I was raised Lutheran, and the Apostles’ Creed is my confession to this day:
I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
the Creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ,
His only Son, our Lord:
Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried.
He descended into hell.
The third day He arose again from the dead.
He ascended into heaven
and sits at the right hand of
God the Father Almighty,
whence He shall come to judge
the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic (universal) church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and life everlasting. Amen.
I believe the word of God, the sixty-six books of our Holy Bible, to be the word of truth inspired by the Holy Spirit. I believe that word to be the infallible and unchanging word of God, true in all its statements, no matter what sphere they touch upon (see here).
I believe both testaments of the Holy Bible are in complete harmony with each other and teach the same message: that righteousness or right- standing (salvation or justification) before God is by faith not works (see here). I believe that right behavior or actions (sanctification or obedience to God) is an outcome of true faith, and this admonition to both believe God, and to behave rightly is preached without alteration from Genesis through Revelation.
I believe that there is one God, one gospel, one faith, one message inspired by the one Spirit, and one people of God from Genesis through Revelation (Eph 4:4-5). I believe that God expressed as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is eternal and unchanging, the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb 13:8). I believe that His Word is true from Genesis to Revelation, and that none of it, including Torah, has passed away nor will pass away until all is fulfilled (Psa 89:34, Mat 5:18).
I believe that Moses and the prophets are not in opposition to Jesus and the apostles, nor are Jesus and the apostles in opposition to Moses and the prophets, but rather, Moses wrote about Jesus (Joh 5:46-47), i.e., the Torah is the first teacher of the gospel of grace and salvation by faith, not by works of the Law, lest any man should boast (see here).
I believe that Jesus and the apostles taught us that right behavior or sanctification (obedience to God’s will as expressed in commandments) is evidence of saving faith, lest any man should be deceived (see here).
I believe in the three solae of the Reformation: sola scriptura, sola gratia, sola fide; Scripture alone, grace alone, faith alone. Therefore, I rest from labor and assemble to worship with the believers on the scriptural Sabbath, the seventh day (Saturday), rather than on Sunday which is according to the tradition of men (see here); abstain from pork, shellfish, and other unclean foods (see here); celebrate the feast days of the Lord commanded in Lev 23 and elsewhere (see here); and obey the Ten Commandments as the summary of the Law of God to the best of my ability (see here), because I love the Lord God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength (Joh 14:15), but not because I can earn salvation by good works.
Shabbat Shalom, Christine. I am just a few hours from you in western NE. 🙂 Just came across your blog. I’ll be following you and reading your posts.
I’d like to follow your posts so that they appear in a link in my email. I already began to “follow” on Facebook but I do not have Pinterest or Twitter, so can you tell me where to link to just receiving notice of a new post in my email inbox?
Thank you for visiting! I am trying to find out the answer to your question. I wanted to let you know that I was working on it.
Hi Christine, I love what I see so far, and I would also like to receive email notices of new blogs.
Hi Terri, thank you so very much for visiting and for your kind words. I am trying to learn how to do the email notices … hopefully soon! Love Christine
Hi Christine,
I am new to your blog and I am looking forward to learning about you and your revelations!
Thanks
Thank you so much for visiting Cheri!
Hi Christine,
How blessed we are to live in this time where we can connect and learn from other sisters-in-Christ!! I live in Nashville and would never know anything about you or be able to view your awesome pictures if not for the internet. I look forward to receiving your posts!
Blessings,
Cynthia
I often think the Internet is like a second Gutenberg printing press revolution, on a far grander scale. It is a blessing! Thank you so very much for visiting Cynthia!
God bless you Christine,
The Stoic School has a long association with Christianity. Especially from AD 50 to AD 65, our records agree with Acts 17 and beyond. Paul went to where Socrates was condemned for believing in only one God, and Acts mentions that the Stoic School pursued Paul’s new gospel. Our documents show Paul and Seneca the Younger were youthful companions and were both present at the Acts 17 sermon, and Seneca was the one who said, “we want to here more about this” to Paul.
Regardless, thank you for your internet presence, “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea” (NIV).
God grant you many years.
Thank you for this comment and for visiting today Kelly. Please do come back again. <3
Dear Christine,
This is remarkable. Today is the second time Providence has crossed our paths. Imagine my surprise then contemplation when I found a scripture reading today that covered Acts 17 (the famous sermon to Stoics) AND it was on your site where I posted a comment almost exactly two years ago.
Thank you for sharing in your About section your recent terrible accident and its consequent suffering. Please accept my sympathies. You are in my prayers and meditations.
I found your Classical Christian Homeschooling site early on. You were still adding years. The fact is, your labor of love saved my sanity and more at a crucial time in my life. I hope to some day tell you more about it.
Good health to you,
Kelly
Thank you for visiting and your kind words of encouragement Kelly! God bless you abundantly –
Hello Christine, I enjoy your love for Yeshua, I found your blog through my friend Anne.. which I enjoy her blogs as well. I’m so thankful for you sharing, you have a beautiful ministry. May the Lord bless you and prosper you in your dedication to Him
Thank you so much for your kind comments Tammy! Please do come back again!
Shalom Christine,
I just ran across your website through a link I came across while searching for a chiasm on Jacob’s life. I followed a graphic of your chiasm of the last chapters of Genesis because it’s color and design caught my eye. In reading the basic chiastic structure you present, I found it compelling, so I ventured to your site and read your testimony. Interesting.
I also home educated my children, focused on the classics, am of the tribe of Levi, have Hebraic-based view of scripture, and passionately study His word. (I have led a home-based messianic congregation for over 20 years.) Strangely enough, although my mother is Jewish and my father’s name descends from the Levitical Gershonites, my father’s family converted to Christianity (to avoid persecution) and adopted the Lutheran culture to blend in to the Barvarian culture where they settled. (My paternal grandfather and his brother then emigrated to the US anticipating and to avoid WWI.) I was thus raised in a Lutheran-cultured home (though no family members were born again.) When I was a young teenager, my mother accepted Yeshua and became involved with Jews for Jesus. That influence set a trajectory for me when I accepted the same Messiah in high school in the 1970’s. Volunteering with Jews for Jesus while in college, I was involved in the early days of the modern messianic movement (in the 1980’s.)
I looked at more of your work, which you have online. I find your biblical perspective and studies are an excellent resource (to put it mildly.) I am currently writing a paper about Nathaniel’s encounter with Yeshua. This leads to Jacob, which leads to Esau and Nimrod, Laban and the Tower of Babel, which brings me to your own work concerning Babylon. In reading your Babylon Connection, I not only find your exegesis worthy, but full of gems. Your prose are wonderfully written and easy to read. I am also impressed by the design of your pages, which make it very easy to navigate and see where I am. Altogether, the quality of your biblical study and the design of your site are both refreshing and provide peace to the spirit and food for the soul.
You offer an enormous amount of material which I would love to look through. I hope to find time to do so. I also have a lot of material compiled from my biblical studies, which I think is also worthy and is needed, just as is your work. I would like to make my work available on the web and I am inspired by your own presentation. Presently, I only have it available in a Google drive. (I have a website, but it is only an experimental and empty framework.) If I may, I believe my work is very complementary to yours and I think it would be a wonderful resource for serious students of the word. I would like to present my work on the Web and also provide a link to other complementary work, such as yours, to provide complementary perspectives and differences in style that would greatly assist the student. Most of my work in the last 7 years has been focused in the parshot (the Torah portions), unlocking the blueprint of the scriptures. (I think you would be interested in the patterns I have uncovered, which are complementary to what you present in Gen 1.) However, your work in Revelation, which I also viewed, is likewise complementary to my own.
I am curious about a number of things (more on technical issues that may help me move forward in sharing my work on the web) and would like to connect with you by email, if you would be willing.
In any case, thank you for sharing your work and for sharing your faith. Finding your site is a blessing and encouragement in a world that is being led increasingly into the hopeless rebellion of Nimrod.
Yeshua says, “You will see greater things than these!”
Hello Otto, thank you so much for stopping by and for your kind words. Please do come back again!
I found you online while studying for a sermon series on the Olivet Discourse.
For me, your chiasm on Matthew 24 was the most helpful thing I found after a week of online research.
I have navigated around a bit, and remain amazed at your, well, ‘erudition’ and grasp of the things of God, generally, but also your ability to go deep on specific topics & subjects – and of course your special areas of interest.
I will recommend you (your websites) to our little English language church, here in Vieques, P.R.
“Muchos Bendiciones”
Thank you very much for visiting, and leaving your kind comments Jay. It is very encouraging and much appreciated. Please do come back again.