Landmark Baptist

     Matthew 24 is one of the great chapters of the Bible. Jesus gives us a revelation of what will happen during this last age and how God’s people are affected. The Lord’s task was to prepare the disciples for the long delay until He returns to set up His Kingdom (Mt.25:19; Lk.19:11,12).

     In verse 2 the temple was to be destroyed, “not one stone shall be left upon another.” This happened in 70 A.D. The disciples were very curious as to the SIGN of His coming (parousia-arriving presence) and the end of the age (aionios). The SIGN of His coming was to be when He comes “on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (Mt.24:30).

     “And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (Jn.17:3). Israel was in a low spiritual slump when Jesus came. Mt.4:16 says, “The people who sat in darkness saw a great light and upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned.”

     The word rendered “eternal” in Jn.17:3 is the adjective form of AION, which means a piece of time which may be long or limited in duration. “The length of the AION depends on the subject to which it is attached” (Vincent Word Studies). The adjective form AIONIOS carries also the idea of the character and quality of life or circumstances within time.

Dear Brother,

     The covenant fellowship meetings are a blessing as I enjoy being with the brethren and the exchange of thoughts on scripture. There are some troubling differences on several Bible subjects that have kept me wondering why this should be. Example why would the teaching that one who is saved if not baptised is not redeemed and will be condemned to Gehenna.

     I came to the conclusion that these differences are a result what is believed about the future Kingdom of Christ. What is the true Bible MODEL of the Kingdom? And what is the false MODEL being set forth?

     Over the last couple of years much discussion has taken place in this country on the subject of the “dumbing down” of American school children. Leading the way in this discussion has been talk radio and conservative politicians. What they primarily point to is an evil called “outcome based education” which is basically socialistic education, in that the goal is to produce a more even outcome of the students. As in most endeavors, the proponents of this approach won’t just call it socialistic education. They couch it in noble terms, often referring to the supposed underlying desire to “improve the self-esteem” of the slower students. To accomplish this, there is less notice given to the achievers. The smarter students are not encouraged as much to strive for excellence and the gifted student is not pushed to learn even more and certainly not publicly praised and recognized, for fear of hurting the self-esteem of the other students. I hope we see the deception of this in our public schools. It was a system that encouraged excellence and hard work that made this country great.

     Since the year 1611 when the King James Version of the Bible became widely used, English speaking peoples have been left to wonder what certain words mean. Among these words is baptism which is a Transliteration and not a translation of the Greek word “BAPTO” and its forms. All through the Church of England, translators rendered, or I should say just brought the Greek letters over into our language, when the ordinance of baptism was under consideration, there were a few times when they translated the word.