Exousia is the Greek word for authority. From ancient times it meant the “ability to perform an action.” It meant that nothing could prevent the exercise of the dunamis empowering the authority. That relates to the purpose Jesus has for his ALL authority. It’s the extension of the message his birth forecast; the extension of what his entire ministry foretold; the extension everywhere on earth of the forgiveness of sin Christ’s death provided and his resurrection empowered.
That’s what Jesus does with his ALL authority, the highest possible use of dominion! What would we do with ALL authority? What have others with a secular world-view done with their claimed authority? Made money, grew a reputation, fashioned inventions, made war, declared hostility to various ethno. Only Jesus Christ, of all historic personalities, declares his ALL authority has the specifically sole purpose of reconciling the world to God! Not for a specific historical period does he reign, with partial authority. But his ALL authority continues forever, worlds without end. That’s also Christ’s command to his people in every generation, including ours; to every Christian, including us. We’re his ambassadors to those lost in sin and without hope, including every person of accountable age. Jesus has potentially saved everyone ever to live by his single sacrifice. But his declared, baptized disciples are responsible for sharing that message to those outside his grace. That’s the Christian’s every pleasure. As Jesus filled our vessels of clay with his Spirit, we devote ourselves as his witnesses to our generation. Amen At the end of his earthly life, as in his nativity, and throughout his daily ministry, Jesus remained true to the purpose of his coming: he came as Savior to SAVE people from sin. To be his authentic disciples we must prioritize his emphasis. -Fini- Check out my new Integrity book at: amazon.com Check out the various Virg Hurley books at: amazon.com
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Jesus Christ’s claim in Matthew 28:18-20 merely reflected what his ministry work, teaching and life anticipated. See Authority as the ability to rule; and Power as the means by which authority expresses itself. Jesus expressed his invisible authority in visible power-manifestations. That means God’s will is done in Heaven and also done on earth. Every event and every person serves God’s purpose, even what seems to oppose it and benefit Satan. As novelist Graham Greene once wrote, God writes straight with crooked lines. No one can contest him. He’s the only one who can judge what he does, how and why. Many others in history claim to be religious authorities. But they’re only religious spokesmen. Jesus having ALL authority means he lacks NONE, possesses COMPLETE that leaves ZERO for any other person. However much they may claim usefulness for their own people, world religious leaders don’t act as God’s representatives. When the angel sounded the seventh trumpet—Revelation 11:15—the message resounded with agreement of all previous and succeeding Bible teaching: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever.” The final part emphasizes the only appropriate use Jesus could have for his TOTAL AUTHORITY! -End Part V- Check out new Apologetics book: Their Own Best Defense Also check out other Virg Hurley resource books at: Amazon.com Jesus waited till after his resurrection to claim he possessed ALL Authority over Heaven and Earth. However, that simply summarized the authority he possessed and expressed throughout his ministry. Consider the authority he manifested over Satan in their wilderness encounter. Or the authority he exercised as owner to twice cleanse the temple. Or to forgive sins. Or to judge everyone. Or to die only when he determined; and for the cause he chose. Or by his resurrection, as he commandeered Satan’s most powerful weapon into whining submission.
Having conquered every enemy of mankind by blisteringly conquering God’s only enemy, how would Jesus summarize his authority if not claiming ALL Authority over everything in Heaven or on Earth? We don’t understand Jesus at all unless we fall before him and cry HOLY, MAJESTY, POWER, AUTHORITY! That he waited till after his resurrection to summarize it in the few words of Matthew 28:16-20 isn’t surprising, given his nature to provide evidence for all his claims. That he would say anything less about himself would be inconsistent with his perfectly seamless life of complete dictatorship of earth and heaven. –End Part IV- Check out my new Apologetics book at: amazon.com/dp/1725733412 Other books for Virg Hurley at Amazon.com While theorists postulate causes of America’s Civil War, this writer suggests the unabashedly-demanding States’ Rights’ conviction of Southern states as the nuclear reason. Only focused commitment to an idea could energize such revolutionary decisions. As Lincoln said in his Second Inaugural, the South would rather fight than surrender their most cherished principle. By demanding all they lost everything.
While that may remain a debatable issue, the spiritual meaning is clear: Jesus Christ possesses ALL authority, of every kind, over all history, over all enemies, over judgment, et al. ALL being the operative word. ALL meaning he may use personalities and events to achieve God’s will in history, but retains authority to determine what happens, and how, and when, and to what end. The interesting factor in this issue is the Master’s Timing. It occurred in Matthew 28:16-20: during the 40 day period between his resurrection and ascension; in Galilee, where Jesus said he would meet his men, Matthew 26;32; where the angel told the women to tell the men to meet him Matthew 28:5-7, Mark 16:4-7. That they remained in Jerusalem the first Sunday is understandable, but, as usual, Jesus had his way anyway. To Galilee he wanted them to go, and that’s where he met them to make his astonishing, but perfectly consistent claim. –End Part III- Check out Virg Hurley books at Amazon.com This blog intends to surface evidence that America’s Civil War came from a single, basic mistake in our social, financial and political life. Several apparent causes of the war were only tributary concerns. The seminal cause was the lack of a nationally-accepted FINAL, UNQUESTIONED, AUTHORITY.
Beginning with the Constitutional Convention, a very strong states’ rights-conviction threatened the nation’s unity. Every Southern delegate, and not a few Northern delegates, felt greater loyalty to their states than to the nation. A Northern threat existed in 1814 when disaffected New England states considered seceding from the Union. States’ loyalty continued to increase until it had become Political gospel to Southern politicians. Every effort in Congress to placate them only increased their zeal to argue against national interests versus their state’s intentions. They insisted the Constitution gave states the right to disavow any Federal rule that threatened the well-being of their region. By 1860 the developing inevitability in Southern states found Lincoln’s election the excuse to declare itself independent of the Union. What Calhoun had threatened in 1832-1833, South Carolina ballooned into full-fledged revolution. Now...all of that may be interesting only to students of history, but the spiritual implications relate to everyone. –End Part II- Check out Virg Hurley books at Amazon.com A respected scholar writing in the book I Wish I’d Been There seemed struck on the head with a hammer when discussing the cause of America’s Civil War, p. 170. He noted that Great Britain, Russia and Brazil all revoked slavery without the violence that cost America 620,000 casualties in 1861-1865. He didn’t suggest a reason our nation had to learn the hard way. He ascribed it all to God’s inscrutable decision.
Being only a student, not a scholar, this writer nevertheless believes we can understand why violence characterized the alteration from a half-slave to an all-free America. Before studying in detail the basic cause of the Civil War, and its spiritual implications, consider what DIDN’T. Some say Lincoln’s election caused the Civil War. Nonsense. Had the South listened to what Lincoln said in the election campaign of 1860, and continued saying in his First Inaugural, he made it clear that the Federal government WOULD NOT interfere with slavery where it existed. It would only PREVENT its spread to new territories. Indeed, as has been well said, the War wouldn’t have started had it been to free the slaves, nor won by the North had it been waged Only to restore the Union. Others say Eli Whitney’s cotton gin made the Civil War necessary. Nonsense. All it did was make slavery more necessary in order to harvest more COTTON. The evil of slavery diminished in the Southern mind as economic prosperity loomed with Yankee inventive genius. Not for the first or last time did MONEY rule MORALITY. Especially true when we remember that more abolition societies existed in the South than the North in the 18th century. Whitney’s invention increased MATERIAL PROFIT which, in Southern minds, decreased moral concerns over slavery. What they considered morally correct in the 18th century became in their minds economic suicide in the 19th. –End Part I- Check out books for Virg Hurley at Amazon.com |
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