Hermeneutics Addendum

This Addendum has some of the documents referenced in the Hermeneutics Lessons, but not all because including all of them would make this document too large. The purpose of this Addendum is to provide a basis for printing lessons which also teach Hermeneutics directly and are referenced within the Hermeneutics lessons but are not included in the basic print version of the Hermeneutics lessons. Documents which are used for examples, but which do not directly teach Hermeneutics, are available on the LJC1611kjv.com Web Site.

Fear of the Lord

There are a lot of well meaning, God loving Christians that have been caught up in ^good Baptist doctrine' that is in fact of the Devil and against the Bible. We are in a spiritual warfare against the Devil and his forces. God has given us spiritual weapons to fight with. Many Christians have laid down one particular weapon and are so strongly trying to convince other Christians to do the same that they condemn those that still use this God given spiritual weapon.

The more effort that the Devil puts into convincing Christians to drop a spiritual weapon, the more I want to use it.

When Jesus headed towards Jerusalem (Luke 13:33-34, Matthew 23:37), He cried for it because He knew of the judgment that would come onto the Jews and that has lasted for almost 2,000 years. The reason that the Bible gives for this judgment is "because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand" (Matthew 13:13; John 9:39). They closed their minds and refused to consider anything that went against their religious teachings.

Jesus told Peter "Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not Revelation revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in Heaven" (Matthew 16:17) when Peter expressed a belief which agreed with the word of God but went against (Jewish / Baptist) doctrine. However, the very next thing that is recorded as being said to Peter by Jesus was "Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men" (Matthew 16:23). This is because Peter started to correct the word of God (Jesus) based upon (Jewish / Baptist) doctrine. God will judge each of us depending upon what we follow when (Jewish / Baptist) doctrine disagrees with the word of God. Romans 6:16: says "Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?". I'm going to give you what the word of God teaches. You choose whom you will yield yourself to obey.

One problem that people get caught in is that they get locked into a single point of view, and then reject a valid, but different, point of view. Imagine someone looking at a hundred coins and only seeing heads while someone is trying to talk about the eagle on the coin. When the first person insists that there is no eagle, the second person flips a coin over. But instead of accepting that there is an eagle on the other side, the first person flips the coin back over and insists that the other point of view is wrong and keeps on insisting that there is no eagle on any coin. Unless we're that person, we can see that the person has narrowed their point of view too much and is in error for denying a valid truth. As with the illustration, a person is in error if they reject a Biblical doctrine just because it is not taught by their religion.

Now imagine someone arguing that just because we can't produce a valid U.S. coin with Hitler's face on it doesn't mean that it can't exist and that we must allow for the possibility of it existing. Again, unless we're that person, we can see that the person has broadened their point of view too much and is in error of accepting a lie as a valid truth. As with the illustration, a person is in error if they teach something as a Biblical doctrine that they cannot show at least two places that the Bible literally says what they claim.

Revelation 22:18-19 says "For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book." This truth is also taught in Deuteronomy 4:2; 12:32; Jeremiah 26:2 and other places. Each of us is in error if we add to or take away from what the Bible teaches as a literal truth. God's way of finding that literal truth (resolving "hard" passages) is found in Isaiah 28.

A second problem that people get caught in is what Peter got caught in. They assume that their religions doctrine must be Biblical and start correcting the truth of the Bible to match their doctrine instead of rejecting any religious doctrine that goes against the Bible.

One such error is believing that the Bible contradicts itself. I have had an open challenge for many years. I say that there are NO contradictions in the Bible. In every case that someone has claimed a contradiction, I have shown them that they ^wrestled' the Bible into error as Peter says that some people do (2Peter 3:16). Wrestlers, of course, try to twist their opponent into an unnatural position. These people twist one verse into an unnatural interpretation and then (usually) twist another verse into an unnatural interpretation and when these interpretations contradict, they claim that the Bible has contradictions. In every case I've been able to show them the correct non-contradicting interpretations. So, the Bible itself does not have contradictions. Its just their wrongfully twisted interpretations that are contradicting each other. However, in their sinful pride they often reject the truth and continue in their error until God has to correct them.

A very short basis for this position follows. We believe that the Bible is the word of God and that according to the Bible, the only image of God which we are allowed is the Bible itself (John 1:1, 14). That is, when the Bible says that "the Word became flesh" (John 1:14), it was declaring that the flesh was Jesus (God in flesh). The Word (Bible) is our God given picture of Jesus, just like a parent shows you a picture and says ^here is my child'. Since the Bible is our God given picture of Jesus (Matthew 17:5, Mark 9:7; Luke 9:35), it cannot contain errors since there are no errors in God. And in fact, Peter goes on to say that "We have also a more sure word of prophecy", where he said that the Bible was more reliable than his personal first hand witnessing of the words and life of Jesus (2Peter 1:15-21). We, of course, no longer have Jesus living in the flesh among men but have the Bible. If the Bible contained an error, either God Himself also has that error or God made an error when giving the Bible to us or God made an error in preserving His image of Himself. Anyone that insists that their bible has errors received it from a god that has errors and their bible is not my Bible just like their god is not my God. (Yes, the capitalization and non-capitalization is deliberate).

The only way that the Bible could contradict itself is if God changed between the time that He spoke the one verse and when He spoke the other verse. However, the Bibles says that God doesn't change (Hebrews 13:8, Malachi 3:6). Therefore, it is impossible for the Bible, which pictures God, to change. A contradiction within the Bible would demand a contradiction within God Himself since the Bible is as perfect a picture of God as we can get. No contradictions within God demands that there are no contradictions within the Bible or that the Bible is not really the perfect word of God. Read Peters opinion of those that deny the Lord (word of God) that bought them (2Peter 2) then decide how you want to deal with God and His Word.

In addition, to the verses above, Psalms 36:1 and Jeremiah 2:19 says that those who do not fear the Lord are "wicked". Malachi 3:5 puts those that do not fear the Lord in the same category as "sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right". Isaiah 11:1-3 says that Jesus Christ would live in "the fear of the Lord" and we know that are to follow the example of Jesus Christ. Acts 9:31: says that the early church walked in the "fear of the Lord" and equates "the fear of the Lord" with "the comfort of the Holy Ghost". Acts 19:17 says that "the fear of the Lord" caused "the name of the Lord Jesus (to be) ^magnified". Finally, Revelation 15:4 equates The "fear of the Lord" with glorifying the Lords name.

Folks, that's a lot of verses listed above along with a very small bit of explanation. However, a lot of well meaning, God loving Christians that have been caught up in ^good Baptist doctrine' that we are not only to disobey this command from God (to fear the Lord) but are to "correct" any child of God who is ^foolish' enough to believe they are to obey the clear literal commandment in the Bible. I say that this position is in fact of the Devil and against the Bible. As I will show, the "fear of the Lord" is a God given spiritual weapon designed to keep us from sin and God's judgment. The Devil, of course, wants us to drop this weapon and keep sinning.

These godly people have a lot of ^good Baptist doctrine', preachers and churches to support this position, but I tell you that the ^good Baptist doctrine' is a twisted lie from Satan, just like the doctrine that Peter was fighting for when Jesus called Peter "Satan" (Matthew 16:23). Now, if you're still reading this far, you've already agreed with me that any claimed contradiction within the Bible is not a contradiction within the Bible itself but is in fact a contradiction of the twisted interpretations of the Bible. Most people that really disagreed with that position would have quit reading in anger before this. Since there are so many Biblical references that literally order us to "fear the Lord", the problem must be with the twisted interpretation of the verses that contradict this clear commandment. However, before I get into that let me point out one consequence of the church refusing this weapon from God. We are told that us Revivals before 1900 resulted in people stopping their sinning and leading their neighbors, cities and states into a changed society where open sin was frowned upon. Since 1900, all claimed us Revivals did not have the ending of sin and an impact upon society. I claim that this difference is due, to a large extent, to how much people actually feared the consequence of their continuing in their sin.

The first claimed objection to preaching that we are to: "fear the Lord" is the subtle claim that our Lord and God is a liar. This lie is so subtle that a lot of good godly people don't even realize that they are doing it and I believe that they will be horrified when they realize the truth. This lie is the ^good Baptist doctrine' that God meant "respect" when He wrote "fear". Most of these people have pointed out that Satan took the Bible out of context when he tempted Jesus (Luke 4:1-13). Most of these people have condemned other ^liberal Christian' religions / doctrines that have changed words in verses so that the verses no longer condemned their doctrine. Most know, and have taught, where God increases the condemnation of those people who condemn a sin in another then do the same sin themselves (Romans 2:1-11). All of these people can use a computer program or Concordanceand find the word "Reverence" (and related words) in their Bible. This proves that the Lord, and the Bible translators, knew the word "Reverence" when the Bible was translated into English. Therefore, to claim that God meant "reverence" when he used "fear" in the Bible leads to one of four possible conclusions:

Let me be clear, just in case there is any question about my position. I believe that the literal translation of the Bible is the Word of the Creator of the Universe, known as God. I believe that the Bible is the word of God that God will use when He judges us. I believe that the God of the Bible loves us and told us the truth. He said what He meant and meant what He said. He told us the method to use when interpreting His word. Those instructions are in Isaiah 28. The literal interpretation of the Bible, using God's method as stated in Isaiah 28, is that God has commanded His children to Fear Him.

Having stated my position, I recognize that I have opened myself up to the responsibility of showing how to interpret any verse in the Bible that appears to contradict this commandment. However, I do not have to answer a doctrine that is not backed by Bible verses interpreted according to Isaiah 28. I have documented how to interpret the Bible, according to Isaiah 28, in another document.

Before I get into any specific verses of the Bible, let me start with a general error that many people make. Here I am going to state basic teachings of the Bible and not prove them. Anyone that needs proof of these things is too spiritually immature to understand the rest of this paper.

Many religions and belief systems tell people that they ^just need faith'. Consider: the people that the U.S. labels as ^terrorists' and ^suicide bombers' definitely have faith. They just don't have the faith of the Bible. The fact is that the Bible teaches that having faith isn't enough but you must have faith in the right person (Jesus Christ). Many religions state that "God is love" and say that you just need love. However, in 1Timothy 6:10: the Bible says "For the love of money is the root of all evil". From this and many other things in the Bible we know that it isn't having love but what (and who) you love that really matters. It isn't having faith, but who you have faith in. We could go on and study every emotion in the Bible and we would find over and over that the Bible doesn't condemn or praise an emotion by itself but how it is used in our lives. The same is true about fear. The Bible doesn't teach against that fear itself is bad but teaches against fearing certain things (the world, the flesh, the Devil and everything that comes from them). This fear of things that keep us from obeying God does not prevent the child of God from fearing God.

Fear is an emotion that keeps us from doing something. The Bible really teaches that any fear which keeps us from obeying the Bible and the God of the Bible is to be rejected by the child of the God. However, the Bible also teaches that the true "fear of the Lord" actually keeps us from sin. The God of the Bible is the same "yesterday today and forever" (Hebrews 13:8, Malachi 3:6). All through the Bible God gives His people a curse for disobedience and a blessing for obedience. All through the Bible God is called a "Father" and the example for human fathers. To claim that God will not punish sin or that God tells anyone to not fear the punishment of sin is to claim something that goes against a basic teaching (precept) about the character of the God of the Bible. The Bible teaches that such teachings are from Satan.

To the best of my knowledge, all of the conservative Bible believing religions claim that the teaching which says ^parents should only give or withhold rewards but never punish' is of the Devil. To claim that God exercises a doctrine of the Devil when dealing with His children is utter foolishness. The God of the Bible deals with His children the same way as He tells us to deal with our children. When the Jews came into the Promised Land, God offered reward for obedience and punishment for sin. God did the same many other places. Yet, many conservative Bible believing religions claim that somehow the God who never changes will change when it comes to the "judgment seat of Christ" (Please see the notes for Romans 14:10 and 2Corinthians 5:10-11). I'm not going to get into the "judgment seat of Christ" and cause a lot of arguments other than to say two things. 1Corinthians 3:15 says that some saved people will "suffer loss" at the judgment seat of Christ. These good people emphasize "loss" to the point of effectively removing the word "suffer". Then Revelation 21:4 says that "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes" and they ignore that this doesn't occur until after the 1,000 years reign of Christ. Now, I challenge you to survey a school full of children. Ask them if someone is ^punished' when they face an authority and as a result of facing that authority they "suffer" and have tears for a long time. I know that I'm not going into a lot of detail here and refuse to do so since people are very passionate about a doctrine that they cannot show a single Bible verse to back up. Many people claim that all punishment for the Christian occurs in this life only, but cannot show a single verse in the Bible to back that claim. Every time I point this out to them, they start attacking me and making the disagreement about me and my experience. However, I have nothing to do with what is or is not in the Bible. People who claim that all punishment occurs in this world remove a lot of the Biblical reason for the child of God to "fear the Lord". That's part of the reason that God's children then reject the clear commandment of the Bible to "fear the Lord". They have no reason left to do it. However, if we accept all of the verses that clearly teach us to "fear the Lord", then we have to ask when does the punishment occur for the disobedient child of God. And, if we're truthful, we have to admit that punishment in this life is not sufficient to stop some people from sinning, even though they claim to be Christians.

The day will come when we each face our Lord and give an answer for the things done in the flesh (Romans 14:10, 2Corinthians 5:10-11). We will each stand alone. I do not believe that I will be able to say that this or that preacher taught whatever doctrine since God gave me His Word and His Holy Ghost to teach me that Word and God sent men into my life to warn me about false teachings from ^good godly preachers'. I believe that God will not only tell me ^here's what you taught' but will also hold me accountable for the consequences of those teachings. If the results of my teaching is that people justify their sin and continue in it, I believe I will be punished. If the result of my teaching is that people fear 1,000 years of punishment after death and stop doing sin that punishment in this life could not stop them from doing, I believe that I will be rewarded. You do as you are willing to answer to your God, Lord and Saviour.

Now that I've dealt with general teachings on this subject, let me deal with a couple of specific verses that are used to contradict the clear teaching in the Bible that the child of God is to "fear the Lord".

One of the most basic causes of confusion is 1John 4:17-18 which says "Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love". The most basic cause of error related to this verse is that the Devil has convinced many of God's children to copy his method and take part of the sentence out of context. Many fundamental Bible believers will quote "There is no fear in love" or "love casteth out fear" but they do not quote the entire sentence and they take what they do quote out of context. In context, the word "love" is qualified by the word "perfect" three times. In the Bible, the word "perfect" means ^fully grown up with no possibility of maturing more' or ^100% mature'. If we apply this qualifier to the two partial quotes used most often, we get immediate (if limited) clarification. If people said ^There is no fear in 100% love' or ^100% love casteth out fear', very few people would have trouble accepting that these claims do not eliminate fear. The fact is that only a fool or a liar would claim to live in ^100% love' at all times. Therefore, a little fear is possible in the rare occasions that these ^almost perfect' people slip down to living at ^99% love'.

Let me illustrate. The Bible teaches that God is "perfect love". When I am following God ^perfectly', I am in His "perfect love". If God says to go due north, and I turn to the left or right even a couple of degrees, then I am no longer following God's "perfect love" ^perfectly'. It is only a matter of time before I have drifted quite far from God's "perfect love". Therefore, there is not a problem with God's "perfect love" but with my inability to follow ^perfectly'.

Now some people don't like the use of ^100%'. I have pointed them to Hebrews 11:40 which said that all of the heroes of ^chapter of faith' would not be made "perfect" without us, and received that complaint that there the word "perfect" was referring to when we get to Heaven. So, some use of "perfect" is not while we are in this life but some, including 1John 4:17-18, is in this life. However, Luke 6:40 is instructions for this life where our Lord Jesus Christ told us "The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his master". So, according to Jesus, "perfect love" is to love like God does. And I still maintain that anyone who claims that they love like God does all of the time is either an ignorant fool or a liar. But we could go on to the three references in Job where God said that Job was a "man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil" (Job 1:1, 8; 2:3). I don't know anyone who can honestly claim to be more "perfect" than Job was. Yet, Jobs ^perfection' was not enough to let him stop "fearing the Lord". The fact is that I could go through every verse in the Bible dealing with "perfect" and people would find one reason after another to claim that the verse mentioned didn't apply to them for some reason. In their heart they want to claim that they have done the impossible. I say that we can have 1John 4:17-18 for short periods of time while we live in this flesh, but that most of our lives come short of "perfect love". Those people who claim to live with "perfect love" all of the time still need to go through the verses I've already listed and explain why each one doesn't apply to them. If any does, I know that I can find at least another 100 verses that give the same command with different wording. However, I seriously doubt that these people will even read the verses because doing so would not allow them to be comfortable while they go on believing a lie. The real shame isn't that people refuse to obey a clear command that is given over 100 times in the Bible, but that they insist that other saved people do the same and cause those others to suffer God's judgment for ongoing sin.

This whole discussion on the command to "fear the Lord" is understood a little better with an illustration. Draw a large circle on the ground. At due north, put up a post and label it ^perfect obedience'. At due south, put up a post and label it ^perfect sin'. At the east point and at the west point put up poles and label one of them ^liberal compromise' and label the other ^conservative compromise'. Now have several people try standing in the center of the circle and put observers outside of the circle. I know for a fact that I am in a very small portion of the population who can see both shoulders at the same time. This small portion could see ^perfect obedience' and ^perfect sin' at the same time, if they were pointed perfectly at either compromise pole. However, most of the population can't see both at the same time. Most people have to be turned away from ^perfect obedience' to see "perfect sin" and they have to be turned away from ^perfect sin' to see ^perfect obedience'.

The Love of God pulls us towards ^perfect obedience' and the love of the world, flesh and the devil pull us towards ^perfect sin' (1John). The "fear of the Lord" pushes us away from ^perfect sin' and the fear of the world, flesh and the devil push us away from ^perfect obedience'. Most people understand that compromise is the result of having some love for the world, flesh and the devil, which is less than perfect love of God. In fact, most should be able to see the truth in this illustration that there is a direct inverse relationship between our love for the world, flesh and the devil and our love of God. However, what most people don't understand is another Bible truth that there is a direct inverse relationship between our fear for the world, flesh and the devil and our "fear of the Lord". When we are lined up with ^perfect obedience', we are completely obeying the pull of the "love of God" but we are also completely obeying the "fear of the Lord". Some might ask how we are completely obeying the "fear of the Lord". The "fear of the Lord" teaches punishment for even ^little sins'. When we do no sins, not even the even ^little sins', we are obeying the "fear of the Lord" which teaches us to stop our sinning. When we are lined up with ^perfect sin', we are completely obeying the pull of the ^love of the world, the flesh and the devil' but we are also completely disobeying the "love of God". In addition, we are also completely obeying the ^fear of the world, the flesh and the devil' but we are also completely disobeying the "fear of the Lord".

In our illustration, most people turn to the right or left (away from ^perfect obedience') some amount in order to see ^compromise' on either side. Those that see ^compromise' and know that ^perfect sin' lies beyond ^compromise' in the same direction, are operating in the "fear of the Lord" when they go back the other direction just as soon as they see ^compromise'. They have not seen sin and its consequence yet are operating in the "fear of the Lord" because they know that fear of the consequences , which they have not yet experienced, will be experienced if they continue turning the same direction. These people might not experience fear directly, and yet are operating in the "fear of the Lord", when they turn away from ^compromise' just as soon as they see it because by turning away from ^compromise' they are in fact also turning away from ^perfect sin' . They might not be sensitive enough to know that they have turned a little out of alignment with ^perfect obedience' because they are not sensitive enough to realize the correcting pull of love. However, if they use the "fear of the Lord", which they can sense easier, they will turn away from the "fear of the Lord" and back into alignment with ^perfect obedience'.

That's the way that God's love and fear work together. God's love is supposed to draw us towards walking in the direction of ^perfect obedience' to God's will. God's fear is supposed to drive us away from walking in sin. Most of us are far more sensitive to fear than to love. If we are facing the pole labeled ^perfect obedience' none of us can see the pole marked ^perfect sin' and most can't see the poles marked ^compromise'. This is the point when there is no fear. However, the more that we turn away from ^perfect obedience', the more we turn towards ^perfect sin' and it doesn't matter if we turn to the right or to the left. The more we turn towards ^perfect sin', the more "fear of the Lord" (and His judgment) we should feel. God gives us this gift because we are more sensitive to fear than we are to love. We can be turned part way away from "perfect love" and not realize it. However, if we are paying attention to the "fear of the Lord", we can know that as soon as we start to feel it we should move away from it. If we start to turn to the right away from "perfect love" , then the "fear of the Lord" should drive us back to the left to get away from it. If we start to turn to turn left away from "perfect love", then the "fear of the Lord" should drive us back to the right to get away from it. This way, by moving away from the "fear of the Lord" we are in fact moving more in line with the "perfect love of God".

As you should be able to see, we need the "fear of the Lord" because our sinful nature does not allow us to sense the "perfect love of God" enough to guide our lives only by that.

Go back and read the context of 1John with this in mind. In the same verse that people take out of context (4:18 ) it says "He that feareth is not made perfect in love". I will state the opinion that anyone who claims that they have been "made perfect in love" and is always in ^perfect obedience' to God's will is either a liar or a fool. While this might be true for some of us some of the time, it is not true for anyone all of the time according to 1John 1. Most of us should be able to agree that we have not yet reached that point where we no longer need the "fear of the Lord".

I know that there was another verse that people use to say we shouldn't obey the Bibles clear command to "fear the Lord" , but I don't remember it. When someone reminds me of it, I will deal with it. The first thing I will do is read the context of the verse and apply God's instructions in Isaiah 28 to see what the Bible is really saying there. I am sure that, at that point, I will have no problem answering any challenge to the commandment to "fear the Lord":. The only real problem will be those who are not looking for the truth but are wanting to argue and justify their error and sin. So I need to be sure that we don't end up arguing but are actually working together towards a better understanding of the word of God. That means that I first need to be sure that we are using the same foundation. Therefore Let me ask everyone to first answer a couple of questions before they present their challenging verse.

I am not interested in arguing with people and strongly believe the Biblical command of: "But avoid foolish questions, and genealogies, and contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and vain." (Titus 3:9). In my years I've met many people who brush away hours and days and months of Bible study by me because they've spent a few seconds or minutes looking a one or two verses that they're sure offsets all of my study. In my experience, when I show them their error they refuse to agree that they were wrong but jump to another misinterpreted verse and that even those who strive to be godly can be caught up in "Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." (2Timothy 3:7). Those who are really interested in coming to the truth will stick with one part of the Bible until the truth is found and not jump around causing confusion and strife. Therefore, I must insist that we have agreement on the four questions above before we proceed any further with additional verses or points that anyone wishes to consider in this matter.

I started out saying that I wanted to use a spiritual weapon that the Devil put a lot of effort into convincing Christians that they should drop and that they should convince other Christians that they also should drop. I used Biblical examples to warn of the consequence of following religion when it opposes the Bible. I then identified the weapon as the "fear of the Lord" and identified over 90 verses that tell us to "fear the Lord". I pointed out that the identified verses were a lot less than all of the places that God tells His children to "fear" Him. I then showed several ways that error is taught about the "fear of the Lord" and tried to show what the Bible really teaches in these cases. Finally, I challenged the reader to actually study the word of God on the matter and not just discard what I've said with little effort put into finding the truth. Let me leave you with a question. Who but an enemy would convince you to drop a weapon during warfare? Who but an enemy would try to convince you that you don't even want to consider if you should pick this weapon up again? If the Devils that scared of the "fear of the Lord", then I'm going to use it.

Knowledge of God

Proverbs 2 tells us how to find the "Knowledge of God".

Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth

Matthew 7:24-27 says "Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it".

Both the wise man and the fool heard the sayings of Jesus. They were both saved.
The wise man did what he was told the fool did not. The difference that God made between a wise man and a fool is obedience.
The wise man was diligent to dig down to the rock, which is a type of the ministry of Christ throughout the entire Bible. That is, he was diligent to become spiritually mature based upon a personal relationship with the Son of God.
The fool built his house on sand, which everyone agrees is a type of religion.
The fool does not obey because his religion tells him that he is obeying so long as he does what the religion says. He is not diligent enough to compare what his religion says to what the Bible actually says.

Sections within in this Study are:

Synopsys.
A detailed definition of "dividing".
"Rightly dividing" between God's "Word" and man's word.
"Rightly dividing" requires us to find and apply the groupings within God's "Word".

"Rightly dividing" requires doing a proper Bible Word Study.

Definitions from Websters 1828.

Defining Equivalent.

Punctuation.

Synopsys:

Baptist churches are full of people who claim to be saved but do not do what the Bible tells them to do. According to God (in this parable), that is because their true foundation is religion and not Christ. If someone showed them where their religion disagreed with the word of God, the wise man would reject his religious training and cling to the word of God. The fool would cling to his religion and claim that he was rejecting the word of the messenger and not be rejecting the word of God. However, the Bible teaches that in order to reject a message that someone tells us comes from God, we have to show where it disagrees with the word of God. If we reject the message without first verifying that it does not match the word of God, we are in danger of rejecting a message that is actually from God. In that case, God will bring judgment for rejecting a message from Him.

The Bible warns us that Satan is the most subtil of all creatures and he knows the Bible. 2Corinthians 11 (especially 2Corinthians 11:13-15) warns us that Satan's "ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness". The fool trusts what a ^good godly man' tells him while the wise check it against the true meaning of the Bible. Now before anyone starts telling me how godly they or their preacher is, realize that Peter was "withstood to the face, because he was to be blamed"(Galatians 2:11). Peter was a good godly man who was led into preaching doctrinal error because he believed what other 'good Godly' men preached without verifying their message against the truth of the word of God. There isn't a godly wise preacher who would claim that he couldn't fall into the same error as Peter. Therefore, the truly godly wise preachers will verify what they hear against the word of God using the method that God tells preachers to use. That includes what follows this. If you can find where the following disagrees with the truth of the word of God, please show me the error according to the word of God.

Before we go on, let me say one other thing. Acts 10:34-35 tells us "Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: but in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him." God is not going to let you claim that God has one set of laws for everyone else that does not apply to you. People have told me that it doesn't matter how much I study the Bible or show them what is in the Bible, what the Spirit of God shows them has higher priority. Then when the Pentecostals tell them the same thing, they claim that the true Spirit of God will not give an interpretation that is against the literal translation of the word of God. I say: Preacher, live by your own rules. Yes, everyone needs the Spirit of God to properly interpret the word of God. Yes, the true Spirit of God will not give an interpretation that is against the literal translation of the word of God. Yes, preachers can claim a ^special unction' from the Holy Ghost. But Jesus, who had the Spirit "without measure"(John 3:34), pointed people to the Bible and said "Have ye not read"(Matthew 12:3, 5; 19:4; 22:31; Mark 12:10, 26; Luke 6:3) or said (and taught His followers to say) "It is written"(Matthew 2:5; 4:4, 6-7, 10; 11:10; 21:13; 26:24, 31; Mark 1:2; 7:6; 9:12-13; 11:17; 14:21, 27; Luke 2:23; 3:4; 4:4, 8, 10; 7:27; 19:46; 24:46; John 6:31, 45; 8:17; 10:34; 12:14; Acts 1:20; 7:42; 13:33; 15:15; 23:5; Romans 1:17; 2:24; 3:4, 10; 4:17; 8:36; 9:13, 33; 10:15; 11:8, 26; 12:19; 14:11; 15:3, 9, 21; 1Corinthians 1:19, 31; 2:9; 3:19; 9:9-10; 10:7; 14:21; 15:45; 2Corinthians 4:13; 8:15; 9:9; Galatians 3:10, 13; 4:22, 27; Hebrews 10:7; 1Peter 1:16; 1John 2:21). In addition, we have many more quotes in the New Testament which do not use these phrases but which clearly teach using the Bible as our final authority.

Plain and simple, all preachers need to use that unction that they claim to have to show where "It is written"in the word of God. "It is written" does not just mean find some words that you can take out of context like the devil and his ministers do. It means what is written within the context that it is written is so that we are using the same meaning as God meant when He wrote His Word. To do otherwise is to follow the example of Satan, the Pharisees and all other sources of religious error.

In what follows, I first try to explain the rules that I use (to get the meaning of what is written) in general terms that anyone can understand and then apply those general rules to the word of God. If anyone can show me a rule that I have applied wrongly to the word of God please do so. Also, If anyone can show me a rule that God uses in His Word that I have not applied, please do so.

In John 7:27 and John 7:40-43 the people made wrong decisions because they were sure that their information was correct when it was incomplete or wrong. In John 7:45-53, the rulers made wrong decisions for the same reason. There was division among the people and among the rulers because they had wrong information and were using wrong methods for finding God's will. There are many more examples in the Bible of people making wrong decisions for the same reason. They each suffered the consequences of being a fool.

Today, there are doctrinal divisions among so-called ^Christian' religions because most of the doctrines are based upon incomplete or wrong information about what the word of God really says. While people argue about these divisions, and even try to repair them, the divisions keep coming back and increasing in number and severity because people are not dealing with the real source of the problem. The real source of the problem is in the foundation, as the parable that we started with shows. These foundational problems are because leaders think that their foundation is Christ ("the rock") while it is really sand ('religion'). One major source of this error is not obeying God in how to study the Bible. God told all of us how to study in 2Timothy 2:15. Unfortunately, while many saved people (including preachers and leaders) are studying their Bible, they are not studying ^by division'. This error in how to study is causing problems in the foundation of people's beliefs.

2Timothy 2:15 says "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."

My brother has a 3story house that he repaired. When he first bought it, there were cracks all throughout the wet plaster. He hired workers to tear out all of the walls and ceilings and replace them with wallboard. A couple of years after that, cracks appeared in the walls and ceilings. That time, he personally repaired them. A couple of more years later the cracks returned and were worse. That's when he figured out that it wasn't a problem with the repair person. He finally figured out that the real problem was in his foundation and support structure. The foundational problem was hidden and took a lot of work to reveal. When he found it, many people told him to ignore it and assured him that it would be OK. When he repaired the structural problem; that caused further cracks where things had settled into the wrong position and he forced them back into the correct position. He had to wait for about a year for the house to re-settle to the corrected structural position before he could start repairing cracks. However, after he fixed the structural problems, the cracks remained fixed and more did not appear again.

His house was designed and built correctly. Someone had cut through main support joyce in several places rather than taking the time to do a job properly. It was obvious that this had happened several times with successive cuts getting bigger since they didn't see the consequences of earlier cuts. At the same time, the metal pipes that supported the joyce were covered by wood trim and when they rusted through and settled a couple of inches lower, the problem of a short support pole was hidden. With the cuts and lack of support, the joyce gave and went down a few inches, but no one noticed until cracks appeared several floors higher. Also, the ground outside of the basement cement had given way and, over time, the cement had crumbled and allowed the joyce to slip lower that it was supposed to be. The house had to be lifted and all of these problems fixed before surface repairs to walls and ceilings could be fixed. If the foundational problems had been ignored then the entire house (eventually) would have fallen down.

We have a problem in God's church in America when it comes to interpreting the Bible. This problem is foundational and structural. Individual churches in America will be destroyed if this problem is not fixed. Many people advice ignoring the structural problem and others will ridicule my call to repair the true problem. They will rightfully point out that my solution will increase the number of separations in God's people and their doctrine. However, this short-term pain is the only way to keep the entire thing from falling on our heads. The problem with our structure is that God's preachers believe that they are "rightly dividing the word of truth"(2Timothy 2:15) when in fact they are relying upon methods that have made significant cuts into the truth of God's Word. We need to restore the proper foundation and structure and that restoration begins with revealing hidden corruption. Let me be clear, the changes that are required will strengthen the teaching that saved people need to stop their sinning and live a sanctified life that is the result of a personal walk with God. However, many of God's people will suffer the judgment of God if they do not make these corrections and the people who taught the doctrinal error will suffer even greater judgment by God.

There is plain evidence seen throughout most so-called Bible believing churches. We teach our children the parable of the wise man who built on the rock and the fool who built on the sand. Some even properly identify that the "Rock" all through the word of God refers to the Son of God in His role as "Christ". They also identify the sand as being religion. However, they ignore where Jesus said that both builders heard the word of God. In addition, Jesus said that the wise obeyed and the fool did not obey. Therefore, this parable is not teaching a difference between the saved and the lost but a difference between the obedient and disobedient saved. So use a simple measurement. Sere if your church teaches the song about this parable to the children. See if they sing ^the blessings will come down as the prayers go up' or if they sing ^the protection will come down as the obedience goes up'. Point out that the second phrase matches the Bible while the first does not match. Also point out that God does not answer all prayers with a ^yes' while that is what children believe they are being taught by this song. Now see how willing the church is to correct this doctrinal error being taught to children. If the true foundation is the Bible, then they will change the doctrine taught to children in this song. If their true foundation is the Baptist religion, they will keep the Baptist version.

Jesus said "Go ye into all of the world"(Matthew 28:19: Mark 16:15). The word "ye"means ^each and every one of you personally' in the Bible. So another measurement to use is: what percentage of the members in your church obey this very clear and explicate command from God? Those who do personal soul-winning are wise and those who don't are disobedient fools. Even if you don't count those that have been saved less than a year, what is the ratio of wise to fools in your church? Even if your church is filled with wise soul-winners, how many churches can make that claim? Unless you yourself are a fool making excuses for the disobedient, you will have to admit that there is a wide spread problem of disobedient saved people in the churches. According to this parable from Jesus, that disobedience is due to people believing religion instead of the personal commands of Jesus Christ.

Hopefully, we agree that there is a problem, even if it is only with the ^other guy' or with the ^other church'. So I will go on with showing one source of the problem that is in the foundation of doctrine.

I meet people all of the time while soul winning that say that they believe that you have to keep the 10 Commandments to get to Heaven. I no longer ask them if they can tell me all 10 because they never can and embarrassing them that way only gets them mad and often makes them no longer willing to listen. However, no matter how much they may want to disagree, there is no denying certain basic truths. How can you testify in court that you always kept a commandment that you can't even repeat? The Bible warns us that the day will come when we stand before the Creator of the Universe and try to justify the deeds done in the flesh. If you can't get men to agree that you kept a commandment that you don't know, how do you expect God to agree in court that you kept a commandment that you didn't know?

This principal applies to everyone and about everything that will be judged by God. We have a lot of people who are convinced that they are going to be approved by God and not be embarrassed when they are before the "judgment seat of Christ" (Romans 14:10; 2Corinthians 5:10-11) and are surrounded by all of the saints of God as witnesses (Hebrews 12:1). But, according to 2Timothy 2:15, that requires them to be "rightly dividing the word of truth". According to the universal truth I already pointed out, you can't be "rightly dividing"if you can't even define "dividing". So, please take out paper and pen and define the word "dividing"before you compare it to the definition below. They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, I say that an illustration is worth a million. I can think of no better way to illustrate a problem to those that have it then to challenge them to define the word "dividing"and then give them a definition to compare their definition against. I welcome anyone to show me any error in the definition that I provide below.

A detailed definition of "dividing":

First of all, it is an action verb.

If there is no action then the action verb is not done. If you have a stack of 6 Bibles and leave them in a single stack, then you have not done the action verb of "dividing".

Secondly, the action specified by the verb must be done and not some other action. Burning the stack of Bibles is not dividing them.
Dividing is a mathematical function (adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing, etc). That means that it is an exact and precise function that produces an exact and precise result.

There is no ^kinda, sorta like this' that is a correct answer.
If you get two answers for a Bible truth, such as two different definitions for a word, then you are not "rightly dividing the word of truth".
Like all math, you can look at the answer and see if it matches the basis and if the two don't match then you can declare the answer wrong without looking at how the answer was derived. If someone says that 25divided by 5is a negative number, he is wrong and I don't have to find the error in his convoluted so-called logic to say he is wrong. The same is true about ^rightly dividing the word of truth'. We are to look at the "fruit"and compare that to the Bible and ignore all of their religious arguments if their fruit doesn't match the Bible. This important concept will be used below.

You cannot take away from the source before dividing.

If you take away 2 books from your pile of 6 before dividing and conclude that 6 divided by 2 is 2, you would be wrong.
Satan quoted God's Word, but not all of it, when tempting Jesus. In the beginning (Deuteronomy 4:2; 12:32), end (Revelation 22:18-19) and middle (Proverbs 30:5-6) of God's Word we are warned that God will curse those who add to or take away from His Word. If you get two answers, such as two different definitions for a word, then you are not "rightly dividing the word of truth".

You cannot add to the source before dividing.

If you add 2 books to your pile of 6 before dividing and conclude that 6 divided by 2 is 4, you would be wrong.
Eve added to God's command and ended up being led into sin. The devil will show us an error with our addition but instead of using that error to make a distinction between our addition and God's error-free Word, the devil will attach our error to God's word and claim that our error makes God's Word untrustworthy.

Dividing must be done equally.

If you put 1 book in one pile and five books in another pile, you are not "rightly dividing the word of truth"
If God says something applies to ^everyone' and you preach it only applies to a few, you are not "rightly dividing the word of truth". The same is true if you apply a promise offered to a few to everyone.
If God says something is "everlasting" and you preach it can be lost, you are not "rightly dividing the word of truth". The same is true if you claim that a conditional promise cannot be lost or can be claimed without meeting God's requirements.
More applications of this rule will be provided below.

Dividing must be done by the proper method. This is hard to explain to most people who do not have training in Number Theory which is well beyond Calculus. It is an absolute rule which is best understood with an illustration.

If you took a band saw and cut your Bibles in half and put all of the top's in one pile and all of the bottom's in another pile, you are not "rightly dividing the word of truth".
In Math there is a precedence of order when applying multiple mathematical functions in an equation. Precedence is: left to right: negation; exponentiation; (multiply/divide); (add/subtract). This will become clearer later as we apply the rule and see some examples.
The proper method of "rightly dividing the word of truth"means finding the groupings provided by God in His Word and separating it according to those groupings. It also means following God's order of precedence. This will become clearer later as we apply the rule and see some examples.

Dividing requires sticking to the proper basis. The true basis of math, and of the Scientific Method, is God's "understanding", which is a part of God's "wisdom". This also is hard to explain to most people who do not have training in Number Theory. It also is an absolute rule which is best understood with a basic Bible truth. God does NOT change (Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8). This means that God does not go against, or change, an absolute truth that He has revealed. God is the Creator of the Universe. Changing the basic rules of creation would destroy all of creation. God's absolute truths in the Bible are more reliable than creation because in Matthew 5:18 Jesus told us "For verily I say unto you, Till Heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled".

Proverbs 8 tells us that God's "wisdom"was with God before He created the universe. The fact is that all of the laws of true science are based upon Math and Math reveals part of God's "wisdom"that was used in creation. Evidence includes:
1. We know that "God is no respecter of persons" (We find the phrase "no respecter of persons" in: Acts 10:34; Romans 2:11; Ephesians 6:9; Colossians 3:25 and 2:1. Also explained in the notes for Romans 14:10-LJC; Romans C7S3 and Romans C10S13. Please also see Romans C10S13 about the phrase "no difference in people") and Math is no respecter of men.
2. God never changes (Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8) and Math never changes. Math works the same no matter what factor that you may change such as language, culture, time in history, etc.
3. Galatians 5:17 says "For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would." Math is the most hated subject in school because it causes us to think like God thinks. Our flesh hates how it is absolute and it proves the error of the claim that there is no absolute truth in the world.
4. Religion pollutes God's truth, claims to be God's truth and tries to replace God's truth. Man's logic tries to do the same with Pure Logic. For example, Law claims to be logical but Law combines man's (judge / jury) opinion with logic so that it is no longer ^pure' but depends upon changeable man for the final judgment.
1Corinthians tells us about the difference between God's "wisdom"and ^man's wisdom'. They are not the same. ^Man's wisdom' led to men claiming that they had ^proved the world was flat' and based their ^proof' on ^God's revelation to holy men'. Galileo said that he proved that the world was a globe based upon God's method of "understanding and wisdom" that we call the Scientific Method. Likewise, when it comes to interpreting the Bible, we find the same two methods used with similar results.
The dictionary definitions below show us that the main definition of "divide" is ^to separate'. If someone tells you that they have a new way of dividing that does not involve separation, they are lying. You cannot divide by zero. Dividing by 1 is a mathematical technicality that is not really dividing.
All permutations of the word "divide" in the Bible show us that God uses "divide" to ^separate'.
The first time the root word of "divide" occurs in the Bible is Genesis 1:6 which says "And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters." God separated the water in the clouds above the air and earth from the water that was below the earth.

The "ing"on the end of the word ( "dividing") means that this is an ongoing or repeated action.

How do you eat a cow? Answer: one bite at a time.
1. You first kill it and separate the life from the body.
2. Then you separate edible parts from the non-edible parts of the body. For example, you separate the skin and guts from the rest.
3. You then separate the carcass into large parts by dividing it at major joints.
4. You then take each large part and divide it into successively smaller parts until you have something small enough to cook for a meal.
5. You then cook the meal and divide it further into servings for individuals.
6. Each individual then divides it further into bite size pieces.
7. The individual then uses their teeth to divide the bite into smaller pieces before swallowing.
8. The stomach uses acid to separate those small bits even further and passes it to the small intestine and then the large intestine until it is down to a size of nutrients that can be carried in the blood stream and be used to build the body.
The first time that "dividing"occurs is Joshua 19:49 where they were giving separate portions of land to the different tribes of Israel. Those potions were then subdivided by family groups. The potions for each family group were then sub divided and the sub division continued until land was assigned to each individual and/or individual family unit.
Stopping the study of "the word of truth"is not repeated dividing.
Choosing another method of study is not repeated dividing.
If you don't break the Word down to the point that it causes spiritual growth, you are not rightly dividing the Word of Truth. In John 6:56 Jesus said "He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him." The cook is not responsible for people digesting the food but they are responsible for preparing it properly. Also, the parent is responsible for teaching the children how to eat and what to eat. Even so, the preacher is not responsible for the people digesting the word of God but he is responsible for preparing it properly and teaching the people how to properly eat spiritual nutrition.

The ongoing "rightly dividing the word of truth"is done using all of the steps mentioned above. More details on the proper way to do this division are below. There is more than one way to study. This particular method of study is for the mature Christian. Notice that it is commanded in 2Timothy, which means it is written to a man who has been a pastor for a while and is not spiritually immature. "rightly dividing the word of truth"requires spiritual maturity.

"Rightly dividing" between God's "Word" and man's word:

This level of separating God's Word from man's word is only the first step in a series of steps that God expects the mature Christian to do.

Our first rule of dividing is that ^action is required and that error results from not dividing'. Religious men say to not separate God's Word from man's word. The religious man is quick to point out the error in some other religion's writing but objects to you saying that the word of their leaders is not the same as or equal to God's Word.

Many Baptist object strenuously and all but call me a heretic when I refuse to accept the word of some famous preacher as the final authority.
A true ^man of God' is first a ^man from God'. That means that he starts from God's Word and is a guide back to God's Word. You can follow his leading back to God's Word and show the truth based upon God's Word and not have to rely upon his preaching.
If you cannot show your point from God's Word then one of three things happened.
1. He did not act as a proper ^man of God' and direct you back to the word of God but set himself up as the true authority.
2. You didn't listen properly because you did not end up with God's Word as your foundation.
3. You are not yet spiritually ready to understand the subject. Someone just learning to count cannot understand Calculus. Further, the lack of understanding the word of God is spiritual in nature. When a man of God preaches, different people get different understanding as the Holy Spirit uses the message to bring understanding. Don't blame the preacher but seek true understanding from the Holy Ghost.

Our second rule is that the specified action of ^studying by division' must be done.

Letting the Bible sit on a shelf is not "rightly dividing".
Reading is not studying.
Study by memorization or other methods of study do not replace ^Study by Division'.
This type of study requires separating "the word of truth"from men's words and not considering their opinions until AFTER getting what "the word of truth"teaches on the subject. You may not have a complete answer before considering the input from other men but you will at least know which men agree with what "the word of truth"showed you and which did not. If you get your ideas from men first you will often be blinded to something new that God wants to show you in "the word of truth".

Thirdly, ^dividing is a precise mathematical function'. We are to look at fruit and not religious arguments.

The purpose of God's Word is to testify of God and lead man to a saving ongoing relationship with God (John 5:39). Religions give men excuses for their not doing exactly what God said to do. Religions also give men excuses for doing something that is ^kinda, sorta' like what God said. God wrote what he meant and meant what He wrote in His Word. Any religious argument that justifies doing less than exactly what God said is to be separated from God's word and discarded.
There are only two examples of Pure Logic known to man: Math and computer programming. Those with less than a Bachelor's degree in Math probably can't understand the proof, but please believe me on the following. 1Corinthians tells us of the difference between God's "wisdom"and ^man's wisdom' and how man confuses his wisdom for God's "wisdom"and how ^man's wisdom' leads to error. The same is true about man's logic and Pure Logic. Proverbs 8:22-31 tell us of a wisdom that was with God before creation and that was used for creation and Pure Logic, including math, fits this description of the wisdom that was with God at creation. The "Lord"who "change not"(Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8) uses this same Pure Logic wisdom in His Word. The result is that there are similarities between the logic of Math and of the Bible. A math teacher looks at the assigned problem and the answer and can determine if the answer is right or wrong without considering any argument from the student. Similarly, the Christian can look at the ^fruit' of a person's life and at the Bible that it is supposed to be based upon and determine if they have a spirit like God or not and they do not have to pay any attention to their religious arguments. There were leaders of large so-called ^Christian Churches' who went to jail. The people who were deceived by them listened to their religious arguments. Those who were not deceived looked at the fruit of their lives.

Our fourth rule is ^Don't subtract from the portion before dividing it'. People take away from God's word and end up with the wrong answer. One of the main ways that people take away from God's Word is to say that a major part doesn't apply to them.

Hebrews 9 explains that Jesus is the "mediator of the new testament"and that the testament is the same legal document as we call a ^Will'. We can only have one ^Will' in effect at a time, as also said in Hebrews 9. Further, Hebrews 9 tells us that the Old Testament that was replaced was the Mosaic Law and specifically mentions the religious parts of the Mosaic Law.
Galatians 3 and in particular Galatians 3:17 says "And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect." This means that neither God adding the Mosaic Law (to promises already made), not God taking it away, affected those promises that were made before the Law. This same logic applies to all that came before the Law. Neither the coming nor the passing of the Law affected the Laws of Creation. Everything that is outside of the Law (but still in what we call the ^Old Testament') was not affected by the coming or going of the Law. That is the basic reason that tithing is still in effect today. Both tithing and "salvation by faith"came from Abraham. You aren't thinking right if you believe that you can have "salvation by faith"and not have tithing.
In Acts 15 and 21 we are told that even Gentiles are to keep parts of the Mosaic Law. Specifically, all of the Mosaic Law falls into 3categories. The Civil Law said how the government was to be run. 1Peter and other places tell us that we are to obey the law of the land that we are in. So, the Civil part of the Mosaic Law does not apply to those who are living under another Civil Law. The second part is the Religious Law and Hebrews and Galatians explained that they are replaced by the New Testament. The third part is the Moral Law, which covers our personal relationship with God and only clarifies what God had established before the Law. As Galatians and Acts said, we are still bound by things of the Moral Law. Proving your claimed "faith" by your actions was before the Law and not removed by it.

Our fifth rule is ^Don't add to the portion before dividing it'. People add to God's word and end up with the wrong answer.

As mentioned above, God curses all who add to His Word.
As mentioned above, Eve added to God's command and ended up being led into sin.
The Pharisees added their traditions and the teachings of men to God's Word and Jesus said that they "made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition"(Matthew 15:6; Mark 7:13; Romans 4:14; 9:1-7; Galatians 3:17).
People today quote famous preachers and other good godly men, which is OK, so long as they realize that these men made errors and when others show them that the word of these men disagrees with the literal Bible, the Bible is chosen to be right.

Our sixth rule is to ^Divide Equally' or ^Divide the way God does' (Equal to the way God divides).

Spiritual versus physical interpretation: God is a Spirit Who uses the Bible to tell physical people spiritual and physical truths.
1. Parts of the Bible are conveying a Spiritual truth and must be spiritually understood. All of John 6 is about Jesus trying to teach a spiritual truth and the religious Jews misunderstanding because they insisted upon trying to fit the spiritual into the religious and physical.
2. Parts of the Bible are conveying a physical truth and must be physical understood. Religions Spiritualize' physical rules and then use their Spiritualizing' to excuse disobedience. In Matthew 15:5-6 and Mark 7:12-13 Jesus told the Jews "And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother; Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye". The Bible said that they were to provide for their parents (honour thy father and thy mother) but the Pharisees said that they could neglect their parents if they ^offered' their substance to the Temple upon their death.
God divides authority according to who is talking. The word of God records a lie of Satan in Genesis. The fact that the lie of Satan is in the word of God does not make it true.
God divides truth according how someone is talking. The Bible includes various figures of speech such as parables and sarcasm. These are to be understood according the proper use of figures of speech. The word of God contains the Law of God but there are parts of the word of God that are not part of the Law of the Lord. Therefore, the parts that are not part of the Law of the Lord are not to be used as Law.
God divides truth according to whom He is talking to. If one man hears another man's wife promise to make him glad he married her, the unmarried man can't ^claim that promise' just because he is male and finds the woman attractive. Even so, God's promises to Jews or to other special people can't be claimed by others.

Our seventh rule is to ^Use proper methods including precedence'.

God emphasized a personal relationship to Him all through the Bible. He says that there are people in the church whose father is the devil and He calls them ^bastards'. Since God emphasizes a personal relationship with Him over our relationship to the church, we should do the same.
The main word for salvation is ^life', not ^everlasting'. When God uses one word for the subject and another word as a modifier, we should also put the main emphasis on the same word that God emphasizes.

Our eighth rule is ^Dividing requires sticking to the proper basis'.

God's ^Original Language' is Hebrew, not Greek. If God believed in using the ^Original Language', He would have stuck to Hebrew. God used the language that His people understood in the day that He spoke to them. 1John 5:13 says that the same written Bible that is used to lead us to salvation is also used to teach us to grow in faith. No one ever received salvation by someone showing them Greek and interpreting it to them. Only pride grows when someone switches to Greek from the English as their basis of Sanctification'.
God's Word is ahead of science. It does not violate the true laws of math or true science. It is not in conflict with any laws of nature which God created. There is no conflict between different parts of the Bible or between the Bible and any other work of God. EVERY so-called conflict has been revealed to be a conflict between an error of man's wrong interpretation and the truth or between two wrong ^interpretations'.
God's Word uses proper grammar. The next section deals with that but God does not go against the proper rules of grammar.

Our ninth rule is to ^Repeat application at each successive level.'

We cannot stop here and have doctrine that will spiritually nourish us. We have separated the word of God from external things that claim to be part of the word of God or claim to replace it. At the next level we will apply separation at the high level within the Bible.

"Rightly dividing" requires us to find and apply the groupings within God's "Word"

In our illustration of eating a cow, we first separated the cow from its life then separated the edible from the inedible. With God's Word, we separated the spiritually edible word of God from the inedible things like men's wisdom and men's religions and men's traditions and everything else from men. The next step in our illustration of eating a cow was to divide it into major sections by separating it at the joints, which are the pre-designed separation points. We also need to do the same with God's Word.

Our first rule of dividing is that ^action is required and that error results from not dividing'.

The lost can't understand the wisdom of God according to 1Corinthians 1-3 (especially 2:14). The word of God has parts that can be understood by everyone and parts that cannot be understood without the Holy Spirit. Parables are an example of this difference. In Matthew 7:6 Jesus told us "Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you." In this verse, Jesus uses "dogs"for lost people and says the same thing a second way in case someone couldn't understand the first phrase. Don't try to teach lost people the spiritual things of God because they will grind them into the dirt and attack you. Instead, get them saved first and then the Holy Ghost can deal with the rest. I refuse to discuss ^versions of the Bible' and prophecy and other things with a lost person. I tell them that they need to Holy Ghost to explain it to them and offer to show them how to get the Holy Ghost. But, until they are saved, I refuse to drag the wisdom of my God down into the muck of religion. Therefore, our first division within the Bible is to separate what the lost can understand from what it take the Holy Ghost to understand. Jesus refused to give the lost understanding of God's Word and demanded that they believe on Him first to get saved. If we discuss these things with the lost, we are not following the example of our Lord and we are disobeying the Lord's command. Learn everything you can that that applies to getting people saved and do everything you can to put those parts of the Bible before the lost.
Realize and accept that God makes a major division between the saved and the lost. In the book of Revelation we are told that it was written to reveal the person of Jesus Christ. It is NOT written to reveal the multiple future events. The future events are included only if they reveal that Jesus Christ is Lord. Revelation 10:4 it says that there are future events that were hid. I believe that is because they did not support the revelation of the person doing those future events. The Revelation of Jesus Christ is summed in the last verse that calls Him "Lord Jesus Christ". All through that book we find that the saved are to worship the Lord and the lost are to fear Him. God makes a major division between the saved and the lost in the word of God and we are to do the same.

Our second rule is that the specified action of ^studying by division' must be done.

God uses the rules of punctuation within grammar to divide His word and Satan uses good godly men to teach error by ignoring this division by God. The main way that men subtract from the inside of God's Word is by reading and interpreting by verse, which is only part of a sentence. By accepting a partial sentence as whole, they are taking away from the word of God. The main way that men add to the inside of God's Word is by treating the colon as a sentence ending punctuation mark. Both of these points will be expanded in this section below.
Please see the illustration of the use of punctuation below. It shows that how punctuation is used can have a profound impact upon the meaning of text.

A class was asked to add punctuation to the following:

Woman without her man is nothing

The women in the class responded with the following:

Woman: without her, man is nothing.

The men in the class responded with the following:

Woman, without her man, is nothing.

Obviously, the use of punctuation can have a profound effect.

Thirdly, ^dividing is a precise mathematical function'. We are to look at fruit and not religious arguments. Isaiah 28:9 says "Whom shall he[God] teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine?" God goes on and tells us more about whom God will personally teach and how he will teach them, but in Isaiah 28:1-8 we learn about those that God rejects as teachers. We are to ignore anything from these men because their ^fruit' does not match the character of the God of the Bible. Just like the math teacher can ignore the arguments about a wrong answer, the Christian can ignore the arguments of those with the wrong spiritual ^fruit'.

The drunk religious preacher of Isaiah 28:1-8 is rejected by God. It doesn't matter if they are really saved and it doesn't matter what positions or religious credentials they have. Read Isaiah 28:7.

Men in religions that justify the use of wine and other alcoholic drinks may be saved, but the God of the Bible is not using those religions.
The God of the Bible will use a drunk only if there is no one else available, no matter what religion he is in.

Drunks are a type of people controlled by physical sin (Ephesians 5:14-21; 1Peter 4:1-5). A 400 pound preacher screaming about how he has never tasted a drop of liquor has no more right to represent the God of the Bible than the drunk has. He is just as controlled by gluttony, which is a physical sin.
Isaiah 28:1-8 also says that God does not use those who make the tables ^"full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean". That is a type of moral impurity. God does not use those people and religions that justify moral wickedness.
Anyone who is a member of a religion that excuse the above sins will usually not be used by God. This includes all religions that use alcoholic wine in religious ceremonies or allow any alcohol at their functions.
The drunk and the filthy do not represent the character of the God of the Bible and even the lost can know the difference. God wants us to look at the character of the man and the fruit of his life before we consider one word of his religious opinions.
Many ^good godly men', like Peter, end up preaching doctrinal error because they hear something that sounds good to them and they do not compare the doctrine to the word of God with the help of the Spirit of God. They also do not follow the path of the doctrine back to the original source. For example, from all that I can find the original source of correcting the English based upon the Greek was the same source that started putting out man-written ^bibles'. This is the Devil using ^good godly men' to spread a lie.

Our fourth rule is ^Don't subtract from the portion before dividing it'.

In Matthew 4:1-11 and Mark 1:12-13 and Luke 4:1-13; we read of Satan tempting Jesus. As part of that temptation, Satan misquoting PsalmS 91:11-12 by leaving out part of the original verse. We've already read where God promised judgment upon those who followed Satan's example and diminished His Word. In the written English language, a sentence is the smallest unit that is considered to be a complete thought. Look at Colossians 1:21 and follow it to the end of the sentence. That does not occur until the end of Colossians 1:29. It took me a while to realize that most verses are not complete sentences and that most people who claim to believe the Bible make this fundamental error. In studying and doing detailed analysis of over 4,000 verses in the Bible since I started paying attention, I would guess that the average sentence in the Bible takes 2 verses. A few verses have two sentences in them and a few sentences cover multiple verses, such as Colossians 1:21-29. However, I would guess that the average is 2 verses per sentence.
In Isaiah 28:9 and 28:13 We are told that God teaches doctrine "line upon line"and this phrase is doubled twice. When Isaiah was written, the word of God was divided into sentences but not into verses as we see today. Therefore, "line upon line"means Sentence upon sentence. According to Genesis 41:32, God doubles something that He establishes it (makes it a law which is more reliable than the laws of nature). Since "line upon line"is doubled twice, it is double established as a Law by God.
When Richard Nixon was President, he was ordered by the court to hand over tapes of conversations that he had. He handed over ^erased tapes and the entire nation agreed that a partial truth was a lie. As mentioned earlier, God does not go against revealed absolute truth. Revelation 21:8 equates lying with other sins that we think are terrible such as murder. In John 8:44, Jesus says that Satan was a liar from the beginning and the father of lies. Anyone who presents a 1/2 truth as the truth is a liar who is following Satan. They may not know it, until God sends a messenger to reveal it to them. However, once revealed, God will judge them for refusing to submit to the truth. A 1/2 sentence is a 1/2 truth and a lie.
When preachers read a verse that is part of a sentence, they are not necessarily going against the interpretation of the sentence. They can be emphasizing a truth contained within the sentence. They are wrong only if they apply an interpretation or application that goes against the meaning of the phrase within the context of the sentence and surrounding text. However, when someone reads several verses and they start or end in the middle of a sentence, you can be sure that they are ignoring the God given division called sentences. While what they preach after that may be truth, it needs to be examined extra carefully for error.
Properly done, the child of God reads the word of God as God wrote it, which is in whole sentences and not in verses. Only after making sure that they have the proper interpretation of the book, paragraph and full sentence, does the correct child of God apply that interpretation to life. Even if they are concentrating on a phrase contained within a sentence the child of God must first find the proper interpretation of the whole sentence and then interpret the phrase within the interpretation of the whole sentence. Otherwise they usually will be led into error and will be committing the sin of diminishing God's Word.

Our fifth rule is ^Don't add to the portion before dividing it'.

God uses the rules of punctuation within grammar to divide His word and Satan uses good godly men to teach error by ignoring this division by God. The main way that men add to the inside of God's Word is by ignoring the colon.
Reformers Unanimous does an excellent job of teaching about limits that God gives us to protect us and how we run into trouble when we step outside of the boundaries provided by God. God uses the colon to place boundaries on the interpretation of His word. We add to God's Word when we ignore those boundaries. When we go beyond God's boundaries and include interpretations that God put beyond the boundary, we are adding to God's Word. Just as Eve sinned by adding to God's Word, we sin when we add to God's Word by ignoring the colon.
Attached is some basic information from the Web on the use of the colon in English Grammar. As shown in there, a colon is an ^almost stop' where a period is a ^full stop'. In doing a detailed analysis of over 4,000 verses in the Bible, I have found that every place that a colon was used it could be replaced with a period and the verses would still be correct English grammar. However, God deliberately chose to use a colon and not a period. To replace the colon with a period is an error that causes us to misinterpret the word of God.
As explained below, a colon makes what is on either side of the colon equivalent. (Equivalent means equal and almost equal. See attachment below for the definitions of ^equivalent'.) Therefore, the interpretation of what is on either side of a colon is limited to what is equivalent to the meaning of what is on the other side of the colon. If I list olive oil: flax oil: corn oil: and oil. The colons limit the interpretation of where ^oil' appears by itself to be a type of edible vegetable oil. If I replace the colons with periods, I remove the restriction and can properly claim that ^oil' by itself includes ^dirty engine oil'. Thus, by replacing the colon with a period, I expand the allowed interpretations. When I do that with the word of God, I am adding to the word of God and sinning. Treating a colon as if it is a period is sin.

Our sixth rule is to ^Divide Equally' or ^Divide the way God does' (Equal to the way God divides). When God uses different words, He has different meanings attached to each word. We are in error when we attach the same meaning to different words or attach the same word to different meanings. There are a number of words in the Bible that God divides further with qualifiers. If we do not also make these divisions, we are not dividing as God does. Also, if God attaches one blessing to one subdivision and another blessing to the other subdivision and we attach the blessings to the wrong subdivision, we are in error.

God makes a difference between the Law of God and the word of God and the consequences of ignoring each is different. The Law of God is contained within (is a subset of) word of God. However, the word of God also has things like the lie of Satan in Genesis. That lie is not true. However, all of the Law of God is true. So, the blessings for obeying the Law of God do not apply to those parts of the word of God that are not part of the Law of God. Further, principals of true Law apply to the Law of God, but not necessarily to the parts of the word of God that are not part of the Law of God. Where men's legal systems and judges pervert true justice and refuse to follow proper legal principals, God and the law of God are 100% reliable. However, God does not expect us to trust and obey things like Satan's lie which are recorded within the word of God.
God makes a difference between the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Heaven. The study of this difference is beyond this point but the requirements to get into each are different and the rewards of being in each are different.
There is a major difference in the Bible between the "fear of the Lord" and the ^fear of the world, flesh or devil'. God's instructions to His children are polar opposite between these two subjects. The consequences of having or not having each are also polar opposites.
There are other similar things in the Bible where there is a difference made by God. We will get into more detail in doing a proper Bible Word Study, however, the main point is that if we don't see how God qualified things and if we don't see how important God makes something and if we ignore the rewards and/or benefits that God attaches to a subject, we will be led into error and God will declare us to be a fool (Matthew 7:24-27).

Our seventh rule is to ^Use proper methods including precedence'. Isaiah 28:9-11 says "Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little: for with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people." We saw earlier that God said to get rid of the teachers and preachers who don't have lives that display His Spirit. That separated outsiders. Now He is separating insiders.

"them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts"God separates people who have gotten rid of the sins of 1Corinthians from those that have not. The people that still have those sins are still on the ^milk' of the Word (1Corinthians 3:1-3; Hebrews 5:11-14). These people are taught by other people. The ones that God teaches directly are more mature spiritually.
God provides precedent of precept, line (context), preachers and teachers, outside commentaries. Anything that goes against higher precedence is to be rejected. For example, reject anything from a commentary that takes verses out of context.
A precept is a rule that does not change no matter what the circumstances. For example, ^God never changes' is a precept. It comes before context and limits context. For example, the precept that God will not give use something to destroy us spiritually is a precept that takes precedence over the context of the promise that "'Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you."(John 15:16; 16:23).
"line upon line"first of all means in context. It has been my experience that over 90% of Biblical doctrinal errors can be revealed by asking the other person to provide the verses they use to support their position and then look for the true meaning of those verses within the context. The main way to avoid is to double check the context of every verse you use.
"here a little, and there a little"means that God will give you a little something new through preaching at different times. However, once a person reaches maturity to be taught by God, most preaching only reinforces what was already learned when less mature or through personal study. God wants the mature Christian to use their personal walk with God as their primary teaching tool, and use what God teaches through others as reinforcement and verification of what God teaches personally.
"for with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people"speaks of other ways that God will occasionally teach mature Christians. However, these lessons will not go against what was taught by other means if they are truly from God. "stammering lips"speaks of the unsure person. God uses ^babes in Christ' to teach mature Christians sometimes just to bring their pride into check. "another tongue"speaks of outsiders. See the next point. No outside commentary should ever turn you against those that have brought you to salvation and spiritual maturity. Outside commentators are our least reliable source of Spiritual teaching.

Our eighth rule is ^Dividing requires sticking to the proper basis.'

We covered the basics of Matthew 7:24-27 in the beginning of this study. Please notice a few things:

Both builders heard the words of Jesus. They were both saved.
The one builder was obedient and the other was not obedient.
The one who did it survived the disaster and didn't really need any help.
The one who refused to obey had a "great fall"in their life which indicates they had a disaster that it took them and their family a long time to recover from, if they ever did.

This parable gives us a measurement that isn't used. If our church is full of spiritually immature squabbling pew sitters who aren't tithing, won't quit their sin, aren't studying the Bible and praying on their own, then we have a disaster in the making. Further, no matter what people claim, their true foundation isn't the rock of "Christ".
If the people ^in the pew' are involved in personal Bible study, prayer, soul winning and discipleship then God can do to them like he did to the church at Jerusalem. The people who ended up in Antioch (Acts 11) didn't sit around praying for a preacher to come and start a church. They went out and won souls, got them meeting regularly, praying, studying their Bible and obeying their Bible. When a preacher was sent to them, they already had the core of a church together and ready to organize and start baptizing.
The true foundation isn't seen in what people say but in what they do. If they're not doing, their true foundation is their preacher and teachers, not Christ. The people are really hearing ^believe me' not Search the scriptures and obey Christ', regardless of what teachers and preachers are really teaching.
Having said that, we can say that God does not change. If they are studying their Bible and trusting Christ, then they will not accept some new teaching that leads them away from their true foundation.

They will reject teaching about an ^unfortunate translation' or similar garbage. Since most people don't know Greek well enough to translate it, including the so-called experts, this reliance upon ^Greek' is reliance upon the unverifiable claims of some man.
1John 5:13 says "These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God."

Our salvation and our knowing we are saved is based upon the written word of God. No one gets saved by someone pulling out the Greek and translating it for them.
This verse has an "and"in it which means added onto our salvation like a second story of a building is added onto the first story. The "believe"of this addition means what we do to increase our faith. We are to build our life in Christ upon the same written word of God that we trusted to get saved.

Our ninth rule is to ^Repeat application at each successive level.'

We cannot stop here and have doctrine that will spiritually nourish us. We have separated the word of God from external things and from each other at a major level within the Bible. We will skip down to the ^Word Study' for the next level that we will apply separation to.

"Rightly dividing" requires doing a proper Bible Word Study:

One of the main sources of false doctrine by so-called Christian religions is based upon non-Biblical definitions of Bible words.

Our first rule of dividing is that ^action is required and that error results from not dividing'.

Many Baptists claim that Fear of the Lord means ^respect for the Lord' but God and the Bible translators knew the difference between these words and deliberately used them in different verses because they have totally different meanings. "Fear"does NOT mean the same thing as "respect"in the Bible. When God divides these words and we refuse to follow God's example and even deny the division that God makes, we lead others into error.
The Bible has 38 verses with permutations of "respect". It has 501 verses with permutations of "fear". Out of those 501 verses, 230 also contain "Lord". These numbers alone should tell us that God is far more interested in "fear"than He is in "respect".
Many law-abiding citizens will claim that they respect the law of the land and try to obey it. They agree and support the principal of law and support the government's efforts to enforce the laws, at least in general even if they object to a few specific laws. Most of these people, when they are honest, drive a few MPH over the speed limit and the sight of a police car does not necessarily cause them to slow down if they are only going a few MPH over the speed limit. They respect the law but do not fear it. But if you look at someone that's on the 10-most-wanted list, it should be obvious that they do not respect the law. They strongly disagree with what they see as interference in their private life. However, if they are going over the speed limit by any amount, they will slow down to the speed limit or below it when they see a police car. They do not respect the law but do fear it.
"Respect"causes a change in attitude. "Fear"causes a change in action. A lot of preachers teach error when they say that we are not to fear anything. The Bible truth is that God orders His children to fear Him and to not fear the world, the devil, men or anything but Him.
The "fear of the Lord"is specifically designed to cause God's children to stop their sinning. It is specifically designed to overcome the lusts of this world. A few years ago my wife took everything we owned and threw me out. After she almost killed me several times, I was glad to go. However, with no wife, I was left with no sex. God convinced me, in my spirit, that if I had extra-marital sex, I would get a disease. Lots of others might get away with it, buy my personal Lord convinced me that I would not. The Fear of the Lord has literally kept me from this sin. Reformers Unanimous is full of people who were saved but did not ^fear the Lord' and ended up addicted to something.
Our churches are full of people who respect the Lord and sit on their ^blessed assurance' because they refuse to change their actions like true fear will cause a change in actions. They constantly ask for prayer because they do not have the blessings that God attaches to Fear of the Lord and to obedience (action). They listen to their preachers, claim the promises attached to the Fear of the Lord and then end up doubting God and God's promises because they do not receive the promises when they fix their attitude ("respect of the Lord"). The error in their belief leads to unbelief.
The ^fear of the world, the devil and men' will keep God's people from serving Him. The worship of God, on a personal level, is specifically designed to overcome this fear. However, once the fear is removed, the saved person must start serving or they will stop worshiping and end back in this fear.
"Respect"for God's Law must precede understanding it. We do not have to understand a Law to obey it, but we should get respect and understanding if we want to continue to obey.
"Fear"and "respect"have totally different meanings and, according to God's Word, obedience (from "fear") precedes understanding (from "respect") [John 7:17].

Our second rule is that the specified action of ^studying by division' must be done.

No one teaches adults and children the same way. Reformers Unanimous does an excellent job of teaching the basics of spiritual learning. However, Reformers Unanimous does not teach ^study by division' (at the time that this paper was written). ^study by division' is found in 2Timothy. That means that it was given to a senior pastor who was quite spiritually mature. It probably should not be taught to the spiritually immature because they can be easily overwhelmed and discouraged by the requirements. In addition, God tells us that He teaches "precepts"before "line upon line"and then only to "them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts"(Isaiah 28:9-11). We teach children to count then add and subtract and only later get into Algebra because each of these subjects are taught with the assumption that the student firmly grasps concepts that are taught at lower levels. To do otherwise would cause confusion and rebellion.
However, we also require our teachers to have education and knowledge beyond the level that they are teaching unless there are no better educated teachers or no higher level of teaching available. God does the same. God requires a certain level of spiritual maturity of church leaders (1Timothy 3). These more spiritually mature people should also be using the study method that God gave to preachers in 2Timothy 2:15.
We started with Matthew 7:24-27 and pointed out that Jesus said that those who heard His words and did not obey were fools. We then went to 2Timothy 2:15 and pointed out that those preachers who do not do ^study by division' will NOT be approved by God and will be embarrassed before all of the saints of Heaven. I will add that 1Corinthians 13:12 says "For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known." When we meet ^the Truth' face to face in front of all the witnesses of Heaven (Hebrews 12:1), there will be no hiding the foolishness that we continued to do after being warned to stop. And, 1Corinthians 13:12 indicates that those witnesses will know of our foolishness for eternity. Saul asked to be honored before the men of his day in 1Samuel 15. However, God also recorded his foolishness in the Bible for all men to know for all eternity. Only a fool would say that the God ^who never changes' will not do the same to them.

Thirdly, ^dividing is a precise mathematical function'. We are to look at fruit and not religious arguments. To get the precise Biblical definition of a word, we need to compare Scripture to Scripture for all occurrences of all permeations of the main word and all other words that are similar to the main word or are confused with the main word. 1Corinthians 2:13 tells us that we are to compare spiritual to spiritual if we are to get God's "wisdom"and not be fooled by man's ^wisdom'. God promises to reward them that "diligently seek Him"(Hebrews 11:6).

Guessing the meaning of a word while reading your Bible is not "diligently seeking Him". It also does not produce a single exact definition for a Bible word. When we guess we usually are influenced by the world and our flesh, which leads to error. Remember that the flesh wars against the Spirit.
Using a dictionary is better, and the best English dictionary for the English of the KJV1611 is the 1828 dictionary. However, people forget that dictionaries are written for all uses of the English language. Therefore, they contain definitions of words that are not valid when trying to interpret the Bible. In addition, dictionaries provide multiple definitions for a word, not a single definition. Therefore, the dictionary does not (usually) produce a single exact definition for a Bible word. Using these dictionaries is not "diligently seeking Him". Yes, they are better than nothing but, no, they do not always give correct answers.
If you do use a dictionary, be sure to look up all permutations of the word. For example, "adulterers"is a permutation of "adultery". "Adulterers"provides the true Biblical definition in the 1828 dictionary while "adultery"provides the human definitions but not the Biblical definition even in the 1828 dictionary. Please see the paper called Adultery which has a proper Bible Word Study and shows every occurance of this work in the Bible and gives the Biblical definition.

Our fourth rule is ^Don't subtract from the portion before dividing it'.

Religious men diminish the Bible definition of the word ^adultery'. It should be a basic proof to any saved and spiritually mature person that since the Pharisees picked a doctrinal fight with Jesus over the word "adultery", their definition is wrong.Yet I regularly have leaders, teachers and preachers tell me that the definition from the Pharisees is right and what I tell them from the Bible is wrong.
One of the definitions of ^adulterers' found in Webster's 1828 defines is ^An apostate from the true faith, or one who violates his covenant engagements; a very wicked person. Jer. 9 and 23.' That is, Jeremiah chapter 9 (especially 9:2) and Jeremiah chapter 23 (especially 23:10). [In Jeremiah 23, Jeremiah says that the people's adultery is due to wicked pastors.] This is the true basic definition of this word in the Bible.
Webster's 1828 does NOT define ^adultery' as ^one who violates his covenant engagements.' Webster's is an English dictionary, not just a Bible dictionary. It MUST include common English usages including ones that do not match the Bible definitions. That is why you need to look at the definitions of all permutations of a word if you are going to use a dictionary.
The Jews had a covenant agreement with God that they violated. Several times in the Old Testament God sent prophets to call them adulterers as well as idolaters. God dealt with their idolatry in Babylon and they haven't done that sin since then. However, God isn't done with the adultery until Daniel's 70 weeks are done. The Jews were in the land 490 years and were to give the land a rest every 7years, according to their covenant. They were adulterers because they broke their covenant agreement to give the land rest. God shows His opinion of violating a covenant with the ^Great Tribulation'.
Saved people make a covenant agreement that is upheld by God's court and sign a contract that is upheld by man's court when they get married. Many people say that God doesn't believe in divorce but both Isaiah and Jeremiah tell us that God divorced the Jews. He cut them off from Earthly blessings but kept them as His people spiritually. When saved people get divorced in man's court, that doesn't mean that they are divorced in God's court. In addition, God holds people to every part of their oath, which is the covenant agreement. Many woman who have never committed fornication will be surprised when God calls them adulterers because they continually took their children's side against their husband. That is a violation of their oath to put their husbands before ^all others' and God calls that adultery.
James tells us that "friendship of the world"is adultery ( James 4:4).
Every one of these Biblical examples are violations of covenant agreements that do not involve fornication. The religious man says that adultery is not any violation of the oath of a covenant agreement but only fornication. They encourage God's people to sin by taking away from the true Biblical definition of this sin. Just look at the divorce rate in churches and you will see evidence of God's people violating God's will for marriage. One of the best things that preachers could do is tell God's people to put a written copy of their marriage vows on their bedroom walls and read them every night and remind themselves that the God of Heaven punishes oath breakers.
I will go to the next point, even though I could teach much more about this sin.

Our fifth rule is ^Don't add to the portion before dividing it'.

People sin by adding to God's Word when they add a human definition to the definition found in the Bible and then use that non-Bible definition in a Bible verse. How many preachers have complained about other religions changing the definition of Bible words like Salvation' or ^baptism' and then they do the same thing? How many of us have heard preachers say ^We need to get a vision for the lost or they will perish'? They are taking Proverbs 29:18 out of context. It says "Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he."
The Biblical definition of ^the' is ^there is only one and here it is' as when Jesus said "'I am the way'"(John 14:6). So when Proverbs says "the people perish", it is saying that there is only one people and the people who need a vision are the people perishing. These preachers distort God's Word when they tell one people that they need to get a vision so that another people won't perish.
The true Biblical definition for ^vision' is ^word from God' and can be easily seen in many of the verses that use it. So, the first half of Proverbs 29:18 is saying that where people have no word from God, those people will perish (go to Hell). Going on, the second (equivalent) half says "but"(connected idea going in a different direction from perishing) "he that keepeth the law"(law = word of God: you must have it before you can keep it) "happy is he".
All of this preaching about people getting a ^vision' would be correct if they used the Biblical word of "hope". I have not done a full study of the Biblical definition of "hope" , but from what I've seen, "hope" is like "faith" in that both require you to act as if you have something that you don't have. "faith" is based upon a specific promise of God ( "Give, and it shall be given unto you'") and has a specific reward that is also specified. "Hope", on the other hand, is based upon the character of God and has a non-specific promise attached to it (Colossians 1:27 "To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:").

Our sixth rule is to ^Divide Equally' or ^Divide the way God does' (Equal to the way God divides).

In order to ^Divide Equally' or ^Divide the way God does' we must consider every usage of the word within the context that God used it. I have done a detailed study of over 4,000 verses in the Bible that are related to the various names of the Son of God in the New Testament. In the process, God has shown me new things as I remain diligent and look at every usage. I learned things in the middle of the study that I didn't know at the start. In learned things after that that I didn't know at the beginning or middle of the study.
Many people have told me that they have read through their Bible many times, which does not give them the same understanding that studying a specific name gives. It may give them knowledge and understanding, but not the same knowledge and understanding that studying a specific word in the Bible gives. How many people would be willing to accept a doctor that does General Practice as their brain surgeon, no matter how good a doctor he is in General medicine?
Many people have told me about their favorite preacher that wrote a book on one of the names of the Son of God which covered less than 100 of the verses provided by God. That's wonderful until they start telling me that if their favorite preacher didn't cover it then I must be wrong to say that the Bible does cover it. "Lord"occurs 670 times in the New Testament. "Jesus"occurs 935times. "Christ"occurs 532 times. "Son"occurs 335times. "King"occurs 81 times. "Saviour"occurs 24 times. "Lamb"occurs 31 times. When anyone says ^Here's all that God says about this name' and only covers only a fraction of the places that God uses that name, they are not dividing equal to the division that God makes. They are teaching the people, at least subconsciously, that a lot of what God says doesn't matter. I honestly doubt that godly preachers would claim that they covered all that there is to know about a given name of God. I don't make that claim and I've covered all of these verses. I also don't say that someone is wrong to say that the Bible teaches more than I covered but I say ^Show it to me in the Bible' when they claim that their minor study is more reliable than my major study. God condemned the religious people that refused to even listen and search their Bible to see if what they were told was actually there. You can't be right with God and say that I'm wrong when you haven't even heard where I got what I say is in the Bible and haven't shown me how my methods are against the Bible.
There are several places in the Bible where God tells His people to ^prove' something such as 1Thessalonians 5:21 which says "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." (Please see the Study called Prove, which provides a lot of detail [including notes for evert verse in the Bible which uses the word] about how the Bible uses this word and this verse.) I happen to be a professional at proving certain things. If you have a limited number of occurrences then you MUST show the results of all cases or you have an opinion but not a proof. In order for me to prove that the Bible is talking about a literal physical man when it uses the name of "Jesus", I must show it to be true in EVERY case (verse), which I have done. If you say ^I disagree', then you must find a case (verse) where under every possible consideration it is impossible to say that "Jesus"is used to identify a literal physical man. So, for example, you can't say that God is a spirit and God speaks, therefore some verse that says "Jesus"spoke is talking about a spirit speaking. Literal physical men can talk. So the ability of a spirit to speak does not eliminate the ability of a man to speak.
Many people take the attitude that if it isn't something that they have been already taught then it must not be of God. They are limiting God to their prior knowledge and not ^dividing equally'. In Isaiah 28:9-11 we are told that God will "teach knowledge...and...make to understand doctrine...with stammering lips and another tongue". When you reject Bible knowledge that is outside of what you have been taught before, you are refusing the God sent teacher that has "another tongue". Yes, verify it against the Bible but do not refuse it without even checking unless you want to sin against the God who sent the messenger.

Our seventh rule is to ^Use proper methods including precedence.' The exact steps involved in a proper Bible Word Study are:

Find every occurrence of the word in question.
For each occurrence, study the section of the Bible containing it to get the proper interpretation of the context. At a minimum, you need to consider the theme of the book it is in, the message of the section that it is in and the true interpretation of the full sentence that it is in. The section of the book often is within a chapter, but sections also crosses chapter boundaries often enough that you need to be careful of accepting a chapter boundary as the boundary of the section in the book. In addition, since most sentences span more than one verse, extra care needs to be made to not follow prior wrong training of interpreting verses.
The proper interpretation of the sentence should be written down. The process of writing forces the brain to do meditation that it does not do if things are not written down.
After writing your interpretation of the sentence, reread the section of the Bible containing the sentence then read it again only replace the sentence with your interpretation and verify that you still get the same meaning.
After getting the proper interpretation of the sentence, write down how the word is used in the sentence.
Repeat the above steps for every occurrence in the Bible.
Only after getting a written list of how the word is used in each case do you look at all usages and find the common usage that fits all occurrences. The Bible has one basic definition for every word used in the Bible. There may be secondary definitions for certain circumstances, and will be multiple applications, but the secondary definitions will agree with the primary definition of any word used in the Bible.
After finding the definition of the word, go back through every place in the Bible that it is used and read the section once as written. Then reread it only substitute the word's definition for the word in question. You should get the same meaning from the section of the Bible and you should also get new insights. This has to be experienced to understand how you get new insights.
After verifying the true definition of the base word, repeat the procedure for all permutations. For example, "adulterers"is a permutation of "adultery".
After verifying the true definition for all permutations, repeat the procedure for similar or related words. Find the similarities and differences. For example, many people claim that "fear"means the same thing as "respect". A proper Bible Word Study that examines the Biblical usage of each word will prove beyond a shadow of doubt that the Bible does not use the words interchangeably.
As you study, be sure to keep God's precedence in mind and ALWAYS keep the context in mind. As mentioned before, God puts the word ^life' at a higher precedence than ^everlasting' when it comes to salvation because "everlasting"is only a modifier for the main noun of "life".
Be sure to write down all results because the process of writing helps the mind to meditate and learn properly. Also, if the results are kept, they can be referred to in the future, so long as the results are kept.

Our eighth rule is ^Dividing requires sticking to the proper basis.' The proper basis has already been covered. We just need to stick to it. The basis for a proper Bible Word Study is:

Use only the KJV1611 for English thinking people.
Reject any teaching that starts from religions or religious people that God has rejected. That is any religion or person that justifies physical or moral sin (Isaiah 28:1-8). For example, this ^unfortunate translation' garbage was started by worldly lost religious people who claimed to have a ^better education' ("dung" per Philippians 3).
Use God's order of "precept" before "line". Keep to God's precedence in all areas.
Keep in context. Take special care to keep whole sentences as the minimum to be interpreted. Follow rules of grammar, especially sentence ending and use of the colon.
Use proper Bible Word Studies as the basis of any definition of a word found in the Bible. Do your own study or find a reliable source that is more reliable than the 1828 dictionary.
Use other books and commentaries, including the 1828 dictionary and the ^Greek', only after finding the truth in the KJV1611. Reject anything that goes against the KJV1611 and seriously consider never using that source again.

Our ninth rule is to ^Repeat application at each successive level.'

Pick one word that God lays on your heart and try this method before deciding that it is right or not right. Supposedly, no one knows as much about sex as a teenage virgin. This study method is like a lot of other things in that you cannot form a valid opinion of it without first giving it a valid try.
Not only that, but God tells the spiritually mature, especially the leaders, to use this method.
Pick a word that has few occurrences and permutations for your initial attempt at learning this method of study. Gradually step up to more extensive studies.
The Lord Jesus Christ study is an example of using this method that analyzes over 4,000 verses in detail using these methods. Every book in the New Testament was studied through at least 12 times to produce the study. It provides substantial evidence that this study method works on as much of the Bible as anyone cares to apply it to and it produces consistent results.
The God who does not change and Who does reward diligence and faithfulness will reward the use of this study method more than others which please the flesh and stray from the character of God. The main reason to study our Bible is to learn of God and then become like Him.
One of the main ways of learning is by doing. John 7:17 says "If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself." The God of the Bible has revealed a method of studying His Word that that requires more diligence than other methods and allows less ^difference of opinion' than other methods. The God of the Bible demands submission to His revealed will.
If any person would claim that this is not God's revealed will, then let them show where the error occurs by showing how this study method disagrees with the written word of God.
If any person would use any standard (for judging this study method) other than the written word of God, they prove themselves to be liars when they claim to represent the God of the Bible.

Definitions from Websters 1828:

Websters 1828 defines ^dividing' as:

Parting; separating; distributing; disuniting; apportioning to each his share.
That indicates separation or difference; as a dividing line.

Verses using "dividing"are:

Joshua 19:49, 51; Isaiah 63:12; Daniel 7:25; 1Corinthians 12:11; 2Timothy 2:15; Hebrews 4:12 (7verses).

Separating the country: Joshua 19:49, 51
Separating the water: Isaiah 63:12
Mathematically separating the time as in 1/2 of a "time": Daniel 7:25
God separating spiritual gifts among men: 1Corinthians 12:11
Separating: the word of truth: 2Timothy 2:15
Separating the insides of men (soul/spirit, joints/marrow, thoughts/intents of heart) - Hebrews 4:12

Webster's 1828 defines ^divide' as:

To part or separate an entire thing; to part a thing into two or more pieces. Divide the living child in two. 1Kings 3.
To cause to be separate; to keep apart by a partition or by an imaginary line or limit. Let the firmament divide the waters from the waters. Genesis 1.
To disunite in opinion or interest; to make discordant. There shall be five in one house divided, three against two. Luke 12.
To break friendship; as, brothers divide.

Verses using "divide"are:

Genesis 1:6, 14, 18; 49:7, 27; Exodus 14:16; 15:9; 21:35; 26:33; Leviticus 1:17; 5:8; 11:4, 7; Numbers 31:27; 33:54; 34:17, 18, 29; Deuteronomy 14:7; 19:3; Joshua 1:6; 13:6, 7; 18:5; 22:8; 2Samuel 19:29; 1Kings 3:25, 26; Neimeiah 9:11, 22; Job 27:17; Psalms 55:9; 60:6; 74:13; 108:7; Proverbs 16:19; Isaiah 9:3; 53:12; Ezekiel 5:1; 45:1; 47:21; 22; 48:29; Daniel 11:39; Luke 12:13; 22:17 (46 verses)

Verses using "divided"are:

Genesis 1:4, 7; 10:5, 25, 32; 14:15; 15:10; 32:7; 33:1; Exodus 14:21; Numbers 26:53, 55-56; 31:42; De 4:19; 32:8; Jos 14:5; 18:10; 19:51; 23:4; Judges 5:30; 7:16; 9:43; 19:29; 2Samuel 1:23; 1Kings 16:21; 18:6; 2Kings 2:8; 1Chroniocles 1:19; 23:6; 24:4-5; 2Chronicles 35:13; Job 38:25; Psalms 68:12; 78:13, 55; 136:13; Isaiah 33:23; 34:17; 51:15; Lamentations 4:16; Ezekiel 37:22; Daniel 2:41; 5:28; 11:4; Hosea 10:2; Amos 7:17; Micah 2:4; Zechariah 14:1; Matthew 12:25-26; Mark 3:24-26; 6:41; Luke 11:17-18; 12:52-53; 15:12; Acts 13:19; 14:4; 23:7; 1Corinthians 1:13; Revelation 16:19 (66 verses)

Defining Equivalent:

Below are definitions from the Web for the word ^equivalent'. Basically, I am using ^equivalent' for ^equal and almost equal' where ^almost equal' allows for some technical inequalities so long as those inequalities do not prevent the two items from having the same value for the main unit of measurement. As explained below, a square and a triangle are not equal but they are equivalent so long as they contain the same area.

Main Entry:

Function: adjective
Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French or Late Latin;
Middle French, from Late Latin aequivalent, aequivalens, present participle of aequival're to have equal power, from Latin aequi + val're to be strong ^more at WIELD Date: 15th century

equal in force, amount, or value; also : equal in area or volume but not superposable

like in signification or import
having logical equivalence

corresponding or virtually identical especially in effect or function
obsolete : equal in might or authority
having the same chemical combining capacity

having the same solution set
capable of being placed in one-to-one correspondence
related by an equivalence relation synonyms

see SAME ^equivalent noun ^equiv'a'lent'ly adverb Logical equivalence

From Wikipedia

statements p and q are logically equivalent if they have the same logical content. Syntactically, p and q are equivalent if each can be proved from the other. Semantically, p and q are equivalent if they have the same truth value in every model. Logical equivalence is often confused with material equivalence. The former is a statement in the metalanguage, claiming something about statements p and q in the object language. But the material equivalence of p and q (often written "p ↔ q") is itself another statement in the object language. There is a relationship, however; p and q are syntactically equivalent if and only if p ↔ q is a theorem, while p and q are semantically equivalent if and only if p ↔ q is a tautology. The logical equivalence of p and q is sometimes expressed as p ≡ q or p ⇔ q. However, these symbols are also used for material equivalence; the proper interpretation depends on the context.

[edit] Example The following statements are logically equivalent:

If Lisa is in France, then she is in Europe. (In symbols, f → e.)
If Lisa is not in Europe, then she is not in France. (In symbols, ~e → ~f.)

Syntactically, (1) and (2) are co-derivable via the rules of contraposition and double negation. Semantically, (1) and (2) are true in exactly the same models (interpretations, valuations); namely, those in which either Lisa is in France is false or Lisa is in Europe is true. (Note that in this example classical logic is assumed. Some non-classical logics do not deem (1) and (2) logically equivalent.)

Punctuation:

English Grammar Usage of the Colon:

I could find more examples on the Web, but that should not necessary. Basically, most web pages that tell of the use of colons mention lists, and lists have to have something in common to be proper lists. Thus, ^dirty engine oil' does not belong on a list of edible vegetable oils. Many of the web pages specify that items separated by colons must have a common theme. Most web pages agree that a colon is the strongest ^stop' used in grammar that is short of a period and that the part of the sentence before (and after) the colon must be a complete idea. We see the same concept as a colon provides when we have a complete idea (or a complete sentence) contained within another sentence. In that case, the outer sentence limits the contained sentence. By the same token, what is on one side of a colon limits the interpretation of what is on the other side of the colon, at least within the Bible. People used to understand this concept before the common usage of punctuation was changed. However, even when the common ussage changed the usage within the Bible did not change and we need to underst and how the Bible uses punctuation. When a sentence contains one or more colon, each part of the sentence is a complete idea that is limited in interpretation by the rest of the sentence. Often (but not always) when a sentence contains several colons, each section is divided into a separate verse and the division is done at the colon. Since each of these represent a complete thought, people have gotten into the habit of using verses as separate ideas. However, proper interpretation requires that the interpreted meaning of the verse must be limited to what matches with the rest of the sentence. EVERY doctrinal error that I have ever met can be traced back to someone taking a verse out of context and building a doctrine upon a twisted interpretation. (See the use of "wrest"within the Bible). Each section of a sentence that is separated by a colon within the Bible is equivalent, not equal, to other sections. Sometimes, one section is the mirror opposite of the other. So far in my study, every time that I have found a colon followed by the word "but" I have found that the two parts of the sentence are mirror opposites of the other. The Bible uses the colon to say the same thing different ways. Different people understand things different ways and God repeats the most important things more than one time and more than one way. Basically, if you realize that God controlled the grammar (jot and title of Matthew 5:18) usage in His Bible, you should realize that God chose colons, instead of periods, to indicate that certain things (verses) were strongly linked. He used colons to provide a stronger limitation of the interpretation of the verses than just using context and periods would have done. Most people read their Bible as if a colon was a period, because it is easier to read that way. God wanted to provide a more accurate interpretation. I know of no reason for God to use colons, instead of using periods, other than to show the diligent student that the proper interpretation of a thought (verse) is not complete but is only partial and that the true interpretation is limited by the other verses (within the same sentence).

Brief Overview of Punctuation: Semicolon, Colon,Parenthesis, Dash, Quotation Marks, and Italics

Brought to you by the Purdue University Online Writing Lab

Punctuation marks are signals to your readers. In speaking, we can pause, stop, or change our tone of voice. In writing, we use the following marks of punctuation to emphasize and clarify what we mean. Punctuation marks discussed in other OWL documents include commas, apostrophes, quotation marks, and hyphens.

Semicolon ;

In addition, to using a semicolon to join related independent clauses in compound sentences, you can use a semicolon to separate items in a series if the elements of the series already include commas.

Members of the band include Harold Rostein, clarinetist; Tony Aluppo, tuba player; and Lee Jefferson, trumpeter.

Colon :

Use a colon..

in the following situations:	for example:
after a complete statement in order to introduce one or more directly related ideas, such as a series of directions, a list, or a quotation or other comment illustrating or explaining the statement.	The daily newspaper contains four sections: news, sports, entertainment, and classified ads. The strategies of corporatist industrial unionism have proven ineffective: compromises and concessions have left labor in a weakened position in the new flexible economy.
in a business letter greeting.	Dear Ms. Winstead:
between the hour and minutes in time notation.	5:30 p.m.
between chapter and verse in biblical references.	Genesis 1:18

Many colon errors would be avoided if only writers would remember this one rule: Colons are almost never used except at the end of an independent clause.

The function of the colon is to separate and introduce lists, clauses, and quotations, along with several conventional uses. Authorities disagree on usage of the colon and capitalization after a colon. The following guidelines generally correspond to Words Into Type(Skillin et al. 1974).

The colon is used to introduce a strong pause within a sentence. It is the longest pause short of a full stop. Examples

The colon is used to introduce a list:

The car has a number of optional extras : sun roof, tinted windows, rear seat belts, and electrically operated wing mirrors.

The colon separates two clauses which could stand alone as separate sentences, but which are linked by some relationship in meaning:

My brother likes oranges : my sister hates them.

The colon is also used before a long quotation or a speech:

Speaking at Caesar's funeral, Anthony addresses the crowd : "Friends, Romans, countrymen..."

It is also used before a clause which explains the previous statement:

The school is highly regarded : academic standards are high, the staff are pleasant, and the students enjoy going there.

Use

The colon can be used to provide emphasis, or to create dramatic effect:

There can be only one reason for this problem: his total incompetence.

It is also used at the end of a statement which is followed by an illustration:

The vase contains beautiful flowers: roses, tulips, and daffodils.

Notice that the items which follow a list are punctuated with commas if they are a succession of individual words.

You will need four ingredients: flour, butter, milk, and sugar.

If the items in the list contain clauses or phrases these may be punctuated with semicolons:

You will need the following materials: some scrap paper; a pen, preferably blue or black; some envelopes; and some good, white, unlined writing paper.

The colon requires careful handling. If you are in any doubt, use separate sentences.

The colon is also used between the title and the sub-title of a book: Magical Realism: Latin-American fiction today.

Prove

1Thessalonians 5:21 says "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good."

In order to prove something, we need to use the proper standard the proper way. This paper shows God's standard and God's way to use that standard. We need to prove that we are doing what God wants done and that we are doing it His way so that we can "hold fast" to what God gave us. The word prove is: ^An action verb whereby someone provides evidence which allows a claim to continue to stand, no matter what test or circumstance the claim is put through.'

This paper was written before the Hermeneutics Lessons were written. Part of the body of this paper presents a lot of the same material that is presented in those lessons but this paper is more condensed. If those sections are not clear enough, please see the Hermeneutics Lessons for a different presentation and, in this paper, read the sections called: Synopsys, Summary and Verses that use the word prove.

Biblical applications of the word prove.

Synopsys:

1Thessalonians 5:21 gives us a two-step process, that is divided by the semi-colon, and whereby we cannot do the second step until after we do the first step. Unfortunately, many people believe that they have done both steps when they have done neither. When disaster strikes and they loose what is most precious in their life, few people will admit that their loss was avoidable if they had only taken the time to be sure that they had done what God meant for them to do. Many have done what they think God wants them to do or have done what religion told them God wanted them to do, but few have done what God really means for them to do.

I personally suffered felony abuse for over 10 years while attending a ^good Bible believing fundamental church'. I did everything that I was told that I had to do in order to get God's blessings and ended up in an emergency room going into a comma with the doctor telling me that I would probably never wake up. Many of my problems were due to trusting doctors who assured me that they were the "experts" and that I should trust them without questioning their methods. However, the greater problem was trusting self-proclaimed ^Bible experts'. If you're willing to risk having a similar experience, or having one of your loved ones have a similar experience, then stop reading. If you want to know how to hold onto what God wants you to have, including His protection, then please read this entire document.

It has been over 10 years since that experience and one of the main things that I have learned is how to truly prove what is and what is not Bible truth. The methods that I am about to reveal come from the Bible, never change regardless of circumstances and can be used by anyone for anything found in the Bible. I have used these methods to prove consistency within the Bible for several different studies. One of those studies (on the major names of the Son of God found in the New Testament) involves over 4,000 verses and is cross-referenced to over 26,000 verses. Malachi 3:6 says "For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed." Hebrews 13:8 says "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever." Since God does not change, and the Bible is our God given, spiritually alive picture of God (John 1:1, 14), the Bible does not change and the way of properly interpreting the Bible (John 14:6) does not change. Therefore, when we use God's method to "Prove all things" we get consistent results no matter what subject we study and no matter how much of the Bible is involved. Anyone who claims that there are discrepancies in the Bible is actually finding discrepancies in their own erroneous methods to "Prove all things".

With that said, we will proceed to see what methods that the Bible tells us to use so that we can find the consistent truth that God put within His Word. As we find God's methods by looking at this verse, we will start with the second step so that we know what we are aiming for when we figure out the correct ways to do the first step. God always wants us to act through faith but He always gives us an expected result of that faith (promise, etc) before He ever asks us to take the first step. Therefore, we will start be seeing what should be the result we are to find in our lives of faith.

In Matthew 19:16-17 and Mark 10:17-18 and Luke 18:18-19 we are told that "...a certain ruler asked him (Jesus), saying, Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? none is good, save one, that is, God". Since "Jesus" said that the only one Who is "good" is God, anything that the Bible calls "good" is from God. Therefore, when 1Thessalonians 5:21 says "hold fast that which is good" we can know that we are to "hold fast" to that which is from God.

In addition, we know that "hold fast" means to: ^hold without wavering' or ^don't let go no matter what changes in circumstances occur' (Matthew 26:48; 1Thessalonians 5:21; 2:15; 2Timothy 1:13; Hebrews 3:6; 4:14; 10:23; Revelation 2:25; Revelation 3:3, Revelation 3:11). So we are to hold onto what is from God ^without wavering' no matter how the circumstances change. However, we see many people today that cannot "hold fast" ^without wavering' when the circumstances go against them. That's because doing so requires God's help and God will not help us hold onto error. In order to obey this command we need to separate the truth from error and "hold fast" to truth while getting rid of error. That is what the commandment in the first part of this verse (to "Prove all things") does for us. If we do what the Bible means by "Prove all things", we will be able to separate God's truth from error and, as a result, be able to "hold fast" ^without wavering' to that which is from God ( "good"). If we do not do what the Bible means by "Prove all things" we won't be able to separate God's truth from error which claims to be God's truth.

Yes, there really is error which claims to be the truth from God. When people cannot "hold fast" ^without wavering' due circumstances going against what they were taught was truth from God, then that is evidence that they failed to "Prove all things". They either accepted error and have God fighting their hold on error or they were told truth and may have examined it but did not prove that it was truth.

Simply put, our ability to "hold fast" ^without wavering' is based upon our first "proving all things" by doing what God means by prove. When we do what God means by "Prove all things" we will be able to separate truth from error and we will be able to "hold fast" to the truth ^without wavering' regardless of what change in circumstances may occur. So what God's people really need to know is:

While the following points are based upon 1Thessalonians 5:21, we will cover these points in the reverse order of how they appear in the verse.

Consequences of Disobedience:

If we lined up 50 different preachers and asked them to provide the interpretation of a section of the Bible, we would probably get many different interpretations of that section with each preacher claiming that they had the ^true interpretation'. Most people trust what their favorite preacher tells them but very few preachers can prove their doctrine from the Bible and fewer still do. (Just look at all of the different religions which claim to be "Christian".) As a result, we have many people arguing for many different ^true interpretations'. Therefore, the first thing that we see as a consequence of God's people failing to "Prove all things" is confusion about what is God's true doctrine in the Bible.

1Corinthians 14:33 says "For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints". While I could run a rabbit trail with this verse, the simple application in this case is that the so-called multitude of interpretations is causing confusion that serves the Devil. God only has one interpretation as seen in Psalm 119:89 which says "For ever, of LORD, thy word is settled in Heaven." "Settled" means God isn't still trying to decide upon the final interpretation. God's interpretation is fixed and is not moving ( "is settled"). We don't need a lot of erroneous interpretations from different men but we need to know what God's interpretation is. When we face judgment by God, His interpretation will be the only one used. Therefore, His interpretation is the only one that matters. If people knew God's way of interpreting the Bible and used God's way of proving doctrine, we would have only God's interpretation and not this multitude of confusion. Since God wrote His Word to reveal Himself to us, He intended us to have His interpretation and understand it. Our failure to have God's interpretation is due to our failure to seek the truth that God already revealed in His Word by using God's methods. It is not due to God's failure to reveal His truth. There are many ways that we fail to truly seek the truth even while we think that we are seeking the truth. Those methods of failure will be revealed and should be self-evident when they are pointed out.

In addition, to the so-called multitude of interpretations causing ungodly Satanic confusion, it also causes many people to have a false image of the Son of God. The Bible is our God given picture of God (John 1:1) and the Son of God (John 1:14-15). The Son of God said "...I am the way, the truth, and the life.." (John 14:6). "The" means ^there is only one and here it is'. That means there is only one true interpretation of the word of God ( "I am the truth") and only one way ("I am the way") to arrive at that truth (interpret) and all of the other ^interpretations' and ^ways of interpretation' are either lies or error. Some examples of the lies and errors that God's people hold as truth are:

While I could list more examples, hopefully this is enough to get the idea across. In addition, to causing confusion about true Bible doctrine, we have varying pictures of "Jesus", erroneous doctrines taught as truth and people who think they are true Christians but are truly a "...twofold...child of hell.." (Matthew 23:15) or are so spiritually immature that they do not know the Biblical definition of a "Christian" (Acts 11:26: ^a disciple of Christ whose life reveals the true Christ to a lost world around them').

The end result is that many people are sure that they are going to have eternal bliss in a mansion in Heaven while they are truly going to the "Lake of Fire" (Revelation 20:15) or they are heading for over 1,000 years of tears as a homeless person in Heaven. Those are both significant consequences and that doesn't even consider the consequences of their hypocritical influence upon others.

Consider James 2:18, 20 and 22 which say "I will shew thee my faith by my works...But wilt thou know, of vain man, that faith without works is dead?..Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?" This gives us a direct measurement of faith. God's measurement of faith is the quantity and quality of works produced by that faith. Consider our forefathers whose faith was displayed by willingly facing torture, suffering and martyrdom. Now consider the type of faith displayed by the works of Christians today. When today's Christians claim the same faith as those martyrs but refuse to do the works of faith done by the same martyrs, God will let them call us liars.

21 places in Revelation use versions of the word "works" and that book makes it clear that our eternal rewards and our position within God's hierarchy for all of eternity is based upon our "works". (This is a different judgment than the decision about if we go to Heaven or the "Lake of Fire".) Based upon evidence of works today, especially when compared with the works of former Christians, most of the Christians of today will be the poverty class for all of eternity. And to all of those people who think I'm wrong, I remind you that God says "Prove it" because if I'm right and you don't take the effort to prove me wrong, you also won't take the effort to change your eternal reward. If you are wrong, then it will be you, and those who follow you, who will suffer for all eternity even if you are saved.

The truth is that even God's children can act foolishly, and suffer the consequence of being a fool, when they believe and obey someone that opposes what God teaches them to do (Romans 6:16). The Bible teaches that God gives people (including His children) the "fear of the Lord" so that they will stop their sinning. Those who refuse to stop their sinning are holding onto error and not to "that which is good" (from God). James 4:17 tells us "Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin." When God tells us to "Prove all things" so that we can "hold fast that which is good" and we fail to "Prove all things", we are sinning. If we don't want to suffer the judgment for sin we need to obey God and do what God means by prove.

I realize that the reaction of a lot of people to the consequences of sin that I named above is ^I don't believe you'. I say ^good' to that and say ^prove me wrong'. But in order to do that, you have to know how "Prove all things" the way that the Bible says to prove things. When Jesus said "...I am the way.." (John 14:6), He let us know that God's way is the ONLY way. Since the Bible does tell us God's way to interpret the Bible, we need to do it God's way. If we don't use God's way to "Prove all things" then He is going to make us hurt very badly for a very long time. Yes, God does have great rewards but those are only given to people who obey Him and do what he tells them to do. Those who disobey and make excuses are actually helping Satan because of their influence upon others. Remember, God said in 2Peter 3:9: "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." Just because we haven't experienced God's judgment while under His grace, that doesn't mean that judgment day will never come. Just because God is still giving us time to repent does not mean that God will never judge sin or that God is fooled by our excuses. Remember, Psalms 14:1 and 53:1 tell us "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good." When we live like there is no judgment of God coming, we have said in our heart that "There is no God" and we will suffer the consequences of being fools even if we are children of God.

I started out telling what happened to me when I believed ^good godly preachers' without doing what God meant by "Prove all things". I honestly believe that one of the reasons that God let me go through those things (and survive) is that He knew that I would learn to do better and try to warn others. I truly pity the person who dares God to prove these same things to them because they might not go through what I went through. The highest probability is that they will have to watch one of their loved ones go through the lessons because their loved ones won't listen any better than the person who dared God to prove His lesson.

The neighborhood that I started out in had a saying of ^put up or shut up' and even at 10 years old people (in that neighborhood) knew better than to bring a knife to a gun fight. When someone said ^put up or shut up' it meant that you had better ^shut up' and apologize real fast or ^put up' your defense because your are about to get hurt real bad. No person can ^put up' a defense that will stop the judgment by God. If they could, they would also be able to make the sun stop shining like God's Word says He will do. When God's Word says "Prove all things" it includes the meaning of ^put up proof that you are interpreting God's Word God's way or shut up'. God gives grace to those who don't ^put up or shut up', but that grace is so that they will repent. However, eventually God has to judge even His children when they make a mockery of Him and His word by continuing to live in sin and rely upon "grace" to remove the consequences of that sin (Galatians 6:7).God would be a liar if He did not hurt those who continued to live in sin while they also refused to ^put up or shut up'. When He is forced to judge them, He will hurt them real bad for a real long time (> 1,000 years or for eternity).

Advantages of Obedience:

When we do what God means by "Prove all things", we will have what we need to "hold fast that which is good". God reveals "that which is good" then sends a test to prove that we are "holding fast" and then rewards those who pass the test. If we are holding onto God's truth God's way then we will pass the test. If we are not holding onto God's truth or are (in fact) holding onto God's truth the wrong way then we will fail the test. So far as I recall, every promise in the Bible (that is given to man and not including the promises that are given to "Christ") includes a test that we must pass. Many of God's people claim to believe God's word while the evidence of their life is that they failed God's test.

Our salvation starts out with the test of our giving up our religious beliefs to accept what God put in writing according to 1John 5:13. However, 1John 5:13 includes "...and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God." That means that God is going to increase our belief "on the name of the Son of God" the same way that he saved us. This in turn means that at the very least we have to keep passing tests which require us to give up our religious beliefs when they disagree with what God wrote in the word of God. Unfortunately, many preachers are following Satan's way of presenting only part of Biblical truth when they reveal the promises of the Bible without also warning of the included test. People who believe those preachers, don't prove what they say, because they never check the message from the preacher against what God put into writing. They think that they have done what God requires and yet fail to receive God's blessings.

When the blessings don't come, God's people need to go back to what God really wrote in His Word and make sure that they didn't miss some requirement that God included for receiving the blessing. Since the promises of the Bible are well-known, I will simply tell people that those promises are only given after people prove that they have passed God's test and I will move onto what the Bible says is required in order to "Prove all things".

What does God means by "Prove all things".

In order to prove something we need to have a valid standard to compare the item against and then use a proper procedure to compare the item being tested against the standard. For example, if someone told us that a counter was 12 foot long and we wanted to prove that claim, we would get a standard tape measure and have a couple of people compare the length of the counter to the tape measure.

While this seems simple enough, life itself is more complicated and, therefore, "proving" things in life is also more complicated. In my more than 30 years as a professional, I have been used repeatedly to check the claims by other professionals that they had ^proved' that their answer was valid. (I had a reputation for breaking things that no one else could break.) In order for you to prove something, your answer must stand no matter what circumstances (test) your answer is put through. The Bible does use words like "try" for less comprehensive testing, but when we prove, our answer must stand through all tests. One of the best Biblical evidences of this procedure is what God let Satan put Job through in order to prove the testimony of Job. When we claim to have "proved" something within the Bible, we are agreeing to have God give Satan the job of "proving" our claimed answer wrong.

One of the requirements of the Scientific Method is repeatability. God also requires us to meet this requirement for anything that we claim to have received from the Bible and "proved" to be "true". For example, the Bible requires there be at least two people involved in the test so that there wasn't any question about the test being done properly (Deuteronomy 17:6; 19:15; Matthew 18:16, 20; 1Corinthians 14:27, 29; 2Corinthians 13:1; 1Timothy 5:19; Hebrews 10:28). In addition, to these couple of requirements, there are other requirements which will be dealt with in more detail below

There are two main things that we need to properly "Prove all things" in the Bible: God's standard of measurement and God's method of using that standard. After explaining each of these two requirements in more detail, this study will examine every place that the Bible uses a permutation of prove to show that the things which I identify actually provide the basic definition of prove that is used by God within His Word.

God's Standard to use when we "Prove all things".

One of the ways that Satan leads people into error is to get them to use the wrong standard. While most people understand that our standard needs to be God's standard, they don't know what God's standard is. God's standard is the word of God used God's Way. While many people accept that God's standard is the word of God, they make the mistake of thinking that a religious way of using God's Word is God's Way. Thus they are led into error.

Most people can't show where the Bible tells them how to use the Bible and even those who can, usually can't say that they are doing all that God says for us to do. The simple test is whether, or not, the way they are using allows anyone to conclude that there are ^problem verses'. God gave us a "perfect Word" and a "perfect way" to use that "perfect Word" to get a "perfect" result. If it is possible to get ^problem verses', then we do not have a "perfect" result and the fault lies with man and what he does and how he does it. There is no fault in God.

We all know that God's Word warns us about adding to God's Word or diminishing it. It also warns us in 2Timothy 2:15 that God says we need to be (and will be) "ashamed" for not "rightly dividing the word of truth". I have a separate study on Rightly Dividing which is good sized, so I won't cover that here. However, most people can understand that if we divide a pile of books by two, we separate them into two piles. Likewise, part of "rightly dividing the word of truth" is separating God's Word from error that claims to be God's Word. When we use God's Standard, which is God's Word, and separate it from error that pretends to be God's Word, we are "rightly dividing the word of truth". When we refuse to do so we are propagating error and God will make us ashamed for our error and a lot of that shame will be in Heaven. So we need to know how to separate the truth of God's Word from error that claims to be God's Word.

When people argue against Creation and for Evolution they are ignoring the fact that every standard for measuring time used by Evolution is unreliable. For example, they use the ^life decay of radioactive material' as one method to age things. Radioactive material looses its charge over time (decay) at a steady rate and Evolution uses the amount of ^lost' charge to say how old something is. This measurement assumes that all radioactive material is created with a full charge. However, men have seen things created with less than a full charge. Therefore, something that has 10% of a full charge was not necessarily created long enough ago for it to have lost 90% of the charge. If it was created with a 15% charge, then it only had to loose 5% to get to the current 10% remaining. There (reportedly) is rock formed by a volcano in Russia that was recorded as being created in the early 1900s. Yet this unit of measurement says that the volcano (which created the rock from molten lava) had to explode over 1million years ago. This error in dating is because they are using an unreliable standard for measuring time. An unreliable standard makes an invalid assumption.

Evolution also uses what is called ^Carbon Dating' which ages living mollusks at over 100,000 years. This standard in unreliable in another fashion, but it is still unreliable as is the third standard for measuring time used by Evolution. The one proven reliable measurement of the Earth's age is the decay of the magnetic field of the Earth. However, since that measurement puts the Earth at less than10,000 years old, it is rejected by Evolution.

Thus we see the methods of Satan and of liars. They use unreliable standards of measurement while rejecting reliable ones. This is a standard ploy used by con artists. One of the evidences of the reliability of a standard is that it is rejected by liars. For example, the KJV1611 is rejected by all of the self-proclaimed ^Bible scholars' who seem to have a flavor-of-the-year for which man-wrote ^bible' they use. They insist that all Bibles have errors with the possible exception being the one in Heaven that God will use to judge us but (they claim) won't let men see before He uses it to judge them. The god they believe in does not have a character to match the true God of the Bible. The true God of the Bible reveals Himself to His believers. He does not hide and the God of the Bible does not hide His truth. As said, John 1:1 and 1:14 tell us that the Bible is our picture of God. Those who reject the KJV1611 are looking at the men who were used by God to reveal Himself and refuse to see God behind the men. These are the type of people that John warns us against because they are walking in darkness (1John 2) and are the "many antichrists" (1John 2:18). 1John 2:23 tells us "Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: (but) he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also". When they deny their God given spiritual living picture of the Son (the KJV1611), they "denieth the Son" and prove that they "hath not the Father".

We saw that false religion tells us to trust Evolution which rejects the reliable standard of measurement (decay of the magnetic field of the Earth) while giving several unreliable standards of measurement. So also does false religion tell us to trust self-proclaimed ^Bible scholars' who reject the one reliable standard of measurement which provides a consistent picture of God (the KJV1611), while they give several unreliable standards of measurement (several man written bibles). There are two main ways that Satan uses these men to get us to use a wrong standard:

We will look at both of these methods in a moment but first we need to recognize one of the easy ways to spot a source of error that God gives us in His word. Isaiah 28:9 says "Whom shall he [God] teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts". Here we are explicitly told God's way to "teach knowledge and ^to understand doctrine". There is a separate paper that goes into this section in more detail, but we can glean a couple of surface points that relate to our current subject.

We have to be spiritually alive (saved) and taking "the milk" (1Peter 2:1-3) before we can be "weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts". 1Corinthians 3 says that they were "babes in Christ" while they were doing the sins that Paul; dealt with in 1Corinthians (see Test of Spiritual Maturity) including arguing about spiritual leadership. Therefore, God is not going to teach someone on a personal level, and certainly not going to use them to teach others, until after they have eliminated the sins that Paul; dealt with in 1Corinthians (see Test of Spiritual Maturity) from their life. Before they reach this level they are relying upon what other men taught them and part of our source of error is choosing spiritual leaders who have not met God's standard of spiritual maturity. However, before we worry about getting rid of the sins that Paul; dealt with in 1Corinthians (see Test of Spiritual Maturity), we have to remove the influence of Satan's false ministers (2Corinthians 11:13-15). Those false ministers are teaching us to accept sinful lifestyle s that God rejects. That is what Isaiah 28:1-8 was dealing with (the verses before we are told how God's way to "teach knowledge and...to understand doctrine").

First, God has Isaiah mention "The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim" in Isaiah 28:3. The priests "of Ephraim" were considered to be the top ^Bible scholars' of the day. But notice that they were full of "pride" (Isaiah 28:3; James 4:6; 1Peter 5:5) and they were "drunkards". In these first 8 verses of Isaiah 28 God is describing ^spiritual leaders' that we are to reject and not listen to directly or indirectly. Isaiah 28:7 starts with "But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way.." and we will follow them into spiritual error if we follow them. Even "babes in Christ" can understand that when a man is a "drunkard" he doesn't represent the God of the Bible. Further, religions and doctrines that allow "drunkards" are to be rejected. Given our drug culture, it shouldn't be hard for people to understand that this include and person or religion that condones drug use in any fashion. In fact, God is using being drunk as a "type" to represent any physical sin which is condoned by religion for anyone. Any person or religion that condones or excuses physical sin is to be rejected as an authority on the word of God and not listened to directly or indirectly.

In Isaiah 28:8 we read "For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean". All through the Bible "filthiness" is a ^type' of moral uncleanness. Even "babes in Christ" can understand that any person or religion that condones or excuses moral sin is to be rejected as an authority on the word of God and not listened to directly or indirectly.

For example, some people use ^the Greek' to enhance the understanding they received from God using the KJV1611. They do not use ^the Greek' to correct the English, and this is proper. However, other people have been convinced to err and use ^the Greek' to correct their English and this comes directly and indirectly from those men and religions which excuse physical and moral sin. Many good godly men have been led into error and sin by starting out trying to show their ^Bible scholarship' ( "pride") by teaching ^the Greek'. They then took the next step of using ^the Greek' to correct their English and they were on the slippery slope into condoning and doing physical and moral sin. Please understand: there are some very good men who teach Greek and are not full of this pride. However, there are also prideful men who teach and use Greek to ^correct' the English KJV1611, when they are not qualified to do so.

I have been hired as a professional to translate between two computer languages and the write some of the rules for translation. This has happened several times when hundreds of millions of dollars were at stake and we were guaranteed to have law suits for any error. I was hired because I knew the rules of translation, which are different from the rules of any language. When I have talked to other professional translators, they agree with me as to what the basic rules of translation are, yet most people who go to ^the Greek' have been taught to ignore, and even to violate, these basic rules of translation. Just search for ^Chinglish' on the internet if you want examples of the results which come from plugging words from one language into another. Please don't end up in judgment by your Lord God and have Him tell you that you ignored His warning about your using a prideful wrong way to handle His Word.

The most popular wrong standard that people use for correcting the word of God is from Original Sin and the consequence of using that standard is that many will suffer is the same fate as the Devil will suffer. Those who don't suffer the same fate as the Devil will still suffer greatly. We read about Satan's wrong standard and His judgment in Isaiah 14:8-14. Satan said "I will.." which tells us that his standard was himself. In Genesis 3:4-5 Satan promised "...ye shall be as gods.." which means that Satan claimed that we can tell God "I will.." and that our ^standard' is as good as His written Word. If Satan couldn't get away with telling God "I will.." then any man who thinks they can get away with it is a fool. Many times when I have been telling someone what God's Word says they respond with ^I don't believe you'. So What!!!! 1Samuel 8:7 says "And the LORD said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them." When someone is telling us what the word of God says and we reject it we are not rejecting the messenger but God Himself Who sent the message. We are guilty of Original Sin by claiming that our own opinion is greater than God's written Word.

When we look at what the Bible teaches about antichrists in 1John and 2John we see that there are many of these people already in the world and that they go against what the Bible teaches. Indeed, "anti" means ^against and/or alternative' and "Christ" is the role that the Son of God uses to teach us how to mature in spiritual matters. So an antichrist is someone who goes against what the Bible / "Christ" teaches about maturing in spiritual matters. These antichrists include those who put their own opinion above the written word of God. Romans 6:16 says "Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?" This verse does not say ^if' we "yield [ourselves] servants to obey" but says the results that we receive is based upon whichever we obey: the Bible / "Christ" ( "obedience unto righteousness") or self, which is "sin unto death". When we obey what we believe instead of what God wrote in his Word we are obeying Original Sin, acting like an antichrist and will reap the consequences of "sin unto death". While I could say more about this subject, I will move on.

After self, the second most popular wrong standard is religion in the form of a religious group or one or more religious leaders or religious traditions. Please understand: there is nothing wrong with any of these people or traditions in and of themselves. In fact they are often good. However, the error comes when they try to correct the word of God they go beyond their God given boundaries. It is this exceeding God given authority that is wrong. When I mention these things throughout this paper, please understand that I assume the reader understands that I mean the exceeding of proper authority by these people and/or traditions.

The standard that the religious leaders who crucified the Son of God used was their own authority that they took beyond what God gave them. This excess authority is the standard used by all religions, including most of those who claim to be Bible based, when they try to correct the word of God.

In addition, we all know that if we tell something to one person and have them pass it to another and continue to pass it from person to person it gets distorted. Further, the more people it passes through the more it gets distorted. However, even though traditions are passed from one generation to the next in the exact same way, we are expected to accept that they do not get distorted the same way. Such expectations are insanity.

I've had many good godly preachers and spiritually mature non-preachers tell me that what I showed them in the Bible can't be right because it isn't in the traditions that they were taught. God's people should know better because the distortion due to passing things from one person to another isn't the only source of error. We all know that the original person could have been in error. There isn't a person born since Revelation was written that has the God recorded approval that Peter had. He not only has two of his letters in the Bible (1Peter and 2Peter) but he brought the gospel to the Jews in Acts 2 and to the Gentiles in Acts 10 and he worked miracles in Acts 3. In Galatians 2:1-14 Paul tells us about the Council of Jerusalem where the entire church agreed that God had set aside the religious part of the Mosaic Law. Peter was there and yet after that Council Peter listened to other preachers and ended up preaching error that was based upon what God was no longer using. Peter preached the error so much that Barnabas, who was the pastor at Antioch, "...also was carried away with their dissimulation" (Galatians 2:13). So now we have the head Apostle and a godly pastor preaching error. If they could be "carried away with" Biblical error then anyone born since that time can also be "carried away with" Biblical error. Our standard is not tradition or the man but what God put in writing in the word of God. Having said that, I need to recognize that there is the qualifier of submitting to our God given authority. Done properly, that submitting is not in conflict with this verse but explaining how the conflict is avoided must be covered at another time. The simple rule is that we must have at least two places in the Bible that literally say our God given authority is wrong before we dispute with that authority. At the same time, our God given authority does not need any verses to back what they say because they have the God given position. Hopefully, this simple rule is enough (for now) and we can put that question to the side and continue with the main subject.

Proper procedures to "Prove all things".

We saw that the first thing that we need to "prove all things" is God's standard. For English thinking people that is the "incorruptible" (1Peter 1:23) "God preserved" (Deuteronomy 7:9; 1Chronicles 16:15; Psalm 105:8) KJV1611. It is not your opinion or my opinion or some religion or even a preacher like your pastor (if any of these sources try to correct God's Word).

The second thing that we need is God's methods of using God's standard. Most of the evidence of God's methods is found in the discussion of the verses within the Bible where God uses permutations of prove. What immediately follows (below) is a general discussion of the concepts involved, which are then shown in detail with the Bible verses. This general discussion is so that people can understand the principals that these methods use before we get into the details of God's methods. It is also so that people can see that these methods are not unique to the Bible but are used throughout all of God's creation.

Our initial verse was 1Thessalonians 5:21, which told us "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." Notice the "all" in this verse. Many people will tell you the stupid definition of ^all means all and that's all there is to it'. "All" means ^each and every one'. A proper definition never uses a word to define itself. If I told someone to give a paper to all of the people in the church and they gave one to all of the people in the auditorium, that would be their definition of ^all' and would match the stupid definition. However, when they are told that "all" means ^each and every person in the church', most people will realize that ^each and every person in the church' includes people who are not in the auditorium. This probably seems to be a minor thing to many people but "A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump" (1Corinthians 5:6; Galatians 5:9). One of the main ways that Satan introduces corruption is to leave out ^just a little' and one of the principals of proper proving is that we have not proven something to be true if there is a limited number of items and we have left out even one. This is one of the main sources of doctrinal error that is taught by many ^good godly preachers'. They study what God's Word says about a subject and tell themselves that they have found ^all' that God says on the subject when there are still verses that deal with the subject which they have not studied. For example, I have met very few people who have looked at ^each and every single' sentence in the Bible (considering context) that uses a given word even though they believe they have the ^final doctrinal word' on that subject. I have found that many ^good godly preachers' stand ready to correct someone who has prayed and diligently searched their Bible for ^each and every one' occurrence within the Bible even though the preacher has not done the same type of study in God's Word. I sincerely believe that such behaviour is due to their being taught the wrong way to study their Bible and "Prove all things". However, I also sincerely believe this error of wrong teaching is why we cannot "hold fast that which is good" and we are losing our churches, families and Christian heritage and why we no longer have a true Christian nation where Biblical standards are seen as right even by lost people.

Returning to our word of prove; let me provide an example of the correct way to "Prove all things". One of the rules of Algebra is that an equation cannot be solved with multiple variables if there was more than one variable with an unknown value. This truth is based upon pure logic which is the foundation of all Mathematics and is also the basis of the rules for proving all things. For example, most people have heard of a "double blind study" when it comes to medical testing. While many people believe this testing method is limited to medical testing, it is actually required for all testing. Just like Algebra, proper testing requires all variables except one to have a known value. However, while doing medical testing people found that if the person giving the test knew of the desired result or if the person taking the test knew of the desired result, that knowledge affected the test results in an unknown way. Therefore, they had to get rid of these unknown variables or provide a valid value for these variables. Since the variables were actually the people were involved, they could not put a known value upon these variables. Therefore, they came up with the ^double blind' test which eliminates these variables from the test. One person devises a test whereby the test itself does not reveal the desired results. They then have someone else administer the test to a third person without revealing the desired results to the tester or the tested. An example would be to give two testers identical pills and tell them to administer the pills once a day (to several people being tested) and then keep a dozen medical measurements such as blood pressure. One pill would be real and the other a fake and neither tester nor tested would know who received which. Further, even though 12 medical variables are monitored, only 2 might be important. Thereby, both tester and tested ('double') are ^blind' to the desired results.

Even though Algebra and medical testing are different, they have the same requirements because they both use the principals of pure logic to "prove all things". These principals of pure logic are what are used by the spiritual gift of "understanding" in order to "prove all things". The problem that most preachers run into is that their main spiritual gift is "wisdom" and "wisdom" does not use pure logic (when it applies the word of God to the lives of people). Please stay with me while I explain this important difference. It is this difference that is responsible for a lot of doctrinal error. When the Pope supported the ^flat Earth proof' he did it because that was what everyone believed at the time and he was worried about upsetting everyone by telling them that what their authorities had taught them was wrong. He could see chaos resulting from destroying people's faith in their authorities. Many preachers worry about the same thing today. They let their worry about upsetting people affect their doctrine. However, God's way is to get God's truth from His Spirit and His Word and let God deal with people that are upset by His truth. When the preacher trusts God, God uses the gift of "wisdom", which came from God, to show the upset people how to deal with God's truth. The error comes from trying to avoid a problem instead of trusting God to deal with it.

There is further confusion caused by the fact that "knowledge" and "understanding" are part of "wisdom". This confusion is cleared up below.

In Mathematics there is what is called ^set theory' which also applies to the Bible. The simple principals can be illustrated. If I had a drawer with lots of balls in it, all of the balls within the drawer would be called a ^set'. If I put a box in the drawer and put all f the green balls into the box within the drawer, and left the blue balls in the drawer but outside of the box, the green balls would be one ^sub-set' and the blue balls would be another ^sub-set'. Thus, a ^sub-set' is part of a ^set'.

In the Bible we have a "set" called "man" which has the sub-sets of "male and female" (Genesis 1:27). Sometimes the Bible uses "man" for "male and female" (Galatians 6:7) and sometimes it uses "man" for the part of the set called "man" which does not include "woman" (Genesis 2:22). When the Bible does this, the context makes it clear whether or not "man" includes "woman".

We have a similar case with the "wisdom" of God. The "wisdom" of God uses the Spirit of God and the word of God to teach us how to live. Within the "wisdom" of God are "knowledge and understanding" (Proverbs 2:6). Thus we have a ^set' called "wisdom" which holds ^sub-sets' called "knowledge and understanding". When "wisdom" is used in a different way than "knowledge" or "understanding", the Bible means all that is in the ^set' called "wisdom" which is not in the ^sub-set' named. Therefore, we need to look at the context to see if "wisdom" includes "knowledge and understanding" or means the part of "wisdom" that is not part of "knowledge" and/or "understanding".

Within "wisdom", "knowledge" tell us what the word of God says. I've met a few people who had the spiritual gift of "knowledge". They had (each) memorized several hundred verses within the Bible and they retained that memorization. I can memorize verses, but I loose them after a short time. I retain the "understanding" of the verse (and how it interacts with other verses) but do not retain the memorization like someone with the spiritual gift of "knowledge" does. The spiritual gift of "understanding" applies the word of God to the word of God and the basic principal of true "understanding" is that ^scripture interprets scripture'. The spiritual gift of "wisdom" applies the word of God to everything. However, when it is separated from "knowledge" and "understanding", it applies the word of God to the lives of people. This is where we get into variableness. As my pastor said, when he is dealing with someone about sin in their life, he must consider the spiritual condition of that person. If someone that is a spiritual "babe" has a problem with a sin, and a spiritually mature person has a problem with the same sin, he can bluntly tell the spiritually mature person that they are sinning and what the word of God says is the consequence of that sin. However, when he is dealing with the spiritual "babe", he has to be very slow and gentle and limit the doctrine that he uses to the "milk" of the word (1Corinthians 3:1-3). Therefore, when "wisdom" applies the word of God to the lives of people, it must consider the varying spiritual condition of the people. However, when "understanding" applies the word of God to the word of God, there is "no variableness, neither shadow of turning" (James 1:17). Since God does not change (Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8) and the truths of God are absolute (2+ 2always = 4), the methods of "understanding" are also absolute. When we "prove all things" we not only use God's inerrant absolute standard (word of God), we also use God's inerrant absolute method ( pure logic).

Hopefully, the reader understands the concepts which have been stated. Therefore, we will see a few (not all available) verses applied to these concepts and then go into the verses that give us the permutations of prove and see these principals related to God's use of the word prove.

In 1Corinthians chapters 1, 2 and 3; we are told about the difference between the wisdom of God and the wisdom of man and makes it very clear that the two are different. (Hopefully you remember my covering the differences between what God and man calls "wisdom" and "knowledge" and "understanding".) Read those chapters for a better explanation of these differences and to remove man's definitions from your thinking for this study.

Proverbs 3:19 says "The LORD by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the Heavens". This means that God used "wisdom" to create ( "The LORD by wisdom") our world. We discover the rules that "The LORD" used in creation through the Scientific Method which uses Mathematics and other absolute methods which are defined by pure logic. 1Timothy 6:20 warns us of "science falsely so called" (example Evolution) which claims to be science but does not follow the Scientific Method. (It uses man's ^logic' to produce man's ^understanding'. It does not use pure logic which is from God and used by God's "understanding".) While a discussion of Mathematics, the Scientific Method and pure logic are beyond our current discussion, be assured that Mathematics and the Scientific Method are based upon the principals of pure logic. The word "pure" means ^100%'. pure logic is ^100% abstract reasoning' with no influence by fleshly reasoning. pure logic is part of God's wisdom that He used to create the world. There could not be any worldly /fleshly influence upon the creation of thee world since it did not exist while God used pure logic to plan the design. Thus the difference between ^pure logic' and ^man's logic' is that ^man's logic' includes influence of the world/flesh.

One of the ways that we can tell that pure logic (and the examples of it such as Mathematics) are from God is because they have the same characteristics as God such ac being "the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever" and being "no respecter of persons" (We find the phrase "no respecter of persons" in: Acts 10:34; Romans 2:11; Ephesians 6:9; Colossians 3:25 and 2:1. Also explained in the notes for Romans 14:10-LJC; Romans C7S3 and Romans C10S13. Please also see Romans C10S13 about the phrase "no difference in people".) 2+ 2= 4 is true in any time, culture, age, etc and it doesn't matter who you are, the results don't change.

When Galileo was alive, he used these principals to prove that the Earth is a globe. Others used man's logic which included authority based upon positions and traditions. When they couldn't convince Galileo, they stuck a rope around his neck and declared that they had "proved" that the Earth was flat. (Galileo wasn't willing to die for the truth.)

As I go through the rules used to "prove all things", you will find that these rules also are the rules used to prove answers in Mathematics and in true science. This is important because people who teach error that claims to be the word of God also claim the have special rules and special knowledge that you don't have and can't get without their help and training. The God of the Bible reveals Himself in creation (Psalms 19; 50; 97; etc). Our God does not change (Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8). Our God used the same methods in creating the Earth and in writing His Word. The way that we discover His rules for creation are the same rules that we use to find understanding in His Word.

In summary of these general concepts, it was said that pure logic is God's Method used by the spiritual gift of "understanding". As a result, we can say that pure logic and "understanding":

Rules from ^pure logic' (which were not explained but will be demonstrated in the verses below) include:

Verses that use prove:

Deuteronomy 18:22 says "When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him." A prophet had to have God back his word 100% of the time to prove that what he said came from God. Likewise, a ^man of God' needs to have God's Word back his word 100% of the time to prove that what he said came from God. If any place in the Bible disagrees with what he says, then his doctrine is NOT from God.

In order to know what God means by prove, we have to look at every place that he uses any permutation of prove in His Word. Men provide definitions of Bible words that are wrong and if we don't find God's definition for a Bible word then we will use the wrong definition. God's way to get the Bible definition of a Bible word is to do a proper Bible Word Study. The details on how to do that is covered in a separate study but the basic concept is to find the consistent meaning by looking at how the Bible word is used in any permutation found anywhere within the Bible. When the true Biblical definition of a word is found, we can go to any verse that uses it and replace the Bible word with the definition of that word within the verse. The meaning of the verse (found within the context) will not change, although we often get new insight into the true meaning of the verse. (Try replacing "ye" with ^each and every one of you personally' in Mark 16:15 and other verses that use that word.)

At the start of this paper we saw that the definition of the word prove is: ^An action verb whereby someone provides evidence which allows a claim to continue to stand, no matter what test or circumstance the claim is put through.'

The first thing that we see is that every one of these verses shows that the word prove involves a test. (Notice that I just said how to test someone's definition of a Bible word.) When God "proves" something or someone He provides a standard and then tests to see how well the thing that is being proved matches against the standard. If there is no test, then nothing has been proven. The most common source of people being fooled is that they never test what they are told. Someone tells them that they are the authority and the fool accepts whatever that self-proclaimed authority says without testing the claim from that self-proclaimed authority and, thereby, verifying the claim. (Think of the "foolish man's" acts in Matthew 7:24-27.)

Deuteronomy 13 makes it clear that God wants His people to test the claims made by everyone who claims to speak for God, even if they are family, and God said to kill the false prophet. The least we can do is to stop listening to him and warn others of his false message. God wants His people to verify what they are told, especially what they are told comes from God. Too many people listen to preaching and then go home saying ^that was good' without taking their Bible and looking up the verses used as ^proof text' to verify that those verses actually supported what was preached and that all which was preached actually agrees with the Bible.

We can use the Law of First Mention when we look at this verse because it is the first in the Bible which uses any form of prove. In it, the brothers of Joseph claimed to have a younger brother. Joseph tested their claim to prove if it was true or not. Joseph said they would all go to prison until they showed that they had a living younger brother. After the way these brothers had treated Joseph, he had a real reason to fear that they had killed Benjamin. He told them to ^put up or shut up'. He had a very simple test: If they produced a living brother then they proved that they were telling the truth. If they did not produce a living brother then they proved proof that they were lying when they claimed that Benjamin existed. Here we see the basic requirement of a valid test: the test must provide a direct correlation between the claim being tested and the result with no interference from something outside of the test. A basic rule of testing is the ^KISS principal' ('Keep It Simple Stupid'). If the test does not meet these basic requirements it is not valid and will not prove if the claim is valid or not. We see the same truth in Judges 6:39; Daniel 1:12, 14 Malachi 3:10; Luke 14:19; John 6:6; Romans 3:9 and 2Corinthians 8:8.

Let me give you another illustration. I had some serious medical problems which lasted over 10 years and resulted in (among other things) my going into a coma in the Emergency Room as the doctor told me that he didn't think that he could save my life. That was part of a 10 year period where I bled daily for 3.5years and it took 3.5more years to get the internal bleeding to stop. For two years I was too anemic to go to work and I qualified for permanent Social Security Disability due to Anemia. I was taking up to 28 prescription medications per day and the doctors told me that I would take that much and more for the rest of my life. I now take 5prescription medications per day and could drop one of those. I take about the 25of non-prescriptions per day, but do not have all of the side effects. I am not anemic and work a regular job.

After I woke up in the Emergency Room, I stopped taking the word of self-proclaimed ^experts' and started doing my own research. One thing that I found is that the FDA allows drug companies to deliberately use wrong testing methods while they discredit tests which are done correctly but which make their product look bad. They are allowed to deliberately engage in a campaign of disinformation and out-right lies about competing non-prescription products. For example, I took Lipitor and Zocor for several years under doctor orders. My cholesterol and triglycerides only got worse and I was told to ignore the side-effects since I couldn't get off these drugs and knowing the side-effects would only make me upset. I no longer take these type of drugs, no longer have to put up with the side-effects and no longer have a cholesterol problem. My own research led me to an ^unregulated non-prescription' solution that most doctors don't know about or don't use if they do know about these solutions. I "proved" that some ^alternative medicinethe words "see / sight"solutions worked better for me than my ^blindly accepting' the word of ^experts'.

I have found that most people are doing the same thing with their relationship with God. They are accepting the lies and errors of self-proclaimed "experts" without testing those claims against the Bible. Just as God let me suffer and almost die for acting like a fool and not testing the claims of the doctors, many people will suffer and possibly die spiritually because they don't test the claims of preachers. God expects all people to use the brain He gave them to learn a few basics of the Bible so that they can tell Biblical truth from error. The most basic definition of "Prove all things" is ^test all claims against what the Bible actually says' and don't just accept the word of some self-proclaimed Bible expert. If someone is truly a ^man of God' they will have no problem with someone verifying their claims against what the Bible actually says.

These verses are our second reference in the Bible. Here, we see that God "proved" His people by giving them a Law ("a statute and an ordinance") to use as their standard. We see the same truth taught in Ecclesiastes 2:1, 7:23; Acts 9:22 and Romans 3:9. That standard was "If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight". The "voice of the LORD thy God" always matches His written Word and He demands our obedience in a way that is visible to others. Our standard (our "statute and ordinance") that we are to use is the Bible and our life is tested by God to see how well it matched His Word. When people test different claims in life they are often led into error by using a wrong standard to measure against. Remember what I said about Evolution and unreliable standards for measuring age. In order to find truth we need to use a consistent and reliable standard. When we are judged by God, He will use His "statutes and ordinances" which are reliable and do not change (Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8). Those who are using another standard are in for a rude awakening.

So the first thing that we know about God's method of "proving" is that we need to do a proper test. The second thing that we learn is that a proper test means comparing the item in question to God's written Word and not to something else like our personal opinion or something that comes from men.

In our third usage, of the word prove, the Bible tells us that God tested the Jews every day in order to "prove...whether they will walk in my law, or no". Every day for 40 years is a lot of testing. This lets us know that proper "proving" is not something is not done ^off hand' but takes a lot of diligence, time and effort. We also see this truth in Psalms 95:9 and Hebrews 3:9. In fact, the Biblical definition of prove uses the same methods as we learned when we had to prove our answer to a math problem. If you remember your Algebra or higher math, you couldn't just give the answer to a problem if the teacher demanded the proof. Showing each and every step could be a lot of work. You had to show how you went from the initial statement of the problem to your solution and prove each step along the way. (Have you noticed that I'm including each use of this word in the Bible?) The fact is that in order to prove something, you have to show it to be true in 100% of the cases unless it is impossible to show it in 100% of the cases. That exception requires showing that there are too many occurrences to prove it in every case, such as when proving a Law of nature. When there are too many occurrences to show the results for each case, then proof demands following the exact demands of Probability and Statistics, as we see used in the Scientific Method for all true science. Anything which does not meet the requirements of Probability and Statistics, such as ^Big Bang' or ^Evolution' are to be declared a lie and God warns us against such in 1Timothy 6:20. Since we are dealing with the Bible, we are dealing with a limited number of occurrences. Therefore, "proving" something in the Bible requires showing that our proof matches the Bible in 100% of the cases.

There is a saying that goes ^Statistics don't lie but Statisticians do'. True Statistics actually carry two percentages: one for accuracy and one for reliability. When the "Weather Person" tells us that there is a 50% chance of rain, they are only providing 1/2 of the Statistical requirement. (That makes every claim by the weather person to be a 1/2 truth lie.) When Richard Nixon provided tapes that were 1/2 erased, the entire nation agreed that a 1/2 truth is in fact a lie. Therefore, the ^Weather Person' is lying to their audience on a regular basis. And, in fact, we see this 1/2 truth so often that most people think it is a full truth.

Imagine that the KKK held a meeting in Detroit, and it interviewed 10 people at that meeting. If 9of those people agreed that ^Jews are sub-human', then it could report that ^90% of the people in Detroit agree that Jews are sub-human'. However, while the 90% would be accurate, it would be completely unreliable since it would reflect less than 0.001% of the population group that it claimed it represented. Now consider the difference in an audience's reaction if you reported that your percentage was so unreliable that the rules of Probability and Statistics required you to discard the results. When someone claims to prove something from the Bible and does not show that their claim is true for EVERY occurrence in the Bible, their so-called proof is completely unreliable and is not a true Biblical proof.

There are at least three places in the Bible where God promises to curse anyone who "adds to" or "diminishes" His Word (Deuteronomy 4:2, 12:32; Proverbs 30:54-6; Revelation 22:19). When we present part of that God's Word says about a subject, and leave out part of what God's Word says, we are "diminishing" God's Word. This is true whether it is deliberate or not. If the Bible talks about a subject in over a hundred places and you base your theology on only a couple of verses, you may be accurate for those couple of verses but your theology is unreliable. As RU teaches, "righteousness" is doing the right thing the right way and preaching unreliable theology is as wrong as the person reporting that ^90% of the people in Detroit agree that Jews are sub-human'.

In another example, we see people argue that the Bible uses "adultery" to mean ^fornication by a married person'. If you only look at a few places where the Bible talks about "adultery", you can justify that interpretation. However, if you include James 4:4, you cannot limit your definition of "adultery" to mean only ^fornication by a married person'. When you consider that this was the position that the Pharisees had when they argued with "Jesus" about it, it becomes obvious that keeping that position is claiming that "Jesus" was doctrinally wrong and that the Pharisees were doctrinally right. While the true Biblical definition of "adultery" does include ^fornication by a married person', that is only part of the true definition and those people who insist that it is the full definition are preaching a partial-truth lie. Just as God took the time to test His people daily for forty years before judging them, we need to take the time to look at every piece of evidence that God gives us (every occurrence in the Bible) before we claim to have proven what the Bible teaches.

In Exodus 20:1-17 have the ^Ten Commandments'. Exodus 20:18 says God put on a show of power. Exodus 20:19 says the people were afraid and didn't want anything to do with God. Then we have this verse. God said (essentially) ^Here's my standard (the ^Ten Commandments') and if you don't meet it then I'm going to hurt you' (that was the message from the show of power). I already explained the prove means ^put up or shut up'. The first thing that Moses says here is "Fear not" and I can imagine most of the people thinking that Moses was crazy. However, notice the colon in the statement from Moses. That makes the statements on the two sides of this colon equivalent. Moses said if "ye sin not" you have nothing to fear. However, God knows that sin is tempting and is our basic nature. Therefore, He puts "his fear...before your faces" to offset the temptation to sin.

We also see this truth in Psalms 95:9 and Hebrews 3:9. I already mentioned that one of the doctrinal errors that God's people believe is that "fear of the Lord" only means ^deep abiding respect'. However, "respect" will not keep us from sinning. God makes it clear that he will hurt His children very much if they fail His test. One of the basic lessons from school was make sure that you are prepared for a test so that you can pass it. In order to do that you need to pay attention to what the test is about. Reading a history book will not prepare for a math test. God told His people ^here is what you will be tested on'. Many people are in financial trouble today because they ignored God's standard for handling finances and followed the advice of men. When we receive the punishment for failing God's test we need to stop crying and asking for people to pray that God removes the consequence of our sin. What we need to do is obey God and attach the "fear of the Lord" to that failed test so that we will be motivated to prepare and pass the test the next time that God gives us the test (and there is always a next time until we die). This verse shows us that there must be negative consequences to failing a test. Without the negative consequences people will not be motivated to repent and pass the test the next time. The main source of problems in our society today is that we have removed individual responsibility and removed the consequence of failing God's test. As a result, God is punishing the whole society for refusing to punish the individual who failed the test. There must be negative consequences to failing a test or it is rendered ineffective.

What we see, in our next verse, is that the purpose of a test is to teach us. This verse is part of the instructions to God's people before they entered the Promised Land. The one generation failed their test and were all killed except the two who passed the test. The next generation was told to follow Joshua, who passed the test, and was warned of the consequences to those who did not walk the way that Joshua walked before the Lord. A properly designed test always considers what will be required to teach those who fail it so that they don't have to fail it again. A proper test is not vindictive or arbitrary but is designed to prepare people for the future so that they will not fail in the future. Look at the next verse (which contains the word prove), which is in the same chapter and is part of the same instructions. In Deuteronomy 8:16 we read "Who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that he might humble thee, and that he might prove thee, to do thee good at thy latter end". Notice that this verse tells us that God "might prove thee" so that He might "do thee good at thy latter end". If we pass the test then we get the reward ( "do thee good"). If we fail the test, then God is going to teach us how to pass it and run us back through the test so that he can reward us ( "do thee good"). So part of a test is designed to teach those who fail it. In fact, it is a recognized truth that we learn more from our failures than we do from our successes.

Moses goes on in the next verse, which is part of the same sentence, and says "And thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth." He is warning them to not take credit for what God did. Remember that I already said that a major source of error is using the wrong standard. We all know how we feel when someone else claims credit for our work. Imagine how God feels. In addition, when we give credit to the wrong source we almost always loose or discard the correct source of our blessing and, thereby, cut ourselves off from the correct source. I said in the beginning that the primary principal of a test is ^KISS'. A proper test provides a one-to-one relationship between the result of a test and the source of that result. People hate going through God's test because His tests "humble" us and create the condition where there is no question that it was God who provided the blessing.

In this chapter God said to test people who claim to represent Him and to kill all liars. Simply put, get rid of anything that proves to be unreliable after it fails a test. If you keep it, you or someone else will believe the false claim and get hurt by relying upon something that will fail the test. Part of the purpose of a true test is to show us what to discard.

This verse is somewhat difficult to understand but basically says that Levi passed the test to choose the Lord's commandment when his family stood against God's commandment. After Levi passed God's test, Levi could get answers from God. This doesn't mean that he always would go to God for answers. However, the lesson of this verse is that when the man of God truly receives direction from God we are to submit to that direction which comes from God through the man of God. Basically, don't accept someone as a man of God until they can prove that they were tested by God at a deep level (kill your own family [Exodus 32:26]) and passed that test. I've already mentioned that we must test in order to prove. After passing a test a person of truth has greater authority. For example, if someone takes the time to study every occurrence of a word in the Bible, the definition of that word has greater authority in their life than it had before. Also, before accepting a new pastor, a church is supposed to examine him and prove him. The greater the test that church gives him, the greater authority he has afterwards.

This verse is the second half of a sentence that is in Judges 2:21-22 and is a significant part of the summary of Judges 2 which is in Judges 2:19-23. Basically, Judges 2 tells us that God blessed the people while they followed Joshua and obeyed God. After Joshua died the people turned from God and God brought punishment. When you beat anything long enough and hard enough you eventually get their attention. After God punished His people enough they repented and he gave them a Judge to lead them. They served God so long as the Judge was alive but turned to devils as soon as the Judge died. The lesson of this chapter and of this verse is that just because something or someone passes a test one time that does not mean that they will always pass the test. We need to do like God and keep repeating our tests. If we keep verifying that our doctrine still matches the word of God then we will correct errors while they are still small and avoid serious consequences. However, when we stop testing, small errors creep in and "A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump" (1Corinthians 5:6; Galatians 5:9). Since God's people did not keep testing their doctrine, it drifted into heresy. This verse tells us that Biblical proving is an ongoing process that must never end. We must always check our doctrine against the standard of God's Word in order to catch the error that is constantly trying to creep into religious doctrine. We also see this taught in Romans 12:2; 2Corinthians 8:22, 13:5; Galatians 6:4 and Ephesians 5:10.

Judges 3:1-3is a single sentence which needs to be interpreted as a unit. Then Judges 3:4 is added onto that sentence and we have to understand all of them together. Basically, God's people did not live up to God's standard when He brought them to the land under Moses. So God spent 40 years proving that they would never live up to His standard, unless they had faith in Him, and killed that entire generation except Caleb and Joshua. The next generation got the message and started keeping God's Law, so God led that generation into the land under Joshua. Now Joshua is dead and there is a new generation that God is going to test to see if they will obey or not.

Basically, these verses tell us that God had a program of ongoing testing. Anybody who has been involved with manufacturing should understand a Quality Assurance department and what it is supposed to do. That is what God set up here. The lesson of this chapter is that just because something passes one test that does not mean that it will continue to pass all tests, especially if it proved to be unreliable in the past. God's people were unreliable, therefore God continues to test them and prove them as these verses say. We are to continually test things that supposedly come from God. When something continues to pass our tests we can reduce how often we test them, but we still need to test them if we are going to follow God's example. However, once something fails a test we need to increase the testing to separate the ^one time fluke' from the truly unreliable or wrong. Further, any time that we get someone new, we need to test them separate. We find the same lesson taught throughout the entire book of Judges and even throughout the entire Bible. Indeed, we should constantly test our service to our Lord and be aware of the constant danger of slipping into habits that slowly erode into sin.

Gideon's test with the fleece is well-known and the lesson of this verse was already mentioned for the first verse. We need to keep our tests simple and provide a direct link between the test and the result. Only God could do what Gideon asked and it proved that God approved of Gideon and his plan. In our first verse, either the brothers produced Benjamin or they didn't. In Psalms 26:2 we read "Examine me, of LORD, and prove me; try my reins and my heart." Of course, "reins" are used to control where a horse looks and goes. When God proves His control of our "reins" and "heart", it will be to turn us away from something we desire so much that it will be obvious that only God could do that. Our testing needs to be simple and provide a direct relationship between the test and the result so there is no question of the relationship between the two. This is the concept of a ^double blind' test. People found that when the person giving the test, or the person taking a test, knows the desired output, that knowledge alters the result of the test. Therefore, proper scientific testing requires the person who designs a test to have someone else give the test to yet another person. Neither the person giving the test or the person taking the test can know what the test is supposed to prove and the less knowledge they have the less that knowledge can interfere with the results. We see the same thing happens in religion. Show the same section of scripture to people from three different religions and you will almost always get three different ^interpretations' which match the teaching of their religious background. One of the biggest errors that preachers make is starting their Bible study knowing what ^they' want to preach. What they need to do is present the problem to God in prayer then approach their Bible study expecting God to show them an answer that may very well (quite often) be different than "their solution". When we approach testing the things related to God, we have to be sure to keep it simple and try to eliminate any personal influence upon the outcome of the test. If we look in Acts 1:15-26 we see Peter leading the church to select a replacement for Judas Iscariot. God's chosen replacement was Paul, which was not one of the choices that the church gave God in Acts 1. They were led into selecting the wrong person by approaching God's choice with a preconceived limit upon God. There is no way to prove that "Matthias" was God's choice. There is no denying that Paul was made an apostle by God. We need to remove any possible outside influence and keep a simple relationship between the thing being tested and the result of the test. When we are testing things from God, we need to be extra diligent to remove any influence from man.

We have a couple of lessons about proving things here and we also see these lessons in the stories which contain Acts 24:13 and 25:7. The basic lesson is that something which is unproven is unreliable. The larger and more important lesson is that if proper testing methods aren't used then people are drawn into a false sense of security by trusting something that they thought was proved but which really wasn't. In our story, David was a youth watching sheep when his dad sent him to the army with food for his older brothers. Goliath was insulting God and the whole army and David offered to go kill him. In the verse before this we read "And Saul armed David with his armour, and he put an helmet of brass upon his head; also he armed him with a coat of mail." Saul was doing what people do all of the time and insisted upon using traditional means even though the traditional means didn't work. As said, the basic lesson found in this verse is that something which is unproven is unreliable. We read here "And David said unto Saul, I cannot go with these; for I have not proved them." David had enough sense to not rely upon something that he had not personally tried and proved that it worked for him and that he knew how to use. Many people hear things like ^prayer works' and believe them without trying them until they get into a lot of trouble. Then they try a real quick ^Oh God fix everything!!' When that doesn't work they try non-stop repetitions of the same thing, In Matthew 6 "Jesus" taught us how to pray which includes "But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking". Without going into prayer we can say that the time to test something, and learn how to use it properly, is before you are is trouble. As David said in our main verse, you can't rely upon something that you have not tested. However, there is a greater truth in this story and that is how we are to test and prove things. In 1Samuel 17:36 we see David say "Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear: and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God." I only tried hunting a couple of times but know several people who are hunters and the few who hunt bear want the biggest guns they can get. They don't want to try to take on a bear with only a rock and sling. As I understand it, a bear has a very hard head and David would have to hit it in exactly the right spot in order to nock the bear out with something as weak as a stone from a sling. In addition, David would have to let the bear get very close, probably in the last charge, in order to have enough power to nock the bear out long enough for him to go up to it and cut its throat. The same was true for the lion and Goliath. David had to practice a lot with his sling in order to get good enough to hit such a dangerous moving target in such a small spot. He would also have to have a lot of confidence to wait for such a dangerous enemy to get close enough for him to win.

David used what he had "proved". He obviously had used his sling on lots of animals before he tried the lion, bear and Goliath. Hebrews 11:6 tells us "But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." Among other things this verse equates Biblical "faith" with someone who is "diligent". We know that part of being "faithful" is doing things "diligently". Those who have really "proved" God are those who have "diligently" searched for what God gave them and then have tried the gift of God many different ways and kept testing it until it failed so that they not only knew what they could do with their gift from God but also knew what they could not do with it.

Please stick with me while I give an illustration. There is a city call Zilwaukee in Michigan near the thumb. There are several miles between Zilwaukee and the lake and a river which goes between the two. The lake-liners (boats as big or bigger than ocean liners) go from the lake to docks past Zilwaukee using the local river. When I-75was first built in Michigan, they put draw bridges on the highway to let these boats travel the river. When a boat needed to cross I-75, they stopped all of the traffic on the freeway, lifted the bridges until the boat passed, and then let traffic continue. As time passed and traffic on I-75increased, this became a problem. Therefore, they built new bridges that rose high enough for these big lake-liners to pass underneath. The contractor for the bridges hired two different sub-contractors to pour the footings of the pillars that would hold the freeway. One poured concrete as specified. The other realized that this concrete was a higher quality concrete than he had ever used before. He realized that he could save a lot of money by using a lower quality concrete and, based upon his prior experience, this lower quality concrete was ^good enough' for a freeway with the anticipated traffic load. However, he didn't realize that they were using a construction method that was "new" at the time. They built an entire section of freeway (that would fit between pillars) on the side and then had a giant tractor pick it up and carry it over the existing road and lower it unto the pillars. The tractor had to be massive and have a counter weight that weighed as much as the section of freeway that it would carry on the front of the tractor. The foundations had to handle the existing pillars and freeway plus more than double the weight of the next freeway section. While the cheaper quality cement was ^good enough' for past loads, it got crushed with this additional load. And, for more than a year people saw this bridge missing the center section because the two sides of the bridge were obviously too far out of alignment to connect them. In the end, they had to tear down everything built upon the poor quality cement, dig it up, and rebuild according to specifications.

This is how most people approach the truth of God. There were inspectors who had the job of testing the foundation before anything was built upon it. They relied upon the word of the contractor and a couple of quick checks of their own instead of doing their own complete and proper testing. Most people today rely upon the preachers and do a few quick checks instead of doing like David and being diligent enough to properly prove what they are told about God. Romans 3:23 tells us "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;" and it is part of a larger sentence which goes from 3:21 through 3:26. That sentence tells us, among other things, that those who rely upon religion "have sinned" because they also have "come short of the glory of God". Likewise, the people who relied upon traditional tests and the credentials of the contractor "came short" of the other side of the bridge. They could not complete the bridge because of the height differences. The one side had to be torn down and redone correctly. We also see in our original story (about David) that the camp was full of people with all of the credentials and equipment who still "came short" of doing the job. However, David had "proved" what God gave him to use, which was different than what tradition said to use, and he did the job to the glory of God. The people who built the side of the bridge which reached the proper height also "proved" their foundation using non-traditional methods. In the New Testament we read that neither "Jesus" nor the Apostles had the traditional training for religious leaders but they had the evidence of having tested the gift God gave them and of being diligent in that testing which let them prove God working in their life. So while the basic lesson in this story is that something which has not been proved is unreliable, the greater lesson is that people are led into a false sense of security by trusting someone else's claim to have "proved" something. Relying upon wrong tests and false proof causes them to "sin and come short of the glory of God". Instead of relying upon credentials and the traditions of religion we need to be personally diligent in testing the things of God so that we can prove how God works in our own life. When we have that proof, we can face any test that God sends us, if we rely upon what he gave us just like David did.

This verse tells us that it takes "hard questions" to prove things from God. The bridge over I-75was tested and passed the test but was not "proved" because the test given was not "hard" enough. That is how people get led into error and how God's people end up obeying wrong doctrine. I've already talked about being diligent and that is hard to do. Some charismatic person claims to have a message from God and people follow that person because they do not ask the "hard questions" and many people can't ask the "hard questions" because they don't know enough. We don't have to know how to prove the answers only how to ask them and to know what are the right answers. For example, I was on a pulpit committee once and some people thought we shouldn't ask for a credit check and didn't understand how bankruptcy could disqualify a man as pastor. 1Timothy 3:5 is only part on the qualifications for a pastor and it says "(For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?)" There is a lot more that I could say on this but I will leave it with the fact that for a secular job I have to have excellent credit and an FBI security clearance. I can be fired if I ever fail either test. The requirements to "take care of the church of God" are far greater than the requirements of any secular job. The members on the pulpit committee did not necessarily need to know how to handle their own finances but they needed to ask the "hard questions" and know that the only acceptable answer was an excellent credit score. Many people complain about God's tests. We forget verses like 2Corinthians 12:9 which says "And he (the Lord) said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me." A first grade math test does not separate a high school graduate from someone with a doctorate in Mathematics. When it comes to the things of God, we do not prove them unless we ask the "hard questions" which cannot be answered by man's wisdom but requires the wisdom of God (1Corinthians 1-3). In verses like 2Corinthians 12:9, Paul could "glory in my infirmities" because those "infirmities" proved that what he did was by the power of God and not his own power. We also learn that "hard questions" are required in order to prove the things of God in 2Chronicles 9:1, Psalms 66:10; 81:7 and 1Timothy 3:10.

Notice that this verse says that she came "with a very great company". God makes sure that others know the result of His test, especially when we pass it. We again see this truth in 1Timothy 3:10.

This verse shows us that true proof will prove the self-righteous to be "perverse". That's why the self-righteous do all that they can to shut the mouth of God's people who call for a true test and valid proof. The Gospels tell us that is why the Jewish leaders insisted upon the death of "Jesus". The last time that I worked at Ford I was given a letter saying that I had saved them $70,000.00 per year (not just one time). That was in about 6 weeks. I asked to be transferred to another position where I could have saved them ^million dollars per year but they let me go instead because I embarrassed someone who had position but was incompetent. Throughout my career I've probably been let go from over 6 jobs for doing too good of a job and "proving" that someone at a higher level was "perverse". While we can accept such things happening in this sin-sick world, when we allow the same to happen with the things of God people suffer the consequences for eternity. That's why God says to "Prove all things". God does not want any of His people to suffer for eternity because they believed error.

When people "Prove all things", they see the consequence of error, like David did, and they also see the results of following truth. It takes a lot of work to "Proving all things". That's why most people won't "Proving all things", and are led into error. However, those who do put out the effort to "Proving all things" and have seen the results are not easily tempted to follow error. David said "I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress" because he knew the consequence of sin and the reward of obedience at a level that is only achieved by those who obey and "Prove all things". We also see this truth in Psalm 81:7 and in 1Timothy 3:10. There is too much temptation to sin in many different ways when someone is leading God's church for them to resist unless they have been "proven" the way that God wants them to be "proven".

Please see the note for Psalms 17:3 above. Here we see David asking God to prove him because only then will he have the God given testimony that we need in this world and that we need when we stand before the "judgment seat of Christ".

Please see the note for Genesis 42:15-16 within this document for how the word prove is used within this verse. This is a Psalm of praise where near the start we read "Say unto God, How terrible art thou in thy works!" We do not have proof that God got us out of a situation until after we are in a situation where even the God deniers have to admit that that it was impossible for man to get us out of that situation. It was no fun to go through an accident that resulted in my spending 6 days in Critical Care with 3IV opiates that kept me knocked out because of the pain. However, later multiple unbelieving doctors told me that I had ^undeniable multiple miracles'. I also had a hospital worker tell me that while I was literally ^out of my mind', because of pain and dope, that she heard me praising God. No fun, but God gave me undeniable proof that He worked through my life and He gave me a way to help a pastor friend who has a mother with dementia. He knows that she can still bring God glory, even while she literally ^loses her mind'.

Please see the note for Psalms 17:3 within this document for how the word prove is used within this verse. This Psalm is written from God's perspective. God tells how He brought the Jews from slavery and "proved" them in the wilderness. They had undeniable proof that they could not do right in their own power and that God would punish unrighteousness but bless righteousness, which only comes when we obey God and rely upon Him to change our lives. This Psalm tells us that God wanted to bless His people but had to punish them because they refused to believe even undeniable proof. They closed their mind to God's truth.

Please see the note for Exodus 16:4 and the note for Exodus 20:20 within this document for how the word prove is used within this verse. This Psalm starts with "O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation." The first note that we reference, for understanding the use of prove in this verse, says ^Proper "proving" is not something is not done off hand but takes a lot of diligence, time and effort'. God's people failed His test by not maintaining their personal relationship with Him and by relying upon past deeds of relationship. The second note that we reference, for understanding the use of prove in this verse, says ^God is going to hurt anyone who fails to prove that they met His standard'. The verses of our Psalm, which follow our verse say "Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways: Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest." Here, we see why God had to punish His people. They did not continue to meet God's standard to prove their love of Him and their personal relationship to Him.

Please see the note for Exodus 15:25-26 within this document for how the word prove is used within this verse. In this book Solomon tells us how he tried all the ways that man's wisdom says to use if we want a sucessful life. The note we reference, for this verse, says ^We are to use God's Law as our standard that we test against when we prove something'. Here we see that "mirth" fails because it is not part of God's standard.

Please see the note for Exodus 15:25-26 within this document for how the word prove is used within this verse. In this book Solomon tells us how he tried all the ways that man's wisdom says to use if we want a successful life. The note we reference, for this verse, says ^We are to use God's Law as our standard that we test against when we prove something'. Here we see that man's "wisdom" fails because it is not part of God's standard.

Please see the note for Genesis 42:15-16 within this document for how the word prove is used within this verse. In our verse we see Daniel begging his Earthly authority to let him ^put up proof of his claim or shut up'. We all know the story of how it went when a child of God relied upon proof from God. The note we reference, for this verse, says ^There must be a simple direct link between the claim being tested and the result so there cannot be any confusion about if the claim was proven or not'.

Please see the note for Genesis 42:15-16 within this document for how the word prove is used within this verse. Here we read of the man accepting Daniel's challenge and we read of the results in the remainder of the chapter. The note we reference, for this verse, says ^There must be a simple direct link between the claim being tested and the result so there cannot be any confusion about if the claim was proven or not'.

Please see the note for Genesis 42:15-16 within this document for how the word prove is used within this verse. Within this verse we see God challenge His people to prove Him. The note we reference, for this verse, says ^There must be a simple direct link between the claim being tested and the result so there cannot be any confusion about if the claim was proven or not'. Within this chapter we see God say that He will bless those people who ^trust and obey' and will punish those people who refuse to ^trust and obey'.

Please see the note for Genesis 42:15-16 within this document for how the word prove is used within this verse. This verse is part of a parable that Jesus told to show the ridiculous lies told by religious people in order to not personally be saved (attend the wedding feast). No one "proves five yoke of oxen" at one time but has the workers who will use them prove the oxen. in addition, anyone who can afford to buy "five yoke of oxen" at one time also has an overseer to watch what the workers do. The note we reference, for this verse, says ^There must be a simple direct link between the claim being tested and the result so there cannot be any confusion about if the claim was proven or not'. This is a blatant lie because there is no relationship between the claim and the (lack of) action done.

Please see the note for Genesis 42:15-16 within this document for how the word prove is used within this verse. Sometimes what we think is being tested, and what is actually being tested, are two different things. Philip thought Jesus asked His question to get an answer from Philip but, as our verse says, Jesus asked so He could see in Philip had true faith in Jesus. The note we reference, for this verse, says ^There must be a simple direct link between the claim being tested and the result so there cannot be any confusion about if the claim was proven or not'. Philip's answer "proved" that he did not have the faith to believe Jesus could do a miracle. Jesus did not ask where they would get the money to buy bread but where they could buy the bread. The correct answer was ^no where close by'. Thus, the answer would show the need for a miracle in order to feed all of the people present.

Please see the note for Exodus 15:25-26 within this document for how the word prove is used within this verse. The note we reference, for this verse, says ^We are to use God's Law as our standard that we test against when we prove something'. In this verse we see Paul using scripture to "prove that this is very Christ". As often happens, people with closed minds refuse to accept proof that comes from God, but that does not change the fact that proof was provided and that God will hold the person responsible for rejecting His proof. Please also see the note for this verse in the Lord Jesus Christ Study.

Please see the note for 1Samuel 17:39 within this document for how the word prove is used within this verse. The note we reference, for this verse, says ^Something which is unproven is unreliable'. Here Paul is defending himself in court and saying that the testimony of liars is unreliable. Unfortunately, the judge was corrupt and looking for a bribe instead of looking for the truth. As we have seen elsewhere, the person who seems to be on trial, and the person being tried by God, are two different people. Paul was not set free, like he should have been. However, we have no indication that Felix was ever given another chance to repent and have the indication that God judged him as wanting and that he died lost.

Please see the note for 1Samuel 17:39 within this document for how the word prove is used within this verse. The note we reference, for this verse, says ^Something which is unproven is unreliable'. Paul had already shown Felix that the charges against him were unreliable but he was not set free because of a corrupt judge. Now we see God using Paul to judge, and condemn, another politically motivated and corrupt judge. When we judge based upon unreliable evidence, and reject reliable proof of God's truth, we condemn ourselves before God.

Please see the note for Genesis 42:15-16 and the note for Exodus 15:25-26 within this document for how the word prove is used within this verse. The note we reference, for this verse, says ^We are to use God's Law as our standard that we test against when we prove something'. Within this sentence we literally see Paul quote scripture as his proof that he says "proves...that they are all under sin".

Please see the note for Judges 2:22 within this document for how the word prove is used within this verse. Within this verse we see the ongoing action of "renewing of your mind" which allows us to do the ongoing action of "prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God". The note we reference, for this verse, says ^We need to keep repeating our tests in order to verify that our proof is still valid'. Since we have an ongoing personal relationship with God, "what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God" is going to change for our personal life, depending upon circumstances of life, just as our personal will changes with time and circumstances. behaviour that God calls "good" in a spiritual baby may not be "acceptable" as enough in someone who should be more spiritually mature.

Please see the note for Genesis 42:15-16 within this document for how the word prove is used within this verse. If anyone reads this chapter and considers this verse in the context that it is given, they see a very clear message of ^put up or shut up'. The note we reference, for this verse, says ^There must be a simple direct link between the claim being tested and the result so there cannot be any confusion about if the claim was proven or not'. Lots of people like to claim their love of God. Here we see that the real proof is in the attitudes and actions which we live and, in particular, our willingness to give up money for the work of God.

Please see the note for Judges 2:22 within this document for how the word prove is used within this verse. The note we reference, for this verse, says ^We need to keep repeating our tests in order to verify that our proof is still valid'. When people are caught not doing like they should do, or they are caught doing wrong, many will try to shift the blame. Killing, or at least blaming, the messenger is quite common. Here, Paul is notifying the people of the church that such action won't work because "we have oftentimes proved (this messenger to be) diligent in many things".

Please see the note for Judges 2:22 within this document for how the word prove is used within this verse. . . The note we reference, for this verse, says ^We need to keep repeating our tests in order to verify that our proof is still valid'. Notice the use of "ye" ('each and every one of you personally') within this verse. Claiming to belong to a group, such as a church, which is "in the faith" will not work. The word "be" is ^a verb of current existence'. claiming that we were "in the faith" at the time of our initial profession will not work. The context of this chapter makes "prove your own selves" mean ^make sure you have the proof that will be acceptable in the court room of God'. Please see the note for this verse in the Lord Jesus Christ Study for details on the use of "Jesus Christ" in this verse. Basically, if our personal current existence is not displaying what the Bible says is the influence of "Jesus Christ", then we are heading for a world of hurt. If our personal life does not pass God's test, then He will judge us as "reprobates" and give us the personal hurt that he promises to such people.

Please see the note for Judges 2:22 within this document for how the word prove is used within this verse. The note we reference, for this verse, says ^We need to keep repeating our tests in order to verify that our proof is still valid'. Since we keep doing "work" all of our life, we need to keep making sure that the "work" will be rewarded by God and not result in His making us "ashamed".

Please see the note for Judges 2:22 within this document for how the word prove is used within this verse. . . The note we reference, for this verse, says ^We need to keep repeating our tests in order to verify that our proof is still valid'. As shown in the note for this sentence in the Book Study on Ephesians, ^In this sentence, Paul equates "walk as children of light" to "Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord"'. Since "walk" is an ongoing action, our "proving" also needs to be an ongoing action. In addition, since we are to "walk as children of light", our proof needs to display God's "light".

This is our main verse for this document. All of this document tells us what God means by prove. If we do not do all that is required then we will not be able to hold onto the "good" things from God when a big enough storm comes into our personal life.

Please see the notes for 2Chronicles 9:1 and Psalms 17:3 within this document. People who hold a position of responsibility within the church must first prove that they meet God's standard. The notes that we reference, for this verse, says ^God makes sure that others know the result of His test, especially when we pass it' and ^Proof of true righteousness will keep God's people from transgressing when future temptations come'.

Please see the note for Exodus 16:4 and the note for Exodus 20:20 within this document for how the word prove is used within this verse. This verse, and chapter, are warning us about the consequences of "proving" God and then still refusing to believe Him. The note we reference, for this verse, says ^God is going to hurt anyone who fails to prove that they met His standard'. Please notice how appropriate it is that this is God's final warning about this word.

Summary:

God is a Spirit

John 4:24 says "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth."

Context: Jesus was talking to the woman at Jacobs' Well in Samaria after He deliberately went through Samaria (John 4:4). The Jews looked down on Samaritans as ^half breed liberal compromisers'. Today, Baptists have the same attitudes of other "Christian"religions. The Samaritans were far more wrong in their religion and worship than the Jews were, but the Jews weren't right. Other "Christian"religions of today are far more wrong in their religion and worship than Baptists are, but that doesn't make Baptists right.

Jesus said "worship him in spirit and in truth"twice in this context. That makes it "established by God"(Genesis 41:32) and the basis for doctrine that applies to all of God's people.

Our Verse uses the word "must". This means that if and how we worship God is NOT optional.

To properly understand the Biblical meaning of this phrase we must understand the Biblical meaning of three critical words: worship, spirit and truth. There is a Word Study on each of these words which provides details for each word. Only the high-level part of the Biblical definitions will be included in this document (below).

In the context of this story, this Samaritan woman was asking Jesus which religious group had correct religious form of worship. Jesus had told her about her sin and she had responded with "I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our fathers worshiped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship."Like most religious people do when God confronts them with their sin, she tried to deflect the discussion into a non-personal religious discussion. She was also (indirectly) claiming to not be ^that bad of a sinner' by claiming to be religious. Jesus answered her question by (essentially) saying that that both forms of religious were wrong. As we can see from the summary below, all true worship is personal and part of a personal relationship with God. That's why the first point in the definition of "worship"is that ^Worship is a personal act that often requires personal sacrifice'. Personal sacrifice is part of any truly personal relationship. Yet, in a truly loving personal relationship, the relationship gives so much joy that it doesn't seem like a sacrifice.

Moving on we see that point 3(in the definition of "worship") says ^People who don't belong to God don't understand true worship of God'. We also see the requirement of being saved in the definition of "spirit"and in the definition of "truth". If people don't belong to God, they can't have a personal relationship and, therefore, can't receive Biblical "truth"(1Corinthians 2:14) and can't worship properly because they don't have God's "Spirit", which is required to "worship in spirit and in truth".

In our fifth point (of the definition of "worship"), we see that liars ^claim one thing in their worship and live another'. Both the religious Jews and the religious Samaritans were guilty of this and the woman's question was (essentially) ^Which religious lie is correct?' It should be obvious why Jesus answered (essentially) ^Neither religious lie is correct' when He said ^Here is how people are supposed to worship' (John 4:24).

Several more points tell us that people are to worship God when they receive something from God such as His revealing a personal attribute of His (mercy, grace, power, etc) or His giving a promise or a blessing or command or judgment. Luke 17 also tells us about when Jesus went through Samaria and He healed 10 lepers and only one returned to worship. Jesus told him "Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole"(Luke 17:19). Because he returned and worshiped, Jesus added salvation to his healing. Jesus then spoke about "the kingdom of God is within you"(salvation [ Luke 17:21]), which is needed for true worship. Finally, in Luke 17, Jesus spoke of judgment upon those who did not have "the kingdom of God within"them and who did not worship properly even though God gave them the greatest gift ever given: His own Son.

Returning to our story in John, we see that as a result of the revelation this woman received from Jesus she went to her city and testified of Him. In response to her testimony, the people listened and received Him and He abode with them for two days (John 4:40). They also testified "Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world"(John 4:42). Their response matches our point 12 of the definition of "worship". In addition, John 4:44 tells us "Jesus himself testified, that a prophet hath no honour in his own country". Samaria was not "his own country"and the contrast of this story shows us that He did receive "honour", which is a form of "worship", from the Samaritans while the Jewish lepers refused to worship.

That brings us to the thirteenth point of our definition of "worship". We are told that "worship"is commanded by God and is to be given only to God and is to be done God's way. Disobedience can bring punishment. In Luke 17we say Jesus (God) bless the one who worshiped properly and promise judgment upon those who did not worship properly. In the start of John 4 we had a question of which religious form of worship was correct and Jesus answered (essentially) ^Neither of them'. We also saw in this story that these people did "worship"properly when they spent time with Him (as God's prophet) and testified of Him and honored Him. Thus we can conclude that outward religious displays, not matter what form they have and no matter how fancy, are not Biblically "true worship". We can also see that Biblically "true worship"comes from inside as a result of receiving something personal from God through a personal relationship and that Biblically "true worship"results in people honoring God, spending time with God and doing the things that God wants done.

People who do not spend time with their God and serve their God in a personal way starting on Monday have not truly worshiped their God on Sunday.

Continuing our summary with what we learned from the Word Study on "truth", the first thing that we see is that "truth"comes directly from God and does not change because God does not change (Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8). While God (and "truth") do not change, the way that God deals with us personally does have variance within the fixed limits that are defined by Biblical "truth". Thus, all men are to worship. One might worship publicly in song, because God gave him that ability, while another might restrict his worship in song to private times because God did not give him a gift of public singing. One of the truths that the Bible teaches is that Jesus is our example on how to live in this flesh by the power of the Holy Spirit. There is a lot of good doctrine in the phrase ^What Did Jesus Do?', if we search the Bible for what He actually did instead of listening to some doctrinal error commonly taught. Thus our basic definition of how to "worship in truth"is to "worship"like Jesus did because Jesus is "the truth"(John 14:6). So, for example, we rarely read about Jesus bringing a sacrifice to the Temple, which is outward religious worship, but we often read about His praying in private. As a Jew Who kept the Law perfectly, Jesus would have brought a sacrifice to the Temple, as required by the Law, but that was not reported as it had a relatively low significance when compared to His private worship. In addition, we see that Jesus lived a life that was consistent with His worship and did not live as a hypocrite. His daily ^walk' backed His ^talk'. We also see Him judging religious sinners while forgiving publicans. The religious people would tell us that this is wrong but we see "judgment"strongly tied to "truth"in the Study on Truth as well as seeing "judgment"throughout the book of Psalms, which is our Biblical aid to personal (and public) worship. Further, we see that when the Jews challenged Jesus over His "judgment", He referred them to the Bible ("have you not read", "it is written"), which matches to Biblical fact that "truth"is what God defines it to be and that definition is in the Bible. Thus, true Biblical "worship"is more concerned with matching the "truth"of the Bible than it is concerned about religious traditions. In keeping with this theme, and the lessons from the Study on Truth, we see that part of our "true worship", and "judgment", is to destroy the influence of those people and spirits which teach and encourage error. Many people believe the religious error that ^loving worship' requires ^forgiving' anything and everything. However, true Biblical "worship"includes naming people and bringing judgment upon those who fight against the God of the Bible by teaching doctrinal error.

Our final critical word from this verse is "spirit". The primary high-level thing that we learned from the Word Study on Spirit is that there are different types of "spirits"and each is to be treated differently. God is a "Spirit"and men have "spirits"and there are other "spirits"besides God and the "spirits"of men. We also know that there is a spiritual warfare between evil "spirits"(devils) and God (and the "spirits"on His side). While devils, and some men, wish to be worshiped, only God is to be worshiped. One way to know that a "spirit"is on God's side of this spiritual war is the fact that "good spirits"refuse to receive worship while devils crave it.

The primary thing that the Bible teaches us about "other spirits"is that they interfere with "true worship"and lead us into error. To worship them is definitely not "worshipping in truth". As a result, we not only are to avoid worshipping these "other spirits", but we are to actively fight against anything related to their worship, as we also saw in the paragraph (above) that dealt with "truth"and "worship". One of the main sources of worshipping these "other spirits"is when "worship"is tied to a physical item. That is what the Bible calls an "idol". The spiritual and the physical are two separate dimensions. Therefore, "worship"of a physical item cannot be "true spiritual worship". Yes, God did have men bring sacrifices and other physical things when they worshiped, but that was to teach them the relative importance of the physical versus the spiritual. "True worship"is from our heart and values the spiritual far above the physical. Since the Son of God has come in human flesh (as "Jesus") and taught us better along with giving us a better covenant (Hebrews), we are to "worship in spirit and truth". Any type of "worship"that is tied to a physical item (person, place, time, etc) is not "worship in spirit and truth"and is somehow tied to "worship"of "other spirits", even if our mind tells us it is worship of the physical. Yes, God's people do meet at a regular time for ^worship services', but that is for our convenience and not because of some requirement related to "worship in spirit and truth".

Part of our "worship in spirit and truth"is to "worship"God for His attributes as a "Spirit". The first of these attributes is the fact that He is "Creator"and greater than all creation in every way. He is also more powerful (and has greater authority) than all other beings combined, since He created all. We are to worship Him for the promises He gives (before He fulfills them) and (again) when He fulfills those promises. We are to worship Him for the "Spirit"He gives to us and for His ongoing work in changing our "spirit"to match His "Spirit". We are also to worship Him when His "Spirit"is revealed to others through our life. Among other reasons for doing so is His promise to increase our reward in Heaven each time we allow Him to work through our personal life. We are to worship Him for the advantages that His spirit provides in this physical world such as guiding us to the correct person to be our mate. When God does guide us in a physical matter (such as marriage) we are to recognize the ongoing spiritual aspects of that matter and continue to worship God for the spiritual effect that we are allowed to have through this physical matter. Finally, we are to constantly be aware that God's "Spirit"will not always suffer with all men and that all men will face judgment by God. Therefore, our "worship"is to include thankfulness for the ongoing tolerance and help of God's "Spirit"which increases our ultimate reward and decreases our ultimate punishment.

Obviously, there are many more details and refinements which need to be added to the summary above, but this summary will move onto the effect that "worship in spirit and truth"is to have upon man's spirit.

Man received his "spirit"from God, but Adam's sin caused us to all be born with a corrupted "spirit". Because of our corrupted "spirit", we seek corruption and, as one famous comedian said, ^all the good things in life are immoral, illegal or fattening'. Our "spirit"needs the constant ongoing influence of God's "Spirit", which comes from "worship in spirit and truth", to offset the corruption that our "spirit"naturally seeks all of the time. Further, since we all die and our spirit will go to some spiritual place, worship here and now helps our spirit to have greater enjoyment for eternity. Only a fool would believe that someone who lived for sin will enjoy Heaven with no sin. All sin is addictive and would be the ultimate ^cold turkey withdrawal'. People do a ^cold turkey withdrawal' to speed up the time of change to get used to not fulfilling the addiction. However, the Bible tells us that the time of change is while we are in this flesh (John 9:4) and after death "no man can work". Therefore, such an event would be non-stop ^cold turkey withdrawal' until God wipes away all tears at the "great white throne"judgment (Revelation 20:11). As a result, our worship while in this flesh is, among other things, to increase our joy when we get to Heaven.

Most of what the Bible says about man's "spirit"is to let us know if our "spirit"is following God's "Spirit"or not and how to bring our "spirit"into alignment with God's "Spirit"for God's glory and our reward. (Please see the Study on Spirit for more details.)

To try and combine and summarize further than I have to this point is beyond my abilities. Further, I believe it poses a danger of giving people the idea that they can get a ^two second answer' for what takes a lifetime to learn. Basically, we are to have (and maintain) an ongoing personal relationship with God (as the central part of our life) whereby our "spirit"is constantly seeking Guidance from God's "Spirit"in all matters. We are to seek God's spiritual perspective, guidance and "truth"in all matters with a thankful attitude that is based upon the knowledge that this is for God's glory and for our reward and that God's glory is magnified (not got God's pride but) so that others will also know where to find guidance and reward.

May God bless your personal understanding in this matter that is beyond my personal ability to completely comprehend or convey to others.

Biblical definitions: The outlines below have the summary points (but not the Bible references) from the Word Studies. Please follow the links to the other studies for those references.

Summary points from the Word Study on Worship.

Summary points from the Word Study on Spirit.

What the Bible says about "spirit"needs to be sub-divided according to the type of "spirit"that is being talked about.

Summary points from the Word Study on Truth.

Basic Lessons from God's Economy

Two Basic Points of God's Economy

In the Gospel of John we see Jesus presented as the Son of God. In that Gospel, Jesus refused to answer any challenge to His authority but answered every demand that he provide witnesses to back His doctrine. One of His witnesses was John the Baptist and we should avoid following the doctrine of men who our God given authority (pastor, etc) will not approved. The second witness of Jesus was God the Father. God the Father gave us His Word and we should be sure that any doctrine which we receive has at least two witnesses from the word of God unless it comes from our God given authority (pastor, etc). (Several places in the word of God tell us to submit to our God given authority and do not require that authority to have any witness from the word of God because they often must deal with situations where there is not a literal verse to quote.) The last witness of Jesus was the "works"(miracles) that God did through Him.

The Bible tells us to have two or three witnesses ( Matthew 18:16, 20; 1Corinthians 14:29; 2Corinthians 13:1; 1Timothy 5:19; Hebrews 10:28). Below are the witnesses from the word of God. In addition, I have a witness of God working in my life in a way that I may not have again, but wish to use for His glory while I can.

For over 25years I have put over 25% of my gross income into the Lords work. In the last couple of years I have tried to increase that percentage by seeking personal guidance from Christ. I started last year praying that God would enable me to put 40% into His work. This was only possible by my personally seeking what Gods Word says about finances and obeying those instructions by faith. If any disagree that it takes faithful obedience then let them provide proof of any person who has given that percentage or more for at least a full year and claims that they did it in the flesh. During the year I had medical costs over 10% of my gross income. My rental property was damaged and I lost over 1/3of my gross income. I was in an accident and out of work (with lost income) for 3months. When I did my taxes 1/3of my giving to the Lords work could not be claimed because it was over theirs limit of 50%. I hope that people can see that this is only possible by Christ working through my life. I also expect to exceed theirs limit again this year. Anyone who knows anything about IRS audits knows that this type of claim is always kicked out for human verification. I have not been called in for an audit and the only reason that theirs would not do so, with such an unusual claim, is because I have already established a pattern of high percentage giving. That is, the lack of an IRS audit is evidence supporting my initial claim of giving over 25% for more than 25years and steadily increasing that percentage in recent years.

While I was increasing my giving, I went through an accident that caused non-believing medical people to say my survival and recovery were both miraculous. So if you had a choice between being rich and dead or crippled or being poor and functional, which would you really choose? If the people of God will listen, I believe the following doctrine can help them receive the blessings of God in their personal lives.

godly Financial Principals

Do you believe a Hyper-Spiritual Doctrine?

Something that is ^hyper' is "extended beyond normal and safe limits". A hyper-active child is in constant motion and a danger to themselves and those around him. During times of hyper-inflation, paper money becomes worthless. For example, we are told of people taking wheelbarrows full of money to the grocery store in Germany after World War-I.

A hyper-spiritual doctrine goes beyond the limits set by the Bible. This type of doctrine comes from the devil and is attractive to the world and to our flesh. It pretends to make the person ^more spiritual' than other people while really claiming to be ^more spiritual' that God and God's Word. It tries to replace our personal relationship with God with a bunch of religious rules. It tries to replace God's judgment with prideful fleshly measurements. It tries to replace God's wisdom with the wisdom of this world.

We've all heard that Jesus rode a donkey. The word "donkey" is not in the Bible. Matthew 21:2 tells us what Jesus said and says "Saying unto them, Go into the village over against you, and straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her: loose them, and bring them unto me." We find the same story in John 12.

The Doctrinal Error.

Notice that the hyper-spiritual would have us change the word "ass" to "donkey". In Matthew 4:4 and Luke 4:4 we read "But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." This was the answer of Jesus when tempted by Satan. We also know that Satan, and his ministers, can quote the Bible correctly for what they quote, but they leave part out. So the problem isn't what they quote but what they leave our and what they substitute for what God said. Thus, when we return to our original verse we find that:

The Contextual Error.

The Life-Lesson Error.

Returning to the start of our lesson we see that God gave Jesus a job to do and a means to do it. Jesus is our example of how to live in this flesh using the power of the Holy Ghost. The job Jesus was given was to show the Jews their "King". The tool that God gave Him was an "an ass's colt". There is a lot of doctrinal truth in the saying of "What Did Jesus Do?" However, we need to read the Gospels to see what He would actually do and not believe what some religious person tells us. Thus, He did not buy a ride that He only needed for a short time but borrowed it. Also, He did not seek "the biggest and badest ride available" but He thanked God for a weak ("colt") ride that was the "the meanest, nastiest, most rotten dispositioned ride available" ("ass") . He did the job given to Him with the tool given to Him and had a thankful attitude. The people who saw the lesson spiritually understood it. Those who saw it physically or religiously did not understand it. God often gives a single lesson that brings "death" to one type of person while, at the same time, brings "life" to another type of person (2Corinthians 2:16).

The Prideful Error.

So: are you waiting for God to deliver the tool that you demand before you do the job he gave you or are you doing the job right now with a thankful heart? The truth of that answer shows if you are hyper-spiritual or not.

Hermeneutics Addendum

Fear of the Lord

Knowledge of God

Proverbs 2 tells us how to find the "Knowledge of God".

Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth

Synopsys:

A detailed definition of "dividing":

"Rightly dividing" between God's "Word" and man's word:

"Rightly dividing" requires us to find and apply the groupings within God's "Word"

"Rightly dividing" requires doing a proper Bible Word Study:

Definitions from Websters 1828:

Websters 1828 defines ^dividing' as:

Verses using "dividing"are:

Webster's 1828 defines ^divide' as:

Verses using "divide"are:

Verses using "divided"are:

Defining Equivalent:

Main Entry:

From Wikipedia

Punctuation:

English Grammar Usage of the Colon:

Brief Overview of Punctuation: Semicolon, Colon,Parenthesis, Dash, Quotation Marks, and Italics

Semicolon ;

Colon :

Use

Prove

1Thessalonians 5:21 says "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good."

Biblical applications of the word prove.

Synopsys:

Consequences of Disobedience:

Advantages of Obedience:

What does God means by "Prove all things".

God's Standard to use when we "Prove all things".

Proper procedures to "Prove all things".

Verses that use prove:

Summary:

God is a Spirit

John 4:24 says "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth."

Biblical definitions: The outlines below have the summary points (but not the Bible references) from the Word Studies. Please follow the links to the other studies for those references.

Summary points from the Word Study on Worship.

Summary points from the Word Study on Spirit.

Summary points from the Word Study on Truth.

Basic Lessons from God's Economy

Two Basic Points of God's Economy

godly Financial Principals

Do you believe a Hyper-Spiritual Doctrine?

The Doctrinal Error.

The Contextual Error.

The Life-Lesson Error.

The Prideful Error.

Doctrine

Isaiah 28:9 Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine?

Woe to Those that Teach Doctrinal Error (Isaiah 28:1-4, 13b-20):

Source of Doctrinal Error: (Isaiah 28:2)

Method of Teaching Doctrine:(Isaiah 28:7-11).

Who has Good results (Isaiah 28:5-6, 12):

Who has bad results (Isaiah 28:13):

Method of Teaching Doctrine Detail:

Summary: basic rules for interpreting the Bible and teaching doctrine:

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