About Dr Raymond Lombard

Full Gospel Church of God in South Africa (www.lewendewoordparow.co.za)

Dr Raymond Lombard is currently the presiding pastor at Full Gospel Church Lewende Woord, Parow (Cape Town).  His ministry in this assembly extends over a period of 32 years, and in full-time ministry in the Full Gospel Church of God, 42 years.

In August 1978 I met Jesus Christ, the Son of God as my personal Saviour.

Since then, the words in Scripture that made a deep, indelible impression on me was Paul’s advice to Timothy, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15). Paul emphasizes two very important aspects to Timothy: “Be diligent” (i.e. study), and thereby “rightly dividing the word of truth” (exposition).

I resolved to devote the rest of my life to the careful study of the Holy Scriptures, to correctly divide the word of truth.

I believe in a literal historical grammatical interpretation of Scripture. The prophecies of the Old Testament concerning the first coming of Christ – his birth, his education, his ministry, his suffering, his death and his resurrection – everything was fulfilled literally. All of this pleads for a literal method or principle of scriptural interpretation; this is the Biblical method.

The essence of dispensationalism is the distinction or difference between Israel, the Church (assembly) and the Gentiles (1 Cor. 10:32). This difference emanates from the dispensationalist’s constant use of normal, consistent, literal historical and grammatical interpretation of the Scriptures.

Progressive revelation sees the Bible as the continuous unfolding of the revelation of God throughout the ages. In the unfolding of this revelation, God reveals new things for which he keeps man responsible. Dispensationalism recognizes both the unity of God’s purpose and the diversity in the unfolding of God’s revelation. Only dispensationalism can maintain a unity and diversity at the same time in a system of interpretation that is constant. In the light of this, I am an outspoken dispensationalist.

Pastoral, Personnel and Missions Team

Dr Raymond Lombard has a leadership team in his assembly, which makes it possible for him to be active in missionary work in Southern, East, Central, North and West Africa, Asia, India, South-East Asia, Central and Latin America. God has graciously blessed his local church: he has one full-time personal assistant, one full-time church secretary, a personal secretary as well as one part-time pastor in his leadership team.

Radio Ministry – Radio Tygerberg

His ministry has its own radio program “Focus on the Word”, which has been broadcasted on Radio Tygerberg since 2002. Tygerberg Radio Station is the largest Afrikaans Christian Radio Station in South Africa with 468 000 listeners. The programme, “Focus on the Word”, is one of the most popular weekly radio Bible programmes that serves the wider community in the Western Cape, as well as internationally on the internet via live streaming. All programmes are available on podcast.