PPG 43-67 8/3/84-8/30/84, Eph 735, 860ff 7/19/88

DOCTRINE OF OPERATION Z

A. Four Stages of Operation Z.

1. In stage one, the pastor teaches the mystery doctrine of the Church Age to a group of believers. This doctrine is called LOGOS or the Word.

2. In stage two, the enabling power and ministry of the Holy Spirit teaches the believer’s human spirit, called the PNEUMA. The believer must be filled with the Spirit for the Holy Spirit to be able to teach the human spirit. Where there is positive volition, the Holy Spirit will turn that information into PNEUMATIKOS, which means spiritual phenomena understood.

3. In stage three, PNEUMATIKOS is automatically transferred down the pipeline to the left lobe of the soul, the NOUS, where it becomes GNOSIS doctrine. In the left lobe of the soul, this information is academically understood. In psychological terms, this is called receptive comprehension.

4. In stage four, GNOSIS doctrine is transferred from the left lobe to the right lobe or KARDIA of the soul where it becomes EPIGNOSIS doctrine. This is the equivalent to the metabolization of doctrine, the only doctrine beneficial to the life. GNOSIS must be converted into EPIGNOSIS before it has any spiritual value. It is your faith perception that accepts the academically understood information as spiritual phenomena, converting it into EPIGNOSIS. In psychological terms, this is called retention.

5. This process is called operation Z because of its diagram.

Holy Spirit Pastor teaches Bible doctrine -------> Holy Spirit teaches human spirit. (LOGOS) (PNEUMATIKOS) Holy Spirit Becomes GNOSIS in left lobe ----------> Becomes EPIGNOSIS in right lobe.

6. When EPIGNOSIS is applied to life, it is called SOPHIA or wisdom.

B. Stage One: Communication by the Pastor-Teacher.

1. In stage one, the pastor teaches Bible doctrine to a group of believers in either of two different categories.

a. In a local church to a group of assembled believers.

b. In a non-face-to-face situation via modern technology.

2. The pastor communicates doctrine using the ICE principle.

a. “I” is isagogics, the interpretation of Scripture within the framework of its historical setting or prophetical environment. The Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written and in the original languages in which it was written; i.e., Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. In this sense, the pastor is a detective. He must be able to go back to the ancient world and recreate the world as it was then, and associate the words in the Bible with life at that time, and how those words were used.

b. “C” is categorical communication of doctrine. This is the hermeneutical principle of comparing Scripture with Scripture, called rightly dividing the Word of Truth. (1) Scriptural comparison determines the classification of doctrine and results in a Biblical systematic theology. Different points of theology occur in different Scriptures, all of which combined eventually into a system.

(2) Categorical communication cannot be divorced from dispensational considerations. When there is no dispensational theology, this results in confusion and failure to teach the protocol plan of God.

(3) Categories of doctrine must be assigned nomenclature for retention.

c. “E” is exegesis, the analysis of Scripture in the original languages. Each verse in a given context must be analyzed grammatically and syntactically from the original language.

(1) The etymology of words in the original languages must be traced for meaning and usage. The meaning of a word is determined by its usage. The function of words in a context depend upon their association with other words.

(2) Hence, the true object of interpretation is to determine, under the ministry of the Holy Spirit, the exact thought of the human writer of Scripture.

(3) “All Scripture is God-breathed,” 2 Tim 3:16. This means that God provided the information in the inhale. Then the human author exhaled God’s completed and connected thought toward man in writing. This is the doctrine of plenary verbal inspiration of the Scripture, which says that God so supernaturally directed the human authors of Scripture so that, without waiving their human intelligence, individuality, literary style, personal feelings, or any other human factor, God’s complete and coherent message to mankind was recorded with perfect accuracy in the original languages of Scripture, the very words bearing the authority of divine authorship in the original languages.

3. Truth must accord with truth. This means that apparent discrepancies can be harmonized if all the facts are known.

4. One cannot interpret Scripture without understanding what he interprets. You cannot get interpretations from English translations; only from the original languages. 5. The true object of Bible teaching is the accurate communication of the Word of God. The Holy Spirit also causes doctrine to become spiritual phenomena in the human spirit of the positive believer who hears the Word. Then the information automatically goes into the left lobe as gnosis. To become epignosis in the right lobe, the ministry of the Holy Spirit is again involved with our faith perception.

6. Such accuracy demands study, study, study under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit. Such accuracy demands that the pastor must spend most of his time studying the Word of God, eliminating all the nonsense and unnecessary activities from his life.

7. The pastor must be filled with the Holy Spirit when he studies, which means the Holy Spirit must control his soul. But he should have prepared himself so that he can study from the original languages (or depend on them from someone else), and he must understand theology. 8. The pastor must be walking in the Spirit, which is residence, function, and momentum inside the divine dynasphere under the enabling power of the Holy Spirit.

9. Stage one includes the pastor’s preparation of his message. The pastor must bear in mind that there are certain important distinctions related to the authority of the Word of God.

a. Revelation is where God makes known the unknown. God is just as anxious for the pastor to understand the unknown and make it clear as the pastor is anxious to understand it.

(1) Distinction must be made between primary revelation, which is making known by the Scriptures, and secondary revelation which is making known to the human mind what is written in the Word of God.

(2) Therefore, revelation is doctrine from God reduced to writing in the canon of Scripture.

b. Inspiration is the divine means employed by which doctrine is accurately transmitted into the written form of the canon of Scripture.

c. Illumination is the enabling power of the Holy Spirit providing the ability of the pastor to understand the doctrine. No pastor can ever succeed apart from maximum relationship with the Holy Spirit. No pastor can teach what he does not understand.

d. Interpretation is the pastor’s verbal expression of Bible doctrine to the congregation under the enabling power of the Spirit.

e. So inspiration deals with the enabling ministry of the Holy Spirit to the human authors of Scripture. Illumination deals with the enabling ministry of the Holy Spirit to pastors who study daily. Interpretation deals with the communication of that information under the enabling power of the Holy Spirit.

10. Stage one finds the faithful pastor studying the Word under the filling of the Spirit, wherein the Holy Spirit provides the ability to comprehend, concentrate, organize, categorize, and interpret, so that he can communicate his interpretation.

11. Stage one continues with the pastor teaching what he has learned to a congregation or a group of believers, either directly (face-to-face) or indirectly (non-face-to-face). When he teaches while filled with the Holy Spirit inside the divine dynasphere, the Holy Spirit provides the power of communication within the framework of his individual personality.

12. In this dispensation of the Church Age, there is no communication of doctrine apart from the pulpit of the pastor-teacher. We have no visions, revelations, or special treatment from God because the Canon is now complete.

13. The believer living inside the divine dynasphere and motivated to hear Bible teaching has positive volition. Stage one is the believer’s first option regarding doctrine. The believer first must make himself available to Bible teaching by being where it is taught and hearing it. Listening is a non-meritorious function.

14. The believer, once in Bible class, also faces the option to rebound in order to be filled with the Spirit and reside in the divine dynasphere.

15. So in stage one, the believer listens consistently to the communication of doctrine from his own right pastor face-to-face or via some mechanical device. Stage one requires the believer’s positive volition and being filled with the Holy Spirit in order to ensure concentration, academic discipline, good manners, and poise.

16. The believer’s human I.Q. is no issue. The only issue is that you are in Bible class, you are positive, you listen and concentrate, and soon you have a frame of reference for what is being taught because you have been consistent in listening in the past.

C. Stage Two: The Holy Spirit teaches our human spirit.

1. In stage two, the enabling power of the Holy Spirit teaches the human spirit of the believer the content of Bible doctrine communicated by the teaching of the Word of God.

2. Bible doctrine taught must first go to the human spirit rather than directly to the left lobe because, as taught in 1 Cor 2:14, “the natural man [unbeliever] cannot understand the things of the Spirit of God. They are foolishness to him. Neither can he know them because they are discerned by the Spirit.”

a. The “natural man” is called a PSUCHIKOS, meaning a soulish man. He is dichotomous, having only a body and soul, but no human spirit. At salvation, God the Holy Spirit creates a human spirit making the believer trichotomous.

b. No spiritual phenomena can be understood apart from the Holy Spirit teaching the human spirit.

c. Since the unbeliever does not have a human spirit, and since the Gospel is spiritual phenomena, when the unbeliever hears the Gospel the Holy Spirit acts as a human spirit so that the unbeliever can understand the issue of salvation: personal faith in Jesus Christ.

d. The unbeliever can understand a lot of things in his soul (PSUCHE), including the laws of divine establishment as found in the Bible. But they cannot understand any spiritual phenomena. Likewise, the believer outside the divine dynasphere cannot understand spiritual phenomena or Bible doctrine.

e. The positive believer residing in the divine dynasphere can understand doctrine when the Holy Spirit teaches his human spirit. (The human spirit never sleeps.)

3. So in stage two, the pastor communicates the doctrine he has learned. When the believer listens and concentrates while filled with the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit puts that information into his human spirit so that he understands it as spiritual phenomena. The teaching content of the sermon or Bible study can be converted into spiritual phenomena only by the Holy Spirit. This is the grace factor in receptive comprehension. All Bible doctrine goes to the human spirit before it goes to the precordial frontal lobes of the soul.

4. The teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit takes LOGOS, or communicated doctrine, and transfers it to the PNEUMA, or human spirit where it is understood as spiritual phenomena (PNEUMATIKOS). The Holy Spirit makes the doctrine real when He teaches the human spirit. 5. In stage four when you believe the teaching, the Holy Spirit converts gnosis to epignosis. This is the metabolization of doctrine or post-salvation epistemological rehabilitation. 6. There are actually two great conversions in the process of operation Z.

a. LOGOS is converted into PNEUMATIKOS (stage two).

b. GNOSIS is converted into EPIGNOSIS and SOPHIA (stage four).

7. The Holy Spirit is called the PARAKLETOS in Jn 14:26, which means the energizer, helper, or enabler. “For the PARAKLETE [Holy Spirit], whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things and bring to your memory all that I have communicated to you.”

a. Inevitably, it is all the Holy Spirit’s ministry. Without the Holy Spirit, none of us could understand any doctrine or grow spiritually.

b. This verse covers all four stages of operation Z. And once doctrine becomes EPIGNOSIS in your right lobe, then it is converted into SOPHIA or wisdom for application to life. The Holy Spirit bringing doctrine into your memory is the application of that doctrine, and there is where you grow spiritually.

c. This prophecy by our Lord is fulfilled in part by the completion of the canon of Scripture, and in part by our study of doctrine.

d. So when the pastor teaches doctrine (LOGOS), and those believers residing in the divine dynasphere concentrate and hear, God the Holy Spirit makes that doctrine a reality, first in the human spirit, and secondly in the human soul.

7. Jn 16:13b, “When He, the Spirit of truth comes [Church Age], He will guide you into all truth. He will teach you what is to come.”

a. The coming of the Holy Spirit is the beginning of the Church Age. The Holy Spirit has a relationship with you that never existed with any other believers before the Church Age (only with Jesus Christ), and will never exist again after the Rapture of the church.

b. So it is God the Holy Spirit who teaches us. Without His ministry we could never understand spiritual things.

c. Understanding doctrine doesn’t depend on human I.Q., but on spiritual I.Q. provided by the Holy Spirit.

8. In 1 Jn 2:27, “anointing” means the enabling power of the Holy Spirit inside the divine dynasphere. “And as for the anointing which you received from Him, when it resides in you, you do not need for anyone to be teaching you, but as His anointing keeps teaching you concerning all things as it has been taught to you, keep residing in it [divine dynasphere].” So the anointing is actually the teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit inside the divine dynasphere.

9. Rom 8:16 gives the pattern, “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our [human] spirit that we are the children of God [royal family of God].”

10. 1 Cor 2:10, “But to us [believers], God has revealed them [doctrines] through His Spirit [Holy Spirit], for the spirit [human spirit] investigates all things, even the deep things of God.” Once you are consistent in the perception of Bible doctrine, you will become more and more interested in the “deep things of God.”

11. 1 Cor 2:12-13, “But we have not received the world’s frame of reference, but the spirit [human spirit] from the source of God [Holy Spirit], in order that we might have permanent knowledge of the things which have been graciously been given to us under the authority of God; which things [mystery doctrine of the Church Age] we also teach by categories, not by teaching from the source of man’s wisdom, but by teaching from the source of the Spirit, bringing together spiritual truth [stage one] to a spiritual apparatus [stages 2 and 3].”

a. The world’s frame of reference is philosophical speculation, part of living in cosmic two. Human I.Q. is not a frame of reference for the perception of doctrine.

b. Our frame of reference for perception of doctrine is the human spirit and our residence in the divine dynasphere.

c. When God the Holy Spirit goes to transfer LOGOS to the human spirit, if there is no frame of reference for that category of spiritual phenomena, the Holy Spirit will not teach it to you. He can only teach you what you are capable of taking in. In fact, under His enablement, the Holy Spirit often shows you that you have many things to learn and therefore challenges you in this. So sometimes the Holy Spirit teaches; sometimes He challenges and motivates.

d. Everywhere in Scripture the emphasis is on permanent knowledge which refers to epignosis. Permanent knowledge fulfills the principle of post-salvation epistemological rehabilitation. It refers to the ten unique factors of the Church Age.

e. The pastor’s function is to teach doctrine exegetically and categorically, line upon line, precept upon precept.

f. The omnipotence of the Holy Spirit inside the divine dynasphere produces receptive comprehension.

g. “Bringing together spiritual truth to a spiritual apparatus” refers to stages 2 and 3 of operation Z in which the Holy Spirit enables receptive comprehension of doctrine in the human spirit, from which point the doctrine moves to the left lobe as GNOSIS, academically understood but as yet having no spiritual value. GNOSIS doctrine has no spiritual momentum in the protocol plan until it is converted into EPIGNOSIS.

D. Stage Three: Receptive Comprehension, GNOSIS in the Left Lobe.

1. Operation GNOSIS completes receptive comprehension of Bible doctrine as taught by whomever is your right pastor.

2. The mentality of the soul is divided into two frontal lobes. The left lobe is called NOUS, translated “mind,” and the right lobe is called KARDIA, translated “heart.”

3. In stage three of operation Z, GNOSIS doctrine resides in the left lobe of the soul as the final stage of receptive comprehension.

4. GNOSIS doctrine in the left lobe causes the believer to be what James calls a “hearer of the Word,” but not a “doer of the Word.” Only when GNOSIS is converted over to the heart as EPIGNOSIS does the believer become a “doer of the Word.” That refers to a believer who has believed the doctrine so that it is converted into EPIGNOSIS. We are mandated not to be hearers only (stages 1-3), but to be doers of the Word (stage 4). That means we are to transfer GNOSIS over to EPIGNOSIS. No one can effectively serve God apart from EPIGNOSIS doctrine.

5. Eph 3:19 says, “and to come to know the love for Christ which goes beyond gnosis.” That refers to love for Christ as epignosis doctrine, the ultimate in problem solving devices.

6. GNOSIS doctrine is a staging area, while EPIGNOSIS doctrine produces the momentum and means for the execution of the protocol plan. There is no spiritual momentum in stage three. The left lobe is designed to comprehend doctrine or Bible facts under receptive comprehension, called GNOSIS. Nothing is attained from GNOSIS alone. It acts as a staging area, a means to an end: to be converted into EPIGNOSIS doctrine.

7. Receptive comprehension includes the following procedures.

a. The believer learns how to reside in the divine dynasphere; i.e., he uses the rebound technique. You cannot be filled with the Spirit unless you use the rebound technique when necessary. You must also have positive volition toward the teaching of Church Age mystery doctrine.

b. In your scale of values, Bible doctrine must become the #1 priority in your life. Therefore, the believer persists in the consistent exposure to Bible doctrine, even though from time to time he gets discouraged and gets tired of repetition. But repetition plus repetition plus repetition equals inculcation. The believer persists either by attending a local church, by learning from tapes, or in some other non-face- to-face way.

c. Through residence in the divine dynasphere, tantamount to the filling of the Spirit, and good academic discipline (good manners, poise, objectivity), the believer fulfills stage one, concentration on doctrinal teaching. While still inside the divine dynasphere and concentrating under the principle of post-salvation epistemological rehabilitation, the Holy Spirit makes comprehensible the doctrinal teaching to the human spirit.

d. This doesn’t mean that because you’re filled with the Spirit you will always understand everything that is taught, because the teaching is progressive. You will learn the basics first; later the advanced material will become understandable to you.

e. Receptive comprehension does not result in spiritual growth. It is only the means, the staging area. Only at the point of spiritual maturity has the believer executed the protocol plan and glorified God. He has executed that plan and advanced to spiritual maturity by EPIGNOSIS doctrine only.

f. The completion of receptive comprehension is a critical stage of post-salvation epistemological rehabilitation.

8. Receptive comprehension includes the first three stages.

a. In stage one, doctrine is taught by your right pastor.

b. In stage two, The Holy Spirit teaches the human spirit, a grace function, so that the doctrine becomes a spiritual phenomena called PNEUMATIKOS.

c. In stage three, the spiritual phenomena goes down the pipeline into the left lobe and become GNOSIS. GNOSIS terminates receptive comprehension.

9. Receptive comprehension merely means you understand what is being taught. It is still part of the grace process provided by God the Holy Spirit, requiring the filling of the Spirit, but it is not GNOSIS that causes spiritual growth.

10. It is at stage three that you face a decision: will you believe or will you reject the doctrine you now understand as GNOSIS doctrine?

11. If your negative volition rejects the understood doctrine, it remains GNOSIS doctrine. If your positive volition believes and accepts the understood doctrine, the Holy Spirit carries it into the right lobe where it becomes EPIGNOSIS doctrine and contributes to your spiritual growth.

E. Stage Four: Retention or EPIGNOSIS doctrine in the Right Lobe.

1. This is the stage of faith perception, also classified as the metabolization of Bible doctrine.

2. Stage four converts GNOSIS doctrine into EPIGNOSIS doctrine, which is the function of retention.

3. There are three R’s in the perception of doctrine.

a. Reception, stages 1-3.

b. Retention, stage 4.

c. Recall.

4. The first R, reception, is the function of the first three stages of operation Z. Doctrine is communicated to positive believers by a pastor- teacher, the enabling power of the Spirit converts it to spiritual phenomena. Then it is transferred to the left lobe where it becomes GNOSIS doctrine, i.e., academic perception of doctrine without spiritual benefit.

5. The second R, retention, is the conversion of GNOSIS into EPIGNOSIS doctrine in your right lobe or heart. Only EPIGNOSIS doctrine has momentum in the protocol plan of God. This occurs under the principle of faith- perception.

6. The third R, recall, is the application of EPIGNOSIS doctrine to experience. Without learning doctrine, you cannot properly evaluate your experiences.

7. With the learning of doctrine comes wisdom. So recall can also be called SOPHIA or wisdom. Wisdom is the ability to relate Bible doctrine to everything your life. Hence, wisdom is your ability under the ministry of the Holy Spirit to deal sagaciously with the facts of the mystery doctrine of the Church Age. Wisdom is the function of epignosis doctrine in the heart or right lobe of the soul. Therefore, wisdom is the application of EPIGNOSIS doctrine to our experience. 8. GNOSIS doctrine is converted to EPIGNOSIS doctrine through positive volition in faith perception. This expression of positive volition in faith perception can only occur inside the divine dynasphere. It is the enabling power of the Holy Spirit that actually enables you to respond by faith.

a. Once you understand the doctrine as GNOSIS, you respond positively or negatively, just as an unbeliever responds either way toward the Gospel. You may do this without realizing it, for upon hearing and understanding a doctrine, you simply say in your mind “I believe that.” Then it is the Holy Spirit who converts believed GNOSIS into EPIGNOSIS in your right lobe.

b. The entire process of operation Z is a grace process. The reason is because apart from the ministry of the Holy Spirit, we would all be in the dark. This means that human I.Q. is no issue; the only issue is spiritual I.Q., i.e., the filling of the Spirit. Grace doesn’t depend on any human factor. Positive volition is important, but the entire process is strictly a grace function.

c. Through positive faith-perception while in the divine dynasphere, God the Holy Spirit converts GNOSIS into EPIGNOSIS doctrine if you believe it from positive volition. God the Holy Spirit only transfers to the right lobe what you believe.

d. Since faith as a system of perception is non-meritorious, the object of faith has all the merit, and the object of faith is GNOSIS doctrine. In stage four, you believe that GNOSIS doctrine that you understand academically. This is why PISTIS, usually translated “faith” is also a synonym for doctrine.

9. The illustration for this process is the metabolization of both food and air. (See the Doctrine of Spiritual Metabolism.)

a. Food on the grocery store shelf is analogous to a pastor communicating doctrine. That food on the shelf doesn’t do your body any good. It cannot benefit your body until you buy the food, prepare it, and eat it.

b. Food on the table is analogous to the Holy Spirit converting Bible doctrine into GNOSIS. You can still pick and choose what you want to eat. You can have food on the table and not eat it.

c. Food being consumed is analogous to the faith perception of the believer and the metabolization of that doctrine into the various parts of the right lobe.

d. Food must be eaten for nourishment, growth, and energy. It must enter the factory of metabolism, your body, where it is converted into various forms that provide you with energy. But just sitting on the table, food does you no good. You must eat it for it to do you any good.

e. Between food on the table and energy there is metabolism. Metabolism is not energy, but results in energy.

10. So the secret to spiritual growth, and the only doctrine that can help you, is doctrine metabolized, eaten, or believed EPIGNOSIS doctrine. This explains how believers can “understand” (GNOSIS) thousands of doctrines and still be spiritual babies. Only EPIGNOSIS doctrine in retention contributes to spiritual momentum, spiritual energy, spiritual growth, and application.

11. The function of the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit in operation Z is really the major issue. Without the Holy Spirit, none of us would ever know why we are here or what wonderful things God is doing for us. There are actually two functions of the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit.

a. The teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit in stages 1, 2, and 3. Jn 14:26, 16:12-14; 1 Cor 2:9-16; 1 Jn 2:27.

b. The metabolization ministry of God the Holy Spirit converts GNOSIS into the EPIGNOSIS doctrine.

F. Summary.

1. Only metabolized doctrine produces spiritual growth. Therefore, the execution of the protocol plan of God depends on stage four, the metabolization of the mystery doctrine.

2. The mechanics related to the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit are twofold.

a. The Holy Spirit makes the doctrine understandable in our human spirit.

b. The Holy Spirit makes the doctrine understandable in our right lobe, or converts GNOSIS into EPIGNOSIS.

3. The mechanics in stage four are twofold.

a. The function of the believer in a non-meritorious system of faith perception.

b. The function of God the Holy Spirit in a meritorious function, converting that information into EPIGNOSIS doctrine.

4. The metabolization of Bible doctrine is the ministry of God the Holy Spirit in converting GNOSIS doctrine in the left lobe into EPIGNOSIS doctrine in the right lobe. The pastor is involved in the reception stage, but he has no part in the retention stage. Retention is the ministry of God the Holy Spirit in answer to positive volition toward the doctrine taught.

5. All momentum in the protocol plan of God comes from metabolized or EPIGNOSIS doctrine. There is no momentum from spiritual phenomena in the human spirit or GNOSIS doctrine in the left lobe.

6. The advance to spiritual maturity is related to metabolized doctrine only.

7. Invisible heroes are manufactured out of metabolized doctrine and wisdom, which is the application of metabolized doctrine.

8. Glorification of God depends upon metabolized doctrine and wisdom.

9. One of the greatest grace gifts to the believer is operation Z by which metabolized doctrine is manufactured. This is the only way we can grow spiritually and fulfill God’s plan, purpose, and will for our lives.

10. The function of problem solving devices of spiritual adulthood and the passing of the three categories of suffering for blessing depend upon the grace-manufactured metabolized doctrine in the right lobe and the wisdom which results from it.

11. EPIGNOSIS doctrine in the right lobe is the basis for normal spiritual growth and momentum in the divine dynasphere.

12. Under the principle of recall of application, EPIGNOSIS doctrine is the basis for accelerated spiritual growth and problem solving.

13. Since you are your own priest, you must learn doctrine in order to solve your own problems, as you were so designed. But this requires having doctrine stored in your right lobe; you can’t have bare cupboards. And apart from faith perception, you have no inventory of doctrine to solve your own problems.

14. You must have an inventory of doctrine to meet every exigency of life. The Lord not “testing you beyond what you are able” means He will test you when you have had the opportunity to hear the appropriate doctrine.

15. See the doctrine of the Heart for an explanation of how EPIGNOSIS doctrine occupies the compartments of the right lobe.

G. Scriptural Documentation, 1 Cor 2:4-16. (See Ephesians lesson 993.)

1. 2:4, “Both my doctrine and my preaching were not in the persuasive words of wisdom [Plato (rationalist) and Socrates (empiricist) methods] but in a demonstration of the Spirit and His omnipotence.”

2. 2:5, “that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of man [based on human I.Q.] but in the power of God.”

3. 2:6, “Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature [winners], a wisdom however not of this age nor of the leaders of this world who are fading out.”

4. 2:7, “But we communicate wisdom from God in a mystery, which has been concealed, which God pre-designed before the ages for our glory;”

5. 2:8, “[the wisdom] which none of the rulers of this world have understood, for if they had understood [but they didn’t], they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory [a title for Christ as the Shekinah glory].”

6. 2:9, “But as it stands written [Isa 64:4, Isa 65:17], `Things which the eye has not seen and the ear has not heard [empiricism]’ and [Bible doctrine which] has not entered into the right lobe of mankind [rationalism], what things God has prepared for those who love Him.’”

7. 2:10, “But to us God has revealed them through the Spirit; for the [human] spirit investigates all things, even the deep things of God.”

8. 2:11, “For who among mankind understands the things of mankind except the life [soul-perception, human spirit] which is in him? Even so the things of God no one has known, except the Spirit of God.”

9. 2:12, “Now we have not received the world’s frame of reference [the human I.Q. for perception], but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been graciously given to us by God.”

10. 2:13, “Which things we also communicate, by teaching doctrine not from the source of man’s wisdom, but by the teaching of the Spirit, explaining spiritual truth to a spiritual apparatus.”

11. 2:14, “But the soulish man does not receive [accept] spiritual phenomena from the Spirit of God, for to him it is foolishness; furthermore, he is not able to understand [spiritual phenomena] because it is [spiritually] discerned in a manner caused by the filling of the Spirit.”

12. 2:15, “But the spiritual man discerns all things, but he himself is discerned by no one. [Your real spiritual status quo is known only by you and the Lord; you are not subject to investigation by other believers; privacy of the priesthood.]”

13. 2:16, [Isa 40:13] “For `who has known the thinking of the Lord that he should instruct Him?’ But we have the thinking of Christ [Bible doctrine].”

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