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The Bible was written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit by over 40 different authors from all walks of life:shepherds, farmers, tent-makers, physicians, fishermen, priests, philosophers and kings. Despite these differences in occupation and the span of years it took to write it, the Bible is an extremely cohesive and unified book.
True Forgiveness! 

Have you ever tried to forgive someone and found you simply couldn't do it?

You've cried about it and

- prayed about it and

- asked God to help you.

But those old feelings of resentment just failed to go away.

 

Put an end to those kinds of failures in the future-

- by basing your forgiveness on faith rather than feelings.

 

True forgiveness doesn't have anything at all to do with how you feel.

It's an act of the will. It is based on obedience to God and on faith in Him.

 

That means once you've forgiven a person-

- you need to consider him permanently forgiven! When old feelings rise up within you and

 

Satan tries to convince you that you haven't really forgiven, resist him.

Say, "No, I've already forgiven that person by faith. I refuse to dwell on those old feelings."

 

Then, according to 1 John 1:9-

Believe that you receive forgiveness and cleansing from the sin of unforgiveness and from all unrighteousness associated with it including any remembrance of having been wronged!

 

Have you ever heard anyone say, "I may forgive, but I'll never forget!"

That's a second-rate kind of forgiveness-

- that you, as a believer, are never supposed to settle for.

You're to forgive supernaturally "even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." Eph. 4:32.

 

You're to forgive as God forgives.

To release that person from guilt permanently and unconditionally and to operate as if nothing bad ever happened between you.

You're to purposely forget as well as forgive.

 

As you do that-

- something supernatural will happen within you.

The pain once caused by that incident will disappear.

The power of God will wash away the effects of it.

And you'll be able to leave it behind you once and for all.

 

Don't become an emotional bookkeeper-

- keeping careful accounts of the wrongs you have suffered.

 

Learn to forgive and forget.

It will open a whole new world of blessing for you.

"Love...is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it pays no

attention to a suffered wrong." 1 Corinthians 13:5.

EARLY CHURCH HISTORY ON ST.AUGUSTINE 

  RESEARCH PAPER

 

 

 

 

 

     EARLY CHURCH HISTORY ON ST.AUGUSTINE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

           BY

 

 

DEAN SHINAVER

 

 

  ON

 

 

 

                                        NOVEMBER 01, 2009

 

 

 

 

 

THIS RESEARCH PAPER IS A REQUIREMENT OF EARLY CHURCH HISTORY COURSE (TH 6300A)OF DR. JOEL WILLIAM STEPHEN TO FULLFILL A MASTER DGREE IN DIVINITY AT AMRIDGE UNIVERSITY, FALL 2009

 

 

 

 

 

                                                            CONTENTS

 

 

 

INTRODUCTION                                                      3

 

THE EARLY LIFE OF AUGUSTINE                         4

 

THE TEACHING OF AUGUSTINE                           5

 

SUMMARY                                                               10

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY                                                      11

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                            INTRODUCTION

 

 

Augustine has a remarkable career. He is a latin church father. He is one of the most

 

important figures in the development of Western Christianity. Augustine thinks of the

 

church as a "strong woman". In this term paper we will learn about Augustine early life,

 

time he converted to Christ. Including his confessions of 13 books and his teaching to the

 

world. He framed the concepts of original sin and just war.

 

During his youth, Augustine had studied rhetoric at Carthage, a discipline that he used to

 

 gain employment teaching in Carthage and then in Rome and Milan, where he met

 

Ambrose who is credited with effecting Augustine's conversion and who baptized

 

Augustine in 387.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I. The early life of Augustine

 

"Augustine is know as St. Augustine was a Berber philosopher and theologian. He was

bron in November 13, 354 in the city of Thagaste a provincial Roman city in North. He is a

Latin church father. He is one of the most important person in the development of

Western Christianity."[1]   When he was 11 years old, Augustine went to school at

Madaurus.

There he became familiar with Latin Literature, as well as pagan beliefs and practices.

When he was 17 years old, he wewnt to Carthage to continue his studying in rhetoric. He

was raised as a Catholic as his mother was a Berber who devout to Catholic and his father

was a decurio, a  minor official of the Roman empire. Augustine had at least one brother,

Navigius, and at least one sister. He has a relationship with a young woman in Carthage

and she gave birth a son named Adeodatus.  "Augustine developed the concept of  the

Church as a spiritual City of God. He converted to Christianity and became a bishop. He

believes that people can have the ability to choose to be good to such a degree as to merit

salvation without divine aid."[2] Augustine is often viewed as the central figure in the

movement from "antiquity" to the Middle Ages. Among the Orthodox he is called

Blessed Augustine, or St. Augustine the Blessed. The years of 373 and 374 he taught

grammar at Thagaste. In late 384 he headed north. When he was thirty he won the most

visible academic chair in the Laine world. During this time Augustine was a devout

follower of Manichaeism. In Rome, he embraced the skepticism of the New Academy

movement. "In A.D 386, Augustine faces the personal crisis that lead him to convert to

Christianity. He left his career in rhetoric and devote himself to serve God and to the

practices of priesthood. The key to Augustine conversion was a childlike voice he heard

in a sing song voice, tolle, lege which means take up and read."[3]

After he head the voice. He paused to give thought to how and why such a child would

sing those words and then left his garden and returned to his house. At his house he

picked up a book written by the Apostle and opened it and instantly read : (Romans 13:

13-14. In his confessions has more detail on his spiritual jorney which became a classice

of both Christian theology and world literature.

 

II. The Teaching of Augustine

1. The teaching of Augustine.

"Neo-Platonic philosophy was the field of exercise for the mind of Augustine previous to

his conversion, and it was the same philosophy, which prepared him for conversion.

Augustine accepts that the one who grants or imparts these intelligible notions to the soul

is God, the Truth of God, the Word of God, to who are transferred all Platonic Ideas."[4] In

the Word of god exist the eternal truths, the species, the formal principles of things,

which are the models. In the intellectual light imparted to us by the Word of God we

know both the eternal truths and the ideas of real beings. Augustine as the science for

considers philosophy the solution of the problem of life; Augustine thought focus on God

and the soul, and the problem of evil. We must be solved in order that one may know the

nature of the soul.

"Augustine teaches about freewill and he tries to reconcile his beliefs about freewill,

especially the belief that humans are morally responsible for their actions, with his belief

that one's life is predestined."[5]

"Philosophy of St. Augustine is the love of wisdom, that is to say, the love of God. And

this God, whom philosophy teaches us to love, is the Holy Trinity as taught in the

Christian faith.  The teachings of St. Augustine have God as its center. His metaphysics,

his ethics, and above all his psychology, converge steadily to the study of God. And his

study of God is permeated through and through by the closest blending of intellectualism

and mysticism. We must seek the truth, not only to know it, but also to love it."[6]

2. The confession of Augustine

"The Confessions is the story of a conversion. This conversion took place in the garden; a

conversion that took place from the time he read Cicero at age eighteen; a conversion that

took place across his whole life."[7] Augustine hopes to teach others about that love which

God placed in him that led him to an eternal relationship with God. All of Augustine's

loves in turn became love of Christ. "Augustine found a place in God that he had never

imagined could happen. His guilty restless heart finally found rest in God. Love played a

significant role in this conversion. Augustine later recognized this as God's truth and

word, by which God had made all things."[8] This wisdom came into the world as Christ.

Augustine once had finally found peace and rest in God. It helped guide him towards God

and Christ in a positive way that it influenced the rest of his life. These are 13 confession

book of Augustine.

2.1 The first book: Confessions of the greatness and God's mercies in infancy and

boyhood, and human willfulness; of his own sins of idleness, abuse of his studies, and of

God's gifts up to his fifteenth year.

2.2 The second book: Object of these Confessions. Further ills of idleness developed in

his sixteenth year. Evils of ill society, which betrayed him into theft.

2.3 The third book: His residence at Carthage from his seventeenth to his nineteenth year.

Source of his disorders. Love of shows. Advance in studies, and love of wisdom. Distaste

for Scripture. Led astray to the Manichæans. Refutation of some of their tenets. Grief of

his mother Monnica at his heresy, and prayers for his conversion. Her vision from God,

and answer through a Bishop.

2.4 "The fourth book: Augustine's life from nineteen to eight-and-twenty; From ages 19

 

to 28, Augustine is a teacher of rhetoric and an adherent of Manichaeism, both false

 

occupations. During this time, he lives with a woman and has a child by her. He is

 

faithful to her, although their relationship was based on sex, not on friendship. He

 

despises soothsayers, but he continues to consult astrologers and to practice astrology

 

himself, despite the advice of a wise friend that astrology is phony."[9]

2.5 The firth book: St. Augustine's twenty-ninth year. Faustus, a snare of Satan to many,

made an instrument of deliverance to St. Augustine, by showing the ignorance of the

Manichees on those things wherein they professed to have divine knowledge. Augustine

gives up all thought of going further among the Manichees: is guided to Rome and Milan,

where he hears St. Ambrose, leaves the Manichees, and becomes again a Catechumen in

the Church Catholic.

2.6 "The sixth book:  Arrival of Monnica at Milan; her obedience to St. Ambrose, and his

value for her; St. Ambrose's habits; Augustine's gradual abandonment of error; finds that

he has blamed the Church Catholic wrongly; desire of absolute certainty, but struck with

the contrary analogy of God's natural Providence; how shaken in his worldly pursuits;

God's guidance of his friend Alypius; Augustine debates with himself and his friends

about their mode of life; his inveterate sins, and dread of judgment."[10]

2.7 The seventh book: Augustine describes his attempts to think about the nature of God.

 

He still conceives of God as a kind of matter, like air or water, filling the spaces of the

 

universe.

2.8 The eighth book: Augustine's thirty-second year. He consults Simplicianus: from him

hears the history of the conversion of Victorinus, and longs to devote himself entirely to

God, but is mastered by his old habits; is still further roused by the history of St. Antony,

and the conversion of two courtiers; during a severe struggle hears a voice from heaven,

opens Scripture, and is converted, with his friend Alypius. His mother's vision fulfilled.

2.9 The ninth book: Augustine determines to devote his life to God, and to abandon his

profession of Rhetoric, quietly however; retires to the country to prepare himself to

receive the grace of Baptism, and is baptised with Alypius, and his son Adeodatus. At

Ostia, in his way to Africa, his mother Monnica dies, in her fifty-sixth year, the thirty-

third of Augustine. Her life and character.

2.10 The tenth book: Having in the former books spoken of himself before his receiving

the grace of Baptism, in this Augustine confesses what he then was. But first, he enquires

by what faculty we can know God at all, whence he enlarges on the mysterious character

of the memory, wherein God, being made known, dwells, but which could not discover

Him. Then he examines his own trials under the triple division of temptation, "lust of the

flesh, lust of the eyes, and pride"; what Christian contingency prescribes as to each. On

Christ the Only Mediator, who heals and will heal all infirmities.

2.11 "The eleventh book: Augustine considers the meaning of the first words of Genesis:

 

"In the beginning, God created heaven and earth." Augustine asks how he can know that

 

this is true. It is obvious that all things were created, because they are subject to change.

 

God created them through the Word, Jesus Christ."[11]

 

2.12 "The twelvth book: Augustine examines the second verse of Genesis: "The earth

 

was  invisible and formless, darkness was over the deep." He says that "heaven" does not

 

mean the sky, but the immaterial "heaven of heavens," and "earth" does not mean the

 

ground, but the formless matter that is the basis of all physical forms. Augustine imagines

 

opponents who disagree with his interpretation."[12]

 

2.13 "The thirteenth book: All of creation depends on God's goodness, and God chose to

 

create because of the abundance of his goodness. Augustine examines the action of the

 

Holy Trinity in the creation by looking at the verse "the Spirit moved over the waters."

 

Just as a human has being, knowledge, and will but is one person, so the Holy Trinity has

 

those qualities but is one God."[13]

III. Summary

St. Augustine affirms that the world was created by God from nothing, through a free act

of His will. The primary among these three faculties is given to the will, which in man

signifies love. The will of man is free. "Three kinds of evil can be distinguished:

metaphysical, physical, and moral. Metaphysical evil is the lack of , all creatures are evil

because they fall short of full perfection, which is God alone. Physical evil consists in the

privation of a perfection due to nature. The only true evil is moral evil; sin, an action

contrary to the will of God. The cause of moral evil is the faculty of free will. Sin, from

the very fact it is decadence of being, carries in itself its own punishment."[14] But on the

other hand, there are truths that reason would not even suspect if God had not proposed

them for our belief. St. Augustine's philosophy follows, step by step. Faith renders

service to reason, just as reason does to faith. Reason furnishes us with the concepts that

are at the root of what we are to believe: it establishes the existence and infallibility of

revelation. From the facts themselves of his life, it is apparent that the Doctor of Hippo

had to pass through many stages before he reached the full and complete development of

his philosophical ideas. "Augustine lived from 345 to 430. He spent most of his time in

north Africa.  His chief contribution to philosophy was probably to link Plato's ideas with

those of Christianity. He believed that both philosophy and religion were aimed at living

the happy or blessed life. His most famous work is The City of God."[15]

                        BIBLIOGRAPHY

 

 

Augustine, Saint. St. Augustine Confessions. CreateSpace, October 2009

 

Augustine, Hal McElwaine Helms. The confessions of St. Augustine. Paraclete Pr. 1986

 

Augustine, St. Saint of Hippo Augustine. The Rhetoric of St. Augustine of Hippo (De Doctrina Christiana & the Search for a Distinctly Christian Rhetoric) (Studies in Rhetoric Religion), Baylor University Pr,., 2008

 

Augustine, Saint of Hippo Augustine. Confessions of St. Augustine. Fleming H Revell Co,. 2008

 

Augustine J. Campbell. The Confessions of St. Augustine: Selections from Books I-IX. Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, June 1984

 

Beth Rogero Bowen, St. Augustine Historical Society. St. Augustine in the Gilded Age. Arcadia Publisher, 2008

 

Carl G. Vaught. Encounters With God in Augustine's Confessions: Books VII-IX.

Albany, N.Y State University of New York Press, 2004.

 

Henry Chadwick. Augustine: A very short Introduction. Oxford University Press, USA, June 2001

 

John Mark Mattox. St. Augustine and the theory of Just war. Continuum Intl Pub Group, 2008

 

John von Heyking Augustine and Politics As Longing in the World. Eric Voegelin Institute Series in Political Philosophy. aColumbia, MO University of Missouri Press, 2001.

 

Maggie Hall. St. Augustine. Arcadia Publisher, 2008

 

Michael Hanby Augustine and Modernity. Radical Orthodoxy Series. New York Taylor & Francis, 2003.

 

 

Summer Bozeman. St. Augustine. Arcadia Publisher, 2009

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



[1] Beth Rogero Bowen, St. Augustine Historical Society. St. Augustine in the Gilded Age. Arcadia Publisher, 2008

[2] Augustine, Saint of Hippo Augustine. Confessions of St. Augustine. Fleming H Revell Co,. 2008

[3] Henry Chadwick. Augustine: A very short Introduction. Oxford University Press, USA, June 2001

[4] Augustine, St. Saint of Hippo Augustine. The Rhetoric of St. Augustine of Hippo (De Doctrina Christiana & the Search for a Distinctly Christian Rhetoric) (Studies in Rhetoric Religion), Baylor University Pr,., 2008

[5] Michael Hanby Augustine and Modernity. Radical Orthodoxy Series. New York Taylor & Francis, 2003.

[6] John Mark Mattox. St. Augustine and the theory of Just war. Continuum Intl Pub Group, 2008

[7] Augustine, Saint. St. Augustine Confessions. CreateSpace, October 2009

 

[8] Augustine, Hal McElwaine Helms. The confessions of St. Augustine. Paraclete Pr. 1986

[9] Maggie Hall. St. Augustine. Arcadia Publisher, 2008

[10] W.H.C. Frend. The rise of Christianity. Fortress press, Philadelphia, 1984

[11] Paul Strathern. St. Augustine. Blackston Audio Inc. 2008

[12] Augustine J. Campbell. The Confessions of St. Augustine: Selections from Books I-IX. Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, June 1984

[13] Summer Bozeman. St. Augustine. Arcadia Publisher, 2009

[14] Carl G. Vaught. Encounters With God in Augustine's Confessions: Books VII-IX.

Albany, N.Y State University of New York Press, 2004.

[15] John von Heyking Augustine and Politics As Longing in the World. Eric Voegelin Institute Series in Political Philosophy. aColumbia, MO University of Missouri Press, 2001.

Let's not forget the blood that was shed for this great nation. Let's not forget the men and women that have died and made the sacrifice so we can have the freedom to love, to worship, and to excercise our faith.FlyHigh Ministries salutes all the soldiers who have made such a sacrifice. Let's not forget the Sacrifice that Jesus made on the Cross that allowed us to have fellowship with the Father.

1John 4:9-10 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we love God, but that He love us and sent His Son as an atoning Sacrifice for our sins.

Declaring His Promises 

DECLARING HIS PROMISES:

Ex 23:27 I will send My terror before you and will

throw into confusion all the people to whom you shall

come, and I will make all your foes turn from you [in

flight].

Deut 20:4 For the LORD your God is the one who goes

with you to fight for you against your enemies to give

you victory."

Deut 28:7 "The LORD will cause your enemies who rise

against you to be defeated before your face; they

shall come out against you one way and flee before you

seven ways.

Deut 33:27 The eternal God is your refuge and

dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting

arms; He drove the enemy before you and thrust them

out, saying, Destroy!

Isa 42:13-17 The LORD will march out like a mighty

man, like a warrior he will stir up his zeal; with a

shout he will raise the battle cry and will triumph

over his enemies. 14 "For a long time I have kept

silent, I have been quiet and held myself back. But

now, like a woman in childbirth, I cry out, I gasp and

pant. 15 I will lay waste the mountains and hills and

dry up all their vegetation; I will turn rivers into

islands and dry up the pools. 16 I will lead the blind

by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I

will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light

before them and make the rough places smooth. These

are the things I will do; I will not forsake them. 17

But those who trust in idols, who say to images, 'You

are our gods,' will be turned back in utter shame.

Isa 54:17 But no weapon that is formed against you

shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise

against you in judgment you shall show to be in the

wrong. This [peace, righteousness, security, triumph

over opposition] is the heritage of the servants of

the Lord [those in whom the ideal Servant of the Lord

is reproduced]; this is the righteousness or the

vindication which they obtain from Me [this is that

which I impart to them as their justification], says

the Lord.

Isa 65:24 And it shall be that before they call I

will answer; and while they are yet speaking I will

hear. [Isa 30:19; 58:9; Matt 6:8.]

Luke 1:37,45 For with God nothing is ever impossible

and no word from God shall be without power or

impossible of fulfillment.

...And blessed (happy, to be envied) is she who

believed that there would be a fulfillment of the

things that were spoken to her from the Lord.

John 15:7-8 If you live in Me [abide vitally united

to Me] and My words remain in you and continue to live

in your hearts, ask whatever you will, and it shall be

done for you. When you bear (produce) much fruit, My

Father is honored and glorified, and you show and

prove yourselves to be true followers of Mine.

1 Cor 15:25-28 For [Christ] must be King and reign

until He has put all [His] enemies under His feet. [Ps

110:1.] 26 The last enemy to be subdued and

abolished is death. 27 For He [ the Father] has put

all things in subjection under His [Christ's] feet.

But when it says, All things are put in subjection

[under Him], it is evident that He [Himself] is

excepted Who does the subjecting of all things to Him.

[Ps 8:6.] 28 However, when everything is subjected to

Him, then the Son Himself will also subject Himself to

[the Father] Who put all things under Him, so that God

may be all in all [be everything to everyone, supreme,

the indwelling and controlling factor of life].

1 Cor 15:54-57 And when this perishable puts on the

imperishable and this that was capable of dying puts

on freedom from death, then shall be fulfilled the

Scripture that says, Death is swallowed up (utterly

vanquished forever) in and unto victory. [Isa 25:8.]

55 O death, where is your victory? O death, where is

your sting? [Hos 13:14.] 56 Now sin is the sting of

death, and sin exercises its power [upon the soul]

through [the abuse of] the Law. 57 But thanks be to

God, Who gives us the victory [making us conquerors]

through our Lord Jesus Christ.

DECLARING HIS POWER....

Rom 4:19-20 He did not weaken in faith when he

considered the [utter] impotence of his own body,

which was as good as dead because he was about a

hundred years old, or [when he considered] the

barrenness of Sarah's [deadened] womb. [Gen 17:17;

18:11.]

20 No unbelief or distrust made him waver

(doubtingly question) concerning the promise of God,

but he grew strong and was empowered by faith as he

gave praise and glory to God,

Ex 15:6-10

6 "Your right hand, O LORD, has become glorious in

power; Your right hand, O LORD, has dashed the enemy

in pieces. 7 And in the greatness of Your excellence

You have overthrown those who rose against You; You

sent forth Your wrath; It consumed them like stubble.

8 And with the blast of Your nostrils The waters were

gathered together; The floods stood upright like a

heap; The depths congealed in the heart of the sea. 9

The enemy said, 'I will pursue, I will overtake, I

will divide the spoil; My desire shall be satisfied on

them. I will draw my sword, My hand shall destroy

them.'

10 You blew with Your wind, The sea covered them; They

sank like lead in the mighty waters.

Deut 26:8 And the Lord brought us forth out of Egypt

with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm, and

with great (awesome) power and with signs and with

wonders;

Ps 106:9 He rebuked the Red Sea also, and it dried

up; so He led them through the depths as through a

pasture land. [Ex 14:21.]

Isa 40:25-26 "To whom then will you liken Me, Or to

whom shall I be equal?" says the Holy One. 26 Lift up

your eyes on high, And see who has created these

things, Who brings out their host by number; He calls

them all by name, By the greatness of His might And

the strength of His power; Not one is missing.

Isa 40:28-31 Have you not known? Have you not heard?

The everlasting God, the LORD, The Creator of the ends

of the earth, Neither faints nor is weary.His

understanding is unsearchable. 29 He gives power to

the weak, And to those who have no might He increases

strength. 30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary,

And the young men shall utterly fall, 31 But those

who wait on the LORD Shall renew their strength; They

shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run

and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.

Isa 44:24-26 [Judah Will Be Restored ]

Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, And He who formed

you from the womb:"I am the LORD, who makes all

things, Who stretches out the heavens all alone, Who

spreads abroad the earth by Myself;

25 Who frustrates the signs of the babblers, And

drives diviners mad; Who turns wise men backward, And

makes their knowledge foolishness;

26 Who confirms the word of His servant, And

performs the counsel of His messengers; Who says to

Jerusalem, 'You shall be inhabited,' To the cities of

Judah, 'You shall be built,' And I will raise up her

waste places;

Eph 1:17-22 [For I always pray to] the God of our

Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, that He may

grant you a spirit of wisdom and revelation [of

insight into mysteries and secrets] in the [deep and

intimate] knowledge of Him, 18 By having the eyes of

your heart flooded with light, so that you can know

and understand the hope to which He has called you,

and how rich is His glorious inheritance in the saints

(His set-apart ones), 19 And [so that you can know

and understand] what is the immeasurable and unlimited

and surpassing greatness of His power in and for us

who believe, as demonstrated in the working of His

mighty strength,

20 Which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from

the dead and seated Him at His [own] right hand in the

heavenly [places],

21 Far above all rule and authority and power and

dominion and every name that is named [above every

title that can be conferred], not only in this age and

in this world, but also in the age and the world which

are to come. 22 And He has put all things under His

feet and has appointed Him the universal and supreme

Head of the church [a headship exercised throughout

the church], [Ps 8:6.]

Col 2:12-15 And you, being dead in your trespasses

and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made

alive together with Him, having forgiven you all

trespasses, 14 having wiped out the handwriting of

requirements that was against us, which was contrary

to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having

nailed it to the cross. 15 Having disarmed

principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle

of them, triumphing over them in it.

Rev 1:16-19 And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet

as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to

me, "Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last.

18 I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am

alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades

and of Death.

GOD SENT US A SAVIOUR 

IF OUR GREATEST NEED HAD BEEN INFORMATION

GOD WOULD HAVE SENT US AN EDUCATOR

IF OUR GREATEST NEED HAD BEEN TECHNOLOGY

GOD WOULD HAVE SENT US AN SCIENTIST

IF OUR GREATEST NEED HAD BEEN MONEY

GOD WOULD HAVE SENT US AN ECONOMIST

IF OUR GREATEST NEED HAD BEEN PLEASURE

GOD WOULD HAVE SENT US AN ENTERTAINER

BUT OUR GREATEST NEED WAS FORGIVENESS,

SO GOD SENT US A SAVIOUR(JESUS CHRIST)