The BIG Picture (Study)

Building on the Foundation Matt.16:13  When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? 14 And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. 15 He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? 16 And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. 17 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. 18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church ; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 19 And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.  We are probably all familiar with parts of this text above. The part I

Paul, The First into a New Program It is incredibly important to understand God's Word in the right context, and this is greatly supported by identifying periods of time, being aware of patterns or nuances, recognizing people groups and changes in program or instruction throughout the Bible. The example below is one such instance where, based on what Paul says, "that IN ME first...as a pattern..." , it could be a bit confusing what he means by it! We have to dig in deeper and analyze why Paul said this and understand it in context with right division in the Word. A very interesting scripture to analyze in regard to the divisions within the Word is, 1 Timothy 1:15-16 It is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief [foremost] . But for this reason, I obtained mercy, in order that in me first , Christ Jesus might show all patience [longsuffering, grace] as a pattern to those

Two Verses that might Challenge your Doctrine (Part.2) This is  part 2  of the series Click here to start with  Part 1 The two verses I deal with in this article played a HUGE role in helping me to understand the Bible in its proper context. If one does not understand how to divide the Word and bring context to the two verses that are mentioned in this article, they can be pretty hard to interpret correctly. As I mentioned before in part 1, these are the two verses that got me on the path of studying the Word in a dispensational way, ( or as Paul puts it, rightly dividing the Word of truth , 2 Tim.2:15). The reason is because these two verses mention some very interesting things, things that will cause you to question if you actually read the verse correctly, things that will certainly make you think twice about what Paul was really saying. So, let me introduce the second verse to you, Romans 16:25-26  Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to  my gosp

Two Verses that might Challenge your Doctrine (Part.1) The following two verses referenced below played a HUGE role in helping me to understand the Bible in its proper context. If I never knew at that time what I now know about the Bible, these two verses would have been hard to swallow, hard to digest, hard to agree with! I trust you get my point. :) In actual fact, it is these very two verses that got me on the path of studying the Word in a dispensational way, (or as Paul puts it, rightly dividing the Word of truth, 2 Tim.2:15 ). The reason is because these two verses mention some very interesting things, things that will cause you to question if you actually read the verse correctly, things that will certainly make you think twice about what Paul was really saying.  So, let me break your suspense and jump into the first of these two verses and provide some comments and interpretation on them. Our first verse is, 2 Corinthians 5:16