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Restored New Testament Christianity

Some Scales Fun

Identify The Church

ID the church

Earl West
“And it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of Jehovah’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many peoples shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah, to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us His ways, and we will walk in His paths; for out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of. Jehovah from Jerusalem. (Isa. 2:2-4)
The New Testament church was no accident or after thought. It was planned according to “the eternal purpose of God. (Eph. 3:11) Following the creation of the world, Jehovah was many centuries developing plans looking toward the church. A physical nation—the Jews —must first be born, and the drama of their history enacted to picture the higher, spiritual Israel—the church—the chosen people of God. It was necessary for Moses to lead the people of God from Egypt, through the Red Sea, and thence to the Promised Land to picture the Christ, “the prophet like unto Moses,’ who would lead the people of God from sin to the reality of heaven. Animal sacrifices must be offered to portray the sacrifice of Jesus on Calvary, and the prophetic bard must in vivid imagery paint the matchless picture of the coming reign of the Messiah over his kingdom—the church. Since the church must be purchased with the blood of Christ, it would be necessary for the Christ to suffer, and on the third day be raised from the dead. (Acts 20:28) Thus, through many centuries the divine plan was unfolding. How significant the thought that the major events of Old Testament history were eventually to converge in the church!
Essentially the church is a body of saved people. It is generally understood that the word comes from the Greek word, ekklesia, which means “the called out. When the gospel, God’s power to save, was preached to the lost, and they heard it, believed it and obeyed it; by this means they were saved. The same thing that saved them added them to the church. By the gospel of God they were called, and by their obedience to its commands, they were saved and simultaneously added to the church. (Acts 2:42-47) This being true, it may be clearly seen that “joining the church” was unknown to New Testament times. Equally unknown is the now popular belief that one could be saved, and not belong to the church. The church was the saved. and to speak of one’s being saved outside the church is to display a gross misconception of the inherent nature of the church.
Seven hundred years before Christ was born, there lived an inspired prophet of Judah named Isaiah. God enabled him to tell his people of the coming of the church. Using language familiar to his day and rich in imagery, the prophet predicted the church. Although he spoke seven centuries before Jesus, the prophet’s words state four basic facts about the church: (1) The time of the establishment —”the latter days;’ (2) The place of the establishment—Zion; (3) The scope it would embrace—all nations; and (4) The purpose of the church—”teach us of his ways. Each of these demands a more thorough analysis.

The Time Of The Establishment

Isaiah predicted the establishment of the church to occur in the “last days’ or the “latter days. When were these days? The prophet Joel predicted the great event of the baptism of the Holy Spirit upon Christ’s chosen twelve apostles in these words: “And it shall be in the last days; saith God, I will pour forth of my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions. And your old men shall dream dreams; Yea and on my servants and on my handmaidens in those days will I pour forth of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.” (Joel 2:28) With reference then to this event, Joel prophesied that it would occur in the “last days. It is significant that on the day of Pentecost, (Acts 2) Peter quoted this prophecy, and added, “This is that which hath been spoken through the prophet. Joel,” (Acts 2:16) Nothing can be gained by inquiring when the “last days’ began and when they will end. One thing can be established as certain: the day of Pentecost, A. D. 33, as recorded in Acts 2, was in the last days. It is upon that day that the student of the Bible finds that the Lord established his church.
Pentecost, usually called the Feast of Weeks in the Old Testament, was held late in what we call the month of May, or early June, and was essentially in honor of the barley harvest. Jewish tradition, however, states that the Jews by the time of Christ celebrated Pentecost as the birthday of the giving of the Law on Mt. Sinai. If this be true, how interesting it is that the very day on which the Old Testament Law was given, when the dispensation of the law entered, when three thousand were slain for disobedience—how significant that God should choose this day as the one when the dispensation of grace should be inaugurated, and three thousand should be saved for their obedience to the commands of the gospel! “How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!”
Any church founded before Pentecost or after Pentecost is not the New Testament Church. Roman Catholicism, the result of the great apostasy predicted by Paul (2 Thes. 2), is not the New Testament Church. The many Protestant denominations, although founded by wise and good men, have been born too late to be the New Testament Church.

The Place Of The Establishment

Concerning Zion, the psalmist sang, “Glorious things are spoken of thee, 0 city of God.” (Psalms 87:3) Jerusalem was built upon four great mountains, the largest and best known of which is Mt. Zion. The Jews, therefore, used the term, Zion interchangeably with the word for Jerusalem. Hence, when the prophet speaks of the establishment of the church on the Day of Pentecost, he identifies the place as Zion, or Jerusalem. Here is another identifying mark of the New Testament Church. It had its genesis in the city of Jerusalem, “the city of the great King.
Any church established in any other city than Jerusalem is not the New Testament Church. Any church born in Rome, or England, or Germany, or Scotland, or America —any such church cannot be the church of Christ.

The Scope It Would Embrace

Imagine a prophet like Isaiah, born and reared as a faithful Jew, feeling the strong surges of Jewish nationalism in his soul, feeling that the fleshly Jew was the child of God, and the Gentile as low as a dog—imagine such a person predicting glorious things for the Gentiles. To speak of the Gentiles as coming citizens in the coming Kingdom, fellow-heirs of the promises of God; meant that the prophet was going against his Jewish background, and jeopardizing his good name among the Jewish people. Yet, this is precisely what the prophet did predict, and in such a prediction he was “moved by the Spirit of God.”
In Isaiah’s day, the human race was divided into two broad classifications—Jews and Gentiles. To the Jews had the particular heritage come of receiving the law and the prophets, the adoption and promises. The Gentiles were outcasts. But the church should embrace “all nations’ who would “flow unto it.” When the Christ should come, the law would be nailed to the cross. (Col. 2:14) Jew and Gentile would be reconciled in one body, the church, through the cross. (Eph. 2:14-16) The Gentiles would then be fellow-heirs of the promises of God. (Eph. 3:1-6)
The commission to the chosen of Christ was to be, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation. (Mark 16:15, 16) In Christ Jesus, there is no male or female, bond or free, Jew or Gentile. All are one in him.

The Purpose Of The Church

God’s means of saving souls is through the word. Hence, the teaching of the word of God is the instrument of God in the eternal redemption of the human race. By being taught the word men are drawn to Christ. (John 6:44, 45) The commission of the Saviour to his disciples was, “Go, teach all nations . . . ‘ (Matt. 28:19) The duty of the Lord’s Church is to sound forth the word of God to the lost that the unsaved might be saved. The church is the “pillar and ground of the truth. (1 Tim. 3:15) The church upholds the truth to the sinful world. It is this gospel that must be preached and proclaimed by the Lord’s church that is the power of God unto salvation.
The word of the Lord is, moreover, the means of God to build up the individual Christian in the most holy faith. “As newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that we may grow thereby. (1 Peter 2:1) It is the word of God’s grace that builds the individual spiritually. (Acts 20:32) By this word he grows into the fullness of the stature of Christ. It is little wonder that the prophet, seeing the distant days when the church should be the instrument of God to teach the word of God to the world, should say, “And many peoples shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths; for out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem.
The New Testament Church is a divine institution with Christ as its only Head. It was purchased by the blood of the Son of God. Christ is its sole Owner. It is therefore his church. (Matt. 16:18) (The Gospel Guardian, June 14, 1951).

No voter fraud, huh?

http://youtu.be/5IuJGHuIkzY

Islam is conquering Europe. What’s happening here?

100 DAYS - CLAIMING BACK NEW ZEALAND

Islam is conquering Europe. And what’s happening here?

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/8761/europe-population-substitution

Why did Susan Devoy walk out? The lesson we should take from what happened to Lindsay Perigo’s defence of our once democratic rights. Don’t miss this below.***

 It is impossible now to deny that the Europe whose foundations were laid on the Christian mandate of the Golden Rule is in its death throes.  The civilisation it built, with its belief in the importance and uniqueness of the individual; of the importance of conscience; and the imperative to treat our neighbours as we would wish to be treated ourselves is being overtaken by a resurgence of Islamic fundamentalism.

The glorification of a barbarism which gloats in the oppression, torture and killing of those brave enough to oppose it; the indiscriminate massacre of men, women and children – particularly those identified as Christian, as non-Muslim – or even the targeting of moderate Muslims…

View original post 2,408 more words

Sir Winston Churchill take on Islam

http://www.thefederalistpapers.org/us/winston-churchills-brutal-takedown-of-islam-means-more-today-than-ever-2

Rudyard Kipling called the cult the “thuggee cult” for what is now very evident for all the world to see.

Political Correctness Gone Mad

John Cleese, love him or hate him, has a great take on political correctness

Snip20160508_1

Anyway, click the link and see if you don’t agree.

https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FBigThinkdotcom%2Fvideos%2Fvb.46126453526%2F10153596674478527%2F%3Ftype%3D3&show_text=0&width=560“>https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FBigThinkdotcom%2Fvideos%2Fvb.46126453526%2F10153596674478527%2F%3Ftype%3D3&show_text=0&width=560

Added

https://www.facebook.com/AddedMembersOfChurchOfChrist/videos/960330814086982/

Freewill

Keith Sisman (my brother-in-Christ) posted this on his face book site. Traces of the Kingdom is another site you may be interested in.

Freewill – today society does not understand the issues concerning freewill, but just a few centuries ago it was a major concern. Kings ruled with absolute authority. The Roman Catholic Church likewise through the doctrine of Original Sin ruled with absolute power, often clashing with secular rulers. The ordinary person, the surfs, stood no chance. We are taught at school democracy started with the Magna Carta (Latin for “the Great Charter”), It was agreed by King John of England at Runnymede, near Windsor, on 15 June 1215 (Windsor is where Mr Obama wished happy birthday to the Queen last week). The Charter was first drafted by the Archbishop of Canterbury to make peace between the unpopular King and a group of rebel barons, it promised the protection of church rights, protection for the aristocracy from illegal imprisonment and access to swift justice. It did nothing for the peasant and surf class (that’s you and me).
If we go back to 400BC much of Northern Europe (named after the goddess Europa) held to Freewill, it was a doctrine of the Celts and their priesthood the Druids. On the other hand the Romans held to Original Sin and infant baptism (it had to come from somewhere) denying Freewill.
In 390BC the Celts under a British King sacked Rome. This is not taught in history, it should be. We have both contemporary British and Roman accounts, it is not an invention. One of the invading Celtic tribes was later known as the Galatians, Paul wrote them a letter. This started a war with Northern Europa that lasted many centuries. The Druid headquarters was based in Britain, possibly Anglesey. Caesar was determined to destroy the Druids and he did a fairly decent job. In this period there were many minor kingdoms, at time of war these minor kingdoms would come together under a head king or emperor, an emperor was of imperial status, above that of a king.
When the gospel was spread in Northern Europa the Celts understood Freewill, it was their doctrine. I am not defending the Celts, they practised human sacrifice and for religious reasons sometimes ate their victims alive, this is the origin of the Roman Catholic doctrine of Transubstantiation (cannibalism). Genesis 9:4-6 “But you shall not eat flesh in its life, its blood. And surely the blood of your lives I will demand. At the hand of every animal I will demand it, and at the hand of man. I will demand the life of man at the hand of every man’s brother. Whoever sheds man’s blood, his blood shall be shed by man. For He made man in the image of God.”
Those being cooked made a great protest, thus instruments of music were introduced into this pagan worship alongside of singing to drown out the protesting, protecting the ears of the families of the victims. This is possibly the origin of Soprano singing. This took place in a stone circle, the centre of the circle was known as the core, which gives us our word choir. It is interesting the flesh was taken from the living victim from the groin area and then barbequed before eating. What is really fascinating this practice was worldwide suggesting a common place of origin – Babylon. The knife used was flint; the taking of flesh from a living human victim from their groin area using a flint knife by a priest was worldwide. Stone circles are dated far too early because of flint knives and chippings; metal was banned from worship areas. It was the same with Solomon’s temple (1 Ki 6:7) “And when it was being built, the house was built of finished stone made ready beforehand. And there was not heard in the house a hammer or an axe, or any iron tool, while it was being built” (Greens Literal Version).
I don’t mention this in Traces or the Devils’ Door because it is not a pleasant subject, I can go into greater detail but I do not think it is healthy and serves no purpose. This is though hrough my study the pagan origin of choirs, instruments in worship and the cannibalistic ongoing sacrifice of Transubstantiation. In a Roman Catholic temple (church) the choir is a part of a building, where the singers sang. The Celts called their worship circles and mounds – churches! The Roman Catholic Church has never formally adopted the instrument, it was allowed into worship for the peasant classes. The Romish Church spiritual sang acapella.
Back to Freewill. Where Freewill was believed as opposed to human depravity is where the church flourished after Augustine forced by coercion the pagan doctrine of Original Sin. It is from his time the church split and the Churches of Christ start to appear in history, separate from the Romish beast.

How small we really are

A rocket breaks through the clouds as viewed from space.

More warmist idiodacy

From Poor Richard

Ice storm
NASA: On second thought, maybe burning fossil fuels COOLS the planet
In Climate Change by Poor RichardDecember 22, 20151 Comment

A new study by NASA suggests that rather than raise the temperature of the earth, burning fossil fuels might actually be lowering temperatures. It flies in the face of all the alarmism out there and, once again, flies completely in the face of the phony “settled science” narrative.

from Express:

Major theories about what causes temperatures to rise have been thrown into doubt after NASA found the Earth has cooled in areas of heavy industrialization where more trees have been lost and more fossil fuel burning takes place.

Environmentalists have long argued the burning of fossil fuels in power stations and for other uses is responsible for global warming and predicted temperature increases because of the high levels of carbon dioxide produced – which causes the global greenhouse effect.

While the findings did not dispute the effects of carbon dioxide on global warming, they found aerosols – also given off by burning fossil fuels – actually cool the local environment, at least temporarily.

The research was carried out to see if current climate change models for calculating future temperatures were taking into account all factors and were accurate.

A NASA spokesman said: “To quantify climate change, researchers need to know the Transient Climate Response (TCR) and Equilibrium Climate Sensitivity (ECS) of Earth

“Both values are projected global mean surface temperature changes in response to doubled atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations but on different timescales.

“TCR is characteristic of short-term predictions, up to a century out, while ECS looks centuries further into the future, when the entire climate system has reached equilibrium and temperatures have stabilised.”

The spokesman said it was “well known” that aerosols such as those emitted in volcanic eruptions and power stations, act to cool Earth, at least temporarily, by reflecting solar radiation away from the planet.

He added: “In a similar fashion, land-use changes such as deforestation in northern latitudes result in bare land that increases reflected sunlight.”

Kate Marvel, a climatologist at GISS and the paper’s lead author, said the results showed the “complexity” of estimating future global temperatures.

read the rest

Honestly, what this study is proof of is the fact that the “scientists” and politicians who continue to push man-made climate change hysteria don’t know much of anything about anything. They continually manipulate data, ignore data that doesn’t fit the narrative, and fill in all the gaps with blind guesses that simply fit the pre-determined outcome. And for some reason, we keep entrusting these people (who can’t seem to correctly predict much of anything) with the power to determine how we run our economies, how we regulate people’s liberty, and how we redistribute wealth globally.

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