E
epouraniois
Guest
I would really like to talk about 2 things. Each of which are much more than incredibly huge subjects. Much More.One is the instruction to try the things that are different, and the other would be the subject of what is a better resurrection. We might do well to ask, better than what? Is there something different that we might need to really pay some attention to? The apostle says there is, and that we do.This, I feel, must be preempted by historical fact. In the CB we find, in app. 180, a chronology of the the books, or epistles, written after Christ resurrected. We are keen to know about the historical order of the OT, while at the same time seemingly unawares of the order of the NT writings. This is a mistake we make without conscious acknowledgment. An important oversight to be sure. This oversight is, in fact and in practice, a crusher.Are you aware that the apostle was given to write seven more epistles after the period covered by the Acts find Israel unable to obtain? Now, I am not much of a mathematician, but I know that, in math, when we add a parenthesis, (), we are adding an additional factor that changes the equation, and after all those letters written during the Acts (when the kingdom hope for Israel was active) we are given some information by the risen Christ through His chosen vessel Paul, a parenthesis concerning the time that now is. Biblically, this parenthetical time-frame is called the times of the gentiles (be fulfilled), and also called, the fullness of times.These are easily followed by looking up the words 'but now'. Something was such and such a way, but now...The apostle goes to great lengths to say he is emphatically NOW revealing something new, something God hid from ages and from generations - something God had hid in Himself (and not in the Bible); even calling this new doctrine and new practice a new creation. The apostle testifies that he is now a prisoner for the hope of you gentiles. And he explains all this in detail. Paul says these things are untrackable, meaning, they are not in the OT, that there are no tracks of this revelation to be discoverd. Indeed, the apostle does not, because he cannot, quote the OT when revealing what he is told to call 'the mystery', wherein the apostle writes of this in his 'prison epistles', all written after Acts concludes, being Eph, Col, Ph'p, and 2nd Tim. The other three written after Acts are of a personal nature and do not really have so much of doctrine and practice in them as do the four just given.In the Greek, we have two possible renderings of this verse ~Phi 1:10 That ye may approve {try/as in testing} things that are excellent {that differ}; that ye may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ; This verse echoes another ~2Ti 2:15 Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Paul has been praying here (Phi 1:9), that your love may abound yet more and more, but in a very specific way. First, the apostle prays that your love may abound yet more and more in acknowledgment (the Gr. = 'in acknowledgment', not 'in knowledge'), then adds to this acknowledgment, that your love may abound more and more in all judgment. For what cause? That your love might have a continual abounding in all acknowledgment and and in all judgment so that you may be able to try the things that are different, "that ye may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ". This goes to the apostles acknowledgment that some things are different, are better, are more excellent, and that there are things which must be rightly divided to the intent that you might be found a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Studying (Gr. = earnestly endeavoring) to show thyself approved unto God, being tied into the above from 2Tim2.15 and Proverbs, teaching that we are not to be leaning on our own understanding, but trusting the Lord to direct His own paths, our acknowledgment of the paths which He has cut straight. So there are most definitely things that the Lord has made differences of, and we are to rightly divide them by acknowledging where the Lord has cut them, trying the things that are different, approving of the things that are more excellent.The book written to the Hebrews has the mark of 'better running throughout. What are these things that are more excellent, what is a better resurrection? All these things and more are included in that which must be rightly divided, in those things which can be easily found when we try the things that are different.Many will say that things are the same as they always have been, that there is no difference. To these folks, I would ask in vain for a list of verses showing what it is that is the same, the subject being what is the same during the Acts compared to that which was revealed after Acts. It will be a short list to be sure. But Paul does not instruct us to list the things that are the same, rather, the apostle writes that we list the things that are different. This then, must be the better way. * ‘The earth’ (Matt. 5:5)The Kingdom* ‘Jerusalem which is above’ (Gal. 4:26)The Bride* ‘In heavenly places’ (Eph. 1:3)The Body