Juan of Scottsdale, Arizona, writes, Love Truth Time.
No meandering here, just sound information.
You're my new home for dispensational truth. Then he goes on to ask, Does God consider us his bride?
Are we the bride of Christ?
Some dispensational teachers say we are.
Your thoughts please.
Well, that's sad.
Sad that someone would claim to understand the dispensational dividing lines, yet miss one of the more important ones, Body of Christ compared to Bride of Christ.
The Bride of Christ we are not.
That terminology is reserved for Israel and their holy city.
John made this clear when he wrote, I John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming
down from God out of heaven.
This is Revelation 21 verse 2.
Now watch closely.
John says, Prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
Who's prepared?
That holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven.
The Bride of Christ is the holy city, New Jerusalem.
Verse 1 establishes a very clear timeline for us.
John says, And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea.
You see, this doesn't even take place until after this earth passes away.
So at this very moment that you're hearing my voice, there's no such thing as a Bride
of Christ.
This marriage doesn't take place until time future.
So let's just keep this real.
In Scripture, the Bride of Christ and the Body of Christ are different.
The Bride of Christ is the holy city, New Jerusalem, that in time future is going to come down out of heaven.
But the Body of Christ is a collective group of people, you and I, right now, right here, not future, but we exist right now as a group of people who have trusted
that Paul's gospel is sufficient all by itself for our salvation.
Our only hope is found in Christ alone, His death for every sin, and His resurrection for our justification.
Period.
We're His body.
We are His body, He is our head.
Ephesians 1:22.
This has nothing whatsoever to do with a future city.
A city with twelve gates.
Gates that represent Israel's twelve tribes.
Nothing about you.
In this city will be the twelve apostles of Israel.
The church which is His body has one apostle, the apostle Paul, the apostle of the Gentiles.
See the difference?
Revelation 21:9 John says, And there came unto me of the seven angels, which had the seven vials, full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife.
Okay, one of the angels are getting ready to show John the bride.
So is it as tradition taught us?
Let's see.
Verse 10, And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God. Oops.
The bride is a city, not the church, which is His body.
Verse 11, Having the glory of God, and her light as likened to a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal.
Did you see that?
And her, and her light was likened to a stone.
The bride is referred to as female.
Feminine.
While the church, we're referred to as God's husbandry.
Masculine.
Let's continue.
Here in verse 12, John continues to describe the bride.
He says, It had a great wall, great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel. On the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. Verse 14, The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. You see, tradition says one thing, God's word says another.
Which side are you on?
The bride is a city.
Revelation 21:12.
With a wall great and high, and twelve gates, with the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel written on them.
These twelve tribes each have a name.
What's the name of your tribe?
If you're the bride of Christ, that's what your preacher told you, you should know the name of your tribe.
How else are you going to know which gate to go through?
If the gates have the names of each tribe written on them, which will you enter?
And you see that same preacher, hey, because he doesn't rightly divide, as he should, he'll also reference Paul in Galatians chapter three, and he'll tell you that, hey, in the church, the body of Christ, there's neither Jew nor Greek.
And he's right.
Yet, these twelve gates, John wrote of, are specifically for twelve tribes of Jews. Starting to get this?
You've tried to fit yourself in here, but you just don't fit.
The bride of Christ is about Israel, their twelve tribes getting their new city.
You see, you and I, as members of the body of Christ, we're his physical representation, his ambassadors in this world.
Nothing about a city in heaven that will one day come down.
We're his representatives right now in this present evil world.
We're ministers of reconciliation.
The bride of Christ, this new city is in heaven.
It comes down, but we go up.
See the difference?
It's a beautiful thing when you do.
Bride of Christ, body of Christ.
Bride of Christ, body of Christ.
To get a proper understanding of your position, these two must be divided, not joined.
Listen, when you trusted Christ alone and his finished work alone, and the fact that
he resurrected to give you new life and justify you, you became a member of his body. Members in particular, as Paul says.
The church, which is his body.
A body, not a bride.
Paul describes us, the church, as masculine.
God's husbandry.
1 Corinthians 3:9.
The new Jerusalem that will come down out of heaven in time future, it's described as feminine.
His bride, not his husbandry.
We can't be both.
If we were, that would make us a hermaphrodite.
But the church has no genetic defect.
We can't be both at the same time.
Nor were we once male and now female.
We've never undergone a change.
That would make the church transgender.
The church is not a hermaphrodite nor transgender.
We are who we are.
We're the masculine body of Christ.
We're God's husbandry, not his wife.
If you're in Christ, it matters not if you're male or female.
There is no such distinction.
But the collective body, as a group, members in particular, members of the body of Christ, the scriptures declare us as masculine.
In the book of Lamentations, chapter 1, verses 1 through 7, in every verse Israel is spoken of as she or her.
But us, members of his body, we're the one new man.
Ephesians 2:15. One new man, not a woman.
Not she or her.
Not a bride.
In the Bible, when you read of the bride and the groom and their future marriage, you're reading about Israel and the Lord.
We have no reason to get married to someone we're already joined to.
But Israel does.
They've got a reason.
In Jeremiah 31:32, the Lord said, Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, which my covenant they break, although I was, I was a husband unto them. See that?
The Lord was married to Israel and Judah, but they broke his covenant.
They went off whoring around and committed adultery.
In Jeremiah
chapter 3, the Lord said, And I saw when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a bill of divorce.
Yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also.
Hosea chapter 2 tells us of a future remarriage. And I will betroth thee unto me forever. Yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness and in judgment and in loving kindness and in mercies.
This future marriage concerns the Lord and Israel.
John wrote about how the wife needs to get herself ready to prepare for an event called the marriage supper of the lamb.
Contrarywise, comparatively speaking, Paul informs us, Ephesians 4:16, how that the whole body is fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth.
Nothing about time, future, no, this is present tense.
We're not waiting on the dearly beloved. We are gathered here today to join... to join who?
Jesus with his body?
Jesus is never apart from his body.
No, we're already joined, members of his flesh and bones.
But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit, 1 Corinthians 6:17, already joined.
The whole body is fitly joined together and compacted.
Couple that with the next chapter, chapter 5, verse 30, For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
We are members.
You see what?
We are members, not waiting to be.
When a marriage takes place, two become one.
But we're not waiting to be one with Christ.
We already are.
Know you not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Romans 6:3.
Were, not waiting to be.
Galatians 3:27, For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
Have, we're already united with Christ, not so for Israel.
In Romans 11:26 Paul said, and so all Israel shall be saved.
Hasn't happened yet.
It's a future event.
He said, As it is written, there shall come out of Zion the deliverer and shall turn
away ungodliness from Jacob. For this is my covenant unto them when I shall take away
their sins.
Which goes hand in hand with what Peter said in Acts chapter 3, verse 19. He told Israel to repent so their sins may be blotted out when they're back in the presence
of the Lord.
This has to take place before the marriage supper.
In contrast, we're the new creature.
We're not waiting for the old to pass away.
It already has.
When Christ returns he's not coming back to marry his own body.
For the church, right now, to call itself the bride would be to commit spiritual fornication, having an intimate relationship before marriage.
You can't make sense out of nonsense.
You see, this biblical theology is Roman Catholic in its origin.
It's not from the Bible, a pagan theology.
Catholic priests take an oath of celibacy and claim to marry the church.
It's a mystical teaching.
It's mysticism taught by mystics.
The Catholic Encyclopedia explains mystic marriages as something only reserved for a select few.
And many, not all, but many Catholic nuns consider themselves to be married to Christ.
They have even held wedding ceremonies where they were presented with a ring.
All this sort of nonsense can be avoided by simply rightly dividing the word of truth.
When we're intellectually honest, we simply have to admit that there are certain dispensational differences that you just can't ignore.
Don't avoid them.
Face them head on.
We're the body, not the bride.
Ambassadors, not priests.
Under grace, not law.
We give offerings, not tithes.
We're baptized by the Spirit into the body, not by a preacher into water.
Our destination is heaven, not earth.
Our blessings are spiritual, not physical.
We don't respect one day over the other.
Therefore, Saturdays are no different than any other day.
We forgive because we are forgiven.
We don't forgive to get forgiven.
We don't confess words or call upon the Lord for salvation.
No.
As Ephesians 1:13 says, We hear the gospel, then we believe the gospel.
No saying words, no confessing, no calling out to the Lord.
We believe His finished work for our salvation.
1 Corinthians 15:1-4.
We preach Jesus Christ according to mystery, not prophecy.
And the list goes on, one comparative difference after the other.
Jesus according to mystery is different than Jesus according to prophecy.
And we were never instructed to preach Him according to prophecy.
Romans 16:25, quote, The preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery.
That's our instructions.
And it's a commandment.
No preacher should stand behind a pulpit and ignore this.
They're in a state of rebellion, and they don't follow instructions very well.
They don't follow dispensational commands.
Paul in 1 Corinthians 14:37 said, The things he wrote, the things he wrote to us, are the commandments of the Lord.
You're commanded to preach Jesus according to the mystery.
Just one of many commandments of the Lord that most pay no attention to.
1 Corinthians 4:1, Let no man so account of us as of the ministers of Christ and stewards of, what? The mysteries of God.
Are you a steward of the mysteries of God?
Mysteries of God, not prophecies of God.
How do we get understanding?
By recognizing the comparative differences found in scripture.
Differences between a mystery and a prophecy.
Getting this opens up so many doors of our understanding, and it allows us to spot those who spiritualize and tell spiritual lies.
They can't see the truth because they don't have spiritual eyes.
2 Timothy 2:15, study and rightly divide the word of truth.
Makes all the difference.
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