How to Enjoy the Bible Camp '70 (Session 2)
Publication Date: 1970
Victor Paul Wierwille was a Bible scholar and teacher for over four decades.
By means of Dr. Wierwille's dynamic teaching of the accuracy and integrity of God's Word, foundational class and advanced class graduates of Power for Abundant Living have learned that the one great requirement for every student of the Bible is to rightly divide the Word of Truth. Thus, his presentation of the Word of God was designed for students who desire the in-depth-accuracy of God’s Word.
In his many years of research, Dr. Wierwille studied with such men as Karl Barth, E. Stanley Jones, Glenn Clark, Bishop K.C. Pillai, and George M. Lamsa. His formal training included Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Theology degrees from Mission House (Lakeland) College and Seminary. He studied at the University of Chicago and at Princeton Theological Seminary from which he received a Master of Theology degree in Practical Theology. Later he completed his work for the Doctor of Theology degree.
Dr. Wierwille taught the first class on Power for Abundant Living in 1953.
Books by Dr. Wierwille include: Are the Dead Alive Now? published in 1971; Receiving the Holy Spirit Today published in 1972; five volumes of Studies in Abundant Living— The Bible Tells Me So (1971), The New, Dynamic Church (1971), The Word's Way (1971), God's Magnified Word (1977), Order My Steps in Thy Word (1985); Jesus Christ Is Not God (1975); Jesus Christ Our Passover (1980); and Jesus Christ Our Promised Seed (1982).
Dr. Wierwille researched God's Word, taught, wrote, and traveled worldwide, holding forth the accuracy of God's "wonderful, matchless" Word.
Joh 1:14, 18; Gen 1:1, 2; Rev 20:7-10; Gen 3:15; 2Pe 3:6, 7
2Pe 3:13; Rev 21:1, 23; Gen 1:10, 16; Rev 22:5; Gen 1:17; 3:16, 17, 22-24; Rev 21:4; 22:3, 2; Neh 8:5
Neh 8:6-8; Gen 10:8, 9, 24, 25
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LESSON TWO
There are two books that we have in the store which I selected for this family camp. I have said to people everywhere in our classes that I believe I could build for any person for $200 or less, the only materials (the research materials and study materials) that they would ever need in a life time on the Word of God. In that category, I would have to place this book by E.W. Bullinger How to Enjoy the Bible. I think this is the finest piece of work that I have ever seen in extent. And it was this book that was given to me by my friend Dr. E Higgins in Chicago. One night after a class at the LaSalle hotel, when she said to me, “Did you ever read E.W. Bullinger?” And I said, “I never heard of him.” She said, “Well, you teach like he wrote.” And I said, “I sure would like to see it.” And she said, “I’ll give you a copy.”
So, we went upstairs and into her office, into her quarters where she lived, and she gave me her copy of E.W. Bullinger. If I thought about it this morning I would have brought it along. I’ll think about it next time and show it to you. It will just amaze you the condition it’s in. I read it completely the night she gave it to me. I read it completely the next day and I read it completely the third day. I read it three times completely from beginning to end. It just fascinated me you know why? Because I’ve been told so often I didn’t know anything about the Word and that I was handling it facetiously and that I wasn’t right, that to find somebody who agreed with me was like getting a drink of water in an oasis.
Here was a man who back in the nineteen hundreds, 1910-1920 had worked out through the Word some of the things that I was teaching; he had already worked back there. And he had come up with the same conclusion. Like the four crucified with Jesus, that Jesus died on Wednesday instead of Friday. He had worked all of this stuff too from the Word. And to find this book, I can’t tell you how much it meant to me; it just blessed my heart. Because here he had worked all of this stuff, he had seen the same thing that I was teaching and seeing and to find him who had worked it out before and had agreed with what the Word said, it just blessed my heart.
There are some things in here of course that we would change. Then, the other book which I believe will be real helpful and we have chosen it for this particular time. It’s called Life Is Tremendous by Charles Jones. Wherein he discusses that leadership is for you, and we believe that our people as they understand the Word, they are God’s chosen for the leadership of our day and our time and his working through is right along the principles or the line of the Word of God on the positive approach, and which we use. And we believe that this is very valuable and very helpful. So, those two copies are available in our bookstore.
How to enjoy the Bible, the first thing I would say to you is simply read it. That’s how to enjoy it. Most people just never get around to really reading it to enjoying it. Those of course who have no concern for the accuracy like we do at the Way in the
Ministry of the Way. They approach it from an entirely different angle anyway. But even our people, they never just read the Bible, just enjoy it. Sit down and read it just like you would read Life magazine or an article in Time, or any other thing that you read for the joy of reading. The reason so many people of course never read for the joy of reading is because about everything we read today we’re dogged. Like you’re in Chemistry or History, you always got to read to get the right answer that you hand back to the professor or the teacher.
But reading is an art. And we in the Way Ministry ought to just read because we love to read. And the thing for us to read is the Word. I’m going to show you before this session terminates this morning, what this will do. How it gives you an overall knowledge of the Word. Now, you can take one word descriptor and get a specific knowledge of it but that’s all you know then. The idea is in how to enjoy the Bible is to get that overall vista, picture in your mind. What does the Bible teach all the way through? So, don’t try to work it out.
Just get that overall picture, and if you’re going to start reading, you start with the book of Ephesians. That’s the one you read and you just read it straight through. Or you read a chapter then you read another chapter but you just don’t stop to figure out the word Jesus Christ or Christ Jesus; how many times is it inverted, why and so forth. You read it to get the impact in your heart, exactly what it’s all about. I’d say after you read Ephesians, you go to Acts; after you have read Acts you go back to Ephesians and after you have read Ephesians you go to Romans, and after you have read Romans you go back to Ephesians. After Ephesians you go back to Corinthians, then you go back to Ephesians, then you go back to Galatians, then you go back to Ephesians. Just saturate yourself with Ephesians, because it is the greatest revelation that has ever been given to the church, the body of believers. But now, you have to get the whole picture, so never get to reading the book of Revelation. For a long time. Until you got the impact of the church epistles, first to you, understand? And in order to get to the church epistles you got to read Acts, because Acts is the record of the rise and the expansion of the Christian church and Acts ties in with Romans, ties in with Corinthians, ties in with Ephesians. Therefore, you go like those seven major church epistles: Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and Thessalonians.
Those are the primary epistles addressed to the whole body, the church. Then you get into the ministry type of epistles like Timothy, Titus, and Philemon. Then you get into the legalistic, who people born again of God’s spirit, however not fully convinced within themselves that Jesus Christ was the completion of it all, when you get to Hebrews, James; I and II Peter; I, II & III John. Those are the next in line that you ought to read and get the full impact.
Then when you read the book of Revelation, by the time you read the book of Revelation you will have read all of the Old Testament before you read Revelation. Because Revelation is simply the complement or the culmination of the book of Genesis. So, finally you have to go back and you begin with Genesis and you just keep reading. You just read through to get the impact of what’s the whole Word trying to say.
The Word of God has one great subject from Genesis to Revelation and that subject of course is Christ. Christ is the all-pervading subject, therefore every place where you
are reading, you look for him. That’s how you get to enjoy the Bible. You look for him, what he is, what the Word says he has done. What he has accomplished, what he has given us because whatever he is, we are. We are what Christ is. Why? Because it’s Christ in you the hope of, what? Glory. So, all through the Word he is the pervading subject so you look for him and his meaning. Then you appropriate this to yourself because that’s exactly what you are. You never go to the Word to explain Christ, because it is Christ who explains to us the Word, the Father and His Word.
John 1:14
And the Word was made flesh,…
God’s communication to man was made flesh. And this word in the flesh is Jesus Christ, the living word.
John 1:14b
…and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory,…
We simply behold his glory. We don’t explain to him, we just behold his glory.
John 1:14c
…the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and [of] truth.
Look at verse 18
John 1:18
No man hath seen God at any [what?] time; the only begotten Son [who is Jesus Christ], [who] is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.
He hath made him known, exēgeomai, he has expounded the Father unto us.
Another way to enjoy the Word is never to explain God’s explanations. If God gives an explanation, don’t try to explain the explanation; just enjoy God’s explanation. I have said consistently you simply receive it as it is written and believe it. Receive it and believe it. The other way I have utilized in some of our classes is the little phrase “either believe it or leave it.” It’s as simple as that. You take God’s explanation, when it says, “in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” that’s what? That’s the explanation. You don’t endeavor to explain God’s explanation. So, people we just accept it, we either believe it or we leave it. You see, Christ is the living word. The written word that I have here before me (and you have), this written word, makes known Christ, that’s why he is the subject. Now, the taught word or the preached word simply makes known the written word. So, to enjoy the Bible you must know the written word. You cannot just know one segment of it here and another segment there; you must just read the Word to get the full impact, the overall picture of what it’s really saying about Jesus Christ who is the subject from Genesis to Revelation. And this written word makes known the living word. So, if I understand the written word then I know the living word. Then when I teach or share with people, I share with them only the written word. That’s why in the Foundational class I think it is set up like the preached word makes known the written word, the written word makes known the living word. That’s right.
Now, the ending of the Word of God indicates how the beginning all worked out. It’s all tied together, the Bible is, from Genesis to Revelation. And Revelation is simply a complement; I think grammatically that’s a good word. It’s complementary to Genesis,
not supplementary, complementary. So, everything that was started in Genesis is completed in the book of Revelation. And you know how I show you this in the Foundational class that with the death of the king, the kingdom is held in abeyance until his return. And then finally in the book of Revelation everything which is promised in the Old Testament, and of course I put the gospels there, everything that culminates there in the gospels, all of that is completed in the book of Revelation; not one jot or tittle is omitted. So to enjoy the Bible you have to get the overall picture of it. And class there is no way to get that picture except to study. And to study does not just mean to take one little word and work it down; it means to study the whole thing. Read it to enjoy it and after you read it you get the picture in your mind of what that whole word is about.
Now, I think I will show you some of these things from Genesis just to show you how the Bible really works and you can really enjoy it if you just read it. We will get to Genesis 1:1 and we go back to Revelation 20. (So we might as well get our fingers in both places.) For instance Satan’s first rebellion against God, for he tried to usurp the throne of God, is set between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2.
Genesis 1:1
[For] in the beginning God created the [heavens] and the earth.
Then comes verse 2,
Genesis 1:2
And the earth [became]...
So, Satan’s first rebellion is set between those two verses. And if you look at Revelation 20, you will find out his last rebellion is noted in verses 7-9, of chapter 20.
Revelation 20:7-9
And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth,...
And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.
That’s the culmination, that’s the final rebellion and what happened? The doom of Satan is pronounced in Genesis 3:15 where God said:
Genesis 3:15
And I will put enmity [separation] between thee [Satan] and the woman, and between thy seed [the seed of the serpent] and her seed [which according to Galatians is Christ – he is the all-pervading, living reality through the Word.]; it shall bruise thy head [the head of the serpent shall be bruised by Christ], and thou [Satan] shalt bruise his heel [Christ’s heel].
And of course this took place at the time of the crucifixion, we know these things. But there you have this doom that was pronounced and this is accomplished, by the way, in completion, Revelation 20:10.
Revelation 20:10
And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone,
where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
In Genesis 1:1 for instance, God created the heavens and the earth. This is the first heaven and earth. If you’ll look at II Peter 3:6, you have the record of that particular earth and heaven and so forth, that record of [Genesis] 1:1.
II Peter 3:6
Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, [did what?] perished:
Keep your finger here in Peter and just refresh your mind on Genesis 1:2.
Genesis 1:2
And the earth [became] without [what?] form, and void:…
And back in II Peter 3:7 you have the record of that particular heaven and earth. And it says:
II Peter 3:7
But the heavens and the earth, which are now [that’s the one we’re living in].
And in II Peter 3:13.
II Peter 3:13
Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new [what?] heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth [what?] righteousness.
That’s the third heaven and earth which is the complement of Genesis. And in Revelation 21:1 you see its ultimate fulfillment.
Revelation 21:1
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: [for the former – the word “first” is “former” – the former heaven and the former earth] were passed away…
Isn’t that wonderful. And in Genesis 1:10.
Genesis 1:10
And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he [what?] Seas:
And in Revelation 21, the last part of that verse which I just didn’t read a while ago says, what?
Revelation 21:1b
…there was no more sea.
Genesis tells you there was; Revelation tells you the time when there is no more. In Genesis 1:16:
Genesis 1:16
…God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day,…the lesser light to rule the night:…
I’m interested in that word “night” because in Revelation 22:5 it says:
Revelation 22:5
…and there shall be no [what?] night there.
In Genesis you have the night but in Revelation it is all over with. There is no more night. In Genesis 1:16, 17 we read about these two great lights; the greater to rule the day and the lesser to rule the night. And verse 17:
Genesis 1:17
And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,
And in:
Revelation 21:23
And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.
Chapter 22:5 saying:
Revelation 22:5
And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.
You see how the whole Bible ties itself together just so magnificently and so beautifully. In Genesis 3:16:
Genesis 3:16-17
Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow [the word “sorrow” is “labor”] and thy conception; [in labor, not sorrow] in labor thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy [what?] sake; in [labor] shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; [thorns also thistles shall it bring forth, so on]…
If you go to Revelation 21, all of this sickness, all of this sin, all of this sorrow, all of this suffering, all of this death, all of this labor, in Revelation 21:4.
Revelation 21:4
And God shall wipe away all tears from their [what?] eyes; and there shall be no more [what?] death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are [what?] passed away.
Isn’t that wonderful? And in Revelation 22:3.
Revelation 22:3
And there shall be no more [what?] curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it;…
No more curse. In Genesis you have the curse, in Revelation you have it lifted. In Genesis 3:22ff, you have the banishment from paradise, the tree of life.
Genesis 3:22-24
And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good
and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever:
Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden [paradeisos], to till the ground from whence he was taken.
So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.
Now in Revelation 22:2.
Revelation 22:2
In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
There in Revelation people are welcomed back into paradise and back to the right of the usage of the tree of life. It’s just fabulous how you enjoy the Bible, enjoy reading it, and as you read it you get light. The reason that I am able to put lots of this stuff together is because of my overall knowledge of the Word from Genesis to Revelation. So, somebody comes along and they pick out one little item and they dog you with it. Immediately you will know whether that fits with the whole revelation or whether they are just taking it out of context and lifting it up out of the Word. Why? Because you have read the Word to where you have an overall picture and the little picture has to fit into the overall picture. That’s why you get to be real sharp in the understanding of the Word when you begin to enjoy the Bible in just the reading of it. You know in the book of Nehemiah.
Nehemiah 8:5
And Ezra opened [the what?] the book…
Right. He opens the scroll, the book. Well, if we are going to enjoy it we have to do what? Open it. We got to read it for ourselves. And he, of course Ezra being the man of God, the prophet, he opened the book:
Nehemiah 8:5b
…in the sight of all the people; (for he was above all the people;)…
That means he was up on his stand like this and he opened it and all the people could see that he opened the book.
Nehemiah 8:5c
…and when he opened it, all the people [did what?] stood up:
Doesn’t that tie in beautifully now, with Jesus’ ministry and Nazarus of Galilee? Where it says in Luke when they brought to him the scroll of Isaiah and he found the place where it was written and when he read the scroll they all what? Stood up. And when he began to teach he sat down; and he sat down and taught them. You see, you’re overall enjoyment of the Word makes it possible for you to know that when they read the Word they stood up, when they taught the Word they sat down. This is an oriental custom.
The mannerism of the Word, the Bible is an oriental book. And this morning in your hours of power, you’re going to be talking about some of those Orientalisms I believe. I
have a copy of the whole outline for all of the leaders of the hour of power and she [Mrs. Wierwille] just worked days on getting that thing tied together and it’s fabulous. It’s the most comprehensive thing I’ve seen for a week’s work in how to enjoy the Word is right in that hour of power. And you’re going to be on Orientalisms, I think you are going to be hitting that scripture that I hit last night where you ate the Word. And enjoyed it because there is a way of eating the Word that it sours in your stomach. That’s an orientalism. In other words, a man can put it here and wrongly divide it and what happens? It sours on him. I think all of these things will be coming up.
That is why you get the overall picture and you keep looking for it, because like Genesis now is back to the complement of it, is back to Revelation. But when you get to Luke, for instance, and you read about Jesus standing up to read the Word and sitting down to teach, you will have had to have read Nehemiah to get the whole picture of it. See it? That’s how I enjoy the Bible. It’s just a living book for me. It’s just right down where man lives.
Now, when I get in to those long genealogies I don’t enjoy them too much. I got trouble pronouncing most of them but there is the red thread there and genealogy is very important. The old Sanskrit word is the gothram. Abraham came back and he paid tithes to Melchizedek wasn’t it? And he said the King of Salem who had no beginning and no what? {End.} You know what people, they have a real problem with that because they happen to think, well Dr. V.P. Wierwille had a beginning and he had an ending, coming. But the King of Salem had no beginning or no ending so who did he pay tithes to? They don’t understand the whole Word. To have no beginning and no ending is to lose track of your family tree. He lost the one thing, the one thing, that to most people is real terrific, that was gone; he had no beginning and no ending. They didn’t know where he really came from. Oh they could trace his dad and mother, or grandmother and grandfather then somehow the whole thing got lost. And it’s a remarkable thing while this thing is flipping up in my mind I might as well teach it to you. That it’s tremendous to me that Abraham paid tithes to him who had no family tree, who couldn’t trace it. Which means that God must have elevated that man in his believing to make him so tremendous that Abraham had to pay tithes to him, no matter what he had a family tree or not. And people think of what that message would mean in our day and time where there are many kids born who don’t even know their dads. And then they have no family tree because moms had sixteen thousand-eleven kids by seventeen thousand different men and so there is just no family tree left. The message in the Word to them, that type of message would really help some of our people across the country. Because God doesn’t really look upon your family tree, he looks upon the heart as to what you are. You see, that’s the greatness of it, but when you read the names of those people through there, like in Genesis and these other places. They are there for a purpose, to show you that great red thread, the great gothram, that line, that all pervading Christ all the way through. That’s how I enjoy the Bible. And when I read it to enjoy it then I get all of this information because I just lodge it up here and retain it and when finally, here is another explanation of it further on in the Word and then another one, I just remember all of those things and then I tie them all together. And that’s why the Bible is a real joy and rejoicing of my heart.
Now better get back here. The only one who is number one and has a right to be number one is God. Everything else comes far below. I don’t even know if it starts with five or six yet.
Nehemiah 8:6
And Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God. And all the people answered, Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands:…
And here is where the Pentecostals and Assemblies many times get their lifting up of holy hands. Well bless God we love them.
Nehemiah 8:6b, 7b, 8
…And they bowed their heads, and worshipped the LORD with their faces to the ground.
…[verse 7] and the Levites, caused the people to understand the law: and the people stood in their place.
So they read in the book [the scroll] in the law of God [they read] distinctly, [clearly].
The how of enjoying the Bible is to learn to read it distinctly and clearly. I think you have noticed in my classes how I just dog you. I just dog people to read what is written. Remember? Throughly. And when you and I read the word to others in public let’s read it distinctly that they can understand it. And after he had read it distinctly, he gave the sense of it. To give the sense of it is to give the overall picture of it, just like I’m doing with you this morning. Like I showed you from Revelation and from Genesis. I’m not dogging you to take the minute details; I’m just giving you the sense of the overall thing to get it to bubble, to effervesce within you. That people again love to read the Word, just love to read it. Give the sense of it. And when you get the sense of it you’ll get the understanding. To understand the reading, isn’t that a beautiful verse? Amen. You see, it’s tying the whole Word together that makes it tremendous. There is one in Genesis I want to show you.
Genesis 10:8, 9
And Cush begat [who?] Nimrod: he [Nimrod] began to be a mighty one in the earth.
He was a mighty hunter before [the what?] the LORD:…
And people think this means that he hunted pheasants, or deer or rabbits; you know, that he took his bow and arrow or sling shot. No, no, no, no. He was a mighty hunter of the sons of men, to get men to believe wrongly. To get men to trip out on the true God, because Nimrod is the one who really dogged the sons of men with his spiritualism and the rest of the baloney he had and took them all away from the LORD. And the reason I know that is because I read the Bible, and I’ve enjoyed the reading of it, and understanding comes as you get the sense of the Word. Well, he was a mighty hunter of the sons of men before the LORD. And then you get down to verse 24.
Genesis 10:24
And Arphaxad begat Salah; and Salah begat Eber.
And the word “Eber” is the word “Hebrew.” That was his name, Hebrew. And the word “Hebrew” simply means crossed over.
Genesis 10:25
And unto [Hebrew] were born two sons: the name of one was Peleg;…
And the word “Peleg” means divided.
That’s how you just read the Word to get the sense of it. And as you get the sense of it, you get the understanding; and as you get the understanding, you enjoy it. How to enjoy the Bible is to read it, to get the sense of it again and as you get the sense of it, you understand it; and as you understand it, you get to enjoy it. Because anything you really understand you can enjoy, right? That’s why we need to read the Word.
[Prayer] Father, thank you for the morning, for the greatness, for the wonderful presence and power and your goodness to us. Amen.