B.A.S.I.C. NEWSLETTER #12

B.A.S.I.C. NEWSLETTER #12
July 5, 2003

I Cor. 16:9  For a great and effective door has opened to me, and there are many
adversaries.

HERMENEUTICS (continued)
Outline and Notes for Hermeneutics on the Fifteen “Principles of Interpretation”
Principle #2
God has given us the Holy Scriptures so that we may all hear in our own languages the wonderful words and works of God.  He uses our human language and terms to reveal to us His will.  He speaks to us as a loving Father does to His dear children.

At times the imagery is rich with ‘streets of gold’ and ‘gates of pearl’.  In this use of precious gold and pearls, the Lord in Revelation would have us treasure Heaven and look forward to our eternal life there.

God also speaks to us anthropomorphically, that is He discribes Himself in Human terms. The ‘face of God’ and the ‘arm of the Lord’ are two such terms.  God is a Spirit and  has no face.  We mean by this term that God knows all and sees all. The ‘arm of the Lord’ describes His great strength and even in certain passages refers to Jesus who  won the victory for us through His great power and might.

The Holy Spirit used the language of the different writers.  Amos was a farmer and  livestock man.  When he describes Israel as a ‘stubborn heifer’, it is the Holy Spirit  using the human language of the writer.  Illustrations and idioms of the times of the writer are freely used.

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SINGULAR TEACHINGS
Rapture – There are Christians who teach a rapture, this is that Christians depart  this earth before the judgment. They try to use Matt. 24:40-41 to show this.  In those verses it is stated “one is taken and one is left.”  The context of that is in v. 36 “that day” the judgment day.  At the end God separates the sheep from the goats, Matt. 25:32, Matt. 24:40-41 is simply briefly what our Lord explains in detail in Matt. 25:31-45.  First He gathers the sheep to His right, “one is taken”, there is a separation.  Then He gathers the others, that is the others described as “one is taken” and one is left.

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Missionary Koenig asks your prayers for safe travels and God-pleasing visits as He goes to the following areas.
July 15-Oct. 16th – with the BELC and CLCI in India
Oct. 17-Oct. 29th – with the ELCC in Congo
Oct. 29-Nov. 15th – with the ECLC and LCEA in Kenya
Nov. 29           – a couple days in Togo and Ghana
After that, arrive back in Nigeria for several months.

In Christian love,

Pastor Koenig