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| Nathan Bickel |
The Christian Message: What is the Gospel? How is it perverted?:
I often take walks while listening to my audio Bible. What I have found, is that my “intake” of God’s Word, seems to be heightened. Most of my life, I’ve read the Bible, material about Scripture and listened to preached sermons. But in my (now) later years, I very much enjoy uninterrupted hearing from the Biblical (spoken) text.
This last week, on one of my walks, I listened to the New Testament book of Galatians 1:1f and some of Ephesians 1:1f. I was particularly struck by the references to “faith” in Galatians – specifically, Galatians 2:16:
Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. [KJV] - Galatians 2:16
Now, I don’t by any stretch of the imagination claim to be an expert Bible scholar, steeped in the Scripture languages of Hebrew and Greek. Nor do I tout any worldly titles and / or degrees. But, as an aging emeritus Christian pastor and continued student of God’s Holy Scriptures, I, would just like to simply think of myself being in the same simple league as (were) my first century ancestor Christian brothers and sisters:
Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus. [KJV} - Acts 4:13
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