Where Did the Apostle Peter Worship?

Where Did the Apostle Peter Worship?

Peter, James, and John all walked with Jesus (Matt. 4:18-22). For three and a half years they listened to Him preach and teach, as well as watching Him heal and perform many miracles among the people. During His earthly ministry, it was these three who became His ‘inner circle’ so to speak (Mk. 5:37-42; Matt. 17:1-2, 26:36-38). They were there the night He was arrested to be crucified (Jn. 18). They were eyewitnesses of the fact that He was raised from the dead (Acts1:1-3), just as was the Apostle Paul (1 Cor. 15:1-11).

apostle worship

What Church was it that existed during the time of the apostles?

Now, while James suffered martyrdom fairly early on thereafter, these other three apostles – Peter, John, and Paul – all lived on for several decades after Jesus’ ascension. Therefore, the critical question for all sincerely God-seeking folks today to consider, is this: In the decades that followed Jesus’ ascension back into heaven, which church did those who were His very own hand-picked apostles, assemble, study, work, and worship with? Which specific church, did those who best knew God’s Son in the flesh in the first century, seek to work and worship God with after His return to glory?

Was it the Baptist Church? No, it couldn’t have been. The Baptist Church is never seen or named anywhere in Scripture (largely due to the fact that it wasn’t even established until 1607, by its founder, John Smyth, in Holland). Was it the Lutheran Church? No. Martin Luther, the founder of the Lutheran Church, wouldn’t even be born for in excess of another fourteen centuries. Did they work, worship, and assemble with the Catholic Church? Once again, not a chance. They couldn’t have. The Emperor Constantine would not establish the Roman Catholic Church for well over two hundred years after the last living apostle of Christ – John – had died.

So how, and with which church, did the apostles worship then? Let us examine their own words to find our answer. It was a church that taught that a person must repent and be baptized specifically FOR the forgiveness of their sins in order to be saved (Acts 2:38; 1 Peter 3:21); a church which taught that baptism is indeed the act of faith in God by which one is saved (Col. 2:8-14), just as their Lord and Savior had said (Matt. 28:18-20; Mk. 16:15-16; John 3:3-5). It was a church which utilized neither choirs, soloists, or mechanical instruments of music in their praise and worship, all members joyfully singing to God and one another instead (Eph. 5:17-21; Col. 3:16-17); again, just as their Lord had done with, and hence taught them to do (Matt. 26:30).

Actually, it is very easy to know exactly which church they attended; not only because there was only one church in existence (Eph. 1:22-23, 4:4-6) just as God had always planned (Matt. 16:18-19; Eph. 3:8-11), but because they actually told us which one it was (See: Rom. 16:16)! After all, why would anyone who truly loves and knows the Lord, choose to worship with and within someone else’s church, other than His; the one He came in the flesh and shed His blood and died to establish (Acts 20:28)?

 

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School is Ready, Is the Church?

Schools are Ready, Is the Church?

School is back in session, which means Satan is putting in overtime trying to pervert the hearts and minds of young people. He will use every means possible to get young people to question their faith and abandon God.

school corruption

The social design of public schools aims to pollute Christianity.

Consider this–Satan is sitting at DEFCON 1. He is ready for immediate action and is on the highest alert. Sadly, many Christians in the church are sitting at DEFCON 5, thinking back to school time is a period of peace. Here’s what I would LOVE to see the church prepared to do:

  • When the school encourages “Boys wear a dress day” respond by pulling your children out that day and offering a free community seminar on the importance of “Manning Up” and being the spiritual leader! Spend some time in youth classes discusses what a spiritual leader looks like.
  • When the school encourages students to be “tolerant,” spend a month in the pulpit teaching the congregation examples of when Jesus, Peter, Paul, and John were intolerant!
  • When the school teaches on the various religions—making them all sound equal, respond by offering to buy lunch for students if they will allow a Christian parent to have an open Q/A during the lunch period about Christianity.
  • When the school sponsors “LGBTQ silence day” respond by pulling your children out that day and instead go to a local park and put on a community-wide lesson on marriage to remind your youth and community Who instituted marriage.
  • When the school promotes abortion as just another choice in a sex-ed class, respond by hosting a community-wide movie night showing the movie Unplanned and take your youth to pray outside a Planned Parenthood clinic.
  • When the school holds a special Drag Queen Reading Hour featuring someone who is transgender, respond by pulling your child and encourage other parents to do the same. Instead offer your building for a special Bible Reading Hour where young people learn about the courage of Daniel or David.
  • When the school begins teaching macro-evolution, respond by hosting a creation/evolution seminar or pass out Christian evidence material on the sidewalk.
  • When the school cracks open the humanistic textbooks to use in the classroom, respond by starting an after school Bible club that teaches the Truth.
  • When the school promotes “Diversity” in their sex-ed classes, respond by pulling your children out of those classes and encourage parents to use something wholesome, like the “Passport for Purity” kit, to teach their children the beauty of sex as intended by God.
  • When the school promotes rebellion against parents by encouraging independence, in an encouraging manner to build the bonds between parents and children. Invest in a weekend seminar that focuses on the relationship between parents and children. Have some informal devotionals about what it means to honor parents.

These are just a few ideas that will show Satan and our community that we are not just going to give up and surrender the souls of our children. It is important that we be kind and reflect Christ as we carry out our mission, but it is also important that we take this battle seriously! What DEFCON level is your local congregation sitting at? Isn’t it time that we stand united—ready for battle?

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The Mark of Cain

The Mark of Cain

What is the essence of the mark on Cain’s forehead?  Also, Genesis says Cain traveled to the east of Nod and married.  Who were the people who lived there at that time?

Actually, the Bible never says that a “mark” was set upon Cain’s forehead (Gen. 4:15).  Mark comes from the Hebrew word oth, which means “sign” or “token.”  Thus, what’s actually said is that the Lord showed or gave Cain a “sign” to convince and assure him that none would be allowed to kill him.

cain able

Many things are said about Cain, truth is found in the Bible.

Cain traveled to the east of Eden into the land of Nod, literally the “place of wandering” (Gen. 4:16-17).  There he “knew his wife” (v. 17), a phrase not referring to him meeting her for the first time, but rather to physical marital relations.  Cain probably was already married to his wife when he killed Abel and was exiled.  Eve, “the mother of all living” (Gen. 3:20), had sons and daughters with Adam (Gen. 5:4).  From these Cain found his wife, and from these came those who eventually inhabited the city Cain built in the “place of wandering.”

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Dealing With Adversity Like David

Dealing With Adversity Like David

Do you want to know the heart of the man whose heart was like the heart of God? Read the book of Psalms, for they give such great insight into the heart of David. Look at the opening verses of Psalm 16. “Preserve me, O God, for in You I put my trust. You are my Lord, my goodness is nothing apart from You.” Think about the humility of one who says that apart from God there was no goodness within him. Then, sense the faith of David as he openly affirms that his trust was in God.

adversity david

How do you deal with adversity?

Study the life of David in first and second Samuel. It was filled with adversity. Shortly after David killed Goliath, King Saul turned against him and on two occasions sought to take the life of this godly young man with a javelin. When this was unsuccessful, David fled into the wilderness, and Saul’s army sought to find him to kill him. David was then forced to flee from Judah but found trouble in the nations where he sought refuge.

How did David deal with this? Perhaps the words of Psalm 16 will help us. He looked toward heaven and prayed that God would preserve him. He showed his total commitment to the Lord when he said, “For in You I have put my trust.” Other translations render the word preserve as “protect me” or “keep me safe.” The marginal reading in the NKJV is “watch over me.” He was confident of God’s presence and found comfort in knowing the nature of God.

After David became king, adversity came again in his life as the consequence of his sin with Bathsheba. Think of how you would have felt if your own son led a rebellion against you, seeking your life and your kingdom. Think of how you would have felt if four of your children died. Think of how you would have felt if one of your sons raped your daughter. How did David handle all of this? Look at those opening verses in Psalm 16. He looked upward and begged for God to preserve him, to protect him, to keep him safe and to watch over him.

Read those words again to see the difference in saying, “I trust You” and saying, “In You I have put my trust.” Is it possible that one might say they trusted another and that trust be shallow in depth? However, those words “For in You I have put my trust” demand a deeper level of trust. They show a complete investment in God. This is the kind of heart David had.

So, the next time troubles come into your life, look upward and let David’s words be part of your prayer. Ask God to preserve you, to protect you, to keep you safe and to watch over you. Trust Him but not on a shallow level. Do not just put your trust toward God, put your trust in God. Remember that God does not change. He will preserve you like He did David.

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Sun, Moon, Stars, Plants…

Sun, Moon, Stars, Plants…

Solomon once observed that there is nothing new under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1:9).

Men frequently like to think that their generation is different from those which came before, their life experiences unique, and their understanding wiser, being more modern and up-to-date.Yet a casual study of history shows that the problems facing men today are the same problems men have always struggled with; which is why the Bible is perpetually relevant to men. God wrote it knowing the struggles and issues men would deal with in this world, and those struggles and those issues remain ever the same.

Plant worship

Some things should not have to be said…

A case in point: Union Theological Seminary, in New York, held a recent chapel in which the students confessed to and prayed to plants, and then bragged about doing so on a social media platform. Lest you think this to be an exaggeration, their statement was as follows: “Today in chapel, we confessed to plants. Together, we held our grief, joy, regret, hope, guilt and sorrow in prayer; offering them to the beings who sustain us but whose gift we too often fail to honor.” When more than a few people criticized their worship as being heretical (which it was), the school issued a defense of itself, explaining that Christians needed to repent of their violence to plants, and that the church needed “new spiritual and intellectual frameworks by which we understand and relate to the plants and animals,” and a “new theology, new liturgy.”

Yet, despite this school’s vanity in thinking they are fashioning some new theology, they are merely engaging in an ancient form of paganism called nature worship. Praying to plants, animals, rocks and even the weather has been going on for thousands of years; there is nothing new about it. Pantheists and animists are eager to welcome the students and teachers of U.T.S. into their fold. And, as men rush into their folly, the Bible will continue to contain and proclaim God’s opinion on the matter, for, as already observed, there is nothing new under the sun, and the things men think of as being new are just variations on the same things they have always been doing in rebellion against their Creator, and God has spoken to these things time and again.

The Scriptures explain the process by which men turn away from God, saying, “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things… they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! (Romans 1:21-23, 25; ESV)” Men today, failing to properly honor God, remain as futile in their thinking as their ancestors ever were.

When God gave the Law to Israel, the first commandment was, “You shall have no other gods before me,” and the second commandment warned against making idols, saying, “you shall not bow down to them or worship them. (Exodus 20:3, 5)” Praying to plants, by almost an reasonable understanding, would be worshipping an idol, and the creation of a false god. In point of fact, within the Law, the Israelites were specifically warned about worshipping trees, and were told not to do it (cf. Deuteronomy 16:21). Apparently there were other cultures and peoples in the vicinity of Israel who were doing exactly that. Incorporating plants into worship has been going on for a good, long time, and God has always been rather clear as being against it.

Because people have a tendency to think that their ideas are new, and because there is a school of thought, common to man, that believes new is always better, it is necessary, upon occasion, to point out that not only are certain ideas not new, but that these ideas are as bad today as they have always been.

The faithful believer in God understands that it is God, and God alone, who is worthy of worship and thanksgiving. To the extent that plants “sustain” mankind, they do so only as an instrument of the Father’s wisdom and it is God who gets all the glory. Specifically, concerning this point the Bible teaches that it is in God that “we live and move and have our being,” and it is God, through Christ, who “upholds all things through the word of His power (Acts 17:28; Hebrews 1:3).” If anyone is going to get credit, Christians need to give it to God, “giving thanks for all things to the Father, through the Lord Jesus (Colossians 3:17b).”

When someone tries to tell us that what Christians need to start doing is praying to plants and confessing our sins to plants, we should recognize their doctrine for the old, old paganism that it is, and, remaining true to God’s word, soundly reject it. And, while it may seem a silly sort of issue to pontificate on and meditate on, the fact that it is an issue that has been popping up for a few thousand years reminds us that men can frequently be quite silly in matters of religion.

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