Cleaning the minds in Naples

The last few days Naples may be back in the news because of the piles of garbage piling up. Nothing goods seems to come over the borders of Italy except that Duncan Heaster could visit a brother who runs a weekly Bible Basics class to which he gets a good attendance.

They work amongst the large African community in Naples, so in fact the message is getting out to people who have come from many parts of the world. They had a number of refugees from Libya and Algeria to visit them and they have tried to assist as best they can.The ecclesia meet three times / week and make good use of the various literature they've been sent by brother Marcus Heaster and the Christadelphian Advancement Trust. This UK registered charity mails out a huge amount of literature on the Truth each week, and without them the work of Carelinks would be much impeded.

After a lengthy period of worship and deep Bible study at the hall which the ecclesia several students decided to make the big step in to the water of cleansing.
The sisters especially emerged from the waters of baptism with such great joy and relief- they had been studying hard for a long time and had really come to this decision for baptism from a serious process of consideration:
         


You can find a video with by 2 year old Evija helping grandpa Heaster wrapping a parcel of Bible Basics and NEV NTs for Italy- May 2011

Antichrist and The Most Hated Family in America in crisis

In 2007 you could already see the  The Most Hated Family in America, with  the English broadcaster best known for his Gonzo style journalism Louis Sebastian Theroux (°1970)). The 2007 special, The Most Hated Family in America, garnered particular critical praise from the international media and showed us some weird  American pastor heading the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC), an independent Baptist church based in Topeka, Kansas which would be charged by God to inspect the fruits of those among whom we live.

Fred Phelps, who believes that the United States is "a sodomite nation of flag-worshipping idolators" is a self-described "Primitive Baptist" preacher fixated on the few Biblical passages that mention homosexuality. but from what we got to see in the documentary he never did use any Sripture passage. He is known for the slogans that he and his ministry use against people he deems sinful; his church is built around a core of anti-homosexual theology, with many of their activities stemming from the slogan "God hates fags", which is also the name of the group's main website.
According the website "GOD HATES FAGS" -- though elliptical -- would be a profound theological statement, which the world needs to hear more than it needs oxygen, water and bread.
All their sites seem to preach a lot of hatred. All of the printing presses, distribution channels and the world wide web were, according to them, designed by God to do two things: first, to be used as a platform for His faithful prophets to preach His word (Yes!), and second, to be a vehicle for the continual hardening of the hearts of the teeming masses of the reprobate.

Westboro Baptist Church is based in a circle of houses in a middle-class Topeka neighbourhood. In one house, Phelps raised his family, and eventually the neighbours' houses were purchased, effectively creating a compound. All the houses share a large fenced backyard.

To Phelps' congregation he is "Gramps" and seems to be a sort of god who is the only real prophet of God today, because all the other preachers and organisation would be false prophets.

The followers of  "Gramps' seem to have a doomy picture of today and tomorrow but laugh at the world and keep holding marches. WBC has conducted over 45,729 pickets, in all 50 states, in over 500 cities and towns in the 1038 - weeks that WBC has held daily pickets on the mean streets of the for them doomed America. they also seem to find it nice when people are run over by cars. Anny accident that happens to a person is a penalty from God for that person and his family. According to them God owns the SUV’s and knows how to roll every one of them! God uses the cars to run over people, and they are happy that by doing that God shows them they are doing Gods work here on earth.
It is God's judgements wich are everywhere. "God is in charge of everything, including your tornadoes, tsunamis, floods, famines, hurricanes, earthquakes, forest fires, mall shootings, IEDs, etc., etc. God will repay each of your to your face with your own personal GodSmack."

We in Belgium are doomed because we have a filthy way of life. Perhaps they will find it a prof that we do not have a government. But for them the voters choose for a government that voted Belgian laws providing for divorce in four circumstances, to wit:  adultery, excesses, physical or mental cruelty, and de facto separation. "Belgians are murdering thugs!"
"God Hates Belgium. " "Belgium was the second country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage thereby proving that her people are wicked sinners before God exceedingly ala ancient Sodom.  Even Sodom did not have same-sex marriage!  Your fag-enabling violence towards God parallels the antediluvian world, and will bring full and final, fiery destruction to this present world.  Praise the Lord!!  God Hates Belgium!" And then do not have it yet of the priest who rape boys, which got a total separate site: Priests Rape Boys: an air-tight, three word case against the Catholic church.

Not many countries can escape their language of hate. The UK, "the fags took over the country" has like many other countries received major God-smacks for centuries.
On their sites they use words as "You British Bastards" "the Brutes of Britain" "those idiots never get the message" and words I would not like to mention here, because I do not think they should be used by Christians.

Though Holland is as "The Netherlands" "the filthiest country in the world, bar none." not saved, there has been a student project and the girls got in further positive contacts. the Dutch people talk a lot on twitter with them.
But for the WBC Holland has been given wholly to the Sodomites in a hand basket by God. "The Netherlands is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor. Within the Netherlands, victims are often trafficked by so called “lover boys”—men who seduce young women and girls and coerce them into prostitution. Women and girls are trafficked to the Netherlands from Nigeria, Bulgaria, China, Sierra Leone, and Romania, as well as other countries in Eastern Europe, for sexual exploitation and, to a lesser extent, forced labour. Men are trafficked to the Netherlands from India, China, Bangladesh, and Turkey for forced labour and sexual exploitation. According to the Dutch National Rapporteur for Trafficking in Persons, the highest risk sectors for labour trafficking are domestic employment, temporary employment agencies, agriculture and horticulture, restaurants, hotels, and construction."


When I rewatched the documentary this weekend, before going to see the sequel, which shall be screened on Tuesday night on Canvas (VRT - Flemish Television channel 2) to me it looked a very frustrated man who could laugh with others and hide his face behind a façade, full of hate.
I wonder what is true about the accusations from his son Nate Phelps who alleged that, in addition to hurting others in this world, his father used to physically abuse his wife and children by beating them with his fists and the handle of a mattock to the point of bleeding.

Until the mid-1970s, the Phelps family's main income reportedly came from using the children to sell candy door to door for several hours each day. The children were also required to run several miles a day.
In 1994, Phelps was convicted for disorderly conduct for verbal harassment, and received two suspended 30-day jail sentences.


People should be warned according to the WBC Antichrist blog: "Behold the three legs of the Unholy Trinity: The Dragon (Satan), The Beast (Antichrist Obama) and the False Prophet (the Paedophile-enabler Pope). They have come to seal your doom while they vainly think they can overcome the Host of heaven. Here is their end, along with all of you maudlin, sickening sycophants: "And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone" (Rev 19:20). That's some change for you!!!"

Four years on from Louis's last visit, there are signs of disarray in the Phelps clan. A series of defections of family members has shaken up the church. It would be interesting to hear their voices now of those 'who unburdened the WBC'. What do they think happened with them and how do they look at what that did and said at that time?

The 'lady in red' Grams daughter Shirley, who years ago got a boyfriend, had premarital sex, got pregnant and had a son out of wedlock, does most of the day to day running, and preaches that everyone who does the same is perverted and hell-bound for their conduct - for ever.
She tells us again today that Obama is the one who is "fitting all the prescriptors" about the Antichrist. The Antichrist sitting in the most powerful office in the world.


Steve Drain, whose daughter Lauren left the church, has made a sign board with Louis to hell and talks about his further work in the organisation. He shows his video about the Jews wich looks more as a pastiche ith a certain humour and has the David star turning in a swastika, which would have been one of the signs God kicked our ... .

Lauren looks back at what she now calls 'a crazy church' where people can have the power over their feeling that they are right.

Who is the real Antichrist? What is coming up onto us? Is God punishing the people now?

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Louis Theroux - America's Most Hated Family in Crisis 1/4



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Fred Phelps Timeline
"BBC News – Anti-gay preachers banned from UK"
A BBC series of documentary films presented by Louis Theroux

Taking care of mother earth

Do we want to make the effort to treat the earth well, no matter what and where others might vandalize it?
Men manages to destroy lots of parts of his environment. Sometimes he does not seem to be aware that he destroys nature. If the earth is to be inevitably destroyed, like sin might destroy us, do we just let the earth go to its destruction?

Men has received the possibility to be master of this earth, meaning that he himself can take care of it. But it does not mean he has to be a dictator over it. We our selves have to take care in the first place of our selfs. It is a very difficult task to come to perfection, but that is what we should try to do. Even as we never quite reach perfection, that fact does not prevent us from talking about the high standard for us of God’s moral perspective.
We should know from the instructions given by God in His Word that God has a moral perspective. The idea of caring for one another and caring for our place on the earth moves us from a reward based faith to a place where we do good for good’s sake, or God’s sake.

Having a small position or a high place in our comunity we do have to take up our responsibility.

You can read how a Royal House tries to keep nature in good order:

Royals, mini busses and environment

As a Global Non-political group of individual Christians waiting for the return of the Lord Jesus Christ we want to take care of nature, the Creation of the Most High.

Dutch version / Nederlandse versie: Zorg dragen voor moeder natuur

English texts update

Update English texts:

Speaking in tongues

So often we do hear that we as Christians do have to speak in tongues. those who are not able to speak in tongues, what they ever may mean by it, would not be real believers endowed with the new born life. According to me speaking in tongues is not... more

Previous posts:
May 10	-	Understanding The Atonement
Apr 28	-	Holland Week of billing
Apr 23	-	Peter Cottontail and a Bunny laying Eastereggs
My Favorite posts:
Oct 29	-	Keeping an ecclesia in modern times
Jun 11	-	God or a god
Jun 9	-	Public meetings
May 28	-	How is it that Christ pleased God so perfectly?
May 24	-	God loving people justified
Feb 17	-	The Metaphorical language of the Bible
Feb 12	-	If you have integrity
Jan 29	-	The first on the list of the concerns of the saint
Jan 6	-	Rebirth and belonging to a church
Nov 3	-	Seeing the world through the lens of his own experience
Aug 26	-	God receives us on the basis of our faith
Jun 1	-	God does not change

Speaking in tongues

So often we do hear that we as Christians do have to speak in tongues. those who are not able to speak in tongues, what they ever may mean by it, would not be real believers endowed with the new born life.

According to me speaking in tongues is not speaking in gibberish or not uttering words which make no sense for others.
In the early centuries of Christianity and today to speak in tongues or languages was and is only useful when preaching in a foreign country where that language was or is spoken..

It is probable that the apostles were able to bestow Spirit gifts for as long as they lived (Acts 8:14-17); by which time the Christian Church would have attained maturity.
One may wonder how long the ministration of the Spirit gifts would continue.
This being so, any claim in later times to the possession of Holy Spirit gifts, especially speaking in tongues, does not agree with what we have found in the foregoing Scriptures and therefore should not be accepted as valid.

Read more about it in:

The Gifts of the Spirit – Speaking in Tongues

Understanding The Atonement

A new book entitled Understanding The Atonement by brother Matthew Trowell has just been published and lots of debates went on throughout the Christadelphian community.

It concerns one of those things which created a lot of dispute and perhaps some ridicule splits between Christadelphian friends and ecclesiae.
Even whith this publication there seem to be contradictions going around.

Richard Morgan  :Matthew is a Bible student and he doesn't use dead men's words to interpret ...the Scriptures.

One brother wrote: The Atonement is, as any Christadelphian should know, and as John Thomas so fervently argued in Elpis Israel, only one half of the gospel message. The Kingdom of God being the other half. And second, why state sufficient scriptural detail? Is this book a stripped down arguement of the Atonement with minimal scriptural support, in other words - The Atonement Lite?
An other brother reacted: "A quick review of the contents of this book shows that only 75 pages out of 220 pertain to the atonement. Most of the book is completely off topic." and rightly ads: "A Biblical approach would compare and contrast the scriptures, and not pick and choose writings of men to show our partisans were the good guys."

Dan Garan finds that: " It's not really intended as a preaching tool, but a resource for Christadelphians--to present the mainstream view of the atonement in simple terms and to contrast that with divergent views that have cropped up over the years."


Do you want to see through the mists of language and thought that have clouded this most wonderful of all themes in Scripture for far too long?    

You can buy the book: it is available to order or download a free PDF copy at http://www.understandingtheatonement.com/

1. The Purpose of God
2. The Nature of Man
3. The Nature of Christ
4. The Work of God
5. Our Hope in Christ
6. The First Extreme “Clean-Flesh”
7. The Second Extreme “Andrewism”
8. What is ‘Sin’?
9. A Sacrifice For Sin
10. How Did Christ Benefit?
11. Types and Shadows
12. False Conclusions
13. Sin is Real
14. Releasing The Angel Inside
15. Unity of The Faith
16. KEYS TO UNDERSTANDING THE ATONEMENT

Peter Cottontail and a Bunny laying Eastereggs

Flemish version / Vlaamse versie: Een Konijn dat Paaseiren legt

Where does one gets it from that a rabbit would lay eggs ? 

Tomorrow, Easter Sunday for many, will be that tradition to conceal eggs everywhere.  It will be a pleasant coming together and a chocolate feast.  Only can Christians participate really at that festival? 

Tomorrow, not on the 14th of Nissan, some celebrate what they call 'Easter'. Several Christians take it as the feast coming from the Pascha. for many Easter is the next important holiday, after Christmas.

Some years after Jesus' dead old heathen feasts became church festivals with change of name and worship by so called Christians. About 405ad images of saints and martyrs began to appear in the churches, at first as memorials, then in succession revered, adored, and worshipped. Jesse Lyman Hurlbut, a mainstream Protestant author, writing about the period between 313ad and 476ad acknowledges that the forms and ceremonies of paganism gradually crept into the worship. (As you also shall be able to find in the coming up articles on Belgian Biblestudents WP)

All scholars concede that the word "Pascha" from which the word "Easter" is translated is correctly rendered "Passover" and has no relation to Easter whatsoever. And, virtually all scholars recognize that the word "Easter" is simply a derivation of the name of the ancient goddess Ishtar or "Isis"—goddess of sex and fertility of the ancient Middle East. That, of course, is where "Easter eggs" come from—the pagan worship of sex and fertility.

"The word “Easter” is not in any reliable translation of the Bible, though it has been incorrectly translated as Easter (KJV) from the original word pascha, which is Passover.
In ancient Anglo-Saxon myth, the goddess Eostre/Ostara/Astarte, etc., is associated with the spring and fertility, the moon, and also personifies greeting the rising sun. To amuse children, Eostre changed her pet bird into a hare that layed brightly coloured eggs which the goddess gave to the children. Saxons held the pagan festival for Eostra on the vernal equinox, the beginning of spring."

Also we must make children nothing wise and take away our credibility through inept stories which we would present for real,  like clocks which would throw eggs or rabbits that would lay eggs. 

The Living Church of God has placed an article on the internet lots of Christians should took under consideration. They warn about the importance to remember what happened at the end of Jesus' human life and what he clearly did and instigated. Jesus observed the Passover and for us it is important that he that evening Break the Bread and took the Cup and said to all present to do it in remembrance.

> Easter Bunny or Eostre Hare By Roger Meyer


Warning: be carefull before you link to the article links in the Living Church of God Website: Compared to the past, when email was the key method for spreading viruses and spyware, now more than 80% of malware spreads via the internet. In fact, latest avast! Virus Lab research shows that 99% of it spreads through legitimate websites, with only 1% coming from suspicious or ‘dodgy’ sites. Personal information can be stolen in transit by spyware such as keyloggers and via infected websites through insecure internet connections. While internet users sometimes have the option of selecting secure DNS or HTTPS connections, multiple layers within many sites make this a complicated process. This security vulnerability is most critical for people that extensively shop and bank online.
The link URLS in the article were one from the 68,152 infected websites discover. So before you click on the links in the article of Church of God check your virus program that it is updated. It was good  my Avast blocked it.

Unsure about relevance Bible

Dutch version / Nederlandse versie: Onzeker over relevantie Bijbel

Perhaps you are unsure about the relevance of the Bible and do you consider it as just an other book in your language. But are the words which it brought over humankind not so more special then the ordinary daily word?

We are aware that many say that the Bible is a great hoax. But did those who laugh at it did dare to have a closer look at it. Did they dare to investigate it?
Have they not checked that it also could be a message of great relevance and help?

You should look at the evidence before you decide whether or not the Bible is worth looking at.

Have a look at the unique way similar ideas and principles run through the different books of the Bible, enhancing our understanding as we go.

Did you find the answers to life questions as:

• Why is there something rather than nothing?
• Is there some special creature that can call Him or herself God of gods? Who is it?
• How do you explain human nature?
• Why do we have to suffer?
• What happens to a person at death?
• How do you determine right and wrong?
• How do you know that you know?

Find out more on:

1. > Lifes big questions
2. > What is the evidence that the Bible is special?

Forbidden fruit

Most of us do know about 'forbidden fruit' (Genesis 3:) and don't want to be a 'scapegoat' (Levites16:8,10:26). We all want to be in the 'the land of the living' (Psalms 27:13, 142:5; Isaiah 53:8) and 'from strength to strength'  (Psalms 84:7) we want to go forwards, sometimes hoping that it would be 'for ever and ever' (Psalms 45:1-2, 21; Daniel 2:20; Revelation 11:15). But  how we turn it we are often 'lost sheep' (Matthew 10:6, 15:25) who need their 'daily bread' (Luke 11:3) as 'busybodies' (2 Thessalonians 3:11; 1 Timothy 5:13) we are not 'lukewarm'  (Revelation 3:16) to find the 'tree of life'  (Revelation 22:2).

Psalm 137 (Photo credit: Mouse)

Can you find the phrases which are word for word as they appear in the KJV Bible?

Have a look and find out more phrases which we use in our common language who were used many years ago in the Word of God.

Find out more: The Bible said it first
+ 
 

2014 March 29 update: Related articles

• Peace.
• Last June, Chris Martin Tasted Forbidden Fruit: An Oreo Milkshake
• Forbidden fruit
• Is "In The Air" God's Dwelling Place?
• The Reclamation Project - Part 1 - The Fruit Is Not Bad.
• Forbidden Fruit
• Does anybody still read the Bible?
• Right Turn Only (Kent Heaton)

A new exodus and offering of a Lamb

Lord's Evening Meal Instituted.

Over 15 centuries after the Exodus, on Nisan 14 of the year 33 C.E., Jesus gathered with his 12 apostles in Jerusalem to celebrate the last valid Passover, and then, having dismissed the traitorous Judas, he proceeded to institute the memorial of his death by means of the Lord's Supper, or Evening Meal. (Matthew 26:17-30; 1Corinthians 11:23-25)
Before Nisan 14 passed, he died as the Lamb of God.

On Nisan 16, the day the priest at the temple waved the firstfruits of the barley harvest, Jesus, as the firstfruits of the resurrection, was raised up to life again. (Luke 23:54-24:7; 1Corinthians 15:20).

What do we have to do? Remember?

In obedience to Christ's instructions, "Keep doing this in remembrance of me," the 14th day of Nisan continues to be observed by his followers till this day as the time for memorializing Christ's death. (Luke 22:19, 20)

The Hebrews began their day in the evening, after sunset, and ended it the next day at sunset. The day, therefore, ran from evening to evening. "From evening to evening you should observe your sabbath." (Levites 23:32) This follows the pattern of Jehovah's creative days, as indicated at Genesis 1:5: "There came to be evening and there came to be morning, a first day." (Compare Daniel 8:14).
The Hebrews were not the only ones who reckoned a day from evening to evening; the Phoenicians, Numidians, and Athenians also did so. The Babylonians, on the other hand, counted the day from sunrise to sunrise; while the Egyptians and the Romans reckoned it from midnight to midnight (as is commonly done today).

Day of remembrance coming near

A Ransomer and a free Gift of God to remember

"Every good gift and every perfect present" comes down from God, our heavenly Father. (James 1:17)

The Greatest gift that God has given to fallen mankind is provision for their recovery by means of his only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus' death as our Ransomer makes possible everlasting life on a paradise earth. At Luke 22:19, we are commanded to memorialize his death.

This day of remembrance is coming near. Shall we be able to meet you?

On the 13th of Nisan lots of people were busy making final arrangements for the Passover, also Jesus and his disciples. Early in the afternoon, Jesus had send Peter and John to prepare the Passover for them in an upper room in Jerusalem. (Mark 14:12-16; Luke 22:8) A little before sundown, Jesus and the other ten apostles met them there for their last Passover celebration.

Jesus had greatly desired to eat this passover with his close friends and told them he was going to suffer. (Luke 22:14, 15)
Jesus knew that one of these men—Judas Iscariot—had already arranged to betray him to the religious leaders. Understandably, he became very distressed. "One of you will betray me," he revealed. The apostles were highly grieved at this. (Matthew 26:21, 22) After celebrating the Passover, Jesus told Judas: "What you are doing get done more quickly."(John 13:27).

Once Judas had left, Jesus introduced a meal to commemorate his impending death. He took a loaf of the unleavened bread, expressed thanks in prayer, broke it, and instructed the 11 to partake. "This means my body," he sayd, "which is to be given in your behalf. Keep doing this in remembrance of me." He then took a cup of red wine. After saying a blessing, he passed the cup to them, telling them to drink out of it. Jesus added: "This means my 'blood of the covenant,' which is to be poured out in behalf of many for forgiveness of sins." (Luke 22:19, 20; Matthew 26:26-28).

During that momentous evening, Jesus taught his faithful apostles many valuable lessons, and among these the importance of brotherly love. (John 13:34, 35) He assured them that they were going to receive a "helper," the holy spirit. (John 14:26)
Later in the evening Jesus said a fervent prayer in their behalf. (John, chapter 17) After singing songs of praise, they left the upper room and followed Jesus out into the cool late-night air.

Sunday, April 17, we shall remember those moments and all the events of that night, when Judas Iscariot arrived with a crowd carrying swords, clubs, and torches in the the garden of Gethsemane. (John 18:1, 2; Luke 22:44; Matthew 26:47-52)
Jesus was arrested and bound, led away to Annas, the former high priest. Then he was taken to Caiaphas, the high priest, to be tried. In the early hours of the morning, the Sanhedrin falsely charged Jesus with blasphemy.

Caiaphas had him taken to Roman governor Pontius Pilate who got him send to Herod Antipas, the ruler of Galilee. Herod and his guards mocked Jesus were after they sent him back to Pilate, who confirmed Jesus innocence. But the Jewish religious leaders pressured him to condemn Jesus to death. After considerable verbal and physical abuse, Jesus was taken out to Golgotha where he was mercilessly nailed to a torture stake and suffered an agonizing death. (Mark 14:50-15:39; Luke 23:4-25)

It would have been the greatest tragedy in history if Jesus' death had brought a permanent end to his life. Happily, that was not the case. On Nisan 16, 33 C.E., his disciples were amazed to find that he had been raised from the dead. In time, more than 500 people were able to  verify that Jesus was again alive. And 40 days after his resurrection, a group of faithful followers saw him ascend to heaven. (Acts 1:9-11; 1 Corinthians 15:3-8).

Luke 22:14-71:
14 At length when the hour came, he reclined at the table, and the apostles with him. 15 And he said to them: “I have greatly desired to eat this passover with YOU before I suffer; 16 for I tell YOU, I will not eat it again until it becomes fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” 17 And, accepting a cup, he gave thanks and said: “Take this and pass it from one to the other among yourselves; 18 for I tell YOU, From now on I will not drink again from the product of the vine until the kingdom of God arrives.” 19 Also, he took a loaf, gave thanks, broke it, and gave it to them, saying: “This means my body which is to be given in YOUR behalf. Keep doing this in remembrance of me.”
20 Also, the cup in the same way after they had the evening meal, he saying: “This cup means the new covenant by virtue of my blood, which is to be poured out in YOUR behalf. 21 “But, look! the hand of my betrayer is with me at the table. 22 Because the Son of man is going his way according to what is marked out; all the same, woe to that man through whom he is betrayed!” 23 So they started to discuss among themselves the question of which of them would really be the one that was about to do this. 24 However, there also arose a heated dispute among them over which one of them seemed to be greatest. 2
5 But he said to them: “The kings of the nations lord it over them, and those having authority over them are called Benefactors. 26 YOU, though, are not to be that way. But let him that is the greatest among YOU become as the youngest, and the one acting as chief as the one ministering. 27 For which one is greater, the one reclining at the table or the one ministering? Is it not the one reclining at the table? But I am in YOUR midst as the one ministering.28 “However, YOU are the ones that have stuck with me in my trials; 29 and I make a covenant with YOU, just as my Father has made a covenant with me, for a kingdom, 30 that YOU may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones to judge the twelve tribes of Israel. 31 “Simon, Simon, look! Satan has demanded to have YOU men to sift YOU as wheat. 32 But I have made supplication for you that your faith may not give out; and you, when once you have returned, strengthen your brothers.” 33 Then he said to him: “Lord, I am ready to go with you both into prison and into death.” 34 But he said: “I tell you, Peter, A cock will not crow today until you have three times denied knowing me.” 35 He also said to them: “When I sent YOU forth without purse and food pouch and sandals, YOU did not want for anything, did YOU?” They said: “No!” 36 Then he said to them: “But now let the one that has a purse take it up, likewise also a food pouch; and let the one having no sword sell his outer garment and buy one. 37 For I tell YOU that this which is written must be accomplished in me, namely, „And he was reckoned with lawless ones.‟ For that which concerns me is having an accomplishment.” 38 Then they said: “Lord, look! here are two swords.” He said to them: “It is enough.” 39 On going out he went as customarily to the Mount of Olives; and the disciples also followed him. 40 Having come to the place he said to them: “Carry on prayer, that YOU do not enter into temptation.”
41 And he himself drew away from them about a stone‟s throw, and bent his knees and began to pray, 42 saying: “Father, if you wish, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, let, not my will, but yours take place.” 43 Then an angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him.
44 But getting into an agony he continued praying more earnestly; and his sweat became as drops of blood falling to the ground. 45 And he rose from prayer, went to the disciples and found them slumbering from grief; 46 and he said to them: “Why are YOU sleeping? Rise and carry on prayer, that YOU do not
enter into temptation.” 47 While he was yet speaking, look! a crowd, and the [man] called Judas, one of the twelve, was going before them; and he approached Jesus to kiss him.
48 But Jesus said to him: “Judas, do you betray the Son of man with a kiss?” 49 When those about him saw what was going to happen, they said: “Lord, shall we strike with the sword?” 50 A certain one of them even did strike the slave of the high priest and took off his right ear. 51 But in reply Jesus said: “LET it go as far as this.” And he touched the ear and healed him. 52 Jesus then said to the chief priests and captains of the temple and older men that had come there for him: “Did YOU come out with swords and clubs as against a robber?

53 While I was with YOU in the temple day after day YOU did not stretch out YOUR hands against me. But this is YOUR hour and the authority of darkness.” 54 Then they arrested him and led him off and brought him into the house of the high priest; but Peter was following at a distance. 55 When they lit a fire in the midst of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter was sitting in among them. 56 But a certain servant girl saw him sitting by the bright fire and looked him over and said: “This man also was with him.” 57 But he denied it, saying: “I do not know him, woman.” 58 And after a short time another person seeing him said: “You also are one of them.” But Peter said: “Man, I am not.” 59 And after about an hour intervened a certain other [man] began insisting strongly: “For a certainty this [man] also was with him; for, in fact, he is a Gal·i·le´an!” 60 But Peter said: “Man, I do not know what you are saying.” And instantly, while he was yet speaking, a cock crowed. 61 And the Lord turned and looked upon Peter, and Peter recalled the utterance of the Lord when he said to him: “Before a cock crows today you will disown me three times.” 62 And he went outside and wept bitterly. 63 Now the men that had him in custody began to make fun of him, hitting him; 64 and after covering him over they would ask and say: “Prophesy. Who is it that struck you?” 65 And they went on saying many other things in blasphemy against him. 66 At length when it became day, the assembly of older men of the people, both chief priests and scribes, gathered together, and they haled him into their San´he·drin hall, saying: 67 “If you are the Christ, tell us.” But he said to them: “Even if I told YOU, YOU would not believe it at all. 68 Moreover, if I questioned YOU, YOU would not answer at all. 69 However, from now on the Son of man will be sitting at the powerful right hand of God.” 70 At this they all said: “Are you, therefore, the Son of God?” He said to them: “YOU yourselves are saying that I am.” 71 They said: “Why do we need further witness? For we ourselves have heard [it] out of his own mouth.” (NWT)

Bethézer providing relief

Dutch version / Nederlandse versie: Bethézer voorziet verlichting

Bethézer is taken from two Hebrew words and means House of Help. Bethézer’s founders chose these words because they aptly express the organisation’s underlying purpose of providing welfare, relief and developmental aid to the poor and needy in Southeast Asia and Oceania.

Bethézer projects attempt to provide members of the Christadelphian community, not just the option of contributing financially to a humanitarian alternative to popular aid funds, but also provide an opportunity to be involved in the actual project’s themselves.
Bethézer projects are designed to facilitate preaching opportunities and it is our desire to support the work undertaken by mission organisations such as the ACBM (Australasian Christadelphian Bible Mission) and CBM (Christadelphian Bible Mission). The ‘Phnom Penh Dormitory projects’ operating in Phnom Penh, Cambodia are linked closely with the ACBM manned ‘Bible Education Centre’ (BEC). ACBM missionaries attend the dormitories daily for teaching support. Students from the dormitories also study at the BEC regularly and have significant contact with BEC teaching.

Bethézer has also become involved in Vanuatu, where the early education of up to 100-plus village children has been enhanced by the construction of a new school building and the operation of a private, Christadelphian primary school. Work on a second building, which will help cater for the over-abundance of students enrolled. The new Christadelphian school includes in its curriculum an agricultural program with the goal of eventually improving diet. And it also has a slot of time for instruction in Bible lessons and principles.


Bethézer began to build a relationship with the ACBM and co-ordinate projects and activities with the relevant regional committees tasked with mission activities in Vanuatu, Cambodia and East Timor. As a matter of principle, Bethézer has sought to obtain the support and agreement of the South Australian, New Zealand and Tasmanian regional committees for the new projects.

Find out more > Christadelphian Bethézer Fund, spreading the Good News

A prophet to restore

Isaiah, of Jerusalem wanted to be a servant of God the Allmighty and ministered from the year King Uzziah died (740/39), through the reigns of Jotham (740/39), Ahaz (732/31-716/715) and Hezekiah (716/15-687/86).

There is no instance where the prophets regard themselves as the inspired founders of a new spiritual religion, but everywhere they regard themselves as the restorers and reformers of a religion already in being and known to their auditors. Isaiah wanted as a servant to God bring the world Gods Message. Isaiah calls the people to repentance, and are assures that blessing should follow repentance.
There shall come judgement of the wicked and a restoration of the righteous remnant. Those who want to listen shall be able to put their hopes in the Promises of God, who shall not leave them alone. The Good Tidings is about an ordinary man who shall give up his life, having done nothing wrong. He will be placed higher and shall be recognised as the Messiah who shall restore the kingdom to Israel in that day of the earth’s glory.

Do you want to read more about the first messenger, the greatest of the prophets of the Old Testament, and the other messenger, the first messenger of the New Covenant? Please do read our new articles:

Proclaiming shalom, bringing good news of good things, announcing salvation

Isaiah’s Book of the Messenger of Glad Tidings

Isaiah prophet and messenger of God

Asherah called the wife of God

The Bible's Buried Secrets
BBC's Religion and Ethics

Mixing one religion with an other is a theme of every day. So, the ancient Israelites did not escape it either.

In 1967, Raphael Patai was the first historian to mention that the ancient Israelites worshiped both Yahweh and Asherah. The theory has gained new prominence due to the research of Francesca Stavrakopoulou, who began her work at Oxford and is now a senior lecturer in the department of Theology and Religion at the University of Exeter and presents Bible's Buried Secrets. Francesca Stavrakopoulou's passion for the Bible springs directly from the fact that it's such a fantastic and diverse collection of texts that can tell us something about the beliefs, concerns and cultures of the people who wrote them.
Information presented in Stavrakopoulou's books, lectures and journal papers has become the basis of a three-part documentary series, now airing in Europe on the BBC, where she discusses the Yahweh-Asherah connection.
According to her the Bible itself contains many different versions of the past it seeks to describe, and some of these are often the stories that are more commonly overlooked.
So the legitimate nature of the worship of the goddess Asherah was an obvious story to tell in the documentary series, as was the alternative view of the Garden of Eden presented in biblical books beyond Genesis.

"You might know him as Yahweh, Allah or God. But on this fact, Jews, Muslims and Christians, the people of the great Abrahamic religions, are agreed: There is only one of Him," writes Stavrakopoulou in a statement released to the British media. "He is a solitary figure, a single, universal creator, not one God among many ... or so we like to believe."

J. Edward Wright, president of The Arizona Center for Judaic Studies and The Albright Institute for Archaeological Research, backs Stavrakopoulou's findings, saying several Hebrew inscriptions mention “Yahweh and his Asherah." He adds Asherah was not entirely edited out of the Bible by its male editors.

"Traces of her remain, and based on those traces... we can reconstruct her role in the religions of the Southern Levant," he told Discovery News.

Aaron Brody, director of the Bade Museum and an associate professor of Bible and archaeology at the Pacific School of Religion, says the ancient Israelites were polytheists, with only a “small majority” worshipping God alone. He says it was the exiling of an elite community within Judea and the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 586 B.C that lead to a more "universal vision of strict monotheism." (via Discovery News)
Stavrakopoulou bases her theory on ancient texts, amulets and figurines unearthed primarily in the ancient Canaanite coastal city called Ugarit, now modern-day Syria. All of these artifacts reveal that Asherah was a powerful fertility goddess.
Asherah's connection to Yahweh, according to Stavrakopoulou, is spelled out in both the Bible and an 8th century B.C. inscription on pottery found in the Sinai desert at a site called Kuntillet Ajrud.
J. Edward Wright, president of both The Arizona Center for Judaic Studies and The Albright Institute for Archaeological Research, told Discovery News that he agrees several Hebrew inscriptions mention "Yahweh and his Asherah."
"Asherah was not entirely edited out of the Bible by its male editors," he added. "Traces of her remain, and based on those traces, archaeological evidence and references to her in texts from nations bordering Israel and Judah, we can reconstruct her role in the religions of the Southern Levant."
BLOG: Atheists Best Informed About Religion
Asherah -- known across the ancient Near East by various other names, such as Astarte and Istar -- was "an important deity, one who was both mighty and nurturing," Wright continued.
"Many English translations prefer to translate 'Asherah' as 'Sacred Tree,'" Wright said. "This seems to be in part driven by a modern desire, clearly inspired by the Biblical narratives, to hide Asherah behind a veil once again."
"Mentions of the goddess Asherah in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) are rare and have been heavily edited by the ancient authors who gathered the texts together," Aaron Brody, director of the Bade Museum and an associate professor of Bible and archaeology at the Pacific School of Religion, said.
Asherah as a tree symbol was even said to have been "chopped down and burned outside the Temple in acts of certain rulers who were trying to 'purify' the cult, and focus on the worship of a single male god, Yahweh," he added.
SLIDE SHOW: Sacred Techs: Religion and Spirituality 2.0

Find out more > God's wife, Asherah, was a powerful fertility goddess, according to a theologian.

Read more: http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/03/22/fertility-goddess-asherah-was-gods-wife-edited-out-of-the-bible

> The Bible's Buried Secrets

Walking to help fund

Christadelphian Meal-a-Day Fund does excellent work providing clean water, food, agricultural development, basic education and basic healthcare in many of the less developed parts of the world.

Jane Edwards and Suzanne Beardsmore have set themselves 2 challenges, firstly to walk 40 miles across the Ridgeway in less than 14 hours on May 7th...this is a warm up for their 2nd challenge, which is a centurion race.....walking 100 miles in Surrey in 24 hours on 2nd-3rd July. 

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They want to raise money, to help fund more wheelchairs for the children, and to pay for the upkeep of those that they already have, through Cmad , specifically for the Happy school in Durban, South Africa.This is a special school for disabled children, run by Ms Happy Shoba.

To find out more about Happys school, visit;

www.help4happys.co.uk

-to find out more about Suzanne and Jan their training, visit their training blog;

www.teaandblisters.blogspot.com/

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate.

So please dig deep and donate now.

> Just Give: Tea and blisters

Are Christadelphians so Old Fashioned?

Dutch version / Nederlandse versie: Zijn Christadelphians zo 'Old fashioned'?

The ‘Sunday Reading’ from The Christadelphian (90.1072.309), 1953 is quoted and called 'old fashioned’ by popular opinion but numerous professional studies confirm their opinion about what we do have to encounter or the many sexualized content is damaging.
Today we can find an over sexualized media content and do find an attitude by people that it is just great to have good fun. When we hear some people at work speak about partners it looks like they are changing them as they are changing their underwear.

Today we have to face the many divorces and difficulties in households and in schools, but no wonder.

• Numerous studies have shown a connection between stereotypical attitudes about women’s sexuality and aggressive sexual behaviour. Several have shown that women and men exposed to sexually objectifying images from mainstream media were significantly more accepting of rape myths, sexual harassment, sex role stereotypes, interpersonal violence, and adversarial sexual beliefs about relationships.’, Bailey, ‘Consequences Of the Sexualization of Girls: American Psychological Association Report Part IV’, From Now On: The Newsletter of the Montgomery County Chapter of the National Organization for Women (2007).
• The mass media have been shown to affect a broad range of adolescent health-related attitudes and behaviours including violence, eating disorders, and tobacco and alcohol use.
• Youth exposure to sexual content on television shapes sexual attitudes and behaviour in a manner that may influence reproductive health outcomes.
• Pornography tends to see sexual practices as divorced from any tender considerations for one’s partner There is plenty of evidence that it sometimes does harm.
• Worse even than the violence and the ridicule of all the kindly virtues is the preoccupation with sex.
• Today there is a stimulation of the wrong kind of emotions by making sex, drink and the different ways of having “a good time".
• Let the conning of certain modern magazines be utterly banned, and let the modern sex-ridden novel—one of the curses of this generation—be wisely consigned to the dustbin.

Read:Sexualized media & sex education
+ Social effects of media
+ Social effects of divorce

To belong to = toebehoren

To belong to

Dutch original version: Toebehoren

One can belong to someone or to something or get by someone. A person can when he belongs be subjected or submitted to someone or be the property or possession of someone.

Under the key word or tag “toebehoren” (to belong to / belonging to) you will find mainly articles that go over the vassalage or which concerns giving oneself vassalage or finding himself self as possession of someone or something else, like to anger, the world, people, or to Jesus or in the best circumstances to God.

Belonging to (“toebehoren”) implies that one belongs there to and wants to make en inherent part of. It is an implicit action of dispossession or act of surrender or vassalage in solidarity. It is the surrender of the self, wanting to bind the dispossession of itself to that or to the one whom one wants to belong to. One wants to be part or constitute of that to which the person wants to be connected with or to be related to. The binding to the thing or person is by willing to give the own personality in subjection to the other.

Originating from the Indo-European  (Indo-German) ekklèsia and the Greek verb the ekklèsiadzö: (folkmeeting / gathering of the people) the assembly or public meeting or to convene also “to conduct there the word” indicates the gathering or coming together of them which have prepared themselves to attach themselves to the Lord they want to come under. The ekklesia (Gr. EKKX7/vla, of EK, of, EK, and KaXEiv, to clamour, to cry, weep, call out, making noice) brings together those people who are kyriakón (kirk signaling “from the lord originating” or “belonging to the lord”, “ the, lord belonging”). Belonging to God also indicates that one feels oneself at home by him and is happy to be under His custody. One wishes to put oneself at the service of God and in solidarity one can be then the group belonging to God or the belonging ones, or the ecclesia, also known as the ‘church”.

From the Greek word and term ekklèsia the Romanesque words for church have originated: église (Fr.), chiesa (It.), iglesia (Sp.), igreja (Port.) as well as the words kirk, kirke, kirch, church.

Belonging to also means being part of, being devoted to, attached to, but also being one of mind.

Being affiliated, to be part of, to be a member of

accompanying, originating, included, enclosed, being attached to, adherent at, inherent at,

including, implicitly.

To fit, to harmonize, to agree

constitute by, to level by, part from, in the terms, come under, being intrinsic, inherent.
the solidarity, attachment
attach to, appertain to

cum annexis, with ap- and dependence , dependency

enclose, to understand, imply

Cosmos creator and human destiny

Author challenges 'new atheists' on man's origins 
Apologetics 'icon' takes on Darwin, Dawkins and others"Cosmos, Creator and Human Destiny," by Dave Hunt offers a devastating critique of the breathtaking speculation that the new atheists employ:

"What the average person believes to be his or her inner motives, desires or deepest thoughts, says Dawkins and other new atheists, are really the product of evolution turning each person into a puppet of the impersonal forces of natural selection!"

 Hunt writes.

 "You think you think, but you really don't. It's your selfish genes doing the thinking for you, and you are a meaningless lump of protein molecules."

In essence, Hunt points out time and again the absurd speculations and attempts at logic that are the hallmark of aggressive atheists today, who are the spiritual children of Huxley and Spencer.

Hunt's meticulous research, which is legendary, is on display here as well. Writing about the first steps toward faith taken by former atheist Anthony Flew in 2004, Hunt describes the tactics employed by Flew's former bedfellows:

"Unwilling to lose one of their most famous stars, the atheists have tried to discredit this book by Flew,"

Hunt writes.

 "There have been suggestions that he is elderly and senile, unable to write the book himself."

 Flew, however, and his publisher, HarperCollins, vigorously denied this. It is another example of the petulance of what the Bible calls fools – those who deny the Creator who gave them the breath in their bodies.

Read more: Author challenges 'new atheists' on man's origins http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=275481#ixzz1Gk1SPrYO

+++

2014 January update:

Related articles

• Pigliucci to all New Atheists: we're doing it wrong
• 15 Ways Atheists Can Be Even More Assertive
• 15 ways atheists can stand up for rationality
• Evolutionary argument for Christianity or, why Atheists should convert
• The Undergraduate Atheists, Unamuno, and Johnson
• The Perils of 'Pop' Philosophy
• Is it Time to Move on from the New Atheism?
• The 'Best Arguments For God's Existence' Are Actually Terrible
• An atheist explains the real consequences of adopting an atheistic worldview
• What are the "best" arguments for God? More kudos (and raspberries) for David Bentley Hart's new book.

Meeting - Vergadering

Under the tag "vergadering" or "meeting" you shall be able to find articles on the act or process of people coming together organised as an assembly, or to come face to face with, to company of like minded people or with others for a common purpose or for a conference, session or sitting, either to hear others speak, exchange ideas, to be introduced to, to find or experience, or to encounter in unison or in conflict. The meeting is a gathering of two or more people that has been convened for the purpose of achieving a common goal through verbal interaction, such as sharing information or reaching agreement. On these pages, mainly it shall handle the appointment of brothers and sisters in Christ or the rendezvous of religious people.

See also:
to gather; come together; get together, come together; congregate (people) forgather (vergadering/omgaan) gather (people/bijeenkomen/verzamelen van mensen) group (people) meet (vergadering) , holding a reunion,

in Dutch: Verzamelen, vergaderen, zitting houden, samen komen, treffen, bijeenkomen, verzamelen van mensen, zich verzamelen, groeperen, samenrotten, ontmoeten, reüniëren, omgaan, saam gaan, samen gaan

in German (Duits): zusammenkomen; zusammentreffen; sammeln; sich versammeln; vereinen

in French (Frans): se réunir; assembler; rassembler; s'assembler; se rencontrer; accumuler;

Find more about coming together and meeting:
Congregate, to gather, to meet
Congregation - Congregatie
Parish, local church community - Parochie, plaatselijke kerkgemeenschap

And about the reasons why to come together:
Bad habits are like a comfortable bed
Church sent into the world

Or about getting together as the first Christians did to meet each other and to pray: Works of The First Century Ecclesia or to be Working for God
Either coming together as members or not as members: Is membership important?

***

Onder de etikettering "vergadering" of "ontmoeting" zal u artikelen kunnen vinden die handelen over de daad of het proces waarbij mensen tezamen komen of die een georganiseerde bijeenkomst uitroepen als een vergadering, om met elkaar in confrontatie te gaan of van gedachten te wisselen, al of niet met één en hetzelfde gemeenschappelijk doel of voor een conferentie, sessie, zitting of om anderen te horen spreken, ideeën uit te wisselen, om voorgesteld te worden, om dingen te vinden of te ervaren of een ontmoeting aan te gaan in eenstemmigheid of in conflict. De meeting is een bijeenkomst van twee of meer mensen die zijn samengeroepen teneinde het bereiken van een gemeenschappelijk doel door mondelinge wisselwerking, zoals het delen van informatie of het bereiken van een overeenkomst. Op deze pagina's zal het hoofdzakelijk de bijeenkomst van broeders en zusters in Christus of de rendez-vous van godsdienstige mensen behandelen.

Zie ook de bovenstaande linken

En vindt meer over het verzamelen en bijeenkomen in:
Verzamelen, bijeenkomen, samenkomen, vergaderen
Congregatie
Parochie

Aanverwant kan u ook lezen:
Gemiste bijeenkomst ook een gemiste kans
De ecclesia als lichaam van Christus
Maken van een kerk
In een bijeenkomst samenkomen om te debatteren, overeen te komen of geschillen te bespreken en op te lossen, al of niet samen te gaan met anderen: Al of niet toegeven aan de wereld + Kerkgroei en samengaan
Groei in karakter
Samen komen zoals de eerste Christenen deden om te vergaderen maar ook om te bidden: Eerste eeuw Ecclesia