Wkly Bible Study for Dial-Up/Broadband, Apr 8, 2013

Romans 9,10,11. The Doctrine of Emotions

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John 3:14-18 says: "¹⁴ And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, ¹⁵ that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁶ For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. ¹⁷ For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. ¹⁸ He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." NKJV

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STUDY TITLE:

Romans 9,10,11. The Doctrine of Emotions



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Terms & Abbreviations used:

PPOG = Predesigned Plan of God
Human Good = Evil + Good Deeds while not in fellowship with God
OSN = Old Sin Nature
TLJC = The Lord Jesus Christ
SSE = Spiritual Self Esteem
PVTD = Positive Volition Towards Doctrine
+H - The Happiness of God
NVTD = Negative Volition Towards Doctrine
Doctrine = Bible Truth

To look up other “terms”, go to:

Alphabetical Listing

BEGIN BIBLE STUDY
Unless otherwise noted, all scripture quotes and references
are from the NASB – New American Standard Bible

ROM 9:1 “I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit,” When Abraham became a Jew at the moment of his circumcision, he was a mature believer. Abraham had seven sons; the first two are in focus, the eldest son was Ishmael who was a Gentile, and the youngest son was Isaac. So we have Ishmael and Isaac. The line of the Jews goes down through Isaac. Ishmael is Semitic, and Arabic, but he is not Jewish. The Jews are Semitic, but so are all of the Arabs. It is one thing to be Semitic and it’s something else to be Jewish; all Semitic peoples are Gentiles except the Jews. In the next generation we have twins from Rebecca: Esau and Jacob; the line goes through Jacob. So, you now have four races. The three races are Gentiles from Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and the fourth line goes through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the twelve patriarchs. This means that the Jews are a unique race. They were unique in the way they originated; they were unique in the first two thousand years of their history, and they are unique right now in these United States. Much of our blessing in this country has come to us because of our correct attitude toward the Jews. Not simply toleration, but accepting them into the citizenship of this country, and recognizing them for what they are, as far as God’s word is concerned. The U.S. has been a haven for the Jews, they have found a place here, they are treated the way that all Americans are treated with some very bad exceptions called Anti-Semitism, and because of this we have been blessed (GEN 12:1-3).

The racial uniqueness of the Jew goes back to their origin, which we will study in great detail at a future time. When God starts a race, long after the other races are established, and He takes a Gentile (Abraham) and converts him instantaneously into a Jew and starts a new race, there has to be a reason for it, and there is. The most obvious reason is the failure of all three lines of the Gentiles: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. So God starts over, and the race of Israel is absolutely unique. The Jewish race, historically, as well as Biblically, is the only nation that ever endured four hundred years of slavery, and when they broke out, they were not bitter. The Jews recovered in one day, called the day of the Passover; in one day they were converted from slaves to free people. Israel is also unique because of their nation. When God formed the Jewish nation after the exodus, their government was unique; it was a theocracy. They were also a client nation, a priest nation, the first client nation of God in history. A client nation of God is one that guarantees certain freedom, including the opportunity for evangelism, missionary functions, and for Bible doctrine to be learned, which is the freedom to advance to spiritual maturity. In other words, the execution of the PPOG. The United States at the present time is a client nation, and therefore we must be very sensitive to the true principles of freedom, that we might perpetuate a large pivot and preserve our nation.

The principle behind this introduction is to make sure you understand that you (as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ) play an important role as a part of this fantastic plan. Israel is God's earthly chosen people; you are God's heavenly chosen people. 1JO 3:1-3, “See how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.” What marvelous love the Father has extended to us! We're called children of God! That's who we really are, and that's why the world doesn't recognize us or take us seriously, because it has no idea who He is or what He's up to. 1PE 2:9 “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:” Think of it, you are the ones chosen by God, chosen for the high calling of priestly work, chosen to be a holy people, God's instruments to do his work and speak out for Him, to tell others of the difference He has made in your life.

Now the uniqueness of Israel as a nation is that they were the first client nation, therefore they had all of the ingredients, in EXO 19:6 “and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel.” In the nation of Israel they had a specialized priesthood, the Levitical priesthood, the line of Aaron, but in addition to that every Jew was considered a priest under the concept of client nation. This part of the priesthood of the Jew is not generally known, but, You shall be priest to me, the entire nation, simply refers to the fact that they were a client nation. That’s why God could say in HOS 4:6 “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge [the principles of doctrine], I also will reject you from being My priest. Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.”

So the priest concept is the client nation concept. Israel has four nations, which have been priest nations. First is Israel, exodus to the splitting after the death of Solomon. Then we have the northern kingdom, the southern kingdom, and the fourth is Judea. These were all priest nations technically. In 70AD when Judea went out, instead of calling them priest nations, we call them client nations because certain Gentile nations are doing the same thing that the Jewish nations did in past history, roughly Old Testament times up to AD70. The fall of these four nations set aside the priest nation. Their will be no priest nation technically until the millennium (ISA 49:5-8).

Now back in Romans chapter 9 we have in verses 1 through 5 the introduction, the uniqueness of Israel. The formation of the Jewish nation is found in verses 7 through 18. The illustration of the essence of God in verses 19 through 23. The salvation of the Gentiles is in verses 24 through 33. So we begin with verse 1, where we find Paul’s triple oath. He starts out on a very positive note, ROM 9:1 “I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit,” We begin with a present active indicative of the verb lego; here it means to communicate or I communicate. The active voice means that Paul produces the action of the verb as a part of his triple oath. The triple oath indicates Paul’s honor and integrity, which he has indicated in so many ways, but it now also indicates his emotion. Paul is emotionally related to the Jews. When he uses this triple oath, it isn’t accidental, it is to indicate that everything that he has taught in such a magnificent way from his genius, everything that he has expounded in the rest of Romans is nothing compared to his emotional involvement with the subject. So that Romans chapters 9, 10 and 11 are not only elliptical, but because of the grammatical construction necessary to indicate one’s emotions related to the subject, we have some of the more difficult Greek because it involves many unusual idioms, hapax legomenas, phrases and clauses, which are related in a most unusual way. This has led us to take a closer look at: The Doctrine of the Emotions of the Soul. Point 1. Definition and Description.

Emotion is part of the essence of the soul which resides in the brain. LUK 12:19 “And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years {to come;} take your ease, eat, drink {and} be merry [be merry in the soul].” The Bible also says in MAT 22:37 “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul,” The emotions are part of the soul; it is the appreciator of the soul and it responds or reacts to whatever thoughts are in the soul. Normally the emotion is to be dominated by the right lobe of the soul, basically by the mentality. Abnormally the emotion rules the mentality; this is when neurosis and psychosis sets in. Emotion can have a normal or an abnormal function. The emotions of the soul are designed to respond to what is in the mentality of the soul. The other parts of the soul include self-consciousness, volition, and the two frontal lobes, the mind and the heart. Emotion is the female part of the soul and responds to the right lobe or the heart, which is the male part. In fact, category two love, right man, right woman, is taught in the Bible to illustrate the relationship between the emotion and the right lobe (1CO 11:3; 1CO 11:7; 1CO 11:8-12). As the emotion is to respond to the heart, the right woman is to respond to her right man. The right lobe possesses a frame of reference which is designed for thought, the memory center, vocabulary and categorical storage, the conscience, the momentum department, the wisdom department, and the subconscious. The right lobe or the heart reveals what you really are. After all, you are what you think. The right lobe also contains the norms and standards. Inside the right lobe of the soul is everything that should dominate emotion so that emotion can become what it was designed to be by God, an appreciator of things. The heart contains all thought and standards. The emotion contains nothing.

The Greek word for emotions is koilia, and means something that is empty, or hollow. For example koilia is used in LUK 1:39-42; ROM 16:17-18; REV 10:9. The point is that emotion is something empty and a part of you waiting to respond, not react. Emotions contain no doctrine, no thought, common sense, and no ability to reason. If emotion controls the soul you can't think or apply doctrine to life. By definition then, the emotions are the appreciator of the soul. By function, the emotions were designed to respond to the right lobe. Emotion is not designed to assume authority over the soul, but is designed to be dominated by the right lobe. In fact, emotion has no true ability to love. Thus, emotional revolt produces love in areas that are against the Word of God. You can really only enjoy life by operating in your emotions under the control of your proper thoughts. English words used in especially the King James Bible to describe the emotions include: bowels, belly, and reins (GEN 43:30; 1KI 3:26; SOS 5:4; JER 4:19; PHI 1:8). Only in the right lobe, the kardia, exists the frame of reference, memory center, viewpoint, norms and standards, and doctrine. None of these exist in the emotion, which is designed only to respond to these things. However, emotions are stimuli for action, and therefore must be regarded as a form of human energy. Emotional stress, for example, causes people to act on impulse. For example, the emotion of fear, also a sin, causes flight. The emotion of disgust causes repulsion. The emotion of anger causes violence. If how you feel becomes the criteria for your life, you will never be able to execute God's plan as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember that principle that we have noted many times, when our Lord and Savior was fulfilling God's plan for His life He cried out in MAT 27:46 “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” That was not a positive emotional experience. ISA 52:14 Just as many were astonished at you, {My people,} So His appearance was marred more than any man, And His form more than the sons of men. Even those who were antagonistic were shocked by the unique sufferings of Christ; that was not a positive emotional experience. The face of TLJC was literally destroyed, and it was a shocking sight to see His face. He received this disfigurement from the abuse prior to the Cross. His face received disfigurement from His physical suffering but also His spiritual suffering which caused mental pain and showed on His face as well. That was not a positive emotional experience. ISA 53:3 He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face. The word despised is bazah which means to spit out hatred toward Him. That was not a positive emotional experience. TLJC is omniscient and He knew those that were present hated Him. In His humanity, He was a genius and He was also a tender plant meaning very sensitive. Therefore another part of His sufferings was the verbal rejection and hatred. The more He loved, the less He was loved. That was not a positive emotional experience.

ISA 53:4 Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. That was not a positive emotional experience. ISA 53:5 But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities The chastening for our well-being {fell} upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. Every sin was like a point of a spear and stabbed His soul. The punishment which brought us peace was upon Him or rather, laid upon Him. That was not a positive emotional experience. ISA 53:6 All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him. All of our perversity, punishment, and faults fell on Him. ISA 53:7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth. That was not a positive emotional experience. He was completely and totally silent, without complaint. He did not open His mouth, but on the cross He did say some things, and they were not complaints. During that time He was suffering excruciating pain, and He said at least three things in this extreme pain. In LUK 23:34 He uttered “Father forgive them” Under this great pain He asked for forgiveness for those who were giving Him the pain. In LUK 23:43, He gives a promise to the dying thief. In JOH 19:26-27, He made sure that someone would take care of His mother. ISA 53:8 By oppression and judgment He was taken away; And as for His generation, who considered That He was cut off out of the land of the living, For the transgression of my people to whom the stroke {was due?} No one protested or complained about the way He was treated! ISA 53:9 His grave was assigned with wicked men, Yet He was with a rich man in His death, In 600 B.C., Isaiah prophesied that Jesus would be with the thieves and in death with rich men. Two of the richest men in the country were Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathaea (JOH 19:38-42; MAT 27:60). ISA 53:10-12, But the Lord [God the Father] was pleased To crush Him, putting {Him} to grief; If He would render Himself {as} a guilt offering, He will see {His} offspring, He will prolong {His} days, And the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand. As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see {it} and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, And He will divide the booty with the strong; Because He poured out Himself to death, And was numbered with the transgressors; Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, And interceded for the transgressors. That was not a positive emotional experience.

Many believers have become neurotic and psychotic simply because they have intruded into God's plan with a human form of energy called emotion. So, emotion can be normal or abnormal. The purpose of normal emotion is to respond to various things in our soul by way of norms and standards. Emotion can respond to thought, but emotion can also function without thought. When emotion functions without thought, that is abnormal emotional activity; this is called emotional instability. Normal functions of the emotion include pleasure, entertainment, excitement, or appreciation. Emotion is related to human power and influence, but never to Divine power and the mystery doctrine of the Church-age, which is the basis for fulfilling God's will, plan, and purpose. Believers who make emotion the criterion for their spiritual life generally have problems. Such believers make a god out of their emotions. When emotion becomes your god, you're ripe for such things as the tongues movement, the miracles, signs and wonders, and the so-called slain in the Spirit movement. Such a believer's emotional pattern distracts him from the execution of the PPOG (ROM 16:17-18). Therefore, emotion hinders the perception, metabolization, and application of Bible doctrine (2CO 6:11-12). Such a believer's unrestrained or uncontrolled emotional pattern is the basis for criminality, violence, hatred, anger, total involvement in the arrogance complex, which means bitterness, vindictiveness, jealousy, implacability, self-pity, guilt reaction. So there is a very close relationship between the arrogance complex and emotional sin. Such a believer's unrestrained or uncontrolled emotional pattern is related to the great categorical problems of life, especially fear. Under the PPOG for the Church-age, emotions are not adequate guides for motives, thoughts, decisions, and actions of the believer.

Emotions are not tools of cognition nor criteria for life. Therefore, emotions are not designed as problem-solving devices. Therefore, the Church-age believer must learn to distinguish between post-salvation perception, metabolization and application of doctrine as the means of executing God's plan, will, and purpose; and emotional experience, which can be normal in appreciation response in response, or it can be abnormal and not related at all to the Christian way of life. Normal emotional experience results in subordinating the emotion to the intellect. Abnormal emotional experience results in either subordinating the intellect to the emotion, or the emotion bypassing the norms and standards of God's plan for your life. Abnormal emotional experience may express itself in the many areas of pseudo-spirituality, or in ecstatic experience which has absolutely nothing to do with the filling of the Spirit or the no longer applicable gift of tongues. Abnormal emotional experience may also express itself in emotional sins, like hatred, fear, worry, anxiety, and may become the motivation for violence, murder, gossiping, maligning, inordinate ambition, and the inordinate competition of running down other people in order to promote yourself. The sinful activities of anger, hatred, fear, worry, and anxiety promote arrogance, and undermines the momentum of God's plan, purpose, and will for your life (PPOG). Momentum is related to the function of problem-solving devices: Rebound, the filling of the Spirit, the faith-rest drill, grace orientation, doctrinal orientation, personal love for God, impersonal love for all mankind, sharing the happiness of God (+H), a personal sense of destiny, and occupation with the person of Christ.

Here is the application. There is no spiritual activity in emotion. It is a normal or abnormal physiological or psychological activity, but how you feel has nothing to do with your spiritual status. How you feel has nothing to do with any factor in the spiritual life. If you take your emotions and ecstatic experiences and try to force them into God's plan, you have entered into a form of blasphemy. Under some conditions, the use of doctrine in recall or application can cause an emotional response. You are using your thinking to recall, apply, and metabolize a doctrine, and your emotion then responds; that is normal. However when you become involved in the evil which makes emotion the criterion for the spiritual life, as do the Pentecostals and holy rollers, you are grieving and quenching the Holy Spirit. You are not utilizing the power of God. There is no divine power in emotion. The power is in thought, and that thought must be from Bible doctrine.

Remember that certain kinds of emotions are sins, such as anger, rage, fear, anxiety, hatred are emotion; they are irrational, and they are sins. These sinful emotions are abnormal.

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