Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to KFI A six on demand.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Jim, Welcome to the Jesus Christ Show.
Speaker 3 (00:08):
Oh, good morning, Jesus. How are you?
Speaker 2 (00:10):
I am well, how are you?
Speaker 3 (00:11):
Actually? I'm doing great myself. I have a question for you, sir,
regarding it. It's regarding the origin of the word Christian.
And in nowhere in the book does Jesus ever call
his followers Christians. And so I read that in the
Book of Acts it says that the first time that
the followers were called Christians was I think in Greece, right.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
The Acts eleven six? Yes, in antiochoy right, right?
Speaker 3 (00:38):
So that was the first time. And is it true
that they were called Christians as a way to make
fun of them? Well?
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Was it used as a pejorative at times? Yes? Absolutely?
Speaker 3 (00:51):
That leads to my questions, yes, sir, And I'm sorry
in for dust, please stut in like that. But that
leads to my question. If that is the case, then
why do we continue to call ourselves Christians? And I
more rather lately have been calling myself if they say, Jim,
or are you Christy? You know, I go out and
(01:12):
I sometimes you know, help out of the food paintings.
I got, hey, Jim, how do you doing? Are you Christian?
It kind of makes me cringe. Why I say, no,
I'm not a Christian. I'm a servant of Jesus. Because
all of the apostles refer to themselves as a servant
of Jesus Christ an apostle and a servant Moses, the
(01:32):
servant of Christ. And there's the verse that says, this, then,
is how you want to regard me as a servant
of Christ and as those who have been entrusted with
the mysteries that God has revealed? Don't we call ourselves Germans?
Speaker 2 (01:50):
People use the term servant as a pejorative.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Too, is yes, but in keeping with your word, no,
it's not about it's not about.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Hey, then you would get into the fact, well, why
don't you call yourself fisher, fisher of men or other
terms that are used Christian? Is Christian? Comes from this.
I was referred to as Yoshua Hamshieh Jesus, the Messiah,
and that term Messiah in Greek is Christus, and so
(02:29):
people follower of the Messiah in Greek was Christian. You
were a person who followed the Messiah. That's all it means.
It means follower of the Messiah.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
It did not mean little Christ.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
No, no, no, no, no no. It was it was the
which would in that you get into the the structure
of the word, and a little Christ is not problematic
because you're supposed to be like Christ. The term is.
(03:06):
Although the term was used as a pejorative by some,
it was not used in the early Church as a
pejorative and many terms. Uh, you know, you wouldn't refer
to our Jewish brothers and sisters as Hebrews. Now they
would think that that was bizarre, it doesn't make sense.
But in scripture there are times where they're referred to
(03:31):
as Hebrews. So there's things that come in and out
of style or may be misused for a length of
time which makes them uncomfortable. But that doesn't matter that
you're not using it as that. You're using the word
Christian to mean a follower, someone in the possessive following
of Christ. That's it.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Yeah, I guess, I guess. My My my thing with
it is that by now the word Christian almost has
a stigma.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
So us yeah, yeah, yeah, so does the title Christ.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Right, But I'm not I'm not really going there. I
guess the word play on it. I'm more thinking along
the lines of I say, somebody approaches me and say, hey, Jim,
how you doing mat Are you Christian? And I say,
I don't say no, I'd rather say, you know what,
I'm a servant of Christ. And here's the reason why,
(04:27):
Because it just seems as though a lot of people
that I run into different churches, different places where I serve,
it seems like they use that word Christian like a
name tag, kind of like a chip on your shoulder
almost sometimes. And people have come to think that if
you consider yourself a Christian, you don't sin, you don't
(04:51):
say bad words, you never have an evil thought. And
we both know that that's not true. And so I think,
I think that's my problem with it is that I
guess by this time that word Christian now means a
guy that thinks, you know, is poop, don't smell, and
thinks she never does the right thing. And when I
(05:14):
call myself a servant at that point, obviously I'm not
trying to exalt myself. I keep myself humble by calling
myself a servant and knowing that I am doing only
what a servant is required to do.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Why is it more humble to tell somebody that if
they use the word Christian and you say a servant,
you're better than them.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
I'm not saying I'm better than them.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Then why does it matter what you use.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
Because of the way the people take it, I'm saying,
I'm saying that the way.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
They I understand. But you're trying to differentiate yourself from someone.
You want someone to see you differently. That means you're
better or different than there.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
No not better or different. But you know what I mean.
It's the honest truth.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
There's nothing wrong. Here's the simple answer, Jim. There's nothing
wrong with saying you're a servant of Jesus Christ, and
there's nothing wrong with saying you're a Christian. Sadly, they
both mean the exact same thing in reality, but the
world may not see them that way. I understand what
you're doing, and I understand the sentiment in which you're
(06:23):
doing it, but it's splitting hairs. A Christian should be
a servant, a saint should be a servant of God.
Christian whether it was used, there are many things that
were used throughout history that mocked Christianity. The cross itself
(06:46):
mocked Christianity, but it's what you mean when you say it.
If people misuse the term, that's fine. But they misuse
my name as well all the time. They use my
name as as a curse word, when they stub their toe,
(07:08):
they use it as an expletive. But you don't, you
don't stop using that. I think the best thing to
do is to apply righteous meaning to the word the Bible,
never when it's when it refers to it. The first
time in Scripture in Acts eleven twenty six regarding the
(07:34):
church there in Antioch. It doesn't use it as a
negative term. It doesn't non biblical context. The first time
it's used is Josephus, a Jewish historian, and Tacitus uses it.
(07:59):
But there's there's right uses and there's negative uses throughout history.
But modern modern times it means someone who follows the Messiah,
someone that believes that I was the Messiah that was
spoken about and promised and what Christians referred to as
(08:22):
the Old Testament. That's it. So you can jump through
whatever hoops. And there's all kinds of people that do
that that that change terms. They you know, whatever it
is in their life, and that's fine if that's what
comforts you. But it also will cause you to have
(08:44):
to explain all kinds of things. And if you want
to do that, great, but ultimately you're to most people,
it's going to sound like you're splitting hairs. Every Christian
should be a servant of God, every Christian without accept
across the board, Susie, welcome to the Jesus Christ Show.
Speaker 4 (09:12):
Oh, thank you for taking my call, my pleasure.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
How can I help?
Speaker 4 (09:15):
Well, when I was a little girl, I learned the
Lord's Prayer and it ended with a certain sentence, and
I bought an NIV Bible to study because I just
started going to church and I go to my favorite
prayer and it's it's missing part of it. It's missing
the end of it.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
For Thine is the Kingdom and the power and the
glory forever.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
Yes, why.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Okay, this gets into a couple things. So, and I
don't want it to make you nervous, but that piece,
if you read it in scripture, you will find that
it's in brackets. Oh okay, So when you do come
across in scripture, you're gonna see that it's in brackets.
(10:05):
That's because there's a disagreement whether it was in scripture
or not. So how does that end up in the Bible. Well,
let's look at a couple of things. First of all,
you have all of scripture, all the New Testament comes
from two places basically, so you have two families of manuscripts.
(10:30):
You have one that is called the Alexandrian and the
other that is Byzantine. And they agree on most everything.
But there's tiny little things that they that one might
have and the other doesn't. But they're small, small, small things,
and this is one of them. This is one of
the points. There are many beliefs as to why this happens,
(10:55):
so let's look quickly at a couple of them. There
is something called a doxology. Doxology is basically a praise
to God. It's like a tiny hymn that is added
to the end of a prayer. So sometimes somebody would
(11:17):
say the prayer instead of justin Amen, they would have
this short hymn or this praise to God that would
end the prayer. And the belief is that this because
this can be traced back, that that phrase can be
traced back to very early on in the Christian Church.
(11:38):
So it's not like apocryphal, it's not. It has a
place in the Church. But the belief is because it's
very similar to parts of the Old Testament and certain
praise that was given in scripture to God, that it
was probably added and it was an oral tradition. So
(12:02):
when people would say that prayer, they would end with
that as an added glory to God. Is this doxology,
this little hymnal, this little hymn at the end that
said where at the very end of it instead of
just a man, they'd say, for Thine is the Kingdom
and the power and the glory forever. Amen. So it
(12:23):
was like a little addition that would be done when
people were saying out loud. And the belief is is
that it was added there because of the power of
the usage when people prayed. And two, it doesn't change anything.
It doesn't add it doesn't change any doctrine, it doesn't
mess with anything. So the belief is there's no reason
(12:46):
to remove it or to change it because it doesn't
cause any problems actually with scripture. Emily, Welcome to the Jesus, Christia, Jesus,
thank you.
Speaker 5 (13:05):
Thank you for your show. I want to start by
saying that I am a true believer, as I am
getting ready for service right now, I think I'm pretty
sure I know what you're going to say, that I
feel that I just need to hear it being said.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
What's going on?
Speaker 5 (13:24):
Two days ago I got word of my brother passing,
my younger brother. There's seven siblings, and he was the
baby their family situation about ten years ago that separated
him from the rest of us, well, the rest of
(13:44):
my siblings except myself. I've been in contact with him now.
They my brother passed due to deep depression and just
poor choices, and so now dealing with this, my siblings
(14:05):
are calling and I'm having a really hard time in communicating.
There's only actually one that I'm talking to. The others
I can't. I'm not taking up their texts or having
their taken up their calls because I'm having a big
(14:25):
stir of emotions. They want to know what kind of
person he was this past ten years, and what I
when's the last time I talked to him? When's the
least on my thoughts him?
Speaker 2 (14:40):
So Emily, the family has been estranged from your brother,
for the other siblings have for ten years, Yes, and
they have not had contact with him. No, that me
except you, And when was the last time you spoke with.
Speaker 5 (14:57):
Him with my brother, my beautiful brother Chris. I heard
from him like about last last week a check. He
finally returned to me when I the last time I
heard his voice was probably about two weeks when we talked.
Maybe he gave me five minutes.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
And why do you think you still connected with him
when the rest of the family.
Speaker 5 (15:24):
Did not, Because I connected because there was a family
situation and I saw it in a different light that
he was that he wasn't doing anything bad, he was
doing it something good. It was concerning my mother that
(15:44):
had dementia, and some choices had to be made. And
she's the one that stepped up to care for my
my mother and she has she has passed. And but
they saw it differently. And I told them, you know,
all the good things that he was doing, and but
(16:06):
he was the one that up and cared for her
as much as he could. But they saw it more
of of greed that he that he was taking them,
taking my mother for financial gain, when he didn't need
financial gain. He was very well set.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
And how to de passy.
Speaker 5 (16:33):
They found him in his apartment their curse thirty and
found him in his apartment up in San Francisco, and
there's an autopsy that's going to well is in the process,
but we won't get the results. He was seeing a psychiatrist,
he was on prescription medications. He had admitted himself about
(17:00):
two weeks prior for his depression and because he was
taking moretals than he was supposed to. And so I
don't know for sure, but I can I want to
say that you know he.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Overdoes on prescription medication.
Speaker 5 (17:25):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Is there a concern that it might be a suicide?
Speaker 5 (17:30):
No, there was no. The corner said that there was
no note, there was no self inflection, no markings on
his body. And he never had with me. I mean,
he had never said that he he had you in
his life. He he want have done that. He had
(17:56):
lost his job, his high paying job. He was very
depressed about that. He was depressed about a relationship that
he was then that res.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Ending, And what's your question for me?
Speaker 5 (18:13):
How do so I'm going to be saying, I'm going
to be going up them to today and sometimes I'm
dealing with decrees with a lot of emotions, and I
just feel like I'm going to be bombarded with questions
and I want to represent you Okay, always I want
(18:35):
to resent represent you who you are. They all know
that I am a true, strong believer. I just want
the right word that I want to say, but I
don't want to last out. Part of me does. But
I mean, I know that's not the right thing to do.
(18:59):
I don't.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Pain comes in a lot of different shapes and size,
as does grief, and when you're in that situation, I
know that there, as you so aptly put, there's this
flood of emotions that you're dealing with. But there's something
more important. We talk about this on the program from
time to time when it comes to the death of
a loved one, and that is even more important. In
(19:23):
this situation. You're the curator of his museum, and even
now and oftentimes that's being the curator of someone's museum
is to remember them and to share parts of who
they are, what made them special, what they thought was funny,
what they thought was interesting, all those things to usually
to strangers or new people. It's frustrating, I know, to
(19:48):
have to be that to his very family. But right
now I think that it's most important not to look
at the old things and to beat them up or
to have this big battle over what's going to take place.
I think it's more important that you when they ask,
(20:09):
to share things that were special to you about him
and the things that you guys would talk about, and
the troubles that he was going through, the things that
really weighed on him, and leave it at that. Let
them lead, let them ask questions and do your best
to answer them. But don't feel the need to do
anything proactively. Go mourn, be with your family, and do
(20:35):
your best, with the grace of God, to answer the
questions that are asked of you. That's it. Don't put
extra weight on your shoulders. That doesn't need to be there.
Speaker 5 (20:47):
Okay, thank you, You're.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
Welcome and you're going to do great and this is
going to be part of the healing. It stinks, and
the pain of it is seems unbearable at times, I know,
but for whatever reason, this is the path that the
family has gone down. And when you have a family
that is that large, seven siblings, there's going to be
(21:16):
a lot of difference in you know, even though you
come from the same place and you're raised by the
same people. There's the old saying that no child is
ever raised by the same set of parents because parents
are growing too, and they go through different things. And
you know, kids that were raised earlier on might have had,
(21:37):
you know, different teaching techniques or rearing techniques. Then when
the parents got older and all these things. These differences
make you who you are, and so oftentimes it can
feel like they all came from somewhere different. So there's
going to be different views, different ways of warning. And
(21:58):
you have the complication of disagreements as to know who
your younger brother was, and sometimes that can come from
different things. You said your mom was ill battling with dementia,
And sometimes when a sibling steps up in a situation
(22:20):
like that, rises to the occasion and takes care of
it that the rest of the family, through guilt and shame,
sometimes can resent them and actually start looking for things
that they dislike about it, whether they didn't trust or
what have you. There's a lot intertwined in all this,
But ultimately, don't take it, don't bear it all on
(22:42):
your shoulders. Just spend the time mourning your brother and
being available to answer questions to anyone who asks that
you can share with them who he was and leave
it at that. Ed Welcome to the Jesus Christ show.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
Hi, good morning, h ed.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
What's going on?
Speaker 1 (23:08):
I just want I just have a It's either a
simple or complicated question, I guess.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Okay, or somewhere in between. All right, fair enough.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
So how come there's like a lot of Christian denominations
like Lutheran or Baptist, And you know, is it just different?
Speaker 5 (23:27):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (23:28):
I guess the preachers just different training, you know, on
how the intern for the Bible?
Speaker 2 (23:34):
I guess, well, yes, but it goes a little deeper
than that. What ends up happening is mankind has a
way of trying to look for what sets them apart
rather than what unifies them. So that's why there's a
tribal mentality. It's even getting more intense these days that
(23:56):
people are separating themselves into you know who and what
they are, their belief system, whether they're male, female, whether
they're of a particular color. People tribalize. It's their natural
desire to build little groups. They're essentially gangs for lack
of a better term. And people get into their little groups.
And it's the same with you know, types of music,
(24:21):
you listen to, sports that you watch. If you ever
see people that really love sports, you'll see them by
the jersey of their favorite sports team, and they'll represent
that by you know, talking about it all the time,
and when they see someone else wearing it, it's tribalizing,
and people tribalize. So you get this belief system Christianity,
(24:46):
and there are absolutes. There are things that you cannot change.
They're in scripture. They are defined as the essentials and
they show they really are the definition from the Early
Church as to what a Christian is. So the early
Church gets the first, they get the rule. People can
want to change them all they want. Now they want
(25:09):
to change the apostles, creed, they can want to do
all these things. But the reality is the early Church
believed in a particular structure and what the belief system was,
and that's the essentials. But then there's a lot of
non essentials or there's gray area. So what ended up
happening is everybody said, yes, we believe in these essentials.
(25:30):
But then they would disagree on baptism of children versus adults.
They disagree on little parts of scripture, and they would
have offshoots. So the major one is first you have
the one Church. But if you look throughout the New Testament,
(25:52):
you read the epistles. You'll see that the epistles were
letters to the different churches, the Church of Corinth, Church
of Ephesis, and you'll see that there were issues that
they were having, so they were trying to control and say, hey,
it seems like you're getting a little you know, lopsided
over here, or you're going down this path and that
might be dangerous, these types of things. They were trying
(26:15):
to control.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
It.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
Well, that only lasts for so long, and then what
you end up having is a rebellion. So the rebellion
ended up being Protestantism or Protestants. They were in the
early Church. There were those that rejected some of the
things that the church was doing, and they branched off.
(26:38):
And now you have Catholicism and you have Protestant Protestantism
or Protesters, right, and they split off, and then you
start getting groups that splinter into those. You have ultra
orthodox Catholics, you have more liberal Catholics, you have charismatic Catholics,
and then you have Protestants of different shades well, and
(27:00):
it's all based on what separates them, not what joins them,
because the essentials still pretty much stay the same. And
you get people that are are branching off or pulling
away from one another based on regions, certain beliefs, certain
gray areas in scripture, and it's just human nature to
(27:21):
do that. It's not God's plan, it's not the desire
of God for there to be separation in the church.
It's God's desire to have unity in the church. But
humankind has a way of messing things up.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
Okay, So it's almost like to me, the way I'm
getting it this. Let's say, for example, the early Church
is like you pass a message like I guess on
the line with ten different people, you know, hey, how
are you doing this morning? And then by the time
it gets to that ninth or ten persons like how
is Anna doing?
Speaker 5 (27:57):
You know?
Speaker 2 (27:57):
So, well, that's the old a telephone game theory, and
it doesn't it's not exactly the same case because you're
not just dealing with oral tradition. You're dealing with a
very meticulous writing down and passing down of information. So
by the time the early Church started, you really have
(28:19):
that structure already in place. It's more a it's where
it's more where scripture doesn't speak that people have issues,
so they start interpreting or coming up with conclusions and
someone says, how do you come up with that conclusion?
They said, well I did this. You know, you have
different scholars saying I think it means this, and others
(28:40):
saying I think it means that, and they kind of
split off. It's not so much a mutation based on
a misunderstanding like the game of telephone. It's somebody mutating
based on their own bias, belief or lack of instruction
from scripture. They kind of read into it and they
say I think it means this, and then they're willing
to die for it or to defend it because it
(29:02):
ends up becoming becoming their tribal interests. So the Church
has tribal interests the same way any group does in
the world. People tribalize they want to be a part
of a group, and it happens with the church as well,
and that's where you get all these different denominations. But
the core beliefs still remain the same, which is why
(29:24):
it's less of a problem than it might sound.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
Like KFI AM six forty on demand
You're listening to KFI A six on demand.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Jim, Welcome to the Jesus Christ Show.
Speaker 3 (00:08):
Oh, good morning, Jesus. How are you?
Speaker 2 (00:10):
I am well, how are you?
Speaker 3 (00:11):
Actually? I'm doing great myself. I have a question for you, sir,
regarding it. It's regarding the origin of the word Christian.
And in nowhere in the book does Jesus ever call
his followers Christians. And so I read that in the
Book of Acts it says that the first time that
the followers were called Christians was I think in Greece, right.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
The Acts eleven six? Yes, in antiochoy right, right?
Speaker 3 (00:38):
So that was the first time. And is it true
that they were called Christians as a way to make
fun of them? Well?
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Was it used as a pejorative at times? Yes? Absolutely?
Speaker 3 (00:51):
That leads to my questions, yes, sir, And I'm sorry
in for dust, please stut in like that. But that
leads to my question. If that is the case, then
why do we continue to call ourselves Christians? And I
more rather lately have been calling myself if they say, Jim,
or are you Christy? You know, I go out and
(01:12):
I sometimes you know, help out of the food paintings.
I got, hey, Jim, how do you doing? Are you Christian?
It kind of makes me cringe. Why I say, no,
I'm not a Christian. I'm a servant of Jesus. Because
all of the apostles refer to themselves as a servant
of Jesus Christ an apostle and a servant Moses, the
(01:32):
servant of Christ. And there's the verse that says, this, then,
is how you want to regard me as a servant
of Christ and as those who have been entrusted with
the mysteries that God has revealed? Don't we call ourselves Germans?
Speaker 2 (01:50):
People use the term servant as a pejorative.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Too, is yes, but in keeping with your word, no,
it's not about it's not about.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Hey, then you would get into the fact, well, why
don't you call yourself fisher, fisher of men or other
terms that are used Christian? Is Christian? Comes from this.
I was referred to as Yoshua Hamshieh Jesus, the Messiah,
and that term Messiah in Greek is Christus, and so
(02:29):
people follower of the Messiah in Greek was Christian. You
were a person who followed the Messiah. That's all it means.
It means follower of the Messiah.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
It did not mean little Christ.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
No, no, no, no, no no. It was it was the
which would in that you get into the the structure
of the word, and a little Christ is not problematic
because you're supposed to be like Christ. The term is.
(03:06):
Although the term was used as a pejorative by some,
it was not used in the early Church as a
pejorative and many terms. Uh, you know, you wouldn't refer
to our Jewish brothers and sisters as Hebrews. Now they
would think that that was bizarre, it doesn't make sense.
But in scripture there are times where they're referred to
(03:31):
as Hebrews. So there's things that come in and out
of style or may be misused for a length of
time which makes them uncomfortable. But that doesn't matter that
you're not using it as that. You're using the word
Christian to mean a follower, someone in the possessive following
of Christ. That's it.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Yeah, I guess, I guess. My My my thing with
it is that by now the word Christian almost has
a stigma.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
So us yeah, yeah, yeah, so does the title Christ.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Right, But I'm not I'm not really going there. I
guess the word play on it. I'm more thinking along
the lines of I say, somebody approaches me and say, hey, Jim,
how you doing mat Are you Christian? And I say,
I don't say no, I'd rather say, you know what,
I'm a servant of Christ. And here's the reason why,
(04:27):
Because it just seems as though a lot of people
that I run into different churches, different places where I serve,
it seems like they use that word Christian like a
name tag, kind of like a chip on your shoulder
almost sometimes. And people have come to think that if
you consider yourself a Christian, you don't sin, you don't
(04:51):
say bad words, you never have an evil thought. And
we both know that that's not true. And so I think,
I think that's my problem with it is that I
guess by this time that word Christian now means a
guy that thinks, you know, is poop, don't smell, and
thinks she never does the right thing. And when I
(05:14):
call myself a servant at that point, obviously I'm not
trying to exalt myself. I keep myself humble by calling
myself a servant and knowing that I am doing only
what a servant is required to do.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Why is it more humble to tell somebody that if
they use the word Christian and you say a servant,
you're better than them.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
I'm not saying I'm better than them.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Then why does it matter what you use.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
Because of the way the people take it, I'm saying,
I'm saying that the way.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
They I understand. But you're trying to differentiate yourself from someone.
You want someone to see you differently. That means you're
better or different than there.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
No not better or different. But you know what I mean.
It's the honest truth.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
There's nothing wrong. Here's the simple answer, Jim. There's nothing
wrong with saying you're a servant of Jesus Christ, and
there's nothing wrong with saying you're a Christian. Sadly, they
both mean the exact same thing in reality, but the
world may not see them that way. I understand what
you're doing, and I understand the sentiment in which you're
(06:23):
doing it, but it's splitting hairs. A Christian should be
a servant, a saint should be a servant of God.
Christian whether it was used, there are many things that
were used throughout history that mocked Christianity. The cross itself
(06:46):
mocked Christianity, but it's what you mean when you say it.
If people misuse the term, that's fine. But they misuse
my name as well all the time. They use my
name as as a curse word, when they stub their toe,
(07:08):
they use it as an expletive. But you don't, you
don't stop using that. I think the best thing to
do is to apply righteous meaning to the word the Bible,
never when it's when it refers to it. The first
time in Scripture in Acts eleven twenty six regarding the
(07:34):
church there in Antioch. It doesn't use it as a
negative term. It doesn't non biblical context. The first time
it's used is Josephus, a Jewish historian, and Tacitus uses it.
(07:59):
But there's there's right uses and there's negative uses throughout history.
But modern modern times it means someone who follows the Messiah,
someone that believes that I was the Messiah that was
spoken about and promised and what Christians referred to as
(08:22):
the Old Testament. That's it. So you can jump through
whatever hoops. And there's all kinds of people that do
that that that change terms. They you know, whatever it
is in their life, and that's fine if that's what
comforts you. But it also will cause you to have
(08:44):
to explain all kinds of things. And if you want
to do that, great, but ultimately you're to most people,
it's going to sound like you're splitting hairs. Every Christian
should be a servant of God, every Christian without accept
across the board, Susie, welcome to the Jesus Christ Show.
Speaker 4 (09:12):
Oh, thank you for taking my call, my pleasure.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
How can I help?
Speaker 4 (09:15):
Well, when I was a little girl, I learned the
Lord's Prayer and it ended with a certain sentence, and
I bought an NIV Bible to study because I just
started going to church and I go to my favorite
prayer and it's it's missing part of it. It's missing
the end of it.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
For Thine is the Kingdom and the power and the
glory forever.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
Yes, why.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Okay, this gets into a couple things. So, and I
don't want it to make you nervous, but that piece,
if you read it in scripture, you will find that
it's in brackets. Oh okay, So when you do come
across in scripture, you're gonna see that it's in brackets.
(10:05):
That's because there's a disagreement whether it was in scripture
or not. So how does that end up in the Bible. Well,
let's look at a couple of things. First of all,
you have all of scripture, all the New Testament comes
from two places basically, so you have two families of manuscripts.
(10:30):
You have one that is called the Alexandrian and the
other that is Byzantine. And they agree on most everything.
But there's tiny little things that they that one might
have and the other doesn't. But they're small, small, small things,
and this is one of them. This is one of
the points. There are many beliefs as to why this happens,
(10:55):
so let's look quickly at a couple of them. There
is something called a doxology. Doxology is basically a praise
to God. It's like a tiny hymn that is added
to the end of a prayer. So sometimes somebody would
(11:17):
say the prayer instead of justin Amen, they would have
this short hymn or this praise to God that would
end the prayer. And the belief is that this because
this can be traced back, that that phrase can be
traced back to very early on in the Christian Church.
(11:38):
So it's not like apocryphal, it's not. It has a
place in the Church. But the belief is because it's
very similar to parts of the Old Testament and certain
praise that was given in scripture to God, that it
was probably added and it was an oral tradition. So
(12:02):
when people would say that prayer, they would end with
that as an added glory to God. Is this doxology,
this little hymnal, this little hymn at the end that
said where at the very end of it instead of
just a man, they'd say, for Thine is the Kingdom
and the power and the glory forever. Amen. So it
(12:23):
was like a little addition that would be done when
people were saying out loud. And the belief is is
that it was added there because of the power of
the usage when people prayed. And two, it doesn't change anything.
It doesn't add it doesn't change any doctrine, it doesn't
mess with anything. So the belief is there's no reason
(12:46):
to remove it or to change it because it doesn't
cause any problems actually with scripture. Emily, Welcome to the Jesus, Christia, Jesus,
thank you.
Speaker 5 (13:05):
Thank you for your show. I want to start by
saying that I am a true believer, as I am
getting ready for service right now, I think I'm pretty
sure I know what you're going to say, that I
feel that I just need to hear it being said.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
What's going on?
Speaker 5 (13:24):
Two days ago I got word of my brother passing,
my younger brother. There's seven siblings, and he was the
baby their family situation about ten years ago that separated
him from the rest of us, well, the rest of
(13:44):
my siblings except myself. I've been in contact with him now.
They my brother passed due to deep depression and just
poor choices, and so now dealing with this, my siblings
(14:05):
are calling and I'm having a really hard time in communicating.
There's only actually one that I'm talking to. The others
I can't. I'm not taking up their texts or having
their taken up their calls because I'm having a big
(14:25):
stir of emotions. They want to know what kind of
person he was this past ten years, and what I
when's the last time I talked to him? When's the
least on my thoughts him?
Speaker 2 (14:40):
So Emily, the family has been estranged from your brother,
for the other siblings have for ten years, Yes, and
they have not had contact with him. No, that me
except you, And when was the last time you spoke with.
Speaker 5 (14:57):
Him with my brother, my beautiful brother Chris. I heard
from him like about last last week a check. He
finally returned to me when I the last time I
heard his voice was probably about two weeks when we talked.
Maybe he gave me five minutes.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
And why do you think you still connected with him
when the rest of the family.
Speaker 5 (15:24):
Did not, Because I connected because there was a family
situation and I saw it in a different light that
he was that he wasn't doing anything bad, he was
doing it something good. It was concerning my mother that
(15:44):
had dementia, and some choices had to be made. And
she's the one that stepped up to care for my
my mother and she has she has passed. And but
they saw it differently. And I told them, you know,
all the good things that he was doing, and but
(16:06):
he was the one that up and cared for her
as much as he could. But they saw it more
of of greed that he that he was taking them,
taking my mother for financial gain, when he didn't need
financial gain. He was very well set.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
And how to de passy.
Speaker 5 (16:33):
They found him in his apartment their curse thirty and
found him in his apartment up in San Francisco, and
there's an autopsy that's going to well is in the process,
but we won't get the results. He was seeing a psychiatrist,
he was on prescription medications. He had admitted himself about
(17:00):
two weeks prior for his depression and because he was
taking moretals than he was supposed to. And so I
don't know for sure, but I can I want to
say that you know he.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Overdoes on prescription medication.
Speaker 5 (17:25):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Is there a concern that it might be a suicide?
Speaker 5 (17:30):
No, there was no. The corner said that there was
no note, there was no self inflection, no markings on
his body. And he never had with me. I mean,
he had never said that he he had you in
his life. He he want have done that. He had
(17:56):
lost his job, his high paying job. He was very
depressed about that. He was depressed about a relationship that
he was then that res.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Ending, And what's your question for me?
Speaker 5 (18:13):
How do so I'm going to be saying, I'm going
to be going up them to today and sometimes I'm
dealing with decrees with a lot of emotions, and I
just feel like I'm going to be bombarded with questions
and I want to represent you Okay, always I want
(18:35):
to resent represent you who you are. They all know
that I am a true, strong believer. I just want
the right word that I want to say, but I
don't want to last out. Part of me does. But
I mean, I know that's not the right thing to do.
(18:59):
I don't.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Pain comes in a lot of different shapes and size,
as does grief, and when you're in that situation, I
know that there, as you so aptly put, there's this
flood of emotions that you're dealing with. But there's something
more important. We talk about this on the program from
time to time when it comes to the death of
a loved one, and that is even more important. In
(19:23):
this situation. You're the curator of his museum, and even
now and oftentimes that's being the curator of someone's museum
is to remember them and to share parts of who
they are, what made them special, what they thought was funny,
what they thought was interesting, all those things to usually
to strangers or new people. It's frustrating, I know, to
(19:48):
have to be that to his very family. But right
now I think that it's most important not to look
at the old things and to beat them up or
to have this big battle over what's going to take place.
I think it's more important that you when they ask,
(20:09):
to share things that were special to you about him
and the things that you guys would talk about, and
the troubles that he was going through, the things that
really weighed on him, and leave it at that. Let
them lead, let them ask questions and do your best
to answer them. But don't feel the need to do
anything proactively. Go mourn, be with your family, and do
(20:35):
your best, with the grace of God, to answer the
questions that are asked of you. That's it. Don't put
extra weight on your shoulders. That doesn't need to be there.
Speaker 5 (20:47):
Okay, thank you, You're.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
Welcome and you're going to do great and this is
going to be part of the healing. It stinks, and
the pain of it is seems unbearable at times, I know,
but for whatever reason, this is the path that the
family has gone down. And when you have a family
that is that large, seven siblings, there's going to be
(21:16):
a lot of difference in you know, even though you
come from the same place and you're raised by the
same people. There's the old saying that no child is
ever raised by the same set of parents because parents
are growing too, and they go through different things. And
you know, kids that were raised earlier on might have had,
(21:37):
you know, different teaching techniques or rearing techniques. Then when
the parents got older and all these things. These differences
make you who you are, and so oftentimes it can
feel like they all came from somewhere different. So there's
going to be different views, different ways of warning. And
(21:58):
you have the complication of disagreements as to know who
your younger brother was, and sometimes that can come from
different things. You said your mom was ill battling with dementia,
And sometimes when a sibling steps up in a situation
(22:20):
like that, rises to the occasion and takes care of
it that the rest of the family, through guilt and shame,
sometimes can resent them and actually start looking for things
that they dislike about it, whether they didn't trust or
what have you. There's a lot intertwined in all this,
But ultimately, don't take it, don't bear it all on
(22:42):
your shoulders. Just spend the time mourning your brother and
being available to answer questions to anyone who asks that
you can share with them who he was and leave
it at that. Ed Welcome to the Jesus Christ show.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
Hi, good morning, h ed.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
What's going on?
Speaker 1 (23:08):
I just want I just have a It's either a
simple or complicated question, I guess.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Okay, or somewhere in between. All right, fair enough.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
So how come there's like a lot of Christian denominations
like Lutheran or Baptist, And you know, is it just different?
Speaker 5 (23:27):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (23:28):
I guess the preachers just different training, you know, on
how the intern for the Bible?
Speaker 2 (23:34):
I guess, well, yes, but it goes a little deeper
than that. What ends up happening is mankind has a
way of trying to look for what sets them apart
rather than what unifies them. So that's why there's a
tribal mentality. It's even getting more intense these days that
(23:56):
people are separating themselves into you know who and what
they are, their belief system, whether they're male, female, whether
they're of a particular color. People tribalize. It's their natural
desire to build little groups. They're essentially gangs for lack
of a better term. And people get into their little groups.
And it's the same with you know, types of music,
(24:21):
you listen to, sports that you watch. If you ever
see people that really love sports, you'll see them by
the jersey of their favorite sports team, and they'll represent
that by you know, talking about it all the time,
and when they see someone else wearing it, it's tribalizing,
and people tribalize. So you get this belief system Christianity,
(24:46):
and there are absolutes. There are things that you cannot change.
They're in scripture. They are defined as the essentials and
they show they really are the definition from the Early
Church as to what a Christian is. So the early
Church gets the first, they get the rule. People can
want to change them all they want. Now they want
(25:09):
to change the apostles, creed, they can want to do
all these things. But the reality is the early Church
believed in a particular structure and what the belief system was,
and that's the essentials. But then there's a lot of
non essentials or there's gray area. So what ended up
happening is everybody said, yes, we believe in these essentials.
(25:30):
But then they would disagree on baptism of children versus adults.
They disagree on little parts of scripture, and they would
have offshoots. So the major one is first you have
the one Church. But if you look throughout the New Testament,
(25:52):
you read the epistles. You'll see that the epistles were
letters to the different churches, the Church of Corinth, Church
of Ephesis, and you'll see that there were issues that
they were having, so they were trying to control and say, hey,
it seems like you're getting a little you know, lopsided
over here, or you're going down this path and that
might be dangerous, these types of things. They were trying
(26:15):
to control.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
It.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
Well, that only lasts for so long, and then what
you end up having is a rebellion. So the rebellion
ended up being Protestantism or Protestants. They were in the
early Church. There were those that rejected some of the
things that the church was doing, and they branched off.
(26:38):
And now you have Catholicism and you have Protestant Protestantism
or Protesters, right, and they split off, and then you
start getting groups that splinter into those. You have ultra
orthodox Catholics, you have more liberal Catholics, you have charismatic Catholics,
and then you have Protestants of different shades well, and
(27:00):
it's all based on what separates them, not what joins them,
because the essentials still pretty much stay the same. And
you get people that are are branching off or pulling
away from one another based on regions, certain beliefs, certain
gray areas in scripture, and it's just human nature to
(27:21):
do that. It's not God's plan, it's not the desire
of God for there to be separation in the church.
It's God's desire to have unity in the church. But
humankind has a way of messing things up.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
Okay, So it's almost like to me, the way I'm
getting it this. Let's say, for example, the early Church
is like you pass a message like I guess on
the line with ten different people, you know, hey, how
are you doing this morning? And then by the time
it gets to that ninth or ten persons like how
is Anna doing?
Speaker 5 (27:57):
You know?
Speaker 2 (27:57):
So, well, that's the old a telephone game theory, and
it doesn't it's not exactly the same case because you're
not just dealing with oral tradition. You're dealing with a
very meticulous writing down and passing down of information. So
by the time the early Church started, you really have
(28:19):
that structure already in place. It's more a it's where
it's more where scripture doesn't speak that people have issues,
so they start interpreting or coming up with conclusions and
someone says, how do you come up with that conclusion?
They said, well I did this. You know, you have
different scholars saying I think it means this, and others
(28:40):
saying I think it means that, and they kind of
split off. It's not so much a mutation based on
a misunderstanding like the game of telephone. It's somebody mutating
based on their own bias, belief or lack of instruction
from scripture. They kind of read into it and they
say I think it means this, and then they're willing
to die for it or to defend it because it
(29:02):
ends up becoming becoming their tribal interests. So the Church
has tribal interests the same way any group does in
the world. People tribalize they want to be a part
of a group, and it happens with the church as well,
and that's where you get all these different denominations. But
the core beliefs still remain the same, which is why
(29:24):
it's less of a problem than it might sound.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
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