#christians — Public Fediverse posts

Pope Leo XIV gets India. Rome shouldn’t listen to India only when Christians are threatened

At Vatican audiences, gifts are usually the most visible and least consequential part of the encounter. Those presented…
#Italy #Europe #Europa #EU #Rome #'popeleoxiv' #Christians
https://www.europesays.com/italy/44986/

I was just about to post this #Medallion advocating care for the #Environment, and then I happened to open Mastodon to see this post quoting the #Pope ALSO urging #Christians to embrace #ecological conversion: https://mastodon.social/@top_news/117198414952510133

#Medal #Numismatics #green @numismatics

https://www.europesays.com/africa/399286/ Taxi boss Joe “Ferrari” Sibanyoni breaks silence on hitmen, taxi violence and cartel claims #Christian #Christians #delmas #gauteng #IolPolitics #JoeFerrariSibanyoni #KamogeloMoichela@iolCoZa #MadlangaCommissionMpumalanga #MatthewChaskalsonSc #ShongweCommission #SouthAfrica

Day 20

https://cathymerrittsimplefaith.wordpress.com/2026/07/31/day-20/

#Christian • #Christianity • #Christians • #Jesus • #Faith • #Bible • #Scripture • #BibleVerse • #Theology • #Devotional • #ChristianLiving • #Prayer • #Worship • #Gospel • #Church

𝐘𝐀𝐇 𝐎𝐍𝐋𝐘 𝐓𝐕 100 𝐁𝐈𝐁𝐋𝐄 𝐎𝐋𝐃 𝐓𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓 𝐋𝐈𝐕𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐌|𝐂𝐋𝐈𝐂𝐊 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐊 𝐁𝐄𝐋𝐎𝐖

https://youtube.com/live/YrFJwbMSrC0?is=QTEXwBG0asNNznPr

Precious: https://fineartamerica.com/featured/matthew-6-26-christian-bird-bible-verse-art-sharon-cummings.html

#christian #christianart #christians #christiangifts #bible #bibleverse #biblestudy #scripture #christianity #jesus #jesuschrist

Precious: https://fineartamerica.com/featured/matthew-6-26-christian-bird-bible-verse-art-sharon-cummings.html

#christian #christianart #christians #christiangifts #bible #bibleverse #biblestudy #scripture #christianity #jesus #jesuschrist

Precious: https://fineartamerica.com/featured/matthew-6-26-christian-bird-bible-verse-art-sharon-cummings.html

#christian #christianart #christians #christiangifts #bible #bibleverse #biblestudy #scripture #christianity #jesus #jesuschrist

Precious: https://fineartamerica.com/featured/matthew-6-26-christian-bird-bible-verse-art-sharon-cummings.html

#christian #christianart #christians #christiangifts #bible #bibleverse #biblestudy #scripture #christianity #jesus #jesuschrist

Precious: https://fineartamerica.com/featured/matthew-6-26-christian-bird-bible-verse-art-sharon-cummings.html

#christian #christianart #christians #christiangifts #bible #bibleverse #biblestudy #scripture #christianity #jesus #jesuschrist

YAH ONLY TV 100 BIBLE OLD TESTAMENT LIVE STREAM|CLICK THE LINK BELOW

https://youtube.com/live/aMJfu_JQ8J8?is=OYZUBdEZbw4ytXKo

Saturday, December 20, 2025

https://activitypub.writeworks.uk/2025/12/saturday-december-20-2025/

Samaritanism

Samaritanism is an Abrahamic monotheistic, ethnic religion. It comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, & legal traditions of the Samaritan people.

Often preferring to be called Israelite Samaritans, who originated from the Hebrews & Israelites. They began to emerge as a relatively distinct group after the Kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire during the Iron Age. The Neo-Assyrian Empire was the 4th, & penultimate, stage of ancient Assyrian history.

Central to their continuity as an Indigenous Heritage in the Holy Land is keeping the Patriarchal & Mosaic covenant as specified in the Samaritan Torah. Samaritans believe this is the original & unchanged version of the Pentateuch (which is the first 5 books of the Hebrew & Christian bible) since Moses & the Israelites at Mount Sinai.

The Abisha Scroll is traditionally held by the community to be the oldest existing scroll written by Abisha, son of Aaron the priest, around 3,000 years ago based on living tradition. However, Jewish & Christian theologians have made attempts to dispute this claim which proved unsatisfactory.

Judaism claims Samaritanism developed right alongside their own religion. Samaritanism asserts itself as the true preserved form of the monotheistic faith that the Israelites kept under Moses. Samaritan belief also holds that the Israelites’ original holy site was Mount Gerizim, near Nablus, the State of Palestine (West Bank).

They also believe that Jerusalem only attained importance under Israelite dissenters who had followed Eli (In the Book of Samuel, Eli was a priest & judge of the Israelites in the city of Shiloh) to the city of Shiloh.

The Israelites who remained at Mount Gerizim would become the Samaritans in the Kingdom of Judah. Mount Gerizim is revered by Samaritans as the location where the Binding of Isaac occurred. In comparison to the Jewish belief that it occurred at Jerusalem’s Temple Mount.

Today there are only about 900 registered communal members. This puts Samaritanism as 1 of the smallest ethnoreligious groups globally in the Abrahamic faiths. Samaritans believe that this is a prophecy fulfilled from the scriptures: “You’ll be left few in number.”

Though they hope for a future time when a prophet like Moses known as the “Taheb” (Restorer) will perform 3 signs, namely the jar of manna, the staff of Moses, & Cherubim, or the Golden Candlestick.

This time period they believe is when an era of Divine Favor would return, & the hidden tabernacle of Moses would miraculously be revealed for the Israelite people & Mount Gerizim is restored to its former glory.

Samaritans trace their history, as a separate entity, to a period soon after the Israelites’ arrival into the “Promised Land.” Samaritan historiography traces the schism to High Priest Eli leaving Mount Gerizim, where stood the 1st Israelite altar in Canaan, & building a competing altar in nearby Shiloh.

The dissenting group of Israelites who followed Eli to Shiloh would be the ones who, in later years, would head south to settle in Jerusalem (the Jews). Whereas the Israelites who stayed on Mount Gerizim, in Samaria, would become known as the Samaritans.

Genetic studies in 2004 suggest that Samaritans’ lineages trace back to a common ancestor with Jews in the paternally-inherited Jewish high priesthood (Cohanim) temporally near to the period of the Assyrian conquest of the Kingdom of Israel. They’re probably descendants of the historical Israelite population. The Cohanim refers to the Jewish priestly class, male descendants of Aaron the priest.

The Hasmonean king, John Hyrcanus, destroyed the Mount Gerizim Temple & brought Samaria under his control around 120 BCE. This led to a long-lasting sense of mutual hostility between the Jews & Samaritans.

From this point, the Samaritans likely sought to consciously distance themselves from their Judean brethren. Both peoples came to see the Samaritan faith as a religion distinct from Judaism. By the time of Jesus, Samaritans & Jews deeply disparaged one another, as shown by Jesus’ Parable of the Good Samaritan.

The main beliefs of Samaritanism are:

• There’s 1 God, Yahweh, the same God recognized by the Jewish prophets.
• The Torah is the only true holy book & was given by God to Moses. The Torah was created before the creation of the world & whoever believes in it is assured a part in the world to come. The Torah’s status in Samaritanism as the only holy book causes them to reject the Oral Torah, the Talmud, & all the prophets & scriptures, except for a version of the Book of Joshua (which they don’t hold as Scripture), whose book in the Samaritan community is significantly different from the Book of Joshua in the Jewish “Bible.” Moses is considered to be the last of the line of prophets.
• Mount Gerizim, not Jerusalem, is the 1 true sanctuary chosen by God. The Samaritans don’t recognize the sanctity of Jerusalem & don’t recognize the Temple Mount, claiming instead that Mount Gerizim was the place where the Binding of Isaac took place.
• The Apocalypse, called “the day of vengeance,” will be the end of days. When an entity called the Taheb (basically the Jewish Messiah equal) that comes from the tribe of Joseph will come, be a prophet like Moses for 40 years & bring about the return of all the Israelites, following which the dead will be resurrected. The Tahib will then discover the tent of Moses’ Tabernacle on Mount Gerizim, & will be buried next to Joseph when he dies.

The Samaritans have retained the institution of a high priesthood & the practice of slaughtering & eating lambs on Passover Eve. They celebrated Pesach, Shavuot, & Sukkot. But they use a different method from that used in mainstream Judaism in order to determine the dates annually.

For example, Yom Teru’ah (the biblical name for Rosh Hashanah), at the beginning of Tishrei (This is the 1st month of the civil year & the 7th month of the ecclesiastical year in the Hebrew calendar.), isn’t considered a New Year as it is in Rabbinic Judaism.

Their Sabbath is observed weekly by the Samaritan community every week from Friday to Saturday, beginning & ending at sundown. For 24 hours, the families gather together to celebrate the rest day: all electricity with the exception of minimal lighting (kept on the entire day) in the house is disconnected, no work is done, & neither cooking nor driving is allowed.

The time is devoted to worship which consists of 7 prayer services, reading the weekly Torah portion, spending quality time with family, taking meals, rest & sleep, & visiting other members of the community.

Passover is particularly important in the Samaritan community, climaxing with the sacrifice of up to 40 sheep.

The Counting of the Omar remains relatively unchanged. The Counting of the Omar is a ritual in Judaism that consists of a verbal counting of each of the 49 days between the holidays of Passover & Shavuot. However, the week before Shavuot is a unique festival celebrating the continued commitment Samaritanism has maintained since the time of Moses.

During Sukkot, the Sukkah (the temporary hut built for use during Sukkot) is built INSIDE of houses, instead of OUTSIDE like mainstream Judaism. This Samaritan tradition is traced back to the persecution of the Samaritans during the Byzantine Empire.

The roof of the Samaritan Sukkah is decorated with citrus fruits & branches of palm, myrtle, & willow trees. This is in accordance with the Samaritan interpretation of the 4 species designated in the Torah for the holiday. The 4 species are 4 plants (the etrog, lulav, hadass, & aravah) mentioned in the Torah as being relevant to the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.

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Your contribution is appreciated.

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Make a monthly donation

Your contribution is appreciated.

Donate monthly

Make a yearly donation

Your contribution is appreciated.

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Rate this:

#120BCE #4Species #Aaron #Abisha #AbishaScroll #AbrahamicFaiths #AncientAssyria #Apoclypse #Aravah #BindingOfIsaac #BookOfJoshua #BookOfSamuel #ByzantineEmpire #Canaan #Cherubim #Christians #CitrusFruits #Cohanim #CountingOfTheOmar #Eli #Etrog #GoldenCandlestick #Hadass #Hasmonean #HebrewCalendar #Hebrews #HighPriestEli #HighPriesthood #IndigenousPeoples #IronAge #IsraeliteSamaritans #Israelites #Jerusalem #Jesus #Jewish #JewishProphets #Jews #Joseph #Judah #KingJohnHyrcanus #KingdomOfIsrael #Lulav #Manna #Messiah #MosaicCovenant #Moses #MountGerizim #MountSinai #Myrtle #Nablus #NeoAssyrianEmpire #OralTorah #Palestine #ParableOfTheGoodSamaritan #Passover #PatriarchalCovenant #Pentateuch #Priest #PromisedLand #RabbinicJudaism #RoshHashanah #Sabbath #SamaritanTorah #Samaritanism #Shavuot #Shiloh #StaffOfMoses #Sukkah #Sukkot #Tabernacle #Taheb #Talmud #TempleMount #Tishrei #Torah #WestBank #Willow #Yahweh #YomTeruAh

Samaritanism

Samaritanism is an Abrahamic monotheistic, ethnic religion. It comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, & legal traditions of the Samaritan people.

Often preferring to be called Israelite Samaritans, who originated from the Hebrews & Israelites. They began to emerge as a relatively distinct group after the Kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire during the Iron Age. The Neo-Assyrian Empire was the 4th, & penultimate, stage of ancient Assyrian history.

Central to their continuity as an Indigenous Heritage in the Holy Land is keeping the Patriarchal & Mosaic covenant as specified in the Samaritan Torah. Samaritans believe this is the original & unchanged version of the Pentateuch (which is the first 5 books of the Hebrew & Christian bible) since Moses & the Israelites at Mount Sinai.

The Abisha Scroll is traditionally held by the community to be the oldest existing scroll written by Abisha, son of Aaron the priest, around 3,000 years ago based on living tradition. However, Jewish & Christian theologians have made attempts to dispute this claim which proved unsatisfactory.

Judaism claims Samaritanism developed right alongside their own religion. Samaritanism asserts itself as the true preserved form of the monotheistic faith that the Israelites kept under Moses. Samaritan belief also holds that the Israelites’ original holy site was Mount Gerizim, near Nablus, the State of Palestine (West Bank).

They also believe that Jerusalem only attained importance under Israelite dissenters who had followed Eli (In the Book of Samuel, Eli was a priest & judge of the Israelites in the city of Shiloh) to the city of Shiloh.

The Israelites who remained at Mount Gerizim would become the Samaritans in the Kingdom of Judah. Mount Gerizim is revered by Samaritans as the location where the Binding of Isaac occurred. In comparison to the Jewish belief that it occurred at Jerusalem’s Temple Mount.

Today there are only about 900 registered communal members. This puts Samaritanism as 1 of the smallest ethnoreligious groups globally in the Abrahamic faiths. Samaritans believe that this is a prophecy fulfilled from the scriptures: “You’ll be left few in number.”

Though they hope for a future time when a prophet like Moses known as the “Taheb” (Restorer) will perform 3 signs, namely the jar of manna, the staff of Moses, & Cherubim, or the Golden Candlestick.

This time period they believe is when an era of Divine Favor would return, & the hidden tabernacle of Moses would miraculously be revealed for the Israelite people & Mount Gerizim is restored to its former glory.

Samaritans trace their history, as a separate entity, to a period soon after the Israelites’ arrival into the “Promised Land.” Samaritan historiography traces the schism to High Priest Eli leaving Mount Gerizim, where stood the 1st Israelite altar in Canaan, & building a competing altar in nearby Shiloh.

The dissenting group of Israelites who followed Eli to Shiloh would be the ones who, in later years, would head south to settle in Jerusalem (the Jews). Whereas the Israelites who stayed on Mount Gerizim, in Samaria, would become known as the Samaritans.

Genetic studies in 2004 suggest that Samaritans’ lineages trace back to a common ancestor with Jews in the paternally-inherited Jewish high priesthood (Cohanim) temporally near to the period of the Assyrian conquest of the Kingdom of Israel. They’re probably descendants of the historical Israelite population. The Cohanim refers to the Jewish priestly class, male descendants of Aaron the priest.

The Hasmonean king, John Hyrcanus, destroyed the Mount Gerizim Temple & brought Samaria under his control around 120 BCE. This led to a long-lasting sense of mutual hostility between the Jews & Samaritans.

From this point, the Samaritans likely sought to consciously distance themselves from their Judean brethren. Both peoples came to see the Samaritan faith as a religion distinct from Judaism. By the time of Jesus, Samaritans & Jews deeply disparaged one another, as shown by Jesus’ Parable of the Good Samaritan.

The main beliefs of Samaritanism are:

• There’s 1 God, Yahweh, the same God recognized by the Jewish prophets.
• The Torah is the only true holy book & was given by God to Moses. The Torah was created before the creation of the world & whoever believes in it is assured a part in the world to come. The Torah’s status in Samaritanism as the only holy book causes them to reject the Oral Torah, the Talmud, & all the prophets & scriptures, except for a version of the Book of Joshua (which they don’t hold as Scripture), whose book in the Samaritan community is significantly different from the Book of Joshua in the Jewish “Bible.” Moses is considered to be the last of the line of prophets.
• Mount Gerizim, not Jerusalem, is the 1 true sanctuary chosen by God. The Samaritans don’t recognize the sanctity of Jerusalem & don’t recognize the Temple Mount, claiming instead that Mount Gerizim was the place where the Binding of Isaac took place.
• The Apocalypse, called “the day of vengeance,” will be the end of days. When an entity called the Taheb (basically the Jewish Messiah equal) that comes from the tribe of Joseph will come, be a prophet like Moses for 40 years & bring about the return of all the Israelites, following which the dead will be resurrected. The Tahib will then discover the tent of Moses’ Tabernacle on Mount Gerizim, & will be buried next to Joseph when he dies.

The Samaritans have retained the institution of a high priesthood & the practice of slaughtering & eating lambs on Passover Eve. They celebrated Pesach, Shavuot, & Sukkot. But they use a different method from that used in mainstream Judaism in order to determine the dates annually.

For example, Yom Teru’ah (the biblical name for Rosh Hashanah), at the beginning of Tishrei (This is the 1st month of the civil year & the 7th month of the ecclesiastical year in the Hebrew calendar.), isn’t considered a New Year as it is in Rabbinic Judaism.

Their Sabbath is observed weekly by the Samaritan community every week from Friday to Saturday, beginning & ending at sundown. For 24 hours, the families gather together to celebrate the rest day: all electricity with the exception of minimal lighting (kept on the entire day) in the house is disconnected, no work is done, & neither cooking nor driving is allowed.

The time is devoted to worship which consists of 7 prayer services, reading the weekly Torah portion, spending quality time with family, taking meals, rest & sleep, & visiting other members of the community.

Passover is particularly important in the Samaritan community, climaxing with the sacrifice of up to 40 sheep.

The Counting of the Omar remains relatively unchanged. The Counting of the Omar is a ritual in Judaism that consists of a verbal counting of each of the 49 days between the holidays of Passover & Shavuot. However, the week before Shavuot is a unique festival celebrating the continued commitment Samaritanism has maintained since the time of Moses.

During Sukkot, the Sukkah (the temporary hut built for use during Sukkot) is built INSIDE of houses, instead of OUTSIDE like mainstream Judaism. This Samaritan tradition is traced back to the persecution of the Samaritans during the Byzantine Empire.

The roof of the Samaritan Sukkah is decorated with citrus fruits & branches of palm, myrtle, & willow trees. This is in accordance with the Samaritan interpretation of the 4 species designated in the Torah for the holiday. The 4 species are 4 plants (the etrog, lulav, hadass, & aravah) mentioned in the Torah as being relevant to the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.

Make a one-time donation

Your contribution is appreciated.

Donate

Make a monthly donation

Your contribution is appreciated.

Donate monthly

Make a yearly donation

Your contribution is appreciated.

Donate yearly

Rate this:

#120BCE #4Species #Aaron #Abisha #AbishaScroll #AbrahamicFaiths #AncientAssyria #Apoclypse #Aravah #BindingOfIsaac #BookOfJoshua #BookOfSamuel #ByzantineEmpire #Canaan #Cherubim #Christians #CitrusFruits #Cohanim #CountingOfTheOmar #Eli #Etrog #GoldenCandlestick #Hadass #Hasmonean #HebrewCalendar #Hebrews #HighPriestEli #HighPriesthood #IndigenousPeoples #IronAge #IsraeliteSamaritans #Israelites #Jerusalem #Jesus #Jewish #JewishProphets #Jews #Joseph #Judah #KingJohnHyrcanus #KingdomOfIsrael #Lulav #Manna #Messiah #MosaicCovenant #Moses #MountGerizim #MountSinai #Myrtle #Nablus #NeoAssyrianEmpire #OralTorah #Palestine #ParableOfTheGoodSamaritan #Passover #PatriarchalCovenant #Pentateuch #Priest #PromisedLand #RabbinicJudaism #RoshHashanah #Sabbath #SamaritanTorah #Samaritanism #Shavuot #Shiloh #StaffOfMoses #Sukkah #Sukkot #Tabernacle #Taheb #Talmud #TempleMount #Tishrei #Torah #WestBank #Willow #Yahweh #YomTeruAh

Samaritanism

Samaritanism is an Abrahamic monotheistic, ethnic religion. It comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, & legal traditions of the Samaritan people.

Often preferring to be called Israelite Samaritans, who originated from the Hebrews & Israelites. They began to emerge as a relatively distinct group after the Kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire during the Iron Age. The Neo-Assyrian Empire was the 4th, & penultimate, stage of ancient Assyrian history.

Central to their continuity as an Indigenous Heritage in the Holy Land is keeping the Patriarchal & Mosaic covenant as specified in the Samaritan Torah. Samaritans believe this is the original & unchanged version of the Pentateuch (which is the first 5 books of the Hebrew & Christian bible) since Moses & the Israelites at Mount Sinai.

The Abisha Scroll is traditionally held by the community to be the oldest existing scroll written by Abisha, son of Aaron the priest, around 3,000 years ago based on living tradition. However, Jewish & Christian theologians have made attempts to dispute this claim which proved unsatisfactory.

Judaism claims Samaritanism developed right alongside their own religion. Samaritanism asserts itself as the true preserved form of the monotheistic faith that the Israelites kept under Moses. Samaritan belief also holds that the Israelites’ original holy site was Mount Gerizim, near Nablus, the State of Palestine (West Bank).

They also believe that Jerusalem only attained importance under Israelite dissenters who had followed Eli (In the Book of Samuel, Eli was a priest & judge of the Israelites in the city of Shiloh) to the city of Shiloh.

The Israelites who remained at Mount Gerizim would become the Samaritans in the Kingdom of Judah. Mount Gerizim is revered by Samaritans as the location where the Binding of Isaac occurred. In comparison to the Jewish belief that it occurred at Jerusalem’s Temple Mount.

Today there are only about 900 registered communal members. This puts Samaritanism as 1 of the smallest ethnoreligious groups globally in the Abrahamic faiths. Samaritans believe that this is a prophecy fulfilled from the scriptures: “You’ll be left few in number.”

Though they hope for a future time when a prophet like Moses known as the “Taheb” (Restorer) will perform 3 signs, namely the jar of manna, the staff of Moses, & Cherubim, or the Golden Candlestick.

This time period they believe is when an era of Divine Favor would return, & the hidden tabernacle of Moses would miraculously be revealed for the Israelite people & Mount Gerizim is restored to its former glory.

Samaritans trace their history, as a separate entity, to a period soon after the Israelites’ arrival into the “Promised Land.” Samaritan historiography traces the schism to High Priest Eli leaving Mount Gerizim, where stood the 1st Israelite altar in Canaan, & building a competing altar in nearby Shiloh.

The dissenting group of Israelites who followed Eli to Shiloh would be the ones who, in later years, would head south to settle in Jerusalem (the Jews). Whereas the Israelites who stayed on Mount Gerizim, in Samaria, would become known as the Samaritans.

Genetic studies in 2004 suggest that Samaritans’ lineages trace back to a common ancestor with Jews in the paternally-inherited Jewish high priesthood (Cohanim) temporally near to the period of the Assyrian conquest of the Kingdom of Israel. They’re probably descendants of the historical Israelite population. The Cohanim refers to the Jewish priestly class, male descendants of Aaron the priest.

The Hasmonean king, John Hyrcanus, destroyed the Mount Gerizim Temple & brought Samaria under his control around 120 BCE. This led to a long-lasting sense of mutual hostility between the Jews & Samaritans.

From this point, the Samaritans likely sought to consciously distance themselves from their Judean brethren. Both peoples came to see the Samaritan faith as a religion distinct from Judaism. By the time of Jesus, Samaritans & Jews deeply disparaged one another, as shown by Jesus’ Parable of the Good Samaritan.

The main beliefs of Samaritanism are:

• There’s 1 God, Yahweh, the same God recognized by the Jewish prophets.
• The Torah is the only true holy book & was given by God to Moses. The Torah was created before the creation of the world & whoever believes in it is assured a part in the world to come. The Torah’s status in Samaritanism as the only holy book causes them to reject the Oral Torah, the Talmud, & all the prophets & scriptures, except for a version of the Book of Joshua (which they don’t hold as Scripture), whose book in the Samaritan community is significantly different from the Book of Joshua in the Jewish “Bible.” Moses is considered to be the last of the line of prophets.
• Mount Gerizim, not Jerusalem, is the 1 true sanctuary chosen by God. The Samaritans don’t recognize the sanctity of Jerusalem & don’t recognize the Temple Mount, claiming instead that Mount Gerizim was the place where the Binding of Isaac took place.
• The Apocalypse, called “the day of vengeance,” will be the end of days. When an entity called the Taheb (basically the Jewish Messiah equal) that comes from the tribe of Joseph will come, be a prophet like Moses for 40 years & bring about the return of all the Israelites, following which the dead will be resurrected. The Tahib will then discover the tent of Moses’ Tabernacle on Mount Gerizim, & will be buried next to Joseph when he dies.

The Samaritans have retained the institution of a high priesthood & the practice of slaughtering & eating lambs on Passover Eve. They celebrated Pesach, Shavuot, & Sukkot. But they use a different method from that used in mainstream Judaism in order to determine the dates annually.

For example, Yom Teru’ah (the biblical name for Rosh Hashanah), at the beginning of Tishrei (This is the 1st month of the civil year & the 7th month of the ecclesiastical year in the Hebrew calendar.), isn’t considered a New Year as it is in Rabbinic Judaism.

Their Sabbath is observed weekly by the Samaritan community every week from Friday to Saturday, beginning & ending at sundown. For 24 hours, the families gather together to celebrate the rest day: all electricity with the exception of minimal lighting (kept on the entire day) in the house is disconnected, no work is done, & neither cooking nor driving is allowed.

The time is devoted to worship which consists of 7 prayer services, reading the weekly Torah portion, spending quality time with family, taking meals, rest & sleep, & visiting other members of the community.

Passover is particularly important in the Samaritan community, climaxing with the sacrifice of up to 40 sheep.

The Counting of the Omar remains relatively unchanged. The Counting of the Omar is a ritual in Judaism that consists of a verbal counting of each of the 49 days between the holidays of Passover & Shavuot. However, the week before Shavuot is a unique festival celebrating the continued commitment Samaritanism has maintained since the time of Moses.

During Sukkot, the Sukkah (the temporary hut built for use during Sukkot) is built INSIDE of houses, instead of OUTSIDE like mainstream Judaism. This Samaritan tradition is traced back to the persecution of the Samaritans during the Byzantine Empire.

The roof of the Samaritan Sukkah is decorated with citrus fruits & branches of palm, myrtle, & willow trees. This is in accordance with the Samaritan interpretation of the 4 species designated in the Torah for the holiday. The 4 species are 4 plants (the etrog, lulav, hadass, & aravah) mentioned in the Torah as being relevant to the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.

Make a one-time donation

Your contribution is appreciated.

Donate

Make a monthly donation

Your contribution is appreciated.

Donate monthly

Make a yearly donation

Your contribution is appreciated.

Donate yearly

Rate this:

#120BCE #4Species #Aaron #Abisha #AbishaScroll #AbrahamicFaiths #AncientAssyria #Apoclypse #Aravah #BindingOfIsaac #BookOfJoshua #BookOfSamuel #ByzantineEmpire #Canaan #Cherubim #Christians #CitrusFruits #Cohanim #CountingOfTheOmar #Eli #Etrog #GoldenCandlestick #Hadass #Hasmonean #HebrewCalendar #Hebrews #HighPriestEli #HighPriesthood #IndigenousPeoples #IronAge #IsraeliteSamaritans #Israelites #Jerusalem #Jesus #Jewish #JewishProphets #Jews #Joseph #Judah #KingJohnHyrcanus #KingdomOfIsrael #Lulav #Manna #Messiah #MosaicCovenant #Moses #MountGerizim #MountSinai #Myrtle #Nablus #NeoAssyrianEmpire #OralTorah #Palestine #ParableOfTheGoodSamaritan #Passover #PatriarchalCovenant #Pentateuch #Priest #PromisedLand #RabbinicJudaism #RoshHashanah #Sabbath #SamaritanTorah #Samaritanism #Shavuot #Shiloh #StaffOfMoses #Sukkah #Sukkot #Tabernacle #Taheb #Talmud #TempleMount #Tishrei #Torah #WestBank #Willow #Yahweh #YomTeruAh

Samaritanism

Samaritanism is an Abrahamic monotheistic, ethnic religion. It comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, & legal traditions of the Samaritan people.

Often preferring to be called Israelite Samaritans, who originated from the Hebrews & Israelites. They began to emerge as a relatively distinct group after the Kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire during the Iron Age. The Neo-Assyrian Empire was the 4th, & penultimate, stage of ancient Assyrian history.

Central to their continuity as an Indigenous Heritage in the Holy Land is keeping the Patriarchal & Mosaic covenant as specified in the Samaritan Torah. Samaritans believe this is the original & unchanged version of the Pentateuch (which is the first 5 books of the Hebrew & Christian bible) since Moses & the Israelites at Mount Sinai.

The Abisha Scroll is traditionally held by the community to be the oldest existing scroll written by Abisha, son of Aaron the priest, around 3,000 years ago based on living tradition. However, Jewish & Christian theologians have made attempts to dispute this claim which proved unsatisfactory.

Judaism claims Samaritanism developed right alongside their own religion. Samaritanism asserts itself as the true preserved form of the monotheistic faith that the Israelites kept under Moses. Samaritan belief also holds that the Israelites’ original holy site was Mount Gerizim, near Nablus, the State of Palestine (West Bank).

They also believe that Jerusalem only attained importance under Israelite dissenters who had followed Eli (In the Book of Samuel, Eli was a priest & judge of the Israelites in the city of Shiloh) to the city of Shiloh.

The Israelites who remained at Mount Gerizim would become the Samaritans in the Kingdom of Judah. Mount Gerizim is revered by Samaritans as the location where the Binding of Isaac occurred. In comparison to the Jewish belief that it occurred at Jerusalem’s Temple Mount.

Today there are only about 900 registered communal members. This puts Samaritanism as 1 of the smallest ethnoreligious groups globally in the Abrahamic faiths. Samaritans believe that this is a prophecy fulfilled from the scriptures: “You’ll be left few in number.”

Though they hope for a future time when a prophet like Moses known as the “Taheb” (Restorer) will perform 3 signs, namely the jar of manna, the staff of Moses, & Cherubim, or the Golden Candlestick.

This time period they believe is when an era of Divine Favor would return, & the hidden tabernacle of Moses would miraculously be revealed for the Israelite people & Mount Gerizim is restored to its former glory.

Samaritans trace their history, as a separate entity, to a period soon after the Israelites’ arrival into the “Promised Land.” Samaritan historiography traces the schism to High Priest Eli leaving Mount Gerizim, where stood the 1st Israelite altar in Canaan, & building a competing altar in nearby Shiloh.

The dissenting group of Israelites who followed Eli to Shiloh would be the ones who, in later years, would head south to settle in Jerusalem (the Jews). Whereas the Israelites who stayed on Mount Gerizim, in Samaria, would become known as the Samaritans.

Genetic studies in 2004 suggest that Samaritans’ lineages trace back to a common ancestor with Jews in the paternally-inherited Jewish high priesthood (Cohanim) temporally near to the period of the Assyrian conquest of the Kingdom of Israel. They’re probably descendants of the historical Israelite population. The Cohanim refers to the Jewish priestly class, male descendants of Aaron the priest.

The Hasmonean king, John Hyrcanus, destroyed the Mount Gerizim Temple & brought Samaria under his control around 120 BCE. This led to a long-lasting sense of mutual hostility between the Jews & Samaritans.

From this point, the Samaritans likely sought to consciously distance themselves from their Judean brethren. Both peoples came to see the Samaritan faith as a religion distinct from Judaism. By the time of Jesus, Samaritans & Jews deeply disparaged one another, as shown by Jesus’ Parable of the Good Samaritan.

The main beliefs of Samaritanism are:

• There’s 1 God, Yahweh, the same God recognized by the Jewish prophets.
• The Torah is the only true holy book & was given by God to Moses. The Torah was created before the creation of the world & whoever believes in it is assured a part in the world to come. The Torah’s status in Samaritanism as the only holy book causes them to reject the Oral Torah, the Talmud, & all the prophets & scriptures, except for a version of the Book of Joshua (which they don’t hold as Scripture), whose book in the Samaritan community is significantly different from the Book of Joshua in the Jewish “Bible.” Moses is considered to be the last of the line of prophets.
• Mount Gerizim, not Jerusalem, is the 1 true sanctuary chosen by God. The Samaritans don’t recognize the sanctity of Jerusalem & don’t recognize the Temple Mount, claiming instead that Mount Gerizim was the place where the Binding of Isaac took place.
• The Apocalypse, called “the day of vengeance,” will be the end of days. When an entity called the Taheb (basically the Jewish Messiah equal) that comes from the tribe of Joseph will come, be a prophet like Moses for 40 years & bring about the return of all the Israelites, following which the dead will be resurrected. The Tahib will then discover the tent of Moses’ Tabernacle on Mount Gerizim, & will be buried next to Joseph when he dies.

The Samaritans have retained the institution of a high priesthood & the practice of slaughtering & eating lambs on Passover Eve. They celebrated Pesach, Shavuot, & Sukkot. But they use a different method from that used in mainstream Judaism in order to determine the dates annually.

For example, Yom Teru’ah (the biblical name for Rosh Hashanah), at the beginning of Tishrei (This is the 1st month of the civil year & the 7th month of the ecclesiastical year in the Hebrew calendar.), isn’t considered a New Year as it is in Rabbinic Judaism.

Their Sabbath is observed weekly by the Samaritan community every week from Friday to Saturday, beginning & ending at sundown. For 24 hours, the families gather together to celebrate the rest day: all electricity with the exception of minimal lighting (kept on the entire day) in the house is disconnected, no work is done, & neither cooking nor driving is allowed.

The time is devoted to worship which consists of 7 prayer services, reading the weekly Torah portion, spending quality time with family, taking meals, rest & sleep, & visiting other members of the community.

Passover is particularly important in the Samaritan community, climaxing with the sacrifice of up to 40 sheep.

The Counting of the Omar remains relatively unchanged. The Counting of the Omar is a ritual in Judaism that consists of a verbal counting of each of the 49 days between the holidays of Passover & Shavuot. However, the week before Shavuot is a unique festival celebrating the continued commitment Samaritanism has maintained since the time of Moses.

During Sukkot, the Sukkah (the temporary hut built for use during Sukkot) is built INSIDE of houses, instead of OUTSIDE like mainstream Judaism. This Samaritan tradition is traced back to the persecution of the Samaritans during the Byzantine Empire.

The roof of the Samaritan Sukkah is decorated with citrus fruits & branches of palm, myrtle, & willow trees. This is in accordance with the Samaritan interpretation of the 4 species designated in the Torah for the holiday. The 4 species are 4 plants (the etrog, lulav, hadass, & aravah) mentioned in the Torah as being relevant to the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.

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#120BCE #4Species #Aaron #Abisha #AbishaScroll #AbrahamicFaiths #AncientAssyria #Apoclypse #Aravah #BindingOfIsaac #BookOfJoshua #BookOfSamuel #ByzantineEmpire #Canaan #Cherubim #Christians #CitrusFruits #Cohanim #CountingOfTheOmar #Eli #Etrog #GoldenCandlestick #Hadass #Hasmonean #HebrewCalendar #Hebrews #HighPriestEli #HighPriesthood #IndigenousPeoples #IronAge #IsraeliteSamaritans #Israelites #Jerusalem #Jesus #Jewish #JewishProphets #Jews #Joseph #Judah #KingJohnHyrcanus #KingdomOfIsrael #Lulav #Manna #Messiah #MosaicCovenant #Moses #MountGerizim #MountSinai #Myrtle #Nablus #NeoAssyrianEmpire #OralTorah #Palestine #ParableOfTheGoodSamaritan #Passover #PatriarchalCovenant #Pentateuch #Priest #PromisedLand #RabbinicJudaism #RoshHashanah #Sabbath #SamaritanTorah #Samaritanism #Shavuot #Shiloh #StaffOfMoses #Sukkah #Sukkot #Tabernacle #Taheb #Talmud #TempleMount #Tishrei #Torah #WestBank #Willow #Yahweh #YomTeruAh

Samaritanism

Samaritanism is an Abrahamic monotheistic, ethnic religion. It comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, & legal traditions of the Samaritan people.

Often preferring to be called Israelite Samaritans, who originated from the Hebrews & Israelites. They began to emerge as a relatively distinct group after the Kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire during the Iron Age. The Neo-Assyrian Empire was the 4th, & penultimate, stage of ancient Assyrian history.

Central to their continuity as an Indigenous Heritage in the Holy Land is keeping the Patriarchal & Mosaic covenant as specified in the Samaritan Torah. Samaritans believe this is the original & unchanged version of the Pentateuch (which is the first 5 books of the Hebrew & Christian bible) since Moses & the Israelites at Mount Sinai.

The Abisha Scroll is traditionally held by the community to be the oldest existing scroll written by Abisha, son of Aaron the priest, around 3,000 years ago based on living tradition. However, Jewish & Christian theologians have made attempts to dispute this claim which proved unsatisfactory.

Judaism claims Samaritanism developed right alongside their own religion. Samaritanism asserts itself as the true preserved form of the monotheistic faith that the Israelites kept under Moses. Samaritan belief also holds that the Israelites’ original holy site was Mount Gerizim, near Nablus, the State of Palestine (West Bank).

They also believe that Jerusalem only attained importance under Israelite dissenters who had followed Eli (In the Book of Samuel, Eli was a priest & judge of the Israelites in the city of Shiloh) to the city of Shiloh.

The Israelites who remained at Mount Gerizim would become the Samaritans in the Kingdom of Judah. Mount Gerizim is revered by Samaritans as the location where the Binding of Isaac occurred. In comparison to the Jewish belief that it occurred at Jerusalem’s Temple Mount.

Today there are only about 900 registered communal members. This puts Samaritanism as 1 of the smallest ethnoreligious groups globally in the Abrahamic faiths. Samaritans believe that this is a prophecy fulfilled from the scriptures: “You’ll be left few in number.”

Though they hope for a future time when a prophet like Moses known as the “Taheb” (Restorer) will perform 3 signs, namely the jar of manna, the staff of Moses, & Cherubim, or the Golden Candlestick.

This time period they believe is when an era of Divine Favor would return, & the hidden tabernacle of Moses would miraculously be revealed for the Israelite people & Mount Gerizim is restored to its former glory.

Samaritans trace their history, as a separate entity, to a period soon after the Israelites’ arrival into the “Promised Land.” Samaritan historiography traces the schism to High Priest Eli leaving Mount Gerizim, where stood the 1st Israelite altar in Canaan, & building a competing altar in nearby Shiloh.

The dissenting group of Israelites who followed Eli to Shiloh would be the ones who, in later years, would head south to settle in Jerusalem (the Jews). Whereas the Israelites who stayed on Mount Gerizim, in Samaria, would become known as the Samaritans.

Genetic studies in 2004 suggest that Samaritans’ lineages trace back to a common ancestor with Jews in the paternally-inherited Jewish high priesthood (Cohanim) temporally near to the period of the Assyrian conquest of the Kingdom of Israel. They’re probably descendants of the historical Israelite population. The Cohanim refers to the Jewish priestly class, male descendants of Aaron the priest.

The Hasmonean king, John Hyrcanus, destroyed the Mount Gerizim Temple & brought Samaria under his control around 120 BCE. This led to a long-lasting sense of mutual hostility between the Jews & Samaritans.

From this point, the Samaritans likely sought to consciously distance themselves from their Judean brethren. Both peoples came to see the Samaritan faith as a religion distinct from Judaism. By the time of Jesus, Samaritans & Jews deeply disparaged one another, as shown by Jesus’ Parable of the Good Samaritan.

The main beliefs of Samaritanism are:

• There’s 1 God, Yahweh, the same God recognized by the Jewish prophets.
• The Torah is the only true holy book & was given by God to Moses. The Torah was created before the creation of the world & whoever believes in it is assured a part in the world to come. The Torah’s status in Samaritanism as the only holy book causes them to reject the Oral Torah, the Talmud, & all the prophets & scriptures, except for a version of the Book of Joshua (which they don’t hold as Scripture), whose book in the Samaritan community is significantly different from the Book of Joshua in the Jewish “Bible.” Moses is considered to be the last of the line of prophets.
• Mount Gerizim, not Jerusalem, is the 1 true sanctuary chosen by God. The Samaritans don’t recognize the sanctity of Jerusalem & don’t recognize the Temple Mount, claiming instead that Mount Gerizim was the place where the Binding of Isaac took place.
• The Apocalypse, called “the day of vengeance,” will be the end of days. When an entity called the Taheb (basically the Jewish Messiah equal) that comes from the tribe of Joseph will come, be a prophet like Moses for 40 years & bring about the return of all the Israelites, following which the dead will be resurrected. The Tahib will then discover the tent of Moses’ Tabernacle on Mount Gerizim, & will be buried next to Joseph when he dies.

The Samaritans have retained the institution of a high priesthood & the practice of slaughtering & eating lambs on Passover Eve. They celebrated Pesach, Shavuot, & Sukkot. But they use a different method from that used in mainstream Judaism in order to determine the dates annually.

For example, Yom Teru’ah (the biblical name for Rosh Hashanah), at the beginning of Tishrei (This is the 1st month of the civil year & the 7th month of the ecclesiastical year in the Hebrew calendar.), isn’t considered a New Year as it is in Rabbinic Judaism.

Their Sabbath is observed weekly by the Samaritan community every week from Friday to Saturday, beginning & ending at sundown. For 24 hours, the families gather together to celebrate the rest day: all electricity with the exception of minimal lighting (kept on the entire day) in the house is disconnected, no work is done, & neither cooking nor driving is allowed.

The time is devoted to worship which consists of 7 prayer services, reading the weekly Torah portion, spending quality time with family, taking meals, rest & sleep, & visiting other members of the community.

Passover is particularly important in the Samaritan community, climaxing with the sacrifice of up to 40 sheep.

The Counting of the Omar remains relatively unchanged. The Counting of the Omar is a ritual in Judaism that consists of a verbal counting of each of the 49 days between the holidays of Passover & Shavuot. However, the week before Shavuot is a unique festival celebrating the continued commitment Samaritanism has maintained since the time of Moses.

During Sukkot, the Sukkah (the temporary hut built for use during Sukkot) is built INSIDE of houses, instead of OUTSIDE like mainstream Judaism. This Samaritan tradition is traced back to the persecution of the Samaritans during the Byzantine Empire.

The roof of the Samaritan Sukkah is decorated with citrus fruits & branches of palm, myrtle, & willow trees. This is in accordance with the Samaritan interpretation of the 4 species designated in the Torah for the holiday. The 4 species are 4 plants (the etrog, lulav, hadass, & aravah) mentioned in the Torah as being relevant to the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.

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Your contribution is appreciated.

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Make a monthly donation

Your contribution is appreciated.

Donate monthly

Make a yearly donation

Your contribution is appreciated.

Donate yearly

Rate this:

#120BCE #4Species #Aaron #Abisha #AbishaScroll #AbrahamicFaiths #AncientAssyria #Apoclypse #Aravah #BindingOfIsaac #BookOfJoshua #BookOfSamuel #ByzantineEmpire #Canaan #Cherubim #Christians #CitrusFruits #Cohanim #CountingOfTheOmar #Eli #Etrog #GoldenCandlestick #Hadass #Hasmonean #HebrewCalendar #Hebrews #HighPriestEli #HighPriesthood #IndigenousPeoples #IronAge #IsraeliteSamaritans #Israelites #Jerusalem #Jesus #Jewish #JewishProphets #Jews #Joseph #Judah #KingJohnHyrcanus #KingdomOfIsrael #Lulav #Manna #Messiah #MosaicCovenant #Moses #MountGerizim #MountSinai #Myrtle #Nablus #NeoAssyrianEmpire #OralTorah #Palestine #ParableOfTheGoodSamaritan #Passover #PatriarchalCovenant #Pentateuch #Priest #PromisedLand #RabbinicJudaism #RoshHashanah #Sabbath #SamaritanTorah #Samaritanism #Shavuot #Shiloh #StaffOfMoses #Sukkah #Sukkot #Tabernacle #Taheb #Talmud #TempleMount #Tishrei #Torah #WestBank #Willow #Yahweh #YomTeruAh

I just want society to recognize that #religion and #bibles don't add virtue or good to, well, anything. It's a tossup, whether #Xtianity helps or hurts a situation. Stop giving it the benefit of the doubt. #Christians #Christianity

#Missionaries accused of #illegally giving #gadgets to isolated #Amazontribe

https://www.popsci.com/technology/missionary-gadget-amazon-tribe-contact/

#breakingtheLAW #christians #brazil #BRASIL

I was at the Southern Steps in Jerusalem

Disclaimer: This is my original work with details sourced from my personal experiences and observations during the Israel pilgrimage tour I joined and what happened during my free time. Anyone who wants to use this article, in part or in whole, needs to secure first my permission and agree to cite me as the source and author. Let it be known that any unauthorized use of this article will constrain the author to pursue the remedies under R.A. No. 8293, the Revised Penal Code, and/or all applicable legal actions under the laws of the Philippines.

Welcome back, readers and fellow followers of the Lord! This is the 10th chapter of my ongoing series of articles about the holy nation of Israel with recollections about the experiences and discoveries I had during the pilgrimage tour I joined with my local church (hosted by strategic partner Behold Israel). To see my previous Israel tour articles, click here, here, here, here, here,  here, here, here and here. No matter what happens in this twisted world we live in, I will always stand with Israel and my faith in the Lord remains uncompromising!

In this latest edition of my Israel 2023 series, I share with you what I experienced when our pilgrimage tour group visited the Southern Steps (also referred to as the Southern Stairs and Rabbi Stairs) located at the lower part of the Southern Wall of the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem.

Thanks to our dedicated local tourist guide, our tour group had a meaningful visit there and we spent several minutes observing the place. Our time at the steps concluded with a bible teaching led by New Life Philippines Pastor Edwin Tugano. In my personal experience, I felt something from the Lord there as I realized the biblical relevance of the holy site as well as insight regarding what the place was like thousands of years ago.

The site is very significant as it is the place that served as one of the main entrances from the south to the Temple Mount during the time of Lord Jesus. In fact, people coming from the City of David going north to the Temple Mount used the Southern Steps very long ago. Also, the Southern Steps became a useful place where rabbis and their disciples gathered for faith lessons and this explains why the said steps are also called the Rabbi Stairs. Physically, the steps were hundreds of feet wide which provided abundant space for congregating and teaching.

As many centuries had passed since Lord Jesus ascended to Heaven, there were physical changes that happened at the Southern Wall of the Temple Mount and this is evident as visitors today cannot access the mentioned sacred site above (where the Jewish temples used to be) using the Southern Steps. This is because there is noticeable expansion of the Southern Wall blocking the steps’ upward access to the Temple Mount. I myself had touched that wall and noticed how its stone quality and colors differed from the rest of the Southern Wall.

Regardless, the step themselves – composed of the original stones from Jesus’ time (those steps with the rougher stones) plus newer ones (added to fill the gaps) leading to the Southern Wall – are still there and climbing them required methodical walking. The Southern Steps today are widely visited by faithful Christians from around the world as it is a holy site and it is very likely that Lord Jesus Himself climbed the steps going to the Temple Mount. There is no doubt that Lord Jesus and His disciples also gathered at the steps for teachings. The holy site should remind you about the significance of Lord Jesus’ presence in Jerusalem.  

In my experience there at the Southern Steps with my tour companions, I felt the holiness of the place and that became more evident as I opened the Holy Bible during the bible teaching led by our pastor right there. During our time there, I noticed another pilgrimage tour group was present with us several feet away.  

Did Pentecost happen at the Southern Steps?

By reading the biblical reference of Pentecost and connecting it with my observations of the holy site, I can say that the Southern Steps is a possible place where Pentecost may have happened. I can even say that it is a more suitable place –  where about three thousand Jews got baptized after the apostle Peter preached the good news – than the Upper Room (itself a popular location in many paintings and artworks dramatizing Pentecost).

Take a close look at the biblical record of Pentecost below…

When the Day of Pentecost had 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 the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven. And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were confused, because everyone heard them speak in his own language. Then they were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, “Look, are not all these who speak Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each in our own language in which we were born? Parthians and Medes and Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya adjoining Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—we hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God.” So they were all amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “Whatever could this mean?”

Others mocking said, “They are full of new wine.”

But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them, “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words. For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:

‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God,

That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh;

Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,

Your young men shall see visions,

Your old men shall dream dreams.

And on My menservants and on My maidservants

I will pour out My Spirit in those days;

And they shall prophesy.

I will show wonders in heaven above

And signs in the earth beneath:

Blood and fire and vapor of smoke.

The sun shall be turned into darkness,

And the moon into blood,

Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.

And it shall come to pass

That whoever calls on the name of the Lord

Shall be saved.’

“Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know— Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death; whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it. For David says concerning Him:

‘I foresaw the Lord always before my face,

For He is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken.

Therefore my heart rejoiced, and my tongue was glad;

Moreover my flesh also will rest in hope.

For You will not leave my soul in Hades,

Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.

You have made known to me the ways of life;

You will make me full of joy in Your presence.’

“Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, He would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne, he, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that His soul was not left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption. This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear.

“For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he says himself:

‘The Lord said to my Lord,

“Sit at My right hand,

Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.” ’

“Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”

Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?”

Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.”

And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation.” Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.

Acts 2:1-41 (NKJV)

Take note that verse 2 of Chapter 2 in the Book of Acts specifically mentioned “house” which is not limited to houses. In fact, in the Old Testament of the Bible, the Jewish temple is referred to as the house – as in the house of the Lord. The place of worship of the Lord!

Still within biblical context, “house” – as seen in verse 36 with “house of Israel” – also symbolizes family and lineage in the Holy Bible. “House of Israel” refers to the entire nation descended from Abraham through Jacob and Isaac and that includes the Jewish people (descendants) who were present in Jerusalem during Pentecost. For relevance of the house of Israel, read 2 Kings 7:1-16 in the Holy Bible – God’s words for King David passed through the prophet Nathan.

As it was an essential form of access into the Temple Mount, the Southern Steps also served as a natural place of gathering, spacious enough to accommodate thousands of Jews. As mentioned earlier, these wide and spacious holy stairs are a more suitable place than the Upper Room for Pentecost to happen.

Also take note that verse 41 of Chapter 2 of the Book of Acts mentions that there were around three thousand Jews who got baptized and helped the church of Lord Jesus grow a lot on the day of Pentecost itself (for relevance, read John 3:3 in the Holy Bible). This also means that there were between fifteen thousand to thirty thousand people in Jerusalem who witnessed Pentecost happen. Having been at the Southern Steps myself, I can easily visualize the whole place – from the steps themselves and the space between them and the City of David in the south, plus the whole stretch of the Southern Wall – being filled with lots of people on that very day. Having attended the bible teaching led by our pastor who stood at the steps facing us south, I can visualize the apostle Peter preaching to thousands of Jewish people there long ago.

There is absolutely no way that the 3,000 people who received Christ and got baptized would fit inside the Upper Room at the time of Pentecost. When the apostle Peter preached, he was not surrounded by only a tiny group of people but by a huge crowd who listened. The other apostles were with Peter back then. This should remind you that the artists responsible for the paintings and artworks portraying Pentecost happening inside the Upper Room or within an indoor place with walls and a roof did not fully understand the biblical record of Pentecost. In other words, those artists got it wrong and the Bible proves they are wrong. This should remind you to maintain faith in God’s Word, not in man-made artworks.

Once again, the Southern Steps is a possible site of Pentecost. It may not be definitive but it definitely is more suitable than the Upper Room for congregating and preaching in front of thousands. The other possible places where Pentecost may have happened include the Royal Stoa (which was intact at the Southern Wall covering its length and was located high above the Southern Steps) and at the Jewish Temple itself.

While the exact location of Pentecost remains unresolved, I encourage you all to always keep faith in the Lord and His Word knowing that Pentecost truly happened as it was an anointed by the Lord to happen. Location is one thing, but the Holy Bible and the Holy Spirit are always essential to our faith in Lord Jesus.

Conclusion

I can say that me and my pilgrimage tour group companions were blessed by the Lord during our time at the Southern Steps. Simply thinking about Lord Jesus teaching His followers at the steps is uplifting  There clearly is a lot to learn and discover by being at the holy site and having the Bible for reference. I thank Lord Jesus for blessing us, for our pastors and our local tour guide, and for the anointed experience at the Southern Steps. I definitely will revisit those steps when I return to Israel.

Israel is a great and holy place to visit! Visit Israel with the Holy Bible! Pray to the Lord wholeheartedly and reveal to Him your heart’s desire to visit Israel to deepen your faith in Him. Always be the fearless and aggressive church of Lord Jesus! Follow the light of Lord Jesus, keep on praying to support Israel, learn to love and bless the Jewish people and pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

Watch out for more Israel 2023 travel articles here. There is more to come!

+++++

Thank you for reading. If you find this article engaging, please click the like button below, share this article to others and also please consider making a donation to support my publishing. If you are looking for a copywriter to create content for your special project or business, check out my services and my portfolio. Feel free to contact me with a private message. Also please feel free to visit my Facebook page Author Carlo Carrasco and follow me on Twitter at  @HavenorFantasy as well as on Tumblr at https://carlocarrasco.tumblr.com/ and on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/authorcarlocarrasco

My youngest, who died of non-#COVID natural causes, was a #Satanist. He didn't sacrifice animals or anything. He just thought that #god was acting like some modern-day #Christians who ask, "What would #Jesus do?" #WWJD and then, when someone does it, is all. "Not Like That!" God gives everyone #FreeWill, and when #LucIfer dares to actually /use/ it...

My view on the topic of #god and #religion:

The existence of #evil demonstrates that the omni-omni god(s) cannot exist.

I love how philosophers describe it as, "The Problem of evil." I mean, yes, evil is a problem, but not for the reasons they say it is.

The existence of god(s) is metaphorical. In coding, god(s) would be the #else condition. Anything that is not known, understood, and explainable by a person, or people as a whole, can be explained by postulating god(s). Because people want to know #Why. And asking why starts as soon as a child can communicate.

It's like how the #Greeks had to answer why #planets appear to sometimes move beckwards. They didn't know (and couldn't know) the real reason for retrograde motion because they were absolutely certain that the planets orbited around Earth. They invented epicycles, little circles planets made that caused them to appear to be going backwards. God(s) get invented the same way.

Which is why there is often #religious tension around #science. Because science is a #system for figuring things out, it sometimes figures out that previous answers for Why questions turn out to be wrong. This why Galileo was tortured. He publicly stated that the Greeks were wrong about retrograde motion.

#Religion happens when a person/group leverages collective #ignorance for personal/group gain.

Pack your shit, folks. The #Christofascist author of those terrible "#LeftBehind" books has declared that all the #Biblical #prophecies have been fulfilled, and the #Rapture should be happening any day now. Personally, I'm looking forward to the #peace that will surely descend upon the Earth once all the #Christians have been teleported to La-La Land, or wherever it is they think they're going.

#ItsJesusTime #endTimes #Apocolypse #BiblicalNonsense #religionIsDumb

https://www.christianpost.com/books/left-behind-author-talks-pre-rapture-end-times-bible-prophecies.html

Pack your shit, folks. The #Christofascist author of those terrible "#LeftBehind" books has declared that all the #Biblical #prophecies have been fulfilled, and the #Rapture should be happening any day now. Personally, I'm looking forward to the #peace that will surely descend upon the Earth once all the #Christians have been teleported to La-La Land, or wherever it is they think they're going.

#ItsJesusTime #endTimes #Apocolypse #BiblicalNonsense #religionIsDumb

https://www.christianpost.com/books/left-behind-author-talks-pre-rapture-end-times-bible-prophecies.html

Pack your shit, folks. The #Christofascist author of those terrible "#LeftBehind" books has declared that all the #Biblical #prophecies have been fulfilled, and the #Rapture should be happening any day now. Personally, I'm looking forward to the #peace that will surely descend upon the Earth once all the #Christians have been teleported to La-La Land, or wherever it is they think they're going.

#ItsJesusTime #endTimes #Apocolypse #BiblicalNonsense #religionIsDumb

https://www.christianpost.com/books/left-behind-author-talks-pre-rapture-end-times-bible-prophecies.html

Pack your shit, folks. The #Christofascist author of those terrible "#LeftBehind" books has declared that all the #Biblical #prophecies have been fulfilled, and the #Rapture should be happening any day now. Personally, I'm looking forward to the #peace that will surely descend upon the Earth once all the #Christians have been teleported to La-La Land, or wherever it is they think they're going.

#ItsJesusTime #endTimes #Apocolypse #BiblicalNonsense #religionIsDumb

https://www.christianpost.com/books/left-behind-author-talks-pre-rapture-end-times-bible-prophecies.html

Pack your shit, folks. The #Christofascist author of those terrible "#LeftBehind" books has declared that all the #Biblical #prophecies have been fulfilled, and the #Rapture should be happening any day now. Personally, I'm looking forward to the #peace that will surely descend upon the Earth once all the #Christians have been teleported to La-La Land, or wherever it is they think they're going.

#ItsJesusTime #endTimes #Apocolypse #BiblicalNonsense #religionIsDumb

https://www.christianpost.com/books/left-behind-author-talks-pre-rapture-end-times-bible-prophecies.html

Christian Nationalism is America’s original purity culture, and it fueled the violence of the riots on Jan. 6 at the U.S. Capitol.

Despite the high theological language, Christian Nationalism is just white ethnonationalism with extra steps.

#ChrisrianNationalism #Ethnonationalism #ChristoFascists #Christofascism #Racism #StephenWolfe #JamesDobson #PurityCulture #RightWing #Conservative #MAGA #Christians #J6 #Jan6 #Jan6Capitol #CapitolInsurrection #January6thAttack

https://readcultured.com/an-appeal-to-heaven-the-terrifying-christian-nationalist-logic-behind-the-jan-6-insurrection-a730086f286e

Today’s thought “Death by being taken captive” (May 15)

Today’s thought

“Death by being taken captive”

(May 15)

In the previous posting we looked at a “death” and spoke about Saul of Tarsus seeing the stoning of apostle Stephen.

At the beginning of this contemporary time table, we find several people who were willing to face death by stoning, like Stephen, or in the arena or at the stake, by hanging or burning, after being humiliated in front of many. The process of bearing witness was not intended to lead to the death of the witness, although it is known from ancient writers (e.g. Josephus) and from the New Testament that witnesses often died for their testimonies.

For Christians there is the archetypal martyr Jesus Christ, who was killed for the words he said and for the position he was taking in. That Nazarene Jewish teacher was not willing to give in to human philosophy and preferred only to keep the the words of his heavenly Father, the Only One True God. He also did not mind to give his body for the sins of many. He had to suffer greatly because of his religious but also political beliefs, preaching understanding between all people, but also preaching a kingdom that would be governing all over the world. He became admired and respected by billions of people who came to share those beliefs.

Several people found the sayings of that curious man, who could deliver miracles, very interesting, and thought it worth following him. But as soon that it seemed they had to do certain things, “doing works” and could not participate any more in folk traditions,  they choose to go back to their old way of living, enjoying life like it was.

Also the convert Saul saw that many, who first wanted to follow the teaching of Christ Jesus, felt attracted by very tempting doctrines of certain preachers. This did not prevent Paul from warning them. He wrote in his letter to the Colossians

8 Beware lest there be anyone of you taken captive through philosophical tevunah (wisdom) and empty deceit according to the kabbalah (oral tradition) of mere Bnei Adam, according to the ikkarim (basic principles) of the Olam Hazeh and not according to Moshiach; (Kehillah in Colossae 2:8 Orthodox Jewish Bible)

Today we still see a lot of people who are taken captive by philosophic arguments and empty deceit according to human tradition.
When Jesus was alive, he too wondered why so many kept going against the command of God because of their tradition. All those people who were showing off how much they loved God, and how much they could give to the synagogue, were “undressed” by the words of Christ who showed others the importance of those who honour God in small things and sometimes unseen or at the site (out of the way). He watched all those play-actors and remembered them of the prophet Isaiah who had the right words for them in his prophecy, declaring their worship which they offered to be in vain, because they taught, as law, mere human precepts.

3 But Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach, in reply to them, said, Why [do] also you transgress the mitzvat Hashem for the sake of your own masoros?

4 For Hashem has said, KABED ES AVICHA VES IMMECHA (honor your father and your mother, Shemot 20:12; Devarim 5:16), and MKALEL AVIV VIMMO MOT YUMAT (the one cursing his father and mother to die he must die, Shemot 21:17; Vayikra 20:9).

5 But you say, Whoever says to his abba or his em, whatever support you might have had from me, [it is] a gift [i.e., korban, dedicated to G-d].

6 By no means does [anyone who says this] honor his abba or em. And you nullify the Dvar Hashem on account of your masoros.

7 You tzevuim, well did Yeshayah give a dvar hanevuah concerning you, saying,

8 YAAN KI NIGASH HAAM HAZEH BEFIV UVISHFATAV KI-BDUNI VLIBO RICHAK MIMENI VATEHI YIRATAM OTI MITZVAT ANASHIM MELUMADAH (This people with their lips honor me, but their heart is far away from me,

9 and in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the mitzvot of [mere] men, Yeshayah 29:13.) (Mattityahu 15:3-9 Orthodox Jewish Bible)

In Roman times many statues where made of gods and people loved kneeling down in front of statues. In later years many Christians also started doing such things, bowing down in front of statues, paintings and burning incense or candles in front of these graven images or on graves. They, like many today, have forgotten that creating things to observe and keep do not make us more righteous – indeed they have the opposite effect – they can make us self-righteous.

Lots of people seem to forget the many verses in the Bible  which emphasise how we should be careful how to honour people and to whom we only may offer worship. The infallible Word of God is very clear on that, that there may only be worshipped One God of gods.

Not man’s words should be cherished, but the Words of God. Man has even to set those Words on their hearts and they should not be a futile thing for us, because we should know that the words of man perish, but God’s Word always shall stay alive and shall be the giver of life.

Man should know that the Word of God is like a rock. It is also perfect and in all its ways right.  It is given by some One of Whom we may be sure that He is really true and faithful, good and honest.

4 He is the Tzur, His po’al is tamim; for all His ways are mishpat; El Emunah and without avel (iniquity), tzaddik and yashar is He. (Devarim 32:4 Orthodox Jewish Bible)

7 Remember the yemot olam, consider shenot dor v’dor: ask Avicha, and he will show thee; thy zekenim, and they will tell thee. (Devarim 32:7 Orthodox Jewish Bible)

We have the Book of books which tells us about the days of the past. We should think about what happened so long ago. If we do not know it we should ask our ancestors or our spiritual leaders, so that they will tell.

Today we face the many countries, because there had come division between the haughty ones who wanted to build a tower high in the sky to defy God. But from all those people God choose one particular nation as His People, the Nation of God.

8 When HaElyon divided to the Goyim their nachalah, when He separated the Bnei Adam, He set the gevulot (borders) of the people according to the number of the Bnei Yisroel.

9 For Hashem’s chelek is His people; Ya’akov is the chevel (allotment) of His nachalah.

10 He found him in an eretz midbar, and in a barren and howling wilderness; He encircled him, He granted him discernment, He preserved him as the pupil of His eye. (Devarim 32:8-10 Orthodox Jewish Bible)

But though they knew they where the chosen ones, they more than once angered God.

18 Of the Tzur that fathered thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten El that formed thee.

19 And when Hashem saw it, He spurned them, because of the provoking of His banim, and of His banot.

20 And He said, I will hide My face from them, I will see what their end shall be; for they are a very perverse generation, banim in whom is no faithfulness.

21 They have moved Me to jealousy with that which is lo El (not G-d), they have provoked Me to anger with their vanities; and I will move them to jealousy with those which are lo Am (a nonpeople); I will provoke them to anger with a goy naval (foolish, senseless nation) [Ro 10:19].

22 For an eish is kindled in Mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest Sheol, and shall devour Eretz and her increase, and set on fire the foundations of harim.

23 I will heap disasters upon them; I will spend Mine khitzim (arrows) upon them.

24 They shall be burned with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction; I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the venom of serpents of the aphar (dust).

25 The cherev without, and terror within, shall destroy both the bochur and the betulah, the suckling also with the man of gray hairs.

26 I said, I will dash them in pieces, I would make the remembrance of them to cease from among men;

27 Were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy, lest their adversaries should misinterpret, and lest they should say, Our hand is triumphant, and Hashem hath not done all this.

28 For they are a goy (nation) void of sense, neither is there any seichel in them.

29 O that they were wise, that they had seichel, that they would consider their acharit (latter end, future)!

  (Devarim 32:18-29 Orthodox Jewish Bible)

Those living in the 21st century should recognise how those Chosen Ones suffered more than once and how even certain people tried to destroy them totally, not taking into account that God always would be with them. Even a Holocaust made them not perish from the earth. Death may have come over them but lots of them kept going strong and after many wars always found the way back to the Most High Elohim.

But the patience of God came to a point where the goyim also where called to become part of those God was willing to accept in His Kingdom. Though each of those non-Jews shall have to decide themselves if they want to be part of that Kingdom and step over the “death of this world”.

For the period where God shall make an end to the power of the adversary of God, Jehovah God has given the world His only begotten son, Jeshua (Jesus Christ) the authority to judge the living and the dead. People will have to know that when they die it is too late to make a choice. Before that time they shall have to have made up their mind. When in their lifetime they kept preferring to love all those saints, martyrs, and many gods, the Only One True God shall in a certain way laugh at them, seeing that their power shall be gone and that they are all helpless.

36 For Hashem shall judge His people, and relent for His avadim, when He seeth that their power is gone, and there is none left, slave or free.

37 And He shall say, Where are their elohim, their tzur in whom they trusted,

38 Which did eat the fat of their zevakhim (sacrifices), and drank the yayin of their nesakhim (drink offerings)? Let them rise up and help you, and be your shelter. (Devarim 32:36-38 Orthodox Jewish Bible)

Yes we may not forget that there is only One Who Is The Supreme Being or I Am that Is, The One and Only One God! When taken by death, for many, it shall be too late, to see at last, that there is no other God! Then, when Jesus returns and shall come to judge them, they shall realise that it is Jehovah Who put people to death and Who let people live.

39 See now that I, even I, am He, and there is no elohim besides Me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal; neither is there any that can deliver out of My hand.

40 For I lift up My hand to Shomayim, and say, Chai Anochi L’Olam (I live forever).

41 If I sharpen My glittering cherev, and Mine hand take hold on mishpat; I will render nakam (vengeance) to Mine enemies, and will reward them that hate Me.

42 I will make Mine khitzim (arrows) drunk with dahm, and My cherev shall devour basar; and that with the dahm of the slain and of the captives, from the head of leaders of the foe.

(Devarim 32:39-42 Orthodox Jewish Bible)

In our life we encounter many who try to make us afraid, want to hurt us or even threaten us with the worst. They should know that no one can save another person from the Power of God!

When we look at the past we can see that all the promises God made became a reality, except the few ones which still have to happen. But we may be sure also these things will happen!

26 For when we intentionally commit chet b’yad ramah [“wilful sin with a high hand of defiance” Bamidbar 15:30] after having received the full da’as of HaEmes, there remains no longer a korban for chattoteinu, (Yehudim in Moshiach 10:26 Orthodox Jewish Bible)

Therefore we should be very alert not to fall in the trap of the adversary of God, who every day tries to catch a lover of God, as an easy pray.

It may be a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God, but when falling in the hands of the worldly people, there shall be no place in His Kingdom.When reading the bible regularly one should come to understand that we should know the importance of God’s Word and the sent one from Him, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

When having received Christ Jesus, we should walk in him, rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, as we have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. So let yourself be careful that no man comes to spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. Always be aware of the Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing.

2 For I want you to have da’as of how great a ma’avak (struggle) I have for you and the ones in Laodicea, and as many as have not seen me panim el panim (directly, in person),

2 That their levavot may be given chozek (strength), having been made an aguda of ahavah and all osher (wealth) of the full assurance of binah, resulting in the da’as of the raz of Hashem, namely Moshiach,

3 In whom is nistar (hidden) all the otzarot (treasures) of chochmah and da’as. [YESHAYAH 11:2; YIRMEYAH 23:5]

4 This I say so that no one may delude you with the sleight of hand of the ba’al melitzot (rhetorician).

5 For, though absent in basar, but present with you in the Ruach Hakodesh, with lev same’ach (glad heart) I am seeing your order and the firmness of your [Orthodox Jewish] emunah in Moshiach.

6 Therefore, as you became mekabel Moshiach and received Moshiach Adoneinu Yehoshua, so let your halichah be in Him,

7 Having been rooted and built up in Moshiach and being firmly founded in the emunah as you were given Messianic [orthodox] lernen [study], abounding in hodayah.

8 Beware lest there be anyone of you taken captive through philosophical tevunah (wisdom) and empty deceit according to the kabbalah (oral tradition) of mere Bnei Adam, according to the ikkarim (basic principles) of the Olam Hazeh and not according to Moshiach;

9 Because in Moshiach kol melo Elohim (all the plentitude of G-d) finds its bodily maon laShechinah (dwelling place for the Shechinah).

10 And you have been granted melo (plentitude) in Moshiach, who is the Rosh of all rule and authority.

11 In Moshiach also you were circumcised with a Bris Milah not made with human hands, a Bris Milah of the surgically removing of the body of the basar (old fallen and unregenerate nature) in the Bris Milah of Moshiach,

12 Having been buried in the Ohel of Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach’s tevilah with him, with whom also you were made to stand up spiritually in the Techiyah together through your emunah and bitachon in the ma’aseh of Hashem who made Moshiach stand up from the Mesim. (Kehillah in Colossae 2:1-12 Orthodox Jewish Bible)

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Preceding articles

Today’s thought “Ability to see that God is not dead” (May 12)

Today’s thought “Ability to circumcise your heart” (May 13)

Death

Why are you persecuting me?

May reading the Bible provoke us into action to set our feet on the narrow way

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Additional reading

1. Hello America and atheists
2. Solipsism
3. Blaming their circumstances for what they are
4. Truth never plays false roles of any kind, which is why people are so surprised when meeting it
5. The inspiring divine spark
6. Knowing where to go to
7. Eternity depends upon this short time on earth
8. Act as if everything you think, say and do determines your entire life
9. Foundation to go the distance
10. Not trying to make the heathen live like Jews #2
11. Preferring to be a Christian
12. Aim High: Examples of Godly Characters to follow
13. I Only hope we find GOD again before it is too late !
14. Not making yourselves abominable
15. Not following the tradition of man
16. Leaders in disguise

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Further reading

1. There Is No Dark, You Are Missing Out The Light!
2. When everything goes wrong…
3. Something Missing in Your Life?
4. Acts 7 – The Martyr
5. What happened to the 12 disciples of Jesus ? How did they die and where?
6. The Living Martyr
7. Faithful to the End
8. Memorial of St. Athanasius
9. Martyrdom and the French Revolution
10. 15 Martyr Saints Who Teach Us How to Carry The Cross With Jesus
11. My Lost Paradise…
12. Come and join us
13. Redeeming The Colosseum
14. The Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing
15. Deceit Fills Hearts That Are Plotting Evil
16. SOAP Journal – 15 May 2017 (Deuteronomy 13:6-9)
17. The Power of Truth
18. Pope Francis’ teachings on how to conquer hatred
19. Pope Francis: Russian Needs to Defend Christians
20. Will Christianity Perish in Its Birthplace?
21. Beware of Motivational Preachers
22. I’m not Brave
23. Living for God
24. Why Don’t We Care About the Slaughter of Christians?
25. And God Said, “Okay. My List Is Full. No More…”
26. Mornings at the Mission: The Patient Compassion of God
27. Choose Milk as the Lord is Gracious
28. Where To Draw The Line?
29. A day of reckoning

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Related articles

• The Only Requirement…
• Good Friday: Cleric urges Christians to emulate Christ’s life of sacrifice
• Turn the Other Cheek? Peace!
• For Getting to know Jesus
• Jewish and Christian traditions of elders
• Saul, Paul, Jackman and film

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#AdheringToWordOfGod #AdversaryOfGod #ApostlePaul #ArchetypalMartyr #BearingWitness #ChosenPeople #ChristianWorship #Christians #Death #DeathAtTheStake #DeathByStoning #Deceit #FollowingWordOfGod #GoyimNationGentilesNonJewish_ #GravenImages #Holocaust #HumanDoctrines #HumanTraditions #IAmThatIAm #IkkarimBasicPrinciples_ #JewishPeople #KabbalahOralTradition_ #LoveForWordOfGod #Martyr #Martyrs #NationOfGod #PatienceOfGod #PeopleOfGod #Philosophy #ReturnOfChrist #SaulOfTarsus #TeachingOfWordOfGod #toStudyWordOfGod #TrueGod #WayOfLiving #Witnessing #WordOfGod #Worship #WorshipGodTheFather

The Big Conversation – Christadelphians in the United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom people may find several villages and towns where there reside Christadelphians,  a body of Christians who try to base their beliefs and practices wholly on the Bible, which they regard as God’s word. They try therefore to rid themselves of the various ideas and rituals which have attached themselves to Christendom over the last 2,000 years and to return to the beliefs and practices of the first century apostles.

Being a group of people who want to follow the Nazarene Jew Jeshua, who did not want to do his own will, but always did the Will of his heavenly Father, they as the man born in Bethlehem, are living in this world but not wanting to be of this world following human traditions and human dogmas. That does not make them so popular, because people may look strange at those people who do not want to celebrate Halloween and other pagan festivities.

Because the Christadelphians are a community without the trappings of elaborate buildings, priests or icons, their institutions and fellowship-rooms not be seen straight away. The outer sights are not important for the Christadelphians who prefer to give honour to God and show a deep respect for God’s word and love to have a strong sense of family and fellowship.

On the above map you can see some of the more than 300 ecclesiae in Great Britain and Ireland. They were taken under the loop by brother Jon Downes who on the 10th of October asked

What is happening?

For him the present size & growth or non-growth of UK ecclesiae show there isn’t a, ‘No Change’ option

It’s not that we aren’t trying!

he said to about 350 Christadelphians present at Dudley college.

In this world of figures, comparisons and evaluations it is all about numbers in graphics which have to show an up-going trend and reach high peaks. this for sure can not be said about our very small community. Lots of people may think when it is not big it has no value and can not be good. But people should look at the intrinsic value and to see what a group or church is believing, following up, and how they keep to what they preach. It is true that minorities do not exert influence, and that they should have to contend on the culture or the systems around it.

Christadelphians do not fall in the temptation to pretend to be a majority, even if one is not. They do know they are just a little grain of sand in our religious world. But that does not mean that many more little grains can be put together with water and with clay form a nice vase. Though sometimes it can look like we are coming to sit more in an urn. Especially in Belgium we are in distress and can do with some support form abroad. Though looking at other countries can show us also how important it is to make more work of the announcing or making known of our society.

All over the world people may not forget that the church of Jesus Christ is never a majority, in any fallen culture, even if we happen to outnumber every[one] else around us. They should come to see that the real church of God is the church of Christ were people are willing to follow Jesus his words, his teachings, but also his manners and his aspirations. It is a place where people are willing to share the agapè love of Christ, who was even willing to give his life for others, even for those who turned against him. Would we do that?

Where Christian churches have held fast to the truth that the Holy Scriptures have been given by God as an authoritative and infallible rule of faith and practice, they have never wandered very seriously out of the right way. But when, on the other hand, reason has been exalted above revelation, and made the the exponent of revelation, all kinds of errors and mischiefs have been the result, and got many sorts of denominations which have lots of rituals people may like very much but which are not according to God’s Law. And that part is the most important in our building community. We should all try to live according God’s Law and love His Words more than the words of man.

Unfortunately, lots of Christians do not closely follow the Bible today and prefer to join churches in which they can keep up their human traditions. They have changed things to how they want them to be.
Since the times of Jesus, there have been small groups of people who believed what the Bible said. Many of these people were cruelly treated in times past as a result of their beliefs. Such believers united in the North of America when in 1864 broke out the Civil War. Dr. Thomas thought up the word “Christadelphian“, a name combining the name “Christ” with the Greek word “adelphi” meaning “brother”. So the name “Christadelphian” means “brothers and sisters in Christ“.

Christadelphians are grateful to John Thomas for his efforts in searching out the message of the Bible. John Thomas was not a prophet or someone special. He read the Bible, just as we try to do. Christadelphians follow Jesus Christ, not John Thomas. Not following just one man or just one human organisation gives that we may have different ideas about certain things, but that doe snot mean we would not have union with each other, though we must agree that there are certain Christadelphian groups who shamefully do not want to have contact with other Christadelphians.  According to the Belgian Free Christadelphians this is also part of the reasons why it is so difficult to show the world a bigger group of religious people under one name: Christadelphians.

Being joined together by our common faith in the Bible, and the way we live, we all should try to meet each other and have contact with each other as loving siblings. All being brothers and sisters in Christ. Though each “ecclesia” has to look after its own affairs, and choose members who determine arrangements and organise activities on behalf of their members they should feel that unity with Christ with other Christadelphians world wide and show the outside world that Jesus Christ is their head of each ecclesia.

Living in this world we do agree that “It’s not about the numbers” … …but the “numbers tell a story”. And those numbers in west Europe may be alarming. Therefore there was the call to come thereto in the UK to discuss that matter of dwindling ciphers.

Like any other western capitalist country in the UK Bible ownership and Bible knowledge has slumped, some english people also do find it a form of indoctrination when parents in their home pray and talk about God in front of their children of that child.

Jon Downes presented the anxious members a snapshot of our society in the UK.

and showed those present how a typical ecclesia looks like.

When we look at the adult baptisms in our community from related people (3,5) and from non related
(1.0) plus counting the (0.5) refellowshipping members, comparing them with the average of 10 people falling asleep and 2 people leaving the fellowship, we might say that such numbers bring the graphic line downwards.

What might happen to the Christadelphian community in the United Kingdom when they do not something to change the coarse.

happened.

Therefore lets look at the United Kingdom as an example.

what might this give to that community, where we find, like everywhere in the world members becoming older and dying, whilst the world is getting less interested in God and commandment.

In case we can bring the Gospel of the Good News to many more ears, we should be able by a co-effort of preaching to increase the interest in God again and get again some people interested in joining a community of lovers of Christ and lovers of God.

We must see that

The lost are our hope

and that there is good reason to try to reach the lost. We as brothers and sisters in Christ should love the people in the world so much that we will be offering some of our spare time for preaching work.

We are the hope of the lost

Luckily it is not all ad  or sad news.

Good News!

tells brother Downes is that we can look at

• 120 baptisms a year (4 average sized ecclesias)
• In the last 40 years, 39 new ecclesias. (Although 96 have closed & some were renamed).
• In the last 15 years,1/4 of all baptisms from non Christadelphian backgrounds were by just 16 ecclesias. (Although 1/3 didn’t baptise any)
• While many ecclesias are shrinking many are growing.
• Numbers in Africa are growing!
• Bible Learning Centres & Learning English are having a big impact

Instead of going for Plan A is it not better that we go for Plan B?

• Current UK Christadelphian population of 8-8500 is based on 223 2015 ALS Diary returns on households & 178 2015 CCH survey returns. 10 Ecclesias had neither return and were estimated on previous diary returns.
• 1985 to 2015 data based on records kept from the back of the Christadelphian, clearly subject to some error, gaps and misreporting. The last 12 months of Magazine entries were analysed separately and yielded results consistent with the records obtained.
• Net loss of 120 per annum and the 10, 5, 1 ratio derived from average of last 10 years data. Approx 240 out and 120 in. These do not include brothers and sisters movement in and out of the UK.
• Forecast from 2015 based on a linear continuation which could easily be a) more dramatic because of rapid closure of small ecclesias, ageing population, reduced home pool to draw from, fewer people to witness, higher rates of leaving the community b) less dramatic as in a smaller community there are fewer people falling asleep each year.

One of the deceases of this time is that too many people want to enjoy their own little cocoon and not getting out of their comfort zone to share life with the spiritually needy. Those who call themselves Christian may not forget that this means to be a follower of Jesus Christ and demands also doing what he required from his followers. Jesus asked us to go out in the world to proclaim the Kingdom of God. We are to make every effort to bring hope and healing in Jesus name to those in need.

We are to see that the tangible goodness of God flows into every nook and cranny of our communities – especially in those places where darkness seems to prevail. {Walking With Intentionality}

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Preceding articles:

Religious Practices around the world

Manifests for believers #3 Catholic versus Protestant

Ecclesia to exist, grow and communities to have people communicating with each other

The Ecclesia in the churchsystem

Reasons to come together

The Big Conversation

The Big Conversation follow up

Reasons why you may not miss the opportunity to go to a Small Church

Engaging the culture without losing the gospel

Evangelisation, local preaching opposite overseas evangelism

Feeling-good, search for happiness and the church

Members of the ecclesia uniting and seeking God’s help in tribulation

Why we do not have our worship-services in a church building

Belgian Christadelphians 2013 & 2014 in review

Personal thoughts, communication, establishing ecclesia and guest writings

++

Additional reading:

1. People are turning their back on Christianity
2. Looking on what is going on and not being of it
3. London an exaggerated microcosm of the UK at large
4. Parents forbidden to pray in front of their children or to take them to church
5. State and attitude of certain people to blame for radicalisation
6. More Muslim children than Christian children growing up in our cities
7. Will Islam conquer Europe
8. Christianity to be enshrined
9. Halloween custom of the nations
10. Wrong ideas about religious terrorism
11. A call easy to understand
12. Discipleship way of life on the narrow way to everlasting life
13. Many forgot how Christ should be our anchor and our focus
14. The meek one riding on an ass
15. Do not be afraid to learn or to speak
16. Reasons to come together
17. Congregate, to gather, to meet
18. Fellowship
19. Disciple of Christ counting lives and friends dear to them
20. The first on the list of the concerns of the saint
21. Holiness and expression of worship coming from inside
22. To find ways of Godly understanding
23. Perishable non theologians daring to go out to preach
24. Who are the honest ones?
25. Certain people trying to stem freedom of speech
26. Priority to form a loving brotherhood
27. Newsweek asks: How ignorant are you?
28. Religious Freedom in a Multicultural World
29. Some christians do have problems with the Christian connection with Jews
30. American atheists most religiously literate Americans
31. Determine the drive
32. Try driving forward instead of backwards
33. Campbell, Thomas and Bijbelvorsers
34. Looking at older articles series over Russell on the previous Bible-scholar Association
35. Wanting to know more about basic teachings of Christadelphianism
36. Christadelphians or Messianic Christians or Messianic Jews
37. Christadelphian people
38. Who are Christadelphians
39. What are Brothers in Christ
40. Two new encyclopaedic articles
41. Christadelphians today
42. Keeping an ecclesia in modern times
43. Small churches of the few Christadelphians
44. Christianity to be enshrined
45. Christianity is a love affair
46. Intentions of an Ecclesia
47. Character transformed by the influence of our fellowships
48. Love for each other attracting others
49. What makes a consecrated Christian
50. A call easy to understand
51. If you have integrity
52. Work with joy and pray with love
53. To know Christ is filling life with meaning
54. The truth is very plain to see and God can be clearly seen

+++

Other articles of interest:

1. Walking in Total Dependence Upon God
2. What is God’s Will For Your Life?
3. On the Affirmation of Scripture
4. A Snapshot of the Church in America
5. a little church
6. Four Pressing Needs in Rural Communities, and How the Church Should Respond
7. If It’s All About Relationship…
8. Leading a church is not a hands free exercise
9. Walking With Intentionality
10. Living Our Faith in a New Way
11. What’s in It for Me?
12. Deacon Selection In the Small Church
13. Lord’s Day 10: God is in Control
14. Just Try a Few Things
15. “When Faith Goes, All Good Things Go”
16. Growing Deep
17. All the Wrong Reasons
18. Little Church
19. Leading Change
20. Small Groups & Grow A Small Church by Multiplying Its Small Groups
21. Living well
22. Blessed by His Hand
23. Encouragement for the Small
24. How Did You Get Here?
25. How to Impersonate a Big Church
26. What Do You Do Well?
27. Recognize the Facts
28. What are your top two struggles?
29. The Best Thing You Can Do
30. On the road to sainthood and not silent about it
31. Incognito Zone: Where the Church Is Booming
32. House Church Reaches Out to Atheists, Agnostics in California
33. The one religion that’s not part of my spiritual quest
34. Six Ways Not to Forsake the Assembly
35. Tent Making
36. Journey On The Narrow Path

+++

Related articles

• One in three people born in the UK this year will suffer from some form of dementia in their lifetime, the Alzheimer’s Research UK charity has warned. (grumpyelder.com)
• Israel Goldstein Youth Village looking for dates in Europe (christadelphianworld.blogspot.com)
• Looking for writers for two Lifestyle Magazines (christadelphianworld.blogspot.com)
• Change of name (christadelphianworld.blogspot.com)

Rate this:

#AdultBaptism #Agape #BeingInUnion #Belgium #BiblicalTruth #BrothersAndSistersInChrist #BrothersInChrist #CapitalistWorld #Christadelphian #ChristadelphianCommunity #Christadelphians #Christendom #ChristianChurches #ChristianTruth #Christians #ChurchOfJesusChrist #ComfortZone #DwindlingChurch #Ecclesia #Fellowship #FollowerOfChrist #FollowingJesusChrist #FollowingMan #GreatBritain #HopeOfEcclesia #Influence #InterestInGod #Ireland #JohnThomas #JonDownes #LeavingTheFellowship #LivingInThisWorld #LoversOfChrist #LoversOfGod #Minority #NorthOfAmerica #NumbersAmount_ #PaganFestivities #Preaching #PreachingWork #Proclaim #Proclaiming #ReachingTheLost #Refellowshipping #RuleOfPractice #SistersInChrist #SmallCommunity #TeachingsOfChrist #Temptation #Union #UnitedKingdom #Unity #UnityInChrist #UnityInDiversity #WayOfLiving #WordOfMan

The Big Conversation – Christadelphians in the United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom people may find several villages and towns where there reside Christadelphians,  a body of Christians who try to base their beliefs and practices wholly on the Bible, which they regard as God’s word. They try therefore to rid themselves of the various ideas and rituals which have attached themselves to Christendom over the last 2,000 years and to return to the beliefs and practices of the first century apostles.

Being a group of people who want to follow the Nazarene Jew Jeshua, who did not want to do his own will, but always did the Will of his heavenly Father, they as the man born in Bethlehem, are living in this world but not wanting to be of this world following human traditions and human dogmas. That does not make them so popular, because people may look strange at those people who do not want to celebrate Halloween and other pagan festivities.

Because the Christadelphians are a community without the trappings of elaborate buildings, priests or icons, their institutions and fellowship-rooms not be seen straight away. The outer sights are not important for the Christadelphians who prefer to give honour to God and show a deep respect for God’s word and love to have a strong sense of family and fellowship.

On the above map you can see some of the more than 300 ecclesiae in Great Britain and Ireland. They were taken under the loop by brother Jon Downes who on the 10th of October asked

What is happening?

For him the present size & growth or non-growth of UK ecclesiae show there isn’t a, ‘No Change’ option

It’s not that we aren’t trying!

he said to about 350 Christadelphians present at Dudley college.

In this world of figures, comparisons and evaluations it is all about numbers in graphics which have to show an up-going trend and reach high peaks. this for sure can not be said about our very small community. Lots of people may think when it is not big it has no value and can not be good. But people should look at the intrinsic value and to see what a group or church is believing, following up, and how they keep to what they preach. It is true that minorities do not exert influence, and that they should have to contend on the culture or the systems around it.

Christadelphians do not fall in the temptation to pretend to be a majority, even if one is not. They do know they are just a little grain of sand in our religious world. But that does not mean that many more little grains can be put together with water and with clay form a nice vase. Though sometimes it can look like we are coming to sit more in an urn. Especially in Belgium we are in distress and can do with some support form abroad. Though looking at other countries can show us also how important it is to make more work of the announcing or making known of our society.

All over the world people may not forget that the church of Jesus Christ is never a majority, in any fallen culture, even if we happen to outnumber every[one] else around us. They should come to see that the real church of God is the church of Christ were people are willing to follow Jesus his words, his teachings, but also his manners and his aspirations. It is a place where people are willing to share the agapè love of Christ, who was even willing to give his life for others, even for those who turned against him. Would we do that?

Where Christian churches have held fast to the truth that the Holy Scriptures have been given by God as an authoritative and infallible rule of faith and practice, they have never wandered very seriously out of the right way. But when, on the other hand, reason has been exalted above revelation, and made the the exponent of revelation, all kinds of errors and mischiefs have been the result, and got many sorts of denominations which have lots of rituals people may like very much but which are not according to God’s Law. And that part is the most important in our building community. We should all try to live according God’s Law and love His Words more than the words of man.

Unfortunately, lots of Christians do not closely follow the Bible today and prefer to join churches in which they can keep up their human traditions. They have changed things to how they want them to be.
Since the times of Jesus, there have been small groups of people who believed what the Bible said. Many of these people were cruelly treated in times past as a result of their beliefs. Such believers united in the North of America when in 1864 broke out the Civil War. Dr. Thomas thought up the word “Christadelphian“, a name combining the name “Christ” with the Greek word “adelphi” meaning “brother”. So the name “Christadelphian” means “brothers and sisters in Christ“.

Christadelphians are grateful to John Thomas for his efforts in searching out the message of the Bible. John Thomas was not a prophet or someone special. He read the Bible, just as we try to do. Christadelphians follow Jesus Christ, not John Thomas. Not following just one man or just one human organisation gives that we may have different ideas about certain things, but that doe snot mean we would not have union with each other, though we must agree that there are certain Christadelphian groups who shamefully do not want to have contact with other Christadelphians.  According to the Belgian Free Christadelphians this is also part of the reasons why it is so difficult to show the world a bigger group of religious people under one name: Christadelphians.

Being joined together by our common faith in the Bible, and the way we live, we all should try to meet each other and have contact with each other as loving siblings. All being brothers and sisters in Christ. Though each “ecclesia” has to look after its own affairs, and choose members who determine arrangements and organise activities on behalf of their members they should feel that unity with Christ with other Christadelphians world wide and show the outside world that Jesus Christ is their head of each ecclesia.

Living in this world we do agree that “It’s not about the numbers” … …but the “numbers tell a story”. And those numbers in west Europe may be alarming. Therefore there was the call to come thereto in the UK to discuss that matter of dwindling ciphers.

Like any other western capitalist country in the UK Bible ownership and Bible knowledge has slumped, some english people also do find it a form of indoctrination when parents in their home pray and talk about God in front of their children of that child.

Jon Downes presented the anxious members a snapshot of our society in the UK.

and showed those present how a typical ecclesia looks like.

When we look at the adult baptisms in our community from related people (3,5) and from non related
(1.0) plus counting the (0.5) refellowshipping members, comparing them with the average of 10 people falling asleep and 2 people leaving the fellowship, we might say that such numbers bring the graphic line downwards.

What might happen to the Christadelphian community in the United Kingdom when they do not something to change the coarse.

happened.

Therefore lets look at the United Kingdom as an example.

what might this give to that community, where we find, like everywhere in the world members becoming older and dying, whilst the world is getting less interested in God and commandment.

In case we can bring the Gospel of the Good News to many more ears, we should be able by a co-effort of preaching to increase the interest in God again and get again some people interested in joining a community of lovers of Christ and lovers of God.

We must see that

The lost are our hope

and that there is good reason to try to reach the lost. We as brothers and sisters in Christ should love the people in the world so much that we will be offering some of our spare time for preaching work.

We are the hope of the lost

Luckily it is not all ad  or sad news.

Good News!

tells brother Downes is that we can look at

• 120 baptisms a year (4 average sized ecclesias)
• In the last 40 years, 39 new ecclesias. (Although 96 have closed & some were renamed).
• In the last 15 years,1/4 of all baptisms from non Christadelphian backgrounds were by just 16 ecclesias. (Although 1/3 didn’t baptise any)
• While many ecclesias are shrinking many are growing.
• Numbers in Africa are growing!
• Bible Learning Centres & Learning English are having a big impact

Instead of going for Plan A is it not better that we go for Plan B?

• Current UK Christadelphian population of 8-8500 is based on 223 2015 ALS Diary returns on households & 178 2015 CCH survey returns. 10 Ecclesias had neither return and were estimated on previous diary returns.
• 1985 to 2015 data based on records kept from the back of the Christadelphian, clearly subject to some error, gaps and misreporting. The last 12 months of Magazine entries were analysed separately and yielded results consistent with the records obtained.
• Net loss of 120 per annum and the 10, 5, 1 ratio derived from average of last 10 years data. Approx 240 out and 120 in. These do not include brothers and sisters movement in and out of the UK.
• Forecast from 2015 based on a linear continuation which could easily be a) more dramatic because of rapid closure of small ecclesias, ageing population, reduced home pool to draw from, fewer people to witness, higher rates of leaving the community b) less dramatic as in a smaller community there are fewer people falling asleep each year.

One of the deceases of this time is that too many people want to enjoy their own little cocoon and not getting out of their comfort zone to share life with the spiritually needy. Those who call themselves Christian may not forget that this means to be a follower of Jesus Christ and demands also doing what he required from his followers. Jesus asked us to go out in the world to proclaim the Kingdom of God. We are to make every effort to bring hope and healing in Jesus name to those in need.

We are to see that the tangible goodness of God flows into every nook and cranny of our communities – especially in those places where darkness seems to prevail. {Walking With Intentionality}

+

Preceding articles:

Religious Practices around the world

Manifests for believers #3 Catholic versus Protestant

Ecclesia to exist, grow and communities to have people communicating with each other

The Ecclesia in the churchsystem

Reasons to come together

The Big Conversation

The Big Conversation follow up

Reasons why you may not miss the opportunity to go to a Small Church

Engaging the culture without losing the gospel

Evangelisation, local preaching opposite overseas evangelism

Feeling-good, search for happiness and the church

Members of the ecclesia uniting and seeking God’s help in tribulation

Why we do not have our worship-services in a church building

Belgian Christadelphians 2013 & 2014 in review

Personal thoughts, communication, establishing ecclesia and guest writings

++

Additional reading:

1. People are turning their back on Christianity
2. Looking on what is going on and not being of it
3. London an exaggerated microcosm of the UK at large
4. Parents forbidden to pray in front of their children or to take them to church
5. State and attitude of certain people to blame for radicalisation
6. More Muslim children than Christian children growing up in our cities
7. Will Islam conquer Europe
8. Christianity to be enshrined
9. Halloween custom of the nations
10. Wrong ideas about religious terrorism
11. A call easy to understand
12. Discipleship way of life on the narrow way to everlasting life
13. Many forgot how Christ should be our anchor and our focus
14. The meek one riding on an ass
15. Do not be afraid to learn or to speak
16. Reasons to come together
17. Congregate, to gather, to meet
18. Fellowship
19. Disciple of Christ counting lives and friends dear to them
20. The first on the list of the concerns of the saint
21. Holiness and expression of worship coming from inside
22. To find ways of Godly understanding
23. Perishable non theologians daring to go out to preach
24. Who are the honest ones?
25. Certain people trying to stem freedom of speech
26. Priority to form a loving brotherhood
27. Newsweek asks: How ignorant are you?
28. Religious Freedom in a Multicultural World
29. Some christians do have problems with the Christian connection with Jews
30. American atheists most religiously literate Americans
31. Determine the drive
32. Try driving forward instead of backwards
33. Campbell, Thomas and Bijbelvorsers
34. Looking at older articles series over Russell on the previous Bible-scholar Association
35. Wanting to know more about basic teachings of Christadelphianism
36. Christadelphians or Messianic Christians or Messianic Jews
37. Christadelphian people
38. Who are Christadelphians
39. What are Brothers in Christ
40. Two new encyclopaedic articles
41. Christadelphians today
42. Keeping an ecclesia in modern times
43. Small churches of the few Christadelphians
44. Christianity to be enshrined
45. Christianity is a love affair
46. Intentions of an Ecclesia
47. Character transformed by the influence of our fellowships
48. Love for each other attracting others
49. What makes a consecrated Christian
50. A call easy to understand
51. If you have integrity
52. Work with joy and pray with love
53. To know Christ is filling life with meaning
54. The truth is very plain to see and God can be clearly seen

+++

Other articles of interest:

1. Walking in Total Dependence Upon God
2. What is God’s Will For Your Life?
3. On the Affirmation of Scripture
4. A Snapshot of the Church in America
5. a little church
6. Four Pressing Needs in Rural Communities, and How the Church Should Respond
7. If It’s All About Relationship…
8. Leading a church is not a hands free exercise
9. Walking With Intentionality
10. Living Our Faith in a New Way
11. What’s in It for Me?
12. Deacon Selection In the Small Church
13. Lord’s Day 10: God is in Control
14. Just Try a Few Things
15. “When Faith Goes, All Good Things Go”
16. Growing Deep
17. All the Wrong Reasons
18. Little Church
19. Leading Change
20. Small Groups & Grow A Small Church by Multiplying Its Small Groups
21. Living well
22. Blessed by His Hand
23. Encouragement for the Small
24. How Did You Get Here?
25. How to Impersonate a Big Church
26. What Do You Do Well?
27. Recognize the Facts
28. What are your top two struggles?
29. The Best Thing You Can Do
30. On the road to sainthood and not silent about it
31. Incognito Zone: Where the Church Is Booming
32. House Church Reaches Out to Atheists, Agnostics in California
33. The one religion that’s not part of my spiritual quest
34. Six Ways Not to Forsake the Assembly
35. Tent Making
36. Journey On The Narrow Path

+++

Related articles

• One in three people born in the UK this year will suffer from some form of dementia in their lifetime, the Alzheimer’s Research UK charity has warned. (grumpyelder.com)
• Israel Goldstein Youth Village looking for dates in Europe (christadelphianworld.blogspot.com)
• Looking for writers for two Lifestyle Magazines (christadelphianworld.blogspot.com)
• Change of name (christadelphianworld.blogspot.com)

Rate this:

#AdultBaptism #Agape #BeingInUnion #Belgium #BiblicalTruth #BrothersAndSistersInChrist #BrothersInChrist #CapitalistWorld #Christadelphian #ChristadelphianCommunity #Christadelphians #Christendom #ChristianChurches #ChristianTruth #Christians #ChurchOfJesusChrist #ComfortZone #DwindlingChurch #Ecclesia #Fellowship #FollowerOfChrist #FollowingJesusChrist #FollowingMan #GreatBritain #HopeOfEcclesia #Influence #InterestInGod #Ireland #JohnThomas #JonDownes #LeavingTheFellowship #LivingInThisWorld #LoversOfChrist #LoversOfGod #Minority #NorthOfAmerica #NumbersAmount_ #PaganFestivities #Preaching #PreachingWork #Proclaim #Proclaiming #ReachingTheLost #Refellowshipping #RuleOfPractice #SistersInChrist #SmallCommunity #TeachingsOfChrist #Temptation #Union #UnitedKingdom #Unity #UnityInChrist #UnityInDiversity #WayOfLiving #WordOfMan

The Big Conversation – Christadelphians in the United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom people may find several villages and towns where there reside Christadelphians,  a body of Christians who try to base their beliefs and practices wholly on the Bible, which they regard as God’s word. They try therefore to rid themselves of the various ideas and rituals which have attached themselves to Christendom over the last 2,000 years and to return to the beliefs and practices of the first century apostles.

Being a group of people who want to follow the Nazarene Jew Jeshua, who did not want to do his own will, but always did the Will of his heavenly Father, they as the man born in Bethlehem, are living in this world but not wanting to be of this world following human traditions and human dogmas. That does not make them so popular, because people may look strange at those people who do not want to celebrate Halloween and other pagan festivities.

Because the Christadelphians are a community without the trappings of elaborate buildings, priests or icons, their institutions and fellowship-rooms not be seen straight away. The outer sights are not important for the Christadelphians who prefer to give honour to God and show a deep respect for God’s word and love to have a strong sense of family and fellowship.

On the above map you can see some of the more than 300 ecclesiae in Great Britain and Ireland. They were taken under the loop by brother Jon Downes who on the 10th of October asked

What is happening?

For him the present size & growth or non-growth of UK ecclesiae show there isn’t a, ‘No Change’ option

It’s not that we aren’t trying!

he said to about 350 Christadelphians present at Dudley college.

In this world of figures, comparisons and evaluations it is all about numbers in graphics which have to show an up-going trend and reach high peaks. this for sure can not be said about our very small community. Lots of people may think when it is not big it has no value and can not be good. But people should look at the intrinsic value and to see what a group or church is believing, following up, and how they keep to what they preach. It is true that minorities do not exert influence, and that they should have to contend on the culture or the systems around it.

Christadelphians do not fall in the temptation to pretend to be a majority, even if one is not. They do know they are just a little grain of sand in our religious world. But that does not mean that many more little grains can be put together with water and with clay form a nice vase. Though sometimes it can look like we are coming to sit more in an urn. Especially in Belgium we are in distress and can do with some support form abroad. Though looking at other countries can show us also how important it is to make more work of the announcing or making known of our society.

All over the world people may not forget that the church of Jesus Christ is never a majority, in any fallen culture, even if we happen to outnumber every[one] else around us. They should come to see that the real church of God is the church of Christ were people are willing to follow Jesus his words, his teachings, but also his manners and his aspirations. It is a place where people are willing to share the agapè love of Christ, who was even willing to give his life for others, even for those who turned against him. Would we do that?

Where Christian churches have held fast to the truth that the Holy Scriptures have been given by God as an authoritative and infallible rule of faith and practice, they have never wandered very seriously out of the right way. But when, on the other hand, reason has been exalted above revelation, and made the the exponent of revelation, all kinds of errors and mischiefs have been the result, and got many sorts of denominations which have lots of rituals people may like very much but which are not according to God’s Law. And that part is the most important in our building community. We should all try to live according God’s Law and love His Words more than the words of man.

Unfortunately, lots of Christians do not closely follow the Bible today and prefer to join churches in which they can keep up their human traditions. They have changed things to how they want them to be.
Since the times of Jesus, there have been small groups of people who believed what the Bible said. Many of these people were cruelly treated in times past as a result of their beliefs. Such believers united in the North of America when in 1864 broke out the Civil War. Dr. Thomas thought up the word “Christadelphian“, a name combining the name “Christ” with the Greek word “adelphi” meaning “brother”. So the name “Christadelphian” means “brothers and sisters in Christ“.

Christadelphians are grateful to John Thomas for his efforts in searching out the message of the Bible. John Thomas was not a prophet or someone special. He read the Bible, just as we try to do. Christadelphians follow Jesus Christ, not John Thomas. Not following just one man or just one human organisation gives that we may have different ideas about certain things, but that doe snot mean we would not have union with each other, though we must agree that there are certain Christadelphian groups who shamefully do not want to have contact with other Christadelphians.  According to the Belgian Free Christadelphians this is also part of the reasons why it is so difficult to show the world a bigger group of religious people under one name: Christadelphians.

Being joined together by our common faith in the Bible, and the way we live, we all should try to meet each other and have contact with each other as loving siblings. All being brothers and sisters in Christ. Though each “ecclesia” has to look after its own affairs, and choose members who determine arrangements and organise activities on behalf of their members they should feel that unity with Christ with other Christadelphians world wide and show the outside world that Jesus Christ is their head of each ecclesia.

Living in this world we do agree that “It’s not about the numbers” … …but the “numbers tell a story”. And those numbers in west Europe may be alarming. Therefore there was the call to come thereto in the UK to discuss that matter of dwindling ciphers.

Like any other western capitalist country in the UK Bible ownership and Bible knowledge has slumped, some english people also do find it a form of indoctrination when parents in their home pray and talk about God in front of their children of that child.

Jon Downes presented the anxious members a snapshot of our society in the UK.

and showed those present how a typical ecclesia looks like.

When we look at the adult baptisms in our community from related people (3,5) and from non related
(1.0) plus counting the (0.5) refellowshipping members, comparing them with the average of 10 people falling asleep and 2 people leaving the fellowship, we might say that such numbers bring the graphic line downwards.

What might happen to the Christadelphian community in the United Kingdom when they do not something to change the coarse.

happened.

Therefore lets look at the United Kingdom as an example.

what might this give to that community, where we find, like everywhere in the world members becoming older and dying, whilst the world is getting less interested in God and commandment.

In case we can bring the Gospel of the Good News to many more ears, we should be able by a co-effort of preaching to increase the interest in God again and get again some people interested in joining a community of lovers of Christ and lovers of God.

We must see that

The lost are our hope

and that there is good reason to try to reach the lost. We as brothers and sisters in Christ should love the people in the world so much that we will be offering some of our spare time for preaching work.

We are the hope of the lost

Luckily it is not all ad  or sad news.

Good News!

tells brother Downes is that we can look at

• 120 baptisms a year (4 average sized ecclesias)
• In the last 40 years, 39 new ecclesias. (Although 96 have closed & some were renamed).
• In the last 15 years,1/4 of all baptisms from non Christadelphian backgrounds were by just 16 ecclesias. (Although 1/3 didn’t baptise any)
• While many ecclesias are shrinking many are growing.
• Numbers in Africa are growing!
• Bible Learning Centres & Learning English are having a big impact

Instead of going for Plan A is it not better that we go for Plan B?

• Current UK Christadelphian population of 8-8500 is based on 223 2015 ALS Diary returns on households & 178 2015 CCH survey returns. 10 Ecclesias had neither return and were estimated on previous diary returns.
• 1985 to 2015 data based on records kept from the back of the Christadelphian, clearly subject to some error, gaps and misreporting. The last 12 months of Magazine entries were analysed separately and yielded results consistent with the records obtained.
• Net loss of 120 per annum and the 10, 5, 1 ratio derived from average of last 10 years data. Approx 240 out and 120 in. These do not include brothers and sisters movement in and out of the UK.
• Forecast from 2015 based on a linear continuation which could easily be a) more dramatic because of rapid closure of small ecclesias, ageing population, reduced home pool to draw from, fewer people to witness, higher rates of leaving the community b) less dramatic as in a smaller community there are fewer people falling asleep each year.

One of the deceases of this time is that too many people want to enjoy their own little cocoon and not getting out of their comfort zone to share life with the spiritually needy. Those who call themselves Christian may not forget that this means to be a follower of Jesus Christ and demands also doing what he required from his followers. Jesus asked us to go out in the world to proclaim the Kingdom of God. We are to make every effort to bring hope and healing in Jesus name to those in need.

We are to see that the tangible goodness of God flows into every nook and cranny of our communities – especially in those places where darkness seems to prevail. {Walking With Intentionality}

+

Preceding articles:

Religious Practices around the world

Manifests for believers #3 Catholic versus Protestant

Ecclesia to exist, grow and communities to have people communicating with each other

The Ecclesia in the churchsystem

Reasons to come together

The Big Conversation

The Big Conversation follow up

Reasons why you may not miss the opportunity to go to a Small Church

Engaging the culture without losing the gospel

Evangelisation, local preaching opposite overseas evangelism

Feeling-good, search for happiness and the church

Members of the ecclesia uniting and seeking God’s help in tribulation

Why we do not have our worship-services in a church building

Belgian Christadelphians 2013 & 2014 in review

Personal thoughts, communication, establishing ecclesia and guest writings

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Additional reading:

1. People are turning their back on Christianity
2. Looking on what is going on and not being of it
3. London an exaggerated microcosm of the UK at large
4. Parents forbidden to pray in front of their children or to take them to church
5. State and attitude of certain people to blame for radicalisation
6. More Muslim children than Christian children growing up in our cities
7. Will Islam conquer Europe
8. Christianity to be enshrined
9. Halloween custom of the nations
10. Wrong ideas about religious terrorism
11. A call easy to understand
12. Discipleship way of life on the narrow way to everlasting life
13. Many forgot how Christ should be our anchor and our focus
14. The meek one riding on an ass
15. Do not be afraid to learn or to speak
16. Reasons to come together
17. Congregate, to gather, to meet
18. Fellowship
19. Disciple of Christ counting lives and friends dear to them
20. The first on the list of the concerns of the saint
21. Holiness and expression of worship coming from inside
22. To find ways of Godly understanding
23. Perishable non theologians daring to go out to preach
24. Who are the honest ones?
25. Certain people trying to stem freedom of speech
26. Priority to form a loving brotherhood
27. Newsweek asks: How ignorant are you?
28. Religious Freedom in a Multicultural World
29. Some christians do have problems with the Christian connection with Jews
30. American atheists most religiously literate Americans
31. Determine the drive
32. Try driving forward instead of backwards
33. Campbell, Thomas and Bijbelvorsers
34. Looking at older articles series over Russell on the previous Bible-scholar Association
35. Wanting to know more about basic teachings of Christadelphianism
36. Christadelphians or Messianic Christians or Messianic Jews
37. Christadelphian people
38. Who are Christadelphians
39. What are Brothers in Christ
40. Two new encyclopaedic articles
41. Christadelphians today
42. Keeping an ecclesia in modern times
43. Small churches of the few Christadelphians
44. Christianity to be enshrined
45. Christianity is a love affair
46. Intentions of an Ecclesia
47. Character transformed by the influence of our fellowships
48. Love for each other attracting others
49. What makes a consecrated Christian
50. A call easy to understand
51. If you have integrity
52. Work with joy and pray with love
53. To know Christ is filling life with meaning
54. The truth is very plain to see and God can be clearly seen

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Other articles of interest:

1. Walking in Total Dependence Upon God
2. What is God’s Will For Your Life?
3. On the Affirmation of Scripture
4. A Snapshot of the Church in America
5. a little church
6. Four Pressing Needs in Rural Communities, and How the Church Should Respond
7. If It’s All About Relationship…
8. Leading a church is not a hands free exercise
9. Walking With Intentionality
10. Living Our Faith in a New Way
11. What’s in It for Me?
12. Deacon Selection In the Small Church
13. Lord’s Day 10: God is in Control
14. Just Try a Few Things
15. “When Faith Goes, All Good Things Go”
16. Growing Deep
17. All the Wrong Reasons
18. Little Church
19. Leading Change
20. Small Groups & Grow A Small Church by Multiplying Its Small Groups
21. Living well
22. Blessed by His Hand
23. Encouragement for the Small
24. How Did You Get Here?
25. How to Impersonate a Big Church
26. What Do You Do Well?
27. Recognize the Facts
28. What are your top two struggles?
29. The Best Thing You Can Do
30. On the road to sainthood and not silent about it
31. Incognito Zone: Where the Church Is Booming
32. House Church Reaches Out to Atheists, Agnostics in California
33. The one religion that’s not part of my spiritual quest
34. Six Ways Not to Forsake the Assembly
35. Tent Making
36. Journey On The Narrow Path

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• Israel Goldstein Youth Village looking for dates in Europe (christadelphianworld.blogspot.com)
• Looking for writers for two Lifestyle Magazines (christadelphianworld.blogspot.com)
• Change of name (christadelphianworld.blogspot.com)

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Paris World Summit of Conscience, International interfaith gathering #3

Not only a political economic or ecological issue but the future of humanity that is at stake.

“Climate change is the defining challenge of our time. It affects us all, but it does not affect us all equally. We have a profound responsibility to protect and assist the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people and to pass on to future generations a planet that is thriving and healthy.”

Continuation of  ‘Paris World Summit of Conscience, International interfaith gathering’ #1 & 2

2015, July 21, Paris Why do I care Interreligious meeting

For people who believe in the Divine Creator God and honour and worship Him there is no question that we can keep ourselves at the side and do nothing to change the way the world is behaving at the moment. Jews, Non-trinitarian and trinitarian Christians, Muslims who do know their Holy Scriptures are aware that man has no excuse how he treats the creation of the Most High.

Perhaps people may be a little bit selfish, in a certain way,trying to make a nice living and trying to make a better place for themselves. And it can well be that “Selfishness” does not have to mean being shortsighted and harmful to others, but we all do have to know what ever we do for ourselves may also effect the life of others. Often we find Christians thinking they are the only ones who have an idea about God’s creation and respect it. Some of them, like several atheists may see that man in his position has to play an important role in that universe. They see the dangers of our way of living at the moment. They fear climate change and know we do have something to do against it.

But also people from other religions, like Hindus as Mahamandeshwar Swami Avdeshanand Giri, religious leader of the Hindu Dharma Acharya Sabha, India, said they saw climate change both as an existential threat and as an opportunity for renewal.In the afternoon reverend Takayuki Ashizu, Chief priest of Munakata Grand Shrine (Japan) was part of a discussion pannel with Jean-Luc Fauque, President of the Supreme Council of the European Confederation – the Scottish Rite,  Rev. Fletcher Harper, Director of GreenFaith (USA), Sister Chan Khong, representative of the Thich Nhat Hanh Community (France), Fr. Dominique Lang, Chaplain of Pax Christi France, Author of the blog “Churches and Ecology”, and Mr Henrik Madsen, CEO DNV-GL, Norway.

Hindu leader Nandita Krishna, who has restored 50 sacred forests, feared that insatiable greed had gripped everyone on earth and this had led to climate change.

“We cannot replicate the environment or create it. Unless we see the divine in creation we will not understand our role and duty as humans,”

she said.

Bishop Nathan Kyamanywa, Bishop of Bunyoro Kitara (Uganda) was in charge of the Keynote addresses of the third plenary.

Bringing the day into its discussion between panelists Dr Vinya Ariyaratne, Director of the Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement (Sri Lanka), M. Swami Amritasvarupananda, Amma’s representative (India), Sheikh Khaled Bentounes, Spiritual Guide of the Alawiyya Sufi brotherhood (Algeria), M Sailesh Rao, Director of “Climat Healers Initiative for Transformations” (USA), Ms Alina Saba, Environnemental activist (Nepal) and Bishop Frederick Onael Shoo, Founder of the Lutheran Movement for the Environment in Africa (Tanzania).

Guide spirituel de la Tariqa Alâwiyya, Cheikh Khaled Bentounes

Sheikh Bentounes, leader of the Sufi brotherhood Alawiya, urged mankind to carry “a hope of a future”.

Rabbi David Rosen, international director of Inter Religious Affairs “of the American Jewish Committee said:

“Climate change takes place where there is unbridled avarice. It is a symptom of the disease and cry for us to respond. It is the opportunity for humans to rediscover the higher values than materialism and indulgence.”

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, the president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, leader of 300 million Orthodox Christians, despaired at humanity’s blindness, but quoted writer Fyodor Dostoevsky saying that

“beauty would save the earth”.

For him as for many others it is clear that scientists and theologians agree that humanity depends on nature. Therefore he made an urgent appeal:

We must accept the moral imperative for action. Religion must also be involved in the crucial question of climate change.”

Mary Robinson, who served as the seventh, and first female, President of Ireland from 1990 to 1997, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, from 1997 to 2002, as President of the Mary Robinson Foundation- Climate Justice, found it truly inspiring to see leaders at this meeting in Paris from so many faiths and secular traditions, and to hear of their impressive commitment to the simple yet deeply profound message: “why I care”.

She said

Our lived experiences, our religious beliefs and our cultural backgrounds may be diverse – but you are showing that great traditions have a shared sense of morality and fairness, and a collective recognition of the need to act on climate change to protect people and our common home.

For her this is an example of human solidarity at work.

She outlined why she believes that it is this human solidarity that is the key to igniting
global will to act on the climate.

The idea of human solidarity is sometimes misunderstood. Some people say that it is a well-meaning moral guideline, but it does not help political leaders to conduct negotiations and reach complicated legal agreements – including those that will be needed to reach a climate agreement in Paris later this year.

and said why she disagreed with this view.

Because if we look past all the complex science, economics, legal arguments and political negotiations which are necessary parts of the process towards a climate agreement, we can see that acting on climate change can be summarised very simply:
we can solve climate change if we care about each other, and if we act to help each other.

Passing those two tests is the challenge of our generation, and will decide whether we leave our children and grandchildren a safe world of hope and fairness, or a world where climate change is causing misery and stress.

She spend a lot of time listening to people all around the world, and she thinks that a lot more people care about fairness and our collective future than we sometimes realise.

All across the world, people are witnessing the damage to lives and livelihoods caused by climate change, and are standing up to say that it is time to act.

At the meeting those present have shown the deep level of thinking that underpins why
different people care in different ways about climate action. So she strongly believes that
the first component of igniting climate action is already well underway,

and today is a very important milestone in that process.
So perhaps the next challenge is to move from understanding why we must act on climate, to understanding how we collectively overcome the diverse obstacles to action faced by different people in different places around the world.

We have to realise that peoples from throughout the developing world have their role to play.

There is no solution to climate change without the developing world. This is because most of the energy supply, buildings and transport infrastructure that has yet to be built will be in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Most of the supply of nutritious food to feed an ever more populous world will come from the same places. And the world’s major forests –
including the Amazon, Congo Basin and the forests of South East Asia – are in exactly the same regions. Energy, transportation, forests, agriculture – these will either be managed in a way that over-uses fossil fuels, locks in greenhouse emissions and damages our world, or in a way that protects people and preserves our natural home.
But energy, transportation and agricultural systems are not abstract concepts.
They are fundamentally about people, and their legitimate desire for development. And despite all the economic models and theoretical blueprints, we still live in a world where
too many people are prevented from making a low carbon development choice. We have to change the reality where poverty means that up to three billion people, mainly women, still cook using dangerous and dirty energy sources – the black carbon that comes from this use of coal, charcoal and wood makes an enormous contribution to climate change
as well as to deaths and ill-health.

This is the reason why forest communities must be able to work with others to protect their forests, which was also stated earlier in the afternoon. She also wanted to ad that farmers must be free to find ways to move to more sustainable practices –

together deforestation and agricultural practices are about a fifth of all greenhouse gas emissions.
Indigenous peoples must be able to continue their traditional practices that help to preserve the innumerable benefits provided by our natural world.
The hundreds of millions of people living in slums across the world need access to affordable, sustainable food and energy – and to be consulted in the world-wide
drive for sustainable cities because they will form the majority of the population that will live in them.

For her the whole world needs the people of the developing world to be able to use their innovation and their energy to create a new model of low carbon and equitable development.

Her foundation, which she set up to promote climate justice, summarises this new development model as zero carbon, zero poverty –

and we are certain that we can achieve these dual outcomes with the right kind of international co-operation.

she said.

Though she is also aware that this includes the need for international financing for climate action – not as aid, but rather as part of the collective global recognition that while today’s rich countries built their prosperity from fossil fuels and unsustainable land use, leaders from the developing world are trying to find a way to a more sustainable model of developing without emissions.

The United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change provides the platform for advancing this international  co-operation – and Minister Fabius and the French Government, as hosts of the Paris climate meeting, have been impressive in their recognition of the need for a mature discussion about the approach to international climate finance.

She ended her speech by reminding us that

we can solve climate change if we care about each other, and if we help each other.
But this possibility will only be realized if concerned citizens, organisations and businesses from across the world build informed, respectful partnerships with those who are willing to lead in the developing world.

She is finds it positive that there are many other individuals and organisations who are already thinking deeply about individual pieces of the climate puzzle. Women’s groups. Youth groups. Progressive businesses. Trades Unions. Grass-roots activists. In all countries, rich and poor.

She strongly urged those present to build from this meeting and reach out to all these groups.

If you do, your work today can be the spark that ignites an unprecedented wave of human
solidarity in the cause of climate action. You can gather into a “big tent” those who represent, and understand the lives of, billions of people.
Together, this movement can truly change the world.

she said.

On 1st January, 2016, the Sustainable Development Goals become the new development agenda for our world. Many believe we should mark that day with special prayer and
reflection to bring us together as a human family.
Together, we can show the world that human solidarity is not only the domain of religions and human rights activists. Rather it is the golden key that unlocks the collective power of billions of people.  Those people can act together to build a more resilient world, stabilise our climate, and create an unprecedented attack on global poverty and inequality.

86-year-old Benin writer and politician Albert Teveodjré represented the views of secular thinkers.

“Nature was loaned to us as a place to live. I witness a world of profit at all costs which will ruin the environment and devastate everything. I am very worried. I think I will leave the world with many worries.”

Laurent Fabius, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Development, COP21 President, delivered the closing speech at the Summit of Conscience at the Economic, Social and Environmental Council.
Following the informal ministerial conferences on July 20 and 21, which mobilized the international community at the political level, this event will provide an opportunity to address civil society and, beyond that, the public, in order to ensure the success of COP21.

The Summit has seen the launch of the “Green Faith in Action” project, a global initiative stemming from a coalition of partners with the objective of rendering pilgrimage destinations of all religious and spiritual persuasions, low-carbon cities resilient to climate disruptions. Three hundred million pilgrims travel to these cities each year.

As I wrote already in an other posting we do have to go “Forward ever, backwards never!” and should not only look for positive constructive dreams, which lead us further to the right path, but should also get more people involved in trying to work and motivate others to work at a balance in our position in creation and to find a good way to live in respect to nature. Let us for some moment think also that “Less… is still enough” and that we can, if we are inventive enough, find ways to still have more than we need, living in Luxury, without damaging nature around us. sometimes it would not be bad to take on ‘A bird’s eye and reflecting from within’. Let us look at what is going on, how we can stop the bad evolution, twist the curve of the negative way and come to a good healthy path for all creatures in the world.

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The 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) will take place in Paris in December this year. An effective and equitable international agreement will be critical for reducing greenhouse gas emissions to limit global temperature rise to 2 degree Celsius and for supporting adaptation to climate impacts. France, as the host and chair of COP21, is committed to the role of an impartial facilitator for forging an ambitious agreement at COP 21.

ending the day with the speakers handing over the baton to the children

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Preceding articles:

Paris World Summit of Conscience, International interfaith gathering #1

Paris World Summit of Conscience, International interfaith gathering #2

Climate change guilty of doing too little

Postponing once more

Forms of slavery, human trafficking and disrespectful attitude to creation to be changed

Vatican against Opponents of immigration

Mayors from all over the world at the Vatican to talk about climate change

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Additional reading:

1. Stopping emissions will not stop the warming of our planet
2. Voice for the plebs
3. Temperatures rising
4. Science, 2013 word of the year, and Scepticism
5. 2014 To remember our Earth
6. USA Climate Change Action Plan
7. 2015 Summit of Consciences for the Climate
8. Vatican meeting of mayors talking about global warming, human trafficking and modern-day slavery
9. Senator Loren Legarda says climate change not impossible to address
10. Burgemeesters in het Vaticaan tegen moderne slavernij en klimaatverandering
11. Top van het geweten voor het klimaat in Parijs
12. A look at materialism
13. Less… is still enough
14. Less for more
15. Luxury
16. Material wealth, Submission and Heaven on earth
17. Summermonths and consumerism
18. Looking at a conservative review of Shop Class As Soul Craft
19. Your position about materialistic desires having conquered the world
20. Message of Pope Francis I for the 48th World Communications Day
21. From Winterdarkness into light of Spring
22. Not holding back and getting out of darkness
23. Learning that stuff is just stuff
24. Why “Selfishness” Doesn’t Properly Mean Being Shortsighted and Harmful to Others
25. How to Find the Meaning of Life and Reach a State of Peace
26. Forward ever, backwards never!
27. A bird’s eye and reflecting from within

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Find the main site of this project: Why do I care

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Further reading:

1. What’s it worth, planet earth, what are you prepared to do?
2. Climate change and security: here’s the analysis, when’s the action?
3. Latest on Climate Change
4. Climate Change; The Burning Question
5. Climate Change: New resources for readers
6. Phyllis Trible on Genesis 1, Dominion, and Ecology
7. Integral Ecology and Respect for Human Life
8. Environmental Ethics – Readings in Theory and Application – Fifth Edition
9. All is Connected
10. Public History Journal Part 5: Human Ecology
11. Our Common Responsibility
12. Shocking quote from Pope Francis’ new encyclical
13. Pope Francis – The earth as our sister
14. Pope Francis – He’s not suggesting a return to the Stone Age
15. Pope Francis – God calls us to commit to the environment
16. Pope Francis – The lack of universal truth has led to environmental and social damage
17. Pope Francis – Environmental ethics is social ethics
18. Pope Francis – We fool ourselves into thinking nothing will happen
19. Pope Francis – Beauty as a politics against consumerism
20. Pope Francis – Man thinks he is free as long he is free to consume
21. Pope Francis – The current political and economic strategy does not solve the problem
22. Pope Francis – When man gives priority to himself everything becomes relative
23. Pope Francis – Consumerism level all cultures
24. Pope Francis – Consumerism makes the world less rich and beautiful
25. Pope Francis – We are one single human family
26. If You’re Too Busy to Read Laudato Si, Now You Can Listen to It!
27. Laudato Si! and Lifestyle
28. On Care for Our Common Home
29. Blue Moon and Laudato Si’
30. Reflection on Laudato Si by Pope Francis (Part IV)
31. Still reading…
32. The Pope Hits a Triple!
33. Bob Thurman: The Pope Hits a Triple
34. Pell hoists himself on his own logic
35. The Cut Flower of Creation
36. What’s This?
37. A Breath of Fresh Air
38. Intentional Life
39. Little things matter.
40. Parishes Respond to Laudato Si’
41. So How Cool is Pope Francis?
42. Dr. Willie Soon on the Vatican’s repeat of its Galileo debacle
43. The Pope Scare: A New McCarthyism Spitting in the Face of Christ
44. Thoughts About Elizabeth Johnson’s “Ask the Beasts” after Pope Francis’s Creation-Care Encyclical
45. Young climate bloggers lobby their MPs and reflect on Laudato Si’
46. The Galilean Shaman and Ecological Conversion
47. Sisters & Brothers You Never Knew You Had
48. …he would call creatures, no matter how small, by the name of ‘brother’ or ‘sister’
49. Earthly Advice from Pope Francis
50. Laudato Si
51. Hidden Seeds in Laudato Si by Peg Conway
52. Papal Encyclical Laudato Si’ and CAFOD’s Petition
53. A Special Addu Day for Laudato Si!
54. The genius of Laudato Si’ should make us all uncomfortable
55. Article by Leonardo Boff on the Popes’s Encyclical
56. Catholicism on Economics
57. Why Pope Francis’ Criticism of Capitalism Makes Sense
58. Of Kings, and Popes, and Abortions, and the Environment
59. Boundless Creation
60. Quotes, Thoughts, Reflections on Non-dualism, evolution, God, ecology, War and more…
61. The Tragedy of The Commodity
62. Kingdom of God Stewardship Meet the 50 to 1 Project
63. Kingdom Stewardship Meet the 50 to 1 Project
64. “Climate Scientism is Made of Green Cheese”.
65. Wildflower Wednesday
66. Idea for the day on complexity science and a new philosophy for life
67. Hope Springs Eternal
68. Digital tools for environmental field researchers and citizen scientists.
69. Humans
70. Human and Biodiversity
71. Stanford research finds climate change regulation burden heaviest on poor
72. Fantastic George Monbiot quote
73. Musicians as activists, and tales from the Clinton White House
74. On the Road to Paris
75. Climate Change Update: FOCUS 2015 and Preparing for COP-21 in Paris
76. COP 21 à Paris en décembre 2015: mobilisations.
77. Why CBCP “welcomes” UN Climate Change Conference 2015 [Document]
78. My reflections of Rebuilding Justice, London

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Related articles

• Death and Thich Nhat Hanh
• Noticing what is right

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