Reading the Bible Without the Prophet

EDGAR FRANCO

Translated by Deborah Buffone

I was studying Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians in the Bible today. How beautiful and wonderful it is to see the transformation of Paul, who was a hard and focused persecutor of Christians, who became—through Jesus—a consecrated prophet, sealed by the Holy Spirit through the grace of Christ.

If we understood the real importance of Jesus for our lives and for the present and future world, we would be completely overwhelmed by his power. Free yourselves from human interpretations of faith; they separate us from the love and power of Jesus. He is the only one!

Study the Bible and you will see for yourself what I, Edgar, also have come to see.

When we stop looking, listening, and reading the human teachings from so-called prophets and their fables, the Spirit of God that Jesus left us after his death will clear all our doubts we may have about the Bible—the word of God. 

Ask, cry, pray, and your eyes will be opened; the words of our triune God will be as sweet and clear as daylight.

I know you may be thinking, “But I read, and I don’t understand!” 

I went through this frustration as well.

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The miracle of understanding for my wife and me only occurred when we looked at Jesus and His sacrifice and put aside extra-biblical interpretations.

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The miracle of understanding for my wife and me only occurred when we looked at Jesus and His sacrifice and put aside extra-biblical interpretations. In other words, we turned away from being guided and led by the teachings of humans that do not align with the gospel. The gospel as the Bible explains it is truth. All else is error.

As we went through this process of turning away from the human prophetic interpretations we knew, the Spirit of God clarified our doubts by helping us read and study the Bible without the interference of those unbiblical ideas.

Try it! The Lord knows what you need and hears the longing of your heart. The least that can happen is that you free yourself from blindness, that you wake up and hear the words of love the Father speaks by His Son through the Spirit’s inspiration in the Bible only.

I assure you, this miracle happens. Believe me, trusting God alone—without the lens of a prophet— brings a peace that there are no words to describe. The Lord gives us such a certainty of knowing that He is speaking to us through the Bible. Today I understand the peace that the prophets felt when writing of the gospel; it is unutterably beautiful and pleasant.

Believe, believe; God does not lie nor trick us. Pray and ask Him to reveal Himself to you.

May God be with everyone.

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the holy and faithful brothers in Christ who are at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, for we have heard about your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, which you heard about in the word of truth, the gospel that came to you. Throughout the whole world this gospel is fruitful and growing, as it has also been among you since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in all its truth.

You learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow worker, a faithful minister of Christ to us, who also told us about the love you have in the Spirit. For this reason, since the day we heard it, we have not ceased to pray for you and ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of the will of God, with all wisdom and spiritual understanding. 

And this so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may in everything please him, being fruitful in every good work, increasing in the knowledge of God and being strengthened with all might, according to the might of his glory, that they may have all perseverance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has made us worthy to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.

For he has redeemed us from the dominion of darkness and transported us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, namely, the forgiveness of sins.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, for in him were all things created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions, powers or authorities;  all things were created by him and for him.

He is before all things, and in him everything subsists.

He is the head of the body, which is the church;  he is the beginning and the firstborn from the dead, that he might have the supremacy in everything.

For it pleased God that all fullness should dwell in him, and through him reconcile all things to himself, both on earth and in heaven, making peace through his blood shed on the cross.

Before, you were separated from God, and in your minds you were enemies because of your wrongdoing. 

But now he has reconciled them through the physical body of Christ, through death, to present them before him holy, blameless, and free from all accusation, provided that you continue to be founded and steadfast in the faith, without departing from the hope of the gospel, which you have heard and which has been proclaimed to all who are under heaven.  This is the gospel of which I, Paul, became a minister.

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I complete in my body what is left of the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of his body, which is the church.

I became a minister of her in accordance with the responsibility assigned to me by God to fully present the word of God to them, the mystery which has been hidden for ages and generations, but which has now been made manifest to his saints.

God wanted to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. We proclaim it, admonishing and teaching each one with all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ.

For this I strive, fighting according to his strength, which works mightily in me (Col. 1:1–29).

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Edgar Franco is a civil engineering student and currently resides in the region of Sorocaba SP Brazil with his wife Tatiane Franco de Jesus and their daughter Emily Franco de Jesus. They stopped attending their Adventist church from the day they had their eyes opened and had the genuine experience of living by the Spirit of God and His word. “Since then,” Edgar writes, “we have felt a strong call to dedicate ourselves to writing devotionals to bring people to Christ and to lead them to understand the true gospel.”