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Ivan Veller

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  • Ivan Veller
    Hi Nkmttj, A warm welcome to the discussion! So historically, we find that "[a]lthough man has modified calendars through the centuries, the seven-day weekly cycle has [indeed] remained intact throughout history. The days of the week have always remained in their proper order, with Sunday [recognized] as the first day of the week and Saturday as the seventh. Time has not been lost in this regard... 'The oracles of God'—His divine words and instructions—were entrusted to the Jewish people (Romans 3:1-2), and they have preserved the knowledge of the seventh-day Sabbath faithfully since well before Christ’s time to this day. Jesus repeatedly confirmed that the day the Jews observed as the Sabbath in His day was indeed the Sabbath. And since then the Jewish people, even scattered in many nations and in different sects, have all preserved the same day. Moreover, the mainstream Christian churches, though rejecting the Sabbath, indirectly confirm when it is by maintaining their early tradition of worshipping on Sunday, which they acknowledge to be the first day of the week": https://www.ucg.org/bible-study-tools/booklets/sunset-to-sunset-gods-sabbath-rest/which-day-is-the-sabbath
  • Ivan Veller
    Hi Leang, "Is Jesus teaching in [Mat. 10:28] that the soul lives on after death and is immortal? Not at all...Christ was showing that when one man kills another the resulting death is only temporary; God can raise anyone to conscious life again…in the age to come…The person who has died is not ultimately gone forever": https://www.ucg.org/bible-study-tools/booklets/heaven-and-hell-what-does-the-bible-really-teach/do-some-bible-verses-teach-we-have-an-immortal-soul Regarding Fatima, “people want hope”—but ours must come from Scripture: https://www.ucg.org/beyond-today/beyond-today-daily/miracle-of-fatima We are encouraged to “lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called”—“God…alone has immortality” (1 Timothy 6:12-16). If we are told to lay hold eternal life and that He alone has immortality, then we as humans can’t possess an immortal soul […] “the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life…” (Romans 6:23). Eternal life is a gift of God. We don’t have a soul that goes to heaven or hell at death. We are souls, living beings, in need of the gift of God”: https://www.ucg.org/beyond-today/beyond-today-television-program/do-i-have-an-immortal-soul
  • Ivan Veller

    Hi Dan,

    Respectfully, Matthew 12:40 says that Jesus was "in the heart of the earth" for "three days and three nights." "Therefore the dying criminal could not have been with Jesus in heaven that day, because Jesus Himself did not go there then": https://www.ucg.org/bible-study-tools/booklets/heaven-and-hell-what-does-the-bible-really-teach/the-thief-on-the-cross

    "Three days and three nights later, Christ is right before Mary saying He hadn’t yet ascended to the Father. So, it would’ve been impossible for Luke 23:43 to mean that today, that very day, that the thief would’ve gone to heaven. That would go against the whole meaning of Scripture, the whole plan of God": https://www.ucg.org/beyond-today/beyond-today-daily/the-thief-on-the-cross

  • Ivan Veller

    Dear Khloe, you are precious and valued in the eyes of God our Father, who created you special to be His beloved daughter whom He cherishes heart and soul. We have so much to live for. Please choose life!

  • Ivan Veller
    Felix, When I read Revelation 22:19, I am sobered by the admonition to me personally that "if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away that person’s share in the tree of life" (NRSVCE). There are many such exhortations to be found in Scripture: https://www.ucg.org/sermons/sola-scriptura As a church, we devote our lives to sincerely endeavoring to be led by God's guidance in a spirit of humility.
  • Ivan Veller
    Felix, "We believe that Scripture, both the Old and the New Testament, is God’s revelation, and His complete, expressed will to humanity. Scripture is inspired in thought and word, infallible in the original writings, is the supreme and final authority in faith and in life, and is the foundation of all truth (2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:20-21; John 10:35; John 17:17)": https://www.ucg.org/fundamental-beliefs-of-the-united-church-of-god We believe that "[in our] Christian life, it is essential that [our] foundational understanding and thinking be based on the word of God, not the words of man about God's word": https://www.ucg.org/sermons/the-word-of-god-and-the-word-of-man We believe we must instead "[let] the Bible interpret itself... [and that if] something seems confusing or even contradictory, [we are to] let clear biblical passages shed light on those [we] find difficult to understand ... [using] the context and other scriptures to find the correct meaning": https://www.ucg.org/bible-study-tools/booklets/how-to-understand-the-bible/keys-to-understanding-the-bible For example, see: https://www.ucg.org/bible-study-tools/booklets/who-is-god/the-personal-nature-of-god
  • Ivan Veller

    Hi Mr. Thun,

    Certainly, the first commandment is of paramount importance in all spheres of life. Job 31:26-28 (KJV) says, "If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness; And my heart hath been secretly enticed, ... This [would be] an iniquity to be punished by the judge: for I should have denied the God that is above." I commend your zeal in sincerely trying to give God the exclusive worship due Him. But Romans 10:2 reminds us that it is possible for any of us to be zealous for God - but for our zeal to not be based on knowledge. May He graciously give us all more!

    We learn from Isaiah 40:22 that God sits upon the "globo" (Spanish RVA 1602, RV 1909, JBS 2010) of the earth--"the circle of the earth" (KJV).

    Emily Upton writes of how two thousand years ago, Eratosthenes of Alexandria accurately calculated the circumference of that circle. We can climb a mountain and repeat his experiment or simply go to an airport and talk to a pilot who has spent decades flying around the world.

    May our prayer be that of yearning for the fulfillment of the day when "unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing" (Malachi 4:2 KJV).

  • Ivan Veller

    Hi again Javier,

    Matthew 28:1, which has been rendered as "Now after the Sabbath, toward daybreak of the first day of the week," (Mounce interlinear), can be rendered as: "Now after the Sabbath, at the dawning on the first day of the week," (LEB 2012--an excellent literal translation; formerly an interlinear). It is worth noting that Luke 23:54 - which uses the same word "epiphosko" (ἐπιφώσκω) (G2020), defined by Mounce as being "used of the reckoned commencement of the day" - is rendered by the KJV as "the sabbath drew on" and likewise by the LEB as "the Sabbath was drawing near," in the context of sunset rather than sunrise.

  • Ivan Veller

    Hi Javier,

    So we find from Scripture that "evening began when the sun went down (Joshua 8:29; 2 Chronicles 18:34; Nehemiah 13:19; Mark 1:32), and [that] at that time a new day began. Regarding His Sabbaths, God commands that they be observed “from evening to evening” (Leviticus 23:32). This was the usual way at that time of calculating the beginning and ending of days (Exodus 12:18).
    In New Testament times, days were calculated the same way. Mark 1:32 records that, after the sun had set, marking the end of one Sabbath, crowds brought many ailing people to Jesus to be healed, having waited until after the Sabbath to come to Him. The Gospel accounts also record that Joseph of Arimathea entombed Jesus’ body before evening to keep from working on an approaching annual high-day Sabbath (Matthew 27:57-60; Mark 15:42-46; Luke 23:50-54; compare John 19:31)": https://www.ucg.org/bible-study-tools/booklets/sunset-to-sunset-gods-sabbath-rest/when-is-the-sabbath-day-to-be-kept

  • Ivan Veller

    All our church congregations teach that Christ died on Wednesday and rose on Saturday: https://www.ucg.org/beyond-today/beyond-today-television-program/three-days-and-three-nights

    In so doing, we follow the practice of the early Christian church, "rested on the Sabbath [the ... weekly Sabbath day, observed Friday sunset to Saturday sunset] according to the commandment": https://www.ucg.org/the-good-news/jesus-wasnt-crucified-on-friday-or-resurrected-on-sunday-how-long-was-jesus-in-the

  • Ivan Veller

    Dear Kenya,

    There is indeed a church body of Christian believers around the world who worship on Saturday
    https://www.ucg.org/congregations

    (a beautiful day
    https://www.ucg.org/beyond-today/beyond-today-television-program/the-sabbath-yesterday-today-and-in-prophecy

    which, in so many ways, celebrates God's loving kindness as expressed through His gracious plan of redemption for all humanity):
    https://www.ucg.org/beyond-today/beyond-today-television-program/is-the-sabbath-relevant-for-christians

    Kenya, you are welcome to come join us for Sabbath services!
    https://www.ucg.org/im-new

  • Ivan Veller
    Hi Mr. Martel, (1) The statement "I tell you today" was a "common phrase of Jesus' day": https://www.ucg.org/bible-study-tools/bible-questions-and-answers/did-the-thief-on-the-cross-go-to-heaven (2) "Some theologians and religious denominations try to redefine Christ’s use of paradise to say that this referred to where the righteous dead went before Jesus came—a sort of temporary “holding place” next to hell because heaven wasn't available to them until Christ ascended to heaven after His death ... This concept, however, is straight out of pagan Greek mythology about life after death (the Elysian Fields as the section of the Greek underworld for good people) and not something taught in the Bible. The idea that the righteous dead of Old Testament times went to a place called 'paradise' and later ascended to heaven after Jesus was resurrected is disproved by the apostle Peter’s plain statements in Acts 2:29 and 34—almost two months after Christ’s death and resurrection—that King David 'is both dead and buried' and 'David did not ascend into the heavens'": https://www.ucg.org/bible-study-tools/bible-questions-and-answers/i-am-not-clear-about-luke-23-43-where-jesus-told-one
  • Ivan Veller

    Hello Mr. Lyles,

    Romans 13:7 calls for our rendering honor to whom honor is due. I would hope we can both agree that the current administration's defunding of abortions overseas (despite intense domestic and international opposition) is highly commendable and deserves to be honored.

  • Ivan Veller

    But what about Bismuth-209's half-life of 19 quintillion years (19,000,000,000,000,000,000 years)?

  • Ivan Veller

    Dear Mr. Gilkes,

    My friend, I would submit that this article accords with our longstanding teaching. For instance, the Ambassador College booklet "Our Awesome Universe," in the article "How Old is the Universe?" (p. 27), states: "The 6,000-year age for the earth often erroneously associated with Genesis 1 has been arrived at because of a fundamental misinterpretation of the biblical account. When properly understood, the Bible leaves a great degree of latitude for both the age of the earth and the universe."