Syosset Gospel Church

06/02/2026

06/01/2026

"The word "foreknowledge" is never used in Scripture in connection with events or actions; instead, it always has reference to persons. It is persons God is said to "foreknow," not the actions of those persons. In proof of this we shall now quote each passage where this expression is found.

The first occurrence is in Acts 2:23 . There we read, "Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain." If careful attention is paid to the wording of this verse it will be seen that the apostle was not there speaking of God's fore knowledge of the act, but of the crucified: "Him (Christ being delivered by," etc.)

The second occurrence is in Rom. 8:29- 30 . "For whom He did fore know, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He did predestinate, them He also called." etc. Weigh well the pronoun that is used here. It is not what He did foreknow., but whom He did. It is not the surrendering of their wills nor the believing of their hearts, but the persons themselves, which is here in view.

"God hath not cast away His people which He foreknew" ( Rom. 11:2 ). Once more the plain reference is to persons, and to persons only.

The last mention is in I Peter 1:2 : "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father." Who are "elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father"? The previous verse tells us: the reference is to the "strangers scattered" i.e. the Diaspora, the Dispersion, the believing Jews. Thus, here too the reference is to persons, and not to their foreseen acts.

THE REFERENCE IS TO PERSONS, AND NOT THEIR FORESEEN ACTS."

~ Arthur Pink, "Divine Foreknowledge"

06/01/2026

I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride, beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be wi...

05/31/2026

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”(James 1:2-4)

05/31/2026

The three instances detail humanity's downward progression and God’s judicial abandonment to their own sinful choices:

Romans 1:24: God gave them up to "uncleanness in the lusts of their hearts".

Romans 1:26: God gave them up to "vile passions" (or "dishonorable passions").

Romans 1:28: God gave them over to a "depraved mind" (or "debased mind")

05/31/2026

“There are five mothers in the Bible who carried the most important mission in human history. Most Christians cannot name more than two of them. Here is what nobody has ever shown you.

Every Christian knows Mary. The mother of Jesus. The woman who said yes to the angel and changed the world.

Some Christians know Sarah. Abraham's wife. The woman who laughed when God told her she would have a baby at ninety.

But almost nobody knows the full chain.

Because there is an unbroken line of mothers running from the garden of Eden to the manger in Bethlehem. Each one carrying the same promise forward to the next generation. Each one preserving the lineage that would eventually produce the Messiah.

And most of their names have never been spoken from a pulpit.

It starts with Eve.

When God cursed the serpent in Genesis 3:15, He made a promise. The seed of the woman would crush the serpent's head. That was the first prophecy of Jesus in the entire Bible. Spoken before Abraham. Before Moses. Before David.

And it was given to a mother.

When Eve gave birth to her first son, she named him Cain and said, "I have gotten a man from the Lord." Some scholars translate her words as "I have gotten the man — the Lord." She believed Cain was the promised seed.

He was not. He became a murderer.

But Eve had a third son. Seth. And through Seth the lineage continued. The promise survived because a mother who got it wrong refused to stop trusting God.

Then Sarah.

Barren her entire life. Decades of shame in a culture where a woman's worth was measured by her children. She laughed when God told her she would conceive at ninety. Not a laugh of joy. A laugh of exhaustion. Of a woman who had given up.

God gave her Isaac anyway. His name means "laughter." The child of the promise came through a woman whose body could not produce him. Because the seed was never about human capability.

Then a woman most Christians have never heard of.

Jochebed.

She was the mother of Moses. And when Pharaoh ordered every Hebrew baby boy drowned in the Nile — an attempt to destroy the lineage, to wipe out the seed — Jochebed built a basket. She waterproofed it with tar and pitch. She placed her infant son in the river and let the current carry him toward the palace of the man who wanted him dead.

She risked ex*****on. She trusted a basket on a river. And that basket carried the child who would deliver an entire nation out of slavery.

A mother's defiance in the dark saved Israel.

Then Hannah.

Barren like Sarah. Mocked by her husband's other wife for years. She went to the Temple and wept so violently that the priest Eli thought she was drunk.

She made God a promise. If you give me a son, I will give him back to you.

God gave her Samuel. She kept her word. She brought her boy to the Temple and left him there to serve God for the rest of his life.

And then she prayed a prayer of thanksgiving that would echo across a thousand years of Scripture.

"My heart rejoices in the Lord. My horn is exalted in the Lord. There is none holy like the Lord. There is none besides you. There is no rock like our God."

Remember those words.

Because a thousand years later, a young woman named Mary received a visit from an angel. She was told she would conceive a child — not through any man, but through the Holy Spirit. The seed of the woman. The promise of Genesis 3:15 finally arriving.

And Mary said yes.

"Let it be to me according to your word."

Then she prayed.

Her prayer is recorded in Luke 1. Scholars call it the Magnificat. And when you read it next to Hannah's prayer in 1 Samuel 2, the parallels are staggering.

Hannah said, "My heart rejoices in the Lord." Mary said, "My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior."

Hannah said, "He raises the poor from the dust." Mary said, "He has lifted up the humble."

Hannah said, "He guards the feet of His faithful ones." Mary said, "His mercy extends to those who fear Him from generation to generation."

Two mothers. A thousand years apart. Praying almost the same prayer. One gave her son to serve in the Temple. The other gave her Son to save the world.

That is not a coincidence. That is a thread.

Eve. Sarah. Jochebed. Hannah. Mary.

Five mothers. One unbroken chain. Each one carrying the promise of Genesis 3:15 forward to the next generation against impossible odds. Barrenness. Murder. Pharaohs. Mockery. Poverty. And every single one of them said yes.

The Bible is not just a book about kings and prophets and warriors. It is a book about mothers who carried the most important mission in human history when no one else could.

Eve carried the promise. Sarah laughed and believed anyway. Jochebed trusted a basket on a river. Hannah wept in the Temple and gave her son back to God. And when Mary said yes to the angel, every mother in that chain stood behind her.

And most Christians have never been shown that thread.”

~ John Ross