CONDITIONAL DOMINION PART 2

by Walter Giddings

July 18, 2021

Greetings Kindred and fellow Sheep.  We are on a first name basis here.  My name is walter.  This Lesson comprises Scriptures that have puzzled me for a long time.  This Lesson is not possible without The First 7 Lessons!  The Subject is Twins by two different Fathers.  From Twins, Lessons 1 and 2, do we recall Two Interlopers into the ancient names of the stars :  Greek and Roman Mythology?  In Gemini the Greeks named the Twins Apollo and Hercules.  The Romans named them Castor and Pollux.  The Bible named them Abel and Cain.  The Roman names Castor and Pollux  identify the figurehead on the ship of Alexandria that carried Paul, his fellow prisoners, and Luke, the beloved physician, off the island of Malta.

PSALM 106

by Jim Jester

July 4, 2021

Scripture Reading: Psalm 43:1-5

Psalm 43

The Scripture we read is actually a Part 2, or a continuation of Psalm 42, likely written by one of the sons of Korah (the Korahites accompanied David in his flight beyond the Jordan during Absalom’s rebellion). Psalm 43 is likely a supplementary stanza, added later by the same or a different author. The absence of a title for this psalm, and the recurrence of several phrases, especially the refrain, “Why art thou cast down, O my soul and why art thou disquieted within me? Hope in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God” (v. 5), puts this beyond doubt, as the verse is repeated 3 times. The separation is old since it is found in the LXX (Septuagint). Whoever wrote this psalm (both Psalms 42 & 43), has given immortal form to the longings of the soul after God. He has fixed forever and made melodious the sigh: “As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God” (Ps. 42:1).

CONDITIONAL DOMINION

By Walter Giddings

June 20, 2021

We come to the most challenging part of these lessons on the twins by two different fathers.  When the doctrine of “the mother of all living” “who conceived by” [two] was first outlined to me I was struck numb.  For a year I was in doctrinal paralysis.  My ardent curiosity why someone would believe Cain’s father was Lucifer, not Adam, stirred me.  Why were men and women with quiet reputation and ordered lives convicted Adam’s father hood of Cain is a bad paternity rap?!  How to move forward I knew not, until I reviewed the nobility of the members of the Berean congregation in Acts 17:10-11.

Psalm 94

By Jim Jester

June 6, 2021

Scripture Reading: Psalm 52:1-9

This lament of David is different than most. It does not start out with the usual appeal to God to hear the petition for deliverance; instead, the psalmist immediately launches into an attack on the wicked man whose only commitment is to his wealth, and then sets forth the happy status of the righteous whose ultimate commitment is to God. Yes, the steadfast love of our covenant God endures “like a green olive tree.”

The historical occasion (q.v., I Samuel 22) in the title of this psalm is important to its interpretation. In verses, 1-4 is the commitment of the wicked; verses 5-7 tell of his fate (Who’s fate?); and verses 8-9 reveals the resolve of the righteous.

Who is this evil “mighty man” spoken of in the first verse of the psalm?

By Richard Kelly Hoskins

Here are a few of the lessons from the book "Bible Smarts" by Richard Hoskins.

BALAK PLAN

COMMUNISM

FORBIDDEN FOODS

INTEGRATION

REPATRIATION

PATERNITY RAP

by Walt Giddings

May 23, 2021

1 John 3:1-2

This lesson comprises Scriptures that have puzzled me for a long time.  Quick Review: the last time we met on the Bible subject matter of twins in the womb by two different fathers we asked a question.  That question sourced from a pejorative street question, a rude, in your face interrogatory.  That question is “Who’s your Daddy?”

To illustrate why we used such a street scandalous question, may we visit an earlier period of American history.  It is the time when the Republic functioned because men of God viewed their oaths of office as solemn and binding obligations, the forswearing of which could impact on their eternal destiny.  In short, we return to a time before the not-so-civil civil war. 

In 1843 John Bouvier published his 2nd Edition of A Law Dictionary adapted to the constitution and laws of the United States of America and of the several states of the American Union.  He dedicated each edition to Joseph Story, Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.  Bouvier’s is the only law dictionary to date to receive Congressional sanction.  On page 135, Volume II, let me read you the entry for Maternity.  Let us have ears to hear.  

Copied from the sermon notes of Pastor Don Elmore

May 9, 2021

First Half of the Apostle’s Creed:

“I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, And in Jesus Christ His only Son our Lord, Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, Born of the Virgin Mary, Suffered under Pontius Pilate, Was crucified, dead, and buried. He descended into hell …”

Was the Apostle’s Creed true or false regarding this four-worded phrase:  "He descended into hell"?  There have been millions of Christians who have repeated this Creed in unison in their congregations since it was first written over the last 1500 years.  Very few preachers ever preach on this subject. 

Modern liturgy and catechism of the Roman Catholic Church, Lutheranism, Anglicanism, Presbyterianism, the Moravian Church, the Methodist Church and the Congregational Church all participate in saying the Apostles’ Creed. What is meant by this phrase "He descended into hell"?