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After These Things (μετὰ ταῦτα)

“After these things” gives us an important anchor in Scripture concerning the timing of events. It is more important during prophecy, but also in other areas we are carried along within the timeline of events by the use of “after these things”.

The first “after these things” we find is with Jesus showing signs and gathering His disciples. After Jesus heals a paralyzed man He found Levi, a tax collector, and says to Him “Follow Me” (Luke 5:23). So we see Christ began showing signs to the Jews before gathering all His disciples.

Christ warning His disciples concerning the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. They are not to fear those who can kill the body but after these things has no authority, Luke 12:4.

While instructing the apostles, Jesus uses an example of a slave and a master. When the slave is finished with his work, he is not treated in a special way by the master who only after these things eats himself; rather, the slave has simply done what was required (Luke 17:8).

As the Passover was near, Jesus went up to Jerusalem and seeing the money changers in the temple, drove them out. The Jews, seeing this, requested a sign from Jesus where He states tear down this temple and in three days I will raise it up. After these things Jesus and His disciples went into the land of Judea. John 3:22.

While in Cana of Galilee a royal official requested from Jesus to come and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. Jesus stated to the official that his son lives, and the official believed Him. This was the second sign Jesus did in Judea and after these things […]

After These Things (μετὰ ταῦτα)2023-11-25T08:01:45-08:00

The Creation of the Universe

The first book of the Bible starts out with the story of creation of the heavens and the earth along with the earth’s renovation for humans. Unfortunately, due to some rather sloppy translations and the failure of new translations to correct the issue, we miss a lot of information that is expressed in the first few verses.

Genesis 1:1 – In a beginning God created the heavens and the earth. In this verse the change is minor, but has a significant impact on the events expressed. Rather than in “the” beginning, we find “a” beginning in the original Hebrew. This is important because it is not referring to the beginning of all creation, but specifically referring to a beginning when God created the universe and the earth. We find over in Job 38:7 that the angels (the sons of God) shouted for joy when the stars were created. They saw God create the heavens and the earth, therefore they had to have been created prior to the universe.

The next verse is also important to correctly translate from the original Hebrew to fully understand what is being conveyed. Genesis 1:2 – “And the earth was a wasteland and empty, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God brooded over the face of the waters.” Starting with the word “was”, the Hebrew language expresses the action of the verb in primarily two ways. It is incomplete or complete action. Incomplete is closely akin to ongoing action in English, where complete is expressed by the English past tense. Why does that matter? Because if the earth is in a state of being formless and void as a part of its creation, “was” would […]

The Creation of the Universe2023-11-23T18:08:22-08:00

Conviction (ἔλεγχος)

Conviction, the evidence or proof that a belief is based upon. Faith is the substance of that which is hoped for, the conviction of accomplished works not seen (Hebrews 11:1). Since hope is always based upon a promise (Romans 8:24), faith in the one giving the promise is what undergirds the hope we have, even though we cannot at this time look at what was promised. When used in action it still carries the same meaning; therefore, Scripture, which is God-breathed, is profitable towards teaching and conviction, along with correction and child-training (2 Timothy 3:16). Which is why the Pastor is instructed to preach in season and out of season while convicting along with rebuking in all longsuffering and doctrine (2 Timothy 4:2).

There is so much great information in these passages and the meaning of the words, like teaching is different from doctrine, and child-training is specific to Christians, along with the fact that the Scripture is actually God-breathed, but we will have to look at these another time. Understanding conviction is important, because it is not about accusing a person, but about why we believe what we believe. The conviction is not judgment but laying out the truth so that our faith is shown to be based upon actual promises from God, not from humans. We see this with the Holy Spirit’s work concerning the unbelievers today. He convicts them of a sin – not believing in Christ’s death for sins and resurrection (John 16:8-11), righteousness – because Christ goes to the Father, and judgment – because the ruler of this world has been judged. He is not making them feel bad about their sins, but convincing them through truth of the facts of […]

Conviction (ἔλεγχος)2023-11-25T08:02:34-08:00
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