Is it Happy Easter or Happy Resurrection Day?

Welcome to April’s installment of Christian Space! This month I would like to cover the question, “Is the day Jesus resurrected from the grave, should be called Easter or Resurrection Day?” I believe the answer is “Resurrection Day” and let me explain why by covering the origins of both Easter and the Resurrection:

The Origins of Easter

Easter celebration started long before the days Jesus walked the streets of Jerusalem or the shores of Galilee. Some scholars believe it started back in Babylonian times between 1894-1595 BC. Easter originated as an ancient pagan celebration of the spring equinox. The term Easter was likely derived from Eostre or Ostara, the Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring and fertility. The Easter Eggs and Easter bubbies were symbols of fertility and renewal. Now, knowing the origins of Easter should we keep saying “Happy Easter”? Are we diminishing the Resurrection of Christ? Are we equating the resurrection to bunnies and colored eggs?

Origins of the Crucifixion and Resurrection:

Within Christendom the resurrection is the most important event, without it we as Christians have no hope, we are all bound to hell and experiencing the second death (which is the death of the spirit). The crucifixion points us back to Exodus 12 where a lamb was to be slain and the blood of the lamb was to spread on the door posts of the house, so the destroyer would “Passover” the house and go to the next house. So, side question, if the Egyptians hand killed a lamb and placed the blood of the lamb on their door posts would the destroyer pass over the Egyptians home too? Maybe a subject for another time. But there were very specific instructions for killing the Passover lamb, like no bones were to be broken, must be male and unblemished.

Last Month’s article I covered the form Romans used crucifixion for capital punishment. Crucifixion was a slow and very agonizing form of capital punishment which basically the persons hands (wrists) and feet (ankles) were nailed to a wooden cross and would slowly suffocate to death which could take anywhere from four to six days for the person to die, but at times the Romans guards would hurry the death by breaking the legs, building fires at the foot of the cross and have the smoke suffocate the victim, break the ribs or stab the person in the heart. The day Jesus was crucified the guards were ordered to hasten the deaths of the persons on the crosses by breaking the legs of the crucified men, they first broke of the two thieves but strangely the roman guards did not break the legs of Jesus but instead they stabbed Him in the heart (but by this time Jesus already gave up His Spirit).

Why would Romans guards not follow orders for Jesus and break His legs? Well, to fulfill the prophecy of Psalm 22:16-17 “For dogs have surrounded me; A band of evildoers has encompassed me; They pierced my hands and my feet. 17 I can count all my bones. They look; they stare at me;” Well you might be saying how does the lamb discussed in the Exodus story and Jesus’ crucifixion relate? In the first chapter of John (the apostle) in verses 29-34 John (the Baptist) introduces Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Also, Paul identifies Jesus as the fulfillment of the Passover lamb, saying, "Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed" (1 Corinthians 5:7)

How did Easter and the Resurrection become synonymous? Well, like Christmas, Easter, and some aspects of Halloween for the past two hundred years, societies with mixed religious and non-religious backgrounds have tried to combine Easter and the Resurrection to celebrate together. I feel the church should separate from the world’s way of celebrating holidays, especially a holiday as important as the Resurrection.

You might be saying, what is the big deal Gene, it is just a name, it is just a title, so what is the harm? To some it might not make a huge difference but as Christians we are called to be separate from the world, not mingled with it.

Whether you call it Easter or Resurrection Sunday what it comes down to is who is Jesus to you? As C.S. Lewis wrote in his book “Mere Christianity” about Jesus (summary): Is Jesus a liar? He knew He was not God but claimed it. Is Jesus a lunatic? He believed He was God but was not. Is Jesus God? The choice is yours and your eternal destiny depends on it.

Lastly, some say Jesus never claimed to be God, well, I wrote an article about that below.

If you have any questions about what I have written or about the Christian faith, please email me at thebridge@topockaz.com

Thank you, God Bless and Happy Resurrection Day! He has Risen!!

Who really killed Jesus?

Who killed Jesus is a question that has been asked for a long time, more than likely right after He died and rose again, but before we go into who killed Him, I would like to cover how Jesus’ died. Jesus was crucified and died on a Roman cross some 2000 years ago. Crucifixion probably originated with the Assyrians and Babylonians; it was used systematically by the Persians in the 6th century BC. Alexander the Great brought it from there to the eastern Mediterranean countries in the 4th century BC, and the Phoenicians introduced it to Rome in the 3rd century BC. The Roman cross was a brutal, multi-part, or T-shaped, wooden instrument used by the Roman Empire for public, slow executions designed for maximum terror. Roman citizens could not be crucified but there were some rare exceptions to that law; it was mainly reserved for slaves, non-citizens, disgraced soldiers, revolutionaries, criminals and Christians. The attending Roman guards could only leave the site after the victim had died, and were known to precipitate death by means of deliberate fracturing of the tibia and/or fibula, spear stab wounds into the heart, sharp blows to the front of the chest, or a smoking fire built at the foot of the cross to asphyxiate the victim.

“Who Killed Jesus?” First It is easy to say, the Romans more specifically Pontius Pilate (capital punishment was only reserved for Rome, it was taken away from the Jewish State when Rome conquered Jerusalem), he was the one who ordered the crucifixion and the Roman guards carried out his orders, question answered, case closed, “Next Question!”. Well, it is not that simple, the crowds in Jerusalem demanded his crucifixion instead of the criminal Barabbas, when they cried out “Crucify Him, Crucify Him, Crucify Him!” (Luke 23:21) and there is the Sanhedrin, including the High Priest Caiaphas, handed Jesus over to Pilate due to charges of blasphemy (claiming to be God) and claiming to be the Messiah (John 19:7). So, the Jews did it, so we have the crowds and the Sanhedrin, OK, now the case is closed, it was the Romans namely Pontius Pilate and the attending Roman guards, The crowds and finally the Sanhedrin. Ok Gene let’s move on to next month’s article.

Well not so fast, the Jews namely the Sanhedrin, the crowds and the romans played a part in the death of Jesus but was there anyone else?

Why did Jesus have to die on a Roman cross? He had to die because sin entered the world through Adam and Eve, reading the first three chapters of Genesis will explain it. So, Jesus had to die because sin entered the world? Yes, because we are sinners, we are also the ones that killed Jesus. So, the Romans, the crowds, the Sanhedrin and yes, us, we all played a part in the death of Jesus. Because Jesus leads a perfect life, he can stand between God and us. Romans 3:23 says we are all sinners, we all fall short of the glory of God, Jesus had to die for us, plain and simple. God demands us to be perfect to stand in His presents but because we are sinners we need to be punished for our sins, John 3:16 states God so love the world that he gave his only begotten Son who is without sin to stand in our place and take the punishment for us.

So, to answer the question “Who killed Jesus?”, all of us! Now you might ask yourself “OK, I realize I am a sinner, what do I do now?” Well, the book of Romans has a path to salvation, once you realize you need salvation, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Romans 3:23, states "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 6:23. Next, " if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." Romans 10:9. And lastly, "For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." Romans 10:13. If you have any questions about what I have written or about the Christian faith, please email me at thebridge@topockaz.com thank you and God Bless!

Spiritual Warfare

The unseen battle

According to a Google search on Dimensions: “We experience four dimensions: three of space (length, width, height) and one of time, but string theory suggests there could be 10 or 11 total dimensions, with extra ones curled up too small to see, although these remain theoretical until proven. While four dimensions describe our observable reality, higher dimensions are proposed in theories like M-theory and String Theory to unify physics, explaining gravity and other forces.” Many believe that there could be either beings or people like you and me that could travel between dimensions, basically popping between dimensions like we walk through the air. So right now, you are probably saying to yourself, “Gene, what does dimensions, String and M-theory have to do with spiritual warfare?”

When someone mentions "different dimensions," we tend to think of things like parallel universes – alternate realities that exist parallel to our own, but where things work or happened differently. However, the reality of dimensions and how they play a role in the ordering of our Universe is really quite different from this popular characterization.

Some have asked, is there really a war happening in a dimension we cannot see and affect us daily? Sometimes by the minute? Well, as with everything in this world there can be two extremes, with spiritual warfare is no exception. The first extreme is seeing everything that is bad as demonic, and Satan inspired and needs to be case out. The other extreme can be where we discount any spiritual ware with the bad that might happen so no need to address the situation. I believe spiritual warfare is somewhere in the middle between the two extremes.

Let’s cover the first extreme, where every bad thing that happens to a person is the Devil, demons and evil spirits. With this view you can blame your sin on the Devil and believe your actions are not wrong and there is not a way to prevent what happens to you, but let’s face it, the bone head things I have done I did out of my own free will, I cannot blame the Devil or his helpers, I did wrong and I cannot blame anyone except myself. The other extreme is to discount any spiritual warfare and go on living life as if there is no spiritual war happening. Well, I lived this way for many years, believing that miracles were fake or just some kind of fluke. As I started to investigate some miracles, I was unable to explain them.

Right about now, you are saying to yourself “Gene, why are you explaining dimensions when your article is titled ‘Spiritual Warfare’? Well, that is a great question, Paul states in Ephesians 6:10-17 “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.” Do you think Paul is stating all Christians should go out and purchase all the armor and wear it every day? I think not, he is talking about in a spiritual sense by being in the Word of God and praying for your friend and family will come to the saving knowledge of Jesus dying on a cross. Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but it could be stated that we are fighting a spiritual war, we are fighting a war not in our realm. So then, how do we fight a war not in our dimension? Well, to start prayer, resisting the bad things our flesh wants to do and do things that further the kingdom of God. During Jesus’ time on earth I believe he was limited to our dimension except when he was transfigured in front of Peter, James and John in Matthew 17:1-8, here we see Elijiah and Moses appear to Peter, James, and John then they disappear in a cloud, angels do the same thing for example in Acts 1:9-11 after Jesus ascends into heaven two men dressed in white stood beside them asking questions of the men of Galilee. From the text you get the opinion that the two men weren’t there and now they are. In Luke 24:36-43 Jesus appeared before them, and the apostles were startled and Jesus proceeded to prove to them He was flesh and bone (He did not mention blood). There are more appearances that I have not mentioned here.

I believe there is a war going on in other dimensions, in the book of Daniel it shows the occurrence of a spiritual war going on in a dimension or realm we are not aware of. In Daniel 10:13-14 a man appeared to Daniel who was dispatched to Daniel but the man who appeared to Daniel stated he was fighting the prince of the kingdom of Persia, Michael (an archangel) came and helped him so the man who appeared to Daniel could get to Daniel and tell Daniel the interpretation of the dream Daniel was given earlier. I feel that God is outside time and space, outside dimensions.

Whether you believe there is a spiritual war happening or not, what is the most important thing to get out of this article is we are all sinners and we all fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23), but while we are still sinners God demonstrated His love for us by sending His only begotten Son to be born as a man, experience all the temptations of a man but Jesus did not sin and died on a Roman cross for you and me, but to me (Romans 5:8). If you have any questions about what I have written or about the Christian faith, please email me at thebridge@topockaz.com thank you and God Bless!

Is Jesus God?

Is Jesus God? This question has been debated for years, Mormons, Jehovah Wittiness and many other cults claim he is not, they would say “Jesus is the Son of God, not God”. Other groups of people like Islam consider Jesus (Isa) an important prophet and messenger of God, born of a virgin, but not God or the son of God in the divine sense. Other examples are Unitarians, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Iglesia Ni Cristo believe that God the Father is the one true Almighty God, and Jesus, while the unique Son of God and a powerful divine agent, is a separate, subordinate, and distinct being, not God Himself. Judaism rejects the belief that Jesus was divine or the awaited messiah.

Well before I start trying to answer the question “Is Jesus God?” I would like to discuss a group of people in Jerusalem at the time of Jesus’ first coming, this group were called Pharisees who were the experts of the Jewish law, they sat in judgement of the Jewish people in matters of Jewish law, you could say they were the ChatGPT when it came to interrupting the Old Testament (really it was the only testament because the new had not been written yet). Also, during the time Jesus walked the earth Isreal was under Roman occupation which meant the Romans were the only ones to perform capital punishment, the Jewish courts could not execute anyone.

Well, you are saying to yourself, “Gene, what does knowing about the Pharisees have to do about answering the question ‘Is Jesus God?’”. Good Question! Any person could make a calm about anything, it is the crowd’s reaction to what is being said explains how the statement is interrupted, hence the Pharisees are the one that will tell us what Jesus is saying and how His statements were understood.

I have heard it said, “Jesus never claimed to be God!” Well, in the Bible Jesus made several claims to be God and that’s where the Pharisees come in. Before I start quoting Jesus on His claim to be God, I need to go back to Exodus 3:14, this is when Moses was in the “backside of the desert” tending to his animals when he noticed a burning bush, but the bush was not consumed by the fire. As Moses was getting closer to the burning bush a voice came from the bush saying, “Take your sandals off, you are standing on Holy Ground”. Moses asks who the voice was and the voice continued to say He was the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob”. After Moses took off his sandals the voice commanded him to go back to Egypt to get His people out of slavery, well Moses said that if he went back to Egypt and told anyone about what happened they would not believe him and if the people asked him who sent him, the voice said “tell them I AM WHO I AM has sent you”.

Now we need to go back to John chapter eight where Jesus and the Pharisees were discussing (some say they were arguing) Jesus’s parentage, Jesus reminded them that Satan was their father! After Jesus explained the Pharisees’ parentage, they claimed Abraham was their father and then Jesus’ stated “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am” (John 8:58), here is when the Pharisees helps us on what Jesus is stating, when Jesus claimed to be the “I AM” of Exodus 3:14 the Pharisees’ started to pick up stones to kill him for blasphemy (making himself God from the Old Testament).

In other scripture Jesus also stated, “I and the Father are one!” (John 10:30), He was able to raise people from the dead, one example was Lazarus a close friend of Jesus (John 11) was dead four days, and Jesus raised him from the dead. In Matthew 28:17 states “When they (His followers) saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some were doubtful.” In Luke 24:52 referring to Jesus disciples, “And they, after worshiping Him, returned to Jerusalem with great joy,”. In John 9:13-41, Jesus healed a man born blind and in John 9:38 where the man born blind worshiped Him. I could go on and on about Jesus’ claims and how he accepted worship from others. Also, let’s not forget John 1:1-3 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.” (you can replace the “the Word” with Jesus, you get the same meaning)

Is Jesus God? Well, this question everyone will have to answer at the end of his or her life, in the words of C.S. Lewis when he wrote in his book called “Mere Christianity” stating “Is Jesus a Liar, Lunatic, or Lord?” We all must answer this question, as for me Jesus is Lord (God).

Lastly, it is awe inspiring to realize that God the Father would send His son to earth to be beaten, wiped and die on a Roman cross in our place to take on your sin and mine. I see videos on YouTube from the movie Passion of the Christ, could you comprehend knowing you could end all the brutality of the beatings, torture and finally the crucifixion with just one word? The nails were not holding Jesus to the cross, it was Jesus’ love for us that held Him to the cross. If you have any questions about what I have written or about the Christian faith, please email me at thebridge@topockaz.com thank you and God Bless!

Christmas Story

Christmas Story

Our story opens with a kid named Ralphie and he is about nine years old and every waking moment he is trying to figure out how he can convince Santa Clause or anyone for that matter to give him a “Red Ryder BB Gun, featuring a compass in the stock and a thing that tells time”. Durning the movie when he tried to drop hints to any adult that would listen to him about wanting a “Red Rider BB Gun”, the adult’s response was always “You’ll shoot your eye out kid!” Oh, wait, wrong Christmas story, good movie but the wrong story, I am here to tell the Greatest Christmas Story ever! The story is about how God (the Son) humbled himself and became an infant, just as vulnerable as you and I were at that age, He got hungry, got tired, needed sleep and so on, and as he grew He had to go through all the kid things.

Before we get started on the Christmas Story, I want to first break down what Christmas means: First "Christ" means, "anointed one" (from Greek Khristos, a translation of Hebrew Messiah), and "Mass" comes from the Latin missa, which means a religious celebration, specifically the Eucharist. You could also say Messiahmas, Jesus is the Messiah.

Ok, now that we have defined Christmas, we can get back to the Greatest Christmas story, it started back in the first book of the Bible, Genesis. See, the reason God had to humble himself and come to this earth though a woman was because when Adam and Eve both sinned by eating the fruit from the tree of “Knowledge” (which was not an apple), is when sin entered the Earth and all who dwell in it. Before Adam and Eve sinned, the Earth was perfect, there was no death and no sin. But as the centuries went by God promised a Messiah for His chosen people the Israelite’s (named after Jacobs God given name, Israel). The Israelites or Jews were always looking for their Messiah, many claimed the title of Messiah, but all died and never remembered again.

How the Jews saw their Messiah was the concept of two messiahs: Mashiach ben Joseph, who will come first to fight in a great war, and Mashiach ben David, who will follow to establish an era of peace and redemption. The tradition developed to explain contrasting prophetic descriptions of the Messiah as both a suffering servant and a triumphant king. While some sources say Mashiach ben Joseph will die in battle, others suggest a single individual will fulfill both roles. Now there was nothing saying it can’t be the same person (spoiler alert! Jesus).

When Jesus came to earth, He was born through a virgin, taught the nation Israel the true meaning of God’s Law, not how the Pharisees interpreted God’s law. As a result of His teaching of the Law, He was beaten and bore the stripes of our sin, died on a cross for the sins of all that believe in Him, was buried and then three days later he rose again to take back that what Satan stole which was humanity! His next role will be triumphant King.

Well, you might be saying Gene, you left out the Magi’s (three Kings from the east), you left out the birth of John the Baptist, the shepherds, and the angels in the field the night Jesus was born. On a side note, John the Baptist was in the role of Elijiah if Israel accepted Jesus as their Messiah. “The Three Wise Men”, as mentioned earlier were more than three, but the gifts they gave Jesus represented His Kinghood (gold), He role as a Priest (frankincense), and His death on the cross, myrrh (used in burials), they were predicting Jesus’ life.

So, you ask now, “Why is this the Greatest Christmas Story ever?” Because the greatest gift anyone could receive would be the gift of God the Son coming to this world and giving His life so we can be reconciled to Him. John 3:16-17 and Isaiah 53:5-6 say it best “¹⁶ For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.” and Isaiah 53:5-6 "⁵But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. ⁶ All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him."

Lastly, Ralphie did get his Red Rider BB gun for Christmas, and if it wasn’t for his glasses he would have shot his eye out!

If you have any questions about what you have read, please feel free to email me at thebridge@topockaz.comthebridge@topockaz.com, thanks you and God Bless!

Previous months articles

Are you a Lukewarm Christian?

Hello all, and welcome to the sixth installment of the Christian Space. I have read through the book of Revelation several times, and in my reading, I always dreaded reading Rev 3:14-22 or the letter to the church of Laodicea, here are the verses:

¹⁴“To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:

The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the [k]Beginning of the creation of God, says this:

¹⁵‘I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. ¹⁶So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth. ¹⁷Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, ¹⁸I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. ¹⁹Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore, be zealous and repent. ²⁰Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me. ²¹He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. ²²He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”

For today I am going to concentrate on verses 3:15-18, as I was reading chapter 3 and when I got to verse 15 through 18, I would ask myself am I just lukewarm? I would read these verses and start to feel uncomfortable about my walk with Jesus, am I lukewarm? Am I not passionate enough in my walk, at times? I would wonder if I was even cold, would Jesus vomit me out od His mouth? I would wonder about this at times but most of the time I would put it to the back of my mind and try to forget about it, but it was always nagging me. Then one day I was on YouTube and this video by Voddie Baucham titled “What does it mean to be neither Hot or Cold? (a link to the YouTube video is below) If you ever wondered about this subject, I highly recommend watching the video.

To sum it up, the Voddie’s explanation is how far are you from the source? Laodicea had no water but was very rich, so they had very cold water piped in from Colosse which was about six miles away and in the other direction was Hermopolis which had very hot water with clausum deposits which was eleven miles away and was great for healing. Well, needless to say, when both water sources reached Laodicea, the water was lukewarm.

So, you say, Gene, what is the point? Well, the lukewarmness has nothing to do about passion for Jesus because we are human and some days you have more passion than other days. A hot example could be if you are running around beating people over their heads with your bible (but at times I feel it would not hurt to try!) or on the cold side living like the world, being a closet Christian, afraid to share your faith in Jesus. What is being said is how far are you from the source, which is Jesus. If you are far from Him, you will not walk or live like Him, thus being lukewarm. See, with the Laodiceans that felt because of their money, eye ointment and black wool they did not have a need for anything, but in Jesus’ eyes they were poor, sick and naked spiritually and I feel they did not even realize it. Also, Churches can be lukewarm as well, some are slowly drifting further and further away from the source of life - Jesus, and becoming lukewarm and a lot of the churches do not even realize it. The lukewarm churches are more into fighting the latest social justice war then bringing people to Christ. The lukewarm churches are fighting for abortion rights rather than fighting to keep the mass murder that is happening every day.

In the next installment I will cover the rest of the Letter to Laodicea, then in later installments of the Christian Space I will start covering the other six letters to six different churches. Lastly, I want to leave you all with this “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, Romans 3:23, But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8.

Should Christians Celetebrate Halloween?

Hey everyone and welcome the to the fifth installment of the Christian Space! Since it is the month of October and with Halloween at the end of the month, I thought I would cover the origins of Halloween and try to answer the question “Should Christians celebrate Halloween?”.

First let’s start on how Halloween came to what it is today. Halloween was an old Celtic celebration that is some 2000 years old. The belief was on October 31st was the day the veil was at its thinnest, and the lost souls were able to walk among the living. As a response to this belief and with the spread of Christianity, people would build bonfires and dress in costumes and committed sacrifices of animals and crops to avoid the lost souls from walking among them and to have a warmer winter.

As the years rolled by to the Middle Ages and the rise of the Catholic Church which wanted to stamp out all pagan holidays, Halloween was changed to “All Saints Day” which was celebrated on November 2nd to honor the dead. On “All Saints Day” believers would dress up as angels, saints and even the devil. All Saints’ Day was also known as “All Hallow’s Days” which later evolved to “All Hallow’s Eve”.

In the 1500s England broke away from the Catholic Church and started the Church of England because the Pope would not annul King Henry VIII marriage to Catherine of Argon. You might be saying what does all this have to do with Halloween? Because of the persecution of the protestants was so heavy under the rein of Queen Mary aka Bloody Mary, which by the way she ordered 300 protestants to be executed and caused the protestants to flee England to the land later to be known as the USA.

Well, let’s quickly look forward to our modern celebration of Hallows-Eve or aka Halloween. In the 1950’s Halloween was very commercialized in many industries from candies to costumes to home decorations, to name a few. Those industries were looking to make a profit from Halloween, and they succeeded. Halloween is the most profitable holiday for retail stores after Christmas.

There is also a darker side to our modern celebration of Halloween such as Devil worship, and some believe animal sacrifice. So, to get back to the question “Should Christians Celebrate Halloween?” I would say yes but with a catch. That catch is if Christians want to celebrate Halloween, it should be done not promoting death, murder, gore, skeletons and dark magic but most importantly promote the finished work Jesus did for us on the Cross. We all have fallen short of the glory of God; we all have sinned, so the only way we can be reconciled to God is to accept the death of Jesus on the cross. If you have any questions about what you have read, please feel free to email me at thebridge@topockaz.com, thank you and God Bless!

Baptism, requirement for salvation?

Hey Everyone,

Welcome back to the Christian’s space and as you can tell you have a new website design which will work on any device like a cell phone, tablet or computer, I hope you will enjoy the new format.

Well, we are now in the month of September, and I hope it starts cooling down but it is Topock/Golden Shores so we will see. I could not write an article last month, with rewriting the web site and traveling, it was hard to find the time. This month I was going to discuss “Baptism”, more importantly, “Is Baptism a requirement for salvation?”

First off, I would like to say I do not believe baptism is a requirement for salvation but there are people who believe it is, like the Catholic Church as stated in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC 1257). How I approach it is, I believe if you are a believer in Jesus, His death on the cross, and His resurrection on the third day for the forgiveness of your sins and mine, then you should be baptized by full body immersion, I will pursue that full body immersion subject later. Here is the problem if someone has a death bed conversion, what then? I always refer the thief on the cross as a classic death bed conversion, who was crucified next to Jesus (Luke 23:39-43). In the scripture, one thief was yelling at Jesus to save all of them from the pain and death of the cross, the other thief said to the other saying “But the other answered, and rebuking him said, “Do you not even fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? ⁴¹ And we indeed are suffering justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” Luke 23:40-41. And he was saying, “Jesus, remember me when You come in Your kingdom!” ⁴³ And Jesus said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.” (Luke 23:42-43). Notice Jesus did not say “well since you were baptized you can accompany me in paradise”, Jesus said “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.” (Luke 23:43), no baptism required!

We are saved by faith alone in Christ alone, we are saved because of faith in the finished work on the cross, not by works of baptism and anything else, just by faith. . Verses like John 3:16, Acts 16:31, and Ephesians 2:8-9 emphasize salvation by grace through faith. If you are a believer, you should be baptized because throughout the New Testament scriptures you see people come to faith and are baptized very soon after, one example is the Ethiopian eunuch which Philip encounters, here is the story:

²⁶ But an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying, “Get up and go south to the road that descends from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is a desert road.) ²⁷ So he got up and went; and there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure; and he had come to Jerusalem to worship, ²⁸ and he was returning and sitting in his chariot, and was reading the prophet Isaiah. ²⁹ Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go up and join this chariot.” ³⁰ Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?” ³¹ And he said, “Well, how could I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. ³² Now the passage of Scripture which he was reading was this:

“He was led as a sheep to slaughter; And as a lamb before its shearer is silent, So He does not open His mouth. ³³ “In humiliation His judgment was taken away; Who will relate His generation? For His life is removed from the earth.”

³⁴ The eunuch answered Philip and said, “Please tell me, of whom does the prophet say this? Of himself or of someone else?” ³⁵ Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture he preached Jesus to him. ³⁶ As they went along the road they came to some water; and the eunuch *said, “Look! Water! What prevents me from being baptized?” ³⁷ [And Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” And he answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”] ³⁸ And he ordered the chariot to stop; and they both went down into the water, Philip as well as the eunuch, and he baptized him. ³⁹ When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; and the eunuch no longer saw him, but went on his way rejoicing.

Here are other references that can be found at Golden Shores Community Baptist Church website gscbc.org (baptism)

Next month we will be covering whether baptism should be by full immersion or springling. See you all next month, until then God Bless you.

Up On A Cross by Degarmo and Key