"Come unto me all you that labor and are heavy ladened, and I will give you rest." - Matthew 11:38
We understand from these and other passages of Scripture that God has a GIFT. We read elsewhere, such as in 1st Corinthians 9:24 and Philippians 3:14 that God has a PRIZE. Many difficulties with understanding God's word are resolved when we keep these two matters straight in our minds.
There are likely MORE than three separate resurrections referenced in Scripture, starting with the Lord Jesus Christ's own, and culminating with the resurrection of the dead 1,000 years after His second coming.
This series, however, is about the three progressive TERMS used for "resurrection of the dead" that occur in Scripture.
You may be surprised to discover that there is a "selection" from the resurrection of the dead that is still "at risk" for every believer.
Much confusion among Christians exists because they do not distinguish the terms "Kingdom of God" and the "Kingdom of the heavens." The latter is a term perhaps exclusively used in the Gospel of Matthew, which presents to us our Lord Jesus Christ as the King of Israel and therefore the Kings of Kings, and Lord of Lords.
This term is a PLURAL term, and from 2nd Corinthians 12:2, we know that the Paradise of God is in the third heaven. In between there and here there is a warfare as wicked spirits attempt to resist the impact of the cross of Jesus Christ.
It is the business of Christians to engage in this warfare, but how can we if we do not even understand the theatre of war?
This series may make you a more effective soldier.
Without the teaching of Matthew 13, called by some good Bible students the key chapter to the key book of the New Testament, the kingdom of the heavens in its present state would be unknown to us.
But the Lord Jesus shows Himself here to be the Revealer of Secrets, and discloses to us the conditionsof this kingdom during His absence, when the successful prosecution of warfare in them needs such discloser.
Armed with this inside information, you may be enabled to war a good warfare, fight a good fight, and attain unto a crown of righteousness, just like the apostle did.
Applying the law of Moses to the beliver today makes for some pretty bizarre conclusions as is evidence by the unBiblical positions taken by Joseph Webb, who claims to be a minister of Jesus Christ.
This is an object lesson in cofusion and false doctrine.
John gives an expositionof 1st Corinthians 7 to help straighten out the thorny issues of marriage and divorce, and we see that the grace of God is sufficient for every circumstance.
John hope's to replace it if he cannot find a copy of it. The introduction to this present dispensation is very small because the nine-epistle series of Romans through 2 Thessalonians pretty much covers it.
Introduction to Dispensations (Offline) — July 7th, 2003 (recording unavailable)
"For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." - 2 Cor 4:6
Knowing the conditions and character of the old creation help us understand the new birth and the new creation. In the Bible, things mushroom out from the first references to all things.
On the sixth day, God created man for himself. "In the image of God created he him, male and female created he them." - Genesis 1:27 This first piece of poetry in the Bible figures the new creation in Christ "We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works." - Ephesians 2:10
Adam was INNOCENT in the garden, a perfect environment, but he was not JUSTIFIED: a big difference.
The dispensation of conscience led to the deluge. This one opens with God's promise not to destroy every living thing by water again.
In order to make good on that promise, God devises a system of government by man to restrain him from the decent into human social depravity, wherein the earth would be filled with violence and the imagination of man was only evil continually.
The tenets of the Noahic covenant have been under seige since!
Under the dispensation of government, man failed to keep the parameters of God's covenant, and so God turned away from an administration of all men, and singled out Abraham and his household, committing to him His word and testimony.
The epistle to the Colossians is a doctrinal adjunct to the epistle of the Ephesians to enable the Colossians believers (and us) to be corrected against the errors of the vain philosophies and ritualistic errors that composed the gentile religions of that day.
That "old time religion" gets re-packaged through the ages. It's the same as the "new age religion" of our own day. It started in Babel - confusion - and still emanates from there.