A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born of adversity (Prov. 17:17)
God had lower down a sheet of cloth, there are all kinds of unclean animals in this cloth, and He called Peter to kill and eat those unclean animals. This is against the teaching in the scripture (OT), but the Lord has power over the scripture. He is coming to fulfill the every jot and title of the scripture. This act I think is to commission the church to reach out to the lost soul and evangelize the pagan or gentile world. And prepare Peter to accept the unclean pagan who will later believe in Jesus Christ.
Be this our vision in our church. The greatest commandment is to love God and secondly to love one another. Put away those differences in teachings, let us see what the Lord want from us, are we accepting one another, forgiving one another, to grow up to be mature and perfect. Be the light of this world by doing good work.
Let it be so, consider this. When it is time to come for the Lord to replace Soul, the first Israelite king, he sent Samuel to see Jesse, and Jesse had 3 sons, they are good soldiers, man of war, fighter, but God did not pick them, but God chosen the youngest son, David to takeover the kingdom, the man after God's heart. We had struggled for many years for VPP, did God really want us to do that? Who is among you all, which God will raise up and take over the leadership in the new synod, fighters? Or man of God’s own heart??? Consider this carefully.
About the Words of God, this will take years to study and understand His Word the Bible. Every believer should believe we have the Living WORD of God. And do not forget Christ Jesus is the Living WORD. He is the Son of God, our only Lord and Savior and He is the Incarnated Word. The Word became fresh not to be debated, but to be worshiped and followed. The letter kill, but the Spirit gives life. Emmanuel, the WORD is with us, 100% is with us. Please draw near to the Lord, the Living Word, worship Him, may God forgive us through Him. Ask Jesus for forgiveness, with Jesus, we have perfection, ONLY Jesus is the WAY, the TRUTH and the LIFE. And thank God for giving us the Bible, the inspired Word God, this is the Spiritual sword, God given us the Sword to fight the spiritual warfare. The Bible is the Word of God; there is no error in the original Bible. But the Bible which is translated into many languages, the translations are not perfect, KJV is not perfect, and the TR is not perfect, only the original texts are perfect, but any how the most important is that the meaning is perfectly intact in these faithful translations. The most important is that the Old Testament and the New testament pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ, He is the Lord and Savor of the World.
In Romans 8:16 in KJV, "The Spirit itself..." Since the Holy Spirit is a person, the word should be translated as “The Spirit Himself..." Please see other translations like NKJV, NIV..... In English, to address a living person, we must use words correctly, to address a person; we must use (him or her). The third Person of Trinity, The Holy Spirit, He is God, He is not a thing, He is a living Person. This is a grave mistake in the KJV Bible, theologically speaking this is like the Jehovah Witness denying the divinity of the Holy Spirit, so you see, KJV is not 100% perfect, is not 100% without errors, very possible that KJV was translated from a imperfect underlying text, honestly speaking the truth TR also is not perfect, for this let those theologian goes and proof the perfection. We should not hurt one another with the doctrine of Verbal Plenary Preservation (VPP), this is wrong. We should see that point. We should not stumble anyone in the bible study, with problems in our own theological stands. Let us see ourselves weather we ourselves are standing by faith or not. Some of us personally may agree that God preserved His Words, preserving them generally in all the MSS and TR, KJV... There is nothing wrong about that, we all must agree that the autograph is perfect....But it is questionable, if anyone suggests the whole bible is preserved in a single TR like the VPP promoted. Do not talk like child, is a man, lets us photocopy all the 5000 MSS, and let every Bible College students study all the MSS in the Bible College again. Proof the VPP to the college students let them agree with the theologians.
Some theologians may suggest VPP in the Bible College's lecture note as personal view only, they may teach VPP in the Bible classes as a theory, but that is only an hearsay or a lecturer's opinion, it personal, let the members choose to accept or not, it not crucial, if one does not accept VPP, it is his personal preference, please see this as a freedom in christianity, it does not effect our belief, since we all are accepting all the important doctrines like the salvation, the doctrine of God and man, doctrine of death and life, the doctrine of Spirit, let us agree and united with the crucial and major doctrine, let God leads us, let God has some times and rooms to work in the church, let the church has time to decide the matters, if the matters are hard to understand, and no one understand what the theologian or teacher means, let the person who is speaking or teaching, keep silent, let him speak to God and himself, and if a prophet is speaking, let other prophet judge his speaking, we should speaking one by one, there is the order, for us who lack of wisdom, let us pray for wisdom. Please do not go to the extent to attack our own brothers and sisters in Christ and spit the churches because of a personal VPP view. I speak like a fool now. VPP teaching may not be heretical. But if VPP theologian is splitting the church, then it will make them to look like heretic and becoming one. Are we standing at God's side or the enemy side? God is not respecter of person, if a Bible teacher's doctrine is wrong, then he is wrong, maybe he is the founder of the church, when he is wrong in doctrine, he must admit that he is wrong, he should have no morale support for him, or playing cards of sentiment in the church. Tell him in anger do not sin. Do you want to cut my head, because I do not want to accept your personal view? I am speaking like a fool.
In the church, Paul exhort us to speak 5 words, 5 understandable words, edifying words, this is very true and important for a theologian, or a teacher in church or Bible College , (1 Cor 14:19) than thousands which are not, which are not understandable, which are not for edifying. The more we speak, the more we made mistakes. We should bridle our tongue! It is speaking big things! Which is like this VPP, is very hard to understand. But not edifying the church! It brings up fire of hell. (James 3:6)
You better suggested some B-P to change their names into VPP-Presbyterian Church, or Bible-Press, a new denomination and sect. And sad to say, the Chinese name of all B-P s are also not literally translated, B-P should only be translated into the 5 Chinese words, they are "Bible" and "Presbyterian", "sheng Jin zhang lau hui," that is a better translation. How come it is translated as "to xing sheng Jin zhang lau hui." You see why B-P stumble themselves in the Bible issues, the BP theologian who use small Bible issue to split the presbyters, is B-P = B minus P? Bible minus Presbyterian? Subtraction? Why they want only the Bible and minus the presbyters? Why VPP theologian acts so cruel and merciless, without any love to the presbyters? Where is the mutual middle and common ground for all the Ministers and Presbyters? Can we still smiling and happy all the way to see one of our body to be in pain, but they prefer to split the church one by one, are we not called to be one in a body. How come the theologian prefer to cause one of the little one to stumble (St Matthew 18:6-7) shouldn’t we treasure to see brethren to dwell together in peace and unity (Ps 133) Are we BP the only denomination who believe in the Bible, other denominations do not? We put the word "Bible" in the name of the denomination. Are the theologians happy, rejoice in the Lord always? Causing other ministers in pain, the church members hunger of God's Words and ask them to go away in peace? When the churches split because of this small VPP Bible issue? Who is feeding the flocks? Please blow your trumpet, watchman please keeps on watching, and do you pray for one another? Or curse one another? Shouldn't we BP the more humble and to be more learn-able like others. Actually we do not know everything as our BP theologians presume. Are everyone called to be master to many people? We face greater judgment as a teacher. Can we call everyone as theologian? And calling every house as a Bible College? Pride comes before falls and destruction! Forbid that! I may write thesis like a theologian, but I am not a theologian, more than 20 years, I study 1 Corinthians 13 and 14, there are more and more to be learned, everyday, I rather behave like a layman, we are all priest, we have to rebuke those carnal theologian, self seeking, self promoting, so called theologians.
VPP, be careful of the snare of the devil, in Luke 22:31, "And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat...." B-P, B-P, where is the good works we are doing? We better plea all B-P to cool down the heads, sit down with warm hearts, and please shake hands. For the witness of the truth. A kingdom divided among itself, how it can stand any longer? (Matthew 12:25)
We also afraid that some one out there, literally translated 1 Cor 5:5, "....destruction of the fresh." So literally, in true living situation, a son in law hates the father in law, so the son in law giving a lot of sugar to his own father in law to kill him, when the old man is a diabetic patient, in order to kill him slowly. To destroy his father in law's fresh "biblically"! Beware of, this kind of bible application! This is not a biblical application. Like a doctor giving toxic to cause his patient to have cancer, to kill his own patients slowly. This is what kind of doctor? There are such people in B-P churches, like the blind leading the blind. Beware of those blind doctors, shun them! How cruel is the Dr.! This is a murder, this is hate, this is wrong, must repent! When there is lust, there will be quarrels. (James 4:1) May the Lord grant us forgiveness in mistranslating and miss using the Bible. May God give us our daily food? May God give us our spiritual food? Please open our eyes, to see the truth. Amen.
Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies. (1 Cor 8:1)
REMEMBER LOVE IS THE GREATEST! IS THEOLOGIAN THE GREATEST?
Without love, truth is useless, and hope is meaningless, love is the most important…..
I hope this will encourage you, pray for FEBC and all BP, I hope you know i love BP, and also I know BP believe the truth, last i hope, you may know how to pray for BP.
From,
Josiah & Philip
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