Bible_Study_4 Flashcards
Darius the Mede
King of Babylon who was tricked into signing the decree that resulted in Daniel being thrown into the lion’s den.
Ptolemy
One of Alexander’s 4 generals took Egypt, the Southern part of the kingdom.
Seleucus
One of Alexander’s 4 generals took Syria, the Eastern section.
Antiochus IV Epiphanes
Type of Antichrist, the historical little horn, defiled the Temple.
Mattathias
A Jewish priest of the House of Hasman who refused to worship Jupiter and who slew the King’s representative.
Judas the Maccabee
Led the Jewish revolt in refusing to worship Jupiter.
Hanukkah
Celebrates the Jewish cleansing and rededication of the Temple and the miracle of the temple candelabra burning 8 days on 1 day’s supply of oil.
Michael
Israel’s guardian angel who will help deliver Israel through the Tribulation.
Darius the Great
King who allowed the Temple work to continue.
Xerxes I
King also known as Ahasuerus, who made Esther his queen.
Artaxerxes
King who allowed the Second and Third Returns and issued the decree to rebuild Jerusalem’s walls, step-son of Esther.
Joshua/Jeshua
The spiritual leader and High Priest of the First return.
Mordecai
Esther’s older cousin, who raised her as his own daughter.
Haman
Jew hating prime minister who plotted to exterminate the Jews.
Vashti
Persian queen deposed for refusing to display herself and was replaced by Esther.
Saballat, Tobiah, and Geshem
The enemies of Nehemiah’s rebuilding project.
The feast of Purim
A memorial to commemorate the salvation of the Jews from the evil plot to exterminate them.
Tyre
Capital city of Phoenician empire destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar and Alexander the Great over a 250 year period exactly as prophesied by Ezekiel.
Subtitle of 1 John
The Assurance Epistle
The sin unto death is a sin that can only be committed by a
Christian, because 1 John 5:16b refers to “brother.”
Author of the Gospel of John, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, and Revelation
John the Apostle
Recipients of 1 John
7 Churches of Asia Minor
Content of 1 John
The Assurance Epistle and speaks of how we can enjoy the perfect assurance of our salvation through intimate fellowship with Christ and other believers.
Theme of 1 John
Fellowship with Christ
Purpose of 1 John
a. “…That ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ” - To help believers discover intimate fellowship with God and one another.♦b. “…That your joy may be full: - To help believers to experience the joy of their salvation.♦c. “…That ye sin not.” - To bring about moral purity.♦d. “…That ye may know that ye have eternal life…” - To give assurance of Salvation.♦e. “…Concerning them that seduce you.” - To combat false teachings.
Dates of 1 John
AD 90
Subtitle of 2 John
Reject False Teachers
Key Word of 2nd John
Truth
Theme of 2 John
♦Briefly Stated: The Duty to Reject false Teachers.♦♦Developed: The supreme duty of Christian love must be balanced with a rejection of false teachers in defense of the truth.
Purpose of 2 John
To prevent Churches from embracing teachers who claim to be Christians, but who deny the fundamental doctrines of the Christian Faith.
Subtitle of 3 John
Receive True Teachers
Recipients of 3 John
Gaius and the local church in which he was a leader or pastor. This was a common first century name and should not be equated with any other New Testament references to individuals by the same name.
Theme of 3 John
Our duty to receive and support true teachers
Purpose of 3 John
To be a rebuke on all individuals who would seek to run or control the local church or the preacher.
Comparison
♦John wrote 2 John to protect the truth by denying the support of false teachers.♦♦He wrote 3 John to advance the truth through supplying the support of genuine Christian teachers.♦♦”In his second epistle, John dealt with the problems of welcoming deceivers (which should not have been done); in this epistle, he discusses the error of not receiving believers (which should have been done).” Willmington
Recipients of Revelation
7 churches of Asia-Minor (in the western part of modern Turkey)
Content of Revelation
The bulk of this book centers around the Judgments and the Personalities of the 7 year Tribulation Period (Rev 4-19), but the book also outlines the course of the Church Age (Rev 2-3) and God’s plans for the Millennium and Eternity future.
Key Chapter of Revelation
19 - The Second Coming of Christ
Purpose of Revelation
The Revelation of Jesus Christ
Date of Revelation
The majority of conservative scholars date the book around AD 90 near the end of the reign of emperor Domitian. Though a few scholars attempt to date the book as early as the late 60’s, the evidence stands firmly in favor of the later date. The Early Church Fathers Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Victorinus, and Eusebius all attribute the book to the time of Emperor Domitian in the 90’s.
John is the human author of _____ of the _____ New Testament Books.
5, 27
John wrote more than any other New Testament writer, with the exception of ______________.
Paul
John grew up as a
Galilean fisherman.
He and his brother James were the sons of
Zebedee and were also called the sons of thunder.
John was originally a disciple of
John the Baptist, and then of Jesus.
History tells us that in his latter years, John pastored
in and around Ephesus, ministering to the Churches of Asia Minor.
John outlived all
of the other Apostles
John was also the only one of the Apostles
to die a natural death.
John was also called
John the Elder.
John suffered much for Christ.
He was exiled to the Isle of Patmos and tradition tells us that he was boiled in oil.
1 John was written to
combat heresy, and in particular, early forms of Gnosticism.
This heresy of John’s time can be summed up with 2 basic concepts:
- The supremacy of knowledge (Greek “gnosis”) ♦2. The evil of matter. ♦♦They believed in salvation by enlightenment into their brand of knowledge♦♦They also denied the humanity of Jesus Christ and separated “Jesus the man” from “the Christ Spirit” which supposedly came upon him.
There were varieties of Gnostic thought, which John may have written to combat, including:
Docetism and Cerinthianism
Docetism -
the heresy that taught that Jesus only “appeared” to have a physical body. They believed Jesus was a spirit with no real physical substance who left no footprints when he walked.
Cerinthianism
Cerinthus was an opponent of John in Ephesus. Irenaeus (who was a disciple of Polycarp, who was a disciple of John) writes in his work, Against Heresies, that Cerinthus “represented Jesus as having not been born of a virgin, but as being the son of Joseph and Mary…while he nevertheless was more righteous, prudent and wise than other men. Moreover, after his baptism, Christ descended upon him in the form of a dove from the Supreme Ruler…But at last Christ departed from Jesus and that then Jesus suffered (died on the cross) and rose again…”
Since Gnostics felt that all matter was evil, they held two views concerning morality and the physical world:
Strict Asceticism and Rank Immorality
Strict Asceticism
Since they viewed all matter as evil some Gnostics believed that all pleasures of the flesh should be avoided.
Rank Immorality
Since they viewed all matter as both evil and meaningless, some Gnostics believed that the pleasures/sins of the flesh were irrelevant and could be indulged in without affecting the “spirit” of the enlightened.
Gnostics believed in 2 classes of people,
the enlightened and the unenlightened
Gnostics felt the unlightened people were
so inferior as to be unworthy of even love.
Which book is considered to be the most intimate book of the New Testament, second only to Song of Solomon as the Bible’s most intimate book.
1 John
First century Christianity was missionary Christianity and traveling Christian teachers were
essential for the spread of the Gospel throughout the Pagan Roman Empire.
Inns of the first century however, were
places of ill repute, filth, immorality, and danger. And with neither streets nor fields around cities free from danger, safe places to stay were of great importance.
Christians solved the problem of dangerous places and the problem of the financial support of missionaries by
opening their homes to traveling Christian teachers.
False teachers, greedy for free lodging and food,
were taking advantage of kindly Christians and using them to further their false teachings.
2 John is the
shortest book in the English Bible.
3 John
Is the second shortest book of the English Bible.
The message of 3 John is vital
concerning the support of missionaries.
Revelation was written by John
when exiled on the Isle of Patmos, a desolate island of volcanic rock in the Aegean Sea.
As the last living Apostle, John wrote
the final New Testament book to reveal God’s prophetic plan for all mankind.
Revelation is the only primarily
Prophetic book in the New Testament.
Revelation is the only Biblical book that promises
a special blessing on those who study it and a curse on those who add to or subtract from it.
Revelation is the one book that
ties together, elaborates, and consummates (not originates) all of the prophetic themes of Scripture
Note that there is no
S at the end of the word “Revelation”.
Revelation is also known as
the Apocalypse, which is merely a transliteration of the Greek word Revelation.
The Prophetic or Future Interpretation View of Revelation
accepts the plain statements of the text that the book is prophetic.
The future view acknowledges that
normal language often incorporates symbols and that Revelation does this often. Yet these symbols are given as illustrations to aid, not barriers to prevent our understanding. The purpose of ‘the Revelation of Jesus Christ” is (as indicated by the title) to reveal, not conceal the truth concerning Christ.
The future view simply looks for the
literal significance of symbols when they are used. The symbols do not conceal deeper unknown mysteries which only the spiritual elite can understand. They have literal significance that can be interpreted from the context or from related passages.
The prophetic or future view interprets the symbols of Revelation
according to explanations of literal meanings of the identical symbols in earlier prophetic books such as Daniel, Ezekiel, Zechariah, or in Revelation itself. This makes God the authority concerning the meaning of these symbols in Revelation.
The 3 major Millennial Views.
Premillennialism, Post millennialism, Amillennialism
Premillennialism is the belief that
Christ will return before to establish a literal 1,000 year Millennial Kingdom on Earth. It holds to and is based upon the literal method of interpretation.
Post millennialism and Amillennialism both see the prophesied 1,000 year Millennial Kingdom
as symbolic and indefinite time period during which Christ establishes His Kingdom through His Church and in the hearts of men. Both of these views hold to and depend upon the allegorical method of interpreting prophetic Scriptures.
Three Purposes of the 7 Letters to the 7 Churches
- The Interpretation: The 7 letters were written to 7 actual local churches in the first Century and these messages should not be spiritualized away.♦2. The Application: In the same manner that the other New Testament Church Epistles were written to specific local churches, and yet still have a universal message for Christians throughout the entire Church Age.♦3. The Illustration: These 7 churches and the letters to them also seem to have a prophetic purpose in outlining the history of the Church Age from John’s time until the removal of the Church at the Rapture and the onset of the Tribulation.
The Tribulation Introduced in Heaven (Rev 4)
♦John has just concluded his discussion of the Church Age (the “things which are” - the Present) and is just about to begin his description of the Tribulation (the “things which shall be hereafter” - the future)
Between these two events (the Church Age and the Tribulation),
John (a member of the Lord’s Church) is called up into Heaven by a voice like a trumpet.
In the first 3 chapters of Revelation, John has referred to the church
19 times. It has been the main subject of His discussion up until this point.
In Revelation 4, now suddenly, the Church disappears from John’s writings and is not mentioned on Earth again until
Revelation 19, at the Return of Christ at the end of the Tribulation.
As we shall see, the Church does appear
in Heaven in the very next chapter and throughout the Tribulation.
The focus of the entire Tribulation period in all of the prophetic Scripture
is always on Israel.
The Tribulation is also described as having a purpose in
the judgement and pouring out of the Wrath of God on the lost of all nations, those who are of this earth.
While the calling up of John speaks first of John himself being literally called up into Heaven,
it also serves as a picture of the Rapture before the Tribulation.
Under Roman law, 7 seals were used on
documents pertaining to life or death.
The 7 Seal Scroll is
the object of the book of Revelation throughout at least chapter 19.
Considered to be the title-deed for the redemption of the world. It contains the redemption terms for the Earth.
7 Seal Scroll
The 7 Seal Scroll contains
all the judgments poured out in the book of Revelation.
The seventh seal judgment includes
the seven trumpet judgments and the seventh trumpet judgment includes the seven vial judgments.
7 Stars
… are the angels (Pastors) of the seven churches.
7 Lampstands (candlesticks)
…are the seven churches.
The 144,000
12,000 Jews from each of the 12 tribes of Israel. Hebrew Evangelists sent to preach the Gospel to all the world. This is an astounding number considering there are only about 50,000 missionaries of all persuasions in the world today.
A Woman with the sun and moon under her feet and twelve Stars in her crown.
This woman represents the nation of Israel. The sun and moon and stars were first used by God to picture Israel in a dream He gave to Joseph with the sun and moon representing the father and other and the stars representing the 12 sons of Jacob (Israel)
The Dragon with 7 heads
Satan
The Sea:
The Gentile Nations. The Antichrist will therefore apparently be a Gentile.
The harlot on a scarlet beast
Religious Babylon (the one world church)
Political Babylon
the one world government
The Bride
the church
The Lamb/Groom
Jesus
1st Seal Judgement
The rider on the WHITE HORSE (Cold War rise of the Antichrist and the 10 nation revised Roman Empire)
2nd Seal Judgement
The rider on the RED HORSE (outbreak of Hot War - Invasion of Israel by Gog & Magog)
3rd Seal Judgement
The rider on the BLACK HORSE (famine)
4th Seal Judgement
The rider on the pale horse (Wholesale death by war, starvation, and wild beasts) - 1/4th of the population of planet Earth dies in this judgment alone. Based on the current population figures, this would be about 1.75 Billion people!
Some believe the Antichrist will be
a Jew. (wrong)
The Antichrist
rises from the Revived Roman Empire.
The Ten Horns and the Ten Crowns point back to
Daniel’s Prophecy concerning the future 10 nation confederacy of the Revived Rome.
Many have attempted to personally identify the Antichrist. All have been and will be wrong until
after the Rapture. The Antichrist will not be revealed until after the removal of the Restrainer (the Holy Spirit) at the Rapture.
Know the Order of the Three Judgments (Hint: Alphabetical)
Seals♦Trumpets♦Vials
The tribulation begins with
a peace treaty between Israel & the Antichrist as the head of the Unified Europe.
Israel became a nation in ______ and Europe unified in ________.
1948; 1993
We must confess our sins.
If we confess our sin, God will forgive and “cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
The purpose of the light is not so that we can see our sins and remain the same.
When we walk in fellowship with God, God’s light (through His Spirit and through His Word) reveals our sin so that we can confess, repent of, and forsake our sins.
When we confess our sins,
we grow into a closer fellowship with God which produces more of God’s light in our lives which shows us more sin so that we confess that sin and grow closer to God, which will give us more light to continue the process of and ever closer walk with Christ.
Whenever we refuse to confess a sin,
the process stops and so does our spiritual growth. No confession means no new light, no guidance, concerning God’s will, and no new truths from God’s Word. This is why God calls us to a life of constant total surrender.
To “confess our sin” means to
agree with God concerning our sin.
When the light of God shows on our sin,
we will see it in all its darkness, destructiveness, and hideous vileness, we will not belittle toy with, rationalize, make light of, or only partially abandon our sin.
We must confess the awfulness of our guilt and see our sin as that which nailed our beloved Savior to the Cross.
This passage speaks of not casual or flippant “I’m Sorry” to God. It speaks of heartbroken repentance.
Forgiveness thru confession is no license to sin knowing you can easily obtain forgiveness later.
This is a call to an ever closer walk with Christ with an ever deeper level of purity and intimacy with God.
We can be forgiven of any sin we truly confess,
but we will never be forgiven of any sin we excuse.
When we do confess our sins, then we are forgiven and cleansed from all our guilt and shame.
We must then accept by faith God’s forgiveness and embrace the grace and cleansing He has bought for us with His blood.
Living in self condemnation when God has declared that you are forgiven and cleansed
is an act of unbelief, not piety.
Living in self condemnation after being forgiven and cleansed
is a denial of the sufficiency of the blood of Christ to cleanse us and a rejection of the promises of God to forgive.
The advocate for our Sin -
Jesus is our Defense Attorney. Once again we see that the saved commit sin, but that God has provided Jesus to defend us in Heaven’s Court.
The propitiation for our Sin -
Jesus is our Substitutionary Atonement.
Propitiation speaks of the
complete payment and the total satisfaction of all demands of justice that the penalty of sin be paid. Jesus paid the full penalty of our sin by His death on the cross.
Assurance of salvation comes from obedience.
Nothing will cause us to doubt our salvation faster that unconfessed and unforsaken sin.
Apostasy -
Saved people can backslide and can do many sinful things, but a total and permanent abandonment of Christ and Christianity generally evidences that a person was never really saved.
Every believer does not need to seek the anointing because
every believer already has the anointing. The anointing is not a special experience for a privileged few super saints. It is possessed by every believer.
The purpose of the anointing as described by John
is to give every believer the ability to understand and interpret the Bible for himself.
While many sources of assurance of salvation deal with putting truth into our minds, sometimes our doubts come straight from our
hearts and our emotions. This Love is the source of assurance that goes straight to the heart and causes us to feel saved.
Growing in His love is what conquers and drives out
all fears and doubts concerning our Salvation.
There is a line of sin which we can cross over where
we have so shamed the testimony of Christ and His Church, where we have so long rejected the convicting and chastening ministry of God, where we have become so hardened toward repentance, that God will call His child home.
God’s plan is as follows:
o Putting our talk of love into action is the key that ultimately assures our own hearts of our salvation.•It should be clear now that Assurance of Salvation is the result of Spiritual Growth. If you still struggle with assurance, then it is time to get totally committed to the process of growing in His love and His likeness.
There is a line of sin which we can cross over
where we have so shamed the testimony of Christ and His Church, where we have so long rejected the convicting and chastening ministry of God, where we have become so hardened toward repentance, that God will call His child home.
Anyone who presumes upon God’s grace or assumes grace and eternal security are a license to sin
does not understand what Scripture teaches concerning either chastening or the sin unto death.
Ammillennialism -
no literal 1,000 year reign, all related prophecies are symbolic.
Postmillennialism
things will get better until Jesus returns to a kingdom already established by Believers
Premillennialism
(Correct View) Jesus will return before the literal 1,000 year Millennium to personally rule.
Jesus returns to
the Mount of Olives.
John the Elder rejoiced because:
♦Gaius believed the truth.♦♦Gaius lived the truth.♦♦Gaius supported the truth.
The Sin of Diotrephes
McGee writes “The missionaries of the early church were itinerants. They went from place to place. Since the local inn was a wretched and dirty place, and there were no Holiday Inns or Howard Johnson Motels, these missionaries were entertained in the homes of believers. Gaius opened his home, for which John congratulates him. Diotrephes opposed this practice, and John censors him for it. His ‘hang up’ was that he loved to have recognition and attention, and be the center of attraction. He had to rule or ruin. There is generally one like him in every church who wants to control the church and the preacher.”
Diotrephes had attempted to occupy the Leading place..
He tried to run the church and be the center of attention.
Diotrephes had refused to receive John the Apostle
He had tried to both run and run off the preacher.
Diotrephes had slandered the Apostles.
He ran down and talked about the preacher.
Diotrephes had refused to entertain (receive or support) missionaries.
He never ran up a bill when it came to giving or spending his or the church’s money (which he saw as his, not God’s anyway). He was so scared of losing control that he didn’t even like visiting speakers.
Diotrephes had attempted to excommunicate believers for supporting those he opposed, the traveling missionaries.
o He ran off other church members who he didn’t like or even who liked the people he didn’t like. He had no interest in souls or in the growth of the church.•If the church grew too much, he might not be in control. All he was interested in was his own power and position. Anyone who threatened his control was soon driven out of the church. Of course, this was no doubt done under the pious cover of protecting the purity of the church from outside influences.
The Commendation of Demetrius the Model Testimony
•His Identity: He may have been both the bearer of this letter and a traveling preacher sent by John.♦•His Example: John exhorted Gaius to follow Demetrius’ example♦•His Testimony: He had a positive reputation with all men, the truth itself, and John himself.
1 John 2:19
They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.
1 John 5:7
For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.
Revelation 3:20
Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
Revelation 20:14-15
And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
Memorize 1 John 1:9
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Memorize 1 John 5:13
These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.
1 John 3:16 & 1 John 5:20
State that Jesus is God.
Revelation 14:11 & Revelation 20:10
Declare the torments of Hell are eternal
Revelation 6
The 4 horsemen of the Apocalypse
Revelation 13
The Mark of the Beast
Revelation 19
The Second Coming
Revelation 3:10
The church age believers will be kept from the hour of temptation which is to come on the whole world (the Tribulation) and is used as evidence of a Pre-Trib Rapture.
Revelation Chapters 4-19
Speak of the Tribulation
Revelation 6:17
Says the Tribulation is “the great day of His wrath” and that since we are promised deliverance from “Wrath”, this indicates a Pre-Trib Rapture.
Revelation 1:3 and other verses
The statements that Christ’s Return is “at hand”, coming quickly, shortly, or at the door, all point to the imminency of the Rapture, which best fits with a Pre-Trib Rapture
The Judgment Seat of Christ is
the judgment of the Saved
The Great White Throne is
the judgment for the lost
The Sheep/Goat judgment occurs
on Earth after the Tribulation and determines which survivors of the Tribulation enter the Millennium and which are cast into Hell.
God is the only _________________ _________________being in existence.
truly eternal
_________ _______________ other than God, are created beings who came into existence at some point in time.
All beings
__________ & _____________ may live for Eternity Future, but only God has existed from all of Eternity Past.
Angels & Man
The Bible declares that Jesus is the _________________ _____________ who has existed for all of Eternity
Creator God
It is possible to accept the __________________ ______________________of Jesus (before His conception in the womb of Mary) without accepting His ____________________ ______________________ and Deity.
temporal preexistence; ETERNAL preexistence
Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons teach that
Jesus preexisted before His earthly conception; however they both still reject His eternal preexistence and Deity, teaching that He was created at an earlier time. To reject the ETERNAL Preexistence of Christ is to reject His nature as the Eternal Creator of God and demote Him to the status of a created being.
The Manifestations of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament
•Jesus was communing with God the Father and God the Spirit in the perfect and eternal fellowship of God.♦•Jesus was creating the universe.♦•Jesus was controlling the universe. He not only created it, He holds it together and sustains it.
Pre-Bethlehem appearances of Christ. During the Old Testament appearances, He is often referred to as “the Angel (Messenger) of the Lord”.
Christophany:
Christ spoke face to face with Moses at the Burning Bush:
oThe Speaker is called the Angel of the LORD in verse 2 and then is called God in verse 4.♦oThis, it was actually Jesus who spoke to Moses from the burning bush and declared “I AM THAT I AM”!
John 1:18 states that no man has ever physically seen God (the Father). John 1:14 states that His glory has been revealed through Jesus the Son.
Putting these two statements together leads us to the conclusion that all visible manifestations of God in the Old Testament were manifestations, not of the Father, but of the Son.
Arian View of the Nature of the Incarnation of God as Man (Jehovah’s Witnesses):
Reject the Divine Nature of Christ.
Gnostic View of the Nature of the Incarnation of God as Man:
Reject the Human Nature of Christ.
Nestorian View of the Nature of the Incarnation of God as Man (modern Oneness Movement, including the United Pentecostals and Apostolics):
Reject the Unified Nature of Christ and separate the nature of Christ as man from His nature as God.
The Bible declares that He was as much God as if He had never been man,
and as much man as if He had never been God.
The Miracle of the incarnation of God as Man -♦ That a human body could be conceived within a mother’s womb without an earthly father.
The miracle of the virgin birth was not the actual birth, but rather the conception.
When the Son of God joined himself to a body at Bethlehem, it was a permanent arrangement.
He will continue to manifest Himself in this body (in its resurrected state, of course) throughout the ages.
If Jesus were not Virgin born, He would have inherited a sin nature just as all other men.
He would have thus been born as a sinner Himself and could not have died as our Savior. His death would have only paid for his Own sins were He not the sinless Son of God!
The promise of Jesus to be where 2 or 3 are gathered in His name and to indwell all believers
proves His omnipresence which proves His Deity.
The only charge for which Jesus was crucified was
claiming to be God.
Jesus must be God, because
He forgives, judges, and saves, and creates.
Jesus’ name “Immanuel” means
God with us.
The TRUE View of Christ’s Death
The Substitutional View
Dr. John Walvoord writes: “Christ in His death fully satisfied the demands of a righteous God for judgment upon sinners and,
as their infinite sacrifice, provided a ground not only for the believer’s forgiveness, but for His justification and sanctification.”
CHRIST had to die because the Substitutional Sacrifice had to be a
♦MAN, who was♦♦INNOCENT, and who was♦♦INFINITE
Romans 6:23 tells us that the wages of the sin of men was the death of man. If a man were sentenced to death, no judge could accept a plant in his place.
The offering of a plant can never compare with the shedding of blood. Plant life offers a fundamentally different nature from animal or human life.
If a man were sentenced to death, no judge would ever accept an animal in his place.
This is why the blood of bulls and goats could not pay for our sins.
If a guilty man were sentenced to death,
no judge could accept a guilty man in his place.
No judge would accept on death row inmate’s death as a substitute for another death row inmate’s death. A guilty man would only be paying for his own sins.
The only man who could be a substitute for a guilty man would be an innocent man.
If many men were sentenced to death,
no judge could accept one man as a substitute for all other condemned men
No judge could let one innocent man die as a substitute for all guilty men.
A single man could only die as a substitute for one man.
Only an innocent man could die for our sins,
but there was no innocent man.
Only an infinite man could die for our sins,
but there was no infinite man.
Christ had to become a man and die for our sins
because only God could become an innocent and infinite man!
No man was innocent and not even the angels are infinite.
This is why the death of Christ was and is the only way of salvation!
Christ fulfilled
333 prophecies.
The number one proof of the Resurrection of Christ is the
Empty Tomb.
Proofs of the Resurrection
•The irrefutable historical fact of the Empty Tomb.♦•The Tremendous change in the lives of the disciples. ♦•The silence from both the Romans and the Pharisees in the face of the resurrection claims.♦•The mass conversions of Jews in Jerusalem
How did the lives of the disciples change after the Resurrection?
At the arrest, they fled. At the trial, their bravest denied. At the cross, they hid (except John). After the burial, they cowered together in the upper room. After the resurrection, they boldly proclaimed the message publicly in the face of torture and death.
What were the mass conversions of Jews in Jerusalem based on?
These conversions were based squarely upon the preaching of the resurrection, just a few days after the event took place, when anyone could walk to the empty tomb and verify the facts for himself.
Even without the Bible, how do we know about the mass conversion of Jews?
Josephus (1st Century Jewish Historian) tells us that there were some 50,000 Jewish believers in the Jerusalem Church. Jerusalem only had a population of 100,000.
The Jews and the Romans admitted
the tomb was empty.
The Jews or Romans never brought out the body to
expose the falseness of the resurrection claims.
Many men set out to research and write books to disprove the resurrection of Christ,
and they were instead converted by their findings and wrote books to prove the resurrection:
Simon Greenleaf
Royal Professor of Law at Harvard University, considered by many to be the greatest authority on legal evidences to ever live.
Lew Wallace
whose famous book, Ben Hur, was written to prove the reality of the resurrection of Christ.
The Old Testament “Sabbath” (simply meaning 7th) was on Saturday, the last day of the week,
to commemorate the finished work of creation. It was celebrated one day a week by resting from our labors concerning that Creation.
The New Testament “Sabbath” commemorates the finished work of redemption,
and is celebrated by resting in the finished work of Christ on the Cross 7 days a week - thus trusting His Work, not our works for salvation.
The Old Testament Sabbath was merely a
shadow or symbol of what Christ would come and do, just as was the sacrificial system.
A secondary picture of the Saturday Sabbath was
that of the future Sunday day of worship.
The Saturday Sabbath was primarily a day of rest, with no regular religious services under the law.
(The Jews did later develop Saturday Services under the Synagogue System (after the destruction of the Temple), but this was still only the secondary meaning of the Sabbath to the Jew. Rest was primary)
The Sunday Lord’s Day, however, is primarily
a day of worship, with rest as only its secondary meaning.
Sunday is not actually the Christian “Sabbath” (meaning “7th day) as is commonly believed.
It is rather a day of worship and celebration of the resurrection which (without any shadow of a doubt) occurred on the first day of the week, Sunday
Giving the Lord the first day of the week symbolizes
that we are giving the Lord both our best day and that every other day belongs to Him.
The command to keep the Sabbath is
never repeated in the New Testament. In fact, it is the only one of the Ten Commandments which is NOT repeated in the New Testament.
The only one of the Ten Commandments which is not repeated in the New Testament is
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
The Sabbath was given exclusively to the Jews as a sign of God’s covenant relationship with them and
was never given to the Gentiles.
The Sabbath was part of the Old Testament laws
and we are no longer under the Law.
There are many clear New Testament Passages stating that we are not to keep the Saturday Sabbath Today.
(Paul warns about Sabbath observance to those still in bondage to the OT law.)
Two False Sabbatarian Arguments
oJesus kept the Sabbath and therefore so should we. FALSE: Jesus kept all of the OT Law because He lived before His death and resurrection fulfilled and annulled the Law. It is He who set us free from the Law!♦oPaul kept the Sabbath and so should we. FALSE: Paul went to the Jewish synagogues on Saturday to preach to the Jews and worshiped with the Christians on Sundays.
Though Sunday is not the “Sabbath”,
it is “the Lord’s Day” and belongs entirely to Him. It is a day of worship, not work! The entire day belongs to Him (including Sunday Night!)
Hamartema:
the Bible word for Sin that means “to miss a mark”.
Hamartiology:
the doctrine of sin.
Parabasis:
The Bible word for Sin that means “to overstep a forbidden line”.
The acts that brought sin into the Universe and the World
o The Revolt of Satan•The Fall of Man•The core of each of these was assuming independence from God
The Nature of Sin
•Sin is far more than the absence of good. Sin is an active force.♦•Sin is far more than making a mistake. It is more than failure or weakness.♦•Although often used interchangeably, sin is distinct from evil.
How God Sees Sin
•A single sin was sufficient to cast a full one-third of the very angels of God led by the most magnificent angel of Heaven from the portals of Glory to their future home in the pits of Hell for all eternity.♦•One sin transformed absolute holiness into absolute depravity and decadence, eternal life into eternal death, angels of God into demons of Hell!♦•This single sin is ultimately responsible for all the evil which now exists in our universe.
The Curse of Separation/Death:
Man was separated from God and thus died spiritually the day he ate the forbidden fruit. He was cast out of God’s presence and was unable to return. He is doomed to spend Eternity separated from God in the Lake of Fire prepared for the devil and his Angels.
The Curse of Physical Separation/Death:
Upon physical death, man’s spirit is separated from his body. Man began dying physically the very day he ate the forbidden fruit. Since this time, it has been appointed unto all men to die and then to face the judgement of God.
How the Sin Nature of Adam was Passed on to Man
•Pelagianism♦•Arminianism♦•Augustinianism:
Pelagianism:
Pelagius lived in the late AD300s to the early 400s and denied the doctrine of original sin, teaching that babies are born in innocence just as Adam before the Fall. Adam’s sin did no more than set a bad example.
Arminianism
The followers of Jacob Arminius (2560-1609) taught that mankind is merely effected by Adam’s sin with a weakened will (but not the inability) to remain sinless.
Augustinianism
In Adam’s Fall, we sinned all. (CORRECT ONE)
We are not sinners because we sin,
we sin because we are sinners.
We are born both with the Nature and with the Guilt of sin. We are therefore guilty as sinners because of these reasons:
Our Imputed sin guilt♦Our inherited sin nature♦Our involvement in sin acts (and thoughts).
Scripture clearly declares that when we commit a single sin, we are as guilty as if we had committed them all (James 2:10). There is no such thing as a little sin.
All sins are rebellion against a holy God and acts of wicked disobedience.
There are sins of
greater and lesser degrees and greater and lesser consequences.
There is a
downward progression in the course of sin.
Scripture makes it absolutely clear that ignorance
is no excuse.
