Friday, April 8, 2011

That's really different!

I am new to your ministry and your approach to understanding or interpreting the Bible.  I am Christian that has read and studied the Bible for over 20 years, but I don't believe that I have ever heard anyone approach the Bible in the fashion that you do.  Please don't misunderstand me, I think that your approach answers many questions & apparent contradictions, but how are we to interpret or apply the truths of scripture that we find in the "future" books (Hebrews thru Revelations)? 


Studying the Word is the way to go, and by studying it the way that our Apostle Paul commands that will help you grow even more.

2 Timothy 2:15
Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

When we study the word rightly divided, that is, make the right divisions in the Word that God Himself makes, then we will understand it fully!

2 Timothy 2:7
Consider what I [Paul] say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things.

God says that He divides His Word between Jew and Gentiles, between past, present and future.

Ephesians 2:2-14
Wherein in time past [past] ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come [future] he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. 

Therefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision [gentile] by that which is called the Circumcision [Jew] in the flesh made by hands; That at that time ye 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: But now [present dispensation of grace] in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;

So when we come to the "Hebrew" epistles, i.e., Hebrews through Revelation, we do not interpret them as pertaining to us or about us today.

Those epistles pertained to the Hebrew/Israeli/Jewish people in general; and will pertain to them in the future (after God is finished with what He is doing today, which is forming the church the Body of Christ) in particular.

Once God finishes His program with us today through the event called the "Rapture," [1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, 1 Corinthians 15:51-52] He will then focus His attention back upon the Nation of Israel.  It is then that those books of Hebrews through Revelation become the issue.

Romans 11:25
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.

We do not interpret those books for us today, the interpretation is for and belongs to Israel! But we can make some spiritual application if what they say agrees with what our Apostle Paul says in his 13 epistles to us.

So in conclusion, we cannot interpret those future Hebrew epistles as speaking to us or about us today, but we can make spiritual application if they agree with Paul. Where they don't agree with Paul's doctrine, then no application can be made.

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