A New World Order

“I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry; Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy…” (I Tim. 1:12,13).

As “a blasphemer,” the Apostle Paul had good reason to be thankful that he had obtained mercy! Don’t forget, just a couple years before Paul was saved, the Lord Jesus Christ had said,

“…All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.

“And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come” (Matthew 12:31,32).

In light of these words, how could God have mercy on a blasphemer like Paul? If you’re thinking that perhaps he blasphemed a member of the Trinity other than the Spirit, think again. As a Jew who followed the Law of Moses scrupulously (Phil. 3:6) he would never have broken the Law by blaspheming God the Father (Lev. 24:16). And there is no concrete evidence he ever even met God the Son. No, it wasn’t until the twelve were “filled with the Holy Ghost” (Acts 2:4) that Saul showed up, and led the blasphemous persecution against them (Acts 7:57—8:3).

So when the Lord said that those who blasphemed the Spirit couldn’t be forgiven, “neither in this world, neither in the world to come,” this is one of the many proofs we have that with the salvation of Paul, God introduced a whole new world, a world called “the dispensation of the grace of God” (Eph. 3:1,2).

We see further proof of this when Paul called himself “a persecutor.” As Saul of Tarsus, he “persecuted the church” (Gal. 1:13). But in persecuting the Lords people, he was persecuting the Lord (Acts 9:1,4,5). And to be saved in the Lord’s world you had to be one of His followers, not one of His persecutors (Mt. 19:16,21; Lu. 18:28-30; John 10:27,28). This will also be true in the world to come (Rev. 14:1,4).

When Paul further admitted he had been “injurious,” this too rendered him beyond the pale of redemption in the Lord’s world. When He vowed that judgment would fall on any who would “offend one of these little ones which believe in Me” (Mt. 18:6), He was using the child He had “set in the midst of them” (v. 2) as an object lesson of the “little children” of the disciples who believed in Him (John 13:33). You know, the disciples whom Saul later offended (Acts 8:3). And offending God’s little ones in Israel will be just as unforgivable in the world to come (Rev. 16:5,6).

There’s just no getting around it, beloved. The Apostle Paul couldn’t have been saved under the kingdom program that the Lord taught the Jews when He was here on earth (Mt.4:17; 15:24). That means when God saved Saul, He ushered in a whole new world and a whole new world order, an “order” in which men receive Christ by grace through faith alone, and then walk in Him the same way (Col. 2:5,6).

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.


Two Minutes with the Bible lets you start your day with short but powerful Bible study articles from the Berean Bible Society. Sign up now to receive Two Minutes With the Bible every day in your email inbox. We will never share your personal information and you can unsubscribe at any time.

The Unpardonable Sin

“…All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men… neither in this world, neither in the world to come” (Matthew 12:31,32).

As a pastor, I often hear from people who are afraid they’ve committed the unpardonable sin. They cite these verses, and then proceed to tell me what they said or did that has caused them to believe they blasphemed the Spirit.

When this happens, I remind these dear troubled souls that before he was saved the Apostle Paul was “a blasphemer” (I Tim. 1:13), and it was unquestionably the Spirit whom he blasphemed. As a Jew who followed the Law of Moses scrupulously (Phil. 3:6), he would not have blasphemed God the Father, and there is no concrete evidence that he ever even met God the Son. It wasn’t until the twelve were “filled with the Holy Ghost” (Acts 2:4) that Saul showed up and led the blasphemous persecution against them (Acts 7:57—8:3).

So when the Lord said that those who blasphemed the Spirit couldn’t be forgiven “neither in this world, neither in the world to come,” we have to conclude that with the saving of Saul, God introduced a whole new world. A world called “the dispensation of the grace of God” (Eph. 3:2). A world in which grace reigns:

“That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 5:21).

How thoroughly does grace reign? Notice Paul says grace reigns unto life as sin reigned unto death. And sin reigned unto death with absolute sway over men. The prophet declared, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die” (Ezek. 18:4), and there have never been any exceptions! So when Paul says “that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign” to eternal life, you have to conclude that “whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Rom. 10:13), with no exceptions. This is because whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord is “made the righteousness of God in Him” (II Cor. 5:21), allowing grace to reign “through righteousness unto eternal life” (Rom. 5:21).

So if you are among the many who have agonized over the Lord’s words in Matthew 12:31,32, agonize no more. No matter who you are, no matter what you’ve said or done, you cannot commit a sin that God’s grace cannot forgive. You have His Word on it.

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.


Two Minutes with the Bible lets you start your day with short but powerful Bible study articles from the Berean Bible Society. Sign up now to receive Two Minutes With the Bible every day in your email inbox. We will never share your personal information and you can unsubscribe at any time.

What To Expect In The Last Days – 2 Timothy 3:1-10

 

Summary:

There will be two comings of the Lord, one to catch us up to meet Him in the air to take us to heaven (IThes. 4:13-18), and another all the way back to earth 7 years later to establish the kingdom of heaven on earth for Israel (Zech. 14:3,4). But that means there will be two sets of last days!

Most Christians think the Lord’s “coming” in Matthew 24:3 is the Rapture, but the 12 also asked about “the end of the world,” and the world won’t end at the Rapture! The world as men know it will end at the 2nd coming of Christ to establish the kingdom though. Most Christians think “rumors of wars” (Mt. 24:6) will come before the Rapture, but they will come when Antichrist shows up with a bow but no arrows in the Tribulation (Rev. 6:2).

Most Christians think the rising of nations against nations today is a sign of the Rapture (Mt.24:7), but it too is a sign of the Tribulation (Rev. 6:4) and the 2nd coming. “Famines” too (Rev.6:5). These are “the beginning of sorrows (Mt. 24:6-8), and when God starts judging He will begin in Israel (I Pe. 4:17), so modern wars and rumors of wars and famines that don’t start in Israel aren’t a sign of the Rapture. Men recently thought of Matthew 24:29 when the total eclipse happened, but the darkening of the sun that this speaks of is also Tribulation ground (Lu. 21:25,26).

The last days before the Rapture are very different. I Timothy 4:1 says nothing about wars or the darkening of the sun. It speaks of darkness in men’s souls. “Seducing spirits” in the past seduced women to produce a race of giants to oppose Abraham. Seducing spirits in the last days will be creeping into houses and seducing women and men with “doctrines of devils” (I Tim. 4:1). Just as there have always been women silly enough to be “laden with sins” and wicked men willing to seduce them (II Tim. 3:6), so there will always be silly people laden with sins and religious teachers willing to seduce them with false teachings.

Some of those doctrines of devils are “forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats” (I Tim. 4:3). Your two main drives are your drive to eat and procreate. To deny them and think that you are pleasing God in the process is very seductive to your religious flesh, as Rome has proved for centuries. But in the last days before the 2nd coming they’ll be doing the opposite (Mt. 24:37-39).

II Timothy 3:2-5 also says nothing about earthquakes or wars, just more darkness of men’s hearts, which is scarier. I know they’ll be “blood” in the last days before the 2nd coming (Acts 2:19,20), but spiritual darkness is worse than physical darkness. Don’t forget, the physical darkness will be from God but the spiritual darkness will come from men, and David feared man’s judgment worse (II Sa. 24:14)

II Timothy 3 is all about when you see this spiritual darkness in spiritual leaders, that’s a sign of the rapture. They’re the ones that creep into houses, by radio and TV and internet, and seduce people. Most spiritual leaders mean well and are “ever learning, and never able to come unto a knowledge of the truth” (II Tim. 3:7) because they’ve been blinded by religious tradition. But these religious seducers won’t come to a knowledge of the truth because they study the Bible looking for ways to seduce men. The more men know about a woman the easier it is to seduce her, and these religious seducers know that the more they know about the Bible the easier it is to seduce Christians.

Jannes and Jambres (II Tim. 3:8) opposed Moses by duplicating his miracles, and religious seducers teach a duplicate Jesus (II Cor. 11:4), the Jesus of the four gospels, and the “Spirit” of Pentecost, and the “gospel” of the kingdom. Their “folly” appeared (II Tim. 3:9) when Moses’ snake “swallowed” theirs (Ex. 7:10-12), and “swallowed” should make you think of the resurrection (I Cor. 15:54; II Cor. 5:4). Religious seducers always look good in life, but their folly will be made known after the Rapture at the Judgment Seat.

How should we prepare for the last days? Not by stocking the shelves of our pantry with survival food to survive the Tribulation, but by stocking the shelves of our mind with Pauline doctrine, as Paul prepared Timothy (II Tim. 3:10).

What’s Satan’s Address?

“Hymenaeus and Alexander…I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme” (I Timothy 1:20).

Who were these guys, how were they blaspheming, and what does it mean when it says Paul delivered them to Satan? What’s Satan’s address anyway? Well, there seems to be more than one Alexander in the Bible, but there is only one other mention of a Hymenaeus:

“…Hymenaeus and Philetus…concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some” (II Tim. 2:18).

If our text is speaking of the same man teaching the same error, it would appear that by the time Paul wrote these words in his second epistle to Timothy that Alexander had learned not to blaspheme. But Hymenaeus had evidently gone on to find a new partner in a man named Philetus. These new “partners in crime” then proceeded to “overthrow the faith of some” by continuing to teach Hymenaeus’ error, “that the resurrection is past already.”

Since the “overthrow” of Sodom involved its complete destruction (Gen. 19:24,25), the overthrow of a believer’s faith must involve the same. I know it would destroy my faith in God if I thought that the resurrection of the Rapture had taken place and I’d been left behind, instead of being caught up to meet the Lord in the air with those who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord as God promised (I Thes. 4:15-17).

Rather than allow the faith of God’s people to be overthrown like that, Paul went on in the very next verse to argue that the resurrection could not be past:

“Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are His…” (II Timothy 2:19).

Paul responded to Hymeneus’ error by declaring that the Lord knows them that are His, so there is no way He would have left any believer behind at the Rapture!

When Hymeneus and Alexander first began to teach otherwise, Paul delivered them to Satan in the same way he told the Corinthians to deliver a man to Satan (I Cor. 5:5), by putting him out of the assembly (v.2,13). That may sound harsh, but Paul knew it was the only way Hymeneus and Alexander would “learn not to blaspheme.”

When we think of blasphemy, we think of cursing the name of God (Lev. 24:15,16), but there are other ways to blaspheme. When the king of Assyria suggested that God couldn’t deliver His people the way He promised He would (II Kings 18:33—19:2), Hezekiah pronounced it “blasphemy” (19:3). And this is the kind of blasphemy of which Hymeneus and his cohorts were guilty as well. When they suggested that God couldn’t deliver every member of the Body of Christ at the Rapture, as He promised He would in the epistles of Paul, they too blasphemed!

If you are thankful that the Lord Jesus Christ plans to employ a “no man left behind” policy at the Rapture, don’t forget that after assuring us that “the Lord knoweth them that are His,” Paul went on to tell us how we can express our gratitude for that assurance: “Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity” (II Tim. 2:20).

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.


Two Minutes with the Bible lets you start your day with short but powerful Bible study articles from the Berean Bible Society. Sign up now to receive Two Minutes With the Bible every day in your email inbox. We will never share your personal information and you can unsubscribe at any time.

An Exhortation to Pray

Did you hear about the woman who bowed to pray on New Year’s Eve, saying, “Lord, for the coming year, I pray for a fat bank account and a thin body. And whatever You do, please don’t mix the two up like You did last year.”

While Christians often forget to pray for others, most of us remember to pray for ourselves, especially when it comes to things like that!

Of course, you wouldn’t think a pastor would forget to pray for others, but pastors are Christians too. So Paul wrote to Pastor Timothy, saying,

“I exhort therefore, that, first of all supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men” (I Timothy 2:1).

Now, when Paul only exhorts Timothy to pray after charging him to “teach no other doctrine” (1:3,18), it’s easy to conclude from this that praying is not as important as teaching. But an exhortation from God is a serious thing! After the Lord told the Jews that “the blood of all the prophets” would be “required of this generation” (Lu. 11:50,51), Peter chose to “exhort” them, “saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation” (Acts 2:40). That sounds serious to me! And when Paul then exhorts us to pray, we know that prayer must be just as serious a matter in the eyes of God.

As we look back to the previous chapter to see why Paul would exhort Timothy to pray “therefore,” we see that Paul just finished charging him to “war a good warfare” (1:18). Well, what does every soldier do before going into battle? He prays! I don’t care if he’s a Christian or not. An old saying says, “There are no atheists in foxholes!”

Yet, as Christians, it is so easy to forget that God has called us to “wrestle… against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Eph. 6:12). After Paul went on in that passage to describe the armor God gave us to conduct that warfare (v. 13-17), he exhorted the Ephesians to pray (v.18). Naturally! After donning his armor, every Roman soldier was certain to pray to his god, and so must we.

Beloved, we must pray for the lost with whom we share Christ, and we must pray for the saints with whom we share the mystery, if we hope to “war a good warfare” against the wicked spirits that are keeping them in darkness with their “doctrines of devils” (I Tim. 4:1). If you are laboring to bring souls to Christ and then build them up in the faith, why not follow the example of Epaphras, who was “always laboring fervently…in prayers” that people might “stand perfect and complete in all the will of God” (Col. 4:12).

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.


Two Minutes with the Bible lets you start your day with short but powerful Bible study articles from the Berean Bible Society. Sign up now to receive Two Minutes With the Bible every day in your email inbox. We will never share your personal information and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Teaching Others In Meekness – 2 Timothy 2:25-26

 

Summary:

That phrase “oppose themselves” is first used to speak of how God opposed Himself (Job 30:21).God always blessed Job for his righteousness (Job 1:8), but when He allowed Satan to move Him against Job, He opposed Himself. That is, He wasn’t His usual self, a God who blessed the righteous (Job 1:1-3 cf.Gen.13:4-6). He wasn’t obliged to do so, since He didn’t promise He would until later under the law (De.7:12-15). So Job couldn’t charge Him with unrighteousness but he could charge Him with opposing Himself.

The only other time anyone opposed themselves was when God called the Jews to be a light to the Gentiles (Acts 13:45-47). When they refused to be the light God made them to be, they “opposed themselves” (Acts 18:6). And that’s what it means when believers today “oppose themselves.” God made us to be saints” (I Cor. 1:2),. When we don’t act that way, we oppose ourselves, and can’t be the light God set us to be in the world (Phil. 2:15).

But there is more involved in being a light to the world than not living in sin. To be the light of truth God made you to be you must also avoid teaching error like saying the resurrection is past (IITim.2:18). You need someone to meekly instruct you to repent and acknowledge the truth (2:25).

Meekness means you don’t react when someone attacks you personally and doctrinally (Num. 12:1-3). This is important, for when you try to help someone living in sin, they say, “Who are you to correct me, you’re not perfect.” You know. They get personal. Even if you are pretty moral, you must instruct others meekly for you might fall (Gal. 6: 1). And when you correct someone doctrinally, they say, “Who are you to correct me? My interpretation is as good as yours.” They too get personal. You have to react meekly.

If you can, God “peradventure” will give them repentance. This doesn’t mean God may or may not give it. When God gave repentance to Israel (Acts 5:30,31), it was up to Individual Jews to repent. When God gave repentance to the Gentiles (Acts 11:18), it was up to individual Gentiles to repent. So when it says God “peradventure” will give repentance to those that you instruct, it is up to them too.

The truth you need to “acknowledge” if you are living in sin is all the good things Christ put within you (Phile. 1:6). That’s grace motivation! Beating yourself up with the law won’t help. And the truth to “acknowledge” to correct doctrinal error is the truth that is according to godliness (Tit. 1:1), Paul’s gospel. If you teach the resurrection is past, you take away hope, and men live in sin (Jer. 18:12; ICor. 15:32). Instruction in Paul’s gospel will fix that!

“Recover” (2:26) means to get something back (ISam. 30: 18). Recovering yourself
means getting back to being the sinless person God sees you to be, teaching the truth He’s given you to teach.

A “snare” (2:26) is a trap (Job 18:10). Usually snares are used to catch animals, but  those who teach error set snares for men (Jer. 5:26). If you fall into the vain babbling of error it is ungodly, and will led to more ungodliness (IITim. 2:16). When that happens, Satan takes you “captive” (2:26). You don’t cease to be a child of God any more than the Jews did when they were taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar. They just couldn’t function as His children. They could only sacrifice and observe their feasts and sabbaths in Israel. If Satan takes you captive, you can’t function as a child of God you’re not “meet for the master’s use” (2:21)

Being taken captive at Satan’s will doesn’t mean he overpowers your will. He was only able to enter Judas (John 13:2) to sell the Lord out (Mt. 26:14-16) because he was covetous (John 13:2). Peter asked “why” Ananias let Satan fill his heart because he knew how it happened—he let him! We must let him also or he can’t. But when you’re taken captive at Satan’s will, you can recover yourself. Solomon’s vessels couldn’t (II Chron. 36:7) because it as God’s will they be taken captive as well as Satan’s (Jer. 25:90). But that’s because they were under the law and so God had to curse them. You’re not under the law, so it is never God’s will that you be taken captive by Satan. You’re a vessel of God (2:22) who can recover himself!

Walk, Don’t Run!

“…as the Lord hath called every one, so let him walk… Art thou called being a servant? Care not for it…” (I Corinthians 7:17,21).

Some Christians find it troubling that the Bible counsels slaves to be content in their difficult circumstances, and walk in obedience to their masters rather than run away from them in rebellion (Eph. 6:5; Col. 3:22). But there were legitimate reasons why men were slaves in those days, and God has never been in favor of freeing “a lawful captive” from his owner (Isa. 49:24).

The Apostle Paul did tell slaves, “if thou mayest be made free, use it rather” (I Cor. 7:21). For example, if a man was a slave because he was working off his financial debts, if someone offered to pay his debts, this was benevolence that no servant should ignore. But if there was no legitimate means by which a servant could be made free, it was God’s will that he walk in the calling wherewith he had been called (I Cor. 7:17).

Of course, unbelievers think that this is terrible advice, and they aren’t shy about criticizing the Bible for not encouraging slaves to run away from their masters. But that’s because they’re thinking of the kind of slavery that existed in the early days of our country, when innocent people were kidnapped from Africa and brought here as slaves to serve in an illegitimate form of bondage. This type of slavery is condemned in Scripture, and those who dared perpetrate it in Israel were given the death penalty (Ex. 21:16). Yet even when men were kidnapped and wrongfully enslaved, Paul’s advice to be content in servitude was good counsel, for often it was just not possible for slaves to escape bondage, and God does not wish His children to live lives of abject frustration and misery.

But if you are thinking that it is equally impossible to “care not” for being a slave, consider the counsel that Paul went on to give servants in the very next verse,

“For he that is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the Lord’s freeman…” (I Cor. 7:22).

The key to finding contentment as a slave was to remember that believing slaves were free men in the eyes of the Lord. In other words, the secret to being content in the harsh circumstances of bondage was for servants to look past their circumstances and focus on how God saw them in Christ. That is, when slaves couldn’t change their circumstances, the key to contentment was to change how they thought about their circumstances.

Now, is there anything you can learn from that about your difficult circumstances? Sometimes our situation in life can’t be changed any more than a slave could change his. Of course, if there is a legitimate means by which you might be made free from your difficulties, by all means do what Paul told slaves to do with such an opportunity and “use it.” But if you can’t change your circumstances, why not follow Paul’s advice and change the way you think about them?

If life has you feeling like a captive for whom there is no escape, never lose sight of the spiritual reality that you are “the Lord’s freeman.” Focusing on the problems that have you feeling imprisoned will only make you as miserable as the slave who focused on his. Focusing on “the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free” (Gal. 5:1) is the only path to rejoicing.

It’s the secret of life.

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.


Two Minutes with the Bible lets you start your day with short but powerful Bible study articles from the Berean Bible Society. Sign up now to receive Two Minutes With the Bible every day in your email inbox. We will never share your personal information and you can unsubscribe at any time.