Steps Of an Unknown Writer

Brother Monk wakes up much disturbed this day.

He is in fits and bits of consternation, growling for his morning coffee.

The commotion is heard by the superior making his morning rounds before prayer.

Brother Monk! Something’s amiss, what ever is it, my son?

Father Monk, please forgive me but I am greatly disturbed by the seemingly lack of sincere belief in the Church today throughout Christendom!

Yes, but how so?

Father Monk, I know we live in an age of disbelief, of scoffing, of making light of the Holy Scriptures, the very written word of God, and, alas, the Word being made irrevelant by the mind of modern man!

Yes, my brother, and you know it will get worse before Christ comes again, for is that not what the Scriptures tell us?

Yes, Father Monk, but I would just desire to see in the Church a commitment to the truth of God, that is the Holy Trinity, Who is GOD and whom we worship, even declared and understood as such by Christians today of all denominations, just as was done in the 4th and 5th centuries in the Church.  These people, after St. Athanasius, affirmed where they stood  when great heresies sought to divide the Church asunder.  Great were the satanic foes of the Church; but greater still was her defenders!

I see. And what gave you this unique insight?

Just before evening prayer, I was reading in the Book of Common Prayer the “Creed of St. Athanasius,” written in the late 4th Century A.D. to combat the ever growing heresies which abounded in the Church in those days…beliefs that even denied the Holy Trinity and divinity of Christ! And this angered me to no extent as I began to reflect on the state of the Church today, when many ‘Christians’ won’t even say aloud the name Jesus Christ in prayer or sermon or discussion!

And so, to combat these heresies, Bishop Athanasius of Alexandria, Egypt wanted to have something in place that the people, both lay and the laity of the Church could affirm something they understood and truely believed. And they were then required to sign what they read as an affirmation of their belief! 

Contrast that against the “vague” belief of many so-called Christians, and in an age when “Creeds” have gone out of favor! Yet the Creeds are the foundational belief of our faith.

And so what St. Athanasius formulated and wrote in the late 4th Century has come to be known as and commonly called “The Creed of Saint Athanasius.” I have not found a better way of man trying to explain the mystery of GOD, the Holy Trinity. 

This is what the early Church and for the next 17 centuries believed! Listen then to these eternal words written by a great man of God. Say them in your heart; sign them in your soul. This is the faith we believe:

“Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholic Faith. Which faith except everyone do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly.

And the Catholic Faith is this: That we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity, neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing the Substance.

For there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost.

But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, is all one, the Glory equal, the Majesty co-eternal.

Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Ghost.

The Father uncreate, the Son uncreate, and the Holy Ghost uncreate.

The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, and the Holy Ghost in comprehensible.

The Father eternal, the Son eternal, and the Holy Ghost eternal.

And yet they are not three eternals, but one eternal

As also there are not three incomprehensibles, nor three uncreated, but one uncreated, and one incomprehensible.

So likewise the Father is Almighty, the Son Almighty, and the Holy Ghost Almighty.

And yet there are not three Almighties, but one Almighty.

So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God.

And yet they are not three Gods, but one God.

So likewisde the Father is Lord, the Son Lord, and the Holy Ghost Lord.

And yet not three Lords, but one Lord.

For like as we are compelled by the Christian verity to acknowledge every Person by himself to be both God and Lord, so are we forbidden by the Catholic Religion, to say, There be three Gods, or three Lords.

The Father is made of none, neither created, nor begotten.

The Son is of the Father alone, not made, nor created, but begotten.

The Holy Ghost is of the Father and of the Son, neither made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding.

So there is one Father, not three Fathers; one Son, not three Sons; one Holy Ghost, not three Holy Ghosts.

And in this Trinity none is afore, or after other; none is greater, or less than another; But the whole three Persons are co-eternal together and co-equal.

So that in all things, as is aforersaid, the Unity in Trinity and the Trinity in Unity is to be worshipped.

He therefore that will be saved must thus think of the Trinity.

Furthermore, it is necessary to everlasting salvation that he also believe rightly the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

For the right Faith is, that we believe and confess, that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and Man; 

God, of the Substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds; and Man, of the substance of his Mother, born in the world; Perfect God and perfect Man, of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting;

Equal to the Father, as touching his Godhead; and inferior to the Father, as touching his Manhood.   

Who although he be God and Man, yet he is not two, but one Christ; One, not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh, but by taking of the Manhood into God; One altogether; not by confusion of Substance, but by unity of Person.

For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man, so God and Man is one Christ; Who suffered for our salvation, descended into hell, rose again the third day from the dead.

He ascended into heaven, he sitteth on the right hand of the Father, God Almighty, from whence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

At whose coming all men shall rise again with their bodies and shall give account for their own works.

And they that have done good shall go into life everlasting; and they that have done evil into everlasting fire.

This is the Catholic Faith, which except a man believe faithfully, he cannot be saved.”

What then, Brother Monk?

Father Monk, I would pray that all who profess to be a Christian rightly believe this Creed and look upon it in study and meditation, and in prayer say: in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit…

Blessed be those whose belief in strongly anchored in these words.

And blessed be those who, by the Holy Spirit have been able to sort out all the phases and events of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

Amen. 

As Jesus Christ promised to build His Holy Church after His departure, so it was when, in about the Year of Our Lord 33 A.D., on the Day of Pentecost, in the city of Jerusalem, the Holy Spirit came down from on high and breathed life unto all gathered  there,  and so the Church was born.  Thus the Holy Church of GOD was founded, and thus it was one Church, apostolic, orthodox, and undivided for 1,021 years!

All that changed in the 11th century, when in the year 1054, the Church separated into two parts: The Greek Eastern Church with its headquarters at Constantinople (modern Istanbul, Turkey), and the Latin Western Church with its headquarters at Rome. 

Any student of church history will realize the titanic events and personalities in each suceeding century that followed that  dramatically continued to shape and define the Church. 

The “Reformation” of the 16th century resulted in the break from Rome and the founding of numerous denominations that are with us today. 

Thee was a time when unity in the divided church was earnestly sought, that, once again, “we might be one.”

This idea happened in the United States in 1886 and was known as “The Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral.”

“We, Bishops of the Proteatant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, in Council assembled as Bishops in the Church of God, do hereby solemnly declare to all whom it may concern, and especially to our fellow-Christians of the different Communions in this land, who, in their several spheres, have contended for the religion of Christ:

1. Our earnest desire that the Savior’s prayer, “That we all may be one,” may, in its deepest and truest sense, be speedily fulfilled;

2. That we believe that all who have been duly baptized with water, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, are members of the Holy Catholic Church;

3. That in all things of human ordering or human choice, relating to modes of worship and dscipline, or to traditional customs, this Church is ready in the spirit of love and humility to forego all preferences of her own;

4. That this Church does not seek to absorb other Communions, but rather, co-operating with them on the basis of a common Faith and Order, to discountenance schism, to heal the wounds of the Body of Christ, and to promote the charity which is the chief of Christian graces and the whole visible manifestion of Christ to the world;

5. But furthermore, we do hereby affirm that the Christian unity…can be restored only by the return of all Christian communions to the principles of unity examplified by the undivided Catholic Church during the first ages of its existence; which principles we believe to be the substantial deposit of Christian Faith and Order committed by Christ and his Apostles to the Church unto the end of the world, and therefore incapable of compromise or surrender by those who have been ordained to be its stewards and trustees for the common and equal benefit of all men.

As inherent parts of this sacred deposit, and therefore as essential to the restoration of unity among the divided branches of Christendom, we account the following, to wit:

1. The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament as the revealed Word of God.

2. The Nicene Creed as the sufficient statement of the Christian Faith.

3. The two Sacraments,- Baptism and the Supper of the Lord- ministered with unfailing use of Christ’s words of institution and of the elements ordained by Him.

4. The Historic Episcopate, locally adapted in the methods of its administration to the varying needs of the nations and peoples called of God into the unity of His Church.

Furthermore, Deeply grieved by the sad divisions which affect the Christian Church in our own land, we hereby declare our desire and readiness, as soon as there shall be any authorized response to this Declaration, to enter into brotherly conferennce with all or any Christian Bodies seeking the restoration of the organic unity of the Church, with a view to the earnest study of the conditions under which so priceless a blessing might happily be brought to pass.”

And today in the 21st Century, how do the churches stand in this issue?

What about you?  Where do you stand?

May the blessings of God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit be with you now and forever.  Amen.

My name is Brother Monk. I am of the Benedictine Order of the Anglican Church of England. I live on an island off the coast of England to the north, in a monastery with 25 other monks, some older, some younger, under the direction of Father Monk.  Most of our day is devoted to hours of prayer.  It is our way of “dwelling” on the Lord God in Jesus Christ.

But I have been out and about in communities and with my family 2 or 3, maybe 4 times a year.

In the secular communities I find many unbelievers who do not care to know the “Good News” of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I hear, “Yes, I sin some, but I can’t be saved so what’s the use? Besides, I’ve got a life to live and lots to do!”

I also find those who are marginal believers, they say they believe, but don’t know about salvation or eternity. They don’t read the Bible because they really don’t believe it is the real word of God written to mankind…so they say it’s too confusing, a bunch of writings by some old men who wrote of myths, and fairy tales and such, so who cares?

Then there is the believer who professes to know and love Christ and goes to church every Sunday, but when it comes to the Bible, well, that is a matter of interpretation. Or, “well, that may be what’s written, but I do not believe it!”

But every now and then there are those precious believers like a child in the candy store, humble, excited, wild eyed for the word of God, taken as written and understood as written, as God intended, for he wrote it, you see. And everyday, when they arise, and during some part of the day, and at meals or study, and just before they tuck in for bed, they are indeed “dwelling” on God, the blessed Trinty, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is usually silent prayer or praying aloud as they bless His holy name, and give to Him all the thanks and praise their hearts can muster.

They thank God for the sleep and protection through the night. They thank God for all the wonderful blessings He has showerd down upon them. They thank God for their family and friends and where He has placed them in this life at this time. They thank God for the healthy new born, and for the mother. They thank God for a new beginning, for work or in retirement; for recovery from an illness or operation; for food and shelter. And for being taken care of when they get old.

They praise God for His mighty acts of creation by His spoken word.  For the world, the sun, moon, and stars. For the seasons and flowers and trees. For the very air we breath. For the stages of life He has brought us through, aging gracefully or enduring even pain and suffering.  They thank Him for Mom and Dad, husband and wife, grandparents, children and grandchildren. They praise God for His plan of salvation and eternal life with Father and Son and Holy Spirit at death and the resurrection.

As they go outdoors, they look up and praise God for the clouds in the sky and all the colors of the seasons; for fish and birds and animals, even the butterfly.

And above all, they are eternally thankful that in the love of the Father for us, He sent His only begotten Son to die on the cross for our sins, and that believeing, we would be saved. 

They thank God for the things to come in Christ Jesus and the eternal destiny God has planned for all of us.

So yes, it is right and good to “dwell” on the Lord our God…everyday. We should do no less.

Where are you in your belief, love and faith? Do you “dwell” on the Lord?

Think about it.

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen

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The dark clouds gather now with greater intensity.  Our tiny island is besieged by great gusts of wind and relentless rain that washes everything away!  A portent of the world today?  Yes, and I say more, much more to come! 

And what are the things of this present world that attacks man?  People? certainly.  What else?  Who whispers in a man’s ear to commit a horrific act of bloodshed to an innocent victim?  Sure, there’s your holy book that got you to this stage of revenge, completely justifiable in your eyes, just what the “movement” expects! Death!  Blood!  Make this spontaneous act the most gruesome, horrible, revolting you and your buddies can do.  It is all justified to your religion; it is an “eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth!”  And since your relatives were killed in the war against your country for terrorist acts against this country, then its all right to find some innocent soldier walking on the street; it could just as easily have been that  this random selection could have included a woman or a child.  Makes no difference.  Forgot your masks, did you?  In a hurry? 

But somewhere along the line someone must come to realize that there is definitely a demonic influence at work here!  If one worships a demon, then that demon, an invisible, wicked, evil, unclean, fallen angel will come whisper in your ear, rile you up to a feverish pitch, tell lies that will become truth to you…deceive you to push you to muster all the insane courage one can bring up.  And then you do it!  And just what does the blood culture of death demand?  Mutilation!  Cut off the head-right there on a busy street…right there in front of shocked and horrified people who just stare….no action will be forthcoming from these bystanders….no, better to beat up people at a football game!  And then the signature of the act: meat cleavers and knives!  But keep consistent with your movement and what it expects-no, demands! Cut off the head of a live victim with a knife for all this world to see!

There and then you go! right in step with your history.

Brother Monk!  What are you so agitated about?  I have never seen you like this.

Forgive me, Father, but I have just witness a most terrible act of random killing, the slaughter  of a young soldier in east London.  Cut down…there…before our very eyes.  Butchered like a slab of meat! 

I even heard talk of retaliation after the police took the killers away.  Shot them, they did.

Seems like people starting to have enough of these foreigners in our country who hide behind their walls, and make plans to kill innocent people in the name of their belief.

But we are called to love our enemies, despite the horror they perpetrate…

Yes, Father, forgive me, but I cannot!  I have prayed to the Lord for help and forgiveness for my attitude…I am so upset I can’t seem to let go of this feeling.

Then we shall pray as never before, Brother Monk.

We know the way the world is drifting.  The cold and the dark are cutting deep into good people, even into people of God who desire to live in peace

Pray for those who would hurt you; pray that by the grace of God Almighty, the Holy Spirit will touch them and change them, and bring them to God through confessed belief in out Lord, Jesus Christ, the Only Son of God, the Savior of the world.

These times we now live in will only get worse!  We are beyond the “tip of the iceberg.” And all this will play out at its utterly intensified evil stage…yet for a little while…and then our Lord Jesus shall come to earth, and make all things right and new.  

We cry peace, peace.  But there can never be a lasting peace.  Mankind can never, ever achieve it, try as hard as he may, spout the words over and over again to the wind that blows them away to nothing! 

Brother Monk?

Father?

It’s time for Holy Communion.

Praise God forever, Amen.

 Postscript:

A couple of days later, in a driving rain, at a military cemetery, amid the rank and file of uniformed soldiers stood a figure in a white robe.  No one saw him.  And no one saw the cross that was laid on the casket just before the the soldier’s remains were buried.

No one saw the lonely, solitary figure weeping for his brother.

Believe on GOD and the things of God.  Know that God’s “Plan of the Ages” is ever moving forward according to His sacred, most holy written word.  As it is written, “all Scripture must be fulfilled.”

We live in troubling times.  Worry and uncertainty abound.  Where can we go, what can we do, to whom can we run?  I think Peter said it best when he confessed, ‘where can we go, Lord; thou hast the words of life.’  Run to Him.  He is ever waiting with open arms.

Against Christianity is the raging tide of evil and wickedness in the world today, just as it has been in the past, so it is now.  Someone said on a radio talk show that overall, we live in a good world.  Just a survey of history, and certainly current events would suggest otherwise!  No, do not be deceived, the arch-enemy of God, whose name is Satan, the Devil is the one behind all the unthinkable acts of human destruction, for he is the destroyer, the murderer, the liar and deceiver of truth.  And he has his followers, the fallen angels who follow him, these wicked demons, also entice or move men to commit these horrific acts of slaughter of the innocents.  The slaughter of Christians and Jews over the centuries is uncountable! About 3/4 of the world population does not believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, revealed in Matthew’s Gospel as the “Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit; or that God, the Father, sent His only begotten Son to die for our sins so that:

“For God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son, so that all who believe on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

A good world? I would say, no; but on the other hand there are so many wonderful people and families doing things that honor God, both in their lives and their actions. So, does the good outweight the bad?

What can we do, then? What should we do?  Whom should it be in our every waking thoughts? in all the moments of our lives? the last thought on our mind before sleep?  Just Jesus Christ, the Messiah…the One who came to save….the One who will be King of Kings and Lord of Lords…the One and only who can bring lasting peace to this troubled earth!  

Therefore, at the moment of belief, when we confess the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, as our Lord and Savior, believing wholeheartedly His sacrificial, substitutionary death for the sins of the world; for your sins and mine; His resurrection from the dead on the third day; His ascension up to Heaven to the Father; and His coming again in power and glory to reign in His Kingdom, then we shall ever be with Him in His Kingdom, and throughout eternity. 

In John, chapter six, when Jesus and His disciples were at Capernaum, a great multitude of people found Him there: “Then said they unto Him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?”

“Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He sent.”

He commanded us to love one another, despite the evil and wickedness in the world.  For Jesus said:

“By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another.”

How best, then, in our lives and actions, our belief and worship, might we best honor Christ, and to love Him with all our love?  It must be through the Holy Communion, the centrality of all our worship.  For He said to do this act of worship in remembrance of Him until He comes again…

Do you remember the words Jesus spoke as recorded in the Gospel According to John, beginning in chapter six, verse 34:

“Then said they unto Him, Lord, evermore give us this bread.”

“And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that comes to Me shall never hunger; and he that believes on Me shall never thirst.”

“I came down from heaven…”

But a great many grumbled and did not believe.

But He said to them, “No man can come to Me, except the Father which has sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.”

Hear His words and believe…

‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believes on Me has everlasting life.”

O, how these precious words echo and resound; but they would not believe.  But to those who do, eternity is assured in Christ Jesus.  

“This is the bread which came down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.”

“I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

But they still murmured all the more, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

“Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you.”

“Whoso eats My flesh, and drinks My blood, has eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”

“For My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed.”

“He that eats My flesh, and drinks My blood, dwells in Me, and I in him.”

“As the living Father has sent Me, and I live by the Father: so he that eats Me, even he shall live by Me.”

Luke 22:17…

“And He took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, Take this and divide among yourselves: For I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of God shall come.”

“And He took bread, and gave thanks, and break it, and gave unto them, saying, This is My body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of Me.”

“Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in My blood, which is shed for you.”

And so, at Holy Communion we enter into the “mystery” of Christ, as we take and eat His body, the living bread, and drink His blood, the living wine.  And therefore in a memorial celebration of His death and resurrection, we partake in Him and He in us, until we sit with Him in His kingdom on earth.

Only believe, He said, and do this Holy Communion in remembrance of Me.  And so shall it ever be.  Let us love and honor the Lord in His Holy Communion as often as we can.

Let it be so, Lord Jesus.  Amen.

His created holy ones, who stand before God; who shouted for joy when God created the earth:

“Where was thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?…When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?”    

His holy angels desire to look into the things of God given to His chosen people, and unto His Church, the body of His Son.

Are angels with us in our church when we pray, and give thanks, and worship Him, and partake of the Holy Communion?

Yes, my son, they are and always will be.

Do you now see, brother Monk?

Father?

Yes, my son. 

Can You show me, LORD?

It is written in Hebrews 1:14 regarding My angels: 

“Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?”

Gabriel appeared to Zacharias the priest in the Temple:

“According to the custom of the priest’s office, his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord.”

“And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense.”

“I am Gabriel that stands in the presence of God.”

– Luke 1:9;11;19.  

As they ministered unto Me during My ministry on earth, and were present at the first Holy Communion with My disciples.  It is in Matthew 26:

 “And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.”

“And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink ye all of it; For this is my blood of the new testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins.’

“But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”

Throughout the church ages, it has always been believed that when the bread and the wine are presented as the ‘body and blood of Christ’ is the sacrement of the Holy Communion (The Holy Echuarist, the Holy Mass), and the ‘Mystery’ of faith is thus experienced, that angels of God are in attendance when Christ is known in the ‘breaking of bread.’

That was in 33 A.D at the “Last Supper” of our Lord.

John the Apostle was there.

And 62 years later, old and exiled on the idland of Patmos, the Lord Jesus appeared to John and told him to write what he saw in a book  and send them to the angels of the churches in Asia.

For He said in the Revelation:

“I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou see, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia;”

“Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write;”

“And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write;”

“And unto the angel of the church in Pergamos write;”

“And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write;”

“And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write;”

“And unto the angel of the church in Philadelphia write;”

“And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write;”

So you see, My son, the church of Jesus Christ has, throughout the Church Age, and even today in the 21st Century has always had My holy angels keeping watch over the ‘body of Christ,’ which is His Holy Church.

My Lord and my God.  I……………..

Brother Monk, wake up, wake up!    

   And the third day passed.  After the birth of our Lord Jesus, these are the three most holy days of our Christian faith: Good Friday, Saturday, and Easter Sunday.    

The dramatic events of these three days happened in Jerusalem of Judea during the Feast of the Passover, when there was a full moon, all as prophesied in the Holy Bible, exactly as it is written, some one thousand nine hundred eighty years ago.  

The First Day: Good Friday.  A day of profound sorrow; a day of weeping for the understanding of what ourLord endured for us in the greatest of suffering that could be inflicted upon a man.  The sacrificial Lamb of God who was led to the slaughter; who died for our sins.  The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the whole world.  

What man could endure such suffering?  It happened in three phases.  First, from the time of His arrest by the Jewish Temple guards, to the handing over to the Roman ruler, Pontius Pilate, Jesus was repeatedly kicked, slapped, punched in the face, and spit upon over and over again. 

Second, the scourging.  He was tied to a post, stripped of His clothes, and whipped with a great number of lashes (enough to kill a man) by the Roman guards.  These whips were made of leather with bits of glass and metal attached, designed to inflict the maximum amount of pain due to the tearing away of skin!  He was whipped all over His body, and His blood flowed profusely for our sins. 

Third, the death sentence: death by crucifixion.  And then the Romans roughly pushed hard down  upon His head a crown made of large thorns that cause great bleeding.  And after that, they made Him carry on His badly torn and battered body a tall, heavy, rough wooden cross, all the way through the city to the place where He would be crucified.  He was whipped and beaten if he stopped or fell.  There, He was laid upon the cross, His feet placed one on top of the other, and His arms out stretched so violently as to dislocate the shoulder joints.  And there He was nailed to the cross: long, thick iron nails, one through His right hand into the hard wood; another nailed through His left hand into the wood; and another nailed through both His feet, into the hard wood.  Then the Romans lifted up the cross and slammed it down into a deep hole to anchor it.  Fighting for every breath, suffering the most horrific, excruciating pain, our Lord Jesus died hours later, there on a hill outside Jerusalem, nailed to a cross for all to see.  And so that all prophecy must be fulfilled as written, affixed above His head at the top of the cross were the immortal words in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek: “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.”  And so He is, and so it shall be. 

His body was taken down and conveyed to a tomb for burial.  His body was washed, and spices and ointments were applied, and He was wrapped in clean, white linen cloth.  A great stone was rolled over the entrance of the tomb to secure the body that no man could enter and steal the body.  Good Friday, the First Day.

The Second Day.  And on the second day, Saturday, as His body lay in the tomb, His  soul or spirit then descended into Hell.  Where is this place where the spirits of the dead go? It is a place especially made by God to hold the spirits of all believers up to the time of Christ’s death; and to hold the spirits of all unbelievers up to the time of Christ’s death, and following His death, even to the time of Judgement after His Kingdom rule on the earth. 

This place of the unseen spirits was known to the Jews as “Sheol,’ and to the Greeks as “Hades.”  Thus translated, “Hell,” the place in the lower parts of the earth where the spirits await the resurrection of their dead bodies unto judgment.  Before the death of Jesus, this place had two great compartments: one for the righteous called “Paradise,” or “Abraham’s Bosom,” the other part was where the spirits of the unrighteous went, a place of torment and dread and anguish.  There was a great gulf that separated the two; they could see and talk to one another, but could not cross over or ever leave their abode.  That is, until Christ died.  When He descended into Hell on the second day, He preached to those in “Paradise,” released them as He “took captivity captive,” and ascended on high to the Father in Heaven with the souls-spirits of the believing righteous ones since Creation.  Since then, there is no longer anyone in Abraham’s Bosom of Hell, for they are all in Heaven with the Lord.  And since that time and forward, even to our time and beyond, all who die in Christ Jesus go immediately up to Heaven to be with the Lord and Father, just as the Apostle Paul wrote, “to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.”  

But it is not so with the unrighteous unbelievers.  For their future is the same lot as those who preceded them:  at death they go directly down into Hell with the billions of souls already there, separated from the Lord in death, as they were in life, in darkness and gloom.

The Third Day.  “And on the third day He arose from the dead.”  With His soul-spirit reunited with His body in the tomb, God resurrected Jesus from the grave with a new, immortal, glorified, incorruptible, imperishable body of flesh and bone.  A body that will live forever; a body that can walk through walls; a body that transcends time and distance and space.  He was seen and held by His disciples; he ate and drank, and spoke.  He cooked for them.  He gave them instruction of things to come.  And then, after many days and having been seen by many, with His disciples gathered all around Him on the Mount of Olives, He ascended into Heaven; He went up from them in the air, to the clouds and beyond, out of their sight. 

You see, Christ (the Messiah) set the pattern and put it in motion His “Plan of the Ages,” which is the plan of all history for the redeemed in Christ Jesus, in life on earth, death, and eternal life through Him and in Him. 

By His glorious and powerful resurrection, He became the “First Fruits” of the First Resurrection of all believing people which He has ordained to occur, like all history and historical biblical events, in a chronological, sequential order.  First, Christ’s resurrection.  Then, sometime in the near future, the resurrection of all Christians, those who believed and believe in Him from the time of His resurrection and Pentecost, across almost two thousand years, and up to the 21st Century of our time, and then just beyond, to the time Scripture tells us of an event next on God’s timetable: the “Rapture” of His Church.  This will be a time that could happen at any moment, for there will be no signs heralding this next great event in history. 

Listen as these immortal words of God by the Apostle Paul are recorded in I Corinthians, chapter 15, beginning at verse 51:

“Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall  all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.  So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.  O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?”

And, blessed are those in Christ who hold fast to these words of the second phase of the first resurrection (Jesus being the first phase) as written by Paul in I Thessalonians, chapter 4, beginning at verse thirteen:

“But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. 

For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him.  For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.

For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”

Christ the first phase of the first resurrection of the body; we, the second phase of the first resurrection.  During the first half of the seven-year Tribulation on earth, Daniel’s 70th Week, the Two Witnesses who were killed while preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ, will be resurrected and taken up to Heaven.  After Jesus Christ returns again to earth with His armies of saints and angels, He will then resurrect the martyred Tribulation saints who died for Christ; this is followed by the resurrection of all the Old Testament saints.  This is the third, fourth, and fifth stages of the first resurrection. The last stage of the first resurrection of all who are in Christ Jesus, the sixth phase, will  be accomplished at the close of the thousand-year reign of Christ on earth.

“This is the first resurrection.  Blessed and holy is he that has part in the first resurrection: on such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years”  

Then comes the Second Resurrection, the resurrection of all the unbelieving, unrighteous spirits in Sheol (Hell) into an immortal body, where they will immediately be judged by Jesus Christ at His ‘Great White Throne Judgment.’  From there they will be cast into the Lake of Fire for all eternity apart from God, where they will be with the Antichrist, and the False Prophet, and Satan, the Devil.  All those who were the enemies of God; all those who took the mark of the beast and worshipped the beast and his image.

“But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished.”

“And they were judged every man according to their works.  And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire.  This is the second death.  And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”

The Three Days.  It all began in eternity past when God, the Holy Trinity, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit planned all this, and was put in motion in the “Fullness of Time” when Jesus was born a human being, fully man, fully God, died, was buried, and was resurrected from the dead.  

May you ever hold deep in your heart the blessed meaning of these  three days of Christ’s love and grace for you.  Amen.

   One morning, after we had finished Matins, our morning prayer to the glory of the Lord God Almighty, the holy father monk called me aside.

Brother monk, I have read with great interest your thoughts on conversion as the chief work of the Holy Spirit.  I particularly like the way in which you presented His work in centuries past, from the time of our Lord Jesus Christ when He was on the earth, to the conversion of the English beginning was the ministry of blessed Augustine, our first Bishop, and through the ages up to our time, today.

I am humbled by your words, reverend father.  

Would you then honor us this evening with a small presentation of your work?

After Evensong, the monks gathered in the great library to hear the words of brother monk, whose name is Peter.

I am honored to speak to you, my fellow brothers.  Now, let me humbly present the work the Holy Spirit has guided me on this most wonderful journey.  

In eternity past, when there was only God, the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, when nothing had been created, even before the foundations of the world, He knew your name!  You see, dear brothers in Christ, He planned exactly when you would be called, exactly the century, exactly the place, exactly the time and circumstances of your being called to believe in His Son, His One and only begotten Son, Jesus Christ of Nazareth.  And you know this in your heart, what the great Apostle Paul wrote in his Epistle to the Ephesians in chapter one, verses 4-5:

“According as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world…having predestinated us into the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of His will.”

It is what we know as God’s “Plan of the Ages,” and that being His Plan of Redemption and Eternal Salvation, which is in Christ the Lord.  All human history begins here in His Plan.  Only the Arch-Enemy, the Devil has put it into the mind of man, even believers, evil, wicked thoughts contrary to God’s written word! 

And the world has bought into these fantastic theories that prop man up in his very fertile imagination every heresy foisted upon the Church, even up to our own time.  To wit, note where the fanatics of the myth of “evolution” strain in every conceivable way to propagate the lies and error of the evolution of man: from the from the mud, they say, an accident happened, a random act of pure “chance.” And from a spark, simple cells just roaming around in the seas, combed with  ‘other simple roaming’ cells, and on and on, more and more, years upon years, the right conditions on an earth that came into being by a “big bang,” why, given millions and millions of years, the apes came from an ancient animal, and then came the hoax of an upright being called “cave man,” then, modern man.  And so, if all is just a product of pure chance, and there is no plan for our future when we die, well then, best you all eat, drink, and be merry today, for that’s it, there is no more!  Then there is no heaven, there is no hell, there is no kingdom, there is no God.  Yet, we hear, there are many gods and many religions, and good people everywhere. So then,  all are equal, all valid.  And if they do believe (a murky, hazy belief of sorts), then all people will be in heaven in the end; after all, there are many ways to God, right?

Let’s map it out. 

Now, before the “Fullness of Time,” when the Second Person of the Holy Trinity came out of heaven and was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and born of the Virgin Mary, Gentiles and Jews of the first four thousand years of history since the creation of Adam, the first man on earth, were saved by the Holy Spirit, according to the calling of God, the Holy Father.  Not all, but many.  He came and went as the winds blows.  He was not here permanently, as He has been  since the start of the “Church Age,” Pentecost A.D. 33.

Therefore, we see this principle at work when Jesus walked the roads and paths of Judea, and Samaria, and Galilee, and the regions round about.   The principle is thus: the calling by the Father; the conviction, change, born again to belief,  many coming to faith out of thousands of people who came in contact with Jesus.  It was His power, like that of the Holy Spirit, God, who does this most holy of works according to His plan.

The work of God, the power of calling His people was at work with John the Baptist, when, in John 1;29, he declared, “Behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world.”  Many were around, and the next day, two disciples were called, and followed Him..One was named Andrew.  And when he found his brother, Simon Peter, the action of belief took hold, for he said, “We have found the Messiah…the Christ.” And the same thing happened with Phillip and Nathanael, who said, “Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel”-(John 1:37-49).  From many, four.  And the mystery of who He calls, and His power to convict and seal forever plays on.

Then, Peter’s famous confession.  We pick up the account in Matthew 16, verses 13-18:

“When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?”  After many answers came forward, Jesus asked them again: “But whom say ye that I am?”

“And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

“And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood has not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.”

Called; believed; act.  That time; that place; God.  These were Jews, but there were also Gentiles.. Case in point, the Roman centurion.

Also at work: seeing and hearing, but not hearing, lest they would come to believe.  The Isaiah Prophecy was at work!  And After Matthew 12, because of this, Jesus spoke to the multitudes in parables.

And what about the many examples in the Gospels when Jesus cast out evil spirits (demons-fallen angels) who were inside people?  The Scriptures tell us that all who stood by were amazed at seeing this Man who had control even over the demons.  And the Gospels tell us that these evil, unclean spirits yelled something most profound before they left the body they possessed.  And although these accounts are silent as to the reaction of the people and rulers when they must have also heard with their own ears what these demons said to Jesus, I firmly belive that God would use even a demon to have some come to faith, for Jesus, God, is causing the action.

Matthew 8:28-29:

“And when He was come to the other side of the country of the Gergasenes, there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way.  

And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God?  art thou come hither to torment us before the time?”

Even the demons knew who Jesus was, and yet the religious leaders of Israel would not believe.., pretending not to hear.  Why?  Because they were not chosen by God to believe, but to do the things against Jesus and the people.  But, no doubt, they did hear,”thou Son of God!”

Luke 4:33-37 is an account of Jesus in Capernaum of Galilee:

“And in the synagogue there was a man, which had the spirit of an unclean devil, and cried out with a loud voice, saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? 

I know thee, who thou art; the Holy One of God.”

They heard a voice call out, “the Holy One of God.”

No matter what great signs He did or what they heard in their ears, they would not believe…no matter what!

They saw His power and authority to command the unclean spirits to come out of the man.  They were amazed!  His fame grew.  But they did not hear the words of the demons.  And if they heard them, it was dismissed right away, lest hearing and seeing they would come to believe.  But they would not; could not, for this they were born.  

I believe that this was one of the reasons why so many times Jesus cast out demons of people among the multitudes…that many would hear loud, understandable words coming from inside the person demon possessed, and that these words would stick!

And so it was too with the English people in the 8th Century A.D., when God called the blessed Pope Gregory to send Augustine to Britain to convert the people to the Christian faith.  God called them by His Holy Spirit using a man of God to lay the seed.

May these words, my dear brothers, warm your hearts and be of help in your walk of faith in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

Amen    

   It is a stormy, cold night on the island.  I have never seen lightning bolts flashing across the dark sky so near us, as tonight!  And I have never before heard thunder so loud and so close, so very close, that it shook my cell and my bed!  I pulled the covers tightly over my head, trying to go back to sleep, but was now too restless.  And then I heard it: a voice in my head, saying, “You must go to Rome with Father Monk.  You must go at once before a new pope is elected.  You shall be representatives of the faith that came from the Roman Church.  I will tell you what to say when you get there.  You must tell them as My beloved John tried to tell them, “but they will not believe!”

And so they arrived in Rome.  And on the first day of the cardinals’ election process for a new pope, Brother Monk was in a room where a microphone was connected to speakers that would enable the thousands and thousands assembled there from all over the world to hear messages as to the progress being made.

And then a voice said unto him, “I am Jesus.  Speak now unto the people here assembled the words I give you.”

“Brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, our Lord, hear the words I speak.  And shall you believe? 

I preached unto my people when I was here the first time, the Kingdom of God, but they would not hear.  They rejected Me!  To my beloved Apostle John, I gave unto him the last words of My book, for the seven churches in Asia, and even beyond unto the very corners of the earth, My earth, which I created, the last “things which are to come.”  They believed for a time, but as the centuries past by, wickedness crept into My Church, and the very words of last book unto you, were explained away so as to take them as a myth.  And so, even now, most of My people ignore or do not believe the words of the ‘last days’ John wrote unto you-even your popes!  For it is man who errs, not God.

By this time the police and keepers of the house could not enter the room from which Brother Monk preached.  No one could silence the voice that flooded the square.  All were silent as the throngs of people assembled there listened reverently to the words he spoke.  They perceived these were not ordinary words from an ordinary man.  No, they believed something very special was happening from God.

The time is almost near when the things prophesied for the future shall be accomplished.  You know them from my last book John wrote unto you, even as all Scripture must be fulfilled about Me.  I am He, Jesus, in heaven with the Father, but soon, very soon, I will come again back to earth to reign: for I am the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, your Christ, the Messiah!

But before I come back in the clouds with the radiance of the Sun, with great power and glory, I must first accomplish something very great my Apostle Paul often spoke about to his churches: the first resurrection after Me.

“For I shall come out of heaven with the arch-angel, and with a great shout, and the great blast of the trumpets, and all over the world, at the same time, and from the time of the beginning of My church, the dead in Christ Jesus shall rise from the grave; then all who are alive at that very moment, those who are alive in Christ Jesus shall be changed into immortal, glorious, imperishable bodies like those just resurrected, like even unto Christ, translated in the ‘twinkling of an eye,’ and together, in the greatest assembly of the Lord that ever there was to behold, you shall be gathered unto Me in the sky, above the clouds, and follow Me up to heaven unto the Holy Father.  

And so, dear ones of Mine, shall you forever be with the Lord! 

You shall not, not even one of you be part of the following seven years of judgement that shall be upon my people Israel, and even the whole unbelieving world!  No, not one!   

If you would only believe what John wrote in the Revelation of Jesus Christ, you too can know your future, and the future events which shall come upon the whole world, and, as I desire, teach others, especially My chosen ones, the Jewish people, for they are still Mine, and always will be.  You have not replaced them, but are grafted into them, blind yet as they are.  But, like you today, shall  they believe?

And when the prophecy of Daniel’s last Seven Years has expired, then I shall come out of heaven with my saints and angels to the earth, when the desperate call of My believing Remnant shall come to My ears…and then, and only then will I return, and my kingdom shall then begin. 

You are My witnesses; My testimony unto all the world.  You spread the seed of My Holy Gospel.  Do not be ‘slow of heart to believe all that was written of Me.’ Do not be like My two disciples who walked on the Road to Emmaus after My crucifixion, fools, because they did not believe all Moses wrote of Me!  

Thus I have spoken through My servant, and you have heard.

These words shall not pass away but are settled forever in Heaven.  These are My true words.  Shall you believe?

But you will not believe.”

 And when all these words were spoken, the police burst into the room and arrested Brother Monk.  There were no charges, but they had to depart Rome first thing in the morning.  And they arrived back to their island, and Father Monk did not speak, but smiled the whole trip home.

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