Spurgeon's 4 Points of "Easter" SERIES: 2

II. Bearing His Cross
And as they led Him away, they laid hold upon one Simon, a Cyrenian, coming out of the country, and on him they laid the cross, that he might bear it after Jesus. Luke 23:26

"We see in Simon's carrying the cross a picture of the work of the Church throughout all generations; she is the cross-bearer after Jesus.
Mark then, Christian, Jesus does not suffer so as to exclude your suffering.

He bears a cross, not that you may escape it, but that you may endure it.
But let us comfort ourselves with this thought, that in our case, as in Simon's, it is not our cross, but Christ's cross which we carry.
And remember, though Simon had to bear the cross for a very little while, it gave him lasting honor. Even so the cross we carry is only for a little while at most, and then we shall receive the crown, the glory."
Charles Spurgeon

DESIRE OF AGES: Audio & Pull Quotes- Chapter 31

The Sermon on the Mount

Audio:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/-PncYvMSqdM?list=PL4ByrircmXL6qt2QplU6IudoOYVgzBS3C

 In the Sermon on the Mount He sought to undo the work that had been wrought by false education, and to give His hearers a right conception of His kingdom and of His own character. The proud heart strives to earn salvation; but both our title to heaven and our fitness for it are found in the

righteousness of Christ.
Jesus takes up the commandments separately, and explains the depth and breadth of their requirement. Instead of removing one jot of their force, He shows how far-reaching their principles are, and exposes the fatal mistake of the Jews in their outward show of obedience. He declares that by the evil thought or the lustful look the law of God is transgressed. One who becomes a party to the least injustice is breaking the law and degrading his own moral nature. Murder first exists in the mind. He who gives hatred a place in his heart is setting his feet in the path of the murderer, and his offerings are abhorrent to God.
The world loves sin, and hates righteousness, and this was the cause of its hostility to Jesus. All who refuse His infinite love will find Christianity a disturbing element. True character is not shaped from without, and put on; it radiates from within. If we wish to direct others in the path of righteousness, the principles of righteousness must be enshrined in our own hearts.
Many take it for granted that they are Christians, simply because they subscribe to certain theological tenets. But they have not brought the truth into practical life.
Unto them that mourn in Zion, He has appointed to give beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. Isaiah 61:3

17 Reasons SERIES: #3

17 Reasons why Christianity should NOT have succeeded....

"17 factors to be considered -- places where Christianity "did the wrong thing" in order to be a successful religion. It is my contention that the only way Christianity did succeed is because it was a truly revealed faith -- and because it had the irrefutable witness of the Resurrection." J.P.Holding

#3 -- Getting Physical! The "Resurrection"
Opening and alleging, that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead; and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ. Acts 17:3

"....the resurrection of Jesus, within the context of Judaism, was thought by Gentiles to be what can be described as "grossly" physical. This in itself raises a certain problem for Christianity beyond a basic Jewish mission. We have regularly quoted the dictum of Pheme Perkins: "Christianity's pagan critics generally viewed resurrection as misunderstood metempsychosis at best. At worst, it seemed

ridiculous."

It may further be noted that the pagan world was awash with points of view associated with those who thought matter was evil and at the root of all of man's problems. Platonic thought, as Murray Harris puts it, supposed that "man's highest good consisted of emancipation from corporeal defilement. The nakedness of disembodiment was the ideal state." Physical resurrection was the last sort of endgame for mankind that you wanted to preach.

Wright even notes that belief in resurrection was a ground for persecution: "We should not forget that when Irenaeus became bishop of Lyons he was replacing the bishop who had died in a fierce persecution; and that one of the themes of that persecution was the Christians' tenacious hold on the belief in bodily resurrection. Details of the martyrdom are found in the letter from the churches of Vienne and Lyons to those of Asia and Phrygia. The letter describes how in some cases the torturers burnt the bodies and scattered the ashes into Rhone, so ..., 'as though they were capable of conquering god, and taking away their rebirth [palingenesia]'."
J.P.Holding
 

Job Sermon SERIES by Doug Batchelor

Job Sermon SERIES

(by Doug Batchelor)

Now when Job's three friends heard of all this

evil that was come upon him,....And when they lifted up their eyes afar off,

and knew him not, they lifted up their voice, and wept;

Job 2:11,12

Part 1

https://www.youtube.com/embed/e8_x78-DymY

Part 2

https://www.youtube.com/embed/P1gkF_IyNHo

Part 3

https://www.youtube.com/embed/pxP2JGiK7VY

Part 4

https://www.youtube.com/embed/PGbl1oGItrg

Lack of Forgiveness...

"Lack of forgiveness can result in long-term anger. And that can have serious consequences. The apostle Paul called it a “work of the flesh” and warned us:

Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance [contentions], emulations [jealousies], wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19-21)

Note that “wrath” and “strife” are listed right along with sins like murder and adultery. These fruits of unforgiveness can have serious consequences in our lives and in the lives of people who are close to us.
Paul contrasts them with the “fruit of the Spirit,” which should characterize our lives as Christians. He said:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Galatians 5:22-25

If we want to live biblically and “walk in the Spirit,” then God will give us the grace and the strength to do it. This is a process that takes time, patience, and perseverance."
 Maria Kneas

Creation Moment 4/2/2018 - The Horse

Hast thou given the horse strength?

hast thou clothed his neck with thunder?

Job 39:19

"For the last century or so, this fine animal has been put to a more unfortunate use. Its alleged

ancestry has been used as one of the key ‘proofs’ of evolution. It started in 1879 with the American paleontologist O.C. Marsh and the famous evolutionist T.H. Huxley, known as ‘Darwin’s bulldog.’ Since then, many museums and popular books have presented a neat series starting from the dog-sized, four-toed ‘dawn horse’ or ‘Eohippus,’ which supposedly lived 50 million years ago. The next creature is usually a larger creature like Mesohippus, which had three toes. The next one was larger still, for example Merychippus, which had two of the toes smaller than the third. Finally, there is the large modern horse, Equus, with only one toe, while all that is left of the other two are ‘vestigial’ splint bones.

As shown in a detailed thesis by Walter Barnhart, the horse ‘series’ is an interpretation of the data. He documents how different pictures of horse evolution were drawn by different evolutionists from the same data, as the concept of evolution itself ‘evolved.’
This especially applies to reconstructing the animals from fossil skeletons, which are usually very incomplete. The evolutionist Gerald Kerkut wrote:

‘It takes a great deal of reading to find out for any particular genus just how complete the various parts of the body are and how much in the illustrated figures is due to clever reconstruction. The early papers were always careful to indicate by dotted lines or lack of shading the precise limits of the reconstructions, but later authors are not so careful.’

Informed evolutionists now realize that the picture, even in their own framework, is not a straight line at all.

What is the ‘dawn horse’?
This creature was discovered in 1841 by Richard Owen, one of the leading paleontologists of the day, the inventor of the word ‘dinosaur,’ and a staunch opponent of Darwin. Owen saw no connection with the horse, but thought it was very like a modern-day hyrax—that is, a rock badger or coney. So he named it Hyracotherium. Other fossils of the same type of creature were later named ‘Eohippus’ or ‘dawn horse’ by more evolutionarily-minded paleontologists. But the name given by the discoverer takes priority. Thus ‘it is not clear that Hyracotherium was the ancestral horse’, according to Kerkut.

The fossils
The fossils do not carry signs saying how old they are. Their age is generally assigned to them, depending on their relative depth of burial. Those in the deepest rock layers have the greatest ages assigned to them. Based on the biblical framework, we should expect many, but not all, fossils to have been buried during the Flood, so the oldest would really be only about 4,500 years old. Fossils higher up may have been buried by local catastrophes since the Flood.
It’s likely that many of the horse fossils were post-Flood. However, even if we were to grant the evolutionary/long age dating, they don’t show the clear progression presented by the textbooks. For example, in north-eastern Oregon, the three-toed Neohipparion and one-toed Pliohippus were found in the same layer. This indicates that they were living at the same time, and thus provides no evidence that one evolved from the other.

Lots of different horses
Living horses come in a wide range of sizes.
Horses vary in other ways too. Modern horses can have 17, 18 or 19 pairs of ribs. Also, three-toed

horses are known today. O.C. Marsh himself noted that some horses in the American southwest had three toes of almost equal size, ‘thus corresponding to the feet of the extinct Protohippus.’
An important part of the biblical creation model is that different kinds of creatures were created with lots of genetic information. Natural selection can sort out this pre-existing genetic information, by eliminating creatures not suited to a particular environment. Thus many different varieties can be produced in different environments. Note that this sorting process involves a loss of information, so is irrelevant to particles-to-people evolution, which requires non-intelligent processes to add new information.
Applying these principles to the horse, the genetic information coding for extra toes is present, but is switched off in most modern horses. Sometimes a horse is born today where the genes are switched on, and certainly many fossil horses also had the genes switched on. This would explain why there are no transitional forms showing gradually smaller toe size.

Summary

• The textbooks create this ‘evolutionary series’ from a probable non-horse (Hyracotherium) and varieties of true horses.
• Far from being an example of evolution, it is an example of the wide variation within a created kind.
• Particles-to-people evolution requires new information to be generated, while the horse varieties, especially in number of toes, result from pre-existing information being switched on or off, as well as natural selection removing information." CMI

 

Spurgeon's 4 Points of "Easter" SERIES: 1

I. Lamenting for the Lord
And there followed him a great company of people, and of women, which also bewailed and lamented Him. Luke 23:27

"Amid the rabble rout which hounded the Redeemer to His doom, there were some gracious souls whose bitter anguish sought vent in wailing and lamentations-fit music to accompany that march of woe.
They bewailed
--innocence maltreated,
--goodness persecuted,
--love bleeding,
--meekness about to die; but my heart has a deeper and more bitter cause to mourn. My sins were the scourges which lacerated those blessed

shoulders, and crowned with thorn those bleeding brows: my sins cried "Crucify Him! Crucify Him!" and laid the cross upon His gracious shoulders.
*Nain's widow saw her son restored-but I myself have been raised to newness of life.
*Peter's wife's mother was cured of the fever-but I of the greater plague of sin.
*Out of Magdalene seven devils were cast-but a whole legion out of me.
*Mary and Martha were favored with visits-but He dwells with me.
*His mother bore His body-but He is formed in me the hope of glory."
Charles Spurgeon

DESIRE OF AGES: Audio & Pull Quotes- Chapter 30

He Ordained Twelve

Audio:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/DYLC2v1CJes?list=PL4ByrircmXL6qt2QplU6IudoOYVgzBS3C

As His representatives among men, Christ does not choose angels who have never fallen, but human beings, men of like passions with those they seek to save. Christ took upon Himself humanity, that He might reach humanity.

In training His disciples, Jesus chose to withdraw from the confusion of the city to the quiet of the fields and hills... As men should lift up their eyes to the hills of God, and behold the wonderful works of His hands, they could learn precious lessons of divine truth. Christ's teaching would be repeated to them in the things of nature. So it is with all who go into the fields with Christ in their hearts. They will feel themselves surrounded with a holy influence. The things of nature take up the parables of our Lord, and repeat His counsels. By communion with God in nature, the mind is uplifted, and the heart finds rest.
We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves. 2 Corinthians 4:7

17 Reasons SERIES: #2

17 Reasons why Christianity should NOT have succeeded....

"17 factors to be considered -- places where Christianity "did the wrong thing" in order to be a successful religion. It is my contention that the only way Christianity did succeed is because it was a truly revealed faith -- and because it had the irrefutable witness of the Resurrection." J.P.Holding

Factor #2 -- A Man from Galilee?
And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?
John 1:46

"Jesus' Jewishness could hardly have been denied by the early Christians, but it was also a major impediment to spreading the Gospel beyond the Jews themselves. Judaism was regarded by the Romans and Gentiles as a superstition. Roman writers like Tacitus willingly reported all manner of calumnies against Jews as a whole, regarding them as a spiteful and hateful race......the Jewishness of Jesus even by itself means that it never should have expanded in the Gentile world much beyond the circle of those Gentiles who were

already God-fearers (i.e., Gentile proselytes to Judaism).

Let us stress again the points made by Robert Wilken in The Christians as the Romans Saw Them. The Romans naturally considered their own belief systems to be superior to all others. They also believed that superstitions (such as Judaism and Christianity) undermined the social system established by their religion.

When Paul mentioned that he was from Tarsus, he didn't do it so he could compare notes about hometowns with the centurion. Being from a major polis like Tarsus signified a high honor rating for the person who laid claim to it -- only marginally matched today in our concepts of "being from the right side of the tracks".
Christianity had a serious handicap in this regard, the stigma of a savior who undeniably hailed from Galilee -- for the Romans and Gentiles, not only a Jewish land, but a hotbed of political sedition; for the Jews, not as bad as Samaria of course, but a land of yokels and farmers without much respect for the Torah, and worst of all, a savior from a puny village of no account. Not even a birth in Bethlehem, or Matthew's suggestion that an origin in Galilee was prophetically ordained, would have unattached such a stigma: Indeed, Jews would not be convinced of this, even as today, unless something else first convinced them that Jesus was divine or the Messiah.

---Assigning Jesus the work of a carpenter was the wrong thing to do; Cicero noted that such occupations were "vulgar" and compared the work to slavery.
---Placing Jesus' birth story in a suspicious context where a charge of illegitimacy would be all too obvious to make would compound the problems as well." J.P.Holding

Because I Am performed by HARVEST

Because I Am performed by HARVEST
https://www.youtube.com/embed/0vjHTudeI4M?list=PLT70zxsi10M-UFKccp7Zn11klRwN9I009
Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life:
he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:
John 11:25

Scientific Method applied to Resurrection of Christ

"The resurrection of Jesus Christ was predicted centuries before it occurred. It was also corroborated by eyewitness testimony. Can science do better than this?

How does “science” exceed any other form of investigation?
-It includes logic, but so do other forms of analysis.

-It includes mathematics, but so do non-scientific activities, like bookkeeping.

-It requires evidence, but so do other university departments outside the science building, like history.
-It includes falsification, but so do trials in courtrooms.

Prediction is one hallmark of science that ranks it above these other activities. If a scientific hypothesis makes a prediction that comes true, and it is specific enough to weed out confirmation bias, it deserves careful attention."
CEH

And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:

After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once;

of whom the greater part remain unto this present,

but some are fallen asleep.

1 Corinthians 15:4,6

Health Note - Easter Meal?

Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest...be in health,

3 John 1:2

Grilled Rosemary Garlic Potatoes
"Ingredients

• 1 pound small, yellow new potatoes
• 2 medium sweet potatoes
• 2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh rosemary
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 to 1 teaspoon kosher salt, to taste

Cooking Directions

1. Heat grill to 400 degrees.
   
2. Slice new potatoes in halves (quarters if they are a bit larger). Peel and slice sweet potatoes into 1 inch cubes.
3. Place potatoes in large bowl. Add olive oil, rosemary, garlic powder and salt. Stir until well combined.
4. Place a grill pan or large iron skillet on the grill. Add potatoes and grill for 30-40 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes.
5. Serve hot." Liz/VirtuallyHomemade

Easter Egg Origins

Can that which is unsavoury be eaten without salt?
or is there any taste in the white of an egg?
Job 6:6

"Rabbits, of course, are a potent symbol of fertility due to their prodigious output of young.
Eggs, likewise, have always been considered representative of new life,

*fertility, and

*reincarnation.

Painted eggs, thought to imitate the bright sunlight and gaily

colored flowers of spring, have been used in rituals since the days of the ancient Egyptians and Babylonians. … In ancient Egypt, an egg symbolised the sun, while for the Babylonians, the egg represents the hatching of the Venus Ishtar, who fell from heaven to the Euphrates....For Christians the egg is a symbol of Jesus' resurrection, as when they are cracked open, they stand for the empty tomb.  " L,H&T

Easter date set in 325 A.D.

"Council of Nicaea in AD 325, the issue was finally settled by the church as a whole. The desire of

the churches as a whole, even prior to the council, was to unite the entire body of Christ on this all-important day of celebrating the Resurrection...Though we do not have the records of the discussions that framed the debate, copies of letters sent to absent bishops still exist. It seems that one of the major issues of contention was that the celebration of the Jewish Passover had slipped to a period before the vernal (spring) equinox. Thus, the council determined the date should be fixed to the first Sunday following the full moon after the vernal equinox.

In light of the agreement by the council, a letter distributed to the synods of the Church of Alexandria stated:

We further proclaim to you the good news of the agreement concerning the holy Easter, that this particular also has through your prayers been rightly settled; so that all our brethren in the East who formerly followed the custom of the Jews are henceforth to celebrate the said most sacred feast of Easter at the same time with the Romans...

 Constantine provided a rationale for his desire to set a common Sunday date.

When the question relative to the sacred festival of Easter arose, it was universally thought that it would be convenient that all should keep the feast on one day; for what could be more beautiful and more desirable, than to see this festival, through which we receive the hope of immortality, celebrated by all with one accord, and in the same manner? It was declared to be particularly unworthy for this, the holiest of all festivals, to follow the custom [the calculation] of the Jews, who had soiled their hands with the most fearful of crimes, and whose minds were blinded. . . . We ought not, therefore, to have anything in common with the Jews, for the Savior has shown us another way. . . . As, on the one hand, it is our duty not to have anything in common with the murderers of our Lord...

 Disputes remained about which astronomical cycle would be used and on which day the equinox fell. The Romans held to March 21 while the Alexandrians set the date as March 18. Also, some churches would not celebrate on the Sunday following the full moon. Though minor disputes continued, the dates for Easter from the Roman Church were set in tables followed by a majority of churches." AIG
....but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother’s way. Romans 14:13

Easter Chained to Moon

"Have you ever wondered why the date of the Easter holiday varies so much from year to year? It can be as early as March 22 and as late as April 25. So why the difference?

Have you ever wondered why the date of the Easter holiday
varies so much from year to year?
It can be as early as March 22 and as late as April 25

Would you be surprised to know that the date of the Christian festival depends on the appearance of a full moon? Yes, that´s right, a full moon – the same phenomenon celebrated by pagans 13 times a year.
Added to that, the date of Easter is worked out in a most convoluted fashion.

According to the Bible, Jesus’ death and resurrection occurred around the time of the Jewish Passover, which was celebrated on the first full moon following the vernal equinox.
This soon led to Christians celebrating Easter on different dates. At the end of the 2nd century, some churches celebrated Easter on the day of the Passover, while others celebrated it on the following Sunday.

In AD 325, the Council of Nicaea set the date of Easter as the Sunday following the paschal full moon, which is the full moon that falls on or after the vernal (spring) equinox. In practice, that means that Easter is always the first Sunday after the first full moon that falls on or after March 21. Easter can occur as early as March 22 and as late as April 25, depending on when the paschal full moon falls.

And, if that isn’t bad enough, the Church does not use the exact date of the paschal full moon but an approximation, because the paschal full moon can fall on different days in different time zones, which would mean that the date of Easter would be different depending on which time zone you live in.
For calculation purposes, the full moon is always set at the 14th day of the lunar month (the lunar month begins with the new moon). Likewise, the Church sets the date of the vernal equinox at March 21, even though it can occur on March 20. Both approximations allow the Church to set a universal date for Easter.
Of course, all this only applies in areas where the church uses the Gregorian calendar, as in Europe and the Americas for example. The Eastern Orthodox Church still uses the Julian calendar – meaning that Easter, like Christmas, falls on a different date to the west."
50SOF
In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the LORD'S Passover.
Leviticus 23:5

Dying, Mysterious Victim of Cross

And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull,..

John 19:17

"The whole world stands condemned before the great moral standard of righteousness.

In the great day of judgment every soul that has lived on the earth will receive sentence in accordance as to whether his deeds have been good or evil in the light of the law of God.

Every mouth will be stopped as the cross with its dying Victim shall be presented, and its real bearing shall be seen by every mind that has been sin blinded and corrupted. Sinners will stand condemned before the cross, with its mysterious Victim bowing beneath the infinite burden of human transgression.

How quickly will be swept away every lying excuse! Human apostasy will appear in its heinous character. Men will see what their choice has been. They will then understand that they have chosen Barabbas instead of Christ, the Prince of Peace."
Signs Of The Times 1895 E.G.W. 

Unto The Lamb performed by RUSS TAFF

Unto The Lamb
performed by RUSS TAFF
https://www.youtube.com/embed/nSZF6BFIa5M?list=PLT70zxsi10M9SRvi3zxq16MxT2LYC_fto
Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
John 1:29

IN the NEWS - Hawking's Eschatology

Hawking was kinda right---but not quite.....it's more like this for our universe- Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat...
2 Peter 3:12

"The Cambridge professor co-authored a new research paper about the collapse of our universe as the stars’ energy runs out and what happened before the Big Bang.

The theoretical physicist, who died on March 14, wrote how our universe will fade into nothingness as the stars rapidly lose their energy.
The paper also revealed how the esteemed professors’ colleagues could try to detect evidence of a multiverse from a spaceship – proving our world is one of many universes created by “Big Bangs”."
TheSun

Creation Moment 4/1/2018 - Empty Tomb / Creation Lesson

M"Matthew 28 describes how on resurrection morning women came to the empty tomb looking for Jesus. Have you looked for Jesus recently?

Do you see Him through His work in creation (Romans 1:20)?
He is the beginning and the end (Revelation 21:6).
He created the universe and everything in it in six days (Genesis 1; Colossians 1:16; John 1:3).
He created you and me (Genesis 1:27; Psalm 139:13-14),
and He created us to do good works that He prepared for us in advance (Ephesians 2:10).

 Redeemer Jesus is also our Creator.

Consider Jesus’ work as Creator ...Notice how everything Jesus made has a distinct

purpose ....witness His incredible design of living organisms.

When we look for Jesus, He reveals Himself in creation for us to clearly see—He makes Himself known.....We can observe His works and say with the psalmist, “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained, what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him?” (Psalm 8:3-4).

  He is risen—He is risen indeed!" ICR

Monthly Viewer Update {March 2018}

Monthly Viewer Update: March 2018 {32,631}

Where YOU are Viewing From

Top 10 Nations

#1 U.S.A. (83.9%)

 #2 Singapore (2.7%)

#3 Germany (1.7%)

#4 France (1.4%)

#5 Australia (0.8%)

#6 Russia (0.7%)

#7Spain (0.7%)

#8 Ukraine (0.6%)

 #9 Britain (0.5%)

 # Portugal (0.4%)

ALL OTHER of the remaining 185 NATIONS (7.1%)

Leading among "Others" were Brazil, Poland, South Korea,  Canada & Philippines

The eternal God is thy refuge,

and underneath are the everlasting arms:
Deuteronomy 33:27

 Top 3 Viewed Posts of Month

1- Logic Dictates {GOD}

2- Where He wants to LEAD YOU

3- HISTORICISM Vindicated in Daniel & Revelation

Puritan Corner - The Reckoning

 "Sin is not so sweet in the committing as it is heavy and bitter in the reckoning."
by Richard Sibbes (1577-1635)
Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
Galatians 6:7

DESIRE OF AGES: Audio & Pull Quotes- Chapter 29

The Sabbath

Audio:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/ojEZXJnl8fU?list=PL4ByrircmXL6qt2QplU6IudoOYVgzBS3C

The Sabbath was hallowed at the creation. It was a memorial of the work of creation, and thus a sign

of God's power and His love. The Sabbath calls our thoughts to nature, and brings us into communion with the Creator.
As the Jews departed from God, and failed to make the righteousness of Christ their own by faith, the Sabbath lost its significance to them. Satan was seeking to exalt himself and to draw men away from Christ, and he worked to pervert the Sabbath.
The object of God's work in this world is the redemption of man; therefore that which is necessary to be done on the Sabbath in the accomplishment of this work is in accord with the Sabbath law.
If it was right for David to satisfy his hunger by eating of the bread that had been set apart to a holy use, then it was right for the disciples to supply their need by plucking the grain upon the sacred hours of the Sabbath. Again, the priests in the temple performed greater labor on the Sabbath than upon other days. The same labor in secular business would be sinful; but the work of the priests was in the service of God. They were performing those rites that pointed to the redeeming power of Christ, and their labor was in harmony with the object of the Sabbath.
As a sign of His sanctifying power, the Sabbath is given to all who through Christ become a part of the Israel of God.

O Lord, how great are Thy works!
And Thy thoughts are very deep.
                                                 Psalm 92:5

17 Reasons SERIES: #1

17 Reasons why Christianity should NOT have succeeded....

"17 factors to be considered -- places where Christianity "did the wrong thing" in order to be a successful religion. It is my contention that the only way Christianity did succeed is because it was a truly revealed faith -- and because it had the irrefutable witness of the Resurrection." J.P.Holding

#1 -- Who Would Buy One Crucified?
For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. 1 Corinthians 1:18

"With the exception of the Christ-mythers and conspiracy theorists (and I put Muslims in this rank,

where this issue is concerned), few would deny the historical reality of the crucifixion and the death of Jesus. But once that door is opened, it brings about the first of our problems: Who on earth would believe a religion centered on a crucified man?

As Martin Hengel has amply shown us in his monograph, Crucifixion, the shame of the cross was the result of a fundamental norm of the Greco-Roman Empire. Hengel observes that "crucifixion was an utterly offensive affair, 'obscene' in the original sense of the word." (22)
 As Malina and Rohrbaugh note in their Social-Science Commentary on John [263-4], crucifixion was a "status degradation ritual" designed to humiliate in every way, including the symbolic pinioning of hands and legs signifying a loss of power, and loss of ability to control the body in various ways, including befouling one's self with excrement.

It was recognized as early as Paul (1 Cor. 1:18; see also Heb. 12:2) that preaching a savior who underwent this disgraceful treatment was folly.

N. T. Wright makes these points in Resurrection of the Son of God [543, 559, 563]:

The argument at this point proceeds in three stages.  

(i) Early Christianity was thoroughly messianic, shaping itself around the belief that Jesus was God's Messiah, Israel's Messiah.  

(ii) But Messiahship in Judaism, such as it was, never envisaged someone doing the sort of things Jesus had done, let alone suffering the fate he suffered.  

(iii) The historian must therefore ask why the early Christians made this claim about Jesus, and why they reordered their lives accordingly." J.P.Holding