BULLETIN
THE WORD OF TRUTH MINISTRY
228 NORTH EL MOLINO AVENUE, PASADENA, CALIFORNIA 91101-1675
Otis Q. Sellers, Founder David R. Hettema, Director
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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.
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.
We have a tremendous amount of Bible truth to offer the world, thanks to our late teacher, Otis Q. Sellers, and the continuing studies and work of men and women, who, by their studies, have come into the knowledge of the coming Kingdom of God through Sellers’ teaching.
Others also have found these many facts of the coming Kingdom of God to be true because of their own efforts in the study of God’s Word. I remember that Jesus told Nicodemus, “In truth, I tell you, unless one is born again (generated from above), he cannot see (perceive) the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). No one is excluded from the knowledge of the Kingdom of God. Jesus implied that anyone who seeks for that knowledge will have the help of God’s Spirit in finding it.
During the past several years my special attention has been a continuing study of “The Prophecy of the Seventy Weeks” as presented in Daniel 9. We are confident that we have set our feet upon some new truths. We would like to share these studies with those who might be interested in receiving our “here’s-what-we-understand-now” report of the 490-year prophecy.
The time frame of 490-non-stop years begins shortly after God’s government is established in the earth when, as God has promised, the resurrected nation of Israel has been reconciled with Jesus Christ, their Jehovah. The entire prophecy is future, and within its time frame, there are centuries of bliss followed by the Great Testing and the return of Jesus Christ to the earth for His glorious parousia. The 490-year-time clock begins when God reclaims the city of Jerusalem as His City, specifically intended for His people, a restored, forgiven, resurrected Israel, having been graciously brought back into fellowship with God.
In the Kingdom of God, the city of Jerusalem will be the center of God’s attention and the center of worship and instruction for the nations of the earth, as well as the target of Satan’s hatred at the consummation of that time. You will be amazed and challenged to discover that the “Great Testing/Tribulation” is a time period of more than 50 years.
We are still in the process of preparing a set of charts that, together with the recorded studies, will give the student a calendar of the 490 years with all the benchmarks of dated Scripture having to do with the important events of the 70-weeks’ prophecy.
If you are interested in monitoring the ongoing study, send us an e-mail to wordoftruth@earthlink.net or writeto The Word of Truth Ministry, 228 N. El Molino Ave., Pasadena, CA 91101-1675. Then, as the charts, tapes and disks become available, we will offer individuals and study groups the first opportunity to critique the material.
New, Improved Web Site Close To Reality
Yes, 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.
Also featured are photos of Mr. and Mrs. Sellers and a short video clip. For the Christmas Season, we also added “The Real Christmas Story,” originally transcribed from Sellers’ audio study by Grace Publications.
At the time of publication, we are still testing out the site with those on our Word of Truth e-mail hst. The new web site will be retaining the present name: www.seedandbread.org. “Thank you” to all those who have volunteered their time and service to help this Ministry, through this new web site, get out the Word of God to a much larger audience.
If you desire to be added to our e-mail list, just send your e-mail address to wordoftruth@earthlink.net. Your listing will remain strictly confidential within this Ministry.
(Continued from Page 1)
For Further Reading:
All Days: The Word of Truth Ministry Chart: “The Future of God’s Redeemed Earth… The Order of Events”; Seed & Bread No. 54, The Four Great Days; Seed &
Bread No. 129, The Order of Events.
The Day of Man: Seed & Bread No. 101, God Must Intervene.
The Day of Jesus Christ: Seed & Bread No. 27, The Kingdom of God; Seed & Bread No. 55, The Kingdom Titles; Seed & Bread No. 142, The Day of the Eon; More
Seed & Bread No. 230,
The Day of Jesus Christ; More
Seed & Bread No. 234, God Has Appointed A Day.
The Day of The Lord: Seed & Bread No 110, The Lord’s Day in Rev. 1:10; Seed & Bread No. III, Before
the Day of the Lord; More Seed & Bread No. 221, The Apocalypse (or The Day of the Lord).
The Day of God: Seed & Bread No. 70, God’s Earth; Seed & Bread No. 71, Earth’s Glorious Future; Seed & Bread No. 75, The Earth—Our Future Home.
from The Word of Truth Ministry: “Peace On Earth Good Will Toward Men”
News Briefs
MP3-CD Player Update
Sometime soon, all 570 of the Otis Q. Sellers’ Tape Library (TL) Series will be completely converted to MP3-com-pact disks (CDs). We use the MP3 format because it compresses materials so that 10 audio messages will fit on one disk.
MP3-CDs require a compatible CD player, specifically stating that it plays “MP3-CDs.” Many older CD players are not compatible.
For those of you interested, we continue to search for economical devices our listening audience may wish to purchase. One such item sold at the membership warehouse “Costco” is a Philips “MP3-CD Soundmachine,” Model No. AZ 1316. This comes equipped with an AM/FM radio and cassette tape deck; it plays regular music CDs as well. The list price is $50.00. the best price we’ve found.
If you are unable to find a similar model and would like one, for a $65.00 donation (which includes shipping and handling) to The Word of Truth Ministry, we will send the above MP3-CD player to the first ten people who request one.
Please send your request and check or money order in U.S. dollars to The Word of Truth Ministry, 228 N. El Molino Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91101-1675.
In Memory of Raymond and Claire Baxter
Raymond W. Baxter, student of God’s Word for 60 years, Bible teacher and longtime associate of The Word of Truth Ministry, died February 3,2005. His wife of 68 years, Claire, died eight days later on February 11, 2005. He was 91; she was 84.
They are survived by their two daughters, Kelly Stewart and Judy Cargill, two granddaughters, four great-grandchildren, and his brother. Peter Baxter.
The Baxters were good friends of the late Otis Q. Sellers for nearly four decades. They provided funding for the publication of Sellers’ newspaper Bible studies (later compiled in a booklet entitled, One-A-Day) in the Houston Chronicle in Texas.
He and his wife await the resurrection of the dead in the future Kingdom of God.
“The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stre
ngth of my life;
of-whom shall I be afraid? ” Psalm 27:1 (NKJV)
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.
We use O.Q. Sellers’ Seed & Bread leaflets (found on www.seedandbread.org) as a guide for our discussions. Our moderator is Luis Casillas. All those interested are welcomed!
Our Honorary Agent in Great Britain
Look up the interesting web site from “across the pond”! Our honorary agent, George T. Morris, provides a supply of Word of Truth materials. A list of materials and prices will be sent. Please write/e-mail:
Mr. George T. Morris
67 Wood Lane, Sutton Coldfield,
West Midlands, B74 3LS,
United Kingdom
E-mail: geo.morris@virgin net
Web Site: christianindividualism.info
The Dutch Lachai-Roi Web Site
Read Seed & Bread and One-A-Day in Dutch on the European web site: www.Iachairoi.org. Johan Hansen and his son, Arnoud, translated these particular Otis Q. Sellers’ publications because they appreciated his independent studies, finding answers to unsolved problems.
BIBLE STUDY AUDIO TAPES
By Otis Q. Sellers, Bible Teacher
The entire Tape Library (TL) series, consisting of numbers TL-1 to TL-570, is available on cassettes. A complete subjects list may be obtained from the home office in Pasadena, CA, or writing/e-mailing: The Word of Truth Ministry Mrs. Given Staiger, Recorder 121 Wood Oak Dr., Joshua, TX 76058 E-mail: gsrecorder@pathway.com
A Tongues and Miracles–Discussion
By Joanne L.H. Johnson
A couple of months ago, I visited by train an old high school girlfriend. While there, I joined her and her two daughters for Sunday morning worship at her church.
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.