Thankful list

1. The Bible is truly God's firsthand word to us and he didn't just leave us in the dark.  When Jesus went up to heaven, we still have a physical Word of God in the Bible.

2.  For inspiration for blogging about church history.

3.  For reading a proofreading philosophical works.

4.  Facebook.  I'd be totally unaware of what's going on without it.

5. Cleaning.  I'm so happy that I've been doing it.  I still don't know where all the stuff goes, but I'm finding a lot of it.

6.  I'm making other friends, yay!

7.  I'm still talking to my old friends, sort of.

8.  I can never lose my religious freedom.

9.  I can never lose my salvation.

Cairns 3: to the Jew First

“That Christ was the foundation rather than the founder of the church is evident in his use of the future tense in Matthew 16:18, in the statement, “Upon this rock I will build my church” (Cairns, 55).

It’s good to note that the rock was not Peter but what he said: that Jesus is the Christ the Son of the living God.  Jesus is the foundation of our whole church, and those who preach have the keys to open and shut heaven when they correctly preach the word, rightly administer the sacraments, and exercise church discipline. 

1. The Founding of the Church in Jerusalem

“In fact, the foci of the book of Acts are the resurrection of Christ, as the subject of apostolic preaching, and the Holy Spirit as the empowerer and guide of the Christian community from the day of Pentecost” (Cairns 56).

The Church began with Christ’s resurrection, then was born in Pentecost when God poured his Holy Spirit on all believers, Peter opened heaven’s gate by preaching the greatest sermon ever, and five thousand people got baptized.

Soon, persecution started.  Stephen was martyred, James son of Zebedee put to the sword, and this scattered the Jerusalem church so that they had to move other places and spread the Gospel to other areas of the world.  Stephen’s death even had an impact on Saul who was holding the coats of his stoners.  Later, Jesus saved him and made him the Apostle Paul.

Ananias and Sapphira received the first church discipline when they only gave a partial offering to the church and said it was the whole thing.  Some hypothesized that at this point the Church practiced communism as they shared with each other and had all things in common.  However, the people gave voluntarily.  Nobody forced them to give their offerings, and even Ananias and Sapphira did not have to give their property.  They were disciplined because they did not give everything that they had promised.

The Church did bring social change.  They appointed deacons to feed the Grecian widows while the elders still taught in the church.  Dorcas began to make clothes for the poor people in her town, and the church had the offices of apostle, elder, and deacon so that all these jobs could be cared for at one time.

Soon, Jerusalem decreased in status as the center of the church.  Some people were trying to make Gentile converts follow the kosher laws, and Peter and Paul had to have a counsel to say, no, you don’t have to follow rituals to be saved.  Cairns calls this the “emancipation of the Gentiles from Jewish control” (Cairns, 58).  Jerusalem truly lost its status when the temple was destroyed in 70, causing the leaders to gather in Antioch. 

Don't Quote Him: Paul Tillich

The PCUSA loves Paul Tillich.  He's the reason it is the mess it is in.  He belongs to a group of thinkers called Neo-Orthodox.  Karl Barth was the first neo-orthodox who did not believe that the Bible was God's word.  It was only someone's experience of God's word.  Huge mistake.

While I believe Barth was a Christian, this mistake led to Rudolph Bultmann, who believed everything about Jesus in the Bible was a myth, and eventually Paul Tillich.  Paul Tillich is the first one to really say that to be saved you did not have to change your lifestyle while misquoting Luther's saying "simil justus et peccator".  We are both justified yet still are sinners.  Luther, however, did not promote such anti-nomianism.  Luther believed that every day of a Christian's life should be one of repentance.

Tillich, however, was the first real emergent church leader.  Salvation was only through doing good things to poor people, and really, heaven is something you build here on earth.  We should not be quoting this in church.  He may have had good things to say about idolatry, but you can't use him because he did not believe in justification by faith alone through Christ alone.

Judaean priests

After the Babylonian exile, after the onslaught from Antiochus IV Epiphanes, Judas Maccabeus's brother became the priest of Israel.  The Hasmonean dynasty lasted until the Romans, as per the second part of this article.

During the life of Jesus, the Sanhedrin, Caiaphas, Annas, and Ananias led the religious life in Israel.

The Sanhedrin consisted of the Sadducees and Pharisees.  The Sadducees were liberal post-millennials who did not really believe in miracles or an after life.  the Pharisees believed the Bible and were the guys I would vote for.  They were super strict and even Jesus could not impress them.  Goes to show that lots of Bible knowledge and standing for the right issues does not guarantee regeneration.

Annas was appointed to priest by Quirinius and deposed by Valerius Gratus.  He still ruled through his son-in-law Caiaphas.  He was the one in charge of selling things in the temple which Jesus came and tore apart.

Caiaphas was in charge in Jesus's arrest and crucifixion.  or he at least instigated it.  He even predicted that Jesus would die to save the nation.  So, he did carry out God's will, but he did not believe in Jesus.

Ananias was high priest in 47-59.  He ruled specifically for power and was against the Jews.  In Acts 23, he stands over Paul's trial and slaps Paul on the mouth.  Paul exclaims that he had no idea he was a high priest.  I can't be sure, but this is definitely dripping with sarcasm and venom.  Someone was allowed to lead the religious life of Israel but hated the Jews and did not believe in the Old Testament.  This is much like the PCUSA moderators today.  They do not believe in God and oppose everything the Christians stand for.

In conclusion, all these people were heathens.  God still used them to carry out his purpose in sending Jesus to die for our sins and in spreading the Church around the globe.  However, I want to be used of God and remain true to him.  By his grace, this will happen and I pray the same for you.

Roman prefects

The land of Israel is a tiny land, but coveted by all societies.  It sits at the border between Asia, Europe, and Africa.  Whoever controls Israel can control most of the world.  In the Apostles' time, Rome occupied that land, and this article accounts for some of the Roman governors.

Copinius: The first prefect of Judaea who took over the temple vestments, thus hijacking the religion.

Valerius Gratus: He deposed four high priests, including Caiaphas, but in God's sovereignty, not before those priests crucified Jesus.

Pontius Pilate:  Besides trying Jesus, Pilate had done many things to offend the Jews, causing tension.  He also created new offenses:

The Offense of Roman Standards: 
The Offense of Votive Shields: While Pilate placed shields on Jerusalem's wall in honor of the Roman emperor.
The Offense of the Temple Tax and the offense of Samaria

One Church

Often on Sundays I read the passages of whatever Scripture is cited in the Saturday article of Tabletalk.  I did that today, and that led me to Ephesians 2:14-16, "For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility."

I found it really encouraging as I often stew over the churches being so divided and dividing.  I'm certain of my Presbyterian beliefs and will fight to the death for them, but I also ache for those in other denominations.  However, this passage encouraged me as it shows that no matter how fractured we are, the true believers are still one church.

Lest I risk sounding like Oprah, I have to qualify that.  The only members of the true church, no matter what denomination are united under Christ and his cross.

That still sounds too much like a blanket statement.  We are united under Christ as our only God and savior and the cross as the only way to save us.  It's not my place to judge people, just inspect their fruit, but there's still folks out there who believe in Christ and the cross who still do not believe he is our only hope and salvation.  But he can't be both our only savior and then just a good moral example that we can emulate.  We can do nothing without Christ, not even breathe or make decisions.  

Once we are saved, we will be able to be like Christ through the Holy Spirit.  But we cannot look to our own efforts to try to find the perfect path to God and only see Jesus as the one who found it.  This is an  insult to God's justice which requires that you be perfect to come to him.  If you sinned once, you are out of the kingdom unless some perfect person takes your punishment for you.  So, no matter if you are Baptist, Episcopal, Lutheran, Presbyterian, if you look to only Christ to save you, then you are in my church.  If you try to atone for your own sins, then you have no clue who Christ is.

The Lady in 2 John

"The elder to the elect lady and her children, whom I love in truth, and not only I, but also all who know the truth,  because of the truth that abides in us and will be with us forever."  2 John 1


So, there is speculation about whether the lady mentioned is an actual lady or if she is a personification for the Church with her children as its members.


Relying on my only liberal belief, I'm going to say that she's an actual lady in charge of a congregation.  I can't prove it.  People will not be persuaded.  But I think this is an example of a female elder.  So sue me.


This is why I believe she is an actual lady: verse 13, "The children of your elect sister greet you."  There is only one Church if I recall, so if one mentions a sister, this must mean a congregation.  Again, this could mean that John is calling the intended church a woman, but then why would he say lady?  He doesn't address anyone else as lady.  And he seems unfazed that she serves a congregation.  He only wants to give her advice about heresies in her neighborhood and how to deal with them.