4.24.2024
MYSTERY
minis†ries
"MYSTERY" refers to the Progressive Revelation of the Mystery of Jesus Christ unto the Apostle Paul which deals with a Dispensational interpretation of God's Word.
"minis†ries" are miniature lessons I started coming up with years ago to try to explain these big thigs in small doses.
I have so much to say about God, Salvation, the Bible, beliefs...to a world that seemingly doesn't want any part of it. There's so much I wanna do to reach people and sometimes I feel I've failed, but I gotta keep trying...
God doesn't want us to perish, which is why He came down to earth Himself, in the flesh as Christ, to save us by dying for our sins so we don't have to. Christ's death, burial & resurrection is salvation that is full, complete & sufficient to all who accept His sacrifice as payment for the sin-debt we all owe to God. All you have to do is accept that truth and you are saved and sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise until His return. If you truly believe and accept this free gift there is nothing that can separate you from God's love.
Romans 10:13
For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
1 Corinthians 15:1-4
Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;
By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.
For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
Ephesians 4:30
And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
Romans 8:38-39
For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Surely you've heard there's more to Salvation than this, right? No, Jesus did all the work, he fulfilled God's law and defeated sin and death by shedding His sinless blood. All you have to do is believe in what He already did for us. Religion/religious people tell you that you have to do more, we even tell ourselves that we somehow have to be a part of our own salvation. Men, institutions, the world...lies to us and says we have to take part in some rite, man-made tradition or other action/work to "complete" our salvation. The world tells us nothing is free or true. Let the words of man be lies and let God's Word (the Bible) be true! Salvation doesn't end with a comma, it ends with a period.
I learned at a very young age about love and hate. Things happened to me that should never happen to anyone, let alone a child...and these things were done to me by family members who were supposed to care for me, not hurt me. So in this, I had to find out the truth about good and evil. Is there a God, if so (and if He is good), why is there evil?
I was around 5 or 6 years old and I went to my mother (who always talked about God) and asked if He was for real? I knew she would say: "Of course He's real!" but she didn't! In her wisdom of being the mother of 8 children she instead answered with: "What do you think?" Blew my lil' mind...
I knew the truth...we all know the truth, there is a higher power that we can't understand...so I sought to understand and am still learning about Him to this day. Life is a lesson to be learned! That truth of God is in all of us: it's where morality comes from, it's what differentiates us from animals, it's where our consciousness, creativity and unique inner-being come from...it's what makes up our soul. There is good and evil in this world: we see it, feel it, know it, been a part of it...there comes a point in our lives where we must try to understand the why and where it comes from.
At the age of 6, I was given the mission to find God. I followed my big brothers and went to churches to find answers. God used this young man who was teaching a class of kids like me at Dayton Baptist Temple (now Cornerstone Baptist) to call me to Christ. Something this youth teacher said spoke to these things in me: I had no father in this world, I knew the evil in this world, I had hatred for those I was supposed to love in this world and I needed to make sense of all that pain & loneliness. In talking to this teacher I was understanding more about God, the gospel, salvation: through his word's and him reading from his Bible, God's Words, I was saved.
Now I have a father in God, there is evil but that is 'cos we fell away from God, I had hatred in me towards family who did evil to me but God forgives our sin through Christ so I had to forgive their sin. It just makes sense. In our sin we are far away from God which is why He can be difficult to find in such a Godless world. This world was left to man and there is evil in it because of mankind...not because of God. God made life and this world for us, we are the ones who wrecked the life and the world He gave us, it's not His fault we turned away from Him. He gave us the free will to choose, we usually always choose wrong. Ultimately, it's to teach us that we need Him!
When you open yourself to the God of the Bible being real and true, then it's easier to understand the big picture, the state of this world, good vs evil, His plan.
-WHAT I BELIEVE-
I'm going to list my beliefs more as matter-of-fact bullet-points rather than explain too much in detail 'cos it's difficult to cram 40yrs of beliefs into each one:
-The God of the Bible is real-
-God holds His Word above His own name, so His Word must be accessible-
-God's Word is readily accessible without flaw in the Authorized (KJV) Bible-
-God is a Holy Trinity consisting the Father, Son & Spirit-
-Mankind is also triune consisting the soul, body & spirit-
-In order for there to be good, there must be evil-
-God's endgame is to forever separate good from evil at the end of time-
-God is good and without evil, committing evil is a sin to God-
-Sin brings death, the enemy of life-
-All of us have thought, said & done evil...so therefore, we have all sinned-
-We all owe a sin-debt to our Creator for offending the life He gave us-
-The payment for sin is death, first in body when we all die-
-When God separates good from evil, then our spirits will die, eternally-
-God gave us free will to obey Him or deny Him and gave us rules to follow-
-But it is in our nature to disobey and not follow rules-
-So God, in the flesh as Christ, came down to Earth to fulfill those rules for us-
-Christ did what we could never do, so we don't have to-
-Christ was put to death which paid our sin-debt with His perfect, sinless blood-
-Salvation through Christ is full & sufficient payment for our all sin-debt-
-Belief in Christ's death, burial & resurrection for that payment is Salvation-
Of course, we've all heard this or variations of it. Throughout most religions in most of the world there is a common belief that man has fallen from a higher power and that there is a redeemer who can save us. The twist with what I believe is that Salvation doesn't end with a comma, it ends with a period. In this, I came to a Dispensational interpretation of the Bible:
-A Dispensation is a dispensing of different orders through different times-
-It is important to Rightly-Divide the Bible to find out where our doctrine is-
-There are 2 main audiences for doctrine: Earthly & Heavenly-
-All of the Bible is beneficial to us, but not all of it was written to/for us-
-90% of the Bible is written by, to & for Jews (the Earthly people)-
-After the Cross, the Acts of the Apostles represents an audience shift-
-Paul-line doctrine is for the Gentiles (the Heavenly people)-
-Paul is our pattern in this Dispensation of time-
-The Earthly doctrine in Prophecy is on hold for now-
-The Revelation of the Mystery of Jesus Christ unto Paul is now-
-Faith in what Christ already fulfilled is all that is required for Salvation-
The Bible is a complicated book, without seeing the "big picture" with a Dispensational understanding, it's filled with direct doctrinal contradictions. However, if you see that there are different audiences, times & instructions divided up in the Bible they are no longer contradictions. In an attempt to explain (what even Peter admits is hard to understand) here is the stark contrast between the 2 ministries that a mid-Acts (9), Paul-line doctrine, Dispensational approach can help make sense of:
Earthly::Heavenly
Prophecy::Mystery
Jews::Gentiles
Christ's Earthly ministry::Christ's Progressive Revelation
Spoken since the world began::kept secret since the world began
Faith + Works::Faith Alone
Faith without Works is dead::Grace is sufficient
Indwelling of the Holy Spirit::Saved & Sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise
Jew requires a sign::No confirmation/proof, all faith
Speak in tongues/drink any deadly thing/snake handling::Nope
Lay hands to supernaturally heal::Nope
Blaspheme the Holy Spirit = instant death::Nope
Law is written in their hearts::Study to shew thyself approved
Obey all 613 points of the Jewish Law::Not justified by the Law
Must Endure Until The End::Salvation is at hand
Kingdom comes down to Earth::Evangelicals go up to Heaven
Meek shall inherit the Earth::Meet the Lord in the air
Become Born Again::Are a New Creature
Tithe a percentage of income::Give as your heart see's fit
Kosher diet::Eat anything with thanksgiving
Hour (specific time) of Prayer::Pray without ceasing
Keep the Sabbaths & Holy Days::Disregard New Moons, Sabbaths & Holy Days
Church is a physical House of God::Church is a Body of Christ Believers
Constant ritual sacrifice::One perfect sacrifice (Christ)
Required circumcision/baptism/other traditions::Not required
Most in today's church establishment are against "Dispensationalism" (or other nay-saying variants they call it "Hyper" or "Ultra" or "Easy Believism") 'cos it takes away any "hook" to get people to join/participate in their church. When I tell people that I'm a believer, they assume that I'm religious:
-I know a lot about religion, but I am not religious-
-I think Organized Religion is an oxymoron-
-I don't go to a church or have a denomination-
-I don't practice any religious rituals or traditions-
-I don't need to make any pilgrimages, sacrifices or tithe-
-I don't need a special religious diet or wardrobe with any funny hats-
-I don't follow or celebrate any New Moons, Sabbaths or Holy days (holidays)-
I have strong beliefs, but I really don't have a religion. I don't even like the term "Christian" as that comes with a lot of baggage that does not apply to me. I don't like labels at all, but I call myself a Christ Believer 'cos it says what I am. Being a Christ Believer means a belief in the source of information on Christ in the Bible which also entails a lot of other Biblical beliefs:
-Literal (not allegorical) interpretation of the Bible-
-6 (with no gap) Day (not age) Creation (not Evolution)-
-History began around 6000 years ago (no pre-historic time)-
-Worldwide Flood in Noah's time-
-Heaven & Hell-
-Angels & Devils-
-Supernatural beings, things & events-
-(past & future) Prophecies-
-Future Millennial Reign of Christ-
-A new Heaven & Earth will be made-
-Extra Celestials (not aliens or extra terrestrials)-
-Dragons (dinosaurs) and other "mythological" (Biblical) creatures-
-Spiritual Possession-
-Dream Interpretation-
-An unseen (4TH?) Dimension-
Some of that sounds crazy or scary...but I do not use the above to understand or explain everything, especially when I can use tempered reasoning, logic and science to do so. I'm not an over-spiritualized person where I think everything has some "God did it" purpose. Sometimes we see chance coincidences or strange happenstance that make you feel something magical or mystical...but that's not what I base my life or beliefs on. There are some extra-Biblical things I believe in, but nothing that supersedes or contradicts the Bible:
-Eastern beliefs like: karma, chakras, yin/yang*-
-auras/vibes/vibrations/energies/magnetic forces-
-meditation-
-living a somewhat minimalist life-
-celibacy & waiting for marriage-
-no smoking, drugs or alcohol-
-using will-power to overcome certain problems-
-natural (not chemical) medicine-
-homeopathic medicine/healing*-
-ancient texts/legends*-
-secret societies are real-
-world controlling "powers that be"-
-conspiracy theories*-
-cryptozoology*-
-creation science (not "creationism", though)-
-scientific law-
-theoretical science*-
*some, not all...some!
I am very much a scientific and logical person so I do not go around using the above beliefs as a means to explain everything...no! I'm also emotional, too...but when it comes to matters of faith, beliefs, my soul and eternity...I need more than my own imagination or fuzzy feelings. I love to find out how things work, learn history, absorb information, trace the origins of things, jump down many rabbit holes, see what the opposition would have to say, look at things through multiple points of view while keeping the "big picture" in mind and use the scientific method to understand the things that I can. The things I don't have answers for at the moment, I let life teach me along the way. There are many universally held "truths" most of the world believes in that I don't, but I will list those in another post some other day. I also have some more personal beliefs...some with Biblical influences, some not.
I knew I was right with God early on in my life in understanding Salvation, but I had many questions that churches & religions couldn't give satisfactory answers for. Cutting away the fat (of church, religion & religious people) gets you to the meat (just you & God) and you are left to either your own imagination or with God's Word (black & white, unchanging, in the Bible). Many would say that the Bible is someone else's imagination, but how we come to the Bible, the correct version and total trust in every word, cover-to-cover is a whole other discussion that hinges upon faith.
Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Faith is belief without proof...I know people want proof, but if it could proven like that, then we wouldn't need faith. God has required faith throughout all Dispensations of time. When you have faith, the invisible things of Him are clearly seen.
Someday I will write more specifically about my walk with Christ to explain how I came to this path.
-WHAT I DON'T BELIEVE-
-PEOPLE BELIEVE WHAT THEY WANT TO BELIEVE-
-CUTTING AWAY THE FAT-
Verses
Matthew 7:7
Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
Romans 14:5
One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.
Hebrews 11:1
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Romans 10:13
For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Luke 1:70
As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began:
Romans 16:25
Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began,
Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Romans 1:20
For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
Hebrews 1:1
God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,
Romans 3:23
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
1 Thessalonians 2:13
For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.
2 Corinthians 12:9
And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
John 19:30
When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.
Romans 14:11
For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.
2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
1 Corinthians 12:27
Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.
Ephesians 1:10-14
That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:
In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.
In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.
Ephesians 1:22 - 2:1, 2:5
And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,
Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.
And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)