Bible Doctrine

NOTE: All comments in parentheses are those of the author of this mini-study.

If we would all scrutinize ourselves as intensely as we scrutinize the behavior and speech of others, we would all walk in truth and holiness. The apostle Paul urges us to “Examine YOURSELVES, whether YOU are in the faith (truly converted), prove your own selves. Know you not your own selves how that Jesus Christ is IN you (ordering your behavior, speech and thoughts) except you be reprobates (false converts, merely a bit religious from time to time)” (2 Corinthians 13:5)

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. (If you are quick to notice some tiny flaw in others, God will just as quickly take note of any flaws in your character or personality). Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye” (Matthew 7:1-2, NIV).

There are countless numbers one hundred percent sure they are saved and heirs of eternal life who are no more redeemed than a common demon! Jesus was not being over dramatic when He warned it was a narrow gate one had to pass through in order to enter into life eternal. (See Matthew 7:13). He went on to say only a relative few find there way through that gate, asking “Why do you call me, Lord and yet do not do the things I tell you to do?” (See Luke 6:46). Many are going to come forth from death in a resurrection, expecting to find themselves in an incorruptible, immortal spirit body only to discover they are still flesh and blood creatures still subject to the second death – the judgment of the spiritually lost. I cannot imagine the mind numbing fear that will flood their minds when that realization dawns on them. No wonder God’s Word says there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth! God help you to understand is my prayer.

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

Donald Wiley

WHEN PRAYER ACTUALLY WORKS!

“My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue (what we write or say), but in deed and in truth. And hereby we do know that we are of the truth (have a valid relationship with our Lord), and shall assure our hearts before Him. For if our heart (our conscience) condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. (If we are aware of some unforsaken sin, we must know that God is aware of it, too). Beloved, if our heart condemns us not (our conscience is entirely clear), then have we confidence toward God (confident He is hearing our prayers and will answer the same). And whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight”

Do you know who the scribes were in New Testament times? They were the equivalent of what we call “theologians” today. Jesus said, “Beware of the scribes.” Today He would say, “Beware of the theologians.” He would also say, “Somebody has it wrong folks!” If one preacher says one thing and the preacher across the street says the opposite, then somebody has it wrong – and maybe both are teaching error. So, take your Lord’s advice and, “Beware!”. Realize that they are not infallible. They can err and err greatly. Those who do not know the Word of God intimately well are ripe for embracing error.

.I have no doubt that some of the scribes of Jesus’ day were honorable men, clean living, faithful husbands and good providers for their family. And, of course, some were unscrupulous, crafty and men of greed and dishonest. I suppose most “preachers” of today are basically honorable men, clean living, faithful husbands and good providers for their family. But, folks, that doesn’t mean they are right in everything they teach and say. A Baptist does not believe and teach what a minister in the Assemblies of God church believes and teaches. A Seventh Day Adventist minister does not believe and teach what a Presbyterian minister believes and teaches. Yet they will all say God “called” them to preach. Did God call one to preach “once saved, always saved” and call another one to preach that you can most certainly lose, or forfeit, your salvation? Did He call one to teach that the seventh day Sabbath is holy time while calling another to teach Sunday is God’s sanctified time for worship and the assembling of His people???

.Beware of the scribes! But in order to discern which scribe one must be wary of, one must himself, or herself, have a good knowledge and understanding of scripture. One must depend upon the enlightening and guiding influence of the Holy Spirit in their minds and thinking. And one must themselves be obedient to God and faithful to Jesus Christ. Fail here and the scribe, i.e., preacher, you follow might well be one of those of whom Jesus was speaking when He said, “Beware of that one!”

.Revelation and obedience are conjoined twins. They cannot be separated. Speaking to His prophet Jeremiah about Israel, God said, “This is the nation that obeys not the voice of the LORD their God, nor receives correction. Truth is perished and cut off from their mouth” (See Jeremiah 7:28). And Daniel the prophet wrote, “As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us, yet made we not our prayer before the LORD our God THAT WE MIGHT TURN FROM OUR INIQUITIES AND UNDERSTAND THY TRUTH” (See Daniel 9:13). Continue in your sins and you will but go deeper and deeper into error. That’s a spiritual law as valid as any law of physics.

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

Donald Wiley

I really wonder how many Christian pastors have paid close attention to the astounding revelation God gives us in the 4th chapter of the Book of Daniel.  It begins in verse one with the pagan Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar extolling and praising the one true God, calling Him “the high God” in verse 2 of that 4th chapter.  In the 8th verse of that chapter King Nebuchadnezzar points out the fact that Daniel had been given the name Belteshazzar, according to the name of Nebuchadnezzar’s god, the pagan god Bel.  Nebuchadnezzar has had a troubling dream and desires that Daniel interpret it for him as none of the Babylonian magicians, astrologers, the Chaldeans, or the soothsayers had been able to provide the king with an interpretation of his dream..  King Nebuchadnezzar then tells Daniel the dream, summing up what he has seen in his dream by saying how “a holy one” (i.e., an angel) ended the dream by saying, “the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomsoever he will, and sets up over it the basest of men” (verse 17, Daniel 4).  Yes, even an idolatrous Nebuchadnezzar or, most recently, a Hitler, a Mussolini, or a Stalin!

In giving the interpretation of the dream, Daniel informs King Nebuchadnezzar that the king himself is depicted by the great tree he has seen in his dream, a tree whose height reached into heaven and so huge it could be seen from all the earth.  (Remember, this is a dream – not reality).  And twice more, in giving the interpretation of the dream, Daniel says to the king that “the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomsoever He will.”  (See verses 25 and 32).  In the 27th verse Daniel urges the king to stop sinning and live righteously as such a repentant change of heart and conduct might well lengthen the days of his reign and forestall the loss of his powers of reasoning, as the interpretation of the dream declared that he would indeed suffer a total mental breakdown.  King Nebuchadnezzar failed to heed Daniel’s advice and twelve months later he suddenly lost his reason and became mad.  This madness continued for seven years (called “seven times” in verses 23 and 25). 

“And at the end of the days (the seven years) I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up my eyes unto heaven, and my understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honored Him that lives for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom (governing of the nations) is from generation to generation.  And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing (in comparison to God’s might, power and glory), and He does according to His will in the army of heaven (the countless angelic beings), and among the inhabitants of the earth (electing and calling whom He will when He will), and none can stay His hand, or say unto Him, ‘What are you doing?’  At the same time my reason returned unto me….and I was established (once more) in my kingdom….Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and His ways judgment…” (See Daniel 4:34-37).

Yes, ALL God’s works are done in truth and ALL His ways are done in judgment and fairness!  None, no, not one, will ever be able to stand before God and truthfully say, “I never was given an understandable full and free opportunity to know you, to have fellowship with you, to comprehend what it was I needed to do in order to be forgiven of my sins and inherit eternal life.  I never had a chance!!!”  No, my friend, NONE will ever have cause to raise that argument before the great God of glory, the God who declares that He is not willing that ANY should perish, the Eternal who says He desires that ALL humans be saved and inherit everlasting life, and who declares that “as in Adam ALL die, even so in Christ shall ALL (that same all) be made alive, but every man in his own order” (See I Corinthians 15:22-23).

So, no, God is not even trying to get all the world’s inhabitants saved now, nor has He been trying to do so in any previous generation.  When Jesus Christ returns He will not say, “Gentlemen, it’s all over.”  No, He will say to His elect sons and daughters, “Brethren, let’s get started.  There’s a great tremendous work to be done.”  We, the elect, have come in on the ground floor of God’s great family building project.  The work is not finished.  It is only in its’ beginning stages.  Even so, come Lord Jesus.

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

Donald Wiley

Speaking to a rich tax collector named Zacchaeus one day, Jesus told him, “the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (See Luke 19:10).  Do you really think He meant He had come to seek and save only those who were lost from that day forward?  How about all the hundreds of millions who had lived and died on this planet before the birth of Jesus Christ?  And how about all those hundreds of millions living even then in China and throughout Asia and the many islands around the globe?  Most all of them would live out their lifespans and die before the first Christian missionary or evangelist got to them with the gospel message!  The same could be said for their children, and grand children and great grand children!  Do you really think God’s plan of salvation is so basically flawed that He somehow over looked these people?

Jesus said, “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God” (See Luke 18:27).  God has it all worked out, friend.  He has never been blindsided by anything or anyone at anytime.  The angel of the Lord knew what he was talking about when he told the shepherds in the field at the time of Christ’s  birth, “Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to ALL people!” (See Luke 2:10).  And what great and wonderful news it is to know that ALL born human will have their opportunity to join the great eternal spirit family of God.  “ALL FLESH shall see the salvation of God” (See Luke 3:6).

Jesus was speaking of a Roman centurion, a pagan Gentile, when He said, “I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!” (See Luke 7:9).  What kind of faith would He have found had He ventured into Egypt, or Syria, or Rome?  To His people Israel, God had said centuries before, “Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have sent to you ALL my servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them.  Yet they did not obey Me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck.  They did worse than their fathers” (See Jeremiah 7:25-26).  And to His prophet Ezekiel, God said, “you are not sent to a people of unfamiliar speech and of hard language, but to the house of Israel, not to many people of unfamiliar speech and of hard language, whose words you cannot understand” and then freely admitted, “Surely, had I sent you to them, THEY WOULD HAVE LISTENED TO YOU!” (See Ezekiel 3:5-6).

Jeremiah saw something clearly.  He said, “Lord, I know the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man to direct his own steps” (See Jeremiah 10:23).  There is NONE that seeks after God, friend.  God must do the seeking.  God must command Satan to release his hold on men’s minds so that the glorious light of truth can alter their thinking.  God operates on schedule time.  He has a time-table by which He will yet give every son and daughter of Adam a grand opportunity to escape Satan’s clutches and enter into a firm, sure and certain relationship with the Creator.  And death presents no obstacle to Him in accomplishing what He has declared He will most certainly do for He reminds us “I kill, and I make alive!”  (See Deuteronomy 32:39).  It was Moses understanding of this great truth that enabled him to carry out God’s orders to the letter when told to utterly destroy “the men, women and children of every city” of the Amorites.  (See Deuteronomy 3).  He knew that one day God would bring them all back to life in a far different world.  Only Jesus Christ can reveal this truth to the human mind.  Has He revealed it to you???

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

Donald Wiley

I believe I have touched on this subject before – the “KEY” to understanding the scriptures.   It was revealed to me many years ago that scripture revelation and obedience are conjoined (or Siamese) twins.  But they are conjoined twins that cannot be separated.  In order to have scripture truth revealed to one’s mind that searcher of the scriptures must OBEY what God reveals to their mind.  The FIRST truths God reveals to the searcher are His moral precepts and commands – NOT the deep, secret things of prophecy.  As one brings their life into adherence to God’s moral laws and judgments, and as he, or she, begins to continue to study God’s Word, searching for the truth, THEN God’s Spirit leads and guides in granting that human mind greater and greater understanding in the Word of God. 

To the liar, God says, “Stop lying and I will grant you more truth.”  In Daniel 9:13, the prophet speaks of how one must turn from their iniquities in order to understand God’s truth.  God does not grant understanding to rebels, and when we continue knowingly in sin, going our own way, breaking God’s commandments, then we are nothing more or less than rebels against God and His way of life. 

God’s truths often run counter to human understanding and human, or fleshly, desires.  Therefore, those human beings not fully surrendered to God and His way find His truth unacceptable to their way of thinking.  They then hold on to their error much like a dog will hold on to a towel, or piece of cloth of some kind, as you try to pull it from its mouth.  Someone who has not read the Bible from start to finish even one time will then think they comprehend the scriptures far better than someone who has read the Bible from start to finish fifty or sixty times or more!  And how does one reason with that type of thinking???!!!  It would be similar to my thinking I understand the V8 engine as well, if not better, than a General Motors design engineer whose job is to perfect the V8 engine!  Many of the youthful pastors that I write have this mindset.  Granted the title “Reverend” by their peers a few years previously upon finishing seminary and going before an “ordination council” of a handful of like-minded preachers, they look down their noses at someone they see as lacking such approval.  Then WHY do I keep sending articles out to such personalities?  Because I do not know just who might have an open mind, who just might be prompted to think a bit more deeply.  And, from time to time, someone says, “I now see I have been in error concerning this doctrine. Thanks for showing me the truth,”

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

Donald Wiley

Why does God allow hundreds of millions of Roman Catholics to embrace gross error and then remain in that error all of their lives? Why does He do the same with millions of Mormons? Why does he allow the various protestant denominations to likewise embrace great spiritual error and remain believing and walking in those errors until their dying day?

Jesus had one saying He used a lot – even with His own apostles: “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” There is one thing God and His Son will never do – force feed the truth to another mind, even to the mind of one of their beloved children. To those who rejected the truth and demanded clarification and repetition from Jesus Christ, our Lord’s answer to them was, “I have told you before and you did not believe. Why should I tell you again?” Since He changes not, He would say the same today to any believer.

To God, spiritual truth is the pearl of great price. It is costly! When rejected it offends God greatly. When one embraces spiritual error it is because they have rejected spiritual truth. The roadway to truth is narrow. It is a difficult road that Satan has damaged with many potholes, and he has introduced many forks in that road. One must ride in the chariot of absolute obedience in order to miss the potholes and always choose the right fork in the road. Fail to board that chariot and it is a foregone conclusion you will choose the wrong fork in the road time and again.

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

Donald Wiley

True, Jesus did say, “Where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst!” He did NOT add, “and I approve of all that I see and hear.” In Revelation 1 we are told that Jesus Christ is standing in the midst of the seven churches of Revelation 2 and 3, but He does not approve of much of what He sees and hears. Jesus was present in the Jerusalem assembly of God’s people when Ananias and Sapphira, Ananias’ wife, lied to the apostle Peter as to the price of some land they had sold. The Lord struck them dead on the spot. He saw their sin and the Jerusalem assembly saw graphic evidence of His disapproval. Those assemblies who use a perverted portrait of Paul as an excuse for continued sin in their lives need to question which Jesus they may be following. (See 2 Corinthians 11:3-4). Satan has blinded millions of believers from seeing the basic truths set forth in this article article. Paul told the Corinthian assembly, “You come together not for the better but for the worse” (See I Corinthians 11:17). When profound error is spoken from the pulpit that is the situation you have.

A pastor’s responsibility is a weighty one. “For it is written, ‘As I live’, says the Lord, ‘every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.’ So then every one of us (we believers) shall give account of himself to God.” (See Romans 14:11-12). Pastor, you are building on the foundation of a sacrificed Son and His apostles and prophets. “Let every man take heed how he builds thereupon.” (See I Corinthians 3:10-11). “Every man’s work (especially every pastor’s) shall be made manifest.” (Did you really know the Word of God? Did you really teach the truth or merely your particular denomination’s private views?) “The fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.” (See I Corinthians 3:13). “LET NO MAN DECEIVE HIMSELF!” (See I Corinthians 3:18).

There are some preachers I wouldn’t want to be within a country mile of when they are judged. The weeping and gnashing of teeth that will be heard will probably echo through God’s hall of justice causing even holy angels to hide their faces and mourn. “For we know Him that has said, ‘Vengeance belongs unto me. I WILL recompense,’ says the Lord. And again, ‘THE LORD SHALL JUDGE HIS PEOPLE. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (See Hebrews 10:30-31). Tell Ananias and Sapphira all the judgment a believer will ever face was poured out on Christ on Calvary! (See Acts 5:1-11). That eleventh verse says “great fear came upon all the church” when they heard how God still judged sin in His people long after Calvary. (Read I Corinthians, chapters 10 and 11 slowly and carefully if you doubt that God judges believers if they continue in sin). Remember Peter warned that “judgment must BEGIN at the house of God!” It was at Peter’s feet Ananias and Sapphira dropped dead. (See I Peter 4:17). And the judgment of God’s people begins with the elders, the leadership, the instructors, guides and pastors. (See Ezekiel 9:4-7). The phonies will receive their judgment in the next world, not this one.

These various and sundry assemblies, differing as widely as the church at Laodicea differed from the church at Philadelphia, had better get back to doing things God’s way if they are going to publicly proclaim they are assemblies of God’s people for truly we are snared by the words of our own mouth. When an assembly urges those in their community to come fellowship with them, assuring them that they will hear the truths of God proclaimed from their pulpit and by their pastors, they have a heightened responsibility to know and teach God’s Word accurately and in its completeness. Of course common sense alone assures any thinking person that such is not the case with many of these congregations as a Baptist assembly will be teaching doctrines diametrically opposed to those taught in the nearby Pentecostal assembly! The Methodist pastor will teach doctrines at variance with what the Nazarene or Amish preacher proclaims as God’s truth.

Most merely believe and teach what they have been reared to believe are the true doctrines expressed in the Bible. A Baptist minister was reared in a Baptist home, exposed to Baptist doctrine all his life. A Mennonite minister hails from a Mennonite home, an Episcopalian from an Episcopalian home. Very few Christians really search out the scriptures to prove their beliefs. In their memory they have scriptures here and there that seemingly support their beliefs. That’s good enough for them. The Baptist reasons this way, but he forgets that the members of the nearby Church of God or Assembly of God think and reason in a similar fashion. That old while haired Mennonite minister lying in his casket was a Mennonite youth. That ninety year old Baptist deacon was baptized in a Baptist church eighty years previously.

All of my early life, primarily in the Baptist churches I attended, I heard preachers preach and teach from Romans 7, portraying Paul as someone as carnal and sinful as the next guy. This would not have been the case had they really proved all things of a spiritual nature, had they really known the scriptures as they should have since they claimed that God Himself had “called” them to preach. Of course the Methodist, the Nazarene, the Pentecostal, etc., etc., etc., preachers ALL claim they have been “called” to preach. I fear many of them will be face-to-face with Jesus Christ one day and hear Him say, “I never called you to be my representative, for had I called you I would have enlightened you to a good understanding of my Word – ALL of it!” Many preachers merely parrot one another with that line about being “called” to preach. Few even understand just HOW and WHEN Jesus Christ anoints someone to speak forth His Word and instruct others in the truths of God. And don’t even suggest to one of these preachers that God might not have “called” them to preach. You will see a flash of anger and a short fused temper displayed. But ask the Baptist preacher if he thinks God “called” the Jehovah’s Witness minister, or the Pentecostal preacher, or the Seventh Day Adventist bishop.

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

Donald Wiley

What about those preachers that got it wrong, those good hearted, loving individuals who failed to really “prove all things” of a spiritual nature and, hence, preached and taught false doctrine. After all if the Baptist preacher teaches “once saved, always saved,” and the Pentecostal preacher across the way teaches you can most certainly fall away and lose your salvation, then one of them is dead wrong. But what if the one who got it wrong is basically a good man, a giving individual, what one might even call a “righteous” man or a keeper of God’s commandments, then what is his fate? Actually, there a couple verses of scripture that answer that question. Here they are: “Therefore to him that knows to do good, and does it not, to him it is sin” (James 4:17) and “Jesus said unto them, ‘If ye were blind, ye should have no sin'” (John 9:41).

So, there really is a saving element in being sincere yet being wrong. One’s acts of wrong, evil, sin, and the like, are not counted against that person as sin by God unless and until that person KNOWS better, knows they are wrong, knows they are now teaching error. They cross the line from innocent to guilty once their mind is opened to the truth and yet they still continue preaching or teaching error. But the issue is not fully settled at that point, for although their error is not regarded as sin by God, still they are charged with folly and have angered God. Notice what God says to Job’s three friends, who appointed themselves as instructors of the truth: “The Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, ‘My wrath is kindled against thee and against thy two friends, FOR YE HAVE NOT SPOKEN OF ME THE THING THAT IS RIGHT,'” and accuses them of folly in doing so. (See Job 42:7-8).

Know this, there will be a lot of preachers and teachers at the Judgment who will find they indeed do possess eternal life, but whose rewards will be minimal due to their having failed to prove their doctrine and, hence, continued to preach and teach error to their congregations.

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

Donald Wiley