Day Nine Revisit Part 1 - Monday June 14th - Laodicea
On the bus at 7:30. Today is the hottest and longest of the trip. We drove for a couple of hours and got some sleep/rest/catch-up on notes time. Stopped at a rest stop and then back on. Pastor Wayne teaching:
Laodecia was known for the hot and cold waters in the area. When John writes in Revelation that they are lukewarm, it is with this in mind.
Antikus the third, one of Alexendar the Great's generals was given the area around (will have to get later), and he moved several hundred Jewish families into the Lyodician region. Many of them came to faith in Jesus. Later they brought in Synchronisim, blending in three parts of other religions that don't make sense in Christianity:
- Jewish legalism of Hebrews
- Sophistry - arguing not for truth but to win the argument
- Oriental mysticism
- v 9-10: Christ is all sufficient and at peace
- v 11-17: Jesus (and those in Him) are exalted over legalism- we are better than that
- v 18-19: Jesus is exalted over mysticism
- v 20-21: Jesus is exalted over sophistry / aecestism (stoics)
Synchronized religions are like fancy cars with no tires. The rubber doesn't meet the road.
Don't do things and sprinkle a little Jesus on top.
We visited the ruins at Laodicea. This is a large site, and they are actively restoring even more of the site. There are a lot of excavations, a lot of work in process. There is a large theater. One item of special note is one of the pieces of marble has a Jewish menorah with a Christian cross filling the middle candle position.
Dale's Pics for Day 9 - Laodicea: here
No comments:
Post a Comment