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How can young adults change the world? Share the Gospel, FOCUS founder says

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Chicago, Ill., Jan 6, 2018 / 03:37 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- If young adults proclaim the Gospel with clarity and conviction, they can produce spiritual fruits that can reach billions of people, Curtis Martin of the Fellowship of Catholic University Students has said.

“The key there is: do we have the heart to commit to it?” Martin asked an audience of some 8,000 people Jan. 5.

Martin is the founder and Chief Evangelization Officer of the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS), a nationwide group of missionaries whose primary aim is to evangelize students on college campuses.

He spoke at the closing keynote at the Student Leadership Summit 2018 (SLS18), a conference FOCUS hosts every two years to train young adults and other leaders to spread the Gospel effectively. Attendance at this year’s Chicago summit numbered around 8,000 attendees.

“This generation of Catholics is responsible for this generation of people,” Martin said. “Brothers and sisters, dig deep in divine intimacy, gather your friends close to you and love them in a crazy sort of love in authentic friendship, and then go out and reach the world by sharing both faithfulness and fruitfulness.”

“When you do, you set the world on fire,” he said.

“Accept the love and mercy of Jesus Christ,” Martin added. “Stop trying to earn his love. You can’t, he just loves you. Then respond to his love out of thankfulness. But the second part of that is not just to love Jesus and follow him, but to imitate him, to embrace his mission. And his mission was to reach the world.”

He encouraged summit attendees to commit their current energy to spreading the gospel by investing in others and to take part in “small groups living in authentic friendship that want to pursue Christ radically.”

“Every single person on earth,” he said, “was created to be a canonizable saint. Not necessarily canonized, that’s up to the Church. Canonizable.”

“Which isn’t actually a word yet, but we’re working on it.”

Martin voiced his desire to “go deeper” in love of Christ with his wife and his FOCUS colleagues, saying “I would love to follow Christ big-time. But I’m weak. I need your help.”

In following Jesus, Martin said, there are two important aspects of his life to note: he “made the extraordinary ordinary” and he encouraged his disciples to be “radically, radically generous.”

More important, however, was that Jesus “rendered the ordinary extraordinary.”

“Jesus loved the few people in his life so amazingly. And everybody in this room can do that.”

For Martin, Mary was the prime example of this. According to the gospel, when Mary greeted her cousin Elizabeth, simultaneously “Mary and John the Baptist are both filled with the Holy Spirit.”

He pointed to how long Jesus waited to begin his ministry. While an observer knowing he was the savior of the world might wonder why Jesus took so long, Martin said he was “sharing life every day with the Blessed Virgin Mary.”

“Mary is the most evangelized person in all of history,” Martin said. He invited the crowd to imagine the acts of kindness Jesus and his Mother would have performed in their daily lives as Mary raised him.

“Mary was also the first evangelist,” Martin told CNA. “She went and shared Jesus with Elizabeth and John the Baptist which such power that they were filled with the Holy Spirit when they heard her voice.”

In his keynote address, Martin noted that Jesus’ launch of his public ministry included the selection of a small group of 12 as his followers.

“He shared the vision of wanting to change the world with them, and invited them to total commitment to him, and to one another, and to the mission,” he said. “This power of divine intimacy, to know God, and to share life with others who know God, in authentic friendship, this becomes the engine that allows to reach the world in a single generation and in every generation.”

Both faithfulness and fruitfulness were Martin’s emphasis.

“We started with two part-time staff and 20 students,” Martin told CNA, “and it’s been snowballing every year, because we really believe that God is inviting Christians not just to live faithfulness, but to live fruitfulness. So that fruitfulness has been bearing fruit, obviously, over the last twenty years.”

Martin himself had a conversion experience as a student at Louisiana State University. He was not a practicing Catholic when was invited on a retreat during which he went to Eucharistic Adoration.

“I said, ‘Oh my goodness, if that’s God, everything in my life has to change. And if it’s not God, I should get everybody out of the room, because they’re worshiping bread.’ I mean, there really is no middle ground when it comes to the Eucharist.”

Looking to the example of St. John Paul II, Martin reflected on the future Pope who would “love everybody” but he “also loved a few.” He noted his habit as a priest, begun in the 1940s, of taking small groups of young people out into the mountains.

When the future Pope was a parish priest in Poland, took ten families and began teaching them what would become known as theology of the body. From among these small groups, Martin said, came a couple for whom he said the wedding and became godfather for their children, to whom he gave the the sacraments. After becoming Pope, John Paul would host them for weeks in the summer at the papal residence at Castel Gandolfo.

“He never stopped loving them,” Martin said. “This one priest, loving a few people, set off a chain reaction.” The future Pope “learned the power of authentic friendship and lived it for the rest of his life, even in the midst of doing extraordinary things.”

He urged those listening to follow the example of deliberate, authentic friendship as a means of evangelization.

“When you begin to pray specifically for guidance,” Martin said, “God will bring names and faces to you, and then you can go and begin praying for them, intentionally, that they’ll become great saints. And then sit with them and talk to them, and share your desire to be a great saint.”

“And if they were to accept the invitation to run with you, then just run,” he told the summit.


Source: http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/how-can-young-adults-change-the-world-share-the-gospel-focus-founder-says-42638/


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    Total 30 comments
    • Alan Schuetz

      The Catholic church is full of lies… false traditions, the precepts of men, and doctrines of demons; the Scriptures warn against all of these. The false Catholic church attempted to eradicate all vestiges of our Hebraic roots — including the msnufacturing of its own calendar and feast days. Protestant churches retained many of those lies after the Reformation. Rabbinic Jews are guilty of following the Babylonian mysteries.

      Regarding Catholic abominations… why would anyone want to spread this mother goddess religion? Where in the canonized NT does it state that:

      1. she is the Queen of Heaven (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_of_Heaven),
      2. she is the Co-Redemptrix (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Co-Redemptrix),
      3. anyone is to pray to her (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hail_Mary),
      4. she is our intercessor (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intercession_of_the_Theotokos),
      5. she was conceived immaculately (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immaculate_Conception),
      6. she was born without original sin (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Original_sin),
      7. she was a perpetual virgin (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpetual_virginity_of_Mary), or
      8. she is currently in Heaven [i.e., her Assumption] (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assumption_of_Mary)?

      In fact, it doesn’t. The only superlative given to Miryam, who the RCC calls Mary, was that she was “blessed among women.” The NT states that Joshua, who the RCC calls Jesus, had four brothers and at least two sisters. Ya’akov (Jacob), who the RCC calls James, was so prominent that he made the decision regarding Gentile believers at the First Council of Jerusalem; he was one of the four brothers.

      Show me just ONE VERSE from the NT where it states that Rome was the church established by Cephas (Peter), the apostle to the JEWS (circumcision), or where he ever visited Rome. If he never visited Rome, how could he be the first pope? Again, you can’t; it’s lies interspersed with an inkling of truth, but it’s still lies. REPENT while you still can!

      • Damien

        Peter’s apostolic authority does not come from Rome but from Jesus:

        Matthew 16:18

        And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.

        • jknbt

          the greek word for Peter is Πέτρος petros which means “little rock”…the greek word for rock is πέτρᾳ petra which means “boulder” or big rock…Jesus is saying, “now listen up, you little pebble, it is on this BIG ROCK (reflexively referring to himself) that I will build my church”…you catholics need to rethink your whole take on Matt 16:18…it does not confer apostolic authority…it is Jesus putting presumptive little Peter in his place….think about it…

          • Damien

            jknbt

            There is often things you are still to learn

            A number of people have recently asked me – directly and indirectly – why context is important in studying scripture. Or to be more accurate, why the original Hebrew context is important. In Rabbinic fashion (how appropriately), I would like to answer this question in the form of a story. One that many Christian readers will be familiar, yet unfamiliar, with. It begins like this:

            Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. (Mark 8:27)

            For the casual reader with no geographical context, this sounds no different than “Jesus took the disciples down the road to the neighoboring village”. However, having just come from Bethsaida, this means that Jesus decided to take his disciples on a 32+ mile round trip to Caesarea Philippi, the only recorded trip Jesus took to that region or anywhere remotely like it.

            Rock of the GodsCaesarea Philippi, the modern day reserve of Banias in the Golan Heights region of Israel, was established by Ptolemaic Greeks as a hellenistic city, where the worship of the god Pan was centered. By the early first century, Caesarea Philippi (named in 2 AD by Herod Philip in honor of Caesar Augustus) was reviled by orthodox rabbis, and it was taught that no good Jew would ever visit there.

            This city, which sits at the foot of Mount Hermon, butts up against a large cliff, referred to as the ‘Rock of the Gods’, in reference to the many shrines built against it. Shrines to Caesar, Pan and another god (possibly the fertility goddess Nemesis) were all built up against this cliff. In the center of the Rock of the Gods is a huge cave, from which a stream flowed (after 19th century earthquakes, the stream began flowing out from the rock beneath the mouth of the cave). This cave was called the “Gates of Hades”, because it was believed that Baal would enter and leave the underworld through places where water came out of it.

            Pan NicheIn first century Israel, Caesarea Philippi would be an equivalent of Las Vegas – Sin City – but much worse than the modern city in the American West. In the open-air Pan Shrine, next to the cave mouth, there was a large niche, in which a statue of Pan (a half-goat, half-human creature) stood, with a large erect phallus, worshipped for its fertility properties. Surrounding him in the wall were many smaller niches, in which were statues of his attending nymphs. On the shrine in front of these niches, worshippers of Pan would congregate and partake in bizarre sexual rites, including copulation with goats – worshipped for their relationship to Pan.

            And so, one day, Jesus took his twelve disciples, most likely all of whom were in their teens or early twenties (but that’s a story for a different day), and said “we’re going to Caesarea Philippi” (if he even told them where they were going).

            he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”

            They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

            “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

            Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (Matthew 16:13-16)

            Nymph NicheNow, we don’t know for sure where they were standing in the Caesarea Philippi region, but Jesus’ next statement gives us an idea that they may have been standing within sight of the Rock of the Gods.

            Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. (Matthew 16:17-18)

            Jesus continues his short lesson, ‘calling’ (the greek literally meaning shouting at the top of his voice) to the crowd and his disciples.

            Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.” (Mark 8:34-38)

            This begs a few questions: What crowd did He call to him? Could it have been the Pan worshippers? Any crowd from this region would NOT have been religiously Jewish. Was the last statement aimed at his disciples, who might have been embarrassed at the spectacle Jesus was creating?

            So What?

            The Catholic tradition has taken Jesus’ pronouncement in Matther 16:18 to mean that Jesus was declaring that the church was to be built on the authority of Peter and the other disciples. It is true that they led the early church, so this would be a possible interpretation.

            The Protestant tradition has taken Jesus declaration here to say that His church was to be built upon the confession recognizing Him as the Messiah and the Son of the living God. This is a valid interpretation, as well, and is a practice supported by other scriptures.

            Pan ShrineRay VanderLaan and other Hebrew contextual scholars suggest a third interpretation which may be just as – if not more – powerful as the others, based on the context. Why would Jesus choose this place, the filthiest (morally) place within walking distance of his earthly region of ministry?

            Might it be possible that he took his talmidim to the most degenerate place possible to say to them “THIS is where I want you to build my church. I want you to go out into the repugnantly degenerate places, where God is not even known. I want you to go out to places that make Caesarea Philippi look tame, and THAT is where I want you to build my church.” Because that is exactly what they did. They went to places in Asia Minor and the ends of the earth, where “gods” were worshipped in unspeakably awful manners and where Christians would be persecuted in horrific manner, and they gave their lives doing EXACTLY what they were told to do by their Rabbi.

            I don’t know about you, but when I hear the story of Caesarea Philippi and understand it in its context, it comes to life in ways it never had before.

            Special thanks to Dr. Tim Brown and Ray VanderLaan for background material from this post.

            =============

            IN THE WORLD (OF SIN) BUT NOT OF IT

            Is the MISSION Christ gave His Church

            • jknbt

              you’ve got a few things to learn also…go buy the mccarthy book that I linked on Amazon, and read it. You will scream when you realize how you have been deceived by your church. go ahead, learn something yourself.

            • Alan Schuetz

              Don’t forget that the fallen angels descended at Mount Hermon — yep, those “sons of God” in Genesis 6.

            • Rockledge

              This is an other perfect example of something that repels people from Christ.
              It seems someone gets “saved” and within a year thinks he is THE guru and everyone else is the student.

              The old “hey, listen up, your understanding of the bible ain’t squat, but I can fix that for you” syndrome.

              The REALLY sad thing is, most of the time none of it has anything to do with salvation by grace.

              I think Jesus referred to those of this mindset as “Pharisees”.

          • jknbt

            hey rockledge, nope, no apologies for my zeal or words…I feel morally obligated to warn these people who have been deceived…sorry that it upsets you, but no guilt feelings or apologies…perfect metaphor: If I discovered that a long bridge was out on a highway in the rockies after a midnight storm, and there were no signs or other warnings, I would be morally obligated to go a mile down the highway and try to block the oncoming traffic, which has cars and whole families racing at highway speeds to the sheer precipice and 1000 foot drop. The drivers may choose to not listen, but at least I tried. They were warned. Anyone who would not try to warn the oncoming traffic has really let those poor people down. So don’t judge me for trying to keep people out of hell. Jesus calls “tolerant” people like you Lukewarm (Rev 3:15-17)…

        • Firmament Does Exist

          MatithYAHUW 16:18 I tell you that you are a rock for YAH, ShemiYAom KephAH, but upon this massive ‘Rock Confession’, I will build My “Called Out Ones” by YAH’s Family (Cahal, Called Out Ones by YA) and the gates of Sheol ( the place of the unsaved dead until The Judgement) will not prevail over them.

        • Alan Schuetz

          Damien, Peter was the apostle to the JEWS! Study the Bible.

          • Damien

            laschuetz

            EXACTLY! That is a sign that he was the LEADER of the Apostles. And why CATHOLICS consider him to have more authority than the other Apostles.

            Though it was more that he was Apostle to the Judeans and NOT the Jews as they didn’t exist then. So where are the Judeans then? They ALL converted. To Peters Church. That is WHO Catholics are: Peter’s Judeans (and others). The Catholic Church. So it’s SAINT Peter’s Church.

            • Alan Schuetz

              Peter, the apostle TO THE JEWS, would have nothing to do with a church that purposefully erased all vestiges of its Hebraic roots. The RCC is basically a repackaging of several mythical cult religions; all your liturgy and teachings — aka mysteries — are assimilated paganism. Even the idol of St. Peter in the Bascilica is a repurposed statue of Zeus, and you Catholics have almost kissed his toes off! lol

              Behold Zeus! http://stpetersbasilica.info/Statues/StPeter/StPeter-st-a.jpg

              You Catholics can’t even follow the Ten Commandments!

              Deuteronomy 4:15 “So watch yourselves carefully, since you did not see any form on the day the Lord spoke to you at Horeb from the midst of the fire, 16 so that you do not act corruptly and make a graven image for yourselves in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, 17 the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the sky, 18 the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water below the earth. 19 And beware not to lift up your eyes to heaven and see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, and be drawn away and worship them and serve them, those which the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven.” (NASB)

              I don’t have time to discuss your manufactured Gregorian calendar or pagan feast and worship days… Your church is built on lie after lie after lie. REPENT!

            • Damien

              laschuetz

              1) But you DO ADMIT that this is a Church that AFFIRMS that Peter is the LEADER of the Apostles

              2) The Church’s roots are NOT Hebrew. It’s HUMAN / ADAMIC, roots were in ADAM, and THE SON OF MAN, revealed that Adam’s TELEOLOGY, was in GOD!,

              ———————–

              TELEOLOGY

              the explanation of phenomena by the purpose they serve rather than by postulated causes.

            • Damien

              laschuetz

              Your SATANIC rejection of the Church of I WILL BE THAT I WILL BE’s HOLY SPIRIT and it’s teleological mission is the sin that is unpardonable.

            • Alan Schuetz

              Damien, who is the CHIEF CORNERSTONE? Is it Peter? No, Petros simply meant a small stone. The Church is built upon Yehoshu’a — a large, massive rock or cornerstone!

              http://biblehub.com/text/matthew/16-18.htm

              https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+118%3A22%3B+Matthew+21%3A42%3B+Mark+12%3A10%3B+Luke+20%3A17%3B+Acts+4%3A11&version=NASB

              Did Peter shed his blood for your sins? No, in fact, he denied Christ not once — not twice — but THREE times! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denial_of_Peter

              Where in the Scriptures does it state there is such a thing as apostolic succession? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostolic_succession

              That is yet another lie! Again, the Catholic church is built on lie after lie after lie.

            • Alan Schuetz

              The church’s roots are certainly NOT Adamic! The church is based on the olive tree that is Yehoshu’a, who hailed from the tribe of Judah!

              Hebrews 7:14 For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, a tribe with reference to which Moses spoke nothing concerning priests. (NASB)

              He is of the order of Melchizedek (Heb. Malki-tsedeq, =my king is righteous[ness]).

              What do you call your pagan priests? Father?

              Matthew 23:9 Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven. (NASB)

              That’s yet another form of replacement theology.

              Catholicism is a sick, sick, sick religion, and Protestantism retained much of that assimilated paganism after the Reformation! Don’t worry… the lot of you are in good company with those who follow rabbinic Judaism.

              Now, read Romans 11 with comprehension:

              https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+11&version=NASB

            • CTrent33

              laschuetz,

              “You Catholics can’t even follow the Ten Commandments!” :roll:

              Baltimore Catechism:

              198. What is the first commandment of God?
              The first commandment of God is: I am the Lord thy God; thou shalt not have strange gods before Me.

              Thou shalt not have strange Gods before me. Thou shalt not make to thyself a graven thing, nor the likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, nor of those things that are in the waters under the earth. (Exodus 20:3-4)

              “What do you call your pagan priests? Father?”

              1 Corinthians 4:14-15 “I write not these things to confound you; but I admonish you as my dearest children. For if you have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet not many fathers. For in Christ Jesus, by the gospel, I have begotten you.”

              “Where in the Scriptures does it state there is such a thing as apostolic succession?”

              Where does it state there isn’t?

      • jknbt

        to support Lascheutz, let me add:

        you catholics serve God in vain because you have never repented in the first place:

        1) Worshiping gods/goddesses other than the one God through prayers to saints & angels (breaks first commandment)

        2) Using idols, icons, statues & etc as part of worship, strictly forbidden (breaks second commandment)

        3) Works salvation….take a good long hard look at the letter to Galatians, and you will realize you have fallen from grace. Being baptized, trying to be a good person according to the moral laws, & doing good works doesn’t save anyone, you foolish Galatians…salvation is only by grace through faith. Jesus said, “You must be born again” (John 3:3).

        4) Jesus said people who turn from the bible and teach the doctrines of man are serving God in vain…see Matt 15:9

        Repent while you can. You have been warned.

        See:
        https://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0071/0071_01.asp
        http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0082/0082_01.asp

        See also:
        https://www.amazon.com/Gospel-According-Rome-Comparing-Tradition/dp/1565071077

        Catholics will fill their churches the Sunday after the Rapture. They will ask their priests,

        • “What just happened”

        • “Why were we left behind???!!!”

        • “Why were we not warned!?”

        I hope you will consider what I am saying here so that you are not among them.

        • Rockledge

          I am not Catholic nor do I belong to any cult that calls itself representative of Christianity,
          but I definitely believe in Jesus and have a relationship with Him.

          But I can tell you this much, if more Christians behaved like Mother Teresa instead of Pat Robertson, people would be flocking TO churches instead of fleeing from them and anyone they see walking out of one.

          Having spent a lot of time with people of various faiths and having worshiped in everything from Freewill Baptist churches to going to Mass ( I am a musician and paid much of my dues playing religious events and church services), I can tell you that Catholics
          incorporate God into their lives as a lifetime commitment, that they tend to take personal responsibility to know their faith well and practice it to a reasonable degree, and don’t treat God like some pie in the sky santa claus waiting to lavish them with His love via Mammon.
          Most of all, you seldom meet a Catholic who is a prick. Catholics tend to be very even tempered thoughtful people who have good social skills.
          I can’t say that about most of the rest of my experiences around “religious” people.

          The last church I left and realized God was trying to tell me to get away from those bad places had a worship leader and a secretary who were respectively a big enough prick and a nasty enough bitch to even run the wife of the long dead pastor who founded and built the church off.

          I’ve NEVER seen that kind of behavior among Catholics ( although I am sure it exists, it just doesn’t seem to be prevailing the way I seen it most other places).

          Again, I am not a Catholic, I don’t believe most of their doctrine, but if I ever did attend a church regularly it would be Catholic, because most Catholics, doctrinally wrong or not, GET it. And LIVE it.

          Again, Mother Teresa or ( insert favorite name it claim it non denominational whatever else fad version of modern Christianity preacher name here).

          I’m thinking Jesus kinda sides with the woman who cradled sick dead people with horribly contagious diseases without concern of her own potential infection rather than some raving asshole who preaches “faith” for 45 minutes then shoots any notion of faith in the foot by feeling he has to beg for money for the next 15 minutes.

          When Jesus categorizes the final count I am thinking she will be in the “Most like Me” group, and all the “you ain’t doing Christianity right because you don’t do it they way I do” will end up in the “most like nothing I intended” group.

          • Mayhem

            Well we know the RCC’s opinion of Mother Teresa, Rockledge, but have you heard Penn & Teller or Christopher Hitchens opinion?

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4nCaxHN-cY

            Careful who you idolize, my friend.

    • Rockledge

      Whose gospel? This bullshit western churches present as Christianity?
      Give God ( or, more accurately, the wealthy preacher) your hard earned cash ( or in the united states, your welfare) and He ill let you win the lottery?
      Go to church to hear about Jesus but instead hear about who the preacher thinks you should vote for?
      Go to church to learn how to love and get talked into marching in front of abortion clinics calling distraught women murders?
      Go to churches that have women in the pulpit when the apostle Paul succinctly spoke against it and when all the religious leaders in the old testament were men?
      Go to churches who were 30 years ago preaching against perversion and being activists to the point of being rude against it but now that the preachers son came out of the fag closet or because a high profile politician has a daughter that is a bush hog it suddenly might be nice to care about queers instead of condemning them to hell?

      And most of all, going to a church that is determined to make an agenda out of absurdities like ” all the Catholics are going to hell because they worship idols) in the face of the fact that the catholic church is one of, if not THE most generous benevolence organization on the planet?

      Hell, just look at this thread. It seems those who claim to be believers biggest past time is displaying how fucking “biblically smart” they are by constantly bickering over petty doctrinal issues that don’t mean jack on judgement day.

      No thanks, been there, done that, didn’t like it.
      No WAY I want to show up at the gates and having to answer to God for becoming a part of that shit.

      • jknbt

        hey rockledge, nope, no apologies for my zeal or words…I feel morally obligated to warn these people who have been deceived…sorry that it upsets you, but no guilt feelings or apologies…perfect metaphor: If I discovered that a long bridge was out on a highway in the rockies after a midnight storm, and there were no signs or other warnings, I would be morally obligated to go a mile down the highway and try to block the oncoming traffic, which has cars and whole families racing at highway speeds to the sheer precipice and 1000 foot drop. The drivers may choose to not listen, but at least I tried. They were warned. Anyone who would not try to warn the oncoming traffic has really let those poor people down. So don’t judge me for trying to keep people out of hell. Jesus calls “tolerant” people like you Lukewarm (Rev 3:15-17)…

    • Firmament Does Exist

      “Christianity” is from Rome and not “The Way”.

      • Alan Schuetz

        Nothing could be further from the truth. Gentile believers were first called “Christians” at ANTIOCH — not Rome! Lest you forget, Rome had a HUGE appetite for killing Christians… Repent before you taste the lake of fire known as Gehenna on Judgment Day! Why do you insist on dying a second death and spending your eternal life in torment over the lies of the Catholic church?

        Acts 11:20 But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who came to Antioch and began speaking to the Greeks also, preaching the Lord Jesus. 21 And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a large number who believed turned to the Lord. 22 The news about them reached the ears of the church at Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas off to Antioch. 23 Then when he arrived and witnessed the grace of God, he rejoiced and began to encourage them all with resolute heart to remain true to the Lord; 24 for he was a good man, and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And considerable numbers were brought to the Lord. 25 And he left for Tarsus to look for Saul; 26 and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. And for an entire year they met with the church and taught considerable numbers; and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch. (NASB)

        • Firmament Does Exist

          MaasAH MalakiYA 11:26 When he found him, he brought him to AntiochiYA. It come about, that for a whole year they were gathered together with The Covenant Family in YA there and discipled many people. His MeoshiYAans we’re first called ChristiYAHUWans in AntiochiYA.

      • Alan Schuetz

        Where was Saul going to persecute the men and women of The Way under direct orders from the Great Sanhedrin? Was it Rome? lol No, it was Damascus. The Dead Sea Scrolls preserved The Way before they met their ultimate demise at Masada in 73 CE.
        ========
        Who penned the Dead Sea Scrolls?

        The answer is exceptionally easy as to whom penned the Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS); the mystery is revealed in the Book of Acts. Luke and Acts were written to Mattathias ben Theophilus (recorded simply as “Theophilus” — just as Yosef ben Caiaphas was referenced as “Caiaphas”). Theophilus was the kohen gadol (=chief priest) in Jerusalem in 65-66 CE at the start of the First Jewish-Roman War that lasted from 66-73 CE. Luke was explicitly written in chronological order taken from eyewitness accounts; see Luke 1:1-4 concentrating on v3.

        The “sect” was called THE WAY (Heb. HaDerech) in Acts. Josephus, a self-described Pharisee (and we know what Christ thought of them in The Eight Woes recorded in Matthew 23) coined the derogatory term “Essenes” (=pious ones). These “wise men from the east” of Jerusalem — 15 miles as the crow flies — in the desert wilderness of Qumran had resided there for nearly two centuries before Christ’s conception on the Feast of New Oil in 5 CE and His birth on the Feast of Weeks in 6 CE. (And, yes, I have confirmed what the “star of Bet Lechem” was with our local planetarium.) Yochanan (John), who was a Levite, went to study in Qumran; see Luke 1:80. Recall that he was “the voice crying out in the (desert) wilderness.” The Feast of Weeks is when The Way made new covenants; Yehoshu’a (Joshua, falsely called “Jesus” from the Latin transliteration — NOT translation — of His name) ushered in the ultimate New Covenant with His birth.

        Malachi was the Teacher of Righteousness, and John Hyrcanus, the first Jew to “proselytize by the sword,” was the Wicked Priest when this “sect” was in its infancy. Malachi explicitly speaks of The Way and of the coming of Yochanan before Yehoshu’a:

        Malachi 2:8 But as for you, you have turned aside from THE WAY (emphasis mine); you have caused many to stumble by the instruction; you have corrupted the covenant of Levi,” says the Lord of hosts. (NASB)

        Malachi 3:1 “Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear THE WAY (emphasis mine) before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming,” says the Lord of hosts. (NASB)

        The original prophesy in Isaiah:

        Isaiah 40:3 A voice is calling,
        “Clear THE WAY (emphasis mine) for the Lord in the wilderness;
        Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God. (NASB)

        Here is the confirmation to this prophesy focusing on Matthew 3:3, Mark 1:3, Luke 3:4, and John 1:23:

        https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+3%3A1-3%3B+Mark+1%3A2-4%3B+Luke+3%3A1-6%3B+John+1%3A19-23&version=NASB

        The Congregation, or men and women of The Way, lived in Damascus, Syria, where there is a “street called Straight” to this very day. They would dedicate their first-born sons to the Lord and send them to Qumran to study. Where was Sha’ul (Saul) going to persecute the men and women of The Way under direct orders of the Great Sanhedrin? It’s all right there in Acts, folks! You just have to open your eyes and quit listening to “Biblical scholars” and their false machinations.

        Of those in Qumran, the last vestiges of them were discovered at Masada according to research via the Biblical Archaeology Society (BAS). Scribal remnants were crossed matched at both locations (http://tinyurl.com/n3zt9ch).

        So, how does The Way factor into prophesy? They are the 144,000 of Revelation! What other Jewish males in that number (12,000 from each of the 12 tribes of Israel) were chaste? Neither the Pharisees nor Sadducees were celibate. The DSS clearly state that those in Qumran were. This “sect” separated themselves from the corruption being practiced in Jerusalem, and they lasted for just under three centuries (early second century BCE to 73 CE). The generation that existed in the time of Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection in 36 CE certainly witnessed the destruction of the Second Temple.

        Modern day Israel/Jerusalem follows the Babylonian mysteries. They place more faith in the Talmud Bavli (Babylonian Talmud) than they do in the TaNaKh (OT); they follow a Babylonian calendar in which the fourth month is named after the Babylonian deity Tammuz (http://tinyurl.com/qgl6wg4); and they recite “Adonai” for the Tetragrammaton, which is a reference to the Greek Adonis and the Babylonian Tammuz. They are “Mystery Babylon” from Revelation, and Jerusalem will certainly be destroyed! After the new Heaven and Earth are created, New Jerusalem, the bride of Christ, will descend from Heaven! So be it (amen)…

        Shema Yisrael! (Hear, Israel!)

        Copyright (C) 1995-2018, L. Alan Schuetz
        =======
        The Way in Acts

        So, where is the “sect” called The Way (Heb. HaDerech) mentioned explicitly in Acts?

        * Acts 9:1-31
        * Acts 19:8-10, 23-27
        * Acts 22:1-16
        * Acts 24:1-16

        https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts+9%3A1-31%3B+19%3A8-10%2C23-27%3B+22%3A1-16%3B+24%3A1-16&version=NASB

        The following bears repeating from the words of Paul the Apostle:

        Acts 24:14 But this I admit to you, that according to [T]he Way which they call a sect I do serve the God of our fathers, believing everything that is in accordance with the Law and that is written in the Prophets;15 having a hope in God, which these men cherish themselves, that there shall certainly be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked. (NASB)

        Recall that (Titus Flavius) Josephus (né Yosef ben Matityahu) — a Jewish historian, Roman citizen, and self-described Pharisee — applied the term “Essenes” (=pious ones) to this “sect.” He even had a spurious claim of living among those in Qumran before deciding to practice pharisaism; however, his timeline does not mesh up (i.e., he lied on his résumé). The Dead Sea Scrolls mention “the way” repeatedly in significant manuscripts.

        The Damascus Document describes how the Congregation of men and women lived. They sold all their earthly possessions and donated the proceeds to the collective — living a communal lifestyle. This is confirmed in Acts including some of the problems they encountered:

        * Acts 2:44-47
        * Acts 4:32-37
        * Acts 5:1-11
        * Acts 6:1-6

        https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts+2%3A44-47%3B+4%3A32-37%3B+5%3A1-11%3B+6%3A1-6&version=NASB

        John (Yochanan) was instructed in the desert wilderness of Qumran based on Luke 1:80:

        Luke 1:80 And the child continued to grow and to become strong in spirit, and he lived in the deserts until the day of his public appearance to Israel. (NASB)

        Do you think that John’s parents — whose father was a Levitical priest — would allow their only son to roam aimlessly in the desert? How would he become “strong in spirit?” The Holy Spirit had not been sent yet!

        Like it or not, THIS was the early church… And, for the Catholic folks, Peter NEVER visited Rome, but as a Roman citizen, Paul definitely did! Again, that is documented in Acts et al.

        Shema Yisrael!

        Copyright (C) 1995-2018, L. Alan Schuetz

        • Firmament Does Exist

          “Christianity” as practiced today is from Rome as Sun day worship, celebration of Christmass and Ishtar sun is from Rome and is The Mystery Religion that was Babylon transferred to Rome under Constantine.

      • Alan Schuetz

        Even your antipapa stated that the Most High isn’t omnipotent. What usurping Jesuit joke he is! What are you going to do when Francis is thrown into Gehenna not long after the fallen angels are?

        God is not a magician: Pope Francis on Big Bang and Evolution

        http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/pope-francis-declares-evolution-and-big-bang-theory-are-right-and-god-isnt-a-magician-with-a-magic-9822514.html

        • Firmament Does Exist

          So is Paul the 12th or 13th apostle?

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