The JUDGMENT SEAT Of CHRIST – PART 1 of 3

By Lambert Dolphin

The Bema is mentioned in two contexts in Acts and in the Epistles. One use of the word bema was to describe the reviewing stand where competing athletes in a race were evaluated and rewarded by a panel of judges:

“Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.” (1 Corinthians 9:24-27)

The second use of “bema” in the New Testament is in connection with Roman rule over conquered peoples. The Roman overlords interfered as little as possible in domestic affairs, considering themselves morally superior to the pagans under them. They appointed governors with on-site jurisdiction, and in major cities they erected outdoor law courts where a visiting Procurator could visit periodically to mediate and enforce Rome’s absolutes. Several interesting situations confirming the civic center bema are recorded in the New Testament. The most notable example is in Acts 18.

Read more!

GENESIS – An Expositional Overview of the Beginning of God’s Revelation: Chapter TWELVE

Contributing commentaries by Sonny Islas and James Fire

Chapter Twelve – by Sonny Islas

Commentary on GENESIS by Ray Stedman 

GENESIS 12:1-3
Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: ² And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: ³ And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

GENESIS 1:1
Now the Lord had said to Abram: "Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you".

• It seems as though God called Abram when he was in Haran but ACTS 7:2 says,
  “The God of glory appeared [God paid Abram a glorious personal visit] to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia [a region that covered both Babylon and Ur], before he dwelt in Haran,”

Read more!

GENESIS – An Expositional Overview of the Beginning of God’s Revelation: Chapter ELEVEN

Contributing commentaries by Sonny Islas and James Fire

Chapter Eleven – by James Fire

The Table of Nations – by Lambert Dolphin (GEN 10-11)

Commentary on GENESIS by Ray Stedman 

To watch the video of this teaching, taught at ETERNAL LIVING WORD Church, go here.

GENESIS 11:1-32 

Here we have the account of the Tower of Babel, the scattering of the unified people of the Earth, the division of languages, and the immediate ancestors of Abram and Sarai, that we come to know as Abraham and Sarah.

GENESIS 11:1-2
1 And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. 2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.

The entire population of the Earth at this time spoke the same language, shared the same vocabulary and written words. The power of a unified means of communication, along with the life-span of people, spanning hundreds of years (imagine how much knowledge and experience you could gather if you lived for 500 years or so!), is not to be underestimated.

We think of mankind in his early days as being primitive, but it was not at all the case. 

Mankind was created with profound intelligence – Adam possessed enough intelligence and creativity that he could name every creature on God’s Earth. Cain had enough ingenuity that he built, not a village or a town, but an entire city!

The people came to Shinar, later known as the region of Mesopotamia, and today the area covering mostly the country of Iraq.

GENESIS 11:3-4
3 And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter. 4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.

Read more!

The TTUF STUDY on The REVELATION of JESUS CHRIST – Chapter SIX: Part One

~ By James Fire

Before we venture into Chapter 6 and forward, we do well to remember the perspective of this book, and the meaning behind it. The Revelation of Jesus Christ entails everything about Him as the Second Person of the Trinity, the LORD JESUS: OUR KINSMAN REDEEMER, the LAMB of GOD as well as OUR AVENGER of BLOOD, The LION of JUDAH as well as the HOLY JUDGE of the whole Earth. 

For two thousand years, beginning with His earthly ministry that lasted in all likelihood about 3 years, testifying to the nation of Israel His people, and shortly after His resurrection, to be heralded to the Gentile nations by the apostles, as the Messiah of Israel, and LORD and Savior of all, people have heard the witness of the Risen Christ and His Gospel.

Yet He was (initially and up until this present time) rejected by His own nation (JOHN 1:11), and while the church grew with astounding rapidity among the Gentiles, the preponderance of the peoples of the Earth likewise rejected Him.

In each generation it is accounted as the greatest of tragedies, that people in the vast majority reject salvation in Christ; this supreme offering of grace by the Father, in sacrificing His own beloved and only begotten Son – His Holy and Righteous name being trodden down as an unclean thing:

HEBREWS 10:29
Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?

Read more!