What Is God Like?

Hello everyone.  Praise the Lord!

Here is a great message by a great minister of the past.

Have you ever wondered what God is really like? The only perfect revelation God ever made of himself, he made in Jesus Christ, and if you will look at Him through Jesus Christ, you will know what kind of a God He is really like, for Jesus said: “He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father” (John 14:9).

Did you hear Him speak to blind Bartimaeus, the beggar? The crowd took no notice whatsoever of the beggar in their midst, till he began to cry: “Jesus, Thou son of David, have mercy on me.” The disciples said:

“Shut up, you beggar,” but Jesus said tenderly:

“Bartimaeus, receive thy sight.” THAT’S GOD!

Did you see Him moved with compassion for the restless, hungry multitude who were like sheep without a shepherd? Jesus said, “I have compassion on the multitude, because they continue with me now for three days, and have nothing to eat: I will not send them away

fasting, lest they faint on the way.” THAT’S GOD!

Did you see Him weeping in pity over Jerusalem? You have had an idea that God is a vindictive God and that He delights in letting a man go to Hell: but you do not know God if you think that. See his great heart of mercy overflowing with tenderness and compassion as he cries: “How often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wing, and ye would not.” THAT’S GOD!

Did you hear him speak to the poor woman with the scarlet stain of sin on her soul—the woman who was taken in the very act of adultery—the harlot being dragged into His presence by her accusers? The crowd wanted to stone her, but Jesus said: “Go in peace and sin no more.” THAT’S GOD!

If you want a single word to characterize the person of God, all you will have to do is to take four letters and write them over and over again from the beginning to the end— the word, LOVE—AND THAT’S GOD!

God touched a precious young woman—her frail little body racked with pain from the pitiless disease of multiple sclerosis—a woman who had not been to church in years, who had never really served God a day of her life; so ignorant regarding spiritual things that when the power of God came upon her body, a sister-in-law, wanting to be helpful, lit a cigarette and put it in the suffering woman’s mouth, thinking it would stop the “shaking”? In tender mercy, and out of His great compassion, the Master touched that body and made it whole. My friend, THAT’S GOD!

A God who understands; a God who knows our every weakness, our every failure, our every shortcoming, our every sin—and yet He continues to love us and to pour his mercy upon us. He loves us, not because we are weak; not because of our failures; not because of our sins; but because we are His children. And He loves each one of us as though we were His only child.

~from "I believe in Miracles", by Kathryn Kuhlman

William James Roop

Roop-Crappell Ministries

Hospice Care and Dying

The Trucking Tango

Brother Roop teaches the Bible

Why Did God Create Evil?

Hello everyone.  Praise the Lord!

Here is a fun story from an unknown author.

THIS…

Why did God create evil? The answer struck me to the core of my soul!

A professor at the university asked his students the following question:

- Everything that exists was created by God?

One student bravely answered:

- Yes, created by God.

- Did God create everything? - a professor asked.

“Yes, sir,” replied the student.

The professor asked :

- If God created everything, then God created evil, since it exists. And according to the principle that our deeds define ourselves, then God is evil.

The student became silent after hearing such an answer. The professor was very pleased with himself.

 He boasted to students for proving once again that faith in God is a myth.

Another student raised his hand and said:

- Can I ask you a question, professor?

"Of course," replied the professor.

A student got up and asked:

- Professor, is cold a thing?

- What kind of question? Of course it exists. Have you ever been cold?

Students laughed at the young man's question. The young man answered:

- Actually, sir, cold doesn't exist. According to the laws of physics, what we consider cold is actually the absence of heat. A person or object can be studied on whether it has or transmits energy.

Absolute zero (-460 degrees Fahrenheit) is a complete absence of heat. All matter becomes inert and unable to react at this temperature. Cold does not exist. We created this word to describe what we feel in the absence of heat.

A student continued:

- Professor, does darkness exist?

— Of course it exists.

- You're wrong again, sir. Darkness also does not exist. Darkness is actually the absence of light. We can study the light but not the darkness. We can use Newton's prism to spread white light across multiple colors and explore the different wavelengths of each color. You can't measure darkness. A simple ray of light can break into the world of darkness and illuminate it. How can you tell how dark a certain space is? You measure how much light is presented. Isn't it so? Darkness is a term man uses to describe what happens in the absence of light.

In the end, the young man asked the professor:

- Sir, does evil exist?

This time it was uncertain, the professor answered:

- Of course, as I said before. We see him every day. Cruelty, numerous crimes and violence throughout the world. These examples are nothing but a manifestation of evil.

To this, the student answered:

- Evil does not exist, sir, or at least it does not exist for itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is like darkness and cold—a man-made word to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is not faith or love, which exist as light and warmth. Evil is the result of the absence of Divine love in the human heart. It’s the kind of cold that comes when there is no heat, or the kind of darkness that comes when there’s no light.

William James Roop

Roop-Crappell Ministries

Hospice Care and Dying

The Trucking Tango

Brother Roop teaches the Bible

God's Trust

Hello everyone.  Praise the Lord!

Faith and trust oftentime goes hand in hand.  It is certainly the case for the Lord.

GOD'S TRUST

God loves everyone the same, but He trusts people differently.

This trust isn't based on random choice but is built over time through our obedience during trials and tests. 

He might put us in positions smaller than our potential, just like Joseph, or He might allow us to face jealousy, false accusations, and rejection.

But one thing remains true: God cannot trust you until He tests you.

When we face trials and temptations, remember that God is watching, not to catch us failing, but hoping to see us stand firm so He can trust us with more.

William James Roop

Roop-Crappell Ministries

Hospice Care and Dying

The Trucking Tango

The Way Into The Holiest

 Hello everyone.  Praise the Lord!

Here is an article that was first published in 1906 in the Azusa Street Newsletter, written by William J. Seymour, published by the Apostolic Faith Mission in Los Angeles, California.

A sinner comes to the Lord all wrapped up in sin and darkness.  He cannot make consecration because he is dead.  The life has to be put into us before we can present any life to the Lord.  He must get justified by faith.

There is a Lamb, without spot and blemish slain before God, for him, And when he repents toward God for his sins, the Lord has mercy on him for Christ's sake, and puts eternal life in his soul, pardoning him of his sins, washing away his guilty pollutions, and he stands before God justified as if he had never sinned.

Then there remains that old original sin in him, for which he is not responsible, till he has the light.  He hears that, "Jesus, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered without the gate,"  and he comes to be sanctified.

There is Jesus, the Lamb without blemish, on the altar.  Jesus takes that soul that has eternal life in it and presents it to God for thorough purging and cleansing from all original and Adamic sin. And Jesus, the Son of God, cleanses him from all sin, and he is made every whit whole, sanctified and holy.

Now he is on the altar ready for the fire of God to fall, which is the baptism of the Holy Ghost.  It is a free gift upon the sanctified, cleansed heart.  The fire remains there continually burning in the holiness of God. 

 Why?  Because he is sanctified and holy and on the altar continually.  He stays there and the great Shekina of glory is continually burning and filling with heavenly light.

William James Roop

Roop-Crappell Ministries

Hospice Care and Dying

The Trucking Tango

Repentance of Abimelech

Hello everyone. Praise the Lord!

 Abraham and Abimelech and the Power of Repentance

Genesis 20

The mighty hand of God had come in judgment by raining sulfur on the tribal cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. The people in those cities were completely given over to the worst kinds of sin and evil behavior. God had agreed not to judge the cities if ten righteous people could be found in them, and not even that was possible. Imagine what it was like to look down on the plains of Sodom and Gomorrah and see the devastation…the thick smoke rolling up into the sky, the stench of sulfur carried on the wind. The people of Sodom and Gomorrah would no longer be allowed to commit evil and violence against each other and pollute God’s world with their sin.  

Abraham moved his clan to a place called Negev and settled near the city of Gerar. Once again, as he had in Egypt, Abraham feared that men would treat him badly when they saw the beauty of his wife (see Story 21). In a world with no television or internet, with no pictures or magazines or forms of entertainment that we have become used to, the presence of a beautiful woman was a very powerful thing, and rare. Abraham was aware of her effect when she walked in a room, and how it might spark the envy of every man in it. It felt dangerous. Once again, in order to protect himself, Abraham put Sarah at risk. He explained to the people of Gerar that Sarah was his sister. Instead of being a source of envy, Abraham had turned himself into the brother that could give his beautiful sister away in marriage.  

The plan backfired, just as it had in Egypt. When the king of Gerar saw Sarah, he wanted her for his own. And why not? She was the sister of the wealthy traveler who had come to his region to live. He did not understand that he was in danger of violating another man’s wife. And so, caught in his lie, Abraham handed Sarah over.

Imagine what it was like to be Sarah at that moment. Did she feel betrayed, once again, by her cowardly husband? Afraid of what this unknown king might do to her? Insulted that her life was being treated with so little worth?

What was it like for Abraham, to give his wife over, not knowing what was going to happen to her, but so full of fear that he let it happen anyway? Abraham had spent many years refusing to give in to the corrupt customs of all the tribes around him. In his commitment to God’s covenant, he had refused to take more wives in order to have children. He had lived by faith that God would provide. But now he was putting all of that at risk. Sarah was the chosen wife of God’s covenant with Abraham, and yet he was handing her over to the arms of this new king.

It is not as if he had no other choices. What else could he have done? He could have gone somewhere else…he could have admitted his deception…he could have repented and apologized…he could have trusted God in the first place.

Even though Abraham was unfaithful, God would would show himself to be utterly faithful. The Lord would stand in resolute commitment to His covenant promises. The chaos created by humanity because of our weakness cannot thwart the strength of God in our history. 

The Lord came to King Abimelech and warned him in a dream. He said, “‘You are as good as dead because of the woman you have taken; she is a married woman.’” Abimelech hadn’t touched Sarah, so he asked God, “‘Lord, will you destroy an innocent nation? Did he not say to me, ‘She is my sister,’ and didn’t she also say, ‘He is my brother’? I have done this with a clear conscience and clean hands.’” 

God replied, “‘Yes, I know you did this with a clear conscience. That is why I did not let you touch her. Now return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you will live. But if you do not return her, you may be sure that you and all yours will die.’” Wow.  

Isn’t it interesting that God protected Abimelech from sin? Apparently, he stopped Abimelech from committing the sin in the first place, and then he came to warn him and give him a chance to take another road. Isn't it fascinating that it was because God knew Abimelech was innocent in his heart? God understands the complexities of life in a very messed up and complex human world. He sees clearly through the confusion of life around us. We don't see a harsh, legalist God here. He stakes his judgment on the condition of our hearts and the nature of our intentions.

What would Abimelech do now?

The Bible makes sure we know that the very next morning, bright and early, without hesitation, Abimelech brought together all of his officials and told them about his dream. His obedience to God was immediate. He didn't wait a few days. He didn't forget or disregard the voice of God because it came in the form of the dream. And when he told his officials, he explained in a way that made them take it seriously, too. It filled them with fear. They each had a reverence for this God who had come to their king. Their counsel led Abimelech to take action.

Abimelech called for Abraham and asked, “‘What have you done to us? How have I wronged you that you have brought such great guilt upon me and my kingdom? You have done things to me that should not be done.’” 

Abimelech and his people had a high and godly view of marriage. The thought of violating the marriage covenant between Abraham and Sarah was horrifying. How could Abraham have been so quick to give his wife away?

When we look at the role Abraham plays in human history, it is stunning. Abraham was the great patriarch, the man with whom God made his mighty covenant to change the world. Later on in the Bible, Abraham would be described as the great man of faith that all believers can look back to as an example of how to live before God (See Isaiah 51:1-3, Hebrews 11:8-12, and Romans 4). He would be famous for his faith for thousands of years across three of the world's major religions. In fact, he could be said to be the first founder of all three. (He was father of Judaism, which is the parent faith of Christianity and Islam.) Yet in this story, as a normal man facing peril, he is righteously rebuked by a common tribal king for his lack of faith.

Abraham explained to Abimelech that he didn’t think Abimelech’s people feared the LORD. He said that he was afraid that they would kill him to get to Sarah. He told how he asked Sarah to show her love to him by telling everyone that he was her brother.

This was partly true. Sarah was the daughter of Abraham’s father, but they had different mothers. In those days, marriage within a family was a way of protecting and providing for their children.

Abraham was admitting that he had lacked faith. He didn’t trust that God would watch over and protect him. .

Abimelech returned Sarah to Abraham. In some ways, he was more protective of Sarah than Abraham had been. Then he gave Abraham sheep and cattle, male and female slaves, and he offered Abraham his first choice of his lands. He could live wherever he wanted in Gerah.  

And for Sarah, he gave a thousand shekels of silver to Abraham for the offense of taking his wife into his harem. That was an extravagant amount of wealth. It was enough to pay a hundred laborers to work for an entire year. Sarah was well vindicated for this terrible violation of her safety and dignity.

How greatly Abraham had misjudged Abimelech, as well as God. Abimelech and his men feared the LORD and listened when God came in a dream. They responded immediately with repentant obedience and went out of their way to lavishly make things right. They are a beautiful model of what true repentance looks like.

It interesting to compare how different these people were from the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. There is a reason that these stories are put right next to each other in scripture. We are meant to compare them and look at the way God responded to each. The comparison is meant to highlight important things about what draws God's judgment or favor...it is meant to display the goodness of His ways when dealing with a wayward humanity and to teach us how we are to come to Him for right relationship.

The nation of Sodom (which was probably more like what we would consider a large village in our time) had become so corrupt that when two strangers came to visit their city, the men of the city laid siege to the home where they were staying and demanded their right to rape them. That was considered normal and acceptable. Imagine the horrors of every day life there...the violence, abuse, and toxic immorality...of such a place. What those men did not understand was that these two visitors were actually the angels of God. They had come to warn Abraham's nephew to leave the city before they brought God's fiery, cleansing judgment against a despicable culture that had plunged the entire community in utter, irreversible bondage to deeply evil beliefs and patterns of behavior.

But that story wasn't Abraham's first encounter with the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. In fact, he had already saved their lives. Long before that story Abraham had already rescued the people of Sodom and Gomorrah after they had been defeated by a foreign army (see Genesis 14). Even though he had put his own life and the lives of his men at risk for them, they tried to demand that he give them the booty from the war. According to the rules of that time, the booty belonged to Abraham. The booty was considered the proper reward for risking battle and winning. It was a form of despicable ungratefulness and greed for the people of Sodom and Gomorrah to try to take from the man that saved them.

The hardness of their hearts was already so complete that when God brought them a savior, they had no vision for repentance. They could have seen the higher ways of Abraham and the strength it gave him to conquer kings. They could have witnessed the honorable and godly relationship between Abraham and Melchizedek, the great priest of Salem, and been humbled by their dignity. God had intervened in their lives with his servants, and it was an opportunity for them to change. They rejected that opportunity, and ultimately, it led to their total destruction.

Abimelech and his officials did not make that mistake. When God showed up, they repented. They honored the God of Abraham, altered their behavior, and were saved from judgment.

Just as the Lord said, Abraham prayed for Abimelech and his household. Isn’t it interesting that in spite of his sin, God used Abraham to be a part of the solution? God had placed some form of curse on Abimelech's household. His wife and the women of his slave girls could not have children. God heard Abraham’s pray and the household of Abimelech was healed. In the process, God restored not only Abimelech's people, but the dignity and position of Abraham as the man of God's choosing.

The faith of Abraham had failed. When we see the heart of this godly man in the middle of his fears, it is easier to understand that he was very much a normal human. All of his great, courageous acts and steadfast, ongoing faithfulness were done by a man who also feared death and longed for peace. His failure in this story highlights the fact that in all of the other stories, Abraham was also having to make hard decisions in the quietness of his heart...he was having to choose faith instead of fear.

God knew about all of those hundreds of silent decisions to trust Him, and He had grace and protection for Abraham when he failed.

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William James Roop, M.A.B.S.

Roop-Crappell Ministries

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Hospice Care and Dying

The Trucking Tango

Drew's Meeting With God

Hello everyone. Praise the Lord!

I was offloading my one and only load for the day, at Goodman Manufacturing. I deliver to them all of their Freon, that they use for the factory for the manufacturing of their air conditioners.

Drew and I were talking, well mostly Drew was talking. Drew is a middle ages white guy who is about anti-government as they come! They told me a story about his encounter with God. This happened years ago when he was twenty-seven years old, he is about fifty today. 

He testified to me, "I got up early in the morning my wife was still asleep, so I got up and made coffee, and went out into the garage. That's when I heard the voice of God. It was a very soothing voice, but at the same time, very authoritative."

He started talking to Drew and Carrie not a conversation. At this time Drew was a very conservative Christian. So he was wanting to discern the spirit. So he said that this is a false spirit! "I rebuke it in the name of Jesus Christ," he proclaimed!

The voice said, "I cannot rebuke myself." So Drew was convinced this was the voice of God! This voice told him that he would be a teacher later in life. Drew said this was his first and only supernatural experience with God.

William James Roop

Roop-Crappell Ministries

Hospice Care and Dying

The Trucking Tango

Apostolic Theological Seminary

Oh My God, It's A Baby!

Hello everyone.  Praise the Lord!

Elysia Laub, a nine-year-old from Indiana, was playing in the backyard when she heard some noises. At first, she assumed it was one of her family’s pigs that had escaped.

Then she looked closer and screamed!

Naturally, her mother came running to see what was going on.

“It just freaked me out, I didn’t know what it was,” she told CBS 2’s Brad Edwards in 2016.

Her mother, Heidi Laub, explained that it was a newborn baby with the placenta and umbilical chord still attached.

“That’s when she was like, ‘Oh my God, it’s a baby,’ and I was like, ‘What?!” Elysia recalled.

“I just saw pink legs kicking away,” Elysia said. “I knew it was alive and I knew we had something. I could not second guess myself. I knew we had to get help.”

Authorities at the Lake County Sheriff’s office believed the baby was less than a day old. Sheriff John Buncich later called Elysia the child’s “guardian angel."

The baby suffered from sun exposure, but was expected to be fine not long after being taken to St. Anthony’s Hospital for treatment.

“I didn’t do this myself,” Elysia said. “Somebody helped me — God. He put me in that place.”

“If I wasn’t there and God didn’t tell my brain – if my brain didn’t make me go over there, we would find a dead baby in the yard this afternoon,” Elysia said. “It would be much worse and much different.”

The officers are taking care of the newborn as one of their own and, for now, the baby has Elysia to thank for getting a second chance at life.

This was an article I had found on the internet. It is free to reproduce and share.  If you enjoy these stories, you can follow this blog and enjoy all of them. If you have any comments, please share them in the comments section.

William James Roop

Roop-Crappell Ministries

Hospice Care and Dying

The Trucking Tango

Apostolic Theological Seminary

Bible Verse Melted In Steel

Hello everyone.  Praise the Lord!

Here's a story I found on the internet that I thought you would find interesting. The story was originally written by Kelsey Straeter, but heavily edited by the author of this blog.

Bible Verse Melted to Steel

We’ve all heard it said that the Word of God is mighty, all-powerful and everlasting. In 2 Timothy 3:16-17, Paul asserts that the Bible is “God-breathed,” meaning God had a hand in everything that was written in it, and God still speaks actively to people as they read the Bible today. But when horrific tragedy hits in instances like what happened to the World Trade Center on 9/11, many find it difficult to hold firm to that Truth. Even as Christians, we often question how is it that a loving God would allow such evil and mass chaos?

Though we may lack the understanding of God’s ways in extracting beauty from this broken world, it is quite awe-inspiring when He sends us an undeniable message of hope amidst the devastation. Times like these remind us that the Bible is a living Word.

Such was the case when one firefighter was sifting through the rubble on Ground Zero after the 9/11 attacks on the twin towers. In March of 2002, he was with a crew sorting through the rubble and remnants of the south tower, when he made an unthinkable discovery: a Bible fused to a chunk of steel. Strangely, pages from this 9/11 Bible remained, and the page the Bible was open to was particularly interesting.

In shock, the firefighter immediately brought the treasure to Joel Meyerowitz, who was the photographer assigned to work on Ground Zero for nine months. He, too, was there in the South Tower, looking through the rubble, seeking artifacts to archive that might tell the story of the people and their experience during the 9/11 attack.

“This shredded, burned and rubble-covered Bible came to me from the loving hands of a fireman who knew that I was the record keeper of ground zero,” said the photographer, according to a report by The New York Times.

Meyerowitz, the author of “Aftermath: World Trade Center Archive“, was totally speechless when his eyes fell upon the Bible verse exposed on the surface of what he called “heart-shaped” Bible fused to steel.

Of all the books, chapters, and verses in the Bible, the Bible was open to the book of Matthew, revealing Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and specifically a section titled “Retaliation” was Matthew 5:38-39:

“Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.” Matthew 5:38-39.

“My astonishment at seeing the page that the Bible was open to made me realize that the Bible’s message survives throughout time,” said Joel. “And in every era we interpret its teachings freshly, as the occasion demands.”

It totally mesmerizes me that amidst the burning destruction of 9/11 and the remaining rubble, this fragile yet powerful piece of parchment was able to endure and send a lasting message to us all:

Our fleshly nature urges us to repay evil for evil, but God calls us to press on in forgiveness and love, while leaving vengeance to Him.

Today, the National 9/11 Memorial Museum holds this 9/11 Bible, which Meyerowitz gave to the museum along with other findings from the rubble at Ground Zero, and it has been viewed by religious leaders, such as Pope Francis.

What an amazing God-breathed message for us all to remember in regard to the 9/11 attacks on the twin towers, and all of life’s tragedies that we may face… May the words from this 9/11 Bible be seared on our hearts as securely as this page was fused to steel. May the message make us consider our actions when we face hardships so that we respond lovingly, as Jesus would. It's a shame we did not take this message to heart. We could have avoided the long war in Afghanistan, and the expenditure of a lot of treasure over the last twenty years!

William James Roop

 Roop-Crappell Ministries 

 Hospice Volunteer Stories 

 The Trucking Tango 

 Apostolic Theological Seminary 

Time Gap Principle

Hello everyone.  Praise the Lord!

Time -Gap Principle

             This is where in certain verses or between verses in Scripture there is a gap in time from a few days or even up to thousands of years.  If we have a long gap in time in Scripture it is important to understand that this is happening.  Sometimes this time gap is mentioned, but sometimes it is not mentioned.

            This principle is not to be underestimated by the Bible student, it is one demonstrated by Jesus Christ Himself in the use of Isaiah 61:1-2 in Luke 4:17-21.

             Nehemiah 2:8-9: “And a letter…And the king granted me, according to the good hand of my God upon me.  Then I came to the governors beyond the river….”

             Isaiah 9:6-7: “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder…. “The first part of verse six in about the incarnation of Jesus Christ.  Then time jumps more than two-thousand years to when Jesus Christ will actually rule the earth for a thousand years on the Throne of David in the New Jerusalem.  At that time the government will be upon His shoulders.

             Isaiah 61:1-2: “To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God…. “Verse one and the first half of verse two, is about Jesus Christ and his ministry here on earth.  Whereas, the last part of verse two jumps ahead more than two-thousand years when Jesus shall return a second time to judge and reap vengeance on the world as He takes His saints away.  So, this comma separates a gap of more than two-thousand years.  We know this because Jesus Christ Himself proclaimed this in the beginning of His ministry as recorded by Luke in his Gospel (Luke 4:16-21).  Jesus reads this verse and a half then closes the book.  The rest of chapter sixty-one of Isaiah will be fulfilled later.

            Daniel 9:24-27: “…And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week…. “These were not weeks of days, but of weeks of years.  Of the seventy weeks of years (490 years), sixty-nine were from the seventh year of the Persian king Artaxerxes the first in 457 B.C. to the crucifixion.  The last week (7 years) has to do with the restoration of Israel.  Two-thousand years later this still has not happened.  So, in verse twenty-six just after the Messiah is “cut off” we have a gap of about two-thousand years.  We can read about this further in book of Revelation chapters ten and eleven.

            Hosea 1:4. God: commanded Jehu to judge the house of Ahab for his wickedness (2 Kings 10).  He did this, but he was much to severe and now God will judge the house of Jehu and cease the kingdom of Israel.  From the death of Jehu and the taking of Israel by the Assyrians is about forty years.  So, the last part of verse four has a forty-year gap in it.

            Luke 2:40: “And the child grew….”  This describes Jesus growing up from a baby to about twelve years old.  So we have about a twelve year time jump.

             Luke 2:52: “And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature….”  This time jump takes Jesus from about twelve years old to thirty years old, about eighteen years.

             Acts 1:8: “…ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. “Here God commands His disciples to preach to the whole world.  They finally do, but this transitional period lasted about ten years before the first Gentiles were saved in Acts chapter ten.

             Acts 9:6: “…go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do. “Jesus tells Paul to arise and go into the city.  We must realize that Paul was not outside the walls of Damascus, but he was still three-days from the city.  There is a three-day gap in time before the story picks up and Paul is healed.

             Acts 9:23: “And after that many days were fulfilled. “Three years passed between 9:22-23.  This event is recorded in Galatians 1:15-18 and also in Second Corinthians 11:32-33.  While Luke did not record it, he did leave room for it.

             Acts 9:43: “…he tarried many days in Joppa…. “Peter did not return to Lydda, but stayed in Joppa possibly as long as one year.

             Acts 11:26: “…a whole year….” We should understand that this one verse spans one year of time.

            Acts 13-14:  This first missionary journey reads very fast but we should keep in mind it lasted about two years!

            Acts 14:28: “And there they abode long time with the disciples.”  Between missionary journeys they stayed the city of Antioch in Syria and ministered for quite some time, maybe several years.  During this delay the conference in Jerusalem in chapter fifteen takes place.

            Acts 15:36-18:22: This second missionary journey of Paul, which was much more extensive than the first one, spanned a period of three to four years.

            Acts 18:11: “…a year and six months…. “This verse is important, it tells us that Paul was in this city for a year and a half.  This was a long time just in this one city.  If we read the book of Acts to quickly it will seem as if Paul is just moving along, but he did not constantly move, but did make long stops to teach.

             Acts 18:23: “And after he had spent some time there….”  There is a gap in time when Paul rests and ministers in Antioch in Syria.  Most scholars seem to agree Paul stayed about three years in Antioch during this time.

            Acts 18:23-21:16:   This third missionary journey was Paul’s longest trip and probably lasted about four to five years.

            Acts 19:8-10: “…three months….”  Paul spent three whole months in just one synagogue preaching Christ before he was forced to leave.  “…space of two years… “In verse ten we see that Paul did not leave the city but instead preached in the school of Tyrannus daily for two more years.  Church history says that the Ephesians worked in the morning and did their resting from eleven in the morning to four in the afternoon.  Paul probably preached during this time.

             1 Peter 1:10-11: “…searching what, or what manner of time… “The prophets of old did not understand that the Messiah would humble Himself on the cross to provide God’s grace we enjoy today.  They did not understand there would be a gap of more than two-thousand years until fulfillment.

William J. Roop, M.A.B.S.

www.hospiceministryvolunteer.blogspot.com

www.atseminary.com

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Three-Fold Principle

Hello everyone.  Praise the Lord!

Three-Fold Principle

             This is one way that God sets forth truth and highlights certain points of His Truth in a Three-Fold manner.  A misunderstanding of this principle has led to the false doctrine of a trinity of God’s nature.  This principle is actually, instead, an example of the fullness of God’s Word.

            Salvation:  We are saved from sin in a three-fold manner. This was all accomplished at Calvary by Jesus Christ.

            1.  The penalty of sin.  Are past has been justified by the Blood of Christ. The penalty of sin no longer applies to the Christian because Jesus Christ has laid all of our sin upon Himself, “He was wounded for our transgressions.”  God knows that we can never get right with God on our own; the Law of Moses has proven his for all to see.  So He provided the Cross!  We are saved from the wrath of God (John 3:36; Romans 1:8; 3:23).

             2. The power of sin.  We have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the present dispensation (Acts 2).  God knows that we are too weak to walk with Him. The Holy Spirit can keep us free from the bondage of sin that we were once confined (Romans 7:15).

            3.  The presence of sin.  In the future we will be transformed into the likeness of Jesus Christ.  God knows that our sin-nature body is not acceptable to Him.  Are immortal bodies in Glory will not be in the presence of sin that we currently live (Romans 6:23).

            The Three-Fold Work of Jesus Christ:  God shows man the work of Jesus Christ consistently in a three-fold way.

        1.  Titus 2:11-13: “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation…Teaching us…Looking for…”.  In Titus 2:11-13 we have a snap shot of the three-fold work of Jesus Christ. We can see the Cross which is in the past. Jesus is still today teaching us to walk righteously.  We also have the hope of His return.

              2 Corinthians 1:10:  Who delivered us…doth deliver…he will yet deliver….”  In 2 Corinthians. 1:10 we have the same message but compacted into only one verse.  “Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver. “

            3.  1 Thessalonians 1:3:  Remembering…hope in our Lord…in the sight of God…. “In 1 Thessalonians 1:3 it is also compacted in only one verse. “Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father.”

             Jesus’ Resurrection:  In order to prepare us for the coming Resurrection, Jesus raises three different people from the dead during His ministry.  This is to show His followers that resurrection from the dead is indeed possible.

             1.  Widows son- Luke 7:11-17.

            2.  Ruler’s daughter- Matthew 9:18-25.

            3.  Lazarus- John 11.

            The Great Supper- Luke 14:16-24:  In a Three-Fold manner this refers to the successive ministries connected with the invitations to “the great supper.”

            1. “A certain man” sends “his servant” to those who had been previously “bidden.”  This was Peter’s first ministry (Acts 2-7).

            2.  The “master of the house” sends him again to “the streets and lanes of the city.”  This is Peter’s second ministry (Acts 10-12).

            3.  Then “the lord” send out another servant to “the highways and hedges,” This is Paul’s ministry to the great Gentile world (Acts 13-28).

       Scripture Highlighting:  It has always been a custom among man, even in American society, that if we want to emphasize something, we simply repeat it.  And most commonly we repeat it three times.  This is how the ancients emphasized anything they wanted to bring to attention.  Today’s English language we have punctuation to make our words stand out.  Ancient Hebrew and Greek did not have punctuation, so the repeated a word, words, or a sentence to stress its importance.  This literary technique should not be used in numerology or proving the existence of a trinity in the Godhead.  It was never intended for that.  Here are some examples of the use of this technique.

             1.  Isaiah 6:3. “And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts:  the whole earth is full of his glory.”

             2.  Revelation 1:8. “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.”

            3.  Revelation 4:8. “And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within:  and they rest not day and night, saying Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.”

            4.  Revelation 22:11. “He that is unjust, let him be unjust still:  and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still:  and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still:  and he that is holy, let him be holy still.”

            5. Revelation 22:13. “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.”

            God has had three relationships to man:  God has dealt with mankind in three different ways.  The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  This is not to be confused with a trinity, which was an invention that occurred over the centuries.  God has dealt with man in three separate relationships in order to do His will.  There is only one God, but He has related to us in three different forms.

        1.  Father.  Jesus is Yahweh.  Many Old Testament statements by or about Yahweh (Jehovah)are specifically fulfilled in Jesus (Isaiah 40:3,5; 45:23; 52:6; Jeremiah 23:5-6; Zechariah 11:12; 12:10; John 8:58; Philippians 2:9-11).[1]

            2.  Son.  Jesus Christ is the one God incarnate.  “In him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily “(Colossians 2:9).  “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself” (2 Corinthians 5:19).  Jesus accepted Thomas’s confession of Him as “my Lord and my God” (John 20:28-29).  And many other Scriptural passages reveal the identity of Jesus as God.  (Isaiah 7:14; 9:6; 35:4-6 with Matthew 11:1-6; Micah 5:2; Matthew 1:23; Acts 20:28; Romans 9:5; 2 Corinthians 4:4; Colossians 1:15; 1 Timothy 3:16; Titus 2:13; Hebrews 1:2; 2 Peter 1:1; 1 John 5:20).[2]

             3.  Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is literally the Spirit that was in Jesus Christ.  “The Lord is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:17, NKJV). (See also John 14:17-18; 16:7.)  The New Testament ascribes the following works both to Jesus and to the Holy Spirit:  moving the prophet of old, resurrection of Christ’s body, work as the Paraclete, giving of words to believers in time of persecution, intercession, sanctification, and indwelling of believers.[3]

            Three heavenly places:  God has created three separate places.  Heaven, Hell and the Earth.  All three will change according to the age, but there will always be three.

            1.  Heaven.  All parts of the Spirit realm occupied by the Angelic and the redeemed.

            2.  Hell.  All parts of the Spirit realm occupied by Satan and demons and wicked men.

            3.  Earth.  The physical world in which we live in today that we can touch, feel and see.

            The Three-Fold “opening” that Jesus Christ gave to two disciples on the road to Emmaus: 

1.        They experienced open eyes. “And their eyes were opened, and they knew him...”  (Luke 24:31).

2.       They heard the open Scriptures.  “...and while he opened to us the scriptures?” (Luke 24: 32).

3.       They had opened their understanding. “Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures,” (Luke 24:45).

Jesus warns Peter of his three denial's:  Jesus Christ at the Last Supper warns Peter that he will deny him three times before the rooster crows.  “And he said, I tell thee Peter, the cock shall not crow this day, before that thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me.  (Luke 22:34).  This was fulfilled in verse fifty! 

Peter's rejection of unclean animals:  The Apostle Peter had received a vision of unclean animals on a large sheet that descended from heaven.  Peter heard a voice that said to kill and eat.  Peter rejected this commandment three times.

            “But Peter said, not so, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.”  (Acts 10: 14).

            “And the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.”  (Acts 10:15).

            “This was done thrice:  and the vessel was received up again into heaven.”  (Acts 10: 16).

             Three ethnic divisions: The Bible is a book about three different groups of people that make up the world.  The Jews, Gentiles, and the Church.  We must always know to whom God is addressing while studying Scripture.

1.  Jew.  Jewish people descendants of Abraham.

2.  Gentile.  All non-Jews who are not part of the Church.

3.  Church.  Jew and Gentile believers in Jesus Christ as the Messiah, forming one unified body.

             The Revelation given to John:  In order to understand the end of times and the book of Revelation we need to understand and keep in mind the Three-fold Principle.  Here are some examples.

             David’s Son:  Jesus Christ, David’s Son, was to have a three-fold role.

            1.  Priest.  He was not to be a priest like the Levites, but instead after the order of Melchizedek.  David was not a priest, nor could he ever be one since he was of the tribe of Judah.  Jesus Christ would be a priest, but a different kind of one, an eternal priest.

            2.  King.  Jesus Christ is King of King and Lord of Lords.

            3.  God.  Jesus Christ was and is God wrapped in flesh who has redeemed all of mankind.

            The Three Applications of the Seven Letters:  Jesus Christ told the Apostle John to write letters to the seven churches in Revelation 2-3.  These letters have a threefold application.

            1.  They apply to the actual churches they were addressed to.

            2.  They apply to churches in general.

            3.  They have a prophetic history of the entire Church age.  The Church age will last two-thousand years, from the time of Christ’s crucifixion to the rapture of the Church.

            The Three Roles of Jesus in Revelation:  In the book of Revelation, Jesus Christ will play three different roles.

            1.  King.  John seen Jesus Christ in heaven sitting on the throne as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  We read this in Revelation 4:2. Here God is showing us that He is ruler of the universe and is in control of all that is happening.

            2.  Lamb.  In Revelation 5 we see Him as the Lamb slain for the sins of mankind.  His purposes the Lamb was to open the seals revealing God’s judgment on the world.  As King sitting on the throne, or as the Lion of Judah, He cannot do this, but as the Lamb of God, slain and sacrificed as our “Passover” (1 Corinthians 5:7), He both can and does.

             3.  Lion.  As the Lion of Judah Jesus plays the role of judge.  A defender of His Jewish and Christian children.  A destroyer of the wicked, and the eternal judge of Satan and all of mankind.

            The Kingdom of the Son:  The coming Kingdom of Jesus Christ will be set up in a three-fold way.

            1.  Decent.  The Kingdom will begin by the descent of the Lord from heaven to the mount of Olives, splitting it in half.

            2.  Judgment.  Jesus Christ will come the second time as judge, and He shall judge the whole world.

            3.  Rule.  Jesus Christ will rule the entire world from New Jerusalem.

            The Kingdom:  The Kingdom of God here on earth will have a three-fold aspect.

            1.  The second coming of Jesus Christ will mark the beginning of His Kingdom on this earth. Psalms 96:9-10; 98:9.

            2.  He will rule over the nation of Israel, the Jews, God’s chosen people.  Psalm 78:8-11.

            3.  Jesus Christ will have rule over the entire world.  Psalm 78:8-11.

            Distress:  In the days of Jesus, it was customary for Jews to pray the same prayer three times.  A good example of this is found in Matthew 26:36-44 where Jesus was in distress and prayed three times, “O my Father, if this cup….”

            God’s Calling:  God revealed to Jeremiah that God called him in a three-fold manner in Jeremiah 1:5. “…I knew thee…I sanctified thee…I ordained thee….”

             God revealed through the apostle Paul that God calls us in a three-fold manner in Galatians 1:15-16.  “…who separated me…and called me…that I might preach Him….”

             Christian Life:  Paul seems to say in Philippians 3:10-11 that there is a three-fold aspect to the Christian life.  “That I may know Him…fellowship of His sufferings…attain unto the resurrection….”  First, the learning of Christ and His Word soon after salvation.  Second, enduring persecution that always follows a public conversion.  Third, a hope of resurrection to heaven after death.

[1] David K. Bernard.  The Oneness view of Jesus Christ.  Word Aflame Press, Hazelwood, MO.  P. 13.

[2] Ibid. p. 12.

[3] Ibid. ps. 13-14.

William J. Roop, M.A.B.S.

www.hospiceministryvolunteer.blogspot.com

www.atseminary.com

website