DECORATING THE CHURCH FOR ADVENT AND CHRISTMAS — Sunday at 8:30 AM
We will be putting up the parish Christmas Tree and decorating the church for Advent and Christmas this Sunday, December 15th at 8:30 AM.
Everyone is invited to participate and join in the fun. There will be no Christian Education on Sunday because of the decorating. Morning Prayer (Matins) will be at 9:15 AM as usual.
Our church family is also invited to bring poinsettias to beautify the church for the season. Let us never forget that Jesus, and Jesus alone, is the Reason for the Season!
IS GENESIS HISTORY? (Video) — This Sunday during fellowship time
What if the Bible really is true?
What if the Book of Genesis really does accurately record how God created the heavens and the earth? What if Adam and Eve really existed and there really was a Fall? What if there really was a great flood and an Ark? What if the Bible really is the Word of God written? How would that affect your life, your priorities, your decisions???
Beginning this Sunday, December 15th, we will be showing the new documentary film, Is Genesis History? in the parish hall during fellowship time after Services. The film will be shown in two approximately fifty (50) minute parts on Sundays December 15 and 22.
Dr. E. Calvin Beisner, PhD says that the film, “Will strengthen confidence in Scripture, clarify understanding of the relationships of revelation, science, history, and faith, and enhance understanding of difficult questions all while being both beautiful and entertaining.”
Is Genesis History? features over a dozen scientists and scholars explaining how the world intersects with the history recorded in Genesis. From rock layers to fossils, from lions to stars, from the Bible to artifacts, this fascinating film will change the way you see the world.
The film’s goal is to provide a scientific case for Creation, a real Adam and Eve, an actual fall, a great flood, and a tower of Babel. Dr. Del Tackett, creator of The Truth Project, serves as your guide—hiking through canyons, climbing up mountains, and diving below the sea—in an exploration of two competing views … one compelling truth.
Most people don’t realize just how many scientists and scholars see Genesis as the key to understanding the world around us. Each of the experts you will meet in this film has spent decades working in his respective field to better understand how it relates to the history recorded in the Bible.
Kevin Anderson, PhD – Microbiologist
Steve Austin, PhD – Geologist
Steven Boyd, PhD – Hebraist
Robert Carter, PhD – Marine Biologist
Arthur Chadwick, PhD – Taphonomist
Danny Faulkner, PhD – Astronomer
George Grant, PhD – Pastor
Paul Nelson, PhD – Philosopher of Science
Douglas Petrovich, PhD – Archeologist
Marcus Ross, PhD – Paleontologist
Andrew Snelling, PhD – Geologist
Kurt Wise, PhD – Paleontologist
Todd Wood, PhD – Biologist
Stuart Burgess, PhD – Mechanical Engineer
Douglas Kelly, PhD – Theologian
Larry Vardiman, PhD – Atmospheric Physicist
This is a film that you will not want to miss!
Be sure to invite family and friends. Make an effort to reach out to those who do not believe that the Bible can be true, that believe life began by chance and that evolution is true, or that life is meaningless and we are all alone in the universe.
I am attaching for you the two and a half minute official trailer for Is Genesis History? You will really enjoy it! Please share it with others and bring them to church with you on Sunday. Here is the link:
BIBLE PROPHECY IN THE NEWS
Yesterday, December 12th, The Jerusalem Post ran this headline:
JEWISH PRAYER HAS RETURNED TO THE TEMPLE MOUNT — EXCLUSIVE
“Senior Wakf official: Any change would spark strong response from Arabs and Muslims. Jewish activists: Final goal is to rebuild the Temple.”
There you have it. It’s coming folks. Israel is God’s Prophetic Time Clock — and the clock began ticking again on May 14, 1948 when Israel, God’s Fig Tree, put forth new leaves. The clock reached its final hour in 1967, when all of Jerusalem passed into Jewish control signaling the end of the time of the Gentiles (nations).
Are you like the wise virgins in the parable who were watching for the Bridegroom to come and had oil in their lamps, or are you more like the foolish virgins who were asleep and unprepared when the Bridegroom came?
What are the oil lamps alluded to in this parable? “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Psalm 119:105). Yet most professed Christians spend little or no time in the Bible, and in most churches anything but the Bible is taught from the pulpit.
Are you spending time in God’s Word the Bible? Or are you “too busy” to “read, mark, learn and inwardly digest” the Scriptures? Are you studying Bible prophecy so you can recognize the Signs of the Times, or do you poo poo Bible prophecy despite the fact that a third of the Bible is made up of prophecy, and Amos the prophet has told us, “Surely the Lord God does nothing, unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets” (Amos 3:7).
The Lord will come as a thief in the night to a careless world (including careless Christians), but he will not come as a thief in the night to the faithful, for the faithful are not children of the darkness, but of the light.
“But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him. Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing.” (I Thess. 5:1-11).
You will want to read the article in The Jerusalem Post. Here is the link:
ENGLAND SHALL BE FREE — A Time to Celebrate!
Yesterday, Boris Johnson and the Tories won a landslide victory in the British elections. On January 31, 2020 the United Kingdom will be out of the EU and the English people will have restored their independence and sovereignty. The Tory campaign slogan was, “Get Brexit done!”
Some years ago when the English government announced that they would allow a referendum on EU membership they had thought that they could shape public opinion and easily win the referendum, thus sealing Englands fate — but God had other plans.
There is solid historic tradition that as a youth Jesus visited the British Isles with Joseph of Arimathea who was his great uncle. Even today you can visit old churches in parts of England where tradition has it that Jesus visited and see stained glass windows of Joseph of Arimathea and the young Jesus arriving by ship. There were important tin mines in England with an active tin trade with the Middle East, and Joseph of Arimathea had interests in the tin mines there. That is why later, when persecution broke out in Jerusalem in the wake of the stoning of Stephen, that Joseph of Arimathea fled to England in AD 37 where he had friends, and brought the Gospel with him.
These historical traditions have been told and sung about in England for centuries. I am attaching for you a video of the great Anthem, JERUSALEM by William Blake (1757-1827). This video includes the lyrics on the screen, so be sure to read them. They tell the story of the visit of our Lord as a youth to the British Isles. This great anthem will touch your heart and bless your soul. Here is the link:
THE HISTORICAL PRONUNCIATION OF VAV
Is it Vav or Waw? This really is a very important question. Many Christians “know” that Vav is the modern Hebrew pronunciation and Waw is the ancient pronunciation, but is that really correct? Or was Vav the ancient pronunciation that has been restored in modern times, and Waw a pronunciation that crept into Hebrew under the influence of Arabic?
This question is vital for the proper pronunciation of the Divine Name (YHVH or YHWH ?).
Karaite Jewish Bible scholar and Dead Sea Scroll translator Nehemia Gordon tackles this very important question in his enlightening explanation of The Historical Pronunciation of Vav. You can see the eight minute video or listen to the audio, but if you are truly serious about the things of God you will not want to miss it.
Like virtually all clergymen I was also taught that the vowels points of Adonai were added to the consonants YHVH, and that was to signal the Jewish reader to substitute Adonai (Lord) when he saw the Tetragrammaton in the text — but what we were taught was wrong.
Were were told that Yehovah/Jehovah was an unscholarly construct created by ignorantly combing the consonants of the Tetragrammaton with the vowels of Adonai. We were also taught that Yahweh was the Divine Name despite the fact that it appears in no Hebrew text of Scripture anywhere, ever, and has no historical foundation at all, while Yehovah/Jehovah is found more than a thousand times in Hebrew texts of Scripture.
Unfortunately, Christians have a long history of refusing to consult Jewish sources even in areas where the Jews would know best! I can only guess that this is due to an arrogant sense of superiority coupled with a latent antisemitism. Here are several scholarly Jewish references that clear up the matter:
“It seems to me, that the vowels with which it is vocalized in most places [ְי ֹה ָוה ] are the original vowels...this was also the intention of the Masters of the Vowels in that they vocalized the Yod with Sheva [ְי ֹה ָוה ]. Had they intended to give the vowels of Adonai [ֲא ֹד ָני ], why did they not vocalize the Yod with Chataf-Patach [יֲ ֹה ָוה]...Therefore, I say that it’s true they intended for the Name to be read Adonai [ֲא ֹד ָני ], but preserved with this its original vowels [ְי ֹה ָוה ], which were known to them by received tradition.”—Rabbi Samuel David Luzzatto, Commentary on Genesis 2:4, 1834.
“This is not a Qere-Ketiv at all, and Sheva, Cholam, Kamatz are not at all the vowels of Adonai. Rather, they specifically belong to the Unique Name alone, and there is not a single vowel here that comes from, or remains from, as a memorial to the title Adonai, or even hints at it. With these vowels, the priests in the Temple used to call on the Unique Name according to the way it is written...”—Rabbi Jacob Bachrach, Ishtadlut Im Shadal (Warsaw,1896).
“There are currently over 700 Hebrew Bible manuscripts in which God's holy name has its own vowels: Yehovah יְהוָֹה. If the scribes of these 700 manuscripts wanted to insert the vowels of Adonai, nothing was preventing them from doing so… Don't believe the nonsensical claim that the vowels of Yehovah יְהוָֹה are the same as the vowels of Adonai אֲדֹנָי!” — Nehemia Gordon, 2017.
The Divine Name is indeed Yehovah/Jehovah as found in both the King James Version and the American Standard Version of the Bible, among others.
Here is the link to the video. Enjoy!
ADVENT SERMON SERIES
This coming Sunday is the Third Sunday in Advent. During this Advent season I have been preaching a four week sermon series focusing on the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. In this sermon series we have been digging beneath the surface to uncover how the text was understood by first century believers.
The topics for the Third and Fourth Sundays in Advent are:
Third Sunday in Advent, December 15th —
Who really were the Shepherds that were caring for their sheep on the night in which Jesus was born? Were they poor shepherds and were the sheep ordinary sheep? The truth will both surprise you and thrill you!
Fourth Sunday in Advent, December 22nd —
Was Jesus really born in a stable, in a cave? Were the people of Bethlehem so cold hearted that no one would provide a place in a house for a young mother to deliver her baby? Why didn’t the local priests or rabbis intervene? The surprising truth will warm your heart and give you a new perspective on humanity. You will not want to miss this sermon!
SATURDAY’S RADIO BROADCAST
THE FAITH ONCE DELIVERED is heard every Saturday morning at 9:30 AM CST on KCRO Radio 660 AM in Omaha, and 106.7 FM in Lincoln, and can be heard throughout eastern Nebraska and western Iowa. Not in eastern Nebraska or western Iowa? No problem! You can listen live over the Internet. Just go to the KCRO Radio website and click Listen Live:
THE FAITH ONCE DELIVERED — PODCASTS
In addition to the radio broadcast every Saturday morning at 9:30 AM Central Time on KCRO Radio 660 AM in Omaha and 106.7 FM in Lincoln, each episode of THE FAITH ONCE DELIVERED is being archived and can be listened to anytime as a Podcast. You can access past radio programs here:
SUNDAY SERVICES
We will be putting up the parish Christmas Tree and decorating the church for Advent and Christmas on Sunday morning at 8:30 AM, followed by Morning Prayer at 9:15 AM, and the Holy Eucharist at 10:00 AM, with fellowship, refreshments and the film Is Genesis History? after Services.
Everyone is invited and visitors are always welcome. We are a faithful and friendly congregation, and we have a place for you.
We hope to see you on Sunday!
