The BIG Picture (Study)

Understanding the New Testament Gospel Differences  (Part 4 --- Righteous Works) We continue with the comparison of the gospel of God and the gospel of Christ by looking at key elements that distinguish them from each other. I recommend to start at the beginning of this comparison to gain the necessary context of this series of posts. Righteous works Because the gospel of God was based on works , you will naturally see this works requirement manifest in the lives and actions of those who committed to, and were saved, under this gospel in the Acts period. For a Jew who believed in the gospel of God, that Jesus was risen and was the Christ , their works program did not change at all. They simply continued their routines based on the requirements of the Kingdom gospel, so there is not much we can learn from their accounts. However, by looking at examples from the saved Gentiles in this time, and what they did, we can glean an understanding that the gospel of God cer

The Simplicity of our Salvation It is my opinion that one of the 'easiest to understand' topics in scripture is our salvation through the grace gospel today. But on the other hand, it is also the topic that has largely been complicated, distorted and pulled out of context because of mixing up scriptures based on the gospels that belong to other dispensations and people groups. In this short discourse, I'd like to address what the Bible says about our salvation, keeping it in the right context, and proving its simplicity, which is the singular act of placing our faith in the work of Christ on our behalf. Unlike the gospels of other dispensations which depend on works, and laws, and observances, and conditions, our grace gospel is plain and simple. Our gospel, and the salvation it brings, is already complete, and simply needs to be received. There is nothing else that is tied to it that needs to be done or observed or earned. The simplici

The world is not the same as we knew it before The world is a very different place today, and it all started in January 2020. Looking back at the last year and a half, its almost as if a switch has been flipped ON. Like a dark room being flooded with light, this invisible switch has flooded the world with a sinister agenda. One can clearly see a foreboding shadow being cast upon the earth today as almost every news event has biblically prophetic undertones with a frequency and intensity that is converging, at an increasing rate, towards the dispensation of the Tribulation. From the steady flow of news I get at the sources I frequent, I'd like to highlight three categories and bring these to your attention, Desensitization! Just like the passage of scripture at Rom.1:18-28 , humanity is in a steady downward spiral of deception. Humanity is being reprogrammed to forget about God and to accept lies. Their minds are becoming so utterly foolish and debased that normal

The dispensation of grace has less to do with it starting at a specific moment in time, and more to do with the proclamation of a new salvation message from God. It's not so much linked to the event of Pentecost in Acts 2 , or the conversion of Paul in Acts 9 , or him turning to the Gentiles in Acts 28 , and more to do with receiving a message of God's abundant grace without the need of works and endurance. I'm not declining any reasoning that the message of grace started being proclaimed somewhere in the transitional book of ACTS, but I also hold true the point that grace started in each person individually when they hear, and received the good news that God declares them justified through the absolute and completed cross work of His Son, Jesus Christ. So, for me, grace started with a change in gospel. Consider this, —before the message of grace went out, that is, before the news that God is not saving by a covenant of works, but rather through th

Q-A: What Happened to the Miracles? Today, God's focus is not on miracles that accommodate the flesh. God wants us to have faith in His Word and in His Son.. Signs, miracles, and wonders were significant in Israel's program. It was a covenant God made with them! Exodus 34:10 And he said, Behold, I make a covenant: before all thy people I will do marvels, such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation: and all the people among which thou art shall see the work of the LORD: for it is a terrible thing that I will do with thee. Jesus said in John 4:48 "Except ye [Israel] see signs and wonders, ye will not believe". Paul himself writes in 1 Corinthians 1:22, "For the Jews require a sign, ..." , (Also see: Matt.12:38; Mark 8:11; John 2:18; 4:48 ). I've always wondered why Jews need signs and why signs and wond

Hardships, Trials, Illness, Persecutions, Tragedies, Why? Today, the rules of the grace dispensation do not focus greatly on the physical and the external. God's focus is on our spirit and He is working on our inner man... In the dispensation of Grace, God has changed a lot of the details of life, or the rules of living , as opposed to those for Israel under the law. We do not live in the law dispensation, so we cannot expect to experience life in the same way that we read in the Old Testament or the Gospels. We also cannot expect God to respond to us today as He did in the old ways under the law. Where the old ways were focused on the external , the way of grace puts focus on the internal . Under the old law dispensation, Jews r

Is John 3:16 the gospel? No . This verse depicts the Kingdom gospel and not the Grace gospel. The gospel is absent in this verse and therefore one cannot use this verse as a basis to present the gospel to someone. Why not? This verse lacks the information that one needs to know regarding the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ and what that purpose is for us. John 3:16 is essentially the Kingdom gospel and had to do with the  identity  of Jesus Christ, and Jews [ at the time of John's writing ] had to acknowledge Jesus as their Messiah, (see John 20:31, Luke 12:8, Matthew 16:16, John 11:27 ). The Grace gospel today is not about the identity of Christ, but rather with the cross work of Jesus; not who He is, but  what He has done . For examples of the grace gospel, see 1 Corinthians 15:1-4; Romans 4:25; 1 Thessalonians 4:14; Romans 14:9; 2 Corinthians 5:15.   (Note, these scriptures above reference the cross work of Je

Q-A: Did Paul commit the unforgivable sin? Before we can answer this question, lets review the scripture passage that mentions the unforgivable sin. We find it in Matthew's gospel where Jesus is speaking, Matthew 12:30 He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad. 31 "Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. 32 Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come . In order to get a better understanding on what Jesus meant in this passage, I recommend to first read  " What is the unforgivable sin? "  and then return here to complete the rest of this article.  As m

OBS: God's Word is a Progressive Plan (Part.5.1) This is  Part 5  of the Series Click here for  Part 4 TWO interesting points that required a 'CHANGE IN COMMUNICATION' Point #1 Even though Peter and John were disciples of Christ and had intimate knowledge of His teachings and life, it's only later, in their epistles that they write about the concepts of grace, the cross, and the redemptive blood , ( which was never mentioned in the Gospels or Acts ). Where did they get it from? Well, they learned it from the revelations that Paul received from the glorified Christ.  2 Peter 3:15 and consider that the longsuffering [patience] of our Lord is salvation — as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you , 16 as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things , in which are some things hard to understand, In the early parts of Acts, Peter and John never mention "

OBS: God's Word is a Progressive Plan (Part.2) This is Part 2 of the Series   Click here to start with Part 1 Examples of 'primary' progression and context In part 1 of this article, we proved that the Bible is a singular PLAN, albeit very intricate. As with any plan (or project), it has a start and an end point, and between these one typically has parts or specific actions that provide progression and momentum to achieve the planned objective. In this part, we will have a look at the divisions of the plan that provide its progress. Depending on what your focus is, there are many clear divisions in the Bible that can be identified based on period, people group, covenant or promise and various attributes. Our timeline image in the header of the page provides some of the primary divisions, or parts of Gods plan. Some of the primary divisions we can clearly recognize and which we will shortly analyze are, prophecy and

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