Here is the next section, John 1:19-28:
Now this was John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was. He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, “I am not the Messiah.”
They asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?”
He said, “I am not.”
“Are you the Prophet?”
He answered, “No.”
Finally, they said, “Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”
John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, “I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’”
Now the Pharisees who had been sent questioned him, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”
“I baptize with[e] water,” John replied, “but among you stands one you do not know. He is the one who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.”
This all happened at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
Questions and discussion:
Here, John plays the role of the one who will arrive before the Messiah–the one predicted by Isaiah. John said he only baptized with water.
According to the Bible, are Cherubim little fat babies with wings and a bow? Check out how the Bible describes a Cherub.
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Here is the first assignment from the Gospel of John 1: 1-18:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.
The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
(John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”) Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.
Questions and discussion:
This bible study is available to everyone. We start with the Gospel of John. I will post a piece of Scripture along with questions every week. There also may be a question or “fun facts” regarding my Angelic Wars' musical novels. I will post my comments before posting the next Scriptural section.
Mark Sneed of Reader Views writes a nice review of my first musical novel, Angelic Wars, First Rebellion.
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Pull up a chair and listen to my chat with Parker J Cole on her Write Stuff radio show about my free download prequel of the Angelic Wars series, Into the Mind of Lucifer. It aired on Tuesday, December 1st at 7 pm Eastern time.
https://www.blogtalkradio.com/pjcmedia/2020/12/02/into-the-mind-of-lucifer–write-stuff—1212020
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The next book of the Angelic Wars musical novel series, End of the Beginning, is moving forward. Next week we go into production of the music. This music will vary in genres. There will be five songs in this next novel which is about the conclusion of the war for Heaven. The novel and music is scheduled to be released early 2021.
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Readers have little information when discovering a new author. With any author, but especially a new one, readers must take a risk; they must spend their money (and time) to test the book of a new author—without any chance of a refund (of either their money or time). Yes, a reader can click the “Look Inside” tab to read a sample, but that sample is small and is not a fair selection to either the reader or the author.
Therefore, I wrote Into the Mind of Lucifer, the prequel to the Angelic Wars Christian fantasy series. I offer this book for free—no risk to the reader. My initial book, Angelic Wars, First Rebellion is about the wars between angels in Heaven. This prequel, Into the Mind of Lucifer, is the novella that precedes the wars, explaining the mindset of why Lucifer rejected God and invoked the first rebellion. The setting, characters and music of this novella carry over to the full-length novel that follow it.
This free novella is more informative than most prequels. Not only does it open the story and series, but it provides a (free) link to one of the songs I composed, which is offered along with others on iTunes. This song is not representative of all the genres that I composed in Angelic Wars, First Rebellion, but it does display to the reader how a musical novel works, and the interaction between the written word and music sung by characters.
Another point about writing this free novella is to display the use of biblical footnotes. Though the books I write are fiction, I use my familiarity as a long time Bible teacher and online missionary to support many aspects of the story. The footnotes are Scriptural references that support the setting, characters, and the dialogue among those characters. You’d be hard-pressed to find any Christian fantasy book with dozens of footnotes that support its fantasy premise. The Amazon Kindle Sample does not provide the footnote page at the end of the chapter, but the footnoted numbers are displayed.
In general, I wrote the Angelic Wars series, on three levels in order to entertain and inspire its readers: First: they may read it on a fantasy level like any novel that creates an alternative world to take the reader on a fantastical journey. No biblical training (or belief) is required. Second: Christian with some biblical knowledge may appreciate the books biblical footnotes allowing them to see the biblical parallels with its characters and events. This level also mirrors the convention that history is intertwined or vaguely “repeats itself.” In the Bible’s Old Testament, there are Messianic and Apocalyptic prophesies, many of which are fulfilled in the New Testament. Likewise, I wrote this fantasy with a view that acts, locations, and even events arose in the time before the Bible was written, but in a more vivid and dynamic setting. Third: readers can read the Angelic Wars, First Rebellion novel along with its companion, a New Adult Bible Study curriculum (ages 18-25), which is available for a free download at www.AngelicWars.com.
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In designing the exterior of the Great Hall in the Heavenly city of Thyatira, the Author uses structural images from a compilation of medieval castles, including a large Keep standing tall over the courtyard.
The picture above is inside the Great Hall. Uriel and Azarias enter through the over-sized double doors. They find it eerily empty with large, odd paintings of angels flaunting colorful borders, which Azarias assumes signifies their high statuses. Without spoiling the plot, the scene in the Great Hall is inspired by the Haunted Mansion ride at Disneyland. The author experienced the ride when it first opened in 1969 leaving a lasting impression on him that inspired this part of the novel—he was twelve years old at the time.
The author draws upon Revelation 2:20;22; 24-25 in other parts of the series relating to Thyatira.
“…I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. I will cast her on a bed of suffering…Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets, ‘I will not impose any other burden on you, except to hold on to what you have until I come.’”
Thyatira also has a “Jezebel,” who appears in this Hall during the series. The challenge for the reader is to determine who this character is in the Angelic Wars series. She does not appear in “First Rebellion,” but appears in other forthcoming books, “Into the Mind of Lucifer” and “End of the Beginning,” where this illustration is relevant.
Illustrator: Judith Stepan-Norris
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This diagram is displayed on page 81 in Chapter 8. The vision, seen by the Septemviri, is the enemy’s battle plan on one of the spirals of Heaven (see Author’s Tome posting #3 on the website blog regarding Heaven’s structure). The dark circle in the middle is the Siq, the portal to the material world. The author incorporated the traditional Satanic pentagram into the enemy’s strategy, the star representing invasion points towards God’s Throne which encircles it.
The dots are Heaven’s districts. Starting at the bottom, the lowest dot is Al Birka, the Septemviri headquarters. Directly above that is Thyatira. Moving clockwise are districts: Smyrna, Philadelphia, and Laodicea on top of the spiral. Just below Laodicea, closest to the Siq (and barely visible) is Pergamum. Moving clockwise to the right are Sardis and Ephesus. These district dots are not to scale since this Heavenly spiral is so large, it baffles our imagination.
The district names can be found in Revelation 2-3 in their earthly forms.
Illustration: Judith Stepan-Norris
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