First Assembly Class a Basic Introduction to Bible Doctrine

At the end of May 2009, the Rev. Scott McNees of began a Bible study class for the congregation.

The class, which meets at 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays, concludes over the next several weeks with a study of what the Bible calls "end times."

"We’ll spend probably three to four Wednesdays on it," McNees said. "We started out with a basic introduction to Bible doctrine. I gave everybody there that night a test, just a basic doctrine test on things we believe in the church, attributes of God, and some things about Jesus, and the Spirit, and the church, sanctification, all kinds of things like that."

While most of the people did pretty well on the test, McNees found some "weak points" he wanted to address.

"What we’ve done since then, is we’ve tried to hit most of the highlights of the major Bible doctrine themes," he said. "For example, we went from the inspiration for the Bible to actual theology and the study of God and the attributes of God to Christology."

McNees introduced the congregation to terms like "Christology," which is the study of Christ, anthropology, the study of man, and soteriology, the study of salvation.

"I did throw these big words out to people, just so they would recognize the word," he said. "But we didn’t actually call it that."

The class has covered heaven and hell, angels and demons, the names of God, divine healing and has studied the church. Divine healing was just concluded last week.

"We believe in God’s power to heal people," McNees said. "It’s uncontested that people have experienced healing miracles. Not everybody does, but many people do. We’ve had many in our church, over the years, who have been touched supernaturally, beyond and above what normal medicine could have done. And we have those in our church who also believe that God can heal more slowly, through medicine. We’re very thankful for the medical world out there that can help us."

The study of end times will cover the significant points.

"We’re not going to study every little minutia about prophecy, because that would take three, four, or five years," he said. "But we’re going to hit major points, such as the Rapture, the Tribulation, the second coming of Jesus, the millennial reign of Jesus and new heavens, new Earth. On all those big peaks there will be valleys of information between them."

The class typically begins with worship and singing before moving on to the evening’s topic. A big screen is used for visuals, including slides and videos, to enhance the discussion. The study portion usually runs 30 to 45 minutes.

"Not because we don’t have anything to say--preachers always have a ton to say," McNees said. "But our folks have been working all day, and they have to get up early on Thursday to go to work. Sometimes they get really tired sitting there in a warm building."

McNees keeps in mind that participants have varying levels of knowledge when it comes to the Bible.

"We try not to make it so convoluted and so Ph.D.-sounding that a 15-year-old couldn’t get it," he said. "We try to make sure everybody can get it."

Attendance has been consistent--95 percent of the people who started the class are still attending, and others have joined in.

"They are really the faithful attenders of our church," McNees said. "They say that if a person visits your church on Sunday morning, that’s great. If they come back Sunday night, they like your church. If they come back Wednesday night, they like the pastor. So these folks who come on Wednesday are a faithful bunch, and they’ve already got, to a large degree, this background information. So this is built on a refresher course. I’m just trying to refresh," he said. "They’ve all enjoyed it. They’re all faithful, they ask questions, they give input and insight every now and again. And they’ve been consistent the whole time."

The class is not a specific study of the church’s denominational beliefs.

"We haven’t brought the church denominations into it at all," he said. "It’s just the major Bible doctrines."

The class doesn’t shy away from discussing the ways religion can be misused.

"We’ve been critical at times of the past behavior of churches and ministers and evangelists," he said. "Those who have distorted the Bible, distorted a specific doctrine of the Bible. Especially in things like divine healing, there have been charlatans, fakes, and we’ve brought some of those into the picture so people would know that that is a possibility, where there are those who could have ulterior motives in purporting to be a miracle worker, as it were, to make money."

Still, divine healing isn’t always "fakery," McNees said.

"There have been many folks in our church who have been touched, since before I came (to the church), and after I came. New people, myself included," he said. "But there are other ailments we have that we’ve not been healed from, and we can’t explain that, necessarily. Some of the stuff is only going to be explained, I guess, when the veil is removed, and we’re able to see clearly. I think the Bible calls it, ‘Then shall we know, even as also we are known.’ But for the time being, we see through a glass darkly, in Corinthians 1:13."

The study wraps up with the Bible prophecy of end times to help people understand God’s plan.

"We spent a lot of time on Bibliology, a lot of time on theology, and Christology," he said. "Those are the big ones--we spent several months on those. To know the Bible, to know God, to know the Son, those are the biggest things in Christianity."

Ending the study with Bible prophecy "is kind of like the icing on the cake of it all," McNees said.

"If God has a plan for man, there’s an end to it all, as we know it, and the end is good," he said. "That’s the whole purpose of pointing out Bible prophecy. It’s not the wrath of God, the bad things that will come, not the judgment or the sin. Jesus said, ‘I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go prepare that place, I will come again and receive you unto myself.’"

In Thessalonians 1:4, "The Bible gives those promising words, ‘So shall we ever be with the Lord.’ To me, that’s the basis of prophecy. It’s not the bad things, but the plan that God has for mankind. They’re good. ‘I know the thoughts that I think toward you, sayeth the Lord. Thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.’ So again, to me that’s the basis of Bible prophecy, to give us that expected, anticipated end."

Wentzville First Assembly of God is at 111 West Allen Street. For more information, call the church at 636-327-4163.