🌍 Hi, my name is Hans and I am a christian who is Dutch living in England. My ministry is Lighthouse International, my goal is to challenge the societal status quo based on biblical principles. I used to be a monk in a catholic order and then went on a spiritual search for biblical truth which culminated in my passion for researching bible versions. I am now happily married to my wife Bushrah and Lion of Judah Mercy Ministries that my wife and I founded in Jesus' name has a mission to promote biblical truth in society.
Due to cognitive impairment, my wife Bushrah assists me in creating and writing these articles.
Women in the church are
indispensable: they do a lot of good that can't be done by anyone else. Women
can do anything but be elders/overseers/pastors. that role is limited to
men because of the creation order: " Now the overseer is to be above
reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable,
hospitable, able to teach" (1 Timothy 3:2) and "An elder must be
blameless, faithful to his wife, a man whose children believe and are not open
to the charge of being wild and disobedient." (Titus 1:6)
Women can be deacons
though: "In the same way, the women (footnote: possibly deacons' wives or
women who are deacons) are to be worthy of respect, not malicious talkers but
temperate and trustworthy in everything." ( 1 Timothy 3:11) Also in Romans
there is an important female deacon who is even a benefactor: "I commend
to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon of the church in Cenchreae. I ask you to
receive her in the Lord in a way worthy of his people and to give her any help
she may need from you, for she has been the benefactor of many people,
including me." (Romans 16:1-2)
Then there is this
silence passage in 1 Corinthians 14:34-35: "Women should remain silent in
the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the
law says. If they want to enquire about something, they should ask their own husbands
at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church." In
this passage, we have to understand that men and women sat separately in
the ancient biblical house churches. So for a wife to ask her husband
something, she had to shout across the congregation. A general silence rule for
women cannot be deducted from this verse.
Women will obey their
husbands if the husband really really loves her to bits: "Submit to one
another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, submit yourselves to your own
husbands as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as
Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as
the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in
everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave
himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water
through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without
stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same
way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his
wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed
and care for their body, just as Christ does the church - for we are members of
his body. "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be
united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh." This is a profound
mystery - but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of
you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must
respect her husband." (Ephesians 5:21-32)
So women in the church
will blossom and bear lots of fruit. "Submitting" is an intelligent
cooperation from the wife with her husband, not some sort of modern slavery!
(Quotations from the NIV
2011 bible)
In these days, there is
a lot of confusion about homosexuality in the bible. More and more christians
think that’loving relationships’ should be accepted and that nowadays
homosexual practice isn’t mentioned in the bible.
However, the bible is
very clear about homosexual practice. In Leviticus, it is punishable by death:
‘Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is
detestable.’ (Leviticus 18:22) and ‘If a man has sexual relations with a man as
one does with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They are to
be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.’ ( Leviticus
20:12).
In Romans, it is
rejected as unnatural: ‘Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts.
Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the
same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with
lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received
in themselves the due penalty for their error.’ (Romans 1:26-27).
Also in 1 Corinthians
and 1 Timothy homosexual practice is mentioned as a sin barring entrance to
eternal life: ‘Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom
of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers
nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor
slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. ( 1 Corinthians
6:9-10) and ‘We know that the law is good if one uses it properly. We also know
that the law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the
ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious, for those who kill their
fathers or mothers, for murderers, for the sexually immoral, for those
practicing homosexuality, for slave traders and liars and perjurers - and for
whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine that conforms to the gospel
concerning the glory of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me.’ (1 Timothy
1:8-11).
One recent bible version
( NRSVUE) even translates away homosexuality, in 1 Timothy and 1
Corinthians.
It replaces ‘sodomites’
(NRSV) by ‘men who engage in illicit sex’ (NRSVUE) which could mean anything
but homosexuality.
In case you self
identify as gay, I have good news for you. Being homosexual is not your
identity. Being gifted and having emotions more than other people is great, but
acting upon homosexual impulses is utterly sinful. Repent and accept Jesus!
Surah Al-ikhlas
Say: he is Allah, the one and only,
Allah, the eternal, absolute;
He begetteth not nor is he begotten;
And there is none like unto Him.
Yusuf Ali translation
In the qur’an God has no Son: ‘he begetteth not, nor is He begotten’. Is this acceptable for us christians?
No. In the first letter of John, in the bible, John says that every spirit that does not acknowledge that Jesus has come in the flesh, i.e. is God become human, God incarnate is not from God but is the spirit of the antichrist, i.e. the enemy of Jesus and thus of God.
This proves that Islam is a satanic religion. Muslims can be very intelligent and friendly people and islamophobia as a fear and hatred of muslims is wrong, but a hatred of Islam is right. Islam is a false religion and just another way of satan to lure people away from the gospel, especially muslims for whom we should pray and whom we should love.
1 John 4:2-3:
‘This is how you can recognise the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.
The Holy Trinity
Many enemies of Christianity say that the Trinity is an illogical mystery that cannot be believed in. This is untrue.
In the light of salvation, the Trinity makes perfect sense. In order for Jesus to forgive our sins on the cross, He had to be the perfect sacrifice. He only could be that by being both man and God, so He would be perfect and sinless.
The Holy Spirit is a person, for instance not letting Paul travel to a certain destination like in the book of Acts.
So we have the Father of Jesus, Jesus Himself and the Holy Spirit, all divine. One God, one substance in three persons who are equally God.
So our belief in the Trinity is biblical and therefore true.
The Sin of Pride in the Bible
When I was young, I was quite prideful. I thought I knew the Dutch language better, so I corrected my parents in the Dutch!
Pride is easily recognisable; we all have succumbed to it.
In the garden of Eden, satan as a snake seduced Eve to et from the forbidden fruit. The first sin was the result of pride. Satan wanted to be like God and as a punishment, he fell to become a fallen angel.
Pride leads to destruction.
"Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall." (Proverbs 16:18)
King David also succumbed to pride when he had the husband of Bathsheba killed, Uriah, so he could have her for a wife. In the Bible, many were prideful like king Nebuchadnezzar who was prideful and was punished by becoming like an animal and eating grass.
King Saul didn't kill all the Amalekites and the kingdom was taken away from him.
Miriam the sister of Moses became a lepet for wanting to be as important as Moses.
There are four types of pride identified by psychologists and theologiants:
Pride of spirituality
Pride of knowledge
Pride of power
Pride of appearance
Prayer:
Abba, we ask that You would show us where we are prideful and humble us, that we would repent of our prideful ways and follow Your Beloved Son, in the Mighty and Precious Name of Jesus Christ our Lord Amen