Every Sunday I provide videos and valuable links to the Truth or Tradition teachings. We’ve been following the Truth or Tradition teachings for many years now and they have truly blessed our family. We have found peace and happiness through our beliefs and we walk confidently for God. My hope, by passing on this information to you, is that what you find here, or on the Truth or Tradition website, will guide you to a better, more blessed and abundant life.
If you would like to read my views on religion and how we got started with the ministry, you can read this.
Let’s get started:
Although Satan is “the god of this age” (2 Cor. 4:4), he does not have carte blanche to afflict God’s people. The more precisely we as believers obey God, the more difficult it is for the Devil to succeed in ruining our lives. Sections of Scripture like Psalm 91 make it plain that the effectiveness of God’s protection of us is in large part proportional to our “dwelling in the secret place of the Most High” and “abiding in the shadow of the Almighty.”
Satan tries to trick us into sinning (disobeying God) and by doing so leaving the umbrella of God’s “protective custody.” For example, when Satan was tempting Jesus in the wilderness, he twisted God’s Word. By misapplying Psalm 91:12, he tried to get Jesus to do something dangerous and foolhardy that would have cost him his life. He wanted Jesus to mistakenly believe that God’s protection of him was absolute, when it was actually relative to his faith in and obedience to God’s Word. Nowhere does God guarantee blanket protection to Temple-jumpers.
If Jesus needed to remain in the will of God to assure himself of protection, surely we do too. Sin in the life of a Christian is a primary cause of his vulnerability to spiritual defeat. If Satan can get a believer to act contrary to the will of God, it appears that this gives him an opportunity to step in and afflict him.
Satan carefully chooses his moments to strike, in accord with his goal to confuse people as to the difference between good and evil. He does not take advantage of all sin to correspondingly afflict each person who sins, because then he would eventually discourage sin, and his success depends upon encouraging it. He does take special pleasure in hurting God’s people in order to make it seem that commitment to God does not result in blessings.
God does not kill people who love Him, or cause them to suffer. It is the Devil who causes death and suffering. God is righteous and just. If a parent, judge, schoolteacher, etc. were to act as God is portrayed by many as acting — punishing one person while letting another go free for the same sin — imagine the din of angry voices shouting “Unfair! Unfair!” And it would be unfair.
It is interesting that most Christians who write about suffering admit that it is unfair, or at least that it seems unfair. But their erroneous belief that God is the cause of the suffering necessitates a distorted rationale. Not wanting to point an accusing finger at God, a finger they would unhesitatingly and rightly point at people, i.e., Stalin, Hitler, Saddam Hussein, Snidely Whiplash and other perpetrators of heinous crimes, they are forced to say that “unfair” is really “fair” after all.
Philip Yancey’s comment is representative of the confusion that exists concerning God’s fairness:
If, for the sake of a “test” of love, a husband subjected his wife to the trauma that Job had to endure, we would call him pathological and lock him away. If a mother hid herself from her children…we would judge her an unfit mother. How, then, can we understand such behavior…by God Himself? I offer no neat formula…[1]
The Word of God makes it plain that applying such a double standard to Him is unwarranted, since He is the epitome of a loving Father.
By doing things like afflicting some people who sin, and disregarding others, the Devil has confused multitudes.
If you have any questions, or would like to learn more about God’s wonderful message, please visit the Truth or Tradition website. You can also keep track of the ministry through their Facebook page.
Swine flu. It’s on everyone’s mind right now and though we should absolutely take precautions, we should not be afraid.
And we should not blame God for what is happening right now.
It really upsets and angers me when I read how events like the swine flu is somehow God’s fault – that it’s somehow God’s mysterious will to condone sickness and death.
I’m here to take a stand for God – it is NOT God’s will that bad things happen.
As Christians, we must remain strong and steadfast in our beliefs, trust God and be proactive in protecting ourselves and our families.
(I am not a theologian. I can not, and will not, pretend to understand every aspect of this subject. I can not, and will not, debate this subject with any naysayer or non-believer and for this reason, the comment section is closed. All I can do is share what I believe with you – you have the freedom of will to choose to accept, or deny, the information).
I’m sorry. I don’t mean to sound preachy, but this is a hot topic for me and one I think needs to be brought to attention. Our God is good and He loves us – He is not the author of sadness or death.
The swine flu will pass and God will still be here with open arms.
Every Sunday I provide videos and valuable links to the Truth or Tradition teachings. We’ve been following the Truth or Tradition teachings for many years now and they have truly blessed our family. We have found peace and happiness through our beliefs and we walk confidently for God. My hope, by passing on this information to you, is that what you find here, or on the Truth or Tradition website, will guide you to a better, more blessed and abundant life.
If you would like to read my views on religion and how we got started with the ministry, you can read this.
Let’s get started:
When I was first witnessed to about Jesus Christ in 1971, I was so ignorant about the Bible and the Christian faith that I did not know that Christians claimed that Jesus had been physically resurrected. I have yet to meet anyone else who is that ignorant of the resurrection as an historical event, but we could all better understand the significance of the resurrection of Jesus Christ to our daily lives. As the Apostle Paul wrote, experientially knowing the power of Christ’s resurrection was one of the focal points of his life:
Philippians 3:10a
I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings…
Paul’s desire was to know intimately the Lord Jesus Christ, especially the power of his resurrection. Note that this power is connected to “…the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings….” That means that Paul saw a connection between the power of resurrection and his facing various kinds of “death” in his life. Without a death of some kind, there is no need for, or value in, a resurrection.
The pattern that Jesus lived in the days of his “passion” (i.e., suffering and death) is one that he invites us to follow and to model our lives after. Thankfully, in this day and time we will not have to be crucified, tortured for 40 hours, and humiliated publicly in every way imaginable, but we are going to have to follow this pattern in the footsteps of our Master if we want to grow to our full spiritual potential. Here is the progression:
a) A struggle in our own personal Garden of Gethsemane that invites us to relinquish our will in favor of accepting God’s purposes in our lives.
b) A period of suffering and trial that will lead to
c) the death of something in us that we have held as dear or necessary so that we can
d) experience the power of his resurrection and
e) live in “newness of life” under the authority and Lordship of the resurrected Savior.
Let us examine each of these in turn.
“…not my will but thine…”
In every life that is devoted to God, there are times when one must decide whose will is going to be decisive. Jesus modeled complete trust in God, which included the belief that God’s purposes for his life were superior to his own. This truth, by the way, cannot be embraced from a Trinitarian perspective, which sees Jesus as God instead of as a man having a God and having to trust Him. Clearly the latter view gives us a better opportunity to see ourselves doing what Jesus did.
Jesus’ trust in God his Father was not something that always came easily, as in the Garden of Gethsemane. He prayed intensely into the night, hearing God’s “No” the first and second times he asked, but continuing to pray for other alternatives. Finally, he was able to embrace the death that was ahead of him, and go to the Cross with the joyful expectation of resurrection and eternal rewards (Heb. 12:3). Did not God reward Jesus abundantly for his faith? Will He not do this for us as well?
Will God sometimes ask us to do things that we don’t want to do? Most definitely. Just ask Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Paul, et al. When what He wants is very different from what we want, this can be a struggle. Too often we will not give up our self-centered perspective without the Lord having to wrestle us to the mat! As we grow in faith (trust) by obeying him, we see that the Lord’s ways are the better ways, and we learn to trust him more and more.
There are many examples of this clash of wills that we have encountered through the years. Maybe you can relate to one or more of these:
*God convicts a husband to stop his angry outbursts against his wife and kids that he has used to keep them from annoying and frustrating him—and concentrate on loving and accepting them instead.
*God asks a wife to stop criticizing her husband for his apparent lack of interest in spiritual things and learn to respect him just the way he is—to be thankful instead for all that her husband does to serve her and their kids.
*God wants a teenager to call her parents to come pick her up from a party where the liquor and drugs were brought out after the host parents went to bed, risking being thought of as “uncool.”
*God wants a man to accept a lower paying job with another, newer company in order to have more time with his family—risking both his job security and the comfortable lifestyle made possible by the higher income—not to mention the wounding of his pride.
*God calls an “empty nest” couple to sell their house and belongings and become missionaries in Africa.
*God asks a mature minister to step aside so that others can have an opportunity to minister and learn. She is asked to take on a mentoring more than a performing role.
In each of these situations, God asks someone to give up something they value in order for Him to enrich their lives in other and new ways. Is this not an invitation to “die” to something? Of course we are not going to want that, and will typically resist it as long as we can, but when we finally understand that God’s purpose is to free us from bondage and fear, we can learn to embrace this “death.”
The husband fears losing control and being humiliated. The wife stands to lose her sense of spiritual superiority over her husband. The teenager risks losing social standing. The employee risks financial deprivation. The older couple must face their fears of not being taken care of in their old age. And the minister will lose whatever boost to her self-esteem she gained in performing as an effective minister.
But in every one of these cases, can we not see that the resurrection power of God could bring much deliverance? The husband could find less control but more love and acceptance. The wife could find more joy, peace, and personal fulfillment. The teenager could find better friends with similar values and less pressure to conform to what is considered “cool.” The employee is freed from the need to keep climbing the corporate ladder and finds satisfaction in reasonable job expectations and a richer family life. The older couple finds greater satisfaction in living a life of serving and loving that completely trumps their fears. And the minister discovers to her delight that she derives more pleasure from seeing others succeed with her help than from performing herself.
If you have any questions, or would like to learn more about God’s wonderful message, please visit the Truth or Tradition website. You can also keep track of the ministry through their Facebook page.
There is something on my mind, something very near and dear to my heart that I would like to share with you. I’ve been thinking about writing this post for quite some time. I have prayed that God would grant me the wisdom to explain this topic to you so that it will touch your heart and bless your life, for that is my only intention in writing about this subject.
I’m not an overly religious person, but my beliefs are strong and steadfast. I am a Christian who believes in the God-breathed Bible – not in the traditions, or rituals, of men. I know what I believe to be true, for if I had any doubt, I would not feel compelled to share these beliefs with you.
And I do feel compelled to talk about this. In fact, I’m not even sure compelled accurately describes my NEED to share this with you.
I believe God is speaking to me and since I am His willing servant, I will obey Him.
I have no desire to cram my beliefs down your throat – none. God has granted us the gift of free will, so you have the choice of staying and reading what I have to say, or simply leaving. But if you do decide to stick around, I would ask that you keep an open mind to what I’m going to tell you – it goes against popular Christian beliefs. And my desire to share this with you is not because I wish to cast a poor light on Christianity, far from it, but rather to (gently) point out that just because certain beliefs have been passed down and taught in so many churches and religions, doesn’t necessarily make it true.
Christian’s misconceptions about God’s intentions and laws have been misunderstood for too long and more often than not, there are more questions than answers to something that God never intended to make a mystery. This is the very reason I post excerpts from the Truth or Tradition website every Sunday – because my heart tells me it’s the right thing to do and I pray that I’m blessing whoever has the willingness to read it: knowledge brings strength and comfort; we just have to invest the time required to find the answers and to be in a frame of mind to receive it.
Are you ready to receive?
I am not a theologian. I can not, and will not, pretend to understand every aspect of this subject. I can not, and will not, debate this subject with any naysayer or unbeliever and for this reason, the comment section is closed. I will, however, gladly share with you links to articles and additional resources so that you may research this topic on your own. My hope is that when you finish reading this article, you will be hungry to learn more. Asking questions is healthy – it promotes curiosity which in turn sparks motivation which is what is needed in order to find true answers to deeply important questions.
The subject?
Believing bad things that happen are God’s will.
Death happens every second, of every minute, of every day and it should never be welcomed – death is an enemy.
The last enemy to be destroyed is death. (1 Cor. 15:26)
There has been a lot of death, grief and sadness around the blog-o-sphere these past several weeks. And I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve read people’s attempts to justify the tragedies to it being God’s will that it happened. This reaction both angers me and saddens me.
I can understand WHY this is a common belief – it’s so very painful to lose a loved one and there is a degree of comfort in believing that it happened because of our wonderful and loving God. It’s simply a coping mechanism, something concrete to hang on to when life spirals out of control. It’s an attempt to make sense of the senseless.
But tragedy is simply NOT God’s will. It is NOT God’s will that someone dies. It is NOT God’s will when there is a natural disaster. It is NOT God’s will when something terrible happens.
God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all. (I John 1:5)
Would you not agree that death is darkness? Or natural disasters are darkness because people often die as a result of the occurrence? How then can God be responsible for these dark acts?
It is simply not possible.
Then why – HOW – can we explain the bad things that happen to us?
To preface the answer to that all-important question, let me offer an excerpt from the book “Don’t Blame God”:
We hope that the scripture we present, and our exposition of them, will clarify what God says about the whole issue of evil, sin and human suffering. By considering the entire scope of Scripture, we will endeavor to allow Him to speak for Himself and proclaim His own sterling character.
We are asking you, the reader, to accompany us upward on a journey to the truth, guided only by the whole of Scripture and by reason. This trail is not for the complacent, nor for the lazy, because it will be a challenge.
Some may feel threatened along the way as the trail veers from the familiar landscape of their traditional religious beliefs and heads into what, for them, is uncharted territory. Rest assured that we can follow the chart and compass of God’s wonderful Word … we believe that if you do you will see God for who He truly is, and that your heart will overflow with praise, worship, and absolute reverence for Him.
The answer to WHY bad things happen and who’s to blame for these unspeakable acts is at once both simple and complex: Our heavenly Father is NOT the God of this world.
So, Satan is in control of our Earth. It was handed over to him when Adam and Eve sinned. And this power exchange is documented in the Bible so it must be true.
Then WHY don’t more people KNOW about this?
Simply because it’s in Satan’s best interests to keep people believing that GOD is the instigator behind these tragedies. He wants God to be the bad guy. He wants people to be confused, angry and hurt by God’s “betrayal”; this serves to entice people away from the one, true God, to doubt God’s love and compassion, to renounce their faith and turn their back on God simply because they don’t understand what is written, for their understanding, in the Bible.
It seems logical when you sit down and think about it.
But it still doesn’t answer WHY does God allow it to happen?
And this is where it gets really difficult to understand. Again, I’m not a theologian, but here are some articles that might possibly help you straighten it all out in your mind:
Don’t allow your impatience, or your skepticism to gloss over these very important, and informative, articles. If you truly want to understand, if you truly wish for a peaceful heart, then you’ll take the time to read these articles and you’ll invest your time and money into reading “Don’t Blame God.”
In essence, Christians are at war – it’s not a physical war and it’s not with a tangible enemy but rather it’s a spiritual war of good vs. evil.
If you’re a strong Christian and you’re living a Godly life by keeping God’s commandants and obeying God’s wishes, then your spiritual warfare is easier to penetrate – God can GET to you to help you.
But if you call yourself a Christian and yet you do not live by God’s commands, or you consistently disregard God’s wishes and succumb to un-Godly desires, then your spiritual warfare is thick and hard to penetrate. God WANTS to help you, He just can’t GET to you because of the evil muck surrounding you.
God granted us FREE WILL. Though he knows the future, it is constantly changing because there is no way to predict what path we will take. But God is omnipotent and is constantly adapting to our decisions in order to protect us.
Rather than sit passively by waiting for God’s will to happen, we must make a diligent effort to learn God’s Word and then aggressively obey it.
For example: how many of you have nearly been in a car accident? Do you think the fact that you were not in an accident was a coincidence? Of course not, it was God, reaching out to protect you. God is always with us, the question is, are we willing to recognize that fact?
Going a step further then, if it is so easy for us humans to disobey God, what about the Devil and his spirit army? Can humans sin by choice while evil spirits cannot? Obviously spirit beings can sin, since sin was the reason the Devil and his hosts were thrown out of God’s presence to begin with. Via Adam’s sin, the Devil was legally given authority over the earth. The Devil did not and does not obey God. The Devil has been sinning for a long time (1 John 3:8). The Devil is a murderer (John 8:44), a liar (John 8:44), and a thief (John 10:10).
So please, don’t blame God for things that go wrong in your life – there is only one entity that is to blame for chaos and death, and that is Satan.
Every Sunday I provide videos and valuable links to the Truth or Tradition teachings. We’ve been following the Truth or Tradition teachings for many years now and they have truly blessed our family. We have found peace and happiness through our beliefs and we walk confidently for God. My hope, by passing on this information to you, is that what you find here, or on the Truth or Tradition website, will guide you to a better, more blessed and abundant life.
If you would like to read my views on religion and how we got started with the ministry, you can read this.
Let’s get started:
This addendum to our FAQ about the birth of Jesus Christ will set forth the corollary truth about his second “birth,” something not as well known but, in reality, just as necessary as his first birth in accomplishing God’s plan for him as the Savior of mankind. Had Jesus not been born in Bethlehem, and then chosen to live a sinless life all the way to the Cross, he could not have been “born” a second time via God raising him from the dead.
We will see that, in Scripture, resurrection is figuratively called “birth.” At his first birth, God prepared Jesus for his earthly ministry as the Redeemer of man by giving him a body with sinless blood, untainted by the sin of Adam that beset all other men and women. At his “second birth” (his resurrection), God prepared Jesus for his heavenly ministry by giving him a body forever energized by His holy spirit, one in which Jesus as “Lord” now has the capacity to function as the Head of his Body, the Church, communicating with each member of that spiritual organism.
The book of Hebrews begins with God setting forth His Son as His most unique communication to mankind ever. Verse 3 (NIV) calls him the “…radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being.” It then says that after Jesus had done his job on earth, he took up his position as Lord at God’s right hand. Verse 4 then begins a comparison between Jesus and angels that extends all the way through Chapter 2 (In our book, One God & One Lord, we cover this fabulous section of Scripture in detail.). Verse 4 represents Jesus as far superior to the angels because of the name (position) he has been given by God. Then verses 5 and 6 read:
Hebrews 1:5 and 6 (NIV)
(5) For to which of the angels did God ever say, “You are my Son; today I have become your Father”? Or again, “I will be his Father, and he will be my Son”?
(6) And again, when God brings his firstborn into the world, he says, “Let all God’s angels worship him.”
At first glance, the above verses seem to refer to the first birth of Jesus, and one might think of the words to the classic Christmas carol, “O Come All Ye Faithful,” where it says that Jesus was “born the king of angels.” As per Hebrews 1, those words are true, but not regarding his first birth. Yes, Jesus was born to one day be the king of the world, but it was his “birth” from the dead that guaranteed the future fulfillment of this reality. At Bethlehem, the great company of angels who announced the glad tidings to the shepherds did not worship Jesus, but God (Luke 2:13 and 14). And, speaking of his first birth, Hebrews 2:9, properly translated, says that Jesus “was made lower than the angels for a little while” (RSV, NRSV, NASB). So let us look more closely at Hebrews 1:5 and 6, and in so doing we will see some of the marvelous precision of God’s written Word.
According to the Greek text, the first part of verse 6 is better rendered, “When he again brings his firstborn into the world…” The word “again” indicates that this is referring to a second coming. Next, all commentators agree that Hebrews 1:5a is quoting Psalm 2:7, which comes after the first six verses that paint a prophetic portrait of the kings of the earth vainly opposing the Messiah’s return to rule the world from Jerusalem, a kingdom that will last 1000 years (Rev. 20:4). We will quote verse 7 along with the remaining five verses of the psalm:
Psalm 2:7-12 (NIV)
(7) I will proclaim the decree of the LORD: He said to me, “You are my Son; today I have become your Father.
(8) Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession.
(9) You will rule them with an iron scepter; you will dash them to pieces like pottery.”
(10) Therefore, you kings, be wise; be warned, you rulers of the earth.
(11) Serve the LORD with fear and rejoice with trembling.
(12) Kiss the Son, lest he be angry and you be destroyed in your way, for his wrath can flare up in a moment. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.
In his brief but brilliant discourse at the synagogue in Pisidian Antioch in Acts 13, the Apostle Paul summarizes the history of Israel, culminating with God sending them Jesus as the promised Messiah, whom they killed. His subsequent statement in verse 30 is pithy and powerful: “But God raised him from the dead.” Paul continued:
Acts 13:32 and 33 (NIV)
(32) “We tell you the good news: What God promised our fathers
(33) he has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising up Jesus. As it is written in the second Psalm: “‘You are my Son; today I have become your father.’
Paul specifically clarifies that Psalm 2:7 refers to the resurrection of Jesus, and that fits perfectly with the ensuing verses (8-12 above), which are as if God said to Jesus, “Well, now that you’re up from the dead, what would you like to do? How about ruling the world when the time comes?” And that is exactly what Jesus will do one day.
If you have any questions, or would like to learn more about God’s wonderful message, please visit the Truth or Tradition website. You can also keep track of the ministry through their Facebook page.
Every Sunday I provide videos and valuable links to the Truth or Tradition teachings. We’ve been following the Truth or Tradition teachings for many years now and they have truly blessed our family. We have found peace and happiness through our beliefs and we walk confidently for God. My hope, by passing on this information to you, is that what you find here, or on the Truth or Tradition website, will guide you to a better, more blessed and abundant life.
If you would like to read my views on religion and how we got started with the ministry, you can read this.
Let’s get started:
Joseph of Arimathea is one of the unsung heroes of the Bible, but from looking at Christian writings through the centuries, it seems that his heroism has gone largely unrecognized. As we set forth the biblical truth regarding how significant a role this man played in human history, we trust that you will be encouraged by the magnificent precision of the God-breathed Word and also be inspired to fulfill whatever role God sets before you as you walk with Him day by day. As we will see in regard to Joseph of Arimathea, it may turn out to be far more important than you think in the moment.
Except for the Gospels’ accounts of Jesus’ burial, Joseph of Arimathea is mentioned nowhere else in the Bible. It is extremely significant that Joseph is the only person who Scripture clearly indicates believed that Jesus would rise from the dead after three days and three nights just as he said he would (there were others who believed that Jesus was the Messiah but were confused by his death). Joseph’s conviction, courage, and commitment to Jesus and to the truth led him to “stand in the gap” when God needed him to do so, and what he did made possible the striking witness of the empty tomb, which was a catalyst for many to believe in the resurrection of the Son of God.
That Joseph is not well known is due in part to two translation errors in the King James Version in Isaiah 53:9, a verse that occurs in the most vivid Messianic prophecy of the suffering and death of Jesus. We will cover these mistranslations one at a time.
Isaiah 53:9a (KJV)
And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death…
The word “made” is a mistranslation, and thankfully it is corrected in many modern versions, such as the New International Version.
Isaiah 53:9a (NIV)
He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death…
This correction is one key to the little puzzle we are putting together. The NIV properly translates the Hebrew word nathan as “appointed” (see Exod. 30:16; Num. 35:6; Josh. 20:2; 2 Kings 8:6; 1 Chron. 16:4; Ezra 8:20 et al), and that begs an important question: who appointed Jesus to be buried with the wicked?
The sacrifice of the Messiah had been foretold since Genesis. He was to die for the sins of others, even as was typified by animal sacrifices all through the Old Testament. God had appointed that one righteous man would die for the unrighteous many. This is important: the death of Jesus, and even the way he died, was not an accident. David had portrayed it in Psalm 22 almost 1000 years earlier. Furthermore, because Jesus was hung on a tree, he was “cursed” even as the Law says, “because anyone who is hung on a tree is under God’s curse” (Deut. 21:23; Gal. 3:13).
Thus, prophetically speaking, it was God who assigned Jesus a grave with the wicked, because culture and custom dictated that criminals were buried apart from the rest of the people, and they certainly were not buried “with the rich.” Knowing that fact brings to light the other translation error in Isaiah 53:9, which few Bible versions recognize, and that is the word “and” in the phrase, “and with the rich.”
It is interesting that the phrase, “and with the rich” is not translated that way in a number of versions. For example, the New English Bible reads: “He was assigned a grave with the wicked, a burial-place among the refuse of mankind….” This translation and similar renderings in other versions are based upon the knowledge that the wicked and the rich were not buried together.
This fact has led to a number of explanations of the phrase, “and with the rich,” by various scholars. Some have suggested that metaphorically the word “rich” stands for the wicked as does “poor” for the godly in some verses of Scripture. With a marginal note to that effect, Rotherham’s Emphasized Bible reads: “And appointed with lawless men was his grave, and with the wicked his tomb….” Other scholars suggest that the “rich” became rich by oppressing others, and thus were actually wicked. These suggestions by scholars are guesses, designed to make sense of why the Messiah would be assigned a grave with both the wicked and the rich.
Other translations take a different tack, however. The Darby Translation, for example: “And men appointed his grave with the wicked, but he was with the rich in his death….” The New American Standard Bible: “His grave was assigned with wicked men, Yet He was with a rich man in His death…” And it is most significant that the New King James Version changes this verse from the original KJV and reads, “And they made His grave with the wicked – But with the rich at His death….” It is important to know that the Hebrew word translated as “and” in this verse is a conjunction or introductory particle that is translated as “and,” “but,” “or,” “now,” “then,” “when,” “so,” and other ways as well. Thus the translation “but” in the verse is completely appropriate if it fits the context, which it does.
Because the Hebrew text does have the words, “with the rich,” and because there is no reason to make the word “rich” a figure of speech or understand it as anything but literal, we think the above three translations that translate the conjunction as “but” make the most sense. We also believe that because Joseph of Arimathea read Isaiah 53:9 in the Hebrew, he may well have recognized that it was a prophecy about the Messiah’s burial. Although it is possible that Joseph helped to fulfill this prophecy without realizing it, we believe there is a good possibility that God worked in him to realize that he was one person who could do so. How did he do it?
The answer is found in the Four Gospels. Although Joseph is mentioned in each of them, we will not look at all four because the records are quite similar.
These are the answers you’re searching for. Stop looking to an earthly man, to another reason, or another excuse for purpose in your life. All you have to do is look up, God is there.
If you have any questions, or would like to learn more about God’s wonderful message, please visit the Truth or Tradition website. You can also keep track of the ministry through their Facebook page.
Every Sunday I provide videos and valuable links to the Truth or Tradition teachings. We’ve been following the Truth or Tradition teachings for many years now and they have truly blessed our family. We have found peace and happiness through our beliefs and we walk confidently for God. My hope, by passing on this information to you, is that what you find here, or on the Truth or Tradition website, will guide you to a better, more blessed and abundant life.
If you would like to read my views on religion and how we got started with the ministry, you can read this.
Let’s get started:
A majority of Christians have been taught that our Lord Jesus Christ was crucified along with two others, and that his cross was in between the other two. We have seen many displays, pictures, monuments, bumper stickers, crosses along the roadside, crosses in churchyards, and the like – all showing three crosses.
This fascinating study clearly demonstrates how God has protected His Word through the centuries and how the truth is still available to those who hunger and thirst after it. We are exhorted by God to study His Word and to “rightly divide” it. Although some things may be difficult to understand, this particular topic and the supporting verses are quite clear and easily understood. If you can grasp what is presented here, paying close attention to detail and staying your mind on the fundamental truths we will cover, you will, of necessity, find yourself in a quandary: do you continue to believe what you have been taught or do you change your mind to bring your belief into alignment and harmony with God’s Word? I pray that you will consider the material presented here, and that you will ask God to help you as you study His wonderful, matchless Word. God wills not only that all men be saved, but also that they also come unto a knowledge of the truth (1 Tim. 2:4).
A major reason for so much confusion regarding the “others” crucified with Jesus is that men have interpreted the Word of God to suit themselves, their theology, and their traditions. Instead of going to God’s Word and studying it for ourselves to determine if what we are being told is correct, we too often choose to believe men and women with degrees from Bible colleges and seminaries. We say that hundreds of years of tradition can’t be wrong, but I hope to show you differently here.
Jesus Christ challenged the religious traditions of his time, as per the following verses:
Matthew 15:1-3 (KJV)
(1) Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying,
(2) Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread.
(3) But he [Jesus] answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?
This identifies the root of the problem: a lack of real faith in the integrity of the Word of God. Such faith leads to the indispensable conviction that the Word cannot contradict itself. When one is rooted and grounded in that premise, he has a basis from which to work out what seem to be apparent contradictions, of which there are many in the Bible.
When it comes to the subject of the others crucified with Jesus, the key is to realize that, as with any author, one part of the narrative may not tell everything about a particular incident. At another place, the author may choose to add more information. Because we know that God cannot contradict Himself, if what He tells us in Matthew is different than what he tells us in Luke about the same event, we know that we must put the two together to get the whole picture. You could call this principle “narrative development.”
Before we begin our study of the four crucified with Jesus, let’s discuss the problems created by traditional teachings. The two thieves and the two malefactors described in God’s Word have, by tradition and the ignorance of Scripture on the part of medieval painters, been made to be the same. In other words, only two were crucified with Jesus. But if we let this stand, we have a major discrepancy in the Word of God. Matthew 27:38 (and Mark 15:27) clearly state that there were “two thieves,” while Luke 23:32 says “two malefactors.”
Matthew 27:38
Then were there two thieves crucified with him, one on the right hand, and another on the left.
Luke 23:32
And there were also two other, malefactors, led with him to be put to death.
Furthermore, both, thieves (or robbers) reviled Jesus, but only one of the malefactors “railed on him,” while the other malefactor defended Jesus.
Matthew 27:44
The thieves also, which were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth.
Luke 23:39 and 40
(39) And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us.
(40) But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation?
Another discrepancy created by traditional teaching is regarding the timing of the crucifixion of the two malefactors who were “led with him to be put to death” and the timing of the crucifixion of the two thieves.
Luke 23:32 and 33
(32) And there were also two other, malefactors, led with him to be put to death.
(33) And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left.
The two malefactors were crucified at the same time Jesus was. Yet, Matthew 27 says that after a number of things happened at Calvary, two thieves [robbers] were crucified with him.
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