(Toransufōmā) is a line of mecha toys produced by Japanese company Takara (now known as Takara Tomy) and American toy company Hasbro. Initially a line of transforming mecha toys rebranded from Takara’s Diaclone and Micro Change toy lines, it spawned the Transformers media franchise. The premise behind the Transformers toy line is that an individual toy’s parts can be shifted about to change it from a vehicle, a device, or an animal, to a robot action figure and back again.  

 Did you know that the Bible is full of transformers? Perhaps a more comfortable word might be,Transform. What does transform mean in the King’s English: An act, process, or instance of transforming or being transformed. A synonym of the word transform would be the word conversion: the act of converting, the state of being converted. Jesus told his disciples, some who were  fishermen that he would make them fishers of men.These two words transform and convert, both mean to change, being made new would be a biblical way to see it. We must understand that there were transformers in both the old Testament and the New Testament.  

Let’s start with John the Baptist whom I often describe as that guy in the desert who wore animalskins and ate insects. John the Baptist is mentioned in all four canonical Gospels and the non-canonical Gospel of the Nazarenes. The Synoptic Gospels (Mark, Matthew and Luke) describe John baptising Jesus; in the Gospel of John this is inferred by many to be found in John 1:32.(Wikipedia)gotquestions.org acknowledges that John “the Baptist,” was in fact the first prophet called by God since Malachi some 400 years earlier. He was known as a “lone voice in the wilderness” (John 1:23) who was telling the people which were suffering and needed a Savior that the Messiah was coming. His word was repent and that meant transforming the way they were living and admit their sins and be “baptized”.

 Luke was a close companion of the Apostle Paul and also a doctor. Luke is credited with writing two books of the NT, Acts and Luke. The number here is not really important but the fact that he is the only non Jew to have a book in the Bible but also to have had two of them! The Book of Acts tells of the early church and without Luke we would not know about the struggles of the early Saints to establish the foundation of the church and organize it into a form to grow and survive. In the Book Luke we see Jesus Christ as offering salvation to all people…Jew and Gentile.

 

Stephen is traditionally venerated as the first martyr of Christianity. According to the Acts of the Apostles, he was a deacon in the early Church at Jerusalem who angered members of various synagogues by his teachings. (Wikipedia) We are introduced to Stephen in Acts 6:5. A faithful man of God named Stephen: “a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit.” His actions were such that many of the Jews were unhappy with his teachings… So much so that that they stirred up the people and even had some give false testimony that Stephen had spoken blasphemous words against Moses and God. These people seized Stephen and brought him before the Council. Stephen spoke in his own defense before the Council…you can read his speech in Acts 7. They were so enraged with what he said that they took him out and stoned him. When they prepared to stone him they lay their cloaks at the feet of a man whose name was Saul. Next we meet a man named Paul who had changed his name from Saul…the very man who had guarded the cloaks of those who had stoned Stephen. 

Paul  (also named Saul of Tarsus; c. 5 – c. 64/65 AD), commonly known as Paul the Apostle  and Saint Paul, was a Christian apostle who spread the teachings of Jesus in the first-century world.  Generally regarded as one of the most important figures of the Apostolic Age, he founded several Christian communities in Asia Minor and Europe.(Wikipedia) He was well educated and a Jew of great influence in his community.  Paul studied under Gamaliel who was a first-century Jewish rabbi and a leader in the Jewish Sanhedrin and was also a Pharisee. Gamaliel is mentioned a couple of times in Scripture as a famous and well-respected teacher. Indirectly, Gamaliel had a profound effect on the early church. Paul wrote thirteen of the books of the New Testament and some have even tried to include in that number Hebrews which would have made it fourteen. He made three missionary journeys covering at least 10,000 miles, organizing churches and preaching the Good News. 

These are just a few of the examples of Biblical Transformers…  people who changed the world and established God’s word among his people. While it is not a movie or a well known toy it is a good example, visually to show change. But the change, the transformation we all need in our lives is real and critical to our salvation… Have you allowed Christ to transform you…have you experienced a conversion?

Lofe is Good

jk