Dear Doves,
There have been wonderful discussions these past months about who will be the bride of Christ. Were someone to ask me a year or so ago who those individuals would be, I would have given an answer ... and I likely would have been mistaken, or partly so anyways. Steve Barryman is certainly on to something (and Steve, I do look forward to the rest of your letters), when he claims the Bible teaches that the bride will be made up of a select group of believers. I will give some hints (and the examples that follow are but a small selection of accounts found in the Bible that all bring to light a different facet of who the bride of Christ will be). Look at what Christ promises the “overcomers” in the letters to the seven churches in Revelation. Also, we know from James that “faith without works is dead”. From Christ’s teaching in the book of Matthew, there was a wedding festival and there was one there without “wedding clothes”, who was cast out. Ruth and Orpah both originally set off with Naomi ... Orpah turned back, but Ruth was faithful and clung to Naomi and went to her land, where amazing things happened to her that we should find of particular importance!
Oh, and here is one more leading question to get everyone thinking. Why does Christ need or even want a bride in the first place? (I am asking this rhetorically.) You will find this answered.
I want to share with you what I have found to be a gold mine of Scriptural teaching. I will not try to summarize in my own words, for I think the author of the studies does a far better job of conveying in words than I would ever be able to do.
The studies are downloadable PDF books, no cost. There are also links to a lot of audio sermons that cover similar subjects as the books cover. I am writing in particular to share what I have found in the book Search for the Bride. However, there are other studies that are equally as nourishing.
Very rarely have I found Bible teaching that views the ENTIRETY of God’s Word when teaching on a particular subject, without injecting “man’s thoughts” on the matter. For example, I had no idea that the book of Ruth, along with the servant’s search for a bride for Isaac, give so much illumination on the subject at hand (Search for the Bride). This is of course viewing the Bible in a very typical manner (as a WHOLE), with the antitype always following at the end. Praise God that he gave us his Word with so many “pictures” built in, that we should not be confused!
I want to give a warning. These books do not teach “cheap grace”, as phrased by Deitrick Bonhoffer so many years ago. I have wrestled myself with some of the concepts in these books. But in the end, I have found that “my views” were often based on traditions of men, or what my “itching ears” wanted to hear ... not on what the entirety of Scripture had to say on a particular matter ... and I needed to change “my views” to fit “His Views”. So it is because of what the Spirit has worked in me that I can so highly recommend these to you.
So here is the index to the books. Browse through them, read the forward or back cover, and see where the Holy Spirit leads you. I would recommend reading (with a Bible at your side of course!) What Time Is It, The Study of Scripture, Salvation by Grace through Faith, Ruth, and Salvation of the Soul first. Of course, the Search for the Bride is also very good ... as are all the other selections.
http://www.lampbroadcast.org/pdfbooks.html
Here is the link to Search for the Bride, by Arlen Chitwood. Beware it is quite long (200 some pages). Some of the other studies/books are much shorter. Again, read the forward or back cover to get an overview of what each study is about.
http://lampbroadcast.org/Books/SFTB.pdf
I hope you are blessed!
In Christ,Erik Jonson
Here is the forward to Search for the Bride, by Arlen Chitwood.
FOREWORD
The Spirit of God is in the world today performing a work related to a new dispensation. Israel has been set aside (for a time), and an entirely new entity, a new nation — the one new man “in Christ” — has been brought into existence (cf. Eph. 2:12-15; I Peter 2:9, 10).
Why has God sent His Spirit to deal with new household servants (this new nation, this new man)? One thing is crystal clear about the matter. God has not sent His Spirit into the world to deal with unsaved man relative to eternal salvation, for two very evident reasons: First, the Spirit was sent to the saved, to do a particular, revealed work (cf. John 16:7-15; Acts 1:5; 2:1); and second, the Spirit was already present in the world doing a work among the unsaved, a work which He has been performing since Adam’s fall.
Fallen man, because of Adam’s sin, is spiritually dead; and the Spirit has been in the world throughout Man’s Day breathing life into the one having no life. And He has done/does this on the basis of death and shed blood, allowing man to pass “from death unto life” (John 5:24; Eph. 2:1).
The foundational basic teachings for the Spirit’s work in this respect are set forth in the first four chapters of Genesis. And these foundational basics, set forth at the very beginning, can never change at any point throughout Scripture. Man’s eternal salvation, necessitated by Adam’s fall, remains exactly the same throughout Man’s Day. And this necessitates the Spirit performing a work relative to man’s restoration, beginning with man’s fall, and continuing today.
Yet, God sent His Spirit into the world on the day of Pentecost in 30 A.D., though the Spirit was already in the world performing a work having to do with unsaved man. Thus, since the Spirit was already in the world dealing with man relative to his spiritually dead state, it is quite evident that God sending His Spirit into the world on the day of Pentecost could have nothing to do with man’s eternal salvation. The Spirit was already here doing a work in this respect, effecting the birth from above; and nothing could be added to or taken from this continuing work of the Spirit through a work of the Spirit which began on the day of Pentecost.
Rather, God sending His Spirit on this day had to do with a special and particular work among those in whom He had already breathed life (on the basis of Christ’s death and shed blood). It had to do with a work subsequent to man passing “from death unto life.” And, consequently, everything relating to this special and particular work (e.g., the immersion in the Spirit, the new creation “in Christ,” the one new man, the sealing of the Spirit, the earnest of the inheritance, etc.) can have nothing to do with salvation by grace.
And that should be simple enough to understand, for salvation by grace could only remain unchanged at the time when these things having to do with a work of the Spirit peculiar to the dispensation were brought into existence. That is to say, the Spirit, at the time of and following events on the day of Pentecost in 30 A.D., simply continued His work relative to salvation by grace (unchanged); but the Spirit began a new work on this day, peculiar to the dispensation (for those in whom He had already breathed life).
Why is the Spirit performing a work of this nature, a work peculiar to the present dispensation? Where is the line to be drawn between His work relative to salvation by grace (which continues unchanged throughout Man’s Day) and His work peculiar to the present dispensation (which began on the day of Pentecost in 30 A.D. and will end when the work has been completed)?
That’s what this book, SEARCH FOR THE BRIDE, is about. God has brought into existence an entirely new dispensation; and, in connection with this new dispensation, God has brought into existence the one new man “in Christ.” And God has sent the Holy Spirit into the world to do a particular, revealed work among those comprising this new man.
This book covers all aspects of the matter, drawing from both the Old and New Testaments. And this book deals with that which Scripture alone, not man, has to say about the matter.