Day 10/21 – Conjecture

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Thoughts from the Diary of a Desperate Man by Walter A Henrichsen (“Walt”)
Conjecture
Day Two Hundred Ninety-four

“One man esteems one day as better than another, while another man esteems all days alike. Let every one be fully convinced in his own mind.” Romans 14:5

Some doctrines considered essential to the Christian Faith are derived by inference. For example, we believe that God is One in Three Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. No passage of which I am aware explicitly says this, but the whole of Scripture implicitly teaches it. Another such teaching is that women are welcome at the Lord’s Table. You find no specific place in the Bible were they are present, but their presence is implied by the fact that Paul gave instruction to the Corinthian church on the Lord’s Table,376 and women were part of the church.

The more you embrace inferred doctrine, or the greater the number of steps necessary to arrive at your conclusion, the greater your chance of becoming unbiblical and consequently alienated from other believers. For example, the Bible commands that the people of Christ be baptized. It gives no express instruction regarding the age necessary to qualify for baptism, or the method, such as sprinkling, pouring, or immersion. Again, Scripture gives assurance that Christ will retum. You may believe that this necessitates the church going through the tribulation, and therefore God’s people should prepare for a time of great upheaval by safely storing large quantities of food. In this instance you infer that believers must face the tribulation and then take an added step of inferring that they must store food. The greater the number of inferential steps, the greater the tendency to error and with it to be isolated from other believers.

You are invited to develop personal convictions based on inference, even elect to fellowship with those who agree with your convictions, but be careful not to make them normative for others. Your personal convictions are not the standards or commandments of others.

376 cf. I Corinthians 11:17-34

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Isaiah 62-64 1 Timothy 1 (New King James Version)

Isaiah 62-64
Assurance of Zion’s Salvation
62
For Zion’s sake I will not [a]hold My peace,
And for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest,
Until her righteousness goes forth as brightness,
And her salvation as a lamp that burns.
2
The Gentiles shall see your righteousness,
And all kings your glory.
You shall be called by a new name,
Which the mouth of the Lord will name.
3
You shall also be a crown of glory
In the hand of the Lord,
And a royal diadem
In the hand of your God.
4
You shall no longer be termed Forsaken,[b]
Nor shall your land any more be termed Desolate;[c]
But you shall be called [d]Hephzibah, and your land [e]Beulah;
For the Lord delights in you,
And your land shall be married.
5
For as a young man marries a virgin,
So shall your sons marry you;
And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride,
So shall your God rejoice over you.
6
I have set watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem;
They shall [f]never hold their peace day or night.
You who [g]make mention of the Lord, do not keep silent,
7
And give Him no rest till He establishes
And till He makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.
8
The Lord has sworn by His right hand
And by the arm of His strength:
“Surely I will no longer give your grain
As food for your enemies;
And the sons of the foreigner shall not drink your new wine,
For which you have labored.
9
But those who have gathered it shall eat it,
And praise the Lord;
Those who have brought it together shall drink it in My holy courts.”
10
Go through,
Go through the gates!
Prepare the way for the people;
Build up,
Build up the highway!
Take out the stones,
Lift up a banner for the peoples!
11
Indeed the Lord has proclaimed
To the end of the world:
“Say to the daughter of Zion,
‘Surely your salvation is coming;
Behold, His reward is with Him,
And His [h]work before Him.’ ”
12
And they shall call them The Holy People,
The Redeemed of the Lord;
And you shall be called Sought Out,
A City Not Forsaken.
The Lord in Judgment and Salvation
63
Who is this who comes from Edom,
With dyed garments from Bozrah,
This One who is [i]glorious in His apparel,
Traveling in the greatness of His strength?—
“I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save.”
2
Why is Your apparel red,
And Your garments like one who treads in the winepress?
3
“I have trodden the winepress alone,
And from the peoples no one was with Me.
For I have trodden them in My anger,
And trampled them in My fury;
Their blood is sprinkled upon My garments,
And I have stained all My robes.
4
For the day of vengeance is in My heart,
And the year of My redeemed has come.
5
I looked, but there was no one to help,
And I wondered
That there was no one to uphold;
Therefore My own arm brought salvation for Me;
And My own fury, it sustained Me.
6
I have trodden down the peoples in My anger,
Made them drunk in My fury,
And brought down their strength to the earth.”
God’s Mercy Remembered
7
I will mention the lovingkindnesses of the Lord
And the praises of the Lord,
According to all that the Lord has bestowed on us,
And the great goodness toward the house of Israel,
Which He has bestowed on them according to His mercies,
According to the multitude of His lovingkindnesses.
8
For He said, “Surely they are My people,
Children who will not lie.”
So He became their Savior.
9
In all their affliction He was [j]afflicted,
And the Angel of His Presence saved them;
In His love and in His pity He redeemed them;
And He bore them and carried them
All the days of old.
10
But they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit;
So He turned Himself against them as an enemy,
And He fought against them.
11
Then he remembered the days of old,
Moses and his people, saying:
“Where is He who brought them up out of the sea
With the [k]shepherd of His flock?
Where is He who put His Holy Spirit within them,
12
Who led them by the right hand of Moses,
With His glorious arm,
Dividing the water before them
To make for Himself an everlasting name,
13
Who led them through the deep,
As a horse in the wilderness,
That they might not stumble?”
14
As a beast goes down into the valley,
And the Spirit of the Lord causes him to rest,
So You lead Your people,
To make Yourself a glorious name.
A Prayer of Penitence
15
Look down from heaven,
And see from Your habitation, holy and glorious.
Where are Your zeal and Your strength,
The yearning of Your heart and Your mercies toward me?
Are they restrained?
16
Doubtless You are our Father,
Though Abraham was ignorant of us,
And Israel does not acknowledge us.
You, O Lord, are our Father;
Our Redeemer from Everlasting is Your name.
17
O Lord, why have You made us stray from Your ways,
And hardened our heart from Your fear?
Return for Your servants’ sake,
The tribes of Your inheritance.
18
Your holy people have possessed it but a little while;
Our adversaries have trodden down Your sanctuary.
19
We have become like those of old, over whom You never ruled,
Those who were never called by Your name.
A Prayer for Help
64
Oh, that You would [l]rend the heavens!
That You would come down!
That the mountains might shake at Your presence—
2
As fire burns brushwood,
As fire causes water to boil—
To make Your name known to Your adversaries,
That the nations may tremble at Your presence!
3
When You did awesome things for which we did not look,
You came down,
The mountains shook at Your presence.
4
For since the beginning of the world
Men have not heard nor perceived by the ear,
Nor has the eye seen any God besides You,
Who acts for the one who waits for Him.
5
You meet him who rejoices and does righteousness,
Who remembers You in Your ways.
You are indeed angry, for we have sinned—
In these ways we continue;
And we need to be saved.
6
But we are all like an unclean thing,
And all our righteousnesses are like [m]filthy rags;
We all fade as a leaf,
And our iniquities, like the wind,
Have taken us away.
7
And there is no one who calls on Your name,
Who stirs himself up to take hold of You;
For You have hidden Your face from us,
And have [n]consumed us because of our iniquities.
8
But now, O Lord,
You are our Father;
We are the clay, and You our potter;
And all we are the work of Your hand.
9
Do not be furious, O Lord,
Nor remember iniquity forever;
Indeed, please look—we all are Your people!
10
Your holy cities are a wilderness,
Zion is a wilderness,
Jerusalem a desolation.
11
Our holy and beautiful [o]temple,
Where our fathers praised You,
Is burned up with fire;
And all our pleasant things [p]are laid waste.
12
Will You restrain Yourself because of these things, O Lord?
Will You [q]hold Your peace, and afflict us very severely?
Footnotes:
• Isaiah 62:1 keep silent
• Isaiah 62:4 Heb. Azubah
• Isaiah 62:4 Heb. Shemamah
• Isaiah 62:4 Lit. My Delight Is in Her
• Isaiah 62:4 Lit. Married
• Isaiah 62:6 not be silent
• Isaiah 62:6 remember
• Isaiah 62:11 recompense
• Isaiah 63:1 Or adorned
• Isaiah 63:9 Kt., LXX, Syr. not afflicted
• Isaiah 63:11 MT, Vg. shepherds
• Isaiah 64:1 tear open
• Isaiah 64:6 Lit. a filthy garment
• Isaiah 64:7 Lit. caused us to melt
• Isaiah 64:11 Lit. house
• Isaiah 64:11 have become a ruin
• Isaiah 64:12 keep silent

1 Timothy 1
Greeting
1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our Savior and the Lord Jesus Christ, our hope,
2 To Timothy, a true son in the faith:
Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.
No Other Doctrine
3 As I urged you when I went into Macedonia—remain in Ephesus that you may [a]charge some that they teach no other doctrine, 4 nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is in faith. 5 Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from [b]sincere faith, 6 from which some, having strayed, have turned aside to idle talk, 7 desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm.
8 But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, 9 knowing this: that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, 10 for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if there is any other thing that is [c]contrary to sound doctrine, 11 according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust.
Glory to God for His Grace
12 And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry, 13 although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an [d]insolent man; but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. 14 And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant, with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. 15 This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. 16 However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life. 17 Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to [e]God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
Fight the Good Fight
18 This [f]charge I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, 19 having faith and a good conscience, which some having rejected, concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck, 20 of whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I delivered to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.
Footnotes:
• 1 Timothy 1:3 command
• 1 Timothy 1:5 Lit. unhypocritical
• 1 Timothy 1:10 opposed
• 1 Timothy 1:13 violently arrogant
• 1 Timothy 1:17 NU the only God,
• 1 Timothy 1:18 command