The Mysteries of GOD

The Mysteries of GOD

The Bereians..…”they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.” Acts 17:11b
“For all that was written of old has been written for our instruction (learning), so that we may always have hope through the power of endurance and the encouragement which the Scriptures afford.” Rom 15:4


For most of us, as we grow up, we do not know our purpose, our direction, or our reason for being here. Many stay in a perpetual state of wondering or having the feeling of being lost, we may jump from school to school or from job to job looking for purpose and direction. Many even go from church to church looking for the answers to life’s many mysteries or that thing that is missing. Then one day we see something or hear a word that changes our lives direction forever. Such is my case, one evening in August of 2007, the 14th to be more accurate, while driving home, after a prayer service, I heard a voice that asked me “Will you take my yoke upon you, and learn of me?” and I answered yes, Lord. When I got home I got my Bible and looked up that passage of scripture, I found it in Matthew 11:29 which reads, I’ll take it from 28-30 “Come unto me, all that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” I even dated it on that chapter and verse in my Bible so that later on I would always have that marker or monument before my eyes.

Then in October that same year, while in my early morning prayers I had a vision on the front living room window (as it was still dark outside and before day light) I saw myself hanging on the cross. While looking at the scene I asked: Lord, where is the blood, strips and the disfigurement of the face and body that Christ had as I did not see any of this on myself. Then just over the top of this scene I saw a roll of transparent film (you know how it looks clear and silvery at the same time), and it was rolled down over the top of me, on it was contained the figure of Christ Jesus with all the lacerations, blood and disfigurement of His face, upon Him, even the crown of thorns was there. I still could see myself through the image which covered me, it was then that Galatians 2:20 came to me “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ living in me: and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me.” I found this passage of scripture also and dated it for the same reason as before. Since that time to this we’ve been on a quest for understanding of the revealed truth, a hunger that we have not been able to satisfy and a burning desire to share what we’ve found.

This started our rethinking of all that we had learned over the past thirty to forty years or so and caused us to lay aside all that we had been taught or had learned. Which caused many to walked away from us and have all but stopped having anything to do with us. As they think that we’ve gone off the deep end or something like that. That’s okay because this put us into a category similar to Paul and has opened up to us a whole new realm of understanding of the Bible story and its meaning. Some of which we’ll share as we get into this study of the mysteries as revealed to Paul. We’ve looked for this same line of teaching but to date have not found anything like it from any one person, so for many this area will be unexplored grounds.

My wife found a program on TV that seemed to hold promise for us, so we started listening the guy was just teaching the Bible in simple language allowing the scripture to speak for itself. The Bible took on a life of it’s own in this manor, that it both fed us and watered us at the same time. We found his teaching program on line at www.lesfeldick.org and down loaded the books as they were called, at that time there were seventy two of them. We’ve up dated this free down load now having eighty two books each containing twelve sections of what are thirty minutes of TV time each. I read the first group through some twice within the first year and have also read the up dates. He, Les Feldick had another person’s material shown in his program and in one of the books, his name is Matthew McGee, his web site is www.sword.exe, it to has free down loads of some good stuff. Well both of these guys have some awesome teaching and eye opening materials that excite the mind to think, we would recommend for those interested to get a hold of their study materials. They just cause us to listen and to think about what the word is saying, it takes a clear mind to do so. What I mean by that is that we can not carry into a study our old baggage or old mind set based on what we’ve heard someone else tell us or one of our own opinion (right or wrong, true or false). Many have followed people into grievous err by doing just that. We have to approach the word as if it were for the first time and just listen to what is said. Our spirituality has nothing to do with it, saved or unsaved it makes no difference at all, and we just have to believe that we will receive something from our desire to just want to.

We’ve read many books over the years by such authors as Watchman Nee (his full library), Kenyon (full library), Smith Wigglesworth, A.W. Tozer, Charles Capps, Fred Price, William Law, A.B. Simpson and a host of others. In our every day usage we use an Interlinear Greek-English New Testament, a Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, a Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words along with what ever Bible translation suits us at the time, though it is mostly the American Standard or the Old King James. We ask for eyes to see and ears to hear what the Lord is saying to us and then thank Him that we receive that which we’ve asked for. We also use our e-Sword electronic bible resources programs on our computers, these we turn on first thing each day. This is also a free down load available to all at www.e-Sword.net/downloads and we would highly recommend the materials to all, along with some financial support.

All my life, at lease from the age of about five or six when I sat in a Sunday School classroom by my self just thinking on the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It was after Sunday school but before church, when I was waiting for my parents to come in for the services that I went into the classroom. I was all alone and I found a place at the end of one of those low little people tables and like I said I was just thinking about who God really was. As I was thinking along this line out from the middle of my chest came this bright ball, about the size of a ping pong ball, it came out about a foot and as I watched it, it grew to the size of a soft ball and returned into my chest. While I was just sitting there I had this understanding that I knew, that I just knew and understood. As I was sitting there thinking about what had just happened, my Sunday school teacher came into the room, as she entered she looked at me and said, “Bill! What have you been into? You look like the cat that ate the canary!” What that was all about I still really do not know.

When I was nineteen I was given a military pocket Bible in the back of it was the sinners prayer, which I said out loud and I signed it and dated it. Some place I still have that Bible as it means a lot to me, that was back on September 16th, 1966, I was waiting in a motel room for my flight to basic training, early the next morning, as I was then in the Air Force and my way to a new adventure.

Then when I was about forty, it was early one Sunday morning, my wife and kids where in the kitchen fixing breakfast. I was in the living room on the couch looking outside, I had finished my early morning prayers when this ball about the size of a soft ball came out of my chest again as it had when I was a youngster. This time it grew to the size of what looked like a globe and again as at the first it returned into my chest. This time, what ever it was that impressed me had me on my face in tears on the floor, who long I was there I do not know. When I came to my wits I went into the kitchen and my wife looked at me and asked what the Lord had said to me. I could not tell her as I did not remember myself completely though it had something to do with a world wide ministry of some sort. That light or ball is the seed that God placed within man just before Adam ate of the fruit, it is that seed that the light breaks open to reveal Christ within us as Paul explained it when he said “that it pleased the Father to reveal Christ in me.” It requires the true light of the word to crack open that seeds shell, within mans soul. That was the purpose of the call and the vision of 2007.

We started putting together these scriptures to lay out the mysteries for ourselves to understand them more fully because we felt impressed to do so if for no other reason than for my own understanding. As our eyes and ears were being opened to see and hear what the word was saying, and learning how to ‘rightly divide the word of truth’ (2 Tim. 3:16) with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we started to get excited and wanted to share with family and friends what was being revealed to us. However, we were restrained. For the past now year and a half, we’ve had to keep all this to ourselves (my wife was studying with me of course). I thank God she is at my side to share with, otherwise we would have ‘busted a gut’ wanting to talk about it as we do together. What I mean by that is that we rehearse to each other what we just read heard or found out. What started out just as a small study of Paul’s mysteries has included a short study of Genesis chapters one through three. That alone was an eye opener because of what is missed when we just skim over the words without hearing what is being said or what is not said in some cases. In fact it is what is there revealed that helps put the backbone into what the rest of the Bible is all really about.

We found through the internet Bible resources that we did not know were available, so I’d have to say that it was because of the leading of the Holy Spirit. Glenda would find these things only after asking for help from Him and waiting for His led. It was through this that she found some very early writings that had been archived for hundreds of years an only recently have been put into the public domain. I’m putting in here an excerpt from one of those writings as it sheds some light on why people of this day are or stay in their darkness; this is taken from:

“The Grounds and Reasons of Christian Regeneration.” written by William Law
“The reason why we know so little of Jesus Christ, as our savior, atonement, and justification, why we are so destitute of that faith in him, which alone can change, rectify, and redeem our souls, why we live starving in the coldness and deadness of a formal, historical, hearsay-religion, is this; we are strangers to our own inward misery and wants, we know not that we lie in the jaws of death and hell; we keep all things quiet within us, partly by outward forms, and modes of religion and morality, and partly by the comforts, cares and delights of this world. Hence it is that we consent to receive a savior, as we consent to admit of the four gospels, because only four are received by the church. We believe in a savior, not because we feel an absolute want of one, but because we have been told there is one, and that it would be a rebellion against God to reject him. We believe in Christ as our atonement, just as we believe, that he cast seven devils out of Mary Magdalene, and so are no more helped, delivered, and justified by believing that he is our atonement, than by believing that he cured Mary Magdalene.
True faith, is a coming to Jesus Christ to be saved, and delivered from a sinful nature, as the Canaanites woman came to him, and would not be denied. It is a faith of love, a faith of hunger, a faith of thirst, a faith of certainty and firm assurance, that in love and longing, and hunger, and thirst, and full assurance, will lay hold on Christ, as its loving, assured, certain and infallible savior and atonement.”

Ours is an ever increasing growth in the revelation of our Lord and Savior. With that said it is ever increasing in depth because He is as His Hebrew name Spoken to Moses and found in Exodus 3:14 "I AM WHO I AM" or EHYEH asher EHYEH, changed to “Yehovah” to hide the name as a sacred name not to be spoken or written on penalty of death. "Yehovah" means; “I am” to be revealed” or the ever revealing one “I am”, who is to be more and more revealed. Even the name of Moses reveals the source of Jesus' name's meaning of salvation through him. Mo or Mu in Egyptian means water, Ieses or sheh means drawing out, rescued of water, Mosheh, the Israelitish lawgiver.
Jesus showed that when He walked the dusty roads of Israel and again when He revealed to Saul later to become Paul the hidden things. Christ is all wisdom and in Him there is no shadow of turning, for He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow (forever) and, the height, depth, width, and length of Him no man knows.

That said, to understand some of that which is revealed we have to have an active knowledge of the first three chapters of Genesis as this is the revealing of the hidden things when we take the time to study, listening to what is revealed. Our study of Genesis the first three chapters will be attached as an additional paper to this out line. We have added other deeper research to this paper already and they will be added in each section as part of that study. Throughout the course of our studies we’ll be inserting definitions of words and phrases as a help to our growth in understanding and true knowledge of our Lord and savior.

There is an area that has not been addressed much by any one group and that is the intolerance of Christ which is seen in Matthew 12:30 and which George H. Morrison handles quite well and you will find at the end of this introduction.***

The first thing we had to learn when reading scriptures was that there are different dispensations (#6 , see notes), that there is a delineation (#5) given for each and that there are mysteries which had been hidden in the heart of God and now are revealed to Paul by the risen Lord Jesus Christ. And that there are three questions one must ask; “Who is speaking?”, “Who is he speaking to?” and “What dispensation is he speaking in?”
Paul is the Apostle of the Gentiles. But see, our Apostle of the Gentiles admonishes us to study all of the Scripture, not just Romans through Philemon. That’s the approach we have to take. The Apostle of the Gentiles writes: Rom 15:4 “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that through patience and through comfort of the scriptures we might have hope.” Now, what’s the difference between learning and doctrine? Well, all the difference in the world. Learning is background. Learning is to get an understanding of how did all this come about? How did it happen that Christ was crucified? How did it happen that He ascended back to Glory? How did it happen that He sent the Apostle Paul to the Gentiles? This is all background. But doctrine, what does that tell you? It tells us how to be saved, how to live the Christ like life, what to look for at the end, so far as we are concerned. That’s in Paul’s letters. But all of Scripture is for our learning. Always remember that.

The key to understanding scripture is knowing the distinct dispensations* of God’s dealings with Adam, mankind, Israel (#1) and mankind and the Body of Christ (#2), and that there are two separate and distinct gospels (#7); the gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven (#3) that Jesus preached in His earthly ministry to the nation of Israel only with a few exceptions “at the end of time”, and which James, Peter, John and Jude carried out in their letters to the Jewish believers looking for the tribulation, to start at anytime, and the completion of the prophetic promises. Gods Gospel of Grace and the finished work of the cross (#4) as given to Paul, the mysteries revealed to him by the risen Lord, for the Gentiles, kings and the sons of Israel. (Acts 9:15) With the mystical Body of Christ being a part of the mystery revealed to Paul and no one else. (See the pictorial gospel explanation attached) One other point just picked up on is that there are four forms of redemptions in scripture they are:
Adam lost then redeemed;
Israel lost and then redeemed;
Mankind lost and then redeemed;
earth lost awaiting redemption.

*Dispensation: That which is dispensed or bestowed; a system of principles and rites enjoined; including the former, the Levitical law and rites (ordinances); the latter, the scheme of redemption by Christ.

Notes
1. The Old Testament is continued (Gods dealing with Israel and the establishing of the promised Kingdom of Heaven on earth) in, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, with Acts being a book of transition, Hebrews a letter of persuasion to the Jewish believers to move from a works religion to a faith plus nothing relationship with their Messiah. James, Peter, John, Jude are letters written to the Jewish believers looking for the tribulation and how to prepare to stand through it, and Revelations is a further revealing of the risen Christ as King of Israel, written to the believing Jews that are scattered. (see the Mysteries Timeline)
2. In Acts chapter 9 starts the building of the Body of Christ (not to be confused with the church as seen in Acts 11:26 the believing Jews) with the first member of the body being Saul of Tarsus as the example of the entry into the mystical Body of Christ, Acts 13:2 the separation or severing of Paul and Barnabas from their Judaism. Then Romans through Philemon is Paul teaching us (believers as Body members) the things revealed to him by the risen Lord. (see the Mysteries Timeline)
3. The gospel of the kingdom of heaven which is the preparation for entry into the first gate of
Regeneration as found in Mat. 4.17, 23a, 9.35; Mark 1.14-15; Ro. 15.8 which is for the Jewish believer.
4. The actual regeneration into the divine nature that Adam had lost: Acts 20:24; 1Co.2:13-14; Ro.1:16, 1Co. 15.1-6, Ro.10.8-10, 1Thess.4.14; Phil. 1.3-8.

Which is in the “Redemption” and the study on “Redemption” a revealing of the first three chapters of Genesis.
5. Delineation: Figuratively, to describe; to represent to the mind or understanding; to exhibit a likeness in words; as, to delineate the character or virtue of: 1 Tim. 1:16; 2Tim. 1:13
6. Dispensation: Distribution; the act of dealing out to different times, persons or places; as the dispensing of medicine: 1 Cor. 9:17; Eph. 1:10, 3:2; Col. 1:25
7. The two different gospels: Gal. 2:1-10(7-8), Acts 15:1-29 (8)

We also learned that there are three areas of Gods influence, the first is known as the Kingdom of God which is everything that is under Gods righteous control (it does not concern the lost, doomed, Hell or Hades) which is His sphere of work on earth. Within this sphere are two other separate entities which are as follows (see the illustration attached):
The Kingdom of Heaven, which is directed to the Nation of Israel, this will become Heaven on earth and will become a reality after the second advent of Christ, Christ’s return as the King of Israel in fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies, which the disciples are a part of and which God placed on hold until the fullness of the Gentiles come in (Rom. 11: 25 I would not, have you ignorant of this mystery, lest you be wise in your own conceits, that a hardening in part has befallen Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in). It will be like the rule of Israel during David’s reign.

The Body of Christ as revealed in this Age of Grace was given to Paul, outside the disciples, outside of Jerusalem’s walls and the Temple. This is for the Gentiles, kings and the sons of Israel with only one way of entry which the Lord Jesus Christ mentions in Mat. 7:13-14; Pro. 8:20; Jer. 6:16, Heb. 10:5 and is revealed in the mysteries given to Paul, a people called out unto God for His name. The Body of Christ is an entity within the Kingdom Of God and the Lord Jesus Christ is the gate or the door of entry. Which requires us to have “the mind of Christ” (Phil. 2:5) and to follow Paul’s example by learning the secrets. There was NO hint of this "Church Age" any where in the Old Testament or the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke or John nor in the first nine chapters of Acts. (See the pictorial gospel explanation attached)

Thayer's Definition: #4
1) new birth, reproduction, renewal, recreation, regeneration
1a) hence renovation, regeneration, the production of a new life consecrated to God, a radical change of mind for the better. The word often used to denote the restoration of a thing to its pristine state, its renovation, as a renewal or restoration of life after death
1b) the renovation of the earth after the deluge
1c) the renewal of the world to take place after its destruction by fire, as the Stoics taught
1d) the signal and glorious change of all things (in heaven and earth) for the better, that restoration of the primal and perfect condition of things which existed before the fall of our first parents, which the Jews looked for in connection with the advent of the Messiah, and which Christians expected in connection with the visible return of Jesus from heaven.
1e) other uses
1e1) of Cicero’s restoration to rank and fortune on his recall from exile
1e2) of the restoration of the Jewish nation after exile
1e3) of the recovery of knowledge by recollection
Part of Speech: noun feminine

Thayer's Definition: #5
1) an outline, sketch, brief and summary exposition
2) an example, pattern
2a) for an example of those who should hereafter believe
2b) to show by the example of my conversation that the same grace which I had obtained would not be wanting also to those who should hereafter believe
Part of Speech: noun feminine

Thayer's Definition: #6
1) the management of a household or of household affairs
1a) specifically, the management, oversight, administration, of other’s property
1b) the office of a manager or overseer, stewardship
1c) administration, dispensation
Part of Speech: noun feminine

Deut 29:29
The secret (1) things belong unto Yehovah* our God; but the things that are revealed (2) belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law. (book or the word)

*Adonai is the Hebrew name meaning LORD or Lord/Master; Yehovah means: it is to be progressive revelation of the Ancient of Days, God the Son or the Son of God as He is revealed throughout scripture. He is the ever revealing one or a progressive revelation, a seed within all mankind, planted by God in Genesis 3:15 in man.

Mat 13:11-16
He answered and said to them, to you it is given to know the mysteries/secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. For whosoever has, to him shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but whosoever has not, from him shall be taken away even that which he has. Therefore speak I to them in parables; because seeing they see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And to them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, which says, ‘By hearing you shall hear, and shall in no wise understand; And seeing you shall see, and shall in no wise perceive: For this people's heart is waxed gross, And their ears are dull of hearing, And their eyes they have closed; Lest haply they should perceive with their eyes, And hear with their ears, And understand with their heart, And should turn again, And I should heal them’. But blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear.’

The Gospel of our (Redemption leading to our) Salvation
1Cor 15:1-8 But let me recall to you, brethren, the Good News which I brought you, which you accepted, and on which you are standing, through which also you are obtaining salvation, if you bear in mind the words in which I proclaimed it--unless indeed your faith has been unreal from the very first. For I repeated to you the all-important fact which also I had been taught, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures; that He was buried; that He rose to life again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and was seen by Peter, and then by the Twelve. Afterwards He was seen by more than five hundred brethren at once, most of whom are still alive, although some of them have now fallen asleep. Afterwards He was seen by James, and then by all the Apostles. Last of all, as to one of untimely birth, He appeared to me also.

Gal 1:11-12 For I must tell you, that the Good News which was proclaimed by me is not such as man approves of. For, in fact, it was not from man that I received or learned it, but by a revelation from Jesus Christ.

It is our faith in the truth of our being in Christ on the tree and our being raised in Him that we receive our redemption which leads us to our salvation which is our being revealed in Him in His glory. More will be revealed about this mystery in the following study of scripture.

For a fuller revelation
John 13:7 Jesus answered him, "What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand."

John 16:13-15 Jesus said: “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.”

1Cor 13:9-12 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, (For us this is the printed Word of God and the revealing of the union and joining of us to Christ in the secret of our marriage betrothal to Him.) the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child; I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

John 14:9-11 Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.

“Things are all dark and confused now, in comparison of what they will be hereafter: Now we see through a glass darkly (en ainigmati, in a riddle), then face to face; now we know in part, but then we shall know as we are known. Now we can only discern things at a great distance, as through a telescope, and that involved in clouds and obscurity; but hereafter the things to be known will be near and obvious, open to our eyes; and our knowledge will be free from all obscurity and error. God is to be seen face to face; and we are to know him as we are known by him; not indeed as perfectly, but in some sense in the same manner. We are known to him by mere inspection; he turns his eye towards us, and sees and searches us throughout. We shall then fix our eye on him, and see him as he is 1John 3:2. We shall know how we are known; enter into all the mysteries of divine love and grace. O glorious change! To pass from darkness to light, from clouds to the clear sunshine of our Savior’s face, and in God's own light to see light! Psa 36:9. Note, It is the light of heaven only that will remove all clouds and darkness from the face of God. It is at best but twilight while we are in this world; (Especially for those who choose to remain under the veil of darkness.) there it will be perfect and eternal day.”
This quote is taken from Matthew Henry’s commentary on the whole Bible, with some editing by this writer, as with all further quotes from this and other authors. (Editing is done in italic and or within brackets.)

2Tim 2:14-19
Of these things put them in remembrance, charging them in the sight of the Lord, that they strive not about words, to no profit, to the subverting of them that hear.* Give diligence to present thyself approved to God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, handling aright the word of truth.** But shun profane babblings: for they will proceed further in ungodliness, and their word will eat as does a gangrene: or whom is Hymenaeus an Philetus; men who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already, and overthrow the faith of some. Howbeit the firm foundation of God stands, having this seal, The Lord knows them that are his: and, Let every one that names the name of the Lord depart from unrighteousness.

* Do not dispute against the truth of the Word causing those that hear to be overthrown or leave the truth.
** As a carpenter uses a square to lay a straight line, that is true with Christ as the foundation that Paul speaks of. This is known as delineation.


Mar 4:21-25
He said to them, “is the lamp brought to be put under the bushel, or under the bed, and not to be put on the stand? For there is nothing hid, save that it should be manifested; neither was anything made secret, but that it should come to light. If any man has ears to hear, let him hear.” He said to them, “Take heed what you hear (WHO AND WHAT YOU LISTEN TO, or what you understand): with what measure you mete it shall be measured to you; and more shall be given to you. For he that has, to him shall be given: and he that has not, from him shall be taken away even that which he has.”

Thayer's Definition: “mete”
1) to measure, to measure out or off
1a) any space or distance with a measurer’s reed or rule
1b) metaphorically to judge according to any rule or standard, to estimate
2) to measure out, mete out to, i.e. to give by measure
Part of Speech: verb

Thayer's Definition: “mete” another meaning
1) measure, an instrument for measuring
1a) a vessel for receiving and determining the quantity of things, whether dry or liquid
1b) a graduated staff for measuring, a measuring rod
1c) proverbially, the rule or standard of judgment
2) determined extent, portion measured off, measure or limit
2a) the required measure, the due, fit, measure
Part of Speech: noun neuter

2Tim 3:10-17
You that follow my teachings in conduct, (discipline as I do Christ’s discipline) purpose, faith, longsuffering, love, patience, persecutions, and sufferings. What things befell me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured. Out of them all, the Lord delivered me. Yes, and all that would live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Evil men and impostors shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But abide in the things which you have learned and have been assured of, knowing of whom you have learned them. That from a babe you have known the sacred writings which are able to make you wise to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. Every scripture inspired of God is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. That the man of God may be complete, furnished (perfected, matured) completely to every good work.

How does one enter or become a member of the Body of Christ?

Rom 16:25-27 Now to him that is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept in silence through times eternal, but now is manifested, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, is made known to all the nations to obedience of faith: to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory for ever. Amen.

*** “The Intolerance of Christ Jesus” as done by George H. Morrison with limited editing.

The Intolerance of Jesus

He that is not with me is against me— Mat 12:30 (and he that gathers not with me scatters abroad.)

Christ Rejects Accusations Made against Him

Our Lord had just performed a notable miracle healing a man who was possessed of a devil. It had made a profound impression on the people, and had forced the conviction that this was indeed Messiah. Unable to dispute the miracle itself, the Pharisees tried to impugn the power behind it, and in their cowardly and treacherous way they suggested there was something demoniac about Christ. With a readiness of resource which never failed Him, Christ showed in a flash the weakness of that argument. If He was the friend of the demons, was He likely to make a brother-demon homeless? Then Christ moved to righteous anger by these slanders, He said, "He that is not with me is against me."

You Cannot Understand Christ if You Fail to Notice His Intolerance

I want to speak on the intolerance of Jesus Christ. However startling the subject may appear, and however the sound of it may jar upon us, I am convinced we shall never understand our Lord if we fail to take account of His intolerance. We have heard much of the geniality of Jesus, and of the depth and range of His compassion; nor can we ever exaggerate, in warmest language, the genial and generous aspect of His character. But it is well that the listening ear should be attuned to catch the sterner music of that life, lest, missing it, we miss the fine severity which goes to the perfecting of moral beauty. Wherever the spirit of Jesus is at work, there is found a sweet and masterful intolerance. The one thing that the Gospel cannot do is to look with easy good nature on the world. And if this passionate urgency of claim has ever marked the activities of Christendom, we must try to trace it to the fountainhead and find it in the character of Christ.

Intolerance Must Be Knowledgeable

Of course there is an intolerance so cold and hard that it must always be alien from the Master's Spirit. All that is best in us condemns the temper which lacks the redeeming touch of comprehension. When the poet Shelley was a lad still in his teens, he fell violently in love with his cousin Harriet Grove. Shelley was a skeptic even then, and on account of his skepticism his cousin was removed from him. And those of you who have read his letters of that period will remember how they throb with the great hope that he might live to do battle with intolerance. Now Shelley was a poet, with all a poet's ardor, yet I think that most young men have had that feeling. Nor is it one of those feelings that pass away with youth; it generally strengthens with the tale of years. "One has only to grow old," says Goethe, "to become tolerant." As life advances, if we live it well, we commonly grow less rigid in our judgment. By all we have seen and suffered, all we have tried and failed in, our sympathies grow broader with the years. We learn how precious the grace of charity is; how near akin may be the fiercest combatants; how great is the allowance we must make for those of whose hidden life we know so little.

But when one chooses to take the Lord’s hand to follow Him in His request to “take His yoke” we learn of this intolerance of the spirit of the world and its hold on those held by its chains and under it’s veil.

Christ Died Because of His Intolerance

I mention that just to make plain to you that I am not shutting my eyes to common truths. Yet the fact remains that in all great personalities, there is a strain of what is called intolerance. There are things in which it must be yea or nay—the everlasting no, as Carlyle has it. There are spheres in which all compromise is treachery, and when a man must say with Luther, "Here I stand." And that intolerance, so far from being the enemy of love and sympathy and generous culture, is the rock that a man needs to set his feet on, if he is to cast his rope to those who cry for help. You find it in the God of the Old Testament—"Thou shalt have no other gods before me." He is a jealous God, and brooks no rival. He must be loved with heart and soul and strength and mind. You find it in the music of the psalmist, and in the message of prophet and apostle, and you find it bosomed amid all the love that shone in the character of Jesus Christ. Never was man as tender as the Lord. Never was man so swift to sympathize. Never did sinners so feel that they were understood. Never did the lost so feel that they were loved. Yet with all that pity and grace and boundless comprehension, I say you have never fathomed the spirit of the Master, until you have recognized within its range a certain glorious and divine intolerance. We talk of the infinite tolerance of Shakespeare; it is a commonplace of all Shakespearean criticism. Nothing was alien from that mighty genius; the world was a stage and he knew all the players. But underneath that worldwide comprehension there is a scorn of scorn, a hate of hate; there is such doom on the worthless and the wicked as can scarce be paralleled in any literature; and till you have heard that message of severity—that judgment which is the other side of love—you have never learned the secret of the dramatist. In a loftier and a more spiritual sense that is true of our Master, Jesus Christ. He loved us and He gave Himself for us. He says to every weary heart, "Come unto me." But that same spirit which was so true and tender could be superbly unyielding and inflexible. The gentle Saviour was splendidly intolerant, and because of His intolerance He died.

It is for this death and the total benefit of its finished work that there is intolerance of any scorn by the unfaithful and the unbelieving soul who chooses to stay in his condition after hearing the truth of the Gospel of Gods salvation for them already paid for and open to all.

Intolerant toward Hypocrisy

We trace the intolerance of Christ, for instance, in His attitude towards hypocrisy. One thing that was unendurable to Jesus was the shallow profession of religion. You can always detect an element of pity when Jesus is face to face with other sins. There is the yearning of infinite love over the lost; the hand outstretched to welcome back the prodigal. But for the hypocrite there is no gleam of pity, only the blasting and withering of wrath. "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites!" It is the intolerance of Jesus Christ.

Christ Is Intolerant of Sharing His Uniqueness

We trace it again in those stupendous claims that Jesus Christ put forward for Himself. The Lord our God is a jealous God, and the Lord our Saviour is a jealous Saviour. "I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life"—"No man comes unto the Father but by Me"—"No man knows the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him." What do you make of these amazing claims, and of that splendid intolerance of any rival?—yet all these words are in the Gospel record as surely as "a bruised reed shall he not break." Do you say there are many doorways to the Father? Christ Jesus stands and says, "I am the door." Do you say there are many shepherds of the sheep? Christ stands in His majesty, and says, "I am the shepherd." Pitiful, merciful, full of a great compassion, Christ is intolerant of any rival; He stands alone to be worshiped and adored, or He disappears into the mists of fable. So far as I am aware that is unique; there is nothing like it in religious history.

The ancient pantheons had always room for the introduction of another god. It is Christ alone, the meek and lowly Saviour, who lifts Himself up in isolated splendor. Friend of the friendless and Brother of the weakest, He is intolerant of any sharing of His claims.

Christ Is Intolerant When It Comes to Sharing the Allegiance He Demands from us

Again I trace this same intolerance in the allegiance which Christ demands from us. He is willing to take the lowest place upon the cross; but He will not take it in your heart and mine. When He was born in the fullness of the time, He did not ask for the splendor of the palace. He was born in a manger, reared in a lowly home, and grew to His manhood in obscurest station. But the moment He enters the kingdom of the heart, where He is LORD by conquest and by right, there everything is changed, and with a great intolerance He refuses every place except the first. "He that loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me"—"Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead." That is the word of a King in His own Kingdom, claiming His rightful place among His subjects. And when you speak of the meek and lowly Jesus, never forget there is that imperial note there. He is divinely intolerant of everybody who would usurp the throne that is His right.

Such, then, are one or two instances of the intolerance of Jesus Christ, and now I want to examine its true nature, that we may see how worthy it was of Christ.

The Intolerance of Christ Is the Child of Glowing Faith

The first thing I note in the intolerance of Jesus is that it is the child of glowing faith. The intolerance of Christ is little else than the other side of His perfect trust in God. When one is a stranger to you, bound by no ties of love, you are little affected by what is said about him. The talk may be true, or it may not be true, but it is none of your business, and you do not know. But the moment a man becomes a hero to you, that moment you grow intolerant of liberties. If you believe in a woman, your heart becomes aflame with anger should anyone sully her name even with a breath. A French poet tells us that when he was a youth he was a passionate worshiper of Victor Hugo. He believed in Hugo with all his heart and soul; he thought there had never been a poet like him. And he says that even in a dark cellar underground, where nobody possibly could have overheard him, he could not bear to whisper to himself that a single verse of Hugo's poetry was bad. That is the fine intolerance of faith in ardent and eager and devoted natures. That is the faith which Jesus Christ was filled with, in God and His righteousness and providential order. And with a faith like that there can be no compromise; no light and shallow acceptance of alternatives. Under the sway of such a glowing trust certain intolerance is quite inevitable. It is easy to be infinitely tolerant, if all that Christ lived for means but little to you. An age that can tolerate every kind of creed is always an age whose faith is burning low. And just because Christ's faith burned with a perfect light, and flashed its radiance full on the heart of God, you find in Him, in all His God ward life, a steady and magnificent intolerance.

Christ's Intolerance Was Found in His Perfect Understanding

Then once again the intolerance of Jesus is the intolerance of perfect understanding. It was because He knew so fully, and sympathized so deeply, that there were certain things He could not bear. One great complaint we make against intolerance is that it does not sympathetically understand us. It is harsh in judgment, and fails in comprehension, and has no conception of what things mean for us. We have all met with intolerance like that, but remember there is another kind. Take the case of drunkenness, for instance; there are many people very tolerant of drunkenness. They talk about it lightly, make a jest of it; they are none of your rigid, long faced Pharisees. But sometimes you meet a man, sometimes a woman, to whom such jesting talk is quite intolerable, and it is intolerable not because they know so little; it is intolerable because they know so much. The curse has crossed the threshold of their home, and laid its fatal grip on someone who was dear. They have seen the wreck and ruin of it, and all its daily misery, and the drying up of every wellspring of the heart. So in their grief they grow terribly intolerant, and it is not because they do not understand; they are intolerant because they understand so well. Never forget that it is so with Christ. He is intolerant because He comprehends. He knows what sin is; He knows how sweet it is; He knows its havoc, its loneliness, its dust and ashes. And therefore is He stern, uncompromising, and says to us, "Choose ye this day whom ye will serve." There are men who are intolerant because of ignorance; Christ is intolerant because He knows.

Christ's Intolerance Is Based on His Love

Lastly, the intolerance of Jesus is very signally the intolerance of love. Love bears all things—all things except one, and that is the harm or hurt of the beloved. Here is a little child out in the streets, ragged and shoeless in the raw March weather. Let it stay out till midnight, no one complains at home. Let it use the foulest of language, no one corrects it. Poor little waif, in whom all things are tolerated, and tolerated just because no one loves it! What kind of mother has that little child? What kind of father has that little child? You know them in the street, swollen and coarse, reeking with all the vileness of the city. They tolerate everything because they do not love; when love steps in, that toleration ceases. Now we all know that when our Saviour came, He came at the bidding and in the power of love; love wonderful, love that endured the worst, love that went up to Calvary to die. And just because that love was so intense, and burned with the ardor of the heart of God, things that had been tolerable once were found to be intolerable now.

That is the secret of the Gospel's sternness and of its passionate protest against sin. That is why age after age it clears the issues, and says, "He that is not with me is against me." The love that bears all things cannot bear that hurt or harm should rest on the beloved. Christ is intolerant because He loves.

The Gospel of Christ is not found in the scriptures of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John or even within Acts. The Gospel of God, the Gospel that was received from the risen Lord is found in His revelation to Paul as found in 1 Corinthians 15:1-8, Galatians 1:11-12 and in parts within the letter to the Romans. The gospels referred to by George H. Morrison are the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John which contain the works of the Lords ministry to Israel which also contains the gospel of Israel’s salvation only and which is not to be applied to the gentiles and our “church age”.

Thayer's Definition: “gathers” as found in Mat 12:30a
1) to gather together, to gather
1a) to draw together, collect
1a1) of fishes
1a2) of a net in which they are caught
2) to bring together, assemble, collect
2a) to join together, join in one (those previously separated)
2b) to gather together by convoking
2c) to be gathered, i.e. come together, gather, meet
3) to lead with one’s self
3a) into one’s home, i.e. to receive hospitably, to entertain
Part of Speech: verb

We are to gather with Him through His revelations that were given to Paul shortly after Saul received the Lord on the Damascus road. Remember that Saul’s name was changed to Paul when he became an apostle of the Lord, this was an action of God’s doing and not one of Saul’s doing. Saul had to make the free-will choice on his own grounds as we all are required to do in order to be “gathered” with Him. That is why he later reveals that he is the chief in line of the Masters redeemed. And now we’ll look at what Paul says that parallel’s this scripture, to compare scripture with scripture.

2Cor 6:14-18 Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship has righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion has light with darkness? What concord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has he that believes with an infidel? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God; as God has said, “I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God,and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be you separate,” said the Lord, and “touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father to you, and you shall be my sons and daughters,” said the Lord Almighty.

The following is a article written by my wife Glenda and opens up Romans chapter 7 verses 1-4, which ties nicely with the above scriptures.

Romans 7:1-4 “Or do you not know, brothers (for I am speaking to those who know the law) that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives?”
If Israel’s leaving God and going to worship other gods is called adultery, then what is someone called if they are one with the world, still bound by the law of sin and death, and they go to church to worship God?

Romans 2-4 A married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress. Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law (The law of sin and death that holds all in thick darkness and blindness.) through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God.

Israel was called adulterers and whores, because they left Him, the One God, to go out worshiping other gods of the pagan nations around them. Now, my question is....if Israel was called adulterers and whores for worshiping other gods, then what are we (as gentiles) who belong to the world, bound by the law of sin and death, if we go to church once or twice a week to worship God or sneak around to read the Bible on occasion? Until WE die, or by faith see ourselves crucified in Christ on that cross, we are bound by law to the spirit of the world, the prince of the power of the air, and commit adultery and are playing the harlot by trying to sneaking around with God. I say, "Trying to sneak around with God" because while we belong to another, God can not have us as His.



All scripture is from the KJV, Weymouth New Testament, American Standard and English Standard Versions of the Bible with limited editing for today’s usage and ease of understanding.