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"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control; against such there is no law." (Gal. 5:22-23) |
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"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control; against such there is no law." (Gal. 5:22-23) |
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Recent Newsletters
April 2008 Newsletter APOSTOLIC THEOLOGY I have recently
[Mar.‘08] returned from Asia where I taught in pastors and leaders seminars
in The word theology comes from two Greek words: theos meaning God and logos meaning the word. Strictly speaking, theology
should be the study of the word of God. However extensive disciplines
and schools of theological thought have developed over the centuries
and most who attend The Scriptures
are complete! This was agreed upon at the beginning of the church age
and those responsible for the Canon of the New Testament received amazing
inspiration and confirmation by the Holy Spirit to carry out this very
important responsibility. It is fundamental for us to accept that Canon
of Scripture, both Old and New Testament, not adding to nor subtracting
from the written text. We must be very careful in giving our interpretations
of Scripture and teaching our ‘revelation’ of types and shadows in the
Old Testament. ‘In the beginning was the word, not an interpretation.’ THE BIBLE
IS THE WORD OF GOD “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God” 2Tim.3:16. “For prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” 2Pet.1:21. Fundamental
to our study of the word of God is the acceptance that the Bible is the word of God. There
is a denomination in Jesus overcame the temptations of the devil by knowing ‘what is written’ (Matt.4:1-11, Lu.4:1-14). Jesus makes it clear that the word of God is our judge (Jn.12:48). Jesus made it clear that He was not speaking His own word but the command of the Father, “What I should say and what I should speak. And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak” Jn.12:49-50. Paul is adamant
that we should “not think beyond what is written, that none
of you may be puffed up on behalf of one against the other” 1Cor.4:6.
Our only authority for faith and practice
is the word of God. As soon as we go beyond that, we have no reliable
“plumb line” to judge the reliability
of what is being shared. “For these seven
[referring to Holy Spirit]
rejoice to see the plumb line in the hand
of Zerubbabel. They are the eyes of the LORD, which scan to and fro
throughout the whole earth” Zech.4:10. Zerubbabel is a type
of the apostle; his task was to build the house of God. The primary
apostolic task is to build the house of God. The plumb line is “the word of YAHWEH to Zerubbabel” v.6.
Therefore we are to be judged and to judge all things by the word of
the Lord Jesus as it comes through His apostles (2Pet.3:2), and as the rhema [quickened word] comes to each one
of us. THE NEW
TESTAMENT IS FOUND IN THE OLD TESTAMENT; THE OLD
TESTAMENT IS FULFILLED IN THE NEW TESTAMENT “And beginning
at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures
the things concerning Himself” Lu.24:27. Jesus
only had Old Testament Scriptures as did the first apostles, but they
were able to preach the gospel powerfully from the Old Testament. “Then He said
to them, ‘These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still
with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the
Law of Moses and the Prophets and Psalms concerning Me.’ And He opened
their understanding that they might comprehend the Scriptures” Lu.24:44-45.
The key is to have our understanding opened. Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 1:17-18 is a key for us: ask
God for the spirit of wisdom and revelation and for our understanding
to be opened to know Christ in both New and Old Testaments. “For whatever
things were written before were written for our learning, that we through
the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope” Rom.15:4. “Now all these things happened to them as
examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends
of the ages have come” 1Cor. 10:11. The Old Testament Scriptures
are meant to instruct us in patience and comfort us, bringing us to
a living hope in Christ at the end of the age. “The gospel
of God which He promised through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures”
Rom.1:1-2. To
understand the gospel, we need to understand the teaching and promises
of God from the book of Genesis
to Malachi, and to see that those promises
and that teaching is fulfilled in the New Testament. Philip preached Jesus from the book of Isaiah (Acts 8:30-35). He preached so effectively
that the Ethiopian man asked for baptism immediately. The book of Hebrews is a marvellous interpretation
of the Old Testament, showing the fulfilment of the Old Testament in
Jesus Christ and therefore the Old Testament is fulfilled in the New.
TO COMPARE
SCRIPTURE WITH SCRIPTURE The teaching of the Bible on any particular subject is
the sum total of all that the Bible says about that subject. Through
the use of a Concordance we are able to do exhaustive studies of words,
characters, places and even themes in the Bible. We can find out what
the Bible says about a particular subject and preach and teach the word
of God with authority. The character of Enoch the son Jared is a simple example
of comparing Scripture with Scripture. Enoch is first mentioned in Genesis 5:18-24; then we have the interpretation
[fulfilment] in Hebrews 11:5-6,
and the only other mention is in Jude 14-15 where Enoch is shown to be
a prophet and having insight to the second coming of Christ. SCRIPTURE
INTERPRETS SCRIPTURE The temptation for Bible students is to rush to look up
commentators and what Bible scholars have said about the Scripture or
to simply believe doctrines that one has been taught that do not stand
the test of Scriptural authority or the true interpretation of Scripture
[this is called hermeneutics]. Some examples
of Scripture interpreting Scripture:
In Rev.1:20,
Jesus interprets the stars and the lampstands. Because of this interpretive
verse we can then understand the symbolism of the golden lampstand in
the Tabernacle of Moses, and in Zechariah
4, and we receive help to understand Revelation 11:4 which identifies the
two witnesses as “two lampstands”. In John3:5-6, Jesus interprets the water as flesh birth or natural birth. We need
no further interpretation of the water in this context! In Matthew 13
Jesus interprets the first two parables word by word. Therefore
we have in the Scripture the authoritative interpretation of those parables.
TEACH AND
INTERPRET SCRIPTURE IN CONTEXT Every verse of Scripture always appears in a passage so that is the first context;
every passage of Scripture is in a chapter; every chapter is in a book. Each book appears in a Testament and finally the complete context
is the whole Bible. Someone
has said: a text without a context
is a pretext! Every cultish teaching derived from the Bible comes
about by taking texts out of context to make a sectarian doctrine. An example of this context principle in the context of
the whole Bible is ‘the ministry of women’. Many have made the error
of taking 1Tim.2:12 as a
command that women must not teach men. Even the text itself speaks of
“a
woman” and is not speaking of women in general. In the context
of the passage the particular woman is likened to Eve who usurped her
husband’s position and led him to accept false teaching. In the context
of the chapter Paul has already given instructions to both men and women
to “pray, lifting up holy hands” (v.9-10). In other books written by Paul,
he refers to women ‘both praying
and prophesying’. No one has any objection to the woman of Samaria
witnessing to the men in her city (Jn.4), and God Himself chose Deborah
to be the Judge of Israel (Jud.4:4),
also a prophetess and ‘a mother in Israel’ (Jud.5:7). DO NOT MAJOR
ON MINOR SUBJECTS Paul told Timothy to “nor
give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather
than godly edification which is in faith” 1Tim.1:4. Many want
to argue and make laws about women’s head covering. In Paul’s discussion
in 1Cor.11:2-16, Paul finally says that
it is only a custom. We need to teach and preach
“all things that I have commanded you”
Matt.28:20. ASK YOUR
QUESTIONS OF SCRIPTURE AND WAIT FOR SCRIPTURAL ANSWERS For example in Habukkuk 2:1-3, the prophet wrote the
vision but then he had to wait for it to come to fulfilment. Some ‘end
time preachers’ have tended to use newspaper headlines and modern history
to answer Scriptural questions and believers have grasped onto such
ideas, convinced that it is Scriptural. Even Jesus told His disciples
that He did not know “the
day and the hour” (Matt.24:36). How much more care should
we take before we pronounce the interpretation of Biblical references
to what we call ‘end-time’ prophecy. IN THE GOSPELS
JESUS TELLS US WHAT TO DO IN THE BOOK
OF ACTS, THE APOSTLES SHOW US HOW TO DO IT IN THE EPISTLES
THE APOSTLES EXPLAIN OR TEACH WHY WE DO IT IN THE BOOK
OF REVELATION THERE IS THE FULFILMENT OF ALL THINGS IN MESSIAH JESUS. An example
is baptism. Jesus commanded baptism in Matthew 28:19 & Mark 16:16. The apostles obeyed Jesus
by baptising all who came to faith in Him. The apostles showed us how
to baptise in obedience to Jesus’ command. Jesus said to baptise “in
the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” Peter
commanded them “to be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ”
Acts 2:38. In In the Epistles we are taught the doctrine of baptism,
that is, the explanation or the reason why we are baptised, in Romans 6:3-14 and 1Peter 3:21-22. As for the fulfilment
in the book of Revelation
there is “a great multitude which no one could number
of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne
and before the Lamb” 7:9. Paul Galligan. CALENDAR April: Thur.24th - Sun. 27th
COMMUNITY WEEKEND at
Thurs. 24th – Fri. 25rd – 7pm – Worship/Seeking the Lord night
Sat.
26th - Training Day
at
Sun.27th - Community Sunday at 10.30 worship, communion, followed by fellowship lunch. Fri. 25th – Special training
Days 10am-4pm: Caboolture Mabel Puller, 54992131 May: Fri. 30th – Sun. 1st
June COMMUNITY WEEKEND
at Fri. 30th 7pm – Worship/Seeking the Lord night
Sat.
31st - Training Day
at sessions 10.30am – 4pm
Sun. 1st June - Community Sunday at 10.30 worship, communion, followed by fellowship lunch. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Overseas trips: May 14th Team transits to
MID Monday 30th
June – Friday 18th July 2008 [three weeks] Venue: For Pastors, Leaders and
those called to minister in the body of Christ Following our
January training school we made the decision to bring some changes to
our mid-year school. The length of the school has been extended to become
a three-week school, and the time-table each day will be less intense.
We plan to start each day at 10.30am with worship. There will be three
teaching sessions per day, finishing at 4pm. There will be no evening
sessions. We want to promote the opportunity for fellowship amongst
the attendees which can happen freely in homes in the evenings. There
is no charge for the school and attendees are welcome to come for one,
two or three weeks as they are able. For International brethren &
open to brethren in Tues.22nd - Fri.25th & Tues.
29th – Thurs.31st TRAINING
SCHOOL FOR CHILDREN & YOUTH, ages 4 to 13 Monday 7th
July to Friday 11th July ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ INTENSIVE DISCIPLESHIP TRAINING
On Tuesday 1st April we began a three week intensive
training school for a group of disciples who were available. The goal
is to immerse the brethren in the word of God so that they are better
equipped to go out in ministry. The disciples are expected to read the
Scriptures and pray for one hour at home and then there are sessions
at
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