Bible Study Seattle

On any given Sunday, you may hear grace emphasized with many passages to support it.  On another Sunday, you may hear judgment pounded on with many passages to support it.  Sometimes Christians seem a bit schizophrenic that way.  Which is it?  The truth is both.  We have to realize that they don’t necessarily happen at the same time.  The problem is that churches teach that this (first) life is it – you either have faith and go to heaven, or you don’t and you burn in hell, or at least you have eternal separation from God.  That’s wrong.  The bible promises a resurrection for everyone, and it means everyone.

“Your dead will live;
Their corpses will rise.
You who lie in the dust, awake and shout for joy,
For your dew is as the dew of the dawn,
And the earth will give birth to the departed spirits.”  Isaiah 26:19

“I will deliver this people from the power of the grave;
    I will redeem them from death.
Where, O death, are your plagues?
    Where, O grave, is your destruction?”  Hosea 13:14

“Therefore prophesy and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves, My people; and I will bring you into the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves and caused you to come up out of your graves, My people.  I will put My Spirit within you and you will come to life, and I will place you on your own land.  Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken and done it,” declares the Lord.”  Ezekiel 37:12-14

“Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask.”  Jesus told her, “Your brother will rise again.”  “Yes,” Martha said, “he will rise when everyone else rises, at the last day.”  Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life.  Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying.”  John 11:21-25

“Don’t be so surprised! Indeed, the time is coming when all the dead in their graves will hear the voice of God’s Son, and they will rise again.”  John 5:28-29

“But now, as to whether the dead will be raised—even Moses proved this when he wrote about the burning bush. Long after Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had died, he referred to the Lord as ‘the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’  So he is the God of the living, not the dead, for they are all alive to him.”  Luke 20:37-38

All will live again: that’s grace!  But what we have done will come back – to bless us or haunt us.  “Those who have done good will rise to experience eternal life, and those who have continued in evil will rise to experience judgment.  I can do nothing on my own. I judge as God tells me. Therefore, my judgment is just, because I carry out the will of the one who sent me, not my own will.”  John 5:29-30

Here Jesus confirms that what we have done will have consequences.  We must repent and forgive lest we are prohibited from the kingdom of heaven.  Remember Jesus’ words: “On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’  But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.”  Matthew 7:22-23

We must conform to God’s ways or we will be excluded from the kingdom of Heaven.  However, this potential exclusion cannot happen unto our second life during the Millennial reign!

Certain scriptures seem to say believers go straight to heaven upon death.  “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.”  1 Corinthians 15:52

Now just when the last trumpet blasts is a discussion in its own right.  But right before this passage, we have:  “Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God;”  1 Corinthians 15:50  But later,

“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.”  2 Corinthians 5:10

So all believers will stand before the judgment in the flesh and blood body, but the flesh and blood body cannot inherit the Kingdom of Heaven?  What’s going on here?  The only solution seems to be two-fold.  That there will be a restanding in the body, then a twinkling fast change to heaven after the judgment.

Hebrews 3 and 4 compare following Jesus to the trials of the Hebrews with Moses in the desert.  Paul talks about entering into His ‘rest’.  This is the promised land.  40 years in the desert were the test, similar to the thousand year reign of Christ preparing people to enter in to the eternal rest.

Andrew Gabriel Roth has an interesting theory that Christ died on Nisan, the first day of unleavened bread.  The challenge is: did the disciples eat the Passover?  Passover lambs are eaten at the end of Nisan 14 and into the first part of Nisan 15.  Andrew mentions that the Passover lambs were killed relatively painlessly with a slit to the throat.  The following seven day had messier Bull offerings.  This author doesn’t subscribe to this view, but it’s interesting in light of the last supper.  It may be correct.

“Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me, saying, “Come here, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed acts of immorality, and those who dwell on the earth were made drunk with the wine of her immorality.”  And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness; and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast, full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns.  The woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a gold cup full of abominations and of the unclean things of her immorality, and on her forehead a name was written, a mystery, “BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.”  And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus.”  Revelation 17:1-6

“ I heard another voice from heaven, saying, “Come out of her, my people, so that you will not participate in her sins and receive of her plagues; for her sins have piled up as high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.  Pay her back even as she has paid, and give back to her double according to her deeds; in the cup which she has mixed, mix twice as much for her.  To the degree that she glorified herself and lived sensuously, to the same degree give her torment and mourning; for she says in her heart, ‘I sit as a queen and I am not a widow, and will never see mourning.’  For this reason in one day her plagues will come, pestilence and mourning and famine, and she will be burned up with fire; for the Lord God who judges her is strong.”  Revelation 18:4

Who is Babylon the Great?  Many have identified her as the Papal system.  And the Protestant spinoffs as her daughters.   Ezekiel chapter 16 talks about the wicked religion that Judaism had become thousands of years ago, which also applies to what the church had become a few centuries after Christ.  But some bible students who assume that Christ’s return is imminent will look askance at you if you have anything to do will mainline churches.  But some who assume they are out of Mystery Babylon are in fact still a part of it.  Jehovah’s Witnesses come to mind, as well as every other religious system.  Although some are much closer to the truth, all have some aspect of the Babel misunderstanding in them.  We are all wrong to some extent.  Let us not be too quick to judge and assume someone will be condemned because they are in such-and-such church.  It will take several centuries to squeeze out all the falseness out of our understanding of God.  Let us not be like the Pharisees who assumed only they had it all right!  The return of our Lord is not as imminent as some suppose.

Jesus apparently rose from the dead on Sunday, hence Christians started using Sunday as their Sabbath.  If you google Sunday worship this is what you will read.  But wait a minute.  If we look at some prophecies of the future, what do we find?

“Thus says the Lord,
“Preserve justice and do righteousness,
For My salvation is about to come
And My righteousness to be revealed.
How blessed is the man who does this,
And the son of man who takes hold of it;
Who keeps from profaning the sabbath,
And keeps his hand from doing any evil.”
Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say,
“The Lord will surely separate me from His people.”
Nor let the eunuch say, “Behold, I am a dry tree.”

For thus says the Lord,

Marcion was an early church father (85-160AD).   Apparently he coined the terms ‘Old Testament’ and ‘New Testament’.  He also established some purely Gentile churches that worshiped on Sunday.  Marcionism appears to be related to an Anti-Jewish bias after the Bar Kokhba revolt of 135AD.

Jesus died about 3pm Nisan 14th. This day was sometimes referred to as the preparation day. Nisan 15-21 is the feast of unleavened bread. (Leviticus 23:4-8) Jesus said the only sign that would be given to that generation was from Jonah: “Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.” But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet; for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” Matthew 12:38-40

Even if we count partial days/nights, we have this: Jesus spent one day in the grave Nisan 14 from 3pm-6pm. 6pm Nisan 15th to the next 6pm (sundown) is another night and day. 6pm Nisan 16th to the next 6pm is another night and day. He would need at least a few more hours the beginning of Nisan 17th to add the third night. He must have died between 7pm Nisan 17th and sunrise. Most accounts have Jesus rising on Sunday, but this author doubts that. The women went to the tomb on Sunday because they would have honored the Sabbath by resting. We believe Nisan 17th was a Sabbath and the women went to the tomb on Nisan 18th at or before sunrise. Much confusion has been added by not realizing that Nisan 15th is always a high Sabbath no matter what day of the week it falls on. That would make Thursday Nissan 15 a Sabbath, and Saturday Nisan 17 a Sabbath.

Sheryl Sandberg has a movement to ‘ban bossy’.  This makes sense where people (girls in particular) are being mocked.  But some people really honestly are just bossy.  It is not one of the nine fruits of the spirit:

“love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.”  Galatians 5:22-23

Bossy people seem to think the world should revolve around them.  There is a touch of pride and arrogance.  And don’t question their decrees – how dare you!

Leadership is not the same as bossyness.  Leadership is about getting things done with the good of everyone in mind.  Bossyness is about stoking the ego of the bosser.  Jesus was very clear about leadership:

“You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them.  It is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave; just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve,”  Matthew 20:25-28

Notice that Jesus’ service to the believers was not about being a doormat.  He served with their best interest in mind.  He was not bossy, not a micromanager.  He did not tell someone he’d meet them at 5:00 and show up at 5:35.  Sadly some people are woefully lacking in self-awareness.  They boss and micromanage their kids, then when the kids react, they say, “everybody is mean to mommy.”  No!  Can’t she see it?!  But she refuses to see it.  We are not to exasperate our children (or anyone else for that matter).

“Then the Pharisees and scribes asked Him, “Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashed hands?”

He answered and said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written:

For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men —the washing of pitchers and cups, and many other such things you do.”

He said to them, “All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition.  For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.’   But you say, ‘If a man says to his father or mother, “Whatever profit you might have received from me is Corban”—’ (that is, a gift to God),  then you no longer let him do anything for his father or his mother, making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down. And many such things you do.”  Mark 7:5-13

“ Therefore the Lord said:

“Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division.  From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three.  They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”  Luke 12:51-3

What is interesting is that Jesus had four brothers and at least two sisters, all younger than him.  “Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary, and His brothers, James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And His sisters, are they not all with us?”  Matthew 13:55-56

We know that James and Jude were disciples.  Evidently Joseph and Simon were not.  Thus his own family was divided about him.  He probably also had a sister-in-law or mother-in-law at odds about him.