This book is introduced by asking two questions which require minimal Bible knowledge to answer correctly. 1st question: “Do any other life forms exist in the Heavenlies where God resides?” 2nd question: “Does death exist in the Heavenlies where God resides?”
Anyone who knows anything about Heaven will answer the 1st question as “Yes, angels also exist in the Heavenlies” and the 2nd question will be answered “No; death does not exist in the Heavenlies where God resides.”
Those questions were suggested by simply reading the first 3 verses of Isaiah 6 which report that “Seraphim cry, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory.” Why do “Seraphim” claim “the whole earth is full of his glory” when all the available evidence demonstrates the whole earth is full of sin and death? And why do “Seraphim” think they ought to worship “the LORD’s Holiness” when they don’t worship every other Holy thing that can be found in Heaven?
Revelation 13:8 suggests answers to these questions by asserting “And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” It is intuitively obvious that “redemption by slaying the Lamb” (i.e., death by crucifixion of “the Lamb”) cannot happen in the place where God and “Seraphim” both reside. Thus, God must create a non-Heavenly environment just so “Seraphim” can observe “the death of the Lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world.” God’s inspired Words reveal that’s exactly what happened. However, wisdom deficient sectarian Bible scholars continue to “lean unto their own understandings” about God’s Purpose-For-Creation.
The “rightly divided” context of Scripture (i.e., Gen 1:1, Eph 3:5-10, Acts 2:29) reveals “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth as a mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ to the intent that now UNTO THE PRINCIPALITIES AND POWERS in heavenly places might be known BY THE CHURCH the manifold wisdom of God.”
“Rightly divided” Scriptural context reveals God’s “determinate counsel and foreknowledge” was to create an environment where “death by crucifixion” could happen. This was necessary simply because “death” is impossible in the place “where God resides in the heavenlies with the principalities and powers.” In fact, everything was created according to God’s “determinate counsel and foreknowledge.” That multi-worded English phrase can be summarized by the single English word “predestination.”
Authors of secular murder mysteries create environments containing a murdered victim even though typical secular authors have never experienced anyone being murdered. In like manner, “the mystery story” inspired to be written by the Divine Author (i.e., God) creates an environment where “the Lamb of God will be slain” even though no one had ever been “slain” where The Divine Author resides. However, “the mystery of His-Story” (i.e., “history”) must be contextually “studied” if God’s motivation “is to be understood” by wisdom deficient Bible scholars.
God’s motivation ought to be contextually intuitive simply because “In the beginning” NEITHER “the heavens” NOR “the earth” NOR “the Lamb that was slain” NOR “the church” existed in the place where God resides along with “the principalities and powers in heavenly places.” Thus, God’s “determinate counsel and foreknowledge” was to create an environment for telling “His-Story.” However, God deliberately “hid” any knowledge of His “determinate counsel and foreknowledge” as a “mystery, which from the beginning hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ” (Eph 3:9).
God also chose to “mysteriously hide” the identity of “the principalities and powers.” (I assume “Seraphim” are included in the classification of “principalities and powers” but this is “mysteriously” never confirmed within Scripture). A search of God’s “mystery story” reveals “principalities and powers” are created to be either “good” or “evil.” However, “evil principalities and powers” cannot reside “in the heavenlies” where God resides with “the Seraphim.” So, God had to create an alternative environment where “evil principalities and powers” can reside with wisdom deficient Bible scholars.
From the moment of Creation until AD60 God recognized the risk that God’s Purpose-For-Creation can be sabotaged by humans who thought they were literally honoring God’s Holiness by resisting the “evilness of the principalities and powers whom God had created”. That kind of sabotage was actually attempted in Scripture when the leadership of “God’s chosen people” attempted to protect the Holiness of God by accusing Jesus of “blasphemy” (Matt 26:65 and Mark 14:64). Nevertheless, an omnipotent God caused God’s Purpose-For-Creation to be fulfilled by crucifying “His only begotten Son.”
Tradition reports that in AD60 God inspired the Apostle Paul to write the epistle to the Ephesians about “the good principalities and powers who continue to exist in the Heavenlies along with God.” In other words, in AD60 God finally revealed “the mystery” to those who “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart.” However, wisdom deficient Bible scholars continue to “lean unto their own” theological opinions “to the intent” of interpreting God’s Words as if their wisdom deficient “conflicted understanding” truly reflects God’s motivation.
Wisdom deficient Bible scholars pretend to agree with John 17:7 that “Thy Word is Truth” while literally teaching sectarian opinions which conflict with rival sectarian opinions as well as conflict with God’s Purpose as revealed within the inspired context of “Thy Word is Truth.” Conflicted wisdom deficient sectarian opinions are publicly observable in the form of Christian preaching that devalues Scripture.
The point being made in this book
The point is that without exception every Bible school educated “pastor teacher” disagrees with rival “pastor teachers” about the literal meaning of “Thy Word is Truth.” Without exception the outcome of that kind of disagreement is always Christian preaching that devalues Scripture. God’s Creation has always been characterized by conflict despite an omniscient Creator God’s making His strange assertion in Genesis 1:31 that “all His creative effort was very good.” Scripture reports conflict between humans immediately after Adam and Eve were evicted from The Garden of Eden at the end of Genesis 3. 1Corinthians 1:12 reports sectarian conflict in one of the earliest Churches established by the Apostle Paul. Conflict existed long before Jesus was crucified and conflict between God believers continues to be characteristic of modern times. However, God inspired Paul in AD60 to reveal in his Ephesians Epistle the “the mystery of God’s Purpose-For-Creation that has been hidden since the foundation of the world.”
Despite God’s inspiration, wisdom deficient Bible schools continue to teach “pastor teachers” to trust sectarian opinions about God promise of salvation to those who are “dead in trespasses and sin.” Bible scholars foolishly “proof-text” 2Peter 3:9 to teach “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” However, if a sovereign and immutable God really wants “all to come to repentance” then why do so many NOT “come to repentance”?
Those same wisdom deficient Bible schools “deceitfully lean unto their own understanding” to teach “pastor teachers” the unscriptural opinion that John 3:16 universally offers “everlasting life” to “whosoever” makes-a-free-will-decision “to believe in Him.”
There is a high statistical probability approaching 100% that you also “trust” those same deceitfully wrong wisdom deficient sectarian “understandings.” However, the human author of John 3:16 implies in Revelation 13:8 that salvation is “predestined by the list of names that were already written in the Lamb’s book of life before the foundation of the world.” If John’s implication is true, then wisdom deficient Bible scholars either “misunderstand” or else deliberately “misinterpret” the context of both John 3:16 and 2Peter 3:9.
Please affirm that the Wisdom Literature of Proverbs 3:5-6 specifically teaches us to “lean NOT unto our own understanding” simply because “conflicted understandings” always result in Christian preaching that devalues Scripture. The wise alternative is to “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” It is philosophically intuitive that the reason WHY God created anything at all is always more instructive than knowing WHAT God has created.
The philosophical nomenclature is “WHY > WHAT.”
If your “understanding” of God’s Word happens to be contextually correct, then you have literally exposited God’s Word rather than interpreted God’s Word. It is egotistically absurd to claim “interpreted understandings” are honoring to God. In other words, “Thy Word is Truth” despite every egotistical wisdom deficient attempt to “lean unto thine own understanding” to interpret that which God may have meant to say.
Without exception, a humble “trusting” of contextual expositions of God’s Words always evaluates Scripture at the highest level possible rather than egotistically devaluing Scripture with “thine own understanding.” Romans 3:4 teaches that “Pastor teachers” who counsel church attendees from a pulpit ought to worry about their own salvation simply because they are each “liars.”
The Apostle John’s assertion in John 3:16 that “God so loved the world” seems to contradict the same Apostle John’s command in 1John 2:15 to “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.” How can it be that “God so loved the world” while “whosoever believeth in him” is commanded to “Love not the world”?
John rationalizes his 1John 2:15 command by asserting “If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” The English word “world” in both John 3:16 and 1John 2:15 was translated from the same Greek word “κόσμος” (Strong’s G2889). Thus, the only way to resolve the appearance of a contradiction between 1John 2:15 and John 3:16 is to exposit (i.e., “rightly divide”) the context of both verses.
The “rightly divided” context of 1John 2:15 teaches that “loving the world” rather than “loving God” evaluates “the world” as having more value than “the Creator of the world” which is merely a minute part of an elaborately created Universe. However, 2Peter 3:10 reveals God’s elaborate Universe is scheduled for destruction. And God’s divinely scheduled destruction includes both living and dead un-redeemed humans. Thus, John teaches that “loving a temporary and disposable world” rather than “loving the Creator of the temporary and disposable world” is nonsense simply because “loving a world that is scheduled for destruction” is literally religious sabotage of God’s Purpose-For-Creation.
A contextual exposition of John 3 reports “Nicodemus” asking “how can a man be born again when he is old?” Jesus bases His answer on the 3:6 axiom “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” It is axiomatic that every life form (no exception) is determined by parentage so Jesus tells “Nicodemus to marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth. So is every one that is born of the Spirit.” In other words, being “born of the Spirit” is “predestined” by the same Father who “predestines the blowing of the wind.”
The axiom of John 3:6 teaches that the birth of bugs, catfish, cows, crows, and humans is always the outcome of parental copulation that created a previously non- existing DNA. In like manner, being “born again of the Spirit” describes a previously non-existing Spiritual DNA being created by “the determinant council and foreknowledge of God the Father.” That previously non-existing Spiritual DNA intrinsically “believeth in Him” as well as intrinsically inherits “everlasting life.” But only humans can be “born again of the Spirit.” Bugs, catfish, cows, and crows are never “born again of the Spirit.”
It is intuitive that both “born of the Flesh” and “born again of the Spirit” are the outcome of “the determinant counsel and foreknowledge of God” as reported in Acts 2:23. Both kinds of life were “predestined” by the same “determinant counsel and foreknowledge of God.”
The reality is that God “predestines the DNA” of both “Fleshly” and “Spiritual” conceptions and births. In fact, nothing happens that Creator God did not “predestine” to happen. Nevertheless, the concept of “predestination” is often rejected by wisdom deficient Bible scholars.
“Predestination” is clearly taught within the context of “Thy Word is Truth” so why does anyone question the reality of “predestination.” The reality of “predestination” is the reason WHY God commands all humans to “trust in the LORD with all thine heart and lean NOT unto thine own understanding.”
God’s Word is always Truthful. For example, the context of Peter’s 2nd epistle literally reports Peter writing “to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ.” The literal Truth is that Peter writes to “brethren” whose names were already “written in the Lamb’s book of life from the foundation of the world” (Rev 13:8). However, the concept of a “predestined calling and election” is often hermeneutically interpreted to be “understood” as “The Lord is longsuffering to us <sinful humans>, not willing that any <sinful humans> should perish, but that all <sinful humans> should come to repentance.” By contrast, the literal context of 2Peter 1:10 specifically instructs “the brethren” to “give diligence to make your calling and election sure.” Accordingly, typical wisdom deficient Bible scholars and “pastor teachers” are guilty of “giving diligence to” interpret 2Peter 3:9 incorrectly in order to proof-text their foolish wisdom deficient assumptions.
It is a “mystery” that “MANY who address Jesus as LORD” (Matt 7:22) literally misunderstand the concept of “giving diligence” even though an omniscient God declared in Genesis 1:31 that “everything God created was very good.”
Another example reports Saul on the road to Damascus was a highly educated leader in the Jewish religion who diligently hated Christians. Thus, Saul was the epitome of “giving diligence” by diligently rejecting The Gospel. But the resurrected Jesus who was also “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” had already “called and elected” that diligent unbeliever named Saul to be reeducated (Gal 1:15ff) by the resurrected Jesus to be divinely “commissioned” as “Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles” (Rom 11:13).
The reality is that every “call to salvation” was “predestined from the foundation of the world” before the gift of “everlasting life” could be given to humans who won’t even be conceived and birthed (i.e., “born of the flesh”) until thousands of years after “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”
2Peter is written to those who are “predestined to obtain like precious faith” who will each “diligently add to your faith virtue; etc.” In other words, “Giving all diligence” is merely doing the absolute minimum God has “called and elected” you to do “For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall NEITHER be barren NOR unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2Pet 1:8).
“Giving all diligence” is the absolute minimum expected by a Creator God who asserts that “everything was created exactly as God intended.”
Those who don’t “give all diligence to add to your faith virtue; etc.” are “blind” and incapable to “see they were purged from their old sins” (2Peter 1:9). However, "giving all diligence” is NOT what is MOST IMPORTANT.
2Peter 1:10 reports THAT WHICH IS MOST IMPORTANT IS TO “make your calling and election sure” by “remembering” that “God always keeps His promise.” Multiple “reminders of God keeping His promise” are listed in 1:12, 1:13, 1:15, and all of chapter 2. Thus, Peter concludes in 3:9 “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as <scoffers> count slackness; but is longsuffering to <the called and elect>, not willing that any <called and elect> should perish, but that all <called and elect> should come to repentance.”
The reality is that Peter’s 2nd epistle teaches “the assurance of promised salvation” rather than “an offer of volitional salvation if wisdom deficient Bible scholars can somehow persuade you to make-a-free-will-decision.”
However, wisdom deficient Bible schools ignore the context of John 3:16, 1John 2:15, and 2Peter 3:9 as well as many other contexts of Scripture. It is obvious that Bible schools never teach Biblical proficiency simply because without exception graduates of every Bible school are observed believing doctrines that conflict with the doctrines believed by those who graduated from rival Bible schools. Pervasive sectarian conflict is irrefutable evidence of a pervasive lack of Biblical proficiency. That irrefutable evidence cannot be “understood incorrectly.”
Instead of teaching Biblical proficiency, Bible schools teach proficiency in a hermeneutical “understanding” about that which God really meant to say if only God had thought about it just a little bit more.
The outcome of that kind of hermeneutical “understanding” is always Christian preaching that devalues Scripture even when that message contains “proof-text” verses quoted from “Thy Word is Truth.”
Referencing a “proof-text” of Scripture is the exact opposite of Biblical preaching. The distinction is made obvious by asking if the preacher in your church ever conflicts with any other preacher. The alternative is always an exposition of the literal context of Scripture. The evidence is irrefutable that Bible schools neglect teaching methods for expositing Scripture.
God commands everyone to “Trust in the LORD”
Every living human resides in a world that was created by God. But no human was present when “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” Thus, if any living human wants to know what God did during the first 5 days of creation he must be told. Revealing history is what God does in “Thy Word is Truth” and God does a really good job of revealing history.
Scriptural History reveals that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23). That kind of Scriptural History is not “a mystery.”
However, the reason why God created “a world that comes short of the glory of God” has always been a “mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ” (Eph 3:9). Tradition teaches that Paul was inspired to write the epistle to the Ephesians in AD60. Prior to AD60 God only informed us about what God has already done or else a prophesy of what God is going to do.
Instead of revealing the reason why the world was created, God commands every human to “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and He shall direct your path.” The alternative to “Trusting the LORD” has always been disobedience of God’s command by “leaning unto thine own understanding” to manufacture speculations about that which God really meant to do or say if only God had stopped for a moment to think about what He was doing and saying.
The irrefutable evidence is that Bible schools teach “pastor teachers” to disobey God by “leaning unto their own understanding.” There are no exceptions to that evidence. And rival “pastor teachers” teach church attendees to “lean unto an approved sectarian understanding” about that which God really meant to tell us if only God could have done a better job of communicating. Sectarian church attendees are taught to trust their wisdom deficient “sectarian authorized pastor teacher” rather than taught to “trust God.” The Christian religion is characterized by sectarian conflict between both organized and so-called independent affiliations of churches. It is intuitively obvious that every “born of the Flesh” human is “predestined to sin” simply because “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23). The only exception is the incarnate “Lamb of God” who was “in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Heb 4:15). He was “slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev 13:8) as a prelude to His “coming to seek and to save that which was lost” (Lk 19:10).
“Cain killing Abel” is another irrefutable example of “leaning unto a conflicted understanding” about that which God really meant to say. “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God” is exactly what God “predestined” to happen when “the LORD God sent <Cain’s parents> forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence <his parents were> taken” (Gen 3:23).
A more modern example of “leaning unto a conflicted understanding” is churches conflicting with rival churches about what God really meant to say. Wisdom deficient Bible students are taught to “lean unto their own understanding” that Eve’s “sin” was due to Satan’s temptation. But the real reason why God did anything at all was “mysteriously” (Eph 3:3) hidden by God.
To be sure, Scripture frequently identifies Satan as “the Tempter” but the context of Revelation 13:8 implies that “the Lamb was slain to pay the penalty for sin” before Satan had been “cast down” to become “the Tempter.”
I humbly ask each reader to exposit the context of Genesis 3 to affirm “the serpent which the LORD God had made” (rather than Satan) merely verified that Eve understood God’s command (3:1) followed by “the serpent” (rather than Satan) revealing Truth which God had “mysteriously hid” from Adam and Eve (Gen 3:4-5, Eph 3:9). The Truth which God “mysteriously hid” is contextually explained in Hebrews 9:27 that Adam and Eve were already “appointed once to die, but after this the judgment.”
Admittedly, “The Tempter” Satan wants everyone to “sin” but Genesis 3:6 reveals Eve’s sin was entirely due to “the woman <lustfully> saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat.” Apostle Peter contextually explains in Acts 2:22ff that “Eve’s sin” was “deliberately predestined from the foundation of the world” by “the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God.” The literature of God’s Word is clear that “predestination” and “foreknowledge” are symbiotic terms. Each of those symbiotic words assumes the reality of the other word. But wisdom deficient Bible scholars seem ignorant of literary symbiosis.
The reality is that Eve’s sin was nothing more than an every-day event of eating food which God had graciously provided.
It is a “mystery” to virtually all wisdom deficient Bible scholars that God used an every-day event to initiate God’s Purpose-For-Creation as well as God’s purpose for the conception and birth of each “born of the flesh” human who has temporary and disposable existence on “the earth” which was created by God to be temporary and disposable.
To be sure, the angelic Lucifer/Satan used “the serpent which God had created” to reveal the Hebrews 9:27 context that was “predestined” to be hidden from Adam and Eve according to God’s own “determinate council and foreknowledge.” Genesis 3:14 explains that an omniscient God “made the serpent” to be cursed “above all cattle, and above every beast of the field.”
For certain the angelic Satan or Lucifer is implicated by Genesis 3:14, however, the evidence of God’s curse “of serpents” continues to be observed by all modern humans despite any wisdom deficient theological opinion about Satan or Lucifer.
The context doesn’t say so but “cursing the serpent” could be the event causing God to “cast down the angelic Lucifer” to become “Satan the tempter” of every human including temptation of the incarnated “Lamb of God” (Lk 4:1ff).
However, Job 1:6ff reveals “the cast down Tempter Satan” is restricted to doing only that which fulfills God’s Purpose-For-Creation as revealed in Ephesians 3:10 that everything was created by God “To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known BY THE CHURCH the manifold wisdom of God.” A history professor named Santayana is credited with the quoted analysis “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” (Search the web for “Santayana’s quotes” if you are curious about his quotes. Santayana was a prolific analyzer of history.)
Santayana’s quote provides a perspective for “understanding” why “the woman whom thou gavest to be with me” chose to “lean unto her own understanding” rather than choosing to “Trust the LORD with all her heart.” Santayana’s perspective is that Eve had no concept of “death” simply because Eve had no past that could be remembered. Thus, the penalty “thou shalt surly die” was a complete “mystery” to Eve. The only thing Eve could remember was that “God provided trees as the source for food.” Eve “lustfully sinned” simply because God chose to never tell her why she was created. The reality is that Eve was “predestined by God to sin” and yet God asserted “everything that He had created was very good” simply because it fulfilled God’s Purpose.
The angelic Satan who spoke thru “the serpent which the LORD God had made” (Gen 3:1) “leaned unto his own understanding” about that which God had deliberately hidden from Adam and Eve. Even the very best Bible school trained “pastor teachers” emulate the angelic Satan by “leaning unto their own understanding” when preparing pulpit messages. Bible schools persuade wisdom deficient preachers to believe that a sectarian proof-text about that which God did NOT mean to say is more applicable to human needs than that which God literally did say. That kind of sectarian interpretation is exactly what Satan led “the serpent” to do in Genesis 3.
Bible schools teach the homiletic that pulpit sermons are to be structured as Christian counseling to persuade sectarian approved applications of good behavior. Wisdom deficient Bible schools teach that “Spiritually dead humans” can make-a- volitional-decision to no longer be “Spiritually dead.” That absurdity is a sectarian approved wisdom deficient message application.
Bible schools ignore the reality that “conflicted understandings” (i.e., sectarian interpretations) about that which God meant to say always result in Christian preaching that devalues Scripture even when the preacher is counseling “Entire Sanctification” such that human behavior can be observed as emulating “Holiness unto the Lord.” Counseling an emulation of “Entire Sanctification” rejects “If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us” (1John 1:10).
The reality is that humans are incapable of emulating “Holiness unto the Lord” because “Holiness” is always “the gift of God. That gift is Not of works lest any man should boast” (Eph 2:8-9)
Scripture teaches 2Timothy 2:2 that preaching ought to be “the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.” That verse restricts preaching to only expositions of “the things that thou hast heard of me.” However, Bible schools never emphasize “the things that thou hast heard of me.” Bible schools always emphasize homiletics that result in Christian preaching that devalues Scripture. There are no exceptions.
Many Bible schools teach the homiletic that pulpit messages must end with applications that resist Satan’s temptations by obeying a list of sectarian approved rules and regulations. However, God’s Laws have never been consistently obeyed by “born of the Flesh” humans. In just that way “pastor teachers” are taught to reject the Ephesians 4:11-13 “gifting of God” intended to result in every church “coming in the unity of the faith.”
Rival church affiliations tend to teach similar Biblical doctrines. So, why don’t rival churches emphasize their similarities rather than affiliate based on their distinctive doctrines? Rival affiliated local church buildings have even been built on opposite corners of the same streets.
God’s answer to questions about why God created sectarian rivalries is that every CHURCH is created “To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known BY THE CHURCH the manifold wisdom of God” (Eph 3:10). “The principalities and powers in the heavenlies” learn the distinction between “good and evil” by observing the conflicted versions of Truth which are taught in rival sectarian CHURCHES. God’s plan requires the “good and evil” that characterizes every sectarian CHURCH which claims to believe “Thy Word is Truth.” Conflicted CHURCHES are merely temporary and disposable tools for teaching the distinction between “God’s goodness” and “the evil of conflicted opinions about that which God really meant to say.”
Instead of teaching “pastor teachers” how to “Trust in the LORD with all your heart” Bible schools teach “pastor teachers” to “trust” the conflicted writings of dead theologians such as Agustine, Arminius, Calvin, Ignatius, Pelagius, Spurgeon, Wesley, as well as various other living and dead sectarian approved theological scholars. Each of those men seems to have desired to serve God even though each taught a conflicted system of belief.
To be sure, conflicted opinions often partially reflect that which God really meant to say, but even the most nearly correct conflicted opinion is never the outcome of a literal exposition of “Thy Word is Truth.”
It is intuitive that “Trust in the LORD” requires trusting God’s Words without any interpretation. By contrast, “leaning unto your own understanding” absolutely always requires altering God’s Words by interpretation.
Please affirm the historic teachings of conflicted Bible scholars such as Arminius, Calvin, Wesley, Whitfield, and Pelagius are being used to initiate religious “wars and rumors of war.” History is replete with both religious and secular “wars and rumors of war.” The motivation for every “war” is to eliminate the opposition by effective martyrdom. In that regard, the divine author who inspired Proverbs 3:5-6 also inspired Ecclesiastes 1:9 “There is no new thing under the sun” since “Cain martyred Able” after “leaning unto conflicted understandings about approved methods for offering sacrifices.” That kind of conflict is the guaranteed outcome when sectarian theologians “lean unto proprietary interpretations of God’s Words.”
The “war” between “Cain and Able” is reported immediately after their parents were “ejected from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence they were taken” (Gen 3:23). The martyrdom of “Able” and the later martyrdom/crucifixion of the incarnate “Lamb of God” was “predestined” by “the determinate council and foreknowledge of God.”
Despite Bible schools “leaning unto thine own understanding” they tend to be valuable simply because it is impossible to “understand” (i.e., interpret) that which God meant to say unless you already know that which God literally did say.
It is extremely important for local church “pastor teachers” to be Biblically proficient simply because typical church attendees are NOT Biblically proficient. Church attendees need to literally hear God’s Words rather than hear conflicted sectarian proof-text speculations about that which God may have really meant for church attendees to hear. Literally hearing God’s Words is the only way church attendees can possibly “come in the unity of the faith.”
But Bible schools never emphasize Biblical proficiency. The very best Bible schools teach hermeneutics that conflict with the hermeneutics taught at rival Bible schools. Bible schools attract new students by marketing the sectarian hermeneutics preferred by students rather than specializing in Biblical proficiency. It is a financially expedient marketing strategy.
Every Bible school trained “pastor teacher” is taught to conflict with rival Bible school trained “pastor teachers.” Thus, it is inevitable that every church attendee conflicts with rival church attendees. Conflict between CHURCHES is so pervasive that the only conceivable conclusion is that conflict between CHURCHES is “predestined” by God “to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known BY THE CONFLICT BETWEEN CHURCHES the manifold wisdom of God.”
Moses was told that God deliberately “maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind” (Ex 4:11). And God also created CONFLICT BETWEEN CHURCHES to fulfill His Purpose-For-Creation. Why did God delay revealing His plan
It is natural to be curious about why a sovereign and omniscient God would “mysteriously” wait until AD60 to finally reveal why God created anything at all. I suggest one reason why God delayed revealing His Plan was to preclude well- intentioned and sincere God-believers from sabotaging God’s Purpose-For- Creation.
A well-intentioned resistance to God’s Purpose-For-Creation is described in 1Corinthians 2:8 where Paul admits “for had they known it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” Please affirm the statistical probability that the best educated Jewish Scholars would never request Pilate to crucify Jesus if God had allowed those well-intentioned scholarly Jewish leaders to know that Jesus was really their promised Messiah.
God literally intends His Words to be hidden as commanded in Isaiah 6:9-10 “And he said, Go, and tell this people, HEAR ye indeed, BUT UNDERSTAND NOT; and SEE ye indeed, BUT PERCEIVE NOT.”
As a matter of fact, well-intentioned modern Bible scholars emulate Jewish scholars by tolerating the “evil conflict” of doctrinal diversity simply because God “caused or predestined THE CHURCH” to be conflicted as required by Ephesians 3:10.
Isaiah 6:9-10 contradicts Bible school hermeneutics that teach God universally offers “salvation and healing” to anyone and everyone simply because “God so loved the world.” However, the “mysterious” reality is that God does NOT want everyone to be saved and/or healed.
Thus, it was statistically necessary for God to hide “the mystery” until after Jesus had been crucified to provide “redemption from sin for those who are called and elect” and after New Testament Churches had been initiated by Apostle Paul. Otherwise, some well-intended Bible scholar may inadvertently “understand” and God would be obligated to allow them to “convert and be healed.”
Hiding the “mystery from the foundation of the world” prevented statistical sabotage of the “mystery.” An infinitely omniscient and wise God recognized the statistical risk of sabotage by well-intentioned but wisdom deficient religious leaders.
My caveat
Please affirm that the consensus of “many” (Matt 7:22) wisdom deficient Bible scholars and Bible school teachers is that God created the world simply because God wanted to be glorified by free agent humans choosing to “believeth in Him.” But that consensus literally disagrees with “Thy Word is Truth.” My own wisdom deficient opinion is that the “mysterious reason” why an omniscient and omnipotent God created the world is “to the intent that” wisdom deficient Bible scholars and Bible school teachers would fail to teach Ephesians 3:10 as God’s Purpose-For-Creation.
That is exactly what has happened.
Wisdom deficient Bible scholars typically interpret God’s Words to teach that “whosoever believeth in Him” will be divinely rewarded for making that volitional decision by divinely receiving “everlasting life.” Bible scholars and city-wide Evangelists typically think God created the world so that “dead in trespasses and sin” free-agent humans could make-a-decision to no longer be “dead” by coming forward during their “Hour-of-Decision.”
Wisdom deficient Bible scholars tend to assume the human descendants of Adam and Eve are the beneficiaries of God’s creation. However, the reality is that every human is “appointed once to die, but after this the judgment” (Heb 9:27). The reality is that both “redeemed” and “unredeemed” humans are merely temporary and disposable tools being used by God to educate “the principalities and powers in the heavenlies” (Eph 3:10).
Educated religious leaders tend to “think of themselves more highly than they ought to think” (Rom 12:3). Egotistical religious leaders never characterize themselves by the Beatitudes listed in Matthew 5:3-11. However, I have no academic credential for criticizing the doctrines manufactured by egotistical Bible scholars and city-wide Evangelists.
I have never enrolled in an academic Bible school. Thus, I admit I lack academic credentials as a Biblical scholar I am totally dependent on the opinionated teaching of Bible school trained “pastor teachers” who preach from the pulpit of whichever church I happen to be attending. However, I am typically disappointed by the lack of Biblical proficiency displayed by Bible school trained pulpit preachers. I observe Bible school trained preacher’s contradicting God’s inspired Words with their
As a Bible believer I claim to “Trust in the LORD with all my heart” simply because I know from experience that every time anyone attempts to “lean unto their own understanding” we humans always end up conflicting with each other. The mere existence of sectarian affiliations and denominations is irrefutable evidence of that kind of universal conflict between Bible believing sectarians.
This book is a call to Bible school trained pulpit preachers to encourage exposition of the Literature of Scripture and to do it just as if you really believe Scripture is God’s Holy Words because WHY God inspired Scripture to be written Is more valuable than any conflicted opinion about WHAT God meant to say.