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”dont treat those you deem as lost the same way most Christians do” maybe
in another reflection the gate is always open, right? Even though it is still a gate :)
so fwiw, the pearl comes into play there, apparently;
we find it, as in a field, and then we hide it, right
Isa 58:6 Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?
Isa 58:7 Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?
Isa 58:8 Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy rereward.
Isa 58:9 Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity;
Isa 58:10 And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday:
Psa 5:5 The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity.
Regarding the ten virgins…
Not only posting things here, but during morning coffee my husband and I talk about it. He said something else that stands out…
about the Pharisees where they were told
Luke 11:52-54 Woe unto you, lawyers! for you have taken away the key of knowledge: you entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in you hindered. [53] And as he said these things unto them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to urge him vehemently, and to provoke him to speak of many things: [54] Laying wait for him, and seeking to catch something out of his mouth, that they might accuse him.
Matthew 23:13 But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for you neither go in yourselves, neither suffer you them that are entering to go in.
you entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in you hindered. (Prevented)
for you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for you neither go in yourselves, neither suffer you them that are entering to go in. 1 Thessalonians 4:15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
makes you wonder who shuts up the kingdom of heaven when other comes and knock, “the door is now shut, I never knew you.” for you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men:
He seems to be saying the wise in their own conceit will in the last times be compared to the kingdom of heaven…for you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men.
For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men
Seems significant with :For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
Like casting pearls to the swine.but what is the topic there 7 Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?
which (Imo) flies in the face of what we turn the ten virgin parable into. “Wise as serpents, gentle as doves”? What is a drought if not “can you lend me some oil”? What is you will be the lender and not the borrower…do we think it is talking about the banking financial institution? Instructions on leading and borrowing?
But are these fools of the world, or fools for Christ's sake?what of “He takes the foolish to confound the wise?” See how there is not many mighty or noble?
I've thought about this.To me it is significant who is doing the shutting out of the kingdom of heaven.
I've thought about this.
Jesus is speaking to the pharisees and the priests which are there to "teach" the people.
But it seems they are more concerned with collecting tithes than teaching about righteousness and justice.
To me, this would represent the "keys" to the kingdom.
Most of these "keys" are found in the prophets.
It's possible they were more focused on the legalities of the law, then the conditions of the heart.
Just an observation.
Hugs
So looking at a couple other translations, the word "prevent" is rendered as "to go ahead of" or go before those who sleep.ziggy?
Any input on how those who are alive and remain, do not prevent those who are asleep? How could they prevent those who are asleep?
So looking at a couple other translations, the word "prevent" is rendered as "to go ahead of" or go before those who sleep.
For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. NKJV
We tell you this directly from the Lord: We who are still living when the Lord returns will not meet him ahead of those who have died.
NLT
According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.
NIV
1Th 4:16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
1Th 4:17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
So when Jesus went to Jerusalem after he had risen from the dead, it is said that he released those who had been held captive by death, and when he went to heaven they went with him.
Mat 27:50 Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.
Mat 27:51 And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;
Mat 27:52 And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose,
Mat 27:53 And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.
So now here is where "tradition" and I tend to go our separate ways.
Under the Vatican there are many halls buried deep under the ground. Only certain people are priveledged to ever visit there, and still not able to take pictures, only hand notes.
Think of all these writings, and letters and documents as keys to understanding the Kingdom of heaven.
And yet the Vatican keeps them shut up (imprisoned) from anyone having a chance to learn from them themselves.
These would be writings of the dead. And they are held in their graves until someone or something breaks open the "rocks" catacombs, and sets them free.
I believe the Priests and the Pharisees and Sadducees were keeping locked up under the temple, beneath the rocks, all the writings of the prophets and the psalms.
Jesus asked them on many occasions: Have ye never heard it read?
Could possibly be they never did.
Again we have a tyrannical religion/government what have you, controlling what the people hear and know.
Censorship at it's finest, over many generations.
Jesus told his Mother when he went missing one day in Jerusalem, "know ye not I must be about my Father's business" ?
Well, what business was that? He was reading them the scrolls which either they did not understand, or were kept from understanding.
So when I read that many of the bodies of the saints which slept arose,
to me that means that the scrolls of the psalms and prophets and the law were exposed for ALL to see.
Now that they are out in the open, they are placed in, well we have the Bible. These letters of the saints, the epistles as Paul would call us, not written in stone...
You can't put them back in the bottle. Too many people are witnesses. To many people have heard.
And yet it is this very thing that caused the schism between the Catholic and the Protestant churches.
Claiming only they themselves had understanding to these "keys" spoken in Latin, while everyone else was made just to agree and not read anything for themselves.
We are going through this very same thing today with censorship and disinformation, propaganda and fake news.
They don't want us to know the end game of their plans.
But we know.
In the end, God Wins.
As far as preventing or preceding those who have already died...
at this point everyone who has written anything in the NT is also among those that are asleep now,
and nothing anyone can write to the contrary of what is written, will stand in the judgement.
We are the judges. We read the scripture. We study and we cross reference, we back up the old with the new, with two or more witnesses.
If it's not in the OT I question the NT. Although I find it just takes a deeper study to find the connection.
There are no books that can be written today, that will prevent or precede those who have written the books of yesterday, or the scrolls from yesteryear.
These are recorded in heaven that is, in our hearts and minds.
Even though Peter and Paul have passed on before us, our letters and our books will never have the preeminence before them.
Just as they did not have the preeminence before Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Jonah, Amos, Psalms, The Preacher..
These will always rise first to be judged by those who read them and take them to heart.
Book burnings are coming, if we allow things to keep moving in the direction they are going.
They will claim the bible is hateful and hurtful and offensive and they need to go.
History repeats itself.
But they will not prevent us, though they take our body and our minds, they will never have our soul.
And our witness and our stories will go on, by telling our children and our grandchildren, as Moses was told to reach the children of Israel.
They can burn it, rip it, cut it up with a penknife. But our lives are our story,
and Jesus got that.
Hugs
Mat 27:50 Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.
Mat 27:51 And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;
Mat 27:52 And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose,
Mat 27:53 And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.
Thank You Victory.first I’m sorry because I never stopped to consider you had a reason for salty cracker. It was just unmistakably your voice, your style of sharing.
thank you for helping with the word: prevent. It makes better sense now with your input. You have calmed me down and now will let this one pass on by, thinking I was making too much of it.
wow …what you shared about the writings! It makes me think of how in churches only certain ones were allowed to read the word. How it was reserved for only certain ones which then interpreted for those within the congregation…the wee little people not privy allowed access but through word of mouth. Yea, thank you. I have to ask …Why do you sit at home? Forgive me if I over step but why not get well, treating the ailment that is holding you back? It is none of my business but you have (I think) a gift that should (not)be kept behind shut doors.
my husband who comes here also …said the other day “she needs to write a book”’. Been there, done that …I can understand why you don’t. But I’m only telling you to let you know you are needful and the perspective you share is so very helpful.
The prophecy regarding the dry bones in Ezekiel is very interesting.Question: do you think literal bodies came up?
Revisiting the ten virgins
Something that stood out this morning is “they all slept”. I’ve never noticed that before with Ephesians 5:14 Wherefore he says, Awake you that sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.
It never occurred to me before that the virgins were dead … that they “all slept”
It never occurred in connection to if they were all asleep …they were all dead…the significance of “awake you that sleep, arise from the dead…”. This kind of changes (Imo) in connection with some awake unto the resurrection of Life, and some to the resurrection of damnation.
....
dunno why this isnt ringing any bells…might later thoughwhere Paul mentions, two names I think, that didn’t want to help or have compassion, but they also wanted to stop others from coming unto them to help
well, i doubt that that is a conscious thing believers do; more like finding a pearl in a field and then hiding it, and buying the field, maybe?It reminds me…that even then there were those that wanted to shut men out of the kingdom of heaven
"Hymenaeus (fl. 50–65, 1 Timothy 1:20, 2 Timothy 2:17) was an early Christian from Ephesus, an opponent of the apostle Paul, who associates him with Alexander and Philetus."Was it hymenaeus and Alexander? Their trust became shipwrecked and they taught harmful things.