Jesus to Paul: 'You're my only writer now'

Bible scholar C.R. Stam once wrote, “Amazingly, the books of the Bible were written over a period of about 1600 years, by approximately 40 different men. The writers came from all walks of life, and include kings, priests, tax collectors, physicians, farmers and fishermen.

“Each man wrote from his own background of education and experience. Very few of the writers could have known one another. Yet, remarkably, the Book is not a jumble of disconnected and conflicting essays. Rather, from beginning to end, it tells a continuous story with several interwoven themes.

“This will come as no surprise, if we understand that the eternal God Himself directed each of the human writers to compose a portion of His message, which He was compiling as history unfolded.”

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The Apostle Paul tells us in II Timothy 1 about how God revealed to him “his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ.”

“Notice there’s an appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ that’s not future from Paul; it’s PAST,” says Jordan. “That’s the appearing of Christ to Paul to make him ‘a preacher and an apostle and a teacher of the Gentiles.’ That’s the appearing of Christ when He revealed to Paul the truth of the Body of Christ; the truth of the mystery, the truth of the OTHER program.

“He appears to Paul on the Road to Damascus and later says to him, ‘I’ve appeared to thee for this purpose and I will appear to thee AGAIN!’

“In II Corinthians, Paul says, ‘I’ve come to visions and revelations of the Lord.’ The Lord Himself appeared to Paul and gave him information over a period of time, revealing the truth that Paul writes down in his epistles. That’s the appearing that BEGINS the dispensation of grace. Without that appearing you wouldn’t know about the appearing that ENDS the dispensation of grace.

“So when Paul says, ‘To those who love His appearing,’ which one is it? Well, it’s both. How could it be otherwise? You wouldn’t know about the Rapture if it weren’t for the appearing of Christ to Paul.

“If you know the appearing of Christ to Paul is separate, then you know you have to have a distinct conclusion to the dispensation of grace. If the Body of Christ is a separate entity, then it has to have a special conclusion just like it had a special beginning.

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“Have you ever noticed how all the Bible up to Romans, you can teach stories? Romans isn’t stories; it’s doctrinal information. It’s instructions; it’s thinking processes.

“Each of Paul’s epistles contains an introduction, body and conclusion--just like you’d find in a letter, but his introductions have a very special purpose in that they introduce the particular issue the epistle’s going to address.

“In Paul’s epistle to the Galatians, for example, he starts out by reminding them, ‘But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.’

“Paul’s saying his apostleship, unlike that of the others, did not come by human instrumentality. He was commissioned as an apostle different from every other apostle before him in the Bible.

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“In the gospels, Jesus Christ chose 12 apostles and told them their function was to sit upon 12 thrones, judging the 12 tribes of the nation Israel in that future kingdom in the regeneration of the Son of man when Christ sits on the throne in Jerusalem and they’re His earthly apostles.

“After Judas dies in response to his betrayal of the Lord, there’s only 11 apostles, but before Pentecost, Matthias is made the 12^th guy by Peter.

“It was through Paul’s preaching that God the Holy Spirit communicated the message of grace to the apostles. They came to understand it through Paul’s direct revelation from God.

“In the first two chapters of Galatians are 14 separate things he says about why his ministry and message is separate and distinct from the 12.

“He writes, ‘But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen.’

“Paul understood there were things about Jesus Christ that God wanted revealed solely through him; that he was to be the one and only through whom that information would be revealed.”