Lesson for February 10, 2019
The Doctrine of Christian Royalty
The Unity of the Royal Family of God
Christian unity is defined as being harmonious with other members of the Royal Family of God. Harmony in the Royal Family of God means believers are advancing toward the same goal of spiritual maturity. Christian unity means believers are executing the Protocol Plan of God and becoming invisible heroes. Christian unity means complete accord among believers regarding divine viewpoint in the mystery doctrine of the Church Age. This doesn’t mean we agree on every point of doctrine or how that doctrine is applied to our individual lives. But it does mean there is a general consensus about divine viewpoint, mental attitudes, motivations, decisions, and actions related to the Protocol Plan of God. Christian unity means the absence of judging, bickering, slandering, gossiping, jealousy, bitterness, hatred, anger, revenge, vindictiveness, violence, self-pity, guilt, and implacability, etc. Therefore, Christian unity with all believers can exist only in relationship to our position in Christ. There is, however, a unity among believers who are executing the Protocol Plan of God that is different from being in unity with all believers because of our position in Christ.
The key to unity among believers is accurate teaching of Bible doctrine by qualified pastor-teachers and positive response to their teaching. In some areas there may be no accurate Bible teaching available from local churches and a believer must rely on other means to get accurate teaching such as the internet, DVD’s or books. It is the accurate doctrinal teaching of the pastor-teacher that is the key to unity among believers. II Timothy 2:15 commands the pastor: “Be diligent to present yourself approved of God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed [of his message], handling accurately the Word of Truth.” As a workman the pastor’s primary divine objective is to study and teach and not the normal activities associated with being a pastor like visiting the sick, counseling, etc.
Therefore, the responsibility of the pastor-teacher is to study and teach, with emphasis on the mystery doctrine of the Church Age, yet not neglecting the whole realm of Bible doctrine. A pastor is not called to counsel, though he may certainly advise with regard to biblical principles on any given subject. Counseling merely puts band-aids on problems that can be solved only by knowledge and application of accurate Bible doctrine. The teaching of Bible doctrine provides the needed “counseling,” whether it is solutions to problems or how to live the Christian Way of Life, i.e. who to marry, where to locate, how to interact with others, etc. Accurate Bible doctrine gives a believer the opportunity to learn and utilize the Ten Problem Solving Devices and the Protocol Plan of God.
The teaching of Bible doctrine includes the Protocol Plan of God for the Church Age as well as the Ten Problem Solving Devices of the Royal Priesthood. The teaching of Bible doctrine provides the key to unity among Church Age believers. This unity must come from within your soul. The key to unity among believers lies in what you think. There can never be any unity in any place where people gather and interact with each other unless it is unity of thinking. There must be a general basis of agreement in thinking. Only Bible doctrine in the soul can provide the unity that is necessary for fellowship among believers to be meaningful. People emphasis taking precedence over God emphasis results in destroying the benefits of true Christian fellowship. Christian fellowship is never a substitute for fellowship with God.A believer cannot grow spiritually or execute the Protocol Plan of God through what is normally considered Christian fellowship – social interaction.
When fellowship with people takes precedence over fellowship with God the result destroys any benefits of Christian fellowship. Christian fellowship is never a substitute for fellowship with God.A believer cannot grow spiritually or execute the Protocol Plan of God through Christian fellowship. Proper Christian fellowship is the result of the development of a relationship with God through the study and application of Bible doctrine. Fellowship on any other basis is simply social interaction and adds nothing to your spiritual life. Fellowship with God is a part of the protocol plan, while fellowship with other Christians is merely a result at best; at worst, it is a distraction from doctrine.Christian fellowship should never be a substitute for learning Bible doctrine.
Ignorance of Bible doctrine and resultant arrogance are the biggest enemies of Christian unity. Ignorance is the cause, arrogance is the result. This means ignorance of the mystery doctrine for the Church Age, ignorance of the Protocol Plan of God, the Ten Problem Solving Devices, our Portfolio of Invisible Assets, and the Divine Dynasphere. The result of ignorance and arrogance is life in Satan’s cosmic system, where a believer grieves and quenches the Holy Spirit.
Arrogance is a complex of sins which results in the fragmentation of unity among believers in Jesus Christ. This includes such sins as jealousy, bitterness, vindictiveness, implacability, self-pity, guilt, anger, hatred, inordinate ambition and inordinate competition, revenge motivation, gossip, maligning, judging, unrealistic expectation, and role model arrogance, etc.
The unity of the Royal Family of God as the body of Christ is based on Bible doctrine perceived and applied to experience. Lack of execution of the Protocol Plan of God by having eyes on people or having eyes on self means the wrong execution of God’s plan resulting in unrealistic expectation and role model arrogance, fragmenting unity among believers.
The great enemies of unity among the members of the body of Christ which always bring fragmentation are ignorance of doctrine, life in the arrogance complex and wrong emphasis. The present trend of much of Christianity is to emphasize relationship with people over relationship with God, or to assume that a good relationship with people means a good relationship with God. Both are false.
The answer to the problem of people emphasis over God emphasis is found in two major functions of the Christian life: 1) Consistent study and application of Bible doctrine which solves the problem of ignorance 2) Mastering the use of the Ten Problem Solving Devices of the Protocol Plan of God which solves the problem of self-righteous arrogance. Ephesians 3:19, “And to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge (gnosis), that you may filled up to all the fullness of God.” Being filled up with all the fullness of God demands understanding of Bible doctrine related to spiritual adulthood. Being filled up with all the fullness of God means you are using the Ten Problem Solving Devices: the Rebound Technique, the Filling of God the Holy Spirit, the Faith-Rest Drill, Grace Orientation, Doctrinal Orientation, a Personal Sense of Destiny, Personal Love for God the Father, Impersonal Love for all Mankind, Sharing the Happiness of God and Occupation with the Person of Christ.
False doctrine fragments the unity of believers. Therefore, a pastor must be diligent and persevere in the teaching of accurate doctrine. He must not become distracted by involvement in theological controversies or in personality conflicts. There are two biblical traditions for the communication of Bible doctrine to the believer during the Church Age: 1) Face-to-face teaching in a local church 2) Non-face-to-face teaching outside the local church. Both are traditional ways of teaching from the beginning of Christianity.
The epistles of Paul are examples of non-face-to-face teaching. When Epaphras left the church in Colossae and became a fellow prisoner with Paul in Rome, Paul filled in for him with non-face-to-face teaching, i.e., the epistle to the Colossians. (Colossians 1:7, 4:12; Philemon 23) Paul had not visited Colossae prior to sending this epistle to them. While the apostle John taught face-to-face in Ephesus, he was also teaching non-face-to-face in other parts of the Roman Province of Asia. He taught a woman in this manner in II John. He also taught a man in this manner in III John. The book of Revelation was a non-face-to-face series of messages to seven churches in the Roman Province of Asia when John was banished to the Island of Patmos.
From the beginning of the Church Age, non-face-to-face has been a legitimate system of teaching. So, whether it is face-to-face or non-face-to-face, the pastor who is faithful in teaching accurate Bible doctrine is the key to unity among believers. No pastor has the ability to bring about unity among believers by the use of his personality or authority. The power to bring about unity belongs solely to the Word of God, as it is expressed in thoughts, motivations, decisions, and actions of believers. The only basis for unity among Church Age believers is found in the content of the mystery doctrine of the Church Age. This unity requires the understanding of Bible doctrine, which includes the understanding and the utilization of the Ten Problem Solving devices of the Protocol Plan of God.
Romans 16:17-18 corrected translation, “Now I urge you brethren, be alert for those believers who are causing fragmentations and apostasies contrary to the doctrine which you have learned; in fact, separate yourself from [avoid] them. For such believers are slaves to their own emotions, and by smooth and flattering speech, they deceive the right lobes of the ignorant.”
The filling of the Holy Spirit is not characterized by emotion. While Christ is absent from the earth during the Church Age, the filling of the Holy Spirit involves no emotion. We have and use emotions, but not for spiritual growth. Emotion cannot think and cannot apply doctrine. Emotion is a feeling or a response to something and can often be irrational.
Romans 12:2 corrected translation, “Stop being conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renovation of your thought, that you may prove what the will of God is, namely, the good of intrinsic (lasting) value achievement [advance to spiritual maturity], the well-pleasing to God [function of Ten Problem Solving Devices], the spiritually mature status [execution of Protocol Plan of God].”
Romans 12:3 corrected translation, “For I say through the grace which has been given to me to everyone who is among you: stop thinking of self in terms of arrogance beyond what you ought to think, but think in terms of sanity for the purpose of being rational without illusion as God has assigned to each one of us a standard of thinking from doctrine.”
Arrogance is the major cause of Christian unity fragmentation and problems among people causing disunity. A standard of thinking from doctrine takes the place of Human Viewpoint Thinking. A standard of thinking from doctrine includes motivation, thought, decision, and action related to the mystery doctrine of the Church Age and the unique doctrines of this dispensation. This verse mentions the word “thinking” three times. Christian unity is based upon thinking, not upon action, as most people assume.
I Corinthians 1:10 corrected translation, “Now I exhort you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another, and that there be no fragmentations [schisms] among you, but that you may be properly equipped in the same mind and in the same thinking [united in mind and thought].” Notice where the unity is: in the mentality and thinking of the soul.
I Corinthians 3:3 corrected translation, “For you are still carnal, for since there is jealousy and fragmentation among you, are you not carnal? Are you not walking like unbelievers?” I Corinthians 11:18, “For in the first place, when you come together in your church, I hear that schisms [fragmentations] exist among you.”
II Timothy 3:2-7 corrected translation, “For believers will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, criticizers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unable to be appeased, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, haters of God, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power; avoid such believers as these. For they are the kind who creep into homes and captivate weak, silly women who are loaded down with sins and swayed with all kinds of evil desires. They are always learning [gnosis], but never able to come to the (epignosis) knowledge of God.”