THY WORD IS TRUTH

John 17:17

From the desk of a believing biochemist and pastor:

Ted Whitaker, Ph.D, CLP


Today is Earth Day in all it’s ungodliness and self centeredness.

For radical environmentalism is just one of the many IDOLATRIES OF THE MODERN MIND.

Radical environmentalism is dedicated to the worship of the creation and not the Creator.

There is a stern warning in Romans for the idolatry of worshiping the creation and not the creator that most humanists ignore or do not understand if they ever read it.

I will quote it below just in case the secular humanists stumble upon it and just somehow the light bulb will finally come on.

This is a prayer by the Apostle Paul.

Romans 1:18-25 (NASB)

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident, within them.

19 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them.

20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.

21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks; but they became futile in their own speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

22 Professing to be wise they became fools,

23 and exchange the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.

24 Therefore God gave them over to the lusts of their hearts to impurity, that their bodies may be dishonored among them.

25 For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

The proponents of earth day are so self consumed that they are under a powerful delusion that the earth is finite and can be permanent damaged by the action of mankind.

These people are undereducated in both the biblical and scientific technical sense.

The do not understand the creation or the planet and how it works. The warnings of global warming soon to be relabeled and repackaged as climate change are distortions of the truth as described by the Apostle Paul in the Romans 1 prayer.

We used to have a children book called “Chicken Little” who professed to the whole world that the sky is falling. We used to teach children the lack of wisdom of such an alarmist without the facts.

But now we have people with jurisprudence degrees winning the Nobel Prize like former Vice President All Gore expounding on the evils of green house gas effect and it the end of life on this planet upon us and as if his Nobel Prize was in science.

To bring some smelling salts under our collective intellectual noses let us come to some resemblance to the truth.

The Greenhouse gas effect is false on the basis of the amounts of green house gases in the atmosphere alone.

We have put into society as whole generation that are mathematically illiterate and put them in positions of power and influence.

People who are so under educated that they cannot grasp the principle of balance.

They no longer have to balance chemical equations as a requirement to become a scientist or to earn a scientific degree.

They do not know what is a big number and what is a small number nor do they know what concept of equilibrium is or how to apply it.


God made this planet in perfect balance.

The perfect balance of nature us the signature of the perfect Creator!

To claim otherwise is what the Apostle Paul says is foolishness, ungodliness, unrighteousness and a suppression of the truth.

So to observe earth day and all it ungodliness, I will be posting both biblical and scientific and mathematical proofs of the idolatry of environmentalism as a believing biochemist and pastor.

The first post will be an email sent by this pastor to Fox News refuting global warming.

I should have mad an opening statement to Fox News and that should have been.

THE AMOUNT OF CARBON DIOXIDE IN THE ATMOSPHERE IS CONSTANT!

Why should I have lead with that statement. Because it is the truth!

Carbon dioxide is taken out of the atmosphere by the plants of this world much faster that man could ever be able to put it into the atmosphere.

The rate of removal which was the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1961 is 6,000 tons per second.

This fact is being totally ignored by the scientific community of the post 1970 time frame.

This rate of removal is so large and dominant that it takes only 22 minutes to remove all the carbon emissions put human beings into the atmosphere for the whole year of 2005!

Please read my email below for the mathematical proof:


Hello Fox News


I am a retired biochemist and I have been trying for years to be heard on the global warming issue.

I received my Ph. D. in 1970 from an Agricultural School at West Virginia University in Agricultural biochemistry.

I will try once more to point out the scientific errors in the greenhouse gas effect as briefly as possible and then expand upon it if you will contact me at my email address: whitaker_ted@yahoo.com.

The EPA has refused to respond to my emails:

The concentration of greenhouse gases is less the 1 percent of the atmosphere.

Carbon dioxide is 0.055 percent of the atmosphere of the earth (55 thousandths of a percent). That is a very small amount not a large amount.

The EPA refuses to acknowledge the Nobel Prize winning speech of Melvin Calvin in 1961 at the University of California where he determined the rate of uptake (removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere) as 6000 tons per second.

The University of California website for this speech is http://www-library.qov/

The click on Melvin Calvin and there is his 1961 Nobel prize winning speech and look at the body of the speech and you will see the carbon dioxide removal rate of 6000 tons per second.


The EPA global warming site gives the whole output of carbon dioxide for 2005 in teragrams as a total amount.

Go to http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/emissions/index.html

The total emissions for 2005 is 7,200.4 teragrams or 7,200,400,000,000 grams

Do modem EPA scientists know the size difference between a gram (a tiny measure of weight) and a ton?

I think they do not!

So at the rate published by Dr. Calvin:

How long will it take for the photosynthetic bacteria of the oceans to remove 7,200.4 teragrams of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere?


The answer is just 22 minutes.


PLEASE SEE BELOW THE FOLLOWING CALCULATIONS:

7,200,400,000,000 grams divided by 454 grams per pound = 15,992,070,484 pounds


15,992,070,484 pounds divided by 2000 pounds per ton = 7,996,035 tons of carbon dioxide



How long will to take to remove this many tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere for the whole year of 2005 of the earth by Dr Calvin's Nobel Prize winning rate of 6,000 tons per second?


7,996,045 tons divided by 6000 tons per second = 1,333 seconds


1,333 second divided by 60 seconds per minute = 22 minutes


I rest my case.

Is there global warming. NO! Only to the under educated!

Theodore (Ted) Whitaker, Ph.D. 1970, retired

NT Reading 03.15.09 John 19:7-24 Jesus Predicts His Betrayal


18 "I am not referring to all of you; I know those I have chosen. But this is to fulfill the scripture: 'He who shares my bread has lifted up his heel against me.'
19 "I am telling you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe that I am He.
20 I tell you the truth, whoever accepts anyone I send accepts me; and whoever accepts me accepts the one who sent me."
21 After he had said this, Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified, "I tell you the truth, one of you is going to betray me."
22 His disciples stared at one another, at a loss to know which of them he meant.
23 One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him.
24 Simon Peter motioned to this disciple and said, "Ask him which one he means."
25 Leaning back against Jesus, he asked him, "Lord, who is it?"
26 Jesus answered, "It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish." Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, son of Simon.
27 As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him. "What you are about to do, do quickly," Jesus told him,
28 but no one at the meal understood why Jesus said this to him.
29 Since Judas had charge of the money, some thought Jesus was telling him to buy what was needed for the Feast, or to give something to the poor.
30 As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out. And it was night.

THY WORD IS TRUTH John 17:17

From the desk of the believing biochemist and pastor.


Ted Whitaker, Ph.D, CLP


Warning: Preaching from just one gospel account like Mark just because it was the scrupture of the lectionary may be hazardous to your spiritual health because it is incomplete!


The four gospel scripture passages about the Resurrection that were read at the Easter Sunrise Service are printed below.

As I have presented before, the gospel of Mark is from Peter's account to Mark because Mark was Peter’s scribe and Mark wrote down everything that Peter told him and therefore Mark's gospel is not an eyewitness account.

There are details missing form Mark's account that are clearly remembered by Matthew and John and included in their gospels.

In Marks account Mary Magdalene and the other women did not tell anyone because they were afraid.

If I were to blindly follow the lectionary and only preach on Mark, I would have given a distorted and inaccurate and incomplete account of the resurrection.Matthew tells us that although the women were afraid they were full of joy and hurried to tell the disciples.

So Mark tells an incomplete account because he forgot all the details that Peter had told him.

Mark tells us that there was a young man in the tomb.But Matthew and John identify this young man as an angel.

John who actually was in the tomb tells us that there were two angels and not one.

Matthews account is also second hand because Matthew was with the disciples and did not accompany Peter and John to the tomb and some one forgot to tell him there were two angels instead of just one.

I will always give all four gospel witnesses in my sermons to get the full picture of exactly what happened in Jesus life.An incomplete witness is not the complete truth.

This blog is dedicated to the full truth of God's word.Anything less would be bad scholarship.To preach the truth of the gospel all four gospel writers must be considered as each adds details that the other three leave out of their accounts.

Yours in the love of Christ,

Pastor Ted Whitaker, PhD, CLP


Mark 16:1-11 (NIV)

The Resurrection

1 When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus' body.

2 Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb

3 and they asked each other, "Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?"

4 But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away.

5 As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.

6 "Don't be alarmed," he said. "You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him.

7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter, 'He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.' "

8 Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.

9 When Jesus rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had driven seven demons.

10 She went and told those who had been with him and who were mourning and weeping.

11 When they heard that Jesus was alive and that she had seen him, they did not believe it.

Luke 24:1-12 (NIV)

The Resurrection1 On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb.

2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb,

3 but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.

4 While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them.

5 In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead?

6 He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee:

7' The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.' "

8 Then they remembered his words.

9 When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others.

10 It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles.

11 But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense.

12 Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.


Matthew 28:1-10 (NIV)

The Resurrection

1 After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.

2 There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it.

3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow.

4 The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.

5 The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified.

6 He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.

7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples: 'He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.' Now I have told you."

8 So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples.

9 Suddenly Jesus met them. "Greetings," he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him.

10 Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me."


John 20:1-19 (NIV)

The Empty Tomb

1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance.

2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him!"

3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb.

4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.

5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in.

6 Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there,

7 as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus' head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen.

8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed.

9 (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)
Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene

10 Then the disciples went back to their homes,

11 but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb

12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.

13 They asked her, "Woman, why are you crying?" "They have taken my Lord away," she said, "and I don't know where they have put him."

14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

15 "Woman," he said, "why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?" Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him."

16 Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means Teacher).

17 Jesus said, "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, 'I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'

18 Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: "I have seen the Lord!" And she told them that he had said these things to her.Jesus Appears to His Disciples

19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!"

THY WORD IS TRUTH John 17:17

From the desk of the believing biochemist and pastor:

Ted R Whitaker, PhD, CLP


Easter Morning Sermon


Delivered at the joint Easter Morning Sunrise Service April 12, 2009


Hopedale United Methodist Church 7:00 AM


Annapolis Presbyterian Church 9:30 AM


Hopedale Presbyterian Church 11:00 AM

“They Have Taken His Body Away”

He is risen! Response: He is Risen Indeed. Alleluia!

I would like to welcome everyone to the service of the celebration of the resurrection of Our Lord Jesus from the dead here at (Annapolis / Hopedale United Presbyterian Church).


And what joy has filled our hearts and minds as we celebrate the Resurrection and what it means to every believer.


And the glorious ending of Holy Week and the passion and death of Jesus and the darkness and despair that Jesus disciples must have felt at the Jesus death on the cross and his burial in the tomb.


The rich man's tomb hewn out of solid rock just as the prophets of the Old Testament had foretold.


The congregations here at Annapolis and Hopedale church has through out the season of Lent been hearing of all the Old Testament prophecies that predicted Jesus betrayal and beatings and piercing of his hand and his feet.


Last Thursday both churches celebrated the Passover meal that Jesus celebrated with his disciples just before he was betrayed by one of His disciples Judas Iscariot with a kiss in the Garden of Gethsemane.


The Old Testament prophets foretold that Jesus would be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver.


The word of the Lord from the prophet Zechariah chapter 11 verse 12 reads, "If you think it best, give me my pay; but if not, keep it."


So they paid me thirty pieces of silver. And the LORD said to me, "Throw it to the potter"-the handsome price at which they paid me!


So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the LORD to the potter." Nothing is left to chance in the Word of God.


Everything that happen to Jesus was recorded by the prophets of the Old Testament even to the details of the exact amount of money that Jesus was to be betrayed by a friend.


And where the Jesus friends on the first dark, Good Friday, when he was nailed to the cross by the Roman soldiers.


And where the 12 men that he had chosen to be fishers of men.Only John, the disciple that Jesus loved stood at the foot of the cross and received the request of the Lord to take care of his mother, Mary.


We should all remember that when Jesus told the 12 that one of them would betray him.


Peter brashly replies, "even if all fall away on account of You, I never will!


And Jesus rebuked Peter by saying, "I tell you the truth, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.


And after Jesus was arrested, Peter was identified as one of his followers and Peter denied even knowing Jesus three times and the rooster crowed and Peter wept bitterly.


And then after Jesus had died and the Solder had put a lance, in his side to see that he was truly dead and his body was taken' down from the cross because it was the Sabbath.


The Jews were forbidden to touch a dead body on the Sabbath so Jesus was wrapped in grave cloths and placed in that rich man's tomb and the massive stone was rolled into the opening of the tomb.


And the Sabbath came and passed and can you imagine what must have been going though Peter and the rest of the disciples minds.


Judas was now dead having killed himself.


They must have been heart broken and in despair and terribly confused.



For they had been with this man for three years and in their own words has witnessed "His Majesty".



They had seen with their own eyes the power that this man, Jesus, had displayed right in front of their eyes.


He showed his supernatural power in healing every disease that they knew about leprosy, blindness, deafness, demon possession, lameness and every other infirmity.


(But much, much more).


They had seen him calm the storm and walk on the water and Peter had walked on water with Him but then doubted and the Lord had to catch him.


Peter, James and John had seen his face shine like the sun on the mount of transfiguration.

How can such a man with the power that Jesus had ever die?

But then came the morning!



We have hear the four accounts from the Apostles Matthew, Mark, Luke and John of Mary Magdalene in the sermons in this season of Lent.


And to day we heard in the New Testament readings of the other Mary (the mother of James and Salome) and the two disciples John and Peter going to the tomb and finding it empty of the body of Jesus.



The head cloth was folded up by itself away from the strips of linen that had wrapped Jesus body.Who folded the head cloth of Jesus?


But then Mary starts to cry.And a man she thought was the gardener of the tomb asks Mary Magdalene why is she crying.


And she tells him, "they have taken my Lord body away and I don't know where they have put Him.And they Jesus says to her, "Mary".


And she recognizes him and says, "Rabboni teacher.


He asks her not to touch him but tells her to go and tell the disciples.


And when she arrives and says, "I have seen the Lord."But disciples don't believe her!"



The question is "Do we believer her?"Jesus has to prove his resurrection to each of His disciples by letting them touch him and for doubting Thomas he has to let him put his finger into his wounds to make Thomas believer.

Are we all like Thomas?

Do we need to see the resurrection with our own eyes and touch him to believe?


But the clincher of the evidence of the resurrection is when "Jesus says to disciples when they are gathered beside the Sea of Galilee one morning, "See I am not a ghost".


Galilee is thirty mikes north of the tomb in which Jesus was buried!


A ghost does not have bones like I do and He lets them touch him, again.And then he gives the best of evidence that his is physically alive.


He turn to them and says, "Do you have anything to eat".


And they give him a piece of fish and he ate it."

The tomb is empty!

The cross is empty!

And these supernatural events stand for all time that Satan was been defeated and the grave has no power over us any more.


We are free from their power and that is why we have a blessed hope and a joy unspeakable when we consider what Mary and the disciples saw on that first Easter morning.


And the evidence of the truth of the resurrection will go on for many, many days with the appearances of the Lord to as many as 500 witnesses at one time the Apostle Paul tells us in 1st Corinthians Chapter 15 verse 6.


But I will leave you with the best witness in the Book of Revelation where the risen and glorified Lord Jesus is dictation to his beloved disciple John and these are his words.


Jesus testifies that there is no longer a sacrifice for sin and that his sacrifice is permanent and for all time with these words.

He has made an eternal sacrifice.

“I have the keys of death and Hades.

Do not be afraid,


I am the first and the last and the living One.


I was dead,

And now I am alive forever more”.

Amen.

THY WORD IS TRUTH John 17:17

From the desk of the believing biochemist and pastor:


Ted Whitaker, Ph.D, CLP

Now that Good Friday is over and Jesus of Nazareth has been laid in the tomb and that massive stone has been rolled over it’s entrance, and we wait for the Jewish Sabbath to be over and we wait for the first day of the week.

It gives us pause to remember the appearance of our Lord that first Easter morning to a woman.

God chooses a certain woman to be the first witness to his resurrection and that is Mary of the city of Magdela.

We know her as Mary Magdalene. And sadly she is a much maligned woman. For many so called biblical scholars has labeled her as a prostitute.

THE BIBLE DOES NOT SAY ANYWHERE THAT MARY MAGDALENE WAS A PROSITUTE!

But please don't take my word for it! I have made a exhaustive computer search for the bible verse that tell us that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute.

I have presented all the relevant Scriptures in the table below and none contain the evidence for this claim.

If you know of any scripture please sign up and comment and I will respond.

The THY WORD IS TRUTH blog is dedicated to the truth of Gods Holy Word for Jesus is the living Word of God.

Jesus is WORD made flesh and dwelt among us. The Word of god is inspired by the Spirit of God. And the Spirit is the spirit of Truth.

And that is why I chose the title of this blog for the Apostle John gives us this title in John 17:17. Thy word is truth.

So this blog is dedicated to the truth of this word and for as long as this blog is on the world wide web, this pastor will be point out what the scriptures (the bible) say and what they do not say.

We live in a time where our memories are enhanced by a microchip and an optical disc called a hard drive. And so what the text of the bible says or does not say is no longer a matter of some ones feeble mind or memory.


What the bible says is true and since ALL SCRIPTURE IS GOD BREATHED; all scripture is therefore the spoken words of God recorded by men and is no long in doubt or a matter of conjecture.

So when there are inaccuracies, mistaken interpretation, errors, conjecture or even willful distortion of the truth called heresies, this Pastor will be publishing the correct text and the errors side by side for comparison.

So let me get back to the point of the error of labeling the first witness to the resurrection Mary Magdalene as a prostitute.

This is a very serious error indeed since Mary Magdalene and the other women traveled with Jesus it implies a serious doubt as to Jesus character.

Jesus was erroneously accused by the self righteous Pharisees of guilt by association by eating with sinners.

Since human being is conceived in sin (notice the words was not born in sin), Mary Magdalene was indeed a sinner.

BUT JESUS WAS NOT CONCEIVED IN SIN. Jesus had a supernatural conception by the power of the Holy Spirit and that is the meaning of the incarnation and the virgin birth.

JESUS WAS SINLESS unblemished lamb of God.

And for an important reason although this fact is not understood by many.

The distinction is crucial to the understanding of who Jesus is and why his sacrifice and atonement on the cross is different from the atonement of the animals in the Temple of God built by King Solomon and later rebuilt and remodel by King Herod.

The Temple was destroyed twice for a reason. That reason was that it was TEMPORARY.

But Jesus atonement on the cross of Calvary is different for a very important reason.
Jesus atonement on the cross was PERMANENT and once and for all time (ETERNAL).

The bible tells us this in the Book of Romans and the Book of Hebrew and I will share with you those scripture in a future post dedicated to the atonement.

But what was Mary Magdalene sin? Was it prostitution?

The answer is NO. The bible never says that anywhere. A computer search of the scriptures does not produce a verse that tells us that Mary was a prostitute.

I have done the required computer search of all the verses of the bible that have the word prostitute in them and then a follow up search that have Mary Magdalene’s name.

Please scroll down the TABLE below through all those scriptures as see for your self that Mary Magdalene was not a prostitute.

But before we do that let us consider what the scriptures actually say about Mary Magdalene’s sin.

Luke 8:1-2
1After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, 2and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; 3Joanna the wife of Cuza, the manager of Herod's household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means.
Mary Magdalene was demon possessed and Jesus made those demons come out of her.

In modern terms Mary Magdalene was mentally ill! So she was not immoral!

And this makes Jesus traveling with her no compromise with his character or hers.

The claim of Mary Magdalene is a prostitute and is immoral is prejudice and error and bad biblical scholarship!

Please review all the scriptures of the New Testament below and see for yourself for the computer does not leave any of them out.







Was Mary Magdalene Ever a Prostitute?

TABLE OF COMPARISON:

1) Matthew 27:55-56

55 Many women were there, watching from a distance. They had followed Jesus from Galilee to care for his needs.

56Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee's sons.

Context: Women list of women identified as witness to Jesus crucifixion.

NO REFERENCE TO MARY MAGDALENE AS A PROSTITUTE.

Text notes: Foot note refers to Mark 15:40 note.

2) Matthew 27: 59-61
59 Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth,

60 and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away.

61 Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite the tomb.

Context: List of women as witnesses to the burial of Jesus.

NO REFERENCE TO MARY MAGDALENE AS A PROSTITUTE.

Text Notes: Foot note refers to Mark 15:46.

3) Matthew 28:1-9

1 After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.

2 There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it.

3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow.

4 The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.

5 The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified.

6 He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.

7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples: 'He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.' Now I have told you."

8 So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples.

9 Suddenly Jesus met them. "Greetings," he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him.

10 Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me."

Context: List of women as witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus.

NO REFERENCE TO MARY MAGDALENE AS A PROSTITUTE.

Text Notes: Foot notes refer to Mark 16:2-6; Luke 24: 1-7; John 20 .

Conclusion: Matthew’s Gospel does not identify Mary Magdalene as a prostitute.

4) Mark 15:33-40

33 At the sixth hour darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour.

34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"—which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

35 When some of those standing near heard this, they said, "Listen, he's calling Elijah."

36 One man ran, filled a sponge with wine vinegar, put it on a stick, and offered it to Jesus to drink. "Now leave him alone. Let's see if Elijah comes to take him down," he said.

37 With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last.

38 The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.

39 And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, heard his cry and saw how he died, he said, "Surely this man was the Son of God!"

40 Some women were watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome.

41 In Galilee these women had followed him and cared for his needs. Many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem were also there.

Context: Women list of women identified as witness to Jesus crucifixion.

NO REFERENCE TO MARY MAGDALENE AS A PROSTITUTE.

Text notes: Foot note refers to Mark 16:9 and Luke 8:2 notes.

5) Mark 15: 38-41

38 The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.

39 And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, heard his cry and saw how he died, he said, "Surely this man was the Son of God!"
40 Some women were watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome.

41 In Galilee these women had followed him and cared for his needs. Many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem were also there.

Context: Women list of women identified as witness to Jesus death.

NO REFERENCE TO MARY MAGDALENE AS A PROSTITUTE.

Text notes: No footnotes given on these verses.


6) Mark 16:1-16

1 When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus' body.

2 Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb 3 and they asked each other, "Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?"

4 But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. 5 As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.

6 "Don't be alarmed," he said. "You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him.

7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter, 'He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.' "

8 Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.
9 When Jesus rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had driven seven demons.

10 She went and told those who had been with him and who were mourning and weeping.

11 When they heard that Jesus was alive and that she had seen him, they did not believe it.

Context: List of women as witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus.

NO REFERENCE TO MARY MAGDALENE AS A PROSTITUTE.

WE ONLY FIND A REFERENCE TO MARY AS DEMON POSSESSED.

Text Notes: Foot notes refer to Mark 15:40

Conclusion: Mark’s gospel does not identify Mary Magdalene as a prostitute.


7) Luke 8:1-2

1 After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him,

2 and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out;

3 Joanna the wife of Cuza, the manager of Herod's household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means.

NO REFERENCE TO MARY MAGDALENE AS A PROSTITUTE.

WE DO FIND A REFERENCE TO MARY AS DEMON POSSESSED.

Text Notes: Foot notes refer to Mary’s home town as Magdala.

Text Note: Mary Magdalene is not to be confused with sinful woman that anointed Jesus feet with expensive perfumes and wiped his feet with her hair of Luke 7:36-50. The woman who anointed Jesus was not identified by name.

Context: The context changes from Luke 7 to Luke 8 and Jesus is with Mary Magdalene in Luke 8 but in a different time and place from the sinful woman who anointed his feet.


This confusion of the unidentified sinful woman and Mary Magdalene is most likely the source of the bad scholarship!


8) Luke 24:1-12

1 On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb.

2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb,

3 but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.

4 While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them.

5 In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead?

6 He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 7' The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.' "

8 Then they remembered his words.

9 When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others.

10 It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles.

11 But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense.

12 Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.

Context: List of women as witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus.

NO REFERENCE TO MARY MAGDALENE AS A PROSTITUTE.

Text Notes: Foot notes refer to Mark16:1; John 20:1

Conclusion: Luke’s gospel does not identify Mary Magdalene as a prostitute.


John 19:24-27

24 Let's not tear it," they said to one another. "Let's decide by lot who will get it." This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled which said, "They divided my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing." So this is what the soldiers did.

25 Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.

26 When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, "Dear woman, here is your son,"

27 and to the disciple, "Here is your mother." From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.

Context: List of women identified as witnesses to Jesus crucifixion.

NO REFERENCE TO MARY MAGDALENE AS A PROSTITUTE.

Text notes: Foot note refers no other scriptures.

John 20:1-18 The Empty Tomb

1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance.

2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him!"

3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb.

4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.

5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in.

6 Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there,

7 as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus' head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen.

8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed.

9 (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)

Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene

10 Then the disciples went back to their homes,

11 but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.

13 They asked her, "Woman, why are you crying?" "They have taken my Lord away," she said, "and I don't know where they have put him."

14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

15 "Woman," he said, "why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?" Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him."

16 Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means Teacher).

17 Jesus said, "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, 'I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.' 18 Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: "I have seen the Lord!" And she told them that he had said these things to her.


Context: Mary Magdalene as witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus.

NO REFERENCE TO MARY MAGDALENE AS A PROSTITUTE.

Text Notes: Foot notes no references to other scriptures.

Conclusion: John’s Gospel does not identify Mary Magdalene as a prostitute.


To make this bible study thorough and accurate, we need to look at the New Testmanent scriptures than contain the word “prostitute”.

Perhaps Mary Magdalene is referred to in the scripture verses that contain the word "prostitute"?

There are only 2 such scriptures in the New Testament that refer to prostitutes that might refer to mary Magdalene also.


Matthew 21:30-32 The Parable of the Two Sons:

30. Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you.

32 For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.

Context: Jesus does not identify Mary Magdalene as a prostitute in this passage.

In fact Mary Magdalene does not appear in this chapter of Matthew.

NO REFERENCE TO MARY MAGDALENE AS A PROSTITUTE

Conclusion: The gospel of Matthew does not identify Mary Magdalene as a prostitute.


Luke 15:11-31 The Parable of the Prodigal Son

28 "The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him.

29 But he answered his father, 'Look! All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.

30But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!'

31" 'My son,' the father said, 'you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.

32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' "

Context: Jesus does not identify Mary Magdalene as a prostitute in this passage.

In fact Mary Magdalene does not appear in this chapter of Luke.

NO REFERENCE TO MARY MAGDALENE AS A PROSTITUTE

Conclusion: Holds that the gospel of Luke does not identify Mary Magdalene as a prostitute.



So to make sure that we are not missing some reference to Mary Magdalene as a former prostitute let us examine all the New Testament that have the word prostitute in them outside of the gospels.


1 Corinthians 6:9Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders

1 Corinthians 6:15Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never!
Corinthians 6:16Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, "The two will become one flesh."


The Apostle Paul does not identify Mary Magdalene or anyone else as a prostitute.

But he does identify anyone who is not repentant as a prostitute “will not inherit the kingdom of God.’

The Apostle Paul says our bodies belong to Christ as believers and whoever unites himself with a prostitute unites Christ with a prostitute?

There can be no stronger statement about prostitues in the whole bible!



Hebrews 11:31By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.

James 2:25In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction?


James and the Author of Hebrews identify Rahab of the Old Testament as a prostitute but they do not identify Mary Magdalene as a prostitute?

The book of Rebelation has 5 scriptures with the word prostitute in them:

Revelation 17:1[ The Woman and the Beast ] One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, "Come, I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute, who sits on many waters.
Revelation 17:5This title was written on her forehead: MYSTERY BABYLON THE GREATTHE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTESAND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

Revelation 17:15Then the angel said to me, "The waters you saw, where the prostitute sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations and languages.

Revelation 17:16The beast and the ten horns you saw will hate the prostitute. They will bring her to ruin and leave her naked; they will eat her flesh and burn her with fire.

Revelation 19:2for true and just are his judgments. He has condemned the great prostitute who corrupted the earth by her adulteries. He has avenged on her the blood of his servants."

None of these scriptures in the book of revelation identifies Mary Magdalene as a prostitute:


CONCLUSION:

NOWHERE IN THE BIBLE IS MARY MAGDALENE IDENIFIED AS A PROSITUTE!

Jesus was sinless! An God would not let him associate with a positute.

And if Jesus associated with a prostitute he would not be God.

This is the false claim of the Pharisees about Jesus and it is not true.

THY WORD IS TRUTH John 17:17


LET ME CHALLENGE THOSE WHO HAVE MADE THIS CLAIM TO PRODUCE THE

BIBLICAL REFERENCE THAT TELLS US THAT MARY MAGDALENE WAS A PROSTITUE.


All references outside of the bible are not valid because such sources are not inspired by God Holy Spirit and therefore are false witness.

Gnostic gospels are not gospels at all and are heretical accounts.

We will explain the heresy of Gnosticism in future posts.

THY WORD IS TRUTH John 17:17

From The Desk Of The Believing Biochemist and Pastor:

Pastor Ted Whitaker, PhD, CLP

I would like to welcome the members, family and friends of Hopedale and Annapolis Churches to the Good Friday edition of Thy Word Is Truth Blog.

We are not having a service this year on Good Friday.

I would like everyone to remember our Savior's death on the cross and later his burial in the rich man's tomb.

To do this please read the gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John printed below.

In doing this we should remember that Matthew and John are eyewitness accounts and Luke was the scribe of the Apostle Paul and Mark is the scribe of the Apostle Peter and are second hand accounts.

This is not to diminish Luke and Mark in any way but since we have four accounts to compare at one time please see the details that are presented in Luke and Mark and compare them to the first hand accounts of Matthew and John and you will see that we get a complete picture of Jesus death and burial only form reading and paying attention to the detail of all four witnesses.

I hope to see you all Sunday morning as we hear from these four witness about the appearance of Jesus alive risen from the grave first to Mary Magdalene and the other women with her and then later to the disciples.

See you all Easter morning.

Yours in the love of Christ,

Pastor Ted Whitaker

Matthew 27:27-66 (NIV)

The Soldiers Mock Jesus

27Then the governor's soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him.
28They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him,
29and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand and knelt in front of him and mocked him. "Hail, king of the Jews!" they said.

30They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again.
31After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.

The Crucifixion

32 As they were going out, they met a man from Cyrene, named Simon, and they forced him to carry the cross.
33 They came to a place called Golgotha (which means The Place of the Skull).
34 There they offered Jesus wine to drink, mixed with gall; but after tasting it, he refused to drink it.

35When they had crucified him, they divided up his clothes by casting lots.
36And sitting down, they kept watch over him there.
37Above his head they placed the written charge against him: THIS IS JESUS, THE KING OF THE JEWS.
38Two robbers were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left.
39Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads
40and saying, "You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!"
41In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. 42"He saved others," they said, "but he can't save himself! He's the King of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him.
43He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, 'I am the Son of God.' "
44In the same way the robbers who were crucified with him also heaped insults on him.

The Death of Jesus

45From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land.
46About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"—which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
47When some of those standing there heard this, they said, "He's calling Elijah." 48Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a stick, and offered it to Jesus to drink.
49The rest said, "Now leave him alone. Let's see if Elijah comes to save him."
50 And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.
51 At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split.
52 The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life.
53 They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus' resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people.
54 When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, "Surely he was the Son of God!"

55 Many women were there, watching from a distance. They had followed Jesus from Galilee to care for his needs. 56 Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee's sons.

The Burial of Jesus

57 As evening approached, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who had himself become a disciple of Jesus.
58 Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus' body, and Pilate ordered that it be given to him. 59 Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth,
60 and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away.

61 Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite the tomb.

The Guard at the Tomb

62 The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate.
63 "Sir," they said, "we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, 'After three days I will rise again.'
64 So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first."
65 "Take a guard," Pilate answered. "Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how."
66 So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard.

Mark 15:16-47 (NIV)

The Soldiers Mock Jesus

16 The soldiers led Jesus away into the palace (that is, the Praetorium) and called together the whole company of soldiers.
17 They put a purple robe on him, then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on him.
18 And they began to call out to him, "Hail, king of the Jews!"
19 Again and again they struck him on the head with a staff and spit on him. Falling on their knees, they paid homage to him.
20 And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him out to crucify him.
The Crucifixion
21 A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country, and they forced him to carry the cross.
22 They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha (which means The Place of the Skull).

23 Then they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it.
24 And they crucified him. Dividing up his clothes, they cast lots to see what each would get.
25 It was the third hour when they crucified him.
26 The written notice of the charge against him read: THE KING OF THE JEWS.
27 They crucified two robbers with him, one on his right and one on his left.
29 Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, "So! You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days,
30 come down from the cross and save yourself!"
31 In the same way the chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked him among themselves. "He saved others," they said, "but he can't save himself!
32 Let this Christ, this King of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe." Those crucified with him also heaped insults on him.
The Death of Jesus
33At the sixth hour darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour.
34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"—which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
35 When some of those standing near heard this, they said, "Listen, he's calling Elijah."

36 One man ran, filled a sponge with wine vinegar, put it on a stick, and offered it to Jesus to drink. "Now leave him alone. Let's see if Elijah comes to take him down," he said.

37 With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last.
38 The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.
39 And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, heard his cry and saw how he died, he said, "Surely this man was the Son of God!"
40 Some women were watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome.
41 In Galilee these women had followed him and cared for his needs. Many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem were also there.

The Burial of Jesus

42 It was Preparation Day (that is, the day before the Sabbath). So as evening approached, 43 Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the Council, who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God, went boldly to Pilate and asked for Jesus' body.
44 Pilate was surprised to hear that he was already dead. Summoning the centurion, he asked him if Jesus had already died.
45 When he learned from the centurion that it was so, he gave the body to Joseph.
46 So Joseph bought some linen cloth, took down the body, wrapped it in the linen, and placed it in a tomb cut out of rock. Then he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb.
47Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where he was laid.

Luke 23:1-55 (NIV)

1 Then the whole assembly rose and led him off to Pilate.
2 And they began to accuse him, saying, "We have found this man subverting our nation. He opposes payment of taxes to Caesar and claims to be Christ, a king."
3 So Pilate asked Jesus, "Are you the king of the Jews?" "Yes, it is as you say," Jesus replied.
4 Then Pilate announced to the chief priests and the crowd, "I find no basis for a charge against this man." 5But they insisted, "He stirs up the people all over Judea by his teaching. He started in Galilee and has come all the way here."
6 On hearing this, Pilate asked if the man was a Galilean.
7 When he learned that Jesus was under Herod's jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod, who was also in Jerusalem at that time.
8 When Herod saw Jesus, he was greatly pleased, because for a long time he had been wanting to see him. From what he had heard about him, he hoped to see him perform some miracle.
9 He plied him with many questions, but Jesus gave him no answer.
10 The chief priests and the teachers of the law were standing there, vehemently accusing him.
11 Then Herod and his soldiers ridiculed and mocked him. Dressing him in an elegant robe, they sent him back to Pilate.
12 That day Herod and Pilate became friends—before this they had been enemies.
13 Pilate called together the chief priests, the rulers and the people,
14 and said to them, "You brought me this man as one who was inciting the people to rebellion. I have examined him in your presence and have found no basis for your charges against him.
15 Neither has Herod, for he sent him back to us; as you can see, he has done nothing to deserve death.
16 Therefore, I will punish him and then release him."
18 With one voice they cried out, "Away with this man! Release Barabbas to us!"
19 (Barabbas had been thrown into prison for an insurrection in the city, and for murder.)
20 Wanting to release Jesus, Pilate appealed to them again.
21 But they kept shouting, "Crucify him! Crucify him!"
22 For the third time he spoke to them: "Why? What crime has this man committed? I have found in him no grounds for the death penalty. Therefore I will have him punished and then release him."
23 But with loud shouts they insistently demanded that he be crucified, and their shouts prevailed.
24 So Pilate decided to grant their demand.
25 He released the man who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, the one they asked for, and surrendered Jesus to their will.

The Crucifixion

26 As they led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus.
27A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him.
28 Jesus turned and said to them, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children.
29 For the time will come when you will say, 'Blessed are the barren women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!' 30Then " 'they will say to the mountains, "Fall on us!" and to the hills, "Cover us!" '
31 For if men do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?" 32 Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed.
33 When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left.
34 Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.
35 The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, "He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One."
36 The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar
37 and said, "If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself."
38 There was a written notice above him, which read: sc THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.
39 One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: "Aren't you the Christ? Save yourself and us!"
40 But the other criminal rebuked him. "Don't you fear God," he said, "since you are under the same sentence?
41 We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong."
42 Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." 43Jesus answered him, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise."
Jesus' Death
44 It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour,
45 for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two.
46 Jesus called out with a loud voice, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." When he had said this, he breathed his last.
47 The centurion, seeing what had happened, praised God and said, "Surely this was a righteous man."
48 When all the people who had gathered to witness this sight saw what took place, they beat their breasts and went away.
49 But all those who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.

Jesus' Burial

50 Now there was a man named Joseph, a member of the Council, a good and upright man,
51 who had not consented to their decision and action. He came from the Judean town of Arimathea and he was waiting for the kingdom of God.
52 Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus' body.
53 Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen cloth and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock, one in which no one had yet been laid.
54 It was Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was about to begin.
55 The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it.
56 Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment.

John 19:1-41

Jesus Sentenced to be Crucified

1 Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged.
2 The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe
3 and went up to him again and again, saying, "Hail, king of the Jews!" And they struck him in the face.
4 Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews, "Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him."
5 When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, "Here is the man!"
6 As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, "Crucify! Crucify!" But Pilate answered, "You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him."
7 The Jews insisted, "We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God."
8 When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid,
9 and he went back inside the palace. "Where do you come from?" he asked Jesus, but Jesus gave him no answer.
10 "Do you refuse to speak to me?" Pilate said. "Don't you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?"
11 Jesus answered, "You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin."
12 From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jews kept shouting, "If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar." 13 When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judge's seat at a place known as the Stone Pavement (which in Aramaic is Gabbatha).
14 It was the day of Preparation of Passover Week, about the sixth hour. "Here is your king," Pilate said to the Jews.
15 But they shouted, "Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!" "Shall I crucify your king?" Pilate asked. "We have no king but Caesar," the chief priests answered.
16 Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.

The Crucifixion

So the soldiers took charge of Jesus.

17 Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha).
18 Here they crucified him, and with him two others—one on each side and Jesus in the middle.
19 Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read:sc JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS.
20 Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek.
21 The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, "Do not write 'The King of the Jews,' but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews."
22 Pilate answered, "What I have written, I have written."
23 When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom.
24 "Let's not tear it," they said to one another. "Let's decide by lot who will get it." This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled which said, "They divided my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing." So this is what the soldiers did.
25 Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.
26 When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, "Dear woman, here is your son," 27and to the disciple, "Here is your mother." From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.
The Death of Jesus
28 Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, "I am thirsty."
29 A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus' lips. 30When he had received the drink, Jesus said, "It is finished." With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
31 Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jews did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down.
32 The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other.
33But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs.
34Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus' side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water.
35The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe.
36These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: "Not one of his bones will be broken,"
37and, as another scripture says, "They will look on the one they have pierced."
The Burial of Jesus
38Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jews. With Pilate's permission, he came and took the body away.
39 He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds.
40 Taking Jesus' body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs.
41 At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid.
42 Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.

THY WORD IS TRUTH John 17:17

From The Desk Of The Believing Biochemist and Pastor:


Pastor Ted Whitaker, PhD, CLP


I would like to invite all friends and family of Hopedale and Annapolis Presbyterian churches to the celebration of the Passover of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
on a Seder meal on Maunday Thursday April 9, 2007 at 6:00 PM.


We need to remember that The Last Supper on the night of Jesus betrayal and arrest was a Passover meal.


Please find below the bible readings from the book of Exodus and gospel of Luke that apply.


Then read the back ground material that explains the Seder meal.


Please notice that the origin of the Easter egg originally comes form the sacrifice in the Temple and the Seder or Passover meal as a roasted egg.


Please read the gospel accounts also that speak to the facts that Jesus and his disciples relined at the table of the last supper as they recalled their forefathers freedom from slavery and bondage in Egypt over 1500 years before the Last Supper.


Passover is really like the 4th of July in the United States becasue Passover is independence day for the Jews.


Yours in the love of Christ,


Pastor Ted Whitaker



Exodus 12 (New International Version)


The Passover

1 The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt,
2 "This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year.
3 Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household.
4 If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat.
5 The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats.
6 Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the people of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight.
7 Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs.
That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast.
9 Do not eat the meat raw or cooked in water, but roast it over the fire—head, legs and inner parts.
10 Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it.
11 This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the LORD's Passover.
12 "On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn—both men and animals—and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD.
13 The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.
14 "This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD -a lasting ordinance.
15 For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast. On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel.
16 On the first day hold a sacred assembly, and another one on the seventh day. Do no work at all on these days, except to prepare food for everyone to eat—that is all you may do.
17 "Celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt. Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. 18 In the first month you are to eat bread made without yeast, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day.
19 For seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses. And whoever eats anything with yeast in it must be cut off from the community of Israel, whether he is an alien or native-born.
20 Eat nothing made with yeast. Wherever you live, you must eat unleavened bread."
21 Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, "Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb.
22 Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. Not one of you shall go out the door of his house until morning.
23 When the LORD goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.
24 "Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants.
25 When you enter the land that the LORD will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony. 26 And when your children ask you, 'What does this ceremony mean to you?'
27 then tell them, 'It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.' " Then the people bowed down and worshiped.
28 The Israelites did just what the LORD commanded Moses and Aaron.
29 At midnight the LORD struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner, who was in the dungeon, and the firstborn of all the livestock as well.
30 Pharaoh and all his officials and all the Egyptians got up during the night, and there was loud wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead.



Luke 22:1-38


Judas Agrees to Betray Jesus


1Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread, called the Passover, was approaching,
2and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were looking for some way to get rid of Jesus, for they were afraid of the people.
3Then Satan entered Judas, called Iscariot, one of the Twelve.
4And Judas went to the chief priests and the officers of the temple guard and discussed with them how he might betray Jesus.
5They were delighted and agreed to give him money. 6He consented, and watched for an opportunity to hand Jesus over to them when no crowd was present.


The Last Supper (A Passover Meal)


7Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed.
8Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, "Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover." 9"Where do you want us to prepare for it?" they asked.
10He replied, "As you enter the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him to the house that he enters,
11and say to the owner of the house, 'The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?'
12He will show you a large upper room, all furnished. Make preparations there."
13They left and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover. 14When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table.
15And he said to them, "I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.
16For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God." 17After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, "Take this and divide it among you.
18For I tell you I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes."
19And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me."
20In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.
21But the hand of him who is going to betray me is with mine on the table.
22The Son of Man will go as it has been decreed, but woe to that man who betrays him." 23They began to question among themselves which of them it might be who would do this.
24Also a dispute arose among them as to which of them was considered to be greatest. 25Jesus said to them, "The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who exercise authority over them call themselves Benefactors.
26But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves.
27For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves.
28You are those who have stood by me in my trials.
29And I confer on you a kingdom, just as my Father conferred one on me,
30so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 31"Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat.
32But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers."
33But he replied, "Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death."
34Jesus answered, "I tell you, Peter, before the rooster crows today, you will deny three times that you know me."
35Then Jesus asked them, "When I sent you without purse, bag or sandals, did you lack anything?" "Nothing," they answered.
36He said to them, "But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one.
37It is written: 'And he was numbered with the transgressors'; and I tell you that this must be fulfilled in me. Yes, what is written about me is reaching its fulfillment."
38The disciples said, "See, Lord, here are two swords." "That is enough," he replied.

WELCOME TO HOPEDALE AND CELEBRATE THE PASSOVER

MAUNDAY THURSDAY COMMUNION SERVICE
APRIL 9, 2009

THE PASSOVER FEAST EXPLANATION:



PASSOVER – (The Hebrew name is PESACH) is called the festival of freedom because it is independence day to the Jewish people. It commemorates in prayer, song and fasting the flight of the children of Israel from Egypt, the story of which is described in the book of Exodus.


It recalls the time 3000 years ago, when as slaves, they had built great cities for the pharaohs. Led by Moses, they were delivered from bondage on the night of PESACH.PASSOVER takes its name from the time of Egyptians enslavement when the angel of the Lord passed over the homes of the Israelites and spared their first born-sons.


This story is the heart of the PASSOVER, from which comes its symbols, rites, rituals, its music, and it types of foods eaten during the 8-day celebration.

In ancient times, PASACH was a beautiful pilgrim festival when PASSOVER sacrifices were made and magnificent celebrations were held in the temple.

There is a great deal of special preparations for PASSOVER. The house must be thoroughly cleaned and special dishes that are used only for the feast are taken from the cupboards. Special foods are prepared from newly purchased and newly opened supplies.

Only unleavened bread is eaten for eight days to show Moses command received from God, “Seven days ye shall eat un-leavened bread.”

It recalls the day when the children of Israel fled to freedom in such haste that they carried unleavened dough with them to be baked in the desert sun.

The PASSOVER begins at sundown with the SEDER dinner, the most impressive of the entire week.

Candles light the table, and each part of the meal is eaten with special ceremony. Before any food is eaten, there is a reading of the HAGGADAH, an ancient book whose oldest portions date back at least 3,500 years.


The appointed order for the SEDER is contained in the HAGGADAH.


In the center of the SEDER table is placed a goblet of wine called “Elijah’s Cup”.Orthodox Jews believe that the prophet Elijah will foretell the coming of the Messiah.


By filling this cup with wine, they welcome his presence at the SEDER, and thereby express their hope that the promise of the Messianic Age will someday be fulfilled.


By ancient custom the following foods are placed upon a plate on the table:


Matzoth –representing the bread of Affliction.A roasted lamb bone – symbol of the Paschal Lamb.


A Roasted Egg – symbol of the ancient festival offering.Horseradish (bitter herb) – symbol of the bitterness of slavery.Parsley (sweet herb) – symbol of spring and growth.


Charseth (apple, nuts and wine) – symbol of the clay and the bricks used by the Israelites to build the “treasured cities of the Pharoah.


Salt Water – symbol of the tears shed by a captive people


Glasses of Wine - used four times during the SEDER.

A TYPICAL SEDER MEAL

Roasted lamb or fowl

Baked noodles, rice or potatoes

Carrots or spinach

A green salad

Fruit bowl or fresh fruit

Sponge cake