Category: King James Bible Authority

For All the World to See

Sunday, June 9, 2013

“And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves” (Revelation 11:9 KJV).

A century ago, today’s Scripture was enigmatic to Christians. With today’s technology, its meaning is obvious….

At the beginning of the seven-year Tribulation, God will appoint “two witnesses” whose ministry will last “a thousand two hundred and threescore days” (verse 3)—that is, 1,260 days, or the first three-and-one-half years of the Tribulation.

Halfway through the Tribulation, the antichrist will kill these two witnesses in Jerusalem (verses 7 and 8). Today’s Scripture and its context elaborate: “And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves. And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth. And after three days and an half the spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them. And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them” (verses 10-12).

Instant communication has become increasingly popular in recent years. Social media (Facebook, Twitter, et cetera), cellular phone usage, satellite television, blogs (such as this one!), instant messaging, email, and other “high-tech” innovations have made any place in the world literally just a “click” away. Photos and videos can be shared worldwide in mere seconds… and that applies to “private” information too! Just about anything can be found on the World Wide Web. We have a good idea how the people of the world will see the bodies of the witnesses lie in Jerusalem, and then watch them ascend into heaven.

While today’s Scripture will be fulfilled after our Dispensation of Grace has ended, today’s technology will doubtless play a role. Only God’s Book could be that amazing….

Unfathomable Distances, Unsearchable Speeds #5

Saturday, June 8, 2013

“For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself” (Philippians 3:20,21 KJV).

The vastness of space is mindboggling; today’s Scripture is equally mind-blowing….

Having received their glorified bodies, and left planet earth, Jesus Christ is now escorting His Christians across the heavens with speed unsearchable. He brings us outside of the universe.

After we each stand before “the Judgment Seat of Christ” (Romans 14:10-12; 2 Corinthians 5:9,10) where the Lord Jesus Christ evaluates the quality of the doctrine we believed and the quality of our Christian service (1 Corinthians 3:9-15; 1 Corinthians 4:4,5; Colossians 3:23-25), including suffering for His name’s sake (2 Timothy 2:12), He presents us to God the Father in the third heaven. This is where 1 Thessalonians 3:13 picks up: “To the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.” Jesus Christ is with His saints, bringing us before God, His and our Father!

Based on the results of the Judgment Seat of Christ (that is, dependent on the capacity of our inner man to function in the government of the heavenly places), we will receive a reward, an office of heaven’s government (again, these various ranks/offices will be filled up by Christians based on their spiritual maturity levels)—see, whether you believe sound Pauline Bible doctrine or vain religious tradition is of utmost importance!!!!

Once we are individually installed in the offices of government in the heavens, they will be “subdued” under Jesus Christ’s authority (today’s Scripture). Eternity will be busy, especially using those glorified bodies! We will be able to travel those astronomical distances in only a short period of time, carrying out the will of God the Father to the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, reigning in the heavenly places, forever, and ever, and ever, and ever! 🙂

In the World, But Not Entangled With It

Sunday, June 2, 2013

“Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier” (2 Timothy 2:3,4 KJV).

Rather than hiding ourselves in underground bunkers, or hiding our heads in our hands, let us hide this sound Bible doctrine in our hearts.

I recently spoke with a dear Christian brother and ministry coworker. He was so discouraged after having watched depressing newscasts on television for the last three hours. Life’s daily struggles, morose news stories, and false teaching in religion had the poor man so irritated and disheartened. Today’s Scripture is the solution to such negative thinking.

In Ephesians 6:12, the Apostle Paul admonished: “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” There is an invisible battle occurring today—it is the battle of good and evil, the God of creation and Satan are fighting against one another.

The phrase “entangleth himself” (today’s Scripture) carries the idea of being braided with the goings-on of this life. That is, one being so “wrapped up” in the here and now, one so involved with the culture about us, the individual is consumed. The Christian soldier in such a predicament is distracted—he becomes so focused on the world’s problems that he loses sight of the hope, peace, and joy God the Father has given him in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ! His mind is distracted, to Satan’s delight, and the Christian forgets the battle in which he is engaged!

Read 2 Corinthians 10:3-5: “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;”

Remember, dear fellow-soldiers… think on good things, sound doctrine from God’s Word rightly divided (Philippians 4:8)!

Our Second Anniversary – Perfected Saints

Saturday, June 1, 2013

“[Christ] Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus: whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily” (Colossians 1:28,29 KJV).

Only by God’s grace, “333 Words of Grace” celebrates its second anniversary today!

Proper Bible study—yea, Bible study at all—is rare. Hence, spiritual ignorance has vexed the Church the Body of Christ for nearly 20 centuries. But, it does not have to be that way. God has given us the written, completed revelation of Him and from Him!

Today’s Scripture summarizes our goal these last two years. To teach the Bible truths that religion denied us for many years. The Holy Bible can be understood and enjoyed—and you do not need a decade of Bible cemetery… I mean, seminary! Simply find a King James Bible, study it dispensationally, and believe what it says where it says it.

For years and years, denominationalism never taught us: (1) that all of the Bible is for us, but not all of the Bible is to us or about us; (2) that the ascended and glorified Lord Jesus Christ committed to the Apostle Paul a special ministry and message; (3) that Israel’s prophetic program for the earth and our mystery program for the heavenly places are separate. We were never taught the Word of God “rightly divided” as 2 Timothy 2:15 declares. Every Bible verse was thoroughly mixed with every other. The Bible became confusing and burdensome, just another weapon Satan used to discourage and defeat us.

Oh, but now Bible study is thrilling! The fetters of religious tradition and spiritual blindness are broken in twain. We now appreciate the Holy Bible like never before! We are maturing spiritually: now we know what God the Father is doing, and we can join Him by faith, declaring to Him in the words of our Lord Jesus Christ: “I delight to do thy will, O my God” (Psalm 40:8a; cf. Hebrews 10:5-9).

Onward, dear readers and saints, in spiritual maturity, for we have several hundred more studies of sound Bible truths to consider and in which to rejoice! 🙂

Note: Please feel free to view our “Original 7” devotionals by clicking here.

For In This We Groan #3

Thursday, May 30, 2013

“For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven:” (2 Corinthians 5:2 KJV).

Having been stricken with a bacterial infection of the sinuses and eyes for the past week, I can give a hearty “Amen!” to today’s Scripture!

Notice the boldfaced expressions, “For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: if so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life” (2 Corinthians 5:2-4).

According to the Bible, our physical bodies are actually clothing. The “real” us is inside, a member of the invisible (spiritual) realm! Job 14:22 supplements: “But his flesh upon him shall have pain, and his soul within him shall mourn.” These aching, sickly physical bodies are merely vehicles for our soul and spirit inside them (hence, the language of the passage in the previous paragraph about “clothing”).

We who have trusted the Lord Jesus Christ are redeemed spiritually from Satan and sin. However, these bodies of flesh and blood are still connected genetically to Adam and the fallen creation, so they die. Once they die, our souls and spirits no longer have a means of traveling. This is why resurrection is necessary. Our “unclothed” souls and spirits need new garments, and this new wardrobe is the glorified body the Lord Jesus will give every Christian believer at the rapture (1 Corinthians 15:51-55). This is the “redemption of our body” mentioned in Romans 8:23 and Ephesians 4:30.

Our physical bodies are referred to as “tabernacles” in Scripture (2 Corinthians 5:1,4; 2 Peter 1:13,14). When we are conceived in the womb, these frail structures are “pitched,” and our soul and spirit spring up from within them. Unlike a permanent structure, however, they can and do suffer “dilapidation” quite easily. Eventually, they are “taken down.” But, the soul and spirit simply move on (necessitating the need for a new, resurrected and glorified body, a new set of clothes)….

For In This We Groan #2

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

“For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven:” (2 Corinthians 5:2 KJV).

Having been stricken with a bacterial infection of the sinuses and eyes for the past week, I can give a hearty “Amen!” to today’s Scripture!

In this world where Satan and sin reign, sickness is a part of life as well. Our “groaning” in today’s Scripture is further explained in Romans 8:22-25: “For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.”

Paul writes in the context of today’s Scripture, “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (2 Corinthians 5:1). This is the “redemption of our [physical] body” of Romans 8:23, when “the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ… shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body…” (Philippians 3:20,21).

When the apostle pens, “Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 5:5), what he meant was, “[Christ] In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise” (Ephesians 1:13). “And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption” (Ephesians 4:30).

This sealing by and with the indwelling Holy Spirit is God’s promise that He will one day deliver our (ailing) physical bodies from sin just as He has already delivered our spiritual bodies from sin….

For In This We Groan #1

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

“For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven:” (2 Corinthians 5:2 KJV).

Having been stricken with a bacterial infection of the sinuses and eyes for the past week, I can give a hearty “Amen!” to today’s Scripture!

Earlier, in chapter 4, verse 16, the Apostle Paul discussed the issue of the corruptible, dying physical body (“the outward man”), and the spiritual body (“the inward man”) experiencing renewal and maturity: “For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.”

In chapter 5, verse 1, the thought continues: “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” Today’s Scripture follows: “For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven:”

Let us read verses 3-8, which elaborate even more: “If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.”

When the Holy Spirit through Paul wrote, “yet the inward man is renewed day by day,” He was referring to this doctrine transforming the way we view sickness. As Christians, we should look at bodily suffering differently than the lost world views it, than our old sin nature would have us think about it.

Let us briefly dissect this passage, to the intent that we can be comforted during times of illness….

The Greatest War Hero

Monday, May 27, 2013

“For God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8 KJV).

In the United States, today is Memorial Day, when we remember those who sacrificed their time and lives to provide our physical freedom. Likewise, as Christians, we have spiritual freedom, which was more costly. Someone had to die to give us the eternal life we now enjoy….

Scripture describes a spiritual warfare between good and evil, God’s truth program versus Satan’s lie program: “Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles [schemes] of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:11,12; see also verses 13-20).

Satan distracts mankind from God’s pure Word, the Bible, keeping unbelievers lost (dead in their sins), and preventing unbelievers and Christians from knowing God’s will. The devil draws them away (seduces them) from God’s Word by using religious tradition and human “wisdom” (1 Timothy 4:1-3; cf. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5; Galatians 3:1-3).

God loves us, so at Calvary’s cross, Christ fought for us sinners, died in battle (today’s Scripture), shed His divine sinless blood, and eternally rescued us from Satan and sin: “Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; and having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it” (Colossians 2:14,15).

Hebrews 9:12 says Jesus Christ has “obtained eternal redemption for us.”

If we have trusted Jesus Christ alone as our personal Saviour, God “hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son” (Colossians 1:13). Now, God can use us for His glory for all eternity.

Beloved, let us rejoice in our victory over sin, death, and hell that Jesus Christ secured for us by going to Calvary’s rugged cross! Jesus Christ is now alive forevermore—He is our Hero, the Greatest Hero!

*Adapted from a larger Bible study “The Greatest Hero.” It can be read here or watched here.

Why Do the Wicked Prosper? #1

Monday, May 20, 2013

“Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb” (Psalm 37:1,2 KJV).

“Why do the wicked prosper?” is an “age-old” question the Bible answered ages ago….

When God placed Adam and Eve on the earth, He gave them “dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth” (Genesis 1:28). Mankind occupied a God-given office of government over planet earth: Adam and Eve were the king and queen over earth for God the Son’s glory. They were to prepare planet earth for Jesus Christ to come down and permanently dwell with them on this planet.

Nevertheless, when Adam gave in to Satan’s tempting and disobeyed His Creator in Genesis chapter 3, he rebelled against God’s purpose and plan for him (just like Satan had sometime earlier). God the Son’s glory and honor had been stolen from Him, for now the human race—those created in His image (Genesis 1:26,27)—was against Him.

Immediately, sin infiltrated the planet: man’s physical body was now depraved, his soul was now darkened, and his spirit was now dead. Adam had lost sight of his purpose, and he was no longer able to function in a capacity that brought His Creator, the Lord Jesus Christ, glory and honor. In short, Adam relinquished man’s office over earth and Satan usurped earth’s governments. The entire human race, although not yet born, was now tainted by rebellion against God.

“Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned…. For if through the offence of one many be dead…. for the judgment was by one to condemnation…. For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one…. Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation…. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners…” (Romans 5:12,15-19).

This is the underlying cause of the wicked prospering….

A Higher Education: It Is Up to You

Sunday, May 19, 2013

“Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity” (1 Timothy 4:12 KJV).

Seven years ago today, I graduated high school. Consequently, we dedicate this devotional to high school students who are nearing graduation.

Are you about to graduate high school? What would God have you do afterward? Go to college? Trade school? Something else? What career should you pursue? If you do plan on education after high school, where should you attend school? These are tough questions, and while God’s Word does not answer them, you can make decisions that conform to sound Bible doctrine—that is God’s will.

In today’s Scripture, Paul encourages downcast Timothy. Timothy was considerably younger than the Apostle Paul. Older people who are teaching false doctrine are intimidating young Timothy: “Tim, you are too young to teach God’s Word. Let us handle it.” Young Timothy conceded, became silent, and allowed the (“older and wiser”) false teachers to continue teaching their damnable heresies (cf. 1 Timothy 1:3-7; 2 Timothy 1:5-8). Paul replied, “Timothy, Speak up! Let no man despise thy youth!”

Christian youth can be just as effectual in their station in life as Christian adults. The lost world is watching us Christians, and we need to be sure that our actions are in accordance with the sound Bible doctrine we claim to believe (lest we be guilty of confusing the already-puzzled unbelievers). Whether “young or old,” our speech, our lifestyle, our acts of love, our determination, our belief in sound Bible doctrine, and our separation from that which God hates, is the way we communicate to the lost world God’s Word and its preeminence in our lives and hearts (today’s Scripture).

Above all, dear graduates, whatever you do post-graduation, “do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God and the Father by him” (Colossians 3:17). After all, it really is not your life—it is Christ’s life in you (Galatians 2:20; Colossians 3:4), so He alone deserves the glory!

*Based on a Bible study by the same name, which can be read here. Also, see the study “The Spirit-Filled Student.”