John Brokaw

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 Here's the Difference

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Heidi McCandless - Procrastination.  Every one of us deals with this to some degree.  In some situations it doesn’t make much difference, in others, it can change the course of your life!  I almost missed the most important thing ever because I was too slow to realize how important it was.  I’m speaking of course of my own life – eternal life that is.

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Jim Joyce - When I was 16, I decided to leave home and live on the street.  I thought real living was having fun and going after a thrill.  I became a regular user of drugs and alcohol. In my parents' home, God and spiritual things were most important. Just as I decided to leave the house, it occurred to me, “If I leave, I will leave behind the gospel. This will be my final decision to reject God.” It was as real as if I was opening a door and walking into hell. I didn’t want to go. I didn’t want to be lost. I wanted to be saved...

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Gary Sharp

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Foundation Truths of the Gospel

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THE KINGDOM LIKENED UNTO LEAVEN

In what sense is the Kingdom of God “like unto leaven which a woman hid in three measures of meal till the whole was leavened”, if leaven is the symbol of evil, and the kingdom of God embraces only that which is “born again” (John 3:3)" TARGET="_blank">John 3:3)?

When John the Baptist began his ministry, the Jewish people were, and had been for some time, under the domination of Rome, the fourth of the great world powers who were foretold by Daniel, of which the first three were Babylon, Medo-Persia, and Greece. Rome, the last, was to be superseded on the Divine programme by another of a totally distinct character. “In the days of these things shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed” (Daniel 2:44" TARGET="_blank">Daniel 2:44 ) . What other meaning could the Baptists’ words, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” have to an intelligent Jew, who knew the Old Testament prophecies but that this kingdom was about to be set up? The Lord took up the same testimony, and in due course presented Himself to Israel as their Messiah and King. That He was present in power as King was evidenced by His miracles, but by twice deliberately attributing these works to Satan, (see Marthew 9:  and Matthew 12" TARGET="_blank">Matthew 12: .) the leaders of the nation rejected His claims. Consequently, at chap. xiii. there is a break, the MYSTERIES OF THE KINGDOM being introduced, and parable to a great extent replaces miracle. The King is rejected, but a kingdom is set up, notwithstanding, in the hearts of men. The kingdom, as we have it in the seven parables of Matt. xiii, is the condition of things produced in the earth as the result of the preaching of the Gospel, including very much of a mere profession of Christianity, which is not all the genuine work of the Spirit, for when the Lord comes “He will gather out of the kingdom all things that offend and them which do iniquity.” these were in the kingdom, BUT NEVER OF IT. The seven parables present to us the progress of the spurious, as well as of the real. In the first two parables we see the effects of the good seed being hindered by the mixed qualities of the soil, or by an imitation seed. In the second pair, the mustard seed and the leaven, we see the monstrous growth and insidious spread of the bad, as exemplified all around us in Christendom to-day. Far other is the real Divine kingdom, entered only by the new birth. That is a different phase altogether, misunderstood and despised of men, if not hidden altogether from their view. This is exemplified in the parables of the treasure and the pearl, first in its relation to Israel, and then as the whole aggregate of the children of the kingdom. The seventh parable, the drag-net, represents the last great testimony for God in the world. Multitudes will be gathered in, but here too, as with the tares, there will be a sorting out needed. Of course, it is impossible in the space available to take up all the aspects of this great kingdom subject, distinct from those touched upon here—”the kingdom of the Son of His love;” “the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ;” “the kingdom of the Father,” etc. There is much to learn and unlearn.

W.H.

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Question: I have a question re- the beheading reference in rev 20:4." TARGET="_blank">rev 20:4.

I am new to bible study, I had read the bible 4 times before but since June the words have different meaning to me. I do not now know if my new interpretations are in the correct direction or indicative of a misunderstanding. Or each person interprets the word differently, based on their experiences and stage in life.

I was studying Ephesians 1" TARGET="_blank">Ephesians 1 and was then drawn to the letters addressed to the churches in Revelation 2 and Revelation 3" TARGET="_blank">Revelation 3 the letters seem to represent a systematic progression towards the kingdom of God while on earth.
then i was led to read Revelation 20:4" TARGET="_blank">Revelation 20:4

I have quietly approached people during conversation at my church to gauge their abilities or interests in bible interpretation, but it is hard to ask in-depth questions to people of differing backgrounds, everyone has their own opinion.

rev 20:4" TARGET="_blank">rev 20:4 I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. 5(The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first resurrection. 6Blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years.

Here are my questions -

1. “beheaded because of their testimony” - is this the when a person surrenders completely to God and have died in the flesh, to be reborn in the spirit. the word (sword) of God has severed the spiritual head from the physical body. the person has passed through the inner door to the kingdom that exists within. The person then arrives at the realization that the kingdom inside, outside and the kingdom of heaven are one and the same.
2. “They had not worshiped the beast” - is the beast our "flesh body" that the holy spirit lives within. We die in the flesh , meaning give up wants, desires, defects, …
3. “They came to life” - a person dies to the body of flesh and awakens to the spirit within. we still walk the earth but our perspective has changed. like when the blind are given sight, it is the people blind to the kingdom of God are given sight and not blind to the kingdom of Gd
4. “This is the first resurrection” - is this a reference that some people enter the kingdom of God while alive as they have surrendered fully without reservation to the will of Gd. the 2nd resurrection is for others who remain blind spiritually to the kingdom of Gd. These blind people do not enter the kingdom until they die physically and are buried.
5. “they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years” - a person that has entered the kingdom while alive in the physical body. This person while dead in the flesh but alive in the spirit is given tasks to perform. Tasks/functions/callings (refer to Ep 4:11) while completing the will of Gd. while some people remain blind to the kingdom. The thousand years refers to the rest of the physical life which will be a period of time.

Thank you for your time and consideration,
al

Answer:

The questions you pose appear can be answered with another question:

"How does one interpret the Bible, especially in regards to prophetic writings like Revelation? Literally? figuratively? Alegorically? Contextually? Culturally?

The best answer to the question of how to interpret the Bible is to view how the New Testament interprets the Old Testament.

OT prophecies and events were taken literally unless there were specific, clear, obvious reasons to do otherwise.
For example, in the Book of Daniel, there are dreams which carried figurative meanings (tall statue, tall tree cut down), yet actual supernatural events (fiery furnace, lion's den).  Daniel 3," TARGET="_blank">Daniel 3, Daniel 4," TARGET="_blank">Daniel 4, Daniel 5" TARGET="_blank">Daniel 5

The King had actual dreams and Daniel was thrown to real lions, the three friends walked in literal fire.
It is not as if the fire represented a trial and the Lions were a figure of Daniel battling Satan.
In the same way, your questions about the saints who were beheaded are literal believers who John sees in the future.
The beast is the world leader - known as the antichrist.
They are real people.

In Revelation, however, there is a lot of figurative language. Fortunately, we can tell when John is describing these images because he uses the words "like" or "as". Revelation 9" TARGET="_blank">Revelation 9: 7 "And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men."

I would recommend that you start your quest by determining how you should interpret the Bible. A good book to read on the subject is "Things to Come" by J. Dwight Pentecost. It's become a standard, comprehensive reference book on Bible prophecy. However, it is different from many other prophetic books in that the first 65 pages deal with the issue of how to interpret the Bible.

Specifically, the answers to your questions:

There is no indication in the chapter to say these bodies, resurrections and people are not real.  What they experience is a miracle.  While the "beast" is a name given to indicate a person's beastly character, he is a real human.

“beheaded because of their testimony” - is this the when a person surrenders completely to God and have died in the flesh, to be reborn in the spirit. the word (sword) of God has severed the spiritual head from the physical body. The person has passed through the inner door to the kingdom that exists within. The person then arrives at the realization that the kingdom inside, outside and the kingdom of heaven are one and the same.

 This means there will be believers in the Tribulation that will be executed for disobeying the antichrist's decree to worship his idol.
There is nothing in the context of Revelation about surrendering oneself to God.
This teaching is taught quite straightforwardly in Romans 12:1" TARGET="_blank">Romans 12:1

 “They had not worshiped the beast” - is the beast our "flesh body" that the Holy Spirit lives within. We die in the flesh, meaning give up wants, desires, defects, …

 This beast is a real person, a world leader who demands worship as a god.
Again, read the context of the chapter.

 “They came to life” - a person dies to the body of flesh and awakens to the spirit within. We still walk the earth but our perspective has changed. like when the blind are given sight, it is the people blind to the kingdom of God are given sight and not blind to the kingdom of God

 These believers are raised back to by physically alive again.

 “This is the first resurrection” - is this a reference that some people enter the kingdom of God while alive as they have surrendered fully without reservation to the will of Gd. the 2nd resurrection is for others who remain blind spiritually to the kingdom of Gd. These blind people do not enter the kingdom until they die physically and are buried.

 There are two literal resurrections - firstly for believers who will live in heaven.
They are saved eternally. The second resurrection is described Revelation 21" TARGET="_blank">Revelation 21 where the eternally lost are given a just sentence for their sins and condemned to a literal Lake of Fire.

“they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years” - a person that has entered the kingdom while alive in the physical body. This person while dead in the flesh but alive in the spirit is given tasks to perform. Tasks/functions/callings (refer to Ep 4:11) while completing the will of Gd. while some people remain blind to the kingdom. The thousand years refers to the rest of the physical life which will be a period of time.

 There will be a literal throne, a literal calendar that can mark of a literal thousand years and a literal group of people who will participate in the administration of the earth with Christ.

 Shad Sluiter

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Why is Joseph’s genealogy given in Matthew's Gospel, instead of that of Mary, seeing that Joseph was not the father of the Lord Jesus?

There are, as is well known, not one but two genealogies of Christ in the Gospels. In Matthew 1" TARGET="_blank">Matthew 1: His royal descent is traced from Abraham, through David and the kings of Judah, down to Joseph, His legal, though not His actual father. But in Luke 3" TARGET="_blank">Luke 3 His natural descent is traced from Mary’s own father, Heli, through a different branch of the Davidic family up to Adam. The phrase, “Being, as was supposed, the son of Joseph,” which is parenthetically inserted in Luke 3:23," TARGET="_blank">Luke 3:23, really answers the questions asked above. For since He was supposed, or legally reckoned, to be Joseph’s son, it was necessary that there should be what might be called an official genealogy, through him to David and Abraham, as well as that through His mother, in order that all objections to His claim to be “Son of David” should be silenced. In Matthew’s Gospel Joseph is prominent, and in Luke’s, Mary, not merely in the genealogies, but in the entire narrative, which in each case is as it should be, in view of the Jewish character of the former, and the Gentile character of the latter.

W.R.

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Were the Old Testament saints born again?

I should think there could be no doubt that all the Old Testament saints were born of God, for how else could they have had communion with Him? The carnal mind (or the minding of the flesh) is enmity against God. How could David then have had the “desire to dwell in the house of the Lord,” or “thirst for the living God” unless he had received a new nature? The Old Testament saints were saved on the principle of faith, and no doubt God was revealed to their souls according to the measure of light bestowed. Our Lord speaks of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob sifting down in the Kingdom of Heaven with many from the east and the west (Matthew 8:11)," TARGET="_blank">Matthew 8:11), and in John 3:3," TARGET="_blank">John 3:3, he lays down to Nicodemus the law of entrance into that Kingdom, namely, th reception of the new life: “Except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God.”

Surely this shews conclusively that Old Testament saints will only enter the Kingdom as born of the Spirit. 01 course, we make a difference between that—the bestowal of new life, and the indwelling of the Spirit or the baptism in the Spirit; these belong uniquely to New Testament saints. Nor do the Old Testament saints belong to the church, but they were undoubtedly individually regenerated. As for us, it seems safer and more practical to confine ourselves to what the Word reveals. No doubt the Spirit does work on men’s souls. It is just here that the mistake arises. It is to assume that the first work of the Spirit is to communicate life, whereas it is rather to create a sense of sin or at least of need. The natural man is dead in trespasses and sins, but this does not mean that he has no conscience or responsibility or capacity to listen.

I have heard it said that the 3000 at Pentecost in Acts 2" TARGET="_blank">Acts 2:  were “born of God” when they cried, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” and, if I mistake not, that Nicodemus to whom the Lord uttered the words “Ye must be born again,” was already born again, or he would not have come to the Lord. That a theory should entail such conclusions suffices, I think, for its refutation. The reception of the new life is connected with the reception of Christ, or the revelation of God proper to the dispensation. “As many as received Him, to them gave He the power (or right) to become children of God.” John 1:11-12" TARGET="_blank">John 1:11-12 There the order seems clearly_faith first, then life, because the new words are “even to as many as believed (not “had believed”) on His name”—"believing” is only another way of saying “receiving.” I think Hebrews 6" TARGET="_blank">Hebrews 6: , for instance, shews us how far men may go in the things of God, and yet never have been born again, and so with other passages. Alas, how many have evinced some interest in the things of God, and even like the stony ground hearers have received the Word with joy, but it has proved later to have been in appearance rather than in reality. How solemn the call to each is, to make our calling and election sure!

W.H.

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Why do so many preachers speak of “the destroying angel,” in Exodus 12" TARGET="_blank">Exodus 12?

It seems due to a mistaken idea of what took place on the Passover night, based on a careless reading of the whole passage. Exodus 11:1" TARGET="_blank">Exodus 11:1 speaks of “one plague more.” Exodus 12:13" TARGET="_blank">Exodus 12:13 refers to “the plague” and ver. 23 to “the destroyer,” but there is no such agent mentioned, either in Exodus, Heb. Ix, or elsewhere in Scripture, as “the destroying angel,” in connection with the deliverance from Egypt. Moses says in chap. II.4—”Thus saith the Lord, about midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt”; see, too, ch. 12. ia: “I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land . . . I will excute judgment”; and v. 23: “For the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians, and when He seeth the blood. . . the Lord will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come into your houses to smite you.” God is Light and God is Love—God is at once “Avenger” and “Redeemer,” and neither work does He entrust to an angel, however exalted. It was God vindicating His holy claims against sin, who passed through the land in judgment; it was God who intervened in mercy wherever He saw the blood of His own providing, sprinkled. The two words for “passing through” (‘abar), and “passing over” (paali), are quite distinct. This latter is found again in Isaiah 3" TARGET="_blank">Isaiah 3’. : “As birds flying, so will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem; defending also He will deliver it and passing over (paal) He will preserve it.” That is, He will interpose between the enemy, who, it may be suggested, will then be attacking Jerusalem from the air, and His people.

W.H.

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What is the significance of the terms “Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 32)" TARGET="_blank">Matthew 32) and “Kingdom of God” ("1 Corinthians 15:24)" TARGET="_blank">1 Corinthians 15:24)?

The expression “Kingdom of God” does not actually occur in 1 Corinthians 15:24," TARGET="_blank">1 Corinthians 15:24, but I believe the Kingdom there referred to is the same to all intents and purposes as that proclaimed by John the Baptist. Any godly Jew, versed in the Old Testament Scriptures and especially Daniel’s prophecy, knew that God had transferred the Kingdom from Israel, for their sins, to the four great Gentile Powers—Babylon, MedoPersia, Greece and Rome, the last of which was exercising its sway at the time of the Baptist’s mission. It would also be known from Daniel that the next event on the divine programme was to be the smiting and total destruction of the great-powers, regarded in their integrity as an image, by the stone cut out without hands, to be followed by the “setting up of a Kingdom which shall never be destroyed,” and “which shall not be left to other people,”—”it shall stand for ever.”

What else could a godly Jew understand then by John’s proclamation, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand,” but that God was about to introduce His, the fifth Kingdom, upon earth? For that, God had His King ready, but the King was also the Lamb of God—for atonement must be made, the only ground on which the Kingdom could ever be set up on this sin-stained earth. Had the Jewish nation received the post-pentecostal testimony to the resurrection of the Lord, God would have sent back the Lord Jesus to destroy His enemies and set up His millennial Kingdom.

It is that Kingdom to which reference is made in 1 Corinthians 15:24," TARGET="_blank">1 Corinthians 15:24, at the close of which the Lord will put down all His enemies—human and angelic—and then deliver up the Kingdom to God, purged of every “evil concurrent.” This will not be as is so often mistakenly asserted, in the sense of ceasing to reign, for the millennial reign will only be the first stage of the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, but in the sense of restoring it to Him. Then no less than before, God will be (not become) All in All, and the Lord will reign as universal King. God’s throne will for ever be the throne of God and the Lamb.

W.H.

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What is the special significance of Joseph’s second dream (Genesis 37:9-10)" TARGET="_blank">Genesis 37:9-10)?

Both the dreams of Joseph look forward to the day when the One of whom he is so striking a picture, the Lord Jesus, “the man of sorrows,” “despised and rejected of men,” crucified, but now exalted, will be recognised and owned even by those who once refused him. The first dream, of course, had its literal fulfilment in Egypt, when Joseph’s brethren bowed at his feet. It will also have its further fulfilment “when He comes whose right it is,” and “they shall look on Him whom they pierced,” and shall “mourn because of Him.” Then the affecting scenes between Joseph and his brethren will be re-enacted in deeper measure between Christ and the saved remnant of Israel (Zechariah 12:10-12)," TARGET="_blank">Zechariah 12:10-12), which will form the nucleus of the nation, over which He will reign for ever.

“The Lord God shall give Him the throne of His father David, and He shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of His kingdom there shall be no end” (Luke 1:32, 33)." TARGET="_blank">Luke 1:32, 33). This is the earthly kingdom—the sheaves speak of a harvest—”the field is the world.” The second dream has had no fulfilment yet. Rachel had already passed away. Jacob never bowed to Joseph, but he will to the greater than Joseph. If “the sheaves” point to an earthly sphere, the sun, moon, and stars point to another, the heavenly. This goes further and higher than the first. The earthly kingdom is everlasting, but not unlimited (see Psalm 72:8)." TARGET="_blank">Psalm 72:8). The second will be universal, as well as everlasting. It will include the other, but go beyond it. Of that kingdom, too, Christ will be the Crown, the Centre, and the Sum.

W.H.

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