Creator's Calendar - Ep 2 - By Michael Rood-- add commandments 15;00

http://www.newagegod.com/SABmedia/shabat7.htm----How, then, did Christians begin to worship on Sunday, the FIRST day of the week, in place of Saturday, the SEVENTH day of the week?

As a TIME/SPACE traveller, Jesus could truthfully say such things as "Before Abraham was, I am", and "I come from above," and "I go to prepare a place for you"...and return from our Age to tell the Bible Copyists what to put in the "Torah Codes"!

With two years experience actually doing Bible "Torah Codes" on his own computer, Dr. Holt is of the opinion Yeshua ben Miriam [Jesus Christ] is the One responsible for these codes!

There is no record in the "Gospel Pesher" in Acts of Jesus ever authorizng a change from the Seventh day Sabbath to Sunday, although about 60 AD one particular Sunday was celebrated as a sort of EASTER! For More on Bible Codes

How, then, did Christians begin to worship on Sunday, the FIRST day of the week, in place of Saturday, the SEVENTH day of the week? ANSWER: It seems that Gentile Christians by the end of the first century were, some of them, celebrating the first day of the week as a holiday or "play day" IN ADDITION TO keeping the SEVENTH DAY Holy by strict Jewish and Essene rules...Of course these Sunday holidays were more enjoyable than the Saturday Sabbaths. After the destruction of Jerusalem around 70 AD, and another Jewish revolt around 135 AD, Gentiles, and especially Romans had another reason for disliking Saturday Sabbaths...it reminded them of Jews and Jewishness, and they by then detested anything Jewish! However, it was not until after the Emporer Constantine the Great chose to make Christianity the STATE RELIGION of his Empire, that any attempt was made to TRANSFER any of the sacredness of the Seventh day Sabbath to Sunday, the FIRST DAY. This was by Constantine's REQUEST, not by any ACTION of the Church originally...a REQUEST by a man who was a SUN-WORSHIPPER!

Mr. Ian Wilson, of Bristol, England, in 1984 completed one of his many successful books tracing what we then knew about Jesus... The book was published by HarpurSanFrancisco in 1988... Ian Wilson is a historian not a theologian, so he writes very clearly about the Emporer Constantine and his real religious preferences!

Shown in the book are these two medals struck in Constantine's honor, the left in 313 AD and the right in 315 AD...He is paired with Solar Invictus, the Sun God on the left, and still has the Sun's horse on right.

A small chi-rho is on helmet.

On page 161 of Jesus: the Evidence is this picture of Jesus from about the time of Constantine..."Jesus as sun god, riding in the solar chariot...Third century mos -aic from the Mausoleum of the Julii, discovered during excavations beneath the high altar of St. Peter's, Rome."

Ian Wilson adds.."This is another indication of the synthesis of pagan and Christ- ian thinking. ...To any original Jewish follower of Jesus such a representation would have been unthinkable."

From page 163..."Portrait of Jesus, from fourth-century Roman mosaic discovered in 1963 at Hinton St Mary, Dorset, England..Only the Chi-Rho monogram identifies the portrait as Jesus; otherwise ...the pagan god Apollo..This is one of several examples of how, by the time of Constantine the Great, the concept of Jesus was far removed from ..a human Galilean Jew.".

If it were not for the discovery of the Holy Shroud of Turin preserved for many centuries by the Eastern Church, not Rome, we might still today be worshipping a "Jesus" who looks like a GREEK GOD, as well as on the day of the SUN!

The picture on the right is of the Council of Nicaea of 325 AD... According to accounts that survive, it was Constantine himself who decided on the wording of a document which made "Almighty God" of a person who never claimed to be more than "the Son of God" and our High Priest precisely because he was human like we are. .. Those who wouldn't sign the document Constantine preferred were banished!

"Jesus: the Evidence" pg. 160 "...eleven years after winning the battle at the Milvian Bridge [before which Constantine saw his "vision" of the cross victorious: R.H.] Constantine murdered his already vanquished rival Licinius, former Emporer of the East; he then killed his wife, by having her boiled alive in her bath, and his own son - hardly the action of a true follower of Jesus.".... ......Pg. 162 "It was only when he was approaching death that he asked for, or was accepted for, Christian baptism. .....As was still the custom, he received this naked, thereafter renouncing forever the purple of his imperial rank." ......About the Council of Nicaea Ian Wilson writes: Pg. 168 "Exactly what swayed Constantine in that crucial moment we shall probably never know. There can be little doubt that for him the deification of a man was nothing particularly special......He had had his father Constantius deified, would be accorded the same honour after his own death, and would surely have expected Jesus to be a superior entity in the divine hierarchy." ......Same page..."Perhaps not unexpectedly, all but two of the most die-hard Arian loyalists signed......But from the none too truthful face-saving letter Eusebius of Caesarea sent back to his home diocese, it is clear how uneasy he felt about the extent to which he had compromised the fundamental principles of what had been taught about Jesus......Other signatories, who were equally swayed into aquiescence by their awe of the forceful Constantine, felt exactly the ame......Only on returning home did Eusebius of Nicomedia, Maris of Chalcedon and Theognis of Nicaea summon the courage to express to Constantine in writing how much they regretted having put their signatures to the Nicene formula: 'We committed an impious act, O Prince', wrote Eusebius of Nicomedia, 'by subscribing to a blasphemy from fear of you'."...."Although no gospel regarded Jesus as God, and not even Paul had done so, the Jewish teacher had been declared Very God through all eternity, and a whole new theology would flow from this. A fourthcentury sarcophagus preserved at San Paolo fuori le Mura in Rome ludicrously depicts the Trinity as three bearded men side by side, and a beardless Jesus officiating at the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden...Jesus, with his Jewish abhorrence of any representational images, would surely not have approved of this." [One of many recurring themes in the Torah Codes, the Bible Computer Codes, is how the "Church" has disregarded the Commandment regarding worshipping images...in these codes, even the crucifix is an idol..R.H.]

Here is the picture that makes the Trinity of Nicaea "plain" so that the peasants can "understand" how 3=1 and 1=3...The 3 old men on the left include Jesus, but Jesus at the same time is on the right between Adam & Eve..To not believe this is heresy!

The Sunday Law of Constantine March 7, AD 321 The Latin original is in the Codex Justiniani (Codes of Justinian), lib.3, title 12, lex. 3. Here it is in English:     "All judges and city people and the craftsmen shall rest upon the venerable Day of the Sun.    Country people, however, may freely attend to the cultivation of the fields, because it frequently happens that no other days are better adapted for planting the grain in the furrows or the vines in trenches. .....So that the advantage given by heavenly providence may not be the occasion of a short time perish." Joseph Cullen Ayer, A Source Book for Ancient Church History (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1913), div.2, per.1, ch.1, sec.59, g, pp. 284,285. Apollo, the "Sun God" of Greece and Rome

Although the Early Roman Catholic Church claims to have made the change from Sabbath worship to Sunday worship on their own authority, this may be no more true than that it was the "Church" who "invented" a "Trinity" of three Persons Who "rule" the Universe! If you skipped "How Jesus became God" [Council of Nicea] Return Here Or to return to the TOP of this page: Click Here  

What the Emporer Constantine and his puppet Church did not count on, was that Yeshua ben Miriam [Jesus Christ] was indeed still alive, and able to travel through TIME /SPACE and keep the Church under surveillance!

The Sabbath-keeping Church in the Wilderness

Creator's Calendar - Ep 2 - By Michael Rood

GOD'S SABBATHS WHICH CONSTANTINE OUTLAWED

BET EMET MINISTRIES

Hebrew For "The House Of Truth"

Craig M. Lyons Ms.D., D.D., M.Div.

bennoah1@verizon.net

THE NON-JEW AND HIS RETURN TO GOD'S SABBATHS WHICH CONSTANTINE OUTLAWED

Answer for yourself: Why don't we as Christians and followers of Jesus and "the Christ" keep and observe the Biblical Holy Days in the Christian Church today?
We can begin to look at Constantine to find the loss of the Biblical Holy Days and the Sabbath for the non-Jew.
Let us learn an important truth from 2 Thess. 2:3

"Let no man deceive you by any means, for that day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition who apposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped so that he sits as God in the temple of God."

Let us look no further than Constantine to be one of many who fulfills this passage. As far as the history of christianity is concerned, Constantine was one of the most influential men that ever lived. From the Writings of the Apostles (Gospel’s), until Martin Luther nailed his theses to the church door in 1517, there was no single person that so changed the course of church history as Constantine did. Indeed, his influence was so vast that it continues to tower over Christendom in this, our own time. Both in church customs, doctrines and in church government, christianity owes sunday and a lot more to Constantine’s intervention.
It may be news to you but Constantine began to change the Biblical Holy Days, forsaking the Shabbot and assigning Sunday as God's day. He outlawed the 7 Biblical Festivals and Feasts of God as well. He replaced them with pagan holidays derived from Sun Worship which find their origins with men. If we look at the Shabbot this should not be surprising to us for after all, the Gentiles (pagans) were already used to Sunday worship due to their background in "Sunday" - "Sun" worship. The logic of Constantine was very simple: "As more and more Gentiles came into the faith, why make them learn of God's Holy Sabbath and His Laws?" The root for all these changes comes from his intense antisemitism and hatred of the Jews as we find in his Easter Letter.
At the beginning of the 4th century, a monumental event occurred for the Church. In AD 306, Constantine became the first Christian Roman Emperor. At first, he had a rather pluralistic view and accorded Jews the same religious rights as Christians. However, in AD 321, he made Christianity the official religion of the Empire. This signaled the end of the persecution of Christians, but the beginning of discrimination and persecution of the Jewish people.
Already at a council in Elvira (Spain) in AD 305, declarations were made to keep Jews and Christians apart, including ordering Christians not to share meals with Jews, not to marry Jews, not to use Jews to bless their fields, and not to observe the Jewish Sabbath.
Imperial Rome, in AD 313, issued the Edict of Milan, which granted favor to Christianity, while outlawing synagogues.
Then, in AD 315, another edict allowed the burning of Jews if they were convicted of breaking the laws. As Christianity was becoming the religion of the state, further laws were passed against the Jews:

• The ancient privileges granted to the Jews were withdrawn.
• Rabbinical jurisdiction was abolished or severely curtailed.
• Proselytism was prohibited and made punishable by death.
• Jews were excluded from holding high office or a military career.

These and other restrictions were confirmed over and over again by various Church councils for the next 1,000 years.
In AD 321, Constantine decreed all business should cease on "the honored day of the sun." By substituting Sunday for Saturday as the day for Christian worship, he further advanced the split. This Jewish Shabbat / Christian Sunday controversy also came up at the first real ecumenical Council of Nicea (AD 325), which concluded Sunday to be the Christian day of rest, although it was debated for long after that.
Answer for yourself: What should this tell us? Simply that up until the early 4th century non-Jewish believers in God were taught to keep and observe the Sabbath along with the Jews!
Overnight, Christianity was given the power of the Imperial State, and the emperors began to translate the concepts and claims of the Christian theologians against the Jews and Judaism into practice. Instead of the Church taking this opportunity to spread its Gospel message in love, it truly became the Church Triumphant, ready to vanquish its foes (first it was the Jews and later it would be Gnosticism and any who would dare to disbelieve the imperial religious doctrine).
After 321, the writings of the Church fathers changed in character. No longer was it on the defensive and apologetic, but aggressive, directing its venom at everyone "outside of the flock," in particular the Jewish people who could be found in almost every community and nation.

1Thes 1:9 9 For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; (KJV)

The above passage refers to Non-Jews who turned from idols to serve the living God of the Jews. They had just come out of idolatry. And that was fine when gentiles first entered the faith. They didn't know the Law, that they had a Covenant with God or that God expected of them to observe and keep His "appointed times" and Holy Days" like the Sabbath. But they could learn. They attended the synagogues, on Shabbot and observed "ALL" of the Jewish Biblical Holy Days. But Constantine and others made sure they did not continue to learn the Ways of God. He made sure that everything Jewish was removed from the then "existing" church.
You might want to look up the word "gentile". It means pagan. It means anyone outside Judeo Christian faith. Webster's dictionary states: "Gentile....anyone belonging to a non Jewish nation; anyone who is not a JEW OR A CHRISTIAN." Yet Christians today claim the title of Gentile. This is part of the Lie that Constantine started and it obviously continues today. If you are a believer in the God of Israel through Yeshua then you are no longer a Gentile. You are grafted in to the Olive tree, which is Israel. And that being so then you should resemble Israel in your worship!

Rom 11:24 24 For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert graffed contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be graffed into their own olive tree? (KJV)

Answer for yourself: Have you ever noticed that any reference to Yeshua and the early church being a part of Judaism brings accusations of "Pharisee" "Legalist" and after that comes "one who would stone Christ" and finally "Christ Killers". This kind of talk brought us the Inquisition, the Crusades and the Holocaust.

CONSTANTINE'S COUNTERFEIT JESUS

A terrible deception has occurred and the vast majority of 2.5 billion Christians haven't a clue. Today in Gentile Christianity we have accepted a Constantine Jesus instead of the Jewish Messiah. Through Constantine's clever ruse of "replacement religion" we have centered in Christianity today not a Jewish Messiah but a Gentile Messiah. This person will look for all the world like the Messiah pictured in Christian paintings. He will look extremely "Gentile". This false messiah has and will continue to infiltrate the church. He will speak of Easter and Christmas and Sunday as if they were God's Holy Days. He will not allow Sabbath worship. He will declare Sunday as the Sabbath Day. As long as you worship the "Gentile Jesus" you won't have to worry about persecution. Nobody is going to bother you. You will be safe in your church and deceived the false comfort provided by errant theology. All this because you believed The Lie. The lie that you are separate from Israel. The lie that says the Olive tree is dead. The lie that says the Law is dead. The lie that says you are somehow better than Israel because you will be ‘taken out' of the world in the day of Jacob's trouble. And the lie that says the Commandments of Almighty God are passed away. The lie says that you, as a Gentile Christian believer, have replaced Israel and that you are "the New Israel".

Do Christians have a Sabbath?

posted by Scot McKnight

Nightline’s series on the Ten Commandments continues with a look at the Sabbath command, and it raises a question that often arises: Do Christians celebrate “Sabbath”? Let’s begin with the command itself, in both versions in the Old Testament, and then I want to address our question.

Exodus 20:8 ”Remember the Sabbath day to set it apart as holy. 20:9 For six days you may labor and do all your work, 20:10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; on it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, or your male servant, or your female servant, or your cattle, or the resident foreigner who is in your gates. 20:11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them, and he rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.

Deuteronomy 5:12 Be careful to observe the Sabbath day just as the Lord your God has commanded you. 5:13 You are to work and do all your tasks in six days, 5:14 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. On that day you must not do any work, you, your son, your daughter, your male slave, your female slave, your ox, your donkey, any other animal, or the foreigner who lives with you, so that your male and female slaves, like yourself, may have rest. 5:15 Recall that you were slaves in the land of Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there by strength and power. That is why the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.

So, what does this all mean (for us)?

First, “Sabbath” was a day of rest and was not a day of “worship” together as is done in the Christian Sunday. But, a careful reading of Genesis 1 shows that the Sabbath is the day the Lord takes up habitation in the Cosmic Temple — the world — and so the seventh day of Creation should not be seen simply as relaxation from work. God’s rest is more than relaxation; it is Shalom — it is God’s world being what it was intended to be. We only “do Sabbath” well when we dwell in the world as God intended it to be. The earliest Christians had a Sabbath (Saturday) and worship (Sunday, the Lord’s day).

Second, there’s more: Jesus cut up the Ten Commandments into love God commands and love other commands. The Sabbath was traditionally understood as a day of sanctity toward God, a day wherein one did not work at all. Hence, it became a day where focus on God was paramount … and Jesus saw a crack. Some were so devoted to Sabbath’s sanctity that they failed to show mercy to those in need. 

Herein lies the genius of Jesus when it comes to Sabbath: “rest” means dwelling in the world as God would have it. That means loving God (worship, obedience, etc) and loving others (doing good on Sabbath). So, for Jesus, the Sabbath straddles the love God commands and the love others commands.

Matthew 12:1 At that time Jesus went through the grain fields on a Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pick heads of wheat and eat them. 12:2 But when the Pharisees saw this they said to him, “Look, your disciples are doing what is against the law to do on the Sabbath.” 12:3 He said to them, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry - 12:4 how he entered the house of God and they ate the sacred bread, which was against the law for him or his companions to eat, but only for the priests? 12:5 Or have you not read in the law that the priests in the temple desecrate the Sabbath and yet are not guilty? 12:6 I tell you that something greater than the temple is here. 12:7 If you had known what this means: ‘I want mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent. 12:8 For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”

12:9 Then Jesus left that place and entered their synagogue. 12:10 A man was there who had a withered hand. And they asked Jesus, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” so that they could accuse him. 12:11 He said to them, “Would not any one of you, if he had one sheep that fell into a pit on the Sabbath, take hold of it and lift it out? 12:12 How much more valuable is a person than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” 12:13 Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out and it was restored, as healthy as the other. 12:14 But the Pharisees went out and plotted against him, as to how they could assassinate him.

On top of the Sabbath being a day of doing good — toward God in worship and love and obedience and toward others in compassion and love and justice — the earliest Christians, third, eventually swallowed up the Sabbath into Sunday, a day of worshiping together on a day that memorialized the resurrection. So, for the Christian, Sabbath also signifies the new order, the new day of Jesus, the day when BC changed to AD. As ancient Israel, in Deuteronomy, saw the Sabbath as the result of being liberated from slavery, so the Christians saw Sunday as the day of resurrection, the day when they had been liberated from sin and death.

Read more: http://blog.beliefnet.com/jesuscreed/2009/11/do-christians-have-a-sabbath.html#ixzz2KR4HD89M

The Difficult Side of Healing Ministry

The Difficult Side of Healing Ministry ¹³

by Art • Goodness of God, Mission and Ministry, Physical Healing • Tags: faith, gospel, healing, healing ministry, physical healing, power, reality

Today I want to be very real, candid, and vulnerable with you.  I’ve been involved in healing ministry since August of 2009, and if there’s one thing I’ve discovered, it’s that the church’s typical “romantic” perspective of such ministry is a bit delusional.
What I mean is that the picture in many of our minds is that of a man or woman in nice clothes, floating around a stage — their mind and actions beautifully in union with the Holy Spirit — and every person they touch gets healed.  Every disease leaves, and every sickness disappears at the name of Jesus.  I don’t know about you, but I dreamed of being like Peter and having the sick brought out to the streets so that my shadow might touch and heal them.  Healing ministry seems like one of the most spectacular things we could ever practice, and I think it’s safe to say that every Christian who has heard the testimony of Jesus has at least considered how “cool” it would be to minister healing like Him.
But having been at this for the last three and a half years, I can tell you: The trenches are messy.
Not every person I lay hands on is healed.  On occasion, sickness returns to a person (in my experience, this is a demon, but that’s a teaching for another time).  In fact, I was recently rocked by the news of a man who was dramatically healed in one of the meetings I conducted; but months later, his condition returned with even worse symptoms and he committed suicide to escape the pain.
It broke my heart.
So much for all the fantasies and delusions of glory and grandeur.
And yet this news came right on the heels of a meeting where every person who asked for healing received it! Real healing ministry can be an emotional roller coaster.
To be a minister of healing, you find yourself making your heart vulnerable.  You find yourself allowing your heart to empathize with people so that compassion might move you to touch the hem of Jesus’ garment on behalf of the sick, injured, and diseased.  It’s not difficult to become overwhelmed with the sights and sounds of suffering that are suddenly noticed as you go throughout everyday life, unable to touch every single person you see.
This month I interviewed Evangelist Daniel Kolenda of Christ for All Nations for a documentary I’m producing about ministering physical healing.  I asked him, “What is the most personally difficult aspect of healing ministry?”
I resonated with his answer. He said that the most personally difficult aspect is to stand on a stage, declare healing in Jesus’ name, witness hundreds of miracles, and then see people leaving who are still on crutches or being carried out on mats.

Difficult Healing Theology

The weightiness of these things is compounded when your theology of healing believes it’s always God’s will to heal. This is a stance I arrived at after searching the Scriptures and realizing that Jesus paid the price for every healing just as He paid the price for every person to be saved. (See 1 John 2:2.)  The fact that people perish does not contradict the biblical fact that “God wills that none should perish.” (2 Peter 3:9.) And the fact that not everyone is healed does not contradict the biblical fact that “by His stripes, we were healed.” (1 Peter 2:24.)  This is the same stance held by the great healing ministers throughout history, and it’s the stance that propelled me into healing ministry back in August of 2009.
But with that theology comes some tough questions.
Last night, I had a brief conversation with a friend about the real-life questions that naturally arise in this sort of theology.  He asked, “Have you ever had a father whose child just died of a disease come up to you and ask, ‘Do you mean to tell me that if I’d had enough faith, my daughter would still be alive?’”
He was referring, of course, to the teaching I’ve heard from many healing ministers (and that I too teach) about the epileptic boy:

Matthew 17:14-20 – When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him. “Lord, have mercy on my son,” he said. “He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him.”
“O unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed from that moment.
Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?”
He replied, “Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” (NIV)

These days, if Christians pray for a person and see no results, we tend to shift gears into a teaching about God’s sovereignty.  But the disciples didn’t look at the disappointed father and say, “Sorry, Pops. It didn’t work, so obviously it’s God’s will for your son to have epilepsy.  Maybe He’s using it to build character in you or in your son. Or perhaps this is the result of secret sin in your life. Or maybe God just has a mysterious higher purpose that we can’t see.  God is good, so simply trust that your son’s epilepsy is an expression of His goodness.”
No. The disciples had spent enough time following Jesus to know that He never made excuses like that.  While Jesus didn’t heal every sick person He saw, He did heal every sick person who came to Him or called out to Him. So rather than making excuses that they had never heard from Jesus, the disciples were confused and wondered why it didn’t work. Naturally, when the boy was brought to Jesus, the demon left, and the boy was healed.
What I teach, and what I practice, is that when healing ministry doesn’t produce visible results, I need to follow the example of the disciples and ask the Lord why I couldn’t do what He would have done if He had touched the person.  And as long as I don’t have an answer, I simply look the person in the eye and apologize: “I’m sorry. If Jesus had touched you, you would be healed right now; instead, I touched you. Unfortunately, I’m not perfectly like Jesus — I’m just a part of His Body.  But I believe someone is out there who can minister this measure of Jesus to you, so keep seeking healing and keep believing. The fact that I couldn’t do it is not evidence of God’s will.  The life of Jesus is evidence of God’s will, and He healed everyone who came to Him.”
Yes, I actually do that.  I take the responsibility — not in the sense that I feel guilty for it not working, and not in the sense that I take personal glory when healing does happen.  On the contrary, if someone is healed, I know it’s because they touched Jesus in me; and if someone is not healed, I know it’s because I’m not perfectly representing Jesus.  And I’m not talking about being holy enough or godly enough. I’m simply talking about faith, which is exactly what Jesus said was the issue when the disciples couldn’t cast out the demon. My faith isn’t perfect, and I’m okay admitting that.
But I have had people — even good friends — become upset with me because I was implying that something was wrong with their faith if they couldn’t minister healing.  They assume that I’m challenging their salvation or passing judgment on their love for Jesus. On the contrary, I’m simply agreeing with Jesus, who made the same statement to His own disciples; and I’m agreeing with Paul, who taught that the proportion of our faith influences how we minister. (See Romans 12:6.)
Many of us would rather blame God than take responsibility.  It’s more comfortable.  If God doesn’t want to heal, then I don’t need to change when healing doesn’t happen.  But if God does want to heal, then I need to realize I’m not perfectly like Jesus whenever it doesn’t work.  That’s uncomfortable.  And it becomes even more uncomfortable when we realize how many dear friends and loved ones have died that would have been healed if someone (like me) had simply had the faith to do something about it.
I was thinking this morning: If God’s will is always done, then why do so many Christians take CPR lessons?  Generally, when we learn CPR, we’re convinced that “if I know this, I can save someone’s life.” But if God wants a person to die, then your performance of CPR will either fail or it will contradict God’s will.  And if God’s will is for a person to live, then you don’t need to know CPR. The person will live some other way.
Of course, I don’t actually believe that.  I have taken CPR certification courses because I believe death is an enemy of God. (See 1 Corinthians 15:26.) And I believe God’s will is not always done (remember, “God wills that none should perish,” and yet people perish).  And I diligently study the Word of God regarding healing ministry because I believe Jesus paid a very high price to conquer the effects of sin.  If people only ever died in God’s timing, then why did Jesus raise the dead?
For that matter, why would Jesus command His disciples, “Heal the sick who are there,” (Luke 10:9) or, “Raise the dead,” (Matthew 10:8) without also giving instructions about the times when it won’t work?  Was Jesus setting His disciples up for failure? Or was He commanding them to do what He had the authority to command?
So let’s return to the hypothetical father who just lost his daughter to disease. Am I saying that this sweet little girl might have lived if someone (like her father) had been a better representative of Jesus through faith?  That’s a difficult question to answer — not because the answer is complicated, but because of the emotions tied to the answer.  So let me pose a different question: If my dear, sweet grandmother — who loved everyone — refused to believe in Jesus, would she be in hell right now? And if she is in hell, could I have possibly prevented that if I had been more effective in communicating the Gospel?
You see, Christianity is full of tough questions. For some reason, we tend to be more comfortable with questions of eternal life and death than we are with questions of physical life and death.  We can be downright dogmatic about heaven and hell for the unbelieving grandma and our responsibility to evangelize; but if a “dear sweet Christian” dies of a disease, we would rather call it God’s will than take responsibility.
I find it interesting that when we fail to represent Jesus in character, we gladly go to the Lord and ask Him to help us change — to strengthen us in weakness and give us the grace we need to live transformed. And yet when we fail to represent Jesus in power, we respond as though we’re perfect and God said, “No.”
If your theology is based on disappointing earthly experiences, it’s bad theology.  And if your theology is based on the avoidance of tough questions, then it’s bad theology.  The only right theology is that which is consistent with the life of Jesus.
Jesus healed everyone who came to Him.

Coming to Terms with Difficulties in Healing Ministry

“I am not ashamed of the Gospel because it is the power of God for the salvation [Greek: sozo - complete wholeness of body, soul, and spirit] of everyone who believes.”  I will not compromise this message in response to disappointment or missed opportunities.
To the hypothetical father whose daughter just died, I would encourage you: The fact of what happened does not change who God is.  He loves you and your daughter immeasurably. He understands our weaknesses and is not angry with you or anything like that. Nevertheless, His desire would be that this tragedy would stir you to discover His heart and motivate you to be strengthened in your faith so that the next person you encounter with this disease doesn’t have to die.  You’re not guilty for missing it with your daughter, but you do have a choice in front of you: You can decide that it was simply God’s will, or you can decide to devote yourself to accomplishing God’s will in the future.  You can turn inward and focus on what you did or didn’t do, or you can look upward and ask the Lord where to go from here.
Healing ministry isn’t easy.  Those who think healing ministers are arrogant or out of touch with reality simply don’t understand the emotional struggles we go through on a regular basis.  I believe if we will be real about the inner battles (as I have been in this article), it will help others step into healing ministry.  And that is my goal: Every Christian ministering the healing power of Jesus.
Don’t be afraid of the tough questions.
Minister the Gospel without compromise.
God bless,
–Art

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Should Christians Celebrate Christmas? Grace Teachers, Holiness Preachers, and Snake-Handlers – What’s Your Theology?

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What’s Your Theology? 0

race Teachers, Holiness Preachers, and Snake-Handlers – What’s Your Theology? ⁰

by Art • Discernment, Knowing God, True Christianity • Tags: grace, grace teachers, holiness, holiness preachers, knowing God, snake handling, theology

I don’t know if you’ve noticed it, but there is a rising trend in the Church today to focus on the theology of grace: Pure, unearned favor from God, based not on anything we have done but purely on what Christ has done.  Naturally, this kind of message from the “grace teachers” has given rise to some who care very little about personal holiness.  After all, if my salvation is based purely on Christ’s perfection rather than my own, why try to be perfect?
And this excess — which has earned for this message the label “hyper-grace” — has incited a reaction from the more traditional “holiness preachers” in the Church who are equally as passionate about purity and the undefiled nature of God.
Thus the grace teachers and the holiness preachers duke it out on Facebook, in blog articles, on the radio, in podcasts, and even on TV.
Who’s right?
Allow me to shift gears for a moment, and then I’ll give you the answer you probably never expected…

Snake-Handlers have Theology Too!

Last month, Charisma News republished an article from USA Today about modern-day snake handlers. The article offers a look at a 21-year-old snake-handling preacher from LaFollette, Tennessee, named Andrew Hamblin.  Citing Mark 16:18, which says that “those who believe…will pick up snakes with their hands,” Hamblin and his contemporaries come to church with buckets and boxes in hand, ready to worship Jesus with the contained rattlesnakes slithering about in their arms.
I know what you’re thinking: He’s crazy. Right? The fact is, Hamblin almost died a few years ago when a yellow timber rattlesnake he was handling bit him and left him hospitalized. And the article ends with Hamblin preaching at the funeral of his mentor, who had — you guessed it — died of a snakebite.
But before you call him completely nuts, notice how he addressed the tragedy the same way I (or any other healing minister) would handle the funeral of someone who died of a disease that wasn’t healed:

Hamblin said he planned to tell mourners not to lose faith in their grief.
“The only thing I know to do is to encourage the people of God to keep on,” he said, “keep doing the signs of God.”

What do snake handlers have to do with the debate between grace teachers and holiness preachers?
In my mind: Everything. I’ll explain in a moment.
Before that, let me briefly explain that while Hamblin does handle snakes on a regular basis and hasn’t been killed (yet?), I hesitate to call this dangerous practice a “sign of God.”  The scripture about picking up snakes is really about supernatural protection in the midst of danger — not about testing God by putting oneself into harm’s way. (Consider Luke 4:9-12.)  When the Apostle Paul was stoking a fire on the island of Malta, a viper bit and latched onto his hand.  The islanders expected him to drop dead; but when he remained unharmed, they decided he must be a god. (See Acts 28:1-7.)  Paul was protected.  Paul believed, and the sign accompanied him just as Jesus had promised.
Paul didn’t need a bucket or a box.  When you live a life sold-out for the Gospel, signs will follow you. You won’t need to force them or conjure them up. Jesus had Judas carry the money-bag, not the snake bucket. As you live for the Gospel, dangers will come naturally, and God will protect you supernaturally (though persecution is still to be expected).
Nevertheless, snake handlers still exist throughout the southern United States (even though the only state where it’s legal is West Virginia).
Why? Because they have a theology. And their theology is backed up by what appears to be evidence! I’m sure God would rather them go out and heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the leper, and cast out demons while preaching the good news about the Kingdom of God. (See Matthew 10:5.) But instead they’re busy dancing with snakes that could potentially kill them.
Again, why?
Theology.
Let me be clear: Theology is not a bad thing.  Every person has a personal theology — even atheists.  In it’s truest definition, theology is the study of God’s nature; and ultimately this study forms the system of beliefs we hold given our present understanding of His nature.

Theology: Understanding God

Our understanding of God generally becomes the lens through which we interpret life. For example, if you believe that God’s nature is to put His children in harm’s way for the sake of impressing people with His power, then you will likely find yourself handling snakes in West Virginia. (You certainly wouldn’t do it in one of the States where it’s illegal, right?)  On the other hand, if you believe that God is a loving Father who wants to protect His children from this fallen world, then you will likely find yourself living confidently for the sake of the Gospel — unafraid of what might lurk around the next bush. Our understanding of God influences the way we try to relate to Him.
Often times, what happens is that one person receives a revelation of who God is (whether it’s actually true or not), and then they preach that revelation so that others might also experience that facet of God.  The person’s “revelation” — whether from the Holy Spirit, from their own intellect, from demons, or from circumstances — thus forms a theology (a perspective of God).  That theology is then articulated so that others might share the same beliefs and enjoy the same thrill the preacher did upon their own discovery.
But we must understand that the very nature of the word “theology” is that it’s nothing more than a study.  Theology is an ever-changing perspective as we study our never-changing God.  Unfortunately, what often happens is that the more we put our lives or reputations on the line for a theology, the more we feel the need to defend that theology.  And when your focus shifts from “forming theology” to “defending theology,” your focus will easily shift off of God and onto the theology itself.  Suddenly, the theology stops changing, which is a trait that can only ever be attributed to God.  Thus the unchanging theology even becomes “god” for us.  Anything God reveals that contradicts our theology is immediately discarded because we have come to idolize our perspective of God above the Person of God.
One of the greatest tragedies that happens over and over in the Body of Christ is the inner descent from “forming theology through interaction with God” to serving the theology that was formed.  Theology is not meant to stagnate.  If your theology has remained unchanged for too long, then you are technically saying that you believe you perfectly understand God.  But since none of us perfectly understands God, our personal theologies should constantly be growing and changing.
I wish I didn’t have to say this, but to put some of you at ease, I’m not talking about forming a different Gospel or believing anything that is not clearly revealed in Scripture.  What I’m talking about is diving into that Scripture, believing 100% of it, and there encountering God in such a way that He reveals more about Himself to us than we had ever realized.
God — the Person — is my theology.  Theology is not my god.  God never changes. Theology does.
While I cannot know the true motives of specific individuals, what I have noticed in many cases is that differing theologies tend to clash viciously when theology becomes god.  That’s why we have so many different denominations.  That’s why we see so many churches split over petty doctrinal disputes.  That’s why there are some grace teachers and holiness preachers at each others’ throats over which perspective is right.

You Don’t Have to Fit In to Have Unity

A friend of mine recently joked that I tend to make everyone mad.  To the grace teachers, I sound like a die-hard holiness guy. And to the holiness preachers, I sound like a mushy grace guy.  I don’t fully fit either mold, and I tend to lose popularity points for it. (A great example is the message I recently preached in Georgia that taught both grace and holiness).
I recognize that I don’t fit into any molds, and there’s a reason for it: I’m constantly trying very hard to remember that theology is the study of a Person, not mere information.  As I study this Person, there are some things I have come to see consistently throughout Scripture and history — for example, God’s desire to save everyone, the effectiveness of Christ’s work on the cross, and God’s power to heal.  These things are so clearly revealed that I can’t back down on them — not because I am defending these impersonal perspectives, but because I am declaring what I know to be true about the Person I love and study.
Do you see the difference?
It’s very easy for a “theology of grace” to take the place of God.  Suddenly, the disciple of Jesus becomes a disciple of grace.  Before long, the person has all manner of beliefs that contradict Scripture.  And I’ve been seeing this happen in the “grace movement” for some time — influential voices (even friends of mine) teaching that certain Scriptures simply aren’t true because those scriptures are inconsistent with their personal theology of grace.
Since when does personal theology dictate the meaning of Scripture?  Something is terribly backwards.
But on the other side of the fence, we have the holiness preachers, many of whom are in the same hot water.  Many have preached holiness and right-living for so long that they can no longer fathom a Gospel where God’s grace might continue beyond the moment of conversion.  Accordingly, these holiness preachers stand on their own understanding of their own pet scriptures and proclaim the god of their own making.
I know my words are strong here, but I believe it’s necessary.  Can you imagine how God feels in the midst of all this?  His children are arguing over His attributes while rarely looking at Him to find out if those attributes are actually there!  Rather than fixing their eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, many of us have fixed our eyes on the “faith” that He’s trying to author and perfect!

Fix your eyes…

I cannot become more like Jesus by studying what someone believes to be true about Jesus.  I only become more like Jesus by studying Jesus.  He is clearly revealed in Scripture, and He is actively alive today.  Just as you need two eyes in order to see in three dimensions, so you must also see Jesus both in Scripture and in His present, active reality (i.e. what He’s doing in the earth today).  If you only have one of those two, then you have poor depth-perception.  You cannot grasp His magnitude or adequately describe His fullness.
My desire in this lengthy article is that we would take our eyes off of our pet theologies and fix them firmly on Christ — the Jesus of Scripture and the Jesus performing wonders throughout the earth today.  I want us to see our personal theologies as being fluid again.  It is entirely possible to be fully certain about Jesus without also being fully certain about everything you believe to be true about Him.  I’m fully certain of my wife’s character and love for me, but she would probably be the first to smack me if I ever claimed that I had her completely figured out!
Start investigating God again.  Go to the four Gospels and study the life and teachings of Jesus.  Read through the epistles again — not to learn another man’s theology, but to encounter more of Jesus there for yourself.  Spend time with Christians who are demonstrating God’s power and presence in the world today.  Make time to dialogue with God.  And every time you discover something you never saw before, open your mouth and worship Him for it!
God didn’t give us theology so that we could have faith in theology.  God gave us Himself in the body and blood of His own Son so that we could know Him intimately.
Knowing God is the study of His nature.  True theology, therefore, is a relationship.
Be blessed!
–Art

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