The Pirates (Spoilers) of Christian Faith

• To miss the mark or to err from the Truth revealed by God is to SIN against Him. The meaning of the root word Sin in Greek is just the same: HAMARTON in Rom.3:23 (Strong/g/264). 
• It also means To make the Mistakes, To Trespass or To Cross over the boundary in other’s territory, To Offend, To Err morally or To Miss the SHARE in the Prize
• God sends such things into the lives of the people of God to TEST their LOVE to Him with ALL their: 

• To Love God with ALL our Heart (feelings, passions, desires, ambitions etc.) and
• Mind (Thinking, resolve, objective life style, education and profession, what you think what and who you are etc) is to:

1. Walk after the LORD: 
   • Ac.9:31: Mahalak:  (Strong/h/4109) To take a walk, Journey. (Poreuomai/Travel, Journey, going onwards (Strong/g/4198) -Ac.9:31, 
   • Rom.4:12:  To Walk in the Steps of  our father Abraham- (Stoicheis/Orderly, By Rules, In Rows to conform to virtue and piety (Strong/g/4748) -Ac.21:24 )
   • Ac.21:24: ORTHOPODEO (Strong/g/3716) To walk in a straight course; walk uprightly, to be straight footed to go directly forward. 
   • 2Cor.6:16: Emperipateo (Strong/g/1704) God would be occupied among the persons He chose to dwell in. Our walk is meant to be occupied with God who made us His Temple so that we can Walk with Him as He walks amongst His people.
   • Gal.2:14:  (Walking uprightly (ORTHOPODEO) according to the truth of the gospel.) 
2. Fear Him: Yare’ (Strong/h/3372 -Phobo-g/5401) 
   • Dt.13:4, Mt.10:28 Moral reverence, be frightened of His dreadfulness, Awesomeness, 
   • Ac.9:31,10:35, 
   • 2Cor.7:1 Being Alarmed exceedingly
3. Keep His commandments: Tereo-(Stron/g/5083) To watch over, preserve, to observe, to give heed. (1Jn2:3,5, 3:22,24, 5:2,Rev.1:3,22:7) Like an imprisonment- a watch over  by guard. Mt.27:66,  Ac.4:3,5:18
4. Obey His voice: Hupakoe (Strong/g/5219) Ro.6:16-18, 16:19, 1Pet.1:2,14 –To become like slaves (Doulo-Strong/g/1402 ) to Righteousness (dikaosune-Strong/g/1343) after being set free from the slavery of sin (Hamartias-Strong/g/266).
5. Serve Him: Diakoneo-Latreuo (Strong/g/) To render any kind of service like Worship, service or ministry-Rom.1:1, to God as His Children(Douleuo-Strong/g/1398 Phill.2:22) and bond servants:2Pet.2:19 (De-Doulotai-Strong/g/1402)
6. Cleave unto Him: Kallao-Mt.19:5, Eph.5:31, to Join together (Strong/g/2853) or glued together to become one piece. To grip the Lord firmly. Ac.11:23

Conclusion: Thank you all for enjoying the 7 Episodes of the Series number 2-The Pirates Christian Faith and How to face them. I hope you are blessed by these talks. You can send feed back to us and interact some times. Please continue to join us and share or invite your families and friends to join this Podcast. I welcome you to join again for another series and be blessed. Christ Jesus spells freedom and we are set BOND FREE by His power and Grace of God our Father in heaven. Thank you.  

God sends such things into the lives of the people of God to TEST their LOVE to Him with ALL their: 

• Heart: (CARDIA-καρδια) As Physical heart is the center of Blood the life of a being. Heart has Life and it keeps Life pumping in and pumping out all the time. If the Heart Stops functioning, every one stops living. It is the last step leading to Death and Decay.Once the Church stops Loving God, it stops living. 

• Mind: (NOUS-νουσ) The Seat of reflective human but God given consciousness, perception, understanding, feeling, judgment and determining. (Vine/Mind/p.69) Man is a Thinking animal. Once the Church stops using the faculties of Mind, slowly it gets corrupt, deadened and unconcerned. Once the Mind stops thinking about God, it stops loving God and hold on to what He had done and said. Mind surrendered to other than God becomes enslaved by enemies of God ward thinking. The Mind is Renewable by the Power of God. The church needs to offer itself as a living sacrifice inorder to be renewed in Mind. (Ro.12:1-2) 

• How to save yourself: (Dt.13:3-4) To Love God with ALL our Heart and Mind is to:

1. Walk after the LORD: 
2. Fear Him:
3. Keep His commandments:
4. Obey His voice: 
5. Serve Him: 
6. Cleave unto Him:

Episode 4 part 2

1. Devaluation of Supremacy of Christ. 
   1. The Christ Jesus is not the Supreme Divine Savior but a secondary god man. This supremacy of Christ was challenged by the opponents. (1:15–20; 2:2–3:9).
2. Hidden and secret knowledge. 
   1. The Gnostics boasted of this (2:18). The mysteries and secrets are revealed only to a few of them. To KNOW Supreme Being is Impossible. Only the Gnostics and mystics have the secret knowledge with them. Believing Christ is a foolishness. He does not exist anymore, so He can’t explain Mysteries to them. 
   2. Gnostics have obtained that mysterious knowledge, and by following their teaching, they can please Heavenly beings and bodies to avoid calamities and troubles. Paul’s emphasis is on Christ, and it shows that “in Him” (Christ Jesus) are hidden all the treasures of wisdom”. (2:2–3)
3. Dependency on human wisdom. Philosophy. 2:4,8.
   1. It is the love of wisdom the Philosophy. It the tradition of wisdom passed on to the wise men and they are authorized to give it to those who hold on to their teachings and traditions. So the Christians at Colossae must not ignore the Human Wisdom which had a long tradition unknown to the time. 
   2. Paul’s teachings and Tradition were new and known to many. Moreover, the mainline Jews did not support Jesus of Nazareth as the Heavenly Messiah. They didn’t accept His teachings or vicarious death. Rather Jesus denounced their Traditions created by the Jewish Sects as anti-Moses and therefore not divine.
   3. Looking at this, the opponents forced new Christians to accept the human wisdom and philosophy of the time. Most likely, this philosophy had emerged as the syncretistic teachings of the Greco-Roman and Jewish thinkers. 
4. Authoritarian human tradition. 2: 8 
   1. Tradition is what the culture and society had passed on to the existing society from the past. The past dies but its traditions live. The proponents were asking the new Christians to reconsider their emergence as a society. Their roots were the same as others. They had the language and the culture of the same stock of people. What changed was the faith they had put in Christ Jesus. 
   2. The opponents wanted the new Christians either follow the traditions with them or face the consequences like ostracizing and social degradation. And if they still refuse to follow the tradition as governing element of faith and practice, they could face more severe penalty of not obliging to the demands of the traditions which are from the long historic past. They wanted Christians either to follow them or face consequences of it. 
   3. Traditions show the society the way to appease gods and divine forces and to break them is inviting anger of them. If there emerges any troubles, epidemics and wars etc. then the Christians are to be counted responsible for those calamities. 

Conclusion: Paul encourages the church to hold on to the Faith and the Teachings of Lord Jesus Christ. He had abolished all those on the Cross making a foul public show of them. The church must be aware of the traps of the Pirates and stay strong in Faith and Teachings of the Apostles. Paul was sent by Jesus as an ambassador of these teachings to all nations. They must not allow Pirates to loot the TREASURES. The Church must preserve this heritage because there are rewards and crowns waiting for them in heaven for the victors.

• The letter to Colossians is ascribed to Paul as its author even by the early church fathers and great thinkers. 
• The first century Gnosticism was growing fast in the second century. It tried to make inroads into the churches as much as possible.
• During Paul’s imprisonment in Rome at least for two years under house arrest (Ac 28:16–31), he might have written this letter in the. c. A.D. 60.

• Before Paul’s time, Colossae had been a leading city in Asia Minor. It was situated in the valley of the Lycus River. It was a big commercial hub on the great east-west trade route leading from Ephesus to the West on the Aegean Sea and to the Euphrates River in the East.
• Epaphras had come to know the Lord Jesus as his Savior during Paul’s three-year ministry in Ephesus. He had witnessed the experience of Salvation and shared the teachings from Paul to the people of Colossae, (cf.1:7–8; Ac 19:10).
• Very soon the Church was established but a threat emerged from heretics and their teachings. The Church needed guidance from Paul in this matter of faith. Epaphras went to visit to Paul who was imprisoned in Rome. In response to that threat, Paul wrote this letter.
• Some of them were house churches around Colossae were established along with a couple of other like Laodicea and Hierapolis comprised primarily from Gentile stock.

Paul never explicitly describes the false teaching he opposes in the Colossian letter. The nature of the heresy must be inferred from statements he made in opposition to the false teachers. An analysis of his refutation suggests that the heresy was diverse in nature. Some of the elements of its teachings fall into 2 categories, Jewish and Gnostic and a mixture of both.We observe a few challenges the Church was facing with: 

1. Jewish Legalism. 
   • It held to strict rules about the kinds of permissible food and drink, religious festivals (2:16–17), observance of Mosaic Law and circumcision (2:11; 3:11).
2. Jewish Asceticism. 
3. It was encouraging the life style like that of Pharisees and Essenes. They taught: “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!” etc. (2:21; cf. 2:23). It was based on more of touch and feel and experience rather than Faith.
4. Religious Cult of Angel worship. 
5. The heavenly bodies like angels and stars influence the human existence and governance. (2:18) In order to avoid calamities and trouble, people must appease these heavenly bodies to obtain favor. Displeasing them invites displeasure and judgment. But Paul taught that God has taken the initiative to save man and creation because of His nature of Love, Grace and Sufficiency of Christ Jesus.

1. False Prophets: Dt.13:1-4; Mt.7:21-23
   1. He is always a self proclaimed minister. He uses “I-My” instead GOD. 
   2. He has another Scripture or Revelation contrary to the Revealed Word.
   3. He may demonstrate a sign or wonder to deceive God’s people. 
   4. He diverts and replaces God and leads people astray to strange gods/things.
   5. He claims to have a secret knowledge of other world. 
   6. He likes luxury, lustful desires and pomp rather than the glory of God. 
   7. Looks like A well (Depth) but are without water, look like rain giving Clouds (Glorious) are carried with tempest.(2Pet.2:17)
2. False Teachers: Mt.7:21-23 
   1. They do not have sound doctrine, rather a mixed up mess. 
   2. Their teaching is full of misrepresentation (Serpent: Has God said it? Gen.3) and half lies (Gen.3:4; Matt.4:1-11 “It is written” Said Jesus.)
   3. They teach their Wisdom thoughts but the True Teachers quoted True Prophets.
   4. They have a Bible with their own interpretation claimed as Revelation of God.
3. False Apostles and Ministers: 2Cor.11:14-15)
   1. (All 2Cor. Dake/p.347) 16 things show what they are made up of.

4. Healers: (2Pet.2:19) Mt.7:21-23

5. Miracle Workers: Mt.7:21-23

Conclusion: Dt.13:3-4 

God sends such things into the lives of the people of God to TEST their LOVE to Him from ALL their: 

Heart: (CARDIA-καρδια) As Physical heart is the center of Blood the life of a being. Heart has Life.

Mind: (NOUS-νουσ)  The Seat of reflective consciousness, perception, understanding, feeling, judgment and determining. (Vine/Mind/p.69) 

How to save yourself: (Dt.13:3-4) To Love God with ALL our Heart and Mind is to:

• They also use various strategies to capture the ships. They create a trap in such a way that the main ship gets either away from the assisting ships with gun boat or becomes isolated from the ships accompanying the main ship. They LOOT/SPOIL most prized goods were obviously things which were non-perishable and of high value such as gold, silver and jewels etc. 
• They hide their IDENTITY by a camouflage. We should recognize them. 
• Christ Jesus: Wolf inside but Sheep’s clothing outside. 
• WHY they do not come in Shepherd’ cloak? They can Imitate Sheep but NOT the SHEPHERD, the Lord Jesus Christ.

• Apostle Paul was imprisoned and was uncertain of the future. He was allowed to stay in a self rented house for few months. He operated from that base in Rome. He referred to the Pirate or Bandit’s or brigand’s attacks and PERILS of dangers of Loots in the 2nd Letter to the church at city of Corinth.(2Cor.11:26) 
• The word WATERS could mean rivers-potamon-(strong/g/4215) or places of fresh drinkable stream waters where probably the bandits awaited for travelers for a loot. 
• The word Robbers is-leston-(strong/g/3027) which means brigand, bandit who plunders (what is precious hidden with the travelers). This word defines the nature of Spoilers or looters. They plunder or loot openly and by violence.
• Whereas the THIEF-kleptesis-different type of spoiler. (Vine/Robber/p.301)

2/A. An incident of famous LOOT of the Emperor Aurangzeb’s Ship: (The case is borrowed as an illustration story from www.wikipedia)

• “The Ganj-i-Sawai” Fateh Muhammed, was captured on 7 September 1695 by the English pirate Henry Every en route from present day Mocha, Yemen to Surat, India. 
• In response to the capture of the Ganj-i-Sawai, the Great Mughal, Aurangzeb, sent his army to five key ports for English trade in India, in order to close them: Bombay, Surat, Broach, Agra, and Ahmadabad. 
• Aurangzeb effectively cut off English trade with India, for he would not reopen the ports until Henry Every was caught and executed for his crimes. 
• The East India Company reconciled with the Great Mughal by fully compensating his losses, and filed an insurance claim for £350,000, though Aurangzeb requested this amount be doubled.  
• The desire to see Every executed led to the first truly global manhunt in history, though he and the majority of his crew would never be caught. Six members of his crew were captured, tried, and executed, though they were not found guilty of seizing the Ganj-i-Sawai, but rather a different ship.

However, soon it so happened that after the after the incident of the capturing of the ships of Great India King Aurangzeb, the world came together to catch the Pirate to be tried. The first case was most famous Piracy and Loot. But it also was the 1st case of united efforts to catch the Pirates who were British.