Free Bible Studies
| VOLUME 2, NO. 36, December 2005 |
 |
 |
 |
BULLETINTHE WORD OF TRUTH MINISTRY228 NORTH EL MOLINO AVENUE, PASADENA, CALIFORNIA 91101-1675Otis Q. Sellers, Founder David R. Hettema, Director ______________________________________________________Volume 2, No. 37 Jane Sellers Hancock, Editor December 2005 Thoughts from the Editor Jane S. Hancock The Bible is a complex book to study. Many people have translated God's inspired words from the original Hebrew and Greek texts into modern languages. In all translations biases exist, based upon previous beliefs, culture, and yes, even religion. People who find our little group or our web site might feel like they are entering a graduate Bible-study course in the middle of the semester without having taken any of the prerequisites. I have been sitting "on the front row" all my life, and I still feel that way. I still have questions. And as I study, more questions arise. For example the terms Kingdom of God, Day of God, Day of the Lord, Day of Christ, the Millennium, the New Heavens and New Earth. Which ones are synonyms? To what do they actually refer and in what context? So what follows is a little primer of those terms—those "days"— when each day comes and what characteristics each one has. And as you read, remember that my stand is that the Earth, the planet I live on now, is my future home for all the days to come. The Day of Man We are living in "the Day of Man," a time divided into two parts-before Acts 28:28 and after Acts 28:28. The Day of Man started with Noah, a time when "human government became a reality upon the earth." During this time and up until Acts 28:28, God communicated with man through prophets, angels, apostles. It contained the Acts Period, which was a brief time of miracles. The Day of Man took on a different look after Acts 28:28, a time we call "the Dispensation of Grace," a time when God is silent, a time when God is establishing a record of His Grace that can be recalled later, a time of no judgment or no punishment for sin, a time when people die. Satan appears to be the prince of this Earth. Above all there is no human mediator between God and man. For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus (1 Tim. 2:5). The Day of Jesus Christ God's next move is to bring in "the Day of Jesus Christ," also called "the Kingdom of God," also called "the King- dom of Heaven." This is the time when all people are enlightened with the knowledge of who Jesus Christ is, a time when all curses that began with Adam are removed, a time when righteousness reigns instead of evil, and life reigns instead of death. Satan is still around—restrained at first, then released near the end and fighting for control; hence the parable of the tares among the wheat. This approximately 500-year period is what Jesus proclaimed in every city and village He visited, the subject of all His parables recorded in the Gospels; it is what the Lord told us to pray for. "Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." It is a time when God sets things right—a time of justice. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it (Isa. 40:5). The Day of the Lord Following "the Kingdom" comes "the Millennium," the 1000-year time period called "the Day of the Lord," which is \heparousia of Jesus Christ, the time when He reigns on Earth. Parousia means "a personal presence," a presence because of who a person is and what a person does. The Day of Jesus Christ becomes the Day of the Lord when God imposes a time of testing called "the Great Tribulation." It comes without announcement, suddenly like a "thief in the night." This is a righteous time when at the close of the testing Christ returns to Earth to accomplish His purposes, again in the form of a man. During this time, Satan is bound for a 1,000 years, powerless, out of circulation, only to be released for a little season to deceive the nations, after which he is eventually destroyed in the lake of fire. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night (1 Thess. 5:2). The Day of God Let the earth rejoice (Psa. 97:1). The earth will rejoice because "the Day of God" is the time when God dwells with man. This "day" is also called "the New Jerusalem" and "the New Heavens and New Earth." It will be on earth, as God's Earth is our future home. The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein (Psa. 24:1). From the Director David & Hettema Things to be thankful for: The joy of Bible study and having God's Spirit illuminating the things that God wants mankind to know in these dark times in which we live. New, Improved Web Site Close To RealityYes, this long-dreamed-of new web site is nearing its final stages of development! It win include many FREE Bible study messages, especially Otis Q. Sellers' Seed & Bread studies, his Biblical-subject-study booklets and The Word of Truth magazine studies, as well as audio studies from his cassette tape library. MP3-CD Player Update BIBLE STUDY GROUP IN NEW YORK CITY Our small, but quality Bible study group meets the LAST Sunday of the month, between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. at The YMCA, 125 West 14th Street (between 6th and 7th Avenues), New York City, NY. BIBLE STUDY AUDIO TAPES Oh, how I had forgotten what their services entailed! This charismatic, nondenominational church believed in "miracles" performed by their elders in today's age, as opposed to miracles and signs performed by the Apostles with authorization directly from God/Christ during the Acts Period (see Seed & Bread No. 7, The Acts Dispensation, and No. 19, The Charismatic Dispensation). However, unlike some other charismatic churches, they were somewhat conservative by not causing the people they "laid hands on" and "prayed over" to fall down in front of them, like they were "knocked out for a spell." The service also included a time for "speaking in tongues." I couldn't believe all the "gobbledegook" that I heard firsthand! In contrast, during the Acts Period, the Apostles were specifically given the ability to speak in different tongues/languages that others could understand from their own nations (Acts 2:4-11; see Seed & Bread No. 6, The Biblical Gift of Tongues). When the opportunity arose during the service, I basically prayed in German and no body even "revealed" what I was saying! _ That church service left me feeling pretty empty, without acquiring any more knowledge of God than what I already had previously gained elsewhere. However, at my girlfriend's place the next day, I asked in-depth questions about what she and her friends really believed. Most of them believed that "God talked" through other persons in their church during that time for "speaking in tongues." I asked them how they knew whether these people were really "speaking intelligently" on God's behalf in "tongues" or not. My girlfriend explained that she had a "prophetess" in her church, who "told" her what to expect in her life, though none of it happened (for the past ten years, I have been waiting for just one of her bazaar "prophesies" to come true!). Another explained that her congregation just "spoke in tongues" and the Holy Spirit gave them the ability "to interpret" through others during that time in the service. I asked, "How could this be?" Then, I confirmed that at my girlfriend's church, they had utterly failed at "interpreting" my German language usage when they had the chance! They were mystified concerning this and did not desire discussing this topic further. However, it is really one matter to discuss intelligently with another in a learned foreign language, one that is foreign from your "mother tongue" or the language you first learned at birth (see Seed & Bread No. 52, "Tongues "Are "Languages"). It is quite another issue to emulate some unintelligent sounds, some-what similar to that of severely retarded persons or small babies, and call it "speaking in tongues." Most of them believed that their elders "could heal." Then, we discussed how the miracles they claimed they saw in their various charismatic churches seemed different from what was recorded in the Book of Acts. The most interesting fact of all came out that they were unaware of a huge difference between the Acts Period "miracles" and those presumed performed by their elders. They had not even heard of "the mystery," found in Ephesians 3:2-9 (see Seed & Bread No. 90, The Truths God Calls Secret), explained as "the secret," knowledge revealed to the Apostle Paul regarding the Dispensation of Grace, that "silent" dispensation of today, where publicly-seen miracles directly from God no longer abound (see Seed & Bread No. 57, The Dispensation of Grace, and No. 64, God's Present Purpose). Various Scriptures record many examples proving God is the Author of all perfection (Matt. 5:48), and when God does something, it is perfect (Psa. 18:30), as opposed to the many imperfections of this world (Satan's ways were originally perfect "till iniquity was found" in Ezekiel 28:15). When Christ was on Earth, His signs and miracles were perfect. There was not any imperfection in them. Things occurred perfectly the first time when Christ gave a command (such as found in Mark 2:1-12). Unlike the imperfect results of many health-care professionals today, Christ permanently healed many people at that time (John 20:30-31), then later, His Apostles and certain others did until the Acts Period ended. At the beginning of the Dispensation of Grace, circumstances drastically reversed, resulting in no more obvious miracles, as attested by the Apostle Paul's later comments, assuming the letters to Timothy were among his last. Paul had "changed his tune" and advised Timothy to "use a little wine for your stomach's sake," as found in 1 Timothy 5:23. In 2 Timothy 4:20, he also said, "... But Trophimus have I left at Miletum sick." When questioned further, my girlfriend and her friends eventually confessed that they thought that the presumed "miracles" were indeed fakes! They shared many occurrences when people they personally knew had "hands laid on" them, and been "prayed over" by their elders, but had not improved! In many of my own experiences, I have discovered that Scripture is its own best expositor, such as found plainly stated in this familiar verse: "Thy (your) Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path" (Psalm 119:105). May His Word continue to enlighten us today, especially in differentiating between fake and real miracles and tongues/ languages during this Dispensation of Grace, as well as enlightening our paths in the future Kingdom of God. |