This means that we will no longer be posting new content on this blog. We found that we were doing the same work twice – creating blog posts and then recreating them for our Daily Email Goodies.

The good news?

You won’t miss anything.

Our Daily Email Goodies now offer all of the same content, plus extra multimedia resources to help you grow and stay encouraged each day.

As we close this chapter, we’re excited to keep serving you through a format that’s easier, richer and more helpful.

How to Subscribe

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You can enter your e-mail and confirm your subscription in the follow-up e-mail.

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You can receive the multimedia Daily Email Goodies on your smartphone.

Just click the link on our site to send us your phone number.

With love and gratitude in Father’s service,

André
StudyShelf Admin

This means that we will no longer be posting new content on this blog. We found that we were doing the same work twice – creating blog posts and then recreating them for our Daily Email Goodies.

The good news?

You won’t miss anything.

Our Daily Email Goodies now offer all of the same content, plus extra multimedia resources to help you grow and stay encouraged each day.

As we close this chapter, we’re excited to keep serving you through a format that’s easier, richer and more helpful.

How to Subscribe

To receive the Daily Email Goodies directly in your inbox, visit:

https://studyshelf.com/emailgoodies.htm

You can enter your e-mail and confirm your subscription in the follow-up e-mail.

You can also e-mail us at DeG@studyshelf.com, and we’ll add your address for you (you’ll still receive a confirmation request).

Prefer Text Messages?

You can receive the multimedia Daily Email Goodies on your smartphone.

Just click the link on our site to send us your phone number.

With love and gratitude in Father’s service,

André
StudyShelf Admin

Beginning in the mid-90s, regardless of what time I would go to bed, I would normally awake 3-4 hours later. For a few years I would battle this, as though it were some kind of curse. This is because I listened to the “8 hours a night” advice that is always offered.

I would lay in bed awake for hours every night trying to fall back asleep. After all, it was what I should do for my health. Staying in bed when I was awake, because I was supposed to, became a great prison to me.

After a while, I just learned to get up when I was awake. For the last 25 years or so, my sleep norm is 3-4 hours most nights – with perhaps an occasional 5-to-15-minute power nap somewhere in the late afternoon, or early evening. After multiple nights of this short sleep schedule, I will usually sleep 5-6 hours one night, occasionally longer, then right back to my norm.

What I had viewed in the beginning as a “curse,” I eventually came to see as my special “blessing.” I am usually up somewhere between 1:00-3:00 most mornings. I am up wide awake, and I aggressively begin my studies and writing. While others are asleep in the house it allows for many hours of very quiet productive time. Over time I have come to relish my early morning time. I would not be the person that I am today without my norm of 3-4 hours a night.

I sleep when I am sleepy, and am up working when I am awake, regardless of the advice of the experts. Interestingly, for me, on the nights that I get 3-4 hours of sleep I am usually the most awake and productive for the day. On the nights that I sleep longer, not only do I have less working time, but I am more typically sluggish.

Thomas Edison wrote,

I never found need of more than four or five hours sleep in twenty-four hours. I never dream. It’s real sleep. When by chance I have taken in more [sleep], I wake up dull and indolent [disinclined to work]).

Winston Churchill averaged 5-6 hours of sleep per day (which included a full-blown daily 2-hour nap during the day). “You get two days in one – well, at least one and a half.”

Leonardo De Vinci followed the “Uberman sleep cycle” – an extreme form of polyphasic sleep (or segmented sleep). This is the practice of sleeping multiple times in a 24-hour period. The Uberman method involves 20-minute naps every 4 hours – about 1-½ hours of sleep a day. Nikola Tesla followed this same sleep pattern.

I am well aware that my sleep patterns are not “normal,” and I do not recommend them. They are not something that I try to do, neither do I suggest anyone else trying them. Each of us are very uniquely made, and we must not fight the design of God for us.

Note:

Cf. “Some People Have a Superhuman Strength: Only Needing 4 Hours of Sleep,” Manasee Wagh, Popular Mechanics, June 27, 2022:

These “short sleepers” don’t necessarily do it by choice – they’re genetically programmed to require less. Short sleepers are people who do well with about half of the shut-eye that the rest of us require to function. Researchers have discovered particular mutations in three genes that control short sleepers’ resting needs. Their super-efficient sleep helps maintain better health and greater resilience to stress.

The intended purpose of this feature will be to help clarify confusing terms by standardizing their use in the pages of the BSN.

There are often many different terms used to describe the same thing related to biblical themes. This can be confusing when trying to introduce a student of Scripture to new concepts.

To reduce confusion to a minimum, it may be beneficial to have standardized terminology. Toward this end this series will develop lists of such various terminologies, with an aim of selecting the clearest ones possible for our standard of use, footnoting the alternatives.

For the first installment we have chosen to deal with the present ecclesia of the current dispensation: The One Body of the Secret Administration.

For easy reference, at the end of each BSN volume, these entries will be included in the online Master Index under “Standardized Scripture Terminology.”

Without the need of waiting for the updated BSN Master Index, these entries are also placed on our new blog at:

StandardizedScriptureTerminology.wordpress.com

We trust that our readers will appreciate and benefit from the use of such additional resources.

My love to you all …

After a lifetime of traditional views of unfulfilled prophecy, it is quite a challenge to wrap our heads around such a different concept. Especially since it appears to have been presented somewhat only piecemeal in the past. It is our heart to correct this issue with what is, in the end, a clear presentation. We have some wonderful summarizations planned in the coming months.

We started this journey in earnest with the editorial in BSN 705 (An Overview of Events from Greek Scripture). At that time, I termed this period of prophecy “The Pre-Tribulational Kingdom,” but have since adopted the more common expression “The Pre-Millennial Kingdom” – however, the Scripture term is “The Kingdom of the Heavens,” Christ ruling His footstool (Earth^[1]) from His throne far above all Heavens, during the “Day of Christ.”

The reason for spending so much time looking at Israel’s prophecy has been to allow us to be better able to “distinguish between things that differ” (Philippians 1:10, MKJV). This results in a greater realization of the hope of our calling, and a worthy walk in it.

… according as you were called also with one expectation of your calling; … the eyes of your heart having been enlightened, for you to perceive what is the expectation of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of the enjoyment of His allotment among the saints … I am entreating you, then … to walk worthily of the calling with which you were called … And let the peace of Christ be arbitrating in your hearts, for which you were called also in one body; and become thankful.^[2]

If some of you have not as of yet been able to follow us in this journey of understanding, it is my prayer that, in the days ahead as we attempt summarizing this concept more clearly, you will be granted the same clarity of understanding that motivates us onward with this important theme.

My love and appreciation for each of you …

^[1]     Psalm 110:1; Matthew 22:44; Mark 12:36; Luke 20:43; Acts 2:35; Hebrews 1:13; 10:13.

^[2]     Ephesians 1:18; 4:1, 4; Colossians 3:15.

Remarkably, Smith would come to see and embrace the salvation of all. She included a description of this journey and understanding in her autobiography published in 1903 by Fleming H. Revell, The Unselfishness of God and How I Discovered It.^[1]

Not surprisingly, her autobiography would subsequently be republished, but with her accounts of coming to the conviction of the salvation of all having been removed. In 2009 we ran the missing chapters from her book in the Bible Student’s Notebook.^[2] Then in 2014 we published these absent chapters in a book, along with the missing chapters from Hannah Hurnard’s (1905-1990) The Unveiled Glory.^[3] The book The Unveiled Glory & My Unexpected Discovery has been widely distributed.^[4]

Smith’s works written prior to 1903 were presentations of the classic “holiness” doctrine, and are overall harmful to believers’ understanding and walk. However, while still somewhat under the influence of a doctrinal system that had gripped her life since childhood, a remarkable clarity came with her awareness of the salvation of all that made her ensuing work, The God of All Comfort, most noteworthy.

While on occasion drifting back into her “holiness” past, The God of All Comfort offers beautiful insights concerning God. We are in the process of carefully producing an abridged edition that should bring joy to the heart of those rejoicing in

The Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort (II Corinthians 1:3).

At the conclusion of these installments, they will be made available in book form.

^[1]     Available from Study Shelf, as an unabridged facsimile of the 1903 edition. See order form under “Biographies.”

^[2]     “My Unexpected Discovery,” My Story #5, Bible Student’s Notebook #199.

^[3]     “The Unveiled Glory,” My Story #6, Bible Student’s Notebook #225.

^[4]     Available at Study Shelf, and on the order form under “Other Authors.”

I feel as though I am getting a quilt-like mosaic of learning, without the connective tissue to lend a more cohesive understanding. I suppose what I am looking for is an A-Z curriculum that builds in understanding and comprehension.

As I read this, I was reminded that there are so many gaps in the believer’s education. I am often amazed when I talk at length with many who share some of our basic understandings, at how little they really know, even among those who are actually teachers of the Scriptures.

For 33 years we have been publishing the Bible Student’s Notebook, resulting in over 7,700 pages of significant study material thus far. In the past few years we have published 34 ground-breaking compilation book series on key scriptural themes. Through Bible Student’s Press we have published and republished 515 titles. We have hundreds of hours of videos, audios and Daily Email Goodies recordings.

Yet, with all of these available resources, it must be quite an intimidating undertaking to try to navigate one’s way through it all to acquire the necessary comprehension to transition from old religious paradigms toward a true biblical framework of understanding. This situation has been a long, ongoing burden of my heart.

We certainly have no lack of material available for a comprehensive educational curriculum that would systematically build cohesive understanding in the saints – it just desperately needs organizing. We’d need to create a detailed list of subjects, and then begin to arrange them in some logical order of progression.

To be honest, producing such a project of progressive study guides would be a daunting undertaking. We already have so much work going on here that it seems we can barely keep up with the basic tasks that are daily before us. If such a curriculum would materialize, it will be because helpers arose, and/or that we completely readjust our priorities and repurpose our direction and schedule.

Only God knows.

Humbly, yours …

The truth can’t and won’t be confined. “Even Some of Your Own” is a series that runs occasionally as a part of the Editor’s Desk in the Bible Student’s Notebook. It chronicles truth breaking forth from quite unexpected sources.

Sometime last year our dear brother and friend Mike Owens introduced us to a video compilation of Sam Harris, The Delusion of Free Will.^[1] Harris is a neuroscientist, who holds that “free will is an illusion.”

Mike wrote that this video was “worth 2 or 3 viewings to soak it in.” I would agree. Mike also added, that, “it’s interesting that this atheist (perfectly designed by our Creator) is explaining so well the same truths that God has shown us.”

Though not a believer, in his video compilation I counted eight times that he used the word “author,” as in “we are not the authors of our thoughts and actions.” His use of the word “author” so many times seems to me to beg the question, if we are not the author of our thoughts and actions, then who is?

While reading his book Free Will (Free Press, 2012) I marked some very interesting sections, which I will now share with our readers (emphases mine.)

Free will is an illusion. Our wills are simply not of our own making. Thoughts and intentions emerge from background causes of which we are unaware and over which we exert no conscious control. (p. 5)

The popular conception of free will seems to rest on two assumptions: (1) that each of us could have behaved differently than we did in the past, and (2) that we are the conscious source of most of our thoughts and actions in the present. … Both of these assumptions are false. (p. 6)

Our sense of free will results from a failure to appreciate this: We do not know what we intend to do until the intention itself arises. To understand this is to realize that we are not the authors of our thoughts and actions in the way that people generally suppose. (p. 13)

Most of us feel that we freely author our own thoughts and actions … Thus the idea of free will emerges from a felt experience. (p. 15)

At this moment, you are making countless unconscious “decisions” with organs other than your brain – but these are not events for which you feel responsible. Are you producing red blood cells and digestive enzymes at this moment? Your body is doing these things, of course, but if it “decided” to do otherwise, you would be the victim of these changes, rather than their cause. (p. 23)

People feel (or presume) an authorship of their thoughts and actions that is illusory. (p. 24)

Take a moment to think about the context in which your next decision will occur: You did not pick your parents, or the time and place of your birth. You didn’t choose your gender, or most of your life experiences. You had no control whatsoever over your genome, or the development of your brain. And now your brain is making choices on the basis of preferences and beliefs that have been hammered into it over a lifetime by your genes, your physical development since the moment you were conceived, and the interactions you have had with other people, events, and ideas. Where is the freedom in this? (p. 41)

You will do whatever it is you do, and it is meaningless to assert that you could have done otherwise. (p. 44).

I’m not especially worried about degrading the morality of my readers by publishing this book. Speaking from personal experience, I think that losing the sense of free will has only improved my ethics – by increasing my feelings of compassion and forgiveness, and diminishing my sense of entitlement to the fruits of my own good “luck.” (p. 45)

Many seem to have absolutely no awareness of how fortunate one must be to succeed at anything in life, no matter how hard one works. … Even if you have struggled to make the most of what nature gave you, you must still admit that your ability and inclination to struggle is part of your inheritance. (pp. 61-62).

Our sense of our own freedom results from our not paying close attention to what it is like to be us. (p. 64).

Harris quotes Albert Einstein:

Honestly, I cannot understand what people mean when they talk about the freedom of the human will. I have a feeling, for instance, that I will something or other; but what relation this has with freedom I cannot understand at all. … Man can do what he will but he cannot will what he wills. (p. 75-76)^[2]

^[1]     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQJjn-gekn4

^[2]     Cited from Max Planck, Where Is Science Going? (Prologue by Albert Einstein) W.W. Norton & Company (1932, p. 201).

It is always my intention to have more frequent, personal editorials, but they seem rarely to materialize. So, as another year has closed, I will share some of the highlights of the past year.

New Titles

In 2021 we were grateful to have 36 new titles released by Bible Student’s Press, bringing our total published works to 508. We are thankful for those who so graciously and faithfully co-labor with us to make all of these rich resources available.

This past year also saw two critically needed resources graciously provided. These materials allow us to continue reaching new contacts.

New Bulk Catalog

The first resource was a newsprint catalog. This was our first bulk catalog in over 20 years. Interestingly, at the time of the printing of our last newsprint catalog we had none of our own published books, but books only from other publishers.

Bulk Book Printing

The second resource was a bulk printing of our book Nothing Will Be Lost. Having them printed in quantity allows their individual cost to be considerably less, thus enabling us to send something substantial to those who inquire concerning the ultimate salvation of all.

Outgoing Book Orders

Literature orders were brisk throughout the year, having multiple Post Office hods filled with packages going out on a daily basis.

A Visit from Dean & Chris

April of 2021 saw a treasured visit from our dear brothers Dean and Chris. Dean Wilkinson has been to the Pilkington Abbey numerous times over the years. It has always been a rich time of fellowship and study. This time Chris Carnahan came with him. What a refreshment the two of them were to us. These are men with large hearts for the truth and an ample manifestation of God’s spirit.

Dean and Chris have a great weekly video teaching on YouTube that they call simply, DCTime (Dean and Chris Time).

Clyde III, Ashley & Samuel

Due to COVID related issues we have not had our son and his family here in PA in over two years. In December Clyde III, Ashley and Samuel finally came up from FL. It was such a joyous family reunion: all of the children and grandchildren together again!

BSN 900

The Bible Student’s Notebook was designed to collect material that might have been lost or buried, as well as to record our own studies. 2021 saw us bring an end to the 800s issues and embark into the 900s. When we began this endeavor back in 1989, we never could have even imagined where this journey would lead!

Year’s End

The ending of the old year and beginning of the new is always busy for our ministry, and this was one of our busiest times in recent memory. Perhaps the reason that this time of year is so busy lies partly in the fact that folks have had time off to read and study during the holidays, and this causes them to reach out. In the first 11 months of the year we had 818 new contacts – averaging 74 a month. Yet, in December we had 204. We are certainly thankful and humbled at such response.

Our best seller during the month of December was The Salvation of All. We shipped out 155 copies.

Much gratitude fills our hearts for all of you who join with us in this work.

With love and appreciation …

I was never really a big student of prophecy. Even prior to coming to see the significance of Paul’s special ministry I was never drawn to the subject. Afterward it all seemed even less important for my attention on a personal level. I did however accept the traditional dispensational approach to eschatology,^[2] all the while admitting that there were elements that seemed strained to me. But what dispensational alternative did I have?

Then along came the idea of a Pre-Millennial Kingdom. I was first introduced to this concept in the late 1980s through the writings of Otis Sellers. Over the years I would come across other authors who also espoused this model: Steedman, Ribbens, Ballinger, Hettema, McClain, Johnson, Hammond, etc. All of these men were staunchly Pauline and were in some manner associated with either Welch or Knoch, allowing them to have some measure of respect with me.

However, this idea of a Pre-Millennial Kingdom was one that was hard for me to grasp. Needless to say, it was confusing to my prophetic paradigm. Over the years I kept returning to the subject thinking that they may have been on to something. Not until a few years ago was there some measure of real interest and comprehension.

I think we take for granted Christianity’s many systems of eschatology, not realizing how complex they are. This is especially true for traditional dispensational eschatology. This is because it was laid out for us in some simplified, understandable way by someone in whom we had some measure of trust. I highly doubt that any one of us, simply by reading and studying the Scriptures all on our own, could duplicate any of these systems of interpretation. It is all too complicated. Why so?

Well, first, prophecy is not our mail. It was not written to or about us.^[3] Second, the nature of prophecy itself is complicated.^[4] We know this by fulfilled prophecy. Take the passages declared to be fulfilled by Christ as an example. The nature of these Messianic prophesies, now looking back, seems nearly impossible to have fully understood prior to their fulfillment. Truly the “word of prophecy” is a “light that shines in a dark place”; at least “until the day dawn.”

Those of us who have held to a traditional dispensational interpretation of unfulfilled prophecy are embracing a system that was slowly, progressively developed by many others over time. I believe that the men listed above are simply a part of this piecemeal process of progression: “… the shining light, that shines more and more unto the perfect day” (Proverbs 4:18).

It is my sense that they were all on to something and that it is now our turn to pick up the process of advancing, collecting and clarifying what has come before, all the while with the full recognition that we live outside of the realm of prophecy and that these prophecies will not allow us to prophesy.^[5]

My practical interest in the future prophetic scene is on how to relieve believers today from fear. I continue to be amazed by how many are caught up with prophetic events to the place of distraction, even to destruction of their daily lives. Even for those who embrace Paul’s gospel, it does not seem enough for them to know that he is their apostle, and that we live in the Secret Administration. These foundational truths seem to be insufficient for keeping them from looking at current events for the fulfillment of Jewish prophecy. To better respond to their misapplication of prophecy, a clearer general concept of the order of unfulfilled prophecy needs to be laid forth. The current traditional dispensational one seems to be flawed just enough to be ineffective to provide such relief. For me the understanding of a Pre-Millennial Kingdom brings a greater measure of clarity.

Grace & Peace …

^[1]     See:

• A Light in a Dark Place, Cecil J. Blay, Bible Student’s Notebook #219; Prophetic Speculation, Sir Isaac Newton, Bible Student’s Notebook #506.

^[2]     After all, I had (and still do) have great respect for those who taught in detail this position. One such example is Sir Robert Anderson’s The Coming Prince.

^[3]     All prophecy belongs to Israel, and under the current Secret Administration, Israel and her prophecies are all in temporary abeyance. For now, Israel’s prophetic clock is on pause. For additional information on Israel’s prophetic clock, see:

• Christ’s Appearing and Israel’s Prophetic Clock, Clyde L. Pilkington, Jr., Bible Student’s Notebook #567;
• Living Outside of Prophecy,Clyde L. Pilkington, Jr., Bible Student’s Notebook #656j;
• The Prophetic Clock Has Stopped, A.E. Knoch, Bible Student’s Notebook #821;
• “End Times” Prophecy,Clyde L. Pilkington, Jr., Bible Student’s Notebook #822.

^[4]     For more information on the nature of prophecy, see the book:

• Prophetic Obsession in an Unprophesied Administration: A Collection of Works Concerning the Nature of Unfulfilled Prophecy (see order form under “Compilations”).

^[5]     See:

• Prophecy Will Not Enable us to Prophesy, Sir Robert Anderson, Bible Student’s Notebook #506.