Category: denominationalism

Bible Study 101 #7

Saturday, January 11, 2014

“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15 KJV).

The only verse that tells you to study the Bible also tells you how to study the Bible!

We often hear about “Bible contradictions.” One of the most critical and obvious examples—a major issue during the Reformation, and still divisive among Protestants and Roman Catholics today—is justification by faith without works versus justification by faith plus works. Protestants quote, “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law” (Romans 3:28). Roman Catholics quote, “Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only” (James 2:24). Well, which is it? Faith plus works, or faith without works? The Bible clearly teaches both!

So, what do we do at this point? Throw the Bible away, dismissing it as “riddled with errors?” Nay! Before we grab the verse we prefer and attempt to claim it, we MUST pay attention to the context! Paul, the apostle of the Gentiles (Romans 11:13; Romans 15:16; 2 Timothy 1:11), wrote Romans 3:28. James, an apostle of Israel (Galatians 2:9), wrote the epistle of James. Romans is clearly written to Gentile Christians in Rome (Romans 1:5-7), and James 1:1 says that James is writing to “the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad” (Israel!).

We do not combine James and Paul and make their doctrine one—their teachings are to be “rightly divided,” separated unto their audiences. Scripture is not contradictory concerning Romans 3:28 and James 2:24. These verses are written to different groups of people living in different circumstances, so they teach different doctrines. James 2:24 has nothing to do with us Gentiles; the context says it is Israel’s doctrine. Romans 3:28 is our doctrine!

Just as Acts 3:21—“spoken since the world began”—and Romans 16:25—“kept secret since the world began”—seem contradictory, they are speaking of two separate programs (prophecy and mystery, respectively). James 2:24 belongs to the former and Romans 3:28 belongs to the latter.

Again, the Bible becomes so clear when we use God’s Word, God’s way….

Bible Study 101 #5

Thursday, January 9, 2014

“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15 KJV).

The only verse that tells you to study the Bible also tells you how to study the Bible!

Dispensational Bible study causes us to recognize dispensations, or sets of instructions God dispenses to mankind throughout the Holy Bible (different peoples living in various time periods). God’s nature never changes (Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8), but His dealings with man do change because man changes. (You can verify this by simply comparing God’s “contradictory” directions about diets in Genesis 1:29-31, Genesis 9:1-4, Leviticus chapter 11, and 1 Timothy 4:3-5.)

Our King James Bible uses the term “dispensation” four times (1 Corinthians 9:17; Ephesians 1:10; Ephesians 3:2; Colossians 1:25). The Apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians 3:1-5: “For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, if ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward: how that by revelation he [Jesus Christ] made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words, whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ) which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit;”

Scripture says that the ascended and glorified Lord Jesus Christ directly revealed and committed to the Apostle Paul a special body of information to give to us Gentiles (non-Jews): Scripture calls that body of truth “the Dispensation of the Grace of God.” We learn this doctrine only in Paul’s epistles, Romans through Philemon. Hence, even the Apostle Peter, near the end of his life, acknowledged that he did not understand everything Paul wrote (2 Peter 3:15,16).

Most of the Church the Body of Christ today is doctrinally unsound and spiritually weak because it often neglects the Bible books—Paul’s epistles—written to and about it. Undoubtedly, the professing Church is largely ignorant of God’s will for it because it largely ignores the books of the Bible that explain God’s will for it….

Bible Study 101 #3

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15 KJV).

The only verse that tells you to study the Bible also tells you how to study the Bible!

One can hardly ever find a sound local church today (I speak from experience). Many churches advertise enjoyable “worship” services, some very emotional (hour of loud music, toe-tapping, pew-jumping, tongue-talking) and others extremely solemn and almost silent (ceremonial correctness, eloquent prayers and benedictions, meditation). There are plenty of fleshly activities, but how much Bible study? No, not churches where a few familiar Bible verses are read and then followed by stories and jokes for the rest of the hour, but churches where the congregation actually flips pages in printed Bibles to compare verses? Very rare indeed! (Bible study is “boring,” so the average church feigns like the world in order to cram the world into the pews.)

Beloved, God’s power is in God’s Word (1 Thessalonians 2:13; 2 Timothy 3:15-17; Hebrews 4:12), so if God’s Word is not being studied, then we need not wonder why the Body of Christ is so ineffectual in reaching the lost for Jesus Christ’s glory! People today quote and follow the Bible, and yet, they are usually outside of God’s will. Daily, I deal with individuals—Christians and lost people—who read the Bible, but they seldom understand it and rarely know God’s will for their lives. People who have attended “church” for decades but who are still unfamiliar with even basic Bible concepts. Dear friends, how can we do God’s will if we do not know His will (what He is doing)? This is why Bible study—not simply verse reading, verse skimming, or verse memorization—is so critical!

The Bible tells us what God is doing today (His will for us), but we cannot just go to any part of the Bible to find God’s will for us. We must study the Bible to find the verses that describe God’s current operations, His present-day dealings with mankind. This is the goal of dispensational Bible study….

Bible Study 101 #2

Monday, January 6, 2014

“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15 KJV).

The only verse that tells you to study the Bible also tells you how to study the Bible!

Let us begin by addressing three common misconceptions about Bible-studying and Bible-quoting. Firstly, everything in the Bible does not belong to us—we cannot grab any verse, rip it out of context, and attempt to claim or apply it (this is how a denomination begins). Secondly, just because someone quotes the Bible does not mean that he or she is serving the God of the Bible. Thirdly, even false churches quote the Bible to some extent, so a “Bible-preaching” church is not necessarily a church worth attending or joining.

Did you know that Satan quoted Scripture to Jesus Christ? In Matthew 4:5,6 and Luke 4:9-11, Satan demonstrated that he knows the Bible, and if it furthers his policy of evil, he will actually quote Scripture and encourage others to quote it (of course, Satan also ignores the context of the verses he quotes). Upon studying the passage Satan quoted to Jesus (Psalm 91:11,12), we learn that angels will come at Jesus’ Second Coming (Satan quoted the passage as though it applied to Christ’s First Coming, but Jesus knew better and was not misled).

How many deceived souls have gone to hell after having trusted Acts 2:38—“repent and be baptized” (Scripture!)—as though it were our plan of salvation today? How many Christians have used the Mosaic Law (Scripture!) to follow the Galatians into apostasy, making naught the grace of God in their lives and causing themselves misery and defeat (Romans 6:14,15; Galatians 2:21; Galatians 3:1-3)? How many church members follow Peter and the other eleven apostles’ teachings (Scripture!), and completely miss that the Apostle Paul’s epistles are written to them as Gentiles (Romans 11:13)?

One cannot simply be Scriptural, for even Satan is “Scriptural;” one must also be dispensational. God has more than one people, one program, and one operating system in His Word. Today’s Scripture says we must understand the divisions God has made in His Word….

Bible Study 101 #1

Sunday, January 5, 2014

“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15 KJV).

The only verse that tells you to study the Bible also tells you how to study the Bible!

Every church member reads the Bible to some extent. From the cults to the mainline denominations, a “Bible of some sort” is used. Strangely, however, this one Book is used by over 38,000 denominations to teach some or much of what they believe (and all those groups teach different doctrines!). How can we avoid this, the Bible ignorance that has so gripped Christendom, the spiritual destruction (heresies, apostasy, et cetera) that befalls so many professing believers within Christian assemblies?

The “Christian” bookstore—a spiritually-dangerous place!—offers a wide range of allegedly “helpful” Bible study tools. Bible commentaries, lexicons, “easy-to-read” “scholarly” modern Bible versions, interlinears, study guides, and workbooks are just some of the products the Bible student is urged to buy if Bible comprehension is being sought. However, when we go beyond the expensive and extensive advertising campaigns, and evaluate the text of those items, very rarely do their authors and translators speak on God’s behalf. After nearly 20 centuries of increasing doctrinal error, we should not expect to find many sound Bible study tools anyway.

Due to frequent personal communication with graduates of seminaries and Bible colleges, I can assure you that they rarely and consistently take a stand on Bible infallibility (inerrancy), and they usually deny Bible preservation (its text’s pure transmission through history). They claim to be Bible believers, but I have personally witnessed how they argued against Bible verses. How sad it is that many lead churches and Bible study groups!

Scripture is very clear when it says, “God is not the author of confusion” (1 Corinthians 14:33), so the Bible confusion that exists today is man’s fault, not God’s. Beloved, if we want to use God’s Word and understand it, we are going to have to follow His directions. Today’s Scripture tells us how God wants His Word to be studied, so we will now examine what God has to say about Bible study….

A Life That Will Please

Saturday, January 4, 2014

“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20 KJV).

Today’s Scripture tells us who alone can live a life pleasing in God’s sight!

Everyone does “good” deeds. Yet, doing “good” is not necessarily good. For instance, people often do “good” just to receive praise/reward, make up for their wrongs, feel good, et cetera. Furthermore, despite our “good” deeds, we have plenty more bad ones! Pride, lying, evil thoughts, being a false witness, and being contentious are some of the things the LORD hates (Proverbs 6:16-19).

Mankind cannot even keep 10 simple rules from God. However, religion continues to urge us to keep seven sacraments, utter various prayers, give assorted offerings and “tithes,” attend numerous feasts and festivals, and perform sundry other tasks to “hopefully” please God and avoid hellfire. Whether we attempt to keep a church’s laws, our laws, or God’s laws, our flesh is far too weak to ever measure up. Just look at what God’s religion did to Israel—how much worse some man-made religion does to us!

As Saul of Tarsus, the Apostle Paul was a Pharisee, a religious leader of Israel. He was a nitpicker concerning Law-keeping, and yet, after his soul salvation, he admitted that all of his religion was “but dung” compared to Jesus Christ’s righteousness (Philippians 3:3-11). Even for the Christian, to live a perfect life is impossible (read of Paul’s miserable existence in Romans chapter 7). Paul had to forsake his vain religion and learn today’s Scripture: the Christian life is NOT the performance of the Christian, but the Lord Jesus Christ living and working in the Christian, as the Christian walks in an intelligent understanding of God’s Word to him or her!

If we trust a Saviour who will save—the Lord Jesus Christ—and trust a Book that will teach—the King James Bible—we can redeem the year for the great God and our Saviour, “who loved [us], and gave himself for [us]!”

A Book That Will Teach

Friday, January 3, 2014

“Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual” (1 Corinthians 2:13 KJV).

Today’s Scripture tells us who alone we can trust to teach us God’s truth!

I recently heard a minister give his self-proclaimed “prophetic” message about top headlines that would appear in the coming year. While he reassured his audience that he received this information directly from “the Lord” (?), he gave a disclaimer: “I do not know, but at the end of this year, we will see if what I say came to pass.” Unlike the inner impressions and hunches of this “Christian” preacher, the Holy Bible is infallible, and we can trust its information completely.

Long, long ago, God Almighty wrote a Book, and He preserved it through history through a multiplicity of manuscript copies, so that it could eventually be translated into English, so we could read it even today! (Of course, Satan, the master counterfeiter that he is, most certainly had his own manuscripts—they still circulate today as corrupt Bible translations.) God promised to preserve His words forever (Psalm 12:6,7; Isaiah 30:8; Matthew 24:35; 1 Peter 1:25). Consequently, every person will stand before Him one day to give account as to what he or she did with that Bible. Did we reject it in favor of counterfeits? Did we re-translate it to fit our denominational beliefs? Did we apply it to life by faith? Did we even read it at all?

As English-speaking people, we understand—or, at least, we should understand—that we can trust the 400-year-old King James Bible. Sadly, even in many church circles, we are often cautioned not to trust God’s preserved Word. Unfortunately, footnotes, study notes, and seminarians usually attempt to claim that authority by offering “better” readings or “better” manuscripts. Beloved, we can do without unbelieving textual critics and their “scholarship.” God does not need lost people to explain His Word to His children; He never did and He never will (1 Corinthians 2:14). Never forget that!

The Holy Spirit will teach us the King James Bible if we “read” (Ephesians 3:4), “study” (2 Timothy 2:15), and “consider” it (2 Timothy 2:7)!

Redeem the Year!

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

“See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is” (Ephesians 5:15-17 KJV).

What great advice for 2014!

Despite 2,000 years of Bible schools and seminaries, 2,000 years of a completed Bible canon, 2,000 years of Bible reading in churches, several decades of “Christian” television and radio, and just over a decade of widespread use of “Christian” websites, how sad that Bible ignorance is still quite extensive (it is as if God never gave His Word to start with!).

Frankly, the Church the Body of Christ needs to wake up! The verse previous to today’s Scripture says, “Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light” (verse 14). Paul, loosely quoting Isaiah 60:1, reminded us that the spiritual ignorance that gripped Israel in Isaiah’s day seized Christians in his day—and it still grips Christians 20 centuries later. Feel-good sermons, enjoyable “worship” services, and rites, rituals, and ceremonies will NOT solve this problem—they exacerbate it!

“[God] will have all men to be saved…” (1 Timothy 2:4a). Do you want this New Year to count for God’s glory? First, you need to get saved from sins and hell! You need to become a Christian by trusting in and relying on Jesus Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection as sufficient payment for your sins (1 Corinthians 15:3,4). That is only part of God’s will for you, for 1 Timothy 2:4b continues, “[God] will have all men… to come unto the knowledge of the truth.” Now, God’s will for your Christian life is daily, personal Bible study to renew your mind, so your faith in those verses can cause God to work in your life—it will be His life, thus making you “perfect [spiritually mature], throughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Timothy 3:16,17).

Today’s Scripture urges us to buy back the time Satan has robbed from God (time created for God’s glory). By faith, we need to make that time glorify the Lord Jesus Christ by applying His Word, particularly Paul’s epistles of Romans through Philemon, to our lives.

You can download our free “One-Year Bible Reading Schedule.”

‘Twas the Sunday Night Before Christmas

Sunday, December 22, 2013

“But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15 KJV).

Let us not be so sidetracked by religion and commercialization that we miss the reason for the Christmas Season….

During the Christmas Season, we wonder how many people are visiting church for the second time this year (the other being Easter Sunday). How many will be going to church today—the Sunday before Christmas—just to feel “religious” or “holy?” How many really know Jesus Christ? For many, visiting a church building is just an obligation; they do not have faith in God’s Word and have no interest in God’s Word.

We do not go to church to “feel closer to God,” for if we have trusted in Jesus Christ as our personal Saviour, we cannot be any closer to God than we already are in Christ! “[Before salvation, we were] without God in the world: but now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh [close to God] by the blood of Christ” (Ephesians 2:12,13).

Furthermore, we do not go to church in order to get God’s blessings, for God has already given us “all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3). We go to church, not because we are keeping Israel’s Sabbath day, since we are not obligated to observe Israel’s religious days (Colossians 2:16). We go to church to fellowship with like-minded believers and hear sound doctrine… more than twice a year, by the way.

In today’s Scripture, the Apostle Paul encouraged Timothy that whenever he would assemble with fellow Christians, certain behavior was acceptable and other types of behavior were not (described throughout the epistle of 1 Timothy). Recall that when the Bible refers to “the church,” it refers to the body of believers, not the physical building in which they meet.

As we get opportunities, let us make an effort to reach these dear souls misled by all the vain religious tradition and Christmas commercialization, and may we tell them of the wonderful Christ Jesus whose name is found in Christmas!

*Based on the poem “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas.”

The Extensive Search for the Pure Church

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

“Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them” (Romans 16:17 KJV).

Are we Pauline dispensationalists against going to a local church?

We who understand the message of God’s grace to us in Jesus Christ are often accused of being “church-splitters.” Every denominational minister who is aware of dispensational Bible study fears it, for it is a threat to the church program and handbook!

Constant personal communication with professing Christians (verbal dialog and email, even with “clergy”), frequent analyses of current best-selling “Christian” literature, and recent viewing of “quality” “Christian” television programming, still lead me to hold to the conclusion I reached years ago: much of Christendom literally has just as much of an understanding of what Jesus Christ is doing today as the people who have never even read the Holy Bible!

When we Pauline dispensationalists object the “norm”—widespread doctrinal error—and avoid it, we are labeled “church-splitters.” If we are to be rejected as “church-splitters” because we refuse to participate in Satan’s deception, then the Apostle Paul was certainly a “church-splitter” himself, and we are privileged to follow God’s spokesman to us in that regard!

Religious tradition was creeping into the early assemblies of the Church the Body of Christ. In fact, false teachers were even forcing the Scriptural Mosaic Law on Paul’s Gentile converts saved by God’s grace (see his epistles to Galatia and Timothy).

Paul’s advice in today’s Scripture was clear. Identify and avoid these people who “caused divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned.” If what anyone teaches today does not agree with what the Holy Spirit taught through the Apostle Paul, the Bible says we should avoid that person, for he or she is not speaking on God’s behalf: “If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord” (1 Corinthians 14:37).

Remember, we are certainly not against going to a local church for fellowship; however, we are mindful of the challenge of finding one pure enough to attend!