Subject: “The Holy Spirit Teaches Comparing Spiritual Things With Spiritual”

Hi Again Mike,

I have been “knowing” about Israel being a spiritual organism now since 1979, but I had a little discussion with a guy who once “knew” but returned to dispensational orientation, when he changed his mind about “full preterism.”  But then he said that God led him to some “Godly guys” who were essentially Darbyites and heavily into natural Israel and the “secrets” that have been revealed to THEM about the restoration of natural Israel…pure dispensationalism (which he denies).   And he had come out of dispensationalism before he became a preterist advocate. When you talk to these type of folks, you start wondering if you (me) missed something. Of course, by the way, this dude is a seminary graduate, which I consider to be the crux of his confusion.

Blessings,

J____

Amen to that last statement, you said:

“…This dude is a seminary graduate, which I consider to be the crux of his confusion.”

I too, have a degree in theology conferred upon me by an institution of men, and like the apostle Paul, I consider it to be ‘dung’.

Jesus Christ had no such a degree yet no one understood the Word of God better than He.

“The holy spirit teaches comparing spiritual things with spiritual”, and the spiritual “lamb of God… lion of the tribe of Judah… or the Israel of God” are none of them what they are in the letter. Any one who thinks otherwise does not know that “the letter kills, but the spirit gives life”.

1Co 2:13  Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth [Webster’s Dictionary], but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 
1Co 2:14  But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 

2Co 3:6  Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter [Webster’s], but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. 

None of this means that we can just throw our hand up in the air and begin prophesying right out of the fertile imaginations of our own hearts, as so many do. What “comparing spiritual things with spiritual” means is that we must find “two or three witnesses” within the scriptures themselves to “establish the matter”.

Deu 19:15  One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sinneth: at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established.

Mat 18:16  But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. 

In other words, we must find another verse of scripture to explain why we would say that “he is not a Jew which is one outwardly” means that Gentiles who accept Christ are now spiritual Jews, and sure enough they are everywhere in scripture:

Joh 4:21  Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.
Joh 4:22  Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the [spiritual] Jews [Rom 2:28-29]
Joh 4:23  But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
Joh 4:24  God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.  [because…]
Joh 4:23  […] the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
Joh 4:24  God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. 

And this is the truth:

Rom 2:28  For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:
Rom 2:29  But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.

Gal 3:29  And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Eph 2:11  Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; 
Eph 2:12  That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:
Eph 2:13  But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. 

So we cannot just make up what we think is the spiritual meaning of any verse of scripture. Christ said His words are spirit:

Joh 6:63  It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing [being a “Jew… outwardly]: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

Christ is “the Word” (Joh 1:1), so when we use the Word to explain the Word, we are “comparing spiritual things with spiritual”, because ‘no prophecy of scripture is of it’s own interpretation’.

2Pe 1:20 knowing this first, that no prophecy of scripture at all is becoming its own explanation. (CLV)

And we are commanded to have two or three witnesses before any matter can be established.

This is unheard of exegesis to the “context, context, and context”, letter only, exigesis and doctrine of such hallowed institutions as the Dallas Theological Seminary or any of the other seminaries. They all insist that context explains the spiritual meaning of scripture, and in doing so, they are denying that “they are spiritually discerned”.

So I hope that as you continue your studies these Biblically spiritual, principles will be of some help to your understanding of scripture.

Eph 1:18  The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,

Your brother in Christ,

Mike