Each one of us, however, has been given his own share of grace, given as the Lord Jesus Christ allotted it. It was said that he would: When he ascended to the height, He captured prisoners, he gave gifts to men. When it says, 'He ascended,' 'What can it mean if not that he descended right down to the lower regions of the earth? The one who rose higher than all the heavens to fill all things is none other than the one who descended. And to some, his gift was that they should be apostles; to some, prophets; to some, evangelists; to some, pastors and teachers; so that the saints together make a unity in the work of service building up the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. In this way we are all to come to unity in our faith and in our knowledge of the son of God, until we become the perfect man, fully mature with the fullness of Christ Jesus himself.
Then we shall not be children any longer, or tossed one way and another and carried along by every wind of doctrine, at the mercy of all the tricks men play and they cleverness in practising deceit. If we live by the truth and in love, we shall grow in all ways into Christ Jesus, who is the head by whom the whole body is fitted and joined together, every joint adding its own strength, for each separate part to work according to it function. So the body grows until it has built itself up, in love. - Ephesians 4:7-16 -
Hence, by sustaining and through faith, hope, and love in the Lord Jesus Christ, that is, by God grace; the Lord Jesus can guarantee the blessings that we hope for, or prove the existence of the realities that at present remain unseen. "Let us keep firm in the hope we profess, because the one who made the promise is faithful. Let us be concerned for each other, to stir a response in love and good works." - Hebrews 10:23-24 -
"Does it follow that we should remain in sin so as to let grace have greater scope? Of course not. We are dead to sin, so how can we continue to live in it? You have been taught that when we were baptised in Christ Jesus we were baptised in his death; in other words, when we were baptised we went into the tomb with him and joined him in death, so that as Christ Jesus was raised from the dead by the Father's glory, we too might live a new life." Amen!
If in union with Christ we have imitated his death, we shall also imitate him in his resurrection. We must realise that our former selves have been crucified with him to destroy this sinful body and to free us from slavery of sin. When a man/woman dies, of course, he/she has finished with sin.
But by the living God promise and assurance, we believe that having died with Christ we shall return to life with him: The Lord Jesus Christ, as we know, having been raised from the dead will never die again. Death has no power over him anymore. When he died, he died, once for all, to sin, so his life now is with the living God; and in that way, you too must consider yourselves to be dead to sin but alive for God in Christ Jesus.
That is why you must not let sin reign in your mortal bodies or command your obedience to bodily passions, why you must not let any part of your body turn into an unholy weapon fighting on the side of sin; you should, instead, offer yourselves to God, and consider yourselves dead men brought back to life; you should make every part of your body into a weapon fighting on the side of God; and sin will no longer dominate your life, since you are living by grace and not by law." - Romans 6:1-14 -
The great PLAGUES OF EGYPT before the EXODUS - Exodus Chapter 7 to 11 - Old Testament -
As smoke disperse, they disperse; as wax melts when near the fire, so the wicked perish when God approaches. But at God's approach, the virtuous rejoice, exulting and singing for joy. Sing to Yahweh, play music to his name, build a road for the Rider of the Clouds, rejoice in Yahweh, exult at his coming! - Psalms 68:2-4 -
Archaeologists have discovered rock carvings that show Baal holding a club in his right hand and a lightning flash with a spearhead in his left. These symbols identify him as the god of rain and storm and as the rider of the clouds, a term showing his power over the heavens. - Gives this title to the God of Israel - a declaration that the Lord God, and 'Not the false god Baal,' is ruler over the heavens. - Psalms 68:2-4 - The great PLAGUES OF EGYPT before the EXODUS - Exodus 7:14, 12:30 - struck at the heart of Egypt's religion. Their fertile land was struck with plagues; their sacred river was turned to blood; their glorious sun was darkened; and even the son of the "divine" Pharaoh was killed. The wonders that God brought against Egypt clearly demonstrated that their gods were lifeless statue, powerless and it is just a stone, before the true and living God of Israel. And all that the Egyptians been worshiping are lifeless statue.
In time an elaborate system of beliefs in such natural forces was developed into mythology. Each civilisation and culture had its own mythological structure, but these structures were often quite similar. The names of the gods may have been different, but their functions and actions were often the same. The most prominent myth to cross cultural lines was that of the fertility cycle. Many heathen, idolatrous and pagan cultures believed that the god of fertility died each year during the winter but was reborn each year in the spring. The details differed among cultures, but the main idea was the same.
According to the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible - The Old Testament, - the many pagan gods that served as a temptation to the Hebrew people may be conveniently grouped into four distinct types: the 'false gods' of (1) Mesopotamia (Assyria and Babylon) (2) Egypt (3) Canaan (4) Greece and Rome.
The scriptural/biblical references to pagan gods begin with the statement that Terah, Abraham and Nahor, when they dwelt on the other side of the River (that is in Mesopotamia), "served other gods". - Joshua 24:2 - Ancient Mesopotamia covered the region that is roughly equivalent geographically to present day Iraq and Iran. The prominent gods in Mesopotamia were those over heaven, air and earth, personified by Anu, Enil and Enki (Ea). Another group was made up of those that controlled the heavenly bodies: the sun, the moon and the planet Venus (the "morning star")
In fact, Ur, the city from which Abraham came, was the center for worship of the moon god - Sin - As Mesopotamian religion developed, each god had his own star, and the worship of the stars became popular with the development of 'Astrology'. Many of the astrological texts and charts of the ancient Babylonians read like modern horoscopes.
The worship of the sun, moon and the stars eventually spread across the entire ancient world. The Egyptians, Canaanites and Phoenicians all incorporated features of this form of worship. Place names in pre-Israelite Canaan reflect the practice. Beth Shemesh - Joshua 15:10 - means house of the sun [god]. Jericho - Numbers 22:1 - probably means moon city. Joshua's miracle of the sun and the moon standing still takes on greater significance in light of this fact. It was a demonstration of the sovereign power of the Lord God of Israel over the pagan gods identified as the sun and the moon, worshiped in pagan cities. - Joshua 10:12-13 -
Another god of ancient Mesopotamia was Adad, who represented the storm - either the beneficial rains for the crops or the destructive storms with hurricanes. Identical with Adad or Hadad, was Rimmon or Ramman, the Assyrian god of rain and storm, thunder and lightning. The two names, Hadad and Rimmon, were combined in one name, Hadad Rimmon, in the Old Testament reference. - Zechariah 12:11 - In the Old Testament Rimmon was an Aramean (Syrian) god who had a temple at Damascus. Naanman and his royal master worshiped this pagan god. - 2 Kings 5:18 -
The ancient Babylonian and Assyrian goddess Ishtar symbolized Mother Earth in the natural cycles of fertility on earth. Many myths grew up around this female deity. She was the goddess of love, so the practice of ritual prostitution became widespread in the fertility cult dedicated to her name. Temples to Ishtar had many priestesses or sacred prostitutes, who symbolically acted out the fertility rites of the cycle of nature. Ishtar has been identified with the Phoenician Astarte, the Semitic Ashtoreth and the Sumerian Inanna. Strong similarities also exist between Ishtar and the Egyptian Isis, the Greek Aphrodite and the Roman Venus.
Associated with Ishtar was the young god Tammuz, considered both divine and mortal. - Ezekiel 8:14 - In the Babylonian mythology Tammuz died annually and was reborn year after year, representing the yearly cycle of the seasons and the crops. This pagan belief later was identified with the pagan gods Baal and Anat in Canaan.
Another kind of god in both Babylonia and Assyria was a national god connected with politics. In Assyria it was Ashur and in Babylonia it was Marduk, who became prominent at the time of Hammurabih (about 1800B.C) The ancient ideas about the ordering and governing of the universe were taken over by these two gods. Marduk, for example, achieved his prominence by victory over Tiamat, goddess of the sea. This cosmic conflict, described also in ancient Sumerian, Indian and Canaanite myths, was believed to have established order. Marduk established order by destroying the goddess Tiamat.
In contrast, the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible makes it clear that the forces of nature are not pagan gods that war with one another annually to bring about an established order of the universe. They are part of God's creation. - Genesis chapter 1 -
The Babylonian god Bel is the same as Marduk, the chief Babylonian god. - Isaiah 46:1; Jeremiah 50:2, 51:44 - The Babylonian god Merodach an alternate spelling of Marduk, was the god of war and the patron deity of the city of Babylon.
Nebo was the Babylonian god of education, literature, writing, wisdom, the arts and sciences. Nisroch was an Assyrian god with a temple in Nineveh. The idol representing this pagan god had a human form with an eagle head. Sakkuth and Kaiwan was a name given by the Babylonian to the planet Saturn.
When Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, deported the inhabitants of Samaria to farflung regions of his empire, he also imported into Samaria settlers from afar to colonize this area of Palestine. These people brought their religion and their pagan gods with them. Among these gods were: Adrammelech, an idol of the Sepharvites worshiped by chid sacrifice; Anammelech, another god revered by Sepharvites; Ashima, an idol worshiped by the people of Hamath; Nergal, the war god of the men of Cuth; Nibhaz, an idol of the Avites; and Tartak, an idol also worshiped by the Avites. - 2 Kings 17:30-31 -
The pagan gods of Egypt were a constant threat to the Israelites, both during their years in bondage and afterwards. Their deliverance from Egypt was described by the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible as a great spiritual victory, with the sovereign Lord of Israel defeating the gods of the Egyptian. - Exodus 18:11; 2 Samuel 7:23 -
Egyptian religion reflected the same pagan ideas that were popular in the ancient world, but with different figures. Horus was the god of Egypt's western delta; he was a human figure with a falcon's head. Hathor, the corresponding goddess, had a cow's body and a woman's head. The god Set had a man's body and an animal's head. Anubis had a man's body and the head of an ibis.
Besides gods that were composite with animal forms and human forms, some Egyptian gods were portrayed as completely human. The are many, many more. The Egyptians also worshiped the sun, moon, and the stars. The Egyptians had many other pagan gods and the worship of all the gods involved magic and superstition.
The pagan gods of Canaan. The pagan peoples who inhabited the land of Canaan before the Israelites arrived also worshiped many gods and goddess. The Canaanite literature discovered at RASHHAMRA (on the site of the ancient city of Ugarit) on the Syrian coast provides abundant information about several gods mentioned in the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible.
The Canaanite god most often referred to is Baal, which means "lord" or "master". The word can be used as a title for any person who owned something, or any god considered to be lord or master. But the word Baal soon became identified with various regional gods that were thought to provide fertility for crops and livestock. As a god who symbolized the productive forces of nature, Baal was worshiped with much sensuality - Numbers 22:41; Judges 2:13; 1 Kings 16:31-32 -
Baal appeared in many forms and under many different names. Baal-berith, is a name under which Baal was worshiped in the time of the judges at Shechem, where he had a temple. Baal-zebub was the god of Ekron-the name under which Baal was worshiped at the Philistine city of Ekron. This god was worshiped as the producer of flies that was able to defend against this pest. In the New Testament, reference is made to Beelzebub, a heathen god considered the chief evil spirit by the Jewish people, The Pharisees called him the ruler of the demons, and the Lord Jesus Christ identified him with Satan. - Matthew 10:25; 12:27; Luke 11:18-19; Matthew 12:24; Mark 3:22; Luke 11:15 -
What and Who is Beelzebub/Beelzebul in the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible. In post-biblical Judaism and in Christianity, however, Satan became known as the "prince of devils" and assumed various names: Beelzebub in Matthew 12:22-32; Luke 11:14-23, often cited as Beelzebul and Lucifer (the fallen angel of Light) an Angel, more specifically a 'Seraphim' or 'Cherubim' (a type of celestial or heavenly being), who was once under the Archangel Gabriel and revered as a Philistine Deity named "Baal Zebul". Either way, Beelzebub/Beelzebul fell and joined with Lucifer to become high-ranking Demon in Hell. In another word, the prince of devils and in the Old Testament, in the form Baalzebub, it is the name given to the god of the Philistine city of Ekron - 2 Kings 1:1-18 -
"After the death of Ahab Moab rebelled against Israel. Ahaziah had fallen from the balcony of his upper room in Samaria, and was lying ill; so he sent messengers. saying to them, 'Go and consult Baalzebub the god of Ekron and ask whether I shall recover from my illness'. But the angel of the Lord/Yahweh said to Elijah the Tishbite, 'Up! Go and intercept the messengers of the king of Samaria. Say to them, "Is there no God in Israel, for you to go and consult Baalzebub the god of Ekron? Yahweh says this: The bed you have got into you will not get out of; you are certainly going to die." And Elijah set out.
The messengers returned to the king, who said, 'Why have you come back?' 'A man came to meet us' they answered 'and said, "Go back to the king who sent you and tell him: Yahweh says this: Is there no God in Israel for you to go and consult Baalzebub the god of Ekron? For this, the bed you have got into you will not get out of; you are certainly going to die." He said, "This man who met you and said all this, what was he like?' 'A man wearing a hair cloak' they answered 'and a leather loincloth,' 'It was Elijah the Tishbite he said.
Ahaziah, the king, then sent a captain of fifty soldiers with his contingent to Elijah, whom they found sitting on top of the hill; the captain went up to him and said, 'Man of God, the king says, "Come down"'. Elijah answered the captain, 'If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and destroy both you and your fifty men'. And fire came down from heaven and destroyed him and his fifty men. The king Ahaziah sent a second captain of fifty to him, again with fifty men, and he too went up and said, 'Man of God, this is the king's order: "Come down at once"'. Elijah answered them, 'If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and destroy you and your fifty men'. And fire came down from heaven and destroy both you and your fifty men. Then the king sent a third captain of fifty to him, with another fifty men. The third captain of fifty came up to Elijah, fell on his knees before him and pleaded with him. 'Man of God,' he said 'let my life and the lives of these fifty servants of yours have some value in your eyes. Fire has fallen from heaven and destroyed two captains of fifties, but let my life have some value now in your eyes.' The angel of Yahweh said to Elijah, 'Go down with him; do not be afraid of him'. He rose and accompany him down to the king, and said to him, 'Yahweh said this, "Since you sent messengers to consult Baalzebub the god of Ekron, the bed you have got into you will not get out of; you are certainly going to die"'.
And, in accordance with the word of Yahweh that Elijah had uttered, he died. Since he had no son, his brother Jehoram succeeded him, in the second year of Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah. The rest of the history of Ahaziah, and his career, is not all this recorded in the Book of Annals of the King of Israel? - 2 Kings 1:1-18 -
- Jesus and Beelzebul / Beelzebub - Then they brought to Jesus Christ a blind and dumb demoniac; and Jesus cured him, so that the dumb man could speak and see. All the people was astounded and said, 'Can this be the Son of David?' But when the Pharisee heard this they said, 'The man casts out devils only through Beelzebul, the prince of devils'.
Knowing what was in their minds Jesus said to them, 'Every kingdom divided against itself is heading for ruin; and no town, no household divided against itself can stand. Now if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself; so how can his kingdom stand? And if it is through Beelzebul that I cast out devils through whom do your own experts cast them out? Let them be your judges, then. But if it is through the Spirit of God that I cast devils out, then know that the kingdom of God has overtaken you.
Or again, how can anyone make his way into a strong man's house and burgle his property unless he has tied up the strong man first? Only then can he burgle his house.
He/She who is not with me is against me, and he/she does not gather with me scatters. And so I tell you, every one of men's sins and blasphemies will be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. And anyone who says a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven; but let anyone speak against the Holy Spirit and he/she will not be forgiven either in this world or in the next. - Matthew 12:22-32; Luke 11:14-22 -
Baal and related deities are also portrayed as a mating bull, symbolizing fertility. It is no surprise that while Moses was on Mount Sinai, receiving the Ten Commandments from the Lord, the disobedient Israelites fashioned a golden calf to worship. Jeroboam 1, king of Israel, acted in accordance with this pagan idea by making two calves of gold, setting up one at Bethel and the other at Dan. - Exodus 32; 1 Kings 12:26-30 -
During the history of the Israelites, a rivalry developed between Baalism and the true worship of the Lord. - Jeremiah 23:27 - Perhaps the best example of this rivalry was the conflict between Elijah and the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel - 1 Kings chapter 18 - Elijah's challenge to them to bring down fire from heaven was appropriate, because the Canaanites believed that Baal could shoot lightning flashes from the sky. Elijah's mocking of Baal struck at the heart of the claims; he knew that Baal was powerless, that the prophets of Baal had misled the people, and that only the Lord God of Israel was alive and able to answer. In the struggle to the death between true religion and false religion, Elijah knew that Baalism and its prophets had to be destroyed.
Elijah and Obadiah - 1 Kings 18:1-15 - Elijah and Ahab - 1 Kings 18:16-19 - The sacrifice an Carmel - 1 Kings 18:20-40 - The drought ends - 1 Kings 18:41-46 - A long time went by, and the word of Yahweh came to Elijah in the third year, 'Go, present yourself to Ahab; I am about to send down rain on the land'. So Elijah set off to present himself to Ahab. As the famine was particularly severe in Samaria, Ahab summoned Obadiah, the master of the palace - Obadiah held Yahweh in great reverence: when Jezebel was butchering the prophets of Yahweh, Obadiah took a hundred of them and hid them, fifty at a time, in a cave, and kept them provided with food and water - and Ahab said to Obadiah, 'Come along,.... Ahab went one way by himself and Obadiah went another way by himself. While Obadiah was on his way, whom should he meet but Elijah; recognising him he fell on his face and said, 'So it is you, my lord Elijah!' 'Yes,' Elijah replied 'go and tell your master, "Elijah is here".' ...Has no one told my lord what I did when Jezebel butchered the prophets of Yahweh, how I hid a hundred of them in a cave, fifty at a time, and kept them provided with food and water? And now you say to me, "Go and tell your master: Elijah is here". Why, he will kill me!' Elijah replied, 'As Yahweh Sabaoth lives, whom I serve, I shall present myself before him today!'
Obadiah went to find Ahab and tell him the news, and Ahab then went to find Elijah.... Ahab called all Israel together and assembled the prophets on Mount Carmel. Elijah stepped out in front of all the people. 'How long' he said 'do you mean to hobble first on one leg then on the other? If Yahweh is God, follow him; if Baal, follow him.' But the people never said a word. Elijah then said to them, 'I, I alone, am left as a prophet of Yahweh, while the prophets of Baal are four hundred and fifty... You must call on the name of your god, and I shall call on the name of mine; the god who answers with fire, is God indeed. the people all answered, 'Agreed!' ... and from morning to midday they called on the name of Baal... Midday came, and Elijah mocked them. 'Call louder,' he said 'for he is a god: he is preoccupied or he is busy, or he has gone on a journey; perhaps he is asleep and will wake up.'... Midday past and they ranted on until the time the offering is presented; but there was no voice, no answer, no attention given to them.
Then Elijah said to all the people, 'Come closer to me', and all the people came closer to him. He repaired the altar of Yahweh which had been broken down. Elijah took twelve stones, corresponding to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of Yahweh had come, 'Israel shall be your name', and built an altar in the name of Yahweh. Round the altar he dug a trench of a size to hold two measures of seed. He then arranged the wood, dismembered the bull, and laid it on the wood. Then he said, 'Fill four jars with water and pour it on the holocaust and on the wood'; this they did. Elijah said, 'Do it a second time'; they did it a second time. He said, 'Do it a third time'; they did it a third time. The water flowed round the altar and the trench itself was full of water. At the time when the offering is presented, Elijah the prophet stepped forward. 'Yahweh, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel/Jacob,' he said 'let them know today that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, that I have done all these things at your command. Answer me, Yahweh, answer me, so that this people may know that you, Yahweh, are God and are winning back their hearts.'
Then the fire of Yahweh fell and consumed the holocaust and wood and licked up the water in the trench. When all the people saw this they fell on their faces. 'Yahweh is God.' they cried 'Yahweh is God.' Elijah said, 'Seize the prophets of Baal: do not let one of them escape.' They seized them, and Elijah took them down to the wadi Kishon and he slaughtered them there.
Elijah said to Ahab, Go back, eat and drink; for I hear the sound of rain'. While Ahab went back to eat and drink. Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel and bowed down to the earth, putting his face between his knees.... The seventh times, the servant said, 'Now there is a cloud, small as a man's hand, rising from the sea.' Elijah said, 'Go and say to Ahab, "Harness the chariot and go down before the rain stops you"'. And with that the sky grew dark with cloud and storm, and rain fell in torrents. Ahab mounted his chariot and made for Jezreel. The hand of Yahweh was on Elijah, and tucking up his cloak he ran in front of Ahab as far as the outskirts of Jezreel.
In Canaanite mythological texts Baal is sometimes called the son of Dagon. Dagon was the chief god of the ancient Philistines, a grain and fertility god whose most famous temples were at Gaza and Ashdod. - Judges 16:23; 1 Samuel 5:2-7; 1 Chronicles 10:10 -
With the recent discovery of documents at ancient ELBA in Syria, it is clear that Dagon was a much more ancient and prominent god. These texts show that Dagon was being worshiped before Abraham entered Canaan about 2000 B.C. Dagon continued to be worshiped by the Canaanites up to the time of Christ. In the APOCRYPHA mention is made of a temple of Dagon at Azotus in 147 B.C. - 1 Maccabees 10:83-84 - Azotus was a later name for Ashdod, one of the five chief Philistine cities.
Like the myths of so many pagan religions, Canaanite stories claim that Baal came to prominence by defeating other gods. One of the Baal's enemies was sea monster known as Leviathan. - Job 3:8, 41:1; Psalms 104:26; Isaiah 27:1 - But in the Bible Leviathan is simply a powerful creature in the sea that man cannot control.
Baal's mistress or lover was Anat or Anath, the goddess of war, love and fertility. - Jeremiah 7:18, 44:17-19,25 - Anat was the patroness of sex and passion; lewd figurines of this nude goddess have been discovered at various archaeological sites in Palestine.The goddess Asherah was portrayed as the wife of EI in Canaanite mythology. - 1 Kings 15:13; 2 Chronicles 15:16; Judges 3:7 - Asherah was a favourite deity of women. Some of the wives of David and Solomon worshiped her, as Ahab's wife, Jezebel, also probably did. King Asa suppressed the worshiped of Asherah, and King Josiah destroyed "the articles that were made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the host of heaven". - 1 Kings 15:13; 16:31-33; 2 Kings 23:4 -
Other pagan gods in addition to Baal and his companions were worshiped by the Canaanites.
Molech was the national deity of the Ammonites, whose worship was accompanied by the burning of children offered as a sacrifice by their own parents. - Leviticus 18:21; Jeremiah 32:35 - The god Molech also appears in the Old Testament as Milcom and in the New Testament as Moloch. - 2 Kings 23:13; Zephaniah 1:5; Acts 7:43 -
Chemosh was the national god of the Moabites and Ammonites. - Judges 11:24; 2 Kings 23:13 - This deity was apparently compounded with Athtar, the Venus star, and so is thought to be a pagan god associated with the heavenly bodies. Like Molech, Chemosh was worshiped by the sacrifice of children as burnt offerings. King Solomon sanctified Chemosh as a part of his tolerance of pagan gods but Josiah abolished its worship. - 1 Kings 11:7; 2 Kings 23:13 - Human sacrifice was made to Chemosh, according to - 2 Kings 3:27 -, which reports that Mesha, king Moab, offered his eldest son as a burnt offering on the wall of Kir Hareseth, the ancient capital of Moab.
The Pagan gods of Greece and Rome. Only a few of the ancient Greek and Roman gods are mentioned in the New Testament. Zeus was the supreme god of the ancient Greeks. According to Greek mythology, Zeus was the ruler of heaven and father of other gods and mortal heroes. - Acts 14:12-13 - Hermes was the Greek god of commerce, science, invention and cunning. He also served as messenger and herald for the other gods. - Acts 14:12 -
When the apostle Paul and Barnabas were in Lystra, the people of the city declared, "The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!" They called Barnabas (Zeus) and Paul (Hermes), because he was the chief speaker. - Acts 14:11-12 -
Diana, in Roman mythology was the goddess of the moon, hunting, wild animals and virginity. When Paul preached in Ephesus, the Ephesians were in an uproar because the gospel threatened to destroy the profit of the artisans who crafted silver shrines of Diana. - Acts 19:24,27-28,34-35 - The Twins were regarded as the special protectors of distressed sailors. The Alexandrian ship in which Paul sailed from Malta to Puteoli had a carving of the Twins as its figurehead. - Acts 28:11 -
In both the Old and New Testament the people of God were surrounded by pagan gods. The apostle Paul declared to the philosophers of Athens, Men of Athens, I have seen for myself how extremely scrupulous you are in all religious matters, - Acts 17:22 -
In the city of Athens, idols of pagan gods stood on every street corner. The Athenians, perhaps fearing that they had slighted some deity, had even erected an altar inscribed: To An Unknown God. - Acts 17:23 - Well, the God whom I proclaim is in fact the one whom you already worship without knowing it. Since the God who made the world and everything in it is himself Lord of heaven and earth, he does not make his home in shrines made by human hands. - Acts 17:23-24 -
Only the sovereign Lord God has the power to rule the world; only the Lord Jesus Christ has the power to rise from the dead as conqueror, establishing once and for all our everlasting life with Him.
God's anger against the pagans. - The anger of God is being revealed from heaven against all the impiety and depravity of men who keep truth imprisoned in their wickedness. For what can be known about God is perfectly plain to them since God himself has made it plain. Ever since God created the world his everlasting power and deity - however invisible - have been there for the mind to see in the things he has made. That is why such people are without excuse; they knew God and yet refused to honour him as God or to thank him; instead, they made nonsense out of logic and their empty minds were darkened.
The more they called themselves philosophers, the more stupid they grew, until they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for a worthless imitation, for the image of mortal man, of birds, of quadrupeds and reptiles. That is why God left them to their filthy enjoyments and the practices with which they dishonour their own bodies, since they have given up divine truth for a lie and have worshiped and served creatures instead of the creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen!
That is why God has abandoned them to degrading passions; why their women have turned from natural intercourse to unnatural practices and why their menfolk have given up natural intercourse to be consumed with passion for each other, men doing shameless things with men and getting an appropriate reward for their perversion.
In other words, since they refused to see it was rational to acknowledge God. God has left them to their own irrational ideas and to their monstrous behaviour. And so they are steeped in all sorts of depravity, rottenness, greed and malice, and addicted to envy, murder, wrangling, treachery and spite. Libellers, slanderers, enemies of God, rude, arrogant and boastful, enterprising in sin, rebellious to parents, without brains, without honour, without love or pity. They know what God's verdict is; that those who behave like this deserve to die - and yet they do it; and what is worse, encourage others to do the same. - Romans 1:18-32 -
Meanwhile the eleven disciples set out for Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had arranged to meet them. When they saw him they fell down before him, though some hesitated. Jesus came up and spoke to them. He said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore make disciples of all nations; baptise them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all the commands I gave you. And know that I am with you always; yes, to the end of time." - Matthew 28:16-20 -
Wishing you, 'Happy Reading', and may God, the Father, the Son of the living God, Jesus Christ, fills your heart, mind, thoughts, and grants you: The Holy Spirit, that is, Wisdom, Knowledge, Understanding, Counsel, Piety, Fortitude, Fear of the Lord, and also His fruits of the Holy Spirit, that is, Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Trustfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control. Amen! God blessing be upon you!
Why do you call Me, "Lord, Lord" and not do what I say?' "Everyone who comes to Me and listens to My words and acts on them - I will show you what he/she is like. He/She is like a man/woman who when he/she built his/her house dug, deep, and laid the foundations on rock; when the river was in flood it bore down on that house but could not shake it, it was so well built. But the one who listens and does nothing is like the man/woman who built his/her house on soil, with no foundations: as soon as the river bore down on it, it collapsed; and what a ruin that house became!" - Luke 6:46-49 -
If we live by the truth and in love, we shall grow in all ways into Christ Jesus, who is the head by whom the whole body is fitted and joined together, every joint adding its own strength, for each separate part to work according to it function. So the body grows until it has built itself up, in love." - Ephesians 4:15-16 -
I still have many things to say to you but they would be too much for you now. But when the spirit of truth comes, he will lead you to the complete truth, since he will not be speaking as from himself, but will say only what he has learnt; and he will tell you of the things to come. He/She will glorify me, since all he/she tells you will be taken from what is mine. Everything the Father has is mine; that is why I said: all he/she tells you will be taken from what is mine." - John 16:12-15 -
Your generous contribution and support is profoundly cherish. I sincerely pray that: God blessing be upon you, always. Amen! Bank transfer: Name: Alex Chan Kok Wah - Public Bank Berhad account no. 4076577113 - Country: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
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