Angelic Conflict part 200: Human history (religion) – Rom 8:14; Joh 16:12-15; 1Co 2:9-16; 2Ti 3:1-7; 1Pe 5:1-3; Eph 4:11-13; Act 20:28.

Title: Angelic Conflict part 200: Human history (religion) - ROM 8:14; JOH 16:12-15; 1CO 2:9-16; 2TI 3:1-7; 1PE 5:1-3; EPH 4:11-13; ACT 20:28.

 

 

Before we get to the ultimate victory, we must ask ourselves some questions so that we find ourselves on the side of victory, which is set and done as no one can change the purpose of God and not find ourselves on the side of defeat through stupid deception.

 

So we fast forward to the Church age to ask a vital question.

 

Does the Bible get its authority from the church or the church from the Bible?

 

As the state church gained supremacy and power it held itself, and really its ecclesiastical structure, as on level with the authority of the Bible and in many cases above the Bible.

 

[Catholic Encyclopedia] Now, truths formally and explicitly revealed by God are certainly dogmas in the strict sense when they are proposed or defined by the Church. Such are the articles of the Apostles' Creed [Catholic Encyclopedia].

 

Similarly, truths revealed by God formally, but only implicitly, are dogmas in the strict sense when proposed or defined by the Church. Such, for example, are the doctrines of Transubstantiation, papal infallibility, the Immaculate Conception, some of the Church's teaching about the Savior, the sacraments, etc. [Catholic Encyclopedia]

 

All doctrines defined by the Church as being contained in revelation are understood to be formally revealed, explicitly or implicitly. It is a dogma of faith that the Church is infallible in defining these two classes of revealed truths; and the deliberate denial of one of these dogmas certainly involves the sin of heresy. [Catholic Encyclopedia]

 

As the authority of the Bible went into obscurity in many denominations that became powerful [before the Catholic church, during, as well as from all Protestantism from the reformation], then many were influenced to look to the creature for deliverance above God.

 

Circumcision, water baptism, infant baptism, works, morality, indulgences, prayers for the dead, worship of saints or angels, fake healing, icons, false appearances of the dead, necromancy, holy water, relics like pieces of the cross or shroud of Turin, etc.

 

Worship of things also found its way into the KJV only movement. Denominationalism, in which Christians adhere to the teachings of an organization over and above the Bible and so the denomination is worshipped. Christian cults such as Mormonism, Christian Science, Jehovah’s Witnesses all have their basis in idols or icons used by men seeking power, influence, and wealth. More appalling and surprising are the many people in the pews than the few leaders, who would be nothing at all without the followers.

 

Again, does the Bible get its authority from the church or the church from the Bible?

 

To answer this question in clarity we have to identify what the Bible is and what the Church is.

 

The Bible is the word of God, God's only revealed message to man. It is God breathed, inspired, perfect, and infallible in its origin.

 

ICE:(isagogics, categorical comparison, and exegesis)

 

However, we don't have the originals. But even if we did we would run into the same issues that arise with translation from one language to another. God preserved His word through copies. There are so many copies that comparison of them all leads us to the original. But then again there is the translation issue as well as the interpretation issue. Comparing the KJV, NIV, NASB, etc. yields differences in translation as one will use a synonym for a word used in another. If we acknowledge the synonyms and compare them we get a picture of the interpretation. If we look at the words used in the historical perspective of the ancient world, the first century AD etc. we gain a further understanding and clarity. Fortunately, God's word repeats itself very often, which is done purposely for clarification to us sheep, so we compare various scriptures and arrive at the proper interpretation.

 

But one has to admit that with man, certain things are impossible. So many differences arise which is evidenced by the many denominations existent.

 

Many believers now, all of them believer priests, are looking to the organization that is their particular denomination for interpretation of the scriptures, rather than functioning in their own priesthood.

 

This is not to say that every believer priest must interpret the whole realm of doctrine for themselves, i.e. they're on their own. Most believers wouldn't have the time for such an undertaking. God has given the Church the gift of pastor teacher in order to provide the work for isagogics, categorical comparison, and exegesis. This makes him a worker for a particular group of people and not an officer in some ecclesiastical organization.  

 

The Church is the organism of all believers in the world. This is the body of Christ. Its purpose is to represent Christ and to make known His victory and His manifold wisdom.

 

Nothing like this has ever existed before. The growth of the body of Christ is to be accomplished in independent local assemblies and through that growth, those assemblies are to represent Christ and make known His gospel and all His manifold or multifaceted wisdom to the world, both the human world and the angelic.

 

EPH 3:10

in order that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.

 

The pastor is given to the church for instruction, but he was never commanded to be a part of a large organization that is forced to come to a consensus on interpretation. A believer will not be able to blame the pastor of the church they attended at the judgment seat of Christ if they did not know how to produce divine good. No organization has been charged with interpretation and the church was never commanded to be an organization outside of apostle (now gone) to pastor to congregation.

 

G/HS is faithful to lead believers to prepared pastor teachers. It is up to the believer to yield to this leading or resist it.

 

ROM 8:14

For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.

 

The Church is not an organization but an organism comprised of the living and vital body of believers and designed to make known the manifold wisdom of God.

 

Satan introduced to the Church early on that the kingdom of God is being built on the earth. How can that be if the earth is going to be destroyed. Christ said clearly to Pilate that His kingdom was not of this earth. This is what Calvin and Luther believed and they took the good work that they had begun and tried to make it into an earthly kingdom.

 

Man is flawed, fallible, and his interpretation of God's message might be skewed. Quite the pickle - as if no one could really know if they have the truth, which is the progressive philosophy that there is no absolute truth, and if there was, it has been lost through time and multiple interpretations. This one of the many attacks upon the word of God by the progressive thinkers today.

 

We have studied canonicity intensively and so all of us should know how God has preserved His word, but what about the interpretation of it?

 

When the believer is ignorant of his position in Christ and his closeness to God in this age, he fails to exploit that relationship and he draws more to the earthly as a mediator between him and God.

 

However, the earthly mediators are not mediators at all. There is no specified priesthood in our age, all believers are priests before God and Christ is the one and only High Priest.

 

This has become evident in the history of the church. Believers feel more comfortable acknowledging their sins to another man, a "priest," than directly to God. Believers feel more comfortable with a works program than a grace program. Believers feel more comfortable asking the pastor for advice rather than going directly to God the Father in prayer and their own storehouse of doctrine. Believers feel more access to modern religious icons than to the throne of grace.

 

This occurs because believers refuse to completely accept their position in Christ.

 

When a believer refuses to believe his regenerated, intimate position in Christ, he looks to the earthly for divine mediation and fails to believe the impossible.

 

/MAT 19:25-26

"Then who can be saved?" And looking upon them Jesus said to them, "With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."

 

JOH 16:12 "I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.

 

As we have seen in the past, these men failed to believe in the resurrection of Christ and were confused about the exact program of Christ in death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and session.

 

JOH 16:13 "But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth [aletheia]; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.

 

What is the Spirit to hear? "I have many more things to say to you... for He shall take of Mine, and shall disclose it to you." The OS of G/HS will discern and teach all the wisdom of Christ's victory.

 

And to the apostles there was the prophetic ministry of the Spirit shown by the phrase ... "and He will disclose to you what is to come." There was a gift of prophecy in the early church as well that was the ministry of God the HS, but when the Bible was completed this temporary gift was removed along with all the other temporary gifts.

 

Naturally, this truth has been perverted for use by satan and the KOD.

 

False mysticism: The theory that divine revelation is not limited to the written Word of God, but that God bestows added truth to souls that are sufficiently quickened by the Spirit of God to receive it.

 

Every cult in the CA has been built upon some man or woman who supposedly gets added personal revelation from God extant from the Bible and who claim that such revelations are not contradictory to the Bible.

 

Robert Barclay, prominent Quaker states in 1867: “Moreover, these divine inward revelations, which we make absolutely necessary for the building up of true faith, neither do nor can ever contradict the outward testimony of the Scriptures, or right and sound reason. Yet from hence it will not follow, that these divine revelations are to be subjected to the examination, either of the outward testimony of the Scriptures, or of the natural reason of man, as to a more noble or certain rule or touchstone: for this divine revelation and inward illumination, is that which is evident and clear of itself”

 

It's just a small, false mysticism step from trusting in the teaching and leading of God the Holy Spirit to claiming revelations from the Spirit that are not of actual scripture. They always claim that these heavy revy's are not contradictory, and I would ask, if that is so, why would God need to give them to you?