Sunday, June 8, 2025

Four Churches

There are four churches identified in the Bible and we  run into problems when we try to say they are the same. 

1. The Church in the Wilderness (Acts 7:38) which is the church that had been called out of Egypt. 

2. The Kingdom Church in the Gospels (Acts 2:47) and most of the book of Acts that was made up predominantly of Jews, but also contained Gentile proselytes. 

3. The Mystery Church revealed through Paul justified freely by grace. The Body of Christ (Colossians 1:18; Romans 11:25, 16:25; Ephesians 3:1-2; 1 Timothy 1:15-16). 

4. The Tribulation Church that will be made up of those who will seal their fates in their own blood by not accepting the Mark of the Beast which are made up of the congregations mentioned in chapters 2 and 3 of the Revelation. They are those who will accept the Gospel of the Kingdom that will be preached again by the 144,000 as per Matthew 24:13-14.

Friday, June 6, 2025

The Table of Nations

Speaking of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, you need to read The Genesis Record by Henry Morris. By the way, it would not make the list of most politically correct books in today's world.  Morris writes about how in Genesis 6 we are told that Noah had three sons (Genesis 6:10). Then in Genesis 10, we have what is called the Table of Nations which describes where each of these sons and their descendants settled after the flood (Genesis 10:1). In short, Shem's descendants are known as Shemites and they settled in what today is the Middle East. It is felt that through Shem's descendant, Joktan, came the Orientals and through his descendant, Peleg came the Asians. Thus, all Jews, Asians, and Orientals are considered to be Shemites. Ham's descendants are known as Hamites and they settled in what today is known as Africa. Japheth's descendants are known as Japhites and they settled in what today is known as Europe. Also, linguistically, through Shem came the Semitic languages; through Ham came the Afro-Asiatic languages, and through Japheth came the Endo-European languages. Religiously, through Shem came Judaism, through Ham came Islam, and through Japheth came Christianity. It goes on and on. Fascinating study! (Chapter 16, The Book of Acts Rightly Divided)