I would like to write about rightly dividing God’s word. The first thing that must be understood is that God’s word in the original text is absolute truth. To understand the amazing structure of God’s word please study the numerology of the bible. Pastor Bob wrote on five doves about God’s heptadic signature at http://www.fivedoves.com/letters/aug2014/pastorbob817-3.htm thanks Pastor Bob for all you wrote. God does not lie and is not the author of confusion. Where it appears to contradict itself just shows that we have not rightly divided or understood His word. When we don’t understand how things fit together, we need to ask the Holy Spirit to give us understanding. He will lead us into all truth if we ask, He will not force truth upon us. The way most people try to understand the bible is to read a commentary or what someone else has said about the subject. It would be nice if you could believe everything someone else has written, but for me I think being led into all truth by the Holy Spirit is much better. Now I will show some examples of this.
We know that the seventy weeks of Daniel will usher in everlasting righteousness! The last seven weeks or seven years are yet to be fulfilled and are exactly seven years. Now Jesus said of this time that if the days had not been shortened no flesh would survive. So which is correct? They both are correct! As we see in Revelation satan will be released for a short period of time to deceive the nations after the one thousand year reign of Christ. This short period of time is the same amount of time that Jesus spoke about in Matthew 24:22 and is tacked on after the one thousand year reign of Christ. There is a gap of one thousand years before the end of Daniel’s seventy weeks. To prove this theory we need to look at Daniel 9:24 Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. As you can see the end of Daniel’s seventy weeks has to bring in everlasting righteousness, and this cannot happen until satan is finished and locked away forever!
The next one I would like to tackle is who is the church, and the bride of Christ? Most people say they are one and the same! If this is true then Jesus is coming back for His bride/church that is without spot or wrinkle and this would mean that only those who are worthy would get to go, and the rest would be left behind. This is a works gospel and does not line up with the rest of scripture. It also disagrees with 1 Thess 4:16 when it says all in Christ will be raptured. There are others, but you get the idea I hope. Now I would like you to look at Revelation 3:4 Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy. Here we see first that all have wedding garments, but only a few have not defiled their garments. So now it appears that the bride of Christ is a subset of the church that have clean garments and will walk with Christ in white. The whole church will go up in the rapture but only a subset will be the bride of Christ. Now this brings up a very interesting question of what defiles your wedding garment?
Revelation 3:10 Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also willl will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. People try to make this out to be the seven year tribulation and use it to prove a pre-trib rapture. First error is, you cannot fit seven year tribulation into one hour of testing! Second error, if you try to prove a pre trib rapture with this verse you have a problem, this verse is written to the church indicating that the church must go through this one hour of testing with only those with undefiled garments being kept from it, not taken out of it! Third error, if you say only those with undefiled garments are raptured, then there would have to be a judgment made of who gets to go and who has to stay including the dead in Christ! The Bible does not speak of there being a judgment made before the rapture. So I say Rev 3:10 is not talking about the rapture of the church, but another event. Here is my thought of an event that it may be describing. It is recorded that when Jesus rose from the dead that there was a “great” earthquake! What kinda earthquake will all the dead in Christ all over the world be like when they are all risen at the same time? It does not say the dead in Christ will rise in the twinkling of the eye, but we who are alive will be changed in the twinkling of the eye! Could it be that the raising of the dead will take one hour? Just a thought.
I would like to encourage the reader to find areas in God's word that don't seem to fit and ask the Holy Spirit to lead you into all truth.
David Blackman,