The Book of Parables

The book of Parables can be found between the book of 2nd Opinions and the book of Hezekiah—in other words, it is non-existent. However, to the one who does not properly study his Bible, the Bible is somewhere between a blur of misunderstandings and book of random facts, much like this excerpt from the “book of Parables:”

Once upon a time a man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves; and the thorns sprung up and choked him. And there arose a great storm of wind, so he went and caught three hundred foxes, and there went in two and two into the ark; and he rebuked the wind, and, behold, swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and the wind ceased.

The man went on and met the Queen of Sheba, and she gave that man ten thousand talents of gold and silver, and a hundred changes of raiment; and he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, got in his chariot and drove furiously. And when he was driving under a sycamore tree, his hair caught in a limb and he was left hanging there. And he hung there many days and nights, and ravens brought him food to eat and water to drink. And one night while he was hanging there asleep, his wife, Delilah, came along and cut off his hair and he dropped and fell on stony ground. And it began to rain, and it rained forty days and forty nights, so he hid himself in a cave. And he went out and met a man that said, “Come and take supper with me.” But he said, “I cannot come, for I have married a wife.” And the man went out into the highways and byways and compelled him to come in.

The man went on to Jerusalem and saw Queen Jezebel sitting high in a window. When she saw him she laughed, and he said, “Throw her down out of there.” And they threw her down seventy times seven, and of the fragments they picked up twelve baskets full. Now, whose wife will she be in the judgment?

Know your Bible through study. Do not let the words of Hosea describe you: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4:6)

The Gospel of Christ

Paul taught that one must “obey the gospel” in order to be saved in the end (2Thess. 1:7-9), and that the gospel “is the power of God unto salvation” (Rom. 1:16). Paul illustrates that in the fact that “Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day” (1Cor. 15:1-4). Thus, the picture of the gospel that Paul paints is that of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection.

Paul wrote to the Romans, “God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you” (Rom. 6:17). What is that pattern or form that they had obeyed? Paul stated earlier in that same letter to the Romans, “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection: knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin” (Rom. 6:3-6). Thus, the pattern of the gospel that Paul paints is that of ones obedience being likened to Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection.

Paul warned the Galatians of “another gospel” (Galatians 1:6-12). Today some try to pervert the gospel of Christ by teaching “another gospel” of being saved before baptism, being saved without baptism, or even being saved by saying a special prayer. However, the gospel taught by Paul is likened to the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. Kill your sins, bury them in baptism, and be raised as a new man—that is the gospel of Christ!