Saturday, October 19, 2024
“Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God,…” (Romans 1:1 KJV).
Friend, do you see the horizon here? How can it facilitate your understanding and enjoyment of the Bible?
Denominationalism or Christendom abounds with people (ministers and members alike) who are extremely hostile toward dispensational Bible study. Why? Frankly, dispensational Bible study releases souls longtime chained to the traditions, speculations, and superstitions of men—the very traditions, speculations, and superstitions that denominations simply could not survive without! One of their lame objections to Pauline dispensationalism is that it encourages people to discard the Bible Books that Paul did not write. Allegedly, all we ever study is Romans through Philemon. This is but absurdity and falsehood. It is totally untrue, baseless slander, designed to keep church members shackled to manmade theological systems, institutions, and organizations.
Paul himself definitely did not throw away any Scripture. How do we know? For instance, in today’s Scripture, the very first verse of the very first Pauline Book situated in the Bible canon or layout, we read, “Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ.” Now, if all we ever read was Paul—that is, if we never read Matthew through John or Acts—then how could we be expected to know who “Jesus Christ” is? Or, unless we knew (read/studied) the Books of Exodus and Numbers, how could we ever hope to appreciate 1 Corinthians 10:1-14? Without some knowledge of Genesis, would Galatians 4:21-31 make any sense? How can we pray to comprehend Romans chapters 9–11 if we are not acquainted with the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament? Paul expected us to study the whole Bible, Genesis through Revelation.
In Greek, Paul’s name is “Paulos” (it was transliterated as such in Acts 13:7, though this is another man). A related word is “pauo,” which means “cease, quit, desist, come to an end, pause.” (See it translated “ceased” in Luke 8:24, Luke 11:1, Acts 5:42, Acts 20:31, et al.) Whenever we see that name “Paul,” we should immediately think of the prophetic program being stopped—because it is, so the mystery program can be in progress. However, though they have to be divided, prophecy and mystery form one whole plan of God spanning the ages….
333 Words of Grace 