Knowing the Future in View of God’s Word Part 4

What a blessing it is to have my own computer up and going.  I cannot believe how dependent I have become on this thing.  Well it is good to be back.  This Bible study is part 4 on Knowing the Future in View of God’s Word.  I hope you are enjoying these studies in the Word of God.  I do encourage you to look up these scriptures used and to study them in light of this Bible study.  I pray that it will be a help to you in this day that we live in.  We continue where we left off last time.

             There is one thing to note about the rapture of the Church.  We have divided this event into two parts as the Bible did.  However, the Bible teaches us that even though the resurrection is the first event and “then we which are alive and remain” is the second event.  These events are not separated but by fractions of time.  The Bible teaches us in 1 Thess. 4:17 that we will all go together to be with the Lord.  Matthew Henry writes, “The first care of the Redeemer in that day will be about his dead saints; He will raise them before the great change passes on those that shall be found alive: so that those who did not sleep in death will have no greater privilege or joy at that day than those who fell asleep in Jesus” (Henry 633).

            Concerning the time of these two events.  We have put these two events as the next step in the future.  However; this is one of the most debated topics of the Bible.  To find the truth we must first interpret the scripture in a literal method when establishing a time for this event.  Pentecost writes, “Pretribulation rapturism rests essentially on one major premise-the literal method of interpretation of the Scriptures”  (Pentecost 193).  We must also keep in mind the time intervals or dispensations of the Word of God.  Then we must keep in mind the difference between the Children of Israel or nation of the Jews and the Church. 

            The first scriptures we must look at in establishing a pretribulational view of this event is found in Daniel 9:24-27.  In this passage, and in many others, we can see that there is coming a time of wrath that will be poured out upon the world, but we must establish who this wrath is dealing with.  The answer to this question is found in Jeremiah 30:4-8.  Here we see a parallel to the scriptures in Matthew 24:19 which is in context with the tribulation period.  We will say more on this in the next events.  The Bible said “Jer 30:7 this will be “the time of Jacob’s trouble”.  “When the ‘Times of the Gentiles’ are about to end the Jews will be gathered back to the Holy Land ‘unconverted’, and caused to ‘pass under the rod’ Ex. 20:34-38.  They will be cast into God’s ‘Melting Pot’ Ez. 22:19-22″ (Larkin, “Rightly” 153).  With this statement we can determine that this wrath is dealing with Jacob or Israel though the whole world will suffer.  How does this establish a pretribulational view of this event?  Well, let us take a look at what Daniel said about this event.  Daniel has seen a vision and is relaying this in these scriptures.  The vision is of seventy weeks.  Daniel breaks these weeks up and gives a little time table of these events. 

To rightly divide the Word we must first agree that these weeks are not weeks of days but rather weeks of years.  This was not uncommon in dialing with time in the Old Testament.  Dr. John R. Rice stated, “Israelites were accustomed to several kinds of weeks.  In Exodus 23:10-12, we find that the two commands were given Israel together, the week of years with the seventh year a Sabbath year; the week of days with the seventh day a Sabbath day (Rice 29).  Daniel categorizes the seventy weeks of years into lesser weeks.  In verse twenty-five he states the beginning of these weeks started at “from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem” and going through the time of the Messiah the Prince will be a total of four hundred eighty-three years.  During this time Daniel said that Jerusalem will be rebuilt and the Messiah will be cut off or killed. Between the sixty-ninth week and the seventieth week, Daniel said that Jerusalem will be destroyed again by “the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary”.  We must take note that the Prince in verse twenty-five is not the same as the prince in verse twenty-six.  The Prince in verse twenty-five is the Messiah and the prince in verse twenty-six is Titus the Roman who in 70A.D destroyed Jerusalem and the temple. To this Dr. Rice wrote, “from verse 26 it is clear that he will be of the same people as the Roman army which destroyed Jerusalem” (Rice 32).  

            Daniel states that the seventieth week which is a period of seven years will be a time when the prince will confirm the covenant for three and a half years and then “he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate”.  This will be the tribulation as we will establish later.  We must see first that there will be a time between the sixty-ninth week and the seventieth week and that Daniel gives us one event that will take place between the two, establishing this time between these weeks.

            Seeing that there is a time of unstated amount between the sixty-ninth and the seventieth week, we must look at the cause and the outcome of this gap.  This will further establish a pretribulational view.  To do this we must look at the book of Matthew.  We know that this book was written with the Jew in mind to show them that Jesus Christ is the Messiah.  To this Scroggie writes, “plainly Matthew’s object was to convince Jews everywhere that Jesus of Nazareth was the promised Messiah” (Scroggie 254).  It is referring to as the Kingdom Book because of the preaching and teaching by John the Baptist, the disciples, and Christ Himself that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.  We also see through this book the rejection of Christ as the Messiah.  The Jews were looking for the Messiah to come and fulfill the Abrahamic and Davidic covenant that we talked about earlier.  They did not and could not understand that the Messiah must come to die for the sins of the world.  Edersheim writes,

“So far as we can gather from the Gospel narratives, no objection was ever taken to the fulfillment of individual prophecies in Jesus.  But the general conception which the Rabbis had formed of the Messiah, differed totally from what was presented by the Prophet of Nazareth.  Thus, what is the fundamental divergence between the two may be said to have existed long before the events which finally divided them (Edersheim, “Jesus” 113).

They were looking for someone to rise up and overthrow Rome and establish the Kingdom of Heaven.  We see the rejection of Christ as King starting in Matthew twenty-one and continuing through chapter twenty-three.

            Matthew 23:39 says, “For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord”.  After all the rejection as King, Christ was, at this point, putting off the Kingdom of Heaven which would have been the fulfillment of the Abrahamic and Davidic covenant.  This brings us to the end of the sixty-ninth week Daniel had spoken of. 

            It is also worthy to state that in Matthew 16:17-19 we have the first clear mention of the Church.  The Church was not made know to the Old Testament prophets, nor did the Jews understand how God was going to bring the Gentiles into the same family as the Jews.  We can see now that God would do this by means of the Church.  Clarence Larkin said,

“The Church is a “Mystery” and was first revealed to Paul.  Eph. 3:1-11.  The Kingdom was no Mystery.  The Old Testament prophets describe it in glowing terms.  What they could not understand was what was to come in between the “Sufferings” and “Glory” of Christ 1 Peter 1:9-12.  That is, between the “Cross” and the “Crown”.  That the Gentiles were to be saved was no Mystery Rom. 9:24-30″ (Larkin, “Rightly” 45). 

During the gap between the sixty-ninth week and the seventieth week, would be the destruction of Jerusalem and the establishment of the Church.  This would be a result of the rejection of Christ as King by the Jews who would have established the Kingdom, but through their rejection, postponed the Kingdom bringing in the Church.  With this in mind, we can establish that there is a group of people called the Church that God will work through during the time of gap. 

I want to thank you for taking the time and studying this important passage of scripture.  If you have any questions about our Bible study, please don’t hesitate to send me an email.  All the contact information is located on our web site.  Just CLICK HERE for a link to our contact page of our site.  May God richly bless you this week and we look forward to seeing you in church soon.

David Flood

Pastor

Works Cited

Edersheim, Alfred.  Bible History  Old Testament.  ”The World before the Flood and the

History of the Patriarchs” book 1.  Peabody:  Hendrickson, 1995.

The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah.  “From Bethlehem to Jordan” book 2.

Peabody:  Hendrickson, 2002.

Henry, Matthew. Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume 6. United

States: Hendrickson Publishers, 1996.

Larkin, Clarence. Rightly Dividing The Word.  Glenside: Rev. Clarence Larkin EST,

1920.

Pentecost, J. Dwight. Things to Come.  Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1964.

Scroggie, W. Graham. A Guide to The Gospels.  Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1999.

Rice, John R. The Second Coming of Christ in Daniel.  Murfreesboro: Sword of the Lord

Publishers, no date given.

Prayer Request

1.  Pray for the family of Judy Chapman.  I know that many of you know she was promoted to heaven this past Tuesday.  She was a very faithful member here at Pleasant Valley.  Please keep praying for this family.

2.  Pray for Andy Reid who had brain surgery this past week.  He came through the surgery fine, but still needs our prayers

3.  Pray for Clarance Byrd.  This is Sis. Dot McAllister’s brother.  Pray for him as he is recovering from heart surgery.

4.  Pray for W.C. and Jeanette Young.  Neither one of them has been feeling well lately.  Please keep these in your prayers.

5.  Pray for Sue Heltner.

6.  Pray for Bro. Hill’s Mother and Dad.  His Dad is going to have to have surgery soon.  Please remember them.

7.  Pray for the family of a teacher at Ringgold High.  Their son passed away.

8.  Pray for the Pitt’s granddaughter.  She is being transitioned to whole milk. 

9.  Pray for Tom Schilds and Frank Shirley.

10.  Pray for a friend of Wanda Hill who lives in Alabama.  Her friend is not doing well with her sickness.

11.  Pray for a special unspoken request by Sis. Bobby Headrick.

12.  Pray for Gloria who has an ear infection.

13.  Pray for Christina who is still battling with her diabetes.

14.  Pray for a friend of Ken Pitts.  His friend’s wife is having surgery on her neck.

15.  Pray for Bro. Sammy Allen.  He is passing blood and not doing well.  Please pray for this man of God.

Knowing the Future in View of God’s Word Part 3

With the computer being down, it was impossible to do a Bible study.  It is with joy we can continue our study of things to come.  The last study left off with a comparison of Israel and the church.  These two groups in the Bible must be kept separate.  Israel has their own promises from God that are still to be fulfilled.  We the church have been grafted into the family of God.  We take up with the third group of people we find in the Bible.

            There is a third group that we must mention that falls outside of these two groups of people.  This group we will refer to as those who have rejected Christ.  This group can not be categorized with the Children of Israel nor can they be categorized with the Church.  This group may include rejecters of Christ from out of the Jewish nation, but not out of the true Church.  We must also see that there may be some from the Jewish nation that will be members of the Church through their acceptance of Christ as the Messiah.  This group of rejecters are those who have rejected God’s plan for redemption to a fallen and depraved man.

            The first event to occur, according to the Scriptures, is that of a resurrection.  The Bible said in 1 Thessalonians  4:16 “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:”  There are several things to note about this scripture.  The first is that the Bible said the Lord will descend.  This means He will come out of heaven toward the earth, but we see in the next verse 1 Thess 4:17 “Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” that we will be caught up in the clouds.  Wiersbe said, “When Jesus Christ returns in the air, He will issue the ‘shout of command’ and the ‘dead in Christ shall rise first’” (Wiersbe, “Volume 2″ 180).  This is instructing us that when the Lord descends, He will not descend to the earth, but stop short in the clouds.  We will see later in this study the importance of this statement.  We must notice who it is in this resurrection.  This verse said that those who were dead in Christ shall rise. This tells us that there is a resurrection of the dead but only those that are dead in Christ.  “In Christ” is referring to “In Christ” being put there by the baptism of the Holy Spirit which is to be saved or born again.  ”First, “the dead in Christ” shall rise, then the living shall be caught up.  The Lord’s people alone are spoken of here (Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown 1337).

            So we see the sequence of this event is the next event on God’s time table.  There is nothing in the scriptures that must be fulfilled before this takes place.  We also see the place of this event.  It will be from the earth to the clouds, and we also see the people that will be affected by this event.  Paul is writing to the Church here at Thessalonica explaining to them about the dead, or those who sleep in Christ.  Spurgeon writes,

“After death, we shall abide awhile in the separate, disembodied state, and we shall know as to our soul what it is to be still with the Lord: For what did the apostle say? “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord” 2 Cor. 5:8″ (Spurgeon 101).

            The next event will be the rapture of the Church.  Using this same scripture passage, we can see that within the same moments of time there will be a rapture.  The word rapture, you will note, is not found in the Word of God.  However, the definition of the word is implied in the scripture.  Webster defines the word as “to carry away” 3. Rapidity with violence: a hurrying along with velocity; as, the rapture of the storm.” (Webster 1406).  The Bible says in 1 Cor 15:51-52, “51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.”  The key words for rapture are “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye”.  Comparing Webster’s definition with these verses you can see that though the word rapture is not found in the Bible, the definition is.  Walvoord said, “At the rapture of the Church, however, a whole generation of those who are saved will be caught up to Him without dying.  This will constitute the grand exception to the normal rule of death and resurrection (Walvoord 463).

            We must look at these verses to see who it is that will be in this rapture.  The Bible says in 1 Thess 4:13 “But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.”  This verse gives us the context of 1 Thess. 4:13-18.  Notice to who he is addressing in this verse “brethren”.  If you are not saved then the Father (God) is not your father.  Therefore you are not a son of God and we are not brothers in the family of Christ.  Clearly he is referring to the saved at Thessalonica and also to every born again believer.  From these scriptures we can see it is the Church that Christ will be coming out on the cloud and rapturing at this time.

Next week we will be looking at this event with the resurrection of the saints of God.  Please, take the time and review these studies.  It would also be recommended to look up the Bible references and mark these in your Bible.

David Flood

Pastor

Pleasant Valley Baptist Church

 

Works Cited

Jamieson, Robert., A.R. Fausset, and David Brown. Commentary on The Whole Bible. 

Grand Rapids:  Zondervan Publishing House, 1968.

Spurgeon, Charles. The Power of Christ’s Second Coming.  Lynnwood:  Emerald Books,

1996.

Walvoord, John F.  Every Prophecy of the Bible.  Colorado Springs:  Chariot Victor

Publishing, 1999.

Webster, Noah. Webster’s Universities Dictionary Unabridged. New York:  The World

Publishing Company, 1941.

Wiersbe, Warren W. The Bible Exposition Commentary Volume 2. Wheaton: Victory

Books, 1994.

Weekly Updates

What a wonderful service we had this past Sunday.  Judge Gene Lowery, Catoosa County Probate Court Judge, was with us in the service this past Sunday morning.  He spoke to us about choses and consequences.  I am sure he has seen a lot of consequences from people making bad choses in their life.  We had a good number of young poeple and school workers with us in the service.  This was a blessing to see all of them and have prayer for them as they start the new year.  We need to pray for our students and school workers each and every day.

Due to our revival last week, we do not have an updated prayer list for this week, but due continue to prayer for last weeks prayer request.  Sis. Alma Bryson called today with a praise report.  She has just completed her 5th year of cancer testing and all have been negative.  This is wonderful news.  She also said that Sis. Chapman had to be taken back to the hospital.  She is not doing very well at all.  She really needs our prayers.  Sis. Eddington came through her surgery this morning.  Please remember her in your prayers as she is in a lot of pain.  The docors said it was worse than what they thought.  I did receive a prayer request by way of our website connection, Brenda Cooper from Texas has asked our church to prayer for her sister-in-law who is in Iraq working.  Please prayer for this lady that God’s hand of protection will be on her.

Sunday night we voted on a passed a new set of By-laws for the church.  We need to really pray for the church election of officers during this entire month.  During the September conference meeting will be our election of officers.  Please pray about this.  Also, we are putting the finishing touches on our visitation program.  Please help pray about this.  It seems like it has not come together as quickly as I would like. 

I want to give a specal thank you to Bro. W.C. Young for allowing me to use one of his computers.  We are almost back up and going with the use of this computer. We are waiting on a check from our insurance company to purchase another computer. 

Faith Baptist Institue and Bible College starts back on Aug. 18th.  They asked me to teach two classes each semester for this year.  I will be teaching each Tuesday night from 6:30 PM to 10:00 PM.  We will be studing General Epistles one class and the Holy Spirit in the second class.  The second semester we will be continuing General Epistles for one class and changing to Personal Evangelism the second class.  Please help me pray about this.  I have probably agreed to more than I should have.  It takes several hours a week just to prepare for one class.  Help me pray about this.

Remember to pray for the services this Sunday.  Pray for someone to be saved and that revival will continue in our church.  I continue to be encouraged and excited to see how God is working within our church.  I look back on the short time being here at Pleasant Valley and am excited to see what God has already done.  I believe we are on the edge of seeing the power of God working in new and exciting ways.  Please pray for us.

Weekly Updates

Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord what a wonderful revival we had.  Dr. Bagwell was just great.  Sunday night through Wednesday was so moving.  Monday night of the revival there was one man who accepted Christ as his saviour.  He was back on Tuesday night.  You could just look at  his face and see a difference in him.  The messages each night were just what we needed from God.

As many of you know, I had lightning come in on my house this past weekend.  The most valuable thing it hit was my computer and backup drive for my computer.  Thank the Lord all of this can be replaced.  Within the next two weeks, we should be back up and going full speed.  The first thing I want to do is update the website and add the messages from the revival.  We video taped the Wednesday night service so we can upload this to the site as well.  Please help me pray that I can be back up and going as soon as possible.

I would like to thank New Bethel, Catoosa Baptist Tabernacle, and Nellie Head Memorial Baptist Church for coming over and being with us on Wednesday.  We had over 200 people in that service, and what a time we had.  Nellie Head’s choir was just fantastic.  They have something to be proud of with their choir.  I just want to thank each one of you for coming.  Our folks were very supportive in the whole revival.  In many churches you have to beg people to do something, but it was wonderful to see so many members working to see this revival the success it was.  Thank you so much.

This Sunday is our special back to school service.  We are looking forward to this.  Judge Gene Lowery will be with us in the service.  He will be speaking on the importance of God in our school, then we will be bringing the message to those who are going back to school or work in the school system.  Please pray for this meeting and invite as many workers and students as possible.

Please be much in prayer for our church.  Pray that God will continue this revival in all of our hearts.  Pray also for the many that are on the prayer request list.  I will try to update the list and get it out to you by Sunday.

Prayer Request

1. Pray for Revival Sunday through Wednesday next week Dr. Mike Bagwell.
2. Pray for our missionaries
3. Pray for our leaders and military
4. Pray for Judy Chapman.
5. Continue to pray for Charles Vess
6. Pray for Larry Headrick
7. Pray for Sis. Rena Eddington’s who is having surgery August 13^th.
8. Pray for Bro. & Sis. Pitts and their situation.  Pray God’s will will be done in this.
9. Pray for Christina and her struggles to get her sugar under control.
10. Pray for the church and the leaders of the church.  Pray for the election of officers after the by-laws are put in place.  Pray God’s will will be done.
11. Pray for our Sunday School especially as we move closer to October
12. Pray for the special service honoring those returning back to school and those who work in the school system.
13. Pray for this friend of Bro. Hill who is battling with cancer.
14. Pray for Bro. Young.  Pray that doubling up on his medication will help him in feeling better. 
15. Pray for Sis. Mitchell’s nephew in Germany
16. Pray for Sis. Petty who will be having knee surgery
17. Pray for Jimmy Williams and family.
18. Pray for Terry Gates
19. Pray for Blair LaVelle
20. Pray for Wanda Hill who was out sick on Wednesday night.
21. Pray for Gary Trew who is sick with MS.
22. Pray for Sis. Pitts who has a touch of pneumonia.
23. Bobby Headrick has a special prayer request.
24. Nephew of Billy Mitchell (John Mitchell) has cancer.
25. Pray for Junior McCurdy who had heart surgery.

Weekly Updates

Keep encouraged.  I am reminded of King David in 1 Sam. 30 where David had just come back to Ziklag where David and all his mighty men’s family were staying.  As David and his men approached the city, they saw the smoke of the ruin of the city.  As they were gone away, the Amalekites had invaded Ziklag.  David and all of his men feared that their wives and children were all dead.  All the people turned against David and wanted to put him to death.  So here is King David, he believes his family is dead, his mighty men have turned against him, and there doesn’t seem to be any reason to go on.  1 Sam. 30:6 tells us the only thing David could do “And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man his son and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God”. 

It is revival time.  Bro. Bagwell will be with us starting Sunday night in the 6:30PM service.  Then he will be with us Monday through Wednesday at 7:00PM each night.  We need to pray for revival.  Every time the Holy Spirit brings it to your remembrance, say a word of prayer for the revival.  I know we have a few missionaries around the world who are subscribed to this blog, please help us pray.  I believe this is a real God sent opportunity to have Bro. Bagwell with us during this time.

The Lord has been so good to me.  What a wonderful day in the Lord we had on this past Sunday 7/27/08.  The church had a welcome our new pastor day, and it was more than I would ever imagine.  Throughout the entire service the Lord was with us.  The Sunday school, singing and preaching was just blessed of God.  I want to say again, THANK YOU Pleasant Valley for the words of encouragement, gift cards and cards my family and I received.  It was just a wonderful day.  The Sunday morning service has been uploaded to the website.  For a fast link to the preaching page of our website just click HERE.  Please, you need to hear this service again.  Sunday night service was just a good soalm service.  The song by Julie McCurdy and Judy Ingle were just wonderful.  Bro. Eddington held a testimony service and then preached on ”Jesus is Lord”.  

Bro. Lancaster was with us during our Wednesday evening service.  If you missed it, you missed a wonderful, heart felt, burden for the work there in Germany.  Bro. Lancaster is a missionary with BIMI to the military in Germany.  We thank the Lord for the opportunity to have had him in our service this past Wednesday.  Let’s keep praying for him and his family.  These are trying times for them. 

We are looking forward to another great day with the Lord this next Sunday.  Let us purpose in our heart now to invite someone to come and be a part of the services.  Then let’s be much in prayer for the services.

Knowing The Future In View of God’s Word Part 2

We continue looking at the different groups of people in the Bible.  Last week we started looking at Israel and the unconditional covenant God made with Abraham.  This week we pickup with a second unconditional covenant God made with David.  I would encourage you to take your Bibles and look up any references that are quoted, and if you are in the habit of it, mark these explanations down for future references.

The second main covenant made was with King David.  We can find this covenant stated in 2 Samuel 7:12-16.  This states five different things in the promise from God to David.  These five things are stated as follows:

(1) David is to have a child, yet to be born, who shall succeed him and establish his kingdom.  (2) This son (Solomon) shall build the temple instead of David.  (3) The throne of his kingdom shall be established forever.  (4) The throne will not be taken away from him (Solomon) even though his sins justify chastisement.  (5) David’s house, throne, and kingdom shall be established forever (qtd. in Pentecost 103).

This covenant has not been fulfilled.  This covenant must be looked at and interpreted literally.  With this in mind there are five things that must happen as we see this fulfilled through the events to come.  First there must be a nation Israel, they must be brought back into their inherited land, David’s Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, must reign over David’s covenanted kingdom, there must be a kingdom, and this kingdom must be eternal.  “Throne”, “house”, and “kingdom” were all promised to David.

            There are many more covenants throughout the Bible of both conditional and non-conditional, but in dealing with the events that must take place; we will limit our study to the Abrahamic and Davidic covenants.

            The second group of people we need to define is the Church.  Let me make this distinction about the church.  There are two different churches referred to in the scriptures. There is first of all what is referred to as the local church, and then there is the Church as the body of Christ. 

Augustus Strong said this concerning the local church:

The individual church may be defined as that smaller company of regenerate persons, who, in any given community, unite themselves voluntarily together, in accordance with Christ’s law, for the purpose of securing the complete establishment of his kingdom in themselves and in the world (Strong 890).

The local church is that local gathering place for believers to come and worship the Lord of the universal church which is those in the Body of Christ.

            The Church, as the Body of Christ, are those who by faith in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, and at the time of salvation, are baptized into the Body of Christ by the Holy Spirit.  1 Corinthians 12:13 said, “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit”.  Every truly saved, born again believer, regardless of the local church, are a member of the universal church of the Body of Christ. To this Thiessen writes, “In the universal sense the church consists of all those who, in this age, have been born of the Spirit of God and have by that same Spirit been baptized into the body of Christ” (Thiessen 311).

            With these two main groups of people, Children of Israel or the Jews and the Church as the Body of Christ, we are able to define the events that will take place and who will be affected by the events.  We must see these two groups of people as different subject maters.  Lewis Sperry Chafer in his book Systematic Theology writes of twenty-four different distinctions between the Church and Israel.  In his conclusion he writes:

…it should be observed that, in certain respects, there are similarities between these two groups of elect people.  Each, in turn, has its own peculiar relation to God, to righteousness, to sin, to redemption, to salvation, to human responsibility, and to destiny.  They are each witnesses to the Word of God; each may claim the same Shepherd; they have doctrines in common; the death of Christ avails in its own way for each; they are alike loved with an everlasting love; and each, as determined by God, will be glorified (Chafer 53).

Next week we will continue with the third group the Bible describes to us.

Author:  David Flood

 

Works Cited

Chafer, Lewis Sperry. Systematic Theology. “Ecclesiology” Volume 4. Grand Rapids: 

Kregel, 1993.

Pentecost, J. Dwight. Things to Come.  Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1964.

Thiessen, Henry C. Lectures in Systematic Theology.  Grand Rapids:  William B.

EErdmans, 2003.

Strong, Augustus Hopkins. Systematic Theology.  Volume III.  Valley Forge: Judson

Press 1907.

Annoucement

 

 

 

 

 Revival

Dr. Mike Bagwell

Sunday Night August 3rd 6:30PM

Monday August 4th through Wednesday August 6th

7:00PM nightly

With Special Singing Each Night

Prayer Request

Pleasant Valley Baptist Church Prayer Request

1.     Pray for our missionaries.

2.     Pray for our leaders and military.

3.     We do need to continue praying for Sis. Judy Chapman.  Pray that God will give her the strength and encouragement she needs.

4.     Continue praying for Charles Vess as he recovers from surgery.

5.     Continue praying for Larry Headrick as he recovers from surgery.

6.     Pray for Sis. Rena Eddington’s shoulder injury.

7.     Pray for Phil Ludwick.

8.     Pray for Bro. & Sis. Pitts and their situation.  Pray for the will of God to be done in this.  Pray that God would continue to guard their testimonies during this.

9.     Pray for Christina and her struggles to get her sugar under control.

10. Pray for Bro. Hicks.  He had an abscess this week.

11. Pray for Sis. Brooks.  We received word that they will be able to treat her with medication to stop the bleeding.  This is good news.

12. Pray for the church and the leaders of our church.  Pray for the election of officers after the by-laws are put in place.  Pray for the will of God to be done.

13. Pray for our Sunday School, especially as we move closer to October.

14. Pray for the special service honoring those returning to school and those who work in the school system.

15. Pray for laborers in the vineyard of God for the church.

16. Sis. Eddington’s sister is in the hospital.  Let’s remember her in our prayers.

17. Pray for a patient of Sis. Hill. 

18. Pray Sis. Hill’s son who was suffering from dehydration earlier this week.

19. Pray for a friend of Bro. Hill’s who is battling cancer.

20. Pray for Sis. Young who was having trouble with her sugar earlier this week.

21. Pray for Bro. Young as he has not been feeling well this past week.

22. Pray for the Carlock family as they deal with the loss of their son.

23. Pray for Sis. Mitchell’s nephew in Germany.

24. Pray for Sis. Petty who is having surgery on her knee.

25. Pray for Sis. Sosebee who is having surgery on Monday.

26. Pray for Bro. Joe Nelms who has just been called as interim Pastor.

27. Pray for Bro. McGee who had to have a stint put in this past week.