Stop Misreading the Bible: I am Really Excited About a Revelation I Got From The Didache--Have We Misconstrued the Purpose of the Bible? I Think I Have Found Another Lost Teaching
YouTube suggested an interesting video for me: Lost Teaching of the First Apostles Revealed. The lady caught me early on: "The darkness in the world today is so great that it's going to take a Book of Acts type of Christian be able to handle what needs to be done .... To walk in what the early church walked in." A Book of Acts TYPE of Christian. What was that TYPE of Christian? They had a passion, a desire, and a commitment for God.
3:05 minutes into the video, it turned out that the "lost" teaching is the Didache, a first century, pre-New Testament synopsis or overview of EARLY Christianity for the training of the young gentile church. The early church fathers talked much about the Didache, and they held it in high regard. The Didache was lost to the church for a long time. It was found again in 1873, and has been available since 1883. I remember reading the Didache in seminary over forty years ago. I might have given my copy away. No problem. Today we can do an Internet search for "didache pdf," and there it is. (By the way, the Catholic translations of the Didache have been edited to emphasize the sacraments.)
I followed a reading of the Didache on youtube. It isn't long. We're talking like 20 minutes:
A Reading of the Didache
The Didache (Teaching of the Twelve Apostles - Read-Along Version)
THE DIDACHE ✝️ The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles
The Didache - The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles Reading and Video Commentary (longer)
Didache “Apocalypse” and Matthew 24 (text - an interesting discussion)
It gave me a revelation: the two ways are not courses of action, they are GOD'S NATURE MANIFESTING IN THE COURSE OF OUR LIVES. If the way of His nature in you is Life, you will love and nurture. If the way of His nature in you is death, you--in ignorance--will hate and harm. The Didache is a teaching of the heart one is to have. It is a guide to a mental quality, to a Love attitude. "Bear yourself this way--this is Life." Keeping the Law is not keeping the rules; it is keeping the LOVE NATURE OF GOD, which is kept and nurtured by these ATTITUDES: honor and love and respect and right. These key us to HIS attitude of faith, the assumption of appropriateness, of purity, wholesomeness, trust, and abundance. He is getting rid of His ignorance. THAT is what we are to overcome. Turn your way of Death into the way of Life. Did someone say, "Self-control"?
It is not merit we get; it is FORMATION. Choosing good is developmental. We grow in the nature of God. Opportunities arise, and we naturally choose the Life quality, for it has become us, and we it. Garnier hit it brilliantly: there is a "psychical" sense of holiness that comes from experiencing grand cathedrals and beautiful windows and glorious music. "Certainly God is pleased with this," we think. That is the religiousness for which Christians, who do not care about such, are slain. But faith is confidence in the finished work of Christ. Trust and dependence upon Him is what God is pleased with. (See Garnier, Col. J. 1909. Chapter 17, The Moral Aspect of Paganism. The Worship of the Dead. London: Chapman and Hall. Esp. pg. 355-359).
When we read the scriptures, those selections occur within our mental voices. This develops the character of our nature. Yes, we only read it, but mentally we DID it -- we made the choice and grew.
Why has not Christ returned? It is for a developed church He returns.
3:05 minutes into the video, it turned out that the "lost" teaching is the Didache, a first century, pre-New Testament synopsis or overview of EARLY Christianity for the training of the young gentile church. The early church fathers talked much about the Didache, and they held it in high regard. The Didache was lost to the church for a long time. It was found again in 1873, and has been available since 1883. I remember reading the Didache in seminary over forty years ago. I might have given my copy away. No problem. Today we can do an Internet search for "didache pdf," and there it is. (By the way, the Catholic translations of the Didache have been edited to emphasize the sacraments.)
I followed a reading of the Didache on youtube. It isn't long. We're talking like 20 minutes:
A Reading of the Didache
The Didache (Teaching of the Twelve Apostles - Read-Along Version)
THE DIDACHE ✝️ The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles
The Didache - The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles Reading and Video Commentary (longer)
Didache “Apocalypse” and Matthew 24 (text - an interesting discussion)
It gave me a revelation: the two ways are not courses of action, they are GOD'S NATURE MANIFESTING IN THE COURSE OF OUR LIVES. If the way of His nature in you is Life, you will love and nurture. If the way of His nature in you is death, you--in ignorance--will hate and harm. The Didache is a teaching of the heart one is to have. It is a guide to a mental quality, to a Love attitude. "Bear yourself this way--this is Life." Keeping the Law is not keeping the rules; it is keeping the LOVE NATURE OF GOD, which is kept and nurtured by these ATTITUDES: honor and love and respect and right. These key us to HIS attitude of faith, the assumption of appropriateness, of purity, wholesomeness, trust, and abundance. He is getting rid of His ignorance. THAT is what we are to overcome. Turn your way of Death into the way of Life. Did someone say, "Self-control"?
It is not merit we get; it is FORMATION. Choosing good is developmental. We grow in the nature of God. Opportunities arise, and we naturally choose the Life quality, for it has become us, and we it. Garnier hit it brilliantly: there is a "psychical" sense of holiness that comes from experiencing grand cathedrals and beautiful windows and glorious music. "Certainly God is pleased with this," we think. That is the religiousness for which Christians, who do not care about such, are slain. But faith is confidence in the finished work of Christ. Trust and dependence upon Him is what God is pleased with. (See Garnier, Col. J. 1909. Chapter 17, The Moral Aspect of Paganism. The Worship of the Dead. London: Chapman and Hall. Esp. pg. 355-359).
When we read the scriptures, those selections occur within our mental voices. This develops the character of our nature. Yes, we only read it, but mentally we DID it -- we made the choice and grew.
Why has not Christ returned? It is for a developed church He returns.
posted by Daniel C. Branham-Steele at
2:07 AM
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