Tag: Children of the Living God

Apostasia: What Does it Mean?

On By TimIn 2 Thessalonians 02, Apostasy, RaptureLeave a comment

Now, brothers, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and concerning our gathering together unto Him, we ask you not to let your mind be quickly shaken or be troubled, neither in spirit nor by word, nor by letter coming as though from us, as if the day of Christ is already here. Do not let anyone deceive you in any way. For that Day will not come unless a falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or is worshipped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself as God.

2 Thessalonians 2:1–4

That falling away has always been taught that is an abandonment of faith. In our text, the words of faith are assumed to be there. They are not. In fact, some scholars think it’s better translated as a departure. But from what is not specified. Nevertheless, this leaving comes first… Then the man of sin is revealed.

A lot of people are confused by this already. They’ve always been taught that apostasy is falling away from faith or orthodoxy. That is what the word has come to mean in English. In our text above, it’s there is no object supplied to the word that means abandon.

Many will teach that the order of events established here are… First, there is a great abandonment of Christianity. Second comes the revealing of the antichrist.

Is that right?

Let’s take a deeper look at what Paul wrote.

Do you not remember that when I was still with you, I told you these things? Now you know what restrains him that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already working. Only He who is now restraining him will do so until He is taken out of the way. Then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth, and destroy with the brightness of His presence, even him, whose coming is in accordance with the working of Satan with all power and signs and false wonders, and with all deception of unrighteousness among those who perish, because they did not receive the love for the truth that they might be saved. Therefore God will send them a strong delusion, that they should believe the lie: that they all might be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

2 Thessalonians 2:5–12

Paul elaborates on the timetable. I like to think that it is noting something important to understand, like Jesus saying, “Truly, truly.” It’s said twice. Pay attention.

The first thing that is important to note, Paul uses the word ‘He.’ It is a “He” that is to be removed. That is a pronoun pointing to a person. He has to be taken out of the way. Then the lawless one comes.

But… Who is that He?

It has to be God. Hod is the only one able to restrain this being.

How does God get taken out of the way?

It is God the Spirit working in the Body of Christ that must be removed. He is the One restraining evil, for now.

I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ.

Philippians 1:6

God works in us until a certain point when the work is finished. It’s the day of Jesus Christ. That verse has hints to our text that will be covered in the next post. What is important is that the work of the Spirit is in believers and will be completed at some point.

So going back to this section, it is the Spirit working in believers that is first removed. The Spirit can’t be removed or taken away from believers. Now, the Scriptures tell us in Acts 2:38 that the Spirit is a gift to believers. The Scriptures also tell us in Romans 11:29 that God does not take back His gifts. So it must be that believers are removed with the Spirit!

The New Testament body of Christ leaves this Earth. It abandons the authority of earthly rulers and structures. The antichrist then comes with power and signs to deceive. God, in removing the influence of the Spirit at work in and through church saints takes out His influences on the planet. This results in a hardening of the hearts to those remaining. Then deception comes, without God’s help people succumb to the deception.

This doesn’t have good tidings for their future conversion. For those not saved, it’s not gonna be good.

Yet we give God thanks for the heads-up.

The end to all of this is Jesus redeeming the Earth. That is the Day of Christ, when He returns.

One thing I had not ever noticed before… Jesus slays the antichrist with the breath of His mouth. It’s an interesting and thought-provoking phrase. It’s very down to earth… Only nephesh (OT word that includes all creatures with blood) have the breath of the mouth. He is kinsman with all humans, but this the very thing that makes Him kin to all earth-dwellers, breathing. By that very breath the creation is set free, too.

For the eagerly expecting creation awaits eagerly the revelation of the sons of God. For the creation has been subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of the one who subjected it, in the hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its servility to decay, into the glorious freedom of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans together and suffers agony together until now.

Romans 8:19–22 (LEB)

Creation is ready for the freedom of the children of God that comes the very moment creation is freed. These are the ones that ride with Jesus as part of the armies of heaven. The children of God are direct creations of God (not procreation by human reproduction.) Church-age believers are new creations. Born of God, children of God. The ones who availed themselves of the right given by God to become children of God.

The Living Temple of God

On By TimIn 1 Peter 02, Church, Daily Walk, Jesus, Romans 12Leave a comment

you also, as living stones, are being built up into a spiritual house as a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 2:5 — Modern English Version (Thinline Edition.; Lake Mary, FL: Passio, 2014)

From our previous excursion, we note some important things: What God is doing is new, and it is alive. It is not like the old covenant of bondage. Just as Jesus Christ is a living cornerstone, set firmly in place, we believers are also firmly set in place.

With Jesus as the foundation, God is building upon that idea a new temple. It isn’t like the tabernacle made of skins and cloth. It isn’t like Solomon’s temple arrayed in the finest and costliest of materials. Nor is it Herod’s temple that was never quite as splendid as Solomon’s. This new temple isn’t made with perishable things. It’s made of more precious living stones.

Why use stone as a metaphor?

At the time, building with stone made the most durable structures. The proof is the ruins we visit in modern-day. Stone, once set, is practically immovable. The metaphor may seem imperfect, but we know this world suffers corruption, and things can happen to remove set stones. The place where God works doesn’t have corruption, therefore the stones God builds with cannot be moved.

We are the living stones. We are set in place making a new spiritual house. Earlier, Peter tells his us that in this place we are strangers or pilgrims, our citizenship is elsewhere. In the previous post, this elsewhere is Zion, New Jerusalem, the City of God.

Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the entire building, tightly framed together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God through the Spirit.

Ephesians 2:19–22 — Modern English Version (Thinline Edition.; Lake Mary, FL: Passio, 2014)

Back to the present, God is in the middle of a building program. He is using living stones to make a living spiritual house. Any of us who fall on the Cornerstone for mercy are saved and become living stones that God builds with. He makes us part of the living temple He is building upon the foundation stone, Jesus Christ.

A Holy Priesthood

Though Peter’s audience is primarily the ten scattered ‘lost’ tribes of Israel, the message he writes can be useful for us. Not all of those lost tribes were believers. Peter is writing to the believers of those tribes. Though what Peter writes is Jewish in nature, it parallels what Paul writes. Believers are part of a royal priesthood.

Way back in 1 Peter 1:2, it is written about the sprinkling of blood. We know Moses sprinkled blood on the people to consecrate them to the old covenant (Exodus 24.) The sprinkling of that blood represented the sealing of the covenant. In Leviticus 8, Moses consecrated Aaron and his sons as priests. It was done with the sprinkling of blood.

The same is for you and I, if we believe and have been sprinkled with the blood of Christ. The significance is we’ve been consecrated (set aside, reserved) to a new covenant and a priesthood, as the types and shadows in the law teach us. When that old covenant was established with blood a new nation was born. Likewise, we are a new nation.

Think like Peter, with the sprinkling of the blood from Jesus. We are set aside for God as a nation under a covenant and set aside as priests. The job of the priest is to declare the goodness of God because we’ve been healed of our sin and rescued from darkness to light. This idea is also typified in the law, when a leper was to be cleansed from his corruption he was sprinkled with blood (Leviticus 14.)

That’s the goodness of God. We’ve been set aside, given a new promise, and cleansed. Teach the goodness of God to others.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may declare the goodness of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.

1 Peter 2:9 — Modern English Version (Thinline Edition.; Lake Mary, FL: Passio, 2014)

Since we’ve been called from darkness to light, let’s live like it. We have already encountered this idea when Peter tells us to put off certain things. It is important to understand our identity in Jesus and to live it out. Peter gives us practical ways to do that.

Spiritual Sacrifices

As priests, we offer up spiritual sacrifices. The most important of these comes first:

I urge you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service of worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Romans 12:1–2 — Modern English Version (Thinline Edition.; Lake Mary, FL: Passio, 2014)

Did you see how this connects?

The sacrifices we offer are acceptable to God.

In a similar fashion of casting ourselves on the living set cornerstone for mercy, we present our bodies a living sacrifice to Him. It’s a reasonable service of worship.

The first spiritual sacrifice is a living one, our own body. In so doing we give wholly of ourselves, not reserving anything selfishly. We don’t seek to take from God. Such a sacrifice requires us to not be conformed to the patterns of this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. That connects back to what Peter said to desire the pure milk of the word.

Therefore let us go forth to Him outside the camp, bearing the reproach that He bore. For here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come.
Through Him, then, let us continually offer to God the sacrifice of praise, which is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. But do not forget to do good and to share. For with such sacrifices God is well pleased.

Hebrews 13:13–16 — Modern English Version (Thinline Edition.; Lake Mary, FL: Passio, 2014)

The writer of Hebrews in what leads up to this passage, speaks of Jesus who suffered on the outskirts in order to sanctify us. This leads to the next ideas of sacrifice.

The second sacrifice we offer is praise. It is easy to do that in church with brothers and sisters surrounding us. But we are called to live differently as pilgrims and foreigners. And that means we are going to suffer persecution. Even in the midst of severe persecution, we are to offer praise. In the direst of circumstances, the martyrs of old sang praises to Jesus.

It’s to go outside the camp. That is an allusion to help us remember to remove ourselves from our current circumstances. Sometimes we can do that physically by removing ourselves from challenges. Most times it is difficult to extract ourselves physically. We must remember to go outside the camp in our minds by setting them on heavenly things and not our current circumstances. And there, to continually praise God.

With such a sacrifice, God is well pleased. It is acceptable to God.

Take careful note of the admonition to do good and share. This is another spiritual sacrifice. It is one of helping others by sharing what we have.

Why do we do this?

In times past, you were not a people, but now you are the people of God. You had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

1 Peter 2:10 — Modern English Version (Thinline Edition.; Lake Mary, FL: Passio, 2014)

We are set aside for a purpose. We are the chosen of God. Not for anything we did, but because of what Jesus did. He has set us aside by the sprinkling of His own blood because we’ve received mercy.

It is another poignant reminder of what was taught in the prophets who sought to look into these things, all the while knowing they were serving us believers.

Then the Lord said: “Call his name Lo-Ammi, for you are not My people, and I am not your God.” Yet the number of the children of Israel will be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered. And in the place where it was said to them, “You are not My people,” there it will be said to them, “You are the children of the living God.”

Hosea 1:9–10 — Modern English Version (Thinline Edition.; Lake Mary, FL: Passio, 2014)

We are the children of the living God. As we move on, Peter will continue to encourage us to live lives that are like it.

Heir of All Things

On By TimIn Hebrews 01, Jesus, Last Days1 Comment

God, who at various times and in diverse ways spoke long ago to the fathers through the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, and through whom He made the world.

Hebrews 1:1–2 — Modern English Version (Thinline Edition.; Lake Mary, FL: Passio, 2014)

I love the book of Hebrews. There is so much content that is embedded in the simple words given.

In this brief introduction, we can find some things that are worth undivided attention. Our first is God.

When we open the Bible, the first words in Genesis we encounter are “In the beginning God.” In just those four words, simple truth is taught. That is, God is before the beginning. The beginning introduces the concept of time. Think of that as an expanse for our existence. It is also as necessary to our existence in the universe as matter and space. We all occupy space because the matter we are made of has volume and that volume doesn’t always occupy the same space. Time is that ‘expanse’ for space and matter to move.

So too, the writer of Hebrews introduces God simply as He is.

We are then told that God spoke in diverse ways through the prophets. This is saying that He used the unique way He made each prophet to communicate truth to Israelis in the past. Much of what the prophets prophesied is recorded for us. I also think that the diverse ways hint to the fact that much can still be learned from them that applies to modern-day Israel, and by our grafting in… Us, too. The writer will use some of those writings to do just that.

Our focus is then drawn to Jesus. Jesus is the One by Who God spoke to Israel. This was probably personally witnessed by some of those who would read this epistle.

Jesus is Heir to all things. That this appointment comes from God Himself. We can assume that God has wants. He wants an heir. In fact, we believers are called joint-heirs with Jesus.

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. For you have not received the spirit of slavery again to fear. But you have received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirits that we are the children of God, and if children, then heirs: heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified with Him.

Romans 8:14–17 — Modern English Version (Thinline Edition.; Lake Mary, FL: Passio, 2014)

By that little word heir, as it is connected to His Son, we see a familial relationship. When we examine that relationship, connecting the idea to other truths… We know that God wants human heirs.

Yet as we were excluded from inheritance by the first man’s sin, we can be adopted back into the family of God through Jesus Christ. Remember, He has been made heir of all things. In our adoption, we become heirs also.

This is something that is astounding. Not that we are adopted or even made heirs. But that we are joint-heirs. We get to share the inheritance!

When I say share the inheritance, it’s not like what happens here on Earth, where some of it goes to this person and another portion to that person.

Think about it… What did Jesus inherit?

If you are a believer… What will you inherit with Him?

Humans inherit all things. Just as it is supposed to be.

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

Genesis 1:26 — Modern English Version (Thinline Edition.; Lake Mary, FL: Passio, 2014)

The apostle Paul asked a series of questions to the saints in Corinth. In his first epistle to them, he touched on this idea

Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? If the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more the things that pertain to this life?

1 Corinthians 6:2–3 — Modern English Version (Thinline Edition.; Lake Mary, FL: Passio, 2014)

These ideas need to be kept in mind when reading this epistle. As we delve deeper into it, much will point to Jesus and the unique future bestowed upon humanity in Him, which involves an intimacy with God that few of us have even considered.