Romans 1 vs 19 - 32 - Detailed Study - 4
Publication Date: 1973
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.
Romans 1:19-32
Lesson 4
Detailed Study
In the first chapter of Romans, it is interesting here in the first chapter (I want to go
back and pick this up), that in verse 19 and 20 you have God’s power being made known.
Romans 1:19, 20:
Because that which may be known of God is [manifested] in them; for God
shewed it unto them.
For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen,
being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead;
so they are without excuse:
You see, in this word Godhead, I explained that to you once didn’t I? It means head
God. Every theologian says it means the trinity. Godhead, you know God the Father, God
the Son, God the Holy Ghost. No, it just means head God. God head – head God, head God,
that’s all, that’s all it means.
Now, in verse 21, you have the glory of God rejected. See? This Godhead, the glory,
the Godhead, the power. And this is the rejection:
Romans 1:21:
Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were
thankful; but became vain in their [reasonings]...
What threw them off? Reasonings, the senses, understand? The senses. They
discontinued glorifying God; they rejected the head God because of their reasonings.
Understand it? It always happens that way; you don’t even have to think about it twice.
Whenever man starts putting his reasonings together it will always contradict what the
truth of God’s Word says. [It will] always belittle God, always tear Him down, always
bring Him down, see? There’s a tremendous article in the West Chester newspaper, the
Guide. I was sent a copy, about the Way Ministry, real tremendous as far as I am concerned.
Beautiful error in it, beautiful truth, mixed together. In his opinion if the reader reads it and
they read it as truth, well he has error and truth mixed together, really something. It says in
there that I’m a millionaire several times over. So, he’s right spiritually. He has done all
right if he’s used it as a figure of speech metonymy. He’s absolutely right. But I’m sure he
didn’t use it in that sense. You see, man’s reasonings. And the Adversary is always after
belittling you if you hold forth the Word. He’ll always tear you down. Because, if he can
tear you down, he’s getting rid of the Word right? Because God is spirit, He lives only in
you; you have the knowledge of the Word and if people don’t trust you, they’re never
going to hear that Word. It’s a real trick, reasonings. That’s what makes men vain in their
imaginations, their reasonings. Every man gets so smart he thinks he’s God or something.
And when this occurs, “their foolish,” you see it’s foolishness:
Romans 1:21 (continued):
...and their foolish heart was darkened.
Yet every man believes he is right in his own eyes. These men absolutely believed
they were right. It’s like we teach in the Foundational Class, sincerity is no guarantee for
what? {Truth.}
Now verse 22 gives you in consequence, exactly what happened:
Romans 1:22:
Professing themselves to be wise, they became [what?] fools,
Fools, right. And a fool is one who is mentally corrupted. That’s a fool.
Romans 1:23:
...changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into [a what?] an image made like to
corruptible man,...to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
That’s why the glory of God is always degraded. Whenever man puts himself to it, see?
Always degraded.
I answered a letter today, from an MD. I originally answered it a couple of weeks ago.
A request that she sent in here from Detroit, or from Cleveland area rather. She did her
internship in psychiatry or psychology at some medical hospital in California, but she’s
from Cleveland. During that period of time, when she graduated from medical school and
went into the internship, she became very interested in Yoga and one other thing, I forget
what it was. And these friends in the medical profession that she was running with in the
field invited her to a tarot card party and a Ouija board party and séances. And after
attending these for a number of times she wrote and said that she felt this power coming on
here. And at first it was a beautiful experience of the power, she could feel the power
coming within her. “But then,” she said, “I became depressed, full of fear, then I became
nervous” and then she made a drawing on my letter on how when this comes over her, how
nervous she gets. “But,” she said, “before I left California some lady told me, gave me
your name and said perhaps you would be able to help me.” I don’t know who the lady is,
I’ve never met her, I don’t know even the doctor that wrote me or who the lady in
California is. But as I was looking today at Romans again, you see, people get vain in their
reasonings. They make themselves images, you see, the images there they made were like
corruptible man to birds, this kind of stuff. But you can make an image in your mind
without having something like this to look at, you know. When it comes to idols that are
carved and that are put up, every idol (every idol that is put up), it isn’t the idol; it’s the
spirit behind it. Every idol has a spirit behind it that man has by his vain reasonings and
foolishness of his own heart brought to pass. See? Then after this occurs the thing that
happens is the body is degraded and God just has to abandon them.
Romans 1:24, 25:
Wherefore God...gave them up [verse 24] to uncleanness through the lusts of their
own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves:
Since they, [verse 25] changed the truth of God into [what?] a lie,
Who changed it? They did it. The people do this. By their reasonings. They change the
truth of God into a lie. You know, people laugh at us, for believing the Bible literally. And
then they laugh twice as hard because they say we believe King James. Well, you just let
them laugh as far as I’m concerned. Why is King James anymore in error than the New
English or the Jerusalem or any of these other translations? It’s man’s mind. That’s all.
When the truth of the matter is, there’s still much more accuracy in the King James then in
any of those other translations, when you really work them. You see, what they’re after is
to change the truth of God into a lie. They want to belittle our ministry and laugh at us so
that other people don’t come and hear. It’s a trick of the adversary. We wrestle not against,
what? {Flesh and blood.}
Don’t you see it? Well, everybody has to believe in something, and everybody believes
in something, right? It’s a law; you’ve got to believe in something. Well, with that same
logic, they ought to give us the privilege to believe in the Word of God as the Will of God,
just by sheer logic. Not criticize but to give us the privilege. You do in other fields of
learning. Why not on the Bible? That’s right. They changed the truth of God into a lie.
They’ll tell you it’s the truth but the Word says it’s a lie, because it doesn’t agree with what
God says, then it has to be a lie. I tell you, we have the easiest walk in the world, really. We
don’t have to argue, we don’t have to fight, all we have to do is study to show ourselves
approved unto him by rightly dividing the Word. That means we put forth every effort we
have to rightly divide it, not handling the Word of God deceitfully. Imagine being in all the
confusion of what this man says, that man says and a thousand others say. I think some of
us have been there, see? Isn’t it wonderful to come to the place? Even if this was dead
wrong, to come to the place that you have the knowledge of it and the conviction that it’s
the truth, even if it was dead wrong. Because, it gives us that comfort, that joy, that
awareness that life is worth living. If it was dead wrong we still are manifesting he most
positive, the greatest love, the greatest everything. Well, I want to tell you that’s a simple
life. Just imagine being in all the confusions, when he finishes reading that history of
philosophy trip. You see, he’ll see the greatest minds of all time, the world says they’re the
greatest mind, all pitted together and no two agree. That’s right. Well, about the same thing
is true in the theological world, because nobody ever comes back to the integrity of the
Word and let’s that Word speak. They always want to add in, or subtract or multiply or
divide. They change the truth of God then by their reasoning into, what? {Lie.}
Reason is wonderful. Remember what we teach in the Foundational Class? Reason is
to the body what the body is to reason, something like that. Reason at the foot of the
accuracy of God’s Word is fantastic, but reason above God’s Word is real deleterious. [It’s]
real, degrading. But, it takes good reason to put the Word together, right? But if you reason
beyond the Word then you turn the truth of God into a lie. And when they do this they
worship the man, the professor, the teacher, more than they worship the true God. In other
words they say: Well, he’s a brain. You know, that’s Einstein, you know, or that’s Tilley, or
that’s so and so, and so and so. See? No matter how great the reasonings and no matter
how great the truths that are taught, the teaching of those truths have to bring you to the
place of worshiping the Creator, God, because he alone is the One, see? Now, when the
truth of God is degraded, you again have a cause, in verse 26, a consequence.
Romans 1:26:
Because of this God gave them up unto vile affections:
Which I taught you previously, are passions of infamy, vile affections. It’s just not
infamy; it’s infamy with a passion, you know. Real terrific.
Romans 1:26b, 27 (not KJV):
...even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
And likewise the men also...
Seeing this word “also” in here reminds me. Everybody in the Corps has to take their
Bible and every preposition “of” must be marked in your Bible with the Greek word next
to it as to what it is. And you’ll get the best working of this from Bullinger’s preposition
“of” in the concordance. You’ve got to mark your Bibles and understand those prepositions.
I think I talked to the second year Corps about that the other week, didn’t I? Now, I give it
to you as an assignment. You’ve got to learn how to handle those prepositions accurately.
Because if you allow your sense knowledge reason to rule, then you’re going to change the
truth of God into a lie. We don’t want to do that if we can help it. Another word is the word
“also.” We’re going to handle that sometime. Here, it’s at the wrong place – the word
“also.” It isn’t “likewise also.” It isn’t “likewise also [KJV];” it’s “the men also,” see?
Word “also” should follow the noun; it gets the oomph to it. That’s how you can always
determine where it belongs. I think Bullinger did a piece of work on the word “also.” I
don’t know if it’s in the Bible or not, in his Bible.
[Male Student:] Very short description.
Who followed Bullinger at the head of that British?
[Female Student:] Welsh.
Welsh?
[Female Student:] James Welsh.
I think Welsh did the word “also.”
[Female Student:] Bullinger did. He has a little booklet out....We wanted to reprint it....
Yeah, that’s right come [to] think of it, yeah. You ought to mark those too sometime,
all of you. I’ve got mine all marked, that’s why I’m so smart to know the “also” comes
after it. No, it’s a matter of just working it. “And likewise the men also,” he’s talking about
the women and it couldn’t be and likewise also, no. not likewise nothing.
Romans 1:27 (not KJV):
And likewise the men also, [verse 27] leaving the natural use of the woman,
burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is
unseemly, and receiving back in full themselves that retribution of their
wickedness which they had coming, which was meet.
That’s right. You see, that’s where degraded bodily passions and God is just
abandoned. See? Now, verse 28, this is the knowledge of God rejected again.
Romans 1:28a (not KJV):
Even as they did not acknowledge God in knowledge, God gave them up to a
reprobate mind,...
A mind that’s sick, you know, a mind that just could not rightly make a decision.
Romans 1:28b-31 (not KJV):
...to do those things which are not convenient, [which are not proper, which are
not in order;]
Being filled with all [what?] unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness,
maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, mischief; whisperers,
Backbiters, haters of God, insolent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things,
disobedient to parents,
Without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, unsociable,
unmerciful, pitiless:
A wonderful description of men outside of God with great reasoning ability. Where
they’ve put reason above. See the real consequence of all of this rejection? Here:
Romans 1:32 (not KJV):
Who knowing the righteous sentence of God, that they which practice such things
are worthy of death, not only do the same, but consent, heartily agree [with those
that do this kind of stuff.]
And therefore, God says they are without excuse [Romans 2:1]. And you see, running
through this, this evening according to the outline I gave you previously, ought to set this
thing a little deeper in our head and hearts. They’ll always be after you sooner or later to
want to know what’s going to happen to the poor Africans, you know. Who haven’t heard
the Word, understand? You don’t mean to tell me God’s going to send them to Hell, and all
of this kind of stuff. You never have to touch it, you simply stick by the Word and simply
say, well God has different judgments but how about you? This is the Word. See? They’re
always looking for – say man’s reasoning. And man’s reasonings will change the truth of
God in a lie so they’re concerned about Africa so they’re sure that you won’t get concerned
about them when they have to live up to something, it’s a cop out. And we talk about you
know, kids copping out. Never bothers me. Because if the parents hadn’t of copped out the
kids wouldn’t be copping out. The kids have just as much right to cop out as parents. And
it’s a cop out again on the Word. Not retaining the Word.