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Hidden In Him

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Hidden In Him

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Hidden In Him

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MoreBloodWine

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You alive Chris ?
 

MoreBloodWine

October 14, 2020, 06:17:44 PM
But ya, any PM's sent they should be made aware of via email, if they have notifications set for receipt of a PM.

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October 14, 2020, 06:15:17 PM
Still need to check some things but that will be easy enough to do via PM.

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Hidden In Him

October 14, 2020, 05:56:59 PM
You're kidding... That would be something. Any way to contact ShadowKen and Indybones? And maybe Pineapple, LoL. I suppose if it's all intact I could just message and it would go thru to email.
 

MoreBloodWine

October 14, 2020, 01:53:33 AM
@HIM: The MP is back, but it will need to remain in maintenance mode until I can re skin it / fix some of the underlying addons, But it is loading again... all data should still be intact.

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Hidden In Him

April 27, 2020, 06:37:28 PM
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Hidden In Him

April 08, 2020, 10:37:46 AM
This one's pretty good, LoL. Should be fun to put on video some day.  :)
http://www.spiritualwarbiblestudies.com/index.php?topic=181.msg207#msg207
 

Hidden In Him

March 10, 2020, 12:43:23 PM
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MoreBloodWine

March 10, 2020, 07:02:44 AM
Everything happens for a reason, even if it's rewriting old works ;-)
 

Hidden In Him

March 07, 2020, 07:12:18 PM
My wife dislikes the idea that I'm rewriting studies rather than writing new ones, but the Lord is now opening up Colossians to me like never before, and some work needs to be redone. Very excited about the new insight!  :)
 

Hidden In Him

February 29, 2020, 02:19:44 PM
...get back to making sure studies were ready to put on camera when the time comes.  :)

So how's life with you?  
 

Hidden In Him

February 29, 2020, 02:18:44 PM
I noticed you were still lurking around, LoL. Glad to see I'm not the only one happy about it.  :) Hard at work converting the garage into a recording studio & music room. Gonna be nice! The soundproofing is going to be work and money, but a lot of it is already purchased. In the meantime, I had to
 

MoreBloodWine

February 29, 2020, 01:59:43 AM
 :) :) :)
 

Hidden In Him

February 28, 2020, 05:43:50 PM
I'm officially going back to writing! Glory to God Almighty!! Having fun again already, and going to be going to work improving and the adding to the set on Colossians.

Blessings in Christ to all who visit,
Hidden
 

MoreBloodWine

November 02, 2019, 02:37:56 AM
I rarely ever used Tapatalk to log in to the site. Not sure if anyone ever actually did as the issue of it not working was never reported.

But for our mobile uses, certain things like this chat box will not be available through the app as this chat box is an addon itself. But all boards within the forum are available and currently confirmed working.

Ty & my apologies !
 

Hidden In Him

August 05, 2019, 03:21:06 PM
An excellent passage I am now writing a study on in the Book of Colossians.

"And I am now rejoicing in [my] sufferings over you, and filling up in my flesh what is lacking of the afflictions of Christ for His body's sake, which is the church, of which I became a servant
 

Hidden In Him

August 05, 2019, 03:20:49 PM
... of which I became a servant according to the administration of God having been given unto me, for you to fulfill the word of God, the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations but which has now been made manifest to His saints, to whom God wished to make known what

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Author Topic: Colossians 2:20-23, 3:5-7, Part 2  (Read 1272 times)

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Hidden In Him

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Colossians 2:20-23, 3:5-7, Part 2
« on: March 04, 2021, 10:52:17 PM »
Warring Against Unclean Spirits By Mortifying The Flesh, Part 2

                         

     As covered in Part 1, the heretics among the Colossians were Essenes; a very strict sect if Jews who stressed not eating or even touching unclean foods. Yet what they needed to be concerned with is what the church had come to realize: That those who belonged to God must not bring within themselves or even have contact with unclean spirits, which is what the unclean food laws represented spiritually. Paul therefore told the Colossians not to get bogged down in the basic principles of Judaism related to this world such as "taste not" and "touch not," but to graduate to a higher understanding of what these Jewish customs foreshadowed prophetically for the New Testament church.
     This is what he was referring to in the current passage:

     If you died with Christ from the elementary principles of the world, why as though living in the world do you subject yourself to decrees? "Touch not, taste not," neither handle such things as are all coming to decomposition with the using, in accordance with the injunctions and teachings of men; teachings which indeed have an appearance of wisdom in advocating voluntary subservience, self-abasement and neglect of the body, yet do not have any value against gratification of the flesh. If therefore you were raised with Christ... Mortify your members upon the earth: Sexual immorality, uncleanness, physical passion, evil lust, and [sexual] covetousness, which is idolatry, on account of which things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, amongst whom you also walked when you were once living among these things. (Colossians 2:20-23, 3:5-7)

     What type of fleshly gratification was Paul referring to here? The next few verses make it plain that he was talking about sexual gratification here, since the words, "sexual immorality, uncleanness, physical passion, evil lust, and covetousness" were all used in Greek of sexual sin, including the last one, which is the same word used in scripture when God commanded, "You shall not covet your neighbor's wife." This was a form of idolatry in a sense, because a man was essentially idolizing what he was commanded not to desire.
     The Essenes focused only on not eating certain foods, but if they continued to eat a lot of what they considered "clean," their flesh would still be strong and prone to sin. So the big question was, by what means could one successfully abstain from sexual immorality? Paul's answer was that they "mortify their members upon the earth," and the Greek word used here was actually μέλος, which was used throughout Classical Greek and the Greek Old Testament of "limbs" or "body parts." Thus he was talking about "putting to death" the literal members of their physical bodies. How could they do this?
     What he was actually referring to here was fasting, but many translations we use today fail to communicate this accurately. Some translations have the verse saying, "Put to death therefore what is earthly in you" (RSV). Others, while using the literal word "members" in its translation, nevertheless cloud the meaning by saying, "Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality" (NASB). But this verse doesn't say anything about "considering" anything dead. Rather, it spoke of actively "mortifying" the fleshly members of one's body such that they are "put to death" in some sense, and again the context suggests he was talking about their sexual members in particular here; their sex drive.
     In this study I will show how both scientific studies and ancient Christian teachings support the notion that bringing the body under through fasting effectively diminished the sex drive, and this is in fact what the Apostle Paul himself was referring to when he once mentioned bringing his own body under submission. In his first letter to the Corinthians, he made reference to not simply engaging in "shadow-boxing" when it came to his flesh, but beating it into submission as it were by dealing with it harshly, so that it would be trained and disciplined to submit to his will, like a boxer's body when it becomes trained to endure taking punches:

     Do you not know that they which run in a race all run, yet one receives the prize... So I therefore run, not as uncertainly; so I box, not as beating the air. But I pommel my body and bring it under subjection, lest having preached to others, I myself might be disqualified. (1 Corinthians 9:24, 26-27)

     Paul said that he "engaged in fasting often" (2 Corinthians 11:25-27, 6:4-5), and according to Ambrosiaster in his ancient commentaries on Paul, "To 'pommel the body' is to fast, and to avoid any kind of luxury. Paul shows that he disciplines his own body so that he will not miss out on the reward which he preaches to others." (Ambrosiaster, Commentary On Paul's Epistles).
     The approach of the Essenes would have fallen under what Paul referred to as merely "shadow boxing," and many in the church do this same thing today. Some pastors advise pursuing "Daniel fasts," where the congregation can only eat vegetables for an extended time. But by foregoing meat, many end up eating more food during this time than they had been before the fast, which essentially defeats the entire purpose, at least as far as bringing the flesh under submission is concerned.


Early Church Quotes On Mortifying The Flesh

     Claims that overeating inflamed the sexual lusts while fasting greatly reduced them were common among early church writers. John Cassian, Basil of Caesarea, John Chrysostom, St. Jerome, Gregory of Nyssa and Evagrius all made statements advancing this teaching, as did later theologians like Thomas Aquinas who followed in their footsteps, maintaining that “the ardor of lust is dampened by abstinence from food and drink.” Unlike what we hear today, this teaching was blunt and simple but effective: Sexual desires were diminished through fasting. Based on the teachings of Paul, it was understood that a gluttonous life brought the Spirit under subjection to the flesh, while fasting instead brought the flesh under subjection to the Spirit.
     Satan has stolen this teaching away from the church, but just a few quotes from centuries past will suffice to prove that it was the teaching of the church up until recent times, beginning with Tertullian, who dedicated an entire work to fasting alone. Regarding the teachings of certain heretics who were opposing the practice as being too strict:

     Voluptuousness leads them to repeated marriages... and gluttony leads them to hate fasts... The order of the vices is proportionate to the arrangement of the members. First, the belly, and then immediately the materials for all other forms of lasciviousness are laid subordinately... through love of eating, love of impurity finds passage... [Fasting however] reins upon the appetite, through sometimes taking no meals, or late meals, or dry meals, just as it reigns upon lust by allowing only one marriage." (Tertullian, On Fasting, Ante-Nicene Fathers, V.IV, P.102)

     There are three things which most belong to religious actions: Namely prayer, fasting, and almsgiving … By prayer we seek to propitiate God, by fasting we extinguish the lusts of the flesh... God’s image is throughout renewed in us if we are always ready to praise Him, unfailingly intent on our purification, and unceasingly active in cherishing our neighbor. (Saint Leo the Great)

     Listen and hear the word of warning: “Wide and spacious is the road of gluttony. It leads to the catastrophe of fornication, and there are many who travel that way. The gate is narrow, and the way of fasting is hard, that way leading to the life of purity, and there are few to make the journey . . . Fasting ends lust, roots out bad thoughts, frees one from evil dreams.” (St. John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent, P.167)

     Fasting cleanses the soul, raises the mind, subjects one’s flesh to the spirit, renders the heart contrite and humble, scatters the clouds of concupiscence, quenches the fire of lust, and kindles the true light of chastity. (St. Augustine, On Prayer and Fasting, Quoted by St. Thomas Aquinas)

     Every wise man will deny his soul, and keep it abased. He will wean it more and more from all those indulgences of the inferior appetites, which naturally tend to chain it down to earth, and to pollute as well as debase it. Here is another perpetual reason for fasting; to remove the food of lust and sensuality, to withdraw the incentives of foolish and hurtful desires, of vile and vain affections. (John Wesley, The Sermons of John Wesley, Sermon 27.4)

     A man who eats too much cannot strive against laziness, while a gluttonous and idle man will never be able to contend with sexual lust. Therefore, according to all moral teachings, the effort towards self-control commences with a struggle against the lust of gluttony - commences with fasting... And yet, just as the first condition of a good life is self-control, so the first condition of a life of self-control is fasting. One may wish to be good, one may dream of goodness, without fasting, but to be good without fasting is as impossible as it is to walk without getting up onto one’s feet. Fasting is an indispensable condition of a good life, whereas gluttony is, and always has been, the first sign of the opposite — a bad life. Unfortunately, this vice is in the highest degree characteristic of the life of the majority of the men of our time. (Leo Tolstoy, The First Step, The Works of Leo Tolstoy)


Scientific Substantiation Of Early Christian Teachings

     Today, scientific proof exists that the teaching of early church leaders was actually correct. The fasting regimen of early church theologian John Cassian was put to the test in the 1940s by researchers at the University of Minnesota, led by Aline Rousselle:

     John Cassian, Jerome, Gregory of Nyssa and Basil of Ancyra all understood the benefits of ascestic fasting to include the slowing of the processes that lead to sexual desire. Aline Rousselle has demonstrated that modern research on the effects of food deprivation confirms the ancient theory to some extent... One of the marked and common effects of prolonged food deprivation - in the Minnesota experiment as well as numerous studies of starving populations in war or famine - is a weakening or loss of sexual desire and activity. The researchers at Minnesota found that by the end of the twenty-four weeks of semi-starvation "sexual feeling and expression … were virtually extinguished in all but a few of the subjects." They also report that "masturbation and nocturnal emissions ceased or were greatly reduced in frequency. Sex fantasies and sex dreams were reported to have decreased in number, and when present they were much attenuated." During the rehabilitation period, the sex drive returned only very slowly. The researchers attributed the decrease in sexual desire in starvation or semi-starvation in part to the body's own "adaptive mechanisms protecting the individual organism from nonessential energy expenditure." Experiment results also showed a marked decrease in the production and excretion of male sex hormones (ketosteroids) as well as a reduction in semen volume and changes in its morphology. Although the Minnesota experiment involved only male subjects, the authors note previous studies documenting widespread amenorrhea among women suffering from food deprivation. (Teresa Shaw, The Burden Of The Flesh, P.126)

     The contention of Cassian was that the fasting regimen should be extended for at least six months, however. This is why the fasted life has to become a more permanent lifestyle if one would hope to keep the flesh under submission consistently. The sex drive will gradually start returning over time after one returns to a normal diet. I have done enough fasting myself to attest to this:

     The Minnesota experiment thus documented both physiological and psychological aspects of the decline in sexual interest. This decline occurred at a daily caloric intake level of around 1500-1600. It is therefore a fair assumption that the monks of Gaul or Egypt would have experienced a loss of sexual appetite and a reduction in the frequency of nocturnal emissions and erections if in fact they followed the diet described by John Cassian for any significant length of time. Indeed, Rousselle estimates that the individual items in Cassian's daily fast - bread, brine, and oil - would provide around 930 calories. Even the special meal served by Serenus to his guests, which included a few olives, roasted chickpeas, prunes, and a fig, would provide only around 1,069 calories. In light of the modern research just presented, Cassian's recommended weekly diet can only be described as one of semi-starvation. On Saturdays and Sundays, however, the monks were permitted to relax their fast and add an extra meal on a voluntary basis. Cassian very sensibly notes that extra food was necessary at times due to the extreme weakness of the body after five fasting days.
     In sum, Cassian's practical and clear assertion [through the voice of Chaeremon] that six months of rigorous fasting, vigils, and reliance on God should be enough to bring one close to the goal of chastity - which is known in part by the cessation of sensuous dreams and nocturnal emissions - seems firmly based in his observations of the heroic fasters of the Egyptian desert and confirmed by modern research in semi-starvation. (Teresa Shaw, The Burden Of The Flesh, P.127)


     So why is the church still having such problems with sexual immorality today? Aside from the numerous instances of ministers being caught in sin, pornography use within the church alone is enough to prove the point that we still have tremendous problems in our time. According to an article by ConquerSeries.com entitled, 15 Mind-Blowing Statistics About Pornography And The Church:

     Many studies and reports have come out over the last several years that show quite a disturbing picture. Not only has pornography invaded churches, but in many cases, the statistics show that Christians – and even church pastors – engage in viewing porn at almost the same rates as the secular population. The research studies, primarily by the Barna Group and Covenant Eyes, reveal:

- 68% of church-going men and over 50% of pastors view porn on a regular basis. Of young Christian adults 18-24 years old, 76% actively search for porn.
- 59% of pastors said that married men seek their help for porn use.
- Only 13% of self identified Christian women say they never watch porn – 87% of Christian women have watched porn.
- 57% of pastors say porn addiction is the most damaging issue in their congregation. And 69% say porn has adversely impacted the church.


     The reason we are having such problems even within church leadership is because the church has abandoned the principle means the early church used to combat the sex drive, and that was through fasting. Granted, it is no easy thing to do, but abandoning it as the primary answer has left the church with virtually no hope whatsoever of defeating the flesh on this issue. Most counselors advise various psychological methods, which don't address the needs of the physical body, and thus will be only partially helpful at best.
     A fasted life as prescribed in the article above is the only real permanent answer outside of getting married, but should the reader not have the patience for waiting six months until such a program truly starts to have its effect, you might want to try going on straight fasts for extended periods of time. A 40 day fast will most assuredly bring the flesh under, and keep it under for several weeks even after one returns to eating full meals. I have also gone on six day fasts with 2 day breaks in between. At the age of 57, the first 6 day fast has been enough to shut down my sex drive, despite still being every day prior to fasting. But the most important thing is to follow the Lord's guidance in fasting. Everyone has their own situations in life to deal with, making how you apply the principle of fasting the flesh something the Lord will need to direct you specifically in.








« Last Edit: November 15, 2022, 03:33:58 PM by Hidden In Him »