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140 - THE FULFILLMENT OF THE LAW The dispensation of the Hypostatic union stands as line of differentiation between Israel and the Church. Christ fulfilled the Mosaic Law on one hand and set the precedent for the Church age protocol on the other [Romans 6:14, 7: 4-6, 2 Corinthians 3:7-13 and Ephesians 2:15, Colossians 2:14]. At the Exodus God founded Israel as a theocracy personally by the Second Person of the trinity. The whole thrust of the Jewish way of life was spiritual. Because God ruled Israel, every aspect of life in the nation had spiritual significance, and the Mosaic Law did not distinguish between spiritual and secular issues. Obedience to divine establishment was part of the Jewish believers, and observance of the holy days and animal sacrifices were required of all citizens, including unbelievers but such rituals were meaningful to OT Jewish believers only. There were distinctions between the freedom code, the spiritual code, and the establishment code as a categorical approach to communicating the wide scope of the Mosaic Law. But all aspects of the Law add up to one code for a unique political entity with a spiritual origin, a spiritual destiny, and a King who is God Himself. The entire Mosaic Law is an integrated whole [Matthew 5:18, Galatians 5:14]. The entire Mosaic Law is a particular expression of God’s eternal and holy character [Exodus 19]. He gave the Law to a distinctly defined group of people [Romans 2:17-20, 3:19]. It was designed for several explicit purposes and was effective for a limited period of time [Galatians 3:23-25]. The Mosaic Law regulated life in God’s unique client nation, exposed man’s sinfulness, and demonstrated his need of a Savior, and the most important purpose of the Mosaic Law was to anticipate the coming of Christ [Matthew 5:17]. The Mosaic Law was far more than simply a rule of behavior. It was superior to contemporary codes of any era in human history, but it was not primarily ethical but messianic. Therein lies its true greatness. Its mandates depicted the Person and work of Christ and protected the line of Christ until He would arrive in the flesh. The incarnate Jesus Christ achieved the ultimate purpose of the Mosaic Law. He fulfilled the Mosaic Law, once and for all. Anticipation was replaced by reality. This fulfillment is a tribute to the faithfulness of God. Since all parts of the Law functioned together as one code, the Law has been abrogated as a whole. The sum of the Law is no longer pertinent and no longer governs any tribe, people or nation [Romans 10:4, Galatians 3:23-25, Hebrews 8:13, 10:3]. The regime of the Mosaic Law has ended. The Church is not under the Law, but under the grace [Romans 6:14]. Jesus Christ has set us free from the bondage of the Law, and it is ridiculous to impose the obsolete code upon the believers. The Law has lost its power and authority. The Law is history. The end of the Mosaic Law does not leave believers or unbelievers lawless [Romans 6:15, 13:1-7]. A new code of divine mandates, which also expresses the essence of God, now defines the believer’s way of life. This code is called the divine Protocol Plan (for the Church Age). J. R. Cherreguine Bible Doctrine Ministries
141 - THE LAW OF CHRIST The divine protocol plan is an integrated whole, just like the Mosaic Law but it has a different objective that is to glorify the victorious Christ to the maximum. The protocol plan accompanies a different array of divine blessings for the believer. The protocol plan of God has a different thrust; greater responsibility placed upon each believer to think and apply Bible doctrine for himself in the privacy of his own priesthood. Many principles found in the Mosaic Law also appear in the protocol plan. The only reason for this is that, both come from the same source, from God Himself. The character of God remains unchanged even as He makes dispensational changes in human history. God was perfect before He gave the Law to Moses, perfect during the tenure of the Law, and perfect when fulfilled and rescinded the Law in Christ. The succession of dispensations reveals His changeless essence to man and angels. God expressed His perfect. Holiness to man in legal terms long before the Mosaic Law was existed, and He continues to provide ethical norms and spiritual instruction now that the Law has ceased to govern. Before, during and after the time in which the Mosaic Law was in effect in Israel, other expressions of divine law functioned among Gentiles to whom the Mosaic Law never applied [Genesis 26:5, Exodus 19:5, Romans 2:14-16]. In the Church age the operative divine law is not the Mosaic Law but the Law of Christ [1 Corinthians 9: 20-21].The divine protocol plan is also called the Law of Christ or the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus [Romans 8:2]. Christ fulfilled the entire Mosaic Law in the power of the Holy Spirit in the prototype divine sphere. The Church Age believer obeys the new “law of Christ” by following His precedent; filled with the Holy Spirit in the operational spiritual sphere [Romans 8:2-4]. Since the Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled and abrogated the Mosaic Law [Hebrews 8:13, 10:9], practices instituted for the nation of Israel are not included in the post salvation plan of God for the Church age believers. They do not contribute the Christian way of life. The church does not offer animal sacrifices, observe holy days or the Sabbath, or maintain the Levitical priesthood, worship in the sacred building, offer tithes, or have minute details of civic life prescribed by spiritual ordinances. There is now a new, universal priesthood of all believers [1 Peter 2:9, Hebrews 7:12, 8:1], a greater emphasis on individual responsibility [Galatians 5:1], and a separation of church and state [Romans 13:1-7, Matthew 22:15-22]. The Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled the Old Testament Law and taught His current followers to live apart from legalism. He proclaimed His ruling platform for the millennial kingdom and He revealed the plan of God for the Church. Never was the Mosaic Law intended to be a means of salvation or a breeding ground for self-righteousness. The Law revealed the necessity for grace and the source of that grace, Jesus Christ Himself. Both the Law and the protocol plan reveal the plan of grace. J. R. Cherreguine Bible Doctrine Ministries
142 - TRANSITION BETWEEN TWO DISPENSATIONS Three separate dispensations converge in the Age of the Hypostatic Union. This pivotal era is, therefore, a challenge to accurately interpret.
These three dispensations closely put side-by-side divine administrations as well as the presence of Christ Himself, which exhibit the grace, and wisdom of God in paralleled depth and variety. Each dispensation fulfills its own purpose in the overall plan of God. The close similarities are different in divine mandates. Divine policy for each of these dispensations differs significantly from the Mosaic Law. That is why, the Lord Jesus Christ in many occasions said; “You have heard that it was said in the Mosaic Law. But I say…” (Matthew 5:21-48). Christ proclaimed the kingdom of God to the Jews in terms of their Mosaic Law frame of reference. He used the Mosaic Law as the foundation and point of departure for explaining the way of life in the promised kingdom under His personal rule. He ministered to the needs of the Jews by strengthening and expounding the true meaning of the Law. He taught them how to live from the legalistic and ritualistic but degeneracy that was persistent during His time. The Jews misunderstood the Law as the means of salvation and the basis of their self-righteousness (Matthew 5:20, 6:1-18). Nobody can earn salvation by his or her obedience to the Mosaic Law. “Because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:20). “For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law” (Romans 3:28). Man in his arrogance, deceives himself by boasting in his obedience to the Law without understanding that the Law brings nothing but sin and death. “What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, "You shall not covet" (Romans 7:7). The Law revealed the necessity for grace, and the source of that grace is Jesus Christ Himself. When Israel rejected the grace of God, the Lord Jesus Christ retracted His offer of the kingdom. He announced a new divine system the mystery doctrine for the Church Age (John 14-17). In the Millennial kingdom the spiritual and the civil will come under one power system. Christ will rule, not as God ruling over one nation (Israel) but as the God-Man over Israel and the entire world. Divine mandates in the Mosaic Law were imposed to regulate believers and unbelievers in the OT Israel. He deferred His kingdom platform for Israel and introduced another divine system, where the church and state separates are two distinct entities. Christ now controls history in a manner that gives each Church Age believer tremendous and marvelous opportunity (with great responsibility) for having spiritual impact in the world. J. R. Cherreguine Bible Doctrine Ministries
143 - THE MOSAIC LAW IN THE CHURCH AGE Since the Mosaic Law belongs to the Word of God, therefore it has value for the Church Age. The Mosaic Law was subdivided into three sections. Codex I: Protected human life, liberty, property, privacy and divinely delegated authority. Unbelievers and believers alike of every dispensation can protect freedom by avoiding the destructive sins of mentioned in this Codex. This explains why every provision of the Decalogue, except Sabbath is also found in the Law of Christ. Codex II: Presented the purpose for which God gave man free will –to come to the knowledge of Jesus Christ. The ritual provisions of the Law still have value because they reveal the Messiah as the only Savior. Codex III: Contains instructions in many fields that especially pertinent to Israel. Most provisions of the Mosaic Law have no value in other nations but they testify to the faithfulness of God in guiding his people in specific events or circumstances that were often very difficult. Most of these provisions are neither reconfirmed nor clearly taught or excluded from Church Age practices but they reveal the character of God. For example, the principle of capital punishment is given to the Church Age (Matthew 26:52, Romans 13:3-5), but its specific application in such cases of adultery, homosexuality, or juvenile rebellion is not reconfirmed (Leviticus 20:10, 13, 9). God has given the Church Age believer general guidance concerning divine establishment, in contrast to the hundreds of exact and rigid Mosaic laws that precisely defined life in OT Israel. Their only option was to obey. In the Church Age, God encourages the believer to think and apply the basic truths of divine establishment according to the legitimate processes of human government in his own nation. Because there is separation of church and state in the Church Age, every believer is free to think and act as a responsible person of his community and nation. God entrusts the application of divine establishment principles to each generation of the Church Age. The Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled the Mosaic Law; therefore, His Church is free from the Law (Galatians 5:1). The Christian freedom from the Mosaic Law is not lawlessness or lack of direction, but such freedom exists within the framework of God’s protocol for the Church Age (John 15:10-12, Galatians 5:13, 1 Corinthians 9:19-21). The Church Age believer lives under the new law introduced, announced, and executed in the power of the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:2-4) inside divine power system. The perfect humanity of Christ grow and matured under this powerful system of divine assets and resources from the time of His physical birth until His death on the cross. Church Age believers also have these extraordinary opportunities to advance spiritually, but only inside this divine sphere. The believers of the Church Age therefore are the epoch of spiritual freedom, which adapt the divine establishment principles to their own circumstances, life’s objectives, and heritage of their nation. A believer who wishes his nation to prosper can learn much from the Mosaic Law without inflexibly and blindly superimposing its provisions and rules not applicable to other nation. The Mosaic Law was divine regulations for OT Israel under the reign of God as their “political”, “military” and spiritual Leader. J. R. Cherreguine Bible Doctrine Ministries
144 - THE CHURCH AGE The Church Age is a brilliant advance in biblical history with marvelous perspective in the progress of divine dispensations. The Age of Israel ended with the Advent of Christ in his perfect humanity, greater things had come (Hebrews 1:1-2). The Church arrived on the scene as an amazing expression of God’s power and grace. The Church is a breath taking spiritual phenomenon. Never before in the history of mankind the believer in Christ help such position in relation to the Godhead (John 14:12) The Church is the unique body of believers, united with Christ by His spiritual death on the cross and by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Church is a body of extraordinary people who have received spectacular privileges from God through the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Church Age began in A.D. 30 on the day of the Jewish Pentecost and will terminate with the Rapture of all Church Age believers (physically alive) or resurrection (physically death). The Church Age era alone offers the greatest challenge to the individual believer in all human history. This is the era of the royal family of God. Every Church Age believer belongs to Christ’s royal family, founded as a consequence of His strategic victory at the cross and His rejection by Israel (1 Peter 2:9). During the course of the Church Age God is forming this body of believers for the maximum glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ. Every believer of the Church Age received the new royal status of the resurrected Christ and extends the great power of the hypostatic union into great power of the Church Age. The position, assets and opportunity given to the Church Age believers are marvelous. The dispensation of the Church is the era of the royal family of God, founded as a result of Christ’s strategic victory at the cross and His rejection by Israel. “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, that you may proclaim the Excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. For you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy” (1 Peter 2:9-10). The adoption and acceptance of the Church Age believers into the kingdom of God is through the complete work of Christ, who received God’s mercy. The believers are the genuine recipients of God’s mercy. Divine mercy is related to the free gift of salvation, believed and received by sinners through their non-meritorious faith in Christ’s death on the cross on their behalf. The Church is the body of believers spread out around the world designed for maximum glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ. God gives each Church Age believer the new spiritual status of the resurrected Jesus Christ, and also extends the power of the Hypostatic Union into the great power of the Church Age. Christ holds three titles of royalty, each with a royal family:
145 - THE ROYAL FAMILY OF GOD As the God-Man, Christ won the victory over Satan at the cross (1 Corinthians 15:57) and was granted a new royal title that may be considered His Battlefield royalty (Hebrews 1:3-4, 13). This third title is:
When the Lord Jesus Christ ascended in triumph to heaven (Ephesians 4:8), God the Father invested Him with the glories of battlefield royalty and seated Him at the right hand of the throne of God (Psalm 110:1). God the Father inaugurated the Church Age to establish a royal family for the glorified Lord Jesus Christ. Everyone who believes in Christ during the Church age is a member of the royal family of God, also known as the Body of Christ or the Church Universal (Galatians 3:28, Ephesians 1:22-23) The very presence of spiritual royalty on earth makes the Church Age unique in human history. During the Church Age every believer can live in the operational divine power system just as during the dispensation of the humanity of Christ resided in the prototype divine power system. Every member of the royal family can utilize the divine power and divine problem-solving devices that enabled the humanity of Christ to win His strategic victory over Satan, sin and death. We depend entirely on Christ, by extending the great power system. He equipped us to exploit His strategic victory and win tactical victories in our own lives. As we grow spiritually, the positive influence of spiritual royalty on earth spreads invisibly from the individual believer to other people, to organization, to nations, to future generations and to the angels. This powerful collective impact of the Church Age believers is one of the extensive, historical characteristics of the Church Age. During this dispensation God maintains a spiritual presence, not a political presence among mankind. God now works through gentile client nations. Israel was the client nation throughout the Old Testament time. The nation of Israel as God’s chosen nation was the recipient, custodian, and the communicator of the written canon of Scripture. God assigned the nation of Israel to proclaim and furnish the entire human race with the Word of God, but failed. Israel selfishly kept the Word of God for them, legally casting away the proselyte Jews and totally shutting behind the gentiles. They arrogantly cut all the possible access of the gentiles to the Scripture, but God unlocked the door they closed tied with religious hypocrisy. During the Church Age, the believers are commanded to proclaim the good news of the Gospel of Christ in their respective locality. The Roman Empire was the first gentile client nation where the Christians grow, nurtured, matured and launched the missionary work to other nations. The Church Age believers are the royal ambassadors of God to the world. They are the representatives of the Christ mandated to proclaim the Gospel in season or out of season. “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were entreating through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5:20). Our spiritual nobility is for the purpose of communicating the Gospel and proclamation of Bible doctrines. We are not ordinary people; we are the royal family of God. J. R. Cherreguine Bible Doctrine Ministries
146 - THE CLIENT NATIONS During the Church Age any gentile nation can serve as a client nation by practicing the following principles.
The client nation of the Church Age is significantly different from the Age of Israel. God entrusts the Christians with the preservation and communication of the written canon of Scripture. He blesses and protects the gentile nations as long as the nations uphold its client responsibilities. Israel is the only nation on earth in which God has sworn an eternal covenant. He will honor his unconditional covenants at the 2nd Coming of Christ (Romans 11:25-29). Israel is now under divine discipline throughout the Church Age and restricted from client nation functions. These are the times of the gentiles (Luke 21; 24), which will continue until Christ Second Coming. Today, God extends client nation privileges to non-Jewish nations. The Lord Jesus Christ and the apostle Paul mandate the believers to uphold civic duty under the Roman Empire (Luke 20:21-25, Romans 13:1-7). God deals with the client nation in keeping with spiritual condition of its believers. The protection of human life and the privileges of privacy and freedom are the primary concern of a nation’s government. No government however is responsible to support the work of the Church. God deals with the client nation in keeping with the spiritual condition of its believers. Basically, the protection and judicial provision it grants to the Christians. Logistical grace blessings and blessings of spiritual maturity to advancing Christians overflow the nation. Divine discipline of carnal and unspiritual believers affects the nation as well. This explains the nation’s historical rise or fall. The book of Psalms has a lot to say concerning about this: O let the evil of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous; For the righteous God tries the hearts and minds. My shield is with God, Who saves the upright in heart. God is a righteous judge, And a God who has righteous anger every day. If a man does not repent, He will sharpen His sword; He has bent His bow and made it ready. Psalm (7:9-12) For a nation to enjoy divine blessing must maintain a strong circle of mature and advancing believers. The spiritual impact of these saints gives the nation its vigor and life. Weak and passive nucleus of Christians will result to the fall of the nation. The client nation is God’s principal missionary agency during the Church Age. Every believer contributes to the spiritual impact to his nation, and has a solid responsibility to evangelize those in his periphery (Acts 1:8). He is also responsible to support both the local and foreign evangelization, and the accurate Bible doctrine teaching. Such support may include prayer, service, financial contribution or some other form of and encouragement. The continuation of solid doctrinal teaching depends on believer’s responsibility to support such ministry from positive volition and understanding of God’s Word. J. R. Cherreguine Bible Doctrine Ministries
147- PRE CANON & POST CANON ERA The Church Age is divided into two separate periods:
The pre canon is relatively short period in which the New Testament canon was being formed. The pre canon is documented in the Book of acts, which preserved the historical record of the early Church but does not attempt a comprehensive presentation of Church Age doctrines. Some phenomena found in Acts were required in initiating the Church Age but were no longer pertinent after their purpose was achieved and the Church Age doctrines were authoritatively and permanently recorded in the New Testament epistles The pre canon period was differentiated by temporary spiritual gifts such as apostleship, prophecy, knowledge, tongues, interpretation of tongues, miracles and healing (1 Corinthians 12-14). These temporal gifts have limited purpose needed during the pre canon period:
After God fulfilled these purposes, the temporal spiritual gifts were no longer necessary, and were step-by-step removed after the completion of the New Testament Canon (1 Corinthians 13:8). The pre canon period came to an end with the death of John (the beloved), the last apostle, sometime after he wrote Revelation A.D. 96. The pre canon is distinct from the post canon period in many ways.
The post canon period is the era of permanent spiritual gifts. Gifts like pastor-teacher, evangelism. Helps and administration are designed to preach or proclaim the Biblical doctrines of the written Word of God and carry out the spiritual functions of the local church (Ephesians 4:11-13). The spiritual gifts of the post canon period of the Church Age are designed to sustain and operate the royal family of God. The post canon Church Age believers lives by divine truth in their souls, without depending on the emotional stimulation of overt rituals, divine appearances, direct revelation from God, miraculous deeds performed by some highly visible Christians. Spiritual maturity is the objective of the Christian life in every dispensation and believers in this era possesses powerful spiritual devices & resources than any other era. Bible doctrine gives the believers inner power, and our spiritual victory lies in using these spiritual assets and resources resulting to progressive attainment of spiritual maturity, with all the mental and emotional riches. The post canon emphasizes:
J. R. Cherreguine Bible Doctrine Ministries
148 - ISRAEL DURING THE CHURCH AGE The Church Age is unique while being related to other eras or dispensation. Dispensation orients the believer to God’s plan for history. They unlock the wealth of the Scripture for personal application. Widespread ignorance of God’s Word confined believers to fallacious and erroneous religious impression. Some Church age believers thought that Christianity is a blend of the Ten Commandments, the Sermon on the Mount, some portion of the Mosaic Laws, and some social ethics with no accurate idea how these diverse standards merge in the doctrine of the dispensation. These religious errors develop into exaggerated emotions in worship of God. Some religions integrate Scripture in an unsatisfactory manner assuming that God’s unconditional covenant with Israel have transferred to the Church and that Israel has become a spiritual entity with no national future. They sincerely but incorrectly believe that Israel and the Church are one people and that the true spiritual Israel is now the Church. Both the OT and NT clearly declare and identify the true Israel, the chosen and elect people of God in the OT, the recipient of God’s promises, is not only spiritually regenerate but also ethically Jewish. God’s magnificent faithfulness to the flesh and blood nation of Israel cannot be reduced to a spiritual or a figurative dimension only. Strong continuity does indeed run through the divine view of history. God perceives all events as one indivisible system; every parts of the whole are still distinct parts. Some theologians look at the whole and see unclear consistencies; others look at the same whole and see the distinctions. The doctrine of dispensations clearly and thoroughly integrates both change and continuity, both consistencies and distinctions. Some thought that Israel was merely a shadow of Christ and the Church, and the Church is a fulfillment of divine covenants with Israel; overemphasize continuity in the plan of God. They underestimate the implications of the changes God has instituted. Striving for an interpretation of the Bible that makes God’s plan organic and consistent according to their own views, they make God’s character inconsistent. These theologians wish to dissolve the ethnic definition of Israel and release God from His sworn obligation to honor His promises to His chosen nation. God keeps His promises. He is true to Himself, true to His Word, and true to all who trust in Him. Dispensational shifts or changes do not undermine the integrity of God or the stability of His plan. On the contrary, such changes achieve His unchanging purpose for human history. God is ever perfect and no changes or shifts in human history can make Him imperfect. God will fulfill His promises to Israel not during the Church Age but during the Great Tribulation and Millennial kingdom. Israel is presently under the divine discipline but God will never in anyway forsakes Israel. God will fulfill His unconditional covenants to Israel no matter how disobedient they might be. God cannot break His own Words. The changes in the dispensations are because human beings are unstable and ever changing. God included these changes in the divine decree, with due respect to human free-will (positive or negative) volitions. J. R. Cherreguine Bible Doctrine Ministries
149 - THE CHURCH The Church is unique, and the Church Age believers are living under the divine system of privilege. They belong to a highly superior position and great opportunity; they are the nobility of heaven residing on the face of earth. Every Church Age believer holds the rights and privileges of heaven while living on earth. God has marvelously provisioned us and systematically instructed us to walk worthy of such privileges. These privileges are unique to the Church Age:
These privileges form a single balance whole. Each complements the others. As the believer learns what his assets are and how to use them, they begin to function together as an integrated system. Awareness and consistent use of these assets keep the believer moving in the Christian way of life. These privileges constitute the unique meaning of Christian life, purpose, and define the very designed God has for the Church. THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY SPIRIT The baptism of the Holy Spirit is once a lifetime experience of the Church Age believers. At the moment of salvation, God the Holy Spirit places every believer into permanent union with Christ (Galatians 3:1-5, 14, 26-27, Ephesians 4:4-5). This immediate ministry of the Holy Spirit is called the baptism of the Holy Spirit. It occurs at the very moment an individual believe and receive the free gift of salvation in Christ. It creates an everlasting union with God. “For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12; 12-13). The baptism of the Holy Spirit sets the believer apart from unbelievers and apart from believers of all other dispensations. Every Church believer is sanctified in Christ (1 Corinthians 1:2, 30) for the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Thessalonians 2:13-140. The baptism of the Holy Spirit created a new spiritual royalty, set apart for the maximum glorification of Jesus Christ. The purpose of the baptism of the Holy Spirit is to link and unite permanently the Church Age believer to Christ and to make the power system of the Hypostatic union and the Church Age readily available to the believer. There is nothing mystical about the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and there is no need for second experience. The baptism of the Holy Spirit occurs apart from human manipulation and will. No human being can command God to make certain action demanded by men. The baptism of the Holy Spirit occurs under the divine process of imputation of eternal life – the life of God to the believer. The baptism of the Holy Spirit creates the Trinity to reside in the believer. At the point of salvation, God restored the human spirit of an individual to be the residence of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19), which guarantees the eternal security of the believer. In the OT Israel, there was no baptism of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit is not permanently given to believers. J. R. Cherreguine Bible Doctrine Ministries
150 - BAPTISM OF THE HOLY SPIRIT The baptism of the Holy Spirit is not the same as the filling of the Holy Spirit, just as it is not an experience or the work of grace after salvation, and it is not and never was, speaking of tongues. Those who failed to carefully distinguish the baptism of the Holy Spirit from spiritual gifts sincerely but inaccurately thought that the baptism of the Holy Spirit involves speaking in tongues. The baptism of the Holy Spirit occurs at the moment of salvation for all Church Age believers, while the gift of tongues operated only in the post-salvation experience of a few first-century Christians. The phenomenon of tongues was a temporary spirit gifts designed to warm Israel of impending national judgment (Isaiah 28:11) and evangelism. The listeners but not the speakers evangelized Jews in gentile languages understood. The gift of tongues practiced by few believers during the pre-canon period of the Church Age dramatizes the Jews failure to evangelize the Gentiles. The gift of tongues was a miraculous sign to alert Israel to her decadence, which is why, no one, has legitimately spoken in tongues since A.D. 70, when Jerusalem fell, and the purpose for this temporary gift expired. “If there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away” (1 Corinthians 13:8b). The gift of tongues ceased long ago, but the baptism of the Spirit occurs in every generation of the Church age, and it never involves human emotion or ecstatic experience, because genuine baptism of the Spirit has absolutely no relation to feelings. The believer may be elated or feel nothing at the moment of salvation. Regardless how a person feels in that initial instant of faith in Christ, the Holy Spirit unites him with Christ forever. The baptism of the Holy Spirit comes unnoticed and without warning. No human being can sense or detect the baptism of the Holy Spirit in any way. No senses (sight, hearing, touch, or smell) can confirm this spiritual event in the life of a person. The spiritual ministry of the Holy Spirit at the point of salvation is known only through Bible doctrine, which the believer learns after salvation. No person has the authority or power to command or demand the Holy Spirit to baptize an individual or group of individuals. The Holy Spirit will never submit, obey, or listen to human pleading or begging under the guise of powerful prayer of cultic preachers. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is never earned nor deserved by the believer. God give this fabulous gift by grace, totally without regard for human merit or human good works. Eternal union with Christ is complete at the very moment of salvation, accomplished entirely by the grace of God before any believer has a chance to perceive his spiritual position in Christ or learn about this thing. Baptism of the Holy Spirit comes before spiritual growth, Christian service, or knowledge of salvation. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is not progressive and cannot be improved, since the ministry of the baptism of the Holy Spirit has permanent and eternal effect. Never in all eternity can it be undone, lost, canceled, or render void by anything, and never does it need to be repeated (Romans 8:38-). The spiritual impostors have created their own “reverse version” of baptism of the Holy Spirit, which is fill with ecstatic emotions and mystical rituals. The primary purpose of baptism of the Spirit is to permanently link the saints to Christ, not to show off the “spiritual power’ of the cultic preachers. J. R. Cherreguine Bible Doctrine Ministries
151 - THE PROTOCOL PLAN OF GOD The baptism of the Holy Spirit opened the door for the royal family of God to an extra-ordinary Christian way of life under the power of the Holy Spirit. We call this the protocol plan of God. Protocol is a rigid long-established code prescribing complete deference to superior rank and strict adherence to due order of precedence, precise and correct procedure. As earthly royalty lives by humanly made protocol. The refined behavior and high standards of conduct in a vibrant aristocracy are supported by a system of protocol. Each member of the royalty is thoroughly trained and to be familiar with the manner in which various activities are conducted. Each is trained to know his proper place in each royal activity. Protocol enables everyone to know what to do in a given situation and thus creates an environment of poise, graciousness and orderly system. Protocol resolves routine questions and frees the person to devote his energies to substantial issues or to enjoy the event in hand. Spiritual royalty is not less than the earthly royalty. Church Age royalty need never wonder what the Christian life requires of him. He need not stumble or feel awkward in any aspect of his relationship with God. Since he belong to a spiritual dynasty founded by the Lord Jesus Christ in which the standard of conduct follows the precedent clearly established by the humanity of Christ on earth. The entire royal protocol is available for every Church Age believer to learn and master. The protocol plan is clearly defined and taught in the New Testament. The spiritual protocol plan of God for the Church supersedes the ritual plan of God for Israel. The protocol plan of God is not new because it is long established in the mind of omniscient God. God knows the way of life He would unveil for the Church Age. The exactness of God’s code for spiritual royalty expresses His own perfection. God decreed one way of doing each thing, and that way is the only right way in the sight of God. We cannot define the Christian way of life in any way we please. God prescribes complete deference to the ends and means of His plan. The very concept of the protocol means that even a right thing becomes wrong when done in a wrong way. A wrong thing done in a right way is still wrong. A wrong thing done in a wrong way is wrong. Only a right thing done in a right way is right. This is precisely correct procedure. The right thing done in the right way is the protocol plan of God. The right way demanded by protocol is life under the divine power system divine sphere. The most basic concept of true Christian way of life is residence, function and momentum inside the divine sphere. The divine dynasphere or divine sphere is the believer’s safe secure, and spiritual palace. The perfect God can only devise a perfect plan for the imperfect Church Age believers. The protocol plan is a perfect plan, which the believers cannot execute through human ability, human power, human wisdom, human talent and human good works. God cannot accept any human contribution to His perfect plan because it would only corrupt the perfect plan. The justice of God guards the integrity of His protocol. This is called grace, where man enters the plan of God exclusively on the merits of Christ, and will continue in the plan of God by divine power. The believer lives the Christian life only on divine resources and divine power (Ephesians 4:20-24). J. R. Cherreguine Bible Doctrine Ministries
156 - MYSTERY DOCTRINE The Greek noun musterion originally referred to the secret doctrines of ancient religious organizations. Only those persons initiated into the group knew the mysteries. Their doctrines were well known among its members, but secret to the outside world, because nothing was disclosed to outsiders. Paul borrowed this well-known pagan term to communicate the divine truths of the royal family of God. Paul use the term musterion, where the initiates are the Church Age believers and the doctrines are those concerned with the Church. God did not disclose Church doctrine to the writers of OT Scripture, but these marvelous truths now are revealed throughout the NT epistles. Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past, but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations, leading to obedience of faith; to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be the glory forever (Romans 16:25-27) “that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief. And by referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel, of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God's grace which was given to me according to the working of His power (Ephesians 3:3-10) To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God, who created all things; in order that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places (Colossians 1:25-29). “Of this church I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God, that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations; but has now been manifested to His saints, to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. And we proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, that we may present every man complete in Christ. And for this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me. “But holding to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience (1 Timothy 3:9). “But we speak God's wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom, which God predestined before the ages to our glory; the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory; (1 Corinthians 2:7-8). The mystery doctrine reveals all the politeuma privileges of the Church Age believers, which set the Church Age apart from other dispensations. The mandate to “keep holding the mystery doctrine” identifies the most vital function of the royal family of God. That function is to continually learn, retain, and apply the doctrines of the Church Age. Hearing, meditating on doctrine, living by doctrine is the highest form of worship. The royal family of God has a unique potential to worship God because of the unprecedented extent of divine revelation in the mystery doctrine (Ephesians 3:18). The mystery doctrine of the Church Age is received, perceived, revealed, and metabolized into the souls of the believers by the resident Holy Spirit. The unbelievers cannot in any way perceive and understands the Word of God, because they do not have the Holy Spirit – the only Teacher. Pastors, preacher and Bible teachers are just the communicator of Bible doctrines. J. R. Cherreguine Bible Doctrine Ministries
157 - THE INVISIBLE ASSETS The protocol plan of God set forth the royal way of life that God expects of the Christian because of the exalted position in Christ. The mystery doctrine unveils the Church Age with all its divine assets and mandates which define the Christian’s way of life. These three marvelous benefits of our heavenly citizenship are parts of a larger picture. They belong to a portfolio of invisible assets that God the Father designed in eternity past for every Church Age believer. The term portfolio refers to the holdings of an investor synonym for his riches. God has lavished the riches of His grace upon the believers, making each of us fabulously wealthy (Ephesians 1:3-8, 3:18, Philippians 4:19). The Church Age believer is a citizen, and that implies extreme wealth. Our citizenship (politeuma) is in heaven (Philippians 3:20), and our portfolio is described as including “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 1:13). This emphasizes the source of these fabulous blessings who is God the Father and the process or mechanic of receiving them (only through Christ. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3) “To whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27). These portfolios of invisible assets can be categorized by using worldly terms, which we understand. Ephesians 1:1-6 categorized these assets into primary, secondary and personnel.
The Church Age believer’s glorious destiny and immeasurable riches are exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask of think (Ephesians 3:20). The Bible reveals them in many glimpses and increments; they must be explained in numerous ways and from various points of view. The escrow blessings are designed to motivate the Church Age believers to aim for spiritual maturity. In escrow blessings, the Grantor is God the Father who in eternity past deposited in heaven vast wealth indented for the Church Age believers. The Lord Jesus Christ was designated as the Escrow Officer who will distribute the escrow blessings at Bema when the Grantee, (believers) reach spiritual maturity. The election and predestination assets guarantee the existent, function, and operation of the believer in the hostile world. It is designed for the growth and momentum of the believer inside the divine sphere. The positive volition of the believer is a tremendous assets when combine with spirituality. Negative volition on the other hand is great liability and a very dangerous enemy. Undeserved suffering is an asset with tremendous blessings for the positive volition believer. It accelerates and promotes the suffering saints right under the nose of Satan. We are going to study these tremendous assets in the following pages of this book. J. R. Cherreguine Bible Doctrine Ministries
158 - THE EQUALITY FACTOR The election and predestination of believers bring tremendous advantage and blessing. Election & predestination are the equality factor. Every Church Age believer has equal privilege and equal opportunity to execute the protocol plan of God. At the moment of salvation, no one is superior and no one is inferior. No one has higher position than any other, and no one is disadvantaged. All human standards of superiority and inferiority are set aside by the election and predestination of each Church Age believer in the eternity past. Race, gender, intelligence, nationality, economic status, social status no one of these help or hinder the believer in fulfilling the protocol plan of God. Help lies entirely in divine assets and the only hindrance is the believer’s own refusal to learn Bible doctrine and utilize his invisible divine assets. Under the assets of divine election, each Church Age believer has equal privilege with every believer (Ephesians 1:4). Every Church Age believer represents himself before God. Also under election, every believer (winner or loser, carnal or spiritual) has the blessing of logistical grace. The logistical grace blessings are necessary for life support, personal security, and provision for learning Bible doctrine. Under the assets of predestination, every Church Age believer has equal privilege at the moment of salvation (Ephesians 1:5). All believers have the same position in Christ through the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The divine power system gives every believer equal opportunity to advance by executing the protocol plan of God. Each possesses his own operational divine sphere, which is his royal palace and powerful seat of power. The divine sphere is the Church Age believer’s royal palace, his magnificent but invisible seat of power. Spiritual growth, momentum and advancement is possible only inside the divine sphere. No reception, perception or understanding of Bible doctrine is possible outside. God cannot deal with any believer outside the divine sphere and no blessing from God will ever pour upon the believer when he is outside the divine sphere. Being outside the sphere means carnality. Equal privilege and equal opportunity for every Church Age believer in time means inequality in the eternal state. Each believer’s volition accepts or rejects the provisions of grace coming from divine sovereignty. The divine sovereignty provides the equality factor but the free will volition of man expresses individuality. Some believers respond to doctrine advance spiritually and reach spiritual maturity and become spiritual winners. The Christian winner keeps on using his privileges and opportunities. A winner is perseveres against all troubles until he becomes a winner. Others reject doctrine, enjoy the world and become spiritual losers. The perfect justice of God puts all the Church Age believers in the same level of equality and opportunity to make the flow of grace without partiality. The grace of God ensures all human superiority and inferiority. It has nothing to add or minus to the perfect plan of God. Man has nothing to contribute to the plan of God. Equal privilege and equal opportunity also reveal the reality of human depravity before God. Men enter the plan of God through His grace and can remain inside God’s plan only through His grace. J. R. Cherreguine Bible Doctrine Ministries
159 - ROYAL COMMISSIONS Included in the fabulous package of blessing brought by spiritual royalty are the two royal divine commissions granted to every Church Age believer. Each Christian is a royal priest and a royal ambassador. A priest is person who represents him-self or other before God. During the dispensation of the Gentiles, the head of the household represented the family in the matters of worship. The family priest’s duties included presenting revealed doctrine and officiating in rituals and animal sacrifices (Genesis 4:3-5, 8:20, 14:18, 22:13). In the dispensation of Israel, God ordained the Levitical priesthood to serve on behalf of the nation (Number 3:5-10, Leviticus 8:1-20). OT Israel’s specialized priesthood taught Bible doctrine verbally and ceremonially through the rituals authorized in the Mosaic Law. The Levitical priesthood included only unblemished adult males from the family of Aaron in the tribe of Levi (Leviticus 21:17-21). Before the Church Age, membership in the priesthood was severely restricted to small minority among believers. In the Church Age, the priesthood has been extended to include every person in union with Christ (1 Peter 2:5-9, Revelation 1:6, 5:10). Because of the spiritual union with Christ, the Church Age believer belongs to the highest and most exalted of all priestly order under the high priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ. As a royal priest, each Church Age believer represents himself before God, which is the basis for believer’s spiritual privacy, in which he lives his own life before the Lord (Romans 14:4 & 10, 2 Thessalonians 3:11-12). The believer’s priesthood is also the basis for offering effective prayer. The primary function of the royal priest is the faithful intake of Bible doctrine, which is the basis for spiritual growth and the attainment of spiritual priesthood. Spiritual growth is a result of the believer-priest’s divine protocol function before God. The setting for the royal priest’s duties is inside the divine sphere, in contrast to the service of earlier priesthood at physical altars or material temple. The believer is fully ordained priest at the moment of salvation, his priesthood becomes more effective as he attains successive stages of spiritual growth. The royal priesthood of believers does not imply independence from another believer. The priesthood and spiritual gifts create a balance. The priesthood emphasizes the individual; spiritual gifts emphasize the group. Spiritual gifts are related to royal ambassador’s function, they divinely given abilities that support the many necessary functions within the local congregation and in propagating the Gospel outside the local church. The spiritual priesthood emphasizes the believers’ responsibilities before God while the spiritual gifts emphasize the believers’ responsibilities before men. The believers are autonomous before God, but living in isolation from one another is not the will of God. Every believer Church Age believer is a priest, but not every priest has the same spiritual gifts. The Christian labor or service of individual believer-priests creates contact with others. The privacy of priesthood treats each individual with respect precludes sins; this permits human relationships to develop on a solid foundation of personal virtues. Here, privacy supplies the vital factor for rewarding relationship with others. Priesthood is privacy in personal relationship with God, and personal in the Christian way of life. J. R. Cherreguine Bible Doctrine Ministries
160 - THE INDWELLING TRINITY At the moment of salvation, God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit take up residence in the spirit of the Church Age believer. Never before the Church Age and never afterward does God indwell every believer from the moment of salvation. The indwelling is permanent, and it cannot be changed, remove, stop, or render void or suspended for even a second. It will continue uninterrupted throughout the believer’s lifetime on earth.
On the question “How can God indwell a believer?” here’s the explanation: God is omnipresent, which involves His immanence and His transcendence (Deuteronomy 4:39, 1 Kings 8:27, Psalm 139:7-8, Proverbs 15:3). Immanence means His entire essence is always present everywhere so that the whole of God is in every place (Jeremiah 23:23-24, Acts 17:27-28). Transcendence means He is wholly independent of the created universe so that no particular place is exclusively contains Him (Psalm 113:5-6, Isaiah 55:8-9, John 8:23). Immanence and transcendence exist in complete balance, so that the whole earth is full of His glory. God is wholly in every point of the universe, while at the same time He is exalted infinitely beyond the universe (Isaiah 6:1-3). If God is everywhere, what does the indwelling of the believer means? The combination of immanence and transcendence means that God is free to be local, to have His presence at a particular “place or location” (Exodus 19:20, 24:9-18, 40:34, John 1:14). God is never restricted by time and space, and His sovereignty can decide how He wants to indwell in these temporal and physical dimensions. God does not always have to be present in the same sense (as we human can understands). When God, indwells within the creation, He dwells by His own choice and in a manner of His own choosing. God’s sovereign decision in this matter is remarkable expression of His love and eternal purpose for the Church Age believers. The indwelling of the believer is God’s local presence in a more intimate relationship with the believer than has ever existed prior to Church Age dispensation. This marvelous and fantastic indwelling presence within the believer is astounding fact and basis for blessing beyond imagination. Each member of the Trinity has a specific purpose for residing in the believer. The indwelling of God the Father is related to the glorification of His protocol plan (Ephesians 1; 3, 12). The Father is the Author of invisible assets, the Grantor of escrow blessings for time and eternity. He is the Author of the protocol plan and the designer of the divine sphere. He is revealed indirectly through Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. His indwelling confirms His personal ministry to every Church Age believer. It is necessary to understand the purpose of each member of the trinity for indwelling the Church Age believers and the distinction of each purpose. J. R. Cherreguine Bible Doctrine Ministries
161 - THE AVAILABILITY OF DIVINE POWER In the OT dispensations the power of God was available to a few believers. The temporal endowment of the Holy Spirit empowered some Old Testament believers who held positions of unusual responsibility. God gave these selected and important believers access to His power to carry out their particular functions (Numbers 11:16-17, 27:8 -, Judges 3:10, 6:34, 11:29, Micah 3:8). In most cases, the endowment of the divine power was for limited period of time during the course of their function. In the Church Age, the protocol plan of God is executed through a power plan or structure available to every Church Age believer. The indwelling of the Trinity is extended to every member of the royal family of God. The ordinary believer is indeed extra-ordinary in this dispensation. The omnipotence of God the Holy Spirit enables the individual believer to execute the protocol plan of God. The Holy Spirit operates the divine power system or divine sphere, and supplies the power necessary for perception and application of Bible doctrine by which the believer advances to spiritual maturity (John 14:16-17, 16:12-14, 1 Corinthians 2:9-16). The power of God the Son and God the Father was made available to every believer. Each Person of the Trinity exercises His absolute power in behalf of the Church Age believer. These magnificent resources become operational in the life of the believers only through the execution of the divine protocol. Spiritual growth and advancement toward maturity enhance the believer’s utilization of divine power. The available divine power is not mystical or magical in any sense but spiritual and designed to glorify the Lord. The omnipotence of God the Father is related to the portfolio of divine, fabulous but invisible assets. As the believer’s learns and obeys the Father’s plan, he begins to experience the “riches of His grace” (Ephesians 1:7-9). The omnipotence of God the Son does not only controls but also preserves the universe and perpetuates the human race (Colossians 1:17, Hebrews 1:3). He controls human history by blessing nations that have a large enough pivot of positive volition believers and by judging nations with too large a spin-off of negative volition believers. The omnipotence of God the Holy Spirit directly minister to each believer who has positive volition toward God and His Word. The Holy Spirit plays the busiest role in the life of every Church Age believer advancing toward spiritual maturity. The divine power available to every Church Age believer is not designed to make the believer famous for his faith or power, as if God is at his disposal and commands. The primary purpose of the indwelling Holy Spirit is to glorify Christ in the life of the believers and not to attract the attention of men toward the believers. Miracles are the least thing that God can do for the human race. God has done the most difficult thing for Him to do, which is to die in behalf of the sinful human race. Miracles entirely depends on the sovereignty of God, He do it without any help or contribution from any created being. The miracles recorded in the Scriptures are the work of God in His own way, in His own manner, in His own Time, apart from human intervention. J. R. Cherreguine Bible Doctrine Ministries
162 - THE ABSENCE OF PROPHECY The post-canon Church Age is the only era in the entire dispensations in which no biblical prophecy will be fulfilled. The only prophetic events concerning the Church Age are its beginning, which was prophesied by Christ (John 14:16-17, 16:7-15, Acts 1:5), and its termination at the resurrection or Rapture (1 Corinthians 15:51-55, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). The only prophecies fulfilled in the pre-canon Church Age deal not with the Church but with Israel. The Bible is the mind of Christ and not a complete historical book of the future. The relatively few events it describes are selected to reveal Christ not the future events. Many prophetic events have been fulfilled in the past just as others will be in the future The Church Age stands between two periods rich in prophecy. Numerous OT prophecies were fulfilled during the Hypostatic Union and more prophecies concerning Christ and Israel will be fulfilled during the Great Tribulation, but the Church Age is a period of prophetic silence. No events of this dispensation are found in prophecy, except for its termination. The prophetic events following the Rapture concern the Tribulation. None of the geopolitical alignment events need to exist prior to the rapture of the Church. World conditions might seem parallel to biblical descriptions of the Tribulation; this does not indicate that the Rapture is near. Throughout the Church Age the doctrine of the imminence of the Rapture holds true (James 5:8, Revelation 22:7, 12, 20). The Rapture of the Church is the next prophetic event, but the time is not announced. Rapture was possible in the time of apostle Paul, tomorrow or a thousand years from now. Baseless speculation has no place in biblical doctrines. Advancing believers are growing in love for Christ and developing eager anticipation for His appearance (1 Corinthians 1:4-8, Titus 2:13), but such enthusiasm must be tempered by patience (James 5:7-8) and redirected toward fulfilling God’s purpose in this present dispensation. Unfulfilled prophecies and promises concerning Israel still belong to Israel and God will keep his promises to the Jews. However, the fulfillment of those divine prophecies will not be seen until the Church departs and the Tribulation begins. The issues for the Church Age are not to fix our attention to certain prophetic events but to focus on Bible doctrines. Christ directs our focus on more important matter the Word of God. He directs us to concentrate on the tremendous mystery doctrines. The Church possesses the completed canon of the Scripture given to sustain spiritual growth, which glorifies Christ. The Church has access to the same divine assets and resources that totally sustained the humanity of Christ. The Church was created with the capacity to have the mind of Christ (epignosis) in the souls. God excluded prophetic events from post-canon Church Age to emphasize the dynamics of Bible doctrine in the soul. Believers should learn the whole realm of Bible doctrine rather than specialize in prophecy. We need to study prophecy but such eschatological studies should never distract us from the most vital priority. The impact and influence of the church Age believers is invisible and generally indirect. Believers create the trends of history –anonymously. The absence of prophecy emphasizes the individual believer’s potential impact. Knowledge of eschatology helps us to interpret events and historical trends as they occur in his own generation, but the absence of prophecy stress his need to grow up spiritually until he can think with biblical perspective. J. R. Cherreguine Bible Doctrine Ministries
163 - THE INVISIBLE HEROESEvery individual Christian has a major role to play in his generation of the Church Age. Believers can be invisible heroes or invisible villains, but there is no ordinary Christian in the royal family of God. When a Church Age believer advances to spiritual maturity, he has a positive impact or influence on history. He is the factor for prosperity in his locality. His spirituality functions as the salt and the light of his community. The negative impact of the royal family of God also comes from the individual believer who also rejects the will, plan and purpose of God brings suffering and divine discipline upon himself and becomes the source of adversity in his periphery and nation. The power system of the Church Age was to create invisible heroes. An invisible hero is a spiritual believer who advances to spiritual maturity and received his fivefold impact: PERSONAL IMPACT: People in the mature believer’s periphery, including his own family, loved ones, organization, company and closed friends receive blessing by their association with him. The blessing comes in form of logistical grace provision, protection and prosperity in various aspects. God is blessing the people around him, in his local church, his company or organization all because of the spiritually mature believer. God is protecting the community from various disasters and calamities because He is protecting the mature believers. God is concerned about the welfare of the mature believer not because of the people around him. The spiritually mature believer is the friend of God (James 2:23) under the super grace sanctions, and maximum blessings available to spiritual superheroes. HISTORICAL IMPACT: Every nation receives blessing through the mature believers who reside within its borders. The vigor, prosperity, and survival of a nation revolve around mature believers we called “pivot”. A pivot is a group of anonymous unsung, spiritually mature believers, which is the only solution to national degeneracy. Below a certain level of national decline, the spiritual pivot is the only solution and a nation’s only hope. Blessing to the nation is an escrow blessing our Lord distributes to the mature believers. The mature believers contribute positively and effectively to their nation. They do not crusade in the name of Christianity to remake or whitewash their nation in the image of their personal interest (Romans 13:1-7). They are good citizens (made better by their Christianity) whose presence in the community itself is more powerful than the political power play of the pseudo-Christians. The pivot of mature believers is more powerful than the greatest organization of the world that is constantly manipulating the world’s political system. The impact of the pivot is stronger than the most powerful bomb ever exploded on earth’s surface. INTERNATIONAL IMPACT: Nations are blessed by association with mature believers who come as missionaries from another nation. The spiritually mature missionary is an invisible hero, a source of blessing to two nations, the nation in which he serves and the nation from which he is sent. Spiritually mature believers are catalysts for blessings wherever they go. They are the spiritual assets of every nation. Carnal believers are liabilities. Nations that accommodate them are always at risk of experiencing something unpleasant. Calamities and disasters follow them wherever they go. Spiritual maturity is measured by Bible doctrines stored in the souls of the believers not by activity involvement. Spiritual maturity is never determined by length of time the Christians are member of a local church but by the amount of Bible doctrines resident in the soul, by their personal knowledge of God, knowledge of God’s will, God’s plan and God’s purpose. Most often, the most active in the church are the most carnal and ignorant of God’s will. Spiritual believers are the subjects of divine protection, wherever the go, as long as they are dong the will of God, whether they are full-time missionaries or overseas contract workers earning their living. God may use an evil government to protect the mature believers (like what He did for apostle Paul). Paul was given military escorts in several occasions to protect his life from religious murderers. His imprisonment was logistical blessings under the will of God:
It is always safe to be in God’s will. The most dangerous place in the world for the believers is outside the will, plan and purpose of God. Spiritually mature believers are always safe and secure in God’s hand. Carnality always jeopardizes the believer’s security in the world. In such cases, where the carnal believer is living for the world, his worst enemy is not Satan, OSN or the world but God Himself. “You adulterers, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God? (James 4:4). The carnal reversionistic pastors are the real troublemakers; bringing a lot of troubles to every home they entered. Like Absalom, they are stealing the hearts of the people away from God (1 Samuel 15:6). They are extremely dangerous saints (Jude 4-7). ANGELIC IMPACT: God will summon the spiritually mature believers behind the witness stand to testify about the grace of God in the appeal trial of Satan. The mature Christians are strong evidences of the grace of God. Not all Christians are qualified to testify because the testimony will come from the devils cross examination of the super-grace mature believers under maximum sufferings of evidence testing (Job 1:6-2:6, Matthew 4:1-11, Ephesians 6:11-12). Angels (both elect and fallen) are constantly observing the human race (1 Corinthians 4:9, Ephesians 3:10, 1 Timothy 5:21, 1 Peter 1:12), and the mature believer will pass such cross-examination only by using divine resources:
The spiritually mature believers have far-reaching impact among the people of the world, human history and angelic beings. You can contribute better things for your country through spirituality and maturity than politics. J. R. Cherreguine Bible Doctrine Ministries
164- HERITAGE IMPACTThe loved ones and close friends of the spiritually mature believers receive blessings after his physical death. The spiritually mature believer can face death with complete assurance that God will care for those he leaves behind. He can rest in peace being assured that he need not worry about their welfare. His immediate family and close friends are blessed not necessarily because they are spiritual or matured Christians themselves but because of God’s high regard for the departed mature believer. Therefore, losers and carnal believers or unbelievers can receive heritage impact just as they receive personal impact blessing during the mature believer’s sojourns on earth. Heritage impact blessings do not impose any regulation or rule on the beneficiaries. The Christian’s privilege of having spiritual impact is being defied by passiveness and open neglect of Bible doctrines. Pastors and Bible teachers are neglecting their duty in teaching pure Bible doctrines instead they push their followers to be involved in futile, unsuccessful and ineffective ventures like:
Trends in nominal Christianity show signs of an imbalance that emphasizes the visible at the expense of the invisible, the material at the expense of the spiritual, the believer’s overt image at the expense of the inner dynamics of Bible doctrine in the soul. Ignorance of biblical doctrines is the root of these deep-rooted problems. Ignorance undercuts every human good intention. No matter how the Christian desires to make his life count for God, if he is ignorant of God’s plan, will and purpose, he will fail to glorify God. At best, his life is spiritually empty and lacking spiritual impact. At worst, his impact is for evil as he inadequately struggles in Satan’s cause to improve the devil’s world. The manner and extent of the glorification of God in the Church Age are left to the positive volition of the individual believer, hence the scope of the Christian’s influence is virtually unlimited. Believers create the trends of human history – anonymously. Since the invisible impact of the spiritually mature believers is not restricted, Satan is working double time to hamper the growth and momentum of every positive volition believer by every means. The Lord Jesus Christ repeatedly encouraged the Church Age believers to take initiative, advance spiritually, and pursue their spiritual destinies (John 14:13-14, 15:16, 16:23-24). Christians are not left powerless and incapable of gaining spiritual victory since God has already provided everything we need to grow and advance spiritually. We are not endowed with supernatural power for our own gratification and pleasure. What we received is the authority to utilize the power of God’s Word and the power of the Holy Spirit. Our authority to use the power of the Holy Spirit is never left at our own judgment or will but according to divine purpose. “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth” (Acts 1:8). Our authority for using the power of God is always related to our spiritual advancement and momentum toward maturity. It is not designed for mystical power play or building a super-faith image. What the world is seeing is the demonstration of religious power play from mystical sources, not the power of God in action. The power God left for the Church Age believers are designed for selective and exclusive purposes under the divine system:
It is ridiculous to claim that the power of God is responsible for things He declared no longer acceptable and allowed in the Church Age, like healing the sick, miracles, signs and wonders. God will not use His power for such things because they are not necessary and obsolete, since it belongs to another era or dispensation. Religious display of demonic power in many churches is blasphemous. God will never allow His power to be manipulated by such unregenerate or reversionist people. The perfect God will never put His power in the hands of sinful men, who will misuse or abuse it. The so-called miracles, signs and wonders are actually the work of the devil that is using his advocates to deceive the ignorant of God’s Word. J. R. Cherreguine Bible Doctrine Ministries 166 - ETERNAL IMPACTThere are three things in this world that has eternal value:
In the world, only the Trinity and the Word of God are eternal, they have no beginning and have no end. The souls of the believers received the eternal life of God, which is more accurate to call “everlasting life” because it has a beginning (the moment a person believed and received the free gift of salvation) but has no ending. In this planet, people (including believers) are deeply absorbed in the things of the world. They are trapped in the matters of the world and things of the world. Carnal believers at the point of their pseudo strength create different spiritual power that comes not from God but from Satan. God is glorified by His own power system, by His own perfection and never by human self-righteousness. Self-righteousness is human alternative for the perfection of God and His work for the entire human race. Self-righteousness is replacing the power of God with human power. It is substituting the finished work of Christ on the cross for the salvation of man with human incapacity to gain the approval of God with human works. Human good works cannot please God and have no access to God because it is not based on Bible doctrines. “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6). God can accept only His own perfection and righteousness. There is no other way to be acceptable before God than through His perfect righteousness and we do not have that kind of righteousness. The grace of God means that Christ earned our merits before God. He earned our acceptance to God has already provided us that righteousness in Christ Jesus the moment we believe and accept the free gift of salvation. We live in God’s righteousness by constantly storing Bible doctrines in the souls. We can only live in God’s way by progressively and systematically studying Bible doctrines until we depart from this world. Christians cannot do the will of God unless they have knowledge of the will of God planted in their souls. They cannot obey the will of God unless they know the Word of God. They cannot love God unless they know the Word of God. They cannot serve God unless they know the Word of God. There is only one issue here, before we can love, serve, and worship God; we must know Him through His Word. |
