God's anger is based on principle dictated by His right to exclusive devotion and his constancy in upholding truth, and governed by His love for righteousness.
Divine anger does not stem from a momentary whim, to be later regretted, instead it is slow because of his abundant love and kindness. God sees all the issues involved in a matter and has a complete and entire knowledge of a situation. He reads the heart, he notes the degree of ignorance, negligence or willful sin, and he acts with impartiality. He recognizes man's inherited imperfection and shows mercy to him on this account and on the basis of Jesus' sacrifice.
God's anger is always under control and in harmony with His attributes of love, wisdom, and justice. It is not futile. It is fully based on sufficient cause and always takes effect. He is not an angry God but a happy God, not unapproachable, but pleasant, peaceful and calm toward those who properly approach his presence.
God's anger is satisfied and quieted only by the application of His principles, that is when justice is fully carried out. God's wrath is against all unrighteousness. He will not tolerate unrighteousness nor exempt from punishment the action of an individual deserving it.
God's anger is provoked by false worship. It arouses by immorality, suppression of the Truth, lack of repentance, disobedience to the Good News, despising His Words, and mocking at His prophets, covetousness, injuriousness, envy, murder, strife, deceit, malicious disposition, those who are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, insolent ones, haughty, self-assuming, inventors of injurious things, disobedient to parents, false to agreements, merciless, spiritists, and liars.
God's anger may be expressed directly or indirectly. He may use His laws governing natural things, or He may use other persons as instruments to express His anger. Those who violate His moral laws are under His wrath and receive in themselves the full recompense, which was due for their error. These suffer a disapproved mental state, degradation, diseases, strife and death.
When a person violates laws of the land that are in harmony with God's laws and is punished by the governmental authority, this is an indirect expression of God's wrath against that one.
Jesus Christ is the chief executioner of God's wrath and will completely express God's anger to fulfill His anger against the wicked.
Wednesday, 27 April 2016
Sunday, 24 April 2016
WHY GOD DO NOT DESTROY MAN AND HIS WORLD?
To understand why God do not destroy Man and his world we need to know why God created him in first place.
Genesis 2:15: The Lord God took the Man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.
2:16-17: And the Lord God commanded the Man, saying, "You may freely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die."
2:18-20: Then the Lord said, "It is not good that the Man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him."So out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the Man to see what he would call them; and whatever the Man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for the Man there was not found a helper fit for him.
To understand why God formed every beast of the field, and every bird of the air to be a helper for him, we read Psalm 8:1-8: O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your Name in all the earth! You whose glory above the heavens is chanted by the mouth of babes and infants [Matt.21:12-16]. You have founded a bulwark because of the foes, to still the enemy and the avenger.
When I look at the heavens [Psalms 19:1], the work of Your Fingers, the moon and the stars which You have established; what is Man that You are mindful of him, and the son of Man that You do care for him? Yet you have him little less than God, and do crown Man with glory and honor. You have given Man dominion over the works of Your Hands; You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the sea.
According to this passages in the Scripture we can see that Man was invested with glory and honor and was given absolute dominion to his own world. What Man needed to do was to put his faith in God because from Him he came and without Him he is already death.
Romans 1: 17- 23 explains better what happens when Man is not with God.
It says: The Gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has Faith.
For in the Gospel the righteousness of God is revealed through Faith for Faith; as it is written, "He who through Faith is righteous shall live."
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of Men who by their wickedness suppress the Truth.
For what can be known about God is plain to them.
Ever since the creation of the world His invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made.
So they are without excuse; for although they knew God they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking and their senseless minds were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal Man or birds or animals or reptiles. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the Truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever! Amen
Genesis 2:15: The Lord God took the Man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.
2:16-17: And the Lord God commanded the Man, saying, "You may freely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die."
2:18-20: Then the Lord said, "It is not good that the Man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him."So out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the Man to see what he would call them; and whatever the Man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for the Man there was not found a helper fit for him.
To understand why God formed every beast of the field, and every bird of the air to be a helper for him, we read Psalm 8:1-8: O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your Name in all the earth! You whose glory above the heavens is chanted by the mouth of babes and infants [Matt.21:12-16]. You have founded a bulwark because of the foes, to still the enemy and the avenger.
When I look at the heavens [Psalms 19:1], the work of Your Fingers, the moon and the stars which You have established; what is Man that You are mindful of him, and the son of Man that You do care for him? Yet you have him little less than God, and do crown Man with glory and honor. You have given Man dominion over the works of Your Hands; You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the sea.
According to this passages in the Scripture we can see that Man was invested with glory and honor and was given absolute dominion to his own world. What Man needed to do was to put his faith in God because from Him he came and without Him he is already death.
Romans 1: 17- 23 explains better what happens when Man is not with God.
It says: The Gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has Faith.
For in the Gospel the righteousness of God is revealed through Faith for Faith; as it is written, "He who through Faith is righteous shall live."
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of Men who by their wickedness suppress the Truth.
For what can be known about God is plain to them.
Ever since the creation of the world His invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made.
So they are without excuse; for although they knew God they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking and their senseless minds were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal Man or birds or animals or reptiles. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the Truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever! Amen
Saturday, 23 April 2016
PAUL CONVERSION VS SIMON THE MAGICIAN'S CONVERSION.
Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to The Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. (Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house dragging off men and women and committed them to prison). Acts 8 and 9.
Now as he journeyed he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed about him. And he fell to the ground and heard a Voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" And he said, "Who are you, Lord?" And he said, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting; but rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do." ... And for 3 days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.
Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Anani'as. The Lord sais to him in a vision, "Anani'as." And he said, "Here I am, Lord." And the Lord said to him, "Rise and go to the street called "Straight," and inquire in the house of Judas for a man of Tarsus named Saul; for behold, he is praying, and he has seen a man named Anani'as come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight." But Anani'as answered, "Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem; and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call upon your name." But the Lord said to him, "Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel; for I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name."
So Anani'as departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him he said, "Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came, has sent me that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit." And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized, and took food and was strengthened.
The Magician conversion.- There was a man named Simon who had previously practiced magic in the city and amazed the nation of Samar'ia, saying that he himself was somebody great. They all gave heed to him, from the least to the greatest, saying, "This man is the power of God which is called Great." And they gave heed to him, because for a long time he had amazed them with his magic.
But when they believed Philip as he preached Good News about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. Even Simon himself believed, and after being baptized he continued with Philip. And seeing signs and great miracles performed, he was amazed.
Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samar'ia had received the Word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit; for it had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.
Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money, saying, "Give me also this power, that any one on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit." But Peter said to him, "Your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. Repent therefore of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity." And Simon answered, "Pray for me to the Lord, that nothing of what you have said may come upon me."
In both cases we can see how the grace of God works in the forgiveness of our sins. Paul was chosen before birth as servant of the Lord. He was very zealous in following the law of Moses, but at the same time blind to the plan of God in which the law of Moses played an important part in relation to the coming of the Messiah. In the case of the magician, the intention of his conversion was moved by the fleshy desires of his heart, a self-centered individual who just wanted to be honored for something that did not belong to him.
Now as he journeyed he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed about him. And he fell to the ground and heard a Voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" And he said, "Who are you, Lord?" And he said, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting; but rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do." ... And for 3 days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.
Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Anani'as. The Lord sais to him in a vision, "Anani'as." And he said, "Here I am, Lord." And the Lord said to him, "Rise and go to the street called "Straight," and inquire in the house of Judas for a man of Tarsus named Saul; for behold, he is praying, and he has seen a man named Anani'as come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight." But Anani'as answered, "Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem; and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call upon your name." But the Lord said to him, "Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel; for I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name."
So Anani'as departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him he said, "Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came, has sent me that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit." And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized, and took food and was strengthened.
The Magician conversion.- There was a man named Simon who had previously practiced magic in the city and amazed the nation of Samar'ia, saying that he himself was somebody great. They all gave heed to him, from the least to the greatest, saying, "This man is the power of God which is called Great." And they gave heed to him, because for a long time he had amazed them with his magic.
But when they believed Philip as he preached Good News about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. Even Simon himself believed, and after being baptized he continued with Philip. And seeing signs and great miracles performed, he was amazed.
Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samar'ia had received the Word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit; for it had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.
Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money, saying, "Give me also this power, that any one on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit." But Peter said to him, "Your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. Repent therefore of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity." And Simon answered, "Pray for me to the Lord, that nothing of what you have said may come upon me."
In both cases we can see how the grace of God works in the forgiveness of our sins. Paul was chosen before birth as servant of the Lord. He was very zealous in following the law of Moses, but at the same time blind to the plan of God in which the law of Moses played an important part in relation to the coming of the Messiah. In the case of the magician, the intention of his conversion was moved by the fleshy desires of his heart, a self-centered individual who just wanted to be honored for something that did not belong to him.
HOW ELEMENTAL ENTITIES BLIND HUMAN MINDS.
In 1 Kings 6 the Scripture mentions that in the 480 year period after the people of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, in the 4th year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, which is the 2nd month, Solomon began to build the house of the Lord. He built the structure against the whole house. Then the Word of the Lord came to Solomon and said to him: "Concerning this house which you are building, if you will walk in my statutes and obey my ordinances and keep all my commandments and walk in them, then I will establish My Word with you, which I spoke to David your father. And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will not forsake my people Israel."
In 2 Samuel 6 and 7 the Scripture mentions the ark of the Lord coming into the city of David and placed in the tent that David pitched for it. David offered God burnt and peace offerings there because of the victory over the Philistines. What happened here is that Michal the daughter of Saul looked out of the window, and saw King David leaping and dancing in the presence of the Lord; and she despised him in her heart.
When David returned to bless his household, Michal, came out and met David, and said, "How the king of Israel honored himself today, uncovering himself today before the eyes of his servants' maids, as one of the vulgar fellows shamelessly uncovers himself!"
To understand why she walked in those elemental spirits we go to 1 Samuel 19. Saul, her father was afraid of David, because the Lord had departed from him and was with David. Saul removed David from his presence, and made him a a commander of a 1000 and sent him out to the darkness to fight against the power of the Philistines.
David had success in all his undertakings for the Lord was with him. And when Saul saw that he had great success, he stood in awe of him.
All Israel and Judah loved David; for he went out in the darkness and came in before them. Then Saul offered his elder daughter for a wife if he were valiant for Saul to continue fighting against Philistine's power.
David then said to Saul: "Who am I, and who are my kinsfolk, my father's family in Israel, that I should be son-in-law to the king?" But at the time when Saul's daughter Merab, should have been given to David, she was given to A'driel the Meho'lathite for a wife.
But Saul's daughter Michal loved David; and the elemental spirits around Saul informed him and the thing pleased Saul because he thought: "Let me give her to him, that she may be a snare for him, and that the evil hand of the Philistines may be against David." Saul desired from David no marriage present except a 100 foreskins of the Philistines. Saul's thoughts were entertained with the desire to make David fall by the evil hand of the Philistines, now under the wife in control by them.
The princes of the Philistines came out to battle, and as often as they came out Davis had more success than all the servants of Saul; so that David's name was so highly esteemed.
Then Saul spoke to Jonathan his son and to all his servants that they should kill David. But Jonathan delighted so much in David. Jonathan told David that his father Saul wanted to kill him. He recommended him to take heed in himself in the mountain, in a secret place. And Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul, his father, saying: "Let not the king sin against his servant David; because he has not sinned against you, and because his deeds have been of good service to you; for he took his life in his hand and he slew the Philistine, and the Lord wrought a great victory for all Israel. You saw it, and rejoiced; why then will you sin against innocent blood by killing David without cause?" And Saul hearkened to the voice of Jonathan; Saul swore: "As the Lord lives, he shall not be put to death."
And there was war again; and David went out and fought with the Philistines, and made a great slaughter among them, so that they fled before him.
Then an evil spirit from the Lord came upon Saul as he sat in his house with his spear in his hand; and Davis was playing the lyre. And Saul sought to pin David to the wall with the spear; but he eluded Saul, so that he struck the spear into the wall. And Davis fled and escaped.
To understand hoe this evil spirit from the Lord works we read 1 Samuel 15 in which Samuel said to Saul: "The Lord sent me to anoint you king over his people Israel; now therefore hearken to the Words of the Lord." Thus says the Lord of Hosts: "I will punish what Am'alek did to Israel in opposing them On The Way, when they came up out of Egypt. Now go and smite Am'alek, and utterly destroy all that they have; do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass." Why God is asking to do that? It is because the elemental entities were in them with no desire of living those bodies since they sold their souls to them. But Saul and his people spared Agag, their king and the best of their sheep and of the oxen and of the fat-lings, and the lambs, and all that was good to them, and would not utterly destroy them; all that was despised and worthless to them they utterly destroyed.
Then the Word of the Lord came to Samuel and said: "I repent that I have made Saul king; for he has turned back from following me, and has not performed my commandments." And Samuel rose early to meet Saul, he was very angry. It was told among the spirit world that Saul came to Carmel and, behold, he set up a monument for himself and turned, and passed on, and went down to Gilgal.
And Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him: "Blessed be you to the Lord; I have performed the commandment of the Lord." And Samuel said: What then is this bleating of the elemental spirits of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the oxen walking in them which I hear?" Saul said: "They have brought them from the Amal'ekites; for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice to the Lord your God (at that point he did not say my Lord); and the rest we have utterly destroyed." Then Samuel said to Saul: "Stop! I will tell you what the Lord said to me this night." And Saul said to him: "Say on," And Samuel said: "Though you are little in your own eyes, are you not the head of the tribes of Israel?" The Lord anointed you king over all Israel. And the Lord sent you on a mission, and said, 'Go, utterly destroy the sinners, the Amal'ekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.' Why then did you not obey the Voice of the Lord?"Why did you swoop on the spoil, and do what is evil in the sight of the Lord?"
And Saul said to Samuel: "I have obeyed the Voice of the Lord, I have gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me, I have brought Agag the king of Am'alek, and I have utterly destroyed the Amal'ekites. But the people (he does not sat 'I decided over it')took the spoil, sheep and oxen, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the Lord your God (again he does not say 'my God') in Gilgal." And Samuel said, "Has the Lord a great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, rather than in obeying the Voice of the Lord?" To obey is better that sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.
For rebellion is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has also rejected you from being king."
That is the reason why an evil spirit from the Lord struck Saul making him vulnerable to all the emotions of the flesh governed by those elemental entities.
In 2 Samuel 6 and 7 the Scripture mentions the ark of the Lord coming into the city of David and placed in the tent that David pitched for it. David offered God burnt and peace offerings there because of the victory over the Philistines. What happened here is that Michal the daughter of Saul looked out of the window, and saw King David leaping and dancing in the presence of the Lord; and she despised him in her heart.
When David returned to bless his household, Michal, came out and met David, and said, "How the king of Israel honored himself today, uncovering himself today before the eyes of his servants' maids, as one of the vulgar fellows shamelessly uncovers himself!"
To understand why she walked in those elemental spirits we go to 1 Samuel 19. Saul, her father was afraid of David, because the Lord had departed from him and was with David. Saul removed David from his presence, and made him a a commander of a 1000 and sent him out to the darkness to fight against the power of the Philistines.
David had success in all his undertakings for the Lord was with him. And when Saul saw that he had great success, he stood in awe of him.
All Israel and Judah loved David; for he went out in the darkness and came in before them. Then Saul offered his elder daughter for a wife if he were valiant for Saul to continue fighting against Philistine's power.
David then said to Saul: "Who am I, and who are my kinsfolk, my father's family in Israel, that I should be son-in-law to the king?" But at the time when Saul's daughter Merab, should have been given to David, she was given to A'driel the Meho'lathite for a wife.
But Saul's daughter Michal loved David; and the elemental spirits around Saul informed him and the thing pleased Saul because he thought: "Let me give her to him, that she may be a snare for him, and that the evil hand of the Philistines may be against David." Saul desired from David no marriage present except a 100 foreskins of the Philistines. Saul's thoughts were entertained with the desire to make David fall by the evil hand of the Philistines, now under the wife in control by them.
The princes of the Philistines came out to battle, and as often as they came out Davis had more success than all the servants of Saul; so that David's name was so highly esteemed.
Then Saul spoke to Jonathan his son and to all his servants that they should kill David. But Jonathan delighted so much in David. Jonathan told David that his father Saul wanted to kill him. He recommended him to take heed in himself in the mountain, in a secret place. And Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul, his father, saying: "Let not the king sin against his servant David; because he has not sinned against you, and because his deeds have been of good service to you; for he took his life in his hand and he slew the Philistine, and the Lord wrought a great victory for all Israel. You saw it, and rejoiced; why then will you sin against innocent blood by killing David without cause?" And Saul hearkened to the voice of Jonathan; Saul swore: "As the Lord lives, he shall not be put to death."
And there was war again; and David went out and fought with the Philistines, and made a great slaughter among them, so that they fled before him.
Then an evil spirit from the Lord came upon Saul as he sat in his house with his spear in his hand; and Davis was playing the lyre. And Saul sought to pin David to the wall with the spear; but he eluded Saul, so that he struck the spear into the wall. And Davis fled and escaped.
To understand hoe this evil spirit from the Lord works we read 1 Samuel 15 in which Samuel said to Saul: "The Lord sent me to anoint you king over his people Israel; now therefore hearken to the Words of the Lord." Thus says the Lord of Hosts: "I will punish what Am'alek did to Israel in opposing them On The Way, when they came up out of Egypt. Now go and smite Am'alek, and utterly destroy all that they have; do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass." Why God is asking to do that? It is because the elemental entities were in them with no desire of living those bodies since they sold their souls to them. But Saul and his people spared Agag, their king and the best of their sheep and of the oxen and of the fat-lings, and the lambs, and all that was good to them, and would not utterly destroy them; all that was despised and worthless to them they utterly destroyed.
Then the Word of the Lord came to Samuel and said: "I repent that I have made Saul king; for he has turned back from following me, and has not performed my commandments." And Samuel rose early to meet Saul, he was very angry. It was told among the spirit world that Saul came to Carmel and, behold, he set up a monument for himself and turned, and passed on, and went down to Gilgal.
And Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him: "Blessed be you to the Lord; I have performed the commandment of the Lord." And Samuel said: What then is this bleating of the elemental spirits of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the oxen walking in them which I hear?" Saul said: "They have brought them from the Amal'ekites; for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice to the Lord your God (at that point he did not say my Lord); and the rest we have utterly destroyed." Then Samuel said to Saul: "Stop! I will tell you what the Lord said to me this night." And Saul said to him: "Say on," And Samuel said: "Though you are little in your own eyes, are you not the head of the tribes of Israel?" The Lord anointed you king over all Israel. And the Lord sent you on a mission, and said, 'Go, utterly destroy the sinners, the Amal'ekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.' Why then did you not obey the Voice of the Lord?"Why did you swoop on the spoil, and do what is evil in the sight of the Lord?"
And Saul said to Samuel: "I have obeyed the Voice of the Lord, I have gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me, I have brought Agag the king of Am'alek, and I have utterly destroyed the Amal'ekites. But the people (he does not sat 'I decided over it')took the spoil, sheep and oxen, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the Lord your God (again he does not say 'my God') in Gilgal." And Samuel said, "Has the Lord a great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, rather than in obeying the Voice of the Lord?" To obey is better that sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.
For rebellion is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has also rejected you from being king."
That is the reason why an evil spirit from the Lord struck Saul making him vulnerable to all the emotions of the flesh governed by those elemental entities.
WHAT KIND OF POWER GOD INVESTED IN MAN.
When God created man in His own Image (male and female He created them), in the likeness of God, and he blessed them and named them "Man" when they were created, (Genesis 5:1)
God gave Man power to have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.
The Word of the Lord made Man a continuity of Him. He was the Father and Man was the son. And for this reason Man received the power from God and came out from him and became the head of the new world made for him with everything in it, and the woman a complement force to him.
He was ordered not to cover his head, since he was the image and glory of God, and the woman was made the glory of man. For man was not made from woman, Man came from God, but woman came from man. Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man. (1 Corinthians 11:7). Both were joined together in one flesh, and what God joined together Man was not able to separate. (Mark 10:8).
Man's heart was knitted in the love of God and had all the riches of assured understanding and knowledge of God's mysteries. This was the principal reason why the serpent representing the elemental spirits of the universe did not conquer Man with its deceitful ways.
Man was invested with the power of God and those were captured by the power of the evil one. The woman, made from man not from God, was made prey of this evil philosophy of life according to this elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to God.
Man as the head of all rule and authority over those spirits contrary to the will of God, living in the same world that God created for him, had the woman as a means of strength or weakness. Since woman did not come from God instead she came from Man, her powers complementing to him had to be harmonized through the love for God. in order to work together with the divine Spirit invested in Man.
When the woman was conquered by the deceitful power of the evil one, the whole creation in which man had dominion was bonded and its legal demands stood against all humankind. God could not destroy it since Man was invested by the power of God and by the Word of God to have dominion over the whole creation. The only way to cancel this bond was through Christ Jesus who had to came to the world of man and suffered as human by the hands of the humans. God designed a very specific plan and his Divine Power made it possible through the ages of humankind connecting all the works of his true servants sent to the world captured by and governed by the evil one. God nail him and his bond in the spirit of Christ to the cross and made all humankind free again to choose God from the bottom of their hearts.
God's plan was unique and perfect. He disarmed the principalities and powers of these elemental spirits working in Man's world, and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in Christ. These were only a shadow of what is to come; but the spiritual substance belong to Christ.
If with Christ, everyone died to the control of the elemental spirits of the universe, why still people live as if they still belong to that world? Why do they submit to their regulations according to man made doctrines and precepts?
Set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you already are dead to them and alive to the spiritual rewarding of the eternal life.
Put to death the spirits that are trying to use you and ruin you because they only can live in the flesh and is the earthly part of every one of us.
Put to death fornication, impurity, passion for earthly things, evil desire, and idolatry, because in these we once walked.
When elemental spirits try to control us and bound us they want us to live in them. But know we have the power to put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and foul talk from our mouths.
Do not lie to one another, seeing that we have put off the old nature, and every day the new one is renewed in knowledge after the image of our Creator.
Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, and patience, forbearing one another and, if one has a complaint against each other, forgive each other as the Lord has forgiven us, so we also must to forgive. (Colossians 4).
God gave Man power to have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.
The Word of the Lord made Man a continuity of Him. He was the Father and Man was the son. And for this reason Man received the power from God and came out from him and became the head of the new world made for him with everything in it, and the woman a complement force to him.
He was ordered not to cover his head, since he was the image and glory of God, and the woman was made the glory of man. For man was not made from woman, Man came from God, but woman came from man. Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man. (1 Corinthians 11:7). Both were joined together in one flesh, and what God joined together Man was not able to separate. (Mark 10:8).
Man's heart was knitted in the love of God and had all the riches of assured understanding and knowledge of God's mysteries. This was the principal reason why the serpent representing the elemental spirits of the universe did not conquer Man with its deceitful ways.
Man was invested with the power of God and those were captured by the power of the evil one. The woman, made from man not from God, was made prey of this evil philosophy of life according to this elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to God.
Man as the head of all rule and authority over those spirits contrary to the will of God, living in the same world that God created for him, had the woman as a means of strength or weakness. Since woman did not come from God instead she came from Man, her powers complementing to him had to be harmonized through the love for God. in order to work together with the divine Spirit invested in Man.
When the woman was conquered by the deceitful power of the evil one, the whole creation in which man had dominion was bonded and its legal demands stood against all humankind. God could not destroy it since Man was invested by the power of God and by the Word of God to have dominion over the whole creation. The only way to cancel this bond was through Christ Jesus who had to came to the world of man and suffered as human by the hands of the humans. God designed a very specific plan and his Divine Power made it possible through the ages of humankind connecting all the works of his true servants sent to the world captured by and governed by the evil one. God nail him and his bond in the spirit of Christ to the cross and made all humankind free again to choose God from the bottom of their hearts.
God's plan was unique and perfect. He disarmed the principalities and powers of these elemental spirits working in Man's world, and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in Christ. These were only a shadow of what is to come; but the spiritual substance belong to Christ.
If with Christ, everyone died to the control of the elemental spirits of the universe, why still people live as if they still belong to that world? Why do they submit to their regulations according to man made doctrines and precepts?
Set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you already are dead to them and alive to the spiritual rewarding of the eternal life.
Put to death the spirits that are trying to use you and ruin you because they only can live in the flesh and is the earthly part of every one of us.
Put to death fornication, impurity, passion for earthly things, evil desire, and idolatry, because in these we once walked.
When elemental spirits try to control us and bound us they want us to live in them. But know we have the power to put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and foul talk from our mouths.
Do not lie to one another, seeing that we have put off the old nature, and every day the new one is renewed in knowledge after the image of our Creator.
Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, and patience, forbearing one another and, if one has a complaint against each other, forgive each other as the Lord has forgiven us, so we also must to forgive. (Colossians 4).
Thursday, 21 April 2016
WHO WAS THE APOSTLE PAUL?
Paul [little] was an Israelite of the Tribe of Benjamin and an apostle of Jesus Christ. Ben'ja.min was Jacob's 12th son and the full brother of Joseph, and the only son born to Jacob in the land of Canaan, the other sons being born in Paddan-Aram. Rachel achieved the difficult chilbirth of her 2nd son, at the cost of her life, while on the way from Beth-El to Ephrath (Beth-Lehem). While dying, she called this son Ben-Oni, meaning "son of my sorrow;" but her bereaved husband thereafter named him Benjamin meaning "son of the right hand."
Paul was born, lived and died as a Jew. He writes that he was circumcised on the 8th day, was blameless before the law, followed the Pharisaic interpretation, and was zealously observant of the ancestral traditions.
He was born in Tarsus, a thriving cosmopolitan, urban gateway to the Easter Mediterranean, a vibrant intellectual center, and a transportation hub of strategic importance. There Paul learned his 1st language, Greek, was taught a trade, and receiving his schooling. Paul was a very learned man and a creative thinker. His training as a leatherworker, or tent-maker proved useful because he later in his life used it to support himself in his mission to the Gentiles.
Except for Jesus, no one influenced the development of early Christianity more than Paul. 13 of the 27 Books of the New Testament are attributed to Paul, an eloquent testimony to the importance paul had for the early Jesus movement.
Ben'ja.min [son of the right hand] was Jacob's 12th son and the full brother of Joseph, and the only son born to Jacob in the land of Canaan, the other sons being born in Paddan-Aram. Rachel gave birth to Benjamin, her 2nd son, while on the way from Beth-El to Ephrath (Beth-Lehem), achieving the difficult childbirth at the cost of her life. While dying, she called this son Ben-Oni, meaning "son of my sorrow;" but her bereaved husband thereafter named him Benjamin "son of the right hand."
The 7 Letters which came from Paul's hand (1 Thessalonians, 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians, Philippians, Philemon, Galatians and Romans) serve as the primary sources for our knowledge about the apostle. Acts is nevertheless useful when judiciously used. The disputed Letters (2 Thessalonians, Colossians, and Ephesians) merit consideration, and the pseudo-epigraphic Letters (1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, and Hebrews) and later apocryphal literature assist with the history of Pauline interpretation.
The length and complexity of his letters, the sophistication of his arguments, his knowledge and familiarity with Jewish law and traditions, and his persuasive skills used to found churches and hold them together proves that he was a well educated man. Unfortunately, very little is known about the exact nature of his formal schooling.
Paul benefited from a rich informal education. The urban setting in which he grew up acquainted him with important literary and rhetorical skills. He owed his use of the diatribe (Romans 6:1, 15; 7:7; 11:1) and his knowledge of the law of nature (2:14-15) to Stoicism, and his anthropology and views of celibacy, conscience, and self-control were influenced by Hellenistic popular religion. His style of argumentation reflects a selective appropriation of hellenistic rhetoric. By contrast, his apocalypticism, his spiritualization of the sacrificial cult (Romans 12:1), his monotheism, and moral convictions came from Jewish sources, and his knowledge of Jesus' passion, death, resurrection, teaching, and the sacramental cult came from the Messiah-nists.
Paul's letters reveal how this fertile mind absorbed, synthesized, and interpreted these traditionss for his churches.
Paul was born, lived and died as a Jew. He writes that he was circumcised on the 8th day, was blameless before the law, followed the Pharisaic interpretation, and was zealously observant of the ancestral traditions.
He was born in Tarsus, a thriving cosmopolitan, urban gateway to the Easter Mediterranean, a vibrant intellectual center, and a transportation hub of strategic importance. There Paul learned his 1st language, Greek, was taught a trade, and receiving his schooling. Paul was a very learned man and a creative thinker. His training as a leatherworker, or tent-maker proved useful because he later in his life used it to support himself in his mission to the Gentiles.
Except for Jesus, no one influenced the development of early Christianity more than Paul. 13 of the 27 Books of the New Testament are attributed to Paul, an eloquent testimony to the importance paul had for the early Jesus movement.
Ben'ja.min [son of the right hand] was Jacob's 12th son and the full brother of Joseph, and the only son born to Jacob in the land of Canaan, the other sons being born in Paddan-Aram. Rachel gave birth to Benjamin, her 2nd son, while on the way from Beth-El to Ephrath (Beth-Lehem), achieving the difficult childbirth at the cost of her life. While dying, she called this son Ben-Oni, meaning "son of my sorrow;" but her bereaved husband thereafter named him Benjamin "son of the right hand."
The 7 Letters which came from Paul's hand (1 Thessalonians, 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians, Philippians, Philemon, Galatians and Romans) serve as the primary sources for our knowledge about the apostle. Acts is nevertheless useful when judiciously used. The disputed Letters (2 Thessalonians, Colossians, and Ephesians) merit consideration, and the pseudo-epigraphic Letters (1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, and Hebrews) and later apocryphal literature assist with the history of Pauline interpretation.
The length and complexity of his letters, the sophistication of his arguments, his knowledge and familiarity with Jewish law and traditions, and his persuasive skills used to found churches and hold them together proves that he was a well educated man. Unfortunately, very little is known about the exact nature of his formal schooling.
Paul benefited from a rich informal education. The urban setting in which he grew up acquainted him with important literary and rhetorical skills. He owed his use of the diatribe (Romans 6:1, 15; 7:7; 11:1) and his knowledge of the law of nature (2:14-15) to Stoicism, and his anthropology and views of celibacy, conscience, and self-control were influenced by Hellenistic popular religion. His style of argumentation reflects a selective appropriation of hellenistic rhetoric. By contrast, his apocalypticism, his spiritualization of the sacrificial cult (Romans 12:1), his monotheism, and moral convictions came from Jewish sources, and his knowledge of Jesus' passion, death, resurrection, teaching, and the sacramental cult came from the Messiah-nists.
Paul's letters reveal how this fertile mind absorbed, synthesized, and interpreted these traditionss for his churches.
Tuesday, 19 April 2016
THE BOOK OF PSALMS
It is a Book of Psalms, often called the Hymnal of the Second Temple, is part of God's inspired Word, and consists of 5 collections of sacred songs: 1) Psalms 1-41; 2) 42-72; 3) 73-89; 4) 90-106; 5) 107-150, each collection ending with a blessing pronounced on God. The Book is in complete harmony with the rest of the Scriptures.
Distinctive are the alphabetical Psalms: 9, 10, 25, 34, 37, 111, 112, and 145, in which the initial verse or verses of the 1st stanza begin with the Hebrew letter 'a'leph, the next verse(s) with -behth-, and so on through all or nearly all of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet that served as a memory aid.
The headings or super-inscriptions found at the beginning of many Psalms identify the writer, furnish the background material, provide musical instructions or indicate the use or purpose of the Psalm (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 30, 38, 60, 92, 102). The super-inscriptions also provide the needed information for locating other comparable thoughts in the Scriptures that illuminate a particular Psalm (Compare Psalm 51 with 2 Samuel 11:2-15; 12: 1-14). Psalms without the super-inscriptions can also have comparable thoughts found elsewhere in the Bible (Compare Psalm 1 with Jeremiah 17:5-8; Psalm 49:12 with Ecclesiastes 3:19 and 2 Peter 2:12; Psalm 49:17 with Luke 12:20, 21). Also, many verses are the quotations from the Psalms found in the Christian Greek Scriptures (Psalm 5:9 [Romans 3:13]; Psalm 8:6 [1 Corinthians 15:27], [Eph.1:22]; Psalm 10:7 [Romans 3:14]; Psalm 14:1-3, Psalm 53:1-3 [Romans 3:10-12]; Psalm 19:4 [Romans 10:18]; Psalm 24:1[1Cor.10:26]; Psalm 32:1,2 [Roman 4:7,8]; Psalm 36:1 [Romans 3:18]; Psalm 44:22 [Romans 8:36]; Psalm 50:14 [Matt.5:23]; Psalm 51:4 [Romans 3:4]; Psalm 56:4,11 and Psalm 118:6 [Hebrew 13:6]; Psalm 62:12 [Romans 2:6]; Psalm 69:22,23 [Romans 11:9,10]; Psalm 78:24 [John 6:31]; Psalm 94:11 [1 Cor.3:20]; Psalm 95:7-11 [Hebrew 3:7-11, 15; Hebrew 4:3-7]; Psalm 102:25-27 [Hebrew 1:10-12]; Psalm 104:4 [Hebrew 1:7]; Psalm 112:9 [2 Cor. 9:9]; Psalm 116:10 [2 Cor. 4:13]; Psalm 144:3 [Hebrew 2:6] and many others.
Since other poetic parts of the Bible are often introduced similarly, give us the idea that they originated either with the writers or the collectors of the Psalms (Exodus 15:1; Deuteronomy 31:30; 33:1; Judges 5:1; compare 2 Samuel 22:1 with the super-inscription of Psalm 18). Lending support to this is the fact that as far back as the writing of the Dead Sea Psalms Scroll (dated between 30 and 50 CE) the super-inscriptions were part of the main text.
Of the 150 Psalms, 73 are attributed to Davis, 11 to the sons of Korah (one of these [Ps.68]also mentioning Heman), 12 to Asaph (the house of Asaph), 1 to Moses, 1 to Solomon, and 1 to Ethan the Ezrahite. Additionally, Psalm 72 is "regarding Solomon." From Acts 4:25 and Hebrews 4:7, Psalms 2 and 95 were written by David. Psalms 10, 43, 71, 91, are continuations of Psalms 9, 42, 70, 90. Therefore, Psalms 10 and 71 are attributed to David, Psalm 43 to the sons of Korah, and Psalm 91 to Moses. This leaves over 40 Psalms without a specific composer named or indicated.
The individual Psalms were written over a period of about 1,000 years, from the time of Moses until after the return from Babylonian exile (Psalm 90 [super-inscription]; 126:1,2; 137:1,8).
The order and content of the Book of Psalms were fixed at an early date. The order and content of the book in the Greek Septuagint Version basically agree with the Hebrew text. Therefore, the Book of Psalms were completed in the 3rd century BC, when work on this translation began.
The Book of Psalms provides a window through which the next generation of believers may view and understand how ancient Israel responded to God's presence, or absence.
The Book of Psalms contains parallel thoughts or expressions that give voice to a panoply of human emotions, sometimes sublime but at other times embarrassingly vengeful.
Distinctive are the alphabetical Psalms: 9, 10, 25, 34, 37, 111, 112, and 145, in which the initial verse or verses of the 1st stanza begin with the Hebrew letter 'a'leph, the next verse(s) with -behth-, and so on through all or nearly all of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet that served as a memory aid.
The headings or super-inscriptions found at the beginning of many Psalms identify the writer, furnish the background material, provide musical instructions or indicate the use or purpose of the Psalm (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 30, 38, 60, 92, 102). The super-inscriptions also provide the needed information for locating other comparable thoughts in the Scriptures that illuminate a particular Psalm (Compare Psalm 51 with 2 Samuel 11:2-15; 12: 1-14). Psalms without the super-inscriptions can also have comparable thoughts found elsewhere in the Bible (Compare Psalm 1 with Jeremiah 17:5-8; Psalm 49:12 with Ecclesiastes 3:19 and 2 Peter 2:12; Psalm 49:17 with Luke 12:20, 21). Also, many verses are the quotations from the Psalms found in the Christian Greek Scriptures (Psalm 5:9 [Romans 3:13]; Psalm 8:6 [1 Corinthians 15:27], [Eph.1:22]; Psalm 10:7 [Romans 3:14]; Psalm 14:1-3, Psalm 53:1-3 [Romans 3:10-12]; Psalm 19:4 [Romans 10:18]; Psalm 24:1[1Cor.10:26]; Psalm 32:1,2 [Roman 4:7,8]; Psalm 36:1 [Romans 3:18]; Psalm 44:22 [Romans 8:36]; Psalm 50:14 [Matt.5:23]; Psalm 51:4 [Romans 3:4]; Psalm 56:4,11 and Psalm 118:6 [Hebrew 13:6]; Psalm 62:12 [Romans 2:6]; Psalm 69:22,23 [Romans 11:9,10]; Psalm 78:24 [John 6:31]; Psalm 94:11 [1 Cor.3:20]; Psalm 95:7-11 [Hebrew 3:7-11, 15; Hebrew 4:3-7]; Psalm 102:25-27 [Hebrew 1:10-12]; Psalm 104:4 [Hebrew 1:7]; Psalm 112:9 [2 Cor. 9:9]; Psalm 116:10 [2 Cor. 4:13]; Psalm 144:3 [Hebrew 2:6] and many others.
Since other poetic parts of the Bible are often introduced similarly, give us the idea that they originated either with the writers or the collectors of the Psalms (Exodus 15:1; Deuteronomy 31:30; 33:1; Judges 5:1; compare 2 Samuel 22:1 with the super-inscription of Psalm 18). Lending support to this is the fact that as far back as the writing of the Dead Sea Psalms Scroll (dated between 30 and 50 CE) the super-inscriptions were part of the main text.
Of the 150 Psalms, 73 are attributed to Davis, 11 to the sons of Korah (one of these [Ps.68]also mentioning Heman), 12 to Asaph (the house of Asaph), 1 to Moses, 1 to Solomon, and 1 to Ethan the Ezrahite. Additionally, Psalm 72 is "regarding Solomon." From Acts 4:25 and Hebrews 4:7, Psalms 2 and 95 were written by David. Psalms 10, 43, 71, 91, are continuations of Psalms 9, 42, 70, 90. Therefore, Psalms 10 and 71 are attributed to David, Psalm 43 to the sons of Korah, and Psalm 91 to Moses. This leaves over 40 Psalms without a specific composer named or indicated.
The individual Psalms were written over a period of about 1,000 years, from the time of Moses until after the return from Babylonian exile (Psalm 90 [super-inscription]; 126:1,2; 137:1,8).
The order and content of the Book of Psalms were fixed at an early date. The order and content of the book in the Greek Septuagint Version basically agree with the Hebrew text. Therefore, the Book of Psalms were completed in the 3rd century BC, when work on this translation began.
The Book of Psalms provides a window through which the next generation of believers may view and understand how ancient Israel responded to God's presence, or absence.
The Book of Psalms contains parallel thoughts or expressions that give voice to a panoply of human emotions, sometimes sublime but at other times embarrassingly vengeful.
Monday, 18 April 2016
WILLIAM LEONARD ROWE AND HIS VIEWS ABOUT RELIGION.
William Leonard Rowe (July 26, 1931-August 22, 2015) was a professor of philosophy at Purdue University, located in West Lafayette, Indiana, United States. He specialized in the philosophy of religion. His work played a role in the revival of analytic philosophy of religion since 1970.
The university was founded on May 6, 1869. with the gift of $150,000 from John Purdue (October 31, 1802- September 12, 1876) with the purpose of establish a college of science and technology and mining and agriculture in his name. The university functioned as a land-grant university. Purdue was a freemason, and later supported some questionable business ventures: backing the Lafayette, Muncie and Bloomington Railroad even as lawsuits and debts climbed. Purdue also backed a silver mining in Colorado called the Purdue Gold and Silver Mining and Ore Reduction Company that failed to pay any dividends.
William became an evangelical Christian during his teenage and planned to become a minister. He became disgruntled over the firing of one professor for theological views not held by the administration at the Detroit Bible Institute. Thinking that it was too political for him, he decided to find a close major to theology, namely, philosophy. He then transferred himself to Wayne State University. From there his plan was to go to Fuller Theological Seminary as a springboard to entering ministry. He never made it. While at Wayne State University he reported that one particular professor, whose father was a minister but the professor atheist, made a deep and remarkable influence on William. After his graduation from Wayne, William began his post-graduate education at the Chicago Theological Seminary (CTS). He reported that it was at this time that he felt motivated and began to take a more critical look at the Bible, learn about its origins and met theologians who, unlike himself, did not have a fundamentalist perspective. The result was that his own fundamentalism began to wane.
William received a Master of Divinity degree from CTS, and then went to pursuit a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Michigan. He completed his doctorate in 1962 at the age of 31, taught briefly at the University of Illinois and later that year, joined the faculty of Purdue University.
William described his conversion from Christian fundamentalist to, ultimately, an atheist as a gradual process, resulting from the lack of experiences and evidence sufficient to sustain a religious life and convictions. William said that his examination of the origins of the Bible caused him to doubt in the belief of being divine in nature, and that he then began to look and pray for signs of the existence God.
William died at the age of 84. He introduced the concept of a "friendly atheist" in his classic paper on the argument from evil. A friendly atheist is a person who accepts that some theists are justified in believing in God.
The university was founded on May 6, 1869. with the gift of $150,000 from John Purdue (October 31, 1802- September 12, 1876) with the purpose of establish a college of science and technology and mining and agriculture in his name. The university functioned as a land-grant university. Purdue was a freemason, and later supported some questionable business ventures: backing the Lafayette, Muncie and Bloomington Railroad even as lawsuits and debts climbed. Purdue also backed a silver mining in Colorado called the Purdue Gold and Silver Mining and Ore Reduction Company that failed to pay any dividends.
William became an evangelical Christian during his teenage and planned to become a minister. He became disgruntled over the firing of one professor for theological views not held by the administration at the Detroit Bible Institute. Thinking that it was too political for him, he decided to find a close major to theology, namely, philosophy. He then transferred himself to Wayne State University. From there his plan was to go to Fuller Theological Seminary as a springboard to entering ministry. He never made it. While at Wayne State University he reported that one particular professor, whose father was a minister but the professor atheist, made a deep and remarkable influence on William. After his graduation from Wayne, William began his post-graduate education at the Chicago Theological Seminary (CTS). He reported that it was at this time that he felt motivated and began to take a more critical look at the Bible, learn about its origins and met theologians who, unlike himself, did not have a fundamentalist perspective. The result was that his own fundamentalism began to wane.
William received a Master of Divinity degree from CTS, and then went to pursuit a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Michigan. He completed his doctorate in 1962 at the age of 31, taught briefly at the University of Illinois and later that year, joined the faculty of Purdue University.
William described his conversion from Christian fundamentalist to, ultimately, an atheist as a gradual process, resulting from the lack of experiences and evidence sufficient to sustain a religious life and convictions. William said that his examination of the origins of the Bible caused him to doubt in the belief of being divine in nature, and that he then began to look and pray for signs of the existence God.
William died at the age of 84. He introduced the concept of a "friendly atheist" in his classic paper on the argument from evil. A friendly atheist is a person who accepts that some theists are justified in believing in God.
MEMNON THE WARRIOR.
In Greek mythology, Memnon was an Ethiopian king and son of Tithonus and Eos. Thithonus was the lover of Eos, Titan of the dawn, who was known in Roman mythology as Aurora. Tithonus was a Trojan by birth, the son of King Laomedon of Troy by a water nymph named Strymo.
According to ancient Greek poets, Memnon's father Tithomus and Ganymede were snatched away from the royal house of Troy by the goddess of the dawn Eos and were taken to the ends of the earth on the Coast of Oceanus, to be her lovers. They were carried by the East Wind and were driven to the Western Ends of the earth beyond the Ocean or pillars of Hercules. Eos bore to Tithonus 2 sons, the bronzed armed Memnon, the King of the Ethiopians and his brother the lordly Emathion. Zephyrus, god of the West Wind, like Memnon was also the 1st born son of Eos (East Wind) by another father Astraeus, making him the brother of Memnon.
As a warrior Memnon was considered to be almost Achilles' equal in skill. Memnon journeying from the Western Ocean with his army of Ethiopians, arrived at Troy in the immediate aftermath of an argument between Polydamas, Helen, and Priam centered on weather or not the Aethiopian King will show up at all.
Memnon's army is described as being too big to be counted and upon his arrival a huge banquet started in his honor. Memnon and Priam ended the dinner by exchanging glorious war stories, and Memnon's tales lead Priam to declare that the Aethiopian King was Troy's saviour. Memnon in a very humble way warned that his strength had to be seen in battle, although for him boasting in dinner was unwise. Before the next day's battle, Zeus made all the other Olympians promise not to interfere in the fighting.
In battle, Memnon kills Nestor's son Antilochos, because Antilochos had killed Memnon's dear comrade, Aesop. Seeking vengeance and despite his age, Nestor tries to fight Memnon but the Aethiopian warrior insisted it would not be just to fight such an old man, and respected Nestor so much that he refused to fight. In this way, Memnon is seen as very similar to Achilles -both of them having a strong sets of values that were looked upon favorably by the warrior culture of the time.
When Memnon reached the Greek ships, Nestor begged Aquilles to fight Memnon and avenge Antilochos, leading to the two men clashing while both were wearing divine armor made by Hephaestus. Zeus favored both of them and made each man tireless and huge so that the whole battlefield would watch them clash as demigods.
Eventually, Achilles stabbed Memnon through the heart, causing his entire army to flee in terror.
In honor of Memnon, the gods collected all the drops of blood that fell from him and used them to form a huge River that on every anniversary of his death would bear the stench of human flesh. The Aethiopians that stayed close to Memnon in order to bury their leader were turned into birds (which they were called Memnons) and stayed by his tomb so as to remove dust that gathers on it.
According to ancient Greek poets, Memnon's father Tithomus and Ganymede were snatched away from the royal house of Troy by the goddess of the dawn Eos and were taken to the ends of the earth on the Coast of Oceanus, to be her lovers. They were carried by the East Wind and were driven to the Western Ends of the earth beyond the Ocean or pillars of Hercules. Eos bore to Tithonus 2 sons, the bronzed armed Memnon, the King of the Ethiopians and his brother the lordly Emathion. Zephyrus, god of the West Wind, like Memnon was also the 1st born son of Eos (East Wind) by another father Astraeus, making him the brother of Memnon.
As a warrior Memnon was considered to be almost Achilles' equal in skill. Memnon journeying from the Western Ocean with his army of Ethiopians, arrived at Troy in the immediate aftermath of an argument between Polydamas, Helen, and Priam centered on weather or not the Aethiopian King will show up at all.
Memnon's army is described as being too big to be counted and upon his arrival a huge banquet started in his honor. Memnon and Priam ended the dinner by exchanging glorious war stories, and Memnon's tales lead Priam to declare that the Aethiopian King was Troy's saviour. Memnon in a very humble way warned that his strength had to be seen in battle, although for him boasting in dinner was unwise. Before the next day's battle, Zeus made all the other Olympians promise not to interfere in the fighting.
In battle, Memnon kills Nestor's son Antilochos, because Antilochos had killed Memnon's dear comrade, Aesop. Seeking vengeance and despite his age, Nestor tries to fight Memnon but the Aethiopian warrior insisted it would not be just to fight such an old man, and respected Nestor so much that he refused to fight. In this way, Memnon is seen as very similar to Achilles -both of them having a strong sets of values that were looked upon favorably by the warrior culture of the time.
When Memnon reached the Greek ships, Nestor begged Aquilles to fight Memnon and avenge Antilochos, leading to the two men clashing while both were wearing divine armor made by Hephaestus. Zeus favored both of them and made each man tireless and huge so that the whole battlefield would watch them clash as demigods.
Eventually, Achilles stabbed Memnon through the heart, causing his entire army to flee in terror.
In honor of Memnon, the gods collected all the drops of blood that fell from him and used them to form a huge River that on every anniversary of his death would bear the stench of human flesh. The Aethiopians that stayed close to Memnon in order to bury their leader were turned into birds (which they were called Memnons) and stayed by his tomb so as to remove dust that gathers on it.
Sunday, 17 April 2016
THE MACROBIANS.
The Macrobians, meaning long-lived, were a legendary tribe of Aethiopia, a kingdom positioned in the land towards the Western Sunset at the ends of the earth in ancient Libya (Africa).
In the inhabited world according to Herodotus, Libya (Africa) is imagined as extending no further south than the Horn of Africa, terminating in uninhabitable desert. The Macrobians dwelt geographically along the sea South of Libya on the Atlantic opposite of the Erythraean sea to the East of them. South of the Pillars of Hercules and Atlas Mountains, at the extreme South-East of the continent, were the Macrobians while the Libyans along the Mediterranean Sea were indigenous to Northern Libya. All peoples inhabiting the southern most fringes of the inhabitable world were known as Ethiopians (after their black skin).
Macrobians were known for their longevity and height. An average person was suppose to live to the age of 120. They were said to be the tallest and handsomest of all men. At the same time, they were reported as being physically distinct from the rest of mankind.
Herodotus' account says that the Persian Emperor Cambyses II upon his conquest of Egypt (525 BC) sent ambassadors to Macrobia, bringing luxury gifts for the Macrobian king to entice his submission. The Macrobian ruler, who was elected based on his stature and beauty, replied instead with a challenge for his Persian counterpart in the form of an unstrung bow: if the Persians could manage to draw it, they would have the right to invade his country; but until then, they should thank the gods that the Macrobians never decided to invade their empire.
Later on according to sources Canaanite Phoenician tribes who left their homeland of Canaan and sailed West of the Mediterranean Sea also settled along the Atlantic coast of Africa, after they were driven out of their homeland by invading Hebrew Israelite tribes under Moses, Joshua and David.
Both Xenophon and Herodotus makes it known that during their time, Asia was ruled by the Persians in the East, Europe ruled by the Scythians in the North, Northern Libya ruled by the Carthaginians and Southern Lybia ruled by the Macrobian Ethiopians in the West.
When Herodotus described the Eastern, Southern and Western (Asia, Arabia, Libya) ends of the inhabited Earth, he made it known that the Macrobians dwelt the farthest towards the sunset (west) of the Southern Nile River beyond the Western Sahara. Herodotus also made it known that only 2 tribes accomplished this long journey from the Nile River to the Western Ends of the earth beyond the vast desert Sahara, these 2 tribes were known as the Libyan Nasamones, who spoke an alien language to the inhabitants, and the Ichthyophagi of Elefantine, who spoke the same language as the inhabitants, but Cambyses with his huge army failed to accomplish what the Nasamones and the Ichthyophagi had already completed. Cambyses, after being insulted by the tallest and long-lived Macrobian Ethiopian King of the West, he eagerly wanted to conquest and subdue all people of Amun and destroy all temples of the god, but failed in his desperate attempt. And although Cambyses had departed from Susa to invade and conquer the land of Egypt by crossing the Sinai desert and afterwards departing from Egypt to reach the deep Southern realms of Meroe, he was still far away from the land of the Macrobians, who dwelt beyond the vast Sahara desert at the ends of the earth as far as the Ocean towards the Western Sunset.
According to Herodotus, the Macrobians practiced an elaborate form of embalming. They preserved the dead bodies by first extracting moisture from the corpses, then overlaying the bodies with a type of plaster, and finally decorating the exterior in vivid colors in order to imitate the deceased as realistically as possible. Then they placed the body in a hollow crystal pillar, which they kept in their homes for a period of a year. Macrobia was also noted for its gold, which was so plentiful that the Macrobians shackled their prisioners in golden chains.
In the inhabited world according to Herodotus, Libya (Africa) is imagined as extending no further south than the Horn of Africa, terminating in uninhabitable desert. The Macrobians dwelt geographically along the sea South of Libya on the Atlantic opposite of the Erythraean sea to the East of them. South of the Pillars of Hercules and Atlas Mountains, at the extreme South-East of the continent, were the Macrobians while the Libyans along the Mediterranean Sea were indigenous to Northern Libya. All peoples inhabiting the southern most fringes of the inhabitable world were known as Ethiopians (after their black skin).
Macrobians were known for their longevity and height. An average person was suppose to live to the age of 120. They were said to be the tallest and handsomest of all men. At the same time, they were reported as being physically distinct from the rest of mankind.
Herodotus' account says that the Persian Emperor Cambyses II upon his conquest of Egypt (525 BC) sent ambassadors to Macrobia, bringing luxury gifts for the Macrobian king to entice his submission. The Macrobian ruler, who was elected based on his stature and beauty, replied instead with a challenge for his Persian counterpart in the form of an unstrung bow: if the Persians could manage to draw it, they would have the right to invade his country; but until then, they should thank the gods that the Macrobians never decided to invade their empire.
Later on according to sources Canaanite Phoenician tribes who left their homeland of Canaan and sailed West of the Mediterranean Sea also settled along the Atlantic coast of Africa, after they were driven out of their homeland by invading Hebrew Israelite tribes under Moses, Joshua and David.
Both Xenophon and Herodotus makes it known that during their time, Asia was ruled by the Persians in the East, Europe ruled by the Scythians in the North, Northern Libya ruled by the Carthaginians and Southern Lybia ruled by the Macrobian Ethiopians in the West.
When Herodotus described the Eastern, Southern and Western (Asia, Arabia, Libya) ends of the inhabited Earth, he made it known that the Macrobians dwelt the farthest towards the sunset (west) of the Southern Nile River beyond the Western Sahara. Herodotus also made it known that only 2 tribes accomplished this long journey from the Nile River to the Western Ends of the earth beyond the vast desert Sahara, these 2 tribes were known as the Libyan Nasamones, who spoke an alien language to the inhabitants, and the Ichthyophagi of Elefantine, who spoke the same language as the inhabitants, but Cambyses with his huge army failed to accomplish what the Nasamones and the Ichthyophagi had already completed. Cambyses, after being insulted by the tallest and long-lived Macrobian Ethiopian King of the West, he eagerly wanted to conquest and subdue all people of Amun and destroy all temples of the god, but failed in his desperate attempt. And although Cambyses had departed from Susa to invade and conquer the land of Egypt by crossing the Sinai desert and afterwards departing from Egypt to reach the deep Southern realms of Meroe, he was still far away from the land of the Macrobians, who dwelt beyond the vast Sahara desert at the ends of the earth as far as the Ocean towards the Western Sunset.
According to Herodotus, the Macrobians practiced an elaborate form of embalming. They preserved the dead bodies by first extracting moisture from the corpses, then overlaying the bodies with a type of plaster, and finally decorating the exterior in vivid colors in order to imitate the deceased as realistically as possible. Then they placed the body in a hollow crystal pillar, which they kept in their homes for a period of a year. Macrobia was also noted for its gold, which was so plentiful that the Macrobians shackled their prisioners in golden chains.
Saturday, 16 April 2016
THE SPIRITUAL COVENANT.
A spiritual covenant described in the Bible is unique and apply to all humanity. The Book of Jeremiah predict "a new covenant" that God will establish with the spiritual house of Israel. This New Covenant is the replacement or final fulfillment of the Old Covenant described in the Old Testament and aplicable to the People of God.
The word "covenant" is similar in meaning the idea of "contract,"although the 2 words are not perfectly synonymous, and the differences between them are significant.
During the time in which the Bible was written, a covenant was a formal agreement that caused or implied several things: 1) it defined or sometimes created a relationship between a king and his vassal states, or a deity and his nation, or between two humans. 2)some were conditional, just as with a present-day contract, but, generally speaking, most ancient covenants were unconditional (each part committed to a certain action, regardless of whether the other party keeps the covenant). 3) covenants included the slaughter of animals as a symbol of their significance. 4) covenants carried no expiration date, that the parties were understood to be bound by the covenant until death or forever, such in the case of covenants with God. 5) contracts were enforced by the civil government and regulated by God.
6) A contract involved the exchange of property or actions binding two parties together personally.
Noah's Covenant applies to all humanity and to all other living creatures. In this covenant, God promises never again to destroy all life on Earth by flood, and created the rainbow as the sign of this everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth. (Gen. 9).
The Abrahamic Covenant found in Genesis 12 is known as the "Covenant Between the Parts" in Hebrew, and is the basis for the "Covenant of Circumcision" in Judaism. The covenant was for Abraham and his seed, or offspring, both of natural birth and adoption. In Genesis 12 to 17 three covenants can be distinguished: 1) To make of Abraham a great nation and bless Abraham and make his name great so that he will be a blessing, to bless those who bless him and curse him who curses him and all peoples on earth would be blessed through Abraham. 2)To give Abraham's descendants all the land from the River of Egypt to the Euphrates, that later came to be referred to as the Promised Land or the Land of Israel. 3)To make Abraham the father of many nations and of many descendants and give "the whole land of Canaan" to his descendants. Circumcision is to be the permanent sign of this everlasting covenant with Abraham and his male descendants.
The Abraham covenant has a representation of a covenant of grant. It is the obligation of the master to his servant that involves gifts given to individuals who were loyal serving their masters. In Genesis 15, God commits Himself and swears to keep the Promise. In this covenant there are procedures of taking the oath, which involved a smoking oven and a blazing torch. It is the superior party who places himself under oath. The inferior party is delivering the animals while the superior swears the oath. The animal slaughtered is considered a sacrificial offering preserving the sacrificial element alongside the spiritual and symbolic act.
Covenants were often sealed by severing an animal, with the implication that the party who breaks the covenant will suffer a similar spiritual fate. In Hebrew, the verb meaning "to seal" a covenant translates literally as "to cut." The removal of the foreskin symbolically represent such spiritual cut from the fleshy snares and the sealing of the covenant
The Moses Covenant found in Exodus 19 to 24 and the book of Deuteronomy, contains the foundations of the written and oral Torah. God promises to make the Israelites his treasured possession among all people and a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, if they follow God's commandments. The 10 Commandments begins with God's identification and what he had done in the spiritual world for Israel bringing them out of the land of Egypt (Exodus 20) as well as the stipulations commanding absolute loyalty to Him. God gave the children of Israel the Shabbat as the permanent sign of this covenant.
The Priestly Covenant is the covenant that God made with Aaron and his descendants. The Hebrew Bible also mentions another perpetual priestly promise with Phinehas and his descendants.
The David Covenant establishes David and his descendants as the kings of the united monarchy of Israel, which included Judah. The Messiah is a future king from David line, who will be anointed with holy anointing oil, gather the spiritual Jews back into the spiritual Land of Israel, usher in an era of peace, build the Third Temple, have a male heir, re-institute and rule the Jewish people during the Messianic Age.
The word "covenant" is similar in meaning the idea of "contract,"although the 2 words are not perfectly synonymous, and the differences between them are significant.
During the time in which the Bible was written, a covenant was a formal agreement that caused or implied several things: 1) it defined or sometimes created a relationship between a king and his vassal states, or a deity and his nation, or between two humans. 2)some were conditional, just as with a present-day contract, but, generally speaking, most ancient covenants were unconditional (each part committed to a certain action, regardless of whether the other party keeps the covenant). 3) covenants included the slaughter of animals as a symbol of their significance. 4) covenants carried no expiration date, that the parties were understood to be bound by the covenant until death or forever, such in the case of covenants with God. 5) contracts were enforced by the civil government and regulated by God.
6) A contract involved the exchange of property or actions binding two parties together personally.
Noah's Covenant applies to all humanity and to all other living creatures. In this covenant, God promises never again to destroy all life on Earth by flood, and created the rainbow as the sign of this everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth. (Gen. 9).
The Abrahamic Covenant found in Genesis 12 is known as the "Covenant Between the Parts" in Hebrew, and is the basis for the "Covenant of Circumcision" in Judaism. The covenant was for Abraham and his seed, or offspring, both of natural birth and adoption. In Genesis 12 to 17 three covenants can be distinguished: 1) To make of Abraham a great nation and bless Abraham and make his name great so that he will be a blessing, to bless those who bless him and curse him who curses him and all peoples on earth would be blessed through Abraham. 2)To give Abraham's descendants all the land from the River of Egypt to the Euphrates, that later came to be referred to as the Promised Land or the Land of Israel. 3)To make Abraham the father of many nations and of many descendants and give "the whole land of Canaan" to his descendants. Circumcision is to be the permanent sign of this everlasting covenant with Abraham and his male descendants.
The Abraham covenant has a representation of a covenant of grant. It is the obligation of the master to his servant that involves gifts given to individuals who were loyal serving their masters. In Genesis 15, God commits Himself and swears to keep the Promise. In this covenant there are procedures of taking the oath, which involved a smoking oven and a blazing torch. It is the superior party who places himself under oath. The inferior party is delivering the animals while the superior swears the oath. The animal slaughtered is considered a sacrificial offering preserving the sacrificial element alongside the spiritual and symbolic act.
Covenants were often sealed by severing an animal, with the implication that the party who breaks the covenant will suffer a similar spiritual fate. In Hebrew, the verb meaning "to seal" a covenant translates literally as "to cut." The removal of the foreskin symbolically represent such spiritual cut from the fleshy snares and the sealing of the covenant
The Moses Covenant found in Exodus 19 to 24 and the book of Deuteronomy, contains the foundations of the written and oral Torah. God promises to make the Israelites his treasured possession among all people and a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, if they follow God's commandments. The 10 Commandments begins with God's identification and what he had done in the spiritual world for Israel bringing them out of the land of Egypt (Exodus 20) as well as the stipulations commanding absolute loyalty to Him. God gave the children of Israel the Shabbat as the permanent sign of this covenant.
The Priestly Covenant is the covenant that God made with Aaron and his descendants. The Hebrew Bible also mentions another perpetual priestly promise with Phinehas and his descendants.
The David Covenant establishes David and his descendants as the kings of the united monarchy of Israel, which included Judah. The Messiah is a future king from David line, who will be anointed with holy anointing oil, gather the spiritual Jews back into the spiritual Land of Israel, usher in an era of peace, build the Third Temple, have a male heir, re-institute and rule the Jewish people during the Messianic Age.
THE OLNEY HYMNS.
The Olney Hymns are an expression of John Newton and William Cooper's personal religious faith and experience, and the reflection of the tenets of the Evangelical faith: -The inherent sinfulness of man. -Religious conversion. -Atonement. -Activism. -Devotion to the Bible. -God's providence. -Believe an eternal life after death. They were primarily written for immediate use in day-to-day use, instead of the Scriptures, in the Newton's ministry of Olney. Here they were sung, or chanted, in church or at Newton's other Sunday and weekday meetings as a collective expression of worship. It was not without controversy, particularly within the official church, the Church of England. They were initially sung to any suitable tune that fitted the rhythm.
Olney was a village of about 2,500 residents whose main industry was making lace by hand. The people were most illiterate and many of them poor.
The Hymn "Amazing Grace" was written in that town to illustrate a sermon on New Year's Day of 1773. It was chanted by the congregation and debuted in print in 1779 in Newton and Cowper's Olney Hymns but settled into relative obscurity in England. In the United States was used extensively during the Second Great Awakening in the early 19th century. In 1835 it was joined to a tune named "New Britain" to which it is most frequently sung today. It is performed about 10 million times annually.
John Newton (24 July 1725-21 December 1807)was born in Wapping, a district that lies East of the ancient walled City of London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, North of the Thames River. It forms the core of the East End. The use of East End in a pejorative sense began in the late 19th century, as the expansion of the population of London led to extreme overcrowding throughout the area and a concentration of poor people and immigrants in the district that made it up. These problems were exacerbated with the construction of St. Katharine Docks (1827) and the central London railway termini (1840-1875) that caused the clearance of former slums and rookeries, with many of the displaced people moving into the area. Over the course of the century, the East End became synonymous with poverty, overcrowding, disease, and criminality.
John Newton was the only child of John Newton Sr., a shipmaster in the Mediterranean service, and Elizabeth, the only daughter of Simon Scatliff, an instrument maker from London. Elizabeth was brought up as a Nonconformist. She died of tuberculosis in July 1732, about two weeks before John's 7th birthday. Newton spent 2 years al boarding school before going to live in Aveley in Essex, the home of his father 's new wife.
At the age of 11 he first went to sea with his father. He then became a self-educated sea captain, and worked on slave ships in the slave trade for several years. Newton sailed 6 voyages before his father retired in 1742. At that time, Newton's father made plans for him to engage in the sugarcane plantation business in Jamaica. Instead, he signed on with a merchant ship company sailing to the Mediterranean Sea. He wrote an autobiography and published it in 1764, when he was 39 years old. Newton's apparent influence and charisma proved beneficial to him when local evangelist merchant, John Thornton, to whom he has sent a copy of his autobiography, offered the parish. In 1780, at the age of 55, he took the position of Rector at St. Mary Wool-Noth, an Anglican Church, in London.
William Cowper was the son of an Anglican clergyman and well-educated at West-Minster, an independent school within the Prescint of West-Minster Abbey. Now it has the highest Oxford and Cambridge acceptance rates of any school or college in the World. With origins before the 12th century, its schooling tradition dates back as far as 960 CE. William was liable to bouts of severe insanity and depression throughout his adult life, and attempted suicide several times. During a period in an asylum he was counseled by his cousin, Martin Madan, an evangelical clergy man. His new enthusiasm for Evangelicalism, his conversion, and his move to Olney in 1767 brought him into contact with John Newton. The friendship struck Newton since William was a gifted writer who had failed a carrier in law. William enjoyed Olney and eventually became an unpaid curate to Newton's church, helping with the distribution of Thornton's funds. Together, their effect in the congregation was impressive. In 1768, they found it necessary to start a weekly prayer meeting to meet the needs of an increasing number of poor parishioners. They also began writing lessons for children. Because of William's literary influence and the expected verses written by vicars, Newton began to try to pull together them as Hymns with the purpose of made it popular through the language and plain to common people to understand. Several prolific writers were at their most productive level in the 18th century, including Isaac Watts, whose hymns Had grown up hearing, and Charles Wesley, with whom Newton was familiar. Wesley's brother John, the eventual founder of the Methodist Church, had encouraged Newton to go into the clergy. Watts was a pioner in English hymn writing, basing his work after the Psalms. Newton and William attempted to present a poem or hymn for each prayer meeting. The lyrics to "Amazing Grace" were written in late 1772 and used in a prayer meeting for the 1st time on January the 1st, 1773. A collection of the poems written for use in service at Olney was bound and published anonymously in 1779 under the title "Olney Hymns." 1 Chronicles 17: 16-17, Faith Review and Expectation, was the title of the poem with the 1st line "Amazing Grace! (how sweet the sound)."
William Cowper is best known, not just for his contribution to the Olney Hymns, but as a poet, letter-writer, and translator. His works include "The Diverting History of John Gilpin," 1782, "The Task," 1785, and his translation of Homer, published in 1791.
Olney was a village of about 2,500 residents whose main industry was making lace by hand. The people were most illiterate and many of them poor.
The Hymn "Amazing Grace" was written in that town to illustrate a sermon on New Year's Day of 1773. It was chanted by the congregation and debuted in print in 1779 in Newton and Cowper's Olney Hymns but settled into relative obscurity in England. In the United States was used extensively during the Second Great Awakening in the early 19th century. In 1835 it was joined to a tune named "New Britain" to which it is most frequently sung today. It is performed about 10 million times annually.
John Newton (24 July 1725-21 December 1807)was born in Wapping, a district that lies East of the ancient walled City of London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, North of the Thames River. It forms the core of the East End. The use of East End in a pejorative sense began in the late 19th century, as the expansion of the population of London led to extreme overcrowding throughout the area and a concentration of poor people and immigrants in the district that made it up. These problems were exacerbated with the construction of St. Katharine Docks (1827) and the central London railway termini (1840-1875) that caused the clearance of former slums and rookeries, with many of the displaced people moving into the area. Over the course of the century, the East End became synonymous with poverty, overcrowding, disease, and criminality.
John Newton was the only child of John Newton Sr., a shipmaster in the Mediterranean service, and Elizabeth, the only daughter of Simon Scatliff, an instrument maker from London. Elizabeth was brought up as a Nonconformist. She died of tuberculosis in July 1732, about two weeks before John's 7th birthday. Newton spent 2 years al boarding school before going to live in Aveley in Essex, the home of his father 's new wife.
At the age of 11 he first went to sea with his father. He then became a self-educated sea captain, and worked on slave ships in the slave trade for several years. Newton sailed 6 voyages before his father retired in 1742. At that time, Newton's father made plans for him to engage in the sugarcane plantation business in Jamaica. Instead, he signed on with a merchant ship company sailing to the Mediterranean Sea. He wrote an autobiography and published it in 1764, when he was 39 years old. Newton's apparent influence and charisma proved beneficial to him when local evangelist merchant, John Thornton, to whom he has sent a copy of his autobiography, offered the parish. In 1780, at the age of 55, he took the position of Rector at St. Mary Wool-Noth, an Anglican Church, in London.
William Cowper was the son of an Anglican clergyman and well-educated at West-Minster, an independent school within the Prescint of West-Minster Abbey. Now it has the highest Oxford and Cambridge acceptance rates of any school or college in the World. With origins before the 12th century, its schooling tradition dates back as far as 960 CE. William was liable to bouts of severe insanity and depression throughout his adult life, and attempted suicide several times. During a period in an asylum he was counseled by his cousin, Martin Madan, an evangelical clergy man. His new enthusiasm for Evangelicalism, his conversion, and his move to Olney in 1767 brought him into contact with John Newton. The friendship struck Newton since William was a gifted writer who had failed a carrier in law. William enjoyed Olney and eventually became an unpaid curate to Newton's church, helping with the distribution of Thornton's funds. Together, their effect in the congregation was impressive. In 1768, they found it necessary to start a weekly prayer meeting to meet the needs of an increasing number of poor parishioners. They also began writing lessons for children. Because of William's literary influence and the expected verses written by vicars, Newton began to try to pull together them as Hymns with the purpose of made it popular through the language and plain to common people to understand. Several prolific writers were at their most productive level in the 18th century, including Isaac Watts, whose hymns Had grown up hearing, and Charles Wesley, with whom Newton was familiar. Wesley's brother John, the eventual founder of the Methodist Church, had encouraged Newton to go into the clergy. Watts was a pioner in English hymn writing, basing his work after the Psalms. Newton and William attempted to present a poem or hymn for each prayer meeting. The lyrics to "Amazing Grace" were written in late 1772 and used in a prayer meeting for the 1st time on January the 1st, 1773. A collection of the poems written for use in service at Olney was bound and published anonymously in 1779 under the title "Olney Hymns." 1 Chronicles 17: 16-17, Faith Review and Expectation, was the title of the poem with the 1st line "Amazing Grace! (how sweet the sound)."
William Cowper is best known, not just for his contribution to the Olney Hymns, but as a poet, letter-writer, and translator. His works include "The Diverting History of John Gilpin," 1782, "The Task," 1785, and his translation of Homer, published in 1791.
Friday, 15 April 2016
THE SOCIAL LIFE OF ROME DURING THE REPUBLIC.
The social history of Rome during the Republic is dominated by the so called Conflict of the Orders. This conflict centered on the Twin problems of Debt and availability of farmland.
Political and Social power was concentrated in the hands of the Aristocratic Patricians (Fathers) who belonged to a privileged "Clans." The plebs constituted the commons and constituted the clients of the Patricians. The plebs were itself divided into 2 groups: those who belonged to prominent families and those who were poor. The plebs belonging to prominent families considered themselves equal in status to the ones from privileged "clans," but were constitutionally prevented from enjoying an egalitarian status with the Patricians.
By the end of the monarchy, there were 4 basic rights, all 4 possessed by the Patricians, though only 2 by the high class plebs. On the 2 public rights, ius (the right to participate in the assembly) and ius honoris (right to hold office), only the 1st was held by the high class plebs. Likewise, of the 2 private rights, the ius commercium (right to buy and sell), and ius concubii (right of intermarriage), only the 1st was held by high rank plebs. The prohibition of intermarriage was critical in keeping the 2 Orders separate.
Patricians monopolized the priest-hoods, principal magistracies, the interregnum procedure, senate membership, and effectively controlled the popular assembly through patron-client relationships.
The Senate originated during the monarchy as a council of kings, appointed first by kings and then during the Republic by the chief magistrates. By the end of the monarchy there were 300 Senators, based on 3 Roman Tribes, each consisting of 10 individuals (curi-ae). The assemblies were 3 in number: -comitia curiata, in which each of the 30 original clan-type individual had a single vote. -the comitia centuriata, a military assembly based on landed wealth. -comitia tributa, the plebs assembly.
Following the temporary emigration of the plebs from Rome to the Aventine in 494 BC, they formed their own state within a state with an assembly and annually elected their own magistrates for nearly 2 centuries.
The Greeks,who had colonized Magna Graecia in Southern Italy came to dominate Roman cultural life.
Geek literature, mythology, and history were central in Roman education, and Greek was the 1st language of Roman education. Many young Roman aristocrats were routinely educated in Greece and were thus bilingual. By the 1st century BC, only a small percentage of the population of the residents of Rome were of Roman or Italian ancestry, perhaps 10 percent. Within Rome itself various national groups often maintained linguistic and cultural traditions; the extensive Jewish community, e.g., which numbered from 30 to 50 thousand, was a Greek-speaking community, because of the hellenization of Palestine.
Administration of city government was divided into 14 districts under Augustus, with a magistrate chosen annually by tot to govern each district. Seven fire-fighting brigades called "vigiles" were organized, each responsible for 2 of the districts. Just outside the North East city limits was stationed a special force of about 10,000, known as the Praetorian or Imperial Guard, for the protection of the emperor. There were also 3 "urban cohorts," a kind of city police force, to maintain law and order in Rome. Prostitution was regulated like other business enterprises. A prostitute had to be identified by distinctive garb, had to be registered with the government, and had to pay a special tax.
The wealthy and influential often lived in palatial homes on the hills, homes maintained by large house-holds of servants and slaves, sometimes numbering into the hundreds. Down in the Valleys the common people were crowded together in enormous tenement houses several stories high, limited in height to 70 ft /21 m. This tenement blocks were separated by narrow, crooked, dirty streets filled with the customary traffic, and corruption prevalent in big cities. The historic fire of 64 CE happened here in these poor areas. Only 4 out of the 14 districts of Dome were spared.
There were very few persons in Rome who could be called "middle class;" the wealth rested with a small minority. When Paul 1st reached Rome, half of the population were slaves, brought there as prisoners of war, as condemned criminals, or as children sold by parents, slaves with no legal rights. The greater part of the other free of the population were paupers who practically lived off government subsidies.
Two things, food and entertainment, were provided by the state to keep the poor people from rioting, hence the satirical phrase "bread and circuses," inferring that this was all that was needed to satisfy the poor of Rome. Water was brought many miles into the city by aqueducts. Wine was cheap commodity.
For the enjoyment of those so inclined there libraries available. For the entertainment of the general populace there were public baths and gymnasiums, as well as the theaters and circuses. The theatrical performances consisted of Greek and Roman plays, dances and pantomimes. One theater held 40,000 individuals. In the great amphitheaters and circuses exciting games were held, chiefly spectacular chariot races and desperate gladiatorial contests in which men and beasts fought to death. The Circus Maximus had a capacity of more than 150,000 persons. Admission to the game was free.
The high cost of these government expenses was not borne by the populace of Rome, for after the conquest of Macedonia in 167 BC, Roman citizens were tax free. Instead, the provinces were heavily taxed, both directly and indirectly. (Matthew 22).
Political and Social power was concentrated in the hands of the Aristocratic Patricians (Fathers) who belonged to a privileged "Clans." The plebs constituted the commons and constituted the clients of the Patricians. The plebs were itself divided into 2 groups: those who belonged to prominent families and those who were poor. The plebs belonging to prominent families considered themselves equal in status to the ones from privileged "clans," but were constitutionally prevented from enjoying an egalitarian status with the Patricians.
By the end of the monarchy, there were 4 basic rights, all 4 possessed by the Patricians, though only 2 by the high class plebs. On the 2 public rights, ius (the right to participate in the assembly) and ius honoris (right to hold office), only the 1st was held by the high class plebs. Likewise, of the 2 private rights, the ius commercium (right to buy and sell), and ius concubii (right of intermarriage), only the 1st was held by high rank plebs. The prohibition of intermarriage was critical in keeping the 2 Orders separate.
Patricians monopolized the priest-hoods, principal magistracies, the interregnum procedure, senate membership, and effectively controlled the popular assembly through patron-client relationships.
The Senate originated during the monarchy as a council of kings, appointed first by kings and then during the Republic by the chief magistrates. By the end of the monarchy there were 300 Senators, based on 3 Roman Tribes, each consisting of 10 individuals (curi-ae). The assemblies were 3 in number: -comitia curiata, in which each of the 30 original clan-type individual had a single vote. -the comitia centuriata, a military assembly based on landed wealth. -comitia tributa, the plebs assembly.
Following the temporary emigration of the plebs from Rome to the Aventine in 494 BC, they formed their own state within a state with an assembly and annually elected their own magistrates for nearly 2 centuries.
The Greeks,who had colonized Magna Graecia in Southern Italy came to dominate Roman cultural life.
Geek literature, mythology, and history were central in Roman education, and Greek was the 1st language of Roman education. Many young Roman aristocrats were routinely educated in Greece and were thus bilingual. By the 1st century BC, only a small percentage of the population of the residents of Rome were of Roman or Italian ancestry, perhaps 10 percent. Within Rome itself various national groups often maintained linguistic and cultural traditions; the extensive Jewish community, e.g., which numbered from 30 to 50 thousand, was a Greek-speaking community, because of the hellenization of Palestine.
Administration of city government was divided into 14 districts under Augustus, with a magistrate chosen annually by tot to govern each district. Seven fire-fighting brigades called "vigiles" were organized, each responsible for 2 of the districts. Just outside the North East city limits was stationed a special force of about 10,000, known as the Praetorian or Imperial Guard, for the protection of the emperor. There were also 3 "urban cohorts," a kind of city police force, to maintain law and order in Rome. Prostitution was regulated like other business enterprises. A prostitute had to be identified by distinctive garb, had to be registered with the government, and had to pay a special tax.
The wealthy and influential often lived in palatial homes on the hills, homes maintained by large house-holds of servants and slaves, sometimes numbering into the hundreds. Down in the Valleys the common people were crowded together in enormous tenement houses several stories high, limited in height to 70 ft /21 m. This tenement blocks were separated by narrow, crooked, dirty streets filled with the customary traffic, and corruption prevalent in big cities. The historic fire of 64 CE happened here in these poor areas. Only 4 out of the 14 districts of Dome were spared.
There were very few persons in Rome who could be called "middle class;" the wealth rested with a small minority. When Paul 1st reached Rome, half of the population were slaves, brought there as prisoners of war, as condemned criminals, or as children sold by parents, slaves with no legal rights. The greater part of the other free of the population were paupers who practically lived off government subsidies.
Two things, food and entertainment, were provided by the state to keep the poor people from rioting, hence the satirical phrase "bread and circuses," inferring that this was all that was needed to satisfy the poor of Rome. Water was brought many miles into the city by aqueducts. Wine was cheap commodity.
For the enjoyment of those so inclined there libraries available. For the entertainment of the general populace there were public baths and gymnasiums, as well as the theaters and circuses. The theatrical performances consisted of Greek and Roman plays, dances and pantomimes. One theater held 40,000 individuals. In the great amphitheaters and circuses exciting games were held, chiefly spectacular chariot races and desperate gladiatorial contests in which men and beasts fought to death. The Circus Maximus had a capacity of more than 150,000 persons. Admission to the game was free.
The high cost of these government expenses was not borne by the populace of Rome, for after the conquest of Macedonia in 167 BC, Roman citizens were tax free. Instead, the provinces were heavily taxed, both directly and indirectly. (Matthew 22).
THE SYMBOLIC CITY OF ROME.
Rome, the once-small city located on both banks up the Tiber River, the 3rd longest river in Italy, and down the West side of the 700 mi / 1,126 kms, long Italian Peninsula, became, in terms of political importance, the government seat of the greatest World Empire in ancient Bible times.
A knowledge of Roman religion, history and culture sheds light on a number of passages in the Old Testament and New Testament (Isaiah 23; Jeremiah 2; Ezekiel 27). They refer to them in their spiritual form or image (authorities controlling their reality) that were reflected in the Greeks in a different way, since the soil of Italy was more fertile than that of Greek, though the climate was similar, the physical expression of of the spiritual authorities acting in human's behaviour and control behaves differently. Kittim is also used as a name to refer to them in the same way (1 Maccabees 1-8). The topographical system differs also from that of the Greeks, since the Apen-Nine Mountains form the backbone of the Peninsula with arable land both East and West of the Mountain Range. Unlike Greece, Italy was a land suitable for raising cattle.
The Tiber River rises at Mount Fuma-Iolo in Central Italy. Mount Fuma-Iolo, with an elevation of 1,407 m / 4,616 ft, is on the Northern Apen-Nines Range in the Southern-most corner of the Emilia-Romagna Region at the border Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany, near to the Mediterranean Sea. It flows in a generally Southerly direction 406 kms / 252 mi through Umbria and Lazio, where it is joined by the Aniene River to the Tyrrhenian Sea.
The source of the Tiber consists of 2 springs 10 meters (33 ft) away from each other, located on the Mount Fuma-Iolo, in a Beech Forest 1,268 m / 4,160 ft above sea level, on the Southern steeps. Although nowadays only one spring remains active, the area is still called "la Venee del Tevere."
Popularly called "Flavus" (the Blond) in reference to the yellowish color of its water. The Tiber River has naturally and heavily advanced at the mouth by about 3 kms (2 mi) since Roman times, leaving the ancient port of Ostia 6 kms (4 mi) inland. However, it does not form a proportional delta, owing to a strong North flowing sea current close to the shore, also to the steep shelving of the Coast, and finally to the slow tectonic subsidence.
Mout Fuma-Iolo overlooks the 3 villages around the area and thanks to its extensive fir and beech forest, it is a well-appreciated tourist area of natural interest. The beech forest is made of low-branching trees made up of several trunks with yellowish bark. The tree canopy casts dense shade, and carpets the ground thickly with leaf litter. Beech bark is extremely thin and scars easily and is unable to heal by itself. The tree can be killed by a fungal disease caused by scale insects.
The soil of the Peninsula is divided in 2 parts: - Continental soil centered on the Po Valley with the Po River running through the center; - Peninsular soil divided in 3 subparts: East Coast, West Coast, and Southern Boot. Having few good harbors, such as the Bay of Naples, which together with the fact that the Po and the Tiber were the only navigable rivers, impeded the development of trade and commerce by water. That is the reason that the culture was known for its superficiality given the fact that the deep meaning that water embrace was not seeded in their culture. Through their long history the Romans remained landlubbers. The East Coast was sparsely inhabited in antiquity, with very little sailing on the Adriatic and no shipping until the time of the Crusaders. The West Coast consisted of excellent farmland, while the North West part of the Peninsula had mineral resources. The Southern tip also had an abundance of arable land, but was vulnerable to invasion.
Jews were very aware of the spiritual authorities and physical presence of Roman power in the Western Mediterranean. The significant political links between the Maccabees and Rome are narrated in Maccabees 8 and 12. In the New Testament the author of Luke-Acts was particular aware of the ubiquitous spiritual authorities and political presence of Rome, and carefully weaves allusion to Roman history and culture throughout his work, beginning with explicit mention of the reign of Tiberius in Luke 3 and continued through numerous references to Roman political and social institutions in the Acts of the Apostles.
The expansive empire began to grow during the Republic and continued to increase in size until it reached its greater extent in the early 2nd century CE. At its widest extent toward the end of Trajan's reign (98-117), the Roman Empire circled the Mediterranean basin, encompassing all Southern Europe, Britain (to the Scottish border), North Africa (to the Sahara), Egypt (to well beyond the 1st cataract), Asia Minor, the North Coast of the Black Sea, Armenia, and regions South of the Caucasus, Mesopotamia (to the Euphrates), Syria, and Palestine.
Rome, in his geographical position and sheer magnificence, was the superlative city of the Rome Empire, its capital, and the head of ts power. Located on a series of jutting foothills and low-lying eminences (the 7 hills) East of a bend in the Tiber River close to the Mediterranean Sea, the city was celebrated for its impressive public buildings, aqueducts, baths, theaters, and thoroughfares, many of which led from distant provinces.
Rome was ritually founded on 21 April 753 BC. Its birthday was celebrated during the Republic as the "Parilia," and in the Empire as the "natalis Urbe."There are 2 legends of the founding of Rome which are linked in various ways, both going back to the 4th century BC. One centered on Romulus,and his twin brother Remus, the other on Aeneas, whom Augustus claimed as an ancestor, a prince of Troy who fled to the West following the sack of Troy by the Greeks and eventually founded Rome. It is narrated in epic length in Virgil's Aeneid. The fact that the Romans regarded themselves as descended from the Trojans meant that they differentiated themselves from both Greeks and Etruscans.
The 1st known settlements was built on 7 hills on the East side of the Tiber River. The Palatine was the site of the oldest settlement. The other 6 hills were located around Palatine (beginning in the North and turning clockwise. They were Quirinal, Viminal, Esquiline, Caelian, Aventine, and Capitoline. In time the marshy Valleys between the hills were drained and in this areas many dwellings, forums, and circuses were built. After the mid-1st century BC, Rome became known as the "Septi-Montium" (7 Hills)
In 1927, under Benito Mussolini dictatorship, an antique marble column from the Roman Forum was placed on the remaining spring on Mount Fuma-Iolo with an inscription on it: "Qui Nasce il Fiume Sacro Ai Destiny di Roma" (Here still springs the sacred water that feed the river that holds the destiny of Rome). A Roman Eagle stands on the top of the column, and 3 Wolf heads hold a ring in their mouths that are visible on all sides.
A knowledge of Roman religion, history and culture sheds light on a number of passages in the Old Testament and New Testament (Isaiah 23; Jeremiah 2; Ezekiel 27). They refer to them in their spiritual form or image (authorities controlling their reality) that were reflected in the Greeks in a different way, since the soil of Italy was more fertile than that of Greek, though the climate was similar, the physical expression of of the spiritual authorities acting in human's behaviour and control behaves differently. Kittim is also used as a name to refer to them in the same way (1 Maccabees 1-8). The topographical system differs also from that of the Greeks, since the Apen-Nine Mountains form the backbone of the Peninsula with arable land both East and West of the Mountain Range. Unlike Greece, Italy was a land suitable for raising cattle.
The Tiber River rises at Mount Fuma-Iolo in Central Italy. Mount Fuma-Iolo, with an elevation of 1,407 m / 4,616 ft, is on the Northern Apen-Nines Range in the Southern-most corner of the Emilia-Romagna Region at the border Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany, near to the Mediterranean Sea. It flows in a generally Southerly direction 406 kms / 252 mi through Umbria and Lazio, where it is joined by the Aniene River to the Tyrrhenian Sea.
The source of the Tiber consists of 2 springs 10 meters (33 ft) away from each other, located on the Mount Fuma-Iolo, in a Beech Forest 1,268 m / 4,160 ft above sea level, on the Southern steeps. Although nowadays only one spring remains active, the area is still called "la Venee del Tevere."
Popularly called "Flavus" (the Blond) in reference to the yellowish color of its water. The Tiber River has naturally and heavily advanced at the mouth by about 3 kms (2 mi) since Roman times, leaving the ancient port of Ostia 6 kms (4 mi) inland. However, it does not form a proportional delta, owing to a strong North flowing sea current close to the shore, also to the steep shelving of the Coast, and finally to the slow tectonic subsidence.
Mout Fuma-Iolo overlooks the 3 villages around the area and thanks to its extensive fir and beech forest, it is a well-appreciated tourist area of natural interest. The beech forest is made of low-branching trees made up of several trunks with yellowish bark. The tree canopy casts dense shade, and carpets the ground thickly with leaf litter. Beech bark is extremely thin and scars easily and is unable to heal by itself. The tree can be killed by a fungal disease caused by scale insects.
The soil of the Peninsula is divided in 2 parts: - Continental soil centered on the Po Valley with the Po River running through the center; - Peninsular soil divided in 3 subparts: East Coast, West Coast, and Southern Boot. Having few good harbors, such as the Bay of Naples, which together with the fact that the Po and the Tiber were the only navigable rivers, impeded the development of trade and commerce by water. That is the reason that the culture was known for its superficiality given the fact that the deep meaning that water embrace was not seeded in their culture. Through their long history the Romans remained landlubbers. The East Coast was sparsely inhabited in antiquity, with very little sailing on the Adriatic and no shipping until the time of the Crusaders. The West Coast consisted of excellent farmland, while the North West part of the Peninsula had mineral resources. The Southern tip also had an abundance of arable land, but was vulnerable to invasion.
Jews were very aware of the spiritual authorities and physical presence of Roman power in the Western Mediterranean. The significant political links between the Maccabees and Rome are narrated in Maccabees 8 and 12. In the New Testament the author of Luke-Acts was particular aware of the ubiquitous spiritual authorities and political presence of Rome, and carefully weaves allusion to Roman history and culture throughout his work, beginning with explicit mention of the reign of Tiberius in Luke 3 and continued through numerous references to Roman political and social institutions in the Acts of the Apostles.
The expansive empire began to grow during the Republic and continued to increase in size until it reached its greater extent in the early 2nd century CE. At its widest extent toward the end of Trajan's reign (98-117), the Roman Empire circled the Mediterranean basin, encompassing all Southern Europe, Britain (to the Scottish border), North Africa (to the Sahara), Egypt (to well beyond the 1st cataract), Asia Minor, the North Coast of the Black Sea, Armenia, and regions South of the Caucasus, Mesopotamia (to the Euphrates), Syria, and Palestine.
Rome, in his geographical position and sheer magnificence, was the superlative city of the Rome Empire, its capital, and the head of ts power. Located on a series of jutting foothills and low-lying eminences (the 7 hills) East of a bend in the Tiber River close to the Mediterranean Sea, the city was celebrated for its impressive public buildings, aqueducts, baths, theaters, and thoroughfares, many of which led from distant provinces.
Rome was ritually founded on 21 April 753 BC. Its birthday was celebrated during the Republic as the "Parilia," and in the Empire as the "natalis Urbe."There are 2 legends of the founding of Rome which are linked in various ways, both going back to the 4th century BC. One centered on Romulus,and his twin brother Remus, the other on Aeneas, whom Augustus claimed as an ancestor, a prince of Troy who fled to the West following the sack of Troy by the Greeks and eventually founded Rome. It is narrated in epic length in Virgil's Aeneid. The fact that the Romans regarded themselves as descended from the Trojans meant that they differentiated themselves from both Greeks and Etruscans.
The 1st known settlements was built on 7 hills on the East side of the Tiber River. The Palatine was the site of the oldest settlement. The other 6 hills were located around Palatine (beginning in the North and turning clockwise. They were Quirinal, Viminal, Esquiline, Caelian, Aventine, and Capitoline. In time the marshy Valleys between the hills were drained and in this areas many dwellings, forums, and circuses were built. After the mid-1st century BC, Rome became known as the "Septi-Montium" (7 Hills)
In 1927, under Benito Mussolini dictatorship, an antique marble column from the Roman Forum was placed on the remaining spring on Mount Fuma-Iolo with an inscription on it: "Qui Nasce il Fiume Sacro Ai Destiny di Roma" (Here still springs the sacred water that feed the river that holds the destiny of Rome). A Roman Eagle stands on the top of the column, and 3 Wolf heads hold a ring in their mouths that are visible on all sides.
ABRAHAM' S SERVANTS
The definition of a spiritual servant is: One who belongs to his Master and seeks to do His Will. The Old Testament designates many individuals as servants of God. Abraham, Moses, Joshua, David, Hezekiah, Isaiah, and Zerub-babel. The Prophets as a group are also called God's servants.
A'bra.ham [Father of a Multitude] was given this name by God to group all the people with the spirit of exaltation and he was declared the father of them when he was 99 years old, and as reaffirmation of His promise that A'bra.ham's offspring would become many. Gen.17:5.
A'bra.ham was the 10th generation from Noah through Shem. Although listed 1st in the spiritual sense among the 3 sons of Terah, a practice that is followed in the case of several other outstanding Bible characters, he was not the firstborn in the physical world. The Scriptures show that Terah was 70 years old when his 1st son was born, and that A'bra.ham was born 60 years later when when his father was 130 years old (Genesis 11-12).
Abraham was a native of the Chaldean city of Ur, a thriving metropolis located in the land of Shinar, near of Nimrod's onetime royal city of Babel, near the present junction of the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers. In A'bra.ham's time , the city of Ur was steeped in Babylonian idolatry and the worship of its patron moon-god Sin. Abraham proved to be a man of deep faith in God and, as a consequence, he earned the reputation of being called "the father of all those having faith."(Romans 4:11)
Since True Faith is based on Accurate Knowledge, A'bra.ham apparently received his understanding by personal association with Shem since their lives overlapped by 150 years.
While A'braham was still living in Ur, God commanded him to move out to a strange land leaving behind everything. There in that country God said He would make out of him a great nation. Terah, now around 200 years old and still the family's patriarchal head, agreed to accompany Abraham and Sarah, his wife, on this long journey, and this is the reason that Terah as father of A'bra.ham is credited with making the move toward Canaan. (Genesis 11). Lot, a fatherless child, son of A'bra.ham's brother Haran, was adopted by his childless uncle and aunt, and so accompanied them. Haran fathered Lot and two daughters, Iscah and Milcah; the latter married her uncle Nahor. Haran died before the family left Ur of the Chaldees. To understand why he died in the spiritual sense we have to look at the residence that A'bra.ham took in Northern Mesopotamia, named Haran. The name itself means "mountaineer" and since the spirit of Haran was no longer with the Chaldeans, it resided in that city. A'bra.ham resided there temporarily and in this spirit Terah died. Then the city is listed among the nations conquered by the kings of Assyria.
Sometime after leaving Haran, Abraham sent his "oldest servant" to the city of Haran in which the spirit of his brother Nahor resided, to find a bride for his son Isaac. Later, Jacob, his grandson, went also to Haran to escape the wrath of his brother Esau and to find a wife among the daughters of his uncle Laban. At a well, near haran, Jacob met Rachel. (Genesis 27-28-29).
In the 8th century BC, Assyrian King Senna-Cherib tried to intimidate Hezekiah, the servant of God, with messages boasting about his forefathers' conquest of Haran and other places. (2Kings 19; Isaiah 37). Assyrian sources refer to Haran as the "road"in the spiritual and the physical way, because of its location being on the caravan route it linked with cities such as Nineveh, Asshur, Babylon, and Tyre, as well as the land of Egypt. (Ezekiel 27).
A'bra.ham went out of Haran and crossed the Euphrates River on the 14th day of the month that later became known as Nisan, following the death of his father Terah. Every move that A'bra.ham did falls exactly in the spiritual calendar planned by God towards the completion of His Plan. That would mean that the crossing marked the end of 2,083 years of human existence according to the most ancient man made calendar. A'bra.ham stayed in Haran for a suitable length of time after his father's death before living Haran, and he was 75 years of age when he went out of it.
He travelled through Damascus until he got to Shechem, North of Jerusalem near the big trees of Moreh. Here God appeared again to him confirming and enlarging his covenant promise by declaring:
"To your seed I am going to give this land."(Genesis 12). From there he marked the presence of God along the way through altars toward the Southern part of Palestine. In time of severe famine compelled A'bra.ham to move temporarily to Egypt, and to protect his spiritual and physical life, he did not represented Sarah as his wife, only as his sister. And, just as A'bra.ham feared, Pharaoh took beautiful Sarah into his household, to be his wife. But, before he could violate her, God had Paharaoh giving her back. A'bra.ham then returned to Canaan to the campsite between Beth-El and Ai.
Due to the increased size of their flocks and herds, A'bra.ham and Lot had to separate their belongings in their spiritual and physical terms. Lot selected the basin of the Lower Jordan, a well-watered region, similar to the Gardens of the Lord, and later established his camp near Sodom. (Genesis 13). A'bra.ham was told to travel about through the length and breadth of the land, like symbolizing a cross, and to dwell among the big trees of Mamre in Hebron, South West of Jerusalem.
When 4 allied kings, headed by Mesopotamian King Chedorlaomer, were successful in crushing a revolt of 5 Canaanite Kings, Sodom and Gomorrah were sacked and Lot was taken captive together with all his property. A'bra.ham upon learning of this, "quickly mustered 318 of his Trained Household Servants," made a Forced March in Hot Pursuit Northward to beyond Damascus, and with God's help, defeated a far superior force.
Lot was rescued and the stolen property recovered (Genesis 14). As A'bra.ham was returning from this great spiritual and physical victory a "Priest of the Most High," Melchi-Zedek, who was also the King of Salem, came out and blessed him, and A'bra.ham, in turn, "gave him a 10th of everything."
A'bra.ham separated the most holy of everything to be offered to the Most High. It does nothing to do with man made assumption that A'bra.ham offered material revenue to the Most High. What A;bra.ham offered was the most divine and sacred of everything to the purpose of being "True Servants of the Most High." From this 10th, all the true servants of God mentioned in the Bible embrace the role model that we as Christians have to follow in order to be called "Servants of the Lord."
Saturday, 9 April 2016
THE TEMPLE SERVANTS.
They were a group of temple personnel, often transliterated "Nethinim"(lit., "the ones given"to the service). These servants are distinct from the "Netunim"of Numbers 3:9; 8:19, taken as referring to the Levites. Except for one reference in 1 Chronicles 9:2, all references to the temple servants are included in Ezra and Nehemiah.
Ezra was an Aaronic priest, a descendant of Eleazar and Phinehas. He was an scholar and expert copist and teacher of the Law, skilled in both Hebrew and Aramaic. Ezra had a genuine zeal for pure worship and prepared his heart to consult the Law of God and to do it and to teach in Israel regulation and justice. In addition to writing the books bearing his name, Ezra wrote the 2 books of Chronicles, and Jewish tradition credits him with beginning the compiling and cataloguing of the books of the Hebrew Scriptures.
Nehemiah, son of Hacaliah, brother of Hanani, cupbearer to the Persian King Artaxerxes and, later, governor of the Jews, was the one who rebuilt Jerusalem's wall and wrote the Bible book bearing his name.
Ezra 2: 43-58; Nehemiah 7: 46-60 list 392 temple servants among the exiles who returned to Jerusalem with Zerub-Babel.
"The temple servants: the sons of Ziha, the sons of Hasu'pha, the sons of Tabba'oth, the sons of Keros, the sons of Si'aha, the sons of Padon, the sons of Leba'nah, the sons of Hag'abah, the sons of Shamlai, the sons of Hanan, the sons of Giddel, the sons of Gahar, the sons of Re-ai'ah, the sons of Rezin, the sons of Neko'da, the sons of Gazzam, the sons of Uzza, the sons of Pase'ah, the sons of Besai, the sons of Asnah, the sons of Me-u'nim, the sons of Nephi'sim, the sons of Bakbuk, the sons of Haku'pha, the sons of Harhur, the sons of Bazluth, the sons of Mehi'da, the sons of Harsha, the sons of Barkos, the sons of Sis'era, the sons of Temah, the sons of Nezi'ah, and the sons of Hati'pha."
"The sons of Solomon's servants: the sons of So'tai, the sons of Hasso'-phereth, the sons of Peru'da, the sons of Ja'alah, the sons of Darkon, the sons of Giddel, the sons of Shephati'ah, the sons of Hattil, the sons of Po'-chereth-hazzeba'im, and the sons of Ami."
"All the temple servants and the sons of Solomon's servants were 392."
A 2nd group of 220 temple servants and 38 Levites returned with Ezra (8: 16-20).
According to Ezra 8:20 the temple servants served the Levites. They were dependent upon the income of the temple, but they were not slaves (e.g., they owned property; 1 Chron.9:2). They were a group of family guilds that served priests and Levites and worked alongside cultic personnel.
Most of the personal names in the lists of Ezra and Nehemiah are Northwest Semitic, suggesting that the temple servant families originated from neighboring peoples.
Being a servant of the Lord defines a person who belongs to the Lord and seeks to do His Will. Four poems in the Book of Isaiah center around the theme of the Servant of the Lord. (Isaiah 42: 1-4 [5-9]; 49: 1-6 [7]; 50: 4-9 [10-11]; 52:13-53:12). Scattered references to the same theme occur in Isaiah 41:8-9; 42:19; 43:10; 44:1-2,21,26; 45:4; 48:20; 50:10.
Ezra was an Aaronic priest, a descendant of Eleazar and Phinehas. He was an scholar and expert copist and teacher of the Law, skilled in both Hebrew and Aramaic. Ezra had a genuine zeal for pure worship and prepared his heart to consult the Law of God and to do it and to teach in Israel regulation and justice. In addition to writing the books bearing his name, Ezra wrote the 2 books of Chronicles, and Jewish tradition credits him with beginning the compiling and cataloguing of the books of the Hebrew Scriptures.
Nehemiah, son of Hacaliah, brother of Hanani, cupbearer to the Persian King Artaxerxes and, later, governor of the Jews, was the one who rebuilt Jerusalem's wall and wrote the Bible book bearing his name.
Ezra 2: 43-58; Nehemiah 7: 46-60 list 392 temple servants among the exiles who returned to Jerusalem with Zerub-Babel.
"The temple servants: the sons of Ziha, the sons of Hasu'pha, the sons of Tabba'oth, the sons of Keros, the sons of Si'aha, the sons of Padon, the sons of Leba'nah, the sons of Hag'abah, the sons of Shamlai, the sons of Hanan, the sons of Giddel, the sons of Gahar, the sons of Re-ai'ah, the sons of Rezin, the sons of Neko'da, the sons of Gazzam, the sons of Uzza, the sons of Pase'ah, the sons of Besai, the sons of Asnah, the sons of Me-u'nim, the sons of Nephi'sim, the sons of Bakbuk, the sons of Haku'pha, the sons of Harhur, the sons of Bazluth, the sons of Mehi'da, the sons of Harsha, the sons of Barkos, the sons of Sis'era, the sons of Temah, the sons of Nezi'ah, and the sons of Hati'pha."
"The sons of Solomon's servants: the sons of So'tai, the sons of Hasso'-phereth, the sons of Peru'da, the sons of Ja'alah, the sons of Darkon, the sons of Giddel, the sons of Shephati'ah, the sons of Hattil, the sons of Po'-chereth-hazzeba'im, and the sons of Ami."
"All the temple servants and the sons of Solomon's servants were 392."
A 2nd group of 220 temple servants and 38 Levites returned with Ezra (8: 16-20).
According to Ezra 8:20 the temple servants served the Levites. They were dependent upon the income of the temple, but they were not slaves (e.g., they owned property; 1 Chron.9:2). They were a group of family guilds that served priests and Levites and worked alongside cultic personnel.
Most of the personal names in the lists of Ezra and Nehemiah are Northwest Semitic, suggesting that the temple servant families originated from neighboring peoples.
Being a servant of the Lord defines a person who belongs to the Lord and seeks to do His Will. Four poems in the Book of Isaiah center around the theme of the Servant of the Lord. (Isaiah 42: 1-4 [5-9]; 49: 1-6 [7]; 50: 4-9 [10-11]; 52:13-53:12). Scattered references to the same theme occur in Isaiah 41:8-9; 42:19; 43:10; 44:1-2,21,26; 45:4; 48:20; 50:10.
THE MATTHEW BIBLE.
The Bible was first published in 1537 by John Rogers, under the pseudonym "Thomas Matthew." John Rogers was a clergyman who was born in Derit-End, an area of Birming-Ham then within the large parish of Aston, an area in Central Birming-Ham, in West Mid-Lands of England. His father was a maker of bits (type of horse tack placed in the mouth to assist the rider in communicating with the animal) and spurs (used on the heels of riding boots to direct the horse to move forward or laterally when ridind), and his ancestors came from Aston. His mother was Margareth Wyatt, the daughter of a tanner with family in Erdington and Sutton Cold-Field.
Rogers was educated at the Guild School of St John the Baptist in Deritent, a mansion house of timber where they assembled. He graduated at the Hall of Valence Mary, Cambridge, in 1526. The statutes were notable on those days and they gave preference to students born in France who already studied elsewhere in England and that they required students to report fellow students if they indulged in excessive drinking or visited disreputable houses. In 1534, Rogers went to Ant-Werp as chaplain to the English merchants of the Company of the Merchant Adventurers. This company brought together London's leading overseas merchants in a regulated company in the nature of a guild. Its members' main business was the export of cloth, especially white (undyed) broadcloth. This enable them to import a large range of foreign goods. Similar groups of investors all connected were formed to develop overseas trade and colonies in the New World.
Rogers met William Tyndale when he was in Ant-Werp, under whose influence he abandoned the Roman Catholic body and married Ant-Werp native Adriana de Weyden in 1537. After Tyndale's death, Rogers pushed on with his predecessor's English version of the Old Testament, which he used as far as 2 Chronicles, employing Myles Coverdale's translation (1535) for the remainder and for the Apocrypha. Although it is claimed that Rogers was the first person to ever print a complete English Bible that was translated directly from the original Greek&Hebrew, there was also a reliance upon a Latin translation of the Hebrew Bible by Sebastian Munster and published in 1534/5.
Tyndale's New Testament had been published in 1526. The complete Bible was put out under the pseudonym of Thomas Matthew in 1537. It was printed in Paris and Ant-Werp by Adriana's uncle, Sir Jacobus Van Meteren.
Aston was first mentioned in the Domesday Book in 1806 as "Estone," having a mill, a priest, woodland and plough land.
The Domesday Book is a manuscript record of the Grat Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William the Bastard (1028-1087), the son of the unmarried Robert I, Duke of Normandy, by Robert's mistress Herleva. His illegitimate status and his youth caused difficulties for him after he succeeded his father, as did the anarchy that plagued his rule.
He was the first Norman King of England (1066-1087). He, the descendant of Viking raiders, had been Duke of Normandy since 1035. After a long struggle to establish his power, by 1060 his hold on Normandy was secure, and he launched the Norman conquest of England in 1066. The rest of his life was marked by struggles to consolidate his hold over England and his continental lands.
Rogers was educated at the Guild School of St John the Baptist in Deritent, a mansion house of timber where they assembled. He graduated at the Hall of Valence Mary, Cambridge, in 1526. The statutes were notable on those days and they gave preference to students born in France who already studied elsewhere in England and that they required students to report fellow students if they indulged in excessive drinking or visited disreputable houses. In 1534, Rogers went to Ant-Werp as chaplain to the English merchants of the Company of the Merchant Adventurers. This company brought together London's leading overseas merchants in a regulated company in the nature of a guild. Its members' main business was the export of cloth, especially white (undyed) broadcloth. This enable them to import a large range of foreign goods. Similar groups of investors all connected were formed to develop overseas trade and colonies in the New World.
Rogers met William Tyndale when he was in Ant-Werp, under whose influence he abandoned the Roman Catholic body and married Ant-Werp native Adriana de Weyden in 1537. After Tyndale's death, Rogers pushed on with his predecessor's English version of the Old Testament, which he used as far as 2 Chronicles, employing Myles Coverdale's translation (1535) for the remainder and for the Apocrypha. Although it is claimed that Rogers was the first person to ever print a complete English Bible that was translated directly from the original Greek&Hebrew, there was also a reliance upon a Latin translation of the Hebrew Bible by Sebastian Munster and published in 1534/5.
Tyndale's New Testament had been published in 1526. The complete Bible was put out under the pseudonym of Thomas Matthew in 1537. It was printed in Paris and Ant-Werp by Adriana's uncle, Sir Jacobus Van Meteren.
Aston was first mentioned in the Domesday Book in 1806 as "Estone," having a mill, a priest, woodland and plough land.
The Domesday Book is a manuscript record of the Grat Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William the Bastard (1028-1087), the son of the unmarried Robert I, Duke of Normandy, by Robert's mistress Herleva. His illegitimate status and his youth caused difficulties for him after he succeeded his father, as did the anarchy that plagued his rule.
He was the first Norman King of England (1066-1087). He, the descendant of Viking raiders, had been Duke of Normandy since 1035. After a long struggle to establish his power, by 1060 his hold on Normandy was secure, and he launched the Norman conquest of England in 1066. The rest of his life was marked by struggles to consolidate his hold over England and his continental lands.
Monday, 4 April 2016
WHO WAS WILLIAM TYNDALE?
Tyndale was born at some time in the period 1484-1496 in Melk-Sham Court, Stinch-Combe, a village near Dursley, Gloucester-Shire.
The Tyndale family also went by the name Hychyns (Hitchins), and it was as William Hychyns that he was enrolled at Magdalen Hall, Oxford.
The family derived from North-Umber-Land via East Anglia (a tribe originated in Ang-Elm, Northern Germany. NorthUmberLand was long a wild county, where outlaws and Border Reivers hid from the law. It subsided after the Union of the Crowns of Scotland and England under King James I and VI in 1603. It expanded greatly in the Tudor period(1485-1603). As evidence of its violent history, the county has more castles than any other county in England. The county is noted for its undeveloped landscape of high moorland and is the most sparsely populated county with only 62 people per square kilometer.
The Tyndale family moved to Gloucester-Shire at some point in the 15th century. Tyndale's brother, Edward, was receiver to the lands of Lord Berkeley as attested to in a letter by Bishop Stokesley of London.
Tyndale is recorded in in two genealogies as having been the brother of Sir William Tyndale, of Deane, NorthUmberLand, and Hockwald, Norfolk, who was knighted at the marriage of Arthur, Prince of Wales to Catherine of Aragon. Tyndale's family was thus derived from Baron Adam de Tyndale, a tenat-in-chief of Henry I. William Tyndale's niece, Margaret Tyndale, was married to the Protestant Rowland Taylor, burnt during the Marian Persecutions.
Tyndale was an eager linguist, over the years he became fluent in French, Greek, Hebrew, German, Italian, Latin, and Spanish, in addition to English. He became chaplain at the home of Sir John Walsh at Little Sudbury and tutor to his children around 1521. His opinions proved controversial to fellow clergymen, and the next year he was summoned before John Bell, the Chancellor of the Diocese of Worcester. After the harsh meeting with Bell and other church leaders, and near the end of Tyndale's time at Little Sudbury, John Foxe (historian) describes an argument with a clergyman who had asserted to Tyndale that "We had better be without God's laws than the Pope's." Tyndale responded:"I defy the Pope, and all his laws; and if God spares my life, ere many years, I will cause the boy that driveth the plow to know more of the Scriptures than you do!"
Tyndale left for London in 1523 to seek permission to translate the Bible into English. He requested help from Bishop Cut-Hbert Tun-Stall, a well-known classicist who had praised Erasmus after working together with him on a Greek New Testament. The bishop, however, declined to extend his patronage, telling Tyndale he had no room for him in his household. Tyndale preached and studied "at his book" in London for some time, lecturing widely.
Tyndale left England and landed on continental Europe, Ham-Burg, in 1524. At this time he began translating the New Testament, completing it in 1525 with the assistance from the Observant friar William Roy. In 1525 the publication was interrupted by the impact of anti-Lutheranism. A full edition of the New Testament was produced in 1526 by the printer Peter Schoeffer in Worms, a free imperial city then in the process of adopting Lutheranism. More copies were soon printed in Ant-Werp. The book was smuggled into England and Scotland. Then it was condemned in 1526 by Bishop Tunstall, who issued warning to booksellers and had copies burned in public. The spectacle of the translation of the Scriptures being put to the torch provoked controversy even among the faithful. Cardinal Wolsey condemned Tyndale as a heretic. Tyndale apparently remained at Worm for about a year. Possible he intended to carry on his work from Ham-Burg in about 1529. He revised his New Testament and began translating the Old Testament and writing various treatises.
He opposed publicly to Henry VIII's planned divorce from Catherine of Aragon in favor of Anne Boleyn on the grounds that it was unscriptural, and was a plot by Cardinal Wolsey to get Henry entangled in the papal courts of Pope Clement VII. The King's wrath was aimed at Tyndale. Eventually Tyndale was betrayed by Henry Philips to the imperial authorities, and seized in Ant-Werp in 1535, and held in the castle of Vil-Voorde (FilFord) near Brussels. He was tried on a charge of heresy in 1536 and condemned to be burned to death. His final words, spoken "at the stake with a fervent zeal, and a loud voice," were reported as "Lord! Open the King of England's eyes". Within four years four English translations of the Bible were published in England at the King's behest, including Henry's official Great Bible. All were based on Tyndale's work. In translating the Bible, Tyndale introduced new words into the English language; many were subsequently used in the King James Bible:
- Passover as the name for the Jewish holiday, Pesach or Pesah.
- Scapegoat.
The hierarchy of the Roman Catholic did not approve some of the words and phrases introduced by Tyndale, such "overseer," where it would been understood as "bishop," "elder" for "priest," and "love" rather than "charity." Tyndale, citing Erasmus, contended that the Greek New Testament did not support the traditional Roman Catholic readings. More controversially, Tyndale translated the Greek "ekklesia,"(literally "called out ones") as "congregation" rather than "church." It has been asserted this translation choice "was direct threat to the Church's ancient -but so Tyndale here made clear, non-scriptural- claim to be the body of Christ on earth.
In response to allegations of inaccuracies in his translation in the New Testament, Tyndale in the Prologue to his 1525 translation wrote that he never intentionally altered or misrepresented any of the Bible, but that he had sought to interpret the sense and the meaning of the spirit.
The Tyndale family also went by the name Hychyns (Hitchins), and it was as William Hychyns that he was enrolled at Magdalen Hall, Oxford.
The family derived from North-Umber-Land via East Anglia (a tribe originated in Ang-Elm, Northern Germany. NorthUmberLand was long a wild county, where outlaws and Border Reivers hid from the law. It subsided after the Union of the Crowns of Scotland and England under King James I and VI in 1603. It expanded greatly in the Tudor period(1485-1603). As evidence of its violent history, the county has more castles than any other county in England. The county is noted for its undeveloped landscape of high moorland and is the most sparsely populated county with only 62 people per square kilometer.
The Tyndale family moved to Gloucester-Shire at some point in the 15th century. Tyndale's brother, Edward, was receiver to the lands of Lord Berkeley as attested to in a letter by Bishop Stokesley of London.
Tyndale is recorded in in two genealogies as having been the brother of Sir William Tyndale, of Deane, NorthUmberLand, and Hockwald, Norfolk, who was knighted at the marriage of Arthur, Prince of Wales to Catherine of Aragon. Tyndale's family was thus derived from Baron Adam de Tyndale, a tenat-in-chief of Henry I. William Tyndale's niece, Margaret Tyndale, was married to the Protestant Rowland Taylor, burnt during the Marian Persecutions.
Tyndale was an eager linguist, over the years he became fluent in French, Greek, Hebrew, German, Italian, Latin, and Spanish, in addition to English. He became chaplain at the home of Sir John Walsh at Little Sudbury and tutor to his children around 1521. His opinions proved controversial to fellow clergymen, and the next year he was summoned before John Bell, the Chancellor of the Diocese of Worcester. After the harsh meeting with Bell and other church leaders, and near the end of Tyndale's time at Little Sudbury, John Foxe (historian) describes an argument with a clergyman who had asserted to Tyndale that "We had better be without God's laws than the Pope's." Tyndale responded:"I defy the Pope, and all his laws; and if God spares my life, ere many years, I will cause the boy that driveth the plow to know more of the Scriptures than you do!"
Tyndale left for London in 1523 to seek permission to translate the Bible into English. He requested help from Bishop Cut-Hbert Tun-Stall, a well-known classicist who had praised Erasmus after working together with him on a Greek New Testament. The bishop, however, declined to extend his patronage, telling Tyndale he had no room for him in his household. Tyndale preached and studied "at his book" in London for some time, lecturing widely.
Tyndale left England and landed on continental Europe, Ham-Burg, in 1524. At this time he began translating the New Testament, completing it in 1525 with the assistance from the Observant friar William Roy. In 1525 the publication was interrupted by the impact of anti-Lutheranism. A full edition of the New Testament was produced in 1526 by the printer Peter Schoeffer in Worms, a free imperial city then in the process of adopting Lutheranism. More copies were soon printed in Ant-Werp. The book was smuggled into England and Scotland. Then it was condemned in 1526 by Bishop Tunstall, who issued warning to booksellers and had copies burned in public. The spectacle of the translation of the Scriptures being put to the torch provoked controversy even among the faithful. Cardinal Wolsey condemned Tyndale as a heretic. Tyndale apparently remained at Worm for about a year. Possible he intended to carry on his work from Ham-Burg in about 1529. He revised his New Testament and began translating the Old Testament and writing various treatises.
He opposed publicly to Henry VIII's planned divorce from Catherine of Aragon in favor of Anne Boleyn on the grounds that it was unscriptural, and was a plot by Cardinal Wolsey to get Henry entangled in the papal courts of Pope Clement VII. The King's wrath was aimed at Tyndale. Eventually Tyndale was betrayed by Henry Philips to the imperial authorities, and seized in Ant-Werp in 1535, and held in the castle of Vil-Voorde (FilFord) near Brussels. He was tried on a charge of heresy in 1536 and condemned to be burned to death. His final words, spoken "at the stake with a fervent zeal, and a loud voice," were reported as "Lord! Open the King of England's eyes". Within four years four English translations of the Bible were published in England at the King's behest, including Henry's official Great Bible. All were based on Tyndale's work. In translating the Bible, Tyndale introduced new words into the English language; many were subsequently used in the King James Bible:
- Passover as the name for the Jewish holiday, Pesach or Pesah.
- Scapegoat.
The hierarchy of the Roman Catholic did not approve some of the words and phrases introduced by Tyndale, such "overseer," where it would been understood as "bishop," "elder" for "priest," and "love" rather than "charity." Tyndale, citing Erasmus, contended that the Greek New Testament did not support the traditional Roman Catholic readings. More controversially, Tyndale translated the Greek "ekklesia,"(literally "called out ones") as "congregation" rather than "church." It has been asserted this translation choice "was direct threat to the Church's ancient -but so Tyndale here made clear, non-scriptural- claim to be the body of Christ on earth.
In response to allegations of inaccuracies in his translation in the New Testament, Tyndale in the Prologue to his 1525 translation wrote that he never intentionally altered or misrepresented any of the Bible, but that he had sought to interpret the sense and the meaning of the spirit.
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