AN OUTREACH OF IOM AMERICA | INTERNATIONAL FELLOWSHIP OF EXCHANGED LIFE
February 18, 2015 - In This Issue:
INFORMATION ON JIM FOWLER

Jim Fowler has been a pastor at the Neighborhood Church in Fallbrook, California for the last twenty-three years. His wife, Gracie, and their five children (Philip, Charis, Kirsten, Sarah and Sandi) have been very supportive in Jim's teaching, preaching, and writing ministries.

Jim's educational background includes Manhattan Christian College, Friends University, New College-University of Edinburgh, Bethel Theological Seminary, Palomar College, and Jubilee Theological Institute.

In recent years, Jim has spent much of his time writing, as can be viewed within the resources of his website. He is currently researching and writing several other articles and books.

 Feel free to contact him at jimfowler@christinyou.net 

 
Practical Studies
"The purpose of Jesus' incarnational advent and His ministry here on earth as a man was not to establish a new religion, nor to inculcate a new teaching, nor to lay down a new morality system. Jesus came to bring Himself, the presence and dynamic of His own divine being, expressed in the humanity of one perfect man, so that He might be expressed as divine, eternal life in the humanity of all men. The gospel that Jesus brought was entirely Christocentric. There is no message of "good news" apart from the ontological reality of the very Being of God in Jesus Christ who is the essence of Christianity. Christianity is Christ!" - Jim

 Learn More About Jim's Studies:
"This book details the primary discussion of this year's World Grace Summit. I considered the discussion of "Dialectic Formatting" to be of the highest priority of dispelling Universalism in its attack on the true Church of Christ."  
"When Christians say the Christ-life is in them, they do not mean simply something mental or moral. When they speak of being "in Christ" or of Christ being "in them," this is not simply a way of saying that they are thinking about Christ or copying Him. They mean that Christ is actually operating through them..." ("Mere Christianity" Macmillan Publishing. 1978. pp.64-65). -C.S. Lewis

HISTORICAL CHRISTIAN BIBLES 
For over a decade now, Jim Fowler has been collecting Bibles for an exhibit that shows "The History of the Christian Scriptures." A new website has been developed to show featured items in this collection. View at www.fowlerbiblecollection.com.   
The Blood of Christ
By Jim Fowler

The blood of Christ has always been an important concept to Christian people down through the centuries of Christian belief. The inspired Scriptures contain numerous references to the significance of the blood of Christ.

 

But as with any object of belief, there are those who take the object and ascribe to it meaning that it was never intended to possess. Some Christians have done that with the blood of Christ, giving it magical and mystical significance that the Scriptures do not ascribe to it. The purpose of this study will be to expose some of the improper conceptions of the blood of Christ and to look carefully at what the Scriptures legitimately say about the blood of Christ.

 

Unbiblical Conceptions of the Blood of Christ

The unbiblical conceptions of the blood of Christ can be divided into two categories: (a) those which regard the blood of Jesus as less important than Scripture indicates, and (b) those which regard the blood of Jesus as having more significance that Scripture indicates.

 

Obviously, there are those who have diminished the importance of the blood of Jesus. Christianity has been caricatured by some as a "slaughterhouse religion," because it speaks about the shed blood of Jesus as the sacrificial death for sin that was prefigured in the death of sacrificial animals in the Old Covenant. Some think that this makes Christianity a revolting, "bloody" religion with a "gospel of gore." Some denominations have even removed from their hymnals all hymns which refer to the blood of Jesus, so as not to offend people's sensitivities! (Genuine Christian sensitivities are not offended by reference to the blood of Christ!)

 

There have been so-called "scholars" who have tried to convince us that concepts of blood in Scripture are but carry-overs from pagan religions, which were introduced superstitiously into the Jewish religion and thus, into the Christian religion. Their presupposition is that all religions have evolved and that all religious features can be traced back to their alleged origins in the "evolution of religion." The explanation they offer is that blood covenants and blood sacrifices within animistic and spiritistic religions are the origin of such ideas in the Old Testament, and that mystic conceptions of the efficacy of blood in the mystery religions are the mythic base of all conceptions of blood in Judeo-Christian thinking. Their reasoning is based on unsubstantiated presuppositions, and warped by unbelief!

 

Others would diminish the importance of the blood of Jesus by indicating that it does not matter if Jesus ever lived, or if He ever had blood flowing in His veins, or shed His blood on a cross. Historicity and the tangibility of the person of Jesus Christ are irrelevant in their perspective. All that matters is how the "story" (they call it "myth") affects people in each age, and whether people find religious comfort, and a sense of peace and love in what they believe. Historical veracity, whether it really happened and is true or not, means nothing to these existentialists. All religion is regarded as pure subjectivism and spiritualized fantasy. They certainly regard the blood of Jesus as... Read Full Article...  

Jim Fowler
P.O. Box 1822
Fallbrook, CA 92088-1822

e-mail address:

jimfowler@christinyou.net 



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