We are living in perilous times brothers & sisters in the Lord, now more than ever we all need to get closer to God & follow His Word. Because darkness is getting darker in these last days, many brethren are being deceived with false doctrines, most of them are babes in the Lord, good people, but unfortunately as usual, the younger & weaker are the easiest prey for the wolves or false teachers. Please pray for them & pray for the Church in general.
The Word of God teach us about love, our motives must always be based on love. Sadly there are many Christians today, promoting God’s love but disregarding God’s Truth, using love as the excuse for interfaith unity & peace. But the Truth of God is always interwoven with His Love, they can’t be separated. We can’t show God’s love to people without giving them God’s Truth.
“till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ: 14 that we henceforthbe no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine(G1319– teachings, precepts) by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; 15 but speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: .Ephesians 4:14-16
This entry is part 5 of 5 in the series Bible Study
Psalm 25 is a beautiful prayer that reminds us that God fights on our behalf, that He can guides us, teaches us and instructs us if we ask Him. It reminds us that God can rescue us, protect us & keep us safe. God love us and is faithful in all His ways. If we live by faith (trusting Him) and we humble ourselves before God, He’ll answer us when we pray for His forgiveness, deliverance and protection.
“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise“. Psalm 51:17
“But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7
1/ Setting the context: “ABCs”
2/ What does the passage say ? (Observation)
3/ What does it mean? (Meaning)
4/ How does the principle apply to one specific area of my life? (Application) 2 Timothy 3:16-17.
1 The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.
2 For he hath founded it upon the seas,
and established it upon the floods.
3 Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord?
or who shall stand in his holy place?
4 He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.
5 He shall receive the blessing from the Lord,
and righteousness from the God of hissalvation.
6 This is the generation of them that seek him,
that seek thy face, O Jacob. Selah.
7 Lift up your heads, O ye gates;
and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors;
and the King of glory shall come in.
8 Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle.
9 Lift up your heads, O ye gates;
even lift them up, ye everlasting doors;
and the King of glory shall come in. 10 Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory. Selah.
Outline of Psalm 24
I. The King of Glory—Psalm 24:1-10
A. Worship of the Creator through the observation of His creation–(vs.1-2)
1. “The earth is the LORD’s” Psalm 24:1
-The LORD has ownership over the earth–(vs.1a)
-The LORD has ownership over the world and all the people (animals, etc) within it. –(vs.1b) Psalm 50:10-11;
Job 41:11; 1 Cor.10:26; Psalm 89:11
2. For He has founded it & established it –Psalm 24:2 -(Gen. 1:9, John 1:3, Col.1:15-23; Psalm 104; Prov. 3:19)
-The LORD has the ownership because He is the creator of the earth and all within it. (vs.2)
B. Who can stand in God’s presence (vs.3-6)
– “Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? or Who shall stand in His holy place?” (vs.3) (mount Zion), (Were the ark of God’s presence rested) (Psalm 15:1; 2:6; 65:4)
Answer: (vs.4 & 6) (Requirements to come to God’s presence or to worship Him)
1. He that hath clean hands, (vs.4) or has not done evil, Job 17:9, 22:30
2. and a pure heart; (Matthew 5:8; Proverbs 4: 23; Acts8:22; Psalm 51:1-3,10-11 )
3. who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity,
4. nor sworn deceitfully
5. who seeks the face of God (vs.6) through His son Jesus Christ in the New Covenant (John 14:6)
Now through faith in Jesus Christ we are able to receive the blessing from the LORD and righteousness from the God of salvation to all who believe (Rom. 3:22), Is.46:13; psalm 25:5
C. Honor the King of glory— (vs. 7-10)- 1 Cor. 2:8, James 2:1, Rev. 19:13-16
1. **Open the gates “that the King of glory may come in” – (vs.7, 9) (The temple is now our hearts: Rev.19:13-16).
2. “Who is the King of glory?” –( vs. 8, 10)
3. “The LORD…He is the King of glory!” –(vs. 8, 10) Let us worship our Lord & King!! “O worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness: fear before Him, all the earth“. (Psalms 96:9)
1 The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows His handiwork.
2 Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night declares knowledge.
3 There is no speech and there are no words; their voice is not heard.
4 Their line has gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. (Psalm 19:1-4)
The ESV changes more than 2,800 words to make it a gender-neutral bible (Gnostics believe in a both gender or androgynous god).
Many bible verses are completely missing from the New Testament of the ESV, RSV & all modern bible versions including the Jehovah Witness version “New World Translation” NWT (except for the Modern English Version MEV which uses the Majority Text) : Matthew 12:47, Matthew 17:21, Matthew 18:11, Matthew 23:14, Mark 7:16, Mark 9:44, Mark 9:46, Mark 11:26, Mark 15:28, Luke 17:36, Luke 23:17, Luke 24:40, John 5:4, Acts 8:37, Acts 15:34, Acts 24:7, Acts 28:29, Romans 16:24.
A quick test that we can do to find out is: Any version of the Bible which omits Acts 8:37, “Philip said, “If you believewith all your heart, you may.” (be baptize) He answered, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” and that also omits the words “through his blood” in Col. 1:14 “In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:” then evidently has for its foundation a corrupted manuscript.
We will talk more about the Textus Receptus (or Majority Text) in future posts. But for now it is very important to understand that there are many antique bibles found, many are older than the Greek Alexandria texts (Sinaiticus & Vaticanus dated 4th century AD) and that follow closer the Textus Receptus, but are not been considered by modern translations, only because they are in a different language than Greek. Examples:
Syrian bibles, with some major versions: The Peshitta, with more than 350 manuscript some as early (A.D. 145) but some others as old as 5th century (the Peshitta is considered thethird & last streamof family manuscripts, an Aramaic translation that even it is close to Textus Receptus it has significant variations ). The Diattessaron, Syriac Bible (A.D. 165-175), the Old Syriac (A.D. 400), the Palestinian Syriac (A.D. 450), and the Philoxenian (A.D. 508) This last one was revised by Thomas of Harkel, in A.D. 616, and because of that it’s also known as the Harclean Syriac.
The Old Latin Vulgate or Italia 157 A.D. (this is not Jerome’s Latin Vulgate of 382 A.D. but this translation was made for the young churches established in the northern Italian Alps & was one of the manuscripts used by Erasmus), notice it was made two hundred years before the Sinaiticus and Vaticanus were produced, & a full century before the theorized “Lucian Recension”),.
The Waldensian (A.D. 120 & onwards), The Gallic Bible A.D. 177 (Southern France), The Gothic Bible (A.D. 330-350), The Armenian Bible (A.D. 400) There are around 1,244 copies of this bible version still in existence today! But if all these wasn’t enough the New Testament quotations of the writings of the early church, Chrysostom, the early Fathers of Antioch in Asia Minor, etc. (more than 86,000 citations from Scriptures) agree with the Textus Receptus manuscripts .
The new bible versions have many parts that were translated from a different manuscript called Minority Text , which comes from Alexandria Egypt (a mecca for philosophers & gnostics at the time), these parchments are mainly composed of two different textual families that disagree with each other: Codex Vaticanus & Codex Sinaiticus. British scholar Herman Hoskier did a revision of the 2 manuscripts and counted the following disagreements with the Majority Text (Textus Receptus or Traditional Text) on the 4 books of the gospels alone:
Matthew 656
Mark 567
Luke 791
John 1022
—————
TOTAL = 3036 disagreements
The Codex Vaticanus was found on a shelf in a Vatican’s library in 1481, where it had been forgotten for centuries, its origin is unknown, & Codex Sinaiticus was found with many corrections all over the original in a wastebasket of a Catholic monastery in 1844. If it was considered trash before, why are we using it as part of our bibles today? Greek Bible scholar Frederik Scrivener said that Sinaiticus has thousands of changes that were made in the 6th and 7th centuries.
An example of Sinaiticus’ many corrections.
For thousands of years prior to this discovery of the Sinaiticus, Christians used the Majority Text or Textus Receptus bibles, but after this, two Cambridge professors Wescott & Hort decided to use the Alexandrian manuscripts in 1881 to make their Greek Interlinear, and now most if not all new modern translation use this Wescott & Hort interlinear (or use its copy , the 1898 Nestle-Aland/United Bible Society (NA/UBS) Greek text, with 27 revisions), to translate their own versions.
The ESV 2001, in the Preface says: ‘ The ESV is based…on the Greek text in the 1993 editions of the Greek New Testament (4th corrected edition), published by the United Bible Societies (UBS) and Novum Testamentum Graece (27th edition), edited by Nestle and Aland.”
It is important to note that in 1965 the United Bible Society (UBS) & the Roman Catholic Church agreed to prepare a ‘common (vulgate) text’ of the bible & adopted the ‘Westcott & Hort’ Greek interlinear. The UBS which distributes 80% of the bibles in the world, from its very beginnings has been cooperating with the Vatican, but today even more ( https://www.unitedbiblesocieties.org/united-bible-societies-welcomes-pope-francis/ ). Please also check: The United Bible Societies & Rome.
The English Standard Version or ESV has become a very popular bible. It’s being heavily promoted by pastors, organizations, some scholars and bible teachers from different denominations including Catholics around the world, and Calvinist, but it’s gaining acceptance in other denominations as well. According to Calvinist teacher John MacArthur the ESV is the best translation which he compares with the Authorized King James, he now sells ESV study bibles with his signatures & notes. But is the ESV a good bible translation? Aren’t all bibles the same? Where does it comes from?
This entry is part 3 of 3 in the series Grafted in
There is one final chapter that should be examined, the second “go to” portion of scripture usually used to defend the viewpoint of Israel being the olive tree: Ephesians 2.
Ephesians 2
Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called the “uncircumcision” by the so-called “circumcision” in the flesh by human hands, were at that time apart from Christ, alienated from the citizenship of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who were formerly far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. vv.11 – 13
Kindled Tree
The Lord called your name, “A green olive tree, fair in fruit and form.” With the noise of a great tumult He has kindled fire upon it, and its branches are broken. v16
Jeremiah 11:16 is the verse that is probably most known as a reference to Israel being an olive tree. I would completely agree, especially considering the context:
The Lord said to me: A conspiracy has been found among the men of Judah and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem. They have turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers who refused to hear My words. And they have gone after other gods to serve them. The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken My covenant which I made with their fathers. Therefore thus says the Lord, Surely, I will bring calamity upon them which they will not be able to escape. And though they cry to Me, I will not listen to them. Then the cities of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem will go and cry to the gods to whom they offer incense. But they will not save them at all in the time of their trouble. For according to the number of your cities are your gods, O Judah. And according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem you have set up altars to that shameful thing, even altars to burn incense to Baal. Therefore do not pray for this people, nor lift up a cry or prayer for them. For I will not hear them in the time that they cry to Me because of their trouble.
What right has My beloved in My house, seeing that she has done many lewd deeds? Can the sacrificial meat take away from you your disaster, so that you can rejoice while doing evil?
The Lord called your name, “A green olive tree, fair in fruit and form.” With the noise of a great tumult He has kindled fire upon it, and its branches are broken. vv. 9 – 16
Over and over again we see Judah and Jerusalem, Israel being mentioned, leading up to the olive tree picture. However, this tree shows a very different image to the one in Romans:
With the noise of a great tumult He has kindled fire upon it, and its branches are broken. For the Lord of Hosts, who planted you, has pronounced disaster against you, because of the evil of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah, which they have done against themselves to provoke Me to anger in offering incense to Baal. vv.16b – 17
Although similar in that, once again, Israel has rebelled against God and is being broken off, this tree has disaster pronounced against it and has been kindled by fire. I can’t imagine God bringing His Son into the world along with the gift of salvation, only to graft Gentiles into a doomed burning/burnt tree. You can’t simply take the “tree is Israel” part without also taking the “kindle with fire and doomed” part as well. However, this does seem to conflict with verse 16, so how can these facts be reconciled?
This entry is part 1 of 3 in the series Grafted in
‘Replacement Theology” teaches God has no more plans for Israel & the church has ‘replaced’ them, but this is a doctrine that’s proved wrong by many bible passages one of them found in Romans 11 which tells us that God is not yet done with Israel, even they had rejected Him.
But on the opposite side of the coin we have another kind of ‘Replacement Theology’ were some teach that in order to be saved the ‘church’ needs to be part of Israel, (in other words the church is replaced by Israel). As one of their main points they use Romans 11, which they interpret that gentile believers are grafted into ‘Israel’, and for that reason have to become like them. But this is also wrong, to see it more clearly I’m sharing this next article that contains some nice illustrations:
“Grafting”
Written & illustrated by Brian R. Franco, used with permission
Preface
In Romans 11, Paul begins speaking to the Gentiles about their salvation, using the imagery of an olive tree and branches to explain the new life they are able to receive (and lose) with their belief (or lack thereof). The question, however, arises of “who or what is this olive tree the Gentiles are grafted into?” I’m going to present and attempt to defend the idea that Christ is the olive tree/root Gentiles are really grafted into. I’m going to do this by analyzing certain chapters, across the whole of Scripture, while explaining my understanding (with a fair amount of illustration to help visualize the ideas) of everything and how it ties together to form the basis for what I believe and why.
This entry is part 3 of 5 in the series Bible Study
Brothers & sisters could you please prayerfully read & meditate upon this Psalm today? These are the words of Almighty God to us that have a covenant with Him!
Psalm 50 is talking about God coming to judge His people. Judgment begins at the House of God before He judges the world.
” For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?” 1 Peter 4:17.
