Category: Satan and Policy of Evil

A Heart Transplant for Israel #4

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26 KJV).

The Great Physician must perform this surgery if His beloved patient is to live!

Crucified on Calvary’s cross, slowly dying a most excruciating demise, Jesus interceded on behalf of His beloved nation, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). They knew they were killing their Messiah (it was impossible to accidentally overlook the hundreds of Old Testament Messianic prophecies that Jesus fulfilled in His few short years on earth). Israel intentionally ignored those fulfilled prophecies, lest they agree with God. Their “desperately wicked, deceitful heart” (Jeremiah 17:9) caused them to act irrationally—they were spiritually insane, out-of-control (sinners “make haste to shed innocent blood;” Isaiah 59:7).

A year after Calvary, the Holy Spirit indicted Israel through the Prophet Stephen (just before they murdered him, too): “Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers: who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it” (Acts 7:51-53). Paul, quoting the Prophet Isaiah, “But to Israel he [the LORD] saith, All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying [rebellious] people” (Romans 10:21; Isaiah 65:2). In Old Testament times, in Christ’s earthly ministry, and even in Acts, Israel had a heart problem!

Spiritually, Israel was just as opposed to God’s Word as the Gentiles who worshipped vain idols. Jews and Gentiles were equally stubborn—the old sin nature worked mightily in both races. In order for God to use Israel (and later on, us Gentiles), He would have cut out that heart of sin that all descendants of Adam have. That old sin nature would have to be surgically removed.…

A Heart Transplant for Israel #3

Monday, March 24, 2014

“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26 KJV).

The Great Physician must perform this surgery if His beloved patient is to live!

When JEHOVAH in human flesh, Jesus Christ, came to earth, many Gentile empires had already conquered and oppressed Israel. Most Jews were scattered worldwide. The few Jews who lived in Palestine were under the oppressive, brutal, overtaxing Roman government—their Davidic kingdom had been destroyed many centuries earlier. Their corrupt religious leaders lied to them and cheated them out of God’s Word (sound familiar?!). Centuries of continuous rejection of God’s Word (the “Old Testament” Scriptures) and centuries of pagan religion had finally taken their toll on God’s earthly people, but Israel’s greatest sin was yet to come.

Israel’s spiritual state reached such an extremely low point that the Jews demanded that Jesus Christ—their long-promised Messiah who had come to rescue them from sin, Satan, and the Gentiles—suffer an excruciating death on a cruel Roman cross. Despite her promise to do what God said many centuries earlier, Israel demonstrated that she did not want to be God’s earthly nation, His vessel to reach the Gentiles with His salvation.

On behalf of the nation, Israel’s leadership confessed, “We have no king but Caesar” (John 19:15). The Jews said to Roman governor Pontius Pilate, “His blood be on us, and on our children” (Matthew 27:25). Israel did not think twice about Jesus’ execution: they were tired of hearing His authoritative sermons and seeing His righteousness. Sin had hardened their hearts against God, and they would not be dissuaded: “For this people’s heart is waxed gross [thick, callous], and their ears are dull of hearing…” (Matthew 13:10-17).

Yea, God’s beloved nation, Israel, had a heart problem, and He alone could save them. They took His life—actually, He laid down His life (John 10:17,18)—to make a generous blood donation, for it was the only way to make Israel’s heart transplant possible….

A Heart Transplant for Israel #2

Sunday, March 23, 2014

“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26 KJV).

The Great Physician must perform this surgery if His beloved patient is to live!

Nearly 500 years after the Abrahamic Covenant was given, JEHOVAH God delivered the nation Israel from Egyptian slavery. He gave them a series of tests in the wilderness: Exodus 15:25 says, “he proved them.” God miraculously converted bitter water into potable water for “murmuring” (grumbling/ungrateful) Israel (Exodus 15:22-26). A month later, in Exodus chapter 16, Israel complained that they had no food to eat: they were ungrateful and they again “murmured” against God. Nevertheless, as Exodus 16:11-36 says, God provided Israel with manna (bread) and quail (meat)—they wound up eating that manna for 40 years! Israel even disobeyed God’s instructions when collecting the manna. In Exodus chapter 17, Israel again complained against God that they had no water to drink. Again, God faithfully and miraculously provided water for Israel (verses 1-7). He even gave them a miraculous military victory when the Amalekites fought them for that water (verses 8-16)!

When the LORD through Moses told Israel they would have to keep His commandments to be His nation, Israel replied, “All that the LORD hath spoken, we will do” (Exodus 19:8). After Moses received the Law and came down Mount Sinai to deliver it to Israel, he was angered to see Israel dancing naked around an idol, the golden calf. Israel had not even heard God’s commandments, and yet they had already broken them! They forsook JEHOVAH, their deliverer and caregiver, and preferred to worship a stupid, lifeless idol.

As the centuries passed, Israel fell into greater and greater sins. From Moses to Malachi, a period of about 1,100 years, Israel waxed worse and worse. Her kings and people grew increasingly corrupt and apostate. Consequently, she lost her economy, her monarchy, her God-given religion (Temple, priesthood, animal sacrifices, et cetera), her real estate, her blessings from God, her God’s presence, everything.

The Great Physician diagnosed Israel’s condition—she needed a new heart….

Bible Study 102 #15

Thursday, March 20, 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 understand the Bible!

Cognizant of His will, God inspired His Word, that we too may meditate on it. Consequently, Scripture discloses God’s will (Ephesians 1:9,10; 1 Timothy 2:4-8) and provides His power so that we may joyfully fulfill His will with Him as the indwelling Holy Spirit works in us who believe that grace doctrine (Hebrews 4:12; cf. 1 Corinthians 1:18; Ephesians 3:16-21; Colossians 1:29; 1 Thessalonians 2:13; 1 Timothy 4:6-8). God’s Word leads us to salvation from our sins and, “rightly divided” (today’s Scripture), saves us from false teaching—God’s two-fold will for mankind (1 Timothy 2:4).

Sound Bible doctrine for us Gentiles is not what God told Israel, but what He spoke through our apostle, Paul, “the apostle of the Gentiles” (Romans 11:13). We magnify Jesus Christ today, not by emphasizing His earthly ministry to Israel (Matthew 15:24; Romans 15:8), but by exalting the office He gave Paul. Jesus said, “He that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth me” (John 13:20). Jesus said if you do not receive Paul whom He sent to you, then you reject Him! We do not emphasize Paul the man, but the Lord Jesus Christ who sent Paul to tell us His grace doctrines (2 Corinthians 4:5; Ephesians 3:1-11).

Paul exhorted the Ephesian elders, “And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up [edify], and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified” (Acts 20:32). Satan knows Paul’s epistles, Romans through Philemon, are God’s inspired Word to us Gentiles, that those grace doctrines align us with God’s present will. Consequently, Satan’s religious system draws us away from Paul’s apostleship and ministry (although Satan’s scriptural religion follows Jesus Christ’s earthly ministry, Hebrews through Revelation, the “Old Testament,” anything and everything but the Scriptures that describe what God is currently doing in the Dispensation of Grace!).

Indeed, dispensational Bible study—“right division” (today’s Scripture)—is the key to unlocking the Bible and producing mature saints!

NOTE: At least three increasingly advanced 15-day companion devotional arcs—“Bible Study 103,” “Bible Study 104,” and “Bible Study 105”—are in development, and will be posted in the future. Stay tuned! 🙂

Bible Study 102 #14

Wednesday, March 19, 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 understand the Bible!

Throughout Paul’s epistles, we discover “mysteries,” what Scripture calls “the hidden wisdom” (1 Corinthians 2:7), truths that had been “hid in God” (Ephesians 3:9), but which the risen and ascended Lord Jesus revealed directly to Paul, and finally to us via Romans through Philemon (Romans 16:25,26). Unfortunately, this mystery dispensation, the Dispensation of Grace, is still a mystery to most—today, Satan, not God, hides it. God kept Pauline doctrine secret in order to destroy Satan’s work (1 Corinthians 2:6-8). Now, Satan keeps Paul’s doctrines secret to hinder God’s work—ironically, Christendom cooperates!! Centuries of church tradition and denominationalism still cause many to view Paul as an “extension,” a “supplement,” to Peter and Israel’s other 11 apostles. Paul is not understood as our apostle (Romans 11:13), a unique apostle, but rather an apostle who did and taught exactly what Peter and the 11 did.

The agency associated with Paul’s ministry (the Church that Body of Christ) is not clearly defined (we are thought to be Israel’s “extension” or “replacement”). The Gospel of the Uncircumcision that Paul preached is not distinguished from the Gospel of the Circumcision that Peter preached. Legalistic doctrine such as repentance and water baptism for salvation, tithing, Sabbath day keeping, and confession of sins that Paul spoke against (because it belongs in Israel’s program rather than ours) is still held by many denominations today. Ignorance about spiritual gifts (which Paul corrected) still severely afflicts Christendom. Confusion involving prophecy and us still abounds (even though Paul exhaustively wrote that we are not related to prophecy).

Indeed, the mystery is still a mystery, and what a shame! This mess is to be expected, for the verse after today’s Scripture warned, “But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness” (2 Timothy 2:16). A “simple” failure to understand the Bible dispensationally has introduced a literal inundation of false teaching. God foresaw Christendom’s current dilemma almost 20 centuries ago, but the solution was (and still is) ignored….

Bible Study 102 #13

Tuesday, March 18, 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 understand the Bible!

Beginning in Acts chapter 9 with our Apostle Paul’s salvation unto eternal life, but also throughout his ministry, the risen and ascended Lord Jesus Christ directly revealed Himself to him (Acts 26:12-18; 2 Corinthians 12:1; Galatians 1:11,12; Ephesians 3:1-3; 2 Timothy 1:10,11)—Christ’s heavenly ministry. The Holy Spirit, through our reading and studying of Paul’s epistles, Romans through Philemon, reveals those Pauline (grace) doctrines to us, enabling us to understand them (Ephesians 1:17,18; Ephesians 3:4,5).

According to God the Holy Ghost, the test for true spirituality today is Pauline doctrine: “If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I [Paul] write unto you are the commandments of the Lord” (1 Corinthians 14:37). If someone is speaking on God’s behalf (called a “prophet” in Bible days) and/or if someone is “spiritual” (led by the Holy Spirit), then he or she will magnify the Lord Jesus Christ’s heavenly ministry, Paul’s epistles, Romans through Philemon. Those who emphasize Jesus Christ’s earthly ministry (Matthew through John), Hebrews through Revelation, Genesis through Malachi, or even early Acts, as doctrine that we should follow and apply today, the Bible says they are not led by God’s Holy Spirit and they are not speaking on God’s behalf! (Just as Jews who rejected Moses’ writings were not led by God’s Spirit or speaking for God.)

Beloved, any church, any minister, any seminary, or any literature or media that does not instruct you to follow God’s grace doctrines as found in Paul’s epistles, Romans through Philemon, the Bible says “avoid them” (Romans 16:17,18) and “from such withdraw thyself” (1 Timothy 6:3-5)—God says avoid 99.9999 percent of so-called “Christianity!!!” Regardless of their sincerity or appeal, God the Holy Spirit insisted through Paul and Peter that we are not to hinder or destroy our spiritual growth with non-dispensational Bible doctrine (2 Corinthians 11:3,4; Colossians 2:4,8; 2 Timothy 2:14-26; 2 Peter 3:15,16). We need not do Satan’s work for him….

Bible Study 102 #11

Sunday, March 16, 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 understand the Bible!

Scripture clearly states, “God is not the author of confusion” (1 Corinthians 14:33), yet look at the professing Body of Christ. It is just as confused and misinformed about the Bible’s teachings as the people who do not even use the Bible! This Bible confusion is not God’s fault—Christendom has utterly failed to appreciate the dispensational layout of Scripture as God instructed.

One of my Christian friends and ministry co-workers was born and raised in a false religious system. For the first 30-plus years of his earthly life, he was never told the truth, that his religious performance could never merit God’s favor. Once he came to trust Jesus Christ alone as his personal Saviour, he spent the first 40 years of his Christian life never fully understanding his Bible. As a deacon and a Bible teacher in a local Bible church, religious tradition was still robbing him of God’s truth as it had when he was lost! (This is true of many Christians today!)

Years ago, I was privileged to teach him dispensational Bible study. Today, he still reminds me, “All those years I did not understand the Bible, all those passages that puzzled me and yet I had no answers to all those questions! The Bible makes so much sense now!” This dear brother in Christ is no longer “taken captive by [the devil] at his will” (2 Timothy 2:26): God had given him “repentance [change of mind] to the acknowledging of the truth,” and he “recovered [himself] out of the snare of the devil” (cf. 1 Timothy 2:4b). Now, he knows what God is doing (described in Paul’s epistles, Romans through Philemon), he knows and enjoys his Bible like never before, and he can enjoy the eternal life that God gave him over 40 years ago, the life religion never told him about!

Indeed, dispensational Bible study is crucial, for it can salvage the lives of Christians….

Bible Study 102 #8

Thursday, March 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 understand the Bible!

When Scripture says we Christians are “workmen” (today’s Scripture), Ephesians 2:10 (“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them”) and 1 Corinthians 3:9 (“For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building”) explain that God has saved us unto eternal life so we could join Him in accomplishing His will (which we could not do when we were lost, headed for eternal hellfire, participants in Satan’s policy of evil).

Recall that God has a two-fold will: save all people from their sins and Satan, and then save all Christians from all false doctrine (1 Timothy 2:4). Satan has a two-fold will that counters God’s: hide the Gospel of Grace from all people, and hide sound Pauline (grace) doctrine from all Christians. Religious tradition—a non-dispensational approach the Scripture—furthers Satan’s policy of evil, for it keeps lost people lost, and it keeps Christians ignorant of God’s will, His Word to them.

Satan, “the god of this world,” “hath blinded the minds of them which believe not,” by causing lost people to ignore Paul’s Gospel and trust in their own religious performance to gain a right standing before God (2 Corinthians 4:3,4). Moreover, Satan misleads Christians to introduce into their lives everything but God’s grace to them in Christ—the wrong “Jesus” (His earthly ministry in Matthew through John, rather than His heavenly ministry as revealed through Paul’s epistles, Romans through Philemon), the wrong “spirit” (law rather than grace, Romans 6:14 cf. Romans 8:15), and the wrong “gospel” (Israel’s kingdom gospel rather the Gospel of Grace of 1 Corinthians 15:3,4) (2 Corinthians 11:3,4).

We Christians are “workmen” when we “study… rightly dividing the word of truth,” and our faith in those verses causes the Holy Spirit to bring them to life in our lives, thus aligning us with God’s will for us….

Our latest Bible Q&A: “Should Christians observe Lent?“

Bible Study 102 #5

Monday, March 10, 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 understand the Bible!

God’s will is not simply that we “read and study Scripture” (Satan does that too, Matthew 4:5,6!), but that we “rightly divide” it. God’s will is not simply that we “believe the Gospel” (most Gospels in Scripture are not given to us), but that we believe the Gospel of Grace revealed to us through Paul’s ministry. God’s will is not simply that we “believe Bible doctrine” (there are many truths in Scripture not true about us), but that we believe Bible doctrine that He revealed to us through Paul. God’s will is not simply that we “follow Jesus,” but that we follow the Apostle Paul as he followed Christ.

Religious tradition—that is, a non-dispensational approach to Scripture—makes the Christian life confusing, frustrating, and futile. For years, yea decades, many souls who have trusted Jesus Christ alone as their personal Saviour never have peace about why the Bible instructs something in one passage and says something completely opposite in another. (Where are the pastors and teachers to guide them into God’s truth [Ephesians 4:11,12]? As Colossians 2:8 says, religious tradition has robbed nearly all of them, too!)

We can understand and enjoy the Bible if we simply remember today’s Scripture when studying any Bible passage. God has made distinctions in His Word. We should not blend all Bible passages together—there are programs to be “rightly divided,” apostleships to be “rightly divided,” operating systems to be “rightly divided,” time periods to be “rightly divided,” gospels to be “rightly divided,” and they make perfect sense when we keep them separate as God instructs. What is spoken to Israel is spoken to Israel, not to us. What is spoken to us through Paul is spoken to us, not to Israel.

Dispensational Bible study is the only method of Bible study that will ever lead you to sound conclusions about Scripture. It allows us to find out what God is doing today, and by faith, we can join Him in doing the same….

Bible Study 102 #4

Sunday, March 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 understand the Bible!

God’s will for man is two-fold: firstly, the Lord Jesus Christ wants to save man from his sins and Satan’s policy of evil (1 Timothy 2:4a), and, secondly, He wants to educate man about His original plan for him (1 Timothy 2:4b). “Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.”

While a full comprehension of dispensational Bible study is not necessary for salvation from sins, where to find in Scripture God’s current plan of salvation is absolutely critical. For example, we do not find the Gospel of Jesus Christ’s finished crosswork declared in the Old Testament. Calvary’s crosswork was definitely prophesied (Psalm 22, Isaiah 53, et cetera), but the benefits Israel received from it were not fully revealed until after it happened (Hebrews 10:10; 1 Peter 1:19; et al.). Moreover, until Paul’s ministry, God did not reveal what Calvary meant for us Gentiles (1 Timothy 2:5-7; Titus 1:2,3; 1 John 2:2; et al.). Unless we “rightly divide the word of truth” as today’s Scripture instructs, we overlook these doctrinal differences, and we do not recognize where in Scripture we find God’s message of salvation for us Gentiles.

God’s good news to us Gentiles today is that He is offering His grace in Christ to us, without any works on our part. The Gospel of the Grace of God, first committed to the Apostle Paul’s trust, is “Christ died for our sins, He was buried, and He rose again the third day” (1 Corinthians 15:3,4). If we Gentiles are to have a right standing before God (justification unto eternal life, eternity in heaven, et cetera), God expects us to believe and trust that message. Once we trust that Gospel, and that Gospel alone, then we can study the Bible to grow spiritually, to “come to the knowledge of the truth,” to learn why God saved us….