PREDESTINATION

Paul wrote some amazingly wonderful things in the Book of Ephesians. In the first chapter, particularly, we are led to rejoice at the wonderful gift of salvation. We have received all spiritual blessings through Christ (Ephesians 1:3). It is here that Paul says God “chose us in Christ prior to the foundation of the world…having predestined us to adoption as children through Jesus Christ to Himself” (1:4-5).

This is great news. It is something to rejoice about. It means that those who are lost can be saved. But does it teach that your personal salvation was determined by an active choice of God in eternity past, before you were even born? Which would logically mean that it is not YOUR choice in the matter that is involved? Definitely not.

While I certainly am not the judge of John Calvin the man, he should not be celebrated as a responsible Bible student or teacher in the overall matter of the things that he taught. He took that position, that we are irreversibly chosen by God to salvation or damnation, before we were born. The Westminster Confession of Faith—which seems to be more influential in some Presbyterian and Reformed circles than the Bible is—does the same.

The Presbyterian Westminster Confession of Faith stated: “By the decree of God, for the manifestation of His glory, some men and angels are predestinated unto everlasting life, and others foreordained to everlasting death.”

Now, many do not like the term “free will” and I understand why. The will of man is never completely free. We are never completely free from things influencing our decisions. But human personal responsibility is something the Bible teaches plainly. And such a ridiculous statement as that which is made by The Westminster Confession denies any form of human responsibility, whether its adherents accept that conclusion or not.

If someone has their salvation determined for them from eternity past, before they were even born, then there is absolutely no reason to preach the Gospel to anybody. This is totally nonsensical.

The Calvinist will answer that we should preach the Gospel because the Bible says to and the command is sufficient. But the Bible does not give commands to disciples of Jesus that are arbitrary and make no sense and fly in the face of anything logical of which one can conceive. If the elect have been chosen to be saved in the sense that Calvinism teaches they have, then they are going to be saved.

Why should one be motivated to get out and try to tell people about Jesus if the elect are coming to Him regardless? Even if I share the Gospel with the lost because I am “commanded” to do it, whether I understand why or not, I am certainly not going to have the same passion and enthusiasm for trying to convince people to accept Christ if I believe the elect are coming to Him no matter what.

Paul spent time reasoning with people and debating people and trying to get them to accept Jesus (Acts 9:22; 17:3, 23-31; 13:23, 13:32–33, 39; 19:8; 28:23). He said, “Knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men” (2 Corinthians 5:11). Persuade them to what? Be saved? Being saved is equivalent to being one of the elect, biblically speaking. So Paul was persuading people to “become” one of the elect.

Therefore, election cannot mean what the Calvinist says that it means. Because in their view, the decree of God concerning the elect cannot be changed. If “the elect” are going to heaven no matter what, then why would we even need preachers at all?

One cannot get around the fact that Ephesians chapter one, one of the most celebrated texts among Calvinists, repeatedly talks about being “in Christ” (vv. 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 12, 13, and 14). In Christ. In Christ. If someone did not have “help” from the Calvinist, and they just read Ephesians 1 honestly from the heart, they would come away with no such notions as the idea that God has determined ahead of time which individuals will be saved and which ones will be lost. To say that God alone made that decision for you is a fine imitation of heresy if it is not heresy.

God chose that those in Christ would be saved, but who makes the decision about who is in Christ? Who decides whether or not you, as an individual, will be “in Christ”? Did God make that decision for you? Or do you have to decide to accept Christ for yourself to be “in Christ”? That is the question that will separate Calvinism from the Gospel.

In Galatians 3:26-27, Paul makes it clear that we are in Christ if we have faith in Christ and are baptized because of that faith. We are in a relationship with Christ. “You are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus,” he writes. All who put their faith in Christ are “in Christ.” Roman 6:3-4 says that through faith in the death and resurrection of Christ, we are “in Christ.”

We can close this ridiculous case by asking one question. Does everyone have the freedom to choose whether or not they will be in Christ? Whether or not they will put faith in Christ? If you will not sign your name to the following statement: “God has given everyone the freedom to choose whether or not they will put faith in Jesus Christ,” then you are not preaching the Gospel. You don’t even understand the Gospel. Calvinism is not the Gospel. And not to be unfriendly, but you should be ashamed to refuse to say that God loves everyone and everyone who chooses to put faith in Christ will be saved.

So clearly, this is how it should be viewed: God decided to save sinners. We do not deserve to be saved. We do not earn salvation. God “elected” that He would save sinners and “predestined” them to be saved. It was a loving decision made from the heart of God, who is full of mercy and love. He did not elect individuals to be saved or lost, but He elected that those who put their trust in Jesus will be saved, in spite of the fact that they are sinners.

So we as a group have been “chosen” to be saved, and that group is made up of those who are “in Christ.” In Christ, we are saved because God elected it to be that way. Salvation was not just a concept that drifted around and happened on its own. God decided on the plan of salvation. And anyone who wants to be in that group of people, those who are “in Christ,” can be a part of that group. Anyone.

If you want to be one of the “elect” then choose to accept Christ. God has lovingly predestined that those who do will receive eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

                       Bryan Dewayne Dunaway

THE DEITY OF JESUS

To believe in the Jesus of the Bible is to accept what the Bible says about Him, whether we understand it fully or not. True Christianity teaches that Jesus is God. He is not God the Father, He is God the Son. But the deity of Jesus is a fundamental, basic Christian doctrine that the Bible teaches many times. God became man. That is the good news of Christianity.

In two of the most amazing and yet mysterious texts, the inspired apostle Paul writes of Jesus that “in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead in human form” (Colossians 2:9), and that He was “in the form of God” yet took on humanity (Philippians 2:6-7). These are references to the incarnation—the fact that God became flesh and lived among us. He lived a human life as a man. Because humanity had messed up our lives so badly, He came to do for us what we could never do for ourselves.

The man who is presented in the Gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John was more than just a mere human. He is presented as “God in the flesh” repeatedly. Only God has power over the natural order, and yet Jesus demonstrated authority over nature (Matthew 8:26-27). His power and authority caused even His disciples to ask, “What kind of man is this that even the winds and the waves obey Him?” God created the universe and all things in it and only God controls such things.

Jesus also demonstrated His authority to forgive sins. The religious leaders asked, “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (Luke 5:21).  And that is a good question. No mere human can forgive people’s sins. If you sin AGAINST ME, and ask for forgiveness, I can forgive you for what you did to me. But only God can forgive someone’s entire sinful life. And that is what Jesus claimed the ability to do and worked miracles to prove that He had the authority to do (Matthew 9:6).

Jesus has always existed. He did not “begin” when He was born or conceived as a human. He is from everlasting to everlasting (Micah 5:2). John’s Gospel begins by telling us about the eternal existence of Jesus: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. Everything was made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made" (John 1:1-3). Notice that not only does John say Jesus was there from the beginning, but that He created all things. Only God is our creator. So Jesus is God.

When we say that Jesus is God, we do not mean that He is God the Father. He is God the Son. Their unique unity and relationship is beyond our current ability to understand and grasp fully. But Jesus Himself claimed unity, divine unity, with the Father. He said, “I am one with my Father” (John 10:30). Those who heard Him knew exactly what He was claiming (John 10:33). He was claiming to be God.

When Jesus said that before Abraham existed, “I AM” in John 8:58, that was the equivalent of claiming to be Jehovah God. Because when Moses was being sent by God to deliver the Israelites from their bondage in Egypt, Moses asked, “Whom shall I say has sent me to go?” And God answered from the burning bush, tell them “I AM” has sent you. So God identified Himself as “I AM” in Exodus 3:14. And Jesus identified Himself as I AM. Again, those who heard Him wanted to kill Him for saying this. They understood exactly what He was claiming.

Another thing that must be considered is that Jesus allowed people to worship Him. Angels did not (Revelation 22:8-9; 19:10). The apostles did not (Acts 10:25-26; Acts 14:14-15). But Jesus did. Only God is worthy of worship (Matthew 14:33, 28:9; John 9:38). Yet, when Thomas declared “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28), Jesus did not rebuke Him, but accepted the praise and the worship. Because He IS our Lord and our God. Jesus also accepts praise and worship in John’s Book of Revelation (Revelation 5:12).

If you want the highest authority possible that Jesus is God, then all you need to do is believe the word of God the Father. God the Father says that Jesus, His Son, is God, too. To Jesus, the Father said, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever” (Hebrews 1:8). If God the Father calls Him God, then you and I should certainly call Him God.

Again, Jesus is God the Son, not God the Father, but He and the Father are one in ways we do not fully understand. Jesus is the “exact representation of His glory and the exact representation of His person” (Hebrews 1:3).

You simply cannot appreciate who it was who saved you without recognizing that Jesus is God. The Gospel teaches that God became man to save us. Jesus was not a created being. He was not a glorified angel. He is the eternal I AM. He is Jehovah God. And we should know that He is “our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus” (Titus 2:13). God is our Savior. Our Savior is God.

Only God created the world, and only God can sustain the world. Jesus did both of those things and does the sustaining even now. The reason the world exists and continues to exist is because God upholds it with His power (Hebrews 1:3). And it is Jesus who created it and sustains it. (Colossians 1:16-17).

An ordinary man cannot die for other’s sins because all ordinary men are sinners themselves. The fact that Jesus became human and died on the Cross, meaning that God became a man and died for our salvation, is crucial to appreciating what salvation is all about. He can reconcile us to God the Father because He is God the Son. God Himself gave Himself to reconcile us to Himself (Colossians 1:20).

The hope of the Gospel is tied to recognizing and celebrating Jesus as the God-man. That Jesus is God and God came to save us. Love Christ, serve Christ and worship Christ. He is our Lord and our God.

                     Bryan Dewayne Dunaway

THE HUMANITY OF JESUS

The Gospel of Jesus Christ teaches that there was a man named Jesus who once lived on this earth, who was actually God in the flesh (John 1:1-3, 14). This man came to live in a human body as a man to do for us what we could not do for ourselves. Our salvation was the purpose of His entrance into the world.

Down through the centuries, some have claimed that God only took the visual “appearance” of a man, but the Bible teaches that He was made like us in every way (Hebrews 2:17). He came into the world as a child. He was born from the womb of a woman. And, interestingly and significantly—although also mysteriously (i.e., we don’t understand how God in the flesh transformed)—Jesus grew and “increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with both God and man,” the way any other child would (Luke 2:52).

The fact that Jesus was truly human is easy to demonstrate from the Scriptures in a variety of ways. He did not star in a play or in a movie. He wasn’t acting. He was a real human being, just like we are, only He was without sin. He knows what it is like to be physically hungry (Matthew 4:2). He got tired from walking in the sun and had to sit down and rest (John 4:6). At the Cross, He cried out, “I am thirsty” (John 19:28). These are all human experiences. He really was human in every sense of the word.

The Bible describes Jesus as putting on “flesh and blood” in an absolute sense. He experienced all of the problems that go with living a human life on earth (Hebrews 2:14). His humanness was not a costume. It was a permanent identification with those whom He created (Philippians 2:7). He came to be like us so that we can be like Him (2 Corinthians 5:17).

When we consider the humanity of Jesus, we must also be aware of the fact that we are not just talking about being human in a strictly physical sense. Emotionally, He had the same battles that we have. The range of emotions that living in this world brings to everyone, Jesus experienced. The shortest verse in the English Bible says that “Jesus wept” (John 11:35). He had lost one of His closest friends in Lazarus, and at the tomb, He wept with Lazarus’s sisters. Why? Because He felt the grief and disappointment that humans feel in situations like that (John 11:33-35). The Bible also tells us that He was “deeply moved and troubled in spirit” when faced with the extreme amount of sorrow He encountered in this life (John 11:38).

While Jesus did not get angry in the way that sinners do, He did experience that emotion, as well. His was a righteous anger, but it was anger nonetheless when He saw people abusing others in the temple of His Father (Matthew 21:12-13). In the Garden of Gethsemane, He also felt overwhelming sorrow that caused Him to sweat blood. He said, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death” (Matthew 26:38).

These things do not present a “robotic angel” sent from heaven. These are the experiences of a real man who can serve as our High Priest because He can “sympathize with our weaknesses,” being “in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). To think that the Son of God would choose such an existence, would choose to go through so much physical suffering, and to do so for the sole purpose of its culmination in death for our sins, is truly amazing to consider.

One thing we learn from the life of Jesus here on earth is His perfection. Even though He was fully human, He also lived a perfect life. There is mystery surrounding how He did that and we do not have to understand it in order to appreciate it and be thankful for it. Because He did it for us. He died for us. He lived perfectly for us. He is our perfect example, and there is much that we learn from Him human life about living.

He did not depend on superhuman powers to live for God. He depended on God just like we must do. He got alone by Himself to pray and seek His relationship with the Father (Luke 5:16). He made the choice to put God’s will above His own, stating in His prayer in Gethsemane, “Not as I will, but as you will” (Matthew 26:39).

Indeed, He was God in the flesh, fully human and fully divine. That is the mystery of the Incarnation, and while we do not understand it, we can be aware of and appreciative of the fact that He did not use His divinity to live a charmed life. God the Father did not make things “easy” for His Son, and Jesus did not use His powers to do that either (Matthew 4:3-4).

Rather, He humbled Himself and was “obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8). By doing so, He showed us what a life lived in radical dedication to God looks like and He serves as our model for the radical way in which we should live in submission to the will of God (Hebrews 5:8-9).

Jesus relates to humans because of His humanity. In Christ, we have a Savior who is divine, and, therefore, can represent God to us. But He is also human and can represent us to God. Because He was a real human being who lived a life of love and sacrifice, He is “not ashamed to call us brothers and sisters” (Hebrews 2:11). It was for all of humanity that He lived and died. He took on human flesh to suffer, to bleed, to die as a sacrifice for our sins so that we could be reconciled to God, and live eternally with Him in heaven (Hebrews 2:17). The “man Christ Jesus” is the one and only mediator between God and humanity (1 Timothy 2:5). We need no other mediator and we have no other mediator. Jesus alone is the one.

Jesus took our sins and our brokenness for the purpose of healing it. He did not come to condemn us(John 3:17). He came to save and help us. Through sacrificial love and commitment, by being willing to live and die as a human being, He showed His great compassion for us so that He could bring us to God and we could be what we need to be. Everything He did as a human being, He did to help the rest of us (Hebrews 2:14, 18). What amazing love!

The Bible describes Him as a faithful and merciful High Priest, representing us to God, bringing us to God, and offering the help that we need to get through this life. We cannot say that He does not understand. He understands how difficult the journey of human life is because He chose to take part in it. And He did it all to help us (Hebrews 4:15-16).

Jesus is the Son of God and the Son of man. He is the God-man who came into this world to bring us to Jesus. Let us bow our knees in humble adoration and praise and thanksgiving for what God has done for us through the human life of Jesus.

                      Bryan Dewayne Dunaway

CONCERNED WITH WHAT JESUS THINKS

There is a certain way that believers are to live and conduct themselves as representatives of God on earth.

If we believe, we will behave. If we love Him, we will live for Him. In other words, our lives will always follow the things that we have in our minds. If Jesus is our focus, then pleasing Him and living for Him will be the focus of our lives.

Jesus asked in Luke 6:46, “Why do you call me, Lord, Lord, and not do what I tell you?” If He is Lord, then that means He is in control. He is to be the one who directs our steps. We are to live under and by His authority.

The authority of Christ means that He speaks and we obey. We are not here to question Him, we are to obey Him. We are to love Him enough to serve Him out of a heart of appreciation. We are members of His family, and we are to honor the family name.

Paul said this very thing to Timothy: “I am writing this so that you will know how you must live as a member of God’s household” (1 Timothy 3:15). How could being adopted into the family of God not affect every aspect of our lives? How could it not determine the way that we choose to live?

The thing that separated the way Christ lived and the way everyone else has ever lived is that He did everything to please His Father. Every single moment of every single day, that was His mission. To obey God.

Pleasing God was His only concern. He was not concerned with the opinions of men. He did not concern Himself with His reputation in the eyes of the world.

He was focused like a laser on obeying His Father. On the things of heaven. On the things that really matter. He wanted to be pleasing to God. Because He loved God. That’s what love for God will always seek to do.

This is what Christ will produce in us. If we love Him and trust His power to work in our lives, we will have this same kind of focus. Paul said that Christ lives in us (Galatians 2:20), which is a way of saying that we are to surrender the way we live to the way Christ lived. His power is there to make us what we need to be.

With Christ in us, we will not be “pleasing men, but God who tests our hearts” (1 Thessalonians 2:4). You cannot do both, and yet there is always that constant struggle within us. We spend more time thinking about what people think than about what God thinks. And that is sad for so many reasons.

God created us and He has been there the entire time. We owe everything to Him. As far as life and salvation and everything that we have, we owe no one but God.

God has also proven that He cares about us. Some people do, but most people don’t. And even those who do cannot possibly care like God does.

It is sad indeed to think about the fact that people who do not even like you get more of your attention than God. Pleasing people is a waste of time.

Someone can start one rumor and have a multitude of people thinking negatively about you. And then that reputation that you worked so hard for and that meant so much to you is gone in a minute.

But God has already decided how He feels about you. And your mistakes do not change that. He has already determined to love you.

This is why He should have our attention. He should have the focus of our lives. But we spend more time thinking about what others think and say about us than we do about what God thinks.

Learn to live your life for an audience of one—the one being Christ Jesus. Live only to please Him, because He is the one who is going to be with you every step of the way.

He is the one who has never let you down and is never going to let you down. He will never lie to you, never judge you unfairly, never turn on you. He never goes based on hearsay. If your heart is right before Him, then you are pleasing Him.

That is what He thinks of you. And that should be all that matters. And by choosing to focus on Him, that will be all that matters.

      Bryan Dewayne Dunaway

THE MARK OF THE BEAST

Many speculative interpretations have been given to the Bible’s teaching about the “Mark of the Beast” found in Revelation 13. This writer is convinced that it was a symbol.

The Book of Revelation is set forth in “signs and symbols.” Of this there can be no dispute. It is not to be read with wooden literalism. The Greek word translated “signified” or “communicated” in the first verse literally means to set forth in signs and symbols. So the first verse of Revelation reveals how to read and interpret it.

The book even makes explicit reference to its symbolic nature. Revelation 12:1-18 expressly says that “A great SIGN appeared” referring to the woman and the dragon. In Revelation 1:20, John himself interprets the “seven lampstands” for us by revealing that they represented the seven churches to whom Revelation was written. They were not literal lampstands. This is symbolic literature. You don’t read symbolism the same way that you read historical narrative like the Book of Acts or the Gospel of John. That must be kept in mind when you read Revelation.

Some people think they have figured out all of the signs and symbols, but no one has with absolute certainty. The Book of Revelation was written FOR us, but it was not written TO us. It was written to first century believers—specifically seven churches in Asia (Revelation 1-3). Therefore, its original audience would have understood the signs and symbols, but no one today fully understands them.

This does not mean, however, that there is not great value in reading and studying the Book of Revelation. The New Testament is a book of principles to guide us in the Christian life and to focus on Christ. When you read Revelation correctly, you read it devotionally to bring you closer to Jesus. And, when studied from that vantage point, it is easy to see what the point of the book is.

The “Mark of the Beast” was some kind of symbol dealing with persecution of various kinds, particularly economic persecution, in the first century. Christians were persecuted greatly by the Roman Empire during that time. John was writing to them to warn them and encourage them to stay faithful to Jesus, no matter what they had to endure. To say that believers were under tremendous pressure would be an understatement.

I do not believe that there is any basis for interpreting the mark of the beast as something that is still to come in the future or something that could happen now in our day. What would that have meant to first century Christians? How would the nature of the world today have encouraged or warned believers who lived 2,000 years ago? No, the farthest thing from John’s mind would have been a computer chip or some other sort of implant or literal “mark” in our day. I don’t believe that is the way to interpret this at all.

Rather than seeing it as literal and futuristic, we should note that believers during that time were being pressured and persecuted to give their commitment and service and dedication to a temporary, worldly empire in Rome rather than eternal allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ. They were being told that they must worship the emperor, and if they refused, then they would be persecuted and ostracized, and would experience financial and social repercussions from which they would not recover on this earth.

Rather than a microchip, or a barcode, or a tattoo of some kind, or any literal marking, the mark of the beast had religious and social implications for the people to whom the Book of Revelation was originally written. Rome was a pagan society that was opposed to a religion like Christianity, or even Judaism for that matter. Christians, especially, were persecuted severely under the Roman regime of that day. Believers in Jesus were told to worship the emperor, forced to make a decision between the eternal and the temporal. Between God and the world.

There were religious aspects to Caesar’s rule. He saw himself as a god, and his imperial cult was threatened by the advancing cause of Christ. The way he chose to handle the situation was to persecute and try to eradicate Christianity. Citizens under Roman rule were required to participate in various rituals and sacrifices that were completely pagan in nature.

Refusing to take part in what the empire wanted meant that one was marked for specific and prolonged persecution. It could have literally meant the loss of life for believers. It was a serious and scary time. Christians were viewed as disloyal to the emperor, which brought on his wrath.

While it is a sin to worship and love money, no one can survive without it in some form. That was true then as it is true now. Economic oppression was not as immediately painful as physical persecution, but in the long run, it would mess up one’s life tremendously. John writes that those not possessing the “mark” would not be able to buy or sell. If someone is not able to buy things or at least have someone buy things for them, they will not survive, generally speaking. Food normally has to be bought. Necessities have to be bought. One of the ways that Rome wanted to get at Christians was to deny them the ability to do this.

Remember that in the first century Roman Empire, coins bore the image of Caesar (because he thought he was a god). Commerce was controlled by the royal cult. There were religious overtones to far more about the Roman Empire than most people realize. Peter, John, Paul, and the rest of the apostles, as well as all of the Christians of the first century—well, it is shocking to learn and consider all of the pressures that they faced.

Consider also that there was a different kind of seal that had already been mentioned back in Revelation 7. It was the “seal of God” and it was placed on the forehead of those who followed Christ. But did the believers get a literal mark on their foreheads? Does this teach in some way that believers in the future will have a literal mark on their foreheads?

Again, I am convinced that it was a reference to the fact that those who follow Christ belong to God and have given ownership of their lives over to Him. Everyone belongs to either God or the devil. There are only two sides. And that is one of the basic, overall points of the Book of Revelation. One side or the other. There is no fence to straddle. There is no middle ground. Jesus said, “He who is not with me is against me” (Matthew 12:30).

So the “mark” of God would refer to the fact that God will see His people through, no matter what kind of persecution they endure. Even if they lose their lives, they will receive eternal life in heaven with Him (Revelation 2:10).

The protection of God is not earthly and temporary, although sometimes God brings about that kind of deliverance. But the only kind of deliverance that He promises us is eternal deliverance, regardless of what we face here in this life. And that applies in principle to us today as much as it did to them back then.

So the “beast’s mark” would represent an identifier of those who follow the devil. And there are many identifiers of those who follow the devil rather than God. Worldliness and a refusal to give our lives completely to Jesus would be the most obvious ones. Rome was not just a non-Christian Empire, it was an ANTI-Christian empire. It was against everything that Christianity stood for.

If all of this is true—and obviously, I am convinced that it is—then who is the beast and what is the significance of the infamous 666 number? No one knows for sure, of course. Scholars have debated this for centuries and virtually no two in-depth Bible students agree completely on what all of these symbols mean. But the “beast” referred to a man and 666 was “his number” (Revelation 13:18).

Responsible Bible study recognizes that we do not have to know what something does mean in order to know what it does not mean. And if 666 refers to something in our day or something that is still coming in the future, then what was its significance to people 2,000 years ago?

Remember when interpreting the Book of Revelation—and we cannot stress this enough—that the book was written to people in the first century who were facing real issues and persecution. If we view the beast from the sea (Revelation 13:1-10) as representing, not a literal beast, but a man involved with the Roman Empire in symbolic language, then that fits what the believers were facing.

Of course, someone may ask, why all of the symbolism? But if the book is about Christianity overcoming its enemies, and its enemies were in power at the time that it speaks of, then the book was written in code so that only Christians would understand its meaning. It would have only accelerated the persecution if it fell into the hands of the Roman authorities and they could understand it.

When it comes to the number 666 (Revelation 13:18), I believe it is important to know about the ancient practice of “gematria.” None of this is something you have to know to go to heaven, nor do you have to know it to get the point of Revelation and read it devotionally to help you focus on Christ. But if you are going to try to give a reasonable interpretation of what some of the signs and symbols mean, then it is important to know gematria, where letters correspond to numerical values.

I believe the Book of Revelation was written before the fall of the temple in AD 70, which would mean that Nero Caesar was the emperor at the time. Historically, we know he hated Christians and persecuted them mercilessly. That is something you learn from history books.

Interestingly, when the name “Nero Caesar” is converted into Hebrew and the numerical values are added, the amount is 666. This makes perfect sense to me in that, since John was writing to encourage believers who were living under an emperor who wanted to destroy them and their religion, he identified Nero in code without bringing further charges of treason and further persecution upon them.

Of course, only God Himself knows for sure what all of those symbols mean. But I do believe the people to whom they were written knew what they meant. The Book of Revelation, in other words, does not contain literal directions or descriptions of life for 2025 or beyond. It was relevant to whom the people it was written, a message of hope and encouragement.

If we read it focused on Jesus, which is the way to read the Bible, then the point we see is still applicable. Christ triumphs over all of His enemies. So trust in Christ and be on the winning side. No matter what happens to you in this life, you will ultimately prevail through Jesus.

What we have presented here means that these things were fulfilled in the first century and referred to events that the people who were the recipients of the Revelation of John were facing and experiencing. Doesn’t that make more sense than to think that John was writing to give them a description of things that would happen 2,000 years after they were all dead and gone? I believe that this interpretation moves the text from today’s fanciful speculation.

The prophecy “experts” are always “identifying” the mark of the beast and the number 666, and they contradict each other and always have these things referring to different events that are happening now. Or that will, according to them, happen sometime in the future. We are always “living in the last days” with “prophecy being fulfilled right before our eyes” and the Book of Revelation is always going to be fulfilled “soon.” And it’s been that way for two hundred years.

For example, consider throughout your lifetime how many people have been identified as the “antichrist.” It’s always someone different, depending on what is going on in the world. The fact is, they cannot agree among themselves and they are always wrong because the Book of Revelation was written for us, but not to us directly. We are the secondary audience, not the primary one.

I could be wrong, of course, in my interpretation of all of this, because no one on earth today knows for sure what all of those signs and symbols mean. When it comes to 666, for example, it corresponds perfectly to Nero Caesar, when using the numerical values to which I have referred, but that is certainly not the only way it could have been interpreted. That is assuming that those numerical values are what John had in mind. Which we do not know for sure because he did not tell us.

God did not, in fact, tell us what all of the symbols in revelation mean. Which means it is not something that you have to know to go to heaven. But rather than letting that cause you to stay away from the Book of Revelation, I believe it encourages you to read it. Because when the pressure is off of trying to figure out all of the signs and symbols that no Bible teachers have ever agreed completely on, then you can read it as a part of the love letter of Jesus Christ to you. It becomes less “spooky” and confusing when we look for the overall point.

And the point is that Christ is on the throne, no matter what is going on down here, and we will be saved by Him no matter what. Keep your attention focused on Jesus, in other words, not on trying to figure out things like the mark of the beast. There is nothing wrong with studying it, and seeing what you believe. But it is easy here—very easy—when dealing with such matters that appeal to our curiosity and our emotions, to get distracted from Jesus and obsessed with things like Bible prophecy and the mark of the beast. Please don’t make that mistake.

This interpretation—of an historical fulfillment of these things rather than it referring directly to things in our day—makes the message of Revelation and all of the things in it a timeless message in principle that applies to believers everywhere at all times. The devil is out to destroy us, but he cannot win if we have a Savior named Jesus and we stay focused on Him.

Regardless of what we know or don’t know about the symbolism, we get the point and that is what matters.

               Bryan Dewayne Dunaway

BELIEVING DAILY

Caring about Christ means that we know about His care for us. We are aware of His presence and His concern for our lives. He watches over us, inviting us to “cast all of our care upon” Him (1 Pet. 5:7). No Christian should be unaware of how present Christ is in our lives. If we go about our days never giving thought to the presence of God—His supremacy, His sovereignty, His love, His reality—how can we truly call ourselves believers?

What is the difference between the atheist who verbalizes his lack of belief in the existence of God and the “believer” who never actualizes that belief in a practical way by living his life in awareness of His presence? We simply cannot be believers without believing in Him daily.

Another important point that we must realize and face is the fact that God is interested in everything that we do as His children. It is the daily life that He wants. So many want to give Him the first day of the week or some other preappointed time. And while those things are good, they are not what He primarily wants.

He wants our hearts. Our lives. He wants and demands that every aspect of our lives be brought under His dominion. Our entire existence is to be lived in His service if we are to truly be called His children and disciples of His Son.

The key to success in pleasing Him is as simple as knowing who He is and what He wants from us. Faith recognizes God. It thinks about God. It relies on God. It is the attitude that says I am nothing without Him. It is the recognition that we owe every day, every breath, to His providential care. It is the bowing of the human will to the divine will. And that is something that no one can do for you. That is a decision we can only make for ourselves.

Approach God daily. Think of Him every moment. Be aware of His presence. We cannot ignore Him and expect to please Him, and we must not think of pleasing Him as some mysterious, difficult task. Christ has done the difficult part. We should now focus on Him and love Him because of who He is and what He has done for us. Every. Single. Day.

      Bryan Dewayne Dunaway

LOVING CHRIST

To love Christ means to dedicate our lives to Him. It is not just an emotion. It is not even primarily an emotion. It is a decision to love the Son of God because He loved us first. And it will transform you. Loving Jesus will change your life like nothing else will.

John wrote, “We love Him, because He loved us first” (1 John 4:19). Divine love comes from God. It is His initiative. He decided to love us because He is love (1 John 4:7). There is nothing in us that makes God love us. Nothing that merits His grace. He loves us because it is His nature and we need to keep that in mind.

Many often question, “Have I been so bad that God does not love me?” Remember John’s statement: We love Him because He first loved us. Nothing we did made Him love us in the first place, and therefore our mistakes and sins do not cause Him to stop loving us. It is not what we do or did, but who He is, that is the reason for His love.

We must remember that we are loved if we are going to live a life of joy in Jesus Christ. Christ is the love of God personified. He bridges the gap between God and those of us who are His enemies, but no longer want to be. It was God’s love that caused Him to send His Son into the world to save us (John 3:16). And we must see Jesus as the expression of God’s love because He is what the Christian faith is about (Romans 5:8; 1 John 4:10).

We do not have to live lives of fear and worry. We can live with confidence and joy, knowing that Christ has been so good to us. That God the Father loved us so much that He sent His only begotten Son into the world to save us. That God the Son loved us so much that He willingly came into the world to save us. The love of God drives out fear (1 John 4:18). Let it do so in your life by focusing on how much you are loved.

If we are in Christ, then we are in a relationship that is based on love. A more powerful love than the love of Jesus does not exist. Therefore, as we appreciate His love more and more, our love for Him will grow more and more.

Dedicate your life to Jesus. You have probably heard that expression many times. But what does it mean? It means that we are to devote ourselves to loving Jesus.

That’s right. Being a Christian is, properly understood, nothing more or less than loving Jesus Christ with all of our hearts. If you love Him, everything else will fall into its Christian place in your life.

Jesus said that life is about loving God supremely. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37). It is about putting Him first. And those who love Him this way are honoring the love of God and honoring Him with their lives.

You cannot “go too far” with loving Jesus. It is impossible to “get carried away” with it. Radical love for Jesus will change your life and make you into the person that you need to be. It is the source and foundation of a truly spiritual life (Matt. 22:38; Deut. 6:5).

How do you know if you love Jesus? The most obvious way is in whether or not you want to please Him as Lord of your life. Jesus said that those who love Him will obey Him (John 14:21). It is an established scriptural fact that you cannot claim to love Jesus if you do not live your life to please Him.

So if we love Jesus, we will let Him direct our lives (Deut. 11:1). That is as basic as it gets. Make it your goal to do what He wants in your life rather than what you want (Matt. 10:38).

     Bryan Dewayne Dunaway

APPRECIATE THE CROSS

To know spiritual truth, you must first know about the Cross of Christ. To accept the message of the Gospel, you must accept the significance of Calvary. As disciples of Jesus, we must continually strive to appreciate the atoning work of Christ on the Cross.

Christianity is not a law system, it is a love system. It will only work if you appreciate the Cross—the ultimate expression of the love of God. Appreciation for God’s love does not grow out of occasional Bible study and prayer, mere abstinence from “worldly” activities, or occasional “church” attendance. Gratitude for the Cross grows out of a life lived close to God.

As we seek Him, as we walk with Him, as we get to know Him better, we appreciate more and more the free gift of salvation. To know Him is to love Him, and those who know Him best love Him most.

The message of the Gospel is the message of the Cross. Any “message” that emphasizes what man has done rather than what God has done is not the Gospel.

The Bible is a book about the Jesus and the Cross. Any Bible student should be able to clearly see that the emphasis of the New Testament is Jesus. Our allegiance must be to Him, and our message must be His death, burial, and resurrection (1 Cor. 15:1-4).

Sadly, many who claim to be Christians do not give their allegiance to Christ. When we speak and act as though we can be saved by our own righteousness and goodness, we minimize the importance of the Cross. When our lips proclaim, “Lord, Lord,” and yet our lives are not in harmony with the Bible, we turn our backs on the Cross (Matt. 7:21; Lk. 6:46). Jesus did not die so that you and I could live “any way we want to live.” The Cross demands obedience and commitment.

Give your heart and life to Jesus and live for Him, appreciating the Cross on which He died for you.

                   Bryan Dewayne Dunaway

SEEK TO KNOW HIM

David knew the love of God. He said in Psalm 131, “Lord, my heart is not proud, nor are my eyes haughty. I don’t concern myself with matters too difficult for me to understand. Instead, I am calm and at peace like a weaned child with its mother. O Israel, put your hope in the Lord— now and forever.” It is one of the most beautiful statements in the Bible.

Here is someone who knows that there are things he will never understand about God. God does not owe him any explanations. He is not concerned with understanding mysteries or figuring out great Bible doctrines. He is concerned with pleasing the Lord and loving Him. Study the life of those who were close to the Lord throughout the Bible. They were focused on loving Him, not understanding Him.

It is the relationship that God seeks. Paul labored for the Lord unceasingly. And yet, his desire was to know Christ and the fellowship of His sufferings (Philippians 3:10). He did not need to know all of the answers.

Do not spend your time trying to “figure things out.” Spend your time seeking to know Christ. To know Him better as a person. To grasp His love more fully so that His love will grasp your heart more tightly. Do everything you do for Him, to know Him better and to love Him more.

Bryan Dewayne Dunaway

WHAT DOES THE BIBLE TEACH ABOUT HELL?

What is the “proper” punishment for sin against Almighty God? It does not matter what we “feel” the punishment is or should be. All that matters is what God has said. Because you and I are sinners, we do not understand the depths of sin’s horrific nature. But a holy God can tell us exactly how bad sin is. As can the only perfect man who ever lived dying on Cross.

The Bible teaches that “hell”—whether that is the best word to use or not, people understand what you are talking about—is the punishment for sins. The wrath of God is found in the eternal nature of His divine punishment. More than anything else, hell is about separation from God for all eternity. And that is something that no one wants to experience whether they think they do or not.

No one understands everything the Bible teaches about hell. Exactly what it will be like is beyond the scope of our current human ability to understand. All sorts of theories and ideas and different interpretations abound in the religious world, but that just demonstrates that certain aspects of this topic are confusing and difficult. It does not do away with the doctrine itself. As with any other “controversial” Bible topic, the point is clearly seen by anyone willing to examine what the Bible teaches.

Whether or not the topic is difficult or comfortable to us is irrelevant. The Bible teaches hell as a fact, as a reality. Jesus said more about hell than anyone else in the Bible, and He did so in very vivid and descriptive terms. He said it is a place where there is “unquenchable fire” where “their worm does not die” (Mark 9:43-48). He also said that hell is a place of “outer darkness” where there will be “weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 8:12).

The reality behind the figures of speech has to be worse than the figures themselves used to describe it. There can be no disagreement or debate over the fact that Jesus described hell as reality and as something more terrible than we can imagine.

The just punishment of God is difficult for sinners to embrace. The wrath of God is not something that is popular to preach. “God is love” (1 John 4:7) people love to say, and that is true. But love is not God. God must define love. And He defines it as giving His Son to die for us to keep us from perishing in hell (John 3:16).

Those who have rebelled against God and rejected His free offer of salvation will wind up in hell, but that is not what God desires. There is nothing in the Bible to suggest that God created people to be lost. He created us for fellowship and desires that eternal fellowship so much that He gave His Son to die for us, proving His love (Romans 5:8). The love of God cannot be defined without the wrath of God, because the love of God is shown by the death of Christ. But why did Christ have to die for us? The short answer is to keep us out of hell.

God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 18:32). There will be no pleasure for God in the destiny of those who reject Jesus Christ. He delights in showing mercy (Micah 7:18-19). He is in the saving business. Jesus came to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10). While that truth logically implies that everyone without Jesus is lost—on their way to hell—it also means that is not what God wants for you. God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save it (John 3:17). We were “condemned already” (v. 18) because of our sins and our rejection of Christ. But by His grace, we can be saved by trusting in Christ as our Lord and Savior (Ephesians 2:8–9).

To ignore or explain away what the Bible teaches about hell is to make a mockery of the Gospel. The Gospel teaches that Jesus died for us. Without the bad news of hell and condemnation, there would be no need for the good news of life and salvation. You cannot accept what the Bible teaches about heaven without also accepting what it teaches about hell. Understand everything about hell? No one does. Know that the Bible warns repeatedly about what being lost will be like and how we do not want to go to hell? Absolutely. That is the truth. Jesus came to rescue us from hell.

So the doctrine of hell highlights both the holiness and love of God. The cross of Jesus is where these two things meet, where His wrath and His mercy intersect for the salvation of sinners. We do not have to go to hell. We can trust in Jesus and be saved forever (Matthew 25:46).

Some scholars believe that hell is not the eternal, conscious “torture chamber,” as they call it, that theologians have often made it out to be. Maybe they are right, but that is not what is important. What is important is the reality that the perfect Son of God gave Himself to die for us, as a sacrifice for our sins, to save us from something that is so horrible that human words can not fully describe it. Whatever hell is, you do not want any part of it. And you don’t have to go there because Jesus died to save you. Trust in Christ and get your life right with God through Him.

     Bryan Dewayne Dunaway

CHRIST LIVES IN YOU

The Gospel message of redemption through Jesus Christ teaches us that the Son of God became human in order to live and die for us. But it also teaches that because of His perfect life, sacrificial death, and triumphant resurrection from the tomb, Christ comes to live in us. This is the greatest truth one can ever embrace. Jesus came to live as a human on this earth so that He could live within the hearts and lives of His people in an intimate, abiding, personal relationship.

By trusting in the crucifixion of our Lord, we are “crucified with” Him (Gal. 2:20). This means that the “former” us is no more. All of our sins are gone, and the sinful person that abides within us has lost control over our lives. Christ now rules and reigns supreme. A new way of life has taken over because Christ lives within us (Galatians 2:20).

The great “mystery” that was concealed in the Old Testament but has been revealed in the New Testament is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And this Gospel means “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27). We now “stand” in a state of grace (Rom. 5:2). Our life has a power it has never had before. Rather than the power of sin controlling us, the power of God and His grace through Christ abides in us.

The matchless wonder of what our Lord has done for us and in us means that we become the “temple of the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 6:19). This is an astonishing truth. Our sins once separated us from God and made us His enemies. Now He lives within us. This work of Christ on our behalf, and His presence within us, makes us completely new people, so that nothing in the past matters (2 Cor. 5:17).

Because the Spirit of Christ now resides within us, we are promised that He will give life to our bodies (Romans 8:10-11). We are now able to live a life of love for Christ and others. He has freed us from the bondage of sin to live His glorious resurrection life through us.

None of this has to be understood fully in order to be appreciated. Trust Him and love Him, knowing that He is an ever-present reality in your life. Christ lives in you.

      Bryan Dewayne Dunaway

WHY DO WE WORSHIP?

When many believers think about “worship,” they think about prescribed rituals that a group of believers goes through on Sunday. But the doctrine of worship in the Bible is far more glorious and requires a much greater dedication than just this.

Worship is a life lived in creaturely dependence upon the God who created us. It is recognizing and appreciating and acknowledging who God is, and who we are as His people. It is giving God the glory and honor that is due Him.

God is our Creator, and honoring Him as such is where worship begins (Revelation 4:11). We affirm our belief in the reality of God by surrendering our lives to Him and recognizing that if we are created beings—and there is no “if” about that—then we owe all our allegiance to Him.

In Christ, we seek to honor God as our Redeemer (Isaiah 43:1) and King (Psalm 95:6). We owe our existence and our salvation to Him alone. Those who trust in Christ are the saved people of God because of the work of Jesus Christ. Worship is acknowledging that.

Three things must be present for “true worship” (John 4:23:24) to take place:

First, there must be love for Christ in our hearts (Mark 12:30). When we exalt Christ in our hearts in recognition of how wonderful He is, love for Him grows. By focusing on how much He loved us first, our love for Him grows (1 John 4:19). We will worship and serve Him when we truly love Him. And we will truly love Him when we accept the reality of His infinite love for us.

Second, we must be willing to obey the Lord we claim to love (John 14:15). Love for Jesus is shown by a changed life. We simply do not love Him if we do not commit our lives to serving Him. It is when we recognize that He is the sovereign Lord and Ruler of the universe that we will accept Him as the ruler in our lives. And we will always strive to do what He says.

How could we not worship the King of the universe? Especially considering how He loves us. And how could we refuse to serve Him—which is what worship ultimately is—when we consider that He came to serve us and to give His life for us (Matt. 20:28).

Third, every aspect of our lives must be “offered to God” as a “living sacrifice” (Romans 12:1). In the Bible, sacrifice is worship. But we are not called to offer animal sacrifices or any kind of literal sacrifices that require death. Jesus has already sacrificed Himself for our sins (Ephesians 5:2). His death was the only death required.

Jesus said that worship must be “in spirit and truth” (John 4:23–24), which means that the sacrifices and worship ceremonies of the Old Testament were types and shadows of what we are to do in Christ.

Worship is not about external rules and rituals. It is about a heart and life of praising God that surrenders to Him both in worship acts—like singing and praise and, most importantly, dedicating our entire lives to Him. The “worship service” that God wants is a life of service in His name. That will include what we think of as “acts of worship”—singing, taking communion, praying. But all will be within the freedom of a life lived completely for Him.

    Bryan Dewayne Dunaway

“THE ANTICHRIST”

Understanding certain parts of the Bible can be a difficult endeavor. But it is the opinion of this writer that the Bible is not nearly as difficult to understand as people make it out to be. By keeping statements and verses in their context, and remembering the overall context of the New Testament as it was written in the first century, will help one immensely in not only having a better knowledge of what is said, but a better awareness of what is NOT said. It will guard us against the tendency to read things into the Bible that WERE not there and therefore ARE not there. The text cannot mean now what it did not mean when it was written. That is a good rule of interpretation to remember.

What the Bible teaches about “last things,” or “end times,” or “tribulation” or “antichrists” would not be nearly as confusing if they were kept in their proper first century context. We can do better about understanding the Bible, and especially about the way we present its teaching to others.

This constant predicting the future based on “Bible prophecy” where the predictions of the those who claim to have figured out a prophecy puzzle are wrong must stop. This makes the cause of Christ look very silly, and it is totally wrong. Again, we can do better.

Much of what the Bible teaches about “the end” had to do with the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. At the same time, there are some things in the Bible that have yet to be fulfilled—namely, the bodily return of Jesus and the final judgment. But the “final coming” of Christ, literally in the clouds, is the only Bible prophecy left to be fulfilled and the only thing for which we are waiting.

What the Bible teaches about “the antichrist,” for example, does not have reference to one person still to come in the future. It has nothing to do with a world leader that will accomplish this or that in the coming days. It was rather a first-century phenomenon. What the Bible teaches about the antichrist had reference to the ungodly opposition to the Gospel that was present then. Antichrist was a systemic and concentrated opposition to the teaching that Jesus is Lord and Christ.

With all that is said and taught about “the Antichrist,” and with all of the questions that people ask about it, you would think that the Bible talks about it constantly. The reality is, however, that the term “antichrist” only appears in the apostle John’s short epistles.

In 1 John 2:18, John wrote, “Little children, it is the last hour; and just as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have already come. By this we know that it is the last hour.” There are many things to learn from this statement, the two main ones being the following.

First, this is definitely not a single individual who will appear at the literal end of time. It was already “the last hour” when John wrote that many antichrists had already come. So this is not a global evil leader of some kind coming in the future even now in 2025.

Second, we learn that there were already many “antichrists” who were working their nefarious schemes in the early church at the time John wrote this letter. The epistle of 1st John was written to people in the first century, not directly to us.

So what was this “antichrist” doctrine all about? Well, John actually defines it for us. “Whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ” is antichrist (1 John 2:22). The prefix “anti” means against, so whoever is against Christ is antichrist.

“For many deceivers are presently at work in the world, those who do not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. Such a person is the deceiver and the antichrist” (2 John 7). Antichrists were already at work in the world in the first century. And it is clear that John was dealing with a specific kind of false doctrine that had to do with Jesus being human, God in the flesh.

We don’t know everything about the false doctrines that John was opposing, but we see easily the point. Some were denying that Jesus was who He claimed to be, and John was fighting that. Anyone who did the same thing today would be antichrist and we would fight against their doctrine.

So John was clearly talking about a system of unbelief and the collective work of some who were denying central parts of the Gospel. He was not speaking of political figures in his own day, much less one worldly political leader 2,000 years away in the future.

If this is the correct interpretation, then that would mean that other figures referred to in the New Testament would also have likely been descriptions and warnings for the people to whom they were written. The “Beast” in Revelation 13, for instance, referred to the Roman empire—and Nero Caesar specifically—and its persecution of Christians in the first century. Because of the brutality of the Roman Empire’s persecution of Christianity, it and its leader would have been perfectly symbolized by a beast working by the power of the devil.

Likewise, Paul’s “man of lawlessness” in 2 Thessalonians 2:3–4 had reference to something in the first century. Paul wrote that this person “exalts himself against every so-called god or thing that is worshipped,” and that the “spirit” of this man was already at work but being restrained back then (2 Thessalonians 2:6–7).

So the doctrine that “the Antichrist” has not come yet, but is still some future “global bad guy” who will come to power during a “seven year great tribulation” is not in harmony with what the Bible teaches. Since the introduction of dispensationalism into Christian thought in the mid-19th century, people have been looking out for and “identifying” the Antichrist (Hitler or Mussolini or a U.S. president that they do not like, as examples). Brothers and sisters, they are always wrong because these things were not at all in the mind of John in the first century.

Any system, doctrine or teacher who opposes Christ is the spirit of antichrist. Therefore, antichristism is an ongoing reality. Every generation will face those who oppose who Christ is and what He means to the world. And like John did, we must oppose them with the true Gospel of Jesus.

This interpretation fits with the context of John’s writing. For example, he says in 1 John 4:3, “Every spirit that confesses not Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is already in the world.” There is nothing here about a single person rising in the last days of time, but about the constant threat of false teaching concerning Jesus that must be opposed by every generation.

So the Bible’s teaching about the antichrist is much simpler than the fantastic speculations of modern day “prophecy experts.” These things just lead to confusion and more confusion as well as false “prophecies.” What the Bible teaches about the antichrist simply references those who would participate in false doctrine concerning our Lord Jesus Christ or lead others away from their focus on and worship of Him.

There is no doctrine of “the” Antichrist in the Bible. Instead, our focus should be on what is said about remaining in the truth of Christ (1 John 2:24) and testing doctrines by comparing them with the Word of God (1 John 4:1). We should focus on living for, loving, preaching and teaching Jesus and stop talking about “the Antichrist.”

This interpretation may not be as “exciting” to the flesh as the “left behind” folly, but it is more firmly grounded in the stable doctrine of Christ as revealed in the Bible.

       Bryan Dewayne Dunaway

CHRIST THE BRANCH

Jesus is referred to as many things in the Bible, employing different metaphors to emphasize different aspects of His life and work. He is our wonderful friend and Savior Jesus.

One can study and meditate on Him and His work for us for the rest of their life and never fully exhaust all there is to know. To know Him better is to love Him more. We strive to learn more about Him because it helps us to love Him and serve Him and appreciate Him. And this is what life is all about: loving Jesus.

In the Old Testament there are prophecies concerning Jesus that refer to Him as “The Branch.” As with all direct references to Jesus in the Bible, The Branch highlights many wonderful things about our Lord. Let us consider this and see what we can learn.

The Old Testament predicted that Jesus would come and bring hope and restoration to the spirits and lives of God’s people. Jesus would be God’s Messiah—Hebrew for “anointed one,” equivalent to the Greek word Christ.

Zachariah, Isaiah and Jeremiah all employed this description of The Branch to refer to the coming anointed one of God whom we know as Jesus Christ.

The Branch refers to a new king whom God would raise up to reign and rule over His people. God would put life into the seemingly lifeless stump of the royal line of David and bring into the world the greatest and most significant man who ever lived.

All of the prophecies surrounding this Branch refer to aspects of the great work of Christ on our behalf. The entire Bible is about Jesus and we learn many things from the Old Testament about Him and His work.

The Branch prophecies pointed to the true and real fulfillment of God’s covenant promises made to Abraham (Gen. 12:1-3). They also spoke of a king from the lineage of David and His rule in the kingdom of God. They prophesied the fact that this Branch would cleanse the people of God from their sins forever. And that He would be the one to build the real “Temple of God” which would be a spiritual temple. We know it today as the body of Christ, the church.

A branch seems like a lowly and insignificant thing. And a branch coming from the root of Jesse, the father of King David, would have been, from a human standpoint, an unusual way to speak of the most important person to ever live on this planet.

But God does not see things from a human standpoint. And Jesus’s rise from the line of David as the Branch makes us aware of the humility He took upon Himself to come into this world as a lowly servant who rose to be glorified at the right hand of God because of the perfect work which He did.

The prophecies of God’s Branch, Jesus Christ, coming into the world seem to always occur when the people of God were at their lowest point. Which means that the Son of God is the message of hope for the world.

Christ is hope personified. And it is when we are at our lowest, in the darkness and valleys of life, that He comes to us, bringing not only salvation when we repent of our sins with a contrite heart, but also an abundant life lived in close fellowship and communion with our God.

Isaiah said, “A branch will come up from the stump of Jesse.” A living organism would grow out of a stump that was dead. The Spirit of the Lord would be upon this Branch (Isa. 11:1-2). God “quickens the dead and calls those things that be not as though they were” (Rom. 4:17)—bringing life from death, in other words. He has made us alive in Christ, even though we were dead in our sins (Eph. 2:1).

Jeremiah prophesied of a “righteous Branch” who would be a descendent of David and always do what is right on the earth (Jer. 33:15). To people living amid the horrors of exile, this came as a most refreshing reassurance that God’s promise to develop a king from the line of David (2 Sam. 7:12-16) had not been forgotten. God never fails to keep His promises. No matter how things appeared, those promises would “sprout up” in the person of the Messiah.

And no matter how things appear in our lives, no matter how dark the journey might get, the promises of God are always still in effect. God is always with us because Jesus is Immanuel, “God with us” (Matt. 1:23). The presence and power of God are always close to us because of Christ.

All of the kings and priests in the Old Testament pointed to Jesus. They were types of Christ.  Zechariah the prophet made this known when he described the coming Messiah as “the Branch.” His prophecy spoke to the fact that Jesus would be our King and our Priest in the same person at the same time.

In Zechariah 6:12–13, God promised through the prophet that “the one whose name is the Branch” would “construct the temple of the Lord” and “possess the honor of royalty.” This is fulfilled in Jesus completely and finally.

Christ is the Priest who represents us and He is the King who rules and reigns in our hearts. Because He did “what was right on the earth,” living a perfectly sinless life, He can represent us to the Father as our Priest (Heb. 4:14-16), and represent the Father to us as our King (Rev. 1:5; 1 Tim. 6:15). He is the “one mediator between God and man” (1 Timothy 2:5).

The Temple of God had reference to the saved people in the Body of Christ. We know this because this is how the New Testament interprets prophecies such as these (1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19). The “building” of God is the church (1 Cor. 3:9; 1 Peter. 2:5). Zachariah was talking about a spiritual temple, which is far more glorious, important and impressive than any physical edifice could ever be.

When we consider the bottom line to these prophecies of Jesus as The Branch, we see that they were foretelling the humanity and divinity of Christ Jesus. These references are fulfilled in the fact that “God became flesh and lived among us” (John 1:14). Everything pointed to Jesus and everything is fulfilled in Jesus. Because Jesus is everything!

Because Jesus is an actual human descendent from King David, He is called the “Branch from the root of Jesse.” But Isaiah calls Him “the Branch of the Lord” (Isa. 4:2) because He is the eternal God. He is human and divine. He is God in a human body.

All of this is important because the work of Christ was to redeem humanity from our sins and to bring God near to us. So near that, he can actually dwell in us as his temple. He bore our sins in his own body on the cross first Peter 2:24 to bring us to God (1 Pet. 3:18).

What the message of Jesus as The Branch will always refer to is the fact that God comes to us when we do not deserve it. He comes to us when we are down and out. He brings us spiritual life when we are spiritually dead. He rescues us from condemnation. Jesus, the Branch of the Lord, has done everything for us.

     Bryan Dewayne Dunaway

IS HE JESUS OR IS HE CHRIST?

Jesus Christ. What does that mean? Is that His name? Is that His title? Is Christ His last name and Jesus His first name? Is He Jesus or is He Christ? And why do we sometimes say Jesus and sometimes say Christ? What is the difference?

These are important questions because they speak to the identity of our Lord and Savior. We learn more about who He is by considering questions such as these, and anything that helps us to learn about Jesus is a good thing.

First, it should be recognized that “Jesus” is His name. The emphasis here is on the fact that He lived a human life on this earth. Therefore, He had a human name. The name Jesus was highly significant in His case because it means Savior (Matt. 1:21).

But the name itself, regardless of its meaning, was a very common name during the time that Jesus lived. So while He was named Jesus because He is the Savior, it was generally “just another name” because He was a real human being. Human beings have human names.

The word “Christ” is not a name, it is a title. So, no, Christ is not His last name. It is His title. That is why, in the Bible, you will see Him being called both Jesus Christ and Christ Jesus. Christ means “anointed one,” and it speaks of His divinity. It speaks of His divine mission into the world, and the fact that He alone glorified God and pleased God with the way that He lived in perfection here on this earth.

The Bible writers tie the two words together because of their mutual importance. The New Testament opens with a reference to “Jesus Christ” (Matthew 1:1). The Gospel of John reveals, “These things are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God” (John 20:31). So being “Christ” is equivalent to being the “Son of God,” and “Jesus” is Him.

One way to think of it is to see that Jesus means He is human, Christ means He is God. The God-Man. The apostle Paul states that “there is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5). There has never been anyone like Him.

He was named Jesus by God and He was anointed Christ by God. Peter preached, “God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36). Calling Him Jesus is respectful and it is right. There is nothing disrespectful about calling our Lord by His human name. It serves as a constant reminder of and celebration of the fact that God became flesh and lived among us in order to die on the cross for our sins. What theologians call the “incarnation” happened because God became human. A human named Jesus.

Calling Him Christ reminds us that He is what the entire universe is all about. Some claim that one solitary man cannot be the adequate explanation for the existence of the universe. But they fail to understand the importance and significance of this “one solitary man.” This is the God who created the universe. God the Father created the world through Jesus Christ (John 1:1-3; Hebrews 1:10; Genesis 1:1; Colossians 1:16).

Christ is Savior, Lord, King, and the one who has been anointed by God to be the  “radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature” (Hebrews 1:3). In Christ, we have a Savior who brings about redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our sins (Ephesians 1:7). He is both Jesus and Christ. He is Jesus Christ. He is Christ Jesus. He is God in human form. He is the God-Man.

He was born of a virgin in Bethlehem’s manger and He is also the eternal I AM—the Lord God Jehovah. This is the greatest and most significant person who ever lived. Like the Roman soldier said as Jesus died, “Surely this man was the Son of God” (Matthew 27:54).

      Bryan Dewayne Dunaway

JESUS THE BREAD OF LIFE

“I am the bread of life. The one who comes to me will never go hungry, and the one who believes in me will never be thirsty” (John 6:35).

Jesus left no doubt about who He is and what He means to the world. He taught that He is the answer to the mysteries of life. And He used many metaphors to do so. One of them is that He is the “bread of life.” What does this mean?

One of Jesus’s most notable miracles was when He fed five thousand people with but five loaves and two fish. His miracles were done to prove His divinity, to prove that He was and is the Son of God and that He is the Savior of the world. They demonstrate that He is the answer, the one thing that we are seeking. We find what we need in Jesus the way that a starving person finds what he is seeking in bread.

After Jesus performed the miracle and gave the multitudes a free meal, they sought more from Him. But their minds were on the temporary and the physical rather than the spiritual and eternal. They wanted Him to provide more physical food, in other words. And that is why many of them were following Him. They saw Him as a “miracle worker” rather than as the Son of God—the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6). While He did work miracles, that was not His purpose for entering the world.

Jesus knew what was in their hearts and where their priorities were. And He used the opportunity to teach them an eternal truth about God the Father and Himself. His unique role in the world was not about earthly, temporary needs and concerns. Anything that concerns us does concern Him, but ultimately His mission was a spiritual one (Lk. 4:18; John 3:16; 4:24).

What Jesus offers to humanity is worth more than all of the bread in the world. It is worth more than all the money or health or fame in the world. He offers us eternal life, salvation from our sins. We have a void and a need that only Jesus can fill.

Anything you try to fill the God-shaped void in your life with other than Christ will never bring lasting fulfillment. There is no lasting joy or happiness outside of Christ. Only He can give you what you seek—what your heart desires and what your soul needs.

When Jesus called Himself the Bread of Life, He was revealing that everything in the Bible and everything that has happened in history is about Him. Everything in the Bible is about Jesus in some way. This is true of the story of God feeding His people miraculously with bread from heaven while they were in the wilderness (Exodus 16:4-35). He sustained them daily as a picture of the fulfillment and spiritual sustenance that Jesus provides to His people today.

God sustained physical life among His people for forty years with literal bread from heaven, but the people who ate it still eventually died (John 6:49). Nothing in this world lasts forever, except a relationship with Jesus.

This is Christ’s point about eternal life. The “bread” that He offers is lasting and eternal. It means salvation for the soul. If you “eat” this “bread” you will never die in the absolute sense. The temporary nature of life means your body will die, but your spirit will go to live with Jesus forever if you feed on Him as your Lord and Savior (John 6:51).

Just as physical food is required to sustain us physically, fellowship with Jesus and trust in Him is required to sustain us spiritually. There is no physical life without food and there is no spiritual life without Christ. Feed on Him daily by faith in and love for Him.

The spiritual nourishment that we need is found by making a decision. If you were physically hungry and someone offered you bread, you would have to make the decision to accept it and eat it. God knows that we are spiritually starving and He has provided the solution. He freely offers the Bread of Life to all who will receive it. Accept the free gift of salvation through Jesus. The choice is yours. Take Christ as your Lord and Savior by a deliberate act of your will.

To trust in Christ and love Him means to put Him first in our lives, trusting Him alone to save us and living to please Him.

Jesus comes to give us abundant life (John 10:10), so we must cease trying to fulfill the longing of our heart and the needs of our soul with temporary, fleeting experiences and things. Jesus is the only way and the only answer.

You never have to search for spiritual bread again when you take Christ. His love for you and His life within you will take away your spiritual hunger forever. You will find the lasting fulfillment that you need. All you have to do is come to Him (Matthew 11:28). At the table of Christ, an endless supply of spiritual nourishment is available. Keep your focus on Jesus.

Any spiritual emptiness that you feel in your life is the result of not having a serious and focused relationship with God. You were created for God. You answer to your Creator as a created being. Live for Him and love Him through the wonderful gift of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Jesus is the source of life and everything in it. Embrace Him and rejoice that in Him you have all that you need both now and forever.

      Bryan Dewayne Dunaway

JESUS THE SON MAN

What does it mean that Jesus is the “Son of Man”? That is the description that He used to refer to Himself the most. Far more than any other title, in fact.

While there is much that we likely do not understand for sure, we can say with certainty that it has to do with His humanity and His deity. The humility of Jesus, and yet His supreme authority, are both important parts of understanding the title, “Son of Man.”

Jesus was the most real human being who ever lived. That is because He is the only one who ever lived a perfect human life. He is the only one who ever “got it right” when it comes to living the way that God intended for humanity to live.

No one understands more about human life, and the suffering thereof, than Jesus Christ. Not you, not me, not anyone. We know a lot, but not nearly as much as He. When it comes to the sufferings and difficulties of being human on this earth, no one knows as much about it as Jesus.

Consider, for example, that He was “tempted in all points like we are” but He never sinned (Hebrews 4:15). The rest of us have given into temptation, but He never did. That is why the Bible says that He “suffered being tempted” (Hebrews 2:18).

When you are tempted in every way, and yet you never once give into the temptation, that is a type of suffering that only Jesus can understand. Only Jesus can understand how difficult temptation is for humanity in an absolute sense. Those of us who have given in to it could never know as much as He does. And He does not just know it because He is omniscient. He knows it firsthand, by experience.

We see the Lord‘s great humility when He said, “Foxes have holes and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head” (Matthew 8:20). We see His great friendship and love when we learn that the “Son of Man” is the “friend of tax collectors and sinners” (Matthew 11:19).

We see His humility in His great concern for the eternal welfare of others when He said, “the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). He understands every part of human suffering. When we are tempted to complain to God about the suffering in this world, let us remember what our Lord said: “The Son of Man” was “delivered into the hands of men” who murdered Him (Matthew 17:22).

There are simply no adequate words in any human language to sufficiently describe the majesty and beauty of our Lord. The love and compassion of Christ in humbling Himself to become human (Philippians 2:8) is the definition of sacrificial love and concern.

To comprehend some of the depth of meaning behind Jesus referring to Himself as the “Son of Man,” we need to carefully consider a prophecy from the Old Testament Book of Daniel. In Daniel 7:13-14, we read where “one like a Son of Man” comes before the “Ancient of Days” from whom He receives, in obvious approval and appreciation, a kingdom of “authority and glory.”

The Ancient of Days was a divine being, but the Son of Man was, as well. This prophecy obviously has reference to Jesus coming into heaven after He made atonement for the sins of humanity and received the eternal kingdom, which is the body of Christ, the saved of all the earth (Hebrews 9:12, 24-28). The Ancient of Days, then, was God the Father and the Son of Man was Jesus after His ascension into heaven.

In His trial before the High Priest, Jesus tied this ancient prophecy to Himself when He said, “Hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of God and coming on the clouds of heaven” (Matthew 26:64). The religious leaders understood what He was claiming, that He was the fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy and therefore was a divine being. This is why they accused Him of blasphemy (v. 65).

Jesus’s divinity is further revealed by the fact that He had the authority to forgive sins. “The Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” (Matthew 9:6). He also said “the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath” (Mark 2:28), revealing that as the one who gave the Sabbath law, He could make exceptions to it.

The divinity of Jesus is revealed in the fact that God became flesh to die for us (John 1:1, 14). Indeed, the Son of Man came to “give His life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28). Jesus also predicted His resurrection from the dead as the Son of Man (Mark 9:31).

The Son of Man has ascended to the right hand of God to rule and reign in His kingdom. The church’s first martyr, Stephen, beheld the glorified “Son of Man standing at the right hand of God” (Acts 7:56). This points to His deity, His rule and reign over the people of God.

Ultimately Jesus will come again to judge the world. Only the “Son of Man” has the authority to do this. “When the Son of Man comes in His glory and all the holy angels with Him, He will sit on the throne of His glory” (Matthew 25:31).

So Jesus’s description as the Son of Man speaks of His humility, His humanity, His power, His authority, and the fact that He is God.

      Bryan Dewayne Dunaway

JESUS THE SON OF GOD

When we think of the fact that God is a God of grace, mercy, and love, we need to see all of these things personified in Jesus Christ. He is the grace of God, the mercy of God, the salvation of God.

Jesus is the “Son of God,” which means that He is “God the Son.” He is as much God as God the Father. No one understands all of the mysteries of the Trinity, but we know that one God, the true God, consists of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19; 2 Corinthians 13:14).

Jesus is the “Word of God” who was “with God in the beginning” (John 1:1, 2). Jesus is not a glorified angel. He is not a created being of any kind. He is the eternal God. He shares the same divine nature that His Father has.

God the Father, “who at various times and in different ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets” now speaks to us through “His Son, whom He made heir of all things, and through whom He also made the worlds.” Jesus is the “brightness of His glory” and the “exact image of His person,” and He “upholds all things by the word of His power.” The Son of God also “purged our sins” and then “sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Hebrews 1:1-3). All of these facts highlight the uniqueness of Jesus Christ, and the fact that He is the true and only Son of God.

Matthew’s Gospel begins with an affirmation concerning the deity of Christ. He quotes from Isaiah the prophet and applies it to Jesus, calling Him “Immanuel,” meaning “God with us” (Matthew 1:23). God is with us because the Son of God/God the Son came to live among us as a human being.

Similarly, the apostle John opens his gospel by asserting, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). The Word of God is a reference to Jesus. He was with God and He was God. He was with God the Father and He was God Himself.

We know this because of verse 14 of John chapter 1: The Word became flesh and lived among us. Jesus did not “become” the Son of God. He “became” flesh and blood. He was not “created” to be the Son of God. He is eternal, as John reveals in the opening verse. The deity of Christ—the fact that He is the Son of God—is His nature and His being. It was not something given to Him.

He is equal with God the Father and has possessed all of the fullness of deity throughout all eternity. Paul wrote that Christ, “though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:6-7). He emptied Himself of His prerogatives of equality with the Father when He became a man, which means He possesses equality with God. There are mysteries here that we will never understand fully in this life, but that does not mean that we cannot know about these facts and appreciate them.

The entrance of God’s Son into the world is the very foundation of the Gospel. The most famous verse in the Bible makes this clear: “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). God gave whom? His Son. The very Son of God was given by God the Father to save us. And Jesus willingly came into the world to save us.

The Son of God is the perfect revelation of God the Father. “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father,” Jesus said (John 14:9). Think about the truth behind that statement. If we want to know what God is like, then Jesus is where to look. He reveals everything about God that we need to know.

So the title “Son of God” does not speak of or point to a secondary role as far as His deity and eternality are concerned. On the contrary, it affirms His oneness with the Father, His equal deity, and His power and authority upon the earth. Indeed, He is what this world and all that is in it is all about.

The disciples who spent time with Him and knew Him best, knew who He was: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16). To declare this of someone of whom it was not true would be blasphemy. But Jesus accepted the statement, and even expected it, because it is true.

To believe in the Son of God means to entrust your life to Him, to trust Him alone for your salvation, to exalt Him as Lord of your life, and to have peace and joy through that faith in Him (1 John 3:19-20). When you affirm that you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, which is the confession upon which salvation and being a part of the body of Christ are based, then you are saying “amen” to everything Jesus and the Father and the Holy Spirit claimed about Him.

        Bryan Dewayne Dunaway

THE ERROR OF “KING JAMES ONLY-ISM”

The only reason to study the Bible is to learn about Jesus. He is what the book is all about. We are not saved by “Bible knowledge” (1 Cor. 8:1-3). We are saved by knowing and loving Jesus. The Bible leads us to Christ if it is read correctly, but unfortunately, by many religious leaders, it is not read correctly or taught correctly (John 5:39).

Because reading the Bible in your own language and knowing its meaning is so important, it is important to deal with the errors of “KJV-onlyism.” There are those, in other words, who tell believers that the King James Version is the only “correct Bible.” That it and it alone is the inspired word of God. If that is true, I don’t know where that leaves non-English speaking countries or believers. But, of course, it is not true.

Knowing something about the errors in the King James Version will help one see that modern translations are the best way to go for most people. The KJV is one of the most inaccurate translations one will ever read. While you can certainly learn about Jesus and what to do to be saved from it, building your devotional life on such an antiquated and erroneous version is not the best idea. Our faith is in the inspired word of God in its original languages, not in any single English translation done by fallible men.

There is no doubt about the fact that tradition is strong when we talk about the KJV. It has a rich history and it is very poetic in places. It can be beautiful to read (the 23rd Psalm, for example). But as far as being accurate and the best translation for your daily use, it unfortunately falls way short.

If you disagree with that and decide to use it and continue to use it, that is certainly your choice. But new believers need to be told the truth: that modern translations are the way to go. And children and young people need to be able to read Bible versions they can understand. We do a great disservice to the cause of Christ when we exalt tradition over truth. Saying that “The King James Version is the best translation,” or worse, the “only real translation of God’s word” is simply not truth. The KJV is not even among the best translations available today.

The KJV was a product of its time, and that time has passed. Its translators used the best resources available to them at the time. But that was in the 17th-century. The fact is—and this may be painful for some to accept, but it is the truth—we have older and more reliable manuscripts available to us today than the King James translators had.

The older the manuscript, the more accurate it is going to be because it is closer to the time of the original writings. And so tremendous light has been shed on the text of the Word of God by the availability of better manuscripts than were available in King James’ day. They did the best they could with what they had, but what the modern translator has access to is far better.

Those who persist in asserting that the KJV is a perfect translation, free from error, when far more accurate texts are available to us today, are not as interested in truth as they claim to be. Anytime we elevate what we are comfortable with, our traditions, over reality and the truth, we make the same mistake as the religious leaders of Jesus’ day who elevated their traditions over the word of God (Mark 7:13).

Nothing should be more important to us than a pure and honest pursuit of what the Word of God actually says. Devotional study to know about Christ is best accomplished by reading a language with which one is familiar.

When Paul wrote his letter to the Galatians, for example, he did not write in language that was hundreds of years old. He wrote in the current language of the people. The Bible says of Jesus that the common people heard Him gladly (Mark 12:37). Which means He was not speaking in an ancient language to them. He spoke in the language they knew. Any Bible translation today should do the same if it is going to do its job effectively.

And there is nothing “holier” about the King James Version just because it uses Shakespearian English. Shakespeare wrote, “Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?“ in his play, Romeo and Juliet. That is not holy language. That is the language of the 17th century in England.

When the KJV uses “thee” and “thine” instead of “you” and “yours,” it is not being “more respectful” to God. God does not expect us to address Him in an ancient language. In the KJV, Jesus says to Peter, “Thou art Peter,” (Matt. 16:18). He was not paying tribute to Peter by using those words of the King James language. What He said was the equivalent to “you are Peter.” And that is the way it should be translated today. There is no need to say, “incline thine ear” (Prov. 2:2) when you can and should say, “listen to my my words” in plain, every day, modern English.

The main problem with the KJV has to do with its source manuscripts, especially when it comes to the New Testament. What the KJV translated the New Testament from were a few late medieval texts. Since that time, scholars and students have discovered literally thousands of older and more trustworthy manuscripts, such as the Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus. When people claim that the new translations “omit parts of the Word of God,” they are simply misguided in their conclusions. The reality is, the earlier manuscripts reveal that certain parts of the KJV text were almost certainly not a part of the original inspired writings but were added later by uninspired copyists.

The famous verses of the Comma Johanneum (1 John 5:7) were attached hundreds of years after the inspired text to assert the doctrine of the Trinity. Likewise, the story of Jesus and the adulterous woman (John 7:53-8:11) and the protracted ending of the Gospel of Mark (Mark 16:9-20) are not found in the oldest manuscripts. That does not mean that they definitely do not belong, but it does mean that their absence in the earliest texts should be acknowledged, which is what the modern translations do.

Making the reader aware of these textual differences does not equate to an assault on the reliability of the Scriptures. Rather, it means that we are serious about being true to what God has said.

Another point that should be painfully obvious to anyone who has spent time reading the KJV is that its outmoded expressions make understanding the Bible difficult for the modern reader. The King James Version translated its available texts into Early Modern English, something that is not even used in England anymore.

An extremely large amount of words used in the KJV have become obsolete or have had their meanings changed entirely in the last 400 some odd years. “Conversation” referred to the way one behaves overall rather than to spoken communication, which is what the word means today. “Let” meant “to restrain” rather than “to allow” like it does now. And statements like “we do you to wit” (2 Cor. 8:1, KJV) make absolutely no sense today. And many, many more examples of such could be given. A simple reading of a modern translation will clear things like this up.

While the King James is extremely poetic and beautiful in certain parts, and it is easy to see why people appreciate its poetic nature, this is simply no reason to use it as your only Bible—though it is still your choice—nor is it a reason to tell others that they should read from the King James Version—which is not your choice.

The language barriers of the KJV can make the Bible complicated and difficult to understand for the one seeking to learn about Jesus. And that is definitely not a good thing. People should not have to learn a new language in order to read the Word of God just because to read a modern translation is out of the comfort zone of certain people.

By using and recommending modern translations of the Word of God, we show that our desire is truly for the truth of God. It shows that we want everyone to understand God’s word, not just those who are familiar with 17th-century English.

Doing better and learning better by using better resources that were not available in times past does not reflect negatively on those who were faithful to God in former days who read the King James Version. It means that we are willing to do whatever is necessary to have the best understanding of what God has said that we can possibly have.

Our allegiance as believers is to Jesus and to the inspired Word of God as it was given by the Holy Spirit through the apostles and prophets of the first century. It is not to a particular English translation of the original writings.

When we employ modern translations, compare them, and make use of what modern scholarship has provided for us, we are centered on Christ and dedicated to having and maintaining the best awareness of the heart of the Gospel message that we can have.

Diligence to the truth means that we want to “present ourselves approved to God” (2 Tim. 2:15) by not rebuffing the acceleration of available tools that God has given us to know and follow His holy word.

      Bryan Dewayne Dunaway

JESUS THE LOVER OF OUR SOUL

Charles Wesley (1707-1788) wrote the great hymn “Jesus Lover of My Soul” in 1740. It is a personal favorite because it speaks of the heart of Jesus and His overflowing love for sinners like me. He is truly the lover of your soul and mine.

Christ did not show His love for us just in flowery words, but in a supreme act of love in giving Himself to die for our sins. He does far more than just say, “I love you.” He proved it.

At the same time, we should live each day as though we are hearing Jesus say, “I love you” in our ear. Because He does. The Bible teaches that He loves us and what He did proves that He loves us. His concern for us in our lives right now proves that He still and will continue to love us.

Rather than allowing the influence of the devil or your own thoughts to cause you to think negatively about Jesus or to “hear” negative messages about how God feels about you, choose to believe that He loves you. Picture Him whispering in your ear that He loves you. Daily and constantly.

When we were the enemies of God, Jesus gave His life for us in a sacrificial love that is unlike anything that has ever happened in this world. The love of Christ truly passes our ability to understand it (Ephesians 3:19; Romans 5:8; 1 John 4:10). No one loves you like Jesus. No one has ever loved you like Jesus or ever will.

And you have never loved anyone the way Jesus loves you or the way that He loves them. There is simply no comparison to the love of Jesus. Earthly love between parents and children and spouses and friends can illustrate it, but they cannot compare to it.

Christ gave Himself in His own body on the cross to bear our sins in that body (1 Peter 2:24). The love of God shown through Christ proves that God is willing to give us anything and everything that we need (Romans 8:32).

The very foundation of life is Christ and His love. He cares about your eternal well-being and He cares about how you feel and He cares about the things going on in your life. He is truly the lover of your soul.

      Bryan Dewayne Dunaway