Tag / God

by James Ross Kelly

The Gift of Grace –William Barclay


Galatians 3:1-9

O senseless Galatians, who has put the evil eye on you – you before whose very eyes Jesus Christ was placarded upon his cross? Tell me this one thing – did you receive the Spirit by doing the works the law lays down, or because you listened and believed? Are you so senseless? After beginning your experience of God in the Spirit, are you now going to try to complete it by making it dependent upon what human nature can do? Is the tremendous experience you had all for nothing – if indeed you are going to let it go for nothing? Did he who generously gave you the Spirit, and who wrought mighty things among you, do so because you produced the deeds the law lays down, or because you heard and believed? Was it not with you exactly as it was with Abraham? Abraham trusted God, and it was that which was credited to him as righteousness. So you must realize that it is those who make the venture of faith who are the sons of Abraham. Scripture foresaw that it would be by faith that God would bring the Gentiles into a right relationship with himself, and told the good news to Abraham before it happened – in you shall all nations be blessed. So, then, it is those who make that same venture of faith who are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

William Barclay 1907-1978

William Barclay 1907-1978

PAUL uses a further argument to show that it is faith and not works of the law which puts us right with God. In the early Church, converts nearly always received the Holy Spirit in a visible way. The early chapters of Acts show this happening again and again (cf. Acts 8:14–17, 10:44). There came to them a new surge of life and power that anyone could see. That experience had happened to the Galatians and had happened, said Paul, not because they had obeyed the regulations of the law – because at that time they had never heard of the law – but because they had heard the good news of the love of God and had responded to it in an act of perfect trust.

The easiest way to grasp an idea is to see it embodied in a person. In a sense, every great word must become flesh. So, Paul pointed the Galatians to a man who embodied faith – Abraham. He was the man to whom God had made the great promise that in him all families of the earth would be blessed (Genesis 12:3). He was the man whom God had specially chosen as the one who pleased him. How did Abraham especially please God? It was not by doing the works of the law, because at that time the law did not exist; it was by taking God at his word in a great act of faith.

Now, the promise of blessedness was made to the descendants of Abraham. The Jews relied on that; they held that simple physical descent from Abraham set them on a different footing with God from other people. Paul declares that to be a true descendant of Abraham is not a matter of flesh and blood; the real descendant is the one who makes the same venture of faith. Therefore, it is not those who seek merit through the law who inherit the promise made to Abraham, but those of every nation who repeat his act of faith in God. It was by an act of faith that the Galatians had begun. Surely they are not going to slip back into legalism – and lose their inheritance?

This passage is full of Greek words with a history, words which carried an atmosphere and a story with them. In verse 1, Paul speaks about the evil eye. The Greeks had a great fear of a spell cast by the evil eye. Time and again, private letters end with a sentence such as this: ‘Above all I pray that you may be in health unharmed by the evil eye and faring prosperously’ (G. Milligan, Selections from the Greek Papyri, No. 14).

In the same verse, Paul talks about Jesus Christ being placarded before them upon his cross. It is the Greek word (prographein) that would be used for putting up a poster. It is actually used for a notice put up by a father to say that he will no longer be responsible for his son’s debts; it is also used for putting up the announcement of an auction.

In verse 4, Paul talks about beginning their experience in the Spirit and ending it in the flesh. The words he uses are the normal Greek words for beginning and completing a sacrifice. The first one (enarchesthai) is the word for scattering the grains of barley on and around the victim, which was the first act of a sacrifice; and the second one (epiteleisthai) is the word used for fully completing the ritual of any sacrifice. By using these two words, Paul shows that he looks on the Christian life as a sacrifice to God.

In verse 5, he speaks of God giving generously to the Galatians. The root of this word is the Greek choregia. In ancient times in Greece, at the great festivals, the great dramatists like Euripides and Sophocles presented their plays. Greek plays all have a chorus; to equip and train a chorus was expensive, and public-spirited Greeks generously offered to pay the entire expenses of the chorus. (That gift is described by the word choregia) Later, in wartime, patriotic citizens gave free contributions to the state, and choregia was used for this too. In still later Greek, in the papyri, the word is common in marriage contracts and describes the support that a husband, out of his love, undertakes to give his wife. Choregia underlines the generosity of God, a generosity which comes from love, of which the love of citizens for their city and of a husband for his wife are pale shadows.

Barclay, William (2010-11-05). The Letters to the Galatians and Ephesians (New Daily Study Bible) (pp. 28-31). Westminster John Knox Press. Kindle Edition.

by James Ross Kelly

A Group of At-Risk Boy’s Sing a Heavenly Performance of You Raise Me Up – Inspirational Videos


A Group of At-Risk Boy’s Sing a Heavenly Performance of You Raise Me Up – Inspirational Videos.

by James Ross Kelly

Hell–from The Problem of Pain, by C.S. Lewis


I am not going to try to prove the doctrine tolerable. Let us make no mistake; it is not tolerable. But I think the doctrine can be shown to be moral, by a critique of the objections ordinarily made, or felt, against it.

C.S. Lewis

C.S. Lewis

First, there is an objection, in many minds, to the idea of retributive punishment as such. This has been partly dealt with in a previous chapter. It was there maintained that all punishment became unjust if the ideas of ill-desert and retribution were removed from it; and a core of righteousness was discovered within the vindictive passion its self, in the demand that the evil man must not be left perfectly satisfied with his own evil, that it must be made to appear to him what it rightly appears to others—evil. I said that Pain plants the flag of truth within a rebel fortress. We were then discussing pain which might still lead to repentance. How if it does not—if no further conquest than the planting of the flag ever takes place?

Let us try to be honest with ourselves. Picture to yourself a man who has risen to wealth or power by a continued course of treachery and cruelty, by exploiting for purely selfish ends the noble motions of his victims, laughing the while at their simplicity; who, having thus attained success, uses it for the gratification of lust and hatred and finally parts with the last rag of honour among thieves by betraying his own accomplices and jeering at their last moments of bewildered disillusionment. Suppose, further, that he does all this, not (as we like to imagine) tormented by remorse or even misgiving, but eating like a schoolboy and sleeping like a healthy infant—a jolly, ruddy-cheeked man, without a care in the world, unshakably confident to the very end that he alone has found the answer to the riddle of life, that God and man are fools whom he has got the better of, that his way of life is utterly successful, satisfactory, unassailable. We must be careful at this point. The least indulgence of the passion for revenge is very deadly sin. Christian charity counsels us to make every effort for the conversion of such a man: to prefer his conversion, at the peril of our own lives, perhaps of our own souls, to his punishment; to prefer it infinitely.

But that is not the question. Supposing he will not be converted, what destiny in the eternal world can you regard as proper for him? Can you really desire that such a man, remaining what he is (and he must be able to do that if he has free will) should be confirmed forever in his present happiness—should continue, for all eternity, to be perfectly convinced that the laugh is on his side? And if you cannot regard this as tolerable, is it only your wickedness—only spite—that prevents you from doing so? Or do you find that conflict between Justice and Mercy, which has sometimes seemed to you such an outmoded piece of theology, now actually at work in your own mind, and feeling very much as if it came to you from above, not from below? You are moved not by a desire for the wretched creature’s pain as such, but by a truly ethical demand that, soon or late, the right should be asserted, the flag planted in this horribly rebellious soul, even if no fuller and better conquest is to follow. In a sense, it is better for the creature its self, even if it never becomes good, that it should know its self a failure, a mistake. Even mercy can hardly wish to such a man his eternal, contented continuance in such ghastly illusion. Thomas Aquinas said of suffering, as Aristotle had said of shame, that it was a thing not good in its self; but a thing which might have a certain goodness in particular circumstances. That is to say, if evil is present, pain at recognition of the evil, being a kind of knowledge, is relatively good; for the alternative is that the soul should be ignorant of the evil, or ignorant that the evil is contrary to its nature, ‘either of which’, says the philosopher, ‘is manifestly bad’.* And I think, though we tremble, we agree.

The demand that God should forgive such a man while he remains what he is, is based on a confusion between condoning and forgiving. To condone an evil is simply to ignore it, to treat it as if it were good. But forgiveness needs to be accepted as well as offered if it is to be complete: and a man who admits no guilt can accept no forgiveness.

I have begun with the conception of Hell as a positive retributive punishment inflicted by God because that is the form in which the doctrine is most repellent, and I wished to tackle the strongest objection. But, of course, though Our Lord often speaks of Hell as a sentence inflicted by a tribunal, He also says elsewhere that the judgement consists in the very fact that men prefer darkness to light, and that not He, but His ‘word’, judges men** We are therefore at liberty—since the two conceptions, in the long run, mean the same thing—to think of this bad man’s perdition not as a sentence imposed on him but as the mere fact of being what he is. The characteristic of lost souls is ‘their rejection of everything that is not simply themselves’.***  Our imaginary egoist has tried to turn everything he meets into a province or appendage of the self. The taste for the other, that is, the very capacity for enjoying good, is quenched in him except in so far as his body still draws him into some rudimentary contact with an outer world. Death removes this last contact. He has his wish—to lie wholly in the self and to make the best of what he finds there. And what he finds there is Hell.

1 Summa Theol, I, IIae, Q. xxxix, Art. 1.

** John 3:19; 12:48.

*** See von Hügel, Essays and Addresses, 1st series, What do we mean by Heaven and Hell?

Lewis, C. S. (2009-05-28).  The Problem of Pain (p.123- 125). Harper Collins, Inc.. Kindle Edition.

by James Ross Kelly

Believing in the 21st Century:Chapter Six


an exhortation..as 
a lay Christian examines his faith..

By James Ross Kelly
True to the fact that in reality Jesus Christ is always about His Fathers business down through the centuries out of this constant harangue of our culture comes a generation of Christians not content with the standard fare of Christian worship and the 19th Century hymnology and you find “Christian Rock” streaming across the airwaves that, if you flip through the dials and hear this music and stop to listen for the rhythm and blues riff of Rock and Roll you begin to hear lyrics balming the radio waves as pure Christian praise and worship. Listen:

“The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips [in Church] and walk out the door and deny Him by their lifestyle— that is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.” This comes not from Billy Graham’s crusade pulpit, but from a spoken intro to one of the songs on the dread locked hard rocking 1995, DC Talk, Album, Jesus Freak. This intro follows with the lyrics:

Is this one for the people ? Is this one for the Lord? Or do I simply serenade for things I must afford? You can jumble them together, my conflict still remains For holiness is calling, in the midst of courting fame… Copyright 1995 In The Mix Music (A Division of The Forefront Communications Group, Inc.) (BMI) All Rights Reserved

This is deep abiding faith. Same deep abiding faith written from the quill pen of the 3rd Century Saint, but blasted over the airwaves at the end of this one. Same God, same travail of reaching out and knowing how unholy each of us are in His presence and the same existential angst of a world gone wrong and having to live in the middle of its humanity. Looking heavenward is not as an upward outer leap into flat earth theology as some would suggest of present day Christendom, but a direction toward an inter-dimensional leap to the arms of Father God of the universe—Who inhabits congress with our own life because He created it!

Is it patriarchal? I think not. And I think not in the least, for inside this truth women ( to whom he first appeared after the resurrection) have roles of supreme significance. But at the same time Christ wasn’t going to a divine ‘mother.’ For Christians fitting Lord Jesus into a politically correct new age scheme courts blasphemy. But in His going and again in His expected coming, we all now have a new role in that there is a feminine quality of all of us as believers in the waiting for the groom. The waiting for God in our lives is a sanctification that has no patriarchal male gender related stigma to it at all, in fact—quite the opposite. The most macho of men have become believers of the almighty God come to earth and become the feminine receptors of the body of Christ as a bride waits for the bride groom in loving waiting desire. This is not patriarchal. Trying to fit into a feminist de-constructionist scheme will be always the square man made plug fitting into an ever elusive divine receptacle that will retreat at light speed leaving something only human.

“There is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3:28 KJV

by James Ross Kelly

Believing in the 21st Century:Chapter Five


an exhortation..as 
a lay Christian examines his faith..

By James Ross Kelly
Of my mind and my experience this Way, my walk with Christ Jesus, for myself is the most excellent Way—as it has been for countless others. This is because it is experiential truth and at the same time the truth behind all things that are true. Men and women who know God have always felt the pain of the worlds rejection and mocking disbelief, as if the foot steps of our blessed savior to bloody Calvary have never ended in an unending historical example of the mythic Sisyphus, torture and disgrace one after another, rolling up the hill, time after time and time again. And though endlessly exposited upon, this most excellent Way, is really attained only by waiting upon Him and in the practice of humility. God comes to us waiting on Him some in an instant and other after decade according to His own divine will. Is this easy? In a word, ‘no’ Is it attainable, in another word ‘yes,’ gloriously ‘yes,’ a thousand times yes attested by millions that have known this Truth to be so.

People who have trouble with the concept of‘ ‘Father’ to be current politically incorrect thinking and offer up an apostasy which calls the thinking of “Our Father,” as a patriarchal oppression may have issues which sadly are borne out in the universal necessity for an archetype of a kind and loving, but austere father in our humanity. The lack of which at this moment is a dynamic; so our cultural and sociological pundits tell us—we are sadly lacking and suffering for want of—in finding out who we are as men and women. It has been said that a person approaches God the same way that they have had to approach their own earthly father. And to our own cultures demise, we have to contend with a train wreck of absent, over working, or uncaring and unloving fathers many of whom have spawned and coldly left a throng of unbelieving children in an era of an unbelieving cultural malaise. Unbelieving, or incapable in believing, in the sense of an all encompassing love of a heavenly Father—because the reality of the absence of an earthly humane father makes a heavenly Father unimaginable!

Or a “can’t believe” media manufactured X-generation sliding on the sex saturated video culture— which rejects whole-sale, the notion handed down to us by our own “fore-fathers,” and because of this inattention and the selfish self-centered denial of children, born often out of passion instead of out of love— to this progeny. There is only one antidote for this poison— the Father Himself. Not the idea and concept of the Father but the real thing.

“..O Lord, to You most excellent and most good, You are Architect and Governor of the universe, thanks would be due You, O our God, even if you had not willed that I should survive my childhood. For I existed even then; I lived and felt and was careful about my own well-being–a trace of that most mysterious unity from where I had my being. I kept watch, by my inner sense, over the integrity of my outer senses, and even in these trifles and also in my thoughts about trifles, I learned to take pleasure in truth. I was averse to being deceived; I had a vigorous memory; I was gifted with the power of speech, was softened by friendship, shunned sorrow, meanness, and ignorance. Is not such an animated creature as this wonderful and praiseworthy? But all these are gifts of my God. I did not give them to myself. Moreover, they are good, and all together these gifts constitute myself. Good, then, is He that made me, and He is my God; and before Him will I rejoice exceedingly for every good gift which, even as a child, I had. But this was my sin! That it was not in God the Creator, but in His creatures–myself and the rest–that I sought for pleasures, honors, and truths. And I fell consequently into sorrows, troubles, and errors. Thanks be to You, my joy, my pride, my confidence, my God–thanks be to You for Your gifts. Please preserve them in me. For by this You will preserve me; and those things which You have given me will be developed and perfected, and I myself will be with You, for from You, comes my being.” Augustine ca 285AD.2

Augustine brought up in Afro-European pagan society tells us like it is from seventeen hundred years ago. What is our culture but obsessed with, “my own well being..” and the post modern new age neo-pagan fashion is precisely, “not in God the Creator, but in His creatures—[ourselves] and the rest–that I [we] sought for pleasures, honors, and truths.”

2 adapted to modern English from public domain translation by Albert C. Outler, Ph.D., Confessions of St. Augustine, Chapter 14

by James Ross Kelly

Believing in the 21st Century:Chapter Four


an exhortation..as 
a lay Christian examines his faith..

By James Ross Kelly

Christian orthodoxy has not left this culture, it thrives–in spite of the media’s demeanor of ignorance it thrives in a vibrant way and is in no danger of death as some would assert. This is because this truth is Living Truth. The future may bring a final onslaught, or attack, or pogrom from the current coexistence with the secular portion of our culture. Currently to many there is waning hope that that future is distant. Such violent affronts are presently on-fire in other cultures such as China, Laos, Vietnam, Pakistan and the Sudan where Christianity for one reason or another is viewed as a threat to the ruling order and demands inner allegiance to something other than the Living God of Christianity. Preceded by this has been seven decades of Soviet Russia, and a before that two decades of fascist Europe. Many in the Church believe this will again becoming an end time scenario in our Western world. History of this century has shown that counter doctrine to orthodoxy demands a lock-step subservience to this end—with the true church going underground—nominal Christianity apostatizing to state religion with Christ relegated to academic mythos. The killing fields of Babi Yar, and Cambodia are just two of long list of the results of this 100 year trend.

The God I worship is Father God, Creator of the universe who is outside of space and time as object of our reality. My God exists both in and outside of space and time in fluid conjunctive extra-dimensional spatial reality. My God loves us, my God cares for us, and though He seems dimensionless to our own gaze. He was never invisible in the interior dimension which exists, and is comprehended in one simple way—by His leave and by our own humility through acceptance of His son Christ Jesus, His brief sojourn on the planet earth and the redemptive act done for all time for us all by His death on the cross.

This act is now history, but it is one of an eternal redemptive glorification that was the end and defeat by proxy of all pagan death cults—one which was replaced by the self-sacrifice of the living God who by this loving act through His Holy spirit instituted the Christian Church in an eternal love feast meant for all people of this planet. That the church has fallen short of exemplary stewardship in its temporal charge of eternal matters cannot be argued. However, it can be argued that the Spirit of the Living God was not apart of any of these short comings. And took His leave as we all might at the sight of inquisition and obtuse legalism whether it was in the Protestant, Catholic or Orthodox camp. The history of the church as a human organization has always been far short of the glory of God—yet God’s glory has throughout history shone through his martyrs and the lovers of His truth. St Stephen, St Ignatious, St Polycarp, William Tyndale, Martin Luther King, Joan of Arc and St Francis are but a few examples. The Way of God exemplified by people of God have long out shown the dimness of Church tradition.

by James Ross Kelly

Believing in the 21st Century:Chapter Two


the_creation_michelangeloan exhortation..as 
a lay Christian examines his faith..

By James Ross Kelly

Christian bells toll—despite the shortcomings of Christendom, Evangelic and otherwise. Adherents of a modern material-polytheistic paganism however, should at least seriously consider the real thing which illumes Christ Jesus to a planet full of believers who met Him — personally and individually in a meeting. These days that is the discounted thing. The Gospel is the story of how the living God of the universe, visiting earth in fully human form was met and treated by organized legalist, religionists, and organized, civilized, Pagan law abiding civil servants—and those who sought to proffer their favor.  In a question, before anyone adopts a counter doctrine out of hand, or take present culture oriented stance seriously, or assign Jesus to mythos you must ask. At some point in your life, ‘What if,  just as it is written, what if—this is true?’

John 19:1-42
New King James Version (NKJV) The Holy Bible, New King James Version Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

The Soldiers Mock Jesus

19 So then Pilate took Jesus and scourged Him. 2 And the soldiers twisted a crown of thorns and put it on His head, and they put on Him a purple robe. 3 Then they said,[1] “Hail, King of the Jews!” And they struck Him with their hands.

4 Pilate then went out again, and said to them, “Behold, I am bringing Him out to you, that you may know that I find no fault in Him.”

Pilate’s Decision

5 Then Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate said to them, “Behold the Man!”

6 Therefore, when the chief priests and officers saw Him, they cried out, saying, “Crucify Him, crucifyHim!”

Pilate said to them, “You take Him and crucify Him, for I find no fault in Him.”

7 The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and according to our[2] law He ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God.”

8 Therefore, when Pilate heard that saying, he was the more afraid, 9 and went again into the Praetorium, and said to Jesus, “Where are You from?” But Jesus gave him no answer.

10 Then Pilate said to Him, “Are You not speaking to me? Do You not know that I have power to crucify You, and power to release You?”

11 Jesus answered, “You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above. Therefore the one who delivered Me to you has the greater sin.”

12 From then on Pilate sought to release Him, but the Jews cried out, saying, “If you let this Man go, you are not Caesar’s friend. Whoever makes himself a king speaks against Caesar.”

13 When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus out and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called The Pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha.* 14 Now it was the Preparation Day of the Passover, and about the sixth hour. And he said to the Jews, “Behold your King!”

15 But they cried out, “Away with Him, away with Him! Crucify Him!”

Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?”

The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar!”

16 Then he delivered Him to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus and led Him away.[3]

The King on a Cross

17 And He, bearing His cross, went out to a place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha, 18 where they crucified Him, and two others with Him, one on either side, and Jesus in the center. 19 Now Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross. And the writing was:

JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS.

20 Then many of the Jews read this title, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin.

21 Therefore the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but, ‘He said, “I am the King of the Jews.”’”

22 Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”

23 Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took His garments and made four parts, to each soldier a part, and also the tunic. Now the tunic was without seam, woven from the top in one piece.24 They said therefore among themselves, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be,” that the Scripture might be fulfilled which says:

“They divided My garments among them,
And for My clothing they cast lots.”[4]

Therefore the soldiers did these things.

Behold Your Mother

25 Now there stood by the cross of Jesus His mother, and His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing by, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold your son!” 27 Then He said to the disciple,“Behold your mother!” And from that hour that disciple took her to his own home.

It Is Finished

28 After this, Jesus, knowing[5] that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, “I thirst!” 29 Now a vessel full of sour wine was sitting there; and they filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on hyssop, and put it to His mouth. 30 So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.

Jesus’ Side Is Pierced

31 Therefore, because it was the Preparation Day, that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. 32 Then the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who was crucified with Him. 33 But when they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs. 34 But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. 35 And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you may believe. 36 For these things were done that the Scripture should be fulfilled, “Not one of His bones shall be broken.”[6] 37 And again another Scripture says, “They shall look on Him whom they pierced.”[7]

Jesus Buried in  Joseph’s Tomb

38 After this, Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly, for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus; and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took the body of Jesus. 39 And Nicodemus, who at first came to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds. 40 Then they took the body of Jesus, and bound it in strips of linen with the spices, as the custom of the Jews is to bury. 41 Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid.42 So there they laid Jesus, because of the Jews’ Preparation Day, for the tomb was nearby.

Footnotes:

  1. John 19:3 NU-Text reads And they came up to Him and said.
  2. John 19:7 NU-Text reads the law.
  3. John 19:16 NU-Text omits and led Him away.
  4. John 19:24 Psalm 22:18
  5. John 19:28 M-Text reads seeing.
  6. John 19:36 Exodus 12:46; Numbers 9:12; Psalm 34:20
  7. John 19:37 Zechariah 12:10

* There had never been any historical record of the court where Jesus Christ was tried by Pilate – called the “Gabbatha” or pavement in John 19:13. William F. Albright, in The Archeology of Palestine, shows that this court was the court of the Tower of Antonia, which was the Roman military headquarters of Rome in Jerusalem. The court was destroyed between 66 A.D. – 70 A.D. during the siege of Jerusalem. It was left buried when the city was rebuilt in the time of Hadrian, and not discovered until recently.

by James Ross Kelly

Relationship to God and to one another Chuck Smith, Jr


t_chuckjr

The world s not going to be changed by Christians who merely go to church. the nature of the church in post-modernity has to be that of a spiritual community that strives to go beyond the modern concern for correct doctrine and institutionalism  A spiritual community is not based on dogma but on relationship to God and to one another.

Chuck Smith, Jr.,  The End of the World…as We Know It