Hi John,

I had always thought the reason Saul persecuted the Jews after they received the Holy Ghost was because they stopped keeping the law.  Since the Jews were required by God to keep Moses’ law after they received the Holy Ghost, why did Saul persecute them?

Thank you,

Randell

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That is a very thoughtful question, Randell.  It is one that I should have asked myself a long tome ago.  Thank you for asking it.

One would think that Jewish believers would have been highly respected by their fellow Jews since believing Jews were devoted to the law (Acts 21:20).  But Paul told the Thessalonians that believing Jews had suffered many things at the hands of other Jews (1Thess. 2:15).  When you asked me this question, I realized for the first time that the Bible provides us with no clear answer for it.

Leaders of unbelieving Jews hated Jesus because they envied his popularity with the people.  Even Pontius Pilate saw that they envied Jesus (Mt. 27:18).  They invented a rule that forbade the sick to be healed on a Sabbath in order to condemn him, for they saw that he healed people every day.  And they condemned him for claiming to be their Messiah.  Maybe that is why Paul as a young man joined others in persecuting their fellow Jews who believed in Jesus.  Maybe it was just a case of Jesus’ reproach falling on those who believed in him.  They were certainly not hated because of immoral conduct.

It is fascinating to me that I had never considered that the Bible never tells us why believing Jews were so hated by their fellow Jews.  They arrested Peter and John because they preached the resurrection from the dead, and many people believed them (Acts 4:1–4).  They stoned Stephen because he told them that they were resisting the holy Ghost, and that he saw Jesus standing at God’s right hand (Acts 7:51–60).  When Paul was a young Pharisee, he was commissioned to travel to Damascus to bind believers and return them to Jerusalem simply because they believed the gospel (Acts 9:1–2).  Later, the Jews plotted to kill Saul because he had found out Jesus was the Messiah and was telling it in the synagogue (Acts 9:20–23).

In no case that I have found was there any justifiable reason given for the hatred and persecution.  They were always hated for doing something that was actually good, or for testifying about Jesus.  We are seeing more and more of this irrational hatred in our time.  But let us continue in doing good in the sight of God anyway.  The reward for doing that will far outweigh anything this world can throw at us, as Paul said, “I consider the sufferings of this present time to be unworthy of comparison with the glory that shall be revealed to us” (Rom. 8:18).

Thank you for a great question!

Pastor John

Tell us what you think:

https://x.com/WitnessofSpirit/status/1800319481761435826

 

John,

Why are the names different?  For example, in Luke 3:36, we have “the son of Cainan, the son of Arphaxad, the son of Sem, the son of Noah, the son of Lamech.”

But in Genesis 5:32, we have “And Noah was five hundred years old, and he fathered Shem, Ham, and Japheth.”

Just Curious,

 

Wendell

 

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Hi Wendell,

Names often undergo a change as they go from one language to another.  In this case, Genesis is written in Hebrew, and James is written in Greek.  That’s all it is.

 

Pastor John

Would Arius of Alexandria be someone who accurately represents your views on divinity accurately?

MP

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Hi MP,

It is impossible to say with certainty what Arius taught because Christian rulers destroyed everything he wrote.  The few statements that Christians attributed to him seem to have been consistent with what the Scriptures teach.

Pastor John

Tell us what you think:

https://x.com/tommyjoe1109/status/1797641777618588138

Pastor John,

https://youtu.be/nMoyUlHDKso?si=pA9doD42YFlyQa_A

If Christianity is wrong, how could it do this?

Manny

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Hi Manny.

I am not sure what you mean by “Christianity is wrong”.  That is not the way I talk.  I do say that whatever Christianity may be right about, it is not the body of Christ.  Christianity can save no one.  And that is the whole point.

The video begins by declaring the myth that Christianity emerged in the first century AD.  It did not.  The gospel of Christ is what emerged in the first century, and its influence is what changed people’s perspective on life, or at least, many of them.  Much of what men of God like Paul and the other apostles taught about morals was just an affirmation of the moral standard contained in Moses’ law.  The positive influence of the gospel in moral matters continued to spread even after believers turned away from Paul’s gospel, primarily because what those backslidden saints turned to was Moses’ law, which condemned such immorality as was common among the Greeks and the Romans.  So, even the apostate believers of the second and third centuries who called themselves Christians held forth that good standard.

It was an interesting point made in the video, that slaves and women were attracted to the gospel because of its moral standard, but the truth is more likely that it was the power of God that attracted them most.

Thank you for asking.  It was a good question.  God bless you as you continue to seek for what is truly of Him.

jdc

Tell us what you think:

https://x.com/tommyjoe1109/status/1795457318538146223

 

Hi Pastor John,

I have a question about the verses concerning Jesus appearing in the clouds in Thessalonians. 

1Thess. 4:16–17: “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.   Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them among the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so, we shall ever be with the Lord.”

When Jesus ascended, I understand that he took Paradise (and the righteous who were in it) out of the heart of the earth and transferred it to heaven.  And since then, the righteous who die still go into Paradise, but now Paradise is in heaven with Jesus.  My question is, who are the dead that Jesus raises when he appears in the clouds if the righteous who have died are with him in heaven.

Thank you,

Randell

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Hi Randell.

The Bible makes nothing about that clear, Randell.  My father described the righteous dead as being alive, but in a dream-like state, which makes sense because they no longer have a body, even though they are still alive.  A new body is what Jesus will give them when he appears in the clouds and raises them from the dead, according to 1Corinthians 15.

I have wondered about what you are asking many times, and as I said, the Bible provides no clear answer.  We know that the dead saints will be raised from their graves, and we know that they are now “present with the Lord” in heaven.  How they will be raised up when they are already “up” in heaven, I cannot tell.

I suppose that we’ll just have to wait and see –– and I do hope that we will see it and experience it for ourselves.

Sorry, but that’s the best I can do with that one.

Pastor John

Tell us what you think:

https://x.com/tommyjoe1109/status/1792922225718223012