Category: Christ’s heavenly ministry

Bible Study 101 #9

Monday, January 13, 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!

Many vehemently oppose dispensational Bible study. “Paul is just a man. I go by what Jesus said.” “So, you believe Paul’s epistles alone are inspired of God?” “Dispensational Bible study was invented in the 1800s.” “You only study Paul’s epistles.” How should we answer these objections?

Firstly, the Holy Spirit said Paul’s writings are “the commandments of the Lord.” God the Holy Spirit believed that Paul’s Bible books were “the commandments of the Lord” (1 Corinthians 14:37)—Paul’s words are Jesus’ words! Paul’s writings are not inferior to Jesus’ words in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Jesus Himself said, during His earthly ministry, He was not speaking to us Gentiles anyway (Matthew 10:5-7; Matthew 15:24; Romans 15:8). Paul is our apostle (Romans 11:13); Jesus is Israel’s Apostle (Hebrews 3:1).

Secondly, Paul himself wrote, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God” (2 Timothy 3:16,17). We agree with the Holy Spirit here too—every Bible book, not just Paul’s epistles, came from God’s mouth, so we study all of the Bible.

Thirdly, Paul mentioned the term “dispensation” four times (1 Corinthians 9:17; Ephesians 1:10; Ephesians 3:2; Colossians 1:25). Dispensational Bible study existed with the Apostle Paul 2,000 years ago. Actually, it was necessary even in Moses’ day (Genesis 9:1-4 and Leviticus chapter 11 could not be followed simultaneously; these two dispensations had to be “rightly divided”). God Himself invented dispensational Bible study.

Following God’s Word to Israel (the non-Pauline books) is not faith—it is doubting what the Holy Spirit through Paul wrote to us. The “words in red” are not the only words of Jesus, for after His ascension, Jesus Christ also spoke to the Apostle Paul (Acts 26:16-18; 2 Corinthians 12:1; Galatians 1:11,12). The same Lord Jesus Christ who spoke to Israel on earth (Four Gospels) also spoke to Paul from heaven to speak to us. Sadly, many ignore what God is doing and saying today and follow what He did and said in the past….

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 #4

Wednesday, January 8, 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!

I trusted Jesus Christ alone as my personal Saviour when I was a small child, but religious tradition once misled me. I spent the first 13 years of my Christian life ignorant of why God saved me from my sins and eternal hellfire. Seven years ago, some dear Christian brothers shared with me some simple Bible verses that completely revolutionized my understanding of the Holy Bible—these verses will do the same for you if you believe them!

Today’s Scripture was one of those verses (please memorize today’s Scripture as it is quoted above from the King James Bible). Two other passages that clarified the Bible for me was Acts 3:21 and Romans 16:25,26a. Dear friend, you would do well if you also memorized these (again, as quoted from the King James Bible, see below).

In Acts 3:21, 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.” Contrast this with what the Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 16:25,26a: “Now to him [God the Father] 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,….”

Notice these two antithetical statements: “spoken since the world began” and “kept secret since the world began.” These are the prophetic program and the mystery program, respectively. God revealed some information to man before Paul’s ministry (prophetic program), and He kept some information secret until He revealed it to man through Paul’s ministry (mystery program). This is the clearest summary of Pauline dispensationalism, dispensational Bible study with emphasis on the special ministry the ascended and glorified Lord Jesus Christ committed to the Apostle Paul….

Consider Your Ways, Saints! #4

Friday, October 4, 2013

“I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies” (Psalm 119:59 KJV).

Oftentimes, the Christian is apathetic to JEHOVAH’S desire to build a temple… using him….

Ephesians 3:16-21 is one of four of the Apostle Paul’s prayers for us Christians. In verses 16 and 17, he prayed, “That he [God] would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,….”

When God the Holy Ghost comes to live inside of the one who trusts the Lord Jesus Christ alone as personal Saviour (1 Corinthians 3:16; 1 Corinthians 6:19; 2 Corinthians 6:16; 2 Timothy 1:14), it is so that He can then live the Christian life in and through that Christian (Galatians 2:20; Philippians 1:21; Colossians 3:4). Today, we Christians are literally God’s “temple!” The Holy Spirit takes the Word of God that the Christian studies and believes, and strengthens the Christian’s soul, enabling him or her to, by faith, do what God is doing (Philippians 2:13; Colossians 1:29; 1 Thessalonians 2:13).

Although the psalmist of today’s Scripture did not have the full revelation of God that we do today (the completed Bible), he at least knew that he was to use the Scriptures that he did have, to correct his wrong thinking and bad behavior. He knew the wisdom of God would never lead him astray in life. He thought about his lifestyle, and by faith, he had it conform to the Scriptures valid for his day. Likewise, if God the Holy Ghost is to use us Christians to the fullest extent possible, we must—MUST—study and believe the Scriptures written to us and about us.

The Holy Spirit through Paul wrote that Paul is “the apostle of the Gentiles” (Romans 11:13). Paul is God’s spokesman to us—if we reject Paul, we reject the ascended and glorified Lord Jesus Christ who sent Paul to us.

Let us briefly see how Paul’s epistles describe the Christian life, and determine how our Christian lives compare….

Consider Your Ways, Saints! #3

Thursday, October 3, 2013

“I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies” (Psalm 119:59 KJV).

Oftentimes, the Christian is apathetic to JEHOVAH’S desire to build a temple… using him….

In what the Bible calls “time past,” God dealt with mankind on the basis of “circumcision” (Jew) and “uncircumcision” (Gentile). While God was forming the nation Israel to establish His temple in the earth, we Gentiles “were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:11,12).

When no one else in Israel’s program wanted to trust Jesus as Messiah, the ascended Lord Jesus paused Israel’s program, opened our Dispensation of Grace, reached down from heaven, and miraculously saved the person leading Israel’s rebellion against Him—Saul of Tarsus! Paul, divinely commissioned to be a new apostle, received directly from the glorified Lord Jesus Christ a ministry, a dispensation, and a gospel that were separate from Israel’s program. God would now form a new agency, the Church the Body of Christ, using Jews and Gentiles. This “one new man” (Ephesians 2:15) would be God’s temple, which He would use forever in the heavens.

The “but now,” the present-day operation of God, is described in Ephesians 2:13,19-22: “But now in Christ Jesus ye [Gentiles] who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.”

As people who have trusted the Lord Jesus Christ alone as our personal Saviour, we are “an habitation of God”—the Holy Ghost indwells us! If He is to accomplish His will in and through us, we must consider our ways in light of what the Holy Scriptures say (today’s Scripture) and by faith, apply that doctrine to life….

Where Was God? #6

Thursday, September 19, 2013

“Why standest thou afar off, O LORD? why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?” (Psalm 10:1 KJV).

One of the most common questions ever asked….

When God does not react to situations, especially tragedies, the way people expect Him, He is accused of being “negligent.” They consider how He visibly and directly intervened and rescued people from various dangers in Bible times. Since He does not do this today, people erroneously conclude that He must be unconcerned, that He is judging us for un-confessed sin, et cetera.

This outlook results from a rather simple error—a failure to approach the Bible dispensationally. We are not Israel, so by going to the Bible verses written to and about Israel in an attempt to discover what God is doing today with us, is simply a dangerous—and, quite frankly, satanic—method of handling the Scriptures. To ignore the verses written to us, and to “name and claim” the verses not written to us, is dishonest. We cannot make God do something He is not doing: He is not operating Israel’s program today.

God is not using extra-biblical methods (circumstances, angels, feelings, emotions, “visions,” et cetera) to reveal His will to us—we have God’s complete, written, and authoritative Word, the Holy King James Bible (Ephesians 1:9,10; Ephesians 3:4; 2 Timothy 3:15-17). Specifically, Jesus Christ is speaking to us through Paul’s epistles, Romans through Philemon, for those 13 Bible books are God’s Word written to and about us Gentiles (Romans 11:13; 1 Corinthians 14:37). Today, God is dispensing grace, not law (Romans 6:14,15). God is currently forming the Church the Body of Christ, not the nation Israel (Ephesians 2:13-22). Today, God is forming a heavenly people, not an earthly people (Ephesians 2:6,7).

In this the Dispensation of Grace, members of the Church the Body of Christ endured bodily sickness and other difficult circumstances (Romans 8:18-25; 2 Corinthians 11:22-30; 2 Corinthians 12:7,8; 2 Thessalonians 1:3-7; 1 Timothy 5:23; 2 Timothy 4:20). Rather than God removing those troubles, He gave those Christians strength, hope, and grace to bear them (Romans 8:24,25; 1 Corinthians 10:13; 2 Corinthians 12:9,10; Philippians 4:11-13). In Christ, we are equipped to endure “all things….”

The Spirit of God and the Word of God #4

Friday, March 22, 2013

“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).

As today’s Scripture demonstrates, the Spirit of God never operates apart from the Word of God.

About a week after the Lord Jesus Christ left planet earth in Acts chapter 1, the Holy Spirit came to earth in Acts chapter 2 to take His place, as He had promised weeks earlier in John 14:26: “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he [a Person, not a force!] shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”

The Holy Spirit enabled Israel’s believing remnant to remember what Jesus Christ taught for three years, causing them to write the Four Gospels of His earthly ministry. Also, the Holy Ghost revealed to them additional doctrine regarding their prophetic (kingdom) program, which they would later use to write their other New Testament Scriptures (Hebrews through Revelation).

Eventually, the ascended Lord Jesus Christ initiated a new program—our Dispensation of Grace—by saving Saul of Tarsus and making him Paul the apostle of the Gentiles. God had now begun forming a new group of believers, the Church the Body of Christ, who would do in the heavenly places what the nation Israel would do in the earth. The Apostle Paul received the doctrine for this dispensation by a direct revelation from Jesus Christ (Galatians 1:11,12; Ephesians 3:1-4).

Moreover, via Paul’s audible preaching and his written epistles, Romans through Philemon, the Holy Spirit was the Person of the Godhead responsible for revealing that secret (mystery) program and its respective doctrine to God’s holy apostles and prophets: “[The Dispensation of Grace] 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” (Ephesians 3:5). Even today, the Holy Spirit enables us to understand God’s Word (today’s Scripture).

Let us see how else the Holy Spirit works….

Replacement Terminology Theology #5

Saturday, February 9, 2013

“For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many,) but to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him” (1 Corinthians 8:5,6 KJV).

Satan deceptively employs terms that the Bible uses—“God,” “Lord,” “Jesus,” “Christ”—but he does not always apply them to the same individuals the Bible does. What ingenuity!

In 2 Corinthians 11:3,4, the Holy Ghost through Paul expressed concern that the devil uses Bible terms to deceive people: “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.”

It is not enough that someone preaches “the gospel,” but that they preach the gospel that the Apostle Paul preached (2 Corinthians 11:4)—the Gospel of the Grace of God (Acts 20:24): Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again the third day for our justification (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). There are other gospels in Scripture (Matthew 9:35; Galatians 2:7; et al.).

It is not enough that someone preaches “the spirit,” but that they preach the spirit that the Apostle Paul preached (2 Corinthians 11:4)—we have not received the spirit of bondage, law (Romans 8:15), but we are rather under grace (Romans 6:14,15).

It is not enough that someone merely preaches “Jesus,” but that they preach the Jesus that the Apostle Paul preached (2 Corinthians 11:4)—we do not know Christ “after the flesh [His earthly ministry]” (2 Corinthians 5:16), but rather after His heavenly ministry through Paul (Ephesians 3:1-11).

God’s Word says, if we are not careful, Satan will even corrupt us using Bible terms. (Today’s Scripture demonstrates how Satan misuses scriptural names of Deity.)

But, there is much, much more deception in “replacement terminology theology….”

Established Saints #2

Thursday, January 3, 2013

“For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end that ye may be established; that is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith of you and me” (Romans 1:11,12 KJV).

Today’s Scripture is God’s will for every believer.

The division, contention, and Bible ignorance that proliferate within the professing church today is due to a deliberate failure to understand and appreciate the Apostle Paul’s special ministry, message, and doctrine. Rather than focusing on what God is doing today—described in Paul’s epistles, Romans through Philemon—religion “takes and fakes” Israel’s program. Nearly every church today attempts to follow the Old Testament, the Four Gospels, Acts, and Hebrews through Revelation. In doing so, they completely miss what God is doing today! They emphasize Christ’s earthly ministry in Matthew through John to the extent that they ignore Christ’s heavenly ministry through the Apostle Paul.

When we trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as our personal Saviour, He saved us from sin, death, and hell. But, how did He save us? Why did He save us? What will He do with us in the future? How does the Christian life operate? How should we pray? What does God want us to do on a daily basis as Christians? It cannot be emphasized enough—we must, must, MUST go to the Apostle Paul for the answers, for you cannot find them anywhere else in Scripture.

Usually, the average church member will thus respond with a snide, “Paul worshipper!” On the contrary, Paul wrote, “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). To demean and disregard Paul’s ministry is to disgrace and discard the Lord’s commandments to us. Paul is “the apostle of the Gentiles” (Romans 11:13): He is God’s spokesman to us. Friend, if you ignore the Apostle Paul in order to retain your church tradition, you are only hurting yourself, for Paul is the man God sent to “establish” us spiritually (today’s Scripture).

For more information, read this study regarding Paul’s special apostleship and message.

Why Paul?

Thursday, May 31, 2012

“…Christ Jesus; who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time. Whereunto I am ordained a preacher, and an apostle, (I speak the truth of Christ, and lie not;) a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity” (1 Timothy 2:5c-7 KJV).

One of the greatest blunders of the professing Church is the assumption that Paul’s ministry was an extension of the twelve apostles’ ministry. Many verses, including today’s Scripture, prove Paul’s ministry is separate from the twelve apostles. “Why Paul?” is a simple question, an inquiry which, had Christendom first proposed and then answered using the Bible, would have prevented the Biblical confusion that pervades churches today.

Today’s Scripture—“Christ Jesus… gave himself a ransom for all”—was not always true. In His earthly ministry, Jesus Himself claimed: “Even as the Son of man came… to give his life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28). Is that a contradiction? NO! In Jesus’ earthly ministry, He was sent to “save his people [Israel] from their sins” (Matthew 1:21; cf. John 1:11; Romans 15:8). Peter and the eleven preached this message in the early Acts period (Acts 2:36-38; Acts 3:19,24-26; Acts 4:10-12; Acts 5:31; et al.).

Why Paul? Carefully re-read today’s Scripture: “…Christ Jesus; who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time. Whereunto [To which] I am ordained a preacher, and an apostle, (I speak the truth of Christ, and lie not;) a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity.”

It is not until we come to Paul’s ministry that we learn that Christ died for all (Jew and Gentile). This was the special message (the Gospel of the Grace of God) that the ascended Lord Jesus Christ committed to Paul alone (Galatians 1:11,12; Titus 1:2,3; 2 Timothy 2:8). This is why God made Paul an apostle!

God had a special Gospel He wanted preached to us Gentiles, but He could not use the twelve apostles to preach it (they had to convert Israel first; Matthew 10:5-7). Paul is our apostle, “the apostle of the Gentiles” (Romans 11:13). Thus, his epistles testify, Christ died for all—including us Gentiles (today’s Scripture).