Seven Biblical Mysteries Unveiled!: (Revisiting Theology You Thought Was Settled)

By Larry E. Ford

In the development of Christian theology through the centuries, it has been generally believed that the theology of the Bible has been settled. That would be possible if there was only one true church and everyone in it believed and practiced Pauls description in Ephesians 4:316in effect, the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God. However, over thirty-two thousand opposing, contradictory Christian denominations misrepresent the unity that God desires for those who should worship Him in spirit and in truth (John 4:2324). The objective in presenting the seven biblical mysteries is to focus the readers attention on the difference between what appears to be settled theology and what Gods Word actually teaches us. The difference between the two should encourage the reader to rethink traditional views and to study the Bible in more depth with the hope and expectation that God will reveal the meanings of His mysteries in his or her faith.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Nov 12, 2015
• ISBN: 9781512719017

Larry E. Ford

Larry E. Ford lives in rural southwest Georgia. In God: Accused or Defended? he delivers a potent, spiritually challenging message with a fresh dose of straight talk and plain truth. Fifty years in the ministry, undergraduate degrees in German and theology, post-graduate degrees in theology and educational administration, a professional certification in English/literature, and eighteen years’ experience in the building trades make him more than qualified to deliver this inspiring message. Ford formally incorporated The Seventh Day Christian Assembly (a non-Adventist organization) in 1994. During the past twenty years, he has written a considerable offering of Christian educational outreach materials which he has offered free to the general public. You may find it on the church’s website, theseventhdaychristianassembly.org. These materials include a twelve-lesson Bible study course and a quarterly magazine, Spirit and Truth. Ever the optimist about growing the size and influence of his ministry, he continues to write books that challenge readers to understand God’s truth and increase their faith in it.

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Copyright © 2015 Larry E. Ford.

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ISBN: 978-1-5127-1902-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-1903-1 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-1901-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015918668

WestBow Press rev. date: 11/12/2015

CONTENTS

Foreword

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1 The Secret Mysteries

Chapter 2 The Parable of the Four Environments

Chapter 3 The Parable of the Tares among the Wheat

Chapter 4 The Parable of the Mustard Seed

Chapter 5 The Parable of the Leavening

Chapter 6 The Mystery of God’s Will

Chapter 7 The Mystery of The Faith

Chapter 8 The Mystery of Iniquity

Chapter 9 The Mystery of the Kingdom of God

Chapter 10 The Mystery of Christ

Chapter 11 The Mystery of the Gospel

Chapter 12 The Completion of the Mystery of God

Afterword

About the Author:

Bibliography

Other works by the author: …And God Remembered Babylon… (Vantage Press, Inc., NY; 2002; ISBN #: 0-533-14290-3) [A limited number are available from the author at tsdca.hughes.net]; God: Accused or Defended? (WestBow Press, Bloomington, IN; 2015); ISBN #s: 978-1-4908-7667-2 (softcover), 978-1-4908-7668-9 (hardcover), 978-1-4908-7666-5 (e-book); Seven Biblical Mysteries Unveiled! (WestBow Press, Bloomington, IN; 2015; ISBN #s: 978-1-5127-1902-4 (softcover), 978-1-5127-1903-1 (hardcover), 978-1-5127-1901-7 (e-book).

Scriptures in this work are quoted from the King James Version of the Bible, unless otherwise noted. The author changes terms like thee, thou, thine, and other 17th Century expressions to more modern terms.

Other versions of the Bible used in this work are: The American Standard Version, The Anchor Bible, Barclay’s Daily Study Bible, The Interpreter’s Bible, The Jerusalem Bible, The Living Bible, Martin Luther’s Die Heilige Schrift, The Modern Language Bible, James Moffatt’s The Bible: A New Translation, Nave’s Topical Bible, The New International Version, and The Revised Standard Version.

Unless otherwise stated, all definitions for Greek terms are from the Bauer-Arndt-Gingrich Greek-English Lexicon, and all definitions for Hebrew terms are from the Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew-English Lexicon.

I

dedicate this book to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob who has opened my mind to His mysteries and given me the gift of communicating those mysteries to those whom He wishes to call into this most important work on the face of the earth.

When He called me to this ministry, I had no idea where it would lead or what specific responsibilities I would have in preaching and teaching His good news. After 50 years of experience, I feel specially privileged to have been called to serve Him and our Christ in the various ways I have served.

Eternal Father, may I have the epiphany of Job, who said: I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear: but now my eye sees you. And, as David said: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my Strength and my Redeemer. Amen.

Simply consider your own call, brothers; not many of you were wise, humanly speaking, not many mighty, not many noble, but God has chosen the world’s foolish things to put to shame the learned; and God has chosen the weak in the world to shame the strong. God also has chosen the world’s insignificant and despised people and nobodies in order to bring to nothing those who amount to something, so that nobody may boast in the presence of God (1 Cor. 1:26-29; MLB).

FOREWORD

I t is a strange thing that God has not chosen to reveal His truth to everyone who ventures to read it. Frankly, most people would be shocked that anyone would even make such a statement because they will walk away believing that they have learned something. How could God take such an approach if His interest is to save us? This is what is properly referred to as a paradox : a statement that appears at face value to be contradictory or false, but is, nevertheless, true. In general, people do not handle paradoxes very well because they do not like being fooled or led astray. Yet, God warns us in His word that there is such a thing that seems right , but leads to death (Prov. 14:12). That is an apt description of how a paradox works.

Let this be demonstrated by a few examples from God’s word. Lexicons and other reference books cite almost 100 scriptures that deal specifically with spiritual blindness. A sampling will suffice to make the point intended. Most of the references point the attentive reader to the basic, underlying reasons why the spiritual blindness has been imposed upon the spiritually deaf and blind. Carefully read these few examples and see if you can discern the reasons.

Read the specific statement in Deuteronomy 29:4. Why had the Lord God withheld understanding from Israel? Now, read the entire chapter. What was the problem? Self-righteousness. Is self-righteousness religious? In most cases. Whom does self-righteousness really worship? God or self? Now read a description of Israel in Deuteronomy 32:28. Why was Israel void of understanding to the point of not knowing how to get out of the messes into which they continually fell? Now read the entire chapter. What was their problem? In Judges 16:20, why did Samson not know that God had departed from him? Read the entire story. Now read Judges 21:25. What is the problem?

Read the following scriptures and try to explain them to yourself:

Proverbs 4:19: The way of the wicked is darkness: they do not know at what they stumble (KJV).

Proverbs 17:16: It is senseless to pay tuition to educate a rebel who has no heart for truth (Living Bible).

Proverbs 19:3: When a man’s folly brings his way to ruin, his heart rages against the Lord (RSV).

Isaiah 56:10: His watchmen are blind; they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber (KJV).

Romans 1:21: When they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, neither were they thankful; but they became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened (KJV with author’s paraphrase).

Are you getting the picture yet? Some of the blindness is self-imposed; some of the blindness is imposed by God due to human self-righteousness and wickedness. Such is the basis for Paul’s comment in 1 Corinthians 1:26-29 about not many being presently called out to understand. If God were to reveal His truth to the foolish of the world, and they continued to pursue their own ideas and sinful ways, it appears that He would be forced to utterly destroy them. Why? There would be no true repentance, no reason to give them the gift of the Holy Spirit, and no reason to give them eternal life as long as they continued to pursue the mixture of the knowledge of good and evil embedded in their minds and hearts. They would waste (be prodigal with) a valuable resource from God.

That is part of Larry Ford’s straight talk and plain truth approach to explaining God’s word. There is no sugar coating or warm and fuzzies. He presents God’s word rightly divided—not colored by denominational traditions and syncretization (mixing and mingling God’s word with things that patently oppose it; see Deut. 12:29-32 and Jer. 10:1-15). He challenges his audience to think long and hard about the simplicity of God’s truth.

At the outset of getting involved with the contents of this book, make room for earnest prayer and meditation about what you will read. Set your mind and heart to be in touch with the God and Father of Jesus Christ and boldly request that He will open your understanding to these most important mysteries. Be willing to repent of self-righteousness and to receive God’s righteousness. Don’t merely settle for doing what’s right in your own sight. This knowledge is precious in God’s sight.

PREFACE

I n the early 2000s, when the discussion about same-sex unions and whether gays could be ordained into the ministry was heating up, a well-known religious leader in San Diego said that Church action on the two issues was premature because there is not sufficiently settled theology about such things. Yet, there are numerous theological questions about Christian orthodoxy that go unanswered because the average participant in mainstream Christianity believes that the theology involved has been settled for centuries. Why, then, is it necessary to open up a theological discussion about things that are supposedly settled?

It has been shown in the past few years that there exist more than 32,000 Christian denominations. One would think that such a thing would be impossible if the theological questions had been settled. The explosion of Christian denominations, however, is proof that such is not the case. The reason is simple: Each individual denomination has its own point-of-view about what the Bible teaches and what the Bible means. There are some significant reasons why such a condition exists—scripturally revealed reasons on which few focus.

James Smart, former Professor of Biblical Interpretation at Union Theological Seminary (New York), expresses very well the situation in which we find ourselves under such circumstances:

We become dogmatic that what we see and hear [in Scriptures] is what everyone should be seeing and hearing. …Each interpreter has tended to identify what he has found in Scripture directly with the content of Scripture itself and attribute to the interpretation the same authority that he assigns to the Scriptures. The interpretation then becomes a veil drawn over the surface of the text preventing the text from saying anything that would contradict the interpretation (James Smart, The Strange Silence of the Bible in the Church; Philadelphia: The Westminster Press; 1970; pp. 56, 57; emphases added).

Smart goes on to explain that those involved in such practice attach the same infallibility to the interpretation as they do to the scriptures—thereby, making it blasphemy against God to contradict the interpretation. In the bargain, the interpreter and those who follow him in such practices become severely afflicted with [spiritual] deafness (see Matt. 13:10-17).

When I was a young, neophyte minister during the late 1960s, who had not yet completed any formal ministerial training, I became increasingly aware of various doctrinal issues, within the denomination with which I was associated, with which I increasingly came to disagree. I had entered a new, unsheltered world of religious thought. The lack of awareness about broader, more intricate theological issues was there because I had been raised under a certain theological paradigm in which any consideration of error or contradiction regarding the scriptural understanding I was taught at home and in church was rarely ever voiced. Whatever my parents and the church denomination to which we belonged taught me was basically inviolable. So, whatever their errors and contradictions in faith were, they became mine (read Matt. 15:1-9 to understand the dangers of religious traditions).

Because it would have been difficult for me to preach and teach the things that I was coming to truly believe due to the amount and depth of study in which I became involved, I concluded that I should disavow my denominational ordination and find a group with whom I had more in common. There was no thought of leaving the Christian ministry, but there was the concern that continual problems in congregations of that denomination would arise if I pressed the issues. My ability to serve them as a minister would be greatly diminished. Why would I want to cause them problems over such personal doctrinal issues?

The reason for this decision was based on the historical, distinctive belief among that denomination called the competency of the soul in matters of religion, (Herschel H. Hobbs, The Baptist Faith and Message; Nashville: Convention Press; 1971; p. 8), which, like Luther’s concept of the individual priesthood of the believer, posits that every man shall be free to decide for himself in matters of religion (Ibid; p. 9). Each congregation in that denomination is autonomous of all other congregations and any central authority or hierarchy. Each believer is autonomous of all other believers. Generally speaking, each congregation agrees to cooperate with the Convention, and each individual believer agrees to live in harmony with the prevailing belief structure of the local congregation, even though they might disagree with the prevailing belief structure on different levels. If anyone shows himself to be contrary to the prevailing beliefs of the local congregation, he can be disinvited from that fellowship. He might be able to find another congregation within that denomination with whom he can satisfactorily fellowship.

As an older, fellow minister in that denomination put it to me in a private conversation in 1968: When you graduate from Seminary and get your first pastorate, you will have to be careful about trying to preach and teach what you learn in the Seminary. You have to conform your teaching and preaching to what the locals accept. Of course, this left me wondering what was so dangerous about the instruction in the denomination’s Seminaries. Add to that the idea that some of those Seminaries are considered to be fundamentalists, some conservatives, and some liberals, and you have a ready-made minefield to navigate.

So, while they claim to adhere to the concept that every believer is a priest under Jesus Christ and has the right to read and interpret the scriptures for himself as the Holy Spirit leads him, their error in that orthodoxy is exposed in the existence of 32,000+ different denominations. Why? One would think that the influence of the one Holy Spirit would cause greater unity with regard to scriptural orthodoxy (see John 10:30; 17:11-23). How can such diversity of orthodoxy achieve the intended unity? In other words, the orthodoxy would be determined by God Himself … not by any given individual human.

When I disavowed my ordination at the beginning of 1970, I sent the church that ordained me a lengthy letter detailing the various doctrines with which I disagreed. I expected that I would get a reply that would contain some kind of justification for why they had rejected the doctrines I now espoused. Instead, I got a terse reply that read: All well-trained ministers have had similar doctrinal concerns at one time or another, but they have settled their hearts concerning them. What does all of this prove? Did the well-trained ministers prove their personal conclusions to be true or, did they simply conform to the prevailing denominational theological paradigm rather than take up the implied necessary discussion about the differences involved? And, how do well-trained ministers differ from the not-so-well-trained ministers under the influence of the one Holy Spirit?

It proves that there are numerous issues about scriptural orthodoxy that remain unsettled; yet those issues are treated as though they long since have been settled. If Christians are called by the same God to believe in the same Jesus Christ and to be indwelt by the same Holy Spirit, why should there be such a diversity of competing, contradicting doctrines? Read Ephesians 4:1-16 to understand, at the least, what the influence of the Holy Spirit is to achieve.

Here is another twist to the situation. During my experiences as a young, neophyte minister (1966-1969), I did quite a bit of what was called supply preaching. I went to various churches that did not have a minister or the minister was away on business or ill or they were looking for a minister. I was a substitute minister. I was in college without any visible means of support (like many of my fellow ministerial friends) and used such opportunities to get experience and to earn a very modest income.

I was ordained in February of 1967 after a church that met twice monthly asked me to become their pastor. During my undergraduate college years, I became the pastor of a couple of part-time churches, so supply preaching enabled me to earn additional money to live on while I pursued my college education. It also gave me an opportunity to experience the various theological paths that the local autonomy of that denomination’s congregations could take. The experience instilled in me the unforgettable lesson of the difference that differences make. Some of the assignments involved the possibility of being considered for a more full-time pastorate. Knowing this ahead of time, I was aware of the need to strike a balance in what I presented in the sermon material. But, I was surprised that the sermon material and the delivery were not always what prevented me from being offered the job. There were, in fact, other underlying theological paradigms and orthodoxies with which I was unfamiliar.

In one case, they seemed to be impressed with the sermon material, but they would not call me as pastor because I used notes. In another, the material was also praised, but I could not be their pastor because I wore a moustache. In yet another, it was because I presented special music accompanied by a guitar. Finally, the sermon material, the special music, and my work with the youth of the church over a few weeks were highly praised, but I was considered to be too young (I was almost 23, married, and a college graduate, and this, like the others, was a small church way out in the country on a dirt road—not First Baptist in a large town setting). All of these things were beyond any overt theological issues. Apparently, however, there must have been some underlying relationship to an orthodox theological paradigm that I did not understand.

If ancient Israel played the harp, sackbut, drums, tambourines, trumpets and cornets in the Temple in worship of God (especially on the holy days), why couldn’t I play a more modern instrument in a worship service? Read, for example, Psalms 81:1-4 and 98:4-9 to note the use of the timbrel (different types of drums), harps, and trumpets in Israel’s holy day services.

If the Bible is a written document that is read in worship services, why couldn’t I use notes during my sermon to guide my stream of thought? Is it beyond God’s will and power to inspire people during their sermon planning if they write down their thoughts? Must I stand in the pulpit with one ear cocked toward heaven as if I’m waiting for a holy voice to tell me what to say?

If Jesus wore a beard, why couldn’t I wear a moustache? If Samuel and David were called of God when they were children, what does youth have to do with preventing someone from being used by God? Being able to prepare for such unforeseen issues would have been very difficult for a young, neophyte minister—even if he had been well-trained. In fact, those issues seem rather trite when compared to the greater theological issues then and now.

Let me end with this quote from Dr. Smart:

Many preachers today feel themselves trapped and imprisoned in an intolerable situation in regard to the Bible. They are bound by their vows and their [denominational] tradition to a book that is more of a burden to them than an infinite resource (Smart; p. 29).

This is part of the problem experienced in using the knowledge gained in the Seminary for lessons in the local church. Even then, well-trained ministers are inextricably tied to religious traditions within their denominations … even when those traditions oppose God’s truth.

Therefore, the objective of this book is to investigate seven key biblical mysteries to see if we can gain greater understanding of God’s will and plan in order to determine if God’s revelation demonstrates through these mysteries how God Himself has already settled the theological issues that linger and cause nominal Christianity to be so terribly divided and at such cross purposes with itself. It is not my objective to analyze all of the theological paradigms available. Whatever you presently understand, compare it to what is revealed to you in this study and make up your mind about the difference. If I can assist in lifting the veil so you can understand God’s truth more clearly, then I join Isaiah in his volunteer effort to be used by God to do so.

The studies are footnoted in text so that you can research for yourself both the secular and biblical references I use. Please read them as you come to them because some contain extra, pertinent information. This is a study book, not a read-for-pleasure-or-devotion book. Please enjoy this spiritual experience.

May the God of truth bless you with eyes that see and ears that hear. I hope this book, which is very much Christ-centered and scripturally-based, enables you to move your theological paradigm to be centered on God’s thoughts and ways rather than on man’s traditional religious beliefs and practices. Remember that you are working on the answer to Amos’ question in Amos 3:3 about whether or not two can walk together without being in agreement. Agreement between people of differing opinions about God’s truth is much more difficult than doing so with people with whom you are in spiritual unity in God’s truth.

Larry E. Ford, Pastor

The Seventh Day Christian Assembly, Inc.

4929 Ga. Hwy. 33 South

Doerun, GA 31744

www.theseventhdaychristianassembly.org

www.larryeford.org

INTRODUCTION

M y objective in this study is to employ an approach to the unfolding of the thesis that demonstrates clarity, reason, proof, and understanding. The reader will be presented a reasonable argument about and a definite distinction drawn between God’s revelation in scripture and man’s theological traditions and wisdom that are supposedly drawn from those same scriptures. The seven mysteries that I will be unveiling in this book are central to understanding God’s will and God’s orthodoxy about the establishment of the Kingdom of God on the earth. This is the most important message that God has revealed to mankind because it is the root and core of all other beliefs derived from scripture . Why? Because God’s plan to establish this Kingdom pre-dates the creation of the orderly universe and is, therefore, the pillar and ground of true faith, salvation, grace, mercy, and any other belief about who God is and what He is up to in relationship to mankind .

Fact will be stacked upon fact and scripture upon scripture in order to give you every advantage for understanding why each conclusion is drawn as it is. Please be aware that this type of study requires an unhurried and carefully thought-out approach to get at the core—the trunk of the tree—of the arguments and