Seven Basic Bible Facts (1)!

Precious friends, for your Encouragement And Edification!:

Seven Basic Bible Facts!
Every Christian Should Know and Believe By Robert C. Brock
Editor of the Journal of Pauline Dispensationalism

FACT NO. 1—That the Bible MUST be rightly divided in order for it to make sense.
Notice what It says:

This is one of the cardinal rules for interpreting the whole Bible. Neglect of this rule
or a faulty use of it will lead to only one result, CONFUSION, since our God is not
the author of confusion. The reason for a right division of the Bible is because of
God’s two distinct purposes:


God doesn’t want us to confuse the teaching of these two purposes. He
has Very Graciously Given us the key for a proper understanding of this.

(link: Seven Basic Bible Facts!)

to be continued...

FACT NO. 2—That the DISTINCTIVENESS of Pauline truth
is a most important doctrine of the Bible.

The Risen Lord Jesus Christ Revealed His Heart and His Mind To the Apostle Paul:


This proves conclusively that Paul did not preach what the 12 Apostles preached.
Rather he went up to Jerusalem to TELL THEM Of The Special Gospel Of Grace
That Christ Gave To him (Gal. 2:2).

He preached Jesus Christ According To The REVELATION OF THE MYSTERY Which
Was Kept Secret, Hid In God (Rom. 16:25; Eph. 3:9). He was the Apostle to the
Gentiles and magnified his office (Rom. 11:13).

(RC Brock Seven Basic Bible Facts!)

I stand in agreement with FACT NO 1 …..however

I checked the link out and when I got to number 6 it seems to contradict number 1 in two ways.

FACT NO. 6—That SIGNS belong to the Nation of Israel and its religion: “For the JEWS REQUIRE A SIGN, and the Gentiles seek after wisdom” (I Cor. 1:22). Speaking in tongues is a SIGN: “Wherefore TONGUES are for a SIGN, not to them that believe but to them that believe not...” (I Cor. 14:22). In Jesus’ day, those who sought after signs were called an evil and adulterous generation (Matt. 12:39).
~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Taking the word sign out of the context and applying it to a different context is not proper division of the Word of truth. In addition to attributing something written to Israel (Matt. 12:39) and apply it to the administration of Grace.

When clearly the manifestations of the spirit including tongues was purposed for us …written directly to us…..as the 12 benefits of speaking in tongues are necessary in the spiritual life and growth of a believer and a benefit to the church when that person interprets in a group meeting.

1Co 1:2 Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours:

Where's the issue? I'm not following you. Are signs for the Jews or not?

Maybe I am wrong, and I hope I am... as I understand #6 it is attributing tongues as a sign that.... "those who sought after signs were called an evil and adulterous generation".
Maybe it's the way it's written or my understanding.

Rightly divided by me or you?

Any time anyone tries to compress our omniscient God and his way of spirit and truth into fleshly type rules, they miss the mark. Any time anyone tries to make our one true God a God of just one body of people like all the Jews or all the gentiles, they miss the mark.

This is not a "basic Bible fact"; it is general principle for interpretation. Your explanation of it obfuscates rather than illuminates.

The Bible was mostly written to the Jews, though its message is for everyone. There are many ways to "divide rightly" the word of God, and prophecy/mystery are certainly nowhere near all-encompassing. Much of the mystery is in fact enveloped in the prophecy. Simply stated, the Bible does not tell us what the "right division" is in that passage.

Further, it is likely that the sense of "rightly divide" as used in the late 16th century is not what we in the early 21st century assume. Just as "study" in the same verse did not mean "pore over books" in the 1600's, and "suffer" in Matthew 19:14 meant "allow", so the meaning of "rightly dividing" is closer to "correctly handling" than "cut into two parts".

Let's not blind ourselves to correct interpretation of Scripture by assuming the meaning of words from a 400-year-old translation; check a modern translation (or five) to be sure.

I would agree with FACT #1 but will take issue with some of the other "facts'. Christian baptism is NOT Jewish baptism as we see right through the book of Acts. Its spiritual significance is explained in Romans 6. Baptism by immersion in water is a command of Christ, not an option, and not to be disregarded at the present time. I won't go into the rest of that article.

There is no "taking out of context" regarding signs. Signs were signs primarily to the Jews that God was manifesting His power when signs, wonders, and miracles were performed by the apostles and their companions. But as we know from Church history that with the passing of the apostles and the completion of the Scriptures, signs disappeared and the principle of walking by faith was predominant.

1 Timothy 3:16

The wicked and adulterous generation wasn't wicked and adulterous because they sought after a sign. They were a wicked and adulterous generation because they rejected Jesus, even when he did signs... and, they were literally wicked and adulterous.

When Paul says tongues are a sign for unbelievers- he's not even specifically talking about the gift of tongues. But he is applying the concept of unknown tongues to the gift.

Is28, which Paul references talks about Judah, pre-Babylonian captivity.
11For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people.
12To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.

God sending the Babylonians to conquer them was the SIGN that they were wicked and needed to REPENT! AND THEY STILL WOULD NOT HEAR!!!. They remained wicked and adulterous, even after God returned them to Jerusalem!

That's how an UNKNOWN tongue is a SIGN. It's a SIGN OF JUDGEMENT on unbelieving nations. Because they are being INVADED.
When tongues are spoken TO PEOPLE they are supposed to be interpreted so the are not an UNKNOWN TONGUE.
As long as someone understands what is being said, tongues is the same thing as prophecy. But what you don't do, is speak in an unknown tongue AT someone because you look like a BARBARIAN or a NUTCASE when you do. THAT IS THE POINT OF CORINTHIANS.

PROPHECY is a sign for JEWS AND GENTILES, a sign for EVERYONE except for the people who DON"T BELIEVE IT.

An INTERPRETED tongue-utterance given by the Holy Spirit, would ALSO be a SIGN for ANYONE THAT UNDERSTOOD AND BELIEVED IT. NOT JUST JEWS.

There is and always has been since it began; ONE new covenant, ONE Gospel, and ONE Church. Paulianity is a lie. He did not have his own Gospel. There was no "transition period". There is no special "Pauline revelation".

That's not a "basic Bible fact" either. It's not even biblically sound.

Jesus did reveal His gospel to Paul, because He had a specific mission for Paul to undertake. However, Peter, James, and the others preached the same gospel. Paul's words prove Brock (and you, because you quote him), wrong; for he wrote, "But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse!"

I think what I mostly was concerned with was if I misunderstood Fact #6. I had read it several times and it appeared that it #6 was equating tongues with an “evil and adulterous generation". But I could be mistaken. Maybe GRACE ambassador has a better insight into what is written.

As for your statement on the “passing of the apostles and the completion of the Scriptures, signs disappeared”……… I will disagree, but I won’t take that up on this thread.

The only reasons that Christians in Jerusalem would be keeping the law of Moses was that.....

1) The Sanhedrin still had a kind of civil authority over Jews in Jerusalem. The ethnic-Jewish Christians had to follow the law of the land for the sake of submitting to rulers. AND they still had the mission to evangelize as many Jews as possible before the city was destroyed.

2) AND some were actually Judaizers and had not Christian faith. They were teachers of false doctrine (get circumcized, keep the law) that had spent time with the Church but they never were part of it.

The Church at Jerusalem was not it's own entity separate from the rest of the church; and they had the SAME GOSPEL.

Jesus told the 12: Make disciples of ALL NATIONS.... That "nations" is "ethnos" the same word used for "GENTILES".... Baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit showed PETER DIRECTLY by the vision, and by the gentiles receiving the Holy Spirit that the Jews and Gentiles were one in Christ. He did not need Paul to teach him that. Paul received the SAME GOSPEL as the other Apostles and all the Apostles were teaching the same thing.

The Christian gospel should always be a gospel of the power of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus walked within the power of the Holy Spirit and so did the apostles.

We walk as they walked.

1 Corinthians 4:20
For the kingdom of God is not in words, but in power.

I believe Jesus was mainly referring to the religious leaders of that generation. After all, the Lord conditioned Israel to seek after signs. They didn‘t need signs for the Messiah was at hand.

Is not our Lord bound by his word?

Not a drop of water in Romans 6. There is no water baptism in the chapter. Baptism is not a synonym for water. Some people see water every time baptism is mentioned, and they see baptism every time water is mentioned.

Our Blessed Lord is referring to those who needd something palpable in order to believe rather than to believe on faith.

Those who have faith will receive signs and experience wonders, but not because they need them in order to believe.