Template:Idiotes

Are Christians Idiots?

There are several words in the New Testament that are translated "world" and most of them do not mean the planet. Knowing what words meant at the time they were used in the writing of scriptures can be important to understanding the true meaning of the message intended in the text.
In John 17:5 There is a request by Jesus that the Father glorify Him as it was before the world. In the next verse Jesus talks about the men which thou (God) gavest me out of the world: (ἐκ τοῦ κόσμου, ek tou kosmou)? Could this have to do with the apostles being idiotes?

When Christ spoke of the Kingdom there was a revolution going on in Judea and the world. Rome was dead as a Republic and the Caesars as emperors had seized power from the masses. Herod had followed some of the same politicical patterns that we saw in the day of a Julius Caesar with his new systems of the governments of Rome. When the people developed an appetite for benefits of free bread at the expence of their neighbor they forfeted the own rights. They, the masses, were wooed to sell their allegiance, their inheritance, and their liberty by their appetite for the reward of unrighteousness provided at the tables of public religion which was idolatry.

The policies and practices of these politicians and the appetite of the people had the world on a one-way road to social and economic destruction. John the Baptist and Jesus were going to be turning the world upside down with an alternative to a dependance upon their tables of social welfare which had in the past been a snare. They were clearly shaming the hypocrites who claimed to be following Moses but did not know him nor the God who sent him to set the captive free.

"Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus." Acts 4:13

The word translated ignorant is not the normal Greek word agnoeo meaning ignorant or unlearned but it is the Greek word idiōtēs (ἰδιώτης) from idios meaning as 'pertaining to one's self, one's own, belonging to one's self'.

The English word “idiot” comes from the Latin idiōta which came to mean an ignorant person. Romans in their arrogance at that time in their civil history, the Republic long being dead, believed that everyone should submit to their rule. But in the Greek idiōtēs as used here in Acts meant a private "person not involved in public affairs" of the Roman State.

Even the word translated unlearned in this text is not the Greek agnoeo nor amathes which can mean ignorant but it is the word agrammatoi which only appears once in the Bible and according to Professor Markus Nikolaus Andreas Bockmuehl, a biblical scholar specializing in Early Christianity, “should not be rendered ‘unlearned'” He goes on to say "To be an idiotes is to be outside of the guild, or outside of the group..."

Of course, all the apostles were a part of the called out were not to be a part of the world which is detailes in John 17.

Timothy writes that we should not be unlearned using a term which can mean ignorant.

This word agrammatoi'' is rare in any Greek text. Its meaning may depend on the period and use in context. I have found it describing the muster rolls of a battalion or a registry of members kept by scribes.

Christians provided for one another in charity and did not participate in the free bread and welfare of Rome as we see the Pharisees doing.

The Pharisees had chosen Caesar's ways and form of government as their benefactor. The Christians were not involved in the public affairs of the Pharisees and Herod with their civil law system of social welfare run through their temples.

Christians were involved in public affairs of Christ working daily in the temple.

The temple in Jerusalem, the same as those of Rome, was the center of their social welfare. With the baptism of John, Christ's followers, who were eventually called Christians, had opted out of a social welfare system that had snared the people under the authority of Herod's welfare state.

Christians had another king, one Jesus, and were standing fast in the liberty of Christ. The persecution of Christians by public magistrates was often based on their refusal to participate in the temple welfare systems of Rome.

The word translated marvelled in Acts is “thaumazo” which is also translated in the Bible as "have in admiration" and "admire" . They were impressed and yet they did not like what they were hearing. Many modern Christians would not want to hear the truth of what the early church was doing either.

The Pharisees had been teaching things that were contrary to God, Moses and now Jesus. They professed God with their lips in vain. The people were going back into the bondage of Egypt under the imperial powers of Rome contrary to the command of God.

They had been running their government and leading the people in a way that violated the Spirit of the Law established by God and His precepts upon precepts. They were making the word of God to none effect with their social welfare programs.

Many will decry this interpretation of agrammatoi eisin kai idiōtai. Christians need to be willing to know the whole truth and look at all things anew. If you will not learn the context in history when the Bible was written you will fail to understand the meaning of the authors. Simple misinterpretations by private souls can take the people a long way off course in their quest for the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.

Early Rome, like the Americans of the 17th century, had learned to govern themselves according to the ideals of the earliest republics. But maintaining that form of government requires great diligence and virtue.

The Roman people had begun to look to their elected officials and then the office of Caesar for every social benefit. The more they neglected individual responsibility the more their liberty, their right to choose, declined.

With each new benefit, the government became more and more powerful and the people became more self-indulgent, apathetic and weak. Rome had become the peacekeepers of the world and soon offered themselves as benefactors to other nations, but not without a heavy price. They would exercise authority over the people who were slothful in the practices of honor and virtue taught by the prophets of God. Rome like the United States began exacting tribute from its subjects to obtain the funds needed to supply those suggested benefits.

The more power the people granted by vote or negligence the more the government became corrupt and self-serving.

The practice of expanding government power through offering to care for the people and shower them with benefits is as old as Cain and Nimrod.

From the beginning we were not to covet our neighbor's goods nor were we to make covenants with the people round about us to take from our neighbor. If you choose to eat with a ruler you were to put a knife to your throat for your own protection.

You were not to consent with people to obtain benefits where there is one purse. If people failed to listen to these warnings then what should have been for their welfare would become that snare.

Many of the people were entangled in the yoke of bondage and were snare under the elements of the world both legally and emotionally because of these false teachings that had crept into their eschatology.

Lawyers, Senates, and Sanhedrin bound the people through the establishment of a social welfare scheme they labeled Qorban and Corban. In 78 BC the Pharisees and eventually Herod would expanded that social welfare system.

Jesus said through those ordinances they made the word of God to none effect.

The original Corban, a form of social assurance, under Moses was based on free will offerings or sacrifice given through a living network of ministers who sought to serve the people. Herod's system included Rabbinical Baptism, contributions, a temple treasury to store them, scribes to keep track of the mandatory contribution of members [the temple tax], and a network of ministers and synagogues to distribute the benefits according to statutory limitations.

The sacred texts should have been clear enough, but the Pharisees were able to twist the meaning of the words to justify themselves. The pride of the scholar strangles the hope of repentance. What part of freewill offering and charity do they not understand?

History of the Pharisees has repeated itself in the modern religions and they have all betrayed their founders.

John the Baptist offered an alternative system. It also included a Baptism ritual but it operated much differently. His network of congregations and ministers provided for their needy in pure religion through free will contributions – charity. They did not have entitlements but lived by hope. They did not give allegiance but lived by faith. They did not force their neighbor to contribute but lived by charity. There is no more revolutionary gospel than Christ's.

Modern Christians are ignorant of the full “Gospel of the Kingdom” preached by Christ and the early Church. Some have even claimed that Jesus was a socialist. Modern socialism requires a social contract and the point of a sword to force the contributions of the people. Those who covet their neighbor's goods through the agency of these so-called state benefactors have become nothing more than human resources according to prophecy of Peter.

They have more in common with the Pharisees than they do John or Jesus. That and their lack of knowledge is why they are back in bondage of the world.

Christ preached a welfare system based on faith, hope, and charity which required social virtues and love for one another. The religious practice establishes the social bonds of righteousness through the Corban of Christ.

The ministers of their society were servants of the people in an alternative system that set men free. Jesus told many parables on how His government of righteousness must operate. He talked about forgiving debt rather than arresting people and forcing them to pay. He talked about the poor widow giving more value than that of the rich man. He fired the money changers and instructed the ministers in the royal treasury. He refused to appoint captains and princes to rule over the people. He taught his minister that they were there to serve only.

This was called the perfect law of liberty. It was a system of individual responsibility and honor. It had congregations and ministers. It was organized from the bottom of the hearts of men who loved the way of Christ according to the precepts of God. It divided the goats and sheep.

Some of the people of Judea and the world went the way of Herod, Caesar, and Pharaoh and some went the way of Abraham, Moses, John the Baptist and Jesus. The former denounced David and embraced the ways of Caesar and the latter embraced the highest son of David, the rightful king of Judea according to Rome.

The Pharisees at the time of Christ were socialist. Christians simply would not participate in socialist schemes that compelled the contributions of their neighbor because Jesus said “But it shall not be so among you.”

People are under a strong delusion set forward by the Modern Pharisees of today posing as the Church established by Christ. They profess God and Jesus with their mouths, but they fall short of following His “Way”.

You cannot be a follower of Christ and seek to force your neighbor to contribute to your welfare at the point of a sword or gun. You cannot be a modern socialist and a Christian. Those who think they can may be considered idiots. They are certainly non-participators in the Gospel of the Kingdom preached by Christ.

We should all be striving to participate in the ways of Christ by serving one another in love and not coveting our neighbor's goods. If we are to be free we must set our neighbor free. If we are to be [forgive]n we must forgive our neighbor's debt.

There is no reason to opt-out of the world or its systems until you are ready to opt into the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. This would include sitting down in the Tens as Christ commanded and earnestly setting up a daily ministration of faith, hope, and Charity through the perfect law of liberty rather than by force, fear, and fealty and the covetous practices of the world which are a snare, makes you merchandise and curse children.

The priests and preachers who say it is okay to covet your neighbor's goods through the agency of governments are not preaching the Gospel of Christ. To say it is okay to bite one another will get the people devoured and is the gospel of the "brutish pastor". It is time to repent and seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness by striving to do the will of the Father.

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Audio file answering the question "Are Christians Idiotes" from Blog Talk Radio

http://hisholychurch.net/audio/2011btr-christianidiots2241435.mp3

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Follow up note:

Christians were idiotes, unregistered and not involved in public affairs of welfare of the Roman government nor the Pharisees. The welfare of those governments who forced the contributions of the people were off limits by the directives of Christ. This refusal to register for those benefits is why they were commonly persecuted.

Early Christians were persecuted by Marcus Aurelius because they did not register the birth of their children with the government temples of Caesar to get the benefits of his world. Christians were involved in public affairs of Christ working daily in the temple which we explain in detail.

The Modern Christian thinks it is okay to do so even though it is clearly coveting their neighbor's goods through the power and the agency of government that are often called benefactors but force the contributions of the people. This is a “damnable heresies... and bring upon themselves swift destruction.” The word destruction can mean the destruction of money or even the whole economy.

Peter goes on to say, in 2 Peter 2:2 “And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.”

Unfortunately, it is often the modern Churches that are leading the people in these pernicious ways.

What are those destructive ways?

Peter tells you in the very next verse.

• “And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.” 2 Peter 2:3

It is a great delusion to think you are following Christ when you are doing like those who rule over the other nations.

Mark 10:42 "But Jesus called them to him, and saith unto them, Ye know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and their great ones exercise authority upon them."

Luke 22:25 "And he said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors."</Ref>

What part of it shall not be so with you don't they understand.

We offer volumes of research and resources to take the scales off your eyes. We have put it all together over many decades. If your heart does not show you the truth of charity and love vs. force in forming a viable society no fact, no research, no expert opinion will undue your bondage.

“For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)”

“The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished: But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, selfwilled, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities.” 2 Peter 2:4...

The word translated government is kuriotes meaning “dominion”.

God gave men Dominion. When men give that dominion to other men they are neglecting the personal obligation to exercise that God given responsibility... Why does the modern Church speak evil of dignities...

• "For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth -- to know the worst and to provide for it." Patrick Henry

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