The BIG Picture (Q&A)

Jeremiah 29:11 is often quoted as a personal promise: “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.” But did you know this verse wasn’t written to individuals—or even to the Church? Context matters    This promise was given to Israel , specifically to the Jewish exiles in Babylon (Jer 29:1, 4, 10). God assured them that after 70 years, He would bring them back to their land. It’s a national, time-bound promise rooted in Israel’s prophetic program—not a universal life verse for believers today. Israel and the Church—two distinct programs    God’s dealings with Israel follow a prophetic program, revealed through the Old Testament prophets and centred on earthly promises. Israel was promised a land, a kingdom, and a Messiah who would reign from Jerusalem. Their timeline is visible, their covenants are physical, and their hope is tied to the earth. In contrast, the Church—the Body of Chr...

📌 Did You Know?  Paul is the apostle of the Gentiles.    This isn’t a theological nuance—it’s a foundational truth that defines God’s present work in this dispensation of grace. Paul was not one of the twelve apostles sent to Israel; he was uniquely chosen by the risen Christ to reveal a mystery previously hidden, and to establish the doctrine for the Church, the Body of Christ. "For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office." —Romans 11:13 Understanding the Truth in Context Paul’s apostleship is not a continuation of the prophetic program—it is a divine interruption. While the twelve apostles were commissioned by Christ during His earthly ministry to minister to Israel (Matthew 10:5–6), Paul was called from heaven’s glory after Israel had rejected her Messiah. His calling was not earthly, but heavenly. His message was not foretold, but revealed. Why was Paul made an apostle to us, the Church? Because God began someth...

QUESTION: “Christ was the end of the first program and has become the only way to the Father. But I'm not sure about your telling about the going back to prophecy/law. Please can you explain and provide some scriptures.” MY REPLY: The Seventy Weeks (of Years) Prophecy The most thorough way to prove that the prophecy/law program reactivates is to look at prophecy itself, using one of the most powerful prophecies in the Bible: Daniel’s 70-weeks prophecy, found in Daniel 9:24-27. This prophecy outlines a timeline of God’s plan for Israel. The prophecy is divided into three parts: 7 weeks, 62 weeks, and 1 week, totaling 70 weeks of years (490 years). Interruption by Paul’s Mystery and Grace Dispensation The prophetic program for Israel was interrupted after the 69th week (7+62 sevens = 483 years) with the arrival of Jesus Christ, who was “cut off” (crucified) as prophesied in Dan.9:26. This interruption is often referred to as the “gap” or “parenthesis” in the prophecy. During this gap...

Prophecy foretells that Jews are a distinct nation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation (ex.19:5–6) called of God for the purpose of showing forth His glory and being the light and salvation of the Gentiles (Isa.60:1–3). With this in mind, the earthly ministry of Jesus was directed to Jews ONLY (Matt.10:5–6; Matt.15:24) to save them and bring them lift them up to that place of preeminence, that they might fulfil prophecy and be that light and salvation to the Gentiles. Jesus was a minister of the circumcision (Jews) (Rom.15:8) and preached according to the law and according to prophecy (Gal.4:4–5). The gospel Jesus taught was concerning the prophesied earthly Millennial Kingdom, which was a hand, and thus He called for Jews to repent and prepare for the inheritance of this Kingdom in which He would be King. This ministry of Jesus is in stark contrast to the ministry of Paul who was called by the glorified Christ for a very different purpose. Paul was to go to a different audience (the Ge...

SOCIAL MEDIA STATEMENT: I’ve read some of Martin Zenders books and one of them, called, ‘The First Idiot in Heaven’ speaks of the differences of these two ministries. Martin is a Bible scholar and is well learned. He teaches that the gospel of the circumcision (given to Peter) v the gospel of the uncircumcision (given to Paul) was both separate and quite different. The Bible seems to distinguish between these two gospels. interesting as I’ve never been able to understand the book of James against the pure grace spoken of by the Apostle Paul. I'm unsure about all of Martin’s teachings but I do enjoy reading some of his literature. MY REPLY: When one studies the scriptures, rightly divides between these two programs, it is plain and clear to see in the scriptures for oneself that Peters ministry and gospel to the circumcision was very different to Paul’s ministry and gospel to the uncircumcised. The bible, and all characters and the things they did and taught become clear and simple....

Paul was indeed a Jew and devout Pharisee, but when God converted him on the Damascus road, God gave him a completely new gospel and doctrine. Have you ever considered why Paul never references anything of Jesus in his epistles? No teachings, no parables, no miracles. This is often a surprise to people! The ONLY thing Paul brings across into his epistles and into the grace gospel is the CROSS, which for the Kingdom gospel was a contentious issue according to Peter. Gal 6:14  But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. 2Co 5:16-17 Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. (17) Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

COMMENT: Paul says that dead in sin we are saved by grace. That means even sinning your saved. Then in Hebrews which is accredited to Paul, he says after knowing the truth, if you sin, there is no longer a sacrifice for sin. Just damnation. The bible is a contradiction.  REPLY: You are not taking the following into consideration. Even if Paul wrote Hebrews, the point is that Hebrews is NOT written to the Body of Christ. You cannot take doctrine from Hebrews and mix it with Paul’s 13-other epistles, which are all addressed clearly to Gentile churches. The book of Hebrews is not concerning Gentiles, but concerning the new covenant for Israel. As "Romans" is the foundational doctrine for the grace believer today, "Hebrews" is the foundational doctrine for Jews in the 7-year Tribulation. The epistles could not have been named more clearly. RETURN COMMENT: Clearly that makes no difference that it's a contradiction. Paul contradicts himself which means there's a ...

Well, according to Col 1:14-19, and other similar scriptures, there is no way that Jesus got cancelled. Since the referenced scripture tells us that, “by him all things consist” , we can logically deduce that if Jesus got cancelled, then we all won’t exist. However, I can extend this reasoning to the fact that a specific part of His ministry did get suspended. Let me explain. In Jesus’ first advent, He came to prepare Israel for the reception of His kingdom. Jesus preached to the Jews saying, “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand”. According to prophetic scripture, if Israel received Jesus and believed in Him, they would rise to pre-eminence, and inherit the earthly kingdom, reigning as kings and priests in the world, and would be the light and salvation of the Gentile nations. Since the Jews did not receive Him as their Messiah and did not believe in His message, God blinded Israel and suspended the Kingdom program, Rom 11:25. With this suspension, Paul’s ministry got activated, ...

CLAIMS: What you are calling the mystery program is the new covenant and is supposed to be understood spiritually with a spiritual mind. It is definitely prophesied about all the way through the Bible. The term mystery program is not biblical, and this division is not a division at all but what the spiritual truth of the new covenant should be and what all Christians should learn. CORRECTION: For most of my Christian life I supported your views, but after learning and applying right dividing, the scriptures became much less confusing and contradictory. The Bible was just a book for 40 years of my life; now it is a treasure trove of truth and a blueprint of God’s wisdom and redemption. Right division has opened up the scriptures in ways which it NEVER did when I held my previous views. I’m not writing this to change your views. I’m simply clarifying what I believe based on a few of the comments in your reply. I do not see the mystery program as the New Covenant. The reason is be...

STATEMENT: Is it just me or does anyone else think it’s funny that “Paul is hard to understand sometimes” can be directly backed by scripture (2 Peter 3:16)? ANSWER: Let’s look at the whole verse, 2Pe 3:16 As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction. One must remember that we are dealing with two distinct programs, and both happened to be running at the same time in Peter’s day (ie: the Acts period). Peter serviced the Jewish church, under prophecy, the law, and the Kingdom program and doctrine. Paul serviced the Body of Christ, under mystery, and under the Grace program and doctrine. The epistle that Peter wrote was addressed to the Jewish church. Since they were under a different doctrine, it is natural to expect that the Jews found it hard to receive ‘the mysteries’, a doctrine that was so different and ...

QUESTION: Can you lose salvation? YES. It seems fairly conclusive that you can indeed lose salvation by various means from this selection at least. Yes by doing an unforgivable sin. We agree with Jesus on this at least. Yes, Hebrews 6 4–6. “For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened … If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance” Yes, Hebrews 10:26 “For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins” Yes, Mark 3: 28–29 “But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation”. ANSWER: If you choose not to rightly divide the scriptures (2Tim.2:15), and you don’t acknowledge the TWO programs (prophecy and mystery), contained in the redemption plan of God, then this is naturally what you’d conclude. However, since it is plainly clear that God’s Prophetic program for Israel, under the law, is different from God’s Mystery program for t...

The following is someone's response to this article which dealt with aspects concerning the Kingdom and Grace gospels and the fact that they have different content and are addressed to different audiences. I'm posting this to point out that if one does not rightly divide the Word and recognize the fact that there are TWO programs and TWO people groups in God's redemption plan, one will get terribly mixed up and confused, skewing doctrine and getting tangled up in confusing discrepancies when right division clears all things up so easily.  These comments below clearly indicate the struggle to make sense of the Word, trying to join things that are meant to be separate and distinct. The arguments made result in unusual interpretations and indicate a juvenile understanding of the Word. 2 Timothy 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.  (16)  But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will ...

QUESTION: In Eph.2:7-13, Paul uses phrases like 'Time Past', 'But Now', and 'Ages to Come'. What I don't understand is time past. How could anyone say The Gospels are time past when most people are saying the Old Testament is time past. What I've been taught for years is that the Old Testament is for learning, the New Testament was the history of our One and true God, because of what He did on the cross, and through this I have hope. The only thing I'm waiting for is to be comforted in His arms when he returns. If I'm wrong please enlighten me. We all are here to learn. ANSWER: Thank you for your comment. I like the way you ended your paragraph above. I agree that we are all here to learn. When I publish these posts of mine, I trust that they will trigger the interest of some readers to ask questions and learn something new, but I also am open to learn from their comments. The Word says that we all know in part. I honestly believe that our edific...

QUESTION: Dispensational models have a tendency to falls apart. There is no agreement on the number of dispensations. What is the full set of proposed dispensations with the triggers for their start and end points? ANSWER: I can agree that there are arguments on dispensational models; some say this, and others say that, but that doesn't mean that there aren’t dispensations. I too disagree with some over-the-top models where too much is read into scripture and things are twisted to fit man’s imagination, but again, even though some of these models are out these, it does not disqualify the fact that the bible does clearly mention dispensations, (as per the verses below). When God judged humanity and set up a covenant with Abraham, a new dispensation began. In other words, God would reveal Himself through a nation that He would raise up through Abraham. When God called Paul to go to the Gentiles, a new dispensation began where God would save Gentiles without the means of Israe...

It is the Holy Spirit that teaches, not man!!! It is the Holy Spirit that reveals truth and insights into God’s Word, not man!!! What I can do via posts like these is to sow seeds that you can investigate and allow the Spirit to bring you to a fuller knowledge. We all know in part, so we can learn from each other, not under compulsion or coercion, but rather in love and respect for God’s Word and by the only teacher of it, the Holy Spirit. So, let me drop off a few seeds for you to consider and pray about in regard to dispensations. This is certainly not all the Bible mentions about it, but it is enough to prove a point that there is something here of note that one cannot dismiss. Seed #1: God separated out Israel for a specific purpose and His relationship with Israel is different compared to ALL other nations. Numbers 23:9 …lo, the people [Israel] shall dwell alone, and  shall not be reckoned among the nations . Exo.19:5 Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep ...

From beginning to end, Paul's ministry was an uphill battle. Even the Lord said that Paul was to suffer many things for His name (Acts 9:16). Paul had to constantly reiterate his calling and qualify his doctrine (Galatians 1:1; Galatians 1:11; 1 Timothy 2:7; Galatians 2:8). This was to be expected as He was not only preaching that Jesus Christ was alive, but he was also preaching that salvation comes by faith in Christs death and resurrection, and he was taking his message out not only to Jews but to the godless Gentiles in his day. Nevertheless, the Lord provided enough evidence that Paul was legitimate and that his message was endorsed and authorized by the Lord Himself. The trend of skepticism and rejection of Paul still continues today. On an individual level and even on a denominational level, Paul's message is either belittled, ignored, or denied. I recently had a reply to one of my posts which spoke of the credibility of Paul and his ministry. It read as follows, COMMENT...