Archive for the ‘GOD’ Category

What was Paul’s thorn in the flesh and why did God choose not to heal it?

Posted: February 26, 2022 in Apostle Paul, Bible, Christ, Christian, GOD, Sin
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I was sure that when I began the research for this that I would conclude that Paul had an eye malady as many bible scholars seems to think…but after looking at several passages and after researching several different sites and praying, I don’t think that is what it was. Let’s start attempting to unravel this question by visiting the passage where the term ‘thorn in the flesh’ came from.

2 Corinthians 12:7-10 Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me—to keep me from exalting myself! Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong. (NASB)

At first I just read this and then I decided to look at the verse seven a little closer. I examined it with the interlinear tool at Blue Letter Bible and this passage indicates that the thorn in his flesh was an angel of Satan…I’m not making it up, that’s what it says. OK, what does it mean? The word messenger seems to always refer to a human being or angel or Christ. By contrast, thorns are seen continually in scripture, as a sign of those who are against Israel, or of Satan. I think it means what it says, that his thorn in the flesh was an angel of Satan.

Could Paul have been suffering from demon possession with The Lord’s permission? At first I thought, yes he could have. If we read 1 Samuel 16:14 we learn that The Lord became fed up with Saul and sent an evil spirit to trouble him. The Lord allows evil spirits to possess people but, after asking the Holy Spirit for guidance on this, praying about it and sleeping on it, I feel demon possession is highly unlikely. However, in a Job-like manner, God could have allowed an angel of Satan to torment, or maltreat Paul and to cause physical problems that manifested themselves outwardly. Could the angel of Satan have been anything else? Yes, instead of ‘agents’ of Satan causing a thorn in the flesh, it could have been ‘agents’ of Satan attempting to thwart Paul’s efforts at spreading the word, by trying to throw roadblocks in his way because as Paul became more effective at bringing God’s message to the people and his reputation became better known, he increasingly was becoming more and more of an extreme irritant to Satan and his design to thwart The Lord’s plan. Paul himself said he survived, beatings and stonings and imprisonment and three shipwrecks in his journeys spreading the word and even so, Paul became one of The Lords most effective tool at spreading the word to the Jews and the Gentiles that the early church had ever known and I’m sure Satan would have crushed Paul like a bug if God had allowed him to.

Now let’s look at another view, from the letter to the Galatians.

Galatians 4:13-15 You know that because of physical infirmity I preached the gospel to you at the first.  And my trial which was in my flesh you did not despise or reject, but you received me as an angel of God, [even] as Christ Jesus. What then was the blessing you [enjoyed]? For I bear you witness that, if possible, you would have plucked out your own eyes and given them to me. (NKJV)

OK, here, it seems he was suffering from a physical malady that was evident to those he was preaching to in Galatia, as we find out from this letter he wrote at a later date after they started slipping back to the old ways of Judaism. Dr. Chuck Missler seems to think it was eye problems that were a carry-over from the blindness Christ caused him to have (which is a type of the blindness He pronounced upon Israel that also is a temporary thing). That is a logical assumption except for one issue; if we look back at 2 Corinthians 12:7 it says it was a messenger from Satan sent to torment him. The blindness came from God, not ‘a messenger of Satan, and the two causalities don’t mingle, so I don’t believe Paul would have confused eye problems relating to the blindness caused by Our Lord as having come from Satan.

At this point, I believe God was allowing Satan, in a Job-like manner, to harass Paul in ways that manifested itself by causing outward signs of some aberrant physical condition to a limited extent, and to also, at the same time, throw roadblocks in his way in the manner of delays, shipwrecks, beatings, stonings and imprisonment because of The Lord’s faith in His servant. Paul besought The Lord to remove this burden from him three times, just as Christ was beseeching His Father three time to rid Him of His burden in the Garden. The Lord chose not to heal this ‘thorn’ in Paul’s side, possibly for the reason so that Paul would take the burden and use it as a tool to aid him in his ministries, which he did.

How is this principle of Paul’s thorn in his flesh applicable to me today? Paul was a sinner, but he was a very effective sinner that turned trouble into triumph and used the thorn in his flesh to his advantage to show he was still a sinner saved by grace, as we all would be, tempted to be exalted. That is a lesson that I need to work on because I sometimes try to take charge and, as usual, wreck the train, and allow troubles and temptation to be the excuse that they are designed to be, therefore giving my arch foe, Satan an advantage. Oh, you weak, weak man, Jim.

Dear Father, I need your strength, for I have none. I need your light for I exist in darkness, I need your hand to guide me out of the abyss I plunge myself into. Oh, Father save me from myself for I’m a worm on the ground, once again waiting for the carrion of Satan to snatch me up without you. Dear, blessed Father, thank you for the grace and mercy I never have and I never will deserve and I still don’t understand why you rescued me, Lord. Show me how to be like Paul, triumphing in life, while spreading your word, Father. In Christ name, Amen.

God Bless, Jim

Why Was Christ Crucified?

Posted: February 26, 2022 in Bible, Christ, Christian, GOD, Sin
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If you asked a hundred Christians in the conservative, ‘bible-belt’ section of America where I live the question, “Why was Christ crucified?”, almost all of them would say, “He died for our sins.” and leave it at that. That would not be an incorrect answer, just an incomplete one, for I need to know why He had to die for our sins. I am going to attempt to explore that question and try to do it justice.

The key word to the short, answer is ‘sin’. What is sin? According to blue letter bible, sin is a transgression or violation of divine law (God’s law) as is defined below.

a. Its origin, as regards the human race. The first man and woman, by their own choice, violated the law of God; they sinned against God.

b. Words, which describe sin in some of its forms. Hebrew: “Chata,” to go out of the way, to miss the mark. “Pasha,” to transgress. “Avah,” to twist, to act perversely. Greek: “Hamaritia,” a missing of the mark. “Paraptoma,” a falling away from law, truth, right. “Parabasis,” a going over or beyond truth and right, transgression. “Anomia,” lawlessness. “Asebeia,” irreverence.

c. Definition. “Sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of God.”

Regardless which definition we apply to ourselves, the trait of free will and gullibility within human beings condemn us to sin. Genesis 1:27-31 tells us that God created man in His own image and blessed him and gave him dominion over the Earth and was pleased with the results. Since humans were created in His image, and humans sin, does that mean God is sinful in nature, because we sure are? No, of course not. When God created Adam there was no sin. Unfortunately for us, there was a wrench thrown into the works called Satan and Romans 5:12 tell us Adam fell because Satan was allowed to introduced sin into the world, via Adam. I can infer just from the book of Job, using the patterns that are prevalent all through the bible, that Satan kind of goaded God into this competition with us as the pawns and our souls as the prize. I was going to go a different direction with this, but I suddenly am compelled to explore the path of the Trinity and creation…

For some reason, I always had difficulty remembering that sometimes ‘God’ can be a reference to the Trinity, or can refer to God the Father or can refer to God the Son. John in chapter 1 of his gospel says that God the Son is the author of creation and that Christ created the universe and all things in it, including us. That means we are created in Christ’s image (how cool is that). It also means that Adam is a direct creation of Christ, even though it apparently was a collaborative effort (the plural verbiage denoting the Trinity in Genesis 3:22). Satan, however was able to deceive Eve and he was successful in generating doubt and confusion in what God (Christ) had commanded, causing them to sin by eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Why was this one tree, that they were told not to eat from, placed within the perfect garden of Eden? I think we can derive from the patterns we see in Job, it was there as a test and a temptation, much like the events within the book of Job were. Where am I going with all this?


This is partially conjecture on my part, but I think Christ created Adam in His own image as a sinless person that had no conception of good and evil. Satan presents a challenge and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is introduced into the midst of this perfect garden. It doesn’t take long for Satan to begin his deception campaign by beguiling Eve into sinning by transgressing the commandment of God (Christ) and eating of this lone tree and then convincing her husband to do the same. This means that Adam, a direct creation of Christ, and created in the image of Christ, falls by sinning. In response, Our Lord performed the opening gambit, exhibited by a string of prophecies, that leads eventually toward a checkmate against his wily opponent in this humanity game, Satan*1. How was this brilliant maneuver performed?


Christ introduced the prophecy concerning the plans to ultimately defeat Satan by the parabolic announcement of Himself becoming human in Genesis 3:15*2 and taking over the role that Adam failed at, by way of, the miracle of the virgin birth of Himself as a man. While Christ will not sin like Adam (remember Christ’s temptations by Satan from Mark chapter 1 which basically is a parallel of the temptations of Adam and Eve by Satan, which they failed), He will take upon the sin that His direct creation, Adam, introduced into the world and then willingly die for our salvation upon the cross while wearing this cloak of sin and transgression, relieving us of this unbearable burden and beginning the ‘end game’ process of sealing the lid on the ultimate defeat of Satan. I believe Christ, from the beginning, arranged His own crucifixion to pay the debt of sin that Adam started, thus soundly tromping Satan.


I can see the scenario where we and our universe were created with the intention of Christ being our creator and ruler, possibly in Eden which was in the area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Satan, by being allowed to introduce sin into the world*3, only delayed the inevitable end result where Christ becomes the ruler of all nations in the end and, just possibly, bring Eden back to it’s glory, as it was in the beginning.

God Bless, Jim

*1 Those familiar with chess will know that a game can be won or lost in the first move that, if played right, can set up a domino effect type of scenario that may not manifest itself until scores of moves have been played, resulting in a checkmate.

*2 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” (RSV)

*3 Satan made all those “I will” statements in Isaiah 14, maybe God has allowed everything to go on to prove that Satan’s “I will” statements are actually “I am only delusional and that I can’t” statements…

Was Christ Crucified on “Good Wednesday”?

Posted: February 26, 2022 in Bible, Christ, Christian, Crucifixion, GOD, Israel, religion
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I grew up in the American denominational world and was taught from a small child that Christ was crucified on “Good Friday”. A few years ago I heard about this nutty theory that Christ was not crucified on Friday but on Wednesday. The first time I listened to this theory, I was skeptical and I remained skeptical until I diagrammed it out on paper.

One thing we have to remember is the Jewish day begins at nightfall (generally 6pm), instead of midnight, which is the western way of thinking. I also am going with the theory that the scriptures are talking about full 24 hour days, for in all other area of the bible we find extreme precision of the facts.

We know that Christ died about the ninth hour, or about three PM. They then had to lower the cross to the ground, remove the spikes holding him to the wood, remove him from the cross and carry the body to a place where they prepared him for burial. Even assuming they were fast and judicial in these tasks, it is not likely that he was placed in the tomb and the tomb was sealed before six PM.

Even if you initially reject this idea as a bunch hokum, just bear with me and continue reading with an open mind.

OK, here is my math. Below I have laid out a timeline, assuming a Wednesday crucifixion with nights starting at 6PM with Christ being crucified on Wednesday and placed in the tomb in the beginning hours of the new day, Thursday (Wednesday night, to us in the west).

According to the scriptures Christ died about 3PM and then His body was removed and prepared for burial and placement in the tomb and the procedure to wash, anoint and wrap the body was not a speedy process and most likely took at least two to three hours.

NIGHT

1 1st Thursday (which generally begins about 6PM) the Feast of Unleavened Bread
2 2nd Friday
3 3rd Saturday (Sabbath)

DAY

1 1st Thursday (which began about 6AM) Feast of Unleavened Bread
2 2nd Friday
3 3rd Saturday (Sabbath)

That would mean he rose from the tomb before sundown on the Sabbath (and remember sundown on the Sabbath is actually the beginning of the next day, Sunday), or sometime after sundown (assuming the count is full days and nights)….and that works. This was the first time I had put it down on paper to look at.

The issue I was having (as I suspect many have) is mentally we start counting with the day and discount the fact that Christ would have been placed in the tomb and starting the clock on the first night. Using that simple fact means that I have proven to myself that Wednesday was the logical day that he was taken out and slain. A Thursday crucifixion would mean Sunday would be day three and inferring full days, that doesn’t work either because the scripture tells us Mary saw him early on Sunday.

Friday doesn’t work at all because that would mean He was in the tomb only for one full night and one full day (according to the Jewish calendar).

God Bless, Jim

Renewed 2-25-22

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