The Contradiction Mystery Has Been Solved

By Brian Gibbons

For a long time now, there has been a great debate in Christendom as to what is required of a person by God to obtain salvation from him. Is it totally of grace, as some people say, or does it require works as well? Since the Bible seems to talk about both works and grace concerning salvation and since, according to Romans 11, that works and grace are the opposite of each other, it would appear that the Bible is contradicting itself. However, once you come to understand that there is a one true way to interpret the Holy Scriptures, which is one who lives in today's world has never seen before, then it opens up a whole new understanding as to what the Bible has to say concerning salvation, and that there is no contradiction. And once you know what God truly requires of his people, you can then live your life by this greater, more accurate knowledge to have the salvation of everlasting life given to you someday.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Sep 9, 2021
• ISBN: 9781098088514

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The Contradiction Mystery Has Been Solved

Brian Gibbons

Copyright © 2021 by Brian Gibbons

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.

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Table of Contents

Salvation of the Body Is by Works

The One, Two, and the Five Talents

The Spirit of the Law Is for Eternal Life

Introduction

There is a mystery in the Bible that no one has been able to explain until now. This has to do with the Bible saying in some parts of it that it is grace that brings a person salvation, whereas in other parts, it says good works is what brings salvation. Since grace is the opposite of doing works for salvation, it appears that the Bible is contradicting itself; however, I’ve solved this mystery of contradiction, and it is not the answer that the Baptists have that tries to explain this contradiction. Now don’t get me wrong. I was raised in two different Baptist churches, and so I consider them to be my spiritual brothers, and yet my brothers in Christ have allowed themselves to be lulled into a false sense of security by the way they interpret the Holy Scriptures. The Baptists always run to Ephesians 2:8–9 to say that it is grace alone that gives us salvation because that’s what they say the Bible says. Ephesians 2:8–9 (KJV) says, "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast." But when you ask them about James 2, where it talks about faith that is without works is dead, they then give an answer that doesn’t make any sense, such as it really doesn’t require works, it’s just the wrong way to think, or it is grace that saves you, but you must show your faith to others, and doing good works is how you show your faith to others. Neither one of these answers is the correct one. You either have to do good works, or you don’t have to do them for salvation. It cannot be both of those because that violates the law of noncontradiction: two things that are polar opposites cannot both be true at the same time when dealing with the same context, which is what the Baptists are trying to do in this situation.

However, the real reason why the Bible does not contradict itself is actually a fairly simple one although it took me years of research to figure out why. When you are born, both your soul and your body are alive. But then, sometime after your birth, you start committing sin. This causes your soul and your body to die. And a definition of to die means to bear the punishment of sin (Ezekiel 18:20, Hebrews 9:27–28 KJV). But in order to have eternal life with God, you must have both your soul and your body quickened, which means brought back to life again. So when you come to God to obtain everlasting life from him, the grace of God by Christ quickens your soul. That’s the part of the Bible that talks about salvation that comes by grace. It is grace that quickens your soul and not doing good works. However, it is not grace that quickens your body. It is your good works that quickens your body, and this is the part of the Bible that talks about doing good works that give you salvation. Everlasting life officially begins on the day of the rapture according to Daniel 12:1–2, (KJV) when the body is resurrected back to life (quickened) into an immortal body with the soul being united with the body. Since the soul (which is saved by grace) and the body (which is saved by works) are two entirely different things, therefore, there is no contradiction in the bible. And I’m not saying that there is a dichotomy when it comes to salvation either. All I ask of the reader is that he/she hears me out first before deciding whether I’m right or not. I will now show the verses in the Bible that explains the doctrine that I’ve just laid out. However, before I do, I first want to show them the hermeneutical system I use to interpret the Holy Scriptures.

Methodology

Hermeneutics is defined in the Wiktionary as the science and art of text interpretation. The hermeneutical system I use to interpret the Bible is what I call the parable system. It works this way: in a verse (OR SET OF VERSES), the same thing will be said twice except said in two different ways, which acts as a dictionary. For example, in Psalm 56:10 (KJV), it says, "In God will I praise his word: in the LORD will I praise his word. Now notice the similarity of how in the first part of the verse, it says, In God will I praise his word, and in the second part, it says, In the Lord will I praise his word." Notice how these two parts of this verse read exactly the same except for one difference. That in the first part of the verse, it uses the term in God, and in the second part of the verse, it uses the term in the Lord. This is acting like a dictionary where the Lord is defined as God. Another example of this system where the same thing is said twice but in two different ways is found in Proverbs 6:2 (KJV), "Thou art snared with the words of thy mouth, thou art taken with the words of thy mouth." As you see here that the second part of the verse reads exactly the same as the first part of the verse with one exception: the words snared and taken, which in this case in the Bible’s parable dictionary system, the definition of snared is taken like in a trap. However, this dictionary system works even when the phraseology is not as precise as these last two examples that I gave you, but the basic idea of the same thing being said twice but in two different ways will be there if not the exact words. An example of this would be 2 Chronicles 19:2 (KJV), where two definitions are given, "And Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him, and said to king Jehoshaphat, ‘Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the Lord? Therefore, is wrath upon thee from before the Lord.’" By the way this verse reads you can see that the definition of the phrase to love them that hate the Lord is defined as to help the ungodly. So to love them means in a parable sense to help them. And the ungodly are defined as them that hate the Lord. And the sequential order of the word and its definition can be either way. Sometimes the definition will come first and then the word being defined as it was in this last case and as it is in this next example. In Job 20:18 (KJV), it says, "That which he labored for shall he restore, and shall not swallow it down: according to his substance shall the restitution be, and he shall not rejoice therein. In the second part of the verse, his substance is stated in the first part of the verse as meaning that which he labored for." So the word substance is defined as that which you labored for, or i.e. the thing of wealth that you earned for yourself by your labor. This often means money, but it could be anything of value that you earned for yourself by your labor. And there are even stranger examples of this parable dictionary system that you find in the Bible. For example, in Ezekiel 1:16 (KJV), the word appear is defined as work, "The appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto the color of a beryl: and they four had one likeness: and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel." In the Bible’s dictionary system, there are words that are likened to each other, that they are equal to each other, that a word is comparable in meaning to another word, which is the definition of synonymous in Wiktionary: words that have an identical or similar meaning. You can see this same kind of likening and equaling and comparing example taking place in Isaiah 46:5 (KJV) where God asks a question to idol worshippers concerning himself and their idols that they worship, "To whom will ye liken me, and make me equal, and compare me, that we may be like?" There is no comparison/likening/equaling of God to idols, of course, but there is definitely a comparison/ likening/equaling of words and phrases to each other in the Bible’s parable dictionary system.

What is the definition of salvation?

Now that I’ve just given you a mini crash course in how this parable dictionary system works that you must use to interpret the bible correctly, hopefully you now understand where I’m coming from when I explain the doctrine of the Bible to you. Starting off with the word salvation, what is its definition? Salvation has several definitions, such as Isaiah 33:6 (KJV) where it says, "And wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times, and strength of salvation: the fear of the Lord is his treasure." So you see here that the strength of salvation is defined as the stability of thy times. Salvation is strength. It is a strong/stable time to live in. In Psalm 27:9 (KJV), it says my salvation is my help from God: "Hide not thy face far from me; put not thy servant away in anger: thou hast been my help; leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation." Jeremiah 17:14 (KJV) defines saving me as healing me: "heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my praise." In Jeremiah 23:6 (KJV), to be saved means to dwell safely: "In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, the Lord our righteousness." Psalm 118:25 (KJV) says that to save is to send me prosperity: "Save now, I beseech thee, O Lord: O Lord, I beseech thee, send now prosperity." But the best definition I’ve ever found in the entire Bible of salvation because it does the best job of summing it all up is found in 2 Samuel 23:5 (KJV) where it says that all my salvation is all my desire: "Although my house be not so with God; yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure: for this is all my salvation, and all my desire, although he make it not to grow." So, therefore, what you desire from God that he do for you is called salvation. This may not be a definition of salvation that you would find in one of man’s secular dictionaries, but that doesn’t matter. The Bible was not written by man but by God through men. People just don’t understand that there are parable meanings of words, as well as a literal meaning of words in the Bible. And that most, if not all, the keywords that God uses to describe his doctrine, his covenant/agreement he has with man will have a parable meaning in it that you must use if you want to interpret the bible correctly, which I assume is what the Baptists want. So since you now have an understanding of the system I use to interpret the Bible, I can now show you the correct interpretation of