Bible Doctrine

Would you contend that the title above is actually a false statement? Then read on.

It may well be that someday in the heavenlies a group of angels will be talking about the mercies of God, how far reaching and stupendous they are, and as I pass by they will point to me and say, “There is the proof that our Great Creator God is indeed a God of tremendous, inexplicable mercy.”  I spent almost the entirety of the previous day in one single chapter of Isaiah, the 43rd chapter.  I felt led to return to that chapter one more time, and, oh, what a blessing it was to muse on the pages of Holy Writ from the prophet Isaiah’s writings one more time. 

Remember that the writing apostles reveal quite plainly that all true converts are and comprise spiritual “Israel.”  Also, consider that Jacob’s name was changed by God to that of Israel.  Therefore when reading Isaiah and he uses statements like “the Lord has created you, O Jacob, and He…formed you, O Israel,” then Jacob means he is speaking of fleshly Israel and “Israel” means he is speaking of spiritual Israel – the true sons and daughters of God of this present age as fleshly Israel (Jacob), for the most part, has been cut off from God.  Only a remnant remains in fellowship with Him through acceptance of Jesus Christ.  Paul teaches this great truth in Romans 9 -11.  Jacob is God’s CREATED nation.  Israel is God’s FORMED nation, a nation formed through process of time, not created by fiat.  Believers are formed and fashioned by the Master Potter through a lifetime of learning, growing, overcoming, developing godly character and godly responses to any and all stimuli.  In the concluding verses of that 43rd chapter of Isaiah God says this: “I, even I, am he that blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and will not remember your sins!” (verse 25).  Our God and Creator has perfect mind control.  He can blot from His mind and memory anything He chooses, and He has chosen to do just that with our sins.  That’s WHY God could say of King David, “my servant David…kept my commandments, and…followed me with all his heart, to do that ONLY which was right in mine eyes” (See I Kings 14:8).  Wait a minute!  What about King David’s murdering Uriah the Hittite and committing adultery with Bathsheba!!!  God had blotted out of His mind ALL of David’s past sins.  He remembered them no more.  When God speaks of us, we who are in Christ Jesus, He says the same thing: “my servant Donald has kept my commandments and followed me with all his heart to do that ONLY  which was right in mine eyes!”  Who wouldn’t get up at 3:00 a.m. to have His Creator speak of him in such a manner???!!  It is this knowledge that gives POWER to my prayers, for I know God cannot lie.  When I go before His throne in prayer I can have complete confidence that He is listening intently to every word I utter.  He hears me as quickly and as surely as He heard David, or Isaiah, or Paul, or, yes, Jesus Christ, His firstborn Son.  That’s WHY I have no anxiety about tomorrow, come what may I am in the loving, caring hands of One who says of me, “Donald has kept my commandments and followed me with all his heart to do that ONLY which was right in mine eyes!” I am now eighty-two years old and look forward to several more years of serving our Lord and His people.

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

Donald Wiley

In the 11th chapter of Hebrews, the writer makes mention of Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham and Sarah, and then states very plainly that “These ALL died in faith (yes, including Enoch) NOT HAVING RECEIVED THE PROMISES…”   Chief and foremost among those promises was the promise of eternal life.  (See verse 13, Hebrews 11).  The writer concludes this chapter by repeating, “And these ALL (again including Enoch), having obtained a good report through faith, received NOT the promise (of eternal life), God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect (by being changed from mortal to immortal)” (Hebrews 11:39-40).

“Jesus said unto her (to Martha, sister of the dead Lazarus), ‘I am the resurrection, and the life.  He that believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live (live again at some future point via a resurrection from the dead).  And whosoever (then) lives (having been resurrected), and believes in me shall never die…” (See John 11:25-26).

Jesus told Peter, “I go to prepare a place for you (in heaven).  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself that where I am there you may be also” (See John 14:2-3).  Notice, WHEN does Jesus say we will join Him?  When He returns, NOT at the moment we die!

When John writes, “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life” he is not saying that eternal life has already begun in the believer and that the believer will never die.  He is merely saying that since God cannot lie.  His promises are as good as gold.  I have eternal life right now only in the sense that God’s promises are sure to be fulfilled.  It is similar to a mother asking her son to take out the trash as he sits and watches television.  He replies, “Done!”  He does not mean he has already done so.  He means his mother is to consider it done as his word to her is as good as gold and he will get up from his seat in a bit and take out the trash.

Text after Bible text plainly shows that our eternal life actually begins only after we have been resurrected from the dead, yet many preachers will ignore dozens of plain clear scriptures that prove this to be true and home in on a text that seemingly says our eternal life actually begins the moment we enter into a valid relationship with Jesus Christ.  This is true ONLY in the sense that God cannot lie and His promise is as good as gold!

Scripture declares again and again that we “shall inherit everlasting life” (See Matt. 19:29).  One’s inheritance denotes something one enjoys IN THE FUTURE, not now.  Jesus said we will enter into eternal life WHEN HE RETURNS.  (See Matt. 25:31-46).

Peter said to Christ, “We (we disciples) have left all, and have followed you.  And Jesus answered and said, ‘Truly I say unto you, there is no man that has left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for my sake and the gospel’s, but he shall receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands with persecutions, AND IN THE WORLD TO COME ETERNAL LIFE” (See Mark 10:28-30).

Think on these things and I am sure the Lord will give you understanding.

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

Donald Wiley

let’s look at that 5th verse of Hebrews 11 a bit more closely, especially homing in on that word “translated.”  Let’s see if other scriptures will give us an understanding into what the writer of Hebrews meant when he said Enoch was translated.  The English word “translated” in that text comes from the Greek word metatithemi (pronounced met-at-ITH’-ay-mee) and literally means “to change from one place to another, to transport.”  Now all other related scriptures, even the context of Hebrews 11, forbids this to mean transported from earth to heaven.  There is no mystical meaning to that word translated.  It is an Old English word no longer used today.  No one today would say the Nazis rounded up the Jews and translated them to concentration camps.  We now use the word “transported.”  But the Old English word translated meant just that, to transport someone from one place to another.  An Englishman of the 17th Century WOULD have said “I translated my sheep to market this morning,” meaning “I transported my sheep to market this morning.” (Homographs are words that are spelled the same but have different meanings.  The modern word “translated” is a homograph.  It is spelled exactly like the Old English word translated but has an entirely different meaning.)

We find this word metatithemi again in Acts 7, verse 16, where we read, “So Jacob went down into Egypt, and died, he, and our fathers, and were CARRIED OVER (metatithemi) into Sychem, and laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought for a sum of money of the sons of Emmor the father of Sychem.” (verses 15 and 16).  Jacob’s body was translated (Old English), or transported, or carried over from Egypt to Sychem, from one place on earth to another place on earth.  Translated does NOT mean moved from earth to heaven.

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

Donald Wiley

A Sunday observer is in error when they say, “It is well to note that every one of the Ten Commandments is included somewhere in the New Testament except the command to obey the Sabbath.”  These pseudo-scholars probably think the King James Version of the Bible is free from error.  (I could point out  a dozen errors rather quickly, but I will draw your attention to one quite pertinent to this man’s assertion that the Sabbath command is not found in the New Testament.  We are going to look at Hebrews 4, verse 9.  I will quote that verse verbatim as found in the King James Version first: “There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.”  The word “rest” in that verse is translated so from the Greek word sabbatismos.  I probably don’t even have to translate that Greek word for you, do I?  It is the Greek word for “sabbath,” or “sabbath rest,” and is so translated in at least sixteen other versions of the New Testament such as the New International Version, the English Standard Version and, at least, fourteen others.  In the Aramaic Bible in Plain English that verse is translated thusly, “So then, it remains for the people of God TO KEEP THE SABBATH.” 

And just because a command of God is not repeated in the New Testament does not mean such commands can then be ignored.  That’s a foolish idea.  Read the Book of Exodus alone and place a check mark beside each command of God common sense tells you is still valid and should be kept.  Then try to find those commands repeated in the New Testament.  You’ll find that many such commands are found nowhere in the New Testament.

The Sunday observer’s arguments are not new to me.  I have heard the same arguments again and again.  And I long ago proved and reproved them to be without validity and some are utterly foolish in the extreme.

Here is another foolish argument they offer: “His (God’s) plan for the Christian church allows Christians to worship on any day they choose.”  Now there is a half-truth there.  It is true we can worship any time and ought to worship God every day, 24/7.  But if he means Christians have the capacity to make whatever day we choose holy, that’s utterly ridiculous.  Only God can make something holy.  No man can do so.  And he made the Sabbath holy at creation.  Nowhere in all the Bible does God de-sanctify the Sabbath, thereby making it a common day.

The passage in Romans 14 is talking about choosing a day to fast, NOT choosing a day to make holy or a day to set aside for the worship of God.  And true Christians are persuaded by scripture, not their own private reasoning as to what God allows and forbids.

The Sunday observer also makes the common error of stating Jesus rose from the dead on Sunday.  He did not.  I have written several articles about this.  They are on my website.  When the women arrived at the tomb before sunrise Sunday they found Him already gone.  The proper question to ask is, “How long had He been gone from the tomb?  An hour, six hours, twelve hours????”  He came out of the tomb at the same time He was placed in the tomb – at sunset.  He stated that the ONLY SIGN He would give the Jewish people He was the Messiah was that He would remain in the tomb for three days and three nights – seventy-two hours.  (See Matthew 12:36-40).  You can believe He fulfilled that ONLY SIGN to the letter.

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

Donald Wiley

Reader, let me assure you of one thing, one truth you can take to the bank, so to speak.  Listen, ten thousand Einsteins putting their heads together in a great round-table discussion for ten thousand years could not come up with a better plan of salvation than God, a plan that is understood by precious few in this era.  Before uttering the words, “Let us make man in our image, and after our likeness,” God, Jesus Christ and His holy messenger angels consider every single possible hindrance, difficulty, impediment, etc., that could even remotely place even one single solitary human being at a disadvantage for obtaining eternal life and immortality!  “What if they don’t have Bibles?  What if they live and die in separated lands on the other side of earth from Israel and God’s prophets and apostles?  What if they are born into cultures embracing rank paganism and utterly unaware of the true God, His Word and plan to save them?  What if someone has parents who are rank atheists?  What if they are born into abject slavery in ancient Egypt, China or Africa centuries before Jesus’ earthly ministry and crucifixion?  What if someone is born deaf, dumb and blind?  Any and every impediment possible was duly considered and provision was made for overcoming the same . 

Reader, let me assure you of this fact: NO ONE will ever have cause to stand in front of Jesus Christ at the judgment and honestly argue: “I was never given the opportunity to be saved and granted eternal life.  I never even heard you existed!  I never even knew eternal life was a possibility for human beings!!  And no one can see and understand what I am saying and WHY I am saying it who rejects the light and understanding given by God through the Hebrew Scriptures as it is within those pages of Holy Writ primarily that the Most High God fleshes out the truth in this most important matter.  God assures His faithful sons and daughters that He has a sense of fair play you cannot imagine.  “Are not my ways equal?” He asks in Ezekiel 18:29.  When Abraham said, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” it was because he was the first of God’s prophets to really have a comprehension of God’s plan of the ages.  Many preachers have been deceived into believing that the Great Creator God brings billions of humans into existence and gives only comparatively few an opportunity to gain eternal life, consigning millions and millions of blinded, ignorant, deceived humans to burn in hell with no chance of escape.  Deceived teachers retort, “Well, if someone is seeking God then God will get the truth to them so that they can be saved.”  They ignore, probably have never even considered the scriptures that clearly state, “There is NONE that seeks after God – NO NOT ONE!”  God MUST seek us.  We are cut off from Him and born onto a planet where God Himself says Satan deceives the world, is the god of this present evil world, and hinders the operation of God. Think on these things,

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

Donald Wiley

• In I John 2:22, we read these words: “Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ.  He is anti-Christ who denies the Father and the Son.”  The Holy Spirit inspired the apostle John early on, before he had penned the Book of Revelation, to reveal to us that one main criteria in identifying the end-time anti-Christ would be that this person or religious entity would deny that God has a Son.  Over and over again in the Koran it is clearly and plainly stated that Allah has no son.  Roman Catholicism has never made such a claim.
  In Revelation 20:4, we read these words: “And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them.  Then I saw the souls of those WHO HAD BEEN BEHEADED FOR THEIR WITNESS TO JESUS AND FOR THE WORD OF GOD, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands.  And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.”  This passage clearly tells us that one identifying characteristic of the end-time “beast” is that this religious power BEHEADS Christians – those who identify with Jesus and proclaim the Bible to be God’s Word!  Roman Catholicism burnt at the stake those she deemed to be heretics.
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  So, in these two small verses, John informs us that the anti-Christ and the “beast” of Revelation (and Daniel) will insist that God has no son and that this religious power will use beheading as its chief instrument of executing Christians Many followers of Herbert W. Armstrong assign to him the attribute of infallibility whenever he spoke on spiritual matters.  Followers of Ellen G. White do the same.  If these two now long dead believers say the scriptures teach such and such a doctrine, their followers take it as gospel truth and run with it.  Followers of Herbert W. Armstrong referred to him as God’s end-time apostle and believe he was the “Elijah” that was to come and restore all things shortly before Christ’s return.  Followers of Ellen G. White refer to her as being God’s end-time prophetess.  Therefore, since a prophet or prophetess speaks under divine inspiration, anything Ellen G. White said or wrote concerning spiritual matters had the weight of infallibility.  If she said the two witnesses of Revelation 11 were the Old and New Testaments, then that was that.  There can be no questioning of her interpretation.   If she had said they were Ma and Pa Kettle, you can believe that some would have believed that, also.  How anyone can read the first thirteen verses of Revelation 11 and then insist these two prophets are the Old and New Testaments and that those 13 verses were totally fulfilled during the French Revolution staggers my mind.
• Just because someone can speak and write convincingly, with picturesque speech, language that uplifts and enthralls, speaking much undeniable plain and clear truth does NOT mean that person is infallible when speaking on spiritual matters and giving their interpretation of what they believe the scriptures teach and reveal.  They can be and too often are dead wrong in some of what they say and write. 
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  The Seventh Day Adventists believed Christ’s return was imminent in the mid-1800’s, hence the name “adventists.”  Herbert W. Armstrong believed Christ’s return was imminent in the 1970’s.  Ellen G. White has now been dead for just over a century.  Herbert W. Armstrong has now been dead for nearly forty years.  Neither of them would have ever believed that we living in the year 2015 would be living on an earth still to be visited by a returning Jesus Christ. Those who do not have the presence of mind to prove all things of a spiritual nature will find themselves automatically believing whatever they are spoon-fed by their spiritual leaders – even those long dead.  God help us to keep open minds and really PROVE what we believe to be true.

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

Donald Wiley

 There is so much that needs to be said in order for my reader to truly understand just WHY God has evidently insisted upon calling Himself the God OF ISRAEL.  Remember, He calls Himself that one hundred and eighty-eight times in the scriptures and only once calls Himself the God of the Gentiles (i.e., nations), for He is primarily the God of ONE nation – the nation Israel.  Jesus, this God of Israel, declares “other sheep I have (the Gentiles), which are not of this fold (Israel), them also I must bring (to God the Father and to Israel), and they shall hear my voice (so as to understand and respond), AND THERE SHALL BE ONE FOLD, AND ONE SHEPHERD” (See John 10:16).  And that one fold is the spiritual house of Israel!!!  There are not two bodies of Christ – a Gentile fold and an Israelite, or Jewish, fold.  There is but ONE fold, one body of Christ – and that body of Christ is spiritual Israel.  This is a basic, fundamental doctrine of scripture, and unless rightly understood literally hundreds of scriptures remain locked to the understanding of not just the world but locked to the understanding of believers – even many “preachers!”  The identity of spiritual Israel is a truth closed to multitudes of Christians, or at least those who call themselves such.  Satan has a greater understanding of this truth than most ministers, and that is pathetic, reprehensible, tragic, but nonetheless TRUE!  That is WHY Satan moved early on to divide the body of Christ into two folds – a sabbath keeping fold and a Sunday keeping fold.  Seeing his success, he then moved quickly to divide and subdivide these two bodies into scores of differing, dissenting, bickering organizations by introducing denominationalism.  And his success has been staggering.

 I spoke in an earlier segment as to how Satan had a masterstroke of genius when he moved to confuse believers into thinking the terms Old Testament and Old Covenant were synonymous thereby leading some believers into thinking the Old Testament had, in a sense, been abolished or done away with – no longer used to formulate doctrine or determine God’s will in a given matter.  His second masterstroke of genius was to deceive some believers, and, yes, it has proven to be the majority of believers, that God’s sacred, holy, ETERNAL Sabbath was changed from the seventh day of the weekly cycle to the first day of the week, from Saturday (actually from sunset Friday till sunset Saturday) to Sunday!  Many believers are convinced God authorized this change in honor of Christ’s resurrection – a belief that is without one shred of scriptural authority or proof.  The God of Israel meets in fellowship with spiritual Israel on the Sabbath – always has and always will.  That is not to say we cannot have marvelous, valid fellowship with God on the other six days of the week.  We can and should, but scripture plainly reveals that God “blessed and sanctified” the seventh day.  (See Genesis 2:1-3).  No such language is ever used of the first day of the week, Sunday.  In God’s eyes Sunday is a regular work day, a day as common as any other!  Paul’s writings have been perverted, distorted, misinterpreted to supposedly show that Sunday is the “Christian” sabbath.  Not so!  To be continued…… 

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

Donald Wiley

Understanding just WHO the 144,000 are goes a long way in explaining WHY the apostles thought the return of Jesus Christ was imminent, that He might well return during their own lifetime – two thousand years ago.  Many, not understanding the identity of these 144,000 servants of God, thought that the apostles erred, or didn’t know what they were talking about when they said such things as “the end of all things is at hand,” and “the time is at hand,” “the night is far spent, the day is at hand,” and “behold, the Judge is standing at the door,” and similar statements.  (See I Peter 4:7; Revelation 1:3; Romans 13:12; James 5:9). 

Early on in his ministry, the apostle Paul evidently saw himself as still being alive at Christ’s return, as he wrote the believers in Thessalonica, “For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, THAT WE WHO ARE ALIVE AND REMAIN (remain ALIVE) until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede (meet the Lord before) those who are asleep (those who have died).  For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God.  And the dead in Christ will rise first, then WE WHO ARE ALIVE and remain shall be caught up together with them (those who have died) in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.  And thus we shall always be with the Lord” (See I Thessalonians 4:15-17). 

The apostles always spoke from the position of faith.  They knew the Lord was going to return.  They knew the Lord was working mightily among them, converting men and women far and wide, bringing them in to the household of faith.  They knew what John understood, that the Lord was preparing a “firstfruits” company of overcomer believers.  They probably also knew what John understood, and that was the revelation that the Lord would return when He had 144,000 priest/kings culled from humanity to serve with and under Him in fulfilling the will of God.  Speaking from the standpoint of absolute faith, they at first thought this number would be completed in their own lifetime.  But as you read their final epistles, you find that they realized that number was definitely not going to be completed in their own lifetime as a great falling away had occurred.  When Jesus said no man knew the day or hour of His return it was based on the fact that no one could possibly know when the final overcomer had been produced. 

In our next segment, we will give you the BIBLE definition of an overcomer.  That definition describes the 144,000 to a tee.  All those in Christ are actually in the running, so to speak, to be one of the 144,000.  You could be one.  I could be one.  Any truly converted believer is eligible to join the ranks of the 144,000.  The ball is in our court.  Are we going to go for it, or not?  You would think by now the number of overcomers would surely total 144,000, even 144 million.  Not so fast.  Wait till you see the Bible definition of an overcomer.  Then you might think, “Uh oh!  It might be another hundred years or more before that number of overcomers is achieved!”  And you might be right……

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

Donald Wiley

I listened once again to J. Vernon McGee’s recorded sermon “The Sabbath Day or the Lord’s Day – Which?” Of course the very title of his sermon implies clearly that the Sabbath is not the Lord’s Day, even though Jesus Himself said that He was Lord of the Sabbath, hence stating clearly that the Sabbath is, was and ever shall be the Lord’s Day. (See Matthew 12:8, Mark 2:27-28 and Luke 6:5.) And, in the passage in Mark’s gospel account, Jesus is quoted as saying the Sabbath was made FOR MAN, not merely for the Jew. It was sanctified and made holy time many centuries before the first Jew was even born!” In NO Bible passage is the first day of the week, or Sunday called “the Lord’s Day.” That is an invention of deceived men.

But do you want to know why I listened to Mr. McGee’s sermon about the Sabbath one more time? I had difficulty believing I had heard him right when he shouted “to observe the Sabbath today is to go back to paganism.” He then repeats himself, saying, “It’s to return to paganism, my beloved.” This blinded, deceived preacher shouts to the top of his lungs that Sabbath keeping by the Jews was paganism! How can you get any more blasphemous than that? Moses practiced paganism? God’s prophets of old were pagans? God is the author of pagan religion????

Satan is a master at what he does, for one can listen to a dozen of McGee’s sermons and find that he is right on point in many of his doctrinal statements, saying exactly what the Bible teaches in many areas. But many do not realize how Satan works his deceptions. He wraps a lie in a bundle of true statements. He draws one in to accepting someone as an anointed teacher of divine truth and then introduces a blatant lie, or falsehood, amidst the teaching and instruction of that revered pastor or preacher.

Don’t get me wrong. I feel certain that J. Vernon McGee really and truly believed God’s Sabbath was cancelled out and voided and replaced by Sunday observance. But when he shouted that “to observe the Sabbath today is to go back to paganism” he revealed himself to be speaking in the first person for Satan as that is a satanic statement for it makes God the author of paganism! A deceived man doesn’t know he is deceived and is representing Satan in much of what he says and teaches.

The average church-goer has little hope of escaping from spiritual deception for the average professing Christian really doesn’t study the scriptures in depth. When the pastor turns to a passage and asks the congregation to turn with him to that text and they read it together how can they be deceived? No scripture can be isolated from all other scriptures, and unless one knows the Word of God intimately well they might think a passage is saying one thing when it is saying something entirely different. The pastor doesn’t mean to deceive his congregation. He really and truly believes he is saying what the Bible says on a given matter. The Baptist pastor’s sermon that Sunday morning is “Once Saved, Always Saved,” but across town at the First Pentecostal Church their pastor’s sermon is “How One Can Lose Their Salvation!” Both are decent men, clean living, good husbands and fathers, but one of them is deceived and teaching false doctrine to his congregation. That’s WHY James cautioned that not many should seek to become pastors and/or teachers of the Word of God. Their responsibility is profound and one does not come into a good understanding of Bible doctrine by attending some denomination’s Bible college. They just become indoctrinated into that particular denomination’s beliefs.

Christ’s Servant (Galatians 1:10-12),

Donald Wiley