Pilgrims in Christ – Part 32

What we can learn from the letters of Peter about practice of faith in Christ in times of uncertainty.

 

པེ་ཏྲོ་གཉིས་པ། 1:16

16 ང་ཚོས་ངེད་རྣམས་ཀྱི་གཙོ་བོ་ཡེ་ཤུ་མཱ་ཤི་ཀའི་ནུས་མཐུ་དང་སླར་ཕེབས་རྒྱུའི་སྐོར་ཁྱེད་ཚོར་སྒྲོག་སྐབས་རྟོག་བཟོའི་སྒྲུང་མ་བཤད་དེ། ཁོང་གི་གཟི་བརྗིད་ང་ཚོའི་མིག་གིས་མཐོང་བས་བརྗོད་པ་ཡིན།

 

2 Peter 1:16

16 For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

 

Peter’s message was clear warnings against false doctrines, misleading teachings, and mysterious religious groups that could induce disciples to stray from the purity of God’s word.

One of the key reason “false messiah” and “salvation” was a hot topic during the time of the Four Gospel and Acts was people’s expectations for a “savior”.

For a long time back in human history, people across the world, of different ethnic groups, are familiar with some sort of folklore and hear-say about “end of the world”, “judgement of God” and “coming savior”.

Furthermore the timing of Jesus appearance ties in very well with writings of the prophets preparing and warning the Jews of the coming Messiah. People knew and were expecting their Messiah at that time!

There were plentiful of speculations, different schools of thoughts, and prophetic interpretations about “who” will be the coming Messiah. And there were lots of debate who is real who is fake.

How do we make sure what we believe is not fairy tales and mysterious religious?

How do we know who is the real Messiah chosen of God?

 

Scripture Truth

 

The Holy Scripture from the times of Moses to the Prophets were preparing the people to receive the real Messiah chosen of God. Those disciples who were with Jesus knew what was written in scripture and testify to the truth that Jesus is the Messiah chosen of God.

Peter and those who followed Jesus in person could bear witness to what Jesus did and what happen to Jesus in fulfillment of scriptures that foretold of the coming Messiah.

The death of Jesus on Passover and His resurrection the third day followed by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, all happened in line with what was written and foretold in scriptures by the prophets.

The Messiah chosen of God is our redemption and salvation.

Indeed many pagan folklore do tell of end time judgement, as does scripture truth also warns us of the coming judgement of God, but how do we escape judgement?

How can we be saved from sin and death?

Scripture truth revealed to us God’s redemption plan for Man to be fulfilled through the Messiah chosen of God.

Peter and those disciples who already knew scripture truth confessed and acknowledged that Jesus who died on the cross on Passover and rose from the dead the third day is the Messiah chosen of God.

Jesus the Christ will deal with sin and death and provide eternal life for us.

Salvation belongs to the Lord the Christ.

The Apostle Paul being an expert in Hebrew Scripture very often used scripture text as proof that Jesus is the Messiah

 

མཛད་འཕྲིན། 17:1-3

1དེ་ནས་ཕོལ་ལོལ་དང་སི་ལཱ་གཉིས་ཨམ་ཕི་པོ་ལི་དང་ཨ་པོལ་ལོན་ཡཱ་བརྒྱུད་ནས་ཐེ་སཱ་ལོ་ནེ་ཀེ་རུ་ཕྱིན་པ༌དང༌། དེ་རུ་ཡ་ཧུ་དཱ་པའི་ཆོས་ཁང་ཞིག་ཡོད༌ལ། 2ཕོལ་ལོལ་ནི་རང་གི་རྒྱུན་གྱི་གོམས་སྲོལ་ལྟར་ཆོས་ཁང་དེར་ཕེབས༌ཤིང༌། ངལ་གསོ་བའི་ཉིན་མོ་གསུམ་ལ་བསྟུད་མར་གསུང་རབ་ལ་བརྟེན་ནས་མི་དེ་རྣམས་ལ་རྩོད་གླེང་བྱས་པ༌དང༌། 3སྐྱབས་མགོན་མཱ་ཤི་ཀས་ངེས་པར་སྡུག་བསྔལ་མྱངས༌ཤིང༌། སྐུ་གྲོངས་པ་ནས་སླར་གསོན་པའི་སྐོར་འགྲེལ་བཤད་བྱས་པ་དང་རྒྱུ་མཚན་བསྟན་ཏེ་ཡང་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། ངས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལ་སྨྲས་པའི་ཡེ་ཤུ་ཞེས་པ་འདི་ནི་སྐྱབས་མགོན་མཱ་ཤི་ཀ་ཡིན་ཞེས་གསུངས་སོ།།

 

Acts 17:1-3

Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. 2 And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.”

 

མཛད་འཕྲིན། 17:10-12

10དེ་ནས་སྤུན་ཟླ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་མཚན་མོའི་དུས་ལ་སླེབས་མ་ཐག་ཕོལ་ལོལ་དང་སི་ལཱ་གཉིས་པུ་རེ་ཡཱ་རུ་འགྲོ་བར་བཅུག་གོ། ཁོང་གཉིས་གནས་དེར་སླེབས་པ་དང་ཡ་ཧུ་དཱ་པའི་ཆོས་ཁང་དུ་ཕྱིན༌ཅིང་། 11གནས་འདིའི་མི་རྣམས་ནི་ཐེ་སཱ་ལོ་ནེ་ཀེའི་མི་རྣམས་དང་བསྡུར༌ན་སེམས་རྒྱ་ཆེ་བ་དང་། དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་བཀའ་ལ་མཉན་པར་ཤིན་ཏུ་དགའ༌ཞིང༌། ཉིན་རེ་བཞིན་ཕོལ་ལོལ་གྱིས་གསུངས་པ་དེ་ནི་གསུང་རབ་དང་མཐུན་མིན་ལ་བརྟག་ཅིང་དཔྱོད་པ་རེད། 12དེ་བས་ཁོ་རྣམས་ལས་མི་མང་པོ་ཞིག༌དང༌། གྷི་རིག་གི་མི་རིགས་ལས་བཀུར་འོས་པའི་བུད་མེད་དང་སྐྱེས་པ་འགའ་ཤས་ཀྱང་དད་པར་གྱུར་ཏོ།།

 

Acts 17:10-12

10 The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. 11 Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. 12 Many of them therefore believed, with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men.

 

Therefore it is so important for believers and disciples to study the scriptures and know the truth.

The consistency of Holy Scripture and the infallible proof Jesus is the Christ; we must not neglect our knowledge and understanding of scripture.

As Peter said “we did not follow cleverly devised myths” but we do know for sure who the real Messiah is.

 

David Z