The Scripture Does My Talking
The image above is from a WWII U.S. government poster which says that the M1 Garand rifle does the talking for our US soldiers. This same idea however can be applied for a Teacher of God's word.
Above is the same image modified with the inscription that says, "The Scripture Does My talking!"
This has application for the Fivefold Ministry Bible Teacher because it should be the Word of God that does his talking. This means that he should allow the Word of God to speak for itself. Never should he make statements in a nutshell because the listeners do not know how he arrived at that conclusion. If he will take them in systematic manner though the scriptures step by step then his listeners can see how this conclusion is solidly based upon the Word of God!
When writing teaching lessons, he should never miss an opportunity to quote the scriptures because only the Word of God has power to change lives. If what he is saying has no reference to God's Word then his teaching is reduced to the same level of intellectual confusion as given by a public speaker who is void of God's word and has no power to bring lasting change to the lives of the listeners.
Debater Converted by Systematic Teaching of God's Word
One example of this is when I was invited to preach for a church where the pastor were deceived by the false doctrine of eternal security. The man leading the congregation was a die-hard about this doctrine and was a professional "debater" and thought it was his duty to debate for (and fight for) this false doctrine wherever he went.
So, what I did when I arrived was to start off with writing 43-scripture passages on a blackboard and then I went down the list in systematic manner and explained them one by one. I agreed with him that no one can remove us from the hand of God so in that sense our salvation is eternally secure. But at the same time humans still have been given a freewill and they can choose to jump out of God's hand at any time if they choose to do so. No one can take them out of God's hand but at the same time they can still jump out of God's hand by their own free human will.
The end result of going through this teaching in systematic manner and recording all of the scriptures in a list and explaining them carefully was that this "debater" man become an convert of the truth. No longer was he fighting to defend eternal security when he saw from the scriptures that humans have a freewill and God will not supersede that human freewill even if they choose to go to hell!
I was not debating this man or trying to fight him but was simply giving the truth in systematic manner without trying to attack. I even agreed to the extent possible that a believer is eternally secure and no one can take them out of God's hand because he he greater than all. But the list of 43-scripture passages did their work and by the end of the presentation this man was my convert and he came to see the truth of human freewill as it relates to salvation.
See the link "Christians in Hell" for more details.
I use this example to show that I let the scriptures do my talking for me. Actions are more powerful than words (just like the M1 Garand rifle that put an end to enemy aggression in WWII without the soldier having to say too much)! Nazism and Imperialism and any other other type of "ism" of that time and era were all silenced by a bullet from the M1 Garand!
In the same way the scripture used in systematic manner (without debate or attack) can bring someone who was once at war into peace. This eternal security "debater" came to peace and stopped debating and became one who believed in the human freewill of all mankind and their free choice to determine their own eternal destiny!
Romans 1:29 (KJV)
29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
The KJV lists the word "Debate" as one of those things are part of the work of the human sin nature. Nothing can be accomplished by debate because typically it is the proud and arrogant men who debate and want to flex their intellectual muscles and show everyone how smart they are. But this type of activity is derived from the sin nature and is used by Satan to cause strife and start wars and bring division. A Fivefold Ministry Bible Teacher should not engage in debate nor handle the word of God in deceitful manner only to use it as ammunition to use in debates.
2 Corinthians 4:2 (KJV)
2 But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.
The KJV also uses the words "handling the word of God deceitfully" to describe those who operate from their human sin nature and quote scriptures from isolated sources to fabricate any type of doctrine that they want and use these misquoted scriptures as a means of debating others.
Seminary libraries are filled with books that are nothing but "debating" and which use the word of God deceitfully. For any biblical subject that can be imagined there are more than a dozen opinions about the supposed meaning put out by theologians and all of them quote scriptures and debate one another as if engaged in a contest to flex their intellectual muscles!
But far from helping anyone these theological debate books do more harm than good. Many young men have gone to a seminary to prepare for the ministry only to have their faith shipwrecked by these debates (derived from human sin nature). Soon they realize that they cannot believe anything anymore when everyone is quoting the same scriptures and coming up with different conclusions! Many of these seminary graduates have become agnostic after they were poisoned in mind by these theological debate books!
It should be noted that "debate" is a product of the fallen sin nature and Satan is the author of debate which destroys faith and tears people down and brings division and strife and every evil work.
The Fivefold Ministry Bible Teacher should have no part of "debate" because that is a work of the fallen sin nature and comes from the inspiration of Satan the dark-lord!
Instead the Fivefold Ministry Bible Teacher should allow the word of God to do his talking for him. The way that he knows a doctrine is true is that it has been confirmed in principle from Genesis to Revelation. If he is teaching a biblical truth then the same message or same principle will manifest over and over again and there is no contradiction when this happens. This is because he is using the full-counsel of God's word and not just quoting scriptures in deceitful manner in order to fabricate them into a manufactured list to support his own preconceived ideas.
The example of human freewill and its relation to the topic of "Christians in Hell" is something that is confirmed repeatedly throughout both the Old and New Testaments of the bible. When taken in an honest and complete manner this systematic teaching can even convert a former eternal security debater!
I did not have anything against this "debater-man" and I was not out to get him or defeat him like a theologian trying to out-spar someone in an intellectual "sword-fight" using God's word. I was only showing the clear principles of God's word from Genesis to Revelation that all supported the same conclusion. I listed the scriptures and let them read these in systematic manner as I went down the list!
This had the effect to completely dispel this false doctrine of eternal security and the man actually felt my love for him because I was not trying to cram this down his throat but cared enough for him to take the time to go through these scriptures in systematic manner.
He became a convert and left this false doctrine of eternal security (which is a doctrine of demons designed only to send people to hell)!
This great transformation in this former "debater" came about by me allowing the word of God to do my talking. I was not handling the word of God deceitfully nor was I looking up scriptures only to support my own doctrines of human invention. The scriptures themselves revealed the overall big-picture principle from Genesis to Revelation that God gave humans a freewill and they can use that human freewill to choose their own eternal destiny!
I had 43-passages of scriptures listed on a chalkboard but in fact these were only the main scriptures or basic ones. I could easily come up with ten times that number if I had the time to do an exhaustive study (which included every book in the entire bible)!
When there is a large body of scriptures and they all say the same thing then there is no room left for doubt whether that doctrine is of God or not! Just let the scriptures do the talking and all debate of the human sin nature will disappear!
Matthew 18:16 (NKJV)
16 But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that 'by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.'
This scripture speaks of having two or three witnesses to confirm every matter and this can also have direct application to the Fivefold Ministry Bible Teacher because he should have a minimum of two or three scriptures to confirm every doctrine that he teaches. But if he has many dozens of scriptures that all support the same principle then it is all the better and doubt is completely eroded in the face of so many witnesses of scripture!
These doctrines like "Christians in Hell" have so many scriptures that I did not have time to share even a small fraction of them! The systematic sharing of God's word left no doubt remaining in the minds of the listeners as I shared the truth of this biblical doctrine! Just the main-scriptures alone provided overwhelming evidence and was enough to completely convince them!
Let the Scriptures Do Your Talking
It is for this reason that I address the Fivefold Ministry Bible Teacher and say, "Let the Scriptures Do Your Talking!" If the scriptures are taken in a big-picture manner (considering the same principles as seen from Genesis to Revelation) then there will be no more room for doubt and every debate will wither away in light of the strong scriptural evidence and multiple scriptural witnesses.
A Fivefold Minister Bible Teacher should never miss an opportunity to quote a scripture or list a scripture in his teaching. If they list all of them out then it is all the better so that the student can read them instantly without having to look them up. This will short-cut the process of renewing the minds of their readers so they can see the truth according to the systematic teaching of God's word.
Yes it is true that a Fivefold Ministry Bible Teacher may end up quoting the same scriptures numerous times. But he has to understand that he may have new readers or new students arrive at any time and these students may not have heard what he already has taught in the past.
It is for this reason that a Fivefold Ministry Bible Teacher should make frequent use of hyperlinks in his web-pages so that he can refer the reader to his past teaching lessons that have already explained a certain principle in great detail with many scriptures.
This is a process of renewing the minds of the readers (or the listeners) so that the students will have a strong foundation of biblical truth in their lives. The more they read and study the more they will see that there is no contradiction in the things being taught. There exists a flow in the same vein of big-picture principles found throughout the entire bible. This is how the student can know that they are reading the truth when there is no contradiction with numerous scripture sources and numerous principles that all serve to confirm one another in big-picture principles.
A Fivefold Ministry Bible Teacher should never say things in a nutshell but always explain things in systematic manner or refer the student to lessons that have already been dealt with in systematic manner using multiple scriptures.
People can easily brush off a nutshell statement but they cannot easily brush off a systematic list of scriptures that all support the same conclusion. This is how the process of renewing human minds takes place by the systematic teaching of God's word (without mixing debate of the human sin nature with it.)
Debate only uses scriptures in isolated manner while ignoring those scriptures that contradict their preconceived conclusions. If such debaters have no ears to hear they will only embrace their false doctrines like an "idol" and end up in hell with their own deception.
But I have seen former debaters who responded to the systematic teaching of God's word that was neither offensive nor aggressive but was simply a product of sharing the truth in honest manner with them. They were converted and swallowed their pride and were willing to accept the correction and their debate ended.
It is for this reason that I admonish every Fivefold Ministry Bible Teacher to let the word of God do their talking. The word of God can speak for itself when it is not used deceitfully to assemble a list of unrelated scriptures to support a "debate" doctrine. When the doctrine is of the truth it will be confirmed over and over again by numerous scriptures all bearing "witness" to the truth of God's word.
Those biblical subjects that are of great importance will have numerous scriptures to support them even though only two are three scriptures is enough. When there are multiplied dozens of scriptures all saying the same thing then there is no longer any room for doubt and every debate is washed away in the face of such overwhelming evidence!
But the bible is a spiritual book unlike any other book derived from human origin. It requires that a man with a Fivefold Ministry Gift of Bible Teacher be the one to teach it from God's perspective. When unregenerate theologians teach the word of God, they will only be doing so from a intellectual point of view and that is why their theological books will typically do readers more harm than good.
Very few theologians are born again and as unregenerate men they produce only intellectual teaching based on doctrines of their own human origin. It is no wonder that so many young men graduate from seminaries as agnostics after being required to read the intellectual garbage put out by these unregenerate theologians! These seminary books actually carry a demonic-spirit of deception which targets seminary students to turn them into agnostics by destroying their faith in God and their faith in God's word.
But typically these seminary students want to have a degree to get a job as a pastor of a dignified church so they endure these required theological courses and often lose their faith in God and the bible as a result.
It is sad that such a system works to place agnostics in the pulpit who have no faith in God nor the bible and then these agnostic seminary graduates assume to make a livelihood from the ministry as a full-time occupation! Such men are doing more harm than good to their congregations and give out nothing of value to help the people to live their everyday lives on earth!
A Fivefold Ministry Gift of Bible Teacher however can see things that unregenerate theologians cannot see. This ability is as natural to the Fivefold Ministry Gift of Bible Teacher as it is for a bird to fly without being taught how to fly!