Kaylagrl, dear sis......?
Those who begin to teach things as fact, and press it, (from my experience) are picking and choosing to create a super doctrine.
They feel good about it, so they push it....usually skipping over most of the Bible's harmony.
The whole Bible is important, including introductions to each book, .....even the book of Revelation!
Christ is "revealing" His ultimate plan in it.
All text is there for our benefit.
What I am presenting is nothing new.....nor does it take away from the Bible even slightly.
The whole Bible is good.
But, most are just adding to some old church doctrine of the past few hundred years, or filling it in with odd guesswork.
Never relying on their Bible and the Holy Spirit, to give them it's key.
Using terrible labels, and man made groups to justify why they believe what they believe.
You and I have been told to trust men....well, .....men lie, my Bible does not.
Don't trust me even....pour over scripture......trust the Bible and God.
1 Corinthians 1:1
1.Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes ourbrother,
[SUP]2 [/SUP]To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both THEIRS and OURS :
[SUP]3 [/SUP]Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul is speaking to 2 groups in this.
Same book, he goes on.......
1 Corinthians 7:10-16
[SUP]10 [/SUP]Now to the married I command, yet not I but the Lord: A wife is not to depart from her husband. [SUP]11 [/SUP]But even if she does depart, let her remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband. And a husband is not to divorce his wife.
[SUP]12 [/SUP]But to the rest I, not the Lord, say: If any brother has a wife who does not believe, and she is willing to live with him, let him not divorce her. [SUP]13 [/SUP]And a woman who has a husband who does not believe, if he is willing to live with her, let her not divorce him. [SUP]14 [/SUP]For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband; otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy. [SUP]15 [/SUP]But if the unbeliever departs, let him depart; a brother or a sister is not under bondage in suchcases. But God has called us to peace. [SUP]16 [/SUP]For how do you know, O wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, O husband, whether you will save your wife?
Once again, two groups.
Otherwise the verses above ARE confusing?? Do we stay or do we leave our spouse???
Watch someone try to explain this away....which is cool...I am not God, nor do I save.
The beauty of free will.
THIS, clears up what sounds like a contradiction within 3 sentences......Paul is not confusing!.....he is talking to the remnant(who will convert and a certain group,)...... and us Christians.
If one does not see this obvious speech pattern, then they just explain away why Paul can sound confusing in some of his Epistles.
No need to actually search the Bible on why that may be, I guess?
BTW, If anyone tries to say that in the case above..." if anything is confusing then Paul is talking just to the Corinthians, in some parts"...well, THEN that logic has to apply to all of his Epistles, because we are not allowed to pick and choose what is what to fit our doctrine.
A pattern to Paul's Epistles has been established....with just this one example above.
If Paul is talking to separate people in Corinthians, can he ....just maybe?....be doing the same in certain/ other epistles?
There is a beautiful, perfect flow through the Bible.
Harmony.
It gives a timeline and tells the story of God's plan for mankind.
We are all "Israel" or "Jews" or any of that??? Really?
What sounds more logical, Paul speaking to the remnant (of his time too, btw) that will be Christians( and throughout history.....his time.....present to future) plus Christians?....or we are all "Israel"??
Give me a break....sorry.
At least my point, doesn't explain away tons of scripture to the contrary on that view.
Not only that, I say nothing that takes away from ALL scripture...because we ARE to read it all and learn from it.
This thought is usually debated because people want to feel "special"...that's all it boils down to.
We are special......but didn't Jesus choose Apostles to carry out His work?
They served a purpose....just like a certain group does/will (now? future?.. depends on how you see it?)
God has kept His promise to Israel/Jacob........we are not "Israel" though.
We are Christians.......Jesus is keeping His promise to us with the cross.
Two separate groups Sis.