In this episode, delve into a transformative segment from the Plot Bible Overview. Follow the historical course of Apostle Paul’s interactions with church leaders over doctrinal differences concerning Gentile converts and the law. Through engaging biblical insights, Dominic Enyart sheds light on how theological tensions were pragmatically handled by early church leaders. Discover the relevance of these ancient debates in today’s complex Christian landscape and the invitation to explore God’s unified story through Pastor Bob Enyart’s timeless teachings.
Greetings to the brightest audience in the country and welcome to Bobbinyart Live. I am Dominic Enyart. Friends, this is our second to last week here on KLTT Radio. Every time I sit here in this studio, I feel the weight of how many memories have been made in this place. For decades, literally decades, KLTT has been the home for our ministry, a place where my dad, Pastor Bobbinyart, and later I could share God’s word with you. to defend the truth to rejoice in his goodness together it’s bittersweet the bitter portion of course saying goodbye to a home that’s been part of our lives for so long but the sweet part is that god is doing something new something bigger than before our ministry is not slowing down it is accelerating The Enyart Theology YouTube channel approaching 5 million views. The Real Science Radio YouTube channel approaching 3 million views. The daily podcast at kgov.com that has been downloaded hundreds of thousands of times. God has taken what we began right here on KLTT and multiplied it to reach millions of people all over the world, edifying believers and sharing the gospel with unbelievers who may never have tuned into Christian radio before. I want to invite you to be part of this next chapter. You can listen to our daily podcast at kgov.com. That’s K-G-O-V.com. You can get all of our Bible studies for pretty cheap, about $24.99 right now at www.anyart.shop. You can subscribe to our YouTube channels. Again, the Anyart Theology and Real Science Radio YouTube channels. And if you’re able to support the work producing high quality content to reach millions of people, it is costly. So please consider that subscribing to the YouTube channel, donating either one time or monthly, or the most powerful thing you can do, praying for this ministry, which is the most important support of all. As our farewell gift to you, we’ve been sharing the Plot Bible Overview. This is the life’s work of my father, Pastor Bob Enyart. It’s a study that has helped thousands, perhaps maybe even tens of thousands, maybe even, well, definitely tens of thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands of Christians to see the Bible as one beautiful, unified story. It’s not a collection of random, mixed-matched stories. tales that happened in israel it’s one beautiful unified story god has a plan and his grace is so beautiful and the plot has helped so many to see that today we continue with segment three of part one this is the plot bible overview some who went out from us see
SPEAKER 02 :
Some Christian Jews who were part of the fellowship in Jerusalem went out to Antioch to the Gentiles. Some who went out from us have troubled you with words unsettling your souls, saying you must be circumcised and keep the law to whom we gave no such commandment. All right. So here the apostles are admitting, they wrote a letter to the Gentiles, the converts of Paul, and they said, we did not command you to keep the law. We did not command you to circumcise.
SPEAKER 01 :
Hey, if this is your first time listening, welcome. I’m Dominic Enyart, interrupting the program. I’m Bob’s son. This is just a small taste of what is available. We’ve archived Bob Enyart’s entire teaching library at enyart.shop for cheap. Typically, if you were to get access to all of Bob’s studies individually, that would be over $3,000. But right now at enyart.shop, The Bob Enyart Bible Study subscription, the audio version, is at about $10 a month, but that goes up and down. Make sure to check it out now, enyart.shop. Okay, let’s get back to the study.
SPEAKER 02 :
So here the apostles are admitting, they wrote a letter to the Gentiles, the converts of Paul, and they said, we did not command you to keep the law. We did not command you to circumcise. Okay, so now we know the apostles’ position toward the Gentile converts. You guys don’t have to keep the law. But when Paul comes to Jerusalem… what do the same guys tell him he has to do? Paul, you’ve got to keep the law. You’re here in Jerusalem. All of our followers will hear that you’ve come and we want to divert any trouble before it starts. We would like you to keep the law. Would you keep the law? But we agree, the Gentiles, your converts, they don’t have to keep the law. But would you keep the law here in Jerusalem? So when Paul writes to his converts, like in Galatians or Romans, He takes a fit when they start to keep the law. He takes a fit. And he says, I’d rather someone be cursed than to entice you to keep the law. If you put yourself under the law, you’ll be cursed. I mean, your Christian life will be a complete failure. Christ will profit you nothing because you put yourself under the law. Don’t do it. But then he comes to Jerusalem and the apostles and the elders are there and they say, hey, Paul, would you keep the law? You know, make us feel good. And he says, okay, why does he do that? Most Christians don’t realize that entire dynamic. They’ve been studying the Bible for 30 years. They don’t know that that’s all in there. And so rather than resist looking at it because it causes a degree of discomfort, because why should the apostles be disagreeing? And why should they be presenting different fundamental ideas of how to live your Christian life? Shouldn’t they all be in agreement? And shouldn’t there be one plan for the Gentiles and the Jews, whether in Antioch or in Jerusalem, what’s the difference? They should all have doctrinal unity, but there’s this tension. Well, we want to accept that the tension is there so we can look to see how God resolves it. Because if we ignore the problem, we’ll never solve it. So they conclude the letter in Acts 15 by saying in verse 25, it seemed good to us to send chosen men to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul. So when they were sent off, they came to Antioch. And when they had gathered the multitude together, they delivered the letter. So in Acts 10, Peter has this problem. He doesn’t want to go to a Gentile. He doesn’t want to eat with a Gentile. He doesn’t want to go in his house because it’s against the law. And he is a Jew. And Jesus Christ taught the law, the greater matters of the law and the least matters of the law. He said, whoever teaches the law will be greatest and whoever does not will be least. And Jesus said in Matthew 23, you’ve got to obey the greatest matters of the law and the least matters of the law. And then after he rose from the dead, he said to the 12, go and teach all things that I have taught you. And so they went and the book of Acts records and they were teaching the law. And here’s Peter, at least a year later, and he’s determined to keep the law. So then Paul gets saved and he starts teaching, don’t keep the law. That’s the source of the doctrinal confusion. And as we trace it through in this seminar, we’ll see that those are the seeds for the doctrinal debates that have flared up into a raging battle today in the church. And that’s why there’s so much division. And that’s why it’s all in the Bible. God put it in the Bible so we could see how to resolve doctrinal debates. But Christians are threatened just by the notion that they might be in the Bible debates, and so we don’t benefit from it. Doctrinal debates then began with the earliest Christians. After the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the next most important characters in the New Testament are Paul, Peter, James, and John. I realize that there are a couple different people by the names James and John, but Paul, Peter, James, and John, those names pretty much name the people that are the main characters in the New Testament. The Twelve spent three years with Jesus. Paul had repeated contact with the Lord. yet they found themselves embroiled in practical theological disputes that eventually ended up in the Bible. Generally, how do Christians try to resolve these doctrinal issues, the 10 that I mentioned earlier? Well, they find proof texts. They want to teach that you cannot lose your salvation. So they find some verses that says that God is able to complete the work that he has begun in you. and that you’re sealed with the Holy Spirit until the day of redemption. So they find a proof text. But somebody else from a different church wants to prove that you can lose your salvation. That’s easy. They just find a different proof text. They find 2 Peter 2.20. Well, it almost comes right out and says, it appears to say that you can lose your salvation. In fact, I’d like to read it for you to see how strong it looks. And people who teach you can lose your salvation, they’ve got a real strong verse here. Peter writes, For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, if after they have escaped the pollution of the world, the sins of the world, through the knowledge… and the relational knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, if they are again entangled in them and overcome, then the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than having known it to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. In Hebrews chapter 6, 4 through 6, and perhaps we’ll read that also. These are proof texts for Christians who believe you could lose your salvation. It is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted the heavenly gift and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come if they fall away to renew them again to repentance since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God. So he says it’s impossible. If someone has been a partaker of the Holy Spirit, it’s impossible if they fall away to renew them again. Jesus said in John, any branch in me that does not bear fruit, cut it off. What does it mean to be in Christ? Any branch in me that doesn’t bear fruit, cut it off and it’ll be burned in hell. So there’s all these proof texts. So if you want to prove eternal security, Just read through the Bible and you find the verses that prove eternal security or that you can’t lose your salvation. If you want to prove you can lose your salvation, you go through the Bible and you find the verses that say you can lose your salvation. Now, how do we resolve that? Well, let’s look at an example from history. Astronomy in the solar system. You know, we understand how the planets orbit around the sun. The pagan Greek philosopher Aristotle taught that the planets orbited in perfect circles. Now, when you looked at the planets, they traveled in some kind of a circular path, but the evidence wasn’t that they were perfect circles, but Aristotle thought, well, it just makes sense that they’d be perfect circles. So he said by his authority that the planets orbit in perfect circles. Well, the observations by astronomers for many centuries afterward suggested that they didn’t because the perfect circles didn’t match. But they believed Aristotle, so they went with it, even though the evidence was off. Until a certain man named Johann Kepler, who was a Christian, came on the scene. And he was determined to understand how God designed the solar system. So he studied the planets. I think he was studying Mars. And he found that there was a small little divergence between where it should be theoretically and where it was in actuality. In fact, you know, a circle is divided into 360 degrees, and each degree is divided into eight minutes. And he calculated that this planet is eight minutes of arc off of where it should be. There’s a little bit, but it’s not where it should be. And I want to know why. Now, you can only study astronomy for the most part at night. And so he’s up night after night after night after night. And he’s trying to resolve this problem. And his wife is like, Johan, forget the eight minutes and come to bed, please. But he’s got a hold of it and he’s determined. So finally, he comes up with three laws of the motions of the planets and becomes the father of modern astronomy. And he says that it is a blessing to think the thoughts of God after him, because he realized it’s not a circle, it’s an ellipse. And there’s not a center to the circle, but there are two foci, two focal points around which the planets travel. And that mathematical description turns out to be exactly how they orbit the sun. That’s pretty neat. Now, if he wasn’t determined to focus on the difficulty, on the part that did not fit together easily, he would have never arrived at the truth. And the difficulties are like a gift because they show us that there’s something still amiss in our thinking. And if we look at the Bible and there are countless difficult passages that don’t really fit well with our theology, that’s a huge blessing that God has given us at least the ability to recognize that some things are not fitting well. What we tend to do is ignore the difficulties. We just put it on the back burner or right off the stove. We forget it and we just feel better. But if we allow ourselves to focus on the difficulties, and to state and to be honest and say, I cannot resolve all these verses that appear to contradict. You know, it seems to say here in Matthew 24 that the Christians are going to live through the tribulation. It seems to say that real clearly. And then it seems to say over here by Paul that God has not appointed us to wrath and that we’re going to be delivered and not go through the tribulation. That’s what it seems to say, but that would be a conflict. That’d be a doctrinal dispute, and I don’t want to have conflict. I’m just going to accept what this guy says here about it, and it’s resolved. When really, there’s not a resolution. We want to feel better about these things, and so we just make them go away. And we accept whoever, the first person that says something that sort of agrees with our leaning on it, we take that. But if someone confronts us and says, well, look at these verses. How do you resolve these verses? Then we start to sweat a little bit because they don’t really resolve all that well. Well, if you are arguing that a believer cannot lose his salvation… You’re going to use Ephesians 1 and Philippians 1, and your opponent will use Hebrews 4 and 2 Peter 2. Your proof texts are his problem texts, and his proof texts are your problem texts So on any issue, you just swap verses. Some people, they become a Christian and they think, well, you can’t lose your salvation. And then somebody convinces them, you can. He doesn’t have new material, he just swaps the verses. Now the verses that were his proof are now his problems, and his problems were now his proof. I want to throw down a gauntlet. And if we can get through this, then we have gone a long way to establishing that this overview of the Bible is accurate. Here’s the gauntlet. If the overview plot of the Bible is correct, then masses of problem text and proof text, verses that seem to contradict one another, countless huge lists of verses that look like they contradict, we’ll find one verse in the Bible, And we’ll look at those hundreds, those thousands of verses that look like they contradict through the lens of one verse and all the tension will fall. And the verses will no longer, even on the surface, they won’t appear to contradict. They will appear to all support the same basic truth. All the tensions will disappear. That’s the test that I’m putting on this overview of the Bible today. Is that possible? It sounds impossible, but you know, one little bit of truth can resolve countless disputes and confusion. So can we today find that truth in order to do that? We are going to watch Paul carefully. Three years after his conversion, he had brief initial contact with the 12 apostles. Three years after he got saved, he had a very brief initial contact. Imagine that. Paul had been persecuting the church. He was well known by all of them. But when he got saved, you’d think the first thing he’d do, being the leader type that he was, was he’d go to the 12th. But for three years, he didn’t go to him. And after three years, he had a brief initial contact. And then 14 years later, God revealed to Paul that he should go up to Jerusalem and tell Peter, James, and John about the gospel which he was preaching among the Gentiles. If you’d like to turn to Galatians 2. Remember that we saw that the apostles wrote a letter to the Gentiles and they said, we’re not commanding you to keep the law. We’re not doing that. But then when Paul came to Jerusalem, they said, Paul, would you keep the law? You see, that suggests that there’s either some confusion or some kind of transition or something going on that needs to be dealt with. Paul’s out there teaching the Gentiles, you don’t have to keep the law. That’s a little bit different than what was going on in Jerusalem. So God says to Paul, we read it in Galatians 2, go to Jerusalem and tell the apostles the gospel that you’re preaching to the Gentiles. Huh? Didn’t they know? But they were not preaching, don’t keep the law. They were keeping the law. Peter said, it’s unlawful for me to be in the home of a Gentile. And James in Acts 21 said, Paul, can’t you see that all the Jews who believe are zealous for the law? Now, would you please keep the law? Well, let’s read Galatians 2. Then after 14 years, I went up again to Jerusalem and I went up by revelation in verse two and communicated to them that gospel, which I preach among the Gentiles. And what is Paul saying? He had his first contact with the apostles in Jerusalem. And then it was 14 years later until God told him, go back to Jerusalem. And I went up by revelation. What does that mean? God told me to go to Jerusalem and communicated to them that gospel, which I preach among the Gentiles. Your first thought is, well, don’t they know? Why would God tell Paul to go tell Peter the gospel he’s preaching among the Gentiles? Peter would know. I mean, of course Peter would know. But God tells him, go and communicate to them the gospel you’re preaching among the Gentiles. Remember, he’s telling them, don’t keep the law. And in Jerusalem, they’re all keeping the law. So there’s a fundamental part of the disagreement, the dispute that needed to be resolved. So God told Paul, go communicate the gospel that you preach among the Gentiles. But look what he says. So I went up to communicate to them the gospel that I preach, but privately to those who were of reputation. Who are those who were of reputation? The apostles, the leaders of the church in Jerusalem. He said, I went to tell them the gospel I’m preaching among the Gentiles, but privately to lest by any means I might run or had run in vain. What does that mean? If you go to tell somebody something very important, but you do it privately because you don’t want to undo everything you had accomplished, what does that imply when you go to them privately? Let’s say you work for a company and There’s going to be a company meeting in the cafeteria at 3 o’clock. And the president of the company, 100 people, and he’s going to lead the company-wide staff meeting. And you’re on the phone at five minutes to three with your largest customer. Your number one client provides 40% of your revenue. You’re the manager of that account. And they just tell you, that’s it. We cancel future orders. We sign a contract with your competitor. It’s over. So you get that news, and you walk into the meeting. Here’s everybody sitting in front of you. And the president starts the meeting. Are you gonna raise your hand and make the announcement? You would be the first one terminated as a cost-cutting measure. You would want to go privately to those who are of reputation, to the leaders, and explain to them this development, what’s going on, so that your job would not be in jeopardy. Because that would be the wise thing to do. You don’t want to undercut or undermine or go around the authority. You want to go through the authority. So God tells Paul to go up to Jerusalem to communicate to them that gospel which you’re preaching among the Gentiles, but do so privately to those who were of reputation, lest by any means you had run in vain. So Paul goes to Jerusalem and he gets with James and Peter and he tells them what he’s preaching. And he tells them, I’m telling them you don’t have to be circumcised. I’m telling them they don’t have to keep the law. Peter, you of all people must know this is true because 17 years ago, God showed you this in a vision. And he brought you to Cornelius’ house to teach you that God was going to accept the Gentiles as uncircumcised believers. Peter, you have to know that what I’m preaching is true. And Paul was able to persuade them. And they agreed. But that didn’t change the reality that he was out there telling the Gentiles, you don’t have to circumcise and you don’t have to keep the law. But in Jerusalem, the 12 apostles and their followers were keeping the law. So look what he says. He says, verse 3, God told me to go to Jerusalem to communicate the gospel. I’m preaching to the Gentiles. I did so privately. so that my effort had not been in vain. Yet not even Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. Do you realize what Paul is telling us with those words? He went to the apostles. with a degree of concern, of trepidation. And he brought a Greek with him, an uncircumcised Christian believer. And he brought Titus with him intentionally as an object lesson, right into their midst to say, this man is uncircumcised. He is not under the law. He is a member of the body of Christ. He is forgiven and accepted by God. And he was half thinking there might be a challenge and they might compel him to be circumcised, just to be in their midst. Even if they would say, okay, you could be uncircumcised out in Antioch, but when you come here to Jerusalem, you better be circumcised. But he said, yet not even Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. Paul had achieved a victory by his wisdom and his understanding of God’s message and through his ability to work well with the leaders. He came respecting them and humbly and privately. not disputing them openly because he could have marched into Jerusalem and saying, I am the apostle Paul. I teach Christians not to keep the law. And there might’ve been a riot among the Christians, but he went privately and he brought a man to be the test case. And the apostles did not force him to be circumcised. Now, what does that show us? It shows us there was a doctrinal tension. It was there.
SPEAKER 01 :
Stop the tape. Stop the tape. That was the third segment we’ve played here on KLTT Radio of the Plot Bible Overview. Every time I hear this, I’m reminded of my dad’s heart to help people truly understand God’s word from beginning to end and grow closer to Christ. Even though we’re saying goodbye to KLTT soon, our ministry, we are thriving and reaching further than ever before. my YouTube channel and your theology with millions of views, Real Science Radio with millions of views, our daily podcast at kgov.com with hundreds of thousands of downloads. We encourage you to join us in that next step of our ministry. As we reach millions, we want you to be there with us for the ride. Of course, we absolutely adore KLTT Radio. The one thing that we’re searching for is we want to reach Christians, of course, but we also want to reach unbelievers with the gospel and KLTT radio, as incredible as it is. There’s a problem that unbelievers don’t tend to tune into Christian radio, right? And so we have to show up at their doorstep with the gospel. And that’s largely what we’re doing with the YouTube channel. If you want to get the entirety of the plot Bible study and all of our Bible studies, you can get those right now at www.anyart.shop. I recommend signing up for the subscription. You can listen to our daily podcast at kgov.com and subscribe on YouTube at Anyart Theology and Real Science Radio. Just search those up and you’ll find us there. Again, that’s E-N-Y-A-R-T.com. t-h-e-o-l-o-g-y in your theology the youtube channel if you can help support this work so we can continue producing content that edifies believers and preaches the gospel to unbelievers please subscribe please donate especially monthly donations but more than both of those is pray for us. My email is enyarttheology at gmail.com. If you want to share any favorite memories of our time here on KLTT Radio, or if you have any questions about the transition in ministry, thank you for being part of this incredible journey. I hope that you will walk with us into this next chapter. My name is Dominic Enyart, and I’m reminding you to do right and risk the consequences.
In this episode, delve into a transformative segment from the Plot Bible Overview. Follow the historical course of Apostle Paul’s interactions with church leaders over doctrinal differences concerning Gentile converts and the law. Through engaging biblical insights, Dominic Enyart sheds light on how theological tensions were pragmatically handled by early church leaders. Discover the relevance of these ancient debates in today’s complex Christian landscape and the invitation to explore God’s unified story through Pastor Bob Enyart’s timeless teachings.
