Aunty Jane
Well-Known Member
That is what unity is all about…agreement, peace and harmony…so in the absence of that in Christendom, what are we to conclude?personally, I have no problem with Jesus Christ being One with the Father in agreement, mind and voice.
The command in Rev 18:4-5 is clear…. but what is not clear is the identification of this harlot…..
Why is she called “Babylon the great”…..
What is there about original Babylon that we see emulated in this entity….one said to have “a kingdom over the kings of the earth”? She influences the governing powers and if we look at history we see who it was that influenced the actions of those kings down through the time described in Daniel’s prophesy…..False religion has always governed the rulers of the dynasties that have come and gone…..but in “the time of the end”….it was the church.
The “body of Christ” is mentioned often in these discussions, but who make up “the body of Christ”?I also don’t have any problem that New Jerusalem which is above and the mother of us all also being One with the Father and the Son. I look at the Body of Christ and how it’s supposed to be “One Body” “One voice” “One mind” . Not all the quarrels and divisions and envy. You said: either God is One entity and Jesus Christ the Son or we are being lied to.
Something Jesus said raises a question…..
Ater he had cleansed the Temple of the moneychagers….
“…the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.“ (John 2:18-22 ESV)
What are we to make of this statement? What was “the temple of his body”? And how did Christ raise it up?
In three days God resurrected his son but he did not return to heaven straight away….he remained for 40 days in order to get his disciples over his terrible death, and to give them encouragement for the difficult days ahead.
Imagine how Peter felt when the last encounter with his Lord was seeing his face when the rooster crowed….and weeping bitterly at his failure. Jesus restored Peter’s confidence with forgiveness and he gave him an important assignment to show that his human frailties were not the end of the world.
So there was much at this point that the apostles did not fully understand….Jesus returning to heaven was one of them…..as he was ascending they asked him a very Jewish question…
”Lord, are you restoring the kingdom to Israel at this time?” (Acts 1:6)….He told them to wait in Jerusalem for the promised holy spirit when all would be made clear to them. Jewish belief was that God’s kingdom was earthly, with an earthly temple and priesthood and Messiah as leader. Though Jesus had taught them many things, they did not quite grasp the spiritual nature of the Kingdom and that their destiny would be in heaven.
At Pentecost, all of that changed, and they were anointed with God’s spirit for life in heaven and understood for the first time, that they would join their Lord where he had promised to go and “prepare a place” for them.
The physical Temple was no longer of any consequence since Christ had fulfilled the law and taken it out of the way. No sacrifices were now needed in a physical temple. So his words to the Jews about the temple being destroyed had a two fold meaning……the literal temple would be destroyed but “the temple of his body” would be restored.…..since his disciples were said to be “the temple” of his body…Paul wrote…
”Do you not know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that the spirit of God dwells in you? 17 If anyone destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him; for the temple of God is holy, and you are that temple.” (Col 3:16-17)
So Jesus’ reference to the temple being rebuilt in 3 days was indicating that he as the chief cornerstone would be made alive, and that the way was now open for the grand spiritual temple in heaven to be built on the foundation of the 12 apostles. (Rev 21:14) These would be resurrected later and joined by other anointed Christians. But since they are a finite number (144,000) there is another group seen by John in Revelation who are without number…..”a great multitude” who are seen attributing their salvation to God and to the Lamb. These he said “come out of the great tribulation” which occurs on earth…these are the faithful survivors. (Rev 7:9-10, 13-14) These will come out to an earth cleansed of all wickedness to start again as Noah did. (Matt 24:37-39)
A careful study of the Scriptures reveals much that is not known or taught by Christendom. God’s spirit is absent and therefore they poke around in the dark…suggesting all kinds of things that are in contradiction.
The Bible is one story…one truth…one author. We should not stumble over the basic simplicity of its message.