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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | Will we be here once anti-Christ appears | 1 John 2:18 | Emmaus | 86264 | ||
Scribe, I must give you credit for not remaining vague in time frames and not buying into the Constantine myth of apostasy. If your analysis is correct, then Christ's promise that the He would be with the Church always and that the Holy Spirit would lead the Church to all truth was patently false. It would also assume that the St. Paul's admonitions to pass on what he had taught both in writing and by word of mouth to carefully chosen men by the laying on of hands was bad advice that bore bad fruit. Even Ignatius was only two men removed from St. Peter as bishop of Antioch. Is it likely such a basic teaching as the day of worship of the meaning of the Lord's Day would be so quickly lost and without a dispute by the faithful who had for three generations been living the christian way? And even the New Testament itself makes it clear that the various local churches were in rather close communication with one another, as evidenced by Acts and the Epistles of St. Paul. I believe it is the writings of the Fathers that gives us the context necessary to understand how the early Church understood certain passages of Scripture, in particular Revelation 1:10, which, the majority opinion dates to about 95 A.D. only 5 to 15 years prior to the date you give for Ignatius. I also think your translation of Rev 1:10 is very interesting and a good example of polyvalent meanings that can be taken in interpreting the Scripture on more than one level. Here are a few passages on this subject of Sunday worship. "The Didache "But every Lord’s day . . . gather yourselves together and break bread, and give thanksgiving after having confessed your transgressions, that your sacrifice may be pure. But let no one that is at variance with his fellow come together with you, until they be reconciled, that your sacrifice may not be profaned" (Didache 14 [A.D. 70]). The Letter of Barnabas "We keep the eighth day [Sunday] with joyfulness, the day also on which Jesus rose again from the dead" (Letter of Barnabas 15:6–8 [A.D. 74]). Ignatius of Antioch "[T]hose who were brought up in the ancient order of things [i.e. Jews] have come to the possession of a new hope, no longer observing the Sabbath, but living in the observance of the Lord’s day, on which also our life has sprung up again by him and by his death" (Letter to the Magnesians 8 [A.D. 110]). Justin Martyr "[W]e too would observe the fleshly circumcision, and the Sabbaths, and in short all the feasts, if we did not know for what reason they were enjoined [on] you—namely, on account of your transgressions and the hardness of your heart. . . . [H]ow is it, Trypho, that we would not observe those rites which do not harm us—I speak of fleshly circumcision and Sabbaths and feasts? . . . God enjoined you to keep the Sabbath, and imposed on you other precepts for a sign, as I have already said, on account of your unrighteousness and that of your fathers . . ." (Dialogue with Trypho the Jew 18, 21 [A.D. 155]). "But Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly, because it is the first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and matter, made the world; and Jesus Christ our Savior on the same day rose from the dead" (First Apology 67 [A.D. 155]). Tertullian "[L]et him who contends that the Sabbath is still to be observed as a balm of salvation, and circumcision on the eighth day . . . teach us that, for the time past, righteous men kept the Sabbath or practiced circumcision, and were thus rendered ‘friends of God.’ For if circumcision purges a man, since God made Adam uncircumcised, why did he not circumcise him, even after his sinning, if circumcision purges? . . . Therefore, since God originated Adam uncircumcised and unobservant of the Sabbath, consequently his offspring also, Abel, offering him sacrifices, uncircumcised and unobservant of the Sabbath, was by him [God] commended [Gen. 4:1–7, Heb. 11:4]. . . . Noah also, uncircumcised—yes, and unobservant of the Sabbath—God freed from the deluge. For Enoch too, most righteous man, uncircumcised and unobservant of the Sabbath, he translated from this world, who did not first taste death in order that, being a candidate for eternal life, he might show us that we also may, without the burden of the law of Moses, please God" (An Answer to the Jews 2 [A.D. 203]). The Didascalia "The apostles further appointed: On the first day of the week let there be service, and the reading of the holy scriptures, and the oblation, because on the first day of the week our Lord rose from the place of the dead, and on the first day of the week he arose upon the world, and on the first day of the week he ascended up to heaven, and on the first day of the week he will appear at last with the angels of heaven" (Didascalia 2 [A.D. 225]). excerpts from a full article on the subject at: http://www.catholic.com/library/Sabbath_or_Sunday.asp Emmaus |
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2 | Will we be here once anti-Christ appears | 1 John 2:18 | Scribe | 86274 | ||
Part 2 of 3 “ This is what I understand by his being "in Spirit in the Lord's day." (NOTE: And so Wetstein, Zullig, Dr. S. R. Maitland, Dr. Todd, and B. W. Newton.) I can see no essential difference between [hee] (grk 3588) [Kuriakee] (grk 2960) [heemera] (grk 2250)-- the Lord's day,-- and [hee] (grk 3588) [heemera] (grk 2250) [Kuriou] (grk 2962)-- the day of the Lord. They are simply the two forms for signifying the same relations of the same things. (NOTE: Our English translators have frequently used both these modes of expressing the genitive case of the same noun, both in Hebrew and Greek. Compare (Gen. 28:17) and (Gen. 28:22), where "House of God" and "God's house" mean precisely the same. So "Lord's law," (Ex. 13:9), and "Law of the Lord," (2 Chr. 12:1); "The Lord's people," (1 Sam. 2:24), and "People of the Lord," (Judges 5:11). In all these instances, the Septuagint presents the same forms as the original. So in the New Testament we have the same variety of expression to signify exactly the same relations. In (1 Cor. 10:21), for the same grammatical form in Greek, we have "the Lord's table," and "the table of devils"; in 2 Cor. 2:12, "Christ's Gospel" for "Gospel of Christ"; in 2 Pet. 4:13), "Christ's sufferings," and in (1 Pet. 5:1), "Sufferings of Christ." The same may be seen in (Rev. 11:15), where the kingdoms of the world become our Lord's and his Christ's kingdoms.) And if John was thus mystically down among the scenes of the last day, and has written only what he says he has written, that is "things that he saw;" it cannot be otherwise but that in dealing with the contents of this book we are dealing with what relates pre-eminently to the great Apocalypse and Epiphany of our Lord, when he cometh to judge the world in righteousness. And when we come to consider the actual contents of this book, we find them harmonizing exactly with this understanding of its title. It takes as its chief and unmistakable themes what other portions of the Scriptures assign to the great day of the Lord. It is nothing but Apocalypse from beginning to end. First, we have the Apocalypse of Christ in his relation to the earthly churches, and his judgment of them; then the Apocalypse of his relation to the glorified Church, and the marshalling of them for his forthcoming to judge the world; then the Apocalypse of his relation to the scenes of the judgment, as they are manifested on earth under the opening of the seals, the prophesying of the witnesses, and the fall of Babylon; then the Apocalypse of his actual manifestation to the world in the battle of the great day of God Almighty, the establishment of his kingdom, and the investiture of the saints in their future sovereignties; and finally, the Apocalypse of his relation to the final act of judgment, the destruction of death and the grave, and the introduction of the final estate of a perfected Redemption. What, indeed, is all this, but just what was foretold by all the prophets, by Christ himself, and by all his apostles, as pertaining to THE DAY OF THE LORD? Verily, this book is but the rehearsal, in another and ampler manner, of what all the Scriptures tell us about the last day and the eternal judgment.” Joseph A. Seiss “The Apocalypse” (continued on next post) |
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