Billiards Ball

Jesus was born in 4 BC and died at age 33 1/2 on Passover (April of that year) in 30 AD. Does that help?

Salvation is a one-time act, trusting Jesus, not self, for Heaven, but sanctification, refined Christian behavior, takes time, effort, Bible study, etc. I've done things even this week I dislike. Judge who is a Christian based on testimony, "Yes, I've trusted Jesus, not me, my good works or efforts, for salvation".

And if you raised a person with only the Bible: * They would rejoice in trials and suffering * They would be greatly moral, whether they were believers or not * They would understand the human mind and heart The Bible IS the guide to the universal moral law code, summed as "Love God and other people".

I'm familiar with the arguments for annihilationism. My remarks about assurance, if annihilation is a true doctrine, are still valid: *John 3 says born agains shall not perish (never be annihilated) *Romans 6 says salvation (no annihilation) is a free gift of God, and Romans 8 says the gifts of God (includes no annihilation) are irrevocable (cannot be undone/taken back/returned) Please note, the word "aion", for example, (age or eternity) is used, even in the same verses, for the righteous and wicked in the NT. Therefore, either Hell is eternal or, if annihilation is correct, the wicked live the same shorter-than-eternal time as the righteous (an aion), so the wicked must be suffering during that aion. Annihilation is okay to believe, therefore, if it doesn't slow the urgency and frequency of your gospel sharing. However, I dislike the pop saying that "no church on Earth has 100% right doctrine" because in major/important doctrines, a Bible church CAN be 100% correct, and the implication is that the cults are correct about annihilationism (Watchtower Society et al) and that we should be paranoid about/distrusting of evangelical churches, which is wrong on its face.

No, we are talking about the adoption. I'm adopted by God and Satan cannot resurrect the old man that died on the cross. I'm saved!

Trusting Jesus for salvation IS "getting right with God", aka "born again" or "saved". The day BB stopped trusting BB and BB trusted Jesus for salvation was the day I was saved. No one disagrees with the gospel’s logic of perfection vs. imperfection: 1) Ask someone, “Are you, like me, morally imperfect, and you disobey your inner voice?” 2) After their “Sure!” say “If there’s a Heaven or utopia [long pause] we can’t go! If I hurt your feelings in Heaven or vice versa, it’s not Heaven. How can imperfect people get to Heaven?” People usually respond, “Do you have a solution?” 3) Say “The solution is a person. The Bible explains that Jesus Christ, being God, innocent and perfect, switched places with us on the cross. He died a horrible death by torture to take our sin, guilt and shame, our imperfection. He then rose from the dead, and as the Bible says, “God loved the world in this way--He gave His Son [I hold one hand up], so whoever trusts Him [I raise my other hand] shall not perish but has eternal life [I fold the fingers of my hands together].” (Trust is clearer than “believe” for John 3:16.) Put another way, “God made Jesus, who was perfect, to be imperfect [I cross my arms over each other] for us, that we who are imperfect might become as perfect as God.”” (2 Corinthians 5:21)

The Bible does not teach "...without confessing my sin to Him and repentance" I lose salvation. Jesus told me the truth in John 3 that I shall not perish. Or please consider Romans 6, "Salvation is a gift" and Romans 8, "The gifts and calling of God are IRREVOCABLE".

You are being led differently, yes, according to your understanding. There are some believers who are not as loving as you, who instead push the Sabbath as only Saturday and as a command principle and not a free will offering. To be frank, I meet people who give God a Sabbath voluntarily or eat kosher voluntarily but I think the main offering from us now is evangelism and discipleship, not just personal holiness. Thanks for understanding.

I agree we should find unity, although I don't have more to share, to go round for "hours". You want to keep any of the 613 laws, not unto salvation, that's a preference. Keep a law unto salvation? Legalism, and heresy. Marry your brother's wife or wear cotton only if you like. As a Jew, I reject the concept that I can do things for myself that Messiah already did for me.

I didn't say you did, but I can qualify my statement. It's not magic to meet on Saturday instead of Sunday. No one "grows extra" because they rest on Saturday and not Tuesday. No one "sins less" because they rest on Saturday rather than do some work for some or all of the day, etc. If you can tell me how we "grow more" resting on Saturday, I will tell you I believe in the Sabbath principle (get some rest, don't burn out, spend extra time with the Lord) but that nothing magical happens when my calendar moves, and that the Lord Jesus Christ did not command Xian believers to meet on Saturday. IF HE HAD, a lot of Jews would have been "outed" as Jewish Christians and DIED in the first centuries after Christ! These Jews could go to SYNAGOGUE on Saturday then meet Saturday night or Sunday morning or Wednesday afternoon or Tuesday in homes to enjoy Christianity.

Jews would not handle money on Shabbos until after sundown. You would then say, "On Shabbos, we met with Paul and gave him money," and I would understand it was Saturday night. And because the Bible translators know that Jews did not handle money on Shabbos, they made an acceptable translation, early on the first day of the week. It's not a conspiracy to tell us they met in the early church on Saturday night in homes, to get us to meet in buildings on Sunday!

I'm a Jew, I reject any law-keeping that deceives a Gentile or Jewish Christian into thinking they're magically closer to God for doing so. The Sabbath principle is great, take a rest. Telling believers they're sinning because they meet on Sunday, not so much.

The "first day of the week" is when they HANDLED THE COLLECTION OF MONEY, which did NOT happen until Saturday night, it IS the first day of the week, Saturday night to Sunday.

The word said Paul was talking a lot and Eutychus fell asleep, not "it was the same weekly service, the one where the guy always falls asleep and falls to his death". AND the Jewish Christians would not be able to always name Yeshua in the wider non-saved congregation! Think about it, when they started to separate, because the master said put down the sword, around 100-120 CE, there was NO WAY the Christian Jews were "just in synagogue late on Saturdays".

Ask what should you do this week? Month? Year? Be faithful with today, tomorrow will have trials for sure. Are you asking about an aptitude or career test/score?

One of the worst things a writer can do (I write and am published) is ask others for content advice. Write your book for you and God, then maybe have a trusted person read it when you're done, before submitting it for publication.

You are certainly correct, and friends have little or no response when I remind them I died to Moses's Law to be wed to Jesus to bear REAL fruit for the Lord (Romans 7). I did not die to the Law to re-wed to it!

All things are lawful, but not all are profitable.

No problem, I enjoyed our peaceful interaction and I send my love. Please do take care, though, if you tell other Jewish people, especially Jewish Christians, that "their past" clouds their understanding of the Law!

Only in part did you respond to what I said, and that's okay, but you made my point for me. Good Jewish Christians in the Ancient Near East went to synagogue--or they were expelled from Jewish life. They sometimes shared Jesus, but if they did, there could be trouble. The NT is clear that the Jewish Christians, when they wanted meetings led by themselves or Christian leaders (without, say, a nonChristian Rabbi shouting them down) met on Saturday night after the Sabbath ended. The Gentile proselytes heard Moses Saturdays and didn't change their whole lives when they trusted Christ. It was Saturday night because money was handled, wine was drunk, and it was just as the NT says EARLY ON THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK, which isn't Sunday morning but Saturday night, when the Sabbath ends and the new day begins. Jesus was "eight" due to gematria and other things and after the seventh day--AFTER Sabbath comes the eighth day, considered by the ancients even better than the seventh, perhaps, where there would be circumcision blood (the blood of the covenant the nonChristian Jew disregarded in Hebrews, not the blood of Christ, pointing to Christ) and where God was beginning His works again, etc. If we reduce the 613 to 100 for redundancies, will that work for you? You've made some extraordinary comments here like "my past means I don't understand the Law properly" and it's my Law, not yours. But if there are only 100 laws, why do you fervently keep some (non-Jewish style Bible kosher, Sabbath, murder) but not others (Levirate marriage, pigeon sacrifice, non-mixed garments, post the commands on your house door, etc.)? Yes, if Jesus confronted me, I would say the 10 are nothing compared to HIM just as I'd say I hate my parents compared to Him. No idols! Great. ONE GOD! Greater! Don't murder! Don't adulter! My wife came home last night and said she's been romantically involved with a man for 10 years, kissing and hugging, fondling, but no intercourse, than wondered why I didn't praise her for honoring the big 10, after all, she never committed adultery...

Do you have a NT or OT command where GENTILES need to rest on HIS DAY? If you did, I don't think you'd have mentioned the ark of Revelation.

I didn't say Paul rested on Sunday, I said the NT is clear that money was collected in early church meetings, and that the church meeting on a Saturday could get a Jew killed. NT Jews did NOT handle money on Sabbath, but they did EARLY ON THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK when the churches met. EARLY ON THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK is Saturday NIGHT. They didn't need to meet SUNDAY MORNING. In love, let's discuss anything you want as long you draw off what I actually write!

Is Hebrews 10 the sole statement of what Christ did regarding our relationship to the Law? Of course not. I was wed to the Law as a Jew and if I cling to Christ without dying to the Law, I'm an adulterer (Romans 7). By the way, He took away the first (covenant with the Law) to establish the second (covenant with Christ). That's your Hebrews 10 statement that all the Law is weaker than the Christ for it (THE LAW) made NOTHING PERFECT. Why would I perfectly keep a Sabbath to make NOTHING perfect? That makes no sense! In love, BB.

The world will be judged by who has trusted Christ and who hasn't. The Law was given to the Jewish people. I don't understand why many Christians feel they must try to keep some but not all of the Law.

Yes, the council was very early in the history of the church, and the Gentile proselytes (interested in synagogue attendance) would of course hear Moses weekly in shul. If you are taking this as proscriptive, however, you would have to logically say that all Christians need to study the Penteteuch weekly on Saturdays, too, but one of the biggest problems Jesus faced (and I still face) is how Jews take Moses way above all else in the scripture! I know Job and Daniel and Isaiah, for example, teach the resurrection, but Moses doesn't clearly, so Jesus had to exegete Exodus 3 to get the point across. Do you, today, expect Gentile Christians to convert to Judaism, so that they are allowed in religious synagogues to obey to hear Moses each and every Saturday?! I've never said the Sabbath isn't Saturday. I've rather said the Sabbath is eternal! So? It's not salvific nor sanctifying to rest on that day of the week. You can rest any day you please. And are you saying Jesus rested in the tomb for 24 hours only, in death, on the Sabbath? Isn't that heresy since He was "in the belly of the Earth three days and nights"? I hear your zeal for Saturday. Romans says enjoy that zeal. But Christians don't sin by going to church Sunday (or Monday... or Tuesday...)!