Name’s the same
We have been compiling a large amount of evidence that strongly suggests the assemblies in Revelation 2 and 3 are NOT churches of the kind that Paul writes to in his letters.
We still have a few more things to consider.
This week we start out by noticing one similarity between the assemblies of Revelation and the churches in Paul’s...
Our heart’s home
As Christians, Romans 8 is our heart’s home. It’s the mountaintop experience of Christianity. And it’s all ours. We end up at the top of the mountain, secure in the love of God forever, because we are in Christ forever.
We are in Romans 8, where we are working to answer, with...
The person of the Holy Spirit
If you recall, in the first blog of this series, we came away with the distinct impression that something very different is going on in Revelation 2 & 3 than what is going in in Paul’s epistles.
Now we are checking things out systematically, taking up one...
Why all the fuss?
In our last blog, we started to compare and contrast the letters of Paul with the letters to the seven assemblies in Revelation 2 and 3.
Why? Because there is much confusion about how to interpret Revelation 2 and 3.
And because the English word “church” is found in chapters 1-3, most interpreters simply assume the...
A vital question
Many if not all of you have read chapters 2 and 3 in the book of Revelation. Some of you have studied them in detail.
But did you ever notice any differences between these letters to 7 assemblies, and the letters of Paul to the churches?
Did you ever ask this question:
Is Jesus speaking to us in Revelation...
What we learned last time
In our last blog, we explored what the Bible means by “the world” generally, and in particular the world as something we are not to love and must overcome.
We examined what the world was not, and learned a practical definition of "the world” :
“The world” means the organization and the...
What in the world is “the world”?
After what we have witnessed in this year’s turbulent presidential campaign, it’s a good time to increase our understanding of what the Bible calls “the world”.
There are several ways in which the Bible speaks of “the world”.
The unbelievers; the entire...
Framework
This week we examine the commands in Ephesians 5:19-6:19. We will see how they contribute to summing up all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on earth.
God is summing up the things on earth by building up the church, which is the fullness of Christ.
God is summing up...
Growth – or Arthritis?
This week we are going to look at the specific exhortations we receive in the book of Ephesians.
When we are obedient to these exhortations, we participate in the Spirit’s great work of completing the body of Christ.
As we proceed, watch for places where Paul, after giving us a specific command, brings...
We grow as one congregation
Last week, we saw that we cannot grow as separate individuals. We grow together as a body.
The body of Christ, the church, is made up of all believers in Christ during the Church Age.
Each congregation is a particular local manifestation of the body of Christ.
So we grow together as...