Bridegroom Paradigm

Someone recently asked a question about teachers who say the Bridegroom Paradigm is not Biblical. Here was part of my response:

John 3:29 describes Jesus as the Bridegroom. Revelation 21 describes the New Jerusalem as being like a bride. Jesus uses the parable of the Ten Virgins in Matt 25. These alone keep the Bridegroom paradigm on the table.. unless someone wants to claim that Matt 25 doesn’t apply to Christians.

In terms of actual interpretation, yes, there are many layers of meaning. Scripture is poetic, which means that it has artistic and literal meanings—BOTH.

In terms of the paradigm itself, technically, Israel/Jerusalem is the actual Bride, and the Gentile Church is the FRIEND of the Bridegroom. However, furthering our walk with Christ by considering the relationship between Bride and Bridegroom can be useful and accurate.

But let’s make this super-simple, and not to be crass, but look at what their objection actually implies: They accuse Bridegroom paradigms of being grotesque.  · · · →

Elijah Code of Prophetic Conduct

This is a voluntary guide for “The Prophetic” or “Following God’s Leading” …depending on  one’s preferred choice of words.

“…the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”

Sweet words come from an aching heart. Revelation 10:10-11, 19:10

The “spirit of Elijah” is described in the final verse of the Old Testament as an introduction to John the Baptist, who would prepare the way of the Lord. This spirit is not Elijah or John’s conscious soul, but the “spirit” or, perhaps it could be called “attitude”, of that ministry: To turn the hearts of the fathers to the sons and the hearts of the sons to the fathers, lest the Lord strike the land with a decree of utter desolation.

1. Optional – The Elijah Code cannot be effectively used to threaten any prophet, nor to establish or remove him or her regarding an office, as a stand-alone document. It can only be imposed by an inquiring person, for one’s own, private curiosity and understanding, as an individual test to validate the legitimacy of another person who is an alleged prophet.  · · · →

Man: Soul, Spirit, Body

I authored this about nine years ago or so. It’s from my Doctrinal Statement. It contains some Greek, so you may need to install some fonts if letters don’t display correctly. As a language student, I opted to use a more distinguishable method of transliteration.

The “soul” (pseuchae/ψευχη) is redeemable (James 1:21) though sin lives in the “flesh”/physical body (sarx/σαρχ) (Romans 7:18-19). A spirit is not necessarily a being, it can be an emotion or atmosphere—“spirit of hate/joy [or something else positive or negative]” —(Jb 20:3, Pr 1:23, Is 4:4; 28:6, 57:15; 61:3, Hos 4:12, Rom 8:15a, 15b, 1 Cor 4:21, 2 Cor 4:13, Gal 6:1, Eph 1:17, 2 Tm 1:7, 1 Jn 4:6) “Spirit” (pneuma/πνευμα) also means “wind” in almost every sense, and is even taught in this way by Christ (John 3:8). The “soul” (pseuchae/ψευχη) is never referred to in any of these ways, but it is redeemable (as mentioned in James 1:21) and therefore eternal.

 · · · →