A weak Christianity

     A recent interaction I watched on Facebook made me stop and think about this topic and while I made a post about it, I wanted to take the time to do a more extensive break down about the issue and get into it more.  The issue that came up was that people got upset from someone simply sharing verses from the Bible. The post had no added comments or dialogue. It was simply a set of verses. The number of people that became offended was astounding and shocking! People became upset and started making excuses for why they should not have posted those verses or be quoting the Bible. I was honestly shocked that these people who claimed to believe the Bible had become so offended by verses from the Bible. After some thoughts on it I came to some conclusions that I will share here. 

    1 Timothy 4:1 

"Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils:"

    2 Timothy 4:3-4

"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables."

    Both of these verses I think show and explain the issues we are seeing in much of Christianity today. Paul warned Timothy that a time would come when they would not accept or support sound doctrine and the truths of the Bible. We are seeing that in today's society and our churches today. If you went out and started preaching the Bible on the streets most people are going to get upset or ignore you because they don't want to hear the truth. We are seeing this in many of our churches as well. Look at how churches are getting more and more in line with the world and yet we see a drop in church attendance across the board. We are foolish to believe that God is going to bless churches that drop standards to try to draw a crowd. How many preachers could you talk to that are nervous to preach on certain Bible topics because they are afraid that their members will get upset and leave? The issue is a growing one that things like social media are simply making more evident every day. 

    So, that brings us to a question, doesn't it? What is the believer to do? Well, the answer like all things lies in the word of God as well. 

2 Timothy 4:2 

    "Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine."

2 Timothy 4:5

    "But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry." 

Titus 2:15

    "These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee."

    Besides these verses I would recommend looking at 1 Corinthians 1-2. The Bible encourages us to hold fast! Do not let those that refuse to stand on doctrine and truth discourage you from following and sharing the Bible. As long as the Lord waits His return, there are people that will listen and be saved because of those who refuse to stop sharing the Gospel. When we see those people we should be willing and able to stand with them and support them as well so that we can all uplift and encourage each other to share the gospel. We must not let those that refuse to follow or accept sound doctrine stop us from doing what is right. What we need to do is understand that the closer we get to the Lords return the more these types of people will appear and show up. Let us end this thought with the following verse to encourage us. 

    1 Corinthians 15:58

"Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord." 

Hebrews Study Part 1

 

As requested by a member of the Facebook page this study will be a long form study on the and through the book of Hebrews. We will refrain from going through it by chapters and approach more verse by verse or sets of verses structure to the study. While Our focus is on and looking at Hebrews we will be looking at other passages that will deal with and address issues we may see in Hebrews or that make the verses more clear or add needed context.

 

          First, I have a little background on myself first as this study can be shared or sent to others as well and I have no issue with others using it. My name is Logan Gropp and was born and live in Lincoln, Nebraska. I am an Indepandnt Fundamental Baptist. I was born again on August 14, 2004 at Fellowship Baptist Church. I believe the KJV to be the perfect word of God. A short list of beliefs would be the following

·       Once Saved Always Saved

·       Virgin Birth

·       Christs Deity

·       Baptism After Salvation By Immersion

·       King James Bible

·       Pre-Tribulation Rapture Of The Saints

 

    Now, with that being said I hope I did not lose anyone or immediately shut any of you off. There are many other things we could get into but many of those would have little to do with the point of this study and what we are going to be looking at here. I do want to clearly say I do not have any formal seminary type of education other than my own study and years and years of being in church and hearing some great men of God. I do not claim to have all the answers or understand everything that the Bible has to say. However, I will try to always back up what I say in this study with Bible. I will make mention now of some of the tools that I will use as well as we get ready to start.

·       Common Man Study Bible

·       Logos Software with the library that is present

·       Old Scofield Study Bible

·       Ruckman Study Bible

·       Dake Study Bible

·       Life Bible Application and included commentaries

·       Thompson Chain Reference Bible

Hebrews Introduction

 

         Hebrews is an interesting book. One of the things that make it interesting is the fact the author is not named or mentioned. There is much support for it being Paul as the assumed author and in many ways it would make sense. Paul, a well-known member of the Pharisees before his conversion makes mention in the book of Galatians how he was a Jew above others in his sect (see Galatians 1:10-24). Paul made clear his past and how that God had saved him but also spends much time in the books of Romans and Galatians in particular dealing with similar topics as he does in Hebrews. That being that Christ is better than the old law and that the old law and customs of the Jews are done away with under the New Testament that came with Christ!

         Hebrews has a very simple theme and focus. That is, better things! It has a focus on how Christ is better than the law, the New Covenant is better then the old, and Christ is better than all things. This is easy to understand when we consider it is written to Hebrews in a time when they were questioning their faith and considering going back to the law. Paul steps in to show them how Christ is greater than what was before.

         It is important to point out something here though I believe. When looking at two of my study Bibles they make what I consider a mistake and that is trying to almost downplay the importance of the teachings in Hebrews to the Christian today. They point out that it was written to the Hebrews as the main audience. While true let us consider that God knew few Jewish believers would be here today and the book of Hebrews has plenty for the believer today to learn from. For those who try to down play the importance of it I would remind them of 2 Timothy 3:16 and that “ALL scripture” is useful for the believer today.

Chapter 1:1-4

               As we start to look at the book we will focus first on going through verses 1-4 as grammatically they all form a single point of thought. So as we go through this study, our goal is to keep verses together that are suppose to be together.

          Hebrews 1:1 “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in times past unto the fathers by the prophets,”

          Hebrews cuts right to the chase when it starts. It begins with God! More importantly though it begins with showing us how God worked in the past. It tells us how God worked and what He did. When it says “sundry times and diverse manners” in verse 1 it is simply referring to in many ways and portions. Consider this, in the OT long periods of time could pass between God speaking. When God spoke then it often was not the whole picture. Something I don’t think personally we appreciate enough today is we have the entire message from God in one book unlike those in the OT and early NT. The Bible always builds upon itself to make a whole. Isaiah 28:10 says “For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:”. The Bible we have now builds upon itself as we read it. In times past they had to wait for a new message from God. They did not have the entire Bible in one book like we do. It was built upon itself in many ways and over a very long period of time. Despite many people being involved and many years being involved the Bible gives a coherent message that Jesus Christ is the savior of the world!

          The next important part of verse 1 is who spoke to who. The prophets spoke to the fathers. Well, fathers of who? That would be the fathers of the Jews this book was written to. Save a few examples, the prophets all spoke and came to the people of God in the OT which were the Jews. Consider the time that spans Moses till the end of the OT prophets before the 400 years of silence. In that period God used many prophets in many ways that He spoke to. Some would be directly, some in visions, some in dreams, but no matter how God spoke to them, they received the holy words of God to tell the people they were sent to! This sets a stage for showing us that this former use of prophets and diverse means of communication ended with Christ! Revelation 19:10 says “And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” Jumping a little ahead of myself here but we see that Jesus Christ finishes prophecy. As the Bible was completed so was prophecy that was to come! 4

          So, let us sum of verse one before we start into verse two. We see, God is the one who spoke. He spoke in many ways over a long period of time. The message builds upon itself but the theme is and always has been Jesus Christ. He had people He used in the past to spread His message to the ones He intended to hear it and record it. Christ put an end to the need for any new prophecy or direct audible message from God as we have the entire and complete word of God.