The Lord added to the Church daily...

[Ninny]

I was reading in Acts 2 and  I think it's interesting how it says in Acts 2:41that when the disciples went out preaching that three thousand souls were added to their number...and so on.
There seems to be a lot of one on one interaction between the disciples and people they were preaching to. It says in Acts 2:47 also that "the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved." I don't remember reading that before! You think of the disciples going out preaching and people accepting the message, but that passage in Acts2:47 kind of made me stop!

I just thought "Oh, God was dragging them even then!" So what I'm reading is that the disciples presented the word and God brought the people to hear it! I also thought of the many people they encountered when they spoke in the temple and meeting from "house to house" That is just interesting to me that God gave us the example of how we are to present the truth. I don't understand how that turned into what we have today in the churches! I guess it's the old "idols of the flesh" thing, huh?   I suppose it was that sinful selfishness that got us where we are today? Just some musing on my part, I just thought I'd share my confusion with you!!

You may not Understand what I'm asking here...I don't know either!! I'm just sharing an observation!
Kathy

[aqrinc]

Hi Kathy,

When you read the Scriptures, the words are to you now, look at the 3 Scriptures below.
They are speaking to you now, if you hear and see, then your ears and eyes are now open.

Joh 6:63 
It is the Spirit that makes alive, the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit and are life.

2Ti 3:16 
All Scripture is God-breathed, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,

Rev 3: 9-11 
9  Behold, I give out of those of the synagogue of Satan, those saying themselves to be Jews and are not, but lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before your feet, and to know that I have loved you.
10  Because you have kept the Word of My patience, I also will keep you from the hour of temptation which will come upon all the habitable world, to try those who dwell upon the earth.
11  Behold, I come quickly. Hold fast to that which you have, so that no one may take your crown.

george.

[Ninny]

Thank you, George!  Understood! Holding fast!
God is very interesting, isn't He? I'm glad He's on my side!!

Kathy

[aqrinc]

Kathy,

Before our eyes were open, we believed there were two equal sides battling. Not so according to the scriptures.

Exo 16:8 
Then Moses said, "It is the LORD who will give you meat to eat in the evening and as much bread as you want in the morning, because he has heard how much you have complained against him. When you complain against us, you are really complaining against the LORD."

Deu 18:22 
When a prophet speaks in the name of Jehovah, if the thing does not follow nor come to pass, that is the thing which Jehovah has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You shall not be afraid of him.

Isa 45: 5-12
5  I am Jehovah, and there is none else, no God besides Me; I clothed you, though you have not known Me;
6  that they may know from the rising of the sun, and to the sunset, that there is none besides Me. I am Jehovah, and there is none else;
7  forming the light and creating darkness; making peace and creating evil. I Jehovah do all these things.
8  Drop down from above, O heavens, and let the clouds pour down righteousness. Let the earth open, and let salvation bear fruit; and let righteousness spring up together. I Jehovah have created it.
9  Woe to him who fights with the One who formed him, a potsherd among the potsherds of the earth! Shall the clay say to its former, What are you making? Or your work, He has no hands?
10  Woe to him who says to his father, What are you fathering? Or to the woman, What are you laboring over?
11  So says Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, and the One who formed him, Do you ask Me of things to come? Do you give command to Me about My sons, and about the work of My hands?
12  I have made the earth, and created man on it; I with My hands have stretched out the heavens; and all their host have I commanded.

Again i say to nonbelievers; my Daddy Can kick your daddy's butt any time he wishes.

george.

[Ninny]

Awesome! Those are some pretty profound scriptures, Oh yeah! Did you say that to kids who bullied you in school?  if they only knew who your daddy is they would have run for their lives! I think about God as daddy sometimes when I think of my own dad, he wasn't a perfect dad by any stretch of the imagination, but I always KNEW even though he barely weighed 130 lbs IF he was you know, Soaking wet as they say, but i knew without a doubt that my daddy could kick anyone's butt! Just to think that with God as daddy NO one can stand up to Him!!
Thanks for that reminder, too!
Kathy

[aqrinc]

And here is the Great Plan Of God In Living Scripture, for us at the end of the Age.

Rom 8: 14-27 (GNB)
14  Those who are led by God's Spirit are God's children.
15  For the Spirit that God has given you does not make you slaves and cause you to be afraid; instead, the Spirit makes you God's children, and by the Spirit's power we cry out to God, "Father! my Father!"
16  God's Spirit joins himself to our spirits to declare that we are God's children.
17  Since we are his children, we will possess the blessings he keeps for his people, and we will also possess with Christ what God has kept for him; for if we share Christ's suffering, we will also share his glory.
18  I consider that what we suffer at this present time cannot be compared at all with the glory that is going to be revealed to us.
19  All of creation waits with eager longing for God to reveal his children.
20  For creation was condemned to lose its purpose (Subjected to vanity), not of its own will, but because God willed it to be so. Yet there was the hope
21  that creation itself would one day be set free from its slavery to decay and would share the glorious freedom of the children of God.
22  For we know that up to the present time all of creation groans with pain, like the pain of childbirth.
23  But it is not just creation alone which groans; we who have the Spirit as the first of God's gifts also groan within ourselves as we wait for God to make us his children and set our whole being free.
24  For it was by hope that we were saved; but if we see what we hope for, then it is not really hope. For who of us hopes for something we see?
25  But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
26  In the same way the Spirit also comes to help us, weak as we are. For we do not know how we ought to pray; the Spirit himself pleads with God for us in groans that words cannot express.
27  And God, who sees into our hearts, knows what the thought of the Spirit is; because the Spirit pleads with God on behalf of his people and in accordance with his will.

george.

[Kat]

Hi Kathy,

I just thought "Oh, God was dragging them even then!" So what I'm reading is that the disciples presented the word and God brought the people to hear it! I also thought of the many people they encountered when they spoke in the temple and meeting from "house to house" That is just interesting to me that God gave us the example of how we are to present the truth. I don't understand how that turned into what we have today in the churches!

I was reading through one of the BT articles yesterday and your post seems to be on the same subject, how 'the' church became 'My' church.

Here is an excerpt from 'The Depth of Satan - Who is Antipas?' article no. 11.

http://bible-truths.com/lake11.html ---------------------------

THE FUNCTION OF THE SYNAGOGUE

Was there one overall purpose carried out in all of those many ancient synagogues in Judea and other parts of the Roman Empire? Yes, there was.

"For Moses of old time has in every city them that preach him [Moses], being read in the synagogues every Sabbath day " (Acts 15:21).

By "Moses" is meant the "books of Moses," the "Law of Moses," and the "Religion of Moses." And one other purpose for the synagogue and temple,

"My house shall be called of all nations the House of Prayer..." (Mark 11:17).

But the truth of the matter was, that they had already "...made it a den of thieves." We also saw in a previous installment that this "den of thieves" continues on in the Church today.

Paradoxically, hundreds of millions of dollars collected by the fraudulent vehicle of tithing, is invested by many large denominations into such manufacturing as the Defense Industry. And whereas our Lord instructed us to "LOVE your enemies," the Church helps finance weapons of human destruction! Do you ever think about these things?

Now then, is "Moses" still taught in the churches of God, today? Yes, of course he is. The Law of Moses is virtually worshiped by many in the Church. Many believe that observing the seventh day Sabbath is the identifying sign that sets them apart as the only true believers and followers of God. They even make granite idols of the Ten Commandments and bow themselves down to them. I saw them with my own eyes on national television at the courthouse steps in Birmingham, Alabama. While they were removing this Ten Commandment Monument, one man was heard crying out, "You are taking away OUR GOD!"

Today's Church teaches Moses and Christ. Nearly every person on earth that has ever heard of Christ has heard of Him through the Church. Can a deceived Church, "Teach Christ?" Well, they can, and they do. Is this a good thing? Yes, it is, even if their motives are not always perfect. Notice what Paul said regarding this:

"Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife; and some also of good will: The one preach Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds: But the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defense of the gospel. What then? Notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence or in truth, CHRIST IS PREACHED; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice" (Phil. 1:15-18).

But do they teach the truth regarding the gospel, grace, faith, resurrection, judgment, and a dozen other paramount doctrines? Well, not too well. One of the most simple and profound proofs that the Church is not teaching consistently and Scripturally on these subjects is conclusively proved by the very fact that there are so many hundreds of disagreeing denominations in Christendom. How are individual untrained truth-seekers supposed to believe all that a particular church denomination teaches when the educated trained leaders of these denominations cannot even agree among themselves as to what is Truth?

Regardless of what our particular denominational bent might be, I hope that we can all agree that Paul and the Apostles had the Truth. Although I know of quite a number of believers around the world who believe that Peter and Paul were virtually enemies to each other. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Did new converts to Christ continue to attend synagogues to be edified in their new-found-faith? NO! They were persecuted in the synagogues! They left the synagogues. They left the mother Church. Remember our lesson where Jesus said, "I will build My church..." (Matt. 16:18). Jesus didn't say that He would purify or purge the existing Church. No, Jesus built a New Church—His Church, "MY Church" Jesus called it.

And so it was in the religion of Judaism that the people learned of God and the Law of Moses. But when they learned of the gospel of Jesus Christ, they were forced to "COME OUT OF HER..."

When we read the history of the Apostles in the book of Acts, they and their new converts to Jesus did not continue to worship Jesus in the synagogues. They now began to meet among themselves and in private homes. Paul's habit was to go to the synagogues of whatever city he was evangelizing to teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul did not go to these synagogues to worship Jesus Christ, but rather to teach that Jesus was the Christ. And those who were truly called of God left the synagogues and met with believers of like mind in private homes.

It is true that the Apostles continued for a time to go up to the Temple (not the local synagogues), but they were warned under threat of death that they should discontinue teaching in the Temple. But Peter, who denied Christ three times just weeks earlier, now spoke fearlessly:

"And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to TEACH AND PREACH Jesus Christ" (Acts 5:42).

THE CHURCH OF GOD IN PRIVATE HOUSES

There was a transition period where the disciples still went up to the temple, but God's intimate dealings would now be found in more humble surroundings. When the Holy Spirit was poured out on the first Saints of Jesus, it was not in a synagogue, but in a house:

"And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all THE HOUSE where they were sitting" (Acts 2:1-2).

Church services were held in houses:

"Likewise greet the church that is in their house" (Rom. 16:5).

"The churches of Asia salute you. Aquila and Priscilla salute you much in the Lord, with the church that is in their house" (I Cor. 16:19).

"Salute the brethren which are in Laodicea, and Nymphas, and the church which is in his house� (Col., 4:15).

"Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ, and Timothy our brother, unto Philemon our dearly beloved, and fellowlabourer, and to our beloved Apphia, and Archippus our fellowsoldier, and to the church in your house" (Philemon 1-2).

When we come to the famous Jerusalem Conference in the fifteenth chapter of Acts, we read that Paul and Barnabas were "...being brought on their way by the CHURCH..." (Acts 15:3). This is the Church of Jesus Christ, not the church of the synagogue system. Notice that in this conference their determination was to not force the Law of Moses on new Gentile converts:

"Then pleased it the apostles and elders, with THE WHOLE CHURCH..." (Acts 15:22).

The High Priests did not attend this conference. This was the first 'ecumenical counsel,' if you will, of the Church of Jesus Christ, consisting of only those who believed, who formulated policy which would be binding on the whole church.

The Jews had "synagogues"—church buildings. The newly converted Christians came out of those synagogue church buildings and their doctrines, and met in homes. Why? Mostly because Christ was not taught or tolerated in these synagogues. In order to worship and follow the teachings of Jesus Christ, it became necessary to "come out of her"—the synagogue system of religion.

Jesus Christ, the teachings of Jesus Christ, and the followers of Jesus Christ were hated and despised by most leaders of most synagogues. Do we think that anything has changed regarding this in today's churches? If Jesus Christ returned to virtually any Christian church in the world today, unrecognized in a business suit, and began teaching His own Gospel, the leaders of the churches would throw Him out. And I say this without the least hesitation as to what the implications of my statement are.
------------------------------------------------------

This turned out to be a long excerpt, but there was even more to this which you might like to go to the link and read.

mercy, peace and love
Kat

[Ninny]

Thanks Kat!
You know I had forgotten about that article! I am going to go back and read that again! It's funny how you can read something, but you have to read it several times before you get everything that's in there!
I remember saying the first time I read that, "yeah, that was the first meaning of come out of her my People"! I totally agree with what Ray said in that, too, that if Jesus were to come to any church today teaching His own gospel He'd be thrown out... so fast it would make your head spin! There are just so many things to learn!
It really is plain to see how we got from Jesus' declaring that upon THIS ROCK the church was to be built, and now to the point of confusion the churches are in today! It's not Christ's Gospel any more! Now it's just a cheap copy of the original! satan's cheap copy! Ha! good thing we know the difference!!
I am definitely going to go back and read that again. Thanks!
Kathy

[Marlene]

Hi All, it just always amazes me how God provides post about something we need to read over again of Ray's or the Bible and how he works through others here. This was a great post. Just, reading this makes me think of when God called me out. When, I first came into this site I had no idea what was about to happen. It was later I came out of the church system. I came in hating teaching on Hell among others. Wow, did I ever have alot happen to me that night and following days to follow. It was all a act of God for sure.


I just love everytime I see the Lord add a new member here. Ray's foolish preaching sure is looking like Truth to us. Its all God it just wants to make me Praise the Lord and thank God for his servant Ray.

In His Love,
Marlene