B.A.S.I.C. NEWSLETTER #22

B.A.S.I.C. NEWSLETTER #22
November 29, 2003

A door for effective work has opened, but there are many adversaries.

PRAYER ALERT – I have just visited with Pastor Gideon in Ghana.  His wife Patricia is still alive, and suffering with her serious disease.  She is up north in Ghana with their young son, at her mother’s village.  Pastor Gideon is going up there next week to see his wife and son.  Keep his little family in your prayers.  May God grant her longer life for her husband and son or may He take her home soon to end her suffering.  We rely on His gracious will.

NOTICE – You may remember that while I was in India, I had asked you to pray for Sardar Masih in Pakistan, which was for strength for him to bear up in his faith in that Muslim land and  for him to be able to come down to Chennai, India to meet over God’s Word.  It evidently was not God’s will for him to meet.  And now he has informed me that he has decided to go to England, evidently supported by a Christian mission, to work for the Lord in a different mission organization than with us.  His family is also evidently going with him

DECEMBER NEWSLETTER – The first one in December will come to you from Pastor Karl  Stewart.
Some of you in Nigeria, Ghana and Togo met him last spring on his visit.  He has done mission work in Togo before and appreciated his opportunity to visit with the brethren in Africa.

SECOND OVERSEAS MISSIONARY – The CLC Mission Board has called Pastor Matthew Gurath to work together with me overseas.  Pastor Gurath has accepted the call and is now beginning to prepare to make his trip to live in Nigeria.  His wife’s name is Priscilla and their son is Jed.
During his first year he will be getting acquainted with the work.  He will seek residency in Nigeria and will be traveling according to the need and the Mission Board’s approval. It is hoped that during this first year he will make the trip with me to India, Congo, Tanzania, Kenya, Togo and Ghana.  Let us all pray that the Lord works things out smoothly for his arrival in Nigeria and settling in before he begins to travel.  More information will be given as things develop to allow you to give prayers of thanks and praise to God and appeals for His further aid.

PRINCIPLE OF INTERPRETATION
How To Understand Figurative Parts of Scripture  #15
A parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning.  An allegory teaches a moral lesson in terms of an historical incident.  Gal. 4:21-31.  A ‘type’ is for instance an Old Testament person or thing that represents someone or something in the New Testament.  Jesus is represented by so many types:  Melchizedec, OT sacrifices, Moses (Deut. 18:15), the scape goat, etc.

A parable uses the word ‘like’ or ‘as’ in comparison, which allows one to see it is a parable. The parables compare the Kingdom of God so often.  A metaphor is a comparison using the word ‘is’.  Jesus says He is the ‘door’ of the sheepfold, for instance.  A paradox is an assertion which seems contradictory, Is. 1:18.  A hyperbole is an exaggeration for an effect. Mt. 19:24. A synecdoche uses a part for the whole or the whole for the part.  Mt. 4:4.  In the 4th petition ‘we’ means more than ‘bread’, there using the part for the whole.  In prophecy we have the Messianic prophecies about the person of the Messiah and His work as in Is. 53 and 42. There are also prophecies of the end of the world in the positive as in Ez. 37 and in the  negative in Rev. 6:1-8.

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This concludes a brief summary of many hermeneutic (interpretation) principles.  While there is so much more to study, this series of fifteen has sought to give capsule summaries of the most important.  Many of you have received either a textbook on hermeneutics or a TEE course on it  from us.  We study to show ourselves approved, rightly handling the Word of God that we are not ashamed of our labor for Him.

After the first BASIC from Pastor Stewart in December, we will have a series of eight articles on you our eight sister churches and fields of labor that we support from the CLC-USA.

As we enter the Advent season and prepare to celebrate the Christ’s birth, may God increase your knowledge and faith in Him.

Pastor D. Koenig