Holy Bible – Page 392 – Len Bilén's blog, a blog about faith, politics and the environment.

John 4, the woman at the well, healing of the official’s son at Capernaum.

Richard Blanchard (1925-2004)

It would have been much easier to follow the Jordan River up to Galilee.There are two possible routes, both cumbersome.

Nobody draws water in the middle of the day unless they have to.

Jesus spoke in Aramaic, which makes the statement “I am” even stronger. Jesus claimed he is God.

As opposed to the previous “I am” Jesus said “I am” at many other occasions. These are normal I ams, and does not in any way imply divinity or eternity.

The last word is “cosmos”. Jesus really is the savior of the universe.

John 1, In the beginning was the Word.

Alone in the world the New World Translation (Jehova’s Witnesses) claims that “the word was a god”. But then again, JW do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as one person of the triune God.

Tekna – teachable ones, not just sons

Verse 16 is very interesting. The second half reads in Greek “και χαριν αντι χαριτος” which literally translates “and grace instead of grace” King James translation reads “and grace for grace, which lost a lot in the translation. The first “grace” is in the accusative, the second in the genitive. A better translation would be ” and proactive, dynamic grace instead of grace more like mercy. The Old Testament concept of grace is more like mercy, the New Testament concept of grace is best expressed in Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Isaiah 40:³The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

Notice the world “sin” is singular.

There are many songs on “the Lamb of God”

Here is an example of the importance that the sin is in singular.

Daniel 11, the great prophesy.

Yes, there were five kings in 303 B.C., Antigonus amassed a large army and fleet, but the other kings attacked, defeated and killed Antigonus in 301 B.C., his kingdom divided, and then there were four.

The rest of this prophecy is yet to be fulfilled. It is now 2250+ years later, and it seems the rest of the prophecy is to be fulfilled.

Let us take a pause and see what is happening.

Let us take a look at the people of the world, starting from Genesis.

Looking at the map of the Middle East today, these are the people mentioned and their original settlements.

This is where Ishmael spent his life. He helped bury Abraham. His descendants branched out from there, mostly in the Levant.

Who is this King?

The one desired by women is a reference to the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

The desire of all nations is the Messiah, Jesus Christ

This king is most likely the Mahdi, yet to be revealed.

He will be joined by the forces of communism, socialism and humanism.

The prophetic clock started again with the

All this is yet to happen.

Daniel 9, Daniel’s Prayer, the seventy sevens.

Many are they who have tried to calculate the day of the return of Jesus Christ. The decree to rebuild Jerusalem was recorded four times in the Bible.

First in modern times to head for the hills and watch the return of Christ.

When that didn’t happen they modified the date, also at no avail.

Next came Russell, founder of Jehova’s Witnesses. He proclaimed a spiritual return (since nobody can possibly physically rise from the dead)

And there are many other, one of which was

The end of the Mayan Calendar came and went, but still no return of Christ. Last to make this ridiculous list is physicist Randall Smith, claiming the end of the world thanks to Earth colliding with a hitherto unknown planet.

Another question pops up, when did the age of Grace start?

At the birth of Christ the angels sang: Luke 2:¹⁴“Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

At the start of Jesus Ministry Jesus opened the scroll of Isaiah and said: Luke 4:¹⁸“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
    because he has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
    and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
¹⁹    to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

²⁰Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. ²¹He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

At the Cross Jesus proclaimed : “It is finished”

At Pentecost the Holy Spirit was poured out and power was given to the Disciples.

Any clue?

At this point, I realized I had fallen into the same trap as all the previous people trying to figure out the date of Christ’s coming: The time of grace is “Today”.

This is it: We live in “Today”. Today is the day of salvation.

And then comes the tribulation.

There is one more thing: What is the meaning of “seven”? In the original text it can mean three things.

And the center of action will return to Jerusalem.

Daniel 5, the handwriting on the wall.

Nabonidus cylinders from Ur (around 540 BC) are noteworthy. The cylinders state:

“As for me, Nabonidus, king of Babylon, save me from sinning against your great godhead and grant me as a present a life long of days, and as for Belshazzar, the eldest son -my offspring- instill reverence for your great godhead in his heart and may he not commit any cultic mistake, may he be sated with a life of plenitude.”^[3]

The written Aramaic and Hebrew writings recorded only the consonants. The context determined what the words meant and how they were pronounced. Writing four words on the wall without context made it impossible to really determine what the saying meant, apart from inspiration from God.

Daniel 4, Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of a tree, cut down and restored.

Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts, absolutely.

18 Fontaine Nebuchadnezzar’s Vision of the Tree
Book Title:
L’histoire dv Vieux et dv Nouveau Testament :
Author: Fontaine, Nicolas, 1625-1709

Daniel 3, the image of Gold and the fiery furnace.

I was born in a village at the granite coast of northern Bohuslän in Sweden. During the late 1930’s, the Third Reich had placed large orders of granite stone to be delivered to Germany to make large monuments as a tribute to the Fuehrer Adolf Hitler after he had won the war and established the thousand year Third Reich. Even 1950 the stones were not delivered, neither was the war won.And so began the indoctrination into Hitlerjugend.

But Hitler was by no means alone. Many build monuments to themselves while still alive.

And many come from a more humble beginning. This is a picture of Plains, Georgia, the home town of President Jimmy Carter. It used to be called Plain of Dura, but after the railroad was built the name was shorted to Plains.

Back to the Bible. And all the people obeyed, except Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.

Daniel 2, Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, Daniel’s interpretation.

The text of Daniel has been in Hebrew from chapter 1, but now in verse 20 it switches to Aramaic, and it does not switch back to Hebrew until chapter 7. That is why the three Hebrews are called Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego from now on, but Daniel is still called Daniel.

The Apostle Peter is referred to as the rock “Petros” from the time of his confession. Matt 16:¹⁶and Simon Peter answering said, `Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ ¹⁷And Jesus answering said to him, `Happy art thou, Simon Bar-Jona, because flesh and blood did not reveal [it] to thee, but my Father who is in the heavens. ¹⁸`And I also say to thee, that thou art a rock (Petros), and upon this rock (Petra) I will build my assembly, and gates of Hades shall not prevail against it; ¹⁹and I will give to thee the keys of the reign of the heavens, and whatever thou mayest bind upon the earth shall be having been bound in the heavens, and whatever thou mayest loose upon the earth shall be having been loosed in the heavens.’

Roman Catholics take this verse to mean that Peter is the head of the church, protestants take this verse to point out that it is the confession and the faithful execution of commands according to the heavenly directions given Christ’s followers.

Peter himself seems to indicate the later in 1 Peter: ⁴Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, ⁵you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. ⁶Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture,

“Behold, I lay in Zion
A chief cornerstone, elect, precious,
And he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame.”

⁷Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient,

“The stone which the builders rejected
Has become the chief cornerstone,”

⁸and

“A stone of stumbling
And a rock of offense.”^[d]

They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed.

⁹But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; ¹⁰who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.

Here is a broken replica of the great image.

Daniel 1, the early years, new names, “the Daniel diet”

The “Einstein test” (maybe not from Einstein himself) simply states that for a prophesy to be proven it has to be written down before the event happened, and that the prophet could in no way himself make the prophesy to be fulfilled.

And now to the book of Daniel.

They submitted to new names, but when it came to food they resisted.

You guessed it. This has led to a new fad: “The Daniel diet” consisting of only vegetables, or vegetables and grain, meatless diets or even vegan diets, but they all miss the point. The four young men decided to obey God and only eat kosher food rather than the pagan delicacies, and not drink wine, but trust God and drink their water. This act of obedience is what God honored.

Hebrews 13, Love, contentment, the heavenly altar, the eternal covenant, outside the camp, who wrote the letter to the Hebrews?

Deuteronomy 31:⁶Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.

Psalm 118:⁶The Lord is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do unto me? ⁷The Lord taketh my part with them that help me: therefore shall I see my desire upon them that hate me.