Learning From The Word Of God

For the time will come when they

will not endure sound doctrine,

but according tot heir own desires,

because they have itching ears,

they will heap up for themselves teachers;

and they will turn their ears away

from the truth, and be turned

aside to fables.

But you be watchful in all things,

endure afflictions, do the work

of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

2Timothy 4:3–5

            Paul was instructing Timothy about what he could expect and what he was to do as a Christian who could be affected by those with undesirable intentions. Those intentions often are to have power over those they teach or to whom they preach by using “happy” words, those good sounding to the soul words that scratch their itching ears. Don’t think that God who had Paul instruct Timothy and by His inspiration to Paul to write those words did not intend them to be for all Christians. Be watchful, and fulfill your ministry; this does not mean to be just a pastor, or Bible teacher, as in an educational institution, no, you have a ministry, and this ministry is what is commanded by God for all His children. Yet, they are and have been from the beginning of Christianity those who teach what God has not revealed. What we need is to be taught sound doctrine, that is, doctrine that is founded upon Scripture, not Scripture misused, rather for Scripture to be taken as it was written, for what was written came from God. Man has attempted to make Scripture prove his presuppositions. For instance: Jehovah Witness do not believe that the soul is that which God has given to man by creating for man his soul which is life itself and is able to be influenced by the actions of man. No, they believe that the soul, or Spirit of God is nothing more than a supernatural power of God which will return to God upon the death of a person. The Bible does not teach this as the soul that is sinning it will die, yes, the soul will die, as does the man who is endowed by God with a soul dies as well and the soul is alive and if the person is a Christian will live with God until the return of Jesus Christ at His second coming: “And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them, then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshipped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years” (Revelation 20:4–5). Some would only admit that this verse relates to those who were beheaded, and as to the word in Greek it is the word for an axe in the act of chopping, or in English; beheaded, but this also means truncation, that is a being cut off from the sentence, or life, and this was as a witness for God, as the Greek word which we use; martyr and we use it to mean someone killed, which is not wrong but does not carry the actual meaning, for the word is witness, a person is killed for being a witness for God and this witness must follow sound doctrine, if not, then he is following after Satan, the beast, and if you say that you are not following Satan, or the beast, then are you following after his image? His image can include the teachings that are not Scriptural, that are not sound doctrine. We must be watchful, and this is a major thrust of this blog.

            Therefore, the object of this blog is not to arrive at some certainty that is not clearly revealed in Scripture, nor can I explain from all sides that which is to be admitted inscrutable, but to give aid to us as watchmen so that we guard against the adoption of principles that are in opposition to what is plainly and clearly taught in the Bible and are important doctrines of God. So, what have we learned? Those who hold to preexistence of the soul, as do Mormon, or that the soul is only a power but has not personality, such as do Jehovah Witnesses, and the Traducianists who teach that the soul is numerical and is divided among all the progeny of parents and it is the nature of parents that is in operation in the physical element of man, that like begets like and even though some would admit that there is some operation by God to attended and control life, either direct or creative, this is not taught in Scripture. Creationists do not teach that God does not exercise his creative power in the production of the human soul any differently that He does in the production of life in other cases. What creationists teach and deny is that the soul is not capable of division and that all souls are only a numerical division of the same essence for this would make Jesus Christ a sinner for He would then be the same essence as Adam. If this be true then how would be able to accept that the death of Jesus Christ was a propitiation sacrifice that paid the debt owed to God? We would not and this is not what is taught in Scripture. God by His creative power supplies to man the soul, as was done when God planted His Wisdom, Jesus Christ, in the womb of the Virgin Mary. Jesus was not tainted by the sin of Adam, His soul was not fouled by sin and by this He could be the true and acceptable payment by His death after living a sinless life on this earth as man, a soul, the One who had both the essence of man and the essence of God, a hypostatic union, God and man in one body. Thank God for this for now all those whom He chooses are saved by the intercession made for us by Jesus Christ.

            Next though I must undertake the subject of what is the soul? This is an interesting subject and an important one for us to understand original sin.

Oh, let the wickedness of the

            Wicked come to an end,

But establish the just; for the righteous

            God tests the hearts and minds.

My defense is of God, who saves the

            Upright in heart.

                                    Psalm 7:9–10

Put Your Trust In God

Richard L. Crumb