Bible Study Seattle

“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.  So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, because we are members of His body.  For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.  Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband.”  Ephesians 5:25-33

How often do you hear this in church?  Husbands are to have the same effect on their wives as Christ on the church!  Husbands are to ‘wash’ their wives in the Word of God.  Most of us are deficient in this department.  Their are many bad influences in the world, and we must counteract this with God’s thoughts.  God will do this same thing when he raises everyone from the dead and teaches only his ways, having eliminated false teaching by locking up Satan!

Happy 4th of July!  Different nations have different independence anniversaries.  The Judeo-Christian equivalent has to be the 10th of Tishri – the Day of Atonement.  This is the most sacred day on the calendar, and the start of the Jubilee.   Curiously, the 50th year starts half way through the 49th year.  No doubt there are prophetic implications to this.  One of which is that the peaceable kingdom will start roughly half way through the Millennial reign of Christ.  It is also noteworthy that half way through the ‘day’ is the start of morning – when the sun begins shining.  “But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its rays. And you will go out and frolic like well-fed calves.”  Malachi 4:2

Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart as clergy to perform various religious rites and ceremonies.  When ordaining women, the rationale is sometimes that protestants aren’t in the priestly tradition.  “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”  1 Peter 2:9

If the church is a royal priesthood, that is, a ruling priesthood, what are the roles?  “Then I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark on their forehead and on their hand; and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.”  Revelation 20:4

Here the church is ruling with Christ.  That is the whole future purpose for the church.  (When we say church, we are referring to persons, not buildings).  Jesus says, “And Jesus said to them, “Truly I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”  Matthew 19:28

This brings up some interesting questions regarding gender.  We still have Jesus’ statement:  “For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.”  Matthew 22:30

Does this mean we will be genderless?  Or that we simply won’t marry and reproduce?  In any case, it is clear that there is a dispensational thing going on because during the Millennial reign there will be babies on earth:  “The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra, And the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den.  They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain,  For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord
As the waters cover the sea.”  Isaiah 11:8-9

Also, it is clear that the church will bear children by Jesus:  “Shout for joy, O barren one, you who have borne no child; Break forth into joyful shouting and cry aloud, you who have not travailed; For the sons of the desolate one will be more numerous Than the sons of the married woman,” says the Lord.”  Isaiah 54:1

In other words, a female Christian who never had children in her first life will have more children in the second than was even possible in the first.  Just as Jesus may have 144,000 brides, those brides may have 1,000,000 children.  Jesus will surely outdo Solomon!  “The Queen of the South will rise up with this generation at the judgment and will condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.”  Matthew 12:42   But after that 1,000 year period, there is a change, a new dispensation:  “But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming, then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power.  For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet.”  1 Corinthians 15:23-25

Masada was the location of a siege where 900 rebels locked themselves in a fortress in defiance of the Romans.  They lost.  This happened between 73AD and 74AD.  40 years after the crucifixion.  Jerusalem was sacked in 70AD, 40 years after Jesus’ baptism.

The women’s ordination debate brings up many interesting questions extending well beyond the immediate debate.  Reading books on both sides is very instructive.  On the one side, passages like 2 Timothy 2:11-15 have been used to severely limit how women can minister.  On the other hand, the question is not entirely dissimilar to the debate about women in combat.

The future must necessarily be veiled from even God’s people.  Jesus said why:

“If Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but he is finished! But no one can enter the strong man’s house and plunder his property unless he first binds the strong man, and then he will plunder his house.”  Mark 3:26-27

God must keep the time secret lest Satan know his plans!  This does not mean the time is completely obscured.  Jesus said we would know the seasons.  We can have a rough idea.

The account of Gideon spans three chapters of Judges (6-8).  That means something.  Gideon saved Israel by routing Midian.  And he did it with only 300 men in the middle of the night.  Is this prophetic?  Perhaps some routing occurs around midnight of Jesus’ thousand year reign?  That would be a victory starting about 250 years into the Millennium.  250 years is similar to the 2500 Jubilee pattern found in the Chronology.  250 years from 1878 is 2138.  Time will tell.

What was the nature of the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil in Genesis 2?  Was it similar to the tree of life?  Was it even more attractive?  Or was it ordinary?  Was the curse merely disobeying God and nothing about the tree per se?  That is the conclusion of the famous commentator Matthew Henry (1662-1714).  But notice that the Tree of Life would sustain life indefinitely.  There was something physically special about the fruit of the tree of life.  It was the real fountain of youth.  There must have been something special physically about the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  Did it have a mechanism to spark the aging process?  What if Adam and Eve never ate from either the tree of life or the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?  Would they still die?  Presumably they had to eat of the tree of life.  Even Jesus, born of perfect seed, would have died without perfect food.  These are questions that will be answered in the future.

Who will judge us in the judgment?

“On the testimony of two or three witnesses a person is to be put to death, but no one is to be put to death on the testimony of only one witness.  The hands of the witnesses must be the first in putting that person to death, and then the hands of all the people. You must purge the evil from among you.”  Deuteronomy 17:6-7

Judgment will fall to the witnesses, the ones who know.  This principle will apply in lesser matters as well:

“Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still together on the way, or your adversary may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison.”  Matthew 5:25

This is showing the order of judgment.  Another version of this:

“If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over.  But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’  If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.”  Matthew 18:15-17

“Now learn the parable from the fig tree: when its branch has already become tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near.”  Matthew 24:32

Jesus’ discourse on end times gives several hints, one of which is summer.  To get a sense of when ‘summer’ is, we first look at Moses’ Psalm 90:

“For a thousand years in Your sight
Are like yesterday when it passes by,
Or as a watch in the night.
You have swept them away like a flood, they fall asleep;
In the morning they are like grass which sprouts anew.
In the morning it flourishes and sprouts anew;
Toward evening it fades and withers away.”  Psalm 90:4-6

There are several items of note here.  First is that a day is as a thousand years.  The Hebrew day starts at sundown.  Therefore, the first half of the day is evening or darkness.  The second half is morning or daylight.  Midnight is the darkest, and noon is the brightest.  If we were to compare a thousand years or a day to a year, when would the seasons fall?  Undoubtedly, summer would surround the noontime sun.  Winter would fall around midnight.  Roughly speaking, winter would be 9pm to 3am.  Summer would be 9am to 3pm.  Spring and fall being in between.  In a thousand years, winter would fall between the 125th and the 375th years, and summer would fall from the 625th to the 875th year.  This leads us to question using Israeli statehood as the final generation, since we are in the 142nd year since 1874.  Assuming Jesus returns on the Day of Atonement, which is slightly past half way through the year, this is roughly the 528th year out of 1,000.  Then ‘summer’ will be near relatively speaking.  Some ‘leaves’ will have come early in the springtime (375th to 528th years).  These will be the ancient Israelites such as Elijah, Moses, and David.  David’s battle prowess will come in handy.  When they see the Son of Man standing on the Mount of Olives to assist them, they will become fearless and unstoppable.  All their enemies’ hearts will melt.

“For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city will be captured, the houses plundered, the women ravished and half of the city exiled, but the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city.  Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations, as when He fights on a day of battle.  In that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in its middle from east to west by a very large valley, so that half of the mountain will move toward the north and the other half toward the south.  You will flee by the valley of My mountains, for the valley of the mountains will reach to Azel; yes, you will flee just as you fled before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the Lord, my God, will come, and all the holy ones with Him!  In that day there will be no light; the luminaries will dwindle.  For it will be a unique day which is known to the Lord, neither day nor night, but it will come about that at evening time there will be light.”  Zechariah 14:2-7

This is the day of Atonement!  God will fight for Israel as he did at the Red Sea.  Will he arrive at midnight?  “Then the kingdom of heaven will be comparable to ten virgins, who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.  Five of them were foolish, and five were prudent.  For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the prudent took oil in flasks along with their lamps.  Now while the bridegroom was delaying, they all got drowsy and began to sleep.  But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’”  Matthew 25:1-6