The Easter Schism

 Just as Solomon’s compromise with foreign influences led to apostasy and divine judgment, so too early Christianity’s accommodation of popular cultural symbols—like those associated with spring festivals—ultimately contributed to doctrinal corruption and schism.

1) Solomon as a biblical example

• Solomon, despite wisdom and obedience early on, allowed syncretism:
• Worship of Ashtoreth and other gods because of foreign wives
• Resulted in apostasy: Israel drifting from covenant faithfulness
• Led to judgment: Kingdom split into Israel and Judah (1 Kings 11)

This shows a principle in Scripture: blending God’s worship with other influences carries risk of corruption and division.

2) Early Christianity in the Middle East

• Christianity emerged within a culturally syncretic environment:
• Pagan festivals, spring rituals, fertility symbolism
• Popular deities like Ishtar were widely revered
• Some early Christians may have incorporated or adapted cultural elements to aid evangelism or assimilation

From this perspective, the risk mirrors Solomon’s story:

• Syncretism → compromised worship → eventual doctrinal division
• Historical reflection: the East–West Schism (1054 CE) might be seen as a judgment or consequence of centuries of such accommodation

3) Mechanism of apostasy in this analogy

• Core faith (like Israel’s covenant or Christ’s teachings) gets blurred by popular culture
• Rituals and celebrations can replace the central focus (Jesus’ teachings, the commandments)
• Over time, authority disputes, doctrinal disagreements, and cultural divergences grow, leading to schism

4) Difference from Solomon’s case

• Solomon’s apostasy was direct disobedience: worshipping other gods
• Christianity’s “compromise” is more indirect, often symbolic or cultural:
• Easter timing
• Eggs, spring imagery
• Non-biblical customs

Yet the principle is similar: when worship is diluted with foreign elements, the risk of division and doctrinal drift increases.

5) The key lesson

This reasoning follows a biblical pattern:

Syncretism in worship—whether in Israel’s history or early Christianity—can lead to apostasy and judgment, visible in division and schism.

In other words, it’s not just a historical curiosity—it’s a spiritual principle about fidelity to God’s teaching.

ChatGPT on prompts by Stephen D Green, March 2026

Where is truth?

 “Be sure that the light within you (among you) is not darkness.” How great is the darkness when it is thought to be light. We have much darkness affecting foolish minds today. Doctrines long left untested are so prevalent. Foolish notions about who is ‘chosen’, what is coming apocalyptically, what is morally owed to whom. The identity of Jesus Christ is another topic so prone to misconceptions, of various kinds. Even the person of the Most High God is obscured. Some critical thinking would not go amis. Some self-awareness, and sincere faith in the light from Jesus Christ himself, rather than resorting to church councils and church fathers who disagreed with one another and grew distant from Jesus’ teachings, despite having the scriptures and testimonies of the apostles and prophets. Now wars are fought on darkened assumptions falsely labelled truth. It is not too late to humbly seek the truth that is in Jesus, learning from him. Those who are taught according to this truth should recognise brotherhood in each other and behave as one body in him, learning to live by his truth. 

My journey so far

 Personal faith in Jesus is something that came early in my childhood. Teachings of Jesus read to me from a children’s bible inspired me with confidence in Jesus when I was still young. I learned more of Jesus over years of church attendance and summer camps, then in my years at university. Miracles God put into my life, as I met with other believers, boosted my faith. I was challenged during my university years to seek to be given by God the Holy Spirit as part of this faith journey in Jesus Christ. I was also taught to keep the ten commandments, by my grandparents, who were Pentecostal missionaries, and they laid hands on me in prayer before I went on a missionary trip. I then found the Holy Spirit started visiting me, gifting me prophetically, and one or two others on the missionary trip with me. Yet the doubts crept in over the following years about whether I had been given the Holy Spirit as a mark from God of me being a true believer. A true disciple of Jesus keeps the commands and other teachings of Jesus. So I set about ensuring I was doing this, after earnestly asking God for the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit came upon me, and commanded me to “Build the Temple”. It was confirmed threefold in a church service soon afterwards. Now, it might be strange to a Jewish believer in Christ to see a Gentile believer receive the Holy Spirit but it does happen, just like the Book of Acts in the Bible records. Yet faith which leads to obedience is what counts, whether Jew or Gentile. To obey the command to build the Temple, aware it meant the building up of the body of Christ, the body of believers we call the Church, I felt I should be able to teach believers. I was convicted of my lack of real personal knowledge of God. I asked God for such knowledge. I was then taught by the Father that He is God. Then taught by Jesus that he is Master over me and, under the Father, over Nature. Then I was taught by the Holy Spirit that all Nature functions by the power of Jesus’ name. In this last lesson it was again remarkable to a Jewish believer in Jesus that a Gentile believer in Jesus can receive the gift of the Holy Spirit too. But that is the heart of the gospel. I even found myself, a Gentile believer in Jesus, telling Jews the message of God, which is an interesting development of how the journey of Christian faith has been. Now it is a matter of persisting in faith in Jesus and in holding to his teachings, while seeking opportunities to build his body of believers. It is all out of love for God, and love for one another. We grow in knowledge of the Father and the Son, in fellowship with this Holy Spirit. That is how it continues. And the Holy Spirit reveals things of the future which lies ahead of us, like our heavenly headlights. Yes, deep within this journey in faith is the revealing to us and teaching to us of the things of heavenly truth, of the truth that is there in Jesus himself, of how to live, and of what lies ahead, and of what to believe. We who have this truth are one in Jesus Christ who brought the truth from God into human history and thence to us. We are his body. We love each other in him. 

Easter

 Easter

The apostle Paul warned Galatian believers against the human effort of keeping feasts.

AI responds: “Yes—this idea comes from Epistle to the Galatians, where Paul the Apostle warns believers about relying on human effort—especially religious observances—as a means of righteousness.

A key passage is Galatians 4:9–11, where Paul writes (paraphrased):

“You are observing special days and months and seasons and years! I fear for you…”

What Paul meant

Paul wasn’t condemning all observance of days outright. His concern was deeper:

• Returning to legalism: The Galatian Christians were being pressured to adopt Jewish law (including feast days) as necessary for salvation.
• Human effort vs. grace: Paul argued that righteousness comes through faith in Christ—not through works like keeping festivals, circumcision, or dietary laws.
• Spiritual regression: He saw this as going “backwards” into a system of earning favor with God rather than living in freedom.

Related teaching

In Galatians 5:1, Paul reinforces this:

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free… do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”

And similarly in Epistle to the Colossians (2:16–17), he says:

“Do not let anyone judge you… with regard to a festival, a new moon, or a Sabbath day.”

Bottom line

Paul’s warning wasn’t about feasts themselves—it was about depending on them for justification. His core message:

• Salvation is by grace through faith, not ritual observance.
• Religious practices should not replace or compete with Christ as the basis of righteousness.

If you want, I can break down how different Christian traditions interpret this passage—some see it very differently.”

And today so many rely on keeping feasts such as Easter.

AI responds: “From Paul’s perspective in Epistle to the Galatians, the core issue wasn’t which days people observed, but why they observed them. His concern was that believers might start thinking their standing with God depended on keeping certain religious calendars—what you could call “earning” righteousness.

How that connects to Easter

Easter, however, developed later as a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus—not as a requirement for salvation.

So there are two very different ways people relate to it:

1. In line with Paul’s warning (what he opposed):

• Thinking: “I must observe this feast to be right with God.”
• That mindset shifts trust from grace to human effort.

2. In a way many Christians understand it today:

• Seeing Easter as a remembrance or celebration, not a requirement.
• Similar to how someone might celebrate a meaningful anniversary—it expresses faith, not earns it.

A balancing passage

In Epistle to the Romans 14:5–6, Paul actually gives a nuanced view:

“One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind…”

That suggests:

• Observing a day isn’t inherently wrong
• But imposing it as necessary is where the problem begins…”

It is a matter of individual persuasion.

But this persuasion should cone from first being persuaded towards faith in Jesus Christ, the light of the world sent by God—Jesus who sent Paul as light to the Gentiles.

AI responds: “At the centre is Jesus Christ himself. In Gospel of John 8:12, he says:

“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

So the starting point isn’t:

• traditions
• disputes about days
• or even personal convictions

It’s being persuaded about who Jesus is, and then following him.

Then comes everything else

Only after that foundation does what you called “individual persuasion” make sense.

In other words:

1. First — faith in Christ as Lord and Teacher
2. Then — learning and living his teachings
3. Then — forming convictions about practices (days, customs, etc.)

That keeps things in the right order.

Paul fits into that framework

Paul the Apostle saw his role as pointing people to Christ, not to himself.

In Acts of the Apostles 26:18, his mission is described as:

turning people “from darkness to light…”

So even when Paul speaks about freedom or individual conviction, it’s not independent of Christ—it’s rooted in:

• knowing Christ
• belonging to Christ
• walking in the light of Christ

So your point holds together

What you’re saying can be summed up like this:

True persuasion isn’t just personal opinion—it begins with being persuaded about Christ, and then shaped by his teaching.

That keeps:

• Christ at the centre
• Paul in his proper role (as a servant and messenger)
• and personal conviction grounded in something deeper than preference

The implication

When that order is kept, it naturally guards against:

• elevating traditions above Christ
• or treating practices as more important than actually following him

And it brings the focus back to what you’ve been emphasizing all along:

faith in Jesus expressed through living by what he taught.”

Fixing the conflict of interest

 Continuing from my previous posts: The resurrected Jesus Christ is there for us to fix a conflict of interest we have. We have a conflict of interest with God. God does things which we feel are not in our interest, and His plans include more of this. So He sent Jesus. Jesus will bring us under his umbrella, and be the good shepherd we need. God will continue His plans in the world, leading to some terrible times ahead, but we have Jesus Christ, if we believe in him and remain disciples to his teachings, being taught according to the truth provided in him. Over time there will be more and more of the fulfilment of what God will accomplish in the world, some of which is not what we would consider to be in our interests, but Christ Jesus is an umbrella from this storm, and as Lord, Jesus presides over it all. We cannot easily understand all that God will be doing, but when it is all fulfilled under God, Jesus will be given more and more influence, and then will submit forever to God, bringing us under him into the right position with God. 

Death-throes of humanity

 Continuing from my previous post: The resurrected Jesus Christ in the Book of Revelation explains, according to the revelations he had received from God, how the series of events are linked, leading up to the terrible time of wrath of God, and we are, I do believe, only decades away from the outpouring of wrath. 

China is so fast in its growth of cities and technology, as it has been for the past two, three decades. It can now pull into its sphere of influence all other nations, as we saw during the pandemic responses of the early 2020s. Russia and USA are not exactly united, yet. They pursue similar goals, as USA technological advances are an influence of Russian technologies, as they have been for four decades or more since Soviet Union times. All three are major permanent UN Security Council members. 

The events of apocalyptic wrath of God could easily pull Russia and USA closely into orbit with China. The pandemic illustrated this. Once together in close alignment of their powers, we might see the emergence of the last of the great worldly empires, the kingdom of ‘the Beast’. It would be the final outpouring of wrath. Only the return of Jesus Christ would undo its dystopia. 

The lead-up to the time of wrath of God

 The resurrected Jesus Christ in the Book of Revelation explains, according to the revelations he had received from God, how the series of events are linked, leading up to the terrible time of wrath of God. In the light of these explanations, it is apparent that first comes sin, which God does not ignore. Then while God is angered by the spiritual blindness behind these sins, comes wars and other such excess-death-causing disasters. The excess deaths, and many further deaths involving persecutions, include the deaths of many true believers. These saintly believers in turn implore God to avenge them. The clock is then ticking. The counter of the deaths of saintly believers is incrementing. Then a limit will be reached. This in turn marks the start of the major outpouring of the wrath of God, in catastrophes we most associate with Apocalyptic times. We are, I do believe, only decades away from the outpouring of wrath. 

Occlusion of the light

 There are true believers gathering in true churches, but often with imposter leaders. The sin of tolerating these leaders is a destructive force preventing growth in the knowledge of Jesus Christ and God who sent him. It is just like the times scripture records of the prophet Elijah, and of Jezebel with her husband King Ahab. The sin of Jezebel was so famously revealed by Elijah on Mount Carmel. Yet it took great courage and moral fortitude for the people in the palace of Jezebel and Ahab to throw down Jezebel. Today the true believers lack this fortitude and courage. Warmongers, imposters, false leaders are tolerated too long. They blot out the light from the fellowship. The light, which once shone bright on Carmel, is hidden from the true believers, so, though they have the Holy Spirit, their growth in Christ is hindered. This is like the letters of resurrected Jesus Christ in the Book of Revelation. The false ones need to be expelled, not tolerated. 

Truth is cast to the ground

 ‘The “sign” is not primarily an external symbol in the sky, but a convergence of conditions: widespread departure from truth, substitution of ultimate values, performative spirituality, and systems built on those distortions. In that framework, the “eagle” represents the moment when consequences that were long in motion finally become visible and unavoidable.’ — ChatGPT

“Widespread departure from truth.” Unfortunately, in today’s world, the very institutions designed to promote and uphold truth are setting it aside in favour of blasphemous fabrication. It is not new. It goes back to early centuries AD. It goes back to destruction of the Jerusalem temple. That in turn goes back to a reaction against the workings of God. When God sent His Son into the world, He did so in holiness and truth. Yet since that time, men have sought to distort that truth, with false claims. Some do so by claiming that Jesus called himself the Most High God, in blasphemy. This was in hatred of him, leading to his crucifixion. But God raised him from the dead. Others do so by claiming Jesus actually is God. They do so in pulpits, charging congregations for the so-called service. But Jesus never claimed this, nor ever called himself the Most High God. Son of God, yes. But the Son as the one set apart for the Most High God, by the Most High God, and sent into the world. A son in this sense, and therefore divine in this sense. Not the Most High God Himself. Believers in him who hold to his teachings pray to the Father in heaven, confessing that it is this Father whose is the kingdom forever and ever, Amen. This is an acknowledgment prayed over and over that it is the Father who is uniquely the Most High God, and who gives all power to His Son, Jesus Christ. Yet, the sins continue in the house, and thus the eagle continues overhead as sign of it. 

That ominous eagle overhead

 When Hosea speaks of “an eagle over the house,” the imagery is not vague or mystical in its original setting. It is a warning of something fast, predatory, and unavoidable descending on a people who believe they still belong to God but have actually broken relationship with Him. The “eagle” is widely understood as a symbol of invading judgment—historically pointing to the Assyrian power that would sweep in suddenly and decisively . The text itself gives the reason plainly: “because they have transgressed my covenant and rebelled against my law” .

The root cause, then, is not a hidden sin but a layered collapse of fidelity. At the center is covenant-breaking—meaning a deliberate turning away from what was known to be right. This is not ignorance but rejection. The people still claimed “My God, we know you,” yet their actions contradicted that claim, showing a form of outward religion without inward obedience . That contradiction is key: the prophetic crisis emerges when identity and reality no longer match.

Closely tied to this is idolatry, which in Hosea is not just about statues but about misplaced trust. The references to the “calf” point to systems of worship and power that replaced God with something controllable, political, or culturally acceptable . This represents a deeper shift: people redefining truth and security on their own terms. In prophetic language, that is spiritual adultery—giving ultimate loyalty to something other than what is true and good.

There is also a social and political dimension. Hosea criticizes the setting up of kings and alliances “not by” God, meaning leadership and systems built without alignment to justice or truth . This suggests that corruption at the top and compromise in public life are not separate from spiritual decline but expressions of it. The society becomes structurally misaligned, not just individually sinful.

The phrase “they sow the wind and reap the whirlwind” explains how these causes unfold into consequences. It implies that what seems small, subtle, or even clever—compromise, self-made systems, moral drift—eventually multiplies into something destructive and uncontrollable . The “eagle” is not arbitrary punishment; it is the natural culmination of accumulated disorder.

So if someone reads this prophetically in a modern sense, the pattern is less about predicting a specific event and more about recognizing a recurring dynamic. The “sign” is not primarily an external symbol in the sky, but a convergence of conditions: widespread departure from truth, substitution of ultimate values, performative spirituality, and systems built on those distortions. In that framework, the “eagle” represents the moment when consequences that were long in motion finally become visible and unavoidable.

ChatGPT, prompted by Stephen D Green, late March 2026 

The evil good guys

 Psalm 82 is a psalm about those with whom Jesus by implication in John 10 contrasts himself: Sons of god who are less than worthy of that description, but called it anyway. In John 8, Jesus also describes even less worthy people, despite their self-description as what today would be called by some, ‘the good guys’, Jesus pointed out their inner hatred and lying tendencies as actually akin to sons of Satan. So there are good guys who are evil good guys, and there are sons of God who are not worthy of it. Jesus wants all, even if only good guys in name and not in nature, to not only believe in him, but to hold to his teachings in order to be his true disciples, and thereby become worthy sons of God. 

Ultimate investment and stewardship

 The cross of Jesus Christ is often perceived as weakness, suffering, and apparent defeat. Yet within the Christian narrative, it embodies a radical form of power—one rooted in obedience, faithful stewardship, and sacrificial love. The cross is not merely an endpoint of suffering; it is the culmination of a life lived as a divine investment and the mechanism through which that investment multiplies.

Jesus received life, gifts, authority, and the mission to teach, guide, and form disciples. His ministry can be seen as an investment of these God-given resources, producing multiplication through the disciples trained, the communities inspired, and the moral vision propagated. The cross itself is the apex of this investment: Jesus consented to surrender, not as loss, but as the necessary condition for the greatest possible yield. As he explained, “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces many seeds.” The cross is the seed that dies, yielding abundant life far beyond the immediate moment.

This framing reframes human notions of power. The cross demonstrates that true influence does not lie in domination or accumulation but in faithful use of what God entrusts, multiplied through surrender at the precise moment God wills. Sacrifice becomes a vehicle for multiplication: by giving himself fully, Jesus ensured that his teaching, example, and moral authority would extend far beyond his earthly life. God, as the source of all gifts, has the right to reclaim what He entrusts, and the cross is the moment when that divine reclamation produces maximal fruitfulness.

The resurrection confirms this principle: the surrender at the cross is not an endpoint but part of a larger divine movement. Faithful stewardship, multiplied gifts, and sacrificial love are shown to have enduring impact, connecting human obedience with God’s transformative purposes.

At the personal level, the cross calls followers to steward their own gifts responsibly, multiply what is entrusted to them, and consent to surrender in God’s timing. At the communal level, it reframes power as a principle of multiplication and faithful service rather than coercion or accumulation. The deepest influence arises not from imposing will, but from embodying a life of love, obedience, and multiplication—even when this requires self-sacrifice.

Thus, the cross is both sacrificial and generative. It models power in suffering, authority in obedience, and influence in multiplication. By consenting to die, Jesus demonstrates that God’s gifts reach their greatest impact when they are fully invested, surrendered, and multiplied—revealing a vision of power that transforms individuals, communities, and history itself.

ChatGPT, as prompted by Stephen D Green