Faith and Unbelief

“Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing….” Rom. 15:13

It is most interesting to observe the effects of faith and unbelief upon the lives of God’s children.  We see this especially in connection with the incarnation and the resurrection of Christ.

The Incarnation

Aged Zacharias doubts the divine promise as to the birth of our Lord’s forerunner (Luke 1:18) and is rebuked by the angelic messenger.

“And the angel answering said unto him, I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God, and am sent to speak unto thee, and to show thee these glad tidings. And, behold, thou shalt be dumb, and not able to speak, until the day that these things shall be performed, because thou believest not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season” (Luke 1:19,20).

As a further result, it was impossible for the chastened priest to pronounce the usual blessing upon the waiting multitude after the offering of the evening sacrifice.  We are told (Ver. 10) that “the whole multitude of the people were praying without” at the time.  But Zacharias, now stricken dumb, could give them no word of blessing.  Rather we read:

“And the people waited for Zach-arias, and marvelled that he tarried so long in the temple. And when he came out, he could not speak unto them…” (Luke 1:21,22).

Symbolically this demonstrates the inevitable effect of unbelief upon the lives of God’s people.  Where unbelief enters, the testimony is silenced.

In contrast to the doubts of a seasoned man of God, we find sweet, young Mary accepting in simple faith a message which would be considered much more difficult to believe: that she, a virgin, should bring forth a child.

“And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to Thy word…” (Luke 1:38).

Result: a song!  From Mary’s heart and lips have come to us the glad Magnificat, which begins with those inspired and inspiring words:

“…My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior” (Luke 1:46,47).

An interesting sidelight to the whole story is found in the words of Elisabeth, Zacharias’ wife, to Mary: “Blessed is she that believed” (Ver. 45).  Elisabeth had personally suffered the results of her husband’s unbelief.

When our Lord had been born, the shepherds, like Mary, accepted the heavenly announcement in simple faith.  When the angel had departed, they did not say: “Let us go and see whether this has indeed come to pass.”  Rather, their words indicate that they were perfectly certain that it had come to pass.

“…the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us” (Luke 2:15).

Result: When the shepherds had seen the Babe:

“…they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child” (Luke 2:17).

What, exactly, had been told them concerning this Child?  That He was “a Savior…Christ the Lord” (Ver. 11).

Further result: Having “made known abroad” this glad message:

“…the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was [had been] told unto them” (Luke 2:20).

Old Simeon likewise believed, took the Babe in his arms, and said:

“Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy word, for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation” (Luke 2:29,30).

The crowning blessing of Sim-eon’s life was to see with his own eyes, to hold in his own arms, that blessed One in Whom the salvation of Israel was vested.

The aged and devout Anna also believed and the results were what we should expect.  Not only did she “give thanks likewise unto the Lord,” but she:

“…spake of Him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem” (Luke 2:38).

The Resurrection

A superficial reading of the synoptic records might leave one with the impression that Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James, went to the tomb where the Lord had been buried, believed the angel’s declaration that He had risen, and went immediately to convey the glad news to the disciples.

The 20th chapter of John, however, supplies other details which illustrate again the sad results of unbelief.

See Mary Magdalene weeping at the sepulcher! (John 20:11).  And why does she weep?  Because the tomb is empty!

There she stands overwhelmed with grief.  “And as she wept, she stooped down and looked into the sepulcher.”  But those tear-dimmed eyes did not notice there the evidences of our Lord’s resurrection.

When the angels asked: “Woman, why weepest thou?” she replied:

“Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him” (John 20:13).

Poor woman!  She would have preferred to have found His body there!

But here are two disciples on their way to Emmaus, no less broken-hearted.  They are talking sadly about all that has transpired in the past few days.

“And it came to pass that while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus Himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were holden that they should not know Him. And He said unto them, What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad?” (Luke 24:15-17).

A glance at Young’s Analytical Concordance will indicate that the word “walk” here does not mean to walk on, but to walk about.  These disciples had started out to go to Emmaus but here, in their deep sorrow and disappointment, they were wandering about aimlessly.  Some translations render the words “and are sad”: “And they stood still, looking sad.”

Poor, broken-hearted souls!  And what was it that had overwhelmed them with grief?  Listen to their own explanation:

“But we trusted that it had been He which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, today is the third day since these things were done” (Luke 24:21).

The third day!  Should not this fact have reminded them of our Lord’s oft-repeated promise that He would arise on the third day?

“Oh, what peace we often forfeit!  Oh, what needless pain we bear!”

And all because we do not take God at His Word!

Mary weeps because the tomb is empty!  The two disciples despair because it is now “the third day” since their Lord was crucified!  Such is the irony of unbelief.

The Resurrection and Us

Shall we not now apply these lessons to ourselves?  If unbelief brings sorrow and defeat, and closes our mouths; if faith brings joy and victory, and opens our mouths in praise and testimony, how, specifically, does this apply to God’s people today?

To find the answer, listen to Paul’s impassioned prayer that we might know, among other things:

“…what is the exceeding greatness of His [God’s] power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world [age], but also in that which is to come” (Eph. 1:19-21).

The resurrection and exaltation of our Lord Jesus Christ was the greatest demonstration of power in all history.  He did not die the death of a sinner; He died the death that would have sunk us all to hell.  And it was from that death that He was raised and exalted to the Father’s right hand in the epouranios, “far above all.”

But the amazing fact which God holds out to our faith is that this limitless power is now offered to us!  He calls it “the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe”!

Why, then, are so many of us defeated and weak in our Christian experience?  Is it not because like Zacharias and Mary Magdalene and the two on the way to Emmaus, we have failed to accept in faith His Word to us?

God says that He would have us understand “what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward” (Eph. 1:17-20), and many of us scarcely show an interest in these riches of grace.

God says that He would have His saints know “what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles” (Col. 1:27), and many of us do not care enough to search the Scriptures to learn about “the riches of the glory of this mystery.”

God declares that believers in Christ have been crucified, buried, raised and exalted with Him (Rom. 6:3; Gal. 2:20; Eph. 2:4-7) to be “blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ” (Eph. 1:3), and the vast majority do not even bother to look into these glorious truths, committed by the ascended Lord to Paul for us (Eph. 3:1-3).

Is it strange in the light of these facts that God’s people as a whole are confused and divided, and that their witness for Christ evidences so little of the power of the Spirit?

Let us, then, be the exceptions to this rule, the “remnant,” who do care about what God has to say to us and who take Him at His word.  Thus alone can we be “well adjusted” and enjoy the power of the Spirit in our witness for Christ.

“Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing…” (Rom. 15:13).


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Berean Searchlight – December 1999


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The Apostle of Grace

PAUL’S SUFFERINGS

Let’s consider for a moment a feature in which Paul is to be distinguished from all his predecessors: his sufferings.

It is recognized that no mere human sufferings are to be compared with the sufferings of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He bore the judgment that would have sunk a world to hell. But among mortal men in God’s service none suffered more than Paul.

Once more we have at least an inspired intimation of this in the record of our Lord’s own words regarding Saul:

“…I will show him how great things he must suffer for My name’s sake” (Acts 9:16).

But again, this fact is more amply confirmed by a comparison of the record of Paul’s sufferings with that of the sufferings of all his predecessors.

How can we begin to cite all he went through from his escape over the Damascus wall (Acts 9:23-25) to those hours of waiting in the Roman prison for his execution as a criminal (II Tim. 4:6)? Suffice it to say that even by the time he had written two of his earlier epistles, those to the Corinthians, he had already surpassed others in the persecutions and sufferings borne for Christ. Writing to the Corinthians he says of himself and his associates:

“…we are made a spectacle unto the world… to angels, and to men.

“We are fools for Christ’s sake… we are weak…we are despised.”

“Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling place;

“And labor, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it:

“Being defamed, we entreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day” (I Cor. 4:9-13).

That this “we” refers mostly to himself is clear from the long list given in his next letter (II Cor. 11:23-33) of all the sufferings he had personally borne up until that time. That list is always read too hurriedly. A bit of meditation upon the details: the scourgings, the beatings, the stoning, the shipwrecks, the wearisome journeys, the perils from floods, robbers, Jews, Gentiles; the perils in the city, in the desert, in the sea, among false brethren; the fatigue, the pain, the watchings, the hunger, the cold, the nakedness, and then “the care of all the churches”—a bit of meditation on these particular details in his life of persecution and suffering will soon explain why he cries out:

“Are they ministers of Christ (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft….Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is offended, and I burn not?” (II Cor. 11:23,29).

This view alone would, of course, be one-sided, but to show the brighter side of the apostle’s sufferings we must first learn why he suffered all this.

It must be remembered that he had led Israel and the world in rebellion against the Son of God. As the flaming leader of the rebellion, he had “made havock of the church”1 (Acts 8:3), had “persecuted” it “beyond measure” and “laid it waste” (Gal. 1:13) until his hands dripped with the blood of martyrs.

In this he but represented the world’s attitude toward Christ; but when the world was ripe for the prophesied judgment, God intervened, saving Saul and sending him forth to offer reconciliation to His enemies by grace through faith.

In the nature of the case, Saul, as an ambassador of grace among enemy aliens,2 would now have to bear the same sufferings which he had inflicted upon others. This constant suffering which Paul bore, however, was in a real sense the sufferings of Christ, the continued expression of the world’s enmity against God’s Son. This explains an otherwise difficult passage in his letter to the Colossians:

“[I] now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind [which remains] of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for His body’s sake, which is the church” (Col. 1:24).

Such sufferings are sweet! Little wonder he rejoiced in them as they brought him into closest fellowship with the rejected Christ Himself. Little wonder it was his deep desire:

“That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death” (Phil. 3:10).

Thus, even in his sufferings, Paul stands out as the apostle of God’s grace, chosen to proclaim the love of the rejected Christ to a world of sinners.

It is only as we recognize these Scriptural distinctions between Paul and all his predecessors that we will be enabled to proclaim the gospel of grace with real clarity and power. It is only in this way that we can become workmen approved of God, not needing to be ashamed.

Notes:

  1. The Pentecostal Church, not the Church of this present dispensation.
  2. See the writer’s booklet: “Ambassadors for Christ.”

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Berean Searchlight – November 1999


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Berean Searchlight – October 1999


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The General Epistles: Where Do They Fit In?

Introduction

Those of us who understand Paul’s unique apostleship and message usually have a pretty clear understanding of his epistles and how they apply to us today. We also tend to have a good grasp of the prophetic nature of the gospels and how they fit into the kingdom program. Through the gospels and up to and through Paul’s epistles, we seem to recognize the proper dispensational distinctives. But after Paul’s epistles things seem to get a little fuzzy for some of us. “What about the General Epistles? Where do they fit in? How do they apply to the Body of Christ today?” Such questions are typical of those we receive here at BBS about the books that follow Paul’s Epistles.

While many Grace pastors preach and write about Paul’s epistles (which they certainly should do), some of them unfortunately neglect the rest of the Bible. This leaves many Grace folks having to get their instruction on the General Epistles from teachers who do not understand Paul’s unique apostleship and message. While we certainly want to emphasize the teaching and preaching of the dispensation of the grace of God committed to the Apostle Paul, we do not want to neglect the other Scriptures because we know that “ALL Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” Our goal should be to know and understand the entire Bible in light of Paul’s gospel.

Why are the General Epistles seemingly ignored when it comes to sermons and dispensational commentaries? Go to just about any dispensational Bible conference and you will likely find numerous commentaries on Paul’s Epistles but nothing dealing with the General Epistles. Perhaps part of the reason is that the General Epistles raise some issues and questions not found in the Gospels or Paul’s Epistles.

Those of us who understand Paul’s unique apostleship and message usually have a pretty clear grasp of where the gospels fit in dispensationally. We understand that the gospels present Jesus’ prophesied earthly ministry to the nation of Israel. (Even some non-Pauline dispensationalists understand that Christ’s earthly ministry was “but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” and did not include the Body of Christ—and how could it, since even according to an Acts 2 dispensationalist the Body of Christ did not start until Pentecost?) Up until Paul, we know that God had been dealing specifically with Israel.

Everything in the gospel accounts has to do with the prophesied earthly kingdom and salvation coming to Israel. In the book of Acts we see the offer of the kingdom to Israel—an offer which they reject. Following Israel’s rejection of the kingdom proclaimed by Peter, we see the transition from Law to Grace at the calling of Paul after the stoning of Stephen. By the end of the book of Acts we know that the Law (and Israel’s position as the chosen nation) has been set aside and that the gospel of the grace of God is now the salvational message for this dispensation.

Up until this point, most Grace believers are in agreement. Up to and through Paul’s epistles there is confidence and clarity as to the right division of Scripture. Why then do we see hesitancy and confusion as to how to rightly divide the Scripures after Paul’s epistles?

12 In or Out?

There may be a number of issues that cause Grace expositors to be more tentative when it comes to teaching on the General Epistles. One issue that has clouded the understanding of some regarding the General Epistles is whether or not the 12 Apostles and the kingdom saints became members of the Body of Christ. In the past, a person’s position as to the “12 in or out” has caused needless division and loss of fellowship between believers. And because (it is commonly said) our position on this issue will affect our interpretation of these books, this potentially divisive issue may be why more Grace teachers have not dared to venture into exposition of the General Epistles.

Some are reluctant to teach on the General Epistles because they believe that they will have to stake out a claim as to whether or not the 12 are in the Body of Christ. And since they do not want to cause any dissension or division over the 12 in or out issue, they simply avoid the General Epistles altogether. This is unfortunate because such an issue should not really affect our understanding of the General Epistles.

Even if the 12 Apostles and the rest of the kingdom saints became members of the Body of Christ, it should not change our interpretation and application of the General Epistles. Merging kingdom saints into the Body does not change the fact that Paul is our apostle, not Peter, James, Jude, or John. It does not alter the fact that our doctrine has to come from Paul’s epistles. Paul never tells us to learn from any epistles other than his own (although Peter does tell the Jews to learn from Paul (II Pet. 3:15-16).

In addition, if kingdom saints became members of the Body of Christ, it would not change the prophetic and kingdom nature of the General Epistles. Regardless of where we place the 12 and kingdom saints after the formation of the Body of Christ, it does not change to whom these books are written.

Perhaps an illustration will help. Let us compare the Body of Christ to the United States and the kingdom Church to a Territory. In this analogy, Paul is the president of the United States and Peter is the governor of the Territory. Years later, we find a directive written by Peter. We ask the question, “How does Peter’s directive apply to us as citizens of the United States?” “Did Peter’s Territory become a state?” “Was it a part of the United States?”

Maybe you know where this analogy is going. You see, whether the Territory became a state or not does not really affect the impact of Peter’s directive on us. Whether a state or a Territory, Peter’s citizens can only be kingdom Jews; we cannot belong to Peter’s group—we are not eligible for citizenship. If Peter’s group remained a Territory, it is obvious that what he wrote does not apply to us because we are in a different country. This would be equivalent to saying that the 12 did not become members of the Body of Christ.

Now let us say that Peter’s Territory did indeed become a member of the United States (the equivalent of the 12 becoming members of the Body of Christ). Now what effect would Peter’s directive have on us? It would be the same; nothing has changed. Even if the kingdom Jews were a state, something written by their governor would have no jurisdiction on the residents of another state.

An individual state is a subset of the United States. The federal government can dictate to the states, but a state cannot dictate to other states or to the federal government. If the 12 became members of the Body of Christ (subsets), Paul could write to them (just as the president can give directives to the states), but Peter could still write only to his subset, the Jews (or returning to our analogy, as governor of a state, Peter could still write to residents of his state but it would not have jurisdiction or authority over the other states).

Because Paul is our Apostle and because we get our doctrine from his epistles alone, we know that the General Epistles are written for us, but not to us. In practical terms, this means that their primary application is to Israel. The General Epistles will find their primary application to the kingdom saints during the tribulation. We may draw applications and principles from the General Epistles but we must never forget that they are written to kingdom saints with a decidedly prophetic emphasis.1

With that lengthy introduction, let us try applying what we have said to I Peter and see if we can answer a few basic questions.

First Things First

There are some basic questions that we must ask before we can properly understand any portion of Scripture. The first question of authorship is not debated. Peter, one of the twelve apostles, wrote I Peter. The next thing to determine is to whom the epistles were written. The fact that Peter wrote these epistles should let us know that they are not written to us since we know that Paul is ourapostle. But even if we don’t know that fact, the first verse of I Peter tells us that Peter wrote to “strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,” i.e., Peter wrote these epistles to the dispersed Jews.

Therefore, verse 1 gives us two reasons why I Peter is written for us but not to us: (1) It is written by Peter, not Paul and (2) It is written to the dispersed Jews, not to the Body of Christ. Even if we do not agree that Paul is our unique Apostle, we still cannot escape the fact that Peter’s epistle is written to the Jews and not to us.

Answering these first two questions correctly is very important. People often ask us a question because they are concerned about a verse or passage in either the Gospels or the General Epistles. At first glance the passage in question seems to say that we can lose our salvation, or that we have to work for salvation, or that we could be guilty of the unpardonable sin (just to name a few). But when we ask these two questions about the particular passage, we see right away that they are not written by our apostle and neither are they written to us. We must never lose sight of these basic principles of biblical interpretation (or to use the fancy word, hermeneutics).

Now What?

Having established the authorship and audience of Peter’s epis-tle, now what? What exactly do we mean when we say that a book of the Bible is written for us versus to us? Books that are written to us are those books from which we build our doctrine. As members of the Body of Christ, that means that we must be careful to make sure that all of our doctrines are founded upon Paul’s epistles (Romans through Philemon). Books that are written for us include all of the rest of the Bible. Because all Scripture is profitable we can find principles and applications from the entire Bible, but we must be careful to build our doctrine on Paul’s epistles alone. This does not mean, however, that we throw out the rest of the Bible. It simply means that until we can properly understand the primary interpretation of a passage of Scripture (who wrote it, to whom, and why) we will be unable to make a proper application of the passage.

Why?

Now that we have established the authorship and audience of Peter’s epistle, we need to understand why he wrote the books. What condition or problem was he trying to address?

Referring back to verse 1, we see that Peter is writing to the Jews who are “scattered abroad.” Why are they scattered abroad? They were scattered abroad following the persecution of the kingdom church that followed the stoning of Stephen (Acts 8:1; 11:19; James 1:1).

What It Meant to Them Then

When you compare I Peter to what he said in the book of Acts, you see that some things have definitely changed. In Acts, we see that Peter was preaching the immediate return of Christ and the inauguration of the millennial kingdom—contingent upon Israel repenting and believing on Jesus Christ as her Messiah (Acts 3:19-26).

But as we know, Israel did not accept Jesus as her Christ (Acts 4:1-3). While a few thousand Jews believed, Israel as a nation continued in unbelief. Then, in Acts 7 we have the stoning of Stephen, followed by the dispersion of the Little Flock from Jerusalem. As we read in Acts 8:1, “And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles.”

We should be aware of a prime mover in this persecution. Acts 8:3 tells us that Saul (Paul) “made havock of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women committed them to prison.”

Rather than experiencing the earthly blessings of the prophesied and long-awaited kingdom, the Jews were persecuted, imprisoned, killed, and dispersed. It is to address these trying circumstances that Peter writes his epistles to the kingdom Jews scattered throughout the Roman Empire.

I Peter has double application for the Jews. When it was written, Peter’s first epistle addressed the problem of the kingdom saints’ dispersion from Jerusalem and of their persecution under an Antichrist of sorts—Saul of Tarsus. Speaking of Saul in his preconversion state, we read in Acts 9:1 that he was “yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord.” Just like the Antichrist who is to come, Saul was intent on destroying the followers of Jesus.

These early saints were no doubt confused as to God’s plan for them. After all, hadn’t they believed on Jesus as their Messiah? Had not God promised them the kingdom? Had they not been given a foretaste of the kingdom to come (Acts 2:1-21; Heb. 6:4)? But instead of experiencing the utopia of God’s kingdom come to earth, they were being pursued and persecuted for their faith. Has God forsaken Israel? What about the promises to Abraham? What about the promised kingdom? It is to answer questions such as these the Peter wrote his epistles to the Jews.

What It Will Mean to Them Later

Likewise, these same questions will need to be answered by the tribulation saints. They too will be persecuted, pursued, imprisoned, and killed by the real Antichrist, of whom Saul of Tarsus was just a prefiguring. The Antichrist will have the same hatred and single-minded intent of eradicating the followers of Jesus. It is during this time of the Great Tribulation that I Peter will have its primary application to the Jews. I Peter tells them how to persevere with hope and holiness under God’s planned time of suffering for them. The theme of I Peter is suffering, sanctification, and salvation. Just as kingdom saints of years ago were comforted and challenged by its message of victory over suffering, tribulation saints will be likewise edified by what Peter wrote by the inspiration of God. That Peter fully understands God’s gracious purpose in all of these things is indicated by his conclusion in I Peter 5:10:

“But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.”

What It Means to Us

While we do not receive direct application of I Peter, we can learn many vital lessons about how we should respond to suffering in this dispensation of Grace. I Peter can teach us the principles of submitting ourselves to God’s sovereignty in the midst of suffering.

Suffering as a tool of God is common in all dispensations. Human nature seems to be such that our best lessons are learned through the fire of suffering. To a great extent, responding properly to such things will determine our practical growth as believers.

Even in this dispensation of Grace, God allows suffering to play a part in our spiritual development. The Apostle Paul wrote about the place of suffering and tribulation in our lives today—something of which he had first-hand experience (II Cor. 12:7-10). He also warned us in II Timothy 3:12 that “all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.”

Conclusion

While I Peter can give us edification and teach us how to have the proper outlook regarding suffering in our lives, we must not forget that it’s primary application is to Israel’s tribulation saints.

The General Epistles and especially the book of Revelation make much more sense when we understand their unique application to the prophetic program. The kingdom phraseology and emphasis that used to make us wonder now makes perfect sense in light of its proper dispensational context. See if you notice the difference when you read them now too!

Notes:

  1. Some are confused by what they consider “Paulinisms” in the General Epistles. Whether the 12 technically became members of the Body of Christ or not, it seems obvious that they read and learned from Paul’s epistles. Apparently it was from Paul that Peter fully learned why the kingdom was put on hold (Rom. 9-11; II Pet. 3:15-16). Therefore, it is no wonder that we find the influence of Paul in Peter’s later epistles. Just as Peter’s epistles are for us but not to us, likewise Paul’s epistles were for the kingdom saints but not to them. Of course, this depends on your view of 12 in or out. If you believe the 12 were in, then you would say that Paul’s epistles were to them. But either way—to them or for them, they learned from Paul’s epistles about the new dispensation of Grace and why Israel’s kingdom was not forthcoming.

Berean Searchlight – September 1999


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Berean Searchlight – August 1999


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Berean Searchlight – June 1999


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Berean Searchlight – May 1999


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