"...You need to stay close to your preacher! You need to stay close to your church! When the enemy is all around... it will be your relationship with your church that will get you out of trouble!" - Ad for - "We are the United Pentecostal Church" ...or Things the Bible Never said.
"Stay close to your church"?
Do you know in Christendom … church = circular = circe = pagan worship!
“Sun-God” Worship in Christendom …
“Sun-God” Worship in Christendom … church = circular = circe = pagan worship!
Does “ecclesia” actually mean church?
Churches and church are terms used by the redactors and ancients to describe pagan houses of worship. Ecclesiastical houses of worship that the prophets, disciples, and apostles worshipped and assembled in were not called churches, they were called assemblies, congregations, tabernacles, or synagogues. Lets look at the term church more closely so we can understand where it came from and how it fits in to current Christian dogma.
Church
“Church – The etymology of this word is generally assumed to be from the Greek kuriou oikos (house of God); but this is most improbable, as the word existed in all the Celtic dialects long before the introduction of Greek. No doubt the word means “a circle”. The places of worship among the German and Celtic nations were always circular (Welsh, cyrch; French, cirque; Scotch, kirk; Greek, kirk-os, etc.). Compare Anglo-Saxon circe, a church, with circol, a circle. (The Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894).
“The Myth of Kirke” by Robert Brown, p. 22 gives detailed meaning derived from its multiple usages during the Greco-Roman world of antiquity, and concludes that its meaning is “circle” or “circular”. Brown further adds that it was also a proper noun. Not only did it denote a building, facility, or monument that was “circular”, but also, one of its primary meanings was its relationship to the goddess of the ancient world “Circe” or “Kirke”, who was the pagan goddess of the Greco-Roman Sun god which has been pictured in ancient and classical pictures as holding a golden cup in her hand with wine and various kinds of intoxicants”.
Where did the word “church” actually originate from? What we’ve been able to determine is that the word “church” has always referred to pagan temples of worship, which were circular. The meaning of the word “church” does not bear any resemblance whatsoever to the meanings of “ekklesia” or “qahal”. It appears that “church” was derived from pagan sources, and had attachments to pagan deities. The meaning of “church” translates to circe. Who is Circe?
Any encyclopaedia, or dictionary of mythology, will reveal who Circe was. She was the goddess-daughter of Helios, the Sun-deity!
The word Church derived from Circe is a proper noun and as illustrated is the name of a pagan goddess and the daughter of Helios a sun god who is venerated by the Catholics as well as Protestants who have dedicated a day of worship to him (Helios) as Sunday or the Sun’s Day!.
John (Yochanan) 3:3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Did Jesus come to start a new religion? No!
What does this really mean to be born again? Jesus talked about this in John 3:3
John 3:3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, (as a Torah observant Jew) he cannot see the kingdom of God.
What is the true meaning of this Jewish idiom “to be born again?"
Being born again is a Jewish idiom of when a gentile who wants to convert to Judaism go through the process of becoming a Jew, then would do an immersion "a mikvah" and then come up as a new creation and in every which way he would be considered Jewish!
So this is the idea being born again "that Jesus spoke about in John 3:3" it was the process of a gentile becoming a Jew! Even those of a Jewish heritage would rededicate their lives to God and have mikvah.
“Born again” is not a Christian term? It is a Jewish term!
• When Gentiles converted to Judaism, they were said to be born again.
• When a man was crowned king, he was said to be born again.
• When a Jewish boy has a bar mitzvah at the age of 13, he is said to be born again.
• When a Jewish person marries, he is said to be born again.
• When a Jewish person is ordained as a Rabbi, he is said to be born again.
• When a Jewish person becomes the head of a rabbinical school, he is said to be born again.
Jesus told Nicodemus, a teacher in Israel, “Except a man be born of water and the Spirit (Spirit of Truth which is being Torah observant), he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”
To “be born of water” was a Jewish expression for physical birth.
However, physical birth by itself is not sufficient to provide entrance into the Kingdom of God.
Man must be born of the Spirit – “Spirit of Truth” which is a metaphor for Torah, being Torah observant.
“And no man has ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man which is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up: That whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” John 3:13-15
1John 2:4 He who says, "I know Him," (Yeshua) and does not keep His commandments (God's laws), is a liar, and the truth (Torah) is not in him
There is one God – the Jewish God,
Deuteronomy 6:4 "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one!
Deuteronomy 6:5 "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.
There is one salvation – God alone is salvation
If gentiles refuse to accept the Jewish God and the Jewish Messiah, they will suffer the same consequences as Jewish people who refuse to accept the Jewish God.
Exodus 12:49" One law (Torah) shall be for the native-born and for the stranger who dwells among you."
Revelation 14:12 Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. (The faith of Yeshua is to simply believe in His mission as Messiah of Israel.)
John 3:1 There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews:
John 3:2 The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.
John 3:3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
John 3:4 Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born? (A rhetorical question usually done in exaggeration or humor)
John 3:5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
John 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
John 3:7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
Go to Hell?
Who's Going to Hell?
The Valley of Gehenna as it looks today.
Valley of Gehenna (One Hell?)
Going to hell has been quite a fear for thousands of years and it has been a major reason that people have unflinchingly followed their religions teachings.
What is hell and where does the word come from. According to many academic sources, there are several words that were in original Biblical texts written separately, but were all translated in the King James version as hell. The words are hades, tartaros and gehenna and all of them have different meanings.
To complicate maters more, there is also the Hebrew word sheol which like hades, means grave or pit, which can also be mixed up in this debate, because it is used in the Old Testament in place of the word hades.
First of all "hell" is an old English word that originally meant a hole in the ground. At the time the King James version of the Bible was translated, people in England reportedly spoke of putting their potatoes in hell for the winter to keep them from rotting, it meant a hole in the ground and also may have meant a grave.
Starting with the word hades, which is used 11 times in the New Testament, we see a pattern of possible mis-translation. Hades, is a Greek word which like sheol is more accurately translated as a pit or hole in the ground where the dead are placed. Neither the word hades or the word sheol refers to a place of fire or of eternal punishment, but both are translated as hell in the King James version, which to Bible readers means the place of eternal damnation.
The word "tartaros" is translated as the word "hell" in II Peter 2:4. "For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell (tartaroo in the original texts), and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgement..." The Greeks used this word to describe the place where Zeus confined the rebellious Titans and the Bible refers to it in II Peter 2:4 as where the angels that followed Satan were cast, but it does not refer to it as a place where humans are cast. In SRSR's opinion, tartaroos (translated as hell in King James Verson) is probably meant as the place where Satan and his legions are said to be cast, not humans who have missed the mark.
A third word that has been translated as hell is "gehenna", coming from the Hebrew words Gai Hinnom, meaning "valley of Hinnom." This valley of Hinnom is a real place located south by southwest of Jerusalem. Today Gai Hinnom is reported to be a fairly nice place, with at least some grass and flowers growing there. In Biblical times however it was a place where pagan rites, possibly even infant sacrifices may have occured.
It was thus considered an unclean place by the Israelites and was used as a dump for the bodies of criminals, animals, garbage and sewage. Fires are said to have burned there continuously because of the supply of "fuel" and to reduce the foul odor. It is natural that became known as a place of evil and ruination.
SRSR believes that serious study shows that when the Bible talks about destruction in hell (gehenna) it means complete and final destruction, but not necessarily eternal or constant torture. The Bible, SRSR believes, does speak of eternal life, but not eternal punishment, instead it speaks of final and permanent destruction of the souls and bodies of the "wicked."
In Matthew 10:28 Jesus says, "fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." Originally the word gehenna was used here and the word hell was used starting with the King James version. Similarly gehenna is translated as hell in Mathew 23:33, "Ye serpents...how can ye escape the damnation of hell?", here he is talking about the Pharasees.
In Malachi 4:1-3, this prophet speaking of the Day of the Lord, says,"For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them up saith the Lord of hosts, that it will leave them neither root nor branch..." SRSR see's this as more evidence that the Bible may originally have meant that the "damned" will be permanently terminated, not eternally tortured and this is perhaps more in tune with a loving and just God.
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