Category: Pauline Dispensationalism / Dispensational Bible Study

arC Ministries Is 18!

Thursday, July 31, 2025

“Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5:20 KJV).

To our Lord Jesus Christ’s glory, arC Ministries celebrates its 18th anniversary today!!!

Eighteen years ago, as a 19-year-old college student, I endeavored to use Facebook to create a Bible study group for teens and college students. Thus, “ambassadors for the risen Christ ministries” was born. As I grew more in God’s Word rightly divided, I grew increasingly aware of the need for additional ministry projects. The more I had been learning drove me to share those precious truths with others. That eventually led me to look for supplementary avenues of ministry.

During these past 18 years, God’s grace has enabled us to continue the original group on Facebook. In addition, we have branched out quite a bit in other areas. This devotionals blog has been operating for over 14 years now. For the last 13 years, we have focused on developing and drafting a grace study Bible (now in its fourteenth year). Other ministry projects include a 22-week newspaper ministry column (this devotionals blog’s predecessor), a YouTube channel with home Bible study videos, a Twitter feed, a full-length Bible studies blog, a college campus ministry, a nursing-home ministry, and our Bible-question-and-answer blog. Nine years ago, we launched our new main ministry website and now have a line of printed Bible study booklets available for sale there. Six years ago, we recorded and distributed our Old Testament Survey video series. Later that year, we launched our New Testament Survey video series (which will last a few years). We hear from people all over the world!

Our name says it all: we serve the risen Lord Jesus Christ, not some “dead Jew” and not ourselves. The original motto of our ministry was, “To equip ambassadors, and to encourage others to become ambassadors.” Our primary goal is to teach Christians, and our secondary goal is to evangelize the lost world. Eighteen years later, we still endeavor to uphold God’s Word (King James Bible) rightly divided, whether it be in edifying the Christian brethren or preaching the clear Gospel of the Grace of God to this lost and dying world. For those of you who have been with us from day 1, thank you for your prayer and encouragement. We pray for you upon every remembrance! There is still plenty more for the Lord Jesus Christ to do in and through us, so let us give Him all the praise and glory as we enter Year 19! 🙂

 

The Kingdom of God is Within You #14

Thursday, July 24, 2025

“Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21 KJV).

Is there really a “mis-translation” in the King James Bible here? (NO!)

Re-read today’s Scripture in context one final time: “And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.” Christ was not implying an invisible, spiritual reign in the hearts of men. Instead, He explained how a literal, physical, visible, earthly, Davidic, Israeli kingdom would not arrive so late in His earthly ministry. National Israel had already scorned Him for three years, so He was now heading to Calvary’s cross. One day, He would return in power and great glory to reign literally and physically and visibly in the Earth (Luke 17:24; Luke 19:11-15), “But first must he suffer many things [crucifixion], and be rejected of this generation” (Luke 17:25).

Contrary to what Amillennialists declare, today’s Scripture and its context is not an invisible, spiritual kingdom (“Jesus reigns in the hearts of men”). As touching the prophetic program, “the kingdom of God” is His literal, physical, visible, earthly, Davidic, Israeli kingdom. Otherwise, the LORD’s promise to King David is a lie, for the Davidic Covenant cannot be fulfilled (Isaiah 9:6,7; Jeremiah 23:5,6; Daniel 2:44,45; Luke 1:31-33; Acts 1:6; Acts 2:29,30). Contrary to what textual critics tell us, “The kingdom of God is within you” is not a mis-translation of our King James scholars. Its wording underscores Israel’s need to have faith in God’s words first. Lost Israel such as the Pharisees had to accept Christ by faith (“within you” meaning “within your souls”) before they could see and enter His literal, physical, visible, earthly, Davidic, Israeli kingdom (check John 3:1-8). Yet, the unbelieving Pharisees had reduced Christ’s role to mere political deliverance, seeing no need for their spiritual salvation (forgiveness of sins).

Finally, to believe our Dispensation of Grace fulfills Luke 17:20,21—“Jesus reigns invisibly in men’s hearts today”—is to destroy the dispensational distinctions in Scripture. It is also why modern “scholars” tend to “re-translate” the Authorized Version here. Lacking dispensational eyes, they tell spiritual lies. Avoid them!

The Kingdom of God is Within You #13

Wednesday, July 23, 2025

“Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21 KJV).

Is there really a “mis-translation” in the King James Bible here?

The Bible opens, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). Sin corrupted both realms: Satan contaminated the Heaven using his fallen angels and polluted the Earth utilizing sinful man. Creation is in rebellion. The Holy Scriptures are the record of God restoring both Heaven and Earth to Himself, that He fill each sphere of influence with His life, thereby achieving His eternal purpose.

“For by him [Jesus Christ] were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven” (Colossians 1:16-20).

Father God will use Christ’s shed blood to redeem two groups. One is His earthly people, the nation Israel, whom He will fill with His life and then install in the offices of Earth’s governments. (If Amillennialists are correct—if there is no literal, physical, visible, earthly, Davidic, Israeli kingdom—God will never be able to recover Earth from Satan’s influence!) The other is His heavenly people, the Church the Body of Christ, whom He will fill with His life and then install in the offices of Heaven’s governments.

As touching the ages to come, see Matthew 25:34: “Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:….” God had that kingdom in mind going all the way back to when He placed Adam on the Earth, proving Christ’s kingdom in prophecy is literal, physical, visible, earthly.

We summarize and conclude this devotionals arc….

The Kingdom of God is Within You #12

Tuesday, July 22, 2025

“Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21 KJV).

Is there really a “mis-translation” in the King James Bible here?

Due to a miserable (!) failure to rightly divide the Word of Truth, today’s Scripture and context (verses 20,21) have been twisted out of shape to teach something they do not teach and never did teach. They do not describe God’s current dealings with man at all, but typify what He did with Israel in time past. Peter’s ministry—an extension of Christ’s earthly ministry—concerns Israel rising to kingdom glory, God’s salvation and blessing going to the world (Gentiles) in Israel’s literal, physical, visible, earthly, Davidic kingdom (Isaiah 60:1-3; Zechariah 8:20-23; Matthew 28:18-20; Luke 2:32; Luke 24:47; John 4:42; Acts 1:6; Acts 3:24-26). However, Paul’s ministry is God’s salvation and blessing going to the world (Gentiles) through Israel’s temporary fall and without her kingdom (Romans 11:11-14). Though Christendom has neglected it for 20 centuries, we dare not miss this important distinction!

Just because God did something in time past does not mean He is doing it in the but now, and just because He is doing it in the but now does not mean He will keep doing it in the ages to come. Though He is not growing His earthly people (Israel) now, Romans 11:25-29 indicates He will return to that after He closes our program and completes us the Church the Body of Christ: “For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sakes. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.”

We are not Israel, and we have not replaced Israel, so we are wise in our own conceits (we think we are someone we are not) if we believe we are Israel or that we have replaced Israel….

The Kingdom of God is Within You #11

Monday, July 21, 2025

“Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21 KJV).

Is there really a “mis-translation” in the King James Bible here?

Read Peter’s sermon directed to unbelieving Israel: “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: 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…. 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 3:19-21,25,26). See Israel’s rise to kingdom glory!

Contrast this with Paul’s words: “I say then, Have they [Israel] stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy. Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness? For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office:…” (Romans 11:11-13). See Israel’s fall!

With much of Christendom regarding Paul as “the twelfth apostle” (Paul being Judas Iscariot’s successor) or Paul being an extension/supplement of the 12 (Matthias being Iscariot’s replacement), they have blended whatever God is doing in the “but now” with what He did in “time past.” Hopeless confusion has resulted, for they believe, “There is but one gospel in the Bible,” “only one church in the Bible,” and so on. This is not “rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). It is mixing distinct information God has separated—and then changing or denying verses because they know of no other way to resolve the incompatibilities. That is exactly what happened with Luke 17:20,21 (today’s Scripture and its context). Nothing is wrong with the Scriptures; what is incorrect is our traditional approach to them….

Liberated to Serve

Friday, July 4, 2025 🇺🇸

“For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another” (Galatians 5:13 KJV).

Today, as we in the United States celebrate the 249th anniversary of our nation’s independence, we invite our Christian brethren worldwide to rejoice with us concerning our freedom in Jesus Christ.

When we proclaim Romans 6:14—“Ye are not under the law, but under grace”—people tend to assume “loose living.” Does “grace living” really mean we can now live any way we want? Lest anyone be misled in that regard, God the Holy Spirit moved the Apostle Paul to write in the next verse, “What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid [May God never let that happen!]” (Romans 6:15). Grace living is not Law-keeping, but it certainly is not Law-breaking either.

God still cares how we live, albeit He is not operating the “weak and beggarly” system of “bondage” (Law) that He once did with Israel (Galatians 4:9). God proved to the entire world that since Israel could not keep His commandments perfectly, no other sons of Adam (the Gentiles) could either: “Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them [Israel] who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world [Gentiles] may become guilty before God” (Romans 3:19).

We sinners cannot keep the Law. However, God in His grace provided us a way to escape that condemnation by sending Jesus Christ to offer Himself on Calvary’s cruel cross to pay for our sins. By simple faith in Jesus Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection as the fully-satisfying payment for our sins, we can now be “made the righteousness of God in [Christ]” (2 Corinthians 5:21). We can be delivered from the penalty of sin (hell and the lake of fire) and the power of sin (flesh-walking).

Why are we Christians free? To selfishly live any way we want? NO! Today’s Scripture says we are liberated to now serve others, especially our Christian brethren, just as Jesus Christ selflessly served His Father and selflessly died on our behalf. That is grace living!!!!

Please see our 2011 Fourth of July Bible study “Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the Land,” which can be watched here or read here.

Wisdom for Life #12

Thursday, July 3, 2025

“Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil” (Proverbs 3:5-7 KJV).

Today’s Scripture is true wisdom for life….

Read Romans chapter 1: “[18] For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; [19] Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. [20] For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: [21] Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. [22] Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,… [25] Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen…. [28] And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate [worthless, unapproved] mind, to do those things which are not convenient [proper, fit];….”

For the first 2,000 years of human history—Adam to Abraham—the nations of the world had free or unrestricted access to the LORD God, the Creator God (there was no Israel or Judaism then). Those nations willingly scorned that spiritual light to take up man’s “wisdom,” which ultimately resulted in God creating Israel—a special nation through which He would reach the world. Alas, for almost 2,000 years, Israel also overwhelmingly rejected God’s words so as to accept man’s “wisdom,” so He gave them to us the nations (and especially the Church the Body of Christ). Howbeit, for 2,000 years now, the nations and the Body of Christ have also predominantly ignored those words in favor of man’s “wisdom.”

Dear brethren, may we by faith in sound Bible doctrine, break that endless vicious cycle of foolishness, and hold fast true wisdom for life!

Wisdom for Life #11

Wednesday, July 2, 2025

“Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil” (Proverbs 3:5-7 KJV).

Today’s Scripture is true wisdom for life….

Read these words from Ephesians chapter 3, verses 9-11: “And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord:….”

Paul aimed to make all men see what is “the fellowship of the mystery”—this “fellowship” being the Church the Body of Christ, a secret God did not reveal until his ministry. If the members of the Body of Christ would simply walk by faith in “the Dispensation of the Grace of God” (Ephesians 3:2), Paul’s epistles of Romans through Philemon, then they would be God’s “manifold [multifaceted] wisdom” for both people and angels to see. Alas, because of sin or “fleshly wisdom” (2 Corinthians 1:12), there is more manifold foolishness amongst God’s people than manifold wisdom!

“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). Paul and his ministry companions preached Christ, teaching every person in all wisdom—spiritual wisdom—because that would make those people “perfect [mature, lacking nothing] in Christ Jesus.” We as believers in Christ should thus heed the exhortation issued in Ephesians 5:16-18: “See then that ye walk circumspectly [looking around, cautiously], 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. And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;….”

Let us now summarize and conclude this devotionals arc….

Wisdom for Life #10

Tuesday, July 1, 2025

“Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil” (Proverbs 3:5-7 KJV).

Today’s Scripture is true wisdom for life….

Here are the first seven verses of the Book of Proverbs (outlining its purpose): “The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel; To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding; To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity; To give subtilty to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion. A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels: To understand a proverb, and the interpretation; the words of the wise, and their dark sayings. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.”

Precious few have ever been taught that Proverbs is not a set of principles without a dispensational context. It is a Book of great prophetic significance for Israel. Check chapter 1, verses 8-19, which are a veiled reference to Calvary. Verses 20-33 point to John the Baptist’s preaching, as well as Pentecost (Acts chapter 2) and the horrors of the Antichrist’s diabolical schemes. Yet, whether prophecy or mystery, today’s Scripture is still true and is always true, because these verses are transdispensational. Paul definitely agrees with trusting in the LORD as opposed to trusting in our “wisdom.”

Whether prophecy or mystery, sinful man, filled with Satan’s life, needs God’s power in order to be filled with God’s life. Once the sinner trusts the Lord Jesus Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection as sufficient payment for his or her sins (1 Corinthians 15:3,4); he or she becomes a vessel of the Holy Spirit who can then be filled with Jesus Christ’s life as that saint walks by faith in an intelligent understanding of God’s words to and about the Church the Body of Christ. Passages such as Romans chapters 12–16, Ephesians chapter 4, and Colossians chapter 3, can then serve as replacements for the evil deeds of Romans chapter 1.

This is true wisdom for life….

Wisdom for Life #9

Monday, June 30, 2025

“Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil” (Proverbs 3:5-7 KJV).

Today’s Scripture is true wisdom for life….

Doubtless, the deadliest—but most innocuous (innocent-looking) form of—human wisdom is that which man uses to corrupt the Holy Bible. Whether the textual critics constantly using Roman Catholic manuscripts to attack the Protestant King James Bible with “re-translations,” or the denominationalists repeatedly failing to rightly divide the word of truth by applying Israel’s verses to us, man has created in his own image various counterfeit “Bibles” and assorted perverted “Christian” sects and factions.

Members of the unsuspecting “Christian” public have been preyed upon in this manner for centuries—yea, millennia. They have incorporated into their minds, hearts, and lives, that which does not profit… what Scripture calls “wood, hay, stubble” (1 Corinthians 3:12). Rather than building on the foundation of the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery (1 Corinthians 3:11; cf. Romans 16:25,26), Paul’s preaching of Christ in Romans to Philemon, they disobey 2 Corinthians 5:16 and know Christ after the flesh (relying on the prophetic view of Him as seen in Matthew to John).

In his “wisdom,” man pompously declares, “I can do something good for God. I am smart enough to manage sin.” This is self-deception. Paul’s Gospel, the Gospel of the Grace of God (Acts 20:24), is, “Christ died for our sins, He was buried, and He rose again the third day” (1 Corinthians 15:3,4). “For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again” (2 Corinthians 5:14,15). Here is God’s wisdom for victorious Christian (grace) living. It is not what we do for Him (law, performance-based acceptance system), but rather what He can do for us through Calvary’s crosswork (grace-based acceptance system).

Again, true wisdom for life is trusting in the LORD, not in ourselves….