When You Were A Child

II Tim. 3:15 And that from the time when

you were a child, you have had knowledge of

the holy Writings, which are able to make

you wise to salvation, through faith in

Christ Jesus.

16 Every holy Writing which comes from G-d

is of profit for teaching, for training,

for guiding, for education in

righteousness:

17 So that the man of G-d may be complete,

trained and made ready for every good work.


Did you ever see Rockefeller Chapel? I can
still remember my first time there. Yes, I
was thinking about how it was so wonderful
that a man of great wealth was able to
recognize that it was appropriate to honor
his Creator. Looking back, I realize the
magnitude of my naivety. It was only after
a few weeks that I began to wonder what
had happened to the King of Heaven, where
was He given honor, except in word and in
symbolic reference like a chapel? It was
puzzling to see reference to G-d in the
form of various plaques and statues, yet no
regard for the truth of scripture, the only
means by which we are able to find accurate
knowledge of G-d. He is only revealed in
scripture.

Rom 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel

of Christ: for it is the power of G-d unto

salvation to every one that believeth; to

the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

17 For therein is the righteousness of G-d

revealed from faith to faith: as it is

written, The just shall live by faith.
--->
II Cor. 4:3 But if our gospel be hid, it is

hid to them that are lost:

4 In whom the god of this world hath

blinded the minds of them which believe

not, lest the light of the glorious gospel

of Christ, who is the image of G-d, should

shine unto them.

5 For we preach not ourselves, but Christ

Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants

for Jesus' sake.

It's only in scripture that we find the
message that the Apostle Paul calls the
'gospel' -- literally 'good news'. There
is nothing in this message that can be made
sense of except in the context of holy
scripture. Remember that the revelation of
G-d begins and ends in the place that we
call heaven. A place that is totally
foreign to us, and a place that we have no
access to, except through what is revealed
about it in holy scripture. Don't forget
that simple fact whenever someone begins
to tell you a story about their experience
or their opinion, because they have never
been granted access beyond the curtain that
separates G-d from man. We only have
exactly what is given in scripture,
beginning -- where else -- with what was
revealed to Moses in the books of the law.
Yes, that was good news too. There is no
benefit to G-d for introducing himself to us.
Only we gain the huge advantage of now
knowing that there is a moral structure to
the universe as well as a physical
structure. We are given assurance that the
universe is governed by the gracious hand
of G-d.

Galatians 1

7 and there isn`t another gospel. Only

there are some who trouble you, and want to

pervert the gospel of Christ.

8 But even though we, or an angel from

heaven, should preach to you any gospel

other than that which we preached to you,

let him be cursed.

9 As we have said before, so I now say

again: if any man preaches to you any

gospel other than that which you received,

let him be cursed.


The Apostle seems to be strident on this
particular point. There's only one gospel,
one holy scripture, one savior and Lord of
all -- Jesus. In case you forgot, here's
how the Apostle's Creed goes:

I believe in G-d the Father almighty,
I also believe in Jesus Christ his only
Son, our Lord,
conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the
Virgin Mary.
suffered under Pontius Pilate, crucified,
dead and buried; he descended into hell,
rose again the third day,
ascended into heaven,
sat down at the right hand of the Father,
thence he is to come to judge the living
and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Ghost,
the holy catholic Church, the communion of
saints,the remission of sins,
the resurrection of the flesh and life eternal.

http://www.spurgeon.org/~phil/creeds/apostles.htm

Here's a subject for another whole year,
the catechisms and creeds, just to skim
the surface. It kinda' bugs me that we
don't teach these to our children anymore.
See, in my humble opinion, these things
would be a required part of public school
ciriculum because they are incredibly
influential HISTORICAL documents, not to
mention that they have a prominent place in
church history. Oh! The outcry against
such a righteous effort. And yet they say
that they believe in choice. I guess, that
means that they believe in choice as long
as they are the ones saying what the
choices are. You see. Christians have to
pay taxes too. I've never been one for
politics, because I can't understand
compromise. OK. That's my contribution to
the political season.


Paul recognized that Timothy had the
advantage of learning scripture from when
he was a child. We need to provide that
advantage to our own children. Given the
mood of the world these days, there is
nothing more important that they can know
than to know the true gospel. That would
be Jesus.