Recent Articles and Sermons

by Pastor Don Elmore

June 19, 2022

When I accepted my school position this summer, I was informed that there would be two holidays in the summer that there would be no school.  I wasn’t told what they were…I was just given the dates.  One was Monday, July 4th which I immediately recognized as a holiday.  The other one was Monday, June 20th.  I had no idea what holiday this was, but I knew that we had that day off.

Reading the Cincinnati Enquirer newspaper after church last Sunday (6/12), I came upon an article entitled, “What to know about Juneteenth.”

THE PARTAKER DOCTRINE

by Walter Giddings

June 19, 2022

The Partaker Doctrine is not often preached.  It is quite near non-existent in Churchianity!  Would that make our children believe it is not in The Bible? The English translation “partakers” from the Koine Greek, appears 22 times; “partaker”, in the singular appears 8 times. 

This is a followup to the message "Koinonia" given on March 20, 2022.  In today's message, Walter discusses that while the unleavened bread and the fruit of the vine, symbols of the Lord's Supper. have no intrinsic power of themselves, it is his belief that there is power generated by our choice to show Christ’s death through the observance of the Lord's Supper. Walter also admonishes that we should be careful in what and who we partake with.  

SHORT REVIEW OF PASTOR DON’S RECENT SERMONS

June 12, 2022

The time period of the Stuart’s was a fascinating time in history. The one hundred years before the beginning of the Stuarts reign, was the great battle that forged against the Catholic Church—the Reformation.

The creation of the printing press was one of the major life-changing inventions. For after this invention, the Bible was available for practically every Israelite to buy, read and understand in his own language.

The Catholic Church, one of the four major players in the world, was against the printing press publishing the Bible. They fought against the translation into English. But they failed.

DEUTERONOMY

Sermon notes by Jim Jester

June 12, 2022

SCRIPTURE READING: Deuteronomy 7:7-8

THE THEME

The theme of the book of Deuteronomy, racial identity, begins in chapter two:

Ye are to pass through the coast of your brethren the children of Esau, which dwell in Seir; and they shall be afraid of you. (Deut. 2:4)

Esau was the twin brother of Jacob who became Israel. This account is found in Genesis 25:21-34. Esau married an Ishmaelite woman whose descendants had come from Abraham and Hagar. Hagar was the Egyptian handmaiden of Sarah, wife of Abraham, who was given to Abraham to conceive a child because of Sarah’s old age (q.v., Gen. 16). When Sarah finally had a son, Isaac, Hagar and her son, Ishmael, were forced to leave. It was from the Ishmaelites that Esau first took a wife. It is clear then, why the Lord referred to “your brothers, the children of Esau,” for all had come from Abraham, though some were tarnished by the Egyptian blood of Hagar.

June 2022

“Throughout June, the USMC takes Pride in recognizing and honoring the contributions of LGBTQ service members. The USMC remains committed to fostering an environment free from discrimination, and defend the values of treating all equally with dignity and respect.”

PRESBYTERIANISM VS. EPISCOPACY

Copied from the sermon notes of Pastor Don Elmore

June 5, 2022

Scripture Reading:  Deuteronomy 28:48

This is part 2 of the four-part series on the conditions of Great Britain while America was a colony.  If you think that things are bad in America today, they will have to get a lot worse, and I think that they will, to surpass what happened in Great Britain.  Great Britain had:

• Three civil wars in ten years;
• Wars between the Church of England and the Presbyterians of Scotland;
• Wars between the Puritan Parliament and the Catholics of Ireland;
• Wars between the Puritan Parliament and the Protestant/Catholic Royalty; and
• The Jews were readmitted back into their country; after being absent for almost 400 years, and started issuing usury loan debt to the kings, nation and citizens.

A short lesson by Pastor Don Elmore

May 29, 2022

In the Sunday Cincinnati Enquirer of May 22, 2022, there was a one-half page article entitled, “Jewish group criticizes [Some one’s] vote [in the House of Representatives].”  The vote was 420 to 1.  The vote was a week-and-a-half ago on Wednesday May 18th.  There were eight other members of the House that abstained from voting on this bill. 

What bill was this?  Who voted against it? 

Numbers

Sermon notes by Pastor Jim Jester

May 29, 2022

SCRIPTURE READING: Numbers 31:1-4

INTRODUCTION

The book of Numbers is not concerned so much with narrating the history of the Hebrew people, but rather to emphasize the faithfulness of the God of their fathers. Despite the failures of everyone, from the least of the people to Moses himself, God was faithful to His original promise to Abraham and his descendants. This does not mean that individuals do not experience the consequences of their sin. But it does mean that God’s redemptive purposes cannot be thwarted.

Therefore, the events of the forty years of Israel’s wandering were not important to the book’s purpose. All that the people needed to know in order to obey God and enter the land had already been given to them. The only issue was whether the new generation would believe, after their fathers had not. Israel was going to war.

THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST MILITANT

By Walter Giddings

May 22, 2022

“The Church of Jesus Christ Militant”. Is that some kind of military organization? What is the need for that? Have “the weapons of our warfare” become “carnal”?  The first problem we encounter with this Lesson is the word “militant”. It does not appear in the King James English of 1611. What word or words can we find in The Scriptures that have a meaning similar to “militant”? We better put our “Thinking Caps” on. Should we first establish the meaning of militant?

MIL’ITANT, a. [L. militans, milito, to fight.]

1. Fighting; combating; serving as a soldier.

2. The church militant is the christian church on earth, which is supposed to be engaged in a constant warfare against its enemies; thus distinguished from the church triumphant, or in heaven.

MIL’ITARY, n. The whole body of soldiers; soldiery; militia; an army.

U. States. Mitford.1828 Webster. Vol II. page 15