[Taken from the Beginning Papers by Walter R. Dolen
Copyright © 1977-2003 by Walter R. Dolen and/or BeComingOne Church]

BP5: Premises for Belief

How to Read These Papers
Premises of Belief
Creationist Book List
How Papers were Documented

¶ bp106» The BeComingOne Papers were written to inform. All "Papers" were written in one form or another over decades. Together they are called -- BeComingOne Papers. To every set of beliefs there are premises. In this paper we amplify on our premises.

How To Read These Papers

¶ bp107» Because tradition is so strong and because each of us has a "mindset," we must be deliberate when reading the BeComingOne Papers. The BeComingOne Papers concern serious matters and must be read with this in mind. First, read the papers through once. Next, read them looking up our documentation. After this, read all the papers again. When you follow these three steps you should have a good idea what we are trying to convey to you.

¶ bp108» Be careful. Because you have learned your views on God, the Bible, Evolution, Christianity, Science, and the meaning to life from tradition, you will be shocked by some of the papers in the BeComingOne Papers. Think. Question. There is something happening on earth. There is a reason for evil. God, the Power, is much more powerful than most think: "Jesus said to them, You err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the POWER of God." (Mat 22:29) The might of the Power, the God of the universe, will make all become one.

¶ bp109» "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." (Heb 11:1) Real faith is not naive, but based on substance of Spiritual faith (see NM papers). We seek real faith based on evidence from the past, from the present and from the future.

How can we believe in the Bible? How can we know there is a God who created the universe? What can we base this faith on?

Premises

1. There is a God

¶ bp110» Law. The evolutionary theory always starts with laws like those of heat, energy, motion, gravity, etc. Evolution in a sense is a law or process of increasing order from randomness. Law projects order and intelligence. The genetic code of life found in our DNA also projects high intelligence. How can law code of DNA evolve? The laws of the universe must have come from somewhere. God is the creator of law. (Isa 33:22)

¶ bp112» Beginning. The fact of radioactivity indicates there was no eternity of matter. If matter always existed, without a starting point, then the "life" period of the radioactive elements would have long ago run its course, that is, the radioactive elements would have run down and there would not be any radioactive elements left. Thus, there was a beginning of matter; God created matter. (Gen 1:1) The big bang theory needs to explain where the material and energy for the big bang theory came from. God, the all powerful Being, by definition, must have always been there, or else there is nothing and we are nothing and so this dialogue doesnt exist. Either the all powerful god of Evolution was there at the beginning or the all powerful God Being was there. The evolutionists can prove evolution by showing/demonstrating evolution (a new species); the creationists can prove creation by the God Being creating again or by resurrecting the dead.

¶ bp113» Life. The ecosystems from the biochemical cell to the earth, sea, and heavens indicate everything was planned, for the theory of evolution maintains that life was a hit and miss adventure ("natural selection" or "mutation," etc.). If this was so, then the earth would be filled with the inferior products of the evolutionary process, and that the "missing link" would greatly outnumber the surviving species. There should be fossils of the inferior products of the evolutionary process everywhere, in all the strata, in the rocks. In other words, the rejections of the evolutionary process should be polluting our world. Where are these fossils? Life came from God. (Genesis chapter 1)

2.The Bible Is The Word Of God That Reveals The Purpose Of The Creation.

¶ bp115» A. The Bible in its original languages is a doctrine given to mankind through spiritual influence in the minds of many individuals over approximately a 1500 year period. (2Tim 3:16; Heb 1:1-2; 2Pet 1:20-21; see "Bible Paper" [BP3]; see below)

¶ bp116» B. How was the Bible written and how was it inspiredHow was the Bible written and how was it inspired? It was written by humans in situations that were planned and predestinated. The writers' languages (with its vagueness) their societies (with their complexities), their environments (micro and macro), and their biology (with its direct and indirect influences) were all planned, predestinated, and carried out by The Power. Each complete thought written had its type and antitype. The writer himself may have only intended the physical or typical meaning, but The Power predestinated its antitypical meaning (note 1Cor 9:9-10; see "Duality Paper" [BP4]; etc.). The Power made it possible for the writings to be copied and passed down to our time in an accurate enough form (not too accurate so as to make it obvious that we were being manipulated, yet accurate enough). The Power is in full control because he is all powerful. He thinks of billions of things and their interconnections. We think of a few interconnecting things. No cosmic soup can produce intelligence. We must be intelligent about this. There is something going on. Life and death have their purposes.

¶ bp117» C. Any apparent contradiction is just that, it only appears at first examination to be a contradiction. A total understanding of the Bible answers all apparent contradictions in a logical way. God is a God of logic: "Come now, and let us reason together says the Lord." (Isa 1:18)

¶ bp118» D. The Bible interprets itself; it interprets its own symbols.

(1) For example, the Bible interprets the symbolic meaning of stars by telling us that stars are symbolic of angels. (Rev 1:20)

(2) A second example is how the Bible interprets the symbolic heads on the beast of Rev 17: "the seven heads are seven mountains." (Rev 17:9) Then it describes these seven mountains as seven kings. (Rev 17:10) Thus, these seven heads or mountains are seven kings.

(3) Notice that the beast of the book of Revelation has ten horns. (Rev 17:7) What are "horns" symbolic of? "And the ten horns ... are the ten kings." (Dan 7:24)

¶ bp119» E. The Bible shows its reader HOW to read it in order to understand it. The Bible says it is "profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction." (2Tim 3:16) But one must know how to read it to get this information. There are four principles to know about when reading the Bible before one can understand it.

¶ bp120» (1) Here a little, there a little. "Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little: For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people." (Isa 28:9-11)

¶ bp121» A most important principle of the Bible is "here a little, and there a little." God has spoken to man in a stammering tongue. God through his Word (the Bible) speaks in a strange tongue to the world.

¶ bp122» Readers have noticed that the Bible in places puts information together in no apparent order. It seems that some of the writers of the Bible were in some kind of dream when they wrote.

¶ bp123» The Bible speaks on almost every subject, but it never totally gives all the information about that subject in one place in the Bible. A person must search throughout the Bible if he wants to find the complete information about any one subject.

¶ bp124» An example of the principle shown in Isa 28:9-11 is if someone wants to ascertain exactly what happened shortly after Christ was resurrected from the dead. To find this information one must compare all four of the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John with each other, and any other book of the Bible that may have any information in it concerning the resurrection of Christ. Only when you put all these scriptures together ("here a little, and there a little") will one have the correct information about Christ's resurrection. (Chronology Paper [CP4])

¶ bp125» There is a reason why God is not going out of his way to "save" people or to inform people of his plan. Jesus Christ said he spoke in parables so people would not understand, but only those who had Spiritual ears would understand. (Mat 13:10-17) God is not trying to save everyone Spiritually now, that comes later. (see "All Saved Paper" [NM13] and the New Mind Papers)

¶ bp126» (2) Duality. Next one must know that the Bible is DUAL -- type and antitype. There are types of the real; or shadows of the real; or foreshadows of the real events; or symbols of the real. The REAL of these types is the antitypical thing or event.

¶ bp127» An example of the type and antitype is that the physical is a type of the Spiritual. But the Spiritual is the antitype of the physical. The holy days mentioned in the Old Testament like the Passover are fore-shadows of the real or antitypical event. The physical Passover pictured the sacrificed lamb, which prefigured Christ, the Lamb of God -- the real Passover. Another example is stars which are symbols of the antitype -- the angels. (Rev 1:20)

¶ bp128» God does things in twos: "the dream was doubled unto Pharaoh twice; it is because the thing is established by God." (Gen 41:32) God created male and female, he created the spiritual and the physical dimensions. He used a new and old Covenant when dealing with mankind. (Hebrew, chaps. 8, 9, & 10) He even had Moses design the tabernacle as a shadow of the heavenly one.

¶ bp129» God made "the law having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the thing." (Heb 10:1) He even created the physical world so that we could understand the spiritual dimension. (study, Rom 1:19-20) The physical is a type or shadow of the Spiritual dimension. God works in twos -- type and antitype. This is duality. See "Duality Paper" [NM13] in the New Mind Papers.

¶ bp130» (3) Spirituality. Knowing then that the Bible is a creation of God through his influence, we must learn how to read the Bible besides taking "here a little, and there a little," and besides understanding that the Bible is dual -- type and antitype.

¶ bp131» God says through his Word that : "God is Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in truth." (John 4:24) And, "the words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit, and they are life." (John 6:63) Thus, God's words are Spiritual. They have a Spiritual meaning. They are not just physical words, they have a higher or antitypical meaning. There is actually a Spiritual language in the Bible.

¶ bp132» And through God's Word it tells us to look away from the earthly (the physical) meaning to the higher or heavenly or Spiritual meaning. (Phil 3:19; Col 3:1-2; see "Duality Paper" [BP4]) We compare "Spiritual things with Spiritual." (1Cor 2:13)

¶ bp133» Important: The Spiritual or antitypical meaning of the Bible is the aspect of the Bible that is 100 % accurate all the time in every respect. The physical or typical meaning of the Bible is as close to accurate as human languages gets. But the typical language or meaning uses hyperboles, metaphors, and other language phenomena that may not be "literally" 100% true.

¶ bp134» (4) Effect of every vision. The last principle we need to know is the one shown in Ezek 12:22-23: "Son of man, what is the proverb that you have in the land of Israel, saying, the days are prolonged, and every vision fails? Tell them therefore, Thus says the Lord God; I will make this proverb to cease, and they shall no more use it as a proverb in Israel; but say unto them, the days are at hand, and the effect of every vision."

¶ bp135» This means that the prophecy up to "the days are at hand" has not come true to its fullest degree. The visions have failed. Israel has not been completely restored, Christ (the Messiah) has not returned, etc. But when the "days are at hand," then will come "the effect of every vision." If we can locate when "the days are at hand," then we will know when the effects of every vision will happen, and then we will know when prophecy will be fulfilled to 100% of the words uttered in the Bible.

¶ bp136» Now in Revelation 1:3 it indicates that when someone finally comes to rightly read the mysterious book of Revelation, then the "time is at hand."

¶ bp137» The proof of premise 3 ("the Bible is the word of God that reveals the purpose of creation") is that logical answers concerning the creation and its purpose have been ascertained. And these solutions remove all apparent Biblical contradiction. For example, it explains how God, who is love (1John 4:8), can also be a killer. (Deut 32:39) Love has nothing to do with killing, and since God is love, how can he also be a killer? That is surely a Biblical contradiction. How can God be love and a killer? The fact is that people do not know something about God that explains this "contradiction." The True God is love and won't and can't kill, but God is a killer! Now what kind of nonsense is that? Read the God Papers to find out who or what is God, and how this Biblical "contradiction" is logically removed. There is something most people don't know about God and the creation that easily explains this and other apparent contradictions concerning God's nature and person.

Documentation

¶ bp140» In all of the papers we have written, we have documentation. Let us give an example of a documentation: "The God, all in all." (1Cor 15:28) This is a quote from the New Testament. After this quote we have added, "(1Cor 15:28)." This shows where the quote can be found in the New Testament of the Bible. It indicates that the quote came from the first letter of the Corinthians ("1 Cor"), the 15th chapter ("15:"), and the 28th verse (":28") of the 15th chapter. If we had "2 Cor" it would mean the second letter of the Corinthians. If we had "2Cor 11:4" it would mean we quoted from the second letter of the Corinthians, the 11th chapter, and the 4th verse. But sometimes we have a documentation such as "(1Pet 2:4)" after a sentence that has no quotes. We have such documentation in order to support the previous sentence or sentences, or we have such documentation in order to point out other similar or related views of the previous sentence or sentences, or we have such documentation to add new light to the previous sentence or sentences.

Learn all about Christianity and the New Mind, what most churches won't tell you, by going on to the next section.

Page Name:
BP5

Index

BP1 Introduction
BP2 Mindset
BP3 Bible Paper
BP4 Duality Paper
BP5 Premises

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