Sin in haste; repent at leisure evil cries out to the youth; but, be aware, It’s only possible to do a right thing the first time once. Be sure even though a person may do the right thing one thousand times when a wrong thing is done once that is what will be criticized!
It appears from talking to many of those that profess a belief that Jesus is the Son of God and the only mediator between God and man to bring salvation to those that believe; particularly in the United States, there are those that labor under a misconception of the covenant they have with God. While Christians are admonished to pray for the nation and it leaders in which they live (for as the nation prospers so do they) there is no covenant between God and those nations whatsoever. It just doesn’t exist i.e. there is no evidence of such recorded in scripture.
The Word Apostasy is translated from the Greek as “a falling away” from the faith. There have been several minor or short seasons of apostatizing from time to time in scripture and there are some others of note that may not have been called that. The first mentioned in scripture which is not usually referred to as “falling away;” but, the fall of Adam or Adam’s disobedience in the matter of the forbidden fruit.1
This story from the book of Numbers describes the descent into apostasy after the flood from the worship of the One God to idol worship. The children of Israel were returning from there sojourn into Egypt which began just before the death of Jacob. They are returning to the promised land. God promised this land, now occupied by seven tribes that were greater and stronger then Israel, to the heirs of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It involves a corrupted “priest” of God, a king descended from Abraham’s nephew Lot, and the twelve tribes descended from Jacob (Israel).
Baal worship is pantheistic involving greater and lesser gods. It seems to follow the creation story which contains Adam and Eve and the fall of man. Many pagan religions have stories of one “giant” in the beginning. This may or may not be a description of a large or gross size man but a “great” or “mighty” one.
It is the sincere intent and purpose of this series to place emphasis on the pure Word, “the faith once delivered unto the saints,” (Jude 1: 3) not the novel notions of man. Those portions that are not pure scripture are an attempt to connect that which is in an understandable format comparing scripture with scripture.
If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? (Psalms 11:3). Existentialism (live only for now) is bent on destroying all moral foundations.
The last episode of Battle Star Galactica aired last night. I’ve followed the series since it started and was fascinated by the writer’s attempts to interweave a somewhat-serious attempt at religion into the lives of their characters. Throughout the series we were serenaded with the usual battle between fuzzy-grey ethics and absolute right and wrong. Good guys became bad guys and vice versa. The permeation of eastern philosophy was evident, and the resulting representation of both a pseudo-monotheism (which never quite got to the heart of any form of real monotheism) and a pseudo-classical polytheism (which was never really expounded upon except that the “gods” were known to be historical humans) made for a strange conglomeration of religious concepts. Although the resulting depiction of religion was confused and mostly inaccurate, it was – I believe – a fairly accurate portrayal of the modern view most people have towards religion. While these two religious concepts were held as a major sub-plot throughout the bulk of the series, they suddenly became the focal point in the final episode.
In the original languages, in which the scriptures were written, military terms were used to describe the Christian and his walk (march toward victory). The word disciple itself is a derivative of the word discipline. Anyone familiar with military training can understand these analogies because they are familiar with them. Those whose background is based on the antiwar movement may see this as distasteful; but, it is an accurate portrayal of certain phases of Christian training and the Christian walk.
The OT: “if you do these things I command you I will bless you. The NT: if you believe Jesus is my Son and ask for salvation in His name I will bless you.
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