Interpretation | A People for His Name

Beware Espousing Any Unbiblical Notions about Practitioners of Magic or the Occult

December 30, 2016

God made clear to His people that they were forbidden from having any contact with or participation in magic or in occult practices:

Deu 18:9 When thou art come into the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations.

¹⁰ There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch,

¹¹ Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.

¹² For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee.

¹³ Thou shalt be perfect with the LORD thy God.

¹⁴ For these nations, which thou shalt possess, hearkened unto observers of times, and unto diviners: but as for thee, the LORD thy God hath not suffered thee so to do.

As believers, we must understand that the Bible never teaches that there is such a thing as a good fairy, witch, wizard, or any other supposedly good practitioner of supernatural arts involving magic or occult practices. All Christians, including especially Christians who immerse themselves in fictitious materials that are filled with such unbiblical notions, must diligently guard their minds so that they do not unwittingly espouse any such unbiblical views as legitimate.

In Discipleship, Interpretation, Theology

What Being Under Grace Does Not Mean for Christian Morality

December 27, 2016

Deuteronomy 22 and 1 Corinthians 5 both address a specific divine prohibition for the morality of believers:

Deu 22:30 A man shall not take his father’s wife, nor discover his father’s skirt.

1Co 5:1 It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife.

A comparison of these passages shows that God’s moral requirement for today’s believers who are under grace is no different than what is was for believers in Him who were under the Law—a man must not have intimate relations with his father’s wife! God’s moral standard for His people concerning this prohibition has not changed at all.

In fact, this comparison shows that even Gentiles who live in the age of grace know not to practice such fornication. Christians who assert that being under grace means that such sexual prohibitions in the Law no longer apply to God’s people have a wrong understanding of what being under grace means for Christian morality.

In Discipleship, Interpretation, Theology

On Bloodshed That Pollutes a Land

December 17, 2016

God revealed to Moses that blood that was shed by murdering someone would pollute the land unless the Israelites dealt properly with that bloodshed:

Num 35:30 Whoso killeth any person, the murderer shall be put to death by the mouth of witnesses: but one witness shall not testify against any person to cause him to die.

³¹ Moreover ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer, which is guilty of death: but he shall be surely put to death.

³² And ye shall take no satisfaction for him that is fled to the city of his refuge, that he should come again to dwell in the land, until the death of the priest.

³³ So ye shall not pollute the land wherein ye are: for blood it defileth the land: and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it.

³⁴ Defile not therefore the land which ye shall inhabit, wherein I dwell: for I the LORD dwell among the children of Israel.

Based on this sobering revelation, how polluted in the sight of God must all the countries of the world today be because of all the blood that has been shed by murderers in those countries that has not been properly dealt with by punishing the murderers properly!

In Interpretation, Theology

Ephesians 5:25 and A Proper Christian Mindset

November 22, 2016

Having a proper Christian mindset includes living by the glorious truth of Christ’s loving me and giving Himself for me:

Galatians 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

As important as believing that Christ loved me and gave Himself for me as an individual Christian is, having a proper Christian mindset requires that I also give full importance to a closely related truth:

Ephesians 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;

Paul teaches in this verse that Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for it.

As an individual Christian, I am part of the Church, but I am not the totality of the Church. Ephesians 5:25, therefore, teaches me that Christ loved an entity that includes me but is far bigger than I am. It teaches me that Christ died for something that is far bigger than I am as an individual Christian.

Because Christ loves the Church and because He gave Himself for it, I must always be mindful to treat those who are His Church in light of these glorious realities.

In Discipleship, Interpretation, Theology

Do You Believe That Jesus Was Full of Truth?

November 17, 2016

The Apostle John made known that Jesus was full of grace and truth:

John 1:14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

To doubt, disbelieve, or deny anything that Jesus said or taught is to hold that He was not full of truth but had some error or worse mixed with the truth that He was and taught. If Jesus was not full of truth, then it is impossible to know for sure that He is full of grace and full confidence in His ability to save is made impossible.

Application

When asked a question concerning the subject of divorce, Jesus responded with statements that have profound relevance for our day:

Mat 19:4 And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female,

⁵ And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?

⁶ Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.

In this teaching, Jesus affirmed that God created mankind as male and female at the beginning. He added that biblical marriage consisting of a man marrying a woman flows directly out of what God did in creating man the way that He did.

Jesus declared that when a man and a woman marry, they become one flesh because God has joined them together as husband and wife. Because God has done so, man is not to separate the couple that God has joined.

A believer who denies that God created mankind as male and female from the beginning has to hold that Jesus was wrong when He said these words. A belief in evolution thus makes impossible the belief that Jesus was full of truth.

If Jesus was wrong when He gave this teaching, He also is not full of grace and trusting in Him for the grace needed to save us is a hopelessly vain endeavor. We must reject any teaching that denies that God created mankind as male and female at the beginning.

Do you believe that Jesus was full of truth?

In Interpretation, Theology

Forget Not All His Benefits!

October 8, 2016

A striking correlation of two passages that I had never considered until right now while continuing my Sunday school prep for tomorrow:

Psa 103:2 Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:

Psa 116:12 What shall I render unto the LORD for all his benefits toward me? 13 I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the LORD.

We as believers must take the cup of salvation and call on His name because of all the benefits the Lord has bestowed on us. This is one aspect of our not forgetting all His benefits!

In Discipleship, Interpretation, Theology

What Being a Blessed Person Really Means

September 9, 2016

The longest book in the Bible, the book of Psalms, begins with the word blessed without giving any definition of what that term means (Psalm 1:1). In the second occurrence of the term, Psalm 2 ends with a statement about those who are blessed (Psalm 2:12) but it still does not tell us what the term means. The third occurrence of the term in the Psalms shows us what the core idea of the term is:

Psa 5:12 For thou, LORD, wilt bless the righteous;
with favour wilt thou compass him as with a shield.

The parallelism seen in these two statements about the righteous shows that to be blessed means to be in and enjoy a position of special favor with God.

Further analysis of Scriptural use of the term (e.g. Psalm 94:12; Matt. 5:4; Rev. 14:13) confirms this understanding and teaches us that being blessed does not mean having no troubles and having everything go the way you would like it to go. It does not necessarily mean being happy. Being a blessed person means to be someone whom God has favored in a special way!

In Interpretation, Theology

An Instructive Comparison of Two Key Lukan Statements

August 22, 2016

Luke wrote his Gospel to Theophilus for a very specific purpose:

Luk 1:3 It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus,

⁴ That thou mightest know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed.

In Acts 1, Luke informs Theophilus what his Gospel comprised:

Act 1:1 The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach,

By correlating these two statements, we learn that the Gospel of Luke was written to give Theophilus certainty about what he had been instructed about all that Jesus began both to do and to teach.

Applying this understanding to what we find in the Gospel of Luke reveals a striking truth when we examine it for information about what Jesus began to do and teach—Luke 2:41-52 is the first information about what Jesus did and taught! Based on this fact, we understand that the narrative of what Jesus did and said when He was a twelve-year old boy in the temple is foundational for our having the certainty that God wants us to have about all of Jesus’ acts and sayings about which we have been taught!

In Bible reading, Interpretation, Theology

What Biblical Priesthood Teaches Us about Biblical Marriage

August 13, 2016

The nation of Israel is the only nation in the history of the world that God Himself took out from another nation and consecrated to Himself (2 Sam. 7:23; 1 Chron. 17:21). To the Israelites, God gave detailed directives in His Law about every important facet of their lives (Deut. 4:7-8).

At the heart of Israel’s calling as a nation set apart to God was their calling to be distinctively excellent for His sake:

Exodus 19:5 Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: 6 And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.

Among the nation that was called to be such a distinctive nation, God set apart the priesthood that He Himself ordained for ministering to Him (Exod. 28:1; 30:30; Jer. 33:22) in a special way even among all His people. Of all the people of Israel, the priests were called to have the closest access to God that He permitted to any of His people (Heb. 9:6).

By divine ordinance, all the priests in Israel were males. For these chief servants of His, God gave explicit directives concerning their marriages:

Lev 21:7 They shall not take a wife that is a whore, or profane; neither shall they take a woman put away from her husband: for he is holy unto his God.

Among the priests, the high priest was the sole person in the entire nation who was ever allowed to enter the Holy of Holies, and he could do so only once a year (Heb. 9:7). The high priest was called of God to be the person in Israel who enjoyed unique access to the presence of God.

Concerning whom the high priest was to marry, God gave even more definitive instruction than He did for the other priests:

Lev 21:13 And he shall take a wife in her virginity.

¹⁴ A widow, or a divorced woman, or profane, or an harlot, these shall he not take: but he shall take a virgin of his own people to wife.

¹⁵ Neither shall he profane his seed among his people: for I the LORD do sanctify him.

This revelation shows that God explicitly defined what marriage would be for all His priests in His chosen nation that was to be a testimony for Him to the entire world. In connection with Genesis 1-2 and Genesis 6-9, Leviticus 21:7 and Leviticus 21:13-15 make clear that God’s mind concerning marriage for His people throughout their history was that marriage would be exactly the same as it was when He originated marriage beginning with Adam and Eve.

As Israel was called to be of old, believers today are called to be distinctive for the sake of His name:

1 Pet. 2:9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:

Concerning His ministers among His people today, God has plainly stated that their marriages are to be the same (1 Tim. 3:2, 12) as they were for His priests of old. Moreover, these ministers are the examples for all the rest of His saints (1 Tim. 4:12).

The plain revelation concerning what God has ordained concerning biblical marriage for His priests and ministers confirms for His servants today that His will for their marriages is the same today as it always has been.

In Discipleship, Interpretation, Theology

Should Christians Seek to Influence Secular Governmental Officials to Do Right and to Make Righteous Policies?

July 16, 2016

Three biblical accounts point to the correct answer to the important question of whether Christians should seek to influence secular governmental official to do right and to make righteous policies.

First, Haman, a wicked high official in a secular government, plotted to kill all the Jews in the empire by influencing king Ahasuerus to write into law provisions that would authorize exterminating the Jews. Under the evil influence of Haman, the king enacted a law authorizing the killing of all Jews and the plundering of their possessions (Esther 4:13-14).

Mordecai and Esther, righteous Jews, sought to influence the king to change the law that he had put into place because it was an unrighteous edict (Esther 8:3). They did not merely submit themselves to that law and allow themselves and all the other Jews to be martyred because Haman and Ahasuerus were high-level governmental leaders over them in the providence of God.

Through their actions, Esther and Mordecai were able to influence the king to authorize additional laws that turned the tables on those who sought to kill the Jews and the Jews experienced a great deliverance (Esther 8-10).

Second, King Nebuchadnezzar was the supreme authority over the greatest empire in human history. In God’s providence, Daniel was a top official in that secular government. Daniel sought to have the king change his evil actions and policies that were oppressing the poor (Daniel 4:27). Daniel advised the king that his doing so would put him in a position to receive mercy from God, should God see fit to grant it. Just because Nebuchadnezzar was a secular ruler over a secular empire did not mean that it was right for him to go against God’s laws concerning oppressing the poor.

Third, Herod was an evil king who was put into his position by the Roman government. Even though Herod was in authority by the actions of a secular government, John the Baptist confronted him about his flouting the laws of God concerning marriage. John rebuked Herod by charging him that it was not lawful for him to have his brother’s wife (Matt. 14:4). Just because Herod was in power in a secular government did not mean that he was free to violate God’s laws concerning marriage.

These biblical accounts show that it is right for God’s people to challenge secular authorities about the laws that they enact and about their practices when those laws and practices are unrighteous according to God’s standards.

In Discipleship, Interpretation, Theology

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