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  • The LORD God speaks – Doctrine of the Bible – 3

    The LORD God speaks – Doctrine of the Bible – 3

    GOD SPEAKS! And who heard Him? What did the LORD God say to a man? Where can we see what the LORD said when God speaks?

    pillar of fire in the midst of Moses and the Hebrews

    “And you said: ‘Surely the LORD our God has shown us His glory and His greatness, and we have heard His voice from the midst of the fire. We have seen this day that God speaks with man; yet he still lives.

    Deuteronomy 5:24 NKJV– the man Moses to the leaders of Israel

    What is the ONLY BOOK where one made in the image of God can discern the TRUE words of WHAT GOD HAS SAID?

    girl reading Bible - God's Personal Love

    The HOLY Bible

    IF you missed Part 1 on Bible Doctrine, you may want to take a look now at some of the history of the Bible, scholarly research AND IMPORTANT Definitions.

    A pre-requisite Part 1

    The BIBLE is HOLY

    Introduction to this post

    Did God really say..? – DOCTRINE of the BIBLE – 2
    What choice would YOU have made in Eden?

    The Bible unveils the word and purposes of God.

    • Some refuse to believe Scripture
    • While others will never consider its truth.

    It is written…

    blueletterbible.org references

    THE LORD GOD SPEAKS!

    The Word of God, The Word of Man & The Work of the Holy Spirit

    The entire Scripture of God is divided into two parts: commandments and promises.

    Martin Luther

    1. The Word of God

    God is HOLY. The LORD God speaks, but to whom? The Word of God speaks to all creation and is revealed to man, in His own image the LORD created us.

    So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

    Genesis 1:27

    The LORD God created us to:

    • Love Him as God loves the world of His creation.

    .. “Let Us make mankind in Our image, according to Our likeness..”

    Genesis 1:26

    Love Him with all your heart.

    AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.’

    Mark 12:30 – answer of the Messiah Jesus to “What commandment is the foremost of all?”

    “And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

    Deuteronomy 10:12

    Do what the LORD commands

    J.I Packer points out in KNOWING GOD, four categories of God’s direct utterances to mankind (Adam & Eve):

    1. command,
    2. testimony,
    3. prohibition with sanction appended,
    4. and promise both favorable and unfavorable (blessing or curse).

    The LORD God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed.

    Out of the ground the LORD God caused every tree to grow that is pleasing to the sight and good for food..

    Genesis 2:8-9a
    • .. the tree of life was also in the midst of the garden,
    • and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

    but do what He would do; that is, to do good.

    NOW where will we find the truth of good and evil?

    Have we considered these truths from the Bible?

    You are good and You do good;
    Teach me Your statutes

    Psalm 119:68

    OR from the hissing of those who oppose the Lord?

    Keeping in mind those categories just mentioned from ‘KNOWING GOD,’ may I again remind us and suggest the ONLY answer:

    All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

    2 Timothy 3:16-17 ESV

    2. The Word of a Man of God

    Moses recorded the LAW as SPOKEN by the LORD.

    YOU may have imagined that the LORD spoke to you in Paradise or walked with you in your daily life. Before SIN, we knew what was good because God spoke to us face to face.

    So how does a man know what God said now that man has been separated from the Holy Presence of the LORD?

    Moses holding up ten Commandments

    וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים אֶל־מֹשֶׁה אֶֽהְיֶה אֲשֶׁר אֶֽהְיֶה וַיֹּאמֶר כֹּה תֹאמַר לִבְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל אֶֽהְיֶה שְׁלָחַנִי אֲלֵיכֶֽם׃

    And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”;

    and He said, “This is what you shall say

    to the sons of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”

    Exodus 3:14 – I AM – YHWH, rendered LORD, which is derived from the verb HAYAH, to be;
    H834 matches the Hebrew אֲשֶׁר (‘ăšer), who, which, what, that; also (as an adverb and a conjunction) when, where, how, because, in order that, etc.:

    Yᵊhōvâ (I AM THAT I AM) Y H W H the existing ONE whose NAME IS too Holy to be spoken – יְהֹוָה

    Do you believe the Law of Moses?

    “For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?”

    John 5:46-47 NASB20 – a question of the Messiah Jesus

    Authority of the Word after the Law

    Besides Eden witnessed in the first book of Moses, I could also reintroduce you to the LORD in an awesome place above the heavens and earth in a place such as that revealed to the Apostle John by the risen and victorious Christ Jesus!

    Witness from the Prophets like Elijah, Ezekiel and Daniel where the God brings created beings such as us, beneath the glorious Throne of the Almighty Lord God! And the LORD confirms His Word to men of flesh, Prophets who served Him faithfully on the earth.

    Now Samuel grew, and the LORD was with him, and He let none of his words fail. .. And the LORD appeared again at Shiloh, because the LORD revealed Himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the LORD.

    1 Samuel 3:19,21

    David and others record personal conversations, leadings of the Lord and prayers and songs worshiping God.

    Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the LORD had appeared to his father David, at the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

    2 Chronicles 3:1

    On occasions before and after David and after the resurrection of Jesus, man has received the Words of God and recorded them in Scripture.

    Do you believe these men to whom God speaks?

    3. Breathed out by the Holy Spirit

    and the Spirit of God moved above the face of the waters Genesis 1:26 picture of sun over clouds
    And the earth was a formless and desolate emptiness, and darkness was over the surface of the deep..

    וְהָאָרֶץ הָיְתָה תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ וְחֹשֶׁךְ עַל־פְּנֵי תְהוֹם וְרוּחַ אֱלֹהִים מְרַחֶפֶת עַל־פְּנֵי הַמָּֽיִם׃

    Bereishit (Genesis) 1:2 Masoretic text
    • The earth was a formless, desolate emptiness, complete darkness, a deep void lifeless and separate from God.
    • And the SPRIRT OF GOD — the Other and ONLY LIFE separated from lifelessness and nothingness — Created!

    God is HOLY! (Other.. Separate from HIS creation, even man.)

    SO HOW does the Lord God communicate with MAN?

    The Holy Spirit

    THE LORD GOD IS OTHER!

    (God is not a man. Unlike man He was not created — GOD IS that HE IS.

    • Not like man and beast, not like plant or planet, not like the heavens which were void or the earth which was not yet.

    “God is not a man, that He would lie,
    Nor a son of man, that He would change His mind;
    Has He said, and will He not do it?
    Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good

    Numbers 23:19

    God Speaks. A Man hears.

    Then the LORD said, “My Spirit will not remain with man forever, because he is also flesh; nevertheless his days shall be 120 years.”

    Genesis 6:3 – Moses records God’s words – בְּרֵאשִׁית

    And since the days of Moses, the Holy Spirit of God commands certain men to record God’s HOLY WORD as SCRIPTURE.

    (Write it down and tell other men what GOD HAS SAID.)

    Spirit-filled men

    Then the LORD came down in the cloud and spoke to him; and He took away some of the Spirit who was upon him and placed Him upon the seventy elders. And when the Spirit rested upon them, they prophesied. Yet they did not do it again

    Numbers 11:25 – the LORD gives the Holy Spirit to 70 elders of the Hebrews

    Scripture records when God speaks to a Man given the Holy Spirit

    Scripture reveals the words of the LORD which He spoke to Moses and recorded in the first five books of the Bible. Joshua, various Judges and scribes, David and various kings, several prophets before Christ and Apostles after our Lord Jesus Christ ALL confirm the spoken and written HOLY Word of God we collectively refer to as The HOLY BIBLE.

    “I and the Father are one.”

    gospel of John 10:30

    Jesus Christ — He Himself Other — testifies by the Holy Spirit to the truth of Scripture with the Authority of God the Father in ways no man could.

    Gospel of Luke 3:

    21 Now when all the people were baptized, Jesus also was baptized, and while He was praying, heaven was opened,

    and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came from heaven: “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well pleased.”

    SUMMARY: GOD SPEAKS

    Therefore, the DOCTRINE of the THE HOLY BIBLE teaches that SCRIPTURE IS:

    1. The Word of God
    2. Written by a Man of God and
    3. Breathed out by the Holy Spirit of God

    All Scripture is inspired by God and beneficial for teaching, for rebuke, for correction, for training in righteousness

    2 Timothy 3:16

    DOCTRINE is teaching (for rebuke, for correction, for training in righteousness IF we choose its Truth.) Where will you find absolute truth, if not in the Holy Bible?

    How much of the BIBLE must we believe?

    We will begin to address this in my next post on DOCTRINE.
To be continued..

    Please COMMENT or ask your question about this Doctrine.

    Thank you, dear saint of our Lord Jesus Christ.

    Roger

  • Philosophy – A horse is a horse, of course of course

    Philosophy – A horse is a horse, of course of course

    Or (logically speaking), is it?

    I preface our upcoming Christian conversation about doctrine with a caveat caution about philosophy and its pitfalls to our denominations of belief. If we are to stand near to the Lord God, man must choose in this mortal life between fruit from various trees of doctrine.

    Mr. Ed & Balaam’s Ass

    But philosophers question if its a horse, of course..

    My opening reference of course places our thoughts in the realm of fiction. Allow me to mention that a good philosopher opposed to God will quickly offer you the fruit of fiction as explanation for various Biblical phenomena. Their underlying philosophies have been reruns for centuries.

    And when the ass saw the angel of the LORD, she fell down under Balaam: and Balaam’s anger was kindled, and he smote the ass with a staff. – Numbers 22:27

    My microchip of a philosopher’s mind is hardly sufficient to expound doctrine in depth, therefore I will defer to other more-learned men.

    Philosophers must argue an issue into a mire behind the horse, a place into which I dare not lead any seeking a path back to eternal life. I’ll leave you to your own conclusions about the Scripture of Numbers 22; though philosophers may debate whether Balaam’s creature is a donkey, a horse, an ass, a mule or a burro. 

    (You may not want to compare creatures and contrast the jackass to the philosopher or compare an amoeba with mankind.) :)

    Philosophy – the term defined

    As with DOCTRINE, if we are to agree on anything let’s at least begin with a definition of Philosophy. – source: Merriam-Webster Dictionary

    1. all learning exclusive of technical precepts and practical arts..
    2. pursuit of wisdom..
    3. a system of philosophical concepts, : a theory underlying or regarding a sphere of activity or thought..
    4. the most basic beliefs, concepts, and attitudes of an individual or group..

    Synonyms for philosophy

    credo, creed, doctrine, dogma, gospel, ideology (also idealogy), testament

    As I indicated, an inviting quagmire into which we dare not dwell too long.

    Why today?

    As timely as this fits into our new series on doctrine, I chose today due to a date of one philosopher from which we will study next.

    In this 21st century after Jesus Christ we must not lose the overall witness of twenty-one centuries of the church in times of various challenges to the Truth of Christ Jesus.

    In the year of our Lord Anno Domini A.D. 2021

    June 3 – Today in History

    Historical Events in A.D. 1140

    • Jun 3 French scholar Peter Abelard is found guilty of heresy.
    Heresy – an ancient concept discounted today

    To read the fascinating background of the twelfth century philosopher Peter Abelard whose writings we will study next, click here.

    Back to arguing with Balaam

    And the ass said unto Balaam,

    Am not I thine ass, upon which thou hast ridden ever since I was thine unto this day? was I ever wont to do so unto thee?

    And he said, Nay.

    Then the LORD opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the LORD standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand: and he bowed down his head, and fell flat on his face.

    Numbers 22:31 KJV
    Do you really believe that? doctrine - a line in the sand [picture of Jesus kneeling down to draw a line with his finger

    MORE from Scriptural DOCTRINE

    COMING SOON!

    Do you have any comment?

  • You Will Not Be Led -8- All but Two

    You Will Not Be Led -8- All but Two

    Joshua & Caleb

    Observe carefully those faithful to the LORD and also leaders faithful to Moses. Then listen to the grumbling rabble of the disobedient and see a stark contrast.

    Two faithful successors stand out because these contemporaries of Moses (who began this forty year exodus at age 80) stood faithfully with the LORD’s anointed leader: Joshua and Caleb.

    So the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water so that we may drink!” And Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the LORD?”

    Joshua did just as Moses told him..

    Exodus 17:2, 10a NASB2020

    Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said,

    “We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we will certainly prevail over it.”

    Numbers {In The Wilderness} 13:30 NASB2020
    Ark Encounter full size replica of Noah's ark

    You Will Not Be Led into the Promised Land

    We could have begun our pilgrimage much earlier than Noah.

    “I establish My covenant with you; and all flesh shall never again be cut off by the water of the flood, neither shall there again be a flood to destroy the earth.”

    Genesis 9:11

    Even though Abraham was far from sinless, the Books of Moses follow his blessings and covenants with the LORD.

    As we approached the Promised Land we noted the disobedience of Lot’s wife, sin in the cities pervasive beyond the Jordan near the Dead Sea.

    Moses with 10 commandments

    And it would seem that Moses, the LORD’s chosen leader in the wilderness encounters nothing but complaint, disobedience and sin by the ‘chosen’ now stranded in the desert.

    While journeying from Mount Sinai to the promised land, although mention is made of important events delaying the Hebrews in the wilderness, I have not dwelled on an important consequence of disobedience we suppose to be just part of the Hebrew journey —

    40 YEARS! in the wilderness

    map of Moses in the wilderness

    Numbers: [Bamidbar] 13:

    25 When they returned from spying out the land, at the end of forty days, they went on and came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, in the wilderness of Paran at Kadesh..

    .. “We came into the land where you sent us, and it certainly does flow with milk and honey, and this is its fruit.

    28 Nevertheless, the people who live in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. And indeed, we saw the descendants of Anak there!

    30 Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we will certainly prevail over it.”

    31 But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, because they are too strong for us.” 32 So they brought a bad report of the land which they had spied out to the sons of Israel…

    Numbers 14:

    And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night.

    2 And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness!

    5 Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces in the presence of all the assembly of the congregation of the sons of Israel.

    6 And Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, of those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes…

    10 But all the congregation said to stone them with stones. Then the glory of the Lord appeared in the tent of meeting to all the sons of Israel…

    Moses then pleads for their lives

    11 And the Lord said, “.. I will strike them with plague and dispossess them, and I will make you into a nation greater and mightier than they.”

    13 But Moses said to the Lord, “Then the Egyptians will hear of it, for by Your strength You brought this people up from their midst…

    19 .. Please forgive the guilt of this people in accordance with the greatness of Your mercy, just as You also have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.” So the Lord said,

    “I have forgiven them in accordance with your word..”

    וְאוּלָם חַי־אָנִי וְיִמָּלֵא כְבוֹד־יְהוָה אֶת־כָּל־הָאָֽרֶץ׃

    But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD.

    Numbers 14:21 KJV

    Therefore – your punishment!

    14:22 כִּי כָל־הָאֲנָשִׁים הָרֹאִים אֶת־כְּבֹדִי וְאֶת־אֹתֹתַי אֲשֶׁר־עָשִׂיתִי בְמִצְרַיִם וּבַמִּדְבָּר וַיְנַסּוּ אֹתִי זֶה עֶשֶׂר פְּעָמִים וְלֹא שָׁמְעוּ בְּקוֹלִֽי׃

    • Because all those men which have seen my glory [kāḇôḏ],
    • and my miracles [ôṯ], which I did in Egypt
    • and in the wilderness,
    • and have tempted [nāsâ]me now these ten times,
      • (i.e. [10 X] they would NOT be led by the LORD!)
    • and have not hearkened [šāmaʿ– shaw-mah’ ] to my voice…

    shâmaʻ, shaw-mah’ – שָׁמַע

    Strong’s Definitions – H8085 matches the Hebrew שָׁמַע (šāmaʿ), which occurs 1,169 times in 1,072 verses in the Hebrew concordance of the NASB

    to hear intelligently (often with implication of attention, obedience, etc.; causatively, to tell, etc.):—× attentively, call (gather) together, × carefully, × certainly, consent, consider, be content, declare, × diligently, discern, give ear, (cause to, let, make to) hear(-ken, tell), × indeed, listen, make (a) noise, (be) obedient, obey, perceive, (make a) proclaim(-ation), publish, regard, report, shew (forth), (make a) sound, × surely, tell, understand, whosoever (heareth), witness.

    Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it:

    Numbers 14:23 KJV

    A spirit of obedience perseveres

    24 But as for My servant Caleb, because he has had a different spirit and has followed Me fully, I will bring him into the land which he entered, and his descendants shall take possession of it…

    We read the following previously in "You Will Not Be Led."

    26 The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron again, saying,

    27 “How long shall I put up with this evil congregation who are grumbling against Me? I have heard the complaints of the sons of Israel which they are voicing against Me.

    28 Say to them, ‘As I live,’ declares the Lord, ‘just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will do to you;

    ‘your dead bodies will fall in this wilderness,’

    ‘all your numbered men according to your complete number from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against Me…’

    31 ‘Your children, however,

    whom you said would become plunder—I will bring them in,

    and they will know the land which you have rejected.

    But as for you, your dead bodies will fall in this wilderness.”

    And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness.

    Numbers 14:33 KJV

    Why 40 Years?

    • The distance from Mount Sinai to the place where the Hebrews crossed the Jordan into the promised land is about 400 kilometers or only about 250 miles.

    ‘In accordance with the number of days that you spied out the land, forty days, for every day you shall suffer the punishment for your [fn]guilt a year, that is, forty years, and you will know My opposition.

    Numbers 14:34 NASB2020

    The Rabble React

    39 Now when Moses spoke these words to all the sons of Israel, the people mourned greatly…

    41 But Moses said, “Why then are you violating the command of the Lord, when doing so will not succeed? 42 Do not go up, for the Lord is not among you, to prevent you from being defeated by your enemies.

    44 But they presumed to go up unto the hill top.. (while Moses and the Ark of the Covenant remained) .. 45 Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites .. struck them and scattered them…

    After Forty YEARS!

    Deuteronomy 9:

    Shema, Yisroel: Thou art to pass over Yarden today, to go in to possess Goyim greater and mightier than thyself, cities great and walled up to Shomayim

    Devarim 9:1 Orthodox Jewish Bible

    Hear, O Israel: You are crossing the Jordan today…3 Understand therefore this day, that the Lord thy God

    is he which goeth over before thee;

    as a consuming fire he shall destroy them,

    and he shall bring them down before thy face:

    so shalt thou drive them out, and destroy them quickly,

    as the Lord hath said unto thee.

    a few REMINDERS:

    • 4 “Do not say in your heart when the Lord your God has driven them away from you,
      • ‘Because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me in to take possession of this land.’
      • Rather, it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is dispossessing them before you.
    • 5 It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you are going in to take possession of their land,
      • but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God is driving them out from before you,
      • and in order to confirm the oath which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

    6 “Know, then, that it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stubborn people.

    .. 27 Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; do not turn Your attention to the stubbornness of this people, or to their wickedness, or their sin.

    Do YOU turn with the 10 against the Lord in the Wilderness?

    Joshua and Hebrew army on hill and in the valleys of the Jordan approaching Jericho
    And they said to Joshua, “The LORD has indeed handed over to us all the land; furthermore, all the inhabitants of the land have despaired because of us.” -Joshua 2:24
    OR do you follow His leadership like Joshua & Caleb?
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