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God's Love of Justice — Review of Lesson #6 of the 1st Quarter of 2025 -The Sabbath School Lesson study guide can be found here:— https://ssnet.org/lessons/25a/less06.html— https://www.adultbiblestudyguide.org/archives— https://sabbath-school.adventech.io/enThe title of this quarter's theme is: The God of Love and JusticeFor the next 13 weeks (January to March 2025), we will study the tension between two of God's attributes that most people have a hard time reconciling: God's Justice and God's Love. This is key for us to understand, especially in a world of sin and misery, where we need to be able to preach the gospel with urgency.Related Podcasts:— The Law and Grace— It Repenteth the LORD— Everlasting Covenant— God's Strange Work— The Soul that Sinneth— The Hour of His Judgment is Come— What Exactly is the Great Controversy, Anyway?Related Podcasts at TrueWisdom:— God's Regret - Part 1— God's Regret - Part 2— Glory and Character— Regarding the Sermon on the Mount...Support the showIf you have any questions or comments, please send them to: BibleQuestions@ASBzone.comDuring many of our podcasts, you will hear us make reference to “The Key Principles of Effective Bible Study,” a document which outlines core concepts shown in the scriptures that will help you better understand many Biblical themes and doctrines. We have done a whole podcast series on these principles which can be found here (https://BibleStudy.ASBzone.com/357512/8572886).God's Precious Word is a condensed, 9-part series, based on the same document. Lastly, we recommend that you check out https://TrueWisdom.buzzsprout.com for a related Bible Study podcast, in a different format, co-hosted with Robert Baker.We pray that all of these resources will be very helpful to you in your Bible Studies.
The Wrath of Divine Love — Review of Lesson #5 of the 1st Quarter of 2025 -The Sabbath School Lesson study guide can be found here:— https://ssnet.org/lessons/25a/less05.html— https://www.adultbiblestudyguide.org/archives— https://sabbath-school.adventech.io/enThe title of this quarter's theme is: The God of Love and JusticeFor the next 13 weeks (January to March 2025), we will study the tension between two of God's attributes that most people have a hard time reconciling: God's Justice and God's Love. This is key for us to understand, especially in a world of sin and misery, where we need to be able to preach the gospel with urgency.Related Podcasts:— The State of the Dead (Death vs Life)— The Final Reward of the Wicked— God's Strange Work— Bring Me Up Samuel — The Soul that Sinneth— The Law and Grace— Three Crucial Messages— The Hour of His Judgment is Come— Another Angel — Warning RepeatedRelated Podcasts at TrueWisdom:— Trouble with Building— Getting Back on Track— Let the House be Builded— Path of the Wicked — The Day of theSupport the showIf you have any questions or comments, please send them to: BibleQuestions@ASBzone.comDuring many of our podcasts, you will hear us make reference to “The Key Principles of Effective Bible Study,” a document which outlines core concepts shown in the scriptures that will help you better understand many Biblical themes and doctrines. We have done a whole podcast series on these principles which can be found here (https://BibleStudy.ASBzone.com/357512/8572886).God's Precious Word is a condensed, 9-part series, based on the same document. Lastly, we recommend that you check out https://TrueWisdom.buzzsprout.com for a related Bible Study podcast, in a different format, co-hosted with Robert Baker.We pray that all of these resources will be very helpful to you in your Bible Studies.
Scripture – Revelation 15:5-16:7 Sermon Focus: God's judgment is just! His wrath demonstrates His righteousness, and we ought to worship Him for it.
Matt takes listener questions about angels (are they still active in the world today?), God's wrath (who is the destroying angel in the Old Testament? How does divine wrath relate to free will?), the "Romans road salvation plan" (does it capture the full story of the Gospel? How can we better incorporate the story of Israel in our evangelistic efforts?), and the inerrancy of Scripture (is "inerrancy" a good word to use for describing the Bible? What are some pitfalls in the way it's often employed in contemporary discussions?). + + + Check out Matt's newest book: The End of the World As You Know It: (link here) Don't forget to subscribe to The Bible (Unmuted)! Support the podcast via Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TheBibleUnmuted
Keywords: Jeremiah,Book of Jeremiah,Revival, Character Of God,Free Sermons, Video Sermons, Jesus Christ, What Is The Gospel, Sermon Index, What Is The Truth, kjv bible, Audio Bible, Bible, God, God's Love, Scriptures, Holy Bible, Prophets, Apostles, KJV, Jesus,Christ, audiobook, book, holy life, love, bible verses, king james bible audio, audio bible KJV, king james bible online audio, bible audio, online bible kjv, audio bible kjv, daily bible verse, bible verse of the day, KJV audio, Remastered, Best Version, Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit, Holy Ghost, The Chosen, Salvation, Saved, Christian, Suffering Servant, Arm of the Lord, Plants Roots, Despised Rejected, Sorrows, Peace War, Crucifixtion, The Cross, Violence, Judgement, Master Servant, Life Death, Old Testament, Exposed, Music, Education, Great Tribulation, Endtimes, Top Bible Verses, Bible Topic Prayer, Amazing Love Story, Epic, HOPE, FAITH, The MESSIAH, bc, biblical commentaries, bible commentaries, Evangelical commentaries, New Testament, Old Testament, Evangelicalism, bible study, Word of God, scripture, scriptures, Matthew Henry's biblical commentary, bible commentary, Matthew Henry commentary, God's Word, Matthew Henry, studying the Bible, understanding the Bible, God, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, Spiritual, Hope, Jesus Answers Prayer, Answers to Prayer, Prayer, Pray, God Answers Prayer ⚠️ Support our ministry: https://ko-fi.com/jesusanswersprayers ❓️ How does this chapter apply to you?
The final words of Jesus from the cross are at the top of the list of some of the most meaningful statements in all of human history.
The final words of Jesus from the cross are at the top of the list of some of the most meaningful statements in all of human history.
Keywords: Jeremiah,Book of Jeremiah,Revival, Character Of God,Free Sermons, Video Sermons, Jesus Christ, What Is The Gospel, Sermon Index, What Is The Truth, kjv bible, Audio Bible, Bible, God, God's Love, Scriptures, Holy Bible, Prophets, Apostles, KJV, Jesus,Christ, audiobook, book, holy life, love, bible verses, king james bible audio, audio bible KJV, king james bible online audio, bible audio, online bible kjv, audio bible kjv, daily bible verse, bible verse of the day, KJV audio, Remastered, Best Version, Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit, Holy Ghost, The Chosen, Salvation, Saved, Christian, Suffering Servant, Arm of the Lord, Plants Roots, Despised Rejected, Sorrows, Peace War, Crucifixtion, The Cross, Violence, Judgement, Master Servant, Life Death, Old Testament, Exposed, Music, Education, Great Tribulation, Endtimes, Top Bible Verses, Bible Topic Prayer, Amazing Love Story, Epic, HOPE, FAITH, The MESSIAH, bc, biblical commentaries, bible commentaries, Evangelical commentaries, New Testament, Old Testament, Evangelicalism, bible study, Word of God, scripture, scriptures, Matthew Henry's biblical commentary, bible commentary, Matthew Henry commentary, God's Word, Matthew Henry, studying the Bible, understanding the Bible, God, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, Spiritual, Hope, Jesus Answers Prayer, Answers to Prayer, Prayer, Pray, God Answers Prayer ⚠️ Support our ministry: https://ko-fi.com/jesusanswersprayers ❓️ How does this chapter apply to you?
Keywords: Jeremiah,Book of Jeremiah,Revival, Character Of God,Free Sermons, Video Sermons, Jesus Christ, What Is The Gospel, Sermon Index, What Is The Truth, kjv bible, Audio Bible, Bible, God, God's Love, Scriptures, Holy Bible, Prophets, Apostles, KJV, Jesus,Christ, audiobook, book, holy life, love, bible verses, king james bible audio, audio bible KJV, king james bible online audio, bible audio, online bible kjv, audio bible kjv, daily bible verse, bible verse of the day, KJV audio, Remastered, Best Version, Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit, Holy Ghost, The Chosen, Salvation, Saved, Christian, Suffering Servant, Arm of the Lord, Plants Roots, Despised Rejected, Sorrows, Peace War, Crucifixtion, The Cross, Violence, Judgement, Master Servant, Life Death, Old Testament, Exposed, Music, Education, Great Tribulation, Endtimes, Top Bible Verses, Bible Topic Prayer, Amazing Love Story, Epic, HOPE, FAITH, The MESSIAH, bc, biblical commentaries, bible commentaries, Evangelical commentaries, New Testament, Old Testament, Evangelicalism, bible study, Word of God, scripture, scriptures, Matthew Henry's biblical commentary, bible commentary, Matthew Henry commentary, God's Word, Matthew Henry, studying the Bible, understanding the Bible, God, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, Spiritual, Hope, Jesus Answers Prayer, Answers to Prayer, Prayer, Pray, God Answers Prayer ⚠️ Support our ministry: https://ko-fi.com/jesusanswersprayers ❓️ How does this chapter apply to you?
Pastor Troy teaches examines the coming wrath fo God and the response the world should have.
Pastor Troy teaches examines the coming wrath fo God and the response the world should have.
A new MP3 sermon from Apple Valley Presbyterian Church, OPC is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Human History and Divine Wrath Subtitle: Genesis: Life of Abraham Speaker: Rev. John A. Hartley Broadcaster: Apple Valley Presbyterian Church, OPC Event: Sunday - AM Date: 1/14/2024 Bible: Genesis 15:7-21; Romans 9:21-24 Length: 44 min.
A new MP3 sermon from Faith Independent Baptist Church is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Day of Reckoning & Divine Wrath Subtitle: Revelation Speaker: Doug Stauffer Broadcaster: Faith Independent Baptist Church Event: Sunday - PM Date: 1/14/2024 Bible: Revelation 19:10; Revelation 19:11-12 Length: 33 min.
A new MP3 sermon from Faith Independent Baptist Church is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Day of Reckoning & Divine Wrath Subtitle: Revelation Speaker: Doug Stauffer Broadcaster: Faith Independent Baptist Church Event: Sunday - PM Date: 1/14/2024 Bible: Revelation 19:10; Revelation 19:11-12 Length: 33 min.
In this 5th episode, Patrick asks Jonah to tell us how in the world he came to love sacred scripture or "the Bible." He shares how, despite his strong, direct experience of Christ's presence in his life, it was really hard to relate to the Bible, especially the Old Testament. This remains true until he found a key that unlocked the whole thing for him. At first, Jonah reached out for an understanding of God and Christ by reaching for Rudolf Steiner's work, and his students, known as Anthroposophy. And there were prejudices about what was in the Bible that he had to shed and overcome. He himself had been deeply wounded by an overreach and misuse of scripture which kept it at arms length. Overtime, though, he found a key that opened "the window" of scripture. This key had to do with what it means to be a human being, to be on a path of becoming truly human and how this all is connected to the mysteries of Jesus Christ. The deep longing of Jonah's soul to understand who the divine creator word is, the one we know as "Christ," and who the human was/is into whom Christ incarnated - this pursuit unlocked the Bible for him. Tracking the mysteries of the being who calls himself most often, "The Son of Man" in scripture became the key that unlocked the whole story of the whole bible.The story culminates in Jonah sharing his own wrestling with the more difficult elements in the Bible. Jonah takes us into the challenging ideas of "guilt" and "sin" and, ultimately, the theme of "Divine Wrath." This theme appears in the Hebrew scripture (Old Testament), especially in the prophetic books, but is also very much present in the gospels, the letters of the apostles and the Book of Revelation. In other words, an honest engagement with scripture cannot avoid "God's wrath" ("Do not avenge yourselves, beloved, but leave room for God's wrath. For it is written: “Vengeance is Mine; I will repay, says the Lord.” Romans 12:19 BSB). How can this element of wrath be united with this other truth: "God is love" (1John 4:8)? We get to hear how Jonah engaged this troubling and challenging element that Scripture presents and how it opened his mind and heart up to a much deeper understanding to who God is, how life works and the deeper nature of love.Many thanks to Camilla Lake for show notes and Podcast/Patreon production and communications. Thanks also to Elliott Chamberlin who composed our theme music, “Seeking Together.”The Light in Every Thing is a podcast of The Seminary of The Christian Community in North America. Learn more about the Seminary and its offerings at our website. This podcast is supported by our growing Patreon community. To learn more, go to www.patreon.com/ccseminary.NotesAn excellent source of the harmonization of biblical, spiritual-historical and anthroposophical Christology is Emil Bock's, The Three Years, and his book on The Childhood of Jesus explores in great detail the mysteries behind the two different genealogies in Matthew and Luke and their spiritual background.The "son of man" can be found in Support the showMany thanks to Camilla Lake for show notes and Podcast/Patreon production and communications. Thanks also to Elliott Chamberlin who composed our theme music, “Seeking Together.” The Light in Every Thing is a podcast of The Seminary of The Christian Community in North America. Learn more about the Seminary and its offerings at our website. This podcast is supported by our growing Patreon community. To learn more, go to www.patreon.com/ccseminary.
1. The Holiness of God's divine wrath-2. The Vengeance of God's divine wrath-3. The Justice of God's divine wrath-4. The sovereignty of God's divine wrath
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Are you ready to challenge your understanding of sin, God's wrath, and the concept of unrighteousness? Buckle up as brother Gerald and I peel back layers of theological concepts, and take you on a deep dive into the relationship between God's wrath and sin. Don't mistake unrighteousness as just a moralistic idea; we'll paint a picture of it as a form of punishment given by God himself. Be prepared to rethink Satan's presence in the garden and the implications of being handed over by God. Moving on to equality in God's judgment, we'll explore that God's wrath doesn't discriminate between the heathen and the law-abiding Jew. We help you understand that both the Gentile and the Jew are subject to God's judgment, and no one can escape with an excuse. But despair not; we also discuss the lifeline of God's grace and peace. This episode promises a fresh perspective on God's judgment, unrighteousness, sin, and the choices we make. Expect to be enlightened, challenged, and utterly engrossed.The Mystic CaveAn exploration of the spiritual terrain on the far side of conventional religion.Listen on: Apple Podcasts SpotifySupport the show
Sermon by James Walden
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When is a people so overgrown with dross as that it is necessary the good and the bad should go into the same furnace-- I shall name but two plain things--- 1. When the generality of a people are openly wicked and profane. You will see in the following verses of this chapter the reason given why God will put them all into the furnace. And why is it-- Because the prophets were wicked, and the priests were wicked, and the princes were wicked, and the people were wicked.
A new MP3 sermon from The Narrated Puritan is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: The Furnace of Divine Wrath - The Highest Token of God's Displeasure Subtitle: The Narrated Puritan - T M S Speaker: John Owen Broadcaster: The Narrated Puritan Event: Audio Book Date: 5/6/2023 Bible: Ezekiel 22:17-22 Length: 24 min.
A new MP3 sermon from Christ Fellowship Bible Church is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Session 3: Divine Wrath of Tribulation Subtitle: Biblical Prophecy Conf. 2023 Speaker: Marty Zide Broadcaster: Christ Fellowship Bible Church Event: Conference Date: 1/6/2023 Length: 30 min.
A new MP3 sermon from Christ Fellowship Bible Church is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Session 3: Divine Wrath of Tribulation Subtitle: Biblical Prophecy Conf. 2023 Speaker: Marty Zide Broadcaster: Christ Fellowship Bible Church Event: Conference Date: 1/6/2023 Length: 30 min.
A similitude of a miser and a generous, the latter is given relief and Divine Pleasure whilst the miser is close to Divine Wrath. Allah سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى hates the miser and loves the liberal generous. If one's end is near arrange to feeding the destitute, hence securing your place in The Garden of Eternity. Spending upon one's family is Sadaqa.
At the Messianic Jewish Alliance of America (MJAA) Messiah Conference 2022, Jonathan gave a presentation responding to arguments for replacement theology put forth in Pastor Andy Stanley's book, Irresistible: Reclaiming the New that Jesus Unleashed for the World. Questions this presentation covers include: - What does replacement theology mean for the Jewish people? - Did Yeshua teach that he came to end God's covenant with Israel, to make the Torah obsolete in Matthew 5.17? - Did the destruction of the Temple signal the end of Judaism and God's covenant with Israel? - Why did Yeshua have to die? You can also watch on our YouTube channel Follow us on Social Media: Facebook Instagram _________________________________________ If you are looking for a way to support us and gain early access to our content, you can become a monthly supporter on Subscribestar We also have PayPal _________________________________________ Works cited: Anders Runesson, Divine Wrath and Salvation in Mathew: The Narrative World of the First Gospel (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2016). Anders Runesson, “Saving the Lost Sheep of the House of Israel: Purity, Forgiveness, and Synagogues in the Gospel of Matthew,” Melilah 11 (2014): 8-24. Craig S. Keener, The Gospel of Matthew: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2009). Daniel Boyarin, “Semantic Differences; or ‘Judaism'/‘Christianity'.” in The Ways that Never Parted: Jews and Christians in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, eds. Annette Yokisho Reed and Adam H. Becker, (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2007), 65-85. David J. Rudolph, A Jew to the Jews: Jewish Contours of Pauline Flexibility in 1 Corinthians 9.19-23, WUNT 2/304 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2011). David J. Rudolph, “One New Man, Hebrew Roots, Replacement Theology: How to restore the Jewish roots of the Christian faith without getting weird” (9-8-2021). Geza Vermes, “Redemption and Genesis XXII – the Binding of Isaac and the Sacrifice of Jesus,” in Scripture and Tradition in Judaism (Leiden: Brill, 1961). Helen K. Bond, The Historical Jesus: A Guide for the Perplexed (London: T & T Clark, 2012). Matthew Thiessen, "Abolishers of the Law in Early Judaism and Matthew 5,17-20," Biblica 93, no. 4 (2012): 543-56. Nicholas Schaser interview – “I Did Not Come to Abolish but to Fulfill” Shaye J. D. Cohen, From the Maccabees to the Mishnah, 2nd ed. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2006). Ulrich Luz, Matthew 1-7: A Commentary (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2007). _________________________________________ Music: https://www.bensound.com
How has our understanding of perfection distorted biblical concepts of faith and grace? How does God's wrath fit into His goodness? Is compassion and wrath equal in the Godhead? Does God change or is He unchanging. We discussed these questions and more with Dr. Matthew Lynch who shared with us how scripture actually teaches us to hold these complex realities in tension. We hope you enjoy the conversation.
In this Series, we explore the New Testament teaching on Imminence. The Coming of Christ for His Church is imminent – that is, He could come at any time. It will be unexpected, without signs and without warning, and that no predicted events necessarily have to come first. The timing of His Coming is totally unpredictable, for God has chosen to keep it as His secret. Therefore, no man can know in advance, when He is coming. When we study the Scriptures on Imminence, we actually discover that there are 2 events that are imminent: (1) the Rapture of the Church and (2) the start of the eschatological Day of the Lord, a time of judgment, otherwise known as the Tribulation and the End of the Age. As both of these events are imminent, it follows that they must be simultaneous, because if one came before the other, the 2nd event would not be imminent. Therefore, when Christ comes for His Church, He also comes to initiate the Day of the Lord on the earth. Thus, His Coming has 2 purposes which are accomplished at the same time: (1) He will come suddenly to bring judgment upon the earth, and at the same time (2) He will rescue His people from that coming judgment. This means the Tribulation will begin on the same day of the Rapture, and so the Rapture will initiate the Tribulation. This confirms the Pre-Tribulation Rapture. The foundation for this belief is the teaching of Jesus, which is then taken up and confirmed by the apostles, Paul, Peter and John. We start this series by studying the teaching of Jesus on His Coming in Luke 12:35-41, with a special focus on the meaning of His Coming as a thief (see also Matthew 24:43-44, Revelation 3:3-6, 16:15). As well as Jesus coming as a thief, other scriptures say "the Day of the Lord comes as a thief" (2Peter 3:10, 1Thessalonians 5:3-4). Derek proves that the Day of the Lord is the same as the time of Birth Pains at the End of the Age, which is also the period of time known as the Tribulation. This is confirmed by Revelation 6-19, which describes the Tribulation. It is Christ, who initiates this time of Divine Judgment in Rev 6, by breaking the first 6 Seals in quick succession, and the result corresponds exactly to Jesus' description of the Birth Pains of the Tribulation. This shows that the Tribulation is also the Day of the Lord, when God moves in Judgment. Therefore, this is not just a time of great evil, suffering and persecution, but a time of Divine Judgment and Wrath. It is this aspect of Divine Judgment which primarily differentiates the Tribulation from the Church Age. Derek shows how Paul in 1Thessalonians 4-5 teaches that both the Coming of Christ to rapture the Church (chapter 4) and His Coming to initiate the Day of the Lord, a time of Divine Wrath (chapter 5) are imminent, indicating that they are simultaneous. This is confirmed in 1Thessalonians 5:9: “God did not appoint us to wrath (of the Day of the Lord), but to obtain salvation (in the Rapture) through our Lord Jesus Christ”, and 1Thessalonians 1:10: “You wait for His Son from Heaven...Jesus who rescues us from the coming wrath.” This describes the imminent rescue of the Church from an imminent judgment (wrath), accomplished by the Coming of Jesus from Heaven.
In this Series, we explore the New Testament teaching on Imminence. The Coming of Christ for His Church is imminent – that is, He could come at any time. It will be unexpected, without signs and without warning, and that no predicted events necessarily have to come first. The timing of His Coming is totally unpredictable, for God has chosen to keep it as His secret. Therefore, no man can know in advance, when He is coming. When we study the Scriptures on Imminence, we actually discover that there are 2 events that are imminent: (1) the Rapture of the Church and (2) the start of the eschatological Day of the Lord, a time of judgment, otherwise known as the Tribulation and the End of the Age. As both of these events are imminent, it follows that they must be simultaneous, because if one came before the other, the 2nd event would not be imminent. Therefore, when Christ comes for His Church, He also comes to initiate the Day of the Lord on the earth. Thus, His Coming has 2 purposes which are accomplished at the same time: (1) He will come suddenly to bring judgment upon the earth, and at the same time (2) He will rescue His people from that coming judgment. This means the Tribulation will begin on the same day of the Rapture, and so the Rapture will initiate the Tribulation. This confirms the Pre-Tribulation Rapture. The foundation for this belief is the teaching of Jesus, which is then taken up and confirmed by the apostles, Paul, Peter and John. We start this series by studying the teaching of Jesus on His Coming in Luke 12:35-41, with a special focus on the meaning of His Coming as a thief (see also Matthew 24:43-44, Revelation 3:3-6, 16:15). As well as Jesus coming as a thief, other scriptures say "the Day of the Lord comes as a thief" (2Peter 3:10, 1Thessalonians 5:3-4). Derek proves that the Day of the Lord is the same as the time of Birth Pains at the End of the Age, which is also the period of time known as the Tribulation. This is confirmed by Revelation 6-19, which describes the Tribulation. It is Christ, who initiates this time of Divine Judgment in Rev 6, by breaking the first 6 Seals in quick succession, and the result corresponds exactly to Jesus' description of the Birth Pains of the Tribulation. This shows that the Tribulation is also the Day of the Lord, when God moves in Judgment. Therefore, this is not just a time of great evil, suffering and persecution, but a time of Divine Judgment and Wrath. It is this aspect of Divine Judgment which primarily differentiates the Tribulation from the Church Age. Derek shows how Paul in 1Thessalonians 4-5 teaches that both the Coming of Christ to rapture the Church (chapter 4) and His Coming to initiate the Day of the Lord, a time of Divine Wrath (chapter 5) are imminent, indicating that they are simultaneous. This is confirmed in 1Thessalonians 5:9: “God did not appoint us to wrath (of the Day of the Lord), but to obtain salvation (in the Rapture) through our Lord Jesus Christ”, and 1Thessalonians 1:10: “You wait for His Son from Heaven...Jesus who rescues us from the coming wrath.” This describes the imminent rescue of the Church from an imminent judgment (wrath), accomplished by the Coming of Jesus from Heaven.
In this Series, we explore the New Testament teaching on Imminence. The Coming of Christ for His Church is imminent – that is, He could come at any time. It will be unexpected, without signs and without warning, and that no predicted events necessarily have to come first. The timing of His Coming is totally unpredictable, for God has chosen to keep it as His secret. Therefore, no man can know in advance, when He is coming. When we study the Scriptures on Imminence, we actually discover that there are 2 events that are imminent: (1) the Rapture of the Church and (2) the start of the eschatological Day of the Lord, a time of judgment, otherwise known as the Tribulation and the End of the Age. As both of these events are imminent, it follows that they must be simultaneous, because if one came before the other, the 2nd event would not be imminent. Therefore, when Christ comes for His Church, He also comes to initiate the Day of the Lord on the earth. Thus, His Coming has 2 purposes which are accomplished at the same time: (1) He will come suddenly to bring judgment upon the earth, and at the same time (2) He will rescue His people from that coming judgment. This means the Tribulation will begin on the same day of the Rapture, and so the Rapture will initiate the Tribulation. This confirms the Pre-Tribulation Rapture. The foundation for this belief is the teaching of Jesus, which is then taken up and confirmed by the apostles, Paul, Peter and John. We start this series by studying the teaching of Jesus on His Coming in Luke 12:35-41, with a special focus on the meaning of His Coming as a thief (see also Matthew 24:43-44, Revelation 3:3-6, 16:15). As well as Jesus coming as a thief, other scriptures say "the Day of the Lord comes as a thief" (2Peter 3:10, 1Thessalonians 5:3-4). Derek proves that the Day of the Lord is the same as the time of Birth Pains at the End of the Age, which is also the period of time known as the Tribulation. This is confirmed by Revelation 6-19, which describes the Tribulation. It is Christ, who initiates this time of Divine Judgment in Rev 6, by breaking the first 6 Seals in quick succession, and the result corresponds exactly to Jesus' description of the Birth Pains of the Tribulation. This shows that the Tribulation is also the Day of the Lord, when God moves in Judgment. Therefore, this is not just a time of great evil, suffering and persecution, but a time of Divine Judgment and Wrath. It is this aspect of Divine Judgment which primarily differentiates the Tribulation from the Church Age. Derek shows how Paul in 1Thessalonians 4-5 teaches that both the Coming of Christ to rapture the Church (chapter 4) and His Coming to initiate the Day of the Lord, a time of Divine Wrath (chapter 5) are imminent, indicating that they are simultaneous. This is confirmed in 1Thessalonians 5:9: “God did not appoint us to wrath (of the Day of the Lord), but to obtain salvation (in the Rapture) through our Lord Jesus Christ”, and 1Thessalonians 1:10: “You wait for His Son from Heaven...Jesus who rescues us from the coming wrath.” This describes the imminent rescue of the Church from an imminent judgment (wrath), accomplished by the Coming of Jesus from Heaven.
Sermon (English) Monday in Passion Week: The New Jonah appeases the Divine Wrath forever
Roman Orona takes you on a journey around the world of Indigenous Music. Indigenous Cafe brings you music, conversation and inspiration from the Indigenous People of North America and the Indigenous People from all over the world. Artist's you will hear in the order they are played on this weeks show: THE INDIGENOUS CAFE PODCAST INTRO “Backbiting quencheth the light of the heart, and extinguisheth the life of the soul.” -Bahá'u'lláh (00:00:00-00:01:14) 1. Delmar Boni - “Mtn. Spirit Painting the Maiden Song” (Apache Jam 3) (00:01:14-00:06:26) 2. Jay Bagaye - “Rocky Mountain Special” (Honoring Our Ways) (00:06:26-00:11:01) PROGRAM BREAK (00:11:01-00:11:06) 3. Maya Jupiter - “Inshallah” (Never Said Yes) (00:11:06-00:15:33) 4. Insingizi - “Isqoqodo” (Spirit Of Africa) (00:15:33-00:18:35) 5. Byron Nicholai - “Aanan Aatan-Llu” (I Am Yup'ik) (00:18:35-00:20:00) Roman Orona (Host) (00:20:00-00:21:03) “I hope that the believers…will shun completely backbiting, each one praising the other cordially and believe that backbiting is the cause go Divine Wrath, to such an extent that if a person backbites to the extent of one word, he may become dishonored among all the people, because the most hateful characteristic if man is fault-finding. One must expose the praiseworthy qualities of the souls and not the evil attributes. The friends must overlook their shortcomings and faults and speak only of their virtues and not their defects.” -Abdu'l-Bahá 6. Andy Palacio & The Garifuna Collective - “Ámuñegü” (Wátina) (00:21:03-00:26:27) 7. Young Spirit - “Tâtapwê (Round Dance Special” (Save Me a Lead) (00:26:27-00:31:05) PROGRAM BREAK (00:31:05-00:31:09) 8. R. Carlos Nakai & Keola Beamer - “Aia Moloka'i Ku'uiwa” (Our Beloved Land) (00:31:09-00:34:23) 9. Tuva Ensemble - “Khoomei” (Traditional Music & Throat Singing of Tuva) (00:34:23-00:36:27) 10. Young Bird - “It's About Time” (YB Style) (00:36:27-00:40:00) Roman Orona (Host) (00:40:00-00:40:34) “The worst human quality and the most great sin is backbiting.” -Abdu'l-Bahá 11. Ahdi - “Mastom Mastom” (Mastom Mastom Single) (00:40:34-00:44:52) 12. Twin Flames - “Rise Up” (Signal Fire) (00:44:52-00:48:31) PROGRAM BREAK (00:48:31-00:48:36) 13. Zully Murillo - “Háganse a un Lado” (Los Pregones de Mi Tierra) (00:48:36-00:52:39) 14. 2nd Generation - “E'pitejij” (L'nuta'ql: Mi'kmaq Music Showcase) (00:52:39-00:55:00) Roman Orona (Host) (00:55:00-00:57:30) “It is obvious that if we listen to those who complain to us about the faults of others we are guilty of complicity in their backbiting. We should therefore, as tactfully as possible, but yet firmly, do our utmost to prevent others from making accusations or complaints against others in our presence..” -Shoghi Effendi 15. Mansour - “Mikham Bahat Beraghsam” (No Limit) (00:57:30-01:00:42) DONATION ADVERTISEMENT (01:00:42-01:00:59) The Indigenous Cafe Podcast is hosted by Roman Orona and brought to you by iamHUMAN Media. iamHUMAN Media is a non-profit 501(c)(3) focused on raising the awareness of social discourse to all humans through development of programs and artistic ventures (music, movies, stage performances, books, workshops, concerts, film festivals, community outreach, community building, panel discussions, etc.) to foster and promote unity in diversity and community fellowship acknowledging that all HUMANs are related simply by being HUMAN. Below are ways to help us continue our programming or to learn more about us: https://paypal.me/iamHUMANmedia?locale.x=en_US Website: www.iamHUMANmedia.com Email: indigenouscafe1@gmail.com
Every man and beast outside of the ark has been utterly destroyed by the magnificent forces of nature - the rain, the water jets, the landslides and mudslides, the suffocating waters, the crushing tsunamis driving the detritus of the forests onto the last exposed heights of the earth. Except for those fish and aquatic creatures that survived the turmoil, and except for those creatures in the Ark with Noah and his family, who alone live to breathe God's fresh air- It is at this point in the flood, that we see the full satisfaction of Divine wrath---1- The Remembrance--2- The Restraint--3- The Return--4- The Rest
A new MP3 sermon from Faith Presbyterian Church is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Divine Wrath and Mercy Subtitle: Isaiah Speaker: John Irwin Broadcaster: Faith Presbyterian Church Event: Sunday - AM Date: 12/19/2021 Bible: Isaiah 63:1-14 Length: 28 min.
A new MP3 sermon from Faith Presbyterian Church is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Divine Wrath and Mercy Subtitle: Isaiah Speaker: John Irwin Broadcaster: Faith Presbyterian Church Event: Sunday - AM Date: 12/19/2021 Bible: Isaiah 63:1-14 Length: 28 min.
Each person of the Trinity is in view in this text from the blood-stained Warrior -Jesus- to the faithful Redeemer of the faithless -the Father- to the grieved yet ever-present Spirit. In God's wrath for His enemies, He still arises and acts on behalf of His rebellious people to redeem them-
A new MP3 sermon from Faith Presbyterian Church is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Divine Wrath and Mercy Subtitle: Isaiah Speaker: John Irwin Broadcaster: Faith Presbyterian Church Event: Sunday - AM Date: 12/19/2021 Bible: Isaiah 63:1-14 Length: 28 min.
We're finally back with our heroes facing an overwhelming new threat. This week's episode is filled with near death experiences and tense betrayals. tune in to find out what happens. The show will now have a video version available here: https://bit.ly/35ROVJz DM: (MimicTheIdiot): www.twitch.tv/MimicTheIdiot Jax Karn: Vex Talia: (Daizycakes): www.twitch.tv/daizycakes Demitrius Longwing: (PlayDaFool): www.twitch.tv/playdafool Jade Dragonborne: (Jimmy): www.twitch.tv/JimmySHR14 Music and sounds either created myself or provided via the YouTube audio library WARNING: Idiots Rolling Dice is an explicit podcast meant for a mature audience. Imagery of violence, nudity, and illicit substance use may be depicted at any time. Listen at your own risk.
In this 3-part Series, we take an in-depth look at the Pre-Tribulation Rapture, showing how it harmonises many prophetic Scriptures. The End of the Age (the Tribulation) will be by far the worst period of time that will ever be, utterly unlike the Church Age, because it will be (1) a time when evil comes to its fullness (in the antichrist), and (2) a time of ever intensifying Divine Wrath (through the 7 Seals, 7 Trumpets, 7 Bowls), leading up to the 2nd Coming, and we are not appointed to wrath (1Thess 5:9). The Judgments of the Tribulation begin with the breaking of the first 6 Seals by Christ in Heaven (Rev 6), which means the whole Tribulation is a time of Divine Wrath, that's why it is also called the Day of the Lord. God's Wrath does not start with the Bowls of Wrath, for we are told that in them His Wrath is completed (Rev 15:1). The fact that Christ is now moving into Judgment mode is seen by the fact that He is no longer SEATED, but He now is STANDING (Rev 5:6-7, c.f Psalm 110:1). Surely a loving and powerful Bridegroom, before He bombards His Bride's dwelling place (the earth), would first extract her from it before releasing His Wrath. The Church Age will end with the Rapture - the Coming of Christ for His Church in which He instantly catches up all living believers to meet Him in the air and translates them into immortal bodies without experiencing death. At the same time all those in Christ who have died during the Church Age will be resurrected and will also meet Christ in the air. If the Rapture is before the Tribulation, then it is imminent, which means we should be watching for Christ's Coming for us, which motivates us to holiness and evangelism. But if the Rapture is at the end of the Tribulation, then He will not come for at least another 7 years, and since the antichrist will come first, our main focus should be on preparing ourselves for the antichrist. Scripture teaches us to look and wait for Christ, not antichrist. Harmonising 1Thessalonians 4:15-17 and 1Corinthians 15:51-52, Derek explains why the Rapture Trumpet is called the Last Trumpet. Christ will sound His Trumpet twice. At the 1st Trumpet, the dead will be raised, and at the Last Trumpet, we who are alive will be raptured. To understand the significance of the Pre-Tribulation Rapture, we need to understand its purpose in the Divine Plan as the climactic moment in the Divine Romance, where Christ, our Bridegroom, comes to fetch His Bride, so we might be married, fully united together forever. We see how the Divine Romance was foreshadowed in the Jewish marriage customs. Christ's promise to His Bride in John 14:1-3 fits perfectly into this scenario, and confirms a Pre-Tribulation Rapture, because He promises to come back specifically for His Bride in order to take her with Him to Heaven for a period of time, before He returns to the earth in His 2nd Coming. Rev 19:7-8 confirms the Pre-Trib view, for there we see the glorious Bride already in Heaven before the 2nd Coming, only now she is His wife. She returns with Him in the 2nd Coming (v14). Therefore, the Rapture must take place sometime well before the 2nd Coming. Derek also shows that the 24 elders, enthroned in Heaven in Rev 4-5, before the Tribulation begins, are men who represent the whole Church in Heaven, since they sing to the Lamb: "You were slain, and have redeemed US to God by Your Blood out of every tribe, tongue, people and nation" (Rev 5:9-10). So, at the start of the Tribulation, the Church is already in Heaven confirming the Pre-Tribulation Rapture. Rev 3:10 promises the faithful Church (represented by Philadelphia) that they will be kept from the Hour of Trial, which shall come upon the whole world. Since this Hour of Trial (the Tribulation) is world-wide and will come upon all who live on the earth, the only way they can be kept from it is to be removed from the earth in the Rapture before it begins. Notice they are not kept (protected) in the trial, but they are kept from the very Time of Trial (Tribulation) coming upon the earth. In conclusion, the Rapture is imminent. He will come suddenly for His own, and He take us to Heaven with Him, before the Tribulation begins.
In this 3-part Series, we take an in-depth look at the Pre-Tribulation Rapture, showing how it harmonises many prophetic Scriptures. The End of the Age (the Tribulation) will be by far the worst period of time that will ever be, utterly unlike the Church Age, because it will be (1) a time when evil comes to its fullness (in the antichrist), and (2) a time of ever intensifying Divine Wrath (through the 7 Seals, 7 Trumpets, 7 Bowls), leading up to the 2nd Coming, and we are not appointed to wrath (1Thess 5:9). The Judgments of the Tribulation begin with the breaking of the first 6 Seals by Christ in Heaven (Rev 6), which means the whole Tribulation is a time of Divine Wrath, that's why it is also called the Day of the Lord. God's Wrath does not start with the Bowls of Wrath, for we are told that in them His Wrath is completed (Rev 15:1). The fact that Christ is now moving into Judgment mode is seen by the fact that He is no longer SEATED, but He now is STANDING (Rev 5:6-7, c.f Psalm 110:1). Surely a loving and powerful Bridegroom, before He bombards His Bride's dwelling place (the earth), would first extract her from it before releasing His Wrath. The Church Age will end with the Rapture - the Coming of Christ for His Church in which He instantly catches up all living believers to meet Him in the air and translates them into immortal bodies without experiencing death. At the same time all those in Christ who have died during the Church Age will be resurrected and will also meet Christ in the air. If the Rapture is before the Tribulation, then it is imminent, which means we should be watching for Christ's Coming for us, which motivates us to holiness and evangelism. But if the Rapture is at the end of the Tribulation, then He will not come for at least another 7 years, and since the antichrist will come first, our main focus should be on preparing ourselves for the antichrist. Scripture teaches us to look and wait for Christ, not antichrist. Harmonising 1Thessalonians 4:15-17 and 1Corinthians 15:51-52, Derek explains why the Rapture Trumpet is called the Last Trumpet. Christ will sound His Trumpet twice. At the 1st Trumpet, the dead will be raised, and at the Last Trumpet, we who are alive will be raptured. To understand the significance of the Pre-Tribulation Rapture, we need to understand its purpose in the Divine Plan as the climactic moment in the Divine Romance, where Christ, our Bridegroom, comes to fetch His Bride, so we might be married, fully united together forever. We see how the Divine Romance was foreshadowed in the Jewish marriage customs. Christ's promise to His Bride in John 14:1-3 fits perfectly into this scenario, and confirms a Pre-Tribulation Rapture, because He promises to come back specifically for His Bride in order to take her with Him to Heaven for a period of time, before He returns to the earth in His 2nd Coming. Rev 19:7-8 confirms the Pre-Trib view, for there we see the glorious Bride already in Heaven before the 2nd Coming, only now she is His wife. She returns with Him in the 2nd Coming (v14). Therefore, the Rapture must take place sometime well before the 2nd Coming. Derek also shows that the 24 elders, enthroned in Heaven in Rev 4-5, before the Tribulation begins, are men who represent the whole Church in Heaven, since they sing to the Lamb: "You were slain, and have redeemed US to God by Your Blood out of every tribe, tongue, people and nation" (Rev 5:9-10). So, at the start of the Tribulation, the Church is already in Heaven confirming the Pre-Tribulation Rapture. Rev 3:10 promises the faithful Church (represented by Philadelphia) that they will be kept from the Hour of Trial, which shall come upon the whole world. Since this Hour of Trial (the Tribulation) is world-wide and will come upon all who live on the earth, the only way they can be kept from it is to be removed from the earth in the Rapture before it begins. Notice they are not kept (protected) in the trial, but they are kept from the very Time of Trial (Tribulation) coming upon the earth. In conclusion, the Rapture is imminent. He will come suddenly for His own, and He take us to Heaven with Him, before the Tribulation begins.
In this 3-part Series, we take an in-depth look at the Pre-Tribulation Rapture, showing how it harmonises many prophetic Scriptures. The End of the Age (the Tribulation) will be by far the worst period of time that will ever be, utterly unlike the Church Age, because it will be (1) a time when evil comes to its fullness (in the antichrist), and (2) a time of ever intensifying Divine Wrath (through the 7 Seals, 7 Trumpets, 7 Bowls), leading up to the 2nd Coming, and we are not appointed to wrath (1Thess 5:9). The Judgments of the Tribulation begin with the breaking of the first 6 Seals by Christ in Heaven (Rev 6), which means the whole Tribulation is a time of Divine Wrath, that's why it is also called the Day of the Lord. God's Wrath does not start with the Bowls of Wrath, for we are told that in them His Wrath is completed (Rev 15:1). The fact that Christ is now moving into Judgment mode is seen by the fact that He is no longer SEATED, but He now is STANDING (Rev 5:6-7, c.f Psalm 110:1). Surely a loving and powerful Bridegroom, before He bombards His Bride's dwelling place (the earth), would first extract her from it before releasing His Wrath. The Church Age will end with the Rapture - the Coming of Christ for His Church in which He instantly catches up all living believers to meet Him in the air and translates them into immortal bodies without experiencing death. At the same time all those in Christ who have died during the Church Age will be resurrected and will also meet Christ in the air. If the Rapture is before the Tribulation, then it is imminent, which means we should be watching for Christ's Coming for us, which motivates us to holiness and evangelism. But if the Rapture is at the end of the Tribulation, then He will not come for at least another 7 years, and since the antichrist will come first, our main focus should be on preparing ourselves for the antichrist. Scripture teaches us to look and wait for Christ, not antichrist. Harmonising 1Thessalonians 4:15-17 and 1Corinthians 15:51-52, Derek explains why the Rapture Trumpet is called the Last Trumpet. Christ will sound His Trumpet twice. At the 1st Trumpet, the dead will be raised, and at the Last Trumpet, we who are alive will be raptured. To understand the significance of the Pre-Tribulation Rapture, we need to understand its purpose in the Divine Plan as the climactic moment in the Divine Romance, where Christ, our Bridegroom, comes to fetch His Bride, so we might be married, fully united together forever. We see how the Divine Romance was foreshadowed in the Jewish marriage customs. Christ's promise to His Bride in John 14:1-3 fits perfectly into this scenario, and confirms a Pre-Tribulation Rapture, because He promises to come back specifically for His Bride in order to take her with Him to Heaven for a period of time, before He returns to the earth in His 2nd Coming. Rev 19:7-8 confirms the Pre-Trib view, for there we see the glorious Bride already in Heaven before the 2nd Coming, only now she is His wife. She returns with Him in the 2nd Coming (v14). Therefore, the Rapture must take place sometime well before the 2nd Coming. Derek also shows that the 24 elders, enthroned in Heaven in Rev 4-5, before the Tribulation begins, are men who represent the whole Church in Heaven, since they sing to the Lamb: "You were slain, and have redeemed US to God by Your Blood out of every tribe, tongue, people and nation" (Rev 5:9-10). So, at the start of the Tribulation, the Church is already in Heaven confirming the Pre-Tribulation Rapture. Rev 3:10 promises the faithful Church (represented by Philadelphia) that they will be kept from the Hour of Trial, which shall come upon the whole world. Since this Hour of Trial (the Tribulation) is world-wide and will come upon all who live on the earth, the only way they can be kept from it is to be removed from the earth in the Rapture before it begins. Notice they are not kept (protected) in the trial, but they are kept from the very Time of Trial (Tribulation) coming upon the earth. In conclusion, the Rapture is imminent. He will come suddenly for His own, and He take us to Heaven with Him, before the Tribulation begins.
Did Jesus oppose Judaism and come to replace it with his brand-new religion of Christianity? Was ancient Judaism a legalistic religion of works-righteousness? Did Jesus make the Law obsolete? Many people assume the answer to all these questions is yes. But is that true? In this video, we tackle these questions, building the case that the way Jesus teaches, lives, and debates situates him within Second Temple Judaism. Pastor Andy Stanley precisely articulates the way many Christians answer the questions above. So, in this video, we interact with some of the points he makes in his book, Irresistible: Reclaiming the New that Jesus Unleashed for the World. 0:00 - Intro 2:54 - What did "Judaism" mean during the time of Jesus? 4:33 - The fundamental problem with the idea that Jesus opposed Judaism 6:54 - Jesus teaches the heart of the Torah (Mark 12.30-31) 13:57 - Jesus wears tzitzit and tefillin (Matt 9.20; 23.5) 15:25 - Jesus observes Jewish traditions 16:13 - Jesus debates with Pharisees on what is lawful on the Sabbath (Matt 12.11-13) 28:11 - Was ancient Judaism a legalistic religion of works-righteousness? 35:38 - Did Jesus make the Law obsolete? (Response to Pastor Andy Stanley's reading of Matt 5.17) 46:06 - Summary 47:07 - Current scholarship on Jesus within Judaism 49:31 - Conclusion _________________________________________ You can also watch on our YouTube channel Follow us on Social Media: Facebook Instagram _________________________________________ If you are looking for a way to support us and our work, you can become a monthly supporter on Subscribestar We also have PayPal Merch shop _________________________________________ "The Shema's Impact on the Gospel and Replacement Theology" "Did Jesus Come to Destroy the Law? Responding to Rabbi Tovia Singer" Dr. Nicholas Schaser's interview on Matthew 5 _________________________________________ Noted works: Boyarin, Daniel. “Semantic Differences; or ‘Judaism'/‘Christianity'.” In The Ways that Never Parted: Jews and Christians in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, edited by Annette Yokisho Reed and Adam H. Becker, 65-85. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2007. Flusser, David. Jesus. 3rd ed. Jerusalem: The Hebrew University Magnes Press, 2001. Levine, Amy-Jill. A Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus. New York: HarperCollins, 2006. Runesson, Anders. Divine Wrath and Salvation in Mathew: The Narrative World of the First Gospel. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2016. Sanders, E. P. Paul and Palestinian Judaism: A Comparison of Patterns of Religion. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1977. Thiessen, Matthew. "Abolishers of the Law in Early Judaism and Matthew 5,17-20." Biblica 93, no. 4 (2012): 543-56. ---. Jesus and the Forces of Death: The Gospels' Portrayal of Ritual Impurity Within First-Century Judaism. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2020. _________________________________________ Music: www.bensound.com
Episode: Brent Strawn is back for the 3rd time to discuss his new book on mistruths about the Old Testament. Discussion covers everything from divine violence and wrath, to the […] The post Lies My Preacher Told Me – Brent Strawn first appeared on OnScript.
Episode: Brent Strawn is back for the 3rd time to discuss his new book on mistruths about the Old Testament. Discussion covers everything from divine violence and wrath, to the […] The post Lies My Preacher Told Me – Brent Strawn first appeared on OnScript.
2020REV-12d Why Does God Send The Tribulation 200422PM Short Clip Revelation 6:8 “And power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth.” First Seal (vv. 1–2)—The Conqueror: … A crown was given to him, and he went out [...] The post DIVINE WRATH COMING–The Horrors of Jesus’ Anger as He Breaks the First 5 Seals In Revelation 6 appeared first on Discover the Book Ministries.
The key to understanding God's wrath is this: He actually cares about people. (This message is from Colossians 3:6)
The key to understanding God's wrath is this: He actually cares about people.(This talk is on Colossians 3:6)
Welcome to the Daily Message. Today Darren shares scripture from Matthew 5:21-26. Make sure to subscribe and listen every Monday-Friday for encouragement framed in the context of God's word.
This is not a drill... We return to Patrick Henry Reardon's book, Christ in the Psalms. In this episode, we consider Psalm 6 and the very real, earthly effects of God's wrath, along with political bookends. SHOW NOTES: Christ in the Psalms - Patrick Henry Reardon https://amzn.to/3jNYDSN Siege of Magdeburg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sack_of_Magdeburg Hillary Clinton email https://wikileaks.org/clinton-emails/emailid/14333 Sergio and Rhoda in Israel https://www.youtube.com/c/sergiorhodainisrael — CONTACT and FOLLOW BannedBooks@1517.org Facebook Twitter SUBSCRIBE YouTube Apple Podcasts Spotify Stitcher Overcast Google Play TuneIn Radio iHeartRadio SUPPORT Gillespie Coffee (gillespie.coffee) Gillespie Media (gillespie.media) Donavon Riley The Warrior Priest Podcast 1517 Podcast Network Support the work of 1517
A new MP3 sermon from Messiah's Independent Reformed is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Appeasing Divine Wrath Subtitle: Jonah Speaker: Breno Macedo Broadcaster: Messiah's Independent Reformed Event: Sunday - PM Date: 10/4/2020 Bible: Jonah 1:7-16 Length: 43 min.
Divine Wrath, Divine Mercy, and an Altar | 2 Samuel 24 | Dr. Brian Payne | 09/27/2020 by
Scripture: Genesis 18:16-33; Genesis 22:1-14. In the second sermon in our series on leadership in the face of Divine Wrath, Rev. Macie talks about Abraham; how the story that we were told was an example of his superior faithfulness may have actually been his greatest failure.
We are following with our teacher, Pastor Al Pittman in a chapter by chapter tour of the book of Revelation. We have looked some true mountain peaks of prophecy to date, and today is no exception, seriously, The Finality of Divine Wrath is our title today, and it does not get much more serious than that, right? Turn in your bible to Revelation chapter 15 and let’s get underway with Pastor Al!
I (Matt L) have been wrestling with the topic of violence in Scripture for a while, and has returned to Dan Hawk's Berit Olam commentary on the book of Joshua. It was a pleasure to talk with Dan about his new book on violence in the Bible. He takes a literary approach that deserves serious attention. The post Daniel Hawk – The Violence of the Biblical God first appeared on OnScript.
I (Matt L) have been wrestling with the topic of violence in Scripture for a while, and has returned to Dan Hawk's Berit Olam commentary on the book of Joshua. It was a pleasure to talk with Dan about his new book on violence in the Bible. He takes a literary approach that deserves serious attention.
This is episode 27 of the Logos Institute Podcast, the official podcast of the Logos Institute for Analytic and Exegetical Theology. This is the first part of my interview with Dr RT Mullins (University of St Andrews)in which I discuss various things related to the notion of divine impassibility. Unfortunately, Stephanie was unable to join us for this interview, but she will be back with the podcast again very soon. Here are a few time stamps to help you navigate today's podcast: 0:46 - Process theists today 2:00 - Ecofeminism & Pantheism 3:09 - God as the soul of the universe? 3:48 - Defining Passibility 4:54 - Passibility Option 1: Omnisubjectivity 6:19 - Passibility Option 2: Maximal Empathy 7:35 - Omnisubjectivity and Immoral Empathy 8:30 - Clarification on what divine passibility gets you 10:14 - Problems for Passibilists 11:21 - The creepy emotions objection 12:03 - Aside: motivating omnisubjectivity and other passibilist positions 14:54 - Does the Incarnation make a difference to this knowledge by acquaintance? 15:46 - The love problem for impassibility 17:39 - What is this desire for union with the Beloved that's constitutive of love? 18:41 - Aquinas and defining wrath in terms of love 20:05 - What's wrong with divine wrath? If you've enjoyed listening to this interview, please see other content from our guest: 1. Ryan Mullins(Main Website) - https://www.rtmullins.com/ 2. Ryan Mullins (Academia) - https://st-andrews.academia.edu/RyanMullins 3) Reluctant Theologian Podcast - https://soundcloud.com/ryan-mullins-75859612/sets/the-reluctant-theologian To learn more about the Logos Institute, visit our webpage at logos.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk. And don't forget to follow us on our blog where we post content from friends of the Institute at blogos.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk. You can also find us on and Twitter (@TheologyStAs) and Facebook: www.facebook.com/TheologyStAs/?fb…Oc4Pz4P0qkCrfO_w
Visit happyvalleyevangelical.org/sermons for more.February 3, 2019Romans 1:18-32Parts of the series on the book of RomansRev. Jim Steele
The seven seals, the seven trumpets, and now . . . the seven bowls of God's wrath. Amazingly, surprisingly, worship of the True and Living God in big ways occur. How can this be? Real wrath, and real worship. Who would worship the one who pours out His wrath? Would you if you were to witness His wrath in that day? Join the Grace United crew as we stand in awe of the One who pours out His seven bowls of wrath in rapid fire succession.
The Tribulation is the Day of the Lord, a time of Divine Wrath, which begins with the Rapture of the Church and the revelation of antichrist, and continues until the 2nd Coming. It is a time of intensifying birthpains. We see how the teachings of Jesus (Matt 24, Luke 21) and of Paul in Thessalonians agree.
The Tribulation is the Day of the Lord, a time of Divine Wrath, which begins with the Rapture of the Church and the revelation of antichrist, and continues until the 2nd Coming. It is a time of intensifying birthpains. We see how the teachings of Jesus (Matt 24, Luke 21) and of Paul in Thessalonians agree.
Divine Wrath and the Lure of Captain Obvious
Divine Wrath and the Lure of Captain Obvious
Divine Wrath and the Lure of Captain Obvious
This morning I would have you peer back through time with me – we take up the lens of scripture to watch events unfold that have been planned from the moment of God’s first creative word spoken into the void. We find Jesus kneeling in an olive grove alone. His face covered with the sweat mingled with drops of blood. So fervent has been His time of prayer that as He bows with His face to the ground capillaries in his skin have ruptured and blood has mingled with His tears and He cries out “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me…” Just five days earlier the scene was much different. Jesus is riding on a colt (a donkey) from Bethphage to Jerusalem passes by this same spot. The hill above him that day was lined with people laying palm branches on the road and crying out “Hosana, blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord”. Jesus entered the city to the fanfare of the people. The week would be a time of preparation – cleansing the temple, teaching in the streets, and preparing for the Passover. At the Passover meal Jesus would serve 4 cups of wine each associated with a promise given to the nation of Israel.
Between 1764 and 1767, in what was then known as Gévaudan, a mountainous, forested region of France, terror struck. Over 100 men, women, and young children were brutally massacred and devoured by a monster that is truly the stuff of legend, and deserving of it's title of 'The Beast'. Join us as we explore the horrifying truth behind this terrible event. Was it a werewolf? A serial killer? Or something else entirely? Buy the Book! Beast: Werewolves, Serial Killers, and Maneaters: Solving the Mysteries of the Monsters of the Gévaudan by Gustavo Sanchez Romero & S.R. Schwalb Digital Hard Copy Other Resource Materials Account of the Attacks The account of Pierre Chateauneuf Marie-Jeanne Valet National Geographic Article
Between 1764 and 1767, in what was then known as Gévaudan, a mountainous, forested region of France, terror struck. Over 100 men, women, and young children were brutally massacred and devoured by a monster that is truly the stuff of legend, and deserving of it's title of 'The Beast'. Join us as we explore the horrifying truth behind this terrible event. Was it a werewolf? A serial killer? Or something else entirely? Buy the Book! Beast: Werewolves, Serial Killers, and Maneaters: Solving the Mysteries of the Monsters of the Gévaudan by Gustavo Sanchez Romero & S.R. Schwalb Digital Hard Copy Other Resource Materials Account of the Attacks The account of Pierre Chateauneuf Marie-Jeanne Valet National Geographic Article
11am ServiceRevelation 6-7
11am ServiceRevelation 6-7
Things did not go well for the First Venezuelan Republic.
--Diagnosis & Cure for the Human Race --Studies in the Book of Romans --The Results of Justification --Romans 5:9-11
--Diagnosis & Cure for the Human Race --Studies in the Book of Romans --The Results of Justification --Romans 5:9-11
Sheldon Divine Wrath - Autonomous Or Metaphorical by God's Character Podcast
This exposition examines the second bases for divine wrath, namely, man’s invention of asinine religions. Special consideration is given to historical roots of idolatry and current examples of religions that deify man. Title: Divine Wrath Revealed - Part 3 Speaker: Dr. David Harrell Event: Sunday Service Date: Jan 30 2011 Bible: Romans 1:22-23
After discussing the depravity of man that renders him guilty and condemned before our holy God, this exposition examines the first of two bases for divine wrath, namely, man’s rejection of divine revelation through creation and conscience. Title: Divine Wrath Revealed - Part 2 Speaker: Dr. David Harrell Event: Sunday Service Date: Jan 23 2011 Bible: Romans 1:19-21
After reviewing biblical examples of God’s wrath poured out upon sin and illustrating the deception of presenting the Gospel apart from an accurate portrayal of sin and divine judgment, this exposition examines the nature, origin, and object of God’s wrath. Title: Divine Wrath Revealed - Part 1 Speaker: Dr. David Harrell Event: Sunday Service Date: Jan 16 2011 Bible: Romans 1:18
On this episode, the ATFP crew discusses their hatred for DRM, video game museums, and the one-man retro gaming phenomenon that is Cave Story!This episode's music: "Nemesis" by Divine Wrath (opening); "Cave Story Theme (Remix)" by Pixel (remixed by Koolfox) (closing)
On this episode, the ATFP crew discusses their hatred for DRM, video game museums, and the one-man retro gaming phenomenon that is Cave Story!This episode's music: "Nemesis" by Divine Wrath (opening); "Cave Story Theme (Remix)" by Pixel (remixed by Koolfox) (closing)
This exposition examines two scenes: one, a grain harvest judgment with the victorious Reaper and the vile harvest of the world, and two, a grape harvest judgment with an angelic reaper and a vintage harvest of Armageddon. Title: The Coming Harvest of Divine Wrath Speaker: Dr. David Harrell Event: Sunday Service Date: Sep 20 2009 Bible: Revelation 14:14-20
Title: The Appeasement of Divine Wrath – Philippine Radio Broadcast Speaker: Dr. David Harrell Event: Sunday Service Date: Mar 06 2009 Bible: Selected Passages
A biblical examination of the holiness and wrath of God which together explain why God “sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10b). Title: The Appeasement of Divine Wrath Speaker: Dr. David Harrell Event: Sunday Service Date: Apr 11 2004 Bible: 1 John 4:10
This episode of CS is titled – Monks.We took a look at the hermits in Episode 18 and delved into the beginnings of the monastic movement that swept the Church. The hermits were those who left the city to live an ultra-ascetic life of isolation; literally fleeing from the world. Others who longed for the ascetic life could not abide the lack of fellowship and so retreated from the world to live in sequestered communes called monasteries & nunneries.The men were called monks and the women; the feminine form of the same word – nonnus, or nuns. In recent episodes, we've seen that the ascetic lifestyle of both hermits & monks was considered the ideal expression of devotion to God during the 4th & 5th Centuries. We're going to spend more time looking at monastery-life now because it proves central to the development of the faith during the Middle Ages, particularly in Western Europe but also in the East.Let's review from Episode 18 the roots of monasticism . . .Leisure time to converse about philosophy with friends was highly prized in the ancient world. It was fashionable for public figures to express a yearning for such intellectual leisure, or “otium” as they called it; but of course, they were much too busy serving their fellow man. It became hip to adopt the attitude, “I'm so busy with my duties, I don't get much ‘Me-time'.”Occasionally, as the famous Roman orator & Senator Cicero portrayed it, they scored such time for philosophical reflection by retiring to write on themes such as duty, friendship & old age. That towering intellect & theologian Augustine of Hippo had the same wish as a young man, & when he became a Christian in 386, left his professorship in oratory to devote his life to contemplation & writing. He retreated with a group of friends, his son & his mother, to a home on Lake Como, to discuss, then write about The Happy Life, Order & other such subjects, in which both classical philosophy and Christianity shared an interest. When he returned to his hometown of Tagaste in North Africa, he set up a community in which he & his friends could lead a monastic life, apart from the world, studying scripture & praying. Augustine's contemporary, Jerome; translator of the Latin Vulgate, felt the same tug. He too made an attempt to live apart from the world.The Christian version of this yearning for a life of philosophical retirement had an important difference from the pagan version. While reading & meditation remained central, the call to do it in concert w/others who set themselves apart from the world was added.For the monks and nuns who sought such a communal life, the crucial thing was the call to a way of life which would make it possible to ‘go apart' & spend time w/God in prayer and worship.Prayer was the Opus Dei, the ‘work of God'.As it was originally conceived, to become a monk or nun was an attempt to obey to the full the commandment to love God with all one is & has. In the Middle Ages, it was also understood as a fulfillment of the command to love one's neighbor, for monks & nuns were supposed to be primarily praying for the world. They really did believe they were performing an important task on behalf of lost souls. So among the members of a monastery, there were those who prayed, those who ruled, and those who worked. The most important to society were those who prayed. Ideally, while monks & nuns might have different duties based on their station & assignment, they all engaged in both work & prayer.But a difference developed between the monastic movements of East & West.In the East, the Desert Fathers set the pattern. They were hermits who adopted extreme forms of asceticism, and came to be regarded as powerhouses of spiritual influence; authorities who could assist ordinary people w/their problems. The Stylites, for example, lived on platforms on high poles; an object of reverence to those who came to ask their spiritual advice. Others, shut off from the world in caves or huts, denied themselves contact with the temptations of the world, especially women. There was in this an obvious preoccupation with the dangers of the flesh, which was partly a legacy of the Greek dualists' conviction that matter was inherently evil.I want to pause here & make a personal, pastoral observation. So warning! – Blatant opinion follows.You can't read the New Testament without seeing a clear call to holiness. But that holiness is a work of God's grace as the Holy Spirit empowers the believer to live a life pleasing to God. New Testament holiness is a joyous privilege, not a heavy burden & duty. It enhances life, never diminishes it.This is what Jesus modeled so well, and why genuine seekers after God were drawn to Him. He was attractive! He didn't just do holiness, He WAS Holy. Yet no one had more life. Where He went, dead things came to life!As Jesus' followers, we're supposed to be holy in the same way. But if we're honest, for many, holiness is conceived of as a dry, boring, life-sucking burden of moral perfection.Real holiness isn't religious rule-keeping. It isn't a list of moral proscriptions; a set of “Don't's! Or I will smite thee w/Divine Wrath & cast thy wretched soul into the eternal flames.”New Testament holiness is a mark of Real Life, the one Jesus rose again to give us. It's Jesus living in & thru us. The holy life is a FLOURISHING life.The Desert Fathers & hermits who followed their example were heavily influenced by the dualist Greek worldview that all matter was evil & only the spirit was good. Holiness meant an attempt to avoid any shred of physical pleasure while retreating into the life of the mind. This thinking was a major force influencing the monastic movement as it moved both East & West. But in the East, the monks were hermits who pursued their lifestyles in isolation while in the West, they tended to pursue them in concert & communal life.As we go on we'll see that some monastic leaders realized casting holiness as a negative denial of the flesh rather than a positive embracing of the love & truth of Christ was an error they sought to reform.Indeed, one of the premier teachings of Jesus adopted by monks & applied literally was Matt. 19:21, “Sell your possession, give to the poor.” Jesus & the Twelve Apostles were cast as ideal monks.The early Church also faced the challenge of several aberrant groups who espoused a rigorous asceticism & used it as a badge of moral superiority. So some Christians thought a way to refute their error was by showing them up when it came to austere devotion.Even those believers who rejected the error of dualism justified asceticism by saying they renounced what was merely good in favor of what was best; a higher spiritual mode of living.Understood this way, the monasticism began as a protest movement in the Early Church. Church leaders like Athanasius, Basil of Caesarea & even Augustine co-opted & domesticated the monastic impulse, bringing it into the standard Church world.In the East, while monks might live in a group, they didn't seek for community. They didn't converse & work together in a common cause. They simply shared cells next to one another. Each followed his own schedule. Their only contact was that they ate & prayed together. This tradition continues to this day on Mount Athos in northern Greece, where monks live in solitude & prayer in cells high on the cliffs. Food is lowered to them in baskets.Monastic communities and those seeking to be monks or nuns exploded in popularity in the 4th Century. This popularity was born out of a protest on the part of many at the growing secularization they witnessed in the institutional church. The persecution everyone was so ready to be over not long before was now looked back upon almost nostalgically. Sure the Church was hammered, but at least following Jesus meant something and the seriousness with which people pursued spiritual things was palpable. Now it seemed every third person called themselves a Christian without much concern to be like Jesus. The monastic life was a way to recover what had been lost from the glory days of the persecuted but pure Church.One of the first set of rules for monastic communities was developed by someone with whom we're already familiar, Basil the Great, leader of the Cappadocian Fathers who hammered out the orthodox understanding of the Nicene Creed. Basil was born into one of the most remarkable families in Christian history. His grandmother, father, mother, sister, & two younger brothers, were all venerated as saints. Wow – imagine being the black sheep in that family! All you had to do to qualify for that dubious title was fail to make your bed.Besides taking the lead with his brother Gregory of Nyssa and their friend Gregory of Nazianzus in hammering out the exact terminology that would be used to define the Orthodox position on the Trinity, Basil was an early advocate & organizer of monastic life. Taking a cue from his sister Macrina, who'd founded a monastery on some of the family's property at Annessi, Basil visited the ascetics of Syria, Palestine, and Egypt, then founded his own monastery, also at Annessi around 358. For the monks there he drew up a rule for their lives called Asceticon; sometimes referred to as the Longer & Shorter Rules. It consisted of 55 major regulations & 313 lesser guidelines. While each monastery during this time followed its own order, more and more began adopting Basil's template.The first rule to present a rival to Basil's was the Rule of Augustine.In our last couple episodes on Augustine, we saw that when he returned to Tagaste, he and his friends formed a community committed to serving God. At the bishop of the church at Hippo, Augustine founded a monastery, turning the episcopal digs into a monastic community specifically for priests. It became a spiritual nursery that produced many African bishops.These priest-monks were a corporate reflection of Augustine's ideal of the whole Church: a witness to the future kingdom of God. The Rule associated with Augustine, and the monastic orders of monks and nuns that bear his name, emphasize “Living in freedom under grace.” They sought for their monastery to be a microcosm of the City of God, longing for mystical union with Him, but firmly rooted in the love and service of others, both within the community and the world.There's no mention of Augustine's Rule, in his own literary work called Retractions or Possidius's Catalogue, but there's evidence of a monastic rule attributed to Augustine a century after his death. Benedict of Nursia, who we'll get to next, knew of & was influenced by it, as were several other founders of religious orders. There are existing monastic communities today that still hearken back to the Augustinian Rule as the core of their order's life.A crucial development in Western monasticism took place in the 6th Century when Benedict of Nursia withdrew w/a group of friends to try to live the ascetic life. This prompted him to give serious thought to the way in which the ‘religious life' should be organized. Benedict arranged for groups of 12 monks to live together in small communities. Then he moved to Monte Cassino where, in 529, he set up the monastery which was to become the headquarters of the Benedictine Order. The rule of life he drew up there was a synthesis of elements in existing rules for monastic life. From this point on, the Rule of St Benedict set the standard for living the religious life until the 12th Century.The Rule of St Benedict achieved a balance between body & soul. It aimed at moderation & order. It said those who went apart from the world to live lives dedicated to God should not subject themselves to extreme asceticism. They should live in poverty & chastity, & in obedience to their abbot, but they should not feel the need to brutalize their flesh w/things like scourges & hair-shirts. They should eat moderately but not starve themselves. They should balance their time in a regular & orderly way between manual work, reading & prayer—which as their real work for God. There were to be 7 regular acts of worship in the day, known as ‘hours', attended by the entire community. In Benedict's vision, the monastic yoke was to be sweet; the burden light. The monastery was a ‘school' of the Lord's service, in which the baptized soul made progress in the Christian life.A common feature of monastic life in the West was that it was largely reserved for the upper classes. Serfs didn't have the freedom to become monks. The houses of monks & nuns were the recipients of noble & royal patronage, because a noble assumed by supporting such a holy endeavor, he was earning points w/God. Remember as well that while the first-born son stood to inherit everything, later sons were a potential cause of unrest if they decided to contest the elder brother's birthright. So these ‘spare' children of noble birth were often given to monastic communes by their families. They were then charged with carrying the religious duty for the entire family. They were a spiritual surrogate whose task was to produce a surplus of godliness the rest of the family could draw on. Rich and powerful families gave monasteries lands, for the good of the souls of their members. Rulers and soldiers were too busy to attend to their spiritual lives as they should, so ‘professionals' were drawn from their family to help by doing it on their behalf.A consequence of this was that, in the later Middle Ages, the abbot or abbess was usually a nobleman or woman. She was often chosen because of being the highest in birth in the monastery or convent and not because of any natural powers of leadership or outstanding spirituality. Chaucer's cruel 14th Century caricature of a prioress depicts a woman who would have been much more at home in a country house playing w/her dogs.This noble patronage of monastic communities was both a source of their economic success & their eventual moral & spiritual decay. Monastic houses that became rich & were filled with those who'd not chosen to enter the religious life, but had been put there by parents, usually became decadent. The Cluniac reforms of the 10th Century were a consequence of the recognition there needed to be a tightening up of things if the Benedictine order was not to be utterly lost. In the commune at Cluny and the houses which imitated it, standards were high, although here, too, there was a danger of distortion of the original Benedictine vision. Cluniac houses had extra rules and a degree of rigidity which compromised the original simplicity of the Benedictine plan.At the end of the 11th Century, several developments radically altered the range of choice for those in the West who wanted to enter a monastery. The first was a change of fashion, which encouraged married couples of mature years to decide to end their days in monastic life. A knight who'd fought his wars might make an agreement with his wife that they would go off into separate religious houses.But these mature adults weren't the only ones entering monasteries. It became fashionable for younger people to head off to a monastery where education was top-rank. Then monasteries began to specialize in various pursuits. It was a time of experimentation.Out of this period of experiment came one immensely important new order, the Cistercians. They used the Benedictine rule but had a different set of priorities. The first was a determination to protect themselves from the dangers which could come from growing too rich.You might ask, “Hold on Lance, how could people who've taken a vow of poverty get rich?”There's the rub. Yes, monks & nuns vowed poverty. But their lifestyle included diligence in work. And some brilliant minds had joined the monasteries, so they'd devised some ingenious methods for going about their work in a more productive manner, enhancing yields for crops & the invention of new products. Being deft businessmen, they worked good deals and maximized profits, which went into the monastery's account. But individual monks did not profit thereby. The funds were used to expand the monastery's resources & facilities. This led to even higher profits. Which were then used in plushing up the monastery even more. The cells got nicer, the food better, the grounds more sumptuous, the library more expansive. The monks got new habits. Outwardly, things were the same, they owned nothing personally, but in fact, their monastic world was upgraded significantly.The Cistercians responded to this by building houses in remote places & keeping them as simple, bare lodgings. They also made a place for people from the lower classes who had vocations but wanted to give themselves more completely to God. These were called “lay brothers.”The startling early success of the Cistercians was due to Bernard of Clairvaux. When he decided to enter a newly founded Cistercian monastery, he took with him a group of his friends & relatives. Because of his oratory skill & praise for the Cistercian model, recruitment proceed so rapidly many more houses had to be founded in quick succession. He was made abbot of one of them at Clairvaux, from which he draws his name. He went on to become a leading figure in the monastic world & European politics. He spoke so movingly he was useful as a diplomatic emissary, as well as a preacher.We'll hear more about him in a later episode.Other monastic experiments weren't so successful. The willingness to try new forms of the life gave a platform for some short-lived endeavors by the eccentric. There are always those who think their idea is THE way it ought to be. Either because they lack common sense or have no skill at recruiting others, they fall apart. So many pushed on the boundaries of monastic life that one writer thought it would be helpful to review the available modes in the 12th Century. His work covered all the possibilities of monastic & priestly life.The 12th Century saw the creation of new monastic orders. In Paris, the Victorines produced leading academic figures & teachers. The Premonstratensians were a group of Western monks who took on the monumental task of healing the rift between the Eastern & Western churches. The problem was, there was no corresponding monastic group IN the East.But that's getting way ahead of ourselves as we try to keep to a closer narrative timeline.In future episodes, we'll revisit the monks & monasteries of the Eastern & Western Church because it was often from their ranks the movers of church history were drawn.
This 58th Episode of CS is titled – Monk Business Part 1 and is the first of several episodes in which we'll take a look at monastic movements in Church History.I realize that may not sound terribly exciting to some. The prospect of digging into this part of the story didn't hold much interest for me either, until I realized how rich it is. You see, being a bit of a fan for the work of J. Edwin Orr, I love the history of revival. Well, it turns out each new monastic movement was often a fresh move of God's Spirit in renewal. Several were a new wineskin for God's work.The roots of monasticism are worth taking some time to unpack. Let's get started . . .Leisure time to converse about philosophy with friends was prized in the ancient world. Even if someone didn't have the intellectual chops to wax eloquent on philosophy, it was still fashionable to express a yearning for such intellectual leisure, or “otium” as it was called; but of course, they were much too busy serving their fellow man. It was the ancient version of, “I just don't have any ‘Me-time'.”Sometimes, as the famous Roman orator Cicero, the ancients did score the time for such reflection and enlightened discussion and retired to write on themes such as duty, friendship, and old age. That towering intellect and theologian, Augustine of Hippo had the same wish as a young man, and when he became a Christian in 386, left his professorship in oratory to devote his life to contemplation and writing. He retreated with a group of friends, his son and his mother, to a home on Lake Como, to discuss, then write about The Happy Life, Order and other such subjects, in which both classical philosophy and Christianity shared an interest. When he returned to his hometown in North Africa, he set up a community in which he and his friends could lead a monastic life, apart from the world, studying scripture and praying. Augustine's contemporary, Jerome; translator of the Latin Bible known as the Vulgate, felt the same tug, and he, too, made a series of attempts to live apart from the world so he could give himself to philosophical reflection.Ah; the Good Life!This sense of a divine ‘call' to a Christian version of this life of ‘philosophical retirement' had an important difference from the older, pagan version. While reading and meditation remained central, the call to do it in concert with others who also set themselves apart from the world both spiritually and physically was added to the mix.For the monks and nuns who sought such a communal life, the crucial thing was the call to a way of life which would make it possible to ‘go apart' and spend time with God in prayer and worship. Prayer was the opus dei, the ‘work of God'.As it was originally conceived, to become a monk or nun was to attempt to obey to the full the commandment to love God with all one is and has. In the Middle Ages, it was also understood to be a fulfillment of the command to love one's neighbor, for monks and nuns prayed for the world. They really believed prayer was an important task on behalf of a morally and spiritually needy world of lost souls. So among the members of a monastery, there were those who prayed, those who ruled, and those who worked. The most important to society, were those who prayed.A difference developed between the monastic movements in the East and West. In the East, the Desert Fathers set the pattern. They were hermits who adopted extreme forms of piety and asceticism. They were regarded as powerhouses of spiritual influence; authorities who could assist ordinary people with their problems. The Stylites, for example, lived on high platforms; sitting atop poles, and were an object of reverence to those who came to ask advice. Others, shut off from the world in caves or huts, sought to deny themselves any contact with the temptations of ‘the world', especially women. There was in this an obvious preoccupation with the dangers of the flesh, which was partly a legacy of the Greek dualists' conviction that matter and the physical world were unredeemably evil.I pause to make a personal, pastoral observation. So warning! – Blatant opinion follows.You can't read the NT without seeing the call to holiness in the Christian Life. But that holiness is a work of God's grace as the Holy Spirit empowers the believer to live a life pleasing to God. NT holiness is a joyous privilege, not a heavy burden and duty. NT holiness enhances life, never diminishes it.This is what Jesus modeled so well; and it's why genuine seekers after God were drawn to him. He was attractive. He didn't just do holiness, He WAS Holy. Yet no one had more life. And everywhere He went, dead things came to life!As Jesus' followers, we're supposed to be holy in the same way. But if we're honest, we'd have to admit that for the vast majority, holiness is conceived as a dry, boring, life-sucking burden of moral perfection.Real holiness isn't religious rule-keeping. It isn't a list of moral proscriptions; a set of “Don't's! Or I will smite thee with Divine Wrath and cast thy wretched soul into the eternal flames!”NT holiness is a mark of Real Life, the one Jesus rose again to give us. It's Jesus living in and thru us.The Desert Fathers and hermits who followed their example were heavily influenced by the dualist Greek worldview that all matter was evil and only the spirit was good. Holiness meant an attempt to avoid any shred of physical pleasure while retreating into the life of the mind. This thinking was the major force influencing the monastic movement as it moved both East and West. But in the East, the monks were hermits who pursued their lifestyles in isolation while in the West, they tended to pursue them in concert and communal life.As we go on we'll see that some monastic leaders realized casting holiness as a negative denial of the flesh rather than a positive embracing of the love and truth of Christ was an error they sought to reform.In the East, while monks might live in a group, they didn't seek for community. They didn't converse or work together in a common cause. They simply shared cells next to one another. And each followed his own schedule. Their only real contact was that they ate together and might pray together. This tradition continues to this day on Mount Athos in northern Greece, where monks live in solitude and prayer in cells high on the cliffs, food lowered to them in baskets.A crucial development in Western monasticism took place in the 6th C, when Benedict of Nursia withdrew with a group of friends to live an ascetic life. This prompted him to give serious thought to the way in which the ‘religious life' should be organized. Benedict arranged for groups of 12 monks to live together in small communities. Then he moved to Monte Cassino where, in 529, he set up the monastery which was to become the mother house of the Benedictine Order. The rule of life he drew up there was a synthesis of elements in existing rules for monastic life. From this point on, the Rule of St Benedict set the standard for living the religious life until the 12th C.The Rule achieved a good working balance between the body and soul. It aimed at moderation and order. It said that those who went apart from the world to live lives dedicated to God should not subject themselves to extreme asceticism. They should live in poverty and chastity, and in obedience to their abbot, but they shouldn't feel the need to brutalize their flesh with things like scourges and hair-shirts. They should eat moderately but not starve. They should balance their time in a regular and orderly way between manual work, reading and prayer—their real work for God. There were to be seven regular acts of worship in the day, known as ‘hours', attended by the entire community. In Benedict's vision, the monastic yoke was to be sweet; the burden light. The monastery was a ‘school' of the Lord's service, in which the baptized soul made progress in the Christian life.In the Anglo-Saxon period of English history, nuns formed a significant part of the population. There were several ‘double monasteries', where communities of monks and nuns lived side by side. Several female abbots, called ‘abbesses' proved to be outstanding leaders. Hilda, the Abbess of the double monastery at Whitby played a major role at the Synod of Whitby in 664.A common feature of monastic life in the West was that it was largely reserved for the upper classes. Serfs generally didn't have the freedom to become monks. The houses of monks and nuns were the recipients of noble and royal patronage, usually because the nobility thought by supporting such a holy endeavor, they promoted their spiritual case with God. Remember as well that while the first-born son stood to inherit everything, later sons were a potential cause of unrest if they decided to vie with their elder brother in gaining the birthright. So these ‘spare' children of good birth were often given to monastic communes by their families. They were then charged with carrying the religious duty for the entire family. They were a kind of “spiritual surrogate” whose task was to produce a surplus of godliness the rest of the family could draw from. Rich and powerful families gave monasteries, lands and estates, for the good of the souls of their members. Rulers and soldiers were too busy to attend to their spiritual lives, so ‘professionals' drawn from their own families could help them by doing it on their behalf.A consequence of this was that, in the late Middle Ages, the abbot or abbess was usually a nobleman or woman. She/He was often chosen because of being the highest in birth in the monastery or convent, and not because of any natural powers of leadership or outstanding spirituality. Chaucer's cruel 14th C caricature of a prioress depicts a woman who would have been much more at home in a country house playing with her pet dogs.In these features of noble patronage of the religious life lay not only the stamp of society's approval, but also the potential for decay. Monastic houses that became rich and were filled with those who'd not chosen to enter the religious life, but had been put there in childhood, often became decadent. The Cluniac reforms of the 10th C were a consequence of the recognition that there would need to be a tightening of the ship if the Benedictine order was not to be lost altogether. In the commune at Cluny and the houses which imitated it, standards were high, although here, too, there was a danger of distortion of the original Benedictine vision. Cluniac houses had extra rules and a degree of rigidity which compromised the original simplicity of Benedictine life.At the end of the 11th C, several developments radically altered the range of choice for those in the West who wanted to enter a monastery. The first was a change of fashion, which encouraged married couples of mature years to decide to end their days as a monk or nun. A knight who'd fought his wars might make an agreement with his wife that they would go off into separate religious houses. Adult entry of this sort was by those who really did want to be there, and it had the potential to alter the balance in favor of serious commitment.But these mature adults weren't the only one's entering monasteries. It became fashionable for younger people to head off to a monastery where education had become top-rank. Then monasteries began to specialize in various pursuits. It was a time of experimentation.Out of this period of experiment came one immensely important new order, the Cistercians. They used the Benedictine rule, but had a different set of priorities. The first was a determination to protect themselves from the dangers which could come from growing too rich.“Too rich?” you might ask. “How's that possible if they'd taken a vow of poverty?”Ah à There's the rub.Yes; monks and nuns vowed poverty, but their lifestyle included diligence in work. And some brilliant minds had joined the monasteries, so they'd devised ingenious methods for going about their work in a more productive manner, enhancing yields of crops and products. Being deft businessmen, they worked good deals and maximized profits, which went in to the monastery's account. But individual monks, of course, didn't profit thereby. The funds were used to expand the monastery's resources and facilities. This led to even higher profits. Which were then used in plushing up the monastery itself. The monks' cells got nicer, the food better, the grounds more sumptuous, the library more expansive. The monks got new outfits. Outwardly things technically were the same, they owned nothing personally, but in fact, their monastic world was upgraded significantly.The Cistercians responded to this by building houses in remote places and keeping them as simple, bare lodgings. They also made a place for people from the lower social classes who had vocations but wanted to give themselves more completely to God for a period of time. These were called “lay brothers.”The rather startling early success of the Cistercians was due to Bernard of Clairvaux. When he decided to enter a newly founded Cistercian monastery, he took with him a group of friends and relatives. Because of his oratory skill and praise for the Cistercian model, recruitment proceed so rapidly many more houses had to be founded in quick succession. He was made abbot of one of them at Clairvaux, from which he draws his name. He went on to become a leading figure in the monastic world and in politics. He spoke so well and so movingly that he was useful as a diplomatic emissary, as well as a preacher. You may remember he was one of the premier reasons the Crusades were able to rally so many to their campaign.Other monastic experiments weren't so successful. The willingness to try new forms of the monastic life gave a platform for some short-lived endeavors by the eccentric. There are always those who think their idea is THE way it ought to be done. Either because they lack common sense or have no skill at recruiting, they fall apart. So many were engaged in pushing forward the boundaries of monastic life one writer thought it would be helpful to review the available modes in the 12th C. His work covered all the possibilities, from the Benedictines and reformed Benedictines, to priests who didn't live enclosed lives, but who were allowed to work in the world—and the various sorts of hermits.The only real rival to the Rule of St Benedict was the ‘Rule' of Augustine, which was adopted by church leaders. These differed from monks, in that they were priests who could be active in the wider social community, for example, by serving in a parish church. They weren't living under a monastic rule which confined a monk for life to the house in which he was consecrated. Priests serving in a cathedral, for example, were encouraged to live in a city but under a code like the Augustinian rule which was well-adapted to their needs.The 12th C saw the creation of new monastic orders. In Paris, the Victorines produced leading academic figures and teachers. The Premonstratensians were a group of Latin monks who took on the massive task of healing the rift between the Eastern and Western churches. The problem was, there was no corresponding monastic group in the East.We'll pick it up at this point next time.Monasticism is an important part of Church History because of the huge impact it had shaping the faith of common Christians throughout the Middle Ages and on into the Renaissance. Some of the monastic leaders are the great pillars of the faith. We can't really understand them without knowing a little about the world they lived in.As we end this episode, I want to again say thanks to all those listeners and subscribers who've “liked” and left comments on the CS FB page.I'd also like to say how appreciative I am to those who've gone to the iTunes subscription page for CS and left a positive review. We've developed a large listener base.Any donation to CS is appreciated.Finally, for interested subscribers, I want to invite you to take a listen to the sermon podcast for the church I serve; Calvary Chapel Oxnard. I teach expositionally through the Bible. You can subscribe via iTunes, just do a search for Calvary Chapel Oxnard podcast, or link to the calvaryoxnard.org website.