Chapter 4

What is the royal family?

1. The royal family refers to believers of the Church Age only.

2. Every believer in this dispensation as of the moment becomes a member of the royal family by virtue of the baptism of the Spirit. We are saved by grace, we are entered into the family of God by grace — Galatians 3:26. Regeneration makes us a member of the family of God; the baptism of the Spirit makes us a member of the royal family of God which is our status forever.

3. Christ is royalty, every believer is entered into union with Christ by the baptism of the Spirit, and therefore by association we are royal family in time and forever.

4. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit is permanent because our royalty is permanent. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit is the badge of royalty. The indwelling of Christ is not permanent, it is only as we progress and stay on the road to super-grace.

Outline of this chapter: three basic concepts.

1. The royal family on the road to super-grace, verses 1-16.

2. The royal family on the road to reversionism, verses 17-19.

3. The royal family in reversion recovery, verses 20-32.

Verse 1 — “I” is the first person singular of the personal pronoun e)gw. It refers to Paul as the human writer of this epistle.

“therefore” is the inferential particle o)un which is correctly translated. This particular inferential particle is never found at the beginning of a Greek sentence. It denotes that which it introduces as inference from what has preceded. The previous chapter dealt with the road to super-grace, and now the conclusions from super-grace. The apostle identifies himself with his circumstances.

“the prisoner of the Lord” — o( desmioj e)n kuriw. O( desmioj means “the prisoner.” He is a prisoner of Rome awaiting trial before the supreme court; e)n plus the locative of kurioj.

We have a contrast here. Desmioj tou Xristou was found in chapter 3 verse 1; now it is desmioj e)n kuriw here. What is the significance of the change? It has to do with the content of each chapter. In the previous chapter, chapter three, the emphasis is on the dynamics of mental attitude as a member of the royal family; therefore, “of Christ.” Relationship is declared through the genitive case. Chapter four emphasises the stability of being a member of the royal family of God in super-grace status, therefore it is changed to emphasise the positional concept. All stability in the Christian life is based upon positional truth. “I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord.” This is not complaining, it is an expression of Paul’s super-grace self-consciousness, not his pride. Desmioj, used here for “prisoner,” refers to Paul’s experiential status. It is a true statement without complaining. Paul is in the Lord’s hands, he is in super-grace status, divine dynamics prevail. What is in his soul is more real than the suffering of confinement of his body. The phrase also connotes the absence of reactor factors. There is no disillusion, no discouragement, no boredom, no self-pity. In this passage the apostle Paul can think with his soul. He can think divine viewpoint, divine dynamics. Therefore he has the glorious privilege while still in time to see his very own soul overcome and control his body. The body isn’t going to last but while it does the soul is going to keep it in line.

“I beseech” — the present active indicative of parakalew. The word has two basic meanings. It means to either exhort or to encourage. When it is used in the sense of exhort it is just short of giving a direct order. When it is used for encouragement it is done in a very thoughtful, kindly way. There are people in the world who can respond to kindness. This doesn’t mean liking the person who is kind but understanding what they are communicating and getting with it. Parakalew also means that, so it has antithetical meanings. And whenever you have antithetical meanings then the context becomes important. With the concept here of encouragement rather than exhortation the present tense is a retroactive progressive present which denotes that which has begun in the past, the first time Paul taught these people, and continues to the present time. The teaching of doctrine is designed to be an encouragement. It is also designed for exhortation and command but here encouragement is in view. The active voice: Paul produces the action of the verb. The declarative indicative views the action of the verb from the standpoint of reality. This chapter is designed to be an encouragement. “I continue to encourage you is the best translation.”

“that” is not found in the original, it is used to translate an infinitive of purpose and it is legitimate to use it that way.

“ye walk” — aorist active infinitive of peripatew. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it gathers up into a single whole and it indicates the function of the super-grace life. The active voice: the royal family produces the action of the verb.

The doctrine of walking

1. Definition. The verb peripatew is used to describe the pattern or function of life for the royal family in phase two (time). Walking is both the Christian modus operandi and modus vivendi. Outside the of book of Acts where you have narrative peripatew is always used for thought pattern, behaviour pattern, some function of the soul.

2. The mechanics of walking imply the concept of the Christian way of life — live one day at a time. You can only take one step at a time. The walking concept emphasises individuality — Romans 14:5,6; Ephesians 5:16-18; James 4:13-15.

3. The mechanics of walking are related to the intensified stage of the angelic conflict. In walking there is a moment when you are off-balance for just an instant. Then you recover balance by putting your foot forward. By recovering balance you continue locomotion. The believer is off-balance living in the devil’s world during the intensified stage of the angelic conflict but he is stabilised by the constant and consistent use of the intake of doctrine — Romans 13:13.

4. There are three general spheres of the Christian walk. a) In the Holy Spirit — Galatians 5:16; b) Walk by faith — 2 Corinthians 5:7; Colossians 2:6; c) Walking in doctrine — 3 John 3. Our spiritual walk is the divine viewpoint thinking, the doctrinal thinking of the soul.

5. Walking is used to depict the Spirit-filled life and there are variations of how it is declared. Galatians 5:16, “Walk in the Spirit.: Romans 8:2-4 mentions walking in the Spirit and not the flesh. Ephesians 5:2,18 relate to walking. 1 John 1:7 says “Walk in the light,” which, again, is walking in the Spirit.

6. Walking is also used to describe the daily function of GAP — Ephesians 5:15; Romans 13:13.

7. Walking is used to describe the modus operandi of the reversionistic believer — Philippians 3:18; Ephesians 4:17.

8. Walking describes the modus vivendi of the super-grace believer. Walking in newness of life — Romans 6:4; walking worthy of the vocation — Ephesians 4:11; walking worthy of the Lord — Colossians 1:10; walking in good works — Ephesians 2:10; Colossians 1:10.

9. Walking, then, describes the lifestyle of the reversionistic unbeliever — Ephesians 4:17.

“worthy” — a)ciwj, “in a manner worthy of.” It describes the function of the super-grace believer. He walks in a manner worthy of his station in life. He is royalty, he lives in the palace, therefore he walks in a manner worthy of the royal priesthood if which he is a part forever.

“of the vocation” is a genitive of possession of the noun klhsij which refers to being a member of the royal family forever. Actually, klhsij means not so much vocation as station in life. The royal family must have the life which is compatible with the status and that is the super-grace life.

“wherewith” is anachronistic. It is the genitive singular of the relative pronoun o(j and in modern English it should be translated “into which.”

“ye are called” — aorist passive indicative of the verb kalew. This is a gnomic aorist used for a doctrinal principle to be regarded as axiomatic. It is an absolute fact, dogmatic, without equivocation that you are elected. Every believer in the Church Age is elected into the plan of God. The passive voice: the royal family receives the action of the verb as a part of the baptism of the Spirit whereby the believer enters into union with Christ who was elected in eternity past — Isaiah 42:1; 1 Peter 2:6.

The doctrine of election

1. Election is that doctrine which relates the believer to the plan of God as revealed in the divine decrees. Christ was elected in eternity past — Isaiah 42:1; 1 Peter 2:6. Hence, election for the believer is peculiar to the Church Age whereby baptism of the Holy Spirit causes the believer to share both the election and the destiny of Christ. All members of the human race have been potentially elected into the plan of God by the doctrine of unlimited atonement — 2 Timothy 2:10, but only those who believe are entered into the plan of God by election and by destiny.

2. The specific election of Jesus Christ. The election of Christ, mentioned in Isaiah 42:1 and 1 Peter 2:4,6, occurs as a part of the doctrine of divine decrees — John 15:16; Ephesians 1:4-6; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; 1 Peter 1:2.

3. The election of the royal family believer. Since election is sharing the destiny of Christ, and since Christ was elected in eternity past, and since every believer is in union with Christ through the baptism of the Spirit, every believer is said to be called or elected — 1 Corinthians 1:2,30; Romans 8:28-32; Ephesians 1:4. This election occurred at the moment of faith in Christ — 1 Thessalonians 1:4; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; 2 Timothy 1:9. Election, then, is the present as well as the future possession of every believer — John 15:16; Colossians 3:12.

4. There is also an election of Jewish believers in the previous dispensation. When a Jew in the Age of Israel believed in Christ he had an election on the plan of God. But it is not a royal election, he is not in union with Christ; this is for the Church Age only. He is in the Age of Israel but instead he is entered into the Abrahamic, Palestinian, Davidic, and New covenants to Israel. So his election is related to the unconditional covenants of the dispensation of Israel. This is summarised as a doctrine in Romans 11:1-7.

5. Election is the basis of Church Age royalty. At the moment of salvation God the Holy Spirit enters every believer into union with Christ — 1 Corinthians 12:13. The baptism of the Spirit is the sole basis for entrance to the royal status — 2 Thessalonians 2:13. Therefore, the importance of understanding the doctrine of election is stressed in 1 Thessalonians 1:4.

6. Election has a purpose of encouragement: to encourage the believer to reach the tactical victory compatible with his royal status — the super-grace life. Ephesians 4:1; 2 Timothy 1:9 cf. 13,14; Titus 1:1.

Translation: “I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, continue to encourage you to walk in a manner worthy of you station in life into which you have been called [elected].”

Preview… Verse 2 —

1. This verse introduces the characteristics of the super-grace life which amplify and encourage the believer to fulfill verse 1. Verse 2 is, therefore, a simple application and amplification of the phrase, “walk in a manner worthy of your station in life.” Having a station in life demands something from the individual. Leadership has responsibility. There is no such thing as leadership without responsibility. So first of all this verse is to amplify the responsibility that goes with being a member of the royal family and a part of a very great priesthood.

2. The preposition meta which is found under the word “with” connotes association or accompaniment.

3. Meta plus the genitive always means association and accompaniment whereas meta plus the accusative means “after.”

4.The same preposition meta is used in the Koine Greek combined with verbs to form compound verbs.

Illustrations:

a) Metanoew. Meta with verbs always means a change or alteration. Noew means to think and so it means to change the mind.

b) Metatiqhmi. While tiqhmi means to place, meta with the verb means to change. So it means to transfer or change a place.

c) Metamorfow. Morfow means “form” and meta means to change, so it means to change form or to be transfigured.

So our little word meta which occurs at the beginning of this verse is used quite a few ways in the scripture, it is not always the same. You can never tell exactly what meta is going to mean unless you see it with a verb as a compound, and therefore change, or with the accusative — “after,” or with the genitive which is accompaniment or association.

Here in verse 2 we have a prepositional phrase, “With all lowliness” — meta plus the genitive of paj plus the genitive of tapeinofrosunh. Meta is our genitive, followed by an adjective, paj, meaning “all.” So, “Associated with all,” and then this compound noun. It is composed of tapeinoj which means “humble,” then the verb fronew which means to think objectively. All together it does not mean humility. If it does it simply connotes a mental attitude of objectivity, modesty which means orientation to grace or, as here, super-grace thinking. It means the normal mental attitude of the super-grace believer. It does not mean lowliness. Lowliness connotes hypocrisy and self-effacement. This should be translated “associated with all objective grace thinking,” not meekness. Objective grace thinking is a monopoly of the super-grace life.

The preposition has another object in the genitive singular and it is in the English as “meekness” — the genitive singular of prauthj which does not mean meekness. It does mean gentleness, kindness, friendliness. It is the antithesis of anger or cruelty, arrogance, insubordination or disputation. Hence, it comes to mean courtesy and considerateness. Therefore it means true sensitivity. It should be translated “considerate sensitivity.” Friendship is sharing the enthusiasms of others but courtesy is being thoughtful of others whether you know the or not, whether you like them or not, regardless of any other factor. The super-grace believer is objective and gracious in his thinking. He lives under the principle of live and let live. He respects the rights and privacy of others, is thoughtful of the feelings of others, giving respect where respect is due and courtesy wherever possible. This is the first prepositional phrase and it is the first phrase to indicate what is meant by “walking worthy of your station in life into which you have been called.”

The second prepositional phrase also begins with meta and is also meta plus the genitive, this time the genitive of makroqumia. It is translated “longsuffering” in the KJV. Makroqumia means patience toward others. The super-grace believer is objective and gracious in his thinking, he lives under the concept of respecting the rights and the privacy and the property of others, but he also is patient with those who malign or judge or seek to hurt him or are in some other way are obnoxious.

“forbearing” — present active participle of a)nexomai which means to put up with things that are not pleasant, to take up the slack, to restrain yourself, or to endure. “Putting up with” is a better translation than forbearing. The present tense of this participle is an iterative present which describes that which recurs at successive intervals; the present tense of repeated action. In other words, you are not always going around putting up with someone but there are times when you are going to face antagonism, when you are going to face insensitivity where you are concerned, and when you do your calmness and relaxed mental attitude of the super-grace life will be a a fantastic thing. It is what is expected of you under the phrase, “walk in a manner worthy of your station in life into which you have been called.” The active voice the super-grace believer produces the action of the verb, and only the super-grace believer. This verse is talking about super-grace action, this is not what happens on the way up, it is not a description of the immature believer. The participle is a temporal participle. It means when enduring or when putting up with “one another.” This means it will not happen all the time but when it does then this is the attitude the super-grace believer has.

“one another “ is the genitive plural a)llhlwn. The word comes from a)lloj, and it means another of the same kind. We are talking about members of the royal family.

“in love” — e)n plus the locative of a)gaph, “in the sphere of a relaxed mental attitude.”

Translation: “Associated with objective grace thinking and courteous considerateness, associated with patience [toward the antagonistic], when putting up with one another of the same kind [royal family] in the sphere of love [as a relaxed mental attitude].”

The doctrine of the royal family

1. All believers of the Church Age belong to an unique system of royalty. This royalty is based on the spiritual concept of Bible doctrine, a specific doctrine, the doctrine of the mystery. Regeneration is no mystery, it occurred from Adam right down to this day. But with the interruption of the Age of Israel by the Church Age there are some additional things at the point of regeneration. God the Holy Spirit baptises every believer into union with Jesus Christ who is royalty forever. Being in union with Christ every believer is a royal member of the family of God and only the Church Age believer is in the royal family.

2. The basis of royalty in the Church Age is the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Regeneration is the basis of salvation but baptism of the Spirit, unique to the Church Age, is the basis of royalty. No believer before the Church Age and no believer after the Rapture will ever have the baptism of the Spirit.

3. There is a precedent for royalty. It was set up by one man, Melchizedek. It should be noted that Melchizedek acquired royalty by becoming king of Salem. Jesus Christ was born royalty. Melchizedek, in other words, conquered and through conquest became royalty; he wasn’t born royalty. Jesus Christ was born royalty. Melchizedek was king of Salem; Jesus Christ is King of kings. One acquired royalty; one was born into it. The royalty of the Church Age believer, however, comes not through physical birth and not through any ability in life but simply through grace at the moment we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

4. The relationship to the King.

a) While Jesus Christ was alone on the cross God the Father had to provide for Him a body or a bride — a family. His aloneness had to be implemented as with the first Adam.

b) Through the baptism of the Holy Spirit every believer is entered into union with Christ and therefore becomes the body of Christ.

c) Union with Christ means body of Christ. Therefore believers in this dispensation are called the body of Christ.

d) being the body of Christ makes every believer in the Church Age personally related to the King of kings just as any member of the body is related to the head of the body — 1 Corinthians 12.

e) Positional sanctification places every believer in the palace. Application: You are in the palace.

f) When the body of Christ is completed [Rapture of the Church] then the Church Age terminates and the body becomes the bride.

5) During the Tribulation the bride is no longer on earth but in heaven being prepared for operation footstool which is the second stage of our Lord’s strategic victory.

5. The sign of royalty is the unprecedented universal indwelling of God the Holy Spirit. Never before in history has the third person of the Trinity indwelt every believer. The purpose of this indwelling is to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ who is the King of kings — John 7:37-39.

6. The security of royalty. Both the sealing of the Holy Spirit and positional sanctification provide an eternal security for royalty. We have a double security, positional truth plus the sealing ministry of the Holy Spirit.

7. The function of royalty is twofold. First, moving toward the objective of the super-grace life in which the believer receives the accouterments of royalty in super-grace as well as the tactical victory in the angelic conflict. The accouterments of royalty are the super-grace blessings which come to you. Secondly, the function of royalty is the modus operandi of the new royal priesthood.

8. The future of royalty. As members of the body of Christ and the royal priesthood all Church Age believers will return with Christ at the second advent. We will participate in the strategic victory, the overthrow of Satan plus the Millennial reign of Christ. After the Millennium the royal family will be with Christ forever in the new heavens, the new earth, and the new Jerusalem. Specifically, our abode in eternity is the new heavens. The new heavens belong to us as members of the royal family.

Verse 3 — “Endeavouring” is a present active participle of spoudazw. The word actually means to hurry up, to be zealous, to be or have diligence. Here it means “Be diligent.” It is translated this way because the present tense is the retroactive progressive present which denotes something begun in the past and continues to the present time. Diligence always marks the believer on the road to super-grace, the believer who stays with doctrine, who never gives up on doctrine in spite of all kinds of discouragements and pressures. The active voice: the believer with positive volition toward doctrine fulfills the diligence, and by so doing he guards the characteristics or the essence of the royal family of God. The participle is a very unusual one, it is the imperative use of the participle. It is very rare. The participle is sometimes used as an imperative mood and it is a peculiarity of Koine Greek only, it would never happen in Classical Greek. When it does occur it indicates that this is something to which daily attention must be given. Daily thought must be given to the attitude toward Bible doctrine. However, the participle itself can never be properly understood without some support, and the support is given in the form of an infinitive…

“to keep” is the present active infinitive of the verb terew which means to keep, to guard, often it means to guard or keep something that belongs to you personally. The present tense is a static present used for a condition which continually exists under the super-grace status. The super-grace believer is constantly guarding what already belongs to him, the essence of the royal family which will be listed starting in verse 4. The active voice: the super-grace believer produces the action of the verb. The infinitive is an infinitive of purpose and it is fulfilled through the daily function of GAP or diligence in positive volition, reaching the super-grace life. So literally, “Be diligent to preserve.”

“the unity” — the accusative singular of direct object from the noun e)nothj. It means unity or oneness. It refers to the common essence or the characteristics which we have as members of the royal family of God. It means we have the same coat of arms. On this coat of arms there are seven things and this belongs to each one of us. E)nothj here such not mean brotherly love, let’s fall over each other. It doesn’t mean that we gush all over each other. It means we all have and carry forever seven things in common. We have, as it were, the same family escutcheon.

“of the Spirit” — or correctly, “from the Spirit.” This is ablative of source from pneuma. Unity or the escutcheon or the coat of arms from the Spirit is the ministry of God the Holy Spirit to every member of the royal family of God at the point of salvation.

Summary

1. God the Holy Spirit is the source of our royalty. He did five things for us at the point of salvation.

2. In addition it is God the Holy Spirit who is the agent of regeneration entering us into the family of God forever.

3. God the Father has given to us at the point of salvation, in response to this ministry of the Holy Spirit, a family coat of arms, a royal family escutcheon. This will be described in verses 4-6.

“in the bond” is a prepositional phrase, e)n plus the locative of sundesmoj which refers to a bond. It means a holder together, a uniter, that which holds together or unites all the essence of the royal family. In other words, a coat of arms. We all have the same coat of arms.

“of peace” — e)irhnh has the definite article. This word can mean everything from tranquillity to harmony. It’s basic sense historically is a state of mind which was desired by the Stoics, but in this particular sense it means the harmony which was established by grace totally apart from any other factor. Again, it means we all wear the same patch. The principle involved here is very important, for it will be noticed that we only do one thing so far in this verse. “Be diligent to preserve.” To preserve is an infinitive of purpose, and the purpose of the infinitive is fulfilled by the daily function of GAP whereby the believer reaches super-grace, the status compatible with his royalty. So the only command here is to do something compatible with your royal status. In other words, honour the patch, honour the escutcheon, honour the coat of arms. Do not bring disgrace upon the family of God is a negative way of stating what is meant in this verse.

Translation: “Be diligent to preserve the unity [the coat of arms] from the Spirit in the bond of security.”

We are held together is perfect security. The security which we possess comes from union with Christ, comes from being saved, and therefore since we have this eternal and temporal security lets us be sure to bring honour to the coat of arms.

Verse 4 begins the actual enucleation of these seven characteristics of the royal family, the essence of the royal family of the coat of arms. Of the royal family of God.

The first item: “one body” — e(n [one] swma [body]. This refers to the basic structure of the royal family. All believers in the dispensation of the Church are in the body of Christ. The body of Christ is the name of the royal family on the earth.

The doctrine of the body of Christ

1. The Trinity is related to the body. The Father, for example, placed Christ as the head of the body — Ephesians 1:22. Therefore Christ is the head of the body — Ephesians 1:22,23; 5:23,24; Colossians 1:18. The Holy Spirit forms the body of Christ — 1 Corinthians 12:12-14. Furthermore, He sustains the body of Christ — 1 Corinthians 6:15 cf. 6:19,20.

2. Christ is the saviour of the body — Ephesians 5:23,25, 30. Being the saviour of the body means that the body of Christ has eternal life, possesses it forever and ever.

3. Christ is also the sanctifier of the body — Hebrews 2:11; 13:12.

4. The body is related to the strategic victory of the angelic conflict — Ephesians 1:22,23.

5. The body includes Gentile believers of the Church Age as well as Jewish — Ephesians 3:6.

6. The body is the recipient of multifarious spiritual gifts — Romans 12:4,5; 1 Corinthians 12:27,28.

7. The communication of doctrine gift [pastor-teacher] is for the purpose of edification and leading the royal priesthood to super-grace — Ephesians 3:6-8; 4:11,12.

8. Therefore the objective of the body of Christ in phase two is to reach the super-grace life — Ephesians 4:15,16.

The second item: “one Spirit” — e(n pneuma. This refers to the ministries which we received at salvation and which no believer prior to our dispensation, the Church, received. Regeneration is common to believers of all dispensations, but: a) baptism of the Spirit — entrance into the royal family; b) indwelling of the Spirit — the badge of royalty plus the function of royalty; c) the sealing of the Spirit — the security of the Spirit during the intensified stage of the angelic conflict; d) spiritual gifts — the recognition of royalty.

“even as” — the adverb kaqoj indicates comparison. This is comparison with our election.

“ye are called” — aorist passive indicative of kalew which relates to the doctrine of election. The aorist tense is a gnomic aorist used for a doctrine which must be regarded as axiomatic. Every believer is elected into the plan of God, therefore the life of every believer has meaning and purpose and definition. This election was accomplished at the same time and by the same means as entrance into the royal family, namely the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The passive voice: the royal family receives the action of the verb. Election and entrance into full time Christian service. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic and unqualified assertion of doctrine.

The third item: “in one hope” — e)n plus the locative of e(ij plus the locative of e)lpij, which really means expectation, prospect, or confidence. It should be translated, “in one prospect [expectation].” It is a reference to what we have coming up as members of the royal family in phase three.

“of your calling” is a descriptive genitive of klhsij which means station in life, station in life being spiritual royalty.

Translation: “One body, and one Spirit, just as you have been elected into one prospect of your station in life.”

Verse 5 — The fourth item: “One Lord” is e(ij kurioj. This refers to the fact that all of us as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ have the same Lord. He is the Lord of all as of salvation. He is the Lord of all through the baptism of the Spirit and resultant positional sanctification. This also refers to the fact that all members of the body of Christ have one saviour, Jesus Christ, who is the only celebrity in the royal family.

The fifth item: “one faith” — the nominative feminine singular of e(ij which is mia pistij. This is the manner in which we are saved. Faith is totally without merit in the subject. The merit in faith is always in the object, the object in faith in salvation is Jesus Christ and all of us were saved in exactly the same way, by believing in Christ.

The sixth item: “one baptism” — the baptism by which we enter into the royal family is the baptism of the Holy Spirit: e)n baptisma. E)n is nominative neuter of e(ij. [E(ij is the vocabulary form; mia is feminine gender; e)n is neuter gender; the use depends on the noun]

The doctrine of the baptism of the Spirit

1. The uniqueness of the baptism of the Spirit.

a) Prior to the Church Age God the Holy Spirit was always the agent of regeneration for those who believe in Christ. He still is and always will be so that regeneration is something that occurs in every dispensation when a person believes in Christ.

b) Now the Holy Spirit not only regenerates the Church Age believer but he performs certain other functions at the point of salvation: baptism — entrance into the royal family; indwelling — sign of royalty; sealing — security of royalty; spiritual gift — guarantee of provision for royalty.

c) Therefore the baptism of the Holy Spirit is peculiar to the Church Age. It did not exist before the Church Age began, it will never occur again after the Church Age is terminated with the Rapture or resurrection.

d) No Old Testament saint had the baptism of the Spirit.

e) Reason: Only the body of Christ is royalty and the baptism of the Spirit is a special salvation ministry to create royalty.

f) The baptism of the Spirit is designed to take the Church Age believer, make him a member of the royal family, enter him in the palace of God forever. So the uniqueness of the baptism of the Holy Spirit is related to the fact that in this dispensation every believer is royalty forever.

2. The prophecy of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. It was given by the Lord Jesus Christ during His earthly ministry just before the dispensation of Israel was interrupted — John 14:20; Acts 1:5.

3. Definition and mechanics. Baptism is the salvation ministry of God the Holy Spirit whereby he enters the believer into union with Christ making him a member of the royal family forever. All members of the royal family have the same baptism — e(n baptisma. It provides equality in the royal family, an equality which does not exist through human birth and is not acquired through human ability. Galatians 3:26-28.

4. The baptism of the Spirit is related therefore to positional sanctification. Since there are two kinds of positional sanctification it must be related to each type. First of all, it is the basis for retroactive positional truth by which the royal family is separated from human good. Secondly, it is the basis for current positional truth by which the royal family has a permanent relationship with the King of kings and lives in the royal palace forever — Ephesians 1:3-6; Colossians 2:10.

5. The baptism of the Spirit occurs at the moment of salvation — Colossians 2:12. Therefore the baptism is not an experience of any kind. This includes any form of ecstatics or speaking in tongues, or any of the other flaky experiences which have infiltrated fundamentalism at the present time. 1 Corinthians 12:13.

6. The baptism of the Spirit interrupts the Jewish dispensation and begins the Church Age — Matthew 16:18 tells us the Church Age was not in existence during the time that Jesus was on the earth. Acts 1:5 indicates it was still future at the time of His ascension. Acts 2:3 cf. Acts 11:15-17 tells us the baptism of the Spirit occurred for the first time on the day of Pentecost.

7. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is one of seven Bible baptisms — Hebrews 6:2, “baptisms” plural. There are four real baptisms — actual identifications: baptism of Moses — 1 Corinthians 10:2; the baptism of the cross — Matthew 20:22; the baptism of the Spirit — 1 Corinthians 12:13; baptism of fire — Matthew 3:11; Luke 3:16; ritual baptisms — representative identifications, water is used as the representing agent: the baptism of John — Matthew 3:1-10; John 1:25-33; the baptism of Jesus — Matthew 3:13-17; Christian baptism — Acts 8:36-38; 16:33.

Translation: “One Lord [Jesus Christ], one faith, one baptism.”

Verse 6 — “One God” is e(ij qeoj. This does not refer to being one member in the Godhead but it actually refers to the fact that in the Godhead there are three, but only one who is called God the Father. This refers to God the Father, the Son and the Spirit have been previously mentioned.

“and Father” — kai is the ascensive conjunction and is translated “even Father.” There is no definite article with pathr and the absence of the definite article calls attention to the quality of the noun. The anthropomorphism is used to communicate the role of the first person of the Trinity as far as His plan for mankind is concerned. The Father is the author of the plan — operation grace. He is also the authority in the planning stage.

“of all” — the genitive plural of paj. What does this mean? a) This is a genitive to refer to all members of the royal family. “All” refers to you as a believer in this dispensation. b) This is a genitive of relationship. You have a relationship with God forever. c) We are born into the family of God by regeneration. d) The Holy Spirit is the agent of that regeneration. e) At the same time the Holy Spirit baptises us into union with Christ making us members of the royal family of God.

“who” — nominative masculine singular of the definite article o(, used in its generic sense. The generic use of the definite article views God the Father in a class by Himself and distinct from all others. So it should be translated, “One God even Father of all, the one ..”

“above all” — e)pi plus the locative plural of paj. E)pi plus the genitive emphasises contact and therefore it would be translated “on, at, or before.” E)pi plus the accusative emphasises direction and is translated “to.” But e)pi plus the locative emphasises position and therefore it is translated “over.” It is translated “over all.” This prepositional phrase emphasises the sovereignty of God the Father. God the Father uses His sovereignty to come up with a perfect plan. His essence is perfection, His sovereignty made a decision, a plan for us, and that plan is perfect. The fact that you and I have wound up as members of the royal family of God through no ability of our own, through no nobility of our own, through no works of our own, again indicates God’s perfection and God’s grace. So “over all” is the sovereignty of God the Father. In human history there is both divine and human volition. Bona fide human volition existed in the garden and is an extension of the angelic conflict. It continues to exist after the fall. The fact that human volition can act independently of God is demonstrated in 2 Peter 3:9 and it indicates the fact that whatever God’s will for man is man must enter on the basis of his own free will, but it must be free will non-meritorious. That is why salvation is by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

“and through all” — dia plus the genitive plural of paj.

1. Dia plus the genitive of paj describes the omnipresence of God the Father.

2. In omnipresence God the Father is imminent and transcendent.

3. All the planning and production of God are manifestations of His essence or His qualities.

4. God is everywhere personally present. The whole of God is in every place.

5. This is not pantheism. Pantheism denies the person of God. It says God is everywhere in the sense of all things. The omnipresence of God is not pantheism.

6. God in the totality of His essence without diffusion, expansion, multiplication, or division, penetrates and fills the universe. This is the principle of imminence and transcendence. Psalm 139:7, 8, 18; Jeremiah 23:23,24; Acts 17:27.

7. However God is also free to be local, as on the mountain with Moses, in the holy of holies of the tabernacle, on the mount of transfiguration.

8. Therefore God is imminent and transcendent — Proverbs 15:3; Psalm 102:27; 1 Kings 8:27; Job 34:21,22.

“and in you all” — the preposition e)n plus the locative plural of paj is “and in the sphere of all.” God the Father, undiminished, undivided actually indwells every member of the royal family. He is omnipresent, He is indwelling, and He indwells every believer in His omnipresence. He is also in every part of the universe in His omnipresence, and yet He can do all of those things and be local as illustrated by certain passages of the Word of God.

Translation: “One God even Father of all [the royal family], the one over all [the royal family], and through all [the royal family], and in all [the royal family].”

Summary

1. All members of the royal family have the same Father just as all members of the royal family have the same saviour and all members of the royal family enter the palace the same way, the baptism of the Holy Spirit on the basis of faith in Jesus Christ.

2. While all members of the royal family are unified by these attributes of nobility — one body, one Holy Spirit, one Lord, one way of salvation [faith], one entrance into the royal family [baptism of the Spirit], one heavenly Father—all do not have the same function, nor do all achieve the same stage of growth.

3. Spiritual gifts are different, therefore various functions are assigned to members of the royal family.

4. All believers are members of the same team, therefore members of the same royalty. But as members of the team they have different functions. We are different members but the same body, and the difference are many but the things that unite us are permanent and eternal.

Verse 7 — the provision of super-grace for the royal family. We are left on this earth as members of the royal family to reach super-grace, so that we can be wealthy, successful, promoted, have prosperity, have God’s happiness, so that whenever we have adversity we can roll through it as if the adversity were nothing. This is a post-salvation provision.

“But” is the adversative conjunctive particle de, translated “but.” This particle is used to differentiate between the common essence of the royal family and the difference of function, growth and attainment in the royal family. So de becomes a very great divider. We all have everything in verses 4-6. Now we have what some have and what some do not have. This particle separates the men from the boys.

“unto every one” — the dative singular of e(ij plus the dative plus the dative of e(kastoj which means “each,” it is very individual, very personal. It should be translated, “But to each one.” Here is an indication of the recognition by the Word of God, a recognition of the difference of personality and outlook, environment, all of the things that differentiate one believer from another or one person from another. We have a dative of indirect object to indicate the royal family for whom the act is performed. God has provided something for the royal family, something in time that is very special, something that makes all of the difference as far as your life on earth is concerned, and something that says in effect that you should have not hell on earth but heaven on earth. You will have heaven on earth of you reach super-grace.

“of us” — the genitive plural of the personal pronoun e)gw. This is a descriptive genitive indicating the members of the royal family of God and/or Church Age believers.

“is given” — but first of all the subject of this verb is the word “grace,” h( xarij — “the grace,” literally. It refers to super-grace. The definite article indicates it has been defined before and it is referring to the same super-grace we have seen before; “is given” should be “has been given” — the aorist passive indicative of the verb didomi which means to give. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it gathers up into one entirety the entire super-grace package designed for every believer. The aorist tense gathers up into one ball of wax everything that God ever designed for you. The passive voice: the member of the royal family receives the super-grace paragraph when he GAPs it to super-grace. What keeps you from getting these things? Lack of Bible doctrine — indifference, apathy, rejection or antagonism toward doctrine. Sometimes it is just substituting something for doctrine. The indicative mood is the declarative indicative viewing the action of the verb from the viewpoint of reality. However, this is the reality of super-grace blessings in the decrees, it does not guarantee that you will actually receive them. The attainment of these blessings is based upon your consistency in the function of GAP.

“according to the measure” — kata plus the accusative of metron, “according to the standard.”

“of the gift of Christ” — the genitive singular from dwrea means a gift without any strings. Christ was given without strings; Christ was the greatest thing God could give us; Christ is the source of salvation; Christ is the source of every blessing. Without this unique person of the universe we would have no salvation, we would have nothing, we would be worse off than dead. The standard or measurement is Christ. This is the same thing as we have in Romans 8:32.

Translation: “But to each one of us the grace has been given according to the standard of the gift of the Christ.”

In verses 8-10 we have royalty related to the strategic victory of the Lord Jesus Christ in the angelic conflict. If we have a future on this earth as well as in heaven what was our past relationship? How do we tie into these things? Royalty has to be related to what Christ did on the cross.

Verse 8 — “Wherefore” is an inferential conjunction, dio, and it means “for this reason.” Dio is only used when something great has been presented and now from it certain additional inferences are about to be made. So dio follows a conclusion in order to give inferences from the conclusion.

“he saith” — present active indicative of legw, and it isn’t “he” that is speaking, but this is a quotation from Psalm 68:18. So it should be translated, “For this reason the scripture says.” Documentation, and documentation used to draw an additional inference from the conclusion of verse 7.

Now we have the quotation: “When he ascended up” — aorist active participle of a)nabainw. It refers to the ascension of Christ as a part of the strategic victory of the angelic conflict. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist which views the ascension in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of its existing results — glorification of Jesus Christ at the right hand of the Father as the unique person of the universe. The active voice: Jesus Christ produced the action of the verb through ascension. This is a temporal participle, it also has antecedent action to the main verb as an aorist participle.

“on high” — the prepositional phrase e)ij plus the accusative of u(yoj is a reference to the third heaven.

The doctrine of the ascension

1. The resurrection body of Jesus Christ was capable of space travel, and the ascension is space travel — John 20:17.

2. Once arriving in heaven Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father. This is called the session of Christ — Psalm 110:1; Romans 8:34; Ephesians 1:20; Colossians 3:1; Hebrews 1:3,13; 8:1; 10:12; 12:2; 1 Peter 3:22.

3. The ascension and session of Christ formed the basis of victory in the angelic conflict — Hebrews 1:3-13.

4. The ascension and session of Christ began a new sphere of the angelic conflict — Ephesians 1:20-22; 4:7-10. Therefore the believer of the Church Age is involved in the intensified stage of the angelic conflict.

5. The ascension and session of Jesus Christ begin operation footstool, prophesied in Psalm 110:1 and quoted in Luke 20:42,43; Acts 2:33,34; Hebrews 1:13.

6. The second advent of Christ will conclude operation footstool — Daniel 7:13,14; Zechariah 13:2; Colossians 2:15; Revelation 20:1-3.

7. The ascension and session of Christ completes the glorification of Christ in His hypostatic union — Acts 2:33; 5:31; Philippians 2:9; 1 Peter 3:22.

8. The ascension and session of Christ explains the uniqueness of the Church Age and the importance of having a royal family in this dispensation only — John 7:37-39.

9. The ascension and session of Christ is the key to victory in the angelic conflict — Hebrews 1:4.

10. The ascension and session of Christ after resurrection make possible the second high priestly function of our Lord, namely intercession or praying for all members of the royal family on earth — Hebrews 7:25.

As the strategic victor, the God-Man, Jesus Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords, the royal priest, our only celebrity distributes the spoils to both dispensations. The ascension of Christ interrupts the Age of Israel, begins the Church Age, but in His triumphal procession the distribution of the spoils go both ways. First of all, what are the spoils, what is the booty for the Age of Israel? The answer is the transfer of the Old Testament saints from their residence from the heart of the earth called Paradise or Abraham’s bosom.

“he led captive” — the aorist active indicative of the verb a)ixmalwteuw which means to take captives in battle or to lead people, captives and your own troops, in a triumphal procession. At this point we have all of the Old Testament saints who have died, those who are in Paradise at the time of the ascension, follow in our Lord’s train. They are called captives because they do not have a resurrection body and will not have until the second advent of Christ . The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it gathers into one entirety the transfer of all of the Old Testament saints from Paradise to the third heaven, the throne room of God. They go to heaven as captives because they have souls and spirits but no bodies. This is a part of the triumphal procession. Then you have a cognate accusative, the word “captivity” which is a)ixmalwsia, the noun form of what we have just had in the verb. It is translated: “he led captives in a triumphal procession [the ascension] from a state of captivity.” The state of captivity is Abraham’s bosom or Paradise where all Old Testament saints resided until the ascension. The fact that Old Testament saints resided in this place is verified by Luke 23:39-45; 16:10-31; Matthew 27:52,53; and also to verify the distinction between this and the third heaven we have 2 Corinthians 12:1-4. The activity of Christ in Hades covers many areas of scripture, e.g. 1 Peter 3:18-22.

Now how do the Church Age believers share in this victory? They are still on the earth, their part is still to come.

“and gave” — aorist active indicative of didomi which means here to distribute. Since this is portrayed as a triumphal procession distribution is a better translation. The aorist tense is a constative aorist which contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety but takes the distribution of spiritual gifts and regardless of the duration of the Church Age gathers them all into a single whole. The active voice: Jesus Christ makes the distribution as the conqueror, as the victorious general returning from the wars. The indicative mood is declarative contemplating the action of the verb from the viewpoint of reality.

“gifts” is the accusative plural of direct object doma. It is used technically here for spiritual gifts distributed, but the spiritual gifts are not given to the family of God. That is an incorrect statement. They are given to the royal family of God, believers of the Church Age. All believers have received a spiritual gift and this spiritual gift is a guarantee that Jesus Christ has already won the victory of the angelic conflict, has been seated in the place of victory at the right hand of the Father, and you are a part of the royal family and share in that victory.

“unto men” — the dative plural of a)nqrwpoj. The dative of indirect object indicates the ones in whose interest the act is performed. In this case it is the royal family of God in whose interest spiritual gifts have been distributed. So spiritual gifts are designed to be beneficial as well as to mark each one of us out as members of the royal family. A)nqrwpoj is a generic term and means male and female.

Translation: “For this reason the scripture [Psalm 68:18] says, When he had ascended up on high, he led captives [Old Testament believers] in a triumphal procession from a state of captivity, and has distributed [spiritual] gifts to men [persons of the royal family of God].”

The doctrine of spiritual gifts

1. Definition. Spiritual gifts are distributed to the royal family of the Church Age both as a recognition of Christ’s strategic victory in the angelic conflict plus a recognition of the royalty of every believer in the Church Age. So the distribution of spiritual gifts in the Church Age recognises that Christ has already won the victory, therefore distribution of spoils; and that furthermore we are give spiritual gifts first as recognition as being members of the royal family. For the Church Age spiritual gifts are the Father’s organised witness and testimony to grace in salvation — Hebrews 2:4. Spiritual gifts demand the function of royalty under GAP plus the attainment of the tactical victory of super-grace. So the challenge of spiritual gifts: GAP it daily and reach super-grace.

2. Distribution. Distribution is divided into two parts, initial and subsequent.

a) Initial distribution. At the beginning of the Church Age spiritual gifts were provided immediately by the Lord Jesus Christ — Ephesians 4:8-11.

b) Subsequent distribution during the Church Age is handled by the sovereign decision of God the Holy Spirit who gives every believer of the Church Age at least one spiritual gift, known or unknown — 1 Corinthians 12:11. These gifts do not depend upon human ability, morality, talent, achievement, but constitute a sovereign decision of God the Holy Spirit.

3. Function. At any point in the Church Age each spiritual gift in every geographical area is necessary for the function of the body of Christ in that area — 1 Corinthians 12:27-31. All spiritual gifts function through the ministry of God the Holy Spirit — Acts 2:4; 1 Corinthians 13. The function of spiritual gifts also depends upon Bible doctrine in the soul as the result of functioning under GAP. Also these Bible doctrines mould a grace attitude for the spiritual gift — Romans 12:3. The true perspective regarding spiritual gifts is found in 1 Corinthians chapter 12.

4. There are two categories of spiritual gifts — temporary and permanent. Temporary gifts are in the pre-canon period of the Church Age. The post-canon period has permanent gifts. So we have temporary from 30-96 AD; permanent from 96 AD through the present and to the Rapture of the Church. Temporary gifts are necessary to take up the slack until the canon of scripture was completed and circulated. Once the Bible was completed certain temporary spiritual gifts were withdrawn. These temporary gifts include apostleship, tongues, healing, and so on. The fact that tongues was removed earlier is found in the Greek of 1 Corinthians 13:8-10. The fact that healing was removed, even in Paul’s day half way through his ministry, is found by comparing Acts 19:11,12 with Philippians 2:27 and 2 Timothy 4:20. Permanent gifts continue after the completion of the canon and throughout the Church Age, as per Romans 12:6-8; 1 Corinthians 12:31.

5. The time of distribution. All spiritual gifts were given after the resurrection, ascension, and session of Jesus Christ — Ephesians 4:8. Spiritual gifts were given for the first time on the day of Pentecost when the dispensation of Israel was dramatically interrupted — Acts chapter two.

6. The abuse of these gifts. Reversionism and apostasy seek to perpetuate temporary spiritual gifts, like tongues and healing, beyond the closing of the canon in 96 AD. When anyone claims the gifts of apostleship, tongues, miracles, healing, they are apostate and reversionistic; separate yourselves from them.

7. Communication gifts. Surviving communication gifts are really twofold. The first is pastor-teacher. The authority of this gift is found in Hebrews 13:7,17; 1 Thessalonians 5. The gift of evangelism is also a communication gift but limited and without authority in the local church. The gift of apostle-prophet was designed for the producing of the New Testament canon and stabilising the Church before the completion of the Bible. After the completion of the canon of scripture the gift of pastor-teacher carried authority inside the local church. The authority of the evangelist is in the response to the Word of God, the Gospel, as he teaches outside of the local church. Evangelism was not to be conducted in the classroom but outside of the classroom on the campus of this world, as it were.

Verse 9 resumes with a parenthesis which goes through verse 10 for the purpose of amplification.

“Now” is the conjunctive particle de. It is a transitional participle without any contrast intended and it is used to introduce the parenthesis.

“that” is the definite article in the nominative neuter singular but it is used as a demonstrative pronoun in order to refer back to the Bible doctrine which has been taught so far in this passage. Literally, what we have so far is: “Now this.” After the citation of an Old Testament scripture a parenthesis is used to explain what is meant by the citation. The doctrine which is involved has to be amplified, so literally, we have “Now this doctrine that.” First of all we have the doctrine of ascension.

“he ascended” — the aorist active indicative of a)nebainw is used for the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is, of course, the triumphal procession which has been mentioned in previous verses. The ascension is Jesus Christ in resurrection body going from point A to point B, from the earth to the third heaven. This is a constative aorist which contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The entire ascension is now considered under one heading. The active voice indicates that Jesus Christ was the one who ascended. He is the unique person of the universe, He is just as much God as the Father and the Holy Spirit, He is at the same time true humanity. The indicative mood is a declarative indicative contemplating the action of the verb from the viewpoint of reality, this is a dogmatic principle. “Now this doctrine that he ascended.” Amplification is now necessary.

“what is it” — ti e(stin. This is an idiom which means “what does it imply?” What is the significance of the ascension.

“but that” — e)i mh o(ti, means “except that.” The conjunction o(ti is used after verbs of thinking, implication, or inference to indicate the content of the conclusion.

“he also descended” — aorist active indicative of katebainw. The aorist tense is a constative aorist and it takes up the occurrence of descending and regardless of its extent or duration gathers it into a single whole or entirety. In other words, when the body of Jesus Christ was in the grave and the human spirit of Jesus Christ was at the right hand of the Father His soul descended into Sheol or Hades. The descent of the Lord fulfilled many purposes. The indicative mood is declarative indicating that it is a part of doctrine, an unqualified assertion. The doctrine of the descent into the heart of the earth is a very important one. 1 Peter 3:18-22; Luke 16:10-31; 23:39-45.

“first” is not found in the original.

“into the lower parts of the earth?” — prepositional phrase, e)ij plus the accusative neuter plural of katwteroj, which means inside; “of the earth” is a descriptive genitive and also a genitive of location — gh.

Translation: “Now this doctrine that he ascended, what does it imply except that he also descended into the inner-lower part of the earth?”

Verse 10 — “He that descended.” Jesus Christ during those three days between His death and resurrection. This is an aorist active participle of katabainw, it contemplates the descent into the lower parts of the earth in its entirety. It includes the fact that He was in Paradise, that he made a visit to Tartarus, as per 1 Peter 3:18. The active voice: Jesus Christ produced the action of the verb immediately after His physical death on the cross. He was a trichotomous being at the point of His death. His body went into the grave — Luke 23:53, His spirit went into the presence of the Father — Luke 23:46, and His soul descended into the inner-lower parts of the earth — Psalm 16:10; Luke 23:43; Acts 2:27.

“is” — present active indicative of e)imi to state an absolute and dogmatic fact without equivocation. The present tense is retroactive progressive present indicating that that which was begun in the past continued until it was completed.

“the same” — the intensive pronoun a)utoj used in the predicate nominative and should be translated “the same person also.” No changing of identities.

“that ascended up” — aorist active participle, “having ascended.”

“far above all heavens” — we have an adverb here for “far above,” u(peranw which is an imperfect preposition. This is a prepositional phrase which describes route of the triumphal procession.

“that” — the conjunction i(na plus the subjunctive mood introduces a purpose clause.

“he might fill” — aorist active subjunctive of the verb plhrow. In this passage plhrow means three things: to fully possess. That the believer possess potentially all of the super-grace blessings designed for us in eternity past. In other words, were it not for the ascension there would be no super-grace blessing but because of the ascension there is. It also means to fill up a deficiency. The believer’s deficiency after salvation is the super-grace status — occupation with Christ, super-grace capacity and super-grace blessing. It also means to fill up with a certain quality. The super-grace believer is filled with the highest quality of spiritual and material things. The aorist tense of this verb is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the super-grace believer in its entirety. It takes up the super-grace status from the point of entry to the Christian life to the attainment of the super-grace life. The active voice: Christ after the ascension is represented as producing the action of the verb. it is the Lord Jesus Christ who has unlocked the door to super-grace living and blessings for each believer. The subjunctive mood is a reminder that super-grace is not automatic. The potential subjunctive indicates the fact that while the super-grace blessings were designed in eternity past and provided, that at the present moment the Lord Jesus Christ is tapping His foot waiting to give us these things, it is only provided for those who reach the super-grace status. And this demands a consistent positive volition toward Bible doctrine. The potentiality does not become a reality until the believer continues to GAP it all the way.

The doctrine of plhrow gives at least nine different usages of the word.

a) In Luke 2:40 we have the function of GAP on the part of the humanity of Christ. He erected an ECS and entered the super-grace life. The Church Age believer — Ephesians 3:19; 4:10; Colossians 1:9.

b) It is used for the believer controlled by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit — Ephesians 5:18. We are commanded to be filled with the Spirit.

c) It is used for the fulfillment of the law through the filling of the Spirit — Romans 8:4; Galatians 5:14. As believers in this dispensation we are not under the law, we are under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit.

d) It is used for the reception of the super-grace blessings for the super-grace believer — Ephesians 4:10; 3:19.

e) It is also used in the doctrine of right man, right woman. There is an analogy between the doctrine of right man, right woman and the body of Christ being filled by Christ — Ephesians 1:23; Colossians 2:10.

f) The verb plhrow is used for the pastor-teacher communicating doctrine to his congregation — Colossians 1:25. In that sense he is the aggressor and the teacher. The congregation listen and become those who are blessed by it, and they are fulfilled in the sense of receiving Bible doctrine which contributes to their growth and entrance into the super-grace life.

g) It is used for the priestly function of the believer in giving money to establish the financial security of the pastor who is then released to study and teach and fulfill his purpose. Philippians 4:18.

h) It is used for the production of divine good in the super-grace status — Philippians 1:11; Revelation 3:2.

i) It is used for the completion of the top floor of the ECS resulting in the entrance to the super-grace life — 1 John 1:4 cf. Philippians 4:4.

“all things” — the accusative of direct object with the definite article paj. In the neuter gender which we have here this refers to the blessings of super-grace, to sharing God’s happiness.

Translation: “The one having descended is the same person also as the one having ascended far above all the heavens, in order that he might fill up the deficiency with a certain quality of the all things.”

Verse 11 — the source of super-grace. This is the direct source, the absolute source is Jesus Christ. The direct, the immediate source, is the pastor-teacher who communicates Bible doctrine.

“And” resumes the discourse on the other side of the parenthesis. This is the continuative use of the conjunction kai. As a result of His strategic victory and as a result of providing for the Old Testament saints He has made a permanent and continuous provision for each one of us, the spiritual food which Jesus described: “Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”

“he gave” — aorist active of didomi, meaning to give, indicates the principle. This is a culminative aorist, it views the giving of spiritual gifts for the purpose of leading the believer to super-grace in its entirety, but it emphasises the existing results. It views the results of GAP. As a result, for example, of the ascension of Christ He left behind communicators so that believers could reach super-grace. We have in this culminative aorist:

a) Pastor-teachers have been provided.

b) Pastor-teachers communicate doctrine.

c) As you respond and receive that doctrine you reach super-grace, so the ultimate objective is the super-grace life which glorifies God.

The active voice: Christ initially and after Pentecost produced a certain number of communication gifts which continue right down to the present time. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. There are those who have the communication gift, that on which you depend for reaching super-grace. No one has ever reached super-grace on his own. You cannot read the Bible and grow up! It has to be taught to you.

“some” — masculine accusative plural of the definite article o(. The “some” here is in the masculine gender only. God does not give the communicating gift to women. Why? Women are under the authority of men and therefore it breaks every concept of authority. It goes counter to all systems of authority set up by God. No woman has ever received a communication gift from God. This is used with a couple of particles, men and de. That means there are alternative groups who receive these things. Hence, it is translated “[he gave] some, [he gave] others, [he gave] others.” This is the accusative of direct object and the fact that male believers receive these communication gifts is brought out by that fact. Furthermore, we have touj men plus touj de to indicate very specialised gifts to implement a deficiency. You are born again into the family of God without super-grace. You are deficient of doctrine which is the basis of super-grace. God, therefore, has provided in a gracious way the gift of apostle (before the completion of the canon of scripture), and then the post-canon gifts. These specialised gifts fulfill the deficiency mentioned by plhrow in the previous verse. So this paragraph introduces communication gifts designed to lead members of the royal family to the super-grace life.

“apostles” — the accusative plural of the noun a)postoloj.

The doctrine of apostleship

1. A)postoloj does not mean one sent. The meaning of a word is determined by its usage. A)postoloj was the highest ranking officer in the Athenian navy. It was the Spartans who saw that they could not defeat the Athenian navy and since they had accumulated great wealth they decided to bribe Athenian admirals to throw the victory to the Spartans. Therefore the council in Athens came up with a plan. Just as the Athenian fleet was about to leave one of six men would be appointed in command of the fleet, so that no one knew ahead of time which of the six would be appointed. He is then escorted to his ship under guard and is called a)postoloj, the one who has absolute authority. It is used in the New Testament for the highest spiritual gift and the highest authority ever given. It is the gift of absolute spiritual dictatorship — 1 Corinthians 12:11,28; Ephesians 4:11.

2. The function of apostles. Since the gift carried absolute authority it was designed to carry the church during its formative years, from 30-96 AD or the pre-canon period of church history. The functions can be classified under two categories: a) Apostles or someone closely associated with an apostle were the writers of New Testament scriptures. Their first function was the formation of the New Testament canon. b) The apostles established local churches, communicated doctrine verbally, appointed and trained pastors, and acted as policy-makers prior to the completion of the canon. Apostles had authority over all churches.

3. The time of appointment. Apostles were not appointed until after the resurrection of Christ and the completion of the strategic victory of the angelic conflict. This we know by comparing Ephesians 4:8 with 4:11.

4. The extent of the gift. The gift of apostleship carried as much authority as God ever gave to anyone in the Church Age. The apostles had authority over all the local churches in contrast to the pastor who has authority over only one local church. Apostleship, however, was temporary and was removed when the canon of scripture was completed. Today all local churches are autonomous with authority vested in the complete canon of scripture and the local pastor-teacher.

5. Distinction between apostles to Israel and apostles to the Church. In Matthew chapter ten Jesus appointed apostles to Israel, not to the Church — before His death, burial, ascension and session, in the Age of Israel. The fact that eleven of these twelve survived and became apostles in the church is only incidental. They were commanded to go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. However, in Acts chapter one we have a travesty at the first meeting before Pentecost when they decided to elect someone to replace Judas Iscariot. Apostles are appointed by God, they are not elected by people — Ephesians 4:11.

6. The qualification of apostles. Apostles were qualified by receiving the gift of apostleship from Jesus Christ — Ephesians 4:11. After initial appointments the selection of other spiritual gifts came from the sovereign ministry of the Holy Spirit — 1 Corinthians 12:11. Furthermore, to qualify all apostles had to be eyewitnesses to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This qualified the eleven but Paul was qualified by the Damascus road experience where he saw the resurrected Christ — Acts 1:22 cf. 1 Corinthians 9:1; 15:8,9.

7. The identification of apostles. Apostolic authority resided in certain gifts that accompanied. Every apostle had an ID card which was some temporary gift to establish authority, some gift whereby the authority of the apostle would be recognised. The three gifts most prominently used as ID cards were miracles, healing, and tongues. Acts 5:15; 16:16-18; 28:8,9. Once the authority of the apostle was established his ID card was taken back and these gifts were removed. For example, the apostle Paul had the gift of healing — Acts 19:11,12 — but once it was established that he was an apostle he lost the gift so that he could not heal Epaphroditus who was dying — Philippians 2:27, his dear friend Trophimus whom he had to leave behind — 2 Timothy 4:20.

8. The roster of apostles: The twelve to Israel minus Judas Iscariot. Paul is the twelfth apostle to replace Judas — 1 Corinthians 15:7-10.

9. The delegation of the apostolic authority. Apostles had authority to delegate to certain believers their authority so that they would exercise temporarily apostolic authority when they went on apostolic missions. For example, Barnabas — Acts 14:14; Galatians 2:9; John Mark whom Peter designated in the writing of the second Gospel; James, the Lord’s half-brother was delegated by the Lord in the writing of the book of James, and this is also true of Jude, another of the Lord’s half-brothers. James is delegated apostolic authority so that he could write — 1 Corinthians 15:7; Galatians 1:19. Apollos was Paul’s delegate to Corinth — 1 Corinthians 4:6,9; Sylvanus and Timothy are mentioned as Paul’s delegates in 1 Thessalonians 1:1; 2:6. The apostles, therefore, did have the authority under certain conditions to delegate authority to certain people so that in that mission they could actually use apostolic authority.

“and some prophets” — the accusative plural of profhthj. Prophecy was a temporary gift, like apostleship. The temporary gift was used for communicating eschatological doctrine and relating the early church to its historical orientation. The historical orientation demanded the rise of certain prophets in the Church to explain the dramatic interruption of the Jewish Age, to explain it related to the angelic conflict, the strategic victory of Christ, on to the tactical victory, and to show where the Church was going [Rapture of the Church], what would follow in the Tribulation and second advent. The gift was removed after the completion of the canon according to 1 Corinthians 13:8 so that the are no prophets in the church today, the gift of prophecy is gone.

Verse 11 — the post-canon communicators. The completion of the canon of scripture removed the need for either apostleship or the gift of prophecy. Therefore there are two kinds of communicators as far as spiritual gift is concerned. The first one is a very specialised type and is to be used outside of the local church, not inside. “And some, evangelists” — we have that Greek phrase touj de which means “and others,” rather than some. So, “to others he gave the gift of evangelism,” the accusative plural of the direct object from e)uaggelisthj. The is a very specialised type of gift. We have the idea that every pastor is supposed to do the work of an evangelist and that is not correct. The fact that pastors communicate the gospel is perfectly legitimate and in view of the fact that they teach all portions of the Word of God. Evangelism under the spiritual gift is to be accomplished outside of the local church. The evangelist has absolutely no authority in the local church. All authority is vested in the pastor-teacher who is the final authority in the local church, and the administration is executed by the deacons. There is no place for an evangelist either on the board of deacons or as the pastor-teacher of the local church. His ministry should be entirely outside of the local church. This does not mean that he does not receive support and encouragement from those who are believers, he does; but his ministry is actually to be conducted outside of the local church. The gift of evangelism, then, has to be summarised as a special communication gift which is confined to the presentation of the gospel only. His ministry is entirely to unbelievers.

“and some, pastors and teachers” — touj, the accusative masculine plural of the definite article, plus de means “and to others; “pastors and teachers” — the word “pastor” is the accusative plural of poimhn which means “shepherd,” and pastor is an old English word for shepherd. The word poimhn emphasises the authority of the one who possesses this gift in the local church. This does not mean that everyone who has the gift of pastor-teacher in a local church has authority. The word “and” is the ascensive use of kai. The ascensive use of kai is simply an hyphen. There are no such punctuation markings in ancient languages, therefore kai acts as a hyphen and shows that pastor is only a part of the title and that this is a hyphenated gift. The other part is the accusative plural of the noun didaskaloj which is correctly translated teacher. However, didaskaloj is one of those words that is clearly defined for us from etymology of the ancient world. It does refer to one person teaching a group and it does refer to monologue, not dialogue.

Translation: “And he gave some [male] members of the royal family, apostles; and others, prophets; and others, evangelists; and still others, pastor-teachers.”

The doctrine of pastor-teacher

1. Diakonoj connotes the principle of them pastor-teacher from the standpoint of service. It indicates that the pastor-teacher is in a profession, a very highly skilled, highly trained, and highly authorised profession; and that this profession of the communication of Bible doctrine requires a variety of types of training in order that the individual who possesses the gift will not have a stereotyped personality but will function under the principles which will be declared in this doctrine.

Diakonoj is used in a number of ways:

a) It is used always with authority in mind. Service, profession and authority are the meanings of diakonoj. Diakonoj is found in Romans 13:4 in a political sense for those who run a government, those who are rulers in a state, local or national.

b) The word is used in a general sense for every believer. Every believer is to be a professional in the sense of reaching the super-grace life. Being a believer is a full time job for everyone. All 24 hours of the day he is to be a professional as far as service for the Lord is concerned. Professional should characterise the believer’s life, and being a super-grace believer taking in doctrine consistently makes him a professional. 2 Corinthians 3:6;4:1; 6:3,18.

c) Sometimes the word refers to those who have some spiritual gift of administration, and in this administration they are to be professional in their function of the local church. Whenever diakonoj is used in that sense it is transliterated by the word “deacon.” A deacon is an administrator — Philippians 1:1; 1 Timothy 3:8-13. He is an administrator under the pastor and his function is generally administration. The policy-maker is the pastor and whatever policy is made by deacons it is made within the framework of that which has been declared in the pulpit teaching of any particular local church.

d) The pastor-teacher has both authority and the communication of the Word of God. He must also be professional in the sense of being an accurate and correct student of the Word of God. 1 Corinthians 3:5; Ephesians 3:7; Colossians 1:7,23; 4:7; 1 Thessalonians 3:2; 1 Timothy 1:12; Hebrews 6:10; Acts 6:4.

e) There is also an evil use of the word and that is Satan’s ministers — 2 Corinthians 11:15.

Generally speaking diakonoj when translated is translated “minister” but sometimes transliterated “deacon.”

2. There are other words by which the pastor-teacher is identified. Each one deals with the principle of authority and some function. There are three other words or phrases. The first deals with the authority of his person, the second with the authority of his policy, and the third the authority of his message. Each one has a word or a phrase attached. In each case authority is the principle.

a) The authority of his person is the word translated in the English Bibles “elder,” but in the Greek is presbuteroj. This is the person of the pastor in the sense of having the final authority in the local church. He is the elder or the ruler of the local church. This use is found in 1 Timothy 5:17,19; Titus 1:5; James 5:14; 1 Peter 5:1.

b) The authority of his policy is usually found by the English word “bishop” and in the Greek is the word e)piskopoj — Philippians 1:1; 1 Timothy 3:2; Titus 1:7.

c) The authority of his message is in the passage we have just observed where we have two nouns in the accusative plural joined by a hyphenated kai — pastor or shepherd-teacher, poimhn and didaskaloj. This is the authority of his message.

3. Some synonymous identifications. All three of the above words are used interchangeably. For example, in Acts 20:17,28 all three of these words are used. In verse 17 we have the pastors at Ephesus called presbuteroi. Then in verse 28 the pastors at Ephesus are called bishops, e)piskopoi, and that is the authority of their policy. Then they are also told in verse 28 to shepherd the flock, the aorist active imperative of poimainw which is the verb cognate to poimhn, shepherd in our passage. The same aorist active imperative is also found in 1 Peter 5:2.

4. The appointment of the pastor-teacher — 1 Corinthians 12:11, God the Holy Spirit at the point of salvation sovereignly bestows this spiritual gift. 1 Corinthians 12:28 confirms it, also Ephesians 4:11 where at the beginning of the Church Age pastors were appointed by the Lord Jesus Christ. So it is the Lord’s sovereign decision, it not a part of any merit of the individual.

5. The principle of right pastor, right congregation is taught in 1 Peter chapter 5, especially verse 2. Every congregation has a right pastor and every pastor has a right congregation.

6. The authority of that right pastor is a great principle — Hebrews 13:7,17; 1 Thessalonians 5:12.

7. The concept of the pastor as the total product of grace is taught in 1 Corinthians 15:10; Ephesians 3:7; 1 Timothy 1:12,16.

8. The reward of the pastor is found in Hebrews 6:10; 1 Peter 5:4.

9. There are many scriptures which document the existence of the pastor, the requirements, preparation, training, and all other concepts — Colossians 1:23-29; 1 Timothy 2:24-26; 3:1-9; Titus 1:6-9; Ephesians 3:7-13; 4:11,12.

One thing should be noted in some of these passages. No man has the right to function as a pastor-teacher if he is ruled by his wife, or ruled by any woman — his mother, his wife, his girlfriend, or any other dominant female personality in his periphery.

Verses 12 and 13 deal with the function of the pastor-teacher. What is his primary responsibility?

Verse 12 — the purpose of the gift of pastor-teacher. “For the perfecting” is the preposition proj plus the accusative of katartismoj. We have “for” two more times and it is not proj. The next two times we are going to see it as e)ij and e)ij. There is a reason for that. All of these three functions are not the same. We switch from proj to e)ij to show that the second function is really a specialised function for those who have the gift of pastor-teacher. They are not to be distinguished from other members of the congregation but they are in the congregation. And when you are fulfilling the teaching ministry to the congregation as a whole you are also fulfilling a special ministry to those who have the gift of pastor-teacher as specialists. So it is possible to train all members of the royal family in the local church and at the same time in the local church train certain members of the royal family who have the gift of pastor-teacher and are in the process of training. Therefore, for that reason verse 12 has three prepositional phrases. Proj plus katartismoj and then two e)ij prepositional phrases. Katartismoj means to train and equip for combat. The combat is the angelic conflict, the intensified stage of the angelic conflict. The combat takes cognisance of the fact that all believers in this dispensation are members of the royal family and living in the intensified stage of the angelic conflict it is extremely important for them to be trained for combat, to be trained for life. In effect, that is what katartismoj means, to train you to live as a member of the royal family on this earth. So training and equipping is the concept. This training and equipping comes through the teaching of Bible doctrine, not through counselling, not through church programs, etc. Proj plus the accusative here connotes a goal aimed at or striven for. It means to strive or to move toward the goal with conscious purpose. It should be translated, therefore, “For the purpose of training and equipping the saints for combat.” The genitive of relationship of a(gioj is used here for you and I as members of the royal family. While it is a plural and while it is a descriptive genitive it is used in the sense of indicating who is to be trained or which ones are to be trained by the pastor.

“for the work of the ministry” — the change of prepositions demands that we recognise here a special group of people in the congregation. “For the work” is e)ij plus the accusative of e)rgon. While e)rgon can be “work” it has many other meanings. For example, e)rgon is used for a vocation or occupation. That is the meaning here, recognising that the pastor-teacher is a professional type person — “for the vocation [or occupation] of the ministry.” E)ij plus the accusative also denotes purpose, so it is “for the purpose of the vocation of the ministry.”

Summary

The word e)rgon plus diakonia in the genitive is a descriptive genitive singular, it denotes a male member of the royal family who sits in the congregation with everyone else but he is different in that as of the moment of salvation he received the gift of pastor-teacher. He is to be prepared in the classroom of the local church.

1. The vocation of the ministry refers to that doctrinal training and teaching inside the local church whereby those who have the gift of pastor teacher mature to the point of recognising their spiritual gift.

2. There are always a certain number of males in every local church who possess the gift of pastor-teacher.

3. Through the daily function of GAP they come to recognise the fact of having the gift and therefore intensify their efforts.

4. Having recognised the fact that they possess the gift they intensify their study of the Word of God in preparation for the ministry of the Word.

5. How did they do it in the ancient world becomes a question at this point? They had no theological seminaries, no colleges of note. In the early church the pastors were trained in two ways. First, they were trained under the apostles. The apostle Paul had his own travelling seminary. When he called Timothy his son, he was actually calling him a theological student. “Son” is used for a student in a seminary. Then there were others who were trained locally in a local church. So all “seminaries” fell into one of these two categories. Then in the middle ages we have the rise of scholasticism and the rise of universities where men were trained for the ministry. So we have gradually developing in the Church Age academic concepts. So the rise of theological seminaries can be traced to the middle ages.

Verse 12b — there is a third prepositional phrase which is the second category: “for the edifying of the body of Christ.” This is another e)ij preposition plus the accusative of o)ikodomh, correctly translated “edification.” It must be understood that it refers to the edification complex of the soul [ECS] — “for the purpose of edification.” Who is to be edified? All believers in the local church are to be edified and they are called here “the body of Christ” to relate them to the royal priesthood. “Of the body of Christ” — tou swmatoj tou Xristou is actually a couple of genitives: tou swmatoj is a genitive of relationship. It is our relationship to the Lord, we are body of Christ as members of the royal priesthood on the earth; tou Xristou is a descriptive genitive — to whom the body belongs.

Summary

1. Note that each prepositional phrase carries a different emphasis. The first prepositional phrase has a summary emphasis, proj. It indicates the general purpose for all believers of the royal family as long as they remain on earth — to be trained, to be prepared for combat. The next two phrases begin with the preposition e)ij indicating a categorical breakdown of the congregation into two parts: certain males with the gift of pastor-teacher and the congregation in general.

2. While the pastor candidates are in the body of Christ they are separate in the sense that their doctrinal perception is designed for additional training in keeping with their future vocation.

3. All members of the royal family must be trained and equipped for combat plus the ECS.

4. Combat plus edification plus super-grace is the objective for all members of the royal family, therefore pastor-teachers must be trained in their occupation so that they can perform their part, i.e. To provide the information by which everyone develops and ECS and enters into the super-grace life.

The doctrine of the edification complex of the soul [ECS]

1. By definition, the construction of a house or a backbone of the soul occurs through the intake of doctrine. E)pignwsij residing in the soul and the spirit is the basis for constructing a house or backbone for the soul. The ECS is the bridge to super-grace. The consistent function of GAP under the authority of the believer’s right pastor is the basis for the construction of the ECS. This is emphasised in Ephesians 3:16-21; 4:11-13.

2. To understand the ECS as a structure in the soul, a little work on the etymology of the Greek. Our word is e)ij plus the accusative of o)ikodomh. O)ikodomh is made of two words: o)ikoj = a house or a temple; demo = a Classical Greek word for construction. So it means the erection of a temple, the erection of a structure, the building of a structure. O)ikodomh is used in Ephesians 4:12,16,29. A similar word o)ikodomia is the result of construction. The resultant construction of the ECS is the entrance into the super-grace life — 1 Timothy 1:4. O)ikodomoj emphasises the building and the one who builds it. It refers to the contractor which is doctrine — Acts 4:11.

3. The structure of the ECS. When doctrine is taught it becomes gnwsij, but by becoming gnwsij it can immediately become others things. If the individual listening to the doctrine is hypersensitive, subjective in any possible way then anything that touches a subjective nerve in the soul causes that individual to operate under dokew which is subjective thinking. That immediately eliminates any possibility of utilising the doctrine just learned in the ECS or advancing toward super-grace. Gnwsij must become and must remain immediately objective thinking or fronew. Fronew plus volition or faith transfers it to the human spirit and immediately changes it into e)pignwsij. Then e)pignwsij is sucked into the right lobe into the frame of reference, and there are two valves, one at each end of the memory centre. One valve processes it into vocabulary and categories and the other valve into the norms and standards, and all feed into the launching pad. This is important because we are going to see that scar tissue is not in the lungs of the soul but in the heart, the right lobe. So e)pignwsij is the basis for advance in the Christian life.

E)pignwsij is also known as sunihmi which means to know the underlying laws, the meaning of an object, the technical knowledge, and when e)pignwsij enters the human spirit it becomes sunihmi, and as sunihmi and e)pignwsij the construction of the ECS begins. The first floor, then, is grace orientation. This is absolutely essential. Without this floor you can’t function in anything. Grace orientation make it possible to advance when sooner or later there is conflict from the norms and standards of your soul and what is taught from the Word of God. The mastery of the details of life is almost a result of grace orientation. However, the relaxed mental attitude is not. The RMA means doctrine must conquer subjectivity in the life. Next we have the capacity for love in which the structure is almost completed, and that means category #1, category #2, and category #3 love. If you have capacity for one you have capacity for all. Finally we have the penthouse, +H, and from there entrance into the super-grace life. The believer enters the super-grace life after completion of the top floor; +H is sharing God’s happiness.

4. The usage of the word “edification.” a) One of the objectives of the pastor’s teaching of doctrine is the erection of the ECS, therefore the first use of edification is technical. In its technicality it means a complex structure in the soul — Ephesians 4:11,12. b) It has a general meaning. The local church with a maximum number of ECSs is a prosperous church — Acts 9:31. c) The objective of phase two is the ECS, not speaking in tongues — 1 Corinthians 14:3,4,12, 26. The thing that shows that you are advancing is not speaking in tongues but the construction of the ECS. d) Human knowledge or gnwsij puffs up while knowledge of doctrine through GAP edifies. So 1 Corinthians 8:1 distinguishes between the type of knowledge that causes you to advance and grow up and the type of knowledge of doctrine that causes you not to. It has nothing to do with academic learning.

5. The humanity of Christ possessed an ECS during the incarnation — Luke 2:40,52; John 1:14.

6. Rapid construction of an ECS comes from GAP under maximum pressure — James 1:2-4.

7. Relationship to the national entity is a very important factor. Your ECS has a lot to do with the condition of the country. The believer in the royal family has that privilege of developing through doctrine an ECS which provides personal stability and national stability. In tact, if there are enough ECSs the country is preserved in spite of the idiocy of its government, the men who are running it. All freedom gained by the military on the battlefield is exploited by the believer erecting an ECS — Jeremiah 42:10 states the principle.

8. There are a few synonyms for the ECS. a) The word “light” — Psalm 43; 119:130; Ephesians 5:8,9,13.

b) “Christ formed in you” — Galatians 4:19. c) The “new man” — Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 3:10. d) The “perfect work” — James 1:4. e) “Imitators of God” — Ephesians 5:1, as per the Greek.

9. The ECS has a direct relationship to the super-grace life. Just before everyone reaches super-grace there is a great chasm he must cross. On the other side is the super-grace life. Across the chasm is a bridge, and that bridge is the ECS. The top floor of the ECS takes you right into super-grace, as per Philippians 4:4 cf. 1 John 1:4.

10. Two spirits are vital in the construction of the ECS. The Holy Spirit makes GAP function; the human spirit is the converter of building material in the function of GAP. The Holy Spirit — John 14:26; 16:12-14; 1 Corinthians 2:9-16; 1 John 2:27. GAP is the source of the ECS — Ephesians 4:12,13. For the human spirit as the target for GAP — Job 32:8; Romans 8:16; 1 Corinthians 2:12,13. Doctrine stored in the human spirit is used for construction material of the ECS — Ephesians 4:23,24; Colossians 1:9,10; 1 John 2:3.

Verse 13 — the attainment of super-grace comes through the teaching of the pastor-teacher, the communication of Bible doctrine. “Till” is an adverb, mekri, used as a conjunction related to time and it indicates the fact that if one is faithful in the teaching of the Word of God and you are faithful in coming to hear that teaching inevitably and eventually you will reach super-grace.

“we all” is the nominative plural paj plus the definite article used as a pronoun. When the definite article is used as a pronoun it gives great emphasis to the passage and reminds us once again that since the day we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ we are members of the royal family of God. We are members of royalty forever.

“come” is mistranslated in the KJV. It is the aorist active subjunctive of the verb katantaw and it means to cross the goal line, to arrive at a goal, to attain or reach a goal. The goal being super-grace here. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist which views the advance to super-grace in its entirety through the function of GAP but emphasises the existing results of the blessings of super-grace. The culminative aorist is the actual attaining of the super-grace status. That means occupation with the person of Jesus Christ, that you have the capacity to love the Lord Jesus Christ. It means also the capacity for super-grace blessings. And then it means the actual giving of super-grace blessings, where believers become wealthy, successful, promoted, prosperous. It is the point at which the believer shares the happiness of God, where believers become famous, have leadership ability divinely bestowed, and so on. So this is the point of great prosperity and blessing. We have a subjunctive mod, the super-grace blessings designed in eternity past for time are potential until such time that the believer has capacity for them. Apart from the function of GAP, listening to Bible teaching, there is no possible way to reach the goal designed by God.

“in the unity” is incorrect. It is the preposition e)ij plus the accusative of e)nothj which means ‘unity’ but it should be translated “because of the unity.” This word ‘unity’ can also be translated ‘oneness,’ and whatever unity or oneness means here is described next by a genitive singular plus the definite article of the noun pistij which has two meanings: trust, and it also means what is believed or doctrine. Here it means doctrine — “because of the oneness [unity] of doctrine.”

“and of the knowledge” — the word for knowledge here is the genitive singular of e)pignwsij and it refers specifically to the principle of occupation with the person of Christ. No one can love Jesus Christ unless they know doctrine. Knowledge of Jesus Christ comes through Bible doctrine and this knowledge becomes capacity for love in the soul. All true love come from the soul of the individual.

“unto a perfect man” is how we are described in super-grace — e)ij plus the accusative of the adjective teleioj and the noun a)nhr used for a noble man. These three words should be translated “unto a mature man” or “with reference to a mature man.” The super-grace believer is described not as the perfect man but as the mature man. Super-grace is the status of maturity in the Christian way of life.

“unto the measure” — a prepositional phrase, e)ij plus the accusative of metroj and it expresses equivalency or standard: “to the standard.”

“of the stature” — descriptive genitive of h(likia meaning ‘full age,’ therefore maturity: “to the standard of the maturity.”

“of the fullness of Christ” — possessive genitive of plhrwma. Jesus Christ went this way before. He went this way in His humanity and it is called here ‘fullness of the Christ.’

Translation: “Until we all [members of the royal family] have attained the goal of super-grace, because of the consistency of the doctrine [being taught] of the e)pignwsij of the Son of God, with reference to the mature man [the believer is now occupied with Christ], to the standard of the maturity [super-grace status] which belongs to the fullness [super-grace] of the Christ.”

This is what you might call following in the footsteps of the Lord. You don’t follow in the footsteps of the Lord by turning the other cheek, you do it by taking in Bible doctrine until you attain the maturity which belongs to the royal family — super-grace life. This means that there must be progress instead of retrogression. In order for this to occur there is in verse 14 a warning.

Verse 14 — a warning to avoid reversionism. “That” is the conjunction i(na plus the subjunctive mood and it is used for a purpose clause: “In order that.”

“be no longer” is “we no longer be” — present active subjunctive of e)imi plus a negative adverb mhketi. The present tense is a static present used to represent a condition assumed as perpetually existing: perpetually in a state of childishness. The active voice: the royal family produces the action of the verb. It is inconsistent for us as believers to be childish in our attitudes. The subjunctive mood is the subjunctive of prohibition.

“children” — predicate nominate plural from nhpoij. This is in contrast to a)nhr which means nobleman, and nhpoij means ‘childish.’ It refers to a person who is childish in his thinking, no matter what his chronological age may be. This means:

1. It is used for immaturity spiritually, for the various stages of reversionism.

2. To be childish means to be encumbered with reactor factors — disillusion, boredom, discouragement, self-pity, frustration, and filled with mental attitude sins which intensify them.

3. To Be childish is to be on a frantic search for happiness, emotional revolt, negative volition, blackout of the soul, practicing reverse process reversionism.

4. The scar tissue of the soul presented in verses 17-19 is anticipated by this exhortation.

Three illustrations:

“tossed to and fro” — present passive participle of kludwizomai which is used for a ship out of control at the mercy of the wind and the waves. It means to be tossed by waves. The storm of a succession of waves or rough water is called kludwn by Homer. This is where we get the verb. It refers to the pressures of self-induced misery and divine discipline to the reversionistic believer. The reversionistic believer is caught and will succumb to every wind and wave that comes along. He cannot handle the storms of life. The present tense is a retroactive progressive present which describes that which has occurred in the past and continues right up to the present. The Ephesian believers, or many of them, were in this status. The passive voice: the reversionistic believer of the royal family receives the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial describing conditions which accompany reversionism.

The second nautical analogy has to do with being out of control in a storm: “and carried about” — present passive participle periferw which means to be carried here and there. Again, we have a retroactive progressive present to indicate that at the time that this was written so were many believers in the area of Ephesus. The passive voice: the reversionistic believer receives the action of the verb, being carried around by false doctrine. The participle is circumstantial to indicate the influence of false doctrine and the receptivity of false doctrine by those in reversionism.

“by every wind of doctrine” — this means false doctrine.

Summary

1. False doctrine is called in 1 Timothy 4:1 ‘doctrine of demons.’ It is the doctrine which enters the vacuum of the soul of the negative believer.

2. It enters the nouj or the left lobe.

3. The vacuum through which the false doctrine enters is called in verse 17 mataiothj, translated vanity or emptiness.

“by the slight” is a gambling metaphor — e)n plus the instrumental of kubeia, it means ‘by means of.’ Kubeia is taken from the word kuboj, singular. So this denotes gambling but it also denotes gambling and cheating; “of men” — descriptive genitive plural of a)nqrwpoj to indicate a category. The men involved here are gamblers who make their living by loading the dice.

“and cunning craftiness” — the preposition e)n plus the locative of panourgia which means to cheat. This should be translated “in the sphere of cheating.” The reversionistic believer, then, is shooting craps with the devil and the devil has loaded the dice, as it were, with false doctrine. The devil cheats those members of the royal family who neglect and reject Bible doctrine. Your neglect of Bible doctrine inevitably results in being outsmarted by the devil. False doctrine loads the dice.

“whereby” is proj plus the accusative means here ‘face to face with’ or ‘against.’

“they lie in wait to deceive” is incorrect. We have proj thn meqodeian in the accusative. Meqodeian comes from meqodeia which means deceitful strategy. It has a connotation of deceit. Then there is also a genitive with this, planh with the definite article and it means deceit. So we are to understand twice that deceit is involved here. So we might translate this “against the deceitful strategy of deception” or “against the cunning method of deception” or “face to face with the cunning method of deception.” The reversionist is face to face with a cunning method of deception. He cannot hold his own against Satanic ideas, they infiltrate his left lobe with Satanic viewpoint. He is face to face, then, not with doctrine but with deception. Therefore he is cheated, he is a sucker, he is in the royal family and yet he is completely out of it as far as the angelic conflict is concerned. Under those conditions there is no hope of moving into the super-grace life. Without Bible doctrine no member of the royal family can cope with life in phase two. Therefore doctrine is the very air we breathe, it is our very life as believers, and without doctrine we enter into this system of false doctrine. Under this system of false doctrine the believer has really had it because he begins to think like a liberal, like a weirdo.

Translation: “In order that we no longer be immature ones [childish reversionists], being tossed here and there by waves [instability], being carried here and there by every wind of the [false] doctrine, by the dice-playing of the men in cheating, face to face with the cunning method of the deception. ”

Summary

1. The childish believer (reversionist) is compared to a ship out of control in a storm and foundering to indicate his instability, and this instability is related to the reactor factors of life. An unstable person reacts.

2. The childish reversionist is compared to a sucker in a crap game playing against the house with loaded dice. This means that no matter how smart you are, or think you are, you cannot hold up against the opening of mataiothj, the infiltration of demon doctrine into your soul. Your only hope is GAPing it with Bible doctrine.

3. No matter how you slice it the odds are totally against the reversionistic believer.

4. The two analogies (naval and gambling) are designed to awaken the reversionist to his status, to encourage him to change his mind toward doctrine and to recover through the function of GAP.

Verse 15 — the principle of the growing believer. “But” is the conjunction de. This is for the growing believer. “But on the other hand.” All believers aren’t reversionistic, just 90% of them today! So there is a contrast between a reversionistic believer who is missing the boat in the previous verse and the member of the royal family who is progressing under the consistent intake of doctrine.

“speaking the truth” — present active participle a)lhqeuw which means to communicate truth, and it is addressed to the pastor. It means to communicate it to persons. It also means to live by the truth or doctrine, or to teach doctrine. Here it means to teach doctrine. “But teaching doctrine,” says the present active participle. The present tense is a customary present used for that which should habitually occur, namely the teaching of doctrine to the royal family. There are only two things that hinder this participle being fulfilled: a) a pastor-teacher who won’t study and who does not consistently teach the Word of God; b) the member of the royal family on negative signals toward doctrine. The active voice:

the pastor-teacher produces the action of the verb by teaching doctrine in the local church to the royal family assembled as priests. The participle is the instrumental participle and indicates the method by which the action of the verb is accomplished, it is by teaching doctrine that we grow up.

“in love” — this is the love of the pastor-teacher. It is e)n plus the locative of a)gaph which is “in the sphere of love.” What does a)gaph mean? It means a relaxed mental attitude.

“may grow up” is incorrect, a)ucanw means to cause to grow. There is a difference between growing and causing to grow. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It takes the occurrence of growth to super-grace and regardless of its extent or duration and gathers it into a single whole. The active voice: the royal family of believer priests produce the action of the verb by the daily function of GAP under a pastor-teacher. The subjunctive mood is potential, depending upon attitude toward doctrinal teaching of the right pastor.

“unto him” should be translated “with reference to him,” e)ij plus the accusative of a)utoj which is an intensive pronoun and as an intensive pronoun has many uses. Here it is used as a personal pronoun with great emphasis on the person. The person involved is, of course, the Lord Jesus Christ. It refers back to the last half of verse 13 where we had the word plhrwma. So “cause to grow up with reference to him” refers to the plhrwma of verse 13, the super-grace blessings.

“in all things” — paj plus the definite article to indicate this word has been previously emphasised: “the all things.” In the neuter this refers to Bible doctrine. The adverbial accusative here does not directly compliment the verb but rather qualifies it an indirect way. This is an adverbial accusative of manner in the Greek translated like an instrumental. The accusative neuter of paj with the definite article refers to all the doctrine that goes into your soul and stays there causing you to grow up spiritually — “by the all things of doctrine with reference to him” is the way it should read from the Greek.

“which is the head” — literally, “who.” The relative pronoun has as its antecedent the Lord Jesus Christ previously mentioned by the intensive pronoun — “who keeps on being the head.”Chapter 4:15

Translation of verse 14 — “In order that we no longer be immature ones [childish reversionists], being tossed here and there by waves, and being carried here and there by every wind of ]false] doctrine, by the dice-playing of men in cheating, face to face with the cunning method of the deception.”

Verse 15 — “But speaking the truth.” Present active participle a)lhqeuw means literally, “teaching doctrine.” The present tense is a customary present since this is always what God has designed the gift of pastor-teacher for. The active voice: the pastor-teacher produces the action of the verb. The participle is instrumental and therefore should be translated, “But by teaching doctrine in the sphere of love [relaxed mental attitude], may cause to grow up.” Doctrine causes the believer to grow up. It is the intake of doctrine that does the growing though. Seed stored does not grow; seed in the ground is what grows. So Bible doctrine must be in the soul before you can grow up. That is why we have the constative aorist contemplating the action of the verb in its entirety, taking the occurrence of growth to super-grace regardless of its extent or duration, gathering it into a single whole or entirety. The royal family of believer priests produces the action by listening to the right pastor-teacher. The subjunctive mood is potential, it depends upon finding your right pastor-teacher and depends upon your attitude to doctrine once you find him.

“into him” — should be “with reference to him.” The intensive pronoun refers to the Lord Jesus Christ. It also refers back to plhrwma in verse 13.

“in all things” is actually a reference to Bible doctrine. The causing to grow up is based upon Bible doctrine. The causative concept must be emphasised.

The importance of Bible doctrine to the believer priest

Every believer is a member of the royal family and therefore he must have the right perspective with regards to doctrine. There are false concepts whereby people think they can read the Bible for themselves and grow up. You cannot read the Bible for yourself, you cannot memorise it and grow up. All of this requires the function of a pastor-teacher who is released for the sole objective of studying and teaching, studying and teaching.

1. By definition, what is doctrine? Bible doctrine is the content of the canon of scripture derived from exegesis and classification of promises, principles and categories. Bible doctrine is called the mind of Christ — 1 Corinthians 2:16. Bible doctrine is the Word as it is taught. In content it is simply whatever the content may be, a promise, a principle, or some axiom, some historical description or narrative, but when it is communicated it is called doctrine.

2. A vocabulary is necessary. Six words are used for doctrine in the scripture.

a) The first is a Hebrew noun leqach. It means doctrine, learning, knowledge, i.e. what one receives into his mind or learns. This word is used for doctrine in Deuteronomy 32:2; Job 11:4; Proverbs 4:2; Isaiah 29:24.

b) A second Hebrew noun is musar. It means instruction or doctrine. It means you have doctrine that you have taken in — Job 10:8; Proverbs 1;2; 4:13; 23:23.

c) The Greek noun didaskalia means teaching or doctrine or what is taught from the scripture — Matthew 15:9; Ephesians 4:14; Colossians 2:22; 1 Timothy 1:10; for doctrine of demons in 1 Timothy 4:1; 1 Timothy 5:17; 6:1,3; 2 Timothy 3:10,16; 2 Timothy 4:3; Titus 1:9; 2:1,7,10. In other words, throughout the pastoral epistles, 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus, practically every time you see the word doctrine it refers to this noun didaskalia.

d) The Greek noun didaxh is the act of teaching or what is taught from the scripture — Matthew 7:28; 22:33; Mark 1:22,27; Acts 2:42; 5:48; Romans 6:17; 16:17; 1 Corinthians 14:6,26; 2 Timothy 4:2; Hebrews 6:2; Revelation 2:14,15,24.

e) The Greek noun logoj which has numerous correct and accurate meanings. In Hebrews 6:1 it refers to doctrine.

f) The Hebrew word shemuah means what is heard or doctrine — Isaiah 28:9.

3. Bible doctrine has a long history, a history that begins with God in eternity past — Proverbs chapter 8. Here is one passage that emphasises the importance of Bible doctrine. There is nothing more important in your life than doctrine as illustrated by this chapter in Proverbs.

Proverbs 8

Verse 1 — “Does not wisdom call.” The word for wisdom here is chakmah — it is the equivalent of the Greek sofia and it refers to the application of e)pignwsij doctrine or metabolised doctrine to experience. Chakmah is e)pignwsij. Wisdom calling is the application of doctrine to experience; “and understanding lift up her voice?”

Verse 2 — “On top of the high places on the street [doctrine was taught in city auditoriums], At intersections she takes a stand” — doctrine was taught outdoors in those days at places where people gathered. “She” refers to Bible doctrine.

Verse 3 — “Beside the gates leading to the city, At the entrance she communicates aloud.” They often had small auditoriums at the gates of cities.

Verse 4 — “To you, mankind, I call; And my voice [communication of doctrine] is to all mankind.”

Verse 5 — “You who are ignorant, learn doctrine [learning, of course, must precede thinking]; You who are fools [referring to negative volition], learn the importance of understanding [the importance of application of doctrine]”.

Verse 6 — “Hear [qal imperative from shamah — you have to hear, concentrate, listen], for I [doctrine] speak noble things; And the communication of my lips is virtue.”

Verse 7 — “For my mouth [the personification of doctrine] communicates truth; For my lips detest evil.”

Verse 8 — “All the words of my communication are integrity; Nothing is twisted or perverted in them.” [Twisting and reversion refers to false application of doctrine or misunderstanding of doctrine or the heresies that are passed for doctrine. If you are twisted in your understanding you are perverted in your thinking. If you are twisted in learning you are perverted in application.]

Verse 9 — “To those who understand [the hiphil participle of the verb bin — causative active voice, which means we are caused to understand. This is the ministry of God the Holy Spirit.] they are all to the point, And perspicuous to those who have obtained knowledge [the qal active participle of the verb matsa — to find].”

Verse 10 — “ Seize [laqach — to seize or to grab] my instruction, rather than silver [a matter of priorities]; And learning doctrine rather than choice gold.”

Verse 11 — “For wisdom is better than precious gems; And all desirable things cannot be compared with her [doctrine].”

The results of doctrine:

Verse 12 — “I wisdom have a lifestyle [once you begin to apply doctrine (thinking doctrine — once there is understanding then there is thinking) that develops a lifestyle] of prudence [amarmar — the ability to regulate and discipline one’s self to the exercise of reason and common sense. Reason is learning the principles and common sense is the application of it]. I find [or discover] knowledge and discernment [knowledge is understanding of doctrine; discernment is thinking or application of doctrine].”

Verse 13 — “To respect the Lord is to hate evil: I [doctrine] hate arrogance and pride, and perverted speech.”

Verse 14 — “Counsel and sound judgment belong to me [Note: You are not counselled by someone on the outside; you learn doctrine and a part of the application is to self. We apply doctrine toward God, toward people and toward self]: I have understanding and power [understanding is the noun binah — metabolised doctrine. Power — giborah, (strong and intrepid of soul) means application of doctrine].”

Verse 15 — “By me [Bible doctrine and the laws of divine establishment] kings rule [ruling is an application], And rulers make just laws [Application of establishment principles].”

Verse 16 — “By me princes govern, And all honourable judges of the land.”

Verse 17 — “I [doctrine] love those who love me [for doctrine to love you, learning it and understanding it isn’t enough; it is understanding it and thinking doctrine or learning and applying doctrine. You begin to love doctrine, not by learning it, but by applying it. Love is an application of knowledge.]; And those who diligently seek me [the piel participle of shachar. The piel is the intensive stem and it means concentration. You learn by concentration but you also apply doctrine through concentration.] will find me.”

Verse 18 — “With me are riches and honour [escrow blessings for time]; Enduring wealth and prosperity [escrow blessings for the eternal state].”

Verse 19 — “My fruit [production] is better than pure and fine gold; And my profit better than the choicest silver.”

Verse 20 — “I walk in the way of righteousness, along the path of virtue.”

Verse 21 — “To give an inheritance [the hiphil infinitive construct from the verb nachal — to cause to inherit] to those who love me [doctrine], And I will make their treasuries full.”

The dynamics of metabolised doctrine:

Verse 22 — “The Lord possessed me [doctrine] at the beginning of his work, Before his deeds of old [in other words, doctrine was in the mind of God before the creation of the universe].”

Verse 23 — “From eternity past I was established [the piel perfect of the verb nasak — I was poured in a mould. Established categorically would be a better translation. God thinks categorically! Absolute truth lends itself to categorical thinking; relative truth does not.] from the foundation of the earth.”

Verse 24 — “When there were no oceans, I [doctrine] was already formed; When as yet there were no springs abounding with water.”

Verse 25 — “Before the mountains were settled in place, Before the hills I [doctrine] was formed categorically:”

Verse 26 — “Before he made planet earth, or its fields, Or the sum total of the dust of the earth.”

Verse 27 — “When he established the heavens, I was there: When he marked out a horizon on the face of the deep:”

Verse 28 — “When he made the skies above: When he restrained the fountains of the deep.”

Verse 29 — “When he set the sea in its boundary, So that the water would not overflow his mandate: When he marked out the foundations of the earth:”

Verse 30 — “The I [Bible doctrine] was with him, as a designer of the work [creation]: Rejoicing always in his presence [Bible doctrine perceived, metabolised, applied is the true source of happiness in the devil’s world];

Verse 31 — “rejoicing in the world, his earth; And having my delight in the human race.”

Verse 32 — “Now therefore, human race, listen to me: Blessed [ashere — happiness] are those who guard my ways [the ways of doctrine].”

You have to start with understanding:

Verse 33 — “Hear instruction [understanding doctrine] and become wise [thinking doctrine and/or application of doctrine], Do not neglect it.”

Verse 34 — “Blessed [happiness] is the man who listens to me, Watching daily at my gates [the place of assembly worship], Waiting at my doors [when you really like it you wait for the doors to open].”

Verse 35 — “For he who finds me [doctrine] finds capacity for life [But remember: capacity for life is not just learning doctrine, it is application of doctrine], And obtains grace from the Lord.”

Verse 36 — “But he who misses me [Bible doctrine] injures himself: All who hate me [Bible doctrine] love the sin unto death.”

Inevitably, the person who stays with doctrine is going to come to the place of sharing God’s happiness. No matter how much misery and disappointment along the way, if you stick with it you are going to end up with +H.

4. Bible doctrine was received under the function of GAP — 1 Corinthians 2.

a) Bible doctrine received under the function of GAP produces confidence in phase two — Job 5:24-27; 2 Corinthians 5:6-8.

b) Doctrine produces divine viewpoint in the right lobe — Isaiah 55:7-9; 2 Corinthians 10:5.

c) It orients the believer to the plan of God — Isaiah 26:3,4; Romans 8:28.

d) It produces stability of mind — James 1:8.

e) It becomes the basis for divine guidance — Romans 12:2,3.

f) It leads to occupation with Christ in the super-grace life — Hebrews 12:2,3. Therefore Bible doctrine is the only way to know and to love Jesus Christ — 1 Corinthians 2:16 cf. Philippians 3:10; Ephesians 3:19.

5. The communication of Bible doctrine in the Church Age is the function of the pastor-teacher. He is the communicator and therefore he has the responsibility for the local church — Hebrews 13:7; Ephesians 4:11-13; Colossians 1:25-29.

6. The plan of God is vindicated through Bible doctrine — Romans 3:4.

7. Without Bible doctrine Satan corrupts the mind of believers — 2 Corinthians 11:13. This is accomplished through the doctrine of demons infiltrating under conditions of reversionism — 1 Timothy 4:1

8. Doctrine is the basis for deliverance in phase two — 1 Timothy 4:16.

“which is” — the nominative masculine singular of the relative pronoun o(j, the antecedent is the Lord Jesus Christ who is previously presented under the intensive pronoun a)utoj; plus the present active indicative of e)imi, meaning is, always ways, there never will be a time when He isn’t — “who is.” This is a dogmatic principle.

“the head” — the noun kefalh used as a predicate nominative. The word means “head.” It refers sometimes to that extension of the body above the neck where the soul is located, but it refers also to the one who is supreme, the one who is a chief, the one who is superior to all others in authority. And then to make sure that we understand what has gone before by way of the relative pronoun modifying and being antecedent to the intensive pronoun we have another word used in apposition .…

“Christ” — Xristoj, in apposition to “head.” So there is no question that Jesus Christ is the absolute and final authority in the body, that Jesus Christ is the only celebrity, that Jesus Christ in the unique one.

Translation: “But by teaching doctrine in the sphere of a relaxed mental attitude love, may cause to grow up by the all things of doctrine, with reference to him [Christ] who is the supreme chief, Christ.”

The doctrine of the head

There are seven principles found in the New Testament with regard to kefalh or the head.

1. Oaths by the head were prohibited by the New Testament. In other words, you couldn’t swear by your head — Matthew 5:36.

2. Divine care and protection of the believer is emphasised by the hairs of the head — Matthew 10:30; Luke 12:7; 21:18.

3. Blood on the head was a sign of taking responsibility for your own decisions in the New Testament — Acts 18:6. Blood on the head also indicates a sign of maturity because the mature person never tries to blame someone else for his own mistakes.

4. Coals of fire on the head is self-induced misery by trying to put someone else down, by trying to hurt someone else. It is a picture of non-retaliation, shifting judgment to the guilty one, putting it in the Lord’s hands — Romans 12:20.

5. Headship is also used in the concept of extreme authority, the man over the woman. The very fact of marriage means that the woman accepts the supreme authority of the male whom she loves. 1 Corinthians 11:3-10; Ephesians 5:23.

6. The word “head” is used for the rulers of empires. Heads are used for empires in Revelation chapters 13; 17:3-9.

7. But the way the word is used with maximum blessing associated is the headship of Jesus Christ. The headship of Jesus Christ is used in at least three different ways:

a) As the head of the corner Christ is the supreme ruler of Israel and the Church — Acts 4:11; 1 Peter 2:7.

b) Christ is said to be the head of the Church — Ephesians 1:22.23; 4:15; 5:23; Colossians 1:18.

c) Christ is said to be the head or absolute authority over all angels — Colossians 2:10.

Verse 16 — “From whom.” Jesus Christ is the source of something. He is the source of everything that is worthwhile in life. This is the preposition e)k plus the ablative of the relative pronoun o(j referring to the Lord Jesus Christ who is the head of the body, the supreme chief, the one who is superior forever, the King of kings.

“the whole body” — pan to swma means “all the body.” Paj and swma are nominative neuter singular here. There is also a nominative neuter definite article. This explains the mechanics of plhrwma in verse 10. “From the source of whom all the body.” Since Christ has been glorified through the ascension and session He must have a body to complete Him. Remember that Jesus Christ is in a state of being glorified forever. While God the Father was judging Him on the cross He was at an all-time low, He was not glorified. But then there were some changes. Three days later Jesus Christ rose again and He now has a body of incorruption. He made the triumphal procession. The victory was won, and therefore He went from earth to heaven. That is the triumphal procession. And when he arrived in heaven He was received as the victor. God the Father said to the humanity of Christ, “Sit thou at my right hand…” The interruption of the Age of Israel was to demonstrate this principle. Jesus Christ is in a state of glory, all he is doing while He is praying for you and for me, is waiting until His enemies are made His footstool which is the next phase of the strategic victory in the angelic conflict. In the meantime on this earth Jesus Christ must have a body, a royal family. He has to have someone with whom to share His glory. The Old Testament saints have received some fantastic things under super-grace blessing but these things are nothing compared with what God has for you as a member of the royal family. The Old Testament saints received their blessings before the strategic victory was won.

“fitly joined together” — sunarmologew means “being joined together.” It is a present passive participle.

Summary

a) This is a reference to the baptising ministry of God the Holy Spirit at the point of salvation.

b) Regeneration makes Old Testament and Millennial believers members of the family of God, but none of them are members of the royal family.

c) One only becomes a member of the royal family through the baptism of the Spirit, unique and peculiar to this dispensation.

d) In the Church Age only God the Holy Spirit does additional things for each believer at salvation which were never accomplished before and will never be duplicated after the Rapture.

e) The Church Age is unique in many ways. It is the only dispensation which is completed without interruption; it is the only dispensation in which God the Holy Spirit takes us at the point of salvation and enters us into the palace, members of the royal family now and forever; it is the only dispensation in which the badge of royalty is the universal indwelling of God the Holy Spirit; it is the only dispensation in which the sealing of the Spirit is double security; it is the only dispensation in which spiritual gifts are given at the beginning of our salvation to guarantee that in time we are to be given super-grace blessings — the guarantee of super-grace blessings is found in spiritual gifts.

f) All of these ministries of the Holy Spirit are related to the royal family.

g) The present tense of this participle is a static present used to represent a condition which is perpetually existing.

h) The passive voice: the believer in the Church Age receives the action of the verb whereby you and I are not only in union with Christ but were joined to each other. The participle is circumstantial.

“and compacted” — present passive participle of sumbibazw. This doesn’t means to be compacted, it means to unite, to hold together, but it also means to instruct or to teach and that is exactly what it means here — “and being taught.” That is the objective. The present tense is a customary present which denotes the habitual occurrence of something. Being taught is something which should occur habitually. Why are you here? To be taught. Why are you alive on this earth? To be taught. The participle is circumstantial. The passive voice: the royal family receives the action of the verb; they receive teaching. Since the verb connotes being put together or being united it means to be taught categorically, to be taught exegetically. The pastor studies and puts it all together and then teaches it.

“by that which every joint supplieth” — should be “every joint of supply.” The big problem here is the word “joint of supply.” It is the descriptive genitive singular of e)pixohgia, the sugar-daddy who provides the funds for the Greek drama, the benefactor. The word “joint” is also a problem. A)fh means a joint or a ligament. Literally, this says “through every joint of supply.”

The joint metaphor

1. All members and parts of the body are linked by joints or ligatures.

a) Different parts of the body represent differences and spiritual gifts and functions in life — 1 Corinthians 12.

b) The joints or ligaments pull the body together.

c) Therefore Bible teaching from the pastor-teacher brings together the greatest variety of personalities, vocations, functions and activities in life. The pastor-teacher is the joint in the body and all men who have the gift of pastor-teacher are joints. All the joints are different but it is the joint who pulls the body together and in this metaphor the joint is the pastor-teacher.

d) All members of the royal family are linked by having their own right pastor to communicate to them doctrine leading them to the super-grace life.

d) The next time you have an ache or a pain in your joints remember your pastor is speaking to you! All the members of the royal family on earth are linked together by doctrinal teaching of the right pastor. It is doctrine that unifies believers.

2. Joints are the basis for building muscle and strength in the body. Without joints the human body would be in a state of atrophy. Without pastor-teachers Christianity, the royal family, would be in a state of spiritual atrophy on the earth. If you want to have muscles you have to bend at the joints. Repetitious exercise demands the use of joints (sometimes this is painful). Repetitious exercise is analogous to repetitious GAPing to super-grace. Using the joints in exercise is like using the daily function of GAP. The inevitable result of exercise is muscle, strength, endurance, coordination, and so on. The inevitable result of GAP under the authority and teaching of the joint pastor-teacher is the construction of the ECS and entrance into the super-grace life.

3. Joints provide body action. Every function and action in life must be motivated by doctrine and the mental attitude dynamics of divine viewpoint. Therefore Bible teaching from the pastor is like the joints which make action, coordination and team function possible. Without the function of joints there would be no body action.

“according to the effectual working” — kata plus the accusative singular of e)nergeia. It should be translated, “according to the operational power.” The operational power is God the Holy Spirit controlling the pastor-teacher in his teaching, controlling the royal priests in their listening; and God the Holy Spirit is the one who makes every part of GAP function from the deliverance to the reception.

The analogy of this verse: The emphasis is on the function of the Holy Spirit in the pastor-teacher, joints are analogous to the pastor, and the function of the joints require operational power. The function of pastors require the ministry of God the Holy Spirit.

“in the measure of every part” — this is “in the measure one for each part,” literally. One pastor-teacher for every believer. In other words, every believer has a right pastor-teacher.

“maketh” is the present middle indicative of poiew and it should be translated here “causes.” The present tense is retroactive progressive present which denotes that which was begun in the past and continues into the present time. The middle voice is the indirect middle which stresses the pastor-teacher as the agent producing the action rather than participating in its results. The believer by listening participates in the results but the pastor-teacher is the agent producing the action. The indicative mood is declarative which views the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality — you really do have a right pastor-teacher.

“increase” — the accusative of direct object in the singular from a)uchsij. It refers to the individual progress of each member of the royal family under the function of GAP — “causes growth.” We have a reference to the individual growth of every believer as a member of the royal family when he responds to the teaching of the Word of God from his right pastor.

“of the body” — this is an objective genitive of the noun swma. In the objective genitive the noun in the genitive case receives the action of the verb being thus related as the verbal idea. Again, this is individual growth, not the increase of the size of the body. Increase of the body occurs through evangelism but the growth of the individual part of the body comes through daily and consistent intake of Bible doctrine.

“unto the edifying” — e)ij plus o)ikodomh; “of itself” — the genitive of possession of a reflexive pronoun e(autou which means “belonging to himself in love.”

Translation: “From whom all the body being joined together [in union with Christ], being taught categorically through every joint [pastor-teacher] of supply, according to the operational power in measure [one pastor-teacher] for each part, causes growth of the body resulting in an edification complex belonging to himself in love.”

Verse 17 — “This” is the genitive neuter singular from the demonstrative pronoun o(utoj. It refers to something comparatively near at hand. The neuter gender refers to some point of doctrine which immediately follows. Here is the demonstrative pronoun referring to that which hinders growth. There is something near at hand available to you without which your growth is hindered — Bible doctrine.

“I say” — present active indicative of legw here is used in the sense of explanation. The present tense is an iterative present which describes what recurs at successive intervals, therefore it is the present tense of repeated action. Paul has repeatedly warned about neglecting doctrine, about the dangers of reversionism. Now he does the same thing again. He is going to explain the principle of reversionism as a frustration to growth and the attainment of the super-grace status. The active voice: Paul produces the action of the verb in writing. He is now going to offer an explanation as to why the Christian life in time goes sour for you. The indicative mood is the reality of Paul’s explanation and the certainty of its preservation in the canon of scripture. “This I explain.” Paul is actually doing something for their benefit but it comes out very harsh, very strong. Reason: Believers who are negative toward doctrine have to be shaken up. There are two ways in which this can be accomplished. They can be shaken up verbally by the strong words of this paragraph or they can be shaken up experientially by various categories of discipline associated with the road to reversionism. Any believer who is inconsistent in the intake of doctrine falls into this category.

“and testify” — what the apostle Paul is about to declare is not only an explanation but is stronger than that. He is standing as it were in the court of this life. He is standing up before the members of the congregations in the Roman province of Asia to give a solemn testimony, a testimony which is given before the Lord. The word marturomai which is translated here “testify” is the accuracy of what he is saying, the honesty. This word means to testify but it means more than that, it means that Paul is intellectually honest. Today we have a rise of liberalism, a rise of reversionism, in Christianity. As a result we find people who are intellectually dishonest. There are those who are afraid to give the true explanation of a passage because it might hurt someone’s feelings and that person will leave and be no longer a member of the congregation. They are more interested in catering to people than they are in doing their job as unto the Lord. Every pastor-teacher must testify, and that means every time he stands in the pulpit he is under oath to tell the truth, the whole truth, so help him God the Holy Spirit. This is what Paul says here when he says, “No only do I make an explanation but I make an explanation under oath.” Harshness is one of the manifestations of love under certain conditions, and here we have the conditions that bring out the apostle’s harshness.

“Therefore” is the inferential particle o)un, it means that certain conclusions are being drawn from the previous information. It comes immediately after the demonstrative pronoun and becomes a transitional conjunction to indicate the fact the subject is now changed from the glories of super-grace, from the blessings of being a member of the royal family of God, to seeing the other side of the picture. You are still members of the royal family, you still have eternal life, you will still have the perfect environment of heaven in the future, but you are a casualty, a failure in the angelic conflict and the purpose for which you are left on this earth is not fulfilled.

“in the Lord” is the preposition e)n plus the instrumental of kurioj and it means “by means of the Lord.”

“that” is not found in the original but is a correct use to translate the infinitive of purpose; “ye henceforth not” — an adverb mhketi plus the accusative of general reference, su. Literally, “you all no longer.” Mhketi means “no longer” and the accusative of general reference, su, means that this pronoun is regarded as the subject of the infinitive. Or better, it is actually used to describe the person connected with the action of the infinitive. Therefore the simple explanation is that the accusative becomes the subject rather than the object with this infinitive.

“walk” — present active infinitive of peripatew. The word means to have a pattern, a way of life, a thought pattern, a behaviour pattern, a modus operandi, a modus vivendi. The present tense is retroactive progressive present denoting that which is begun in the past and should be continued into the present time. That is, you should not continue walking on the road to reversionism. So the retroactive progressive present plus the adverb mhketi plus the accusative plural of the pronoun su all add up to the fact that Paul is writing to a large number of believers who are already on the road to reversionism. Therefore this is a challenge to get off that road and get on to the road to super-grace. The active voice: the recipients are believers in the first century who are members of the royal family of God walking on the road to reversionism. The infinitive indicates purpose and it should be translated “This therefore I explain and make an emphatic demand by means of the Lord, that you all no longer continue walking.” In other words, stop walking in the road to reversionism.

“as” is a comparative adverb, kaqoj, and should be translated a little stronger, “just as.” This means that they have been walking just like all unbelievers in their part of the Roman world.

“other Gentiles” — kai ta e)qnh. This is the adjunctive use of the conjunction kai and means “also,” plus the nominative plural of e)qnoj, plus the definite article. E)qnoj refers to unbelievers in the area of the Roman province of Asia. It is used for unbelievers in the same geographical location and immediately a principle of doctrine arises from this statement: The reversionistic believer is influenced by the society in which he lives.

“walk” — the present tense of peripatew is a retroactive progressive present denoting the reversionistic lifestyle of the unbelievers in the Roman province of Asia which at this time in the Roman empire was so prosperous from the past that it has now become somewhat of a degenerate society. Unbelievers produce the action of the verb through their own types of reversionism, through degeneracy, described in Romans 1:18-32. The indicative mood is declarative and represents the action of the verb from the viewpoint of reality — decadence in the Roman province of Asia from the unbelievers. This decadence no overflows into the life of reversionistic believers. Reversionistic believers are influenced by the society in which they live.

How do they keep walking?

“in the vanity of their mind.” “In the vanity” is a very important prepositional phrase — e)n plus the instrumental of the noun mataiothj. Matiaothj means “emptiness” but it means emptiness, nothingness, or devoidness. As devoidness it has the concept of a vacuum and that is the way it should be translated — “by the vacuum of their mind.” The way people live only reflects the way people think is the principle here. It indicates thought or lack of thought, it indicates sloppy thought, unstable thought. “As a man thinketh in his heart, so he is.” The reversionistic unbelievers in Asia are obviously decadent at this point in their history and the reversionistic believers in their area are simply taking their cue from the unbelievers, the other Gentiles. Emptiness denotes that they are devoid of truth, they have a vacuum in the soul, and this vacuum is specifically of their mind; “of their mind” is the possessive genitive from nouj, the left lobe or the staging area of the mentality of the soul. With nouj is the intensive pronoun a)utoj, and when the intensive pronoun is used as a possessive pronoun it gives great emphasis to the nouj. In other words, religion, legalism, liberal panaceas, false doctrines and concepts have infiltrated the souls of these reversionistic believers. They have taken on he same thought pattern of the unbelievers in their decadent society. In this manner all of these things have been infiltrated through a vacuum. The vacuum is said to enter through the nouj or the left lobe. Through this vacuum comes the doctrine of demons, the incorrect viewpoint of a decadent society. Mataiothj plus nouj indicates the stage of reversionism of the people who are believers in the Roman province of Asia. They have believed in Jesus Christ, they are born again, they are members of the family of God by regeneration, they are royal members of the family of God through the baptism of the Spirit, they are royalty forever, they cannot lose their salvation, they are indwelt by God the Holy Spirit, sealed by the Spirit, given a spiritual gift by the Spirit, but they are taking on the liberalism, the apostasy of the unbelieving society around them.

The doctrine of the stages of reversionism

1. Reversionism in the Christian way of life is first of all motivated by reactor factors. So the first stage in reversionism is the reaction stage. The reaction stage means that there are things in your soul which are the results of initial negative volition and which will intensify your negative volition toward doctrine in you have been neglecting it. Neglect of Bible doctrine, indifference, or sporadic interest followed by indifference to the Word of God results in reactor factors in the soul. These reactor factors include discouragement, boredom, disillusion, self-pity, failure to handle the loneliness problem, frustration. All of these are basic reactor factors in the life. You think in terms of one or more of these things and your thought pattern is one of frustration, and from frustration come the mental attitude sins, the initial intensification of reactor factors in the life — things that cause you to react against Bible doctrine, the one who teaches Bible doctrine. These are some of the factors. Others include disasters of one type or another, being jilted, finding a set of adverse circumstances and not being able to cope. The presence of reactor factors in the life combined with difficulties in the life, combined with indifference or lack of exposure to Bible teaching cause the reactor factors to function. The reaction then sets in for the second stage of reversionism.

2. The second stage is the frantic search for happiness. This is reaction to the reactor factors. The frantic search for happiness follows the pattern of the old sin nature’s trends. The OSN has a trend toward lasciviousness or a trend toward asceticism, the reaction will take one or the other. If the trend is toward asceticism then you becomes a holy-roller, to go out into the woods for victorious life conferences, throw a faggot on the fire, give up something, go into your closet and pray, agonising and tarrying and mumbling, reacting to things that shock. All of these things are one type of frantic search for happiness. Unfortunately, the person involved is a reversionist but often construed by other stupid types as being a great believer. Believers involved in these things are reversionists. They have accepted a substitute for doctrine and they are trying to compensate for the reactor factors in their life. The other type is the person with the trend toward lasciviousness in which a person goes out into debauchery, seduction, raising hell. This is a little more obvious but no different in degree from the other frantic search for happiness. The frantic search for happiness immediately leads to a third stage.

3. The third stage is the intensification of reversionism, the intensification of the reactor factors. There is a greater frustration than previously and it results in “operation boomerang” in which the frantic search intensifies the original reactor factors.

4. The fourth stage is emotional revolt of the soul. The emotion of the soul is designed to respond to the right lobe or the heart. The right lobe or the heart is where you do your thinking. It has a frame of reference, a memory centre, vocabulary, categories, norms and standards, a launching pad. Emotion was de signed to respond, it is the right woman of the soul. The heart is the right man of the soul. The emotion starts a revolt which further confuses the reversionist, so this fourth stage is the stage of confusion. The emotion is designed to respond to the right lobe or the heart but in turn revolts against it. Once there is a revolt all of the valves of the right lobe shut down destroying the function of doctrine in that area.

5. The fifth stage is negative volition toward doctrine and it becomes very pronounced. As a result of the reactor factors, the frantic search for happiness, the intensification of these things, the emotional revolt of the soul, negative volition is now characterised by several things:

a) Indifference or apathy to Bible teaching.

b) So occupied with the things of life that there is no time for Bible teaching.

c) Antagonism or personality hang-ups regarding the Bible teaching and/or the pastor-teacher.

d) Antagonism or conflict with others in the congregation.

e) Failure to utilise the rebound technique, and under lack of the filling of the Spirit permitting reactor factors in the life, or in permitting their intensity.

f) Inability to handle three super-grace types of prosperity. There is often in the life some pre-super-grace type of prosperity — sometimes a blessing from God, sometimes something else. There is an inability to handle that prosperity and therefore a decline in the intake of the Word of God. g) The early patterns of reversionism — reaction, frantic search for happiness, emotional revolt of the soul — are permitted to continue by the volition of the soul. In other words, you can do what you want to do.

So negative volition at this point becomes a factor which leads to other factors.

6. The sixth stage is found in Ephesians 4:17. This is an attack on the left lobe or the nouj. The blackout of the soul is an attack upon the left lobe only. It leads to an attack upon the right lobe which is scar tissue but the blackout is an attack upon the mind or the nouj. This negative volition produces a vacuum — mataiothj. When negative volition sets in this vacuum (mataiothj) opens. The negative volition principle opens this vacuum and into it comes the doctrine of demons, false doctrines, human viewpoint. This vacuum is the source of setting up all the false viewpoints of life. It is known as demon influence in contrast to demon possession. When you get all of these false doctrines, false concepts, into the staging area they immediately move over to the right lobe and therefore the blackout of the soul becomes a general thing.

7. The seventh stage is scar tissue of the soul. Just as blackout of the soul attacks the left lobe scar tissue attacks the right lobe. The various valves are knocked out. There is a destroying of the true norms and standards of the Word of God. Vocabulary and categories change and human viewpoint is on the launching pad making personal applications resulting in subjectivity, and making overt applications resulting in being a casualty as far as being the royal family of God. Scar tissue is the result of the blackout of the soul in which the believer adopts Satanic worldly viewpoint about everything in life.

8. The eighth and last stage is reverse process reversionism just as super-grace is the final stage of growth. This final stage of reversionism is the exact antithesis of super-grace in which the believer loves and desires the opposite of what the Bible commands. It is a reversal of the objects of true love for the believer. The object of true love is the Lord Jesus Christ. We were designed to love Jesus Christ who is the King of kings. We are members of the royal family. So we replace the love of Jesus Christ with something else and this becomes the reversal. Interest in doctrine is now replaced by other things to the neglect of doctrine. Interest in other things is legitimate provided you are on the road to super-grace but these things replace doctrine as interests in your life. Reverse process reversionism is the area in which the believers dies the sin unto death.

Translation: “This therefore I explain and make as an emphatic honest demand by means of the Lord, that you all no longer continue walking just as also the Gentiles [reversionistic unbelievers] keep walking, by means of the nothingness [or vacuum] of their mind.”

Verse 18 — “Having the understanding darkened.” Here is scar tissue or the blackout of the soul. The Greek here is quite different from the KJV here. It is a perfect periphrastic, it is composed of a perfect passive participle of the verb skotizw plus the present tense of the verb e)imi. Them periphrastic perfect here is an intensive one. That is, we have the perfect passive participle of skotizw, something that happens in the past and the results continue. The passive voice means that darkness of the soul is received by a process. The participle itself is a part of the periphrastic. Also the static present tense of e)imi representing that the condition continues in its intensity. The active voice: the believer produces the action of the verb by negative volition. Negative volition results in darkness entering the mind and resulting in the whole soul becoming darkened. So the first thing we have is “Having become darkened.” Then we have literally, “in their understanding” — the locative singular plus the definite article used as a possessive pronoun. Together it should be “Having become darkened in their understanding.” But “in their understanding” is incorrect because the word dianoia means thinking. It is interesting that dianoia is being used as an alternative for the nouj and it explains the thinking in the nouj. Corrected translation: “Having become darkened in [the sphere of] their way of thinking.” The nouj refers to the left lobe of the soul, it is used here as referring to dokew or subjective type thinking. Dianoia is the same as nouj. Nouj is the location, dianoia is the thinking of that location.

“Having become darkened in their thinking” describes the result of the opening of that mataiothj. The opening of the vacuum means that they have darkness in their thinking. There is no objective type thinking, there is no objective type opinions, there is no dogmatism of that type left in the soul. Therefore we have instead subjectivity, hypersensitivity, guilt reaction to hypersensitivity and indifference to others manifest by going all out for some downtrodden messed up and confused group of people in the periphery. The concept, then, is the blackout of the soul.

The doctrine of the blackout of the soul

1. The blackout of the soul is that state of reversionist in which the mentality of the soul is directly influenced by Satan and doctrine of demons, plus everything that is anti-God and antiestablishment. It is the direct result of persistent negative volition toward doctrine regardless of how that negative volition is expressed.

2. Mechanics. The blackout of the soul is the result of all previous stages of reversionism. It is directly related to the opening of the vacuum into the left lobe. It results first of all from the reactor factors in the life — discouragement, boredom, disillusion, overcome with self-pity, unable to handle loneliness, frustration, plus the mental attitude sins of bitterness, jealousy, vindictiveness, etc. These result in a frantic search for happiness which in turn causes emotional revolt, which in turn emphasises more negative volition — apathy or indifference, doctrine taking second place. Negative volition is followed by the opening of a vacuum which attacks the nouj or the left lobe, and as false doctrine, false principles move through this vacuum the general condition is the blackout of the soul. The blackout of the soul, then, mechanically is a combination of reactor factors, frantic search for happiness, emotional revolt, negative volition toward doctrine.

3. The attack upon the nouj or the left lobe.

a) Negative volition toward doctrine in this particular state of reversionism causes the vacuum to open through which Satanic and false doctrine enters.

b) The nouj is flooded with false teaching, human viewpoint.

c) This human viewpoint, this false teaching, these erroneous ideas, are called “doctrine of darkness” because Satan’s kingdom is a kingdom of darkness — Ephesians 5:11; 6:12; Colossians 1:13; 2 Peter 2:4. The result is darkness in the soul.

4. The dissemination of darkness. It starts with what you think in the left lobe, basically called noew. Noew -type thinking can either be good or bad, objective or subjective, excellent or corrupted. When noew becomes subjective it is called dokew, when it is objective the New Testament calls it fronew. Subjectivity, then, is the basis for the blackout of the soul. Subjectivity causes the believer to support and to enter his energy into causes like world peace, disarmament, world brotherhood, “love the brethren” erroneously applied, social action to help the downtrodden, everything associated with operation bleeding heart.

There is also a noun in the New Testament to describe this — nohma. It is found as corrupt thinking in 2 Corinthians 3:14; 4:4; 11:3. The word is also used for the devices of Satan in 2 Corinthians 2:11 and therefore is a noun to indicate darkness-type. This type of thinking spreads throughout the soul, leading to blackout of the soul. There is another noun for irrational foolish thinking in the blackout of the soul — a)nohtoj which is used in Galatians 3:1,3; Titus 2:3. The word indicates the type of thinking the believer has at the point of blackout of the soul. The intensification noew is called katanoew, used in Hebrews for the responsibility of the priesthood in considering the Lord Jesus Christ — Hebrews 3:1; 10:24. Another word used for thinking in the left lobe is pronoew which means to perceive in advance. This one is corrupted and replaced by u(ponoew which means to hold in suspicion but is used for rejection of the truth. There is also a noun which is used from u(ponoew for the blackout of the soul, used in 1 Timothy 2:4 — u(ponoia. So the blackout of the soul has a vocabulary all of its own, a technical vocabulary found throughout the scripture.

5. A synonym for the blackout of the soul, a synonym in the sense of something that occurs at the same time. It is not quite a synonym, it is more a related problem. Blackout of the soul comes from the nouj, the left lobe. The vacuum goes into the left lobe with its false teaching. As a result blackout is spread to every part of the soul. As a result of this blackout of the soul, and coexistent with it, is an attack on the right lobe, the heart, and this attack is called hardness of heart or scar tissue. When blackout of the soul hits the heart it becomes scar tissue or hardness of the heart. 6. The result of blackout of the soul is twofold. First, a continuation of reversionism through the practice of reverse process reversionism — 2 Corinthians 11. Secondly, maximum divine discipline, the sun unto death — James 5, among other passages.

7. The solution to the blackout of the soul is found in another verb — metanoew. It is translated generally “repent,” it means a change of mind. Actually, it is a combination of change of attitude toward doctrine resulting in the intake of doctrine, getting back under the Word. Hebrews 6; Ephesians 3:16-21. Technically, then, blackout of the soul, while it applies to the left lobe, has an effect upon the right lobe and the solution is the reversion recovery concept.

Summary

1. False doctrine, false standards, false criteria, flow from the left lobe or mentality of the soul.

2. The result of flooding the soul with these things is subjectivity, pseudo-sensitivity, soul fainting, frustration, unhappiness, and it affects the right lobe with scar tissue or hardness of heart.

3. The frantic search for happiness continues with slavery to the details of life becoming more pronounced.

4. Modus vivendi is a state of apostasy which combines with scar tissue to produce pathological, neurotic or psychotic thought which eventuates in behaviour pattern reflecting these things.

5. These things become more pronounced through the various stages of discipline to the reversionist, such as the warning stage, the intensification stage, and they reach their culmination in the sin unto death.

If you have blackout of the soul, if your thoughts are darkness rather than light then the result becomes quite obvious, you are …

“alienated from the life of God” — being alienated is the perfect passive participle of a)pallotriow which really means to be estranged as well as alienated. The perfect tense is intensive, it means alienated in the past with the result that you keep on being alienated. This means that all the time that you are a member of the royal family, all of the time that you have eternal life, all of the time that God is tapping His foot waiting to provide super-grace blessings, you have estranged yourself from the life of God provided for you on earth. The life of God is Bible doctrine. The life of God is everything worthwhile related to doctrine. The life of God is the ECS and the entrance into the super-grace life. The believer in reversionism is totally estranged from that. Furthermore, the passive voice indicates that the reversionists who have degenerated to the stage of blackout of the soul receive this alienation from the life of God. The participle is a circumstantial. The word means three things: having been estranged, having been alienated, having been excluded. All three are legitimate translations and all three can be used in connection with divine discipline for the reversionist. In the warning stage of discipline you have been estranged from the life of God; in the intensified stage you are alienated; in the final stage you have been excluded from the life of God. The ablative of source of zwh plus the definite article refers to the road to reversionism. “Life” here refers to the believer living the normal Christian life which is the consistent, daily, continual intake of Bible doctrine. The definite article is used for a possessive pronoun and it should be translated “from the life of their God.”

“through the ignorance” — dia plus the accusative of a)gnoia is “because of the ignorance.” A)gnoia describes blackout of the soul. Blackout of the soul is a believer, member of the royal family of God on earth, in ignorance of doctrine, divine viewpoint, principles, promises, blessings; in fact, the life of God. Ignorance can come from neglect or apathy, rejection, antagonism toward doctrine, but ignorance is always the reason. Furthermore, ignorance is no excuse. There is never an excuse for a believer being ignorant of doctrine. The word zwh means “concept of life.” There is another word for life in the New testament, bioj, which means the function of life. The concept of life is what we have in this verse, rather than its actual function. The present tense is a retroactive progressive present for that which has begun in the past and continues into the present time. It describes the stages of reversionism and resultant negative volition toward Bible doctrine. The active voice: negative volition, ignorance, produces the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial to describe the condition of the believer who becomes indifferent or sporadic in his intake of doctrine.

So far: “Having become darkened in their thinking, having been estranged [alienated, excluded] from the life of their God because of the ignorance which keeps on being in them.”

“in them” — the locative prepositional phrase which indicates that blackout of the soul is a condition inside of the soul. The function of the intensive pronoun here is to emphasise identity. In other words, it is a demonstrative pronoun intensified. The identity of the object of the preposition is the reversionist who has become negative toward Bible doctrine. This perpetual state of ignorance of doctrine is blackout of the soul. Furthermore, it results in something else and now we are introduced to the subject of scar tissue. Blackout of the soul makes its attack on the left lobe; scar tissue makes its attack upon the right lobe.

“because of the blindness of their heart” — dia plus the accusative of pwrwsij which means hardness or scar tissue. “Blindness,” as in the KJV, is an incorrect translation’ “of the heart” — the possessive genitive of kardia. We all possess a heart or right lobe. The word “heart” is never used for the physiological part of the body, it is always used in the Bible for the thinking part of the soul and/or the right lobe.

The doctrine of the heart

The Bible is always consistent in that it takes parts of physiology and relates them to parts of the soul. The word “heart” is used for the right lobe or the thinking part of the soul.

1. The physiological heart.

a. The physiological heart in the human body is an intricately woven muscle which is in contraction rhythmically causing circulation of the blood.

b. It pumps five quarts of blood in a minute, 75 gallons in an hour, 70 barrels a day, and 18-million barrels in 70 years.

c. The heart is a double pump because it has two valves, the auricle and the ventricle.

d. The pumps and valves circulate the blood in the same manner as doctrine is circulated by the right lobe of the soul. Therefore the word “heart” is used for that part of the soul which process thought. In other words, that part which thinks.

2. The heart which is found in the soul.

a) The word “heart” [kardia] has many connotations in the English language. For example, the heart is the part nearest to the centre, the core of something, sometimes that which resembles a heart, shaped like a heart, a suit in playing, the seat of the spiritual or conscious life in the soul, the source of thinking. All of these are legitimate English meanings for the word “heart” but none of them pertain except one: the thinking part of the soul, and that is the way that the word “heart” is used in the Bible. The Bible never uses the word “heart” for emotion, it never uses it is a physiological sense, the Bible use is always related to thinking. The Bible heart is used for that part of the mentality of the soul known as the right lobe. Whether it is the Old Testament word lebh or the Greek kardia it always refers to thinking. “With the heart man believeth unto righteousness” is thinking. “As a man thinketh in his heart, so he is.” Sometimes the heart is related to the old sin nature, and then “the heart of man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked” — the heart or the thinking of the soul related to the old sin nature and a perfect description of reversionism.

b) The heart in the Bible is the organ of thinking — Proverbs 23:7.

c) Genesis 6:5 distinguishes between imaginations and thoughts of the heart.

d) The heart is the residence of Bible doctrine in the soul — Proverbs 2:2,10; 3:3; 15:14; 18:15; Psalm 119:11, 161; Job 38:36.

3. The essence of the heart.

a) The frame of reference is the entrance, the antechamber for doctrine — Proverbs 4:4.

b) The memory centre is the pump that circulates doctrine into the various areas of the right lobe or heart .

c) The vocabulary storage is the supply house for the formation of thought. You have to have a vocabulary for thinking.

d) The categorical storage is a nearby supply house. Categorical thinking is where you advance and where you begin to grow up. Categorical thinking is logical progression from the simple to the complex, from the obvious to that which is totally brilliant.

e) The conscience is also a part of the right lobe, it is the storage for all norms and standards. Those norms and standards become the basis for your volition. They become the basis for determining what you do and what you don’t do. Romans 2:15; 9:1; 1 Corinthians 8:7; 2 Corinthians 4:2; 5:11; Titus 1:15; Hebrews 9:14; 1 Peter 2:19.

f) You have a launching pad which is the source of all application to life. The launching pad draws upon categories, upon vocabulary, from the conscience, all of which are processed through the volition; the memory centre often is the basis for your protection; therefore the launching pad is the real you. “Bringing every thought into captivity for Christ” is nothing more or less than having divine viewpoint on the launching pad.

4. Therefore the doctrinal content of the soul or the heart resides in the right lobe. The heart is the right man of the soul, it is designed to dominate the soul, all other parts of the soul are designed to be subordinate to the heart. The heart, then, is the target for GAP and to reach the target doctrine must pass through the various staging areas. The principle of this is found in Proverbs 2:2,10; 10:8; Psalm 119:11; 19:14; Job 38:36.

5. The facets of heart function.

a) The heart can function in rejecting Bible doctrine — Proverbs 5:12,13.

b) The heart is the source of discord and trouble making — Proverbs 6:14,18.

c) The heart of the prostitute is said to be subtle — Proverbs 7:10 ( A woman can spot the pride of a man and make him think he is really something by the use of flattery and subtle words, yet she despises him) A perfect illustration of evil thinking, it’s application, and the false concepts that are developed — and filled with hatred in 2 Samuel 6:16.

d) The heart suffers disappointment from promises not kept — Proverbs 13:12. The frustration that comes from the disappointment is scar tissue of the soul.

e) The heart promotes mental attitude sins: bitterness — Proverbs 14:10; sorrow and disappointment — Proverbs 14:13; pride — Obadiah 3; Proverbs 21:4; worry — Ecclesiastes 2:23.

f) Women use the heart as their weapon to trap uninteresting men — Ecclesiastes 7:26.

g) The frantic search for happiness is related to the heart — Ecclesiastes 1:13.

h) Reversionism is described in terms of the heart — Jeremiah 17:5,9; Zechariah 7:12.

i) Revolution and insubordination are described as being in the heart — Jeremiah 5:23; 2 Samuel 15:6; Ezekiel 6:9.

j) Hypocrisy is related to the heart — Job 36:13; Psalm 55:21.

6. The heart is related to thinking and perception.

a) The heart is specified in the function of GAP — Deuteronomy 29:4.

b) The thinking of the reversionist is related to the heart — Psalm 10:6,11,13.

c) The heart is related to the thinking of atheism — Psalm 14:1.

d) The heart is the system for rationalising education (making education think it is something it isn’t) — Ecclesiastes 1:13-18.

e) Rationalisation of mental attitude sins is accomplished in the heart — Isaiah 47:10.

f) False teachers communicate deceit from their hearts — Jeremiah 14:14.

g) The heart is used for meditation on Bible doctrine — Luke 2:19.

h) The heart is used for thinking superiority — Luke 9:46,47.

7. The heart is involved in the analogy of right man, right woman. The heart is analogous to the right man and dominates the soul in the normal person. Emotion is designated as the right woman designed to be a responder to the content of the heart. Therefore they are linked in the following scriptures under the right man, right woman analogy: Psalm 26:2; Jeremiah 11:20; 17:10; 20:12.

8. The heart is related to the capacity for life

a) Since the emotion takes the place of the right woman [the responder] and since the heart is the right man [the aggressor] all capacity for life must be initiated from the heart.

b) All capacity for life resides in the frame of reference, memory centre, vocabulary thinking, categorising thinking, conscience of the right lobe.

c) From these areas the heart initiates and the emotion responds just as in sex the right woman responds to the right man.

c) There are both positive and negative concepts of capacity for life. On the positive side: love — Deuteronomy 6:4; 11:13; Joshua 22:5; happiness — Psalm 19:8; 28:7; dynamics — Job 9:4. On the negative side: sorrow — Leviticus 26:16; Nehemiah 2:2; pressure — Psalm 34:18; cowardice — Joshua 14:8; discouragement — Numbers 32:7,9. All of these are related to the heart and in each case the heart refers to the right lobe or the thinking part of the soul.

9. Therefore the heart is the basic area for happiness in life: “gladness of heart — Judges 18:20; 1 Samuel 1:13; 1 Kings 8:66ff;” and “the merry heart” — 1 Samuel 15:36; 2 Samuel 6:16; Proverbs 17:22.

10. The heart is the area of cursing in the soul. Reversionism in the heart results in national disaster — Deuteronomy 28:47,48. Revenge is a malfunction of the heart — Proverbs 24:1,2; Ezekiel 25:15-17. The heart is related to psychoses — Isaiah 13:7,8. Mental attitude sins relate the old sin nature to the heart — Psalm 66:18; 101:5; Proverbs 6:18; Matthew 12:35; 15:18,19; Luke 6:45; 24:25.

11. The heart is the area of blessing in the growing believer.

a) The heart is related to grace function — Proverbs 24:17.

b) The heart is related to grace orientation — Exodus 23:9.

c) The heart is related to happiness — 1 Samuel 2:1.

d) The heart is the basis of stability in the crisis — Psalm 112:7,8.

12. The heart is related to motivation in life: Temporal life — Exodus 35:25,26,35; 36:8; Spiritual life — 2 Corinthians 9:7.

13. The heart is related to positive volition at the point of salvation — Romans 10:9,10.

14. The heart is also used in the scripture as an anthropopathism: the heart of God, God doesn’t have a heart, God doesn’t have a human soul as we have, except in the humanity of Christ in His hypostatic union. 1 Samuel 2:35; Psalm 78:72; Jeremiah 23:20; 30:24.

Translation: “Having become darkened in their way of thinking, having been estranged [alienated, excluded] from the life of their God because of the ignorance which keeps on being in them, because of the hardness of their heart [right lobe].”

The doctrine of the scar tissue of the soul

1. The mind, according to Ephesians 4:23, actually breaths. The word for “mind” emphasises the function of the left lobe as a processor of doctrine; it is a staging area, not the final resting place of Bible doctrine. The left lobe has a processor which is called “breathing” and this implies the existence of lungs. The intake and the output of doctrine would be comparable to physiological breathing. Therefore, the definition “hardness of the heart” or “scar tissue of the mind” is the blackout of the left lobe resulting in the hardness of the right lobe.

2. Mechanics. The malfunction of GAP through negative volition causes a vacuum to open up in the left lobe, as per Ephesians 4:17. The left lobe is attacked by the opening of mataiothj. Through this vacuum comes doctrines of demons and other types of Satanic propaganda which cause the blackout of the soul. At the time of the blackout of the soul the reversionistic believer lives under the intensification of reactor factors, emotional revolt, frantic search for happiness, and all of these things open up the mataiothj. The result is the blackout of the soul which invariably causes scar tissue to form on the right lobe.

3. Illustrations: First of all the illustration which is based upon a frantic search for happiness through the trend toward lasciviousness — Ephesians 4:19; 5:3. A second illustration is found in 1 John 2:9,11 — the function of mental attitude sins. With the blackout of the soul and the hardness of the heart it is impossible to avoid the repercussions of mental attitude sins — e.g. Hymenaeus and Alexander, 1 Timothy 1:20, fell into this.

4. Scar tissue and the reversionistic believer. The reversionistic believer develops scar tissue in the right lobe of the soul called the heart. It is built up on the basis of the fact that there is a blackout in the left lobe.

5. Scar tissue and the unbeliever. The reversionistic unbeliever accumulates scar tissue or suffers from the hardness of the heart — 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12, where it is called strong delusion. He is also found in 2 Peter 2:22 where he is described as the dog returning to his vomit. However, scar tissue in the unbeliever or hardness of heart is removed at salvation — Isaiah 43:25; 44:22. For the unbeliever who remains in hardness of heart or strong delusion there is total disaster. One of the best illustrations in scripture is Judas Iscariot and his suicide which is described in great detail in Matthew 27:3-10. He became very emotional, felt sorry for what he had done, made restitution, and wound up committing suicide. The Pharaoh of Exodus is another illustration. The solution to scar tissue or hardness of the heart is the same in both cases. For the unbeliever it is response to the gospel by faith in Christ and for the believer it is reversion recovery through the intake of doctrine.

The doctrine of the hardness of the heart

1. Definition.

a) The hardness of the heart (kardia, the right lobe) is the seventh and next to last stage of reversionism. It is coterminous with and the result of blackout of the soul, the attack upon the left lobe.

b) While blackout of the soul affects the left lobe or nouj by the infiltration of Satanic doctrine hardness of the heart and/or scar tissue of the soul affects the right lobe. It is the final attack that leads to reverse process reversionism.

c) In the hardness of the heart all of the valves of the right lobe freeze and shut down so that doctrine no longer circulates in the soul.

d) Therefore doctrine in the right lobe is no longer operative and is no longer applicable to the life.

e) Scar tissue accumulated results in the function of the vacuum [mataiothj] to suck more false doctrine into the left lobe which in turn increases the pressure on the right lobe.

f) When the effects of blackout of the left lobe reach the right lobe all of the valves freeze. This means that no longer is there any vocabulary functioning, the categories dry up first, norms and standards change, there is no longer any divine viewpoint in the launching pad, no way of recalling or calling upon frame of reference doctrine.

g) No more doctrine is fed into the vocabulary and into the categorical storage. The conscience begins to change, there is no doctrine on the launching pad. No more doctrine, therefore, flows back and forth and, as it were, all doctrinal function of the right lobe freezes. This is the prelude to the sin unto death.

2. Case documentation: The hardness of Pharaoh’s heart.

a) This is a case of a reversionistic unbeliever. The pharaoh of the Exodus hardened his own heart by constant and continuous rejection of the gospel. He was constantly on negative volition — Exodus 7:22,23; 8:15,32, 9:34. He was constantly exposed to the gospel from Aaron, and then from Moses. He saw the power of the gospel, he had a clear delineation of it, and he constantly said no. This caused a blackout of the soul.

b) This Pharaoh had the same chance to be saved as Moses did. Romans 9:15 cf. Romans 9:17.

c) Furthermore, God was not willing that Pharaoh should perish — 2 Peter 2:1; 1 John 2:2.

d) But Pharaoh, like the religious Jews of Jesus’ day, kept on rejecting the gospel.

e) Both the Pharaoh of the Exodus and the Jews of our Lord’s time had opportunity to show the scar tissue of their souls — John 12:40.

f) God finally removed all restraint from Pharaoh’s negative volition by giving him opportunities to say no to God repeatedly, to carry it further than anyone had in his day — Exodus 9:12,16; 10:1,20,27.

g) This brings up the subject of God hardening Pharaoh’s heart. What does it mean? God only hardened Pharaoh’s heart in the sense of giving him more opportunities to say no than anyone in his generation or at any time in that era of history. While most people say no once or twice Pharaoh said no to the gospel under the most stringent conditions of manifestation over a period of time so that his scar tissue reached an all-time high. The blackout of his soul resulted in the hardness of his heart.

h) The purpose of the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart, giving him this maximum expression of negative volition, was to evangelise the world in his generation. So in that generation the world was evangelised by the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart — Romans 9:16 cf. Exodus 9:17.

i) One of the more famous converts from the hardness of Pharaoh’s heart is Rahab the prostitute who was saved through hearing the story of the hardness of Pharaoh’s heart — Joshua 2:10,11.

J) Every time Pharaoh expressed blackout of the soul, scar tissue, hardness of the heart, it brought forth a fresh revelation of God’s power which impressed others at the point of hearing the gospel.

k) The pattern of negative volition and subsequent reversionism among unbelievers is found in Romans 1:18-32.

l) Negative volition at gospel hearing resulted in opening a vacuum through which false doctrine, the demon doctrine of 1 Timothy 4:1, was sucked into the left lobe of Pharaoh. This caused blackout of the soul.

m) Blackout of the soul in turn caused hardness of the heart or the formation of scar tissue in the right lobe. The valves froze. This pattern is found in 2 Corinthians 4:3,4.

n) Therefore, Romans 2:5 is a perfect description of Pharaoh.

3. The hardness of heart during the incarnation is found in one verse and it is a perfect illustration of the subject — John 12:40. (The principle is stated also in Mark 3:5 and 6:52) This verse is a quotation from Isaiah 6:9,10. This hardening of the heart is uttered here by Jesus as an expression of the rejection of Him at His first advent.

“He hath blinded” — the perfect active indicative of tuflow, it refers to the blackout of the soul or the attack upon the left lobe. The perfect tense is a consummative perfect in which the process is presented and emphasised rather than the existing results. It emphasises the process of blindness. The process of blindness is the blackout of the soul, the opening of the mataiothj or the vacuum. The active voice: the reversionistic unbeliever of Israel during our Lord’s stay on the earth is the producer of the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative, an unqualified assertion of the reality of the blackout of the soul while our Lord Jesus Christ was on earth.

“their eyes” — the eyes of the soul. This is blackout of the soul; “and hardened their heart” — the aorist active indicative of pwrow which means scar tissue or callouses. This is a culminative aorist tense, it views scar tissue or hardening of the heart in its entirety but emphasises the existing results.

There are three results in this verse: “that they should not see” — aorist active subjunctive of o(raw which means to see. Blackout of the soul follows negative volition, and these people were negative. The fact that they could not see is because of their own negative volition. The aorist active subjunctive of o(raw — this is a constative aorist which indicates they never did see, they just got worse and worse; the active voice: they produced the action of the verb in the 6th and 7th stages of reversionism; “nor understand” — aorist active subjunctive of noew; “and be converted” — aorist passive subjunctive of strefw which means to receive conversion. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist. The passive voice: they could not receive conversion because of blackout of the soul and hardness of the heart which both came from their own negative volition.

Literally, this verse says: “He has blinded their eyes, he has hardened their hearts; lest they should see with their eyes, and perceive by means of the heart, and receive conversion, and I restore them.”

“I should heal them” is “I should restore,” the future active indicative of i)aomai which does mean to heal individuals but it also means to restore nations from the fifth cycle of discipline.

Why wasn’t Israel restored at the first advent? Through their own negative processes, through the rejection of the gospel they rejected the Messiah. Rejecting the gospel and rejecting the Messiah they went through every one of these stages of reversionism, and therefore in reverse process reversionism they accepted their religious leaders instead of Jesus Christ as their Messiah. They accepted Rome rather than the Lord Jesus Christ because they rejected the gospel.

Summary of John 12:41

a. The Jews of our Lord’s time followed the same pattern as the Pharaoh of Exodus.

b. In the fact of overwhelming evidence, wrought by miracles and dynamic messages from our Lord, they kept saying no and entered into the stages of reversionism.

c. Entering into the first four stages of reversionism, including negative volition, this opened the vacuum resulting the infiltration of Satanic doctrine into the nouj and blackout of the soul.

d. This in turn caused malfunction, stoppage of the valves of the right lobe, scar tissue of the soul or hardness of the heart.

e. No generation of Jews ever said no to more overwhelming evidence, and there is nothing comparable except to go all of the way back to the Pharaoh of the Exodus.

f. The result was blackout of the soul (the attack on the left lobe), scar tissue of the soul (the attack upon the right lobe).

g. This caused them to remain unconverted and caused the nation in the fourth cycle of discipline to go into the fifth.

4. The Meribah revolution — discussed in Psalm 95:8 where the word “provocation” means “meribah,” as well as in Hebrews 3:8,15; 4:7.

Summary of the Meribah revolution

a) The Meribah revolution is reversionism among believers in contrast to the two previous points.

b) Reactor factors were manifest at the first Meribah, especially the mental attitude sins, disillusion, discouragement, frustration. Reactor factors produced a frantic search for happiness which was manifested by operation golden calf.

c) The Meribah revolution, therefore, was a combination of reactor factors, frantic search for happiness, emotional revolt, leading to strong negative volition which caused blackout of the soul, hardness of the heart, which resulted in reverse process reversionism at Kadesh Barnea. Their right land was Canaan and because they believed the majority of the report they said no to Canaan.

d) The result was reversionistic discipline to an entire generation and finally after 39 years the administration of the sin unto death.

5. The hardening of Nebuchadnezzar’s heart — Daniel 5:20. This is a case of unbeliever reversionism in which Nebuchadnezzar was finally deposed as an intensification of his discipline. The shock of this intensified discipline led to his eventual repentance, conversion — the removal, therefore, of the hardness of heart or scar tissue of the soul.

6. Zedekiah’s hardness of heart — 2 Chronicles 36:11-13. This is the case of believer’s reversionism. Zedekiah was negative toward doctrine as taught by Jeremiah, his right prophet. This resulted in revolt against Nebuchadnezzar plus revolt against God in the form of hardness of the heart. The result of all this was the first administration of the fifth cycle of discipline to Judah in 586 BC.

7. The hardness of the neck — 2 Kings 17:14; Nehemiah 9:16; 17:29; Jeremiah 7:26; 19:15. This is exactly the same as the hardness of the heart but emphasises the insubordination which accompanies hardness of heart rather than negative volition.

8. Hardness of heart is a part of the reversionistic picture — Ephesians 4:18.

Verse 19 — the principle: Hardness of heart, scar tissue of the soul, emotional revolt of the soul, result in the intensification of the frantic search for happiness. This verse is the illustration of the fact that once you have blackout of the soul and hardness of the heart you just keep trying to be happy. The principle of psychosis comes into play at this point. What is brought out here is the person who is on the verge of total self-destruction; a person whose frantic search for happiness, intensified by frustration, reaches the point of no return.

“Who” is a nominative masculine plural from the pronoun o(stij, and it doesn’t mean “who.” As a relative pronoun it speaks of categorical types and it should be translated “Who, which category” or Who in the sense of reversionists. “Which category being past feeling” — reversionists who have reached this point.

“past feeling” — perfect passive participle of the compound verb a)palgew. It means to become calloused and, again, it refers to the hardness of heart. The perfect tense is intensive perfect emphasising the completed action with results which continue — constantly trying to find daylight and happiness. The passive voice: the reversionistic believer receives callousness of the right lobe after he has blacked out in the left lobe. The participle is a temporal participle and should be translated. Which category (reversionist) while having become calloused [with scar tissue of the soul].” The participle describes the conditions or the circumstances for the illustration of the blackout of the soul.

There are eight possibilities at this point: a) Phallic reversionism — 2 Corinthians 12:21; Colossians 3:5; Revelation 2:14; b) Legalistic reversionism — Hebrews 5:11-6:16; Colossians 2:16-19; c) Monetary reversionism — James 4:13,14; 5:1-6; Revelation 3:14-20; Ecclesiastes 5:10-16; d) Drug addiction reversionism — Galatians 5:20; or its counterpart, alcoholic reversionism — Isaiah 28:1-9; e) Antiestablishment reversionism — Romans 1:18-32; f) The mental attitude reversionism; g) Verbal reversionism; h) Mental illness reversionism. All of these are possibilities.

“have given themselves over” — the aorist active indicative of paradidomi plus the accusative plural of the reflexive pronoun e(autou. This means to betray self. Once you reach the stage of the blackout of the soul and scar tissue of the soul you are now betraying yourself. This indicates the self-betrayal starts with a super search for happiness but the self-betrayal ends up with trying to commit suicide or being a hopeless psychotic. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist which views the event of reversionism in its entirety but emphasises the existing results of self-betrayal, and therefore in self-betrayal entering into a new phase of frantic search for happiness. The active voice: the reversionist in the stages of the blackout of the soul and scar tissue of the soul produces the action of the verb, betraying himself in the super frantic search for happiness. The indicative mood is declarative, this actually happened, it happens now.

“unto lasciviousness” — dative of indirect object a)selgeia which means adultery, illicit sexual activity. It is used here in the sense of being completely weird and shut down in the soul by blackout.

The doctrine of adultery

1. Definition. Adultery is used in the sense of any sexual activity outside of divine institution #2. Sex is not love, it is an expression of category #2 love. Adultery may be categorised as fornication, seduction of a member of the opposite sex, incest, homosexuality, lesbianism, bestiality, molestation of children.

2. The prohibition of adultery can be covered under six sub points:

a) It was prohibited by the Mosaic law — Exodus 20:14; Deuteronomy 5:18.

b) It is prohibited in the New Testament — 1 Corinthians 6:18; Acts 15:20; Colossians 3:5; 1 Thessalonians 4:3.

c) Mental adultery is prohibited — Matthew 5:27,28.

d) Incest is forbidden — Leviticus 18:6ff; Deuteronomy 27:20; Leviticus 20:14; 1 Corinthians 5:1-7.

e) Homosexuality is forbidden — Leviticus 18:22; 20:13; Romans 1:18-32.

f) Bestiality is forbidden — Leviticus 18:23; 20:15; Deuteronomy 27:21.

3. Reversionistic destruction of the soul through adultery is described by two verses — Proverbs 6:32; Ephesians 4:19.

4. Self-betrayal and self-destruction in the field of adultery is described by the last word in Ephesians 4:19, the word translated “greediness” but it isn’t greediness. Pleonecia is insatiable lust, a desire to have more and more and more. It describes the intensification of the frantic search for happiness beyond the ordinary intensification point. It is a search for happiness through phallic reversionism. The physical destruction is found in 1 Corinthians 6:13-18. Promiscuity has a destructive effect upon both the male and the female body. The male body: impotence, inability to sexually satisfy the right woman; the female body: the destruction of sexual responses to the right man, loss of orgiastic pleasure in sex, and the result in antithetical type problems: nymphomania and frigidity.

5. The sanctification of category #2 love is marriage — 1 Thessalonians 4:3,4; Hebrews 13:4.

6. The glory of category #2 love is described in a spiritual analogy — 1 Corinthians 11:7; Ephesians 5:25-31.

7. Adultery or fornication is a bona fide basis for divorce — Matthew 5:32; 19:9; Luke 16:18. The resultant blackout of the soul, scar tissue of the soul, frantic search for happiness intensified in reversionism destroys rapport between husband and wife. This is also emphasised in Deuteronomy 24:4. The principle of interim sex destroys soul love and sex capacity.

8. Adultery and fornication is often used in the Bible to describe reversionism and apostasy — Jeremiah 3:8-10; Ezekiel 16:23-43; 23:24-28; Revelation 17:1-5.

9. Application to the single person.

a) The right man and the right woman were designed by God in eternity past. Therefore, there exists for you an opposite number of divine design.

b) The exception is the rare case of celibacy or function under the law of supreme sacrifice. Under the law of supreme sacrifice a normal person is designed by God for maximum concentration and production. E.g. Jeremiah — Jeremiah 16:2; Paul — 1 Corinthians 9:5.

c) Every believer will eventually meet his opposite number. God will bring you together at the right time, His timing is perfect.

d) However there is no benefit in meeting your opposite number unless you have waited on the Lord in faithfulness to that principle. This means the avoidance of fornication, this means the function of GAP so that you will be spiritually, mentally and physically prepared for this great blessing.

e) Therefore your life and conduct must be based on doctrinal principles that there exists on this earth a right man or right woman for you and no other person will do. It is not a case of cheap substitutes, it is a case of no substitutes.

f) Fornication or adultery is accepting a cheap substitute in order to gratify a biological or even an emotional urge, or to enter into a frantic search for happiness through reversionistic reactor factors.

g) Divine viewpoint plus faith-rest — flee fornication. Super-grace, ECS, growth under GAP reject the principle of the frantic search for happiness through fornication or any of the other categories.

h) Fornication builds scar tissue in the soul, destroys the body, and ruins the spiritual life. Fornication, therefore, is the enemy of right man, right woman relationship and therefore prohibited in the strongest terms in Ephesians 5:3.

i) Doctrine in the soul is the capacity for category #2 love, therefore GAP is the preparation for the greatest of human relationships.

j) Super-grace status gives maximum capacity to express love in sex.

Verse 19 — hardness of heart and/or scar tissue of the soul plus emotional revolt result in intensification of the frantic search for happiness. We have the illustration in this passage.

“Who” is a categorical relative pronoun o(stij which describes the reversionistic believer of the previous two verses.

“Being past feeling” is the perfect passive participle of a)pelgeia and it should be translated “Who while having become calloused” — scar tissue of the soul. It is important to understand the temporal participle which is why it is translated “while having become calloused.”

“Whowhile having become calloused [scar tissue of the soul] have betrayed themselves to promiscuous debauchery.”

“to work” — the prepositional phrase e)ij plus the accusative singular from e)rgasia which means practice, trade, business, and it should be translated with e)ij “resulting in the practice.”

“all uncleanness” is literally, “every kind of immorality” — the descriptive genitive of a)kaqarsia which means viciousness, and the whole gamut of sexual sins with the genitive of paj.

“with greediness” — e)n plus the locative of pleonecia. Which means insatiableness, intense desire, insatiable lust, therefore the intensification of the frantic search for happiness. “In the sphere of insatiable lust” is a good English translation but it must be understood that insatiable lust is the super frantic search for happiness.

Translation: “”Who while having become calloused have betrayed themselves to promiscuous debauchery, resulting in the practice of every kind of immorality in the sphere of insatiable lust.”

Summary

1. Insatiable lust, or the Greek pleonecia, connotes grasping and desiring more and more and therefore represents not the ordinary frantic search for happiness but something way beyond that.

2. In this particular verse the illustration is the sexual reversionism so it means an insatiable desire for more and more sex in abnormal ways.

3. In other passages it is used for insatiable desire for money, or dope, or power. It is often covered by the word “covetousness” or “greediness,” neither of which is adequate.

4. In this context the members of the royal family have reached the latter stages of reversionism. This verse presupposes the existence of the intensification of all stages.

5. What this verse also indicates is beyond the point of that negative volition, apathy or indifference or antagonism toward doctrine or the communicator.

6. The resultant neglect of the function of GAP, failure to assemble together for the learning of the Word of God or to get it off tapes, results in the attack on the left lobe, the blackout of the soul, and the attack on the right lobe, hardness of heart or scar tissue of the soul. And what we have at this point is reverse process reversionism practiced and/or strong delusion.

Verses 20-32, the royal family in reversion recovery; Verse 20 & 21, the importance of GAP in reversion recovery.

Verse 20 begins with the conjunctive particle de which sets up a contrast between the practice of reversionists and their recovery. The royal family should be inculcated with Bible doctrine, moving up the road to super-grace, or enjoying the grace benefits of the super-grace status. Instead the royal family at Ephesus and throughout the Roman province of Asia is bogged down with the reversionistic problem of the three previous verses. “But ye” — the nominative plural of the personal pronoun su. This pronoun is proleptic, it is in the emphatic position in the Greek sentence. The personal pronoun emphasises the royalty and nobility of members of the royal family during the Church Age.

“have not so learned Christ.” The word “not” is the particle o)ux which is a particle of summary negation here. It is used as the proper negative for a statement of an absolute fact in the negative. It is both objective and final. O)ux is always used with the indicative mood to state a negative fact forcefully. The point is that as members of the royal family you were never told to go in the direction of reversionism. The word “so” is an adverb, o(utoj, used to refer to that which precedes. The adverb with the negative indicates that whatever you have done by way of reversionism that is not the order of the day from the Word of God. You were doing that on your own, you were negative toward doctrine, you have entered into a stage of reversionism strictly on your own and totally in disobedience to the Word of God and insubordination to the royal high priest, Jesus Christ. The word o)utoj should be translated “in this manner” or “in this way.” The word “learned” means to be taught here — the aorist active indicative of manqanw, used to learn through categorical instruction. It means to learn from someone as a teacher. “But you [members of the royal family of God] have not been taught in this manner.” Manqanw is a technical word for learning, it is used for academic study, academic learning where there is discipline. It is so used in John 7:15; Galatians 3:2; 1 Corinthians 14:31; Philippians 4:11. The aorist tense of manqanw is a constative aorist which gathers up into one entirety the action of the verb, or the consistent and daily function of GAP leading to, first of all, reversion recovery and eventuating in the super-grace status. The active voice: believers who are members of the royal family produce the action of the verb by submitting themselves to a system of academic training in the local church — inculcation of doctrine. The indicative mood is the reality here, with the negative, of never learning from doctrinal teaching anything that would encourage or motivate toward reversionism. You haven’t learned anything from the Lord that would encourage you to fulfill verses 17-19, the reversionistic section just studied.

“Christ” — the accusative of direct object from Xristoj plus the definite article is “the Christ.” Since doctrine is the mind of Christ — 1 Corinthians 2:16 — this becomes a normal way of stating the doctrinal situation. All doctrine must be related inevitably to the person of Jesus Christ, and especially doctrine of the mystery. Christ is the head of the body — Colossians 1:18. Therefore He is not only the one who has set up the system but He is the one who has set up the content.

Translation: “But you [members of the royal family] have not been taught in this manner the Christ.”

The correct and accurate teaching of the Word of God neither motivates nor encourages reversionism. Therefore, neither God, the Bible, nor doctrine from the Bible, nor the pastor-teacher can ever be blamed for the reversionistic status of the individual believer. There is no excuse for reversionism. Reversionism is the function of your own soul, the function of your free will.

Verse 21 begins with the conjunctive particle which introduces a first class condition — e)i, translated “If.”

“If so be” is an enclitic particle and it refers to the words around it and emphasises them. It is an untranslatable particle actually — ge. It is probably best translated “inasmuch as.” “If inasmuch as.”

“you have heard [and you have]” is better translated “you have begun to hear.” It is the aorist active indicative of a)kouw and is referring to the part of the royal family in GAPing it to super-grace, listening to Bible teaching . It is used for Spirit-filled concentration in the local church as a classroom, listening to the teaching of the Word of God. It recognises the function of GAP in the past where these members of the royal family were operating before they went into reversionism. The aorist tense is ingressive. This recognises the fact that these believers had begun under GAP and interrupted the function of GAP. They started under GAP but they broke off for reversionism. When they did it was their own negative volition at every stage that brought it about. The first class condition recognises the reality of this statement. The active voice: the believers themselves produce the action of the verb. As members of the royal family of God they have moved into various stages of reversionism. The indicative mood is the reality of the former function of GAP and breaking it off to become reversionists. The point is they started out right, they ended up wrong. Now Paul is trying to get them back on the track.

“Inasmuch as you had begun to hear him” — “him” is the accusative of direct object from the intensive pronoun a)utoj, referring to the Lord Jesus Christ. How do you hear Christ? Through the teaching of doctrine. That is the point that he is making. The intensive pronoun emphasises the identity of the Lord Jesus Christ and believers hear Christ through doctrinal teaching of their own pastor-teacher — Ephesians 4:11-13. The pastor represents Christ in the teaching function of GAP.

“and” is the continuative use of the conjunction kai, correctly translated “and.”

“have been taught” — aorist passive indicative of the verb didaskw. This is the primary word for the whole function of GAP — the pastor teaching in monologue to a congregation of more than two or three people.

The doctrine of didaskw

1. The public assembly of the local church is the classroom for this dispensation. Everyone who reaches super-grace must do so either with assembly in the classroom or, in the absence of a proper local church, has to live in front of a tape recorder. It requires both the pastor-teacher and the congregation in order for any believer to reach super-grace.

2. The pastor must have complete authority as well as the proper spiritual gift of communication — the gift of pastor-teacher. In addition to the gift he must have study and preparation along with moral courage and academic honesty, minus stupidity. (There are too many pastors running around who are half-baked, poorly prepared, do not have the gift)

3. The public assembly of the local church is designed by divine authorisation (by God Himself) to provide the privacy of the priesthood for the believer. So in keeping with the principle of privacy the member of the royal family, the believer, assembles with other believers as a student. The word for learning is manqanw; the word for student, taken from manqanw, is the word maqhthj. Maqhthj is translated “disciple” in the KJV, a disciple means a student. True discipleship is subordination to the teaching principle and consistency in intake. The function of didaskw must never be one on one under this principle because maqhthj or student has no rights and privileges, and therefore his privacy and objectivity is protected by gathering him with other disciples. Privacy is protected in a gathering of the local church as far as getting personal and therefore the pastor-teacher simply stays with the passage. One on one is very personal, very subjective, very bad, and it becomes bullying. If it is one on a group then it fulfills the biblical principle.

4. Therefore only in public communication of doctrine in the classroom of the local church does the believer have the necessary privacy for learning, personal application, and living as unto the Lord in fulfillment of Colossians 3:16,17.

5. Personal time with the individual (a pastor one-on-one with a member of the congregation) is an intrusion on both freedom and the privacy of the royal priesthood of the believer. It violates freedom and becomes a system of dictatorship through coercion, bullying, overpowering leadership or salesmanship.

6. The pastor is a teacher of doctrine to an assembly of people. He is not a coach, a physical training expert, or even a DI. He does not meet with individuals to jack them up on prayer, witnessing, and other personal ideas. He doesn’t even counsel. If his congregation listens consistently to his teaching of the Word of God they will never need counsel.

7. The primary functions of the pastor are first of all teacher and secondly policy-maker.

8. The pastor must have absolute authority in teaching. This authority is derived from manqanw and didaskw. Didaskw emphasises a monologue message to a group of people, not to one person.

“by him” — e)n plus the instrumental singular from the intensive pronoun a)utoj. The intensive pronoun emphasises the identity of the Lord Jesus Christ. Again, believers hear Christ through doctrinal teaching of the pastor-teacher. This is how they come to know the Lord, how they come to the point of occupation with Christ.

“as” — an adverb which should be translated “since.” It is the adverb kaqwj. It is ordinarily used for comparison but here it is used as a conjunction with a causal connotation.

“the truth” — nominative singular from the noun a)lhqeia, minus the definite article. The absence of the definite article in the Greek emphasises the qualitative aspect of the noun. Truth is doctrine.

“is” — present active indicative of e)imi, is and keeps on being; “in Jesus” — e)n plus the locative of the definite article, so it is “in the Jesus,” which indicates that He has already been discussed, doctrine is already said to be the mind of Christ, and therefore this is the principle.

Translation: “Inasmuch as you have begun to hear him, and have been taught by him, since doctrine is in the Jesus.”

Verse 22 — the importance of rebound in reversion recovery. Rebound is one of the great principles in reversion recovery, obviously. In fact, rebound is necessary for any kind of advance in the Christian life. You can’t go one inch forward in the Christian life apart from the ministry of God the Holy Spirit, and rebound in the secret to the ministry of the Spirit in the life. Of course, with the ministry of the Spirit you have to expose yourself to the teaching of doctrine, the two cannot be separated in that sense.

“That” does not occur in the original but it is used legitimately to translate the infinitive of purpose; “ye put off” — the aorist middle infinitive of the compound verb a)potiqhmi [a)po — preposition of ultimate source; tiqhmi — to place or to put]. The word was used originally in the Greek language for taking off something, like clothes, but figuratively it means to rid one’s self of something or to lay aside something obnoxious. It means here to lay aside something obnoxious. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. We will see when we get to the object of the verb that what is being laid aside here is the function of the old sin nature. We cannot get away from the old sin nature in this life but we can get away from certain functions of the old sin nature. To do this it demands that we have the rebound technique consistently as a function in the Christian life. Therefore the constative aorist gathers up into a single whole every act of rebound plus every function of GAP by which we recover. The middle voice is a direct middle, it refers to the results of the verb’s action and refers them directly to the agent with reflexive force. The infinitive obviously means purpose because we have seen that it is legitimate to translate it “that.” “That you rid yourselves,” and this is accomplished through the rebound technique. Laying aside, in effect, becomes the road to the correct function of GAP in reversion recovery.

“concerning the former conversation” — this is actually a prepositional phrase, rather a strange one, the preposition kata, plus an adverb proteron which means former, plus the accusative of a noun a)nastrofh which means “manner of life.” Kata plus the accusative has two or three meanings. It generally means “according to” or “along at.” It also means “with reference to” or “with respect to.” When it is used with the adverb it refers to “with respect to” or “with reference to” — “that with reference to your former manner of life you lay aside.” Here it refers to the laying aside of reversionism, and it means to break it up, first of all by the means of utilisation of the rebound technique. Proteron refers to either the former manner of life as an unbeliever, but here it refers to the believer’s manner of life as a reversionist, a manner of life which is under the control of the old sin nature.

The stages of reversionism

1. The presence of the reactor factors — discouragement, boredom, disillusion, overcome by self-pity, inability to handle loneliness, frustration, mental attitude sins, operation vengeance, being jilted, being disappointed about some person. These reactor factors are generally permitted into the soul because the individual involved has not been consistent in the function of GAP, and therefore they come to exist in the soul. Their residence is removed only by consistent intensification of the GAP function.

2. The frantic search for happiness, the reaction to the reactor factors. This frantic search for happiness follows the current trends of the old sin nature either toward asceticism of toward lasciviousness. When the trend is toward asceticism people get into victorious Christian life things, the Keswick movement, super experiences instead of super-grace, operation holy roller, and so on. On the other hand, if it is the trend toward lasciviousness it can be drunkenness, debauchery, dope addiction.

3. Operation boomerang — frustration and intensification. The frantic search for happiness boomerangs, it comes back and intensifies whatever reactor factors existed, whatever mental attitude sins existed, and instead of solving the problem it merely intensifies the frustration as well as the reactor factors which started everything rolling.

4. Emotional revolt of the soul. This is where the soul gets out of kilter because of the first three stages. They all overlap, they also are interwoven. They interact and the interaction cause the fourth stage which is the emotional revolt of the soul, the emotion now controls the soul. The emotion is begging for some kind of stimulus and is looking for its kicks. The emotion of the soul is design to respond to the right lobe and, of course, it does not do so, it takes over the soul. This further intensifies the problem.

5. Negative volition toward doctrine as a result of the presence of the reactor factors, the frantic search for happiness, the emotional revolt, the believer becomes intensively negative toward doctrine. The negative volition can follow a number of different trends: a) Indifference or apathy to Bible teaching; b) Too busy for Bible teaching; c) Antagonism or personality hang-ups regarding the pastor-teacher; d) Antagonism or conflict with regard to other people in the congregation; e) Failure to utilise the rebound technique, therefore lacking the filling of the Spirit the inability to constantly take in the Word of God; f) The inability to handle pre-super-grace prosperity; g) The early pattern of reversionism, including reaction, frantic search for happiness, emotional revolt — all of these interact, causing a person to be indifferent to toward Bible doctrine.

6. The blackout of the soul. This is an attack upon the left lobe only. The individual involved cannot clearly think, has no protection in his own soul through either common sense (the unbeliever) or doctrine, the divine viewpoint for the believer. The blackout is caused by the constant infiltration of Satanic doctrine. This is called scar tissue of the soul, and affliction of the left lobe affecting the entire soul.

7. Scar tissue of the soul or hardness of heart, the right lobe. Scar tissue is callous — pwrwsij.

8. Reverse process reversionism, the final stage of reversionism. It is the antithesis of super-grace in which the believer loves and desires opposites commanded by the Bible, hence it is a distortion of love, it is a reversal of the objects of love. The believer becomes enamoured with pseudo objects. For example, in category #1 he becomes occupied with other things than the Lord Jesus Christ; category #2, pseudo lovers instead of true right man, right woman. As far as doctrine, the true object, is concerned some other object takes the place of Bible doctrine in the life.

To crack out of any one of these stages there must be the rebound technique, there must be a repentance which is a change of attitude toward doctrine, and there must be the consistency of decisions, the operation of the volition in life in the direction toward whoever the right pastor happens to be. In all of these stages there is a breakout place. Reverse process reversionism, of course, eventuates in the sin unto death.

“the old man” is the accusative of direct object from an adjective palaioj meaning “old.” This word goes back to the fact that in the very beginning the old sin nature came upon man at the point of the fall. We are born with an old sin nature, Adam and the woman acquired one through the fall. We also have the accusative of direct object of the noun a)nqrwpoj referring to mankind. The old sin nature is peculiar to mankind in his state of birth.

“which is corrupt” is actually, “which is being corrupted” — the present passive participle of fqeirw which means to be depraved or to be corrupted. The present tense is retroactive progressive present in which something began in the past and continues to the present moment. We have right now an old sin nature, it always has been corrupt, it always will be. It was corrupt from the moment it entered the original parents at the time of the fall, it was corrupt in us the moment we were born into this world. The passive voice: the old sin nature receives the action of the verb which is corruption or depravity. The participle is circumstantial, indicating that each one of us possesses an old sin nature. The old sin nature can be controlled in members of the royal family but it will never ever be improved, which is why in the resurrection body there will be no old sin nature.

The doctrine of the old sin nature

1. Definition. The old sin nature is found in the cell structure of the human body, was acquired originally by Adam’s fall and subsequently through physical birth. It came originally into the human race at the fall of Adam and we acquire it by physical birth; we are born spiritually dead, therefore. It is the centre of human rebellion towards God.

2. The essence of the old sin nature. The fact that an old sin nature has an essence is declared in Romans 6:6. It has an area of weakness, an area of strength, a lust pattern, and trends — asceticism and lasciviousness. The area of weakness produces all personal sins; the area of strength produces all human good. The lust pattern explains why people go in certain directions, how they are motivated. Lust is a motivator — approbation lust, monetary lust, power lust, and so on. The trends vary from time to time.

The area of weakness produces personal sins — Hebrews 12:1.

The area of strength produces human good — Isaiah 64:6; Romans 8:8.

The lust pattern — Romans 7:7; Ephesians 2:3.

The trends of the old sin nature, lasciviousness and asceticism, are documented by the two general categories of overt sin — the sins in the field of legalism and the sins in the field of lasciviousness.

3. The old sin nature in the scripture is found under several types of nomenclature. In Ephesians 4:22 and Colossians 3:9, “the old man.” Sometimes the word “flesh” or sarc in the Greek is used for the old sin nature, as in Galatians 5:16; Ephesians 2:3. The word “carnal” means old sin naturish, it is an adjective — Romans 7:14; 1 Corinthians 3:1-3. One of the most common designations for the OSN is “sin” in the singular — Romans 5:12; 7:14; 1 Corinthians 15:56; 1 John 1:8. The word “heart” refers only to the OSN’s area of weakness or strength because many sins have thought behind them. The right lobe is the source of all thinking, so technically speaking the word “heart” never refers to the OSN but to the motivator of the OSN. Matthew 12:34,35; Mark 7:21,23.

4. Principles of the old sin nature. a) The OSN is the source of spiritual death in mankind — Romans 5:12; Ephesians 2:1,5; b) The OSN is perpetuated in the human race through physical birth — Psalm 51:5; 1 Timothy 2:13,14; c) The believer continues to have the OSN after salvation. There is no such thing as eradication of the OSN or sinless perfection in this life; d) The believer under the control of the OSN is designated “carnal” or “OSNish” — Romans 7:14; 1 Corinthians 3:1-3; e) The OSN frustrates bona fide production in phase two — Romans 7:15; f) The OSN is not found in the resurrection body of the believer — 1 Corinthians 15:56; Philippians 3:21; Colossians 3:4; 1 Thessalonians 5:23

5. Divine judgment solves the problems of the OSN. In phase one judgment Christ was judged for the sins of the world on the cross, taking our place, bearing our sins, and being judged by God the Father, as per 2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Peter 2:24. Phase two judgment is the believer’s sins judged by the rebound technique — 1 Corinthians 11:31; 1 John 1:9. This is why 1 John 1:7 is so important. The principle is that in phase two the believer’s sins are judged by the rebound technique, he judges his own sins. In phase three there is a judgment that solves the problem of the OSN, the believer’s human good is judged at the judgment seat of Christ — 1 Corinthians 3:12-16. The unbeliever’s human good is judged at the great white throne — Revelation 20:12-15.

6. The origin of the OSN — Romans 5:12. While God created man He did not create the OSN in man. Many by disobedience to God created the OSN. God is the creator of man minus the OSN; man by man’s negative volition toward God’s command in the creator of the OSN.

“according to the deceitful lusts” — kata plus the accusative of e)piqumia for “lusts,” plus a)path for “deceitful.” A)path is in the ablative singular and it is the ablative of source. So it comes to means “according to the lusts from deceit.” It refers to the deceit of reversionism. Reversionism is the source of firing up the lust pattern of the OSN.

The doctrine of rebound

1. Definition. Rebound is simply a technical term for the believer’s restoration to fellowship and recovery of the filling of the Spirit.

2. The concept of rebound.

a) Rebound must be understood in relationship in the light of relationship with God — Jeremiah 3:13.

b) Rebound must be correlated with positional truth by the royal family of God — Romans 8:1.

c) The frame of reference for rebound is the efficacious death of Christ on the cross being judged for our sins — 1 John 1:7 cf. 1 John 1:9. Also the true meaning of the blood of Christ in 2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Peter 2:24.

d) Rebound means restoration to fellowship with God plus the recovery of the filling of the Spirit — Proverbs 1:23; Ephesian 5:14 cf. 5;18.

e) Eternal security is the prerequisite to understanding the rebound technique — Romans 8:38,39. The believers sins after salvation but such sin or carnality does not mean loss of salvation, it means loss of fellowship, it means moving in the direction of reversionism — 1 Corinthians 3:1-3; 1 John 1:8,10.

3. The mechanics of the rebound technique. a) Confess it [the sin] — 1 John 1:9; b) Forget it — Philippians 3:13,14; c) Isolate it — Hebrews 12:15. The isolation of sins means that sins are built one upon the other and that sins cause other sins to be triggered in the soul and in the life. Therefore, isolation of sin is very important. To isolate a sin means that it has already been confessed, it has been forgiven by God, and it should not become the basis for chain sinning.

4. The alternative to rebound is carnality, reversionism, and dying discipline. 1 Corinthians 11:31 indicates the avoidance of discipline through rebound ; Hebrews 12:6 indicates the principle of discipline as the inevitable result of neglecting the rebound technique.

5. The discouragement to rebound is found in Luke 15:11-32; 2 Corinthians 2:5-11.

6. Old Testament rebound commands. The technique belonged to the Old Testament saints as well as to the royal family of God — Psalm 32:5; 38:18; 51:3,4; Proverbs 28:13.

7. Biblical synonyms for rebound. a) Confess — 1 John 1:9; b) Judge self — 1 Corinthians 11:31; c) “Yield” in the aorist tense — Romans 6:13; 12:1; d) “Lay aside every weight” — Hebrews 12:1; e) “Be in subjection to the Father of lights” — Hebrews 12:9; f) “Lift up the hands that hang down” — Hebrews 12:12; g) Reversion recovery is related to rebound — Make straight paths,” Matthew 3:3; Hebrews 12:13; h) “Arise from the dead [lit. ‘Stand up again out from deaths’] — Ephesians 5:14; i) “Put off the old man” — Ephesians 4:22; j) “Acknowledge thine iniquities” — Jeremiah 3:13.

8. Helping others to rebound under grace is a principle thought under certain concepts: a) Mechanically — Galatians 6:1; b) The mental attitude which must accompany this — Matthew 18:23-35; c) The application of grace orientation — Colossians 3;13; d) Reward for helping other members of the royal family to rebound — James 5:19,20.

Verse 23 — the resumption of GAP in reversion recovery. The word “And” is a continuative use of the particle de, it relates everything to what has just been said in the previous verse. In addition to the rebound technique it is necessary to GAP it daily to recover from reversionism. “And that” — the word “that” is merely a device to translate the infinitive of purpose.

“[you} be renewed” — present passive infinitive of a)naneow. This is one of several infinitives used in the restoration concept. This means to be restored rather than to be renewed. A)na = again and again; neow = to renew. So renew again and again means restoration. The present tense is an iterative present which describes that which recurs at successive intervals. Therefore it is the present tense of repeated action and it indicates the fact that you just don’t take in doctrine once or once in a while but it has to be a continuous thing both for reversion recovery as well as moving toward super-grace. Consistency is the concept, the consistent function of GAP for reversion recovery and also for achieving the tactical objective of the super-grace status. The present tense is in contrast to the aorist infinitive a)potiqhmi of the previous verse where we have “put off concerning the former conversation,” and that was an aorist tense. The aorist tense was used for rebound; the present tense is used for GAP after rebound. The passive voice: the believer in reversionism recovers by the consistent use of GAP, and like the previous infinitive of a)potiqhmi it indicates a purpose or design for your life. So it should be translated, “And that you be restored by means of the Spirit.”

“in the Spirit” — the instrumental singular of pneuma. This is a reference to God the Holy Spirit who makes GAP function.

“of your mind” is an ablative singular of nouj, used for the left lobe. This is a rare use of the ablative, it is the ablative of means, when the expression of means is accompanied by the implication of its origin or source. The nouj is both the means and the source of cranking up doctrine. The left lobe is the staging area.

Translation: “And that you be restored by means of the [Holy] Spirit by means of the left lobe.”

Verse 24 — the reconstruction of the ECS. This is a part of recovery and as you begin the ECS you are now moving toward your objective again.

“And” is the continuative use of kai, plus the third infinitive of purpose — “And that.” Here is the case of the three infinitives:

a) a)potiqhmi from verse 22, used for the rebound technique, laying aside the old sin nature’s function, the control of the OSN through rebound. That was the aorist middle infinitive for the rebound technique; b) a)naneow, present passive infinitive in verse 23, used for the consistent function of GAP in reversion recovery; c) e)nduw, aorist middle infinitive, used for the ECS being constructed.

“ye put on” — e)nduw. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist which views the action of the verb in its entirety but emphasises the existing results. First of all, there is rebound-GAP. These two go together because GAP functions under the filling of the Holy Spirit, and the filling of the Holy Spirit can only be attained by rebound after carnality. That is the entirety. But the existing result in this case is the construction of the ECS — “and that you clothe yourself.” The middle voice is the direct middle which refers the results of the action directly to the agent with reflexive force; you build your own ECS, no one can build for another.

“[with] the new man” — the accusative singular direct object. The adjective is kainoj; a)nqrwpoj is the noun. Kainoj means new in species and that is a perfect adjective to describe the fact that you and I are members of the royal family. Anything that is provided for us by grace is new in species, there is nothing like it anywhere. The believer with the ECS is unique from the standpoint of his position: member of the royal family of God forever. He has a double uniqueness, an experiential uniqueness — inside of his soul he has the ECS. Here is the concept of the constative aorist — consistency of GAP. The aorist tense: rebound whenever necessary in this. The culminative aorist builds that construction in the soul which is absolutely unique and for members of the royal family only. So you have positional uniqueness; you have experiential uniqueness.

“which” is the accusative singular of the definite article, but the definite article is used as a relative pronoun.

“after God” — kata plus the accusative of qeoj means according to the standard of God. The standard of God is a perfect standard, it represents His entire essence and anything that represents the essence of God has to be absolutely perfect.

“is created” — the aorist passive participle from ktizw. Only God can make an ECS; only God can bring a person to super-grace. It is a grace operation. This is a culminative aorist which views the action of the verb in its entirety but emphasises the existing results — resulting in the creation of something new. The passive voice: the believer receives the action of the verb through the daily function of GAP. The participle is a circumstantial participle which means that God is going to do all the work.

The function of rebound results in God the Holy Spirit controlling the life. Under the filling of the Spirit the daily function of GAP leads to reversion recovery. As you begin to recover it is inevitable that you will begin the construction of the ECS, at which time your recovery is completed and you are simply now fulfilling your objective of the erection of the ECS leading to the super-grace life.

“in righteousness” — the preposition e)n plus the locative of dikaiosunh meaning absolute righteousness; “in the sphere of +R [divine essence].” You have to have righteousness in your soul by way of doctrine before you can have righteousness in your life by way of practice. This is used of the believer in fellowship and filled with the Spirit, and the ECS is built “in the sphere of righteousness.” Righteousness is nobility, and since we are royal family we might as well act like it!

“and true holiness” — kai o(siothti thj a)lhqeiaj. This means “devotion to doctrine.” The word o(siothti is the locative singular of the noun o(siothj and it means “in the sphere of devotion.” Then, a)lhqeia is a noun, and a)lhqeiaj is the genitive singular of possession, designed to indicate ownership. The believer possesses or owns doctrine. With your own building materials you construct your very own ECS. So we have “in devotion to doctrine.”

Translation: “And that you clothe yourself with the new species man [ECS], which according to the standard of God has been created in the sphere of righteousness and in the sphere of devotion to doctrine.”

That must be contrasted with what we have had previously. Ignorance of doctrine now is replaced by devotion. to doctrine. How do you know when you are on the road to super-grace? You are totally devoted to doctrine. You love doctrine, you can’t get along without doctrine, doctrine becomes your life.

The results of this are given in verses 25-32. Seven results are actually given: The recovery of divine viewpoint — verse 25; objective indignation — verse 26; victory in the angelic conflict — verse 27; the production of divine good in business — verse 28; the control of the tongue as a sign of maturity — verse 29; discontinuance of grieving the Holy Spirit — verses 30,31; nobility of soul in the function of grace — verse 32.

Verse 25 — “Wherefore” is an inferential conjunction, dio. It denotes that the inference is obvious. We have an exact equivalent: “therefore.” The inference is based on the previous paragraph where rebound, GAP, and the ECS are tied into reversion recovery. Therefore there are certain additional results to accompany reversion recovery. There are seven in the last paragraph of this chapter and the paragraph which follows.

a) You recover the divine viewpoint — verse 25.

b) You have objective indignation — verse 26.

c) Victory in the angelic conflict — verse 27.

d) Production of divine good in the business world — verse 28.

e) Control of the tongue as a sign of maturity — verse 29.

f) Discontinuance of the practice of grieving the Holy Spirit — verses 30,32.

g) Nobility of the soul under the function of grace — verse 32.

The word “wherefore” is literally “therefore.” This means an obvious inference follows; “putting away” — aorist middle participle of a)potiqhmi. It means to take off clothes, it is used in the Greek figuratively for laying aside something or getting rid of something. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist which views the action of the verb in its entirety but emphasises the existing results of reversion recovery in laying aside or stripping off the habit of telling lies. The middle voice is the intensive or dynamic middle which emphasises the part taken by the action of the verb. This use of the middle voice gives the verb an individualistic or specific application. So the dynamic middle always has a specific application to anyone in reversionism. Reversionism is a life of deceit and it is always characterised by habitual lying. The participle is circumstantial and at the same time it has coterminous action with the main verb which is “have been taught” in verse 21. When you begin to GAP it and recover from super-grace you lay aside the habit of lying. Having been taught doctrine the reversionistic believer sheds, gets rid of, the habit of lying. “Therefore having laid aside” is a good translation.

“lying” — this is not a participle as translated in the KJV but a noun plus the definite article, to yeudoj. It should be translated “the lie.” It refers to a habit of lying. This does not mean to tell a lie occasionally, this is a pattern of lying because one is living in a total life of deceit. “Therefore having laid aside the lie.”

Summary

1. “The lie” is both the pattern of deceit and the expression of that pattern in what is commonly known today as pathological lying. It has been known as compulsive lying. A compulsive liar is a person who lies when he doesn’t have to, it just gets to be such a habit that he does it automatically.

2. One of the results of reversion recovery is stripping off or laying aside compulsive lying.

3. The removal of false doctrine through the consistent function of GAP strips away scar tissue of the soul, and this removal of scar tissue causes a person to become so relaxed that they stop lying. Lying and pathological lying is a sign of tension, a sign of living a life of deceit and constantly being on guard lest someone penetrate the deceit.

4. The verb a)potiqhmi is used in the sense of laying aside this pattern. This cannot be done any more than the average person (unbeliever, for example) can quit drinking, can give up dope, can quit smoking, can quit anything to which over a long period of time the volition has acquiesced.

The next phrase is a quotation from the Old Testament — Zechariah 8;16 — where the phraseology describes the believer recovering the ECS and entering the super-grace life, and at the same time into national prosperity. Therefore this next phrase is a command to enter super-grace status, a command from Zechariah 8:16.

“speak” — present active imperative of the verb lalew. It means here “be speaking” or “be communicating.” The word “be” is used to bring out the imperative mood. The present tense is a pictorial or progressive present used to indicate what should now be going on. The active voice: the royal family recovering from reversionism produces the action of the verb and produces it through the motivation of Bible doctrine, not the motivating factors in the life of an unbeliever — a love, a friendship, the encouragement of someone in a position of leadership. Bullying is often a motivation for the unbeliever. The imperative mood is used here as a command. There are two kinds of imperative mood: prohibition and command.

“every man” is the nominative of e(kastoj, the subject of the verb, which means “each one of you.”

“the truth” (in contrast to the lie) — accusative singular direct object from a)lhqeia. Arndt and Gingrich, p36, defines a)lhqeia as used in this passage: “The embodiment of knowledge and truth, especially the content of Christianity as the absolute truth.” What this is saying is that a)lhqeia refers to Bible doctrine, doctrine in the soul and the spirit of the believer. To speak or communicate doctrine with the neighbour or those in your periphery means you are now living in the world of reality, and as doctrine motivates whatever you communicate is true, people can depend on your word. When you say something, that’s it, your word becomes your bond. This comes from living in the sphere of the truth.

“neighbour” — in the Bible this always means your friends, those with whom you associate. When the Bible says “love your neighbour” it means love your friends. In other words, have a true affection for your friends. The word “neighbour” doesn’t actually occur, this is the preposition meta plus the genitive of the definite article, plus the adverb plhsion, plus the intensive pronoun a)utoj. Literally, it should be translated “with the near to him.” In our language, “near to him” means the “dear to him.” Your friends are those who are dear to you, and because they are dear to you they are near to you — in your soul, not necessarily geographically. “Each one of you be speaking doctrine [divine viewpoint] with his neighbour [the believer with whom you associate].”

“for we are members one of another” — this means the royal family.

Verse 26 — “Be ye angry.” This is the present middle imperative of o)gizw. It means to be angry at someone because of something, to be indignant. This begins a quotation from Psalm 4:4 which should read, as it is in the Hebrew, “Tremble with anger and do not sin.” That is exactly what is mean in the present middle imperative of o)rgizw. To tremble with anger is righteous indignation, is justified anger. The present tense is an iterative present which describes that which recurs at successive intervals, therefore the present tense of repeated action. This means that there are right times to be angry without sinning. “Be angry with righteous indignation” is the best translation of the present middle imperative. The middle voice her is the permissive middle which represents the agent as voluntarily yielding himself to the results of the action (free will) through his own interest — e.g. taking a stand for what is right. The imperative mood is a command. There is a legitimate anger or righteous indignation and this anger is directed toward the false of the previous verse. In other words, the context determines the reason for legitimate anger. Legitimate anger is reserved for false doctrine, the false, for apostasy, for religiosity, for revolution, for antiestablishment, for everything that is contrary to Bible doctrine whether it is some idiot male with long hair or some so-called conscientious objector. There is a place for righteous indignation toward the fourth estate, the press. The press no longer reports news, it comments on it and therefore the news is slanted. If your are going to comment on it you are going to get the news to support your petty ideas, and that is exactly what has happened today. This command says that you have the right to be angry without sinning. There is illegitimate anger. Illegitimate anger is a sin, it is a sin based on mental attitude sins. These mental attitude sins, along with guilt complex, produce pseudo anger or sinful anger. So there follows in the same passage a prohibition of illegitimate anger.

“let not the sun go down upon your wrath” — “let not go down” is the present active imperative of e)piduw plus the negative mh. The negative mh recognises that there is a legitimate anger and therefore it is used instead of o)uk. The present tense is the tendencial present, used for an action attempted but not actually taking place at the moment. The active voice plus the negative prohibits the subject from sinful anger. The imperative mood is the imperative of prohibition rather than command. It expresses, therefore, a negative command. Mh plus the imperative is a prohibition. The word for “sun” here is h(lioj, it describes the end of the day according to Jewish time. The Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written. In the time when Paul wrote this he was a Jew and thought in terms of Jewish rather than Gentile time. Under Jewish time the day is divided from the next day by sunset to sunset rather than midnight to midnight which is Gentile time. Paul is a Jew and he thinks in Jewish time, so he says don’t let the end of the day go down on your wrath. In other words, do not end the day by harbouring mental attitude sins and accompanying anger.

“upon your wrath” is e)pi plus the locative of parorgismoj. O)rgh = mental anger; qumoj = emotional anger. So there are two kinds of anger. The mental anger sin and the emotional anger sin are both based on mental attitude. The only difference is that the emotional anger sin also includes emotional revolt of the soul. Qumoj, emotional anger, connotes sinfulness in the area of mental attitude sins expressed plus emotional revolt expressed. It also connotes turbulence, tantrums, and hysteria. Hysteria may or may not be sinful. This is dealing with sinful hysteria. Hysteria is a sin by association id it is caused by jealousy, bitterness, vindictiveness, hatred, pride. If hysteria is produced by shock alone without these things, then it is non-sinful. Here we have o)rgh in a compound. It has para in front of it which means beside and also immediate source. O)rgh means anger, and when you put it all together it is a double attitude sin. Para means it takes more than one sin to produce this, it means a sin beside a sin and it means a mental attitude sin resulting in a mental attitude sin — like jealous causing anger, implacability causing anger. In other words, it is a double sin. Therefore it is an intensified sin and so we say “upon your intensified anger.”

Translation: “Be angry with righteous indignation, and yet do not sin in your anger: do not permit the sun to go down on your intensified anger.”

Summary

1. The first command demands legitimate righteous indignation as the result of spiritual growth and discernment.

2. The second command of this verse demands rebound. The believer must keep short accounts.

3. Otherwise mental attitude sins double and intensify, producing extensive mental attitude sins to produce misery of soul and body.

4. Furthermore, mental attitude sins combine with reactor factors to provide energy for various stages of reversionism.

5. Like a hurricane gathering energy from heat mental attitude sins are like the heat in a tropical storm turning into a hurricane because the heat provides energy and intensifies the storm. In the same way, we have the doubling of mental attitude sins which provide the energy for anger.

6. The further implication of this verse is that only the mature believer in super-grace can handle legitimate anger and avoid illegitimate sinful anger.

7. Hence, this verse is the result of reversion recovery going as far as super-grace.

The doctrine of the royal family

1. Definition. All believers of the Church Age belong to a unique system of royalty. This royalty is based upon the spiritual principle of doctrine, and while regeneration always occurs in every dispensation and in every generation of history only those who are regenerated in the Church Age are members of the royal family of God. All other people, born again, are simply members of the family of God; they are definitely not in the same status as any believer in the Church Age. Regeneration occurs in every dispensation but regeneration in this dispensation is unique.

2. The basis of royalty in the Church Age. This is the baptism of the Holy Spirit mechanically stated in 1 Corinthians 12:13. No believer before the Church Age and no believer after the Church Age receives at the point of salvation the baptism of the Spirit. Only Church Age believers receive the baptism of the Spirit whereby they are entered into union with Christ, whereby they become members of the royal family. Regeneration makes one a member of the family of God; baptism of the Spirit makes one a member of the royal family of God.

3. The precedent for royalty: the order of Melchizedek. It should be noted that Melchizedek acquired his royalty by becoming king of Salem, whereas Jesus Christ was born royalty in the line of David. They royalty of the Church Age believer comes at the point of regeneration through the baptism of the Spirit — positional truth or union with Christ.

4. The relationship to the King. Royalty must have a relationship with the King, that is what royalty means. While Jesus Christ was alone at the cross, bearing our sins, talking our place, God the Father has provided for Him a royal family — called the body and the bride. Again, through the baptism of the Spirit every believer has entered into union with Christ. Hence, believers are known today as the body of Christ. Being the body of Christ makes every believer of the Church Age personally related to the King of kings. Positional truth places every believer in the palace. At the Rapture the body of Christ will become the bride of Christ.

5. The sign of royalty is the unprecedented universal indwelling of the Holy Spirit. In addition to the sign of royalty we also have a coat of arms of royalty — Ephesians 4:4-7. Never before in history has God the Holy Spirit indwelled every believer and the purpose of the indwelling of the Spirit in this dispensation is to glorify God — John 7:37-39.

6. The security of royalty. The sealing ministry of God the Holy Spirit, as well as positional truth, provides a double security for all members of the royal family.

7. The function of royalty is twofold: a) Moving toward the objective of the super-grace life in which every believer receives the accouterments of royalty as well as the tactical victory in the angelic conflict; b) The function of royalty is the modus operandi of the new priesthood.

8. The future of royalty. As members of the body of Christ and the royal priesthood all Church Age believers will return with Christ at the second advent. We will be personal observers of the termination of the great middle east campaign of the future.

The doctrine of the body of Christ

1. The Trinity is related to the body of Christ. The Father placed Christ as the head of the body — Ephesians 1:22. He is the head of the body — Ephesians 1:22,23. The Holy Spirit forms the body — 1 Corinthians 12:13. He also sustains the body — 1 Corinthians 6:15 cf. 6:19,20.

2. Christ is the saviour of the body — Ephesians 5:23,25,30.

3. Christ is the sanctifier of the body — Hebrews 2:11; 13:12.

4. The body is related to the strategic victory of the angelic conflict — Ephesians 1:22,23.

5. The body includes Gentile believers as well as Jewish in the Church Age — Ephesians 3:6.

6. The body is the recipient of numerous spiritual gifts — Romans 12:4,5; 1 Corinthians 12:27,28.

7. The communication of doctrine and the gift of communication is for the purpose of edification and leading the royal priesthood into super-grace — Ephesians 3:6-8; 4:11,12.

8. Therefore, the objective of the body of Christ in phase two is to reach super-grace — Ephesians 4:15,16.

The doctrine of the manifestation of the bride

1. The body of Christ is being formed on earth during the entire Church Age. The process continues all the way to the Rapture. Ephesians 1:22,23; 2:16; 4:4,5; 5:23; Colossians 1:18,24; 2:19.

2. When the body is completed the Rapture occurs — 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18; 1 Corinthians 15:51-57. By comparing Colossians 2:15 with Revelation 19:6-8; Zechariah 13:2; 1 Thessalonians 3:13 the number of believers in the body of Christ will be equal to the number of demons operating under the command of Satan in this stage of the angelic conflict.

3. During the Tribulation on earth the bride is prepared in heaven. While the sands of time are running out in the Tribulation, the Jewish Age, the bride is in heaven being prepared. This includes ultimate sanctification or a resurrection body like that of the Lord Jesus — Philippians 3:21; 1 John 3:1,2. The bride is cleansed of all human good, there is no place in heaven for human good — 1 Corinthians 3:12,15. The bride no longer possesses the old sin nature and the capabilities of sin.

4. The bride returns with Christ at the second advent — 1 Thessalonians 3:13.

5. Operation footstool of Psalm 110:1 then occurs. There will be a triumphal procession in which all demons are going to be publicly displayed in that procession — Colossians 2:15. Satan will be cast into prison for 1000 years — Revelation 20:1-3, and Church Age believers at the end of the triumphal procession will cast demons into the prison — Zechariah 13:2; Colossians 2:15; 1 Corinthians 15:24,25.

6. Then occurs the coronation of the Groom, the Lord Jesus Christ — Revelation 19:6.

7. The wedding supper of the Lamb occurs — Revelation 19:7-9. The marriage occurs in heaven but the wedding supper takes place on the earth — Matthew 25:1-13. The wedding supper of the Lamb is described in Revelation 19:6-9.

Verse 27 — our attitude should be not to give place to Satan. “Neither” is the negative disjunctive particle mhde. The disjunctive particle is used when continuing a preceding negation, so it should be translated “And do not.”

“give” — present active imperative of didomi. The progressive present of existing results is used to represent a fact which has come to exist in the past but is emphasised as a present reality. In other words, too many times members of the royal family have done exactly this. They have given their seat to the devil. The active voice: the believer in reversionism has given his seat to the devil. Therefore he is to stop it. The present plus the disjunctive negative means stop it. Stop giving your seat to the devil. You do this by simply being a reversionist. The active voice: the believer is recovering now from reversionism and therefore he must stop a procedure which has occurred. The imperative mood of prohibition is used to express a negative command.

“place” means two things in the Greek: topoj, from which we get topography, can mean a seat or geographical area, a dwelling place actually. It also means opportunity. “And do not be giving opportunity.”

“to the devil” — dative singular of diaboloj. This is the dative of indirect object, it indicates the one in whose interest the act is performed. It is to your benefit, to your interest, to make sure that you do not give the devil any running room.

Translation: “Do not be giving opportunity to the devil.”

Summary

1. The believer gives opportunity to the devil by entering reversionism.

2. Any believer in any stage of reversionism has given his seat to the devil or has given the devil opportunity.

3. Such a believer who has given opportunity to the devil has become a casualty to the angelic conflict.

4. This is totally incompatible with being a member of the royal family of God.

The devil’s seven

1. The person of the devil. He has a very pleasing personality, he is a genius and is the smartest creature ever to exist. He is the highest of all angelic creatures, he is the ruler of all fallen angels — Matthew 8:28; 9:34; 12:26. He is a prehistoric creature — Isaiah 14:12-17; Ezekiel 28:11-29. He as the devil is the chief antagonist in the angelic conflict — Hebrews chapters 1 & 2; Genesis 6; 1 Peter 3:18-22. The devil has the greatest and most thorough of all organisations — Ephesians 6:10-12. He was a murderer from the beginning. He is the opponent of Bible doctrine — Matthew 13:9,39. He is the enemy of the royal family — Revelation 2:9,13,24.

2. The devil’s rulership. The devil is not only the ruler of fallen angels but 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. The devil has strategy regarding nations in the world. It is his strategy to wipe out the Jew. He always uses nations to try to destroy Israel. He is the head of any international organisation, like the United Nations. He is the chief opponent of the laws of divine establishment and seeks to break down the sovereignty and the freedom of nationalism. It is his objective to turn those nations under his influence into empires and utilise them to further his own purposes in the strategy of nations.

4. His strategy regarding the unbelievers of this world. He not only has a strategy for people collectively as nations but he has strategies for persons individually. This runs the gamut from blinding their minds (scar tissue of the soul in the unbeliever) to every form of unbeliever reversionism, as in 2 Peter 2. Reference to the devil’s strategy regarding the unbeliever — Luke 8:12; 2 Corinthians 4:3,4; 2 Thessalonians 2:7-10; Colossians 2:8; Revelation 17.

5. The devil’s strategy regarding the royal family. His primary strategy is accusation. That is his strategy in heaven. He is constantly gathering information with regard to every believer, noting all of their sins. Then comes the accusations in the court of heaven. But the Lord Jesus Christ is not only our high priest but He is our advocate, and He represents us in heaven and the case is always thrown out. Job 1; 2 Corinthians 2:1; Zechariah 3:1,2; Revelation 12:9,10; 1 John 2:1,2. The devil is also in on reversionism. Reversionism is a combination of Satanic strategy and the function of the old sin nature and the two combine with the volition of the soul in order to bring about reversionism. This is giving your seat to the devil. He is always seeking to frustrate the will of God — Ephesians 4:14; 1 Thessalonians 2:18; James 4:7,8. He also seeks to neutralise doctrine, doctrinal application, through worry and anxiety. Worry is the way the devil makes a believer indifferent to the Word of God. Worry is a total soul function just as occupation with Christ is a total soul function. Occupation with Christ is the total soul occupation with doctrine, whereas worry is the total soul function of facing your problems erroneously. 1 Peter 5:7-9, worry is one of the greatest ways to eliminate doctrine on the negative volition basis. Obviously the devil seeks to get the believer’s eyes on people, self, and things. He tries to get believers so involved in improving the devil’s world that they have no time for reaching super-grace because they have no time for doctrine. Also there are things that distract the soul. The soul is turned on by socialism, social action, social gospel, operation bleeding heart; many, many ways of trying to solve man’s problems. The inculcation of fear regarding physical death has always been the capstone on Satanic strategy for the believer — Hebrews 2:14,15.

6. Religion is the devil’s basic strategy, it is his counterfeit of the plan of God. Christianity is a relationship with God through Christ whereas religion is man by man’s efforts using man’s ability and man’s ingenuity to gain the approbation of God.

7. Satan himself is a great communicator and great in inculcating false doctrine. False teachers are his basic strategy for the communication of false doctrine.

Verse 28 — this begins the practical area of this passage. The great doctrinal principles of the first part of this chapter deal with the universal priesthood of the believer and the fact that in this dispensation every believer is a member of the royal family of God and will be royalty forever. Therefore we have seen royalty defined in terms of present objectives. Our present objective is to taker in doctrine until we reach the super-grace life, and then to keep on taking in doctrine.

“Let him that stole” is a present active participle from the verb kleptw. The present tense is an iterative present, it describes certain reversionistic believers as stealing at certain intervals. They don’t steal all the time. The active voice: this is produced by the reversionist. It refers to a believer. The participle is circumstantial.

“The one stealing”

1. The verb kleptw connotes criminal activity but applies also to dishonesty in business or business malpractice.

2. Here is a believer on a frantic search for happiness trying to get ahead in life through dishonesty.

3. The accumulation of business profits through dishonesty is stealing.

4. The frantic search for happiness, emotional revolt of the soul, negative volition toward doctrine, blackout of the soul, scar tissue of the soul results in some form of dishonesty in the life of every person. Every person who gets into reversionism becomes a dishonest person.

5. Reverse process reversionism is manifest in dishonesty in any facet of life. Dishonesty is a status of the soul.

6. This circumstantial participle of kleptw recognises reversionistic dishonesty in two areas specifically: business and crime.

“steal no more” — present active imperative of kleptw. With it is a negative adverb mhketi and it means “not from now on.” So literally we have to translate this, “Stop stealing from this point on.”

“but” is the connective particle de which can be used to establish a contrast between reversionism and the practice of crime on the one hand, and super grace and the function of integrity on the other hand. So it is set up for the purpose of showing that beyond the particle a course is recommended, a course which at the time of writing would be compatible with super-grace recovery.

“rather” is a comparative adverb mallon which, along with the particle de, is used to express a concept which corrects the preceding problem. Rather than being a criminal or dishonest businessman this verse is going to say from this point on, earn an honest living, be an honest person.

“let him labour” is the present active imperative of kopiaw which means to work hard, to labour to the point of exhaustion. It is used in principle on Colossians 3:16,17. The present tense is a tendencial present used for an action purposed or intended but not taking place at the moment. The active voice: the believer recovering from reversionism will produce the action of the verb. The imperative mood is a command.

“working” — may be with the mind or the hands. Apparently the ones involved here worked with their hands. The present middle participle of “working” is e)rgazomai. This word and kopiaw together indicate that God provides for X number of people a means for maintaining inner integrity of the soul and living a life free from any type of dishonesty.

“with his hands” is literally, “working with his very own hands” — taij i)diaij xersin are instrumental plural plus the definite article. This is the instrumental of means which indicates the way to make an honest living rather than being involved in a life of crime is a spiritual issue for the believer. The spiritual issue demands that first of all there is the intake of doctrine to strengthen the volition, to move into a sphere of life where he can make an honest living.

“the thing which is” is not found in the original.

“the good” is the accusative of the direct object of a)gaqoj and it has with it a definite article. If you want money and you are in business the way to get it is to get to super-grace and let God provide it on a permanent stabilised basis. If you are a believer and you want money and you are a reversionist and you steal or cheat or embezzle then obviously you will never have money but you will have every misery and frustration that goes from divine discipline from that type of activity.

“that” — the conjunction i(na introduces a purpose clause; “he may have” — present active subjunctive of e)xw which means to have and to hold. The present tense is the retroactive progressive present, denoting that which was begun in the past and continues to the present time. The active voice: believers in reversion recovery produce the action of the verb. The subjunctive mood is potential, it implies a future reference and is qualified by the element of contingency, namely whether reversion recovery will occur under GAP or not.

“to give” — the possession of money to give depends upon a continuation in GAP for reversion recovery. Earning an honest living here does not mean to be just living on short funds. When you become a believer taking in doctrine and growing up spiritually then God is going to provide for you in an honest living more than enough for your own needs. He will provide so much that you will have to give others. That is what an honest living does. The possession of money comes from two sources: spiritual growth where the believer is concerned, and spiritual growth resulting in super-grace blessing. Super-grace blessings include money. This is the present active infinitive of metadidomi means to share. To give or to share with someone who is less fortunate or who has a problem. The present tense is an iterative present which describes what recurs at successive intervals, hence the present tense of repeated action. The active voice: the believer who has saved from God’s provision or has an excess because of super-grace provision can give as the occasion arises. The infinitive is an infinitive of purpose. The purpose in saving money is to share with a needy believer when the occasion arises.

“to him that needeth” — should be translated “with the one having need.” This is a dative of indirect object of the article plus a present active participle of e)xw, plus the accusative of xreia which means a need.

Translation: “The one stealing [reversionist] from now on stop stealing: but rather work hard, earning a living with his own hands in order that he might have money to share with the one having need.”

Summary

1. The one having a need refers to the fact that the poor you have with you always — Matthew 26:11; Mark 14:7; John 12:8. The welfare state cannot solve the problem of poverty.

2. Just as there will always be wars until the Millennium — Matthew 24:6; Mark 13:7; Luke 21:9 — so there will always be poor, even in the royal family of God.

3. The solution to the problem of poverty is not found in the welfare state, not found in socialism, not found in the social gospel or social action. The solution to poverty is a spiritual solution.

4. The solution is found in Bible doctrine and the individual believer reaching the super-grace status where either he is going to be poor and happy, rich and happy, or prosperous and happy.

5. Under super-grace certain members of the royal family of God will be blessed financially and materially.

6. This gives the opportunity to practice charity which is a legitimate function of the individual, the church, and in some rare cases the state.

7. Such giving on the part of super-grace believers is a bona fide application of the super-grace life. However, when the state tries to make everyone a charity patient, when it is constantly giving out, it destroys something in life. You are being deprived of your own government of friendships. Those who take a dole have lost the opportunity of being helped by someone who loves you and you have been deprived of a great relationship in life.

8. While the Bible condones charity it neither condones nor encourages socialism.

9. Socialism impoverishes the rich to keep the poor poor.

10. Under conditions of socialism the poor remain poor but they become leeches to society. So poverty is not solved, you merely develop a society of leeches.

11. Learn to distinguish between the socialism of the welfare state and the legitimate charity of free enterprise.

12. The same principle of establishment applies to the spiritual life of the believer. Charity is a legitimate function of grace; socialism is a part

The doctrine of the poor

1. God can raise the poor out of the poverty of their circumstances — 1 Samuel 2:8; Psalm 113:7.

2. There is a special happiness for those who help the poor [charity, not government] — Psalm 41:1,2; Proverbs 19:17; 22:9; 29:14.

3. The poor are not only delivered by God from poverty but in the reality of their poverty they see the need for salvation — Psalm 72:12-14; Matthew 11:5.

4. Charity to the poor is a bona fide function of the establishment — Proverbs 14:30,31; 19:17. But again, we must learn to distinguish between charity and welfare. Charity is for the helpless poor; welfare is for the poor helpless — Galatians 2:10. Welfare is rejected; charity is a Christian virtue.

5. The poor cannot enter into pseudo friendship because of his poverty. Poor people, if they have friends, generally have real friends. Proverbs 19:4.

6. There is a special curse for those who ignore helping the poor — Proverbs 21:13; 22:16,22; 28:3.

7. Until the Millennium there will always be poverty — Matthew 26:11; Mark 14:7; John 12:8.

8. It is possible to be poor and still have great happiness — Mark 12:43.

9. The Bible teaches that the poor are often the target for hypocrisy — John 12:5; James 2:2-4.

10. The poor have the same spiritual privileges as the wealthy believer possesses — James 2:5. Financial status does not in any way cause spiritual discrimination.

Verse 29 — this verse is a special exhortation to pastors in teaching toe Word of God. It therefore is a parenthesis since it refers to a special classification, namely pastor-teachers only. This is a grim reminder that pastors must teach the Word if members of the royal family are to recover from reversionism and are to reach the super-grace life. Therefore in reversion recovery when a passage mentions the function of the pastor it emphasises at the same time the only way in which anyone ever comes out of the hole of reversionism, and the only way any member of the royal family ever reaches the super-grace status which is the status of blessing. The principle which we find here is very similar to that found in verse 15 and in Hebrews 7:10, a parenthetical principle to remind the pastor-teacher that reversion recovery or moving toward the objective of super-grace, or any advance or any progress in the spiritual life in the dispensation of the Church must come through the teaching of the Word of God in the classroom, the local congregation.

“Let no corrupt communication” is entirely wrong. The Greek phrase is Paj logoj saproj. [Logoj = doctrine or the communication of doctrine; saproj = decayed, rotten, putrid; paj = all]. All this really says is, Every rotten sermon.” A rotten or a putrid sermon should be defined. Sometimes a rotten sermon is one that steps on you, it hits you too hard, rubs you the wrong way. It may be the content or it may be the way it is delivered but sometimes you may think things are being rather forcibly shoved down your throat. That may or may not be true but that is not a rotten sermon. A rotten sermon to you may be one you do not like, it disagrees with your pet ideas. It offends your sensibilities. God the Holy Spirit communicates in language that can be understood. Koine means common or street language, and that is exactly what we have in the New Testament. It is a mistake to try to obscure the truths of Bible doctrine in abstruse, nebulous, pedantic language. While it always seems to sound nice and it is very impressive to hear words that you cannot understand, that is not the objective of the teaching of the Word of God.

The Word of God indicates that a putrid sermon “lacketh doctrine, therefore stinketh” because basically there are only two things you can get out of a sermon: the doctrine which is taught and the application of that or other doctrines. Sheep do not feed themselves. This passage is not addressed to the one who habitually communicates doctrine, it is addressed to the pastor who doesn’t communicate doctrine at all, who doesn’t know any doctrine. So a putrid sermon is a sermon which does not take a portion of the Word of God and analyse it, and categorise its doctrines and communicate its built-in application. Putrid sermons are preached by saproj [putrid] minds in the sense that there are a lot of “fundy’ pastors who cannot analyse or teach and have no purpose in mind when it comes to the Word of God. Everything must be built upon the Word. The failure of the pastor-teacher to communicate Bible doctrine means the failure of the royal family to reach super-grace. It further means that you cannot pull out of the mud those who are in reversionism. There is only one way to do it and that is through the teaching of the Word of God.

“let it not proceed” is a present active imperative from the verb e)kporeuomai with the negative mh. It means a little more than proceed, it means communication obviously. The present tense is an iterative present used to describe what recurs at successive intervals, the message preached by the pastor-teacher should be consistent. He should continue to teach one passage, then another, then another. The active voice: the rotten sermon is produced by the pastor-teacher and he therefore produces the action of the verb. With the negative it means he should stop it or discontinue it. The imperative mood is not the imperative of command but of prohibition with the negative mh.

Translation so far: “Do not permit any rotten sermon to go out of your mouth.”

“your mouth” is a part of a prepositional phrase — e)k plus the ablative of stoma which is “from the source of your mouth.” This applies to pastor-teachers. This also has the application of a principle: Born again believers all have problems with the tongue.

The doctrine of the tongue

1. Seven blessings from God include protection from the sins of the tongue — Job 5:17-21.

2. Three of the seven worst sins are sins of the tongue — Proverbs 6:16-19.

a) Sins of the tongue emanate from the old sin nature — Psalm 34:13.

b) Sins of the tongue are sponsored or motivated by mental attitude sins — Psalm 5:9.

c) The perpetuation of the sins of the tongue indicates verbal reversionism — James 5:9,12. Verbal reversionism can result in the sin unto death — Psalm 12:3.

d) Sins of the tongue produce triple compound discipline — Psalm 64:8; Matthew 7:1,2.

e) God protects the believer victimised by the sins of the tongue — Job 5:19-21. God turns cursing into blessing when you are the victim of sins of the tongue — James 3:9;5:16.

f) Control of the tongue or absence of the sins of the tongue is a sign of maturity. As a sign of possessing the ECS — James 3:2; as a sign being in super-grace — James 4:11,12.

g) Sins of the tongue are the sign of reversionism — James 4:11; 5:9,12.

h) Verbal reversionism produces enough gossip, slander, judging, maligning and criticism to destroy an entire congregation — James 3:5,6.

i) Since the sins of the tongue can destroy an entire congregation it is the duty of the pastor-teacher to warn against them — 2 Timothy 2:14-17.

j) Troublemakers are characterised by sins of the tongue by which they produce their trouble — Psalm 52:2. Believers in the royal family are commanded to separate themselves from such troublemakers — Romans 16:17,18.

k) By avoiding sins of the tongue the believer can find great happiness and add years to his life — Psalm 34:12,13.

3. Control of the tongue is the sign of a super-grace believer — James 1:26; 4:11,12; Colossians 4:6.

4. The power of the tongue to express thought is found in 1 Corinthians 2:4; Ephesians 4:15; 1 Thessalonians 2:4.

5. The power of the tongue to communicate doctrine on the part of the pastor-teacher is emphasised in Ephesians 4:15,29.

“but” — an adversative conjunction a)lla which sets up a contrast between a rotten sermon and a good one.

“that” — incorrect. This is e)i tij which is a combination of the conditional or conjunctive particle plus the indefinite pronoun and it should always be translated “whatever.” Whatever refers to expository teaching.

“is” — present active indicative of e)imi, “keeps on being.” This is the retroactive progressive present tense. What is good keeps on being good. Doctrine is always good, there never will be a time when it isn’t good.

“good” — the predicate nominative of a)gaqoj referring to intrinsic good.

“to the use of edifying” — proj plus the accusative of o)ikodomh which refers to the ECS. There is also a descriptive genitive of xreia which means need. The descriptive genitive of xreia put together with this should read, “for the required edification complex.” The ECS is required not only for reversion recovery but also for super-grace living.

“that” is the conjunction i(na plus the subjunctive used for a purpose clause — “in order that.”

“it may minister” — third person singular aorist active subjunctive of didomi which means to give, not to minister. The third person singular here refers to the doctrine taught by the pastor, not the pastor. Doctrine in the mouth of the pastor-teacher is designed to lead the royal family to super-grace. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist which views the action of the verb in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results. GAPing to super-grace — super-grace is the result. The active voice: doctrine in the mouth of the pastor produces the action of the verb, leading the believer to super-grace. The subjunctive mood is potential depending on which side of the conjunction the pastor functions. If he functions in front of the conjunction, the first half of verse 29, then he is only going to produce that which is putrid or rotten. If he functions on the last half, behind the conjunction, then he is going to fulfill the principle “that it may give grace to the hearer.”

The word “grace” here is minus the definite article. The absence of the definite article calls attention to the quality of the word xarij. Doctrine in the mouth of the pastor produces the action of the verb to “give grace to the hearers.” Grace here refers to super-grace. That is the objective of the Christian way of life. The accusative is direct object. That is the purpose of teaching doctrine.

“unto the hearers” — if you are not a hearer, if you do not have a pastor either by tape or face to face, you will never reach super-grace. This is the dative plural of the indirect object from the definite article plus the present active participle of a)kouw. When the participle has the definite article it means “the ones hearing.” The dative case is indirect object which indicates the ones in whose interest Bible teaching is performed. It is performed for your benefit. It is also the dative of advantage, it is to the advantage of all members of the royal family to have consistent Bible teaching so that they can reach super-grace. The active voice indicates that the members of the royal produce the action of the verb by listening, by concentrating, by being under the discipline of a pastor-teacher. The participle is circumstantial, it depicts the function of GAP in the local assembly.

Translation: “Do not permit any rotten sermons to go out from your mouth, but whatever is intrinsic good [doctrine] for the required edification complex, in order that it [doctrine taught by the pastor-teacher] may give super-grace to the ones customarily hearing.”

Summary

1. Rotten sermons are taught by believer and unbeliever pastors who have rejected the principle of exposition.

2. Such pastors hinder reversion recovery and frustrate the possibility of any member of the royal family from reaching super-grace.

3. Only doctrine has intrinsic value in the pastor’s sermon. Doctrine can be presented in many forms, e.g. the military preserves national freedom. That is doctrine, the doctrine of divine establishment. False doctrine: What we need in this country is more brotherhood, more friendliness. That is Satanic.

4. The pastor is the link between the doctrine in the canon of scripture and the doctrine in the soul of the believer.

5. Therefore doctrine in the pastor’s mouth is required for both reversion recovery and the construction of the ECS.

6. Such doctrine gives super-grace to the ones who are continually and customarily listening to Bible teaching in local churches or through a tape recorder.

Verse 30 — “And” is the continuative use of the conjunction kai. It indicates that we are still in the phase of application. The command follows immediately.

“grieve not” — present active imperative from the verb lupew plus the negative mh. The present tense is retroactive progressive present, it denotes that which was begun in the past and continues into the present time. With

the negative it means stop it. The action is produced by the reversionistic believer. This is a negative prohibition and it should be translated “And stop grieving the Holy Spirit of the God.”

“the Holy Spirit of God” is a reference to the third person of the Trinity.

The doctrine of the deity of the Holy Spirit

1. All the Trinity passages reveal the coequality with other members of the Godhead — 2 Corinthians 13:14 indicates the total deity of the Holy Spirit.

2. The Holy Spirit is also called Jehovah in the Old Testament, this is a title of God — cf. Isaiah 6:8,9 with Acts 28:25, or Jeremiah 31:31-34 with Hebrews 10:15.

3. The sovereignty of the Spirit is found in 1 Corinthians 12:11.

4. God the Holy Spirit is said to be omniscient — 1 Corinthians 2:10,11.

5. He is said to be omnipotent — Genesis 1:2.

6. He in omnipresent — Psalm 139:7.

7. The deity of the Lordship of the Spirit is mentioned in 2 Corinthians 3:17.

Principle: You cannot hurt someone else until you have first of all hurt or grieved God the Holy Spirit who indwells all members of the royal priesthood.

The doctrine of the sins against the Holy Spirit

There are five sins which are committed against the Holy Spirit but they fall into two categories. Two of these are committed by the unbeliever and three of them by the believer.

1. The sins committed by the unbeliever.

a) The first of these is called blaspheming against the Holy Spirit — Matthew 12:14-32. It is tantamount to rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ as saviour — actually, rejection of Christ during the earthly ministry of the Son of God in that context. When the unbeliever says no to the gospel this in effect is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit because the unbeliever is minus a human spirit, therefore there is no way for him to take in the gospel or spiritual phenomena so that he can act upon it one way of the other with his volition. So God the Holy Spirit and makes the gospel a reality and then the individual takes a good look at it. He now understands it because God the Holy Spirit has made it clear. The individual now understands it and has the right to say yes or no to the gospel message. If he says no this is called blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.

b) The second sin of the unbeliever in this connection is called “resistance of the Holy Spirit” — Acts 7:51. Rejection of Christ as saviour during the Church Age is resisting the Spirit. This emphasises the ministry of God the Holy Spirit in making the gospel clear — 1 Corinthians 1:18; 2:14; John 16:7-11; Genesis 6:3. Resistance is also described in terms of 2 Corinthians 4:3,4.

Basically these two phrases, blasphemy and resistance against the Holy Spirit, are sins committed by the unbeliever. In effect, it is the only sin that he can actually commit and go to hell. It is simply rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ. The last three sins which follow are committed by the believer.

3. Lying to the Holy Spirit is the first — Acts 5:3. This is the function of a believer in reversionism, in this case the function of a believer in monetary reversionism. We have in this case a combination of approbation lust plus false motivation under conditions of blackout of the soul. It is the sin of false motivation, doing something for personal glory rather than for the honour of the Lord.

4. Grieving the Holy Spirit is the function of the believer in reversionism whereby he produces extensive carnality in one of three categories: mental attitude sins, sins of the tongue, or overt sins. Grieving the Holy Spirit can occur under the following phases of reversionism. The first is the reaction phase, the one in which the sin accompanies disillusion. For example, if you are disillusioned about something and get bitter that would be grieving the Holy Spirit. In phase two of reversionism there is a frantic search for happiness and the sins here can run the gamut. These are grieving the Holy Spirit in phase two of reversionism. In phase three of reversionism we have emotional revolt of the soul. This is when the emotion of the soul takes over everything. The heart or the right lobe which usually dominates the soul is now dominated by the emotion. Example; the “gift” of tongues and the holy-rollers. This actually becomes a blasphemy, a faking out of the gift of tongues. The fourth phase of reversionism is the negative volition phase. It may be apathy or antagonism which is grieving the Holy Spirit. The fifth phase is the blackout of the soul which means you are now under Satanic influence. Now you have become a bleeding heart, a hippy, and have got into some activity of socialism or welfare, etc. In this phase blackout of the soul leads to pride, bitterness, jealousy, vindictiveness, implacability. This is also the stage at which criminal activity becomes quite extensive. Phase six is the scar tissue phase and in this phase it is anything goes. When you grieve the Holy Spirit in the scar tissue phase there is no sin that the worst unbeliever in the world has committed that you as a believer cannot commit. You are not going to lose your salvation, you are going to be under divine discipline and will die the sin unto death. Phase seven is reverse process reversionism in which we have the same principle.

The principle should be obvious. Grieving the Holy Spirit is something the believer does in one of the seven phases of reversionism.

5. Quenching the Holy Spirit — 1 Thessalonians 5:19 is the function of the believer in reversionism by which he produces human good. This is the basic difference from grieving the Holy Spirit which is sin.

“whereby” is a prepositional phrase, e)n plus the instrumental of the relative pronoun o(j. It should be translated “by which” or “by whom.” Since the word “Spirit” is in the neuter in the Greek it always takes the neuter pronoun.

“ye are sealed” — aorist passive indicative of sfragizomai. The aorist tense is a gnomic aorist, it is a fact that every believer in the Church Age is sealed by God the Holy Spirit. The reason he is is that it is a reminder that in eternity past when God the Father set up the divine decrees He had a special paragraph with your name in it. He had for you super-grace blessings — +H, promotion, success, happiness, prosperity, material wealth, all kinds of wonderful things. The super-grace blessings were provided for you in eternity past, you are now a believer in the Church Age and the sealing of the Holy Spirit is a guarantee that God will keep you in this world long enough to acquire your super-grace blessings, provided that you do not log too much time in reversionism. The passive voice: the believer receives the action at the point of salvation. The indicative mood is a declarative indicative which represents an unqualified assertion, a dogmatic statement of doctrine.

The doctrine of the sealing ministry of the Holy Spirit

1. The isagogics of seals. Seals in the ancient world were used in five ways.

a) a guarantee of a transaction. In the ancient world two kings decide to set up a peace treaty between the two countries. Each one has a signet ring. Each king impresses his signet in wax and that is his mark, and each man has then sealed the paper and that meant they agreed to the terms in writing on the paper. It was a guarantee of a transaction.

b) A seal was identification of ownership. It is a guarantee translation — salvation. Identification of ownership takes us right back to salvation when we are entered into union with Christ. Christ has eternal life; we share that life. He has +R; we share His +R. He has an election; we share His election. He has a destiny; we share His destiny. He is an heir; we share His heirship. He is the Son; we become royal sons of God. He has a priesthood; we share His priesthood. He is a King; we are going to reign with Him. We share everything that Christ has. The sealing of the Spirit is a stamp on you, in effect, which says God owns you forever. You can never lose your salvation. c) The sealing of the Spirit is not only an identification of ownership but it is also an authentication. The authentication of invoices, contracts, laws, directives, orders was always by the use of a seal to make them authentic. It is analogous the doctrine of divine decrees with the super-grace paragraph. God in eternity past formulated blessings for the believer and the sealing of the Spirit is the guarantee that they are in writing and the believer can have them.

d) The ratification of a treaty in the ancient world. In this sense the Holy Spirit signs a treaty between the believer and God. This is the doctrine by which the barrier is removed between man and God.

2. The sealing of God the Holy Spirit is the promise of super-grace blessings for the royal family — Ephesians 1:13.

3. Reversionism is incompatible with the sealing ministry of the Holy Spirit — Ephesians 4:30.

4. The sealing of the Spirit is the down-payment guarantee of security for the royal family forever — 2 Corinthians 1:22.

“by whom you have been sealed.”

“unto the day of redemption” — the preposition e)ij plus the accusative of h(mera should be translated “for a day.” There is no definite article in front of h(mera and this emphasises a specific day; plus the descriptive genitive of the noun a)polutrwsij, the strongest word for redemption. Redemption has two connotations. The redemption of the soul is eternal salvation. We are all born in the slave market of sin. We can only get out of the slave market by someone paying for our freedom. Christ through the virgin birth was born into the world free and He went to the cross and paid the price for our freedom. When we believe in Christ we come out and we are said to be redeemed. And that means purchased from the slave market of sin. The key here is the redemption of the soul. There is also in the Bible a redemption of the body — ultimate sanctification and refers to the resurrection — Romans 8:29; 1 Corinthians 1:8; Philippians 3:21; 1 Thessalonians 5:23; 1 John 3:1,2. In this case it is the body which is redeemed.

Translation: “Stop grieving the Holy Spirit the God, by whom you have been sealed for a day of redemption [ultimate sanctification].”

The doctrine of sanctification

1. Etymology.

a) a(gioj is the basic word, usually translated “holy” or “saint.” It means to be set apart, to be unique, to be under a system whereby you are isolated for the purpose of being honoured. It refers to the fact that every believer in the Church Age is a member of the royal family of God. This is the work of God the Holy Spirit at the point of salvation entering us into union with the Lord Jesus Christ.

b) a(giothj, which means “holiness” or better yet, “set-apartness.” This takes up the entire principle of the royal family of God, our uniqueness because of who and what Christ is, the 40 things we receive at salvation, the ministry of the baptism of the Holy Spirit entering us into union with Christ, the act that we are royalty now and will be forever, the fact that we have a purpose now and will have forever.

c) a(giosunh, which means “sanctification” or “royal familyship,” “set-apartness.”

d) a(giosmoj, also translated “holiness.” It means “uniqueness, royalty.”

e) a(giazw, which means to be set apart and it is generally translated “to sanctify.” It is the work of God the Holy Spirit at the point of our salvation that makes us members of the royal family of God or sets us apart.

2. Basically all words for sanctification connote separation, uniqueness, set-apartness. All of the words connote separation unto God. The doctrine of sanctification applies to the royal family of God only as taught in the New Testament. Not to the Old Testament believers, the 144,000, the Tribulational believers, and not to the Millennial believers. Saint is a technical word for the royal family.

3. The agency of sanctification. There are three agents in sanctification.

a) The Son of God. Jesus Christ is the King of kings, and as the King of kings an high priest. He is the agent of sanctification, it is definitely related to His priesthood in Hebrews 10:10,14.

b) The Holy Spirit is the agent of sanctification — Romans 15:16; 2 Thessalonians 2:13. He is the agent in sanctification by the five things he does for us at salvation. He enters us into union with Christ. He enters inside of us — the sign of the royal family. He seals us — the double security of the royal family. He provides a spiritual gift for every believer — the function of the royal family. In addition to that He regenerates us, but He does that in every dispensation. This is the only dispensation in which royal family exists.

c) The Word of God — John 17:17; Ephesians 5:26.

All three of the agencies to sanctification relate to the royal family of God.

4. Phase one sanctification refers to the ministry of God the Holy Spirit taking every believer at the moment he is saved and entering him into union with Christ who is seated at the right hand of the Father. Christ is eternal life, we have His life. He is righteousness, we share His righteousness. He is the Son, we share His sonship. We share His heirship, His election, His destiny, and His Kingship. 1 Corinthians 1:2,30; 6:11; Hebrews 10:10,14.

5. Phase two sanctification is divided into two areas. a) The growing area; b) The victorious area which is the sphere of maturity. The growing area is the filling of the Spirit — 2 Thessalonians 2:13. It is also the daily function of GAP — John 17:17; Ephesians 5:26. The second phase is the super-grace stage, the objective where we glorify God an where we have occupation with the person of Jesus Christ.

6. Phase three sanctification. In phase two the believer under sanctification fulfills the objective for which he remains alive. In phase three sanctification we have the believer in a resurrection body — Romans 8:29; 1 Corinthians 1:8; Philippians 3:21; 1 Thessalonians 5:23; 1 John 3;1,2. This is the royal family being prepared to return with Jesus Christ.

7. Ultimate sanctification or phase three sanctification involves at least three principles. a) The acquisition of a resurrection body — 1 Corinthians 15:51-57; b) The removal of all human good by divine judgment — 1 Corinthians 3:11-16; c) The removal of the old sin nature — Philippians 3:21. The royal family on earth is called the body Christ collectively. It is called in heaven, after the resurrection, the bride of Christ collectively.

8. Phase two sanctification has several objectives. a) By the intensive study of GAP reaching the super-grace life; b) Glorifying God in the intensive stage of the angelic conflict. This can only be accomplished by reaching super-grace; c) The principle of establishing the divine viewpoint in the devil’s world and establishing the establishment concept historically.

9. Phase two sanctification depends upon the function of the believer’s priesthood in the area of rebound and in the area of GAP — 1 John 1:9; 1 Corinthians 11:31 plus all of the passages dealing with the study of the intake of the Word of God.

Verse 31 — the verse starts out with “all,” the nominative feminine singular of paj and it is used as a noun. Paj is an adjective but it is used here as a noun. It indicates that the noun is actually the subject of a verb.

“bitterness” — this should be translated “all categories of bitterness” because of the fact that paj is a noun. The syntax brings out something that the word order does not. Paj used as a noun refers to categories. This is what this verse is all about — “all categories of bitterness.” All that follows are categories or parts of bitterness. Obviously, all categories of bitterness indicates a problem, a cluster of mental attitude sins. The word for “bitterness” is pikria. It means here a mental attitude sin cluster. The mental attitude sin of bitterness is the basis of all chain sinning, the way you add one sin to another. Hebrews 12:15. Bitterness involves antagonism, animosity, hardness and cruelty toward others. Hence, the totality of resentment toward others. Bitterness is related to the mental attitude sinning of reversionism in this passage.

The doctrine of bitterness

1. Bitterness is a reactor factor in the first stages of reversionism — Isaiah 38:17. It is the intensifier of reactor factors.

2. Bitterness is a characteristic of every stage of reversionism — Romans 3:14.

3. Bitterness perpetuates and intensifies every stage of reversionism — Ephesians 4:31; Hebrews 12:15.

4. Bitterness is related to the frustration from the fifth cycle of discipline — Isaiah 33:7; Ezekiel 27:30.

5. Bitterness destroys category #2 love — Colossians 3:19.

6. Frustration from bitterness causes the one involved to live a living death — Job 21:28.

7. Bitterness motivates both frustration and complaining — Job 7:11; 10:1.

8. Frustration motivates bitterness of the soul, while bitterness of the soul starts frustration — 1 Samuel 1:10.

9. Mothers become bitter toward their children when they do not turn out right — Proverbs 17:25.

10. Bitterness puts pressure on others causing them misery — Job 9:18.

“All categories of business” colon:

“both wrath and anger” — wrath is qumoj, emotional upset, tantrums; anger is o)rgh which is mental anger. Here are the first manifestations of bitterness. This is why bitterness is a mental attitude cluster because it produces tantrums and mental type anger. The two types of anger found in this context also produce at least five categories of misery. a) Self-induced misery; b) Chain sinning; c) Misery to those in the periphery; d) Revenge type misery. Two principles: Two wrongs don’t make a right; you cannot build your happiness on someone else’s unhappiness; e) The various categories of divine discipline which are administered to the reversionist.

“and clamour” — kraugh which means vociferation, shouting (but shouting under a mental attitude sin), verbal brawling. Vociferation is offensive loudness, vocal brawling, being blatant obstreperous with one’s mouth. In other words, a flannel-mouth. It implies rejection of authority plus the expression of mental attitude sins.

“evil speaking “ means slander, blasfhmia which means to murder with your mouth, character assassination.

“be put away” — aorist passive imperative of a)irw which means to be removed. Remove it. The aorist tense is a constative aorist which contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It takes an occurrence and regardless of its duration gathers it up into a single whole. These sins which are listed in this verse are linked with reversionism in the sense of grieving the Holy Spirit. The constative aorist, then, is a reference to reversion recovery which sheds the bitterness cluster. The passive voice: the cited sins in the bitterness cluster are linked with reversionism, reversionism grieves the Holy Spirit, and the believer must receive removal of these things through the intake of doctrine and spiritual growth. The imperative mood is the imperative of command. The degree of authority involved in the command and the degree of probability that the one addressed will respond in incidental to the use of the mood here. The imperative mood itself indicates that no one ever recovers from reversionism without dropping a mental attitude sin cluster. In this case it is bitterness. The command is obeyed by the daily function of GAP in reversion recovery.

“from you” is a)po plus the ablative of the pronoun su — “from you all.” This is a reference to those in reversionism who need to be in recovery status.

“with all malice” — this prepositional phrase sun plus the instrumental of paj plus kakia. What this means is that bitterness is not the only mental attitude sin cluster, it is just the one used here. This prepositional phrase indicates that this represents other mental attitude sin clusters. They all fall into the same category. So it should be translated, “together with all other forms of wickedness.” In other words, you have a jealousy cluster, a pride cluster, an implacability, a guilt complex cluster. So there are clusters of mental attitude sins, and while bitterness is the cluster used here your problem may not be bitterness at all, it may be one of the others. Whatever it is kakia covers them all.

Translation: “All categories of bitterness, both wrath [emotional anger], and anger [mental anger], both vociferation and slander, be removed from you together with all kakia [mental attitude clusters].”

Verse 32 — “And be ye” should be translated “But become” — de plus ginomai. This is a present active imperative. The present tense is a customary present for that which habitually occurs or may be reasonably be expected to occur. The active voice: the growing believer produces the action of the verb. The imperative mood: this is a direct appeal to positive volition toward doctrine.

“kind” — nominative plural from xrhstoj. This is manliness and graciousness of the soul — “become kind.” It is difficult to translate this word because it implies many acts of thoughtfulness, many acts of graciousness, many acts of kindliness. Kindness is often mistaken for weakness, which it isn’t. “But become gracious one toward another.”

“tenderhearted” — e)usplagnoj [eu = good; splagnoj = guts, intestines]. The intestines often refer to the emotions under control of the right lobe. Compassionate, if you understand what compassionate means, is an excellent translation. In your soul you will be thoughtful and courteous to those around.

“forgiving one another” — present middle participle xarizomai means to grace out, to forgive on the basis of grace, forgive on the basis of what you are, not what you think they are. The iterative present describes what occurs at successive intervals, it is called the present tense of repeated action. The middle voice: the subject acts with a view toward participating in the outcome. The participle is circumstantial.

“even as the God in Christ has forgiven you.” You have been forgiven on the basis of grace. “Has forgiven” — aorist active indicative of xarizomai. The aorist tense is a gnomic aorist, this is an absolute fact. This is a doctrine which is axiomatic in character. You have been forgiven on the basis of God’s character, none of us have been forgiven on the basis of who and what we are.

Translation: “But become gracious toward one another, compassionate, graciously forgiving each other, even as the God for Christ has graciously forgiven all of you.”