New Century Ministries’ Post

Part 1b of posts for Christmas from The 21st Century New Testament Glossary found for free at www.NCM-21.com (As a side note, most of the sites in Israel that are often pointed out as associated with events in the New Testament are either questionable or clearly wrong. In the next fourteen parts of this article, we’ll look at the evidence in several areas and consider how the events recorded in the Gospels may’ve taken place in a way that’s consistent with what we know of the culture and history of that time.) Of course, many traditions associated with Christmas have nothing to do with the New Testament account of Jesus’ birth. Most people know that Christmas trees, Christmas lights, snowmen, jolly elves, and Santa Claus are examples. Other traditions are more generally accepted but still have no connection to the biblical account. For example, one often-accepted tradition involves the donkey Mary rode on the trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem. In the New Testament, the donkey is never mentioned. The articles below will discuss other traditions inconsistent with the biblical message. The information in this glossary article is based on the New Testament accounts and a best-effort approach to use the historic and scientific data available today to account for how these events could’ve happened.

Part 2b of posts for Birth and Childhood of Jesus from The 21st Century New Testament Glossary found for free at www.NCM-21.com This translation assumes that Augustus’ oath of allegiance was what Luke referred to, but this opens up a new possibility. The emperor’s order applied to the entire Roman Empire but not necessarily to everyone in the empire. For an oath of allegiance, women, slaves, and children would’ve been excluded. In fact, such an oath might’ve been limited to those most likely to have the power to lead an insurrection, such as the wealthy or those with royal heritage. (As a direct descendant of King David, Joseph would’ve been required to sign.) A decree for such an oath that only affected such a limited group and didn’t involve a special general taxation might well have caused little notice, explaining why scholars haven’t found more records of the event. If this is the case, Jesus’ birth must’ve occurred in 3 BC.

About New Century Ministries – Post 8 requirements for eternity As I mentioned in an earlier post, God cannot take people into his eternity if those people don’t trust him or if they haven’t learned to care about others. And having people who all care about each other is critical to making God’s eternity a paradise. So if some haven’t learned to trust him, sooner or later someone would try to take over and replace God, and that would be a disaster. (That was Eve’s main sin.) And if people haven’t learned to at least try to care about others, they’d bring selfishness, jealousy, greed, envy, and all sorts of evil with them and turn paradise into anything but a paradise. In the New Testament, Jesus used the word Gehenna to talk about hell. Gehenna was a valley outside of Jerusalem where the garbage was dumped. It was always smoldering or burning, and it stank. The message is that if we are on God’s team, we have nothing to fear, but if we aren’t on God’s team because we haven’t learned these critical lessons, God will have to send us to the garbage dump of hell. All he asks if for us to trust him, do what we know is right, and care about each other. That choice for eternity is a critical factor that motivates the faith in God and the compassionate care for others. Visit www.NCM-21.com for more information.

How do you find a good church these days? Or a healthy ministry to plug into? Are we choosing aesthetics over substance? Here are a few questions you should be asking of any possible church homes you are looking at. https://lnkd.in/gxCVTnhp #church #christian #bible

About New Century Ministries – Post 1 New Century Ministries is a Christian ministry, but unlike many, we are not urging people to go to church. Rather, we're encouraging people to do some good in the world with a small team of folks who share a passion to be the solution rather than the problem. What Christians are told in their own New Testament is that when they gather (and the New Testament provides no information about what day to meet or what time to meet), the focus of everything they do in the meeting is to be about building up the team. (There’s nothing about worshipping God as part of the meeting, because, as Jesus taught, worshipping God is to be a from-the-heart experience, not a ritualized experience where most of the people involved are focused on other things.) From God’s perspective, the idea is to bring a team together for fellowship, training, and encouragement (building up the team) so that they can then live out Jesus’ teachings in their daily lives. Visit www.NCM-21.com for more information.

Excellent article tying the Old Testament to the NewTestament!

There are two key questions to ponder as we enter into a New Year. These two are often used by members of the clergy to help illustrate parts of their sermons. These are questions that we all will have to answer when we are called to stand before God our Father, regardless if we believe or not, upon our day of Judgement. #1-- What did we do with the gift of His Son Jesus? #2 -- What did we do with the gifts of Time, Talent, and Treasure that God the Father bestowed upon us while upon the earth? The first is the most important questions, as it determines if we are written in the Lambs book. The second question is useless if we can't or haven't accepted Christ. If we have accepted Him, then this questions determines the level of treasures we have truly stored up in heaven. Thus it begs to ask, how will you answer these two most crucial of questions? Ponder these as you prepare to make Resolutions for the New Year and may they be a good part of your focus for this New Year and New Beginning we have in Christ.

The 1662 Book of Common Prayer continues to serve as a potent and powerful tool for establishing new Anglican communities. Discover how its straightforward, effective liturgy guides worshippers towards deeper faith and unity. https://lnkd.in/ezE86zYH

About New Century Ministries – Post 8 requirements for eternity As I mentioned in an earlier post, God cannot take people into his eternity if those people don’t trust him or if they haven’t learned to care about others. And having people who all care about each other is critical to making God’s eternity a paradise. So if some haven’t learned to trust him, sooner or later someone would try to take over and replace God, and that would be a disaster. (That was Eve’s main sin.) And if people haven’t learned to at least try to care about others, they’d bring selfishness, jealousy, greed, envy, and all sorts of evil with them and turn paradise into anything but a paradise. In the New Testament, Jesus used the word Gehenna to talk about hell. Gehenna was a valley outside of Jerusalem where the garbage was dumped. It was always smoldering or burning, and it stank. The message is that if we are on God’s team, we have nothing to fear, but if we aren’t on God’s team because we haven’t learned these critical lessons, God will have to send us to the garbage dump of hell. All he asks if for us to trust him, do what we know is right, and care about each other. That choice for eternity is a critical factor that motivates the faith in God and the compassionate care for others. Visit www.NCM-21.com for more information.

Part 8c of posts for Birth and Childhood of Jesus from The 21st Century New Testament Glossary found for free at www.NCM-21.com Neither such a conjunction in the stars nor any other similar event in the night sky would’ve sent these scholars to Israel unless they had some inspired message or revelation predicting what they observed as the sign of the Christ’s birth. As mentioned previously, Daniel and many Jews remained in the capital of Persia when other Jews were returning to their homeland, and Daniel or some other inspired messenger might’ve left a written prediction that these men relied on—a prediction now lost in history. Matthew’s record says that “after hearing what the king had learned about Bethlehem, they left Herod, and the star that they’d seen when it rose led them on. When they saw the star again, they were overjoyed, and it stood over the place where the toddler was living.” This seems to imply that the star led them to Bethlehem, especially given the wording in most other translations, but Matthew’s words could simply mean that seeing the star encouraged them to continue to a small rural town called Bethlehem. After all, these scholars had already received direction about where to go, so for this part of the trip, they didn’t need a star to guide them. But the renewed sight of the conjunction gave them confidence when they met the humble parents of the king they were looking for. If this conjunction of Jupiter and Regulus is the right explanation, the star didn’t point out the actual house where Joseph and his family were living. But as mentioned above, the message of the shepherds was still fresh in people’s minds, and just a few questions would’ve led these scholars to Joseph’s home. The bottom line is that in this world, we may never know what the star really was, but we’ve no reason to doubt Matthew’s account. The dates shown in this translation were selected to be consistent with the astronomical conjunction. Even if that wasn’t the star that these scholars saw, the dates must be close to right in order to match the start of the ministries of John and Jesus and the timing of Augustus’ registration and Herod’s death as addressed in other parts of this article.