Before a believer begins to study anything related to bible doctrine he must name his sins privately to God the Father. “If we confess (Name or Cite) our (known) sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our (known) sins and to cleanse us from all (unknown sins) unrighteousness.” (1John 1:9) This will put the believer into fellowship with God and under the Filling of God the Holy Spirit and ready to learn Bible Doctrine. If you have never personally expressed faith alone in The Lord Jesus, The Christ alone the issue is NOT naming your sins. The issue is nonmeritorious faith alone in The Lord Jesus, The Christ alone. “He who believes in the Son has Eternal Life; But he who does not obey the command to believe in the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” (John 3:36)
If we are totally objective we must admit to having illusions about some things in life at some time. For myself there is ONE thing in this life which I have no illusions about, Bible Doctrine. Were it not for the teaching ministry of Col. R. B. Thieme Jr. and his consistent clear, concise and dogmatic presentation of the doctrines of the bible I would know nothing of doctrine at all. I have no illusion about my knowledge or calling or spiritual gift and recognize that I could not do what he and many other pastors have done and continue to do in the constant studying of the history of the bible times, the original languages and categories of biblical principles and then the teaching of doctrine to their congregations. I have over the years learned innumerable principles from these studies done by Pastor Thieme. One of the most important things I have learned has been that “the rate of learning MUST exceed the rate of FORGETTING” in order to advance in the Spiritual Life or even maintain some level of spiritual growth. This amplifies the necessity therefore of constant consistent Perception, Cognition, Inculcation and Metabolization of Bible Doctrine and ultimately the application of it to life. It is my desire that this document be a source of consolidated doctrine to fulfill that very purpose.
This is, in fact, a compilation of notes I have taken on the principles directly derived from the lessons taught by Col. R. B. Thieme Jr., primarily in 1976 on the Life of Abraham. Within these lessons he extrapolated principles of “Spiritual Common Sense” which are in fact essential for the believer in The Lord Jesus, The Christ to understand and function in the Christian Way of Life especially as a member of the Royal Family of God in this Church Age. These lessons, having been taught many years prior to the time of my compiling this document, still, to this day, reflect an essential necessity for the Christian as part of the Royal Family of God. These lessons were taught after many years of Pastor Thieme serving in his ministry of Studying and Teaching Orthodox Fundamental Biblical Christian Doctrine in an Isogogical, Exegetical and Categorical method. With this in mind the reader should be conscious of the fact that some of the terminology, doctrine and principles presented here will be at best obscure and possibly totally meaningless to the new or infant believer. It took the Colonel many years to come to the point of being able to extract these doctrines and principles from the original languages of scripture so it should certainly take some years of study by the believer under his type of ministry to be able to understand what is contained herein.
As one would expect, I am sure, I have entered some opinions and concepts of my own from what I have learned from my studies under his teaching of Bible Doctrine in later lessons, from later years, from life experiences and other current materials. I have in addition, I am sure, not kept the order of presentation of these principles of common sense but tried to reorganize them into categories for better understanding of their content. The effort here on my part has been to consolidate the principles of “Spiritual Common Sense” in order to provide a place where believers might go to acquire or review concise but detailed principles related to building common sense in order to live as a Christian. However, nothing contained herein is ever to be construed to have been originated by my personal abilities to extract doctrines from the scripture. Neither is this to be a substitute for consistent daily study under one’s right Pastor Teacher in order to develop the momentum needed to reach and HOLD ON TO spiritual maturity, the ultimate objective of the Spiritual Life. I have taken the liberty of TRYING to ONLY add pertinent examples of historical and social trends which I see occurring some time after these lessons had elucidated them. If more details and reference passages are desired on “Spiritual Common Sense” or how these principles were derived the original lessons can be ordered from R. B. Thieme Jr. Bible Ministries, P.O. Box 460829, Houston Tx. 77056-8829, 713-621-3740.
I have, in fact, attempted the impossible in trying to ORGANIZE these principles into discrete segments or categories. The doctrinal principles of “Spiritual Common Sense” are interactive and interrelated and as such in reality cannot be segregated. With this in mind understand that there will be duplication and repetition and one aspect of doctrinal application to common sense principles cannot be separated and individually studied without relating it to, often, several others. However, as the Colonel might have said on occasion, “REPETITION IS INVALUABLE SO GET USED TO IT AND ENJOY IT.
Dr. Frank P Ferraro