New Book by Dr. Daniel E. Woodhead

 Introducing the new commentary by Dr. Daniel E. Woodhead: The Book of 1 Corinthians, Practical Christian Truth for Iniquitous Times.  

Corinth was an especially licentious city. The moral depravity that Paul saw at Corinth persuaded him to speak to the spiritual needs of believers in a difficult culture. It was essentially a moral cesspool and a debaucher’s paradise. It was akin to our modern day Las Vegas where divorce was commonplace, and resulted in broken lives for the new believers who lived there. It was indeed debauched since “easy” women roamed the streets. As our culture descends into deeper depravity with a high divorce rate, easy abortion and sexual immorality this book has  practical contemporary relevance.
  The First Epistle to The Corinthians  speaks to the difficulties of maintaining a Christian community in a degenerate culture including instruction on how to be “in the world” but “not of the world.” The apostle prays that we be led by the Spirit and not be conformed to the practices of this world however enticing they may be (Ephesians 4:1-5:17).
 
If you would like more information, please send him an email at: woodhead@scofield.me

America's Abortion Tragedy

In pondering the tragedy of abortion that has consumed our political process since the Blackmun decision of 1973 in the Roe v Wade case my convictions against it grow stronger day by day. We who oppose it rarely get to have an intelligent face-to-face logical conversation with those who favor it. The conversation usually descends to ad hominem attacks. All logic is abandoned.

Interestingly the same loss of logic seemed to enter the high court when the decision came down in this case. Their lack of logic and faulty reasoning trumped any sensible thought process. We saw the same faulty reasoning in the Dred Scott case of 1857, which deprived Mr. Scott, a black man of his God given rights as a man and left him as chattel in the eyes of the Supreme Court and this country. Justice Taney gave that decision. It took a civil war to reverse this perverse mindset.

The abortion advocates are usually liberal and find all comments regarding anything outside of their mindset to be racist. The liberals state that they welcome opinions and when they get them they are shocked and offended to find there are other opinions. Mr. Chris Mathews of MSNBC seems to be the current champion of the “racists are everywhere outlook.” This term, racist, has virtually no meaning any longer because it has been overworked so much by those on the left.

One tactic we might employ if given an opportunity is to show that the High Court can make poor decisions regarding the life of humans as seen in the Dred Scott case. Most would agree now that the DS case was a bad decision. Then say to them that the High Court made another one in 1973 depriving rights to the unborn.

If one can engage a pro-abortion individual with any success they will usually appeal to the rare circumstances of rape or incest as rationale to preserve abortion rights to all women. I can certainly sympathize with any woman who suffered the heinous crime of rape. An incestuous encounter would be traumatic as well. Consider the situation because here again logic and reason are abandoned for emotion. If a woman is raped the perpetrator should be brought to justice and severely punished for what he did, and kept from every doing it again. The innocent baby that was the product of a crime did nothing to deserve a death sentence. The baby dies to atone for the crime of the rapist. This is obviously nonsense.

There is only one person who has died for us and is our substitutionary atonement. He rose again from the dead and now sits at the right hand of God the Father. He will come again and redeem this world. Look for Him and comfort others with this knowledge.

Let’s pray that the Lord will open some eyes to prevent this crime of abortion.

Believers - Protect Yourselves In Christ!

Only as the believer knows the powers of darkness will he be able to win against them in his superior position and strength in Christ. The rampant demon activity of these last days (1 Timothy 4:1) means we must “Know our enemy!”

1 Timothy 4: 1 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;

Although we do not always know this enemy, one thing is sure. Satan always knows us! He is thoroughly acquainted with all of God’s children and is quite aware of those who fall for his strategies. He also knows those who recognize and count on their position in Christ and who find and fulfill God’s will for their lives. These saints are what the devil fears most, for they constitute the deadliest threat to his plans and ambitions. It is to us that he attacks in the subtlest manner. He brings us into temptation for the activities, which we know we should not be engaged. We fail to realize or admit his involvement and think that our activities are harmless or out of the purview of anyone else including God.

We Must Support The Jews

Benjamin Disraeli, Great Britain’s only Jewish Prime Minister in an address to parliament in 1854 said,

“There is no country in which the Hebrew race has been persecuted which has not suffered, whose energies have not withered, whose political power has not decayed, and where there has not been evident proofs that the Divine favor has been withdrawn from the land. The instances of Spain, and Portugal, and Italy (Rome) are obvious.”

He was making reference to the Abrahamic Covenant in Genesis 12:3. It has been shown time and again that those that curse the Jews get cursed. Every nation since the time of Abraham that has persecuted the Jews has been reduced to an insignificant political power. Starting with Egypt, which is a third world country and was once the greatest world empire to Nazi Germany that was completely eliminated.

Today Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East. They are surrounded by despotic totalitarian regimes intent on seeing Israel destroyed. God says they will never be destroyed (Jeremiah 31:35-37). But He will keep His promises to Israel. We must continue to support them. I know that there will come a time when this will not happen. The Bible tells us that during the Great Tribulation that “All nations will come against Israel.” (Zechariah 12:2) If there is still a United States when this happens it will be one of the “All Nations.”

The apostle Paul knew that the Gentiles and the Church at large would think less of the Jews then themselves and he warned us about that. Listen to him and heed his warning.

“For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in” (KJV). - Romans 11:25

God’s plan for Israel has not changed we must support them. God has them on the sidelines for the time being. They reject the gospel but are divinely elected by God to receive His love and rebuke as they gradually come to belief in Christ. It will take the Great Tribulation to finally cause them to realize that Jesus is their Messiah. Until then they are back in the land in unbelief according to Ezekiel 20: 33-38; 22:17-22 and Zechariah 2:1-2. Some mistakenly point to Ezekiel 37 to affirm their right to their divine right to the land. The dry bones passages actually pertain to them at the end of the Great Tribulation when they are finally in belief.

Israel is the barometer of Bible prophecy.

The Rakeeah By Dr. Daniel E. Woodhead

From Genesis 1: 6 we see that God is about to speak into existence the expanse or as some translations say the firmament. We would say the sky or atmosphere. The important concept for us to grasp in this verse is that God is “speaking” into existence the Hebrew word רָקִיעַ “rakeeah” or the expanse. This Hebrew word means to spread out or stretch. Some other places in Scripture where this same expression is used are:

  

• 1.  Job 9:8 He alone stretches out the heavens.
• 2.  Psalm 104:2 The heavens are stretched out like a tent curtain.
• 3.  Isaiah 40: 22 God stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.
• 4.  Jeremiah 10: 12 The Lord has stretched out the heavens.
• 5.   Zechariah 12:1 God stretched out the heavens.

These usages of the Hebrew word for stretch (rakeeah) are not quaint poetic hyperbole or exaggerations.  They mean to express the properties of the heavens that we cannot see or fully understand. Space is not an empty vacuum. We have difficulty defining space and understanding the concept of the property of space. Scripture gives us some insight as to some of its properties.

• 1.      Space can be torn (Isaiah 64: 1);
• 2.      It can be worn out like a garment (Psalm 102: 25),
• 3.      It can be shaken (Hebrews 12:26; Haggai 2:6; Isaiah 13:13).
• 4.      It can be burnt up (II Peter 3:12).
• 5.      It can be split apart like a scroll (Revelation 6:14);
• 6.      It can be rolled up like a mantle (Hebrews 1:12) or scroll (Isaiah 34: 4).

Clearly God has given us multiple characteristics of what we cannot see. Nachmonides a Jewish rabbi from Spain in the 13th century taught that there are ten dimensions. Four are knowable such as the three spatial (height, width, and depth) as well as time. The other six are “curled” into the four. We will see them all when we are released from these bodies at death or if the Lord comes for us first.

II Corinthians 4: 18 while we look not at the things, which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things, which are, seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

In other words our hearts and expectations should be on eternity because we will not stay here very long. We must have the heavenly view of life of which Christ spoke (Matthew 18: 8; 19: 17; Mark 9: 43, 45).