Our new booklets, “And
Lawlessness Will Abound” and “The
Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord” were distributed
at our Feast sites in Canada and the U.K. The booklets will be distributed
to the rest of our readership shortly.
Please explain 1 Corinthians 7:14, as it refers to our children.
1 Corinthians 7:14 reads, “For the unbelieving husband is sanctified
by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband;
otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy.”
The Ryrie Study Bible gives the following correct explanations of this passage:
“The
presence of a believer in the home sets the home apart and gives it a
Christian influence it would not otherwise have. A believing partner,
therefore, should stay with the unbeliever. However, this does not mean
that children born into such a home are automatically Christians. They
are holy in the sense of being set apart by the presence of one
believing parent.”
Christ makes it very clear that one must be
called by God to have access to God. Generally, when Adam and Eve
sinned against God and were driven out of the garden of Eden, God cut
Himself off from mankind. Christ says in John 6:44, “No one can come to
me unless the Father who sent Me draws him.” In this day and age, God
the Father calls or draws only very few. Most people today simply
cannot understand the truth of God, because God has not chosen to
reveal it to them yet (compare 1 Corinthians 1:26-28; 2:6-14). He will
do so later, in His due time (compare Romans 11:26; Ezekiel 37:11-14,
23-28).
Today, most people are still spiritually “unclean,” that
is, God has not cleansed them yet from unrighteousness (compare Romans
6:19; Eph. 4:17-19). But those whom God has called, He has called them
“in holiness,” and not “to uncleanness” (1 Thessalonians 4:7).
God
has decreed that the children of those whom He calls in this day and
age do have access to Him. They are already called — like the rest of
us — “in holiness.” They are not spiritually “unclean.” Even if only
one parent is a Christian, his or her children are “holy” — that is,
they CAN be blessed by having a relationship with God (compare Proverbs
20:7). They still must respond to their calling and choose to take
advantage of the privilege that God has bestowed on them —
nevertheless, God considers them “holy” — they have been set apart for
the holy purpose of walking in God’s way of life.
Netservices
Edwin Pope plans to speak relative to the doctrines
with a sermon entitled – “Doctrine! … How Important?”
The services can be heard at www.cognetservices.org
at the appropriate time, just click on “Connect to Live Stream”.
Need For Hearing
This Sabbath, Norbert Link will be presenting the sermon, “The Need for Hearing.”
On Monday, September 16, is the Day of Atonement. Edwin Pope will be covering important aspects of the meaning of that annual Holy Day in his sermon “A World At One With God.”
This will be the last Update prior to the Feast of Tabernacles, which will begin Friday evening, September 20. Our next Update is scheduled to appear on October 4th.
We wish all our members, supporters, and readers a rewarding and uplifting Day of Atonement and Feast of Tabernacles.
The services can be heard at www.cognetservices.org at the appropriate time, just click on “Connect to Live Stream”.
A special note: All of the Feast services will be broadcast on the Internet, beginning with opening night. For dates and times please go to www.COGNetServices.org
Feast of Trumpets
This Sabbath is the Feast of Trumpets. We will be broadcasting two services over Internet, covering important aspects of the meaning of the Holy Day.
In the morning, Dave Harris will be presenting the sermon, “The Way of Peace.”
In the afternoon, Norbert Link will be speaking on the reasons why Jesus Christ will return to this earth.
We wish all our members, supporters, and readers a rewarding and uplifting Feast of Trumpets.
The services can be heard at www.cognetservices.org at the appropriate time, just click on “Connect to Live Stream”.
Sabbath For Jews Only?
Isn’t the Sabbath for the Jews only, and didn’t God introduce the Sabbath to the Jews for the first time in Exodus 16?
It is not correct that the Sabbath is mentioned for the first time in Exodus 16, or that God introduced the Sabbath to the people at that time. The Sabbath is mentioned in the very second chapter of the Bible, where God set it aside as HOLY, to be USED by man for a HOLY purpose.
God created the Sabbath at the time when He created man. We read in Genesis 2:2, “He RESTED on the seventh day from all His work…Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work.” The word for “rested,” in the Hebrew, is “shabath,” and it means, according to Young’s Analytical Concordance to the Bible, “to cease, rest, keep Sabbath.” God created the Sabbath at the time of the creation of man, by RESTING or ceasing from His work, and He “sanctified” that day, that is, He “set it aside for a holy purpose.”
Later, we read, in Exodus 20:11 that God had “rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the SABBATH day and hallowed it.”
Also, we read that God made the Sabbath for MAN — not only for the Jews or the Israelites (Mark 2:27).
The reason that God had to re-introduce the Sabbath to the people in Exodus 16, is that they had come out of slavery in Egypt, where they had FORGOTTEN to keep the Sabbath. They were under hard bondage and forced to work every day, and they were obviously not allowed to keep the Sabbath. So, in time, they got used to not keeping it. Note what God said to Moses, after they had, for the first time, gone out on the Sabbath to gather manna: “HOW LONG do you refuse to keep My commandments and My laws? See! For the LORD has given you the Sabbath…” (Exodus 16:28-29). The people had not kept God’s Sabbath for a very LONG time — that’s why God is asking, “HOW LONG do you refuse” to keep it holy?
Faithfulness In Little Things
This Sabbath, Edwin Pope will be presenting the sermon, “Faithfulness in Little Things.”
The services can be heard at www.cognetservices.org at the appropriate time, just click on “Connect to Live Stream”.
The term "Apostle"
Can you please explain how the term “Apostle” should be used today in light of its usage in the New Testament?
Jesus Christ is the only individual who is referred to in Scripture as “the” Apostle (Hebrews 3:1). Paul and Peter refer to themselves as “an” apostle,” or, as “an apostle of Jesus Christ.” (Romans 1:1; 1 Corinthians 1:1; 9:1; 2 Corinthians 1:1; 12:12; Ephesians 1:1; Colossians 1:1; 1 Timothy 1:1; 2:7; 2 Timothy 1:1; 1:11; Titus 1:1; 1 Peter 1:1; 2 Peter 1:1).
The Authorized Version translates Romans 11:13 this way, “I [Paul] am the apostle of the Gentiles.” However, in the Greek, there is no definite article (“the”) in front of the word, “apostle.” By contrast, in Hebrews 3:1, in reference to Jesus Christ, there is a definite article (“the”) in the Greek in front of the word, “Apostle.” Many translations, including the New King James Bible, or the Revised Standard Version, translate Romans 11:13, in this way, “I am an apostle to the Gentiles.”
When referred to apostles as a collective group, we find many times the expression, “the apostles.” (Matthew 10:2; Mark 6:30; Luke 9:10; 17:5; 22:14; 24:10; Acts 1:2, 26; 2:37, 42, 43; 4:33, etc.). The designation as “the apostles,” when referring to more than one individual, does include apostles in addition to the original twelve (Acts 14:14, “…when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard this…”).
The designation as “apostle” is derived from “the” Apostle, Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God (Luke 6:13; Revelation 21:14).
Since the designation of “the Apostle” is scripturally reserved for Jesus Christ only, we should not refer, then, to any individual or particular apostle as “the” apostle. Rather, following Scripture, an individual (as distinguished from a group) may and should be referred to as “an” apostle.
True Worship
Dave Harris will be speaking this Sabbath about true worship.
The services can be heard at www.cognetservices.org at the appropriate time, just click on “Connect to Live Stream”.
Lucifer
Editors’ Note:
We received last week an interesting question regarding our use of the word “Lucifer.” We are sharing our response with you:
In the Hebrew, the word translated as “Lucifer” in the King James Bible and many other translations, is “helel,” or “heylel,” and means, according to Strong’s, Young’s, and other commentaries, “lightbringer,” “shining one,” “morning star”,” or “shining star of the dawn.”
The word “Lucifer” is the Latin translation of the Hebrew word, “helel,” or “heylel,” conveying exactly the same meaning. So it is appropriate to use this word, describing the cherub who later became “Satan.” God uses many times names to describe the character of an individual. “Satan,” by the way, is the English translation of the Hebrew word, “sawtwan.”
Most words in the English language, designating names, are TRANSLATIONS from the Hebrew and the Greek — they are NOT the original words. Even “Christ” is a translation of the Greek word, “khristos.” It means, “the Anointed One.”
Also, the expressions are still different, when looking at other languages. In German, for instance, the word for “khristos,” is “Christus.” The Germans pray to the “Vater,” English-speaking people pray to the “Father,” but in the Greek language, the word is, “pater” (spelled “pat-ayr.”). Jesus and Paul, by the way, used the Aramaic expression, “abba”, many times.
