Beginning tomorrow I will be starting to preach and teach through the whole Bible beginning in the book of Genesis. As I study this morning I am reminded why I am starting in Genesis. I have noticed over the years two things wrong with much preaching that we find in the modern church world. First, a felt needs preaching style approach to preaching. There is nothing sinful about this approach, however I have many reasons why I do not like this approach of which I will not lay out before you in this post. The second thing that I have noticed that happens most often (not always) is that most Bible teaching/preaching is in a style that teaches the scriptures backwards. Most Bible teaching/preaching I have found begins in the New Testament (NT) and then they go back to the Old Testament (OT) to understand its meaning. I will say that both testaments need each other and compliment each other. However I have noticed that reading the Bible in a backward approach of NT first before OT leads to a lot of error and misunderstandings of the scripture. By doing this approach a person tends to ignore the plain cultural meaning of the text. I could give at least three doctrinal errors that occur by studying the Bible in this way. I have heard all of my life people (including myself) taking things that Paul says or what a NT passage says and using it to contradict or change what Moses or the prophets gave as clear instructions to God’s people. I maintain that if we come to such a conclusion that leads us in a situation where we pin the right side of the Bible against the left thereby cancelling things written in Moses or the prophets then we have not understood the NT correctly and are in need of further study. Why do I say that? Why do I place such a new emphasis on Moses and the prophets in my ministry now? Because what Moses and the prophets wrote is THE FOUNDATION OF what the apostles and NT writers wrote. For example, when you read the book of Acts, you see that, historically, the followers of Jesus did not simply accept whatever new teaching they heard. They could not have tested established revelation(the OT), which they knew to be true, by a new revelation(NT) which they did not know to be true. The three sections of the OT were already accepted and established as God’s holy everlasting word. God had already commanded and Jesus confirmed in his ministry that a new teaching or claim of messiah-ship was to be tested against what God had already revealed-not the other way around. INTERPRETING THE SCRIPTURES BACKWARDS PRODUCES A MESSAGE THAT IS BACKWARDS. Those first century believers in Jesus as the messiah could not and did not justify the teaching of the NT by quoting the NT. They did not use the NT to validate itself. Historically the early followers of Jesus did not accept whatever new teaching they heard. They tested what they had heard against what God had already revealed in the OT which was their scriptures and foundation of beliefs. Where do we find this? Many places but one of my favorites is in Acts 17. To be specific, we find this in Acts 17 verses 3 and 11. The Bereans took what Paul said and TESTED it according to the OT scriptures to see if Paul was teaching truth. The new had to be measured by the true, not the other way around. So once again reading and teaching the scriptures in a backwards fashion produces a message that is backwards. This is why I will be starting my Bible preaching ministry at Bible Truth Church with Bible exposition that begins at the beginning of the Bible, the book of Genesis. Let me make a few things clear. The whole OT and the whole NT is the infallible word of the Lord. Please do not take this post and say that I am saying other wise. I am only saying that doctrinal errors happen when we do not understand the front of the Bible before the back of the Bible. I am also suggesting that the OT is the foundation of the NT and that the writers of the NT would have never taught anything different than what Moses and the Prophets said of which I could give you several verses that teach this plainly in the NT. I am also not saying that preaching a topical sermon is wrong or that preaching through NT books are wrong. I am simply saying that caution needs to be given when we try teaching the NT when we do not have a good grasp of the foundation of the NT, which is the old. THE DICTIONARY OF THE NT IS THE OT. I personally feel the need to take folks through a Bible exposition of the OT and move from there to the NT. I know most churches do it the other way around, and that is fine, however I feel that the BEST WAY to read the scriptures and teach the scriptures is in the way that God wrote it, from the beginning to the end. When done this way we see the unity of the scriptures like never before! I will be posting all of my sermons through Genesis on this website. I hope that these sermons will be a blessing to you and will help you grow in your understanding of the eternal word of God.

God bless, Brady C. Crum

Hello my dear friends,

I want to take this time to give you an update concerning Brady Crum Ministries. It has been a while since I have done a blog. I have been on a sabbatical and have taken time away from the ministry which was the hardest thing I have ever done in my life and yet has been the greatest thing that I have ever done. Most of you reading this know me as Pastor Brady or Brother Brady. I do still have a pastor’s heart and would love to be your  brother in the Lord after you read this post. I have been in ministry for 10 years. I spent 5 years at Bethel Church in Festus Missouri and I spent 4 years as the Assistant Pastor at the First Free Will Baptist Church of De Soto. I have taken the last year off from public ministry. I have been so blessed to have been in those ministry positions and have met some of the most dearest people in my life during that time. I am currently starting a church in the Bonne Terre area and beginning next weekend will be back in public ministry which thrills my soul. However, after taking off for a little over a year I have been able to take a much needed journey on the road of life with my Lord. I have grown in my relationship with the Lord in ways that I would have never done so had I not taken the needed time off to focus on my relationship with the Lord and what he wanted in my life. Even tho I took off a year in public ministry, I have never lost the desire to win souls to the Lord Jesus Christ and to disciple them in the word of God. I have never also lost my desire to shepherd a group of God’s people in a closer walk with him. That is why I am excited to pursue that calling the rest of my life even tho it looks differently than it once did in my mind. Since leaving  full time ministry a year ago I have had plenty of time to just talk with my Lord and to study his word as to what he wants out of my life. It has been enriching and yet very humbling. Sometimes it is our pride that keeps us from growing with the Lord. When we always think everything is fine or that we have it all figured out, we never grow. There are several reasons as to why I left full time ministry and this post really isn’t about those reasons. This post is about an update and more about who I am now and where do I stand on certain things since leaving the full time ministry. Most of you that know me know that I was a Jehovah’s Witness for almost 10 years of my life and then I got saved and became Pastor for another 10 years. There are some reading this who already know and then there are others who do not know, but I am not a Free Will Baptist pastor anymore. Actually, I am not even a Free Will Baptist anymore. That being said I was not one the first 5 years of my ministry either. I mentioning this does not in anyway mean that I think that Free Will Baptists are not saved Christians or that they are not great people. I have met some of the dearest saints of God in the Free Will Baptist denomination who love the Lord. I know when I was a Free Will Baptist that we did not hold it against anyone if they were a different kind of baptist or if they were Pentecostal. We simply disagreed on some theological issues and that was it. We never questioned if folks loved the Lord by merely being of a different denomination. I in no way want this post to be offensive to any of my Baptist brothers or sisters. I love you all and I know you love the lord. That being said, I have chosen to go a different path and am just trying to serve the Lord the best way I know and see from the Scriptures. This is the third time in my life that I have had to change some of my beliefs based off a honest and further study of the word of God. This is nothing new to me. That being said when I see something different in my studies of the scripture I refuse to deny it and just continue doing what I have always done for the simple reason that it is what I have always done.  The best way that I can explain what has happened to me in my walk with the Lord in the last year is found in the book of Acts.We find a passage of scripture in the 18th chapter of the book of Acts concerning a man by the name of Apollos. We will pick it up in Acts 18:24-28.

(Acts 18:24-28) “¶ And a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man, and mighty in the scriptures, came to Ephesus. {25} This man was instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in the spirit, he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John. {26} And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue: whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly. {27} And when he was disposed to pass into Achaia, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him: who, when he was come, helped them much which had believed through grace: {28} For he mightily convinced the Jews, and that publickly, shewing by the scriptures that Jesus was Christ.”

Noticed this man Apollos was mighty in the scriptures and he was instructed in the way of the Lord. However, his knowledge was limited. When Aquila and Priscilla had heard of Apollos and how he was lacking in his understanding of the scriptures they expounded the way of God MORE PERFECTLY. What did Apollos do? Did he use his “mightiness in the scriptures” as a badge of honor and a reason to not change his beliefs or way of life? No he did not. He was humbled enough to see that he was lacking in his understanding of the word of God and he decided to follow God more perfectly. This same experience that Apollos had is what I have experienced in my own walk with the Lord. I have always loved the word of God and have had a pretty good knowledge of the scriptures just like Apollos had. However, there are some things that I was ignorant of and did not know that the scriptures taught. What would I do now? I could deny those things that have been expounded to me from the scriptures and keep doing what I have always done or I could accept the scriptures and what they taught and follow the way of God MORE PERFECTLY. Well I have chosen the latter. Once again this has been a humbling thing for me as I am sure it was for Apollos. That being all said, I believe that I as a Free Will Baptist was serving the Lord the best way I knew how and I still think that my brethren who are baptist, Pentecostal, Presbyterian, Methodist, and what ever else denomination are serving the Lord the best way they know how. However, after being shown the way of God more perfectly I must walk in that way. That does not mean that I am more saved than anybody else. We are not saved by obeying God, but by our trust in Jesus Christ as our substitute for our sins on the cross. I want to make that very clear. Some despite me making this very clear might still be tempted to say that I teach a works salvation. I believe that we do not serve the Lord to be saved, but we serve him because we are saved and that sanctification is a process that the Lord desires and is doing thru each and every believer by the Holy Spirit and the believers willingness to yield to it. Now that I have publicly informed all as to me not being a Free Will Baptist anymore I think its fitting to give some explanation as to why not with out fighting with folks about it. I have studied the Free Will Baptist Treatise extensively and there is a item in that doctrinal statement that I can no longer say I believe and hence practice. I know most will disagree with me and that is fine. I will be patient with you as the lord and others have been patient with me. Before I elaborate on this item of disagreement, I want to lay some foundation first. It is so important that a person understands the foundation that I am going to lay in order to understand the rest of this post. The foundation that I am going to lay most will agree with me at first, but its the conclusion of the reader that I worry about. What is that foundation? Its that the WORD OF THE LORD ENDURES FOREVER! Most would give a hearty amen and a agreement to this until I give more explanation. Let me ask all of my readers a question…..is THE TEN COMMANDMENTS and the Old Testament(OT) apart of the word of the Lord that endures forever? Most would say so and I did for many years until I realized that I really said that but did not show it. The first brick in the foundation is that the word of the Lord endures forever which is the OT and New Testament(NT) in the Bible. The second brick in the foundation of our faith that I want to establish is summarized in 2 rules as follows:

1. There are no contradictions in the Bible

2. If you think you have found a contradiction in the Bible then go back and read rule number 1 again.

I am going to give you three bricks that you need in your foundation that is vital in understanding the word of God.

Brick #1: The Word of God endures forever and never changes

Brick #2: The Word of God never contradicts itself

Brick # 3: The foundation and basis of the right side of your Bible (NT) is the left side of your Bible(OT)

If one really wants to understand the word of God and grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ then these three bricks are key to the foundation of following God. Most folks including myself never have any issues with bricks #1 and #2 above. Let me expound more fully on # 3.

There is a great lack in the understanding of the word of God when we read the back of the book before the beginning of the book. The writers of the NT believed the OT was the final authority and would never contradict Moses or the prophets which was the word of God and still is as much as the NT is.

Now that I have laid some bricks in the foundation, I can elaborate more on the item I disagree with in the Free Will Baptist Treatise. In the treatise it has a doctrinal position on the sabbath that states it USED TO BE( does the word of God endure forever or not) the seventh day of the week (Saturday)but is now the first day of the week (Sunday). I after much studying disagree with that statement of faith on the Sabbath. I could go on and on about the reasons why I disagree with that statement but that is for another post. I will be doing much writing and producing audio and video teachings on the subject of the Sabbath in the future. At this moment, I am just giving folks an update on Brady Crum Ministries and where I am at in my walk with the lord. I believe that the 4th commandment in the 10 commandments is still true today and is as much as the word of God now as it was in Exodus 20. I also believe that since the word of God endures forever that what is suitable as food to be eaten by humans and what is not has not changed as Leviticus 11 is as much as the word of God that endures forever as any other portion of holy scripture. The scriptures is not a buffet where we can choose what we like or do not like. It is all the word of God and it endures forever. I also believe that the festivals of the Lord, that is to say his holidays are forever and is as much as the word of God now as it was in Leviticus 23. These are some ways of God that I have had expounded to me more perfectly. Let me say a few things in conclusion.

First, I love my fellow christian friends who disagree with me. I also would love if our friendships do not expire because of our few differences. What are some of them differences based off of the foundation of the eternal word of God? The three areas of my life that has changed as a result of the foundations listed above is as follows:

1. What day I rest and have corporate worship on

2. What foods I eat or don’t eat

3. The holidays that we celebrate

I also do not believe that keeping the Sabbath, eating clean, or celebrating the holidays of the Lord  or our obedience to any of God’s word gets or keeps a person saved. All that are born again and are in Christ are just trying to love the Lord and serve him the best they know how as a way to love him back as he as loved us first. Our obedience to God is a manifestation of our love towards him and is not the means to our salvation. I want to make this as clear and loud as possible. I want to ask for the prayers of my brothers and sisters despite your particular denomination or set of beliefs to pray for Bible Truth Church as we will be having our first service next Saturday, November 16th. If you happen to be interested in attending our first service or you have any questions about Brady Crum Ministries  you can email me at  bcrum1987@gmail.com for further information.  God bless!