1 John Introduction and 1:1-3

My blog update

1 John Outline

1. The truth about Christ (1:1-4)

     A. An affirmation about he person of Christ (1:1)

     B. And affirmation about the author of the letter (1:2-4)

Supporting bible verses:

2 Peter 1:16

Luke 24:39

Matthew 16:17

John 17:22-26

John 15:11

Is Easter Christian?

Every Easter holiday, Christians are pummeled by articles claiming that Easter is a pagan holiday originating with the Assyrian goddess Ishtar or the Babylonian equivalent Astarte and that eggs and the bunny were a sign of fertility.  But is this true?

In a word, nope.  Not at all.  Here’s the deal.  The Hebrew word for Passover is pesach. Most English bibles translates pesach (or the Greek word pascha) as Passover and a couple translate it into Easter.  But it’s the same word.  Easter is an Anglo-Saxon word meaning Passover or Easter. Anglo-Saxon language itself is a Germanic language and Germans used the word Oster for Passover and Easter and is related to the words for resurrection. So, yes, Easter is a term speaking on the resurrection of Jesus.  But what about the Easter Bunny?  

You can thank the German Lutherans for that tradition.  The Easter Bunny is no different than Santa Claus with the exception of the time of the year he shows up. The Easter Bunny was to judge whether the children were obedient or not at the start of the season of Eastertide.  That tradition landed on the shores of this great continent in the 1700’s with the German immigrants into Pennsylvania which went nationwide rather quickly. But aren’t the eggs a symbol of fertility?

Nope.  It was a rather pragmatic solution to Lent.  Orthodox churches abstained from eggs during the fast of Lent and the only way to keep the eggs from going bad was to boil them and eat them at the end of the fast. But what about decorating the eggs?

Well, that was just for fun for some churches to celebrate the dawn of spring. However, the Eastern Orthodox churches tend to dye their eggs red to represent the blood of Christ.

So there you go.  Easter, the Easter Bunny, and the Easter eggs are all Christian in origin. Celebrate. And since the Clouse name is German in origin, I’m taking full credit for how awesome the German christians are for this tradition.

Christian topics

There are many christians talking about many different topics these days and there seems to be much confusion in those circles.  I'm opening this blog up to talk about many of those topics and, hopefully, to clear up the confusion. I don't know how often I'll post, but I'm hoping for a weekly post.  Feel free to comment or email me for this is how I am starting my church and truly wish to assist when and where I can. 

A few years ago, Lifeway Research posted a poll showing that, while 90% of churchgoers wanted to please and honor Jesus in all they did, 80% did not read the bible daily.  Worse, nearly 20% have never read the bible. More than half read the bible once a week or less, and I'm guessing that was at the church service. I plan to change that as much as I can for this must change.  Truth cannot be acted upon if people do not know what the truth is.  

More interestingly, and this is not a scientific poll, I have been talking with many christians about what the Gospel is and how to save souls or know if your own soul is saved.  Dreadfully few had an inkling.  And since that is the most important subject, that will be the subject with which I will start. I will detail that subject with all my ability and fully expect it to take months to flesh out. But that is merely details. Action still needs to take place after that.  

I will talk about the popular, and biblically inaccurate, method widely used today in USA and show how it fails to work. Most christians use this method and it was used on me, but I knew I was still lost as those who "saved" my soul went to eat after church once they spent 20 minutes talking with me about eternity.

And know this: one of the reasons of doing this is to start my own church. I'm debating between buying one and getting a job as a pastor of one. The one that pops its head up first is probably the one I take first.

However, that is a topic for a different time. Today is about launching a blog. The first topic is about salvation of your soul.  There are many different topics I could cover, and will probably cover in the future, but I need to start here.  There are many reasons for it.  For example, I could talk about biblical finances, but I can teach that in a few months and you can probably master it in a few years.  It's important, but not the most important subject.  I could teach about end times, post- or pre-trib, and what the second coming will look like.  But once it occurs, you'll know it perfectly. But salvation of your soul, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, is such a massive subject that I could never know it completely even after spending an eternity in heaven. Teaching on this subject is like standing on a stage talking to people sitting in seats about how much more I know about the sun because of my higher altitude. But since so few know anything about it, and because this is the most important subject possible, it's where I shall start.  I will break it down into manageable bites. All I ask is that you search your bibles for what I write and check your souls.