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40 Days: Seasons of Testing

Bill Alderson
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40 Days: Seasons of Testing

It is interesting to observe in Scripture there are a number of times when there is a period of forty days attached to major events. The two most prominent of these might be the time Moses spent on Mount Sinai receiving the Law and the time Jesus spent in the wilderness while being tempted by the devil. In fact, we find nine different times when forty days are assigned to a biblical event. This is significant when you consider that 9 x 40 = 360 days; Jewish calendars in the past are represented by a 360-day year. We can conclude that these forty-day periods represent seasons of testing in the believer’s life.

The First Season

The first of these seasons is found in Genesis 7:4-5 in reference to the predicted flood:  “For after seven more days, I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights; and I will blot out from the face of the land every living thing that I have made.” Noah did according to all that the Lord had commanded him. God is instructing Noah that his entire world is going to completely change, including the destruction of everything and everyone Noah knows. Our intimacy with God is directly related to our willingness to give up everything for His higher purpose.

The Second Season

“When I went up to the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant which the Lord had made with you, then I remained on the mountain forty days and nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water. “The Lord gave me the two tablets of stone written by the finger of God; and on them were all the words which the Lord had spoken with you at the mountain from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly. “It came about at the end of forty days and nights that the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant. “Then the Lord said to me, ‘Arise, go down from here quickly, for your people whom you brought out of Egypt have acted corruptly. They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them; they have made a molten image for themselves.’ “The Lord spoke further to me, saying, ‘I have seen this people, and indeed, it is a stubborn people. ‘Let Me alone, that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven; and I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.’  (Deuteronomy 9:9-14)

When God called Moses to Mount Sinai, the people trembled at the sight of the mountain smoking, with fire and quaking, a picture of God’s judgment. In Exodus 20:18-19, All the people perceived the thunder and the lightning flashes and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood at a distance. Then they said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen; but let not God speak to us, or we will die.” The people needed Moses to do something they were afraid to do themselves: approach God directly. God’s answer was to provide His Law, the Law of Moses, that would redefine life for every Jew for more than 1,400 years. This second season was the search for perfect justice. But would they accept His challenge?

When Moses came down off Mount Sinai to deliver the Law, he found the people, led by his brother Aaron, worshipping a golden calf. As a result, he smashed the two tablets. The very first of the Ten Commandments, found in Exodus 20:2-3, is “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before Me.” A relationship with the God of Israel is the worship of Yahweh only. This rejection of the Law is a picture of the rejection of Jesus as Messiah at His first coming (John 1:11). The perfect justice of God, the Messiah would need to be postponed until a later time.

The Third Season

In the meantime, God called Moses back to Mount Sinai again in Exodus 34 for forty days and nights and in Verse 28, So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he did not eat bread or drink water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments. Moses was intervening on behalf of the people to make atonement for them before the Lord so that He would not destroy them (see Deuteronomy 9:14). God’s answer was to reinstitute His Law. The third season was God’s call on Moses to intervene on behalf of His people. There are times when He calls the believer to be an intercessor.

The Fourth Season

The fourth of these seasons is found in Numbers 13 when the Lord instructed Moses to choose twelve representatives, one from each tribe, to be spies to enter the promised land in secret and investigate the land. In Numbers 13:25, this represented a period of forty days. They would return with an account of the fruitfulness of the land as well as the obstacles the people would face. Of course, ten of them said that the obstacles were too great while Joshua and Caleb had the opposite recommendation. It represents a season in the believer’s life when he must face the future with an eye on the ability of God instead of the greatness of the dangers ahead. The people sided with the ten and they were delayed in inhabiting their promised land for another thirty-eight years.

The Fifth Season

The angel of the Lord came again a second time and touched him and said, “Arise, eat, because the journey is too great for you.” So, he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mountain of God. Then he came there to a cave and lodged there; and behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and He said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” He said, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the sons of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars and killed Your prophets with the sword. And I alone am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.” So, He said, “Go forth and stand on the mountain before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord was passing by! And a great and strong wind was rending the mountains and breaking in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of a gentle blowing [whisper]. (1 Kings 19:7-13)

Immediately after the great victory that Elijah experienced on Mount Carmel, it became clear that Queen Jezebel and King Ahab would be after Elijah for his life. Instead of operating in his faith as he had done previously, Elijah became afraid for his life and ran. There are times when even the most fervent believers have times of doubt and allow fear to reign instead of faith in God. In the midst of that struggle, God strengthened Elijah supernaturally to traverse the desert forty days to get to Horeb [Sinai], the mountain of God. God was reminding Elijah of His covenant with Israel. The fifth season represents the times when even the most ardent believer must be reminded of the foundation of his faith. These reminders do not usually come by some incredible display like a fire or an earthquake, but most often through the sound of a gentle whisper, the voice of God heard inside by man’s spirit.

The Sixth Season

When King Saul and the people were being challenged by the giant Philistine, Goliath, in the Valley of Elah, as stated in 1 Samuel 17:16, “The Philistine came forward morning and evening for forty days and took his stand.” This challenge represents the times when the believer faces a formidable difficulty with no clear solution to the problem. The sixth season is found in learning to wait on God for His supernatural provision, even when it represents a stone thrown by a teenager, even if it takes forty days.

The Seventh Season

Jonah was commanded by God to go to Nineveh and warn the Assyrians to repent or severe judgment from God would come upon them. Jonah had a problem with this and instead headed in the opposite direction. Of course, God had other plans and, after spending three days and nights in the fish, Jonah finally agreed to fulfill God’s wishes. In Jonah 3:4, Then Jonah began to go through the city one day’s walk; and he cried out and said, “Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” God was giving Nineveh forty days to repent. And they did! This is the seventh season of testing. Jonah had a problem with a compassionate God offering forgiveness to such a wicked people.

In Jonah 4, Jonah laments over a plant God gave him to be shade from the sun, that it died. The Lord used this issue as a teaching lesson for Jonah, that everyone deserves the compassion of a longsuffering God:

Then God said to Jonah, “Do you have good reason to be angry about the plant?” And he said, “I have good reason to be angry, even to death.” Then the Lord said, “You had compassion on the plant for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight. “Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?” (Jonah 4:9-11)

The Eighth Season

Directly after the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River, Jesus was tested by the devil in the wilderness. He would be tested in three aspects of His ministry: provisions of life, God’s power, and His providence. The eighth season of testing involves the spiritual warfare that attacks the believer in relation to basic issues of life. In each case, the answer to the test is the Word of God: It is written.

Provision

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry. And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.'”

Power

Then the devil took Him into the holy city and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down; for it is written, ‘HE WILL COMMAND HIS ANGELS CONCERNING YOU’; and ‘ON their HANDS THEY WILL BEAR YOU UP, SO THAT YOU WILL NOT STRIKE YOUR FOOT AGAINST A STONE.'” Jesus said to him, “On the other hand, it is written, ‘YOU SHALL NOT PUT THE LORD YOUR GOD TO THE TEST.'”

Providence

Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory; and he said to Him, “All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go, Satan! For it is written, ‘YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD, AND SERVE HIM ONLY.'”

Then the devil left Him; and behold, angels came and began to minister to Him. (Matthew 4:1-11)

The Ninth Season

The ninth season of testing is found in Acts 1:3 as Jesus is preparing for His ascension. He has been with His disciples for forty days since His resurrection, preparing them for the church age when He will be removed, and replaced by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of Truth, who will guide each believer into the truth. Jesus promises His disciples that, “but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.” As each believer transitions from a religious life to a spiritual life by the Holy Spirit, his life will be tested in every area to trust God for every provision, as he consults the Word of God for strength and understanding.

What Does Time, Times and Half a Time Mean?

Matthew Schoenherr
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What Does Time, Times and Half a Time Mean?

Though I knew the biblical phrase “time, times and half a time”, I had only looked into it long enough to leave thoroughly confused. However, in response to my lesson on Daniel’s 70 Weeks prophecy, one fellow student of the Word wrote in the following:

“How do you explain the utilization of time, times and half a time (three and half years) by Daniel, James and John the Revelator?

“Revelation was written after the literal 70 weeks yet the author makes mention of that period (3½ yrs) as either happening or will happen. Is it allegorical or literal?

“Is it the latter part of the 70 weeks or a separate prophecy?”

By Sani’s questions, I realized folks might have been taught there was a connection to Daniel’s 70 Weeks and the “midst of the week” in verse 27. If you want to skip the rest of this lesson, I’ll simply tell you right now: I’ve now studied it out and I can safely say—while there’s no direct connection between Daniel’s 70 weeks and the three “time, times and half a times” we find in the Word—there is overlap! If you want to learn more about what “time, times and half a time” actually means, stay tuned.

Prophecy Course. Bible prophecy made clear. (https://prophecycourse.org/)

TAKE-AWAYS FROM THIS LESSON

What does “time, times and half a time” mean? Explained.

Prophecy Course Bible study

Daniel’s 70 Weeks Prophecy Explained

Matthew Schoenherr
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Daniel’s 70 Weeks Prophecy Explained

Imagine being visited by an angel and receiving a promise foretelling a future king who would liberate your people and usher in an entirely new kingdom—a new way of life—free from the crushing burden of sin, shame and guilt. Amazing! But then this promise turns dark, tainted by war, desolation and the end of all you’ve ever known.

Oh, and did I mention this prophecy is wrapped in an exact timeframe so your people can know when all this is going to go down?

Welcome to Daniel’s 70-Week Prophecy.

TAKE-AWAYS FROM THIS LESSON

  • This prophecy gives a precise timeline
  • Announces the arrival of Israel’s Messiah
  • Predicts the Messiah’s death
  • Predicts the destruction of temple and Jerusalem by an army
  • Jesus reminds His first-century followers of this prophecy to warn them of the impending 70 AD judgment (Matthew 24:15)

Complete transcript and small group discussion questions may be found at https://prophecycourse.org/

The Corruption of Mankind

Bill Alderson
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The Corruption of Mankind

For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. (Romans 8:20-22)

When God created the garden of Eden, He made it a perfect place to live. After creating man, he empowered him with ability to exercise dominion over the garden and everything in it. The Lord gave Adam great freedom in fulfilling his responsibilities, with one exception, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.” (Genesis 2:16-17) As we know, this one prohibition created an opportunity for sin (Romans 7:7-12) and Satan used it as a means of deception and mankind still lives in the consequences of Adam and Eve’s decision. According to Genesis 3:6-7, When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise [sakal – to act with insight, prudence], she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened.

Curses

As a result, not only did God curse Satan, Adam and Eve, but He also cursed the ground. According to Jamieson Fausett and Brown Commentary:

In the rich and smiling garden of Eden the vigorous and prolific soil yielded a spontaneous produce, and the industry of man was confined to the easy and pleasant work of checking or regulating the luxuriant growth of vegetation. This state, because anything we are told to the contrary, would have been perpetuated but for the disobedience of rebellious man, who, with the solemn warning of the penal consequences still ringing in his ears, transgressed, and with the loss of his innocence forfeited the happy place of his primeval abode. The awful curse of an offended God fell not, however, upon Adam himself, as it did upon the serpent, but upon the ground ‘for his sake;’

It therefore would be necessary to expel them from Eden, so that their sin might not be immortalized. In Genesis 3:23, therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken.  Cherubim were stationed at the entrance to keep mankind from his paradise, for a time. Adam and Eve must leave paradise for a corrupted (cursed) world. Man would now face the results of Adam’s sin, illustrated in the life of his son, Cain. Without a provision for sin, Cain would commit a heinous crime by murdering his brother out of jealousy. The Lord addressed it with him in Genesis 4:7, “If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master [masal – to rule, reign, have dominion over] it.” Of course, Cain was not able to rule over or master his sin. By inheritance, we all face the same challenges.

The Coming Flood

According to Josephus, Adam had been warned by God of two judgments, one by fire and another by the violence and quantity of water (Antiquities 1.2.3). God never told him which one would come first. It would be 1,656 years from creation until the flood, a time where the corruption of sin became more and more consuming. It ultimately resulted in a deeper corruption, brought on by demonic forces and documented in Genesis 6:1-8:

Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, that the sons [ben – offspring, descendants] of God [Elohim] saw that the daughters of men [adam – mankind] were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose. Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them.  Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. The Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

This passage suggests that there was a further attempt to immortalize man’s sin through a demonic attempt to pervert mankind in an even greater way, an organized conspiracy among evil forces to corrupt mankind and the animal world, such that the promise of Genesis 3:15, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel,” would never be fulfilled.

Testaments of the Patriarchs

According to the legend found in the Tamud of the orthodox Jews and the Essene community, all of the patriarchs from Adam to Aaron (thirty-seven or more) were prophets and all wrote testaments for their posterity. According to the Book of Enoch, chapter 6:1-5, it is reported:

And it came to pass when the children of men had multiplied that in those days were born unto them beautiful and comely daughters. And the angels, the children of the heaven, saw and lusted after them, and said to one another: ‘Come, let us choose us wives from among the children of men and beget us children.’ And Semajaza, who was their leader, said unto them: ‘I fear ye will not indeed agree to do this deed, and I alone shall have to pay the penalty of a great sin.’ And they all answered him and said: ‘Let us swear an oath, and all bind ourselves by mutual imprecations not to abandon this plan but to do this thing.’ Then sware they all together and bound themselves by mutual imprecations upon it.

According to chapter 7:1-6,

And all the others together with them took unto themselves wives, and each chose for himself one, and they began to go in unto them and to defile themselves with them, and they taught them charms and enchantments, and the cutting of roots, and made them acquainted with plants. And they became pregnant, and they bare great giants, whose height was three thousand ells: Who consumed all the acquisitions of men. And when men could no longer sustain them, the giants turned against them and devoured mankind. And they began to sin against birds, and beasts, and reptiles, and fish, and to devour one another’s flesh and drink the blood. Then the earth laid accusation against the lawless ones.

The Purity of Kind

Hebrews 11:7 gives us further definition of this reality, By faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world, and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith. Humanity was warned of the upcoming judgment, but only Noah, his wife and three sons, and their wives would be delivered from this judgment. The lesson to be learned is that God intends that mankind would keep each of his “kind” pure. Noah was instructed in Genesis 7:14-15, they and every beast after its kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind, all sorts of birds. So, they went into the ark to Noah, by twos of all flesh in which was the breath of life. This principle applies to mankind as well, as Ezra 9:1-4 conveys:

Now when these things had been completed, the princes approached me, saying, “The people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands, according to their abominations, those of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians and the Amorites. “For they have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy race has intermingled with the peoples of the lands; indeed, the hands of the princes and the rulers have been foremost in this unfaithfulness.” When I heard about this matter, I tore my garment and my robe, and pulled some of the hair from my head and my beard and sat down appalled. Then everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel on account of the unfaithfulness of the exiles gathered to me, and I sat appalled until the evening offering.

Ezra was instructing men to remain holy, to be set apart and not to intermarry with anyone not of his kind. In Ezra 9:12, ‘So now do not give your daughters to their sons nor take their daughters to your sons, and never seek their peace or their prosperity, that you may be strong and eat the good things of the land and leave it as an inheritance to your sons forever.’ Peter helps us understand further details of this intended corruption in 2 Peter 2:4-9:

For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; and if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter; and if He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds), then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment,

A Scattering

It took more than two hundred years since the flood for the third judgment of God to visit mankind. It came in the form of a scattering of the people and a confusing of their language, as reported in Genesis 11:1-9:

Now the whole earth used the same language and the same words. It came about as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. They said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly.” And they used brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar. They said, “Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.” The Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. The Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them. “Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” So, the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city. Therefore, its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth.

In this passage, the people were organized in the land of Shinar and conspired to build themselves a city which would have a tower whose top will reach into heaven, to demonstrate to God that they could do it without God, to establish a name for themselves. It reminds me of Lucifer’s declaration in Isaiah 14:14, I will make myself like the Most High. Genesis 11:4 tells us that they were concerned about being scattered abroad, so they understood this was contrary to God’s will. In Proverbs 18:11, A rich man’s wealth is his strong city, and like a high wall in his own imagination. It teaches that man’s abilities apart from God produce only an imagination of strength. When men come together to conspire against God, it reflects a spirit that is uncontrollable, according to Proverbs 25:28, Like a city that is broken into and without walls is a man who has no control over his spirit. When man operates outside of God’s authority, he sets himself up for judgment. The Lord had to scatter the people while confusing their languages; He will always come against unholy alliances. In Psalm 127:1, Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it.

A Man of Promise

The immediate conclusion to this problem would come through a man named Abram, later named Abraham by God, who would receive promises from God of blessings and also a charge to leave his home for a new land, a promised land. It would be there that Abraham would begin to realize the promised blessings. The solution to the corruption of mankind is a walk of faith, choosing to believe God for His promises as revealed in His Word. In Hebrews 11:9-10, By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise; for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. When the believer follows the leading of God by His Holy Spirit, he is trusting in God’s provisions for life instead of his own resources.

The promises God made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob redound to the new covenant believer as Paul defines in Romans 4:13, For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would be heir of the world was not through the Law, but through the righteousness of faith. When mankind places his trust in God’s promises, he walks in God’s righteousness with all of its provisions for life. Moses spoke about Israel being separated for an inheritance in Deuteronomy 32:8-9, “When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when He separated the sons of man, He set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the sons of Israel. “For the Lord’s portion is His people; Jacob is the allotment of His inheritance. When man allows God to define the boundaries of his life, he becomes the Lord’s portion (heleq – possession).

The motives that caused Babel to construct its tower still exist today. Prophesy tells us that when Anti-Christ appears, he will use his authority to establish a one-world government (see Revelation 13) and most of the world will go along with him. Peter tells us that the provisions of God are available to all who believe. In 1 Peter 2:9-10, But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God’s OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were NOT A PEOPLE, but now you are THE PEOPLE OF GOD; you had NOT RECEIVED MERCY, but now you have RECEIVED MERCY. This has always been God’s plan for man to overcome corruption.

Tragedy. The New Normal?

Guest Contributor
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Tragedy. The New Normal?

So, there’s this story. A story saturated with love, hope, and a glimpse into a paradise experience that transcends what the human mind can fathom even with a lifetime of thoughts. One that many have heard, and some even believe. A story of such unique craft and design that instead of inciting appreciation for the design, it somehow encouraged a sense of doubt and disbelief. And this doubt, this disbelief, is what makes this beautifully written story so full of tragedy. And to know that this story is not a story at all, but our reality, is what makes tragedy so real for us today.

The creation of the universe has to be one of, if not the greatest displays of power that is contained in one being. God, in His infinite wisdom, superiority, and with His ubiquitous nature, carved out every single detail of this world, even those details that exist in the tiniest, most inconspicuous spaces. The stars are aligned according to the words He spoke. Fish swim. Dogs bark. The sun revolves. Water flows. Mankind exists. And mankind, the man that God created for His pleasure and through His unlimited power, is the same man who did not believe that everything he needed was so lovingly and eloquently presented to him without him having to work or ask for any of it. This man wanted more and because of the inquisition into the things that he was not prepared for, he got what he was not looking for but all he deserved. This is the story of why we experience tragedy today.

If you remember anything about Genesis, the creation of man, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil, you probably remember God’s command to not eat, that wretched woman—Eve, an apple, and a snake. When God created the heavens and the earth, before man was even formed, God had already prepared and groomed everything for him. God provided food, water, light, animals, celestial bodies for navigation, greenery, and everything that man would need (in a perfect world) to thrive and survive. And after God put everything that man needed in place, He brought man into this world. But not only that, He gave him a “help meet” to walk alongside him because God knew that the perpetuity of humanity needed this woman. And God also knew that eventually we were all going to need each other. But just like everything came together for man and woman, because of man and woman, everything falls apart.

The Fall of Man and Change of Heart

As we fast forward through the creation story, we see how Eve was deceived by Satan, through the serpent, by eating the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, because she ultimately did not believe God. It wasn’t enough to have everything that she needed; she wanted to be like God. And from there, we see how Adam followed suit in eating of the tree and how his disobedience to God’s command brought doom and gloom into the world. There were cursings passed out to all parties and humanity was now the fruit and mirror of a sinful man. We all would now be born with a sin nature, just like the one our earthly father now had. But thank God through another man, “who thought it not robbery to be equal with God but made Himself of no reputation…” (Philippians 2:6–7, KJV), we were given a way out. But not everyone takes this way out, and this is what causes devastation and anguish to those who inhabit the earth.

We don’t have to go back far to see just how evil man’s heart can be. There have been more mass shootings in the US this year alone than there have been days. If you rewind back just recently to Chattanooga, Georgia, and Texas, you’ll see the result of an evil heart. If you venture back a little further, but not too much, to New York, you’ll see the heart of another. But even if we temporarily place a veil between us and what is happening around us presently, we can go back 11 years to 9/11 and we’ll see vile hearts dripping with the blood of those made in the same image. And go even further back 100 years and you’ll see that the proportion of change to things staying the same is almost equal. If you look inside schools, you’ll see evil hearts preying on innocence. And if you look inside churches, you’ll see that evil doesn’t have a preference. But if you glance over at Matthew 24, you’ll see a discussion on the signs of the end of the age. You’ll see how tragedy and adversity will be the beginning of “birth pains.” Jesus, in Matthew, tells us that, “many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another.” And because of the “increase in lawlessness, the love of many will grow cold.” And this cooling down of the heart is the agent of our pain. But believers knew this would happen. We expected this. But just as you watch a loved one suffer at the hands of a terminal illness for years, when the day comes that they take their final breath, are you ever really prepared? Do you ever really know how to respond to all of the calamity and affliction? Do you really expect for that day to come that you hear that a lone gunman walks into a school and takes the lives of young, innocent children? And then you ask yourself: If this is what we should expect, is this our new normal?

As you scan the waves of emotions of people in the world, you’ll see the saddened hearts of many who weep for the world we live in. We know what we want to see happen and why there is something that we need to do, but we don’t always quite know what to do. We’re tired but emboldened. Confused but sure. Angry but sympathetic. Stagnant but ready. Frozen but anxious. Why? Because every day brings about a new tragedy to mourn and a new plan to mount. The frequency of devastation has become so close, that it’s almost as if we don’t have time to adequately grieve. We can’t stop and properly mourn those in Buffalo because we must start over in grieving for those in Texas. So that begs the questions: Are we really grieving? Are we really mourning? Or are we just learning to cope? Have we been unintentionally “coping” for so long that we haven’t properly grieved ourselves into the right action? Have we learned a behavior that is now set to match our circumstances? Have we accepted this as “normal” and just don’t know it?

If you think back to the years of slavery and look at what we currently face today, you have to ask yourself: How far have we really come as it deals with the heart of man? Over 100 years later and we can write about the same things Black people were fighting against and afraid of back in the days of Emmett Till and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Is this because some have accepted this as “normal?” Or is the tragedy we face daily because we haven’t had the courage to attack the root of our problems instead of trimming the branches? Consider the overturning of Roe vs. Wade. Have we examined the root of abortion and pregnancy and sought ways to attack this beyond “planned parenthood?” Have we gone back years to carve out and address what is at the core of racism and the history of systemic oversight and negligence that has gone unchecked? Have we done our due diligence to unearth the cause of Black-on-Black crime? Have we dug deep enough to reach the bedrock of the opioid epidemic? Maybe the answer to these questions for some is yes but the seemingly, never-ending devastation appears to suggest that for most it would be no. Is this because this is our new normal?

Hope for a Better Normal

When we look at gun violence, mass shootings, sexual abuse in the church, we often look at the instrument that the damage comes through instead of the subject that the damage comes from. Earlier I posed a question of how far we’ve come as it deals with man’s heart, and I believe that the lens through which we see tragedy helps to answer this question. When we hear of gun violence, we automatically laser focus in on gun control. But who holds the gun? When we hear of sexual abuse in the church, we turn our nose up at the entire church community. But who committed the abuse? It’s not the Church. It’s not guns. It’s not politics. It’s people. The people who hide behind the veil of the Church, the barrel of the gun, and the unbalanced scale of legislation. It’s people acting out what is in their malevolent hearts. And the only way to combat the corrupt, cruel, vicious hearts of people is with Christ. He is how we fight back against what is seeking to prevail as our new normal. This is how we respond. We respond to the heart by knowing that at the root of any evil act is sin, and sin is a heart issue. And in order for the heart to be changed, we must allow God, through the work of the Holy Spirit, to fix the hearts of those who want change. We must see God as the one, true cardiothoracic surgeon, but we also have to understand that consent has to be given to lie on the table for Him to perform the surgery. And as the believer continues to work to spread the good news of Jesus Christ and people will consent to lie on the table, God will operate on their heart and prompt their repentance so that they can turn away from a heart of hate to one of love for those whom He created.

Most people will never forget how a global pandemic, in the form of COVID-19, took our world by storm. With so many advances in medicine, technology, and science, we were uprooted by an unseen, unheard of, unrelenting virus. Masks mandates were enforced, cities shut down, people were on edge, and it seemed like the pandemic would never end. But here we are. Many thought that the guidelines and restrictions enforced during the pandemic would be our new way of living, but we soon were on the other side of the pandemic, waving goodbye with caution, and going back to our everyday lives. So, what we thought would be a new normal for us turned out to be a pause in what we knew to be normal and a grappling of how we should take on a better normal instead.

And the same goes for the tragedy we see each day. Even though we are so frequently faced with catastrophe, we should not see it as something to get used to. Yes, we should take time to grieve the devastating loss of life. We should mourn, cry, scream, yell, talk to a therapist, but we should also have hope. Hope to walk through each day knowing and believing that the enemy is already defeated. And hope that Christ will fill the hearts of those who will accept Him. And through this acceptance, we may still mourn tragedy and loss, but we mourn it with the expectation that we will one day see our brothers and sisters in a better place, celebrating a better normal with an eternal, loving God.

Dr. Brittany Dodson is a licensed, practicing pharmacist at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock, AR, a Christian singer/songwriter, and podcast host of The Traditional Millennial. Learn more about Brittany at https://linktr.ee/brittanydodsonmusic. 

INTERVIEW: “Finding Full Assurance of Faith” by Pastor Bill Alderson

Matthew Schoenherr
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INTERVIEW: “Finding Full Assurance of Faith” by Pastor Bill Alderson

[Matthew] Hey there. I’m Matthew Schoenherr, this is Levaire, and today, our guest is the author of “Finding Full Assurance of Faith: The New Covenant in Three Dimensions.” Bill Alderson is currently an associate pastor for Greater Grace World Outreach in Baltimore, Maryland. He and his wife have six children, 10 grandchildren, and live in Havre de Grace, Maryland. Welcome, Bill.

[Bill] Great to be with you, Matt, looking forward to our conversation.

[Matthew] Yeah. Bill, what drove you to write “Finding Full Assurance of Faith”?

[Bill] It was a long process. I’ve been studying the Word of God pretty intensely for, well, probably 40 years. About 15 years ago, 16 years ago, God started to reveal some things to me that I’d not read before in any other place, particularly as it relates to the new covenant. They were insightful things, and it just kind of led me into a deeper study. I was relying on some isogogic materials that really opened the door, opened up my mind to realities as these gospels in particular were being written, who they were being written to, and what was going on at the time that they were, that they were accounting for.

All of a sudden, it became clear to me that there was an underlying story—particularly in the gospel of John—there’s an underlying story here that’s not on the surface, you have to dig underneath. But once you do, you start to realize there’s something more going on here that brings into each believer a fullness in the relationship. This is really what God was leading me into.

It was a progressive thing, where He’d give me a season where He’d give me a lot of stuff. And then I’d have to set it aside, and then I’d pick it up again. And then I’d set it aside, and then I’d pick it up again. Never really knowing exactly how it was going to conclude. And it wasn’t until maybe six months ago that things started gel as far as, “Oh, this is how it’s supposed to end. This is what it’s supposed to look like, as a book.”

So actually, started talking to you and to others just to get some counsel on how to go about getting a book published. And here I am today. It’s done. It’s out there. I don’t like the word “proud” from a spiritual perspective, but I am proud of it in the sense that it, I believe it communicates what God wanted me to say.

So here we are. It was a long ongoing process. By the way, since I’ve written it, it’s like, now there’s more. It’s like, when He gives you something, then He says, “Okay, now you’ve got this. Now I’m going to build on that.” And I think our walk with God is kind of like that, where every day, the day before you had something, and now that becomes foundational for something else. He’s constantly building you in a process. Psalm 25:9 says, “The meek will He teach in the way.” This idea of meekness being open to hear the voice of God, let Him teach you, and then it’s a progressive thing that ultimately, it never ends. It doesn’t end until we’re in heaven, and even then, I think we’ll continue to learn more, particularly about the quality of God’s love.

[Matthew] Yes, yes. Amen to that. Now, I gotta bring you back for a second because you used a word that’s probably over a lot of heads: “isogogic”.

[Bill] Isogogics.

[Matthew] Can you expand on that just quickly?

[Bill] Yeah. The isogogics are the background of what is taking place. It’s inside information about who, you know what, when Jesus said something, what did they actually understand Him to mean? So you have to look at the context of the Hebrew mindset of His day, or who He’s communicating to. And to you get a bigger picture of actually what He is trying to deal with in a particular way.

One of the books that was really foundational for me was called the “Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah” by Alfred Edersheim, who was a 19th century scholar. He just brings out all kinds of special things that you wouldn’t read in most commentaries, that really kind of took me on this journey.

[Matthew] Yay. Nice. All right, so tell us a little more about yourself. How has your understanding of the Christian life changed as you’ve studied over the years?

[Bill] Well, it’s becoming more and more and more personal. As God gives me insights that are, as I study what other people have written before me, because I’m trying to glean from their lives, but then God says, “No, but I’m gonna give you something that you’ve never read before.”

The relationship with God, being able to hear the voice of God clearly. And for me, it happens most often when I’m studying the scripture. The Word of God is a means of God communicating heart-to-heart. He’s communicating to our hearts. And as we study, as we meditate, I think meditation is a critical part of our relationship with God, it’s not only do I read a verse and think about it, but then, okay, so what does this mean to me?

How do I apply this in a practical way in my life? And so, it’s a journey. It’s like “Pilgrim’s Progress”. Most people have at least heard of “Pilgrim’s Progress”, John Bunyan. You’re going from one city, one place to another, God’s taking you on this journey. And every city has implications for the next one.

So, it’s like there’s a process. And that’s really what God has taken me on, this amazing journey where I now see things, and He’s giving me more insights. It’s like I’m becoming comfortable being out on the end of the plank, if you know what I’m saying.

[Matthew] I do.

[Bill] He put you out there, He puts you out there, and you say, “Nobody else is here and I’m all alone.” He does that because He has a unique relationship with me, just as He does with everyone. And He wants to develop that relationship. And as we press into Him, as we draw near to Him, “You draw near to Me, I’ll draw near to you.”

That principle, everything expands, because now possibilities are endless, because you’re now outside of your own limitations. As a human being, we have very specific limitations, and each one of us has our own strengths and weaknesses and things that kind of hold us back.

But nothing is impossible with God. So you connect with Him and now you’re kind of, you’re able to operate on a higher level, but it’s His empowerment, not mine. It’s all about Him working through me in the Word of God and the truth that He delivers.

[Matthew] Yes. Oh, for sure. For sure. Yeah. Had he left us where he found us, it’d be a mess.

[Bill] Yeah, for sure.

[Matthew] Okay. So in your book, you talk about the nature and importance of the new covenant. Now, one question that comes up around this has been, if the old covenant has been replaced by a new covenant, a better covenant, why didn’t God just start with the new covenant?

[Bill] Yeah, this was a question that I kind of worked on, meditated on for a long time, because as it became more and more clear the greatness of the new covenant. It was like, no, God had pointed to this all along, this was going to be the ultimate goal, the new covenant.

In Hebrews 13:20, it’s an eternal covenant, meaning that it existed before and it’ll exist forever.

So this has always been God’s intention. But He has—I found out in my studies—He has to take us on a journey to get us to the place where we are ready to receive it.

It’s like He prepares the ground for you to be able to accept what He has for you. And that whole period of 14 or 1,500 years under the law of Moses, was all intended to prepare the Jewish nation for their Messiah.

And they had to go through this religious process before they were ready to say, “Okay, now I’m ready to set that aside because I’m interested in something even better.” And a walk with God—when you have the life of God living inside of us—it is a game changer.

The old covenant only takes you so far, because again, you’re limited by your flesh.

Romans 8:3 says the law, weak as it was through the flesh, God did, sending His own son in the likeness of sinful men.

He’s saying, “Hey, the law could only take you so far; I want to take you further. But you need to go through this process to realize that this isn’t the end of the process; there’s something even greater.”

And each day in our walk with God is intended to be that way. “He gets sweeter and sweeter as the days go by, oh, what a love between my Lord and I.”

[Matthew] Nice. You’re a poet too.

[Bill] That’s a song by the way.

[Matthew] Bill, you subscribe to a dispensational view of the Bible. Would you mind telling us what dispensationalism means to you?

[Bill] Yeah. The way I’ve studied the Bible, I come through the Scofield, Louis Barry Shafer arm of conservative Christianity that subscribes to dispensationalism, which basically says that in each period of human history, God’s way of dealing with man is different; it changes.

In the first dispensation, we’re talking about the garden, man created, and he had an awesome time in paradise. But then something happened, something changed. That period in the garden, we call it the Age of Innocence. Before there was any understanding of reality of sin. But then something happened, they were told not to do something, which they did.

And in Genesis chapter three, the devil had got in the way through the serpent, and everything changed. And in fact, they had to leave the garden, they had to leave paradise. And now they’re facing this world, which by the way, was also cursed just as man was cursed and woman was cursed, and the devil was cursed, so was the ground.

Now, man has to deal with the corruption of the sin nature, and it’s evident in everything, in the entire scope of our life. So now this is called the Age of Conscience, because now you’ve got a conscience, you’ve got something God tells you to do and you don’t do, or He tells you not to do and you do. Either way, now you’re being reminded, “Uh oh, I’m missing the mark here.” The second period is the conscience.

The third period is Genesis 11, One World Government, where all of a sudden now people are gathering together in one place, trying, “Let’s build a city. And in the middle of the city, this tower, to prove to God that we are capable of being gods,” in a sense, that’s effectively what they were trying to do. And Isaiah 14:14, the devil, Lucifer says, “I will be like the Most High.” It’s that spirit. And God had to scatter them. So that ended that.

And then the fourth dispensation begins with Abraham, and it’s called the Dispensation of Promise, where God started to make promises, and Abraham believed. And Isaac and Jacob and that whole period, which covers from Genesis 12 all the way to the end of Genesis, to the beginning of Exodus, is what we call the Age of Promise.

Then we go into the law, the law of Moses. And that covers through the time of Jesus. And then Jesus introduces a new covenant. We call it the Age of Grace, the Dispensation of Grace.

And here we are.

[Matthew] Nice. Okay. So next question. You and I both know that writing a book is a tremendous amount of work. How does “Finding Full Assurance” address some of the needs of today’s Church?

[Bill] As I have been doing a lot of studying and just observing the state of the Christian Church today, I think that there’s some really severe spiritual shortages that exist.

There’s a great book written by a guy named Francis Schaeffer. He was an apologist in the 20th century. And very intense, a very smart man, and he wrote extensively. The book that he wrote just before he died in 1984 is called the “Great Evangelical Disaster”. And in there, he highlights how liberalism had entered into the seminaries back in the late 19th century, and progressively now, the evangelical church has been influenced more and more and more by this liberalism, which basically gives license to say, you can interpret the scripture any way that kind of suits you. There are no absolutes. It’s like, no, you have room to kind of operate here.

The problem with that is that the moment you modify the truth just a little bit—we have an example of that, by the way, in Matthew chapter four, when Jesus is in the wilderness being tempted by the devil, and what does the devil do? He quotes scripture. And Jesus basically says, “No, you’re misapplying that scripture. What you’ve done, you’ve taken truth, but you’ve twisted it.” And this is what happens when you are willing to alter your interpretation of scripture to suit your particular need or your particular interest or particular agenda, whatever it may be. And I think this is where much of Christianity is today. And what I’ve tried to do in the book is to define, as scripturally as I can, each chapter is filled with scripture, as you know. And I’m trying to take the scripture and bring life to it in practical ways, comparing it to other scriptures so that it’s not just one scripture that says something. No, this is supported by other parts of the Bible so that the conclusions that you come to are consistent and they’re conservative, and they are, I believe, what God intended.

[Matthew] Yeah. Thank you for that carefulness with our Father’s Word, for sure. What is the most important point you would like people to come away with after reading this book?

[Bill] The greatness of the relationship with God. The fact that He has really taken care of all of the things that hold us back as a human being, that keep us from experiencing the greatest heights in our relationship with Him, and therefore, our happiness on this earth.

Once we realize that He is not expecting us to perform certain things in order for us to get to the highest level, when we think that God puts some conditions on us in order to get to this place, this high place in our relationship with Him.

But the fact is that the new covenant has resolved basically every issue as it relates to redemption.

And now it’s really just a matter of me trying this new relationship with God on for size. And it’s getting in my mind understanding, “Oh, this is how it works. Oh, I don’t have to do this or I don’t have to be that.”

I can rest in this perfect position that He’s prepared for me. And that’s what the new covenant relationship is all about. It’s a finished work. Jesus said in John 19:30, “It is finished.” And He wasn’t just talking about His work on the earth. He was talking about the work of redemption, that you and I now have this perfect relationship with God.

We don’t have to go through the law of Moses anymore and suffer all the consequences for our failures. We simply live in the reality that our sins are forgiven, but yet we still have a sin nature. So we live in this conundrum, if you will, and we live in a corrupt world as well, and yet, He has made our relationship with Him perfect.

It’s encouraging people to find the strength and the quality of the relationship that God has prepared for us.

And so much of it is mental, it’s not about effort. The effort is the byproduct of getting to the place where God brings me to mentally. We want to put the cart before the horse. And this is not reality. The horse is the relationship has been clearly defined. Once I get connected to that, the production of that life will be what God wishes. He wants to work through us.

[Matthew] Nice. Now, since you’ve finished this work, is there anything you would’ve added to this book?

[Bill] Are you trying to get some special insight here that you’re gonna… nothing specific, but you suggested something by the way to me a few months ago, because I’ve written a number of blogs dealing with different individuals who have experienced a high quality, one of them, I called it “Unsung Hero”. I suspect that God’s going to do that; at some point, I’ll have something like that.

But at this point, I don’t know exactly where this is taking me, I’m at the point where I don’t worry about where I’m going with it. Abraham was told, “Leave your family behind and go to this place, I’m not going to give you directions. You’re just going to have to trust me that eventually you’ll get there.”

[Matthew] Good. All right. So, what do you think people are going to find controversial about “Finding Full Assurance”?

[Bill] It’s going to blow some structures, I think. People have lots of ideas associated with their own relationship with God. Each of us comes from maybe a different community of faith based upon the teaching that we’ve been sitting under. I was brought up a Catholic. When I got saved back in 1972, that was an amazing change in my whole perspective. I want to take people out of the realm of the—I’ll use the word “religious,” because so much of Christianity remains religious—and I want to bring it into the personal, because ultimately, this is where the quality of our relationship is found.

The very last chapter of my book is entitled “The Heart of the Matter.” And, in fact, the very last statement I make in the book is “the heart of the matter is a matter of the heart.” So it’s about your heart and taking you out of that religious realm. And I’m sure I’m going to ruffle some feathers; I’m going to blow some structures. God did it to me, and it’s a healthy process actually.

[Matthew] Yes, it is. Yes, it is. Yeah, I’ll often tell folks the only thing that happens with the mind is the renewal of it. Everything else is a heart job; the Gospel is a heart job.

[Bill] That is exactly right. You’re exactly right. To get there takes courage. It’s not a frolic. It’s a process of seeking. And the more you seek—He says, “If you seek me, you will find me”—and the more you seek, the more you will find. The way I see it is, how big of a God are you seeking? If you are seeking a little God, you only ask Him to do little things, that’s what you’ll get. But if you are seeking a big God, (and he is a very, very big God—much bigger than we can imagine) that also is what you will find if you seek Him with all your heart.

[Matthew] That’s good. Preach!

[Bill] Hallelujah!

[Matthew] Hallelujah! All right. So what’s next for you? Now, you kind of alluded to this already. What are you working on now? You already foreshadowed maybe another book coming out. I guess the key question here is what are you working on now?

[Bill] This is something that I just finished on Monday. I’ve been working on this for the last three weeks. This particular blog, it’s about 3,000 words, it’s entitled “The Corruption of Mankind.” It focuses on the first 12 chapters of Genesis, the process of humankind, the infiltration of sin, then evil in the whole process and what it looked like, what it was all about, how we respond to it, and what is the ultimate conclusion for it.

As I’ve finished it—and I’m just getting ready to post it—it is something that I think is going to take me to another place, potentially, and cause me even deeper communication. I think it’s revolutionary. We don’t think about that period of time. There’s 12 chapters there, from Genesis 1 to Genesis 12. They’re not that long if you just read them, but they represent 2,000 years of human history and all of the things that took place over a 2,000-year period of time, the ups and the downs of life, the process, and how man is able to wrestle with his limitations and his weakness, given an enemy that is also working in his life, in the environment that we live.

Again, I’m not sure exactly what that’s gonna look like, but I sense there’s something much bigger that He’s gonna reveal to me through this.

[Matthew] Yay. Have fun with that journey. Looking forward to it. So, Bill, where can people buy “Finding Full Assurance of Faith” and how do they get on your mailing list?

[Bill] I have two websites, RWAlderson.com and FullAssuranceofFaith.com. There’s links to buy the book from there. It’s on Amazon, it’s on Barnes and Noble. AuthorHouse is the name of the publisher so it’s on their website as well, AuthorHouse.com. As far as getting on a mailing list, just go to my websites, and there’s a place where you can basically give us contact information and we’ll be in touch. I’m doing podcasts every week. I’m still writing blogs as well, so there’s a link to the podcast, a link to the blogs.

So, there’s lots of information there that as God’s feeding me with this truth and I’m meditating on it, and hopefully it comes out in a homogenized way, that it’s ready to be consumed. And then people can embrace it and understand it in practical ways.

[Matthew] Nice. Well, and I will be adding links to your book in this article and in the video description for sure.

[Bill] Great.

[Matthew] Yeah. Thank you, Bill. It’s been a pleasure being with you today. I truly appreciate the careful way that you’re handling our Father’s Word. And I know that the Levaire viewers and readers will too.

[Bill] Amen. That’s been a great pleasure for me too. I appreciate our friendship.

[Matthew] Yeah, absolutely. All right, folks, that’s a wrap! The book is “Finding Full Assurance of Faith: The New Covenant in Three Dimensions”, available on Amazon and at RWAlderson.com among other places. The author, and our guest today, was Pastor Bill Alderson.

Remember: It is the Truth that sets you free.

[Bill] Amen.

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