Supplement 15 — For Lessons 29 & 30

Supplement Fifteen

For Lessons Twenty-nine and Thirty

We have thus far studied in some detail about prayer and its answer, the New Testament program for the modern Church, the Christian’s power of attorney, the truth about the Holy Spirit, the gifts of the Spirit, faith and how to attain to the known needs of life, the New Testament Church, and the Bible enduement of power for believers. In these discussions we have repeatedly shown that all that God gave to the early Church He desires to give to us today.

All Spiritual Opposition is Satanic

If God is the author of all the Scriptures we have given to prove that the above-mentioned blessings are for us today and that He is pleased with such a program, then His opponent, the devil, must be the author of all criticisms against such doctrines. Anyone who condemns any spiritual experience that is plainly stated in Scripture is a tool of the devil to rob men of the purposes and benefits of that experience.

Christians Should Unite to Fight Satan

Christians, instead of fighting one another, should unite to fight sin, sickness, and the devil and realize that they have a common foe. As long as the devil can get saved men to fight each other he knows that they will not be united to fight him. He agitates men to differ over church creeds, rituals, petty theories in doctrines, and even to condemn each other over spiritual experiences that there should never be a single difference about. The devil’s long range program is to keep men from getting power with God over him and his works. As long as he can keep Christians from aggressive warfare against him and from getting power to defeat him he can feel free to carry on his work of sin, sickness, defeat, and poverty in the lives of men.

The Goal of Every Christian

The goal of every believer should be to attain to all the fullness of God until the full evidences of the Spirit-baptism as in Lesson Thirty are manifested in his life. No person should be satisfied with the measure of the Spirit that he now has, but, it is sad to say, the least blessing from God seems to satisfy the average person.

Do Not Ridicule Experiences of Others

Most all of us have heard slanderous remarks about people who claim divine healing power, who claim to have been healed by the power of God, who claim the baptism in the Spirit, or who claim some other biblical experience. Some persons have so ridiculed all manifestations of the supernatural and miraculous that hundreds of thousands of people in our biggest churches know nothing of the real truth along these lines. Church members are taught to shun any mention of these biblical doctrines and to class all spiritual manifestations of the devil, or as fanaticism. The same members will smoke, chew, play cards, drink, and commit all kinds of sins and their teachers will never rebuke them or cause them to shun these evils. What a sad condition!

Spiritual Gifts are of God

The condition stated above should never be tolerated by any church. When it is, then that church is dead and ceases to be a Christian church. It becomes only a center of amusement and social activity. We have given sufficient Scripture to prove that there is a real baptism in the Spirit, real power in God for believers, and real gifts of the Spirit that should be in every church and every member of every church. Instead of shunning these spiritual experiences and the people who teach them, church members should welcome all good news about these blessings. They should be eager to know all they can about them. Has God given hundreds of Scriptures to make these things clear to us if He meant that we should not have them?

No Excuse for Ignorance or Controversy

There can be no ignorance of these spiritual blessings if men will only read their own Bibles and see for themselves what God says on any subject. Neither can there be any excuse for controversy concerning spiritual experiences if men will be only half honest and open to the Bible truths that are so plainly stated in many Scriptures. A popular excuse among fighters of certain doctrines we have discussed is the failure in Christian living and in demonstrating the power that such experiences are supposed to bring. Such critics seem to forget that some people in all churches fail to live and demonstrate the Christian life. Shall we class all these churches of the devil because of the failure of some of the members? Shall we condemn certain doctrines embraced by these churches because a few members do not live right? Regardless of the failure of men we must accept plain truths of Scripture as being of God.

All Spiritual Manifestations are Strange

Paul said that the things of the Spirit of God would be foolishness to the natural man 1 Corinthians 2:14 and that He would take the foolish things of the world to confound the wise 1 Corinthians 1:26-31. Naturally, any manifestation of any one of the nine gifts mentioned in 1 Cor. 12 would be foolishness and very strange to any man who had never seen these gifts in operation. But why reject or criticize something that we know nothing about either scripturally or experimentally? The natural man is not used to any spiritual experience and every one of them will be foolishness to him until he makes up his mind to be open enough to them to investigate the truth from what is written about them. When something is clearly written about any spiritual blessing that should settle it as being biblical and as being of God. We should then bring the natural man under control and refuse to reject the truth.

Christians Cannot Get a Wrong Spirit

Many are fearful that God will permit them to get a wrong spirit if they seek spiritual experiences, but this is a groundless fear, as proven by Lk. 11:7-13. God will not permit any honest person to be deceived and get a wrong spirit if he will but walk uprightly in harmony with the Word of God and ask only those things that are promised by God. Only people who are dishonest and seek to evade truth and live unclean lives need to fear because they are open to demonic deception. The true child of God should walk in simple faith and obedience to all known truth, praying daily, keeping under the blood of Christ, and he will not need to have one thought of getting a wrong spirit.

The One Great Need of the Modern Church

The greatest need of all in any church is to forget petty differences and seek God for the New Testament enduement of power for service to do the works of Christ in delivering men from the power of sin, sickness, failure, and poverty. The Church as a whole may not be willing to do this, but as individuals it must be done if the full benefits of the gospel are to be realized in personal experience.

The world today is dying for apostolic power and Christian living and the command of one of the last letters of the New Testament is to contend for the faith once delivered to the saints (Jude 3). Instead of doing this, the modern Church as a whole is making war on the few who are earnestly contending for this faith. No preacher today can lead his people into a revival of faith and power in God who fights the experiences that will bring these benefits. Every preacher should encourage anyone in his congregation who hungers and thirsts for righteousness and who has the least desire for deeper experiences in God than those manifested today in the average church. This is the least thing he can do to bring about a New Testament revival in the world today. But when leaders of Christianity begin to oppose and resist the Holy Ghost like Israel of old, and when the least manifestation of the Spirit of God is fought and rejected as being of the devil, it is hard for others to attain to these experiences. No person is required of God to accept such experiences if he does not want them, but every person should encourage others to get them if he does not want them personally.

Ten Questions For Supplement Fifteen. Did You Know:

• That Melchisedec was an ordinary man? He is called a “man” in Heb. 7:4. He had a “descent” or genealogy but it was not counted Hebrews 7:6. He was an ordinary man who lived in the days of Abraham, as plainly taught in Gen. 14:17-24; Heb. 7:1-11. He was without recorded father or mother, beginning of days and end of life, so that he could be a type of Christ, who really had no beginning or end of days and who was to be a priest after his order forever Hebrews 6:20.

• That people have appeared to men on Earth after death? Although this is not true of men in general, as proven in Lk. 16:19-31, it has been true of special cases when God willed it, as is clear in the cases of Moses Matthew 17:3 and of the saints resurrected after Christ was resurrected Matthew 27:52. Moses could not have been resurrected because Christ had not yet become the first-fruits of all that slept 1 Corinthians 15:23. He appeared in his soulish form, as explained in Question 8 below.

• That there will be male and female in Heaven? This is clear from the fact that every person will receive his own body in the resurrection 1 Corinthians 15:35-58. The Scripture in Gal. 3:28 simply means that male and female have the same privileges in the gospel and in Christ. No Scripture teaches that any person will be de-sexed by the resurrection.

• That there may be baby bodies in Heaven? The fact that every person will receive his own body in the resurrection proves this 1 Corinthians 15:35-58. Paul illustrates the resurrection by small and large grains reproducing their own size and kind, so also is the resurrection of the dead. Nothing in nature continues to grow after death. This is one reason we shall know as we are known 1 Corinthians 13:12. On the other hand, all may be resurrected fully mature like any normal seed when it is reproduced and fully grown.

• That the Bible plainly says that the Earth is round? See Isa. 40:22. When “four corners” are mentioned it means four quarters or directions Isaiah 11:11-12Matthew 24:31Revelation 7:1-3.

• That the devil still has access to Heaven? He will have access to Heaven until the middle of Daniel’s Seventieth Week or the last seven years of this age, as proven in Rev. 12:7-12. Then he will be cast out to the Earth and his place will be found no more in Heaven as the accuser of the brethren. (See Supplement Six, Question 6, for proof that all of Rev. 4–22 must be fulfilled after the rapture and during the last seven years of this age.)

• That Jesus Christ Himself went to Hell? See Ps. 16:10; Acts 2:27-31; Mt. 12:40; Eph. 4:7-11, which proves that He did go to Hell.

• That souls of men after death wear clothes? Moses wore clothes when he appeared with Christ Matthew 17:3 and the souls under the altar were given clothes to put on Revelation 6:9-11. See also the last paragraph of Lesson Four, Point 7.

• That Judas was one time a saved man? He had the Holy Spirit and power like the other apostles and was a successful preacher and healer like them Matthew 10:1-20Mark 6:7-13. He had his name written in Heaven, as proven by Acts 1:20 with Ps. 69:25-29. He fell from the apostleship by transgression Acts 1:25. These and other facts that will be given in detail in Lesson Thirty-five prove he was one time a saved man.

• That Judas was not a devil from the beginning? There is no such statement in the Bible. He was “a devil” or an adversary against Christ toward the latter part of His ministry and this is all the Bible does say about the question John 6:70. He was not always an adversary for he was once a saved man, as proven above.