Bible Doctrine

Jesus said in John 1:18 NO ONE has seen God at anytime, the only begotten Son Who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him 3;13 says NO ONE HAS ASCENDED into heaven EXCEPT HE WHO CAME DOWN FROM HEAVEN the Son of man Who is in heaven. That’s very clear. People don’t take into account that the thief never asked for forgiveness, nor repented. He explicitly asked Jesus to REMEMBER him in His coming kingdom. Thats all. Jesus coming kingdom is in the future. Another thing is Jesus said He would be in the tomb 3 days and 3 nights so where was the thief? John says in 20:17 that He told Mary not to touch Him because He had not yet ascended to the Father.

HE RAISED ME UP!

No, it wasn’t me pulling myself up by my own bootstraps.  I didn’t just turn over a new leaf or make some New Year’s resolutions.  I surrendered.  I surrendered ALL.  That’s what did it.  It is only when we fall at His feet, prostate before Him that He is able to raise us up – to more than we thought we could be.

I realized the brevity of life.  My parents had died.  Two of my brothers had died.  I knew that time was running out.  It was then I began visiting cemetery after cemetery, and the Spirit of God spoke to my mind and heart, “Donald, this is your long home.  This is where you, too, will be someday.”

I have no regrets.  My past has been blotted out by the blood of our Savior.  My future is assured by my Lord.  He has raised me up.  Now, regardless of where I am physically, I am standing on a mountain.  Now, regardless of where my path might lead, I am walking on the waters.

I am what I am, and what I am is a redeemed, blood washed son of the Living God.  I await my change, the transformation that will come at my resurrection when I will be raised incorruptible, immortal, resplendent and radiant in glory, obtaining that for which I was intended before the foundation of this earth was ever laid.

So, do I envy anyone.  No, none, not at all.  And I am grateful beyond words to express.  I doubt that eternity will suffice for me to show my gratitude.  And on Memorial Day I will remember most of all the One who died for ME.

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

Donald Wiley

Many have a faulty understanding of God’s great plan of the ages, you might call it. This is caused primarily because the fullness of that plan, the revelation of just what God is doing with human beings and this material universe He has created, is for the most part revealed through the writings of the prophets, chiefly Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel. He fleshes out this plan through Jesus’ teachings in the gospel accounts and the letters of the apostles. One must pull it all together, connect the dots – so to speak – and it is not all that easily accomplished when the mind is already filled and persuaded with contrary teachings and beliefs.

One of the most difficult things any human will ever encounter is letting go of some belief that mind has accepted as unquestioningly true for years. That is WHY most Mormons live and die as Mormons, most Catholics live and die as Catholics, etc. You can fill in any denomination’s name and that holds true for that denomination, also. Few are the believers who actively question their beliefs and then bring themselves into full surrender to Jesus Christ and then pore over the scriptures – all of them, Old and New Testaments – in order to really “prove” what the Word of God teaches on any given matter.

Without a full and continuing surrender to Jesus Christ we will ever leave an opening for the deceiver Satan to move in and block our ability to see and understand the truth. Then again, when we set someone up as the final authority as to spiritual truth we prevent the Lord from opening our eyes in any area wherein that personality we trust so completely is wrong.

Actually there are three categories of people on this planet and there have always been these three categories: 1) the saved, 2) the lost, and 3) the UNCALLED! Technically, you might include the “uncalled” with the lost as they are not yet saved, but they are also not yet condemned to hell as the ONLY way to get to hell is to go around Mt. Calvary and the cross. You can’t get there any other way. One has to be confronted with the truth of the gospel and knowingly reject it in order to fall into the category of the lost. Most of humanity fits into the “uncalled” category. They are not saved, but neither are they irrevocably lost – not until they reject Jesus Christ. The idea that the age in which we live is the only time God will extend the offer of salvation that you either get saved now before Christ returns or you are forever lost and damned is a fallacy, a far-reaching error, and an error that pictures God as being grossly unfair. Do you think John the Baptist had a better shot at salvation and embracing the truth than Geronimo or some Aztec Indian warrior of many centuries past? Of course he did. Jesus was his first cousin. They grew up together. But when we get to the conclusion of God’s great salvation plan, Geronimo, the Aztec Indian warrior, and everyone else born human (as well as the unborn aborted) will have a a marvelous, unimpeded avenue to God and the truth. NO ONE will ever be able to shake their fist in the face of God and honestly argue, “I never had a chance to inherit eternal life. I never even knew it was a possibility for human beings.” Believe that for it is true.

2 Corinthians 6:2 is a quote from Isaiah 49:8 and should not contain the definite article “the” but rather the indefinite article “a”, and should have been translated “I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in A day of salvation……” The year 1776 A.D. or the year 800 A.D. would not have been an acceptable year to extend the call of salvation to the Olmec, Aztec or Inca Indian tribes. They had no Bibles or written languages to print such. They would have been at a grave disadvantage for accepting and walking in the truth. They had no knowledge of Adam and Eve, or Noah, or Isaiah, or Jeremiah. They had no idea WHO the Creator was or the offer of eternal life to those who would surrender their lives to Jesus Christ. Their call to salvation is yet future, actually more than a thousand years from this moment. “For the expectation of the creature (humanity) waits for the manifestation of the sons of God (after our Lord returns and brings forth His elect sons and daughters from the grave via a resurrection) For the creature (humanity as a whole) was made subject to vanity (a vain existence, having no relationship with their Creator) not willingly (they had no choice in the matter), but by reason of him who has subjected the same in hope (of also being resurrected and having eternal life offered to them also)., because the creature (mankind, humanity as a whole) also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption (via a resurrection) into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Se Romans 8:19-21). God help you to understand.

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

Donald Wiley

Now there’s an appealing doctrine: FORGIVEN! The true God of glory is merciful beyond human comprehension. Forgiven! Decades of sins wiped out! Decades of bad choices obliterated from the mind of one’s Creator! Forgiven! God avows, “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool!” (See Isaiah 1:18). Now there is a comforting doctrine that is true, that has the support of scripture in abundance. A tongue that once uttered a thousand lies now speaks the truth. The hand that once stole now gives. The formerly thoughtless is now considerate. The touch of the Master’s hand makes all the difference and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit produces a new creation – a newly begotten child of God, and the resemblance to the heavenly Father becomes ever more unmistakable with the passage of time.

But, as with every truth of God, Satan enters the picture quickly and perverts and distorts even this doctrine of the forgiveness of the sinner, Forgiven the sins of our past, Satan introduces THE LIE that our future sins are pre-forgiven, also, that the believer can no longer be charged with sin though he should sin a thousand times more! (See Romans 3:25). Lifting out of its’ context the cry, “Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin,” Satan says, “See there! God blesses the believer by forgiving all his future sins as well as the sins of his past!” (See Romans 4:8). But Romans 4:8 is actually a quote from Psalm 32:1-2 where King David speaks of how God graciously forgave his PAST sins regarding the killing of Uriah the Hittite following his adulterous union with Uriah’s wife Bathsheba. How blessed David was that God did not impute these sins against him and slay David himself!

To teach that one’s future sins are pre-forgiven is about as diabolical as a doctrine can be. To teach that lie as being the truth of scripture one must deliberately overlook and/or ignore a plethora of plain, clear, easy-to-understand scripture texts! Read Revelation 2 and 3 and notice how God sees and condemns the various sins of the church congregations mentioned in those chapters over and over again demanding that they repent and warning the congregation in Sardis some are in danger of having their names blotted out of the book of life! (See Revelation 3:5). Peter warns that “after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning” (See 2 Peter 2:20).  Only the redeemed have escaped the pollutions of the world.  If entangled once more in those pollutions, they not only face the judgment of the Lord, but also incur once more the second death.  This could not happen if their future sins had already been forgiven!!! And what is most horrible of all is that this devil’s LIE is taught from the pulpits of “Christian” assemblies far and wide and is accepted as truth by thousands of various and sundry congregations.  God help you to understand is my prayer.

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

Donald Wiley

As I have pointed out several times before, we human beings aren’t generally given to deep thinking. That is why a Presbyterian youth dies a Presbyterian octogenarian. An Amish boy, develops into an Amish man. A Lutheran young lady, in all probability, will still be sitting in the pew of a Lutheran assembly when she collects her first Social Security check. Folks just don’t change their religious customs and beliefs. Sometimes a Roman Catholic will study and examine deeply enough that they leave the Roman Catholic fold, but even then they are generally unable to shake off all religious tradition and error and fail to really walk in the truth of scripture in toto.

Jesus Christ dogmatically declared that “He that is of God hears God’s words. You therefore hear them not, because you are not of God” (See John 8:47). One to whom God has imparted His Holy Spirit does not need to be argued into accepting what God says. There is no need for cajoling, wheedling, pleading with such a human mind as that mind is suffused or saturated with God’s own Spirit. One then becomes like-minded with God. Like Nipper, the dog that sits listening attentively to the old RCA phonograph horn, the child of God listens attentively to the Master’s voice. All other voices are stilled, shut out, no longer heard.

There is a most interesting account given in the 13th chapter of the Book of Acts that most Sabbath violators seem to overlook. It tells of a missionary visit made by Paul and Barnabas to the city of Antioch in Pisidia, “bur when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue (where Paul and Barnabas had reasoned with them out of the scriptures), the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them THE NEXT SABBATH.” (See verse 42, Acts 13). The very next verse says that Paul and Barnabas were “speaking to them to continue in the grace of God.” Since they were speaking of God’s grace, what an excellent opportunity to tell these Gentiles, “Hey, we don’t have to wait until another Sabbath! Tomorrow is Sunday, the new Lord’s Day. Let’s meet tomorrow!” But what does the inspired text say, “AND THE NEXT SABBATH DAY CAME ALMOST THE WHOLE CITY TOGETHER TO HEAR THE WORD OF GODl” (verse 44).

Then why does it say in Acts 20:7, “And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them?” Well, finish the verse, “Paul preached unto them ready to depart on the morrow…” Paul had been telling believers they would see his face no more, that when he left the area he would not return and he was leaving the very next day. (See verse 25). They would have gathered together to hear Paul preach one last time whatever the day, whether a Sunday, a Monday or a Thursday. Nothing in this text validates Sunday as a new sabbath. Nothing calls it “the Lord’s Day!” Those who refuse to hear God’s words read into this text something it does not say at all.

It is just like what the Roman Catholic priest does when reading John 20:23: “Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them, and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.” They believe this statement of Jesus Christ gave priests the authority to forgive Christians their sins. The text does not say that at all. Jesus isn’t speaking to any priests there. He is speaking to the disciples who had seen Him brutally beaten, spat upon and crucified. He knew they were, therefore going to have a most difficult time forgiving those who had so cruelly murdered Him. In order to assist them in coming to that state of mind and heart required in true forgiveness, He told them, “Fellows, if you don’t forgive them, I won’t forgive them either. If you do forgive them, I will forgive them also.”

God grant you the ability and mindset to really dig into the Word of God and come to a full understanding of what is actually revealed in the Holy Scriptures. But you must come to grips with the fact that you will definitely find yourself in a much smaller company of believers, but believers that love God more than they love life itself.

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

Donald Wiley

If you want the Bible’s most complete description of “an overcomer” read Revelation 14, verses 1 through 5. The Jehovah’s Witnesses interpretation of this text has scared many Bible students away from even looking at it I fear. The apostle Paul’s best description of an overcomer is found in the letter to the Ephesians, chapter 4, verses 11 through 16. There Paul calls an overcomer “a perfect (spiritually complete, mature) man” (Greek “person” or “individual” male or female) – someone who measures up to the spiritual stature of the fullness of Christ. In other words, he or she is as Christ-like as a human can become while still in mortal flesh, someone who can say with Paul, “Christ LIVES in me!” Someone who can also say with Paul, “the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world” (See Galatians 6:14). When Paul writes “it pleased God…to reveal His Son in me” do not assume that is or was God’s desire for Paul alone. It is God’s desire that ALL believers without exception allow Jesus Christ to be fully revealed and expressed in and through them. (See Galatians 1:15-16). The overcomer is also described by Paul in 2 Corinthians 10, verses 4-5. Not only are their actions and speech consistently godly, so are their thoughts.

Many have a horribly warped misinterpretation of what Paul is saying in Romans 7. They think Paul is describing himself as a defeated Christian, carnal, sold under sin, unable to get or maintain the spiritual victory over sin. This text (Romans 7) is one of the classic texts Peter must have had in mind when he warned that Paul wrote some things hard to be understood, things that some readers would “wrest” or twist to their own spiritual destruction. (See 2 Peter 3:15-16). One needs to keep Philippians 1:20 and 21 in mind when reading Romans 7. Also Philippians 3, verses 6 and 17 and Philippians 4:9. Colossians 1:27-29 and especially I Thessalonians 2:10 must be kept in mind when reading Romans 7. It also helps to read Romans 6 (especially verse 19) and Romans 8 when reading Romans 7.

Paul was a true overcomer, meeting to exactness the qualifications of an overcomer as described in his own letters as well as Revelation 14, verses 1 thru 5.. Jesus Christ is returning for a pure bride, resplendent in holiness and purity as well as spiritual understanding, not a bunch of carnal believers bickering and disagreeing with one another even as they are meeting the Lord in the air. How ridiculous!!

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

Donald Wiley

There’s a lot of things I have been and am no more. There’s a lot of things I am not and will never be. But there is one thing I am and was meant to be from eternity past when God chose me in Christ Jesus, predestinating and electing me to join Him and His Son in the great family of God. I am a teacher of God’s Word in truth and faithfulness. I am not and will never be infallible, but I have a giant “leg up” on, or distinct advantage over most other men and women who place themselves in the office of a teacher, I am anointed of God to teach His Word. I am not alone in this calling. There are thousands and thousands of us on earth at any given time. In the main, we see eye to eye – just as God’s prophets and apostles did. God does not work at cross purposes with Himself, inspiring and leading one teacher to teach one thing while another anointed teacher teaches an opposing and contradictory doctrine.

“But now has God set the members every one of them in the body, as it has pleased Him…..God has tempered the body together….But God has set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers…” (See I Corinthians 12:18, 24 and 28). Therefore, I do not need, nor do I desire any man, or group of men, to examine me, lay hands on me, and “ordain” me to the office or position of teacher in their particular assembly or denomination. Our Lord did that Himself long, long ago.

Oh, and one more thing. I AM going to live a long, long time. And, no, that’s not wicked presumption. The Holy Spirit impressed upon Paul that his life course was going to continue for some time when to all appearances he was going to suffer the death penalty. Years later the Holy Spirit impressed upon Paul’s mind that his life course was at an end. (See Philippians 1:19-26 and 2 Timothy 4:6-7). And, though I am now in my eighty second year and was diagnosed with prostate cancer in May of 2016, a cancer that metastasized to the lymph nodes a few years ago, my healing Lord caused the metastasized cancer cells to vacate my lymph nodes a few months later. The Spirit of God witnesses with my human spirit that my race is not yet over.

To date, I have written approximately one thousand Bible related articles, many of which I have posted either on my Facebook page or my website . I continue to write such articles almost daily – either entirely new articles or expanded versions of shorter articles posted years ago. I, of course, have my detractors – some calling me a heretic and demanding that I repent, but I also have a multitude from coast to coast and around the world who read my articles and praise God for my writing ministry. I seem to recall some of our Lord’s apostles and prophets having their detractors, also. So, I am in good company at least in that regard. May God help you to understand what I write and what you read is my prayer.

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

Donald Wiley

Approximately six years before writing the Roman letter, Paul had written the believers at Thessalonica: “You are witnesses, and God also (notice now Paul says God will attest to what he is about to say), how holily and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe” (See 1 Thessalonians 2:10). Paul had long lived a holy, just and blameless life! That is WHY Paul could dogmatically state to both Timothy and Titus that a bishop (spiritual overseer, a pastor) MUST BE BLAMELESS…JUST, HOLY!” (See Titus 1:7-8 and I Timothy 3:1-7). Paul wasn’t a hypocrite, telling these men THEY had to be holy and blameless while he, himself, had to admit that he was “carnal, sold under sin!” How ridiculous that any Bible teacher would even think so!!!

Remember, Peter warned that Paul wrote some things hard to be understood. Some, indeed, think Paul was speaking of his own present condition in Romans 7. After all he DOES use the present tense and uses the personal pronoun “I” in all those statements about sin overcoming him and holding him captive. But they fail to consider the plain, clear VICTORY statements of Romans 6 and 8. They also fail to grasp the true meaning of that 19th verse in Romans 6, wherein Paul says that he is now going to speak “after the manner of men” who have weakness in the flesh. And, further, they fail to consider all the other statements Paul makes in his other epistles about our living dedicated lives of holiness and purity, and how he, himself, led such a life as a shining example of a true minister of Jesus Christ.

That’s not all they forget. Here are a few other statements Paul makes that they obviously overlook when reading Romans 7. Paul wrote the Corinthians: “I know of NOTHING against myself!” (See I Corinthians 4:4). He could search his mind, his heart, and life without one twinge of guilt over unforsaken sin. The New International Version words it this way: “My conscience is clear.” In writing the Philippian believers, Paul said, as touching the righteousness required in the law, he was blameless. (See Philippians 3:6). He told them that Christ was magnified in HIS body, and that for him to live was for Christ to live anew. (See Philippians 1:20-21). How could Paul seriously exhort the Philippian believers to be “blameless, and harmless, and without rebuke” if he, himself, was ever giving in to the pulls of the flesh? (See Philippians 2:15). Paul would have been a hypocrite! Paul exhorted the believers at Corinth, “Be ye followers of me even as I also am of Christ” (I Corinthians 11:1), and cried out to the Galatian believers, “Christ LIVES in me!” (See Galatians 2:20). It would be a pathetic joke today for many believers, even many ministers, to make such statements and apply them to their own lives and conduct.

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

Donald Wiley

“FINALLY, BRTHREN, WHATSOEVER THINGS ARE TRUE, WHATSOEVER THINGS ARE HONEST, WHATSOEVER THINGS ARE JUST, WHATSOEVER THINGS ARE PURE, WHATSOEVER THINGS ARE LOVELY, WHATSOEVER THINGS ARE OF GOOD REPORT, IF THERE BE ANY VIRTUE, AND IF THERE BE ANY PRAISE, THINK ON THESE THINGS.”  (PHILIPPIANS 4:8).

IF WE ALLOW THE WORD OF GOD TO GUIDE US IN HOW WE THINK, SPEAK AND ACT, WE CONTINUOUSLY ENJOY THAT PEACE THAT SURPASSES ALL HUMAN UNDERSTANDING.  WE ARE TO HOME IN ON THOSE QUALITIES, VIRTUES AND ACTS OF OTHERS THAT FIT THE DESCRIPTION GIVEN ABOVE EVEN IF WE HAVE TO RETURN TO THE DISTANT PAST IN OUR MEMORIES TO DO SO.

 WE ARE TO FORGIVE OTHERS THEIR TRESPASSES AGAINST US ELSE GOD WARNS HE WILL NOT FORGIVE US WHEN WE SIN AGAINST HIM.  WITH WHAT JUDGMENT WE JUDGE, GOD WILL JUDGE US.  IF WE ARE QUICK TO JUDGE AND CONDEMN OTHERS, GOD WILL BE QUICK TO JUDGE AND CONDEMN US. TO GO THE WAY THE LORD GUIDES AND LEADS US IS THE ONLY REASONABLE WAY TO BEHAVE.  GO THE WAY OF THE FLESH AND THIS EVIL WORLD AND WE WILL PAY BIG TIME FOR OUR FOLLY.

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

Donald Wiley