Introduction

Welcome to the Walking the Old Paths podcast. I’m JP, your host on this journey through the Bible. Each week we embark on a systematic study of the scriptures from Genesis to Revelation. Today I’ll be introducing myself in this podcast. So please stick around.

Hello everybody. I’m JP. But today I just want to introduce myself to you and, this podcast.

Walking the old paths. This, title here was inspired by Jeremiah 6:16, which says, Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls.

But they said, We will not walk therein. This podcast is going to seek out the old paths that we may walk, and the good way that God gives us, that he may give us rest to our souls. And I hope you will join me on this adventure through God’s Word.

I’d like to talk a little bit about myself here today.

Before we end this podcast. See, you all know what to expect. I live in Lincoln, Nebraska, with my wife and four children. I work full time as a certified nuclear medicine technologist. My also pursuing a bachelor’s degree in theology from Clarksville Theological College and Seminary. I’m an active member of a Bible believing church, teaching two Bible studies each week.

And I have a passion for personal evangelism.

So I grew up on a farm up in South Dakota, and growing up there, I had a a godly influence on my life. Both my parents were saved. Christ was an important part of our lives. And my mom was raised, as a Mennonite. And my dad grew up in a Lutheran church where his dad pastored.

My grandpa and our family attended a church of God in the small community I grew up in. You know, like many youths and Christian homes. My made a profession of faith as a child. Accepting Christ as my savior. But also, like many of our youths, once they reached the teenage years, they wander away from the faith, I wonder, away from Christ.

And that’s what I did. I followed after the world and and youthful lusts. That led me down some dark paths as I was, growing up. And when I graduated, from nuclear school, I, ended up in Kearney, Nebraska and Kearney, Nebraska. I would say is what is the worst and the best place, that I’ll ever remember.

It was the worst because of the things that I got involved there and the people that I were involved with. But it was the best place, because that is where Christ got Ahold of my heart and sin. And become so, part upon my life, that I was really considering what, my life was becoming and where it was taking me.

And I can still remember the apartment I was living in. And on the night of December 24th, 2002, as I was sitting alone in my apartment, the Lord spoke to me in that moment. It wasn’t an audible voice. It was something that’s very hard to explain. But, it’s like the Lord said to me, it’s time to come back to me.

It was there at that call that I decided to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. And I simply said to him, yes, Lord. You know, having the background in a Christian home, I knew the gospel. I knew that Christ died for my sins. That he was raised again the third day. And, I knew that what I was doing was not a Christian life.

And, you know, I’m not going to argue whether I was saved as a child when I made that profession, or whether true salvation happened. That night, December 24th, 2002. But what I can I to what can I what I can tell you is when I look back at that day, I can say old things are passed away.

Behold, all things are become new. Immediately my desires change from the worldly to spiritual. I began reading the Bible. I started attending, a church there in Kearney in Assembly of God church. I got involved with the college and career ministry. It was about six months into this spiritual rebirth, this new birth that happened. That I was asked to, join the leadership team of that college and career ministry and became involved with leading Bible studies and personal evangelism.

Something that has been very important to me, since I got saved is telling others about, Christ. About what God has done for them. And, you know, I, the Christ, commissioned his church. To go forth and to preach the gospel and to every creature. And unfortunately, we’re not doing a very good job of that.

Far too many Christians actively are involved in sharing their faith and witnessing to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the New Testament, that’s when the church started. And, Pentecost. God had told his disciples, you know, that he is going to equip them to go and preach the gospel, starting in Jerusalem, and go into the uttermost parts of the earth.

And I’m sure thankful that they did that, because as a Gentile, I’m, part of that.

You know that somewhere down the line, my family, a family member, got saved and changed the direction of our lives. Now, every child in a Christian home still has to come to that own decision himself. So you to follow Christ or not?

I see you cannot believe the gospel or not. And the teenagers really test that. What a kid. What a child truly believes. I’ve teach our teens at church now, and I always tell them when they leave, for college that we’re going to know what they’re made of. What they truly believe. Because I’ve seen many that, continue following the Lord and some that stop following the Lord.

But it was during this time in my life, when I was in that college in courage ministry, I met my own wife. She’s from the island of Trinidad and Tobago. She grew up in a Pentecostal church, which wasn’t too different from what I was attending. The Assembly of God church there in Kearney. We were married in 2006, and we moved to Lincoln, Nebraska in, 2007.

Now, during that time, as I had been studying my Bible, the, I started looking into the topic of the different Bible versions and, the underlying text. That they’re, they’re made up from. And my heart became strongly convicted. The the authorized version, the King James Version is God’s preserved words in the English language.

Based upon, the, underlined text. That, it was translated from. So we started looking for a church that preached from the authorized version. And that’s how we found, an independent fundamental Baptist church, that only uses the, the authorized version. And we began attending this church in 2008 and September 7th of 2008.

We were accepted into membership there by baptism. Now, it was probably around 2013 that our youth leader, a church, moved and pastor asked me to, teach teens. And since then, I have been teaching two Bible studies each week. One on Wednesday night and one on Sunday mornings. So studying the Bible has become something very precious to me.

Since that night that the Lord called me. And it is because of my love for the Word of God that I desire to see other Christians built up in this most holy faith, and to see souls saved by the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is the reason why I began, this podcast, the Walking the Old Paths podcast.

Now, I want to tell you a little bit about, what I believe about the Bible. Now, it is important to know what someone believes about the Bible. How they interpret it. Whether it be a pastor or a Sunday school teacher or some guy that has a Bible study podcast. What they believe about the Bible and how they interpret it will either lead you closer to God or farther away from God.

And you should ask your pastor, you know, tell me what you believe about the Bible. You’ll probably get understand what he believes about it by his preaching. But you want to be in a church that teaches and preaches the word of God. You want a pastor who believes the Bible to be the word of God. It is very serious business.

Teach in the scriptures. James three one he warns us, my brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation. Those that teach, the Bible. They’ll be held to a higher standard. Because they’re the ones teaching it. And because when we teach something, we need to be living it. And if you want to know what someone believes, just ask their wife for their children, and they’ll let you know exactly, what they believe about it.

You know, if they live it, if they practice it. Now, I what I believe about the Bible, I believe that the Bible is the inspired, infallible, inerrant Word of God. I believe that it is the final authority in all matters of faith and practice for us. I don’t, believe that, there is any extra revelation after the book of revelation that is final and complete.

All of our doctrine must come from the scripture. There’s nothing new that I’m going to tell you. These old paths that I walk have been walked for the last 2000 years. It is the good way. Now, there are two statements that I want to make in regard to what I believe about the Bible.

And that is inspiration and preservation. Now, inspiration. I believe in the verbal plenary inspiration of the Bible. By that I mean that the Holy Spirit of God inspired every single word in the Bible, and the sum total thereof. God says that every word of God is pure. Second Peter 121 we, the apostle Peter, wrote us and said that for the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

So the Bible was. Yes, it was written by man, but it was really God who wrote it. It says, Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. The thought here is that God use men to write the Bible like you would use a pen to write on paper. For example, in the Old Testament alone, the human writers refer to their own writings as the words of God over 3800 times.

In Second Timothy 316. It says, All Scripture is given by inspiration of God. That that statement given by inspiration of God literally means God breathed all of Scripture. Old and New Testament was breathed out by God. It is God’s Word to us. It is his mind to us. It’s how we know him. His character. It. It’s how we understand our origins.

It’s how we understand our relationship to God. Our own selves as sinners. Tells us what Christ has done for us and how we can be saved. It tells us about future things, about things yet to come to pass. It is the word of God.

And I believe that thoroughly and without any sort of apology. Now, the next time I want to make.

There is definitely some controversy on. And that is the doctrine of preservation. Now, I believe that God has guided his words down through the centuries for us today, that we too can have the very Word of God. I believe it is logical to think that if God would inspire his original autographs graphs, that he would also preserve them for future generations.

I don’t think that they were lost. Oh, but men copied him in there. Scribal errors and things like that. Well, we either going to believe Christ’s words he said in Luke 2133, Heaven and earth shall pass away. But my words shall not pass away, nor this my words shall not pass away. You know, it is my opinion that God has preserved his words for us today in the English language, in the King James or Authorized Version, based on those underlined text that it was translated from.

The Old Testament was translated from the Hebrew mesmeric text of the Old Testament and the New Testament. That great New Testament was translated from the traditional historic received text. And, you know, much research needs to go into it. When I looked into this, I probably had a dozen books on the subject, that I was reading.

And I understand not everyone’s going to agree with this statement, and that’s fine. Okay. You come to your own conclusions on it. I know it’s full of controversy. But for the purpose of this podcast, I’m sure that you can at least appreciate utilizing the same text. Even after all, in a classroom, everyone uses the same edition of a textbook.

For the purpose of order and unity. But, I’m still recommend a couple resources, you know, if you’re interested to get you started. And that is touch, not the unclean thing. The text issue and Separation by David H. Sorenson and Gibbs. Understandable. History of the Bible, by Samuel Skip. I have links to these, books on my website.

Walk in the old paths.com. Please stop by and check that out. Now, as far as interpretation goes, first of all, it needs to be said that

the Bible is like no other book. It is a spiritually discerned book. And unless one has the Spirit of God in him, he will not understand it. It will be foolishness unto him.

First Corinthians 2:13 to 14 tells us this. It says, “Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. ”

You see, you really need to be saved to fully understand this book. The spiritual meanings behind it and unsaved person can read the Bible and they can understand truths of it, but it’s the spiritual things of it that they will never comprehend. It will be foolishness unto them. Why? Because they don’t have the Spirit of God in them.

That should be concerning to you. Friend, if you have a difficult time understanding the Bible, if it seems as if it is foolishness unto you, it’s probably because you don’t have the Spirit of God in you. In which case, you need to get saved.

And we’ll talk about that. And this is a spiritually discerned book. But with that said, I hold to a literal, historical, cultural grammatical interpretation of the scriptures.

Now let me explain that a little bit more in depth to you. What is meant by literal? Well, that is to look for the normal, plain sense of what is being said. This is how we normally handle any sort of writings. I don’t know why we try to do, or some people will try to do differently with the Bible.

They come at that with an allegorical approach and try to find some mystic Samson. And in all of it. But again, it’s because they don’t have the Spirit of God in them, and it’s foolishness unto them. So they have to look for some sort of mystical sense, and they make it say whatever they want to say. But the Bible is written very definite for a definite purpose, and we need to study that show ourselves approved.

And a God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. So we need to look for that normal, plain sense of what is being said, and as not to say that, that there’s not figurative language in it because there is much, but all the figurative language still has a literal meaning behind it.

And as easily recognizable as, there is a prophetic element to it. Predictive, prophetic, in which case there is prophecy that’s still yet to be fulfilled. So when we get to the book of Revelation, many years from now, after we have gone through the first 65 books of the Bible, we will be able to look at that and find, even in that figurative language, a normal, plain meaning of what is being said.

There’s also a historical cultural context that we need to take in consideration as well as we read the Bible. So the Bible is written over a period of about 1500 years. With the most recent book written around 1894, 96. Now that is over 1900 years ago. It’s a long time. We’re separated by nearly 2000 years, and we live in the Western culture.

So there are some difficulties for us in understanding the historical cultural significance of what is being said. There’s many parts of the Bible that we didn’t know about geography, about the climate, about the customs and the history of the times in order to have an accurate understanding of what is being said. So that’s something that we need to take into consideration as we go through.

And then there’s also the grammatical context of it. Now the Bible is originally written in Hebrew in the Old Testament and Greek and Aramaic in the New. Like I said, God was very precise in his communication to us, and every single word was carefully chosen, to convey his mind, to us. So because of that, some knowledge of the original languages is very helpful.

And we can utilize the work of others. We have resources that are available to us that allow us to dig in deeper and study those words in the original languages. Many men who did have those knowledge of those original languages, were able to write concordance and dictionaries and lexicons for us. Those are all tools, tools that can be used.

But we must always remember that the Bible is a spiritually discerned book. And you all know, whether someone has that spirit in them, if they’re able to draw out the things of God, the spiritual things that we can apply to our lives, that make us more like Christ, that draws closer to God in his heart. So you will be able to judge and see, you know, as I start teaching, you know, does JP have the Spirit of God in him?

Lastly, before we end here today, I just want to talk about the salvation, God’s gift to us. I talked to a lot of people as I go out witnessing and there seems to be an overwhelming majority of people who believe that they’re going to get to heaven by being good, based on their own good works. They think, that as long as my good outweighs my bad, where I’m not that bad, that God will let them into heaven.

But you have a problem, and that’s a sin problem. You see, you’re separated from God because of sin. You are born that way, and you continue that way until you get saved. Or you get to the end of your life without Christ, and you will face him at judgment. So God does not want you to go to hell.

He did not want you to have to pay the penalty for that sin. So he made a way. And we should be thankful that God did make a way for us to be saved. We said, well, why can’t it be many ways? Well, let’s just be thankful that there is one way. And Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

And no man cometh unto the father but by me. It’s through Jesus Christ. Jesus was God in the flesh. He came to this earth with the purpose of paying the penalty of your sin in mind, that you could be made right in God’s sight. He took your sin, and he will give you his righteousness. That way, when you stand before God, God will not see your sin, but he will see the righteousness of Christ, and he will allow you into heaven, because he is of pure eyes than to behold iniquity.

He cannot allow sin into heaven. So, my friend, you have a choice. You can either pay for your sin yourself or you can put it on Christ, which he did 2000 years ago on Calvary. Well, before we get going into our study here in Genesis, we have some preparation we need to do. As the title of this podcast, walk in the Old Paths, says we’re, embarking on a journey through the Word of God.

And we have got to equip ourselves for this journey. So we’re going to be looking at gathering up some tools that we’re going to need, tools to properly interpret the Scripture and apply it to our lives. And I hope to see you on the next podcast. I look forward to this. We’ll take a few episodes to, gather up all those tools, gather up our equipment that we need for this journey before we take our first steps out on the page of Scripture.

Until then, my friend, may God richly bless you. May you grow in the grace knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.