Ephesians 1:21-23

"far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.  And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all."  Ephesians 1:21-23.

Despite its smallness and visible weaknesses, the complement of Christ, the church is also in an exalted position.  We members do not literally add a thing to Christ's divinity, but in His view, He is not complete and will not be complete until untied with His bride.  Thus, as He sanctifies and shapes us in holiness, He gradually fills His bride's every part with every gift needed to enable her to function effectively so that she, as a whole, can glorify God in her overall responsibility to our Father and to our Lord and Savior.  Since everything in Christ's spiritual body comes from Him, He is everything to every member within it.

No religion but Christianity offers such an exalted and loving, spiritual Being sent to labor on behalf of its adherents.  He is our Creator, our Lawgiver, the Forgiver of our sins, the Dispenser of His Spirit, the Giver of eternal life, our Guide through life who blazes the trail before us, and the Enabler of true spiritual growth and overcoming.

This body of believers is not contained within one corporate entity, and an individual cannot just go out and join it.  The Father must lead a person to it (John 6:44).  When He does, the newly called person will find people who are keeping God's commandments - all ten of them - in both letter and spirit.  They will worship God in spirit and truth (John 4:24) without dodging spiritual realities, and they will sacrifice themselves despite personal costs.  They will be honest to a fault, trustworthy, and uncomplaining.  They are not driven by envy and covetousness, nor are they fixed on immediate or self-gratification.

The Kingdom of God is the vision that drives them.  They strive to transform into the images of Jesus Christ and to glorify the Father and Son in everything.  They live solidly in the present, aware of many of its harsh realities, but they make every move with their gaze on their eternal future.  They truly are pilgrims, people who humbly see themselves as mere tiny speaks in a vast and awesome purpose yet privileged beyond all bounds.  They believe that purpose, and in gratitude, give themselves by faith to see it accomplished in their lives.

Colossians 2:9-10

"For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power"  Colossians 2:9-10.

At every turn, it seems, the main object of Gnosticism was to twist the nature of Christ.  Some Gnostics believed that Jesus was a man, but that Christ entered into Jesus when He was baptized and and left Him right before He died. Other Gnostics believed that He could not have been prefect and sinless because He created matter, which Gnostics believed to be evil.  And there were also those who believed that Jesus Christ was a created being - an idea that is still affecting the fringes of the church of God to this day.

So if we want to counter Gnosticism, we must begin with the truth of Jesus Christ.  Paul emphasizes this in verses 9-10: Jesus was the fulness of the divine nature in bodily form, and He is the head, the leader, the sovereign, of every principality and power.  Though the Gnostics in their various views always twisted or denied some aspect of the nature and role of Jesus Christ, these truths brought out by the apostle are bedrock beliefs for true Christians.

Also foundational to countering Gnosticism is the truth that Jesus brought.  To combat the false knowledge that threatens to plunder our spiritual riches, we must take the Bible as the complete and inspired Word of God, against which we can test any concept, tradition, doctrine, or philosophy, no matter how good it sounds on the surface.  Gnostics would not readily accept the Bible as God's inspired revelation, or if they did, they also held that other ancient, secret writings were on par with Scripture, and could be trusted to provide greater insight.

In addition, Gnostics were also avid proponents of "progressive revelation," the belief that God is continuing to reveal His will to mankind, but with the implication that Holy Scripture is not as important as hearing directly from the spirit world.  Thus, some today, while not entirely rejecting the Bible, believe that "God" is personally revealing things to them - things which often contradict what He has already given to mankind in His written Word.

Revelation 6:15

"And the kings of the earth, great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and the rocks of the mountains".  Revelation 6:15

Assuming that "every slave and every free man" refers to true Christians, what might God's people do in these caves?  Hopefully, they would be a light to those around them (Matthew 5:14).  Armed with far more knowledge about God and His plan than their masters, God's people will be able to put the horrifying events into perspective for the already-humbled cave-dwellers.  The caves will be not so much a "place of final training" as a venue to serve others.  For example, God's people might:

-Assure others that Christ will soon end the maddening chaos by establishing His rule on earth.

-Tell them the living can expect to see His return - "every eye will see Him" (Revelation 1:7).

-Notify them that, at His return, they can expect to see God's people rising in the air to meet Him (I Thessalonians 4:17).

-Instruct them that, once Christ consolidates His rule, the terror will subside, as the healing waters from His throne take their effect (Ezekiel 47:1-12; Revelation 22:1-2).

-Enjoin them to make their way to Jerusalem when conditions begin to settled down, where they will be taught by Christ, the Lamb.

Since every eye will see Christ return (Revelation 1:7), we can deduce that the rigors of the Day of the Lord will open the caves, exposing them to the atmosphere, or perhaps events will force their inhabitants out into the open.  The cavemen will see Christ return in power and great glory (Matthew 24:30).  As the living among God's people rise to meet Christ, will they say to their fellow cave-dwellers, "See you in Jerusalem"?

Though they entered the caves with a degree of resignation, supposing they would eventually perish there, the presence with them of "every slave and every free man" will bring about a change in their thinking, arming them with more complete knowledge about God's plan and will.  Once Christ returns, they will be motivated to make their way to Jerusalem as soon as it is feasible.

Amos 8:11-14

"Behold, the days are coming," says the Lord God, "That I will send a famine on the land, Not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing of the words of the Lord.  They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord, but they shall not find it.  In that day the fair virgins and strong young men shall faint from thirst.  Those who swear by the sin of Samaria, who say, "As your god lives, O Dan!" And, "As the way of Beersheba lives!" They shall fall and never rise again."  Amos 8:11-14.

The first victims of this famine are the young.  They are most susceptible because their parents failed to provide a solid foundation of truth.  The young only know what the older generation has taught them.  With anything remotely Christian being banished from public schools and colleges and ridiculed in the media, and with churches increasingly neglecting the Word of God, the youth are being supplied with a very weak or non-existent diet of truth.

God created mankind with a spiritual capacity, and our minds naturally crave something to excite us, fill us, and give us answers.  If God's words are not sustaining the youth of the nation, something else will.  Thus, the rap and other forms of pop culture has become a religion - a belief system, a way of life - for some.  The philosophy of materialism is firmly entrenched in these fertile minds, which are being fed all day yet starved of truth.  Eco-religions and nature worship are drawing others off course.  Witchcraft and other elements of the occult fill the minds of others.  Easter and New Age beliefs are becoming more mainstream.

An entire generation is falling for the line that there is no absolute truth, that everyone's opinion is valid (unless that opinion is biblical), and that the only modern sin is to judge.  All of these forms of idolatry are flourishing because of God's words are not being heard, and something else has taken their place.

Amos 8:14 describes those who are so adamantly committed to their idolatry, who are spiritually sick from malnourishment, that they will "fall and never rise again."

Mark 16:9

"Now when He rose early on the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He has cast seven demons".  Mark 16:9.

This verse is translated in the New King James Version as, "Now when He rose early on the first day of the week, He appeared ..." The King James Version translates it, "Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, He appeared ..."  Finally, The Interlinear Bible, in its word-for-word translation, renders it, "having risen and early on the first of the week, He appeared ..."  Does this verse say the resurrection was early on the first day of the week?

Here is another instance of the translators mistranslating a verse because of the preconceived beliefs, arising from the "traditions of men".  The commentators admit the construction of the sentence is unusual, but refuse to acknowledge its plain sense.  The literal translation, with only slight modification, gives the best rendering: "And having risen, early on the first day of the week He appeared ...."

The Greek word translated "having risen" (anastas, an active aorist participle) suggests an action completed prior to the time of the main verb, in this case, "appeared."  Thus Jesus was resurrected sometime before He appeared to Mary Magdalene early on the first day of the week.  That is all that Mark is trying to say.  Placing a simple comma after "rose" (NKJV) or "risen" (KJV) is the easiest way to resolve the matter.  The words of the angel to the women, "He is risen!" (Matthew 28:6; Mark 16:6: Luke 24:6) also give the sense that He was raised at some point prior to His Sunday morning appearances.

So we see that this verse neither proves or disproves a Sabbath or Sunday resurrection.  The clues about when He really was raised from the dead - Sabbath at sunset - are found in other verses.

Daniel 10:8-13

"Therefore I was left alone when I saw this great vision, and no strength remained in me; for my vigor was turned to frailty in me, and I retained no strength.  Yet I heard the sound of his words; and while I heard the sound of his words I was in a deep sleep on my face, with my face to the ground.  Suddenly, a hand touched me, which made me tremble on my knees and on the palms of my hands.  And he said to me, "O Daniel, man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak to you, and stand upright, for I have now been sent to you."  While he was speaking this word to me, I stood trembling.  Then he said to me, "Do not fear, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand, and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard; and I have come because of your words.  But the prince of the kingdom of Persia, withstood me twenty-one days; and behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left alone there with the kings of Persia."  Daniel 8:10-13.

This was an awesome being of power, so great that ordinarily strong, valiant men were so frightened that they ran.  Yet something withstood this great being to his face and kept him from getting to Daniel for three full weeks.  We cannot even begin to imagine the titanic struggle that went on between, say, Gabriel and this other being.  There must have been such an awesome wrestling match as men have never been witness to.

Whatever it was that withheld Gabriel from getting to Daniel must have been awfully powerful.  Notice too that this great struggle was going on without Daniel even being aware of it.  Somehow a malignant demon tried to thwart Daniel's prayer from being answered.

But it was answered because, in verse 13, "Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left alone there with the kings of Persia."  It was not until two of them ganged up on this other being - two great, mighty archangels to subdue the other.  The logical conclusion would almost have to be that the king of Persia mentioned here was none other than Satan.

This section in Daniel 10 really contains a great deal of encouragement.  We can understand why the apostle Paul and the psalmist wrote that the angels are ministering spirits.  They are ministering to the heirs of salvation.  They are protecting us.  They are standing between us and possible annihilation.  We do not know how many times an angel has intervened to save our lives, to deflect the power of these malignant beings from us.  It has happened repeatedly in some cases, not just in dramatic interventions, but where an intervention took place of which we were not even aware. 

III John 1:9-11

"I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to have the preeminence among them, does not receive us.  Therefore, if I come, I will call to mind his deeds which he does, prating against us with malicious words.  And not content with that, he himself does not receive the brethren, and forbids those who wish to, putting them out of the church.  Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good.  He who does good is of God, but he who does evil has not seen God."  III John 1:9-11.


Who is this Diotrephes?  Perhaps a better question is, "Who does this Diotrephes think he is?"  Was he an apostle?  Was he an eveangelist?  Was he a pastor?  Was he a leading man in the congregation?  Was he an "ordinary" member?  John does not say, but is interesting that John mentions that Diotrephes just loved to have the preeminence among them.  It almost sounds as if he was only a member of the church or perhaps and elder.  We do not know.

One of his most marked characteristics is he liked to be "Number One."  He had to be the important guy, the one everybody came to for answers to their questions, the one to make the big decisions.  He even went so far as to say malicious things against John - one of the original twelve apostles.  He prated against him with malicious words.  He spoke down to him.

John was the disciple that Jesus loved,and here some little man, probably in the church at Ephesus, was talking against the apostle who had put his life on the line for the church many times, who had spent years in exile on the Isle of Patmos, who (tradition says) was put a vat of boiling oil and was not harmed a bit, a man whom God was obviously with - and this Diotrephes thought he was so important that he could point out John's flaws to the rest of the congregation.

Then he started disfellowshipping people because they did not agree with him. He kicked people out of the church who wanted to fellowship with their brethren whom he had put out.  John promised, "When I get there, I'm going to take care of this.  I will call to mind all these things and make what this man is apparent."

Given the way he treated the congregations, Diotrephes was a "Satan in the flesh."  What he did was evil, which is what John writes in verse 11:  "Beloved, do not imitate what is evil."  He is warning, "Do not imitate the actions of this man, Diotrephes.  He is doing exactly what Satan did."