Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Finish the race

The Apostle Paul often found himself in dangerous situations. He was in prison, or under house arrest (I guess the Romans made him wear a GPS ankle bracelet)? He had to hide and escape and run from those seeking to harm him. But there was a courageous dude named Demas that stood by his side during a time when Paul was imprisoned by the Romans. During that time it wasn't really cool or even safe to be a Believer.

When Demas' name is mentioned during Paul's' missionary journeys, only good things were said about him. But somehow, like many people today, he got disenchanted with the church and left. Paul tells us in 2nd Timothy 4:10 that "Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world". My translation is that Demas liked what the world had to offer more than what the church or our Lord had to offer.

When I say "world" I don't mean people, we should love everyone, no exceptions". But the "world" means; things of the world. Power, fame, money, ourselves or anything that appeals to our flesh more than the things of God. There may not even be anything wrong in those things in themselves? Matthew tells us to "seek ye first the kingdom of God, then all these other things will be given to you as well".

I hope I see Demas in heaven. And I just might. He may have been born again and just found out it was to much for him to continue on in his faith with all the goodies the world has to offer? Or maybe he was never truly born again? I don't
know. But with so many people today, even many Pastors leaving the church for the world, I wonder?

Dueces Mooses, feeno

14 comments:

  1. Have you ever wondered how much influence others had on Paul's writings?

    Just curious.

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  2. Tristan- Great question. Cannot wait to hear that answer.

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  3. I find a strange dislike for the material world coming out of the New Testament. It is quite apart from the Old Testament, which paints Earth as a gift from God, though one cursed by man's sin. Paul seems to have blended his understanding of Plato's dualism with Judaism to describe the world as something inherently evil that man much transcend through knowledge of Jesus.

    Another thing to consider is that Paul is nothing but a man. Demas may not have done anything wrong. In fact, what if Demas saw the faults in Paul's ideology and simply moved on? Paul would likely condemn the decision of Demas to part ways and use it as another instance to advocate his self-supporting delusion.

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  4. W'dup T-Vick

    I'm sure you asked that question for a reason, so I'll wait for your response. But the easy answer from what the Bible clearly teaches is that the Apostle Paul went to the "Jerusalem Bible College" (JBC) to become a pharisee. He studied under Gamaliel who was considered the greatest teacher of that day. Paul most likely became part of the Sanhedrin which was even a more strict and knowledgeable group of the pharisees. But that was nothing next to the fact that in Galatians we find out that that Jesus himself taught Paul for 3 years. So I guess I would say that Paul, being a Jew and having gotten a great Jewish education and then learned from Jesus probably was influenced by his Jewish background.

    But I guess I never thought about it before until you just asked.

    Later Holmes, feeno

    P.S. I liked the pictures of Eve at your place. I bet she was something to look at?

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  5. Geenks

    Whadup Yo? There were certainly other religions, gods, philosophies and philosophers mentioned in the bible. But each writer in the bible had their own distinct writing style. So if he was influenced by others, so what. It was still inspired by God. The "so what" was not supposed to sound snotty.

    Peace be with you. feeno

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  6. Paul wrote his book 50 years after the fact and after seeing visions. Nowadays, he would spend quite some time in a hospital for his visions.

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  7. Hello Tink,

    Praise Jesus, Tink has seen the light. Paul did write his letter after the FACT. Now you don't have to walk over hot coals to get de-baptized.

    And now that your a Believer I can help you with Bible history. Paul actually wrote 14 books. The first one was a letter to the Galatians, he wrote that about 20 years after the FACT. And the last book he wrote was a letter to his little buddy Timothy about 37 years after the FACT.

    You know I'm just playin'. But its nice to think of happy thoughts.

    Later, feeno

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  8. Has anyone ever wondered why the book of Acts ends with Paul's first imprisonment (house arrest) in Rome and just leaves you hanging?

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  9. Hello MC

    I can only speculate that the writer (Luke)(?) just wanted to cover all of his 3 missionaries journeys? Although he did leave again for Crete and Nicopolis before going back to Rome where he was martyred.

    Peace, feeno

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  10. Actually, that was a rhetorical question to point out that the book of Acts was completed well before Paul's death and well before the destruction of Jerusamlem in A.D. 70. All of which calls for a very early date for the book of Acts, and an even earlier date for the Gospel of Luke.

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  11. The writer of Acts (whether or not it was even Paul) clearly used Josephus's 93 CE work Jewish Antiquities as his source (as did Luke). Anyone who has graded a paper and recognized two students copying off of each other... the unusual similarities... the word-for-word usage...

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  12. Ginx:

    No one ever claimed the book of Acts was written by Paul. It was written by Luke, very obviously before the death of Paul, and certainly before the destruction of Jerusalem, otherwise these very noteworthy events would have been mentioned. They were prophesied in the Gospel but not mentioned in Acts, nor in any of the many epistles by Paul, Peter, James or the anonymous writer of the letter to the Hebrews.

    This is all pretty easy to figure out by plotting the Gospel events, Acts and the various epistles on a timeline based on the things they mention and the things they don't mention. That's the way historians normally piece things together, unless of couse, they start with the a priori assumption (as you apparently do) that none of what was written could possibly be true because it attests to supernatural events.

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  13. Geenks

    What's your status on moving to the Carolinas?

    I think most people. or at least Christians think that Luke wrote Acts. I also have heard the copying argument before, the problem is no-one is disputing that the Gospels and other scripture weren't borrowed or copied from each other to some extent. When your writing something people often use other resources. And if Geenks were to write something, he'd use reliable resources? Also which is it? If the Gospel writers are cheating off each other why do you then say "Paul said this, but John said that and Peter said this, see the Bible has errors". I mean if they all cheated off each other they'd give the same account. Which I believe they do, but from different perspectives to a different audience.

    Just trying to offer an explanation. later Brah, feeno

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  14. MC

    Thanks for the comments. I think I must have been writing my response at the same time as you did. Also you must remember I'm a bit slow, forgive me for overlooking your rhetorical question, it makes sense now.

    Peace, feen

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