JohnD

And the pagan fertility symbols of bunnies and colored eggs? And the yule log and mistletoe while you're at it? I've studied and heard all the lame excuses to mask the compromise and influx of paganism into the faith.

Bear in mind, every Jewish holy day is a testimony of Yeshua Jesus the Messiah. And it was stupid to throw them out and reinvent church holidays.

Roman Catholicism is the outcome of the great hijacking of the early Church under Emperor Constantine. Essentially, it is what the Roman Empire eventually morphed into. Instead of an Emperor, a Pope. Instead of a Senate, the body of Cardinals. Instead of regional governors, Bishops. Etc. And the world capital of this empire with a Christian label on it is... Rome, Italy. Constantine legalized Christianity to prop up his crumbling empire. It was fractured enough to have to have two capital cities to govern it. And Christianity despite the heinous persecution had a cohesion his empire sorely lacked. Then came the realization that no human government enjoys the loyalty and perpetuity that a religion does. So, Constantine and his mother Helena set out to build a religion with a Christian face to it. Through this abomination entered most all of the pagan traditions the Church today is rife with. Pagan fertility symbols like colored eggs and bunnies ritualistically contaminate the observance of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. And no matter the convoluted attempts to explain away the pagan name Easter, it is still a reference to the ancient pagan goddess Astarte / Ishtar (which predates the Germanic verbiage scholars who attempt to claim the name isn't pagan). Jesus did not ordain the observation of his resurrection or his birth. He ordained the observation of his death until he returns in the definition of Passover Seder (this is my body, this is my blood) which the Roman Catholics also distorted with the Eucharist transubstantiation. Most Protestant denominations did not reform enough having carried most Roman Catholic doctrine / dogma / traditions with them. When Jesus saves anyone, it is despite all these compromises, heresies, and traditions of man.

Hebrews 10:20 (KJV) 20 By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;

Luke 23:43 Jesus said to the thief on the cross who believed in him "today you will be with me in paradise." The only passages in scripture the word paradise appear in are: Luke 23:43 2 Corinthians 12:4 Revelation 2:7 Each one refers to Heaven where God is. Jesus in his body laid in the tomb (heart of the earth) three days and three nights (Matthew 12:39-40) but his Spirit (which is eternal and cannot die) descended to sheol to announce the victory to all sides there (1 Peter 3:18-19) then took the inhabitants of Abraham's Bosom to heaven that self same day (Ephesians 4:8-10) in that three hour time span from his death on the cross at 3 PM till sunset 14 Nisan 32 CE. Since the cross all who die in Christ go directly to heaven in spirit (2 Corinthians 5:8). The thief on the cross who died after Jesus died was the first Christian believer to go directly to heaven in death. Later, when Jesus was raised from the dead and said in John 20:17 that he had not yet ascended to the Father, he was referring to his resurrected form. He had not ascended to the Father in his resurrected form yet. But in his disembodied Spirit, he had been in heaven for almost every hour of the three days and and three nights his body laid lifeless in the tomb.

Bless his heart. Sacred to death.

I just want to rescue them all...

Several controversial doctrines are proven true or false when we learn that God calls people apart from the rest of the world in two ways: * physically * spiritually A distinction was made from earliest days between those who are faithful to God (spiritually) and those who are not. Abel was faithful to God, Cain was not. Noah and his family were faithful to God, no one else was. Etc. But God also made another distinction when he called Abram of the Chaldeans apart from his people and from the rest of the world to build a physical house and later a physical nation of people (Israel) through which God would usher his Word into the world in two forms: * the written Word * the Living Word This physical house / nation / people are the chosen of God (physically). They are born into this heritage. But there is yet a distinction within this election: * physical * spiritual Deuteronomy 10:16 (KJV) 16 Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked. Notice this calling can apply to females as well as males. The act of physical circumcision is a sign of physical heritage but the act of circumcision of the heart is an act of spiritual fidelity and submission to the Spirit of God. It is a calling and an election. Philippians 3:3 (KJV) 3 For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. This is the point the Apostle Paul was making in: Romans 2:28–29 (KJV) 28 For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: 29 But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God. And: Romans 9:6 (KJV) 6 Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel: Romans 2:28... he is not a spiritual Jew which is one outwardly neither is spiritual circumcision of the outward flesh... but he is a spiritual Jew who is one inwardly and spiritual circumcision is of the heart in the spirit... not in the legal heritage but whose praise (literally whose judahiteness see Genesis 29:35) is not of humanity (the flesh) but of God (the Spirit). Romans 9:6... for they who are of physical Israel are not all (or complete) Spirit Israel... Nothing else makes sense about these passages. There is three categories in God's economy: * pagan unbelievers (gentiles) * Physical Israel / Judah * Spirit Israel And this is why there is no mention of the nations / gentiles (pagan unbelievers) who would be included in the New Covenant: Jeremiah 31:31–34 (KJV) 31 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: 32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: 33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. This settles the score about: * who are the chosen / elect * the kingdom of God / kingdom of heaven * replacement theology / inclusion theology And the text in Jeremiah goes on to say: Jeremiah 31:35–37 (KJV) 35 Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name: 36 If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever. 37 Thus saith the LORD; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the LORD. Physical Israel will remain a people as long as there is an earth and heaven. But Spirit Israel will be with God in the New Heaven - Earth after the present earth and heaven are passed away. Certain false doctrines have emerged that blur the lines of distinction between Physical and Spirit Jews (that the Jews have another method of salvation in God's plan or a second chance of various figments of people's fertile imaginations), but it is the same for the Jew as anyone else that we must believe in the Messiah Yeshua Jesus and nothing else or no one else (John 14:6, John 3:16-18, Ephesians 2:8-10). And even in the ability for God to graft Jewish people back into the vine (Romans 11) it still remains an issue that only "if they do not continue in unbelief" (Romans 11:23). The Jewish people are the chosen people of Earth. Spiritual Jews are the chosen people of heaven: Galatians 4:21–31 (KJV) 21 Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? 22 For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. 23 But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. 24 Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. 25 For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. 26 But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. 27 For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband. 28 Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. 29 But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. 30 Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman. 31 So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.

Um... Jesus is the Testator of the New Testament. The point is that the Old Testament was in effect until the cross of Christ. The New Testament did not begin until then: Matthew 27:50 Mark 15:37 Luke 23:46 John 19:30 Everything before these scripture references is OLD Testament. The Sermon on the Mount is Old Testament... etc.

God Bless You All ! ! !

In the overall context of the Bible it is fair to say that Elijah was taken UP into the sky, but by the word of the Lord Jesus that no one ascended to heaven but him indicates Elijah had not ascended to the third heaven where God's throne is. He simply went up into the first heaven (sky) until out of sight of Elisha. His destination (and Enoch's) were as the rest of the faithful dead until the cross: Sheol to the side Luke 16 refers to as the Bosom of Abraham. When Jesus died on the cross, he descended to Sheol to declare the victory and to ascend to the third heaven with all the faithful dead in Abraham's Bosom the self same day he died on the cross (Luke 23:43, Ephesians 4:8-10, 1 Peter 3:18-19). And there, ever since that ascension, all the faithful dead go directly to the third heaven in death spiritually (2 Corinthians 5:8) until the general resurrection at the last day (Revelation 20:10-15).

I am not good with money. Never have been. I entrust that burden to my more than capable Beloved Bride. ← who could have been a famous lawyer I do understand that where money is involved there are MANY rabbit trails. 1 + 1 = 2 in my way of thinking but then comes the subterfuge when $$$ is involved... well that depends on what side of the ledger and in which set of books you are recording this... And it has gone for millennia. I wouldn't deal with banks or markets etc. if I never had to. But they have society by the small hairs... Now they are wanting us to trust and invest in automation currency. The more automated anything is the easier it is to hack. That's strike number one. The more automated anything is, the easier it is to lose that which you cannot afford to lose. Strike two. The more automated anything is, the harder it is for its backers to obscure the fact that they are ripping the rest of us off. Strike three. You OUTTA HERE ! ! ! P.S. has anyone actually explained what bit coin really is?

Let's get to the root on the matter. Prophet / prophecy / prophesy / prophetic all come from the same root word and meaning: To profess. To make a statement. Prophet = Professor Prophesy / prophecy = profess Prophetic = profession. So you see, little emphasis is to be truly placed on the one having the honor of professing the Word of God. The emphasis is on the profession (the Word of God) instead. And this understanding also lends itself to the distinction between prophecy and predictive prophecy. All of which hinges on the Word of God and the God who is giving us his Word. Prophecy can declare current issues and events, past issues and events, or future issues and events. So you see, it's all about God and his Word and his ability to see all things past present and future. And nothing to do with man (except the honor bestowed by God upon the human mouthpiece / scribe).