RiverRock Restoration is primarily a Bible teaching Ministry that is comprised of the following components:

Home / Online Church
Bible Teaching mostly through video teachings and archived audio teachings
Bible study books
Guest Speaking engagements
Cross Church Fellowship
Evangelism
Discipleship

RiverRock Restoration started unnamed as simply a Home Bible Study in 2009 initiated by a move of God’s Holy Spirit through Bethany Christian Church, in El Paso, TX. Over the years it was opened up to more believers from different Churches and developed into a Home / Online Church of its own with a focus on Bible teaching, cross-Church Fellowship, prayer, and evangelism. Monday evening was the day and time of choice for meetings because it was the one day of the week which didn’t interfere with any of the Church schedules of the members attending from various congregations. Also, it is a day which typically only very serious and committed Christians will gather to meet for spiritual purposes. The format is Verse by Verse Bible teaching with full exposition and extensive cross references from other Scriptures as they relate to the current Book being taught, and with a particular emphasis of focus on the imminent end times events prophesied in Scripture which we believe to be unfolding and about to be fully realized within the lifetime of our current generation. In October of 2019, as if by God’s foreknowledge of what was on the immediate horizon, RiverRock Restoration made itself available to the global community through the advent of livestreaming our Monday evening service online. This has brought a number of new members to us from all over the country and the world. The events of 2020 ultimately led Pastor Dustin Blystone to resign his professional position as a public school teacher after a 28 year career in education, 2 years before full retirement. This was led by the LORD for a number of reasons, but most prominently to finally fully answer the call to full-time professional Ministry. It was at this point when RiverRock Restoration took a definite turn towards a full-fledged Home / Online Church / Bible teaching Ministry. This also led to the need for more Ministers to assist. In 2021, God’s Holy Spirit led Ministers of The Gospel from Soldiers For Christ Global Community Church in California to visit RiverRock Restoration to officially ordain Dustin Blystone as a Pastor and ratify the Gospel Ministry Work which God was already doing here and in 2022 God’s Holy Spirit led Ministers of The Gospel already working in their own Ministry callings to join as Elders of RiverRock Restoration: Gregory Hamilton of Los Angeles, California, and Tom Frick of Denham Springs, Louisiana. This board of Elders meets weekly via online platforms to pray over the in-person and online members of RiverRock Restoration as well as to provide Godly counsel, wisdom, and insight into the leading and guiding of God’s Holy Spirit for this Church and Ministry. We host a quarterly Fellowship Meal at our home for our in-person members and always encourage our members to be in Fellowship at a “brick and mortar” / traditional or establishment Church wherever possible. We exhort our online members from various locations around the country and the world to do likewise; however, for many, this is very difficult as the establishment Church is compromised in many ways. Nevertheless, we always maintain and encourage our members to have as thick a skin as possible (to a point) to tolerate and bear with bad teaching, bad theology, inaccurate eschatology, etc. for the sake of Fellowship and corporate prayer and worship and to mitigate the parts they don’t like about that Fellowship with participation in our Ministry. In other words, be around fellow believers, pray with, encourage, exhort, worship, etc. with other believers, and if that particular Church does not have good teaching or preaching, get that aspect here! Never cause or sow discord or create contention, but know what to expect from the best local brick and mortar / establishment Church you can find and get the most out of it as possible and let us help with the rest of one’s spiritual diet. If it is simply not possible to find a local Church to be a part of, then we encourage individuals to find a few fellow believers in your locale and use our teachings and materials together in Fellowship with one another as much as possible. For example, don’t simply watch / listen to our content in isolation, but use it corporately with one another with some in-person Fellowship between and amongst each other. Perhaps seek the LORD on starting your own home Fellowship and use our materials to help get started and eventually, the LORD might lift up someone to become a Pastor / Teacher of that Fellowship. Others are simply welcome to join us for some additional spiritual food and extra teachings beyond what they are already acquiring from their local congregations or other Ministries they follow.

Statement of Faith and Doctrinal Positions:

Theology Proper – Study of the Character and Nature of God
We believe that God is One God Who Eternally exists in Three Persons: The Father, His Son Jesus Christ, and His Holy Spirit.
We believe that God is simultaneously a God of perfect love and perfect righteousness and perfect justice (John 1:1, Matthew 28:19, 1 John 5:7-8, Isaiah 9:6, Isaiah 44:6, 1 Corinthians 12:3)

Paterology – Study of God The Father
We believe that God The Father is Initiator of all Divine activity beginning with Creation and that He is distinct and separate from His Creation, yet simultaneously is in intimate relationship with His Creation, as Father: first to His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ, and by extension is Father, through adoption, of all who accept His Son Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, He has Eternally fused Himself, by His choice, to His Creation, namely, The Third Heaven (though He is not bound nor constrained by it), as well as His Created beings (i.e. us as believing humans) through His relationship as a Loving Father through Christ His Son.) (Genesis 1:1, 1:21, 1:27, 2:3-4, 6:7, John 3:16, Galatians 2:20, 2 Thessalonians 1:2, 2:16, 2 Peter 1:17, 2 John 1:3)

Christology – Study of Jesus Christ as The Son of God
We believe that Jesus Christ was born of The Virgin Mary, without sin, through The Immaculate Conception, when God’s Holy Spirit overshadowed her, and therefore is fully God, and fully man, and emptied Himself of His Divine Right while He lived as a man during His earthly Ministry during the First Advent. He was in perfect submission to The Father, and therefore voluntarily went to The Cross, died voluntarily on The Cross to atone for the sins of all, past, present, and future; yet, only in such a way where The Atonement He provided on The Cross only applies to those who confess and believe, ratifying the Relationship Nature of His Atonement. He was then buried, and Resurrected on the third day, in the same, but now supernaturally Resurrected Body, and that He will return for His Bride, The Church, at The Rapture, and to Judge the unbelieving world at His Second Coming, as well as to setup His Millennial Reign from Jerusalem, Israel. (John 1:1, Mathew 1:1, John 20:31, Acts 8:37, 1 Corinthians 1:9, 2 Corinthians 1:19, 1 John 5:20, 2 John 1:3)

Pneumatology – Study of God’s Holy Spirit
We believe in The Personality and Divine Nature of God’s Holy Spirit as The Power and Presence of God to come along side and draw individuals to Jesus Christ, to quicken evangelistic witness of Christ in the hearts of those who hear The Gospel preached, then to indwell all who become believers in Christ Jesus, then to empower believer’s for living lives of sanctification and discipleship: to convict, correct, counsel, comfort, and encourage all believers, and to manifest spiritual fruit in all believers by driving believers in Christ to live life in such a way so as to produce: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, and also to provide gifts of spiritual power such as gifts of healing, helps, knowledge, wisdom, prophecy, etc. and to anoint certain believers into offices of leadership to lead The Church, such as Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors, and Teachers to equip believers in the work of Ministry. Also, that The Holy Spirit, as the indwelt Presence of God in all believers is the Restrainer through those He indwells that is holding back the Devil’s plans and purposes from being able to fully manifest until He (The Restrainer, i.e. God’s indwelt Holy Spirit) is taken out of the way via The Rapture of The Church. We also believe in the baptism of The Holy Spirt as a separate and distinct and further act of God’s Holy Spirit after Salvation. At Salvation one receives the infilling and indwelt Presence of God’s Holy Spirit whereas at the baptism of God’s Holy Spirit one receives empowerment, anointing, and equipping for Ministry work, which to the confusion of some, can come immediately after Salvation or simultaneously with Salvation, or can come some time later after Salvation, and is typically marked or signified by the initial evidence of speaking in tongues. (1 Thessalonians 4:8, Luke 4:1, 11:13, John 1:33, John 4:24, 7:39, 20:22, Acts 2:4, 1 Corinthians 12:3, Ephesians 1:13)

Cosmology – The Study of Creation
We believe that God Created The Heaven and The earth in 6 literal 24 hour days and rested on the 7th day and His Creation is approximately 6,000 years old, and this can be proven by Scripture, and also can be confirmed through science within the Plasma / ZPE model of secular cosmology and the SED physics paradigm which is currently a minority position within secular science; however, is gaining traction, especially with recent data which has left the gravitational model (i.e. “The Big Bang”) of secular cosmology with the QED physics paradigm in serious doubt to account for Creation as it can be observed by man. The slow down of the speed of light in a cosecant sine squared wave from Creation to present brought to light by Barry Setterfield normalizing in approximately 2800 B.C. accounts for the disparity between atomic time vs. orbital time with the error of secular science being that of assuming the speed of light is constant throughout time.

We believe that God created The Heaven domain first as per Genesis 1:1 and The Earth domain second, and while Heaven was created in a fully formed and fully populated state, earth was created unformed and unpopulated, to be formed and populated over time in order to create and facilitate freewill and true relationship through a time domain which facilitated these freewill choices not just for humans, but also for angels.

We completely reject all notions of and variations of so-called “gap theory” cosmology (a.k.a. a pre-Adamite world) as a false doctrine with zero Scriptural support leading to numerous heresies contradictory to Scripture, God’s Character as expressed in Scripture, and that it leads to indulgence in wild imagination and mythology as well as providing a convenient support to the false and Biblically contradictory cosmology of billions of years of existence, where it essentially relies on one Scripturally false belief (billions of years of existence) in order to introduce another (a pre-Adamite world). Both of these falsehoods are interdependent upon one another. (Genesis 1:1, Exodus 20:11, Romans 1:20, 8:22, 2 Peter 3:4, Revelation 3:14).

Angelology – The Study of Angels (as created by God)
We believe that angels were created by God on Day 1 of Creation as part of His act in Creating heaven first as per Genesis 1:1. Heaven, that is specifically, The Third Heaven, was created instantaneously on Day 1, fully formed and fully populated, that is, with all types of angels and heavenly creatures, commensurate with His Eternal Nature and earth was created formless and void, that is unformed and unpopulated (NOT that it BECAME chaos and waste due to some pre-Adamite rebellion – a completely incorrect translation and interpretation) in order to be created over the course of a time domain, where its population came later, as per Genesis 1:2. We believe that there are ranks of angels including but not limited to: Cherubim, Seraphim, Arch-Angels, Warring Angels, Messenger Angels, and Guardian Angels.

A host of these angels, namely a third of them, were led astray by the chief angel (cherubim) Lucifer (a.k.a. The Devil, Satan, The Dragon, The Serpent of Old) in his rebellion. Some of these angels are powerful principalities that have influence over geographical regions, according to Daniel’s recounting of The Prince of Persia. Only three angels are known by name in the 66 Book Canon: Michael, Gabriel, and Lucifer. Others are known by name in extra-biblical writings, such as the Book of Enoch, etc. Some of the fallen angels, namely 200, according to the non-Canonical book of Enoch inter-married with human women to produce perverse tribes of hybrid creatures not intended by God.

We believe that these angels who sinned and left their first estate after Satan’s enticements to lead them in rebellion against God, further rebelled in a more severe manner and had perverse intercourse with human women producing the defiled race known as the Nephilim (a.k.a Rephaim, Zamzummim, Emim, Avvim, Anakim, etc.) These fallen ones are the source of demons as their departed spirits have no place and seek embodiment, whereas fallen angels have always maintained their bodies and never seek embodiment. (Genesis 6:4, Jude 1:6, 9, Revelation 12:7, Luke 1:19, 26, Isaiah 14:12, Revelation 4:11, Colossians 1:16, Revelation 10:6, Psalm 68:17, Deuteronomy 33:2, Acts 7:38, Galatians 3:19, Hebrews 2:2, 12:22, 13:2)

Anthropology – The Study of Man (as created by God)
We believe that God created man and his wife in a perfect and sinless state, One man, Adam, and his wife, one woman, later named Eve, and they were created in His image and likeness to be in relationship with Him and simultaneously be in relationship with each other and for them to have dominion over the earth domain which God had created for them. We believe in the sanctity of and sacrament of marriage as the union of one biological man and one biological woman and reserve the right to disallow participation in any aspect of our Fellowship to any who have a contrary viewpoint. Furthermore, we believe in a complimentary viewpoint of men and women and that God has ordained gender-appropriate roles for men and women to serve within The Church and society at large.

Hamaritology – The Study of Sin
We believe that sin is a moral violation of God’s laws, either by commission or omission, which separate us from God and bring us under justified Divine Judgment.
We believe that since our first father, Adam, sinned in the Garden, all subsequent descendants of Adam (i.e. all mankind) have inherited a fallen sin nature through seminal transmission which is irreparable by any means that we possess.
We believe, based on several Scriptural references in Hebrew and Greek to what is generically called “sin” in Christian circles, that there are over 15 different words used to define different types and levels of sin, which in English are generally summarized in four different words: 1.)sin (missing the mark, i.e. trying to do right but falling short), 2.)transgression (knowingly and intentionally violating God’s known commands), 3.)iniquity (knowingly and intentionally committing gross transgression, especially to another person’s severe injury either physically, emotionally, psychologically, or some combination), 4.)abomination (knowingly and intentionally committing blasphemous iniquity directly against God Himself)
We believe that all sin can be forgiven through faith in Jesus Christ, confession of said sin, and repentance of said sin, whatever type or level of sin, transgression, iniquity or abomination it may have been with the sole exception of The Blasphemy of The Holy Spirit. (Romans 3:23, 5:14, Exodus 23:21, Genesis 44:16, 32, Daniel 9:27, Matthew 24:15, 2 Thessalonians 2:4, Matthew 12:32)

Soteriology – The Study of Salvation
We believe that Salvation is by Grace through faith in Jesus Christ based on The Atonement He accomplished on The Cross. This is achieved by faith (believing in your heart) and confessing with your mouth that Jesus is Lord. He is the only One Who was able to accomplish the work of Salvation on The Cross and our faith in His work is what ratifies our Salvation.
We believe that a truly converted person who has truly received this Salvation, will bear spiritual fruit in their lives in the form of a changed life, a desire for discipleship and sanctification, a desire for reading and understanding His Holy Word, The Bible, and in a desire to do good works, not that any of these achieve this Salvation nor maintain this Salvation, but are merely outward natural after effects and evidence that a true Salvation has indeed occurred. Without these noticeable changes, it is not for us to say whether or not that person really is saved; however, this gray area is something we advise all against counting on. If one is not living the life of a Christian in sanctification and discipleship, there will always be some measure of question marks and doubt and we’d encourage any such person to seek counsel, prayer, and in some cases perhaps God’s deliverance from bondage if there is some difficult matter that is blocking the process of discipleship and sanctification.

We believe in believer’s baptism, that is, that once one is Saved in a true relationship with God through Christ, they should, at their earliest convenience be baptized. Baptism does not save anyone, but saved people should be obedient and undergo baptism as an outward sign of identification in Christ’s death, based on the internal Presence of Christ’s Life within them.

Regarding doctrines that deal with Salvation which have taken on various connotations and various interpretations with many clever arguments and cherry-picked Scriptures, especially in recent years, a quick note on them is appropriate:

We believe that OSAS (Once Saved Always Saved) is not a Biblical concept or teaching in any way, shape, or form. We believe this to essentially be a deceptive label to try to exploit a concept which is debated about in Christian circles as to whether or not one can “lose” their Salvation through falling away, perpetual sin, or other less than honorable life choices. This label is many times also used to prey upon those who want to make themselves feel better about wayward family members or friends (e.g. “I was there when little Johnny was baptized when he was 11 years old, so never you mind that he’s spent the last 60 years of his life living like the Devil, because he was saved when he got baptized and Once Saved Always Saved, so he’s in heaven now, period.”) This simply is a complete falsehood. No one gets their ticket punched for heaven by reciting some words, then never abides by them, doesn’t have a relationship with God at all, lives a completely immoral life until death, and then goes to heaven. This is quite simply not how Salvation works at all.

Regarding Eternal Security, this is a completely different doctrine than OSAS although many conflate the two. Eternal Security teaches that once you are truly saved, you are justified in Christ and are Eternally Secure in your position in Christ. You receive God’s Holy Spirit when you are truly saved, and His Holy Spirit will convict you and press you and compel you to enter into a relationship with Him and a process of discipleship and sanctification. This process of discipleship and sanctification is different for each and every person. There is no set pace, nor any set level of sanctification that one must achieve on any set timetable, because God is always a Gentleman, and never forces or impinges on our freewill even after we’re saved. Nevertheless, since His Spirit now dwells in us and is attached to our spirit, if we continue on in sin, we grieve Him which will also grieve us, since our spirit is intimately knit to and connected to His Spirit, and He will not let one stay in a situation of perpetual sin and will compel one to repent through the spiritual agony of grief they are causing for Him and themselves. For some, this sanctification process might last a few months, or several years or maybe even a decade or more. Some say it lasts a lifetime; however, it is better stated that sanctification should be something that is completed at some point in a believer’s life, upon which they enter into a new phase of their Christian walk, which is refinement, which does continue on until death or Kingdom come. During this process, if one were to die before Sanctification is completed or before refinement begins, or while on a downward slide which goes on for a few weeks or months, their Salvation is secure because their Salvation is based on Christ’s Sacrifice and their belief in that, not on their performance as a Christian. If one never enters into a discipleship or sanctification process, it is possible; however, not for us to say, that they possibly never received true Salvation, and instead they merely went through some religious motions or ceremonies, and did what others told them to do, or mimicked what they saw others doing. It is also possible that they WERE truly saved and still ARE truly saved, but unfortunately had a bondage they didn’t have help overcoming. Unfortunately, many, especially in this day and age are under bondages of various addictions and oppressions and don’t know that there are deliverance Ministries that can help facilitate them to be set free from those bondages so they can have success in a discipleship or sanctification process. If you are concerned about feeling helpless in bondage, email us and we can attempt to direct you to someone who can help lead you in deliverance. We are connected to many Ministries in various parts of America and the world, and perhaps know someone close by to your location or can help you find someone in your location who can lead you through deliverance where you are at, or perhaps remotely.

It should be noted that we believe that OSAS and Eternal Security are two completely different doctrines although many conflate these two concepts to make them equal each other. We reject OSAS and lean heavily in favor of Eternal Security with the few caveats mentioned. This is a difficult subject and many Christians are divided on it. There is much, much more to this than what is posted here so email us for further questions on this and further clarification if you are concerned about this subject. If you are worried as to whether or not you are truly saved, it is a good indication you really are saved (most who aren’t saved aren’t worried about it in the first place); however, if you want help and clarification on it, email us and we can walk you through some questions to hopefully give you clarity on the matter in regards to your own Salvation status. (Romans 10:9,10, John 3:16 1 Corinthians 15:1-5, John 15:2-6, Isaiah 59:2, 1 John 2:14, 1 Corinthians 7:20, Romans 8:38-39, Judges 1:21, John 10:28-29)

Israelology – The Study of Israel as an instrument and object of God’s plan for His Creation

Many systematic theologies lump Israel and The Church into the same category of Ecclesiology (The Study of The Church or “Called Out Ones”); however, it is clear from careful study of Scripture and extreme precision of said Scriptures; that, while both groups are indeed “Called Out”, they are “Called Out” for different purposes and different roles in time and in Eternity. Israel is a separate entity from The Church. Israel and The Church have different origins, and different Eternal destinies and different roles in Eternity. Both are saved by The Blood of Christ, but saved for different purposes in God’s Kingdom. Over 5/6th’s of the Bible is centered on Israel, yet most Christian Systematic Theologies simply lump all that in with Ecclesiology. This leads to much confusion. They even call Israel, The Church, or The Church, Spiritual Israel, which are various forms of Replacement Theology which we flatly reject.

We believe that Israel is an instrument of God’s plan for Salvation, primarily to be the nation that would bring forth the Messiah, not just for Israel, but for the entire world.
We believe that Israel foreshadowed in their history a pattern of development that Christians should be aware of as all Scripture was written aforetime for our instruction
We believe that Israel as a spiritual entity in God’s ultimate plan has a future destiny in God’s Kingdom as detailed especially in The Books of Revelation, Daniel, Romans, et al. (Romans 10:21, Romans 11:1-36, Jeremiah 30:7, Matthew 23:31, Luke 11:47, 1 Thessalonians 2:14,15, Zechariah 13)

Ecclesiology – The Study of The Church as The Bride of Christ

We believe The Church is made up of all born-again, Spirit-filled Christians who believe in Jesus Christ as their personal Savior and Lord and who’ve confessed with their mouths that Jesus is Lord and believed in their heart that God has raised Him from the dead, and is comprised of all those who’ve done so who have ever lived since the time of The Resurrection of Christ down through the centuries and who are living now at the end of The Church Age.
We believe that The Church is made up of believer’s in Christ Who has paid for our sin on The Cross, whether of Jewish origin, or Gentile origin, the two are one in Christ as The Church. Since The Church supersedes Israel, it is better to be part of The Church rather than part of a future National Israel who accepts Christ during Tribulation, and likewise, that Messianic Jews in this age, should refer to themselves as The Church and/or as Christians and not as a separate class of spiritual citizens as it infers or implies a spiritual arrogance or superiority as Christ broke down the dividing wall between the two during The Church Age, so all Israelites / Jews / Hebrews etc. are welcome to become part of The Church and many such, especially the original believers in Jesus Christ were Israelites, Jews, Hebrews, etc.
We believe that The Church is the Body of Christ on earth, and that we have a mandate to continue to spread The Gospel of Jesus Christ to all nations and peoples in order to invite them to receive Salvation and become part of The Church
We believe that The Church is an exclusive spiritual entity that will be complete when the last individual gets saved before The Rapture of The Church, and is distinct and separate from other believers who believe in Christ during different ages, such as Israel believing their Messiah was coming and living in that faith and died before His coming and/or Jews who will come to faith during The Tribulation, and/or Gentile Tribulation Saints who will come to faith in Christ during Tribulation. All of these groups are Saved by The Blood of Christ on The Cross, yet saved during different dispensations of time or eras in God’s plan for different roles in time and different roles in Eternity. We believe in these dispensations of time and therefore are dispensationalists regarding the time domain and God’s eras of Pre-Law, Law, Church/Grace, and Millennial Kingdom Reign; however we completely reject all notions within Dispensationalism that people were saved and/or will be saved by different means during different dispensations, but rather all people are saved solely by The Blood of Jesus Christ on The Cross with some looking forward (Pre-Law, Law), living in the hope and faith of the Redemption they were promised would come, and some looking back (Church/Grace, Tribulation/Millennial Reign) to the reality of it already being accomplished during the era in which they lived. (Matthew 16:18, Acts 2:47, 5:11, 7:38, 8:1,3, 9:31, 11:26 Revelation 3:13, 1:4, 11, 20, 2:1,7,8,11,12,17,18,23,29, Ephesians 5:24-27, Romans 16:4-5)

Eschatology – The Study of The End Times or Last Things

We believe in the Pre-Millennial, Pre-Tribulation Rapture viewpoint of Eschatology.
We have many refined understandings and speculations on this belief; however, it is not something we are dogmatic about as there is still some mystery about the finer points, so we believe we have license to speculate and systematically build a view of the End Times with all End Times’ Scriptures in mind, piece by piece, filling in the puzzle, but we do not insist on the finer points of these speculations since it is a yet future event at the time of this writing.
With that said, we highly recommend for those who’ve been steeped in a contrary understanding of Eschatology, whether a different variation on Pre-Millennialism: pre-wrath, mid-trib, post-trib or an entirely different framework altogether, such as Preterism, Partial-Preterism, Historicism, or Amillennialism, we suggest that you go elsewhere, as we are not keen to argue or debate these topics, and we, believing, that The Rapture of The Church and subsequent end times events are imminent, choose to focus much of our emphasis on these subjects and contrary viewpoints simply cause discord and confusion. For those who’ve been steeped into contrary views, especially if those views are passionately held, it makes for rather unpleasant arguments and discord which is not Godly. If one who is steeped in contrary viewpoints, wants to avail themselves of this Ministry, you are most certainly welcome with the understanding that our eschatological views are firm and not up for constant or contentious debate; therefore, we do not entertain Eschatological debates or arguments resulting in discord. If such discord manifests that cannot be quickly overcome we ask you to politely excuse yourself from further participation in this Ministry or to resolve to keep silent regarding such disagreements in order to avail yourself with the aspects of this Ministry which you are in agreement with. (1 Thessalonians 1:9,10, 4:13-18, 5:1-11, Revelation 12:5, Matthew 24:31, Daniel 12:1-2, 1 Corinthians 15:51-53, Luke17:34-37, 21:36, Mark 13:24-27, Revelation 3:10-11, 4:5)

Bibliology and Hermeneutics – The Study of The Bible and Biblical Interpretation

We believe that The Bible in its 66 Books is The Inspired and inerrant Word of God for our instruction in all spiritual, moral, historical, and relational matters that we encounter in our lives on earth. We believe it is best to use a literal translation, such as A.V. (a.k.a King James), NASB (especially 1977 Thompson Chain Reference version), or ESV (English Standard Version) and that the Masoretic Text (OT Hebrew /Aramaic) and Textus Receptus (NT Greek) make up the best original source manuscripts. While the NASB and ESV don’t use MT and TR) they are still excellent translations of the Critical Text and in over 95% of cases are in agreement with MT/TR anyway and the finer points of Doctrines which are impacted by the discrepancies are few and usually only concern and impact scholarly research and not devotional reading or most basic Bible Studies. With that said, when dealing with the 5% or less of discrepancies between the different source manuscripts we believe it is best to use the A.V. and/or consult with original language sources and lexicons to ensure the most correct viewpoint and understanding.

Regarding Biblical interpretation, we believe in approaching The Bible from a literal interpretation and teach with a strict literalist approach. This does not mean that figures of speech are to be taken literally, and that there are over 200 different types of figures of speech also known as rhetorical devices in Scripture. These are well documented, indexed, and categorized in various Bible Study resources, most notably in E. W. Bullinger’s Companion Bible commentary, so when The Bible uses a rhetorical device or figure of speech they are all well catalogued, so the interpretation should still be literal in this manner: take said figure of speech or literary device and resolve that figure of speech or device to its literal meaning from whatever idiom, metaphor, similitude, anthropomorphism, etc. is used to color the tone or shape the picture of what is being said. Then, once the figure is resolved correctly, interpret the passage literally. For example, consider the following non-Biblical example:

“Jonny was pulling Jimmy’s leg and Jimmy didn’t understand what Jonny meant by it until he walked home and told his Mom and she explained it to him, at which point Jonny laughed out loud” So, in this sentence we see the English idiom, “pulling [his] leg” and if one took the idiom literally, of course they would completely misunderstand the sentence. If you simply resolve the idiom to its true meaning: Jonny was kidding with Jimmy, then, take the entire sentence literally, and you will know exactly what happened.

Unfortunately, with allegorists and spiritualists, the arguments they use to justify their allegorical or spiritualized understandings of Biblical text is to first make the argument to a literalist that “Oh, so you think God has feathers, or giant plasma balls of fire (stars) are going to fall to the earth during The Tribulation?” This is a completely false argument. Clearly these are rhetorical devices which are used to evoke heightened emotions and understandings using imagery and poetic license, but the passage can absolutely be taken literally once the idiom or other device is resolved to its true meaning. For example, God’s “wings” are used to express His comforting love with which He desires to carefully embrace us with His love and protection and most notably are expressed as his arms extended and outstretched, nailed to The Cross demonstrating His love for us. Stars are frequently associated with angels in Scripture, so stars falling to the earth can easily be resolved to angels, specifically the angels who sinned being cast down to the earth. A seven headed dragon, need not be some horrible hydra creature, but the Satanically empowered kingdoms of the history of the world, namely Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, and Future Rome manifested into a final conglomeration and manifestation of Satan’s evil and rebellion. What the allegorist and spiritualist really want to do is to use their figure of speech or rhetorical device “straw-man” argument to then justify themselves taking entire Chapters, huge passages of Scripture, and in some cases entire Books (e.g. Revelation) spiritually or allegorically. The allegorist or spiritualist is forced to do this because the vast majority of Prophetic Scripture found in Isaiah – Malachi, as well as Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 21, 1 Corinthians 15, 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, Revelation, etc. have not come to pass yet, which very concretely support a Pre-Millennial, Pre-Tribulation Rapture viewpoint, if these passages are taken literally with all figures of speech and rhetorical devices resolved appropriately.

Once a passage is understood literally, resolving any and all rhetorical devices to their intended meaning, then the surface meaning is understood in the historical account of what transpired or the future prophetic event that will eventually transpire when the prophecy comes to pass. After the plain surface meaning is correctly understood, then, the homiletic meaning or meanings can be derived through preaching and teaching and this is the level which most sermons and Bible Studies are delivered at, in terms of practical and moral application to one’s life. Third, the Christ-Prophetic meaning can be derived from understanding how the passage fits in with God’s plan of Salvation through Jesus Christ, and finally, fourth, each Scripture can be seen to fit with the rest of Scripture in a mystically perfect tandem with all other Scripture. This fourth application of hermeneutics intrigues some and intimidates others, but we believe that every word, every name, every place name, every numerical value, the number of times a particular word is used throughout the Bible, The Chapters, The Verses, The Bible Book Order, etc. all have Divinely appointed significance and perfect design behind them.

For more information, please contact through email: [email protected]