Bible Doctrine

ARE YOU LOCKED-IN TO ERROR?

In order for someone steeped in an opposing viewpoint to really see God’s truth in a given matter, preconceived beliefs must be temporarily suspended as they will present a formidable mental block to one receiving the factualness of a different belief. Satan’s blinding POWER must also be considered in such matters.

Many fail to realize that God gives foundational truth in the Hebrew scriptures. If one is not well grounded in those scriptures and begins to formulate his doctrine from the Greek scriptures first or primarily, or, in some cases entirely, then their coming to see the truth in a host of various doctrines is problematic. They probably will never see what God really has to say in His Word.

Also, the overriding idea that revered theologians of the present and past must indeed “have it together” concerning the doctrines they espouse and hold to be God’s truth, again erects another formidable mental block one must get around one way or another. The “Christian” denomination has Thomas and Alexander Campbell, the Methodists have John and Charles Wesley, the Baptists have J.R. Graves, R.A. Torrey, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, etc. It never seems to dawn on the various pastors and preachers that they are leaning on the arm of flesh, looking to men to formulate their beliefs and religious practices. All of these men had a great deal of truth in what they taught and believed. Many were eloquent and convincing speakers. And, when you have believers who fail to really “prove” all things, error can creep in sideways and never be seen as error. (Some of these “great” theologians also embraced great error).

There is another formidable mental block to the truth entering the human mind – continued sin! Paul writes, “Sin not…neither give place to the devil.” (See Ephesians 4:26-27). All too many prospective preachers still live unsanctified lives, allowing sin into their lives – often daily – never realizing they are giving place to the devil to deceive them and prevent truth from entering their minds when they do so. They study the Greek scriptures first, or almost entirely, again preventing God’s truth from entering their minds and protect them from embracing error. God’s true prophet Daniel spoke of how he knew he and his fellow Israelites would have to turn from their iniquities in order to understand God’s truth. (See Daniel 9:13).

Christ’s Faithful Servant (Galatians 1:10-12),

Donald Wiley

THE DOOR TO TRUTH!

Our Lord has immensely blessed me with understanding of the scriptures. Perfect understanding?? No! But marvelous understanding regarding foundational, basic truth of the doctrines of the early church. He had to first sweep my mind clean from all the errors I had long ago inherited from merely accepting what various preachers had said and taught. I, too, was of that number who ask, “How can all these people be wrong?” To accomplish this tremendous feat, God had to first place within me a ravenous appetite for reading and pondering the Word of God. I was given nothing short of the appetite of a starving giant. I could not read God’s Word enough! Five times, ten times, twenty times I read ALL the Word of God from cover to cover, from Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21. Thirty times, forty times, fifty times, AND MORE!

Simultaneously God placed within my mind the capacity to doubt! Yes, doubt. I began to question the affirmations of various well known and highly respected ministers, preachers and theologians. I realized that they often contradicted one another while they all proclaimed they obtained their beliefs solely from the Word of God and that they were “called” to preach. Yet one preached “once saved, always saved,” while another dogmatically proclaimed one can most certainly lose or forfeit their salvation! I knew both could not be right as these doctrines were polar opposites. Somebody had to be wrong – gravely and seriously wrong!

Of course, I learned long ago that most preachers are “locked in” to their present beliefs. A Baptist preacher lives and dies a Baptist preacher. A Lutheran minister lives and dies a Lutheran minister. A Roman Catholic priest – well, you can finish the sentence. One with a mind capable of incisive logic and thinking power realizes one truth immediately: Most preachers do not really PROVE the doctrines they teach and spread to others. If they did, you would often find preachers abandoning one denomination for another one as they discover their error and discern some other denomination has more truth than their own.

God answered my prayer some years ago for the capacity to have good judgment and the power to think more deeply. That’s when and WHY I abandoned the path of selfish pursuits and utterly sinful living for the path of faith and righteous conduct.

It is only human to believe you are correct and scriptural in all you believe and practice, but remember the Jehovah’s Witness across the street thinks and reasons in the same fashion. So does the Mormon next door. God have mercy on all those who fail to study the Word of God intensely and really and truly PROVE the scripturalness of their doctrines and beliefs. There are going to be a lot of stunned preachers at the judgment – a lot!!!

After telling me WHAT you believe, tell me WHY you believe it. That is where most encounter a problem. They can glibly tell you WHAT they believe, but they can’t tell you WHY they believe it other than replying, “Well, the Bible says so,” or “That’s what the Bible teaches.” Press them further for chapter and verse, and they can give you a verse here and a verse there that does seemingly support their belief or the doctrine they are sure has ample scripture support. But introduce into the investigation other chapters and verses that tend to show more light and a different slant on the topic at hand. The one with the opposing view will usually dismiss the text that reveals he, or she, may be holding to doctrinal error, or they will quote a text to knock down and nullify the text you just quoted to them, thereby pitting scripture against scripture, apostle against prophet, or an apostle against the Lord He represented.

Don’t lose heart, folks. The truth CAN be known and understood. But the door to truth is locked and the key to that door is total surrender and absolute obedience to Jesus Christ. Apart from that you will enter the door of confusion. Oh, you will find a lot of company inside that door – a lot. One will say one thing while someone else will say the very opposite, yet all the while proclaiming what they say and believe is the truth. And, yes, they will all have some truth – but a lot of error, too.

May God grant you the heart and mind, and, yes, the courage to search for the truth in the only way possible – full surrender and continued total obedience to Jesus Christ for you see HE is the Door!

Christ’s Servant (Galatians 1:10-12)

Ask the average professing Christian, “What did Jesus Christ do that saves you?” I dare say 99% of those so queried would reply, “He died on the cross in my place.” And, while that answer is true, it is only half the truth! Your Bible says that there is MUCH MORE to salvation following one’s acceptance of Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord. Turn to Romans 5, verses 8 through 10. There you will read these words: “But God commends (demonstrates) His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. MUCH MORE (yes, there is much more after Calvary) being NOW justified by His blood (by Christ’s death on the cross), WE SHALL BE SAVED from (God’s) wrath through Him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, MUCH MORE, being reconciled, WE SHALL BE SAVED BY HIS LIFE!” (Note: All words in parentheses are those of the author).

NO ONE is finally and completely saved by Christ’s death alone. If Jesus Christ had simply died for your sins and no more, you would still be in your sins – without a Savior! Notice these words in I Corinthians, the 15th chapter: “And if Christ be not raised (resurrected and now living), your faith is vain, you are yet in your sins!” (verse 17).

It takes a LIVING Savior to save you. Look once more at that text in Romans 5. Notice in verses 9 and 10 the apostle Paul says that believers SHALL BE SAVED (future progressive tense) and that we are saved BY CHRIST’S LIFE!!! That’s the chief doctrine of the Book of Hebrews. Jesus Christ is “bringing many sons unto glory” (Hebrews 2:10) through the lifelong process of sanctification, serving as our great High Priest in order to accomplish this gargantuan task (See Hebrews 2:11-18), “for we are made partakers of Christ, IF we hold the beginning of our confidence (in Jesus Christ to save us) stedfast unto the end” (See Hebrews 3:14).

So little is said by the ministry in Christian circles about Jesus’ role as God’s High Priest, you would think mention of His fulfilling this office is probably mentioned only a time or two in the New Testament. But Jesus is called “High Priest” TWELVE TIMES in the New Testament, each and every instance found in the Book of Hebrews! The first such mention is in the 17th verse of chapter 2: “Therefore, in all things He (Jesus) had to be made like His brethren (just like other humans), that He might be a merciful and faithful HIGH PRIEST in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation (or, reconciliation) for the sins of the people.”

The Bible clearly states that Jesus Christ is not only God’s High Priest, but that He is going to continue in that office and function FOREVER?!! Twelve times in the Book of Hebrews Jesus Christ is called “High Priest,” those twelve instances running from chapter two through chapter ten. And in verse 20 of chapter 6, we are told that Jesus has been “made an High Priest FOREVER!” Again, in the 28th verse of chapter 7, we are told that the Son (Jesus Christ) is consecrated as God’s High Priest FOR EVERMORE! Verse 1 of chapter 8, states “we have such an High Priest who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty (God the Father) in the heavens.” And in verse 11 of chapter 9, we are told that Christ is “being come an High Priest of good things to come.”

During His earthly ministry, Jesus Christ sent seventy of His followers before Him as heralds to every city and place He had yet to go. They returned rejoicing that even evil spirits were subject to them in every place they visited. He told them “rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.” (See Luke 10:1-20). “In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, ‘I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes (those newly converted themselves): even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight” (Luke 10:21).

And now pay close attention to what you now read: “All things are delivered to me of my Father, and no man knows who the Son is, but the Father, and who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal Him” (verse 22, Luke 10) Few Christians comprehend the fact that Jesus Christ is God’s High Priest FOREVER and that Jesus clearly stated, “my Father is greater than I.” (See John 14:28). When Jesus encountered Mary outside the empty tomb, He said to her, “I ascend unto my Father, and your Father, AND TO MY GOD, and your God” (See John 20:17). To be continued….

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Christ’s Servant (Galatians 1:10-12),

Donald Wiley

The very first promise of the New Covenant is: “I will put my laws into their minds, and write them in their hearts” (Hebrews 8:10).

“WHERE SIN ABOUNDED…..”

“Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” (Romans 5:20). Those words should be carved into the headstone above my grave or written on the bronze plaque if that is the marker used for my grave. I am a prime example of God’s grace toward sinful men and the epitome of what God can do in the life of a former rebel. My changed life is the absolute, unarguable proof of the existence of a Supreme Being who has a continuing vital interest in His human creation.

Those who knew and interacted with me in the early decades of my life would say of me today what was said of the blind man Jesus healed, who had been born blind. (See John 9). They would say, “Well, he looks like the guy we knew back then. His voice sounds the same, but who this man is whom we see today we do not know!” But “if ANY man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new” (See 2 Corinthians 5:17). A truly converted man or woman is a new personality, bearing little resemblance to the person they were prior to their conversion. They don’t just believe Jesus Christ died for them. They also walk in newness of life. (See Romans 6:4). Dead to sin, they become alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. (See Romans 6:11). Delivered from the power of darkness, they walk worthy of the Lord. (See Colossians 1:10, 13). They are not just believers. They are possessors of that life that is truly life. They are totally malleable clay in the hands of the Master Potter.

My future looks brighter with each passing day. Though in this body I groan and experience the vicissitudes of age, I look forward to that day when this mortal frame shall put on immortality and I shall step from here into eternity.

Christ’s Faithful Servant (Galatians 1:10-12),

Donald Wiley

I have always believed Obama was an Islamic plant for the sole purpose of spreading Islam across America.  Remember how ABC interviewer George Stephanopoulos corrected Obama when Obama mentioned his Muslim faith.  Stephanopoulos said, “You mean your Christian faith” and Obama said, “Yes, my Christian faith.”  It’s like Billy Graham mentioning his Muslim faith and having someone correct him and say, “You mean your Christian faith,” and Graham then say, “Yes, my Christian faith.”  And don’t forget his pronouncement at the United Nations when he said, “The future does not belong to those who defame the prophet Mohammad.”  What was he actually saying, then: “The future belongs to those who honor Mohammad!”

Black Americans were so ecstatic about the possibility of having a black president they couldn’t have cared less about his religious affiliation, nor did the average American, black or white.

Barack Obama has done more to seal the fate of America than any other politician on the scene today, welcoming tens of thousands of Islamic jihadists into America during his eight years in office.

Christ’s Faithful Servant (Galatians 1:10-12),

Donald Wiley

After a three year miracle ministry do you know how many disciples Jesus had?  One hundred and twenty!  ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY!  (See Acts 1:15).  “For neither did his brethren believe in him” (John 7:5).  So am I shocked, dismayed, or discouraged when some of those closest to me do not believe my words?  No, not at all.  I would be dumbfounded if everyone who read my articles instantly received what I wrote as being the plain truth of scripture.  (Three years after beginning their ministries men like Benny Hinn and Oral Roberts have thousands and thousands of followers).

One of the oldest arguments Satan will introduce to the human mind is “all these other Christians can’t be wrong!”  When they say the instant you die your soul, the real YOU, flits off to heaven or hell, can they be wrong?  When they say the lost burn in hell forever and ever, throughout the endless ages of future time, can they be wrong?  When they say, once saved always saved, that no matter what a Christian does they are still saved and secure, can they be wrong?

When Jesus said, “Narrow is the gate, and difficult is the way, which leads unto life, and FEW there be that find it” was He wrong?  Have all these hundreds of millions of  bickering, differing, professing Christians actually found the narrow way?  Has the Mormon found it?  How about the Amish?  And the Roman Catholics, did they find it long, long ago?

When Jesus said, “Be ye therefore perfect, EVEN AS your Father which is in heaven is perfect” was He serious?  Was He expecting way too much from human beings, who have so many various pulls of the flesh and a deceiving super-mind like Satan to contend with???

When Jesus said, “If you shall ask ANYTHING in my name, I WILL DO IT,” did He step out on a limb?  Did he have tongue-in- cheek, so to speak?

And when He said, “Go, AND SIN NO MORE,” surely He was kidding then, wasn’t He?  Maybe He just meant, “Don’t commit that particular sin for which you have been forgiven again.”

Christ’s Aged Servant (Galatians 1:10-12),

Donald Wiley

I was very troubled in my sleep last night, awaking several times with great concern for America and Israel.  One can google “Death to America” and “Death to Israel,” and find that there are millions of Muslims who continuously use these chants to express their feelings toward Americans and Jews.

With greater knowledge of the scriptures comes greater concern and heartache for those whom scripture reveals have a bleak future ahead of them.  Satan is good at his job in blinding many believers from seeing what scripture prophecy reveals about America and Israel’s future.

I just watched a video where small Muslim boys were chanting how martyrdom is a blessing from Allah and they were referring to dying while bringing death and destruction to America and Israel.

God’s prophets reveal that Israel WILL definitely come close to utter annihilation before Christ’s return.  Sadly, America will suffer a similar fate.  Jesus said the Jewish people would see Him no more until they cry out, “Blessed is He (Jesus) who comes in the name of the Lord.”  Even Hitler and his death camps could not bring the Jewish people to utter that cry.  Thus, something far more terrible than Hitler’s mass killings of the Jews yet lies ahead for Israel.

Iran, and other Arab states, are itching to use their missiles and nuclear capabilities against Israel.  Many Muslims dream of dying as martyrs as they do their part to annihilate Israel and America.  Those who think we can peacefully co-exist for decades to come are dreamers, too.  To all such, I say, “Prepare to meet thy God!”

Christ’s Aged Servant (Galatians 1:10-12),

Donald Wiley

I just googled the U.N. speech that Obama gave September 25, 2012.  I didn’t want to mis-quote Obama.  Here is exactly what he said: “The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam.”  That is word for word what he said.  Look at the flip side of that statement:  “The future MUST BELONG to those who HONOR the prophet of Islam!”  Is that so hard to see and grasp?

The stage is being set for the resurgence of Islam across the world scene.  The first Islamic Jihad was stopped at Tours, France (then known as Gaul) on October 11, 732.  That’s where the final decisive battle was fought.  Islam’s spread into Europe was then halted for centuries.  Historians peg the the second Islamic Jihad as beginning in 1071 and lasting until 1683.  Now the third Islamic Jihad has begun.  There’s no clear date for when it began, but most historians seem to agree that it was in the recent past.  My understanding of Biblical prophecy leads me to believe firmly that this time it won’t be stopped.  (Jihad is the struggle of Islam against all other religions and political systems that do not accept the Koran and enforce sharia law, to-wit, stoning, cutting off of hands, beheadings, etc.)  Unlike in the other two Jihads, this time Muslims are infiltrating all the countries on the face of the earth.  Their numbers are growing exponentially within those boundaries.  Countries that had no mosques whatever but twenty or thirty years ago are now seeing mosques constructed around the clock.  Little country towns like Elizabethtown, Kentucky now have mosques in them.  Google “mosques in America.”  You will be dumbfounded at the American towns and cities that now have mosques.

I feel sorry for the generation that follows our own.  I might well feel sorry for our present generation within the next few years.  God have mercy on us for turning our backs on His way of life and going our own way.  We will pay dearly for that act.

Christ’s Faithful Servant (Galatians 1:10-12),

Donald Wiley