Christian Expositions

By

E. Lee Saffold

Brethren:

The purpose of this forum is to provide expositions of the word of God. This is intended for the edification of all Christians in the knowledge and understanding of the will of God that he has revealed to us through the Holy Spirit speaking through the apostles and inspired prophets of the Old Testament and inspired writers of the New Testament. It is not designed to promote any sectarian or denominational creeds of any group of men. Instead we design to provide a forum wherein God speaks for himself to us through his Holy Word. We strive prayerfully, humbly, and obediently to understand what He has said that we might, in all things, be faithful to our Lord Jesus Christ who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. This we are doing because the scriptures teach us of the power of the word of God to increase our faith and to build us up and ultimately give us an inheritance among all them that are sanctified. For this is what Paul said to the elders of the church of Christ in Ephesus. Paul knew that a great falling away from the faith was on the horizon. He had spoken of it to Timothy when he said, " 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; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;" (1 Tim. 4:2,3). And Paul spoke of his sadness concerning the coming apostasy and, in an attempt to prepare the Christians of Ephesus and protect them from it, he commended them to God and the word of His grace. He said, " Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears. And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them, which are sanctified." (Acts 20:28-32).

Therefore it is our settled view that Christians living today, have inherited a long history of confusion and apostasy evidenced by so many sects teaching various and contradictory doctrines and commandments of men resulting from that very apostasy from the faith that was predicted by the apostle Paul. And for this reason Christians should strive, with all that is in them, to return to the pure Christian faith, refined and purified of all of the traditions and commandments of men, that can only be found in the word of God properly understood. For in doing so we can overcome the devastating effects that have resulted from that great apostasy that began so long ago upon the Christian's faith even to this day. To follow the faith that was once delivered to the saints is our aim. And by doing so we shall return to and restore the teaching of Christ that is the source of it by rejecting all perversions of it to embrace the genuine faith that was once delivered to the saints by inspiration of the Holy Spirit. (Jude 3).

This can only be done by a return to the teaching of the word of God as our only rule of faith and practice. And this will of necessity require a turning away from the creeds of men which are filled with the doctrines and commandments of men which have over these many centuries made void the very word of God. And this requires a determined turning toward the teaching of Christ alone for the development of our character and the control of our manner of life as saints of God. And none can expect to restore such faith without turning wholeheartedly to the word of God. For it was delivered by the inspired apostles of Christ our Lord and other inspired writers of the New Testament. (Mark 16:17-20; Heb. 2:3,4). And with this object in view it is our intention to give these expositions of the word of God for all those who strive to follow the "faith once delivered to the saints" (Jude 3) without deviating or departing in any way from it. And once we understand it we will review it so that we can ever be reminded of what is the will of God that His blessed will may done by us in this life.

For this reason the word of God is given preeminence and the opinions, creeds, dogmas, doctrines and traditions of men are given no place here except to occasionally point out where these conflict with the truth of the word of God. And all wrangling over them are sent to another forum designed to convert "wrangling" into orderly debate and serious discussion with hopes of resolution of the controversy. Therefore we shall have a forum for these expositions. We shall have another forum to address questions about portions of God's word and yet another forum designed for those who are seeking to have a dialogue in the form of a formal debate over any of these issues related to Christianity from within the church or out of it.

By doing this we shall be able to proceed with our work of giving these expositions without being interrupted by any unnecessary and foolish controversy while simultaneously providing a place for reasonable controversy to be fought so that the truth of God might shine even brighter. In this way we shall not be in danger of neglecting to hear all criticisms which would protect us from being deceived by our own preconceived notions.

This forum is a private forum for Christians only. All those who have obeyed the gospel of Christ and are therefore Christians are welcome to contribute and read these writings. After the completion of our expositions of God's word in its entirety we intend to then, and not one moment before then, make the forum available as a public forum wherein others can judge the results of our work.

Since this is the case we urge all of the faithful saints to recommend this forum by word, email or other means to others. WE are seeking to gather the best of those whom you know to be faithful Christians who are faithful to Christ and serious students of the word of God, committed to it and able to teach it or seeking to learn more about it.

So, we will provide three forums the names and purpose of which are the following:

Christian Expositions - Expository explanations of the word of God

Christian Commentary- this will be Questions and Answers that concern the meaning of various sections of the word of God.

Christian Controversy- Formal debates between individuals on various issues between Christians using the word of God as the standard of proof and the final arbiter in these matters with the hope to resolve differences in an organized, amiable and faithful Christian manner.

We ask that our readers and contributors please keep this distinction between these three forums in mind as they chose their topics and as they read them. Understand that in the Christian Exposition forum the purpose is strictly to give expositions of portions of God's word. The forum Administrator will be writing with the intention of completing expositions of the entire Bible in an orderly and organized fashion for the benefit of all Christians whom we fervently pray shall find it useful to read. These three forums will all be listed here at Lusenet.

Those contributing to this forum as writers are asked to contribute only expositions of God's word. For this reason this forum shall be a private forum password protected so that those who contribute will be those who agree to comply with the purpose of this forum and provide only an exposition of a given portion of God's word. Others, may request that a certain portion or section of the word of God be explained to them and those who wish to do so may explain it. For that reason those wishing to submit expositions of God's word are asked to send their submissions to the editor/Forum administrator who will review them and post the best selections that suit the purpose of this forum and which give accurate insight into the meaning of God's word.

If you seek to study the word of God or contribute to the proper exegesis of God's word or to learn more about the meaning of God's word in your daily study then please join in the reading of Christian Expositions provided in this forum.

If your purpose is to ask questions about the meaning of any portion of God's word then please go to our Christian Queries forum.

If you seek to debate any issue related to Christianity please go to our Christian Controversy Forum read the rules, state your proposition, prepare to defend it, and challenge anyone that wishes to deny it to do so. You will be given ample time and space to debate as much as you are willing to do so. You will not lack for an opponent if you are opposed to the truth that is taught in the doctrine of Christ or if you are perverting in any way the blessed gospel of Christ our Lord.

The rules of this forum are simple. If you are a Christian you are invited to read, and contribute. All of the material in this forum is copyrighted material and cannot be used by anyone without the express written permission of the author. Therefore we ask that you not copy and use in any other place this material without first requesting and receiving in writing permission from the author of the material you may wish to use in another place prior to so using it.

We will seek a staff of regular writers who will contribute articles on a regular basis. If you wish to volunteer for such please write us and we will send you a copy of specific requirements and qualifications, which you must meet to be accepted to work in this voluntary position without any financial compensation.

For it shall be one of our policies to delete posts which fail to follow these distinctions and place them in the appropriate forum. We will not delete without placing unchanged those posts in the appropriate forum with an email to the author stating where his or her post is to be found. And no deletions will take place until we have a written and clearly stated deletion policy published in advance and referred to when any deletions become necessary.

We ask for the sincere prayers of our faithful Brothers and Sisters in Christ in this endeavor. For we seek to further and not hinder the cause of Christ our Lord till he returns or we depart to be with Him. We seek only to do as our Lord commanded. Thus we dedicate all of these efforts to Him with whom we have died to the world, been buried with him in baptism and have risen to walk in newness of Life. Having been washed in His precious blood beneath the waters of baptism at His command whereby we submitted to Him as our Lord and He "with the circumcision made without hands" removed sin from our souls having forgiven us all our trespasses became forever our blessed and only Savior.

Your Brother in Christ,

E. Lee Saffold

-- Anonymous, January 29, 2002