Receiving The Holy Spirit

Reblogged from:  gracethrufaith.com

The Holy Spirit

Q.  With Phillip preaching the word and crowds hearing and seeing miracles that he did, why do you think that Phillip did not pray for them to receive the Holy Spirit. And that the original disciples Peter and John were sent?  Were the original disciples, now apostles, the only ones to pray for this.  And at what point was there a transition from them to others.  And are there qualifications for this, like pastors, elders, evangelists, prophets?


A. There was a disciple named Philip (John 1:43), but the Philip in Acts 8:4-17 was one of the original deacons (Acts 6:5) and as such was not an apostle. This explains why Peter and John came to lay hands on the new believers (Acts 8:14-17).
By the time Paul wrote his 2nd letter to the Corinthians (about 55 AD) believers were automatically receiving the Holy Spirit directly from the Lord at the time they received Him (2 Cor. 1:21-22), so the laying on of hands by an apostle was no longer necessary.

Was It a Command?

Interpreting Verses
Reblogged from:gracethrufaith.com

 

Q.  I am little bit confused regarding the word “GO” in Matt.28:19. because one of our pastors keeps on insisting that the word “GO” is not a word of command.  We have been arguing on this matter because I beleive that the word “GO” in that particular verse is a word of command.  Please make it clear for us.


A.  I can see why there’s been discussion regarding this.  The Greek word translated “go” in Matt. 28:18 is not a clear command.  It’s a passive verb that means “to continue” as on a journey.  It can also imply a transfer, in which case the Lord would have been transferring His ministry to His disciples, telling them to continue doing what they had seen Him doing.

Historically speaking, it’s clear that all of the disciples did accept responsibility for bringing the gospel to the world and devoted the rest of their lives to this task. This would appear to mean that they saw His instructions to them as more than just a suggestion.

Prayer for the True Church and against the Counterfeits - S Lewis Johnson

 Excerpt reblogged from The End Time

"We pray for the whole church, for all of those who name in sincerity the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and we pray, O God, that those who counterfeit Christianity may experience failure. We know that Thou hast said, the church will be founded upon the confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against the true church, and we pray O God for all of the manifestations of the truth. We pray for the other churches where the gospel is proclaimed, and today Lord may they be fruitful in their ministry." ~S Lewis Johnson

Praying for the failure of the counterfeits, while at the same time praying for all manifestations of the truth. How wonderful.

Repentance is more than just "turning".

Posted: 28 May 2014 06:11 PM PDT

Reblogged from The end time

As one reads through Hosea, particularly chapter 7, it is amazing the number of metaphors God uses to show Israel's perfidy. They were separated from their God and Protector through their own actions. God hadn't gone anywhere, Israel had. They needed to repent and turn to Him.

However there is turning and there is turning. God was angry that Israel turned to idols. They turned to Egypt. They turned to Assyria. They turned to themselves, in their own beds crying and wailing. ("They do not cry to me from the heart, but they wail upon their beds"; Hosea 7:14) They turned a lot. They didn't turn the right way.

They turn, but not upward,  (Hosea 7:16a)

Turn upward!

Judas turned. In the KJV of Matthew 27:3 it says, "Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders,"

Did Judas repent? No. He turned, he felt grief, he refused to look at his sin... but he didn't turn upward.

Easton's Bible Dictionary says there are several words for repent used in the bible. In the case of Judas the verb is "metamelomai is used of a change of mind, such as to produce regret or even remorse on account of sin, but not necessarily a change of heart. This word is used with reference to the repentance of Judas (Matt. 27:3).

The other word for repentance according to Easton's is "Metanoeo, meaning to change one's mind and purpose, as the result of after knowledge. This verb, with (3) the cognate noun metanoia, is used of true repentance, a change of mind and purpose and life, to which remission of sin is promised."

In Judas' case, his turning was not upward.

In your grief over sin, in your restlessness in finding peace, in your agitation, turn, not from one worldly thing to another, but upward!

The lessons of Hosea 7 are many. One is, that God is looking down upon His elect. He is looking. Look upward! See Him! Our holy Savior as High Priest is looking at us, loving us, calling to us to repent. Repentance is a matter of turning, but turning in the right direction, and it is having a right heart condition. Judas' heart wasn't right. Ephraim's heart wasn't right. They cried but it wasn't from the heart. Judas cried, but it wasn't from the heart. If you cry over your sins, is it from the heart? If you turn from your sin, is it in the right direction? We have learned that a horizontal turning is not the right direction because the only thing in our horizontal field of vision is the world. The world doesn't forgive. God in heaven forgives. Upward is the right direction and having the right heart attitude is important too.

"because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved." (Romans 10:9).

The Origin Of Evil

Wednesday, May 28th, 2014

• Past Featured
• Theology

A Bible Study by Jack Kelley

I received a great question this week. A regular visitor wanted to know, is evil a “thing” or the “absence of good”?   The writer went on to say, “I understand how evil entered creation via the fall, but it seems to me that something (evil) that had never existed before suddenly came to be.”

It seems to her that this thing we call evil which didn’t exist in God’s perfect creation had to have an origin.
“Was that Satan?” she asked. “Did he/does he have a form of destructive de-creative power to bring something to be that wasn’t?”
In essence, did Satan “create” evil? Let’s find out.

In his Gospel, the Apostle John addressed the issue of whether evil is merely the absence of good. Speaking of Jesus in terms of light and darkness, he wrote;
Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. (John 1:3-5)
The word translated “understood” here also means “overcome”, but either way if the darkness John referred to was simply the absence of light, as we know it to be, then by it’s very presence the light would have replaced it. Darkness is not an entity or force and can neither understand nor overcome. It always yields to light, returning only when light is withdrawn.

And if John was talking merely in terms of physical life and death, as some understand the passage, the same would be true because by definition death is the absence of life. So John had to be speaking in the spiritual sense. The light represents the Lord Jesus, the personification of good. The darkness that cannot overcome Him represents Satan, the prince of darkness and the personification of evil. So evil is not simply the absence of good.
John 1:3-5 also contains the answer to another question. Did Satan create evil? Again, speaking of Jesus John wrote, Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
Paul confirmed this in his letter to the Colossians.
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. (Colossians 1:15-16)

If you read these two passages as being all inclusive, as I do, then you have to conclude that Satan, who is himself a created being, did not create evil.

Where Did That Come From?

So where did evil come from? Ezekiel and Isaiah have the answer. The word of the LORD came to me: “Son of man, take up a lament concerning the king of Tyre and say to him: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says:
” ‘You were the model of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone adorned you: ruby, topaz and emerald, chrysolite, onyx and jasper, sapphire, turquoise and beryl. Your settings and mountings were made of gold; on the day you were created they were prepared.” (Ezekiel 28:11-13)
Through the first 10 verses of chapter 28 Ezekiel had been speaking to Ittobaal, the human ruler of Tyre, calling him the prince of Tyre. Beginning in verse 11 the Lord had him look past the the human figurehead to the power behind the throne, Satan, who Ezekiel addressed as the King of Tyre.

Some commentators see the mention of precious stones as representing the fact that Satan was clothed in light. But one fact is clear to all. Satan was created, confirming what John and Paul said. He was not created to be evil, and in fact was the model of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.
“You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you. You were on the holy mount of God; you walked among the fiery stones.” (Ezek. 28:14)

Satan’s original role was to head up the squadron of Cherubim who guard the Throne of God. Among men, those chosen for the palace guard are considered to be the most loyal, highly skilled, and trustworthy, the finest examples of the King’s warriors. As the leader of such a group charged with protecting the Throne of God, Satan would have been among the most admired of all created beings.
“You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you. Through your widespread trade you were filled with violence, and you sinned. So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God, and I expelled you, O guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones. Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor”. (Ezek. 28:15-17a)

It Didn’t Need To Turn Out That Way

Like I said, Satan was not created to be evil. But like all of us, he had the potential for choosing evil. He was the most beautiful, wise, and powerful of all God’s created beings and became very proud of these things. It was this pride that caused his downfall , and when he was caught out his pride would not let him submit, so he rebelled. Isaiah 14:13-14 tells how he set out to elevate himself above the angels once again, to sit enthroned in the place of God, and become like God.
You said in your heart, “I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.”
In his pride Satan demanded that glory due only to God be redirected toward himself. In doing so he gave us the Biblical definitions of good and evil. Everything that yields to God or or glorifies Him is good, and everything that rebels against God or glorifies someone or something else is evil.

God Himself appears to hold this view. Look at Isaiah 42:8;
“I am the LORD; that is my name! I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols.”
Shortly after the Creation, Satan introduced this evil into the world by convincing Adam and Eve to break the only rule God had given them. This seemingly minor act of rebellion caused all of mankind’s potential for evil to be greatly magnified and made rebellion man’s natural state. Paul called it our sin nature and it turned the Creation upside down. Where Satan had been made as the model of perfection with the potential for choosing evil, mankind would hereafter be predisposed toward evil with the potential for choosing to be made perfect. (In other words, Satan had to choose evil. We have to choose good.) And what’s more Satan no longer had to personally see to every act of evil. By orchestrating that one act of disobedience he had set mankind on a downward spiral that soon resulted in a state where every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time (Genesis 6:5).

And don’t make the mistake of thinking this was only true of pre-flood man.  Jeremiah said the heart of man is deceitful above all things and beyond cure (Jere. 17:9).  And James said we are tempted to sin when by our own evil desire we are dragged away and enticed (James 1:14).

Things Are Not Always As They Seem

It’s important to recognize that evil is not merely a type of behavior. In fact it’s more a function of intent. That makes evil a motivating force behind behavior. It’s easy for us to judge behavior that’s obviously destructive, cruel, or immoral as being evil. But behavior that outwardly seems to produce much good can still be considered evil in God’s sight unless it’s undertaken in submission to Him for the purpose of glorifying Him. The end does not justify the means with God. Motives must be pure to make actions pure.

This is something most people simply do not understand. We think something that looks good or produces a good result must be good. But the Bible is clear. It’s the motive energizing our behavior that really counts, no matter how good the result looks to us or to others. Like the Lord said, “A bad tree cannot bear good fruit.” (Matt. 7:18)
Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men’s hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God. (1 Cor. 4:5)

So evil is a spiritual power, a motivating force that began with a choice. It originated when a created being (Satan) demanded to be treated as if he was the Creator and it went downhill from there. The consequences of that choice are suffered by each one of us every day. It took the death of God’s own Son to reverse its effect on us, and then only if we choose to allow it.

The choice is clear and the time is near. Even so come Lord Jesus. Selah 10-03-09

Jude, Gateway To Revelation … Part 1

 A Bible Study by Jack Kelley  gracethrufaith.com/topical-studies

 Saturday, May 24th, 2014

• End Times
• False Teaching
• Featured 

The Book of Acts is sometimes called the Acts of the Apostles because it’s a record of their experiences in building the early Church. That being the case, the Book of Jude could be called Acts of the Apostates because it’s devoted to warning the Church of the false teachers who were coming to tear it apart.


I’ve sub-titled this series “The Gateway to Revelation” not just because Jude’s letter immediately precedes Revelation in the Bible, but also because the same false teaching Jude warned believers about at the beginning of the Church Age has been invading the Church in our times as well.  Paul said a great falling away (apostasy) would occur in the time before the anti-Christ is revealed (2 Thes. 2:3). Since we’re we’re currently witnessing this falling away,  we should review Jude’s 1 chapter letter to the Church and see what it says to believers in the end times, too.  Let’s begin.

Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James, To those who have been called, who are loved by God the Father and kept by Jesus Christ: Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance. (Jude:1-2)
The author identified himself as a servant of Jesus and a brother of James, who was head of the Church in Jerusalem in the years between Pentecost and his martyrdom in 62 AD.  Since James was a half brother of Jesus, Jude would also have been the Lord’s half brother. Neither James nor Jude were believers until after the resurrection (John 7:5).
Jude was clearly writing to the Church. The Greek word translated “called” in verse 1 means sanctified (set apart) and is from the word for saint. The claim that we are loved by God and kept by Jesus Christ combines John 3:16 (for God so loved the world) and John 6:39 (my Father’s will is that I should lose none of all that He has given me) and serves to confirm that once we’re saved the Lord takes responsibility for keeping us that way (2 Cor. 1:21-22).
Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord. (Jude: 3-4)

Jude wanted to write about loftier things, but in 65 AD when he wrote his letter, the Church was already being invaded by false teachers, and he felt the need to warn us about them instead.  This is something that continues to this day, and like it is today, these teachers were saying that sin doesn’t matter, Jesus wasn’t really God in the flesh, and he’s not the only way to salvation. Back then this was called the gnostic error, one teaching of which held that all Spirit is pure and all matter is evil, so what we do in the flesh is irrelevant to our spiritual life.

This same teaching proposed that God, being spirit, is pure and could never have dwelt in a physical body.  Therefore Jesus could not have been divine. They said the Spirit of God came to be with Him for a time but departed before His crucifixion leaving Him to die alone. Followers of gnosticism believed that salvation could not be attained through the death of a man, but rather came through the acquisition of secret knowledge. (The Greek word gnosis means “to know”.) The New Age religions are modern examples that build on this kind of thinking.

The Bible makes a powerful case for Jesus being God in human form, yet there are many “Christians in name only” who deny that.  And of course none of the world’s other religions accepts the divinity of Jesus.   Also, the doctrine of inclusivism in liberal Christian theology teaches that Jesus is not the only way to salvation. Different religious philosophies have their own unique beliefs and as long as people are sincere in practicing the beliefs of their chosen religion, they can find the way to God. They say it would be arrogant of Christians to insist that ours is the only way, even though Jesus made that very claim (John 14:6) .
Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority (literally, their origin) but abandoned their own home (the dwelling place of their spirit)—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day. In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire. (Jude:5-7)

These false teachers think they’re smart, behaving like they do. The way they distort the Scriptures and emphasize their advanced degrees shows them to have a superior attitude, acting as if they’re the only ones who really understand. But we should remember what happened to those who thought they were too smart for God in the past. Paul said, “Although they claimed to be wise they became fools” (Romans 1:22) and reminded us that God promised the wisdom of the wise will perish and the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish. He was quoting Isaiah 29:14 where God had Isaiah lodge the same complaint against the religious leaders of his time.  Having learned nothing from history these people will find themselves repeating it, reaping for themselves the same consequences.

Even the angels had to learn this. When some of them thought they could rebel against God and begin a new order, they took on human form without permission, chose human women as wives and produced a hybrid race of super humans (Genesis 6:4). Before long the human gene pool was almost entirely corrupted. But God brought the Great flood and destroyed them all, preserving only Noah and his family to begin again. The angels who led this pre-flood rebellion have been chained in darkness for over 4,000 years, awaiting their judgment. Peter had them in mind when he wrote,
“God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment” (2 Peter 2:4)

Later, Satan tried to pull this same stunt again, infesting the land God promised to His people with giants to frighten the Israelites away (Numbers 13:30-33). It worked for a while, but God gave His people the supernatural strength and courage to drive them out.
Some are convinced Satan will try this one more time, as the End of the Age approaches. They say beings like the Nephilim of Genesis 6 are returning as extra-terrestrials to help Satan kick God off the planet for good. I have no first hand evidence to prove or disprove this theory, but this I know. The Bible says it has happened before, and there are hints it could happen again. (For our complete study on the Nephilim go here)

And who could deny the current effort to re-create Sodom and Gomorrah in our midst? Using the law of the land to force the acceptance of deviant behavior on the people pits human governments directly against the Word of God and will produce the same response that has followed every preceding attempt of this kind; God’s judgment.
In the very same way, these dreamers pollute their own bodies, reject authority and slander celestial beings. But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not dare to bring a slanderous accusation against him, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” Yet these men speak abusively against whatever they do not understand; and what things they do understand by instinct, like unreasoning animals—these are the very things that destroy them. (Jude:8-10)

Some Gnostics of old believed the body was beyond redemption.  Therefore they felt comfortable indulging to excess in every form of perversity. And if you think this kind of thing only happened long ago, just watch a few prime time TV shows. A short generation ago such behavior would have been scandalous, unfit even for public discussion. Now it’s openly celebrated, and admired by many.

In this passage we come closer than any other place in the Bible to understanding why God allows Satan into His presence. Satan is a dignitary, a celestial being at the top of the created order. Even Michael the Archangel, who also occupies a high position in the angelic hierarchy, can not speak disrespectfully to him. With all the harm Satan has done to the creation, at least for now he is still afforded the courtesy due to someone in his position.
But the false teachers of yesterday and today feel free to slander anybody, including God, who they don’t understand. They even rebel against the things they intuitively know are right, suppressing Biblical truths about such things as how our world came into existence, when human life begins, and whether what they call an “alternative lifestyle” is sinful or not.
Speaking of these false teachers Peter said, “Bold and arrogant, these men are not afraid to slander celestial beings; yet even angels, although they are stronger and more powerful, do not bring slanderous accusations against such beings in the presence of the Lord. But these men blaspheme in matters they do not understand” (2 Peter 2:10-12).

And Jude continues, Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam’s error; they have been destroyed in Korah’s rebellion (Jude:11).
The way of Cain is to offer the works of our hands as payment for our sins rather than accept the sacrifice of an innocent substitute (Genesis 4:3-4). The Bible says Cain knew what was right, but refused to do what was right (Genesis 4:6). Similarly some preachers today put their flocks in greater bondage than they were before they were saved by teaching that although Jesus died so we could be saved it’s up to us to earn the right to stay that way.
Balaam’s error was to offer prophecies for a fee. He loved the wages of wickedness (2 Peter 2:15).  Today we would say, “He’s in it for the money.”  Some well- heeled televangelists teach things they know in their heart to be untrue just to coax more money from their gullible followers.

Korah rebelled against God’s chosen one (Moses) inciting the people to disobedience (Numbers 16). Because of him many people refused to follow God’s constituted authority.  For the Church today, God’s constituted authority is His word. But I get emails almost every day from people who can’t find a Bible believing church where they live. Others write to bemoan the fact that the church they’ve grown up in is suddenly taking a dramatic turn away from the Bible into things its writers have repeatedly warned us against doing.

So far it’s not looking good for the false teachers whether of Jude’s time or ours. But Jude is far from concluding his rant against them and before we’re finished Peter will have more to say too. Be sure to check in next week for the rest of Jude, Gateway to Revelation.  05-24-11

My report from Le Chambon, the French town that rescued thousands of Jews during the Holocaust.

Rebbloged from Joel Rosenberg´s blog: http://flashtrafficblog.wordpress.com/

Meeting with Gabriel, 90, a devout Christian in Le Chambon sur Lignon, who joined the Resistance to fight the Nazis and protect the Jews. He was wounded twice.

Presenting a signed copy of “The Auschwitz Escape” to the staff of Le Chambon’s museum.

In 1998, the State of Israel honored every single resident of a small French town with “Righteous Among the Nations” status. Why? Because during the Holocaust, the Protestant Christian pastors of this town rallied all 3,000 people to develop a system to hid, house, feed, school and protect some 5,000 people escaping from the Nazis. Most of those who were rescued were Jews, and many of them were children.

Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to visit this special town — Le Chambon sur Lignon – of which I had written about in The Auschwitz Escape. I went with an Israeli pastor who was born in France and made Aliyah in the early 1980s. He had been there before and had friends in the town. When he heard that I was using my novel to help draw attention to the remarkable story of these remarkable Christians, he offered to take me there. It was a humbling and amazing experience.

Here is a brief report:
We arrived around 8pm on a Friday night and went straight to the evangelical church in town. Waiting for us was a packed room of about 60 Christians from Le Chambon and neighboring towns who had gathered in this mountain hamlet to learn about God’s plan for Israel & the Jewish people.

The Israeli pastor taught the prophet Jeremiah on God’s “everlasting love” for the Jews, on the importance of Jerusalem in the Bible, and why there has been such a long and fierce struggle for control of Jerusalem throughout the centuries.

“You don’t know me, you’ve never heard of me,” I told the assembled group when it was my turn to share briefly. “But I know you. I’ve heard your story. I’ve studied your story and that of fore-bearers. And God told me to tell your story around the world. I’ve come here to Le Chambon to learn more of your remarkable story. To meet you. To understand why you did what you did. But most of all, I’ve come here to thank you, and to thank your parents and grandparents, for risking your lives to save so many lives, to rescue so many Jews, during the Holocaust. Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

That night, I had the opportunity to present a signed copy of The Auschwitz Escape to the pastor and his wife. On Saturday, I was able to present a signed copy of the book to the town historian, and another copy to the director of the town museum (via the staff) which is dedicated to teaching the story to future generations.

We also met with several people who had lived through those terrifying years, including Gabriel, 90, a devout Christian whose pastor was Andre Trocme, the hero who organized the people of Le Chambon to develop a system to rescue so many Jews (for details, see below).

In the days ahead, I will share more stories and pictures from our visit. But today I’d like to just lay out some of the facts of the story — facts that I hope you will share with others. When we say, “Never forget,” and “Never again,” it is selfless courage of heroes like the Christians of Le Chambon that we must remember.

• Le Chambon is located on the Lignon River, on a wide plateau in the mountains of south-central France.
• The population of the town in the early 1940s was about 3,000.
• Remarkably, the townsfolk rescued about 5,000 people, most of whom were Jews, and many of who were children.
• This was an evangelical Protestant town in a country that was — and remains — largely Catholic.
• Other Christians from surrounding towns also played an integral role helping rescue all these people — it wasn’t just the Christians of Le Chambon.
• Also, there were brave Catholics who also helped rescue Jews — it wasn’t just Protestants.
• That said, the senior pastor of the town at the time was Andre Pascal Trocme.
• Trocme was born in 1901.
• His family were Protestant evangelicals, descended from followers of John Calvin.
• They were descendants of the Hugenots, French Protestants who had been terribly persecuted by French kings who forbade them to preach the Gospel, teach the Word of God, publish or distribute Bibles, baptize believers, or gather for prayer and worship. Thus, the Trocmes – like other Christians in the town and on the plateau – understood what it was like to be a persecuted religious minority standing firm against tyrants.
• Trocme and his family not only hid, saved, and rescued Jews fleeing the Holocaust, they all organized the rest of the town to help.
• Trocme was ultimately arrested and sent to a concentration camp for his efforts in rescuing Jews, but later was released.
• He was recognized by Yad Vashem on January 5, 1971 as a “Righteous Among the Nations” for his heroic work to rescue Jews.
• When you read various accounts of his story, you quickly discover that he was a faithful, born again, deeply devoted follower of Jesus Christ.
• Trocme couldn’t bear the thought of people persecuting the Jews, for in his view — according to the Scriptures — Jews are the Chosen People of God, the apple of God’s eye.
• Trocme knew that Jesus was Jewish, and Jesus’ disciples were Jewish, and all of Jesus’ early followers were Jewish. How could a Christian oppose the Jews?
• Trocme also believed that when Jesus commanded His followers to “love your neighbor,” that this required to Christians to love and care for Jews, even Jews who didn’t — and might never — believe that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah.
• Trocme also believed that when the Apostle Paul (also Jewish) wrote in Galatians 6 that Christians should “do good to all men,” that Paul really men “all” men, including Jews.
• Trocme’s wife’s name was Magda.
• Magda was from Italy.
• Magda was recognized by Yad Vashem as a “Righteous Among the Nations” in 1986.
• The Trocmes had four children, all of whom helped in the rescue efforts.
• Pastor Trocme’s nephew, Daniel Trocme, was a science teacher. He was asked by Andre to run a boys school for refugee children, including Jewish refugees, which he readily agreed to do.
• But Daniel was arrested by Gestapo in 1943, along with 19 boys from his school, six of whom were Jews.
• Daniel was offered his freedom by the Gestapo, but refused to be separated from the boys entrusted to his care. 
• The six Jewish boys were sent to Auschwitz and murdered.
• Daniel was sent to the Maidanek concentration camp where died in April 1944 of sickness and exhaustion. He was 34.
• Daniel was recognized by Yad Vashem as a “Righteous Among the Nations” in 1976.
• Another pastor in Le Chambon was Edouard Theis.
• Theis directed the Cevenol high school nearby, where many Jewish refugee children were educated. 
• Theis was also arrested for hiding Jews, but was later released.
• Roger Darcissac was another key leader in the town.
• Darcissac was head of the public Boys’ School, and also hid and protected many Jews.
• He, too, was arrested, but later released.
• To learn more, please read the book, Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed, by Philip Hallie, published in 1994.

What Scary University & Military Experiments Prove About Obedience To Authority Figures

BLOOD ON THE ALTAR
The Coming War Between Christian vs. Christian
Posted: May 25, 2014
8:00 am Eastern
by Thomas Horn
Reblogged from Raiders News Update

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Similar to the findings of the Stanford Prison Experiment but in many ways more disturbing was the 1961 “Milgram Experiment” that has since been repeated on numerous occasions with consistent results.

The Milgram test measured the willingness of participants to obey authority figures who ordered them to go against expected restrictions of human conscience in performing acts of cruelty against other study participants.

The original tests began at Yale University in the early 1960s under psychologist Stanley Milgram. At the time, it was just three months into the trial of Nazi war criminal Otto Adolf Eichmann, a German Nazi colonel deemed highly responsible for organizing the Holocaust, and Milgram had designed his test to try to answer the burning question on people’s minds then: “Could it be that Eichmann and his million accomplices in the Holocaust were just following orders?”^[i] 

 Milgram came to believe that much of that sentiment was true, and that “the essence of obedience consists in the fact that a person comes to view himself as the instrument for carrying out another person’s wishes, and he therefore no longer regards himself as responsible for his actions.”^[ii] 

 Milgram first described his research in 1963 in the Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, then later in greater detail in his 1974 book, Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View. Milgram explained how participants were taken into a laboratory and, in the context of a learning experiment, were told to give increasingly severe electrical shocks to another person (who was actually an actor). The purpose of the assessment was to see how far a subject would proceed before refusing to comply with the experimenter’s instructions.

The test used three individuals: #1 was THE EXPERIMENTER—the authority figure running the trial; #2 was THE LEARNER—an actor pretending to be a test subject; and #3 was THE TEACHER—a volunteer who believed he or she was actually to administer voltage to THE LEARNER whenever he or she failed to answer a question correctly. The wiki on the way this test proceeded says the TEACHER and the LEARNER (actor) both drew slips of paper to determine their roles, but unknown to the TEACHER, both slips said “teacher.” The actor would always claim to have drawn the slip that read “learner,” thus guaranteeing that the unwitting volunteer would always be the “teacher.” 

At this point, the “teacher” and “learner” were separated into different rooms where they could communicate but not see each other. In one version of the experiment, the confederate was sure to mention to the participant that he had a heart condition.

 The “teacher” was given an electric shock from the electro-shock generator as a sample of the shock that the “learner” would supposedly receive during the experiment. The “teacher” was then given a list of word pairs which he was to teach the learner. The teacher began by reading the list of word pairs to the learner. The teacher would then read the first word of each pair and read four possible answers. The learner would press a button to indicate his response. If the answer was incorrect, the teacher would administer a shock to the learner, with the voltage increasing in 15-volt increments for each wrong answer. If correct, the teacher would read the next word pair.

The subjects believed that for each wrong answer, the learner was receiving actual shocks. In reality, there were no shocks. After the confederate was separated from the subject, the confederate set up a tape recorder integrated with the electro-shock generator, which played pre-recorded sounds for each shock level. After a number of voltage level increases, the actor started to bang on the wall that separated him from the subject. After several times banging on the wall and complaining about his heart condition, all responses by the learner would cease.

At this point, many people indicated their desire to stop the experiment and check on the learner. Some test subjects paused at 135 volts and began to question the purpose of the experiment. Most continued after being assured that they would not be held responsible. A few subjects began to laugh nervously or exhibit other signs of extreme stress once they heard the screams of pain coming from the learner.

If at any time the subject indicated his desire to halt the experiment, he was given a succession of verbal prods by the experimenter, in this order:

Please continue.

The experiment requires that you continue.

It is absolutely essential that you continue.

You have no other choice, you must go on.

If the subject still wished to stop after all four successive verbal prods, the experiment was halted. Otherwise, it was halted after the subject had given the maximum 450-volt shock three times in succession.

The experimenter also gave special prods if the teacher made specific comments. If the teacher asked whether the learner might suffer permanent physical harm, the experimenter replied, “Although the shocks may be painful, there is no permanent tissue damage, so please go on.” If the teacher said that the learner clearly wants to stop, the experimenter replied, “Whether the learner likes it or not, you must go on until he has learned all the word pairs correctly, so please go on.”^[iii]

The experimenter (E) orders the teacher (T), the subject of the experiment, to give what the latter believes are painful electric shocks to a learner (L), who is actually an actor and confederate. The subject believes that for each wrong answer, the learner was receiving actual electric shocks, though in reality there were no such punishments. Being separated from the subject, the confederate set up a tape recorder integrated with the electro-shock generator, which played pre-recorded sounds for each shock level.[iv]

The amazing findings from this experiment tallied 65 percent of the volunteers (including women) administering the final, massive, 450-volt shock even though they exhibited signs that they were uncomfortable doing so (pausing, questioning, sweating, trembling, biting their lips, digging their fingernails into their skin, and/or laughing nervously), but in the end they did it anyway on the advice of the authority figure (the experimenter). When some ethical criticisms were made in opposition to Milgram following his original study and conclusions (which have since been repeated around the world in different social settings with similar results), he said he believed the arguments developed because his research revealed something disturbing and unwelcome about human nature. He then summarized his findings and warned in his 1974 article, “The Perils of Obedience”:

The legal and philosophic aspects of obedience are of enormous importance, but they say very little about how most people behave in concrete situations. I set up a simple experiment at Yale University to test how much pain an ordinary citizen would inflict on another person simply because he was ordered to by an experimental scientist. Stark authority was pitted against the subjects’ [participants’] strongest moral imperatives against hurting others, and, with the subjects’ [participants’] ears ringing with the screams of the victims, authority won more often than not. The extreme willingness of adults to go to almost any lengths on the command of an authority constitutes the chief finding of the study and the fact most urgently demanding explanation.

Ordinary people, simply doing their jobs, and without any particular hostility on their part, can become agents in a terrible destructive process. Moreover, even when the destructive effects of their work become patently clear, and they are asked to carry out actions incompatible with fundamental standards of morality, relatively few people have the resources needed to resist authority.^[v]

Besides similarities between the Milgram and Stanford experiments, Philip Zimbardo reveals that none of the few participants who refused to administer the final shocks in the Milgram test insisted that the experiment itself be shut down. And when they were finished with their participation, none bothered to check the health of the victim they believed was potentially severely traumatized and/or physically harmed.^[vi] Years later, when researchers Charles Sheridan and Richard King speculated that some of the Milgram Experiment volunteers in the role of TEACHER may have suspected their victims were faking the trauma, they set up a similar trial using a “cute, fluffy puppy,” which obviously would not know how to “fake it.” In this case, the electrical shocks were real—albeit, unknown to the participants, harmless. 

Their findings—published as “Obedience to Authority with an Authentic Victim”—were reported during the proceedings of the eightieth annual convention of the American Psychological Association and surprisingly verified Milgram’s conclusion. As in the Yale University experimentation, most subjects in the Sheridan-King research illustrated high levels of distress during the ordeal, yet 50 percent of the male subjects and 100 percent of the females obeyed the authority figure and continued to “electrocute” the puppy until the end.^[vii]

Not to be redundant, but again, what could this research suggest the majority of people might be willing to do when the utmost fearsome “authority figure” ever to walk planet earth arrives (a time when Jesus said people’s hearts will fail them for fear [see Luke 21:26]) and begins ordering his followers to kill all who will not accept his leadership?
  
COMING UP IN NEXT ENTRY: How Technology Will Provide Conditions for a Global "Lucifer Effect"

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[i] Harold M. Schulweis, Conscience: The Duty to Obey and the Duty to Disobey (Jewish Lights Publishing, 2010) Google eBook, 106 (retrieved February 6, 2014).

[ii] Ibid.

[iii] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_
experiment#cite_note-7.

[iv] Ibid.

[v] Stanley Milgram, The Perils of Obedience,” http://www.physics.utah.edu/~detar/phys4910/
readings/ethics/PerilsofObedience.html.

[vi] “The Milgram Experiment,” Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment#cite_ref-11.

[vii] Charles L. Sheridan and Richard King Jr., “Obedience to Authority with an Authentic Victim,” http://www.holah.co.uk/files/sheridan_king_1972.pdf.