives?
At Pentecost both men and women miraculously spoke foreign languages, Acts 1:14, 2:4. Acts 2:7 should read, “…are not all thesethese (The word “men” is not in the Greek in verse 7, 8, 13, or 15) who are speaking Galileans?” Because women were speaking also, Peter felt the day of Pentecost fulfilled the prophecy of Joel 2:28-30. “…Your sons and daughters will prophesy….” Since women spoke languages during Pentecost services, following Pentecost, both men and women members could use their God-given spiritual gifts during church services. Women were praying and prophesying during services, 1 Cor 11:5, and a controversy arose over women wearing veils in public.
In this setting, men bringing unconverted wives to services could create problems. Were these wives allowed to participate as converted women did? If so, would they teach false doctrines? Was this the case with the wealthy women with low-cut dresses, gold and pearls, who “profess” to worship God, but still are loyal to Artemis and the Amazons? Notice especially 1 Tim 4:7, where Paul links “godless myths” directly to wives!
After dealing with the immoral appearance of these women, Paul launches into his decision. A literal translation from the Greek is: “A wife, in peacefulness, I let learn in all obedience (learning quietly and not causing angry disputes), but to teach a wife (the Greek for wife or woman is the same word, “gunee”) I am not allowing (Paul uses the present indicative tense), not even to dominate (a) husband, but to be in peacefulness.”
Paul is letting an Ephesian wife learn peacefully, obediently, but he is not allowing a wife to teach nor to dominate a husband, but to be in a peaceful state. Were unconverted wives the ones who first needed to learn peacefully and who were not presently allowed to teach because they were spreading myths? We lack Timothy’s account sent to Paul.
Looking closer at some of the Greek words Paul used to communicate in his letter.

“Andros” can mean husband or man, Thayer’s Greek Definitions, 435. The same word is used in Luke 2:36, “Anna…lived with her husband seven years….”
“A wife, in peacefulness, I let learn in all obedience (not causing angry disputes), but to teach (a) wife I am not allowing (present indicative tense—he is not presently allowing a wife to teach), not even to dominate (a) husband, but to be in peacefulness.”
Paul uses the Greek verb form that indicates present action, not a command verb form, for the present he is not allowing these women of Ephesus to teach.
“Paul does not command the women not to teach. He employs the present active indicative for “allow.” The present tense in Greek principally denotes continuous present action. It can refer to present necessity and obligation and to potential action. Greek has its own imperative mood which is not here employed. Commands can also be phrased in the aorist or the future indicative. Neither of these tenses is here used. Nor does Paul use the perfect tense to denote an action in the past which has changed the state of affairs. Paul is saying: ‘I am not presently allowing a woman to teach.'” Beyond the Curse, Aida Besancon Spencer, Pg. 84-85.
An already established universal rule on women not teaching would already be understood by Timothy. Paul would not be writing in the present active indicative mood.
“Paul does not assume that Timothy already knows this rule. Had this rule been established and universal, is it possible that Timothy, who had worked many years with Paul, would not have known it already? Paul often reminds readers of traditions they should know by saying, ‘You know,’ or ‘Do you not know?’ or ‘According to the traditions which I delivered to you.'” Paul, Women and Wives, Craig S. Keener, Pg. 112.
Wives Dominating Husbands?
The fourteenth Greek word in this passage, “authentein” is used only this one place in the entire New Testament so there is some controversy about its rightful interpretation. Several sources say that the KJV “to usurp authority over a man” is over translated, meaning more is added than is in the original word. Vincent’s Word Studies of the New Testament states of 1 Tim. 2:12,”The King James Version ‘usurp authority’ is a mistake.” Strong’s defines “authentein” 831, “to act of oneself, to dominate”.
What were these errant wives teaching? They taught the old doctrine from Diana, female superiority! They were teaching “to dominate a man” (Strong’s 831) or more specifically, “to dominate a husband”.
Paul uses the first married couple as his example. “For Adam was formed first, then Eve,” verse 13. Paul is saying, “Wives can’t be superior to husbands! Adam, the first husband, was formed before his wife, Eve! Next Paul argues in 1 Tim 2:14, “And Adam was not deceived, but the woman (wife) being deceived was in the transgression.” Not only was Adam formed first, he was also not deceived, but his wife was deceived! (Here Paul presents a doubtful argument, as both were tricked by Satan.)
Remember that Diana promised wives protection during the dangerous process of childbirth? Paul deals with this next in 1 Tim. 2:15, “But women (wives) will be saved through (or throughout) childbearing (she will be protected throughout the dangerous process of childbearing)– if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety.” The Phillips Bible translates the first part, “Women will come safely through childbirth”.
Some think that this passage refers to spiritual salvation, but Paul knew that salvation can come only through Jesus Christ. The literal translation is “But she (the wife) shall be saved throughout the childbearing, if…” Paul is encouraging these women, “You wives don’t need Diana to save you during childbirth, God will save you if you stay in faith, love and holiness!” This reference to a safe childbirth is another strong proof that he is dealing with wives influenced by the teachings of fertility goddess Diana/Artemis of the Ephesians.
Notice that childbirth was normally for wives, not for all women. Paul is concerned with wives who were teaching wrong concepts of female superiority and teaching other women to dominate their husbands. Since he says in verse 10 that the women in question “profess to worship God,” Paul seems to have misgivings about their real intentions. They claim to worship God, yet he implies that these particular elaborately dressed women with the ornately braided hair may not really be worshipping God. Paul seems to be dealing with problems arising from unconverted wives still clinging to pagan myths and teachings, and these wives are passing myths and false doctrines on to others in the congregation. They are not to teach or practice female superiority any more!
Again, what were these wives teaching that was stirring up controversy? Most likely they taught the old myths that they were descended from Amazon women with long genealogies to prove it! Remember the charge not to devote themselves to myths and long genealogies in 1 Tim 1:4 “nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. These promote controversies rather than God’s work– which is by faith.”
There had been an angry dispute in the Ephesus church causing Paul to urge the men: 1 Tim 2:8 ” I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing.”
Paul has obviously been asked to mediate in a fight over women in Ephesus teaching female domination, and his answer was to stop letting those Ephesian wives teach! At the start of Paul’s letter he had urged “command certain ones not to teach false doctrines any longer”. We begin to see that some of these false teachers were female.
Paul tells Elder Women to Teach
Yet in Titus 2:3, Paul tells Titus that elder women should be teachers of the right way of life:
“Likewise, teach the older women (elder women) to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good,” (or, to be a “teacher of the right” way of life).
Paul says elder women are to be “teachers of the right” in the original Greek phrase “kalodidaskalos” Strong’s 2567, a teacher of the right. He suggests they start with instructing the younger women, but he does not limit them to teaching only women.
Paul was not against all women everywhere teaching, he was against Ephesian women teaching female superiority as was one of the many problems in Ephesus. Paul argues that Adam was formed before Eve, and therefore wives can’t be superior to husbands. Also he reassures Ephesian wives that God will save them during childbirth!
Paul is reacting to a local problem. He is not dealing with dedicated Christian women teaching the Ten Commandments and true doctrines.
In Paul’s second recorded letter to Timothy, 2 Tim 2:2, he writes, “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable ‘anthroopois’ (men and women, Strong’s 444– defined by Thayer’s Greek Definitions as ‘a human being, whether male or female’) who will also be qualified to teach others.” If a person, male or female, is reliable, sound, and qualified– then Paul says he or she should teach others God’s truth!
There are many instances of Paul praising women who teach the truth such as Priscilla, see Acts 18:2,18,26; 1 Cor. 16:19; and Romans 16:3; Phoebe, a “diakonon” servant/minister in Romans 16:1, Junia in Romans 16:7, “outstanding among the apostles” Nympha, and “her house church”– the only leader mentioned by name in Laodicea, Col. 4:15. Also Euodia and Syntyche who “contended at my side in the cause of the gospel” Phil. 4:1-3. He hails many other women as co-workers in Christ Jesus. Had Paul issued a blanket edict against all women teaching everywhere he would have reprimanded these women instead of praising them!
The Words of Jesus
Jesus tells us “…whoever practices and teaches these things, will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” Matt. 5:19. Jesus put no gender restrictions on teaching, but said “whoever” and promises greatness for both men and women who teach. Paul was not dealing with dedicated Christian women teaching the true gospel, he was dealing with false teachers teaching myths and wrong ideas learned from the religion of the goddess Diana of the Ephesians.
Jesus praised the woman of Samaria that publicly preached the words of Jesus to the men and women of her village. He did not tell her to stop teaching them because she was a woman! Jesus praised her and told the disciples that they were harvesting where she had sowed. As a result, “Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, ….” John 4:39. Her public witness –her teaching– resulted in conversions, and Jesus praised her and held her up as an example for the disciples!
The words of Jesus are clear for all of us to teach the true gospel, and we must never be misled by anyone who contradicts Jesus Christ.
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WOMEN TEACHERS IN BIBLE TIMES

The word teach means to impart knowledge. Another definition is to give instruction to. Ephesians 4:11,” And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers.”

A problem the early church faced was their discerning of the new role of women. When in Christ, as they had spiritual gifts, each woman was able to see herself as a person of value and tremendous personal worth.

If we stop and look, it is noticeable that many of the present day cries of women in our society are reflected here. We need to see that the Bible’s stand in its basic attitude toward women is consistent.

In Genesis 1 we read of Eve and her personality. Her total association in our Lord’s image is forged on all humankind. We read in Genesis 1:27-28,”So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth. ‘”

Paul in writing to Timothy tells us he did not permit a woman to exercise authority over a man. ” And I do not permit a woman to teach or have authority over a man, but to be in silence.” I Timothy 2:12

In Acts 18 we read where Priscilla and her husband Aquila taught Apollos the way of God
more perfectly. Priscilla, as a partner with her husband, spoke with Apollos privately.

” So he (Apollos) began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Aquila and Priscilla heard
him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. ” Acts 18:26

Paul wrote in Romans 16:3,” Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus.”
There are many Biblical examples of women serving the Lord in the Old Testament. In Judges 4:4 we read of Deborah. Throughout the book of Esther, we read of Esther’s bravery and her courage to speak out.

We read about Hannah in the book of I Samuel chapter 1. She was childless and prayed
fervently to the Lord for a child. “Hannah conceived and bore a son, and called his name
Samuel,saying, ‘Because I have asked for him from the Lord.'” First Samuel 1:20
She trained him and taught him until he was old enough to go and live in the house of the
Lord with Eli the priest.

And many women who followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to Him, were there looking on from afar, among whom were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons.
Matthew 27:55-56 (NKJV)

I commend to you Phoebe our sister, who is a servant of the church in Cenchrea.
Romans 16:1 (NKJV)

At Joppa there was a certain disciple named Tabitha, which is translated Dorcas. This woman was full of good works and charitable deeds which she did.
Acts 9:36 (NKJV)

One of the judges in the Old Testament was a woman. Judges 4:4,”Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, was judging Israel at that time. And she would sit under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the mountains of Ephraim. And the children of Israel came up to her for judgment. “

Lydia was a business woman from Thyatira ,a seller of purple, who met with a group
of women by the riverside to worship. Paul preached to them and Lydia and those of
her household were baptized. “…she begged us, saying, ‘If you have judged me to be
faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.’ So she persuaded us.” Acts 16:15

There is a prophecy in Joel 2:28,” And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions.” In Acts 2:17 Peter quoted the prophet Joel. Jesus Christ promised a Spirit. Peter and the apostles spoke on the day of Pentecost, and this is the day the Spirit came to believers.

Because of the coming of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, every member of the Lord’s body has been given a gift. The admonition to teach as Jesus commanded in the Great Commission, given in Matthew 28:18-20, applies to both men and women. “And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’ Amen”

In 1 Corinthians 12:27-30 Paul tells of spiritual gifts, one of the gifts is teaching. Both men and women teach.

Each topic in I Corinthians 11 has to do with public worship. Paul starts by praising the believers, this included women, for not straying from the teaching. Later Paul answered those who would challenge his teaching.

” Now I praise you, brethren, that you remember me in all things and keep the traditions just as I delivered them to you.” I Corinthians 11:2

“And I urge you also, true companion, help those women who labored with me in the
gospel, with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the
Book of Life.” Philippians 4:3

There is no shame to be female in Christ Jesus. Whenever women participated in
Christ’s ministry, the worth, value, and the glory of womanhood was shown.

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3:28

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Hebrews 12 “chastening of the Lord”?

Hebrews chapter 12:1 starts with “Therefore” It is always a good idea to read back in context to see what it is there for. In Chapter 11 the writer has just taken us through the faith hall of fame giving examples of how to stay in faith and hope through any circumstance. – Hebrews 12 (NKJV) 1 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. 4 You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin. 5 And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: “My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; 6 For whom the Lord loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives.” – Aramaic Bible in plain English (2010) (Hebrews 12:6) “For whomever THE LORD JEHOVAH loves, he instructs, and draws aside his children with whom he is pleased.” Note: verse 5,6 quoted from ( Proverbs 3:11-12) Solomon’s proverbs were penned around 900 B.C. writer reminds the Hebrew reader of what they have known. (Proverbs 3:11,12) My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD; neither be weary of his correction: 12 For whom the LORD loves he corrects; even as a father the son in whom he delights. – Verse 3,4 previously reminds us Jesus was perfected by the things that He suffered. (Heb 5:8) Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; Jesus’ suffering was not in terms of sickness or of suffering at the hands of His Father, but rather from persecution for the Word’s sake. And, He suffered the temptation of letting ‘this cup pass’ from Him in the garden. He resisted to the point of shedding blood. (Heb 4:15) He was tempted in all ways, yet without sin. The resisting of temptation and the striving against sin is the context of the chapter. Even Jesus found it unpleasant to resist, and strived to the point of sweating blood. “Not my will but your will” was a prayer to his Father in submission. He was submitting to his Fathers will in the garden. We need to understand that sickness, tragedy and the loss of jobs or loved ones does not perfect us. The thief only comes to steal, kill and destroy. The Lord has given us His word to perfect us, and the five-fold ministry gifts mentioned in (Eph 4:11-12) 11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; 12 For the perfecting of the saints, We have (2 Tim 3:16) All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: (Heb 4:12) says: For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. From this passage we understand that it is possible for the child of God to be perfected without tragedies or sickness. It is the Word of God that perfects us. It is the Word that ‘corrects’ and ‘reproves’ us. As we submit to the Word and apply it to our lives, we are being transformed outwardly to the spiritual image we have inwardly – the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Cor. 5:21). (James 1:2-3) My brothers, count it all joy when you fall into divers (various) temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith works patience (endurance). (Titus 2:11-12) For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; (John 15:1-3) Jesus speaks of ‘purging’ or pruning the branches that they might bear more fruit. Some have taken this to refer to sickness and calamity as well. However, in verse 3 Jesus says: “Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.” The word ‘clean’ is the same Greek word translated ‘purgeth’ in the prior verse, and shows us that Jesus cleanses us, or purges us, by His Word, not by sickness. (James 1:13-14) Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempts he any man: (with it) But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. (James 4:17) Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin. (1 John 3:20) For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. (Romans 14:23)…….for whatever is not of faith is sin. Again, the chastening of the Lord is when you decide to put the Word over your own fleshy desires and you resist. As you resist temptation you learn obedience, as did Jesus. If God used sickness and disease to perfect us. We would have a lot of perfected Christians running around by now. It is not so, look around. If sickness cancers etc. are given to us in certain cases by God to correct us. Why are Christians running to unbelieving non Christians doctors to get out of God’s so called will for them? Trials and tribulations in a born again professing Christians life are persecutions and rejections that come for the Words sake. 7 If you endure chastening, that is (It is for discipline that you endure), God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? 8 But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. 9 Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. 11 Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. The writer then continues by comparing such an ordeal to enduring chastisement or the discipline of God. If you endure chastening (which has been likened to resisting temptation), it is as a father dealing with his son. Sons who are not disciplined (sons of God who don’t resist temptation) are like bastards and not sons. He then compares such striving against sin to the discipline of an earthly father. We subjected ourselves to their discipline and though unpleasant, it yielded fruit. It wasn’t joyous but it was worth it. To be subject to the ‘Father of spirits,’ is referring to the resisting of temptation, and that we not ‘be wearied and faint in our minds.” When we resist temptation it isn’t easy, it isn’t joyous, but if we submit to God, and resist the devil (James 4:7), then we will also experience the fruit of righteousness. Writer makes it clear to compare enduring chastisement or the discipline of God. To our earthly human Fathers to assure us God does not us sickness or disease to correct us. If earthly fathers or mothers injected children with disease or cancers to correct them. Or even unnecessarily beat and bruised them. They would have the children removed from them by the state or local government. Notice verse 11 “for a few days” a grown up mature Christian is past the point of this father child example. (Romans 13:1) Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. 12 Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed. 14 Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: 15 looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled; 16 lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. 17 For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears. verse 18-27 gives us hope to endure and not to refuse the blood of Jesus the new covenant. Verse 24 Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. 25 See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven 28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.(reverence acknowledgement) 29 For our God is a consuming fire. Note: The writer in verse 12 exhorting once again that we lift up our weary hands and feeble knees (the tiring work of resisting.) Verse 15 continues with the warning against the sin of bitterness that would defile many. He continues listing fornication, profanity or rejecting our ‘birthright’ (salvation) as did Esau in order to satisfy the flesh. God does not brings these temptations or trials our way on purpose, but when we are subjected to temptations or trials we are to look unto Jesus, endure the chastening of resistance, despise the shame and run with patience our race. The writer of Hebrews is comparing himself to a father (a spiritual father) and his letter represents God’s correction, exhortation and discipline. The entire letter is a letter of correction and explanation to Jewish Christians who were tempted to return to the Law and the sacrifices and leave their faith in Jesus alone. In this context, the ‘chastisement of the Lord’ is the letter itself. And I appeal to you, brethren, bear with the word of exhortation, for I have written to you in few words. (Heb 13:22)

–

What about Isaiah 53?

The chastisement of the Lord is His covenant instruction and education that reveals His goodness and activity in the life of people. Its not about punishment but about God revealing His goodness. With that understanding, we know that Isaiah says “the chastisment for our peace was upon Him.” Also, “Jesus learned obedience through the things which He suffered.” In this context, the cross was not about Jesus carrying punishment from God that was meant for us, but it was about God using the cross to reveal His goodness in reconciling the world to Himself through Jesus. God was not making some legal judgment against sin but He was acting as a Father, and releasing the captivity of His children through the forgiveness, not judgment, of sin. John Calvin legalized Christianity with his legal, lawyer like view of the atonement, but it was more an act of love from God to His creation.

1Jn 4:9 In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.
1Jn 4:10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

1 Peter 2:23 When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.

God was not punishing Jesus on our behalf at the cross. Jesus was enduring suffering at the hands of men, and it pleased God because it was accomplishing salvation for those who would believe. The cross was about love, forgiveness and reconciliation, not God executing judgment against sin and sinners.

– God is not mad, I hope this helps, Peace

Who’s Elect?

Christ as the Last Adam
 
It is one thing to believe that Christ died as a man. But it is altogether scandalous to believe He died as humanity.
 
To see the massive scope and cosmic ramification of the finished work of the cross, we must first step back into a most misunderstood and volatile subject in theology … the topic of election or predestination. It is no wonder that theologians have battled over election for centuries; some call it “the sum of the gospel.” In the following pages, I hope to simplify a deep subject for the casual reader – and I hope to challenge the “experts” who have already staked out their opinions.
 
In a nutshell, the common debate over election has always pitted two streams of thought over against one another: Arminianism and Calvinism. Essentially, the argument revolves around this question, “Do we choose God, or does God choose us?” Like a dog chasing its tail, the never-ending squabble proved the most puzzling dilemma for those who swim the deepest waters of theology. It seemed locked into question of our free will versus God’s sovereign choice.
 
The Current Debate
As these two theologies evolved, it became clear that both contained truths. Yet the flaw in each one seems to be an inherent “human focus” that quickly overlooks the centrality of the person and work of Christ.
 
For the Arminian, he recognized that Christ died for all men – that God did not intentionally desire any of His creation to be destroyed. Therefore, the Arminian insisted that salvation must ultimately be a human choice – whether to accept or reject God’s goodness in Christ. Salvation became about man’s “personal decision” for Christ – a human response of the human will – to something that was available to all. Hence, the advent of the altar call, the sinner’s prayer, etc. God gives a fair shot to everybody, but it’s up to you to decide.
 
The Calvinist, however, saw the fatal flaw in this concept. Salvation is not up to you. Your crooked, depraved willpower is incapable of “choosing God.” In fact, it is God who must choose you. Faith is a gift, not something you drum up. If “my response” or “my decision” saves me, then I am boasting in human willpower – and therefore saving myself. Christ is not glorified, and I am adhering to my own striving, legal attempts to please God – rather than the grace of God. The Calvinist rightly shows that the Arminian version of God is impotent, lacking the power to overcome an individual’s decision-making process. Free will is the ultimate power broker for the Arminian – not the grace of God. Even for man to meet God “half-way” is an admission that Christ’s work alone was not enough.
 
The Calvinist is right in attesting that salvation is God’s business, from beginning to end. Like Martin Luther and the early reformers, the Calvinist recognizes that human willpower has nothing to do with salvation in the least. If self-effort is involved, it is not grace.
 
But hold the phone … before we all join a Reformed church and hand trophies to the Calvinists, let’s follow their conclusions a bit deeper. If God is completely sovereign over the salvation business – then how does the Calvinist explain the fact that some people are clearly not Christians? Faith is a gift from God. Okay. So why doesn’t everyone have it? If man can take no credit for having faith – should man likewise take any blame for not having faith?
 
If God is sovereign … who is to blame for those who don’t have faith?
 
Over the centuries, reformed theologians edged into what is commonly called “hyper-Calvinism” or “federal Calvinism” – from which flowed the despicable doctrine of double-predestination (also called “limited atonement”). For God to be sovereign, they say, He must make the sovereign decision over who is saved and who is damned. The hyper-Calvinist therefore could not admit that Jesus died for everybody … instead, He just died for the “elect.” The idea of double-predestination is this: Since God is fully in charge of a Christian’s salvation (even choosing to save them before they were born), He must likewise be in charge of an unbeliever’s damnation (also damning them before they were born). They rightly believe that God is in control, not man. They rightly believe that willpower does not save you – God does. But the logical conclusion that followed is God must also “choose” some people not to be recipients of salvation. His sovereignty must mean that God chooses to hate some people and to send them to hell – absolutely apart from their own human choice. Forget blaming Adam … its God Himself who is sending untold billions of people to cook forever in hell!
 
Wait … did you just say God hates some people? Not all Calvinists would say it that way. But hyper-Calvinist who is honest about their theology will. Puritan revivalist Jonathan Edwards in the most famous sermon ever preached on American soil, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, puts it this way, “The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked: his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire; he is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in his sight; you are ten thousand times more abominable in his eyes, than the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours.”

Does that sound like the heart of Jesus? Intentionally choosing to send some people to hell before the foundation of the world? God is not the enemy of the damned; He’s the finder and savior of the damned. And so the theological battle continues … The fatal flaw of the Arminian is that he relies on human willpower to save himself from hell (and often maintain that salvation on his own). The fatal flaw of the Calvinist (who is right on most other points) is that he blames God for intentionally choosing billions of people for hell. In the one camp, salvation is up to you. In the other camp, salvation is a gift of God … yet He maniacally withholds it from certain people!
 
Christ the Elect
If you’re not confused by now, you should be. Both Arminianism and hyper-Calvinism are humanistic theologies – based more on logic than centered on the person of Christ. The Arminian relies on his “self-choice” or “human decision.” The hyper-Calvinist thinks God is randomly picking certain humans to burn at the dawn of creation: “This guy is going to heaven. This guy is going to hell!”
 
But God is not arbitrarily making decisions for or against certain individual humans. His focus is on Christ. In the beginning, the Word was not “this guy versus that guy.” In the beginning, the Word was “Christ!”
 
It is Christ Himself who was the Decree of the Father at the dawn of creation. He is the Word. He is the Chosen One! He is the Predestined One! He is both the Elector and the Elected. All of our ideas of election must be changed and re-grounded in the Father’s election of Jesus Christ. Jesus is God’s choice for humanity. In Ephesians chapter one, we see that our own personal election is always tied first and foremost to God’s election of Christ. We are chosen “in Him,” predestined “in Him,” elect “in Him.” He does not choose us independently of Christ. No, it is Christ who was chosen, therefore all of humanity was chosen in Him.
 
A History of Election
All of scripture is full of election. Not God’s election of Ned Flanders over Homer Simpson. In every Biblical case of “choice,” it is always a type and shadow of God’s election of Christ.
 
For starters, Adam was the one “elect” man who represented all of humanity … all men came from him. His sin affected all.
 
All of humanity was again represented and narrowed down to Noah (the eight in the ark). His seed would represent and repopulate the entire human race. Later, in Abraham, another election was made. And from his loins, yet another election as Isaac was chosen over Ishmael. Next, Jacob’s line was chosen over Esau (don’t think of God literally hating Esau and loving Jacob. He hated what Esau represented … the old man/the sinful self. Scriptures also show God abundantly blessing Esau in another phase of life, whose face was “like seeing the face of God” {Gen. 33:10}. We all get to play the role of both Jacob and Esau. These men would serve not as individual objects of blessing or wrath. They symbolized overarching realities of our old and new nature. But moreover, they point to Christ, who would be the ultimate vessel of honor as well as the vessel of wrath).
 
The concept of election continued as Israel became God’s chosen people. But we must see that they were elected not just for themselves. No, Israel was the chosen nation elected on behalf of all the nations.  “You will be a light to the nations … ” (Gen. 12:1-3). Israel was not for itself alone. It was to point all humanity toward God. We see that Israel – in and of itself (unfortunately like the church today) displayed no more real integrity or morality than the world around them. They obviously failed in their purpose – but God never failed in His!
 
Wait! The process of election continues. … There was a further narrowing down and electing within Israel itself through its many captivities, exiles, backslidings and wars – the people of God are sifted down to remnant after remnant after remnant throughout the centuries. And all the way through, there were shimmers and glimpses of something God had been scheming all along.
 
Then finally, in the fullness of time, Jesus Christ emerges on the scene. Not just as any man. Jesus Christ arrived as the One True Israelite.
 
Every election, every narrowing down was ultimately pointing to this … the one man Christ. The Representative Man. The Vicarious Man.
 
The man who would not just come as the one – but he would step in as the substitute for the many. The One who represented all Israel, and therefore all the nations. He died for us, as us.
 
Like Israel, he was sent to Egypt as a child (Matt. 2). Then, like Israel, he was brought back through the waters (Matt. 3). He went into the desert for temptation (Matt. 4). And then God gave the law through him (Matt. 5-7). Throughout the Book of Matthew, you see Jesus as the one true Israelite – the elect Chosen One. He was God’s representative of the nation and therefore God’s representative choice for humanity. He was the True Light to the nations. But He was not just any man – He is the God-Man, the incarnation of God Himself – coming to do what mankind could never do. Dying a death you could never die. Again, the vessel of honor who was also the vessel of wrath. The One in and through whom all Israel would be saved. 
 
“Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous” (Rom. 5:18-19).
 
“God particularizes salvation, first in Israel and finally in Jesus, precisely in order to universalize it. He cuts out everybody, just so he can eventually draw in all. He excludes, but only to catholicize,” writes Robert Capon (Hunting the Divine Fox, p. 103).
 
All Have Died
It’s one thing to believe Jesus died as a man. There’s an untold dimension of grace when you realize He came to die as mankind. The apostle Paul was literally “standing outside Himself in ecstasy” (2 Cor. 5:13), because he had realized this: “that if one died for all, then all were dead” (verse 15).
 
“For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive” (1 Cor. 15:21-22).
When we see election through the person of Christ, we see that God is not expecting our willpower to drum up salvation. Jesus Christ, the God-Man, became our human response to the Father. Likewise, when we see election through the person of Christ, we see that in His sovereignty, He is not randomly picking one person over another. His choice is for Christ the elect one – therefore His choice is for all of humanity.
 
Are All Saved?
It is now impossible see anyone as an insider or an outsider. All are included in Christ. Even Paul in speaking to pagans said, “‘For in Him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring’” (Acts 17:28). That’s right … he said this to pagans. And again, Peter speaking to unbelieving Gentiles said, “You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with or visit a Gentile. But God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean” (Acts 10:28). That’s right … he said this to unbelievers.
 
Everyone is included in the cleansing work of Christ. We can no longer use a language of exclusion. We no longer say “forgiven” or “unforgiven.” We can only appropriately say “believer” or “unbeliever.” God has clearly reconciled, redeemed and unified all of humanity in Himself. How does this cause you treat the waiter, the cabbie or the parking attendant – knowing we’re all family! We are all included, whether we know it or not. Even the unbeliever is included in Christ in a hidden way.
 
Christ’s work on your behalf is true, whether you know it or not, feel it or not – even if you don’t believe it! The believer is a man who, by faith, recognizes what has happened and therefore enjoys his participation in it. But our acceptance or rejection of Christ’s loving sacrifice does not nullify its cosmic scope. No matter how much you reject Christ, He never fails to love and include you. At the height of Israel’s rejection of their own Messiah, they reached the point of crucifying Him – and yet this was the very act by which He chose to forgive, include and save them.
 
How far did the work of the cross stretch? The Bible says, “God was in Christ reconciling the cosmos to himself” (2 Cor. 5:19). Through Jesus Christ, all things are already forgiven, reconciled and beloved of God. … “And through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross” (Col.1:20).
 
His death has unified all of creation into Himself, “to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ” (Eph. 1:10).

Am I saying that faith is not important? Of course faith is important! But faith is not the self-willed magical potion that saves you. Faith is simply the recognition that Christ and Christ alone has already died to save you. In fact, the scriptures say it is grace (the free gift), not faith, which saves me. Faith is the simple trust and recognition of that salvation. Faith is what causes it to manifest in my life.
 
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Eph. 2:8).
 
A Bigger Perspective
What does this new lens do for us? For starters, we begin to see that God is not “for or against” any sectors of humanity. He loves all equally and died for all equally. Unlike the hyper-Calvinist Edwards, we know that God does not abhor sinners with “hatred apart from love.” Instead, we read, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” (John 3:16-17). We know that He saved us all – not when we were perfect moral peaches, but sinners, as “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). And we also know that Jesus Christ is “the atoning sacrifice … for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2).
“For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people” (Titus 2:11). And again, He is the “Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).
 
There is something all-inclusive about this gospel message! “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” (John 12:32).
 
Not Universalism
As soon as you begin to expand on the huge, universal consequences of the atonement … someone will be quick to label you as a “Universalist.” That term means lots of things to lots of people, but Wikipedia is not the best place to learn theology. So I would suggest you do your homework and read your Bible a bit before you start labeling people and throwing big words around! Not everything you learned in Sunday school is true, and not every label fits your snap judgment.
 
For starters, if you boast in a victorious cross, some people think you are throwing away concepts like hell. “What are you doing with the hell we know and love?” Other people assume that you are saying “all roads lead to Rome” and that since everybody is “covered” it’s not important what you do with Jesus or how you live your life. Of course no one gets to the Father except through Jesus! Also, we must never write off the fact that this gospel must be personalized in the heart of everyone who believes. Faith is vitally important, but we must recognize that faith is a gift.
 
For starters, I am and I am not a Universalist. If you’re talking about what Christ did to suck up the sin of the entire cosmos in his death on the cross … then yes. Label me. I am a Universalist. He defeated hell and the grave once and for all. But if you’re talking about writing off the existence of hell … then no, I am not a Universalist. As Capon says, “I take with utter seriousness everything that Jesus had to say about hell, including the eternal torment that such a foolish non-acceptance of His already-given acceptance must entail.”
 
But along with Capon, “I will not – because Jesus did not – locate hell outside the realm of grace. Grace is forever sovereign, even in Jesus’ parables of judgment.”
 
Reason for Hope
I don’t know why some men are faithless. Paul calls this a “mystery.” I also don’t know if all men will one day get recognize their acceptance in this life or the next. But I’m not looking for some future reconciliation to happen. The world has already been reconciled at the cross. I’m just hoping they realize it one day!
 
Often our questions in this area are simply bad questions. They become problem-oriented and causal-focused. It’s better to take a positive approach. Instead of asking why some people don’t have faith, let’s just recognize that Christ has finished the job and know that we have faith to give away! We’ve been entrusted with a ministry of reconciliation, like Paul, proclaiming that God has reconciled mankind. As they accept the fact, they will experience it. We can leave the rest to God.
 
Unlike the forever debating Calvinists and Arminians, I’m okay to say “I don’t know” about some things. I can leave it in the dialectical tension of mystery. Christian mysticism can take you where intellectual theology never will. I can live in the tension of not having all the answers – because I have The Answer. All I know is that God is for all of humanity – so don’t paint Him out to be a sadistic torturer of souls. I am not a Universalist, because just like the other theological camps, Universalists often rely on logic – drawing hard lines about the future that we cannot accurately predict. I would never make the claim that hell doesn’t exist and write off all those scriptures. But at the same, I refuse to write off all the clearly universal texts that we’ve mentioned above. You can make a solid scriptural case for hell. And you can make a solid scriptural case for Jesus saving the whole universe completely. Instead of writing off one or the other, let’s live in the tension of mystery, while maintaining a brilliant hope of a victorious future.
 
Capon also writes, “The rule in theology is: When you’ve got two truths which you can’t hold in harmony, you don’t solve the problem by letting one of them go. You hang on tight and hold them both in paradox. At least that way you don’t end up sweeping jewelry under the rug in the name of compulsive neatness” (Hunting the Divine Fox, p. 95).
 
While I’m not a dogmatic Universalists, I will boldly admit that I am a “hopeful” Universalist. That means I have a strong hope that everyone gives up on their self-imposed hell. I’m not gonna blame God for their hell. Hell is not God’s revenge on sinners; it’s the condition of unbelief itself. It’s the self-destructive consequence of not trusting. It’s rejecting your already-given gift of acceptance. And part of me thinks the love of God is ultimately inescapable.
 
While I have hope, I do not veer into dogmatic assertion. We need the humility of saying “I don’t know.” The early church fathers maintained the “possibility” but never the “presumption” of the salvation of all men. After you’ve died and come back, then you can teach me a thing or two. But until then, all of my Universalist and non-universalist friends will just have to stay mad at me for remaining a mystical agnostic on this one! In the meantime, I’ll keep preaching this glorious gospel to all who have ears to hear. It is the goodness of God that leads to repentance not your theological view.

Revelation 21 tells us that there are unbelievers outside the gate of Heaven. But it also tells us that those gates are never shut day or night – and that the Spirit and the Bride are always beckoning “Come … drink freely of the waters of life!” if the Spirit and the Bride are inside, who is outside? The gates of Heaven are always open. And as CS Lewis said, “The gates of hell are locked from the inside.” I know the hope of all men being saved causes an initial anger in those who have a predetermined view of hell learned in Sunday school. But if you actually want people to go to hell and fry in their own fat, you’re probably headed there yourself! God has this very same hope, as He is “not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). And again, God “wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth” (2 Tim. 2:4).
 
All men have been included in this glorious gospel whether they realize it or not.

Written by: John Crowder

Forsaken by God?

My stomach turns and I am grieved in my spirit when I read or hear this statement.

The Father turned his back on Jesus because he can not look upon sin. Let us take a look at why some would say this.

In (Matt 27:46) and (Mark 15:34). And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

So if Jesus asked why. Are we not allowed to ask why? Now I understand what people mean to say about the Father turning his back on Jesus on the cross. They say because it was dark outside for 3 hours. But I would like to put my butt in the way and say Jesus asking does not mean we make a doctrine of God hating sin so much he could not stand to look upon his son or had to turn away.

So in order for me to clearly defend my position as to why I disagree with God turning his back on himself. I will us the written word to do so. I do not find anywhere in holy writ where it is prophesied or it is written that the Father turned his back on or did actually forsake his only begotten son Jesus ever, even for a moment. I do find many scriptures as follows.

(John 8:28-29) Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things. And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him.

(John 10:30) I and my Father are one.

(John 16:32) The time is coming, and is already here, when all of you will be scattered. Each of you will go your own way and leave me all alone. Yet, I’m not all alone, because the Father is with me.

(John 17:21-23) That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one.  I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.

Jesus seems to be very confident that he and his Father are one and he is in the Father and the Father is in him. What does Paul say…

(2 Cor 5:19)……God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

(Colossians 2:9) For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.

(Philippians 2: 5-9) Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name.

We know that Jesus  reflects God’s glory and is the exact representation of His being (Heb 1:3)

So we have 3 witness that say He will never leave us nor forsake us. So why would the Father forsake the son or turn his back on him?

(Hebrews 13:5) Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

(Deut 31:6) Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the Lord your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you.”

(Joshua 1:5) No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life; as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you.

So in the mouth of 2 or 3 witness let everything be established. Jesus was God in the flesh. He became a man like us. He had feelings got hungry and could bleed. He became sin in his body not in his spirit. (Heb 10:10) (Colossians 1:22). The Father is Spirit. Jesus is the life-giving Spirit who was filled with the Holy Spirit. Jesus is the Word that became flesh a man.

( Heb 4:15-16) For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

So Jesus had every right to sweat blood and cry in the garden of  Gethsemane. Even when he was fully aware of who he was. He was fully man and had every right to identify with pain only feeling forsaken in the flesh like we would. He also knew what he was doing when he cried out “ My God , My God why has thou forsaken me”.

If we were not so saturated with this western form of Christianity we would understand that in Jewish culture to quote the first phrase from a Psalm is to lead them the hearers to the complete Psalm.  Jesus was crying out Psalm 22. The messianic Psalm of David written 1000 years before his birth, it is an exact play out of what was happening at the cross. Jesus is pointing to the scriptures to substantiate His messianic mission.

(Psalm 22:1) My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

The Psalm is prophetic of everything that was happening to Jesus and around the cross like the attitude of the mockers, the casting of lots, the vinegar and his mother. Then we come to verse 24.

(Psalm 22:24) For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither hath he hid his face from him; but when he cried unto him, he heard.

I know all things are possible with God. But I really do not think he turned only his back to Jesus and his face toward him like an owl. The fulness of the Godhead was fully engaged and participating in the greatest event on planet earth so far. God was they’re looking through the 3 hours of darkness from noon to 3pm. God does not turn his back on sin or sinners. God came looking for Adam. He was with his people always through their disobedience. Jesus came to the publicans, sinners, hookers and sick. How is God going to turn away from the lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world? He chose us in him before the foundation of the world. God is omni present he is everywhere. David put it this way.

(Psalm 139:7-12) Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
If I ascend into heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.
If I take the wings of the morning,
And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
Even there Your hand shall lead me,
And Your right hand shall hold me.
If I say, “Surely the darkness shall fall on me,”
Even the night shall be light about me;
Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You,
But the night shines as the day;
The darkness and the light are both alike to You.

“If I make my bed in hell, behold you are there”. Why because are God is a consuming fire. Where you gonna go? Where you gonna hid from God who is everywhere in everything?

So based on scripture I did not like to use the statement “The Father turned his back on Jesus”.

What about God not being able to look upon evil? This idea comes from (Habakkuk 1:13) You are of purer eyes than to behold evil,
And cannot look on wickedness.

Read the complete verse and also the context of what is going on. The verse continues…

Why do You look on those who deal treacherously,
And hold Your tongue when the wicked devours
A person more righteous than he?

So why do you look on them Habbakkuk says.  So God does look upon evil and sin. This has nothing to do with Jesus on the cross asking why have you forsaken me?

What about Jesus suffering spiritually?

Some say Jesus suffered in his Spirit. I can not find scriptural proof of Jesus suffering in his Spirit or a spiritual suffering. Jesus was filled with the Holy Ghost to fulfill his ministry and calling to death. A death in which he said no one takes my life I give it up. Jesus was filled with the fullness of the Godhead all the way through death and resurrection. When Jesus said it was finished he gave up the Ghost. He then tells Thomas after his resurrection how can you say show us the Father after I have been with you so long? If you have seen me you have seen the Father.

When Jesus cried out on the cross my God my God why have you forsaken me during the 3 hour afternoon he was quoting from Psalm 22. Then we see Peter quoting from Psalm 16 in Acts 2:27-28. You will not leave my soul in hell. I do not believe this is speaking of Jesus suffering spiritually separated from God in Hell. Peter and Paul write to tell us Jesus was pretty busy for the 3 days and 3 nights. I do not believe that hell is separation from God literally. David writes in Psalm 139:8 If I ascend up into heaven, you are there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, you are there. Were are you going to go from God who is Omni present

What about Isaish 53: 10-12?

Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him;
he hath put him to grief:
when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin,
he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days,
and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
¹¹ He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied:
by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many;
for he shall bear their iniquities.
¹² Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great,
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong;
because he hath poured out his soul unto death:
and he was numbered with the transgressors;
and he bare the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors.

Looking at the Hebrew word soul #5315 nephesh: a soul, living being, life, self, person, desire, passion, appetite, emotion, that which breathes, the breathing substance or being , the soul, the inner being of man:

Jesus suffered a physical, emotional death in soul and body.

(1 Peter 2:24) Who his own self bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes you were healed.

(1 Corinthians 15:45) And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a life-giving spirit.

The life giving Spirit did not die or suffer or was touched by sin. It was the fully alive life giving Spirit that overcome the grave.

(Hebrews 9:14) How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

Jesus was spotless because he is the life giving Spirit. The perfect flawless sacrifice whose blood was shed to purge your conscience.

(Colossians 1: 19-22) For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell,  and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight.

It pleased the Father to have made peace through the blood and to reconcile us in the Body of His flesh.

We were and some still are only enemies with God in their own minds. This is How when we hear the Gospel the good news that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. We repent turn change our minds to know that even when God knows and sees us as sinners he is there. The price has been paid he welcomes us to receive his free gift right in the middle of our brokenness and sin.

If we think Father, Son or Holy Spirit can turn away from us or be angry with us  because of sin. We will never feel worth or able always striving pushing and pulling. This causes a works mentality and the wrong kind of fear and condemnation.

For more info please visit:

https://kingdomhealer.wordpress.com/2012/11/28/no-condemnation/

Thank you King James

Bible History

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Biblical canons the original scrolls were in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. The New Testament has been preserved in more manuscripts than any other ancient work, having over 5,800 complete or fragmented Greek manuscripts, 10,000 Latin manuscripts and 9,300 manuscripts in various other ancient languages including Syriac, Slavic, Gothic, Ethiopic, Coptic and Armenian. The dates of these manuscripts range from c. 125 to the introduction of printing in Germany in the 15th century. The vast majority of these manuscripts date after the 10th century. Although there are more manuscripts that preserve the New Testament than there are for any other ancient writing. The earliest original scrolls were all gathered together into one location around 400 A.D. The scrolls were then translated into the latin vulgate by the early church fathers. The Roman Catholic Church leaders were the only ones with access to what they called the Holy Scriptures. The general pubic did not have bibles or access throughout the early medieval ages. The vulgate bible in its dominant position was in fact not assured before the early 13th century, and even then was not universal. However with the growth of medieval universities, especially the

University of Paris during the 12th century created a demand for a new sort of Vulgate. University scholars needed the entire bible in a single, portable and comprehensive volume; which they could rely on to include all biblical texts which they might encounter in partristic references. The result was the Paris Bible, which reached its final form around 1230.

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Wycliffe’s Bible is the name now given to a group of

Bible translations into Middle English that were made under the direction of, or at the instigation of, John Wycliffe. They appeared over a period from approximately 1382 to 1395. These Bible translations were the chief inspiration and chief cause of the Lollard movement, a pre-Reformation movement that rejected many of the distinctive teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. In the early Middle Ages, most Western Christian people encountered the Bible only in the form of oral versions of scriptures, verses and homilies in Latin (other sources were mystery plays, Medieval mystery plays focused on the representation of Bible stories in churches as tableaux with accompanying song.) Usually conducted in the vernacular language, and popular iconography, picture art). Though relatively few people could read at this time, Wycliffe’s idea was to translate the Bible into the vernacular, saying “it helpeth Christian men to study the Gospel in that tongue in which they know best.

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The first printing of the new Greek Bible was in February 1516 and contained Greek text parallel to the Latin version. The work was a huge success and in great demand even though the hurried work left many typographical errors. The second edition was printed in 1519 and the third in 1522. This work became known as the Textus Receptus or Received Text. Desiderius Erasmus’ work came under criticism because of a few small differences not found in a majority of the Greek Byzantine manuscripts. The verse giving a good description of the Trinity (1 John 5:7 in the KJV and NKJV) was inserted in his third edition. However, this was not an addition by Erasmus because the same text can be found in four of the older Greek manuscripts. Of the Greek manuscripts used by Erasmus, only one is said to have contained the book of Revelation but was missing the last page. He is believed to have translated the last six verses from the Latin Vulgate into Greek. Even so, these verses translated today from other Greek manuscripts give the same English rendering. The critics of the Textus Receptus tend to focus on these minor occurrences in the work in order to divert the reader from the real status of the work. The Textus Receptus is the Holy Inspired Word of God.

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Martin Luther, the initiator of the Reformation movement, translated his German version of the Bible from the Textus Receptus and other Byzantine Greek manuscripts. Although he was a Catholic, he did not use the Catholic Vulgate. The Luther Bible is a

German language Bible translation from Hebrew and ancient Greek by which the New Testament was published in 1522 and the complete Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments and Apocrypha, in 1534.

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In 1550 Robert Stephanus produced the next great edition of the Textus Receptus. In his fourth edition of 1551, he added the verse numbers which are still used in all modern editions. This refutes the Calvinists’ claim that their Geneva Bible, first published in 1560, was the first with verse numbers. Stephanus followed the wording in Erasmus’ later editions of the Textus Receptus closely. Stephanus’ fourth and fifth editions are named the Textus Receptus.

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Theodore de Beza (1519-1605) was the Protestant Reformer who succeeded John Calvin. Beza published the Geneva Bible in English between 1560 and 1600. William Whittingham, who was married to John Calvin’s sister, is believed to have assisted by translating most of the New Testament. He has been accused of having a theological bias and making other random changes in the translation. The source manuscripts for the work appear to have been the Textus Receptus and other Byzantine Greek manuscripts. The most disturbing feature of the Geneva Bible was the extensive commentary notes placed in the margins written by John Calvin, John Knox, Miles Coverdale, William Whittingham, Theodore Beza and Anthony Gilby. John Calvin studied the voluminous writings of Saint Augustine, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Hippo (354-430 AD). Calvin is continually praising Augustine’s work with numerous references and quotations. Augustine was greatly influenced by the Gnostics, an early Christian sect, whose doctrine was heretical. Gnostics believed that mankind was wholly evil, and some sects even renounced marriage and procreation. They also believed in two gods, one evil and one good. Their teachings are believed to have influenced Saint Augustine in the development of his theology of the “total depravity” of mankind and his concept of God

. The marginal notes give an allegorical or philosophical explanation of Scripture rather than a literal explanation of the text contrary to the Holy Scripture.

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The Geneva Bible and the doctrines of John Calvin spread across Europe as church leaders used the marginal notes for the basis of their lectures and preaching. King James I (1566-1625) was opposed to Calvinistic Presbyterianism, he was infuriated by the Geneva Bible, because of the marginal notes and text changes to fit Calvin’s theology.

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Calvin ruled as King of Geneva and allowed absolutely no disobedience. In November 1552, the Council declared Calvin’s

Institutes of the Christian Religion to be a “holy doctrine which no man might speak against.” Thus the State issued dogmatic decrees, the force of which had been anticipated earlier, as when Jacques Gruet, a known opponent of Calvin, was arrested, tortured for a month and beheaded on July 26, 1547, for placing a letter in Calvin’s pulpit questioning his doctirne and calling him a hypocrite. Gruet’s book was later found and burned along with his house while his wife was thrown out into the street to watch. Gruet’s death was more highly criticized by far than the banishment of Castellio or the penalties inflicted on Bolsec — moderate men opposed to extreme views in discipline and doctrine, who fell under suspicion as reactionary. Calvin did not shrink from his self-appointed task. Within five years fifty-eight sentences of death and seventy-six of exile, besides numerous committals of the most eminent citizens to prison, took place in Geneva. The iron yoke could not be shaken off. In 1555, under Ami Perrin, a revolt was attempted. No blood was shed, but Perrin lost the day, and Calvin’s theocracy triumphed. John Calvin had secured his grip on Geneva by defeating the very man who had invited him there, Ami Perrin, commissioner of Geneva. Calvin forced the citizens of Geneva to attend church services under a heavy threat of punishment. Since Calvin taught that God forces his elect to believe, it is no wonder that Calvin thought he could also force the citizens of Geneva to all become the elect. Not becoming one of the elect was punishable by death or expulsion from Geneva. Calvin exercised forced regeneration on the citizens of Geneva since this is what his marginal notes teach.

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In the famous Hampton Court Conference, Dr. John Reynolds, a Puritan, requested that King James authorize the printing of a new Bible without the marginal notes. King James agreed. He authorized work to begin on the new Bible in 1604 with a team of fifty-four theologians and scholars, and it was printed in 1611. The Bible was to be a new translation from the Greek. The King James Version of the Bible was prepared from the Textus Receptus as well as many of the other 5,000 Greek manuscripts. It is known as the 1611 Authorized King James Version and held by many as the only “Inspired Word of God.” The Dead Sea scrolls found in 1948 match word for word the 1611 Authorized King James Version. If your translation, footnotes, theology or doctrines do not line up with the meaning of the original truth of God’s Word. Throw them out and ask God to show you the truth. I am not going to worship a book or any particular translation. I want to honor and worship the author.

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With all this said. Check this out! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRn8t7p1mbE

“Nicolaitans” (Revelation 2:6)

The name “Nicolaitans” is derived from the Greek word nikolaos, a compound of the words nikos and laos. The word nikos is the Greek word that means to conquer or to subdue. The word laos is the Greek word for the people. It is also where we get the word laity. When these two words are compounded into one, they form the name Nicolas, which literally means one who conquers and subdues the people. It seems to suggest that the Nicolaitans were somehow conquering and subduing the people.

Ireneus and Hippolytus, two leaders in the Early Church who recorded many of the events that occurred in the earliest recorded days of Church history, said the Nicolaitans were the spiritual descendants of Nicolas of Antioch, who had been ordained as a deacon in Acts 6:5. That verse says, “And the saying pleased the whole multitude: and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolas a proselyte of Antioch.”

We know quite a lot of information about some of these men who were chosen to be the first deacons, whereas little is known of others. For instance, we know that the chief criteria for their selection was that they were men “…of honest report, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom…”(v. 3). Once they had been chosen, they were presented by the people to the apostles, who laid hands on them, installing and officially ordaining them into the deaconate.

Stephen

Like the other men, Stephen was of good report, filled with the Holy Spirit and wisdom. However, Acts 6:5 makes a remark about Stephen that is unique only to him. It says that he was “…a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost….” This stronger level of faith may have been a contributing factor to the development recorded in Acts 6:8: “And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people.”

Stephen was a God-called evangelist, and he was later privileged to be the first martyr in the history of the Church – killed at the order of Saul of Tarsus, who later became known as the apostle Paul (see Acts 7:58-8:1). The deaconate ministry was vital proving ground to prepare Stephen for the fivefold office of the evangelist. The name Stephen is from the Greek word stephanos, and it means crown. This is worth noting, for he was the first to receive a martyr’s crown.

Philip

Philip was ordained with the other six original deacons. However, Acts 21:8 informs us that Philip later stepped in the ministry of the evangelist. He had four daughters who prophesied (v. 9). Just as the deaconate was training and proving ground for Stephen to step into the office of the evangelist, it was also Philip’s school of ministry to prepare him for evangelistic ministry. The name Philip means lover of horses. This name often symbolized a person who ran with swiftness, as does a horse – a fitting name for a New Testament evangelist who ran swiftly to carry the Gospel message.

Prochorus

Very little is known about this member of the original deaconate. His name, Prochorus, is a compound of the Greek words pro and chorus. The word pro means before or in front of, as with the position of a leader. The word “chorus” is the old Greek word for the dance and is where we get the word choreography. There is a strong implication that this was a nickname, given to this man because he had been the foremost leader of dance in some school, theater, or musical performance. There is no substantiation for this idea, but his name seems to give credence to the possibility.

Nicanor

This unknown brother was found to be of good report, filled with the Holy Spirit and wisdom. Other than this, nothing is known of him. He is never mentioned again in the New Testament after Acts 6. His name, Nicanor, means conqueror.

Timon

Like Nicanor mentioned above, Timon was known to be of good report, filled with the Holy Spirit and wisdom. Nothing more is known of him outside of Acts 6. His name means honorable or of great value.

Parmenas

We know nothing more of Parmenas other than what is mentioned here in Acts 6. His name is a compound of the words para and meno – the word para meaning alongside and meno meaning to remain or to abide. Compounded together, his name came to mean one who sticks alongside and conveyed the idea of one who is devoted, loyal, and faithful.

Nicolas

Acts 6:5 tells us that this Nicolas was “a proselyte of Antioch.” The fact that he was a proselyte tells us that he was not born a Jew but had converted from paganism to Judaism. Then he experienced a second conversion, this time turning from Judaism to Christianity. From this information, we know these facts about Nicolas of Antioch:

• – He came from paganism and had deep pagan roots, very much unlike the other six deacons who came from a pure Hebrew line. Nicolas’ pagan background meant that he had previously been immersed in the activities of the occult.
• – He was not afraid of taking an opposing position, evidenced by his ability to change religions twice. Converting to Judaism would have estranged him from his pagan family and friends. It would seem to indicate that he was not impressed or concerned about the opinions of other people.
• – He was a free thinker and very open to embracing new ideas and concepts. Judaism was very different from the pagan and occult world in which he had been raised. For him to shift from paganism to Judaism reveals that he was very liberal in his thinking, for most pagans were offended by Judaism. He was obviously not afraid to entertain or embrace new ways of thinking.
• – When he converted to Christ, it was at least the second time he had converted from one religion to another. We don’t know if, or how many times, he shifted from one form of paganism to another before he became a Jewish proselyte. His ability to easily change religious “hats” implies that he was not afraid to switch direction in midstream and go a totally different direction.

According to the writings of the Early Church leaders, Nicolas taught a doctrine of compromise, implying that total separation between Christianity and the practice of occult paganism was not essential. From Early Church records, it seems apparent that this Nicolas of Antioch was so immersed in occultism, Judaism, and Christianity that he had a stomach for all of it. He had no problem intermingling these belief systems in various concoctions and saw no reason why believers couldn’t continue to fellowship with those still immersed in the black magic of the Roman empire and its countless mystery cults.

Occultism was a major force that warred against the Early Church. In Ephesus, the primary pagan religion was the worship of Diana (Artemis). There were many other forms of idolatry in Ephesus, but this was the primary object of occult worship in that city. In the city of Pergamos, there were numerous dark and sinister forms of occultism, causing Pergamos to be one of the most wicked cities in the history of the ancient world. In both of these cities, believers were lambasted and persecuted fiercely by adherents of pagan religions, forced to contend with paganism on a level far beyond all other cities.

It was very hard for believers to live separately from all the activities of paganism because paganism and its religions were the center of life in these cities. Slipping in and out of paganism would have been very easy for young or weak believers to do since most of their families and friends were still pagans. A converted Gentile would have found it very difficult to stay away from all pagan influence.

It is significant that the “deeds” and “doctrines” of the Nicolaitans are only mentioned in connection with the churches in these two occultic and pagan cities. It seems that the “doctrine” of the Nicolaitans was that it was alright to have one foot in both worlds and that one needn’t be so strict about separation from the world in order to be a Christian. This, in fact, was the “doctrine” of the Nicolaitans that Jesus “hated.” It led to a weak version of Christianity that was without power and without conviction – a defeated, worldly type of Christianity.

Nicolas’ deep roots in paganism may have produced in him a tolerance for occultism and paganism. Growing up in this perverted spiritual environment may have caused him to view these belief systems as not so damaging or dangerous. This wrong perception would have resulted in a very liberal viewpoint that encouraged people to stay connected to the world. This is what numerous Bible scholars believe about the Nicolaitans.

This kind of teaching would result in nothing but total defeat for its followers. When believers allow sin and compromise to be in their lives, it drains away the power in the work of the Cross and the power of the Spirit that is resident in a believer’s life. This is the reason the name Nicolas is so vital to this discussion. The evil fruit of Nicolas’ “doctrine” encouraged worldly participation, leading people to indulge in sin and a lowered godly standard. In this way he literally conquered the people.

God wants to make sure we understand the doctrine the Nicolaitans taught, so Balaam’s actions are given as an example of their doctrine and actions. Revelation 2:14,15 says, “But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication. So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate.”

When Balaam could not successfully cure the people of God, he used another method to destroy them. He seduced them into unbridled, sensual living by dangling the prostitutes of Moab before the men of Israel. Numbers 25:1-3 tells us, “And Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab. And they [the daughters of Moab] called the people [the men of Israel] unto the sacrifices of their gods: and the people [the men of Israel] did eat, and bowed down to their gods. And Israel joined himself unto Baal-peor….”

Just as the men of Israel compromised themselves with the world and false religions, now the “doctrine” of the Nicolaitans was encouraging compromise. As you are well aware, compromise with the world always results in a weakened and powerless form of Christianity. This was the reason Jesus “hated” the “doctrine” and the “deeds” of the Nicolaitans.

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This info is posted to help us learn about the Nicolaitans. This is not my study it is a study by: Rick Renner, I found it to be the most helpful. 

Spare the rod spoil the child

Spare the rod spoil the child

 A 17th century poem by Samuel Butler called “Hudibras”. In the poem, a love affair is likened to a child, and spanking is commended in the affair as a way to make the love grow stronger. The actual poem reads.

“What medicine else can cure the fits

Of lovers when they lose their wits?

Love is a boy by poets styled

Then spare the rod and spoil the child.”

Hudibras is directed against religious sectarianism. The poem was very popular in its time, and several of its phrases have passed into the dictionary. It was sufficiently popular to spawn imitators.

Influence into dictionary’s.

ROD: 1954 and 1969 Webster’s dictionary

spare the rod; to refrain from punishment

ROD: 2013 internet / online dictionary

1. A thin straight piece or bar of material, such as metal or wood, often having a particular function or use, as:

a. A fishing rod.

b. A piston rod.

c. An often expandable horizontal bar, especially of metal, used to suspend household items such as curtains or towels.

d. A leveling rod.

e. A lightning rod.

f. A divining rod.

g. A measuring stick.

2. A shoot or stem cut from or growing as part of a woody plant.

3.

a. A stick or bundle of sticks or switches used to give punishment by whipping.

b. Punishment; correction.

<arrested for using a rod on his dogs in violation of the state’s animal cruelty laws>

4. A scepter, staff, or wand symbolizing power or authority.

5. Power or dominion, especially of a tyrannical nature: “under the rod of a cruel slavery” (John Henry Newman).

6. Abbr. rd

a. A linear measure equal to 5.5 yards or 16.5 feet (5.03 meters). Also called pole².

b. The square of this measure, equal to 30.25 square yards or 272.25 square feet (25.30 square meters). See Table at measurement.

7. Bible A line of family descent; a branch of a tribe.

8. Anatomy Any of various rod-shaped cells in the retina that respond to dim light.

9. Microbiology An elongated bacterium; a bacillus.

10. Slang A pistol or revolver.

11. A portion of the undercarriage of a train, especially the drawbar under a freight car. Often used in the plural: ride the rods.

Samuel Butler’s book “Hudibras” is a satirical polemic against Roundheads, Puritans, Presbyterians and many of the other factions involved in the English Civil War. The work was begun, according to the title page, during the civil war and published in three parts in 1663, 1664 and 1678, with the first edition encompassing all three parts in 1684

England’s many Puritans and Presbyterians were almost invariably Roundhead supporters.

So what is a satirical polemic ?

Satirical is a genre of literature, and sometimes graphic and performing arts, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement. Although satire is usually meant to be funny, its greater purpose is often constructive social criticism, using wit as a weapon.

A polemic is a contentious argument that is intended to establish the truth of a specific belief and the falsity of the contrary belief. Polemics are mostly seen in arguments about very controversial topics.

The art or practice of such argumentation is called polemics.

A person who often writes polemics, or who speaks polemically, is a polemicist or a polemic The word is derived from the Greek πολεμικός (polemikos), meaning “warlike, hostile”which comes from “war”.

Butler’s father was a churchwarden, a lay official in a parish church or congregation of the Anglican Communion, usually working as a part-time volunteer. Holders of these positions are ex officio members of the parish board, usually called a vestry, parish council, parochial church council, or in the case of a Cathedral Parish The Chapter.

A parish church (or parochial church), in Christianity, is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches.

The Anglican Communion considers itself to be part of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church and to be both Catholic and Reformed. For some adherents it represents a non-papal Catholicism.

Therefore since Butler’s book Hudibras was directed against religious sectarianism. It is because he was baptized as an infant in the Catholic Church and was against reformed theology protestant churches taking over.

Spare The Rod And Spoil The Child?  From another source, in other words

This popular quote cannot be found in the Bible because it’s neither a Bible verse nor a Biblical principle. It’s like that other non-Biblical quote, “The Lord helps those who help themselves” in that it’s quoted by people who know little or nothing about the Bible to elevate certain kinds of behavior from mere human tradition to spiritual truth.

So where does it come from? Well it turns out that it’s from a 17^th century poem by Samuel Butler called “Hudibras”. In the poem, a love affair is likened to a child, and spanking is commended as a way to make the love grow stronger. The actual quote reads,

“What medicine else can cure the fits

Of lovers when they lose their wits?

Love is a boy by poets styled

Then spare the rod and spoil the child.”

The idea was that the absence of periodic spankings in the relationship will spoil it. Further on in the poem, women are said to desire a good spanking more than an assortment of lovely ribbons. But the practice of spanking is much older the 17^th Century poem. It first came on the scene as a pagan fertility rite in ancient Greece. Women who were unable to conceive went to the temple of Juno where the priests of the Greek god Pan spanked them with goat hide whips in an effort to increase their fertility. A search on the Internet will reveal that throughout history spanking has been primarily associated with erotica.

Much later, the Catholic Church used spanking as a means of cleansing women of their sins. But whether for erotic reasons or as a form of punishment, the person being spanked was always an adult and always a willing participant. The notion of spanking children who were neither adult nor willing emerged in Victorian times, no doubt as an expansion of the Catholic tradition of punishment for sin, doing penance.

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The other quote. “The Lord helps those who help themselves” is probably the most often quoted phrase that is not found in the Bible. This saying is usually attributed to Ben Franklin, quoted in Poor Richard’s Almanac in 1757. In actuality, it originated from Algernon Sydney in 1698 in an article titled Discourses Concerning Government. Whatever the original source of this saying, the Bible teaches the opposite. God helps the helpless! Jesus came to save!

What does the Bible have to say about spanking, hitting or striking? Has a Pagan ritual, Catholic tradition and poem against reformed theology snuck into the church today by way of a Trojan horse?

Is “spare the rod and spoil the child” a Biblical principle? What scriptures support the saying? It is most commonly said to come from (Proverbs 13:24).

He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes. (Proverbs13:24) KJV

For the ease of reading and understanding the written living Word to make it profitable and not just say it is profitable. We will need to understand the words Rod, Chasteneth and Betimes for this to become a spiritual truth and not just a statement from a carnal, worldly human mindset. Head knowledge needs to become a spiritual reality from the heart.

Let’s look at the text closer.

(Proverbs13:24) KJV with  Hebrew strong’s concordance definitions

He that spareth his rod (discipline) hateth (loves not) his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth (corrects) him betimes (diligently).

Parenting by the Book (Bible) By: John K. Rosemond

Traditional Scripture-based child-rearing vs. postmodern psychological parenting.

The Stumbling Blocks of Postmodern Psychological Parenting.

Effective Discipline is a mindset and way tailored for each individual child, not a set of methods or laws for all.

Those who spare the rod hate their children, but those who love them are diligent to discipline them — Proverbs 13:24

One of the most unfortunate misunderstandings of Scripture concerns passages that refer to the necessity of using “the rod of discipline” in the training of children. These include:

Proverbs 22:15 — “Foolishness is bound in the heart of the child, but the rod of discipline will drive it far from him.”

Proverbs 23:13 — “Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you punish him with the rod, he will not die.”

Nowhere in the Bible does it teach that a child will get spoiled by lack of correction.

Many well-intentioned Christians take these passages and others like them to mean that God is specifically instructing parents to spank children when they misbehave; further, that these spankings should be administered with variations on the general theme of “the rod”: belts, hickory switches, paddles, and the like. This misinterpretation is understandable, but reflects a wrongful application of the principles of Biblical purpose, or critical interpretation and analysis.

As is especially the case with the Old Testament, any given word or phrase in Scripture might have various meanings which are revealed by the context in which word or phrase is used. In other words, setting often determines meaning. Therefore, arriving at a proper understanding of any Scriptural term requires that the seeker carefully examine how that term is used in various contexts across the whole of Scripture, with an eye for contextual similarities.

Applying this formula to the word rod one discovers two distinct usages: the rod and a rod. The difference may seem slight, but in fact the preceding article—whether the or a—determines meaning. The rod is always metaphorical, as in Lamentations 3:1—“I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.” On the other hand, a rod is always with reference to a concrete object—a straight stick that might have been used as a tool of measurement (1Sa 17:7, Rev. 21:16), a symbol of authority (Is. 14:5), or a staff used in herding sheep (Lev. 27:32).

In every case, when the word rod is used with reference to the training or discipline of children, it is preceded by the article the, connoting that the usage is metaphorical. To understand it otherwise results in irreconcilable confusion. For example, in Exodus (21:20), The Lord specifies that if a man beats his male or female slave with a rod, and the slave dies as a direct result, the man must be punished.

Exodus 21:20 “If a man beats his male or female slave with a rod and the slave dies as a direct result, he must be punished…

Speaking in Proverbs (23:13), however, The Lord assures parents that if they punish their children with the rod, “they will not die.”

Proverbs 23:13 Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you punish him with the rod, he will not die.

Reading these two passages, one should be moved to ask, if in fact these two rods are one and the same, how can something that can kill a strong adult slave hold absolutely no potential of being fatal to a child (remember that Proverbs 23:13 is a promise from God Himself!). The only way of reconciling the seeming contradiction is to understand that Exodus refers to an object (a rod), while Proverbs refers to a quality, an attribute (the rod).

So what is this quality? What is rod-like discipline? Metaphors borrow their meaning from the concrete. So, for example, the metaphorical use of “slow train” as in “there’s a slow train coming” refers to a powerful, virtually unstoppable force with somewhat ominous significance. In other words, understanding the concrete nature of a train that is moving slowing, inexorably, down a track is prerequisite to comprehending the metaphor. Likewise, understanding the ancient uses to which rods could be put allows us to understand what is meant by “the rod of discipline.”

In one context, a rod was used to insure that measurements were consistent and true; in another, it was a symbol of authority, a scepter; and in yet another, as a herding staff, it was used to herd domesticated animals in one general area and compel them to move from one place to another. Used metaphorically, therefore, rod-like discipline (a) is consistent and true, (b) emanates from a legitimate authority, and (c) establishes boundaries and compels action and/or change. Further understanding of the metaphor can be had by noting that “the rod” is also used to refer to God’s righteousness, as in Isaiah 11:4, where The Lord is described as smiting the earth with “the rod of his mouth.” Rod-like child discipline, therefore, is righteous. It is in keeping with the nature of God’s discipline of us, his children both adult and child, and consistent with His Plan for us.

Don’t misunderstand me, please. I am not arguing against spankings per se. I happen to believe that a properly administered spanking can be an example of “the rod.” Spankings have their place, but they are not the be-all, end-all of discipline. In fact, no where in the whole of Scripture does God prescribe a specific form of discipline for children. He only emphasizes, time and time again, that discipline to be effective, discipline must embody certain characteristics and emanate from a legitimate authority figure who is acting with righteousness. Therefore, the mere fact that a parent spanks does not mean his discipline has been “rod-like.” A spanking delivered impulsively, in anger, definitely fails to meet the standard. The angry, out-of-control parent is not acting righteously. His impulsive outburst is self-righteous. It communicates his anger, but it is unlikely to do anything but cause resentment on the part of his child. That sort of spanking is an example of what Paul was referring to when, in his letter to the Ephesians, he exhorted fathers to not provoke their children. A parent prokokes his/her children whenever he behaves toward them in an provokative fashion, which certainly fits with spankings that are delivered impulsively and out of anger.

Eph. 6:4—Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger by the way you treat them. Rather, bring them up with the discipline and instruction that comes from the Lord.

These understandings should serve to free parents from a narrow approach to discipline such as might result from a literal interpretation of “the rod of discipline,” and enable them to match their discipline to the specific nature of any given misbehavior and the context in which it occurs. Is it not inconceivable that God wants parents to spank in response to every instance of misbehavior? How could God in his infinite wisdom and mercy demand spankings for misbehaviors as disparate as a child belligerently refusing to clean his room and a child simply forgetting to clean his room? Both require discipline, but the same response to both events would reflect neither mercy nor good sense, much less wisdom. Understanding the difference between “a rod” and “the rod” also leads to the realization that discipline and punishment are not one and the same, that discipline is first and foremost leadership, not punishment-ship. Yes, punishment is part and parcel of discipline, but in the final analysis, it is but a relatively small part. In fact, parents who understand that effective leadership is conveyed primarily through authoritative speech (as in, “the rod of his mouth”)—speech that is clear, unequivocal, reflects steadfast commitment to a goal, and compels action consistent with that goal—will rarely have to punish their children. The effectiveness of their leadership will minimize the necessity. It follows that parents who punish a great deal are parents who have failed to properly assume the mantle of leadership in their relationships with their children.

Written by: John K. Rosemond

What about the New Testament being silent about using “a rod” or “the rod” of discipline?

What about (Hebrews 12:3-6)? This is for the adult believer.

3 For consider Him (Jesus) who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.

4 You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin.

5 And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons:

“My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord,
Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him;

6 For whom the Lord loves He chastens,
And scourges every son whom He receives.” 

Aramaic Bible in plain English (2010) (Hebrews 12:6)
“For whomever THE LORD JEHOVAH loves, he instructs, and draws aside his children with whom he is pleased.”

Note: verse 5 and 6 are quoted from ( Proverbs 3:11-12) Solomon’s proverbs were penned around 900 B.C. the writer reminds the Hebrew reader of what they have known.

(Proverbs 3:11,12) My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD; neither be weary of his correction: 12 For whom the LORD loves he corrects; even as a father the son in whom he delights.

Is it possible that the Proverbs of Solomon, the air to the throne of King David is instructing the Nation of Israel to get ahold on your children’s behavior so they will not have to be stoned to death? They were under the law and sacrificial system at this time. The Sheppard’s rod was used to measure the sheep. Could we understand the rod of disciple as a way to measure judge and choose what is needed for each child individually?

(Deuteronomy 21:18-21)

¹⁸ If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them:

¹⁹ Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of his place;

²⁰ And they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard.

²¹ And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die: so shalt thou put evil away from among you; and all Israel shall hear, and fear.

(Exodus 21:17:20)

¹⁷ And he that curseth his father, or his mother, shall surely be put to death.

¹⁸ And if men strive together, and one smite another with a stone, or with his fist, and he die not, but keepeth his bed:

¹⁹ If he rise again, and walk abroad upon his staff, then shall he that smote him be quit: only he shall pay for the loss of his time, and shall cause him to be thoroughly healed.

²⁰ And if a man smite his servant, or his maid, with a rod, and he die under his hand; he shall be surely punished.

Solomon lived, ruled and praised God for the law. He was the wisest and richest man of his time under the law. So in writing the Proverbs why would he not use “smite your children with a rod to correct them”? Or say “after you have smote them with the rod”?

Solomon was wise in his instruction.

(Proverbs 22:6) Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

(Proverbs 22:15) Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.

Notice he uses here: “The Rod” not “A Rod of correction shall drive it far from him.”

The Apostle Paul does not use Rod, Smite, Smack, Spank or Hit in his instruction the new covenant churches.

(Ephesians 6:4) Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger by the way you treat them. Rather, bring them up with the discipline and instruction that comes from the Lord.

He said “bring them up with the discipline and instruction that comes from the Lord.”

Each individual Christian believer needs to have a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ in order to discern what is right for there children. When the church turns spanking into the only way of discipline it is just following an institutional church law and it becomes legalism and legalistic. If the church would follow the Biblical way of bringing up children. The Lord would not have to institute laws to protect children and bring postmodern psychological parenting plans into his church to protect and raise his children.

(Romans 13:1-5) 1 AMP, 2-5 ASV

Let every person be loyally subject to the governing (civil) authorities. For there is no authority except from God [by His permission, His sanction], and those that exist do so by God’s appointment.

² Therefore he that resisteth the power, withstandeth the ordinance of God: and they that withstand shall receive to themselves judgment.

³ For rulers are not a terror to the good work, but to the evil. And wouldest thou have no fear of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise from the same:

⁴ for he is a minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is a minister of God, an avenger for wrath to him that doeth evil.

⁵ Wherefore ye must needs be in subjection, not only because of the wrath, but also for conscience’ sake.

U.S. Department of Health and Human ServicesAdministration for Children and FamiliesAdministration on Children, Youth and FamiliesChildren’s Bureau

At the Federal level, the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) defines child abuse and neglect as:

Any recent act or failure to act on the part of a parent or caretaker, which results in death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse, or exploitation, or an act or failure to act which presents an imminent risk of serious harm.

Emotional abuse or mental injury to a child. Typical used in these definitions is “injury to the psychological capacity or emotional stability of the child as evidenced by an observable or substantial change in behavior, emotional response, or cognition” and injury as evidenced by “anxiety, depression, withdrawal, or aggressive behavior.”

Nebraska law Emotional Abuse Citation: Rev. Stat. § 28-710

The term ‘child abuse or neglect’ includes knowingly, intentionally, or negligently causing or permitting a minor child to be placed in a situation that endangers his or her mental health.

Let the Lord guide and direct you in the way you should treat each individual child.

 Peace

Paul’s “Thorn in the Flesh” REMOVED

Paul’s Thorn and Partakers with Christ

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Let us take a look at the scriptures about Paul and his thorn, suffering and persecution in general.

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(2 Corinthians 1:5-7) For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.

(1 Peter 4:13) But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.

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(Hebrews 3:14) For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;

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(2 Corinthians 4:17) For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;

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Let’s look at Paul’s light affliction that was just for a moment.

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(2 Corinthians 11: 20-31) KJV

²⁰ For ye suffer, if a man bring you into bondage, if a man devour you, if a man take of you, if a man exalt himself, if a man smite you on the face.

²¹ I speak as concerning reproach, as though we had been weak. Howbeit whereinsoever any is bold, (I speak foolishly,) I am bold also.

²² Are they Hebrews? so am I. Are they Israelites? so am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? so am I.

²³ Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft.

²⁴ Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one.

²⁵ Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep;

²⁶ In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren;

²⁷ In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.

²⁸ Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.

²⁹ Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not?

³⁰ If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmities.

³¹ The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed for evermore, knoweth that I lie not.

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Look at these translations of (2 Corinthians 11: 23-28) in the NIV and with verse 26 in the Amplified version for clarity.

²³I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. ²⁴ Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. ²⁵ Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, ²⁶ I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers, those posing as believers [but destitute of Christian knowledge and piety] ²⁷ I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. ²⁸ Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.

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James and Peter also mention various trials in there letters.

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(James 1:2) My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials;

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(1 Peter1:6) In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.

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The text plainly speaks that trials, persecutions, sufferings and infirmities come through the hands of men. In context Paul has just listed what his infirmities were and how they came upon him through the hands of man, now on to chapter 12…..

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(2 Corinthians 12:1-13)

The Vision of Paradise

1 It is doubtless not profitable for me to boast. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord: ² I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago—whether in the body I do not know, or whether out of the body I do not know, God knows—such a one was caught up to the third heaven. ³ And I know such a man—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows— ⁴ how he was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. ⁵ Of such a one I will boast; yet of myself I will not boast, except in my infirmities. ⁶ For though I might desire to boast, I will not be a fool; for I will speak the truth. But I refrain, lest anyone should think of me above what he sees me to be or hears from me.

The Thorn in the Flesh

⁷ And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. ⁸ Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. ⁹ And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. ¹⁰ Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Signs of an Apostle

¹¹ I have become a fool in boasting; you have compelled me. For I ought to have been commended by you; for in nothing was I behind the most eminent apostles, though I am nothing. ¹² Truly the signs of an apostle were accomplished among you with all perseverance, in signs and wonders and mighty deeds. ¹³ For what is it in which you were inferior to other churches, except that I myself was not burdensome to you? Forgive me this wrong!

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Paul started Chapter 12 with 14 years ago. So if 2 Corinthians was wrote around 57 A.D. where was Paul 14 years earlier?  (Acts 14) He was preaching the Gospel in Lystra with Barnabas. Out of the people of the entire audience Paul perceived a man born lame had faith to be healed. Paul acknowledged, noticed the faith, agreed and the man leaped and walked. This is where the people exhalted Paul and Barnabas as there Greek gods as coming down to earth. The people were exhalting Paul above measure. Paul said we are just men like you. Paul was stoned, dragged out of the city and left for dead. While Paul was unconscious or dead this is where he could have been taken up into the third heaven, to be reassured by the Lord to carry on. Just a thought, God knows.

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Paul is clearly expressing that he had the true message to boast about with signs following. So much so that a “messenger of satan” was trying to buffet or stop him. Paul’s message and revelation of Jesus Christ was so true that the devil was enraged following him everywhere he went trying to hinder the true Gospel. Many people were afraid to become Christian because of the persecutions that came upon all who would convert to Christianity and make Jesus there Lord. Paul uses the Greek word meaning weakness for infirmities not the words illness, sickness or disease.

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Infirmities: 769 asthéneia – feebleness (of mind or body); by implication, malady; morally, frailty – infirmity, weakness.

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Paul makes it very clear where his infirmities are from. “A thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan”. The New Testament does not teach that a messenger of satan is sent from, or allowed by God. The text does not say a messenger of the Lord Jesus Christ our God allowed or put sickness upon Paul. See the list of Paul’s infirmities again within the text of chapter 11. If we were to go through the same persecutions as Paul did for the Gospels sake and men were calling us gods because of our ministry. We would very well have infirmities also. But what about Job? It is so clear Job tells us toward the end of the story…

Job 40:3 Then Job answered the LORD and said, 4“Behold, I am insignificant; what can I reply to You? I lay my hand on my mouth. 5“Once I have spoken, and I will not answer; Even twice, and I will add nothing more.”

Job 42:2  “I know that you can do all things;
    no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
³ You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?’
    Surely I spoke of things I did not understand,
    things too wonderful for me to know.

⁴ “You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak;
    I will question you,
    and you shall answer me.’
⁵ My ears had heard of you
    but now my eyes have seen you.
⁶ Therefore I despise myself
    and repent in dust and ashes.”

Job laid his hand over his mouth repenting for the errors he spoke about God. Have we?

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Paul’s background shows us why he would use the term “Thorn in the flesh”?

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(Acts 22:3) Then Paul said, “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, and I was brought up and educated here in Jerusalem under Gamaliel. As his student, I was carefully trained in our Jewish laws and customs. I became very zealous to honor God in everything I did, just like all of you today.

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(Acts 26:4-5 ) My manner of life from my youth, which was at the first among my own nation at Jerusalem, know all the Jews; Which knew me from the beginning, if they would testify, that after the most strait sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee.

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(Philippians 3:5-6) Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.

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(Galatians 1:14) I was advancing in Judaism beyond many Jews of my own age and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers.

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Paul was raised, schooled and trained in the letters of the law and the profits. So what did Paul know about Thorns from scripture?

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(Numbers 33:55) But if ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you; then it shall come to pass, that those which ye let remain of them shall be pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides, and shall vex you in the land wherein ye dwell.

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(Joshua 23:13) Know for a certainty that the Lord your God will no more drive out any of these nations from before you; but they shall be snares and traps unto you, and scourges in your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until ye perish from off this good land which the Lord your God hath given you.

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(Judges 2:3) Wherefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be as thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare unto you.

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(Isaiah 27:4) Fury is not in me: who would set the briers and thorns against me in battle? I would go through them, I would burn them together.

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(Isaiah 33:12) And the people shall be as the burnings of lime: as thorns cut up shall they be burned in the fire.

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(Ezekiel 2:6) And thou, son of man, be not afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns be with thee, and thou dost dwell among scorpions: be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house.

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(Micah 7:4) The best of them is as a brier: the most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge: the day of thy watchmen and thy visitation cometh; now shall be their perplexity.

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(Nahum 1:10) For while they be folden together as thorns, and while they are drunken as drunkards, they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry.

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A simple study of the Old Testament in the context of these scriptures show us that Paul would understand “thorns in the flesh” as a people group or group of people. This explains why he would use such language to explain the infirmities that came upon him by the hands of people groups. Persecutions for the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, were Paul’s various trials and tribulations.

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Again (2 Corinthians 11:26)…. in perils by my own countrymen, in perils by the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; [those posing as believers [but destitute of Christian knowledge and piety]

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Paul understood what a messenger of satan was. Evil spirits, “messengers of satan” working through people. Here is an example.

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(Acts 16:16-24)

¹⁶ And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying:

¹⁷ The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which show unto us the way of salvation.

¹⁸ And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour.

¹⁹ And when her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas, and drew them into the marketplace unto the rulers,

²⁰ And brought them to the magistrates, saying, These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city,

²¹ And teach customs, which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being Romans.

²² And the multitude rose up together against them: and the magistrates rent off their clothes, and commanded to beat them.

²³ And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailor to keep them safely:

²⁴ Who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks.

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Paul was being obedient here to do what Jesus said believers would do. (Mark16:17) And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out demons.

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Paul was persecuted by the evil spiritual wickedness through selfish greedy men.

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(Ephesians 6:12) For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in heavenly places.

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(1 Peter 5:8-9) Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.

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(James 4:7) Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

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(2 Corinthians 2:10-11) To whom you forgive any thing, I forgive also: for if I forgave any thing, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ; Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.

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Paul found the grace to forgive those who persecuted him. This is why the Lord told Paul when he asked for the messenger of satan to be removed, the Lord said: “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” (The Lord’s strength that is in us).

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(Galatians 2:20) I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

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Note: Grace has been provided for every need though Jesus. The work is finished we need to reach out, trust and beleive to receive what has been provided by grace over 2000 years ago.

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Paul wrote about his thorn to the Corinthians a few years before he wrote book of Romans. We can see that Paul was learning and growing in his revealtion of the Gospel. He never again wrote about a thorn in the flesh. He only wrote about overcomming, the hope and grace we have in Christ.

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(Romans 5:17,20) For if by one man’s (Adam) offense death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.) Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:

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Paul then wrote to the church in Philippi after he wrote the book of Romans.

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(Philippians 3:12-14) Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. ¹³ Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, ¹⁴ I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

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(Philippians 4:13) I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

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After Paul wrote to the Philippians the letter to the Ephesians was written. As we see the order of the  Pauline letters we can see how he was growing in the knowledge and grace to overcome. Paul learned how to operate in grace. He learned not to ask God to do what God has already given everyone the power to know and do.

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(Ephesians 1:3) Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: note: has blessed, as in, ongoing present now.

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(Ephesians 3:20) Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,

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(Ephesians 6:10-11) Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.¹¹ Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

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The last letter Paul wrote before he was put to death in Rome was to Timothy.

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(2 Timothy 3:11) Persecutions, afflictions, which came to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: but out of them all the Lord delivered me.

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Wow! The Lord delivered Paul out of ALL of the persecutions, and afflictions. The Lord’s Grace was sufficient to remove the people that were thorns in his flesh causing his infirmities. How are we going to stand against or resist the wiles of the devil if we think God is using bad and evil to teach us a lesson? James understood that a “messengers of satan” does not come from our Lord and are not allowed by God.

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(James 1:3) Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempts he any man: “with evil”

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The Lord Jesus Christ the Savior of the world, of all mankind, full of Grace and Truth made it very clear.

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Jesus said in (John 10:10) The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

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(Luke 13:11-12,16) And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself. And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity.16 And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?

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Jesus was the express image of the Father showing and demonstrating God’s will for us on earth. He freed this woman that had a “spirit of infirmity” whom Satan had bound. This example can be compared to the Lords grace being sufficient for Paul’s thorn in the flesh a messenger of satan. Did Jesus heal this daughter of Abraham to prove he was God in the flesh only? Or is there more to this mention of a child, daughter of Abraham? Jesus, the express, exact image of the Father does not want us bound by infirmities.

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(Galatians 3:7-8,14) Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham. The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.” He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.

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Praise God, Gentiles “all mankind” have been blessed and redeemed through Jesus and are now able to be loosed from the bondage spiritually, mentally and physically. Paul says it this way.

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(1 Thessalonians 5:23) And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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What have we done to receive a thorn? Does our Sunday façade of showing up to pay someone else to tell us what the word says, qualify us for afflictions and infirmities?

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Jesus revealed himself to Paul, called him, taught him the Gospel by revelation, took him into the third heaven, God knows. Paul traveled from Antioch on missionary journeys around the known world at that time. God delivered him from prison, spoke to him in dreams and visions and inspired him to write a great deal of the New Testament.

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Believers today need to let the grace of our Lord set us free from holding on to a “thorn in the flesh” as something from God to humble or teach us. When you are being exalted above measure, because of your great revelation of the gospel that you are spreading around the world. Remember that the Lord’s grace will set you free to “have fought a good fight, to have finished your course, and to have kept the faith.” (2 Timothy 4:7)

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Part 2

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If you have heard or think that Paul’s thorn was an eye problem. Let’s see with our eyes where and why we have heard or think this.

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(Galatians 4:13-16) You know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel to you at the first. And my trial which was in my flesh you despised not, nor rejected; but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. What then was the blessing you enjoyed? For I bear you witness that, if possible, you would have plucked out your own eyes and given them to me. Have I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?

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So what was the “infirmity of the flesh” Paul had when he first came to the Galatians?

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(Acts 14:19-20)  And there came certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium, who persuaded the people, and having stoned Paul, drew him out of the city, supposing he had been dead. ²⁰ Howbeit, as the disciples stood round about him, he rose up, and came into the city: and the next day he departed with Barnabas to Derbe.

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Looking at a Bible map of Paul’s 1^st missionary journey shows us that Derbe is in the province of Galatia. So Paul was stoned, dragged out of the city and left for dead. The next morning traveled around 15-20 miles and preached for the first time to the Galatians. Now if you would have been stoned and left for dead. Do you think just maybe you might have an infirmity or trial in your flesh? Perhaps maybe even having puffy eyes from being beat to death? Paul’s infirmities came because of persecutions for preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The text does not say God gave Paul a sickness or disease to carry around to keep him humble. Paul could have wrote “you would have given me the shirt off your own back” instead of “you would have plucked out your own eyes”. It is a figure of speech just like we would say today.

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Some try to prove that Paul’s thorn in the flesh was a chronic eye problem from his statement “you would have plucked out your own eyes” and this text.

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(Galatians 6:11) You see how large a letter I have written to you with my own hand.

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This is the only verse in any of Paul’s letters where he uses the word large.

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Why did he choose this word? Here is the meaning of it.

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large: Greek word 4080. pélikos- interrogative, how great, in an ethical reference, equivalent to how distinguished

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I would surely agree with Paul in using the word large in this letter. It is an interrogative and a distinguished letter compared to his others. Paul called them foolish for being so soon removed from him that called them into the gospel of the grace of Christ. (Galatians 1:6)

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The book of Galatians was one of the first letters Paul wrote. He never again used the phrase “how large a letter I have written”. 1^st and 2 Corinthians, Romans, 1^st and 2^nd Timothy, Ephesians , Philippians, Colossians and Philemon were all written after the book of Galatians. This is why Paul said “You know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel to you at the first”, as in, his infirmity is gone now. What ever Paul’s infirmity was the Lord’s grace was sufficient and Paul overcame it. He did not have some eye disease that made him write this letter with bigger or larger script than his others.

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Again (2 Corinthians 4:17) For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, (affliction, Not cancer disease, illness, itch or eye disease.)

affliction, Greek: 2347. thlipsis- persecution, anguish, distress, tribulation.

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What about Epaphroditus that was like a soldier fighting beside Paul that became sick?

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(Philippians 2:25-30) I thought it was right that I send Epaphroditus back to you. You helped me by sending him to me. We have worked together like brothers. He was like a soldier fighting beside me. ²⁶ He has been wanting to see all of you and was troubled because you heard he was sick. ²⁷ It is true, he was sick. Yes, he almost died, but God showed loving-kindness to him and to me. If he had died, I would have had even more sorrow. ²⁸ This is all the more reason I have sent him to you. When you see him, you will be glad and I will have less sorrow. ²⁹ Take him into your church with joy. Show respect for men like him. ³⁰ He came close to death while working for Christ. He almost died doing things for me that you could not do.

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I find it very interesting how Paul now chooses to use the word sick and not infirmity of the flesh as he did writing of his infirmities. Paul does not say a “messenger of satan” gave Epaphroditus “a thorn in the flesh” to buffet him. Look at the Greek word for sick Paul used here.

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Sick: Greek word: 770 astheneó: to be weak, feeble

-Short Definition: I am weak, sick
-Definition: I am weak (physically: then morally), I am sick. -Imperfect, to be weak, feeble; universally, to be without strength, powerless: rhetorically, of one who purposely abstains from the use of his strength.

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Epaphroditus came close to death while working for Christ. The text shows us he overcame, “he almost died, but God showed loving-kindness to him”. He regained his strength and went on to the Philippian church. When we become weak and feeble, fighting hard as a soldier along side fellow missionaries out in the field for years. We can be over comers knowing that God has given us the grace, mercy and loving kindness to pull through and be more than conquerors through Christ.

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What about Trophimus that Paul left at Miletum sick?

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(2 Timothy 4:20) Erastus abode at Corinth: but Trophimus have I left at Miletum sick.

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Here again Paul uses the same Greek word for sick. As he did in writting to the Philippians about Epaphroditus.

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Sick: Greek word: 770 astheneó: to be weak, feeble

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It is very interesting that Paul chose this Greek word for sick in both cases of Epaphroditus and Trophimus. When Jesus healed the sick or sent others to heal the sick in the gospels, the writers used 2 different Greek words for sick. Paul chose a word for sick that means weak and feeble. In other uses for the word sick it is a chronic bad illness.

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1 Sick: 732. arróstos (Matthew 14:14),(Mark 6:13)

Short Definition: infirm, sick, ill

Definition: infirm, sick, ill, feeble, sickly.

a persisting illness – literally, one “that will not leave”; chronic ill-health.

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2 Sick: 2560. kakós amiss, badly, grievously (Luke 7:2), (Mark 6:55)

Short Definition: badly, evilly
Definition: badly, evilly, wrongly.

(in a physical sense) miserably: , to be ill, sick

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So did Trophimus remain in Miletum sick “weak and feeble”? The text does not say that Paul prayed for him or not. But what scripture does reveal is that he did not remain sick “weak and feeble”.

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As we become good Bereans of the word and study to show ourselves approved. We can use the scriptures to follow Paul on his missionary journeys. We know the reason why Paul wrote and told Timothy he left Trophimus at Miletum sick is because Paul had Timothy stay at Ephesus on this 3rd journey (1 Timothy 1:3). Trophimus was one of eight friends (Acts 20:4), who accompanied Paul at the close of his 3rd missionary journey and traveled with him from Greece, through Macedonia, into Asia. On the way back to Jerusalem they passed through Miletum and this is where Paul left Trophimus. Paul went on ahead to Tyre and stayed there 7 days (Acts 21:3-4). Paul also stayed in Ptolemais and Caesarea many days where he was warned of what would happen to him in Jerusalem by phropecy (Acts 21:10-11). We know Paul was in Jerusalem no less than 7 days from (Acts 21: 27).

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Scipture proves that Trophimus did not stay sick, week and feeble very long. He had plenty of time to catch up with Paul and meet him in Jerusalem. If Trophimus did not stay in every town as Paul did on the way back to Jerusalem. Or even took a different route. He could have been well ahead of Paul. Trophimus is the reason for the Apostle Paul’s arrest in Jerusalem. He was the innocent cause of Paul being assaulted in the courts of the temple by the Jewish mob, and then of his being arrested and imprisoned by the Romans.

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(Acts 21:28-31) Crying out, Men of Israel, help: This is the man, that teacheth all men every where against the people, and the law, and this place: and further brought Greeks also into the temple, and hath polluted this holy place. (For they had seen before with him in the city Trophimus an Ephesian, whom they supposed that Paul had brought into the temple.) And all the city was moved, and the people ran together: and they took Paul, and drew him out of the temple: and forthwith the doors were shut. And as they went about to kill him, tidings came unto the chief captain of the band, that all Jerusalem was in an uproar.

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So what can we learn from Trophimus? We can learn that when we are on missions trips trying to follow a marathon missionary on his third journey. When or if we become weak and feeble or as Paul would say using the Greek word sick. We will recover and overcome quickly by the Lord’s grace to complete our mission.

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What about Timothy’s stomach? Why would Paul’s son and right hand man in the faith need to use a little wine?

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(1 Timothy 5:23) KJV, Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and thine often infirmities.

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The key to the text is so clear. “Drink no longer water”. The water is clearly the problem here. Timothy did not only stay in Ephesus. Paul told him in ( 2 Tim 4:5) “But you watch in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fully carry out your ministry.” In the context Paul is teaching Timothy how to be successful in his calling. The text also shows Paul using again infirmities and enduring afflictions not the words illness or disease. These are clearly infirmities and afflictions for the Gospel and work that comes with traveling and evangelizing. Today when we travel around the country or world we would say “drink bottled water or soda” on your travels. Paul’s 2nd and 3rd journeys were to, “strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,” (Acts 14:22).

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Paul understood the benefits of a little wine as we do to this day. Research shows that red wine can combat potentially-fatal food poisoning bugs. E coli, Salmonella and Listeria are all responsive to the effects of red wine. Helicobacter pylori, a stomach ulcer-causing bug which is spread through food and drink, is particularly vulnerable. The studys show that Cabernet, Zinfandel and Merlot are particularly effective in fighting food and water borne bugs. Could Paul be teaching us that there is evil causing illness and disease in a fallen world? God has provided natural remedies to help us along our walk and revelation to living by grace through faith.

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Timothy was a disciple of Paul a learner. He was in training progressing as we all are. Timothy just like Paul, was up against all kinds of opposition, deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, men speaking lies in hypocrisy just like Paul was up against. Paul tells him in…

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(1 Timothy 4:12-14) Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity. Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership.

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So when Paul tells Timothy use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and thine often infirmities. A Proverb comes to mind here.

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(Proverbs 17:22) A merry, joyful heart does good for the body like a medicine: but a sorrowful, depressed and broken spirit dries the bones and drains ones strength.

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So even if prophecy has been spoken over you and hands have been laid on you by eldership. We are not immune to persecution, afflictions or bad water for the Word’s sake.

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Paul told the Church in Corinth (1 Cor 2:2) For I determined not to know anything among you, except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.

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So Paul taught and proclaimed Jesus Christ, crucified and ressurected. So what does Jesus tell those who would believe on him and become obedient to his call?

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(John 16:33) These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

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(Matthew 5:10-12)  Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. ¹¹ Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. ¹² Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

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Peter wrote (1 Peter 2:21) For even to this were you called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow his steps.

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Then the Apostle John (Revelation 1:9) I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.

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People will face trials, tribulations and persecutions in this life. Scriptures clearly teaches that we are redeemed from sin and its fruits depression, grief and sickness. We are not redeemed from persecutions and being martyred for proclaiming the gospel. Stand fast and overcome your victory in Jesus that is yours now!

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The examples of these 4 men Paul, Epaphroditus, Trophimus and Timothy are by no means teaching us, that it is God’s will for us to live a defeated lifestyle. They do not prove that miracles and gifts of the Spirit have ceased. The proof and examples of the opposite far out way anything from God ceasing or passing away. The gifts and callings of God are irrevocable. God used Paul well after these examples to do many might works. The Lord is still using whoever will believe and receive today. When we get into God’s Word and learn not to be conformed to the world’s way and what the world has to say. We can be transformed by the renewing of our minds to walk in the fullness Jesus has provided for us now. The only thing we should be wanting or waiting for now is the incoruptable new body we will recieve after death. The purchased possession.

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(Ephiesians 1:13-14) In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.

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John wrote in (1 John 3:.8) For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.

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(3 John 1:2) Beloved, I wish above all things that you may prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers.

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If a doctor tells you to take something 4 times a day for 2 weeks, would you do it? Would you be willing to spend several hours a day in the Word until you understood health and healing in God’s plan for salvation?

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My son, attend to my words;…..For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh. (Prov. 4:20-22)

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(Proverbs 16:24) Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones.

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(Psalm 103:1-4) Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.

² Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:

³ Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;

⁴ Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies.

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(Isaiah 53:1) Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?

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Whose report are we going to believe?

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(Isaiah 53:4-5) KJV with (Hebrew, literal translation)

⁴ Surely he hath borne our griefs (disease, sickness) and carried our sorrows (Pain, sufferings), yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

⁵ But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. (cured, cause to heal, physician, repair thoroughly, make whole, heal thee)

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(Matthew 8:16-17) When the evening came, they brought unto him many that were possessed with demons: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick. That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, He himself took our infirmities, and bore our sicknesses.

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The writer is clearly showing that there is a clear distinction and difference between infirmities and sicknesses. Paul understood this when he wrote of his infirmities.

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Sicknesses: 3554 nósos –a chronic (persisting) disease, typically an incurable ailment.

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Infirmities: 769 asthéneia – feebleness (of mind or body); by implication, malady; morally, frailty -, weakness.

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(1 Peter 2:24) Who his own self bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes you were healed.

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Peter here is quoting the prophet Isaiah “with his stripes we are healed” and makes a change. “by whose stripes you were healed”. He changes are to were healed, as in, it has been done for us just like he has bore our sins.

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The Book of 1 Peter was likely written between A.D. 60 and 65.1 Peter is a letter from Peter to the believers who had been dispersed throughout the ancient world and were under intense persecution. If anyone understood persecution, it was Peter. He was beaten, threatened, punished and jailed for preaching the Word of God. He knew what it took to endure without bitterness, without losing hope and in great faith. Then 2 Peter starts (2 Peter 1:1) Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ.

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Peter says we have like precious faith, he understood how Jesus bore our sins and by his stripes we were and are healed. (Psalm 103:3) Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases. Jesus proves this here….

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(Luke 5:22-23) Jesus perceived their thoughts, He answered and said to them, “Why are you reasoning in your hearts? ²³ Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Rise up and walk’?

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What is easier to say? They are the same thing, sickness is a fruit of sin. Jesus paid it all for both. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. (Romans 10:17)

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Jesus came to set us free, to live victorious lives now in our present lives on earth and in the life after this, eternal everlasting life.

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(Galatians 1:3-4) Grace be to you and peace from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father.

(Ephisians 1:..21)….not only in this age but also in that which is to come.

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(Luke 18: 29-30 And he said to them, Truly I say to you, There is no man that has left house, or parents, or brothers, or wife, or children, for the kingdom of God’s sake, Who shall not receive many times more in this present time, and in the world to come life everlasting.

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(1 Timothy 4:…8-10)…having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance. For to this end we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe.

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(Romans 8:35-39) Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

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The Bible does not teach that God uses sickness to chasten or correct us. We need to understand that sickness, tragedy and the loss of jobs or loved ones does not perfect us. The thief only comes to steal, kill and destroy. The Lord has given us His word to perfect us, and the five-fold ministry gifts mentioned in (Eph 4:11-12) And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, until we all come to the unity of the faith.

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We have (2 Tim 3:16) All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

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(Hebrews 4:12)  For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

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(Romans 15:4) For whatever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.

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From these passages we understand that it is possible for the child of God to be perfected without tragedies or sickness from God. It is the Word of God that perfects and teaches us. It is the Word that ‘corrects’ and ‘reproves’ us. As we submit to the Word and apply it to our lives, we are being transformed outwardly to the spiritual image we have inwardly – the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Cor. 5:21).

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(John 15:1-3) Jesus speaks of ‘purging’ or pruning the branches that they might bear more fruit. Some have taken this to refer to sickness and calamity as well. However, in verse 3 Jesus says: “Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.” The word ‘clean’ is the same Greek word translated ‘purgeth’ in the prior verse, and shows us that Jesus cleanses us, or purges us, by His Word, not by sickness.

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(James 1:13-14) Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempts he any man: (with it) But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. 

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(James 4:17) Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.

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(1 John 3:20) For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.

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(Romans 14:23)…….for whatever is not of faith is sin.

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Correction is when we decide to put the Word over your own fleshy desires and resist. As you resist temptation you learn obedience. If God used sickness and disease to perfect us. We would have a lot of perfected Christians running around by now. It is not so, look around. If sickness cancers etc. are given to us in certain cases by God to correct us. Do we know why he did it? Has God told you what you have or have not done and why you’re sick? If God gives us something to teach us a lesson. Why are Christians running to unbelieving non Christians doctors to get out of God’s so called will for them? Do earthly fathers or mothers inject there children with disease or cancers to correct them? Or even unnecessarily beat and bruised them? They would have the children removed from them by the state or local government. Trials and tribulations in a born again, regenerated, Holy Spirit sealed, professing Christian’s life are persecutions and rejections that come for the Words sake.

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The Lord God Almighty, the Sovereign Lord, he is in charge. He holds everything together by his Word. He chose to create us in his image and likeness. He chose to create human as free moral agents able to make choices. Obedience requires the option, the choice of being disobedient. Just as love is relational and not something forced. We love him because he first loved us.

Luke 13:34 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and YOU were not WILLING.

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All scripture is profitable for doctrine. Paul also warns Timothy that there are doctrines of devils also. One of these doctrines would be God using or allowing satan to be his messenger boy to teach us a lesson.

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(1 Timothy 4:1) Now the Spirit speaks expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils.

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God does not need sickness and diseases to correct his children. Sin has been dealt with and paid for. A Christian can just as well sin as he can just as well submit to sickness.

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(Hebrews 9:…26-28)…now once in the end of the world hath he (Jesus) appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.

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(1 John 4:17) Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.

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God is not judging believers individual acts of sin anymore. Jesus paid for the sin of the world at the cross. Believers should have a boldness and be Christ like, because as he is so are we in this world. Jesus is not sick and is not using sickness as a judgment of some sin you may have committed. It is the goodness of God that leads us to repentance, (turning around changing our thinking). (Romans 2:4)

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There are so many passages that teach us how to overcome and be triumphant in this world. We do not need to blame God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ for giving us a thorn in the flesh when we do not even know why? Sin consciousness is a killer we need to be set free from feeling unworthy and condemned.

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(Romans 8:1) Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

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In other words, God was using Christ to restore his relationship with humanity. He didn’t hold people’s faults against them, and he has given us this message of restored relationships to tell others. 2 Corinthians 5:19

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Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. Psalm 32:2

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Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Romans 4:8

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For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Hebrews 9:26

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He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west. Psalm 103:12

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I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins. Isaiah 43:25

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For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. Hebrews 8:12

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No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the LORD. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” Jeremiah 31:34

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And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Hebrews 10:17

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God’s kind of love: It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 1 Corinthians 13:5

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True grace is understanding that God is not mad. Evil condemns, Jesus is life freedom, liberty and justification.

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(Romans 4:25) He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. (the act of pronouncing us right with God, just as if we never sinned)

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Jesus said right before he went to the cross: “Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.” John 12:31

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The only reason the Satan ever had any right to become a prince or rule over us was because we yielded ourselves to him through sin (Rom. 6:16). Since Jesus “bore our sins in His own body on the tree” (1 Pet. 2:24), Satan no longer has power or authority over mankind. Satan has been “cast out” — stripped of any power he had. He can no longer ask to sift you or enter into a believer like he did Judas before the cross and ressurection. Now he can only deceive, and if we fall for his lies, we stop God’s blessings from flowing in our lives. Paul having the revelation of Jesus and life after the cross said it this way.

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(Colossians 1:21) And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now has he reconciled.

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We were enemies in our own minds until we came to the knowledge and revelation of God in Christ reconciling the whole World unto himself!

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What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living. (Romans 6:15:16)

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Evil can sure mess with our mind and body, the flesh. In 1st Corinthians Paul states our bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit. Then he talks about the mind in, 2 Corinthians 10:5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.

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I love the story in the Bible about the woman caught in adultery, because I love the way our loving Savior, Jesus, responded to her. He looked tenderly into her eyes and asked her, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?” She looked around and said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.” (John 8:10–11). This woman knew who was Lord, she called him Lord and she was in sin.

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Notice that Jesus first gave the woman the gift of no condemnation and then told her to go and sin no more. The power to stop the cycle of sin in your life comes from receiving the gift of no condemnation from Jesus. This is grace, this is His unmerited favor! The law and religion says, “Go and sin no more first, then God will not condemn you.” Religion causes behavioral modifications, relationship causes change from the heart.

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When we get free from feeling not worthy and there is no more condemnation in our conscience. Then we are free to receive. Depression, grief, sorry, pain and sickness will fall away from us and be replaced with love, joy, peace and health. This is Gospel, the “GOOD NEWS”. Do not let a defeated snake steal from you anymore.

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It is so easy to overcome in this life when we truely understand the whole complete truth of salvation. Look at the meaning of Salvation!  The entire New Testament uses for the words save, saved and salvation. The gospel of our salvation now until the redemtion of the purchased possession (Ephiesians 1:13-14)

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( Ephesians 2:4-9) But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,

⁵ Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved😉

⁶ And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

⁷ That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

⁸ For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

⁹ Not of works, lest any man should boast.

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(1 Corinthians 1:18) For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.

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saved : Strongs Exhaustive Concordance

sozo : heal, be made whole.

From a primary sos (contraction for obsolete saos, “safe”); to save, i.e. Deliver or protect (literally or figuratively) — heal, preserve, save (self), do well, be (make) whole.
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(1 Corinthians 1:21) For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.

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(James 5:14-15) Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.

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save : Strongs Exhaustive Concordance

sozo : heal, be made whole.

From a primary sos (contraction for obsolete saos, “safe”); to save, i.e. Deliver or protect (literally or figuratively) — heal, preserve, save (self), do well, be (make) whole.

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(Romans 1:16) For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

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( Ephesians 1:13-14) In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

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(2 Timothy 2:10) Therefore I endure all things for the elect’s sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

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salvation:  Strongs Exhaustive Concordance

Short Definition: deliverance, salvation
Definition: welfare, prosperity, deliverance, preservation, salvation, safety.

deliver, save

Feminine of a derivative of soter as (properly, abstract) noun; rescue or safety (physically or morally) — deliver, health, salvation, save, saving.

see GREEK soter

Savior

From sozo; a deliverer, i.e. God or Christ — saviour.

see GREEK sozo

sozo : heal, be made whole.

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How can you be saved, healed, delivered and made whole by Jesus and then turn around and say he takes away your “sozo, healing” salvation or then give you a “thorn in the flesh” to teach you? This is double minded.

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(James 1:5-8) If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.  But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

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(Psalm 119:113) I despise the double-minded, but I love your instruction.

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Paul’s prayer for the EphesianChurch…

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( Ephesians 3:14-21) For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.

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Peter says that we are partakers of the divine nature.

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(2 Peter 1:1-10) Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue,  by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble.

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We have “exceedingly great and precious promises,” we are “partakers of the divine nature”. Again Paul put it this way….

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(Galatians 2:20) I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

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(1 Corinthians 2:16) For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

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This is how we have the grace to overcome. Awaken and know who you are in Christ!

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What is grace? Let the Word of God define grace.

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But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God…..(Acts 20:24)
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Grace builds us up and gives us our inheritance……Acts 20:32  

Grace justifies us……. Rom. 3:24
Grace gives us gifts……. Rom. 12:6
Grace gives us consolation and hope……. 2 Thess. 2:16
Grace is God’s faith and love toward us……. 1 Tim. 1:14
Grace is mercy and help in time of need……. Heb. 4:16
Grace is multiplied unto us through the knowledge of God……. 2 Pet. 1:2
Grace abounds to the cheerful giver……. 2 Cor. 9:7-8
Grace is strength……. 2 Cor. 12:9
Grace is power ……. Acts 14:3
Grace labors abundantly……. 1 Cor. 15:10
Grace gives……. 2 Cor. 8:7
Graces teaches us ……. Titus 2:12
Grace is God’s provision for man’s every need……. 2 Cor. 8:9
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False grace will allow you to do what you want and not care.
True grace will motivate you to walk in freedom from sin.
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False grace will breed passivity.
True grace will see the needs and get involved.
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False grace will slowly stop giving.
True grace will give abundantly and with joy.
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False grace will have no vision for the future.
True grace will seen the unseen and stir up the gifts of God.

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What about Job? Do we base our understanding of God’s plan and will for us on Old Testament mythological poetry or through the lens of Jesus and the new covenant?

https://kingdomhealer.wordpress.com/2013/01/07/what-about-job/

What about Job?

Understanding the book of Job

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Have you ever heard this? “If you’re suffering, you must have done something wrong God must be punishing you.” Here’s another. “God is using these hard times to teach you humility.” These misunderstandings can be traced back to one of the oldest and most misunderstood stories in the Bible, the story of Job. As I’m sure you know, Job was a man who lost everything. The Book of Job is not mainly about his loss, but how he tried to process his loss with the help of his wife and three friends.

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I had no idea that so many people would get upset by telling them that God does not take away his good gifts. To be honest, the Apostle Paul the first to say that. I found that revelation from (Romans 11:29) “God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable.” God does not give and take away. Through and in Christ your sin, shame, and sickness have been taken away. As he did for Job. The blame for Job’s woes are to be squarely placed at the feet of the Devil.

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Much of what Job’s friends told him, is exactly what we hear to today. While Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar did not condemn God, they did accuse and condemn Job. They were wrong to do so as it was not God or Job’s fault that the terrible events had taken place. Let’s not forget that none of these men had a revelation of the Devil. If the name “Satan, Devil or Lucifer” had been mentioned to any of them, they probably would have responded with “Who?”

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When Job said “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there: the LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.” We see he was unlearned in his knowledge of God. No one has ever returned to their mother’s womb when they died. He had no idea what was going on behind the scenes. He had no knowledge there was a Devil so the writer states. In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly. (Job 1:21,22)

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“How convenient to blame the Devil,” you may say. “Surely God could have stopped Satan. Surely God set Job up by boasting about him.” Actually neither is true. Read the Job account in a HEBREW literal translation such as Young’s and you will see that Satan came gunning for him.

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(Job 1:8) Young’s Literal Translation:

And Jehovah saith unto the Adversary, “Hast thou set thy heart against My servant Job because there is none like him in the land, a man perfect and upright, fearing God, and turning aside from evil?”

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Satan set himself against Job. “So why didn’t God stop the Devil?” Good question. We might also ask, “Why doesn’t God stop earthquakes or famines or wars?” The answer is, not everything that happens is God’s responsibility. He left the planet in Adam’s control and Adam handed it to the Devil. Satan went for Job because he could. Satan assumed that God had put a hedge around Job. God never said there was a hedge. See (Job 1:10) When God said, “All that he has is in thy power” (Job 1:12), He wasn’t handing Job over to Satan, allowing or lifting off a hedge of protection. God doesn’t do deals with the Devil! – He was simply stating a fact. The whole unredeemed “world is under the influence of the evil one” (1 John 5:19) (2 Corinthians 4:4). The Devil is not as smart as you think. God could not and does not lie. (Titus 1:2) (Hebrews 6:18). Why did satan smote Job with boils, a skin issue from head to toe? The enemy can not just have his way with you he has to find a weakness. We see that Job had fear. (Job 3:25) For the thing which I greatly feared has come upon me. Job had a great fear and this is the doorway satan used to smote him. Today the medical field has connected stress and fear to many skin related issues. Job did not have Paul’s letter to Timothy that says: For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
(2 Tim 1:7)

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We have it better than Job. Job was not under any Biblical covenant or promise in his time.

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Job wasn’t saved. He wasn’t sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. He had some understanding of God but he was also a fearful and superstitious man filled with self-pity and self-righteousness in his own eyes (see Job 32:1).

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Don’t ever compare yourself to Job! Jesus didn’t conquer the grave to give you Job’s life but His life. It is Christ who lives in those who believe, not Job as the scriptures clearly teach. God does not inflict death and sickness on us to teach, correct or humble us. (James 1:13-14) says: Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempts he any man: (with it) God is more than capable of disciplining (i.e., training) us through His Word (2 Tim 3:16).

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One of Job’s friends, Eliphaz, reasoned that Job was being afflicted on account of his sins. This same line is often heard today. When things go wrong we pray, “Lord search me and see if there be any wicked way in me.” When there are problems within the church, we hunt for “sin in the camp.” Do you realize how absurd this is? If God really judged us according to our sins, who could stand? If God was in the business of punishing sin in the camp, there wouldn’t be any camp. (Church)

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Let us not be ignorant of Jesus and His work on the cross and resurrection then ascension to the Father. God does not and could not make us sick or allows the Devil to kill us for our sin. Jesus paid the price so we do not have to. Eliphaz was such a man. God said of him, “You have not spoken concerning Me rightly” (Job 42:8). Anyone who says your hardships are God’s punishments is, like Eliphaz, not speaking of God rightly.

Later, Eliphaz suggested that Job would receive the blessings of God if he was worthy of them. Indeed, Job began to think exactly this way. “Look at all I’ve done.” This is equally absurd. God is not beholden (indebted or obliged) to any of us. God blesses us in accordance with the riches of His grace, not the merits of our works or performance.

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Why is Job’s story in the Bible? It is not there so we can look to him as a role model? No (we have Jesus)! It is there so that we might learn from his example. Those who don’t learn by example tend to learn by experience and experience is a harsh teacher. For those of you who would rather not learn the hard way, here’s the lesson: It is always Satan’s intention to harm us; it is always God’s intention to bless us. When you confuse the latter with the former, your reality will be defined by a lie making it virtually impossible to receive all that God has for you. If you relate to God on the basis of obligation and performance, then you will falsely interpret life’s hardships and spiritual attacks as works of God. Instead of submitting in faith to the unconditional love of the Father and resisting the Devil, your unbelief will lead you to submit to the Devil and resist the one who loves you. It’s a recipe for disaster that is played out a thousand times every day by those who relate to God as Job did.

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God does not desire your sacrifices

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For as long as Job lived in fearful religion, trusting in the sacrifices (works) of his own hands, he was setting himself up for disaster. “Those who cling to their own goodness forfeit the grace that could be theirs.” But when he finally shut up and repented (turned around changed his thinking) about his wrong theology, he opened the door to the blessings of God. God is not asking us to live for Him. He is asking us to let Him live through us (Gal. 2:20). The lesson we take from Job is worth repeating: the Devil is bad but our Father is good and He loves us and desires to bless us so we can be a blessing to others. Understanding the book of Job through a New Testament believers mind-set will help you see that. How? Because…..

God, who at many times and in various manners spoke in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Has in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he has appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; His Son is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact likeness of God’s being. He holds everything together through his powerful words. After he had cleansed people from their sins, he received the highest position, the one next to the Father in heaven. (Hebrews 1:1-3).

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In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1)

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And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)

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Jesus said he that has seen me has seen the Father; and how say you then, Show us the Father? (John 14:9)

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Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, before Abraham was even born, I Am!” (John 8:58)

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Job did not have this revelation of God. So how and why would a New Testament believer relate to Jesus our God like Job did? Paul was given a full revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. (Galatians 1: 11-12)

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So Paul puts it this way. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. (2 Cor 5:19)

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Jesus revealed himself to Paul, called him, taught him the gospel by revelation, took him into the third heaven, sent him from Antioch, delivered him from prison, spoke to him in dreams and visions and inspired him to write a great deal of the New Testament.

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Notice that Paul does not mention or compare the New Testament church or individuals to Job in any of his letters. If Paul does not use Job as an example. Why are legalistic religious Churches doing so today? As a matter of written fact Paul writes: ” My dear brothers and sisters. Watch out for people who cause divisions and upset people’s faith by teaching things contrary to what you have been taught. Stay away from them. Such people are not serving Christ our Lord; they are serving their own personal interests. By smooth talk and glowing words they deceive innocent people”. (Romans 16:17,18)　

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This is Paul’s prayer for the Church today:

I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth　knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. ( Ephesians 3: 14-21)　

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Conclusion

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Job is one of the oldest book written in the Bible. Many Bible scholars agree that Job was before Abraham and Moses. Since he had no promise, covenant or law from God. He had very little knowledge of God. He had an understanding of sacrifices and sin. Cain and Able had only this basic understanding of God. In (Genesis 4:7) God said to Cain. If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin crouches at your door; its desire is for you, but you must master it. This explains why Job would offer sacrifices for his children just in case they had sinned. (see Job 1:5) Many religious “sin conscience” Churches today teach that Satan enters into the throne room stands before God, to accuse the brethren. First of all The New Testament　teaches that believers should have no more consciousness of sins. (Hebrews 9:14,10:2) Just before Jesus went the cross he said “Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world (Satan) be cast out. (John12:31) Paul said “For he has put everything under his feet.” (1 Corinthians 15:27) God does not send Satan to do his dirty work. Our family members that have gone on before us to be with the Lord are not hanging out in heaven with Satan. Watching him come before the Lord to accuse the brethren. (Job1:6)

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As we get to the end of whole story, after hearing what Job’s friends assumed and hearing his wives bad advice. What does God have to say? What does Job have to say? Why is it in almost all churches today we do not hear these infallible words of scripture?

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The LORD said: Who is this that darkens councel by words without knowledge? (Job 38:2)

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Job says: Behold, I am of small account and vile! What shall I answer You? I lay my hand upon my mouth.(Job 40:4)

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Job admits he spoke wrong: Therefore [I now see] I have [rashly] uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. (Job 42:3)

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This is what the Lord said about Job’s three friends: For you have not spoken of Me the thing that is right. (Job 42:7)

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Job repented (turned around changed his thinking). And the Lord turned the captivity of Job and restored his fortunes, when he prayed for his friends; also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. (Job 42:10)

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This is why the only mention in the New Testament we have of Job is in the book of James. Behold, we count them happy who endure. You have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very compassionate, and of tender mercy. (James 5:11)

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Most scholars also agree the book of Job is a story that only lasted 9 months. So if you think your like Job. Look to Jesus, get over it and be blessed. The next time you here a New Testament believer quote Job, ” The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away” let them know they can repent of their wrong thinking as Job did. Ask them about the eternal security of the believer. Since God gives us eternal life can he take it away? Of course not, this statement from Job is absurd and why in the end he said he was wrong.

Job his wife and friends did not have the knowledge and scriptures that we have today. They did not have these scriptures to stand on.

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The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. (John 10:10)

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Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (James 4:7)

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Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power: (Colossians 2: 8-10) Job was not after Christ. In Him we have the power to resist All principality and powers that come against us! So remember that the book of Job is a complete story. We should not just grab and quote a verse here and there. Towards the end of the story in Chapter 38  God tells Job you do know what your talking about:

(Job 38:1-4) Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said: ² “Who is this who darkens counsel
By words without knowledge? ³ Now prepare yourself like a man;
I will question you, and you shall answer Me. ⁴ “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?
Tell Me, if you have understanding.

The story ends with  chapter 42, Job saying: Therefore [I now see] I have [rashly] uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. (Job 42:3)

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Be Free!

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What about Paul’s “Thorn in the Flesh”?

https://kingdomhealer.wordpress.com/2013/04/10/pauls-thorn-in-the-flesh-removed/