And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. 1 Corinthians 15:49

Monday, August 29, 2022

Rightly Dividing The Word of Truth

If you have been a Christian for even a short time, you probably have your favorite verses you quote. I mean, who has not even memorized the "Lord's Prayer"? You probably don't even have to be a Christian to know that, or even John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him, will no perish, but have everlasting life." And so taking this verse at face value, you could easily interpret the meaning one way, but is that correct?

Do you know what the next verse says? And does what the next verse says change your interpretation of the first verse... even a little? John 3:17 "God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved." So now what do those two verses mean put together? How do you interpret what is being said now? And does the verse before or the verse after affect the meaning you have? What about the whole chapter? What about the whole book? And while most people know the books of the bible were not written with chapter and verse; sometimes quoting just some verses as though they are complete in themselves can almost most assuredly lead to grave errors in interpretation. 

My thoughts are to write a few posts that will point out some common verses I have even memorized, and also have heard quoted by others many times, that are taken out of context with the meanings intended by the writer. I don't intend to write in such a way as to explain much more than some obvious observations, and I am rather hoping that by pointing out some of these common verses, the reader will search their own favorite verses for correct context.

In no particular order, other than what comes to mind the first verse I will write about is taken from 1 Cor. 2:9 "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him."  Now this seems pretty clear, however a little digging will surprise you. What I left off of the quote is five words at the beginning which say: "But as it is written" which would indicate that Paul is quoting this from the TeNaKh which is what the Hebrew Scriptures are called. (as a side note, there was no old and new testament at the time of the biblical characters. and if you were to talk to a Jewish person and quote verses they would know, it might give some credibility to refer to those verses as having come from the Tenakh.)

Okay, so now onto the next verse, where Paul changes the meaning of the verse he quoted by explaining: "BUT God has revealed them unto us by His Spirit: for the Spirit searches all things, yes the deep things of God."  Doesn't that change the meaning often used of the previous verse? And yet to be even more clear lets read what Paul continues to explain. "For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of man which is in him? Even so, the things of God knows no man, but the Spirit of God." Oh, okay, that seems clear that the verse was being interpreted correctly, because Only God knows, and man does not know except what is in his own heart. But don't stop there. Remember context. Let Paul finish his point.

Verse 12 "Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which IS OF GOD, that we might KNOW THE THINGS FREELY GIVEN TO US OF GOD. 13. Which thing also we speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Ghost teaches, COMPARING spiritual with spiritual." And so now Paul explains the difference of how it used to be before Christ, and how it is now for the New Creation Man...

Verse 14: "But the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned," This is why it has not entered into the heart of man the things God has prepared for him, BECAUSE the natural man cannot receive them... BUT we are not natural men anymore, and so it is freely given to us to know by the spirit!

And so let's finish Paul's thought in this chapter. "But he that is spiritual judges all things, het he himself is judged of no man." (side note about don't judge lest you be judged. how do you compare those two verse meanings?)

Okay, read verse 16 carefully which sums up Paul's teaching and proper interpretation of the verse. "For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him? But WE HAVE THE MIND OF CHRIST!"

I had a friend point this out to me probably 35 or more years ago, and it has stuck with me over the years, and perhaps if you have not heard it explained like this before, it may help you to be another step closer to Rightly Dividing The Word of Truth.


Sunday, August 28, 2022

The Subject of Hermeneutics

 When I was in my early 20's after I had been a Christian for a couple of years I had an experience with the Lord that led me to want to go to bible school. My circumstances prevented me from being able to attend a bible school, and so the other option was to take a correspondence course by mail. And so with all the hopes of being called into the ministry, I enrolled in the P.A.O.C. Pentecostal Assemblies Of Canada, ministerial course. 

I got a list of the courses I would be taking, and did not even recognize the subject names let alone knew what I was going to be learning. I did discuss it with a bible student from the college and he explained that the Pentateuch is the study of the first five books of the Bible, from the term Penta meaning five and Teuch meaning scrolls, or books.  Soteriology is the doctrine of salvation. That Eschatology is the study of end times theology. Of course Christology is the study of  who is Jesus Christ. And then there is Hermeneutics. which deals with how to interpret the biblical texts.

As it turns out, I only got through 10 of the 20 courses and did not complete all of the subjects, but what I did learn was a good launching pad for further study on my own. Many years later, I took another correspondence course with the Florida Theological Seminary, because the president of the school had spent some time learning from Willie Hinn, who was preaching the doctrine of  Universal Reconciliation of all things. Willie Hinn is who I mentioned early in these posts as having a profound effect on my Christianity and beliefs, and who the Holy Spirit used as the catalyst to reveal a greater understanding of what Paul calls, "the height and width and depth of the knowledge of God in Christ Jesus". 

So then, Harold Shindoll, the president of Florida Theological Seminary, began to introduce class subjects that now centered around the teachings of Soteriology (salvation) as including ALL of God's creation. And Christology, with teaching "that Christ is the savior of ALL men, especially of those who believe." (1 Tim 4:10) And an Eschatology that believes it is more about bringing heaven to earth, than it is about getting Christians to leave earth in the hands of the devil while we sit on a cloud playing our harps and watching God's good creation go to hell! And since I was learning to believe these very same teachings of the school, and I wanted to have a disciplined study of these doctrines, and so I enrolled in the correspondence course offered by the FTS and this time completed their Assoc. degree of Theological studies.   

Of course, all of the conflicting doctrines that many different church's teach comes from their method of Hermeneutics. How they interpret what the Scripture teaches.  It is not always easy to know what is true and what is not, which explains why there are so many churches.  Now of course there is more that unites us than divides us, and church history has had a long long "checkered past" to say the least. (All one has to do is a cursory study of church history after the book of Acts, to know some of the regrettable and disturbing actions of people who called themselves Christians, who were some of the worst offenders of atrocities against mankind, even so called brothers in the faith!)

But I also believe that what we believe about God has everything to do with what God has revealed to us by the Holy Spirit, (which belief of course comes as a part of Hermeneutics). along with what we have been taught by the churches we attend, which can help to explain why some people either reject the church they were raised with that doesn't answer their questions, or just quit church altogether thinking they are all the same, or as in my case, where I was overwhelmed with the presence of God unexpectedly while watching a sermon on video in my living room. 

The very first sermon I heard Willie Hinn preach in that video was part of a series called "Mistaken Identity". And indeed if we can't even get the character of God correct, or the plan and purpose for His creation correct from the very beginning, then how can we expect to live our lives in accord with that plan or purpose?

Getting that right all comes down to how you interpret what the Scriptures teach, and how it is applied to your life, and so I feel the urge to write the next several posts about some common verses in Scripture that we often quote out of context to what is actually being said which then change our beliefs into something different than what the bible actually teaches.  All of that comes down to "rightly dividing the Word of Truth" though correctly using  The Subject of Hermeneutics 

 

Monday, August 8, 2022

The Earth And Also The Heavens


I know it has been a while since I have posted, after a series of posts in a short time, but it seems like that is just how it is. I do not want to post just to have something, but would rather have the time pass until there is something meaningful to share. Since I was blown away reading this from Preston Eby's Bible Study on Revelation this qualifies. I am confident you will enjoy this excerpt:

"I have shared the following before but feel to share it again because of its great relevance to this subject of the garden within the city. Some years ago Gene Edwards ministered a word of revelation with which I heartily concur. In the following paragraphs I will seek to share as faithfully as I can from memory the concepts he set forth. I will also expand and enlarge upon his original thought as the Spirit has opened it to me. In that wonderful day when the Lord God planted a garden in Eden for the man in His image, God stood at the boundary between heaven and earth, that is, between the spiritual world and the physical creation, and did a most incredible thing. He stretched forth His hands of omnipotence and took this terrestrial ball in one hand as with the other He grasped the heavenly realm. He moved the two toward one another. He brought the spiritual realm, the timeless realm, the dimensionless realm toward planet earth while He moved earth toward the heavenly realm. The two moved closer and closer until they kissed each other. The two realms met and touched — thus entering into union with one another.

The area where heaven and earth met together and overlapped He called Eden. The place where these two realms met, overlapped, and interfaced became unlike earth and unlike heaven, that which had never existed before — not heavenly and not earthly — the kingdom of heaven on earth! The only thing it can be likened to is the resurrection body of our Lord Jesus Christ. He was visible, even tangible, but utterly spiritual. He brought His physical body out of the tomb and appeared in a body possessing an earthly form and appearance, but it was a glorious metamorphosed body limited by neither time nor space. It was neither a body nor was it a spirit — it was a spiritual body. Here in this realm of which I speak, where heaven and earth meet and mingle, all that is visible becomes spiritual, and all that is spiritual becomes visible. Great is the mystery! Everything upon this earth which is seized upon by the spiritual is transformed by the spiritual, and there is created here the kingdom of heaven on earth. When you take the heavenly and the pristine earthly and join them together, what is formed by that blessed union is far more beautiful and glorious than either!

Consider with me, my beloved, What is the natural habitat of man? He is spirit — therefore his natural habitat is the heavens! He is dust — therefore his natural habitat is the earth! Both? No! Neither? Yes! Neither. And yet, in some strange, mystical way — both. This glorious creature God created in His own image and likeness — where is his "home"? Ah — God prepared the place for man as soon as He created man. He created a realm that corresponds to man’s true state for man to inhabit. The earth, dear one, contrary to all that you may have been taught, is not the natural habitat of man. And neither are the heavens the natural habitat of man! The garden — and only the garden — and no place but the garden is your natural habitat. That’s where you belong — that is your true world, your homeland, your motherland — that unique realm where heaven and earth meet and mingle — the kingdom of heaven on earth! The garden was not heaven, neither was it earth. It was a realm where God could walk, and where man could walk and talk with God in the spirit of the day. It was the dimension of the spiritual body — spirit and body, heaven and earth, visible and invisible, tangible and ethereal, celestial and terrestrial, blended into one. The greatest of the glories of heaven was in that garden — the tree of life was there. And that was man’s habitat. It was not merely where man was — it was what he was!

This great truth of man’s STATE OF BEING constituting the garden of God is one of the tremendous themes which courses its way like a mighty river through the scriptures, from Genesis to Revelation. In the book of Revelation the garden of Eden finally becomes the wonderful city of God — which city we are (Rev. 21:9-11; Isa. 60:2,14). "And I saw the new Jerusalem…having the glory of God: and her light was like a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal…and He showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. And in the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and His servants shall serve Him: and they shall see His face; and His name shall be in their foreheads. And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever" (Rev. 21:10-11; 22:1-5).

How do you suppose the tree of life was transferred from the garden of God to the city of God? The simple truth is — it wasn’t! The garden still exists. The garden is in the city. The garden is the city. Have you not been to a village, a small town, and returning forty or fifty years later you find it to be a giant metropolis? The original village is still there — in the metropolis! The garden has grown, increased, expanded, changed, and now it is New Jerusalem! That’s why men have never found even a trace of the original garden over in Mesopotamia though many have searched for it. It’s not on earth as earth — for in this city two realms interface once more — the new heavens and the new earth — not two separate entities, but that place where heaven and earth are joined, the Land of the Interface! The garden was there, therefore the city is there. This is where righteousness dwells — the new mind and the new body. That is your world, my beloved. You and I belong to an interface. We are an interface. We are part heavenly and part earthly; part spiritual and part physical; part visible and part invisible. And no man on earth really knows or understands where we dwell!

What is the new Jerusalem? It is the bride with the Bridegroom, the place of union with God in the interface where heaven and earth overlap. We are a colony from the heavens inhabiting the earthlies. We belong to neither and we belong to both. We are of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we are in the Lord Jesus Christ. He, more than any other man, is an interface of these two realms. Very God and very man — only the interface can explain that! He is the second man, the last Adam. He reveals within Himself the true purpose of God in man. Only in Christ can one understand the true nature of all things. He is of both these realms and He is in both of these realms. He is in both and He is in neither. It is a great mystery. Oh, the wonder of it! He is a MAN seated in the higher than all heavens! He is a SPIRIT poured out into all creation to fill all things! We who have been born of water and the spirit are of His species. We are bone of His bone, flesh of His flesh, mind of His mind, spirit of His spirit, life of His life. We belong to His realm. We walk with Him today in the garden of God, in the city of God, in the LAND OF THE INTERFACE, for it is the only place where we can comfortably move in both realms. And yet it is not both realms — nor is it either realm — it is a combination, a union of the two — a NEW CREATION IN CHRIST JESUS! That’s what you are! You are spirit and you are body. That is our destiny — to be both in union in one in the power of HIS RESURRECTION! That is our habitat. And redemption progressively brings us into our inheritance in this blessed Land of the Interface. The salvation of the soul, the redemption of the body, will complete the work. Let us press on, saints of God! The full splendor and bountifulness of this precious Land lies just before us! As the crab lives in two elements — water and land — so the new creation man lives in Two Elements: The Earth And Also The Heavens!