ArmchairAdventists

  Revelation: Justification by Faith Hearts and Minds Revelation 2:20–23 "But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works, and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works." Today, we will examine what it means for God to search "hearts and minds." Jezebel called herself a prophetess, leading others into immorality and idolatry. Yet these overt sins are rarely committed in the church without some form of excuse. Perhaps Jezebel might have argued that her actions were no...

An Poetic Prose on the Incarnation   From His Holy Place  God came down,   He stooped below the heavens   that He might behold us   Nay, more still   That He may be amongst us   For our glory was stripped from us   And death’s terror imprisoned us   The nature of man could not deliver us   So God came down   He assumed humanity from a Virgin, that through His assumption of our nature He might heal all humanity,   In His own body, a body sharing in the degeneration of sinful humanity;   —He through the overshadowing of that sinless Spirit sanctified His human nature—the sinful soul is never resided in His heart,   His spirit recoils from evil,   His mind reflects perfectly and absolutely the image of God as Adam before He fell   But His form and frame, it was our own,   He was bone of our bone   defiled and degraded by the sinfulness of His mother Mary, tracing back...

The Incarnation (part I): the christology of Cyril of Jerusalem This article does not attempt to give a comprehensive interpretation of patristic literature, rather it is intended more as a devotional, to better understand the purpose and reason of the Incarnation, why the Lord and God of all sojourned amongst us: "Nurslings of purity and disciples of chastity, raise we our hymn to the Virgin-born God with lips full of purity. Deemed worthy to partake of the flesh of the Spiritual Lamb, let us take the head together with the feet, the Deity being understood as the head, and the Manhood taken as the feet. Hearers of the Holy Gospels, let us listen to John the Divine. For he who said, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, went on to say, and the Word was made flesh. For neither is it holy to worship the mere man, nor religious to say that He is God only without the Manhood. For if Christ is God, as indeed He is, but took not human nature upo...

  Revelation: Justification by Faith A Time for Repentance Previously, we examined the evil deeds of Jezebel in the Old Testament. The spiritual Jezebel in Thyatira is described in a similarly negative light: Revelation 2:20 "But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols." In the Bible, immorality often serves as a metaphor for idolatry. Yet Jezebel also seemed to have allowed literal adultery: Revelation 2:22 "Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works." Jezebel claimed to be a prophet, leading others into idolatry and immorality, and allowed people to commit adultery with her—all within God’s own church. This tarnished God’s reputation and was even tolerated by the congregation. Jesus, the one speaking h...

  Revelation: Justification by Faith Jezebel Revelation 2:18 "And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: ‘These things says the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and feet like fine brass: 19. I know your works, love, service, faith, and your perseverance; and that your latter works are greater than the first. 20. Nevertheless, I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. 21. And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent. 22. Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds. 23. I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to your works.’” Thyatira was home to individuals who di...

  Revelation: Justification by Faith Pergamum as a Lampstand (It is recommended to read the previous blogs about Pergamum for context.) In Smyrna, Satan failed to destroy the church through persecution. The blood of the martyrs became the seed of the church, and it was in their suffering that the church triumphed. However, in Pergamum, Satan changed his strategy. Having clearly lost the battle against Christ at the cross—where every reproach against God's name was removed—Satan set his focus on a single goal: to lead as many people as possible into his downfall. Although the great cosmic war was already decided, and he knew his time was short, he could still wage war for individual souls. While some faltered under persecution, in Pergamum Satan succeeded by enticing the church to compromise. Pergamum became a stronghold of Satan, and his influence was felt even within the church. Many were led astray, following the way of Balaam. These were influential prophets and teachers with go...