The Bible Standard - Re-Discover the Truth.

Brother Josh Hodge

The first session explores the drought brought about by YHWH in the life of Elijah (1 Kings 17) and how these events play out as in allegory with the group of witnesses, found in the book of Revelation. This second session is an exposition of the dramatic events on Mount Carmel during the life of Elijah (1 Kings 18), where YHWH the God of Israel challenges the false god Baal to a battle of Fire.

 watch the videos of this series here....

https://bibletruthandprophecy.com/1-kings-18-making-a-choice-in-a-time-of-trouble-malvern-youth-study/

In our reading today from Acts 23 we see Paul in the middle of a journey towards Jerusalem he began in chapter 21. But by the time we come to chapter 23 it is a journey over which he has no control. He is continually moved from one place to another, first by a mob and then by soldiers protecting him from the mob. For instance, in verse 10 the tribune, afraid Paul would “be torn to pieces” by the mob, “commanded the soldiers to go down and take him away from among them by force and bring him into the barracks.” Here Paul is experiencing something very similar to the Lord Jesus Christ. A couple of verses later we learn “the Jews made a plot and bound themselves by an oath neither to eat nor drink till they had killed Paul.” And later, in verse 31, Paul continues to be bustled along – “So the soldiers, according to their instructions, took Paul and brought him by night to Antipatris.”

“THIS HAS NOT BEEN DONE IN A CORNER” May 11

Things done in a corner are concealed from general knowledge. It seems evident that Luke, the writer of the book

of ACTS was with Paul on some of his travels. Ch. 27 v.1 shows he was with him as he travelled after his appeal to

Caesar (v.1,3,4 &c “we” experienced this and that). The defense of Paul before King Agrippa and the Roman

Governor is given in such detail it is evident it is a personal report. Festus, the Roman Governor struggles to

comprehend what Paul is saying, he desires to write a report to Caesar detailing the nature of the accusations against

him.

Paul declares, “To this day I have had the help that comes from God, and so I stand here testifying both to small

and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would come to pass: that Christ must suffer and that,

by being the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light both to our people and to the Gentiles.” [26 v.22,23]

Festus is confused saying, “Paul, you are out of your mind.” Paul responds, “I am not out of my mind … I am speaking

true and rational words … for this has not been done in a corner” {v.24-26]

The events of nearly 2,000 years ago are powerfully evidenced by history – not just the Bible text – but in Roman

history. Alongside this we can put our reading today in Deuteronomy 28. Moses sets out the blessings the nation will

have if they truly serve God when they enter the promised land. The first generation did so – as the book of Joshua

we are about read shows.!

But the latter part of our chapter details the curses that would come upon them for turning their back on God –

ending with an awesome description which had its ultimate fulfilment in the Holocaust 70 years ago. “The Lord will

give you there a trembling heart and failing eyes and a languishing soul. Your life will hang in doubt before you. Night

and day you shall be in dread …” [v.66,67] Some try to deny the Holocaust but “this has not been done in a

corner” What position do we take? There is no neutral position! Jesus said, “whoever denies me before me, I

also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.” [Matt. 10 v.33]

A small group of young Christadelphian brothers have taken the time to produce this valuable resource for the brotherhood and beyond, they are using the Bible reading planner developed by Brother Robert Roberts called The  Bible Companion. The Bible Companion (or Bible Reading Planner) is a guide developed by the Christadelphians to aid reading the Bible. It was first produced by Robert Roberts when he was just 14 years of age, in about 1853, and revised by him over a number of years into its current format. 

 Most Christadelphians use this plan each day and it was designed to help you read the old testament once and the new testament twice each year.

 These readings which we feature are recorded using the KJV or the NKJV of the Bible and we hope will be helpful to those who may struggle with time or who have poor eyesight.

The way that Ananias addressed Saul, recorded in Acts 22:13 – “Brother Saul”, is almost unique in Scripture. In fact, the only other occurrence where someone is called “Brother” or “Sister” before their name in Scripture is in Acts 9:17, which is also referring to Paul in Acts 22. And what is even more interesting is this was before he was baptized. In Christadelphia we often refer to someone as “Brother” or “Sister” before using their name, but we it’s hard to really show it’s a scriptural practice. And it can become one of those things where an important word or concept loses its meaning through overuse or over familiarity.

"AS HE REASONED ABOUT ..." May 10

What do we/you reason about? This question is prompted by verses in today’s 24th chapter of Acts. The arrest of

Paul which had been predicted by the prophets in the early church possessed by the gifts of the Spirit, had now taken

place in Jerusalem.

Paul is brought to Caesarea and kept in custody by the Roman Governor Felix who has a Jewish wife and “having

a rather accurate knowledge of the Way” [v.22] (‘the way’ being the earliest phrase used to describe followers of

Christ), the Governor is not willing to aid Paul’s accusers, instead he arranged for him “to have some liberty” [v.23] and

then, when his wife came, “he sent for Paul and heard him speak about the faith in Christ Jesus. And as he

reasoned about righteousness and self-control and the coming judgement Felix was alarmed …” [v.24,25]

If someone like Paul was alive today and we heard them reasoning about such things – would they alarm us? Or

would we welcome such reasoning? Would we make it part of our reasoning and reason for living? Don’t we make

our answer rather obvious by the extent to which we read the Bible – and put what we read into practice.

Visit and Subscribe to our other main podcast here...https://cdvideo.org/podcast

https://www.podbean.com/podcast-detail/ku3h2-a6b6f/Christadelphians-Talk-Podcast

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/christadelphians-talk/id1448751691

https://christadelphianstalks.podbean.com/

https://anchor.fm/Christadelphians-Talk

other thoughts on our site here

https://bibletruthandprophecy.com/category/thought-for-the-day-2

First of a brand new webinar series of 6 classes dealing with some very basic questions concerning the Bible Truth.  No one wants to believe a lie,  yet there are many different ideas about what the bible teaches and promoted as 'TRUTH' and obviously, they can not all be correct. This series hosted by the Christadelphians at rugby(UK) is designed to get to the bottom of any misconceptions by using the example of the Bereans - who searched the scriptures daily to see if the things that were being taught by the apostles were true.  Just us then as we start our series, What does the Bible say about .....ITSELF.

Godly Sorrow

Our reading today from Acts 20 is a sad one. The apostle Paul journeyed to Jerusalem where he would be arrested, tried, imprisoned and ultimately put to death. On his way he called for the elders of the ecclesia in Ephesus to give them a final farewell telling them among other things, “none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again” (v.25). Afterwards “he knelt down and prayed with them all. And there was much weeping on the part of all; they embraced Paul and kissed him, being sorrowful most of all because of the word he had spoken, that they would not see his face again.” (v.36-38). This was a touching moment and we can understand the sentiment of the Ephesian brethren for the beloved apostle Paul. He had spent three years with them (see verse 31) and they must have developed a close bond. While we’re isolating ourselves during the pandemic, I am missing my brothers and sisters very much, and the lack of interaction is difficult. But we know it will end soon, and we can be together again. That wasn’t true for Paul and the Ephesians though; this was a final goodbye.

However, Paul saying goodbye was not the saddest thing that Paul said. He had a very important, and deeply distressing, message for them – “I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them.” (v.29-30). The tears of sorrow they were having because Paul was departing from need to be contrasted with Paul’s tears – “Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears.” (v.31). Paul’s sorrow was about what would happen to the ecclesia in Ephesus. Here was Christ’s apostle telling these brethren that some of them would be fierce wolves that would decimate the ecclesia.

When Jesus wrote to the ecclesia at Ephesus, recorded in Revelation 2, we can see that at first they must have taken Paul’s words to heart: “I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false.” (Rev. 2:2). But there’s one thing they had lost – “But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.” (v.4). There was an aspect of love which was missing in Ephesus, and perhaps a clue is in how the elders reacted in Acts 20. They had a deep and abiding love for Paul the man, but it didn’t stop them from ultimately destroying the ecclesia because of a lack of love for the truth. Jesus warned them “Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.” (v.5). Sadly, that came to pass as well. Today the city of Ephesus is a ruin and the ecclesia is no more. We don’t know how long it continued but, as Paul predicted, it was overrun by wolves, even from among the Ephesian elders themselves.

What are the things we get emotional about the most? Our love for each other and our social interaction is something many of us sorely miss. But our ecclesias need to be more than places where we develop fondness and affection for one another. The highest priority on our minds should be to keep our ecclesias together as united lampstands, upholding the truth we have come to understand. If we lose that, as they eventually lost it in Ephesus, we will destroy it from within by first turning on each other. What the Ephesian elders should have sorrowed about most of all was not Paul’s departure from their midst, but their own ecclesia’s impending departure from the truth.