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Posts Tagged ‘John 05’

>Faith Killer #2

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How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only? Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words? – John 5:44-47 (KJV)

I’ve been to school, I’ve been in the “higher education” classroom studying the Pentateuch and Wellhousen, the “Synoptic Gospels” and Tillich, and higher textual criticism all pushing the students NOT to believe Moses wrote what he did and NOT to believe what was written, either. I could regurgitate it like any other student.

To them there was no Adam and Eve. To them there was no crossing the Red Sea, no serpent image on a pole bringing healing to those bitten, no water from the rock, no cloud by day and no fire by night – all stories and myths to have their layers peeled back like an onion until the truth could be discovered. And after the peeling, where is the onion, how much should be peeled?

They do the same with the stories of Jesus, trying to determine who really wrote the gospels and letters, and what really happend with the feeding of the 5,000, the raising from the dead, the virgin birth – continually doing more and more peeling.

Jesus said from the start, “If you don’t believe Moses, you won’t believe me“.

There are a lot of books documenting the evidence for biblical authenticity – the issue is NOT one of evidence, but of desire.

As Samuel Clements (Mark Twain) said, “It is not the parts of the Bible I don’t understand that bother me, it is the parts I do understand”

– Fritz.

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>Not all the dead are in the graves.

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Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man. Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation. – John 5:25-29 (KJV)

Jesus introduced metaphors into middle eastern faith. To the woman at the well (another of the “hour is coming and now is” scriptures) he talks about “Living” water – meaning a refreshment to the Soul, like water to the body, and indicated he is the one who gives it.

Here, in this scripture, Jesus tells the Jews there is a judgment coming for those who are in the graves (physically dead), when all shall be physically raised and actually stand before God, Almighty,and receive the results of what they did in life. This held no controversy for them, all but the Sadducees already believed in the physical resurrection of the body and judgment for actions; they had read the prophet Daniel (Daniel 12:l-3) and the Psalms.

What he told them they did not know was that 1) It would be the voice of the Son of God that would awaken them; 2) There is a different kind of death – an unresponsiveness to God’s and His ways, like the unresponsiveness of the physically dead to their own surroundings! (Not all the dead are in the graves, yet); and 3) It was his voice that, if they would only listen, could raise them, now, to a wonderful, glorious life!

– Fritz

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>Want to be made whole?

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In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk…waiting for the moving of the water – John 5:3 (KJV)

When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole? – John 5:6 (KJV)

Jesus asks us, too, “Do you want to be made whole, or are you satisfied with just playing church?”

Enough of this waiting around until something happens; let’s cut to the chase, let Jesus make our legs work, and let’s start walking.

-Fritz

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