As we conclude our study of the Book of Job and consider how the Lord restored Job to his former prosperity, we need to keep in mind that all Job and the friends knew about God prior to Job’s calamities was what was handed down through oral tradition. In fact, there is no ancient evidence of an alphabet prior to Israel’s coming down to Egypt about the time of Joseph’s reign as second in command to Pharaoh.[1] So, knowledge of such things revealed in the New Covenant scriptures, like God forgiving us is dependent upon our willingness to forgive others (Matthew 6:14-15; cp. Ephesians 4:32), simply wasn’t known or understood in the ancient world. Even if such things were known from the beginning, Paul shows us that that kind of knowledge of God would have been lost to mankind by the time of Job (Romans 1:18-25). Read the rest of this entry »
In the final chapter of the Book of Job, the Lord addresses his rebuke to the friends, especially Eliphaz, the wisest of the three. They had defended the oral tradition that had come down to them from generation to generation. This tradition was held by the ancients and incorporated what they believed about God (cp. Job 8:8-9). However, no thought was given to the idea that such a tradition had become corrupted over the centuries (cp. Romans 1:18-25). They held that God is just, and he judges men, according to their deeds, and during their lifetime spent on earth. “What a man sows is what he reaps” (cp. Galatians 6:7) was a doctrine, which they held to absolutely and without question, even when Job proved the doctrine was obviously in error. Yet, not only wouldn’t they admit error, but they used a false doctrine to accuse Job of wickedness. Read the rest of this entry »
Some modern believers try to maintain that there is only one Day of the Lord, and it is yet future. However, they have no proof that there is only one.[1] The fact remains that Job referred to those days as his days (plural; Job 24:1), vis-à-vis the Lord’s days. If the Day of the Lord is a time of God’s judgment upon mankind, how would one refer to the Noahic Flood? How would one refer to the Lord’s judgment upon Sodom and Gomorrah? How would one refer to his judgment upon Israel or the nations, prior to the coming of Christ, or his judgment upon Jerusalem in 70 AD? Are not these days clearly the Days of the Lord? Are they not HIS days, as mentioned by Job in chapter 24:1? If not, why not? Read the rest of this entry »
Finally, Job turned from speaking with his friends to speaking with the Lord. While the text doesn’t come out and say he turned to speak to God, the fact that he did is clearly understood in the question he asks: “What is man, that you should magnify him? and that you should set your heart upon him? And that you should visit him every morning, and try him every moment” (Job 7:17-18)? Read the rest of this entry »
In the previous chapter and series of studies, Job called into question what had been understood as truth, or the divine order of things. He confessed that he felt he dwelt in the midst of chaos. Nothing seemed to work, as he had always understood it to work. Moreover, he didn’t understand God’s goodness and pity, because God didn’t seem to sympathize with Job’s grief and let him die. Job concluded with the idea that he didn’t believe life was worth living, if man couldn’t understand the plans of the Almighty. How can one serve God, when everything seems to be in chaos? Why doesn’t a good God sympathize with mankind’s suffering, his depression and his feeling of utter worthlessness? This was the problem that Job saw in his life experiences. His recent losses and suffering simply called into question everything he had ever believed in. Read the rest of this entry »
In the night before his crucifixion and as they walked from the upper room to the Mount of Olives, Jesus told his disciples that, after he was risen, he would go before them into Galilee (Matthew 26:30-32). After Jesus rose from the dead, the angels told the women who had come to the sepulcher that Jesus had risen and to remind his disciples of what he had told them, concerning meeting them in Galilee (Matthew 28:5-7, cp verse-10). This was the only scheduled meeting of Jesus with his disciples after his resurrection that is revealed in the Gospel narratives (cp. Mark 14:26-28). All others were extemporaneous. Moreover, both the time and the place of that meeting were also revealed (Matthew 28:16). All post resurrection appearances were done with one (John 20:14) two (Luke 24:13-16), perhaps five or six (Matthew 28:9), eleven or maybe also with others (Mark 16:14; cp. Luke 24:33-36). However, if folks knew of a scheduled meeting was to occur, certainly many more would be present even from among the unbelievers, and Paul mentions that meeting (1Corinthians 15:6). Read the rest of this entry »
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John went on to elaborate upon the fact that the Word was made flesh. That is, he paused in his narrative to offer his personal observation concerning what he had just claimed in John 1:14. In his first epistle he said: “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life…” (1John 1:1). Here, he records what he deduced from his observation of the Word made flesh: “…we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father” (John 1:14), but what does he mean by his glory and glory as the only begotten of the Father? Read the rest of this entry »
In my opinion, the Church by and large has greatly misunderstood John’s final words in his epistle. Some of what he claimed here has even been used in the Prosperity Gospel by the name-it-and-claim-it (sometimes referred to as the “blab-it-and-grab-it”) charlatans of our day. Nevertheless, their idea of the Gospel cannot be supported by John in his epistle. John told his readers that the confidence we have in God proves evident, in that, whatever we ask according to the will of God, he will hear us, and, if we know that he hears us, we have already received what we have asked for (1John 5:14-15). That is, the Lord has agreed to give us what we have requested of him. Nevertheless, John wasn’t referring to having a successful business, buying a car, a home or the latest electronic device we believe is so necessary in today’s environment. Such preaching abuses the word of God that we find in our Bibles. Read the rest of this entry »
At this point John began his final remarks for his readers to consider. He ends his letter as he had begun, with the phrase “These things I have written onto you…” (1John 5:13), which corresponds to “These things we write, so that our joy may be made complete” (1John 1:5). In other words, this epistle was written in order that “our” joy (i.e. the joy of the Apostle and of the reader who believes on the name of the Son of God) would be fulfilled, namely in the believer’s knowing with certainty that he has eternal life. Read the rest of this entry »
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God is love (1John 4:8), but just as light is spirit, so is love. One cannot see light or love; one cannot hear them, touch them, taste them or smell them. Such are the five gates through which we receive our knowledge. We are unable to receive knowledge any other way, unless God performs a miracle within us by giving us his Spirit, whereby we are then able to understand his mysteries. Otherwise, as physical beings, our understanding and knowledge comes through physical means. Yet, one might say, if light and love are spiritual, how is it that physical beings are able to know what they are? Well, the reason why we are able to understand things like light and love, is we see their effects either upon our world or upon us personally. Read the rest of this entry »
As I claimed in my previous study, John was offering a kind of proof text in 1John 3:19 for how we would know we are of the Truth. That is, truth with a capital “T” meaning how would we know we are of Christ (viz. John 14:6). The proof text, of course, is the previous two verses, which say the one who is of the Truth shares what he or she has with the one in need. He doesn’t merely love in word, only, but in deed, and the deed, or compassionate act is objective evidence that shows he is of the Truth, or, in other words, he is a Christ imitator. Read the rest of this entry »
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With all the confusion going on due to the chaos created by the false teachers, some believers in the first century AD might have wondered, do I really know Jesus at all, and, if I do, how could I know for certain? Well, John answered that question in 1John 2:3. One is able to know whether or not he knows Jesus by keeping Jesus’ commandments. That’s fairly logical, if anyone wishes to understand, if this or that person is a disciple of a particular teacher, all that needs to be known is: is that person following the teacher, doing as the teacher said, doing as he did etc.? Therefore, if anyone claims to be Jesus’ disciple, he would say what Jesus said and do what Jesus did. In other words, he would obey Jesus. Read the rest of this entry »
John wrote his epistle, because there were many false teachers infiltrating the believing community, and their doctrine effectively denied Jesus was the Christ. They were claiming they believed Jesus was the Messiah, but they didn’t practice what he told the believing community (1John 1:6). Moreover, they held to the position that Jews already had perfect doctrine through Moses, and it lacked nothing (cp. 1John 1:8). Finally, they claimed that by being blameless, according to the Law, it meant they didn’t sin against God. If these things were true, Jesus would have no way of affecting the believer. In other words, while they may not have said so openly, they inferred that Jesus was unnecessary as far as faith is concerned, in much the same manner that Jewish doctrine tries to convey today. If the Old Covenant was flawless (1John 1:6), the New Covenant must be pointless! Read the rest of this entry »
John had just condensed the Gospel message, as it pertained to who God is (cp. John 1:18), by saying that God is Light, and in him is no darkness at all (1John 1:5). After doing so, he then offered his readers three false arguments that must be seen in the light of the truth that God is Light. First, John claimed, “If we say that we have fellowship with him (God), and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth” (1John 1:6). Secondly, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1John 1:8), and finally John claimed, “If we say that we have not sinned, we make him (God) a liar, and his word is not in us” (1John 1:10). These three arguments were used by the then current false teachers in an effort to destroy the believers’ fellowship both with one another, and with the Lord, for it is impossible for Light to have communion with darkness. Either light dispels darkness, or light is shut out in order that darkness could exist. Read the rest of this entry »
In Hebrews 12:25 Paul begins by warning his readers: “See that you refuse not him that speaks…” The verb is in the present tense, showing, whoever is speaking, that one was speaking to the first century AD readers of Paul’s epistle, even as they read it. Who was speaking? The preceding verse tells us that Jesus, the Mediator of the New Covenant, is speaking, and he is doing so through his blood (Hebrews 12:24). He offers mercy and forgiveness, rather than seeking vengeance, which is an allegory of the two covenants. The Old Covenant sought vengeance against sinners, but the New Covenant offers the sinner clemency and forgiveness. Read the rest of this entry »
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