I was sharing a doctrinal flowchart I created quite some time ago to a preacher. This particular chart showed the distinctive difference between “The Kingdom” and “Heaven” I clearly remember this person saying to me something to this effect: “You should just let people figure this out on their own” At the time I was still pretty new to learning to rightly divide but it was very clear to me that he really did not want me teaching anyone the difference between the Kingdom and Heaven. I started to understand at this point that my time in a denominational church was probably coming to an end. Pastors don’t mind you reading your Bible and encourage it often. It’s rarer for admonishment to study. But what is very rare is the encouragement to study rightly divided. To study with a completely literal take and even to actually believe the Bible when it addresses certain groups. Now, I don’t know this man’s heart but I know he would rather I did not teach a difference between Heaven and the Kingdom. Let me help you understand something. Heaven and the Kingdom are not the same place. They are not the same thing. They are not the same context. The believing Jews that survive the tribulation are the primary residents of the kingdom that Jesus will set up ON EARTH. If you happen to be a saved person in this age and the catching away of the body of Christ has not happened yet at the posting of this article you will be in heaven BEFORE the earthly kingdom is set up. The reason you can read the Bible through 50 times and not catch this drastic difference is NOT because the Bible isn’t clear on the subject. It’s because of the way we are taught to read the Bible. Probably like you, I WAS NOT taught to read the Bible correctly growing up in church. I was not taught to rightly divide the scriptures as our Apostle Paul and thus Jesus instructs us to. I mixed all these verses together as you probably did also. This is the norm in churches. This is the tradition in churches. This is the reason the pastor wanted me to steer clear of teaching this distinction. What a shame. To ask me to let people figure this out on their own is to ask me to knowingly and purposely skip a doctrinal FACT that could bring clarity to every person in the building including him. Since that day I have purposely and knowingly tried to share this FACT with anyone that will listen. Most sadly have no interest. Christians know that taking a different stance can jeopardize their standing and reputation in their church. Why rock the boat. Most are comfortable and content. Well, I can tell you this, they are not going to figure this out on their own. They need you to tell them. They need you to help them understand the mystery. They will read it 20 times and not see it because of they way they were taught to read scripture. Maybe it’s time for you to be an ambassador. 

One thing that I continue to encounter as I attempt to show Christians the truth of right division is the unwillingness to acknowledge the possibility of being wrong. I do occasionally come across Christians that understand they do not know as much as they should about scripture. Many times, these people still defend a position they don’t understand themselves. They just know that the church they have chosen to attend teaches scripture that way and therefor it must be truth. As a right divider of scripture I have come to understand something very clearly. I can be wrong. I still could be wrong. I still have much to learn. So, if you are not willing to admit you could be wrong, then I will. I regularly say this thought to people. “If you can show me from a verse written to me that I’m wrong, I will change my doctrine.” This is a fact. I’ll be wrong. Please notice the very important criteria for this statement. It must be a verse written to me. I am willing to be taught and corrected by scripture. I am willing to be wrong but you must bring scripture written to me in this age of Grace, that is valid today according to our Apostle Paul, and rightly divided as we are instructed by scripture. I am willing to be the one that is wrong. As one that was firmly established in a denomination most of my life and now understands better, I know I need to always allow room for the teaching of the Holy Spirit and scripture. I try to take everything I hear with a grain of salt, but also with the acknowledgment that they could be correct and I could be wrong. My how I wish this was the position of Christianity as a whole. I consciously remind myself of this principle as I hear others teach. I will leave you with a quote I got from a previous pastor of mine that got it from a college professor named Wymal Porter. A danger of Bible study is: “closing your mind to further instruction after hearing something you disagree with.” The position our human nature runs to so often is to be formulating a response rather than to actually consider what is being said. Paul mentions this principle in 2 Tim 2:7 “Consider what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things.” I can promise you this, if you don’t consider what Paul says, you will never understand all things.   

I was listening to the radio today while driving. A commercial for a jewelry store came on asking if you had ever dreamed of owning a Rolex watch. I can honestly say that I never have. I vividly remember as a 11 or 12 year old boy looking at a sales brochure for the new Honda dirt bike lineup and oh how I longed for a brand-new Honda XR dirt bike! I could rattle off the engine size, tire size, horsepower and various other specifications no problem. I was driving today on my way to see my Uncle Bill who is in a retirement home. As I sat there and then driving home, I could not help but remember how the commercial and those marketing people tried their best to make me want that new Rolex. What good is the Rolex or the dirt bike as you lay in a bed sick? What worth is a 10 thousand dollar watch you can barely read any more. What good is the millionaire’s dollars at the end of his life? I don’t need to answer. You already know the answer. The older we get the more we treasure the important and loose interest in the worthless. My Uncle Bills quick wit and knack for answering a question in German are no longer evident but it was good to talk about a few family memories. Scripture warns us of the man who built bigger barns in which to keep his stuff. Barns that someday you won’t be able to walk to or open and eventually others will empty as your gone. The barns aren’t eternal. The Rolex is not eternal. The new shiny dirt bike is not eternal. You do however have the opportunity to build something eternal while you walk this earth. God is allowing you the choice to spend time building the body of Christ. An eternal group of Christians God will use to fulfill his purposes in heavenly places. The knowledge we gain here from our study rightly divided is an eternal investment that will pass the testing of the judgment seat. Seems to me that God’s word sitting in your lap starts to become more and more precious and so many of the other things just take up space in our lives. If time is as precious as we think, shouldn’t we be spending much of it on the eternal? It’s never too late to start, but how important it is to start early building an eternal investment rather that one you will leave here on earth. Marketers are experts at convincing you of a need, then selling you on the product they created to fill the need they created. God desires you to invest in his purpose. His purpose in this dispensation is to build a body. How I wish I could convince more people to invest.   

“God is in control” If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard this phrase. How about this one; “Why did God allow this to happen to me” or maybe; “Why do bad things happen to good people”. I watched a man the other day interviewing a boy of about 10 years old and obviously very sick. The man in his interview asked the boy why does he think God made him sick because “nothing happens unless God approves it. So, basically God gave the boy cancer. This young boy probably as sincere as anyone says; “God chose me” When the boy was asked why God chose to make him sick, he said, so my sisters would not have to go through all this pain. Now the sincerity of this boy is quite emotional and would bring a tear to even hardened hearts, but the doctrine in both the questions and answers could not be more wrong. How unbelievable that this boy thinks God gave him cancer. This false Calvinistic teaching that God is controlling every thing that happens in our lives is a hideous and horrible contrivance of man. The truth is this; only a grace believer and right divider of scripture can answer why. Only someone Pauline in doctrine as we are instructed to be can answer these questions. Only a right divider can answer the question of UNANSWERED PRAYER. A real grace believer understands we are living in a present evil world full of sickness and disease and there are NO scriptures in Pauline doctrine promising freedom from this. A real grace believer understands that we are in the “bondage of corruption” the “sufferings of this present time” according to Romans chapter 8. A real grace believer understands that trials, troubles, persecutions, and other Christians calling us names is par for the course for being a Bible believer in this dispensation. Paul does not teach you that being a Christian gives you any physical blessings above a lost person. Paul does not teach you that being a Christian saves you from hurt and pain, and he actually tells you to EXPECT IF it you will live Godly. (2 Tim 3:12) Preachers today have NO ANSWER to the question of unanswered prayer. They preach ISRAEL’S prayer promises to their people and then have no answer when these promises don’t pan out. God is NOT controlling your life! YOU ARE. YOU are making decisions every day to control your life. Stop blaming God for things he had nothing to do with. God did not give this boy cancer and shame of this man and this boy’s parents for lying to him. Let me help you understand something. You are closer to God’s will after death than before. The ultimate purpose for the body of Christ is in heavenly places.
2Co 2:15 For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish:
Read it again. Our short sightedness blinds us from God’s ultimate purpose for us. If this boy were to die, they would once again blame God for taking him. Then some preacher would lie to those at the funeral and say dumb things like “God decided to bring him home” God did no such thing, this present evil world did. I hope you understand the food you eat is what is killing you, not God. I am being quite straight forward in this blog because Christians spend their entire lives believing and teaching others these things. There is no promise of physical healing and prosperity in this age. God is building a spiritual body in this age. God is not controlling the world, Satan is. Soon enough Jesus will set all this straight. Soon enough Jesus will restore all things both in heaven and in earth. God’s healing program for this age is the new body we will receive someday. Till then we groan and travail waiting for it. Rom 8:23, 2 Cor 5:2-4.   
 

One of the many things you learn when you start to become a Bible believer is that many words you have become accustomed to applying to yourself are actually stolen. What I usually call “church language” is one of the primary causes of stolen words. Another cause of stolen words is that hymnal sitting in the church pew in front of you. There is a whole lot more of your belief system grounded in hymns than you are willing to admit. Let me help you understand with an example. We are currently studying through Israel’s kingdom program found throughout the entire Bible. The kingdom program that virtually every church today allegorizes to some extent. I grew up singing “We’re marching to Zion, beautiful, beautiful Zion, Were marching onward to Zion the beautiful city of God.” It’s a catchy song that I really wish I could sing. We don’t sing this song at AGBF. Actually, we don’t sing LOTS of songs found in lots of church hymnals. This song steals words from Israel’s kingdom program and falsely applies them to the body of Christ today. If you are saved today, you are NOT marching to Zion. Zion is primarily defined in scripture as the “city of David”. There are 153 uses of Zion in the OT and only 7 in the NT (Sion). Paul uses the word twice and only to quote an OT reference. These 2 references are in Romans chapters 9-11 where he is talking about Israel’s position dispensationally. So, you are NOT marching to Zion. Zion is in Canaan, or the Promised Land, and that land is not promised to you, it is promised to Israel. God himself guarantees on his Holy name that this land will indeed be occupied by Israel. The church language that we have grown up hearing and repeating and popular hymns that we grew up singing are replete with false teaching and bad doctrine. These days when you point out these obvious problems you are quickly wrote off as crazy. I’m not whining about this, just sad in general that dozens of stolen words flow out of the mouths of preachers and song leaders every Sunday and the people in the pews eat it up as truth. A fairly simple word study like this can be completed in one evening with a slight bit of effort. Truth is not so easy to hear these days. Truth however is not far from your reach. Stealing from Israel is commonplace today. Do you have the guts to seek the truth? I dare you. Do a study on every use of the phrase “for ever” in the OT. Maybe a study of every time God says “I will” in the OT in relation to Israel. Your eyes will be opened I promise you. Is the truth worth one evening? YES! 

As I drive through my neighborhood, hahaha if you can call cows, fields and woods a neighborhood, I regularly see a man sitting on his front porch enjoying his retirement. I have talked to this man a time or two, so I know that is what he is doing. Most days you drive down the street he can be seen rocking the time away relaxing. Now, I am not trying to be too critical here. I tell you this just to make a point. We CHOOSE how we spend our time. We CHOOSE what we do with our lives. We CHOOSE what to invest in and WHOM to invest in. All of us have made some bad choices in our lives, and hopefully we have all made some good ones too. I made a conscious decision at one point in my life that I was not satisfied with where I was in my Bible knowledge. At that point I decided I was not satisfied with just believing what other men said, and that I needed to learn some things for myself. I have not stopped working towards this goal ever since. If you have never made this decision, I challenge you to step up to the plate. I am nowhere where I need to be, but I am glad that I started this process many years ago. I made a conscious decision many years ago that I did not want to live a boring Christian life. You might wonder what in the world this means. Here is what it means. Take some chances. Take some risks. Step out in faith. Don’t be scared to look stupid. Don’t be worried about what others will think. Do something. Don’t just sit on the porch! Don’t just waste your precious time relaxing. I hope you understand that HERE is where your opportunity to get some work done for God is. Here is where you can jump at the chance to accomplish something for the Lord. Here is where the Spirit leads you to accomplish great things for God. I understand that there is work to do in heavenly places also. But God has given you a choice now. That choice is to either sit on the porch and relax, or to lead an exciting Christian life. One that has experienced getting out of your comfort zone from time to time. My dad is 80 years old and still does things many 50-year-olds could not do. Rides his street bike every chance he gets. This is the attitude we need to put into our spiritual walk and work. The never quit attitude. The “I’m never retired” attitude. I am fully aware that most all preachers would look at my church after 7 years and say that I have failed miserably. I am fully aware that if I had labeled myself Baptist instead of Bible Believer that I would probably be looking for a bigger building by now. Terry McLean well said that success in measured in the doctrine taught and not the numbers in the pews. Trust me that I’m glad I took this advise to heart. Plenty of resistance has come from without and even from within. But the only other option is to sit on the porch. Sounds pretty boring to me.        

I don’t have much time to watch TV. I do like to watch YouTube on occasion. Usually it’s fishing, hunting, shooting, dirt bikes, construction, wood working, guitar, Bible study or something mechanical in nature. There are few shows my wife and I watch together regularly. The Voice happens to be one show we do like to watch together. If you’re not familiar, it’s a singing competition. I do enjoy playing guitar and writing music, but I was not born with a voice that is going to win any competitions. I’d like you to read the first half of Proverbs 18:21. “Death and life are in the power of the tongue:” I have always been intrigued with this verse. I feel like the implications of this verse are beyond our grasp. This short phrase should make us stop and pause under the weight of its instruction. Yes, this is an old-testament verse written under the law by a Jewish king. This verse however holds a spiritual truth I believe carries throughout all the dispensations. Paul says it in a different way in the second half of I Corinthians 1:21. “it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” Like it or not, you have the responsibility to preach. Like it or not, YOU and I have the power of death and life in our tongue. You and I have the opportunity to share Christ many times during each month and sometimes each week. WE DECIDE to hold our tongue or to quench the Spirit each time these opportunities arise. The famous magician Penn Jillette of the duo Penn and Teller, and proclaimed Atheist, is quoted as saying that he has no respect for anyone that claims to be a Christian but does not evangelize. He said he doesn’t understand how much you would have to hate someone to believe that they are headed to Hell and then never try to win them to Christ. (not an exact quote) I hope you clearly see the validity of this man’s opinion. Jesus was confrontational in his witness. The disciples were confrontational in their witness. Stephen was confrontational in his witness. Paul was confrontational in his witness. YOU and I must be confrontational in our witness. All I mean by this is we must use our voice. We must share Jesus with our voice. We must share the mystery with our voice. Some of us are just plain chicken. Some of us are just flat out scared to look stupid. Some of us hold the love of Christ so tightly that we hate those around us. Death and life are in the power of the tongue. Read it again: “Death and life are in the power of the tongue:” Read it again: “Death and life are in the power of the tongue:” What power does your tongue display? Death or life. God would have all men saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. Those of us that rightly divide know without a shadow of a doubt that most of our Christian friends stuck in denominational churches will never come to the complete truth. God’s plan for your life and my life is to help others accomplish these 2 things in their lives. I need to do better. You? 

I understand clearly that I am not a very traditional minister. I do some strange things from time to time. I tell our church not to believe me just because I said something, but to check it out for themselves. I tell our church you ought not to be tithing. I refrain from the church language you are so accustomed to from spiritual leaders that you believe them when they tell you that God saved them a parking spot right in the front of Wal-Mart’s parking lot. One strange thing I do is race dirt bikes. Now I’m no spring chicken but let me tell you I can put a whopping on a lot of youngsters with a dirt bike. This old dog can teach the kids a thing or two about racing through the woods. There’s the old adage that you can’t teach an “old dog new tricks.” Oh, how I wish you could. My heart breaks over the people I have tried to help learn the mystery and the simplicity there is in Christ. I’m told that when you hear a lie told enough times it becomes the truth. Actually, a lie never becomes the truth, but millions of Christians have heard church tradition taught to them as fact for so many years that they refuse to objectively listen to anything other than what they think they know. Another old adage is: “you don’t know what you don’t know” Let me tell you this, I teach things every Sunday that Christians of 50, 60, or more years have NEVER UNDERSTOOD. It’s not because I am smarter than them, or even studied more then them. I am willing to be corrected by scripture. I am willing to believe the WORDS over the preacher. This does not make me special, just rare. I am willing to be an old dog learning new tricks. We were so blinded by growing up in church that we don’t even know the right questions much less the answers. I just started a new series of lessons on the kingdom. Most preachers have no idea about the clear and obvious differences between the kingdom and heaven. In fact, most preachers read kingdom verses in the gospels and then relate these verses to heaven every Sunday. The “kingdom of heaven” as used by Matthew is God’s rule and reign coming from heaven to earth to reestablish dominion on earth. This is God’s purpose for Israel, not you. You are to reestablish dominion he heavenly places that was lost when Satan convinced angels to follow his rebellion. Why is it that I could get many experienced dirt bike riders to take a little advice from me but the same men would have no interest is discussing spiritual things? I’ll tell you why, we were conditioned by our environment of church tradition to NEVER LISTEN to anyone but our group. This eliminated the possibility of the Holy Spirit being able to teach us anything more from then on. Our “teacher” was our tradition, NOT scripture. I’m 55, so I guess I’m not that old, I’m still chasing and even beating a whole lot of young whipper snappers around the cross-country track. However, I am willing to be corrected by scripture written TO ME. This is a trait you should make a conscience effort to let the Holy Spirit know you have. I tell God regularly that I am willing to change any stance at any time if scripture directs me. You?

One way I enjoy studying scripture is to read a word or phrase in scripture that peaks my interest and then search for all the other occurrences of it. This, by the way, is the best Bible dictionary there is. Your King James Bible will define words for you all the time if you will take the time to find all the other uses of a word throughout scripture. Actually, most times the Bible will define the word in the same verse by repeating the hard word with other words. I started studying Romans 12 tonight and in verse one Paul uses the phrase “I beseech you” Just by reading the previous use of this phrase by Paul in Acts 26:2 you see the Bible helping define the meaning for you by Paul saying “I beseech thee to hear me patiently” when talking to Agrippa. So, it is obvious that Paul means to speak something quite important to Agrippa and is imploring him to listen and understand the gravity of the words. It looks like Paul uses the word beseech about 22 times but I’d like to point your attention to the use in I Cor 1:10.
1Co 1:10 ¶ Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.
Although all 22 uses are important, personally I feel this use is especially pertinent for us today. Paul is imploring us to do 4 things all of which ARE POSSIBLE. Personally, I don’t think many Christians would agree with this statement. Can we ALL speak the same thing, with no divisions, be perfectly joined together in the same mind and judgment? YES! However, many Christians would say; “sure if you all join my church and believe what my pastor teaches” The Bible position would be; If you would all believe every verse literally, to whom it is addressed, in the age it is intended to be applied. A very simplified version of this principle is to read and apply scripture as Paul instructs by believing that scripture applies to “time past”, “but now”, and the “ages to come” (See Ephesians chapter 2) The false teaching that the Old Testament belongs to Israel and the New Testament belongs to the church is just one of the causes of the myriad of denominations and divisions today. Paul beseeches us to ALL speak the same thing. Only Paul instructs us as to how this is possible. We must rightly divide the scriptures by applying scripture as the Bible instructs and not how the vast majority of popular Bible teachers tell you to. We are to trust the Holy Spirit MORE THAN your favorite commentator. The Holy Spirit penned these words for you:
1Co 4:15 For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.16 Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me.
Yes, this is your Apostle Paul, beseeching YOU to follow HIM. This is not because Paul is arrogant or a narcissist. This is because the mystery information Jesus revealed to Paul was not known prior to these revelations. Our doctrine must be based on the mystery revealed to Paul. If you refuse this plain and clear teaching you are rejecting the direct and clear teaching of the Holy Spirit. I am beseeching you to follow your Apostle so you can be pleasing to your Savior Jesus. There is no other way.