Things In The Bible That You Ought To Know By Now

By Bill Gaughan

Do you desire a passion for God's Word? A passion like you feel you should have, like you always wanted to have, like you used to have? If the answer is yes, then this book is for you. I've written this book for the average Joe and Joanne, people just like you and me, who don't have a theology degree or a professional ministry position but do have a desire to be able to understand and appreciate God's Word and develop a habit of honoring it daily. The topics in this book are actually lessons from my small group that I have had the privilege of leading for many years. My hope and prayer is that this enriches you, speaks life to you, and that the Holy Spirit would "open the eyes of your heart" to fall in love with God's love letter to you. You will find twenty-four chapters on topics that I believe are central to the Christian faith and that are ideal for your own devotional time or even to use as a guide for you-yes, you-to teach to a small group or cell group. Simple in presentation, yet profound in impact.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Feb 8, 2018
• ISBN: 9781640798540

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Things In The Bible That You Ought

To Know By Now

Ignite Your Passion For God's Word

Bill Gaughan

ISBN 978-1-64079-853-3 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-64079-854-0 (digital)

Copyright © 2017 by Bill Gaughan

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the NIV version of the Bible. Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version. NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James Version. All emphasis added to Scripture citations comes from the author.

Printed in the United States of America

Dedicated to the memory and legacy of my great-grandma Ella Jane Maxson (1886–1984), who couldn’t see very well so thought I was the most handsome boy ever. Who couldn’t hear very well so thought that I never said anything wrong. Who wasn’t very mobile so thought that I never did anything bad wherever I went. She only believed the best about me in spite of the reality of a broken, suicidal, desperately struggling young man. I knew that she loved me unconditionally, and somehow that helped me to hold on to a glimmer of hope that maybe God did too.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.

—Revelation 21:3–4

Foreword

There is an oval-shaped wooden table in the breakfast nook of my kitchen. It was once the table of my grandparents. As a five-year-old girl, I remember walking up the steep garage stairs into the kitchen and the table was the first thing to greet me. I barely came to the top of its wide surface and would have to hike myself up in one of the matching chairs to see the Bible lesson set at my place. My older brother and sister would sit in their respective chairs, finding their lessons, and then we’d wait.

My grandmother Nannie would already be making preparations for our lunch to be ready by eleven. We’d sit there salivating at what treats she had in store after our Bible study was completed. She’d come to the head of the oval table, look out the sunny bay window, and then bow her head to pray. This is where the breaking of bread happened, literally and figuratively. It was where my soul was fed and nourished before I even understood what a soul was. It was where my body was fed and nourished by the most amazing Southern cooking. It was where my character was molded, my heart grew in understanding and compassion for others, and most importantly, where I learned of a God who loved me not just because the Bible tells me so but because He truly does.

For me, that brown oval table is a symbol of this experience. What was once a tree was broken and reformed so I could come to it and be broken and reformed for His glory. My Nannie was at the helm of guiding this experience through topical studies and scripture memory. She’d ask us questions, challenge us to not only understand the content but to put it in our hearts so we wouldn’t depart from it, even long after we left that table. The stories and concepts sometimes didn’t make sense, but week after week, year after year, it started to. The timelines formed in my head, context grew around the characters, and I moved from a shallow understanding to a depth that now moves me to tears because God does truly love me.

This book reminds me of my time at the brown oval table my Nannie had prepared before I even arrived every Tuesday morning. Like a great teacher at the head of the table, who is not only there to start the lesson but has been there for a great time prior preparing this lesson for you, Bill has studied, researched, and prayed over these pages in hopes that they bring you, dear reader, closer to the understanding that yes, Jesus loves you, truly, because the Bible tells us so.

Through the many months I read and volleyed with Bill on the first drafts of this book, I was amazed. Having grown up at the table of my Nannie, raised in the Christian church, and taught Sunday school for over fourteen years, I never knew the detail and significance of the Old Testament stories and how they were deliberate glimpses of my Savior to come in the pages of the New Testament. Bill took me on a tour through places and events, people and pieces that were the precursor to what I benefit from greatly today—the love of Jesus Christ and His death and resurrection to bring me life anew. Not because I deserved it, but because He loves me.

But like my Nannie, Bill can only set it all in front of you. Fill your plate with the goodness of God’s love, history, intentionality, brilliance, and perfect order. Then it is up to you to break, eat, and consume the Word of God Almighty. For He wants to fill your spirit with hope and understanding, so that the life you now live may be filled with joy.

I challenge you, dear reader, to claim your seat at this table. To be moved by the wondrous intentionality of God. To laugh at the dry humor Bill brings to this unique table of learning and to make exciting, jubilant conclusions as you learn. I know for a fact you will learn much from these chapters. The context will form around characters and events you might’ve known for years, but details and intentionality of God will be revealed that I doubt you ever knew. But thankfully, Bill will serve it up in a colorful bowl, in his unique way, and you’ll be coming back for seconds!

Charity Mack

Acknowledgments

I am indebted to my pastors, Eric and Becky Watt, leaders of RUN (Reaching Unreached Nations), for their relentless and continual challenge to do whatever can be done to fulfill Matthew 28:19–20—be it around the corner or around the globe. I am so thankful for my wife, Sheri, and teenage children who graciously made space for me over the countless hours and many months that it took to pull this project together. I want to thank my dear friends Charity Mack, MA International Politics, and PO1 Adam Harrison, USCG, for pushing me to the finish line when I was at the point that I didn’t think it was possible to complete this work. Most special thanks to my cherished small group at Greenbrier Church, Chesapeake, Virginia, who covered this project with earnest prayer, which, without a doubt, made all the difference.

Introduction

Do you desire a passion for God’s Word? A passion like you feel you should have, like you always wanted to have, like you used to have? If the answer is yes, then this book is for you. I’ve written this book for the average Joe and Joanne, people just like you and me who don’t have a theology degree or a professional ministry position but do have a desire to be able to understand and appreciate God’s Word and develop a habit of honoring it daily. The topics in this book are actually lessons from my small group that I have had the privilege of leading for many years. My hope and prayer is that this enriches you, speaks life to you, and that the Holy Spirit would open the eyes of your heart to fall in love with God’s love letter to you.

Since we are living in this astonishingly interconnected age, everything in this book should be common knowledge among believers, things that we as Christians all ought to know by now. Whether you have been a Christian for a short time or for most of your life, these things shouldn’t be shockingly new. They are just the basics—basic yet massively profound and life changing, as God’s Word has always been.

Sadly, there appears to be such a scarcity of teaching about the Bible in our churches that I am compelled to bring together some of my favorite observations from the Word of God. Yes, there’s a whole lot of mentioning of the Bible going on, from pulpits to small groups, Sunday school to university auditoriums, but much of it presumes an understanding of the basics. Since so few Christians are aware of the basics, much of the teaching and preaching just goes into one ear and out the other. All too often, the rituals, ceremonies, and traditions that we in the Christian Church have, from the great cathedrals to the strip-mall store-front congregations, are performed religiously yet without much thought or even understanding as to why they are done the way they are or even done at all.

If you are looking for some fabulous new revelation from God, well, nothing here should be that brand spanking new. Most of it is ancient. If you are looking for deep hermeneutical exhortations from the Word, well, sorry, that’s for the Bible scholars, professors, and intellectuals to present. This book is just a collection of things that I have learned from the many pastors, teachers, authors, and people in my life who love God and His Word. I reserve the right to claim that a thing or two may be my own original revelation, but most likely, I have just forgotten who I heard it from.

In the book of Hebrews 5 verse 12, the writer exhorts the readers that it’s time to move on from the elementary principles of God’s Word. Whoa! I don’t even dare to claim to have much of a clue about such elementary matters. I’m not there yet! This book is about things much simpler than these doctrines. The author of Hebrews was speaking such that he was shocked that his readers did not grasp these principles, obviously assuming that they had already mastered the even more elementary principles! If those things are considered baby’s milk, then I don’t know what to label this book as. Maybe just water, but, I assure you, it’s living water, and you will benefit mightily.

I believe that the Bible in many ways explains itself. Yes, I realize what a dangerous statement that is. I am certainly aware of how, throughout the ages, kooks and self-seekers have taken Scripture, perverted it in so many ways to the detriment of millions, if not billions, of truth seekers. Yet I believe that there are principles in the Bible that are incredibly consistent from Genesis 1 to Revelation 21. I’m talking about things that are constant, continual, consistent throughout the Word. If it means one thing in one place, then it pretty much means the same in another—different applications, different eras, different cultures, but essentially the same truth, that is exhibited in a myriad of ways. God ever hoping to get it’s meaning through our thick skulls.

I’ve met too many Christians that are on fire for God and then, six months later, hear about some problem they have been caught up in because the fire apparently wasn’t burning so hot any more. My passion and purpose of this book is to help instill a few of the really basic basics of Christianity in peoples’ lives so that once the fire gets lit and a foundation of truth is laid, there will be such stability in peoples’ lives that the fire will burn eternally! I’m saddened that there is such a lack of biblical knowledge in our day, because the Bible in many ways is so simple to understand, but I guess someone has to come along every now and then and shine a light on things that we ought to know by now.

On the other hand, maybe it’s not a lack of good biblical teaching or a lack of resources. Maybe it’s a lack of appetite. We all know that having a hamburger and french fries is a terrible choice for a lunch—well, every now and then is fine, but how many of us instead will choose a plate of leafy greens and a handful of nuts for lunch? Eugene Peterson recently wrote in his memoir about his first days of being a pastor. He looked forward to serving a congregation that would have a passion and hunger for God’s Word, yet he found that while his thoughts had been consumed for most of his life on God’s Word, his congregants kept emotional and mental company with television celebrities and star athletes. I was reading Karl Barth and John Calvin; they were reading Ann Landers and People magazine.¹

I doubt that you have ever driven through a really nice neighborhood and made statements like, Wow, look at the foundation of that house, awesome! That foundation looks incredible! Sure wish I could meet the architect that designed the masterpiece under that mansion! The foundations of the world’s most incredible homes rarely get many raves and usually no attention whatsoever, but without an amazing foundation, whatever is built on top of it, no matter how much was spent on it, is at best in danger of collapse and, at worst, worthless. Why? Because whatever is built on an inferior, incomplete, or even nonexistent foundation has little chance of providing long-term refuge, benefit, or value. May I ask your permission to compare this to the Christian life? God’s grace is infinite, and though miracles are possible, it is rare that a person can live a successful, impactful Christian life without a solid grasp of the basics of our faith.

Remember in the book of James in the Bible, it talks about a man who lacks wisdom and is driven like the waves of the sea.² I don’t want to spend my life living like that! I want to make progress, move on from where I am today, become mature in my faith and impact the world, or at least my family, for the Kingdom of God. This is why it is so important to make sure that we have a firm understanding, or foundation, of what it means to be a Christian, what our faith is all about, where did it come from, who is Jesus, what is He up to?

My purpose and passion for writing this book is to help believers get a basic understanding of several consistent, biblical principles upon which we can base our faith, and from that foundation, begin to build a life that is pleasing, stable, and effective for the Kingdom of God.

I love God’s Word (now the scholars among you are thinking, "Is he talking about the Logos or the rhema?" Maybe we’ll get to the distinction later, but for now, I am talking about the Logos—the written Word of God, commonly known as the Bible). I don’t know where my desire came from, other than dare I say God Himself, but I first read the Bible from Genesis to the maps when I was about twelve years old. Given, I didn’t understand most of what I had read, though I did have an undeniable hunger to understand what it was about. In spite of my lack of understanding, I had a profound sense of the Bible’s practicality and even its transcendence. I never thought of it as too hard to understand or irrelevant to my life, or to life in general, in the twentieth and now the twenty-first century.

My simple desire is to share with you some of the things that have blessed me, in hopes that you too would have a basic comprehensive understanding of the most incredible manuscript that has ever been, and will ever be written. If you haven’t done so, do a little research about the uniqueness of the Bible before you continue further with this book. Josh McDowell, author of Evidence That Demands a Verdict, has written so much wonderful information on the subject.

To begin with, we’ll start at the beginning, Genesis 1:1. Well, actually, to get a good understanding about what God’s purpose was in the beginning, let’s jump to the end—the end of the world as we know it—the beginning of the culmination of history: And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.’³

Talk about consistency! We know that God is eternal, unchanging, constant. His personality, intents, methods, and purposes have never and will never change. His intents at the beginning of history are identical to His intents at the culmination of history. Since He knows the beginning from the end and the end from the beginning, we can see that God’s ultimate purpose, for us His people has always been, will always be, simply—hold on to your seats—to hang out with us.

Let’s get to work, beginning at the beginning, and let’s discuss these Things in the Bible That We Ought to Know by Now!

---

¹ Eugene H. Peterson, The Pastor: A Memoir (New York: HarperOne, 2011), 104.

² James 1:6

³ Revelation 21:3

Part I

Gathering the Tools

Chapter 1

In the Beginning

In the beginning, God created heaven and earth for the sole purpose to be with us. According to Scripture, God set us up in paradise and regularly came and spent time because He loves us that much. Like a friend who can’t wait to be together every day, God is that friend. But like many friendships, this one became complicated. Essentially, not too far into this beginning story, Adam and Eve chose a path that said they had no need for God. They were completely oblivious to the enormity of the chasm that had opened for all of us with that choice. Yet God was not deterred from His ultimate goal. He immediately set in motion the plan and path for those who are willing to get back in fellowship with Him. That is His ultimate purpose—to be with us, and the friendship is not lost if we want it.

Ask a number of people, and you will probably get a number of answers to the question, Why did God put us here? Many will undoubtedly say things like, To rule over us, To make us live for Him, To do His bidding, To suffer so that we can be like Him, To whack us if we do wrong, etc. None of these answers are even close to reality or close to the truth. Assuming you believe the Bible to be truth, then it isn’t difficult to believe the facts it presents. Early on, it clearly indicates that from the foundations of the earth, God’s purpose has always been and will always be to fellowship with us. The relationship unencumbered by anything whatsoever that would even remotely cause the slightest separation between us.

Revelation 21:3 says, "And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.’"

The Greek word for dwell is skene, which, according to Strong’s Concordance 4633, is a tent, booth, tabernacle, abode, dwelling, mansion, habitation (noun) and Strong’s 4637 I dwell as in a tent, encamp, have my tabernacle (verb). This means God’s tabernacle (noun) is now in the midst of His people, and God will tabernacle (verb) with them.

Let’s take a look at some remarkable things that Jesus said. In Luke 24:44, He said to them, This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms. Jesus said that it had been written about Him in the Old Testament. Undoubtedly, He was referring to the prophecies about the Messiah, but was that all?

In John 5:46, If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. Again, Jesus claims that it had been written thousands of years prior about Him. Here’s another: Hebrews 10:5–7, where the Scripture attributes the words of Psalm 40:7 to Jesus: Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: ‘Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased.’ Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—I have come to do your will, my God.’

This surely should pique your interest! The Bible says in more than one place that Jesus was written about in the Old Testament. Let’s delve into this claim.

I love how Kevin Conner begins his exhaustive study of Jesus in the Old Testament with the verse Proverbs 25:2. ⁴ In this book, we too will use this as the launching pad of our study. Proverbs 25:2: It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings. Wow, what a loaded sentence! Let’s break it down.

The first part, It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, implies that God has concealed matters deliberately. The Hebrew word cathar means to conceal, so I think it’s a good translation here. It doesn’t mean to obliterate or annihilate but to obscure, cover up, which implies that there is a possibility to uncover, reveal, or unconceal these matters. It doesn’t say it will be easy, though!

The second part states that it is the glory [another translation says honor] of kings to seek them out. I’m sure that a king’s or a queen’s or a president’s time is very limited, and there are surely many, many people who want some of their time all at the same time! So if the Bible says that it is to the glory of kings to spend some of their very precious time searching out the things that God has concealed in the Scripture, then it certainly behooves us mere peasants that we should devote some time to this potentially glorious pursuit.

Two other hugely important verses that Kevin Conner uses to set the stage for searching for concealed matters are 1 Corinthians 10:6 & 11 and 1 Corinthians 15:46–47. These two prominent keys help unlock a wealth of concealed matters in the Bible. Let’s look at the first.

First Corinthians 10:6: Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. Some background is needed. This verse refers to the Israelites after their exodus from Egypt and how they lost faith soon afterward. Even after witnessing the awesome power of God to deliver them out of slavery, they chose to forget His mighty works in their lives and reverted back to idolatrous, worthless behavior.

Paul writes that God made sure to include these stories in the Bible so that we, present day people, can use their mistakes as a warning for us to not repeat them. Now, I know that you probably won’t gather up your neighbor’s gold jewelry and form it into a golden calf, but there are certainly many other things that we have a tendency to create into idols in our lives.

To emphasize how massively important these things are, in just a few more verses, it says, These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come.⁵ Again the Scriptures state that we are the fortunate receivers of this strong admonition to avoid the same errors that led to those Israelites’ suffering and death. These things happened to them as examples.

The English word examples is translated from the Greek word tupos. The English word type originates from this Greek word also. Thus, examples and types have a close relationship. Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary has many definitions for type, but one that is relevant to our study is a person or thing [as in the Old Testament] believed to foreshadow another [as in the New Testament].

May I elaborate with my own paraphrased definition of type? A person, place, thing, or event that is symbolic of, or typical of, a person, place, thing or event that is anticipated to exist or occur sometime in the future. The opposite of type is antitype.

Let me give an example. If you come to me with architectural renderings in your hand, all giddy and excited, and say, Bill, here’s my dream house! I, being the smart aleck that I am, would respond, You’re going to live in a handful of papers? You would correct me by saying, "No, dummy, these are the blueprints of my dream house!"

I would then understand that the blueprints are a type of your dream house. They are symbolic plans of the dream house that you anticipate will exist sometime in the future. The blueprints are not the real house, only a representation that also carries a grand anticipation that it will in fact exist in the future.

The Old Testament is full of types. These types come in the form of people, places, and even things. Like a tree, for example, has a shadow. This would be the type. The shadow is not the real living tree, but it is an accurate representation and indicator of what’s to come. When the tree, the antitype, is then seen, it is much grander in its entirety than its symbolic shadow. God uses these natural, earthly examples, types, so that we can understand them with our five senses—sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste. Then as He reveals more, it isn’t as difficult to grasp with our spirit.

I believe that we live in at least a three-dimensional universe. Let me explain. This universe consists of three basic parallel planes, the physical, the intellectual, and the spiritual. Keep in mind that parallel planes, by definition, never intersect. In the physical realm, consisting of all matter, with our bodies and our five physical senses, we interact with the physical world. We move things, make things, see things, hear things, and taste things with our physical bodies. With our bodies, we interact with the physical world, and all the material things in the universe interact with each other on that plane. The physical plane is governed by all the natural laws of physics, chemistry, and math, and so on.

In the intellectual realm, or plane, the domain of the psyche, we interact with the intellectual plane of reason, logic, self-awareness, fear, trust, thoughts, ideas, hopes, dreams, love, creativity, hate, indifference, passion, and so on. We have all experienced all or part of this area, so it isn’t too hard to grasp.

The spiritual plane is where, obviously, we interact with the spiritual realm. This is where many start to feel uncomfortable, as it is less familiar. Since the fall, when Adam and Eve chose a life absent of God through a moment of rebellion in the Garden of Eden, Satan prevailed. A wall of infinite separation was erected between God and man. This is when, we, that is, mankind, began the descent into our almost complete inability to be aware of, to grasp, to sense, and to interact with the spiritual realm. Don’t think for a minute it’s because the spiritual realm no longer exists. It does! We still interact with it constantly, just as much as we interact with the physical and intellectual realms, but we are almost entirely unaware of it.

As a rule, these realms or planes do not interact or intersect, but on rare occasion they do. You cannot make a physical object move with your thoughts alone without some exertion of physical interaction; even though some people claim to be able to do this, they can offer no proof except some legerdemain. In spite of what some TV preachers say, you cannot have a miracle every day or purchase one for just a $9.99 donation to their ministry. Miracles do not occur regularly. If they did, they wouldn’t be called miracles! They would be called commonplace happenings. But sometimes the physical plane does intersect with the spiritual plane and something extraordinary happens. Sometimes the intellectual plane does intersect with the spiritual and God causes something amazing to happen. I believe that God is continually interacting with us, but in our fallen nature, we see, at best, as through a glass darkly.⁶

Since our spiritual senses have been so dulled by the weight of sin and separation from God, He, in His mercy, has chosen to help us understand those things on the spiritual plane—His kingdom, His personality, His ways, His plans—by first explaining or demonstrating them in terms that we as fallen humans can grasp.

I remember in my Liberty High School chemistry class, Mr. McDaniel held up a flimsy teaching device made of Styrofoam balls and sticks. And he proudly stated, This is an atom. I, being the smart aleck that I am, thought, That’s not an atom, that’s Styrofoam balls stuck on sticks!

I do get it now, though. What he was attempting to do was to try to help me get an understanding of the real thing. There is no way that he could have shown us the real deal; so with the resources that he had available, those things that we could actually see, hear, feel, taste and touch, he attempted to get the concept of what an atom is and how it interacts with the universe across.

The Bible is full of such models, representations, or types, where God is using things that we can get our brains around so that perhaps we could somehow begin to get an inkling of understanding of the real deal, as in 1 Corinthians 15:46, The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual.

This verse clearly shows God uses as His teaching method, first the natural, then the spiritual. What this means is that when He wants us to understand something about His ways or about something He is going to do, He first lays it out to us in models, representations, or types so that we can understand the point that He is trying to get across as to how things are done in the spiritual plane or realm.

Another of His revealed teaching methods can be found in my favorite translation of this verse, which comes from the King James in Isaiah 28:13, Precept upon precept, line upon line. In other words, when