Sunday School - Orthodox Catechism Questions 39-56

I confess this is only the last minute. By the last minute, I remember that I didn't take it enough.

I told Josh I'd take some of this stuff. So I had something that I wanted to go through, and I think we'll go through it over time, and I have it more prepared.

And that is the internal functional coordination or controversy. If you're familiar with that at all. If not, don't worry.

I'll get there when we get there. But the last time I talked to the school here, some time ago

I talked to the school. We were going through orthodox catechism. I figured we'd just do that. So orthodox catechism, who knows what that is?

Orthodox. An orthodox catechism. Yeah. I don't know. Well, hopefully some people know what those words mean.

Orthodox. Ortho. Orthos. In Greek, it means right or straight. Right? And dox.

Right. Doxology. Right. Or worship. So right worship. And catechism.

I say that so often in all the sub -questions and answers about the catechism in teaching.

So orthodox catechism is a late catechism. It's probably right for you. Now, has anybody heard of Heidelberg catechism?

OK, so Heidelberg catechism is a very important catechism in the

Dutch though. It's part of what they primarily focus on.

Baptists have several Baptist versions of things. 16 .9 is the Baptist version of the

Western Second Confession. Baptist catechism is the Baptist version of the Western Second Order catechism. An orthodox catechism is the

Baptist version of the Heidelberg catechism. So Hercules tells the guy who wrote this, and it's based off of the

Heidelberg catechism. So it's most of the same type of parts about Baptism and what the church is are rewritten to a rewritten

Baptist theology. All right. So we stopped question 38 last time.

I'll just read this slowly. You can try to find this online if you want to follow along on paper or on your phone.

Why did he suffer under Pontius Pilate as a judge?

And the answer is so that he, though innocent, might be condemned by a civil judge and so free us from the severe judgment of God that was to fall on us.

So it was necessary that Jesus be condemned in judgment.

It was not sufficient for him just to die under no judgment.

Rather, there must be some false accusations and false judgment upon him so that he be our substitute.

Us having received correct judgment is guilty. What did he become not guilty by?

Didn't he say, I find a false judgment? That's true. Well, it isn't my fault. But he still condemned him as guilty because he wasn't willing to stand up for the law and stand up for his own judgment.

And he still used authority to give people what they wanted which is guilty for hurting them. Feel free to ask any other questions at any time.

Along with that, though, Pilate couldn't find him by civil law guilty.

But he told the Jews, you take care of him because wasn't he concealing that he was guilty under Jewish law?

Or just say, if you say he's guilty, and then they say, but they're responsible. No, we can't.

We can't kill him. I'm talking about the guilt. I need to defer to that because I think the whole point was that they didn't need to pronounce his condemnation.

And I have a clarifying question. Pastor Josh was saying, could he have been condemned as a secular guilt? Or did it have to be religious guilt?

Maybe falsely accused of shoplifting or whatever. But it sounds like that's Joshua's point. Well, I mean, the

Silberman guards who were putting on the sign, King of the Jews, right there, they are recognizing the charge of blasphemy and enforcing the charge of blasphemy.

Even if that's not, well, you know, King of the

Jews, that's OK. That is blasphemy against the King of the Jews. Exactly, that's not. So yeah, they recognize him as guilty, even if there was a lot of hesitation about that.

Sorry, she has some more questions. All right. Question number 39.

Is it significant that he's crucified instead of dying some other way? What do you all think?

Anybody have an answer to that? Yes. OK, why? I'm going to read. I, yeah.

OK. So yeah, the whole, once you start reading the

Bible, again, after having read it the first time, you start realizing how often the notion of hanging on a tree comes up.

I can just read from 21, which talks about this for the first time.

Let's see. OK, 22.

If the man has committed a crime, which was wrought by death, he is put to death and hanged on a tree. His body shall come out redeemed all night on the tree, but he shall be buried the same day.

For a hanged man has been crucified by God. You shall not follow your head of the Lord your God to give him for an inheritance.

All right. So in the New Wall, someone's hanged on a tree. They can't hang all night.

They have to be taken down. Because that man is crucified by God, and the same person is spread across these cities there to go along the tree.

So you have a built -into this wall, this tree. You have Galatians confirmed in it. Galatians 10, saying, for all who rely on the works of law are under a curse, or it's written, cursed be everyone who is not abide by these things as in the book of law, if you do them.

Now in 7, that no one is justified before God by the law, for the righteous are sheltered by hate.

But the law is not hate. Rather, the one who does them is sheltered by them. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.

For it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree so that any Christ who is a blessing gave to him might come to judge us, so that we might receive the promise of the

Spirit through him. So Galatians says, Christ hung on the tree because he was bearing the curse for us.

Now, can anyone think of other kinds of people where anyone chooses?

And before I ask that, I'll add that one of the papers I did in seminary was to see if there's really a relationship between hanging on a tree, like, you know, by a noose, and being crucified.

And what you see in Jewish literature over the years, as we reach this time, Jesus had so conflated the two that in their literature, they frequently talk about people who were actually hanged, you know, just like in a noose style, as being crucified.

They would use the same vocabulary that uses a curse affection. Even though, you know, there weren't any other.

But they would use that word, crucified, to describe someone hanging on a tree. All right, so anybody think of another?

Saul's sons were hung before the Lord, right? I guess. It wasn't from a tree. It was from the city wall, but I wouldn't have kind of related it.

It seems so. Yeah. I think a tree is important, but yeah, it seems to relate to that.

Absalom, I think, is it? Right, yeah. Absalom hung by his hair on a tree.

So you have a son of David hanging. People offering silver for his life,

I like to read in the narrative. You know, that's a deity, that's identical. And him being sat on the side of the three spirits,

I think, you know, a lot of people don't learn exactly like Jesus. But boy, there's something about these kinds of characters who's, in all ways, they're pretty evil, but he's going through these things that show that he's cursed and he's suffering, very similar to the things that Jesus suffered later.

And then Jesus suffers all those things, not in a way that's trying to break people apart, but in a way that's bringing people together.

And so Jesus is this true son of David, this true son of Saul, like Absalom, who has a similar story visually, but during the exact opposite.

Yes? A hippopotamus. Did he? Okay. I'm trying to remember.

I'm really sure. Yeah, he did commit suicide, but I'm not sure about the hanging.

I'll pipe up in a second. I'm sure he did. There's Jesus, yes. Okay, yeah, he became five

Amorites. Then the five kings of Amorites came to Jerusalem, etc.

Sorry, what year was it they hanged him? 26. 26. And after where Joshua was struggling, they put him to death.

He hanged him on the fire tree, and they hung him on the tree until the evening. So you can tell he hasn't taken it down before the evening.

I've heard of that, but that has to do with being crucified in a Roman way where your feet are supporting you.

These people that are being hung, I think they're being hung more like when you're being convicted with abuse. So here's one.

It's in Genesis. Let me see if I can get this chapter here.

You have the baker, the baker and the cupbearer in Genesis 4.

The cupbearer is told that in three days' time he'll be set free.

And the baker is told based on history that in three days' time he said what he was about to tell them.

And then it says in verse 22, but he hanged the baker as Joseph had interpreted it. So here you have the baker being hanged.

Right on that third day. Right on that third day, which is the same thing as the cupbearer goes free and the baker is hanged.

You have a lot of things. You know, Jesus later says that it was told to you that it was prophesied in scripture that Christ would rise on the third day.

But if you look through it, there's really only one passage that might say that directly.

Everything else is just a pattern of the third day delivery from death. If you haven't read that.

2 Samuel 17 .38. He was going to hang himself. And he was going, it's like that's why he was going against David.

The tree of the disgrace. Yeah, so in a way, to summarize all this, you have trees, hanging on trees, sometimes with the curse, sometimes directly pointing to Jesus with who and the way the people are.

And then as I said, you also have this confirmation that in Jewish history, they began using the words of crucifixion to speak of hanging in the

Old Testament. So these two are the same thing. It's hanging on a tree, being crucified, the same thing.

That's interesting. If this is an excursion, you can just... It's interesting with hanging as a way of dying.

That's not one of the ordained methods of execution. I think mainly you have stoning, which seems pretty horrible in itself.

But stoning is the main way you see as the sanctioned execution.

Right, yeah. I think it's typically killed a man and then hung him. Yeah, so for example, the one that you mentioned.

And afterward, Joshua struck them to death and he hanged them on five trees. And they hung them on trees until they came back.

So yeah, you can have a suicidal treatment by killing yourself by hanging. But typically, this is done as an act of displaying the actual look, looking at what the person did is to bring shame on them.

So it kind of makes sense why they would be considered cursed. They're being hung as an example for everyone.

All right. Let's see what we're going on here to. Question number four. Why did

Christ have to go all the way to death? Because God's justice and truth demanded it.

Only the death of God's Son could pay for our sins. Okay. God's justice and truth demanded it.

This is important. There's a lot of people who say that it was not, they're

Christians, you know, pastors, you know, in our circles that I talk to, who say that it was not absolutely necessary for Jesus to die to pay for our sins.

Because that is just what God ordained. He ordained that as His way to pay for our sins. However, He might have paid some other way.

I don't think that's wrong. The way Jesus sins death, it isn't necessary that we want to die in our place.

Yeah, there's really no way. God's justice is part of His character. It is not something that He just changed.

He's not arbitrating what justice is. You know, He is only depending on it.

Well, I suppose it is arbitrary, but only by His nature. You know, it's not something that's contingent that He gives to society.

Not at all. Because He is good, because He's just, the way Jesus sinned is death. Because of the way

Jesus sinned is death, one must pay life for life. There's no way around that.

So that's the first part. God's justice and truth demanded it. And then, to spell it out, only the death of God's Son would make it a precious sin.

You couldn't have the payment of someone else, even in, okay, obviously, the other four sinners.

And then on top of that, it's not enough even a good man who hasn't sinned, who isn't a son of God, to pay the sin of the world.

Right? You need to do this in a particularly precious way. So, Psalm 497 says,

There's truly no man who ransoms another for giving God the price of his life. For the ransom of life is costly and can never suffice, that he should live long and never see the end.

And then in verse 15 of that same psalm, it says, But God will ransom my soul for power to show, for He will receive it.

So, God has the power to ransom you from death. One life is not sufficient to pay for the sins of others, apart from being the lifeguards of the

Son of Man. There is another verse, which is pretty interesting here, which is not referenced by this

Catholicism, but it is referenced by those of us who are larger Catholicism. In Acts 2, it talks about, in Acts 2, it says,

For David said to his servant, I saw the Lord was before me, for He is at my right hand, and I know

He sees me. Therefore, my heart is glad, and my tongue rejoices, and my flesh also dwelleth in Him. For you will not abandon my soul, even if it is for the latter, only once in corruption.

You have made the unending paths of life. You will make me full of gladness with your presence. Brothers, I make it safe to you to confess that the patriarch

David, that he both died and was buried again, is his attunement, and his attunement is with us to this day.

Being there for a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn to both of them, that He would set one of His descendants on the throne,

He foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of Christ, that He was not abandoned to David, nor did

He suffer any corruption. This is Jesus, the God of grace and love, and of that we are all to possess.

Anyway, many people have taken this path to say that basically, only the

Son could withstand corruption, could withstand the wrath of God. But this is not something that a mere, even if He had been born perfect, without sin and temptation, could withstand.

But the divine nature is essentially holding up the human nature. I'm trying to remember which verse in particular people have taken from this passage.

But anyway, I think it's basically just just letting the whole world see corruption. It's only when one is especially holy, not just righteous, but especially holy, that we will not see corruption.

So yeah, any one that is especially holy, any one who is the Son of God. Alright, question 41.

Why is this buried? Answer. Is burial just a process of reproduction? That's it.

But you also said a process. Yeah. Demanding is a burial process. Since Christ died for us, why do we still have to die?

That's a good question. What do you all think of that? Why do we still have to die? Is it buried or do we have to die for Christ already in it?

We do have eternal life. Okay. Yes, sir. We couldn't enter eternal life in this body, so this body doesn't have to die.

Yes. Yeah, exactly. This body is corrupted. It doesn't have to die. Our death is not paid in debt or sins.

Okay, so that's first of all. So that whole question of burial is a certain way we realize our death isn't a punishment in that sense.

It's not a burial in the penalty because it's owed to us as far as paying in debt or sins.

Rather, it puts an end to our sinning and it gives our entrance into eternal life. So this is the only way to use to sanctify.

This is the rule. Death is that final act of sanctification. One passage about that.

In 1 Corinthians 11, when it talks about them being in eternal judgment on themselves because they don't come to the

Lord just right. That is why many of you are weak and also want to die. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged.

It's interesting because right after that, when we are judged, we are judged by the word we are disciplined that we may not be condemned among the poor.

So it's possible he's just talking about adultery in the church, but it's possible also that he's talking about that act of death as a discipline.

And if you think about it, this isn't necessarily the easiest thing to think about death as a discipline. Because the discipline is about that suffering that produces sanctification in us and what is death, that final act of suffering that produces sanctification in us.

Okay, question 43. What further advantage did you receive for Christ's sacrifice in death and in our lives?

Through Christ's death, our old selves are crucified, put to death, and buried with them so that the evil desires of flesh may no longer rule us, but that instead we dedicate ourselves to this offering of gratitude to the

Lord. Okay, so this is important.

This sacrifice does not just pay for our sins, does not just give us forgiveness, but it also grants us that new nature, that sanctification that we were just talking about.

So a lot of people imagine that death is only that opportunity for our sins. Right? It just puts us back at square one, basically.

But it does much more than that. It sanctifies us, it purifies us, as we are put to death and buried with them.

And there are several passages that talk about this that are explained by the fact that atonement accomplishes multiple things.

One of those is the 1 John 1 where it says...

Actually, I may not be able to find this one quick enough. But there's a number of times where it talks about various things that are accomplished by Jesus' death.

It's somewhere in 1 John, but I don't think it's there. Why does the

Kree die? He just isn't in hell. So what Kree is this talking about?

Yeah, so... So it says...

It's interesting because there's been a lot of research related to that. I've not studied the books, but there's been a lot of interest in this phrase in the past few years.

To assure me that in times of personal crisis and temptation, the Christ, my Lord, by suffering unspeakable anguish, pain, and terror of soul, especially on the cross, but also earlier, has delivered me from the anguish and torment of hell.

So the answer to this is... People have different answers which I haven't explored through all of them yet.

But the answer that this is giving is basically that if... It says that he's in hell not because on that...

Not because he was a hero in hell or something like that where he didn't actually go to paradise when he died, but rather he was sent into hell.

That's not the point. The point is rather than suffering on the cross, he wore what is the equivalent of hell that we all have to suffer or would have had to have suffered.

How does Christ's resurrection benefit us? So we talked about how his death benefits us, and now his resurrection.

And his miracle, and now his resurrection. First, by his resurrection, he has overcome death so that he might make a share in his righteousness.

He won for us by his death. Second, by his power, we too are all now resurrected to a new life.

Third, Christ's resurrection is a guarantee for our Lord's resurrection. So first of all, sharing his righteousness.

Secondly, having a new life here and now. And third, having a new life there and then.

Make sense of any questions? What do you mean by saying he is sent to heaven?

That Christ, on his disciples' watch, was lifted up from the earth to heaven and will be there for our good until he comes to judge the living and the dead.

Alright, so he literally is sent to heaven. His physical body is sent to heaven. A lot of people might not have had meetings in a spiritual place where, you know, just spiritual things are and no physical things.

Heaven is a physical place and I know that because Jesus has a physical body and his physical body is sent there.

And so that truth is very important for us in thinking about life.

Because a lot of people have just very unethereal notions of what heaven is and what it will be. But if Jesus is there with his born body, that tells us that there will not be so altogether different from this place.

You know, the things that God has created are going to just cease to exist in that place around you.

You know, space and time. You know, you hear people say all sorts of things, like, oh,

God just said we won't have any hunger there. I say, okay, well that means that we won't eat just to be who we just have to be.

We won't desire, we won't be like the Muslims. You know? No, no. It still talks about marriage and separate land.

I suppose it's possible that that's not, that's something else but I have no reason to seriously doubt that there could be actual food.

Right? Jesus eating after his resurrection. We won't be people without desires.

We will be people whose desires are not intended by the Lord. That's what it means when it says there's going to be no hunger.

Not the people that have desires. You know how it talks about, like, I think it's in Hebrews where it talks about comparing

Jesus with the old covenant, you know, how ours is better, how he went into the one that was, you know, how

Moses made what he saw in heaven, you know, like the temple, the...

Imprisonment. Yeah, and provided his blood. When did that happen? You're saying when did...

When did Christ as priest, as our priest, go into heaven and present the blood for us?

Yeah, so I believe that already happened because he is making sacrifice there, but then continually he presents the intercessory for us.

So he gives intercessory for us continually. This is why it's necessary to be a high priest for everybody to be given intercessory for us continually.

And that intercession, it is that. It's that, basically, a key, a long basis of the sacrifice.

Which is just what makes Roman Catholicism a daily, daily

Eucharist. Such a challenge because they believe that he's being represented by them every day. But he's not, the priest is not going to himself.

The other thing that you have is that in some sections of Christianity that are false in the

Christian community, you have this notion that Jesus, on a particular day in history, did something in the

Holy of Holies in heaven. Right, you have, for example, the Seventh -day Adventist teach that,

I forget in what day, in the 1800s, but he entered the Holy of Holies heaven and there he began judging people.

And he's basically going through every name and judging them.

And so once he gets the last name, that's when Jesus will return. Seventh -day

Adventist. Yeah, the investigative judgment. This is their foundation. This is like, the first thing that separated them from everyone else.

You know, they were part of the Lords, and they made a promise about Jesus coming back. And when he did come back, most people abandoned the group.

But one little sect of it decided that they were going to interpret this as being, oh, this is when he went to the

Holy of Holies in heaven. This is not when he came back. So, yeah, that's a pretty common pattern.

People make some predictions about the Lord coming on a particular day, and then when he does, they just say, oh, no, this is when something else happens.

That's just what our camping did. That's what other people did. Right? What did he say? I don't know if he was in the church age, but what did he say?

He said he was in the church age. But he said that before. He said something was supposed to be the end of the age.

Yeah. he really interpreted it as something. I had a question.

Yes. Regarding in heaven. So, we would still be working in heaven, right?

I mean, based like in Adam and Eve, we created Eden. The man was to work in the land, right?

Yeah. I believe it was the work that not toiled in labor by the sliver of rock at work that came with the curse, but rather God created man.

And in his image, part of that is that creativity that he's given man. And so, I believe that we would still act in such a creative fashion.

And we would be still subduing the world that he's given us. It's not what the creator means, that kind of subduing,

I don't know. But yeah, I believe it will still be over creation, and that that will involve us doing what we need.

It's not like everything would be redone before us, we'd just have to sit there and eat short cougar boards or anything.

Yes. And also the creation, the earth would no longer resist our efforts. Right. Because everything was sanctified. Right. Yes.

So yeah, once again, a lot of these pictures have been where we're just sitting all the time and like, how can I enjoy seeing all of them?

And I don't know if I can enjoy that. Yeah, we won't be crazy about all the time in our hearts, but the idea that he has given us just a diverse environment here that's full of all kinds of beautiful and good things, and that it would be less diverse there.

It's contrary to reason that heaven would be less than what we have here. Again, this is an excursus.

Will we still be discovering in the new creation? Like, we're exploring now, we're exploring

I believe that's very decided. If he speaks things that we don't already know, right?

And if he speaks things that we don't already know, then that's necessarily a discovery. If he's going to eternally be speaking to us, then we're eternally and discovering more and more about him at the least, right?

And then, given what scripture said about how he's great, he's great, so we might discover him, like that passage

I keep going back to when Isaiah talks about the farmer learning about God because God has taught him how to farm, seeing that God is working, giving him a field that works in a wonderful way.

Yeah, I do believe that we will discover him more just from him speaking to us and through his creation.

What is that writing where you just talked about? Sure, yeah, so let me, let me see if I can spell that out.

It is Isaiah 28, 23 through 29, so I can just read that.

Give ear, and you might be able to pay attention and hear my speech. Does he who plows for some plow continually?

Does he continually but with an ear always brown? When he has leveled the surface, does he not scatter the hills of the human and put it in mead and rose and barley in its proper place and amber as the border?

So he's describing like the borderly way he would plant that field and, you know, using different parts for different things.

For he is writing and instructing, his God teaches him. Dill is not threshing, threshing, slashing or carving, but Dill is now the same human with a rod.

Does one crush three with a rod? No, he does not thresh a rod. When he draws his carcass over with his forces, he does not crush it.

This also comes from Lord of Hosts. He is wonderful in his counsel and excellent in his wisdom. So God has taught the farmer.

Now, it might be by setting things up for the farmer to discover God has taught the farmer. And in context, what this is saying is it's teaching him, not just about the field, but about him because in context, the question is will

God continue to tolerate and will he continue to allow the secrets of salvation? The answer is no,

God, just like he has taught the farmer not to plow the field forever, but only for a particular time and season, likewise, he is willing to plow for a particular time and season.

He has a heart of his own. And so God has taught the farmer through the discovery of the late

Lacey's field, or whatever, about him. And I see the reason why that would not continue.

As I said, it's a good way that God operates in his communication. It's still the way

God operated prior to the fall. So what's interesting about this is this is something that teaches us forever and ever.

God speaks to us, we learn more about him. And consider that that's not about the enjoyment of heaven.

But heaven, what makes it enjoyable is knowing

God. God, of course, is there to Jesus Christ, and having a sight like that in him. A sight like that in him is just a full experience in him.

And knowing him very, very immediately in that way. And the more and more that we know about him, the more and more we are able to enjoy him in this experience.

That means that, you know, we usually hear people talk about different worlds of heaven, some situations where we have to have more than others.

I do believe that, but I also believe that it's not static for everyone. It's not like we all get the upper hand here.

Right, right, that's it. I believe if we continue to enjoy him, we have more and more and more and more and more time to go on. That's just a very speculative theology, but I think there's a lot of reasons to highly suspect that what

I'm describing is a situation full of hell. And on the contrast to that, something very consistent with that sense of hell.

Right, right, if those who go to hell are not granted sanctified experience, right, they don't stop sinning.

They keep sinning. They keep an even denominator. They build up more and more and more and judge against themselves as they enter hell.

What does that say about the experience of hell? Once again, I don't believe it's static. I believe that as, as I said, as the image of God becomes more and more corrupted and less and less reason for God to hold any of his wrath against us, that it would be worse, worse, worse, for the good day to come.

Now, I'm not here to talk to you all about it because it's all so speculative, but once again, I think scripture is enough that we can make a very confident assertion about these things.

And that shouldn't be sobering, but also, yeah, it should be a precise scripture for that world to come to an end.

Question 48. Oh, excuse me, I think I skipped one.

But isn't Christ with us until the end of the world as he's not promised? Answer. Christ is truly a human church of God and he's a human church of God.

Christ is not our Lord, but in his divinity, that is, he's gracious, he's not absent from us or one of us.

So, when Paul talked about Moses, that he had promised he would love us, that's in Matthew 28, 12, in the

Great Recognition. I don't know if you all know this, it's in the 8th page. And so, yeah, yeah, and he's a human church and he's not with us, but he is not absent from us for a moment, and in his divinity, that is, he's gracious, he's great.

So, you can love us as Christ is great. Now, once again, there's some references of Christianity that say very different things about this.

Who knows what the Lutheran review is? This is called. So, the advances are used for Christ's human church to be with us.

It's the ubiquity of Christ. Okay, so, it's kind of ubiquity, it's kind of like uncompressed, but it's a special word used to refer to his human church.

They both did it. They did it. So, the Calvinist reform of it is that Christ's human church or divine human church are joined together, they're never mixed.

There's no, yeah, the divine human church are only accessed as divine human church. The human church are only accessed as the human church.

In Lutheran theology, you actually have the nature of Choctaw since the Prophets of Isaiah. So, Christ's human church becomes more prevalent through the divine human church, and that's why they would say, for example, before supper, after the elements of the blessed, they wouldn't say, for example, in Catholic where it ceases to be bread, wine, and comes to a spot on the earth, they would say it remains bread, wine, but to a spot on the earth are in the elements and around the elements.

Because of that ubiquity of this nature, he's able to do this. So, he's really, humanly, physically present, yes, yes.

Is it over because that position on, I don't know, that's a really good question.

I feel like that's a good stop gap to explain. Right, right. I think that would be a racial negotiation for it, whether or not they would come up with more things that this applies to,

I don't know. It is humanity, it's not present wherever his divinity is.

There aren't two natures of Christ, separated from each other. So, if his divinity is separated from me, it doesn't mean that his nature is just separated from me,

I'm not actually joined together in the person of Christ. The answers are not. His divinity is not limited, and he's present everywhere, is that the

Christ is to be shared with me on that mountain, is to be taken on, but at the same time, his divinity is in, and it means personally, and I unite you too, because he's humanity.

So, yeah, the person of Christ is that thing which unites the two natures.

It's not about, yes, racial, it's about uniting. It's about being a united person.

How does Christ's ascension have benefited us? First, he that leads our calls on the path to heaven, in the presence of his father.

First, he leads our calls on the path to heaven in the presence of his father. So, it's important for his ascension that he be with his father in the path to heaven.

Second, we have our own flesh to have heaven, guaranteeing that Christ, our head, will take us in his birth to himself, and have heaven.

Actually, we're looking at the last section of the book, but basically, the idea is that he being in heaven as the firstborn of a new brother, guarantees that we ourselves will see the

Father up there. Third, he sends his spirit to us on earth as the firstborn guarantee.

Remember, Jesus said, if you do not know who I am, but I'm a sending helper.

So, he was once one of the father, and two, he was a sending helper. So, that's another advantage of sending.

By the spirit's power, we may make all of our lives, not earthly things, but things of the love, where Christ is, speaking of God's right hand.

So, by Jesus being here and drawing our hearts to him, and by his spirit, that makes us desire heavenly things rather than earthly things.

We're still here, we will not be thinking as much of heavenly things. That's the claim we're here for.

All right, why do I have these words? To see at the right hand of God. This is talking about the Creed still.

Christ is sent to heaven, there to show that he is head of the church, and the

Father holds all things through him. Okay, so he's head of the church, so he's got the right hand of God.

He's holding over all things. And yeah, the Father is here, joining with him where we're going.

How does this glory of Christ, our head, benefit us? First, the Holy Spirit pours out his gifts right up upon his members.

Second, by his power, he benefits us, and keeps us safe from all enemies. So, his role, like King King, is that he protects these people.

And King King bestows his gifts upon these people. It says in Ephesians, quoting one of the psalms, that in Ephesians 4, it talks about how when he assists them in all divine, he gives these gifts to them.

That basically, like the king who, defeating an enemy, gives his spoils to his people.

So the right way to defeat the enemy is to give his spoils to his people, by giving him gifts to us. And it describes his gifts in Ephesians 4, as being various ways that he has given his gifts to the church, to show people are protected from that heresy and falsehoods that are true.

And we'll get to see some of that, of those that the Lord has mentioned there. How does

Christ return to judge the living and dead contrary to you? And all I might do to address the persecution

I've turned my eyes to, is that it's incongruently a way to judge the very one who is always good to try my life's ways before God.

So, it was removed the whole curse from me, all those enemies in mine, he will give to everlasting punishment.

But being in all his chosen ones, he will take all of them into joy in the glory of heaven.

So, it's interesting, as we look through the Revealed Passages, how often the passages are about judging the living and dead.

And a lot of times, it's very easy to look at that as the bad news, right?

This is bad news, this is judgment. But in context, it's on the enemies of God. It's actually a good news for God's people.

That is, it's part of what we are here to save the world. This is good news.

So, this is judgment. This is coming, while it is bad news for those who are against God.

That's actually very good news for people, for God's people, because they are scared from the persistent assault and harassment of the demons of God.

So it's corrective, you know, for example, prairie, purgatory, prayers. Some of the psalms are purgatory, meaning that the prairie for judgment on God's ascension is corrective, prairie for resistance.

Now, we don't know which people are part of God's and that life. They do not know if they're not apostatized or being perjured.

If someone is a, yeah, if someone's a non -believer, you don't know whether or not they need to be part of God's election.

Prairie for judgment on God's ascension, even though we know their election is not the right thing to do.

However, we can pray about God's judgment in some more generality, and we can pray and give those who have killed themselves also to be such and such a belief.

How has it deteriorated with it? Those who are within the sense of apostasy.

The Bible does describe, right, unfavorable sin and inexplicable death in Hebrews 6, verse 5, and that is a sense of apostasy.

To have a taste of the things of God and still reject them, even after having that experience.

So, for example, there was a, his name started with E, there was one emperor early in the church that Christians called the apostate.

Yeah, and Julian, sorry, not

E, but Julian. Yeah, so Christians would not pray for salvation, they would not pray for judgment at such and such a time, because they recognized that someone who was committed to apostasy, someone who was unfaithful, and in that way, they had to reveal themselves to be reprobate beyond that point of dialect.

Why in the next word, oh, you just read that, yeah, okay. What do you mean in terms of the

Holy Spirit? Okay, so this is going on in an orderly way through the creed, basically, that kind of talks about things in creed, which he talks about now, speaking of the

Holy Spirit as we get to that part of apostasy's creed. First, he, as well as the father and son, is eternal

God. Second, he has been given to me personally, so that by a true faith, he may make me share in Christ, and under all his blessings, come to me, and remain with me forever.

It's a little personal, but it has a lot of meaning, and it's a great way to refer to a person, and it's a sense of leading. So yeah, yeah, the

Holy Spirit is eternal God, just as the father and the son. Yeah, and he comes to me, and remains with me forever.

All right, what do you believe in this morning? The Holy Catholic Church, and you know what other reason you believe in it.

I believe the Son of God, through the Holy Spirit and the Word, out of the entire human race, from the beginning of the world to the end, to the gatherers, to the texts, and the sermons, to the workings of the self, the communion, the church, and the workings of our life, that unite us in truth and faith, and that of this community,

I am, and always will, be a living and everlasting God. All right, so, Catholic, just as it is universal, there is a universal church, right?

There's, yeah, it's not just churches, there's a universal church that Christ is building, and that, yeah, from the beginning of the world to the end, just from start to finish, he has been a preemptive force of community people, and he's a life that he has drawn to himself.

All right, what do you understand by the phrase community of the saints? First, that the believers, one and all, as members of this community, share in Christ, and in all his treasures and gifts.

Second, that you should consider your duty, do you see this rightly and cheerfully, for the services and enrichment of the other members?

Okay, so, we all go to fellowship together, we share in Christ, and in his treasures and gifts, so we are united together, and in particular, in this time of head, and also in this moment, we share in his gifts.

And so, because of that, because of the other, you know, external crisis, we are in Christ, part of his obligation, to consider our obligations to one another, to give each other gifts for one another, that that is what we share in his gifts for, necessary to share in the fulfillment of each other, as by law and order he would do.

That's the one thing I have with, you know, suture to the arm of Jesus, which is just awesome.

All right, all right, question 56. What do you believe, sir, in forgiveness of sins? I believe in God, in Christ's atonement, and never hold against me any of my sins, nor my sinful treachery, which

I struggle against all my life. Rather, in his grace, God grants me the righteousness of Christ, to free me forever from his judgment.

So, he never holds against us our sins, nor a sinful treachery that we have, right?

It distinguishes between us two, there's the sins that I've committed, and also the corruption that I've been born with.

He never holds against us our sin, rather, in his grace, he grants us the righteousness of Christ.

Now, a lot of people, they think, you know, they don't, they don't enjoy what it is that they have in God, because they allow their sins to lay on them, and it's like, we should be prepared for our sins.

We do fall under a lot of other sections of God's law, but at least to some measure, through our sins, but these things are not held against us, and legally,

God's judgment is also a way of his Christ's atonement. Christ's atonement can be at that moment. And so, the more you can embrace that, and recognize just how impossible it is to live sinlessly, and that that should drive us to Christ, where you realize that you can be paid for it, then, you know, when you do sin, and you should be convicted, you should, you know, cause you to be born, you can deal with sin more easily, and not be burned by it, because it's fully paid for by Christ, so that God never holds it against us.

You know, and remember also, God is eternal, and if he has chosen people for himself, his love for us at this point in time, as he is outside of time, is exactly the same as it is now, wherever he and eternity have been.

I mean, having perfect sex, I couldn't say, right? So, if you think about God a little bit more than that, it's because he's outside of time.

That's not how it works. Yes. So, you had a question in that statement you just made.

Why do people practice it there? I would say that part of the reason would be that sin, even though it's forgiven, still carries a consequence, and still carries a consequence, depending on the sin, it could be quite severe, that you have to suffer, and you have to bear.

So, that could be not distinguishing the fact that you are forgiven internally, you're responsible for your behavior, your actions, and your sins.

Yeah, right, right. So, some of this is still, there are some people, there's a lot of people, it weighs on them in a way where it's not just like, oh,

I've got these consequences to deal with, but they feel that they're not loved by God, right? And that doesn't have to be a barrier.

And it shouldn't. Anything else? Any questions on anything

I've covered today? Yeah, once again, sorry that it was not a precursor to the

EFSS guideline, but hopefully some of this will still help for you. We know our sin center doesn't need to be covered, so maybe we'll listen.

And yeah, I don't know what time this is for next week, but I think Brian's gonna be back at it next week, so that's it for now.

Yeah, yeah, and soon we'll be going through a broader approach, which obviously changes lights when we have to have the controversy.

We want to start addressing the Roman Catholicism because that's how we start to have some sort of mission in areas where Roman Catholicism is a problem and how to have a better understanding of what the issues are.

Dear Father, thank you for this morning, and pray that you will bless our time in which we're sharing together, and pray that you would help us to clearly relate about what your purpose has been in following through with theological conclusions, and pray that you would draw us closer to you and give us great confidence in the love of our