What was posed as merely a curiosity question and an aside has become a rather more interesting discussion than I expected it to be – an exploration of the fact that Jesus was probably not actually crucified on a Friday but more likely on Wednesday and buried later that same evening so that he could be buried for a full three days, according to both prophecy and His own words. Feel free to check out the discussion and add your own thoughts and knowledge to the topic.
Tags: Asides, crucifixion, easter, good-friday, jesus, plugins, religion, rss, software, theology, WordPress
Here we go….
Ok. You walk through one of those portals you talked about in your last post. Tell us what
you see. – Theresa
The air is hot and rank with the stench of sulfur. The sun is high in the sky, but the day is dusky due to the stifling vapors filling the air. I arrive in the middle of a labyrinth of cinder cones, indicative of volcanic activity. Yet, closer inspection reveals that there are signs of habitation—broken buildings, burned clothing strewn about, signs everywhere that there had once been a thriving civilization here. The metal fragments are recognizable enough—shell casings from ballistic weapons. Whatever happened here, war was certainly a major part of it.
A shuffling sound off to the side makes me turn my head, and I see a young girl, probably no more than three or four years old, standing barefoot on the hot ash, apparently oblivious to her burning flesh. Her hair is matted with grime, her face blackened by soot, her dress barely more than strips of rags draped carelessly about her slight form. She stands looking at me silently for a moment, then raises her left arm to point at me. Her face, blank a moment before, contorts into a disfiguring expression of rage as she unleashes an inhuman cry that echoes off the smoldering cones. The breeze blows a thick cloud of smoke between us, and when it clears again, the girl is gone. I don’t know where she came from or where she went, but I feel almost certain that she has not gone far.
I feel the ground beneath my feet tremble as something large approaches. And now my ears ring with the sound of it. Suddenly, what light there was in this hellish haze is blocked out as a ship slides into view over the cinder cones. It is larger than anything I have ever seen, extending from horizon to horizon. Spotlights swinging back and forth across the ground from beneath the technological monster tell me that whoever, or whatever, is inside is looking for something. The energy fluctuations from my portal probably alerted the dominant species in this place of my arrival. And then I can see no more as one of the lights swings over me, blinding me by its glare. I stumble to get away, falling backward into the portal again.
I was fortunate this time. I have seen that type of ship before, on another world, and few who see it are so lucky as to escape. I have managed it twice now, but only because I possess a fragment of their own technology. A short stop this time, and already time to move on. I slide through the vortex and hope that the next world I see is free…
your take on the perfect vs. sinless question – grace
In character, Jesus was perfectly sinless; otherwise, He would not have been able to serve as a sacrifice, as a payment for all men’s sins. In body I believe Christ was prone to the same physical struggles as other men—illness, body aches, weariness, etc. As such this is why we can say that there is no temptation common to man that Christ does not know or understand. He has been there, experienced it all, and is therefore completely sympathetic to the human condition.
It’s definitely an interesting juxtaposition—Christ as fully God being completely perfect, lending Him the ability to live a life without sin, and Christ as fully man, able to be tempted by the same things as the rest of us, able to experience the same physical maladies, yet able to stand against it all and do the right thing every time.
what does it mean to get a “new body†and how does that fit in with our heavenly experience?...is it more physical or more whispy and spiritual?? –
grace
Delightful question! Scripture seems to indicate that our new bodies will be exactly as Christ’s body was upon His resurrection—fully corporeal and physical, able to be touched, yet seemingly not bound by the usual physical limitations. He was able to skip across space with hardly a thought, appearing where He would and ministering to His followers in the days before His ascension. I believe our bodies will be like that, as well, and that we will continue to have full physical use of them. But I believe that, like Christ, we will be able to move from place to place at will! This has exciting implications when you consider that we may ultimately have the ability to explore the furthest reaches of the universe, all to the glory of God! Our new bodies will not be given to us, though, until sometime after God establishes His Kingdom here on Earth. I’m not entirely clear on the timeline, but it seems like it will occur after the Millenial Reign, during the creation of the New Heavens and the New Earth. It’s also possibly that the saints who return with Christ at the end of the Tribulation will already have their heavenly bodies and those who live through the Millenium will receive theirs later.
what is the book or revelation really all about? grace
Hope and repentance. It is written to provide hope to all believers, to show that in the end righteousness rules the day, all wrongs will be righted, wrongdoers punished, the righteous rewarded, evil banished forever.
It is written to urge the sinful and unbelieving to repentance, to urge the believers who have turned away to return, to make it clear to the unbelieving what awaits them if they persist in their unbelief.
Revelation is about comfort. God wins, Satan loses. End of story.
And btw what kind of horses do you have? – a thinker
My wife and I have two (so far). Sonny is her baby, a blood-bay quarterhorse of Sonny Dee Barr lineage (grandfather). Turk is an Anglo-Arab descended from Man O’ War lineage. A couple of his ancestors were also derby winners – Determine in 1954 and Decidedly in 1956. My wife informs me that Turk is also out of the Hyperion bloodline – it was apparently big in the racign world in the 40’s-60’s then vanished in all modern horses, meaning he is also (distantly) related to – though not a direct descendent of – Pensive (1944 winner), Ponder (1949 winner), Swaps (1955 winner), Needles (1956 winner), Tomy Lee (1959 winner), Chateaugay (1963) winner, and Citation (through the dam, 1948 winner). Not bad for a little unregistered gelding, is it?
I have to ask – what do you do? Are you a pastor? – Arielle
Nope, though I am a missionary pastor’s kid. I had (briefly) considered the pastorate, but ultimately decided that was not where God wanted me. I did my undergraduate work at Cedarville University in Cedarville, Ohio, completing a bachelor’s degree in psychology and picking up minors in Bible, music, and math. My graduate work was in social psychology, done at Ball State University. Now, I work at Purdue University in the Enrollment Management office as an Enrollment Analyst (they haven’t added me to the staff listings yet, I’m so new).
I write in two formats currently - the first is on Writer’s Blog, expounding on some of the deeper and richer things that cross my mind, deviating ocassionally into things of lesser weight. The second is I do some amateur writing in the science fiction and fantasy genres. I have penned a couple of short stories so far, with many others still in my mental queue, and I have a fantasy novel in progress. I’m hoping to enter the world of professional writing in the near future by trying to get some books on shelves, but most of my speculative writing is on hold at the moment while the wife and I get settled into our new home. I have submitted a short story to a magazine, however, and am waiting to hear back from them.
Now, isn’t that a whole lot more than you wanted to know? ;)
Tags: horses, jesus, revelation, science-fiction, theology, Writing
Philippians 3:7-14 (New International Version)
7But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christâ€â€the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. 10I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Pressing on Toward the Goal
12Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
This is probably my favorite passage in the Bible, as it has long been my life’s creed. It was drilled home again yesterday by my pastor who reflected on the fact that the only way to truly share in the sufferings of Christ, and so to know Him better and become more like Him, is by suffering unjustly. For what had He ever done to deserve such suffering? He was sinless, having done no wrong thing ever in His life. If anyone was deserving of a perfectly peaceful and content life, it was certainly Jesus the Messiah, and yet He suffered so much more than any human being before or since has ever suffered.
We grumble and complain about the injustice of our personal suffering, of the inconveniences of being wrongly accused of some misdeed, of bearing the brunt of someone else’s scorn and persecution. Yet, Christ suffered far greater, giving His body as a sacrifice for all men to be beaten and broken, having done nothing to deserve such.
And when are the greatest life lessons learned? Often, they are learned only after having gone through a most painful time, when you cannot see what possible good can come from the situation, and yet they often prove to be the most beneficial, the most enlightening, the most growing times, and the most sweet times of fellowship with God. A new and rich perspective, for I have often thought to be like Christ in those times which I suffer, but this was a new perspective for me, having not really associated Christ’s sufferings with the unjustness of it, taking for granted the fact that He was sinless and therefore undeserving of such pain.
We can learn much from the unjust sufferings of Christ, and I hope that I can continue to pray, as Paul did, that I will know Christ and the power of His resurrection by sharing in His sufferings.
Tags: christianity, jesus, philippians, philippians-3:7-14, suffering, theology
I track another forum for a game that I sometimes play, and a comment was made that Jesus was almost certainly a humanist. Well, I did a little digging around, just to make sure that I actually knew what I was talking about, and found several definitions of humanism. And once again, I think it’s safe to say that Jesus was most certainly not a humanist. The basic definition of humanism posits that it is a rational philosophy that is free of supernaturalism where the basic values of life are determined from common human experience and culture alone. (That’s the really watered-down version.) See, the trouble with saying that Jesus was a humanist is that He doesn’t fit this definition in the slightest. Everything about Jesus was supernatural, from his birth to his earthly works and ministry right up to his death, burial, resurrection, and ascension. Furthermore, the values that He preached weren’t derived from human experience but from Godly dictates. At the most basic level, the difference between Jesus and the humanist philosophy is that Jesus was most focused on things in Heaven and in relation to the Father, and humanists are most focused on things on the earth and in relation to their fellow man.
I think that making this distinction is very important because of the differing emphases. Humanists believe in the power of Man to better themselves and the world, while Jesus (and hence all Christians) believed only in the power of God to save Men from themselves and to ultimately one day renew the whole of the universe for His pleasure.
Tags: christianity, humanism, jesus, philosophy, rationalism, supernatural
I Peter 1:8-9 – 8Though you have not seen him [Jesus], you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with and inexpressible and glorious joy, 9for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
What amazes me here is that this whole process is accomplished purely on the power and strength of faith. This might explain why, though I have never completely lost my faith (only faltered), I have not grown as much spiritually over the last year or two as I would have liked. I have not had the sort of faith that draws me to my Saviour, that instills within me the joy of my salvation and a renewal of my spirit, let alone an inexpressible and glorious joy.
And something else that stands out to me is that salvation seems to carry with it two separate processes—one that is carried out once with eternal implications, and one that is continually being carried out. The one-time action is the initial acceptance of God’s gift of salvation. The continual process is the working of my faith to constantly reshape me into a child of God, the throwing off of the ‘old man’. So, salvation is both a one-time act and a continual process of transformation.
Tags: christianity, faith, i-peter, jesus, joy-of-salvation, old-man-and-new-man, salvation
It’s funny…. I just received an email from my younger brother. In it, he included a journal entry that I had shared with a bunch of people a little over four years ago. I had been think meditating on Christ’s death and what He went through. And in light of Mel Gibson’s recent release of The Passion of Christ and the upcoming Easter season, my brother felt challenged by those words from the past and felt let to share them again with a number of people, myself included. And again, I was challenged with the thought contained within those few lines. And so I share them with you….. God bless….
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Friday, Februrary 18, 2000
We weep and sorrow with the pain and loss that others experience, particularly those we love and care about most. We sympathize when they are injured or undergo surgery, and we cry when they lose someone they love. We feel the frustration of a friend’s lay-off from their job, we share the burden of depression when things don;t go well, and we share the plethora of other emotions and burdens of those we cherish. But when was teh last time I wept for the pain and loss that God felt when His Son came to the earth? When was the last time I wept because God gave up Heaven to become a helpless baby? When was the last time I shed tears over the wounds that my Savior suffered in his hands, his feet, his side, his head, and his back? When was the last time I cried because God the Father could not look down on God the Son for a time because of the burden of my sins that he bore on His back? When was the last time I genuinely wept because of the ultimate sacrifice that anyone can give? WHen was the last time that I loved my God that much? I can’t help but shed tears of joy and rejoice right down to the very core of my heart and the deepest recesses of my soul when I think of the love that flowed upon my head through that act of total selflessness. I can’t help but weep with gladness that I will see my Lord on the throne of Daivd, seated in the highest of the heavens, to reign forever and ever with righteousness, turth , and love. I can’t help but cry when I think that my God will one day be declared the victor and will forever destroy sin and evil. My entire being rejoices and my soul loudly proclaims worship and praise to the One who loves me so much that He sacrifices so much for me, an imperfect creature that does not know how to return that love, so that I may spend an eternity with Him, to love Him and to praise Him and to know Him. Glory be to the Lamb that was slain. Honor and praise be to the Father, who gave His son to be the propitiation for my sins. Mere words cannot adequately proclaim the honor you deserve, Lord, nor can my actions, which are flawed, make up for the lack. Oh God, cleanse my heart and purify my wicked ways. Make me into a servant fit to bear your likeness. Amen, amen, and amen.
But He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord has laid upon him the inquity of us all.
Is. 53:5-6
Tags: christianity, crucifixion, easter, faith, jesus, suffering, the-passion-of-the-christ
There is a common misconception that just because a person is religious, they are a Christian and going to heaven. The trouble is this: the Pharisees were religious, and Jesus condemned them many times. He called them ‘white-washed sepulchres’ (pretty on the outside, smelly on the inside), and Paul described them as having ‘throats like open graves’ (spiritual halitosis). So, just because someone is religious does not mean that they are ‘alright’. It only means that they know how to build a facade. So, beware of someone who is religious (especially those who are proud of it). Beware the sweet talker. If the walk doesn’t match what God says is the behavior that pleases him, chances are good that that particular ‘religious’ person isn’t worth your time. True Christians are humble servants, willing to speak the truth in love, willing to suffer abuse, trials, pain, and hardship, and willing to do whatever it takes to make sure that God is magnified above all else.
Tags: christianity, faith, heaven, humility, jesus, love, misconceptions, pharisees, religion, servants, truth
