VBVBT – The Imporantance of Doctrine in The Pastoral Epistles – Leadership 2

Posted on March 28, 2012 by admin

 

Many of you have studied the pastoral letters in the New Testament.

These are 1st and 2nd Timothy and Titus.

I want to look at all three of these letters, and talk about the main reason that Paul wrote them.

We can learn many things from these letters.

For example, Paul talks about things like the importance of personal purity.

He says in 1 Timothy 6: 11:

But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness.

Another point of the pastoral letters is to explain the qualifications for leaders.

We looked at some of these sections in out last session.

He also talks about the role of women in the church, and many other practical issues like this.

But as you study these 3 letters, you will notice that there was one point that seemed to be the most important to Paul that all the others.

And that is the importance of good doctrine, and the importance of defending good doctrine.

And because it is Paul’s main point to the pastors that he wrote to, it should be a main point to us as well.

Today we are going to look at these passages and discover one of the most important jobs of a pastor.

But before we look at these passages, Lets first turn to Acts chapter 6 starting in verse 2:

Act 6:2 Then the twelve summoned the multitude of the disciples and said, “It is not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables.

Act 6:3 Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business;

Act 6:4 but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”

What I want you to notice in this passage is verse 4.

That they were to “give themselves continually to prayer and the ministry of the word.”

This is one of the main jobs of the elder or pastor.

We will see examples of this in the verses we are about to study too.

For many of us this is not always possible. We have jobs, many of you run orphanages.

And that is ok, but we should remember that we have a responsibility to make time to study the word.

If it is possible to train others to do some of the work you are doing, you should try to do this.

I know for me sometimes it is hard to do that.

Because sometimes I think that I am the one who knows how to do it correctly.

But remember the words of Jethro who told Moses. In Exodus 18:17-18:

“…The thing that you do is not good. Both you and these people who are with you will surely wear yourselves out. For this thing is too much for you; you are not able to perform it by yourself.”

Also in training others to do ministry you give them an opportunity to be blessed.

Many people want to do some work for the Lord very much and you can give them a job to do.

This will be a blessing to them, so do not deny them an opportunity to serve.

Of course you can do this in an incorrect way too.

Don’t go home and say, “I cannot help with this work or that work anymore because I have to read the bible.”

Remember that you are a servant, and the things that you know you should do yourself, you should still do.

Let the spirit guide you about this, and if there are jobs that you need to give to others. Pray about this.

In other words, do not use this teaching as an excuse to be lazy.

But remember that your main job is to study the word of God.

Ok lets begin our study of the pastoral letters, lets turn to 1 Timothy verse 1.

1Ti 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our Savior and the Lord Jesus Christ, our hope,

1Ti 1:2 To Timothy, a true son in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.

1Ti 1:3 As I urged you when I went into Macedonia—remain in Ephesus that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine,

1Ti 1:4 nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is in faith.

You can see that Paul starts off this letter with his main point.

In verse 3 he reminds Timothy why he sent him to Ephesus, which is to correct the bad doctrine that had come into the church.

In verse 4 we see that he says not to give heed to fables and endless genealogies.

“Give heed” means to agree with or put up with.

An when he says “Fables and Endless Genealogies,” it is probably referring to the specific types of false teachings that were being taught in Ephesus.

And Paul says don’t give heed to these types of false teachings, because it does not produce good fruit.

Lets turn to chapter 4, starting in verse 11:

1Ti 4:13 Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.

1Ti 4:14 Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership.

1Ti 4:15 Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all.

1Ti 4:16 Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you.

This is a very important passage for pastors. The idea is very similar to the passage in Acts we read earlier.

Verse 14 says to give yourself entirely to the study of the Word.

And it’s interesting to see some of the reasons that we are to be diligent in our study of doctrine.

Verse 15 and verse 16 tell us that our study of doctrine is not for us, but for the people we Shepard.

Shepard’s protect sheep from wolves. Jesus said in Mat 7:15 to “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.

As shepherds one of our main jobs is to protect the sheep from false teachers and false doctrine.

This is what he means here by how the study of doctrine will “save them”, it will save them from the false teachers and teachings of Ephesus.

But we cant do that unless we are experts in doctrine ourselves.

That is what Paul tells Timothy here. He must give attention to reading, exhortation and doctrine.

It is how he will be able to do his job of protecting the church from false teachers.

The interesting thing about false doctrine is that you defeat it not by studying false doctrine, but by studying good doctrine.

You protect your sheep not by explaining why a false teaching is wrong.

But by teaching them why good doctrine is right.

For example, If you want to become an expert in fake or counterfeit money.

You would not need to study fake money.

You would want to become an expert in real money.

Then when someone gives you a fake bill you will immediately recognize it as a fake.

Because you know so much about how real money looks.

That is why it is important to take our study of doctrine seriously.

If we study the bible and good doctrine, we will immediately be able to see false doctrine.

And we will be able to explain to others why it is wrong.

Let’s look at verse 17 and 18 of Chapter 5:

1Ti 5:17 Let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and doctrine.

1Ti 5:18 For the Scripture says, “YOU SHALL NOT MUZZLE AN OX WHILE IT TREADS OUT THE GRAIN,” and, “THE LABORER IS WORTHY OF HIS WAGES.”

Here Paul gives us the principal that is right to support your pastor so that he can labor in word and doctrine.

Here again we see that the pastors main job is to be a student of the word and doctrine.

Notice in verse 17 that not all the elders were laboring in word and doctrine, but that was ok with Paul.

Elders that “rule well” can have different gifts in the ministry, and they are still considered worthy of honor.

Paul quotes a verse from the Old Testament in verse 18 to support the idea that pastors deserve to be paid if it is possible.

But also remember that sometimes Paul did not get paid for his ministry.

For the Corinthians he worked as a tentmaker to support himself.

So you should understand that each situation of ministry will be different, and you should not be worried if you have to work to support yourself and your family.

That is normal in America too, many pastors have to work a job until the church is able to support them.

I want to emphasize again that not all members of the body are teachers, but all elders of the church need to be able to explain doctrine to others.

Maybe you are preacher, maybe you are more gifted in prayer, or with the business of the church.

But all elders still need to know doctrine very well, if they are to be good leaders.

Let’s turn to chapter 6 starting in verse 3:

1Ti 6:3 If anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which accords with godliness,

1Ti 6:4 he is proud, knowing nothing, but is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words, from which come envy, strife, reviling, evil suspicions,

1Ti 6:5 useless wranglings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. From such withdraw yourself.

Here we have instruction about people who will not hear good doctrine.

Paul says that they are obsessed with disputes and arguments over words.

Im sure many of you have noticed that people who believe false doctrine become are obsessed with that error.

It seems that it is all they ever want to talk about.

If it is a church, then every week the message they preach is about the same false doctrine

That is a pattern of false doctrine, it becomes an obsession.

We are told what this type of person produces.

Envy, strife, reviling, evil suspicions.

That is a pretty accurate list of the fruit of false teachers, and those of you that have seen this know it is true.

Those of you who have not yet experienced Satan’s attack in the form of false teaching in your church yet need to hear the words of the Holy Spirit here who said:

“From such withdraw yourself”

We will see later on that Paul instructs us how to do this. He will tell us that we first need to try to correct them in love.

He says in Titus 3:10 that we should try to do this at least twice.

Do not argue with them, but try to your very best to help them see their error.

But often it is obvious that most people like this do not want to hear what you have to say.

They are only interested in changing your mind, they have no intention of changing their mind.

And this is why your only option at that point is to withdraw yourself, or ask them to leave.

And just as Paul started his 1st Letter to Timothy, he will also end the same way:

In chapter 6 starting in verse 20

1Ti 6:20 O Timothy! Guard what was committed to your trust, avoiding the profane and idle babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge—

1Ti 6:21 by professing it some have strayed concerning the faith. Grace be with you. Amen.

We again these two main messages from the Holy Spirit.

1.) Guard and protect and your good doctrine.
2.) And avoid false doctrine and arguments about unimportant things.

Also notice in verse 21 that many have fallen away because of this false teaching already.

False teaching is a very serious problem. Satan is working very hard to deceive people, and he will have some victory in his efforts.

If we quickly turn back to chapter 4 verse 1 we also find that Satan will continue to have victory with deceiving people like this in the future.

1Ti 4:1 Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons,

1Ti 4:2 speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron,

In the next few verses he explains what kinds of false teachings these would be, and then in verse 6 he gives us instruction about what we can do about it.

1Ti 4:6 If you instruct the brethren in these things, you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished in the words of faith and of the good doctrine which you have carefully followed.

1Ti 4:7 But reject profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise yourself toward godliness.

He says instructing the brethren, in this way is our job, we study the Word so that we can teach others, that is how we will be good ministers of Jesus Christ.

Again in verse 7 we are told to reject false teaching and commit ourselves toward holy living.

Now let’s move on to the 2nd letter to Timothy.

This letter was written at the end of Paul’s life.

Paul was in prison and knew that he was about to be executed for the sake of the gospel.

Let’s start in Chapter 1 verses 13 and 14

2Ti 1:13 Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.

2Ti 1:14 That good thing which was committed to you, keep by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.

Paul tells Timothy to hold fast to the doctrine that he taught him.

Hold fast suggests someone or something will try to take the truth from us; and that unless we hold on to it, it will be taken from us.

How good a pastor is should not be measured by how funny he is, or if he is an exciting preacher, or even he is a good evangelist.

The true measure of a pastor should be does he “hold fast to the pattern of sound words.”

I like that verse 14 tells us that the Holy Spirit will help us to hold fast.

I like this because It says that it is not about how smart we are, we don’t have to be scholars in order to know and hold on to good doctrine.

It is because study and because of the discernment given by the Holy Spirit.

Jesus said the Holy Spirit would teach us in John 14: 26

Even new Christians might not always know why a certain teaching is false, but often the spirit gives them a sense that it is not of God.

But we also must remember that we have also seen many commands to labor in the study of the word to get good doctrine.

It is a mixture of both. We labor in the word, and we are also taught by the Holy Spirit.

In says in Hebrews that God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

Next let go to chapter 2 verse 2.

2Ti 2:2 And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

This is a very important part of a spiritual leader’s ministry.

To train other spiritual leaders.

Notice what specifically Paul asks Timothy to pass on.

The teachings of the Apostle.

We will see later that this also includes all the scripture written by the apostles in the New Testament.

It is important to train spiritual leaders in many things.

But the most important thing you can teach them is the doctrine found in Holy Scripture.

Training leaders is a part of your job according to the bible.

Not only when you need another leader to help you.

And not only for service in your congregation.

You should train leaders for the kingdom of God in general.

Whether their ministry will be pastoral or used for some other purpose by the Lord.

You should always be training people in what you have learned.

If you don’t have anyone that you feel you should be training.

You should pray and ask the Lord to send you someone, or reveal to you someone you already know to begin training.

It says that the men you should train need to be “faithful men who are able to teach.”

There are other qualifications in these letters that we have already looked at in the last session.

Let’s move on to 2 Timothy 2 starting in verse 14:

2Ti 2:14 Remind them of these things, charging them before the Lord not to strive about words to no profit, to the ruin of the hearers.

2Ti 2:15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

2Ti 2:16 But shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness.

2Ti 2:17 And their message will spread like cancer. Hymenaeus and Philetus are of this sort,

2Ti 2:18 who have strayed concerning the truth, saying that the resurrection is already past; and they overthrow the faith of some.

Here we hear many of the same things we have already heard from the Spirit through the Apostle Paul.

I want to point out verse 15 which says that we should be diligent in our work of rightly dividing the word of truth.

This phrase “rightly dividing the word of truth” literally means to “cut straight.”

That a minister of the gospel should present the truth correctly and honestly.

He should not be dishonest in any way when presenting the scripture.

We also see in 16 and 17 that false teachings are like cancer.

If you ignore it, it will grow and grow, and in verse 18 we see that it can cause the faith of other people to be overthrown.

This is why it is important to deal with false teaching in your church in the way the bible says, because it can destroy the faith of other people as well.

Let’s move on to verses 24-26

2Ti 2:24 And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient,

2Ti 2:25 in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth,

2Ti 2:26 and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.

This is my favorite part of this entire teaching.

It says that our goal should not be to fight, but that God will show them the truth of their error and they would repent.

A wise pastor said to me one time that no one ever wins in an argument.

Yes, you may prove someone wrong, and make them be silent.

But there is no winner in an argument, only losers.

If you truly desire the salvation and repentance of those who are in opposition you must be patient and humble.

You must see if they will let you teach them the truth.

It’s easy to have sympathy for false teachers if you understand verse 26.

They are in the snare of the devil, taken captive to do his will.

Just as the Lord Jesus uses us to do His will, Satan also uses people to do his will.

The difference is that we choose to serve the Lord, Satan though has to capture people and trick them into doing his will.

You can pray for them, and try to help them, but there is a limit to how much you can allow.

Let move to the next chapter starting in verse 13:

2Ti 3:13 But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.

2Ti 3:14 But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them,

2Ti 3:15 and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

2Ti 3:16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,

2Ti 3:17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

This passage tells us what the weapon we should use in our warfare is.

It is the Bible, this book, from Genesis to Revelation.

This is all we need to do the job that we are being asked to do.

It says the scripture is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction.

What is so interesting to me is that it seems that every kind of false teaching, no matter how strange it is, was already answered by the Holy Spirit somewhere in the bible.

What I mean is that there is always a verse, usually many verses that are perfect for refuting every kind of false teaching.

So a smart false teacher will spend most of their time trying to explain why the verses that prove them wrong in the bible do not really mean what it says.

Part of our job is to be able to correct false doctrine using the scripture.

The more we know of scripture the easier this job will be.

Let’s move on to chapter 4 verse 2

2Ti 4:2 Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.

2Ti 4:3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers;

2Ti 4:4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.

2Ti 4:5 But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

There are many things to learn here.

Verse 2 again describes that we should be ready to explain the word to people.

It says to preach the word.

We have many examples of the Apostle Paul doing this.

He wrote many letters that were correcting false teaching in the church.

For example the letter to the Colossians, or the letter to the Galatians.

What is interesting to notice about those letters is that Paul fights bad doctrine with good doctrine.

He doesn’t spend any time explaining the details of their false beliefs.

But instead he teaches in detail the good doctrine that they needed to hear.

For example he does a study of the Old Testament in Galatians and explains the correct doctrines of justification of faith clearly.

So this is an example, we fight bad doctrine with clear explanations of good doctrine.

Verse 3 is the second time Paul tells Timothy that in the future this problem of bad doctrine will grow worse.

It is interesting because it says that the people will “heap for themselves the false teachers.”

It says that they have itching ears, which means that they will want to believe false doctrine.

Many people believe false teaching because they want to.

Not necessarily because they have been deceived.

This is why for some people it won’t matter if you can prove to them their error from the word of God.

They will still believe it, they wont endure sound doctrine.

Let’s move on to the book of Titus.

This letter is a little different than 1st and 2nd Timothy.

Titus was in Crete where there was a lot of false teaching.

We understand that Titus was a person who was very brave and liked a challenge.

Paul sent Titus into a very difficult situation in Crete.

This is what Paul tells Titus about the situation at Crete:

Tit 1:10 For there are many insubordinate, both idle talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision,

Tit 1:11 whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole households, teaching things which they ought not, for the sake of dishonest gain.

Tit 1:12 One of them, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.”

Tit 1:13 This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith,

You can also see in verse 5 that in addition to appointing elders, Titus was sent to Crete with the purpose of correcting their bad doctrine.

And according to Paul, and even Cretan’s themselves, they were not easy people to convince of anything.

In verse 9 we see that Paul says that if any man wants to be a Bishop he must:

“Hold fast the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convict those who contradict.”

This is a job requirement for elders, we must be able to instruct difficult doctrine to difficult people.

Let’s read verse 16, which is speaking about some of the false teachers at Crete:

Tit 1:16 They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work.

This is similar to what Jesus said about false prophets.

Mat 7:15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.

Mat 7:16 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?

Mat 7:17 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.

Mat 7:18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.

False teachers and prophets bear bad fruit in their lives.

In verse 16 back in Titus 1 it says “They profess to know God”

Almost all false teachers claim to be very good Christians.

Often they claim to be the only kind of Christians that have the real truth.

They say very holy things, and talk like they are more religious that everyone else.

But they do not bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit in their lives.

If they were as holy as they claimed to be, their life’s would show it.

But as Jesus said a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.

Let’s turn to chapter 2 starting in verse 7:

Tit 2:7 in all things showing yourself to be a pattern of good works; in doctrine showing integrity, reverence, incorruptibility,

Tit 2:8 sound speech that cannot be condemned, that one who is an opponent may be ashamed, having nothing evil to say of you.

Paul is telling Titus and us. To not let your critics have any doctrinal reason to accuse you.

The truth is that none of us understand the word perfectly.

Because it is the Word of God, we should expect there to be parts of it that we do not yet understand, because we are only human.

We are all wrong about something, and we don’t know what it is we are wrong about yet.

But you should be the kind of person who is willing to admit you are wrong if you are shown the truth in the word.

Doing this will make you a better leader and a better pastor.

One of the hardest things for a leader to do is to admit he was wrong.

Especially if he has taught the wrong thing for a long time.

We try to hold on to it, we try to make excuses for ourselves.

We need to be the kind of people who can say “I was wrong, and I am sorry”

And you need to be humble enough to explain why you were wrong to those you have taught.

They will respect you more for your humility.

There is nothing worse than a preacher who won’t admit he is wrong.

This is very destructive to the body of Christ.

Now let’s look at chapter 3 starting in verse 9:

Tit 3:9 But avoid foolish questions, and genealogies, and contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and vain.

Tit 3:10 A man that is an heretick after the first and second admonition reject;

Tit 3:11 Knowing that he that is such is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned of himself.

Here we find instruction of how many times you should try to correct someone in this type of error.

It says after two times you should reject him.

We must be careful not to use this for every situation where we have disagreements with people.

Because not every disagreement is a matter of heresy.

We know from other passages we have read today that when trying to correct false teaching we must be gentle.

We must be patient; we must try to very hard to correct them by using scripture.

And we must pray for them that God may grant them repentance.

And even after you correct them, and they continue to believe the false doctrine, it says here that you should try one more time.

But after the second time, if they show no signs of repentance, then you must reject them.

This is for the health of your church and its protection.

But I have found that this passage is also there for you, the minister.

Because if it was not here, some of us would feel that we had to try to correct error over and over again.

But the Word of God says, after a certain point you have done your job, and it is no longer your responsibility.

I would encourage you all to read through these three letters we have just looked at.

Because doctrine is not the only subject talked about in them.

Almost as much time is spent on the need of personal purity of the minister as well.

I will now give you a few ideas on how to learn and maintain good doctrine.

Obviously the main thing is prayer and reading the bible.

These two things are your best weapons in the war for good doctrine.

Read the bible because you love it, not because you want to prove a point.

If you do not want to read the bible, pray that God will give you a thirst for the reading it.

And pray that prayer all the time, not just once or twice.

The more you read the more you will understand.

The Holy Spirit will be able to bring to your mind verses that will help you discern the truth.

It is not important to have many theological books in order to have very good doctrine.

But it is good to have access to a concordance or other reference books like this.

I have the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge that I made for your mobile phones.

If you haven’t already received one you can turn the Bluetooth on in your phone and one will automatically be sent to you by my computer.

You do not want to have errors in your theology because of a lack of understanding the meaning of a word.

If you have a question, ask other pastors, ask an elder or someone who you know to be strong in the scriptures.

The bible says that iron sharpens iron, so fellowship and conversations about your questions are important.

Always be learning.

You are all here at this conference, so I know that you understand this point.

But I would encourage you to find more opportunities to learn.

Pastor Chris has a bible school, and I know there are other schools in your area too.

Ask your congregation to help you afford some theological books.

Even if you have to save money for a long time, and pray that the Lord sends you this help.

But most importantly, the best way to learn is to teach.

In the discipleship session I talked about teaching verse by verse through the bible.

If that is how you decide to start teaching, I can promise you that you will go much faster in the process of becoming an expert in the bible.

The more you teach through the bible verse by verse, the faster you will grow.

Please consider doing this. I think it will not only make your sheep healthy sheep.

But it will also create a healthy shepherd.

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Hebrews 6: 1-6 – The “Difficult” Passage

Posted on January 10, 2012 by admin
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Heb 6:1 Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,

So let’s get a running start as the end of the previous chapter connects to the beginning of this one:

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. – Heb 5:12-14

And now our verse: “Heb 6:1 Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God”

So the writer is wanting to get into some serious theological discussions with them about their problems, and he is frustrated that they really are not even ready to hear it. But nevertheless he is going to tell them what they need to hear anyway.

He says that two foundations of the Christian faith here are repentance of dead works and faith toward god. This is basically the gospel message: (Acts_2:38, Acts_3:19, Heb_9:14, Heb_11:6)

The same writer of Hebrews preaches the gospel of salvation using the same words three chapters later:

How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.  - Heb 9:14-14

There are really only two religions in the world. There are those that are trying to account for their moral imperfections by their various works and are therefore putting their faith in themselves and how good they can be. And then there are those that have faith in God, who trust not in their works and appeal to God, not on the basis on the things they have done but rather on the merit on the sinless life of another, that is Jesus Christ.

Many people need to repent of their dead works, their appealing to god on the things that they do, or do not do, and seek to understand the gospel, which is that Christ took the wrath of God for your sins so that you could be justified before a holy god.

Perfection

The writer to the Hebrews says that his people must be going on to what he calls teleiotes. The King James Version translates this word perfection. But teleios, the adjective, and its kindred words have a technical meaning. Pythagoras divided his students into hoi manthanontes, the learners, and hoi teleioi , the mature. Philo divided his students into three different classes—hoi archomenoi, those just beginning, hoi prokoptontes, those making progress, and hoi teleiomenoi, those beginning to reach maturity. Teleiotes  does not imply complete knowledge but a certain maturity in the Christian faith. – William Barclay

let us go on unto perfection:

No matter how much parents and grandparents love to hold and cuddle a baby, it is their great desire that the baby grow up and enjoy a full life as a mature adult. God has the same desire for His children. That is why He calls to us, “Go on to perfection!”

Heb 6:2 Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.

Two of my favorite commentators spend this section trying to convince people that these things are Jewish, not Christian in nature. This is a very difficult position, and it is my opinion that they do this because of the difficult verse that is coming up later.

After really trying to give them the benefit of the doubt, also because I would much prefer that this is talking about Jews because it would make this section so much easier I don’t see any reason to suggest that to you, But rather that the writer is simply naming some things that are the basics of Christianity, just as I think the plain understanding of the text implies.

The doctrine of baptisms and the laying on of hands:

There are two baptisms spoken of in scripture. One is the standard water baptism that is symbolic of your repentance and death to the old life and resurrection to a new life in Christ. Then there is the baptism of the Holy Spirit for service where one is empowered to do various things in the service of Christ.

Those who try to make the point that this is not talking about Christian baptism say that the word baptismos here is in a slightly odd construction  is not used to talk of Christian baptisms, but according to Vincent word studies there is no problem whatsoever with this:

“The meaning here is lustral rites in general, and may include the baptism of John and Christian baptism. The teaching would cover all such rites, their relations and comparative significance.” -VWS

The reason for the odd construction of the phrase is because of the odd way the writer is applying it he, in talking of the doctrine of baptisms is speaking of the teaching of baptisms, this teaching like all other Christian teaching are from Christ:

Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. – Joh 3:5

The fundamental Christian teaching of a two part baptism is based off the old testament prophecies of the New covenant described Eze_36:25-27

Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. – Eze 36:25-26

So this “doctrine of baptisms” is about as fundamental Christian teaching as you can get from a theological standpoint.

The laying on of hands that is mentioned in the verse is usually tied to the baptism of the Holy Spirit for service, and is also considered a fundamental part of Christian doctrine and is often done at salvation for the receiving of gifts. Like with timothy:

1Ti 4:14  Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery.

Next the resurrection of the dead is mentioned, and in response to those who try to make this an elementary Jewish teaching as opposed to an elementary Christian teaching I would say that although the resurrection of the dead may be an important aspect of Judaism, it is not a fundamental doctrine, which is evidenced by the fact that the Pharisees and Sadducees differed on the existence of the resurrection of the dead but were considered in fellowship and were on the Sanhedrin council together, so it must not have been that fundamental, no compare that with the fundamental nature of the resurrection in Christianity. For example the Apostle Paul writes:

But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen:  And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. – 1Co 15:13-15

And in keeping perfectly in line with this is the next one that is mentioned: “eternal judgment” which is also a fundamental doctrine of the gospel.

And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. – Act 17:30-31

So the writer here is clearly expanding here on the same “doctrines of Christ” that he mentioned in the previous verse:

Heb 6:1 Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,
Heb 6:2 Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.

It may seem obvious to make this point, but some good teachers turn into bad ones during this section of scripture, we will see why they do in just a moment.

Heb 6:3 And this will we do, if God permits.

So he is going to continue on to the harder questions in Christianity despite them not really being ready to handle it

If God permits:

if: Act_18:21; Rom_15:32; 1Co_4:19, 1Co_16:7; Jam_4:15

Heb 6:4 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost

I think it would be helpful for you  to know some of the theological conflicts that are going to be at play here before we get started.

The main issue is about the doctrine of eternal security, or once saved always saved. A doctrine that I believe in firmly and think that the book that we are reading the book of Hebrews will do a fantastic job of explaining in detail later on, but there does seem to be a kind of caveat to that doctrine, one that doesn’t not necessarily undermine the doctrine of eternal security as we will see but that nevertheless is there and I as hope to show you is all over scripture and taught expressly by the Lord many times.

The problem with this though is that certain theological positions notably Calvinism has a dogmatic stance that no exceptions to this rule exist, and therefore must make these following verse be speaking of something other than Christians. Some commentators will say that these folks in view in this passage only tasted of the heavenly gifts, the idea being that these people were never actually Christians and therefore these is no conflict with the doctrine of eternal security, but the problem is that the passage coming up as well as the other difficult passages in Hebrews chapter 10 seem to go out of the way to make sure we know without doubt that these were actually saved people.

We will look at all of this in detail but first here are some good quotes from Spurgeon on the issue. These quotes are all the more interesting when you realize that Spurgeon was a Calvinist and realized the problems that the passages in Hebrews here posed.

“We come to this passage ourselves with the intention to read it with the simplicity of a child, and whatever we find therein to state it; and if it may not seem to agree with something we have hitherto held, we are prepared to cast away every doctrine of our own, rather than one passage of Scripture.” (Spurgeon)

ii. “We had better far be inconsistent with ourselves than with the inspired Word. I have been called an Arminian Calvinist or a Calvinistic Arminian, and I am quite content so long as I can keep close to my Bible.” (Spurgeon)

For it is impossible

It will take two more verses for the writer to get to what is impossible to do but this is the phrase that causes all the difficulty.

The “impossible” here means just that in the Greek…”impossible” so there is no way around it, belive me I have tried.

3 things are mentioned about the group that he is talking about:

Those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,

I wont spend too much time as some do in proving that these things are talking about Christians because I think that is the plain meaning of this text. If you have once been enlightened and were a partaker of the Holy Ghost, my understanding presupposes that they must have been genuine Christians at one point, the argument that they simply tasted the heavenly gift is often refuted by affirming that the same word for taste is used of Christ in his having tasted death for all (Hebrews 2:9.) And we know that he did die.

partakers of the Holy Ghost

Is a much more difficult thing to explain away, it seems almost unthinkable that the writer would use such language if his intention was not to make clear that these people were in fact saved.

Heb 6:5 And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,

Here again the word taste is important, It is probably true that one could taste of the word of God and not be saved, but more difficult to explain the tasting of the powers of the world to come. I think that either way you look at this these people were more than just casual non-believers.

Again I dont want you to get twitchy that I am going to be speaking against eternal security, I am not, but I do feel that, simply explaining away this verse as not intended for us can be equally detrimental.

There is application here for us and I will explain what I mean by that in full detail in the next verse:

Heb 6:6 If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.

Ok here it is the big verse in question. Let’s back up and read from verse 4 so we can get the flavor if it:

For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.

On one end of the spectrum there are the false teachers saying that this verse and the other like in in Hebrews 10 means that if you slip up and simply sin then you can’t be “renewed to repentance.”

On the other end of the spectrum groups, in an attempt to preserve the doctrine of once saved always saved, will find some way to teach that these verses are not applicable to Christians.

I think the answer is somewhere in between, and that it is firmly testified to in scripture.

Again, I want to say that Im all about the doctrine of once saved always saved, and I think the writer of this letter is too, he sure spends a lot of time explaining it later on, but at the same time, there is a notable exception to this rule it would seem and we would be unwise to ignore the clear teaching of scripture on this point.

So it’s impossible If they shall “fall away”, to “renew them again unto repentance;” We need to know what “fall away” means here and we definitely need to know what “renew again to repentance” means.

Fall away here is talking about a specific type of apostasy. Although the specific word “apostacia” is not used here it is clear that the writer has been referring to it, in various ways all throughout the letter, In Hebrews 3:12 it says:

  “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.”

This line where the writer basically declares the intention of his letter, this is the main reason he writes to them, telling them not to depart from Christ during the persecution they were undergoing, a temptation that some of them were succumbing to.

The same word there departing in the Greek is used by the apostle Paul in this way:

Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; – 1 Timothy 4:1

Paul was referring to what he in another place clearly calls apostacia

Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away [apostacia] first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; – 2Th 2:3

And of course I believe he in 2 Thessalonians is only referencing the Lords teaching in Matthew 24 when he says of the last days:

Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. – Mat 24:9-1

So the “falling away” used in our verse back in Hebrews is referring to apostasy.

This apostasy is almost always tied to persecution in scripture, In fact I believe that the writer uses the words fall away here harkening back to the parable of the sower, when the lord said

And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy. And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away. – Mar 4:16-17

Again it is crucial to what I am about to say to understand the context here, these people he is writing were not simply duped by a false teacher, they were that too, but they were also being physically threatened with death if they did not reject Christ and return to Judaism The first few chapters are about the reasons why this cannot be done theologically.

This is a very common theme in the NT in general, (encouragement about ongoing persecutions) in fact it doesn’t seem like there is a letter that Paul writes that does not include something like this line from 2 Thessalonians 2:

So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure: Which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer: Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you;  And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, 2 Thess 1: 4-7

There are so many sections in scripture of Paul or Peter saying “hey good job guys, you are suffering persecutions well.”

In the book of Hebrews however, it is basically a letter to those not suffering and dying well.

There are some other important details about this type of apostasy that seems to always be mentioned in the form of persecution.
But before we look at that we need to move on to the idea of if you fall away in this way it is impossible to be renewed again to repentance.

What in the world does that phrase “renewed again to repentance” mean? it’s kind of an odd phrase.

I have read a lot of commentaries on this and there are so many different opinions that I had literally given up, and instead I simply prayed and re-read the entire book and was like “OK Lord, I will just forget everything I think I know about this, just show me what’s going on here.”

I know bible teachers are supposed to do that all the time, but I guess I don’t do it enough. and I am certainly hesitant to say the “lord showed me this or showed me that” because if I’m wrong It’s my fault, but I gotta say I think the answer as to what this means is explained to us later on in this same letter and it really opens the door to a flood of other relevant scriptures on this issue.

Now before I read this you have to know that in between our verse and the one I’m about to quote 6 chapters later, I think the heart of the writer becomes even clearer. He is trying to show them the steadfastness of the new covenant, and why it should not be abandoned in the face of persecution. He says thing like:

For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin…

So he is saying Christ suffered such hostility from sinners and you guys are discouraged and you haven’t even had any blood shed from them yet…he continues and talks about this persecution as if it is from God for their purification.

..and you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: “MY SON, DO NOT DESPISE THE CHASTENING OF THE LORD, NOR BE DISCOURAGED WHEN YOU ARE REBUKED BY HIM; FOR WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE CHASTENS, AND SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES.” – Heb 12:3-6

The whole theme of the book of Hebrews is about this, these people are openly rejecting Christ to avoid being persecuted and killed

A few verses later he uses Esau in the old testament for an illustration of this and this is where I think the answer to the question “what does the writer of the book of Hebrews mean by “renewed again to repentance” is found:

Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears. – Heb 12:16-17

There it is! Esau found no place for repentance although he sought it with tears. This is a perfect picture of the situation we are looking into.

If you don’t know the story of Esau. Basically he had twin brother Jacob, one day Esau sold his birthright to his brother for a bowl of stew. Later when he wanted his inheritance he begged his dad who had already given it to the other brother, and nothing was left for him.

A notable thing that my wife brought to my attention is the reason that Esau sold his birthright in the first place:

And Esau said to Jacob, “Please feed me with that same red stew, for I am weary.” Therefore his name was called Edom. But Jacob said, “Sell me your birthright as of this day.” And Esau said, “Look, I am about to die; so what is this birthright to me?” Then Jacob said, “Swear to me as of this day.” So he swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob. – Gen 25:30-33

Esau sells his birthright because he is afraid for his life!

Now the repentance he seeks from his father is shown here to be a typological picture. The birthright being symbolic of salvation, and if you look at what the birthright was, it was to be a part of bringing forth the messiah, a birthright that it says Esau despised, but after he sold it when he thought he would starve to death He weeps or repents to his father a type of the heavenly father in this type, but he does not give him back the birthright which he sold.

Now here is where it gets interesting. There are lots of verses that seem to come up in scripture that seem to be talking about this exact scenario, and they are all very challenging to those trying to fit them in a theological “once saved always saved” box, but notice that they all are centered on the same thing! It’s not sin that will make you lose it, but rather rejecting Christ in order to save your life that will.

Matthew chapter 10  is basically instruction for people that are being put to death and tortured for His sake, this is also where you find almost all the difficult verses about eternal security from Jesus, and they are all firmly in the same context. If I were to name this section of scripture I would call it: “Jesus teaches us how to die well, and warns us of the consequences of not doing so.” It starts in Matthew 10:16

 Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues; And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles.  But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you. And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved…And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows. Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it. – Mat 10:16-22, 28-39

Luke seems to understand the Lords teaching here in the book of Matthew the same way I have been explaining it .

Luke basically takes relevant saying of the lord here in Matthew and makes sort of topical section about it in His gospel, as the Gospel of Luke often does, Basically Luke categorizes a lot of the Lords teaching whereas Matthew tends to write the entire teaching in context,

Anyway Luke included the so called “unforgivable sin” about the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, which is another subject altogether sandwiched right in the middle of the lords instruction about apostasy under persecution that we just read, in other words Luke thought these ideas went together categorically in the same place, it says:

“Also I say to you, whoever confesses Me before men, him the Son of Man also will confess before the angels of God. But he who denies Me before men will be denied before the angels of God. “And anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but to him who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven. “Now when they bring you to the synagogues and magistrates and authorities, do not worry about how or what you should answer, or what you should say. For the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.” – Luk 12:8-12

Now again I am all about once saved always saved but there appears to be an exception to this, but thankfully we will see even this exception is not a hard and fast rule..

The following is an example of being renewed to repentance after a denial of the Lord because of fear of death.

This is such an amazing confirmation of all of this I feel because its like this perfect picture of everything we have been talking about, but something unexpected happens that I think should give those of us a little scared about this idea some comfort. Its found in Luke 22 31

And the Lord said, “Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren. – Luk 22:31-32

Now look how peter understood this:

But he said to Him, “Lord, I am ready to go with You, both to prison and to death.” Then He said, “I tell you, Peter, the rooster shall not crow this day before you will deny three times that you know Me.” Luk 22:33-34

So Jesus tells Peter that he will deny him to save his skin, Peter say that he would never do such a thing.

Jesus says he prays for him though, His prayer is so important here, what is his prayer for Peter?:

“But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have converted (KJV) (or returned to Me), strengthen your brethren.”

The word returned or converted as the KJV has it
means to revert (literally, figuratively or morally): – come (go) again, convert, (re-) turn (about, again).

So the lord thought it necessary to pray for Peter so that his faith should not fail, and it is this prayer that apparently made it possible for the repentance of Peter to occur. I think this is an important point. That it is ones “faith not failing” in the context of an apostasy that somehow affects ones ability to turn again or repent. Jesus makes the point that although Peter will commit the very same sin that He warned against in Matthew 10, He has prayed for him ahead of time so that he will be able to return, and in fact adds “when you does return to strengthen his brethren” This must have been a great encouragement to Peter, later on in life remembering that the lord foresaw this and forgave him ahead of time, because we know that Peter wept bitterly after the he heard the roster crow and realized he had in fact denied Christ for fear of his own life.

So my conclusion about this issue is that yes there is a willful sin of denying Christ in the midst of persecution and it seems to be what we call an “unforgivable sin”, but it is very rare and I dont believe even those that do deny him in those circumstance will necessarily be lost because His interceding (praying) for us as He did for Peter in heaven, even today ( Hebrews 9:24 )That being said this is one of the most consistent themes in scripture, a coming last days apostasy in the midst of persecution which will happen on a mass scale.

I believe that many of the mainstream churches will be offered and an alternative to so called fundamentalist version of Christianity will be offered.

This will be in the context of a time of great hatred, even to the point of killing.

I think that we need to be aware of this there needs to be more sermons on this, when is the last time you heard a sermon about preparing a congregation for standing strong under persecution. Like Christ preached in the last half of Matthew 10.

 

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Mystery Babylon Study – Part 8 – Rev 18:17-24

Posted on November 15, 2011 by admin
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 (Rev 18:17-18)  For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off,  And cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is like unto this great city!

For in one hour so great riches is come to nought.

The suddenness of the cities destruction is expressed, here it is described as having occurred in one hour, although it is expressed as “one day” in other places in this chapter.

And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea,

A third group of onlookers, is here introduced, they are people who were on the sea for various reasons. We have already seen the kings and merchants doing basically this same thing, that is lamenting the cities destruction.

stood afar off,

This is mentioned several times, back In Rev 18:10 is seems to suggest that the reason they were standing far off is that they somehow feared they would be affected by the aftermath of the cities destruction.

And cried when they saw the smoke of her burning,

This is the part that leads some to suggest that Mystery Babylon must be a port city. But this is not necessary; all that is said is that the smoke of its burning can be seen by the ships at sea.

I would say that it is however necessary that the smoke from the burning of Mystery Babylon must be able to be seen from the sea in order to be consistent with this face value hermeneutic.

Jerusalem is only 34 miles from the Mediterranean coast, and its smoke could easily be seen from the sea. An example from modern times  is that people reported being able to see the smoke and debris from the 911 attacks on the World Trade Center from 70 or more miles away.

This is a problem for those that insist that actual city of Babylon is Mystery Babylon because it is 300 miles from the nearest sea (the Persian Gulf), and a whopping 500 miles from the nearest coast of the Mediterranean. It would be impossible for this to be applied to the literal city of Babylon.

Rome, by the way is also not a port city, being about 15 miles from the coast. This does not conflict with the fact that sea merchants bring goods to it, we see sea merchants bringing goods to Jerusalem in several places, notably the 1 kings 10 passages referring to King Solomon which we have already covered in depth.

saying, What city is like unto this great city!

The sailors say this phrase that hearkens us back to the prophecies regarding the city of Tyrus or Tyre we will be talking about in depth in the next verse.

(Rev 18:19)  And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas, that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.

This verse has some striking parallels to a passage in the Old Testament which is referring to the destruction of the merchant city of Tyrus.  It says in Ezekiel 27:30-31:

And shall cause their voice to be heard against thee, and shall cry bitterly, and shall cast up dust upon their heads, they shall wallow themselves in the ashes: And they shall make themselves utterly bald for thee, and gird them with sackcloth, and they shall weep for thee with bitterness of heart and bitter wailing. – Eze 27:30-31

This is especially interesting in light of the other parallels between the language of the fall of Tyrus or Tyre and Mystery Babylon, Some of which we covered in previous verses.

I have found it interesting that the bible seems to go out of its way at times to refer to the destruction of Tyrus, and to the destruction of Babylon in the passages about Mystery Babylon.

For instance in the passages about the destruction of literal Babylon in Jeremiah 51 there are phrases like

O thou that dwellest upon many waters, abundant in treasures, thine end is come, and the measure of thy covetousness.  - Jer 51:13

This is a clear connection to Mystery Babylon, which is said to “sit on many waters” in Revelation 17, the angel later gives us an interpretation as to what the water represent:

And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.  - Rev 17:15

As I was reflecting on the significance of these cities as they relate to one another, I remembered a very interesting fact. Satan is referred to as the “King of Tyre” and the “King of Babylon” in different places in scripture. When we look at those Old Testament prophecies we will see that they would start out talking about the kings of these places, but before it’s over its clear the scope of the prophecy is far too big to simply be referring to these earthly kings. Let’s look first at a prophecy concerning The King of Tyrus:

Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee. – Eze 28:12-17

So while this prophecy may have applied in some way to the king of Tyrus, this is clearly bigger than any earthly king, and is of course widely considered to be referring to Satan.

If you look a few verses before this Ezekiel is told to prophecy against the Prince (not the King) of Tyre. Scholars really don’t know what to do with what I am about to show you. But notice how in the passage we just looked at the King was obviously not human, it says it is a cherub, it was in the Garden of Eden, it was cast out of mountain of God,  but notice how the prince ( the son of this king presumably) is described clearly as being a man. I think we will see that the prince of Tyre is a description in some ways of the Antichrist.

The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying, Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyrus, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thine heart is lifted up, and thou hast said, I am a God, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas; yet thou art a man, and not God, though thou set thine heart as the heart of God: Behold, thou art wiser than Daniel; there is no secret that they can hide from thee: With thy wisdom and with thine understanding thou hast gotten thee riches, and hast gotten gold and silver into thy treasures:  By thy great wisdom and by thy traffick hast thou increased thy riches, and thine heart is lifted up because of thy riches: Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thou hast set thine heart as the heart of God; Behold, therefore I will bring strangers upon thee, the terrible of the nations: and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of thy wisdom, and they shall defile thy brightness. They shall bring thee down to the pit, and thou shalt die the deaths of them that are slain in the midst of the seas. Wilt thou yet say before him that slayeth thee, I am God? but thou shalt be a man, and no God, in the hand of him that slayeth thee. Thou shalt die the deaths of the uncircumcised by the hand of strangers: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.  - Eze 28:1-10

The prince the son of the King of Tyrus is a human, (unlike his cherub father)  that sits in the seat of God and declares himself to be God who ultimately goes into the pit…does this ring any bells? It should it is the very essence of the antichrists career.  I think it’s pretty interesting that it says he will “die the deaths of the uncircumcised “  “by the hand of strangers “ The plural “deaths” could mean that he dies twice, but I would not sell this too strongly as other versions to not carry this plural “deaths” over,  either way it suggest that he will be a Jew because it threatens him with the death of the uncircumcised. (Author Pink agree with me on this point) Notice also that if this is true this would take this outside of the context of the city of Tyrus because we are told in Daniel this exact same information about the antichrist, and there is says quite explicitly (in Daniel 11:45) that his capital will be Jerusalem, a point that is reiterated in Matthew 24, 2 Thessalonians 2. For further study I would recommend comparing Daniel 11:36-45 with this passage in Ezekiel 28: 1-10 you will find many interesting similarities.

The same basic pattern we see here is seen in other places in scripture, but instead of the king of Tyre, it uses the king of Babylon.

Isaiah starts off by saying:

That thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased! – Isa 14:4

But pretty soon the scope gets much  wider than the king of Babylon;

How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. – Isa 14:12-15

There is also an antichrist connection here, not just a Satan connection, often people talk about references to the “Assyrian”  as a type of antichrist, they rightly point out that the Assyrian is associated with Babylon.

The bible has messages about the end times sprinkled in all kinds of places, and using all kinds of types to give us more information whether its Solomon, or the King of Tyre, or Antiochus. But it is dangerous to build doctrine on types. Especially when we have very unambiguous prophecies about the antichrist from Jesus, Paul, John in Revelation, and Daniel that are meant to be the standards to which the types are balanced.

I think that the chapter we have been looking is full of words and phrases that when compared with other scripture reveal more about the end times scenario.

(Rev 18:20)  Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her.

thou heaven

We see a picture of those in heave asking to be avenged back in Revelation 6.

And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? – Rev 6:9-10

And in Revelation 19 we see a picture of their rejoicing.

And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God: For true and righteous are his judgments: for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand. – Rev 19:1-2

and ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her.

We will study this idea in depth when we look at the last verse in this chapter about the “prophets and apostles and all those slain on the earth”, and we will see that Jesus puts the blame for all of them on the city of Jerusalem in many places but among them in Matthew 23:35 where He says:

That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. – Mat 23:35

Notice he said all the righteous blood is on them, Abel was not a Jew nor a prophet, nor was he killed in Jerusalem, but his blood was on Jerusalem’s head. We will look more at the context of this verse later on. We will also see that the OT prophets were indeed killed in Jerusalem according to scripture.

(Rev 18:21)  And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.

This is the verse that is the best argument against Mystery Babylon being the eschatological city of Jerusalem. I discussed it in detail in Part 4 which was all about objections to this theory.

In question is, if Jerusalem is found no more, how then do we explain the fact that Jerusalem is very much a part of the millennial kingdom and the eternal kingdom?

The short answer to this question is that in the detailed layouts of the millennial kingdom given to us by Ezekiel in the last 9 chapter of his book, we are told, among other details, the physical location of the city of Jerusalem during that time. Those that attempt to map all Ezekiel’s specifications out come to various conclusions, but almost all of them agree the Jerusalem in the future, is not in the exact location of the present city. In addition the millennial Jerusalem is 9 times bigger than the current city. Also The temple is located outside the city and it alone is bigger than the current city of Jerusalem.  The millennial Jerusalem  sits on a high plateau, and has two rivers flowing out of its east and west sides. Basically is a different place altogether.

Some proposals for the location have been Bethlehem and Shiloh. Cameron in his paper “Zechariah in relation to Ezekiel 40-48” makes a very compelling case that the new temple complex will be located at Shechem, a theory that I think is worth serious investigation. The point is that many put the Jerusalem of the future in a different physical location, not for any theological reasons but because of careful study of Ezekiel’s millennial blueprints.

For a more detailed discussion see the section on objections.

We will take these next two verses as a set.

(Rev 18:22-23)  And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee; and the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee;  And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.

This is an exact match with several  verses in the book of Jeremiah. All of them together are a prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem. One example is found in Jer 25:10

Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the candle. – Jer 25:10

Even more interesting to me is the reason that this particular judgment would come.

About five chapters later the same prediction is made again, and it says:

For the children of Judah have done evil in my sight, saith the LORD: they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to pollute it……Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride: for the land shall be desolate.  - Jer 7:30, 34

Jeremiah makes it clear what he means by this phrase “house called by my name” many times. One notable example, which was later quoted by Jesus is when it says

Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the LORD. – Jer 7:11

Now consider this, we have here the meaning of the abomination which causes desolation spoken of by Daniel. We see that the land will be made desolate because they set an abomination in the temple.

This is pretty amazing

Especially when you consider our verse in Revelation 18:22-23 is referring to the aftermath of a city that does the same thing, worships the antichrist in the temple as if he was God (an abomination.)

You have the exact same punishment described here, and for the exact same crime!

(Rev 18:24)  And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.

the blood of prophets

The killing of Old Testament prophets are many times blamed on the city of Jerusalem. There are many sayings from Jesus on this point.

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!  - Mat 23:37

But just before this statement Jesus explains this more in depth.

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell? Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. – Mat 23:29-35

Jeremiah tried to warn them not to kill him for this reason.

But know ye for certain, that if ye put me to death, ye shall surely bring innocent blood upon yourselves, and upon this city, and upon the inhabitants thereof: for of a truth the LORD hath sent me unto you to speak all these words in your ears. – Jer 26:15

In the book of Acts an 1 Thessalonians  we see this same idea being taught:

Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers:  - Act 7:52

Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men: – 1Th 2:15

Jesus also tells a parable about this:

And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they did unto them likewise. But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son. But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance.  - Mat 21:35-38

We also are told that the last prophets sent to Jerusalem (the two witnesses) will be killed in it’s streets

And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.- Rev 11:8

and of saints

There have been many persecutions in history of Christians, but the worst one of all time, one that is yet to come will have its epicenter in the city of Jerusalem according to Jesus.

When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!  But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened. – Mat 24:15-22

Apparently when the antichrist declares himself to be God it will coincide with the order to kill saints, and considering that order will first be given in Jerusalem, it will require those who wish to escape the initial wave to flee very quickly from the area.

The saints being killed by antichrist during this persecution is referenced again and again in scripture. Here are just a few instances:

I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them; – Dan 7:21

And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. – Rev 13:7

And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. – Rev 12:17

all that were slain upon the earth.

This is an interesting phrase, this temps some to make everything in these two chapters allegorical, because obviously not everyone that was ever slain was slain in a particular city.

And that is true, but nevertheless Jesus says that Jerusalem is responsible for all the blood of the righteous.

That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. – Mat 23:35

Again notice the names he gives Able the son of Adam, the first person ever slain in history!  This is clearly used to emphasize that indeed he means ALL the righteous blood would be put on Jerusalem’s hands.

An interesting section of the law in Deuteronomy describes how Israel should absolve itself from innocent blood if they see it happen. After a lengthy discussion about it It concludes this way:

And they shall answer and say, Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it. Be merciful, O LORD, unto thy people Israel, whom thou hast redeemed, and lay not innocent blood unto thy people of Israel’s charge. And the blood shall be forgiven them. So shalt thou put away the guilt of innocent blood from among you, when thou shalt do that which is right in the sight of the LORD. – Deu 21:7-9

This practice that would absolve them of innocent blood was obviously not kept.

Another interesting section is when it is described why God destroyed Jerusalem in 2kings

And the LORD sent against him bands of the Chaldees, and bands of the Syrians, and bands of the Moabites, and bands of the children of Ammon, and sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the LORD, which he spake by his servants the prophets. Surely at the commandment of the LORD came this upon Judah, to remove them out of his sight, for the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he did; And also for the innocent blood that he shed: for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood; which the LORD would not pardon. – 2Ki 24:2-4

This concludes our verse by verse study on Mystery Babylon. I want to take this time to say that I know that not everything I said here is correct. I am sure there are mistakes and false assumptions I have made along the way. This is a complicated study and I’m sure my views will change slightly as people critique this. Again if you would like to see the entire study in various formats, all for free go to verse by verse bible teaching .com

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Mystery Babylon Study – Part 7 – Rev 18:8-16

Posted on November 9, 2011 by admin
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(Rev 18:8) Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.

Therefore shall her plagues come in one day:

This therefore is here to connect this verse to the Continue reading →

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Mystery Babylon Study – Part 6 – Rev 18:1-7

Posted on November 2, 2011 by admin
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 (Rev 18:1)  And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.

And after these things:

“After these things” basically refers to the Continue reading →

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Mystery Babylon Study – Part 5 – Rev 17:12-18

Posted on October 26, 2011 by admin
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See the bottom of this post for notes and appendixes.

Rev 17:12  And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.

Let’s first back and read up to this point so we can Continue reading →

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Mystery Babylon Study – Part 4 – Answers to Critical Questions

Posted on October 19, 2011 by admin
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Mystery Babylon Study – Part 4 – Answers to Critical Questions from Chris White on Vimeo.

In part four of this study I wanted to take a break from the verse by verse format and discuss some of the common objections to the interpretation of Mystery Babylon being the eschatological city of Jerusalem, in other words, Continue reading →

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Mystery Babylon Study – Part 3 – Rev 17: 7-11

Posted on October 12, 2011 by admin
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Mystery Babylon Study – Part 3 – Rev 17:7-11 from Chris White on Vimeo.

And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns. Rev 17:7 

And the angel said unto me

The angel is going to tell John what it is he has been seeing so far. There are Continue reading →

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Mystery Babylon Study – Part 2 – Rev 17: 4-6

Posted on October 4, 2011 by admin
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This is part two of our multi week study of Mystery Babylon, where we will be going verse by verse through Revelation chapter 17-18If you have not seen part one yet I highly recommend watching or listening to this study in chronological order as each one will build upon the other. There should be a link wherever you found this video or podcast to the previous study in the notes that accompany it.

Rev 17:4  And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:

Ok this is a loaded verse and there is a lot to cover, so let’s get started.

Arrayed in purple and scarlet colour: This particular Continue reading →

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Mystery Babylon Study – Part 1 – Intro – Rev: 17:3

Posted on September 28, 2011 by admin
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Mystery Babylon Study – Intro – Revelation 17: 3 from Chris White on Vimeo.

This will be a multi-week study on Revelation Chapter 17-18, widely considered to be some of the most difficult chapters in Revelation. I hope that you will make an effort to go through the whole study, which is available in multiple formats, such aids veo, mp3, or text, all available at the website versebyversebibleteaching.com

Why do such an in depth study on this issue?

In addition to the study of “The Woman that Continue reading →

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