The First Principles of the Oracles of God

This book is not a second Bible. Holy Scripture is the authority. What follows opens the first principles of the oracles of God, unto maturity.

The cover of this volume may say Truth · Knowledge · Maturity. That line belongs to this book. The house that holds the book is Aletheia: Truth · Identity · Dominion. Do not confuse the two.

The full treatment of this written authority is the standalone book One Source of Truth: The Doctrine of the Graphē. This chapter remains the school opening into the six first principles. It does not invent a seventh course. It does not replace Holy Writ as the written authority.

A student at three hours a week must have something to sit with. An intensive student uses the same text with longer writing. The doctrine does not change with the clock.

I. THE GRAPHĒ

A. The design of God

Over the ages the design of God for a Christian experience — following the teachings, or manifesting the qualities or spirit, of Jesus Christ — has rested in conformity with the unleavened sincerity and truth of the graphē: Holy Writ, the Bible, Scripture.

This school calls that experience naturalistic. The word is not a concession to nature-worship. It names an experience that follows the teachings of Jesus Christ, or manifests His qualities or His spirit, and does so in conformity with the graphē. The experience pillows in the writing. It does not invent a likeness and then hunt a verse to bless the likeness.

Graphē is Holy Writ: the Bible, Scripture. It is writings or sayings of unchallenged, unquestionable authority. That is the term. Keep it there. Do not turn it into a theory of inspiration you were not asked to invent.

B. John 10:34-36 with Psalm 82:6

The Lord Jesus answered a charge of blasphemy by appeal to that which was written. He would not let men set His word against the writing.

John 10:34 — “Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?”

John 10:35 — “If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken;”

John 10:36 — “Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?”

The writing He cited is Psalm 82:6 — “I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High.”

Who speaks in John 10? The Lord Jesus. To whom? Jews who had taken up stones because He said, I and my Father are one. Why? Because they charged blasphemy, and He answered from the writing they already owned as law.

Hold the cluster. He does not argue from mood. He does not argue from a private voice. He argues from what is written. He names the persons in the psalm as those unto whom the word of God came. Then He sets the rule that governs this school: the scripture cannot be broken.

Psalm 82:7 remains in the psalm: “But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.” Chapter 3 will open image and likeness with that verse still in the file. Here the point is narrower. The Lord treats the writing as unbreakable even when men use it against Him. If He will not break it, you will not be asked to break it to make a convenient Christian experience.

C. The imprimatur

Holy Writ is writings or sayings of unchallenged, unquestionable authority. That imprimatur governs persons, organizations, governments, and nations.

Imprimatur is not a church stamp on a dust jacket. It is the authority of the writing itself. Persons are under it. Organizations that appear Christianized are under it. Governments are under it. Nations are under it. Age does not exempt. Size does not exempt. A meeting that calls itself a school does not exempt.

If you will hear from God in this year, you will hear Him where He has spoken. You will not be asked to invent a more convenient Bible.

D. Ersatz analogical, nonliteral religiousisms

There is another thing that calls itself Christian experience and is not. This teaching names it ersatz analogical, nonliteral religiousisms: a likeness of the faith that will not sit down under the text.

Ersatz: a substitute. Analogical: a likeness, a comparison that will not bear the weight of the thing itself. Nonliteral: a refusal to let the words mean what they say. Religiousisms: the -ism that remains when the graphē is no longer the pillow.

This school will not trade the graphē for that likeness. A man may be sincere in the likeness. Sincerity does not make the likeness the writing. An organization may be old in the likeness. Age does not make the likeness the oracles of God.

The distinction is not “Bible people” versus “unspiritual people.” The distinction is conformity with the unleavened sincerity and truth of the graphē versus a religiousism that uses Bible words as decoration. Unleavened sincerity is not a mood of honesty. It is the refusal to mix the writing with a substitute and call the mixture experience.

E. Principle, reasoning, application, charge

Principle: the Christian experience this school will teach pillows in the graphē. The writing cannot be broken. The imprimatur governs you.

Reasoning: if the Lord answers a charge of blasphemy from the writing, you do not rise above the writing to answer a charge of dullness. If the writing governs nations, it governs your week. If a likeness will not sit down under the text, it is not the experience this school names.

Application: you will read this year with the text open. You will not treat a slogan, a house line, or a cover line as if it were Scripture. You will not treat this textbook as a second Bible. When a verse is taught, you will have the verse.

Charge: write one page. Where have you treated a likeness of the faith as if it were the graphē? Name the likeness. Name the verse you used to bless it. Then name the verse you will continue in this week, written in full, and say what it says — not what you wish it said.

II. THE WRITTEN AUTHORITY

A. The graphē is the appointed written authority

The graphē — Holy Writ, the Bible, Scripture — is the appointed written authority for hearing from God and for spiritual growth. It is first in order because God has bound His speaking to the writing He gave. It is not a conference, not a brand, not this handbook, and not this course.

Over the ages the design of God for a naturalistic Christian experience has pillowed in conformity with the unleavened sincerity and truth of that writing. If you will hear, you hear where He has spoken. If you will grow, you grow under that writing — first principles, then maturity.

B. The essential cornerstone

This book opens the essential cornerstone of Christianity: the first principles of the oracles of God. It opens the foundation; it does not take the place of the graphē.

Hebrews 5:12 — “For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.”

The verse will be opened in section III. The first principles of the oracles of God are the cornerstone. A cornerstone is not an ornament. It is what the house is set on. If it is not laid, the house is not the house the writer of Hebrews is building.

Oracles of God are not private impressions. They are the speaking of God already bound in the graphē, and the first principles of that speaking are named in Hebrews 6:1-2. This chapter is the gate into those six. It is not itself a seventh.

C. Two movements, not one slogan

Under the written authority, growth is two movements, not one slogan:

1. First principles.

2. Maturity — perfection.

You do not skip the foundation to appear mature. You do not relaid the foundation every year as a lifestyle and call that growth.

Hebrews 6:1 — “Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,”

Leaving them does not mean forgetting them. It means they are laid, and you go on. A man who has never laid them is not “leaving” them. He is skipping them. A man who lays them every year as a habit of indecision is not going on. He is relaying what ought already to bear weight.

Perfection is maturity: the second movement. It is not a claim that you have finished God. It is the writer’s word for going on once the foundation is down. Hebrews 6:3 will bind that going-on to permission. Do not treat maturity as a human schedule you can force.

D. Hearing from God

Hearing from God and spiritual growth are not two religions. You hear where He has spoken — in the graphē. You grow as the first principles are laid and you go on. A people who will not sit under the writing will not hear by inventing a louder room. A people who skip the six will not mature by collecting meat they cannot digest.

This school exists because the oracles have a beginning that must be known, distinguished, reasoned, and taught. The year is fifty-two weeks. Course 1 occupies the first nine. The remaining courses occupy the rest, in the order Hebrews names the stones. You will not be given a seventh Year-1 course to make the year feel fuller.

E. Charge

Write six lines. What have you called “growth” that was only a relaying of an unlaid foundation? What have you called “maturity” that was a skip? Then write Hebrews 6:1 in your own hand and mark the two verbs: leaving, go on. You cannot do the second honestly until the first has a foundation under it.

III. HEBREWS 5:11–12 — YOU OUGHT TO BE TEACHERS

A. Dull of hearing

Hebrews 5:11 — “Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing.”

Of whom? The writer has been speaking of Melchisedec and of the Son, a priest for ever after that order. He has many things to say. They are hard to be uttered. The hardness is not in the doctrine as if the truth were unclear. The hardness is in the ear.

To whom does he write? A people who have had the word long enough that time itself has become an argument against them. Why? Because they have become dull of hearing, and the meat concerning the Son cannot be given to an ear that will not take it.

Dull of hearing is the first mark of the babe. It will return in section V. Here you must see it as the reason meat is withheld. The writer is not teasing them. He is diagnosing them. A school that withholds meat because the ear is dull is not being cruel. It is being Hebrews.

B. For the time ye ought to be teachers

Mark the time. They had been under the word long enough that they ought to be teachers. Ought is obligation, not compliment. Time had done its part. They had not.

They have need that one teach them again. Again is the wound. The first principles are not new to them as a rumour. They are new to them again because they were not kept. A man can sit under oracles and lose the beginning.

They are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. Become is a direction. A people can recede. Milk is not an insult to a newborn. Milk is an indictment to a man who has had years to grow.

C. Milk and strong meat

Milk is the diet of the babe. Strong meat is the diet of those of full age. The first principles are not a lesser gospel. They are the foundation that makes meat possible.

Do not despise milk as if the six were childish slogans. A newborn must have milk. Do not demand milk as a lifestyle after the time you ought to be a teacher. The same food that saves a child accuses a man who will not grow.

Strong meat is not a different Bible. It is the same graphē taken by senses that have been exercised. Hebrews 5:14 will name those senses. You will not reach 5:14 by skipping 5:12.

If you cannot teach repentance from dead works from the Scriptures, you are not ready to speak as if you were past it. That is not a slight on your zeal. It is the writer’s order. This school will not give you Chapter 7 language to hide an unlaid first stone.

D. Cluster, distinction, principle

Hold 5:11 and 5:12 together. Dull hearing is why the hard things cannot be uttered. Time is why they ought to be teachers. Again is why the first principles must be taught. Become is why a people can need milk after years.

Distinction: milk as kindness to a newborn versus milk as indictment to a man who has had time. First principles as foundation versus first principles as a lesser gospel you outgrow by forgetting.

Principle: there is a time when you ought to be teachers. After that time, need of milk is recession, not humility.

Reasoning: if the fault were in the doctrine, the writer would have less to say. He has many things to say. If the fault were lack of meetings, time would have cured it. Time has already passed. The fault is in the ear and in the failure to keep the beginning.

Application: name the time you have already had. Do not write “a long time.” Write the years, or the seasons, or the books you have already handled. Then ask whether you can teach the first principles, or only repeat their names.

Charge: where are you still a hearer who must be taught the oracles again? Write Hebrews 5:12 in your own hand. Reason “ought,” “again,” and “become.” Do not recite the verse as if recitation were skill.

IV. APEIROS — UNSKILFUL IN THE WORD OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

A. The verse and the term

Hebrews 5:13 — “For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.”

Unskilful is Greek apeiros: inexperienced, that is, ignorant — unskilful. This teaching keeps the word there. The inexperience is not in crowding a meeting. It is in the word of righteousness.

Apeiros is not a personality type. It is not shyness. It is not lack of a platform. It is lack of experience in the word that names righteousness — the writing in which a man is shown what is right before God and what is not. A man may be experienced in rooms and apeiros in that word.

B. Hebrews 5:14 in the same file

Hebrews 5:14 — “But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.”

Hold 5:13 and 5:14. The milk-user is apeiros and a babe. The one of full age has senses exercised by reason of use. Use is not attendance. Use is the labour that trains hearing to discern.

Discern both good and evil. The babe is not merely under-informed. He cannot yet distinguish. That is why unskilfulness produces, in this severity, damnable accepted heresies called doctrines. A people who cannot discern will baptize error and call it teaching.

C. Aridity and tergiversation

This teaching is plain: the absence of reasonability (sound judgment) and the presence of unskilfulness produce aridity and tergiversation among persons, and even among age-old organizations that appear Christianized. What follows is damnable accepted heresies called doctrines.

Reasonability is sound judgment. It is not a polite temperament. It is the capacity to hold the writing and judge. Absence of that judgment, plus apeiros, dries a people. Aridity is not a dry room. It is a people who no longer yield what the oracles planted.

Tergiversation is desertion of a position: turning, shifting, refusing to stay under what was said. A person can do it. An age-old organization that appears Christianized can do it. Appearance is not skill. Years on a signboard are not senses exercised.

What follows that dryness and that turning is not a harmless confusion. This teaching names the fruit: damnable accepted heresies called doctrines. Accepted means the heresy has become the house diet. Called doctrines means the name “doctrine” has been put on what the graphē will not bear. This school will not soften that sentence.

D. The scholarly impetus of the Scripture

That lack of skill is blamed on failure to realize the scholarly impetus of the Scripture and to align accordingly: failure to know the Scriptures, whether in soft copy or hard.

Scholarly impetus is not a degree. It is the push the writing itself gives toward knowing — toward labour in the text. Soft copy or hard copy does not matter if there is no labour. A glowing screen can hide apeiros as easily as a closed book.

The cure is not a louder room. The cure is labour in the word. Section VI will name that labour spoudazō. Do not wait for section VI to begin it. If you cannot name the hour and the text of this week, you are already answering Hebrews 5:13.

E. Distinction, principle, charge

Distinction: skill in the word of righteousness versus performance in a crowded room. Inexperience in the writing versus inexperience in platform. Sound judgment versus accepted heresy called doctrine.

Principle: every one that useth milk is apeiros in the word of righteousness. The inexperience is in the writing. Organizations can be apeiros. The cure is to know the Scriptures and align.

Reasoning: if unskilfulness were lack of activity, busy houses would be mature. This teaching watches age-old organizations dry up. If the copy format were the issue, the hard book would have saved the last century. The issue is failure to know and to align.

Application: what is your actual study labour this week? Name the hour. Name the text. If you cannot name it, you are not yet a workman. You may be a hearer. Hebrews has already told you what a hearer can become after time.

Charge: write Hebrews 5:13-14. Then write six sentences that do not repeat the heading: what apeiros is, what it is not, what aridity looks like in a person, what tergiversation looks like in a house, what “accepted heresies called doctrines” forces you to refuse, and what labour you will put on the word of righteousness before the week ends.

V. NĒPIOS — TWO MARKS OF BABES

A. The term

The same verse names the milk-user a babe: Greek nēpios — implying negation; figuratively a simple-minded person, an immature Christian: babe, child.

This teaching will not let you take “babe” as a term of endearment here. It is a diagnosis. A babe may be sincere and still be apeiros. An organization may be old and still be nēpios. Anyone — person or organization — unskilled in the word of righteousness is a nēpios.

Simple-minded, here, is not an insult to the poor in spirit. It is the mind that has not been exercised to discern. Immature Christian is not “young in years.” It is behind the time you ought to have been a teacher.

B. Two characteristics

Two characteristics of babes:

1. Dull of hearing (Hebrews 5:11).

2. Unskilled in the Word, which is the basis for salvation.

The first mark is the ear. The second is the skill. They are not one mark said twice. A man may hear much and remain unskilled. A man may handle words and remain dull. Hebrews names both.

The Word is the basis for salvation. If you are unskilled there, you are unskilled at the root. This is not a side comment about study habits. Salvation itself sits on that Word. Unskill in the word of righteousness is unskill at the place a man is saved, kept, and grown.

Do not invent a third mark to make the list feel complete. There are two. Dull of hearing. Unskilled in the Word. Hold them until you can name them in your sleep and apply them to a person and to a house without cruelty and without flattery.

C. Babe versus teacher

Hebrews 5:14 has already named the other pole: them that are of full age, who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

The distinction is not teacher as office versus babe as pew. The writer said they ought to be teachers. The obligation is that the first principles can be taught by those who have had time. A man who cannot teach repentance from dead works from the Scriptures is not yet past milk, whatever title he carries.

A babe may love God and still be nēpios. Love does not cancel the diagnosis. An organization may print Bible verses on its walls and still be nēpios. Print does not cancel apeiros.

D. Why this piece was written

This teaching states the aim of the piece: that you may experience productive living, be in control, and experience godliness in all capacities — not by a slogan, but by skill in the word of righteousness.

Productive living is not a prosperity motto. It is a life that yields what the oracles planted. In control is not a technique for managing rooms. It is a man no longer driven by the dullness and the unskill that produce aridity. Godliness in all capacities is not a brand of manners. It is the life the graphē governs in every capacity you actually have — person, house, labour, nation as the imprimatur already named.

You will not reach that aim by collecting quotations. You will not reach it by remaining a babe and calling the remaining humility. You will reach it, if you reach it, by the labour section VI names, under the permission section X names.

E. Charge

Name your dullness of hearing. Name where you are apeiros in the word of righteousness. Do not write a general confession. Write the place. Then write the two marks as you would teach them to a babe, and as you would stand behind them before a teacher. If you cannot do both, you are still in 5:12.

VI. SPOUDAZŌ — STUDY AS LABOUR

A. The verse

2 Timothy 2:15 — “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

Who writes? Paul. To whom? Timothy, a man already entrusted with the word, told to endure hardness as a good soldier, and not to be ashamed of the testimony. Why? Because the word of truth must be handled by a workman, and approval here is not a feeling in a meeting. It is the approval of God toward a man who has laboured so as not to be ashamed of the work.

2 Timothy 2:3 — “Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.”

2 Timothy 2:8 — “Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel:”

2 Timothy 2:9 — “Wherein I suffer trouble, as an evil doer, even unto bonds; but the word of God is not bound.”

Hold the cluster. Study sits in a letter about hardness, shame, and a word that is not bound. Spoudazō is not a hobby for quiet evenings. It is labour in a war where the word must be divided rightly and the workman must not blush before God.

B. The term

The Greek behind that study is spoudazō: to use speed, to make effort, be prompt or earnest; do diligence, be diligent, endeavour, labour, study — intellectually.

Speed here is not haste that skips context. It is earnestness that will not postpone the labour. Effort is not noise. Promptness is not a calendar app. Earnestness is the refusal to treat the oracles as optional once the week fills. Diligence, endeavour, labour, study: the English is stacked so you cannot reduce the word to “read a verse if you feel like it.”

Intellectually is part of the definition. This school will not despise the mind as if reasoning were unbelief. Knowledge, in the next section, is perception and learning and reasoning. Spoudazō is the labour that makes that knowledge possible.

C. Approved, workman, rightly dividing

Walk the verse. Do not slogan it.

Study: the imperative. You are commanded to this labour. You are not invited to admire it.

To shew thyself: the labour is visible in the work, not in the claim. You shew yourself by the workmanship.

Approved unto God: the audience of the approval is God. Men may approve a crowded room. This verse does not ask that room for a stamp.

A workman: approval here is the approval of a workman. The work is the word of truth. A workman has a craft. He can be ashamed if the craft is slovenly. He needeth not to be ashamed when the word is rightly divided.

That needeth not to be ashamed: shame in this verse is the shame of bad work before God, not social embarrassment. A man can be loud and ashamed in this sense. A man can be quiet and unashamed.

Rightly dividing the word of truth: the word is truth. It can be divided wrongly. Dull hearing and apeiros produce the wrong division. Right division holds a cluster, keeps a distinction, and will not merge what the text keeps apart. This year will ask you to divide the six principles and not invent a seventh. It will ask you to divide metanoia from metamellomai. It will ask you to divide two old things. If you cannot divide, you are not yet this workman.

D. Three hours and eight

If you will walk this year at three hours a week or at eight, the difference is not a second doctrine. The difference is how much labour you put on the same oracles.

The Walk: about three hours a week, fifty-two weeks, the same six courses. Intensive: about eight hours a week, fifty-two weeks, the same six courses. Same examinations. Same certificate when a certificate is issued. No second curriculum.

Three hours will not excuse you from spoudazō. Eight hours will not create a different gospel. The Intensive student writes longer, drills more, and sits longer with the same cluster. The Walk student writes tighter on the same cluster. Both must reason. Neither may hide in quotation.

E. Charge — word drill on the verse

Do a word drill on 2 Timothy 2:15 until you can reason “approved,” “workman,” and “rightly dividing” without a slogan.

Write the verse in your own hand.

Write what approved means in this verse — unto whom, for what kind of person.

Write what workman means — what the work is, what shame would be.

Write what rightly dividing means — what you must not merge, what you must not skip.

Write six sentences. If you write the heading six times, you have not drilled. If you cannot do this at three hours, you will not do it at eight by wishing. Put the hour on the page.

VII. KNOWLEDGE — PERCEPTION, LEARNING, REASONING

A. The definition

Knowledge is a mental result of perception, learning, and reasoning. The practice is named: word exercise, word drill.

Knowledge, here, is not a pile of information. A man may quote a verse and still be a babe. Quotation without reasoning is not skill. Information collected is not that mental result.

Three parts, one result.

Perception: you see what the text says, not what you wish it said. You see the words in their place. You see who speaks, to whom, and why. You see the cluster the verse sits in. Perception is not a mystical extra. It is the refusal to skip what is on the page.

Learning: you take it in, and you keep it. You write it. You can return it. A verse you cannot write is a verse you have not yet learned, however often you have heard it. Learning is not a feeling of familiarity.

Reasoning: you can hold a cluster of Scriptures together and draw the distinction the text itself makes. You can say why “ought to be teachers” and “become” belong in one verse. You can say why milk is kindness in one man and indictment in another. You can say why graphē is not religiousism. Reasoning is not speculation. It is the mind working the writing until the distinction is teachable.

B. Word exercise, word drill

The practice is not optional colour. It is how this school makes knowledge. Word exercise: you use the word, as Hebrews 5:14 said “by reason of use.” Word drill: you put the verse through perception, learning, and reasoning until you can teach it.

A drill is repetition with attention. You write the verse. You name the terms as they are used here. You set the context. You hold the cluster. You draw the distinction. You state the principle. You reason. You apply. You take the charge. That is the method of this book. It is not a blog outline. It is not a sermon skeleton. It is labour.

This school will ask you to reason. The questions this school asks are not decorations. They are charges. “Ye ought to be teachers” is a charge. “Study” is a charge. “Ye shall know the truth” is a charge. Later chapters will ask questions that must be answered, not waved past. You will not be allowed to treat them as rhetoric.

C. Distinction and principle

Distinction: knowledge as perception plus learning plus reasoning versus information collected versus quotation without reasoning.

Principle: you do not know a verse until you can perceive it, keep it, and reason it in its cluster.

Reasoning: if quotation were knowledge, the Hebrews readers would not have needed to be taught again. They had heard. If familiarity were learning, time would have made them teachers. Time had passed. If slogans were reasoning, this chapter could have been a list of headings. This teaching was already a list of headings. It was too thin to teach. You are holding the opening of that page.

Application: take Hebrews 5:12. Perceive it — what it says, not a summary. Learn it — write it. Reason it — why “ought to be teachers” and “become” belong in one verse, and what “again” does to a man who thought he had finished the beginning.

Charge: do that drill before you touch Chapter 2. Chapter 2 will not lay the first stone in a man who will not reason the gate.

VIII. TRUTH MAKES FREE

A. The verse in its place

John 8:32 — “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

Read the verse in its place. Do not take it as a motto for the cover. The cover may say Truth · Knowledge · Maturity. This verse is not that line. This verse is the Lord speaking to men about remaining in His word.

John 8:31 — “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;”

John 8:32 — “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

John 8:33 — “They answered him, We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?”

John 8:34 — “Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.”

John 8:35 — “And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever.”

John 8:36 — “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.”

B. Who, to whom, why

Who speaks? Jesus. To whom? Those Jews which believed on him. Why? Because belief that will not continue in His word is not yet “disciples indeed,” and because they answered from Abraham and from a claim never to have been in bondage, while He was speaking of the servant of sin.

Continue is the condition. If ye continue in my word — then disciples indeed — and ye shall know the truth — and the truth shall make you free. Knowledge here is not a slogan about truth. It is the knowing that comes to those who remain in His word. That knowing is the knowledge section VII defined, applied to His word: perceive it, learn it, reason it, remain in it.

They protest from pedigree. Abraham's seed. Never in bondage. He does not argue politics with them. He names sin as bondage. Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. The servant does not abide in the house for ever. The Son does. Freedom, then, is the Son’s freedom: if the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.

C. Cluster with Hebrews 5:11-14

Hold John 8:31-36 with Hebrews 5:11-14. Dull hearing will not get you that freedom. Unskill in the word of righteousness will not get you that freedom. A man who will not continue in the word cannot claim the freedom the word promises. A babe who will not be exercised cannot discern the bondage he is still in.

The opening of this book is therefore not a motto. Truth makes free where the word is continued in. The cover line is not a substitute for John 8. The platform line is not a substitute for John 8.

D. Distinction, principle, charge

Distinction: freedom from remaining in His word, over against being the servant of sin, versus a political cry versus a mood versus a pedigree that says “we were never in bondage.”

Principle: you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free, if you continue in His word and if the Son makes you free. That freedom is from the bondage of sin.

Reasoning: if they could have been free by Abraham, He would not have said “if ye continue.” If they could have been free by denying bondage, He would not have said “servant of sin.” If a motto could free you, this school could print the cover and close the book.

Application: free from what, in John 8, if you continue in His word? Answer from the cluster. Servant of sin. Then the Son. Then free indeed. Do not write “free from negativity.” Do not write “free from religion.” Write what He wrote against.

Charge: write John 8:31-36. Then name one word of His you will continue in this week — a verse, written in full — and write what continuing will look like at three hours, and what it will look like if you are intensive. Same verse. Different labour. Same freedom offered. No second truth.

IX. THE SIX FIRST PRINCIPLES

A. The verses

Hebrews 6:1 — “Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,”

Hebrews 6:2 — “Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.”

These six are the Year-1 courses of Foundation School. They are not slogans. They are not a seventh course in disguise. They are not to be merged.

1. Repentance from dead works.

2. Faith toward God.

3. The doctrine of baptisms.

4. Laying on of hands.

5. Resurrection of the dead.

6. Eternal judgment.

B. Leaving, not skipping, not relaying

Therefore leaving — the therefore is the argument of chapter 5. Because you ought to be teachers, because milk-users are babes, because strong meat belongs to the exercised, leave the principles as a foundation already to be built on, and go on unto perfection.

Not laying again the foundation. The six are a foundation. A foundation is laid once and then bears the house. You do not pour it every spring and call the pouring a life with God. You also do not refuse to pour it and then decorate the air.

A man who has never laid them is not “leaving” them. He is skipping them. This chapter is the gate. Chapter 2 opens the first of the six. The remaining chapters open the rest, in the order Hebrews names them. You will not be offered a rearranged year to suit a preference. The writer named the order.

C. What each stone is, at the gate

You do not need Chapters 2 through 7 before you can name the six. You need this much, so you do not merge them.

Repentance from dead works is a change of mind over sin and its cause, not a regret of consequences only. Chapter 2 will open it.

Faith toward God is credence that defines the state of sons. Chapter 3 will open it.

The doctrine of baptisms is plural. Three are essential for believers. Only one of those three saves the soul. Chapter 4 will open it. Water will not be this first stone.

Laying on of hands has nine occasions. It is resultant, not a substitute for the first three. Chapter 5 will open it.

Resurrection of the dead is spiritual and material, and the material is of the body. Chapter 6 will open it.

Eternal judgment is eternal, with a book, with deaths that must stay three, with prisons that are not one room called Hell. Chapter 7 will open it.

Do not teach Chapter 7 in Chapter 1. Do not teach Chapter 2 as if it were all six. Name them. Keep them. Go on when they are laid.

D. The year

Fifty-two weeks. The Walk about three hours a week. Intensive about eight. Same six. Course 1, nine weeks. Course 2, nine. Course 3, eight. Course 4, eight. Course 5, nine. Course 6, nine.

A certificate, when issued, is for completing a program, not for buying a book, not for clicking a lesson. Written charges, an examination per course, a week-52 final: that is the labour the school will ask. Mid-year and capstone demonstrations, if they come later, will not replace this foundation.

Enrolment in the school program grants the six courses and this textbook. It does not grant the companion library. Companions named in later chapters are books, not Year-1 courses. The Power of Salvation will be named in Chapter 2 as directed reading, not as a seventh course.

E. Charge

Write the six in order from memory. Write one sentence for each that does not steal a sentence from a later chapter you have not yet reasoned. Then write what you will not do: you will not add a seventh, you will not merge two, you will not call skipping “leaving,” you will not call relaying “growth.”

X. IF GOD PERMIT

A. The hinge

Hebrews 6:3 — “And this will we do, if God permit.”

The banner of runs from Hebrews 5:11 to 6:3. Verse 3 is the hinge after the six are named. We will go on to perfection — if God permit.

This is not a seventh principle. It is not a seventh course. It is the writer’s dependence after he has named the work. The six are in 6:1-2. Verse 3 is the sentence that binds the going-on to God.

B. Dependence, not fatalism

That is not fatalism. It is dependence. The writer does not treat maturity as a human schedule you can force. He treats it as a work we intend, under permission.

“This will we do” is intention. The writer is not shrinking from the six or from perfection. “If God permit” is the limit of the intention. You may enrol in a fifty-two week program. You cannot enrol God.

Permission here is not an excuse for sloth. Spoudazō remains a command. Dull hearing remains an indictment. Apeiros remains a diagnosis. The man who will not labour has not been refused permission. He has refused labour. The man who labours still cannot treat the year as a machine that outputs perfection at week 52.

C. Unfinished foundations

Do not call unfinished foundations “perfection.” Do not call a certificate “if God permit” as if paper were the hinge. Do not call an intensive hour-count permission. Hours are labour. Permission is God’s.

Walk the year as labour. Ask for permission to go on. Lay the six. Then go on — if God permit.

The next chapter takes up repentance from dead works. Do not read it as a feeling. Read it as the first stone.

D. Charge

Write Hebrews 6:1-3 as one file. Mark the six names. Mark “if God permit.” Write what you intend this year, and what you cannot force. Then put the first stone in front of you and stop calling the gate the house.

XI. WORD DRILL LABOUR

This section does not add doctrine. It assigns the labour by which section VII becomes more than a definition.

A. The verse you will write

Write Hebrews 5:12 in full, by hand, from the KJV, until you can do it without looking. Then write 2 Timothy 2:15 the same way. Then write John 8:31-32 the same way.

If you are on The Walk, that is the week’s writing of verses, with the reasoning below in tight paragraphs. If you are on The Intensive, write also Hebrews 5:11-14 and 6:1-3 as one stretch, and expand every reasoning sentence into a paragraph a babe could follow.

B. Reason the words

On 2 Timothy 2:15, reason approved. Unto whom? God. For what? A workman who needeth not to be ashamed. Approved is not a mood and not a crowd.

Reason workman. The work is the word of truth. A workman can be ashamed. Hardness sits in the same chapter. The word of God is not bound.

Reason rightly dividing. The word can be divided wrongly. Right division keeps the cluster and the distinction. Wrong division merges the six, or skips them, or trades the graphē for a likeness.

On Hebrews 5:12, reason ought, again, become, milk, strong meat, first principles, oracles of God. Each word does work. If you cannot say the work, you have recited.

On John 8:31-36, reason continue, disciples indeed, know, truth, free, servant of sin, the Son, free indeed. Hold them as one argument. Do not take 8:32 to a banner and leave 8:34 on the table.

C. The method, once more

Scripture in full. Term as defined here. Context: who, to whom, why. Cluster held together. Distinction. Principle. Reasoning. Application. Charge.

That is how you will read every chapter. That is how you will write. A student at three hours a week can do this on one cluster and be honest. A student at eight hours can do this on the whole chapter and be honest. Neither may replace the method with a summary.

XII. WHAT THIS CHAPTER WILL NOT DO

It will not treat this textbook as a second Bible.

It will not confuse the cover line of the book with the house line of the platform.

It will not trade the graphē for ersatz analogical, nonliteral religiousisms.

It will not skip the foundation and call the skip maturity.

It will not relaid the foundation every year and call the relaying growth.

It will not treat milk after time as humility.

It will not treat apeiros as lack of a platform.

It will not treat nēpios as a term of endearment.

It will not treat knowledge as quotation.

It will not treat John 8:32 as a motto.

It will not add a seventh Year-1 course.

It will not treat Hebrews 6:3 as a seventh principle.

It will not give you a second doctrine for the intensive clock.

XIII. LABOUR FOR THE WALK AND THE INTENSIVE

Same doctrine. Same six. Same chapter. Different hours.

The Walk — about three hours a week. Read this chapter in two sittings. Write the charges in sections I, III, V, VI, and VIII as five tight paragraphs. Write Hebrews 5:12 and 2 Timothy 2:15 by hand. Name the six. Name the two marks of babes. That is enough writing for the gate if the writing is honest.

Intensive — about eight hours a week. Read this chapter until you can teach it. Write the charges in every section. Write Hebrews 5:11-14 and 6:1-3 by hand. Write John 8:31-36 by hand. Write one page on graphē versus religiousism. Write one page on apeiros and nēpios without using the word “basically.” Write the 2 Timothy 2:15 drill in six sentences that reason, not six sentences that repeat. Sit with a babe and teach 5:12 until he can say “ought,” “again,” and “become.”

Both: you are not finished because you reached section XIII. You are finished when you can teach the gate without a slogan, and when you can ask permission to go on without calling an unlaid foundation perfection.

The first stone is the next chapter. Do not open it as a feeling. Open it as a man who has heard that the scripture cannot be broken, and that you ought, by this time, to be a teacher of the beginning.