B.A.S.I.C. NEWSLETTER # 92

B.A.S.I.C. NEWSLETTER # 92

I Cor. 16:9  “For a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.”

March 15, 2007

A New Evangelist School In the BELC(India) this February a two year program of training was started  for young men to then finish as evangelists. This was started at Nagalapuram. While we had hoped to start another one at Nellore, it had to wait due to funding. The approach to the support of these men is the same as at the other three schools overseas that the CLC supports.  It is through USA sponsors giving money each month to the support of the men in training. While we had planned on fifteen, there may be nineteen. Four men are finishing their school examinations and may soon enroll. Our Lord has told us that the field is white for harvest and there are a shortage of workers. With this school we seek to work toward more workers. The school has classes for four days a week with practical work on weekends in congregations. We ask that all our brothers pray for the success of the Word in the hearts of these young men.     A Study of the Apostle’s (Part 5) Thomas
There are eight references to Thomas in the New Testament. Four of these are in the lists of the apostles. He is also called in Jn. 11:16  ‘Didymus’ which means twin. Who his twin was we do not know. When Jesus is going
to go to Lazarus’s tomb with the attendant dangers involved from enemies, Thomas speaks up “Let us also go, that we may die with Him.” Jn. 11:16. This can be a voice of courage or of pessimism.

There is no question that Thomas expressed his weakness of faith in the
Lord when he said in Jn. 14:5, “Lord, we do not know where you are gong,
and how can we know the way?” Thomas loved His Lord, but how can we know and go? In the first appearance of Jesus to the apostles in the upper room Thomas was not present. Jn. 20:24 We do not know why. But we do know that this definitely led to both faithless and faithful statements from Thomas later. Upon returning and hearing the news he says he won’t believe unless he sees the nail prints in His hands and puts his finger in the nail prints and spear mark. Jesus appears the week later and challenges Thomas. It is then that Thomas repents and makes that statement of absolute personal faith, “My Lord and my God!” Jn. 20:28

Tradition has Thomas doing mission work to the east of Syria. For Thomas there are  fuller accounts of him and his work than for most of the apostles after the Scripture record. He evidently went to the Parthian(Persian) Empire and from there into modern India. There are very good indications from a variety of sources that Thomas worked on the west coast of India and then on the east. It was outside of modern Madras that he was speared
to death and buried in Mylapore

Andrew
Andrew with his brother Peter belonged to a family of fishermen. Jn. 1:14 They worked together fishing from the sea. Mt. 4:18, Mk. 1:16 Furthermore they worked in the business with James and John. Jesus beckoned them to be fishers of men. Mt. 4:18-22 Andrew was the first of the apostles to be called. Jn. 1:35-40 Andrew was a disciple of John the baptizer before that. It was at the feeding of the five thousand that Andrew offers the information that “There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish” Jn. 6:9 His weakness shows though in that he wonders then “what are they among so many.” He would see. Philip told Andrew about the Greeks who sought to see Jesus. It appears then that it is Andrew who takes charge.

The Bible does not record what happened to Andrew after Pentecost. Tradition says he went north to Scythia and Georgia in Russia working in the Black Sea area.  The church at Constantinople (Istanbul) claims him as its
founder. It seems that he returned south to Greece then. One account says he led the wife of a provincial governor to Christ. This angered her husband who demanded his wife recant. She wouldn’t and so Andrew was crucified.
Tradition says the governor prolonged his agony and that it was on an x shaped cross. Even in his death he spoke of Christ and many people heard and asked for him to be cut down.  It is thought he died in late 69.     Hermeneutics – Figures of Speech

Synechdoche

This is when a part is used to represent the whole or the whole for a part. The Psalmist in 16:9 is not just saying his “heart rejoices”, but his whole being rejoices. The heart stands as the inner base of the whole self rejoicing.

Metonomy

This is when a word or words stand for another. In the parable in Luke 16:29 it is not just that the brothers on earth have “Moses and the prophets” but the Word of God, which these words stand for. Metonomy and synechdoche are very similar. For instance in the following passages which is which: “I have meat to eat that you know not,” John 4:32, “I must preach the good tidings of the kingdom of God to the other cities also,” (that is to their inhabitants also) Luke 4:43.

Irony

This figure of speech says what is not basically true to present what is true. It is a matter of censure or ridicule. When Job says, “wisdom will die with you,” Job 12:2, it will not end with those men of course. But he is censuring them that they act as if they have the wisdom that no one else has. When Jesus says in Mark  7:9 “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God,” He is not complementing them. He is ridiculing them in what they think is so fine, using man-made laws to overrule the Word of God and supplant it.

Allusion

How the Jewish authorities misunderstood Jesus’ statement in John 2:19, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” Jesus meant His body and was transferring the idea of temple from the Temple in Jerusalem to the temple of His body. This is a good example of how we should listen carefully to what our Lord says and see it in its context to understand.     Pastor Koenig