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What the Bible says about Whole Counsel of God
(From Forerunner Commentary)

Deuteronomy 29:29

God's will can be known through revelation, which is the supernatural disclosure of God's purposes and instructions through various means such as direct communication, inspiration, visions, dreams, and signs. As mentioned earlier, God has assembled these revelations in the sixty-six canonical books of the Bible, both the Old and New Testaments.

Isaiah 8:16 prophesies that God's testimony—the fullness of His revelation, which Paul calls “the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27)—would be bound and sealed among Christ's disciples, establishing the biblical canon for all time. If this is the proper interpretation of this verse, it precludes any “new revelation.” We have in God's Word all we need for salvation.

Richard T. Ritenbaugh
The Model Prayer (Part Five): Your Will Be Done

Mark 1:14-15

The gospel Jesus proclaimed is focused on the Kingdom of God. In fact, Jesus' own words bear this out: Only once does He modify the word "gospel," and He does so with the phrase "of the kingdom." In accordance with their Savior's usage of the term, Matthew, Mark, and Luke call it nothing other than this. In several other places, Jesus speaks of "preaching the kingdom of God" to the people.

The Kingdom of God is a huge subject in itself, but its basic meaning whittles down to God's dominion, rule, governance, or realm. In many places in the Gospels, such as His parables (Matthew 13) and the Olivet Prophecy (Matthew 24-25), Jesus points to a future establishment of God's Kingdom on the earth. Notice Matthew 16:27: "For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works."

On the other hand, the Kingdom of God is now ruling over those whom God has called (Colossians 1:13), though they have not yet inherited or entered it fully because they are still flesh (I Corinthians 15:50). The called and chosen await the return of Christ at the last trumpet when He will change their mortal, corrupt, physical bodies into immortal, incorruptible spirit bodies like His (I Corinthians 15:51-52; Philippians 3:20-21; I Thessalonians 4:14-17; I John 3:2).

Thus, the Kingdom of God has both present and future implications. It is a present reality in a spiritual sense for those who believe the gospel in that God rules over them already. As such, they are subject to all the laws and responsibilities being part of God's Kingdom entails. When Christ returns and sets up His government on earth, the gospel will have prepared them for rulership with Him (Revelation 19:7-8). They are presently watching for, praying for, and expecting its fullness at any time (Matthew 24:32-44).

As a future event, the Kingdom of God implies that the gospel concerns itself with prophecy as well. Though many biblical prophecies predicted the coming of Jesus Christ as a Man to die as our Savior, many more prophecies concern His second coming as King of kings and Lord of lords. The Christian hope revolves around the belief that He will come again, put down all rebellion against Him, grant eternal life to His saints, and establish a Millennium of peace, prosperity, and spiritual growth for surviving humanity. The gospel includes this message of a future utopia.

What we see, then, is that "the gospel of the Kingdom of God" is a general term that covers more than just an announcement of God's Kingdom. It contains the teaching about the soon-coming establishment of God's government on the earth, as well as its present rule over those God has called. It includes instruction for preparing the elect for their responsibilities in His Kingdom, particularly regarding character development in God's image. In a way, "the gospel of the Kingdom of God" is an umbrella term that encompasses the entire revelation of God to man in the Bible. Paul calls this "the whole counsel of God" in Acts 20:27.

Richard T. Ritenbaugh
The True Gospel (Part 4)

Galatians 1:6-7

The apostle Paul opens his epistle to the Galatian Christians with stern criticism. Written in the early AD 50s, this book describes a situation occurring in the church not even twenty years after Christ's death! In less than two decades, Jesus' message had been perverted to something that, to Paul, no longer announced "good tidings."

The specifics of this Galatian perversion are not important in this context, but the principle that we can derive from it is: Any alteration, any shift of focus, from Jesus' original announcement changes the message from one of good to bad news. A change in the gospel changes its goal, which means believers will arrive some place other than the Kingdom of God! How vital it is that we follow the true gospel of God!

The church of God has the same source of Christ's gospel as the rest of the "Christian" world, the Holy Bible. Why, then, is the gospel we preach so different from the Protestant and Catholic gospels? There could be many answers to this question, but every one boils down to one point, mentioned by Jesus in Mark 1:15: We "believe in the gospel" He preached. We believe time is short. We believe that Christ will establish the Kingdom of God soon. We believe that we should repent and do so as a way of life. We believe Christ's message by living it in faith.

Other churches may say they also believe and live in faith. Do they? Jesus says in Matthew 7:16, "You will know them by their fruits." This is the easiest way to spot those who follow a false gospel:

» Do they try to live by every word of God?

» Do they tremble before God's Word?

» Do they keep God's commandments (all of them)?

» Do they repent of and strive to overcome their failings?

» Do they show a steady growth in character?

» Do they focus on the Kingdom of God?

» Do they prioritize their lives with God first?

» Do they focus their teaching on the message He proclaimed?

» Do they exhibit genuine love for the brethren?

Depending on our understanding and viewpoint, it is likely that no one person or group will pass or fail all of these questions. "For we all stumble in many things" (James 3:2). However, if we are to judge righteously in the matter of whom we choose to fellowship with, we ourselves need to have a thorough grasp of the true gospel.

Richard T. Ritenbaugh
The True Gospel (Part 1)

2 Timothy 4:3-4

Paul's description of people having "itching ears" is picturesque. The Greek word, knethomai, literally means "to itch, rub, scratch, or tickle." This figure of speech implies that they have an itch that must be scratched, or as William Barclay puts it, "they have ears which have to be continually titillated with novelties" (The Letters to Timothy, Titus, and Philemon, p. 202). Such people open their ears to any teacher who will relieve their particular "itch" regardless of how it measures against the truth.

The solution to this resides in proper discernment based on God's infallible Word. This judgment must be based on His whole counsel. John writes, "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world" (I John 4:1). Christ commends the Ephesian church for this:

I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars. (Revelation 2:2)

Paul says it most simply, "Test all things; hold fast what is good" (I Thessalonians 5:21).

It is our Christian duty to evaluate the "causes" we endorse. Are they truly of God, or are they itches we want scratched? Have we allowed the world to influence our thinking, or are we on solid biblical footing? Have we held our ground against Satan, or have we given in to his relentless onslaught?

Our effort now should be presenting ourselves "blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (verse 23), for God is not concerned with scratching our itches but transforming us into the image of His Son. That is our only cause!

Richard T. Ritenbaugh
Scratching Our Itches

Revelation 3:17

Christ rebukes His church of Laodicea because its perception of reality—particularly about themselves—bears no resemblance to His own.

This spiritual blindness resembles the false expectations held by the people of Christ's time, with a notable exception: The members of His church have access to His Spirit—His mind, His heart, His perspective—and so should be free from much of the blindness that obstructs carnal man. They have the means to see more clearly. A more accurate lens is available to Christians, which is why He says, "[A]noint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see" (Revelation 3:18). Once God's Spirit has been given, the onus is on the individual to improve his own sight.

Today's church member may demonstrate this blindness in ways similar to the blind of Christ's time. It may come in the form of an unshakable belief that he alone has the whole counsel of God or is the primary focus of God's attention. It may show itself in a steady stream of criticism of the brethren—criticism that encompasses all but the self. It may manifest itself in a self-centeredness that assumes the spiritual high ground, believing that the rest of the church needs to rise to its level. All of these distortions spring from not seeing the self clearly—a result of not seeing God clearly.

The Bible gives two related principles regarding spiritual vision, particularly about being able to see God—and as we see God more clearly, our perception of all other spiritual matters will improve. First, Jesus tells us that the pure in heart—those without guile, pride, hypocrisy, envy, jealousy, competition, hidden anger, double-mindedness, or any other defilement of inward sin—will see God (Matthew 5:8). In the same vein, Hebrews 12:14 says that without holiness—God's consecration of us combined with our submission to His requirements for moral purity—one will not see God. Our spiritual vision will only be as good as our purity of mind and conduct. Any defilement will affect our spiritual sight, making it a never-ending challenge to see things as God sees them.

It is far easier to compile and rehearse the failings of others than it is to overcome in areas where we fall short of God's holiness. Seeing through the lens of unquestioned, untested, or unreliable expectations—about God, about prophecy, about our standing before Him, or the like—leaves us little better than those who failed to recognize their Creator when He came to them. Yet, applying ourselves to this purifying process will begin to allow us to see things from a perspective that approaches God's own.

David C. Grabbe
Not-So-Great Expectations


 




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