By Rick Combs
In this post, I have to bare my heart and admit that I have not been honest with the Scriptures in my Bible. I can remember ever since I was a young boy growing up in Arcadia, California that my pastor and youth ministers would challenge me to check the scriptures being used when bringing a message to see if what they said was true. How many of you have heard the same thing? I never did check out the message with the Word of God. How about you? I just took what they said sight unseen and believed it.
Also, I read my Bible through theological commentaries, Greek/Hebrew concordances, books, and other “scholarly” perspectives. The message of the Bible never became mine. My beliefs were through them. Oh sure, I read mainly the New Testament, some Psalms, and a smattering of Old Testament favorite passages; but always through the eyes of someone else. Please don’t get me wrong! Commentaries and concordances from well educated scholars and teachers have their place, but not when that becomes your entire spiritual diet. My other observation was that commentaries contradict one another. So we have to pick what suits us best. And then some commentaries had not a clue what a hard passage might be saying. For me there was a ring of dishonesty. But this is me I’m talking about… you might not have experienced this.
For most of my Christian life, including Bible School and Seminary I was mostly a New Testament reader. I know it very well. Of course, I had to go through some required Old Testament Survey classes, but I never took it seriously. This is where my wife Judy comes in. Through the years, she would encourage me to read the Old Testament. She counseled me that it was the foundation of the New Testament. Ah… the wisdom of a Godly wife! Thank you, Lord!
So, the day came not long ago when I took up the challenge. I began in Genesis 1:1 and actually read the entire Old Testament straight through. Surprisingly, it did not take me all that long. I had just three (3) simple rules which by the way, was not easy to adhere to. I was hard core into some very bad interpretive habits that I’m still trying to break.
1. Stay with a “big picture” perspective. What is the overall theme?
2. Don’t interpret. Just read and let the words that are there come off the page.
3. Let the words maintain their most common English definition. This one was very difficult.
I was so used to running to the nearest Hebrew/Greek dictionary. “No”, I said, “just read what is there”.
Here’s the result… I noticed a common theme. A “big picture” that ran through the entirety of the text; Genesis through Malachi. In Genesis chapter 3, Satan had usurped Adam’s dominion to rule the earth through deceiving Eve into disobeying God – sin! Adam by the way is not looking lily white either. He willingly partook of the fruit. For the next 39 books, God is working through His created nation of Israel to take repossession of the earth. In verse Genesis 3:15, God tells the serpent (Satan) that He will crush his head through Eve’s seed, while Satan will be allowed to bruise the heel of her seed – the Messiah (the crucifixion).
Reading the entire Old Testament from beginning to end allowed me to “see” this theme. Reading bits and pieces never did the job. But then… and oh what an observation this was!
I continued reading into the Gospels of my beloved New Testament. Following a 400-year silence from God, the promised Messiah from the Old Testament comes to His nation Israel right on time according to the prophet Daniel’s time schedule; Daniel 9:24-27; 483 years. The Gospels are very clear. The time for Israel’s Messiah arrival “was fulfilled” (Mark 1:14-15). The Kingdom of God is “at hand” (Matthew 1:1; 3:112; 4:17; 10:7). “Fulfilled” means fulfilled. “At hand” means at hand. This is where my dishonesty comes in. But I get ahead of myself. Again, what made it at hand? Daniel’s time schedule: 69 weeks of years (483 years) after “the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem” the Messiah would come. He came! I repeat this because it is so critically important to understanding the Gospels.
For the first time, I was able to see that the Old Testament promises of the Eternal Kingdom were being fulfilled in the New Testament Gospels through God’s created nation Israel. It all fit together like a glove. Unfortunately for me though, more challenges awaited me as I read the Gospels. If I thought the Old Testament was tough, the Gospels began spell trouble for me.
What I had been taught, and what I was reading began to collide. Surprises were around every corner and it began to shake the foundation of my very comfortable theology.
I will explain in the next post.
Until then, may the Grace and Peace of Our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
Amen!
Honest With the Scriptures Part 2
We continue our discussion of being honest with the Scriptures. As we concluded with the last post, it is critically important to understand that Israel’s Messiah Jesus, arrived to bring in the Kingdom of God right on time. At the appointed hour… down to the day. Daniel’s time schedule: 69 weeks of years (483 years) after “the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem” the Messiah would come (Dan. 9:24-27). He came! Right on time!
What caused misunderstanding for me was that one page with three (3) words on it;
The New Testament. My conclusion was, “we are finished with the Old Testament, so now we go to the New Testament. A new subject, a new theme, from those old stuffy people and this nation of Israel to the new. Leave the old… enter into the new… JESUS! The old was about Israel. This new was about me. This perspective put blinders on my eyes. Without knowing it, this broke the flow of the Old Testament message when in actuality, it is a continuation.
The truth is that we must read the Gospels in light of the promised/prophesied Kingdom of the Old Testament – as being “at hand”. The time of fulfillment had come (Matt. 3:2, 4:17). It is time for God to take back the earth from its’ god – Satan through His created nation and people Israel. So, whatever we read about in these 4 Gospels, is about that. The Gospels pick up where the promise/prophesied message leaves off. This realization was a shock for me.
The link of the Gospels to the Old Testament and its’ theme is written in Matthew 1:1 “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham”. God told Abram that from his seed a great nation would bless all the nations of the earth. Please read Genesis 12:1-3. As we read through the book of Genesis, this nation became Israel. They eventually entered into their own promised land under Joshua with God’s law and covenant. These people created by God were to become “a holy nation”, “a kingdom of priests” that would return the earth back into God’s possession (Ex. 19:5-6). King David was given the promise of the ruling Kingdom. The King, the LORD would come from his ancestry line and rule from Jerusalem (2 Sam. 7:12-17).
This briefly covered background is necessary because it is in the Gospels that the King comes to bring in the Kingdom of God. Also of importance to note is that this is a literal – physical – visible, actual kingdom on earth. Its’ ruling King is the Lord Jesus Christ, ruling the nations from a literal, physical, visible, actual Temple in Jerusalem, Israel. One of my major dishonest notions was to make this all spiritual. Today, it is taught that the church has a major role in bringing about this Kingdom on earth. This is not at all what you read in the Gospels. But again, I get ahead of myself.
Words are obviously extremely important. If we don’t use them according to their common definitions, we will run off into a ditch and the result; horrible confusion. I don’t have to tell you about the confusion that is in the church today. We use the smorgasbord method in our doctrinal meals. Pick out what looks good to you from a wide variety of denominational and theological thought, and go with that. Or, go with what your church teaches. Then we view the Scriptures from that viewpoint. When we read in our Bibles passages that might disagree with it, we skip over or twist it in some fashion to make it fit. I call this, biblical acrobatics. Dishonesty!
So, I began to run into such words like; “at hand” which actually means nearby, close, imminent. In other words, the Kingdom of God; literal, physical is arriving to earth imminently or very soon. In just the next few years King Jesus will be sitting in His Temple in Jerusalem. This is what the disciples believed from Jesus’ words. To me, this made no sense. My thinking was, “2000 years later, it’s not here”. So, I either spiritualize it or ignore it. Thinking it through brings you to a logical conclusion, and that is usually correct. I never did that.
Here is the biggie for me. Revelation 1:1 says, “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to His servants things which must shortly come to pass…”. It’s hard to remember all the things I and the church have done with that little word ‘shortly’. This word cannot mean what it says, so we put it into a spiritual understanding. In short, we change the word to mean something else. I had to admit to myself, “I am playing games with words and making changes to fit my doctrine and theology”. Can you relate? It reminds me of what Satan told Eve in Genesis 3:1 “…hath God said”? In fact I have had people tell me, “I don’t read the Bible anymore because it is just too confusing”.
Here is another passage that baffled me. Upon Jesus arrest, he tells the high priest Caiaphas in Matthew 26:64, “Jesus said unto him, …hereafter shall you see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven”. WHAT??? The high priest seeing Jesus coming to earth in the clouds of heaven while he is alive! That is what that verse says! What in the world is He talking about? That did not occur during Caiaphas’ life much less for the past 2000 years. Guess what I did with that statement. Either ignore it, or spiritualize it in some way. For me that’s called being dishonest with the Scriptures.
It is MY UNDERSTANDING that is lacking, not the Scriptures. They are ALWAYS correct.
I could go on with many more examples, but I will just give one more. I would ignore the audience and the context. Jesus is always speaking to me, right? Wrong! Jesus said in John 1:11, “He came unto his own, and his own received him not.” Who were his own? Israel.
Matthew 10:5-7 These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter you not: But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as you go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Jesus instructed His disciples to go to the house of Israel and preach the Kingdom. Not to the gentiles who were afar off with no covenant (Eph. 2:11-12), who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands (Jews). Gentiles 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.
Two more scripture in this regard; Matthew 15:24 “But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel” and Romans 15:8 “Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers”.
We have seen that Jesus came unto Israel to bring in the Kingdom, and not unto the Gentiles. We also noticed some words in the Gospels that indicate the arrival of this Kingdom was very near. So, what about the gentiles? Where is the church of today? And… why did not Jesus return 2000 years ago as prophesied? We will look at this in the next post. Until then…
May the Grace and Peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen!
Honest With the Scriptures Pt. 3
A beginning note: First of all, I need to make it clear that ALL Scripture is inspired by God
(2 Tim. 3:16) and is profitable to us for good works. That includes the old testament, the Gospels, Acts, Paul’s Epistles, and the Hebrew Epistles. God releases His purposes and plans gradually, a little at a time… over time. From the Garden to Noah to Moses to the prophets to Jesus and the arrival of the Kingdom to Paul and the age of Grace for the Gentiles… it is all gradual; a little here and a little there. Today, we have the complete will and testament of God in our Bible; the Word of God. God also deals with men in different ways and in different time periods of history (Heb. 1:1-2).
In our discussion of the Gospels, we are observing how God worked two thousand years ago with the nation of Israel who were to become a holy nation, a royal priesthood, a peculiar people to the nations of the world. To reconcile it back to God the Father with Jesus as King on the earth.
We concluded our last post with two questions.
1. Why did Jesus not return to earth to bring in His Kingdom as prophesied?
2. As we peruse the Gospels, where is the church the Body of Christ?
In this post, let’s talk about question 1.
Where is Jesus? If the promise and prophecy was true, and it was, then what gives? In 2020, we have the advantage of hindsight. So what happened? To answer, we have the benefit of looking back in history. Israel refused the Kingdom that Jesus was bringing to them. Then they killed their King through Roman crucifixion. The leaders of Israel said, “then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children” Matthew 25:27. They also said, “but they cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate said unto them, Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar” John 19:15. My stomach turns every time I read that. The leaders of Israel had gotten so corrupt and deceived that they wanted Caesar as their king instead of the promised Messiah – the King of kings and Lord of lords – the Prince of Peace – the ascended and glorified Jesus the Christ.
Upon killing their King, they stumbled. Jesus cried out from the cross, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). When the leaders of Israel stoned Stephen in Acts 7 who was trying to preach the Kingdom to them, Israel fell (Rom. 11:11). Then Jesus stood from His seated position in heaven. Instead of pouring out much deserved wrath and tribulation upon this wicked evil generation, He poured out something else… and this answers our next question.
Israel’s fall from its high status is only temporary. Israel has diminished and was forgotten for the next nearly two millennia. Now she is back. And God will deal with her again during the 7-year Tribulation to restore and redeem her to be that “holy nation”, “a royal priesthood” unto the nations.
Through the Apostle Paul in Acts 9, a “new creation” was birthed into the earth. We will look at question 2 in the next post.
May the Grace and Peace of Our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen!
Honest With the Scriptures Pt. 4
In our last post, we answered question 1. Why did Jesus not return 2000 years ago? What gives? Please review the September 05 post for that discussion.
Now onto question 2.
Where is the church, the Body of Christ? We see a church in Matthew 16. Is this the church of today? Let’s take a look at some scripture and see.
As we will see in this post, the Church the Body of Christ to the gentiles was not revealed to the Apostle Paul until after Acts 9. This is a year following the resurrection of Jesus. If we stay with the context of Jesus bringing the Kingdom of God to Israel through whom the nations will be reconciled back to God, then the church mentioned in Matthew 16 has to be the Kingdom Church. We see this running through the first part of the book of Acts. Then we come to the Saul of Tarsus conversion in Acts 9. It was to Saul turned Paul that the Grace of God was revealed, and thus the Body of Christ created. A brand-new body of believers consisting of Jew and Gentile in a brand-new dispensation, revealing the “hidden wisdom of God in a mystery” (1 Cor. 2:7).
Considering this radically changed my understanding of the uniqueness of the Body of Christ in history. Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles said in Ephesians 3:1-4 “For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, 2 If you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me toward you: 3 How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote before in few words, 4 By which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ)”. Paul says here that the dispensation of the Grace of God and the knowledge in the mystery of Christ was given unto him for the Gentiles.
Then in Romans 16:25-26 “Now to him who is able to establish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, 26 But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith”. The Gospel Paul preaches is his gospel given by revelation by the commandment of Jesus Christ, and on the same level of the prophets.
This Gospel given to the Apostle Paul, this mystery (information) was hidden in God as a secret. We see this in Colossians 1:25-27 “Of which I am made a minister, according to the commission of God which is given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God; 26 Even the mystery which has been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: 27 To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory”. Christ and His Glory in you? Unheard of in time past.
Another scripture; 1 Corinthians 2:7-8 “But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: 8 Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory”. It was the cross that unleashed the Grace of God upon the whole world! This revelation was given uniquely to Paul as the Apostle to this dispensation; this time in world history.
Ephesians 3:8-9 “Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; 9 And to make all men see what is the plan of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ”. This Grace among all gentile nations, the revelation of the mystery (hidden information made known) was hid from past ages and generations; time past.
So, what can we conclude from this? Until we get to Acts chapter 9 when Jesus comes down from heaven and strikes Saul of Tarsus to the ground on the road to Damascus, the new dispensation of the Grace of God and all its’ glory was hidden, kept secret in God. It was not even known until then. Moses did not know it – the OT prophets did not know it – Jesus’ 12 disciples did not know it. Remember, God releases His will, purposes, and plans gradually; a little here and a little there over time. Today, we have the complete revelation in our Bible, the Word of God.
We will discuss this “New Man” – “New Creature” – this New Body of Christ who can now receive righteousness and freedom from sin absolutely FREE! We will also discover WHY God kept this hidden within Himself. But for now…
May the Grace and Peace of Our Lord Jesus Christ be upon you all. Amen!