Monthly Archives: July 2013

Is the Rapture of the Church really found in the Bible? Finding the Rapture in Revelation 3:10!

rapture8(Ver 1.3)  This is Part 5 in a series of advanced spiritual Bible lessons on the timely and very important subject of “Is the Rapture of the Church a Bible Truth”.  If you have not read this entire series from the beginning I would highly recommend that you go and start your study with “Part 1” and then continue in succession until today’s lesson.   However if you do not have the time to read every lesson I will inform you that this lesson today will be of great benefit and will be easily understood as a standalone lesson.  Many Christians today are asking “Is the Rapture Really Found in the Bible?”  I believe the clear signs of the times that we live within today are causing more and more people to ask this question.  In this lesson series I have been going through verses that teach us about the rapture subject found both in the New Testament and in Old Testament typology.   Many of these verses represent places in the Bible that Christians have not considered being about the subject of rapture.  Today’s lesson will certainly be no different.    God will present to you some potentially new information today in this lesson that may just open your eyes to a brand new way of searching for His Truth!   I hope that you are ready to learn.

Before I get started today I wish to thank you for your time in studying the Bible.   To all of my faithful subscribers I greatly appreciate your ability to perceive that what I teach is not from me.  The teachings of a man are inconsequential without the anointing and the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  I take no credit for anything that is on this website.  If it was not for the gracious and precious Holy Spirit teaching me I would have had nothing worthwhile to say.  Therefore, I give God all the praise and all the glory for anything that has helped anyone.  So no matter what, I trust God to confirm everything that is taught here by you using your own Bible and the Holy Spirit that is within you giving witness.  Trust no human at any time, no matter how eloquent the words that come from them or their good looking appearance.   There is a great deception occurring in the world today.    Evil is being called good and good being called evil.  I know that no one including myself is perfect and we all make mistakes.   Therefore I trust that you will receive my sincere gratitude as I humbly submit to God’s direction.

SEARCHING FOR TRUTH IN THE BIBLE!

The vast majority of Christians today believe in a rapture concept where Jesus literally returns in the clouds to take up His people to be with Him in heaven.  This belief is based upon verses like John 14:1-3 where Jesus speaks of His father’s house in heaven and says that He will go and prepare a place for us and then come again to take us there.   There are not very many Christians that do not understand this truth and believe it yet the great debate that remains among many churches is concerning the timing of this event.  The rapture timing is exactly the subject being addressed in these Bible lessons.   In the last lesson I went through a lot of new information that I will not repeat today.  I tried to teach the importance of seeing spiritual things even in the O.T. natural stories but I got a few ignorant comments that refused to open their eyes to understand the legitimacy of these methods.   These types of people are so focused on the literal obvious messages that they do not want to understand how God has concealed many spiritual truths for us to find in these same words.  I tried to emphasize in the last lesson that even Jesus said that He was hidden in the O.T. (John 5:39) and that we were required to go and search to look for Him in those verses.  This information must have gone over the heads of a few people who want to see everything easily in the Bible.  I do not recall any verse in the Bible that says Bible study is easy, do you know of any?   If you do please share it with me so I can learn.

I just mentioned John 5:39 and this is so important to memorize that I am going to emphasize it again.   In Matthew 13:11 Jesus declared to His disciples that it was given for them to understand the mysteries of the Kingdom of God but then He clearly states that this was not given to everyone else.  This is just further confirmation that not everything in the Bible is clearly stated to be understood by everyone.  Romans 16:25 says that Paul preached the mystery of the Gospel of Jesus that was hidden from the foundation of the world.  That literally means it was not plainly stated in the O.T. and had to be revealed by the Spirit of God.  Proverbs 25:2 declares that it is “the glory of God to conceal a thing and the honor of kings to search out a matter”.   These are just a few verses of the many that I could include in this message that not everything in the Bible is plainly presented for your automatic understanding.   This is so easy for a supremely intelligent God to do.  He can speak to us on His level of understanding and we would be clueless to understand it until we learned how.   I emphasize this fact in many, many of my Bible lessons because it is so vital for you to come up to a higher spiritual way of thinking.   Learning to see the scriptures as God sees them will help you more than anything else that I could teach you today.

BE IT UNTO YOU ACCORDING TO YOUR FAITH

Why any Christian would desire to go through the coming tribulation is a mystery to me but that is what many are choosing to believe and I believe that is what may just happen to them based upon what the N.T. teaches us about faith.    Jesus very clearly taught us a valuable lesson in the Gospels when He said “According to your faith, be it unto you” (Mat 9:29).    Jesus was telling these blind men in Mathew 9 something directly and He treated them differently than the many other blind men that may have been in the same city.   Jesus only healed the blind men that believed and had faith and the others that were in the city were not healed.   You could reason that these others that were not healed were simply not present but that is a different part of another lesson and I do not want to get off track in this lesson.  Simply understand that the blind men had to believe in order to seek after Jesus and if the others did not do the same they were left out from this benefit.   Now go and read Matthew 8:13 where Jesus says to the centurion “go thou way and as thou has believed, be it done unto you”.  Jesus spoke very highly of this man’s faith.   He then told him clearly that it would be done to him even as he had believed.  I think you need to consider these facts carefully.

I think both of those examples that I just presented you are valuable lessons to learn from about the subject of faith.  We then need to learn to apply that knowledge to the subject of rapture.  If you want to believe and stay in the post tribulation camp, I won’t stop you.  I will still try to show you what I see that the Bible says on the subject and that is why we are going to go through a different part of the Bible today to see a different lesson taught by God.  What I am trying to say here is that what you believe matters and if it does not matter what you believe then God is in sovereign control and I don’t have to believe in Jesus or Satan.   That is a common false teaching to think that man has no determination of his destiny.   I believe from the words of Jesus that what you believe could very well be the determining factor if you are taken out on the first call of the rapture or left here.   If you don’t believe me, that is fine with me.   Please don’t write me any negative comments trying to say something I didn’t say.

Evaluate where your faith is today.    What do you believe and why?   If you have several scriptures to back your beliefs then you are on a firmer foundation than not having any.   That is exactly why I am giving you my scriptures for why I believe the way that I do in a pre-tribulation rapture.  I did not determine my beliefs in pre-tribulation rapture first and then seek to find the scriptures to confirm them.  That is a false erroneous approach to Bible study.   You can find any belief in the Bible that you want to find in some form.  This is exactly why there are mid-tribulation believers and post-tribulation believers and most of them have found some scriptures that they believe support their thinking.   God purposefully designed the Bible this way to allow us to be wrong and remain in our false beliefs.   What God desires is for us to first clear our mind of our prejudices and then to ask the Holy Spirit to show us the truth and only then can we go and seek to find it in His Word allowing Him to direct our paths of search.   We cannot do this with any presumptive expectations for what the truth is or this will slant our viewpoint to that preconceived belief.  That type of search is a closed minded approach and does not allow God to speak to us in our hearts since our hearts are already set in concrete.   We can only determine the actual truth based only upon what God reveals to us in His Word when He speaks to our heart.   Notice that I did not say your mind, the voices in your mind can be from the devil.  The Spirit of God is in your heart and that is where divine direction will be given.  If you do not know how to be led by the Spirit of God I would recommend that you go read that series of lessons to begin to learn.

This section of the lesson I title “Be it unto you according to your Faith”.  Faith comes by hearing the Word of God taught according to Romans 10:17.  That simply means that you can get faith to change your beliefs by what God presents in this Bible lesson series.   If you are open to learning this will allow the Spirit of God to confirm this lesson.   I hope and pray that you will at least give God a chance to see what He might say to you today.

THE RAPTURE IN REVELATION 3:10

 I was asked to explain the Bible verse found in Revelation 3:10 and I immediately understood that they were asking this question from a rapture subject perspective since that is clearly the hidden message of the verse.  I say clearly but what is clear to me may not yet be clear to you!   You may still be amazed after you read this lesson how a verse that never mentions the word rapture directly can be such a key and important lesson on the subject.

The first fact that I would like to mention is that you are right the theological term “rapture” does not exist in the English Bible but that does not mean that the concepts surrounding the subject are not taught repeatedly by God in many unique ways.  As I have said before the English term “rapture” comes from a Latin word “raptus” which means “a carrying off”.   People are normally too narrowly focused on finding the specific word rapture, that they are missing entirely the more important messages about the subject recorded from God.   One detail that needs to be understood is that there are at least two completely different ways of teaching any subject.   A teacher can state the subject directly by describing it plainly or they can teach it indirectly by what is stated so that the subject must be true in order for the statement being made to also be true.   Most modern school textbooks are written in a direct teaching style with ordered increasing levels of associated complexity.  However, God’s word is not written in a textbook style and appears to be more random information that needs to be connected by study.  God teaches most spiritual subjects indirectly especially in the Old Testament where they are never explained fully until the descriptions are given about them in the New Testament.   Direct natural truths as opposed to indirect spiritual truths are found equally in abundance throughout the Bible.   For every direct natural lesson on a subject there are usually equal numbers of indirect spiritual lessons that can be found if you know how to search for them.   I hope you will learn both of these concepts given in this introduction from this lesson today.   Revelation 3:10 is an indirect and unstated spiritual lesson on the pre-tribulation rapture of the church that must be a truth for this statement that was made by Jesus to also be a truth and you will soon learn why I say this.  Let’s start by reviewing the verse in question and seeing what was stated by Jesus:

  • Rev 3:10  Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.

The KJV Bible translation does a fair job at translating each Greek word into English but yet these English words are often ignored or misapplied to not mean what they are really saying.   It is very easy to take an English word and restrict it to a specific narrow thought or application and that may be what is happening in this verse when you read it.  Some English words are easily assumed to be fully understood as they actually go much deeper in their definition and meaning when studied.   Assuming that you know and understand the truth is probably one of the greatest reasons why God is unable to teach you anything new.   So please take no preconceived assumptions into this Bible lesson as you continue to read.  There are certain key words given to us in this verse which need to be understood in order for us to comprehend the message being given to us by God.  Today we are going to go through at least 5 specific Greek words found in Revelation 3:10 and find their meanings and God’s usage for the words in other parts of the Bible.    These words that I will focus on are “all”, “world”, “temptation”, “keep” and “kept”.

I’m going to start with the Greek word translated as “all”.  This Greek word G3650 translated as “ALL” literally means the “entirety of the whole”.  This Greek word is applied as an adverb in this sentence and is directly used by God as a modifier description for the noun “world”.  In this type of presentation it would represent the entire “world”.   Let’s go back to an old Bible lesson that I did on the serpent in the garden first mentioned in Genesis 3:1.   In that Bible lesson I taught on how that God created laws of mathematical sets and used them in the words that He has written in the Bible.   A set is always a related grouping of like objects.    If I have a set of automobiles they may differ in manufacturer, color, make, year and model but they are all still unified members of my automobile set.  If I wanted to limit the scope of my set of automobiles I could qualify a new description to create a subset of just certain common features or characteristics.  For example I could define one sub-set of my “automobiles” to be only “red” automobiles and that makes ALL cars of the red color to be members in that set.  Now when I say ALL RED CARS you know I am including every one that qualifies to be a member together in that definition.   This is basic mathematical logic based upon established God created principles and yet many Christians may not grasp these important basic concepts and how they apply to the Word of God.   What we need to see is that God has just defined a mathematical set in Revelation 3:10 and said “every” noun object in that set called the “world” was included.   That literally means there are no “world” members excluded from the statement.  However the next problem is how does God define the members in the “world” set and what do these members possess that defines them to be in the common description?  I hope I am not going over your heads with these important thoughts but they must be applied correctly to understand who God is speaking about in this verse.

Let’s speak briefly about God’s usage of the Greek word G3650 that was translated as “ALL” in this verse.  This Greek word occurs in 99 verses of the Bible.   Around 60 times it was translated as “ALL”.   In nearly 40 verses, the Greek word was translated as “whole”.    “Whole” and “all” are clearly synonyms with the same definition.   They both will always include every member that fits the definition.   If you would like to do the study and search for this word for yourself in your Bible software to confirm how God consistently uses it to mean every that would be good to do, but I will not do that in this lesson today to keep this lesson a little bit shorter.

The next step to understanding Revelation 3:10, is to learn the Biblical definition of what the “all the world” set represents to God.   Jesus very clearly states that an “hour of temptation” will come upon the “entire world” at some unstated future time which was not directly given to us.  If the entire world will come into these common temptations we need to learn what the world means and what temptation means so that we can understand how or even if these apply to us in the church.   Let’s continue by examining the Greek word G3625 and determine how it was defined in the Greek language.  This Greek word which was translated as the English word “world” literally means “the earth”, “the soil” or “the physical land parts of the globe” according to the Strong’s definition.  However that does not mean that these physical land parts of the globe will be what is tempted in the prophesied hour.   What we are to apply is that God is speaking indirectly about the “inhabitants” of these “land areas” and not specifically about the dry dirt.   Therefore it is not the physical land directly being referenced but rather the people living on the land who will be tempted.  The implied application for this Greek word (world) is anyone that is alive on the earth or living upon dry land or occupying the livable land mass continents of the planet.   Let’s confirm this by observing this phrase in other parts of the N.T.:

  • Mat 24:14  And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.

Here is an interesting reoccurrence of the phrase “All the world”.   Jesus is speaking and He declares the time of the end will come only after the Gospel is preached to “all the world”.   Obviously Jesus was not telling us to go preach to the literal soil of the planet.   No Jesus was telling us to go into every part of the globe and preach to the people that inhabit that part of the whole.   In other words the entire population of the globe will hear the Gospel before the end will come.  If we go and read Luke 2:1 you will see another example that it is the people that are the intended definition for the term “all the world”.   In this verse the ruler Caesar Augustus declared that “all the world” should be taxed.   That sounds very familiar to what is happening with governments today but that is a different subject.   We have seen enough examples to understand the description being used is about the people living on the earth and definitely not the literal earth.   Let’s stop there and ask ourselves does that term “all the earth” include Christians?   Of course we must realize that presently it does.   Christians on this planet are no different than non-Christians in that we both live in the same global “world” set of earth dwellers.   Remember what I just said because that fact will become very relevant as we continue in this lesson.  Let’s now examine the next Greek word G3986 translated as “temptation” in Revelation 3:10 because this is also an essential word to learn and understand:

  • G3986
  • From G3985; a putting to proof (by experiment [of good], experience [of evil], solicitation, discipline or provocation); by implication adversity: – temptation, X try.

This Greek word literally means to prove something or someone.   This is usually done by someone performing a trial or test like a scientist proving their theory of supposition performing repeated tests.   That is a popular concept within the scientific community but one that is misapplied to God and the truth found in God’s word.   Many Christians today believe that God tests people with trials to prove their faithfulness and that belief is contrary to what the Bible actually teaches.  Once you learn the truth you will figure out quickly that it is unnecessary for God to test anyone.   First consider the well-known fact that the divine God is called omniscient.  This is a common characteristic used to describe God and clearly demonstrates His superior nature.  Omniscient simply means “ALL KNOWING”.   If God literally knows everything as most Theologians and Christians believe it would be totally unnecessary for God to test or prove anyone since He must already know the outcome before the test is presented.  Therefore it is extremely ignorant to believe God needs to test us in order to prove our faith in Him.  Do you believe this?  If you do then you need to apply that information to what Jesus is stating in this verse to determine who is doing the testing to prove these people in the world.

The Bible teaches us who the tester represents but these facts are often ignored by many Christians because Satan would rather you believe in a good God that brings the tests rather than an evil being like himself that you might resist or fight against.   Do you already see the initial motivation behind why Satan wants Christians to believe that God is their tester?   I think it is obvious because Christians will not be foolish enough to fight against God.   The Greek word G3986 translated as “temptation” in Revelation 3:10 comes from the root word G3985 that means “to test”.   We need to learn how this word is used by God to teach us that it is not God that is testing people.  Let’s read this verse found in the book of James:

  • Jas 1:13  Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:

The word translated as “tempted” here is the Greek word G3985.  Notice what God declares.  God clearly states that He is not the tempter or the tester of humans.  The statement is directed at man by God saying “let no man say”.  This term for “no man” is found in several statements made by Jesus and is even found in Revelation 3:11 the next verse that we are studying when Jesus says “Let no man take your crown”.  It is very clear to me that this term is referring to human earth inhabitants again.   We have already stated why this testing is unnecessary based upon God already knowing the outcome.  If God does not test or tempt any human then who is sending the temptations, tests and trials in Revelation 3:10 to the whole world?   That is a very interesting question and the answer still points us to Satan to be the tempter.   Let’s examine some other verses found in the N.T. to confirm that God is not the tempter or tester of man:

  • Mat 6:13  And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

Here is a verse found in the Lord’s Prayer used by Jesus to teach His disciples how to pray.   Jesus taught them to pray for God to lead them out from temptation and clearly not into them.   Is the implied will of God for Christians to be tested or not to be tested?   It would seem to say that it is not God’s will for us to be tested based upon the prayer.  The implication given to us is that if we need to pray to ask God not to lead us into “temptations” that God is not the one that is initiating the temptation.  That is just sound basic logical reasoning.  God would not remove something that He was causing.   Let’s shift to another verse to help understand the true source of temptations:

  • Luk 4:13  And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season.

This verse has the same Greek word found in Revelation 3:10.  God clearly says that Satan was the source for these temptations here in this verse.    Based upon the context given to us these temptations occurred when Jesus was being tempted in the wilderness being on a forty day fast.   Clearly Jesus would be considered to be “in the world” occupying the soil in this example and that is key for us understanding Revelation 3:10.   I could go over many verses found in the N.T. but I will only give you one more witness to learn from for now:

  • 1Co 10:13  There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

Here we have a message written to the church.  We are plainly informed that “temptations” may come but then we are indirectly informed that God was not the one that sent them.   This is an example of learning from what is stated how to see what is not stated.   In this verse God says “I will not allow the temptation to be above what you are able to endure”.   That appears to me to say I am a God that places limitations upon the one that is testing you.    God would not send the test and then limit the test and finally make a way out of the test as this verse declares.  That would be a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde type of God.  This would be dueling personalities with one side of God sending you the test to potentially harm you while the nice side of God limiting the test and placing a way out from it so that you can escape it.   That type of reasoning makes no sense to me but many Christians believe in that type of situation everyday.  One man that I knew believed that God sent cancer to his wife to test them but they were going to the doctors to try to get out from the test and live.   Wow, I seriously tried to help him see that it was not God doing it to his wife but he rejected it.  I’m really not sure what happened to his wife.

So far we have looked at the Greek words for “temptation”, “world”, and “all” in in Revelation 3:10 to gain understanding how they apply to the verse.   We have learned so far that a “temptation” is a stated trial or test that every human can potentially come into at some time in their life even Christians.  We have learned that Satan is the initiator of these tests and trials and that God is the one that leaves us a door out of the test if we want to find it.  We have learned the term “world” means earth dweller or inhabitant.   So far that definition would include everyone still living here on the planet.  Since God used the qualifier “all” before the world noun He clearly states that the entire population will be tested by Satan.  Let’s reread the verse again and apply what we have learned so far:

  • Rev 3:10  Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.

Jesus is the speaker in this verse so that is very important to note.   Then we know by reading in context that He is speaking to the church since this statement is found within one of the letters of Revelation written to the churches.   Therefore we know the majority of the noun subject participants found in this verse including the speaker and the intended target audience, Satan the tempter of the earth inhabitants and we now desire to understand the verb actions being given to connect them all together.  We have already seen where Satan is the tempter and Jesus says that his temptations, tests and trials will come upon the entire population of the earth.    Right there is an excellent time to consider that to be a prophecy of future reference.  Meaning what Jesus was speaking of had not occurred up until the time of writing.   That should raise a meaningful question in your mind, “Why is this stated time of temptation different than previous mentions of temptations given throughout the Bible?   I personally believe that the hour of temptation being spoken of is the soon to be described “Great Tribulation” later in the book of Revelation.   One of the main reasons that I believe this is because Satan is one of the key subjects in the rest of the book.  He is described as the “Great Dragon” and his prophet and anti-Christ servants will be revealed during this time to deceive the whole world’s population.

We then know from the statement of Jesus that He will “Keep” the church from that hour of global tests.  How will He do this?  In order to understand this we need to learn the definition of the word “keep” next.  Let’s look up the definition for the Greek word translated as “Keep”:

  • G5083
  • From τηρός teros (a watch; perhaps akin to G2334); to guard (from loss or injury, properly by keeping the eye upon; and thus differing from G5442, which is properly to prevent escaping; and from G2892, which implies a fortress or full military lines of apparatus), that is, to note (a prophecy; figuratively to fulfil a command); by implication to detain (in custody; figuratively to maintain); by extension to withhold (for personal ends; figuratively to keep unmarried): – hold fast, keep (-er), (ob-, pre-, re) serve, watch.

This is obviously a complex word and is compared with several other Greek words that are similar but different.   The meaning of the word means to watch or to observe.   As you can read this word means to keep your eye upon something or someone.   Perhaps it will help us if we analyze how this word was translated in the N.T.    This Greek word is found in 68 N.T. verses.   In 33 verses it is translated as “keep”.    In 12 verses it is translated as “kept”.  In 10 verses it was translated as “keepeth”.   The other verses in the N.T. it is translated as “observe”, “reserve”, “reserved”,  “watched”, “watching”, “preserve” and “hold fast”.

What do all of these translated English words have in common and how do they apply to how they were used by God in the New Testament?   We really need to learn this in order to understand what Jesus is going to do to the church before the coming hour of trials.  I think it is relevant and important to know that this Greek word is used twice in Revelation 3:10.  Once it was translated as “keep” and the other time it was translated as “kept”  Let’s examine how it was used for the church and then apply that definition to how it will be used by Jesus.  Read the beginning of the verse again and see how God uses it for the church.  God says “Because you have kept my words…, I will keep you…”.    How do you keep God’s words?    That is a very loaded question.   To keep God’s word implies they are important to you.   That you value them and that you desire to know them and possess them.   If further implies that you want to protect them and even make them safe.   Let’s examine the steps or process for keeping God’s Words:

  1. We must desire to know God’s Words
  2. We must value the Words of God
  3. We must give the Words of God priority over all other words
  4. We must make the effort to find God’s Words
  5. We must take the time to learn God’s Words
  6. We must extend the effort to understand God’s Words
  7. We must then place the Words of God into our memories and recall them at all times
  8. We must then put the Word of God into daily and hourly practice becoming a doer of the Words of God

That was my quick overview of keeping the Word of God.  It denotes a process of taking the Word of God from a book and placing into our hearts and minds to exalt it, protect it, guard it, preserve it, etc.  Clearly to keep the Word of God represents a transfer from one location to another.  What did I just say?   Taking God’s word from the pages of a written book and internalizing them is the transfer of divine information from one place to another.  Can we agree that this is what this word represents?  Now apply that to what Jesus said He would do before the hour of temptation.  Jesus basically said “I will keep you (move you out of harm, protecting you, keeping you safe, etc.) before that hour occurs because I value you as my treasure.   People will disagree with me that do not wish to see the truth, but there is really not much I can do to help those that do not want any help.

I believe very firmly that this verse is very specific.  It is a prophecy of two events occurring in sequence.  The first event is the “Keeping” safe of the church body that has kept safe the word of God.   The second event that will occur next is the hour of temptation, testing and trial that will occur to everyone on the planet earth.   This very clearly says that the church cannot be present upon the earth or this verse would not be accurate anymore.  The church’s presence on the earth’s surface during the trial would either cause the first part of the verse to become a lie or the last part of the verse to be a lie and that does not make any sense to me how people could explain it to be something else.

If you go through the New Testament carefully, it might help you to see where the Greek word “keep” is used and how it primarily means to take hold of something to never let it go.   I’ll give you an example of this:

  • Joh 14:21  He that hath my commandments, and “keepeth” them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.

You see even in this verse it says that a man that hears the Bible is not the one that will benefit from it.  He must “Keep” it which means grab hold firmly and not let go or let it slip away for God’s Words to be effective.  To take hold and not let go sounds very much like a rapture in this Revelation 3:10 description.  To rapture or to catch up or catch away is clearly God taking hold of His people and not letting them go.   This is what will happen to the church members that have kept God’s Word firmly within their hearts and not let them go.   It is a conditional rapture event.  Not everyone that called Him Lord will be taken.  It is only those that made Him Lord and put His Word on the inside firmly that will be taken up.  Can you now see how Revelation 3:10 is describing a rapture event before the time of trial?  It is literally impossible for the church to on the planet and not be in the group “all the world” that will be tested.   This literally means that since God has “kept” us from this hour that we must be in heaven.  Those are the only two choices for our location.  Based upon the meaning of the word “kept” as being a transition of state or position, there is really no way for a Christian that loves the Word of God to not be carried away from the pending world disasters.  I could literally go on and on about this but that was enough for one Bible lesson.  I hope and pray that you have gathered some wisdom on the timing of the rapture event from what was taught to us from God’s Word today.  The primary goal of this lesson was to help build your faith in a pre-tribulation rapture event.  I at least hope that you were encouraged how to go and search to see more verses like this one today in the Bible.   I’m not sure when my next Bible lesson will occur on this subject or any other right now.  I would appreciate your prayers if you know how to pray in the spirit as Ephesians 6:18 teaches.  I thank you all and I will also remember you in my prayers today.  Be Blessed Always.

If you would like to continue reading in this series, please click “Part 6“.

Understanding the Eucharist! Fellowshipping with the Body and the Blood of Christ! Part 2

Communion4(Ver 1.1) This is Part 2 in a Bible study series on the subject of the Eucharist.  This subject is also commonly called receiving “communion” in many church services.  Other common terms used to describe the Eucharist are the “Lord’s Supper”, the “Lord’s Table” and it is even mistakenly called the “Last Supper” by some.  Other preachers call it the “meal that heals” but that will not be my focus today.  I did a Bible lesson a long time ago on this subject and received another question concerning it and this will be a follow-up to that initial lesson with new details that requires your understanding.   If you have not read the first lesson in this series, I would suggest that you go back and start with “Part 1” first and then continue with this lesson to get the full impact of the teaching message.   Lesson 1 presented a radical new spiritual perspective on the subject of communion and the Eucharist.  The primary emphasis of that lesson was for us not to focus on just the natural elements or eating or drinking something physical in an ignorant religious ritualistic way to satisfy or appease the works of the flesh or the views of others around us using peer pressure to get us to participate.  We should rather find out what the elements and the actions represent and then learn why we are doing them in order to derive any spiritual benefits from acting in faith to God’s Word.  I know there are many that struggle with that belief and these still do not understand how to combine the act of partaking with the reason for doing the act and that is why I am teaching in this manner.  People need to learn that doing right things without right motivations, understanding and reasoning will be vain religious attempts to please God with no value or rewards.   I’d like to give you a definition from the dictionary of the term Eucharist to begin this lesson:

  • Eucharist: The Christian ceremony commemorating the Last Supper, in which bread and wine are consecrated and consumed.

As you can read from this definition the Eucharist is said to be a Christian ceremony.  Christians perform this ceremony but we will soon discover that this act is also imitated and perverted by the devil in many other false religious types of ceremonies.   A ceremony is defined as a formal occasion typically one celebrating a particular event or anniversary.   What we learn from this definition is that this is a planned occasion using planned items (bread and wine), planned actions (drinking and eating) and that this event involves willing planned participants that are present.   It is also interesting to note that this event is stated to be a ceremony that commemorates the “Last Supper” and that is true and simultaneously not true depending upon your point of view and application.   What I will say is that there is a connection between the two even though they are not the same events.   I guess I should stop and give you the definition for “commemorate”.  This word means “to recall and show respect for something or someone in a ceremony”.   That definition actually has great merit to what the rest of this lesson will be focused on.  But I do want to still stress that the Eucharist or the communion is not the Last Supper but rather just a recollection or memory celebrating its fulfillment.  The “Last Supper” and the “Eucharist” are actually two different suppers within two different covenants as we will discover as we continue to research these subjects in the Bible.

DISCOVERING COMMUNION VERSES

I would like to emphasize that the word “Eucharist” is not technically found in the Bible.   It is a theological term used to label an event described in the Bible much like the theological term “rapture” is used to define another stated event described in the Bible.   Please do not get caught up or distracted with finding or not finding a theological term and miss the lessons found in the Bible about the term.   I will tell you that the English term “Eucharist” has its roots in the Greek word G2169 EUCHARISTIA.   This word is used in 15 verses in the N.T. and was usually translated as a form of “thanksgiving” or “giving thanks”.   That seems to teach us that Eucharist participation should contain the attitude of “thankfulness” to God.  I firmly believe that and I hope that you will take hold of that and plant it within your heart going forward.

There are several ways to find scriptures on this subject and I will go over a few to help you get started.  One method of finding verses is to search the Bible for key words of the elements of the event.   For example we should be able to find “unleavened”, “bread”, “wine” or even a “cup” that holds the wine.   We could also search and try to find the direct word “communion”.   However, I want to teach you that the term “communion” is only found in the KJV Bible a limited number of times concerning this same event.   This English word “communion” comes from the Greek word G2842 that literally means “partnership”, “participation”, “communication” or “social intercourse”.    This Greek word is also translated as “fellowship”.  For example in this verse in Acts it was translated as fellowship with a direct connection next to the partaking of bread within the church:

  • Act 2:42  And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.

The English term “fellowship” is the Greek word that is also translated as “communion” in other N.T. verses.   As you can see this term appears to be separate from the breaking of the bread by the inclusion of the word “and”.  However this word is still immediately followed with the partial description of the Eucharist where bread is broken and passed among the church members.   God appears to me to be linking these two things together for a reason.   Please notice after the description of “breaking of bread” there is an additional connection with “prayers”.  I would like you to consider that prayer should be a linked fellowship (communion) with God according to this verse.  What I can see being developed in this verse is that taking the bread and wine should be done with the same reverential attitude of fellowship (communion) with God as in our time of prayer.   Does prayer have anything to do with being thankful?   If you believe like I do that it does then this links us back into the subject of “Eucharist” again.  I hope that you can see how God linked these three subjects intimately together.  We will arrive at a better description of this “communion” as we continue.  Let’s move to another verse found in the New Testament that further helps to confirm what I have just alluded to:

  • 1Co 10:16  The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?

Here we find one of the primary reasons why this formal church ceremonial practice is often called “communion”.   Here in this verse God associates two different things that are present during the ceremony together with two other things that are not physically present during the ceremony.   I’d like you to take note of what this verse is teaching.   God is saying when you take the cup of wine (physically present) it is representative of you participating with the shed blood of Christ (not physically present).   I emphasize the fact again that I said “representative” because we do not literally drink His blood.  I know there are many people who believe that as we drink the juice or wine that it is transformed miraculously into the blood of Christ but that is not what the Bible teaches us as you should have learned this from the first lesson but this will be further confirmed with other witnesses as we continue.  Bread is the second element being emphasized by God to be broken and this bread (physically present) was representative of the body of Christ (not physically present).  What God is doing is taking naturally seen elements and using them to symbolically teach us about unseen spiritual elements and I seriously hope you comprehend the differences between physical and spiritual realities.

I could do a long lesson on what the specific elements represent today but that is not my primary emphasis.  I will introduce the fact that the bread is always stated to be unleavened.   Unleavened bread is simply a basic pure wheat cracker.  Unleavened bread is considered to be unadulterated bread and not bread that has been corrupted with other additive ingredients.  Leaven is a form of bread additive that according to Jesus causes the whole pure substance to become tainted.   Jesus taught us a lot on this subject in the Gospels.  Jesus warned the disciples to beware of the “leaven” of the Pharisees (Mat 16:6).   Jesus explained this leaven to be symbolically a substance of false teachings and hypocrisy.  If I had more time I would explain this in more depth and perhaps that will come in a future lesson.   The wine is always based on the fruit juice coming from the crushed grape and that is all symbolic of the blood of Jesus coming from the body of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Grape juice is even called the blood of the fruit in Genesis 49:11 and Deuteronomy 32:14.   Both of these are natural elements that symbolize and point us to the greater spiritual truths found in Jesus and if you want to learn more about them you can search your Bible for their keywords and read what they say.   If you do not understand any of these verses you are free to ask questions about them.

I want to highlight that in this verse in 1 Corinthians God says that when we eat and drink these two natural physical items (bread and wine) that we are “communing” with two unseen spiritual realities.   As I have repeatedly said this communing should be done with an attitude of thankfulness to God for giving to us what we did not deserve to receive.  These unseen gifted items clearly represent the resurrected eternal body of Christ and the shed blood poured out from His mortal body (John 3:16).   How can we commune with the blood of Jesus by physically drinking literal wine from a cup?   How can we commune with the body of Christ by eating a piece of literal bread?  You see those are excellent questions to consider and we need to learn that the only way we can do this is by gratefully setting our mind upon His shed blood and His body as we drink and eat.   Correct reflection and recollection are the keys for spiritual participation to occur.  This is exactly why God instructs the church in Colossians 3:2 to set their minds on things above (blood and body of Jesus) and not on the things down here (bread and wine).   Jesus Christ is above in heaven and the bread and wine are literally here on the earth.  Which ones do you believe are more important now?  This is all critical information to understand.   Let’s proceed to another verse in the N.T. concerning communion:

  • 1Co 10:21  Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table, and of the table of devils.

Here is a verse that compares the church’s participation with eating and drinking the communion to be the antithesis or opposite of eating from the “table of devils”.    What we discover is that the church communion is called us eating from the “Lord’s Table” and that is the first major point to understand.   This is another reason why some churches call the Eucharist the “Lord’s Table”.   Can we literally sit at the Lord’s Table?   Stop and ask yourself where the Lord is right now?   Isn’t Jesus the Lord seated in heaven right now?   How then can we sit at the Lord’s Table up in heaven to eat and commune with Him?   I think you can see what I am doing by asking basic questions that need to be answered.

Anytime we sit at the “Lord’s Table” we are expecting to partake of His meal and food.  If we are seated at the Lord’s Table then we are in His presence and that means we are supposed to be communing with Him.   If God is a Spirit, is this a natural meal or a spiritual meal?  These are obviously symbolic figurative expressions and they are not to be taken literally while we are still physically present on this earth during the church age.   In order to fully understand these statements we need to examine the context more closely.   Reading in the preceding verses you should find that God was speaking of the natural people of the earth who were sacrificing their eatable offerings to idols.   This is a common practice in many foreign religions still today.  For example Buddhism still offers food to their statue gods.  God is basically synonymizing this eating of sacrificed idol food with eating from the table of spiritual devils.   Devils are real beings but they are clearly revealed to be unseen spiritual entities.   It is plain to me based upon this information that partaking of communion is the positive antithesis of the negative of eating natural elements sacrificed to devils.   This is a fascinating chapter to consider and learn from.  God basically says within the context that natural things are not the things that are important.  It is the spiritual forces behind the natural things being worshiped that need to raise the level of attention and concern for the participant.   This was one of the main points from lesson one and I just tried to show you that there are other witnesses in the Bible to what I taught previously.

Also within the context of this verse is a description of the priests of Israel which ate from the sacrificed items within the temple of Israel.   What we are learning from these repeated patterns is that the natural food items are insignificant but the focused attention of the spirit or spirits that they are being offered to is very significant.   Have you ever considered partaking of the “communion” or the “Eucharist” to be eating a sacrificial offering to God?   I believe after reading this context you should reevaluate your reason for your participation.   If it is not for the praise and worship of God then it could be misdirected.

DIRECTIONS OF CORRECTION

We will now shift our focus to a few new subjects and go through scriptures starting with God’s directions of correction written to the church at Corinth.   In this letter written to the church we are informed and firmly warned about acts of participating in the breaking of bread and the drinking of the wine that are very direct and to the point.   What we will soon observe occurring in this church was the mishandling of an intended righteous action.  Any good act or truth can be perverted into error by the human application of unbalanced extremism.   What you will find that was occurring in this warning was an example of combined human extremism with their human ignorance bringing God’s condemnation, rebuke and judgment upon their own heads.    You should be able to quickly recognize this as you read the verves:

  • 1Co 11:23  For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread:
  • 1Co 11:24  And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.
  • 1Co 11:25  After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.
  • 1Co 11:26  For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come.
  • 1Co 11:27  Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.
  • 1Co 11:28  But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.
  • 1Co 11:29  For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.
  • 1Co 11:30  For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.
  • 1Co 11:31  For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.

The context here is rich with valuable information.   I included several verses that are not usually included because they must not be ignored.   For example, the final verse that I gave you was where God writes through Paul “If we judge ourselves, we should not be judged”.   These are much ignored statements in the modern extreme Grace message.   I rarely hear any modern Grace preachers teach that we need to judge our own thoughts, motivations, spoken words and actions in order not to be judged by God.   But, that is clearly the Word from God for us right here and right now!   I know this because God speaks of us judging ourselves within the context of us partaking of the communion in church.   Clearly these are warnings written to saved church people.  Perhaps your church has eliminated communion along with the personal judging and that would be a clear sign to me that you are in the wrong church.  Perhaps your church still takes communion but has eliminated the context message of being a self-judge of your own actions.  You cannot separate one subject from the other simply because you do not want to view them together.  Believe in the whole of scripture or die with the selective part; it is your choice to make.

You can clearly read the context before these scriptures and see that Paul was rebuking the church in Corinth for getting drunk and having a party with the bread and wine in church.  They are rebuked and asked “Don’t you have a house to eat and drink in?”   In other words God’s communion was not there in church to fill your natural belly to eliminate your physical hunger or thirst.  This church was abusing the purpose for the whole ceremony being present.   God gives us a prime example of wrong human motivation for participating in communion.  This church has clearly misapplied wrong reasons and neglected the purpose for the communion.  This plainly proves to us that wrong motivations do not make right actions correct.   This again was what I have been attempting to teach in these lessons and God continues to place additional emphasis from His Word to confirm it.   Let’s go back and look at the first verse that I gave you and go through them verse by verse.

  • 1Co 11:23  For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread:

Paul starts out by telling the Corinth church in verse 23 that what he gave to them was what was given to him from the Lord.  Paul was not speaking of any literal bread or literal wine.  Paul was referring to spiritual things and the revelation of God’s Word that Jesus had personally given to him.   If you do not understand that you will soon be lost in the rest of the discussion in the chapter.   Let me give you another statement of rebuke written to this church:

  • 1Co 14:36  What? came the word of God out from you? or came it unto you only?

You can obviously see that Paul told them the Word of God came unto them and did not come through them.   This is normally God’s methods.  God gives to a teacher His word and tells him or her to go and tell my people what I have said.  This pattern is established repeatedly in the Old Testament and this pattern is continued in the New Testament.  Not everyone is gifted to teach, not everyone is gifted to preach, not everyone is gifted to prophesy and not everyone is gifted to evangelize.    Let’s continue with the rest of the first verse.

There are two basic realms of topic being discussed in this chapter 11 of 1 Corinthians.   The first and primary focus is upon spiritual things and the other secondary focus is upon natural things.   In order to distinguish which is which you must read, study and rightly divide each and every statement.   For example in verse 23 Paul starts out speaking of spiritual things from the Spirit of God and the Word of God and then at the end of the verse he finishes with a natural example of Jesus Christ partaking of the literal unleavened bread at the Passover meal which often called the Last Supper.   This is an excellent time to consider a new fact.   The Jewish Passover meal was often called the “Feast of Unleavened Bread” (Exo 12:17) and this was the forerunner for the communion/Eucharist in the modern church.  You see I do not believe that Christians are called to revert backwards to become Jewish in the natural flesh by observing the description or application of the letter of the O.T. law.   Therefore what the Jewish people did to observe the Passover is not for us in the church today.  However, I do believe that most of the Jewish feasts and festivals were designed by God to point us to Jesus Christ and therefore we should at least learn about them even if we do not participate in them.

The number one problem that I found with the O.T. Jews observing the Jewish Passover feast was the fact that almost everyone did it blindly without asking God or searching to find out why they were doing it and what it all meant.  Don’t get me wrong they did know that they were celebrating God’s deliverance of the people of Israel from Egypt when they observed the Passover.  But there was so much more than that linked to the ceremony in typology and symbolism than only a natural deliverance from a natural oppressor.   Like I have said in many other lessons, God’s O.T. typology points us to Jesus our spiritual deliverer that has freed us from satanic spiritual oppression and captivity.  If I had the time to teach the Passover today we would see how Jesus is found in almost every action and every element in some hidden form.

  • 1Co 11:24  And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.

You can clearly begin to understand in this statement how the Passover symbol of bread in verse 24 represented Christ’s body that was broken for us.  Wow, Jesus makes it very self-evident to me that we need to take a closer look at all of the items found in the Passover supper and see how Jesus can be seen in each of them.    That would probably be a good future Bible lesson for me to do work on.  I want you to notice in verse 24 the reason Jesus states that we should eat the bread in the church today.   Jesus says explicitly that when we eat it we need to “remember” Him and what the bread represents.   The emphasis is placed upon the “remembrance” of Christ and not the natural bread eating alone.  In other words the greater priority is for our mind to be exercised to intentionally recall what was done for us by the broken body of Jesus.   This literally means to place the work of Jesus in the forefront of your mind and your thoughts while eating.   What God implies is what I have been repeatedly emphasizing.  When there is no mental recollection or reflection of Christ then the eating of the bread is worthless.   Do you understand the importance of what we are thinking when we do something in church?   What if you were thinking of your schedule tomorrow at work?   What if you were thinking of your boyfriend or girlfriend?  You could be thinking of a million different things that take away from any benefits of participating in the communion.   Jesus basically said it matters what your mind is focused on.

  • 1Co 11:25  After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.

Let’s look at verse 25.   Here God describes the cup but more importantly was the wine in the cup.   Jesus was again informing us that the wine and the cup represent greater spiritual truths.   Do you remember what we are talking about here?   God is describing the Last Supper again when Jesus takes the cup at the end of the table that was reserved only for the coming prophet and says this is the New Covenant in my shed blood.   Wow, that is an awesome bit of information often ignored.   You see in the traditional Passover meal there was always one very special cup that was filled with wine but was never touched by anyone participating in the ceremony.  The cup is filled with wine and the door of the house is opened to allow the prophet Elijah to come in to take the cup.  This cup was a designated symbolic reference for the one that was to come announcing the final deliverance.  It was very clear to me that the Jewish people knew that they expected someone to come by this act but yet when He actually arrived on the earth they killed Him not understanding their Passover meanings.    I could spend a lot of time on the subject of Passover but yet that is not my goal so I will continue to talk about how these two elements of bread and wine from Passover were passed on to Christians to do a better job at discovering and remembering what they meant.

  • 1Co 11:26  For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come.

This is what I take away from what I have read so far.  Nowhere in the N.T. is the church instructed to participate in the Old Testament Passover meal going forward.   This old Passover supper was a meal that pointed the people of Israel to their coming Messiah.  Since Jesus has already come, died and was raised from the dead that meal has been fulfilled and the only two parts of that meal that were carried forward into the church was the partaking of the blood and the body of Christ for us to remember what He has already done for us in the past.   One meal in the Old Covenant was a forward prophetic symbolic supper and the other meal in the New Covenant is a reversal backward symbolic supper in remembrance of the death that has previously been accomplished by Jesus.  This was pretty clearly stated here at the end of verse 26.    Supper methods and elements have changed dramatically and a new perspective of looking at them was modified between the old supper to the new supper, but yet the bread and the wine elements remained true and constant and even unchanging symbols for both experiences and these represented the body and the blood of Christ the central figure of each.  You may recall that Jesus is described to be the unchanging one that is the same, yesterday, today and forever (Heb 13:8) and this is revealed to us by the same unchanging elements being passed forward from the O.T. to the N.T. even though they are two different meals.   Are you learning anything today?  I hope that you are.

Look at the first part of verse 26 and refresh your mind to what is being said.   The Holy Spirit through Paul writes that we should participate in eating the bread and drinking from the cup but yet God does not give us any indication to the frequency of how often this should occur.   I know some churches that do it once a month.  Others do it every time they meet together.    Therefore, there should be no condemnation for how often it is done as long as it is not ignored and never performed.    This is in sharp contrast to the law of God in the O.T.   The Passover meal was done on specific days of a specific month during the year only once.  This was perpetually performed every year by the Lord’s command.  Only after fulfillment was the Passover to cease for the people in the church.   Since the Passover was fulfilled by Christ this would indicate that this meal should have ceased for Christians but yet by law those in the Jewish religion are still bound to faithfully perform it annually even this year.  I think that is a sad state of lessons to learn from.   It teaches us we better learn as much as we can about why we are partaking of the bread and the wine today while we still can.  If we do it blindly like the Jewish people in ignorance we might be surprised to discover it was a futile religious act.

  • 1Co 11:27  Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.
  • 1Co 11:28  But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.
  • 1Co 11:29  For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.
  • 1Co 11:30  For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.

Because of the length of this lesson, I’m going to quickly go though the other verses that I have given you from verse 27 to 30 because they all go together with what was just taught by God.   Verses 27 through 30 are simply ignored by modern extreme grace preachers.   In their ignorance they choose to look over a profound warning given only to Christians in church eating and drinking the elements of communion unworthily.   I know a sinner could come in to visit the church and partake of the symbolic elements in ignorance and yet I do not believe that is what God is referring to, based upon the context.

We can discover the target audience for this warning by observing the statements being made.   For example in verse 30 God says many are sick and weak “among you”.  The target audience of “you” must be the church and not the unsaved world since the entire letter was only written for the church’s benefit.   True the unsaved sinner might be among the church and even read the letter but God would have reworded the statement differently if it was only written about unsaved people.  Keep reading down in the next verse 31 and discover the fact that Paul includes himself in the subject statement with the personal plural pronoun “we”.   We represents a combined reference of union between those previously called “you” in verse 30 with the also “me” (the writer) in verse 31.   I’m going to say that again for some to grasp, Paul places himself in equivalence with those that were previously being spoken as “you” in verse 30.  That fact makes the warning clearly church centered and not unsaved world directed.  What Paul says is that if “We” (you and I) judge ourselves we will not be judged and that takes me back to what God said before.  Those in the church are given the responsibility for judging what they are doing, what they are thinking, what they are saying, eating, drinking and etc. or God plainly states that they will be judged one way or the other.

What is this judgment being spoken of in verse 31 and what are the consequences for being judged?   The answer is clearly stated coming from verses 27 to 30.  Many among you (the church) are sick, weak and sleep.  Sick and weak are physical deficits from being whole, well and strong.   Sleep on the other hand is a symbolic representation for physical natural death.   This is very commonly used in the N.T. to differentiate between the “eternal separation” from God described as the “second death” in Revelation 21:8.   I do not have the time to teach this fact fully about how when the Christian dies the body stays on the earth in a state of dormancy (aka sleep) in the ground but the living spirit of the saved person is found to be present with the Lord (2 Cor 5:8).   Let’s go back up in the verses to learn how they are connected with verse 31.

In verses 28 we are instructed to “examine” ourselves.   In verse 31 we were instructed again to “judge” ourselves.   Both verbs (examine and judge) are synonymous commands from God.  The Greek term examine (G1381) means to test or to try.   To try is a form of the word “trial” where a judge is always present.  If you are the one that is “tried”, God is basically saying that it is wisdom if you become your own judge while you can so that He does not have to do it for you later.   Go back to verse 27 and see how this trial is laid out before you.  In beginning this verse there is the stated crime of participating in the communion ceremony by partaking of the bread and the wine unworthily.   This Greek word (G371) translated as “unworthily” literally means someone who does something lacking any respect or reverence for what they are doing.  These are the acts of a mocker or even a person that mimics or imitates without the correct attitude of worship.  Wow, that is pretty strong if you ask me.   God says these types of people were found guilty.  Uh oh?   Again we see the implied trial being stated.  There is a crime being committed and the verdict of guilt being handed down.  Who is the judge?  There has to be a judge!

What God is doing is sandwiching the consequences for not being our own judge in between the commands to do it or else.   This is not rocket science but yet churches and preachers explain it away as being inconsequential and unimportant.   However, I will repeat the warning for the slow to learn.    Do not eat or drink of the symbolic blood or the body of Christ Jesus without first examining and judging your own past actions, intentions and motivations and then if there is found anything that is not worthy to participate that would be a good time to ask God for forgiveness according to 1 John 1:9.   I am not going to debate ignorant Christians that try to teach 1 John 1:9 was not written to Christians and that Christians do not need to do this.   If you can read the verse and the context you will see plainly that this is not true.  John the writer includes himself in the personal pronoun “our” again being a “you and I’ designation.   If John was required to confess his sins before God then you and I are also required to do the same.  If you do not believe me that is not my problem.  I tried to teach you and you rejected it.

CONCLUSION

I believe that I have covered many new things that are rarely taught in modern churches.   I have tried to teach you about the constant “bread” and “wine” that did not change moving from the Old Testament to the New Testament.  I have alluded to the fact that this constant will not change nor ever cease even in the heavenly meal that is to come.  I have not addressed this meal yet but these two elements will be found present when we are gathered to partake of them at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.   So far I have mentioned three different meals all referred to as a supper in the Bible.  All of these are similar but all are completely different with increasing greater spiritual meanings.      One old Passover supper pointed us forward to the coming Messiah and the current Lord’s Supper within the New Covenant causes us to reflect backwards to what God did in Jesus Christ.   The future Supper to come is an entirely different subject and that will probably not be covered in this lesson series but may in a different new one.  I ended this lesson with God’s warning for doing something good and right with wrong reasons and I pray that you have learned this and take it to heart.    Thank you for taking the time to read and study the Bible and share what you have learned with your friends to help me spread the Good News of Jesus Christ.  God Bless!