And the Spirit & the bride say, come.... Reveaaltion 22:17

And the Spirit & the bride say, come.... Reveaaltion 22:17
And the Spirit & the bride say, come...Revelation 22:17 - May We One Day Bow Down In The DUST At HIS FEET ...... {click on blog TITLE at top to refresh page}---QUESTION: ...when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? LUKE 18:8

Tuesday, November 28, 2023

SIMPLIFYING ADVENTISM: Mission, Cornerstone Doctrine, Identifying Mark & Unique Characteristic of SDA Chruch Through the Prism of Sola Scriptura


 
SIMPLIFYING ADVENTISM: 
Mission, Cornerstone Doctrine, 
 Identifying Mark & 
Unique Characteristic of SDA Chruch 
Through the Prism of Sola Scriptura 
Sola Scriptura (Latin for 'by Scripture alone')

The MISSION of the SDA Church is the 3 Angel's Messages:
[Last Call To The World]
1) And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, 
Saying with a loud voice, 
Fear God, and give glory to Him; 
for the hour of His judgment is come: 
and worship Him that made heaven, and earth, 
and the sea, and the fountains of waters. 
2) And there followed another angel, saying, 
Babylon is fallen, is fallen,....
3) And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, 
If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; ...
*And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, 
Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, 
and is become the habitation of devils, 
and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird....., 
Come out of her, My people, 
that ye be not partakers of her sins, 
and that ye receive not of her plagues.
Revelation 14:6-10/18:2,10

The Cornerstone DOCTRINE of the SDA Church is the SANCTUARY DOCTRINE:
[From the SYMBOLISM of the Earthly Sanctuary to the REALITY of the Heavenly Sanctuary]
And he said unto me, 
Unto two thousand and three hundred days; (years)
then shall the sanctuary be cleansed....
*We have such an high priest, 
who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; 
*A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, 
which the Lord pitched, and not man. 
1) Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary. 
--For there was a tabernacle made; the first, wherein was the candlestick, and the table, and the shewbread; which is called the sanctuary. 
--And after the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of all; Which had the golden censer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold,..
--Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God. 
--But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people: 
2) But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.
--For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: 
--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?... but now once in the end of the world hath He 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:
Daniel 8:14/Hebrews 8:1,2/9:1-4.6,7,11-14,26,27

The IDENTIFYING MARK of the SDA Church is the 7th Day SABBATH:
[The Seal of His Law that Identifies Him as Creator -- and therefore as God]
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy 
Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: 
*But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: 
in it thou shalt not do any work...
For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, 
the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: 
wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. 
Here is the patience of the saints: 
here are they that keep the commandments of God, 
and the faith of Jesus.
Exodus 20:8-11/Revelation 14:12

In this GREAT CONTROVERSY between God and His opponent, played out here on this Space Fabric of Time, 
between the Pillars of the 2 Decrees from the Throne of God, 
of "Let There Be Light" (Gen. 1:3) to "It is Done" (Rev. 16:17) --
The Apostle Paul gives us a WARNING:
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 high places.
 Ephesians 6:12

God sent mankind a Text Message, the Bible--giving us origins, destiny, meaning and morality.
It Begins & Ends the same: It begins with God leaning over and
breathing the breath of Life into Adam. It ends with God leaning over and wiping away the tears of the saints. -- It Begins and Ends with God leaning over and touching us--mankind. In the pages in between He tells us what He thinks of us: ...
that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy. James 5:11

Picture the Letter of 3rd John as a Summary of God's Text Message to YOU:
Beloved, 
I wish above all things 
that thou mayest prosper
(personal wellbeing)
and be in health,
(physical wellbeing) 
even as thy soul prospereth.
(spiritual wellbeing)
I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. But I trust I shall shortly see thee, 
and we shall speak face to face.
3 John 1:2,4,14

The Unique Characteristic of the SDA Church is the Gift of the SPIRIT of PROPHECY in its midst:
[We believe through Ellen White]
And the dragon was wroth with the woman, 
and went to make war with the remnant of her seed,
1- which keep the commandments of God, 
2- and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
And I fell at his feet to worship him. 
And he said unto me, 
See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren 
that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: 
for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
Revelation 12:17/19:10
Her writings are considered by her and the Church, to be the "Lesser Light" pointing toward the "Greater Light" (the Bible). They are in NO WAY to take the place of Scripture nor are on par with the canon of Scripture itself. Rather, under inspiration, they highlight the Present Truth in the Bible for this age---
(Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth. 1 Peter 1:12).
EXAMPLE: The dietary principles of God are in Scripture. Well before the Hebrews in the days of Moses, God distinguished clear back in the Days of Noah, that there are Clean and Unclean Meat for mankind. She pulled the HEALTH MESSAGE from the Scriptures that many Christians had been missing - or ignoring for centuries - yet it was always there.
This last day movement would not only keep the commandments of God but have the Spirit of Prophecy within it. 
***12 Samples of Ellen White***
On GRACE: 
"If you feel yourself to be the greatest sinner, Christ is just what you need, the greatest Savior. Lift up your head and look away from yourself, away from your sin, to the uplifted Savior; away from the poisonous, venomous bite of the serpent to the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world."

On OBEDIENCE: 
"God has given us His commandments, not only to be believed in, but to be obeyed." 
Message for LAODICEA: 

"You know the truth, you believe the truth, you even love the truth.---But the truth hasn't changed you. Let the truth change you."
On PRAYER: 

"Keep your wants, your joys, your sorrows, your cares, and your fears before God. 
You cannot burden Him; you cannot weary Him.
His heart of love is touched by our sorrows and even by our utterances of them.
Take to Him everything that perplexes the mind. Nothing is too great for Him to bear, for He holds up worlds, He rules over all the affairs of the universe. 
Nothing that in any way concerns our peace is too small for Him to notice. 
There is no chapter in our experience too dark for Him to read; there is no perplexity too difficult for Him to unravel. .... no sincere prayer escape the lips, of which our heavenly Father is unobservant, or in which He takes no immediate interest.
......He knows the sorrows that we feel to the depths of our being, but which we cannot express.
"

On What to Contemplate:
"It would be well for us to spend a thoughtful hour each day in contemplation of the life of
Christ. We should take it point by point, and let the imagination grasp each scene, especially the closing ones.
"
On the "IF": 

"If we ever reach heaven, it will be by linking our souls to Christ, leaning upon Him, and cutting loose from *the world, *its follies *and enchantments."

On SEXUAL IMMORALITY: 
"O, how disgusted is God with the tame, lifeless, Christless efforts made by some of those who profess to be his servants. Not one particle of Sodomitish impurity will escape the wrath of God at the execution of the judgment. Those who do not repent of and forsake all uncleanness will fall with the wicked.
Those who anciently committed these sins were taken without the camp and stoned to death. Temporal and eternal death was their doom; and because the penalty of stoning to death is abolished, this sin is indulged in beyond measure, and is thought to be a small offense.
Indulgence in unlawful things has become a power to--
deprave mankind,--to dwarf the mind,--and to pervert the faculties.
Just such a state of things as exists today existed before the flood and before the destruction of
Sodom.
"

On Christ in the SANCTUARY: 
"The intercession of Christ in man’s behalf in the sanctuary above is as essential to the plan
of salvation as was His death upon the cross.
By His death He began that work which after His resurrection He ascended to complete in heaven. 
The sanctuary in heaven is the very center of Christ's work in behalf of men.
It concerns every soul living upon the earth."

On the SABBATH:
"Like the Sabbath, the week originated at creation, and it has been preserved and brought down to us through Bible history. God himself measured off the first week as a sample for successive weeks to the close of time.
Like every other, it consisted of seven literal days. Six days were employed in the work of creation; upon the seventh, God rested, and he then blessed this day, and set it apart as a day of rest for man.
"

On the STATE OF THE DEAD:
"Nowhere in the Sacred Scriptures is found the statement that the righteous go to their reward or the wicked to their punishment at death. Upon the fundamental error of natural immortality rests the doctrine of consciousness in death—a doctrine.... opposed to the teachings of the Scriptures, to the dictates of reason.
Immortality, promised to man on condition of obedience, had been forfeited by transgression. 
Adam could not transmit to his posterity that which he did not possess; But what did Adam, after his sin, find to be the meaning of the words, “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou
shalt surely die”? 
Did he find them to mean, as Satan had led him to believe, that he was to be ushered into a more exalted state of existence? 
The Bible declares that the dead know not anything, that their thoughts have perished; they have no part in anything that is done under the sun; they know nothing of the joys or sorrows of those who were dearest to them on earth. God has expressly forbidden all pretended communication with departed spirits. In the days of the Hebrews there was a class of people who claimed, as do the spiritualists of today, to hold communication with the dead. But the “familiar spirits,” as these visitants from other worlds were called, are declared by the Bible to be “the spirits of devils.” 
The theory of the immortality of the soul was one of those false doctrines that Rome, borrowing from paganism, incorporated into the religion of Christendom. 
Martin Luther classed it with the “monstrous fables that form part of the Roman dunghill of decretals.”
The Bible clearly teaches that the dead do not go immediately to heaven. They are represented as sleeping until the resurrection. 1 Thessalonians 4:14; Job 14:10-12. In the very day when the silver cord is loosed and the golden bowl broken (Ecclesiastes 12:6), man's thoughts perish. They that go down to the grave are in silence. They sleep; they are awakened by the trump of God to a glorious immortality. “For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible.... So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.” 1 Corinthians 15:52-54. "

On ERROR:
"Error cannot stand alone, and would soon become extinct if it did not fasten itself like a parasite upon the tree of truth.
--Error draws its life from the truth of God.
--The traditions of men, like floating germs, attach themselves to the truth of God, and men
regard them as a part of the truth.

--Through false doctrines, Satan gains a foothold, and captivates the minds of men, causing them to hold theories that have no foundation in truth.
Men boldly teach for doctrines
the commandments of men; and as traditions pass on from age to age, they acquire a power over the human mind.
But age does not make
error truth, neither does its burdensome weight cause the plant of truth to become a parasite.
--The tree of truth bears its own genuine fruit, showing its true origin and nature.
--The parasite of error also bears its own fruit and makes manifest that its character is diverse from the plant of heavenly origin.
"

A WARNING: 
"...by beholding we become changed. The mind gradually adapts itself to the subjects upon which it is allowed to dwell. It becomes assimilated to that which it is accustomed to love and reverence."

Q: Do you know of any other denomination that preaches the 3
Angel's Messages
, lifts up the Beauty of the Sanctuary Doctrine where the Plan of Redemption is laid out, believes in keeping ALL the Commandments of God (including the 7th day Sabbath of the 4th Commandment) and has the Spirit of Prophecy -- not in an arrogant way that makes up new things but rather, under inspiration, points deeper into what's already there in the Bible?


Links for MORE on the 3 ANGEL'S MESSAGES:
3 Angel's Message Simplified3 Angels' Messages SIMPLIFIED Series: Message 1
3 Angels' Messages SIMPLIFIED Series: Message 2
3 Angels' Messages SIMPLIFIED Series: Message 3
Dig Deeper: Cleansing of the Sanctuary Simplified (master1844-dc.blogspot.com)
Uriah Smith & the Prophetic Apartment of the Sacred Scriptures & the 2300 days
ALPHA & OMEGA of the SANCTUARY

Creation Moment 11/29/2023 - 20 Failed Evolutionary Biological Claims SERIES: Missed the mark by 57,000

Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men... 
1 Corinthians 1:25

"Prediction: it was proposed in the early 1940s that genes would each code for one protein or enzyme. This applied in bacteria. And the realization that the formation of any functional gene coding for one protein by evolutionary processes was improbable reinforced this view. 
Thus, it was applied to all organisms. It was not anticipated that a
gene could code for more than one protein, or other functions as well as protein production. 
--Hence it was thought that humans would have over 100,000 genes. 
--This is not the case; we have ~23,000 genes, but we produce many more than 100,000 different proteins. 
This is achieved by a given DNA sequence being multi-functional, coding for more than one protein." 
CMI

Monday, November 27, 2023

What does "Godhead" mean?

"The term “Godhead” is used three times in the Bible:
“Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device” (Acts 17:29, KJV).
“For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse” (Romans 1:20, KJV).
“For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9, KJV).


Other translations (NASB, NIV, ESV) use different terms in place of “Godhead” – divine nature/being (Acts 17:29), divine nature (Romans 1:20), and deity (Colossians 2:9). These are helpful in understanding the meaning of the term.

“Godhead” is about nature or possessing the characteristics of God. 

Another term that may be easier to understand would be “Godhood.” This would be similar to “manhood” or “brotherhood” – possessing the characteristics of “men” or “brethren.” Those in the “Godhead” are part of the “Godhood” – possessing the characteristics of God." 
PlainBible

How Pagan Stoic Influence CREPT into Rome's version of the "Trinity"

For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ. Jude 1:4

"Under the influence of Stoic philosophy, Tertullian believes that all real things are material. God is a spirit, but a spirit is a material thing made out of a finer sort of matter. 
*At the beginning, God is alone, though He has His own reason
within Him. 
*Then, when it is time to create, He brings the Son into existence, using but not losing a portion of His spiritual matter. 
*Then the Son, using a portion of the divine matter shared with Him, brings into existence the Spirit. 
And the two of them are God’s instruments, His agents, in the creation and governance of the cosmos.

The Son, on this theory, is not God Himself, nor is He divine in the same sense that the Father is. Rather, the Son is “divine” in that He is made of a portion of the matter that the Father is composed of. 
This makes them “one substance” or not different as to essence. 
But the Son isn’t the same god as the Father, though He can, because of what He’s made of, be called “God”. 
Nor is there any tripersonal God here, but only a tripersonal portion of matter - that smallest portion shared by all three. 
The one God is sharing a portion of His stuff with another, by causing another to exist out of it, and then this other turns around and does likewise, sharing some of this matter with a third.

Against the common believers concerned with monotheism,
Tertullian argues that although the above process results in two more who can be called “God”, it does not introduce two more gods - not gods in the sense that Yahweh is a god. 
There is still, as there can only be, one ultimate source of all else, the Father. Thus, monotheism is upheld. The one God is unipersonal both at the start and the end of this process. Nor are the persons equally divine; Tertullian holds that the Son is “ignorant of the last day and hour, which is known to the Father only” (Tertullian, Praxeas, ch. 27; Matthew 24:36).

Q: What is Tertullian’s answer to his “monarchian” critics? 
A: He strongly emphasizes that these are truly three; none of the
three is identical to any other. They are “undivided” in the sense that the Father, in sharing some of His matter, never loses any; rather, that matter comes to simultaneously compose more than one being.  The Father is one entity, the Son is a second, and the Spirit is a third. Nor are they parts of any whole; the latter two simply share some of the Father’s divine stuff. 

Tertullian does not argue that the three compose or otherwise are the one God. Instead, Tertullian replies that a king may share his one kingdom with subordinate rulers, and yet it may still be one kingdom. Likewise, God (i.e. the Father) may share the governance of the cosmos with His Son (Praxeas, ch. 4)

Despite these fundamental differences from later orthodoxy, Tertullian is now hailed by trinitarians for his use of the term “Trinity” (Latin: trinitas) and his view that it (at the last stage) consists of three persons with a common or shared “substance”.
StanfordEncyclopediaOfPhilosophy

A Plural-- yet --Monotheistic God

"Monotheism (the belief in one deity) was unique to God’s people in the Old Testament. Moses said, “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one!” (Deuteronomy 6:4).

The New Testament plainly teaches that there is one God. Paul described the idols as “so-called gods” because “there is no such thing as an idol in the world, and that there is no God but one” 
(1 Corinthians 8:4-5).

While the Scriptures are clear that there is one God, they also describe three persons of God. 
The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are each referred to as “God” in the New Testament.

The Father is God – 
“For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this
was made to Him by the Majestic Glory, ‘This is My beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased
’” (2 Peter 1:17).

The Son (Jesus) is God – 
“But of the Son He says, ‘Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, and the righteous scepter is the scepter of His kingdom” (Hebrews 1:8).
The Holy Spirit is God –
 “But Peter said, ‘Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back some of the price of land? […] You have not lied to men but to God’” (Acts 5:3-4).

Though we do not find the term “Trinity” being used in the Bible, we can see from the passages above that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are all God." 
PlainBible

SDA History: E.G.W. on the Holy Spirit

Thy testimonies are very sure: holiness becometh thine house, O LORD, for ever. Psalm 93:5

“Sin could be resisted and overcome only through the mighty agency of the Third Person of the Godhead.” The Desire of Ages, 671.

“He determined to give His representative, the third person of the
Godhead
.
” Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 6, 1053; The Signs of the Times, December 12, 1898, par. 2; The Watchman, November 28, 1905, par. 2; My Life Today, 36.

“Evil had been accumulating for centuries and could only be restrained and resisted by the mighty power of the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Godhead.” Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, 392, (Cooranbong, Australia, February 6, 1896); The Upward Look, 51; Special Testimonies for Ministers and Workers—No. 10, 25; Manuscript Releases, vol. 2, 34; vol. 4, 329; vol. 10, 63; The Ellen G. White 1888 Materials, vol. 4, 1493.

“The prince of the power of evil can only be held in check by the power of God in the third person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit.”—Special Testimonies, Series A, No. 10, p. 37. (1897)” Ibid., 617.

The Holy Spirit referred to as "God" - hence, part of the Triune Godhead

"There are occasions where Jesus speaks or prays to the Father,
making it clear there are two persons involved
(Matthew 6:9). 
In Acts 5:3-4 we find the Spirit specifically referred to as God: "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God." 
It is clear the Father is God (Deuteronomy 6:4), Jesus is God (John 1:1; Colossians 1:16), and the Spirit is God (Acts 5:3-4)." 
CT

Christ referred to Himself, the Father and Spirit as DISTINCT Beings

"Some people claim that Jesus is the only person of God. 
*Yet He plainly stated that He was distinct from the Father. 
In defending the claims He was making about Himself, Jesus said, “Even in your law it has been written that the testimony of two men is true. I am He who testifies about Myself, and the Father who sent Me testifies about Me” (John 8:17-18). 
If Jesus and the Father were the same person, His argument would have been absurd. 
He told His disciples, “I am the vine, and My Father is the vinedresser” (John 15:1).

*Jesus also made it clear that He was distinct from the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, “Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come” (Matthew 12:32). 
The consequences for speaking against Jesus and the Holy Spirit were different, clearly indicating that Jesus and the Holy Spirit were two different persons." 
PlainBible

The "in's" of Colossians

For in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
Colossians 2:9


"In Colossians the preposition in introduces a multitude of
information concerning the person of Christ, 
His relationship to us, and ours to Him. 
The “in’s” are as follows: 
The in of redemption: “In whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins” (1:14). 
The in of fullness: “For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell” (1:19). 
The in of Christ’s indwelling: “God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (1:27). 
The in of working: “I also labor, striving according to His working, which worketh in me mightily” (1:29). 
The in of bonding love: “That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love” (2:2). 
The in of hidden treasure: “In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (2:3). 
The in of steadfastness: “Joying and beholding your order, and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ” (2:5). 
The in of walking: “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him” (2:6). 
The in of growth and stability: “Rooted and built up in Him, and stablished in the faith” (2:7). 
The in of deity: “For in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (2:9). 
The in of completeness: “Ye are complete in Him” (2:10). 
The in of spiritual surgery: “In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ” (2:11)." ICR

Creation Moment 11/28/2023 - 20 Failed Evolutionary Biological Claims SERIES: Dawkins Failed Prediction

Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men... 
1 Corinthians 1:25

"Prediction: Richard Dawkins explicitly predicted that all living
creatures share the exact same genetic code and this is ‘proof’ of evolution. 
After all, switching from one code to a different one would be like switching keys on a keyboard, and scrambling the messages. 
However, organisms with different genetic codes have been catalogued since the 1970s. 
*This is a massive fail under Dawkins’ own criterion." CMI

Sunday, November 26, 2023

Proof the Holy Spirit is a PERSON of the Godhead

"The Holy Spirit can be vexed.
Isaiah 63
10 But they rebelled, and vexed His Holy Spirit: therefore He was turned to be their enemy, and He fought against them.

To be vexed is an emotional response of which power as such is incapable. This is clearly a distinguishing mark of a person.

The Holy Spirit can be grieved.
Ephesians 4
30
And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed unto the day of redemption.


He can be pleased or experience pleasure.
Acts 15
28
For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things.


He is able to speak His own mind and to call to service.
Acts 13 [see also 1 Timothy 4:1]
2 As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.


He is able to guide, to hear, and to show.
John 16
13
Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will show you things to come.


He has the ability and the power to convict.
John 16
8
And when He is come He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.

To be able to reprove successfully requires the intelligence which only a person could have. It necessitates the ability to recognize the need for reproof, the area in which it is needed and the way in which it must be given. No unintelligent power could ever have the capacity for doing such. 

He is able to impart.

Romans 5
5
And hope makes not ashamed; because then love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.


He is able to teach.
John 14
26
But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, Whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.


He is able to bring comfort and consolation.
Acts 9
31
Then had the churches rest throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria, and were edified; and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied.


He is able to testify.
John 15
26
But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of Truth, which proceeds from the Father, He shall testify of me.

To testify is to express a personal conviction. One must be a person to have this capacity.

He has a will of His own.
1 Corinthians 12
11
But all these work that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He will.

It is very clear that Jesus while upon this earth understood that the Holy Spirit was a real being who conducted an active personal work of commissioning, anointing, directing and empowering. He spoke of this in His sermon in Nazareth:
Luke 4
18
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.


The Holy Spirit is a distinct Person and it is that He must be in order to do the things the Scriptures say that He does. 
Only a person can think, speak, reprove, be grieved and so on. No other argument is needed beyond this to prove the point." 
F.T.W.

Difference Between the Catholic "Trinity" and the "Triune Godhead"

Whom shall he teach knowledge? 
and whom shall he make to understand doctrine?
Isaiah 28:9

The Trinitarian View of the Triune Godhead is that there are 3 distinct persons who act in unison as one.
This, I believe. to be the correct Trinitarian View.

The Trinitarian View of the
Catholic Church's Trinity is proceeding from each other in a sort of chain, or a spiritual ambilocal chord.
Let a Catholic website explain below the convoluted version of their Trinity:
"And the Council of Florence, AD 1338-1445, can help us in this
regard.

The Council’s definitions concerning the Trinity are really as easy as one, two, three… four. It taught there is one nature in God, and that there are two processions, three persons, and four relations that constitute the Blessed Trinity. 


The Son “proceeds” from the Father, 
and the Holy Spirit “proceeds from the Father and the Son.” 

These are the two processions in God. And these are foundational to the four relations that constitute the three persons in God. These are those four eternal relations in God:
The Father actively and eternally generates the Son, constituting the person of God, the Father.
The Son is passively generated of the Father, which constitutes the person of the Son.
The Father and the Son actively spirate the Holy Spirit in the one relation within the inner life of God that does not constitute a person. It does not do so because the Father and Son are already constituted as persons in relation to each other in the first two relations. This is why CCC 240 teaches, “[The Second Person of the Blessed Trinity] is Son only in relation to his Father.”
The Holy Spirit is passively spirated of the Father and the Son, constituting the person of the Holy Spirit.
We should take note of the distinction between the “generative” procession that constitutes the Son, and the “spirative” procession that constitutes the Holy Spirit
."
CatholicAnswersMagazine

The 4 Types of the Binitarian Heresy SIMPLIFIED

Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. 
Hebrews 13:9

The 4 Types of the Binitarian Heresy, in a Simplified Description, are:

1) 
Basic Binitarian View: That God the Father and God the Son are both Eternal and Divine. But that the Holy Spirit is God the Father's spiritual Prescence in the world acting upon the hearts of men--hence not a person or member of the Triune Godhead/Trinity.

2) Arian view which is that God the Father is Eternal and God the
Son, while Divine and God, is not Eternal but rather the first being God created---sort of like He created a co-God before He created anything else.


3) Semi-Arinaism is the same as above except that God the Son wasn't granted Divine status until He came down to represent the Father on earth and suffered and died on the cross. Divinity with the Father was His reward.
* Jehovah's Witnesses are semi-Arian with a twist. Although agreeing that Christ was made Divibe after the cross (or in their view the stake) they don't pray to Him as such yet. They believe the show down here is all God the Fathee Jehovah's and that Christ will be worshiped when the next world is created.

4) Socinianism, which agrees with the basic Binitarian view, except that they teach that Christ did not exist until He was implanted in Mary. In other words, Christ did not pre-exist until His birth.
*This view started with the Polich Brethren during the Reformation, today it is held by a tiny denomination known as the Christadelphians and their splinter groups: The Church of the Blessed Hope and the Church of God General Conference (Abrahamic faith).

2 Brands of Unitarian Heresy SIMPLIFIED

Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. Hebrews 13:9

1) Strict Unitarians believe in God the Father as God, that Christ was
a good man and teacher--but not God. And that the Holy Spirit is God's presence in the hearts of men.


2) Modalism (Monarchianism) is the belief, held largely by Oneness Pentecostals, that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are three modes of existence for the One God--- Father, Son, and Spirit are only different names for the same Person.


IN the NEWS - Rome bowing to Buddha

Thou shalt have no other gods before me. 
Exodus 20:3

"The Vatican continues leaving a trail of bad theology and
ecumenicms in its wake, with The Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue releasing a joint statment with the Mahamakut
Buddhist University, Chinese Buddhist Order of Sangha in Thailand, and others, on a recently held Buddhist-Christian Colloquium.

"As Buddhists and Christians, we see the Buddha and Jesus as Great Healers. 
The Buddha pointed to greed 
and Jesus to sin 
as the cause of suffering. 
On many levels, Jesus and the Buddha proposed love and compassion as medicine to drive out the darkness in the human heart and the world. Nourished by their respective spiritual teachings, Buddhists and Christians, for thousands of years, have adopted compassionate ways of living to address the suffering of life." 
Protestia

SCAM ALERT - Nelson Alvarez & his personal "Jacob's Ladder"

--SCAM ALERT--
On the "Christian" Mystic Sid Roth's program Nelson Alvarez claims that Christ appeared to him in a mangled, bloody form. 
--He also claims that when he was born, he was taken to a Pentecostal Church where it was prophesied that day that this was
going to happen to him.
--He claims that one can currently ascend to heaven as in Jacob's Ladder.
--He claims that during his worship services people ascend up into heaven---sometimes snatched up by eagles.
--He also claimed that when Paul said he dies daily--Paul was ascending to heaven daily as a result.
*And YES---they said they had videos of people ascending---then---YOU GUESSED IT---it was just people claiming it happened---no actual footage of people ascending---or being snatched by eagles.

They were hawking his audio CD The Awakening and Ascending to Heavenly Realms where it was claimed you would be taught to release Angelic Visitations and how to have a God Encounter---you will become a "Glory Carrier" all for only $29!

In their greed they will make up clever lies 
to get hold of your money. 
But God condemned them long ago,....
2 Peter 2:3

HEALTH NOTE - Eat Your Almonds

Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health...
3 John 1:2

"Opt for almonds, especially in the fall and winter, when cold and flu prevalence is high. 
Q: Why? 
A: Almonds have nearly everything required by the "anti-cold diet". They are rich in vitamin E, folic acid, polyphenols, and unsaturated fatty acids. And, that's not all.
Vitamin E, besides being a potent anti-inflammatory, is also a powerful antioxidant. 
It means almonds are a food that "prolongs youth". 
Vitamin E safeguards cellular components from damage and slows skin aging processes. Hence, it's little wonder that almond oil, which maintains skin firmness and combats wrinkles, is often derived from almonds. 
As stated on the dietto.pl website, consuming 1.3 ounces (roughly one handful) of almonds daily results in a 4 percent reduction in "bad" cholesterol. Consuming two handfuls equates to a reduction of up to 9.4 percent." 
essanews

Creation Moment 11/27/2023 - 20 Failed Evolutionary Biological Claims SERIES: Surprise in the Eyes

Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men... 1 Corinthians 1:25

"Prediction: there would be little genetic resemblance between extant and ‘primitive’ life forms (biochemical homology). 
*Being separated in deep time, every locus of every gene would have mutated multiple times. 
*Thus, Ernst Mayr stated in his 1963 book Animal Species and Evolution “the search for homologous genes [derived from the same ancestor] is quite futile except in very close relatives.” 
This was a strong prediction, but it has been falsified repeatedly. 
One example: humans share a gene involved in eye formation with
flies. Walter Gehring, University of Basel scientist, remarked: “Much to our surprise, the same gene causes eyeless[ness] in the fruit fly. That came as a total surprise, because we thought that the fruit fly eye was in no way a homologous, a similar structure as in humans.
” 
*By non-homologous, they meant that the insect compound eye and the human eye could not possibly have arisen from an eye in a common ancestor.
It was a “total surprise” because it was not expected in evolutionary theory, which holds that insect and vertebrate eyes evolved separately. Another failed expectation." 
CMI