Salvogesis

  Hello, I am Major Michael Ramsay from TSA. As well as running The Salvation Army, the Bread of Life soup kitchen, shelter and The Salvation Army thrift store, I am a Christian pastor / teacher. This weekend is Easter. That is the most important time on the Christian Calendar. Christians acknowledge Jesus as God. Our teachings tell us that God, as creator, created the whole world. And when He did it was perfect. Not only did we not harm each other, ourselves or the earth; but we never got sick, we never got injured; and the earth itself – the trees did not fall to the ground and die. Animals did not eat animals. All of creation was in perfect harmony. The Creator even walked in this Garden He created with people He created. Then something happened. The first people created made a choice.   Because of this choice, death, decay, harm and hurt entered the world. Where there was none before, now there was illness, injury and death for all of creation. Plants, animals and al...

Doctrine 5:  We believe that our first parents were created in a state of innocency, but by their disobedience, they lost their purity and happiness, and that in consequence of their fall , all men have become sinners , totally depraved, and as such are justly exposed to the wrath of God. …and/but… Doctrine 6:  We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ has by His suffering and death made an atonement for the whole world so that whosoever will, may be saved.   Doctrine 5 has been referred to as the doctrine of Original Sin (or more precisely ‘originating sin’) and that concept goes back at least to Irenaeus and Augustine. Doctrines 5 & 6 are how TSA explains corporate (as opposed to individual) Salvation; Corporate Salvation is like getting back to the Garden of Eden – what life was like before the Fall.   This is the garden. Reading from Genesis 2:15-18: 15  The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and ...

 2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!  We went to see Frankenstein the Ballet last night. If anyone knows that story. The beginning is like the book. Dr. Frankenstein makes a creation out of the parts of corpses who had had terrible things happen in their lives - and then he brings life to the new creation and it becomes whole - with a whole new lease on life. A new chance to live. No matter all the awful stuff that had happened before. Now - the book actually ends poorly after that but the ballet does not. The ballet includes a story of Giselle. This bride, who herself suffered a horrible fate, learned forgiveness and is resurrected. She meets Frankenstein's creation; they fall in love - and start off again, this time living a transformed life. Revelation 21:3b-4: God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or ...

  Matthew 5:10-12 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.   Revelation 2:10-11 10 Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. 11 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death.’   Pelorus Jack was a Risso's dolphin that was famous for meeting and escorting ships through a stretch of water in Cook Strait, New Zealand., a notoriously dangerous channel used by ships travelling between Welli...

                                Nimes – we found The Salvation Army right next to the Roman Arena and near the Temple to Augustus. I wish it was open when we went there. It would be great to see the kind of outreach that The Army does there. It did certainly strike me that the large cities we have seen in France, England, Scotland, Germany, Denmark, and Sweden do not have the same in-your-face homelessness and addiction that we have in Canada. I have my ideas why that is the case but we won’t go into that here today. Nimes is an ancient city. In Nimes we saw a temple dedicated to the sons of Caesar Augustus. Do we remember who he was in the Bible? Yes – he was the Roman Emperor when Jesus was born – ruler of Rome; Nimes, Gaul; Jerusalem, Judea; and many other places. We also read references to Herod who was responsible for Caesar’s navy. We know who that was? Herod the Great was ‘King of the Jews’ when Jesus...

Some people have explained salvation in terms of trying to get back to the Garden. The idea of Salvation is certainly about people and even all of creation returning to our full and proper relationship with God our creator. In Revelation Chapter 22 it speaks about us being restored to the presence of the Tree of Life and of God Himself. Some people have asked do we need to be restored. Why do I need to get back? Why am I away from the Garden? Why am I punished for what Adam and Eve did? I never ate from the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge; how come I suffer the consequences? I look at the consequences of Originating Sin like this: Our lives are affected by the choices of Adam and Eve, our original parents, in much the same way that our lives are affected by the choices of our actual parents and their parents before them. Adam and Eve were evicted and moved from the Garden of Eden; therefore Cain, Abel, and Seth weren’t born in the Garden of Eden.  I was born and Susan and I wer...

The church in Laodicea receives the most negative letter recorded in Revelation. These are Christians Jesus is talking about spewing from Him forever. What is the sin of the Laodiceans? They are rich but they are poor. This is not unlike our nation today. We know that one cannot serve both God and money and as we have grown richer in this country, complacency, crime, pornography, atheism, and self-reliance have sprung up like weeds attempting to choke out the Word of God. Like Laodicea, as we have grown complacent, trusting in our earthly riches, our country is turning further from God. Laodicea was rich but Laodicea lacked the good water of her neighbouring cities: Hieropolis had great hot mineral springs and Colossae had wonderful clear, cold water. Laodicea’s water was lukewarm by the time it was piped in through its aqueducts. Laodicea was rich in money but poor in the water it needed to survive. Likewise, Laodicea was rich in temporal wealth but poor in living water, which we...

We believe that there is only one God, who is infinitely perfect, the Creator, Preserver, and Governor of all things, and who is the only proper object of religious worship. We believe that it is the privilege of all believers to be wholly sanctified, and that their whole spirit and should and body may be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Today we are invited to worship God visually and creatively. We often worship God by praying or singing. Today we are invited to also worship God by drawing, sketching.  Today the worship picture we will have the opportunity to draw will be a picture or two pictures of the City of God. As we read from our Scriptures, I will put my pictures in this post. These are not for you to copy unless you really want to; these are the images that moved in my heart as I was reading. Your pictures will probably look very different. Let us read the Scriptures and create worship pictures together. 10 And he carried me away in the Spir...

This week, my family and I have been in New York. It is not that long of a drive from where we are stationed in Toronto. In the past few months we have also driven to Ottawa, Montreal, Kingston, Niagara, Buffalo (and flown to Victoria). When we are in those places the world comes to life. In Montreal, Quebec, and Kingston, our history and identity as a people (Canadian) is revealed and we can understand it in ways I never could if I never stood on the walls of the Citadel or looked out over the Plains of Abraham. In New York, we experienced a lot of our new culture. It is really quite something to see one of the cultural centres of our neighbour. So many of the TV shows, movies, and figures of their culture and identity are right there. We were able to walk through Central Park, see Times Square and much more. All of these things mean a lot more when you actually experience them for yourself. I have a much greater understanding and appreciation for New York than ever before now t...