Our
number one desire for these Bible lessons are for them to be understandable,
defendable, and for the Holy Spirit to bear witness that the conclusions are
the true and correct interpretation of the Holy Scriptures.
Guidelines
for our Bible studies on this website:
1. We treat the living words of the
living God as spoken by the Lord Jesus and given to the Apostle Paul for the
Body of Christ the same importance, as
the words of the Lord Jesus recorded in red
letters in the books of Matthew – Acts Chp. 8, as what should be known as the
instructions to the nation Israel.
2. We will not be wresting the scriptures
against each other, we will look at the verses in their context, and will not
try to make the scriptures say anything, but what they say.
3. We will be using the verses out of the
Authorized Version, commonly known as the KJV. It is fine if you want to look
the verses up in other translations if you like, but we will consider the
Authorized Version as our final written authority.
4. We do not and will not use the Greek,
Hebrew, Aramaic, or Latin languages to prove any points, or give any indication
that the Authorized Version has been incorrectly translated.
I
hope these studies are interesting enough to provoke you to study your Bible
and for you to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I
have come to the conclusion one of the hardest things for a Christian to do is
unlearn unsound bible doctrine or beliefs that they have come to love, even if
they are untrue and can easily be disproved.
As
always, we will go to the living words of the living God to get our information
and let the Holy Spirit make the scriptures clear to us by comparing scripture
with scripture.
Now
I know I must sound like a broken record, but if you fail to understand this simple
principle that we have learned from the Apostle Paul, that sound Bible doctrine
from the Old Testament, New Testament, and Acts (Acts is the transition book
away from the Old Testament prophecies unto the dispensation of grace as given
to Paul) when forced upon Christians living today becomes unsound doctrine.
In
the last lesson we saw that Peter had to unlearn Old Testament doctrine when
the Lord did a new work and provided new doctrine/instructions to Peter
concerning clean and unclean animals.
We
witnessed Peter push back on accepting these new rules because it went against
everything he had ever been taught and practiced during his life.
Now
in this lesson I am not going to get real heavy but I am going to share with
you an experience I recently had, it will give you something to consider that
will require you to study, pray, and with the help of the Holy Spirit,
hopefully you and I can come to the same understanding.
Alright
I attended a church while I was out of town, I will withhold the name as the
name does not matter, what matters is what they say they believe and I did not
make this up and I am taking anything out of context, I will cut and paste the
information word for word from their statements of what they believe.
What
I want us to do is look at a couple things they believe and look at it from a
Bible rightly divided viewpoint and see if we can determine if it is sound
doctrine or unsound doctrine.
Alright
let’s look at the first statement of faith that they say they believe:
“We believe... In the baptism of the
Holy Spirit for all believers being initially evidenced by speaking with other
tongues.”
Ok
the first thing they say they believe is “in
the baptism of the Holy Spirit for all believers”, is that sound Bible
doctrine for Christians living today?
Well
I have to tell you that as good as that sounds, the words as a phase or
statement “In the baptism of the Holy
Spirit”, “baptism of the Holy Spirit”,
“baptism of the Holy Ghost” do not
appear in your Bible. This should be a red flag when someone tells you something
is in your Bible, and when you look it up it is nowhere to be found.
What
the Bible does say about Spirit baptism is “by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body”, “have been
all made to drink into one Spirit”, “have been baptized into Christ have put on
Christ”, it is very important not to go on feelings, but what the
word of the Living God actually says and the Holy Spirit testifies to you as
being the true and correct interpretation.
1Cor.12 [13] For by one Spirit are
we all baptized into one body,
whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.
Gal.3 [27] For as many of you as have
been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
Notice
that when Paul speaks these words, pay attention, we are not baptized in the
spirit but are baptized by the spirit into the body of Christ. Notice also
there is no mention of tongues in associated with being baptized into Christ.
Also
there is no more mention or use of tongues outside of the book of 1st
Corinthians as the Apostle Paul received further revelation from the Lord Jesus
on doctrine/instructions for the Body of Christ.
Continuing
“being initially
evidenced by speaking with other tongues” We are now told they
believe this baptism of the Holy Spirit is for all believers and is “evidenced by speaking
with other tongues”.
Now
lets compare what they believe with what the Bible says, we read in Acts.2 [4] [3] And there
appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of
them. [4] And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to
speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. [5] And there were
dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. [6]
Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were
confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. [7]
And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not
all these which speak Galilaeans? [8] And how hear we every man in our own
tongue, wherein we were born?
What
happened here, let’s not wrest the scriptures but just take them as they are written.
It says they were filled with the Holy Ghost no mention of being baptized in
the spirit, they began to speak with tongues, pay close attention as the spirit
gave them utterance, and we learn in verses 6, 7, and 8 that these tongues were
not Jibber Jabber that no one understands, but were in fact known languages. We
also learn that not everyone was speaking in tongues, but only the Galilaeans.
Just
another little tidbit of information, Peter tells us what happened here was
fulfillment of an Old Testament prophecy out of the book of Joel. Acts.2 [16] But this is
that which was spoken by the prophet Joel;.
This
means what happened here in Acts chp. 2 had nothing to do with the Body of
Christ and the dispensation of grace which is part of God’s mystery program
that no one knew about, other than God, until revealed to the Apostle Paul.
With
modern day technology being what it is, it is very easy to do word searches and
check when someone quotes a Bible verse or tells you something is in the Bible
for you to look it up and verify if they are pulling your leg! The Truth of
God’s Holy word is easy to determine if you let the Holy Spirit lead you.
Remember
all of the confusion among Christianity/Christians today can be attributed to
the simple fact that the church, the Body of Christ, does not recognize the
separate, distinct, and unique apostleship, ministry, and message of Paul.
If you have never trusted the Lord Jesus as your savior, I
encourage you to believe in him and invite him to save you today! All one needs
to do is to trust and believe in the Lord Jesus’s death, burial and
resurrection for the forgiveness of sins to be made new in him.
Gal.2 [16] Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the
law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus
Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ,
and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the
law shall no flesh be justified
Eph.3 [17] That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith;
that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, [19] And to know the love
of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the
fulness of God.
What
a great day that will be when Jesus Christ returns in all his glory, friend
don’t let that day take you unawares. Today Jesus has his arms outstretched and
open to sinners to put their trust in him. One day we will all stand before him
either as our savior or our judge, don’t put it off invite Jesus to save you
today!
"The
crowd that will not accept one truth will decay to the point that it does not
accept one God: many denominations, many translations, many gods."
The
words of our Apostle Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles!
2Tim.2 [15] Study
to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be
ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
Come
join with us as we study God’s Holy Word!
Remember
most unsound Bible Doctrine, is sound Bible Doctrine misapplied to
the wrong time period, or wrong group of people.
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