Just a fair warning to you all. School starts again on Monday, so while you’ll probably find me AFK….like I am most of the time nowadays, I’ll have a legitimate reason this time. 🙂
Just keeping you all in the loop. I covet your prayers for the next four months. It’s going to be pretty chaotic.
Good evening to all. I pray your weekend has gone well, in spite of the “discouragement” of not seeing our loving Father in person. When this blog began, I had stated that I was going to be doing an extensive study on the character of God in an attempt to biblical answer the question, “Who is God?” However, after much prayer and consideration, I have elected to put that study on the backburner and go in a somewhat different direction. Instead, as my first official study, I will be attempting to answer the question, “Who is Man?” This could cause some rising of the eyebrows, as one would probably wonder why I shouldn’t be going after learning who the Lord is first. There are several reasons why I have decided to pursue this route.
1) The gospel is, in a sense, man-centered.
We can reasonably conclude beyond a shadow of a doubt that every word in Scripture is pointing back to Jesus Christ as well as towards the Gospel that comes with His life, death, and resurrection. The Gospel’s purpose is two-fold: – To save Christ’s Church from condemnation – To glorify God in the salvation of wicked sinners I want you to notice a peculiar detail regarding the two reasons above. Both reasons involve man in some shape or form. The Gospel was given to wicked sinners, as such, there is no Gospel if there is no mankind, for only mankind has sinned before God.
2) We cannot understand and love God apart from knowing who we are in His eyes.
Mankind, in their fallen state, has an abominable and desolate hatred for God. They have no desire for holiness. No desire for Him and His creation. No desire to serve Him. All their life is consumed around the concept of “Me, Myself, and I.” For “every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5). Christ summed up the Gospel call in only two words in Mark 1:15: “Repent and believe the Gospel.” This command leaves two questions behind: “Repent from what?” “What is the Gospel?” One can gain a very clear image of what the Gospel is without a desire for it, but no one can understand what Christ meant by “Repent” unless the nature of Man is exposed in full. The former question will be one of two that will, God willing, be answered during this study.
3) We must come to an understanding as Christians of what we ought to be.
Contrary to the modern “4 Spiritual Laws and 5 Things God wants you to know” tracts that may have been given to you in the past, the doctrine of Man does not stop upon salvation. It only continues…to the end of your life. The biggest question and hurdle: “How can a man be right with God?” will have already been answered by this point. The next question is this: “What’s next?” The next thing will likely be just as big of a hurdle as the first question was. You must submit yourselves completely to the Lord Jesus Christ and follow Him in desire and longing. How does one do that? This is the second question that we will attempt to answer.
Before you begin in this journey with me, if you so choose to, I would like to offer a bit of a warning to anyone wishing to tag along. This will be a very extensive study. This will not be something that will be dealt with over a period of 5-10 posts and we move on to something else. We could be in this study for several months, if not several years. We will learn things that we never saw before regarding Man and who he is. We will possibly learn about the many attributes of God while in this study, and there will be a very extensive amount of information to take in and mediate over. While the focus texts will be Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Hebrews, 1 John, 2 John, and 3 John, we will be flying all over the Bible in our attempts to ascertain what God says about us. This could get confusing, and possibly much disorganized. I will attempt to stick to a specific topic, book or a passage of scripture, and go as expository as possible. If you are a brother that does not wish to see other works coming in as references, I ask that you bear with me during this study.
As I’ve experienced personally, we can learn much about the applications of scripture in our lives, often times long before any of us come to know of the Lord. I remember, just as you do, incidents and decisions made during my childhood that were against God in every way imaginable…of which I greatly regret doing today. Often times authors will share their own personal experiences in their works, and I intend to use their works as examples and means of applications.
A full bibliography will be assembled and updated regularly throughout the duration of this study. We will begin our study in the Epistles of John, starting with 1 John Chapter 1. If you wish to get a jump start, then feel free to begin doing an overview of the Epistles and any commentaries on the Epistles that you may have, and begin reading John Owen’s Overcoming Sin and Temptation (A compilation by Kapic & Tayler using his works Of Temptation: The Nature and Power of It, Of The Mortification of Sin in Believers, and Indwelling Sin), and J.C. Ryle’s Thoughts For Young Men. We will not touch the last two books for a while, but it would prove to be an introduction (and possibly refresher) for some.
May God bless and keep you.
This will probably be the best four hours you will invest this week that does not involve a church service. I STRONGLY encourage everyone (especially men my age or younger as well as single men)Â to listen to this series. Not just one time, but multiple times.
Treat it like a book you’re studying deeply. Let it sink in. Take notes. Mediate over it. There is so much truth within these two videos that I was completely floored about it all. And I’ve never heard half of the material he spoke of here before listening to the series.
What is it that I’m doing?
So much lies, so much deceit.
Crashing, burning
Upon my own flames
Cast up from my pain
Sin and temptation
The evil just knocks me down
I can’t even stand on my own
What does it take to break away
From what can’t seem to face away?
Fire! Burning!
Torture! Shaking!
Knock me down
(My Lord my God)
I am so depraved
(I need you)
Please relieve me
(Of my ways)
Cast out
(The demons in me)
Crying! Weeping!
Dying! Shaking!
Soldiers of the Cross
Knock down our foes
Defeat our demons
Rescue the fallen
Minister to the wicked
So that one day all may know Him
God bring me down.
Bring me down to my lowest
So that I will know
That You are my only hope!
This was a response I posted towards a question at the beginning of this Spring semester regarding how a God, when creating man perfect, would allow them to sin. While the answer is far more in-depth than what I am about to present, it does given a rough idea of where scripture was going with the doctrine of man. I remained exclusive to Genesis for the purposes of the class, so comments will be made mostly on the lingustical aspect of the world.
Just a couple notes real quick. First, for the sake of clarity, I remained exclusive to the KJV, since that was the version covered in the course. Second, I relied on Logos for assistance with Hebrew exegesis, so Hebrew scholars are more than welcomed to chastise me if I am in error in any way with that aspect.
Hopefully this will tie readers over for a little bit. I’ve got a couple posting ideas (in addition to fulfilling my promise with the “Character of God” study) that I hope to get worked out this week. So enjoy this post, and may God bless you and keep you.
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The word for “image” in the Ancient Hebrew is “tselem” (צֶלֶם, for those interested), which means “resemblance” or “shadow”. So the text for Genesis 1:27 could be translated,
“So God created man in His own resemblance, in the resemblance of God created He him; male and female created He them.”
or,
“So God created man in His own shadow, in the shadow of God created he him, male and female created he them.”
The terminology shows that God never intended for man to be perfect, so there isn’t much of a contradiction here.
One has to keep in mind that there were at least three major translations before we got to the English Bible. We have the Hebrew Old Testament, and the Greek New Testament. The Old Testament was translated to Greek, which became known as the Septuagint with the addition of a few other books that are not in the Canon. The Roman Empire occupied Jerusalem at the time, and with Greek being the official language, this translation threw out the necessity of knowing Hebrew for followers of Christ to understand it.
Both the Old and New Testaments were then translated into Latin (known as the Vulgate), which dominated from around 100 A.D. until the Reformation between 1500 and 1700. Then it was translated into English, and from there into other world languages.
If anyone knows a second language, they will agree that words tend to lose their original meaning when translated, especially regarding idioms. This is likely what happened here.
I will expound on this topic in a later part, as there is much to discuss from it, but there is a great debate today as to the role of alcohol in the lives of Christians.
Some say it should be partaken of as one desires, others suggest a more conservative approach to it. Groups will also argue that it should only be used for the purposes of the Lord’s Supper, and many will counterattack by saying that it is a sin to even so much as sip alcohol, regardless of intent or reason.
I will only address one of these items in a broader sense in this post, but will acknowledge that there is some validity in all arguments above except for the last. All four will be treated in further detail later on down the road.
But to the argument of claims that the drinking of any form of alcohol is a sin, I will say that the argument is based on a fallacious claim that is not of scripture.
One of the biggest rebukes of this view is that the Lord’s Supper was instituted with wine (1 Corinthians 11:17-34; Matthew 26:26-29; Mark 14:17-25; Luke 22:7-22; and John 13:21-30). Within this event, Christ participated along with the disciples in the partaking of the Supper in all elements: breaking the bread, partaking of the bread, and partaking of the wine.
There’s a much bigger problem presented with such a view though. If one is to believe that the above Scriptures as listed is what really occured (thus asserting that the Word of God is infallible and ture by doing so), then they proclaim that Christ is in sin by partaking of the Lord’s Supper when it was instituted.
This is a view that was condemned as heresy by the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D. How this view became popular to Christians, I do not have the foggiest idea. However, if I were to guess, I would suspect that it is a mix of tolerance for Islam, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Mormonism (All of which condemn the drinking of alcohol as sin, with the latter two being “Christian” cults), as well as a lack of grounding within the Scriptures.
But this is my thought for the evening. I would like to ask for prayers at this time as well, as the final exam period for spring semester is coming up in less than a week, and I have much on my plate to take care of this week and the beginning of next. We’re also having a slight family crisis regarding one of our dearly beloved pets, which I especially am greatly attached to. I’ll attempt to have a start to the “Character of God” series in the coming days, but I cannot say for sure when at the present time.
God bless brethren. I’ll be posting again soon.
As we step into the time of the year where the death, burial, and ressurection of Christ is observed, I woke up unusually early this morning with a contemplation, something to mediate on, of which I wish to share at this time with others.
The death, burial, and ressurection of Christ is not an event which can be looked at once a year (Good Friday and Easter), nor is the birth of Christ an event which can be looked at once a year (Christmas). Jesus Christ’s brith, condemnation by Pontatius Pilate, death, burial, and ressurection is the pure core of the Christian faith.
It was only through the birth of Christ, him walking on this planet, teaching, admonishing, rebuking sin, persecuted, then condemned, tortured by Roman soldiers, dragged outside the city bearing a cross on Himself, crucified, killed, buried, and ressurected that one may be saved by the grace of God, through faith, in spite of all that he/she has done against Him (Eph. 2:8-9).
Yet we discount this in America today. The “days” (I use this loosely, since we don’t know for an absolute fact Christmas and Easter, as observed today, fall on the days in which they really occured) of these events are spent in worship of idols, and in sin which few care to even execute. Not just this day, but every day.
I’m not talking about pagan religions here; I’m speaking of the overwhelming majority of the 240 million citizens in this country who professed Christ as Lord.
Remember this: Christ did not come and die and rise again so that we can remember Him three times a year. He came demanding everything from us.
When I say everything, I mean everything. Your time, your possessions, even your life. All of them belong to Christ.
Let’s look at it this way. Who, do you believe, is the reason one is able to breathe at this point in time? If one canot breathe without Him willing it, then how can one expect to own something and take it away from Christ as if it is truly theirs?
Everything you have is loaned to you by its true Owner, and it commanded that all of it is given back through worship. Most refuse to do that though. They love their idols so much that the thought of handing “full control” back over to Christ looks as if it is a senile decision to make.
Don’t be one of those people. As J.C. Ryle exhorts in his treatise Thoughts for Young Men: Â
“What is the use of your praying, ‘Lord keep me from temptation,’ unless you are careful not to run into it and ‘keep me from evil’ unless you show a desire to keep out of its way?” (p. 83)
Have you given yourselves up to Him every moment of your life, or are you like most Christians in America who go to Church every sunday and/or every holiday, but refuse to admonish sin from your life and submit to Him entirely? Remember, it takes everything for to go to Heaven, but it only takes sin smaller than an atom to go to Hell.
Just something to think about today.
Hello again World!
Courtesy of one of my friends from church, I finally figured out how to tap into the true power of the WordPress features….at 1:30 this morning…I was still tired. You know what that meant.
Mistakes and oversights. Lots of them. Took longer than I thought to actually get it going.
But it’s up. The Prayer and Praises, Library, and Theological Topics drop-down bars are active, and I’ll be adding writings and devotional tabs in the coming days.
Been working on a short story for a Creative Writing Class focused around Middle Eastern Missions. It’s proving to be quite a challenge. More details coming at a later time, but I think you folks will enjoy it.
Devotional postings wll be daily reflections postngs on here. The morning devotional wil be on the book “Thoughts for Young Men” by J.C. Ryle, and evening Devotions will be Bunyan’s “Pigrim Progress”, as well as the regular bible readings. Can’t decide whether to start in 1 John or Matthew (I don’t want to do Ephesians or Mark right now, since it’s being covered in Sunday School and the expository sermons for the worship service in church right now).
But there is your quick Saturday afternoon update. I’ve got to run off and work on this story; next draft is due in less than 7 hours. In addition, I got two play reviews to write before midnight hits!
God bless folks. Enjoy the little you can of this blog. There will be more meet in here as time goes on though. 🙂
I began a study about six weeks ago where I’m going through the Bible cover-to-cover attempting to biblically define the characteristics of God. It will be a four part study that will attempt to answer the question: “Who is God?”
The first part will cover God’s characteristics. The next three will focus on each “person of God”. While God is One, he is three persons, and each person is what we’ll be attempting to cover.
As a disclaimer, this study will not, by any means, fully define who God is. There are things about God that we as fallen men are utterly incapable of wrapping our heads around, so this study should not be viewed as a “comprehensive” study. These studies will be posted chapter by chapter at a rate of at least one, but no more than two, chapters per week.
I’ve already worked through the first eight verses of Genesis 1. When that is finished up later this week, I’ll share what I have found with you all.
One last note. The only resource I plan to use throughout is Scripture itself. I will only dip into the greek and Hebrew at a Critical juncture (which Genesis 1:26 will create).
May the Lord bless your studies, and may it and all you do glorify Him.
I had an extensive conversation with a good friend of mine this evening regarding newly borns and whether or not they have any concept of God ingrained in them from birth. Especially children that were born in a culture that is unfamiliar with any aspect of Christianity.
I shall withold personal thoughts on this matter until later in the week, as my knowledge of such a topic was extremely limited (as was my friend’s), and we kept getting each other lost and running around in circles for the most part. I posed the question to some people to discuss, and we’ll see what comes of it.
It looks like this will be my devotional for the week.
Bryan's Study 