New Life in Christ - piano instrumental hymn with lyrics

Why I am a Genevan Baptist

I shall start a series of quotes from the 1560 Geneva Bible, showing examples on why I am what I am, a Genevan Baptist.

The 1560 Geneva Bible -

1 Peter 3 -

20 Which were in time past disobedient, when once the long suffering of God abode in the days of Noe, while the Ark was preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved in the water.
21 To the which also the figure that now saveth us, even Baptism agreeth (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but in that a good conscience maketh request to God) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 
22 Which is at the right hand of God, gone into heaven, to whom the Angels, and Powers, and might are subject. 

The 1611 KJB -

1 Peter 3 -

²⁰ Which sometime were disobedient, when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the Ark was a preparing: wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.

²¹ The like figure whereunto, even Baptism, doth also now save us, (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

22 Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God, Angels, and authorities, and powers being made subject vnto him.

The 1769 KJV -

1 Peter 3 -

20 Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.

21 The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:

22 Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.

No stocking up for Christians!

Here are the words of the Lord Jesus about storing up for things to come - Matthew 6 -

24 * No man can serve two masters: for either he shall hate the one, and love the other, or else he shall lean to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and riches. 25 * Therefore I say unto you, be not (s) careful for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink: nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more worth than meat? and the body than raiment? 26 Behold the fowls of the heaven: for they sow not, neither reap, nor carry into the barns: yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? 27 Which of you by taking care, is able to add one cubit unto his stature? 28 And why care ye for raiment? Learn, how the lilies of (t) the field do grow: they (u) labour not, neither spin: 29 Yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 Wherefore if God so clothe the grass of the field which is to day, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not do much more unto you, ô ye of little faith? 31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or what shall we drink? or where with shall we be clothed? 32 (For after all these things (x) seek the Gentiles) for your heavenly Father knoweth, that ye have need of all these things. 33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his (y) righteousness, and all these things shall be ministered unto you. 34 Care not then for the morrow: for the morrow shall care for " it (z) self: the day hath enough with his own grief. 

24 * Luke 16.13 25 * Psalm 55.23, Luke 12.22, Philippians 4.6, 1 Timothy 6.8, 1 Peter 5.7 25 (s) Mans travel nothing availeth where God giveth not increase. 28 (t)The goodness of God even towards the herbs of the field, far passeth all things that man can compass by his power and labour. 28 (u) The word signifieth, they weary not them selves. 32 (x) With care and distrust. 33 (y) That is, to be regenerate, and amend, your lives. 34 " Or, his own things. 34 (z) God will provide for every day that that shall be necessary, though we do not increase the present grief by the carefulness how to live in time to come. 

So there we have it. Unless you think that the Lord was just talking to 'jews' here, and are ignorant of the Lords love and wisdom for all men to be saved, this proves he thought we should just wait for his answers for our supplications.

Trim your lamps brethren!

Ash Wednesday and such, why we don't 'celebrate' them

1 Timothius 4 says:

1 Now the Spirit speaketh evidently, that in the latter times some shall depart
   from the faith, and shall give heed unto spirits of error, and doctrines of devils, 
2 Which speak lies through hypocrisy, and have their consciences burned with an
   hot iron,
3 Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats which God hath 
   created to be received with giving thanks of them which believe and know the 
   truth. 
4 For every creature of God is good, and nothing ought to be refused, if it be
   received with thanksgiving.
5 For it is sanctified by the word of God, and prayer.
6 If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good 
   minister of Jesus Christ, which hast been nourished up in the words of faith, and of
   good doctrine, which thou hast continually followed.
7 But cast away profane, and old wives fables, and exercise thy self unto godliness.
8 For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things,
   which hath the promise of the life present, and of that that is to come.

Just a thought.

Trim them lamps!

What about Preterism, compared to 'partial' preterism - what I believe?

I don't think there is an official definition for me, but

it entails the freedom to not have to stick to someone else's 

Traditional 'interpretation', [that have no foundation really, except

the majority of 'christianity' teaches them].

Matthew 24 is a great example, that is why there is so much 'discussion'

on how wrong some of us are in our 'beliefs'. People are afraid to follow

the scripture to the degree of 'division' amongst the brethren. I believe, for

example, that the disciples asked 'clearly', in my opinion, 3 questions, of

which the Lord went into details of each answer. But there prevails here

the tradition that the whole situation of the 'answer' only answers one subject.

Either it is talking about the 70 AD destruction and judgement of God, or it

is talking about the 'end days'. I believe it talks about both! 

I however have learned years ago to follow how the Lord leads, and it has

caused division, and that division has helped me to grow, and not be strung

along some traditional 'muddy path', that is as clear as that 'muddy path', in

its teachings.

Partial preterism is not the belief of Preterism at all. It takes from Preterism

the information and view that is correct. And leaves out the parts that are

not correct. Hence 'partial' preterism.

I could call it 'biblicism', but everyone thinks that is what they teach.

* edited to add this -

 I do not follow any teaching of man about partial preterism. I came up with my own beliefs without the knowledge of the 'Partial Preterism' taught and spoken about on the internet, and I do not prescribe to what they call 'Partial Preterism'. What I believe is what I call partial preterism.

THE QUEST OF THE FATHERS

        [By James Whitcomb Riley]

What were our Forefathers trying to find

    When they weighed anchor, that desperate hour

They turned from home, and the warning wind

    Sighed in the sails of the old Mayflower ?

What sought they that could compensate

    Their hearts for the loved ones left behind —

The household group at the glowing grate ? —

    What were our Forefathers trying to find ? 

What were they trying to find more dear

    Than their native land and its annals old, —

Its throne — its church — and its worldly cheer —

    Its princely state, and its hoarded gold ?

What more dear than the mounds of green

    There o'er the brave sires, slumbering long ?

What more fair than the rural scene —

    What more sweet than the throstle's song?

Faces pallid, but sternly set,

    Lips locked close, as in voiceless prayer,

And eyes with never a. teardrop wet —

    Even the tenderest woman's there !

But O the light from the soul within,

    As each spake each with a flashing mind —

As the lightning speaks to its kith and kin !

    What were our Forefathers trying to find ?

Argonauts of a godless day —

    Seers of visions, and dreamers vain !

Their ship's foot set in a pathless way, —

    The fogs, the mists, and the blinding rain I —

When the gleam of sun, and moon and star

    Seemed lost so long they were half forgot —

When the fixed eyes found nor near nor far,

    And the night whelmed all, and the world was not.

And yet, befriended in some strange wise,

    They groped their way in the storm and stress

Through which — though their look found not the skies —

    The Lord's look found them ne'ertheless —

Found them, yea, in their piteous lot,

    As they in their faith from the first divined —

Found them, and favored them — too. But what —

    What were our Forefathers trying to find ?

Numb and agasp, with the frost for breath,

    They came on a frozen shore, at last,

As bleak and drear as the coasts of death, —

    And yet their psalm o'er the wintry blast

Rang glad as though 'twere the chiming mirth

    Of jubilant children landing there —

Until o'er all of the icy earth

    The snows seemed warm, as they knelt in prayer.

For, lo ! they were close on the trail they sought : —

    In the sacred soil of the rights of men

They marked where the Master-hand had wrought ;

    And there they garnered and sowed again. —

Their land — then ours, as to-day it is,

    With its flag of heaven's own light designed,

And God's vast love o'er all. . . . And this

    Is what our Forefathers were trying to find.

Abraham Ibn Ezra

Scholar and writer; born 1092-1093; died Jan. 28 (according to Rosin, Reime und Gedichte, p. 82, n. 6, 1167 (see his application of Gen.xii. 4 to himself). His father's name was Meïr and his family was probably a branch of the Ibn Ezra family to which Moses ibn Ezra belonged. Moses in his poems mentions Abraham by his Arabic name, Abu Isḥaḳ (Ibrahim) ibn al-Majid ibn Ezra (Steinschneider, "Cat. Bodl." col. 1801), together with Judah ha-Levi. Both were, according to Moses, from Toledo, and afterward settled in Cordova. Ibn Ezra himself once—in an acrostic—names Toledo as his native place ("Monatsschrift," xlii. 19) and at another time Cordova (beginning of the Ḥayyuj translation). According to Albrecht ("Studien zu den Dichtungen Abraham ben Ezra," in "Z. D. M. G." l.c. p. 422), it is certain that he was born in Toledo. Through his emigration from Spain his life was divided into two periods. In the first and longer of these, which extended almost to the year 1140, he won for himself in his native land a name as a poet and thinker. Moses ibn Ezra, who was an intimate friend of his, extols him as a religious philosopher ("mutakallim") and as a man of great eloquence; and a younger contemporary, Abraham ibn Daud, at the end of his history ("Sefer ha-Ḳabbalah," ed. Neubauer, p. 81), calls him the last of the great men who formed the pride of Spanish Judaism and who "strengthened the hands of Israel with songs and with words of comfort." In this first period of his life Ibn Ezra's creative activity was chiefly occupied with poetry; and the greater number of his religious and other poems were probably produced during that time. He likes to call himself "the poet" ("ha-shar," introduction to Pentateuch commentary) or "father of poems" (end of the versified calendar regulations); and in a long poem of lamentation (Rosin, "Reime und Gedichte des Abraham ibn Ezra," p. 88) he says: "Once in my youth I used to compose songs with which I decorated the Hebrew scholars as with a necklace." The fact, however, that Ibn Ezra had pursued serious studies in all branches of knowledge during his life in Spain, is shown by the writings of the second period of his life. The wealth and variety of their contents can be explained only by the compass and many-sidedness of his earlier studies.

The most prominent scholars among the Jews of Spain were Ibn Ezra's personal friends: in Cordova itself, which was his permanent residence, Joseph ibn Ẓaddiḳ and especially Judah ha-Levi. The latter was only a few years older than Ibn Ezra; and on one occasion addressed a very witty saying to Ibn Ezra's father-in-law (see Geiger, "Nachgelassene Schriften," iv. 332). In his Bible commentary Ibn Ezra afterward reported many text interpretations from his talks with Judah ha-Levi (see Bacher, "Die Bibelexegese der Jüdischen Religionsphilosophen," etc., pp. 132 et seq.). That he associated and debated with the representatives of Karaism, which was so widely spread in Spain in his time, and that he was well acquainted with their literature, is shown by many passages in his commentary on the Bible.

[ From : The unedited full-text of the 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia]

And below you can see the type of thoughtline he espouses -

In the third part, Ibn Ezra explains how the Song of Solomon depicts the whole history of Israel, from the days of Abraham to those of the Messiah : the trials of Abraham, the exile of the Israelites in Egypt, their deliverance, the giving of the Law on Sinai, the conquest of Canaan, the building of the Temple, the secession of the Ten Tribes, the Babylonian exile, the return of the captives from Babylon to Palestine, the oppression of the Jews by the Syrians, the successes of the Maccabees, the Roman exile, and the future Restoration.

[ From: Essays on the writings of Abraham Ibn Ezra, 1877]