Angelic Conflict part 201: Human history (religion) – 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 201: Human history (religion) - JOH 16:12-15; 1CO 2:9-16; 2TI 3:1-7; 1PE 5:1-3; EPH 4:11-13; ACT 20:28.

 

As we briefly 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.

 

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.

 

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.

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 17:20

And He said to them [because they could not cast out a demon as they had before], "Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it shall move; and nothing shall be impossible to you.

 

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 GHS 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.

 

JOH 16:14 "He shall glorify Me; for He shall take of Mine [all that is related to His victory], and shall disclose it to you.

 

ROM 8:16-17

The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him.

 

JOH 16:15 "All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said, that He takes of Mine, and will disclose it to you.

 

When all the truth belonging to the present dispensation which depends either on the death or the resurrection of Christ is left out of consideration, there will be little remaining, and of course this demonstrates the fact that the twelve disciples had not at any time up to this moment in the upper room preached the gospel of divine grace, which gospel is based wholly upon Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. As the Scriptures themselves show, these men preached the gospel of the kingdom. However, a new dispensation with all its reality is dawning for them and all these men are to be taught new and wonderful revelations by the direct ministry of the Spirit.

 

As the upper room discourse is the seed plot for the doctrines of the epistles it is to be expected that so new and vital a theme as the teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit as stated by Christ will be given a larger and more amplified presentation in the doctrinal epistles. We see this in 1CO 2:9-16.

 

God didn't give an ecclesiastical structure to lead men into the truth, for fallen man would have certainly perverted it, as they have, but God Himself, the Holy Spirit, became the lead on instruction in truth.

 

It is interesting to see that when it comes to God the Holy Spirit's work in the Church that the uninformed go to two opposite and extreme camps. There are the tongues crowd, charismatics, etc. and then there are those who completely ignore His ministry and base their entire Christian walk on knowledge alone, without application or instruction through trust in the guidance of God the Holy Spirit. In some doctrinal circles the Spirit's work gets ignored or minimized and in many charismatic circles it is all Spirit and no wisdom from doctrine. Fortunately, our God, including, of course, God the Holy Spirit, is not a God of confusion. The word of God instructs us in the work of God the Holy Spirit, though He works in the background as the unseen, unfelt teacher and advocate to the Church.

 

Between those who wish to ignore the HS and those who make magical powers out of Him and those who believe that possession by Him consists in physical contortions and speaking in tongues; between the denial and that fanaticism, there is the truth of God.

 

God the Holy Spirit is indeed the third person of the Trinity, and that He wishes to dominate the lives of those who believe in Christ, and that he will order and control the lives of those who are surrendered to God in Christ, bringing peace and joy into those lives and a condition of power that is always subject to the individual who yields to God.

 

1CO 2:6 Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away;

 

1CO 2:7 but we speak God's wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom, which God predestined before the ages to our glory;

 

1CO 2:8 the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory;

 

1CO 2:9 but just as it is written,

"Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard,

And which have not entered the heart of man,

All that God has prepared for those who love Him."

 

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

 

1CO 2:10 For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.

 

The word of God is the only knowledge that is not discernible through human reason alone. It is discerned through revelation by God the HS.

 

The believer reasons in his intellect concerning the things of this world, but he really only reasons effectively when he reasons based on divine revelation from the scriptures. Those who believe that the Spirit gives magical powers or overrules volition believe all reason to be shut off or removed and those who ignore the work of the HS are nothing but knowledge and reason. The truth lies somewhere in between.

 

Human reason does not avail me to the truth of the scriptures, but revelation of the scriptures through the divine ministry of God the Holy Spirit allows me to reason with that wisdom as I discern the truth behind all things and apply that truth to the circumstances of this life.

 

1CO 2:11 For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man, which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God.

 

1CO 2:12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God [inheritance through Christ's victory as sons of God],

 

Any man may come to know the things of the human spheres through his human reasoning powers, but the Spirit alone knows the things which belong to the sphere of God.

 

1CO 2:13 which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.

 

1CO 2:14 But a natural man [psuchikos] does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.

 

1CO 2:15 But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no man.

 

1CO 2:16 For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he should instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.

 

The soulish man can be under instruction, but he will never come to anything more than a superficial knowledge of the truth.

 

2TI 3:1 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.

 

2TI 3:2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,

 

2TI 3:3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good,

 

2TI 3:4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God;

 

2TI 3:5 holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; and avoid such men as these.

 

2TI 3:6 For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses,

 

We would conclude that these are natural or soulish men, animalistic, earthly, of soul without Spirit influence over the divine new spirit given at salvation. Such people could show up to Bible class every night and hear accurate doctrinal messages and they would never come to a knowledge of the truth, for if they had, these fleshly, fallen attitudes would be changed.

 

2TI 3:7 always learning [manthano = to learn by instruction] and never able to come to the knowledge [epignosis] of the truth [aletheia].

 

If pastors are humble and have no ulterior motives and trust in the guiding ministry of God the Holy Spirit they will come to the same conclusions about doctrines.

 

This is not to say that they will all teach in the same method or way or that they will all do the same things in their churches, but God's message to man will be consistent. There will always be minor discrepancies for several reasons. Different personality, different experiences, different emphasis, different levels of Biblical knowledge or personal spiritual growth will cause divergences in method or in minor doctrines, but the majority of the interpretation of God's message will be compatible.