In Basic
Christianity part 1 we looked at a document called the Didache which was the
church teaching by the Apostles Paul and Barnabus before any of St. Paul’s
writings were written, they were just setting up the churches and this document
was instruction on how to do so.
In part 2 we
looked at Holy Scripture that said the same thing only now was in a written
form that would be placed into what is called the Bible today. The church must
understand these basics, and what I have given you here are just that, the
basics. Do not condemn one another who follow these teachings, push away the
liars and haters who fight against these truths, seek the truth, knock and
never stop knocking.
Another item
that I will only mention because it is the subject of a whole other teaching
but it concerns the Bible itself. This book of books has been so diluted today
that it is ridiculous to call it God’s word anymore. There are many
translations that exist and there is one ancient one that is maligned by many
but which has been shown by the Dead Sea Scrolls to be true and that is the
Septuagint. I have seen it written and I have heard it preached that the
Septuagint Bible was a fabrication of the Catholics, or that Origen actually wrote
it all himself. All that I am going to say on that now is this; the Septuagint
was the Jewish Bible, revered by the Greek speaking Jews and used by the
Apostles, stop listening to everyone who speaks based on prejudice and begin researching
things on your own. If you stay in your own group and read only what they write
and call it research you are only fooling yourself.
Was it the
Jewish Bible? Research the Jewish history of the Septuagint for yourself and
find out or are you afraid to discover actual truth? This Greek translation of
the Hebrew Scriptures was revered by the Jews for centuries until Christianity.
Remember that the Jews were scattered throughout the world, Alexander III of
Macedon or Alexander the Great had conquered a large part of the known world
and most people including the Jews were speaking Greek and not Hebrew, the
Septuagint was highly regarded because the majority of the Jews could not speak
Hebrew.
Jesus the
Christ and the Apostles quoted from the Septuagint, especially Paul. There is a
big issue with the books removed from Scripture with the statement that the
Jews had never had them in their Bible and that the Catholics added them. This
is in fact a blatant lie, it’s from Satan and people condemn the books and have
never even read them to know what they contain. Did you know that there was a
treaty between Rome and the Jews signed by a delegation from Judas Maccabeus
and the Roman Senate before the Roman occupation? How could I know this? It’s
in the book 1 Maccabees; the Maccabees are history books, why does anyone have
issue with history books?
How about this
quote; While all things were in quiet silence, and the night was in the
midst of her swift course, Thine almighty Word leaped out of Heaven out
of Thy royal throne, as a fierce man of war, into the midst of a land of
destruction. Who could this quote possibly be speaking about? We know who the
almighty Word that leaps forth from the royal throne of God is do we not? Would
this be Jesus the Christ? Where could we find such a quote regarding Jesus the
Christ from the Old Testament? This one is from the book of the Wisdom of
Solomon chapter 18 verses 14-15, one of the much despised books removed from
Holy Scripture in the 19th century. The question that really needs to be
answered by Christians is; why would anyone who calls himself a Christian
remove books from Holy Scripture based on some Jewish teaching when it was
these very same Jews who reject the Christ to start with? They still reject the
Christ and yet many so-called Christians follow this Jewish understanding by
screaming against the books that the Jews rejected after the Christians began
quoting from them and these same Jews still reject Jesus Christ and the same
Christians still follow their understanding and yet claim Jesus Christ. How is
this even possible? You should just simply join a Synagogue and become Jewish.
Another understanding to speak on and that is
regarding relics and I will make it brief. 2 Kings 13:21 21 And
it came to pass, as they were burying a man, that, behold, they spied a band of
men; and they cast the man into the sepulchre of Elisha: and when the man was
let down, and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood up on his
feet. Do you accept this as the holy word of God? It’s in the Old Testament of
every bible that is accepted by the church and the Jews.
The Martyrdom of Polycarp is considered the earliest
genuine post-biblical account of a Christian martyrdom, and one of the very few
genuine writings of this from the actual age of the persecutions. It also is
one of the earliest accounts of the veneration of relics in the early Christian
Church as the Martyrdom records that after Polycarp's Roman sacrifice by
fire which couldn’t kill him and the subsequent death by stabbing, the faithful
piously gathered up his bones as precious treasures. This is not some centuries
after the birth of the church.
St Polycarp died just some 60 years after the Apostle St.
John who was his teacher, so this was indeed the very beginning of the church.
Tables were often erected over the graves of the martyrs and prayers were held
asking the deceased to pray for them while they praised God.
So if you believe that the Bible is the holy written word
of God and you accept everything in it as gospel which means that you accept
the fact that the bones of Elisha brought a dead man back to life why do you
attack a church that continues to believe in these things. Why? The scriptures are
true or they are not. Simply because another group takes to heart what is in
fact true to Holy Scripture and practiced from the beginning of the church and
those of you who choose not to believe the book that you call God’s holy word
refuse to accept it does not give you leave to attack those who believe God’s
word in heart and not just in lip service.
Another concept; Jesus is the Living Word of God,
Jeremiah 31:33 says; But
this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those
days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on
their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Hebrews 8:10 says; This is the covenant I will
establish with the people of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will
put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
In the
second chapter of Romans we find this; For there is no respect of persons with
God. For whosoever have sinned without the law, shall perish without the law;
and whosoever have sinned in the law, shall be judged by the law, for not the
hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be
justified. For when the Gentiles, who have not the law, do by nature those
things that are of the law; these having not the law are a law to themselves: Who show the work of the law written in their
hearts, their conscience bearing witness to them, and their thoughts between
themselves accusing, or also defending one another.
So answer me
this if you can, what happened to all of the people who died before the
Apostles could get the message of salvation through Jesus the Christ to them,
are they in hell? Do you know that there are people on earth today that have
never heard the name of Jesus? Still today they have never heard His name
spoken so are they doomed to hell for not ever hearing his name?
This Bible
tells us that God has written His law on our heart. Has the Bible lied? Do you
believe it? So if these people having never heard the name of Jesus and yet live
according to the law written on their heart by God, do they then know Jesus
even without hearing His name? Is Jesus the law? Is He the fulfillment of the
law? Is Jesus the law that is written on the heart of all men if He is the law?
Do these people have salvation through Jesus the Christ having never heard His name
yet live according to the law written on their hearts? You answer that question
for yourself. Now I’m not talking about idol worshippers or worshippers of
false gods, there is a big difference.
Don’t just
give an arbitrary answer according to your current prejudiced belief, research
it, pray about it, and if your research is only within your own church
understanding then you will get nowhere because you already have an answer
based on that teaching, whatever that teaching may be. You must consider things
through the Holy Spirit. There is a lot of finger pointing among Christians and
condemning one another to hell, who is it that actually has that authority?
Think about that.
And while
I’m on the subject of hell, tell me just where hell is, exactly. I know what so
many have been taught to include myself but I want to challenge you, find it in
Holy Scripture, search and find it, I defy you to do this. Search without
prejudice and current thinking, pray about the words that you are reading and
remember them, while doing this, find the scripture that tells us where heaven
and hell is. You won’t find it.
Do we read
about the torments and the fire of hell? Do we read about Almighty God as an
all consuming fire? Did King David say; where can I go that you are not? If I
go to the depths of Sheol you are there. We can go nowhere in God’s universe
that He is not there. God is an all consuming fire. Think about this; if there
is nowhere that God is not, there is nowhere that is apart from God. Heaven and
hell are the same place, before Almighty God, those who love Him while in the
flesh and are doers of the law who follow the commandments of Jesus out of
love, will spend eternity before God and experience the joy of His fire or the
eternal light of His love.
Those who do
not love God or Jesus Christ while in the flesh will still stand before God and
the all consuming fire but because of their lack of love for good but love for
evil, they will experience the fire as torment, same fire. The gulf between
those in heaven and hell is a spiritual gulf, they are far apart but it is a
metaphor for the great spiritual gulf between them.
Send me your
thoughts, I can almost guarantee that I have already had them and had a lot of
difficulty with many passages of scripture that seemed to be giving a different
understanding. Whatever you send I can assure you that I will be able to
explain with a different understanding. Think about this; we say that God is
love, we sing; Jesus loves me this I know. We read and repeat; for God so loved
the world.
God is love,
he created out of love, He sent His Only Begotten Son out of love, His Only
Begotten Son willingly gave His life out of love. So what is the key here?
Love. That’s the key. We know that the great Apostle, St. John was called the
Apostle of love, we know that he was the last apostle to die and we know that
he died peacefully. How many know what his last sermons were about? I’ll tell
you.
In his very
old age and in poor health, Bishops would carry him out while seated on a chair
to preach. The bishops and the people would wait eagerly for the last living
Elder or Apostle to speak, he gave the same homily or sermon every time;
brothers and sisters, remember to love one another. Finally the bishops said to
him; sir, we and the people always wait eagerly to hear words of wisdom from
you and all you ever say is brothers and sisters remember to love one another,
why do you always say the same thing?
The
Apostle’s answer was just as simple as his sermon; because if you have perfect
love, there is nothing else.
Pliny the
Younger (Gaius Plinius Caecelius Secundus, circa 61-113) was a Roman
administrator whom the Emperor Trajan had sent to Bithynia, in Asia Minor, to
reform the region's finances and court system. Around AD 112 he wrote to Trajan
reporting how he had dealt with Christians in his jurisdiction, and requesting
the Emperor's further advice.
This was his
description of how the Christians worshipped, remember, up until this point he
simply put them to death but the number of Christians was growing so rapidly
that he wrote to the emperor asking for his advice on how to deal with these
people and gave a short description of the worship to the best of his
knowledge.
According to
these people, "on an appointed day they had been accustomed to meet before
daybreak, and to recite a hymn antiphonally (that is to respond alternately
back and forth, this is the way of the liturgy we practice today) to Christ, as
to a god." Then they would take an oath (Latin sacramentum)
"to abstain from theft, robbery, adultery, and breach of faith."
After this ceremony they left, but reassembled later on to eat together. The
ceremony was secret, a liturgy and then the lord’s supper, the Eucharist, or
Holy Communion, these things were done in secret.
Pliny also reported
that he was unable to get much more information about the ceremony even after
torturing two deaconesses.
Justyn
Martyr a Christian wrote to the Roman emperor in defense of the Christian faith
and the lies perpetrated against them at the risk of his own life; he wrote
this in 155 AD, Justin describes both a post-baptismal Eucharist and a Sunday
assembly. The first event follows the baptism, or "washing," of one
who has become convinced and confessed Christ. The new Christian is then led to
the assembly of "brethren." Only those who accept the Christian faith
and have "received the washing" for forgiveness of sins and for
rebirth, and who live by Christ's principles, are allowed to partake of the
Eucharist.
The
Eucharist begins with common prayers for the assembly: for themselves, for the
new convert, and for others. Then the worshipers greet one another with a kiss.
(Now at the tie, men and women were in separate parts of the congregation, so
that this greeting was not done, man to woman) Then bread, wine and water are
brought to the president, who offers the Eucharistic prayer. The prayer begins
by ascribing glory to the Father in the name of the Son and Spirit, and
continues with thanksgiving that worshipers have been judged worthy to receive
the bread and wine. At the end, the congregation says the Amen.
Deacons then
give to those who are present a portion of the bread, wine and water that have
been "eucharistized" (offered thanks over). Justin's account adds,
"For we do not receive these things as common bread or common drink; but
as Jesus Christ our Savior being incarnate by God's word took flesh and blood
for our salvation, so also we have been taught that the food consecrated by the
word of prayer which comes from him, from which our flesh and blood are
nourished by transformation, is the flesh and blood of the incarnate
Jesus." Justin then repeats Jesus' words in delivering the bread and cup
at the Last Supper. At the conclusion of the service, the Eucharist is also
taken to those members of the Christian community who were absent. Justin continues
by adding "then those who have more, come to the aid of those who
lack," and God is blessed for his gifts.
Justin
describes the Sunday assembly "in one place." He explains that the
community gathers on Sunday, or the first day, both because it was the first
day of creation and because on it Jesus rose from the dead.
The service
begins with readings from the "memoirs of the apostles" which are the
Gospels, or the writings of the prophets as long as time allows. Then the
president teaches from the Scriptures. The speaker was probably seated while
the people stood, as was the custom in ancient times (see Matt. 5:1). Prayers
and the celebration of the Eucharist follow, as described above. At the end,
those who have prospered voluntarily bring their gifts to the president, who
will distribute them to those in need.
The Sunday
assembly combines the service of the Word, or reading and teaching from
Scripture, with the Eucharist or service of the Lord's table; this was to
become the basic way of Christian worship. The description of the
post-baptismal Eucharist makes it clear that the unbaptized were not present
for the Eucharist. If during the Sunday gathering they were present for the
readings and the president's discourse, they would have been dismissed before
the prayers.
The Apostolic
Tradition of Hippolytus
Around AD
200 Hippolytus, a Roman clergyman composed a manual of church order and worship
known as the Apostolic Tradition. In this document, Hippolytus describes
a Eucharist in two settings: one following the consecration of a bishop, and
one following baptism and confirmation.
The Eucharist
at the consecration of a bishop begins with the greeting or kiss of peace.
Deacons then bring the elements to the bishop, who with other presbyters
(elders) lays his hands on them. Introductory responses, still used in many
liturgies, are then spoken antiphonally:
The Lord be
with you.
And with your spirit.
Lift up your hearts.
We have them with the Lord.
Let us give thanks unto the Lord.
It is fitting and right.
The Eucharistic
prayer is longer than in the previous examples. It begins with thanksgiving for
the coming of Jesus, the incarnate Word. It proceeds through the narrative of
Christ's sufferings through which he abolished death, to the words of Jesus'
institution of the Lord's Supper and the recalling of Christ's death and
resurrection. The prayer concludes with the invocation of the Holy Spirit upon
the assembly, and a doxology.
Hippolytus
then indicates that if oil is offered as a gift, it is then blessed, symbolic
of the anointing of kings, priests and prophets. A doxology concludes the ceremony.
If cheese and olives are offered, they are similarly blessed as symbolic of
charity and of the free flow from the tree of life, with a concluding doxology.
In
Hippolytus' second example, the Eucharist after baptism and confirmation, the
ceremony begins with the offering by the deacons of bread, wine, milk, honey
and water. During the prayer that follows, which Hippolytus does not quote, the
bread is to be eucharistized into the "flesh of Christ" and the cup
of wine into his blood. The mixed milk and honey, symbolic of the Promised Land
and the nourishment of Christ, is blessed, and also the water, symbolic of
cleansing. The bread and cups of water, milk and wine are then distributed by
the presbyters. The cups are served to each worshiper three times, with the
following dialogue:
In God the
Father Almighty. Amen.
And in the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
And in the Holy Spirit in the Holy Church. Amen.
In the Apostolic
Tradition of Hippolytus, we note that the elements of the Eucharist are
viewed as the representation of the flesh and blood of Christ, having taken on
this property through the Eucharistic prayer. There is now an invocation of the
Holy Spirit (epiklesis), but it is upon the people rather than
upon the elements of the Eucharist.
This was the
early church during the persecutions, the church will be persecuted again, and
wouldn’t it be wise to follow their example in worship?
So, I want
you to think about these things, pray about them, talk to God about them and
research what I am saying.
What will you do when you discover that you
may be in error? Will you begin to change your understanding and seek the full
truth and begin worshipping in the manner of the early church? Or will you
ignore it and continue living and preaching what makes you comfortable because
to admit that you had been deceived would be embarrassing? I’ve been there, the
truth can be hard at times when we are so convinced of one way already but
remember this, it is our salvation through Jesus the Christ that is important,
it is the honor of His Most Holy Name that we are to uphold. I have given you
the basic understanding of Christianity plus some questions to think about, I
have had a very small tiny glimpse of what is facing the end of the church, it
will be like the beginning. When will this actually happen? I don’t know but it
will happen. There will be house to house searches for Bibles and any written
material relating to true Christianity, at first the books may simply be
confiscated but there will be some who lose their life or the life of loved
ones over the books.
For some
there will be no prison terms for the owning of the books only death, have you
noticed that in this series there was no Bible needed? Did you catch that? Sure
I used scripture to make points but the understanding is there, the knowledge
is there without the written word on paper. When the church began teaching and
then began to be persecuted, they had no Bible, the message was simple and
still is simple, I have presented it all to you in these simple videos. The
word is written in your heart, the understanding is written in your heart, if
you can memorize whole books of scripture then that is good but you will not
memorize all of scripture. It is not necessary, remember the teachings. Read
your bibles while you can, teach your children to read their bibles but
remember, the word is written on your heart.
What did the
Apostle Paul say; So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that
you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter.
Also he said;
Now I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the
traditions even as I delivered them to you.
All things
are not written, salvation need not be written in a book, it is written on the
heart, it’s simple, all you need to do is live it and pass it on. There will
come a time when this will be the only way, the written word will not freely be
read and taught but the words of truth, the understanding cannot be unwritten
from your heart, it can only be ignored or proclaimed, there is no other
choice.
May you be
blessed with the heart and determination to find the truth.
In the name
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit! Amen.
In Christ,
Monk Michael
Rev. Fr. Michael Valentine
For Monk Michael's videos; http://www.youtube.com/user/HieroMonkMichael
Monk Michael's 'Spiritual Christianity for Today! on Kindle; http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009ZCIF4M
Monk Michael's 'Spiritual Christianity for Today! paperback; http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&field-author=Rev.%20Fr.%20Michael%20Valentine%20Sweet&page=1&rh=n%3A283155%2Cp_27%3ARev.%20Fr.%20Michael%20Valentine%20Sweet
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In Christ,
Monk Michael
