What It’s All About

Many here are involved in the World Bible School ministry. You spend time sending out lessons and grading those that are returned. Thank you for your time and thanks to Becky Harris for all the energy she puts into the coordination of all the correspondence and sending lessons, packages, Bibles, etc.

Becky gave me the following letter from a student that will help all of us understand a little more of what it’s all about. It is printed as it was written.

My Dear Study Helper

Grace and peace to you from our Lord Jesus. How are you, and how are you managing the World bible School. Hope you are fine. If so we give God the glory.

My main aim of writing this letter is to thank you all. I believe this is the last course according to how it is listed in the first course book.

I want to express my gratitude by saying a thousand thanks to you all for helping me know the gospel and for exposing me more to the Scripture.

For helping me build up my spiritual life on a solid rock by sending me question from the gospel to answer and to enlighted my Christian faith through the discussion question and allowing me expressing my idea according to my own little knowledge and understanding.

More also I want to thank you for sending me a Bible containing both old and new testament because I never had a Bible before. I only use the little new testament and when I need to refer to the old testament I use my mother’s own.

I wrote this letter to thank you not because this W. B.S. was only given to me alone. It was given to many persons in our school and other schools since it is free of charge.

But I appreciate it a lot because I love things like this and I appreciate good things.

I want to say thank you for how you preach the word of God to people through it and for the spiritual Books you send to us and more also because it is free of charge. We don’t pay for it. I want to use this medium to ask of my formal teacher Ralp Willams health. I hope he’s fine now. I pray the Lord will continue to strengthen and heal him from every sickness.

Before I conclude, I want to show my sincere gratitude by say a big thank you to Ralp Willams, my formal teacher and to you Melody Waggoner, my present teacher and all other teachers who help us to study the word of God free of charge. May the Lord who see the good thing you have done in people’s life reward you abundantly.

And may your reward be greater in the kingdom of God.

Thanks

Your sister in Christ,

Doris

See you when the saints meet, Lord willing.

Love, Tony

Is “Church Membership” Necessary?

I have been asked on many occasions if one must be a member of the church to be saved. The Bible says Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. (Luke 19:10) We also find that one must come to Jesus to be saved. He says in Matthew 11:28, “Come unto me … and I will give you rest.” Acts 4:12 says, “There is no other name under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved.” And Hebrews 5:8 tells us that Jesus is “the author of salvation to those who obey Him.”

The Bible also points out in Ephesians 5:23 that Jesus is the savior of the Body. If one would be saved, he or she would naturally want to be a part of that which is being saved by Christ. Therefore, we must study to find out what the body is, of which Christ is the savior.

Colossians 1:18 says Jesus is the “head of the body, the church.” And Ephesians 1:22, 23 states that Jesus “is the head over all things to the church, which is His body.” Not only here, but also in other passages we find this dual usage of the church and body. The body is that which Christ will save and the body is the church. If one will be saved, he or she must be a part of that which is being saved.

Acts 2:47 says that the Lord was adding to the church daily those who were being saved. This tells us two things. First, Jesus adds people to His church. Man cannot add by vote or any other method. Second, Jesus added those to the church who were being saved. It is automatic. When one obeyed the gospel, he or she became a part of the church. The same gospel is to be obeyed today and the same pattern should therefore be followed.

Remember - Jesus died to establish His church according to Matthew 16:18 and Acts 20:28. Being a member of Christ’s body means being a member of His church. He is the savior of the church, which is His body. If being a part of that church is not necessary, Jesus died in vain!

See you when the saints meet, Lord willing.

Love, Tony

One Of A Kind

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Those are the words of John 3:16. The phrase “only begotten” can mean “one of a kind.” Thus this verse contains the basis for the uniqueness of Christianity, which, also, is one of a kind - unique.

Christianity is unique among the religions of the world because it began with a worldwide concept. God as the God of all nations prophesied in the promise given to Abraham in Genesis 12:3 that all nations would be blessed in his seed. The fulfillment of that prophecy is referred to in the New Testament in Galatians 3:16 stating the “seed” is Jesus, the Christ. Many other prophecies in the Old Testament, fulfilled in the New Testament, speak of the universal nature of Christianity. These include the time, place, and manner of the birth of Jesus and the beginning of Christianity.

Christianity is unique also because it is the only religion based upon a resurrected savior. Again, it was prophesied in the Old Testament that the Messiah, or Savior, to come would be put to death but would rise from the dead. The basis for Christianity and the hope Christians have rest on the fact that Jesus did not stay dead but came forth from the tomb and for fifty days was seen by His disciples and others. His resurrection means that He still lives and will return one day to claim His own.

Christianity is unique because of the hope offered to all who obey Jesus. It is not a material hope. It is the hope (confident expectation) of eternal life with Him. Other religions offer different kinds of reward after death. Christianity offers peace in this life based upon our hope in life to come.

In His love for the world, God made provisions that we could be His children and live with Him forever in heaven. It behooves us to know His word in order to be prepared for that life. You see, Christians are to be “unique” also. Peter writes in 1 Peter 2:9 that Christians are “a peculiar people:” (KJV); “His own special people” (NKJV); “a people for God’s own possession” (NASV); “a people belonging to God” (NIV). The word denoting “peculiar”, “special”, and “possession” are from the word that indicates the uniqueness that a Christian belongs only to God. It involves the special relationship that we, as Christians, have with God. It makes it personal. In God’s love, He owns us. Therein lies a big difference between Christianity and most of the religions of the world whose gods are indifferent and unapproachable.

See you when the saints meet, Lord willing.

Love, Tony