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The Bible Is the Final
Authority
This book is entitled "The
End of the Church Age and After." However, the essential issue that
is being presented is not the subject of the end of the church age.
The essential issue is the authority of the Bible.Is the
Bible truly the ultimate and final authority to which every true
believers is subject?
The big question each one
must face is: Do I have such a fear of God that I tremble before Him
if I suspect a doctrine I hold may be contrary to the Word of
God?
Or is it possible that I
feel altogether secure with God because I faithfully obey each and
every doctrine that my church teaches. Do I realize that some of the
doctrines held by my church may not be faithful to the Bible? In
turn, do I trust that everything my church teaches is altogether
true to the Bible?
| If I discover that a doctrine my church
teaches is not faithful to God's Word, do I tremble in
fear? |
To say it another way, if I
discover that a doctrine my church teaches is not faithful to God's
Word, do I tremble in fear? We must remember that any doctrine we
hold that is not faithful to the Bible is a lie. It is something
developed by men. Therefore, to believe that this doctrine is true,
when in actuality, it is not true to the Bible, is to place our
trust in men rather than in God. Actually, it is a sin equivalent to
that committed by ancient Israel when they worshipped God in
Jerusalem but also worshipped other gods at their high places. This
was such a serious sin that God finally destroyed Israel in 709 B.C.
and Judah in 587 B.C. As we will discover in this book, it is such a
serious sin of our day that God's judgment is upon today's churches.
The same principle must be
applied to this study. Has every effort been made to be sure that
everything presented in this book is altogether faithful to the
Bible? The teachings and conclusions must have nothing to do with
visions or voices or dreams. The teachings and conclusions are to be
unrelated to human speculation. They must be carefully founded on
the Bible alone.
It must be admitted that at
times, it is very difficult to obey the Bible. That is, sometimes,
as we carefully read the Bible, we find that God is giving us a
command to take some kind of action. And sometimes, we don't like
that command. We don't like it at all. Then comes the big question
that each of us must personally ask: In my fear of God, am I ready
to be obedient to the command even though I don't like it? The
answer has to be, "If I am a true child of God,
I want to be obedient to each and every command. My
delight is to do the will of God." If I keep hesitating to obey, I
must ask myself the fair question, "Am I truly a child of
God?"
The Saved Person Is a New
Creation
The
reason why obedience is the spiritual mentality of the true believer
is because at the moment he became saved, he became born again. He
received from heaven above a new resurrected soul in which he never
wants to sin again. In I John 3:9, God assures us of this as He
declares:
Whosoever is born of God doth not
commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin,
because he is born of God.
The seed that remaineth in
him is Christ (Galatians 3:16).
Therefore, the true believer has become a new creature
in Christ (II Corinthians 5:17). At death, which could come moments
after salvation or years after salvation, in his soul existence, he
goes immediately, without any change, into heaven to live and reign
with Christ. Because he was given his new resurrected soul, God can
say of him in I John 2:3-4:
And hereby we do know that we know him,
if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and
keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in
him.
He
can also understand Romans
7:22:
For I delight in the law of God after the inward
man:
He is in
accordance with the testimony of Romans 7:24 where we read,
"who shall deliver me from the body of this death?"
He deplores the fact that he must live in a sin-cursed body that
will not be redeemed until Christ comes on the last day.
| Ordination or acclaim that I am a faithful
Bible teacher or elder of pastor, in themselves, gives no
guarantee that I have become saved.
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Frankly stated, if a highly
successful pastor or any pastor or a Biblical theologian or I do not
find an intense desire in my life to be obedient to all that the
Bible commands, so that I tremble before God lest I teach something
con-
trary to the will of God, I may have
evidence that I am not saved. Ordination or acclaim that I am a
faithful Bible teacher or elder or pastor give no guarantee that I
have become saved.
Unfortunately, those who are not saved may not be able
to understand these truths. They may conclude that these statements
concerning a new resurrected soul are merely the opinion of the
writer of this study. In fact, that judgment can extend to this
whole study so that the reader may conclude that this study is
merely the opinion of the writer.
The best
this writer can hope for is that each one who reads this book will
carefully and diligently check the Bible for the validity of each
conclusion that is taught in this study.
Progressive
Revelation
The
Bible is the complete revelation of God's Word to the human race. We
are not to add to it. We are not to take away from it. It alone and
in its entirety is the Word of God.
However,
when we consider how we receive truth from the Bible, we have
another matter altogether. God insists that there is a timetable
known only to God by which He reveals the truths of the Bible to
mankind. For example, Jesus clearly told His disciples that the time
would come when He would be killed and after three days, He would
rise again. Mark 8:31 declares:
And he began to teach them, that the
Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders,
and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after
three days rise again.
Even though
this is a plain, clear statement, it was not understood at all by
the disciples. It was only after His resurrection, as the disciples
were reminded by the two men in shining garments, who stood outside
the empty sepulchre, that they understood. Luke 24:6-8 informs
us:
He is not here, but is risen: remember
how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee, Saying, The Son
of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be
crucified, and the third day rise again. And they remembered his
words,
God had
given them the revelation that Christ was to be killed and rise
again, but it was not a revelation that became a part of their
understanding until Christ had risen. Likewise, we read in Ephesians
3:3-5:
How that by revelation he made known
unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words, Whereby, when
ye read, ye may
understand my knowledge in the mystery
of Christ) Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of
men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by
the Spirit;
God is
indicating that a mystery was made known to the Apostle Paul,
"That the Gentiles should be followheirs, and of the same body,
and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel" (verse 6).
However, this truth was repeatedly written about in the Bible, for
example, Abram's name was changed to Abraham because he would be the
father of many nations (Genesis 17:5-7).
Many years earlier, Jesus
had told the disciples in Matthew 28:19:
Go ye therefore, and teach all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of
the Holy Ghost:
The truth
that those whom God would save would include people from all nations
of the world is taught in many places in the Bible. But while this
truth was included in God's revelation to mankind, only when Saul of
Tarsus had become saved was it truly revealed to the minds of the
apostles.
This principle of
progressive revelation is especially emphasized in Daniel 12, verses
8 and 9:
And I heard, but I understood not: then
said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things? And he
said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed
till the time of the end.
| God has a timetable for the giving of
understanding of these truths.
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In God's revelation, which
is the Bible, God has a great many things to say about the end of
the world and the details that lead up to the end of the world. But
God has a timetable for the giving of understanding of these truths.
The true meaning of these end-time statements was not
to be revealed to the minds of men until the time of the end. This
is why many devout, God-fearing theologians of the past have
endeavored to explain the meaning of Biblical end-time passages, but
they did not even come close to the truth. This was not a failure on
their part. It was simply not time for God to reveal the meaning of
these end-time passages.
Thus, we can
expect that in our day, when the signs are showing that we must be
close to the end of time, the meaning of a great many Biblical
passages should become revealed to the minds of careful, diligent
students of
the Bible. The very fact that we can
find great harmony in our understanding of Biblical passages that
heretofore have been very obscure greatly encourages us that God has
placed us on the right track. We can expect, therefore, that many
passages of the Bible, which in earlier times have been somewhat
mysterious, can now be understood.
The Bible, The Supreme Law Book
It must be
emphasized that the Bible is a book of law. It is the supreme law
book by which God governs all mankind. Even as each political
government has written laws by which the rulers govern, so, too,
God, who is King of kings and Lord of lords, has a written law by
which He governs. Moreover, rulers of nations are subject to the
written law of their land. So, too, God is subject to the written
law, the Bible, by which He governs the nations. This principle is
set forth in the language of Psalm 138:2, where we read:
I will worship toward thy holy temple, and
praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou
hast magnified thy word above all thy name.
We stand
amazed at the idea that the Word of God is above all His name. But
when we understand that the Word of God is a synonym for the law of
God, we learn that God, too, is subject to all the laws He has
written in this law book, the Bible. In more than 170 verses of the
176 verses of Psalm 119, for example, there is a reference to words
such as "law," "precept," "commandment," "word," "testimony,"
"statute," etc. Each of these words is a synonym for the word "law."
The Bible is the law book God uses to govern the
nations.
An integral
part of God's law book is the declaration of His purpose and plan to
publish the teachings of His law book to all the world. Moreover,
the laws that govern God's salvation plan, a plan that is required
to maintain the integrity of His law, are a most important part of
God's law.
Because God
is subject to the laws set forth in the Bible, He cannot have a
people for Himself eternally unless all their sins (that is, all
their violations of the law of God), have been paid
for (that is, all their violations of the law of God), have
been paid. Therefore, when God the Father gave those whom He had
elected for salvation to the Lord Jesus Christ (John 6:37), it meant
that Christ
Once we have
learned this tremendously important principle, that the Bible is
God's supreme law book, we should tremble as we read it. God, in the
Bible, is constantly declaring the laws by which we are to live.
Violation of His law will absolutely bring the penalty of
destruction. Therefore, as we read, in the Bible, God's laws that
governed the church during the church age, and that relate the end
of the local church age and the final harvest, we should carefully
study God's law book, the Bible, to know God's will. The seriousness
of disobeying God's laws as they are set forth in His divine book,
the Bible, cannot be emphasized too strongly.
Because God
Himself is subject to the laws of the Bible, He must bring to
completion the punishment that He has decreed for any and all human
beings, even church leaders and all those in local congregations who
transgress His laws.
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