Category: Teaching Articles

Have you noticed today that God seems to get blamed for just about everything that He DOESN’T do, but no credit for what He DOES do? What do I mean by that? Well, God is the Creator of the Universe, He is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, He is the ALMIGHTY GOD! He is only good, and there is nothing evil that He has ever done! Yet, we have insurance policies that call hurricanes, floods and destruction “acts of God!” These destructive events CAN NOT be “acts of God!” At least, not God the Father! They are, rather, the acts of the “little” g-o-d of this world system. (2 Cor. 4:4) Jesus said that satan is the one that has come to “steal, kill and destroy” (John 10:10), He went on to say that He (Jesus) is come to “give life, and that more abundantly!” (John 10:10) So, if an event deals with stealing from anyone, whether it is stealing things, stealing health, or whatever… then it must be satan! It most certainly is not my Father, God! If something kills… like disease, war, famine… it has to be satan! It is not God! If something destroys… like Hurricane Katrina, or the tsunami that occurred earlier this past year… it was satan! IT WAS NOT GOD!

People that blame God for these kinds of things simply don’t know Him! Now, you may say, “But I know Christians that believe that God did these things!” Yes, I am sure that you do. And they may even be actually, factually, born again. However, I can assure you that they don’t have a CLOSE relationship with God. Here’s what I mean. You can be a child of someone and not know them very well. Their are people that have not even known their fathers since they were very young! They are in every way children of their fathers, they are related to them, but they don’t have a close RELATIONSHIP with them. They don’t know how they think, what their opinions are, how they are likely to react in a given situation. BUT… they are their children! So it is with some Christians… they have trusted God with their eternal salvation. They have received Jesus as their Lord, but they have not drawn close to God, they haven’t gotten to KNOW Him! If they had, they would know that God doesn’t kill, steal, or destroy! They simply don’t know him that well.

But if you will drawn nigh to God, He will draw nigh to you! (James 4:8) You CAN get to know Him that well. You can develop a close, personal relationship with Him. Then when you hear people malign God’s character, you will feel about it the way you would feel if they were saying those things about your earthly father (if you have a good relationship with him.) God is a friend that sticks closer than a brother… or earthly father! (Prob. 18:24)

“For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.” (Romans 3:2-3, emphasis mine.)

There are many that denigrate the message of faith from God’s Word. They call teachers of faith heretics, and say that we are teaching “name it and claim it” and “blab it and grab” messages. My pastor, Ed Taylor, once was confronted by a local minister that said, “All you Faith Preachers (saying it disdainfully) I just call ‘faith peddlers!'” Well, my friend, if you aren’t “peddling faith,” what, may I ask, are you peddling? Are we to teach unbelief and doubt? There are apparently those that believe so! Let me state categorically that I do “peddle faith!” I do “name it and claim it” and I “blab and grab” everything that God’s Word promises I can have! To do otherwise would be ungrateful to God for His magnificent provisions! There are many that say that faith teachers are arrogant and prideful.

That is because they don’t understand “where we are coming from.” What do I mean? Well, these ministers might say, “Oh, I am unworthy of this, and I am unworthy of that.” Well, in our own position outside of God, I would agree… indeed, I am unworthy in that regard. BUT, I am not outside of God! I am the righteousness of God, in Him! (1 Corinthians 5:17-21) In whom? In Jesus! I am righteous with His righteousness! For me to say I am now unworthy, or unrighteous, is to diminish what God has, through Jesus, done for me! What is a greater indication of pride? To graciously accept all that Jesus has done for me and “brag” on His righteousness, or to exalt and revel in my personal baseness and unrighteousness? To, in effect, say that what Jesus did by His death on the cross, burial, and resurrection is of NO effect. I say with Paul, “God forbid!”

No, pride is to take any stand OTHER than what God says about us! I humbly state what God says about us as believers:

I am the righteousness of God in Christ! (1 Corinthians 5:17-21)

I am more than a conqueror through Christ Jesus! (Romans 8:37)

I always triumph in Christ Jesus! (2 Corinthians 2:14)

He (Jesus) became poor that I might be rich! (2 Corinthians 8:9)

I am the healed of the Lord! (1 Peter 2:24)

And I could continue… but the important point is that if God says it about me, then THAT’S the way it is, whether is suits anyone else or not. Let God be true, and every man a liar! (Romans 3:4)

Are you aware that where you go to church is a matter of life and death? Do you think that is a shocking statement? Think about it. The scripture tells us that we should take heed what we hear, and that we should take heed how we hear. (Mark 4:24, Luke 8:18) Why did Jesus consider what, and how, we are hearing so important? Because “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” (Romans 10:17) If you study this scripture out in the Greek, you will find that a “concordant literal” rendering of this scripture could be: “Faith comes to you by more than the mere sense of hearing, but by hearing and receiving teaching from the Word of God.” Thus the need for a preacher to teach the Word as Paul speaks of in that same chapter, “How shall they hear without a preacher?” (Romans 10:14) God has chosen the “foolishness” (to the world) method of preaching the Gospel, or the Word of God, as the means to convey faith and understanding of His Word. (1 Corinthians 1:21) In fact, hearing is the entrance to the human spirit. What we hear repeatedly, and continually, becomes what is in our hearts (human spirits) in abundance. You may say, “Well, OK, Brother Bill, let’s say I accept that… why does that have bearing on matters of life and death?” Hang in there! We are about to see it in the scripture!

Take a look at Luke 6:45, “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.” The word translated “treasure” here, can also be translated “deposit”… so what you have “deposited” in your heart, is what you will speak!

I shouldn’t have to tell you the importance of speaking… but in case I do, let’s consider a few examples of scripture:

“Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.” Proverbs 18:21

“How forcible are right words!” Job 6:25

“For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.” Matthew 12:37

“And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity; so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.” James 3:6

Let’s review these scriptures. God has told us that He (God) has put before us a choice; life or death. (Deuteronomy 30:19) He has even given us a strong hint: “Choose Life!” Look at the scripture: “I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:” Deuteronomy 30:19 How do we choose life? By speaking words! Proverbs 18:21 just said so! Right words are forcible! Unfortunately, so are wrong words. Words of life can heal, and set in motion good things in your life. However, words of death and doubt can kill, and set in motion evil things in your life. Matthew 12:37 reminds us that we are therefore condemned or justified by our words! And, James 3:6, in the Greek speaks of, “setting in motion the cycle of natural events” by the use of our tongue!

So, why do I say that where you go to church is a matter of life and death? Because what you hear, consistently, and regularly at church, is what you will come to believe. And what you believe and is in abundance in your heart, is what you will say out of your mouth. And what you say out of your mouth, and is in your heart in abundance is what will come to pass in your life! Choose wisely where you attend church! Get into a faith teaching, faith believing church and hear the uncompromised Word of Faith message!

“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.” (Romans 12:2, KJV, emphasis added.)

Why do we need to “renew” our mind? Well, why does one “renew” a house? Because it is a worn-out mess! Once a house is used-up, expired, and out-of-date, we “renew” it by tearing down parts, rebuilding others, and generally renovating the structure.

OK, a strange example, to be sure… but bear with me! Your mind has probably become like concrete, it is thoroughly mixed up and well set! You need to break it up, and start over! This requires restructuring the mind, pouring a new foundation, as it were!

Dr. Kenneth E. Hagin says in his book, Man on Three Dimensions, “One of the greatest needs of the church today is that God’s people renew their minds with the Word of God. Just because a person is a Christian, and even filled with the Holy Spirit, doesn’t mean that he has a renewed mind. The mind becomes renewed with the Word of God.”¹ We need to renew our minds by reading, studying, and meditating on the Word of God. In this way, we can develop our minds until we are no longer simply assenting to the truths of God’s Word, we are actually living them!

Dr. Hagin goes on to say, “First of all, we must understand the difference between real faith and mental assent. Mental assent agrees that the Bible is true but doesn’t act on it. Real faith is acting on God’s Word. Mental assent says, ‘I know God’s Word is true all right. I know God promised me certain things and that I ought to have them.’ Faith sees the object of prayer as already having been attained. Faith says, ‘The Word of God says it, I believe it, and I have it now,’ even though it may not be seen in the natural. Faith says, ‘I have it now not because I can see it, not because I actually possess it, but because God promised it.’ ‘Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen’ (Heb. 11:1). Another translation of this verse reads, ‘faith is giving substance to things hoped for.’ Our faith gives substance to it and so we can say, ‘It is mine.'”¹ This process of renewing the mind takes time, as does development in God’s Word.

Dr. T.L. Osborn reminds us, “Since it is written, Faith comes by hearing the word of God, then the best way to build faith in your heart that God is willing to heal you is for you to hear that part of God’s word which promises you healing. Faith for spiritual healing comes by hearing the gospel: He bore our sins. Faith for physical healing comes by hearing the gospel: He bore our sicknesses.”² Therefore, if you have need of physical healing, you need to renew your mind to the truths of God’s Word concerning healing.

We saw in the article, “How to Receive Healing,” that we must “do” the Word, and when we “do” the Word, our spirit man dominates us. “Those who are living in the flesh are living in unbelief, and always are engaged in warfare. Life is a battle for them. Their minds never have been renewed with the Word of God, and they don’t know that Jesus already has won the battle. They don’t know the devil is a defeated foe. They still are trying to fight him in their own power, and some have fought until they are totally exhausted and depleted. But when the mind has been renewed with the Word of God, the spirit through the renewed mind can control the body. The soul (mind) will then take sides with the spirit, because it knows the Word. It is renewed with the Word. It will allow the spirit to dominate. Then God’s Spirit will dominate through man’s spirit.”³ And if the Spirit of God dominates our human spirit, then we will be successful in life!

¹ Dr. Kenneth E. Hagin, Man On Three Dimensions, Kenneth Hagin Ministries, pages 12 and 13.
² Dr. T.L. Osborn, One Hundred Divine Healing Facts, Harrison House Publishers, pages 20 and 21.
³ Dr. Kenneth E. Hagin, The Human Spirit, Kenneth Hagin Ministries, page 7.

“And having called together the twelve, he gave them power and authority over all demons, and to heal diseases, and sent them to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.” (Luke 9:1, 2, KJV, emphasis added.)

In the article, “Jesus, the Healer” we saw that Jesus still heals today, as He did in His earthly ministry. This, then, brings us to the question, “How do I receive healing for my body?” Well, let me first state that no matter how you receive healing; no matter what manner, or pathway, that you take, healing is good!

The Bible says in Acts 10:38, “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with Him.” Note several truths here… Jesus did good, and healed. Therefore, healing is good! And notice that the devil is credited with oppressing with sickness, and Jesus is credited with healing. The devil is bad, Jesus is good. That seems like a real simple truth, doesn’t it? But, it seems that many “theologians” haven’t understood this basic principle! Jesus is the healer, healing is good, Jesus does good, and heals! Satan is evil, sickness is bad, satan does evil and makes people sick. Simple direct truth, yet heavy revelation for many! In James Chapter One, it seems that James, Jesus’ half-brother, and pastor of the church in Jerusalem, was concerned that many would fall into error. He states, “Do not err, my beloved brethren: every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” (James 1:17) Simply put, good things come from God, and He does NOT change His mind. He does good, and will always do good. He heals, and will always heal!

In his book, “One Hundred Divine Healing Facts,” Dr. T.L. Osborn says, “We are told: ‘The Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.’ Sickness is part of Satan’s works. Christ, in His earthly ministry, always treated sin, diseases and devils the same. They were all hateful in His sight. He rebuked them all. He was manifested to destroy them all.”¹ Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil, as it says in 1 John 3:8. And He did! When He bore our sin on the cross, He bore our sicknesses as well! “Surely Surely he hath borne our griefs (Hebrew: “sicknesses”), and carried our sorrows (Hebrew: “diseases”): yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.” (Isaiah 53:4) And, lest you take issue with the translation of “grief” and “sorrow” from the original Hebrew, let’s read the Bible’s own commentary on that verse… “That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.” (Matthew 8:17) Now, ask yourself this question: “If Jesus bore my sickness and disease, why should I have to?” And further, “If God placed my sicknesses and diseases on Jesus (as we have seen He did,) then for me to bear them as well, would be a miscarriage of justice!” God is a just God! He does not require you to bear what he had Jesus bear for you! Healing is for you!

How then, do you partake of this healing? You study to show yourself approved, a workman that needs not be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth! (2 Timothy 2:15) Be as those in Berea, of whom it was said, “These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the Word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11, emphasis mine.) You must study the Word of God with regard to healing, and then act upon what you learn! As James says in Chapter One, Verse Twenty-two, “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.” To hear the Word, and not do the Word, leads to self-deception!

It is imperative, then, to “do” the Word of God with regard to healing. The simplest way to “do” the Word, is to speak it; applying it to your life. When you find a scripture that says, “By His stripes we were healed,” as in 1 Peter 2:24, you would then say with your mouth, “Father God, I thank You that Jesus bore my sickness, and by His stripes I was healed, therefore, I am healed!” If “we were,” then “I am!” Remember, as I mentioned in the article “Jesus, the Healer,” we are not denying sicknesses exist… rather we deny their right to exist in our bodies! We confess what we desire to be manifest, not what simply exists in this present moment. For instance, it is a completely different thing for me to say, when symptoms exist in my body, “I am not sick,” than to say, “I am the healed of the Lord!” In the first case, it can be argued that I am denying the state of sickness erroneously, while in the latter case, I am simply affirming a higher truth, the truth of God’s own powerful Word, which He has exalted even above His own Name! (Psalms 138:2) We must confess that we are the healed of the Lord, in the face of contradictory physical evidence; confident that God watches over His Word to perform it! (Jeremiah 1:12) He will supernaturally manifest His healing power when we speak the truth of His Word, and hold to our covenant. This is what the “woman with the issue of blood” did in the Bible. She knew that she had a covenant of healing with her God. She SAID, “If I may but touch His garment, I shall be whole.” First she said it, then she acted on on it! And, what happened?” Virtue (Greek: “Dynamic Power”) flowed out of Jesus and into her to effect a healing and a cure in her body! (Mark 5:30) And what did Jesus say of her? “Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole.” (Matthew 9:20-22)

Applying your faith in God’s Word is as simple as confessing God’s Word with your mouth! That is how you receive the promises of God’s Word… confess and act on them! In other articles, we will expand of these truths in greater detail.

¹ Dr. T.L. Osborn, One Hundred Divine Healing Facts, Harrison House Publishers, pages 11 and 12.

“And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.” (Matthew 4:23, KJV, emphasis added.)

The words I have highlighted in the verse above summarize Jesus’ earthly ministry: teaching, preaching and healing. Most people are quite aware that Jesus ministered supernaturally while He was fulfilling His earthly ministry. Some call it “the time of miracles,” as though it were a one-time happenstance which has passed away.

No, Jesus healed during His earthly ministry, but He also heals today! In fact, we have record in the Old Testament that God has always been a God of healing. One of God’s seven redemptive names is “Jehovah-Rapha,” God, the Healer. He introduced His covenant personality of healing back then by saying, “I AM the God that healeth thee…” (Exodus 15:26) “So,” you may say, “God healed in the Old Testament, and His Son, Jesus, healed in the New Testament… what has that to do with me, today?” Ah, my friend, it has EVERYTHING to do with you TODAY! For in Hebrews Chapter 13, verse 8, it says, “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever!” He has not changed His Nature, He is still the God that heals!

F.F. Bosworth wrote one of the truly classic works on the healing ministry of Jesus, called “Christ the Healer” back in 1924. In this excellent book he says, “We have seen, in the great Redemption Chapter, the 53rd of Isaiah, that it is our sicknesses, as well as our sins that Jesus bore, making one privilege as universal as the other. What Jesus did for individuals who came to Him for blessings was for them, but what He did on Calvary was for all. It is clear that in all of these instances cited from the Old Testament it was God’s will to heal all who met the conditions. Wherever forgiveness was offered, healing was also offered. Let those who teach the people that God’s will in the matter of healing is not the same today answer the question, ‘Why would God withdraw this Old Testament mercy from this better dispensation?’ Is it not to be expected that He, Who ‘hath reserved better things for us’ and Who is ‘the same yesterday, today, and forever’ should continue these same mercies throughout this better dispensation?”¹ Dr. Bosworth is referring to the scripture in Hebrews 8:6, “But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.” If the New Covenant is a “better covenant, established on better promises,” why would healing of the body no longer be a part of it? The fact is, healing IS still part of our covenant. One simply has to, as Dr. Bosworth says, “meet the conditions.”

“What is the condition one needs to meet?,” you may ask. Simple. God is a God of faith. When He created the worlds, He did so Himself using His faith. We are told, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” (Hebrews 11:1-3) When God spoke in Genesis and said (as the Hebrew literally reads), “Light be… and light was,” He was calling things that were not in existence yet, as though they already existed. This is the underlying principle of how faith works. It is the way God used His faith to create the universe, and it is the way that Abraham used his faith to receive the fulfillment of the promise of God in his life. We are told, “Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed: not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all, (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.” (Romans 4:16, 17) Abraham did as God did, he “called those things that be not (yet), as though they were.” In other words, he spoke what he wanted to exist as true in the natural realm, as though it already existed. Keep in mind that speaking these words of faith is not “denying the existence” of disease! There are cults and false religions that teach that sickness does not REALLY exist, and that matter is not real. They teach that we can simply shape “reality” in any way we see fit by merely thinking something is so, or not so, and it will “conform” to that thought, since matter does not exist. We are not referring to that false teaching. What we are speaking of here is the fact that FAITH is a force that can CHANGE the matter and reality of this world. God used His faith to create the worlds, is it then so strange that we can use His Word, and the application of faith in His Word to change it? That is, in fact, what Abraham did. He took the promise made to him… God’s Word… and he spoke of it as though it were already manifested in his life… and it came to pass! He did not deny reality, he superseded it with a higher law! When a plane flies though the air, it does not “defy” gravity… it supersedes the law of gravity with a “higher law,” the law of lift! This chapter in Romans goes on to say that these things were not written for his (Abraham’s) sake alone, but for us also! Abraham is the father of our faith, but we are children of faith! We, too, can find the promise of healing in the scriptures, and confess with our mouth that we are the healed of the Lord, that healing is our covenant right, and see healing manifested in our lives!

I have seen many notable supernatural healings in my life, and in the lives of friends and family members, and I am sure many of you know of those that have been supernaturally healed as well! No, my friend, healing has not “passed away,” no more than the God of healing, Jehovah-Rapha, has passed away! Jesus was, is, and ever will be, the Great Physician! I trust that you will study the scriptures diligently and see that healing is for today, and that speaking of things that God has promised us, as though they are manifest already in our lives, is the methodology we need to employ to see His power applied to correct physical issues in our lives, just as we can confess Him as Lord, and receive salvation spiritually! (Romans 10:9, 10)

¹ F.F. Bosworth, Christ the Healer, Fleming H. Revell Publishing Company, pages 45 and 46.

A Word in Due Season Newsletter (April 1991)

Last month we considered the Greek words used in the list of the “Works of the Flesh” in Galatians 5:19-21. This month we will do a similar study of the “Fruit of the Spirit,” listed in Galatians 5:22-23.

As we said last month, fruit grows in a Christian’s life. We need to be “cultivating” these fruit in our lives!

Love: (agape) “divine love.”

Joy: (chara) “cheerfulness, delight;” from a word meaning “happy” and a salutation meaning, “Be well!”

Peace: (eirene) “peace, by implication, prosperity!”

Longsuffering: (makrothumia) “longanimity, forbearance, fortitude,” from a word meaning “with long enduring temper.” “Endurance, constancy, and perseverance,” says Thayer.

Gentleness: (chrestoles) “goodness of heart,” “kindness,” according to W.E. Vine; “usefulness, moral excellence,” from a word meaning “employed” or “useful” according to Strong; “moral goodness, integrity,” says Thayer.

Goodness: (agathosune) “goodness, virtue, or beneficence,” according to Strong; “uprightness of heart and life,” Thayer; “…sterner quality by which doing good to others is not necessarily by gentle means,” says W.E. Vine.

Faith: (pistis) “persuasion, credence, conviction, truth toward God,” from a word meaning “to pacify or consent.” “A conviction based upon hearing,” according to W.E. Vine.

Meekness: (praiotes) “gentleness,” by implication, “teachableness, humility.”

Temperance: (egkrateia) “self-control,” from a word meaning “to be strong in a thing, masterful.” “The various powers bestowed by God upon men are capable of abuse, the right use demands the controlling power of the will under the operation of the Spirit of God.” Vine.

Note that there are nine more “Works of the Flesh” than there are “Fruit of the Spirit!” Resisting the wrong requires less than doing the wrong! There are less “fruit” than “works” because fewer are required! If you let these things abound in you, you will be well on your way to Christian maturity. Let the fruit grow!! Cultivate it in your life! Water it with the water of the Word! (Ephesians 5:26)

A Word In Due Season Newsletter (March 1991)

This month we will be considering the Greek words used in the list of the “Works of the Flesh” in Galatians 5:19-21. We are not to be involved in the works of the flesh, but rather are to be bearing the “Fruit of the Spirit,” which we will cover next month..

Remember, fruit grows in a Christians’ life. As the saying goes, “A Christian is not perfect, just forgiven!” While we are forgiven, and are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus (II Corinth. 5:17-21), as Christians, we are to not let the things listed below to be once named among us. (Eph. 5:3) That is, as believers we need to set a high standard for our lives and live as God desires us to live…holy, set apart to Him.

He told us, “Be ye holy, for I am holy.” (I Peter 1:15) He would not tell us to do this if it were not possible! But lets keep in mind it is only possible through His power and strength (Phil. 4:13), not in our own!

Adultery: (moichia) “adultery, voluntary sexual intercourse between a married man and someone who is not his wife, or a married woman and someone who is not her husband.”

Fornication: (porneia) “harlotry, from a word meaning, “to indulge in unlawful lust”, also means, “sexual intercourse between unmarried people.” This word is also the root word for the English word “pornography.”

Uncleanness: (akatharsia) “impurity,” from a word meaning “impure or lewd.”

Lasciviousness: (aselgeia) “licentiousness, lacking legal or moral restraints, to disregard sexual restraints, to lack control.”

Idolatry: (eidololatreia) “image-worship,” that is, to worship anything other than God, as a god, especially in regard to physical things.

Witchcraft: (pharmakeia) “medication, drugs,” only by extension does it mean “magic” as well, use of drugs to induce a non-natural, or altered mind state, often was used in Biblical times as a form of “magic.” The English word “pharmacy” is derived from this word.

Hatred: (echthra) “hostility, opposition,” the feminine form of “echthros,” or, “to hate, hateful, odious, hostile, an adversary,” especially used to describe satan!

Variance: (eris) “to quarrel, wrangling.”

Emulations: (zelos) “zeal, jealousy, malice,” from a word meaning “to glow hotly!”

Wrath: (thumos) “passion, as in breathing hard,” comes from a word meaning “to kill in slaughter.”

Strife: (eritheia) “intrigue, factions,” from a word meaning, “to stimulate or provoke.”

Seditions: (dichostasia) “disunion, dissension,” from words meaning “to have two positions, to have an uprising.”

Heresies: (hairesis) “to choose as a party or group, disunion.” Comes from a word “to take for oneself (an opinion), to prefer.”

Envyings: (phthoneo) “to be jealous of,” from a word meaning, “ill will, Jealousy, spite.”

Murders: (phonos) “to murder, to slay.”

Drunkenness: (methe) “to be intoxicated.” Drinking alcohol to the point that senses are effected. The word “methanol” is derived from this word.

Revellings: (komos) “carousal,” that is, literally meaning, “letting loose!” Comes from a word meaning “to lie outstretched.”

The Greek goes on to say that those that do (“prasso” in the Greek, meaning “practice, perform repeatedly, or habitually”, therefore differing from “poieo“, meaning “a single act”) these things shall not inherit the kingdom of God! Next month we will see what kind of Fruit we should be bearing as believers!

A Word in Due Season Newsletter (February 1991)

We believe that we understand what is meant by “love.” It is a small, four letter word in English. However, the Greek use of “love” is many and varied. In English we say, “I love my wife,” “I love my cat,” and, “I love peanut butter.” One would hope that you really mean something different in each of those examples! The Greek language separates “love” into different words to avoid this confusion. And it is instructive to us to see which word is being used in any given point in the Word of God.

There are four unique Greek words for love according to Greek scholar Kenneth Wuest. Of these four words, only three are used in the New Testament, those being the first three listed here, which we will call the “higher forms” of love.

Agape – “The attitude of God toward His Son, the human race generally, and to those that believe on His Son.” (W.E. Vine)

This what we call the “God kind of Love.” As Wuest points out, it is interesting to note that the early Greeks did not even use this form of the word love, that is “agape”. They used “agapan” and then only rarely, The form “agape” was coined by the New Testament writers to express the unique type of love that God has, a love that would die even for His enemies. Wuest, explaining how the New Testament writers derived this form of the word, says, “It (agape) conveyed the ideas of astonishment, wonder, admiration, and approbation when connected with the word ‘agamai’ which meant to wonder at, or admire.” Agape is used in: John 3:16, John 17:26 and John 14:21.

Phileo – “Represents more of a tender affection.” (W.E. Vine) “..a love that has its basis in pleasurableness, and the glow of the heart kindled…the perception that it is the object loved which affords one pleasure.” (Wuest) We would call this the love of a friend. Phileo is used in: Hebrews 13:1, John 5:20, John 20:2.

Storge – “To like or prefer one thing over another.” “A love that has its basis in one’s own nature.” (Wuest) We would use this to “love” peanut butter. We are really saying that we like peanut butter and prefer it over something else simply because of our inherent nature. Storge is only used in its negated sense in the New Testament. It is negated by the Greek letter “Alpha,” that is, “Astorge.” Astorge is translated in the KJV as “without natural affection,” in Romans 1:31 and II Timothy 3:3.

Eros – “Sexual attraction or passion.” The English word “erotic” is derived from this Greek word. This word is not used in the New Testament, yet it is what the world would usually have us believe “love” is! Actually it is a very low, physical form of love. It is important in the context of marriage and only then, but it is still subordinate to the higher forms of love.

This month, when so many are talking about love, let’s remember that it was God that first loved us (I John 4:19), and share his love with the world as ministers of reconciliation! (II Corinth. 5:17-21)

A Word in Due Season Newsletter (October 1990)

As a good Baptist teen-ager I felt that there had to be something supernatural, something beyond our normal “human” abilities to life. I had enough spiritual insight to know that there was “something” supernatural available to mankind, but not enough to know what! I was totally ignorant of God’s supernatural, that is, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, healing and the miraculous. My church taught that all of God’s supernatural had been done away with, and we were left assuming God had “gotten tired” or something. To me as a young Baptist lad, the Holy Spirit was an “it”, not a “He!” (The Holy Spirit IS, of course, a “He!”) However, due to this desire for something supernatural in my life, I was pulled into a study of the “scientific” aspects of the occult. Or, at least, I thought they were scientific! The word, “occult”, by the way, simply means “strange” or “unknown.” It is not the same as the word, “cult,” which means a group that follows a leader blindly and has unorthodox doctrines. There are, of course, cults that practice occult practices, but the two words mean two different things.

I reasoned, at the time, that perhaps there were unknown abilities and powers that man may have that we are not familiar with, such as, telepathy, or mind-to-mind communication, psychokenesis, the supposed moving of physical objects with the mind, etc. At the same time as I was “experimenting” with these things, I was attending church every Sunday, I held various offices in the church… in short, I was a “good little Christian!” I had then, as I have today, a great respect for God’s Word… but I was ignorant. But, Praise God! Ignorance can be cured! After buying many books on the so-called “paranormal,” and spending several years dedicated to studying such things, I found some Scriptures one day that made me “drop it like a hot rock!” Look with me at Deuteronomy 18:10-12. I have expanded, in parentheses, the Hebrew meanings of the words from my study:

“There shall not he found among you any one that maketh his son or daughter to pass through the fire (human sacrifice), or that useth divination (casts lots, or other means to “divine” information, this would include so called “water witching”, or “divining”), or an observer of times (several meanings here…one meaning is being a member of a “secret society” having “special, or secret knowledge”, another meaning is one who plots the course of planets, stars, in time and space to foretell events, or… Astrology. By the way, God says, speaking of those that the children of Israel turned to rather than God, that the “Astrologers… shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame.” See Isaiah 47:12-14,) or an enchanter (this means to hiss, or whisper, as in a spell, to prognosticate, or try to foretell the future,) or a witch (to whisper or enchant a spell), or a charmer (again, several meanings, one denotes a member of a secret society, another, one who uses some means to “fascinate”, or in modern day usage “hypnotize” a subject,) or a consulter with familiar spirits (to inquire, request of, or demand from a “familiar” spirit, or a spirit that you have a special “rapport” with, today sometimes known as “channeling.” The “spirits” in these cases are demonic spirits satan is sending to deceive people,) or a wizard (a “knowing one,” a conjurer, one possessing special supernatural powers, such as telepathy, psychokenesis, etc.,) or a necromancer (to seek, to ask of, and thereby to worship, the dead). For all that do these things are an abomination (something that literally, in the Hebrew, “stinks in the nostrils” of God!) unto the Lord: and because of these abominations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee.”

You can imagine my reaction! I was amazed! Here was the Bible, that I respected so much, telling me that the activities that I was involved with, such as hypnosis, telepathy, etc. were abominations to God, and that those that did these things actually STINK in God’s nostrils! I wanted the sweet odor of my praise in his nostrils, not the stink of the occult! Yet no one had told me it was wrong! Well, it didn’t take me long to repent! I did just what the people in the Book of Acts (Acts 19:19-20) that practiced the occult did, I brought all my occult books together and burned them! And as with them, the Word of God grew mightily in me and prevailed!

You can see now why I don’t take the occult, or its yearly celebration, Halloween, as a light thing. “Halloween” is a contraction of “All Hallows Eve”, or “All Saint’s Day,” which is a holiday invented by the Catholic Church in medieval times to try and get the people that followed the arcane witchcraft religion of the Druids to celebrate a “Christian” festival during this time of year, rather than their Autumnal celebration to appease the “earth spirits.” The druids believed that the earthly elements had spirits associated with them, and to be assured a good harvest they would do human sacrifice to appease the spirits. From the memory of these evil practices came “trick or treat”… originally, one was to leave a gift to appease the evil spirits that roamed on the festival night, or the spirits were supposed to visit them with death and destruction of their property. Satan comes to “steal, kill and destroy.” (John 10:10) Have you ever wondered why there is so much destruction at Halloween? The “glorifying” and celebrating of this time is the closest thing to worship of demonic spirits as modern man gets! No wonder these spiritual forces are “loosed” in many peoples lives to have a “heyday” and spur some people to destructive behavior!

I have been asked, “Should Christians celebrate Halloween?” Think about this! It is like asking, “Should we celebrate the devil’s activities?” No, a thousand times, no! I find it interesting that there are many organizations that try and stop the public celebration of Jesus’ birth. Yet, while Christmas is a time that brings thoughts of peace on earth to Christian and non-Christian alike, no one condemns, opposes or speaks out against Halloween! Yet, the very “spirit” of those involved in its activities is one of evil, greedy, selfish and destructive behavior. Witchcraft (or Wicca) is by definition of its own practitioners a religion, Satanism has IRS Section 53 tax exempt status… why aren’t these organizations trying to ban its mention in our public schools?

I didn’t write this article to “rant and rave”… but to inform you about issues that we as believers face every day!