UNVEILING THE SECOND MEMBER OF THE GODHEAD [two]

(…continues from part 1…)

2]            This Son is the same One of Pauline didacticism of Hebrews 1:1-8 “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, 2) Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; 3) Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; 4) Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. 5) For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son? 6) And again, when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him. 7) And of the angels he saith, Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire. 8) But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom.” This Lord from heaven receives angelic latria –which belongs only to God— underscoring the indubitability of the Deity of Jesus.

The Transfiguration of JESUS CHRIST

                2Peter 1:16-17 “For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17) For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” The ‘majesty’ of verse 16 is megaleiotes (me-ğa-lei-o’-tees), meaning: ‘superbness, i.e. glory or splendor.’ He cannot be human or an angel to wield such majesty known only of the Divinity on the Mount of Transfiguration scriptural documentation. Hebrews 1:5-6 “For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son? 6) And again, when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him.”

“…he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven” [John 3:13].

                Psalm 110:1“A Psalm of David. The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.” There are two Lords involved in this Davidic accessibility to Divine conversation. The first LORD is Yhvah (yeh-vaw’) יְהוָֹה Yhovah (yeh-ho-vaw’) Yhow (yeh-ho’) [as a prefix]: ‘1. (meaning) the self-Existent or Eternal, the I AM. 2. (person) Yahweh (Yehvah), Jewish national name of God. 3. (anglicized) Jehovah. 4. (as a name prefix) Yeho-. 5. (As expressed in Hebraic Koine Greek) ἐγώ εἰμί, I AM (literally: I myself, I am).’The second ‘Lord’ is ‘adown (aw-done’) אָדֹן ‘adon (aw-done’) [shortened] ‘sovereign (i.e. controller, human or divine).’ There are three distinct LORDS in the heavenly assizes: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. If the first LORD is the Eternal Father, and the second Lord is the Second Member of the Godhead, Christ, then Jesus Christ is indeed the Lord from heaven (John 3:13). That Jesus Christ has Sovereignty of celestial Lordship means that angels have always worshipped Him. Angels, as we understand, will not worship any other save the Lord God. The Second Member of the Godhead is, without doubt, essentially God.

The Celestial assizes of HIS Majesty

                Revelation 4:2-4 “And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. 3) And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald. 4) And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold.” This scenario gives empyrean latria to God the Father, the First Member of the Godhead. This is another scenario of empyrean documentation found in the Book of Revelation 5:8 “And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints.” This latria is worthily given to the Second Member of the Godhead, Jesus Christ – the Lamb.

                1Peter 5:7 reads, “Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.” The Greek for ‘casting’ is epirrhipto (e-piy-rhiyp’-tō): ‘to throw upon.’ The One who exhibits divine cares, according to this verse, is God the Father. Jesus calls Himself the Shepherd. John 10:11, “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.” Just as all and sundry are expected to cast burden of needs on the Father, it is as well expected of every human, each of whom is born of sin, to submit to the spiritual herding of Jesus Christ. Jesus cares just as much as the Eternal Father of lights does. The Shepherd stance of Jesus is of Divinity when you studiously read Psalms 23:1 and 80:1. The Divine Subject of both Psalms is the LORD God. This tells me that Jesus Christ is the Old Testament LORD God. Amen!

       Get born again. Say this simple prayer, believing it with all your heart. Say:

       “Dear heavenly Father, I come to You now in the name of Jesus Christ. I believe in my heart that Jesus is the Son of God. I believe that Jesus died on the cross for my sin. I believe that You raised Him from the dead. I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord and I receive Him now as my Lord and my Saviour. I give God all the glory. Amen!”

(…to be continued…)

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THE TRUTH OF ALL TRUTHS (IV)

(4)          “Search the scriptures;” Jesus challenged in John 5:39, “for in them ye think ye have eternal life:” He reminded them, “and they are they which testify of me,” the Lord of glory concluded in an unveiling of His true Self. Now the word ‘search’ is ereunaō (er-yoo-nah’-o): ‘to seek, that is, (figuratively) to investigate.’ ‘Scripture’ is graphē (graf-ay’): ‘a document, that is, holy Writ (or its contents or a statement in it).’

     Only the first Testator can give the New Covenant: JESUS. Amen!

                 ‘Testify,’ the verb form of marturion is martureō (mar-too-reh’-o) ‘to be a witness, to bear witness, i.e. to affirm that one has seen or heard or experienced something, or that he knows it because taught by divine revelation or inspiration (through the idea of inquiry).’ Put these definitions together and you will not fail to come to the truthful knowledge of the fact that to indagate God’s protocol leads to the discovery of the Author of eternity, Emmanuel, the express image of the unseen Jehovah, Jesus the Christ. Amen.

                Anyone who will come to the saving knowledge of this Truth must walk side by side with Him. One sure way of walking successfully with Him is found in 1Corinthians 10:14, “Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry.” One thing that idolatrous propensity engenders is an ignoble parity of idols with Jehovah. By your act, the created becomes a deified object of adoration. An inanimate construction receives obeisant worship. It amounts to the desecration of the truth which does infuriate the countenance of the Almighty Jehovah.

   

      Glorification of Mary, a busy, flying kite of Catholicism,cannot be a biblically sourced practice. Ifa worship (of the Yoruba race) is pure idolatry. Allah (who is this Allah?) has no mentioning in God’s protocol. Quranic refutations of biblical documentations are deviations from the truth.In the book of John chapter 14 verse 6, John wrote, “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” This is a categorical statement.

                The clause, ‘I am’ is epithetical. If Jesus, and none else, is the tripartite way, truth and life and it is equally true that He is the only medium to the Father’s approach, why should the Catholic Pope raise a Mary who did not and could not have gone to the cross to perform the substitutionary sacrifice? The word ‘way’ is hodos (hod-os’). It means: ‘a road; by implication a progress (the route, act or distance); figuratively a mode or means; lifestyle; destiny.’ Let us look at ‘truth’ which is alētheia (al-ay’-thi-a); it comes from alēthēs (al-ay-thace’) ‘true (as not concealing).’ Alēthēs is a combination of ‘a’ and ‘lantano’ where ‘a’ is the ‘negative not’ and ‘lantano’ is ‘hidden.’ Alētheia, therefore, is defined as ‘unconcealed truth; reality.’ By the definition of ‘truth,’ Jesus says, “I AM the reality –of God.” Life is zoe: ‘God’s kind of eternal life.’

          The epithetic stance of ‘I am’ stems from its definition. It is the Septuagint rendition of ego eime, which is the same as the revelation of God’s name -I AM or Jehovah. This is the facticity of the person of Jesus -the ‘I AM’ of the New Testament. It will be a usurpative act on His part to institute a new covenant had He not been the Initiator of the new: “For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins” [Matthew 26:28]. This should take us back to Genesis 15:18, “In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:” It received a reenactment in the wilderness: “And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the LORD hath made with you concerning all these words” [Exodus 24:8]. Confer Genesis 17:8-16.          

  (…to be continued…)

                You can get born again by saying this simple prayer, believing it with all your heart. Say:

Dear heavenly Father, I come to You now in the name of Jesus Christ. I believe in my heart that Jesus is the Son of God. I believe in my heart that Jesus died for my sins and You raised Him from the dead. I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord, and I receive Him as my Lord and my Saviour. I give God all the glory, Amen.          

 (…to be continued…)

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https://hoojewale.wordpress.com/2018/11/23/the-truth-of-all-truths-iv/

Click here to read part 5

I DON’T WANT TO MISS HEAVEN! (III)

The Church (most of its leadership) is not doing well by keeping the scriptural truism from the laity. So many scriptural anomalies got ingested in the unsuspecting laity during the millennia of the hegemony of Catholicism. James Arminius, whose teachings sired the Remonstrance and their five points, the fifth of which states thus: “believers are able to resist sin but are not beyond the possibility of falling from grace. The crux of Remonstrant Arminianism lay in the assertion that human dignity requires an unimpaired freedom of the will.” Over 90% of Christians believe this Arminianistic didacticism (unfortunately).

                1Corinthians 1:30 says, “But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:” where the ‘righteousness’ is, the Greek, dikaiosunē (dik-ah-yos-oo’-nay):‘equity (of character or act); specifically (Christian) justification.’ And 2Corinthians 5:21 has “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” Dikaiosunē is the same Greek word for ‘righteousness’ here.

Matthew 16:18, “….and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Katischuo (kat-is-khoo’-o), that is the Greek for ‘prevail against’ which means ‘to overpower.’ Jesus says so clearly that none of His saved can be overpowered to fall into sin that will make him or her to lose heaven. This is the Bible. This verse points to the fact that it is absolutely incumbent upon Him to ensure our eventual heavenly citizenry the moment we pray the prayer of salvation. Jesus takes over our lives from then on.

Anyone who gets born again is a stone that has just been fix, permanently, in the building called Church. No satanic shenanigan can remove him from the structure whose erection is brought into a ginomai (made –righteous, that is) by Him who is the Architect, Draughtsman and the Bricklayer of the Church, the mystical body of His own being. God will never use an element which will become ineffectual to build the Church! The gates of Satanism cannot overpower a true Christian. A true Christian is a person who has professed the Lordship of Jesus.

John 10:10 “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”  ‘Life’ is zoe (dzow-ay’) ‘1. life-above 2. epithet of Jesus (John 14).’ Zoe comes from zao (dzah’-o) ‘1. to live {literally or figuratively}.’ It is in contrast to another Greek word, bios (bee’-os) ‘1. natural, physical life 2. (literally) the present state of bodily existence 3. (by implication) the means of livelihood.’ ‘More abundant’ is the Greek perissos (per-is-sos’) ‘1. superabundant (in quantity) or superior (in quality) 2. (by implication) excessive.’

John 10:11 “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.” To understand the unique profundity of this asseveration let us begin with ‘I am.’ When you read this verse from the Septuagint ‘I am’ will be ego eime. When Moses asked God for His name, the Septuagint rendition is ego eime. The life, zoe, that Jesus is giving abundantly in this verse is God’s kind of life. It does not come to extermination and absolutely nothing can bring it to extinction.

What is the connection between the ‘I am’ and the shepherd? Psalm 23 opens with “The LORD is my Shepherd” where the title ‘LORD’ is Yhovah (yeh-ho-vaw’) ‘1. (the) self-Existent or Eternal 2. Jehovah, Jewish national name of God.’ In Psalm 80 the first verse reads: “Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock; thou that dwellest between the cherubims, shine forth.” If the Shepherd of this verse is not Jehovah God, then Jesus never trod upon the surface of this terra firma. So, when Jesus declared, “I am the good shepherd” the definite article points in the direction of the One no Israelite would feign not to know: the Almighty LORD God of Israel! Amen!

Get born again by praying this prayer with all your heart and truthfully: Dear heavenly Father, I come to You now in the name of Jesus Christ. I believe in my heart that Jesus is the Son of God. I believe in my heart that Jesus died for my sins and You raised Him from the dead. I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord, and I receive Him as my Lord and my Saviour. I give God all the glory, Amen.        (…to be continued…)

Click here to read part II

Click here to read part IV

Jehovah’s Witness Myopic View Of Jesus (V)

Charles Taze Russell (1852 – 1916)

 (…continued from part IV)

I doubt whether Charles Russell (Feb. 16, 1852 – Oct. 31, 1916) did not harbour an unchristian agenda when he decided to form this Jehovah’s Witness sect. If not, he should have allowed the omnipotence of Jesus to enlighten him. How did he read or treat Matthew 28:18, “And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.” He has been given all ‘power’ that is: exousia (ex-oo-see’-ah): ‘privilege, that is, (subjectively) force, capacity, competency, freedom, or (objectively) mastery (concretely magistrate, superhuman, potentate, token of control), delegated influence.’ A delegated authority that extends, from the heavenly assizes even to the belly of the earth is omnipotent. Jesus got this authority after the resurrection, to restore Christ to His preincarnate eminence.

                                                                                                                                                                                                   Worshipped in heaven, the earth and under the earth.

“That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;” this is what Philippians 2:10 says. The noun ‘things’ are in italics meaning that they were translators’ insertions which, therefore, were not in the original script. Every being in heaven recognises the Lordship of Jesus in a bending worship! The same One receives adored prostration on terra firma. Even the wicked souls of Hades, knowing that they are doomed forever, must bend double in worship of this enigmatic Personage! He can only be God to have His sphere of influence beyond imagination.

I am just wondering what Charles Taze Russell would had made of the Omnipresent nature of Jesus. Matthew 18:20 records the promise of Him “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” More than two billion people go to, let us say, one million churches on Sundays. All prayer sessions and places of Christian assemblage host the Lord Jesus just because He has promised to be there. Is this not indicative of His Omnipresence?

He said in Matthew 28:20, “Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” Not only on the Lord’s days of worship has He actually promised His divine presence, He is with us always. How could a created being achieve this miraculous feat? And when He asseverated the words of John 8:58, “Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am;” He spoke as God. The last two words, “I am,” is egō eime.

The myopic view, concerning Jesus, of their display has cost them their inability to know that He is very Omniscient. John 10:15 reads, “As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep.” The adverb ‘as’ is kathōs (kath-oce’)‘just (or inasmuch) as, that.’ ‘Knoweth’ is ginōskō (ghin-oce’-ko) ‘to “know” (absolutely), in a great variety of applications.’ Can Christ possess an absolute knowledge of God without being an omniscient deity Himself? 1Corinthians 1:24 “But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.” The whole world’s affairs are basically standing on two legged stance of religion and politics. Both of the Greek insatiable lust for global political glory, and the Jewry anticipatory rejuvenation of her sacerdotal calling before Jehovah come under the preeminence of Jesus, who wields the worshipful pantokrator political and religious power.

This is what Colossians 2:2-3 say: “That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ; 3) In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” The mystery of the Omniscience of Jesus is, in these verses, revealed in Colossians 2:9,“For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” The profundity of this scripture is that Jesus containerizes the eternity of all of the attributes of the Godhead. Will a created being possess enough capacity to bank all the fullness of the Godhead bodily? I think not!

The Jews were ready to assassinate Jesus for equalling Himself with Jehovah, not knowing that He was the same Personage who told their father Abraham to leave Ur; was the very One who visited him to announce the procreation of the yet to be gestated Isaac when He and two angels supped in his tent. Little did they know that standing before them was the One whose power erected the saline ocean which stood at attention for their great, great, great grandparents to have a miraculous dry access through the Red Sea! They could not phantom how the One whose finger etched the Decalogue and whose mouth read it to them would be standing in flesh and blood before their mortal presence.

      With dyed garments from Bozrah!

How could their (Jehovah’s Witnesses) imperviousness not allow them to believe that standing before them was the Personage of the prophetic afflatus, “Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save” [Isaiah 63:1]? There is only one Jehovah made visibly known to those who truly seek Him – He’s Jesus. Are these Jehovah’s Witness people of an errant Charles Taze Russell truly witnessing the true kerygma? Selah.

You can get born again by praying this prayer with all your heart and truthfully: Dear heavenly Father, I come to You now in the name of Jesus Christ. I believe in my heart that Jesus is the Son of God. I believe in my heart that Jesus died for my sins and You raised Him from the dead. I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord, and I receive Him as my Lord and my Saviour. I give God all the glory, Amen.      (…to be continued…)       

Read part IV by clicking here

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I AND MY FATHER ARE ONE (i)

               THE HAND THAT BROUGHT THE GRACE OF GOD TO MANKIND

Beyond the contextual apprehension of John 10:30, “I and my Father are one;” is the esoteric profundity couched by Jesus to unveil the truism that characterizes the personage of the Revelator.

Jesus did not use the personal pronoun, ‘my’ which happens to be the translators’ insertion. ‘My Father’ looks, therefore, like ‘the Father,’ with the definite article. Now, the thing is: If Jesus Christ were not God, could he have said these words without being guilty of blasphemy? The word ‘are,’ esmen, is a plural masculine gender. So, by the utterance of “we are one,” it is meant: in nature and essence, and perfections, particularly in power; since Christ is speaking of the impossibility of plucking any of the sheep, out of his own and his Father’s hands. Whatever is in His Father’s hand is also in His hand. He is as protective as His Father is.

The Jews asked Jesus in the twenty-fourth verse, “If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly.” So, what you read in the 29th “My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand;” is a vindication of the mental synchronism that exists between the two of them, attested to by verse 30.

The first word, ‘I’ is the Greek egō (eg-o’): ‘a primary pronoun of the first person ‘I’ (only expressed when emphatic).’ The conjunction, ‘and’ is kai (kahee) it means: ‘and, also, even, indeed, but. Origin: apparently, a primary particle, having a copulative and sometimes also a cumulative force.’ ‘Are’ is an interesting esmen (es-men’): ‘first person plural of “to be” which is indicative of eimi (i-mee’) ‘a prolonged form of a primary and defective verb; “I exist” (used only when emphatic).’ ‘One’ is called heis (hice): (a neuter gender) ‘a primary numeral; one.’

God revealed His covenant name, I AM, to Moses. The Septuagint rendition of I AM is Egō Eimi. Esmen, the plural of Eimi, has helped to reveal more than a Personage in the Godhead just the same way Elohim (Hebraic plural for God) establishes the Trinitarian concept in the Godhead, of Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God….” The unseen Father in heaven is the Incarnation of the visible Revelator whom Isaiah prophetically called ‘The everlasting Father’ in chapter nine of the sixth verse of his Book. ‘I AM THAT I AM’ is what we call JEHOVAH. My first son, at about age eight to ten, told me how overwhelmed he felt anytime I defined JEHOVAH which is ‘self-existence’ or, better still, in the mind-blowing, ‘A One who exists by His own power’, which my son finds too ecstatically overpowering! This is the revelation of Jesus! The Incarnate God.

Jehovah does not mean, ‘one who comes into existence’ for ‘to come’ will give an impression of chronological timing. It is anti-theology to equate God with time. It gives an illogical opinion of the Divinity. It is an insult to place God and time side by side as equals. He had been in existence before creationism. He created eternity from which He drew out time for our use. He did not come into existence; He is existence Himself. Amen! And this is all I am trying to show anyone who wishes to know more about the Lord, Jesus!

For the information of those who see Jesus as a created being, the grammatical cumulation of kai lends credence to the neuter ‘one’. It cannot be overemphasized: the momentousness of this word ‘one’. “I and my Father are one.” It goes beyond a certain synchronous mental evaluation prowess they exhibit. The rapturous truism of the connotation of this little word ‘one’ is that it is saying that the Christ and the Father are of the same essence! Check out the reaction of the unbelieving religious deportment of the antagonistic Jews. John 10:31, “Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him.” Jesus asked them, in the 32nd verse, “Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me?” Without wasting time, “The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God” (John 10:33).      “I and the Father” is reminiscent of Proverbs 8:22, “The LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old;” and the more appropriate 30th verse, “Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him;” as if they share a common paterfamilias as they grew up to, and from, adolescence to maturity. Let me reveal a gleanable theological truism from “Many good works have I shewed you from my Father” of the 32nd verse of John chapter 10. If the words of Jesus are always true, then what He was telling them is, “Many good works have I shewed you from Myself!” The Father and He are one! Jesus is the attested, “The everlasting Father” of the book of prophet Isaiah.

Emmanuel! The very God of very God!

God’s protocol, the Scriptures, is readily acquiescent to this oneness. When Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life;” in Scripture, the word ‘life’, zoe, in the Greek, which is ‘God’s kind of eternal life,’ gives a connotation of Jesus being the existence Himself! When He made the categorical statement of John 8:58, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am;” He used the same covenant name of Egō Eimi. This is why I call Him J.J. (JEHOVAH JESUS). When He said, “I am the resurrection,” what He simply voiced was, “Jehovah, the resurrection,” placing His hand of Divinity on His holiest chest: for the avoidance of ambiguity! Mark 2:28, “Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.” This asseveration is pregnant with profundity.                       (…to be concluded…)

HIS TESTIMONY (Part V)

The Messiah and His followers.

(Continued from part four)        “If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it”. Why would He deem Himself qualified to enunciate those words of John 14:14? The answer is in John 1:1-4. The preposition ‘in’ is en (en): ‘a (fixed) position (in place, time or state), and (by implication) instrumentality (medially or constructively), i.e. a relation of rest’. ‘Name’ is the Greek onoma (on’-om-ah): ‘a “name” (literally or figuratively), (authority, character)’. The acceptance of any prayer sent heavenwards must be channelled through the instrumentality of the name, which has its sphere of location only in Jesus. The assertive proclamation is backed by the promise, “I will do it”. He says this to bring His divine nature into a relationship with us.

               

Jesus said, in John 6:63, “…the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” The word ‘spirit,’ pneuma (pnyoo`-mah) means: ‘1. a current of air, i.e. breath (blast) or a breeze 2. (by analogy or figuratively) a spirit 3. (humanly) the rational soul 4. (by implication) vital principle, mental disposition, etc. 5. (superhumanly) an angel, demon 6. (divinely) God, Christ’s spirit, the Holy Spirit.’ The 5^th definition does not fit in this case. Jesus is saying here that the words of His mouth is divine and the vital principle of life. This testimony reminds one of Luke 16:17 “And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail.” Jesus’ word has the same strength as God’s law; which takes us to Psalm 12:6 “The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.”

                The word ‘pure’ is tahowr (taw-hore’) (or tahor {taw-hore’}) ‘pure (in a physical, chemical, ceremonial or moral sense).’ ‘Purified’ is zaqaq (zaw-kak’) ‘to strain, (figuratively) extract, clarify.’ What is the psalmist saying here? Before God utters any word He looks into the eternity past, present occurrences and the eternity to come, making sure that absolutely nothing, be it fashion, modernity, philosophy, religion, kingdom or culture will ever make His word obsolete. Seven is God’s number and it is of perfection. God’s utterances are eternally perfect. So, when Jesus says that His words are spirit that have life, it expresses eternal divinity. The word ‘life,’ zoe, is God’s kind of life.

John 14:6, “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me”. ‘Way’, hodos, means: ‘road, path or destiny’. If Jesus is my destiny then nothing, absolutely nothing can obviate my route to heaven. Alētheia (al-ay’-thi-a), the word for ‘truth’, is my favourite of the three (way, truth & life), and by extension, means ‘reality’. Jesus declares His Divinity! “I am the real One. The only genuine incarnation of God”. Amen. ‘Life’ is the Greek interpretation of zōē. If One Man is the way, truth and life that leads ultimately to paradise assemblage of the saints of the Most High, it then follows that Jesus is the most enigmatic Personage to ever trod the surface of terra firma!

Johannine account of: “All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them”, [John 10:8] does include religious leaders like Confucius, Krishna, Buddha and Baal as religious rascals. Most definitely, those who reared their religious heads after His ascension in the persons of Prophet Mohammad, Roman Catholic Popery, not forgetting, Theudas and Judas of Galilee (Acts 5:36-37). Theudas (thyoo-das’) means “God-given”. We know that God did not give Theudas his leadership role -he stole it. Judas means praise. Galilee means: ‘a native of Galilaia (gal-il-ah’-yah) which is: Galilaea (that is, the heathen circle)’. The activities of these people did not give any praise to Jehovah. They formed a vicious circle of religion. While some stole without the knowledge of their victims, the others were vicious in their religious armed robberies.

“If ye love me”, Jesus voices, “keep my commandments”; is the conclusion He makes in John 14:15. ‘Keep’, tēreō (tay-reh’-o): From teros (a watch); means: ‘to guard (from loss or injury, properly by keeping the eye upon’. Jesus told them to guard with all their hearts something emanating from His very Person: commandments, which in the Greek is entolē (en-tol-ay’): ‘injunction, that is, an authoritative prescription’. We know that every commandment of Jesus points to heaven. Why He would personalize commandments that take one to heaven is something to ponder on, no doubt. One of the commandments is found in John 3:3, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” His testimonies pervade eternity.

Get born of God, from above. Say this prayer, (meaning it unfeignedly): “Dear heavenly Father, I come to You now in the name of Jesus Christ. I believe in my heart that Jesus is the Son of God. I believe that Jesus died on the cross for my sin. I believe that You raised Him from the dead. I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord and I receive Him now as my Lord and my Saviour. I give God all the glory. Amen!”   (Concluded)

Read the 4th part here.

HIS TESTIMONY (Part I)

   

He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me. (John 1:15)

One Personage said, “I am come that ye might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly;” in John 10:10. What kind of life is this Book offering? It is found in John 5:26, “For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself;” which takes us to John 10:30, “I and my Father are one”.

‘Life’, in Greek, is zōē (dzo-ay’): ‘life (literally or figuratively): this is the vital breath of God which is given through the hypostatic union of Jesus the Christ’. The verb ‘am’ in verse ten does not appear in the original Greek text, albeit, in most cases when Jesus uses the clause “I am” it is ego eime in the Greek, which is the same as “I AM THAT I AM” which God called Himself when Moses asked of His name. The ‘I am’ we see, for example, in verses 7, 9, 11 & 14 of the tenth chapter have the translation of ego eime!

Now let me aid in raising an aura to appreciate John 10:30. The pronoun ‘my’ is also not in Greek (all italicized words of King James Version are so). ‘I’ is ego. ‘Are’ is esmen (es-men’) Thayer Definition: ‘first person plural of “to be”.’ Strong’s Definition: ‘First person plural indicative of eime: ‘we are‘. Jesus, by this declaration, says that the Father is as ‘I AM’ just as He, Jesus, is ‘I AM’! What about the word ‘one’? It is heis (hice), ‘a neuter and a primary numeral; ‘one’.’ With heis Athanasius’ homoousios (Christ’s same substance nature as the Father) gains scriptural establishment as opposed to Arius’ homoiousios (like substance). While the ‘are’, esmen, is a masculine gender, heis is a neuter. The Son and the Father constitute one ‘thing, element, substance’ in nature, thought, deed and essence as two distinct Personages!

So when we read from John 3:31, “He that cometh from above is above all: he that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth: he that cometh from heaven is above all”; this testimony makes one to see the need to get closer to the Testifier.

Who cometh from above, if not Jesus? Do we know of any other who did come down from heaven to take an abode with men and still belongs truthfully to heaven? If the answer is, “None”, then this One is quite different. You must boast of Omnipotence, Omniscience and Omnipresence to be said to be above all.

                            The ‘Beloved Son’ at the transfiguration (Mark 9:7)

It does surprise me when I am attacked, especially by Moslems, with, “Even Jesus never called himself ‘the Son of God’ it is you, his followers, who give him that appellation.’ Let us traverse the scriptures. When Peter answered the question none of the disciples could with, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God” in Matthew 16:16, Jesus did not accuse him of satanic blasphemy. He concurred with “Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.” Jesus Himself said in John 3:18, “He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” Jesus did verbally testify of His Divine Sonship!

Matthew 26:63-64 read, 63) “But Jesus held his peace. And the high priest answered and said unto him, I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God. 64) Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.” As a child I thought ‘Thou hast said’ expressed an attempt by Jesus to exonerate Himself from being credited with having called Himself the Son of God.

“Thou hast said,” said Jesus, in Mathew 26:64.

The term, ‘Thou hast said’ is a simple affirmative, ‘yes’. What Jesus actually meant was, “thou hast said right” or better still, “You have just said so” or “You have just said what is the truth: that I am the Son of God”. Mark 14:61-62 has in the 62nd verse “And Jesus said, I am...” Whether it is “Thou hast said,” of Matthew 26:25, “Thou sayest,” of Matthew 27:11, “Ye say that I am,” of Luke 22:70 or “Thou sayest that I am a king” [John 18:37], it is the same affirmative implication of, “Yes, you have agreed with me.” In the case of John 18:37, Jesus went on to establish His Sonship with the declaration of, “To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.”

Angel Gabriel brought a message from heaven to Mary, saying in Luke 1:35, “….therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God”. The testimony of Jesus regarding His Sonship of the Deity is true, having received a corroboration by an angel.

                   (…to be continued…)     Read the 2nd part here

2017 (What faith draws therefrom)

Looking at the New Year 2017 I receive prophesies from the digits, with the heart and eyes of faith. Do figures talk? Yes, à la the faith in God’s word, they are endowed with the ability to speak encouragement to our failing hearts.

The number 2 is of witness and of testimony. This year, do expect testimonies coming from your lips, in honour of the beneficence of a loving, generous God. It is from the mouths of 2 or 3 that a ruler is enabled an adjudication; your life itself will be such a huge witness so much that you do not need to open your testimonial mouth. You will be evidently blessed this 2017, if you believe it is not impossible for God to do it. Joseph needed not stand on a podium to testify, the LORD God elevated him like the Everest and like the lighthouse he needed not be sought for. Your success will be evident in Jesus’ name.

Zero is a symbol indicating an absence of magnitude or quantity: a cardinal number between a plus one and minus one. It is a nothing, a nil. Zero is of the vanity of this world of satanic influence. Zero is of the viciousness of the circle, around which demonic activities direct global affairs. Satan will do everything to involve us in peregrinations of vanity, with an intention of tiring us out spiritually, to enable him have his nefarious intrusion into our glorious lives. Who did not see the indubitability of the hopelessness of the challenge David threw at the legendary war mongering Goliath? David looked every millimeter like an indubitable ought. The Devil told him, “You’re an irremediable zero before the gargantuan viciousness of this Goliath!” to scare him. The Bible said, “And the Philistine cursed David by his gods” (1Samuel 17:43). But David did the necessary thing: he said, “Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied” (1Samuel 17:45). David went the way of Hebrews 12:2, “Looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith”. The word ‘author’, in the Greek, is archēgos (ar-khay-gos’): ‘one that takes the lead in any thing and thus affords an example, a chief leader’. ‘Finisher’ is teleiōtēs (tel-i-o-tace’) Thayer Definition: ‘a perfector; one who has in his own person raised faith to its perfection and so set before us the highest example of faith’. Strong’s Definition: ‘a completer, that is, consummater’.

This year, 2017, the Devil will, no doubt, want to evoke the spirit of zero to disparage God’s word. Do not listen to him, fix your eyes of faith on Jesus, the archēgos and the teleiōtēs of your faith. Amen!

The number 1 scripturally is unity of purpose of the Trinity. Jesus said, “I and the Father are one”. What He said, in essence, is, “I and my Father are the Jehovah”. How I do know this is couched in the verse. ‘Are’ is esmen, meaning ‘exist’. It is the plural of eime, Greek interpretation of ‘AM’ when God gave Moses His name as I AM i.e. JEHOVAH, in Exodus. Heis, the Greek for ‘one’ means ‘one thing (including the neuter gender)’. These definitions tell us that Jesus and the Father are one in thought, will and power, and of the same essence, hence, anyone who looks on Jesus, and is born again, is of the same essence as Jesus: for He did pray that we should be one in the Father just as He is with Him (John 17:21). Our oneness with Him, the Most High, is the guarantee that we have victory against the evil forces of the enemy this 2017.

Seven is God’s number. 7 speaks of perfection and of the involvement of God. We have attained perfection in Him this 2017. His righteousness has made us righteous to receive all our desires from the heavenly donation. Seven says that the good LORD has perfected my ways this 2017. Your hands are wrapped around the trophies of excellent successes of this 2017. God calls things that be not as though they were. Be bold. Call those things of your heart’s desire into manifestation, and like David, you have become victorious; conquering and to conquer all your days in this 2017. God has earmarked us for testimonial landmarks.

Let us look at seventeen. It is 10+7: trial and perfection. Genesis 7:11, “In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened”. The ordinal 17th spelt both doom (for disobedience) and survival for eight (believing) souls. There is too much evil acts on the terra firma. Complete dependence on the Lord, and not on our understanding is paramount. The first time the cardinal number seventeen shows up in scripture is in Genesis 37:2, “These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren…” Joseph faced daunting challenges. At the end it was a sweet, victorious, testimonial, praise-the-Lord story for Joseph. The good Lord will take us through the testy trials of 2017 and bless us with a triumphant joy.

Do an arithmetic of 2+0+1+7; it gives ten. There will be trials but the good Lord will hold your hand, though the turbulence, just like a dutiful Father that He is. Happy 2017 and years beyond.

JESUS THE CHRIST (2)

                    Isaiah 53:5, “He was wounded for our transgressions”.

Jesus as a man: grew up – Luke 1:80; had brothers and sisters – Matthew 13:56; was a carpenter in Mark 6:3; needed food – Mark 11:12; was thirsty in John 19:28; did fall asleep, Matthew 8:24 and wept in John 11:35 but unlike every other man He did not commit one sinful act, 2Corinthians 5:21. As the Christ, Jesus said: “I am the way, the truth and the life”, John 14:6; “I am the resurrection”, John 11:25; “All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers”, John 10:8; “I go to prepare a place for you” John 14:2; “And I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish”, John 10:28; “I and my Father are one”, John 10:30, the word ‘are’ esmen, in Greek means ‘substance’ a neuter gender, thus implying that the Father and the Son are of the same essence. Put all His assertions together and the aggregation simply says, “Jesus is God”.

When Jesus said, “…my Father is greater than I” in John 10:28, the ‘I’ refers to His humanity and when He declared,”My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all;” He meant all created beings (including Jesus, who was formed inside the womb of Mary). Can any angel claim to be greater than God’s temple, Matthew 12:6? Only God can so declare! Jesus had His beginning in Mary’s womb, to be born into this world. Christ was not born; He said in John 8:58, “Before Abraham was, I am.” ‘I am’ is ego eime, in the Greek, meaning, ‘I exist’ which in Hebrew is the same as Jehovah! “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” ‘Beginning’ is actually eternal past (where none of creationism did exist). ‘Word’ is Logos, the only Divine connectivity. ‘With’ is pros, meaning a certain proximity none ever had with the Eternal Father. ‘Word was God’ means the Word was of the same essence as God (John 10:30), not an indefinite but as in the Greek theos, a definite God. This is Christ.

Christ is of Hebrew origin. It is called in the Hebrew: mashiyach (maw-shee’-akh) meaning, ‘1. Anointed 2. usually a consecrated person (as a king, priest, or saint) 3. (specifically) the Messiah, the Anointed One.’ The Greek calls it Christos (khris-tos’) ‘1. (literally) Anointed 2. (transliterated) “Christ” 3. (properly) the Messiah, the Anointed One of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob 4. (by function) the (kinsman) Redeemer, the Saviour 5. (by identity) Jesus, Yeshua.’

Who can be the saviour of man if not God Himself: 2Samuel 22:3; Isaiah 43:3, 11, 45:15, 49:26; Luke 1:47, 2:11; John 4:42; Acts 13:23; 1Timothy 1:1 & 1Peter 3:18 to mention a few. There is no doubt in my mind that if Mohammad knew the true meaning of Messiah, he would never have attributed it to Jesus, eleven times, in the Islamic Qur’an. Moslems believe and teach that Allah is the only saviour (and it can never be this Jesus whom they call Issa). The Messiah and the ‘Holy One of Israel’ (Psalm 78:41) are of the one and the same Personage: a conundrum. God hides Himself (Isaiah 45:15). What does it betoken what Jesus told them in John 10:38. “…the Father is in me, and I in him”? Christ is the unseen Father of light, with whom is no variableness neither shadow of turning (James 1:17). Inside Jesus, the man, our Christ is hidden, thus Jesus is the very God of very God!

                              The transfiguration

When they found out His true identity on the mount of the transfiguration, the Bible says that Jesus forbid them to, “Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of man be risen again from the dead”, in Matthew 17:1-9. He, the expected Christ, was hiding in the known Yehoshua, the first born of Mary. What they saw was Jesus, a mere son of carpenter Joseph. The things He performed should have jolted them to see clearly. Jesus the Christ hid Himself expecting to be apprehended via the vehicular stance of faith. Is it not by faith alone a man may come to God?

Jesus, the man, was Adam all over again, to right the wrongs of the first and sinful pristine paternity, whose disobedience served us the death sentence (Romans 5:4; 1Corinthians 15:22). Satan, the Devil became the god of this world after the fall. To reverse this oddity, God decided to come in the similitude of the second man (for a created being could not face Lucifer [the first created intelligent being] in any form of duel) to undo man’s fatal error (1Corinthians 15:45). The second man alone could destroy the evil planting and deceitful ploys of the old serpent because of Who He is, 1Corinthians 15:47. “Verily, verily I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am”, John 8:58. ‘Verily’ in the Greek is amen (am-ayn’) Heb. origin. ‘1. (properly) firm 2. (figuratively) trustworthy 3. (adverbially) surely 4. (often as interjection) so be it’. The Bible clearly tells us that Jesus is Amen, Revelation 3:14. ‘Verily’, uttered twice, enforces the indubitableness of the claim. ‘Before Abraham was’ speaks of time, the auxiliary ‘was’ is ginomai (ghin’-om-ai) 1. to cause to be (“gen”-erate) 2. (reflexively) to become (come into being)’. The ‘am’, which is not an inflection of the auxiliary ‘be’ is: eimi (ei-mee’): ‘I exist {used only when emphatic}’. When God told Moses His name, He said, “I AM” and the Septuagint renders it “Ego Eimi”, just as we see in John 8:58. Christ already existed before creationism, verily, verily, truly, truly, Jesus, Jesus. AMEN! (Concluded)

Read the 1st part here