Basics to Bible Understanding
God Hath Spoken
 

The greatest fact that I know is that God has spoken!  Thus making Himself known.
There was no reason for Him to do so; he did not have to. No necessity was laid
upon Him: he was not compelled to do so. Oh, what grace!

All that He has said that he wants us to know is found in His written Word. All that
He spoke to His creatures is not recorded, but all that we need to know is. The great problem in understanding what He has said is found in the fact that people attempt to reason from the particular to the general. The foundational principle in the science of logic, which will meet all difficulties, is this: "We cannot reason from the particular to the general." The violation of this principle of logic is the root cause for men to misunderstand and misapply what God has said.

Confusion results from looking at particular passages of Scripture and attempting
to generalize God's purpose and plan for all time. His speaking should be looked
at from the general and then reasoned to the particular.

It is by faith in what God has spoken that we understand that the ages were adjusted and administered by Him, so that what is seen by the naked eye is not the result of what appears on the surface and cannot be judged or explained by the outward appearance. In plainer words, "things are not always what they seem to be."

He has made known through His Word the things from which history springs in
order that we may know some of the things pertaining to the ages and dispensations, as they succeed each other. Thereby, we can learn to understand something of His principles of administration suited for each age and dispensation.

GOD HATH SPOKEN                                     

DIRECTLY HIMSELF-There was a time when He spoke directly to individual men.
He spoke directly to individuals, such as Adam. Enoch, Noah, Abraham and Moses. The Book of Genesis tells us what He said to individuals as He spoke directly.

BY THE PROPHETS-From Exodus thru Malachi up to Matthew 1:1-3:12 we notice what God spoke to the fathers of the Hebrews. However, He spoke to "the fathers" BY THE PROPHETS of Israel (Hebrews 1:1). The great fact is that He chose to speak to the ancestors of the Hebrews by the prophets - not by the priest. The prophets spoke to the Hebrews, not to the Gentiles. What God spoke by the prophets, from Moses to John the Baptist, was confined to Israel. Dr. Bullinger well said, "If we read that people and those principles of administration into this dispensation, we are taking what God spake by the prophets to and concerning the fathers and read them as though they were to and about ourselves, the result: CONFUSION."

BY HIS SON - After God spoke by the prophets He spoke again, in "these last days"
(Hebrews 1:2). Not the last days in which we live, but in the days of that dispensation. The speaking BY HIS SON was "unto us" Hebrews, not us Gentiles. The Son's words were not His words but the Fathers (John 7:16; 8:28; 8:46-47; 12:49; 14:10: 24; 17:8). He only "began" (Acts 1:1) this wondrous speaking which ended in His death. What the Son spoke is recorded in the Four Gospels. The Hebrews to whom He spoke rejected the Kingdom and crucified their King.

BY THEM THAT HEARD HIM - God continued speaking by them that had heard the
Son (Hebrews 2:3). The prophets had spoken "unto the fathers." The Son had spoken "unto us." They that had heard Him "confirmed" what He had said "unto us," i.e. to those Hebrews to whom Paul was writing. Those could be none other than the Twelve. The ministry of the Lord was carried on by them after the Ascension. Paul, later in Acts, was one who had heard the Son after the Ascension. The Acts, and the epistles of the Acts period records what God spoke by them that had heard the Son. God speaking by them ended at Acts 28:30.

BY PAUL THE PRISONER - After Acts God ceased speaking to the Hebrews and even the Gentiles as they were associated with the Hebrews. He then spoke to Gentiles by Paul the prisoner of Jesus Christ. Paul's imprisonment was for the express purpose of God speaking to Gentiles apart from Israel. God's eternal purpose, The Mystery, was revealed to Paul the prisoner and is recorded in the prison epistles. Truth for today is bound up in the testimony of the Lord's prisoner.

God speaks to us today, not audibly, but thru a form of sound words which is
recorded in Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon, I and II Timothy and Titus.

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