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Essays on "Back to the Bible" |
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Essays on "Back to the Bible" |
The late Samuel Lee gave us four words as his last testament: back to the Bible. His last testament characterizes the identity of UBF as an organization centered on Bible study. Through this I realize that UBF faces a crisis, for it implies that during the last 40 years while Samuel Lee served our ministry UBF occasionally drifted away from Bible study. While he was alive, he strived to bring UBF back to Bible study and ended up going to heaven in the effort. He is not any more among us here on earth. He is greatly missed because his leadership encouraging us study the Bible was so great. We worry that nobody like him with great leadership can strongly encourage us to study the Bible like he did and that nobody may be willing to listen to whoever says the same. Everyone can go his own way according to his own idea. I realize the importance of Bible study because of his influence. Therefore, I am compelled to stress this motto again through my essay and pray that it is useful and can influence others as it influenced me.
Although man is created in the image of God and searches continually for him, Satan, the ruler of the earth, leads man to self-destruction by lying to him about God and blocking his way to God. God saves man by revealing himself through the gospel. In other words, God helps man to return to him by exposing Satan's lie and at the same time his own goodness through the gospel. The gospel is the supreme power, supreme blessing, and supreme truth. Jesus’ life proves that the gospel is true. The entire Bible, composed of 66 books, proves that Jesus’ life is true. Thus, the Bible and all 66 books is the gospel itself. God makes every effort to reveal his glory and save mankind through Bible study. Bible study is also a great headache for Satan. So after the gospel was completed, God fights with Satan to keep Bible study alive throughout the ages.
During the Last Supper Jesus taught, “If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.” (Jn. 15:10). The word "keep" implies that we have an enemy who tries to take it away from us. In order to keep his gospel, God revealed its secret to Apostle Paul. Paul claimed that he was chosen for the gospel and called it his own gospel. Paul cherished it as a great blessing and considered it as direct revelation from God. Paul realized this not by a miracle, but by deep Bible study. As soon as he met Jesus, he studied the Bible in depth for nearly three years in Arabia. When he was about to die, Paul stressed twice to his disciple Timothy to keep what he learned from Paul (2 Tim. 1:13,14).
When Satan tried to confuse the gospel with the Apocrypha, God led his servants to keep 27 books as the New Testament. He led them to include the Epistles by Paul who studied the Bible in depth. When Satan prevented the Bible study throughout the Catholic church, the Dark Ages came. God encouraged many to study the Bible, but the Catholic church killed many who studied the Bible through the Inquisition. God revived his church to study the Bible through the Religious Reformation, but Satan attacked the Bible through secular philosophy, especially the Enlightenment. Whenever the church studied the Bible the kingdom of God expanded. Whenever the church stopped Bible study, she became corrupted like the world.
Above all, the degradation of the church is due to the Satan's elaborate trick to prevent her from studying the Bible. When a seminary prevents Bible study, it leads the world to depravity. Theology is the science of God. The Bible reveals who God is. Thus, the true theology is based on studying the Bible. But seminary study promotes higher criticism on the Bible and points out many errors in the Bible. Some seminaries teach that the Bible is not the word of God, which discourages Bible study. Seminary encourages students to study man-made textbooks that are not as useful as Bible study to learn about God.
Although I did not study theology, please tolerate my criticism of it. Kelvin is the most famous theologian. He became great, because he studied the Bible wholeheartedly. Unfortunately people did not imitate what he did. Instead they focused on what he produced, created Kelvin theology, and studied his theories. He is famous for the concept of Predestination. Predestination may be based on Romans 8,9 and Ephesians 1. The Bible is better understood by understanding the author's intention rather than a literal interpretation. For example, consider "Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?" (Jn. 6:5). If we interpret it literally, Jesus seems to be interested in the location of a bakery shop. But understanding his passion to feed the crowd, by all means, is its proper understanding. Likewise, in light of Paul's life and all his epistles, he is not the advocate for predestination. Please, consider Ro. 8:30, "And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified." In this verse, his emphasis is on God who is willing to help when we fall due to our weaknesses. Since the truth is applicable in our lives we can understand its meaning when we examine ourselves in light of this verse. The story of Esau and Jacob in Romans 9 appears to support Predestination. But Romans 9 elaborates on why God chose the Gentiles and abandoned his people, Israel. Romans 10 reveals how much God endeavored to save them. Romans 11 concludes with warning that one must fear God and be humble before him. In other words our life and death, i.e. election and rejection, are in God's hands. God elects those who fear him and rejects those who ignore him out of pride. This is the story from Romans 9-11. In Eph. 1:4, 5, "For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will" These verses do not mean that God predestines each and every one. In light of Eph. 1:1-14, his emphasis is not predestination, but in Christ. In other words, in Christ, human salvation is destined. This was intended before the creation of the world. God created the world with the plan to save man through the Christ when man would fall. When man fell, he made the creation one in Christ by achieving the planned salvation. If God predestined each and every one, how can he judge him?
Jesus told us that all trees are judged by their fruit. In light of history, how much did Predestination obstruct world mission? Isn't Predestination one of the causes of the corruption of today's Christianity? Of course, some argue that it is due to the misunderstanding of Predestination. The matter of misunderstanding, however, reflects its ambiguity and its incomprehensive nature. The truth of God has been always clear. There is no ambiguity in the truth. If Predestination is ambiguous, it is no longer true. If what Kelvin taught is not 100 % true, then his theology is not trustworthy.
I do not need to talk about the rest of the theologians. Isn't the criticism of the Bible the very act of Satan who infiltrates seminaries and tries to destroy the authenticity of the Bible? What is the Social Gospel theology? Can we not discern that it is also the deception of Satan as we can easily discern the deception of communism through studying the Bible only a little? Jesus tells us to be the light and salt of the world. If we help the people in misery to meet Jesus, we produce a healthy and happy society. The true social gospel should be the result of the gospel of the kingdom of God. Why do we play the role of the light and salt of the world after knowing the gospel of the kingdom of God? Isn't it because we look forward to the rewards in the kingdom of God? What if we emphasize the Social Gospel theology, suppressing the truth of the gospel of the kingdom of God and ignoring the rewards from heaven? It is like communism that advocates the utopia of equal sharing on earth without any rewards. It produces a society where nobody is willing to sacrifice himself for others. People are easily deceived because they do not understand the nature of man created by God and who he is as a result of ignoring the study of the Bible.
Likewise, the Prosperity Gospel is also nothing but the stratagem of Satan. It distorts the love relation with God into a business relationship with God. The true blessing of God is from repentance. Since the Prosperity Gospel promotes blessings without repentance, it only brings curses to people rather than his blessings. In addition, the movement of pursuing miracles in the name of the Holy Spirit and the New Apostolic Reformation are the act of destroying the righteousness of God that is the truth of God. By destroying reason based on righteousness, the true blessing of God, the Prosperity Gospel makes believers most irrational who are supposed to be most righteous and reasonable.
Let me summarize all those by listing their four bad fruits. First, Christians became more irrational than unbelievers. Second, the servants of God who should build the kingdom of God with truth and love claim the power that they do not possess. They cause anti-Christianity by using their big mouths. Third, many false books which are garbage are introduced as Christianity. Many false popular pastors highly recommend these books. Many Christians read them in order to experience a miracle that does not exist like a mirage. The pastors lead the believers to the path of self-destruction. Fourth, because of the lack of Bible study, all kinds of heresies and deceptions are rife in Christianity. Nobody can even elaborate why a heresy is a heresy. Christianity has become so corrupted that it has gone the way of apostasy.
Foreseeing the present age, God founded UBF through Samuel Lee and Sarah Barry. UBF has two characteristics: (1) layman ministry and (2) Bible study. They work together, supplementing each other. Laymen have no reason to change truth to false for material gain, since he serves his mission with pure motives. He can teach the Bible rightly without self-interest.
Let's consider the spiritual implication. What a headache it is to Satan for layman to study the Bible with pure hearts! So Satan tries to take away Bible study from UBF. Satan is the top player. Alluring that theology study is helpful for Bible study, he encourages theology study. Discerning such invisible schemes of Satan we should strive to keep the Bible study only with pure hearts. For it is the true identity of UBF, the mission of the age, the way of loving mankind, and the best investment of life. Studying and teaching the Bible leads us to think more about God and others rather than ourselves. If I think more about God, he also thinks more about me. If I think more about others, they also think more about me. Studying and teaching the Bible are the best ways to reveal his glory. If I live for his glory, God considers my glory despite my sin, forgives my sin, covers me with beautiful clothes and glorifies me.
In this age of anti-Christianity, it is our mission that laymen rise to the occasion, teach the Bible with pure motivation, reveal the truth and restore trust in Christianity. Many Christian ministers criticize that UBF focuses too much on the Bible. This proves they are ignorant of what the truth is and what the Bible is. This reveals that they do not take the Bible as absolute and how far they are from the Bible. How important our mission is in this respect!
When Jesus was on the earth there were many scribes, i.e. the teachers of the law. To our surprise, they crucified Jesus out of blindness. God prophesied in detail about Christ throughout the Old Testament. Why did they reject Jesus as if they were ignorant of the Old Testament? First, they neglected Bible study. Jesus mentioned that they followed the traditions and human regulations more than God’s word. In other words, they learned from man and emphasized human wisdom. Second, God made them blind. “They may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!” (Mk. 4:12) God wants everyone to understand the Bible and be saved. According to the above verse, God was hurt as a Bible teacher. As we know we understand the Bible by the help of God, since it is a secret. God is determined not to help and make them blind no matter how much they read. Why does the loving God make us blind and deaf out of frustration? Isaiah chapters 28 and 29 explain simply. “For it is: Do and do, do and do, rule on rule, rule on rule; a little here, a little there. Very well then, with foreign lips and strange tongues God will speak to this people," (Isa 28:10, 11) “... so that they will go and fall backward, be injured and snared and captured” (Isa 28: 13b) " ... For you this whole vision is nothing but words sealed in a scroll. And if you give the scroll to someone who can read, and say to him, 'Read this, please,' he will answer, 'I can't; it is sealed.'" (Isa 29:11) In other words, they try to find answers from people instead of learning wholeheartedly from God. They try to learn a little from one person and a little from the other, hoping to find lessons and warnings. If one studies the Bible with a pure heart, he can naturally find warnings and true lessons. God is the true teacher who has all the wisdom of truth. He wants to teach all through the Bible. So in his broken-heart he strongly encourages us to hear if we have ears to hear. But God, in his self-esteem, refuses to teach those who ignore him and only seek for human wisdom. After Jesus spoke in analogy, he told us to hear if we have the ears to hear. Nonetheless, he told the spectators with no interest that he would make them blind and deaf. He told those who had interest that he would give more. It expresses God's emotion.
Jesus teaches that students cannot be better than their teacher. He exposes the foolish who only pursue the wisdom from man. Let's think about it. Would you, if omnipotent, like the person who ignores the best truth you have revealed in the Bible and looks for a wisdom from someone else? God has a sense of pride and emotion. “All right, go and learn from the smarter person than I. Don’t come to me anymore. Why bother? I do not want to teach you anymore. Go and learn from the person you believe better than I.” Maybe God is good so that he is not as extreme as I describe. In any case, there is nothing to gain by hurting his feelings.
Jesus told those called “rabbi” the following: "But you are not to be called `Rabbi,' for you have only one Master and you are all brothers. … Nor are you to be called `teacher,' for you have one Teacher, the Christ.” (Mt. 23:8-10) In these verses Jesus warns those who want to be recognized as a teacher. It also reveal Jesus’ will to teach us as a teacher. Therefore we must heed two things: First, we should not be proud of little knowledge. Instead of having an illusion as a teacher, we must acknowledge that our knowledge is from Jesus, give thanks to him and render glory to him. Second, instead of traveling around to learn something with much time and effort, we must learn quietly from the true teacher Jesus who is the nearest through Bible study and prayer.
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven." (Mt. 5:17-19) What is its meaning? The Bible is the perfect truth. There is a profound meaning even in a smallest letter and stroke. In addition, the Bible is so valuable as commands. If one teaches even a small portion wrongly, God will ignore him. Therefore, the one who teaches it with the knowledge of man will inadvertently teach what is opposite to the Bible. He is determined to be ignored by God. It is the most foolish to learn from man, abandoning the perfect and important truth.
The truth can be proved only by the truth. Likewise the Bible proves itself true, since it is truth itself. In addition, truth should be proven not only by theory, but also by real life. In this respect the Bible is proven true through history. It is also proven true through its application to my life and its fruit. In other words, the Bible has been proven true through much evidence and has the merit we can unconditionally trust. Truth gives us conviction, which takes root in our hearts and influences our direction and decisions. This conviction helps us to stand firm and keep the same path despite the temptation that presents itself as opposed to the truth. The truth is often spoken ill of being exclusive in a democracy where everything is decided by a majority. Spiritually speaking, however, it has the final authority to lead people to obedience. In other words, the truth makes us true leaders before God. Man is created to be a true leaders before God – the steward who only serves God as a master. This is realized when the man of God obeys his teaching.
The truth gives confidence by its nature so that, exercising its freedom, it helps one to choose the fastest and wisest path without wandering. Freedom based on confidence in the truth leads us to develop most of our talents that God provides and use those talents correctly. In other words, the truth gives us true freedom, the freedom that benefits us most.
On the other hand the knowledge that lacks truth remains only knowledge in our head and does not take a root in our hearts and influence our lives. In addition, such knowledge without conviction does not keep us from temptation. It does not prevent us from drifting away from the chosen path and wandering here and there according to situation. What man teaches is only knowledge, not the truth. If one teaches the Bible properly to people, he guides them to know the truth. It is the only way. Therefore, we must be careful not to teach the knowledge that is not supported by the Bible. We must be careful not to learn what is not in the Bible.
Nonetheless why do people pursue secular knowledge? I would like to address two issues. First, the Bible says that such knowledge only makes man proud. It is because of the greed for recognition from men. In other words, it is because of one’s sinful nature that seeks self-glory. Here I would like to elaborate on the sinful desire for self-glory, since this is the force that drives man to learn from men and teach men. In other words, many believers neglect Bible study and pursue secular knowledge because of their desire for self-glory. When we learn from God, he does not give us honorary titles. It mainly helps us grow inwardly and produce fruit outwardly. This is the best glory for man in light of his sinful nature. We call self-glory vanity. Vanity implies vain glory, since it has no content or foundation. That is right. Everything must be fair. If a man is truly great, it is fair to reveal himself. But even if he is a little better than others, his goodness is a 1 while his sinfulness is a 10. In addition, the true goodness in Christ is only the work of God. Thus, if one brags about his goodness of a 1 and hides his sinfulness of a10, he acts unfairly ignores God’s justice. If he builds up human knowledge and brags about it, he does not know himself and is unjust. He is humanly smart, but spiritually foolish by deceiving himself in following his sinful nature. For the God of righteousness will see that his hidden sin is exposed.
Second, people try to conform to the pattern of this world. The world has many organizations and traditions. If people want to avoid criticism, they have to comply with the organizations and traditions. Those who succeed in this world are good at making organizations and using them. In light of human history, however, Satan works through this organization and tradition. An organization has its good purpose, but sinful man does not keep its good purpose, but only pursues his success and honor through the organization. On the other hand the great servant of God ignores organization, receives the word of God, preaches it and is persecuted by those who have authority given by the organization. For example, at the time of Jesus the organization of the Pharisees had a great influence in the political society. So many studied hard to be a Pharisee as taught without much discernment. But they became blind. So they persecuted many who witnessed to Jesus. When we review the praises of Zechariah, Simeon, Anna, and Maria, we can tell that they had personal relationships with God, the head of the church, and read diligently the Bible although they did not hold high positions in the Jewish community. The organization UBF started as a club for studying the Bible with a pure heart. As it receives persecution from other bigger organizations it inadvertently has attempted to avoid the persecution by complying with them. As it makes such efforts, it embraces more what is recognized in those organizations. As a result, I presume, it opens up to theology study.
I do not mean to defy organization. The church is the most important organization on earth, whose head is Jesus. Thus, the church is the kingdom of God on earth. Therefore, the true church must have holiness and faithfulness, and its purpose should be only one, the expansion of the kingdom of God. In this way the church organization is the true organization useful to God. All the members, leaders, and sheep, must understand this purpose properly, must work for this purpose and obey it within the organization. Here is the importance of obedience and order. For this goal pure Bible study is absolutely necessary. Many emphasize obedience and love. Obedience and love are only the result of faith. So it seems necessary to emphasize faith. In fact, however, faith is the natural fruit of teaching the truth. The reason is that the truth itself has the ability to prove itself true and contains much evidence. The truth surely produces faith, and faith surely produces the obedience and love, the ultimate fruit of the truth. In other words, holiness, faithfulness, and obedience for expanding the kingdom of God are produced naturally by the root of studying diligently the Bible which is true.
Because man is created in the image of God, he has a mind and heart. The heart has the capacity to embrace righteousness and takes righteous things as truth. Thus, it is possible to explain logically righteous things using the mind. When we accept it in our heart, it takes a root in our hearts and gives conviction. Rigorously speaking, the Bible is the textbook about the truth. As each person deals with their life problem, he studies the Bible, digests the Bible and applies it to his real problem. This is treating the Bible differently than a textbook. Thus when we study the Bible God does not just give us knowledge, but reveals his secret through training our thought. In other words, God disciplines us to develop our mind and heart to their maximum potential. Some people are good at solving problems in a textbook, but are not good at solving problems using different applications. They only memorized the textbook, but did not understand its gist, since they did not develop the God-given ability to understand it. Today people say that critical power is important. Unfortunately many people criticize something for the sake of critique. The true critical power is only the byproduct of knowing the truth. In other words, nobody can tell a lie unless he knows the truth. If one knows the truth, he can discern the lie. The truth gives us the power to see everything clearly like the light. Thus, instead of criticizing others, we must develop our ability to think based on righteousness through Bible study. This thinking power enables us to solve accurately the real life problem – application problem – based on the truth and a sound mind. The primary purpose of criticizing others is to not be deceived by others and to protect those who are deceived.
The Bible - Jesus - is not merely a book that conveys a knowledge of truth, but enable us to discern the truth so that it empowers us with the ability to apply it properly and guides us to live most wisely. We find so many examples in the Bible of Jesus raising his disciples and disciplining them in this way.
When we examine our lives on earth, God does not give us blessing, but leads us to choose between the path of blessing and the path of curse. Simply speaking, man is sinful and his sin leads him to destruction. On the other hand, if we have the truth in our hearts it leads us to life. The reason is that the essence of the truth is the gospel. Since the gospel has life, the truth helps us to devote ourselves to the gospel and live according to the gospel.
God said clearly. " As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." (Isa. 55:9) This is the difference between the word of God and secular wisdom. It seems that the teachings of wise men of the world are attractive and reasonable. So the Bible says that our wisdom and knowledge tempted us. The Bible exposes that wise men lose wisdom and bright men lack discerning power. If we know only the Bible we follow its teachings, believing that they are true. Because of secular wisdom, we consider Biblical truth foolish and follow secular wisdom during the time of crisis, which leads us to destruction. In summary, secular knowledge is often opposite to Biblical truth. When we face reality with both in our hearts, we abandon Biblical truth and follow secular knowledge, since the latter appears better than the former. As a result secular wisdom leads us to destruction.
One smart Japanese philosopher committed suicide by jumping into a lake. Some words were found in his shoes. “Kant, what do you know?” Kant is the famous scholar in philosophy. Nonetheless, there is no truth in his huge volume of work. The secular wisdom is written by those who are sinful. It only wastes our time, since it does not understand people, repeats the same story and is wordy without content. If we want to study secular wisdom, it is better to skim it through. On the other hand, studying the word of God requires full attention, since even one word of God is deeper than a whole book written by man or all the books written by man. So one can discover its secret through deep meditation and prayer, which contains the ability to think through this process. In addition, the truth is simple and clearly revealed, since it is developed by the principle of God’s righteousness. Since we see secular wisdom from the point of righteousness that is based on simple and deep truth, we are able to discern it accurately, criticizing what is to be criticized, and learning what is to be learned. Without wasting our time reading many books, we can digest accurately secular wisdom and utilize it. Since the truth is the light, we are able to see everything accurately and quickly.
Human beings are physical beings made of dirt and at the same time spiritual beings made in the image of God. The physical being has five weaknesses at large: the being of eating and defecating; the being of sleeping for rest; the sick and weak being; the sinful being like David who falls by temptation despite his greatness; and the blind being who can never see spiritual world. The above five weaknesses have reasons: (1) God want us to understand our limit; (2) God wants us to depend on him; and (3) God wants us to live with humility. At the same time that we are spiritual beingswe cannot see the spiritual world because we are bound by our flesh. God gave us the Bible so that we can see and know the spiritual world. Human beings are also the beings of the future. Even if he enjoys the best conditions at present, he cannot live happily if he does not have hope for the future. Thus man has to continually prepare for the future and pioneer the future. In order to prepare better for the future, he must know the future as accurate as possible. Who knows the future? Satan discourages man to study the Bible, but produces many fortune tellers and false prophets to deceive man in reference to the future. The only book that foresees the future is the Bible. These days many intellectuals are full of anxiety, observing the current situation and the sins of the worlds, since the future is precarious. Who can be well prepared for the future in this time of crisis? If we know the Bible properly we find where we are and can prepare well for the future. God is spirit. He saves or punishes according the condition of our spirit. God is omnipotent. He sent the spies to Rahab of Jericho who believed the future according to the Bible and waited for salvation. Our salvation depends on seeing the spiritual world like this. For example, from Rev. 17:7, Apostle John was surprised to find that it was the evil harlot of Babylon that would destroy the world - the invisible power. Such a thing is impossible from man’s point of view. The angel asked, "Why are you surprised?" What is the difference? Although Apostle John was spiritual, he could not believe the vision from the angle because of his habit of seeing the world with human eyes. God shows these unimaginable things in the Bible. When we see the world through the word of God we can clearly see the power of Satan that secretly works in this world. When we see the world with the word of God, we can tell that the judgment is near. Nonetheless many popular pastors commit adultery and work with the harlot, who lead their flock to destruction. It is because they do not study the Bible. Human flesh are like clothes. The time comes for him to put off the clothes when he dies. Jesus said, "The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life." (Jn. 6:63) Our flesh is not as important as our spirit. Only the Bible helps our spirit to see the spiritual world clearly and the world of the future. Therefore, if one neglects Bible study, he becomes blind towards the future and lives for the present moment, and eventually undergoes destruction.
I will not further mention how much advantage laymen have nor how important his role is in carrying world mission in the age of anti-Christianity. God chose the layman for this advantage. But laymen must admit their weaknesses as well. We have limited time. Because layman must support himself financially, he spends most of his time on making money. The maximum age of useful labor is 70 years old. Thus we do not have much time to know all secular knowledge. The Bible contains many profound secrets that nobody can grasp even if he studies it his whole life. Thus layman must focus on his profession and the Bible so that he can make his life efficient. Professional careers enables us to make more money with shorter time and the money frees us for more time. In other words, a professional career is the means. Bible study is the end itself that leads our livese to the world of God and makes us alive.
I would like to talk about the church and Apollo. Modern churches receive all kinds of criticism, since many dirty things are publically exposed. Many pastors propose reformation and repentance in response in order to solve the problems. If we want to solve them correctly, we must understand their cause correctly. I am sure that all the problems are caused by lack of Bible study. Going back to the Bible is the way of life. UBF is not an exception. If we neglect Bible study, we take the word of God superficially and the word of God does not take a root in our heart. In-depth Bible study enables us to see the invisible, but superficial Bible study makes us blind to the path of destruction and leads our instincts to take such a path. UBF is merely a means to expand the kingdom of God. If we neglect Bible study, we end up making UBF the goal. This is nothing but the loss of meaning and leads us to lose God’s blessing.
1 Corinthians chapters 1-4 out of the total 16 chapters appear to address the division in the church. In fact they are about the problem of Apollo. Apollo served the Corinthian church with the word of God mixed with secular knowledge. He was popular, but made the believers proud, caused divisions and corruptionamong them. The main difference between Paul and Apollo is Paul supported only the word of God vs. Apollo’s view of the word of God mixed with secular knowledge. The fruit of Apollo is shown by the sins among the Corinthians. On the other hand Paul became the servant of God with the most fruits. At a glance people appear to be respected due to their social position, secular knowledge and title. This is wrong. We must not be deceived by Satan.
When we please God only through Bible study we have no regrets in our lives.