Chapter 3
The doctrine of the devil’s seven
1. The person of the devil. He is
the highest of all angelic creatures, the ruler of all fallen angels. He is the
greatest creature genius who ever lived. Matthew 8:28; 9:34; 12:26; Luke 11:18.
He is a pre historical super creature — Isaiah 14:12-17; Ezekiel 28:11ff. The
devil will have had three falls by the end of history — Isaiah 14; Ezekiel 28;
Revelation 12 and 20. The devil is the central antagonist in the angelic
conflict — Genesis 6; Hebrews 1&2; 1 Peter 3:18; Jude 22. He has an
organisation which has organised some of the greatest traps for the wrong side
of history. His table of organisation is well declared in Ephesians 6:10-12.
The devil is the original murderer — John 8:44; he is the opponent of Bible
doctrine — Matthew 13:9; he is the enemy of the church, the royal family of God
— Revelation 2:9,13,24.
2. The fact that the devil is the
ruler of this world is well attested. The ruler of the world is so declared in
Luke 4:5-7; John 12:31;14:30; 16:11; 2 Corinthians 4:4; Ephesians 2:2.
3. Therefore the devil has strategy
regarding the nations of the world and a part of this strategy is to put the
entire human race on the wrong side of history. Therefore it is imperative that
we study the wrong side of history to make sure as believers we never step over
that line and get on the wrong side of history.
4. Therefore the devil has strategy
regarding the unbelievers of the world. His strategy runs the gamut from
blinding the minds of the unbeliever exposed to the gospel through every form
of unbeliever reversionism — 2 Peter 2 is an entire dissertation on unbeliever
reversionism. References to the devil’s strategy regarding the unbeliever are
found in such passages as Luke 8:12; 2 Corinthians 4:3,4; 2 Thessalonians
2:7,1o; Colossians 2:8; Revelation 17. In many cases religion is the devil’s
ace trump.
5. Therefore the devil has a
strategy with regard to believers, the royal family of God — 2 Corinthians
2:11. This strategy includes a number of things:
a) To accuse the
believer in heaven — Job 1; Zechariah 3:1,2; Revelation 12:9,10; 1 John 2:1,2.
b) To sponsor
reversionism in all of its forms and therefore to get the believer on the wrong
side of history — 1 Corinthians 10:19-21; 2 Corinthians 11:3, 13-15.
c) To frustrate the will
of God. The mental will of God is frustrated by Satan — Ephesians 4:14. Satan
has offered today the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and more people
are eating at that tree today than ever before in our history. The geographical
will of God is frustrated — 1 Thessalonians 2:18. The operational will of God
is frustrated — James 4:7,8.
d) To neutralise
doctrinal application and cause the individual believer to be filled with worry
and anxiety leading to other mental attitude sins — 1 Peter 5:7-9.
e) To destroy the
believer’s focus, to get the believer to get his eyes on people — Jeremiah
17:5; eyes on self, self pity — 1 Kings 19:10; eyes on things — Hebrews 13:5,6.
f) To get the believer
to become involved in improving the devil’s world. The reversionistic believer
becomes humanistic, occupied with temporal solutions to man’s problems,
advocating systems to improve man’s environment , and therefore socialism,
social action, social gospel become a part of that factor.
g) The inculcation of
fear regarding physical death — Hebrews 2:14,15.
h) Getting believers
into a trap called evil — 2 Timothy 2:25,26.
6. Religion is a part of the devil’s
strategy, it was created by Satan to counterfeit the plan of God. As a result:
a) There is a
counterfeit gospel — 2 Corinthians 4.
b) Counterfeit ministers
in 2 Corinthians 11.
c) Counterfeit doctrine
in 2 Timothy 4:1.
d) Counterfeit communion
table in 2 Corinthians 10:19-21.
e) Counterfeit
spirituality — Galatians 3:2,3.
f) Counterfeit
righteousness in Matthew 19.
g) Counterfeit modus
vivendi in Matthew 23.
h) Counterfeit power and
dynamics in 2 Thessalonians 2:8-10.
i) Counterfeit gods in 2
Timothy 2:3,4.
7. False teachers are a part of the
devil’s strategy and a big part in the devil’s trap. False teachers have a
phony and hypocritical facade — Matthew 7:15; Romans 16:18. False teachers use
human public relations and systems of public relations in legalistic flirtation
to court believers — Galatians 4:17,18; 2 Timothy 3:5-7. False teachers appeal
to human ego and human pride — 2 Corinthians 10:12. False teachers promote
idolatry as a part of the devil’s communion table — Habakkuk 2:18,19. False
teachers promote legalism and self-righteousness — 1 Timothy 1:7,8. False
teachers continue throughout the period of human history — 1 John 4:1.
8. The devil’s policy is evil. There
are three areas: a) the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; the general
doctrine of evil; the application of evil in the principle of human good.
The doctrine of historical interpretation
1. Jesus Christ controls history in
three ways:
a) direct control
through His divine essence.
b) through indirect
control through the laws of divine establishment.
c) permissive control,
permitting human volition to function in this phase of the angelic conflict,
permitting the tree of the knowledge of good and evil to continue throughout
history until the last Gog revolution.
2. The Bible is the key to
historical interpretation.
a) Historical
interpretation related to God, the unseen world of angels, the visible world of
mankind. The Bible is the only book that clearly defines both the seen and the
unseen issues of history.
b) Bible doctrine is the
basis, therefore, for correct interpretation of history.
c) True history is a
series of facts about the human race.
d) To correlate and
interpret these facts demands Bible doctrine resident in the soul, and
therefore the daily function of GAP.
e) This limits the
unbeliever’s perspicacity in the field to the understanding of the laws of
divine establishment and his ability to assimilate facts objectively.
f) To correctly
interpret history one must understand evil, reversionism, apostasy, and to be
able to distinguish them from sin as well as distinguishing them from true
Bible doctrine.
g) To correctly
interpret history one must understand the angelic conflict, the first advent,
the cross, the second advent.
h) To correctly
interpret history one must understand the doctrine of dispensations.
i) To correctly
interpret history one must understand the Church Age and the royal family of
God.
j)
While many historians recognise Rome as the centre of gravity in history they
cannot relate it to the first advent of the beginning of the Church Age, and
this in itself is where many historians stub their toe.
k) The establishment
student of history as an unbeliever can’t understand that while the Greeks made
intellectual, political contributions to history their genius in literature,
drama, history, philosophy is destroyed by their reversionism, and that the
Greek had no vigour over any period of time because they were
reversionistically degenerate.
l) One of the greatest
men of history was Alexander the Great. His intellect destroyed him because he
couldn’t relate his genius to reality and he related it finally to the
principles of evil, the Satanic policy of the ruler of this world. Therefore
his human genius began to start one-worldism and that was the year in which he
died.
The Roman empire, then, is the
central lake into which all the streams of ancient history flow and from which
all the streams of modern history egress. Rome stands for government of law,
government by establishment principles, and the importance of everyone using
his freedom to exercise self-discipline as a citizen of a national entity. The
Romans had respect for authority, respect for authority which resulted in
stability. They had more from the laws of divine establishment than any group
of people who have ever lived. It takes Bible doctrine and divine viewpoint to
see what happened to the Romans and to see what has happened to our own
country. The decline of Rome teaches many lessons which relate to our decline.
Doctrine is the link that clarifies the parallels. So in modern history
conservatives in the past have been landed aristocrats, peasantry, industrial
and capitalistic hierarchies, and they have adhered very closely to the laws of
divine establishment so that there have been flares of greatness in western
European history. But all of these things are destroyed by various forms of
evil.
3. There are partially correct
interpretations of history.
4. The Bible sheds light on obscure
historical events which result in interpretation of history.
5. Each generation of history is
sustained by super-grace believers — 2 Timothy 1:5,6.
6. The principle of the wrong side
of history — 2 Timothy 3.
a) The description of
the wrong side of history 2 Timothy 3:1-4.
b) Opposition from the
wrong side of history — 2 Timothy 3:5-12.
c) Deliverance from the
wrong side of history — 2 Timothy 3:13-17.
Verses 1-4, the description of the
wrong side of history.
Verse 1 — Reversionism is related to
being on the wrong side of history. To understand reversionism is to understand
the modus vivendi of the wrong side of history. “This know also” includes the
enclitic particle de used as a transitional
conjunction meaning “Now.” Plus the present active imperative from the verb ginwskw which means to know, to learn, to understand, to
comprehend, to have perspicacity. The present tense is a descriptive present,
it describes the action in the process of through the function of GAP. It
presents to the mind the events in the process of occurrence. In other words, there
comes a period in your spiritual growth when you have to become an interpreter
of history. If you don’t become an interpreter of history you are going to
react against wrong historical trends and your reaction will lead you into
reversionism. The active voice: the royal family must produce the action of the
verb without which production you are going to wind up in reversionism. The
imperative mood is a command from God. “Now be knowing.” Plus “also” which is
the accusative neuter singular direct object from demonstrative pronoun o(utoj which should be translated “this” to place special
emphasis on the importance of the interpreting contemporary history. Only the
believer with doctrine in his soul can correctly interpret historical events,
contemporary type. It is imperative that you can interpret history before
history destroys you.
“in the last days” — the preposition e)n
plus the locative of the adjective e)sxatoj plus the noun h(mera which doesn’t always mean days. Sometimes it means
a period of history, sometimes it means a second. The “day of Christ” is a
second when the Rapture occurs. The “day of the Lord” is a thousand years or
some portion of a thousand years. The days in Genesis one are literal 24-hour
days. We have here the word “days” in the plural and it is correctly translated
“in the last days.” It is a reference to one of two things: the last days of a
dispensation or the last days of a nation. It describes both. This is what
happened at the end of the Age of the Gentiles — the flood; then at the end of
the Age of Israel — future, the Tribulation; then we have coming up sometime in
the next event of eschatology the end of the Church Age and this would describe
events at the end of that age. So it does refer to the end of an age or a dispensation
but it also refers primarily in this passage to the end of a nation. This is
what happens to all nations, these characteristics occur in all nations just
before they disintegrate and disappear from the pages of history. he fall of
every nation is accompanied by these characteristics. Every dispensation
terminates with a great apostasy characterised by maximum reversionism and the
influence of evil which is being on the wrong side of history. Every nation in
the five cycles of discipline is also characterised by maximum reversionism,
the influence of evil, with most people being on the wrong side of history.
There is one thing that a believer can never afford and that is to be on the
wrong side of history. Any time a disaster related to apostasy is about to
occur in history it is defined by this phrase, “in the last days.”
“perilous times” — the nominative
masculine plural of the adjective xalepoj which means “difficult,
hard,” or any word that denotes a total disintegration of life, of
establishment, of law and order, and being totally helpless. The word for
“times” is xairoj, the nominative masculine
plural. It means time in the sense of a period, in the sense of a sphere of
time, in the sense of a trend. It refers to a period of time in history
characterised by maximum reversionism, the extensive influence of evil, and most
people being on the wrong side of history. To be on the wrong side of history
means to be totally disoriented to your own life and circumstances. Apostasy is
a two-sided coin. One side is reversionism, the other side is the influence of
evil. When a nation is being destroyed by the fifth cycle of discipline hard
times set in. Hard times refers to the total influence of both evil and
apostasy.
One of the most influential things
in hard times is religion. There is always a lot of religion and religion is
always on the wrong side of history. Religion is of Satan himself, it is the
devil’s ace trump, it is the most ingenious device that Satan has ever used to
distract people from doctrine, from the gospel, and from God’s plan of grace.
“shall come” is the future middle
indicative from the compound word e)nisthmi, one of those very
fascinating verbs that simply follows its compound [e)n
= in; isthmi = to stand] hence, it means
to stand in. But to stand in means to be imminent with the connotation of
threatening. In other words, impending distress is the connotation. The future
tense here is a gnomic future for a statement of fact or performance which may
be rightfully expected under conditions of apostasy — reversionism, the
influence of evil, and maximum production of human good. The middle voice is
the indirect middle, it emphasises the agent: hard times as producing the
action of the verb rather than participating in its results. This is a
declarative indicative mood for historical reality. Translation: “Now be
knowing this, that in the last times [the end of a nation’s history] hard times
[disaster from reversionism] will be imminent.”
Principle
1. Here is the principle of people on
the wrong side of history. This is the way in which they are introduced. They
are on the wrong side of history, therefore they are caught up in the maelstrom
of historical disaster.
2. Only the super-grace believer can
carry his generation and only the super-grace believer is the dam that holds
back the water of historical disaster.
3. There are five categories of
super-grace blessing in paragraph SG2 which are essential to
understand in their relationship to the individual and in their relationship to
history.
a) Category #1,
spiritual blessings — occupation with Christ from maximum category #1 love,
sharing the happiness of God and/or +H, capacity for life, capacity for love,
capacity for happiness, capacity for blessing, capacity for understanding and
appreciating God’s plan, capacity for historical development as it occurs, and
appreciation for the realities of historical success and historical failure in
any past situation, the ability at the same time when you face anything in life
whether it is blessing or disaster.
b) The temporal
blessings. Many of these go right on in spite of historical disaster. Wealth,
success, promotion, advancement in any sphere of life, prosperity (social,
sexual, professional. technical, mental, increased concentration and
perspicacity within the soul, cultural prosperity, establishment prosperity —
freedom, privacy, property, protection from crime and historical disaster,
military prosperity, etc.) — leadership dynamics. Some of these things continue
and for the ultra-super-grace believer they are intensified by suffering.
c) Category #3 is
blessing by association. The super-grace believer is on the right side of
history. Being on the right side of history he has great category #3 blessing.
This is blessing by association. The principle is obvious. Those in the
periphery of the super-grace believer or the ultra-super-grace believer are
blessed by their association or relationship. That means that two categories of
blessing are involved: direct blessing from God because of association with a
super-grace believer, and direct blessing from the super-grace believer
himself. So the blessing can come from both or from one of two sources.
d) Historical blessing
of the super-grace believer. He is the spiritual Atlas who carries his own
generation in history. In addition, the ultra-super-grace becomes the
stabiliser for all historical generations. The super-grace believer is on the
right side of history. As such he supports and sustains his generation in
history. Except in rare cases of blessing by association blessing is not
perpetuated from one generation to another, every generation must stand or fall
on the basis of its own super-grace remnant according to the election of grace.
In other words, how each generation goes depends on how many born-again
believers are on the right side of history, or how many genius type unbelievers
are also on the right side of history.
The stages of reversionism
1. Stage one: Reaction.
a) The presence of
reactor factors in the life is the cause for the believer getting into this
stage of reversionism. These reactor factors include discouragement, boredom,
disillusion, inability to cope with loneliness, overcome by self-pity,
frustration, and inability to interpret contemporary history.
b) Reaction includes
rejection of authority of your right pastor, personality hang-ups with members
of the congregation or the pastor, hypersensitivity and pack of objectivity
under rebuke or reprimand.
c) It includes mental
attitude sins such as jealousy, bitterness, vindictiveness, implacability,
arrogance, guilt complex.
d) It includes operation
vengeance or seeking to build your happiness by putting someone else down.
e) The reaction stage
includes distractions which lure the believer from the routine of consistent
perception of doctrine. Some of these are social/sexual distractions, sports,
pleasures, entertainment, family, health, gossip, policy, historical distractions.
f) Part of the reaction
stage, but not quite as common, is drug addiction, mental illness, academic or
mental incompetence (by taking drugs, being totally inebriated and unable to
understand what is being taught) which distracts from consistency in learning
Bible doctrine.
g) For a believer with
minimum doctrine resident in the soul reaction to the events of contemporary
history puts him into reversionism, into the reaction stage.
h) This reaction results
in reversionism which places the one so involved on the wrong side of history.
2. Stage two: Frantic search for
happiness. The function of the reactor factors in the life of the believer
result in a frantic search for happiness. When a believer is reacting he is
always looking for happiness — getting it where he can, how he can, as quickly
as he can. The frantic search intensifies when there is a reaction to history.
3. Stage three: Operation boomerang.
When you try to use some of these things for happiness they merely intensify
the reaction. The search always misses and comes back. Frustration becomes
intensified, etc.
4. Stage four: The emotional revolt
of the soul. The emotion is the female part of the soul, it is designed to
respond to the right lobe or the heart which is the male part of the soul. In
effect, the emotion revolts against the heart [right lobe] and takes over.
Emotion cannot think straight because emotion doesn’t think at all, it has no
norms or standards, no capacity for life. Emotion, therefore, becomes the tool
of the old sin nature and is disaster. This factor of emotion is always a part of
reversionistic activity — 2 Corinthians 6:11,12.
5. Stage five: Negative volition
toward doctrine. As a result of reactor factors the believer becomes confirmed
in his negative volition toward doctrine. Such confirmation includes the
following characteristics of negative volition:
a) Indifference or
apathy to Bible teaching from a pastor-teacher.
b) Too busy for Bible
teaching.
c) Antagonism or
personality hang-ups regarding the pastor and his authority.
d) Antagonism or
personality conflicts with other members of the congregation.
e) Failure to utilise
grace provision for GAP, including the assembly at the local church, failure to
rebound, lack of respect for authority, poor manners, lack of concentration, no
poise, no objectivity.
f) Inability to handle
prosperity.
g) Disorientation to the
actors of living grace. Under living grace God keeps us alive in the devil’s
world. He provides our food, shelter, clothing, transportation. Disorientation
is failure to appreciate these factors. God provides a textbook (the Bible), a
local church, right pastor, and negative volition rejects all of these so that
there is a reaction resulting in failure to understand contemporary history,
and getting on the wrong side of history.
h) Active campaigning to
discredit, to remove, to destroy the ministry of any pastor who teaches the
Word.
6. Stage six: Blackout of the soul.
This is where the soul is pumped full of Satanic propaganda called “evil.”
This
is where they eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and while a
believer cannot be demon possessed he is worse than demon possession when he is
filled up with Satanic propaganda — Ephesians 4:17,18.
7. Stage seven: Scar tissue of the
soul resulting from the blackout, the blinding stage, the hardness of soul
whereby there is no way that any doctrine gets through, e.g. John 14:20. Scar
tissue of the soul or hardness of heart rejects military preparation,
de-emphasises national defense — Proverbs 21:29-31. Scar tissue is a state of
revolt against the Lord — Nehemiah 9:16,17.
8. Stage eight: Reverse process
reversionism. This is the antithesis of super-grace, the believer has his
priorities exactly wrong. This is the believer on the wrong side of history.
Verses 2-4, the characteristics of
reversionism on the wrong side of history.
Verse 2 — “For” is the explanatory
use of the conjunctive particle gar. It explains now how it is
possible for any believer who fails to understand doctrine to handle historical
events, to handle the unfolding of history as it occurs in his lifetime.
“men” is the nominative plural from
the noun a)nqrwpoj, a generic term for the
human race in general, a reference to reversionists specifically in this
passage. It can be reversionists in a national entity who are under the various
cycles of divine discipline or it can be a reversionist at the end of any dispensation
where there is always very strong and intensive apostasy. Whichever, it always
refers to those members of the human race who are on the wrong side of history.
No one ever survives as an individual being on the wrong side of history. It
means a life of disaster, of misery, of failure to cope with life in general.
It is your mental attitude that puts you on the wrong side of history. Those on
the wrong side of history are reversionistic and their thinking is under the
influence of evil.
“shall be” — future active
indicative of the verb e)imi. The future tense in the
Koine Greek is primarily an indicative tense in which the element of time is
very pronounced. To a great extent, however, it does not signify the character
of a verbal idea but instead of presenting progress as the leading idea (as
with the present and with the imperfect tense) it has the general significance
of something indefinite. Once there is historical disaster those who are weak
react. And the weak always are on the wrong side of history. History is
cluttered with weak sisters. This is weakness of strength in the soul, not
weakness of strength in terms of the body physical. The active voice: the
reversionist under the influence of evil produces the action of the verb, he is
a weak sister. Any time there is historical disaster he immediately reacts,
gets on the wrong side of history, and for the rest of his life is out of step,
under discipline and in trouble. The indicative mood is declarative
representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of historical reality. This is
an unqualified assertion of characteristics of those who are on the wrong side
of history, and since this passage is addressed to believers it is the
believers who are in mind in this particular concept.
The characteristics of believers on the wrong side
of history
They are on the wrong side of
history because they neglected Bible doctrine. By neglecting Bible doctrine
they were unable to cope with history when any kind of historical tragedy,
disaster, or difficulty came along.
“lovers of their own selves” — a compound predicate adjective filautoj. The plural indicates there will be a lot of them
and the characteristics of reversionism here emphasises the fact that one thing
you count on is that a person who is so occupied with himself because of lack
of doctrine is like a member of the human race suffering from lack of oxygen.
Therefore he so centres in himself that he becomes weak, and any time any kind
of disaster occurs in history he cannot cope with it. This is a characteristic
of reversionism which emphasises blackout of the soul, hardness of heart, and
reverse process reversionism. Being a lover of self is the sum total of
reversionism, the antithesis of true love, it is capacity for pseudo love. If
you love yourself you love anyone who caters to yourself, who is nice to
yourself, and you dislike anyone who is contrary to that principle. Immediately
you have set up a false set of standards with which you cannot cope with life.
“covetous” is a predicate adjective from the compound adjective filarguroj [filoj = love; arguroj = silver or money] and it means “overs of money.”
Now you would be some kind of a nut if you didn’t like money and if you didn’t
realise that money has a lot of wonderful things with which you can do with it,
and that money makes an excellent slave. But this is [filoj is that strong soul love] getting your priorities
wrong, putting money above everything else. It should be recognised that the
only thing wrong is the reversionism of the soul, there is nothing wrong with
money. When money comes before doctrine, before any spiritual priority, then
love of money is converted into a principle of evil — 1 Timothy 6:10. This
means when a person will do something wrong for money he has “love of money.”
It is when he will do something evil for money.
“boasters” — predicate nominative masculine plural from the noun a)lazwn which refers to a person who in every breath is
talking about himself. It is merely the verbalising of lover of self. A
braggart, hot-air merchant.
“proud” — this is really the villain. This is a predicate
adjective but not the ordinary word for pride. This is u(perhfanoj [u(per = over and above; fainw = to appear] which means “arrogant ones, proud
ones.” This is the vicious pride of the soul.
“blasphemers” — the predicate nominative plural from the adjective
blasfhmoj. It means slanderous ones.
If all of the previous characteristics are true you are going to be a
slanderer. Slander is one of the best ways to put someone else down. Slander is
a verbal sin, it occurs when pride is under pressure from some type of rivalry.
“disobedient to parents” is one of the greatest failures in a
nation of weak people. Weak sisters are produced in homes. They are not born
weak, they are produced by permissive parents. This is a very strong phrase — a)peiqej. The worst thing any kid can do is disobey any
order, any command, any policy of a parent. The next worst thing is for the
parent to let him get away with it. Why? Because that kid is weak and he will
never be strong ever because he has violated the most basic principle in the
world. It matters now how unfair an order or a policy is the worst thing in the
world is for a child to disobey that. Implicit obedience is the order of the
day. When they reject the authority of the parents they will reject every
authority in life, and as adults they will be on the wrong side of history.
Plus the dative plural of reference gogeuj. Cf. Ephesians 6:1-3.
Summary
1. Under the laws of divine
establishment the parents represent authority under divine institution #3.
2. Therefore parents are the
original basic authority in life.
3. Parents are responsible to use
their authority to train their children in both function and principle of life
— both body and soul must be trained.
4. Consequently parents are not only
responsible for such things as food, shelter, and clothing but they are
responsible for their thinking, their mental attitude, their norms, their
poise, their manners, their self-discipline, their respect for authority, and
their respect for the privacy, the rights of other children and other people.
5. All children are born ignorant of
these basic principles of life. Therefore they must be trained, disciplined,
punished until they have been inculcated in the fundamentals of life.
6. Children have to be trained and
instructed in respect of freedom, privacy, property, rights of others.
7. Children should be taught love of
country, patriotism, respect for law and law enforcement, appreciation for the
military, understanding of government, predilection for free enterprise.
8. They must be taught objectivity
toward leadership and authority, discerning between the person and the
principle.
9. Add to this the fact that all
Christian parents have a responsibility in evangelisation and doctrinal
communication under the principles of Deuteronomy 6:6-9; 7:9.
10. As children become oriented to
the principle of GAP and the local church as a classroom they must be taught to
recognise the authority of their pastor, as per Hebrews 13:7, 17.
Opposition from the wrong side of
history, verses 5-12. This opposition comes from apostles or evangelists of evil,
verses 5-7.
Verse 5 — “Having a form of
godliness” is the present active participle of e)xw,
meaning to have and to hold. The present tense is retroactive progressive
present, it denotes what was begun in the past and continues into the present
time. In ever generation there are apostles or evangelists of evil and they are
Satan’s most effective representatives in the human race. The active voice: the
evangelists/apostles of evil produce the action of the verb. The participle is
circumstantial. Plus the accusative singular direct object from the noun morfwsij. The word has several related meanings — a mould,
an external appearance or outward form. Plus the descriptive genitive singular
from the noun e)usebeia which has been abused in
translation. It is a synonym for super-grace or advanced spiritual growth.
“Holding to an external form of godliness” would be a good translation.
Godliness
1. E)usebeia, and a word very close to it, qeosebaeia, meant originally “duty toward God.” It was used by the Greeks in
relationship to the gods of Mount Olympus but it has, of course, an entirely
different connotation in the Word of God. It means really duty toward God and
it comes to denote a very technical principle to us, the balance of residency
which characterises experiential sanctification. Godliness is that balance of
residency in the soul between the filling of the Spirit and maximum doctrine,
it is called experiential sanctification/super-grace status when it relates to
the spiritual growth concept.
2. The establishment of human
authority is necessary for the function of godliness, according to 1 Timothy
2:2. There must be historically certain circumstances whereby positive volition
can express itself in the daily function of GAP. because of the establishment
of human authority there is freedom and because there is freedom the believer
under the ministry of the Holy Spirit can assemble himself in a local church
under the ministry of the pastor-teacher and grow up.
3. Godlines is related to knowledge
of doctrine — Titus 1:1. E)pignwsij
or a full
knowledge of doctrine is related to the concept of godliness or super-grace.
4. Therefore godliness demands
discipline — 1 Timothy 4:7.
5. Godliness is profitable both for
time and eternity. Profitable for time: paragraph SG2; profitable
for eternity: paragraph SG3. 1 Timothy 4:8.
6. The basis for godliness is the
strategical victory of Jesus Christ at the first advent — 1 Timothy 3:16.
7. Godliness is distorted by
reversionists under the influence of evil — 1 Timothy 6:3,5; 2 Timothy 3:5.
8. The great gain of true godliness
— 1 Timothy 6:6.
9. Godliness is attained under the
principle of living grace — 2 Peter 1:3.
10. Godliness is declared to be a
Christian virtue — 2 Peter 1:6,7; 3:11.
“Holding to an external form of
godliness.”
Principle
1. Here is Satan’s pseudo
super-grace or Satan’s attempt to distort godliness by reversionism and evil.
It is the means by which those under Satanic command are able to succeed in the
evangelism to evil.
2. Satan has a pseudo paragraph SG2
in which he emphasises temporal blessing — rewards, power and influence for
those who serve him and carry out his policy of evil.
3. To communicates Satan’s plan, his
policy, his rewards the devil must have a few apostles and numerous evangelists
of evil who are either reversionistic believers or reversionistic unbelievers.
4. To approach the believer
successfully they adhere to external forms of godliness in order to set up a
rapport with positive believers.
The truth about these people
1. They are first of all believers
on the wrong side of history and they are snared by rapport with the
evangelists of evil. The rapport is the external form of godliness, policy,
morality, whatever it appears to be; but it is merely a hypocritical faced for
doctrine of demons.
2. The evangelists of evil offer
great rewards from the ruler of this world to any believer who will serve Satan
by advancing the cause of good and evil — the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil. Evil is Satan’s genius and plan, and good is the application of that plan
to experience.
3. The tree of the knowledge of good
and evil is the Satanic plan. It includes the morality of operation fig leaves
which was the first historical example of pseudo godliness.
4. The power of true godliness
and/or super-grace is maximum Bible doctrine resident in the soul of the
super-grace believer or the ultra-super-grace believer.
5. Satan’s system of evil and the
application of the system in human good inevitably excludes, rejects and
squeezes out the issue of Bible doctrine.
“by denying” — the post positive
enclitic particle de used as a conversative
conjunction. It is used to emphasise the difference between Satan’s human good
policy of evil and divine good from Bible doctrine resident in the believer’s
soul. With it is the perfect middle participle of a)rneomai which means to renounce, to refuse, to deny, to repudiate, to disown,
to disregard — “but having renounced or repudiated” is good here. The perfect
tense is the intensive perfect indicating a finished action with existing
results of reversionism under the influence of evil producing human good. The
middle voice is the indirect middle emphasising the agent, in this case the
apostle or evangelist of evil, producing the action of the verb which is
renouncing, repudiating Bible doctrine. The participle is circumstantial. “the
power” is an accusative singular direct object from dunamij which always refers to someone’s inherent power, therefore it is a
perfect description of doctrine resident in the soul of the super-grace
believer. Our inner power comes from the balance of residency — the filling of
the Spirit plus maximum doctrine in the soul.
“thereof” — the genitive singular
from the intensive pronoun a)utoj. The intensive pronoun is
very strong in its emphasis of something important. Here it emphasises
godliness or the balance of residency or super-grace. It should be translated
this way: “But having disregarded the power of that same [experiential sanctification,
super-grace].”
“from such” — the adjunctive use of kai is translated “also.” Plus the accusative plural
direct object of the verb from the demonstrative pronoun o(utoj. O(utoj emphasises the reversionist
as the apostle of evil. We translate “also be turning yourselves away from
these reversionistic evangelists of evil.” With this is the verb a)potrepw. This is the verb of separation which means to turn
one’s self away from, to avoid. The customary present denotes what habitually
occurs when a believer is positive toward doctrine and when he is in
super-grace status. The direct middle refers to the results of the action
directly to the agent. The agent is a positive believer and it refers, then,
with reflexive force. So it is translated “and be turning yourself away.” This
is the imperative mood of command.
Translation: “Holding to an external
form of godliness, but having disregarded [renounced, repudiated] the power
[Bible doctrine] of that same godliness: also be turning yourselves away from
these [reversionistic evangelists].”
The doctrine of separation
1. The principle of separation — 2
Timothy 2:3,4. The principle of separation is simply pleasing our commanding
officer. As members of the royal family of God we are often called soldiers of
Jesus Christ. As soldiers we are in full time Christian service. Separation or
lack of separation is based upon the content of the soul. What you think
determines whether you are separated or not separated.
a) In the analogy to
military life being in the military represents the believer who is positive
toward doctrine on a consistent basis.
b) Civilian life is
comparable to the negative believer in reversionism and under the influence of
evil.
c)
The consistent self-discipline of the positive believer causes him to
constantly regulate his life. Therefore the analogy to the military. He
regulates his life so that he rebounds, maintains the filling of the Spirit,
and makes constant decisions toward expositing himself to the Bible teaching of
his right pastor.
d)
By following the colours to the high ground of super-grace the believer
positive toward doctrine pleases his commanding officer, the Lord Jesus Christ.
e) Note, therefore, the
overall principle of separation which is in effect a positive attitude toward
doctrine which results in having it straight in your right lobe — your thinking
is straight, your priorities are straight — because maximum doctrine resides in
your right lobe.
2. The definition of separation.
a) Separation is the
consistent function of self-discipline and positive volition in the daily
intake of Bible doctrine. It results in clear thinking and having the right
priorities.
b) Separation, then, is
the action or function of always choosing for the Lord and His policy rather
than choosing for and associating with Satan and his policy.
c) All true separation
is based on maximum doctrine resident in the soul.
d) The action of
separation is based upon the thinking and the application of Bible doctrine to
experience.
3. Therefore when the Bible speaks
of separation in a basic sense it is always separation from reversionism. Not
from unbelievers or not from believers but first of all from the principle of
reversionism. If you are in reversionism as a believer you cannot separate from
anything, you are a part of the Satanic crowd. But of you are a positive
believer advancing generally you are separated by virtue of the application of
doctrine resident in your soul. The basic issue in separation is not carnality,
it is reversionism — 2 Timothy 3:5. What rejects Bible doctrine is where
separation begins.
4. As an application of this
principle of separation other believers become involved.
a) Separation from
certain types of carnal believers whose carnality will inevitably lead to
reversionism. There are certain types of carnality which squeeze out doctrine
and you must avoid them.
b) Separation from
reversionistic believers — 2 Thessalonians 3:6, “Now we command you, brethren,
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you separate from every believer who
leads an undisciplined life and not according to the tradition [daily function
of GAP] which you have received from us.” An undisciplined life is rejection of
doctrine. Also 2 Thess. 3:14.
c) Separation from
religious reversionism — Hebrews 13:13, “outside the camp” means separation
from denominationalism, from independent organisations that are not local
churches and do not comply with the principles involved there. These become
traditionally accepted and they are considered to be a part of the life of a
nation, so you have to go “outside the camp.”
d) Separation from
emotional reversionism. This includes the holy rollers, the tongues crowd,
emotional legalists, emotional do-gooders, etc. Romans 16:17,18. The problem of
these emotional believers is found in their rejection of doctrine, as found in
2 Corinthians 6:11,12. Emotion dominates their soul as one of the stages of
reversionism and because they have phased out doctrine.
5. There is also a principle of
separation from unbelievers. The believer is in the world but not of the world.
The believer is God’s ambassador to the world, the ambassador of Jesus Christ.
Therefore the royal family of God in time lives with and among unbelievers. So
obviously they were not separated from unbelievers. The principle of separation
which applies is relatively simple. The royal family of God only separates from
unbelievers where Bible doctrine is compromised or where conformity means
reversionism. 2 Corinthians 6:14 applies primarily to marriage; Romans 12:2,
separation is mental; 1 John 2:15-17, the world includes a lot of Satanic
thought. You and I cannot follow this until we have doctrine. The world is any
policy of Satan that is operative in history. Socialism, communism, social action,
social gospel; these are the things of the world.
6. Therefore separation from
religion is commanded — 2 Corinthians 6:15-17.
7. Consequently separation is also
related to social life.
a) Separation from the
fast crowd — 1 Peter 4:3,4. There comes a time when the believer positive
toward doctrine begins growing spiritually and his first application and
function is to separate himself from the crowd which used to lead him in
another direction.
b) The separation from a
superficial social life or the apostate fun crowd — Jeremiah 15:16,17. They
emphasise the details of life, they stimulate mediocrity, they substitute
short-term fun for long-term payments of misery.
8. Separation from violence and
criminal activity — Proverbs 1:10-19.
Verse 6 — “For of this sort” begins
with the illitive use of the conjunctive particle gar,
giving us now an explanation of these apostles of evil who lead astray those
who are members of the royal family of God so that they are divorced from the
source of their strength which is Bible doctrine. With it is the preposition e)k plus the ablative plural of the demonstrative
pronoun o(utoj which calls special
attention to the apostles/evangelists of evil and reversionism.
“are they” — present active
indicative of e)imi used to introduce some
characteristics and some of the modus vivendi of these people.
“which creep” is the present active
participle of e)dunw. It is interesting that the
word “creep” is used because it is generally associated with the snake, and it
was the serpent who reached the first parent, the woman, with the Satanic
principle that there is nothing wrong with the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil, that God is merely afraid that if you actually partake of this tree
you will be as smart as God is. When it says, “Out of these are they which
creep,” we are talking about nice personalities, pleasant people, people who
are great salesmen, and they are selling Satanic doctrine, i.e. evil. E)ndunw means to go into, to creep, to insinuate, to worm
the way into. They know how to worm their way into the affections of those who
are anti-doctrine. The present tense is a customary present for what may be
expected from these apostles of reversionism or evangelists of evil. The active
voice: the evangelists of evil produce the action of the verb, they are able to
infiltrate areas where the Word of God is accepted, areas where the Word of God
is even in the process of being learned, and they are successful in turning it
all around. Remember that in the angelic conflict the soul is the battle ground
for the angelic conflict. The participle is circumstantial.
“into houses” is mentioned here
because in the ancient world at the time of writing local churches did not meet
in public buildings. They did not do so for the first three hundred years of
the Church Age. They met in homes, outdoors, in caves in some cases when they
were being persecuted. The primary place of meeting during those first 300
years was in homes. This is e)ij plus the accusative plural
of the definite article which is used as an attributive intensive pronoun
emphasising houses as meeting places for the local church. Plus the accusative
plural of o)ikia, “house.” It is correctly
translated, “into those same houses,” referring to the local church. Acts 5:42;
Romans 16:5; 1 Corinthians 16:19; Philemon 2. There was no public building for
the local assembly until the Roman Catholic church became a denomination.
When a pastor-teacher fails to
communicate doctrine or when a congregation fails to respond then the
congregation becomes very weak. They become weak spiritually. They may increase
in number but they are still weak spiritually. One of their problems may be
money and therefore they go outside of biblical principles in order to raise
money, etc.
“and lead captive” — the connective
use of kai plus the present active
participle from the compound verb a)ixmalwtizw [a)ixmh = a spear. In the ancient world when the captives
were about to be counted they all had to pass under a spear. The spears were
crossed so that only one person at a time could pass under these spears to be
counted. Passing under the spear became a word for becoming a captive. The verb
in the compound, a(liskomai, means to capture]. The
word simply comes to mean “and taking captive.” The present tense is a
descriptive or pictorial present, it presents to the mind an action in the
process of occurrence, but in this way it is an analogy because Satan
eventually converts many believers who have rejected doctrine. The conversion
is called taking captive here. The ones who actually do the capturing are the
evangelists of evil. The active voice: the apostles of reversionism/evangelists
of evil capture believers. The participle is circumstantial.
“silly women” — the ones who are
taken captive. The accusative plural direct object of gunaikarion [gunai = women; karion is a diminutive form meaning little]. When used in
a derogative way it means “silly women.” This refers to a woman whose brain has
shrunk to the size of a pea and whose emotion has expanded to the size of a
large basketball. In other words, she’s all emotion and no sense. Consequently,
being a responder she is in trouble. We have a phrase here called “silly women”
which has to be explained and it doesn’t apply to women. It is used in a
spiritual sense for anyone whose volition is not working clearly and properly
on the basis of good judgment, good judgment being doctrine. In other words,
you are potential silly woman if you neglect Bible doctrine. If you neglect
Bible doctrine you are vulnerable. And to what are you vulnerable? You are
vulnerable to any system of evil or human good or any of the Satanic policies.
Therefore it becomes an excellent analogy. You become vulnerable to false
doctrine. Vulnerability also results in failure to interpret contemporary
history. A believer on the wrong side of history is miserable and disoriented.
He is under divine discipline, therefore he has self-induced misery, divine
discipline, and any favours he gets he gets from Satan. And Satan, when he gives
you favours, you have to pay the piper. In other words, Satan isn’t passing out
things free, he demands that you do certain things and you are vulnerable to
that whole package as a believer unless you have Bible doctrine which protects
all of us from becoming silly women. “Silly women,” therefore, are
reversionistic believers who have gone through one or more of the stages of
reversionism of which there are eight. They have passed the stage where mataiothj is opened and they now have evil resident in their
souls which has displaced whatever doctrine they have learned. And with evil in
the soul they suffer from blackout of the soul. A silly woman is simply a woman
who has no judgment and is vulnerable to a lot of things in life that no woman
should be vulnerable to. Consequently it is a perfect description for any
believer who is negative toward doctrine.
“laden with sins” — “laden” is a
perfect passive participle from the verb swreuw
which is taken from a noun soroj which means a heap, so it
is really a verb form from the noun for heap. It means to heap up, to pile up.
It eventually came to mean to be overwhelmed by, to be burdened with. “Having
been overloaded with” is the corrected translation. This is an overload which
is brought on by poor judgment. All of us are going to commit certain areas of
sins. All of us have areas of weakness and we continue to have an old sin
nature but there is such a thing as being overloaded with carnality. The
overload comes when you neglect rebound, when your judgment is impaired, and
you use your volition to get into massive areas of sin that add to the divine
discipline of reversionism. The intensive perfect represents a completed action
with existing results in life, i.e. the intensification of the misery. The
overload of sins or saturated carnality results from the earlier stages of
reversionism. The reaction stage of reversionism merely starts the ball
rolling. From there everything intensifies. These sins with which the believer
is overload and does not rebound become a burden and they overload the life so
that the judgment is further impaired. Failure to rebound overloads the life
with extensive divine discipline. The passive voice refers to the subject
receiving the action of the verb. Then believer who neglects doctrine receives
the action. The participle is a causal participle which is translated
“because.” “sins” — the instrumental
plural of means from the noun a(martia, referring to anything that
comes from the old sin nature’s area of weakness. When you put together all of
these things with reversionism the judgment of the individual is further
clouded and obscured so that the individual involved has no ability to break
out of this.
“led away” — present passive
participle of a)gw. It means that you feel that
you feel that your volition is not involved, and it isn’t. They are carried
away or led away — present tense, retroactive progressive. It denotes what has
happened in the past and continues into the present. The passive voice: the
silly women or reversionistic believers receive the action of the verb, they
are led captive by evil. And they make their decisions compatible with evil
once they have been evangelised in the field of evil. Evangelisation in the
field of evil is reversionism.
“with divers lusts” is an
instrumental plural from the adjective poikiloj which means various kinds. The word simply indicates the fact that one
man’s meat is another man’s poison, so Satan has various systems of evangelism.
There are some systems of evil evangelism that wouldn’t work on some people but
there are other systems that would. So Satan has in his bag of tricks something
for everyone to lure them away from Bible doctrine. Then we have the
instrumental plural of means from the noun e)piqumia which means lusts.
Translation: “For out from these
[apostles of apostasy] are they who worm their way into those same houses
[local churches], and capture silly women [reversionistic believers, male and
female], because having been overburdened with sins they are carried away prisoners
[of reversionism] by various categories of lusts.”
This adds up to the fact that any
time historical disaster overtakes such a believer he is completely destroyed,
a total casualty.
Verse 7 — we get a further
description of those silly women, the reversionists or those who are vulnerable
to reversionism, false teaching.
“Ever learning” is the adverb pantote and means “always.” This is an adverb of time. With
it is a present active participle manqanw which doesn’t mean simply
to learn, it means to learn from someone else. The retroactive progressive
present denotes what was begun in the past and continues right into the present
time. The active voice: the silly women or reversionists produce the action of
the verb of always learning from someone else false doctrine. The
circumstantial participle indicates that this is the way the silly women go.
This is the way that you get on the wrong side of history.
“and” — the conjunction kai is used here to connect two clauses. This one
introduces a result which comes from the preceding verse. It is translated “and
so.”
“never able” — another adverb, mhdepote which means “not ever” or “never.” Plus the present
active participle of dunamai which is the verb for
ability. The present tense is a customary present for what may be expected from
a believer in reversionism and/or the silly women of the previous passage. Then
active voice: the silly women or reversionistic believers produce the action of
the verb. This is circumstantial for reversionism.
“to come” — the aorist active
infinitive of e)rxomai is a very strong change of
tense. E)rxomai in the aorist tense is in
great contrast to the previous present tense. The constative aorist gathers the
action of the verb into one entirety, it take the occurrence of reversionism
and regardless of its duration gathers it up into a single whole. In that
sphere of reversionism there is no learning of doctrine. The aorist tense
gathers up the inability to understand anything from the Bible as long as you
are in the sphere or the category of silly women. The infinitive is a perceived
result assumed as a consequence of being in reversionism and evangelised by
evil.
“the knowledge” — the object of the
preposition e)ij, it is in the accusative
case, and the word is e)pignwsij and it means a lot more
than simply “knowledge.” It means doctrine in the right lobe as a result of the
function of GAP. It can be translated “full knowledge.” There is no definite
article here. The absence of the definite article emphasises the high quality
of e)pignwsij doctrine. In other words,
there are stages by which doctrine is taken from the Bible and transferred to
your soul. It has to be transferred to the intermediary who is the
pastor-teacher. The congregation has to assemble to listen and concentrate to
the teaching to get it as far as the left lobe for gnwsij.
But gnwsij doctrine does not help, it
is only another stage and it must be transferred to the right lobe as e)pignwsij, that is where it is usable. This is how believers
get away from serving Satan, it is the only way they can.
“of the truth” — descriptive
genitive from a)lhqeia, used here for Bible
doctrine.
Translation: “Always learning [false
doctrine and principles of evil from the apostles of apostasy], and so they are
never able to come to a full knowledge of doctrine.”
Whenever a person is on the right
side of history he is in for a lot of opposition, so we have in verses 8 and 9
opposition to those who are on the right side of history. In these two verses
and all of the way through this passage we are going to see two people who are
on the right side of history and who are the greatest people of doctrine ever
known. We have seen the principle of being a spiritual Atlas, holding up your
generation. All super-grace believers who seize and hold the high ground,
establish a command post and retain it, become a spiritual Atlas holding up
their generation in history. As goes the super-grace believer so goes that
generation in history.
We would never know about Jannes and
Jambres were it not for the fact that they were made famous by God the Holy
Spirit for one reason: they were in opposition to Moses in one period of the
life of Moses. When Moses went back to free the Jews as God’s agent he was
under great opposition — operation from Satan himself, opposition from demons,
and human opposition. God the Holy Spirit focuses attention at this point on
the human opposition to the greatness of the ultra-super-grace believer.
“Now as Jannes and Jambres” — we
have a post positive conjunctive particle de
used as a transitional conjunction and translated “Moreover.” There is also a
Greek phrase o( tropon, two accusatives — the
first, o(n, is the accusative singular
of the relative pronoun o(j, and tropon is the accusative singular of the noun tropoj which means mode, manner, or way. So o(j plus tropoj means “in which manner.” O(j as a relative pronoun means “which” here. It can be
translated “with reference to which manner” which is an idiom and comes to mean
“in the same manner.” Jannes and Jambres are two demon possessed wise men of
the Egyptian court. They were men of great genius IQ in many fields and when
Moses faces them it is the greatest battle of brains in history.
In Exodus 7:11 — “Then Pharaoh also
called for his wisest of men, even the sorcerers.” They were also the chartumim which were not magicians but
those who had extra-natural powers. They were so wise, they had gone into so
many scientific fields that they had extra-natural powers. The also did
“unusual things in their secret arts.” Verse 22 — “ .. did the same with their
secret arts: and Pharaoh’s right lobe was hardened, and he did not listen to
them [Moses and Aaron].” In the throne room of Pharaoh there are the
representatives of God, Moses and Aaron, and Satan is their, demons are there,
and two very wise men are there. Chartumim
not only means sacred scribes but they were skilled in a special language. They
were so far ahead of their day. Chartumim
means to be able to write in the scientific shorthand that only a few people
could use. They had a prophetic ability given by demons. They were priests and
were considered also to have magical powers which weren’t magical power at all
but demon power.
Their names are given in 2 Timothy
chapter three but they are not found anywhere else. The Latin ruler and writer,
Pliny, lived from 23 to 79 AD. He mentioned these two men by name, so their
names had been passed down all of the way to the time of the Roman empire.
The reversionistic opposition
against the great men of super-grace and Bible doctrine often comes in the form
of religious activity. By religious activity is meant Satan’s great thrust in
that field for Satan has devised a series of counterfeits that all come under
the category known as religion. All opposition to super-grace has religious
tendencies and trends within that opposition.
Religion
A. Definition.
1. Religion is Satan’s answer to
spiritual growth and Satan’s counterfeit for the super-grace and
ultra-super-grace life of blessing and reward.
2. Religion is a part of Satan’s
plan, a part of his strategy, and actually the ace trump.
3. Religion is the worst thing that
ever happened to mankind in history, it is a soul-destroyer.
4. Religion also epitomises Satan’s
policy of evil.
5. Religion is not the same as
Christianity. Muslimism or the World Council of Churches is religionism but
Christianity is not a religion. In Christianity there is a grace relationship
with God; religion has no relationship with God.
6. Therefore religion and
regeneration are opposing forces in the angelic conflict, they are antithetical
and mutually exclusive.
7. In religion man by man’s efforts
seeks to gain the approbation of God through his works, power, talent,
abilities. Hence, religion is always a form of reversionism under the influence
of evil and always includes some system of legalism.
8. On the opposite side, in
Christianity God seeks and finds man through the work of Christ, and from that
time on it is strictly a matter of grace.
9. Christianity is a relationship
with God through regeneration while religion is a relationship with Satan
through reversionism. It is possible, therefore, for a born again believer to
be religious as a reversionist.
B. The essence of religion.
1. Religion has its own gospel — 2
Corinthians 11:3,4. It is a gospel system that converts to evil, the policy of
Satan.
2. Religion has its own doctrine — 1
Timothy 4:1, “doctrines of demons.” Satan has a systematic concept of teaching
by which his servants are inculcated with Satanic policies and inspired to
perform Satanic activities.
3. Religion has a system of ministry
— it has its own ministers. The ministers of religion are found in 2
Corinthians 11:13-15.
4. The system of religion has its
own communion table — 1 Corinthians 10:20,21, the system of idolatry.
5. There is a system of
self-righteousness which is a part of religion — Matthew 19:16-28.
6. Religion has its own system of
spirituality [pseudo spirituality] — Galatians 3:2,3.
7. Religion also has a pseudo
super-grace system — Matthew 23:1-35. This pseudo system has its pseudo rewards
directly from Satan.
8. The system of religion also has a
very strong concept of human dynamics — always the better life, more or greater
impact on humanity, etc. — 2 Thessalonians 2:7-10.
9. Religion also has a variation of
gods which are simply representations of the same person, the creature Satan —
2 Thessalonians 2:3,4.
“withstood Moses” — the religious
part of the opposition did not come from their great genius but came from the
extra-natural performance, the Satanic miracle.
“so do these also” — the adverb o(utoj setting up a comparison from ancient history to
modern. It shows that there is an exact parallel in every generation of modern
history and that if you are going to be able to interpret contemporary history
you should understand all historical interpretations of the past. Then we have kai, the conjunction, used in its adjunctive sense for
“also,” plus the immediate demonstrative o(utoj which means a near reference and emphasises the apostles of apostasy.
By “near” demonstrative is meant that there is in the immediate generation of
the writer Paul some people just like Jannes and Jambres in the generation of
Moses. There are exact duplicates in Paul’s generation with the implication
that there are exact duplicates in all generations. Satan always has some very
brilliant an unusually smart people who under demon influence or possession, or
both, are phenomenal people with a dynamic impact in history. “So also these
[evangelists of evil]” is probably a reference to Phygellus and Hermogenes of 2
Timothy 1:15. Moses had his Jannes and Jambres, Paul had his Phygellus and
Hermogenes. The two greatest leaders in history were constantly and intensively
opposed by reversionism and evil. Those on the wrong side of history always
oppose those on the right side of history. The right side o history is composed
of believers in super-grace, believers in ultra-super-grace. The wrong side of
history with unbelievers and believers in reversionism. This is where you have
such great dissension between believer and believer. Some of the worst people
you will ever encounter are born again believers and they are the strongest
opposers to ultra-super-grace or super-grace.
“resist” — the present middle indicative
from a)nqisthmi which means oppose, to
reject. The present tense is retroactive progressive present, it denotes what
has begun in the past history and continues into the present history. The
middle voice is the indirect middle in which the agent, evangelists of evil (Satan’s
super-grace types), and they produce the action of the verb. The indicative
mood is declarative for historical reality. Every generation will have one or
two super-grace believers who will be opposed by the most brilliant men of the
age — unbelievers or believers — under Satanic policies of evil and demon
influence.
“the truth” — dative singular
indirect object as well as dative of disadvantage a)lhqeia. It is to their disadvantage not to have truth or doctrine.
Summary
1. There are four great men of
superior genius in human history.
2. Two are believers; two are
unbelievers.
3. Most men, or even women, of
genius are totally divorced from reality and they do not influence history with
the magnitude of their perspicacity. Genius without reality is total
disorientation.
4. Great men of genius are
diversified in their genius expression and superimpose their genius on history
so that they influence not only their own generation but all generations
thereafter.
5. Of the four greatest men of
genius in history two are from the ancient world and two are in more recent
history. None of them are contemporary.
6. The two unbelievers are Caesar
and Napoleon. They were establishment oriented and saw the need of
establishment in the human race. The two believers were Moses and Paul.
7. It is fitting that Moses and Paul
being on the right side of history should have phenomenal Satanic opposition
from those on the wrong side of history. And they did.
8. Satan himself, though the ruler
of the world, is on the wrong side of history and he is a creature of super
genius, the greatest ever created.
9. Satan’s apostles and evangelists
are also on the wrong side of history.
10. Therefore they are intensely
antagonistic toward anyone who is on the right side of history.
11. Therefore since all super-grace
believers are on the right side of history those evangelists of evil are
opposed to all super-grace believers. But their opposition intensifies and
becomes round the clock opposition if a believer happens to be in ultra-super-grace
— like Moses in the context, like Paul in the context.
12. Since Moses and Paul are the
greatest super-grace/ultra-super-grace believers it is fitting their names
should be in this historical dissertation.
“men of corrupt minds” — the
nominative plural of a)nqrwpoj, plus the perfect passive
participle from the compound verb katafqeirw [kata = norm or standard; fqeirw
= the verb for corruption or destroyed] which means “having been corrupted.”
The perfect tense in the intensive perfect, it indicates the completed action
of reversionism and the existing results of a totally brilliant and totally
depraved mind. Satan picks only the most brilliant kinds of people for
opposition to ultra-super-grace believers. The participle here is ascriptive
used as an adjective. These men reject the truth, hence they are men of
corrupted mentality — corrupted by evil.
“reprobate concerning the faith” — peri plus the accusative of pistij
[doctrine] is “with reference to doctrine” or “with regard to doctrine.” In
other words, pistij can mean that which causes
trust, or faith and therefore translated reliability of faithfulness. It also
means in an active sense, believing, and therefore it is translated “faith.”
But it also means that which is believed [passive use] or the body of faith and
therefore doctrine. So this is translated “disqualified ones with regard to
doctrine.”
Translation: “Moreover in the same
manner that Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these [reversionistic
evangelists of evil on the wrong side of history] reject the truth [doctrine]:
hence, they are men of corrupted mentality, disqualified ones from divine
blessing with regard to that doctrine which they have rejected.”
Principle
1. There is no excuse for the
believer in Christ being on the wrong side of history. The word “reprobate” at
the end of this verse [a)dokimoj] means disqualified. There
is nothing worse than being smart in life and disqualifying the use of your
brilliance, or having some talent and disqualifying your use of your
talent.
2. Grace has provided everything
necessary for the believer to be on the right side of history — saving grace,
living grace, super-grace, ultra-super-grace, dying grace, and surpassing
grace.
3. Grace is the plan of God. It
represents His perfection and His genius.
4. In the previous chapter we noted
the importance of self-discipline in regulating our lives to conform to grace.
5. This self-discipline requires
innumerable decisions regarding Bible doctrine.
6. Constant positive volition toward
doctrine plus self-discipline which regulates the life with regard to the
inculcation of doctrine results in both victory and divine blessing of
paragraph SG2.
7. Those who hold super-grace status
until death, or ultra-super-grace status until death (or the Rapture), also
possess the eternal blessings of paragraph SG3.
8. While every believer has a
paragraph SG2 designed in eternity past the rejection of Bible
doctrine disqualifies that believer from receiving the five categories of
paragraph SG2.
Verse 9 — “But they shall proceed no
further.” These evangelists of evil are filled with self-importance. They have
the concept that life cannot exist without them, they are bolstered up with
Satanic power. Some of them have extra-natural powers delegated to them by
Satan, others are cases of sheer genius under the influence of evil. They have
some kind of an impact, they have become human celebrities, they have become
famous in some way, and along with all of the flattery they are carried away
with their own self-importance. It never occurs to them that Jesus Christ
controls history and it never occurs to them that they will have no impact
beyond their own day. It is because Jesus Christ controls history that their
action only functions in their own generation and their influence disappears
from history.
We have the adversative conjunction a)lla here, it sets up a contrast between those on the
right side of history and those on the wrong side of history. Believers on the
right side of history not only have all of those tremendous blessings of
paragraph SG2 but then when they get to ultra-super-grace theses are
intensified. But believers on the wrong side of history have the exact
antithesis, continuous and constant misery of all kinds, and they they’re cut
off, they proceed no further. So we have a contrast between the initial
progress of reversionism in opposing super-grace types and their inevitable
defeat by the Lord Jesus Christ controlling history. We also have a future
active indicative from the noun prokoptw [pro = before; koptw = to cut off], and with the
negative o)uk it means to make no further
progress, to advance no further. We might translate this, “But they will make
no further progress.” The future tense is the progressive future, it denotes an
idea of progress in future time. With the negative it means it is cut off. They
make some splash in history but they disappear. The active voice: the
evangelists of evil, the reversionists on the wrong side of history, produce
the action of the verb, making no further progress. The indicative mood is
declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of historical
reality. This is an historical reality that people who make a splash in their
own generation not only disappear from history after their generation and make
no further progress but in addition to that if they are unbelievers they have
the lake of fire, if they are believers they have a miserable life before they
burn out under the sin unto death. Also there is the prepositional phrase e)pi plus the accusative neuter singular of pleion. This is a comparative from poluj, meaning much or more, and put together in the
neuter gender the prepositional phrase is used as an adverb and it is
translated “further.”
The principle
1. This is a reference to the
evangelists of evil, reversionistic believers in view here on the wrong side of
history. The concept also includes reversionistic unbelievers but the passage
isn’t discus them.
2. Opposition of this type can
advance only so far before God cuts it off.
3. There are many ways to cut off
opposition to those who are on the right side of history.
4. They function long enough to test
positive believers to, oppose super-grace and ultra-super-grace believers, as a
part of the angelic conflict.
5. Then they disappear. They are
buried under the deluge of divine discipline.
“for” — the illitive use of the
conjunctive particle gar. It introduces a reason for the lack of progress of
those who are on the wrong side of history.
“their folly” — the possessive
genitive plural from the intensive pronoun a)utoj. A)utoj calls special attention with great emphasis on the evangelists of evil
and their folly. Plus the nominative singular from the compound a(noia [a = negative; noia = thinking] which means no thinking, lack of
understanding. It means folly but that isn’t the meaning here. It means here
lack of sense, lack of judgment, also it means madness — “for their own lack of
sense [divorced from reality].”
“shall be” — future active
indicative of e)imi. This is what happens
historically.
“manifest” — the predicate
nominative with the verb is e)kdhloj which means “obvious” or
“quite evident.” Obvious to the flatterer. And when the reversionist loses his
flatterers that means that he has lost everything. He lives for flattery and
when flattery doesn’t come he is miserable.
“unto all” — the dative plural
indirect object from paj refers to that segment of
the human race in the vicinity of the opposition of the evangelists of evil.
They’re flatters, former admirers. It should be “to all.”
“as theirs also was” — the
correlative adverb o(j sets up an analogy with the
time of Moses and the opposition of Jannes and Jambres. Remember that Pharaoh
was in opposition, as were members of his court. Plus the adjunctive use of the
conjunction kai, translated “also,” plus
the nominative singular of the definite article which is used here as a
demonstrative pronoun to emphasise opposition against Moses. Many times the
definite article is merely placed here to be used for one of several others
types of pronoun, generally a demonstrative, occasionally a relative pronoun,
sometimes even a comparative, but quite frequently an intensive pronoun. We
translate it, “as also that opposition.” Plus the descriptive genitive plural
from the remote demonstrative e)keinoj. The remote demonstrative
emphasises the persons who led the opposition over 1500 years before. The
remote demonstrative is used to indicate that Jannes and Jambres are in view.
They are cited as the opposition of evil to ultra-super-grace believers like
Moses, like Paul, and possibly like Timothy. We also have the aorist active
indicative of ginomai which means here to come to
be. The aorist tense is a dramatic aorist, it states the present reality, the
neutralisation of opposition, with the certitude of past neutralisation of
opposition in the time of Moses. In other words, Satan threw everything he
could at Paul and did not succeed. Satan has thrown everything at Moses and did
not succeed.
Translation: “But they will make no
further progress: for their lack of sense will be fully evident to all their
contemporaries, as also that opposition of those [Jannes and Jambres] came to
be.”
Principle
1. The opposition from the wrong
side of history is covered in the lives of the two greatest men in history, men
of great spiritual genius, Moses and Paul. Paul is in the immediate context as
the contemporary and Moses is the historical illustration cited from 1500 years
in past history.
2. Both men had opposition, but the
opposition was neutralised by the grace of God and by a principle we must
always remember: Jesus Christ controls history.
3. The analogy between the time of
Moses and the time of Paul leads to the wonderful blessings of paragraph SG2.
Therefore opposition is a sign of spiritual progress — if you are positive
toward doctrine.
4. The analogy between the time of
Moses and the time of Paul leads to a quick summary on how to meet and defeat
such opposition. Therefore, verse 10.
Verse 10 — how to meet and defeat
the opposition. “But thou hast fully known” begins with the post positive
conjunctive particle de used as an adversative
conjunction to set up a contrast between the reversionism of Jannes and Jambres
who followed Moses only to foster revolt and Timothy who followed Paul to reach
super-grace to follow the colours for the next generation of human history. The
aorist active indicative here, “thou hast fully known,” is taken from the verb parakolouqew and it does not mean to know. A)kolouqew means to follow; para
means beside or near. It finally means to follow, to accompany, to attend, to
follow with the mind, to follow as a rule, to follow faithfully. Here it means
to follow with the mind. Timothy is in Ephesus but he can still follow with the
mind. “But you have followed with the mind.” The dramatic aorist states a
present reality with the certitude of a past event. The present reality is
Timothy’s super-grace status. The past event is Timothy’s reversionism of AD 66
and his recovery resulting in his present status, super-grace. The active
voice: Timothy produces the action of the verb in reversion recovery and his
present super-grace status, and he is still moving toward the objective of
ultra-super-grace. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal
idea from the viewpoint of historical reality.
“my doctrine” — possessive genitive
from the personal pronoun e)gw. This personal pronoun says
that the apostle Paul had a type of doctrine that no other person who wrote in
the scripture ever came close to having. In other words, while God the Holy
Spirit gave it to him he is the first man who taught it, it was original with
him, the concepts belong to him, and obviously means that a lot of people would
try to steal it along the way and take credit for it. “My doctrine” — the
dative singular from the noun didaskalia meaning teaching or
doctrine, but it means doctrine or teaching to a group, never one on one.
Doctrine and teaching are synonymous terms. The secret to recovery from
reversionism and getting back on to the right side of history is to get under
someone’s teaching and stick. No one can recover from reversionism apart from
the intensive study of doctrine under the authority of one right pastor-teacher.
“manner of life” — what was Paul’s
manner of life? At this point he was in jail, he was single, he was under great
pressure from the government, so obviously when it says “manner of life” this
demands some attention. What is meant by manner of life? it is a dative
singular, a dative of advantage as well as a dative of indirect object from the
noun a)gwgh which means literally,
“guidance, direction.” “Manner of life” is really not too good a translation,
it does not take cognisance of the context, of the fact that Timothy has
recovered from reversionism by emulation of Paul’s academic self-discipline,
his positive, consistent intake of doctrine in spite of all opposition.
Plutarch helps us to understand a)gwgh. He wrote: peri paidon a)gwgh
— peri, “concerning,” paidon, “children,” a)gwgh
“the instruction.” He called one of his books, The Instruction of Children. So a)gwgh means instruction, academic discipline. The verb a)gw is a very common verb in the New Testament and in
all categories of Greek. It means to lead, but it didn’t mean that originally.
It really meant to educate, to train. And a)gwgh,
the noun, means academic discipline. “But you have studied intensively my
doctrine, my academic discipline.”
“purpose” is the dative singular
indirect object from the noun proqesij meaning plan, purpose,
design. It means a presentation based upon a lesson plan. We might use the word
presentation if it is understood that this is a lesson plan.
“faith” is the dative singular, both
of advantage and an indirect object , from the noun pistij
which has three basic meanings. In this case it refers to faithfulness. It
means here that faith and trust or reliability that is involved in consistent
intake of doctrine. The idea is that Paul was faithful in teaching the Word —
no believer could recover from reversionism unless some pastor had the academic
self-discipline to study and teach — and on the part of Timothy there is the
reliability, the faithfulness, the stability in taking it in; but this is the
reliability of the apostle Paul.
“longsuffering” is one of the keys
to the proper communication and the objective communication of Bible doctrine.
This is the dative singular, both of advantage and the indirect object, from
the noun makroqumia. It means steadfastness
which includes a combination of stability and endurance. The pastor must have
stability when he sees the instability of people in his congregation. He must
also, therefore, endure while God deals with these people and just go right on
with his business. This is actually what is meant here. The noun means that no
pastor can really afford to be quite human and this is a part of having the
gift of pastor-teacher. We translate makroqumia “steadfastness.” here.
Steadfastness means the quality of being steadfast which is patience, lack of
bitterness or any mental attitude sin because of the foibles of people. It
connotes, therefore, a constancy, a fixity in purpose, a fidelity and affection
to the Lord which transcends all human foibles and failures. It means
unshakable, immovable resolution to go right on teaching no matter what people
do what, when, where or why.
“charity” does not mean to be
generous with money or anything else, it means love. It is the dative singular,
of advantage and indirect object, from a)gaph which is just another way of saying the filling of the Spirit which
produces a relaxed mental attitude. it emphasises the ministry of God the Holy
Spirit in the teaching of the Word — John 14:26; 16:12-15; 1 Corinthians
2:9-14; James 1:21-26; 1 John 2:27.
“patience” — dative singular from
the compound noun u(pomonh [u(po = under the authority of; menw = abide]. To abide under the authority of means to
stay under something. It means to endure hardship — and it is the pastor here
who is enduring all these things in order to bring people out of reversionism —
pain, annoyance, to put up with the bad habits of members of the congregation
who are in reversionism or leaning toward reversionism and therefore reject the
authority of the teaching of the Word. It means therefore to undergo, to bear,
to sustain opposition and criticism, and annoyance of any kind. It means to do
this without giving up, without running away, without backing off, and without
letting anyone run over you. All of these characteristics in context belong to
the apostle Paul. They also belong to any pastor who does his job correctly.
Translation: “But you have studied
intensively my doctrine, my self-discipline, my presentation, my faithfulness,
my steadfastness, my love, my endurance.”
Verse 11 — “Persecutions.” A lot of
people imagine they are being persecuted. This is a form of mental illness
called paranoia. But Paul was not in any way paranoid, he was definitely being
persecuted. He was one of those rare people, like Moses, who was persecuted by
Satan, by demons, by people who were both believers and unbelievers. He was
persecuted by everyone on the wrong side of history. He was misunderstood, he
was rejected, except where people responded to his ministry, like Timothy.
“Persecutions” is a dative plural, which means all categories of persecutions.
It is a part of an indirect object but it is a change of pace. The word is diwgmoj and it means persecution. The plural changes the
subject. We have had a list and now it suddenly changes. it changes the subject
from how Timothy recovered from reversionism to the opposition, pressures, and
annoyances that the apostle Paul endured. Timothy recovered under the ministry
of Paul but Paul had to persist under suffering, pressure, adversity,
opposition, annoyance of every category, or there would have been no ministry
of Paul by which Timothy could have recovered. The same thing is true today. It
is still a part of the package for those who have the gift of pastor-teacher.
it forces spiritual growth and it develops steadfastness. No pastor can be
indefatigable until he endures these persecutions, endures the annoyances and
the attacks, and grows by them. Therefore, like Moses, the apostle Paul endured
more pressure than any believer who ever lived.
The super-grace status, then, could
be described as being indefatigable, incapable of being worn out or worn down
by opposition. Hence unweary, untiring, unremitting in study and teach and the
general functions of the ministry.
“afflictions” — also a dative
plural. The word paqhma means “sufferings.” This is
a reference to undeserved suffering. Like everyone else a pastor brings a
certain amount of suffering on himself. Pastor’s have old sin natures too! But
this is talking about undeserved suffering, suffering for blessing. This is the
suffering of the super-grace believer, the believer on the right side of
history. Principle: These two words, “persecutions” and “sufferings,” are
categories of suffering and they represent opposition from evil [Satan’s
policy] and, if it is an ultra-super-grace pastor, possibly Satan himself. Also
opposition from members of the congregation, opposition from the outside, in
fact just about every opposition you can think of. This opposition is
opposition from the wrong side of history.
“which” — the nominative plural from
the relative correlative pronoun o(ioj. It is translated “such
as.” It introduces an historical illustration of what Paul is teaching here.
“came” — the aorist middle
indicative of ginomai which means to happen here,
“such as happened.” The constative aorist gathers into one entirety all the
opposition and pressure which Paul endured in his first missionary journey, but
it also specifies in context what is in mind because there is a buildup, his opposition
snowballed. The middle voice: this is a deponent verb, it is middle in form but
active in meaning. The subject is the pressure, persecutions, sufferings,
Satanic opposition from those on the wrong side of history. This is the subject
producing the action. The indicative mood is declarative representing the
action of the verb from the standpoint of historical reality. “unto me” — the
dative of advantage of e)gw, dative of indirect of
object referring to the apostle Paul.
“at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra”
— Paul visited this area on his missionary journey of Acts 13.
“what persecutions” — the
qualitative relative pronoun o(ioj which indicates categories.
This should be translated with the accusative plural of diwgmoj “such persecutions.” Diwgmoj refers to that mantle of persecution which belongs to the
ultra-super-grace believer.
“I endured” — the aorist active
indicative of u(poferw [u(po = under; ferw = to bear], which means to
bear up under, to undergo, to endure. The word for endure here means the power
to undergo, to bear, to sustain opposition, criticism, annoyance, without
giving up or succumbing to cowardice or self-pity. The constative aorist
contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The constative aorist
takes up the principle of the mantle of suffering and persecution which
intensifies the blessing of SG2 to the ultra-super-grace believer.
The active voice: Paul produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative
representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of historical reality.
“but out of them all” — the
adversative use of the conjunction kai should be translated “and
yet.” The prepositional phrase e)k plus the ablative plural of
paj should be translated “out
from them all.” That is, all of the different categories of suffering, all of
the opposition that Satan can muster against the ultra-super-grace believer.
“the Lord” — o( Kurioj refers here to God the Father, the author of the
divine plan — the predetermined, prefabricated plan. He is the one who does the
delivering.
“delivered me” — the aorist middle
indicative from ruomai which means to rescue, to
snatch from danger. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it views the
pressures and the persecutions of the ultra-super-grace believer in their
entirety. The middle voice is the direct middle which refers the action of the
verb directly to the agent, God the Father, with reflexive force. The
indicative mood is declarative for historical reality.
Translation: “Persecutions and
sufferings, such as happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; such
persecutions I have endured: and yet, the Lord himself has delivered me out
from all of these.”
Principle
1. At Antioch Paul escaped unharmed.
At Iconium Paul was warned and escaped. At Lystra Paul was stoned to death. He
was delivered from all of them.
2. Our passage will not permit the
conclusion that Paul was delivered at Antioch and Iconium but not at Lystra.
The reason is because our passage had the culminative aorist of ruomai. Paul was delivered from every one of them.
3. Paul was rescued or delivered in
all three places.
4. At Antioch and Iconium Paul was
delivered from stoning, from violence, but at Lystra Paul was delivered through
violence, through stoning.
5. At Antioch Paul was under
pressure but was delivered from actual physical violence.
6. At Iconium Paul was under
persecution but was warned and therefore delivered.
7. At Lystra Paul was stoned to
death but was delivered through God’s resuscitation.
8. Therefore God delivers the believer
from suffering but He also delivers the believer through suffering.
9. The believer cannot and must not
question the judgment of God.
10. Sometimes it furthers the plan
of God to deliver from suffering, but sometimes it furthers the plan of God to
deliver through suffering.
Verses 12 — the perpetuation of the
Satanic opposition. “Yea, and all” — the post positive conjunctive particle de
used in the explanatory sense and should be translated “furthermore” or “now.”
Plus the adjunctive use of kai which is translated “also.”
Plus the nominative masculine plural of paj,
“all.” It is translated, “Now also all” or “Furthermore also all.”
“that will” — the articular present
active participle from the verb qelw which means here to desire.
With the article it is used as a relative pronoun, so we translate it “who keep
desiring.” The present tense is a customary present denoting what habitually
occurs with the ultra-super-grace believer. The active voice: the ultra-super-grace
believer in every generation produces the action of the verb. The participle is
circumstantial.
“live” is the present active
infinitive of zaw — “to be living.”
“godly” — this is an adverb used as
an adjective for ultra-super-grace, e)usebwj — “godly lives.” What it
actually means is ultra-super-grace.
“in Christ Jesus” merely describes
the principle of positional truth, positional sanctification. This is for royal
family only.
“shall suffer persecution” — future
passive indicative of diwkw, translated “will be
persecuted.” This is a predictive future and indicates that Satanic opposition
to the super-grace and the ultra-super-grace believer will exist in every
generation of history. The passive voice: the ultra-super-grace believer
receives the action of the
verb
— opposition and persecution from Satanic forces who are on the wrong side of
history — and it is the highest honour that God can give any believer, the
mantle of persecution. The indicative mood is declarative representing the
verbal idea from the viewpoint of dogmatic theological reality that there is
such a thing as ultra-super-grace, that there is constant pressure in that
category.
Translation: “Furthermore, all
believers who keep on desiring to be living godly lives in Christ Jesus will be
persecuted.”
Principle
1. Opposition from the wrong side of
history continues in every generation.
2. This opposition or persecution is
directed partially toward the super-grace believer but constantly toward the
ultra-super-grace believer who has achieved the ultimate in tactical victory.
3. Both the super-grace and the
ultra-super-grace believer glorify Jesus Christ.
4. Therefore both categories of
believer must be neutralised, discredited, removed from their lofty spiritual
status of tactical victory.
5. Therefore all the forces of hell,
angelic and human, are concentrated against them — super-grace believers part
of the time; ultra-super-grace believers all of the time.
6. The continuation of the function
of GAP plus the possession of paragraph SG2 provides insulation
against opposition from all who are on the wrong side of history.
7. Therefore with suffering and
pressure from the forces of evil under the command of the ruler of this world,
Satan, God in His grace has provided the perpetuation of both protection and
blessing whereby the opposition of those on the wrong side of history is
neutralised; and, furthermore, whereby the opposition merely intensifies the
fantastic blessing.
The doctrine of suffering
1. General causes for suffering in
life.
a) Loss of health,
wealth, property, money, loved ones, anything of value to the loser.
b) Suffering from people
— gossip, ostracism, persecution, violence, crime, war.
c) Suffering from
privation — hunger, thirst, cold, heat, storm, earthquake, disaster from
nature, accidents of any variety.
d) Suffering from the
administration of the law.
e) Social suffering —
loneliness, boredom, neglect, ostracism, disapproval.
f) Mental suffering from
sins, neurosis, psychosis.
g) Suffering from the
rejection of authority — love, divorce, failure in adulthood because of
rejection of authority in childhood, being fired from the job …
h) Suffering from
reversionism resulting in reaping what you sow.
2. Basic categories of suffering: a)
In time; b) In eternity.
In time: the unbeliever
rejects laws of divine establishment, has self-induced misery and
unbeliever-type reversionism.
For eternity: the
unbeliever has the lake of fire forever — Revelation 20:12-15; for the
believer, no matter how terrible he was in life, there will be no suffering in
eternity — Revelation 21:4.
3. The premise of Christian
suffering.
a) All suffering is
designed for blessing — 1 Peter 1:7,8; 4:14.
b) There is an exception
called divine discipline — Hebrews 12:6.
c) However, the
exception is removed — 1 Corinthians 11:31. For carnality by the rebound
technique; for reversionism by the recovery technique.
d) Therefore cursing is
turned to blessing — Romans 8:28.
4. The categories of Christian
suffering: a) disciplinary or deserved suffering; b) blessing or undeserved
suffering.
a) Disciplinary
suffering. 1. Suffering for divine discipline — Hebrews 12:6 (for carnality —
Ps. 38; for reversionism — Eccl.). 2. Suffering by association — peripheral
suffering of 1 Corinthians 12:26; Romans 14:7; 1 Samuel 21. 3. Suffering caused
by wrong priorities — Song of Solomon & Ecclesiastes; 4. Suffering from a
guilt complex — 1 Timothy 1;5,6, 19,20; 3:9; 4:1; Titus 1:15; 5. Suffering from
national discipline — Leviticus 26; Isaiah 33, 59; Hosea; 6. Suffering from
rejection of the principle of right man, right woman — Exodus 16, 23; Jeremiah
12:7; 15:7-12,17,18; 7. Suffering from failure to isolate sin — Hebrews 12:15;
8. Suffering from temporary loss of grace norms — Jeremiah 2:24,25; 9.
Suffering from warfare and revolution; 10. Suffering from reversionism — Psalm
77.
b) Undeserved suffering
— suffering for blessing. 1. Suffering to glorify God in the angelic conflict —
the book of Job; Luke 5:20,21; 1 Peter 1:12; 3:17; 2. Suffering to learn
obedience and self-discipline — Hebrews 5:8; Philippians 2:8; 3. Suffering to
demonstrate the sufficiency of grace — 2 Corinthians 12:1-10; 4. Suffering to
develop faith necessary for the function of the faith-rest technique — 1 Peter
1:7,8; 5. Suffering to accelerate the construction of the ECS — James 1:1-6; 6.
Suffering as a means of witnessing for Christ — 2 Corinthians 3 & 4; 7.
Suffering to help others who suffer — 2 Corinthians 1:3-5; 8. Suffering to
learn the value of Bible doctrine — Psalm 119, but specifically verses 67, 68,
71; 9. Suffering for the advance and impact of Bible doctrine — 2 Timothy
1:12-14.
5. The concept of family suffering.
a) Family suffering is
portrayed as a principle of doctrine in Exodus 20:4-16; Deuteronomy 5:8-10.
b) There is a
four-generation family curse — Exodus 34:3-7; Numbers 14:18.
c) The mechanics of this
curse are taught tin Proverbs 30:11-17.
d) The law of
culpability is involved in this curse — Deuteronomy 24:16.
e) The problem of
children falls into two categories: i) Parents must be fair toward their
children — Deuteronomy 21:15-17; ii) At the same time they must discipline
them, but if by the time they are teenagers they do not respond to parental
discipline and are proved by the law of Israel to be incorrigible they are to
be executed — Deuteronomy 21:18-22.
f) Doctrine breaks the
four-generation curse — Deuteronomy 7:9; 6:6-13; 11:18-21; Psalm 100:5.
g) There is such a thing
as the children’s gimmick — using the children as an excuse not to come to
Bible class — Jeremiah 31:15; Numbers 14:31.
h) The triumph of
children with doctrine is taught in Lamentations 3:21-31.
6. The concept of economic
suffering.
a) Inflation is a part
of the fourth cycle of discipline — Leviticus 26:26.
b) The importance of
being solvent in a depression — Genesis 41.
c) Depression is a test
for the faith-rest technique — Genesis 12:10; 1 Peter 1:7,8.
d) Doctrine resident in
the soul is the answer to a depression rather than money in the pockets — 2
Chronicles 20:9.
e) Divine viewpoint is
necessary to survive economic disaster — Psalm 33:17-20.
f) Depression is a part
of divine discipline to test both the nation and the individual reversionist
under the influence of evil — Psalm 105:16; Jeremiah 11:22.
g) False teaching in
time of depression intensifies depression — Jeremiah 14:13-18.
h) God protects the
super-grace believer in depression — Job 5:20; Romans 8:35.
i) Bible doctrine
resident in the soul is the solution to depression. Consequently, advance to
super-grace restores the economy — Isaiah 37:30,31.
7. God can only demonstrate His love
to believers through suffering in time — 1 Peter 4:14,16. This means there is
no suffering for the believer in eternity, there is no suffering too great for
the plan of God; divine provision for suffering [doctrine] is greater than any
pressure in life. Super-grace is the status in which you experience this
principle. The super-grace believer is qualified through maximum doctrine in
the soul to weather any storm in life.
8. The unique sufferings of Christ —
Isaiah 53.
9. The reason for the suffering of
the pastor-teacher.
a) To perpetuate
occupation with Christ — 2 Timothy 2:8.
b) To disseminate Bible
doctrine — 2 Timothy 2:9.
c) To fulfill the grace
objectives of phase two — 2 Timothy 2:10.
10. The principle of
ultra-super-grace suffering.
a) The ultra-super-grace
believer receives as the highest decoration in time the mantle of continuous
undeserved suffering — opposition from evil and all Satanic forces.
b) This mantle is called
“participation in His sufferings” — Philippians 3:10.
c) The mantle of two
such ultra-super-grace believers is found in 2 Timothy 3:8-12.
d) The sufferings of the
ultra-super-grace believer are an accolade, the highest honour any believer can
possess in time.
e) The sufferings do not
mean no blessing, they mean greater blessing, for the sufferings of the
ultra-super-grace believer intensify the blessings of paragraph SG2.
Philippians 3:1
There is a very definite
relationship between the third chapter of Philippians written during Paul’s
first
imprisonment
and the third chapter of 2 Timothy written during his last imprisonment and
just before he died.
There are four paragraphs in this
chapter: a) The priority perspective of super-grace — verses 1-8; b) The
parenthesis of grace orientation — verses 9-11; c) The final objective in life:
ultra-super-grace — verses 12-19; d) Surpassing grace — verses 20-21.
Verse 1 — the command to continue in
super-grace. Super-grace is the base from which we move to the final objective
in time: ultra-super-grace.
“Finally” is an accusative of
general reference from loipoj plus the definite article. Loipoj is an adjective meaning “remaining.” Here it is a
part of the idiom with the definite article and the idiom changes the subject
which was being developed in chapter two. The subject in the last half of
Philippians chapter two is a biography of two men and an autobiography of one,
three great communicators of doctrine — Paul, Timothy, Epaphroditus. Now the
subject is changed to emphasise the importance of reaching that final
objective. Once you reach super-grace don’t stop, there is something even
greater. At the time Paul wrote Philippians he had not reached that objective.
He has, in effect, just recovered from his reversion experience and he is once
more a super-grace believer and realises he cannot stop here. Paul is about to
conclude the epistle to the Philippians but he must add some vitally important
information on the subject of ultra-super-grace. So “Finally” means that he is
shifting now to an objective which is before him, not yet reached. As Paul saw
the objective in Philippians 3, and for the rest of his life moved to it, so he
wants Timothy to do the same in 2 Timothy 3.
“my brethren” — the vocative is
addressed to us. “Brethren” means members of the royal family of God. It refers
to the Philippians as royal family, it refers to us as royal family. We also
have a descriptive genitive from the personal pronoun e)gw — both descriptive genitive and possessive
genitive. When he says “my brethren” as a possessive genitive he is saying,
“All believers in my generation, I am your right pastor.”
“rejoice” — it takes a lot of
doctrine to have inner happiness. The present active imperative of xairw. Paul is talking to believers in the sense of, “I
now have this +H, I’m in super-grace.” But there is something better, this same
+H with the mantle of pressure and suffering — ultra-super-grace. The command,
present active imperative, is “follow me.” The customary present tense of this
verb denotes what habitually occurs or may be expected to occur when a believer
stays with doctrine and stays with his right pastor. The active voice: the
super-grace believer or the ultra-super-grace believer produces the action of
the verb. The imperative mood is a command — “Keep on having inner happiness.”
“in the Lord” — e)n plus the locative of kurioj.
This is a monopoly of those who are members of the royal family of God, it has
to do with positional truth. The result of the continual function of GAP and
achieving super-grace status means advancing to the objective where God shares
His happiness with the believer. In the construction of the ECS the top floor
is +H or sharing the happiness of God. That moves the believer into the
super-grace status where he has his paragraph SG2 with all five
categories. These five categories are enhanced by the fact that you have God’s
perfect happiness.
The doctrine of happiness
1. Happiness is defined as a state
of well-being, it is generally synonymous with welfare, prosperity. Happiness
is the enjoyment of and the pleasure in one’s status of life, circumstances,
relationships. Happiness becomes a state or quality of being happy in relationship
to spiritual progress. Happiness in its full extent is the utmost pleasure we
are capable of enjoying. The capability is in the soul, not exterior pleasant
circumstances. Happiness is the awareness of one’s status in a highly
satisfactory way, hence being in a favourable condition or advantageous
circumstances — spiritually as far as we are concerned.
2. There are relationships of
happiness. They are extremely important because we are now talking about the
only happiness that counts — +H. Happiness is related to prosperity — Psalm
126. Happiness is also related to adversity in the status of ultra-super-grace
— 1 Peter 3:14. Ultra-super-grace is the place where you can have every
trouble, every adversity, every persecution and suffering in the world and it
only makes you happier. The mantle of suffering around the shoulders of the
ultra-super-grace believer, no matter how difficult it gets, only intensifies
his happiness. Proverbs 3:13 — happiness is related to the function of GAP.
Wisdom is doctrine in the soul. Proverbs 14:21 — happiness is related to grace
function. Happiness is related to super-grace status — Psalm 146:5; Proverbs
16:20; 28:14. Happiness is related to a clear conscience — Romans 14:22.
Happiness is related to the laws of establishment — Proverbs 29:18, “Where
there is no revelation of doctrine the people are unrestrained, but happiness
to the one who keeps the laws of establishment.” Happiness is related to total
military victory — Psalm 137:8,9. Happiness is related to national prosperity —
Psalm 144:15.
3. Happiness is related to the
essence of God. God is perfect, His character is perfect. Perfect character
must possess perfect happiness. Psalm 43:4, David’s dancing is related to the
fact that God has perfect happiness and shares it through the grace principle
of the altar. Jesus Christ is said to be happy — 1 Timothy 6:15.
4. Happiness is not only related to
the essence of God but also to the plan of God. Inasmuch as God possessed
perfect and eternal happiness He desires to share His +H with man. God imputed
His righteousness to the believer at salvation and this righteousness is the
basis of the believer’s happiness. Psalm 97:12; Habakkuk 3:18; Psalm 9:14.
5. This happiness is accomplished
through grace. Grace is the way in which God can give His happiness to each one
of us. Our happiness has come from His perfection and His stability and as a
gift to us it becomes the basis for fantastic blessing. Psalm 31:7. In grace
God found a way to share His perfect happiness with the believer in time. He
found a way to share His happiness without compromising any part of His
essence. Grace happiness comes through the function of GAP.
6. Happiness is the status of both
the super-grace and the ultra super-grace believer. Nehemiah 8:10. Happiness is
recovered for the reversionist when he recovers the super-grace status. Psalm
30:5,11.
7. Happiness is related to blessing.
The word “blessing” is generally found in the plural in order to indicate the
real intensity of the concept. In the Hebrew we find the word ashere. It is plural and it doesn’t mean
“blessed” at all, it means “happinesses.” Then we have in the Greek makarioi. It is translated in the singular, “blessed,” but
it is actually plural and should be translated literally. Everything in the
Bible should be taken literally unless there is some syntactical or exegetical
reason to the contrary. There are many analogies, synonyms and metaphors but
they are clearly revealed through some syntactical arrangement so that these
are indicated. So it is “blessings,” not “blessed.” The plural connotes many
things. It connotes that the super-grace paragraph has numerous categories of
blessings.
8. +H protects the believer from
disillusion, of which there are many kinds: with the circumstances of life, for
example — Philippians 4:11,12; the details of life — Hebrews 13:5,6; other
believers — Hebrews 12:2.
9. +H therefore stimulates and
enhances capacity for love. Capacity for category #1 love based upon inner
happiness — Luke 22:19; 1 Corinthians 11:24,25. Capacity for category #2 love
is related to +H — Song of Solomon 3:1; 4:6; 8:6. Capacity for friendship,
category #3 love is related to +H — Philippians 1:3; 2 Timothy 1:5.
10. There is a future happiness
beyond super-grace. Ultra-super-grace happiness — Philippians 3:1; Surpassing
grace happiness — Jude 24.
11. There is also Millennial
happiness for Israel — Isaiah 35:1,2; 64:4,5; 65:18,19; 66:10.
12. There are two categories of
human happiness, i.e. a happiness which is open to and practiced by unbelievers
as well as believers. a) Neutral H, a legitimate happiness and related to the
laws of divine establishment; b) minus H which is a temporary and superficial
pleasure in life. It is related to a relationship with Satan, it is a
stimulating thing and it is followed by great misery. It is a happiness that
depends upon and leans upon pleasant environment, upon the details of life,
upon stimulating circumstances, upon having one’s own way and never being
crossed. However, it is easily shattered and destroyed. Minus H does not
sustain in any catastrophe, it is removed and replaced by great misery in time
of catastrophe.
13. The negative principles of
happiness:
a) You cannot build your
happiness on someone else’s unhappiness.
b) You cannot build your
happiness on the details of life.
c) You cannot build your
happiness on pleasant environment.
d) You cannot build your
happiness on people you love.
e) You cannot build your
happiness on sex.
f) You cannot build your
happiness on fame or celebrityship.
g) You cannot build your
happiness on the overthrow of establishment by violence, by revolution.
h) You cannot build your
happiness on the lust pattern of the old sin nature.
14. On the positive side there are
some wonderful principles derived from the Word of God:
a) You can build your
happiness on the balance of residency in your soul — the filling of the Spirit
plus maximum doctrine.
b) You can build your
happiness on the daily function of GAP, erecting the altar of the soul and
establishing the command post of super-grace.
c) You can build
happiness by reaching super-grace, moving on to the next objective,
ultra-super-grace, moving from there to dying grace and forever having
surpassing grace.
d) You can therefore
build happiness by glorifying God in time as well as in eternity.
e) You can build
happiness by holding the high ground of super-grace against evil and refraining
from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
f) You can build
happiness on the laws of divine establishment as an unbeliever as well as a
believer.
15. The happy person provides
blessing for others. As a super-grace believer: blessing by association; as an
ultra-super-grace believer: blessing by association; as a dying grace believer:
blessing by association. Philippians 2:28,29 — Epaphroditus; Philemon 7; Romans
16:32 — refreshing company is the company of super-grace believers.
16. The happy nation has both a
spiritual and a military heritage — Psalm 89:15-17, “Hapinesses to the people
who shall keep knowing [in their history] the sound of the trumpet.” In other
words, there will never be a generation when the military does not play a
dominant role in the life of a country. The nation that possesses super-grace
believers is the nation whose heritage is perpetuated in blessing.
Philippians
3:1b —
Principles
1. Strong emphasis should be placed
here on the importance of category #1 love as indicated by the phrase “in the
Lord.” You cannot love God apart from doctrine resident in the soul.
2. As goes category #1 love so goes
all capacity for the other categories of love.
3. As goes category #1 love so goes
response to the authority and teaching of one’s right pastor.
4. The real issue in life is not
your category #2 love life nor your category 3 social life but your occupation
with Christ under category #1.
5. There is no problem in
recognition of the pastor’s authority, there is not problem in responding Bible
teaching, where the believer through maximum doctrine resident in the soul is
occupied with Christ. He has an objectivity whereby the message of the pastor
is the source of his concentration and he is not in any way deterred,
irritated, or become a reactor to doctrine because of the personality of the
pastor.
6. There is a sense, then, in which
Bible teaching is the way in which the pastor makes love to his congregation.
7. The congregation responds through
strict academic discipline — positive volition toward doctrine, concentration
under the filling of the Holy Spirit, self-discipline, academic discipline,
concentration, objectivity, poise, good manners, and indefatigable persistence
in the function of GAP.
8. The right congregation is like
the right woman, an empty vessel waiting to be filled with Bible doctrine.
9. In this way the ultra-super-grace
pastor can bring his congregation to the point of occupation with the person of
Christ or the achievement of mature status.
“to write” — present active
infinitive of the verb grafw, the verb to write. The
aoristic present in punctiliar action in present time. Paul is writing at that
moment under the principle of verbal plenary inspiration. This is Paul’s exhale
of doctrine through the ministry of God the Holy Spirit, using Paul’s vocabulary,
personality, advanced spiritual status, and concepts. The inhale was the
ministry of the Holy Spirit in communicating to Paul those doctrines that had
to be reduced to writing. The exhale is the content of this chapter
communicated in Paul’s vocabulary, his frame of reference, etc. The active voice:
Paul as the human author of the epistle produces the action of the verb under
the principle of verbal plenary inspiration of the scripture. The infinitive is
an actual result and part of that accusative of general reference started with
the first word. The accusative is used with the infinitive not properly as the
subject but it describes in a reference way the action, the one who or the
thing that is producing the action. Philippians chapter three is to the apostle
Paul what 2 Timothy chapter three is to pastor Timothy. Eight years before Paul
wrote 2 Timothy he went through the same experience that Timothy has gone
through. Paul went into reversionism, he recovered from reversionism under
intense discipline, he moved into super-grace, he writes as a super-grace
believer advancing toward ultra-super-grace where he arrived shortly after the
prison epistles. He sees in Timothy the one who will succeed him, so there is
the changing of the guard here from apostle to pastor-teacher. This is where
apostleship fades out and where pastor-teacher comes in as the chief
communicator of Bible doctrine and the basis of leading people to maturity.
“the same things [doctrine]” — the
accusative plural of direct object from the intensive pronoun a)utoj, it emphasises the category of doctrine being
covered in this chapter — the ultra-super-grace objective.
“to you” — dative of indirect object
from the personal pronoun su. This is also a dative of
advantage. The indirect object indicates the ones in whose interest Paul is
writing: to us today as well as to his own generation.
“to me indeed” — the dative of
indirect object from the personal pronoun e)gw.
With it is the Classical Greek, men de, two conjunctive particles
which are translated “on the one hand, and on the other.”
“is not grievous” — the strong
negative o)uk plus the nominative singular
neuter adjective o)knhroj, used here as a predicate
nominative and should be translated “is not troublesome.” He is saying,
repetitious teaching is absolutely necessary in the communication of Bible
doctrine. It should not be tiresome to the pastor and it should not be irksome
to the congregation. Repetition is the way to learn.
“but” is not the adversative use of
the conjunctive particle de but a part of a Classical
Greek style of correlation. It should be translated “on the other hand.”
“for you” — dative of indirect
object of the personal pronoun su again, referring to the
Philippian congregation but in effect referring to all of us.
“safe” — a)sfalhj, an adjective in the nominative, a predicate adjective and should be
translated “safeguard” or “secure.” “On the other had it is for you a
safeguard.”
Translation: “Finally, my brethren,
keep on having happiness in the Lord. On the one hand, to be writing these same
doctrines to you is not irksome, while on the other hand it is for you a
safeguard.”
Verse 2 — we now have the opposition
set up to keep people from going from super-grace to ultra-super-grace. You do
not have to have suffering to get to ultra-super-grace, you have to have
doctrine to get there. When you get there you receive this mantle of continual
opposition. Jesus Christ was constantly under opposition from Satan but He
wasn’t unhappy. His blessings were only intensified by the opposition. There
are degrees of maturity. For an ultra-super-grace believer someone who has just
attained super-grace is a baby! So you keep pressing, you keep taking in
doctrine. The mantle of suffering is the mantle of opposition from Satan and
the forces of evil, human and angelic, and when you wear this mantle you are
completely surrounded. When you start making progress from super-grace on
happiness only gets better and suffering never makes any difference. From
ultra-super-grace you go to dying grace where the happiness is more than you
can stand.
“Beware” — present active imperative
of the verb blepw which means to look, to be
alert, to be wary or to beware. The present tense is an iterative present, it
describes what recurs at successive intervals. It is also known as the present
tense of repeated action. The active voice: the super-grace believer produces
the action of the verb. It is the imperative mood of command.
“of dogs” — accusative plural direct
object from kuwn. There is also a definite
article used as a demonstrative pronoun calling special attention to a certain
kind of dog. The dog that is in view here is the Judaisers. So we translate
this “Beware of those dogs” — false teachers, apostles of apostasy, evangelists
of evil.
Summary
1. The phrase dogs does not refer to
the literal canine species, it refers to Judaisers.
2. The Bible must be interpreted in
the time in which it was written.
3. In the time of writing this
passage regarding dogs found the dog an animal which only inspired contempt.
The reason is because the dogs in the ancient world traveled in packs, were
often hungry, and were quite vicious. They were also carriers of all of the
animal diseases.
4. The word “dog” was used in the
ancient world in a very derogatory sense. The Jews in the ancient world called
the gentiles dogs. So the fact that the word “dogs” was used as a derogatory
word was very definitely understood.
5. Basically the dog of the ancient
world was a scavenger. By nature he was unclean, he was the carrier of disease,
and the carrier of other creatures which carried diseases — like fleas.
6. At the same time the dog of the
first century was semi-wild, eating garbage, carrion, refuse, just about
anything.
7. Just as dogs fed on garbage and
dead bodies so the Judaisers fed on the principles and doctrines of evil.
Therefore the apostle Paul calls them the scavengers of theology.
8. Just as rabid dogs infected
others, so the Judaisers infected Paul’s world-wide congregation. They followed
him and they constantly tried to insert legalism where Paul had taught grace.
They infected with reversionism and evil their victims.
9. The dog cannot be better than his
own nature, so the Judaisers cannot exceed the content of evil in their souls.
10. While the Judaisers passed
themselves off as religious celebrities Paul in the power of the Spirit, using
spiritual language, they were in reality dogs, scavengers, traveling in packs,
and providing opposition for the apostle Paul. And while they were a part of
the great mantle of opposition, and he could understand them and meet their
opposition, his congregation could not. Therefore the warning, “Beware of those
dogs.”
11. Hence the derogatory analogy to
dogs indicates the personality, the essence of the Judaisers who constantly
opposed the great apostle. They were a part of the honour that God bestowed
upon him.
The doctrine of dogs
1. Biblical references to dogs are
derogatory. Therefore the dog is always represented in the scripture as
cowardly, evil, or insignificant. The dog is the biblical figure of
insignificance. 1 Samuel 17:43; 2 Kings 8:13.
2. One of the most disgraceful and
dishonourable deaths in the ancient world was to be devoured by dogs. 1 Kings
14:11; 16:4; 21:19,23; 2 Kings 9:10.
3. Dogs are used in analogies to
reversionism — Matthew 7:6; Philippians 3:2.
4. Dogs are used to describe
unbelievers — 2 Peter 2:22; Revelation 22:15.
5. Those who live by violence
[assassins, not professional soldiers] are described as dogs — Psalm 59:6,14,
they
are hungry for killing.
6. A seducer of women was called a
dog’s head — 2 Samuel 3:8.
7. Dogs were used in the
administration of the fifth cycle of discipline — Jeremiah 15:3.
8. In making a grace appeal to the
Lord dogs were used in the analogy and the Lord responded to this grace appeal
— Matthew 15:25-27; Mark 7:25-28.
“beware” — the active voice:
alertness produced by super-grace believers who have doctrine resident in their
souls. The imperative mood is a command. This time the object is …
“evil workers” — the accusative
plural from the adjective kakoj. This is a reference to
human good. Evil is Satan’s policy. The word for “workers” is e)rgathj. The accusative plural of the definite article is
also used as a demonstrative pronoun. “Beware of those evil workers,”
describing the same people. Evil work is the work which was accomplished in
stoning Paul and persecuting Paul and offering opposition to Paul’s ministry.
Evil workers here are those who do something to set a system of opposition to
the ministry or the teaching of the Word of God.
“beware of the concision” is the
final one. The same morphology for “beware” again, plus the accusative singular
direct object of katatomh, mistranslated “concision.”
It means “mutilation,” it is a reference to the use of the ritual of
circumcision as a means of getting to heaven. The teaching of these Judaisers
was that you had to be circumcised to be saved.
Translation: “Beware of those dogs,
beware of those evil workers, beware of that mutilation.”
These people never left Paul, they
were the mantle of suffering around him that made his paragraph SG2
so very happy, so very wonderful. It intensified his happiness. But his
congregation, not being as far along spiritually, had to be warned that the
Judaisers would infiltrate the local church and would come in an teach
something that wasn’t true. They would come in and take the Old Testament and
mutilate wonderful passages, take them out of their context and bring them over
into evil. This is one of Satan’s greatest functions. The best means of doing
this is legalism.
The concept
1. Starting with the garden, evil or
Satan’s policy, always seeks to take grace as it finds it and mutilate it. Evil
always finds grace perfectly healthy, perfectly whole, and seeks to mutilate
it.
2. Mutilation, then, is taking
legitimate Bible doctrine or ritual and distorting it into something legalistic
and reversionistic.
3. Mutilation is the Satanic
distortion of doctrine so that it appears to be teaching his policy of evil.
Many functions of evil today are related to the Word of God but they are
distorted from the Word of God.
Verse 3 — the royal family’s true
circumcision based upon the concept of mutilation. “For we are the
circumcision.” The explanatory use of the particle gar
is the beginning of the passage. We are now going to get and explanation of
that last phrase, “Beware of that mutilation” in the previous verse. The
nominative plural from the personal pronoun e)gw
is in the proleptic or emphatic position, translated “we” and only “we,” referring
to the royal family of God, setting the royal family of God aside as being
something very special in God’s plan. The Church Age is special, it is an
interruption of the Age of Israel. Those who are saved in the Church Age are
special, they are royal family of God forever, and as royalty they have been
given an option that never existed before in history. They have been given a
completed canon of scripture with exposure to that completed canon through the
teaching of a pastor-communicator by which they can move in a shorter period of
time than any period of time in history, right straight to super-grace and from
super-grace to ultra-super-grace. This is the program, the agenda God has set
up for every believer, and this is why you are kept alive under the principle
of living grace.
“we are” — the present active
indicative of the verb e)imi, “we keep on being.” This
is the verb to be and the customary present indicates what may be expected when
you reach super-grace. You keep on with doctrine, you don’t stop there, you
press on, close in on the next objective which is ultra-super-grace. The active
voice: the super-grace believer produces the action of the verb. The
declarative indicative mood represents the action of the verb from the
viewpoint of historical and doctrinal reality; “the circumcision” — the
predicate nominative from the noun peritomh [peri = around; tomh
= to cut]. It describes the operation of circumcision, the ritual of
circumcision, the rite of circumcision.
The previous verse says “Beware of
that mutilation” which has to do with distorting a true Bible ritual into a
false spiritual connotation. The true Bible ritual is circumcision, and the
false connotation is to say that you have to be circumcised to be saved, that
you have to be circumcised to be spiritual.
The doctrine of circumcision
1. Circumcision is cutting away a
portion of useless skin on the male phallus. The ritual is related to Abraham’s
super-grace sexual prosperity plus the dedication of the male sexual organ to
right woman and so one else. It is in direct opposition to the phallic cult of
Leviticus 12:2,3.
2. The true meaning of circumcision
cannot really be understood apart from the 17th chapter of Genesis, verses
1-14. Abraham was 99 years old and sexually dead when he reached the
super-grace life. When he reached it his super-grace blessing was tied up in
having a son from his own loins. In Genesis 17:5 the promise of sexual
prosperity in super-grace was repeated to him. “He staggered not at the promise
of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God.” How did
he do it? He did it with a ritual that had never occurred before in history —
circumcision. It indicated that although he was sexually dead there was no
limitation. God made a promise, veracity must be satisfied, God cannot welch on
an obligation, God will keep His word. The ritual of circumcision was a
recognition of the fact that even though he was sexually dead God would revive
his sexual apparatus as well as that of Sarah, his wife. Therefore Abraham
through circumcision in super-grace became the father of a new race, and
circumcision was the sign. The new race was the Jew. The sign of the new race
was circumcision. (The sign of the new nation was the law. The Jews were never
a nation until they received in the desert the law)
3. Circumcision is also related to
the law — stated in Romans 2:5. It is related to the law in two ways. a) to
establishment. The content of the law indicates the fact that national
stability comes from establishment principles; b) Circumcision relates to Codex
#2 or the spiritual part of the law, indicating that after salvation by faith
in Christ faith must turn to the written Word and must link up with positive
volition in the daily function of GAP.
4. Exodus 4:24-26. Moses almost died
the sin unto death. He was about to enter Egypt without circumcision of his
youngest son. This meant failure to perpetuate the relationship between the
father of the new race and God’s promise to a new nation that would come out of
that race.
5. From the race to the nation no
Jew could partake of the Passover without circumcision which was related to the
new race, the new nation, and the concept of on to super-grace — Exodus 12:48.
The Jews were under the fifth cycle of discipline for lack of circumcision of
the soul to accompany the ritual — Jeremiah 6:10; 9:25,26. Circumcision of the
soul meant the unbeliever living under the establishment of the Mosaic law
while it connotes the believer moving toward super-grace. Therefore circumcision
of the soul was just as important as circumcision of the body. Physical
circumcision occurred for Jews as babies, they were not believers or
unbelievers, they hadn’t come to the point of decision yet. So a baby had to be
circumcised, but that was physical. The circumcision of soul is important
because it means salvation and spiritual growth to the point of super-grace.
While all Jews were circumcised the circumcision of soul was the great issue
and God’s plan for anyone in the Jewish nation. Circumcision connotes the
spiritual heritage of super-grace to Abraham’s physical and spiritual heritage.
Born again, Abraham became a Jew at the point of circumcision and therefore the
distinction of the race, God’s purpose, God’s plan related to the race called
for not only physical circumcision but something in the soul to match it.
Note: All ritual in the Bible finds
the individual performing something, doing something. But ritual without
reality is meaningless. The reality is doctrine in the soul.
6. In the Church Age circumcision
has no spiritual significance — 1 Corinthians 7:18,19; Galatians 5:2,3.
Circumcision relates the Jew to his unique racial origin, his national origin,
and the principle of super-grace. The origin of the Church is the baptism of
the Holy Spirit which eliminates the spiritual connotation of circumcision in
the Church Age. Illustrations: Circumcision was used to portray the function of
GAP leading to super-grace — Deuteronomy 10:16; Jeremiah 4:4; to portray the
ECS — Deuteronomy 30:6; Romans 2:28,29; to portray scar tissue, emotional
revolt of the soul, the last stages of reversionism — Jeremiah 6:10; 9:25,26;
Ezekiel 44:7; Acts 7:51.
7. The problem of mutilation — Acts 15:1,24; Galatians 6:12,13.
Mutilation of ritual has been one of the Satanic means of turning people away
from doctrine, getting the soul straightened out, and opening up the soul to
evil or the Satanic policy as the ruler of the world.
“For we keep on being the
circumcision,”
Circumcision as a ritual has many
analogies. In addition, it also indicates here that the super-grace believer
has no more of the useless part of the foreskin of evil and reversionism, that
evil and reversionism is removed as the dead skin is removed. To be
uncircumcised of heart or right lobe means to have no Bible doctrine resident
in the soul. This is caused by negative volition toward Bible doctrine on the
part of the believer.
“which worship God in the spirit” —
incorrect. It says literally, oi(
pneumati qeou latreuontej which means “who worship in the Spirit of God.” Them word “worship” is
the present active participle from latreuw. The word means to serve at
the altar, to carry out religious duties, and finally it comes to mean worship
in the Koine Greek of the New Testament. It is a function of the royal
priesthood. The present tense is a descriptive or pictorial present which presents
to the mind a picture of the events in the process of occurrence. What are the
events in the process of occurrence? To listen to the teaching of the Word of
God is the highest point of worship. The centre of worship is the circumcision
of the soul, it is the daily and persistent function of GAP, the inculcation of
Bible doctrine. The active voice: the super-grace believer has produced the
action of the verb many times, and he continues to do so. The participle is
circumstantial, the universal royal priesthood of the believer plus the fact
that every believer in the Church Age is also royal family of God, spiritual
aristocracy, implies a unique form of worship for this dispensation.
The
uniqueness is found in the locative singular of pneuma,
and it should be translated “in the Spirit.” It can be instrumental, “by the
Spirit.” It refers to the third person of the Trinity. Plus the descriptive
genitive from qeoj indicating that this is God
the Holy Spirit.” This is an articular participle, the definite article is used
as a relative pronoun. It refers to super-grace believers in the royal family
of God “who worship in the Spirit of God.” The filling of the Spirit is
necessary for the function of GAP. The filling of the Spirit is also necessary
for any other facet of worship, this is summarised by John 4:24.
“and rejoice in Christ Jesus” — the
continuative use of the conjunction kai here means this is an
extension of worship. But the word “rejoice” here is not rejoice-+H. Here it is
a present active participle of a different verb from the one in verse 1, the
verb kauxaomai which means to boast. It is
a present active participle. It means to boast, to glory, to pride one’s self
in something. Kauxaomai is used by Paul for
boasting in someone else in relationship to a high spiritual condition.
Boasting about Christ connotes love, concentration, appreciation. This is a
super-grace characteristic and it is the result of maximum doctrine in the
soul, it is an expression of category #1 love capacity in super-grace. The
present tense is retroactive progressive present, denoting what began in the
past when the person becomes a super-grace believer and continues while a
person is in super-grace on the way to ultra-super-grace. This is also called
the present tense of duration. We might translate it, therefore, “and glorying”
or boasting” or “being confident in.” The middle voice: this is a deponent verb
which is middle in form but active in meaning. The super-grace believer
produces the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial, it is the
highest form of worship, boasting in the Lord Jesus as a result of maximum
doctrine in the soul. But we don’t call it boasting when we use it in the good
sense in the English, we call it “glorying in Christ Jesus.”
“and have no confidence in the
flesh” — this includes a transitional kai,
plus the negative o)uk, plus the perfect active
participle of peiqw which means to obey. Peiqw means to obey, it is related to strict discipline,
implicit obedience, self-discipline. The perfect tense of peiqw does not mean obedience, it means confidence. This
is an intensive perfect for a completed action emphasising the existing results
of that action. In other words, a total confidence. When you are on the way
from super-grace to ultra-super-grace you develop an unshakable confidence
which by the time you reach ultra-super-grace gives you the ability to cope
with any disaster, any problem, any adversity, any Satanic opposition. The
active voice: the super-grace believer advancing produces the action. The
participle is circumstantial. There is also the preposition e)n plus the locative of sarc,
and e)n plus sarc has two meanings here. It means first of all to
have no confidence in human ability or thinking or talent, or any other factor
which seeks to intrude upon the intake of doctrine. It also comes to have a
relationship to the infirmities of the flesh. In other words, adversity.
Translation: “For we are the true
circumcision [for the Church Age], who worship God in the Spirit of God, and
glory in Christ Jesus, also we do not have confidence in the flesh.”
The last phrase of verse 3 causes a
digression. In verse 4 we have Paul’s human celebrityship.
Paul’s reversionism
Paul has just come out of
reversionism, he is a super-grace believer, and he is now pressing toward the
next objective which is ultra-super-grace.
1. It was the will of God that
Paul’s third missionary journey should go west into Spain. Romans 15:24 — Paul
was in Ephesus and he knew that he should have gone to Spain, that it was the
Lord’s will. In 15:25 he states what is not the Lord’s will — “I am going to
Jerusalem.” The only problem with what Paul states in 15:28 is that the Lord
did not include Jerusalem it in Paul’s agenda for the third missionary journey.
That was Paul’s idea, not the Lord’s. Three passages demonstrate that it was
the Lord’s will for Paul’s third missionary journey to go west to Spain, not
east to Jerusalem: Romans 15:24,25,28.
2. After Paul’s visit to Ephesus and
the riot of the silversmiths’ union Paul was headed west, in the right
direction. He was still in compliance with his orders in Acts 20. But in verse
1 the riot shook him up. He wasn’t hurt in the riot but it did cause something
to happen. It was in the pastor’s conference at a seaport 36 miles from Ephesus
that Paul told them of his determination to be in Jerusalem on the day of
Pentecost — Acts 20:16.
3. Paul was warned not to go to
Jerusalem by the Holy Spirit — Acts 21:4-9, the first warning; 21:10-13, the
second warning. God the Holy Spirit used people who warned Paul.
4. Paul is now in reversionism, he
disobeyed completely — Acts 21:14-17.
5. When Paul arrived in Jerusalem —
Acts 21 — he was now in full emotional reversionism and therefore he was
susceptible to whatever the inclination of the geographical area was — Judaism.
It is a form of reversionistic legalism. The church in Jerusalem was so
infected that it had lost its leadership in the Christian world, it was now low
in reversionism. The unbelievers were in a massive form of Judaism that would
end up in the fifth cycle of discipline in 40 years. When Paul went in to meet
with the pastors of Jerusalem he takes some bad advice from the leaders of the
Jerusalem church — Acts 21:20,24. No Bible teacher ever has to compromise in
order to gain a hearing for the teaching of doctrine. Paul is the greatest
Bible teacher in all of history. Therefore when Paul goes into a town he doesn’t
have to get into some kind of legalistic activity in order to attract a crowd.
No one ever has to stoop and compromise the Word of God and set up a system of
rapport. The Word of God has to stand on its own. Positive volition will come
under the hearing of the Word of God regardless of any other factor involved.
The Word of God stands on its own merits, it doesn’t need any public relations
fronting, any system of hypocrisy to get a hearing. Paul got into the
compromise of legalism — Acts 21:26.
6. This was the beginning of Paul’s
discipline. In Acts 21:27-32, one week later Paul went back in order to
complete the function of his vow in the temple. He was spotted by the Judaisers
from Asia, from south Galatia, the very people who stoned him to death at
Lystra. They immediately aroused the people.
7. It became obvious that Paul was
not safe and that the first time he left the custody of the Roman military he
would be assassinated. He was escorted to Caesarea where he was for two years.
This was the time of his reversion recovery.
8. His imprisonment at Rome. Paul
spent two years there and during those two years he put down all of the
super-grace doctrine that is now contained in the prison epistles. Paul wrote
Philippians at this time. He is in super-grace but he has not yet attained
ultra-super-grace — Philippians 3:12-19.
2 Timothy 4:5-8
The changing of the guard has to do
with the apostle Paul, the greatest of all the apostles and the obvious leader
of the early church. He is now moving out through dying grace to be replaced by
another type of communicator called the pastor-teacher. The changing of the
guard is to pastor Timothy, and the reason for this is that Paul is
anticipating that Timothy will move on from super-grace to ultra-super-grace. Therefore
he is passing to Timothy the colours and there is a changing of the guard from
the apostleship communication to the pastor-teacher communication. The changing
of the guard is indicated in the Greek of 2 Timothy 4:1.
“But watch thou in all things”
includes an enclitic particle, a second personal singular personal pronoun in
the proleptic position emphasising that not everyone can receive a change of
the guard from the previous generation; there must be a qualification, and that
qualification means to break the barriers that go to spiritual maturity. Then
there is the first command, the present active imperative of the verb nhfw. Nhfw in itself in Classical Greek means to sober up
after a lot of heavy drinking. It also means to be well-balanced,
self-controlled, and here it means self-discipline. “But you be
self-disciplined.” Self-discipline is the key to spiritual growth, without it
no one ever grows up. The present tense is a present tense of duration, it
denotes Timothy’s self-discipline and reversion recovery and now his
self-discipline in moving to super-grace, and anticipates an intensification of
that self-discipline in moving to the ultra-super-grace which is the final and
greatest of all the objectives in time. The active voice: Timothy produces the
self-discipline in his daily function of GAP, the same way by which he
recovered from reversionism, the same way he followed the colours to the high
ground of super-grace. In the same manner, therefore, he will continue and
become an ultra-super-grace believer. In the future he will reach that point of
dying with the greatest possible dying happiness that anyone could ever have.
The imperative mood is a command to perpetuate the self-discipline by which
Timothy has recovered from reversionism, attained super-grace, and by which he
will move on to ultra-super-grace. With this is a prepositional phrase, e)n plus the locative plural of the adjective paj, and it is translated “in all things.” This is not
the type of self-discipline that is sheer drudgery, this is the type of
self-discipline that leads to the greatest happiness in life.
“do” is the aorist active imperative
of the verb poiew. The aorist tense is
culminative, it view the ultra-super-grace status in its entirety but it
emphasises the existing results of ultra-super-grace in the field of
evangelism. The active voice: Timothy produces the action of the verb. The
imperative mood is a command.
“work” — e)rgon
has several connotations. Minus the definite article here emphasises the high
quality of both the office and the function of evangelism. This means to do the
work in the office and in the function so that both the evangelist by gift and
any believer who has broken the maturity barrier is in this command.
“evangelist” is the descriptive
genitive singular from e)uaggelisthj. In non-ecclesiatical
literature the word means one who proclaims or communicates an oracle. In other
words, he forecast the future. The noun only occurs three times in the New
Testament — Acts 21:8; Ephesians 4:11; 2 Timothy 4:5. It connotes here function
of evangelism rather than office. Timothy was not an evangelist, he was a
super-grace pastor, a great communicator, and therefore his personal witnessing
was going to intensify with his spiritual growth. This is a sense is comparable
to our 20th century missionary. It actually means to travel, it means that some
day Timothy was not going to be able to stay at Ephesus because as an
ultra-super-grace believer the apostles were going to be cleared up and someone
was going to have to travel and start a lot of churches in a lot of places and
get everyone squared away. That is what is means here to do the work of an
evangelist. It means to travel, to train pastors and get an indigenous
situation going in some locale.
“Endure afflictions” should be
“endure opposition from evil.”
“make full proof of thy ministry” —
the aorist active imperative from plhroforew [plhrhj = full or filled; forew
= to bear or to carry] which means to carry out completely, fully, or to
discharge. We’ll translated it “completely carry out.” The culminative aorist
views ultra-super-grace status in its entirety and emphasises the results of
super-grace status in the function of the ministry. The active voice: in
anticipation of Timothy advancing to the next and final objective of
ultra-super-grace the action of the verb is produced. In other words, the
pastor who reaches ultra-super-grace will completely fulfill his ministry in
that this principle applies: no pastor can take his congregation beyond his own
spiritual growth; “ministry” is diakonia and it is used here for the
believer who received at salvation the gift of pastor-teacher, who through his
own spiritual growth reaches the point of function before his own right
congregation, and he carries them as far as he has gone. Together it is translated
“completely carry out your own ministry.”
Translation: “But you [and
especially you Timothy] be self-disciplined in all things, endure opposition
from evil, execute the function of an evangelist, carry out to the maximum your
ministry.”
Principle
1. No pastor can carry out his
ministry apart from the daily study of the Word of God.
2. The daily function of GAP is not
only the means of his own spiritual growth but the means of feeding his
congregation.
3. By constantly and consistently
feeding his congregation the pastor leads his sheep to his own level of
spiritual growth, which should be minimum super-grace, and much better,
ultra-super-grace, the status of glorifying Jesus Christ in the tactical victory
of the angelic conflict.
4. Furthermore, no congregation,
however, can exceed the spiritual growth of the pastor and therefore the pastor
has to study hard, stay ahead, and continually and faithfully teach the Word of
God.
5. Therefore the pastor must press
on to lead his congregation to the high ground of super-grace, lead them
through the maturity barrier and to take them to ultra-super-grace, so that
when they die they will have the greatest happiness that can be experienced in
this life.
Verse 6 — Paul is anticipating his
own dying moment. “For I am now ready to be offered” is not quite what he said.
The nominative singular proleptic pronoun e)gw
emphasises that he is talking about himself and he has to talk about himself.
Paul is the leader. There is also the explanatory use of the conjunctive
particle gar — “for you see.” This
conjunction anticipates Paul’s dying grace and also indicates that he is
issuing the command to press on. Timothy must press on, all communicators must
press on; “now ready” — h)dh, is “even now.” Plus a
present passive indicative of spendw which means to offer a
libation or a drink offering. It was used by the Greeks in worshipping their
gods, their idols. It was poured out from some kind of a cup at the foot of the
idol and it was called a libation to the god. Spendw
is a perfect analogy to dying grace. The cup is the body of the apostle Paul.
Inside is the content of the cup, his soul. When his soul leaves his body he is
dead. So the pouring out of the cup is the perfect picture of the easy manner
in which the believer under dying grace moves out of this life. This is the
present passive indicative. The present tense is futuristic, it denotes an
event, dying grace, which is right around the corner but isn’t occurring at
this moment. The passive voice: Paul receives the action of the verb. The
indicative mood is declarative for the historical reality of his coming death.
“and the time of my departure” —
time = kairoj, which means an epoch of
time, it means moving into another sphere of time. Kairoj
means super-grace was a sphere, the next step up is ultra-super-grace, and the
final one is dying grace. Time, then, indicates Paul on earth under dying
grace. “Departure” is the descriptive genitive singular from a)nalusij which has five meanings in the Greek, each one
related to the principle of dying. The military use means to strike a tent, to
break camp. Paul’s tent is his body and the soul departs from his body, and it
means that he will strike tent and leave the bivouac of life and move into
eternity to his mansion in heaven. The second usage is a naval usage in which
they used the hoisting of the anchor as the ship set sail. So in dying grace
Paul is leaving the port, he is hoisting anchor and leaving the port of life
for the port of heaven. Then there is an agricultural usage in which the farmer
at the end of a long day of hard work unyokes the tired oxen and provides for
them shelter and feed. Paul is being unyoked from life to enter into blessing
and reward. There was also a prisoner usage in which the prisoner is released
from jail. There was also a rather complicated philosophical usage which means
to unravel a mystery or to solve a philosophical problem of some sort. Death
unravels the mystery of eternity and dying grace solves all the problems of
life.
“is at hand” — the perfect active
indicative of the verb e)pisthmi [e)p comes from e)pi
= on, over, or by; isthmi = to stand, or to place]
which means to place by, to stand by, to stand near. It comes to mean “imminent.”
The
perfect tense is a dramatic perfect indicating the action is completed and the
existing results are there; the existing state, he is dying. The active voice:
the greatest of all people of all time is about to depart from life. The
indicative mood is declarative, this is a fact of history.
Translation: “For you see even now I
am being poured out as a libation, and the time of my departure from life is
standing by [imminent].”
Verse 7 — a retrospective resume of
Paul’s tactical victory. “I have fought” is the perfect middle indicative of a)gwizomai which means to engage in athletic contest. It was
used in the sense of fighting with weapons. The intensive perfect denotes a
completed action with emphasis on the existing results. In this case the
existing result is obvious. Paul has broken the greatest barrier in life. When
we start at the point of salvation we GAP it and keep going with the idea of
breaking the barrier of maturity. When we do the first thing we receive is SG2,
we are in super-grace. Then we keep moving up to ultra-super-grace and
eventually to dying grace. The intensive perfect puts it all together. The
middle voice is indirect middle emphasising Paul as the agent producing the
action of the verb. He has moved to every objective in life, he has reached the
pinnacle of life in every sense of the word. The indicative mood is declarative
for historical reality.
“a good fight” —the word for “good”
is the adjective kaloj, the accusative form for
the direct object. It means noble or honourable. Then we have a cognate
accusative from the word a)gwn which is used for conflict.
There is a definite article here, and so we translate “I have fought that
honourable fight.” This is a declaration of the apostle Paul in the sphere of
dying grace. This means that not only was the apostle a spiritual Alas for his
own generation but he is a stabilising rod for every generation thereafter.
Paul fulfilled every concept of the tactical victory.
“I have finished” — another perfect
and this time an active indicative of telew
which has the connotation of to finish, to carry out, to accomplish, to
perform. When Jesus Christ accomplished salvation on the cross He used this
same verb, tetelestai, the same perfect tense
from telew. It means accomplished in
he past with existing results, the existing result is salvation. This is a
dramatic perfect used by Paul, the rhetorical use of the intensive perfect. It
is a very strong principle, he has finished in the past and has not left anything
unfinished, and it also says in the dramatic perfect, No regrets of any kind.
The indicative mood is the declarative indicative representing the verbal idea
from the viewpoint of historical reality.
“course” — dromoj which means a race course, it was used for the
track which went around the inside of the stadium. It is also used for the
course of life.
“I have kept” — incorrect. Terew means to guard something that belongs to you.
Doctrine belonged to Paul and he guarded it. This is a consummative perfect in
which the completed process is emphasised.
“faith” is pistij. This word means a lot of things but it can be
divided into three categories. It means in the active sense “trust, faith,
confidence.” But we do not have the active sense here. There is also a
causative sense in which it means “faithfulness, reliability,” that which
causes faith. But we have the passive sense here in which we have that which is
believed, the body of faith or belief, and therefore it is often translated
“doctrine.” “I have guarded the doctrine.” It refers to the doctrine resident
in Paul’s soul. Doctrine is guarded or preserved in the soul by the
perpetuation of the function of GAP.
This is the written deposition of an
ultra-super-grace believer. This testimony belongs only to the
ultra-super-grace believer, it belongs to the person who has broken the
maturity barrier.
Verse 8 — the anticipation of
surpassing grace reward. “Henceforth” — the adverbial accusative of time, also
an accusative of reference, from the adjective loipoj
and it should be translated “In the future” here.
“there is laid up” — present passive
indicative of the compound verb a)pokeinai
[a)po = from or away from; kainai = to lie, to recline] which means to lie away, to
put away, to store up, to preserve, to reserve, to be laid up. In other words,
that which can be counted on in the future. The verb is a static present tense
which indicates there are decorations for the ultra-super-grace believer and
these decorations are going to be perpetuated forever in heaven. The apostle Paul
will wear the highest decoration that can be received from God and every day
that he wears that for billions of years he will never be without it in his
resurrection body, it will be a wreath around his head and it will glorify
Jesus Christ forever.
“crown” — stefanoj is not a crown, it is a wreath.
“for me” — the dative of indirect
object from the personal pronoun e)gw. The indirect object
indicates the super-grace believer in whose interest the decoration is given.
So we have a dative of advantage, to have this wreath is the greatest advantage
that ever existed.
“crown of righteousness” — the
nominative singular from the noun stefanoj; plus dikaiosunh , descriptive genitive singular from the noun.
1. It denotes righteousness or
honour in the sense of fulfilling divine statutes or duty toward God.
2. Dikaiosunh represents the second stage of word construction in the philology of
Hellenistic languages. That is, the primary word from which this is taken is dikh. And there is an adjective that went with it, dikaioj. But when the suffix sunh
is added you have an entirely different meaning. Dikh
means righteousness; dikaioj is the adjective’ so dikaiosunh represents a philological second stage.
3. The reason we know this in part
is from the suffix sunh which indicates the
development of the Greek sense of law.
4. Therefore the noun was not found
in Homer. The suffix indicates the refinement of abstract thought, of which
Homer had none (or the epic poetry period).
5. Dikaiosunh became therefore a word for civile virtue, a word for the observance
of law and the fulfillment of one’s duty. This is how it crept into the fifth
century BC, the highest period of the statement of abstract thought.
6. For example, Plato used the term dikaiosunh for his Utopia. In his Dialogue he links dikaiosunh with another word that helps us to understand its
use here — sofrosunh which is very significant
because it means to be rational, to be mentally sound, to be reasonable, to
have common sense, to have the ability to be on the inside of something and to
have so much frame of reference and ability to use your vocabulary that you can
work yourself from an inner ignorance to an outer cognisance. Dkiaosunh is a word that goes with it, they are equivalents,
so Paul uses it in that sense: as a state of life, as the fulfillment of a duty
and responsibility toward God. Like Plato, he links the connotation of the noun
with the content of thinking in the soul. Therefore dikaiosunh becomes a perfect way to describe breaking through that maturity
barrier. So dikaiosunh is the fulfillment of the
duty, the responsibility of the royal family of God whereby the believer breaks
the maturity barrier and goes to every objective designed by God in grace for
every believer. “In the future a wreath of that righteousness” means total
fulfillment of spiritual progress from super-grace to ultra-super-grace.
Verse 8b — “which the Lord” is the
accusative singular of the relative pronoun o(j, plus o( kurioj, denoting deity and is a reference specifically here
to the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord is going to give us all our “efficiency
rating.”
“the righteous judge” — o( dikaioj krithj. Ktrithj is where we get the English
word “critic” and it means a judge or an evaluator. Dikaioj here is different from dikaiosunh, it means total
objectivity, a perfect evaluation based upon all of the facts of the case.
“shall give” is the future active
indicative of the compound verb a)pididomi [a)po = from, away from; didomi
= to give] which means to award, to give out, to give away. We translate it,
“who will award.” The gnomic future is for a statement of fact that may be
rightfully expected for any believer who breaks the maturity barrier and goes
to super-grace, and from super-grace to ultra-super-grace, and so on. The
active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb at the judgment seat
of Christ — Romans 14:10; 2 Corinthians 5:10; 2 Timothy 2:12; Hebrews 6:7-12.
The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal action from the
viewpoint of dogmatic reality. This is the reality of that future event where
every believer will receive an efficiency rating from day one, salvation, to
the end of his life on this earth. There will be decorations for some, there
will be loss of decorations for others, but those who have decorations will
wear them on their resurrection bodies forever and ever and ever. And the
wearing of these day in and day out for millions of years will continually
glorify the Lord Jesus Christ.
“me” — We also have a dative of indirect
object from the personal pronoun e)gw.
“at that day” is e)n plus the locative of e)keinoj, the remote demonstrative referring to something that is distant — the
judgment seat of Christ. It should be translated “on that day.”
“and not only to me” — o)u monon de e)moi, which is not only to Paul.
“but unto all them also that love” —
“love” is the perfect active participle of a)gapaw. Here it is used for category #1 love to the maximum. This is category
#1 love on the other side of the maturity barrier. The definite article in this
participle is used as a relative pronoun. The perfect tense is intensive
perfect, it indicates a completed action — maximum category #1 love of the
person who has broken the maturity barrier. It indicates that they have not
only broken the maturity barrier but they have maximised it in the maturity
barrier, they have gone all the way to ultra-super-grace. So the intensive
perfect emphasises the existing results — maximum capacity for love, maximum
capacity to love the Lord Jesus Christ. You cannot have a sentimental love for
Jesus Christ, that is not love at all. If you don’t have doctrine in your soul
you do not love Jesus Christ. The active voice: super-grace/ultra-super-grace
believers produce the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial.
“his appearing” is a reference to
the Rapture, it should be “his appearance.”
Translation: “In the future [phase
three] a wreath of that righteousness, is reserved for me, which wreath the
Lord, the righteous evaluator, will award me on that day [judgment seat of
Christ]: and not to me only, but also to those who have loved his appearance.”
Crowns or wreaths are reserved as
the highest decorations for the super-grace and ultra-super-grace believer,
those who have cracked the maturity barrier. Crowns/wreaths do not express the
entire range of decorations that will be given at the judgment seat of Christ,
it only expresses the highest. In other words, those who have maximised it in
life, they are the ones who get the wreath. But there will be other
decorations. However, it should be understood that there will be a lot of
people who will pass before the evaluation board of one, the Lord Jesus Christ,
and will receive nothing except the burning of their human good. These people will
have only ultimate sanctification, a resurrection body minus the old sin
nature, minus human good, minus the lake of fire, and that is all.
The doctrine of surpassing grace
1. The principle of nomenclature.
The nomenclature is derived from a literal translation of Ephesians 2:7 — “That
is the approaching ages [passing the eternity barrier, phase three] he might
demonstrate his surpassing grace riches...” Surpassing grace is the optimum in
spiritual achievement, the maximum in blessing and reward, the ultimate in
glorifying Christ. Surpassing connotes something beyond super-grace as well as
something beyond time.
2. There are two special blessing
paragraphs in the grace plan of God. Paragraph #1 has to do with reward in time
— SG2. Paragraph SG3 is reward and decorations in
eternity.
The special blessing and reward
category for time:
a) Spiritual blessing —
occupation with Christ or maximum category #1 love, receiving from God +H
(sharing God’s happiness), capacity for life, capacity for love, capacity for
happiness, capacity for blessing, total appreciation of God and God’s priorities,
the ability to face any suffering or pressure or disaster in life. In
ultra-super-grace the believer has an intensification of spiritual blessing
under a maximum and continual opposition and persecution from Satan.
b) Temporal blessings —
wealth, success, promotion, advancement in some sphere of life, prosperity,
social prosperity, sexual prosperity, professional prosperity, technical
prosperity, cultural prosperity, establishment prosperity, economic prosperity,
etc.
c) Blessing by
association. Those in the periphery of the super-grace or the ultra-super-grace
believer are blessed by their relationship or association with that super-grace
believer. The mechanics of this blessing is twofold: direct blessing from God
in the association or direct blessing from the super-grace or ultra-super-grace
believer. There are peripheral areas of blessing by association. There is the
loved one periphery, the concept of category #2 love, or family or friends.
d) Historical blessing.
This is operation spiritual Atlas, the doctrinal principle that the super-grace
believer is the spiritual Atlas of his generation. In addition, certain
ultra-super-grace believers become stabilisers in all historical generations.
The super-grace and ultra-super-grace believer is on the right side of history.
As such he supports and sustains his generation in history.
e) Dying blessing. Every
believer has a choice in life of either going with God’s love for blessing or
God’s love for discipline. Whichever way the believer goes is determined by his
attitude toward Bible doctrine. The termination point for reversionism is the
sin unto death; the termination point for those who break the maturity barrier
is dying grace. Dying grace is a perfect termination point. The one who breaks
the maturity barrier has the best in life. Then when he gets to dying he has
something even better. When he moves into eternity he has better than the best.
f) There is a special
paragraph of blessing and reward for some believers in eternity. The word
“some” merely means that while God has designed it for all only those who break
the maturity barrier are going to be in for paragraph SG2.
3. Definition. Surpassing grace is
the status of special blessing and reward in eternity for the believer who
breaks the maturity barrier, for the believer who attains super-grace or
ultra-super-grace in time. Surpassing grace is a status quo above and beyond
ultimate sanctification. It is in the same sphere of ultimate sanctification —
phase three — but it is above and beyond ultimate sanctification. Surpassing
grace is the ultimate in regenerate mankind for glorifying God.
4. The judgment seat of Christ is
the basis for the administration of surpassing grace blessings and rewards for
mature believers. 2 Corinthians 5:10.
5. The reversionistic believer
therefore can lose SG2 but not his salvation — 2 Timothy 2:11-13.
6. The judgment seat of Christ
eliminates any necessity of judging or maligning another believer. It is not
our responsibility at all to judge others. Romans 14:10.
7. The daily function of GAP is the
key to breaking through the maturity barrier. Breaking through the maturity
barrier includes advancing to super-grace, then on to ultra-super-grace, and
concludes with dying grace. This is the basis for blessing and reward in
eternity under paragraph SG3. Cf. James 1:25; 2:12,13.
8. The analogy to the judgment seat
of Christ is found in Hebrews 6.
9. Crowns are the highest
decorations in eternity. All crowns or wreaths are given to believers who break
the maturity barrier. There are three crowns. They are not all different in one
sense, and yet they are different. The first one is called “righteousness,” the
second one is called “life,” the third is called “glory.”
The stefanoj of righteousness is the decoration given to either a super-grace or an
ultra-super-grace believer for breaking the barrier. It means that he had SG2
in time and he will wear forever and ever this highest decoration. The second
crown is for ultra-super-grace believers only. To wear this one requires
wearing that mantle of ultra-super-grace for apparently a period of time. The
third one is solely for the pastor-teacher who reaches super-grace or ultra-super-grace
and leads members of his congregation by faithful teaching of the Word of God.
All of these wreaths are related to
breaking the maturity barrier.
Beyond ultimate sanctification there
are a series of decorations which, as they get greater and greater, glorify the
Lord Jesus Christ to the maximum forever and ever. There will be great
variations in heaven between believers, between their blessings and their
decorations. All believers have in common ultimate sanctification, all
believers will have a resurrection body. All believers will have a loss of the
old sin nature and a total perfection forever. All believers will be free from
the lake of fire, free from any future discipline or judgment; all of that will
be behind, for one we pass into phase three, either by physical death or
resurrection, there is no more sorrow, no more tears, no more pain, no more
death, the old things are passed away.
There is no excuse for any believer
in all of human history to fail to reach the top three decorations. They are
open for every believer, they are decreed in eternity past for every believer,
and it is attitude toward doctrine that will determine whether any believer
reaches this sphere or not. There will be a large number of believers in
ultimate sanctification minus any decoration. Then there will be those who will
have varying decorations which are not revealed because the only ones worth
revealing are the top three.
The background for these decorations
in the Roman army. All crowns or wreaths are given to believers on the basis of
breaking the maturity barrier. These decorations are analogous to the
decorations of the Roman soldier in the ancient world. They had a series of
decorations. All campaign medals were worn on a piece or leather worn across
the breast plate on special occasions. The highest decoration that any Roman
soldier could receive would be around his head. He would wear a stefanoj, a wreath made of either oak leaves of gold, laurel
leaves of gold, or a woven grass gold wreath. These decorations also carried an
annual sum of money whereby a soldier could become very wealthy.
The wreath or the stefanoj of righteousness
1. All who break the maturity
barrier not only have maximum love for Jesus Christ but they love the Rapture
as the parade in which they will receive their formal decorations.
2. The crown or wreath of
righteousness is the total fulfillment of spiritual progress. You get this
crown by breaking the maturity barrier.
3. This wreath or highest decoration
belongs to all who reach and hold super-grace.
The wreath or stefanoj of life
This highest decoration belongs only
to the ultra-super-grace believer. It includes the mantle of constant pressure,
persecution, and opposition from Satanic forces. You do not receive this by
suffering, you receive it by taking in more doctrine. It is mentioned in James
1:12. This highest decoration glorifies Jesus Christ forever, it is a part of
the ultra-super-grace believer’s paragraph SG3. Revelation 2:10.
The wreath or stefanoj of glory
You have to have the other two to
get this one but it is only open to one category. You have to be a male
believer, have the gift of pastor-teacher, and lead a congregation to maturity.
This is awarded to the pastor-teacher who attains super-grace, then ultra-super-grace,
and leads some of his congregation to the same status. There is a principle
here: No pastor can take his congregation beyond his own spiritual growth.
Two things occur when a pastor is
faithful and consistent in the study of the Word of God. He continues to grow
spiritually through his own personal study and this results in breaking the
maturity barrier for himself. Secondly, he communicates the results of his
study to the congregation, he teaches in an expository manner, line upon line
and precept upon precept resulting in spiritual growth of his congregation.
Eventually, those who are positive and persevere and are consistent in positive
volition will break the maturity barrier. In this way the pastor attains
maximum spiritual growth without which he cannot lead his congregation to
maximum spiritual growth. No congregation can grow on programs, devotionals,
textual sermons, epigrams, counseling, operation lonely hearts, or any other
substitute for consistent Bible teaching. The royal family of God can only grow
spiritually under strict academic discipline and through the filling of the
Spirit. The royal family of God can only grow through day by day intake of
spiritual food or Bible doctrine. Without spiritual food there is no spiritual
growth — 1 Corinthians 11:14,15.
The Jews did not have in their
dispensation the stefanoj or the concept of the
crown, the only crown that they knew was the crown that a king wore. This was
strictly a Greco-Roman concept, New Testament only, and there had to be some
way of designating this for Moses. It is not technically correct to say that
Moses will wear a stefanoj because God had another way
of explaining the highest decorations for those who broke the maturity barrier
in the Old Testament. This is found under the concept of the highest decoration
given to the Old Testament believer, the one who broke the maturity barrier, it
is related to the eternal holy city. This is found, for example, in Hebrews
11:9,10,13,16.
Philippians 3:4-7
Verse 4 — Paul develops the concept
of human celebrityship and how it must never be a hindrance in any way. Human
celebrityship is not even usable in the spiritual life. Paul himself within the
framework of Judaism was one of the greatest celebrities of all. It did not
hinder him, it did not hold him back. Success did not spoil Paul, he ignored
human celebrityship and went to something far greater.
“Though” — the conjunction kaiper, composed of the conjunction kai and the particle per.
Per does not occur except as a
part of another word and it emphasises the meaning of the word to which it is
affixed. Here it means “Although” or “Even though.” It indicates that Paul had
a greater basis for confidence in the flesh than any of his critics. His
critics all claimed to be great in Judaism. Paul was in human celebrityship the
greatest of all people in Judaism but he is pointing out that none of the
people have attained the ability that he attained in Judaism and yet they are
trying to say that security is in human celebrityship, security is in human
success.
“I might also have” — the present
active participle of e)xw plus the proleptic use of
the personal pronoun e)gw. When you put these two
together it is a very strong phrase of human confidence. “Even though I myself might
be having.” The present tense is a pictorial present, it represents to the mind
the facts which have occurred at this stage. Paul had reached the top of human
celebrityship in the field of Judaism. The active voice: the apostle Paul
produced the action in the past. The participle is concessive in which Paul
recognises his own superiority over his critics who are struggling in the field
of Judaism, whereas he attained in the field of Judaism.
“confidence” — the accusative
singular direct object pepoiqhsijij about as string a word for
confidence as you can get. It has the active noun suffix and it has the prefix
of the perfect tense of peiqw, so it is one of those
coined words which is an extremely strong word for confidence.
“in the flesh” — e)n plus the locative of sarc,
and flesh here merely means in the human sphere.
“If” introduces the first class
condition. This is the conditional particle e)i
which is the protasis of a first class condition which should be translated “If
and it is true.” A conditional clause is the statement of a supposition the
fulfillment of which is assumed to secure the realisation of the potential fact
expressed in the companion clause. This means that every one of these clauses
has a protasis and an apodasis. From this protasis, the “if” clause, will coma
an apodasis which builds upon the assumption of the first clause.
“anyone” — an enclitic indefinite
particle tij, and this means the whole
wide world here; “other” is simply a)lloj meaning other of the same
category.
“think” — present active indicative
of dokew which means to assume. This
is what Paul’s critics assume. They are looking down their nose at Paul and are
saying they are high in Judaism and Paul as a Christian is way down low, and he
will never be a good Christian because he isn’t high enough in Judaism. That is
an assumption on their part and therefore dokew
is used in the concept of subjective opinion or assumption. The present tense
is a customary present, it denotes what habitually occurs among those who are
Paul’s critics and struggling in Judaism. The active voice: the Judaisers are
producing the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for
reality.
“he hath whereof he might trust” —
the perfect active infinitive of peiqw.
Peiqw has
three different meanings. In the present tense it is used for obedience. In the
aorist tense it is used for faith. But in the perfect tense it is used for
confidence. This is the intensive perfect tense in which we have a completed
action emphasising the existing results of status quo. The active voice: the
Judaisers produce the action of the verb. The infinitive is one of result.
However, the infinitive of result can be expressed in three categories: actual
result, intended result, conceived result. Here we have a conceived result and
therefore goes on to take the position they have assumed.
“I more” — the apodasis. This is
Paul’s superiority and supremacy in the field of legalistic Judaism.
Translation: “Even though I myself
might be having confidence in the flesh. If anyone of the same category assumes
to have confidence in the flesh, I more.”
The false perspective of the old
standards of Judaism is given in verses 5,6.
Verse 5 — ritual confidence:
circumcision. The dative of advantage from peritomh, the word for circumcision. Paul was circumcised by being born a Jew
and he was therefore circumcised on the eighth day which was considered the
first day on which an operation was safe on a baby because the eighth day was
the first day of babyhood when the blood would coagulate. The Judaisers too the
ritual without the reality of salvation and therefore used it as a basis for
being critical of Paul. Paul did not teach circumcision as being necessary for
salvation, he did not teach circumcision as being necessary for spirituality,
and therefore they were very antagonistic. The key is in Bible doctrine, not in
the ritual of circumcision.
There are other people disinterested
in the ritual related to any ecclesiastical organisation or to any group of
religious people at any time in history. Their interest falls in the field of
racial confidence.
“of the stock” — e)k plus genoj is “from the race.” Paul
was stating something that the Judaisers did not have. All of Paul’s critics
were former Gentiles who had been proselytized, they couldn’t say that they
were born from the race of Israel. So they had no racial confidence. Paul was
from the tribe of Benjamin, the warrior tribe of Israel which had military
celebrityship.
“and Hebrew of the Hebrews —
national confidence, E(braioj
e)c E(braiwn,
“a Hebrew from the Hebrews.” This refers to Jewish nationalism and patriotism.
It also refers to the conservative Jewish culture in contrast to the liberal
Hellenistic culture.
“as touching the law, a Pharisee” —
Paul’s religious confidence. Kata plus the accusative
singular of nomoj, is “with reference to the
law,” plus Farisaioj, the party of the scribes
in the Sanhedrin. The word actually means a separatist, a conservative. The New
Testament writers mention the Pharisees many times under the assumption that
the readers knew and understood them. They emphasised not the general doctrines
of the Pharisees but where those doctrines differed from our Lord. Our Lord in
a sense was pro-Pharisee but legalism had destroyed the Pharisees during our
Lord’s ministry and they opposed Him. Therefore in the four Gospels only where
the Lord differed from the Pharisees are there references to any Pharisaical
doctrines. The traditions of the Pharisees began with scribes or theologians.
They were opposed to have begun in 459 BC with Ezra and continued through the
second century. They were active supporters of Judas Maccabaeus and the
struggle for freedom against Antiochus Epiphanes. Somewhere about 134 BC the
Pharisees became known as Pharisees or separatists and they became powerful
under the rule of John Hercanus seeking to control the religion of the state.
This is where they begin to digress. The Pharisees represent religious
confidence and legalism.
Translation: “Circumcised on the eighth
day, from the race of Israel, from the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew from the
Hebrews; with reference to the law, a Pharisee.”
Verse 6 — the function of
confidence. “zeal” — kata plus the accusative of zhloj is “with reference to zeal.”
“persecuting” — the present active
participle of diwkw. The word has two meanings.
It means to persecute, as here, but it also means to press, to pursue. This is
an historical present. The active voice: Saul of Tarsus produces the action.
The participle is circumstantial. The linear aktionsart is very strong. Until
the very moment of his salvation Paul had a tremendous desire to kill all
Christians in existence. So if the standard of measurement is zeal Paul was
superior to his peers among the Judaisers for he had persecuted and killed all
kinds of Christians. Whereas the Judaisers opposed Paul and only persecuted
grace type believers Paul persecuted all kinds of Christians when he was a
Judaiser.
“touching the righteousness” — kata plus the accusative of dikaiosunh which this time is used for self-righteousness or human righteousness.
So, “with reference to self-righteousness.”
“which is in the law” is “in the
sphere of the law.” Then we have to insert the aorist active participle of the
verb ginomai which means to occur or to
become. The aorist tense here is a constative aorist, it contemplates the
action of the verb in its entirety. It takes keeping the law as a way of life
and resultant self-righteousness and arrogance, and gathers it up into one
entirety. Paul was always smug and self-righteous. He kept the law and as he
did his arrogance increased. He had a totally sanctimonious attitude at the
point of salvation.
“blameless” — the predicate
adjective from a)memptoj, which means to be
blameless or having become blameless with ginomai.
Translation: “With reference to
zeal, persecuting the church; with reference to self-righteousness in the law,
having become blameless.”
Verse 7 — the new perspective, new
standard. “But what things” — “what things” is a qualitative pronoun o(stij, “But what quality of things.” It is a reference to
the standards of human celebrityship, to the erroneous perspective and the
false standards of the unbeliever in reversionism.
“were” — imperfect active indicative
of e)imi, in contrast to ginomai. The imperfect tense is a customary imperfect for
what has regularly or ordinarily occurred in past time. The active voice: Paul
as Saul of Tarsus produced the action of the verb in the field of legalistic
self-righteousness. The indicative mood is for the reality of the fact.
“gain” is an incorrect translation.
It is the nominative plural of kerdoj which in the plural refers
to all of these gains. He now consigns these gains to divine viewpoint
attitude.
“those” is the demonstrative pronoun
nominative plural from o(utoj, a near demonstrative which
refers to something in the same sentence — “those same gains,” in other words.
“I counted” — the perfect middle
indicative of the verb e(geomai which means to be a guide,
to have knowledge as a guide, to be an expert in something through knowledge.
Here it is to conclude as an expert. Paul draws a very strong conclusion. This
is a dramatic perfect which is the rhetorical use of the intensive perfect, it
places great emphasis on the results which have been completed and the action
that follows. The middle voice: the subject acts with a view toward
participating in the outcome of the action of the verb. This middle voice
stresses the subject as the agent of the action. The indicative mood is declarative
for the reality of the fact that Paul, having broken through the maturity
barriers, now recognises that every area of human celebrityship when it
conflicts with doctrine is out.
“loss” — the accusative singular of zhmia. All of his human celebrityship areas he put
together and called “gains.” Now he lumps them once more and superimposes
divine viewpoint [doctrine] on that plural and makes them one loss.
“for Christ” is dia plus the accusative of Xristoj which means “because of Christ.”
Translation: “What category of
things were gains to me, these same things I myself have concluded one loss
because of the Christ.”
Principle
1. This is the perspective of the
one who breaks the maturity barrier. This is the attitude of the believer who
is occupied with the person of Jesus Christ.
2. This attitude is not acquired by
renouncing or giving up any human recognition or human achievement.
Philippians 3:18
Verses 18-19, the opposition of
reversionism.
Verse 18 — “For many walk” begins
with the explanatory use of the conjunctive particle gar. It indicates the necessity for the continuation of
the function of GAP after reaching super-grace status. The word “many” is the
nominative masculine plural from the adjective poluj.
This refers to the large number of believers who, when historical disaster
occurred or because they reacted to something else, fell into reversionism, got
under the influence of evil and became the greatest enemy of Christianity. The
same thing is true today. Plus the verb, the present active indicative peripatew which has to do with modus vivendi, the way of life
of the reversionistic believer. The present tense is the retroactive
progressive present, it denotes reversionism begun in the past and continuing
into the present time. The active voice: believers in various stages of
reversionism produce the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative
representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of reality. Widespread
reversionism and the influence of evil in the first century was the enemy of
the truth.
“of whom” is the accusative plural
from the relative pronoun o(j. This is the adverbial
accusative of reference. It should be translated “concerning whom.”
“I have told” — Paul always levels
and is straight to every generation. The greatest writer of scripture, the man
who wrote the deepest and most important doctrines, the one who talks the most
about advance in the Christian, the one who is always straight down the middle
and levels with everyone in his generation and every generation thereafter, is
the apostle Paul. His epistles show what an ass the believer is in
reversionism. The imperfect active indicative of legw,
which means to talk, to speak, to tell, and here has to do with communication
of warning, is translated “I have communicated.” The customary imperfect
denotes what has regularly occurred in the past. Paul not only taught new
doctrine but he taught the old ones over and over again so there was no excuse
for not know them. The active voice: Paul constantly taught that the
reversionistic believer under the influence of evil produces the action of the
verb. The indicative mood is historical reality for Paul’s constant teaching on
the subject.
“you” — it is not “you” in the
singular, it is dative plural indirect object from the personal pronoun su and it should be correctly translated “you all.”
“often” is an adverb of time, pollakij — “many times.” This describes how frequently and
faithfully Paul warned the royal family of God about reversionism, about how easy
it is to get into reversionism, and how far it carries one from what was once
considered to be wonderful — the cross, grace. Therefore it becomes extremely
important; “and now” is nun. “Many times and now.” This
should be the motto of every pastor-teacher.
“tell” — the present active
indicative of legw again. This time it is a
descriptive present for teaching in the process of occurrence. The active
voice: Paul continues faithful teaching and warning to both Philippians and
believers of all generations. The indicative mood is declarative for the
historical reality of the perpetuation of the Pauline epistles as a part of the
canon of scripture, the gist of his teaching which is a monument forever to the
importance of persistence to study and teach and the true concept of
communication by which all believers grow.
“you” — there is no word for “you”
here in the original manuscript.
“now tell you” — this time with
“now” there have been so many failures that he becomes emotionally involved
(which is a legitimate function of emotion); “weeping” — the ascensive use of
the conjunction kai plus the present active
participle from klaiw. This is an aoristic
present for punctiliar action in present time, it was a momentary weeping. But
inside Paul could think of all of those people he had known in the past and
what wonderful people they were, and yet at the very moment that he writes these
people have not only turned against him, but worse, they have turned against
the cross. They are anti-Christian Christians, they are reversionists; yet they
were former friends. Manliness means that in the soul you are sensitive to
others, not insensitive.
“they are” — should be “they have
made themselves,” added for the sake of translation.
“the enemies” — the accusative
plural direct object from e)xqroj, used here to describe
reversionistic believers under the influence of evil.
“of the cross” — descriptive
genitive singular from stauroj, referring to the
crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The cross epitomises the principle of grace.
“of Christ” — the possessive
genitive of the proper noun xristoj. Then we have a definite
article to emphasise the uniqueness of the person of Christ. “They have made
themselves the enemies of the cross of that same Christ.”
Translation: “(For many
[reversionists under the influence of evil] keep walking, concerning whom I
have communicated to you many times, and now continue communicating even though
weeping, that they have made themselves of the cross of that same Christ.”
The doctrine of enemyship
1. Definition. The Bible specifies
by category certain stated hostilities or alienations. Alienation is to be well
acquainted with someone and not like them at all. Hostility is to be ignorant
of them and not like them at all. While hostility seems to be irrational so is
alienation. So enemyship is divided into two categories: a) alienation; b)
hostility. Enemyship is based upon mental attitude sins. That is personal
enemyship.
There is legitimate enemyship where
there is hostility and alienation gathered into one concept and this is based
upon a national and historical enemyship. In historical enemyship the Bible
often identifies one side as being right and one side as being wrong, and in
historical enemyship of the Arabs and the Jews the Bible takes the side of
Israel always.
There is also an angelic conflict
enmity in which Satan is constantly as the ruler of this world seeking to gain
his won objectives by means of hatred, by means of enmity.
2. Satan and fallen angels are the
enemy of the believer — 1 Timothy 5:14; 1 Peter 5:8. Even the believers he uses
are his personal enemy. He does use reversionists.
3. Demons are said to be the enemies
of God, operating under the command of Satan — 1 Corinthians 15:25; Hebrews
10:13.
4. Unbelievers are the enemies of
God — Romans 5:10; Colossians 1:21. All unbelievers are said to be in a state
of alienation.
5. Both categories of enemies of God
— demons and unbelievers, angels and human beings — will be judged by the lake
of fire — Hebrews 10:27. The unbeliever is like the demon in that the demon has
made his decision in some angelic history of the past and he has been consigned
to the lake of fire. The sentence has not been executed even though it has been
given, says Matthew 25:41, and it will not be executed until the end of human
history, after the Millennium. The unbeliever is the person who is going to the
lake of fire for one reason only: because he has rejected personally the Lord
Jesus Christ — John 3:18.
6. The carnal believer becomes a
temporary enemy of God by being out of fellowship — Romans 8:7,8.
7. God is the enemy of the
reversionistic believer. That is the statement of 1 Samuel 28:16.
8. The reversionistic believer is
the enemy of God — James 4:4.
9. The reversionistic believer is
the enemy of the cross — Philippians 3:18.
10. The pastor who counters legalism
with truth is considered the enemy of the legalist. In other words, the pastor
who is teaching the truth makes an enemy out of the reversionist, out of the
legalistic believer — Galatians 4:16.
11. Those who resist his authority
and resist the doctrine from the pastor who communicates it to them become the
enemy of that pastor.
Verse 19 — four characteristics of
reversionism are given in this verse.
a) The reversionist
transfers to eternity through maximum divine discipline. “Whose” is a
descriptive genitive plural from the relative pronoun o(j. It has as its antecedent the reversionist of the
previous verse who becomes the enemy of the cross.
“end” — the nominative singular
subject from the noun teloj. It means termination,
cessation, conclusion. The termination here refers to the termination of life.
Plus what is not found, the present active indicative of e)imi, a static present. This is what happens to those
who are the enemies of God. They keep on being. We will translate it, “whose
termination of life is.” Then we have a predicate nominative singular which is
how we know e)imi is to be added. This is very
elliptical, Paul is weeping here. Paul is seeing the principle of how the many
times believers become the enemies of God, and he now uses the predicate
nominative singular from the noun a)pwleia which denotes destruction
which causes waste, or destruction which one experiences. The former is a
transitive meaning and the latter is intransitive. The intransitive is correct
here for this passage. Hence, destruction that one experiences is translated
here “ruin” if it is understood that the word ruin here refers to the
administration of the sin unto death to the born again believer who is the
enemy of the cross. So our first characteristic: “Whose termination of life is
ruin.”
The doctrine of the sin unto death
1. Definition and description.
a) Death is the usual
way of transfer from time to eternity, but not the only way.
b) There are three cause
for Christian death. i. Dying grace for the advancing believer, the believer
who cracks the maturity barrier. It is always related to blessing. ii. Disciplinary death. This is for
reversionistic believers under the influence of evil. It is called the sin unto
death and it is always associated with great failure in the spiritual life,
suffering and pain, going through all of the eight stages of reversionism,
through the stage of warning discipline, then intensive discipline, and finally
dying discipline. iii. Reversionistic superimposition — Christian suicide. In
other words, in suicide the reversionistic believer superimposes his own
volition over divine volition and takes his life before it is God’s will to
remove his life.
c) There are four ways
to transfer from time to eternity. The first is the sin unto death, maximum
discipline in dying. The second is dying grace, maximum blessing in death. The
third is resurrection or the Rapture. The fourth is transfer from time to eternity
by surpassing grace blessing, like Enoch in Hebrews 11:5, or Elijah.
d) The sin unto death is
the means by which the reversionistic believer transfers from time to eternity.
e) He does under the
administration from God of maximum punitive discipline. God pronounces the sin
unto death penalty on the reversionist but He delegates the responsibility of
execution — for example, to Satan as in the case of the incestuous believer in
Corinth, 1 Corinthians 5; for example, to divine establishment government —
capital punishment; or He may utilise the very structure of the individual’s
body and bring into his body some very devastating disease or series of
diseases; for example, historical administration — battlefields, and so on,
like king Saul.
f) No believer will
suffer or be miserable in phase three. There will be no pain or embarrassment.
Revelation 21:4.
g) Therefore the sin
unto death is God’s greatest and last expression of divine discipline to the
reversionistic believer.
h) The sin unto death
includes a painful, horrible, miserable death, plus loss of two categories of
great divine blessing. One goes back to time and the other is in eternity. In
time it is loss of paragraph SG2; in eternity it is minus paragraph
SG3.
2. The documentation of the sin unto
death. Old Testament documentation: Psalm 118:17,18; New Testament
documentation: 1 John 5:16.
3. The cause of the sin unto death
is reversionism. There are several passage which summarise the cause of the sin
unto death as being reversionism — Jeremiah 9:13-16. The “law” here is the
principle of establishment by which freedom exists; “not obeyed my voice” is
rejection of doctrine by believers — reversionism. Jeremiah 44:12 is how they
will meet their end. Philippians 3:18,19; Revelation 3:15,16.
4. The administration of the sin
unto death does not mean loss of salvation — 2 Timothy 2:11-13.
5. Case histories of the sin unto
death. Monetary reversionism — Acts 5:1-10; Phallic reversionism — 1
Corinthians 5:1-5; Ritual reversionism — 1 Corinthians 11:30,31; Mental
attitude reversionism — 1 Samuel 13:9-14; 1 Chronicles 10:13,14; Verbal reversionism
— 1 Timothy 1:19,20; Antiestablishment reversionism. Cf. Isaiah 30:1-3; 31:1-3;
38, the human viewpoint foreign policy of king Hezekiah.
6. The concept of reversion
recovery. First of all you have to want to do something about it, and that
usually occurs in intensive discipline, sometimes in dying discipline. So we
have the principle of repentance in 2 Timothy 2:24-26. By constant teaching of
the Word people respond to the doctrinal teaching and change their mind and
decide to get with doctrine. The first part of reversion recovery is the
principle of changing ones mind about doctrine. It is called repentance. The
second is the role of rebound — 1 Corinthians 11:30,31. The ultimate factor in
reversion recovery is found in James 4:4-8, the persistent, daily function of
GAP.
Verse 19b — reversionists are
influenced by emotional revolt.
“whose God is their belly” — “whose
God” is the descriptive genitive plural from the relative pronoun o(j which has as its antecedent the reversionist who is
described in the first category as being under the sin unto death. Now we find
that every reversionist has a god, and the god is definitely not God the
Father, God the Son, or God the Holy Spirit. So this god , while it is the word
qeoj, should not have a capital
“g” but a small “g.” It does not refer to any member of the Trinity. We also
have the present active indicative of e)imi
because we have a predicate nominative coming up. E)imi
is not found in the Greek text but understood. The word “belly” is a predicate
nominative from the noun koilia, used here for emotion.
There is also a definite article used as a possessive pronoun and the literal
translation is, “whose god is his emotion.” All reversionists have emotion as
their god. How they feel is their dictator.
The doctrine of the emotions of the soul
1. Because emotion has several
analogies to physiology we have three different words used for emotions in the
Bible. For example, we have the word “belly” used in that way — Romans
16:17,18; Proverbs 18:8; 26:22; 13:25; Philippians 3:19. “Belly” means emotion.
This is a good analogy for emotion because the stomach region contains nothing
but it responds to food. It is empty and it is designed to respond. Then we
have the word “bowels” which is also used for the emotions of the soul —
Genesis 43:30; 1 Kings 3:26; Jeremiah 4:19; 31:20; Lamentations 1:20; 2:11;
Philippians 1:8; Philemon 12,20. The emotion also handles waste of the soul
like the physiological intestines, and therefore becomes another illustration.
The third word is “reins” which is a portion of the anatomy, as per old
English. The word simply means the kidneys. Psalm 7:9; 26:2; 139:13; Proverbs
23:16; Jeremiah 12:12; 17:10; 20:12. All this means that originally in the
Hebrew and in the Greek there was no vocabulary word for emotions as such. In
the English we have such a vocabulary word but the original languages did not
possess it. Therefore other words had to be substituted to indicate that
English word. Words of anatomy which have parallel functions to parts of the
soul were used.
2. Definition and function of the
emotions.
a) Emotion is the
responder and the appreciator and the responder of the right lobe of the soul.
It is designed to respond to what you have by way of thought in the right lobe.
This is a part of the principle of capacity for life, appreciation for life and
enjoyment of life. None of us would be quite normal unless we had emotions.
b) The right lobe
therefore is analogous to the right man, while emotion is comparable to the
right woman.
c) Just as a woman has a
body and a soul so the right woman of your heart — your emotion — has two
parts. The woman’s soul responds to her right lobe just as she responds to her
right man in life. She responds to her own thinking, or she reacts to her own
thinking in which case the emotion then revolts against what is thought and
this is when people become irrational because the emotion is empty, like a
stomach. There is no capacity for thinking, no ability to determine what is
right or wrong, to reason, to weigh facts, or to handle anything that is
rational in life. It is merely a responder but it is a very poor ruler. When emotion
starts to run the soul a man, for example, starts to wear his hair too long, a
woman cuts hers off and tries to look like a man. So there are outer
manifestations, there is a change of mental attitude. Emotional revolt of the
soul is one of the most dangerous of all areas of life. The emotion, therefore,
can produce a spectrum of response. It can include everything from tranquillity
to ecstatics. The emotional response to the old sin nature produces a misery
spectrum which we call carnality. In other words, there is competition between
your heart or right lobe and the old sin nature which tries to compete. When
the believer is carnal he often becomes irrational because the old sin nature
is acting as the right man, and he is a pseudo right man, so that the emotion
is responding to the old sin nature rather than to the conscience of the soul,
doctrine in the frame of reference, categorical doctrine, or doctrine on the
launching pad. So by definition the emotion is the appreciator/responder of the
soul’s right lobe. By function the emotion responds to the heart as the right
man of the soul.
3. Emotions have to be tested by
God, and they are. Psalm 7:9; 26:2; Jeremiah 11:20;17:10; 20:12; Revelation
2:23.
4. Emotions can be tested and as a
result of this testing they can be destroyed. Job 16:13; Psalm 73:21;
Lamentations 3:13. Just as the kidneys can be destroyed by the bladder backing
up, or refluxing, so emotions are destroyed by the old sin nature refluxing or
by reversionistic refluxing. This means that once you destroy the soul in
reversionism (carnality cannot destroy the soul as such) can absolutely destroy
the emotion of the soul. Once you wipe out your emotion of the soul your
reversion recovery is going to have limited capacity for life because you have
lost your responder to what you have in your right lobe. There are two scars
which can be received from reversionism. A person who goes into dope addiction
is going to destroy brain cells, therefore he is limited in reversion recovery
by the fact that he no longer has the function of his right lobe. The same
thing is true when if your emotions are destroyed in reversionism there are
limitations on your reversion recovery and your enjoyment of your paragraph SG2.
The right lobe can be destroyed chemically, it can also be destroyed by the
content of the right lobe or reaction against the content of your right lobe.
5. Emotions also react to tragedy —
Jeremiah 4:19; Lamentations 1:20; 2:11. This reaction occurs under the status
of emotional revolt in which the right lobe’s authority has been neutralised or
destroyed so that you cannot see tragedy in the light of Bible doctrine.
Emotion revolt is a reaction against divine design. Emotions also respond to
tragedy but in the response the Lord gets the glory because the right man is
controlling.
6. Emotion is the appreciator of
love — Genesis 43:30; 1 Kings 3:26; Philippians 1:8; 1 John 3:17. When the
right lobe has doctrine this means there will be capacity for love. When that
same right lobe dominates the soul emotional response makes one very much aware
of the fact that he is in love and that love exists in the soul toward God,
toward a member of the opposite sex, toward other friends.
7. Emotion stimulates happiness —
Proverbs 23:16; Philemon 7, 20. It does it in three areas: the right lobe’s
frame of reference, the right lobe’s conscience, and the viewpoint on the
launching pad.
8. Emotions and spirituality in
dispensations is an important subject, especially in view of the rise of the
holy-roller movement. In the Church Age Christ is absent from the earth and
therefore the filling of the Spirit produces the character of Christ and the
glory of Christ without emotion being a part of it. So the filling of the
Spirit in the Church Age means minus emotion. You may have emotion when you are
filled with the Spirit but the emotion is not the filling of the Spirit. In the
Millennium the filling of the Spirit will be accompanied by emotion, there will
be emotion involved in that dispensation because that is the dispensation of
perfect environment. But today Christ is absent from the earth and each one of
us is the ambassador for Christ, His personal representative. Therefore,
according to Galatians 5:22,23 cf. 4:19; Romans 5:5 the Holy Spirit produces
certain things in the soul, produces the character of Christ. Emotion was never
designed to produce character but to respond to character. Just as grace glues
the essence of God together, so emotion as a responder becomes distilled grace;
emotion as a dictator is distilled legalism. Emotion and ecstatics have no
spiritual content in the Church Age. You can be emotional and filled with the
Spirit simultaneously but the two are not related. The tongues movement tries
to relate emotion to the filling of the Spirit. In the Millennium it is
different because Christ is present on the earth under perfect environment. The
angelic conflict is suspended due to the incarceration of Satan and the fallen
angels. As in the Church Age all believers are indwelt by the Spirit and commanded
to be filled with the Spirit, but because Millennial conditions are given
emotion is a bona fide part of the filling of the Spirit. There are certain
passages which the holy-rollers try to bring into our age, passages like Joel
2:28,29 which indicate that in that dispensation there will be emotion as a
part of the filling of the Spirit. That is because the filling of the Spirit in
the Millennium is designed to appreciate Christ who is present rather than to
produce the character of Christ in His absence.
9. The emotion of the negative
believer hinders learning doctrine — 2 Corinthians 6:11,12.
10. Therefore believers are
commanded to separate from believers having emotional revolt of the soul —
Romans 16:17,18.
The doctrine of historical interpretation
1. Jesus Christ controls history in
three ways: a) Direct control through His own divine essence; b) His indirect
control through the laws of divine establishment; c) The permissive control
principle which permits human volition to function in this phase of the angelic
conflict.
2. The Bible is the key to
historical interpretation. Historical interpretation is related to God, the
unseen world, the angelic conflict, as well as the visible world of mankind.
Bible doctrine is the basis for the correct interpretation of history. True
history is a series of facts about the human race. To correlate and interpret
these facts demands Bible doctrine resident in the soul and therefore the daily
function of GAP. This limits the unbeliever’s perspicacity and it also makes it
possible for us to have a great advantage in this field because we can not only
understand with the unbeliever establishment principles but we can understand
the doctrine behind these. To correctly understand history, therefore, you have
to understand the angelic conflict, the first advent, the cross, the second
advent. To correlate history with what is going on today we must understand
what has been going on before.
3. The Bible often sheds a great
deal of light even on obscure historical events — Judges 3:31 which tells the
story of the great movements of the 12th century BC and how the whole world was
upset and why.
4. Each generation of history is
sustained by super-grace believers — 2 Timothy 1:5,6.
5. The principle of the wrong side
of history. There are three concepts taught in 2 Timothy 3 regarding the wrong
side of history. a) Description — verses 1-14; b) Opposition from the wrong
side of history — verses 5-12;
c)
Deliverance from the wrong side of history — verses 13-17.
2 Timothy 3:13 — the evangelists of
evil, the apostles of apostasy, or those who confuse what is truth by obscuring
the correct interpretation of history with a lot of Satanic propaganda.
Principle
1. Every generation will possess its
apostles and evangelists of evil.
2. Consequently eradication by
violence is not the solution.
3. When you use violence to destroy
even someone who is wrong you do not solve the problem. You destroy one, and
two take his place. The solution to the problem of evil and human good is not
found in the destruction of those on the wrong side of history. Violence is not
the answer. But violence in the hands of the law and the military is a
legitimate function.
4. The apostles of evil will
continue in history and their persecution of the super-grace believer will
continue unabated in every generation. The answer to this persecution from evil
and reversionism is not found in resorting to violence. Bible doctrine
transforms those who are on the side of Satan.
“But” is the adversative use of the
post positive conjunctive particle de. It sets up a contrast
between super-grace believers and those under the influence of evil.
“evil” — the nominative plural
adjective ponhroj; “men” — the nominative
plural from the noun a)nqrwpoj.
“and seducers” — kai is the ascensive use and should be translated
“even,” plus the nominative plural of gohj
which means impostors or deceivers. An impostor is a swindler, a deceiver, a
cheat. Today the word connotes one who assumes a false character or someone who
passes himself off as someone other than he really is. This is what the
apostles of evil do. They are always talking about good deeds, environmental
problems, the greatest good for the greatest number, the downtrodden,
one-worldism, etc.
“shall wax” — the future active
indicative from the compound verb prokoptw [pro = before; koptw
= to cut] which means to cut ahead, to advance, to go forward, to make
progress. Here it means to go on in what is evil. The future tense is a
predictive future, it predicts what is excepted to occur in future generations.
The active voice: evil men, even deceivers, produce the action of the verb. The
indicative mood is for historical reality.
“worse and worse” — the preposition e)pi plus the accusative neuter singular of xeiron which is used here in the sense of more and more.
There is also a comparative of kakoj, meaning “more evil.” It
should be translated so far, “But evil men, even deceivers, will cut there way
forward to more and more evil.” In other words, there are two things that can
stop evil, neither is violence. The first thing that stops evil is the
spiritual factor: doctrine. First it is gospel type of doctrine which converts
by faith in Christ. Then it is doctrine which causes growth and ultimately the
cracking of the maturity barrier. The second factor that stops evil is the laws
of divine establishment.
“deceiving” — the present active
participle of planaw which means to mislead, to
deceive someone. The customary present denotes what habitually occurs. It also
denotes what may reasonably expected to occur when mankind becomes involved in
reversionism. The active voice: evil men produce the action. The participle is
concessive, it concedes the fact that evil men deceive others — “though
deceiving others.”
“and” is incorrect, we have the
adjunctive use of kai which means “also.”
“being deceived” — the present
passive participle of planaw. They are being deceived by
Satan, they are passing their deceit on to others — “are also being deceived,”
the customary present for what is expected to occur in the case of
reversionists under the influence of evil. The passive voice: evil men who
deceive others receive the action of the verb, they are deceived by Satan. The
participle is circumstantial.
Translation: “But evil men, even
deceivers of others, will cut their way forward to more and more evil, though
deceiving others they are being deceived [by Satan himself].”
All reversionists have been
influenced by Satan to the extent that they have been influenced by the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil. That is Satan’s plan, Satan’s policy. Satan
started by deceiving the woman in the garden and at that time he was not the
ruler of the world but he became that by the fall. The fall of man led to the
Satanic coup de tat by which he became ruler of the world which added power to
his deceit in the human race. So he now has both power and deceit going for
him.
The doctrine of Satanic strategy
1. The person of Satan.
a) The devil is the
highest of all angelic creatures — Matthew 8:28; 9:34; 12:26; Luke 11:18,19.
b) The devil is a
prehistorical super creature, according to Isaiah 14:12-17; Ezekiel 28:11-19.
c) The devil had three
falls. Two were in the past and one is in the future. They are described in
Isaiah 14; Ezekiel 28; Revelation chapters 12 and 20.
d) The devil has two
advents. His first advent is in Genesis chapter 3 which found man in perfect
environment and he destroyed that by working on the free will of the woman who
in turn worked on the man resulting in the fall.
e) The devil is the
central antagonist of the angelic conflict — Hebrews chapters 1 & 2;
Genesis 6; 1 Peter 3:18-22.
e) The devil has a
tremendous organisation — Ephesians 6:10-12.
f) The devil is a
murderer from the beginning — John 8:44.
g) He is the opponent of
Bible doctrine — Matthew 13:9,39.
h) He is the enemy of
the Church, the royal family of God — Revelation 2:9,13,24.
2. The rulership of the devil. He is
the ruler of this world — Luke 4:5-7; John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11; 2 Corinthians
4:4; Ephesians 2:2.
3. Therefore the devil does a
strategy regarding the nations of the world. The fact that he does manipulate
nations is taught in Revelation 12:9; 20:3,8. Hence, Satan or the devil is the
chief opponent of the laws of divine establishment and he seeks to break down
the sovereignty and freedom of nationalism and in this way control nations. Any
system of internationalism is a Satanic system, a system whereby Satan is
seeking to control the nations of the world — whether it is political
internationalism or religious, it is always anti-doctrinal, anti-Christian,
anti-God, and pro-Satan. This is the basic concept by which he controls the
nations of the world which he rules.
4. The devil also has strategy with
regard to the unbelievers of this world. Since all unbelievers are under
Satan’s direct command and power his strategy runs the gamut from blinding the
minds of unbelievers who are exposed to the gospel so that they will not be
converted to every form of unbeliever reversionism whereby Satan seeks to put
his policy of evil into actual operation. Second Peter chapter two deals with
this subject entirely. Cf. 2 Corinthians 4:3,4; Luke 8:12. Satan uses various
gimmicks, like the holy roller system — 2 Thessalonians 2:7-10; Colossians 2:8.
And Revelation chapter 17 tells how Satan uses religion to blind the minds of
the unbeliever with regard to the gospel, the claims of Jesus Christ on the
soul. So religion, therefore, becomes the devil’s ace trump as a part of his strategy
against the gospel.
5. The devil has strategy also
regarding the believer. The fact of this is found in 2 Corinthians 2:11. This
strategy can be broken down into at least seven concepts:
a) He tries to get
believers under his control and then goes to heaven and accuses them of being
under his control. He is the accuser of the believer, in fact that is what the
word “devil” means — one who is a liar seeks to bring false information. Job 1:6-11;
Zechariah 3:1,2; Revelation 12:9,10. But we are represented by counsel in
heaven, i.e. we have a defense attorney assigned to us at the point of our
salvation — 1 John 2:1,2.
b) He sponsors
reversionism. It is one of the objectives of Satan to get believers into
reversionism in order that he might control him. An unbeliever can be demon
possessed; a believer cannot be demon possessed. However, he can be and often
is completely under the dominance of Satan through the doctrines of demons
which have infiltrated his soul. 1 Corinthians 10:19-21; 2 Corinthians
11:3,13-15.
c) He tries to frustrate
the will of God in the life of the believer. Since there are three categories
of the will of God there is at least one verse in the Bible mentioning the fact
that that category has frustration under Satanic attack. The three categories
of the will of God: i) Mental — what you should be thinking; ii) Geographical —
where you should be at any particular moment; iii) Operational — what you
should be doing. Satan seeks to frustrate in these three categories: The mental
will of God — Ephesians 4:14; the geographical will of God — 1 Thessalonians
2:18; the operational will of God — James 4:7,8.
d) He tries to
neutralise doctrinal application. This is through worry, anxiety, mental
attitude sins, fear, reaction to historical disaster, panic with regard to the
concept of security, etc. 1 Peter 5:7-9.
e) He tries to destroy
the believer’s focus. The believer must be occupied with the person of Jesus
Christ, he must keep his eyes on the Lord and keep them there. So to destroy
the believer’s focus Satan has ways of causing the believer to get his eyes on
people — Jeremiah 17:5; eyes on self — 1 Kings 19:10; eyes on things — Hebrews
13:5,6.
f) He tries to get the
believer to become involved in improvement of the devil’s world. The
reversionistic believer becomes anthropocentric, humanistic, occupied with
temporal solutions to man’s problems, trying to advocate systems where the
greatest good for the greatest number come into focus, advocating systems of
improving man’s environment, social action, social gospel.
g) The inculcation of
fear of physical death. This is a Satanic principle — Hebrews 2:14,15.
6. Religion is a part of the devil’s
strategy. Religion is a creation of Satan’s genius to counterfeit the plan of
God. Christianity and religion are not the same. In Christianity man is the
beneficiary of God’s work; in religion man seeks to use his own works to gain
the approbation of God. Christianity and religion are antithetical. Religion
says that man hooks up with God through man’s works, man’s merits, man’s
thinking, man’s planning, man’s systems. While religion as a principle
represents the evil genius of Satan it has to be viewed some way in which it
can be brought together, and one word does this: counterfeit. Religion is a
counterfeit for the plan of God. It has at least nine different counterfeits
which are taught in the scripture:
It has a counterfeit
gospel — 2 Corinthians 4:3,4
It has counterfeit
ministers — 2 Corinthians 11:13-15
It has counterfeit doctrine
— 2 Timothy 4:1
It has a counterfeit
communion table — 1 Corinthians 10:19-21
It has a counterfeit
spirituality — Galatians 3:2,3.
It has a counterfeit
righteousness — Matthew 19:16-28
It has a counterfeit
modus vivendi — Matthew 23:13-36.
It has a counterfeit
power and dynamics — 2 Thessalonians 2:7-10
It has counterfeit gods
— 2 Thessalonians 2:3,4.
7. False teachers are a part of
Satan’s strategy. Satan could get nowhere without his false teachers. False
teachers often have a phony and self-righteous facade. They are bleeding-heart
do-gooders, sweetness and light love everyone, they are international
friendship and love the communists types. They always have a phony facade that
impresses the idiot. Matthew 7:15; Romans 16:18. These false teachers use human
public relations systems and legalistic flirtations to court believers —
Galatians 4:17-18; 2 Timothy 3:5-7. These false teachers appeal to human ego
and pride — 2 Corinthians 10:12. They promote idolatry as a part of the devil’s
communion table — Habakkuk 2:18,19. They also promote legalism and
self-righteousness — 1 Timothy 1:7,8. False teachers will continue throughout
the angelic conflict and especially in this intensified period — 1 John 4:1.
8. The devil therefore has a
specific policy: evil. It is broken down into three areas: the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil, the doctrine of evil, and the application of evil
and human good.
Verse 14 — deliverance from evil and
deceit comes through the daily function of GAP.
“But continue thou” — the
adversative use of the enclitic conjunction de
plus the present active imperative of the verb menw
which means here to be continuing, to abide, to remain — “But you be
continuing.” The present tense is a retroactive progressive present, it denotes
what was begun in the past and continues into the present time. In other words,
you have started with doctrine, stay with doctrine. The word “thou” is the
proleptic use of the personal pronoun su.
The proleptic use has great emphasis.
“in the things” — a reference to
Bible doctrine, the preposition e)n plus the instrumental from
the relative pronoun o(j. This is literally, “by
means of those doctrines [resident in your soul].” The pronoun o(j is often used as a demonstrative pronoun. This is a
reference to Bible doctrine which Timothy has learned during his reversion
recovery between AD 66 and 68.
“thou hast learned” — the aorist
active indicative of the verb manqanw. The aorist tense is a
constative aorist, it gathers into one entirety the continuous function of GAP.
It takes every time a believer has assembled to learn doctrine and gathers it
up into one whole. The active voice: Timothy produces the action of the verb
and he does it through the daily function of GAP which led to his reversion
recovery. In effect, every believer should produce the action of this verb. The
indicative mood is declarative, it represents the verbal action from the
viewpoint of reality. It reminds Timothy that he has recovered by learning
doctrine, he has now once again broken the maturity barrier, he is a
super-grace believer, and the next objective is ultra-super-grace — “you have
learned [from the function of GAP].”
“and hast been assured of” — the
continuative use of the conjunction kai; plus the aorist passive
indicative of the verb pistow which means to show one’s
self faithful, to prove one’s self faithful. In the passive voice, however, it
means to receive confidence. This is a culminative aorist tense, it views the
function of GAP in its entirety but it emphasises the existing results of
taking in all that doctrine — you have confidence in life, confidence with
regard to contemporary history, confidence with regard to our relationship with
the Lord, your purpose for being here. The passive voice: the believer who is
positive toward doctrine, constantly functioning under GAP receives the action
of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the dogmatic reality of the
fact.
“knowing” — the perfect active
participle of o)ida. This is a dramatic perfect
which is the rhetorical use of the intensive perfect which simply indicates an
action which has been completed but the result continues. “You have learned
with the result that you keep knowing” is what it means. The active voice:
Timothy produces the action of the verb as a super-grace believer. This is a
circumstantial participle for the daily function of GAP resulting in the
super-grace status or spiritual maturity.
“of whom” — para plus the ablative from the indefinite pronoun tij — “from whom.”
Principles: The plural indicates the
teaching ministry of the pastor who communicates the doctrine, plus God the
Holy Spirit who makes it a reality and processes it in your soul. The ministry
of the Holy Spirit in this teaching ministry is taught in John 16:12-15; 1
Corinthians 2:9-14; 1 John 2:27. But watch it! You don’t learn from the Holy
Spirit, you learn from what is taught by your pastor from the Holy Spirit. The
Holy Sprit does not teach you apart from the academic discipline of the local
church.
“thou hast learned” — the aorist
active indicative from the verb manqanw which means to learn. From
this verb we get the word translated “disciple.” A disciple is a student who is
under discipline. He recognises the authority of his communicator. This is the
dramatic aorist tense, it is used for stating a present reality with the
certitude of a past event. The idiom is a device for emphasis, it is used to
state what has just been realised. The active voice: Timothy, as well as all
believers, reach super-grace by strict academic discipline.
Translation: “You however, continue
abiding by means of those doctrines [resident in your soul], which doctrines
you have learned [through the function of GAP] and have received confidence
from them, knowing from whom [God the Holy Spirit and your pastor-teacher] you
have learned those doctrines.”
Principle
1. Bible doctrine is the only way
that people grow.
2. There can be no transfer of
doctrine without the ministry of God the Holy Spirit.
3. No one ever succeeds in anything
in life whether it is in the human realm of the spiritual realm without
discipline.
Verse 16 — “All scripture,” pasa grafh. The nominative feminine singular of the adjective paj plus the nominative of grafh.
This refers to the entire canon of scripture though all of it had not been
written at the time of writing. Historically, “all scripture” refers to the Old
Testament and the New Testament. Prophetically we have here the entire canon of
scripture.
“is given by” is not found in the
original, there is no following verb at all. The absence of a verb often
represents not only the elliptical concept which means great emotion, it also
represents great emphasis. This is a very elliptical verse. Usually when a verb
is absent and you have a nominative which is a subject followed by a nominative
which is obviously a predicate nominative the verb in between is recognised in
the idiom as being e)imi. But it is not written in.
So, “All scripture is.”
“inspiration of God” is one word — qeopneustoj. “Inspiration” means to breathe in; expiration
means to breathe out. The KJV translation merely says by implication that when
the writers took it in it was inspired but what they wrote wasn’t. So it is
incorrect. The predicate nominative is a compound noun — qeoj = God; neustoj = breathed. Qeopneustoj means inhale and exhale: “All scripture is
God-breathed.” Nothing is ever living unless it inhales and exhales. The
scripture is a living thing because it represents the thinking of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Every kind of personality expresses itself and the exhale is just
as much doctrine as the inhale. God the Holy Spirit inserted in the soul the
information and the information comes out reflecting the personality and
everything related to the time in which the man lived but it is still God’s
Word. God the Holy Spirit communicated to human authors His complete and
coherent message. This is known as “the mind of Christ” — 1 Corinthians 2:16.
In it’s communication we call it doctrine. The message communicated by the Holy
Spirit to the human authors of scripture was not only for their generation but
for all future generations of history. While human authors of scripture had
other messages for their own generation only what God intended for all
generations was written down. Paul gave a lot of messages that are not
recorded. What is recorded is what God wants us to know from Paul’s ministry.
This concept is taught in many passages — 2 Samuel 23:2,3; Isaiah 59:21;
Jeremiah 1:9; Matthew 22:42-43; Mark 12:36; Acts 4:24,25; 28:25. So the human
authors inhaled that pertinent information provided through the ministry of God
the Holy Spirit.
Once inhaled into their souls the
human authors of scripture wrote down in their own language of communication
the divine message to mankind. In writing down this Spirit-given information
the human author did not waive his own human intelligence, nor his vocabulary,
nor his individuality, nor his personality, nor his personal feelings. These
are all included in the written form of that message. The Spirit-given
information to the human author was written within the framework of his human
intelligence, his vocabulary, his individuality, his personality, his personal
feelings. What the human authors wrote under these conditions was permanently
recorded and preserved in perfect accuracy in the original languages of the
scripture.
The doctrine: God the Holy Spirit so
supernaturally directed the authors of scripture that without waiving their
human intelligence, their individuality, their literary style, their personal
feelings, or any other factor, His own complete and coherent message to man was
recorded with perfect accuracy in the original languages of scripture, the very
words bearing the authority of divine authorship.
“and” introduces the continuative
use of the conjunction kai; “is” — there is no verb
here in the original manuscript. The elliptical style in this verse which is
here the absence of verbs emphasises the importance and the intense
concentration of this verse. We have to provide a verb since in the English
inserts the verb in order to understand the continuity of the sentence.
Therefore we insert “and becomes.”
“profitable” — here is the first
profit of the Christian: doctrine. This is a predicate adjective from w)felimoj and it means useful, beneficial, advantageous, or
profitable: “and become beneficial for doctrine.”
“for doctrine” — the preposition proj plus the accusative of didaskalia which means teaching doctrine: “and becomes beneficial for teaching
doctrine.” The source book for all messages must be the Word of God. It must be
covered line upon line and precept upon precept. As a result it becomes
beneficial for other things.
“for reproof” — proj plus the accusative of e)legmoj which means “conviction” or “reproof.” This means learning the easy
way rather than learning hard way. It is better to be reproved or convicted by
the scripture, communicated by the pastor, than by God Himself. We can learn
either by the Word of God (doctrinal teaching) or we can learn by divine discipline.
“for correction” — proj plus the accusative of e)panorqwsij which means “restoration.” This means restoration from reversionism and
the influence of evil. So reproof or conviction refers to carnality but
correction or restoration refers to reversionism.
“for instruction in righteousness” —
proj plus the accusative
singular from paideia which here means simply
“for training.” Then we have dikaiosunh which means a lot more than
righteousness. For the moment we will translate this “for training in the
fulfillment of divine statutes.” That is, the training which advances you in
the spiritual life.
Summary
1. Note the progression of benefit.
First, the believer must learn Bible doctrine to grow and reach the objectives
of phase two.
2. But the believer must be filled
with the Spirit and this is impossible apart from recovery from carnality.
3. Therefore the scripture is
beneficial for conviction of sin so that the believer can recover from
carnality and so that carnality does not hinder the function of GAP in the life
of the believer.
4. The scripture is also beneficial
for recovery from reversionism.
5. The believer who reaches
super-grace must be trained in the sphere of the righteous objectives, those
things that reflect the righteousness of God.
6. Consequently the believer who
fails to learn doctrine and fails to use the scripture is on the wrong side of
history.
7. For the believer to be on the
wrong side of history means reversionism and terrible discipline from God.
8. For the believer to be on the
wrong side of history means to be under the influence of evil and consequently
the believer serving Satan.
9. To ignore and neglect the
scripture means the royal family of God serving Satan and missing the fantastic
blessings of paragraphs SG2 and SG3. No believer
therefore can afford to be on the wrong side of history, and therefore no
believer can afford to neglect the Word of God.
Verse 17 — “That” is the conjunction
i(na and it introduces a final
clause. A final clause denotes and objective, a purpose, an aim. We translate
it “In order that.”
“the man of God” — nominative
singular of a)nqrwpoj. This word is used in order
to indicate that born again believers are a part of the angelic conflict and
continue to be human beings. We have a genitive of relationship from qeoj, “the man of the God.” This is a reference to the
believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, he has a relationship with God as indicated
by the genitive of relationship.
“may be” — present active
subjunctive of e)imi. The present tense is a
customary present for what may be reasonably expected to occur from the royal
family of God. It is reasonable to expect the believer to be on the right side
of history, to be an interpreter of contemporary history by sheer spiritual growth.
No one ever breaks the maturity barrier without becoming an interpreter of
contemporary history and are therefore fortified against the great danger of
reaction to historical disaster. The active voice: the believer or royal family
of God produces the action of the verb when under the consistent teaching of
the Word of God. The subjunctive mood is the potential subjunctive, it goes
with the conjunction i(na to introduce an objective.
“perfect” — there are no perfect
people in Christianity, there are no perfect people on the earth. This is a
predicate nominative, a)rtioj. It means able to meet all
demands, proficient. Proficiency begins with maturity. This word is a a(pac legomena. It also means to be suitable or adapted for
something.
“thoroughly furnished” is the
perfect passive participle from the compound verb e)cartizw [e)k = out from; a)rtioj = adaptable], which is translated “having been well
prepared.” The perfect tense is the intensive perfect, it denotes a completed
action. The completed action is breaking through the super-grace barrier and
becoming a super-grace believer. The completed action means that you are now
ready for production. The passive voice: the super-grace believer receives the
action of the verb, being well prepared. The participle is circumstantial.
“unto all good works” — proj plus the accusative of the adjective paj, translated “all,” plus e)rgon,
the word for “works,” plus the adjective a)gaqoj which is good of intrinsic value.
Translation: “In order that the man
of God may be adapted to his super-grace status by having been equipped for
every production of divine good.”
The doctrine of divine good
1. Divine good is the production of
the mature believer or the progressing believer — both are oriented to grace,
and it is the natural result, the follow-through, of the mature believer. The
production of this good has its source from God.
2. There are three types of good in
history: a) human good, the production of evil or the application of Satan’s
policy and Satan’s genius to human history; b) moral good, which is the
observance of the laws of divine establishment and the cloak in which freedom
is wrapped; c) divine good, which is the production of the growing or the
mature believer.
3. The sources of divine good.
Divine good is the production of the
balance of residency of the soul. Consequently there are four sources to be
noted:
a) the filling of the
Spirit. When God the Holy Spirit controls the soul there is production.
b) doctrine resident in
the soul. The persistent function of GAP causes doctrine resident in the soul
from which the filling of the Spirit can produce a more tangible production
outside of the local church.
c) The super-grace
status, the status in which the dynamics of divine good are manifest in maximum
production.
d) Ultra-super-grace
status where every function in life is the production of divine good in the
midst of maximum suffering, pressure, opposition, historical disaster.
4. The believer in time is designed
to produce divine good — Ephesians 2:10.
5. Therefore the production of
divine good has to be related to living grace — 2 Corinthians 9:8. The
production of divine good is the result of cracking the maturity barrier.
6. Therefore the production of
divine good is related to the function of GAP — Titus 2:7; Colossians 1:9,10.
7. Therefore the production of
divine good is related to the super-grace status — 2 Timothy 3:16,17.
8. For production of divine good is
an issue in the angelic conflict — Romans 12:21.
9. Therefore the production of
divine good is related to the surpassing grace status — 2 Corinthians 5:10.
10. The production of divine good is
related to the believer’s honour — 2 Timothy 2:21.