User talk:Anpetu-We

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[edit] Epistle to the Romans

Someone organized the Bible and definitely organized it for reasons of doctrine. For example, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John show Jesus as the King, servant, man, and God. Since that's how you would know he was the messiah, that's what jews should have been looking for. There's also a clear division with Romans through Philemon, being written to gentiles in the Dispensation of Grace, and then in Hebrews through Revelation the books are written to Israel once again. I don't believe that this was compiled randomly or by some church; Paul says in II Timothy 4:13 that he wants the "books, but especially the parchments". If this was not important it would not be in the Bible; II Timothy being the last book written, and Paul dying soon after, it would make no sense that someone else organized the Bible.

I also don't give any heed to what "scholars" say on the issue. Those who don't believe the Bible anyway don't have any business trying to tell me that II Timothy 4:13 doesn't mean what it says, or that II Timothy wasn't the last book written. Historical records can be flawed, and have been proven to be; the Bible is yet to be disproven so I'll trust that. --Joshuagross 02:56, 4 May 2006 (UTC)

No harm done, I appreciate your interest in scriptural things. I probably won't go to the National Order of the Arrow Conference - I haven't been too involved with OA lately, I've been busy with school and managing a business. Over the summer I'll be traveling to several different places to go to Bible conferences and I'm speaking at a church in Florida.... I live near Milwaukee and I'll be traveling to Florida, Pennsylvania and a conference for a week in Chicago. My whole life is based around the ministry, something I can only be thankful for :)

I also appreciate your stand on the Pauline epistles - one of the most important views we can hold today. The reason I think Paul compiled the whole Bible is because:

1. It's clearly compiled doctrinally as I stated, especially when you look at how the chapters of Isaiah match up with all the books of the Bible (an AMAZING and eye-opening study).
2. Why would God leave us with an unorganized Bible?
3. Who better to organize the Bible than the person who wrote the last book? To back up this point, I'll refer to 1 Corinthians 13:9-12. When that which is perfect is come, we will not "see through a glass, darkly". It cannot be Christ; he already came, and even though he will come again, it says that which will come, not he who will come or just "Christ". So, the object in question can only be the word of God: II Timothy 3:16 tells us that the Bible is perfect. It also tells us that all scripture is given! It would make sense, then, that Paul tells them to bring him the books and parchments in the last book written.
4. Another theory I have is the books are the books of the Bible, and the parchments are personal letters not given by inspiration of God. I think that Paul organized the books and destroyed the parchments: he knew that if people today got their hands on these letters many would treat them as the words of God, when they were in fact not.

At any rate, I do believe all that but if you wish to not believe it simply because of your own understanding of scriptures, I'll accept that: there is not a verse that comes right out and says that Paul did that, although it would make a LOT of sense.

Are you familiar with right division?

In Christ,

--Joshuagross 00:30, 7 May 2006 (UTC)

Great to see you're interested. It's very much related to Dispensationalism, but don't pay attention to the article here on Wikipedia, it's dismal. :) I'm not prepared right now so in the next day or two I'll show you some verses. --Joshuagross 05:09, 9 May 2006 (UTC)

See section on the mystery below. --Joshuagross 04:04, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] The Mystery

Anpetu (is that your real name?) - here is something I wrote on the topic of the mystery in the Bible. I hope it helps in your studies.

The Mystery by Joshua Gross

Romans 16:25 tells us the order in which we are to understand things in the Bible. First, we are to be stablished in the Paul's gospel; next, we should know the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery. What exactly the mystery is, I'll elaborate on later.

It's important to note that certain portions of the Bible are not written to us. II Timothy 2:15 tells us to study the Bible, and to rightly divide - there are divisions that need to be made in the Bible. Further, there is a right way to divide the Bible - and that is by taking every verse in context and letting the Bible divide itself. II Timothy 3:16 tells us that all scripture is profitable, so we should study all of it and that's why it's important to know how to divide it - so we don't get confused and take verses out of context.

So, before we go on, let's talk about salvation. Romans 3:23 tells us that everyone has sinned and come short of the glory of God. Romans 6:23 tells us that sin results in eternal separation from God - but that we have a gift from God giving us access to eternal life. 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 tells us that Christ died on the cross for our sins and rose again.

The Bible is extremely contradictory if you don't take every single verse in context. For example, in John 4:48 Jesus says that Israel operated by sight, and that they wouldn't believe unless they saw literal, physical signs and wonders. However, Paul tells us in II Corinthians 5:7 that we operate by faith, NOT sight: so which verse is "correct"? If you take every single verse in the Bible and apply it to your life, the only thing you can conclude is that the Bible contradicts itself. Another example is that Israel was under the law of Moses (Romans 9:31, Malachi 4:4) whereas we clearly are not today (Romans 8:15, Galatians 5:14-25). The key, again, is II Timothy 2:15: we have to make sure we take every verse in context. For example, verses written to Israel under the law cannot be applied to our lives today.

The key to understanding why all this is is the mystery. Paul speaks many times of this mystery in his epistles: Romans 11:25, Romans 16:25, 1 Corinthians 2:7, 1 Corinthians 4:1, Ephesians 3:2-9, Ephesians 6:19, Colossians 1:25-26, Colossians 2:2, Colossians 4:3, 2 Thessalonians 2:7, 1 Timothy 3:9, 1 Timothy 3:16, and Revelation 10:7.

In fact, as we see in Romans 16:25, the mystery is the most important thing to know about the Bible besides salvation!

Some of the differences between us and Israel we've already seen: they operated by sight and we operate by faith, and they were under the law while we are not. So what caused the change?

In Psalms 110, we see God the Father telling God the Son: sit at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool. So until judgement comes, Jesus will be sitting at the right hand of God.

In Luke 12:10, we see the object of many discussions and fears: the unpardonable sin. Whoever blasphemes God the Son or God the Father, it will be forgiven him; whoever blasphemes the Holy Spirit, however, it will not be forgiven him! So how is this sin committed? It was only committed once in history, and could only be committed by the nation of Israel. In Acts 6:5, Stephen is full of the Holy Ghost. In Acts 7:55 again, we see he is full of the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit has been blasphemed at this point, so Stephen looks ups to Heaven and sees Jesus standing on the right hand of God! When he tells this to the people around him, they know the significance of this: he was saying that God would pour his wrath out on them soon. This didn't please them too much so in the following verses they stone him. In Acts 7:60, Stephen cries "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge" (notice "their" plural, referring to Israel as a group, and "this sin" singular, referring to one sin - that being the unpardonable sin). He knew that they as a group had committed the unpardonable sin.

Israel at this point is cast off. Very soon after the stoning of Stephen, in Acts 9:3, Jesus appears to Saul on the road to Damascus and reveals the mystery to him: according to prophecy, God should have poured his wrath on earth at that point. Instead, God was revealing a mystery: he would pour his grace out on earth instead, which is why this period is called the Dispensation of Grace (Ephesians 3:2).

One last thought. We know that one person alone cannot commit the unpardonable sin. The reason for this is that Paul was present at the stoning of Stephen, and helped the event along; he, however, was clearly forgiven by God.

In Christ, --Joshuagross 04:04, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

No problem, I hope you enjoy studying the topic. I'd like to hear any of your thoughts on it. --Joshuagross 22:49, 10 May 2006 (UTC)