John Bisset On Being Saved

On Being Saved

I have been asked what this 'being saved' business is all about. It was not something I planned or contrived. I simply came to see that the bible was suddenly hugely more believable once I was taught how to view it dispensationally. The mid-Acts dispensational position has beauty, simplicity and truth. Once I saw it, a major reorganisation of everything I thought I knew about the Bible and God, started rumbling through my brain like a rapidly melting glacier.

Mid-Acts dispensationalism led me to the word of God that is intended for us Gentiles in this era - the preaching of Christ according to the revelation of the mystery, given only to the apostle Paul, sent specifically to us Gentiles by the risen, glorified Christ. The moment I heard and believed the gospel of my salvation I was saved by the grace of God. I am still learning about my new position but the most immediate and noticeable change was a sense of totally undeserved righteousness. I have been saved from a most deserved trip to hell and can look forward to a future in heavenly places.

RIGHTLY DIVIDING ISRAEL AND THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH (September 2008)
After a couple of earlier attempts at this I got the idea that the clearest way to understand the conundrum was to use the model of a corporate restructuring. The owners of ISRAEL Ltd. decided to temporarily shut it down and establish a new multinational corporation, CHRISTIANS Ltd., with its head office in heaven. Only a small remnant of the employees of ISRAEL Ltd. found employment in the new multinational. (This is a stand-alone version of chapter 11 of "Salvation for the Belief-Challenged")

Rightly dividing Israel and the Christian Church (PDF format - Adobe Reader or Acrobat required)
Rightly dividing Israel and the Christian Church (HTML format - view in your browser)

WHY NO SIGNS AND WONDERS? (August 2008)
This is a short study which reflects my current understanding of the absence of signs and wonders. The scriptures that declared what Christians would be able to do once the Lord had ascended to the Father were a major cause of my disappointment and unbelief in Christianity. (See Mark 16:17-18 and John 14:12)

If Israel as a nation had recieved the Holy Ghost after the Lord's ascension then Mark 16:17-18 and John 14:12 would have come to pass. Believers would be walking on water and keeping dangerous snakes as pets.

Because Israel rejected the Holy Ghost, the risen and glorified Lord put the whole prophetic program on hold and instead introduced his mystery dispensation of grace. The signs of Mark 16 persisted among believers in some measure for as long as the Lord (through Paul) persisted in trying to persuade Israel to come on board.

Why no signs and wonders? (PDF format - Adobe Reader or Acrobat required)
Why no signs and wonders? (HTML format - view in your browser)

WHY PAUL, NOT PETER, IS OUR APOSTLE (Major rewrite July 2008)
In answer to an email regarding the requirement or not of water baptism, I found it helpful to first establish from scripture that Paul is our apostle, not Peter. The scriptural thread of my case can be read at one of the links below. This a major rewrite of my first effort in November 2007.

Why Paul, not Peter, is our apostle (PDF format - Adobe Reader or Acrobat required)
Why Paul, not Peter, is our apostle (HTML format - view in your browser)

SALVATION FOR THE BELIEF-CHALLENGED (Major rewrite June 2008)
This is a major rewrite of my first effort to expound my salvation understanding in December 2006. It is a much longer work with actual Bible quotations rather than references. I am still a relative novice in my Bible knowledge and would greatly appreciate it if you could contact me regarding any errors you detect. There are areas of both mystery and prophecy that I still don't fully understand and I have tried to avoid 'wresting things I don't understand to my own destruction (2 Peter 3:16)'

Salvation for the Belief-Challenged (PDF format - Adobe Reader or Acrobat required)
Salvation for the Belief-Challenged (HTML format - view in your browser)

PAUL AND THE RESURRECTED, ASCENDED, GLORIFIED LORD JESUS CHRIST (May 2008)
Unbelieving Israel persecuted our Apostle Paul throughout his ministry. And who is it that will always attack today's grace believers with the old refrain - "You worship Paul but we worship Christ"? It is those who think they are Israel or spiritual Israel or have replaced Israel. They have replaced Israel all right - unbelieving Israel - as chief persecutors of Christ's body.

This short study connects the lack of belief in the resurrection and the subsequent lack of interest in what Paul had to say - with a lack of salvation.

Paul and the Resurrected, Ascended, Glorified Lord Jesus Christ (PDF format - Adobe Reader or Acrobat required)
Paul and the Resurrected, Ascended, Glorified Lord Jesus Christ (HTML format - view in your browser)

IGNORANCE IS THE ICE ON WHICH THE UNSAVED SKATE (May 2008)
I have been pondering an analogy to describe how I 'accidentally' got saved. This one works in the sense that once our ignorance is eroded we are in serious 'danger' of being saved. It is unfortunate that it places the realm of spiritual light below that of darkness. Maybe I'll come up with a better analogy later on. :-)

Ignorance is the ice on which the unsaved skate (PDF format - Adobe Reader or Acrobat required)
Ignorance is the ice on which the unsaved skate (HTML format - view in your browser)