Category: denominationalism

The Misunderstood Messiah #5

Monday, December 30, 2024

“Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God” (John 8:41 KJV).

Did you ever notice the magnitude of the insult put forth toward Jesus Christ in today’s Scripture?

Once Christ replied with sound doctrine (verses 42-47), Israel’s religious leaders simply resorted to name-calling again (verse 48): “Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil?” A Samaritan was half-Jew/half-Gentile, and “the Jews [had] no dealings with the Samaritans” (John 4:9). Notice Jesus was insulted twice more—they called Him a “Samaritan” and “devil possessed.” Throughout the rest of John chapter 8, Israel’s religious leaders continue arguing with Jesus and nearly stone Him to death (verse 59)!

Why did Jesus not simply “zap” these religionists and instantly throw them into hellfire? They belittled and blasphemed Him several times in this one account, and then attempted to murder Him, but rather than Jesus killing them with His spoken word (which would have been justified), He only conversed with them. Why?

Remember, when the Apostles James and John saw how the Samaritans refused to accommodate Jesus, they asked Him if He wanted them to call down fire from heaven and consume those sinners, He replied, “Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them” (Luke 9:55,56). This First Coming of Christ was His “meek and lowly” coming: He did not come to judge man’s sins, but to die for them!

Even today, God is still not pouring out His wrath on wicked mankind (2 Corinthians 5:19), creatures who still snicker at Jesus Christ, deceive others in His name, persecute His saints, ignore His Word, and “rub His nose” in their sins. Lost mankind is wasting God’s grace and mercy that He is offering so freely. When His grace is finally exhausted, the undiluted wrath that has accumulated will finally be poured out (His Second Coming). May we trust Jesus Christ as our personal Saviour now so we have our sins forgiven now, lest we face that angry, righteous God in judgment (2 Thessalonians 1:7-9)!

For more information, you may also see our archived Bible Q&A: “Did God ‘rape’ Mary?”

‘Twas the Sunday Night Before Christmas

Sunday, December 22, 2024

“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 Sunday Night Before Christmas.”

Arrayed in Hypocrisy

Thursday, October 31, 2024

“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity” (Matthew 23:27,28 KJV).

“Looks can be deceiving” is not only true during Halloweentime, but confirmed year-round within Christendom.

Today is Halloween, when children dress up and feign themselves to be creatures they are not. Likewise, many church leaders today wear “Christian” garbs, but their ministries do not bring the Lord Jesus Christ glory and honor. They promote their denomination, and seek to perpetuate it, rather than serve and exalt the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. The Bible manifests these who appear to be good, as “wolves in sheep’s clothing.”

In today’s Scripture, Jesus Christ exposed Israel’s corrupt religious leaders who misled the nation in His day. In His Parable of the Tares, Matthew 13:24-30,37-43, Christ explained how just as He had sown good seed (wheat, believing Jews) in Israel, Satan had also sown tares/weeds (unbelieving Jews). Tares resemble wheat; unbelieving Jews resemble believing Jews. The unbelieving Pharisees and scribes, for instance, looked like God’s people (believing Israel). Judas Iscariot was another example of Satan’s tares—the apostles never realized who Judas really was until it was too late!

But Satan’s counterfeit believers are not confined to Israel’s program. Today, within local assemblies of the Body of Christ, there are people feigning themselves to be Christians: “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works” (2 Corinthians 11:13-15).

Beloved, beware of the church leaders who are arrayed in hypocrisy, “and avoid them” (Romans 16:17b). If their teaching does not agree with the rightly divided King James Bible, you have no business as a child of God to be listening to them.

*This is excerpted from a larger Bible study with the same name. The Bible study can be read here or watched here.

You may also see our special study, “Should Christians celebrate Halloween?” In addition, “What does the Bible say about ghosts?”

Note the Horizon! #20

Sunday, October 27, 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?

A Christian of nearly four decades—a deacon in my family’s former church and teacher of home Bible studies—came to understand dispensational Bible study. He told me, “The Bible is so clear now! Difficult passages make sense!” All those years he had struggled in the Scriptures. There was more darkness than understanding because much of what he believed was so shallow. His story is just one of innumerable reports throughout church history and around the world.

Organized religion and denominationalism will always contain “nuggets of truth” (for even the worst lie is not 100 percent false). Nevertheless, no study system has yet to open the Scriptures more fully than Pauline dispensationalism (recognizing Paul’s ministry is God’s dispensation for us, His set of instructions for us to believe and obey). Having spent many years in doctrinal error and spiritual childishness, my family and I can testify to that firsthand. I can honestly say I have no interest in returning to being one of the millions of “ignorant brethren!”

Unless we study to seek God’s approval, “rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15), we are completely out of His will and we do not know what He is doing. If we are not doing by faith what the Holy Spirit is doing, we are doing the Devil’s work for him. As long as people do not see Paul’s distinctive ministry (separate from, not an extension of, the 12 Apostles’ ministry), as long as they mix law and grace, as long as they combine Israel with the Body of Christ, as long as they blend Heaven and Earth, as long as they confound prophecy with mystery, they have not noted the horizon—and thus have neither a hope nor a prayer of understanding and enjoying the Bible. Far better it is, or so they have been programmed to believe, to defend and maintain manmade church tradition than admit wrongdoing and believe the pure Holy Bible.

To avoid their blunders, dear friend, note the horizon of today’s Scripture!

-FINIS!-

Note the Horizon! #19

Saturday, October 26, 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?

While the Bible timeline from end to end is replete with changes to God’s dealings with mankind, that which is of utmost importance to us is how Paul’s ministry demarcates—establishes a horizon for—His current program for man. There are the “time past” before Paul, the “but now” of Paul, and the “ages to come” after Paul (see Ephesians 2:7,11-13). “But now” is the 13 Pauline epistles, Romans to Philemon. To reach outside of these epistles and try to apply verses is to attempt to force God to do something He is no longer doing or will do later.

We do not throw away anything from Genesis through Revelation, and we study all 66 Books of the Bible, but we do know our “marching orders” are confined to Romans through Philemon (victorious grace/Christian living in this the Dispensation of Grace). To make everything in the Bible applicable to everyone at all times is to go the way of denominationalism and traditional theology—compounding Bible ignorance, multiplying misunderstanding, and perpetuating spiritual immaturity that so stifles growth, development, and Divine power.

One day, Paul’s ministry will finally come to an end. The mystery program or Dispensation of Grace will close forever. As God extended His hand of grace to the whole world going back to Acts chapter 9, so He will withdraw it at last when no one else wishes to believe Paul’s Gospel (1 Corinthians 15:3,4). The Church the Body of Christ will be removed from Earth for the prophetic program to begin again. In that day, it will have been far better had the nations heard absolutely nothing from the Lord through Paul. How dreadful it shall be for them to have had the Pauline epistles, Romans through Philemon, for at least 2,000 years—for they did not believe a word of them. “He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the LORD shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure” (Psalm 2:4,5).

Let us conclude this devotionals arc….

Note the Horizon! #4

Friday, October 11, 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?

When we look out to the horizon, we see a clear boundary between earth (bottom) and sky (top). Primarily a gas, the sky suspends small solid particles and water droplets, plus ice crystals in its higher layers. It reflects blue light. Most of Earth’s surface is liquid (water); the rest is solid (rock, soil, and ice). Earth and its vegetation reflect green, yellow, and brown light. Blending sky and earth results in confusion or disorientation (knowing neither where you are nor where you are going). Put the horizon back where it belongs and all becomes clear.

The Greek word for “separated” in today’s Scripture in “aphoridzo,” derived from “apo” (“from, away, off”) and “horidzo” (“mark out, limit, specify”). “Horion” means “border, coast.” Such is the basis for the English “horizon.” As there is a physical horizon, so there is a spiritual horizon that we dare not overlook. It is Paul being “separated” from the other Apostles, isolated from the rest of mankind. The beginning of his ministry marks a clear boundary: it is a break in prophecy, a departure from God’s prior dealings with man.

In prophecy, Israel is first: God saves Israel nationally to use redeemed and converted Israel as His kingdom of priests, His channel of salvation and blessing to the world/Gentiles/nations. “Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed. Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities” (Acts 3:25,26). This is the Abrahamic Covenant (Genesis 12:1-3; Isaiah 60:1-3; Zechariah 8:20-23).

Therefore, the Lord Jesus Christ and His 12 Apostles were sent to Israel first (Matthew 10:5-7; Matthew 15:24). Once all of Israel was converted via this Gospel of the Kingdom (Jesus is Christ), Israel would preach to the Gentiles (Matthew 28:18-20; Luke 24:47; Acts 1:8). Yet, as the Books of Matthew through John and the opening seven chapters of Acts show, all Jews did not believe….

Note the Horizon! #3

Thursday, October 10, 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?

“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). Indeed, Christendom recognizes a difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament—how the Hebrew/Aramaic Books of Genesis to Malachi differ from the Greek Books of Matthew to Revelation. Also, to some measure, they distinguish Israel and “the Church” (though the latter is a pitifully deficient term!). They do tell us, “We ought to divide truth from error!,” but seldom do they actually do that.

To solve our problem, we must define it first. Our fundamental error in Christendom is a failure to see two distinct programs in the Bible, two sets of information that outline God’s overall dealings with man. To state it another way: God has one series of planned events that should never be confounded with another series of planned events. Never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever should we mix them!

Firstly, read an excerpt from what the Apostle Peter preached: “[Jesus Christ] Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began” (Acts 3:21). Secondly, read excerpt from what the Apostle Paul wrote: “Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith:…” (Romans 16:25,26).

God was speaking prophecy “since the world began” (Acts, Peter’s ministry)—and He was keeping mystery “secret since the world began” (Romans, Paul’s ministry). As the heaven and the earth were and are divided (Genesis 1:1), so the prophetic program and the mystery program must be rightly divided….

Note the Horizon! #2

Wednesday, October 9, 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?

Suppose it is a chilly, rainy day. A child asks his big brother, “Could we go outside and play?” The older boy rejoins, “No, father said it is too cold and wet.” We need not be geniuses to recognize that the circumstances (the weather) are unfavorable to being outdoors. Now, imagine it is a warm, sunny day. In this case, the younger boy’s question is answered in the affirmative: “Yes, little brother, father said we can go out to play!” The father is not fickle or indecisive. He has his intelligent reasons for saying what he does at any given time. There is a progression of events: things change as time goes on. What is true at one period may not automatically be true at all periods. In other words, the contents of the message are different because corresponding situations or circumstances differ. However, some basic information does stay the same (both situations involve a father, his two sons, the father’s care, the older son relaying the father’s instructions, and the younger son’s inclination to play).

Though imperfect, if the above analogies help us, at least to some degree, to understand the dispensational changes in Scripture as one moves across the Bible timeline from left or right, then such illustrations should never be forgotten. The father is God, the older son is His spokesman, the younger son is the rest of mankind, the weather is real-life daily conditions or situations throughout the ages, and the instructions are applicable Divine revelations or Bible concepts. There are no contradictions or mistakes. Moreover, there is no confusion—provided, of course, (and this is the key point!) we make certain we are aware of any indications of time or context.

However offensive it is, however uncomfortable it makes us, when we think about our weaknesses and limitations, it is quite clear that the problem lies exclusively with us and never the Bible. Let us see how the “horizon” in today’s Scripture turns “the Old Book” into a new Book….

Note the Horizon! #1

Tuesday, October 8, 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?

Bible critics desperately look for any and every lame excuse not to believe the Scriptures. One of their primary “defenses” is to resort to accusing the Bible writers of “contradictions.” In fact, to the absolute shame of the professing church, so-called “Bible believers” and “Bible scholars” complain about these “contradictions” too. I remember how, when I was in high school, one of my science teachers griped about how this verse was at odds with that verse. Of course, I was in ignorance myself. My denomination had taught me as much truth as his denomination had taught him! It would be a few more years until I would learn the Bible rightly divided, and the “contradiction” was revealed to be nothing but a change in program.

Let us read today’s Scripture in context: “[1] Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, [2] (Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,) [3] Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; [4] And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead: [5] By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name:….”

Although Romans was not the first epistle the Apostle Paul wrote, the Holy Spirit placed it first in the canon of Scripture (order of Bible Books). We were introduced to Saul or Paul in Acts chapter 7, he was commissioned in Acts chapter 9, and his ministry gradually becomes more prominent for the remainder of Acts. By the end of Acts, his ministry stands alone. It is here that, after reading Acts chapter 28, we come into Romans chapter 1 (its first verse is today’s Scripture). The opening verses of Romans are Paul’s ministry as he himself describes it, thereby guaranteeing we note the horizon….

Living Defensively #8

Sunday, September 1, 2024

“See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,…” (Ephesians 5:15 KJV).

What is the sense of “walk circumspectly” here?

Dear friend, if you have operated or ridden in a motor vehicle, you will certainly recall instances of erratic drivers—speeding, sideswiping, swerving into your lane or off the road, failing to negotiate sharp curves, tailgating, rear-ending, running red lights or stop signs. Only a naïve person believes the roadway is safe for drivers and pedestrians. Unless we pay attention to what we are doing while driving and what others are doing while driving, we will collide with them and they will hit us.

We should be on the lookout especially for impaired drivers, those intoxicated with alcohol or using illegal drugs. Likewise, we ourselves had better not be inebriated with false doctrine in the Christian life: “And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;…” (Ephesians 5:18). Provided we are under the Holy Spirit’s influence in word and deed, we are safe from the spiritual threats of life in a fallen, sin-cursed world—including protection from those under the influence of erroneous doctrine (false teaching). “Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles [tricks, schemes] of the devil…. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand” (Ephesians 6:11,13).

The average professing Christian has absolutely no idea what spiritual perils await—but he or she will find out in due time! They will get into a wreck and sustain scrapes and bruises, or a broken arm or leg, or perhaps a major head concussion or broken neck or back. For the rest of their spiritual life, they will hobble or remain paralyzed, barely getting by. Listen to them as they talk about spiritual matters or pray. They have such a distorted view of Bible doctrines. There are more questions than answers, more weakness than strength, more doubt than faith, more illness than health. If we hang around them and their denominational systems long enough, we too will find ourselves in a spiritual sickbed… or perhaps a casket!

Live defensively… “walk circumspectly!”