@mazibayo and Isaiah's gathering of the dispersed, the Ephraim blessing will sit comfortably inside a whole restoration matrix. I think that makes it richer than one cross reference...
@mazibayo nations (Genesis 17:5), which Paul quotes, in Romans 4:17. I think that setting Ezekiel 37's two sticks where Judah and Joseph rejoined in one hand beside that,
@mazibayo Yes, yes. Particularly when one considers that the northern tribes never returned, having been assimilated into the nations. I think this is Jason Staples' staple.😁
There're so many pressure worthy plates in there though. So many. I spot about 3 at first glance.
@AnjorinJoy67637@TolulopeAyeni 2. Granted, Paul exercised apostolic authority, but that's the point. He was an apostle, not the local pastor or elder of those assemblies. So if you're going to cite Paul, can you please show where Scripture identifies Paul occupying that role in a local church?
@AnjorinJoy67637@TolulopeAyeni Would you mind demonstrating from Scripture where Paul functioned as the resident head (lead pastor, etc) of a local assembly, whether in Corinth, Ephesus, or any other church he planted?. 1
Terrorists took turns raping a 52-year-old mother in front of her two children. They recorded it and posted the video online.
We aren’t resilient people, we’re just cowards.
The world has watched our double standards for so long.
They wonder why we are so loud against evil in society but play neutral once the evil finds shelter under our roofs.
We suddenly tolerate evil once it wears a "church cloth"
Looks like we can tolerate Satan's evil if only he humbly joins our church.
A covenant is only ever one generation deep.
Truth is not genetically transmitted; it travels in the telling.
On Moab, the two men named Phinehas, and why a saved people forgets it was ever saved.
https://t.co/gq7opx0ho7
The average Christian thinks he's shining for Jesus by earning more money and accumulating more fame.
Even if his business empire overworks staff and underpays employees.
We need to learn what being a light of the world and salt of the earth really means.
The obsession with "success" has twisted our perspective in a way that we have become useless to God aside from helping to build our church cathedrals.
The real shining is to display the nature of God in a wicked world.
Not by having more wealth or glamour but by demonstrating more virtue.
@AyotundeMartin_ It's the spirit that made Jehoshaphat ally himself with Ahab. When truth is only still intellectual and not really/yet heart deep, it makes allowances for falsehood.
One of the Nigerian Church greatest problem is heterodoxy, and also syncretism.
A Nigerian can listen to a super sound preacher and a heretic at the same time, and dismiss one for the other by claiming, they are both doing their assignments.
It's so insane to see.
Something I read in Ephesians that has stayed with me this week is Paul’s statement that, prior to our union with Christ, we lived under the influence of the prince of the power of the air. I can’t stop thinking about how every rejection of Christ is never truly neutral. It is not merely a human choice untouched by anything beyond ourselves, but one shaped by an external spiritual influence working to resist God’s truth. And when you think of the scale of rejection and opposition ongoing in the world today, through false doctrines and false religions, we need God more than ever before not just in our sanctification as we deal with the roughness of the narrow path but also in re-emphasizing the truth of the gospel as we contend for souls in our own generation.
If you are going to interpret all of scripture through the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ, then you need to be willing to follow that logic all the way to its conclusion. Because if the standard is “we did not see Jesus do it during his earthly ministry, therefore God does not do it,” then you have a serious problem on your hands.
We did not see Jesus sit on any governmental throne while he walked this earth. He did not rule as a king over any nation. He did not command any army or exercise political authority over any empire. So by your logic, God is not the ruler of the universe. Is that what you believe? Because that is where your argument leads.
We did not see Jesus father any children. He did not procreate. He was not the biological source of any human life during his time on earth. So by your logic, God is not Father. That title means nothing. Is that what you are prepared to say?
We did not see Jesus create a single planet, a single tree, a single leaf, or a single human being from scratch during his earthly ministry. Not one act of original creation is recorded. So by your logic, Jesus is not the Creator. He is not the source of all things. But wait. That directly contradicts the same scriptures you claim to believe, because Colossians 1 tells you that all things were created through him and for him, and that by him all things consist, right now, continuously. John 1 tells you there was nothing made that was made without him. You cannot have it both ways.
So the argument is not just weak. It is logically self-destroying. The moment you apply it consistently, it dismantles the very Jesus you are trying to defend.
Now let me go further, because this is important. The Bible does not present itself as a collection of isolated proof texts. It presents itself as one continuous story, one unfolding revelation. You cannot lift one portion of that story and use it to contradict the rest. That is not how the authors intended it, and that is not how Jesus himself treated scripture.
And here is the part that should stop you completely. The same authors you are using to build your argument are the same authors who destroy it. You want to quote Luke? Fine. Luke wrote the gospel. Luke also wrote the book of Acts, which comes directly after, as a continuation of the same account. And it is that same Luke, in Acts chapter 5, who tells you that Ananias and Sapphira fell dead, and credits the Holy Spirit, who is God, as the agent of that judgment. So what are you doing with Luke? Do you believe him or not? You cannot take Luke’s account of Jesus and ignore Luke’s account of God’s judgment. That is not exegesis. That is selection.
You want to appeal to the apostolic witness? Then deal with the full apostolic witness. It is Jude, one of his own, who tells us in Jude chapter 1 verse 5 that it was Jesus who delivered the people out of Egypt and afterward destroyed those who did not believe. That is the same Jesus. Credited by an apostle. Killing people. That text exists and you have to deal with it.
It is Matthew, who walked with him, who gives us the gospel of Matthew. Are we going to pretend Matthew did not know who Jesus was? Are we going to pretend that the men who gave their lives for this testimony somehow got the nature of God wrong while you, reading from a distance, have figured it out?
The only way this argument survives is if you are willing to say Luke is unreliable, Jude is unreliable, the apostolic witness is unreliable. But the moment you say that, you have also destroyed the source of everything you know about Jesus. You cannot stand on the gospels while burning down the letters. It is the same foundation. It is the same testimony. It is the same God.