Re:From what do we flee? - 2004/12/03 17:45Thanks Epig, Yep, I'm working on the rest now - somehow the 'weak and beggarly elementary things' are relevant. The once 'legitimate' elements of pure worship are now exposed as a mere 'tutor' leading to the faith. We must 'let go the hand' of our former tutor, and embrace the freedom of the Christ!!
Much love and spirit to you too, bro
SoC.
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Epignossis
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Re:From what do we flee? - 2004/12/04 10:50SoC wrote: We must 'let go the hand' of our former tutor, and embrace the freedom of the Christ!! SoC.
And amen to that one. Yes, the "Word of God" truly is alive and exerts great power. The former tutor may indeed include the written word whereas we know that the time would come when that word would be written on our hearts.
Much love and spirit
ePigKnowledge puffs up, but love builds up. If anyone thinks he has acquired knowledge of something, he does not yet know it just as he ought to know it. But if anyone loves God, this one is known by him - 1 Cor 8:1-3
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Phi
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Re:From what do we flee? - 2004/12/05 08:31Yes, I'll second that amen with a hearty amem of my own. And I'll add a further amen to your comments Epig.
Much Philia Bro's
Izzy.
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Eden
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Re:From what do we flee? - 2004/12/06 11:45OK, the next instalment...
So, when Jesus replied with the shocking news that a stone would not be left upon a stone of this place, the disciples were left with no question as to its limited future and, more importantly, Jehovah’s view of it.
However, there was yet 36 years before this would happen. In the meantime, the good news about the Christ was to be told. In Jesus’ 3 ½ year ministry, he had preached the good news about the kingdom, which took the form of mysterious illustrations with hidden meanings, designed to inspire right hearted ones toward the truth. After he died, in the 40 short days he spent with his brothers, he fully opened their minds and hearts to the scriptures and promised them his spirit would be there soon to explain even more to them. The Holy Spirit provided Paul with details about the Christ, details that really fill in the bigger picture of the truth. Jews that had already ‘heard the word’ needed these exhortations. All these things are wonderful parts of the freedom of the Christ, but the temple complex and the Jewish system were still there throughout this generation and evidently its presence affected the Jewish Christians. The good news of the kingdom had deeper meaning that the good news about the Christ was to reveal.
The weak and beggarly elementary things
Paul reprimanded the Galatians for holding to the traditions of the Law of Moses. They had let themselves be deceived into ‘working’ for salvation; undoing the value of Jesus’ blood. Remember, these ones had received the token, or first installment of Holy Spirit, and had ‘this hope set upon them’. The tutor that led the way to faith had achieved its task. The elementary things to do with truth had ‘handed the batten’ to faith. The ‘faith’ is what Jesus brought with him. As brothers of Christ we must be on the watch for evidence of the elementary things creeping back into our worship and vehemently oppose this absence of faith, this denial of Christ. When Paul caught Peter trying to impress the older men from Jerusalem he scolded him publicly and explained to him in no uncertain terms the serious spiritual darkness that inspires holding onto the weak and beggarly elementary things.
For such freedom Christ has set us free
In the context of the 1st century C.E. the freedom of the Christ was manifest in the absence of law, but more than that, those that were Gentiles were welcomed as brothers too. Hence the Jewish system no longer held the Jewish Christians in its grasp. The Jewish system had hierarchical structure that created a schism between brothers (the word Pharisee means ‘separatist’). This system, or organization, was part of the ‘tutor leading to the Christ’; thus the Jewish Christians had to ‘let go of the hand’ of that organization.
This ‘organization’ came complete with a legal department, separatist leaders to keep the people in check, synagogues or meeting places, all having the true foundation of the Law of Moses (which was specifically the ‘tutor’) but with sufficient ‘twisting of scripture’ to make ‘pleasing God’ unbearable. Weak and beggarly elementary things indeed!
So, Jesus brought with him faith, and for all who put their faith in him, freedom from the weak and beggarly elementary things of bygone systems, Jewish or Gentile. Jesus taught humility and lowliness of mind. He taught that no man was head of another man; the head of a man is Christ. He taught that formerly despised people were our brothers. Thus at every opportunity he bucked ‘the system (or organization)’, infuriating the pious separatists and exposing their spiritual blindness.
The apostle Paul now speaks to us today, let us listen and take it to heart, “Nevertheless, when YOU did not know God, then it was that YOU slaved for those who by nature are not gods. 9 But now that YOU have come to know God, or rather now that YOU have come to be known by God, how is it that YOU are turning back again to the weak and beggarly elementary things and want to slave for them over again? 10 YOU are scrupulously observing days and months and seasons and years. 11 I fear for YOU, that somehow I have toiled to no purpose respecting YOU. So how is it, that we have returned to the weak and beggarly elementary things, by installing and perpetuating a system of things, or an organization, complete with a legal department, separatist leadership and meeting places, with the bible as a foundation but with additional traditions to make serving God a burden? What have we done? We have denied the Christ and his freedom by returning to the vomit of human systems, the weak and beggarly elementary things that faith set us free from! How can we claim to have faith when we have not let go of the hand of the tutor leading us to it? Without faith it is impossible to please God well.
TO BE CONTINUED...
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Eden
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Re:From what do we flee? - 2004/12/07 15:46A side comment, inspired by a thread on e-w...
The apostle Paul wrote in Romans 9:27, "Moreover, Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Although the number of the sons of Israel may be as the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that will be saved."
The WT has taught that this remnant has already fled Christendom, and since then this remnant have been gathering 'the great crowd of other sheep'. As all honest hearted truth seekers have discovered, 1914 has no significance as far as Christ's kingdom rule is concerned. Logically then, despite wishing it were otherwise, the remnant that is to be saved, have not been harvested from the field either.
I happen to agree with the WT, Christendom the blood stained apostate IS due the judgement coming upon the house of God - CHRISTENDOM'S POPULOUS IS ISRAEL- However, without 1914, how can we assert the apostate WT is any different than apostate Christendom? There has been no harvest, no fleeing - their pseudo-escape from false religion has become evident from their fruits, this 'escape' is yet future. Aparently, not too far into the future, considering the spiritual awakening happening all over the globe. IMHO, we should expect pure hearted truth lovers, searching for the true God, to come from all branches of Christendom, whether they are already anointed by Jehovah as sons or are yet to be anointed is none of our concern, and, this 'gathering' will be achieved by Holy Spirit, not by a preaching campaign instigated by a man or men.
From what do we flee? Answer: Christendom, the walls in which you are trusting (Duet 28:52)
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Michael
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Re:From what do we flee? - 2005/01/06 21:32I was refering to Judaism, as represented worldwide by the state of Israel - a nuclear power.
Forum 
And I'll add a further amen to your comments Epig. 
