Sunday Report
There is a lot this week, Thursday was Ascension Day, Sunday was
not only the Sunday after Ascension Day, but Mother’s Day. There are
parts following for each!
Ascension Day
The Collect
|
G
|
RANT,
we beseech thee, Almighty God, that like as we do believe thy only-begotten Son
our Lord Jesus Christ to have ascended into the heavens; so we may also in
heart and mind thither ascend, and with him continually dwell, who liveth and
reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.
¶ This Collect
is to be said daily throughout the Octave.
For the Epistle.
Acts i. 1.
|
T
|
HE
former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do
and teach, until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the
Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen: to whom
also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being
seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom
of God: and, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they
should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father,
which, saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water; but
ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. When they
therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at
this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, It is not
for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own
power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you:
and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judæa, and in Samaria,
and unto the uttermost part of the earth. And when he had spoken these things,
while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their
sight. And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold,
two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why
stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you
into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.
The Gospel. St. Luke
xxiv. 49.
|
J
|
ESUS
said, Behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the
city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high. And he led them
out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them. And it
came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up
into heaven. And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy:
and were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God.
Ascensiontide
Messsage from the Presiding Bishop
We live in an age of sensationalism and fantasy which
often passes, among the naïve and spiritually gullible, for reality. On today’s
charts there are books and DVDs claiming their authors to have made visits to
either Heaven or Hell, and then returned to tell us of the fabulous experience
they enjoyed there. Unlike the writings of CS Lewis such as The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe,
which derive from higher Gospel truth, these fables have no authority in
biblical truth and openly violate that truth.
The modern apostate
churches have ventured into like error and open defiance of Gospel truth. Is
there nothing sacred to the spiritual scoundrels of our day – not even Heaven
itself? Reflecting on that great Creed of the Church, whose every claim is profoundly
biblical, we aver Sunday after Sunday that Christ is the Son of the Father who
came down to us by assuming a carnal body through the agency of the Holy Spirit
and the Virgin, lived a sinless life marked by miracles and holiness, died a
substitutionary death on the cross for our sins, was buried, and rose the third
day according to the scriptures. He ascended into Heaven and sitteth on the
right hand of God the Father. Do we believe this? Do we believe that Christ is
uniquely the Son of the Father. Do we believe that his descent and ascension
distinguish Him from all us mortals? Or was Christ wrong in His description of
Himself as the Bread that came down from Heaven? If we believe Christ (and our
mortal souls depend on that belief), He is the only Man who descended from
Heaven and ascended again. If we believe, then all the popular claims of the
sensationalists are egregious lies from the pits of Hell.
Christ is distinct and
different in His Office as Son of God and, even Himself, very God. He descended
for us mortals, and ascended on High where He intercedes for us with the
Father. And He will come again in like manner of his ascent to receive His
Bride, the Church. Where will we own our estate if we have not believed in the
immutable Word of God for He it is who bought and paid for us.
At this Ascensiontide, let
us reaffirm that biblical faith once delivered to the saints and reject the
fables and myths of ungodly men.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy Ghost. Amen.
The Most Rev. Jerry L. Ogles
Presiding Bishop
Anglican Orthodox
Church
Sign over the
Door
Whosoever thou art
that entereth this church, remember it is the House of God; be reverent, be
silent, be thoughtful & prayerful; and leave it not without a prayer to God
for thyself, for him who ministers, and for those who worship here.
The Sunday after Ascension Day
Mothers Day
Before we go on, a little on mothers
On this Mother’s Day, it is very easy for us to look
back at our mother’s life and think of all the things we like about our
mother. We like, it is all about our mother and what she did for
us. The pivotal thought seems to
be us. It is not about us, our /
us is merely an adjective to describe a particular mother. For motherhood is about
self-sacrifice. Putting the
child’s welfare above that of the mother.
The love of the mother for her children comes with a
price. The price paid is not
without return. The last
words of almost all soldiers who die in battle are either “Mom” or
“Jesus.” There is a lesson all in
of itself.
What did your mom chose? An extra child or an extra home or trailer? Your schooling, or her vacation without
you? Dental work for you or a new
car for her? Shoes for you or a
fancy dress for her?
Jesus commanded us to follow Him, He who put our
lives before His. Who on this
earth does this more consistently than mothers?
Saint James tells us in his Epistle, “Be ye doers of
the word and not hearers only.” Who on this earth does this more consistently
than mothers?
As Christians we need to uphold and recognize the
example of sacrifice in motherhood so that we might understand the sacrifice
made by God on our behalf in Jesus’ death for our sin.
On
Point
Someone asked, where do the quotes come
from? The answer is from the
people who uttered them. But, how
did you find them? Oh, that. Some from Bishop Jerry, others from Rev
Bryan Dabney, a few from other places, but mostly from Bryan. He always has a few great ones to
share. So, on to the On Point
quotes –
"A new race of men is springing up to
govern the nation; they are the hunters after popularity, even ambitious not of
the honor so much as of the profits of office - the demagogues, whose
principles hang laxly upon them, and who follow not so much what is right as
what leads to a temporary vulgar applause."
Joseph
Story
Law Professor, Harvard, 1829-1845
and you thought this was news – Bp Jerry
Take
heed that, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is.
St.
Mark 13:33
Verily,
I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child
shall in no wise enter therein.
St.
Luke 18:17
Known
unto God are all his works form the beginning of the world.
Acts
15:18
Church leadership must decide who is going to grow their church. You
either grow it with man or with God. God’s way produces disciples changed for
life; man’s way produces attendees that come as they are and leave as they
were.
Ray
Baumann
21st century Christian
commentator.
A cyclical view of time precludes any singular beginning of the world.
So Buddha says, ‘no origin can be perceived.’ Corresponding to this, the new
[Bible] versions have no ‘beginning of the world’ but present instead a series
of ‘ages’. In place of In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth
(Genesis 1:1), one new version begins with ‘By periods God created’, showing
the author’s belief in progressive ages. ‘New’ Greek editor B. F. Westcott
writes, ‘No one now... holds that the first three chapters of Genesis give a
literal history... I could never understand how anyone reading them with open
eyes could think they did.’... In the new bibles, the world doesn’t end... If
the world ends, the sinner has nothing to stand on; if the age ends, he merely
changes his calendar.
Gail
Riplinger
20th and 21st century
American Bible scholar and author
(New Age Bible Versions, pp. 284-285)
The reason that Mary, the saints or angels cannot act as our priest or
mediator is because they have no sacrifice, nothing to offer in behalf of our
sins. Only a priest with a true sacrifice can serve as mediator between God and
men. Christ alone has a true sacrifice, and he alone can act as our priest.
Dr.
Loraine Boettner
20th century American Reformed
scholar and author
(Roman Catholicism, p. 149)
Propers
Each Sunday there are Propers:
special prayers and readings from the Bible. There is a Collect for the Day; that is a single thought
prayer, most written either before the re-founding of the Church of England in
the 1540s or written by Bishop Thomas Cranmer, the first Archbishop of
Canterbury after the re-founding.
The Collect for the Day is to be
read on Sunday and during Morning and Evening Prayer until the next Sunday. The
Epistle is normally a reading from one of the various Epistles, or letters, in
the New Testament. The Gospel is a
reading from one of the Holy Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The Collect is said by the minister as
a prayer, the Epistle can be read by either a designated reader (as we do in
our church) or by one of the ministers and the Holy Gospel, which during the church
service is read by an ordained minister.
The propers are the same each
year, except if a Red Letter Feast, that is one with propers in the prayerbook,
falls on a Sunday, then those propers are to be read instead, except in a White
Season, where it is put off. Red
Letter Feasts, so called because in the Altar Prayerbooks the titles are in
red, are special days. Most of the
Red Letter Feasts are dedicated to early saints instrumental in the development
of the church, others to special events.
Some days are particularly special and the Collect for that day is to be
used for an octave (eight days) or an entire season, like Advent or Lent.
The Propers for today are found
on Page 179-180, with the Collect first:
The
Sunday after Ascension Day.
The
Collect.
|
O
|
GOD, the King of
glory, who hast exalted thine only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph unto thy
kingdom in heaven; We beseech thee, leave us not comfortless; but send to us
thine Holy Ghost to comfort us, and exalt us un-to the same place whither our
Saviour Christ is gone before, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the same
Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.
The Collect for Ascension Day,
found on Page 177, is also read due to the rubric:
The
Collect for The Ascension Day.
The
Collect.
|
G
|
RANT, we beseech thee, Almighty
God, that like as we do believe thy only-begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ to
have ascended into the heavens; so we may also in heart and mind thither
ascend, and with him continually dwell, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the
Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.
¶ This Collect is to be said
daily throughout the Octave.
Dru Arnold read this morning’s Epistle, which is written
in the Fourth Chapter of the First Epistle of Saint Peter beginning at the
Seventh Verse. Peter reminds us of
the shortness of our lives, the eternity of the next world and implores us to
live as if we were eternal now, not wait until we die. For the, eternity will
be a bit late.
|
T
|
HE end of
all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer. And above
all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the
multitude of sins. Use hospitality
one to another without grudging. As every man hath received the gift, even so
minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of
God. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man
minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all
things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion
for ever and ever. Amen.
Hap Arnold
read today’s Holy Gospel came from the Fifteenth Chapter of the Gospel
according to Saint John beginning at the Twenty-Sixth Verse. The Gospel talks about the origin of
the Holy Ghost and the reason for which He is being sent. It also foretells the enmity that
Christians will find from those of this world who do not share their
understanding of God and His Will:
|
W
|
HEN the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the
Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall
testify of me: and ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me
from the beginning. These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be
offended. They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that
whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. And these things
will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me. But
these things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember
that I told you of them.
Sermon – Reverend Deacon Jack Arnold - Time
and Action
Today’s sermon brought the Collect, Epistle and
Gospel together and is partly contained in the forewords above.
Once again the propers for this
week come together very well, their focus is narrow, thus powerful.
Consider these words from the
Collect:
… We beseech
thee, leave us not comfortless; but send to us thine Holy Ghost to comfort us,
and exalt us un-to the same place whither our Saviour Christ is gone before
…
The Ascension having just
happened, Jesus having ascended in to heaven, we are alone and separated from
God who gives us strength. Like
Peter, the further we are from God, the weaker we are. Thus, we are looking towards Pentecost
and the arrival of the Holy Ghost.
We ask for God’s help that we might have the true belief, courage,
knowledge and strength to follow Jesus to heaven for all eternity.
While the end of the earth and
this world may come at any time, for 285,000 people each day, their time here
is up. Thus, in a very real sense
as Saint Peter put it, “The end of all things is at hand…” So, how should we act? We are to do what we can with a smile
on our face. To work hard, take
care of those who cannot and be good stewards of the considerable grace God has
given us. This does not just refer
to spending MONEY, but rather to giving of our time and effort to bring the
Gifts of God to others. We must give ourselves entirely to help others, so that
we may share the benefits of the Gift of God truly. Then we will know the grace
of God’s love truly. We are to
share the LOVE in our hearts with those we encounter, for Love is of God.
But, without the Holy Ghost,
the needed action on our part is impossible. We need God’s help and He sent it in the form of the Holy
Ghost. He sent it as the “Comforter”, that is to Comfort us and to Guide us on
the journey on the narrow uphill path towards heaven. The Holy Ghost is that
portion of God who can enter our hearts bringing understanding, hope and most
of all the courage and determination to do what needs be done. Those who will not have Him in their
hearts can never understand God and His Will. That is why they cannot understand or fathom the plan He has
for us. The end of time is nearer each day than the day before, of that we can
be certain. The current climate in
the world and even in this country is less hospitable than in centuries to
Christians. There is a reason for
this which only God understands and not us. But what it is doing is solidifying
the faith of true believers around the globe, and forming the Army of Light
together, ready to battle against the malicious forces of Satan. We cannot make
this journey alone. We must have
the close and continuous presence of God.
That presence is the Holy Ghost.
That is why He is here.
Pray for His continual presence
in your heart.
Heaven is at the end of an
uphill trail. The easy downhill
trail does not lead to the summit.
The time is now, not tomorrow. The time has come, indeed. How will you ACT?
It is by our actions we are known.
Be of God - Live of God - Act of God
Bishop Ogles’
Sermon
We are oft fortunate to get
copies of Bishop Jerry’s sermon notes.
Today is not one of those Sundays. He will not be sending sermon notes today as he preached at a
Korean Church and the sermon is 50% Korean language and script. Next Sunday for sure! [2]
Bishop
Dennis Campbell’s Sermon
Bishop Dennis is a brilliant
speaker. He is able to take
biblical precepts and make them perfectly understandable, even to me. Oft he provides the text of his sermons
and I take the utmost pleasure in passing them on:
Why We still Believe[3]
1 Peter 4:7- 11, John 15:26-16:4
Sunday after Ascension
May 12, 2013
The
Christian faith is either revealed truth from God, or it is just one of many
made up stories that we can identify with or not as we choose. Christian morality is either God's law
binding upon all people at all times, or it is just another competing human
view which we are free to accept or reject as we please. Yet billions of people down through
history, many of them the brightest lights of humanity, have earnestly believed
the Christian faith is truth from God.
Even today billions of people still believe. The World
Council of Churches claims to have 590 million members. There are over 330,000
protestant denominations. 300 million people are part of the Eastern Orthodox
Church. 1.2 billion people are
Roman Catholics. I personally have
problems calling some of these people Christians, but the fact is, they believe
they are, and that raises a question; why, in this, "enlightened"
age, do so many still believe? Why
do we still cling to Christianity?
We still
cling to Christianity because we believe it is the faith given by God. We say this because we believe Jesus
Christ brought the Christian faith to us, and we believe Jesus Christ was is
and forever will be, God. We
believe He is the word who was with God and who was God in John 1:1. We believe He is the word who became
flesh in John 1:14. We believe Him
when He said in John 10:30, "I and my Father are one, " and in John
8:18, "the Father that sent me beareth witness of me," and, "he
that hath seen me hath seen the Father" in John 14:9. Thus we agree fully with Hebrews 1:1
and 2, "God, who at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in times
past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken to us by
his Son."
How did
God speak to us in His Son Jesus Christ?
He spoke to us in the teaching of Jesus. Jesus came to teach us about God. He said,"I do nothing of myself; but as the Father hath
taught me, I speak these things"
(Jn. 8:18). Looking through
the Bible we see Jesus spending most of His time teaching about God. We see the Sermon on the Mount. We see Him teaching in the synagogues
and in the Temple. We especially
see Him teaching the men who would become His Apostles. We see Him taking them aside for
special times of private instruction.
He even spent time teaching them after His resurrection. Thus, on the Emmaus road,
"beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all
the scriptures the things concerning himself" (Lk. 24:27).
It was
these same men that He commissioned to be His witnesses, preaching the same
faith He gave to them. They were
"ambassadors for Christ" (2 Cor. 5:20), and "stewards of the mysteries of God" (1 Cor
4:1). They were to proclaim
only what they had received from Christ, the very same faith He taught, the
very word of Christ.. They were to
"preach the word," as the Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy (2 Tim
4:1). And they were to pass that
same word on to others, who were to pass it on to others, and so it will continue down through
the generations (2 Tim. 2:2).
So we
believe the Christian faith is given to the world by God, and taught in the
Church from the time of Christ to this very moment. It was preserved by God through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit enabled the Apostles to
understand and preserve the faith.
They preserved it by teaching it, and commissioning others to teach
it. They also preserved it by
recording it in the books and letters we now call the New Testament.
We
believe God established a people, a kingdom, an organization called the Church,
and a major part of its purpose is to preserve and proclaim the faith. given to
it. We believe the Church was
established by God, for Christ Himself said, "on this rock I will build my
church." We believe all
Christians are to be active and faithful members of the Church. For Hebrews 10:25 tells us not to
absent ourselves from its meetings.
Christ gave the faith to the Church and the Bible calls Christianity the
faith once delivered to the saints.
This is why St. Paul calls the Church the pillar and ground of truth,
because it preserves the faith given to it by Christ.
For two
thousand years the Church has struggled to preserve the faith. It has been persecuted by enemies, and
untold numbers of her people have died in Coliseums and dungeons and on
crosses, rather than give up the faith.
It has been torn by heresy.
I said earlier that I have a hard time calling some people
Christians. That is because so
many of them have adopted other gospels and given up on the faith given by
Christ. This is not surprising to
us, for the Bible itself says the time will come when people will not endure
sound doctrine, and will turn away from the truth to fables. I submit to you that many who call
themselves Christians today are actually following fables rather than truth. Yet God has His remnant, His people who
have not bowed the knee to other gods or departed from the faith. It is this Invisible Church within the
Church that is the true Church.
And, though not perfect in either faith or practice, not even close to
perfection, this Church continues in the faith, and always will.
That
brings me to this present moment and this very place. It brings me to we who call ourselves Christians here and
now. The faith has been given. It has come to us at great cost and
much suffering. It is ours to
believe, to treasure, and to preserve, and to hand down to future
generations. Having it makes us
stewards of the manifold grace of God, as the Apostle Peter wrote in the
passage we read earlier this morning.
But I note that Peter didn't just call us stewards of the grace of
God. He told us to do certain
things, "as good stewards of the manifold grace of God." He is saying that having the grace of
God makes us its stewards. Now we
must decide to be bad stewards, or good stewards. God help us to be good stewards.
--
+Dennis
Campbell
Bishop, Anglican
Orthodox Church Diocese of Virginia
Rector, Holy
Trinity Anglican Orthodox Church
Powhatan,
Virginia
Rev
Bryan Dabney of Saint John’s Sunday Sermon
We are fortunate to
have Bryan’s Sunday Sermon. If you
want people to come to The Truth, you have to speak the truth, expouse the
truth and live the truth. This is really a good piece and I
commend it to your careful reading.
Sunday after Ascension Day
In his Gospel writing, Chapter Three, verses
16-18, John, the beloved disciple of our Lord, drew a clear distinction between
those who believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and those who do not. His
words bear out the exclusivity of the Christian religion when he said, He that
believeth on him (the Christ) is not condemned: but he that believeth not is
condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only
begotten Son of God (v.18).
Now, you may not be aware of it, but there
has been an on-again-off-again controversy concerning that phrase, only
begotten Son of God. The noted bible scholar, Gail Riplinger, put it this way:
“Christians have held tenaciously to the doctrine that Christ is God and
co-eternal with the Father. The term ‘begotten’... is used in reference to the
body of ‘flesh’ [seen] by mankind... the Greek word preceding ‘Son’ or ‘God’ is
always monogenes, a two part word in which mono means ‘only’ or ‘one’ and genes
means ‘begotten’, ‘born’, ‘to come forth’... All interlinear Greek-English New
Testaments translate it as such [that is, only- begotten]. However, most new
[bible] versions do not translate genes, the second part of the word... Hence
we see ‘only Son’, ‘one and only Son’, and ‘unique Son’...The word [monogenes
or ] ‘only begotten’ emphasizes too strongly the distinction between Jesus
Christ, the begotten Son, and believers who are adopted sons. ‘Only begotten’
also flattens any New Age assertion that Jesus is one in a long line of avatars
[or physical representations of a deity].”
And herein lies the problem. If Christians
can be persuaded to adopt the new language and regard as unfamiliar the true
wording of the Scriptures, then their faith will not be grounded upon the true
Christ— the rock of our salvation— but upon a false notion of Christ.
Through the devil’s hirelings in both the
pulpit and academia, Christianity is fast becoming an inclusive faith which has
reduced itself to a mere choice among other choices. The forces of inclusion
have accomplished this travesty in several ways, most notably through their
abandonment of the Nicene Creed as it clearly expresses the particulars of the
Christian faith. They have also advanced their cause per their use of the
numerous unsound bible versions that have been crafted by men and women who
hold the truth in unrighteousness (Romans 1:18).
It is indeed unfortunate that so many
Christians have been fed the pabulum of the New Age and are totally unaware of
this great deception. Ever since the Bible came to be, Satan has continually
challenged its veracity as God’s true and inspired word. And in light of that,
we should not be surprised to find his minions peddling his lies as God’s word
written. St. Paul advised the Ephesian elders to, Take heed, therefore unto
yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you
overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.
For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among
you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking
perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch, and
remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night
and day with tears (Acts 20:28-31). And agreeable to that warning, born-again
churchmen have— over the centuries— noted the efforts of Satan’s minions to sow
confusion and uncertainty within the body of Christ. The agents of the evil one
have sown the tares of higher criticism amongst the wheat of sound bible
doctrine. These so-called “learned” souls regard the Bible as merely a set of
words whose meanings can be shaped to fit any mold they choose much like
potter’s clay. Through their new bible versions, as well as through their
positions of influence within the church, these false teachers have feigned an
appearance of faith in Christ, all the while denying him as the very Lord who
bought them.
Bible-believing Christians over the millennia
have acknowledged God spoke to the patriarchs, prophets and apostles of old.
His words contain specific messages on a variety of issues, and were given for
the edification of all who would hear them. We ought not to treat God’s words
as mere human constructs, or— as the Modernists teach— to regard them as
subjective in their meaning. As a matter of linguistics, words are the means by
which we communicate our ideas, thoughts and intentions to others. With them we
conduct business, express our feelings to one another, as well as to give
praise and worship to God. Through them we receive the messages of God as found
within the pages of Scripture.
And so it follows that if the words we
receive are given to mean something different than what we have learned in the
past, then we will question the veracity of any thing presented to the
contrary. God was well aware of this when he gave us his word written. For it
is through the Scriptures that we are informed of the wonderful and
condescending love of God for us. That is why we ought to regularly read and
study the Authorized Version of the Holy Bible. If we wish to receive the truth
concerning God’s word, then we ought to read the most authoritative source
available in the English language. And we would also do well to seek out godly
teachers and ministers who hold to those doctrines and tenets of the Christian
faith as communicated in Scripture. How else can we truly know Jesus Christ as
the only begotten Son of God? How would we know him as the way, the truth and
the life? How could we ever come know of the exclusive nature of the Christian
faith without learning from our Lord that, no man cometh unto the Father, but
by me (St. John 14:6)? How would we know what he meant when he said, I am the
door (St. John 10:9)? How could we truly accept him as our Good Shepherd (St.
John 10:11) if he is but a deity among many others? How could we distinguish
between the bad seed of Satan and the good seed of the children of kingdom (St.
Matthew 13:37-43)? The new bible versions omit the names of Jesus and Christ on
numerous occasions as opposed to where those names appear in the Authorized
Version and to what end? They removed the words to repentance from St. Mark
2:17 which is all about our Lord’s calling out to those who would be saved.
They are called to repentance.
I do not mean to sound callous, but I care
not that the Modernists have their own bibles. They are welcome to them. They
revel in their apostate natures. They want religion their way much as Cain
wanted God to accept whatever he offered him in sacrifice (Genesis 4:5). They
want God on their terms, and will not come to him on his. This is not about the
specifics of worship, or what hymns you care to sing. No, this is about living
according to what God has set forth in his word. You are free to join whatever
denomination you choose, but you cannot compel God to accept you into the body
of Christ if you— and the church that you belong to— will not be obedient to
his word and commandment. To paraphrase a modern Bible scholar, “God did not
give us his bible to be edited by us. He gave us his word that we might be
edited by it.”
Unfortunately, this is not a “live and let
live”situation. Satan desires complete control over all that God has made, and
that is what makes those new bible versions problematic for the faith of many
new Christians. Satan’s amended translations have been peddled as “easy to
read”; “simple to understand”; and last but not least, they contain the lie
that they have been crafted using the “earliest manuscripts.” Through the use
of the aforementioned advertizing jingles, these ersatz bibles have been
accepted within evangelical churches at an alarming rate.
If we are true and faithful Christians, we
will acknowledge that Jesus Christ is our Saviour for such is the work of the
Holy Ghost who leads us into all truth (St. John 16:13). We will love God and
in that love, we live according to his word and commandment. We will accept him
as the only Lord— the only begotten Son of God. We will avoid demonic deception
by steering clear of any false views of Christ and of God (Galatians 1:6-9).We
will avoid the unequal yoke with those who do not follow the truth of God’s
word written as that is a telling sign that their understanding has been
darkened by the evil one (II Corinthians 4:2-4; 6:14-18).
Let us close with the following verses from
St. Paul’s second epistle to the Corinthians: Now thanks be unto God, which
always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his
knowledge by us in every place. For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ,
in them that are saved, and in them that perish: to the one we are the savour
of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life. And who is
sufficient for these things? For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of
God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ
(2:14-17).
The false professors and clerics will not
heed the warning which the apostle presented in II Corinthians 2:14-17. They
will not because they do not believe in the Christ of Scripture— the only
Saviour— who is the way, the truth and the life. Therefore, as our Lord spoke
in our gospel lesson today, He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he
that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the
name of the only begotten Son of God (St. John 3:18).
So let us then have faith and believe upon
that name which is above every name. And let us also accept his word written as
found within the pages of the Authorized Version as the truth by which we might
learn of him, and teach others as God gives us leave to do.
Let us pray,
|
F
|
ather,
keep us from all false doctrine, heresy and schism, as well as from all
deception by our adversary; for this we ask in the name of him who is thine
only begotten Son, even Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Have a blessed week, Bryan+
[1]
The propers are the Collect (prayer) for the
day and the Bible readings appointed for the day. They are selections based on the Christian Year and make a
particular point. Their selection
is important. The propers have
been more or less the same since the beginning of the Church of England and a
large portion precede the founding of the Church of England.
[2]
The Holy Ghost is
coming soon, help is on the way. Happy Sunday after the Ascension.
[3]
The short answer is
because nothing has changed. God
made the world and all that therein is.
He made us. He is our God. We are His people. He sent His Son to die for our
sins. That is why we ‘still’
believe! More than believe, this
all we know to be fact, courtesy of the Holy
Ghost.
No comments:
Post a Comment