Notes From Bible Study
Bible References to Celestial Church of Christ Tenets & Doctrines
CHRIST’S SECOND COMING II Peter 3:1-16
Peter in this second letter re-affirms that both the Old Testament prophets and the New Testament apostles are vehicles of God’s sacred truth. Peter, being one of the apostles, can speak with knowledge and authority as a representative of the apostolic group.
Scoffers and false teachers who follow their own evil desires will come, false doctrine will be rife before Christ return, and these people resisted the idea of a time of judgement and moral accountability. Their argument against Christ’s return was: since it has not occurred up to this time, it will never occur.
All these are to test our faith in the Lord and strengthen us as we know that Jesus never fails and God’s word will always be accomplished.
Is.55:10-11 as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: it will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
God’s word such as Let there be light Gen.1:3 earth was formed out of water and by water vs.6-10 where the waters on earth were separated from the atmospheric waters of the heavens, and the mountains then appeared, causing the earthly waters to be gathered into oceans. All the people except Noah and his family were overcome by the flood and perished.
The word of God that brought the world into existence and brought watery destruction on the wicked of Noah’s day will bring fiery destruction on the world that exists today and on its wicked people.
II Peter 3:8-9 God’s promise is not slack. Ps.90:4 He does not view time as humans do. He stands above time, with the result that when time is seen in the light of eternity, an age appears no longer than one short day, and a day seems no shorter than a long age. Since time is purely relative with God, he waits patiently while human beings fret with impatience.
God is a long-suffering God waiting for all who will come to repentance. What God wants for us all is life of holiness (separated from sin) and godliness (devoted to the worship and service of God) Matt.25:34-40
Signs about his coming in the sun, moon and stars in Luke 21:25-28 and vs. 29-31 show what to expect but to be careful or our heart will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and anxieties of life and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap therefore be on the watch and pray that you may escape all that is about to happen and stand before the Son of Man.
Matt.7:15-23 says watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognise them. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
Again in Mark 13:5-6 Jesus said watch out that no-one deceives you. Many will come in my name, claiming, I am he and will deceive many.
Mark 13Vs.8-9 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth-pains. You must be on your guard.
As children of light be prepared (I Thessalonians 5:2-6) for you know that the day the Lord will come like a thief in the night. All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.
Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not put out the Spirit’s fire; do not treat prophecies with contempt. Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil. I Thess.5:16-22
The Salvation of the Celestial Church of Christ
Rev.7:14 he said to me “these are the people who have come safely through the terrible persecution. They have washed their robes and made them white with the blood of the Lamb.
Use of PALM-FROND
Sign of victory. Christ triumphant entry into Jerusalem.
Matt.21:1-11, Mark 11:1-11, Luke19:28-40, John12:13 So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, shouting, “Praise God! God bless him who comes in the name of the Lord! God bless the king of Israel!”
NEW MOON SERVICE
Num.10:10, Num.28:9-15 Also on joyful occasions at your new moon festivals you are to blow the trumpets when you present your burnt offerings and your fellowship offerings. Then I will help you. I am the LORD your God!
Ezek.46:3 Likewise the people of the land shall worship at the entrance to this gateway before the Lord on the Sabbaths and the New Moons.
WASHING OF FEET
John 13:5, Matt.26:26-27, Mark 14:22-25, Luke 22:19-24 Then he poured some water into a washbasin and began to wash the disciples ‘feet and dry them with the towel around his waist.
FLOWING STREAM BATH
2 Kings: 10-14, John 9:6-11 Elisha sent a servant out to tell him to go and wash himself seven times in the Jordan River, and he would be completely cured of his disease. But Naaman left in a rage, saying, “I thought the he would at least come out to me, pray to the LORD his God, wave his hand over the disease spot, and cure me! Besides aren’t the rivers Abana and Pharpar, back in Damascus, better than any river in Israel? I could have washed in them and be cured!
His servants went up to him and said “Sir, if the prophet had told you to do something difficult, you would have done it. Now why can’t you just wash yourself, as he said, and be cured?
So Naaman went down to Jordan, dipped himself in it seven times, as Elisha had instructed, and he was completely cured.
WEARING BLACK CLOTHING IS PROHIBITED
Rev.6:12 And I saw the lamb break open the sixth seal. There was a violent earthquake, and the sun became black like coarse black cloth, and the moon turned completely red like blood.
HALLELUYAH IN FOUR CORNERS OF THE EARTH
Rev.7:1 After this I saw four angles standing at four corners of the earth holding back the four winds so that no wind should blow on the earth or the sea or against any tree.
TITHES
Gen.14:18-20, Deut.14:22-29, Mal.3:8-11 Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was the priest of God Most High. And he blessed him and said; “Blessed be Abram of God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, Who has delivered your enemies into your hand. “ And he gave a tithe of all.
ANOINTMENT
Lev.8:12-14, Psalms 133:2, Ezekiel 28:14, Isaiah 61:1, Exodus 29:7 Then take the anointing oil, pour it on his head, and anoint him.
NO CORPSE ALLOWED IN THE CHURCH
Ezekiel 43:7 Mortal man, here is my throne. I will live here among the people of Israel and rule them forever. Neither the people of Israel nor their kings will ever again disgrace my holy name by worshipping other gods or by the new presence of the corpses of their dead kings.
SALT FOR THANKS-OFFERING
Lev.2:13 Put salt on every grain offering because salt represents the covenant between you and God.
WOMEN MENSTRUATION & SANCTIFCIATION
Lev.12:1-7, 15:18-30 When a woman has her monthly period, she remains unclean for seven days. Anyone who touches her is unclean until evening. Anything on which she sits or lies during her monthly is unclean.
Mark 5:27-34 When she heard about Jesus, she came behind Him in the crowd and touched His garment. For she said, “If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well. “ Immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction. And Jesus, immediately knowing in Himself that power has gone out of Him, turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched My clothes? “ But His disciples said to Him, “You see the multitude thronging you, and you say, ‘Who touched me? ‘
And He looked around to see her who had done this thing. But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth. And He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be healed of your affliction.”
PURIFICATION OF WOMEN AFTER CHILDBIRTH
Lev.12:2-4 For seven days after a woman gives birth to a son; she is ritually unclean, as she is during her monthly period. On the eighth day, the child shall be circumcised. The priest shall present offering to the LORD and perform the ritual to take away impurity, and she will be ritually clean. This, then, is what a woman must do after giving birth. Then it will be thirty-three more days until she is ritually clean from her loss of blood, she must not touch anything sacred or enter holy tent until the time of her purification is complete.
Luke 2:22-24 Now when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were completed, they brought Him to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord (as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every male who opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”) and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord, “A pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons. “
JUVENILE HARVEST
Matt. 19:13-15, Mark 10:13-16 Some people brought children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them, but the disciples scolded the people. When Jesus noticed this, he was angry and said to his disciples, “Let the children come to me, and do not stop them, because the kingdom of God belongs of such as these. I assure you that whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will never enter it. Then he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on each of them, and blessed them.
EYE IN C.C.C. LOGO
II Chronicle 16:9, Rev 4:6
The Lord close watch over the whole world, to give strength to those whose hearts are loyal to him.
CROWN
Rev.2:10, Ps 8:5, Heb.2:7; 2:9, James 1:12
Don’t be afraid of anything you are about to suffer. Listen! The Devil will put you to the test by having some of you thrown into prison, and your troubles will last ten days. Be faithful to me, even if it means death, and I will give you life as your prize of victory
CROSS
Matt. 16:24
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone wants to come with me, he must forget himself, carry his cross, and follow me.”
JHS- It is often written on Altar Cloth
JHS-Jesus Homini Saviour which means Jesus Saviour of Humanity
Romans 4:25 Because of our sins he was given over to die; and he was raised to life in order to put us right with God
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Bible exhorts us to care for the Earth
God’s word vs. the act of men
By Sup. Evan. Agbeni
Earth is the dwelling place of mortal men, as distinguished from heaven and hell; the temporal world. The material body of the human being considered as made up of dust or clay. Genesis is not to blame for “the greedy over-exploitation of the earth’s natural resources’’ In a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour. If a man therefore purges himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work. 2Tim2:20-21
“Genesis? The coming into being of anything; an origin; a creation. God blessed them and said be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it and have dominion.’’ For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as he; and the wife see that she reverence her husband. Ephesians 5:31; 33
“Yahweh God took the man and settled him in the Garden of Eden to cultivate and take care of it”. He made the earth by his power; he founded the world by his wisdom and stretched out the heavens by his understanding.
How is it possible to believe that the God who made his creation with such care, declaring it in Genesis 1:31 to be “very good”, would in verse 28 tell his creatures to go and trash it?
Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination. Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you: for whosoever shall commit any of these abominations, even the souls that commit them shall be cut off from among their people. Leviticus 18:22; 24; 29
To him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin. For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness. Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? Let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. James 3:13; 17
Although there have been some in the past who have taken this verse out of context, interpreting it as an excuse for untrammelled exploitation of natural resources, it has been the overwhelming consensus of the Christian community over centuries that “the earth is the Lord’s and we are stewards of it, responsible to Him for our care of it. Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh but if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Galatians 5:16-18
If anyone is intent on laying the finger of blame on anyone for the misuse of creation, he should begin with Aristotle. It was he, not the Bible, who taught that the created order exists for the exclusive benefit of human beings. Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently.
It is better to exclude the creator from rational argument; it effectively declared the natural realm to be owner-free, and natural resources to be available to whoever the local owner was at nil cost. Your wrongdoings have kept rains in season and regular weeks of harvest away; your sins have deprived you of good. Jeremiah 5:25
By enshrining self-centredness as the basis for philosophy, and thus privatising morality, it opened the way for the industrial revolution to take whatever it wanted for its own purposes, with no one to hinder it. The way of this world as against the word of the Lord in 1 John2:15-17 not to love the world or anything in the world, but God Himself will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; He will counsel you and watch over you. Psalm 32:8
The Bible has always stood against self-centredness, moral relativism, and the misuse of God’s creation. As lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ and he that believe on Him shall not be confounded but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed.
And now, O Celestial, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the Lord’s command and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good. Deut.10:12-13
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. Romans 3:23-24
The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. Romans 6:23 While 4:25 confirms that He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.
Ezekiel 18:4; 20-22 for every living soul belongs to me, the father as well as the son- both alike belong to me. The soul who sins is the one who will die. The son will not share the guilt of the father, nor will the father share the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous man will be credited to him, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against him.
But if a wicked man turns away from all the sins he has committed and keeps all my decrees and does what is just and right, he will surely live; he will not die. None of the offences he has committed will be remembered against him. Because of the righteous things he has done, he will live.
“Food for the stomach and the stomach for food”- but God will destroy them both. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 1 Cor. 6:13 As the end of all things is near and judgement will begin with the family of God; if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And, “If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?” So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.
PUTTING ON THE WHOLE ARMOUR OF GOD (Ephesians 6:10-18)
Armour is a defensive and protective covering for the body serving as safeguard or protection and usually worn in combat/ fighting. Paul was using the mode of dressing of a Roman soldier as example.
Defensive materials are helmet, shield, breastplate, footgear and belt. Offensive material is sword.
Christian armour of spiritual warfare is among other things the Holy Spirit. We need to be armed as the combat is not against human enemies but against rulers and authority. 1st Peter 5:8
We are fighting the fallen angels whose leader is Satan. A powerful army whose goal is to defeat the church. They become our enemies because we believe in Christ and they try every device to turn us away from God and back to sin.
We need supernatural power to defeat Satan and God has provided this by giving us His Holy Spirit that lives within us. This is God’s armour for resisting Satan’s attack and at the same time remaining loyal to God.
Weapon: Belt
Meaning: Truth
Application: Satan fights with lies, sometimes his lies sound like truth but only believers have God’s truth which can defeat Satan’s lies because God is truth.
Weapon: Breast plate
Meaning: Righteousness of God
Application: God’s righteousness is the breastplate that protects our hearts and ensures His approval 1st John 4:7
Christ is our righteousness and we are protected by it Eph. 5:9
Weapon: Footgear
Meaning: Readiness to spread the good news
Application: Satan thinks doing this is worthless and will do everything to discourage us
Weapon: Shield
Meaning: Faith
Application: To quench the flaming arrows of the evil one. Faith is the substance of our hope Heb. 11:1; Ps.91:2; Ps.3:3
Weapon: Helmet
Meaning: Salvation
Application: Satan wants us to doubt God. Helmet protects our mind from doubting God. The blood of Jesus cleans our mind from doubt, fear and discouragement.
Weapon: Sword of the spirit IITim.3:16; I John 2:15-17
Meaning: Word of God
Application: God’s word is the weapon that the Spirit gives victory to overcome Satan Eph.6:17 Satan makes Christians ignorant of the authority and power of God’s word. Jesus is the supreme example of the use of God’s word Matt.4:1-11
Christian armour is to be worn always until we have won our warfare and finished our course Jer.33:3; Matt.7:7; 18:18-20; II Cor.10:5-10
As Christian be prayerful, as a family be careful because every good things needs prayer as Satan wants to enter into homes. Pray for Churches as Paul does emphasising what they should and should not do. Government and State needs prayers, our world needs prayer on issues of racism, drug addiction, homosexuality, war, gang warfare, morality and religion generally.
Stronghold can mean problem area; it is a powerhouse (fortress or refuge) of Satan; it is where Satan attacks; it can mean Ojubo – where its demon is been worship or where its worshippers call a place of security.
Our Prayer is to intercede with or make petition to God.
Source of problem can be:
Sin ( individual)
Akole ( Destiny)
Witches/ Wizard
Generation curse ( egun idile)
Luke1:37 for nothing is impossible with God. Only prayers can pull down stronghold. We are winning with Jesus on our side. If stronghold had not been pulled down then we haven’t prayed enough.
The most important lesson we can learn is how to pray. A prayerful Christian is a powerful Christian. Adura ni n gba agbara ki n gba. 7 days of no prayer leaves one weak. Prayer is your best wireless connection.
Scriptures enjoin us to pray without ceasing. Christ even said that my house shall be called a house of prayer not a den of thief. Is.56:7 for mine house shall be called a house of prayer for all people says our God. Ps.2:8-9 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession. You will rule them with an iron sceptre; you will dash them to pieces like pottery.
Prayer has an incredible power to arrest and change the purpose of God. The stroke of His power is relieved by the prayers of righteous men. In Gen. 20:17-18 Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, his wife and his slave girls so they could have children again, for the Lord had closed up every womb in Abimelech’s household because of Abraham’s wife Sarah.
Jonah prayed in Jonah 2:2-10 after attempting to run away from the Lord, he was in a dire state because the Lord sent a great wind on the sea and there was a violent storm that the ship he was in threatened to break up.
When lots was cast to find out who is responsible for the calamity, the lot fell on Jonah, when he told them he was running from the Lord and the sea was getting rougher and rougher, he was asked what can be done to calm down the sea. He told them to throw him into the sea; there the Lord provided a great fish to swallow Jonah. He was inside the fish three days and three nights.
It was the purpose of God to destroy the great and wicked city of Nineveh. “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned.”Jonah 3 the Ninevites believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth. They prayed to God; give up their evil ways and their violence. When God saw what they did, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened.
Pharaoh was a firm believer in the possibilities of prayer and its ability to relieve. He pleaded with Moses to intercede with God for him. “Entreat the Lord for me” he repeated this four times in Exodus 8:8, 8:28; 9:28; 10:17 to Moses, and four times did Moses pray unto God for mercy unto the people of Egypt.
The blasphemy and idolatry of Israel in making the golden calf and declaring their devotion to it were fearful crimes. The anger of God waxed hot, and He declared that He would destroy the offending people. The Lord was extremely angry with Aaron. He said to Moses in Deut. 9:14 Let me alone, so that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven. And I will make you into a nation stronger and more numerous than they.
Undaunted, Moses prayed, and he kept on praying for forty days and nights; ate no bread and drank no water, because of all the sin you had committed, doing what was evil in the Lord’s sight and so provoking him to anger Deut. 9:18-20.
Another example is the message of God to Hezekiah concerning the coming death, as can be seen in this passage from Is.38:1-5 Hezekiah’s prayer changed God’s purpose, and fifteen years were added to his life.
Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’ “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care about men, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually wear me out with her coming”. And the Lord said,” Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? Luke 18:1-7
What dauntless prayer can do in mastering or defying conditions, in changing defeat into victory and triumphing in the region of despair? The power that worked through Elijah and Elisha in answer to prayer reached down even to the grave.
A child was raised from the dead in 1 kings17:17-24; 2 kings4:18-37 and power of famine were broken in 1kings18:1-2, 41-45; 2kings4-38-44
James wrote about Elijah “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain; and it rained not on earth by the space of three years and six months
And he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, the earth brought forth her fruits James 5:16-18
Acts. 2:1; Acts. 4:31 Prayer brings down Holy Spirit. It opens heaven. Jesus also withdraws into a quiet place and prays.
WHAT INSTRUMENTS SATAN USE:
Fear; Pride; Alcohol; Drug; Addiction; Adultery; Doubt: this will upset the Lord because He can do all things. No lust must be found in us because things we see are temporal and things not seen are eternal II Cor.4:18
James 5:11 says “As you know, we consider blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about.
In Hebrew 11 Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. By faith the Universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.
Cain and Abel in Gen.4:2-5 both brothers brought offerings to the Lord. Cain from the fruits of the soil, and Abel from the first born of his flock. The chief reason for the acceptance of Abel’s sacrifice was that he offered it “by faith” while Cain’s sacrifice was rejected because he offered it without faith, as a mere formality.
Cain brought some of the fruits but Abel brought fat portions from some of the first born of his flock, the contrast is between a careless, thoughtless offering and a choice, generous offering.
Without faith it is impossible to please God. Noah in Gen.5:28; 9:29 by his faith when the flood came, God’s word was proved to be true, Noah’s faith was vindicated, and the world’s unbelief was judged. Noah’s was righteousness that comes by faith. He expressed complete trust in God and his word, even when it related to “things not yet seen” namely the coming flood. Thus Noah also fitted the description of God’s righteous ones who live by faith.
His faith in God’s word moved him to build the ark in a dry, landlocked region where it was inconceivable that there would ever be enough water to float the vessel.
Abraham live by faith and as the “father of all who believe” Rom. 4:11-12; Gal. 3:7
Gen.12:1-3 his faith expressed itself in obedience. He also had complete confidence in God’s trustworthiness even though he did not know where he was going- he did not go in blind faith. So strong was Abraham’s faith that he actually believed that God would raise Isaac from the dead if necessary.
What the heroes of faith had in common was their overcoming “through faith”. All persons of faith who had gone focused their faith on God and his promises. The fulfilment of God’s promises to them has now come in Jesus Christ, and their redemption too is now complete in him.
Christian needs virtue as well as faith II Peter1:5-8 says for this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love.
For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We need all the above as well as our prayer to demolish strongholds. Don’t tell God how big your problem is; tell your problem how BIG your God is! Our prayers usually starts with a song, some will read a passage in the bible and then pray. Deut.8:10 when you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.
Role of Praise Singing: Ps.150:6 let everything that has breath praise the Lord; Ps. 119:175 let me live that I may praise you, and may your laws sustain me; Ps. 47:6 sing praises to God, sing praises to our king, sing praises; Ps. 69:34; Ps.67:1-end; Ps.147:1; Ps.145:21.