Podcasts about in spirit

I think you'd agree, this world is full of chaos and disorder! But as pastor James Kaddis said a moment ago, the Lord can use us to bring order into the situation. And today on Light on the Hill we'll see how. We're learning how to be a peacemaker, as we return to our series, “In Spirit and in Truth.” To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1459/29

Imagine if our President appointed you to be an Ambassador of the United States in a foreign land. I think you'd agree, that's quite an honor. But you know what's even better than that, and even a greater privilege? God Almighty has selected you to be His Personal Ambassador of the Kingdom of God. We'll spend some time talking about that on Light on the Hill, as we continue our series, In Spirit and in Truth. Pastor James Kaddis has framed his message around Romans chapter one. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1459/29

How should we understand the words, “in him all things were created” in Col 1.16? Although commonly taken to mean Christ created the universe, this view has contextual, structural, and exegetical problems. In what follows I’ll name six problems with old-creation readings before laying out why a new creation approach makes sense. I presented this talk at the 2025 Unitarian Christian Alliance (UCA) conference in Uxbridge, England. Scroll down to see the full-length paper. For those listening to the audio, here’s a quick reference to Colossians 1.15-20 Strophe 1 (Col 1.15-18a) 15a      who is (the) image of the invisible God, 15b      firstborn of all creation 16a      for in him were created all things 16b                  in the heavens and upon the earth, 16c                  the visible and the invisible, 16d                  whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities 16e      all things have been created through him and for him 17a      and he is before all things 17b      and all things hold together in him 18a      and he is the head of the body of the Church,[12] Strophe 2 (Col 1.18b-20) 18b      who is (the) beginning, 18c      firstborn from the dead, 18d                  in order that he may be first in all things, 19        for in him was pleased all the fulness to dwell 20a      and through him to reconcile all things in him, 20b      making peace through the blood of his cross 20c                  whether the things upon the earth 20d                  or the things in the heavens Here’s Randy Leedy’s New Testament Diagram Here are the slides in the original PowerPoint format Download [13.82 MB] Here are the slides converted to PDF Loading... Taking too long? Reload document | Open in new tab Download [3.16 MB] To read the paper, simply scroll down or read it on Academia.edu.   Listen on Spotify   Listen on Apple Podcasts —— Links —— Check out these other papers by Sean Finnegan Support Restitutio by donating here Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Finnegan on X @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play it out on the air Who is Sean Finnegan?  Read his bio here Get Finnegan’s book, Kingdom Journey to learn about God’s kingdom coming on earth as well as the story of how Christianity lost this pearl of great price. Get the transcript of this episode Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Below is the paper presented on July 25, 2025 in Uxbridge, England at the 2nd annual UCA UK Conference. Access this paper on Academia.edu to get the pdf. Full text is below, including bibliography and end notes. Colossians 1.16: Old Creation or New Creation? by Sean P. Finnegan Abstract  How should we understand the words, “in him all things were created” in Col 1.16? Although commonly taken to mean Christ created the universe, this view has contextual, structural, and exegetical problems. In what follows, I will explain the difficulties with the various old creation readings of Col 1.16 along with five reasons for a new creation approach. Then I'll provide a new creation reading of Col 1.16 before summarizing my findings in the conclusion. Introduction  Colossians 1.15-20 is a fascinating text of great importance for Christology. Commonly understood to be a hymn, it is fascinating in its cosmic scope and elevated Christology. Although many commentators interpret Paul[1] to say that Christ created the universe in his pre-existent state in Col 1.16, not all scholars see it that way. For example, Edward Schillebeeckx writes, “There is no mention in this text of pre-existence in the Trinitarian sense.”[2] Rather he sees “an eschatological pre-existence, characteristic of wisdom and apocalyptic.”[3] G. B. Caird agreed that Paul's focus in Col. 1.15-20 was not pre-existence (contra Lightfoot), rather, “The main thread of Paul's thought, then, is the manhood of Christ.”[4] In other words, “All that has been said in vv. 15-18 can be said of the historical Jesus.”[5] James Dunn also denied that Paul saw Christ as God's agent in creation in Col 1.15-20, claiming that such an interpretation was “to read imaginative metaphor in a pedantically literal way.”[6] James McGrath argued that “Jesus is the one through whom God's new creation takes place.” [7] Andrew Perriman likewise noted, “There is no reference to the creation of heaven and earth, light and darkness, sea and dry land, lights in the heavens, vegetation, or living creatures,”[8] also preferring a new creation approach.[9] To understand why such a broad range of scholars diverge from the old creation interpretation of Col 1.16, we will examine several contextual, structural, and exegetical problems. While explaining these, I'll also put forward four reasons to interpret Col 1.16 as new creation. Then I'll provide a fifth before giving a new creation reading of Col 1.15-20. But before going any further, let's familiarize ourselves with the text and structure. The Form of Col 1.15-20  To get our bearings, let me begin by providing a translation,[10] carefully structured to show the two strophes.[11] Strophe 1 (Col 1.15-18a) 15a      who is (the) image of the invisible God, 15b      firstborn of all creation 16a      for in him were created all things 16b                  in the heavens and upon the earth, 16c                  the visible and the invisible, 16d                  whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities 16e      all things have been created through him and for him 17a      and he is before all things 17b      and all things hold together in him 18a      and he is the head of the body of the Church,[12] Strophe 2 (Col 1.18b-20) 18b      who is (the) beginning, 18c      firstborn from the dead, 18d                  in order that he may be first in all things, 19        for in him was pleased all the fulness to dwell 20a      and through him to reconcile all things in him, 20b      making peace through the blood of his cross 20c                  whether the things upon the earth 20d                  or the things in the heavens Here I've followed the two-strophe structure (1.15-18a and 18b-20) noted more than a century ago by the classical philologist Eduard Norden[13] and repeated by James Robinson,[14] Edward Lohse,[15] Edward Schweizer,[16] James Dunn,[17] Ben Witherington III,[18] and William Lane[19] among others. By lining up the parallel lines of the two strophes, we can clearly see the poetic form. Strophe 1 15a who is (the) image… 15b firstborn of all creation 16a for in him were created all things… 16e  all things have been created through him… Strophe 2 18b who is (the) beginning, 18c firstborn from the dead … 19 for in him was pleased all… 20a and through him to reconcile all things in him… Such striking repeated language between the two strophes means that we should be careful to maintain the parallels between them and not take a grammatical or exegetical position on a word or phrase that would disconnect it from the parallel line in the other strophe. Some scholars, including F. F. Bruce,[20] Michael Bird,[21] David Pao,[22] among others proposed vv. 17-18a as an independent transitional link between the two strophes. Lohse explained the motivation for this unlikely innovation as follows. Above all, it is curious that at the end of the first, cosmologically oriented strophe, Christ is suddenly referred to as the “head of the body, the church” (1:18a κεφαλή τοῦ σώματος τῆς ἐκκλησίας). Considering its content, this statement would have to be connected with the second strophe which is characterized by soteriological statements. The structure of the hymn, however, places it in the first strophe.[23] For interpreters who prefer to think of the first strophe as cosmogony and the second as soteriology, a line about Christ's headship over the church doesn't fit very well. They restructure the form based on their interpretation of the content. Such a policy reverses the order of operations. One should determine the form and then interpret the content in light of structure. Lohse was right to reject the addition of a new transitional bridge between the two strophes. He called it “out of the question” since vv. 17-18a underscore “all things” and “serve as a summary that brings the first strophe to a conclusion.”[24] Now that we've oriented ourselves to some degree, let's consider old creation readings of Col 1.16 and the problems that arise when reading it that way. Old Creation Readings  Within the old creation paradigm for Col 1.16 we can discern three groups: those who see (A) Christ as the agent by whom God created, (B) Wisdom as the agent, and (C) Christ as the purpose of creation. Although space won't allow me to interact with each of these in detail, I will offer a brief critique of these three approaches. As a reminder, here is our text in both Greek and English. Colossians 1.16 16a      ὅτι ἐν αὐτῷ ἐκτίσθη τὰ πάντα 16b                  ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, 16c                  τὰ ὁρατὰ καὶ τὰ ἀόρατα, 16d                  εἴτε θρόνοι εἴτε κυριότητες εἴτε ἀρχαὶ εἴτε ἐξουσίαι· 16e      τὰ πάντα δι' αὐτοῦ καὶ εἰς αὐτὸν ἔκτισται· 16a      for in him were created all things 16b                  in the heavens and upon the earth, 16c                  the visible and the invisible, 16d                  whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities 16e      all things have been created through him and for him 1. Christ as the Agent of Creation Scot McKnight is representative in his claim that “The emphasis of the first stanza is Christ as the agent of creation … and the second is Christ as the agent of redemption.”[25] This view sees the phrase “in him were created all things” as Christ creating the universe in the beginning. However, this position has six problems with it. Firstly, the context of the poem—both before (vv. 13-14) and after (vv. 21-22)—is clearly soteriological not cosmogonical.[26] By inserting vv. 15-20 into the text after vv. 13-14, Paul connected the two together.[27] V. 15 begins with ὅς ἐστιν (who is), which makes it grammatically dependent on vv. 13-14. “It is widely accepted,” wrote Dunn, “that this passage is a pre-Pauline hymn interpolated and interpreted to greater or less extent by Paul.”[28] By placing the poem into a redemptive frame, Paul indicated how he interpreted it. The fact that God “rescued us from the authority of darkness and transferred (us) into the kingdom of his beloved son” is the controlling context (v. 13).[29] As I will show below, I believe vv. 15-20 are ecclesiology not protology, since ecclesiology naturally flows from soteriology. Rather than remaining in the old domain of darkness, vulnerable to malevolent spiritual powers of this age, Colossian Christians are transferred into the new domain of Christ. The context makes it more natural to interpret the creation language of vv. 15-16 in light of Christ's redemptive work—as references to new creation rather than old creation. Doing so retains the contextual frame rather than jumping back to the beginning of time. A second problem arises when we consider the phrase “image of the invisible God” in v. 15. Although some see a Stoic or Wisdom reference here, I agree with F. F. Bruce who said, “No reader conversant with the OT scriptures, on reading these words of Paul, could fail to be reminded of the statement in Gen. 1:26f., that man was created by God ‘in his own image.'”[30] Immediately after making humanity in his own image, God blessed us with dominion over the earth. Philo also connected humanity's image of God with “the rulership over the earthly realms.”[31] But if the Christ of v. 15 is the pre-existent son prior to his incarnation, as the old creation model posits, “How can he be the ‘image of God,'” asked Eduard Schweizer, since “the one who is thus described here is not the earthly Jesus?”[32] It is precisely by virtue of his humanity that Jesus is the image of God not his pre-existence.[33] Thus, image-of-God language points us to the creation of a new humanity. A third problem is that “firstborn of all creation” prima facia implies that Christ is a member of creation (a partitive genitive). This is how Paul thought about Christ as firstborn in Rom 8.29 when he called Christ “firstborn among many brothers and sisters.” Clearly he saw Christ as a member of the “ἀδελφοῖς” (brothers and sisters). Furthermore, “πρωτότοκος πάσης κτίσεως” (firstborn of all creation) in v. 15 parallels “πρωτότοκος ἐκ τῶν νεκρῶν” (firstborn from the dead) v. 18. Although the former (v. 15) can be taken as a genitive of subordination (firstborn over creation) or as a partitive genitive (firstborn of creation), the latter (v. 18) is unambiguously partitive. Because v. 18 includes the word ἐκ (from/out of), instead of a multivalent genitive, it must mean that Jesus was himself a member of the dead prior to his resurrection. Likewise, he was the firstborn member of creation. To take v. 15 as a genitive of subordination and v. 18 in a partitive sense allows theology to drive exegesis over against the clear structural link between v. 15b and v. 18c. In fact, as the BDAG noted, Christ is “the firstborn of a new humanity.”[34] He is chronologically born first and, by virtue of that, also preeminent.[35] Fourthly, the phrase, “ἐν αὐτῷ” (in him), implies soteriology not protology as it does throughout the Pauline corpus. The prepositional phrases “in Christ,” “in the Lord,” “in him,” and others that are similar occur more than a hundred times in Paul's epistles. McKnight elucidated the sense nicely: “This expression, then, is the inaugurated eschatological reality into which the Christian has been placed, and it also evokes the new-creation realities that a person discovers.”[36] Creation in Christ is not likely to refer to Genesis creation. In fact, apart from Col 1.16, there is no text within Paul or the rest of the Bible that speaks of the origin of the universe as something created “in Christ.”[37] Sadly translators routinely obscure this fact by translating “ἐν αὐτῷ” as “by him.”[38] Amazingly, the NASB and ESV render “ἐν αὐτῷ” as “in him” in every other usage apart from Col 1.16![39] For the sake of consistency, it makes better sense to render “ἐν αὐτῷ” as “in him” and let the reader decide how to interpret it. Fifthly, the line, “and he is the head of the body, the Church” (v. 18a) clearly roots the first strophe in redemptive history not creation. Our English translations follow Robert Estienne's verse divisions, which confusingly combine the last line of the first strophe (v. 18a) and the first line of the second (v. 18b), obscuring the native poetic structure. As I made the case above, the structure of the text breaks into two strophes with v. 18a included in the first one. As I mentioned earlier, vv. 15-20 are a pre-existing poem that Paul has modified and incorporated into the text of Colossians. Ralph Martin pointed out that the poem contains “no less than five hapax legomena” and “about ten non-Pauline expressions.”[40] Additionally, there appear to be awkward additions that disrupt the symmetry. These additions are the most explicitly Christian material. It is likely that the original said, “and he is the head of the body” to which Paul appended “the church.” Edward Schillebeeckx commented on this. In Hellenistic terms this must primarily mean that he gives life and existence to the cosmos. Here, however, Colossians drastically corrects the ideas … The correction made by Colossians is to understand ‘body' as a reference to the church, and not the cosmos. This alters the whole perspective of the cultural and religious setting … The cosmic background is reinterpreted in terms of salvation history and ecclesiology. In fact Christ is already exercising his lordship over the world now … however, he is doing this only as the head of the church, his body, to which he gives life and strength. Thus Colossians claims that the church alone, rather than the cosmos, is the body of Christ.[41] If this is true, it shows Paul's careful concern to disallow a strictly old creation or protological reading of the first strophe. For by inserting “of the church,” he has limited the context of the first strophe to the Christ event. “The addition of ‘the church,'” wrote Dunn, “indicates that for Paul at any rate the two strophes were not dealing with two clearly distinct subjects (cosmology and soteriology).”[42] Karl-Joseph Kuschel wrote, “The answer would seem to be he wanted to ‘disturb' a possible cosmological-protological fancy in the confession of Christ … to prevent Christ from becoming a purely mythical heavenly being.”[43] Thus Paul's addition shows us he interpreted the creation of v16 as new creation. Lastly, theological concerns arise when taking Col 1.16 as old creation. The most obvious is that given the partitive genitive of v. 15, we are left affirming the so-called Arian position that God created Christ as the firstborn who, in turn, created everything else. Another thorn in the side of this view is God's insistence elsewhere to be the solo creator (Isa 44.24; cf. 45.18). On the strength of this fact, modalism comes forward to save the day while leaving new problems in its wake. However, recognizing Col 1.15-20 as new creation avoids such theological conundrums. 2. Wisdom as the Agent of Creation Dustin Smith noted, “The christological hymn contains no less than nine characteristics of the wisdom of God (e.g., “image,” “firstborn,” agent of creation, preceding all things, holding all things together) that are reapplied to the figure of Jesus.”[44] Some suggest that Col 1.15-20 is actually a hymn to Wisdom that Paul Christianized.[45] The idea is that God created the universe through his divine Wisdom, which is now embodied or incarnate in Christ. Dunn explained it as follows. If then Christ is what God's power/wisdom came to be recognized as, of Christ it can be said what was said first of wisdom—that ‘in him (the divine wisdom now embodied in Christ) were created all things.' In other words the language may be used here to indicate the continuity between God's creative power and Christ without the implication being intended that Christ himself was active in creation.[46] Before pointing out some problems, I must admit much of this perspective is quite noncontroversial. That Jewish literature identified Wisdom as God's creative agent, that there are linguistic parallels between Col 1.15-20 and Wisdom, and that the historical Jesus uniquely embodied Wisdom to an unprecedented degree are not up for debate. Did Paul expect his readers to pick up on the linguistic parallels? Afterall, he could have just said “in her were created all things” in v. 16, clearly making the connection with the grammatically feminine σοφία (Wisdom). Better yet, he could have said, “in Wisdom were created all things.” Even if the poem was originally to Wisdom, Paul has thoroughly Christianized it, applying to Christ what had been said of Wisdom. However, the most significant defeater for this view is that applying Wisdom vocabulary to Christ only works one way. Wisdom has found her home in Christ. This doesn't mean we can attribute to Christ what Wisdom did before she indwelt him any more than we can attribute to the living descendants of Nazis the horrific deeds of their ancestors. Perriman's critique is correct: “The point is not that the act of creation was Christlike, rather the reverse: recent events have been creation-like. The death and resurrection of Jesus are represented as the profoundly creative event in which the wisdom of God is again dynamically engaged, by which a new world order has come about.”[47] Once again a new creation approach makes better sense of the text. 3. Christ as the Purpose of Creation Another approach is to take ἐν αὐτῷ (in him) in a telic sense. Martha King, a linguist with SIL, said the phrase can mean “in association with Christ everything was created” or “in connection with Christ all things were created.”[48] Lexicographer, Joseph Thayer, sharpened the sense with the translation, “[I]n him resides the cause why all things were originally created.”[49] William MacDonald's translation brought this out even more with the phrase, “because for him everything … was created.”[50] The idea is that God's act of creation in the beginning was with Christ in view. As Eric Chang noted, “Christ is the reason God created all things.”[51] G. B. Caird said, “He is the embodiment of that purpose of God which underlies the whole creation.”[52] The idea is one of predestination not agency.[53] Christ was the goal for which God created all things. A weakness of this view is that purpose is better expressed using εἰς or δία with an accusative than ἐν. Secondly, the parallel line in the second strophe (v. 19) employs “ἐν αὐτῷ” in a clearly locative sense: “in him all the fullness was pleased to dwell.” So even though “ἐν αὐτῷ” could imply purpose, in this context it much more likely refers to location. Lastly, Paul mentioned the sense of purpose at the end of v. 16 with “εἰς αὐτὸν ἔκτισται” (for him has been created), so it would be repetitive to take “ἐν αὐτῷ” that way as well. To sum up, the three positions that see Col 1.16 as a reference to old creation all have significant problems. With these in mind, let us turn our attention to consider a fourth possibility: that Paul has in mind new creation. Reasons for a New Creation Reading I've already provided four reasons why Col 1.15-20 refers to new creation: (1) calling Christ the image of God points to the new humanity begun in Christ as the last Adam;[54] (2) since the firstborn of the old creation was Adam (or, perhaps, Seth), Jesus must be the firstborn of the new creation; (3) saying Jesus is the head of the church, limits the focus for the first strophe to the time following the Christ event; (4) the context of the poem, both before (vv. 13-14) and after (vv. 21-22) is soteriological, making an old creation paradigm awkward, while a new creation view fits perfectly. The Catholic priest and professor, Franz Zeilinger, summarized the situation nicely: “Christ is (through his resurrection from the realm of death) Lord over the possession granted to him, of which he is the ἀρχή (beginning) and archetype, … and head and beginning of the eschatological new creation!”[55] Additionally, a new creation paradigm fits best with Paul's elaboration of what visible and invisible things in heaven and on earth he has in mind. Once again, here's our text. 16a      for in him were created all things 16b                  in the heavens and upon the earth, 16c                  the visible and the invisible, 16d                  whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities 16e      all things have been created through him and for him By specifying thrones, dominions, rulers, and authorities, we discern Paul's train of thought. Form critics are quick to point out that v. 16d is Paul's addition to the poem. Without it, the reader may have thought of sky, land, and animals—old creation. However, with v. 16d present, we direct our attention to political realities not God's creative power or engineering genius. Martha King noted the two possible meanings for εἴτε: (1) specifying the “invisible things” or (2) giving examples of “all things.” Taking the second view, we read “in him were created all things, including thrones, dominions, rulers, and authorities.”[56] Randy Leedy also presented this position in his sentence diagrams, identifying v. 16d as equivalent to v. 16c and v. 16b, all of which modify τὰ πάντα (all things) at the end of v. 16a. (See Appendix for Leedy's diagram.) Perriman pressed home the point when he wrote: The fact is that any interpretation that takes verse 16 to be a reference to the original creation has to account for the narrow range of created things explicitly listed. … The Colossians verse mentions only the creation of political entities—thrones, lordships, rulers and authorities, visible and invisible—either in the already existing heaven or on the already existing and, presumably, populated earth. What this speaks of is a new governmental order consisting of both invisible-heavenly and visibly-earthly entities.”[57] Understanding v. 16d as equivalent to “all things” in v. 16a nicely coheres with a new-creation paradigm. However, taken the other way—as an elaboration of only the invisible created realities—v. 16d introduces an asymmetrical and clumsy appendix. A New Creation Reading of Col 1.16 Now that we've considered some problems with old creation views and some reasons to read Col 1.16 from a new creation perspective, let's consider how a new creation reading works. New creation is all about the new breaking into the old, the future into the present. G. F. Wessels said, “Paul made clear that there is a present realized aspect of salvation, as well as a future, still outstanding aspect, which will only be realized at the eschaton.”[58] New creation, likewise, has future and present realities. Exiting Old Creation Before becoming part of the new creation, one must exit the old creation. “Our old humanity was co-crucified“ (Rom 6.6). “With Christ you died to the elemental principles of the world” (Col 2.20). “As many as were baptized into Christ Jesus, were baptized into his death” (Rom 6.3). We were “co-buried with him through baptism into the death … having been united with the likeness of his death” (Rom 6.4-5). Our death with him through baptism kills our allegiance and submission to the old powers and the old way of life “in which you formerly walked according to the zeitgeist of this world, according to the rule of the authority of the air, the spirit which now works in the children of disobedience” (Eph 2.2). Entering New Creation As death is the only way out of the old creation, so resurrection is the only way into the new creation. “You have been co-raised with Christ” (Col 3.1). God “co-made-alive us together with him” (Col 2.13).[59] By virtue of our union with Christ, we ourselves are already “co-raised and co-seated us in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus” (Eph 2.6). The result of this is that “we also may walk in newness of life” (Rom 6.4). For those who are “in Christ, (there is) a new creation; the old has passed away, behold (the) new has come into existence” (2 Cor 5.17). “They have been ‘transported,'” wrote Schillebeeckx, “they already dwell above in Christ's heavenly sphere of influence (Col 1.13)—the soma Christou … that is the church!”[60] Community For the people of God, “neither circumcision is anything nor uncircumcision but a new creation” is what matters (Gal 6.15). Those who “are clothed with the new” are “being renewed in knowledge according to the image of him who created, where there is no Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, (or) free, but Christ (is) all and in all” (Col 3.10-11). Through Christ God has nullified the law “in order that he might create the two into one new humanity in him” (Eph 2.14-15). Thus, within new creation, ethnic identity still exists, but it is relativized, our identity in Christ taking priority ahead of other affiliations and duties. Lifestyle When the lost become saved through faith, they become his creation (ποίημα), “created in Christ Jesus for good works” (Eph 2.10). This means we are to “lay aside the former way of life, the old humanity corrupted according to deceitful desires” and instead be clothed with “the new humanity created according to God in righteousness and holiness of the truth” (Eph 4.22-24). Rather than lying to one another, we must “strip off the old humanity with its way of acting” and “be clothed with the new (humanity), renewed in knowledge according to the image of the one who created it” (Col 3.9-10). “The ones who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the passions and the lusts” and instead “walk by the spirit” (Gal 5.24-25). Ultimately, All Creation Although new creation is currently limited to those who voluntarily recognize Jesus as Lord, all “creation is waiting with eager expectation for the unveiling of the children of God” (Rom 8.19). Because of the Christ event, the created order eagerly awaits the day when it will escape “the enslavement of corruption” and gain “the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (v. 21). Like a bone out of joint, creation does not function properly. Once Christ sets it right, it will return to its proper order and operation under humanity's wise and capable rulership in the eschaton. Eschatology God predetermined that those who believe will be “conformed to the image of his son, that he be firstborn among many brothers and sisters” (Rom 8.29). Thus, the resurrected Christ is the prototype, “the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Cor 15.20). Whereas “in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive” (v. 22). We await Christ's return to “transform the body of our humble station (that it be) shaped to his glorious body according to the energy which makes him able to also to subject all things to himself.” (Phil 3.21). This is the end goal of new creation: resurrected subjects of God's kingdom joyfully living in a renewed world without mourning, crying, and pain forevermore (Isa 65.17-25; Rev 21-22). The Powers Taking Col 1.16 as a new creation text adds key information about the present governing powers to this richly textured picture. In Christ God created thrones, dominions, rulers, and authorities. He made these through Christ and for Christ with the result that Christ himself is before all things, and in Christ all things hold together (Col 1.17). He is the head of the body, the Church (Col 1.18). We find very similar language repeated in Ephesians in the context of Christ's exaltation.[61] Ephesians 1.20-23 20 Which [power] he energized in Christ having raised him from the dead and seated (him) on his right (hand) in the heavenlies 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every name named, not only in this age but also in the one to come; 22 and he subjected all things under his feet and gave him (as) head over all things in the Church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of the one who fills all things in all. The parallels are striking. Both speak of Christ's resurrection, Christ's exalted position of authority over all the powers, Christ's role as head of the church, and both mention the fullness. It's easy to miss the connection between these two passages since most think of Eph 1.20-22 as ascension theology and Col 1.15-20 as creation theology. But, if we adjust our thinking to regard Col 1.16 as new creation, we see how the two fit together. In Ephesians we see Christ's ascension to God's right hand as the reason for a cosmic reordering of authorities with the result that all rule, authority, power, and dominion are subjected to him. (Though we may be accustomed to reading these powers in Eph 1.21 as only malevolent owing to Eph 2.2 and 6.12, the list here must be mixed, since only benevolent powers will survive the final judgement and continue into the age to come.) Instead of exaltation, in Colossians Paul employed the language of creation to describe Christ's relation to the powers. Perhaps lesser terms like reassign, reorder, or establish were just too small to adequately express the magnitude of how the Christ event has changed the world—both in heaven and on earth. The only term big enough to convey the new situation was “creation”—the very same word he routinely used elsewhere with the meaning of new creation.[62] We can gain more insight by considering what the powers of Eph 1.21 and Col 1.16 mean. McKnight saw them “as earthly, systemic manifestations of (perhaps fallen) angelic powers—hence, the systemic worldly, sociopolitical manifestations of cosmic/angelic rebellion against God.”[63] I partially agree with McKnight here. He's right to see the powers as both heavenly and earthly, or better, as the heavenly component of the earthly sociopolitical realities, but he has not made room for the new authority structures created in Christ. John Schoenheit helpfully explained it this way: Not only did Jesus create his Church out of Jew and Gentile, he had to create the structure and positions that would allow it to function, both in the spiritual world (positions for the angels that would minister to the Church—see Rev. 1:1, “his angel”) and in the physical world (positions and ministries here on earth—see Rom. 12:4-8; Eph. 4:7-11).[64] We must never forget that Paul has an apocalyptic worldview—a perspective that seeks to unveil the heavenly reality behind the earthly. He believed in powers of darkness and powers of light. In Christ were created thrones, dominions, rulers, and authorities (Col 1.16). He is “the head of all rule and authority” (Col 2.10). These new creation realities make progress against the old powers that still hold sway in the world outside the Church. Although the old powers are still at work, those who are in Christ enjoy his protection. With respect to the Church, he has already “disarmed the rulers and authorities” (Col 2.15). We can don “the armor of God that we be able to stand against the methods of the devil” (Eph 6.11) and “subduing everything, to stand” (v. 13). We find glimpses of this heavenly reality scattered in other places in the Bible. Peter mentioned how Christ “is on the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, angels and authorities and power having been subjected to him” (1 Pet 3.22). In John's Revelation, he addressed each of the seven letters to the angels of their respective churches.[65] Although it's hard for us to get details on precisely what happened at Christ's ascension, something major occurred, not just on earth, but also in the spiritual realm. Jesus's last recorded words in Matthew are: “all authority in heaven and upon earth was given to me” (Mat 28.18-20). Presumably such a statement implies that prior to his resurrection Jesus did not have all authority in heaven and earth. It didn't exist until it was created. Similarly, because of his death, resurrection, and ascension, Christ has “become so much better than the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to them” (Heb 1.4). Once again, the text implies that Christ was not already superior to the angels, but “after making purification of the sins, he sat on the right hand of the majesty on high” at which time he became preeminent (Heb 1.3). Perhaps this also explains something about why Christ “proclaimed to the spirits in prison” (1 Pet 3.19). Another possibility is that Christ's ascension (Rev 12.5) triggered a war in heaven (v. 7) with the result that the dragon and his angels suffered defeat (v. 8) and were thrown out of heaven down to the earth (v. 9). Sadly, for most of the history of the church we have missed this Jewish apocalyptic approach that was obvious to Paul, limiting salvation to individual sins and improved morality.[66] Only in the twentieth century did interpreters begin to see the cosmic aspect of new creation. Margaret Thrall wrote the following. The Christ-event is the turning-point of the whole world … This Christ ‘in whom' the believer lives is the last Adam, the inaugurator of the new eschatological humanity. … Paul is saying that if anyone exists ‘in Christ', that person is a newly-created being. … In principle, through the Christ-event and in the person of Christ, the new world and the new age are already objective realities.[67] New creation is, in the words of J. Louis Martyn “categorically cosmic and emphatically apocalyptic.”[68] In fact, “The advent of the Son and of his Spirit is thus the cosmic apocalyptic event.”[69] In Christ is the beginning of a whole new creation, an intersecting community of angelic and human beings spanning heaven and earth. The interlocking of earthly (visible) and heavenly (invisible) authority structures points to Paul's apocalyptic holism. The Church was not on her own to face the ravages of Rome's mad love affair with violence and power. In Christ, people were no longer susceptible to the whims of the gods that have wreaked so much havoc from time immemorial.[70] No, the Church is Christ's body under his direct supervision and protection. As a result, the Church is the eschatological cosmic community. It is not merely a social club; it has prophetic and cosmic dimensions. Prophetically, the Church points to the eschaton when all of humanity will behave then how the Church already strives to live now—by the spirit instead of the flesh (Gal 5.16-25). Cosmically, the Church is not confined to the earth. There is a heavenly dimension with authority structures instantiated under Christ to partner with the earthly assemblies. God's “plan for the fulness of the times” is “to head up all thing in the Christ, the things upon the heavens and the things upon the earth in him” (Eph 1.10). Although this is his eschatological vision, Zeilinger pointed out that it is already happening. [T]he eschatological world given in Christ is realized within the still-existing earthly creation through the inclusion of the human being in Christ, the exalted one, by means of the proclamation of salvation and baptism. The eschaton spreads throughout the world in the kerygma and becomes reality, in that the human being, through baptism, becomes part of Christ—that is, in unity with him, dies to the claim of the στοιχεῖα τοῦ κόσμου (2.20) and is raised with him to receive his eschatological life. The people thus incorporated into the exalted Christ thereby form, in him and with him, the new creation of the eschaton within the old! The body of Christ is thus recognizable as the expanding Church. In it, heavenly and earthly space form, in a certain sense, a unity.[71] The Church is a counter society, and embassy of the future kingdom shining the light of the age to come into the present in the power of the spirit with the protection of Christ and his heavenly powers over against the powers of darkness, who/which are still quite active—especially in the political realities of our present evil age (Gal 1.4). We bend the knee to the cosmic Christ now in anticipation of the day when “every knee may bend: heavenly and earthly and subterranean” (Phil 2.10) and “every tongue may confess that Jesus Christ (is) Lord” (v. 11). Christ's destiny is to fulfil the original Adamic mandate to multiply, fill, and have dominion over the earth (Gen 1.28). He has already received all authority in heaven and earth (Mat 28.18). God has given him “dominion over the works of your hands and put all things under his feet” as the quintessential man (Ps 8.6). Even so, “Now we do not yet see all things subjected to him” (Heb 2.8), but when he comes “he will reign into the ages of the ages” (Rev 11.15). Until then, he calls the Church to recognize his preeminence and give him total allegiance both in word and deed. Conclusion We began by establishing that the structure of the poetic unit in Col 1.15-20 breaks into two strophes (15-18a and 18b-20). We noted that Paul likely incorporated pre-existing material into Colossians, editing it as he saw fit. Then we considered the problems with the three old creation readings: (A) Christ as the agent of creation, (B) Wisdom as the agent of creation, and (C) Christ as the purpose of creation. In the course of critiquing (A), which is by far most popular, we observed several reasons to think Col 1.16 pertained to new creation, including (1) the image of God language in v. 15a, (2) the firstborn of all creation language in v. 15b, (3) the head of the Church language in v. 18a, and (4) the soteriological context (frame) of the poem (vv. 13-14, 21-22). To this I added a fifth syntactical reason that 16d as an elaboration of “τἀ πάντα” (all things) of 16a. Next, we explored the idea of new creation, especially within Paul's epistles, to find a deep and richly textured paradigm for interpreting God's redemptive and expanding sphere of influence (in Christ) breaking into the hostile world. We saw that new Christians die and rise with Christ, ending their association with the old and beginning again as a part of the new—a community where old racial, legal, and status divisions no longer matter, where members put off the old way of living and instead become clothed with the new humanity, where people look forward to and live in light of the ultimate transformation to be brought about at the coming of Christ. Rather than limiting new creation to the salvation of individuals, or even the sanctifying experience of the community, we saw that it also includes spiritual powers both “in the heavens and upon the earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities” (Col 1.16). Reading Col 1.15-20 along with Eph 1.20-23 we connected God's creation of the powers in Christ with his exaltation of Christ to his right hand “far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every name named, not only in this age but also in the one to come” (Eph 1.21). The point from both texts is clear: as “the head of the body, the Church” (Col 1.18; Eph 1.22), Christ is “before all things” (Col 1.17), “first in all things” (Col 1.18), and “far above all” (Eph 1.21), since God has “subjected all things under his feet” (Eph 1.22). Christ is preeminent as the firstborn of all new creation, “the new Adam … the starting point where new creation took place.”[72] Although the old powers still hold sway in the world, those in the interlocked heaven-and-earth new creation domain where Christ is the head, enjoy his protection if they remain “in the faith established and steadfast and not shifting away from the hope of the gospel” (Col 1.23). This interpretation has several significant advantages. It fits into Paul's apocalyptic way of thinking about Christ's advent and exaltation. It also holds together the first strophe of the poem as a unit. Additionally, it makes better sense of the context. (The ecclesiology of Col 1.15-18a follows logically from the soteriological context of vv. 13-14.) Lastly, it is compatible with a wide range of Christological options. Appendix Here is Col 1.16 from Leedy's sentence diagrams.[73] Of note is how he equates the τὰ πάντα of 16a with 16c and 16d rather than seeing 16d as an elaboration of τά ὁρατά. Bibliography Bauer, Walter, Frederick William  Danker, William F. Arndt, F. Gingrich, Kurt Aland, Barbara Aland, and Viktor Reichmann. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. 3rd ed. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2000. Bird, Michael F. Colossians and Philemon. A New Covenant Commentary. Cambridge, England: The Lutterworth Press, 2009. Brown, Anna Shoffner. “Nothing ‘Mere’ About a Man in the Image of God.” Paper presented at the Unitarian Christian Alliance, Springfield, OH, Oct 14, 2022. Bruce, E. K. Simpson and F. F. The Epistles to the Ephesians and the Colossians. The New International Commentary on the New Testament, edited by Ned B. Stonehouse. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1957. Buzzard, Anthony F. Jesus Was Not a Trinitarian. Morrow, GA: Restoration Fellowship, 2007. Caird, G. B. New Testament Theology. Edited by L. D. Hurst. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 2002. Caird, G. B. Paul’s Letters from Prison. New Clarendon Bible, edited by H. F. D. Sparks. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1976. Carden, Robert. One God: The Unfinished Reformation. Revised ed. Naperville, IL: Grace Christian Press, 2016. Chang, Eric H. H. The Only Perfect Man. Edited by Bentley C. F. Chang. 2nd ed. Montreal, QC: Christian Disciples Church Publishers, 2017. Deuble, Jeff. Christ before Creeds. Latham, NY: Living Hope International Ministries, 2021. Dunn, James D. G. Christology in the Making. 2nd ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1996. Dunn, James D. G. The Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon. New International Greek Testament Commentary, edited by Gasque Marshall, Hagner. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1996. Heiser, Michael S. The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2019. King, Martha. An Exegetical Summary of Colossians. Dallas, TX: SIL International, 1992. Kuschel, Karl-Joseph. Born before All Time? Translated by John Bowden. New York, NY: Crossroad, 1992. Originally published as Beforen vor aller Zeit? Lane, William L. The New Testament Page by Page. Open Your Bible Commentary, edited by Martin Manser. Bath, UK: Creative 4 International, 2013. Leedy, Randy A. The Greek New Testament Sentence Diagrams. Norfolk, VA: Bible Works, 2006. Lohse, Edward. Colossians and Philemon. Hermeneia. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1971. MacDonald, William Graham. The Idiomatic Translation of the New Testament. Norfolk, VA: Bibleworks, 2012. Mark H. Graeser, John A. Lynn, John W. Schoenheit. One God & One Lord. 4th ed. Martinsville, IN: Spirit & Truth Fellowship International, 2010. Martin, Ralph. “An Early Christian Hymn (Col. 1:15-20).” The Evangelical Quarterly 36, no. 4 (1964): 195–205. Martyn, J. Louis. Theological Issues in the Letters of Paul. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1997. McGrath, James F. The Only True God: Early Christian Monotheism in Its Jewish Context. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2009. McKnight, Scot. The Letter to the Colossians. New International Commentary on the New Testament, edited by Joel B. Green. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2018. Norden, Eduard. Agnostos Theos: Untersuchungen Zur Formengeschichte Religiöser Rede. 4th ed. Stuttgart, Germany: B. G. Teubner, 1956. Originally published as 1913. Pao, David. Colossians and Philemon. Zondervan Exegetical Commentary of the New Testament, edited by Clinton E. Arnold. Grand Rapid, MI: Zondervan, 2012. Perriman, Andrew. In the Form of a God. Studies in Early Christology, edited by David Capes Michael Bird, and Scott Harrower. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2022. Philo. The Works of Philo. The Norwegian Philo Concordance Project. Edited by Kåre Fuglseth Peder Borgen, Roald Skarsten. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2005. Robinson, James M. “A Formal Analysis of Colossians 1:15-20.” Journal of Biblical Literature 76, no. 4 (1957): 270–87. Schillebeeckx, Eduard. Christ: The Experience of Jesus as Lord. Translated by John Bowden. New York, NY: The Seabury Press, 1977. Schoberg, Gerry. Perspectives of Jesus in the Writings of Paul. Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2013. Schweizer, Eduard. The Letter to the Colossians. Translated by Andrew Chester. Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Publishing House, 1982. Smith, Dustin R. Wisdom Christology in the Gospel of John. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2024. Snedeker, Donald R. Our Heavenly Father Has No Equals. Bethesda, MD: International Scholars Publications, 1998. Thayer, Joseph Henry. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1996. Thrall, Margaret. The Second Epistle to the Corinthians. Vol. 1. The International Critical Commentary, edited by C. E. B. Cranfield J. A. Emerton, G. N. Stanton. Edinburgh, Scotland: T&T Clark, 1994. Wachtel, William M. “Colossians 1:15-20–Preexistence or Preeminence?” Paper presented at the 14th Theological Conference, McDonough, GA, 2005. Wessels, G. F. “The Eschatology of Colossians and Ephesians.” Neotestamentica 21, no. 2 (1987): 183–202. Witherington III, Ben The Letters to Philemon, the Colossians, and the Ephesians: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary of the Captivity Epistles. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2007. Yates, Roy. The Epistle to the Colossians. London: Epworth Press, 1993. Zeilinger, Franz. Der Erstgeborene Der Schöpfung. Wien, Österreich: Herder, 1974. Footnotes [1] Since the nineteenth century biblical scholars have been divided over whether Paul wrote Colossians. One of the major reasons for thinking Paul didn't write Colossians is his exalted Christology—the very conclusion this paper seeks to undermine. A second major factor to argue against Pauline authorship is the difference in vocabulary, but this is explainable if Paul used a different amanuensis. The theologically more cosmic emphasis (also evident in Ephesians) is likely due to Paul's time in prison to reflect and expand his understanding of the Christ event. Lastly, the proto-Gnostic hints in Colossians do not require dating the epistle outside of Paul's time. Although Gnosticism flourished at the beginning of the second century, it was likely already beginning to incubate in Paul's time. [2] Eduard Schillebeeckx, Christ: The Experience of Jesus as Lord, trans. John Bowden (New York, NY: The Seabury Press, 1977), 185. [3] Schillebeeckx, 185. [4] G. B. Caird, Paul’s Letters from Prison, New Clarendon Bible, ed. H. F. D. Sparks (Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1976), 177. [5] Caird, 181. [6] James D. G. Dunn, The Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon, New International Greek Testament Commentary, ed. Gasque Marshall, Hagner (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1996), 91. “[W]hat at first reads as a straightforward assertion of Christ's pre-existenct activity in creation becomes on closer analysis an assertion which is rather more profound—not of Christ as such present with God in the beginning, nor of Christ as identified with a pre-existent hypostasis or divine being (Wisdom) beside God, but of Christ as embodying and expressing (and defining) that power of God which is the manifestation of God in and to his creation.” (Italics in original.) James D. G. Dunn, Christology in the Making, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1996), 194. [7] James F. McGrath, The Only True God: Early Christian Monotheism in Its Jewish Context (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2009), 46. [8] Andrew Perriman, In the Form of a God, Studies in Early Christology, ed. David Capes Michael Bird, and Scott Harrower (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2022), 200. [9] In addition, biblical unitarians routinely interpret Col 1.16 as new creation. See Anthony F. Buzzard, Jesus Was Not a Trinitarian (Morrow, GA: Restoration Fellowship, 2007), 189–90, Robert Carden, One God: The Unfinished Reformation, Revised ed. (Naperville, IL: Grace Christian Press, 2016), 197–200, Eric H. H. Chang, The Only Perfect Man, ed. Bentley C. F. Chang, 2nd ed. (Montreal, QC: Christian Disciples Church Publishers, 2017), 151–52, Jeff Deuble, Christ before Creeds (Latham, NY: Living Hope International Ministries, 2021), 163–66, John A. Lynn Mark H. Graeser, John W. Schoenheit, One God & One Lord, 4th ed. (Martinsville, IN: Spirit & Truth Fellowship International, 2010), 493–94, Donald R. Snedeker, Our Heavenly Father Has No Equals (Bethesda, MD: International Scholars Publications, 1998), 291–92, William M. Wachtel, “Colossians 1:15-20–Preexistence or Preeminence?” (paper presented at the 14th Theological Conference, McDonough, GA, 2005), 4. [10] All translations are my own. [11] Stophes are structural divisions drawn from Greek odes akin to stanzas in poetry or verses in music. [12] Throughout I will capitalize Church since that reflects the idea of all Christians collectively not just those in a particular local assembly. [13] Eduard Norden, Agnostos Theos: Untersuchungen Zur Formengeschichte Religiöser Rede, 4th ed. (Stuttgart, Germany: B. G. Teubner, 1956), 250–54. [14] James M. Robinson, “A Formal Analysis of Colossians 1:15-20,” Journal of Biblical Literature 76, no. 4 (1957): 272–73. [15] Edward Lohse, Colossians and Philemon, Hermeneia (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1971), 44. [16] Eduard Schweizer, The Letter to the Colossians, trans. Andrew Chester (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Publishing House, 1982), 57. [17] Dunn, The Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon, 84. [18] Ben  Witherington III, The Letters to Philemon, the Colossians, and the Ephesians: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary of the Captivity Epistles (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2007), 129. [19] William L. Lane, The New Testament Page by Page, Open Your Bible Commentary, ed. Martin Manser (Bath, UK: Creative 4 International, 2013), 765. [20] E. K. Simpson and F. F. Bruce, The Epistles to the Ephesians and the Colossians, The New International Commentary on the New Testament, ed. Ned B. Stonehouse (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1957), 65. [21] Michael F. Bird, Colossians and Philemon, A New Covenant Commentary (Cambridge, England: The Lutterworth Press, 2009), 50. [22] David Pao, Colossians and Philemon, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary of the New Testament, ed. Clinton E. Arnold (Grand Rapid, MI: Zondervan, 2012), 87. [23] Lohse, 42. [24] Lohse, 43–44. [25] Scot McKnight, The Letter to the Colossians, New International Commentary on the New Testament, ed. Joel B. Green (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2018), 144. [26] Col 1.13-14: “who rescued us from the authority of darkness and transferred (us) into the kingdom of his beloved son in whom we have the redemption, the forgiveness of the sins.” Col 1.21-22: “And you being formerly alienated and hostile in thought in the evil deeds, but now he reconciled (you) in his body of the flesh through the death to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him.” [27] In fact, we can easily skip from vv. 13-14 to vv. 21-22. [28] Dunn, Christology in the Making, 187–88. [29] Sadly, most translations erroneously insert a paragraph between vv. 14 and 15. This produces the visual effect that v. 15 is a new thought unit. [30] Bruce, 193. [31] Moses 2.65: “τὴν ἡγεμονίαν τῶν περιγείων” in Philo, The Works of Philo, The Norwegian Philo Concordance Project (Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2005). See also Sirach 17.3. [32] Schweizer, 64. [33] For a helpful treatment of how the image of God relates to Christology, see Anna Shoffner Brown, “Nothing ‘Mere’ About a Man in the Image of God” (paper presented at the Unitarian Christian Alliance, Springfield, OH, Oct 14, 2022). [34] Walter Bauer et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed. (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2000), s.v. “πρωτότοκος,” 2.a. [35] Franz Zeilnger wrote, “Christ is temporally the first of a series that essentially proceeds from him, and at the same time its lord and head.” Franz Zeilinger, Der Erstgeborene Der Schöpfung (Wien, Österreich: Herder, 1974), 182. Original: “als “Wurzel” ist Christus zeitlich der erste einer Reihe, die wesentlich aus ihm hervorgeht, und zugleich ihr Herr und Haupt.” [36] McKnight, 85–86. [37] The closest parallels are 1 Cor 8.6; Heb 1.2; and John 1.3, which employ the preposition δια (through). Upon close examination these three don't teach Christ created the universe either. [38] ESV, CSB, NASB, etc. Notably the NET diverges from the other evangelical translations. Roman Catholic, mainline, and unitarian translations all tend to straightforwardly render “ἐν αὐτῷ” as “in him” in Col 1.16; cf. NABRE, NRSVUE, OGFOMMT, etc. [39] Chang, 150. [40] Ralph Martin, “An Early Christian Hymn (Col. 1:15-20),” The Evangelical Quarterly 36, no. 4 (1964): 198. [41] Schillebeeckx, 186. [42] Dunn, Christology in the Making, 191. [43] Karl-Joseph Kuschel, Born before All Time?, trans. John Bowden (New York, NY: Crossroad, 1992), 336. [44] Dustin R. Smith, Wisdom Christology in the Gospel of John (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2024), 5–6. For more on wisdom Christology in Col 1.16 see Dunn, The Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon, 89, Roy Yates, The Epistle to the Colossians (London: Epworth Press, 1993), 18–19, 23, G. B. Caird, New Testament Theology, ed. L. D. Hurst (Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 2002), 46, McGrath, 44, 46. [45] See Dunn, The Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon, 89. See also Yates, 18–19, 23. [46] Dunn, Christology in the Making, 190. [47] Perriman, 199. [48] Martha King, An Exegetical Summary of Colossians (Dallas, TX: SIL International, 1992), 53. [49] Joseph Henry Thayer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1996), s.v. “ἐν,” 1722. He recognized the cause was both instrumental and final. [50] William Graham MacDonald, The Idiomatic Translation of the New Testament (Norfolk, VA: Bibleworks, 2012). [51] Chang, 147. Similarly James McGrath wrote, “[I]f all things were intended by God to find their fulfillment in Christ, then they must have been created “in him” in the very beginning in some undefined sense, since it was axiomatic that the eschatological climax of history would be a restoration of its perfect, original state.” McGrath, 46. [52] Caird, Paul’s Letters from Prison, 172. [53] “God so designed the universe that it was to achieve its proper meaning and unity only under the authority of man (Gen. 128; Ps. 86). But this purpose was not to be implemented at once; it was ‘to be put into effect when the time was ripe' (Eph. 110), when Christ had lived a human life as God intended it, and had become God's image in a measure which was never true of Adam. Only in unity with ‘the proper man' could the universe be brought to its destined coherence. For one who believes in predestination it is but a small step from this to saying that the universe was created in him.” Caird, Paul’s Letters from Prison, 178. [54] See also Paul's Adam Christology in Rom 5.12-21; 1 Cor 15.21-22, 45-49. [55] “Christus ist (durch seine Auferstehung aus dem Todesbereich) Herr über den ihm verliehenen Besitz, dessen ἀρχή und Urbild er ist, … und Haupt und Anfang der eschatologischen Neuschöpfung!” Zeilinger, 188. [56] King, 54. [57] Perriman, 200. [58] G. F. Wessels, “The Eschatology of Colossians and Ephesians,” Neotestamentica 21, no. 2 (1987): 187. [59] I realize my translation is awkward, but I prioritized closely mirroring the Greek over presenting smooth English. The original reads, “συνεζωοποίησεν ὑμᾶς σὺν αὐτῷ.” [60] Schillebeeckx, 187. [61] Scholars who make this connection include Caird, New Testament Theology, 216, Caird, Paul’s Letters from Prison, 177, McGrath, 44, Perriman, 201. [62] In fact, only two of the texts I cited above explicitly say “new creation” (2 Cor 5.17 and Gal 6.15). In all the others, Paul blithely employed creation language, expecting his readers to understand that he was not talking about the creation of the universe, but the creation of the new humanity in Christ—the Church. [63] McKnight, 152. [64] Mark H. Graeser, 493. [65] Rev 2.1, 8, 12, 18; 3.1, 7, 14. [66] See Gerry Schoberg, Perspectives of Jesus in the Writings of Paul (Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2013), 280–81, 83. [67] Margaret Thrall, The Second Epistle to the Corinthians, vol. 1, The International Critical Commentary, ed. C. E. B. Cranfield J. A. Emerton, G. N. Stanton (Edinburgh, Scotland: T&T Clark, 1994), 423, 26–28. [68] J. Louis Martyn, Theological Issues in the Letters of Paul (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1997), 122. [69] Martyn, 121. [70] Whether the old gods actually existed or not is a topic beyond the scope of this paper. Interested readers should consult Michael S. Heiser, The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2019). [71] “[D]ie in Christus gegebene echatologische Welt verwirkliche sich innerhalb der weiterhin existenten irdischen Schöpfung durch die Einbeziehung des Menschen in Christus, den Erhöhten, mittles Heilsverkündigung und Taufe. Das Eschaton setzt sic him Kerygma wetweit durch und wird Wirklichkeit, indem der Mensch durch die Taufe Christi Teil wird, d. h. in Einheit mit ihm dem Anspruch der στοιχεῖα τοῦ κόσμου stirbt (2, 20) und mit ihm auferweckt sein eschatologisches Leben erhält. Die so dem erhöhten Christus eingegliederten Menschen bilden somit in ihm und mit ihm die neue Schöpfung der Eschata innerhalb der alten! Der Christusleib ist somit als sich weitende Kirche erkennbar. In ihr bildet himmlischer und irdischer Raum gewissermaßen eine Einheit.” Zeilinger, 179. [72] “Der neue Adam … Ausgangsort, in dem sich Neuschöpfung ereignete,” Zeilinger, 199. [73] Randy A. Leedy, The Greek New Testament Sentence Diagrams (Norfolk, VA: Bible Works, 2006). This is now available in Logos Bible Software.

Solid Rock Bible ChurchWednesday July 23, 2025Pastor Bill Gay:"We Are to Worship God, In Spirit and Truth"SCRIPTURE:John 4:23-24

Pastor James Kaddis is currently developing a series we've called, “In Spirit and in Truth.”And here in part six we're uncovering the Word and Mind of the Holy Spirit in Our Lives. Last time you may recall, pastor James was talking about the gifts God gives to His children, in order for us to be able to fulfill His calling on our lives. Now today we're going to see how we're to put these gifts to use… with love! To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1459/29

We're in a series we've called, “In Spirit and In Truth.” And again we'll be discussing the mindset we're to have as we exercise the gifts of the Spirit. We learned last time that we all have an important part to play in the body of Christ. We might not be up on a stage teaching the Word or leading worship, but maybe our calling is more behind the scenes. Whatever it may be, pastor James encourages us now to seek the best gift for the call that you have from God. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1459/29

Pastor James Kaddis will continue our series, “In Spirit and In Truth.” Here in part six, we open our Bibles to First Corinthians chapter twelve. You might recognize this chapter right away, as one of the places in scripture that describes the Spiritual Gifts. But we're going to take a different approach to the subject, and talk about the mindset behind the gifts of the Spirit. Perhaps you're under the impression that your calling from God is less significant that your pastor's calling, or the person leading worship at church. But the truth is, we all have equal importance. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1459/29

Podcast kali ini diambil dari "Panduan Teknik Bicara Ala TED Talk" oleh Dani Wahyu Munggoro, INSPIRIT, menawarkan petunjuk praktis bagi mereka yang ingin menyampaikan presentasi dengan gaya TED Talk yang khas. Penulis menyoroti pentingnya memilih satu ide inti yang kuat dan layak disebarluaskan, bukan mencoba menyampaikan terlalu banyak informasi sekaligus. Kunci keberhasilan terletak pada kesederhanaan pesan dan kemampuan untuk membangun koneksi emosional dengan audiens melalui cerita pribadi yang relevan, didukung oleh data yang disajikan secara naratif. Dani Wahyu Munggoro juga memberikan detail mengenai aspek visual dan teknis presentasi. Ia menekankan penggunaan visual yang minimalis dan berdampak, menghindari slide yang padat teks, agar audiens tetap fokus pada pembicara. Selain itu, pentingnya latihan intensif—termasuk merekam diri sendiri dan meminta umpan balik—disebutkan untuk menyempurnakan penyampaian, memastikan waktu 18 menit termanfaatkan secara efektif, serta mempertahankan kontak mata dan bahasa tubuh yang alami di atas panggung. Akhirnya, riset ini menggarisbawahi elemen non-teknis yang krusial seperti keaslian dan gairah dalam penyampaian. Pembicara didorong untuk menjadi diri sendiri, tidak ragu menunjukkan kerentanan, dan memahami audiens agar pesan lebih relevan. Tips praktis lainnya mencakup cara membuat pembukaan yang memukau, kesimpulan yang berkesan, mengelola rasa gugup, dan menghindari jargon. Secara keseluruhan, riset ini menegaskan bahwa teknik bicara ala TED Talk adalah seni menyampaikan ide-ide besar secara sederhana namun berdampak, memicu inspirasi dan perubahan.

Today we get back into our series, “In Spirit and In Truth.” We're talking about the baptism of the Holy Spirit today, and if you're like a lot of people you have no idea what this is or how to experience it! Listen to today's program as it will serve to help! To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1459/29

Pastor James Kaddis is in a series called, “In Spirit and in Truth.” And beginning today, our attention shifts to the works and attributes of the Holy Spirit. Pastor James will emphasize a wonderful experience in the life of the believer, we refer to as the baptism of the Holy Spirit. But before we get there, it's probably a good idea to get to know the Holy Spirit, and clear up some of the misunderstandings that exist. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1459/29

Pastor James Kaddis is leading us through a series called, “In Spirit and In Truth.” And here in part four the subject at hand is water baptism. Maybe you've been thinking about being baptized, but just aren't sure what it's really all about or necessary! You've picked a good day to join us, as pastor James will show us what it symbolizes. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1459/29

Pastor James Kaddis is taking us through a series called, “In Spirit and in Truth.” In recent weeks we've considered what God has done for us in providing salvation. We transition to service today. As you're about to learn, it's after we come to understand what God has done, that we discover the reasonable response is sacrifice and service. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1459/29

God has called us to a life of sacrifice and service! That may sound to some like an unreasonable demand. But when you stop to consider the countless mercies our God has lavished upon us, it's a worthy response. We're in a series called, “In Spirit and in Truth.” And the subject at hand today is service. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1459/29

We're developing a series pastor James Kaddis has called, “In Spirit and in Truth.” We'll be in Exodus chapter eight today, and the hope is to come away with a solid, biblical perspective on the subject of sin. Not only will we see how God looks at sin and judges it, but what it can do to us. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1459/29

Pastor James Kaddis is in a series called, “In Spirit and in Truth.” Having talked about Salvation last time, we transition to sin here today as we turn in our Bibles to Exodus chapter eight. By the end of our time together I think you'll have a better understanding of how God looks at sin, and judges it, as well as what sin does to us. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1459/29

Pastor James Kaddis is in the early stages of a new series we've titled, “In Spirit and in Truth.” And here in part one we're noticing how salvation works. Pastor James is going to transition to sanctification today, which has to do with our day to day living. And like salvation, this is a total work of God. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1459/29

We're just getting started in a new series called, “In Spirit and in Truth.” And here in part one, pastor James Kaddis is talking about salvation. Now before you tune out because you think you have that down pat, you might be surprised to find out, there's a lot you probably don't know and need to discover! To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1459/29

Today we turn to John chapter four, and verses ten through twenty-four, which is the inspiration for our present series, “In Spirit and in Truth.” Here Jesus has a conversation with a Samaritan Woman, and conveys something profound. You'll soon see the sort of worship that pleases God. It's something that is to occur all throughout the day, every day, with sincerity. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1459/29

You've picked a good day to join us as we embark on a wonderful new series, pastor James Kaddis has titled, “In Spirit and in Truth.” It was as he was reading and studying John chapter four, and verses 10-24, that the idea of doing this series came into being. And as you'll see it really gets to the heart of how we're to live our lives. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1459/29

The "Son of God," which is Who we are as God created us, beyond all gender and personality of the ego, is free of all death. This lesson describes to a "T" the "unconcious death urge" and what its composition does to us. We have been mistaken about Life and death. We have thought "death is inevitable." The belief in death is a function of consciousness, and we can ascend to a new Consciousness. The reality is Life is Immortal and inevitable. Death is a decision we make in error. This Lesson #163, "There is no death. The Son of God is free," is the ultimate liberation from the ego's belief system. Death is the main "idol" constructed in the imagioned "separation" from our Source. As Teachers of God, we are the Messengers of Life, not death, of immortality, not of the "inevitable end" of our self. There is no death. There is only Life and we are Life itself. God blesses us with Immortal Being as the Christ, God's Child, who is free to be immortal, like God Himself. The Divine Mother joins our body with this Thought of Truth, the Immortality of Life. In Spirit, we live forever, and this Spirit can be infused even into our bodies which can then be the Communicator of this PURE JOY! Used to communicate only Divine Joy, we can keep them for this purpose as long as we choose. AMEN

In Spirit And In Truth : With Pastor Robin Johnson

It's Mad Dog's Birthday. We review an emotional evening of watching "In Spirit".... JC misses everybody in South Carolina. Alex Jones is in for a recruiting-heavy Smorgasbord. There is a ton of talent in South Carolina all of a sudden. Plus, old stadiums and more. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ray Tanner joins Jamie Bradford to discuss "In Spirit" the new Gamecock documentary that will debut tonight on SEC Network. JC Shurburtt joins for a Buy or Sell. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Coach Christal #TheVisionCoach;  Mother|Artist|Educator|Disciple|Coach|Author, is the Chief Visioning Officer of Steps and Stages Coaching Facilitation and Consulting the Founder of INSPIRIT, Project: BECOMING and the creator of the Liquid Strength training module for dance.  She blends her creativity, background in education, and spiritual insight into the practice of establishing, structuring, and implementing visions in the lives of individuals, institutions, corporations and  families. For over 10 years Coach Christal has worked with creatives, entrepreneurs, educators and executives, to help them clarify their vision and accelerate their results. Coach Christal is adamant that no professional development can happen without personal development and the Vision is the first step in creating a life by design. As a sought-after Vision coach and professional speaker Coach Christal offers inspiring workshops to sold-out audiences around the country as well as transformational in-depth coaching programs that help clients achieve new heights of success, meaning, and spiritual aliveness. Having been a professional artist for over 20 years Coach Christal knows first-hand what it means to catalyze imagination into reality. Coach Christal has been featured on NPR's The Moth, Ted X Middlebury, as well as various podcasts and conference stages across the US and Zambia. She is a mover, a warrior of change and transformation, living out experiences her double amputee father recounted from his war-ridden dreams. Christal's unique candor and ability to stand in discomfort with vulnerability and strength allows her to usher in transformation in the lives of others with grace and compassion at every stage of life. Upcoming Events:  https://3vwomen.com/join Join the Vision Circle Community: https://thevisionstep.com/landing-page1704811461657 Reverence for Impulse Is an unscripted and unplanned podcast with me, Weena Pauly-Tarr and my brother Tim Pauly, both working in the worlds of somatics: exploring bodies and all they hold/do/feel. We start each guest encounter with a few minutes of meeting each other without words, through the language of our bodies, before we press record and bring it to a conversation. This is not a hard hitting agenda or getting to the bottom of things. It's about finding each other in the not-knowing. We're here for the spaciousness, the awkwardness, the silliness, the silence — from the dark insides of our bodies to the bright insights of our minds, we're excited to welcome people who's impulses we'd like to get to know. Intro Music by Annie Hart Weena's Website: weenapauly.com  Weena's IG: @weenapaulytarr Tim's Website: intheserviceoflife.com Tim's IG: @in.the.service.of.life

Title: The Right Kind of Leaven Text: I Corinthians 5:1-13 FCF: We often struggle with dealing with those who claim to be Christians living in unrepentant sin. Prop: Because the mission of the church is to call sinners to the gospel, we must excommunicate unrepentant believers. Scripture Intro: [Slide 1] Turn in your bible to I Corinthians chapter 5. In a moment we'll begin reading in verse 1 from the Legacy Standard Bible. You can follow along in the pew bible or in whatever version you prefer. Today we will deviate from our study in the book of Acts to help us understand what many in our theological circles conclude is an essential practice of a biblically sound church. As essential as it is, it is one of the most difficult, unpopular, and challenging things that the Lord Jesus has called us to do. The Lord has called us to exercise church discipline on those who claim to be Christians but openly continue in sin without repentance. The scope of the sermon today is not exhaustive. Today, I want to zoom in on one particular historical example of church discipline which was carried out in the church of Corinth. It seems appropriate since in our study of Acts, Paul is currently seeing souls saved and the church forming there in the city of Corinth. So, without further delay, please stand with me to focus on and show proper honor to the Word of God as it is read. Invocation: Heavenly Father, True sheep hear the master's call and obey. At times we cast our eyes to the flock and see some delay in coming to His voice. We wonder – are they not His sheep? How do we know? His sheep will come when He calls. This practice you have given us, for our own spiritual success and purity, is the test of that call. May we be all the more convinced that it is a necessary practice of Your church. We pray this in the Good Shepherd's name… Amen. Transition: Let us dive directly into the text this morning, we have MUCH to see here. I.) For the sake of the one living in unrepentant sin, we must excommunicate unrepentant believers. (1-5) a. [Slide 2] 1 - It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and sexual immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father's wife. i. Paul, somewhat in shock, reveals that he has heard about an instance of sexual immorality that is happening among them. ii. The level of this immorality was so perverse that even among the pagans such an act would not be tolerated. iii. The act itself is a man who has his father's wife. iv. What this means is somewhat difficult for us to pin down. 1. First, what does Paul mean by calling this woman “his father's wife”. a. Since Paul is quoting or alluding to Leviticus 18 where the sexual laws against incestuous and illegitimate marital partners is addressed, and since a relationship like this with someone's mother is mentioned before the part he is referencing, it is likely that the Leviticus passage and therefore Paul also is referring to someone who is his father's wife but also not his mother. Like a step-mother. b. Roman and Jewish law would not allow such a union, whether we are referring to cohabitation or in marriage. 2. Secondly, we are not certain whether the word “has” here refers to simply fornication or includes marriage. a. Has implies an ongoing sexually deviant relationship. But the nature of that relationship is unclear. b. Many suppose that since it was illegal in the Roman Empire to be granted official marriage recognition in such cases, that most likely Paul is saying they are cohabitating. c. However, given the disposition of the church toward this man (which we'll get to shortly) it is entirely possible that the church of Corinth allowed for a religious union to occur for this man and his father's wife, even if it was not recognized by the Roman government. d. In either case, such a sexual union is displeasing to God solely on the grounds of the partners being illegitimate for each other. e. But if marriage is what this means– how is this possible if she is his father's wife? i. The Romans and Jews of this time did not allow polygamy, although having a concubine would have been common. ii. More than likely, the father is either dead or he had divorced this woman. iii. But because Paul refers to her in the present as his father's wife, this has me leaning toward the latter. iv. Therefore, she is free to be joined in this way. 3. Third, Paul does not address, at any time, the moral culpability of the woman in this scenario. This indicates to us that this woman, most likely, was not a believer. a. Therefore, it is possible that Paul's charge of sexual immorality has three counts. i. First, it is sexual immorality because she is an illegitimate mate being his step-mother. And this would be illegal in both the eyes of the Romans and more importantly in the eyes of God. It is counter to the natural order. ii. Second, it is sexual immorality potentially because she was divorced unbiblically from his father, and therefore marrying her would be adultery. iii. Third, it is sexual immorality because she was an unbeliever and he, at the time, was claiming to be a believer. b. After studying this passage, I believe that this is exactly what was going on. c. He had married an unbelieving divorced woman that used to be his step-mother. It is impossible for this relationship to be honorable to God on those grounds. v. So, what is the church's reaction to this? b. [Slide 3] 2 - And you have become puffed up and have not mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst. i. They have become puffed up … but puffed up in what? ii. What Paul says next helps us answer this question. iii. Instead of mourning (expressing deep spiritual sorrow) and removing the man from among the church itself… iv. They, as a church, were accepting, tolerating, allowing this relationship to continue, and perhaps even celebrating this union. v. In what spirit? vi. Let's keep reading… c. [Slide 4] 3 - For I, on my part, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this, as though I were present: i. Paul, again by saying the opposite gives us the clues we need to understand what is happening in the Corinthian church. ii. They are puffed up, prideful, in what? iii. Their “love”, caution, “care”, and “mercy” to not make hasty judgements against this man. iv. Essentially, they are proud of knowing the bible passage “Judge not, lest ye be judged.” v. They were treating this man with such “love” and “kindness” and allowing him to continue in this relationship because “the Lord is loving and forgiving and receives people from all walks of life.” vi. “We too should be affirming and accepting. Let's not judge too quickly.” vii. As we mentioned before, it is even possible that they facilitated some kind of spiritual union ceremony since the Roman courts would not recognize and would even punish such a marriage. viii. But Paul… what does he say? ix. I've judged him already. It wasn't hard guys. I didn't need to know a bunch of the details. x. I don't need to walk a mile in his shoes. xi. I don't need to look him in the eye. xii. I don't need to empathize with his pain. xiii. I don't need to see it from his point of view. xiv. I don't need to know his temptation to be able to speak on this issue. xv. I am ready to render a judgment. xvi. So here is what you are to do and you should listen as if I were there with you enforcing this… d. [Slide 5] 4 - in the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus, i. Paul invokes the name and power of our Lord Jesus… he bookends this statement with the name of Jesus (with His authority) and the power of Jesus (His saving and changing power). ii. And right in the middle he mentions the assembled church. The next time you are gathered and I am with you IN SPIRIT… iii. Paul saying all of this evokes a courtroom scene. The judge, the jury, the prosecution is all set and they must render a verdict. Not of the church alone. But in the authority and power of Jesus. iv. But what is that verdict they should render? e. [Slide 6] 5 deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. i. In this discussion, Paul assumes that this man is a Christian. ii. Here we have the delicate tension the bible gives us of the practice of church discipline. iii. As Matthew 18 says we are to treat people who are excommunicated from the church as though they are tax collectors and gentiles. iv. Tax collectors were betrayers because they worked for Rome against their own people and Gentiles were pagans worshipping false gods and not members of God's covenant community. v. In other words, Jesus is saying to treat excommunicated people as though they are not believers. vi. But to treat someone as an unbeliever is not the same as declaring them to be an unbeliever, nor is it undeniable proof that they are an unbeliever, nor does it do anything to douse the flame of our hope that they are in fact a believer. vii. The tension then, is to treat them as though they are unbelievers, while still hoping that they are believers and that they will repent of sin and return to the covenant community. viii. Paul's language here is domain or kingdom language. ix. Removing this man from the domain or kingdom of Christ, or recognizing that he has removed himself, allows him to be placed in the kingdom of darkness… while being, potentially, a child of the light. x. If indeed he is a child of the light, Satan will have his way with such a person… even to the destruction of his flesh. Why? xi. So that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. xii. What is Paul saying? xiii. There is protection under the Lord's promises that for His people all things will work together for good. xiv. The church is a haven, a nursery, a dispensary of the means of grace that God uses to grow the faith of His people and encourage them. The Faith they need to weather the storms of this life is grown, cultivated, and nurtured in the environment of the church. xv. When a believer is spiritually removed by excommunication from that haven… the promise of all things working together for good remains true – but God will allow/use Satan to chasten them. How? xvi. In a similar way he used Satan to prove Job. xvii. God proved to Satan and the gathered sons of god that Job was righteous. How? By removing every earthly blessing from him except for his life. xviii. God proved He told the truth when He declared Job to be righteous. Job did not curse God and die. In the end, He confessed that God was God and that he was not and shut his mouth in repentance. That… is what righteous men do. They repent and submit to God. xix. By the church coming together to excommunicate an unrepentant believer, it is to test the declaration of God. xx. If God has truly declared them righteous, as He did Job, Satan's blows will prove God's declaration true in the end. xxi. In that process, they will repent and return to the fold so that they will be spared on the day of judgment. xxii. When the church excommunicates someone… it is not a matter of paperwork. It is a spiritual matter of grave significance. xxiii. It is a domain matter. There are only two kingdoms. The Kingdom of Christ and the Kingdom of this world. If a person is excommunicated from the Kingdom of Light, they must join the Kingdom of Darkness. There is no third option. f. [Slide 7] Summary of the Point: Paul's point in this passage is that the only hope this man has to ever be restored and his soul rescued from eternal destruction is for the church to recognize that he has disfellowshipped himself from them by continuing in unrepentant sin. God's Kingdom is a domain of light. Only those who walk in the light belong in the light. If someone is walking in darkness… then they should not be considered as part of the kingdom of light. And it is to their own benefit to be treated as if they are not. It is only when an unrepentant believer is removed from the haven and spiritual protection of the church that they can truly be tested and proved through the fire to be one of God's people. Therefore, we must remove any one who claims Christ but continues in unrepentant sin. Transition: [Slide 8(blank)] But the wellbeing of the one in sin is not the only or even the greatest concern of Paul in this passage. There is a problem that must be corrected in the church as well – beyond removing this man. He continues in verse 6. II.) For the sake of the purity and mission of the church, we must excommunicate unrepentant believers. (6-13) a. [Slide 9] 6 - Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? i. Next, Paul is going to slightly deviate from the issue at hand with this man and his sin and broaden his point. ii. He must do this because, as he opens with, their boasting is not good. iii. This is, in some ways, a deeper and more concerning issue than the issue of this man living in unrepentant sin. iv. The issue is with the church itself. v. It is not profitable to the church for the church to be known as a place that tolerates unrepentant sin from its members. vi. Sin should not be tolerated by the church as a whole or by any of its individual members. vii. Every single believer should desire the death of sin in their own hearts and in another believer's life, because they know that sin always leads to death and destruction. viii. So what? Its none of our business what other do right? ix. Don't you know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? x. A baking illustration. xi. No doubt many of you bake your own bread or have done so in the past. xii. Approximately how much yeast or bacteria is needed within a 1-pound dough ball in order to permeate the whole lump? xiii. Not much, yes? In fact, given enough time and under the right conditions, the smallest pinch of yeast or the smallest number of bacteria transferred to the lump… will eventually cause it to prove all the way through. xiv. Paul's point is that when sin is tolerated in the church… even to the smallest degree… it pollutes the entire church. b. [Slide 10] 7 - Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, also was sacrificed. i. Paul alters the metaphor to point to Passover. ii. The Israelites would clean their houses of any leaven because it represented sin and pride. iii. And indeed, they have already been made unleavened. How? iv. Christ, our Passover lamb, was sacrificed. It's already been done. v. We have been purified, washed clean. So now we hate sin and seek its eradication. vi. We work to clean out all the old leaven. We are a new lump… a new creation. vii. The old has gone and must continue to stay gone. Why? viii. For the new has come. c. [Slide 11] 8 - Therefore, let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. i. The feast here could be referring to the Lord's Supper or the Passover, but more than likely this is a metaphor for the spiritual fellowship of the church. ii. God has designed His church as a channel for His grace to flow to His people. iii. We sit and eat of the meals God's provides us… but not with the old leaven, the sinfulness, but instead with sincerity and truth. iv. Our sin has been replaced by hearts that believe and love God. d. [Slide 12] 9 - I wrote you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people; i. With what is somewhat of a stark transition, Paul moves on to another aspect of this discussion regarding keeping the church pure. ii. Here we see that Paul references a letter he had sent previously. iii. This is one of the lost letters to Corinth. iv. In a previous letter Paul mentioned that they should not associate with sexually immoral people. v. The word to associate means to mingle or to be mixed together with. vi. Again, it is kingdom or domain language. vii. But Paul wants to nuance that command a little. e. [Slide 13] 10 - I did not at all mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the greedy and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world. i. Paul specifies that he did not mean this toward unbelievers who are sexually immoral. ii. But what is Paul saying? iii. Are we to join with, mix up with, mingle with sexually immoral unbelievers? iv. Why can we join with unbelievers who sin but not believers who sin in the same way? v. Let's go back to the illustration of the leaven and the lump. vi. In the church, it is obvious that we are the unleavened lump and sin is leaven. vii. But in the world… what is the leaven? viii. Notice that Paul's conclusion for why we should not disassociate from unbelieving sinners is not because if we did, we would have to remove THEM from the world… ix. It is that WE would have to go out of the world. x. The church, the Kingdom of Christ, is the leavening agent in the world. xi. We cannot be unmixed from the world because we are permeating the world. We are part of the world. We are in the world. We are the salt of the earth. We are the light of the world. xii. As sin infects and infests the church, so the church permeates and prevails in the world. xiii. Only the Lord will remove us when He has determined it is time for us to be removed. xiv. Therefore, we remain mixed with unbelieving sinners in the sense that we are in the world – but not of it since we are the leavening agent. xv. Practically speaking then, to associate with the world, and sinners in the world, is merely to be in it. It is to be a part of it. It is to carry on earthly affairs and earthly jobs. Earthly concerns and earthly activities. We have parts of our lives that are not directly related to the Kingdom of God but are submitted to the pursuit of that Kingdom above all. xvi. We are not to be hermits. We are not to shun human contact or live in a commune or religious monastery. xvii. We must be in the world because we are the leavening agent of the world. xviii. But what happens when the lump we are talking about is no longer the world but is the church? f. [Slide 14] 11 - But now I am writing to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is a sexually immoral person, or greedy, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler—not even to eat with such a one. i. When we shift our focus from the world to the church, everything changes. ii. In the world we are the leavening agent… but in the church, we have no need to be changed, altered, invaded, or permeated with anything since the Lord has purified us. iii. In fact, the goal is to stay holy and pure. We fight against leavening agents. iv. We must associate with the world and sinners because we have the solution to their sin. 1. That is why we can and must be mixed up with the world in the sense that we rub shoulders with wicked people. 2. They probably aren't our best friends. We probably don't become business partners with them. But we don't shy away from interacting and even participating in their lives. 3. Why? 4. So, we can share the gospel with them and live holy lives in front of them. v. But we must not associate with self-professed believers who are unrepentant sinners, because they are the death of the purity and effectiveness of the church. vi. So, what does it mean to NOT associate with so-called brothers living in unrepentant sin? 1. Again, we must change our focus. 2. It cannot mean that we treat them worse than we treat the world. 3. Paul isn't saying that we can participate in the lives of unbelievers but have to shun believers who have been excommunicated. 4. What does it mean then? 5. It means that they are not part of us. They can't be included in anything that is the church. They cannot be affiliated in any way with the church. vii. When we excommunicate someone, we are removing them from the kingdom of light and placing them in the kingdom of this world. At least in how we treat them. Therefore, since we are part of the same world, a world where we are the leavening agent, we must be kind, loving, civil, interacting and participating in their lives – but not closely. We maintain the same distance we would with unbelievers. As Matthew 18 says – we treat them like unbelievers. viii. Well, what about this statement Paul makes about not even eating with them? How do we take that? 1. It seems to me that this whole context so far has been in relation to the entire gathered assembly. a. Therefore, the most likely meals that Paul is forbidding are meals where the church has gathered. b. This would include the Lord's Supper of course, but also love feasts that preceded the Lord's Supper as well as fellowship meals. 2. But even if Paul does mean that individual Christians must refuse to eat with the one excommunicated, there is a certain level of cultural context we must supply to understand this command and apply it rightly to our culture. a. [Slide 15] Let me quote one commentator - “Eating together connotated more than friendliness in ancient culture; it created a social bond. When Christians ate together, it reinforced and confirmed the solidarity established by their shared confession of faith in Christ.” b. The reason Paul commanded this was because in their culture eating a meal together communicated that we are of the same social background. It communicated association. Partnership. Like-mindedness. c. Whether or not this is still true in our culture is something we must consider. 3. [Slide 16] The bottom line is that an excommunicated person is not welcome in any event or occasion where it would communicate, explicitly or implicitly, a bond, a Partnership, or an association to the church. 4. Why? 5. Because although we are a part of them (since they have been removed to the world) they are not a part of us… Not until they repent. ix. Therefore, the “associating” has everything to do with what domain or kingdom we are talking about. x. Why Paul? Why must we make this distinction? g. [Slide 17] 12 - For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Are you not to judge those who are within the church? 13 - But those who are outside, God will judge. REMOVE THE WICKED MAN FROM AMONG OURSELVES. i. God is the judge of the world. In the sense that God knows who are His and He will draw His own to Himself in His time. ii. He ultimately will judge and determine the fates of men. iii. He, after all, knows the heart of every man. iv. But within the church, He has given us the keys to the Kingdom. v. We have the authority to bind and loose here on earth. vi. What does that mean? vii. It means we, as the church, have been given the authority and the responsibility to remove from the church any agent which sullies the purity and neutralizes the influence of the church upon the world. viii. Paul's last word is a quote from Deuteronomy 17:7 ix. Remove the wicked man from among ourselves. x. This is his command. xi. Get this cancer out… NOW! h. [Slide 18] Summary of the Point: In what is obviously Paul's primary concern, he reveals that if the church is to remain effective in permeating the world with the message of the gospel of Christ, it is absolutely essential that they must remain pure by removing any leavening agent within their midst. Sin, like a cancer, spreads throughout the body of Christ and pollutes the purity and distinctiveness of the church and therefore neutralizes its effectiveness in permeating the world. To take pride in being slow to act, tolerating, accepting, affirming or even celebrating unrepentant sin is to work against the purpose and purity of the church. Therefore, for the sake of the purity and mission of the church, we too must excommunicate unrepentant believers. Conclusion: So, CBC, what have we learned today and how then shall we live? Doctrinal Takeaway: [Slide 19] In what was sure to be quite a shocking turn, Paul rebukes the church of Corinth for their pride in doing the exact wrong thing. They were puffed up in what they thought was great love, kindness, tolerance, mercy, acceptance, affirmation, and even celebration toward a man who they didn't want to be too hasty to judge. In reality, Paul reveals to them that they have acted against the man himself and the church as a whole. Indeed, for the sake of the man's soul and the purity and purpose of their church, they must remove the man from their midst. They must do so, hoping that God will use Satan to destroy his physical and earthly existence so that his soul might be rescued before the day of the Lord occurs. Therefore, we too must be faithful in executing church discipline. Why? It is for the good of the believer in sin and it is for the good of the church. But let me address some very practical questions in our applications today. 1.) [Slide 20] Mind Transformation: “What truth must we believe from this text?” or “What might we not naturally believe that we must believe because of what this text has said?” We must believe the worst thing we can do for someone in sin is to affirm or support their choices. a. I trust you see the obvious correlation between the wisdom of the church of Corinth and the wisdom of our world today? b. They were proud, an interesting word given the nature of the sin in question, they were proud that they did not judge this man too hastily. c. They were proud to be tolerating, affirming and perhaps even celebrating this man's choices. d. And what is Paul's assessment of their inaction? What is Paul's assessment of their wisdom? Their love? Their tolerance? e. It is not good. f. The wisdom of this world and the wisdom of many “churches” in our culture tells us that our role as the church must be to support, help, affirm, love, care for, and accept every single person no matter what their lifestyle and identity. g. While we certainly live kindly, lovingly, and holy lives toward those outside the church, and while we would never deny an unbeliever living in sin from coming into our church… h. The least loving thing we could ever do for the world or for a believer is to ignore, accept, or affirm their sinful choices. i. Why is that the least loving thing we can do? j. Because the command of Christ is to repent of sin and believe the gospel. k. Never calling anyone to repent communicates that it is ok to disobey Christ. l. This is entirely antithetical to the gospel. m. The gospel is not to free us from the penalty of sin only but to free us from its POWER and eventually even its presence in our lives. n. Many say, well the Lord will forgive me. He loves me and will forgive me. o. God does love us. He loved us so much that He sent His Son to die so that we could be free from the penalty, power, and presence of sin. p. Sin destroys us. Sin is a cancer. q. Would you tell someone with cancer that you are happy for them and will support them in their cancer lifestyle. Would you encourage them to flaunt their cancer and be proud of having cancer? r. NO! This is foolishness. You'd tell them to get it cut out of them. Why? Because it WILL KILL THEM. s. Sin will kill them too. It might kill them physically but it will definitely kill them spiritually. t. The absolute worst thing we can do for anyone living in sin, is to ignore, tolerate, accept, affirm or celebrate it. u. Especially if they claim to be Christians. 2.) [Slide 21] Refutation: “What lies must we cast down” or “What do we naturally believe, or have been taught to believe, that this passage shows is false?” We must deny that the leavening role of the church to the world can continue while the church is impure. a. Paul makes the case that for sake of the church, its purity and its mission are entwined. b. If the church is polluted and full of sin, it cannot maintain its power and distinctiveness to the world. c. Anecdotally, churches who have embraced the LGBTQIA+ agenda are, thankfully, quite empty. d. Why? e. They are just like the world! There is nothing distinct or unique about their message. So the world says – why waste my time? f. On the flipside, the most successful and engaging ministries are those who implore from a heart of love for sinners to abandon their sin and trust in Christ. g. This is the gospel folks. h. We can't be the leavening agent in the world telling the world to repent and seek Christ if we as a church are not telling our own people to repent and trust Christ. i. The purity of the church and the mission of the church work hand in hand. j. If we are to be effective at all in sharing Christ with the nations… we must be a pure church that does not tolerate unrepentant sin. 3.) [Slide 22] Exhortation: “What actions should we take?” or “What is this passage specifically commanding us to do that we don't naturally do or aren't currently doing?” We must execute church discipline on unrepentant believers. a. In my tenure as your pastor we have excommunicated 2 members so far. b. In each case, the sin was not the issue. It was the refusal to repent of the sin and admit any wrongdoing. c. In both cases, they refused to seek freedom from the sin and spurned any correction no matter how kind or loving it was presented. d. This is the nature of church discipline. Although most of us put an equals sign between church discipline and excommunication I would encourage you to resist doing that. e. Church discipline refers to the whole process by which we confront other believers either with sins we have observed them doing or sins they have committed against us. f. As is mentioned in Matthew 18, if in that confrontation, they repent and seek forgiveness and help to gain victory over their sin – then there is no need to continue the process of church discipline. g. Even if, after a period of time, they sin again in the same way, it doesn't mean we can pick up the process where we left off. We would start the whole process again. h. Church discipline is a fancy name for accountability. i. Should we face someone who does not turn from their sin and live differently, then we continue with steps to bring more believers into the conversation to bear witness of the call to repent and their refusal. j. Eventually it is told to the church where the church excommunicates a believer who will not turn from sin. k. Therefore, we as a church must execute church discipline from start to finish. We must confront sin. In our own hearts first and then meekly in others too. l. And if we must, for the good of the one sinning and for the church itself, we must excommunicate any who would continue in unrepentant sin. 4.) [Slide 23] De-Exhortation: “What actions should we stop doing” or “What behaviors do we naturally practice that this passage tells us to stop doing?” We must not associate with excommunicated believers. a. The bulk of the questions regarding excommunication is, how do we treat those who have been excommunicated from the church? b. I hope and trust this sermon has greatly helped, but to tie all the points up in a nice bow, it comes down to one basic concept. c. To not associate with them and to treat them like an unbeliever should be seen as working in conjunction. d. In one sense we treat them as if they are an unbeliever. We as the church are in the world, part of the world, the leavening agent of the world permeating the Kingdom of God and His righteousness throughout it. e. Therefore, since they have been removed to the world, we are free to speak with them, care for them, pray for them, love them, engage them in conversation, live holy lives before them and generally live peaceably with them. All in an effort to share the kingdom message with them again. f. But, hear me now… though WE are part of THEM… THEY are NOT part of US. g. Normally we would allow unbelievers to join us for a church service to expose them to the gospel – But the excommunicated would not be welcomed among us. Why? Because it communicates that they are part of us… when they aren't. h. Normally we'd invite unbelievers to fellowship meals or church events such as the hay ride and chili cookoff or other such things… but the excommunicated would not be welcome. Why? Because it communicates that they are part of us. i. Thinking back over the ones we have excommunicated and thinking forward to any who we might excommunicate in the future, I have developed a test that I believe will help greatly for determining what we are able to do with an excommunicated member and what we are not able to do. j. It isn't a foolproof test. And it will still require some searching and perhaps even wise counsel. But the test is primarily drawn from this text. k. If you are considering engaging in an activity with, an act of kindness toward, or continuing a relationship with an excommunicated member of the church, it would be good for you to ask two questions before pursuing that action. i. [Slide 24] Does this show, explicitly or implicitly, to the church, the world, and/or the excommunicated, that we the church are part of the world and are acting as salt and light toward this person to reveal the gospel and heavenly principles? 1. If the answer is yes, your job is still not done. 2. For you must also ask the second question. ii. [Slide 25] Does this show, explicitly or implicitly, to the church, the world, and/or the excommunicated, that they, as the excommunicated, are part of the church and are partners and sharers in the kingdom of light? 1. If the answer to this is no, and your previous answer is yes, it is probably a good action to take toward them. 2. If the answer to this question is yes regardless of the answer to the previous question, you must NOT engage with them. 3. For we cannot suggest explicitly or implicitly to the church, the world, or the person excommunicated, that they are still part of us. Because they are not. l. The second question is the most important one. There must be mixed signals here. They are NOT part of us. m. That is, until they turn from their sin and seek restoration. 5.) [Slide 26] Comfort: “What comfort can we find here?” or “What peace does the Lord promise us in light of this passage of scripture?” God will never stop chastening His children. a. We know from the scriptures that God, because He is a good Father, chastens His wayward children. b. If they are truly children they will be chastened by the Lord. c. And that is a comforting thought for us. d. We know that while we have removed them from us, if they are truly one of us, the Lord will bring them back. They might be a little worse for wear… but He will bring them back. e. And indeed for this man in Corinth, it seems from Paul's next canonical letter, that he did in fact repent and return. f. We find great hope in this. [Slide 27 (end)] Now let me close with a prayer by the church Father Ephriam the Syrian Lord Jehovah, judge my cause and fight for me against Satan and his host. Lay the strong one low! I have cast off his yoke, and renounced his cursed power. He doubly hates this, and longs to seize me as his prey. I flee to you and to your cross for help. He would win if you did not deliver me-but you have already defeated him. Do not let him conquer me! Put him to shame, O Lord my God! Give me the victory! It is not strength that wins; my weakness is my shield. In lowly trust we fight the fight, and weakness wins the battle. So give me a lowly heart, and cast away each prideful thought. Let gentleness and love come in instead, and abide in my life. Your will, not mine, be done. I resist my selfish desires. Let me ever and always be your servant only. Jesus, I flee to you. I cling to your cross. Save me from Satan's hellish power and pluck me from his grasp. So I will praise you, Lord, and adore your great name. With Father and Spirit one, forever and ever, amen. Benediction: May He Who breaks the power of canceled sin and sets the prisoner free, Whose blood can make the foulest clean; May he increase your understanding so that you may know Him who is true, And that you are in His Son, Jesus Christ. Until we meet again, go in peace.

Sunday, December 29, 2024 || In Spirit and In Truth || Mr. Theo Hambrick

We recorded this interaction with authors Paul Kingsnorth and Rod Dreher as they discuss finding a name for what is beyond, the journey they have been on, and how, ultimately, it has led them both to a belief in the divine as manifested in the person of Jesus Christ. This was recorded at Holy Trinity Holy Cross church in downtown Birmingham, AL. If you enjoy this content and want to help support future events like this, you can go to Tactical Faith and donate to help support our work. https://tacticalfaith.com/donate/

In this episode, I dive deep into the transformative power of your vibration and energy. Discover how your next level self isn't found through external changes, but through the expansion of your energy field and the frequency you hold. I explore some practical ways to raise your vibration, align with higher frequencies, and activate the energy of your higher self. Whether you're seeking spiritual growth, manifesting your desires, or stepping into your highest potential, this episode will guide you in expanding your energy field and unlocking your next level self. Episode mentions: Episode 76. How your environment affects your energy   Episode 82. Your Energy field - The key to your  authenticity Episode 54. How your nervous system is affecting your energy Inspirit school of Energy certifications Intuitive Development course FREE Meditation Library FREE Energy Healing Journeys BLACK FRIDAY DISCOUNT CODES 20% off!!! For individual courses including Certification courses: BLACKFRIDAYCOURSE For certification course bundles: BLACKFRIDAYBUNDLE much love All the links: ⁠Explore my Instagram here⁠ ⁠Explore ways to work with me here⁠ ⁠⁠Inspirit School of Energy certifications⁠⁠ ⁠Access my FREE resources here⁠ ⁠Head to my website here⁠

Luke 1:39-55 – In Spirit-wrought humility, Mary knew she needed a Savior. God lifts her up, making her the mother of that Savior. The Foundation Preacher Podcast is provided to you by WELS Congregational Services. The Foundation resources were created to help churches allow the gospel message heard in worship, to echo throughout the week. […]

Did you know that there are people who believe that aliens from other planets can communicate to us IN SPIRIT and take over our bodies? Does this sound familiar to you as a Christian? Let's get right into it!Original video: https://youtu.be/y5Bv_rPTTWc?si=boYMT75yq12huDFiJoin my awesome Patreon community: www.patreon.com/WiseDiscipleAccess exclusive discounts to Logos Bible Software: www.logos.com/WiseDiscipleGet my 5 Day Bible Reading Plan here: https://www.patreon.com/collection/565289?view=expandedGet your Wise Disciple merch here: https://bit.ly/wisediscipleWant a BETTER way to communicate your Christian faith? Check out my website: www.wisedisciple.orgOR Book me as a speaker at your next event: https://wisedisciple.org/reserve/​​​Got a question in the area of theology, apologetics, or engaging the culture for Christ? Send them here: https://wisedisciple.org/ask/​

I have to admit that I'm always a little uncomfortable with non-Jews fetishizing the supposedly unique gifts & accomplishments of the Jewish people. A century ago, Winston Churchill did it. And now George Gilder, the influential tech futurist, picks up that Churchillian mantle in a new edition of his 2012 book The Israel Test. Israel's “genius”, Gilder argues, “enriches” the world to such an extent that anyone who questions it is, by definition, a critic of innovation, freedom and progress - not to mention, of course, a rabid anti-semite. I'm not convinced. But then, as a secular Jew who would fail Gilder's Israel Test, what do I know?GEORGE GILDER‘s books have sold more than two million copies worldwide. In Wealth and Poverty, one of the most influential works of our time, Gilder made the moral case for capitalist creativity. In Spirit of Enterprise, Microcosm, Telecosm, Life After Television, Life After Google, a bestseller in both the US and China, and Life After Capitalism, Gilder achieved renown as a stunningly accurate prophet of the direction of technology development and enterprise, including Israel's promethean contributions. With Men & Marriage, republished in 2024, he maintained a half century of rare insight in social theory. Long a contributing editor to Forbes magazine, Gilder has produced the annual Gilder/Forbes Telecosm Conference, now called COSM, offering leading edge forecasts and analysis from the world's top technology firms and research centers. Gilder also heads Gilder Technology Group, focusing on breakthrough technologies, and writes or edits four investment letters for Eagle Publishing. In 1986 President Ronald Reagan presented Gilder the White House Award for Entrepreneurial Excellence. A founding fellow of the Discovery Institute in Seattle, he writes for such national publications as The Wall Street Journal, Wired, National Review, The New Criterion, The American Spectator, and Claremont Review.Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe

In Spirit and In Truth

Jesus said truly truly, I tell you must be Born Again with water, IN Spirit. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/fernando-montes-de-oca/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/fernando-montes-de-oca/support

On this episode, Paul speaks with Sara Larson, the executive director of Awake, a Catholic nonprofit that supports and advocates for survivors of abuse in the Church. Sara talks about the history and mission of Awake and the great work it does in and for the heart of the Church. Sara also shares how working with survivors of abuse has changed her own faith life and relationship with the Church.  Sara Larson is the executive director of Awake, an independent Catholic nonprofit organization working for awakening, transformation, and healing from the wounds of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. She also lifts up the voices and stories of abuse survivors in her personal blog, In Spirit and Truth. LINKS Awake's website https://www.awakecommunity.org  Sara's In Spirit and Truth blog https://inspiritandtruth.substack.com  Upcoming Courageous Conversation https://www.awakecommunity.org/courageous-conversations  Letter to Survivors https://www.awakecommunity.org/sign-the-letter  Paid subscribers get to watch each episode early! All of your contributions directly supports my family and allows me to continue this podcast and all the resources I've shared here! https://www.popefrancisgeneration.com/subscribe ABOUT POPE FRANCIS GENERATION Pope Francis Generation is the show for Catholics struggling with the Church's teaching, who feel like they might not belong in the Church anymore, and who still hunger for a God of love and goodness. Hosted by Paul Fahey, a professional catechist, and Dominic de Souza, someone who needs catechesis. Together, we're taking our own look at the Catholic Church– her teachings and practices- from 3 views that changed our world: the Kerygma, the doctrine of theosis, and the teachings of Pope Francis. Together, with you, we're the Pope Francis Generation. SUPPORT THIS SHOW: This show is brought to you by Pope Francis Generation, a project to explore Catholicism inspired by Pope Francis. Founded by Paul Fahey, you can follow the newsletter, join the group, and become a supporting member. Your donations allow us to create the resource you're enjoying now as well as much more. Paid subscribers get to watch each episode before everyone else and receive subscriber only posts. Check out: popefrancisgeneration.com ABOUT PAUL FAHEY Paul lives in Michigan with his wife, Kristina, and five kids. He's a retreat leader and counseling student. ABOUT DOMINIC DE SOUZA SmartCatholics founder, Dominic de Souza, is a convert from radical traditionalism – inspired by WherePeterIs, Bishop Robert Barron, and Pope Francis. He is passionate about helping ordinary Catholics break the ‘bystander effect', and be first responders. “We don't have to be geniuses. We just have to show up with witness and kindness. Christ does the rest.” Today he hosts the SmartCatholics community. smartcatholics.com --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/popefrancisgeneration/message

This week I have long time friend and fellow guitar player/drummer Brandon Davis from bands such as: Inspirit, The Fever 333, he's also been in bands Vanna, Lions Lions, Therefore I Am. He's no stranger to the Boston Hardcore music scene and I get to learn all about Brandon and his endeavors, we also talk about a skatepark that he owns, as well as how we met. We also touch up on the subject of me playing drums for Vanna in a middle of a tour when he had to leave.  The post Brandon Davis- Inspirit/Fever333 appeared first on idobi.

In Spirit of a Hummingbird, Felicia Thai Heath, the daughter of Vietnamese and Chinese immigrants who met in the United States, gives us a disquieting, eventful memoir based on her early childhood on the run with her father—a notorious Vietnamese kingpin and escaped convict—and her conflicted mother. Clever and mature beyond her age, young Felicia experienced poverty and witnessed abuse as her dysfunctional family bounced around in the United States and Canada. Amid all the tumult and terror, she found ways to love her family, educate herself, navigate her world, and discover her potential. Now she must decide how to live with the past—and whether her future can include her father.Spirit of a Hummingbird was an instant Amazon Best Seller in Survival Biographies, in Emigration & Immigration Studies (Books), Asian American History, and in Poverty Studies.

This week I have Shawn Marquis from the bands Inspirit and Vanna. Inspirit is the original line up of when Vanna first started, I hear Shawn's story about how he came up in music, we talk about how we met and came into each others lives, how he comes from a musical family and came from the Boston hardcore scene, and how he continues to thrive.  The post Shawn Marquis-Inspirit/Vanna appeared first on idobi.

In deze aflevering beantwoord ik meerdere vragen die via de DM op instagram (@zarajula) zijn ingestuurd. Vragen die ik beantworod zijn:    Wat is de rol van dieren in ons leven? Ik voel een onwijze urge om mensen in mijn nabije omgeving te helpen te groeien in bewustzijn en hun frequenties te laten stijgen, maar hoe doe ik dat? Lichttaal, hoe interpreteer ik het en is het altijd helend?  Hoe weet ik wat een zuivere healer is? + voorbeeld van wat het vooral niet is.    Dit en meer beantwoord ik in deze aflevering.  Bestel Spirit Guide het boek hier:  https://zarajula.com/spirit-guide-boek/ Wil je samen met mij werken? Doe dan mee aan de IN SPIRIT school: https://zarajula.com/in-spirit-school/ Deel jouw ervaring met deze podcast met mij op instagram: @zarajula    

In deze aflevering geeft Zara een energy update voor het komende jaar. Een belangrijke aflevering om te luisteren om echt alles uit dit jaar te kunnen halen. Want in de energy is het een heel powerful jaar, maar je moet de energie wel zo kunnen gebruiken.  Bestel Spirit Guide het boek hier:  https://zarajula.com/spirit-guide-boek/ Wil je samen met mij werken? Doe dan mee aan de IN SPIRIT school: https://zarajula.com/in-spirit-school/ Deel jouw ervaring met deze podcast met mij op instagram: @zarajula

In Spirit of a Hummingbird, Felicia Thai Heath, the daughter of Vietnamese and Chinese immigrants who met in the United States, gives us a disquieting, eventful memoir based on her early childhood on the run with her father—a notorious Vietnamese kingpin and escaped convict—and her conflicted mother. Clever and mature beyond her age, young Felicia experienced poverty and witnessed abuse as her dysfunctional family bounced around in the United States and Canada. Amid all the tumult and terror, she found ways to love her family, educate herself, navigate her world, and discover her potential. Now she must decide how to live with the past—and whether her future can include her father.Spirit of a Hummingbird was an instant Amazon Best Seller in Survival Biographies, in Emigration & Immigration Studies (Books), Asian American History, and in Poverty Studies.

Disclaimer: Any views or opinions presented in this podcast are personal and belong to the content creator. Any views or opinions are not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, club, organization, company or individual. Disclaimer: The passage of Scripture read out loud in the beginning of each podcast episode will be in Hebrew followed by the direct translation in English from the Complete Jewish Study Bible. Come listen to something different! Shalom, my dear listeners from all over the world! Welcome Iraq

In this episode of Week in Edtech, Ben and Alex discuss:1. Recap of the Edtech Insiders October Events:AI+EDU Conference 730+ Registrants and 70%+ Attendance Rate held virtuallyEdtech AI Founders Forum and Happy Hour in San Francisco2. Biden's AI executive order coming Monday, October 30th.Sweeping new Biden order aims to alter the AI landscape3. Edtech Events:AI dominates Educause conferenceASU+GSV Air Show on April 13-15, 20244. State of AI Report 2023: a 160+ page report covering trends across research, industry adoption, politics and safety of AI. Nathan Beinach's director cut (a snapshot of key themes and ideas) here.5.  American Federation of Teachers partners with AI identification platform, GPTZero6. DALL·E 3 is now available in ChatGPT Plus and Enterprise7. Blueprint Prep Introduces the First and Only AI-Powered MCAT Tutor8. K-12:Dozens of states sue Instagram-parent Meta over 'addictive' features and youth mental health harms9. Higher Ed:Undergraduate enrollment up for the first time since 2020Undergraduate enrollment increases after years of decline10. Big Tech:Slack takes week off for upskillingMultiverse cuts jobs in move away from school-leaver apprenticeshipsDuolingo Previews Its Multi-Subject Future at Duocon 2023Snap partners with edtech company Inspirit to bring its AR tech to 50 US schools11. Interview with guest Erin Mote, CEO of InnovateEDUSIIA puts out AI principles

(excerpts from the written piece - In Spirit and in Truth - theembassy.substack.com)I get it. I understand the search for meaning in community, in ritual, in spiritual experience. I just think that is a search in the wrong place.Jesus had a memorable conversation with a woman who went to a well in the middle of the day. She was a Samaritan, and the Samaritans had their own way of worshiping God. She seemed to try to justify their manner of worship to Jesus. Jesus replied that her people worshiped what they did not know.Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”Jesus - John 4:23-24God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth. Both things. Worship is the truest of spiritual experience, but we are taught here that we don't get to make it up. True spiritual experience that can transform, console, redeem, restore corresponds to the truth of the actual spirituality we are in. And it is practiced in the Spirit. That is capitalized to indicate Jesus is talking about the Holy Spirit - a particular, unique, personal Holy Spirit. (Those are statements of doctrine - but any statement about these words is a statement of doctrine - I don't think we ever get away from it, but that is probably a different article.)I don't know what comes from, using the words of Jesus “worshiping what we do not know”, but I can't believe it is good. I am fairly certain it cannot redeem or transform in any Christian understanding of those words or be transcendent in any positive sense of that word.I get it. I really do. But I don't think people will find what they really need to find there. I think what people are looking for can be found on the terms that the God who is worshiped in the Spirit and in truth has given us. He wants to be found. In his grace, He may choose to appear on other places and settings, of course - he is not bound to my confines. But He does seem normally to bind Himself to the instrument He has ordained for His worship. I think that is through His people, in the community He has ordained (however mysterious or befuddling we may find that), in the church that is His body.LinksIn Spirit and in Truth - Mike Sherman - The EmbassyLeaving the Church and Being the Church - Mike Sherman - The EmbassyHaving the Form, Denying the Power - Mike Sherman - The EmbassyThe School of Life - Alain de Botton, FounderReligion for Atheists: A Non-Believer's Guide to the Uses of Religion - Alain de BottonCan You Find God in a Bikini? - Olivia Reingold - The Free PressBurning Man Project - burningman.orgReligion Without Dogma? - C.S. Lewis - God in the Dock Get full access to The Embassy at theembassy.substack.com/subscribe

When you view intimate relations as being purely physical, you lose something incredibly important, magickal, and powerful. Human beings are not just meat suits with urges needing to be fulfilled. We are this weird and wonderful combination of incarnate (in-MEAT) and inspired (inSPIRIT).The current overculture tells us that we can sleep with whomever we want, without much consequence, and nothing could be further from the truth. Coupling with another human being is a huge portal space, one that asks for respect and an understanding of it's spiritual significance.Use Your Voice

Hearing God, part 8: In Spirit and in Truth

In John 4, when Jesus speaks with the Samaritan woman at the well, wesee a conversation that centers around true worship. True worship is done inSpirit and Truth; it honors God in our hearts, praises God with our lips, and serves other people. churchofthelakes.org

Join Emily in this episode as she interviews Sydney Shoff, founder of Sol Refill and co-owner of Inspirit. Emily and Sydney discuss how Sydney came up with & intentionally refined her business concept that aligns with the core problem she wanted to solve in the world, why many women struggle with the terms founder, entrepreneur, & CEO, and how she has overcome the obstacles of changing consumer behavior when convenience often wins out over conscious behavior, and so much more! Tune in now! IF YOU ENJOY THE PODCAST… We would love for you to subscribe, rate, and review it on Apple Podcasts! This helps more people find the show and give it a listen. Thank you in advance :) WMNûp IN YOUR BUSINESS + LEADERSHIP: www.wmnup.co/membership - Join us inside our annual WMNûp Community Membership + save 15% off when you use the code PODCAST at checkout!  www.wmnup.co/intensive - Learn more about working with Emily 1:1 in her 90-day Business Evolution Intensive + book an application call to inquire www.wmnup.co/events - Check out our local IRL events in Charleston, SC! www.wmnup.co - Download the FREE Evolutionary Leadership Masterclass today to start your WMNûp journey.  CONNECT WITH EMILY: Instagram: instagram.com/emilycasselofficial | Instagram.com/wmnup Website: www.wmnup.co CONNECT WITH SYDNEY - SOL REFILL: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/solrefill/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sydneyshoff/ Website: ⁠https://solrefill.com/⁠

微信公众号：「365读书」（dus365)，有不定期赠书福利；微博：365读书v。主播：潮羽&云公子，365天每天更新一期。 文字版已在微信公众号【365读书】发布 。QQ：647519872 背景音乐：1.William Joseph - Jesus Once of Humble Birth；2.Joe Bongiorno - With You, In Spirit；3.Xeuphoria - Lost Without You。

You don't have to be perfect. God often does his best work of grace telling the story of Jesus through our brokenness. As he meets us right where we are, we can learn to move from the cycle of works to the cycle of grace. Join us for this episode of Soul Talks as Bill and Kristi discuss Spirit-led Ministry from the CHRIST stages. While there isn't less stress during this stage, there is less striving. In Spirit-led ministry you can learn to depend on the presence of the Risen Christ at work to empower you with his strength, giftings, abilities, and power like a sailboat is activated by the wind. Resources for this Episode:Journey of the Soul: A Practical Guide to Emotional and Spiritual GrowthJourney of the Soul: Leader GuideJourney of the Soul: Soul Talk CardsSpiritual Growth Path AssessmentSoul Shepherding InstituteEarn a Certificate in Spiritual Direction

A verse-by-verse study of John 2-4 (which includes the stories of Jesus changing water to wine, the visit of Nicodemus, and Christ's conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well). This lesson focuses on the marriage at Cana, filling the waterpots, faith precedes the miracle, multiplying our joy, cleansing the Temple, being born again, catching the wind, understanding symbolism, ascending or descending, God's love for the world, John decreasing and Jesus increasing, Jews and Samaritans, gifts to give, deep wells and living water, where or how we worship, spirit and truth, fields to harvest, the healing of the nobleman's son, and more.  0:00 Introduction 2:27 The Grand Inquisitor 11:34 John 2-4 and The Chosen 14:59 The Marriage at Cana 19:46 Mary's Plea 25:40 Filling the Waterpots 34:06 Water to Wine 37:55 Faith Precedes the Miracle 41:34 Lessons from the Miracle 47:39 Multiplying Our Joy 53:40 Cleansing the Temple 1:07:10 Zeal and Authority 1:16:44 Nicodemus 1:23:20 Born Again 1:28:31 Catching the Wind 1:32:52 Great Expectations 1:38:30 Understanding Symbolism 1:45:57 Ascending or Descending Wisdom 1:52:10 For God So Loved the World 2:07:19 John Decreasing, Jesus Increasing 2:18:33 Receiving a Testimony of Christ 2:27:03 Jesus & His Disciples Baptize 2:32:33 Passing through Samaria 2:37:41 The Woman at the Well 2:44:13 Literary Foils 2:47:15 Jesus, Samaritans, & Gifts to Give 2:55:46 Deep Wells & Living Water 3:05:56 A Call to Share & a Call to Repent 3:13:33 Where or How We Worship 3:24:56 In Spirit and in Truth 3:35:32 Jesus Reveals His Identity 3:40:59 Leaving Her Waterpot 3:45:11 Meat to Eat & Fields to Harvest 3:55:10 Gaining Our Own Testimony 4:00:00 Healing the Nobleman's Son 4:05:08 Conclusion