who's working in us again?

If someone is saved, the Holy Spirit must first work in his heart. It is one of his roles to convince /convict the world, so his actions there do resemble the role of Abraham's servant.

The three persons of the Trinity have specific roles, but sometimes the roles overlap.

Theology should be learned bite by bite, lest you choke. If you download McGee's notes & outlines, you can move slowly through the Bible and pick up answers as you go.

Generally, it's good to write out your questions, keep them in a notebook, and don't worry about them too much. As you go back through them occasionally (not too often!) you'll find that the answers are now clearer than they once were. We grow gradually.

 

The picture of Abraham's servant going back to his people is a picture of the Holy Spirit in the world today finding a bride for the Son, not a picture of salvation.

The servant went back to the family (saved) to find the bride. Rebekah was already a member of the family.

The entire church will not make up the bride.

The Holy Spirit has always been in the world in regard to salvation.

 

I don't know who McGee is but I have never taken this story this way. I shall read up on it UnchartedSpirit. It sounds wrong.

Hello J. Jump.

Could you expand on this please? 'The entire church will not make up the bride.' I view the Church as inclusive of all the saved and all the saved the Church, the Bride of Christ.

john.

 

J. Vernon McGee was a pastor and radio Bible teacher of the old style, immensely popular, with worldwide impact.

 

John most of Christendom thinks that the entire church makes up the bride of Christ, but that just doesn't fit the picture of Scripture that we get in either the OT or NT.

In the New Testament we see the picture of the worthy servant and the unworthy servant. We see a picture of the overcomers and those that are overcome.

In the OT the picture of Abraham, his servant, Isaac, Rebekah and Abraham's family makes this quite clear. Abraham sends his servant back to his family to find a bride for his son. But the entire family didn't become the bride only part of the family.

You can also see this picture in Adam/Eve and Christ/bride. Eve was only a part of Adam's body, just as the bride of Christ will only be a part of His body. The church makes up the body of Christ, but the bride will come out of the body. It will not be the entire body.

That's just a very brief glimpse. If you want to study more indepth just PM me.

 

Of course, if we want to carry that analogy out to its logical conclusion we would see that the "Baptist Brider" viewpoint assumes that Laban's family is a part of what would be pictured as "saved people". Looking further back in the story, it was Abraham who was "called out" from his extended family and told to go to another place. So it would logically be Abraham's group that would picture saved people. If the servant is a picture of the Holy Spirit seeking people, than He would be seeking amongst lost persons to find the Bride.

 

I used to love to listen to McGee. He could really go off on some bizarre tangents. I also don't agree with many things he said, but I learned a lot from his through-the-bible series.