Mark Vestal Proud of nothing of myself. Freed by Christ who did it all!

All of the below insight is from The Maranatha Bible Society.

"The Bible is a progressively revealed book. It is the Book of God’s revelation of Himself to mankind … first to mankind in general, then to the chosen nation of Israel, and lastly to “the church, which is His Body.” Because of these various entities we cannot take all of the Bible as TO US. We cannot take what God gave to Israel, as a nation, and make it to us today. What was revealed to one group at one time, cannot necessarily be interpreted to another group at another time. For instance, what the earthly Christ told the disciples to do in the Gospels was not what the risen Christ in glory told Paul to do in his epistles. The message of the twelve was to Israel, and concerned the kingdom of heaven and their Messiah; whereas the message of Paul had nothing to do with Israel, but concerned “the church, which is His Body.”

We know that “all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness,” and that the O.T. Scriptures are written for our example and learning. What we cannot do is take all that is written “for us,” and make it “to us,” who are members of the Body of Christ. To do so is to end up in hopeless confusion. Therefore we ask the questions which Miles Coverdale set forth in his method of study whereby we can discern the interpretation, the application, or the implication.

This is in obedience to the admonition given to us, “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15)."

"Within the confines of His written word, God gradually unveils:

The attributes of His triune nature,
His purpose and plan for His creation,
His two-fold plan for saving and blessing his two elect groups of people: the remnant of Israel, and the church which is His Body.

God progressively reveals truth about Himself and His will throughout the Bible.
God progressively changes the people He deals with throughout the Bible.
God progressively changes the way He deals with people throughout the Bible."

"Miles Coverdale was born in 1488, received the Bachelor of Canon Law degree at Cambridge University in 1531, and his Doctor’s degree from Tubingen and Cambridge a few years later. He began translating the Bible into English and he had a great deal to do with the preservation and ultimate translation of the Word of God. His labors were taken over by William Tyndale and their various editions continued up until (and even beyond) the translation and publication of the King James Bible in 1611.

Miles Coverdale wrote this statement which has enabled many to correctly understand the Scriptures. It reads:

It shall greatly help you to understand Scriptures
If thou mark not only what is spoken or written,
But of whom, and to whom, with what words, at what time.
Where, to what intent, with what circumstances,
Considering what goeth before and what followeth after."

February 13 2023 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

Justin Hale

The 'Bible,' (which is simply a word that means 'book'), is all about GOD and His relationship with His 'Creation.' In particular, this 'holy' book was written from the perspective of a type of creature 'made in GOD's direct likeness,' which is how He has chosen to reveal Himself to His entire Creation. That creature is us, the 'human' race.

In order to 'communicate' with every life form, GOD apparently needed a 'lesser copy' of Himself. As humans go about their business doing various things, we are either wittingly or unwittingly revealing to nature and the entire cosmos EXACTLY what 'GOD' Is and EXACTLY what He Is not.

According to scripture, all humans used to be 'THE HUMAN,' a type of 'congregational being' with equal parts male and female qualities operating in perfect unison with each other and intimately intertwined so that every possible 'person' that could exist did exist inside this great collaboration called 'Adam and Eve.' 

This may be difficult to imagine, but it is getting easier to grasp now that GOD is 'rebuilding' us as the Holy Church, with Himself as the new 'Adam,' (in the Person of Jesus Christ), and all those human 'persons' willing to participate as the new 'Eve' (1 Corinthians 15:45, Ephesians 5:25-32). 

All of the members of the original 'Adam and Eve' project got 'rearranged' after disobeying GOD, (which includes you and me). Our 'souls' started being born into the world through a new and painful process, followed by a hard life of toil and difficulty as we slowly decay and finally die off. That is our 'punishment.' We now call this 'history' and perceive ourselves to be trapped inside time and living on a 'random space rock' inside an untraversable vacuum hurling along towards a mathematically certain and fiery oblivion.

The Bible tells us that this 'alternative narrative' was written for us by an evil being of skill and intelligence left over from when he once served GOD in a high position of authority. GOD is the only true Deity, but created beings like this 'cosmic author' are referred to as 'kosmokrators' (usually translated 'world rulers' in the Bible). 

They have the skill and intelligence to 'author' a version of the 'cosmos,' (Biblical Greek: 'kosmos' literally, 'orderly arrangement'), which is simply a particular arrangement of the One Creation so that all of its divinely manifested components play out differently and tell a different 'story.' 

GOD's version of the 'cosmos' is the only one that does not end in a fiery oblivion after falling apart. Consequently, these 'decaying cosmoses' happen to be the ideal 'punishment,' (or 'corrective technique' in the case of humans), for any being that chooses to use its own liberty of choice to disobey GOD and pursue 'other' paths.

In the case of those evil intelligences, (known as 'demons'), they made their foolish choice with full knowledge and are past a point of any possible redemption. In our case as humans, we made our choice in ignorance after being deceived by these evil creatures, so we get a 'second chance.' 

GOD Himself came to us in the frailty of our humanity to offer us this opportunity in person. However, we still don't HAVE to choose to be part of the 'New Adam and Eve.' Some of us have chosen instead to try to 'go it alone' and rebuild ourselves into that perfect unity we used to have with help and inspiration from those same evil intelligences that deceived us.

According to scripture, these 'souls' will spend eternity intimately woven together again too but existing under punishment 'inside' the demons for whom it was actually designed, (Matthew 25:41).

The 'souls' accepting GOD's new 'arrangement' will live forever with Him as originally planned, only without any hesitations, doubts, fears or ignorance about who GOD actually Is and Is not.

How we choose one path or the other, how it is all destined to play out and which 'side' we have actually chosen ourselves is what the Bible itself was written to convey to all life.

February 13 2023 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report