Our Lord Jesus teaching disciples on the Mount of Olives (Ai-generated)
by Leonard V Johnson
Our Lord Jesus Christ ── and brethren, you might think this is trivial, but I’d like to point out: When people speak about our Lord Jesus Christ, I notice so many just simply say “Jesus.” Have you noticed this? In my humble opinion, it’s not proper or respectful to simply say “Jesus.” By doing this, we fail to give to our Master and Elder Brother, our Savior, the honor that is rightfully due to Him. The names we call others, including our Savior, provide a snapshot of our relationship. A few examples ──
Names and titles matter a great deal. The top 5 titles the Apostle Matthew used for our Savior ──
• Son of Man (30 times)
• Lord (23 times)
• Christ (13 times)
• Teacher (10 times)
• The Child (9 times)
The top 5 titles the Apostle Mark used for our Savior ──
• Son of Man (14 times)
• Teacher (12 times)
• King of the Jews (5 times)
• Christ (4 times)
• Rabbi (4 times)
The top 7 titles the Apostle Luke used for our Savior ──
• Lord (35 times)
• Son of Man (25 times)
• Teacher (13 times)
• Christ (7 times)
• Master (5 times)
• Son (5 times)
• Son of God (5 times)
The top 5 titles the Apostle John used for our Savior ──
• Lord (36 times)
• Son (18 times)
• Son of Man (11 times)
• Son of God (9 times)
• Christ (8 times)
Surely, by the titles they used, we can see that they didn’t just think He was “Jesus of Nazareth,” but rather He was the Christ, the promised Messiah, the One sent to save His people from their sins (Matthew 1:21).
But enough said on this interesting topic for the moment. Our Lord Jesus Christ teaches us ──
“’ It is enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher, and a servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they call those of his household!’” – Matthew 10:25.
Truly, our Lord Jesus tells us ── and He’s continuing to tell us, brethren, because His words are alive! – cf. Hebrews 4:12 ── that His faithful followers would be hated because we belong to Him! ──
“’ If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you.’” – John 15:18.
“’ Blessed are you when men hate you, And when they exclude you, And revile you, and cast out your name as evil, For the Son of Man’s sake.’” – Luke 6:22.
“’ And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved.’” – Matthew 10:22.
~ be sure to read our article You're Not Welcome! ~
It is true that our enemy, Satan the Devil, certainly does not want you to be a part of our Lord Jesus’ true faith of the Way ── by inspiring people to attack you verbally because of His name’s sake. Something that happened in my life ── my wife and I were having a family get together, and my sister-in-law was lamenting over the fact that she has lost so many of her family members to death, either from suicide, cancer, or a bleeding ulcer. And she was saying how this great loss has affected her throughout her whole life. And, because I was trying to comfort her in the name of Jesus Christ, she blatantly called me a winebibber, because I was having a beer. Immediately, I recognized that it was Satan the Devil, attacking me ── we wrestle not against human beings, but rather we wrestle against the spiritual forces of the evil one. Satan the Devil trying to discredit me. Well, I dearly love her and pray for her always. Wanting no ill will to come upon her family.
Yet, sadly, some often fall into Satan the Devil’s evil tactics.
The Apostle Paul before the high priest and elders in Rome. Acts 28:17-22 (Ai-generated)
History shows us that certain ones did not look very kindly towards true Christians ──
“But we would like to hear from you and to know what you think, because we are indeed very aware that this sect is everywhere spoken against.” – Acts 28:22, NET.
Are you able to endure to the end, being a part of a faith that is spoken against everywhere? Sadly, most people cannot. No one wants to be unpopular, to not be a part of the “in crowd.” No one wants to be laughed at, screamed at, spit upon, and berated. Back in 2023, my own mother-in-law screamed at me out of the blue, “You’re in a cult! You’re going to hell!” Her words stabbed deep into my chest. And I couldn’t help but immediately think of the LORD God’s living word regarding the Apostle Paul, and how he was berated by a certain servant girl ── saying to them sarcastically, “These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the Way of salvation.” It is revealed to us that Satan’s method is to deceive and that he and his minions have the power to place thoughts, suggestions, or impulses into unsuspecting human minds – unless we are alertly on guard against it.
Now, deception doesn’t always have to be clever to work ── Joseph Goebbels famously stated, “If you tell a lie often enough, people will believe it, and you will even come to believe it yourself.”
The Apostle Paul before the high priest Ananias, Governor Felix, and Tertullus in Caesarea. Acts 24:1-22 (Ai-generated)
So, surely what has happened to me by a mentor ── in which I suspect he has bashed my name and reputation against the jagged stones, possibly why I don’t have many people interacting with me on Facebook. The name-calling. Yet, I wish to be like our Christ, “not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing.” – 1 Peter 3:9. Because we are warned ──
“Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall.” – Proverbs 16:18.
But yes indeed. Are you aware that our Lord Jesus’ original followers of the Way were considered to be part of a “cult” or a “sect”? Did you notice above that the Apostle Paul, while in Rome, had called together the leaders of the Jews to explain that he had done nothing wrong? ── yet he was delivered as a prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans, was compelled to appeal to Caesar Nero during his imprisonment in Caesarea.
“And when he [born Saul of Tarsus] was called, Tertullus began to accuse him, saying to the governor, ‘Since we have obtained great peace through you, and excellent things have been done for this nation through your forethought. … 5) For we have found this man to be a pest, and a mover of INSURRECTION among the Jews in the whole world, and a leader of THE SECT of the Nazareans; …’
10) And when the governor motioned for him to speak, Paul answered, ‘Knowing that you have been a judge to this nation for many years, I do more cheerfully make defense for myself concerning these things. 11) So that you may understand, it was not more than twelve days ago that I went up to worship in Jerusalem; 12) And neither did anyone find me disputing with anyone in the temple, nor inciting a tumult among the people ── neither in the synagogues, nor in the city; 13) Neither can they prove the things of which they now accuse me. 14) But I confess to you that according to the Way which they call HERESY, so I serve the God of my fathers, believing all things that are written in the Law and the Prophets.’” – Acts 24:2, 5, 10-14, NET.
Most translations use the pejorative term “sect,” instead of “cult.” It’s a negative term ── a form of name-calling.
Let us also consider that the Apostle Paul, who kept and celebrated the holy weekly Sabbath (cf. Acts 15:21; 16:13; 18:4; 28:17), mentioned God the Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, in every single introduction to his epistles! All fourteen! (Romans 1:7; 1 Corinthians 1:3; 2 Corinthians 1:2; Galatians 1:3; Ephesians 1:2; Philippians 1:2; Colossians 1:2; 1 Thessalonians 1:1; 2 Thessalonians 1:2; 1 Timothy 1:2; 2 Timothy 1:2; Titus 1:1; Philemon 1:3; and Hebrews 1:1-2). Yet ── and brethren, please pay attention to this, he never mentions the Holy Spirit ── so, he clearly had a BINITARIAN understanding, not trinitarian.
~ be sure to read and study our article Is God a Trinity? ~
That was the understanding and doctrine of the early Church of Jesus Christ ── the Church of God ── the early Christians that were dubbed “Nazareans.”
True Christians have long been considered belonging to a “sect,” or rather, a “cult” – Acts 24:14. Our great High Priest, Advocate, and Savior, Jesus Christ, has warned us that the faithful would be persecuted and harassed ──
“’ Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, For theirs is the kingdom [from] heaven.
11) Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely FOR MY SAKE. 12) Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.’” – Matthew 5:10-12.
The LORD God’s true prophets of old, according to our Lord Jesus, have been subject to all types of revile, persecution, and evils ── including rejection, disdain, physical abuse, and threats of execution and death! And, according to our Lord Jesus, it will happen again, when His true end-time prophets arise on the scene (cf. Matthew 24:9; Revelation 11:3-12).
Furthermore, the Apostle Paul, under divine inspiration, wrote ──
“But you have carefully followed my doctrine [his doctrine is our Lord Jesus’ doctrine, they are the same!], manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, love, perseverance, 11) persecutions, afflictions, which happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra ── what persecutions I endured. And out of them all the Lord delivered me. 12) Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.” – 2 Timothy 3:10-12.
Historically, at least to a large part, because of the utter hatred of the Jews, true Christians were “excommunicated” by Emperor Constantine. One of the first recorded “official” persecutions of true Christians on behalf of the Roman Empire was in AD 64, when, as reported by Tacitus, Emperor Nero was blaming Christians for the Great Fire of Rome. According to tradition, it was during the reign of Nero that our beloved Peter and Paul were martyred.
The persecutions didn’t stop, and the name-calling continued against our brethren. In addition to Emperor Constantine the Great’s Edict Against Heretics, Emperor Theodosius I only intensified the persecutions.
Theodosius I (379-95) resorted to name-calling against all those who held to the original biblical position and understanding of the Godhead ── the Elohim, which at this time consists of God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. He specifically called out anyone who would disagree with his trinitarian law, as he stated ──
“ … According to the apostolic teaching and the doctrine of the Gospel, let us believe the one deity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, in equal majesty and in a holy Trinity. We authorize the followers of this law to assume the title of Catholic Christians; but as for the others, since, in our judgment, they are foolish madmen, we decree that they shall be branded with the ignominious name of heretics, … They will suffer in the first place the chastisement of the divine condemnation, and in the second the punishment which our authority, in accordance with the will of Heaven, shall decide to inflict.” 1
Persecutions of the faithful to our Lord Jesus Christ didn’t stop. And since Constantine the Great’s edicts did not stop everyone from properly keeping and observing the Lord’s Passover, Theodosius I brought out his Edict of Thessalonica. After he became a baptized “Christian,” he decreed the death penalty ──
“CHAP. XXVII. Edicts of Theodofius aganft the heretics, A.D. 380-394… Theodofius, fuggefted the moft effectual methods of perfucution. In the fpace of fifteen years, he promulgated at leaft fifteen fevere edicts againft the heretics; more efpecially againft thofe who rejected the doctrine of the Trinity; … inflicted on the Audians, or Quartodecimans, who fhould dare to perpetrate the atrocious crime, of celebrating, on an improper day, the feftival of Eafter.” 2
Truly, truly, wouldn’t the murdering ── the martyring ── of the faithful of Christ Jesus, who provided for us an example to keep and observe the Lord’s Passover ON THE 14th of Nisan, instead of celebrating a pagan celebration (Easter), a large, bright, and glaring sign of THE ANTICHRIST?
Brethren, for true Christians, the name-calling has continued from those who believe in the doctrine of the Trinity against us who hold strong to the Rock ── those of us who “contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints”!
So, be not surprised, my beloved, when you are persecuted ──
“For we know Him who said, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord. And again, ‘The LORD will judge His people.’ 31) It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
32) But recall the former days in which, AFTER YOU WERE ILLUMINATED, you endured a great struggle with sufferings: 33) partly while you were made a spectacle both by reproaches and tribulations, and partly while you became companions of those who were so treated; 34) for you had compassion on me in my chains, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods, knowing that you have a better and an enduring possession for yourselves [from] heaven.” – Hebrews 10:30-34.
“For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles ── when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness [and not just drunkenness with alcohol, but also with spiritual drunkenness], revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries. 4) In regard to these, they think it strange that you do not run with them in the same flood of dissipation, speaking evil of you.” – 1 Peter 4:3-4.
~ be sure to watch and study our sermon Least In the Kingdom ~
Sadly, name-calling, persecutions, and shaming have occurred to the Lord’s people from the very beginning ── including by some who are claiming to be of the faith, of the Way.
Surely, the most common derogatory name that people call us who … “are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God” – Romans 8:14, ── is the pejorative term “cult.” □
Bibliography:
1 Behenson, H., Documents Of The Christian Church, Theodosius I (379-95) on Catholic and Heretic, Oxford University Press, New York & London, 1947, pg. 31-32.
2 Gibbon, E., The history of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire.… 1789: Vol 3, Printed for A. Strahan; and T. Cadell, in the Strand. London, 1789, pgs. 24-25.
