The Symbols

The pictures: the door, the serpent, the lampstand, the river.

18 questions answered. All topics

• Whosoever WillDid Christ die for everyone, or only for the elect?For everyone. "He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world" (1 John 2:2). The atonement is sufficient for all and applied to those who believe.
• Whosoever WillIs Jesus God? Did Jesus claim to be God?Yes. "In the beginning was the Word... and the Word was God" (John 1:1), and Jesus said "Before Abraham was, I am" (John 8:58). In Him "dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily" (Col 2:9).
• Whosoever WillWhat does "freely" (dorean) mean in Revelation 22:17?Dōrean (δωρεάν) means freely, as a gift, without cost or cause. "Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely [dōrean]" (Rev 22:17). It is the same word Paul uses: "justified freely by his grace" (Rom 3:24).
• Whosoever WillWhat does "the Word... dwelt among us" mean (eskenosen)?Eskēnōsen (ἐσκήνωσεν), in John 1:14, means "pitched his tent" or "tabernacled." "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." John chose the tabernacle word: God moved into a tent of human flesh.
• Whosoever WillWhat does the stone over the tomb picture?The barrier man set up, and could not move, God rolled aside. The women knew they could not shift it, "for it was very great" (Mark 16:4). It is the gospel in one picture: the stone between us and life, rolled away from the outside, by a hand that was never shut in.
• Whosoever WillWhat is communion / the Lord's Supper? What does it mean?The Lord's Supper is the bread and cup Jesus gave the church to remember His death "till he come" (1 Cor 11:26). The bread pictures His body given, the cup His blood shed. It is a memorial and a proclamation, not a re-sacrifice.
• Whosoever WillWhat is Provisionism?Provisionism is the view that God has provided salvation for every person in Christ, genuinely offers it to every hearer through the gospel, and saves all who believe. Provision is universal; application is by faith; the refusal is the man's own.
• Whosoever WillWhat is the "worm" in Psalm 22:6?In "I am a worm, and no man" (Psa 22:6), the word is tola'ath, the crimson grub whose crushed body gave the ancient world its scarlet dye. The Messiah of the cross names Himself not the lion of strength but the small creature that is crushed to yield crimson, "he was bruised for our iniquities" (Isa 53:5).
• Whosoever WillWhat is the dispensation of Conscience?The second dispensation, from the fall to the flood (Gen 4-8). Fallen man was left to be governed by conscience, the knowledge of good and evil; he failed as wickedness filled the earth, and the judgment was the flood.
• Whosoever WillWhat is the dispensation of Human Government?The third dispensation, from the flood to Babel (Gen 9-11). After the flood God gave man the authority to govern, including capital justice; man failed by uniting in pride at Babel, and the judgment was the confusion of languages.
• Whosoever WillWhat is the dispensation of Innocence?The first dispensation, in Eden before the fall (Gen 1-3). Man was placed in a perfect garden under one prohibition, tested, and failed by eating the forbidden fruit; the judgment was the curse and expulsion.
• Whosoever WillWhat is the dispensation of Law?The fifth dispensation, from Sinai to the cross (Exod 20-Acts 1). God governed Israel by the Mosaic law; the nation failed repeatedly to keep it, ending in the rejection of the Messiah, and the judgment came in the dispersion and in the cross itself.
• Whosoever WillWhat is the dispensation of Promise?The fourth dispensation, from Abraham to Sinai (Gen 12-Exod 19). God called Abraham and governed by promise, the Abrahamic covenant; the family failed by leaving the land for Egypt and bondage, and the arrangement gave way to the Law.
• Whosoever WillWhat is the dispensation of the Kingdom (the millennium)?The seventh and final dispensation, the thousand-year reign of Christ on earth (Rev 20). Christ governs personally from David's throne in Jerusalem; even under perfect rule man's heart is tested, and the final rebellion at the end proves that the problem was never the environment.
• Whosoever WillWhere is Jesus in Psalm 22?Psalm 22 is the psalm of the cross. It describes a crucifixion in detail centuries before Rome made it a punishment: the cry Jesus spoke while dying, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Psa 22:1; Matt 27:46), pierced hands and feet, and soldiers casting lots for His clothing (Psa 22:16, 18). David never died this way. The King did.
• Whosoever WillWhere is the stone rolled away in the Bible?In all four Gospels. Matthew 28:2 tells how the angel rolled it back; Mark 16:3-4 gives the women's question and the stone already moved; Luke 24:2 and John 20:1 record that they found it gone. "And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away: for it was very great" (Mark 16:4).
• Whosoever WillWhy does God say sins that are red like crimson will be white as snow? (Isaiah 1:18)"Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool" (Isa 1:18). The word for "crimson" there is tola'ath, the crushed-worm dye, one of the most colorfast, hardest-to-remove colors the ancient world knew. The one stain no work of man could wash out is lifted by the blood of the crushed Lamb.
• Whosoever WillWhy was the stone rolled away from the tomb?Not to let Jesus out, but to let His witnesses in. He had already risen, and that same evening He stood among His disciples behind shut doors (John 20:19). The stone was moved so the women could look in and see the tomb empty: "Come, see the place where the Lord lay" (Matthew 28:6).