Kingdom Disciples

Paul introduces his ministry to the Church of Rome and begins explaining the Gospel by identifying Christ’s messianic qualifications . The  Letter to the Romans  begins with a lengthy introduction as the Apostle Paul identifies himself and describes his mission. His calling and God’s grace equipped him to preach the “ obedience of faith ” to the Gentiles. Paul lists Christ’s qualifications to be the Messiah and links what God did through Jesus to the promises of the “ Holy Scriptures .”

Was the Apostle Paul kidding when he wrote that church elders must be above reproach? The public exposure of gross sin among church leaders is all too common, and often church members discover too late that their more egregious faults began even before they entered the ministry. Even worse are the committees that select men for the ministry despite knowing of their proclivities, and the apologists who strive mightily to restore errant pastors and preachers to the ministry as quickly as possible.

The promises of God find their fulfillment in Jesus Christ. “ IN HIM ,” they find their “ yea ” and “ amen .” The things that were once “ hidden ” are revealed in the life, words, death, resurrection, and exaltation of the Son of God, the one in whom all the shadows and types prefigured in the Hebrew Bible are actualized. All God’s “ mysteries ” are laid bare for all men to see in the Nazarene, especially in his death and resurrection.

Jesus is the one who unveils the Mysteries of God, and only he is qualified to reveal the nature of the “ unseen God .” In him, all the promises of God find their substance. He is the interpretive key that unlocks the Hebrew Scriptures and provides the correct understanding of Bible prophecy, and this is especially so in the  Book of Revelation  where the sacrificial “ Lamb ” reigns over all things.

After explaining the coming “Apostasy” and the “Man of Lawlessness,” Paul instructed believers in Thessalonica on how to avoid the coming deception and thereby find themselves standing “blameless” before Jesus when he “arrives.” To do so they must “stand fast” by adhering to the teachings and “traditions” of the Apostles. The conclusion to his discussion includes verbal links to his first letter to the Assembly. The second letter was written within a few weeks or months at the most of the first letter.

When certain “ super-apostles ” began undermining his authority, the Apostle Paul warned the Assembly in Corinth not to heed anyone who “ proclaimed another Jesus, whom we did not preach, or a different spirit, or a different Gospel .” He pointed to the same Jesus that he first proclaimed, the “ Crucified Messiah ,” the Jesus who is the measuring rod against which all other messianic claimants must be evaluated.

The Church has been plagued for centuries by prophets, seers, and mystics who claim to possess secret knowledge and new insights into the mysteries of God beyond anything found in the Scriptures, knowledge obtained via visions and dreams, or perhaps by deciphering the Hebrew alphabet or the Jewish calendar. The Bible certainly does speak of God’s “ mysteries ,” His unexpected ways that differ radically from human wisdom, but they were disclosed in His Son twenty centuries ago.

The New Testament warns believers that before Jesus returns his Church will be under assault from within by deceivers, “ false anointed ones ,” and “ false prophets ,” and it does so repeatedly. Before the “ Day of the Lord ” begins, his disciples will be confronted by the “ Man of Lawlessness ,” a figure linked to the final “ Apostasy ,” the final great “ falling away ” from the true faith.

The first literary section of  Hebrews  concludes with an exhortation and ominous warning. Any disciple of Jesus who fails to heed the far “ better word ” that God is now speaking in His Son will suffer an even “ sorer punishment ” than the rebellious Israelites received when they disobeyed the Mosaic Law. The  Torah  was delivered to Moses by angels. Nevertheless, it was God’s word, and therefore, lawbreakers were punished severely.

The Book of Revelation informs the reader from the start that it communicates visually and symbolically . Must prophecy be interpreted only or primarily in the most “literal” fashion possible unless a passage specifically indicates otherwise? Often in our minds, there is an unstated assumption that literal language is more reliable than nonliteral language, an idea that becomes especially problematic when interpreting the visions of  Revelation .

What was the original language of the documents that became the New Testament? For centuries, the scholarly consensus has been that it was written in the Koiné Greek dialect of the Eastern Roman Empire in the first century. However, there is a growing minority within the church that claims the New Testament was composed in the Hebrew or Aramaic language.

Having explained the coming “ Apostasy ” and “ Man of Lawlessness ,” Paul instructs believers on how they may avoid the coming deception and find themselves standing “ blameless ” before Jesus when he “ arrives .” They must “ stand fast ” by adhering to the teachings and “ traditions ” of the apostles.

The New Testament includes four gospel accounts, the gospels of  Matthew ,  Mark ,  Luke , and  John . The first three are categorized as ‘synoptic’ gospels, meaning “to see together.” The term is a compound of the Greek preposition  sun  (“together”) and  optikos  (“to see”), hence - “to see together.”