Toward a Better Biblical Philosophy, Part 2

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March 15th 2026

Series II Part II

Toward a better Biblical Philosophy

Last week we embarked on showing how important unity and oneness of the members of the Bride was to Christ and His apostles - to the point that God had even given them tremendous offices and spiritually-gifted-souls to help them until, the scripture says??????

“Until they came to a unity of the faith.”

The Greek term translated to unity there is hen-ot-ace and it comes from the Greek word, hen which means ONE.

Oneness of the faith.

For them, as the first-fruit-recipients of the Kingdom promised TO APPEAR IN FULL AT HIS COMING, the unity was based on “one faith on the One Lord from the One God who commanded them to BE ONE IN faith and love.

Because this unity was based on Him, and their devotion to Him prior to the wrapping up of that former material age, they were instructed on the essential elements of right or good faith, and what it looked like according to apostolic authority to what would be a disparate group of people that had different languages, different backgrounds, different genders, different maturities, and different cultures from which they all came.

Especially in Corinth which was a massive hub or intersection of commerce, culture and paganism.

Where the Nation from which the original members came had gathered under the Law and its ordinances, fortifying itself against division through the offices and spiritual gifts listed last week, the Bride gathered under One faith, One Lord, One Baptism with as many of their material differences “reduced” so as to create a unified culture of different people.

This was no easy task and so the onus of being one rested heavily on their maturity in the faith which would serve to protect them from their natural impulses to divide.

But even the presence of an abundance of the Holy Spirit of Christ, spiritual gifted persons, special offices that God gave, apostolic leadership and persecution, the believers in the apostolic record still managed to find almost every reason under the son to break fellowship one with another.

The Record documents several instances of conflict, division, and "schisms" within the early church, often highlighting that the early Christian community – tiny as it was - was far from rightly unified – and here is the thing, “she had to be,” before He came.

These divisions typically arose from theological disagreements, personal conflicts, or cultural differences between Jewish and Gentile believers. Of those mentioned here are a few,

The church in Corinth was deeply divided into factions, with members aligning themselves with specific leaders rather than focusing on Christ Himself.

Believers split into groups claiming to follow either Paul, or Apollos, or Peter (Cephas).

Paul rebuked them for this in 1 Corinthians 1:10-12 and saying

10 Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

11 For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you.

12 Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ.

13 Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?

A major conflict arose in Antioch between the apostles Paul and Peter (Cephas). Peter, who had been eating with Gentile converts, withdrew from them when "certain men from James" arrived, fearing the "circumcision group" (Jewish Christians requiring adherence to Mosaic Law). Paul publicly opposed Peter, accusing him of hypocrisy and acting in a way that was "out of step with the truth of the gospel".

A major split threatened the church over whether Gentile converts needed to follow the Law of Moses—specifically circumcision—in order to be saved.

This dispute between strict Jewish believers and those who believed in salvation by grace through faith necessitated the first apostolic council we read about in Acts 15.

To the Galatians Paul said,

Galatians 5:13 For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.

14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

15 But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.

16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.

17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.

18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.

19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,

20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,

21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,

23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

24 And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

26 Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.

Then a sharp disagreement occurred between Paul and Barnabas regarding whether to take John Mark on their second missionary journey, and we read in Acts 15:36-41

36 And some days after Paul said unto Barnabas, Let us go again and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord, and see how they do.

37 And Barnabas determined to take with them John, whose surname was Mark.

38 But Paul thought not good to take him with them, who departed from them from Pamphylia, and went not with them to the work.

39 And the contention was so sharp between them, that they departed asunder one from the other: and so Barnabas took Mark, and sailed unto Cyprus;

40 And Paul chose Silas, and departed, being recommended by the brethren unto the grace of God.

41 And he went through Syria and Cilicia, confirming the churches.

Acts six describes the church in Jerusalem where amidst growth a division arose between the "Hebrews" (Aramaic-speaking Jewish Christians) and "Hellenists" (Greek-speaking Jewish Christians).

The Hellenist Christian Jews complained that their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food when the Aramaic-speaking Jewish Christians took advantage of the collection.

This caused the Apostles to form deacons who would see to the distribution of materials so that the Apostles could focus full time on sharing Christ with the Nation.

Paul addresses a personal rift between two women who were leaders in the church at Philippi, urging them in Philippians 4:2 and saying

I beseech Euodias, and beseech Syntyche, that they be of the same mind in the Lord.

This is the key, to the bride then and to every individual disciple today – to elect to choose to be of the same mind/heart as the Lord.

It occurs when each person elects to embrace His ways in their interaction with others and central to it being possible is humility, submission to the Spirit over the flesh and serving Him and Him first – not self, not men, not money – Him, as Him, through Him.

This requires maturity, which is why Paul said to the children in Corinth

1st Corinthians 3:1 And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.

2 I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.

3 For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as mento "agree in the Lord".

And the first John letters refer to a schism where certain members left the community because they did not adhere to the orthodox belief in the incarnation of Jesus (1 John 2:19) whom John rightly characterized as "antichrists" or "false prophets".

Then back to the church at Corinth and in addition to factions over leaders, and the being babes, the Corinthian church was divided during the Lord’s Supper, where wealthier members were eating ahead of poorer members, leading to humiliation and social division.

These instances often resulted in a tightening of doctrine and a deeper definition of the Christian faith among the Bride, as the apostles sought to resolve them.

And it lead the apostles to giving more and more detailed instructions relative to that time and those people on how to handle certain things including now to treat widows (as that was a big problem for them in that many men were being put to death) how women should be silent in the church (because they were newly emancipated by Christ which was probably difficult for the men to handle, covering heads and veils, eating of meats sacrificed to idols, taking up collections for the saints at Jerusalem, washing of feet, greeting each other with a holy kiss and others.

In the face of the Reformations sola’s, sola scriptura or the idea that every word that proceeds from the mouth of God is referring to the Bible has led to an incomprehensible issue on whether if something was taught by the Apostles whether it is binding today.

That slippery slope has led to innumerable denominations all electing, without any authority at all, what to impose, what to remove, and the differences exist in modes and ages of water baptism, dress, women’s place in the body, marriage and divorce, tithes and offerings, dietary commands (as Paul tells them to be not drunk with wine but to be drunk on the Spirit) Sabbath observances and all sorts of other issues that are frankly decided upon by Man and followed by the same.

I mean the Record is so specifically to them in that day and age that Paul even went against God’s command that it was not good for man to be alone by telling the believers in that day to “not even marry but to be like him” – unless they couldn’t contain themselves and then he said, “it was better for them to marry then to burn,” meaning burn at that Day because they were not worthy of being taken as a member of the Bride.

Friends, things were so difficult to navigate and to keep unified that Paul himself said numerous things in reference to it all happening around them. For instance,

He said to them in 1st Corinthians 7:31,

29 But this I say, brethren, the time is short: it remaineth, that both they that have wives be as though they had none;

30 And they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not;

31 And they that use this world, as not abusing it: for the fashion of this world passeth away.

He told the Thessalonians that they were part of a broader struggle and in 2 Thessalonians 2:3, Paul warned of a coming "falling away" (apostasy) from the faith before the Day of the Lord, indicating a collapse in religious fidelity.

Rather than despairing, Paul interpreted these events in Romans 8:22-23 in the following way, saying

For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

Then listen to the entire context of Pauls words to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3 where he says of that day and that time and those people,

This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.

2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,

3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,

4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;

5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

6 For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,

7 Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

8 Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith.

9 But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was.

10 But you (Timothy) hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience,

11 Persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: but out of them all the Lord delivered me.

12 Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.

13 But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.

14 But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them;

15 And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, (the Old Testament) which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

17 That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.

And he continues for eight more verses in chapter 4 saying to Timothy in that day,

I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom;

2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.

3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;

4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.

5 But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.

6 For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.

7 I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:

8 Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.

Yes, in false anticipation of a similar day ahead of believers today, many continue to try and collectively adhere to all of these instructions but I would suggest each individual choose to adopt and embrace the Spiritual application of the advice given to the Bride while also seeking to live by, the Mind of Christ until we all experience our own second comings, when the Lord will manifestly reveal Himself in full to every individual believer.

But back to the point – it was the very Spirit of Christ that enabled a very different collection of individual members of His body to co-exist until they came to a unity of the faith (not a unity of practice, lifestyles, language) which would culminate in His coming out of the Holy of Holies above (where He mediated for them before His Father up until that point) and rescuing her from the promised, wholesale, destruction most of Nation would experience when God poured His wrath out upon them.

This would leave the faith on earth in a very different situation, removing it from the collective and driving it into the hearts of individuals who would lead, govern and mature individual believers irrespective of denominational affiliation, culture, nationality, race, gender or any other thing which the Spirit of Man insists on making important.

This Spirit of Christ given at Pentecost to Jews gathered in Jerusalem, then what may have been ten years later to the first Gentile family of Cornelius’s house, placed conversion in the hands of His Spirit and not residing in the power of a collective ever again.

In the face of what might be seen as an unfolding biblical model for the world today, I am going to take the liberty to suggest that in and through the established biblical model we can readily see a process unfolding.

We see it involves dividing, uniting (or adding) then multiplying and repeating this process over and over again.

Consider the first chapter of Genesis for instance, where this model of separating and dividing is combined with uniting into one later, followed by the two bringing forth more life, creation and abundance via multiplication.

And we read the all familiar words beginning at verse 1

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God (a singular plural) created the heaven and the earth. (two)

2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. (Two) And the evening and the morning (two) were the first day. (one)

6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.

7 And God made the firmament, (single) and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.

8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning (two) were the second day. (singular)

9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land (a second) appear: and it was so.

10 And God called the dry land Earth; (single) and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: (single) and God saw that it was good.

11 And God said, Let the earth (singular) bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, (singular) upon the earth: and it was so.

12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

13 And the evening and the morning were the third day.

14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:

15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.

16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.

If we will, we can see that greater light that rules the day being the Sun and the lesser light that rules the night being the moon, and we might even allow ourselves to see God as the origin of the Light and the moon, reflecting that origin in the man Yeshua of Nazareth.

We might also see the first Man Adam as the source (like God) with Eve reflecting that glory (since she came from him) with both ruling and illuminating earth - the first for the day and the second reflecting his same light in the night.

17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,

18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.

19 And the evening and the morning (two) were the fourth day. (singular)

20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.

Interestingly, we have the scripture tell us the origin of all sea and bird life came from the sea where God made them.

21 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.

23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.

Again, God had the earth, the soil, the ground “bring forth” every living creature after his kind, similar to the sea giving birth to its creations through His hand.

25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

And then to the specific, “different than sea life and bird life and animal life” we come to verse 26

26 And God said, Let us make man (singular) in our (plural) image, after our (plural) likeness: and let them (Man – now plural) have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

27 So God (singular plural) created man (singular plural) in his own image, in the image of God created he him (singular); male and female created he them.(plural)

28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.

31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

Moses will later give us an insight on God’s command for the two to be one flesh which (again) illustrates an initial divide, (man from dust), a subtraction (woman from man) a unite, (be one flesh) and the concept of multiplying of themselves to bring about more of the same.

The model of “one” then “two” and the unity creating “many” is found throughout the text.

This is what Moses said in Genesis 2:24,

“Therefore shall a man leave (divide) his father and his mother, and shall cleave (unite) unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.” (so as to multiply)

We see this model, given the world by the living God come forth again in Abram and Sarai when he divided them from Mesopotamia (the world of Paganism) promised to give them a son in their old Age (through their unity and by the way, not the unity of Hagar, though God used that union to create another Nation of Flesh that would test the Nation of Promise) and then he gave them a promise to multiply him more than the stars in the sky.

Within the Nation the division was through material circumcision, as we read in Genesis 34:22

Only herein will the men consent unto us for to dwell with us, to be one people, if every male among us be circumcised, as they are circumcised.

In the furnishings of the temple we read the following about the ornaments or décor like in Exodus 25:36 where God says

Their knops and their branches shall be of the same: all it shall be one beaten work of pure gold.

And again

Exodus 26:6 And thou shalt make fifty taches of gold, and couple the curtains together with the taches: and it shall be one tabernacle.

And again at verse 11

Exodus 26:11 And thou shalt make fifty taches of brass, and put the taches into the loops, and couple the tent together, that it may be one.

Again,

Exodus 36:18 And he made fifty taches of brass to couple the tent together, that it might be one.

In a symbolic act to show how God would unify the Nation’s Southern and Northern Kingdoms we read in Ezekiel 37:19 where he tells Ezekiel,

Say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand.

In a miraculous sign of unity, foreshadowing the New Jerusalem above Zechariah 14:7 describes an event that defies the law of day and night, saying,

But it shall be one day which shall be known to YAHAVAH, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light.

And two verses later we read,

Zechariah 14:9 And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one.

We believe that the One LORD, of a perfect plural constitution’s name is YAHAVAH.

After God separated Abraham out from Mesopotamia, made them a great nation, then gave them their promised Messiah King, Yeshua said in John 10:16

And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.

This is the mystery Paul talks about in his epistles of the Messiah’s labors having application to all nations of the world and not just the Jews.

There is always a dividing, a uniting and a multiplying going on in the economy of God. We maintain that this act is ongoing in the world today through RADICAL unification of all people through the Spirit of His Son which indwells in those of faith.

Of course we remember in John 17:11 Yeshua prayed to His father with His eleven and said,

And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.

They had been divided from the others, called to follow Him and then in and through this unity were directed to multiply their numbers before the great and dreadful day.

Ten verses later we read Him add

John 17:21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one.

As Yeshuan’s we submit to you today that all of the foundational elements of what God has done through this process of dividing, unifying and multiplying was fulfilled by Him then and His Apostles.

That when He took His Bride, rescuing her from destruction of the rest that He divided her from all the others, united with her as His Bride in the wedding feast of the Groom above, and that together they will forevermore, as the Kingdom increases forevermore, multiply themselves through their offspring of the Spirit.

And that while the dividing continues through the freewill choices and actions of the world citizenry, the uniting today by and through the Spirit of Christ in all people/individuals of faith continues, and that today our unity transcends what Man has done in its immaturity and fleshly nature to keep us in disunity, the Spirit of Christ is calling to all people of faith in God, because of the Victory of His Son, irrespective of denomination, to unite and multiply.

We will continue to speak about this next week.

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