======================================================================== PRIMITIVE BAPTIST TOPICS by Various (Primitive Baptist) ======================================================================== A collection of topical studies from the Primitive Baptist tradition, beginning with a study on the Christian benediction from Hebrews 13:20-25. The work addresses key doctrinal themes central to Primitive Baptist theology and practice. Chapters: 145 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ TABLE OF CONTENTS ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. A CHRISTIAN BENEDICTION 2. A GREATER THAN MOSES 3. ABORTION AND THE GOSPEL 4. ABORTION, SEPT. 11, 2001, AND SOCIAL SECURITY 5. ABSOLUTE PREDESTINATION & GOD'S LONGSUFFERING 6. ABSOLUTE PREDESTINATION by Primitive Baptist 7. ACQUITTED AT THE BAR OF DIVINE JUSTICE 8. AFFLICTIONS, SWEET 9. ANGER & ANGRY WORDS 10. ANGRY FAITH 11. ARTICLES OF FAITH 12. ASSURANCE OF SALVATION 13. Adoption 14. BAPTISM - A CONFESSION OF FAITH 15. BE AN OVERCOMER 16. BOLDNESS vs ARROGANCE 17. BOND SLAVE 18. CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST'S PRIESTHOOD 19. CHRISTIAN DRESS 20. CHRISTIAN LIBERTY 21. CHRISTIAN LIBERTY AND LEGALISM 22. CHRISTIAN LIBERTY IN THE CHURCH 23. COMING TO CHRIST 24. COMPARISON BETWEEN THE EFFECTUAL CALL 25. CONTEND FOR THE FAITH 26. CONVERSION 27. CREATOR AND JUDGE 28. CROWNS 29. Church & True Worship 30. Communion 31. DEAD IN SIN 32. DEVELOPING A CHRISTIAN MIND 33. DISCERNMENT NEEDED IN THE COMMUNION SERVICE 34. DOCTRINE AND PRACTICE 35. DOES MAN HAVE A FREE WILL? 36. DOUBT AND LITTLE HOPE 37. DRAWING NEAR TO GOD 38. Does God Repent? 39. EFFECTUAL CALL ILLUSTRATED 40. ENDURE LIKE JESUS - ENDURE THROUGH JESUS 41. ERROR 42. EVANGELISM 43. Examine Ourselves 44. FAITH & FAITH OF GOD 45. FAITH AT THE CROSSROADS OF LIFE 46. FREE WILL OR BONDAGE OF WILL? 47. FUNCTIONS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 48. Friend, Jesus our 49. GNOSTICISM 50. GOD HAS SPOKEN 51. GOD IS SOVEREIGN 52. GOD'S INDITEMENT AGAINST MANKIND 53. GOD'S LOVE 54. GOOD WORK 55. HEBREWS OUTLINE 56. HOW GOD GAINS THE RULE 57. HOW TO INTERPRET THE BIBLE 58. HOW TO...BEGIN THE DAY WITH GOD 59. Hold Your Course 60. IF 61. INTRODUCTION TO HEBREWS 62. JUDICIAL BLINDNESS 63. JUSTIFICATION 64. KING JAMES TRANSLATION 65. LEADERSHIP AND FOLLOWER-SHIP 66. LEVITICAL PRIESTHOOD 67. LIFE UNDER THE SUN 68. LORDSHIP AMONG THE MINISTRY 69. MAN: OUTER & INNER or OLD & NEW 70. MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS 71. MUTUAL PRAYER 72. NEW BIRTH 73. OF DEPRAVITY, FREE WILL AND REGENERATION 74. OF THE BEING OF GOD 75. OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES 76. OF THE NAMES OF GOD 77. Obedience 78. PAYING TITHES 79. PEACE AND CONTENTMENT 80. PERSEVERANCE AND PRESERVATION 81. PLURALITY OF ELDERS 82. PREDESTINATE 83. PREDESTINATION - ITS EXTENT 84. PRESERVATION OF THE SAINTS 85. PROPHECIES OF CHRIST AND MYTH 86. Plan of God vs Purpose of God 87. Prayer 88. REGENERATION 89. REGENERATION vs JUSTIFICATION 90. REGENERATION, IMMEDIATE 91. REGENERATION-QUESTIONS OF AGENCY OR MEANS 92. REVELATION: THE BIG PICTURE 93. RIGHTEOUSNESS' MEASURING STICK 94. Reply to Conditional Time Salvation by 516 95. Reply to Conditional Time Salvation by 517 96. SANCTIFICATION 97. SCRIPTURE ALONE 98. SERVING OTHERS & SERVING GOD 99. SPIRITUAL DRY SEASONS 100. SUFFERING 101. Sovereignty of the Holy Spirit 102. Syllabus of Study in Book of Hebrews 103. TEMPORAL "SALVATION" 104. TEN COMMANDMENTS 105. THE ATTITUDE OF THE CHRISTIAN 106. THE BIBLE SPEAKS TODAY 107. THE CHURCH 108. THE CHURCH IN PERSECTUION 109. THE DEITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 110. THE EFFECTUAL CALL 111. THE GOSPEL AND FAITH 112. THE IDENTITY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT CHURCH 113. THE MINISTRY OF BURDEN BEARING 114. THE MINISTRY...A Microcosm of the Christian Life 115. THE OLD OAKEN BUCKET? 116. THE ORDER OF GOD'S HOUSE 117. THE PLACE OF PAIN IN THE PLAN OF GOD 118. THE PURPOSE OF THE GOSPEL 119. THE QUEST FOR THE HISTORICAL JESUS 120. THE RULE 121. THE WITNESS OF A STABLE LIFE 122. THE WORK OF THE TRINITY 123. THEOLOGY 124. THEOLOGY AND DAILY LIVING 125. THINKING BIBLICALLY ABOUT LOVE 126. THREE THINGS TO DO IN TIMES OF TROUBLE 127. TIME SALVATION 128. TIME SALVATION, CONDITIONAL 129. TIMELESS IDOLATRY-TIMELESS DISCIPLESHIP 130. TO THE SHEPHERDS 131. TRIALS IN SERVICE TO GOD 132. TRINITY 133. TWO-SEEDISM & Mat_13:1-58 134. The Closet Life of a Pastor 135. The Sovereignty of the Spirit of God 136. UNCONDITIONAL ELECTION 137. WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY ABOUT SPEAKING IN TONGUES? 138. WHO IS THE ENEMY? 139. WILL OF GOD, SECRET 140. WILL, MIND, WAY, PLEASING of the HOLY TRINITY 141. WIND 142. WOMEN IN THE CHURCH 143. WOMEN TEACHING? 144. WORRY 145. WRATH ======================================================================== CHAPTER 1: A CHRISTIAN BENEDICTION ======================================================================== A CHRISTIAN BENEDICTION Hebrews 13:20-25 This magnificient epistle concludes with a benediction {Hebrews 13:20-21} and a postscript. {Hebrews 13:22-25} The benediction is marvellously comprehensive, encapsulating the major themes of Hebrews in one grand prayer. The rich redemptive background ofHebrews 13:20reminds us of dominant themes such as the One who lives forever, {Hebrews 7:24} the Superiority of Christ (who is not only our “Great”High Priest but also the "Great" Shepherd of the Sheep), and his sacrificial merit which is the basis of the believer’s relationship with God ("the blood of the everlasting covenant").Hebrews 13:21, likewise, recapitulates the message of spiritual maturity {Hebrews 6:1}ff, and the importance of "doing God’s will" cfHebrews 10:36. All in all, this prayer is a fitting summary to the book. The Solid Premise {Hebrews 13:20} The writer closes his “word of exhortation”to the Hebrews by praying for them. He has warned them, reasoned with them, encouraged them, and instructed them. Now he prays for them. His concern is that they would be faithful to Jesus Christ, in spite of the tremendous pressure they faced. To whom does he intercede on their behalf? “The God of Peace.” Without question, peace was something they desperately wanted. They were distraught, distracted, and discouraged. This reference to God as the God of peace is intended to remind them of the source of their peace. More than that, it reminds them that peace was already theirs through the Lord Jesus. Peace had already been established for them through the blood of Christ’s cross, {Colossians 1:20} a sacrifice the writer terms “the blood of the everlasting covenant”.CompareZechariah 9:11;Ezekiel 37:26;Isaiah 55:3;Jeremiah 31:31ff How could they be assured that reconciliation had been made? Through the resurrection of Christ, the Great Shepherd of the sheep. The resurrection is the proof of reconciliation. {Romans 4:25;1 Corinthians 15:1-58} As the Good Shepherd, Jesus died for his sheep. As the Great Shepherd, He lives to protect and nurture them now. He is the same yesterday, today and forever! This rich redemptive background is the basis of his prayer. The Specific Petition {Hebrews 13:21} What is his request? Namely, that God, through the risen Lord Jesus, would equip them to obey Him: “... make you perfect in every good work to do His will...” The phrase “make you perfect”is the Greek word katartidzo( See SGreek: 2675. katartizo). To a physician, katartidzo meant “to set a broken bone.” To a fisherman, it meant “to mend a broken net.” To a soldier, it meant “to prepare an army for battle.” This is a prayer for Divine enablement, for Heavenly help, for God’s power to operate in the lives of the Hebrews. Only in the strength of the Holy Spirit can any believer be faithful to the Lord Jesus. How does God strengthen the Christian? By “working in”him. God’s work for us is salvation. God’s work through us is service. But God’s work in us is sanctification. What a comfort to know that God is at work in our lives and in our hearts! {Php 2:12-13} Divine strength in the inward man is the Christian’s greatest need. {Psalms 138:3} Why does God work in us to equip us? So that we may “do His will.” It’s not enough to merely know the will of God, or to desire the will of God. We must obey and perform the will of God. As this letter concludes, the Hebrews should have no doubt concerning God’s will for their situation. What was God’s desire toward them? That they would hold the line and commit themselves to a life of faith and obedience to their Risen and Reigning Savior and Lord. Now that they have regained that focus, the author reminds them that God would help them to do it. Why is obedience to God’s will so important? So that we may “please”Him cf.Hebrews 11:6;Hebrews 13:16. The Christian’s ambition in life is to do that which is “well-pleasing in His sight.” “ Grace be with you all. Amen.” {Hebrews 13:25} ======================================================================== CHAPTER 2: A GREATER THAN MOSES ======================================================================== A GREATER THAN MOSES Hebrews 3:1-19 What is the writer’s purpose in Hebrews? He is concerned to demonstrate the superior value of the Christian faith to the Jew’s religion. Under the relentless pressure of persecution, the Hebrew Christians to whom he writes are considering a return to Judaism. Such a return, the writer argues, would constitute the abandoning of the superior for the inferior, the substitution of the shadow for the substance. The Jews greatly valued their religion because it had been given through eminent prophets like Samuel, Elijah, and Daniel and through the medium of angels. The Christian faith, however, was superior to the Jewish religion because it came directly from the Son of God, One who is superior to prophets and angels. The Jews, furthermore, highly esteemed Moses, a man who spoke “face to face with God”and was sent as God’s special messenger to the fathers. Through Moses, God delivered the people from Egypt, gave the Law, and led them through the wilderness. He was God’s “apostle”[i.e. one who is sent on a special mission], God’s “prophet,” {Deuteronomy 18:15} and God’s mediator [the word “priest”inHebrews 3:1(pontifex) means “bridge builder”or “mediator”].But Christianity has the advantage over the Jew’s religion because the Lord Jesus Christ is superior to Moses. In fact, He is our “Moses,” our prophet and mediator, as Moses himself predicted: “ I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak unto them all that I command him. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.” {Deuteronomy 18:18-19} Jesus is, then, the fulfillment of this prophecy. He is superior to Moses in terms of the fact that Moses was God’s servant but Jesus is God’s Son. The author of the Christian religion, then, is preferable to Moses. He is the builder of the “house of God;” Moses was merely a part of that “house.” The danger of apostasy from the Christian faith, then, is more grave than the consequences of disobedience to Moses. The question inherent in these words is sobering: “Are you in God’s household? Are you a part of his dwelling place among men?” The writer answers that participation in “God’s house”is conditional on “holding fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.” {Hebrews 3:6} What exactly is he saying? He is saying: “You claim that Moses is your leader? Very well, then. Moses was faithful to God. He held fast the revelation that God gave to him. That revelation pointed forward to a greater Prophet that God would raise up. Now that greater Prophet has come. His name is Jesus Christ. Just as Moses was faithful to hold fast God’s truth, Jesus Christ was faithful to the truth the Father committed to him. You have ‘professed’ {Hebrews 3:1} faith in Him, leaving the inferior (Moses’ law) for the superior (Christ’s gospel). But now, you are in danger of apostasy; you are ready to abandon your confession of Christ and return to the Jew’s religion. Be aware, then, that you are in danger of forfeiting God’s presence, for you are only His ‘house,’ that is, He will only dwell among you ‘if you hold fast’ your confession at the beginning until the very end. You must be faithful, like Moses and like Jesus, if you want God to acknowledge you as His special people.” In the light of this riveting argument, the writer proceeds to startle them with the second warning in the epistle- a warning against “unbelief.” Don’t let your heart become hardened, he warns. Alluding to the failure of the Israelites to trust God in the wilderness, he implies that they are responding in the same way in the midst of their adversity. The Israelites murmured and complained, questioning “Is the Lord among us or not.” {Exodus 17:1-7} They accused Him of leading them out into the wilderness to die. Finally they conspired to appoint themselves a leader to return back to Egypt. {Numbers 14:1-4} At that point, God’s patience was exhausted. He would tolerate their unbelief no longer. Since they wished to die instead of trusting Him to supply their needs and protect them each day, He granted their request. The people dropped dead, one by one, beneath the scorching Arabian sun. The story stands as an everlasting reminder of the seriousness of unbelief and the subtle danger of a gradual hardening of the heart. “ Hebrews,” the writer warns, “guard your heart. Don’t repeat the mistake of your forefathers. Beware of the hardened heart of unbelief. Instead, hold fast your confidence and hope. Consider Jesus who was faithful to his task. Remember your confession of Christ at the beginning and be faithful to the very end. Don’t murmur or complain, lest you provoke the Lord to anger.” ======================================================================== CHAPTER 3: ABORTION AND THE GOSPEL ======================================================================== ABORTION AND THE GOSPEL by Elder Joe Holder see PB:Acts 19:27 F4 and search for "The bible does" ======================================================================== CHAPTER 4: ABORTION, SEPT. 11, 2001, AND SOCIAL SECURITY ======================================================================== ABORTION, SEPT. 11, 2001, AND SOCIAL SECURITY There is nothing in my lifetime that has alarmed our American people the way the events since September 11th have, but I want us to look at this entire affair from another perspective. Let me ask you this. How alarmed do you believe our people would be, if that same thing, or something very much like it, were to happen every day? Suppose it happened once a day, every day, week after week, and year after year. Do you believe we would ever get used to it? Or do you think we would be absolutely horrified by it? Do you think we could ever get used to the thought of thousands of people being slaughtered on a daily basis? The fact is that the heart of man is so blinded by sin, that people can get used to almost anything, depending on how it is presented. It depends to a very great extent on how the matter is presented by the news media. In 1973 the Supreme Court of the United States handed down a decision, which said that if an expectant mother wanted to destroy her unborn baby, no state government had the right to interfere. Since 1973, abortionists have destroyed about four thousand unborn babies-unborn human beings-every day. On average, they have destroyed that number of babies every day, day after day, week after week, and year after year. They destroy more lives every day than were killed on the one day of September 11th. By now almost forty million babies have been aborted. Americans take the slaughter of unborn babies in stride, at the same time we are outraged at what happened on September 11th. We have been brainwashed into thinking there is a difference. They tell us the baby is not human; it is only a fetus. Of course it is a fetus; it is a soon-to-be-born human fetus. God told Jeremiah, "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee, and before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations,"Jeremiah 1:5. God says that unborn fetus was Jeremiah, before it came forth out of the womb; it was not some indefinable something that might possibly someday become Jeremiah. David said, "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me,"Psalms 51:5. He says his mother conceived him; she did not conceive something that might possibly someday become David. He was David from the very moment he was conceived. But in 1973, in the Roe v Wade decision, our Supreme Court decided God was wrong. David’s mother did not conceive him; she conceived something that might become David. God did not know Jeremiah before he was born; he knew something that might become Jeremiah. In the first place, it is not the place of the Supreme Court, or any other court, to make law. That is the job of the legislative branch of government. It is the job of the courts to interpret the law. But in 1973 the Supreme Court of the United States took it upon themselves to make law. They laid down the law to the various states, and said every woman has the right to murder her unborn child, or have it murdered, and no state has the right to interfere. It has been 28 years since Roe v Wade, and since that day, about the same number of children has been killed every day as those who were killed on September 11th. About four thousand unborn babies, unborn human beings, are destroyed every day, and the news media talks as if anybody who is alarmed about it is part of some lunatic fringe. America has let it happen. For almost three decades we have let it happen. After people became hardened to the thought of aborting babies, somebody came along with a process called partial birth abortion. In partial birth abortion the abortionist manipulates the baby so it is born feet first. It is delivered all but the head. Then the abortionist uses a scissors-like instrument to punch a hole in the back of the baby’s head. A suction tube is passed through the hole; the baby’s brains are vacuumed out; the skull is crushed; and the baby is delivered dead. It is hard to imagine anything more wicked, anything more uncivilized. That is something you might expect from cannibals and head-hunters, not here in civilized America. Twice Congress has tried to outlaw the practice, and both times the President vetoed the ban. Those who tried to outlaw the practice could not find enough votes in the United States Senate to override the veto. It is distressing to know that our president, and more than one third of our Senators were convinced partial birth abortion is a good idea, and it ought to have the protection of the law. I am appalled at the horrible depravity of those men who were willing to fly airliners into the World Trade Center. I am appalled at the depravity of Supreme Court Justices who would legalize the destruction of 40 million babies. And I am appalled at the depravity of United States Senators who advocate vacuuming the brains out of innocent babies. I realize that many of our people have heard the abortion question debated, until they don’t want to hear any more. Most people have made up their minds, and they had rather drop the subject. But you and I are going to pay the price for all those aborted babies. Our children and grandchildren are going to pay the price, and they are going to pay in ways few people seem to have imagined. At least, I never hear people talking about the high price this nation is already beginning to pay. Long ago, God said, "Be not deceived, God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap,"Galatians 6:7. That statement is as true today as it was when it was first written. It is true for individuals, and it is true for nations. I want to look at just one problem abortion is already bringing on this nation. It is a problem whose dimensions our elected leaders seem totally unwilling to discuss. We constantly hear people talk on television about the condition of Social Security. We are forever being told that Social Security is in trouble. They name various dates when the system will go broke. But I have never yet heard a news commentator who has the nerve to tell us why Social Security is going broke. It should not take a rocket scientist to figure it out; but they don’t dare say it. For years we’ve heard the myth about the Social Security Trust Fund, about the lock box as they like to call it. The fact is, there never has been a lock box. Social Security has always been a pass through system; present wage earners have always supported present retirees. So why is Social Security going broke? Since 1973, when the Supreme Court handed down the Roe v Wade Decision, Americans have aborted babies at the rate of 1.5 million per year. Or to say it another way, we have aborted future wage earners at the rate of some 1.5 million per year. We have done that for 28 years now. That adds up to more than 40 million people-40 million people who will never be in the work force. They will never pay into the Social Security system. By this date, some 10 million of those 40 million people would be in the labor force earning wages, and paying taxes into Social Security. There can be no doubt that Social Security is in trouble; but there is nothing wrong with Social Security that another 10 million wage earners paying into the system would not solve. That is the reason Social Security is going broke; and that is the reason it cannot be fixed. Millions of wage earners retire out of the labor force-and start collecting checks-every year. And there are some 1.5 million wage earners who do not enter the work force to replace them. Those wage earners are dead. They will never be in the labor force. They will never pay into the system. In another 20 years there will be 40 million wage earners missing from the labor force. Those 40 million people will never pay into the system. You cannot continue any system for long, if you constantly eliminate those people who pay the bills. Our abortionists seem never to have figured that out. In 1935, when Social Security began, there were about 16 wage earners for every retiree. Today the figure is a little better than 2 to 1. The number of retirees continues to rise, and the number of wage earners continues to shrink. At some point the burden becomes an unbearable load for the few people still working. But that is not the entire problem. About the same time there are not enough wage earners to support the system, there will also not be enough working people to support nursing homes either. Both require money; there has to be somebody working to pay the bills. I know this is alarming, but I’m not going to say, "I don’t want to alarm you." I do want to alarm you. I think that sometimes we preachers get the idea this matter of preaching is a popularity contest. I quit worrying a long time ago about being a popular preacher. I have learned I’m never going to be everybody’s favorite preacher. I am not sure I will ever be anybody’s favorite preacher. But God doesn’t call preachers to run popularity contests. He calls us to preach the truth, and sometimes preaching the truth involves identifying sin and warning against it. But back to the subject at hand. There was a time when people had big families. When Social Security began, it was very common for families to have five or six children; some families had many more. Those children provided most of the security for their parents in their old days. More than that, most people grew up, lived, and died within a few miles of where they were born. They were related to half the people in the community. They had parents, and children, and brothers, and sisters, and brothers-in-law, and sisters-in-law, and uncles, and aunts, and nieces, and nephews, and cousins, in the neighborhood. If anybody got in distress, they usually had enough kinfolks in the neighborhood to take care of them. Today, our families are much smaller, and they are scattered all over the country. Most of our people live in large cities and towns. We do not have the support system our parents’ generation had. If we get in distress, we would be hard pressed to find help without looking to some government agency. And abortion is steadily crippling and destroying those agencies. People are moving away to find work, and our families are scattered all over the country. Can you imagine the cataclysm that is going to face this country when Social Security really does get in trouble? It is fairly certain there will always be Social Security. After all this time, Congress would not dare to eliminate those monthly checks. They just won’t be big enough to buy anything. When inflation comes back, it will come back with a vengeance, and it will not take long for inflation to eat up those little checks. They will always let you retire, but they will keep pushing the retirement age back, until, before you can start drawing a check, you will likely be too feeble to work anyway. By the time abortion has so crippled Social Security that it cannot do the job, and nursing homes are either full, or out of business, the social explosion that will rock this nation will make the World Trade Center bombing look like a firecracker. We are already seeing another aspect of the problem. There are only three things the social engineers can do. One, they can lower Social Security benefits. Two, they can push back the retirement age. And three, they can throw open the borders, and invite immigrants to come in to take the jobs, earn the wages, and pay the taxes. If Social Security is going to survive, in any form, somebody will have to fill the jobs, and pay the taxes. Those taxes will never be paid by those people who have been aborted. In spite of all the protests to the contrary, our borders are already being quietly opened; immigrants are already fanning out across the nation. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 5: ABSOLUTE PREDESTINATION & GOD'S LONGSUFFERING ======================================================================== ABSOLUTE PREDESTINATION & GOD’S LONGSUFFERING InJeremiah 27:18God had said that if they be prophets, and if the word of the LORD be with them, let them now make intercession to the LORD of hosts, that the vessels which are left in the house of the LORD, and in the house of the king of Judah, and at Jerusalem, go not to Babylon. Then inJeremiah 27:22God says "They shall be carried to Babylon, and there shall they be until the day that I visit them, saith the LORD; then will I bring them up, and restore them to this place." He had said inJeremiah 27:18that they should pray that they not go into Babylon and then inJeremiah 27:22, God said that they would. I cannot imagine God telling them to pray that it not happen which was His desire and yet He had ordained that they would go into Babylon. This and other texts can be used to show that God knows all things, but does not by that knowledge cause them to happen. In this His sovereignty is unaffected. Because of His foreknowledge He has intervened when He desires to do so and in times when He does not intervene He is longsuffering. God cannot both be longsuffering and also be pleased at what comes to pass. To be longsuffering means to allow the situation to take place and even continue even though it is against what He desires. When God is longsuffering, He is not causing what is happening, else it would not be longsuffering to Him, but would be what He desires. When God is longsuffering it is by definition a circumstance that God is allowing to happen, but not one He desires or has caused. He suffers long because His creation has disobeyed and walked in paths contrary to His desire. He neither desires this contrary walk nor causes it, but rather allows it for the time being. But he brings things to pass so that in the end His Sovereign will is fullfilled. This is seen inJeremiah 27:18-22. It was not His desire that the vessels be taken to Babylon. Nevertheless, God suffered it to be so for the time being, but brought it to pass that they would be returned at a later point in time. Let us ponder on God’s longsuffering, and we will find that while His Sovereignty is never in question, He chooses to allow things for the short term, but always brings things to pass in the long term that fullfills His desire. I do not believe in a "bare allowance," God overrules sin, nothing is outside of His control. But within the scope of that sovereign and total control there are events which God does not initiate neither did He predestinate those events. Those events are initiated by man. Should those events reach the limit which God has determined in His eternal counsel, then those events are restrained by God so that God’s overall control is not breached. I do not therefore believe that man’s will can be said to be completely free. Man’s will may be considered to be free only within the boundaries that God has ordained for him. The boundaries of the freedom of man’s will may not extend beyond the boundaries of God’s overall control. But within the boundaries that have been established for man, man may make his own choices and any evil or sinful consequences of those choices may not be charged to our Holy and Righteous God. They are chargeable to the man who made them. If some freedom of the will of man is not admitted, then men are but automatons and can not be charged for what they do as they can do no other than what they do. If total freedom of man’s will be true then God can no longer be said to have control of man’s destiny for His will would be subjected to man’s. Neither should it be thought that God’s will is hindered even within the boundaries of man’s will. He may in His providence graciously intervene at His divine prerogative into the events and affairs of men as He chooses. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 6: ABSOLUTE PREDESTINATION BY PRIMITIVE BAPTIST ======================================================================== ABSOLUTE PREDESTINATION by Primitive Baptist’s prior to 1900? SEE PBtop: Reply to Conditional Time Salvation by 517 F3 & search for "Elders of the past" May I respectfully offer a "check and balance" to the suggestion that PB’s prior to 1900 tended toward what has since become known as "absolutism?" Perhaps a brief recap of the historical context will demonstrate why so many brethren around the turn of the 20th century found it necessary to make the fine distinctions between eternal and temporal salvation. After the deaths of Beebe and Trott, "absolutism" (i.e. double predestination) made inroads into certain sections of the country primarily via the influence of the print media. Primarily along the eastern seaboard, churches struggled to survive the consequences of these ideas. As the concept of "passive obedience" gained momentum & a spirit of divisiveness grew within the churches, brethren who once appeared to tolerate the terminology of men like Beebe and Trott, found it increasingly necessary to clarify their respective views and distance themselves from what were perceived to be extreme positions. Sylvester Hassell wrote in The Gospel Messenger, June 1897: It cannot be denied by any informed and honest man that such Scriptures as the following are conditional: "If His children forsake My law, I will visit their transgression with the rod, nevertheless My loving-kindness will I not utterly take from Him." {Psalms 89:30-33} If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land; but if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.Isaiah 1:19-20If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.John 13:17If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die; but if ye, through the spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.Romans 8:13How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?Hebrews 2:3"If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His son, cleanseth us from all sin.." {1 John 1:7} See also such scriptures asLeviticus 26:1-46;Deuteronomy 4:29-31;Deuteronomy 7:12-16;Deuteronomy 11:13-32;Ezekiel 18:1-32;Ezekiel 33:1-33Not only is it certain that these Scriptures are conditional, but it is equally certain that the condition, introduced by ("if,") necessarily precedes the conclusion, which would not take place unless the condition took place first. If the conclusion in these sentences means eternal punishment, then Arminianism is true; but either the text itself or the context and other Scriptures, prove that the punishment or chastisement threatened in case of disobedience, is temporal and corrective, and not eternal and destructive, for God gives His children eternal life, and they shall never perish, and though their voluntary sins separate them from His face, nothing present or future can ever separate them from His love. {John 10:28-30;Hebrews 12:1-29;Isaiah 59:2;Romans 8:28-39} Thus the conditionality of time salvation is just as certain as the truth of the eternal word of God. Baptists have always heretofore understood it so; nearly all Baptists understand it so now; and this truth is in perfect accordance with Christian experience. James Oliphant wrote in chapter 2 of his book, Justification and Kindred Subjects, 1899: Some of our brethren think it would be an unworthy motive for us to serve the Lord in the hope of receiving a blessing.[i] But why are these motives put before us as an encouragement to obedience?[ii] Take the words, ("If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love.") Would it be a sin for us to desire to abide in his love?[iii] Or would it show an unworthy temper if we ask, ("How can I enjoy the love of God?")[iv] And when told that we shall abide in his love if we keep his commandments, would it be a sin for us to allow this backed away something from us?[v] Certainly not. To say, ("We shall be blessed in obedience,") would not change the case. If we are told that precious fruits grow on a certain road, we understand that we cannot have the fruits unless we go along that road. So, if we put it this way, there is as much reason to be influenced to obedience by the hope of reward, as there is to admit that our ("time salvation") is conditional.. We gain nothing to say we are blessed in obedience. For in this way of putting it, we clearly hold that our receiving the blessing depends on our obeying. If the blessing is in obedience, it is plain that we must obey in order to enjoy it, and also that we cannot enjoy it in disobedience. But if men obey, they will receive the blessing. Take the text in Peter, ("He that will love life and see good days") etc. Is it a sin to love life and desire good days?[vi] Peter here urges this as an inducement to lead brethren to obey. It is a good motive and worthy for men to desire to enjoy life. Peter tells how to do this. ("Let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile. Let him eschew evil and do good. Let him seek peace and ensue it.") As a motive and an encouragement to obedience he says, ("He that will love life and see good days.") These are not the only motives, but they are some of the motives. It is not sinful to serve God and do right in order that we may see good days. Our ministers have urged this upon the people as one reason why they should obey. I have hundreds of times urged that there is sweet peace found in obedience; that we cannot have peace and rest of mind in sinful paths. Hence, we should eschew evil, seek peace, and ensue it. We should distinguish between that salvation in which we are quickened, and that which ("we work out.") God’s word does not call on us to be quickened or to be born again, but it does hundreds and thousands of times shows us it is our duty to obey. Now if obedience is of grace in the same sense that being born again is of grace, how is it that we are called on to do the one and not called on to do the other?[vii] [viii] We can scarcely read a page of God’s word that we see a command, exhortation or encouragement to obey the Lord and do right. And we may read every line in the Old and New Testament and not once find it our duty to be born again. Now if both are of grace in the same sense, why are we times without limit exhorted to do the one and scores of motives to induce us thereto, and not once exhorted to do the other. The fact is we should make a distinction here. We should either exhort everybody to be born again, or nobody to obedience, or we should make a plain, clear distinction between time salvation and eternal salvation. And as the apostles of old, we should exhort one another to love and to do good works. We should use their arguments to induce the people of God to serve the Lord and do right. The motives found in the Bible are numerous. The scriptures appeal to us from the love of God and on account of mercies received to our love of life and good days to our need and love of rest and countless motives are mentioned. We do not despise a man if we find him serving God in order to enjoy His presence and approval or for fear of falling or becoming a castaway. All these motives and scores of others are put before us. God does not deal with his children as a boy does with his marbles and say, ("When I want you in the right place, I will put you there.") His government is parental and moral and not physical. Likewise, the Fulton brethren inserted an explanatory comment on Chapter XVI, Section 3 of their confessional statement: ("We believe the Scriptures teach that there is a time salvation received by the heirs of God distinct from eternal salvation, which does depend upon their obedience. The people of God receive their rewards for obedience in this life only. We believe that the ability of the Christian is the unconditional gift of God...The act of God necessary to our regeneration must in some sense be distinguished from his act necessary to our obedience. We are never commanded to be born again, but in hundreds of places we are called on to obey. We are passive in regeneration, but in obedience we are active. Regeneration is neither a vice nor a virtue; obedience is a virtue and disobedience a vice. Regeneration is wholly independent of the will. There could be no such a thing as obedience or disobedience independent of the will. Men do not neglect to be born again, but they do neglect their duty.") Commenting on Section 5, Chapter XVI, they wrote: ("We hold, too, that conditionality is an essential element of moral government. We distinguish between God’s government of mind and his government of matter.") Throughout the 20th Century, PB’s continued to grapple with the influx of ("absolutism.") In Arkansas, the 1943 Rhodes-West Debate focused on two propositions: (1) ("The Scriptures teach that God, from the beginning, did absolutely predestinate all things, both good and evil, whatsoever comes to pass") (Rhodes affirm; West deny); (2) ("The Scriptures teach that the salvation of God’s people here in time, after regeneration, is conditional on them living up to Scriptural requirements; also, their suffering and afflictions are conditional on them not living as they are commanded") (West affirm; Rhodes deny). Elder C. H. Cayce served as Elder West’s moderator. Even today, PB’s find it hermeneutically necessary, lest we violate the law of noncontradiction in Biblical interpretation, to distinguish between those passages that affirm a monergistic, i.e. the work of one, and those that affirm a synergistic, i.e. the work of more than one, ("salvation.") In less technical terms, we believe that Scripture distinguishes between ("sonship") and ("discipleship.") When we say, therefore, that ("eternal salvation is by grace alone") we mean that God is active and the sinner is passive in every aspect of his salvation, i.e. foreknowledge, predestination, calling, justification, glorification. ("Sonship") is the work of One, from start to finish. ("Discipleship,") on the contrary, is not ("by grace alone") in the same sense that ("onship") is by grace alone. Man is not passive in discipleship, but is accountable to God for his obedience or lack thereof. I am compelled to reject the assertion that discipleship is a monergistic dynamic, but would offer a hearty ("amen") to the sentiments expressed in a recent article by Elder Lonnie Mozingo, Jr: Although we must have grace to enable us to keep the laws, meet the conditions and perform the works required to obtain these temporal deliverances, grace does not make us do these things. If we do them, it must come from obedience. {Romans 6:16;Isaiah 1:19;1 Peter 1:14} I hope my explanation provides clarity to the historical context of this question concerning the extent of predestination and the need to distinguish between the unconditionality of sonship and the conditionality of discipleship. As a matter of practice, I have ceased to use the more frequently used term, "time salvation." It appears that our folks developed this term in a futile attempt to communicate more clearly their distinction in belief from Arminian-leaning Baptists after the 1832 separation. The briefest interaction with most people outside the Primitive Baptist camp will reveal that the term confuses; it certainly doesn’t communicate anything more clearly. Elder David Pyles has made a convincing case that Elders BeeBe and Trott developed their unique terminology with a similar desire in mind, but their terminology was not clearly understood by their own folks. David’s thesis, well documented, supports the idea that neither of these men ever intended to teach that God authored or caused sin in His predestination. Both unfortunate situations demonstrate a point that we should have learned well by now, but our humanity interferes with spiritual discernment. We should be cautious in our choice of terms. First, our terminology should stick as closely as possible to Scripture. The moment we add adjectives to Biblical terms, or substitute our own terminology and reject Biblically specific terms, we destroy any authentic effort to improve our communications.[ix] Scripture never uses the term "absolute predestination of all things." Perhaps BeeBe and Trott should have left it off, regardless of their legitimate desire to communicate our views more clearly to people outside our camp. Equally, subsequent Primitive Baptists might have been better off not introducing the terminology "time salvation." [x] The first time that I find the term used in a significant Primitive Baptist writing is in the Fulton footnotes to the London Confession, published around the beginning of the twentieth century. I repeat; I’ve never heard a Primitive Baptist use the term "conditional time salvation." The only time I’ve heard this specific term was from someone who intended to attack a concept, not explain or clarify it. When nineteenth century and earlier Primitive Baptists intended to refer to matters related to our discipleship, they used specific Biblical terms; faith, repentance, conversion, etc. We should return to their Biblical penchant.[xi] {21} I agree that God did not desire, cause, or command child sacrifice and other sins. However, I do believe that he determined just how far He would allow it to go. I don’t know the reference but there is a verse that says something like...the wrath of man will praise God and the remainder of wrath he will restrain...forgive my paraphrase, but the idea is that it is God who decides how far he will allow it to go before putting an end to it. This is how we can have confidence that God will not allow us to be tempted more than we can bear. Certainly God is not tempting us, but we are tempted by our own lusts, yet God determines to restrain even that sin in us, that it will not overtake us. " I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel stand, and I will do all my pleasure." {Isaiah 46:9-10} [i] Well, on the other hand would we dare ask him a blessing and have no hope that He would answer it? I think not. It is NOT the prayer of unbelief that saves the sick but the prayer of faith. [ii] I believe the lesson given by Elder James Oliphant makes a point that it is right to desire blessings in obedience. That may not be and should not be our main reason to obey the Lord. But God has determined that rewards and punishments to be one of the motives for doing right in this present world. I do not believe the point made by Elder Oliphant can be successful denied according to scripture and experience. [iii] It is a sin if we do not desire to abide in His love. It would be a sin IMHO if we were to advocate that one can abide in His love in disobedience to His commandments. 541 [iv] What greater thing should we desire than to enjoy the love of God. Nothing that I know of. 541 [v] I don’t understand the sentence-it seems something was left out or added that makes the sense incomplete. [vi] Any answer that insists that it is a sin to love life is nonsense in my eyes. I don’t understand why anyone would consider desiring bad days. [vii] Unless God’s grace abounds in us we would never be willing and certainly would never be able to come to God. We would never be obedient to any commandments of God. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:2 Corinthians 9:8 He calls on us to do the works in obedience because and only because He has given us the ability to do so. He has never given one sinner the ability to spiritually rebirth himself. [viii] Amen to your comments! I think Oliphant’s point is well taken. "Justification" is a great book and I highly recommend it, along with "Thoughts on the Will" to anyone. Is this the essence of "conditional time salvation?" My recent querries have not been an effort to attack "conditional time salvation" but only to understand what is being advocated by those who use the term. I think there is reward and blessing in obedience, just as there is misery in sin. I know from experience and from scripture that it is true! I also never feel when I am blessed that it was anything I did that "earned" those blessings, but rather it was God’s gift. I even have found that my own obedience is a gift from God, since I know that if he did not give me the ability and desire to obey, I would go my own sinful way. It is a common thought among people that we get what we deserve. But I have always felt that I’ve gotten better than I deserved. Not just in eternal blessings, but in timely blessings as well. Even when I have sinned, God has still blessed me. NOT as a reward for my sin certainly, but in spite of it, and the blessing he gave was the blessing of having the ability and desire to REPENT of those sins. That doesn’t seem to harmonize with condition time salvation, but maybe I am missing something... I would appreciate anyone’s comments as I seek to gain a better understanding of these profound topics. [ix] I agree. I do not believe that Trott or Beebe advocated that God caused sin. Hassell attested on a few occasions that many of the disputes were only over wording and that he himself agreed with the views on predestination expressed by Silus Durand and others, including the tract "absolute predestination" by Zanchius (a swiss reformer I believe). In a discussion on predestination, Silus Durand commented, among other things, that "I believe that God has purposed acts to be done which are sinful and wicked in them that do them." and " Some tell me that this cannot be reconciled, that if God should purpose that to exist which he hates. I simply reply that he has done so, for he says he has." Hassell’s response to Durands letter contained this statement..." I thoroughly and heartily agree in the sentiment of my dear brother that there is no essential difference in doctrine between him and myself--between our highly esteemed supralapsarian and our infralapsaiian brethren," [x] In reference to the discussion over whether or not the term "time salvation" should be used, I would note that in my experience it is the term "conditional time salvation" and not "time salvation" that has caused disagreement. Also, I think I partly agree that it is a disagreement with the concept more than simply a disagreement with the wording. Furthermore, I think that since many people today associate the term salvation only with eternal consequences, it may be necessary to employ a term like "time salvation" or "temporal salvation." I think it is easy to explain to an unbiased person the validity of a concept such as temporal salvation. It is perfectly logical and simple to understand that not all deliverances are eternal. In "the cause of God and truth" by John Gill, he uses the term "temporal salvation" and uses the concept very effectively to refute common Arminian proof-texts. I also think that though "time salvation" is American language, the concept is as old as the bible. [xi] I have found great peace and doctrinal soundness among my brethren here and have not heard the termonology such as "conditional time salvation" and "absolute predestination of all things" among our brethren until recently. I agree that it is better to stick to biblical terms. That is what our preachers do and in turn we have avoided harmful extremes and divisive language. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 7: ACQUITTED AT THE BAR OF DIVINE JUSTICE ======================================================================== ACQUITTED AT THE BAR OF DIVINE JUSTICE What will be the sinner’s plight when he is brought before the tribunal of Heaven to argue and debate his case with God? Can he, by acting the part of his own attorney, frame conclusive arguments to vindicate himself of his crimes against God’s holy law? Consider the following fictitious transcript of "the Grand Assize." The sinner is the accused; Satan, "the accuser of the brethren," is the prosecuting attorney; {Revelation 12:10;Zechariah 3:1} the charge is "an indictment in ten counts for offending the Judge of all the earth and His holy law." Listen, now, as the high court of heaven is called to order: "The highest court in heaven and earth is now in session. The honorable and righteous ‘Judge of all the earth’ presiding." PROSECUTION: Your Honor, the prosecution intends to establish with irrevocable proofs that this man is guilty of manifold transgressions against Thy holy law. In ten general counts he has offended, and under each of these several categories, he is guilty of numerous specific sins. I intend to prove that he is a hypocrite, claiming to be one of Thy people though his life is marked by various inconsistencies. In fact, by virtue of his sins, I will insist that he deserves the maximum sentence that can be imposed by the law- the ultimate death of eternal punishment. I call five witnesses to establish this case and present the evidence that will condemn this man. First, I appeal to "the Law" itself, which cannot but "tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth," for it is "spiritual, and the commandment holy, just, and good." Tell me, thou holy Law, do you know this man? LAW: Yes; he has often professed to serve me and keep my statutes. {John 5:45} But I must tell the truth, for he has frequently violated my precepts. He has, in fact, broken every commandment from the first to the last, not necessarily in terms of external behavior, but in terms of desire and passion of heart. He has transgressed, that is "gone over" my commandments; {1 John 3:4} he has trespassed, that is "gone beyond" my commandments, and at all times and in all circumstances, he has "come short" of measuring up to the perfect standard of the glory of God. {Romans 3:23} The first commandment alone is enough to bring him under the penal sanction of Divine justice: "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." The accused is guilty of idolatry! ACCUSED: Objection, Your Honor, but I have never bowed to an idol. LAW: Ah, but you have, for every covetous desire is idolatrous, a deification of self in terms of an inordinate preoccupation with personal pleasure and happiness. {Colossians 3:5} Further, you once thirsted for personal honor, driven by ambition for the praise of men, seeking for thyself the kind of glory that is due only to God. This too is idolatry. DIVINE JUSTICE: Objection over-ruled. LAW: I further confess that he is guilty of perjury, for he has "taken the name of the Lord God in vain," by virtue of the many broken promises and unfulfilled covenants he made with others. Also, he has breached that most sacred commandment on the second table against his fellow man: "Thou shalt not kill." ACCUSED: Objection, Your Honor. I cannot be silent before such an outrageous charge. This accusation is unfounded. When did I, like evil Cain, take the life of my brother? I am no murderer! LAW: Is not the Scripture true, "Whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment?" {Matthew 5:22} And "whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer?" {1 John 5:15} Isn’t hatred the moral equivalent of murder, that is, murder by feeling? DIVINE JUSTICE: Objection over-ruled. LAW: I have yet another charge to which the accused must plead guilty: "Thou shalt not commit adultery." The accused, again, is guilty of violating this express command. ACCUSED: Objection, Your Honor. Surely it cannot be proved that I have broken the solemn ties of matrimony and coveted my neighbor’s wife. I am no adulterer! LAW: What does the Scripture say? "Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart." {Matthew 5:28} Again, a corrupt deed proceeds from a corrupt heart; the very thought, therefore, is of the same nature as the deed, equally reprehensible before the gaze of a Holy God. DIVINE JUSTICE: Objection over-ruled. You may step down, "Mr. Law." PROSECUTION: Your Honor, I call as my second witness one who knows the accused better than any mortal, "The Flesh." Mr. Flesh, how well acquainted are you with the accused? FLESH: I have been his companion throughout his life. Like a putrid carcass strapped to his back, I have accompanied him on every journey. We have been together every hour of every day. When he sat down to eat, I peered over his shoulder. When he reclined to sleep, I was with him. Whatever he did, where ever he went, I was there, and I must confess, he was very kind to me. He sometimes pampered me and allowed me to gratify my appetites. He often "made provision for me," {Romans 13:14} even at times going out of his way to make me comfortable. I tell this court in all candor that he is a wonderful person. No one could ever be a better friend to me than he. Sometimes he catered to pride and self-conceit, entertaining the arrogance of a haughty spirit. Oh, he made me so happy! He generously indulged my desire for sloth and lethargy. Frequently on the Lord’s Day, he would allow me to enjoy the spirit of slumber and, in much gratitude, I would supply him with a thousand excuses to justify his absence at public worship. He allowed me to take regular vacations from the hard and unpleasant task of daily prayer and family worship. He knew how I detested Bible reading, so he allowed me to watch the television instead. When he was tempted to obey God, I would persuade him with arguments of unbelief and he, I’m happy to say, was amazingly eager to comply with my counsel. When he would rejoice over another’s success, I would remind him that he deserved it more than they and this would produce my favorite disposition of mind, jealousy and envy. (The prosecuting attorney laughs.) PROSECUTOR: What you describe as virtues are, in reality, great vices. The accused is clearly guilty. DIVINE JUSTICE: You may step down, Mr. Flesh. PROSECUTOR: Your Honor, I call as my third witness, the "Conscience" of the accused. Mr. Conscience, please tell this court of your experience with the accused. CONSCIENCE: I tell you now, even weeping, that I am battle-worn and weary. For a long time, I have been engaged in the fiercest of conflict with the previous witness, Mr. Flesh. Although I was victorious on occasion, yet I suffered many painful wounds at his hands. If the accused had but heeded my counsel, I would have never suffered defeat, but he frequently allied himself with Mr. Flesh against me. Even on those occasions when I condemned his soul and brought him under heavy burdens of guilt, he still rebelled against me. I would bring Scripture before his mind, but he would thrust them out and refuse to admit his failures or repent of his ways. When he attended public worship, I would take the opportunity to afflict and chasten him with the preacher’s words, but he would harden his heart, stiffen his neck, and brace himself in rejection against my reproof. How he has tortured and vexed me! I cannot begin to explain how he has grieved me. His reluctance to follow my counsel is only one of his crimes against me. He has also neglected my education by the word of God and the practice of the spiritual disciplines. Seldom has he permitted me any respite from the assaults of Mr. Flesh. How sorely I’ve been treated all of my days. DIVINE JUSTICE: You may step down, Mr. Conscience. Have you any further witnesses? PROSECUTOR: I have yet two more, Your Honor. May I suggest that the evidence presented thus far argues incontrovertibly against the accused, but I will now proceed to establish his guilt with two final proofs. For my fourth witness, therefore, I call "the World." Tell me, Mr. World, how well do you know the accused? WORLD: Very well. As a matter of fact, he is "a friend of the world." {James 4:4} From his birth, he has "walked according to the course of this world," {Ephesians 2:2} governed by the "rudiments of this world." {Colossians 2:2} I have observed his daily conduct and can readily say that he possesses an insatiable hunger for reputation. He is a thorough worldling. Someone once said that he claimed to believe in God, but he has never said anything to me about it. I’ve never heard one word fall from his lips about the Lord. He hoards filthy lucre like a miser. Once when a store clerk gave him too much change, he concealed the error, justifying himself by saying, "She should have been more careful." He thinks that he has me fooled, but I have observed him for so long that I must conclude that he is no different than everyone else around him. When needy people approached him for assistance, he turned them empty away. I heard him say, "In this world, a person must look out for himself. After all, if I shared with others what I have accumulated by my own hard work, how could I afford to maintain my own high standard of living?" He has even spoken unkindly to those who desired his aid. He is a thoroughgoing materialist. Conventional wisdom and popular opinion are the criteria by which he makes his decisions. He desperately wants to be popular among men. Yes, this man is synthetic in the strictest sense of the word. DIVINE JUSTICE: You may step down, Mr. World. You may call your final witness, Prosecution. PROSECUTOR: The prosecution calls as its final witness, the defendant himself. You have heard the accusations against you. Have you an acceptable answer to these serious charges? Well, speak man. ACCUSED: Well, I, I, I did my best to do right. PROSECUTION: Your best? Ha! You’ve never done your best in any endeavor, whether in family, business, social, or religious employments. Your life has been wasted- squandered! You are the chief of sinners. Your sins of omission and sins of commission; your presumptuous sins against the light of knowledge and your secret sins have now been tallied and the unescapable dilemma of your soul is now plain. Your Honor, since the evidence is overwhelmingly conclusive of his guilt, and since he has offended even Thee, I demand, in the name of righteousness, justice, and equity that he receive at the hands of this court the maximum sentence according to the law; that is, that he be forever banished into conscious oblivion, suffering the torment of everlasting fire in the lowest hell. The sinner’s case, as you can see, is quite dismal. Oh, if he just had a lawyer! "Oh, that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth with his neighbor." {Job 16:21} But who would take his case? In the face of such incontrovertible evidence, what attorney would be willing to represent him, much less able to procure his justification? Who could one find who has the necessary legal qualifications to take upon himself the sinner’s defense? Such a desperate plight is depicted by the Psalmist when he queries, "Oh Lord, if thou shouldest mark iniquities, who shall stand?" {Psalms 130:3} and by Job when he asserts, "If God should contend with man, man cannot answer him one of a thousand." {Job 9:2} Would any reader dare to attempt to plead his own merit before such a court? Weighed in the balance of human failure and Divine holiness, man’s works are lighter than air. Surely, the rebel sinner has met his doom. But, wait a moment. Court has not yet been adjourned. I think I hear Job intimating that there is hope for sinners: "I know that it is so of a truth, but how should man be just with God?" {Job 9:1} The Psalmist also offers a ray of hope, saying, "But there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared." {Psalms 130:4} Suddenly, the noise of a hundred voices of condemnation are silenced as One rises to his feet to plead with the judge on behalf of the accused. He is the Judge’s own Son, and the believing sinner’s "advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." {1 John 2:2} Hear him as he addresses the court: JESUS: Righteous Father, I have voluntarily assumed the office of mediator for this man. Though he is vile and sinful, guilty of each of the foregoing charges, yet I confess to this highest court that I have already paid the penalty for his crimes. The curse of the law fell upon me in his stead. The wrath due to his iniquity has been laid upon me. In his place, I fulfilled, by a perfect and entire obedience, the precept of the law, from my first mortal breath to my final dying pang, and by that obedience, he has been made righteous; {Romans 5:19} therefore, in the name of justice and equity, I declare that to remember his sins against him and to punish him again for those sins which have already been punished in me would be an act of double jeopardy, and "far be it from God, the righteous Judge, to commit unrighteousness." {Job 34:24} DIVINE JUSTICE: Very well, then, without further delay, I will now issue the verdict. This court finds the defendant not guilty of breaking the law. He is not guilty of hypocrisy, of ingratitude, or any other sin. No blot can be found on his record. In fact, his account shows a never failing supply of righteousness, righteousness that makes him fit to stand in my august and holy presence forever. There is not the slightest evidence before this court that he ever committed a crime; therefore, let the record show that he is justified. I declare that he is free from guilt and blame; I proclaim that he is all that the law requires him to be. Let the Wicked One cease from troubling; let this weary one be at rest, for "who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect; it is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us." {Romans 8:33-34} Cast the "accuser of the brethren down," for his case cannot be sustained. This court is adjourned- forever! This, my friend, is the gospel of grace. Jesus stood in the place of His elect as their substitute. Their judgment fell upon Him, and His righteousness was imputed to them. By His unmerited favor, the entire elect family has been made, legally and positionally, righteous before God. When one believes this glorious and objective fact as it is reported in the gospel, peace and assurance and joy flood the soul, as Toplady describes: "From whence this fear and unbelief? Hath not the Father put to grief His spotless Son for me? And will the righteous Judge of men Condemn me for that debt of sin Which Lord was charged on Thee? If Thou my discharge hast procured And freely in my room endured the whole of wrath divine; Payment God cannot twice demand, First at my bleeding Surety’s hand, And then again at mine. Return, my soul, unto thy rest; The merits of thy Great High Priest have bought thy liberty. Trust in His efficacious blood, Nor fear thy banishment from God, Since Jesus died for thee." Think of the doctrine of Justification, then, in terms of three courtrooms: (1) Supreme Court, before the bar of Divine Justice; (2) The Court of Conscience, in the believer’s heart; (3) The Court of Public Opinion, in the eye of society. How does a person appear before God? That is the most important question! What is one’s status before that court? Because of the merit of Jesus Christ, all of God’s elect are "Justified," declared righteous, by the grace of God. It is an objective fact. Legally and positionally, all for whom Jesus died were "justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." The gospel, furthermore, is a declaration of the fact of Christ’s finished redemptive work. It proclaims, clearly and triumphantly, the objective fact that God is satisfied with His people in His Son. It says, "Supreme Court has been adjourned forever for all the Father chose in the everlasting covenant." The "work" of reconciliation is done! When the trembling sinner hears and believes this "word of reconciliation," {2 Corinthians 5:18-20} claiming by faith an interest in the death of Christ, {Romans 6:11} he receives the subjective peace and assurance of sins forgiven in his conscience and, like the publican inLuke 18:1-43, returns to his house "justified," that is, with the peace and "blessedness" of heart that comes from knowing his sins are forgiven through Jesus Christ. {Psalms 32:1;Romans 4:9;Romans 5:1} This is justification by faith, the subjective side of the objective fact of the cross. Though this blessing is incalculably precious, the judgment of conscience is not the last word. No, God is Supreme Court. Conscience is a lower court. "If our heart condemn us, God is greater than our hearts and knoweth all things." {1 John 3:20} The judgment of conscience, however, is crucial to a vigorous and confident discipleship: "If our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God..."{1 John 3:21} ff. Finally, the believer demonstrates his faith before the court of public opinion by his works. When others see his "good works," they declare him righteous. This is justification by works, the evidence of a gracious status before God and a genuine faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Justification, then, a forensic term, has to do with the verdict. It is a declaration of righteousness based on the fact that one has been made righteous by the imputation of the righteousness of Christ. For all the Father loved and gave to His Son, Jesus Christ has already borne the judgment. "The Father lifted up His rod, O Christ, it fell on Thee! Thou stoodest in the sinner’s stead, now there’s no stroke for me. When purified, made white and tried, Thy glory then for me." Do you know any better news? (Adapted from Justification: Dialogues from Nathan and Theodore by Michael Gowens. The book is now out of print.) ======================================================================== CHAPTER 8: AFFLICTIONS, SWEET ======================================================================== AFFLICTIONS, SWEET AFFLICTIONS, SWEET By Eld. T. L. Webb, Sr. See WebbSr: SWEET AFFLICTIONS ======================================================================== CHAPTER 9: ANGER & ANGRY WORDS ======================================================================== ANGER & ANGRY WORDS by Eld. Joe Holder Under the command to love one another angry words, anger in the heart, is exactly what Jesus called it in the sermon on the mount. It is the equivalent of ethical murder. You are killing someone with hateful and angry words. Does it bother anyone that we try to rationalize or justify conduct that in scripture is more characteristic of a evil, unsaved person than of the righteous? It can’t be rationalized - it’s wrong. It’s the enemy crouching, ready to pounce and it has us on it’s mind for dinner and we’re sitting there saying, "oh, I’m just anxious to have dinner with you." You don’t understand - you’re going to be the dinner. You’re not going to have dinner with this emotion, it’s going to have YOU - it’s going to serve YOU up on the platter. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 10: ANGRY FAITH ======================================================================== ANGRY FAITH by Elder Joe Holder I enjoy reading the reformers, - Luther, Calvin, Zwingli and all of those folks but I have to tell you I am somewhat turned off by all of them because there is an underlined anger in their writings that is not edifying and doesn’t do any of us any good. If we had lived in that time, perhaps we would have done the same thing. I’m not saying we’re better. I’m just saying that spirit, like it’s appearance in Cain will drive you farther away from God, not bring you closer to Him. Angry faith is not biblical faith at all, but a pretence. And when I focus my anger against you because I don’t agree with something that you did or that I don’t think you treated me fairly about something I may in fact be bidding a rebellious heart that is angry with God, and by the very act of giving place and feeding and fertilizing that attitude I am in fact moving myself farther away from where I have good reason and hope to meet with God in worship and fellowship than I would be without it. I’m not getting closer to God by anger, I’m getting farther away from Him by anger. I don’t need to go into the details - they are not relevant to this issue, but early in mine and Sandra’s marriage we became coincidentally involved in some church controversy. I tried to convince myself that I was right and those other folks were wrong. I tried to convince myself that what I had done was the upstanding thing to do. The episode lasted over two years. My friends, for two years I wrestled with an angry spirit, an angry heart. I have read in the Puritans of that beautiful methaphorical language of the English people with their own language that we need to go back and learn more how to respect and to use, that describe the moments when they struggled in prayer, when they tried to pray and it just didn’t seem like things were right, that it seemed as if iron bars closed the opening of heaven to their prayers. I know that feeling. I lived with it for two years. Every prayer I tried to pray I felt hypocritical. I didn’t feel genuinely convicted that those prayers were heard and it was not until I confronted and neutralized the anger in my own heart that I found the genuine joy of restored fellowship with God and I have to confess looking back - I was angry with God, not just with the people that received the focus of my anger. I can speak from experience and I can tell you anger will not draw you closer to God. You can be as holy as you wish, you can rationalize as much as you wish that that person or those people did something that did you wrong. It doesn’t matter . . . you’ll wake up some day at a distance from God, not closer. Hear my warning! It is real. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 11: ARTICLES OF FAITH ======================================================================== ARTICLES OF FAITH GILL: And as to articles of faith or things to be believed, we have a creed, made mention of inHebrews 6:1-2consisting of six articles; repentance from dead works, faith towards God, the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. These are commonly thought to be so many articles of the Christian faith; but I rather think[1] they are so many articles of the Jewish Creed, embraced and professed by believers under the Jewish dispensation; since the Christian Hebrews are directed to consider them as the principles of the doctrine of Christ, as an introduction, and as leading on to it, and which were in some sense to be "left" and not "laid again"; they were not to stick and stop here, but to go on to perfection, by searching into and embracing doctrines more sublime and perfect, revealed in the Gospel; at least they were not to be any longer instructed in the above articles in the manner they had been, but in a clearer manner, unattended with legal ceremonies, to view them and make use of them. Thus for instance, they, the believers, Christian Hebrews, were not to learn the doctrine of repentance from slain beasts or to signify it by them, as they had been used to do; for every sacrifice brought for sin, which they were no longer obliged to, was a tacit confession and an acknowledgment of sin, and that they repented of it, and deserved to die as the creature did; but now they were to exercise evangelical repentance in the view of a crucified Christ, and remission of sin by his blood: and whereas they had been taught to have "faith towards God," as the God of Israel, they were now moreover to believe in Christ as the Son of God, the true Messiah, the Saviour of lost sinners, without the intervention of sacrifices. SeeJohn 14:1. The "doctrine of baptisms," is to be understood of the divers baptisms, or bathings among the Jews, spoken of inHebrews 9:10, which had a doctrine in them, teaching the cleansing virtue of the blood of Christ to wash in for sin and for uncleanness; which they were no more to learn in this way, but to apply immediately to the blood of Christ for it. And the doctrine of "laying on of hands" respects the laying on of the hands of the priests and people on the head of the sacrifices, which instructed in that great and evangelical truth, the transfer and imputation of sin to Christ, offered up in the room and stead of his people; and which was to be taught and learnt no longer in that manner, since Christ was now made sin for his people, and had had their sins imputed to him, which he had bore in his own body on the tree: and as for the doctrines of the "resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment," they were such as distinguished Jews and Gentiles, which latter were greatly strangers to a future state; and though they were common to Jews and Christians, yet the believing Hebrews were not to rest in the knowledge they had of these, as enjoyed under the former dispensation; but to go on to perfection; and to press forward towards a greater share of knowledge of them and of other more sublime doctrines; since life and immortality were brought to light by Christ in a clearer and brighter manner through the Gospel. But all that I mean by this is, that the principal doctrines of faith under the Jewish dispensation are reduced to a system; though to be improved and perfected under the Gospel dispensation. Those articles were but few; though Gregory observes, that according to the increase of times, the knowledge of saints increased, and the nearer they were to the coming of the Saviour the more fully they perceived the mysteries of salvation: and so the articles in the formulas and symbols of the first Christians were but few, suitable to the times in which they lived, and as opposite to the errors then broached; and which were increased by new errors that sprung up, which made an increase of articles necessary; otherwise the same articles of faith were believed by the ancients as by later posterity, as Aquinas concludes by saying: “Articles of faith have increased by succession of times, not indeed as to the substance, but as to the explanation and express profession of them; for what are explicitly and under a greater number believed by posterity, all the same were believed by the fathers before them, implicitly and under a lesser number.” It is easy to observe, that the first summaries of faith recorded by the most ancient writers went no further than the doctrine of the Trinity, or what concerns the Three Divine Persons; the doctrines of the heretics of the first ages being opposed to one or other of them: but when other heresies sprung up and other false doctrines were taught, it became necessary to add new articles, both to explain, defend, and secure truth, and to distinguish those who were found in the faith of the Gospel from those that were not. Mention is made in the New Testament of a "form of doctrine delivered," and a "form of sound words" that had been "heard" and was to be "held fast," and of a proportion or analogy of faith, according to which ministers were to prophesy or preach; the first of these is spoken of inRomans 6:17--"But ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered to you"; which is not to be understood of the Scriptures or written word delivered unto them; but of the Gospel and the doctrines of it preached by the apostle in the ministry of the word to the Romans, which they had yielded the obedience of faith unto, and which was tupov, a "type," or pattern, as the word is rendered,Hebrews 8:5and an "example,"1 Timothy 4:12according to which they were to conform their faith and practice; and which in the next place referred to,2 Timothy 1:13is called upotupwsiv, translated a "pattern,"Ephesians 1:16a form exactly expressed, always to be had in view, to be attended to, and followed; and a delineation, such as a picture or the outlines of a portrait given by painters to their learners, always to be looked unto and imitated; and such a form the apostle proposed to Timothy, carefully to respect and give information of to others as a rule of faith and practice;[2] which cannot be understood of the Scriptures, though of what is agreeable to them; since it is what Timothy had "heard" of the apostle, either in his private conversation, or in his public ministry, even a set of Gospel doctrines collected out of the Scriptures and confirmed by them, reduced into a system; and thus the apostle himself reduces his ministry to these two heads, "repentance towards God," and "faith towards the Lord" Jesus Christ,Acts 20:21. And a rich summary and glorious compendium and chain of Gospel truths does he deliver,Romans 8:30worthy, as a form and pattern, to Gospel ministers to attend unto, and according to it to regulate their ministrations. Once more, the apostle speaks of a "proportion" or an "analogy of faith," inRomans 12:6. "Whether prophesy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith"; by which "faith" Calvin, on the text observes, are meant the first axioms of religion, to which whatsoever doctrine is not found to answer is convicted of falsehood. And so Piscator, upon the words, according to the analogy of faith, that is, so as that the interpretation of Scripture we bring is analogous to the articles of faith, that is, agreeing with them and consenting to them, and not repugnant: and Parseus on the text is more express saying: “Analogy, is not the same as "measure" (Romans 12:3) for measure is of one thing measured, but analogy is between two things that are analogous; but the apostle seems to describe something more, namely, to prescribe a rule by which all prophesying is to be directed; therefore by faith others understand the rule of Scripture and the axioms of faith, such as are comprehended in the Symbol of the Apostolic faith (or the Apostles’ Creed) which have in them a manifest truth from the Scriptures. "Analogy" is the evident harmony of faith and consent of the heads (or articles) of faith, to which whatever agrees is true, and whatever disagrees is false and adulterate. This is the rule of all prophesying (or preaching); therefore, according to the rule of the sacred Scripture and the Apostles’ Creed, all interpretations, disputations, questions, and opinions in the church, are to be examined, that they may be conformable thereunto.” And though what is now called the Apostles’ Creed might not be composed by them, nor so early as their time; yet the substance of it was agreeable to their doctrine, and therefore called theirs; and there was a "regula fidei," a rule of faith, very near it in words, received, embraced, and professed very early in the Christian church; which Tertullian gives in these words, “The rule of faith is truly one, solely immoveable and irreformable (not to be corrected and mended); namely, of believing in the only God Almighty, the maker of the world, and in his Son Jesus Christ, born of the virgin Mary, crucified under Pontius Pilate, raised from the dead on the third day, received into heaven, sitting now at the right hand of the Father, who will come to judge the quick and dead by or at the resurrection of the dead.” And such a set of principles these, as or what are similar to them and accord with the word of God, may be called the analogy of faith. And a late writer observes on the word "analogy"; “The analogy of faith, our divines call the sum of heavenly doctrine concerning articles of faith, taken out of such passages of Scripture, where, as in their proper place, they are treated of in clear and plain words.” Upon the whole, it seems no ways incongruous with the sacred writings, but perfectly agreeable to them, that articles and heads of faith, or a summary of gospel truths, may be collected from them, to declare explicitly our belief of them, to strengthen the faith of others in them, to show our agreement in them with other Christians in the principal parts of them, and to distinguish ourselves from those who oppose the faith once delivered to the saints. It is strongly pleaded, that articles and confessions of faith, in which men are to agree, should be expressed in the bare words of the sacred Scriptures, and that nothing should be considered as a fundamental article that is matter of controversy: as to the latter, if that was admitted, there would be scarce any article at all left us to believe; for what is there almost that is believed, but what is controverted by some, nor any passage of Scripture brought in support of it, but the sense of it is called in question, or perverted? for as Clemens of Alexandria says, “I do not think there is any scripture so happy as to be contradicted by none.” As to the former, that we are to be tied up to the bare words of Scripture concerning any doctrine of faith delivered in them; though we ought to entertain the highest esteem of the words of Scripture, and have the greatest value for them, as being clothed with such majesty, and having such an energy in them, which the words that man’s wisdom teacheth have not; yet our sense of them cannot be expressed but in words literally varying from them: and it should be settled what is meant by bare words of Scripture, whether of the original text, Hebrew and Greek, or of any translation, as English, &c.; if the words of a translation, a man cannot be sure that this always does express the sense of Scripture, especially in passages difficult and controverted; if of the original, then both he that makes the confession, and they to whom it is made, ought to understand Hebrew and Greek; and even every member of a church where a confession of faith is required in order to communion; and if this is to be made in the bare words of Scripture, be it in the words of a translation, without an explanation of their sense of them in other words, it might introduce into a Christian community all sorts of errors that can be named, which would be utterly inconsistent with its peace, concord, harmony, and union: moreover, to be obliged to express ourselves only in the words of Scripture, would be 1. To destroy all exposition and interpretation of Scripture; for without words different from, though agreeable to, the sacred Scriptures, we can never express our sense of them, nor explain them to others according to the sense we have entertained of them; and though no scripture is of private interpretation, or a man’s own interpretation, so as to be obliging on others, yet by this means it will become of no interpretation at all, private or public, of a man’s own or of others. It is indeed sometimes said that "Scripture is the best interpreter of Scripture," and which in some respects is true; as when, for the better understanding of a passage of Scripture, another more clear and explicit is set unto it and compared with it, and which serves to throw light on it and give a clearer discernment of it, and of its true sense; but then that light, discernment, and sense, cannot be expressed but in words literally different from them both. 2. To be obliged to express ourselves about divine things in the bare words of Scripture, must tend to make the ministry and preaching of the word in a great measure useless; for them a minister of the word would have nothing else to do but to repeat or read some select passages of Scripture relating to any particular subject, or collect a string of them, which refer to the same subject, and deliver them without attempting any illustration of them, or making use of any reasonings from them, to explain or strengthen any point of doctrine contained in them; so that the people in common may as well, in a manner, stay at home and read the Scriptures in their private houses, as to attend on public ministrations. Surely the apostle Paul, when he “reasoned out of the Scriptures, opening and alleging that Christ must needs have suffered and risen again from the dead, and that this Jesus whom he preached was Christ,Acts 17:2-3” must in these his reasonings, explanations, and allegations, use his own words; which though they accorded with the Scriptures, must literally vary from them out of which he reasoned, and by which he elucidated and confirmed his arguments concerning the Messiahship of Jesus, his suffering of death, and resurrection from the dead: and though he said no other as to substance than what Moses and the prophets said concerning Christ, yet in words different from theirs. According to this scheme all public ministrations must be at an end, as well as all writing in defence of truth and for the confutation of errors; yea 3. This must in a great measure cramp all religious conversation about divine things, if not destroy it. To what purpose is it for them that fear God to meet frequently and speak often one to another about the things of God and truths of the Gospel, if they are not to make use of their own words to express their sense of these things by them? and how in this way can their Christian conferences be to mutual edification? how can they build up one another in their most holy faith? how can weaker and less experienced Christians receive any advantage from more knowing and stronger ones, if only they are to declare their sense of things in the bare words of Scripture? 4. Indeed, as Dr. Owen says,[3] if this is the case, as it would be unlawful to speak or write otherwise than in the words of Scripture, so it would be unlawful to think or conceive in the mind any other than what the Scripture expresses: the whole of what he says on this subject is worth repeating: “To deny the liberty, yea, the necessity hereof, (that is, of making use of such words and expressions, as it may be, are not literally and formally contained in Scripture, but only are unto our conceptions and apprehensions expository of what is so contained) is to deny all interpretation of the Scripture, all endeavours to express the sense of the words of it unto the understandings of one another, which is, in a word, to render the Scripture itself altogether useless; if it is unlawful for me to speak or write what I conceive to be the sense of the words of scripture and the nature of the thing signified and expressed by them, it is unlawful for me also to think or conceive in my mind what is the sense of the words or nature of the things; which to say is to make brutes of ourselves, and to frustrate the whole design of God in giving unto us the great privilege of his word.” 5. In this way, the sentiments of one man in any point of religion cannot be distinguished from those of another, though diametrically opposite; so an Arian cannot be known from an Athanasian both will say, in the words of Scripture, that Christ is the "great God," the "true God," and "over all God blessed for ever"; but without expressing themselves in their own words, their different sentiments will not be discerned; the one holding that Christ is a created God, of a like but not of the same substance with his Father; the other, that he is equal with him, of the same nature, substance, and glory: and he that believes the latter, surely it cannot be unlawful to express his belief of it in such words which declare the true sense of his mind. So a Sabellian or Unitarian and a Trinitarian, will neither of them scruple to say in Scripture terms what Christ says of himself and his Father, "I and my Father are one"; and yet the former holds, they are one in person or but one person; whereas the latter affirms, that they are one in nature and essence, but two distinct persons; and surely it must be lawful so to express himself, if this is the real sentiment of his mind. A Socinian and an Antisocinian will join in saying that Christ the "Word is God," and that he is the "only begotten of the Father," and the "only begotten Son of God"; and yet the one maintains that he is only God by office, not by nature, and that he is the only begotten Son of God by office or by adoption; when the other believes that Christ is God by nature, and that he is the Son of the Father by natural and eternal generation, being begotten by him. It is necessary therefore they should make use of their own words to express their sentiments by, or how otherwise should it be known that they differ from one another? And indeed this seems to be the grand reason why it is urged with so much vehemence, by some, that only Scripture words and phrases should be made use of, that their erroneous tenets may not be detected and exposed; for, as a learned man has observed, such as cavil at the formulas (of sound doctrine used by the orthodox) and plead they should be very short, and composed in the bare words of Scripture "eos aliquid monstri alere," these nourish and cherish some monstrous notion, as the experience of all ages testify. And sometimes such persons take detached passages of Scripture from different places, and join them together, though they have no connection and agreement with each other; and such a method Irenaeus observes the ancient heretics took, who made use of passages of Scripture “that their figments might not seem to be without a testimony; but passed over the order and connection of the Scriptures, and loosened the parts of truth as much as in them lay; and who fitly compares such to one who should take the effigy of a king made of jewels and precious stones by a skilful artificer, and loosen and separate them, and of them make the form of a dog or a fox.” 6. It does not appear that those men who are so strenuous for the use of Scripture phrases only in articles of religion, have a greater value for the Scriptures than others; nay, not so much; for if we are to form a judgment of them by their sermons and writings, one would think they never read the Scriptures at all, or very little, since they make such an infrequent use of them: you shall scarcely hear a passage of Scripture quoted by them in a sermon, or produced by them in their writings; more frequently Seneca, Cicero, and others; and it looks as if they thought it very impolite, and what might serve to disgrace their more refined writings, to fill their performances with them: and after all, it is easy to observe that these men, as the Arians formerly, and the Socinians more lately, carry on their cause, and endeavour to support it by making use of unscriptural words and phrases; and therefore it is not with a very good grace that such men, or those of the same cast with them, object to the use of words and phrases not syllabically expressed in Scripture; and the rather since the Arians were the first that began to make use of unscriptural phrases, as Athanasius affirms. The Athanasians had as good a right to use the word omoousiov as the Arians omoioousiov, and thereby explain their sense and defend their doctrine concerning the person of Christ, and his equality with God, against the latter, who introduced a phrase subversive of it; and the Calvinists have as good authority to make use of the word "satisfaction" in the doctrine of expiation of sin and atonement for it, as the Socinians and Remonstrants have for the use of the word "acceptilation," whereby they seek to obscure and weaken it. Words and phrases, though not literally expressed in scripture, yet if what is meant by them is to be found there, they may be lawfully made use of; as some respecting the doctrine of the Trinity; of these some are plainly expressed, which are used in treating of that doctrine, as "nature,"Galatians 4:8"Godhead,"Colossians 2:9"Person," the person of the Father, and the person of Christ,Hebrews 1:3;2 Corinthians 2:10;2 Corinthians 4:6and others clearly signified, as "essence," by the name of God, "I am what I am,"Exodus 3:14the "unity" of divine persons in it,John 10:30a "Trinity" of Persons in the unity of Essence,1 John 5:7and others respecting some peculiar doctrines of revelation, concerning the state of men and the grace of Christ; as the "imputation of Adam’s sin" to his posterity,Romans 5:19and the "imputation of righteousness," i.e. of Christ’s to them that believe, which is nearly syllabically expressed inRomans 4:6and the "imputation" of sin to Christ, who "was made sin," i.e. by imputation,2 Corinthians 5:21. And the "satisfaction" of Christ for sin, in all those places where it is signified that what Christ has done and suffered in the room and stead of his people is to the content of law and justice, and God is well pleased with it: and these are the principal words and phrases objected to, and which we shall not be prevailed upon to part with easily. And indeed, words and phrases, the use of which have long obtained in the churches of Christ, and the sense of them, is well known, and serve aptly to convey the sense of those that use them; it is unreasonable to require them to part with them, unless others, and those better words and phrases, are substituted in their room; and such as are proposed should not be easily admitted without strict examination; for there is oftentimes a good deal of truth in that saying, "qui fingit nova verba, nova gignit dogmata"; he that coins new words, coins new doctrines; which is notorious in the case of Arius; for not only Alexander, his Bishop charged him with saying, without scripture, and what was never said before, that God was not always a Father, but there was a time when he was not a Father; and that the Word was not always, but was made out of things that were not; and that there was a time when he was not a Son: but Eusebius, a favourer of his, also owns that the inspired writings never used such phrases, to ex ouk ontwn, kai to, hn pote ote ouk hn, that Christ was "from non-entities," from things that are not, i.e. was made out of nothing; and that "there was a time when he was not"; phrases, he says, they had never been used to. [1] See GILL @PB:Hebrews 6:1and @PB:Hebrews 6:2 [2] Calvin on the passage has these words, “The apostle seems to me to command Timothy that he be tenacious of the doctrine he had learned, not only as to the substance, but as to the figure of the oration, (or form of speech or set of words used) for upotupwsiv, the word used, is a lively expression of things as if presented to the eye; Paul knew how easy is a lapse or deflection from the pure doctrine, and therefore solicitously cautioned Timothy not to decline from the form of teaching he had received.” [3] The Doctrine of the Trinity vindicated, p. 21. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 12: ASSURANCE OF SALVATION ======================================================================== ASSURANCE OF SALVATION & OUR CHIEF END AND PURPOSE IN EXISTING by Elder Joe Holder When we disconnect the response to God’s love from God’s love and instead of saying "We love Him because He first loved us" say "oh He loves us anyway," we have disconnected scripture that links God’s effectual call with it’s impact in our life and we are not standing on biblical ground. "Oh God doesn’t care whether we serve Him or not." Show me the verse that says that. It’s not in the bible! And that leads me to the counterpoint that I want to emphasize as well -I cannot give anyone assurance of their salvation. I can’t give myself assurance of my salvation apart from the degree to which my life reflects my love to God. I grant that. I believe that. You can’t give yourself assurance of salvation in the pig pen feeding pigs and living rioteously. You can’t! But there’s something more subtle and more powerful about this truth that we need to understand. The biblical focus of the Christian life is not the objective of me gaining assurance of my salvation or of me assuring you of your salvation. If I put all my focus on the assurance of salvation I will work for it- I’ll say "oh, I’ve hit this hurdle, I have a little assurance here, let me work a little harder, I’ll get here and have a little more assurance." You’ll never have enough to be satisfied. You’ll always wonder, "do I have it- am I assured?" And you’ll never get to the point of contentment. It’ll never happen. Oh, there’s one way it might- you’ll redefine all the barriers and the boundaries and accomplishments of discipleship and then by redefining say, "oh, I’ve arrived, I’m assured, I know -but I’m not sure about you folks, I don’t know if you have it or not." It makes us arrogant and judgmental. What is our primary objective as children of God, creatures of God’s making here in this world? To praise and glorify God! The Westminister Confession, the London Confession and the catechisms that go with those and the whole theme of doctrinal, biblical teaching on the doctrines of grace says that our chief end and purpose in existing is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. What is your objective- gaining more assurance of your salvation or glorifying God? It can’t be both. They’re contradictory. Because one is self-centric, one is ego-centric- "I want more assurance of my salvation." The other is self-denying and says "I want above all other things, my whole purpose in existing is to gloryify God and to serve Him and I serve Him by serving others. Let me invest every ounce of my energy and life in serving God and in serving His people." And suddenly you just feel so content and so joyful and so assured of your salvation and you don’t have to worry and fret and wonder and look at the scales every night and see if they tip this way or that way. You’re investing everything about your existence in glorifying God and in the process God makes assurance flow like a flooding river. It is not that what we do to gain assurance of our salvation causes it but rather is the evidence of it. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 13: ADOPTION ======================================================================== Adoption ======================================================================== CHAPTER 14: BAPTISM - A CONFESSION OF FAITH ======================================================================== BAPTISM - A CONFESSION OF FAITH by Elder Michael Gowens "When they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women."Acts 8:12 Christian baptism is an act of worship, taking the form of a ceremonial washing, in which a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ identifies himself, by faith, with the Savior’s atoning death, and consecrates himself to a lifetime of faith and obedience to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Like the Lord’s Supper, baptism is an ordinance, i.e. sacred tradition, given to the church by the Lord Jesus, both by his own example {Matthew 3:13-17} and his own explicit command. {Matthew 28:19} The ordinance of baptism is a ceremony of initiation, marking the entrance into discipleship and identifying one as a fellow believer with his brothers and sisters in the local church. The ordinance of communion is a ceremony of remembrance, commemorating the Savior’s crucifixion and resurrection by sharing the bread and wine with fellow believers. At least four parallels can be made between these two ordinances that Christ gave to the church. (1) Both ordinances are acted sermons, proclaiming the gospel of the grace of God in Jesus Christ visibly and dramatically. "As the preaching of the word makes the gospel audible, so the ordinances make it visible." They are, consequently, visual aids, portraying the gospel in picture form. (2) Both are outward expressions of an inward reality. Peter classified baptism in the same category with Noah’s ark as "figures" of the means of salvation. {1 Peter 3:20-22} Baptism is, then, a symbolic act, by which an individual expresses his conviction that God has already performed the substantial work of grace in the soul that Paul calls "the washing of regeneration." {Titus 3:5} The salvation in gospel baptism is a "now" salvation ("... baptism doth also now save us..."), that is, a present deliverance in which the believer receives a sense of pardon and peace from a guilty conscience, not the removal of "the filth of the flesh i.e. indwelling sin." {1 Peter 3:21} The Lord’s Supper, likewise, is figurative of the actual means of salvation. When Jesus took the elements and said "This is my body...this is my blood," he meant that the bread and the wine represented, not constituted, his broken body and his shed blood. Neither baptism nor communion are themselves the means by which one is saved; rather, they point to and picture the objective work of salvation performed by Christ and applied by the Holy Spirit. (3) Both are signs of the believers union with Christ. By participating in the ordinances, the believer is reminded of his personal interest in Christ’s atoning work as a participant, not a spectator. The ordinances are expressions of individual assurance testifying with Paul, "I am crucified with Christ...who loved me and gave himself for me." {Galatians 2:20;Colossians 2:12} When an individual personally and physically is immersed, he is saying, by that act, "I believe that Jesus Christ was crucified, buried, and resurrected for me; I trust only in his merit, for time and eternity." Further, when one personally and physically takes the bread and the wine into his body, he is saying, "I believe that his body was broken and his blood was shed for me; he is my only hope for heaven and my only source of strength and nourishment now." (4) Both ordinances are "church" ordinances, in terms of the fact that the authority to administer the ordinances has been given to the church. {Matthew 28:19} The Biblical observance of these two ceremonies, "as the apostles delivered them," {1 Corinthians 11:2} are marks by which a genuine church is identified and defined. {2 Thessalonians 2:15} Believer’s Baptism A convincing case can be made from the New Testament regarding the fact that immersion is the Scriptural mode or method of baptism. Philip and the Eunuch "went down both into the water...and he baptized him," then they came "up out of the water." {Acts 8:38-39} Certainly, complete immersion most accurately portrays Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. Even more convincing is the case that can be made for the fact that believers, as opposed to infants and unbelievers, are the only appropriate subjects for the ordinance. To the eunuch’s question "What doth hinder me to be baptized?" Philip responded, "If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest." {Acts 8:36-37} On the day of Pentecost, it was those who "gladly received the word" that were baptized. {Acts 2:41} It was after Paul and Silas spoke the word of the Lord to the Philippian jailor and his family that they were all baptized. {Acts 16:32-34} To everyone who believes the gospel of Jesus Christ, baptism is commanded, {Acts 10:48} for faith without works is dead. Baptism is the act of faith, by which a believer makes a break with his past lifestyle, turns from his idols, and sets out to follow the Lord Jesus Christ for the rest of his life. It is a dramatization of repentance at a radical level, a turning point in life marked by a distinct and voluntary decision to die to self and to live completely and only for the Lord. It is the believer’s testimony, first to the local fellowship, and then to the watching world, of personal faith in Christ Jesus. It is a courageous act in which one risks the embarrassment and vulnerability of scorn and ridicule as the first step of a Christian discipleship that will be marked by ongoing persecution. It is a confession that the believer is not ashamed of the gospel or embarrassed by the Savior, but willing to suffer humiliation for the One who laid down his life for him. Like the entire Christian life, this first step is inconvenient and physically unpleasant, but a true believer is willing, yea, even glad to suffer hardship for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, baptism is for believers. A Confession of Faith Baptism, however, is not only a profession of the fact that one believes in Jesus, it is also a confession of what one believes about Jesus. InActs 8:12, Luke specifically refers, not to the mere fact of their faith, but to the content of their faith, i.e. not "that" they believed but to "what" they believed: "But when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women." Both of the ordinances are, in fact, expressions of the content of faith. They both say something not only of the person, but also of the work of Jesus Christ. There is no New Testament precedent for separating the person from the work of Christ. Paul said "we preach Christ crucified," {1 Corinthians 1:23} a Christological formula that expresses an inseparable union between the person and the work of Jesus. The argument that baptism is merely an existential experience with the person of Christ, but not a theological confession of the work of that same Christ, is an attempt to put asunder what God has joined together. That Paul understood baptism to be a confession of one’s belief about the cross is clear from his argument in1 Corinthians 15:29: "Else what shall they do who are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? Why are they then baptized for the dead?" An idea had taken root in the church at Corinth that there would be no bodily resurrection of the dead in the last day. This particular controversy was a theological departure of no small importance. Paul saw this aberrant teaching as a threat to the essentials of the faith. He proceeds in1 Corinthians 15:1-58, therefore, to dismantle the false teaching by a logical argument, the force of which is simply irresistible. "If there is no resurrection," he argues first, "then Christ is not raised, for Christ’s resurrection guarantees ours." If you deny the resurrection of the dead, in other words, you must deny the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Secondly, he argues, if you deny the resurrection of Jesus Christ, then the entire Christian faith is meaningless and worthless. All is vain if Christ is not alive. He then proceeds to describe the vanity and futility of a Christless Christianity. Preaching is vain, he says, for we have no gospel. Your faith is vain, for Christ cannot help you if he is in the grave. Furthermore, hope and assurance of salvation is vain, for, if Christ is not raised, you are yet in your sins. Then, Paul says, "By the way, if Christ is not alive from the dead, why are you still practicing the ordinance of baptism, for baptism pictures not only death and burial, but also resurrection? Baptism is meaningless if you deny the doctrine of the resurrection." Paul understood the theological implications of the act of baptism. The inconsistency between their practice of the ordinance of baptism and their insistence that there was no resurrection was glaring. By denying the doctrine of the resurrection, they had robbed the act of baptism of its essential meaning. Baptism is primarily, then, a confession of faith, not an existential experience. Baptism in Christian History Historically, every tradition, whether Baptist, Protestant, or Roman Catholic, considered the ordinances as mirrors of theology; hence, the practice of referring to one’s particular tradition as a "communion," i.e., the Methodist communion, the Episcopal communion, the Presbyterian communion, etc. The tendency to classify the ordinances in "experiential" (as opposed to "theological") terms is a relatively new phenomena that gained prominence in twentieth century ecumenism through the influence of the World Council of Churches and the rapid growth of the charismatic movement. It was this understanding of the theological, not only the experiential, nature of Christian baptism that was the motivation behind the Donatist controversy in the early church (A.D. 200-300). Believing that baptism was first, an ordinance of the church, and secondly, a statement of faith, the Donatists refused to accept the authority of Roman Catholic baptisms. Because they required Scriptural baptism of proselytes and of converts who had received pedo-baptism, Baptists were derisively termed "Anabaptists," meaning "re-baptizers." Who were these "Anabaptists"? In the second century, the church moved from the simplicity of a living organism to the complexity of a sacramental and authoritarian institution. A campaign known as "the Free Church movement," opposing the institutionalized church arose in which certain groups left to pursue a pure church based on the Bible. In his History of the Christian Church, Philip Schaff says concerning one of these groups known as the Donatists, "The Donatist controversy was a conflict between separatism and catholicism...between the idea of the church as an exclusive community of regenerated saints and the idea of the church as the general Christendom of state and people." The Donatists, together with the Novatians (ca. A.D. 250), Paulicans (ca. 625), Albigenses (1140), Waldenses (1180), and others who opposed the institutionalized church were branded as heretics and "Anabaptists." In the book Rediscovering Pastoral Ministry, James Stitzinger writes, "As a general rule, the Anabaptists rejected the idea of an invisible church, viewing the church as a voluntary association of regenerated saints. They sought to restore the idea of a primitive, New Testament church free from magisterial entanglements. This allowed the practice of church discipline, but meant that the church did not have the right to force its views on anyone or persecute those who opposed it." Defining a ‘Church’ Behind the question of the validity of someone’s baptism is the question "How should we define ‘the church’?"Is the church merely some vague, nebulous, mystical group that includes everyone who professes to believe in Jesus? In the New Testament, the idea of ‘the church’ is concrete and definite, not abstract and general. When Jesus said, "If he neglect to hear them, tell it to the church," {Matthew 18:17} he indicates that ‘the church’ is a local group that has definition and structure, else the command would be unintelligible. In general terms, a true church is defined by its commitment to the gospel of Jesus Christ in all three of its functions: (1) The preaching of the word; (2) The observance of the ordinances; (3) The administration of discipline. Each of these three functions converge, like the spokes of a wheel to the hub, on the same gospel. Each is an expression of that gospel. The preached word makes the gospel audible. It is the gospel verbally and rationally proclaimed. The ordinances make the gospel visible. In them, the gospel is visually displayed and illustrated. The practice of church discipline in which each is accountable to and responsible for his brother makes the gospel practical. It is the gospel practically applied and lived out. What a group believes regarding the gospel, then, determines how they preach, how they observe the ordinances, and how they live interactively with others. These three functions, furthermore, are expressions of their understanding of the gospel message. Baptist’s historical insistence on authentic Scriptural baptism, consequently, arises from these three convictions: (1) A conviction for ‘believer’s’ baptism. By that phrase they mean "people who give evidence of regeneration, and who really believe in Jesus Christ by submitting to what the Scriptures have to say about both his Person and his Work.." (2) A conviction that baptism is a confession of faith, a statement expressing not only that one believes in Jesus but also what one believes about Jesus Christ; (3) A conviction that baptism is a church ordinance, an official ceremony that the church alone has the right to administer. This initial ordinance determines communion, the perpetual ordinance. Admittedly, there is scarcely any subject that has been more historically controversial. As in every controversy, the challenge to be people of conviction while guarding against the ugly arrogance of an exclusive, sectarian spirit demands a posture of humility before God. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 15: BE AN OVERCOMER ======================================================================== BE AN OVERCOMER 1 John 5:4-21 John’s exhortation to Christian love concludes with the affirmation that God’s “commandments are not grievous”[lit. burdensome]. {1 John 5:3} That is true in a two-fold sense: (1) In terms of the character of God’s commandments, they are not like the hard rules and regulations imposed by the Pharisees- burdens “grievous to be borne”{Matthew 23:4;Acts 15:10} -but are the standards of a loving Father who seeks the highest welfare of His children. Christ’s yoke is easy and His burden, light; {Matthew 11:28} (2) In terms of the fact that we have been given the ability to keep them:“ For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world...”.{1 John 5:4} [a] When an individual is born again, he is given the gift of faith. {Ephesians 2:8} John Stott writes, “By the use of the neuter ‘whatsoever’ John states the principle in its most general and abstract form. He does so to emphasize not ‘the victorious person’ but ‘the victorious power’. It is not the man, but his birth from God, which conquers.” The gift of faith implanted in the soul equips God’s child with the necessary resources to live a life of victory over the world that once dominated every part of his existence. It is because God has given us faith that we can say, “His commands are not irksome.” Does the fact that someone has been born again, then, guarantee that he will overcome the world? Not necessarily. Notice that John proceeds to ascribe the victory not to the fact that someone has been born again, but to the exercise of his faith: “And this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” {1 John 5:4} [b] The sequence of thought is clear: First, God has equipped us with the necessary tools to live a victorious life; {1 John 5:4} [a] Second, We must utilize the resources He has given in order to live victoriously; {2 John 1:13} [b] Third, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ- that is, a gospelly-informed trust and confidence in the Savior- is the key ingredient to the Christian’s conquest over sin in his life {1 John 5:5} The Premise Implied in the language of these verses is a truth about the nature of the Christian life. The New Testament frequently depicts the life of discipleship in terms of an athletic contest or military campaign. In this conflict, the Christian will either conquer or be conquered. He will either be a victor or a victim. The goal is to overcome, not to succumb in defeat. Romans 8:37indicates that every child of God is already victorious -in fact, more than victorious -through Jesus Christ. In Him, we have been emancipated from penalty of sin. Because Christ won the battle, the warfare is accomplished.Isaiah 40:1thew:1 hew:1 ff. Positionally, we are victors through the cross. But in practical terms, God’s people still face the daily challenge to live victoriously in a world that is characterized by ungodliness. The war is over but the side-skirmishes of daily discipleship continue. John’s question is, “Will you be a victim to the world, or will you be an overcomer?” Just as the Lord Jesus “overcame the world”,{John 16:33} so His followers are called to live lives above the lowlands of this fallen world system. The Particulars What precisely does that mean? In what specific areas does the world threaten the child of God? First, the child of God is called to overcome the world’s obsessions, values, and attitudes. In1 John 2:16, John defines “the world”by its dominant characteristics: “... the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life...” Living in a fallen world, we are bombarded with temptation to sin. Ours is a world driven by the principle of personal gratification. Self-fulfillment is touted as the supreme objective in this fallen world system. It urges, “Satisfy your desire for pleasure (i.e. “lust of the flesh”), for possessions (i.e. “lust of the eyes”), and for prestige (i.e. “pride of life”).”But when the child of God falls into sexual sin, pursues materialistic goals, or adopts a way of thinking that is focused on himself, the enemy of Christ has scored a significant victory. Second, we must overcome the world’s persecution. {1 John 3:1;1 John 3:13} The world will attempt to silence the Christian’s testimony -to intimidate him to soften his stance -through the pressure of persecution. {John 15:18}[ff] The child of God must not succumb to discouragement, cowardice, or silence in the face of opposition from this ungodly world. John encourages, “Be an overcomer!” God’s people must also live victoriously over the world’s distractions and pull upon the heart. Jesus talked about the “cares of this world”which tend to divert attention from Him and His word. {Matthew 13:22} The sheer abundance of daily cares is frequently Satan’s tool to sidetrack God’s people from “the one thing needful.” Further, the glittering wealth of Vanity Fair is enticing to man’s old nature, drawing the heart like metal to a magnet. No wonder Paul warned, “Be not conformed to this world.” {Romans 12:2} In the fourth place, we are called to overcome the temptation to please the world and to court its approval. {James 4:4} If a Christian loses sight of his Lord and becomes preoccupied with his own popularity, he will inevitably compromise the glory of God. {John 5:43-44;John 12:43} How subtle is the danger! Many strong men have been defeated at just this point. Finally, God’s born-again child is called to overcome the world’s wisdom. {1 Corinthians 1:20-21;1 Corinthians 3:19} The journey of Christian discipleship is a precarious act of navigating one’s way through the mine-field of unbiblical ideas. Every day, we are inundated in popular culture with secular, man-centered ways of thinking. How many of God’s people have set out to honor Him only to be defeated because they were duped by the world’s falsehoods? The Prescription Someone wonders, “Is it possible to overcome the world?” Well, yes. Jesus “overcame the world.” {John 16:33} How, then, can we overcome? John answers, “by faith.” {1 John 5:4} Interestingly, this is the only time the noun “faith”appears in 1 John, though the verb “to believe”occurs nine times. John says, “This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” The reference to “our faith”speaks of the action of trusting in Jesus Christ. Of course, this “faith”is first “born of God”{1 John 5:4}[a], that is, created by God in the soul at regeneration. But John takes a further step and claims that this “faith”must be informed by the gospel, move toward Christ and embrace Him in confident trust: “Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?” {1 John 5:5} What does this mean in practical terms? It means that the believer in Christ has the strength and resources necessary, through faith in the Savior, to live victoriously. Regardless of circumstances around him, feelings within him, or consequences ahead of him, the Christian can be an overcomer like his Lord was when he was in the world. By his God, the believer can "leap over a wall and run through a troop." {Psalms 18:29} Because he knows his God, he is "strong and does exploits." {Daniel 11:32} Through "the blood of the Lamb and the word of God" he can "overcome" the devil. {Revelation 12:11} By pleading the merit of Christ, he can save himself from this ungodly world. {Galatians 1:4; } By the knowledge God gives him in the gospel, he can "escape the pollutions of the world." {2 Peter 2:20} Faith, born of God in man’s soul and reaching forth to grasp Christ in confidence and trust, is the prescription for victory in the Christian life. Through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, you can be an overcomer. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 16: BOLDNESS VS ARROGANCE ======================================================================== BOLDNESS vs ARROGANCE There is a difference between arrogance and boldness. Paul had boldness because he was in the Spirit. A man may be arrogant in the flesh. He may be very brash. He may appear to be very strong but it may all be from himself - may all be because of his own determination to make his point. If a man speaks in the boldness of the Spirit, the Spirit of God will use what is spoken to convict those who hear and to make a difference in their life. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 17: BOND SLAVE ======================================================================== BOND SLAVE InRomans 1:1when Paul says that he is a servant of Jesus Christ, he says "I’m a bond slave of Jesus Christ" You remember in the Old Testament where that if a person sold himself to be a slave to someone else, to be a servant because he had become poor and was unable to provide for himself, he might sell himself to a neighbor to be a slave and depending on what particular year that was -in the year of Jubilee he was free to go. But if he had a good master and he realizes that he is the same person that he was before he sold himself into slavery and if he was set free he would probably wind up in the same position and if he had a good master he would commit himself for life and that master would take him to the door post and there he would bore a hole through his ear and that was a sign that he was a servant for life. That’s what David was saying here, {inPsalms 116:1-19} he says "I’ve found a good master -under sin I became poor, unable to care for myself but I have found a good Master in Jesus Christ and I am going to be a servant for life. That’s the right response to make." "My service to Jesus Christ is not temporary, it’s a life-time commitment to Him." "I am thy servant..."-Psalms 116:16Any other response is beneath the dignity of God -any other response is beneath the dignity of God. Any other response to what God has done for sinners than to commit oneself to Him for life as a servant is beneath the dignity of what God has done. "I’m Thy servant, I’m not a hired hand, I’m a servant. I’m in it for the duration." The Psalmist said I will go among the Lord’s people and there I will spend and live my days among them and I’ll offer the praise of thanksgiving to Him for that which He has done for me. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 18: CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST'S PRIESTHOOD ======================================================================== CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST’S PRIESTHOOD Hebrews 7:11-28;Hebrews 8:1-13 Christ’s priesthood is clearly superior to the Aaronic priesthood, as the author now demonstrates. The word “better”appears four times in this section, indicating the superior blessings associated with Christ’s priesthood in contrast to the Levitical priesthood. The priesthood of Christ is characterized by a better hope, {Hebrews 7:19} a better testament, {Hebrews 7:22} a better covenant {Hebrews 8:6} and better promises. {Hebrews 8:6} His ministry is simply better than the ministry of those who represented the people to God under the Law, a “more excellent ministry.” {Hebrews 8:6} In what ways is it better and superior? Our priest is superior to their priest, first, in terms of the fact that he was ordained by God. {Hebrews 7:16-17;Hebrews 7:20-21} Secondly, he is superior in terms of the fact that his priesthood will never cease. Unlike the Levitical priests, he will never die {Hebrews 7:23-24} a. He will “continue ever”cf. {Hebrews 7:3;Hebrews 7:16-17;Hebrews 7:28} Third, he is superior because he will never change. {Hebrews 7:24} For that reason, nothing can thwart his power to deliver those who come to the God by him. {Hebrews 7:25} His power has no limit: He can save to the uttermost! Fourth, he is superior to the Levitical priests in his person. Unlike the sons of Aaron, the Lord Jesus Christ had no sin {Hebrews 7:26} or infirmity. {Hebrews 7:28} Fifthly, he is superior in his function. It is the priest’s function to make offerings. {Hebrews 8:3} Our priest’s sin offering, however, is superior to the Levitical priests because it was a “once for all”sacrifice. {Hebrews 7:27} It will never need repetition for Jesus was not only the priest that made the offering, he was also the offering. {Hebrews 7:27} Furthermore, his priesthood and the efficacy of his offering will never end. He has an ongoing ministry {Hebrews 8:2-3;Hebrews 8:6} as our “mediator”{Hebrews 8:6} and “intercessor”who ever lives to make intercession for us. {Hebrews 7:25} All in all, the sum of these truths is simply this: Believers have a high priest who is eminently qualified to minister to God the Father on their behalf. The Old Testament priesthood pointed forward to this One who now intercedes for us before the Father. Christ’s priesthood is the substance of that which Aaron’s was only the shadow. {Hebrews 8:2;Hebrews 8:5} The priests under the Law were exemplars and figures; Jesus Christ is the reality. Because we have a new priest, we also have a new and better covenant of worship and service. No longer do sinners have to approach God through the Levitical priesthood; now, we can draw near to Him through the merits of our great high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. “Return my soul unto thy rest, The merits of thy Great High Priest Have bought thy liberty; Trust in his efficacious blood, Nor fear thy banishment from God, Since Jesus died for Thee.” ======================================================================== CHAPTER 19: CHRISTIAN DRESS ======================================================================== CHRISTIAN DRESS The subject of Christian dress should be one of great interest to every concerned Christian, for every Christian should desire to bring this area of his life under the Lordship of Jesus Christ just as he should every other area. This writer will set forth from scripture two basic areas of dress against which every thoughtful Christian must judge his actions before God. Every believer should seek to dress modestly. That is, one should seek to dress in such a way that could not reasonably cause a brother or sister to stumble by having impure thoughts. Also, one should dress in a fashion in keeping with his or her own gender. We mean by this that men and boys should dress is a masculine manner and women and girls should dress in a feminine manner. We shall first consider modesty. In doing this we will study1 Timothy 2:9-10and1 Peter 3:3-4. These verses read respectively: 1 Timothy 2:9-10In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; But (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works. 1 Peter 3:3-4Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. While these verses speak specifically to women, the basic principles also apply to men; for this writer believes that many men are as much or more at fault in dressing immodestly as many women. We are told in1 Timothy 2:9that women should "adorn" themselves in "modest apparel." First, we shall define some terms. Adorn means to put in order and make ready. the word is from the same root word as modest, which Thayers Greek dictionary defines as well arranged, seemly, or modest. Webster defines modesty: restrained by a due sense of propriety; decent, chaste. Shamefacedness literally means: downcast eyes. Thayers says it is looking in such a way that would discourage the opposite sex from unholy thoughts or actions. Sobriety means: self control. Now, what is the Holy Spirit teaching us in this verse? It is that Christians should so arrange themselves physically (dress) in such a way that would tend to promote holy thoughts and desires in their brothers and sisters around them. Let us look at some scriptures that will clarify the principle of modesty. Our first encounter with clothing is in the Garden of Eden. When Adam and Eve sinned they made "aprons" out of fig leaves to cover their nakedness. Not only was this improper because of the nature of leaves to wilt, but it did not really cover their nakedness. So God set the first mode of clothing by making them "coats" which were garments which actually covered them. No doubt the man-made aprons only partially covered their nakedness. The fashions of today many times are like the aprons which Adam and Eve made. Could today’s swim suits, shorts, see through clothing, bare shoulders, bare midriffs, slit skirts, short skirts, and tight jeans bear any resemblance to the coats which God made for man. Undoubtedly, they more resemble the aprons. InProverbs 7:10we read of a harlot, whose clothes sent a definite message, "In the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night: And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot, and subtil of heart." Christians, our clothes send messages, and we must not allow that message to be one which might cause those around us to stumble by thinking impure thoughts.Ezekiel 23:1-49gives a graphic description in symbolism of how Christians ought to dress. These ungodly women put on heavy eye makeup, {Ezekiel 23:40"And furthermore, that ye have sent for men to come from far, unto whom a messenger was sent; and, lo, they came: for whom thou didst wash thyself, paintedst thy eyes, and deckedst thyself with ornaments,"} decked themselves with ornaments (wore inordinate jewelry), and did not properly cover their nakedness (Ezekiel 23:18So she discovered her whoredoms, and discovered her nakedness: then my mind was alienated from her, like as my mind was alienated from her sister.Ezekiel 23:21Thus thou calledst to remembrance the lewdness of thy youth, in bruising thy teats by the Egyptians for the paps of thy youth. andEzekiel 23:29And they shall deal with thee hatefully, and shall take away all thy labour, and shall leave thee naked and bare: and the nakedness of thy whoredoms shall be discovered, both thy lewdness and thy whoredoms.) all to seduce their lovers. They played the harlot by their dress and their demeanor. Christians, shall we play the harlot or naively allow our children to do so? Wake up parents, to see if this is happening in your home. The day in which we live calls for conviction, lest we be swallowed by the world and its fashions. We are particularly told not to be like the world inRomans 12:2where the Holy Spirit says, "Be not conformed to this world." There is entirely too much preoccupation with clothing today. InIsaiah 3:16-24, God is seen to abhor an inordinate preoccupation with clothing. Jesus taught inMatthew 6:25against placing too much emphasis on clothing. For the Christian, modesty means simple, neat, and discreet clothes which cover the body. They do not have to be drab, for in many places clothing is spoken of positively in terms of scarlet, {Proverbs 31:21;Jeremiah 2:32;Daniel 5:29} and fine linen.Ezekiel 16:6;Revelation 1:14 One can see God’s concern for modesty in His design of the clothing for the priests inExodus 28:39-42. {Exodus 28:42And thou shalt make them linen breeches to cover their nakedness; from the loins even unto the thighs they shall reach:} He also forbid them to make steps leading up to the altar, so that no one could see the nakedness (exposed thighs) of the priest as he went up. David’s servants are treated shamefully when an enemy cuts off their garments to expose their thighs. {2 Samuel 10:4Wherefore Hanun took David’s servants, and shaved off the one half of their beards, and cut off their garments in the middle, even to their buttocks, and sent them away} InIsaiah 47:2-3God tells Israel in figurative language that He will uncover their nakedness (expose them to shame) by uncovering the thigh ("Take the millstones, and grind meal: uncover thy locks, make bare the leg, uncover the thigh, pass over the rivers. Thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, thy shame shall be seen: I will take vengeance, and I will not meet thee as a man."). The words clothe and cover are used synonymously in scripture. One was not considered clothed if he was not properly covered (Isaiah 50:3I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering.Ezekiel 26:16Then all the princes of the sea shall come down from their thrones, and lay away their robes, and put off their broidered garments: they shall clothe themselves with trembling; they shall sit upon the ground, and shall tremble at every moment, and be astonished at thee.). But one may say, "I only dress this way for comfort." This late twentieth century idea of excusing immodesty for the sake of comfort violates the scriptural principle of modesty. Does God care more for one’s comfort or his modesty? "I can not swim without being nearly uncovered," another might say. Then would it not be best to refrain from swimming in mixed company? Would it not be more appropriate for men to swim separately from women? InJohn 21:7when Peter was only around men fishing, he was naked (the word does not necessarily mean completely nude- see Strongs). But, when going ashore, he put on his outer garments for propriety’s sake. The first thing we notice about the crazy man in Mr 5:15, after his deliverance, was that he was clothed (covered). Let a word be said here lest one think that to dress modestly in itself is all God requires. The Pharisees in Mr 12:38-40 dressed appropriately (Jesus was not condemning their clothing), but their hearts were not right before God. Mere outward conformity to the word of God never has and never will impress God. This goes for prayer, giving, worship, or any other spiritual duty. God is just as interested in attitude and motivation as He is with conformity to His standards. It would, however, be equally wrong to say that if my heart is right with God, nothing else matters. {seeJohn 4:23;2 Samuel 6:6-7} Based on the obvious teaching from the word of God, several clear principles emerge by which every Christian should be guided in matters of dress. Also by these, every Christian should direst his children and teach them. 1. We should dress primarily to please God, and not man. 2. Our clothing should at all times in public cover our bodies, not just the more private parts. The clothing worn in Bible times covered the shoulders, chest, abdomen, and thighs at least to the knee. 3. Any activity which would require immodest dress, should be avoided (such as mixed swimming). 4. The clothing should not be of tight or clinging material which would accentuate the curve and form of the body parts (such as tight sweaters, pants, skirts, or swim suits). 5. The use of adornments, such as jewelry, should be in moderation. To emphasize jewelry in dress is to violate the scriptures. {1 Timothy 2:9-10;1 Peter 3:3-6} 6. To wear heavy makeup, especially about the eyes is a violation of the principle of shamefacedness {seeEzekiel 23:402 Kings 9:30;Jeremiah 4:30;1 Timothy 2:9-10} 7. Any new styles in clothing should be held up to the light of these principles and rejected if not found in conformity to them. Having discussed the first of the two areas of dress, modesty, we shall move on now to consider the matter of gender. It was stated in the opening paragraph of this paper that Christians should dress in a fashion with clear regard to his or her gender. Men should dress in clothes that are clearly and unmistakable masculine, and women should dress in clothes that are clearly and unmistakably feminine. What is said here should guide parents in directing their children to select clothing which will honor God. We are told inDeuteronomy 22:5, "The woman shall not wear that which pertains unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the Lord thy God" (the Lord your God detests anyone who does this NIV). This is pretty strong language, is it not? But just exactly what does it mean? God has clearly made in creation a distinction between men and women. Certainly physiological differences are clear. God had also established a spiritual difference, not with regard to salvation, but to the order of His kingdom on earth. Women are not permitted to teach or prophesy in the assembly. {1 Timothy 2:11-15;1 Corinthians 14:34-35} Women are required to cover their heads in the assembly as a sign of their agreement with God’s order, where men are to take the lead in the assembly. {1 Corinthians 11:1-16} It has also been shown that there are even psychological differences between men and women. The point is, God has made a difference. The dress of the Christian must reflect that difference if he is to honor God. God ordained that men should wear distinctively masculine clothes, and women should wear distinctively feminine clothes. That is why God gave the law inDeuteronomy 22:5. In1 Corinthians 6:9, we are told that no effeminate man shall inherit the kingdom of God. While the clear reference is to homosexuals, the word literally means "soft." The word is used inLuke 7:25in reference to clothing. Here the Holy Spirit forbids men to act like (including dress like) women, certainly implying the converse. In studying the subject of dress in Bible times, it appears that men and women wore clothes that were similar in style, i. e. long robes at least to the knee. It would be helpful at this point for you to get a good Bible dictionary (like Zondervans) and read the article on dress. So, how were the clothes different? They had distinctive markings, cuts, colors, patterns, and ornamentation. An article of clothing was clearly designed for one gender or the other. How does this apply to us today? First of all, the men should wear clothes, styles, and fits that are traditionally masculine. The trend in our day for men to wear necklaces, earrings, and even makeup is a trend toward abomination and should be utterly forsaken. The hair should be clearly masculine in style and cut, and their clothes becoming a man professing godliness. To the woman, she should only wear those clothes which are clearly feminine. Women should wear dresses or skirts for the most part as that is the most feminine dress possible. One might well argue against women wearing pants at all, since until the last fifty years it was uncommon for women to appear in public in pants. If one wants to get as close to the standard as possible, she should habitually wear dresses and skirts. Certainly in the assembly she should only wear dresses. If she occasionally wears pants for some particular reason, they should be very obviously for women in cut and style, and above all things modest. It is an abomination in God’s eyes for a woman to put on a pair of jeans, pants, or anything else in which men would feel comfortable, and as such should be utterly forsaken as a trend away from holiness. Her hair style should be distinctively feminine and long enough to distinguish from a man. There is a devious ploy in our day by Satan to blur the distinction between the sexes. The feminist movement is his most powerful tool in accomplishing this end. Unthinking Christians have also played right along with the scheme. May God give us courage to live by the righteous standards set forth in His word, and lead our children in them as well. Let no Christian be overly enamored with outward appearance. Man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart. {1 Samuel 16:7} May our emphasis be the developing of the inward graces which become the children of God. InProverbs 31:30the Holy Spirit teaches us that, "Favor is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman (person) who fears the Lord, she shall be praised." ======================================================================== CHAPTER 20: CHRISTIAN LIBERTY ======================================================================== CHRISTIAN LIBERTY The doctrine of Christian liberty is one which certainly deserves our close attention today. There are two aspects of this doctrine which one could pursue in such a study. These two are set forth clearly in chapter twenty-one of the 1689 London Confession of Faith. We shall use this article in the confession as a basis for our discussion. Paragraph one of chapter twenty-one reads, "The liberty which Christ hath purchased for believers under the gospel consistent in their freedom from (1) the guilt of sin, (2) the condemning wrath of God, and (3) rigor and {Galatians 3:13} curse of the law, and (4) in their being, (5) delivered from this present evil world, {Galatians 1:4} (6) bondage to {Acts 26:18} Satan and, (7) dominion of sin, {Romans 8:3} (8) from the evil of affliction {Romans 8:28} (9) the fear and sting of death, the victory of the grave,1 Corinthians 15:54-57(10) and everlasting damnation;2 Thessalonians 1:10as (11) also in their free access to God, {Romans 8:15} (12) and their yielding obedience unto Him, nor out of slavish fear but a childlike love and willing mind." This section speaks of the great deliverance which the children of God do receive through the blood of Jesus Christ. While much indeed could be said about the glorious truths contained in this section, our main interest and the bulk of this will deal with the second aspect of Christian liberty sometimes referred to as liberty of conscience. This liberty of conscience necessarily flows from the freedom we have as blood-bought children of God. Paragraph two of chapter twenty-one reads, "God alone is {James 4:12;Romans 14:4} Lord of the conscience, and hath left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men {Acts 4:10;Acts 4:29;1 Corinthians 7:23;Matthew 15:9} which are in anything contrary to His word, or not contained in it; so that to believe such doctrines or obey such commands out of conscience {Colossians 2:20-23} is to betray true liberty of conscience; and the requiring of an, {1 Corinthians 3:5;2 Corinthians 1:24} implicit faith and absolute and blind obedience is to destroy liberty of conscience and reason also." John Gill in his Body of Divinity in the chapter entitled "Of the Liberty of the Sons of God" speaks to the issue of liberty of conscience with these words, "Another part of Christian liberty respects things indifferent: things which are neither forbidden nor commanded of God, and which may be used and abstained from at pleasure." So then, several questions arise. Are there such things as "indifferent" things? What should be the attitude of believers toward things not specifically "contained" (word used in the confession) in the Scripture? What should be the attitude of believers toward on another’s practices concerning those things which are not clearly forbidden or commanded in Scripture? God’s word addresses these questions in several places at some length. May God give us wisdom to examine them and come to the proper light of understanding. We shall first turn our attention toRomans 14:1-23. Here the apostle discusses this liberty of conscience concerning two mattes which were "disputable" in his day. The specific questions under consideration were (1) Is it right to eat meat or should one be only a vegetarian? (2) Is it right to observe special holidays or should every day be equally esteemed? The apostle does not give a definitive answer to either question. These are "disputable" matters which each person is free to decide for himself under the given guidelines. Romans 14:1begins, "Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations." That is, without passing judgment or criticizing his scruples. There are obviously minor details which God’s word does not, and perhaps providentially, even refuses to address lest we be not able to see the forest for the trees. Gill comments in his chapter "Of the Liberty of the Sons of God," "Christian liberty consists in a freedom from all traditions of men; such as those of Pharisees...which were imposed as a heavy burden on the consciences of men, and by which the word and commandment of God were transgressed and made of none effect..." Now, what are those guidelines which teach us how we should respond to brethren who hold opinions other than ours over matters not clearly set forth in the Scriptures as a command or a prohibition? InRomans 14:3we are exhorted to, "Not despise (look down on or judge) them." We are so prone to pass judgment on those whose opinions are not our own. How we should guard against such. I have heard people criticized for: drinking a glass of wine at a meal, observing holidays, passing the plate for collections in the assembly, using birth control (certainly some methods should be condemned- IUD, etc.) watching a movie, eating ham, playing sports, referring to other versions of the Bible, ways of doing business in the assembly, wearing certain styles of clothing, using notes while preaching, having singing schools, preachers meetings, associations, and the list could go on and on. I am not saying that there are not scriptural principles to guide us to a proper understanding of these things. I am saying, if we say that one sins before a holy God in doing this or that, we had better be prepared to use God’s word to prove it. For instance, how could I tell a man it is a sin to watch "Lassie, Come Home." However, I may plainly tell him why it is a sin to watch a movie which contains sexual immorality, takes God’s name in vain, or exalts violence. The bottom line in all of this is stated in verses ten through thirteen. In view of the fact that all believers will stand before the judgment seat of Christ, we should leave the judging for the One who always judges righteously. Also we should avoid exalting our liberty if the exercise of it would cause a brother to stumble in his Christian walk. Here in verses fourteen through twenty-three, the apostle sets forth the idea that the attitude in which one either does a thing or not is the key to whether or not a thing is a sin before God. In this case, one who believes that eating meat dishonors God, sins if he eats. Whereas one who does not believe it dishonors God, does not sin if he eats. This should warn one about the scruples he holds and certainly those he would impose on others. This concept of Christian liberty is enlarged upon by the apostle Paul in I Corinthians eight through ten. The same basic controversy is under consideration here except that the source of the meat is more disputed. Some said it is a sin to eat meat which had been used in heathen sacrifices. Others said it was not a sin. Paul actually agrees with those who said it was not s sin. However, he makes a distinction by saying it is a sin to eat the meat in the heathen temple or to knowingly eat meat which has been sacrificed to idols. His suggestion is to eat and not ask any questions about its origin, because the eating of meat in itself, is no sin. Now, two thoughts are presented whereby we must be guided in this. In1 Corinthians 10:29} Secondly, he gives a two-fold test of whether one should indulge in a thing which is "disputable." Paul says in1 Corinthians 10:23that, "All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not." In essence, he is saying that even though one might legally do all (kinds of) things, he should ask himself first, "Will this help me draw closer to the Lord?" Secondly, he should ask, "Will this hinder others from drawing closer to the Lord?" The whole idea of Christian service is not, "What will this do for me?" but "What will this do for others?" So then, in1 Corinthians 10:31-33two principles emerge in conclusion to the subject. One should be careful in the exercise of his liberty in "indifferent" things, that he does not purposefully cause a weak brother to stumble and fall in his Christian walk by the doing of it. Also, he should do whatever he does to the glory of God and the good of His kingdom. In recognition of this principle, Paul says in1 Corinthians 8:13, "Wherefore, if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no meat while the world stands, lest I make my brother to offend." Lastly, consider the third paragraph of chapter twenty-one of the London Confession of Faith. It reads, "They who, upon pretense of Christian Liberty, do practice any sin or cherish any sinful lust, as they do thereby pervert the main design of the grace of the gospel, {Romans 6:12} to their own destruction, so they wholly destroy {Galatians 5:13;2 Peter 2:18-21} the end of Christian liberty; which is, that being delivered out of the hands of all our enemies, we might serve the Lord without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him, all the days of our lives." In the matter of Christian liberty, there are two extremes which we should avoid at all costs. John Gill, again in his chapter on Christian liberty, sets those forth clearly. He say, "Care should be taken, on the one hand, lest such things should be reckoned indifferent, which are not indifferent, and so any precept or ordinance of God be neglected; and on the other hand, such as are indifferent, should be imposed as necessary, which may lead to superstition and will-worship." Let no one imagine that he can, under the guise of Christian liberty pervert the truth or practice ungodly things upon which the word of God is clear and specific, This is not liberty; this is licentiousness! Jesus said inJohn 8:31-32that it was the belief and practice of the truth which makes men truly free. True liberty then, comes from submission to the truth of God’s word. The Holy Spirit working through the light of the Bible and our conscience leads us to believe and practice the truth. {John 14:26} The apostle Peter in1 Peter 2:16warns us against the sin of abusing the doctrine of liberty. He says, "As free, and not using your liberty as a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of Christ." Finally brethren, how may we escape the two extremes mentioned earlier? We take the word of God and boldly preach and teach all the counsel of God. We speak where the Scriptures speak and where they are specifically silent, we try to apply the principles of God’s word to lead the people of God to right and liberating practice. Hear one last word of wisdom from the London Confession. In chapter one, paragraph one, we read, "The Holy Scripture is the only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith and obedience." It goes on to say in paragraph six, "The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for His own glory, man’s salvation, faith, and life is either expressly set down or necessarily contained in the Holy Scripture; unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelation of the Spirit, or traditions of men." It further states, "There are some circumstances concerning the worship of God and government of the church common to human actions and societies which are to be ordered by the light of nature and Christian prudence, according to the general rules of the word, which are always to be observed." Lastly, in paragraph seven, we read, "All things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves nor alike clear unto all; yet those things which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed for salvation are so clearly propounded and open in some place of Scripture or other, that not only the learned, but the unlearned may attain to a sufficient understanding of them." Is it not obvious then in light of sacred revelation and history that there are some things left to the conscience of the believer about what he will practice? May God help us to walk in truth but never be found binding burdens on ourselves or others that God does not intend for us to bear. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 21: CHRISTIAN LIBERTY AND LEGALISM ======================================================================== CHRISTIAN LIBERTY AND LEGALISM by Elder Joe Holder Human nature constantly leans toward extremes. It prefers novelty to predictability. All too frequently Christians allow this human inclination to invade their faith. Three extreme perspectives claim significant following in our contemporary Christian culture. The first aberrant philosophy ignores Scripture in favor of esoteric “revelations.” It will pay bare lip service to Scripture and rely far more heavily on supposedly private revelations. Christian television abounds with advocates of this perspective. The second error tends toward legalism. It examines every passage dealing with Christian conduct with a magnifying glass and interprets every injunction with excessive legalistic zeal. How do you identify the followers of this viewpoint? Mention Christian liberty, something that Paul and other New Testament writers teach in depth, and they give you a blank stare. For them every issue of every facet of life is positively documented in Scripture in clear and concise terms. In this philosophy there can be no liberty of conscience regarding non-essentials. Everything is an essential and must be viewed and practiced precisely as the advocates of this perspective interpret Scripture. The third extreme view is antinomianism. Advocates of this error emphasize God’s love to the detriment, if not the full destruction, of His Commandments. For them, God loves us so much that He simply cannot bear to impose any rules upon us. Jesus lived the righteous life and imputed his righteousness to us. Therefore, according to this school of thought, the believer in Christ has little or no obligation to live in conscientious righteousness. Live according to your sentiment, your personal “feelings.” If you are sincere, God loves you so much that he really doesn’t care whether you follow His ways or not. In this philosophy living by God’s laws, His divine rules-honoring Scripture and Scripture alone-as one’s exclusive rule of faith, is simple-minded legalism. Just love Jesus and forget about anything else. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 22: CHRISTIAN LIBERTY IN THE CHURCH ======================================================================== CHRISTIAN LIBERTY IN THE CHURCH Last month’s article contained the following: "There is an aspect of Christian liberty that we enjoy and that we allow our brethren to enjoy free of censor. It is in areas where no specific commandment is given and where no violation of biblical principles are involved." Just because specifics are not always given about some necessary matters does not mean that the scriptures are deficient in any respect. They are sufficient "that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works." {2 Timothy 3:17} Our confession of faith states: "We believe the scriptures of the Old and the New Testament are the word of God, and the only rule of faith and practice." Every activity that a child of God or a church should or should not be doing is covered in the scriptures in principle, either by commandment or example. If there is no scriptural warrant for an action or practice, it should be omitted. If there is one, it should be practiced. However, details of how to go about many things are not listed in scripture, because there is no need to do so. In fact, if specific details were given for every activity, the Bible would contain tens of thousands of pages. To illustrate the point let’s be a little ridiculous. The Bible does not tell us where the church must meet. It could be outside, a building, a home, a public building, a dedicated meeting house, etc. The building used for worship may or may not have carpet, air conditioning, padded pews, etc. But, we can find in the Old Testament, where special care was taken in regard to the Lord’s house (building). The love of God should cause us to want to make our church building nice and comfortable. There are many areas where a local church has Christian liberty to act according to its own judgment. This does not mean in every case that its doesn’t matter. It must answer to the Lord for every action and should prayerfully consider what is best in every situation. However, outsiders have no right to lord over how the church handles nonessential things. In the following matters we can all have and express our opinions about what we feel to be the best practice; but we have no right to force our view on others: Each church has the liberty to set its meeting times. It can meet once a month, three times each week, etc. It can hold communion once each year, twice each year, or as often as it wishes. The church can schedule a meeting for as many consecutive days as it thinks expedient. A church can hold a business conference as often as it thinks best, but should follow its own rules and do things decently and in order. It can call a pastor for one year, one month, or indefinitely. Regardless of the term a pastor has been called, the church can dismiss him from his services if it has good cause to do so. A church can serve the communion wine in individual containers, or in a common cup or glass. The wine and the bread can be served by a deacon, a minister or a lay member. Most Primitive Baptist churches feel very strongly that feet-washing should be a part of the communion service. But many churches (some of them very old) on the East coast area do not practice feet-washing. Both sides have historically granted Christian liberty and maintained fellowship with one another. The offering may be taken in whatever manner the church thinks best. Money may be given to a deacon, laid on the table, placed in boxes, or an offering plate may be passed through the congregation. We may like or dislike the way another church handles this matter, but we have no business trying to make them do it our way. The Bible gives no specific instructions in this as none is needed. The manner in which a church goes about supporting its pastor is between it, the Lord, and the pastor. It seems that those who are the most negligent in following the clear teachings of1 Corinthians 9:1-27, are the most outspoken against those who are attempting to follow the biblical pattern! A church should be commended when to the best of its ability, it frees its pastor from the demands of the market place so that he can give of himself more fully to the study of the word and ministry to the saints. A young minister with a family must provide for that family, or else he has "denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel." {1 Timothy 5:8} Should the church and he agree that he will be given full support, there must be some mutual understanding regarding the minimal amount that will be needed to support his family. The method that is used to carry this out is the church’s business. In my opinion, if signed contracts are made between a church and its pastor, this is a salaried ministry and violates the principles of the New Testament. I hope this is not being practiced by any. But, even if it should be, I do not think the practice should be made a test of fellowship. There are many other areas that could be discussed in regard to an individual church’s Christian liberty. In closing, I believe that in all areas where clear violations of scripture are not involved, it is best that Christian liberty be granted and breach of fellowship avoided. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 23: COMING TO CHRIST ======================================================================== COMING TO CHRIST by Eld. T. L. Webb, Sr. See WebbSr: HOW CAME YOU TO COME TO CHRIST? ======================================================================== CHAPTER 24: COMPARISON BETWEEN THE EFFECTUAL CALL ======================================================================== COMPARISON BETWEEN THE EFFECTUAL CALL & THE GOSPEL CALL The effectual call is a call to eternal salvation; the gospel call is a call to repentance and faith. {Acts 2:38;Acts 3:19;Acts 17:30;Acts 20:21;Acts 26:20} The effectual call is a call to sonship; the gospel call is a call to discipleship. God speaks directly in the effectual call; God speaks through men in the gospel call. The effectual call is always obeyed; the gospel call is frequently disobeyed, shunned, and resisted. The effectual call is a creation; the gospel call is a communication. The effectual call is directed to the dead; the gospel call is directed to the living. The effectual call is an internal call; the gospel call is an external appeal. The effectual call produces life; {2 Timothy 1:9} the gospel call produces light. {2 Timothy 1:10} The sinner responds involuntarily in the effectual call (like Lazarus). The gospel call, however, calls for a voluntary, decisive response ("... harden not your hearts"-Hebrews 3:15). The conclusive testimony of Scripture is that the effectual call precedes the gospel call and that the effectual call gives a man spiritual life, while the gospel call gives a man knowledge and understanding. This distinction between regeneration and gospel conversion is essential. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 25: CONTEND FOR THE FAITH ======================================================================== CONTEND FOR THE FAITH by Eld. T. L. Webb, Sr. See WebbSr: CONTEND FOR THE FAITH ======================================================================== CHAPTER 26: CONVERSION ======================================================================== CONVERSION by Eld. T. L. Webb, Sr. See WebbSr: CONVERSION ======================================================================== CHAPTER 27: CREATOR AND JUDGE ======================================================================== CREATOR AND Judges 36 How do you react to the idea of the God who reveals Himself in the Bible as the Creator of the universe? You are probably not indifferent to this question. You are either comforted by it or strongly resistant to it. It is obvious that both in the macro world of astronomy and in the minuscule realm of microbiology there is unmistakable evidence of intelligent design. Yet many people go to great lengths to reject the obvious. Why is this? The most probable reason is that there are profound implications if one admits that behind intelligent design, there obviously has to be a designer. This designer would ultimately have to be a Creator. A Creator has the power and right to do what He will with His creation. If among His creation there are intelligent creatures, He has the right to command how they will live. If they fail to meet His requirements, He has the right and power to sit as their Judge. This is the explanation for the irrational attempt to deny an ultimate designer. That creator/designer must be answered to as ultimate Judge. For those who desire to live autonomous lives, but who have nagging, well-founded suspicions that this Judge does indeed exist, it is understandable why some would go to great lengths to remove the creator from their thoughts. Where do you stand on this question? ======================================================================== CHAPTER 28: CROWNS ======================================================================== CROWNS Crowns have been given and worn for thousands of years. I was told as a young child that when I reach heaven, and if I have lived a good life, Jesus Christ would give me a Golden Crown with stars to match my good works. I believed this teaching until I begin to study the scriptures for myself. I encourage all to read and study the scriptures for themselves and in much prayer. In history crowns were given and worn showing royalty, such as a king wears. Also crowns were given to represent honor and power. Some crowns were worn at marriages, feasts and public festivals, also a symbol of victory and reward. The crown worn by the victors in the Olympic games was made of leaves of the wild olive; in the Pythian games, in the Nemean games, of parsley, and in the Isthmian games, of the pine. Those that saved the life of a citizen were given a civic crown. This crown was made of oak leaves. I wish to tell you of greater crowns than those made by the hands of men. Crowns given and worn by men were corruptible and faded away. Crowns made of leaves faded away in a very short time. James 1:9-12, “Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted: But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away. For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways. Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.” Was it a gold crown that James says is given to the man that endureth temptation? No! The crown is not of man but something that God promised to them that love him. It is the crown of life. James spoke of the brother of low degree being exalted. One that has been brought low by the Holy Spirit, seeing himself as a dirty sinner, one with no righteousness of his own, and is exalted by the imputed righteousness of our Lord, Oh, how blessed a person! James tells us in the next verses that a man is not tempted of God with evil for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempted he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. What is the opposite of death? It is life. The crown of life is the blessings of the fullness of life. Jesus said inJohn 10:10, “I am come that they might have life and have it more abundantly.” There are many people that are alive yet dead to the joys of the kingdom of heaven. Paul said inRomans 14:7, “For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.” My friends, which is the best to choose? To be enticed by lust which when it hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death, or the fullness of the imputed righteousness of Christ ruling in your soul which brings forth peace and joy in the Holy Ghost? I want this crown of life. John teaches us inRevelation 1:4-6, “John to the seven churches which are in Asia: grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne; And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.” Notice John said, “And hath made us kings and priests unto God”Dear friends if we have been made kings and priests, we wear a crown. It denotes Royalty, and power. Peter said in1 Peter 2:9, “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood,” John writes inRevelation 2:10that the crown of life “fadeth not away.” This is something that we enjoy and rejoice in as we travel toward our heavenly home and will finally receive the eternal fullness of life. The crown of life fadeth not away! It is incorruptible. 1 Peter 5:2, “Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; Neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being ensamples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.” God has never and never will have to do something over because of imperfection, for He is perfection. This verse is not teaching that because of our works as Elders in the church we shall receive a crown of glory, but is teaching us to be ensamples to the flock and God recognizes our good works. He is not forgetful of our good works. Paul said that he was a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. When our chief Shepherd shall appear we shall also be a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. This is to be crowned with glory. On that day we shall be made incorruptible, fit to live in our heavenly home, which is all glorious. What a day that will be! ======================================================================== CHAPTER 29: CHURCH & TRUE WORSHIP ======================================================================== Church & True Worship It is my understanding that the word "church" is used three different ways in New Testament Scripture. First, it is used to mean the entire body of New Testament Churches in their visible organic form, (The institution). It is this usage that is found inMatthew 16:18, "Upon this rock I will build my church..." Secondly, in reference to a local assembly, (Without question, the most common usage). Several of the letters of the Apostle Paul as well as the letters to the seven churches of Asia are addressed to individual local assemblies. Thirdly, in a few places the word church is used in reference to the whole redeemed family of God, as in "Feed the church of God which he has purchased with his own blood...,"{Acts 20:28} and "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it." {Ephesians 5:25} To worship God is to "bow before him."Psalms 95:6says: "O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our maker." To bow before God is to submit to him. It is to say, "Lord I am nothing and you are everything." In the Old Testament God’s people were given a pattern of worship that included regenerate and unregenerate Jews. Certain rites and ceremonies were required of all alike. Under the New Covenant of worship, only regenerate souls can truly worship God. I think this can be at least to some extent what is contained in Jesus’ statement inJohn 4:23-24. The question is, How do we best do that? Obviously the more we know about God, His being, His soverignty, His holiness and His many other attributes, the better we can worship him. Understanding the principles of divine sovereignty as we do as Primitive Baptists should make us better qualified to worship God. We should have knowledge enough to know that all glory belongs to him and none to ourselves. However, there is not in all God’s children this knowledge. Therefore, they worship Him according to the knowledge and light they have. There is such thing as "individual worship," and also "corporate worship." A man may worship God at home or in other places in an individual sense. However, this is not all that God requires of us. He has had special places throughout history for the purpose of corporate worship. As an example: "But unto the place which the Lord your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put his name there, even unto his habitation shall ye seek, and thither thou shalt come." {Deuteronomy 12:5;Deuteronomy 12:14} Of course, there was the tabernacle in the wilderness and then the temple at Jerusalem. In our day, we are required to bring our sacrifices (the sacrifice of praise,Hebrews 13:15) to the local assembly, the house of God. Although I consider myself a strong "church man" I would never say that God is not doing anything outside the church. He is, and has always done so. He is still sovereign. Neither would I say that others outside the church do not, or cannot worship God. The church being the "pillar and ground of the truth," we do, or at least ought to, be able to offer up more acceptable worship on a more consistent basis then those outside the pales of the church. May God bless us to be about that business. To Him be all glory and praise, both now and forevermore. Amen. In the new birth God creates a new person in the inner man and doesn’t procreate through anything of this life, including the church. If God doesn’t need a church, bride, wife to produce children (and He doesn’t) then what is the church for? I notice that most of the time the church is spoken of as the "bride of Christ" or the "lamb’s wife" -not God’s wife or bride. If not to produce children then what is the purpose? As inEphesians 5:1-33the mystery of Christ and His church is the standard for husbands and wives, the purpose is companionship, fellowship, communion! And as Rebekah ofGenesis 24:1-67the church is to be the ‘mother’ of thousands of millions! What a view! What a calling and purpose! Oh how short we have come! This gives light to the understanding that life is there at conception and made known, manifest, at what we call birth. We have been very inconsistent with our explanation of regeneration by using the day of birth as the moment of life -too late, life was already there! If the new birth only happens under spiritual manifestation (such as worship, praise, understanding, knowledge, etc.) then the gospel regenerational teaching is true. God DOES NOT USE THE CHURCH TO PRODUCE CHILDREN! We are new "creations" in Him. Creations are spoken into life by the voice of God through Christ.John 5:23-25. The CHURCH has the privilege of ‘mothering’ the children of her Husband the Lord Jesus Christ! Now, truly the word church does sometimes refer to the family of God, but I would say rarely. Many refer to a church in heaven not yet. If that includes the entirety of the family of God, then there is no church in heaven, simply because we are not all there yet. In the day the Lord Jesus delivers up the kingdom, (here family and church then) then there will be an "assembly" in the courts of heaven as never yet seen! For us to say that the Lord died for the church is true, but he died for all the elect. I believe He gave Himself, which implies to me more in life than in death, to the church. I believe, and think definitions would agree, that the word church means most of the time a visible, tangible, local, called out, baptised, body of believers. In that body, on the roll if you please, are some that are there just in name only. While I can not disclaim their being one of the elect, I can say that there are some that follow the Lord with heart and soul. These are the ones, I believe, that the Lord recognizes as His bride, in the church (local assembly). I believe the local assembly is recognized by God as the only "church" in that area because of doctrine and practice. The church, as such, is identified more importantly to God by what they have given them of Him to honor His Son. A body of people that does not hold to the faith once delivered is not a church of God! That to me involves the Word of God and Spirit in life! You can hang a name on any building or group of people, but God makes the distinction! When the Lord said "on this rock I will build my church"Matthew 16:1-28, I believe He meant that upon the unchanging truth of Jesus Christ the Son of God, our Rock and only salvation. The apostles were given that truth, but line up from Him the chief cornerstone. If we have any building to call ours today, it is built upon that foundation. I speak of building as lives. We stand or fall based upon these truths. We are lively stones built up as the house of God -not dead rocks! While I hold to the truth of the elect out of all peoples, I can not see an invisible church, I’m sure the Lord can, but I can’t! I believe the light of the world was meant to be seen, not hid! A city set on a hill can not be hid- wasn’t meant to be! Who set us on the hill? You see I question the mentality of groups that call themselves churches and want to hide themselves and the truth. Sounds like holding the truth in unrighteousness to me. It is asking for the wrath of God. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 30: COMMUNION ======================================================================== Communion Communion is the one act of worship that the Lord personally gave specific instructions to His disciples about how it should be observed and practiced. We have vague or general outline of scriptural patterns in other acts of worship. I believe we have scriptural examples, but in this specific instance of worship, perhaps one of the more important issues of worship that we sometimes take too much for granted, the Lord gave very specific directions. We find the record of His personal implementation of the Supper in the gospels. We find a record inActs 20:1-38where Paul, on his way with the collection for the poor saints in Jerusalem, stops in the port near Ephesus. He calls the elders of the church together and we find the church coming together on the first day of the week to break bread. Elder Joe Holder ======================================================================== CHAPTER 31: DEAD IN SIN ======================================================================== DEAD IN SIN Anyone who reads the Bible must acknowledge that people are dead in sin before they receive spiritual life. According toEphesians 2:5, “Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved)” Even though this is an admitted fact, the Arminian position is absurd when it postulates that one who is actually dead can do anything to contribute to his salvation. Oh, they usually say that God did the greater part. Christ actually died on the cross for sin. However, this salvation is an offer that the sinner must reach out and accept if it is to become effectual. The reason this is absurd is because if flies in the face of what death really is. Everyone would be compelled to admit that it would be absurd to bring a wheel chair or a walking cane into a funeral home to help the corpse contribute something to its resurrection. The only thing that could bring a dead person to life would be an absolute miracle. The corpse would play no part in this miracle. It would simply be a recipient. That is precisely what happens in the salvation of sinners. While they are physically alive, they are spiritually dead. They cannot save themselves. They cannot assist in their salvation. They cannot cooperate in their salvation. Why? Because they are dead! They are not merely sick-they are dead. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 32: DEVELOPING A CHRISTIAN MIND ======================================================================== DEVELOPING A CHRISTIAN MIND DEVELOPING A CHRISTIAN MIND by Elder Michael L. Gowens "... Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ."2 Corinthians 10:3;2 Corinthians 10:5 Jesus is Lord! That exclamation is the most original of all Christian confessions, the simplest of all Christian creeds. When first century believers said "Jesus is Lord," they were, by that confession, ascribing deity and hence, sovereignty, to Jesus Christ. {John 20:28} "Lord" means supreme ruler. The Lord is one with absolute authority and dominion. When Christians acknowledged his Lordship, they were expressing submission to his right to rule and obedience to his authority over their lives. They were saying, "Jesus Christ is in charge of my life and I am willing to do what he commands." Whether or not you and I acknowledge his lordship and authority, Christ Jesus is still Lord. As a result of his completed redemptive work, the Father has invested him with this divine dignity and position. Our disobedience will never change that fact. The issue for us is not "Is he Lord?" but "Are we submissive to his authority over us?" Have we surrendered to his Lordship? Are we living in a way that acknowledges his right to rule? One day, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. {Php 2:10-11} A Christian is a person who bows and confesses that fact now. The Lordship of Jesus Christ extends to every sector of the believer’s life, even what he believes and how he thinksRomans 14:6-12, Christ and Christ alone has the right to police the thoughts of his people. As followers of Jesus Christ, you and I do not have the right to determine what we will believe or to develop our own philosophy of life. Because he is the Lord, Christ has the authority to make exclusive claims upon the believer’s mind. Is Jesus Christ the Lord of your mind? It was a rude awakening in my own life when I began to realize that I had unwittingly adopted many secular values that were diametrically contrary to God’s word. There are a number of books on the shelves of my library purchased during a time in my life when I was less discerning that promote ideas that seemed right to me at the time, but that I have since discarded. To this day, I still periodically find myself accepting an idea that sounds reasonable, only to discover later that it is inconsistent with the teaching of Scripture. The very fact that I still struggle with a certain ambivalence concerning the way I think about various issues indicates that I do not yet perfectly possess the mind of Christ. I have not arrived at perfect wisdom. I am not yet completely sanctified by God’s word. {John 17:17} In fact, I expect that this struggle to conform my thinking more and more to the principles of Scripture will continue as long as I live. R. C. Sproul agrees: None of us have totally the mind of Christ. We don’t always think like Christians. I have ideas by which I make decisions and by which I make judgments which are not consistent with the mind of Christ. It’s a lifelong struggle to conform my thinking to the thinking of Christ, to love what Christ loves and to hate what Christ hates; to affirm what he affirms, and to deny what he denies. I’m talking about achieving a Christian life and world view, of learning to look at life the way that God himself sees it, because we are convinced that He is the author and the fountain of truth. To see life exactly as God sees it, to agree with him totally, to understand his word perfectly, and to know his will entirely, is to be spiritually mature. It is to be like the Lord Jesus Christ. It is to submit to his Lordship over my thinking. It is to possess a Christian mind. Until I die, this is the challenge that faces me. This is the goal toward which I must move. This is the essence of Christian discipleship. Taking Every Thought Captive Helping God’s people to develop Christian minds is also the purpose of the gospel ministry. In2 Corinthians 10:1-18, Paul defines his goal as a minister of Christ’s gospel in terms of a spiritual warfare, a "fight of faith," if you please, against ideas, philosophies, and general thought patterns that contradict God’s word. Notice the military imagery in his words: "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds;) casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." {2 Corinthians 10:3-5} Clearly, Paul saw his task as God’s servant in terms of a spiritual conflict that involved both the conquest of territory (’ pulling down of strongholds’;lit. military fortifications) and the establishment of a new government in its place (’ captive to the obedience of Christ’)..The function of the gospel ministry, according to Paul, is comparable to a military rescue operation in which prisoners of war are forceably liberated from unlawful captors and returned to their rightful Ruler. Like a Special Forces group of Green Berets or Navy Seals, the minister is called to infiltrate the enemy territory Scripture calls "the world," sabotage and demolish the philosophical fortifications and strongholds of unbiblical thinking with the sword of the Spirit, and take the minds of those, once enslaved to error, captive for Christ and his truth. Three thoughts are noteworthy in Paul’s metaphor: (1) The battle facing Christians is primarily philosophical. It is a battle for the mind 3/4 a battle of ideas 3/4 a battle for truth. The "knowledge of God" (i.e. God’s revelation in Scripture) is the standard by which every thought must be measured. Any idea that is not consistent with Divine revelation, says Paul, is sheer "imagination." First and foremost, the Christian faith is a matter of theological truth, not spiritual experience or cultural morality. The modern distaste for doctrine, especially within the Christian community, is an error of the deepest dye, for it undermines the very essence and nature of Christianity. (2) The Christian faith is essentially aggressive and exclusive. It aims to take over by replacing error with truth. Paul’s goal was not to interject the gospel as one among many equally valid philosophies of life. Instead, he wanted to demolish "every high thing" and bring "every thought" captive to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. He saw every other idea as a competing worldview, vying for man’s heart and mind and threatening the glory of God. Paul understood that antithesis, i.e. the principle of contrast, is woven into the very fabric of the Gospel. He knew that every unbiblical presupposition was essentially a rival religion. Because he was jealous for the name of his God, Paul exhibited a holy intolerance for and antagonism toward every idea that was contrary to God’s revelation. (3) Because it is a battle of ideas, the fight of faith cannot be effectively waged with carnal weapons. Neither violence, anger, hostility, deception, nor flattery are appropriate methods of engaging the enemy and capturing men’s minds. Only by truth can the kingdom of God advance in the world. Growth in grace, for every follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, involves the liberation of one’s ideas and convictions, at ever increasing degrees, from worldly wisdom, and captivation, more and more, by the principles of God’s word. Is your mind the prisoner of Scripture? Is your conscience held captive by the word of God? Is Jesus Christ the Lord of your mind? What is a Christian Mind? When the believer’s every thought is brought to the point of obedience to the authority of Jesus Christ, he has attained the mind of Christ.1 Corinthians 2:16says, "For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ." The mind of Christ is revealed in the word of God. Every Christian, consequently, has access to Christ’s thinking on every essential issue of life if he has access to the Bible. Christ exercises his authority over people through the word. Scripture is His sceptre; therefore, submission to the word of God is equivalent to obedience to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. When the believer’s mind is perfectly commensurate with Scripture, he has a Christian mind. A Christian mind, then, is a mind that thinks in terms of Divine revelation, a mind that thinks Biblically. The pursuit of a Christian mind is a quest to develop a Biblical worldview 3/4 to see life the way that God sees it 3/4 thinking His thoughts after Him. Above everything else, this is the priority of discipleship. If he is to be a faithful soldier in the great fight of faith, the believer must first put on the belt of truth: "Stand therefore having your loins girt about with truth." {Ephesians 6:13} Without it, he will inevitably fall prey to the enemy of his soul. But doesn’t every Christian think Christianly? The answer is, obviously, "no." In fact, many live mindlessly, without a conscious sense of purpose and direction, oblivious to any way of life other than that of the world around them. Because they lack purpose, they live by reaction, at the mercy of changing circumstances and vacillating emotions. Like a child, they are easily influenced, "tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine." {Ephesians 4:14} The easiest and most natural thing in life is to drift along in a vague and thoughtless way, existing on automatic pilot. The Christian, on the contrary, is called to "walk circumspectly." The phrase means to "live a purposeful and disciplined life by setting Biblical goals and pursuing them." The individual who knows his goal lives proactively, not reactively. In 1963, British author Harry Blamires began his landmark book entitled The Christian Mind with the startling, matter-of-fact sentence, "There is no longer a Christian mind." Although he resorts to language that sounds admittedly "hysterical and melodramatic," he proceeds to validate his hypothesis by many convincing arguments. He writes: There is still, of course, a Christian ethic, a Christian practice, and a Christian spirituality. As a moral being, the modern Christian subscribes to a code other than that of the non-Christian. As a member of the Church, he undertakes obligations and observations ignored by the non-Christian. As a spiritual being, in prayer and meditation, he strives to cultivate a dimension of life unexplored by the non-Christian. But as a thinking being, the modern Christian has succumbed to secularization. He accepts religion 3/4 its morality, its worship, its spiritual culture; but he rejects the religious view of life, the view which sets all earthly issues within the context of the eternal, the view which relates all human problems 3/4 social, political, cultural 3/4 to the doctrinal foundations of the Christian Faith, the view which sees all things here below in terms of God’s supremacy and earth’s transitoriness, in terms of Heaven and Hell. What Blamires terms the Christian’s "descent into mental secularism" is called, in the language of Scripture, "worldliness." When people who profess to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ fail to apply their Christian faith to every sector of their lives, they will inevitably descend into the world’s way of thinking. They will adopt the world’s values, court the world’s approval, and pursue the world’s symbols of status. The church, consequently, will lose its distinctiveness, the basis of its power. Taking Captive or Being Taken Captive? If the statement "There is no longer a Christian mind" was true in 1963, it is even more accurate these three decades later. Because of the modern capacity for communication, instead of "taking every thought captive in obedience to Christ as Lord," now more than ever, people tend to be "taken captive" by the ideas of the secular culture in which they live. This is true for the Christian as well as the unbeliever. Without a deliberate and decisive effort to regularly gather in his thoughts around the word of God, the Christian’s mind will be captured by philosophy and empty deceptions. InColossians 2:8, Paul warned the church at Colossae about a false teaching that was making inroads among them: "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of this world, and not after Christ." The word translated "spoil" means "to take captive; to plunder; to cheat." The Colossians were in danger of deception by a subtle and almost sinister brand of mysticism that was infiltrating the church. This heresy, known as gnosticism (from the Greek word gnosis meaning "knowledge") taught that matter was evil and only spirit was good. Although they believed that knowledge was the only requirement for salvation, gnostics rejected the rational dimension of Christianity. In the gnostic vocabulary, "knowledge" meant "existential or mystical knowledge" not "rational knowledge." They believed that there was a higher sphere of knowledge, attained experientially apart from Biblical revelation. Gnosticism tended, consequently, to promote a class structure within the church of those who were "in the know" and those who were not. The gnostics saw themselves as the spiritual elite with an "inside track" to God, privy to a level of spirituality that the ordinary Christian was not. They jettisoned theology for experience, revelation for existential awareness, and objective truth for subjective feeling. Intimidated by the fear of being labeled an inferior Christian, the Colossians were buying into the aberrant teaching of the gnostics. Paul viewed the gnostic heresy as a challenge to the sufficiency of Scripture and the preeminence of Jesus Christ. In fact, the sufficiency of Jesus Christ is the theme of his letter. Within the Colossian church, this fascination with the mystical had the effect of crowding Christ out of the gospel message. Attempting to supplement God’s revelation with an emphasis on the mysterious, they were saying, in effect, that Christ was not enough. Gnostics said, "You need something more than the word of God. It is not enough." According to Paul, however, the more the Colossians doubted the sufficiency of Christ and his provision for the church, the more they slipped back into worldliness. This emphasis, in other words, was not super-spiritual, but fundamentally worldly. The phrase "the rudiments of the world" refers to the most basic and fundamental principles of this world system. The Colossians thought that they were ascending to a higher plane of knowledge by adding mysticism to Christian faith, but, in reality, they were backsliding into the same lifeview of their pre-conversion days 3/4 a view of life without Christ at the center. They were not graduating to Christianity’s high school; they were returning to the world’s elementary school. The pseudo-Christian emphasis of these gnostic teachers was the very opposite of the Christian message. By way of contrast, Paul reminds the believers in Colossae that they are "complete in Christ." {Colossians 2:10} "Complete" is a nautical term meaning "fully equipped." It has reference to a ship that is fully manned, stocked with cargo and provisions for the crew, equipped with every necessary tool for sea worthiness, and ready to sail. In Jesus Christ, Paul says, the believer is sufficient for the voyage of Christian discipleship. He has made adequate provisions for the church. Through his word and Spirit, Christians have been given "all things that pertain unto life and godliness." {2 Peter 1:3} Christian faith does not need supplementation from legalism, mysticism, asceticism, or any other worldly philosophy. "Beware, then," Paul warns, "that your mind is not captured by the philosophies of this world." To the extent that our thoughts are inconsistent with the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, we have been taken captive by secular culture. Renewing the Mind In order for the Christian to develop a Christian mind under the Lordship of Christ, screening the world around him with spiritual discernment, he must maintain constant exposure to the word of God. InRomans 12:2, Paul describes the means of sanctification in terms of "renewing the mind": "And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." The ability to "prove" (lit. discern) the will of God in every given situation of life, to sort through the issues and understand what pleases him, is a mark of spiritual maturity. "But," someone asks, "how can I know which choices and decisions are consistent with his will?" Knowledge of God’s will is the product of knowing God’s word. None of us is wise and insightful enough to be able to sort through the mental jungle of life on our own. Unless we are regularly renewed in the spirit of our minds by God’s truth, we will inevitably gravitate toward the passing fashion of this age. Every believer needs the adjustment to his thinking that Bible reading, gospel preaching, and genuine Christian fellowship provides. If he once gets away from the renewing influence that God’s word has on the mind, he will slide back into old patterns of thinking. This, among others, is the reason that regular church attendance is essential to a God-honoring Christian life. Personally speaking, it doesn’t take long for my mind to become clouded and confused when I neglect to expose it to the resources God has provided for my spiritual growth. Because I am inundated every day with information and ideas from the popular media culture, I need regular reminders of what is true. The gospel exercises a saving influence upon the believer, {Romans 1:16} if he keeps it in memory. {1 Corinthians 15:2} How does the believer keep the gospel in memory? By being re-minded of it on a regular basis. Gospel preaching saves the believer from false teaching and worldly philosophy, "stirring up the pure mind by way of remembrance." {2 Peter 3:1} It tends to refocus spiritual perspective, correcting the visual distortions that develop in the interim of life. Even though one may know and be established in a certain truth, yet for his safety from the deceptive influences of the fallen world system, he needs to hear that truth repeated over and over again. {2 Peter 1:12-13;Php 3:1} Without ongoing renewal of one’s thinking, he will inevitably fall prey to error and deception. It is also the means by which the Christian resists the magnetic pull to conform to the pattern of this world and fulfills the call to Christian distinctness. The words "conformed" and "transformed" inRomans 12:2suggest the image of shaping an object to a mold. "Don’t let the world squeeze you into its mold," says Paul. The Christian’s mindset is to be shaped by the word of God and the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul’s exhortation "Be not conformed to this world" means simply, "Don’t be like the world system in which you live." In positive terms, Paul calls his readers to be different. The basic call of the gospel is a call to non-conformity, a call to be distinct from the world. It is precisely the relaxation of this contrast between the church and the world that accounts for the low state of things in the church today. In many cases no visible distinction is evident. The line of demarcation between the two cultures is increasingly blurred so that even professing believers are confused. A contemporary author astutely observes, In spite of the church’s numbers and resources reaching an all-time high, she is weak because she has adopted many of the world’s ideas, values, methods, practices, and ‘solutions’ to problems. She has lost the cutting edge necessary to slice through the fabric of humanism and present a scriptural alternative. It has gotten so bad that in some circles the person who thinks and acts biblically is considered radical within the church itself. Worldviews in Collision The tension between the church and the world expressed byRomans 12:2is philosophical in nature. At the heart of this tension is the question, "Who will be God?" To the individual who thinks Biblically, this is no small matter. In fact, when Paul visited Athens and saw the city wholly given to idolatry, he was stirred in his spirit. {Acts 17:16} He was so committed to the glory of God’s name that he could not bear to see the worship due to God diverted to idols. The subsequent clash at Mars Hill between Paul and the philosophical schools of the day is a microcosm of the tension between Christianity and secularism. The very geography of this encounter is significant. What could be more powerful than to see Paul teaching Divine wisdom at the very epicenter of human wisdom, preaching Christ in the shadow of Athena, and proclaiming Calvary’s hill on Mars Hill? This encounter, illustrating the ongoing conflict between the church and the world, was nothing less than a collision of worldviews. A comparable event in the Old Testament is Elijah’s confrontation of the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. With a holy passion for the integrity of the name of Jehovah, Elijah challenged, "If the Lord be God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him." {1 Kings 18:21} Note again the element of antithesis or contrast. The Christian mind thinks in terms of this "either-or" logic, not the "both-and" model promoted by religious and philosophical pluralism. There is not enough room in the universe for more than one God. Either Jehovah is God, or Baal is god. Because the church, like ancient Israel, exists as a people who are devoted to God’s glory, {Leviticus 20:23-26;1 Peter 2:9} she will always, if she thinks Biblically, be at odds with the world. The Offence of the Cross Why is the believer different from others? What separates the church from the world? Personal worth? No, by nature Christians are no different than anyone else, being "children of wrath, even as others." {Ephesians 2:3} Intelligence? No, for in many cases "the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light." {Luke 16:8} Love for family? No, for even the world loves its own. {John 15:19} What is, then, the dividing line between the church and the world? The cross! The Christian is someone whose motives, hopes, attitudes, values, decisions, joys, and confidences converge, like the spokes of a wheel to the hub, at the cross. According toGalatians 6:14, the cross is the line of demarcation, the great divide, and the point of tension between the two: "But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." Earlier in the same epistle, Paul speaks of "the offence of the cross." {Galatians 5:11} The cross is the watershed issue, not moral concerns, family values, or partisan politics. Unbelievers are not offended by the believer’s desire to live a moral life. Some of them share that commitment to morality. Neither are they offended by his concern for his family. Many of them are just as committed to domestic stability. It is the cross that trips them up. The world at large, in other words, doesn’t mind if you are religious. It will even admit the social value of religion. But it will not tolerate Christianity. Society doesn’t mind if you pray, as long as you don’t pray "in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ." Generic prayers and religion that is kept in its place is permissible, but the cross, with its inherent exclusivity, is taboo. Because the Christian boasts in the cross alone, the world is crucified unto him. What does the Apostle mean? He means that those who have professed faith in the Christ of the cross have died to the world’s way of thinking and living. The former patterns of life have been left in the waters of baptism, and the believer has risen from the water to walk in newness of life. There is a marked and visible change of lifestyle that prompts former companions to now "think it strange that you run not with them to the same excess of riot." {1 Peter 4:4} The believer, by the act of publicly professing faith in Christ as Savior and Lord, makes a break by that act with the world, crossing the line of antithesis. Now, he thinks of himself as a Christian, in terms of his commitment to Christ, not merely in terms of his national citizenship, corporate position, life occupation, social status, or family heritage. He is living now for Christ, not for self-fulfillment. The rules of the game of life have changed, defined now by the Bible, not by popular opinion or personal preference. It is truly a radical change, a 180o turnaround, a kind of, shall I say, repentance. The rest of his life will be spent in the pursuit of total transformation to Christ’s likeness, though he will never reach the point this side of the grace of glorification when he can say "I have arrived at perfection." {cf.Php 3:7-14} Every day, he will have to repent again, confessing the areas of thought and behavior that are inconsistent with God’s holy will, appropriating the forgiveness and cleansing God has provided in the blood of Christ, and renewing his commitment to holiness. {1 John 1:9;Proverbs 28:13} Every day he will have to "put off" the habits of the old life, renew his mind with truth, and "put on" the Lord Jesus Christ in the way he thinks, the attitudes he maintains, the goals he pursues, and the values he obeys. {Ephesians 4:22-24;Colossians 3:5-10;Romans 13:12-14} As the Holy Spirit reveals areas of his life that are more consistent with the pattern of this age than with the word of God, that is, as he is shown that he is thinking and behaving in a worldly way, he will have to "deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow" Jesus Christ. This daily activity, known theologically as "sanctification," is a long-term, lifelong process. Though sinless perfection is not promised for this life, progress in holiness is. The essence of discipleship, therefore, is an ongoing attempt, through the strength of the Holy Spirit, to pull out the root of worldliness in the garden of the inner man and to cultivate the fruit of the Spirit in its place. Because of the cross, the Christian is crucified to the world. But Paul adds a further perspective. The cross not only separates the Christian from the world, it also separates the world from the Christian. The world responds to the believer’s decisive break with its values by saying, "The feeling is mutual. I don’t like you either." Does the world quietly withdraw from the believer, leaving him to follow his Lord, and go to some remote place to nurse its hurt feelings? No, it launches a relentless assault upon the believer in an attempt to recapture its lost spiritual territory. This aggressive assault takes the form of propaganda, peer pressure, and persecution, all aimed at ensnaring the mind, weakening the commitment, and controlling the will. It is, in the strictest sense of the term, a spiritual war. Learning to Discern As the Christian is increasingly sanctified by God’s word, {John 17:17} he will grow in his ability to distinguish between the world’s philosophy and Christ’s truth. Developing a Christian mind is a matter of constructing an intellectual grid from Scripture through which everything one sees, hears, and encounters must pass. In a word, it is a matter of discernment. Sadly, many people are not very alert. They accept at face value whatever they hear, without critical analysis and without question. Solomon said, "The simple believe every word, but a prudent man looks well to his going" {Proverbs 14:15} What is discernment? It is the ability to think clearly and Biblically in determining right from wrong; to evaluate situations and to assess everything one sees and hears by the timeless and absolute truth of God’s word. The discerning person lives deliberately and purposefully; he "looks well to his going." He is not "unwise," that is, undisciplined and mindless, seeking guidance by feelings, but he "understands what the will of the Lord is." {Ephesians 5:17} Like an archaeologist, whose skillful eye sifts through an assortment of rubble with critical precision, the Christian should weigh and evaluate his world, screening it all through the grid of God’s word. The Bible stresses the importance of discernment. "Prove test all things," said Paul, "and hold fast to that which is good." {1 Thessalonians 5:21} John commands, "Try test the spirits to see whether they are of God." {1 John 4:1} In fact, the ability to distinguish truth from error, right from wrong, and good from evil is a mark of spiritual maturity. The writer to the Hebrews says that "those of full age" are those "who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern good and evil." {Hebrews 5:14} Does that mean that Christians should suspect everything and everyone around them? No. Discernment is not synonymous with a spirit of suspicion or paranoia. The discerning mind does not look for the proverbial ghost in every closet. It does not automatically assume the worst. But it understands that because the universe is locked in a great cosmic conflict between competing worldviews, the need to look at life through the lens of Scripture is crucial to 20/20 spiritual vision. In other words, the discerning mind is a mind that thinks in terms of contrast, in terms of antithesis. Because God exists, absolute values also exist. Everything in the universe, therefore, must be measured against that reference point, against that objective standard, to see if it is good or evil, right or wrong, true or false. The alert and discerning Christian is the only person who will be able to resist the pitfall of deception. When the swift philosophical current of popular culture seeks to rush him off his feet, he will be able to stand fast in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the glory of God. God help us all to think His thoughts after Him, for we have the mind of Christ. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 33: DISCERNMENT NEEDED IN THE COMMUNION SERVICE ======================================================================== DISCERNMENT NEEDED IN THE COMMUNION SERVICE "For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world."1 Corinthians 11:31-32 I The Communion Service is an ordinance in the NT church to be observed until the Lord’s return. It is a special service and is unique in that it sets before us a vivid remembrance of our Lord’s death. In the Old Testament sacrifices there was a continual remembrance of the reality of sin. In the Communion service there is a remembrance of the blessed reality that puts sin away. II Regarding the examination of ourselves. Observe that divine judgment is provoked when we fail to examine ourselves. We eat the bread and drink the cup unworthily when we fail to examine ourselves. Self-examination primarily involves a silent but conscious and cognitive recognition of the solemnity of the occasion and the reality that the symbols portray. The nature of the occasion excludes the false notion that personal merit entitles one to participate. Likewise, a personal sense of one’s sinfulness does not disqualify from participation-else, precious saints with honest hearts purified by faith would be compelled to withdraw from the service for conscience sake. III Discerning the Lord’s body. 1. The appropriateness and wisdom displayed in his choice of the symbols. 2. Two distinct and voluntary acts displayed in the symbology; first, his condescension in *taking* the "bread" of human nature into union with his divine Person and 2ndly, his *taking* the "cup" of humiliation, suffering, and death. 3. The distinct "separateness" of the symbols as viewed on the communion table portray death. The Lord’s Supper is the great preacher of the death of Christ till his second coming (ATR). 4. His sinless body and virtuous blood displayed by the symbols and fulfills that which was prophesied beforehand: "Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me, ... ect."Hebrews 10:5&ch. 5. The Lord’s death was efficacious by virtue of who he was [is]. 6. The virtue of the Lord’s death is legally vicarious on account of who heIsaiah 7:1-25. Because of who He is, our Lord is the Head of the mystical body of Christ, which is the Church-the corporate elect in all ages. Hence, he also is the Head of each local body of baptized believers. 8. Baptized believers have voluntarily united together in a church covenant of fellowship and are each distinct members of the the body of Christ. As such each member is of great value and has an important function in the spiritual well-being of the local congregation. Discernment of this fact will aid us to appreciate and highly esteem one another unto the edification of the whole body in the bond of peace and love. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 34: DOCTRINE AND PRACTICE ======================================================================== DOCTRINE AND PRACTICE GILL: Doctrine has an influence upon practice, especially evangelical doctrine, spiritually understood, affectionately embraced, and powerfully and feelingly experienced; so true is what the Apostle asserts, that the "Grace of God," that is, the Doctrine of the Grace of God, "that bringeth Salvation," the good news, the glad tidings of salvation by Christ, which is peculiar to Gospel Doctrine, "hath appeared to all men," Gentiles as well as Jews, in the external ministry of the word; teaching us, to whom it comes with power and efficacy in the demonstration of the Spirit, "that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world,"Titus 2:11-12. Where there is not the doctrine of faith, the obedience of faith cannot be expected. Where there is not the doctrine of the Gospel, and men have not learned Christ, they live for the most part as if there was no God in the world, and give themselves up to work all sin with greediness. And on the other hand, doctrine without practice, or a mere theory and speculative knowledge of things, unless reduced to practice, is of no avail; such are only "vainly puffed up in their fleshly minds, profess to know God in word, but in works deny him, have a form of godliness without the power of it, a name to live but are dead." Doctrine and practice should go together; and in order both to know and do the will of God, instruction in doctrine and practice is necessary; and the one being first taught will lead on to the other. This method of instruction the Apostle Paul has pointed out to us in some of his Epistles, especially in the Epistle to the Ephesians; in which he first treats of Election, Predestination, Adoption, Acceptance in Christ, Redemption and Pardon of Sin, Regeneration and other doctrines of grace, and of the Privileges of the Saints under the Gospel dispensation; and then enforces the several duties incumbent on them as men and Christians, respecting them in their several stations, in the church, in their families, and in the world. So the Apostle instructed Timothy, first to "teach" the wholesome words of our Lord Jesus, the doctrine that is according to godliness and productive of it, and then to "exhort" and press men to the duties of religion from evangelical motives and principles. And he also enjoined Titus to affirm the doctrines of the Gospel with constancy and certainty, to this end, "that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works."1 Timothy 6:2-3;Titus 3:8. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 35: DOES MAN HAVE A FREE WILL? ======================================================================== DOES MAN HAVE A FREE WILL? "The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be."Romans 8:7 Man, created in God’s image, possesses a mind, a heart, and a will. The mind, or intellect, allows him to think rationally, not by sheer instinct like an animal. The heart, or emotion, enables him to feel, unlike a robot or machine, human experience. The will, or volition, enables him to make decisions and choices that have moral consequences. It is his capacity for action, a capacity that allows him to choose this over that and those instead of these. In his unfallen state, man was good and very good. The fall, however, affected every part of man’s being. Man’s mind, by virtue of his fallen nature was darkened, incapable of understanding the things of the Spirit of God. {Ephesians 4:18;1 Corinthians 2:14} Further, his emotions are now deceptive and untrustworthy {Jeremiah 17:9} and his will, that is, his ability to choose good over evil and right over wrong, is bound. The 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith reads, "Man, by his fall into a state of sin, hath wholly lost all ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation, so as a natural man, being altogether averse from that good, and dead in sin, is not able by his own strength to commit himself, or to prepare himself thereto." So, is man free? If by the word "free" one means that people have the ability to make certain choices on their own (i.e. free from compulsion, force, or coercion), then the answer is "yes." For example, people have the ability to choose to go to the store or stay home, to buy a newspaper or not, to eat beef or to eat fish, etc.; such choices are within the natural capacity of human beings. People are free to act according to their nature. If by the word "free," however, one means free without any limitation, then the answer is "no." People are not free to act contrary to their nature. I cannot choose to fly. Yes, I can choose to travel by airplane, but I cannot choose to sprout wings or become a bird. My will, you see, is not entirely free. It is bound by the limits of my nature. We do not have the freedom to be anything we are not. Man, in other words, is not free to act outside the boundaries of his human nature. He cannot live the life of a fish in the ocean or fly like a bird in the air without external resources enabling him to duplicate his natural environment. Just as that is true on a natural level, it is also true on a spiritual level. In his fallen state, man cannot choose to be righteous. The Ethiopian cannot by his own sheer willpower, change the color of his skin, nor the leopard his spots. Neither can those whose nature is depraved voluntarily do good. {Jeremiah 13:23} Man’s will is enslaved to his sinful nature. Left to himself, his only capacity is fleshly. Unregenerate people are not free to choose righteousness or wickedness; they are, on the contrary, "free from righteousness." {Romans 6:20} By nature, man’s will is a "will not." {Psalms 10:4;Psalms 58:3;John 5:40Isaiah 26:10} His only inclination is toward carnality. The natural man will never choose anything but sin, because he cannot operate outside the parameters of his sinful nature. {Romans 8:7} The nature of man’s will is not free. Not until his nature is changed does he have the desire or the capacity to choose righteousness. Prior to God’s work of regeneration in the soul, therefore, man’s will is bound by the old nature. In regeneration, the fallen sinner is made "willing in the day of God’s power." {Psalms 110:3} He is given a new nature, a righteous nature, capable of responding to God. Because the old nature is not eradicated, however, a warfare between the Spirit and the flesh ensues {Romans 7:1-25} -requiring deliberate and decisive efforts of the will for righteousness. {Romans 6:11-23} In other words, the believer must choose, every day, between the options of serving sin or righteousness. {Joshua 24:15;Romans 6:13} With such a conflict facing us, we should be glad that the Holy Spirit will continue to work within us "both to will and to do His good pleasure." {Php 2:13} Because man’s will, apart from the new nature given in the new birth, is bound, it is incapable of choosing eternal life. Man’s only hope of eternal life, then, is rooted in God’s initiative and choice. Salvation, in other words, depends on God’s choice, not mine, and upon His sovereign will, not man’s fallen will. {John 1:13;Romans 9:16;Ephesians 1:5;Ephesians 1:11;Hebrews 10:10} That, my friend, is a firm foundation! ======================================================================== CHAPTER 36: DOUBT AND LITTLE HOPE ======================================================================== DOUBT AND LITTLE HOPE By Elder Joe Holder Both in scripture and in the Christian experience there are two kinds of doubt. We should not confuse the two and frankly we should not encourage either. One kind of doubt questions God. You could call it atheistic or agnostic doubt. It questions scripture, it questions the integrity of scripture and it questions the fidelity, the faithfulness of God Himself. That is always condemned in scripture. The other doubt raises questions about personal assurance, not about the faithfulness of God but if it is cultivated it will grow into that spirit of questioning the faithfulness of God. So, it should not be encouraged even though it is not condemned in scripture and it IS a part of every legitimate Christian experience. Sometimes we have gotten into word games to no avail and to no profit with our friends from other denominations over this issue of hope and I think we have adopted the wrong terminology and the wrong attitude. Perhaps we have glorified our doubts too much and we will always say, "I have a little hope." Where is the word "little" connected to hope in scripture? It’s not there. It’s always a very significant factor and a very significant word. In fact if you talking with your friends in other persuasions were to simply use the word "assurance of salvation" rather than hope they’d understand what you were talking about. And, isn’t that what you ARE talking about when you talk about your hope in Christ? Of course it is. InColossians 1:1-29, Paul says that your hope grows out of the fact that Christ dwells within you. That’s not little and you should not refer to it as little because Christ in you is not a little matter - it’s a great matter and should be honored. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 37: DRAWING NEAR TO GOD ======================================================================== DRAWING NEAR TO GOD Hebrews 10:19-39 In this passage, the author moves from the exposition of his theme to the application. How does the Priesthood of Jesus Christ and the reality of His sacrificial death apply to our present situation? What impact do these truths have on life? These are the questions the writer now addresses. Like a skilled attorney, the author has presented his case for the superiority of Christ. The word “therefore”{Hebrews 10:19} signals the beginning of the application of these facts to these first century believers. The remainder of the Hebrew epistle is primarily applicatory. For the fourth time since the beginning of the letter, he applies his message in terms of both encouragement {Hebrews 10:19-25;Hebrews 10:32-39} and warning. {Hebrews 10:26-31} The dominant thought of this entire passage {Hebrews 10:19-39} could be summarized in terms of two phrases: (1) Draw near; {Hebrews 10:22} (2) Draw back. {Hebrews 10:39} All that he has said now culminates in an urgent plea to these unstable and ambivalent Hebrew Christians to “draw closer to God”and not to shrink back in unbelief. The solution to their difficulties lay not in surrender to the pressure, but in making use of the precious resources God had supplied for believers through the Lord Jesus. What are those resources?Hebrews 10:19-22list three. This passage falls neatly into an outline. Note the repetition of the participle “having.” Then notice the three imperatives “Let us.” It is on the basis of what we “have”that the writer encourages us to Christian responsibility. The motivation to faithfulness, in other words, is not a fear of punishment, but an awareness of God’s gracious provision in Christ. The author says, “Since God has given us these things as our possession, then let us utilize the resources at our disposal to persevere in the face of hardship.” This kind of logic that predicates a command on a promise is intrinsic to the gospel. God not only calls his people to obedient and faithful living, He also equips and qualifies them to fulfill that calling. What then does the believer “have”or possess? (1) Unrestricted Access into the Presence of God -Hebrews 10:19-20. The privilege reserved only for the high priest under the Old Covenant is available now, through the sufficient merit of Christ, to every child of God. The word “boldness”(See SGreek: 3954. parrhesia) parrhsia (parresia) means “freedom or frankness in speaking.” It denotes the fact that we may approach God without hesitation or fear of rejection, unburdening our hearts before Him who alone is able to render His aid. (2) Invincible Representation before God-Hebrews 10:1. With the way of access opened, and the High Priest ready to stand by our side, all that is left before a sinner can apply for aid before God’s throne is the removal of his own uncleanness. The author affirms that these Hebrew Christians had been cleansed, both inwardly in regeneration (’ hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience’)and outwardly by putting on Christ in gospel baptism (’ bodies washed with pure water’).They were genuine believers. On that basis, he encourages them to do three things: (1) Draw near to GodHebrews 10:22. Come close, he urges. Spend much time in His presence in prayer. Close communion with Him is the remedy for disillusionment {Psalms 73:28} and declension. {James 4:8} How does one “draw near”? In prayer, {Hebrews 4:16} worship, {Hebrews 13:15;Hebrews 7:25} and meditation on Scripture. {Psalms 119:10} (2) Be Faithful to Christ-Hebrews 10:23. Encouragement to be faithful is the primary undertone of Hebrews. (3) Spur your Brothers and Sisters on to Faithfulness-Hebrews 10:24-25. Remember, he says, that your lives as fellow believers are inseparably bound up with one another. If one falls into apostasy, it will weaken the others. How much better, then, to remember the mutual responsibility each believer has to assist one another to fulfill their calling. Live in such a way, the author exhorts, that your tenacity and unflinching perseverance beneath the pressure of persecution would encourage others to hold fast. The word translated “provoke”is our word for paroxysm. What is a paroxysm? It is a spontaneous or sudden convulsion. A tack in a chair, for instance, goads the one who unwittingly sits on it into a sudden and almost involuntary response. Every Christian should so live, in other words, that others are compelled to react in a spontaneous paroxysm of love. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 38: DOES GOD REPENT? ======================================================================== Does God Repent? Answer: Does God Repent? ETERNALLY, no. TIMELY, yes. While I am not, in this writing, dealing with the FULL subject of REPENTANCE, I will deal with the one aspect of such, which is "God’s Repentings." I find in carefully searching the Scriptures, and striving precisely at "Rightly Dividing," that this subject divides into two (2) Categories: 1. God’s Repenting, and 2. Man’s Repenting. Each of these two categories divides into TWO PHASES: 1. God’s Repenting Eternally and Timely, and 2. Regenerated man is a Penitent sinner and repents with Godly Sorrow; (2 Corinthians 7:10); and the unregenerated man is an alien sinner only carnally (sorry he got caught). I could go into detail here as to the "Definition," but simply will state that "To Repent" is to "TURN FROM" one entity, idea, theory, opinion, spin or bias and "TURN TO" another. It may be only a slight mid-course adjustment or correction of only one degree, or, maybe 10 degrees, or 20, 30, 45, or even 90 degrees. Sometimes it requires 180 degrees CHANGE of direction. It can inculcate the "Change" of Mind or Heart. Such carries with it the "feeling of sorrow or regret," and such can bring manifestly mourning, lamenting and grieving. Such Repent, Repented, Repentest, Repenteth, Repenting, Repentance, comes from five (5) different Hebrew words in the O.T. Each must be put into proper context. While I linger briefly at the "Definition" facet, I will state that in most Dictionaries, we will find NUMEROUS SYNONYMS, but the proper CONTEXT is the KEY, as ALL "synonyms" do not fit ALL "Contexts." The proper defined synonym is usually the ONLY one that fits a particular context. KEEP THIS IN MIND. In this article I shall deal only with the factor of "God’s Repenting." So when considering "God’s Repenting," remember what I just said above in the previous sentence. You will always find at least ONE synonym that FITS GOD’S REPENTING definition and that will give you the proper synonym for each particular CONTEXT. I do have in my research files a many multi-paged analysis or exegesis covering the subject in full. Now for the big question. DOES GOD REPENT? I shall forthwith only touch upon the texts that deal with this precise question, both Eternally and Timely. Genesis 1:31-God pronounced all his creative work as "very good." God was well pleased with His work, including mankind. Yet, God changed his mind from pleasure to grief because of man’s FALL and then man’s manifested wickedness. Genesis 6:6-7-"And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. 7 And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them." God even "Repented" (Turned from the animals, beasts, reptiles, birds) because of man’s sins. Possibly these two verses are the source of much confusion among God’s Children. Let us examine them, along with all the other verses dealing with "God’s Repenting." First, may I establish an ETERNAL premise. God does NOT REPENT - Eternally. Malachi 3:6- "God changes not."Romans 11:29-"For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance."2 Timothy 2:12-13-"If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us: If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself."Hebrews 6:17-20-"God is immutable."Hebrews 13:8-"Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever."James 1:17-"---with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." Now for the contexts. Malachi 3:6is dealing with the Eternal Salvation of all the Sons of Jacob (Elect) and therefore changes not. (Repents not) Hebrews 6:17is dealing with God’s Eternal Covenant or Counsel, and is confirmed by an oath. Such oath is confirmed by two immutable things, which are - 1. God cannot lie, and 2. God cannot change or turn from the Eternal Salvation of all His Elect Family. Hebrews 13:8is showing the Eternal Nature, Sonship and Works of Jesus Christ which cannot be Turned or CHANGED. James 1:17is dealing with "God’s Gift-Giving," the same as the "Gifts and Calling" inRomans 11:29. In both these verses, when God gives a GIFT or makes a CALLING, he does NOT repent, turn or change from such. InRomans 11:29the word "Repentance," comes from a Greek word - AMETAMELETOS - meaning Irrevocable and Unchangeable. There is no shadow of turning. If God gives you a gift or calls you, then he never repents from such. Therefore, there is no final discharge of man’s duty in that gift or call. 2 Timothy 2:12-13teaches that IF we suffer with him, there is a NOW, PRESENT TIMELY reigning with him, but IF we deny him, he will deny us of such TIMELY blessings; nevertheless, even in the face of our denying (unbelief -Romans 11:32) He is so faithful, till he cannot deny himself eternally. You may loose your TIME salvation, but your ETERNAL salvation is secured in Jesus’ faithfulness. The conclusion, eternally, God does NOT repent, pertaining to the Eternal Covenant. Divine Love toward His Elect Family, in Foreknowledge, Election, Adoption, Predestination, Effectual Calling, Justification, Glorification never fails. However, TIMELY or TEMPORALLY God does repent, because of man’s FALL IN ADAM into Total Depravity, and then man’s continued manifested sinful disobedience, and I intend to prove these statements with the many followings scriptures. Genesis 6:6-"And it REPENTED the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart." God TURNED AWAY FROM man on the earth because of man’s disobedience and Fall into sin and death. God was grieved in his heart because of man’s fall. God also drove man out of his presence and the Garden of Eden. Genesis 6:7-"And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth." Question: Did God destroy man from the face of the earth? YES. Was it TIMELY or ETERNAL? I believe you can see this is very self-explanatory. Exodus 32:12-14-The Lord’s wrath waxed hot against the Israelites, his chosen nation, who were a special, peculiar treasure unto him. Nevertheless, because of their idolatry, God, in his anger, told Moses he would consume them, and make Moses the leader of a great nation. Moses prayed (Psalms 106:23) for the Lord to REPENT and TURN FROM thy fierce wrath of the evil against Thy People. We find because of Moses’ Prayer, The Lord REPENTED of the evil which he thought to do unto His People. Obviously, this is Timely. Numbers 23:19-The context is God’s instructing the prophet Balaam concerning King Balak. The Lord told Balaam to tell Balak that I made a covenant with the new nation of Israel, to bring them into this Land of Canaan, and that God will NOT REPENT of such. "God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should REPENT: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?" So we learn here that some PROMISES of God are TIMELY in extent and duration, yet God will NOT REPENT or TURN FROM such. Deuteronomy 32:35-"To me belongeth vengeance, and recompence......" Deuteronomy 32:36-"For the Lord shall judge his people and REPENT himself for his servants, when he seeth that their power is gone, and there is none shut up or left." Teaching that God will TURN BACK TO his servants, when they need him, TIMELY. God teaches us that vengeance, revenge, and recompence is not for man to deal out, but God will REPENT or TURN FROM man in such TIMELY punishment, then TURN RIGHT BACK TO man, when such help is needed. Can you see the various utilities of the word "Repent" pertaining to God’s Works? Judges 2:18-"And when the Lord raised them up judges, then the Lord was with the Judge, and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge: for it REPENTED the Lord because of their groanings by reason of them that oppressed them and vexed the." Again, here is the same lesson as was inDeuteronomy 32:36. God’s People were disobedient, and served other gods - idols. God allowed their enemies to greatly distress them, but at the point of the greatest distress, God raised them up a judge to deliver them. God heard their groanings, and such REPENTED or TURNED the Lord TO them. We can see that TIMELY, God REPENTS - - TURNS FROM andTURNS TO His Elect Nation. 1 Samuel 15:11;1 Samuel 15:29;1 Samuel 15:35- "It REPENTED God that he had set up Saul as King over Israel." That is, God REPENTED or TURNED FROM King Saul and dethroned him TIMELY. What did God then do? 1 Samuel 16:1-13-God TURNED TO David and instructed Samuel to anoint him King. See how simple, in context, God’s REPENTING is? 2 Samuel 24:16and also1 Chronicles 21:15 "God was very angry with David for numbering the twelve; tribes of Israel, and sent the Destroying Angel, who destroyed 70,000 men, then God REPENTED or TURNED FROM permitting the Angel to destroy the city of Jerusalem." Again, a TIMELY REPENTING of God. Psalms 90:13andPsalms 106:45both deals with "God’s Repenting." The context is that God remembered his Chosen Israelite People, even during their greatest disobedience. God’s anger and wrath was great against them, and God REPENTED or TURNED FROM them. David prays for the Lord to RETURN, and let it REPENT (Return) thee concerning thy servants. When God heard their affliction and cry, he remembered them for his covenant, and REPENTED (Returned to them) according to the multitudes of his MERCIES. Obviously, this is God’s TIMELY Repenting. Psalms 135:14further stressed this same aspect. David again says "For the Lord will judge His People (2 Corinthians 5:10;Romans 14:10;1 Corinthians 11:31-32) and he will REPENT HIMSELF concerning his servants. God’s TIMELY JUDGMENTS in chastisement against his people and his servants both is set forth as "REPENTING" by God. Now let us turn right around and consider "GOD’S REPENTING NOT," ETERNALLY. Psalms 110:4"The Lord hath sworn, and will NOT REPENT, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek." David here is prophesying of the Lord Jesus Christ, and God will NOT REPENT (Turn From) the ETERNAL PRIESTHOOD of Christ. The Apostle Paul re-quotes this same lesson about 1,000 years later to the Hebrews inHebrews 7:21-"(For those priests were made without an oath; but this with an oath by him that said unto him, The Lord sware and will NOT REPENT, Thou are a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec)." The fact that God will NOT REPENT from this ETERNAL OATH and SWARING, should be glorious and comforting to us. This is something to shout about. The prophet Jeremiah preaching, forewarned the Jews concerning their continued idolatry, and told them that God would make the whole land desolate. InJeremiah 4:17". . . .yet will I not make a full end." -Teaching that such desolation was only TIMELY. And continuing in context inJeremiah 4:28-"For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black: because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and will NOT REPENT, neither will I TURN BACK FROM IT." God will NOT TURN AWAY FROM such TIMELY punishment upon them. The Scriptures teach me clearly that God became WEARY with His REPENTING, nevertheless, every time the Jews TURNED AWAY FROM God He REPENTED (Turned away from) them. Let me quote fromJeremiah 15:6"Thou hast forsaken me, saith the Lord, thou are gone backward: therefore will I stretch out my hand against thee, and destroy thee: I am WEARY with REPENTING." Again, a TIMELY REPENTING by God, and a TIMELY destroying. We continue to find this same principle taught inJeremiah 18:8"If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, TURN FROM their evil, I will REPENT of the evil that I thought to do unto them." Jeremiah 18:10"If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will REPENT OF THE GOOD, wherewith I said I would BENEFIT them." God clearly teaches that "If you will REPENT, then He will REPENT." If you do GOOD, then He will do GOOD and BENEFIT you. If you do EVIL then He will do EVIL unto you, and will REPENT (Turn From) the GOOD that will BENEFIT you. Also seeIsaiah 1:19-20. All this context is TIMELY. InJeremiah 20:1-18, we find Jeremiah lamenting and complaining that the Israelite Nation was so steeped in disobedience, and that 70 years of Babylonian Captivity was coming upon them, and they would not even listen to his preaching, till he decided to "quit preaching" and just "throw in the towel"; that they just were no longer worth even trying to preach to -Jeremiah 20:9-but the word of the Lord was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay." So Jeremiah began preaching even with more zeal and warning the Jews of the curses that God would permit upon them, even as the cities of Sodom and Gomorra -Jeremiah 20:16--- "And let that man be as the cities which the Lord overthrew, and REPENTED NOT." God did not TURN FROM the TIMELY destroying of those cities. This should be a great lesson to us in the U.S.A. today. The prayers of the "Salt of the earth" (Matthew 5:13), a few righteous men (Genesis 18:1-33), is all that can cause God to REPENT FROM destroying Idolatrous U.S.A., instead of REPENTING NOT. Think about that ! ! ! Jeremiah 26:3"If so be they will hearken, and TURN every man FROM his evil way, that I may REPENT ME of the evil, which I purpose to do unto them because of the evil of their doings." Yes, in Jeremiah’s day, this same premise persisted, and let us continue - - - Jeremiah 26:13"Therefore now amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the Lord your God; and the Lord will REPENT HIM of the evil that he hath pronounced against you." Jeremiah 42:10"If ye will still abide in this land, then will I build you, and not pull you down, and I will plant you, and not pluck you up: for I REPENT ME of the evil that I have done unto you." Ezekiel writes about the parable of the "seething bones," and shows this is what will happen to Jerusalem (a type of the N.T. Church today) because of idolatry, great scum, lewdness, and even calls her a "bloody city." Ezekiel 24:14 "I the Lord have spoken it: it shall come to pass, and I will do it; I will NOT GO BACK, neither will I spare, neither will I REPENT; according to thy ways, and according to thy doings, shall they judge thee, saith the Lord God." This is strong medicine upon the Church, but "GOD’S REPENTING NOT" is only TIMELY. Hosea 11:8"- - -mine heart is turned within me, MY REPENTINGS are kindled together." Hosea 11:9"I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger, I will NOT REPENT to destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not man; the Holy One in the midst of thee: and I will not enter into the city." Can you not see "GOD’S REPENTING" --- TIMELY in these last few verses? Hosea further writes -Hosea 13:14- "I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will by thy plagues; O grave, I will be by destruction: REPENTANCE shall be hid from mine eyes." Hereis a promise in prophecy that God will NOT REPENT FROM the GRAVE and DEATH, and ransom you from such. This is a glorious promise. Joel 2:13"And rend your heart, and not your garments, and TURN UNTO the Lord your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and REPENTETH HIM of the evil." Joel 2:14"Who knoweth if he will RETURN and REPENT, and leave a blessing behind him..." This is self-explanatory, isn’t it? Amos 6:1"Woe to them that are at ease in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria, which are named chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel came I." God’s children who trust in "idols" of any nature, even their "Works Systems" of today, are, in a sense, "At ease in Zion," even though they are "Working," and WOE unto such. Now the Lord shows Amos aPlumbline (Amos 7:7-9). To "square and line-up"; To "show precisely where the center is"; an Instrument of "FUNDAMENTALS." Now, back toAmos 7:3-6- we find that God will NOT REPENT from the "Plumbline Method" of chastisement, but did "REPENT" or "TURN FROM" other methods - TIMELY. Jonah 3:9"Who can tell if God will TURN and REPENT, and TURN AWAY FROM his fierce anser, that we perish not?" Jonah 3:10"And God saw their works, that they TURNED FROM their evil way; and God REPENTED OF the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not." Jonah 4:1"But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry." Jonah 4:2"And he prayed unto the Lord, and said, I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and REPENTEST THEE of the evil." How much plainer can scripture be? God REPENTED and TURNED FROM his fierce anger, and did not destroy Nineveh. God intended to destroy Nineveh, but Jonah’s preaching caused the Ninevites to REPENT, then God REPENTED. However, look at the great lesson before us right here. This lesson is for US ALL, and let us never forget it. Here it is: God was angry at Nineveh. God was angry at Jonah also. Both the Ninevites and Jonah were disobedient. God caused Jonah to REPENT, and to go to Nineveh, and preach to them, and they REPENTED: then God REPENTED, but Jonah became very angry at God because God REPENTED from destroying Nineveh, and clearly proved that man needs to REPENT and REPENT and REPENT. Jonah, prays a prayer, even while he is angry, and discloses to God his knowledge, that God Himself is gracious, merciful, slow to anger, of great kindness, and is a God that REPENTS FROM the evil of destroying Nineveh. How can we ever doubt the doctrine that "GOD REPENTS," but remember, it is only TIMELY. See alsoMatthew 12:41;Matthew 16:4;Luke 11:32. The prophet Zechariah closes out the Old Testament subject of "GOD’S REPENTING" inZechariah 8:13-15"And it shall come to pass, that as ye were a curse among the heathen, O house of Judah, and house of Israel; so will I save you, and ye shall be a blessing: fear not, but let your hands be strong." 14 "For thus saith the Lord of hosts; As I thought to PUNISH YOU, when your fathers provoked me to wrath, saith the Lord of host, and I REPENTED NOT:" 15 "So again have I thought in these days to DO WELL UNTO Jerusalem and to the house of Judah: fear ye not." To me, Zechariah makes this so clear, so very clear, dealing with "GOD’S REPENTING." To summarize, when REPENTANCE is predicated of God, either in the DIRECTION of JUDGMENT or of MERCY, there is reference to the CHANGE that takes place in God’s ETERNAL RELATIONSHIP to man, but only TIMELY FELLOWSHIP to man. God is immutable, unchangeable and permanent in HisBEING, ESSENCES, CHARACTERISTICS, PERSONALITY, PERFECTIONS, and PURPOSES. But He CHANGES (Turns or REPENTS) His "ATTITUDE," in "JUDGMENT" upon SIN, from complacency to wrath, in MERCY from WRATH to FAVOUR and BLESSING. In the O.T. the terms - TURNING FROM the "Fierceness of His Anger or Wrath" and "Repenting Him of the evil," both set forth "God’s Repenting." In the O.T. God’s "RELATIONSHIP" was sovereignly His own choice in the HEBREW PEOPLE, the CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, but God’s "FELLOWSHIP" with them was predicated upon THEIR OBEDIENCE, and such Obedience and/or Disobedience caused God’s REPENTING FROM them and/or REPENTING or TURNING TO them. God’s RELATIONSHIP to His Elect Family is ETERNAL and God REPENTS NOT; however, God’s FELLOWSHIP to His Elect Family is TIMELY and God REPENTS. God’s "mood swings, temperament, mind-flex, demeanor, behavior and reflectivity" are variable, flexible, and contingent, depending upon the obedience or disobedience of His Children and especially that of His Disciples (followers and learners of Him), yet, all of these descriptions in this paragraph are ONLY TIMELY in imported blessings or cursings or chastisements. In conclusion, the writings of Moses, Samuel, Ezra, David, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Jonah, and Zechariah all clearly set forth, beyond a shadow of a doubt that one aspect of the subject of RPENTANCE is "GOD’S REPENTING," but in every case, such was TIMELY and was appropriated only unto "His People." "GOD’S REPENTING NOT," was, in extent and duration, applied only to those outside the "Elect Family"; God REPENTS NOT "Eternally" concerning the "non-elect," but not so concerning "The Elect." Compiled by: Hulan F. Bass (elder) Many years ago. Lubbock, Tx. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 39: EFFECTUAL CALL ILLUSTRATED ======================================================================== EFFECTUAL CALL ILLUSTRATED The writers of the Gospels include three resurrection accounts in the narrative of Jesus’ personal ministry. These three episodes demonstrate the life-giving power of the Lord Jesus Christ and illustrate the efficacy of His call to spiritual life. In every case (i.e. the son of the widow of Nain, Jairus’ daughter, and Lazarus of Bethany), Jesus spoke directly to the dead without the use of media. His call was personal ("Young man, I say unto thee arise;" "Damsel, arise;" "Lazarus, come forth."). His call was effectual ("He that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave clothes."). His call was direct and immediate. He did not ask the disciples to speak for Him. He did not send a message through some messenger. There was no human agency invoked and there was no voluntary cooperation from the deceased. Jesus spoke, by sovereign fiat, and it was done. Jesus, on the contrary, did not always heal the deaf, or give sight to the blind in the same way. To a blind man on one occasion, Jesus made clay, anointed his eyes, and told him to go wash in the pool of Siloam. On another occasion, He healed the blind man in stages. ({Mr 8:22} & following) Each episode of resurrection, however, occurred in precisely the same way. Jesus spoke. He spoke directly. He spoke personally. He spoke effectually. He spoke sovereignly. In the same way, Christ raises dead sinners to spiritual life. He speaks the life-giving voice, calling His own by name. The dead hear, and the dead live. Furthermore, Jesus always went to the dead. The dead did not come to Him personally, neither were they brought to Him by some concerned friend or relative. He always went to the dead. The sick, the blind, and the palsied, on the contrary, were brought to Him. In the work of raising dead sinners to life in Christ, the pattern is the same. The sinner does not come to Christ to get salvation. He is not brought to Christ by the prayers of some concerned friend or the efforts of some Christian worker. Christ goes to the sinner and meets him at the point of his need. He walks into the sepulchre of the depraved heart and breathes life into man’s deadness and the sinner comes forth, Lazarus-like, into new life. Once the dead is raised, the gospel serves to release that newborn soul from bondage. The preacher cannot raise Lazarus, but he can, once Christ has given him life, "loose him and let him go." This distinction between the work of the Lord and the work of the gospel minister is crucial. Only when one understands that he did not contribute toward his own salvation can he properly honor God. God does everything necessary for salvation; therefore, He receives all the glory. From first to last, salvation is of the Lord. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 40: ENDURE LIKE JESUS - ENDURE THROUGH JESUS ======================================================================== ENDURE LIKE JESUS - ENDURE THROUGH JESUS Hebrews 12:1-29 In the wake of these great champions of faith and perseverance, the writer cites one further example of faith- the example of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. In what way is the example of Jesus superior to the testimony of Abraham, Moses, and the others inHebrews 11:1-40In terms of the fact that the Lord Jesus, in contrast to the faithful patriarchs and prophets, is more than an example of faith for us to follow. He also supplies the grace, strength, and assistance to enable us to endure. The patriarchs were examples, but Jesus is more than an example. He is also a means of our present strength and encouragement now. Endure Through Jesus {Hebrews 12:1-2} The author now employs the familiar image of an athletic contest in which the runners in the arena would be surrounded by spectators in the ampitheater. Though he does not suggest by this imagery that the saints who have departed to heaven are now hovering about us watching our progress as heavenly spectators of what takes place in the earthly realm, yet figuratively, the champions of faith listed inHebrews 11:1-40} They must discard every impediment, including both excess body weight and all unnecessary clothing, that is, discard every excess and encumbrance that tends to impair mobility and weigh the runner down. Whatever the particular sin that entangles us, we must lay it aside. The race of faith, in other words, requires diligent self-discipline. {1 Corinthians 9:25-27} Having cast off excess weights, the author urges the Hebrews to “run with patience.” Patience is hupomone (See SGreek: 5281. hupomone) upomonh, meaning endurance. It speaks of the determination to abide under difficulties in undaunted and steadfast endurance. The use of the word suggests that the Christian race is a marathon, a long-distance race. (2) They must labor to remain undistracted- “Looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith....” This is the great secret of endurance. The strength and resources to persevere in the race of faith come only through a fixed gaze on Jesus Christ. He, and He alone, is the source of our strength. The writer suggests the need to look to Him without distraction by the use of the word (See SGreek: 872. aphorao ) aforaw aphorao (’ looking’).Aphorao is a looking away from everything else in order to focus exclusively on one object. Only by fixating on Jesus Christ as the sole source of strength and help can anyone endure to the finish line. Distractions cost the runner precious time and energy. Endure Like Jesus {Hebrews 12:2-4} Not only is the Lord Jesus the source of our strength, He is also the supreme example. In fact, He is the “author”i.e. pioneer and “finisher”i.e. perfecter of our faith. He, the founder of the Christian faith, has already blazed the trail of faith himself. Further, He finished His course. He completed His task. He endured! What did He endure? He endured the cross, despising the shame. He endured the contradiction of sinners against Himself. Now He is set down at the right hand of God. Where is He now? Not in the grandstands, but in the dignitaries box, "sat down at the right hand of God." When the Hebrews face discouragement, the author wants them to think about Jesus. Look at your Savior and imitate His example, he says. Look to your Savior and draw from His strength. Endure like Him. Endure through Him. Keep your eyes on Jesus. "Sometimes I feel discouraged and think my life in vain; I’m tempted then to murmur and of my lot complain; But then I think of Jesus and all He’s done for me; Then I cry ‘O Rock of Ages, Hide Thou me." ======================================================================== CHAPTER 41: ERROR ======================================================================== ERROR by Elder Joe Holder The proponents of error focus on the external and reject God’s clear revelation in Scripture. On any given occasion in which a false teacher introduces error, it may take on a different form, but it will always substitute private opinion for God’s way as revealed in Scripture. It will also in some way or another emphasize the external and the ritual at the expense of personal and individual devotion to God, Biblical faith that translates into faithfulness to God and to His revealed teaching in Scripture. They worship the creature more than the Creator (Romans 1:25). ======================================================================== CHAPTER 42: EVANGELISM ======================================================================== EVANGELISM by Elder Joe Holder At times Christians who hold to the doctrines of grace have been accused of holding to ideas that devalue the importance of evangelism. At times we have given credibility to the accusation, to our great shame and to the neglect of the Biblical model of an outreaching faith. The objective of Biblical evangelism is to set forth Biblical truth in a practical manner so that our hearers will grow in their faith and discipleship. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 43: EXAMINE OURSELVES ======================================================================== Examine Ourselves We have one who is our Head.Ephesians 1:22"And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,"Isaiah 33:22"For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; he will save us." We are exhorted to, "Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?"2 Corinthians 13:5We need to spend more time examining ourselves rather than our brethren.Romans 14:4"Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand." When we carefully examine ourselves; we will not be so quick to cast stones.John 8:7-"He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." A lot has been said about "liberals" and "conservatives." In my book a "liberal" is one that is too quick to change our practices. A "conservative" is one that is to an extreme on tradition. There are those among us who verily think they are the only Old Line Primitive Baptists and have drawn their circle of fellowship extremely small. Brethren there is a ditch on either side of the road! Elder Afton Richards said something to the effect that you can always tell if you are in the middle of the road -people will be shooting at you from both ditches. The Old Ship of Zion is safer and prospers more in the deep waters of the center of the stream. It was said of President Lyndon Johnson that he was so successful in government because he was a master of compromise. God’s truth must not be compromised! Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith! There is the largest group which is in the middle- "moderates." Among them the Church is in more prosperity and there is rejoicing, love and care for each other.Hebrews 13:1"Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand."Joshua 1:7"Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest." In the Navy, our ship had equipment to take a fix and find our position. A one degree error continued a long time will cause a ship to be way off course. We frequently checked to see if we were on course and made course corrections. Frequent corrections are much easier to make than drastic corrections when the course has not been checked in a long time. Examine yourselves!Revelation 2:29"He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches." Have we got our ears on? Are we seeking direction from the Lord?Isaiah 30:21"And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left." "I love thy kingdom Lord."3 John 1:2"Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth." O may I worthy prove to see Thy saints in full prosperity, To see the Bride, the glittering Bride, Close seated by the Savior’s side. 2 Corinthians 13:5"Let us examine ourselves, whether we are in The Faith!" ======================================================================== CHAPTER 44: FAITH & FAITH OF GOD ======================================================================== FAITH & FAITH OF GOD Concerning the term “God’s faith,” I offer the following. Ephesians 2:8-9has reference to eternal salvation. The faith spoken of in the text is that which is “implanted” in the heart of every elect child of God somewhere between conception and death. Both the grace and the faith are the gift of God, spoken of in the text.Romans 12:3is teaching that every child of God will receive “the measure of faith,” and that is the same usage of the word faith that is used inEphesians 2:8-9. He is the originator of faith and the work of grace that is done in the inner man (soul and spirit, commonly referred to as the heart) will not be made ineffectual by the temporal unbelief of the Jews, (or Gentiles either, for that matter). “Faithfulness” and “having faith” are not the same thing. The text inRomans 3:25is indeed worthy of serious consideration. However, the faith spoken of there is the same as that spoken of inEphesians 2:8-9, andRomans 12:3. The faith received in regeneration is “faith in His blood.”Galatians 2:16seems to be against me. “Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.” No man is justified without faith. Thanks be to God, He has supplied that faith to His elect as a free gift. There IS a usage of the word faith as pertains to “the body of truth contained in the Scriptures.” It seems that when the words “the faith” are used that it most often speaks of the Body of truth contained in the Scriptures. This is seen inGalatians 1:22-24, and inJude 1:3, as well as other places. However, I am not convinced that this is the case withRomans 3:3. The just live by the faith that was implanted in regeneration and by the exercise thereof throughout their lives. That faith is enhanced, guided and instructed by the Scriptures, the gospel etc. In speaking of the work of God through Christ with respect to the eternal covenant, I would not say that “God had complete trust and confidence in the Son with which He covenanted...” but rather that he had complete knowledge and therefore, I would not use the word faith in connection with this. There are texts which speak of the “faith of God,” or the “faith of Christ.” The terms “faith of God,” and “faith of Christ” ARE biblical terms. The words “through faith” inEphesians 2:8do not refer to “God’s faith in His Son,” but rather, to the faith given as a gift of God to every elect child of God in regeneration. FAITH The gift of faith enables the newborn soul to function in the spiritual realm, an ability he did not have prior to his quickening. {John 3:3;John 3:5;1 Corinthians 2:14} It also gives the individual the ability to believe, or, if you please, “ears to hear.” {Revelation 2:7;Revelation 2:11;Proverbs 20:12;Matthew 11:15} ======================================================================== CHAPTER 45: FAITH AT THE CROSSROADS OF LIFE ======================================================================== FAITH AT THE CROSSROADS OF LIFEHebrews 11:20-29 Hebrews 11:20-40 Change is as natural to human experience as breathing. Whatever your present circumstances, this much is certain: they will change. Young people get old; the healthy become ill; children grow up and grown-ups return to childishness; the sad become happy and the happy sad. Yes, change is inevitable. "Change and decay in all around I see." In the light of that fact, how should a Christian respond to the turning points of life?Hebrews 11:20-29reveals three different kinds of “turning point”experiences, each of which requires a response of faith. Facing Death in Faith {Hebrews 11:20-22} Death, of course, is the ultimate change. Each day that passes is one day nearer the end of life. As the natural senses fail, however, faith enables the believer to face the “last enemy”with hopeful vision, joyful worship, and victorious confidence. That’s how Isaac approached the end of his life: “By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come”.{Hebrews 11:20} His faith was visionary. Looking beyond the present dissolution of natural life, Isaac focused on the future. Further, Jacob died triumphantly in faith: “By faith Jacob, when he was a dying...worshiped, leaning upon the top of his staff.” {Hebrews 11:21} Jacob did not face his final hours in terror or despair. Instead, he bowed himself upon his staff and offered worship to God. This dying man had faith in the Living God. Like his father and grandfather, Joseph glorified God by a faithful testimony in death: “By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel from Egypt; and gave commandment concerning his bones”.{Hebrews 11:22} He said, “One day God will carry you up from Egypt and when He does, I want to go with you. Promise me, then, that you’ll take my bones.” His confidence in the ultimate victory no doubt encouraged his brethren more than once in the years ahead. We might call these three examples “Visionary Faith.” This kind of faith says, “His love in times past forbids me to think He’ll leave me at last in trouble to sink; Each sweet Ebenezer I have in review, Confirms His good pleasure to help me right through.” Facing Danger in Faith {Hebrews 11:23;Hebrews 11:27-29} The “fear of the unknown”is an intimidating factor as we face the changes of the future. Moses’ parents must have struggled with this fear as they refused to comply with Pharoah’s unjust law. Because they trusted God and feared Him above man, they were not intimidated by the king’s decree. Moses himself also overcame his fear of man by faith. {Hebrews 11:27} The eye of faith, in other words, enables a person to "see Him who is invisible." In the light of His reality, danger and threats sink into irrelevance. We might call this "Courageous Faith." Facing Decisions in Faith {Hebrews 11:24-26} Crucial choices are, by definition, turning points and seasons of change in life. Moses faced such a choice when he reached maturity. {Hebrews 11:24} In one sense, it was a choice between being rich and being poor, between being "somebody" and being "nobody." In another sense, however, it was a choice between being authentic and being synthetic, between being true to his convictions and living a lie. By faith, he chose to be a “nobody”with God’s people, even at the cost of personal loss, because he wanted to be true to his convictions. By faith, he knew that any momentary reproach he would suffer would soon be repayed by God. {Hebrews 11:26} b And, by faith, he knew that any temporary pleasure he might enjoy in sin would bring long-term pain and regret. We might call this “Decisive Faith.” Like these heroic saints of yesteryear, the Hebrews, standing at the crossroads of change and transition, had a signpost in God’s word to direct their steps. Would they follow it by faith? ======================================================================== CHAPTER 46: FREE WILL OR BONDAGE OF WILL? ======================================================================== FREE WILL OR BONDAGE OF WILL? Few religious issues have been debated more heatedly than the free will of man. In my opinion this debate has been somewhat misguided, and has caused both sides to drift from the issues, concepts, and terms presented in the scriptures. The Arminian position may be true in its basic premise that man has a free will; however, the inferences drawn from this premise practically ignore scriptural statements regarding the depravity of man. On the other hand, Calvinists are sometimes confusing when they deny that man has free will, yet claim that man is personally responsible for his sinful behavior. The explanations they offer for this apparent contradiction are often lengthy, complex, and sometimes contradictory within themselves. It is interesting that the Bible never says that man is with free will, nor does it say that he is without it, or at least not in such terms. I concede that the scriptures teach that natural man is in bondage to sin; however, it is also clear that he is in such bondage willfully -not because he is without the capacity to choose otherwise. Should we describe such a man as being without free will? I believe this description is misleading, and I further object to it because it does not use scriptural terminology. On the other hand, if we are to characterize such a man as having free will, we should not jump to the conclusion that this freedom can contribute toward his own salvation. Arminians believe that if man has freedom of will, then this freedom offers some possibility he will choose good, and therefore some possibility he will choose Christ. This reasoning does not follow. Both Calvinists and Arminians agree that God has free will, but this freedom offers no possibility that God will choose evil. God consistently chooses good, but His adherence to good is not because His will is in any form of bondage, but because He has a good nature. Now if a man has a bad nature, we might expect him to choose evil as predictably as God chooses good, even though this man may have freedom of will. Jesus said: Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit. O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. {Matthew 12:33} Clearly, the tree is not bad because it brings forth bad fruit; rather, it brings forth bad fruit because it is a bad tree. Likewise, a man with a bad nature brings forth corrupt behavior as predictably as a tree with a bad nature brings forth corrupt fruit. This man’s behavior will be consistently corrupt either in that it violates God’s law, or in that it derives from improper motives. For example, the Pharisees acted properly when they gave alms to the poor, but their actions were motivated by self aggrandizement -not by a desire to please God. Paul said that we were (prior to spiritual quickening) by nature children of wrath even as others. {Ephesians 1:3} Again Paul said, But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him: neither indeed can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. {1 Corinthians 2:14} Since the gospel is a spiritual thing, it follows that a natural man will never receive it, regardless of how long and how persuasively it is preached to him. This is not because he is without the freedom to accept it, but because it is his nature to reject it. The same truth is expressed inRomans 8:5, For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit...For the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. These texts plainly teach that a man with an exclusively carnal nature will reject the truth of God with complete consistency. However, this is not because of an inability to choose otherwise; rather, it is because of a carnal nature which is repelled by all spiritual things. It is not a question of what he can do, but a question of what he will do, and this question is conclusively resolved upon examination of his nature. There are four ways in which we can logically combine nature and will: (1) Good nature without freedom of will (e.g. a good tree) (2) Bad nature without freedom of will (e.g. a corrupt tree) (3) Good nature with freedom of will (e.g. God) (4) Bad nature with freedom of will (e.g. natural man) God does not condemn bad trees to hell for the obvious reason that they do not have freedom of will. The condemnable state occurs when a bad nature is combined with a free will. This is precisely what man has. The choices a man makes are determined by two things: 1. the feasible alternatives presented to him, and 2. the nature of his preferences and logic. All men have freedom of will in that both good and evil are feasible alternatives to them, but all natural men do in fact choose evil because their preferences and logic are so inclined. A natural man will never choose a spiritual thing because such choice is unreasonable in his perception. Paul said that the things of the Spirit will be foolishness to this man, {1 Corinthians 2:14} because his carnal mind is not subject to the law of God. {Romans 8:7} Yea, it is enmity against God. Since man’s actions are bound to his nature, it might be said that he is not truly responsible for his actions. However, this does not follow because the corrupted nature in man both produces sin and is produced by sin. Jesus said, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. {John 8:34} Paul clarifies this inRomans 6:16, ...to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness. Commission of sin leads to corruption of nature, which leads to yet more commission of sin. Alcoholism both causes drinking and is caused by drinking. All other sins are the same in principle. Therefore man is responsible both for his sins and for the nature which produces them. An examination of man’s nature exposes the foolishness of those who think that gospel persuasion can be used to move natural men to belief in Christ. Since belief in Christ is a spiritual thing, natural man will invariably reject it. Paul said, The preaching of the cross is unto them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. {1 Corinthians 1:18} How can preaching deliver a man from the perishing state when it is the nature of perishing man to reject preaching as foolishness? How can preaching persuade a man to salvation when only a saved man will hear it? It must therefore be the case that gospel can succeed only when preached to an individual who has obtained a spiritual nature through the quickening power of God. I conclude therefore that man has a free will in combination with a bad nature. The former explains his accountability. The latter explains his utter dependence upon grace for salvation. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 47: FUNCTIONS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT ======================================================================== FUNCTIONS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT Though John wrote both lessons, to connectJohn 3:1-36andJohn 16:1-33wholly violates good hermeneutics and contextual interpretation. In one lesson Jesus is quietly teaching an individual rabbai. In the other He is preparing the disciples for his epochal departure and the coming of the Holy Spirit. [i] [ii] The one thing in common between the two lessons is the appearance of the Holy Spirit. However, the two passages deal with entirely distinct functions of the Holy Spirit, the reason they do not belong in the same topical or theological dialogue. The work of the Holy Spirit in regeneration is one thing. The ministry of the Holy Spirit with the elect as the "new" Comforter (a work that I view as distinct from His role as life-giver) since the ascension is quite another. The rules of His work in one function are not at all the necessary rules of His work in the other area. [i] I think I see agreement in that written here and that found in the commentary entry found in John chapter 16 verse 13 See PB:John 16:13where the writer there said "The Holy Spirit inJohn 3:8is not separately functional independently in its BLOWING, and cannot act sovereignly nor independently AS IT PLEASES, but is always PLEASING THE SON, because the Holy Spirit in Creativity and the Holy Ghost in Cultivating are of the SAME WILL, MIND, WAY and PLEASURE only concerned with the WILL, MIND, WAY and PLEASURE of the Son. {John 16:7-15} This COMPARATIVE of the WIND BLOWING relating to the SAME procedure of the action of the New Birth of the Spirit, must always be in harmony as such is THE VOICE OF THE SON OF GODJohn 5:25;John 6:63" The writer made the distinction IMHO thatJohn 3:8pertained to the new birth and thatJohn 16:7-15pertains to the Holy Spirit in cultivating. I do however make a separate distinction in the point that the Holy Spirit cannot act sovereignly nor independently for IMHO He does indeed act sovereignly and independently even though that operation is in full, complete and unified accord with the Father and the Son. {ii} [ii] Amen to your comments brother. We should never diminish the sovereignty of each "Persona" within the Trinity in their mutually-agreed and harmonious work. Since they are both equal and agreed, one acting individually does not act in any way short of sovereignty. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 48: FRIEND, JESUS OUR ======================================================================== Friend, Jesus our by Eld. Gregg Thompson O how unsearchable are the riches of our Jesus! The treasures of his grace are inexhaustible. He clothes the naked with robes of righteousness and garments of salvation. He feeds the hungry with the bread of life, and leads the thirsty to fountains of living water. He opens the prison door to the prisoner, and sets the captive free. He binds up the wounded and broken heart, and comforts all them that mourn. He calls the weary, heavy-laden souls to him, and gives them rest. 0, sweet rest from all their sins and guilt! None that come unto him are sent away empty. He leads his flock as a shepherd, and carries the little ones in his bosom. He makes them to lie down in green pastures, and when they pass through the valley of the shadow of death, when all is darkness and gloom, and they can see no way of escape, he is with them. He safely leads them through, and spreads a table for them in the presence of their enemies. He makes their cup to run over with joy. When they are called to pass through the fire he is with them, and the fire shall not burn them, neither shall the flames kindle upon them. If they pass through deep waters, and are tossed upon angry waves, he is with them. The waters shall not drown them neither shall the billows overflow them. In every trial and temptation he will make a way of escape. He is a present help in time of trouble, and will never leave nor forsake his children. Dear child of God, what a friend you have in Jesus! Do you wonder that Paul determined not to know any thing but Jesus Christ, and him crucified? Does not the name of JESUS fill your heart with love, inspire your drooping soul with confidence, and drive darkness and doubt from your mind? ======================================================================== CHAPTER 49: GNOSTICISM ======================================================================== GNOSTICISM by Elder Joe Holder God often uses life experiences to illustrate what He revealed to us in Scripture. However, we must never allow experience to supercede Scripture as our authority. We see this error with increasing frequency among many leading Christian teachers in our time, “God revealed to me...” Ask the speaker where in Scripture he found this knowledge. You will readily see that Scripture holds little or no authority to the person. Esoteric experience, privately interpreted as a divine revelation, rules his life and thinking. Irenaeus, Against Heresies, exposed this mindset as altogether gnostic in its character. He strongly defended accepted, written Scripture as the faithful believer’s only reliable and acceptable rule of life and faith. The ancient gnostic error held to a body of secret verbal knowledge that only the initiated into its inner circle knew. The gnostic god was altogether unknowable and uninvolved in human life, so any true knowledge of him came through the leaders of this movement. How could anyone question the knowledge or “revelations”of these leaders? Conveniently, they couldn’t. Old error often reappears with a new wardrobe. In this case the modern New Age movement is little more than a mixture of ancient gnosticism mixed with Hinduism. With the number of professing Christian leaders and teachers embracing their own private “revelations”as having more authority than Scripture, is it any wonder that contemporary Christianity seems so ineffective in its rejection of the New Age philosophy? ======================================================================== CHAPTER 50: GOD HAS SPOKEN ======================================================================== GOD HAS SPOKENHebrews 1:1-3 Hebrews 1:1-14 The God of the Bible is a God who communicates to man; he has put his thoughts into words; he is not silent. Theologically, God’s self-disclosure is called “revelation,” a word that means ‘unveiling.’ The doctrine of revelation means that God has made himself known to us in the same way that we make ourselves known to one another: by talking. It is a very humbling doctrine, for it assumes that because God in his greatness is beyond the reach of finite minds, people would have never known him unless he had taken the initiative to make himself known to them. Man can only know Him, consequently, through what he has disclosed of himself. “Without revelation,” John R. W. Stott has said, “we would not be Christians at all but Athenians, and all the world’s altars would be inscribed ‘to an unknown God’.”{Acts 17:23} Where has God revealed himself? First, he has revealed himself in nature. {Psalms 19:1-6;Romans 1:18-25} This is called Natural or General Revelation. Every human being, says Paul, instinctively and inherently knows that God exists and that he/she is ultimately accountable to that God for violations of his moral law, so that they are without excuse. The problem of the atheist, according toRomans 1:1-32, is not an intellectual problem but a moral problem -not a lack of knowledge but the refusal to acknowledge God as God, {Romans 1:21} for God has unveiled himself to all men in creation. Secondly, he has revealed himself in Scripture. {Psalms 19:7-14;Romans 1:16-17} This is called Special Revelation. It is more specific, rational, and comprehensive than natural revelation. He has revealed himself in words to minds. It is a rational revelation to rational creatures. In the New Testament, special revelation was given directly to the apostles, who then communicated God’s truth to us through their words. {Matthew 16:17;Ephesians 3:3-4} Revelation, in other words, was communicated to man via the vehicle of inspiration. As we read and study God’s revealed word, therefore, we need illumination from God the Holy Spirit. {Ephesians 1:18} An outline of the doctrine of revelation looks like this: I Natural Revelation (Visible and Empirical) A. In Nature or Creation B. Through Historical Deeds II Special Revelation (Verbal and Rational) A. In O. T. direct revelation to the prophets B. In N.T., direct revelation to the apostles 1. Communicated via Inspiration (Objective) 2. Comprehended by Illumination (Subjective) General revelation differs from special revelation in terms of its audience (everyone everywhere vs particular people in particular places), its nature (visual vs verbal; continuous vs final and complete), and its message (creation vs salvation). “ Hebrews”begins with an assertion of the fact that the God of Judaism and the God of Christianity is a God who speaks, a God who reveals himself verbally. The prologue {Hebrews 1:1-3} suggests that special revelation has been progressive revelation. The very core of the Bible is the story of God speaking to men and revealing himself at various times and in different ways (i.e. audible voice, theophanies, dreams, visions) to “the fathers by the prophets,” a little here and a little more there. This progressive or gradual revelation has culminated, however, in God’s final and complete “Word,” His own Son. {Hebrews 1:2} Jesus Christ is the Revealer of God, the grand finale of God’s self-disclosure, the One in whom and through whom God has spoken his last word. Through “the record that God has given of His Son,” {1 John 5:10} that is, through the Bible, God still speaks today. A close adherence to Scripture will protect us from two equally dangerous extremes: ( 1) The extreme that God is silent today; (2) The extreme that God is still giving revelation outside of Scripture. Hebrews teaches that God has spoken, once and for all. Through that revelation, he still speaks. That’s the message of Hebrews: “God has spoken; how will you respond to him?” Are you listening to his voice? ======================================================================== CHAPTER 51: GOD IS SOVEREIGN ======================================================================== GOD IS SOVEREIGN Approach With Reverence There are many Scriptures that speak of the power and holiness of Almighty God, which should have the effect of causing us to prostrate our hearts before Him continually.Psalms 89:7says that "holy and reverend is His name." According to Isaiah, Chapter six, the angelic seraphim who are around the throne of the LORD, cover their faces in His august presence. When Moses approached the burning bush which was indwelt by the LORD, he was told by God, "Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground." I am greatly afraid that we do not approach our God with the proper reverence today. We are much too casual in our approach to God. We need to learn to do as the writer said inHebrews 12:28when he exhorted, "let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear." We need this godly fear as we approach His word. Everything in the Bible is sacred, but we come to the very essence of truth when we consider the Godhood of God! Is God truly sovereign or is He not? Can puny man frustrate the mighty God? To hear many spokesmen on the Bible today, God has a bleeding, broken heart because He cannot violate man’s so-called "free will." People speak of "letting God" or "allowing God" to do certain things. In my opinion this is nothing short of blasphemy. This irreverence toward God is also manifested in the loose way we approach the Scriptures. We need to be very, very careful how we interpret God’s word. We had better be very careful that we do not read our opinions and preconceived ideas into God’s word. Peter speaks of those who "are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction." The word translated "wrest" means "to twist, pervert, or torture." When we turn from the obvious meaning of Scripture because it does not suit our idea of what we think it ought to teach, we are wresting the Scripture. We need to constantly be on the guard that we do not do this because, as it says inJeremiah 17:9, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" We are usually a lot more biased and prejudiced than we realize. With a great deal of humility, we need to approach the Bible with the prayer recorded inPsalms 119:18, "Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law." Rationalism or Faith? I believe that many even of God’s people approach the Bible with a rationalistic approach. What do I mean by this? What I am calling rationalism here is a refusal to believe something we cannot understand or reason out. I am not saying that God is illogical. Some people try to hide behind the idea that God does not operate logically, so they can "reconcile," what to them, is the fact that both the doctrines of election and universal atonement are true. This appears to be an absurdity because it is! Either Christ intended to save only the elect or He laid down His life for the entire human race. Both cannot be true. To say that both are true would be illogical. But many people try to get around this by saying that God is not bound by the laws of logic. He acts above logic. I deny this. God is not illogical. It is true that sometimes we cannot fathom the depths of his logical operations, but He is not illogical. However, as just noted, while God is not illogical, His ways are so far above us as to defy perfect understanding on our parts. This is where trust or faith comes in. I often tell the people to whom I preach, when they face perplexing circumstances, that God never did tell us to understand Him; He told us to trust Him. When we take the rationalistic approach, we will not do this. If we cannot explain God’s dealings in ways that we can understand, we will reject them. My dear brothers and sisters, this ought not to be! God is not irrational, but He is incomprehensible. The finite mind of man can never encompass nor fully comprehend the infinite mind of God. As the Scriptures say inIsaiah 55:8-9, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." Why am I making all these observations? I am making them because there are too many people I know who do not seem to be able to accept the Biblical doctrine of God’s sovereign control of all things, because they cannot understand it. Without realizing it, they are approaching the Scriptures as rationalists. Statement of the Doctrine I am now going to make a statement that I believe with all my heart because it is abundantly supported by the Scriptures. I do not fully understand this statement. I cannot fully explain it, but I get a great deal of comfort from believing it. I plan to show that I am on solid historical ground in my belief. This is what almost all Primitive Baptists used to believe. Around the turn of the century and a few decades before, there was a great controversy surrounding this doctrine. Finally there was a division in the ranks of the Primitive Baptists between what became known as the Absoluters and the Conditionalists. As so often happens in controversy, I believe that some of the brethren in each camp went to extremes and went into some degree of error as they strove to defend their side in the controversy. I believe that many of God’s people began to come short of the Scriptures as they limited their belief of the extent of God’s sovereignty. I do not believe that their motives were bad. I simply believe that they began to refuse to believe what they could not understand and explain. They became rationalistic in their approach to Scripture. When discussing the subject, they would use reasoning and hypothetical situations instead of confining themselves to the Scriptures. This is the approach that I used to take. I had an altogether too low a view of the extent of God’s sovereignty. I was so afraid of being branded an Absoluter that I came to the Scriptures with preconceived ideas. What a comfort when the Lord allowed me to just take the Scriptures for what they said and to quit trying to explain away things I could not understand. Here is my statement: I BELIEVE THAT GOD CONTROLS EVERYTHING TO A MINUTE DETAIL, YET HE IS NOT THE AUTHOR OF SIN. I cannot explain this. I can explain around it a little, and I am going to try to do that right now, but I can only go as far as the Scriptures allow me to, and then I am going to have to stop. Nothing takes God by surprise. Nothing frustrates His purposes. God even uses the actions of sinful men to glorify Himself, yet He cannot be justly accused of making those men sin. He could have kept them from sinning, as He sometimes does, but in many cases He chooses not to. As the Psalmist says inPsalms 76:10, "Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain." God lets sinful man’s wrath go so far, uses it for His own purposes, and then restrains the remainder. If God so chose, he could always keep men from sinning against Him. When Sarah was in danger because of Abraham’s lapse of faith, Abimelech was going to take her to be one of his wives, but God protected her. The only reason that Abimelech did not defile her, as God later said to him, was that "I also withheld thee from sinning against me: therefore suffered I thee not to touch her." God could always do that if He desired to do so. Scriptural Support What is my Scriptural support for the above statement? The Scriptures rightly understood, I believe teach this doctrine from Genesis to Revelation. However, I will limit myself to just a few proof texts. As you examine this list of Scriptures please pray for an open mind: Ephesians 1:11, "In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will." Psalms 115:3, "But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased."Daniel 4:35, "And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?" Proverbs 16:4, "The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil." Note: This Scripture does not say that it was the Lord Who had made the wicked to be wicked. They are responsible for their own wickedness. Proverbs 16:33, "The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the LORD." Romans 11:36, "For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen." Revelation 4:11, "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created." This is a very, very incomplete list of Scriptures which, taken at face value, show that our God is definitely in control. I urge each of you to honestly look at them with as little bias as possible, and see what the Bible tells us about our Mighty Sovereign God. If there are any of you who really want to see what the Bible teaches on this subject, let me suggest a project for you. Read the entire Bible through with a pen or pencil and notebook at hand. Write down everything the Bible says that God has done. I think you will be amazed and greatly blessed. Some Examples From the Bible I want to give a text here for a reference point, and then look at some fascinating things from the word of God. Here is the text:Deuteronomy 29:29, "The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law." God has a secret will (Will of God, Secret) and a revealed will. God is not inconsistent, but it may appear that He is at times. We are obligated to live according to God’s revealed will. That simply means we are to do what God has commanded us to do and not ask Him a lot of questions. For example, when someone I love becomes ill, it is my duty to pray for him, because God has told me to. It may or may not be God’s will to heal that individual, but I am to do what God told me to do. David prayed for his son until it became obvious that it was not God’s will for the son to live, because he died. After his death, David demonstrated a wonderful submission to the will of God. Joseph Let me give a few interesting examples from Scripture. It is obvious that when Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery that they sinned. We cannot charge a Holy God with this sin. However God was in complete control of what happened and it was His secret will that this was the method whereby He would get Joseph into Egypt. All Bible readers are familiar with the following beautiful words that Joseph spoke to his brothers inGenesis 45:5, "Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life." Joseph further told his brothers inGenesis 50:20, "But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive." Brothers and sisters, this is awesome! Who can fully understand this? Who can fully explain this? Why can’t we just believe it and rejoice in it and glorify God for it? Samson We find some very interesting things in the book of Judges concerning our subject. There was a case when Samson definitely violated the known will of God. God had forbidden the Israelites to marry among the heathen. One of several references to this is inDeuteronomy 7:3. Samson knew this. It was plain. However, he got out of fellowship with God and wanted to marry a Philistine woman. This grieved his mother and father and rightly so. They protested against this. Samson, however persisted. Then we read very interesting words fromJudges 14:4, "But his father and his mother knew not that it was of the LORD, that he sought an occasion against the Philistines: for at that time the Philistines had dominion over Israel." God did not make Samson sin. However God used Samson’s sin for His own wise purposes. God was in complete control of the situation, and no one can deny that in some sense Samson’s attempt to marry this woman was of the Lord, because the Scripture says that it was. Samson killed quite a few of the Philistines as a result of his trying to marry this woman, and God used this to help throw off the yoke the Philistines had over Israel. In His secret will God used, but did not cause, Samson’s sin. David Numbers Israel To see the next example of God’s amazing control, we must compare Scripture with Scripture. We must look at parallel accounts of the same event and glean from each account. We find recorded in2 Samuel 24:1this amazing language, "And again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah." As can be seen from the context, David sinned when he numbered Israel. He brought the judgment of God upon his nation by this act. He did wrong. Yet the Scripture says that God moved him to do it! Does this mean that God is the author of David’s sin? By this I mean, did God internally work in David’s heart so as to make him sin? No, God did not!1 Chronicles 21:1explains how all this came about. It says, "And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel." Here is how did God it; He turned Satan loose on David. God’s anger had been kindled against Israel, no doubt, because they had displeased Him by disobeying his word. Likely David, too, had displeased God in some way. God just left David to his own strength and allowed Satan to tempt him. In this sense God had moved David to number Israel and had used Satan to accomplish His wise and just purposes. This may not be a complete explanation, but it is probably about as far as our finite minds can go. The Bow At a Venture The next example of God’s amazing control of all events is found in1 Kings 21:1-29and1 Kings 22:1-53. Ahab was a very wicked king of Israel and had done many things to provoke God to holy wrath. He crowned his wicked deeds by causing the unjust death of righteous Naboth, so that the wicked monarch could have his vineyard. The Lord sent His prophet, Elijah, to pronounce judgment on Ahab. He told him that the dogs would lick his blood in the same place where they had licked Naboth’s blood. Time passed and Ahab, like many wicked men, may have thought that God had forgotten His judgment. Ahab prepared to go to battle against Syria and he asked the King of Judah, Jehoshaphat, to go to battle with him. Jehoshaphat wanted to inquire from the prophets of the Lord as to whether or not they should go to battle. Four hundred prophets told them to go on and they would have victory. Jehoshaphat was not satisfied and they called for the only one who proved to be a true prophet, Micaiah. Micaiah told them of a very strange vision that the Lord had allowed him to see. Some lying spirits had been allowed by the Lord to go and influence those false prophets so that they would lie about the situation. This does not make God a liar, nor does it make Him the author of a lie. The father of lies is the Devil, as one can learn fromJohn 8:1-59. It does mean that God used the lying spirits and the lying prophets to get Ahab to go to battle. God had determined that Ahab would fall in battle that day. Look at God’s awesome control of events as Ahab did fall in battle. The wicked king had taken every precaution to protect himself. He had disguised himself so as not to be a prominent target. However, "a certain man drew a bow at a venture, and smote the king of Israel between the joints of the harness." Now, dear friends, that man drew a bow at a venture as far as he was concerned. He did not even aim. He shot an arrow in the air. Look, however, at God’s complete and minute control of this event. God controlled the archer’s nerve impulses and muscular contractions, the angle of elevation of the bow, the direction and velocity of the wind, the direction and speed of Ahab’s chariot, and a myriad of minute details! Is our God truly awesome or is He not? The arrow went into the only place where it could have penetrated Ahab’s armor and struck its target. Ahab died when, where, and how God had determined that he would. God used lying spirits, sin, and sinful men to carry out his purposes, but He cannot be charged with their sin. Here, again, is probably about as far as our finite minds can go in considering this incident. Pharaoh One of the most awe inspiring passages of Scripture in the whole of the Bible isRomans 9:17-18, which says, "For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth." Pharaoh thought that he was sovereign, but he found out the hard way that only the Lord, the Creator of all things, is sovereign! Yes, God raised Pharaoh up. He caused him to be born at a certain time and He placed him on the throne of Egypt. Before Moses ever went to Egypt on his mission of deliverance, the Lord spoke to him of Pharaoh, and He said "I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go." {Exodus 4:21} Jehovah said again inExodus 7:3, "And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt." The references to the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart number around twenty in the book of Exodus. In the great majority the Scripture simply says that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. If we are Bible believers we simply have to accept what Scripture says and conclude that in some real sense God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. However, this does not make God the author of Pharaoh’s sin. In another real sense, Pharaoh hardened his own wicked heart. The Scripture says inExodus 8:32that "Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also, neither would he let the people go." Here we have Pharaoh hardening his own heart, while in other places we have God hardening his heart. I believe it is talking about the same thing. God did not tempt Pharaoh to sin.James 1:13says that "God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man." God did not make Pharaoh sin. However, God so controlled events, to a minute detail, that Pharaoh reacted in a sinful manner, and God was glorified by this. This is not a complete explanation, but a complete explanation of God’s wonderful ways is not possible for our puny, finite minds. God has let us know just as much as He wants us to know. This is to cause us to worship Him, not to twist His plain words or to try to explain them away. The Crucifixion The most important event in the history of the world was what happened at Calvary. There the Lord Jesus Christ shed His precious blood and obtained complete and eternal salvation for all His elect children. There Satan was defeated and death was abolished for the sheep of His covenant. Even in this glorious, yet heart-rending event, the All Wise God used and overruled the actions of sinful men. This is, indeed awesome and incomprehensible, but it is the plain and unmistakable teaching of Scripture. The Bible plainly says inActs 2:23, speaking of Christ, that, "Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain..." God delivered Christ, and wicked men slew Him. This was not an accident. This was according to prophecy. This was according to the Covenant of Redemption. Christ is referred to in Scripture as "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." None of this took God by surprise. God was in complete control of every minute detail. None of this was accidental. Many, many prophecies were fulfilled in detail. When the early church was filled with the Holy Spirit on one occasion they broke forth into glorious praise, and this is what they said inActs 4:26-28,"the kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ. For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done." Little children, let us not try to explain this away. Let us rather rejoice in the wonder of grace and in the infinite wisdom and power of God, whereby our complete and glorious salvation was accomplished. Yes, God used sinful men, but He was not the author of their sin. We cannot fully explain this, but I believe the best attempt to explain this that I have ever read was done by James Orr in his article on Foreordination in The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia. Speaking of God’s method of control, he says, "Man acts freely, as Nature acts necessarily, but it is God who appoints the time, place, and circumstances of the free act, permits its happening, and overrules it and its issues for the furthering of His own wise and holy ends." I don’t know about you, but when I consider these things, I feel like falling on my face before Jehovah elyon (the Lord, Most High). The Fulton Confession I am saddened by the fact that many contemporary Primitive Baptists are quite ignorant of their history. They have a wonderful heritage and should become acquainted with it. In November of 1900, a large number of Primitive Baptist ministers representing probably a majority of the Primitive Baptist people in our nation met at Fulton, Kentucky. They unanimously endorsed the London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689. They also added some explanatory footnotes to the original confession. I will quote just one of these footnotes to show what the majority of our ministers thought about the extent of God’s control in 1900. Commenting on Chapter Five, Of Divine Providence, they said in their footnote, "We understand this section to teach that while God does not cause men to sin, nor is his predestination in its attitude to sin causative, yet that he exercises such a control over all his creatures as that all chance and uncertainty is excluded from the universe." I stand where these Primitive Baptists stood in 1900. Chance, Luck, Fate, Fortune A quick look at any good dictionary of the English language will suffice to show that the concepts of chance, luck, fate, fortune, etc. are essentially pagan concepts. I do not say this to insult anyone or to call anyone a pagan. I just want to show some truths that mean a lot to me. Fatalism, for example, which is as far from true predestinarianism as it is possible to be, has its origins in mythology. The fates were goddesses supposed to preside over the birth and life of men. Fortunate comes from the Latin, fortuna. Altars and temples were erected to the fortunae. I have tried to develop the habit of never saying that I was "lucky" or "fortunate." I try to say that "God has blessed me," or that "God has delivered me." I want to give the Sovereign God all the credit for all good, because that is where it all comes from! Life and Death I draw great comfort from knowing that, as David put it inPsalms 31:15, "My times are in thy hand..." I try to take care of myself, because it is God’s revealed will that I am to take care of the temple of the Holy Ghost which is my body. However, my times are ultimately in His hands. He sovereignly decides how long I will live. He is governing my "ups" and my "downs." My job is to submit to His will and to try to glorify Him in any and all circumstances which He, in His divine wisdom, allots to me. I am praying that I can so trust my heavenly Father and can so much want to glorify Him, that my desire will be the same one expressed by Paul in Philippians that "Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death." This has been a very incomplete study, but any such study would have to be incomplete because the subject we are dealing with is incomprehensible. About all we can do is to fall on our faces before Him and join the heavenly multitude as they say, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth! ======================================================================== CHAPTER 52: GOD'S INDITEMENT AGAINST MANKIND ======================================================================== GOD’S INDITEMENT AGAINST MANKIND To understand the inditement that God has brought against mankind, we must understand that God looks upon the heart of man and sees what’s there -not what man does but what man has the potential to do. Now if you can imagine what it would be like in the world today if all restraints were removed from man -there was no hell, there was no police force, there was no authority in civil government, there were no jails, no prisons -what evil would come forth out of the heart of man? What kind of society would we live in, if every restrains were removed from man and he was not afraid of judgment or punishmentwhat would he do? That’s the way God sees man. We can never understand the remedy that God has provided until we understand the disease or the inditement that God has brought against mankind. Now, God has provided the rememdy but we can never understand or appreciate the remedy until we appreciate and understand and accept the inditement that God has brought against man. Have you bowed beneath the inditement of God and said "yes Lord, it’s true." Have you ever been brought to that place in your life where you’ve actually confessed to God that what He has said about you is true? If you have, then there’s a response that you will make and I think the proper response to make -first we look atHosea 14:1. If you have accepted the inditement against yourself then there is a response that man will make towards God and inHosea 14:1it says "O Israel, return unto the LORD thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity" -not by what somebody else did, but what you did. Return to God and confess unto Him exactly what you have done. Then He says inHosea 14:2"Take with you words, and turn to the LORD: say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we render the calves of our lips." InLuke 18:1-43we have the scene where there were two men who came to the temple to pray, one was a Pharisee and the other one was a publican -they both bought words to God -well the one brought words to himself, because the bible says "..he prayed thus with himself" but his words were "..Lord, I thank Thee that I am not as other men are" and he throws out all the good things that he had done. But the other one brought words to God and he smote upon his breast and said "God be merciful to me the sinner." You see, a person who has accepted the inditement of God against himself will come to God for mercy and not for justice. He’ll come to God with nothing and plead with God to take away his sins. But, what will a man do after he realizes that through the Lord Jesus Christ he has been delivered from sin and from death and the wrath to come. He has accepted the inditement of God, he’s thrown himself upon the mercy of God and he realizes that he has been pardoned and he’s been delivered from sin, he’s been delivered from death and he’s been delivered from the wrath to come. What response will he make? Let’s look atPsalms 116:3-8-now this is the responsePsalms 116:9"I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living." My sin not in part but the whole is nailed to the cross and I remember them no more, praise the Lord, praise the Lord oh my soul. That which will flow forth from the heart of one who realizes that he has been delivered from sin and from death and the wrath to come, his heart will break forth in praise to God. One of the things that is missing in the house of God today is the absence of praise for such great deliverance. See PBtop: BOND SLAVE ======================================================================== CHAPTER 53: GOD'S LOVE ======================================================================== GOD’S LOVE The Arminian says that God loves each member of the human race, without exception. Yet he freely admits that many of these humans that God loves are going to perish eternally under the wrath of God. There are several inconsistencies in this position. According to this hypothesis either God’s love turns to hatred or God loves those who are eternally damned as much as He does those who will enjoy eternal bliss. Let us examine each of these propositions. What about God’s love turning to hatred? This is an impossibility for those who believe the Bible to be the inspired word of God. According toJeremiah 31:3, “The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.” One of the attributes of God is His immutability. God does not change. This is made plain in several Scriptures. He says inMalachi 3:6, “For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.” The New Testament confirms this inJames 1:17, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” God does not change; therefore His attributes do not change. Love is one of the attributes of God. The apostle makes this clear in1 John 4:16, “And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.” As John Gill so beautifully expresses it, “for this love is like himself, sovereign, unchangeable, and everlasting...” Gill further says this is: "a love from everlasting, which does not commence in time with faith, repentance, and new obedience; these being the fruits and effects of it; but was from all eternity, as appears from the eternal choice of the persons loved in Christ; from the everlasting covenant made with them in him; from the constitution and setting up of Christ as their Mediator from everlasting; and from the security of their persons and grace in him, before the world began: and this love will endure to everlasting, without any variation or change; nothing can separate from it." God does not love individuals because they are lovable, or because they do something to merit His love. God simply chose to love His people eternally. This was an act of His sovereign will and purpose. Before he was ever born, and knowing what a despicable sinner he would be, it was said of Jacob inRomans 9:13, “As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.” How do we become aware of the love of God?1 John 3:16, “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us...” He laid down His life for everyone that He loved and He secured their salvation. No, this love will not change to hatred, because we “reject Christ.” God draws those whom He loves unto Himself. His love for them had no beginning and it will have no ending. This unspeakable comfort to the child of God is gloriously proclaimed inRomans 8:38-39, “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” ======================================================================== CHAPTER 54: GOOD WORK ======================================================================== GOOD WORK There are three ingredients in that which is good in the eyes of God. First of all, it is done by love- the person who does the good work is motivated by love to God and the love for God’s cause and for God’s people. That which inspires him to do good is his love -not love of self -not seeking to bring glory to himself but is motivated by love but it’s good because it is by divine commandment, it is something that God has commanded, but also, it’s for the glory of God. For something to be good in the eyes of God, it must be done by love, it must be done by commandment of God and it must be done to glorify God. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 55: HEBREWS OUTLINE ======================================================================== HEBREWS OUTLINE The Superior Glory of Christ (Hebrews 1:1-14;Hebrews 2:1-18;Hebrews 3:1-19;Hebrews 4:1-13) More Glorious than the Prophets (Hebrews 1:1-3) More Glorious than the Angels (Hebrews 1:4-14;Hebrews 2:1-18) Warning against spiritual neglect (Hebrews 2:1-4) More Glorious than Moses (Hebrews 3:1-6) Warning against unbelief (Hebrews 3:7-19) Encouragement to enter into rest (Hebrews 4:1-13) The Superior Priesthood of Christ (Hebrews 4:14-16;Hebrews 5:1-14;Hebrews 6:1-20;Hebrews 7:1-28;Hebrews 8:1-13;Hebrews 9:1-28;Hebrews 10:1-18) The Compassionate Character of our High Priest (Hebrews 4:14-16;Hebrews 5:1-10) Warning against spiritual immaturity (Hebrews 5:11-14;Hebrews 6:1-8) Encouragement to persevere (Hebrews 6:9-20) A Priesthood like Melchisedec’s, superior to Aaron’s (Hebrews 7:1-28;Hebrews 8:1-6) A Priest of the New Covenant (Hebrews 8:6-13;Hebrews 9:1-28;Hebrews 10:1-18) Contrasts between New Covenant and Old Covenant (Hebrews 8:6-13;Hebrews 9:1-10) Christ’s Superior Sacrifice as Our High Priest (Hebrews 9:11-28;Hebrews 10:1-18) Encouragement to draw near to God (Hebrews 10:19-25) Warning against willful sin (Hebrews 10:26-31) Encouragement to persevere (Hebrews 10:32-39) The Superior Race of Faith (Hebrews 11:1-40Hebrews 12:1-29) The Record of the Faithful (Hebrews 11:1-39) The Example of Jesus’ Perseverance (Hebrews 12:1-3) Perseverance produces godly character (Hebrews 12:4-11) Encouragement to keep on (Hebrews 12:12-14) Warning against rebellion (Hebrews 12:15-29) Final Exhortations, Benediction, and Greetings (Hebrews 13:1-25) ======================================================================== CHAPTER 56: HOW GOD GAINS THE RULE ======================================================================== HOW GOD GAINS THE RULE AND THE GOVERNMENT OF HIS CHILDREN He doesn’t do it by stick and carrot method. He doesn’t threaten with a curse from behind and hold out before them a promise of reward. That’s not how God governs His children -that’s beneath the dignity of God to use that method. It’s beneath the dignity of a parent to use that method. God doesn’t use that method to control His children. Beloved, God writes the principles of the new covenant in the heart of the new nature -that’s how God gains the rule and government over His children. ReadDeuteronomy 28:1-68-under the law God pronounced curses upon them if they did not obey the law but He also held out promises of rewards if they would obey the law. That’s the way you control the wicked. That’s not how you control a child of God. The Apostle Paul in1 Thessalonians 4:9says that as touching brotherly love you need not that I write unto you for ye are taught of God to love one another. How is God going to gain control of a person’s affections? He teaches them to love. How does He do that? Through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. You don’t need men to teach you to love one another. God teaches you to love one another and you bible readers realize that upon this hinges all the law and the prophets -to love God with all thy heart and thy neighbor as thyself. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 57: HOW TO INTERPRET THE BIBLE ======================================================================== HOW TO INTERPRET THE BIBLE "Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."2 Timothy 2:15 Recently I sat in a hospital waiting room visiting with a family whose daughter was ill. This, however, was no ordinary visit, for this family’s middle-aged daughter was deaf. A number of her friends, who were also deaf, sat around the room and I sat spellbound as I watched them communicate by sign language. I sensed some of the frustration deaf people must feel living in a soundless world as I watched them converse with their hands and I realized that I could neither hear nor understand their language. Because we spoke different languages all we could do was gaze and smile at each other. A great barrier called "sound" prohibited communication and comprehension. Fortunately, a young lady named Bonnie was present who possessed both the sense of hearing and the capacity to converse in sign language. Her ability to bridge the gap between our two worlds allowed us to communicate freely and to understand each other. Bonnie sighed and spoke simultaneously, interpreting words of silence into words of sound, and vice versa. I was intrigued (to say the least) by the experience, stimulated by the interaction, and grateful for the opportunity to minister via Bonnie. I left the hospital that day with a new appreciation for the role an interpreter plays in connecting two worlds that would otherwise remain disconnected. The experience of Bible study is not unlike my experience in the hospital room that day. To most people, stepping into the world of Scripture is comparable to visiting a foreign country. The people of the Bible world speak a different language, practice strange customs, wear eccentric clothes, and express themselves in unusual ways. It’s very interesting to read about kine and unicorns, mitres and sceptres, ephahs and homers, but what could all of those things possibly mean to someone who lives in the Western world at the conclusion of the Twentieth Century? What was a smoking furnace and a burning lamp? Or a bruised reed and a smoking flax? What is a "portion," a "lot," a "brazen laver," and a "cherubim?" What does it mean to "sit in the gate" or to "cast lots?" Obviously, the Bible world was culturally and linguistically different from ours. I am convinced that for this reason, many people feel lost when they step into the world of Scripture. The experience is akin to visiting a foreign country. The sense of intrigue at the novelty of the experience is soon replaced by a sense of frustration at the unfamiliarity of the environment. The Bible, consequently, seems remote and disconnected to the contemporary world. The interpretation of Scripture is essentially a matter of traversing this deep cultural and linguistic gap between the ancient and the contemporary world. This process involves the asking of three basic questions: (1) What does a text say? (2) What does it mean? (3) How does it apply to me?Nehemiah 8:8, by implication, summarizes this three stage approach to Biblical interpretation: "So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly (What does it say?) and gave the sense (What does it mean?) and caused the people to understand the meaning (How does it apply?)." So, the challenge facing every interpreter of Scripture is to bridge the gap of understanding by both faithfulness to the ancient word and sensitivity to the contemporary world so that God’s word is handled with both accuracy and relevance. 2 Timothy 2:15is the New Testament precedent for the science of Biblical interpretation (called hermeneutics). The phrase "rightly dividing the word of truth" literally means "to cut straight." Perhaps Paul, a tentmaker by profession, drew the imagery of cutting straight from his trade. Tentmakers, like a modern-day seamstress, followed specific patterns in the making of a tent. Most tents were made from animal skins. If the pieces of skin were to fit together according to the pattern, the tentmaker had to cut straight. Likewise, in an attempt to understand God’s word, the interpreter must cut straight, matching verses and thoughts that go together, making distinctions between different aspects of a subject, and seeking to find a level of consistency that makes the Bible harmonious rather than self-contradictory. To make a straight cut in Biblical interpretation furthermore, the interpreter must approach every Scripture with certain convictions about the Bible he desires to understand. These convictions, or presuppositions, establish a framework within which Scripture must be interpreted. They are basic and fundamental to the discipline of hermeneutics. It is not an exaggeration to say that many controversies regarding the meaning of Scripture can be traced back to a failure to be consistent with these basic parameters and guidelines within which the Bible is to be interpreted. There are six of them. Convictions We Bring to the Interpretive Process (1) The Inspiration of Scripture-2 Timothy 3:16says, "All scripture is given by the inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness." Inspiration means "God breathed." The Bible is, then, the word of God. In Augustine’s famous phrase, "What Scripture says, God says." The Bible is God’s self-revelation (not just man’s opinion about God, but God’s own revelation of Himself) and inspiration is the process by which God has made Himself known by speaking through the Biblical authors. These men spoke (and wrote) as they were "moved lit. carried along by the Holy Ghost." {2 Peter 1:20} So, the Bible is, in a very real sense, the word of God. (2) The Inerrancy of Scripture -Since the Bible is God’s word, and since it reveals a perfect God who cannot err, {Deuteronomy 32:4} then it is supremely truthful. Inspiration assumes inerrancy. The interpreter can trust the Bible’s historical accuracy, as well as the infallibility of each word. The Bible is the truth. This conviction is indispensible to the interpreter of Scripture. If we approach the Bible with a conviction concerning its inerrancy, we will not presume to attempt to censure or correct it. Neither will the interpreter set Scripture against itself and attempt to discover discrepancies. (3) The Authority of Scripture -Since the Bible is God’s word, it speaks with ultimate and absolute authority. The interpreters task is not to doubt the validity of the claims of Scripture, but to bow in submission to the authority of the Bible. It is the final rule for faith and life. The failure to approach the Bible with a conviction regarding its authority is responsible for interpretive abberrations like the tendency (common to the Charismatics) to make experience the ultimate test of truth and the anomaly (common to the cults) of producing extra-Biblical literature as a necessary supplement to Biblical revelation. The individual who comes to the Bible with a conviction regarding its ultimate authority cannot simply sidestep passages that are personally unpalatable, or that are inconsistent with his particular theological position. The authority of Scripture forces the interpreter to face every verse squarely and to seek to interpret it accurately, regardless of how unpopular or unpleasant it may be. For example, I have heard people attempt to circumvent the New Testament’s teaching concerning the role of women in the church. Paul plainly states in1 Timothy 2:9-15and1 Corinthians 14:34that the woman is not to occupy a teaching position in the local church. In the final analysis, a person who attempts to explain Paul’s teaching away (for whatever reason) by interpreting the verses in terms of modern attitudes, demonstrates by the mere attempt to circumvent such plain language a personal struggle with the authority of Scripture. (4) The Unity of Scripture -Another presupposition the interpreter brings to the Bible is a conviction concerning the unity of Scripture. The Bible is not an encyclopedia, designed to give a little information about a variety of subjects. It has one basic message from start to finish- the drama of redemption. All of Scripture builds around this theme, in its various parts and facets. This conviction compels the interpreter to synthesize Scripture with itself and to attempt to discover the way that two Bible verses harmonize. (5) The Clarity of Scripture-Psalms 19:8says "... the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes." Pure means clear and transparent. Scripture is perspicuous. It is clear, plain, evident, and understandable, not ambiguous and obscure. Yes, it is true that the inspired text is a partially closed text; hence, it needs to be opened up. {Nehemiah 8:8} That’s the reason God has given pastors and teachers to His church. The Ethiopian eunuch even recognized his need of teaching if he would come to understanding: "Understandest thou what thou readest? And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me?" {Acts 8:30-31} But Scripture is clear in its central meaning. The failure to recognize the clarity of Scripture leads to the anomalies of spiritualizing and allegorizing God’s word. We must not "read between the lines" or look for hidden meanings in God’s word. We must not think that words are secret codes or esoteric symbols representing some mystical or fanciful idea. At the risk of being simplistic, Scripture means what it says and says what it means. (6) The Practical Purpose of Scripture -Scripture is meant to be applied to life. It is not remote and distinct from life. For instance, the book of Esther is not meant to teach us Persian history, but the reality of God’s providence in the lives of common and ordinary people. The failure to grasp the practical purpose of Scripture turns the discipline of Biblical interpretation into a strictly academic exercise. Scripture is always contemporary and relevant to life. With these presuppositions, the believer is now ready to interpret God’s word. There are five basic principles involved in proper Biblical interpretation. Principles of Interpretation (1) Interpret Organically. See the verse, passage, or concept in terms of the whole. This is the most basic rule of interpretation. This principle, known as "the synthesis principle" or "the analogy of faith," is best expressed by the idea "Scripture interprets Scripture." The Bible is an organic whole and its message in one part is not contradictory to its message in another part. So, to understand the meaning of any verse, a person must start by viewing that verse in terms of its immediate context. An examination of context is crucial to the proper interpretation of a particular verse. In fact, contextual assessment is the most important principle in Biblical interpretation. For example,Hebrews 10:26says, "For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins." What does that verse mean? Obviously, it means that any wilfull sin after conversion has extreme consequences in the life of the believer. But in context, the wilfull sin is specified. What is it? It is the sin of forsaking the local assembly: {Hebrews 10:25} "Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhort one another, and so much the more as ye see the day approaching. For if we sin wilfully..." The interpreter should be careful about a common hermeneutical mistake known as a "semantical transfer." When a word’s meaning in one context is taken and inserted into a different context without reassessing the new context, a semantical transfer has occurred. For instance, the verb "to save" inEphesians 2:8refers to salvation from sin in the basic theological sense. If that definition, however, is inserted into another verse, say,1 Timothy 2:15(’ Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing...’), a contradiction emerges between the two verses, forEphesians 2:8teaches that salvation is by grace and1 Timothy 2:15teaches that salvation is in the process of parenting. Does1 Timothy 2:1-15refer to the same kind of salvation asEphesians 2:1-22? Obviously not. The salvation of1 Timothy 2:15must be interpreted in terms of its immediate context. Be especially careful when studying by subject or topic that you don’t lift proof texts out of their respective contexts. Secondly, the verse must not only be interpreted in terms of its immediate context, but it must also be synthesized with the total teaching of the book in which it appears. Its meaning must be determined in the light of that book’s flow of thought. Thirdly, the verse must be considered in terms of the message of the Bible as a whole, allowing basic doctrine to set the parameters for the meaning of the text. A good rule of thumb is to interpret unclear passages in light of clear, unquestionable truths. For example,John 14:28says, "My Father is greater than I" Does this mean that the Son was personally subordinate to and inferior to the Father? It can’t possibly mean that. How do I know? By virtue of the numerous other references to the Son’s personal equality to and oneness with the Father. {John 10:30;John 5:18;Php 2:6;1 John 5:7} So whateverJohn 14:28means, that one verse does not nullify Scripture’s conclusive internal evidence concerning the Deity of Christ. The unclear must be interpreted in terms of the clearer umbrella truth. (2) Interpret Literally- Seek the meaning of the human writer by interpreting according to the most apparent meaning. By literally, I do not mean that the interpreter should disregard literary forms, figures of speech, or literary style. Scripture uses similes, metaphors, hyperbole, synecdoche, and other forms of rich imagery to romanticize, illustrate, and emphasize truth. By literal, I mean that a verse must be interpreted according its most apparent meaning. "A text means what its author meant, not what its readers think it means," wrote A. B. Hirsch in Validity in Interpretation. That is true of every kind of document, whether historical, legal, medical, literary, or sacred. Literal interpretation, therefore, involves putting oneself in the shoes of the writer and asking the question, "What was the thought in the writer’s mind when he penned these words?" The interpreter must think himself back into the mind of the author and search for the original meaning of the text. Because Scripture is clear, it should be interpreted according to its most normal and natural sense. Interpretation, consequently, is a matter of exegesis, taking meaning out of the text, rather than eisegesis, reading meaning into the text that the author never intended to be there. The interpreter must let the author say what he is saying and not make him say what he wants him to say. Literal interpretation is called "The Grammatical/Historical" method of interpretation. To interpret literally, the interpreter must first study the grammar of the text. He must study the definitions of the words and the structure of the sentences. He must note the verb tenses, the use of prepositions, and the punctuation of the sentence. He must consider the speaker and the audience to whom the verse is addressed. Secondly, he must study the historical dimension of the text. He must learn about the culture, the geography, and the setting of the book. He must know the approximate date the book was written and the circumstances that occasioned the writing. A person who does not know, for example, that Ephraim was the principal tribe of the Northern Kingdom of Israel and that Samaria was its capitol city, will be very confused in the prophecy of Hosea when God says things like "Ephraim is joined to idols" and "When I would have healed Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered." {Hosea 4:17;Hosea 7:1} Historically, the Supreme Court was created as an interpretive body. Its purpose was to interpret the United States Constitution and apply that interpretation judicially. To interpret the Constitution, the Court employed the Grammatical/Historical method. They studied the words of that document in terms of what those words meant when they were used at the time the Constitution was written. Supreme Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, however, broke with precedent and began to interpret the Constitution in terms of modern attitudes. As other Justices followed suit, the Court gradually exchanged an absolute standard for a relativistic one. The result? The Supreme Court has now become a legislative rather than an interpretive body. The real issue now is not "What does the Constitution say?" but "What do the people want?" It is possible to do the same thing with Scripture; therefore, the interpreter must always start here, asking, "What does it actually say?" He must refuse to look for hidden meanings and read ideas into the text that could not possibly have been in the minds of the authors. He must bow humbly to the authority of God’s word, interpreting Scripture by normal and natural standards, not by his own perception. The ultimate question is not "What does it say to me?" but "What does it say? (period)." (3) Interpret Practically- Search for concrete way to apply the meaning to life. Ezra "caused the people to understand the reading." He applied truth to life. He took the abstract principles and inserted them into real life situations people could grasp and implement in their own lives. The best way to do this is to ask yourself questions. Ask, "What does the verse tell me about God? about life and the human situation? What does it tell me about myself and how does it challenge me to change?" Put yourself into the shoes of the Bible characters. Ask yourself, "What inward struggles must Abraham have experienced when God commanded him to sacrifice his son Isaac? What struggles would I have experienced if he had called upon me to sacrifice my child?" And, "What went on in the lepers mind when Jesus touched that untouchable man? Can I identify with his sense of humiliation and defilement? How long had it been since someone had touched him?" And, "How did Euodias and Synteche respond as they sat in the church at Philippi listening to Paul’s epistle being read, when suddenly, the reader said, ‘I beseech Euodias and Synteche to be of the same mind in the Lord’?How would I have felt to be exposed like that?" 5 Principles of Interpretation 1. Scripture Interprets Scripture. 2. A Text Means What Its Author Meant. 3. Truth Must Be Applied to Life. 4. Listen to the Insights of Others. 5. Ask God for Understanding. (4) Interpret in Community-Stand on the shoulders of others by consulting them for their views and learning from their experience. Ask others for their insights. Read the writings of those who lived in former times and notice their position on a particular verse. Interpreting in community will provide at least three benefits: First, it will broaden perspective. Biblical fellowship is a corporate effort to know God better by sharing the knowledge, experience, and resources God has given us with others. It is a reciprocal activity involving both giving and taking. Paul captures the essence of the broadening effect of Christian fellowship, the mutual give and take, inRomans 1:11-12: "For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end that ye may be established; that is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me." We should not only be willing to share with others the things that God has taught us, but should also be willing to receive from others the things that God has taught them. He may teach us through them. It is only in the fellowship of the local church that anyone will come to a full understanding of the Christian faith. Paul prays inEphesians 3:18that the Ephesian believers "may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height" of the love of Christ emphasis mine. Second, interpreting in community enhances accountability. Exposing your views to the scrutiny and insights of others produces a kind of checks and balances, discouraging maverick interpretations of God’s word. Mutual accountability is crucial in all dimensions of church life, especially when it comes to the serious task of the study of Holy Scripture. Third, interpreting in community provides stimulation. There is nothing like interaction with fellow believers to warm cold hearts, sharpen dull minds, and renew lagging enthusiasm. Personally, I need regular exposure to the views of others, whether through tapes, books, sermons, or interpersonal dialogue concerning God’s word. Their perspective enlarges mine and challenges mine to a greater degree of precision. No dimension of Christian living, including the interpretation of Scripture, is a solo flight. (5) Interpret Prayerfully-Saturate the hard work of exegesis with a humble dependence upon God. Last but not least, pray for understanding. Only the Holy Spirit can give illumination. Paul strikes the right balance between hard work and humble dependence upon God in his advice to Timothy: "Consider what I say, and the Lord give thee understanding in all things." {2 Timothy 2:7} Sometimes when people tell me that they understand very little of the Bible, I ask them, "Have you asked God to help you to understand?" Without doubt, we frequently have not because we ask not. We should always pray when we approach God’s word, saying with the Psalmist, "Open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law." {Psalms 119:18} God will hear that prayer, and light will disperse the darkness of your mind. God’s word is not only meant to be understood. It is also meant to be obeyed. The principles outlined in this article are not intended to be employed to turn Bible study into a strictly academic exercise, but to spur the student of Scripture on to growth in holiness as he implements the things he learns into life. Above all else, the discipline of Biblical interpretation should drive us to our knees in worship before the God who has given us the invaluable and inestimable and indescribable resource of His word. God help us all to learn, therefore, to the glory of His holy name. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 58: HOW TO...BEGIN THE DAY WITH GOD ======================================================================== HOW TO...BEGIN THE DAY WITH GOD by Elder Michael Gowens “ My voice shalt Thou hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto Thee and look up.”Psalms 5:3 Most people approach life reactively, not proactively. Instead of planning ahead and making advance preparations for the circumstances with which they might meet during the course of the day, people tend to react instinctively toward life. They simply do what comes most naturally- like a “knee-jerk”reflex- waiting until after the fact of succumbing to temptation or reacting sinfully to a confrontation to begin repairing the damage. Rushing into the day with little or no aforethought, circumstances rule and govern their attitudes. Happy circumstances make for pleasant moods; unhappy circumstances produce corresponding attitudes ranging from fear to anger to depression. How many times, for instance, has an angry motorist during morning “rush hour”had the effect of setting the tone of your thinking the remainder of the day? Christian people, however, are called to “rule their spirits”-to determine their own attitudes, not to allow circumstances to bludgeon and control them: “He that ruleth his spirit is better than he that taketh a city”{Proverbs 16:32} b. {cf.Proverbs 25:28} The New Testament term for this kind of self-control is temperance one of the distinguishing traits of a Christ-like character that the Holy Spirit develops in the soul. {Galatians 5:22} The challenge that faces the believer each day might be expressed in terms of the need to respond Biblically (instead of react instinctively) toward the circumstances he encounters. Without a deliberate effort to calibrate one’s thinking and attitudes to the truth of God’s word every day, practical holiness proves evasive. Like water naturally follows the path of least resistance, flowing to the lowest point, so people, who are naturally habituated as sinners, instinctively react in the flesh to daily pressures and problems unless they plan and prepare for each day by drawing nigh to God. Ralph Cushman captures my sentiment in his poem “In the Morning”: I met God in the morning When my day was at its best, And His presence came like sunrise Like a glory in my breast. All day long the Presence lingered; All day long He stayed with me. And we sailed with perfect calmness O’er a very troubled sea. Other ships were blown and battered, Other ships were sore distressed; But the winds that seemed to drive them Brought to us a peace and rest. Then I thought of other mornings With a keen remorse of mind, When I, too, had loosed the moorings With the Presence left behind. So I think I know the secret, Learned from many a troubled way. You must seek God in the morning If you want Him through the day. The Psalmist knew that a robust and vibrant walk with God was inseparably connected to the hard work of spiritual discipline. Note his language of commitment and resolve: "My voice shalt Thou hear in the morning...in the morning will I direct my prayer unto Thee and will look up." {Psalms 5:3} Christians, likewise, must regularly remind themselves that godliness does not occur in a vacuum. The Christian life is not magic. Indeed, there is a supernatural dimension to Christian living, but unless the believer abides in Christ like a branch remains connected to the vine, he cannot produce the fruit of the Spirit. {John 15:4} Instead of love and joy and peace and longsuffering, the person who fails to maintain the moment-by-moment habit of communion with God will naturally manifest self-centeredness, cynicism, strife and impatience as the dominant characteristics of life. The attempt to meet the challenges, bear the burdens, resist the temptations, solve the problems, and fulfill the responsibilities to which one is exposed each day without first drawing near to God is doomed for failure. It is equivalent to operating a vehicle on water instead of gasoline. Operating in the energy of the flesh, the believer is like Samson going through the motions of daily life, yet, all the while, oblivious to the fact that the Lord has departed from him. Tragic unconsciousness! How, then, does a Christian abide in Christ so that the life of the Vine flows through the branch and produces fruit? The believer stays connected or linked to Christ through the spiritual disciplines of prayer, Bible intake, fellowship with other believers, and public worship. These are the spiritual resources that God has provided for godly discipleship. They are spiritual necessities, not spiritual luxuries. An authentic Christian life is simply not possible without them. Just as Daniel purposed in his heart to live uncompromisingly in Babylon, {Daniel 1:8} the Christian must purpose in his heart to cleave to Jesus Christ. {Acts 11:23} He must make a conscious and deliberate moral effort, a decision, if you will, to live Christianly. If he doesn’t stir himself up to take hold of the Lord and make a concerted effort to master his thoughts and attitudes, he will inevitably stagnate (Isaiah 64:7cf.2 Timothy 1:6). Further, he must learn to narrow the focus and live a day at a time. No one can live a successful life all at once. A God-honoring and productive Christian life is composed of a series of God-honoring and productive Christian days strung together in succession. Someone once said “Life is what happens to you while you’re waiting for life to happen.” The quest for a fruitful life, then, will only be realized by the individual who makes daily discipleship his focus. {Luke 9:23} Toward that goal, I suggest the following practical directions for beginning the day with God. These are the specific thoughts and activities that have helped me get off to a good start each day. First, at the moment you awaken, reflect on the great truth that His mercies are new every morning. {Lamentations 3:22} Past crises have not exhausted the Lord’s supply of grace. In the words of John Newton, “He has a never-failing treasury filled with boundless stores of grace.” Whatever trials or problems you might encounter today will not challenge the inexhaustible resources of your God. He has promised, “As thy days, so shall thy strength be”.{Deuteronomy 33:25} Though you have drawn deep from the well of Divine mercy for past sins, you have not depleted God’s super-abounding grace. {Romans 5:20} His mercies are new every morning; His grace is sufficient for you. Next, let the Lord “hear your voice”through prayer and song. Jesus frequently rose early and departed to a solitary place to pray. {Mr 1:35} Even so, followers of Jesus should make it a habit to prepare in advance for the demands of each day by beginning it in communion with the Father. He delights to hear the prayers of the upright. {Proverbs 15:8;Song of Solomon 2:14} They, in turn, should delight in the unparalleled opportunity to draw near to Him. Here, in "the secret place of the Most High," {Psalms 91:1} you may commit the cares of the day to God, asking for His blessing, direction, and strength, that He might be glorified in and through you. Here you may remind yourself of the fact that this day, whatever may be the current circumstances, is a priceless gift from God- the day that the Lord hath made. {Psalms 118:24} Here you may also, like that early-riser named Job, make intercession for your children before God. {Job 1:5} Hymns such as "Again, from Calm and Sweet Repose" and "I Love the Quietness of the Morning" are especially appropriate to sing before the Lord during these brief morning exercises. Thirdly, as you proceed to make physical preparations for the day, remember the words of Jesus, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God". {Matthew 4:4} Our needs, in other words, are not merely physical, but spiritual. Nourishment for the soul is as necessary as food for the body. It is helpful, then, to use the occasion of making physical provisions for the day as a stimulus and reminder of the need to provide for the spiritual life also. While you are dressing the body, remember that you must also clothe the inward man. Dress for spiritual success by "putting on" the Lord Jesus Christ, {Romans 13:12-14|} charity, {Colossians 3:10;Colossians 3:12-14} and the whole armor of God {Ephesians 6:10} ff. Further, let your morning look into the mirror be the catalyst to remind you of the need to look into the mirror of God’s word-the "perfect law of liberty" -in order to make adjustments to your thinking and conform yourself to the perfect will of God (James 1:22-25;Romans 12:2cf.Joshua 1:8). Time spent in the word of God at the beginning of each day has a way of conditioning the mind to think Biblically about every circumstance one may encounter. Finally, it will help you to spend some time in meditation. In preaching, God speaks to us. In prayer, we talk to God. In meditation, we talk to ourselves about God, taking our cue from His word. Meditation, thinking God’s thoughts in God’s presence is a necessary spiritual discipline for every Christian. The Puritans frequently encouraged their hearers to preach the gospel to themselves. In the wake of such wise counsel, I would urge every reader to make a deliberate effort to remind himself, at the beginning of each day, of several specific truths. First, remind yourself of who your God is. It helps me to repeat salient passages likeHabakkuk 2:20(The Lord is in His holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before Him) andIsaiah 40:28hew:28 ew:28 (Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard? That the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary). With such a view of the sovereignty and majesty of God, I then like to spend a few moments meditating on the preciousness of Christ: “For consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest ye be weary and faint in your minds.” {Hebrews 12:3} Next, remind yourself of who you are. I fear that many professed believers think of themselves primarily in terms of their occupation (I am a banker or I am a student or I am a salesman). They define who they are by what they do. But Christians are called to reckon themselves dead indeed unto sin and alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. {Romans 6:11} The believer should always think of himself/herself, first and foremost, in terms of his/her relationship to God. It helps me to begin each day by asking myself the question, “Do I know who I am?” and then answering, “Yes, Im a child of the King and by His grace, I will live accordingly.” Also, remind yourself of how weak and sinful you are apart from God’s grace. Solomon identified genuine seekers of God as those who know every man the plague of his own heart; {1 Kings 8:38} Paul as people who have no confidence in the flesh. {Php 3:3} Now, I am not describing a kind of morose self-loathing, an attitude that is the polar opposite of joy. No, there is nothing holy about such a self-absorbed mindset. But an awareness that, in and of myself, I am prone to stumble and fall and that there is no sin that I am incapable of committing is the very essence of what Scripture means when it exhorts, “Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God.”{1 Peter 5:6} When I make an effort to remember my own potential to pride and anger and unloving behavior and to reflect on particular occasions in the past when I failed to control my old nature, it helps me “not to think more highly of myself than I ought to think, but to think soberly” {Romans 12:3} To remember that I am what I am by the grace of God {1 Corinthians 15:10} helps me to bear insult and injury and to esteem anything short of eternal punishment a mercy from Gods hand. It helps me to think, I am prone to stumble; therefore, I need to guard my heart with all diligence. {Proverbs 4:23} Without Christ, I can do nothing. {John 15:4} I must draw nigh to Him in my meditations and prayers {1 Thessalonians 5:17} and walk humbly with my God. {Micah 6:8} In the fourth place, remind yourself of the dangers that face you living in a world that is under the curse of sin. Christians forget that this world is enemy territory at their peril. The Christian life is a relentless battle and struggle against a triple threat that Scripture calls the world, the flesh, and the devil. {Ephesians 2:2-3} How critically important to meditate on the reality of the conflict in which we are engaged! Satan, the arch-enemy and adversary of our souls, walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. {1 Peter 5:8} He is a thief. His principal goal is to make casualties of God’s children along the way. He steals and kills and destroys. Many strong men have been unsuspectingly slain by him. He will steal your mind by false teaching. He will steal your time by worldly distractions. He will steal your joy by cultivating the seeds of bitterness and envy in your heart. He will steal your virtue by tempting you to moral impropriety. He will steal your life by tempting you to involve yourself in one-hundred-one different pursuits that he promises will bring happiness or success or security. What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? How important it is to remind ourselves at the beginning of each day that this vile world is not a friend to grace to bring us on to God! Fifthly, remind yourself that all of life is lived before the face of God. David practiced the presence of God- he disciplined himself to live with a conscious awareness that God was watching: “Because I have set the Lord always before me, I shall not be moved.” {Psalms 16:8} Elder T. L. Webb, Jr. wisely suggested the practice of placing an empty chair at the table when the family sits to eat, or in front of the church during a business meeting, as a reminder that the Lord is present. Would we not be more cautious in both word and deed if we were conscious of the reality of His presence? Next, in your morning meditations, think about the brevity of life and the preciousness of time. The Psalmist prayed, “Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is: that I may know how frail I am.” {Psalms 39:4} Moses, likewise, petitioned God saying, “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.” {Psalms 90:12} Life is brief and uncertain at best. Our days pass away swiftly, we spend our years as a tale that is told. How precious, then, is every twenty-four hour period! How we need to redeem the time! Do you ever live with vain regret over the way that you have squandered opportunities to serve the Lord, frittering your life away in trivial pursuits? Can you sing, “Much of my time has run to waste?” Indeed, I need to be reminded of Peters admonition every day: That we no longer should live the rest of our time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles. {1 Peter 4:2-3} Beginning the day with such a sharpened focus on the brevity of life will necessarily produce a more concentrated, and hence, more productive, Christian life. Finally, begin each day in meditation on the fact that God is in sovereign control of your circumstances. My times are in His hands. {Psalms 31:15} Commit the control of your future unto His wise and loving discretion and your thoughts will be established. {Proverbs 16:3;Psalms 37:5;2 Timothy 1:12} To begin each day with these deliberate exercises will prevent many sins. And the days will turn to weeks, and the weeks to months, and the months to years, and the years to a lifetime of godliness. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 59: HOLD YOUR COURSE ======================================================================== Hold Your Course Gospel Gleanings, “…especially the parchments” Volume 19, Number 19 May 9, 2004 Hold Your Course This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare; Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck: Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.? (1 Timothy 1:18-20) Is it possible for someone to indulge in error with a “good conscience”? It seems rather obvious that Paul viewed the two proponents of error at Ephesus to have done so. The faithful preacher should conduct his ministry from the dual vantage point of solid faith and a good conscience. No problem with these men’s consciences, but Paul charges them with a shipwrecked faith. He couldn’t know their conscience, but he could well know their faith. For New Testament writers, faith is not a mystical, trusting blind leap into darkness. It is more a leap out of darkness into light. It stands on the solid foundation of God’s character and stated promises in Scripture, not on esoteric “revelations” or “impressions.” Paul urges Timothy to recall his original calling and ordination, the “prophecies” that went before on him. Rather than deciding that he learned a “different truth” (a façade for embraced error), Paul charges Timothy to hold that original course in which he was charged at his ordination. We may well grow in our knowledge, but we should be incredibly cautious when we consider growing “away” from established Biblical truth. In a fellowship that respects its historical roots such as mine, we must wrestle cautiously with history versus Biblical revelation. We must realize the ever-present danger of allowing history or historical beliefs and practices to supercede Scripture. “They did it a hundred years ago; that is good enough for me” is not sufficient for the Biblical model. Either we embrace Scripture alone as our rule of both faith and practice, or we don’t. Rather than interpreting Scripture through our history, we should interpret our history through Scripture. Historical beliefs and practices will invariably drift, not remain stable and consistent. Scripture is the reliable constant that should assess our historical views and correct them when necessary. A. T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament, refers to the word “charge” in this lesson as a banking metaphor. We routinely use our bank accounts in money transactions. We deposit our money in a bank whose reputation and reliability we trust. Every month we receive a full accounting of every penny in our account. How much went into the account and how much was taken out of it, along with where it went, are reported to us. If the bank statement doesn’t balance, we quickly get in touch with the bank to see what happened. Sadly, many Christians who view themselves as altogether conscientious do not have such a clear view of their faith or of their role in their Christian service. Many otherwise sincere leaders actually think that they can pretty much worship and minister according to their own private ideas, conscience instead of faith. For them Scripture is too remote, too unclear, and too non-specific, to be of any real help in the way that they serve. According to Paul, our ministry belongs to God, not to us, and we must account to Him for every aspect of its activities. If every pastor and every deacon were so faithful and devoted to Scripture-Scripture alone-for the manner in which they serve in their office, we would see a vastly different church in the world than we see today. When men followed God so clearly, Christianity’s enemies reported of them that they “turned the world upside down” (Acts 17:6). Our stubborn doing Christianity our own way has caused our enemies in our culture to marginalize us as altogether irrelevant to the society. If we wish to alter that impression, perhaps we should return to the Biblical model of faith. View our charge as a banking trust. Keeping with this idea of charge or trust, Paul introduces two additional metaphors in these verses. The first metaphor is that of a soldier engaged in war. A soldier goes to war under the directions of a commander. He does not make up the rules of engagement. He does not decide on the strategy of the battle. He takes directions from his superior. So in the field of ministry and church leadership we are instructed to follow the directions of the Lord Jesus Christ as documented in Scripture, not think and act according to our own preferences or personalities. The only good warfare is one fought according to the directions of the commander. Paul’s second metaphor relates to a ship steering a predetermined course across a body of water. For a church leader-teacher to turn from the clear teaching of Scripture is the equivalent of a ship’s captain ignoring the course that he has charted and all knowledge that he has of the waters in which he sails, going in his own direction without regard for the available knowledge that he could gain of the waters and of his charted course. Here, no less than in the metaphor of warfare, submission to a higher authority and purpose forms a required part of the analogy. The captain of the ship is not on a pleasure cruise, directed by nothing more than his personal desires. He is on a mission that was decided by another. He has been charged with a valuable cargo that belongs to others. His charge is to deliver the cargo safely to the designated port. Do you suppose that Paul intended to emphasize to Timothy that God has given us quite specific directions as to the objectives and strategies of our ministry? I rest my case. The content of our preaching, along with the methods and objectives of church leadership come to us clearly in Scripture, so we are not to teach or lead according to our personal private objectives. In the case of these two men Paul charges that they ignored their charge and made shipwreck of their faith. In2 Timothy 2:17-19Paul mentions Hymanaeus and another man who fell into grave error by alleging that the resurrection had past already. Not only did their shipwreck destroy their faith, Paul grieves that they also overthrew the faith of other believers as well. For someone to imitate this error today is as equally grave as it was when Paul confronted it in the first century. Scripture clearly teaches a final resurrection and general judgment of all mankind at the end. To twist Scripture into teaching that this epochal event has already occurred and that we are living after it, so it has no comfort or relevance for us could hardly be more unacceptable to sound Biblical doctrine. What does Paul intend by his comment “…whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme”? I offer two sides to this point. First of all Paul had confronted and rejected these two men. Most commentators believe that “delivered unto Satan” likely refers to excommunication or some form of severe church discipline. As an apostle, Paul may have exercised more authority in this situation than the present-day pastor should claim. We may well accept the point that an apostle could impose such direct authority in a church. We should not use this event to justify dictatorial pastors attempting to imitate them. The office of pastor and the office of apostle are clearly distinct positions. We still honor the apostles through Scripture as our authority, but we should never use their authority to distort the offices of preacher-pastor or deacon into a despotic or unquestioned authority. My second point from this verse is surprisingly positive. Unlike the false teachers whom we examined in2 Peter 1:1-21;2 Peter 2:1-22;2 Peter 3:1-18, Paul views these men as recoverable. Whatever Paul intended by “turning” them over to Satan, he intended a positive outcome, “that they may learn not to blaspheme.” These men had the ability to learn of their error and to recover their faith from its devastating shipwreck. Can you imagine that Hymanaeus was present when Paul spoke his parting words to the elders at Ephesus inActs 20:1-38? He was a good man and sound in his faith and teaching. What happened to get him so far off his course? The error is unacceptable. The impact on others and on the valuable “charge” committed to him has been misappropriated. If your local bank sent you a monthly statement that showed several hundred dollars short of your records, how would you react? You would first contact the bank to learn why the error occurred. How would you react if the banker acknowledged the error and then explained it by saying that he had some personal needs for money, so he appropriated your funds for his use? You would immediately remove all your funds from this untrustworthy bank. Then you would report him to the authorities for fraud. Why should we view our charge as leaders of the church with any less responsibility than we expect from our local banker? May we follow Paul and his charge to Timothy in unquestionable faithfulness. Elder Joe Holder ======================================================================== CHAPTER 60: IF ======================================================================== IF Have you ever heard an expression like this: "If I have offended someone I am sorry." Is that a real apology? I think not. Does true repentance really exist in that statement or is it just a front to get narrow-minded people who perhaps are just looking for a reason to end a dispute (and save face) who will accept such a feeble statement? I think that can be exactly what it is in a lot of cases. May God help us. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 61: INTRODUCTION TO HEBREWS ======================================================================== INTRODUCTION TO Hebrews At the beginning of every concentrated study, it is important to ask certain questions: Who wrote this specific book or letter? To whom was it written? What historical occasion provoked its writing? What is the general theme? With this general overview, the content of the book will be easier to understand. The Author Who wrote Hebrews? In fact, we don’t know for sure. Unlike most of the other New Testament epistles, the author does not state his name. Historically, the letter has been attributed to Paul, but the style of Hebrews is different from Paul’s thirteen other letters in the New Testament. Others have suggested Clement of Rome, Barnabas, Luke, Apollos, and Priscilla. Besides Paul, Barnabas and Apollos seem to be the most credible choices. In my estimation (and this is only personal conjecture), Paul is the most likely author. Though the style of Hebrews is different from Paul’s other letters, the theological content and the logical argument is strikingly similar. Furthermore, in2 Thessalonians 3:17-18, Paul identifies his special signature- “the token in every epistle” -in terms of the benediction “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.” Interestingly,Hebrews 13:25closes with this benediction. Also, the book closes with the salutation “They of Italy salute you”.{Hebrews 13:24} If the book was written in the early A.D. 60’s, as most scholars believe, this would coincide with Paul’s second imprisonment in Rome (Italy). Potential hurdles to a Pauline authorship include the following arguments: (1) Why did the author begin with “God,” {Hebrews 1:1} when Paul always started his letters with “Paul, a servant of God...”? ( 2) This is an epistle to Jews (i.e. Hebrews), but Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles. (3) The epistle was written in Hellenistic Greek; if Paul was the author, why did he not address his Jewish brethren in their natural language of Hebrew? In the light of Paul’s passionate love and desire for his own Jewish brethren, however, these questions may be answered. This is the man who said, “I could wish myself accursed from Christ, for my brethren’s sake, my kinsmen according to the flesh,” {Romans 9:3} and “My heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved...” {Romans 10:1} He desperately wanted to preach the gospel to his fellow Israelites, but God had chosen him to bear the name of Christ to the Gentiles. Submissive to God’s will, Paul journeyed extensively throughout the Mediterranean world, preaching to “the Greek and the Barbarian.” {Romans 1:14} He never lost his passion, though, for the Jews. When he received word of the poverty of the Jerusalem saints, he organized a relief effort among the Gentile churches for the Jewish Christians. {Acts 11:29;Acts 24:17;Romans 15:26;1 Corinthians 16:12;2 Corinthians 9:1;Galatians 2:9-10} It is not inconsistent with his passion for the welfare of his fellow Hebrews, then, that he would address through his pen those whom God did not allow him to address with his lips. It is possible, therefore, that Hebrews starts with “God”instead of “Paul,” because Paul had no recognized authority among the Jewish Christians, certainly not like Peter and John. He was, after all, sent to the Gentiles. The writer starts with “God,” moreover, because the letter is written in the style of a sermon. Paul’s other letters were didactic, but Hebrews is a “Jewish homily i.e. sermon”. The tone of this sermon is pastoral and serious. This is no mere literary essay or theoretical treatise. A spirit of zeal and urgency, like a pastor preaching to his flock, pervades the entire letter. This is certainly in keeping with Paul’s passion for his countrymen. If he wrote it from Rome, furthermore, then Luke, his resident physician, could have easily been his penman, as he was in other epistles. This may account for the fact that the epistle was written in Greek. Granted, this is all speculative and vague. But the writer clearly had a pastoral love for the spiritual welfare of these Jewish Christians and a thorough knowledge of the Old Testament and the implications of the ceremonial law. Paul certainly fits this description. Because of the mystery that enshrouds it, however, it is important to avoid dogmatism. The Readers To whom was the book written? Obviously, as the name implies, it was written to Jews. More specifically, the letter is addressed to Jewish Christians, i.e. Jews who have been converted to Christianity. The gospel, you may remember, began in Jerusalem. From there, it spread to Judea, then Samaria, then to the farthest reaches of the Mediterranean world. {Acts 1:8} The earliest converts, consequently, were Jewish. After the stoning of Stephen, the Jewish Christians were dispersed from their central location in Jerusalem throughout the entire land of Palestine. {Acts 8:1-6} It was to these Jewish Christians of the Dispersion, therefore, still living in a predominately Jewish environment, that Hebrews is addressed. The letter was no doubt written prior to A.D. 70, when Jerusalem was destroyed and the temple sacrifices ceased, for the writer speaks of the levitical sacrifices in the present tense, indicating that temple worship had not yet ceased. Other features, coupled with this fact, place the time of writing in the 60’s. The Historical Occasion Why, then, was the letter written? The answer to this question provides the key to unlocking the general theme and message of Hebrews. It is apparent that a very serious crisis threatens the purity of the early church. A situation has arisen in which these Jewish Christians were considering a compromise of their faith and the abandonment of the gospel. Living in Palestine, a Jewish environment, they were subjected to daily indignities, public abuse, the plundering of their property, imprisonment, and the prospect of martyrdom from their countrymen. Why were they persecuted with such hostility? Because these Jewish Christians were regarded as traitors to their ancestral religion. Many of them lost their jobs, their families, their reputation, and their material possessions. Perhaps this cultural antagonism toward those who had broken from the traces of Judaism by confessing faith in Jesus Christ as Lord was largely responsible for the terrible poverty of the mother-church in Jerusalem. The Hebrews, in other words, were socially ostracized. {Hebrews 10:32-34;Hebrews 12:4;Hebrews 13:13-14} Under the relentless pressure of persecution, they were tempted to recant and withdraw from their new profession of faith. They were ready to surrender on the battlefield. The pressures were just too great. Some had already gone back. They were called the lapseis, because they had lapsed into their former religion in order to purchase ease and comfort. It is likely that this ultimate compromise and renunciation of their profession of faith is the basis of the severe warnings inHebrews 6:1-20} Some had forsaken the public assembly of the house of God. {Hebrews 10:25} Most were discouraged and fearful, and were beginning to weaken beneath the assault. {Hebrews 12:12-13} Hebrews is written, consequently, to persuade them to resist the strong temptation to surrender and to persevere in faith. Perseverance is one of the key words of the book. In fact, the writer terms the letter, inHebrews 13:22, a “word of exhortation.” Interestingly, the word “exhortation”implies a double concept of both “warning”and “encouragement.” This letter includes at least five strong warnings about the danger of apostasy. “You can’t leave the superior and return to the inferior,” the author says, “without incurring the judgment of God.” As a faithful pastor, however, the writer balances his stern warnings with gentle encouragements. “Your High Priest can be touched with the feeling of your infirmities,” he reminds them. Warning, to arouse them from the lethargy of fear, and encouragement, to incite them to persevere in the race of faith, are beautifully blended in Hebrews. Theme Key words in the book include the words “better”(as he reminds them of the superior blessings of the New Covenant to the Old) and “once”(as he reminds them of the fulfillment of the Jewish religion in the once for all sacrifice of Jesus Christ). The theme of the book is The Supremacy of Jesus Christ. The entire Old Testament, says the writer, pointed forward to One who is Prophet, Priest, and King, {Hebrews 1:1-3} Jesus Christ. Jesus is superior to the angels, the prophets, the sacrifices, and the entire old order. By encouraging them to re-evaluate their blessings and to consider the Lord Jesus Christ who was set down at the right hand of God, and by warning them of the danger of sinning against the light of knowledge, the writer urges them to endure to the finish line. What a relevant message for us today! ======================================================================== CHAPTER 62: JUDICIAL BLINDNESS ======================================================================== JUDICIAL BLINDNESS In a particular part of a paper I read, the writer brought forth the following truth: "I have encountered several passages recently in which I see evidence of judicial blindness. As people reject the knowledge God gives them, he imposes judicial blindness on them, a true judgment for their denial of the light they have. I believe any of us may well cross that line and invite divine judgment of this type upon ourselves. I pray that this is not the case with me. If in fact my motive is political and for personal prestige, I may be flirting with the line. Not only should we all reason with each other, we should all pray for our brethren as well." Brethren, when I read this, I thought about God’s people among the Jewish Nation who had the very oracles of God committed unto them. Yet, in spite of this "light of truth" given them by their God, because of their unbelief, they rejected this light of knowledge, rejecting the very Lord of Glory as the true Messiah, and went about establishing their own righteousness and refused to submit themselves unto the righteousness of God. For this very reason, they invited the divine judgment of God upon themselves. So, "God blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them."John 12:40 Then, with great conviction of heart and soul, I turned my eyes inward to personal self, looked in the mirror of my own heart, trembled greatly, and then seriously pondered the very beauty and preciousness of God’s revealed truth as the glorious Gospel reveals the righteousness of God from the body of God’s revealed faith to the faith He sovereignly put in my heart in regeneration. It is only by this given faith of God to which I am debtor and obligated to live a sanctified life of righteousness, glory, and honor to Jehovah God, my Glorious Redeemer. His precious, inspired, preserved, and revealed word is not a toy with which we can play, turn, twist, and wrestle to suit our own preconceived ideas and notions over which to contest and war in a rash political manner just for personal prestige. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 63: JUSTIFICATION ======================================================================== JUSTIFICATION Romans 4:1-5andJames 2:23-26are two separate teachings in the bible that must not be contrasted but reconciled. James referenced the same acts of Abraham and concluded, "And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also." {James 2:23-26} Justification is a legal term that always has reference to a subject and a judge. We, as a subject are judged positionally by God to be righteous or justified, only through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We are the recipients of this justification based solely on the grace of God, thereby we are justified in his sight by grace. God also judges our timely deeds and we constantly stand before His judgement seat and reap in time according to what we have sown. We also manifest our faith to others in our workings, otherwise no one else would know we have faith or see our good works and glorify God. Therefore, without works our faith appears to be dead to anyone else that is judging our faith. Notice in the context of the verses in James,James 2:24begins, "Ye see." Here the judges are men. InRomans 4:1-25the contrast is not between faith and the working of faith, but the contrast is between a faithless working of the law and believing by faith. The Jews (especially the Pharisees) believed that by their faithless works, they were justified before God. Here we see that faith is required to please God, the same lesson that is taught inHebrews 11:1-40Our faith is in God and the finished works of His Son and also in His promises. When we act or work by faith, this is pleasing to God. Notice, if we do the same acts or works without faith, but think we are going to obligate God to us, then we are not justified in His sight. This whole lesson, IMHO is talking of the timely service we render to God, and His pleasure with the works and with us as His servants. Notice inRomans 4:11Abraham is called the "father of all them that believe" and inRomans 4:12, he is called the "father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith..." Notice "walk in the steps" implies work. Believing in this context is also a work or manifestation of the faith that is within us and was given as a free gift through the grace of God. This work manifests our faith, it doesn’t cause it or work it. We, having been given faith at regeneration, then have the capacity to exercise that faith in our walk. One of the manifestations of faith is a public profession of faith or belief and this is a good work that manifests the faith we have been given. If we make no such profession, then there is no outward manifestation of the faith we have and our brethren, the "Ye see" crowd, judges us to be dead as far as faith is concerned. Notice also that when operating by faith, we must recognize our own righteousnesses are as filthy rags and thereby we know that our own works, in and of themselves, are unacceptable to God. But when we exercise faith in working, we are always looking to the perfect One, recognizing that we are only acceptable in any way because of His grace and His perfect imputed righteousness. When we do so, God counts, even our unworthy deeds as righteous, because they are done in faith. Stated another way, we are not justified by works, but by faith. Yet our faith is manifested by our works. This is the whole lesson ofHebrews 11:1-40Look at every example given inHebrews 11:1-40and see if there is even one example where faith was not manifested by an outward working. If we say we believe, then there is some evidence of faith, but if all our deeds indicate no faith, then again, the "Ye see" crowd may question our faith. These two lessons (Romans 4:1-25andJames 2:1-26) work together in perfect harmony. We cannot contrast one against the other or we make the Bible to contradict itself. Our belief of the "faith once delivered to the saints" is something brought through the gospel. However, this faith is a system of beliefs and practice and is the same use of the word as saying Primitive Baptist Faith. God regenerates, implants His Spirit, writes His laws in our Hearts and Minds, gives us faith, etc. without any help of man, including the preaching of the gospel. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 64: KING JAMES TRANSLATION ======================================================================== KING JAMES TRANSLATION by Elder Hulan Bass [NOTE: For the FULL text of what Eld. Bass has written please email him at: hulbass@Grandecom.net There are 39 Books in the O.T. and 27 in the N.T., for a total of 66. 1189 Chapters and 810,697 Words. The Chapter Divisions came in 1250 A.D., and the Verse Division in 1551 A.D. Spiritually speaking, Tyndale’s dying prayer was "Lord, open the King of England’s eyes"- Oct. 6, 1536 A.D. He was burned at the stake, as his reward for printing the Word of God in English, available to the commoner. His prayer was for The Bible to be made available IN ENGLISH to ALL the people. Johann Gutenberg, between 1440-50 A.D. invented the Printing Press. The timing of this invention was a providential blessing of God. Tyndale’s prayer was answered on July 22, 1604 when King James I (of The Tudor Family) ordered 54 of the most learned language scholars of England to translate ONLY from Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek Manuscripts, of the Common Koine Greek, from the Textus Receptus, into English. 47 responded and were divided into six (6) companies, 2 at Westminister, 2 at Oxford, and 2 at Cambridge. Each were assigned different parts of The Bible. After completing each ones’ assignment, they then exchanged and cross-checked each others works, till ALL agreed to the LETTER. This work was finished seven (7) years later in 1611 A.D. The KJT was not divinely inspired, as were the original autographs, but certainly was under the providence of God. I close with- -"Thy word is very pure; therefore thy servant loveth it." First, I defend the WORDS of The Word. Every word is still intact- preserved; therefore such is VERY PURE. Secondly, if I know my heart, I love God’s Word -every word of The Word, especially as found in the English KJT... ======================================================================== CHAPTER 65: LEADERSHIP AND FOLLOWER-SHIP ======================================================================== LEADERSHIP AND FOLLOWER-SHIP by Elder Joe Holder Leadership in any organization is necessary. Without it there’s no focus, there’s no direction, there’s no sense of mission and accomplishment -where are we going? what are we about? why are we to do it? how are we to do it? how do we get from here to there? What is the biblical model of leadership? It is not, by the way, dictatorship. And, the biblical model of follower-ship is not slavishly hearing and doing whatever you are told because the fellow in the pulpit said it. There’s a finely tuned balance as presented in scripture that a healthy church will try to follow and imitate in its activities. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 66: LEVITICAL PRIESTHOOD ======================================================================== LEVITICAL PRIESTHOOD by Elder Joe Holder The writer of Hebrews has gone to great lengths to establish the supremacy of Christ over angels, over Moses, over the Levitical order of priesthood, over the Melchesidec order of priesthood. There are references throughout Hebrews that focus on the order of priesthood- Jesus is a priest after the order of Melchesidec, His work is the work outlined symbolically by the Levitical priesthood. We see indications of His priesthood, (in Hebrews) His sacrifice. InHebrews 13:1-25the focus comes very tightly and clearly on the symbolism seen throughout the book. We see the summation condensing everything down to core principles of truth. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 67: LIFE UNDER THE SUN ======================================================================== LIFE UNDER THE SUN by Elder Michael Gowens "Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity"Ecclesiastes 1:2 It has been said that we are living in a post-Christian society. Whether America was ever a "Christian" country at all (an arguable hypothesis), I think most readers would agree that it is not "Christian" as it nears the close of the twentieth century. Instead, a worldview known as "secularism" prevails. Secularism will always fill the void that is created whenever the Lord Jesus Christ and His word is dismissed as the basis of ethics. A post-Christian society, like a pre-Christian society, an unChristian society, and an anti-Christian society, is, by definition, a secular society. What, then, is secularism? The book of Ecclesiastes provides an intriguing answer to that question. A Sermon About Wisdom Ecclesiastes is one of three Old Testament books classified as "wisdom literature" (with Job and Proverbs). Unlike Proverbs, which contains very practical wisdom for daily living, Ecclesiastes and Job explore the deeper philosophical questions of life. While Job explores the emotionally charged issue concerning the purpose of human suffering, Ecclesiastes is concerned to address the more basic question of the meaning of life. Why am I here? What is the purpose of my existence? Does life have meaning? These are the questions haunting the man who calls himself "the Preacher." {Ecclesiastes 1:1} By designating himself "the Preacher," the writer implies that he is going to deliver a sermon. The text for the sermon isEcclesiastes 1:2: "Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity." The next ten chapters are an exposition of that text from an autobiographical perspective as the Preacher records his own personal search for meaning in life. Chapters eleven and twelve form the application of the sermon. The Mood of Modern Man Though Ecclesiastes was written some three thousand years ago, its message is remarkably contemporary. The key word in the book, appearing some thrity-eight times, is vanity. The Hebrew word hevel, translated vanity, suggests the thought of what is left after a bubble bursts. The word means futility, emptiness, and meaninglessness. "Futility of futilities," the Preacher sighs, "all is futile." This tone of despair and pessimism pervades the entire sermon. Solomon’s message is unmistakable: "Life is futile and meaningless. There is no purpose to human existence." Now, the concept of futility is pessimistic enough, in and of itself, but the Preacher compounds the mood by using a literary form that expresses the superlative degree: "Vanity of vanities..." He is talking about futility taken to the maximum degree- the epitome of emptinessultimate meaninglessness. That is about as cynical and pessimistic as a person can be. No doubt, many modern people would agree with the Preacher that life is not worth living. It seems senseless and absurd. Such a mood of skepticism and cynicism prevails today. Depression is epidemic, maybe even pandemic, in our society. Prozac, Eli Lilly and Company’s wonder drug, is a household word for more than twelve million people around the world. ("The Wizard of Prozac" by Tracy Thompson, Washington Post, Nov. 21,1993). Those who are not depressed are, in many cases, generally pessimistic and unhappy in the routines of daily life. The routine and mundane dimension of life is looked upon as a necessary evil that must be endured until 5:00 P.M. on Friday. Modern man lives for the weekend, saying "thank goodness it’s Friday," and dreads "blue Monday" because it begins a new work week of the mundane and the ordinary. Why do people think like this? Because they have bought into a hedonistic philosophy that teaches that happiness is the summum bonum (the chief good) of life: In the words of a popular shoe commercial, "Life is short; play hard." So they pursue leisure as the ultimate diversion from what Sigmund Freud called "the every day unhappiness of normal human experience." They indulge themselves in recreation, hobbies, amusement, and leisure in a quest for personal happiness. Ironically, in their pursuit of pleasure, however, they only serve to compound their misery. Does "every day, normal human experience" have to be unhappy? Scripture says ‘no.’ God desires man to enjoy all of life. {1 Timothy 6:17} Sadly, however, our leisure oriented society is more depressed than ever. Modern conveniences and comforts have not produced greater happiness, but it seems, less contentment with life. This is the paradox of hedonism. Philosophically, this mood of despair is called nihilism. Nihilism, meaning "nothingness," operates on the basis that everything is meaningless and chaotic. The nihilist believes that nothing has ultimate meaning or significance. Because he is committed to being “realistic”the nihilist has no tolerance for optimistic concepts like humanism. In fact, he considers the humanist, who believes in the innate dignity and potential of man, supremely näive and pollyanna-ish. As this, the bloodiest century in human history, draws to a close, the nihilist cannot accept, in the name of realism, the humanists utopian claim that man is evolving into godhood. All evidence argues against the idea that people are inherently good. The nihilist is, in other words, too honest to be a humanist, for humanism is unrealistic. It is inconsistent with the facts. The humanist says that life has meaning because each individual is unique and important, and has unlimited human potential. It looks for meaning in life subjectively, in one’s own self. Convinced to the contrary by the evidence the nihilist concludes that there is no meaning to life and settles for despair. He is, admittedly, more realistic than the humanist, but he fails to consider that reality is not limited to the physical, tangible, and material universe. The person who fails to factor the existence of God into the equation of life, if he is realistic, will ultimately come to the conclusion that all is futile and purposeless. If he is realistic! In the final analysis, there are only two possible worldviews open to realistic thinkers: secularism and theism. Secularism leads inevitably to the despair and hopelessness of nihilism. Theism, a belief in the existence and providential intervention of God, leads to hope and meaning. One does not have to look far to witness indications of nihilism in modern Western culture. Hope is conspicuous by its absence in practically every genre. The things that help us to understand a culture because they reflect and mirror the mood of the age, like music, art, literature, and theater, all breathe a spirit of despair. The crude, the crass and the vulgar are celebrated in the fashion world. Contemporary musical styles express a kind of disorder and dissonance, in sharp contrast to the symmetrical melody and harmony of say, classical or even folk music. Much modern art is sensual, chaotic, and dissonant, an existential expression of the mood of the artist. Even literature today breathes this spirit of despair like the familiar poem "Rugby Chapel" by Matthew Arnold: Most men eddy about Here and there -eat and drink, Chatter and love and hate, Gather and squander, are raised Aloft, are hurled in the dust, Striving blindly, achieving Nothing, and then they die. In movies, the despair of an existential (i.e. subjective, man-centered) philosophy of life is evident in the crass thirst for violence and destruction. Nihilism produces a desire to destroy, because if life is meaningless, death becomes the ultimate solution. Though he promises happiness and fulfillment, Satan, the thief of hope and purpose, ultimately kills and destroys. {John 10:10} The sexual perversion of our society, furthermore, is another expression of the mood of despair. Francis Schaeffer writes, "it is often in the sexual area of life that men hope to find some kind of meaning when they have abandoned the search elsewhere." (p. 38) Harry Blamires concurs, pinpointing the philosophical basis of sexual ethics: "In no field of human experience does secularism more insidiously drag man towards a sub-human level of living than in that of sexuality...glamorizing passion at the expense of responsibility, duty, and chastity." (p183). What is the cause, then, of this mood of despair? A view of life and the world known as secularism. Secularism, The Spirit of the Age People believe that life is futile and meaningless because they fail to factor God into the equation of life. Secularism operates as if this world were all that there is, disregarding the eternal and thinking only in terms of the "now." Carl Sagan, in the introduction to the television series "Cosmos," expresses the essence of secularism concisely. As the camera pans the starry heavens, Sagan says, in deep reverential tones, "The cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be." That is pure, unabashed secularism. In Ecclesiastes, the Preacher defines a secular worldview by the phrase "under the sun:" "What profit hath a man of all his labor which he taketh under the sun?" {Ecclesiastes 1:3} That phrase, used over thirty times in the book, is the key to understanding Ecclesiastes. Life under the sun is life from a strictly earthly perspective, without God in the picture. Life without God inevitably produces a spirit of despair and hopelessness. There is no meaning, no happiness, no sense of purpose, and no joy when life is confined to this world alone without consideration of the One who is beyond the sun. That’s the message of Ecclesiastes. Peggy Noonan, former speech writer for Presidents Reagan and Bush, wrote in a 1992 issue of Forbes magazine: "I think we have lost the knowledge that happiness is over-rated -that, in a way, life is over-rated. We have lost, somehow, a sense of mystery -about us, our purpose, our meaning, our role. Our ancestors believed in two worlds, and understood this to be the solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short one. We are the first generations of man that actually expected to find happiness here on earth, and our search for it has caused such unhappiness. The reason: if you do not believe in another, higher world, if you believe only in the flat material world around you, if you believe that this is your only chance at happiness- if that is what you believe, then you are not disappointed when the world does not give you a good measure of its riches, you are despairing." (From The Florida Times Union, Jacksonville, Thurs. June 23,1994) The connection between secularism and despair she cites is the very point Solomon makes in Ecclesiastes. The individual who says "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity" is the person who lives "under the sun," without an eternal perspective. Secularism inevitably leads to cynicism and hopelessness because hope depends upon the existence and providence of the God of hope. {Romans 15:13} Secularism, life lived from a strictly "this-world" perspective without consideration of how God fits into the picture, is the spirit of our age, the dominant philosophy of the day. In fact, it is the spirit of every age because it is "the pattern of this world." When the New Testament speaks about "the world" (e. g. "Love not the world...;"{1 John 2:15} "Be not conformed to this world...;"{Romans 12:2} "Whosoever is a friend of the world is the enemy of God;" {James 4:4} "Keep yourselves unspotted from the world"), {James 1:27} the reference is to this dominant worldview known as secularism. "The World" might be defined as "life, lived and thought, apart from God." According to this definition, even professed Christians can be worldly. The tendency to live as if God does not exist, like practical atheists, is very real. The temptation to conform to the pattern of this age, to fall in line with popular culture, to accommodate the world, to restrict our lives to "under the sun" criteria, to maintain the status quo, and to operate from a strictly secular frame of reference is very strong, even in the lives of believers. It is possible for a Christian to get so caught up in "the rat race," and, by virtue of the sheer pace of daily life, lose contact with God. If it wasn’t possible there would be no need for warnings such as "Be not conformed to this world" and "Love not the world." The professed believer who fails to spend time with God in prayer each day, read and study God’s word, attend public worship, encourage his Christian brother, and submit his thinking and behavior to the Lordship of Jesus Christ at each new juncture in the road of life is worldly to the degree that God is not a part of his life. The more the world controls the lives of individual believers, the less power the church will wield in its Christian testimony. In contrast to the secularist who thinks only of his interests, his moment in history, his place in society, and his life now, the individual who thinks Biblically approaches life in the light of two worlds. A Christian is someone who once lived for this world alone, but now he confesses that he belongs to the next world: {Psalms 17:14-15} "Once earthly joy I craved, sought peace and rest; Now Thee alone I seek, give what is best." He now travels earth’s roads by heaven’s map, weighs earth’s treasure on heaven’s scale, bears earth’s burdens in heaven’s strength, views earth’s tragedies in terms of heaven’s triumph, fights earth’s battles with heaven’s weapons, and values earth’s trophies by heaven’s standards. He thinks in terms of both life now and life hereafter regarding suffering, {Romans 8:18;2 Corinthians 4:17-18} priorities, {1 Timothy 4:8} and even death. {Php 1:21} He says with Asaph, "Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward, receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee." {Psalms 73:24-25} He lives by faith, persuaded that God is (that is, that God exists, that God is real, that God is there) and that God is active in the lives of those who diligently seek him. {Hebrews 11:6} Because his life is based on this other-worldly perspective, it also assumes a richness of meaning and sense of purpose now. Harry Blamires summarizes these two competing worldviews insightfully: "To think secularly is to think within a frame of reference bounded by the limits of our life on earth: it is to keep one’s calculations rooted in this-worldly criteria. To think christianly is to accept all things with the mind as related, directly or indirectly, to man’s eternal destiny as the redeemed and chosen child of God." (Blamires, p44) Chasing the Wind We have seen that worldliness is essentially a matter of eliminating God from the picture and focusing instead only on life "under the sun." Those who live by this philosophy inevitably become so preoccupied with this life that personal happiness and welfare become their sole concern. In their quest for that ever elusive peace and contentment, however, they eventually become so frustrated that they adopt a spirit of pessimism, cynicism, and despair. It is significant that "the Preacher" illustrates the futility of this search for meaning and purpose by the image of the circle inEcclesiastes 1:4-7: "One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh...The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose. The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits. All the waters run into the sea...unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again." When God is left out of the definition of life, all appears terribly monotonous and aimlessly repetitious. Few images illustrate futility like a circle. People commonly express frustration at a lack of forward progress by saying, "I feel like I’ve been going in circles." Like a hamster in a wheel, many people expend tremendous amounts of energy in the tasks and responsibilities of daily life, but because life is not lived for God’s glory, according to the guidelines laid down in his word, and in the awareness of his daily presence, they make no progress for all their effort. They are going in circles, living aimlessly. Living without God is like breathing without air, eating without food, seeing without sight, talking without words, and hearing without sound. Because God is not factored into the equation of life, secular thinkers can make no sense out of the world. All appears random, arbitrary, disconnected, and disjointed. There is no rhyme nor reason. Hic et nunc -life is meaningless. The Christian, however, because he thinks in terms of God’s existence and personal presence in the world, sees history, not in terms of a circle, but of a straight line, with a definite point of beginning, {Genesis 1:1} a specific goal, {1 Timothy 6:15} and a progressive development of the Divine plan moving toward the attaining of that goal. History is really His story, the unfolding of the drama of redemption that God purposed before the world began. Does that mean that everything that happens in history is predestined by God? Absolutely not, for God is not the author of sin. But it does mean that he is in sovereign control of creation, superintending his world, working his will and providentially overruling even the wicked acts of men to our good and to his own greater glory. {Psalms 76:10;Genesis 50:20} In a word, the difference between secularism and Christianity is the difference between a natural and a supernatural view of the world. In his search for meaning, the Preacher pursued the whole gamut of human experience. He sought fulfillment in labor, {Ecclesiastes 1:8; Ecclesiastes 1:13-14} in knowledge, {Ecclesiastes 1:16-18} in pleasure, {Ecclesiastes 2:1-3} and in the accumulation of material things, {Ecclesiastes 2:4-10} but he came to the conclusion "all is vanity and vexation of the spirit." {Ecclesiastes 1:14; Ecclesiastes 2:11} The phrase "vexation of the spirit" is a picturesque phrase that means "chasing the wind" or "grasping for the wind." Have you ever watched a little boy playing outfield on a Little League baseball team? Every coach knows the frustration of looking up and watching his centerfielder pretending to catch imaginary fly balls with his glove. "Johnny, what are you doing?" the coach yells. "Keep your mind on the game." So many people live life like little Johnny plays centerfield, oblivious to the real issues, grasping for the wind. How long would a person have to chase the wind in order to catch up to it and finally seize it? Yet so many people spend their lives chasing happiness and contentment apart from God, only to find that they are chasing wind. Apart from God, the search for significance in life under the sun is an optical illusion, a mirage, a pipe dream. It is an attempt to grasp the wind. It is not wisdom to live like that. It is the quintessence of folly. Yet that is the way that most people spend their days, running in circles, chasing the wind. It’s no wonder that Solomon sinks in the mire of despair and hopelessness. "Therefore I hated life," he says, "because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me: for all is vanity and vexation of spirit. Yea, I hated all my labor which I had taken under the sun...Therefore I went about to cause my heart to despair of all the labor which I took under the sun..."{Ecclesiastes 2:17-23} As the hopes and dreams of youth give way to the disappointments and frustrations of mid-life, the person who, by faith, cannot see God "standing somewhere in the shadows keeping watch above his own," will slide faster and faster down the slippery slope of cynicism. I am convinced that the great challenge of aging is the challenge to resist the tendency to become cynical, mean-spirited, bitter, and sour and to retain that childlike sense of wonder, joy, gratitude, humility, and faith in one’s Heavenly Father. When I hear people say, "Oh, nothing surprises me anymore; I didn’t expect it to turn out anyway; nothing ever works out for me; youth is a mistake; manhood a struggle; old age a regret," I know I’m talking to someone who has lost sight of God. Secular thinking will always end in cynicism. Is Life Futile? Ecclesiastes does not end on this pessimistic note, however. After analyzing the futility of life without God, the Preacher affirms that life lived with a conscious awareness of God is supremely meaningful: "Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth" the Preacher counsels. {Ecclesiastes 12:1} Moreover, "because the preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge." {Ecclesiastes 12:9; emphasis mine} He concludes "the whole matter" by urging his young auditors, "Fear God and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil." {Ecclesiastes 12:13-14} With God in the picture, all of life, be it work, education, recreation, leisure, relationships, or the use of material things, is meaningful. The purpose of life, consequently, is to enjoy life as God’s gift and to devote it to his glory by worshipping him and obeying his commandments. That is the whole duty of man. That is a real sense of purpose. When we, as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, factor in the further truth of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, life takes on even richer meaning. In1 Corinthians 15:1-58, Paul was dealing with the same spirit of skepticism in the church of Corinth expressed by Solomon centuries earlier. The social pressure in that intellectual climate to the doctrine of the resurrection had intimidated some of the Corinthian Christians to abandon the doctrine. Throughout the chapter, Paul argues that all is futile if Christ is not alive. If Christ is not risen, he says, then you "believed in vain." {1 Corinthians 15:2} "Your profession of faith in him was meaningless," says Paul. If he is not alive, he further argues, then my personal experience was "in vain." {1 Corinthians 15:10} If Jesus is still in the grave, then preaching is vain, your belief of the gospel is meaningless, {1 Corinthians 15:14} and your trust in Christ for the forgiveness of your sins is futile. {1 Corinthians 15:17} Paul’s point is that the whole Christian life is an empty sham if Christ is not alive. But, he affirms, he is alive, risen from the dead, and because he lives the Corinthians would live after death also. {1 Corinthians 15:20-57} Listen now to his grand conclusion: "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord." {1 Corinthians 15:58} Is there rhyme or reason to life? Is teaching God’s word an exercise in futility? Is contending for the faith once delivered to the saints a meaningless endeavor? Is faithfulness to the doctrinal and ethical principles of Scripture in a pagan environment just so much unnecessary trouble? Is it vain to resist temptation, to risk the public antagonism associated with following Christ, to seek to cultivate true Christian character, or to throw oneself into the lives of others in the service of Christ? Is it futile to make a living, to train your children to be godly, to build a Christian marriage, and to ease the burdens of those less fortunate than yourself? The answer to all of these questions is a resounding "no." Labor in the Lord is not in vain; it never has been in vain and it never will be in vain. On what basis can Paul make such a claim? On the basis of the fact that Jesus Christ is alive! Because he lives, nothing we do "in his name" is futile, but supremely purposeful and meaningful. What a message of hope! Without God, all is vanity and vexation of the spirit. But when we live "under the sun" in the knowledge of the One who lives and reigns "beyond the sun," all of life has significance. Futility gives way to purpose. Chasing wind is abandoned for pursuing Christ. Despair gives way to unspeakable and glorious joy. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 68: LORDSHIP AMONG THE MINISTRY ======================================================================== LORDSHIP AMONG THE MINISTRY January 1, 1927 LORDSHIP AMONG THE MINISTRY January 1, 1927 By Elder C. H. Cayce The following article was read in the meeting at Jackson, Tenn., which began on Friday before the fifth Sunday in October, 1926: Brethren, you have assigned to me a hard subject, "The baneful effect of the spirit of lordship among the ministry," and I have had very little time to study the subject. We need to be warned against such a spirit, and we need to watch ourselves, that we do not allow ourselves to be governed by it. I understand a spirit of lordship to be a spirit of mastery; a spirit to rule, to control, to have things our way, or not at all. The very word minister conveys a meaning that is the opposite of lordship or master. It really means to serve, a servant. Jesus said, "Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your servant; even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many."-Matthew 20:25-28. To exercise lordship is to exercise dominion, to rule and to control, to exercise authority. Jesus says "it shall not be so among you." Hence it is very clear and manifest that such a spirit is not to prevail-and should not be indulged in by the ministry of the church of Christ. This text also shows very clearly that the minister is to be a servant, and not a lord or master; that he is not to exercise authority or dominion. Jesus our Saviour came to minister, to serve. The spirit of service is of the Lord, and the spirit of lordship is from beneath; it is a bad spirit. It brings trouble, sorrow and distress to the hearts of the Lord’s dear children. It divides families, homes, neighborhoods and churches. But here the question maybe asked, "Are not ministers to be overseers of the flock, and has not the Lord appointed them as such?" Yes, that is true. "Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which He hath purchased with His own blood."-Acts 20:28. This is the language of the eminent Apostle Paul to the elders of the church at Ephesus when he had sent for them to show what should be done, and how it should be done. An overseer is not a master or lord; that is, from a Scriptural standpoint. And an overseer, according to Paul’s instruction here, is one that is to feed, not to rule or control, or to exercise dominion. The inspired Apostle Peter also gives us some instruction along the same line: "The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the over- sight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being ensamples to the flock." -1 Peter 5:1-3. From this we see that for a minister to take the oversight of the flock, to be an overseer of the flock, is not for him to be a lord or a ruler over them, but to be an ensample to them. It is his work and his business to set right examples before them, so as to show by precept and example how the Lord would have His children live and walk and to conduct themselves here in this world. "Neither as being lords over God’s heritage." The marginal reference says, "overruling." That is, not ruling over. The minister, or the elder, is positively forbidden to rule over God’s heritage, or His people, or His church. He is to serve them and not to rule over them. As he is to serve them, they are to have authority over him, (See PB:1 Peter 5:3) rather than for him to have authority over them. For him to assume authority to be a ruler and to assume lordship, is akin to the sin of presumption. "But the soul that doeth aught presumptuously, whether he be born in the land, or a stranger, the same reproacheth the Lord; and that soul shall be cut off from among his people."-Numbers 15:30. For one of God’s ministers to be governed by, or to manifest, the spirit of lordship is for him to presume to be what the Lord has not made him, which is presumption, or to act presumptuously; and he who acts presumptuously reproaches the Lord, and God says that "soul shall be cut off from among his people." InEzekiel 34:4the Lord tells the shepherds of Israel that "with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them." The "them" were the children of Israel. By reading this chapter we will find that the children of Israel suffered as a result of the cruelty and the ruling of the shepherds. National Israel were a type of spiritual Israel. Surely no Primitive Baptist will deny this. As they were a type of spiritual Israel, and such a spirit among the shepherds in that day brought trouble, sorrow and distress, it will bring the same in this day among spiritual Israel. Perhaps it may not be amiss to call attention to the fact also that the Lord pronounced a curse upon the shepherds, and said, "Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require my flock at their hand." This entire chapter might be good reading for us, that we may be warned and get a lesson therefrom that might do us some good. Let me quote at some length from this chapter, beginning with the first verse: "And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God unto the shepherds; Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the flocks? Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed: but ye feed not the flock. The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them. And they were scattered, because there is no shepherd: and they became meat to all the beasts of the field, when they were scattered. My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill: yea, my flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them. Therefore, ye shepherds, hear the word of the Lord; As I live, saith the Lord God, surely because my flock became a prey, and my flock became meat to every beast of the field, because there was no shepherd, neither did my shepherds search for my flock, but the shepherds fed themselves, and fed not my flock; therefore, O ye shepherds, hear the word of the Lord; Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against the shepherds; and I will require my flock at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the flock; neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more; for I will deliver my flock from their mouth, that they may not be meat for them."-Ezekiel 34:1-10 When the minister of the Lord is being controlled by a spirit of lordship, of master or ruler, the diseased are not strengthened, the sick are not healed, that which is broken is not bound up, that which is driven away is not brought again, and those who are lost are not found; the Lord’s little children are scattered, and they wander in the desert hungry and crying for food, and are devoured by their adversaries. What a deplorable state and condition! Language fails me to describe the sorrows, distresses, sore afflictions and heartaches resulting from such a spirit! And such a great woe pronounced against the shepherds or ministers possessing such a spirit! Brethren, have we ever been possessed of it? Have any of us been "weighed in the balance and found wanting" along this line? If so, let us humble ourselves in dust and ashes; let us humble ourselves under the mighty hand of our God; let us humbiy beg Him to forgive our folly and our wrongs, and that His fierce anger may be turned away from us, and that He may restore unto us the joys of His salvation and pour out a blessing upon us; that He may bring our children and neighbors and their children into His blessed fold, and that He would help us to feed them upon the pure and sincere milk of the word. If we have been acting under this bad and evil spirit, let us begin now, if we have not already done so, to endeavor, the best we possibly can, to make amends for our wrongs. We need to devote our time to the service the Lord requires of us. The minister is not to be a lord or master, but a servant. "For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake."-2 Corinthians 4:5. Let me digress long enough to say the apostle did not mean by the expression, "We preach not ourselves," that it is not us doing the preaching-that the Lord is preaching through us-but he meant that we do not preach our own power or authority, but that it is Christ Jesus the Lord, and His power, that we preach, and not ourselves; but "ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake." The true minister is a servant of the Lord and a servant of the church-your servants. This fact that we are your servants is for Jesus’ sake. The Lord calls His ministers and lays the obligation upon them. They are under obligation to the Lord and to the church. A servant is under obligation to the master, and the apostle says, "ourselves your servants"-not your lords or rulers. The master is the boss. When a servant gets the idea that he is the boss, and that the business cannot be conducted without him, he is then in such a condition that the business would get along better without him than with him. A true servant is willing to endure afflictions. "Therefore I endure all things for the elect’s sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory."-2 Timothy 2:10. Paul also instructs Timothy to be a partaker of the afflictions of the gospel. {2 Timothy 1:8} We may rest assured that if we are the Lord’s true ministers, and if we fill the place of servants to Him and His people, there are afflictions for us to endure. The fields are white unto harvest. The harvest is great, and the laborers are few. Are we praying the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into the harvest? How often do you hear a prayer to the Lord to send laborers in these days? We need them. We need faithful men. We need men that are true. We need men who love the cause of the Master. We need men who desire the welfare of the Lord’s little children. May the Lord give us such men. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 69: MAN: OUTER & INNER OR OLD & NEW ======================================================================== MAN: OUTER & INNER or OLD & NEW What is the outer man and the inner man? Neither refer to the physical body, but to the two natures that dwell within a child of God after the new birth. One nature is "Christ in you, the hope of glory." The other is the sinful nature of the flesh. The actions of the body reflect the nature that is prevailing at any given moment. While regeneration does not take away or change the outer man or the sin-nature, it (the outer man) is restrained by the inner man so that it is no longer in control as before. "Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world." {1 John 4:4} The new birth affects or brings about an effect on the whole man; body, soul and spirit. That sinful nature, referred to by Paul as the outer man, continues with us until death to trouble us and lead us to sin. However, through the spirit of Christ, we are commanded to Mortify or put to death the sinful deeds of the body. {Colossians 3:5;Colossians 3:9-10} ======================================================================== CHAPTER 70: MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS ======================================================================== MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS Many things that men do, we look upon as good, but a good work is good in the eyes of God because it’s motivated by love. It’s done because a person has a divine commandment and it’s done for the glory of God. I’ll illustrate that to show what I am talking about. A person may say "well, we’re going to add some musical instruments to our worship service and we’re going to do it because we love God" and they may truly love God. They may say "we’re going to use these musical instruments and we’re going to glorify God by playing them to show off the power that God has given to us -we’re going to glorify God with them" -and they may try but there’s one thing missing in that- they don’t have a divine commandment. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 71: MUTUAL PRAYER ======================================================================== MUTUAL PRAYER by Elder Joe Holder "You pray for me, I’ll pray for you." There’s some responsibility that goes with mutual prayer. It’s quite often the case that when we feel great need, we’re faced with a challenging circumstance or situation that we will say to those we love and respect in the faith, "pray for me." Very seldom when I am called on to preach at a meeting do I not respond to the person who tells me "you’re going to be expected to preach," then, "pray for me." I doubt that many of us who are called to preach do otherwise. You feel the burden of the occasion and you feel the need for people to pray for you. There is according to scripture, if I ask you to pray for me I should commit to pray for you. I owe you as much the obligation of prayer as you owe to me and if I ask you to pray for me I should care enough for you to pray for you as well. I think we preachers need to understand that when we are called on to preach and we ask the people to pray for us, we ought to be praying for the people as well. The more we have mutual prayer going on in the worship service the more we will ensure a blessing from God as the outcome, the product of the effort. When people start praying for each other it’s not like punctually, cut the period, it’s all done- but prayer that goes in both directions from me for you, from you for me involves and requires certain obligations. If I care enough about you to pray for you, I care enough to be involved in your life and want to help you in your life do better. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 72: NEW BIRTH ======================================================================== NEW BIRTH The first epistle of John sheds a remarkable degree of light on the doctrine of the new birth. In six different scriptures of this book, John uses the expression "is born" in reference to the new birth. In every case, he means one who is "already" born. In every scripture, he gives the characteristic of one who "is born." He claims that a person who "is born" is one who believes, loves, does not commit sin, overcomes the world, etc. Never does he say that a person who will believe will be born, or that a person who will love will be born, etc. The birth is always presented as the cause, not the effect, of the accompanying spiritual conduct. Consider the six scriptures:1 John 2:29;1 John 3:9;1 John 4:7;1 John 5:1;1 John 5:4;1 John 5:18 A.T. Roberson, one of the greatest Greek authorities of all time, makes the following comments about certain of the above verses: 1 John 2:29-"Doing righteousness is proof of the new birth." 1 John 3:9-"The child of God does not have the habit of sin." 1 John 4:7-"...is proof that one ‘has been begotten of God.’" 1 John 5:1-"The Divine Begetting is the antecedent, not the consequent of the believing." Hence, it is very clear that the Apostle John abundantly confirms the Old Baptist doctrine of the new birth; namely, that the new birth is the cause of spiritual activity. Such activity is not the cause of the new birth. I wish all who love Christ would carefully consider this. THE NEW BIRTH When the Holy Spirit applies the salvation that Christ procured upon the cross to the souls of God’s children, He places within that soul a new nature. That new nature desires fellowship with God. It longs for fellowship with God. It hungers and thirsts after righteousness. It also desires spiritual nourishment and food as Peter says in1 Peter 2:2. When that new nature is put within the child of God, it longs for spiritual food. It hungers and thirsts for spiritual food but not only that-that new nature also desires holiness- desires to please God. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 73: OF DEPRAVITY, FREE WILL AND REGENERATION ======================================================================== OF DEPRAVITY, FREE WILL AND REGENERATION Does a man by nature have a free will?Romans 8:7answers ‘no’:"The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." Man, created in God’s image, possesses a mind, a heart, and a will. The mind, or intellect, allows him to think rationally, not by sheer instinct like an animal. The heart, or emotion, enables him to feel, unlike a robot or machine, human experience. The will, or volition, enables him to make decisions and choices that have moral consequences. It is his capacity for action, a capacity that allows him to choose this over that and those instead of these. In his unfallen state, man was good and very good. The fall, however, affected every part of man’s being. Man’s mind, by virtue of his fallen nature, is now darkened, incapable of understanding the things of the Spirit of God. {Ephesians 4:18;1 Corinthians 2:14} Further, his emotions are now deceptive and untrustworthy {Jeremiah 17:9} and his will, that is, his ability to choose good over evil and right over wrong, is bound. The 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith reads, "Man, by his fall into a state of sin, hath wholly lost all ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation, so as a natural man, being altogether averse from that good, and dead in sin, is not able by his own strength to commit himself, or to prepare himself thereto." So, is man free? If by the word ‘free’ one means that people have the ability,’ to make certain choices on their own (ices free from compulsion, force, or coercion), then the answer is ‘yes.’ For example, people have the ability to choose to go to the store or to stay home, to buy a newspaper or not, to eat beef or to eat fish, etc.; such choices are within the natural capacity of human beings. People are free to act according to their nature. If by the word ‘free,’ however, one means free without any limitation, then the answer is ‘no.’ People are not free to act contrary to their nature. I cannot choose to fly. Yes, I can choose to travel by airplane, but I cannot choose to sprout wings or become a bird. My will, you see, is not entirely free. It is bound by the limits of my nature. We do not have the freedom to be anything we are not. Man, in other words, is not free to act outside the boundaries of his human nature. He cannot live the life of a fish in the ocean or fly like a bird in the air without external resources enabling him to duplicate his natural environment. Just as that is true on a natural level, it is also true on a spiritual level. In his fallen state, man cannot choose to be righteous. The Ethiopian cannot by his own sheer willpower, change the color of his skin, nor the leopard his spots. Neither can those whose nature is depraved voluntarily do good. {Jeremiah 13:23} Man’s will is enslaved to his sinful nature. Left to himself, his only capacity is fleshly. Unregenerate people are not free to choose righteousness or wickedness; they are, on the contrary, "free from righteousness." {Romans 6:20} By nature, man’s will is a "will not." {Psalms 10:4;Psalms 58:3;John 5:40Isaiah 26:10} His only inclination is toward carnality. The natural man will never choose anything but sin, because he cannot operate outside the parameters of his sinful nature. {Romans 8:7} The nature of man’s will is not free. Not until his nature is changed does he have the desire or the capacity to choose righteousness. Prior to God’s work of regeneration in the soul, therefore, man’s will is bound by the old nature. In regeneration, the fallen sinner is made "willing in the day of God’s power." {Psalms 110:3} He is given a new nature, a righteous nature, capable of responding to God. Because the old nature is not eradicated, however, a warfare between the Spirit and the flesh ensues {Romans 7:1-25} -requiring deliberate and decisive efforts of the will for righteousness. {Romans 6:11-23} In other words, the believer must choose, every day, between the options of serving sin or righteousness. {Joshua 24:15;Romans 6:13} With such a conflict facing us, we should be glad that the Holy Spirit will continue to work within us "both to will and to do of His good pleasure." {Php 2:13} Because man’s will, apart from the new nature given in the new birth, is bound, it is incapable of choosing eternal life. Man’s only hope of eternal life, then, is rooted in God’s initiative and choice. Salvation depends on God’s choice, not man’s and upon His sovereign will, not man’s fallen will. That, my friend, is a firm foundation! ======================================================================== CHAPTER 74: OF THE BEING OF GOD ======================================================================== OF THE BEING OF GOD GILL: Having undertaken to write a System of Theology, or a Body of Doctrinal Divinity; and Theology being nothing else than a speaking of God, or a discoursing concerning him; his nature, names, perfections, and persons; his purposes, providences, ways, works, and word: I shall begin with the Being of God, and the proof and evidence of it; which is the foundation of all religion; for if there is no God, religion is a vain thing; and it matters not neither what we believe, nor what we do; since there is no superior Being to whom we are accountable for either faith or practice. Some, because the being of God is a first principle, which is not to be disputed; and because that there is one is a self-evident proposition, not to be disproved; have thought it should not be admitted as a matter of debate:[1] but since such is the malice of Satan, as to suggest the contrary to the minds of men; and such the badness of some wicked men as to listen to it, and imbibe it; and such the weakness of some good men as to be harassed and distressed with doubts about it at times; it cannot be improper to endeavour to fortify our minds with reasons and arguments against such suggestions and insinuations. And my 1. First argument to prove the Being of a God, shall be taken from the general consent of men of all nations, in all ages of the world; among whom the belief of it has universally obtained; which it is not reasonable to suppose would have obtained, if it was not true. This has been observed by many heathen writers themselves. Aristotle says, “all men have a persuasion of Deity, or that there is a God.” Cicero observes, “There is no nation so wild and savage, whose minds are not imbued with the opinion of the gods; many entertain wrong notions of them; but all suppose and own the divine power and nature.” And in another place he says, “There is no animal besides man that has any knowledge of God; and of men there is no nation so untractable and fierce, although it may be ignorant what a God it should have, yet is not ignorant that one should be had.” And again, “It is the sense of all mankind, that it is "innate" in all, and is, as it were, engraven on the mind, that there is a God; but what a one he is, in that they vary; but that he is, none denies.” And to the same sense are the words of Seneca, “There never was a nation so dissolute and abandoned, so lawless and immoral, as to believe there is no God.” So Aelianus relates, “None of the barbarous nations ever fell into atheism, or doubted of the gods whether they were or not, or whether they took care of human affairs or not; not the Indians, nor the Gauls, nor the Egyptians.” And Plutarch has these remarkable words, “If you go over the earth, says he, you may find cities without walls, letters, kings, houses, wealth, and money, devoid of theatres and schools; but a city without temples and gods, and where is no use of prayers, oaths, and oracles, nor sacrifices to obtain good or avert evil, no man ever saw.” These things were observed and said, when the true knowledge of God was in a great measure lost, and idolatry prevailed; and yet even then, this was the general sense of mankind. In the first ages of the world, men universally believed in the true God, and worshipped him, as Adam and his sons, and their posterity, until the flood; nor does there appear any trace of idolatry before it, nor for some time after. The sins which caused that, and with which the world was filled, seem to be lewdness and uncleanness, rapine and violence. Some think the tower of Babel was built for an idolatrous use; and it may be that about that time idolatry was set up; as it is thought to have prevailed in the days of Serug: and it is very probable that when the greater part of the posterity of Noah’s sons were dispersed throughout the earth, and settled in the distant parts of it; that as they were remote from those among whom the true worship of God was preserved; they, by degrees, lost sight of the true God, and forsook his worship; and this being the case, they began to worship the sun in his stead, and which led on to the worship of the moon, and the host of heaven; which seem to be the first objects of idolatry. This was as early as the times Job, who plainly refers to it,Job 31:26-27. And, indeed, when men had cast off the true object of worship, what more natural to substitute in his room than the sun, moon, and stars, which were above them, visible by them, and so glorious in themselves, and so beneficial to the earth and men on it? Hence the people of Israel were exhorted to take care that their eyes were not ensnared at the sight of them, to fall down and worship them; and which in later times they did.Deuteronomy 4:19;2 Kings 21:3. It appears also that men took very early to the deifying of their heroes after death, their kings, and great personages, either for their wisdom and knowledge, or for their courage and valour, and martial exploits, and other things; such were the Bel, or Belus, of the Babylonians; the Baalpeor of the Moabites. ; and the Molech of the Phoenicians, and other Baalim lords, or kings, mentioned in the Scriptures: and such were Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Hercules; and the rest of the rabble of the heathen deities; and indeed their Lares, and Penates, or household gods, were no other than the images of their deceased parents, or more remote ancestors, whose memory they revered; and in process of time their deities became very numerous; they had gods many and lords many: even with the Jews, when fallen into idolatry, their gods were according to the number of their cities,Jeremiah 2:28. And as for the Gentiles, they worshipped almost everything; not only the sun, moon, and stars; but the earth, fire, and water; and various sorts of animals, as oxen, goats, and swine, cats and dogs, the fishes of the rivers, the river horse, and the crocodile, those amphibious creatures; the fowls of the air, as the hawk, stork, and ibis; and even insects, the fly; yea, creeping things, as serpents, the beetle, &c.; as also vegetables, onions, and garlic; which occasioned the satirical poet to say, "O sanctas gentes quibus haec nascuntur in hortis, numina!" O holy nations, whose gods are born in their gardens! Nay, some have worshipped the devil himself, as both in the East and West Indies; and that for this reason, that he might not harm them. Now though all this betrays the dreadful depravity of human nature; the wretched ignorance of mankind; and the sad stupidity men were sunk into; yet at the same time such shocking idolatry, in all the branches of it, is a full proof of the truth and force of my argument, that all men, in all ages and countries, have been possessed of the notion of a God; since, rather than to have no God, they have chosen false ones; so deeply rooted is a sense of Deity in the minds of all men. I am sensible that to this it is objected, that there have been, at different times, and in different countries, some particular persons who have been reckoned atheists, deniers of the Being of a God. But some of these men were only deriders of the gods of their country; they mocked at them as unworthy of the name, as weak and insufficient to help them; as they reasonably might; just as Elijah mocked at Baal and his worshippers. Now the common people, because they so behaved towards their gods, looked upon them as atheists, as such who did not believe there was any God. Others were so accounted, because they excluded the gods from any concern with human affairs; they thought they were other ways employed, and that such things were below their notice, and not becoming their grandeur and dignity to regard; and had much the same sentiments as some of the Jews had,Ezekiel 9:9;Zephaniah 1:12. But these men were not deniers of the existence of God, only of his providence as to the affairs of the world: and others have been rather practical than speculative atheists, as the fool inPsalms 14:1who not only live as if there was no God; but wish in their hearts there was none, rather than believe there is none; that so they might take their fill of sin, without being accountable to a superior Being. The number of real speculative atheists have been very few, if any; some have boldly asserted their disbelief of a God; but it is a question whether their hearts and mouths have agreed; at least they have not been able to maintain their unbelief long[2] without some doubts and fears. And at most this only shows how much the reason of man may be debased, and how low it may sink when left to itself: these few instances are only particular exceptions to a general rule; which is not destroyed thereby, being contrary to the common sense of mankind; even as it is no sufficient objection to the definition of man, as a rational creature, that there is now and then an idiot born of his race, so not to the general belief of Deity, that there is now and then an atheist in the world. It is further objected, that there have been whole nations in Africa and America, who have no notion of Deity. But this is what has not been sufficiently proved; it depends upon the testimonies of travellers, and what one affirms, another denies; so that nothing can with certainty be concluded from them. “I should rather question, says Herbert, Lord Cherbury, whether the light of the sun has shone on the remotest regions, than that the knowledge of the Supreme Being is hidden from them; since the sun is only conspicuous in its own sphere; but the Supreme Being is seen in everything.” Diodorus Siculus says, a few of the Ethiopians were of opinion there was no God; though before he had represented them as the first and most religious of all nations, as attested by all antiquity. The Hottentots about the Cape of Good Hope have been instanced in, as without any knowledge of Deity: and certainly they are a most beastly and brutish people that can be named, and the most degenerate of the human species, and have survived the common instincts of humanity; yet, according to Mr. Kolben’s account of them, published some years ago,[3] they appear to have some sense of a Supreme Being, and of inferior deities. They express a superstitious joy at new and full moons; and it is said they pray to a Being that dwells above; and offer sacrifice of the best things they have, with eyes lifted up to heaven.[4] And later discoveries of other nations, show the contrary to what has been asserted of them; which assertions have arose either from want of intimate knowledge of them, and familiar acquaintance with them, or from their dissolute, wicked, and irreligious lives; when, by conversing with them, it appears that they have a notion of the sun, or sky, or something or another being a sort of deity. Thus it has been observed of the Greenlanders,[5] that “they had neither a religion nor idolatrous worship; nor so much as any ceremonies to be perceived tending to it: hence the first missionaries entertained a supposition, that there was not the least trace to be found among them of any conception of a divine Being, especially as they had no word to express him by. But when they came to understand their language better, they found quite the reverse to be true, from the notions they had, though very vague and various, concerning the soul, and concerning spirits; and also from their anxious solicitude about the state after death. And not only so, but they could plainly gather from a free dialogue they had with some perfectly wild Greenlanders, that their ancestors must have believed a supreme Being, and did render him some service; which their posterity neglected by little and little, the further they were removed from more wise and civilised nations; till at last they lost every just conception of the Deity; yet, after all, it is manifest, that a faint idea of a divine Being lies concealed in the minds even of this people, because they directly assent, without any objection, to the doctrine of a God, and his attributes.” And as to what is concluded from the irreligious lives of the inhabitants of some nations, we need not be sent to Africa and America for such atheists as these; we have enough of them in our own nation; and I was just ready to say, we are a nation of atheists in this sense: and, indeed, all men in an unregenerate state, be they Jews or Gentiles, or live where they may, they are ayeoi, "atheists;” as the apostle calls them,Ephesians 2:12they are "without God in the world, being alienated from the life of God,"Ephesians 4:18otherwise there is such a general sense of Deity in mankind; and such a natural inclination to religion, of some sort or another, though ever so bad, that some have thought that man should rather be defined as a religious than a rational animal. I take no notice of the holy angels, who worship God continually; nor of the devils, who believe there is one God and tremble; my argument being only concerned with men. 2. The second argument shall be taken from the law and light of nature; or from the general instinct in men, or impress of Deity on the mind of every man; that is, as soon as he begins to have the exercise of his rational powers, he thinks and speaks of God, and assents to the Being of a God. This follows upon the former, and is to be proved by it; for as Cicero[6] says, “The consent of all nations in anything, is to be reckoned the law of nature.” And since all nations agree in the belief of a Deity, that must be a part of the law of nature, inscribed on the heart of every man. Seneca[7] makes use of this to prove there is a God; he says: “because an opinion or sense of Deity, is "implanted" in the minds of all men.” And so likewise Cicero, as observed before; and who calls them the notions of Deity implanted and innate. And whoever believes the Mosaic account of the creation of man, cannot doubt of this being his case, when first created; since he is said to be made in the image, and after the likeness of God; for the image of God surely could not be impressed upon him, without having the knowledge of him implanted in him; and though man by sinning has greatly come short of this image and glory of God, yet this light of nature is not wholly obscured, nor the law of nature entirely obliterated in him; there are some remains of it. There are some indeed among us, who deny there are any innate ideas in the minds of men, and particularly concerning God: but to such writers and reasoners I pay but little regard; when the inspired apostle assures us, that even the Gentiles, destitute of the law of Moses, have "the work of the law written in their hearts,"Romans 2:15which, as it regards duty to God, as well as man, necessarily supposes the knowledge of him; as well as of the difference between good and evil, as founded upon his nature and will: and though this light of nature is not sufficient to lead men, in their present state, to a true spiritual and saving knowledge of God; yet it furnishes them with such a sense of him, as puts them upon seeking him; "if haply they may feel and grope after him, and find him,"Acts 17:27. These notices of a divine Being do not flow from the previous instructions of parents and others; but from a natural instinct; at most, they are only drawn forth by instruction and teaching; Velleius, the Epicurean, says, “that there is a Deity nature itself has impressed the notion of on the minds of all men; for what nation, or sort of men,” he adds, “that has not a certain anticipation of it without being taught it,” or before taught it, as Julian expresses it: nor do these notices take their rise from state policy; or are the effects of that originally: if this was the case, if it was the contrivance of politicians to keep men in awe, and under subjection, it must be the contrivance of one man, or more united together. If of one, say, who is the man? in what age he lived, and where? and what is his name, or his son’s name? If of more, say, when and where they existed? and who they were that met together? and where they formed this scheme? And let it be accounted for; if it can, that such a number of sage and wise men, who have been in the world; that no man should be able to get into the secret, and detect the fallacy and discover it, and free men from the imposition. Besides, these notices appeared before any scheme of politics was formed; or kings or civil magistrates were in being. Plato has refuted this notion; and represents it as a very pestilent one, both in private and in public. Nor are these notices by tradition from one to another; since traditions are peculiar to certain people: the Jews had theirs, and so had the Gentiles; and particular nations among them had separate ones from each other; but these are common to all mankind: nor do they spring from a slavish fear and dread of punishment; for though it has been said, that fear makes gods, or produces a notion of Deity; the contrary is true, that Deity produces fear, as will be seen in a following argument. Under this head may be observed the innate desires of men after happiness, which are so boundless as not to be satisfied. Let a man have ever so great a compass of knowledge and understanding; or possess ever so large a portion of wealth and riches; or be indulged with the gratification of his senses to the highest degree; or enjoy all the pleasure the whole creation can afford him; yet after all, according to the wise man, the conclusion of the whole is, "all is vanity and vexation of spirit,"Ecclesiastes 2:17. Now these desires are not in vain implanted, there must be an object answerable unto them; a perfect Being, which is no other than God; who is the first cause and last end of all things, of whom the Psalmist says, "Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none on earth my soul desires besides thee," Psalms 73:25. 3. The third argument, proving the Being of God, shall be taken from the works of creation; concerning which the apostle says, "the invisible things of God, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen; being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead,"Romans 1:20. Plutarch, in answer to a question, Whence have men the knowledge of God? replies, “They first receive the knowledge of him from the beauty of things that appear; for nothing beautiful is made in vain, nor by chance, but wrought with some art: that the world is beautiful, is manifest from the figure, the colour, and magnitude of it; and from the variety of stars about the world.” And these so clearly display the Being and power of God, as to leave the heathen without excuse, as the apostle observes; and as this, and other instances, show. Most admirable was the reasoning of a wild Greenlander,[8] which he declared to a missionary to be the reasoning of his mind before his conversion; he said to him, “It is true we were ignorant heathens, and knew nothing of God, or a Saviour; and, indeed, who should tell us of him till you come? but thou must not imagine that no Greenlander thinks about these things. I myself have often thought: a "kajak" (a boat) with all its tackle and implements, does not grow into existence of itself; but must be made by the labour and ingenuity of man; and one that does not understand it would directly spoil it. Now the meanest bird has far more skill displayed in its structure, than the best "kajak;” and no man can make a bird: but there is still a far greater art shown in the formation of a man, than of any other creature. Who was it that made him? I thought myself that he proceeded from his parents, and they from their parents; but some must have been the first parents; whence did they come? common report informs me, they grew out of the earth: but if so, why does it not still happen that men grow out of the earth? and from whence did this same earth itself, the sea, the sun, the moon, and stars, arise into existence? Certainly there must be some Being who made all these things; a Being that always was, and can never cease to be. He must be inexpressibly more mighty, knowing, and wise, than the wisest man. He must be very good too, because that everything that he has made is good, useful, and necessary for us. Ah, did I but know him, how would I love him and honour him! But who has seen him? who has ever conversed with him? None of us poor men. Yet there may be men too that know something of him. O that I could but speak with such! therefore,” he said, “as soon as ever I heard you speak of this great Being, I believed it directly, with all my heart; because I had so long desired to hear it.” A glaring proof this, that a supreme Being, the first cause of all things, is to be concluded from the works of creation. The notion of the eternity of the world has been imbibed by some heathens, but sufficiently confuted by others. And even Aristotle, to whom it is ascribed, asserts, that “it was an ancient doctrine, and what all men received from their ancestors; that all things are of God, and consist by him.” And those that believe the divine revelation, cannot admit of any other doctrine; but must explode the notion of the eternity of the world, and of its being of itself; since that assures us, that "in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth": also that all things were made, "not of things which do appear," but out of nothing,Genesis 1:1;Hebrews 11:3for, be it, that the heavens and the earth were made out of a chaos, or out of pre-existent matter; it may be reasonably asked, out of what was that pre-existent matter made? the answer must be, out of nothing; since it was by creation, which is the production of something out of nothing: and which can never be performed by the creature; for out of nothing, nothing can be made by that. If therefore all things are originally produced out of nothing, it must be by one that is almighty, whom we rightly call God. No creature can produce itself; this involves such contradictions as can never be admitted; for then a creature must be before it was; as that which makes must be before that which is made: it must act and operate before it exists; and be and not be at one and the same time; which are such glaring contradictions, as sufficiently confute the creature’s making itself; and therefore its being must be owing to another cause; even to God, the Creator; for between a creature and God, there is no medium: and if it could be thought or said, that the most excellent creatures, men, made themselves; besides the above contradictions, which would be implied, it might be asked, why did not they make themselves wiser and better; since it is certain, they have knowledge of beings superior to them? and how is it that they know so little of themselves, either of their bodies or their souls, if both were made by them? and why are they not able to preserve themselves from a dissolution to which they are all subject? It may be further observed; that effects, which depend upon causes in subordination to one another, cannot be traced up "ad infinitum;"[9] but must be reduced to some first cause, where the inquiry must rest; and that first cause is God. Now here is an ample field to survey; which furnishes out a variety of objects, and all proofs of Deity. There is nothing in the whole creation the mind can contemplate, the eye look upon, or the hand lay hold on, but what proclaims the Being of God. When we look up to the heavens above us; the surrounding atmosphere; the air in which we breathe, which compresses our earth, and keeps it together; the stellar space, and spreading sky, bespangled with stars of light, and adorned with the two great luminaries, the sun and moon, especially the former, that inexhaustible fountain of light and heat; and under whose benign influences, so many things are brought forth on earth; whose circuit is from one end of the heaven to the other; and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof: when we consider its form, magnitude, and virtue; its proper distance from us, being not so near us as to scorch us; nor so remote as to be of no use to us; the motion given it at first, in which it has proceeded without stopping, but once as is supposed, in the days of Joshua; a motion it has had now almost six thousand years; the course it has steered, and steers, so that all parts of the earth, at one season or another, receive benefit by it; and the way it has been guided in, without varying or erring from it all this while. Whoever reflects on these things, must acknowledge it to be the work of an all wise and almighty agent, we call God; and that it must be upheld, guided, and directed by his hand alone. When we take a view of the earth, of the whole terraqueous globe, hanging on nothing, like a ball in the air, poised with its own weight; the different parts of it, and all disposed for the use of man; stored with immense riches in the heart of it, and stocked with inhabitants upon it; the various sorts of animals, of different forms and shapes, made, some for strength, some for swiftness, some for bearing burdens, and others for drawing carriages, some for food and others for clothing: the vast variety of the feathered birds that cut the air; and the innumerable kinds of fishes that swim the ocean. The consideration of all this will oblige us to say, "Lord, thou art God, which hast made the heaven, earth, and sea; and all that in them is,"Acts 4:25. In short, there is not a shell in the ocean, nor a sand on the shore, nor a spire of grass in the field, nor any flower of different hue and smell in the garden, but what declare the Being of God: but especially our own composition is deserving of our notice; the fabric of the body, and the faculties of our souls. The body, its form and shape; while other animals look downwards to the earth, "os homini sublime dedit Deus," as the poet says,[10] man has a lofty countenance given him, to behold the heavens, to lift up his face to the stars; and for what is this erect posture given him, but to adore his Creator? And it is remarkable that there is a natural instinct in men to lift up their hands and eyes to heaven, when either they have received any unexpected mercy, by way of thankfulness for it; or are in any great distress, as supplicating deliverance from it; which supposes a divine Being, to whom they owe the one, and from whom they expect the other. Each of the parts and members of the body are so framed and disposed, as to be subservient to one another; so that "the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of thee; nor the head to the feet, I have no need of you.” The same may be observed of the other members. The inward parts, which are weak and tender, and on which life much depends, were they exposed, would be liable to much danger and hurt; but these are "clothed with skin and flesh, and fenced with bones and sinews;” and every bone, and every nerve, and every muscle, are put in their proper places. All the organs of the senses, of sight, hearing, smelling, tasting, and feeling, are most wonderfully fitted for the purposes for which they are made. Galen, an ancient noted physician, being atheistically inclined, was convinced of his impiety by barely considering the admirable structure of the eye; its various humours, tunics, and provision for its defence and safety. The various operations performed in our bodies, many of which are done without our knowledge or will, are enough to raise the highest admiration in us: as the circulation of the blood through all parts of the body, in a very small space of time; the respiration of the lungs; the digestion of the food; the chylification of it; the mixing of the chyle with the blood; the nourishment thereby communicated; and which is sensibly perceived in the several parts of the body, and even in the more remote; which having been weakened and enfeebled by hunger, thirst, and labour, are in an instant revived and strengthened; and the accretion and growth of parts by all this. To which may be added other things worthy of notice; the faculty of speech, peculiar to man, and the organs of it; the features of their faces; and the shape of their bodies, which all differ from one another; the constant supply of animal spirits; the continuance of the vital heat, which outlasts fire itself; the slender threads and small fibres spread throughout the body, which hold and perform their office seventy or eighty years running: all which, when considered, will oblige us to say, with the inspired Psalmist, "I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well": and will lead us to ascribe this curious piece of workmanship to no other than to the divine Being, the God of all flesh living.[11] But the soul of man, the more noble part of him, more fully discovers the original author of him;[12] being possessed of such powers and faculties that none but God could give: it is endowed with an understanding, capable of receiving and framing ideas of all things knowable, in matters natural, civil, and religious; and with reason, to put these together, and compare them with each other, and discourse concerning them; infer one thing from another, and draw conclusions from them: and with judgment, by which it passes sentence on things it takes cognizance of, and reasons upon; and determines for itself what is right or wrong; and so either approves or disapproves: it has a "mind" susceptive of what is proposed unto it; it can, by instruction or study, learn any language; cultivate any art or science; and, with the help of some geographical principles, can travel over the globe, can be here and there at pleasure, in the four parts of the world; and in a short time, visit every city of note therein, and describe the situation of every country, with their religion, manners, customs, &c. it can reflect on things past, and has a foresight of, and can forecast and provide for things to come: it has a "will," to accept or reject, to embrace or refuse, what is proposed unto it; with the greatest freedom of choice, and with the most absolute power and sovereignty: it has affections, of love and hatred, joy and grief, hope and fear, &c. according to the different objects it is conversant with. There is also the conscience, which is to a man as a thousand witnesses, for him or against him; which, if it performs its office as it should do, will accuse him when he does ill, and commend, or excuse him, when he does well; and from hence arise either peace of mind, or dread of punishment, in some shape or another, either here or hereafter: to which may be added the memory, which is a storehouse of collections of things thought to be most valuable and useful; where they are laid up, not in a confused, but orderly manner; so as to be called for and taken out upon occasion: here men of every character and profession lay up their several stores, to have recourse unto, and fetch out, as their case and circumstances may require. And besides this, there is the "fancy or imagination," which can paint and describe to itself, in a lively manner, objects presented to it, and it has entertained a conception of; yea, it can fancy and imagine things that never were, nor never will be: and, to observe no more, there is the power of invention; which in some is more, in others less fertile; which, on a sudden, supplies with what is useful in case of an emergency. But above all, the "soul" of man is that wherein chiefly lay the image and likeness of God, when man was in his pure and innocent state; and though it is now sadly depraved by sin, yet it is capable of being renewed by the spirit of God, and of having the grace of God implanted in it, and is endowed with immortality, and cannot die: now to whom can such a noble and excellent creature as this owe its original? but to the divine Being, who may, with great propriety, be called, the Father of spirits, the Lord, the Jehovah, who "formeth the spirit of man within him.” 4. The fourth argument will be taken from the sustaining and government of the world; the provision made for the supply of creatures, and especially of man, and for his safety. As the world, as we have seen, is made by a divine Being, so by him it consists. Was there not such an almighty Being, "who upholds all things by the word of his power," they would sink and fall. Did he not bear up the pillars of the earth, they would tremble and shake, and not be able to bear its weight: the most stately, firm, and well built palace, unless repaired and maintained, will fall to decay and ruin; and so the grand and magnificent building of this world would soon be dissolved, did not the divine agent that made it, keep it up: as he that built all things is God, so he that supports the fabric of the universe must be so too; no less than an almighty hand can preserve and continue it; and which has done it, without any visible appearance of age or decay, for almost six thousand years; and though there is such a vast number of creatures in the world, besides men, the beasts of the field, and "the cattle on a thousand hills," the fowls of the air, and the fishes of the sea; there is food provided for them all, and they have "every one their portion of meat in due season": and as for man, he is richly provided for, with a plenty and variety of all good things; not only for necessity, but for delight; every man has a trade, business, and employment of life; or is put into such a situation and circumstances, that, with care, diligence, and industry, he may have enough for himself and family, and to spare: the earth produces a variety of things for food and drink for him; and of others for medicine, for the continuance of health, and restoration of it. And can all this be without the care, providence, and interposition of a wise and almighty Being? Can these ever be thought to be the effects of blind chance and fortune? Is it not plain and clear, that God hereby "has not left himself without a witness of his existence and providence, in that he does good to all his creatures, and gives rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons; filling mens’ hearts with food and gladness;” and continuing the certain and constant revolutions of "summer and winter, seedtime and harvest;” as well as night and day, cold and heat; all which have their peculiar usefulness and advantages to human life; and cannot be attributed to anything else than the superintendency of the divine Being. And as there is a provision made for the wants of men, so for their safety: were it not that God had put the fear of man upon the wild beasts of the field, and the dread of him in them, there would be no safety for him, especially in some parts of the world; and had he not put a natural instinct into them to avoid the habitations of men, and to resort to woods and deserts, and dwell in uninhabited places; to prowl about for their prey in the night, and in the morning return to their caves and dens, and lurking places; when men go forth to their work, they would be in the utmost danger of their lives: yea, were it not for the overruling providence of God, which governs the world, and restrains the lusts of men, "homo esset homini lupus;” "one man would be a wolf to another;” neither life nor property would be secure; but must fall a prey to the rapine and violence of powerful oppressors. Human laws, and civil magistracy, do something to restrain men, but not everything; notwithstanding these, we see what outrages are committed: and how greater still would be their number, was it not for the interposition of divine providence: and even it is owing to a divine Being that there are human forms of government, and political schemes framed, and laws made for the better regulation of mankind, and these continued; for it is by him "kings reign, and princes decree justice": and particularly, was it not for a divine agency, such is the rage and malice of Satan, and his principalities and powers, whose numbers fill the surrounding air; and who go about our earth like roaring lions, seeking whom they may devour; were they not chained by almighty power, and limited by the providence of God, the whole race of men would be destroyed by them, at least the godly among them. 5. The fifth argument may be taken from the uncommon heroic actions, prodigies, wonders, and miraculous things done in the world; which cannot be thought to be done without a superior and divine influence. Heroic actions, such as that of Abraham, who, with three hundred household servants, pursued after, and engaged with four kings who had beaten five before, and recovered the goods they had taken away: of Shamgar, who fought with and killed six hundred Philistines with an ox goad: and of Samson, who slew a thousand of them with the jawbone of an ass: of Jonathan, and his armour bearer, who attacked and took a garrison of the same people, and threw a whole army of theirs into a panic and confusion; who had been for some time a terror to the whole land of Israel: and of David, a stripling, fighting with and conquering Goliath, a monstrous giant. These are scripture instances; and if scripture is only regarded as a common history; these merit our notice and credit, as any of the relations in profane history; in which are recorded the magnanimous actions of heroes, kings, and generals of armies; their wonderful successes, and amazing conquests; as of the Babylonians, Persians, Grecians, and Romans; which made such strange revolutions and changes in kingdoms and states; all which can never be supposed to be done without superior power, and the overruling, influencing providence of the divine Being; who inspired men to do things beyond their natural skill and courage; prodigies, strange and wonderful events; for which no natural cause can be assigned; such as the strange sights seen in the air, and voices heard in the temple, before the destruction of Jerusalem; with other things, related by Josephus,[13] and confirmed by Tacitus, an heathen historian; to which might be added many others, which histories abound with: but besides these, things really miraculous have been wrought, such as are not only out of, and beyond the course of nature, but contrary to it, and to the settled laws of it; such as the miracles of Moses and the prophets, and of Christ and his apostles; which are recorded in the scriptures; and others in human writings; which are so well attested as oblige us to give credit to them: now, though these were not done to prove a divine Being; which needs them not; yet they necessarily suppose one, by whose power alone they are performed. 6. The sixth argument may be formed from the prophesies of contingent future events, and the exact fulfilment of them. This is what is challenged and required from heathen deities, to prove their right to such a character; as being what none but God can do: "Let them bring forth and show us what shall happen: or declare us things for to come: show the things that are to come hereafter; that we may know that ye are gods:[14] which is what none but the true God can do, and has done; and which being done, proves there is a God, and one that is truly so; instances of which there are many in the sacred writings; prophesies which relate both to particular persons and to whole kingdoms and states; which have had their exact accomplishment: but not to insist on these, since those who are atheistically inclined, disbelieve the divine revelation; let it be observed, that the heathens have had their auguries, soothsayings, divinations, and oracles; by which pretensions have been made to foretell future events. That there is such a thing as divination, is said to be confirmed by the consent of all nations; and is explained of a presension and knowledge of future things: now this being granted, it may be reasoned upon, that if there is a foretelling of future things, which certainly come to pass, there must be a God; since none but an omniscient Being can, with certainty, foretell what shall come to pass, which does not depend on necessary causes; and cannot be foreseen by the quickest sight, and sharpest wit, and sagacity of a creature. 7. The seventh argument may be urged from the fears of men, and the tortures of a guilty conscience, and the dread of a future state. Some are terribly frightened at thunder and lightning, as Caligula, the Roman Emperor, used to be; who, at such times, would hide himself in, or under his bed; and yet this man set himself up for a god. Now these fears and frights are not merely on account of the awful sound of the thunder, and the dreadful flashes of lightning; but because of the divine and tremendous Being who is supposed to send them: the Heathens were sensible that thunder is the voice of God, as the scriptures represent it, and therefore called their Jove, "Jupiter tonans;” "the thundering Jupiter.” Many have been so terrified in their consciences on account of sin, that they could get no rest, nor enjoy peace any where, or by any means: as Cain, under the terrors of an evil conscience, fancied that "everyone that found him would slay him": and those wicked traitors, Catiline and Jugurtha: and those wicked emperors, those monsters in impiety, Tiberius and Nero, and especially the latter, who was so tortured in his conscience, as if he was continually haunted by his mother’s ghost, and by furies with burning torches: and Hobbes, our English atheist, as he was reckoned, was wont to be very uneasy when alone in the dark: and Epicurus, the philosopher, though he taught men to despise death, and out brave it; yet, when he perceived that he himself was about to die, was most terribly frightened; and this has been the case of many others: bold and "strong spirits," as atheistical persons love to be called, have been sometimes found to be very timorous and fearful. And, indeed, this is natural to all men, and which is proof of a superior Being. Thus a wild Greenlander[15] argued, before he had knowledge of the true God: “Man has an intelligent soul, is subject to no creature in the world; and yet man is afraid of the future state: who is it that he is afraid of there? That must be a great Spirit that has dominion over us, O did we but know him! O had we but him for our friend!” Now what do all these fears and tortures of conscience arise from, but from the guilt of sin, and a sense of a divine Being; who is above men, and will call them to an account for their sins, and take vengeance on them? And, indeed, the eternal punishment that will be inflicted on them, will greatly lie in the tortures of their conscience, which is the worm that will never die; and, in a sense of divine wrath, which is that fire that will never be quenched. 8. The eighth and last argument shall be taken from the judgments in the world; not only famine, sword, pestilence, earthquakes, &c, but such that have been inflicted on wicked men, atheistical persons, perjured ones, blasphemers, and the like. Not to take notice of the universal flood, which swept away a world of ungodly men; and of the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah, with other cities of the plain, by fire and brimstone from heaven; which yet are abundantly confirmed by the testimonies of heathen writers; nor of the awful instances in the New Testament, of Herod being smitten by an angel, and eaten of worms, and died, while the people was shouting him as a God, and he assented to their flattery; and of Ananias and Sapphira, being struck dead for lying unto God: besides these, there are innumerable instances of judgments, of the same or a like kind, in all ages and countries, recorded in the histories of them; and in our nation, and in our age, and within our knowledge; and who now can hear or read such awful judgments, and disbelieve the Being of God? [1] So Aristotle says, every problem and proposition is not to be disputed; they that doubt whether God is to be worshipped, and parents loved, are to be punished, and not disputed with. Topic. I. 1. c. 9. [2] Plato observes, that no man that embraced this opinion from his youth, that there is no God, ever continued in it to old age. De Legibus. l. 10. p. 947. [3] See Dr. Watts’s Strength and Weakness of Human Reason, in Vol. II. of his works, p. 262, &c. [4] See Ovington’s Voyage to Surat, p. 489, 498. and Dampier’s Voyages, Vol. I. p. 541. [5] Crantz’s History of Greenland, Vol. 1. b. 3. ch. 5. p. 197, 198. [6] Ut supra. [7] Ut supra. [8] Crantz’s History of Greenland, ut supra. [9] amfoterwv de adunaton eiv apeiron ienai, Aristot. Metaphysic. l. 2. c. 2. [10] Ovid. Metamorph. l. 1. fab. 2. v. 84, 85. Vid. Ciceronem de Natura Deorum, l. 2. Hence the Greeks call man anyrwpov, from his looking upwards, Lactant. de Orig. err. l. 2. c. 1. [11] See an excellent treatise of Dr. Nieuwentyt, called, The Religious Philosopher; in which the Being and Perfections of God are demonstrated from the works of creation, in a very great variety of instances. [12] So Plato proves the Being of God from the soul of man, de Legibus, p. 998. [13] De Bello Jud. l. 6. c. 5. s. 3. [14]Isaiah 41:21-22. [15] Crantz’s History of Greenland, ut supra. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 75: OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES ======================================================================== OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES GILL: As what I shall say hereafter concerning God, his essence, perfections, persons, works, and worship, and everything relative to him, will be taken out of the sacred scriptures, and proved by them; it will be necessary, before I proceed any further, to secure the ground I go upon; and establish the divine authority of them; and show that they are a perfect, plain, and sure rule to go by; and are the standard of faith and practice; and to be read constantly, studied diligently, and consulted with on all occasions. By the Scriptures, I understand the books of the Old and of the New Testament. The books of the Old Testament, are the five books of Moses; Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, sometimes called the Pentateuch; the historical books, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, the two books of Samuel, the two of Kings, the two of Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther; the poetical books, Job, the Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Solomon’s Song; the prophetic books, the larger Prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, with the Lamentations, Ezekiel, and Daniel; the lesser Prophets, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. The books of the New Testament the four Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and the Acts of the Apostles; the fourteen Epistles of the Apostle Paul; one of James; two of Peter; three of John; one of Jude, and the Revelation. These books are commonly called Canonical Scripture, because they have been always received by the church into the canon, or rule of faith. The books of the Old Testament, by the Jewish church; with which entirely agree Josephus’s account of them, and the catalogue of them brought from the East by Melito; and the books of both Testaments agree with the account which Origen gives of them in his time, and which have always been acknowledged by the Christian church; and which testimony of both churches, respecting them, deserves our regard, and tends to corroborate their divine authority. Now these are the books which the apostle calls, "all Scripture," or the whole of Scripture, said by him to be "given by inspiration of God": which include not only the books of the Old Testament, which had been long in being in his time; but the books of the New Testament, which were all of them then written, excepting the book of the Revelation; since these words of his stand in an epistle supposed to be the last that was written by him; and however what is said by him is true of what might be written afterwards, for the uses he mentions, as well as before. From these must be excluded, as un-canonical, the books that bear the name of Apocrypha; which are sometimes bound up with the Bible, to the great scandal and disgrace of it; for though there may be some things in them worthy to be read, as human writings; there is such a mixture of falsehood and impiety, that they cannot by any means be allowed to be placed upon an equality with the sacred scriptures. Likewise all such spurious books falsely ascribed to the apostles, or to some of the first Christians; as, The Gospel of the Infancy of Jesus; The Constitutions of the Apostles; Hermes’s Pastor, &c. which carry in them manifest marks of imposture. To which may be added, all human and unwritten traditions, pleaded for by the papists; and all dreams and visions, and pretended revelations and prophecies, delivered out in later ages, by enthusiastic persons. Blessed be God, we have a more sure word of prophecy to attend unto; concerning which, I shall, 1. Observe the divine authority of the Scriptures, or show, that they are from God, or inspired by him; they lay in a claim to a divine original; and the claim is just, as will be seen. They are called the law, or doctrine of the Lord; the testimony of the Lord; the statutes of the Lord; the commandment of the Lord; the fear of the Lord; and the judgments of the Lord; by the Psalmist David,Psalms 19:7-9. And the prophets frequently introduce their prophecies and discourses, by saying, "the word of the Lord came" to them; and with a, "thus saith the Lord,"Isaiah 1:10;Jeremiah 2:1-2. And our Lord expressly calls the scripture the word of God,John 10:35as it is also called,Hebrews 4:12. And which God "at sundry times, and in divers manners, spake by the prophets;” and by his Son, and his apostles, in later times,Hebrews 1:1-2. And is represented as the oracles of God, and may be safely consulted and depended on; and according to which men are to speak,Romans 3:2;1 Peter 1:11. But before I proceed any further, in the proof of the divinity of the sacred Scriptures, I shall premise the following things. 1a. First, That when we say that the Scriptures are the word of God, or that this word is of God; we do not mean that it was spoken with an articulate voice by him; or written immediately by the finger of God: the law of the Decalogue, or the Ten Commands, indeed, were articulately spoken by him, and the writing of them was the writing of God,Exodus 20:1;Exodus 31:18;Exodus 32:15in which he might set an example to his servants, in later times, to write what might be suggested to them by him; that it might remain to be read: it is enough, that they were bid to write what he delivered to them, as Moses and others were ordered to do,Deuteronomy 31:19;Jeremiah 30:2;Habakkuk 2:2;Revelation 1:11;Revelation 1:19and what was ordered by the Lord to be written, it is the same as if it was written by himself; and especially since the penmen wrote as they were directed, dictated and inspired by him, and "spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost;” for they did not speak and write of their own head, and out of their own brains, nor according to their will, and when and what they pleased; but according to the will of God, and what he suggested to them, and when he inspired them, 2 Peter 1:21. 1 b. Secondly, Not all that is contained in the scriptures is of God. Some are the words of others; yea, some are the speeches of Satan, and very bad ones too; as when he suggested that Job was not a sincere worshipper of God; and requested he might have leave to do an injury both to his property and to his person,Job 1:9-11;Job 2:4-6. So when he tempted our Lord, and moved him to cast himself down from the pinnacle of the temple, and destroy himself; and not succeeding in that, urged him to fall down and worship him,Matthew 4:5;Matthew 4:9. But now the penmen of these books, in which these speeches are, were moved and directed by the Lord to commit them to writing; so that though they themselves are not the word of God; yet that they are written, and are on record, is of God; and which was directed to, and done, to show the malice, pride, blasphemy, and impiety, of that wicked spirit. There are also speeches of bad men, as of Cain, Pharaoh, and others, ordered to be written, to discover the more the corruption of human nature: and even of good men, as of Moses, David, Jonah, and particularly the friends of Job, and their long discourses, in which they said not that which was right of God, as Job did; and he himself did not say in every speech of his what was right of God; though he said more, and what was more correct, than they did; and yet these speeches are on record, by divine order, to prove matters of fact, to show the weaknesses and frailties of the best of men. Some of the writers of thee scriptures, as Moses, and the historical ones, being eye and ear witnesses of many things they wrote, could have written them of their own knowledge, and out of their own memories; and others they might take out of diaries, annals, and journals, of their own and former times; yet in all they wrote, they were under the impulse and direction of God; what to leave, and what to take and insert into their writings, and transmit to posterity. So that all they wrote may be truly said to be by divine authority. In the writings and discourses of the apostle Paul, are several quotations out of heathen authors; one out of Aratus, when he was discoursing before the wise men at Athens; "as certain, says he, of your own poets have said, for we are also his offspring,"Acts 17:28. Another out of Menander; "Evil communications corrupt good manners,"1 Corinthians 15:33. And another out of Epimenides, a poet of Crete, a testimony of his against the Cretians, who said they were, "always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies;” which were produced "ad hominum," for greater conviction; and which he was directed to quote and write in his epistles and discourses, for that reason. So that though the words are not of God, yet that they were quoted and written, was of God. 1c. Thirdly, Let it be observed, that not the matter of the Scriptures only, but the very words in which they are written are of God. Some who are not for organic inspiration, as they call it, think that the sacred writers were only furnished of God with matter, and had general ideas of things given them, and were left to clothe them with their own words, and to use their own style; which they suppose accounts for the difference of style to be observed in them: but if this was the case, as it sometimes is with men, that they have clear and satisfactory ideas of things in their own minds, and yet are at a loss for proper words to express and convey the sense of them to others; so it might be with the sacred writers, if words were not suggested to them, as well as matter; and then we should be left at an uncertainty about the real sense of the Holy Spirit, if not led into a wrong one; it seems, therefore, most agreeable, that words also, as well as matter, were given by divine inspiration: and as for difference of style, as it was easy with God to direct to the use of proper words, so he could accommodate himself to the style such persons were wont to use, and which was natural to them, and agreeable to their genius and circumstances; and this may be confirmed from the testimonies of the writers themselves: says David, one of the writers of the Old Testament, "The Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and his word was in my tongue,"2 Samuel 23:2. And the apostle Paul speaks of himself, and other inspired apostles of the New Testament, he says, "Which things we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth,"1 Corinthians 2:13and it is "the writing," or the word of God as written, that is, "by inspiration of God,"2 Timothy 3:16. But then, 1d. Fourthly, This is to be understood of the Scriptures, as in the original languages in which they were written, and not of translations; unless it could be thought, that the translators of the Bible into each of the languages of the nations into which it has been translated, were under the divine inspiration also in translating, and were directed of God to the use of words they have rendered the original by; but this is not reasonable to suppose. The books of the Old Testament were written chiefly in the Hebrew language, unless some few passages in Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezra, and Esther, in the Chaldee language; and the New Testament in Greek: in which languages they can only be reckoned canonical and authentic; for this is like the charters and diplomas of princes; the wills or testaments of men; or any deeds made by them; only the original exemplar is authentic; and not translations, and transcriptions, and copies of them, though ever so perfect: and to the Bible, in its original languages, is every translation to be brought, and by it to be examined, tried and judged, and to be corrected and amended: and if this was not the case, we should have no certain and infallible rule to go by; for it must be either all the translations together, or some one of them; not all of them, because they agree not in all things: not one; for then the contest would be between one nation and another which it should be, whether English, Dutch, French, &c. and could one be agreed upon, it could not be read and understood by all: so the papists, they plead for their Vulgate Latin version; which has been decreed authentic by the council of Trent; though it abounds with innumerable errors and mistakes; nay, so far do they carry this affair, that they even assert that the Scriptures, in their originals, ought to submit to, and be corrected by their version; which is absurd and ridiculous. Let not now any be uneasy in their minds about translations on this account, because they are not upon an equality with the original text, and especially about our own; for as it has been the will of God, and appears absolutely necessary that so it should be, that the Bible should be translated into different languages, that all may read it, and some particularly may receive benefit by it; he has taken care, in his providence, to raise up men capable of such a performance, in various nations, and particularly in ours; for whenever a set of men have been engaged in this work, as were in our nation, men well skilled in the languages, and partakers of the grace of God; of sound principles, and of integrity and faithfulness, having the fear of God before their eyes; they have never failed of producing a translation worthy of acceptation; and in which, though they have mistook some words and phrases, and erred in some lesser and lighter matters; yet not so as to affect any momentous article of faith or practice; and therefore such translations as ours may be regarded as the rule of faith. And if any scruple should remain on the minds of any on this account, it will be sufficient to remove it, when it is observed, that the Scriptures, in our English translation, have been blessed of God, either by reading them in it, or by explaining them according to it, for the conversion, comfort, and edification of thousands and thousands. And the same may be said of all others, so far as they agree with the original, that they are the rule of faith and practice, and alike useful. ========================================================== Here I cannot but observe the amazing ignorance and stupidity of some persons, who take it into their heads to decry learning and learned men; for what would they have done for a Bible, had it not been for them as instruments? and if they had it, so as to have been capable of reading it, God must have wrought a miracle for them; and continued that miracle in every nation, in every age, and to every individual; I mean the gift of tongues, in a supernatural way, as was bestowed upon the apostles on the day of Pentecost; which there is no reason in the world ever to have expected. Bless God, therefore, and be thankful that God has, in his providence, raised up such men to translate the Bible into the mother tongue of every nation, and particularly into ours; and that he still continues to raise up such who are able to defend the translation made, against erroneous persons, and enemies of the truth; and to correct and amend it in lesser matters, in which it may have failed, and clear and illustrate it by their learned notes upon it. Having premised these things, I now proceed to prove the claim of the Scriptures to a divine authority, which may be evinced from the following things. 1. First, From the subject matter of them. 1a. In general there is nothing in them unworthy of God; nothing contrary to his truth and faithfulness, to his purity and holiness, to his wisdom and goodness, or to any of the perfections of his nature; there is no falsehood nor contradiction in them; they may with great propriety be called, as they are, "The Scriptures of truth," and the "Word of truth,"Daniel 10:21;Ephesians 1:13. There is nothing impious or impure, absurd or ridiculous in them; as in the Al-koran of Mahomet; which is stuffed with impurities and impieties, as well as with things foolish and absurd: or as in the Pagan treatises of their gods; which abound with tales of their murders, adulteries, and thefts; and the impure rites and ceremonies, and inhuman sacrifices used in the worship of them. But, 1b. The things contained in the Scriptures are pure and holy; the Holy Spirit dictated them, holy men spoke and wrote them, and they are justly called "holy Scriptures,"Romans 1:2and plainly show they came from the holy God. The doctrines of them are holy; they are doctrines according to godliness, and tend to promote it; they teach and influence men to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly: they are indeed, by some ignorant persons, charged with licentiousness; but the charge, as it is false, it is easily removed, by observing the nature of the doctrines, and the effects of them; the precepts the Scriptures enjoin, and the worship they require, are strictly holy; the legal part of them is "holy, just, and good,"Romans 7:12. It is holy in its own nature, and requires nothing but what is for the good of men, what is but a reasonable service to God, and what is just between man and man; it forbids whatever is evil, strikes at all sorts of sins, and sets them in a just light, exposes and condemns them. And hence it is that there is in natural men, whose carnal minds are enmity to God, such a backwardness, yea, an aversion to reading the Scriptures; because the doctrines and precepts of them are so pure and holy; they choose to read an idle romance, an impure novel, or any profane writings and histories, rather than the Bible; and from whence may be drawn no inconsiderable argument in favour of their being of God. The style of the Scriptures is pure and holy, chaste and clean, free from all levity and obscenity, and from everything that might be offensive to the ear of the chaste and pious. And there are remarkable instances in the marginal readings of some passages in the Hebrew text, to prevent this; and care should be taken in all translations, to make use of language neat and clean; and keep up, as much as may be, to the original purity of the Scriptures. 1c. There are some things recorded in the Scriptures, which could never have been known but by revelation from God himself; as particularly, with respect to the creation of the world, and the original of mankind; that the world was made out of nothing; when made, how, and in what form and order, and how long it was in making; who were the first parents of mankind, when, how, and of what made; hence, without this revelation, men have run into strange, absurd, and extravagant notions about these things. Yea, the Scriptures inform us what was done in eternity, which none but God himself could reveal, and make known to men; as the choice of men in Christ to everlasting salvation, which was from the beginning; not of their being, nor of their conversion, nor of time; but before time, or they or the earth were, even "before the foundation of the world,"Ephesians 1:4. And also the council held between the divine Persons, concerning the salvation of man; for as there was a consultation held about making him, so about saving him; which may he called the "council of peace,"Zechariah 6:13. When "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself," and the scheme of peace and reconciliation, and plan of salvation, were formed and agreed upon: so the covenant of grace made with Christ from eternity, on the behalf of the chosen ones; whose "goings forth in it were of old, from everlasting;” covenanting with his Father for them, and agreeing to be their Surety and Saviour; to become incarnate, and obey and suffer for them, and so work out the salvation of them; representing their persons and taking the charge and care of them, and of all blessings of grace given them, and of all promises made to them, in him, before the world began; in which covenant he was set up as Mediator, "from everlasting, or ever the earth was,"Proverbs 8:22-23;Micah 5:2;2 Timothy 1:9;Ephesians 1:3-4. All which could never have been known unless God himself had revealed them. 1d. There are some things recorded in the Scriptures as to the future, which God only could foreknow would be, and foretell with certainty that they should be; and which have accordingly come to pass, and proves the revelation to be of God. Some of them relate to particular persons, and contingent events; as Josiah, who was prophesied of by name, as to be born to the house of David, three or four hundred years before his birth, and what he should do; "offer up the idolatrous priests on Jeroboam’s altar, and burn mens’ bones on it;” all which exactly came to pass, see1 Kings 13:2compared with2 Kings 23:17;2 Kings 23:20. Cyrus, king of Persia, also was prophesied of by name, more than two hundred years before his birth, and what he should do; what conquests he should make, what immense riches he should possess; and that he should let the captive Jews go free, without price or reward, and give orders for the rebuilding their temple; all which was punctually fulfilled,Isaiah 44:28;Isaiah 45:1-3;Isaiah 45:13seeEzra 1:1-4. Others relate to kingdoms and states, and what should befall them; as the Egyptians, Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Assyrians, Babylonians, and others; of whose destruction Isaiah and Jeremiah prophesied, and who now are no more, have not so much as a name on earth: and particularly many things are foretold concerning the Jews; as their descent into Egypt, abode and bondage there, and coming from thence with great riches; which was made known to their great ancestor Abraham, before they were,Genesis 15:14see ew-41 their captivity in Babylon, and return from thence after seventy years,Jeremiah 29:10-11seeDaniel 9:2and all their miseries and afflictions in their last destruction, and present state, are prophetically described inDeuteronomy 28:1-68and their exact case, for about nineteen hundred years, is expressed in a few words; as well as their future conversion is prophesied of,Hosea 3:4-5. But especially the prophecies concerning Christ, are worthy of notice; his incarnation and birth of a virgin; the place where he should be born; of what nation, tribe, and family; his sufferings and death, his burial, resurrection, ascension to heaven, and session at the right hand of God: all which are plainly pointed out in prophecy; and which, with many other things relating to him, have had their exact accomplishment in him. To which might be added, predictions of the calling of the Gentiles, by many of the prophets; and the abolition of paganism in the Roman empire; the rise, power, and ruin of antichrist; which are particularly spoken of in the book of the Revelation; great part of which prophetic book has been already fulfilled. 1e. There are some things in the Scriptures, which, though not contrary to reason, yet are above the capacity of men ever to have made a discovery of; as the Trinity of persons in the Godhead; whose distinct mode of subsisting is mysterious to us; the eternal, generation of the Son of God, which is ineffable by us; his incarnation and birth of a virgin, under the power of the Holy Ghost, which is wonderful and amazing; the union of the human nature to his divine person; which is, "without controversy, the great mystery of godliness": the regeneration of men by the Spirit of God, and the manner of his operation on the souls of men; which, on hearing of, made a master of Israel say, "How can these things be?" and the resurrection of the same body at the last day, reckoned by the Gentiles incredible; and which things, though revealed, are not to be accounted for upon the principles of nature and reason. 1f. The things contained in the Scriptures, whether doctrines or facts, are harmonious; the doctrines, though delivered at sundry times, and in divers manners, are all of a piece; no yea and nay, no discord and disagreement among them; the two Testaments "are like two young roes that are twins;” to which some think they are compared inSong of Solomon 4:5;Song of Solomon 7:3and to the Cherubim over the mercy seat, which were of one beaten piece, were exactly alike, and looked to one another, and both to the mercy seat; a type of Christ, who is the foundation of the apostles and prophets, in which they unite, and both agree to lay; the apostle Paul said none other things than what Moses and the prophets did say should be. And as to historical facts, what seeming contradictions may be observed in any of them, are easily reconciled, with a little care, diligence, and study; and some of these arise from the carelessness of transcribers putting one word or letter for another; and even these instances are but few, and not very material; and which never affect any article of faith or practice: such care has divine providence taken of these peculiar and important writings, which with the harmony of them show them to be of God. 2. Secondly, The style and manner in which the Scriptures are written, is a further evidence of their divine original; the majesty in which they appear, the authoritative manner in which they are delivered; not asking, but demanding, attention and assent unto them; and which commands reverence and acceptance of them; the figures used to engage hereunto are inimitable by creatures; and such as would be daring and presumptuous for any but God to use, with whom is terrible majesty; such as, "Hear, O heavens," and "I will speak,"Deuteronomy 32:1;Isaiah 1:2the sublimity of the style is such as exceeds all other writings: Longinus, an heathen orator, who wrote "upon the Sublime," admired some passages in the writings of Moses, particularlyGenesis 1:1the book of Psalms is full of bright figures and inimitable language, particularly seePsalms 18:7-15;Psalms 29:3-10;Psalms 113:3-8;Psalms 139:7-12. The prophecies of Isaiah are fraught with a rich treasure of divine elocution, which surpasses all that is to be met with in the writings of men; and it is remarkable, that in some of the inspired writers, who have been bred up in a rustic manner, are found some of the most grand images, and lively picturesque, and highest flights of language, as in Amos the herdman,Amos 4:13;Amos 9:2;Amos 6:3. Thirdly, Another argument for the divine authority of the Scriptures may be taken from the penmen and writers of them. 3a. Many of these were men of no education, in a low station of life, and were taken from the flock, or from the herd, or from their nets, or other mean employments; and what they wrote, both as to matter and manner, were above and beyond their ordinary capacities, and therefore must be of God; what they wrote could not be of themselves; but they "spake and wrote as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” 3b. They lived in different times and places, and were of different interests and capacities, and in different conditions and circumstances; and yet they were all of the same sentiment, they speak and write the same things, deliver out the same truths and doctrines, and enjoin the same moral duties of religion, and the same positive precepts, according to the different dispensations under which they were; and this shows that they were dictated, and influenced in all, by the same Spirit of God. 3c. They were holy and good men, partakers of the grace of God; and therefore could never give into an imposture, nor deliver out a known lie, nor obtrude a falsehood upon the world. 3d. They appear to be plain, honest, and faithful men; they conceal not their own failings and infirmities; so Moses published his own weaknesses and mistakes, and spared not the blemishes of his family; not of his more remote ancestor Levi, in the case of the Shechemites; nor of his immediate parents, their illegal marriage; nor of his favourite people the Israelites, their rebellion and obstinacy, and idolatry: and the same may be observed of other inspired writers. 3e. They were disinterested men; they sought not popular applause, nor worldly wealth, nor to aggrandize themselves and their families. Moses, when it was offered to him, by the Lord, to make of him a great nation, and cut off the people of Israel for their sins, refused it more than once; preferring the public good of that people to his own advantage; and though he was king in Jeshurun, he was not careful to have any of his posterity to succeed him in his office; and though the priesthood was conferred on Aaron his brother, and his sons, yet no other provision was made for his own family, than to attend the lower services of the tabernacle in common with the rest of his tribe: and of this disposition were the apostles of Christ, who left all, and followed him; and sought not the wealth of men, nor honour from them; but, on the contrary, exposed themselves to reproach, poverty, vexation, and trouble; yea, to persecution, and death itself; which they would never have done, had they not been fully satisfied of their mission of God, and of their message from him; and therefore could not be deterred from speaking and writing in his name, by the terrors and menaces of men, and by all the afflictions, bonds, and persecution, and death in every shape, which awaited them. In short, the writers of the Scriptures seem to be men that neither could be imposed upon themselves, nor sought to impose on others; nor would it have been easy, had they been bad men, to have succeeded, had they attempted it. 4. Fourthly, Another argument may be drawn from the many wonderful effects the sacred writings, attended with a divine power and influence, have had upon the hearts and lives of men. Many have been converted from error, superstition, and idolatry, and from a vicious course of life, to embrace and profess the truth, and to live a holy life and conversation, upon reading the Scriptures, or hearing them explained; and even some of great natural parts and learning, who could not easily be prevailed upon to relinquish former tenets and practices, had they not had full and clear conviction of them. This "Word of God has been quick and powerful, sharper than a twoedged sword;” it has pierced and penetrated into the recesses of the heart, and laid open the secrets of it; it has been the means of enlightening the mind, quickening the soul, regenerating and sanctifying the heart, and of producing faith, and every other, grace in it, and of strengthening, comforting, and reviving the spirits of the people of God when in distress, by afflictions, or Satan’s temptations; so that every good man has a testimony within himself of its divine authority; see1 John 5:9-10. 5. Fifthly, The testimony bore to the Scriptures by miracles, abundantly confirm the genuineness of them, and that they are of God; such as were done by Moses, and the prophets of the Old Testament, and by the apostles of the New; even such as are above, and contrary to the laws of nature, and are beyond the power of a creature to perform, and which only Omnipotence itself could work: now these God would never do to establish the character of impostors, or to confirm a lie; which yet he has done to witness the truth of divine revelation; seeMark 16:20;Hebrews 2:3-18;Hebrews 3:1-19;Hebrews 4:1-6. Sixthly, The hatred and opposition of men, and the enmity of devils, to them, afford no inconsiderable argument in favour of the divinity of them; for were they of men, they would not have such a disgust at them, and disapprobation of them, and make such opposition to them: by this are to be known the Spirit of truth, and the spirit of error; what is of the world, and merely human, is approved by the men of the world; but what is of God is rejected,1 John 4:5-6and if these writings were of Satan, and the work of forgery, imposture, and deceit, that wicked spirit would never have shown such despite unto them, nor have taken such pains to tempt men, and prevail upon them not to read them; and to persuade others to use their utmost efforts to corrupt or destroy them, and root them out of the world. 7. Seventhly, The awful judgments of God on such who have despised them, and have endeavoured to destroy them, are no mean evidence that they are of God; who hereby has shown his resentment of such conduct and behaviour; which might be illustrated by the instances of Antiochus Epiphanes, king of Syria, who cut to pieces the copies of the book of the law wherever he found them, and burnt them, and put to death all with whom they were, “Now the five and twentieth day of the month they did sacrifice upon the idol altar, which was upon the altar of God. 60 At which time according to the commandment they put to death certain women, that had caused their children to be circumcised.” (1Ma 1:1-64) this man died of a violent disorder in his bowels, his body was covered with worms, his flesh flaked off, and was attended with an intolerable stench, “But the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, smote him with an incurable and invisible plague: or as soon as he had spoken these words, a pain of the bowels that was remediless came upon him, and sore torments of the inner parts;”(2Ma 9:5) “So that the worms rose up out of the body of this wicked man, and whiles he lived in sorrow and pain, his flesh fell away, and the filthiness of his smell was noisome to all his army.” (2Ma 9:9) and of Dioclesian, the Roman emperor, who by an edict ordered all the sacred books to be burnt, that, if possible, he might root Christianity out of the world; and once fancied that he had done it; but when he found he had not accomplished his design, through madness and despair, in the height of his imperial glory, abdicated the empire, and retired to a private life, and at last poisoned himself: the one showed a despite to the books of the Old Testament, the other more especially to the books of the New Testament; and both were highly resented by the divine Being, who hereby showed himself the author of both. Many more instances might be produced, but these may suffice. 8. Eighthly, The antiquity and continuance of these writings may be improved into an argument in favour of them: Tertullian says, "That which is most ancient is most true." Men from the beginning had knowledge of God, and of the way of salvation, and in what manner God was to be worshipped; which could not be without a revelation; though for some time it was not delivered in writing. The antediluvian patriarchs had it, and so the postdiluvian ones, to the times of Moses; whose writings are the first, and are more ancient than any profane writings, by many hundreds of years; the most early of that sort extant, are the poems of Homer and Hesiod, who flourished about the times of Isaiah; and the divine writings have been preserved notwithstanding the malice of men and devils, some of them some thousands of years, when other writings are lost and perished. To which may be added, that the Scriptures receive no small evidence of the authority of them, from the testimonies of many heathen writers agreeing with them, with respect to the chronology, geography, and history of them; as concerning the creation of the world, Noah’s flood, the tower of Babel, the confusion of languages, the peopling the earth by the sons of Noah, the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah; with many other things respecting the people of Israel, their origin, laws, &c.[1] I go on to consider, ================================================================= 2. The "Perfection" of the Scriptures. When we assert the perfection of them, we do not mean that they contain a perfect account of all that God has done from the beginning of time, in the dispensations of his providence in the world, and in the distributions of his grace to the sons of men; though they relate much of the state and condition of the church of God in all ages, and as it will be to the end of time. Nor that they contain all the discourses, exhortations, admonitions, cautions, and counsels of the prophets, delivered to the people of Israel, in each of the ages of time: nor all the sermons of the apostles, which they preached to the Jews, and among the Gentiles: nor are all that were said and done by our Lord Jesus Christ recorded in them; there were many signs done by him which are not written, which if they should be written, as the evangelist observes, "even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written,"John 20:30;John 21:25. But then they relate all things necessary to salvation, everything that ought to be believed and done; and are a complete, perfect standard of faith and practice: which may be proved, 2a. First, From the Author of them, who is God; they are the word of God, and are "given by inspiration of God;" as is asserted in them, and has been clearly shown. Now since God is the author of them, who is a perfect Being, in whom is "no darkness at all;” not of ignorance, error, and imperfection; they coming from him, must be free from everything of that kind; "he is a rock," and "his work is perfect;” as his works of creation, providence, and redemption; so this work of the Scriptures. 2b. Secondly, From the name they go by, a "Testament": we commonly divide the Scriptures into the Books of the Old Testament, and the Books of the New Testament; and that there was a First and a Second Testament, an Old and a New one, is plainly intimated,Hebrews 9:15. Now a man’s testament, or will, contains the whole of his will and pleasure, concerning the disposition of his estate to whomsoever he pleases, or it is not properly his will and testament; a man’s testament, "if it be confirmed," as the apostle observes, "no man disannulleth or addeth thereto,"Galatians 3:15. Such the Scriptures are; they contain the whole will of God, about the disposition of the blessings of grace, and of the heavenly inheritance, to those who are appointed by him heirs; and being ratified and confirmed by the blood of Christ, are so sure and firm as not to be disannulled, and so perfect that nothing can be added thereunto. 2c. Thirdly, From the epithet of "perfect" being expressly given unto them; "the law of the Lord is perfect,"Psalms 19:7which is to be understood, not of the Decalogue, or Ten Commands, but of the doctrine of the Lord, as the phrase signifies; even what was delivered in the sacred writings extant in the times of David; and if it was perfect then as to the substance of it, then much more must it appear so by the accession of the prophets, and the books of the New Testament since, in which there are plainer and clearer discoveries of the mind and will of God. 2d. Fourthly, From the essential parts of them, the Law and Gospel; to which two heads the substance of them may be reduced: the Law is a perfect rule of duty; it contains what is the "good, acceptable, and perfect will of God,"Romans 12:2. What he would have done, or not done; the whole duty of man, both towards God and man; all is comprehended in these two commands, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, &c. and thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself," The Gospel is the "perfect law," or doctrine "of liberty," the apostle James speaks of,James 1:25which proclaims the glorious liberty of the children of God by Christ; and it is perfect, it treats of perfect things; of perfect justification by Christ; of full pardon of sin through his blood, and complete salvation in him; and contains a perfect plan of truth; every truth, "as it is in Jesus;” all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge: it is the whole, or all the counsel of God, concerning the spiritual and eternal salvation of men, Acts 20:27. 2 e. Fifthly, From the integral parts of them; the Scriptures, containing all the books that were written by divine inspiration. The books of the Old Testament were complete and perfect in the times of Christ; not one was wanting, nor any mutilated and corrupted. The Jews, he says, "have Moses and the prophets;” and he himself, "beginning at Moses and all the prophets, expounded in all the scriptures, the things concerning himself,"Luke 16:31;Luke 24:27. So that they had not only the five books of Moses, but "all" the prophets, and "all" the scriptures of the Old Testament: nay, he affirms, that "till heaven and earth pass, one jot, or one tittle, shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled,"Matthew 5:18. The Jews had the oracles of God committed to their care,Romans 3:2and they have been faithful keepers of them, even some of them to superstition and scrupulous nicety, numbering not only the books and sections, but also the verses, and even the words and letters: and there never was nor now is, any reason to be given why they had corrupted, or would corrupt, any part of the Old Testament; on the coming of Christ it was not their interest to do it; and even before that it was translated into the Greek tongue, by which they would have been detected; and after the coming of Christ they could not do it if they would, copies of it being in the hands of Christians; who were able to correct what they should corrupt, had they done it: and whatever attempts may have been made by any under the Christian name, to corrupt some copies of either Testament, they may be, and have been detected; or whatever mistakes may be made, through the carelessness of transcribers of copies, they are to be corrected by other copies, which God, in his providence, has preserved; and, as it seems, for such purposes: so that we have a perfect canon, or rule of faith and practice. It is objected to the perfection of the books of the Old Testament, that the books of Nathan, Gad, and Iddo, the prophets mentioned therein, are lost; but then it should be proved that these were inspired writings, and, indeed, that they are lost; they may be the same, as some think, with the books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles. And it is also objected to those of the New Testament, that there was an epistle from Laodicea,Colossians 4:16and another to the Corinthians, distinct from those we have,1 Corinthians 5:9neither of them now extant: as to the first, that is not an epistle "to" Laodicea, but "from" it; and may refer to one of the epistles, we have, written by the apostle Paul, when at that place: and as to that to the Corinthians, it does not appear to be another and distinct, but the same he was then writing: but admitting, for argument sake, though it is not to be granted, that some book, or part of the inspired writings is lost; let it be proved, if it can, that any essential article of faith is lost with it; or that there is any such article of faith wanting in the books we have: if this cannot be proved, then, notwithstanding the pretended defect, we have still a perfect rule of faith; which is what is contended for. 2f. Sixthly, This may be further evinced from the charge that is given, "not to add unto, nor diminish from, any part of the sacred writings, law or gospel": this is strictly enjoined the Israelites to observe, with respect to the law, and the commandments of it, given them by Moses,Deuteronomy 4:2;Deuteronomy 12:32. And with respect to the Gospel, the apostle Paul says, "Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you, than that which we have preached unto you-and ye have received, let him be accursed,"Galatians 1:8-9. And the wise man, or Agur, says of the Scriptures in his time, "Every word of God is pure-add thou not unto his words.” And the apostle and evangelist John, closes the canon of the Scripture with these remarkable words, "If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book; and if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life," &c.Revelation 22:18-19. Now if there is nothing superfluous in the Scriptures, to be taken from them; and nothing defective in them, which requires any addition to them; then they must be perfect. 2g. Seventhly, This may be argued from the sufficiency of them to answer the ends and purposes for which they are written; as, "for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness,"2 Timothy 3:16they are sufficiently profitable and useful "for doctrine;” there is no spiritual truth, nor evangelical doctrine, but what they contain; they are called "the Scriptures of truth;” not only because they come from the God of truth, and whatsoever is in them is truth; but they contain "all truth;” which the Spirit of God, the dictator of them, guides into, and that by means of them; (seeDaniel 10:21;John 16:13) every doctrine is to be confirmed and established by them: our Lord proved the things concerning himself, his person, office, sufferings, and death, by them,Luke 24:25-27the apostle Paul "reasoned out of the Scriptures," in confirmation and defence of the doctrines he taught; "opening and alleging," that is, from the Scriptures, "that Christ must needs have suffered and risen again from the dead; and that this Jesus is Christ," whom he preached; and, indeed, he said "none other things than what Moses and the prophets did say" should be, and which he was able to prove from thence,Acts 17:2-3;Acts 26:22-23. Every doctrine proposed by men, to the assent of others, is not immediately to be credited; but to be tried and proved, and judged of by the holy Scriptures, which are to be searched, as they were by the Bereans, to see whether those things be so or not; and being found agreeable to them, they are to be believed, and held fast; for "to the law and to the testimony; if men speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.”Isaiah 8:20. See1 John 4:1;1 Thessalonians 5:21;Acts 17:11and these are serviceable "for reproof," for the detection, confutation, and conviction of error: thus Christ confuted the error of the Sadducees by the Scriptures,Matthew 22:29-30and the apostles, with these, warred a good warfare; these were their spiritual weapons, the word of God is the sword of the Spirit, they used in fighting the good fight of faith, against false teachers; by sound doctrine, fetched from thence, they were able to convince and stop the mouths of gainsayers: there never was an error, or heresy, broached in the world yet, but what has been confuted by the Scriptures; and it is not possible that anyone can arise in opposition to "the faith once delivered," but what may receive its refutation from them. They are also of use "for correction" of every sin, internal or external; of heart, lip, and life, secret or open; sins of omission or commission; all are forbidden, reproved, and condemned by the law of God; which says, "Thou shalt not covet," nor do this, and that, and the other iniquity,Romans 7:7;Romans 13:9. And the Gospel agrees with the law herein; and what is contrary to the law, is to sound doctrine; the Gospel of the grace of God, teaches to "deny ungodliness and worldly lusts,"1 Timothy 1:9-11;Titus 2:11-12. There is not a sin that can be named, but what the Scriptures inveigh against, forbid, and correct. And another end answered by them is, that they are "for instruction in righteousness," in every moral duty of religion, and in every positive precept of God, according to the different dispensations; they instruct in everything of a moral or positive nature, and direct to observe all that is commanded of God and Christ; and now writings by which all such ends are answered, must needs be perfect and complete. The Scriptures are sufficient to "make a man of God perfect, and thoroughly furnish him unto all good works,"2 Timothy 3:17. Not a private good man only, but one in a public character and office; a prophet, a preacher, and minster of the word; in which sense the phrase is used both in the Old and New Testament,1 Samuel 9:6-7;1 Timothy 6:11. An acquaintance with these fits him for the work of the ministry, and furnishes him with sound doctrine, to deliver out to the edification of others; by means of these he becomes "a scribe well instructed in the kingdom of God; and to be able to bring out of his treasure things new and old": and if they are able to make such a man perfect, they must be perfect themselves. Another use of the Scriptures, and an end to be, and which is, answered by them, is not only the learning and instruction of private men, as well as those of a public character; but to make them patient under afflictions, and comfort them in them, and give hope of deliverance out of them, as well as of eternal salvation hereafter; for the apostle says, "Whatsoever things were written aforetime, were written for our learning; that we, through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope,"Romans 15:4. Nor is there any afflictive circumstance a good man can come into, but there is a promise in the word of God suitable to him in it; and which may be a means of enlivening, cheering, and comforting him,Psalms 119:49-50yea, the Scriptures are written to promote and increase the spiritual joy of God’s people, and that that joy might be full, and therefore must be full and perfect themselves,1 John 1:3-10;1 John 2:1-29;1 John 3:1-24;1 John 4:1-2h. Eightly, The Scriptures are able to make a man "wise unto salvation,"2 Timothy 3:15. One part of them being the gospel of salvation; which points out to men the way of salvation; gives an account of Christ, the author of it, and of the salvation itself wrought out by him; and describes the persons that have an interest in it, and shall enjoy it; and who, through the grace of God, are made wise enough to see their need of it, seek after it, and embrace it; for it is not barely by reading the word they become so wise; but through the Spirit of wisdom and revelation opening their eyes to see what is contained in it, and applying it to them; whereby the gospel becomes "the power of God unto salvation" to them. In short the Scriptures contain all things in them necessary to be believed, unto salvation; and, indeed, they are written for this end, that men "might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing, they might have life through his name,"John 20:31and hereby, under a divine influence and blessing, they come to have the knowledge of God and Christ, and of God in Christ; which is the beginning, earnest, and pledge of eternal life,John 17:3. I proceed, 3. To prove the "perspicuity" of the Scriptures; for since they are a rule of faith and practice, they should be clear and plain, as they are: not that they are all equally clear and plain; some parts of them, and some things in them, are dark and obscure; but then by comparing spiritual things with spiritual, or those more dark passages with those that are clearer, they may be plainly understood. Moreover, the light of the Scriptures has been a growing one; it was but dim under the dispensation of the law of Moses; it became more clear through the writings of the prophets; but most clear under the gospel dispensation; where, "as in a glass, we behold, with open face, the glory of the Lord;” and of divine things: though in the gospel dispensation, and in such clear writings and epistles as those of the apostle Paul, who used "great plainness of speech," there are some things "hard to be understood," see2 Corinthians 3:12-18;2 Peter 3:16. And this is so ordered on purpose to remove all contempt and loathing of the Scriptures, and to humble the arrogance and pride of men, to engage reverence of them, and to excite attention to them, and to put men on searching them with close study, application, and prayer. Nor is every doctrine of the Scriptures expressed in so many words; as the doctrine of the Trinity of persons in the Godhead; the eternal generation of the Son of God, his incarnation and satisfaction, &c. but then the things themselves signified by them are clear and plain; and there are terms and phrases answerable to them; or they are to be deduced from thence by just and necessary consequences. Nor are the Scriptures clear and plain to everyone that reads them; they are a sealed book, which neither learned nor unlearned men can understand and interpret without the Spirit of God, the dictator of them; the natural man, by the mere light of nature, and dint of reason, though he may understand the grammatical sense of words; yet he does not understand the meaning of them, at least in a spiritual way, with application to himself; and so far as he has any notion of them, he has a disgust and contempt of them, for the most part; yet they are so fully expressed and clearly revealed, that if the gospel is hid to any, it is to those that perish, who are left to the native darkness of their minds, and to be "blinded by the god of this world," that the glorious light of the gospel might not shine into them, seeIsaiah 29:11-12;1 Corinthians 2:14;2 Corinthians 4:3-4. But then the Scriptures are plain to them that have a spiritual understanding; who are spiritual men, and judge all things; "to whom it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom.” What are more clear and plain than the precepts of the law, commanding one thing to be done, and forbidding the doing of another? in what plain language are they expressed, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me, &c.," "Thou shalt not kill, &c.?" And how clearly is asserted the great and fundamental doctrine of the gospel, "That salvation is alone by Jesus Christ, through the free grace of God; and not of the works of men?" and so everything necessary of belief unto salvation. In short, as Gregory says, they are like a full and deep river, in which the lamb may walk, and the elephant swim, in different places. The perspicuity of the Scriptures may be argued, 3a. From the author of them, God, as has been proved, who is "the Father of lights;” and therefore what comes from him must be light and clear, in whom is "no darkness at all.” 3b. From the several parts of them, and what they are compared unto. The law, or legal part of them, is represented by things which are light, and give it; "The commandment is a lamp, and the law is light.”Proverbs 6:23. The commandments of the law, as before observed, are clearly expressed; and are a plain direction to men what to do, or shun; the same David says of the word of the Lord in general, and more explicitly, "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path,"Psalms 119:105. directing how to walk and act. The evangelical part of the Scriptures, or the gospel, is compared to a "glass," in which may be clearly beheld, "the glory of the Lord;” of his person, offices, grace, and righteousness; and everyone of the glorious truths and doctrines of it,2 Corinthians 3:18. Hence the ministers of the word are called the light of the world; because by opening and explaining the Scriptures, they are instruments of enlightening men into the will of God, and the mysteries of his grace, Matthew 5:14. 3 c. From other testimonies of Scripture, particularly fromDeuteronomy 30:11-14. "For this commandment, which I command thee this day, is not hidden from thee; neither is it far off-it is not in heaven-neither is it beyond the sea-but the word is very nigh unto thee; in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.” And if it is not hidden, nor at a distance and inaccessible, then it must be open, and the knowledge of it to be come at; and this is to be understood, not only of the law of Moses, but more especially of the gospel, the word of faith, preached by the apostles, as the apostle Paul interprets it,Romans 10:6-8. And the whole of Scripture is the "sure word of prophecy; whereunto men do well to take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place": and so the means of dispelling the darkness of ignorance, error, and unbelief; and of giving light all around, both with respect to doctrine and duty, see 2 Peter 1:19. 3 d. From exhortations to all sorts of people to read them, and who are commended for so doing. Not only the kings of Israel were to read the law of the Lord, but all that people in general; and there was a certain time of the year for them to assemble together to hear it read, men, women, children, and strangers; but if it was not plain and clear, and easy to be understood, it would have been to no purpose for them to attend it.Deuteronomy 17:19;Deuteronomy 31:11-13. Our Lord advises to "search the Scriptures;” which supposes them legible and intelligible,John 5:39and the Bereans are commended as more noble than those of Thessalonica; because they searched the Scriptures daily, and compared what they heard with them; that they might know whether they were right or not,Acts 17:11see Revelation 1:3. 3 e. From all sorts of persons being capable of reading them, and hearing them read, so as to understand them. Thus in the times of Nehemiah and Ezra, persons of every sex and age, who were at years of maturity, and had the exercise of their rational faculties, had the law read unto them,Nehemiah 8:3Timothy, from a child, knew the holy Scriptures,2 Timothy 3:15believers, and regenerate persons of every rank and degree, have knowledge of them, whether fathers, young men, or little children,1 John 2:12-14. Nor is the public preaching of the word, and the necessity of it, to be objected to all this; since that is, as for conversion, so for greater edification and comfort, and for establishment in the truth, even though it is known; and besides, serves to lead into a larger knowledge of it, and is the ordinary means of guiding into it, and of arriving to a more perfect acquaintance with it,1 Corinthians 14:3;2 Peter 1:12;Acts 8:30-31;Ephesians 4:11-13So that it may be concluded, upon the whole, that the Scriptures are easily understood. A sure, certain, and infallible rule to go by, with respect to things both to be believed and done: a rule they are,Galatians 6:16. And since they are of divine authority, and are perfect and plain, they are a sure rule, and to be depended on; "The testimony of the Lord is sure,"Psalms 19:7and a "more sure word of prophecy" than all others whatever,2 Peter 1:19these are the witness of God, and therefore greater than man’s; and to be believed before any human testimony,1 John 5:9yea, must be reckoned infallible, since they are the Scriptures of truth, and not only contain what is truth, and nothing but truth in them: but have a true, even a divine testimony bore unto them, and come from the God of truth, who cannot lie,Daniel 10:21;Titus 1:2. They are the judge of all religious controversies, to which all are to be brought, and by them determined; according to these, spiritual men, who have their senses exercised, to discern between good and evil, try and judge all things. The Scripture is the best interpreter of Scripture, or the Spirit of God therein; nor are the church or its pastors, nor councils and popes, the infallible interpreters thereof; there is a private interpretation of Scripture, which every Christian may make, according to his ability and light; and there is a public one, by the preacher of the word but both are subject to, and to be determined by the Scripture itself, which is the only certain and infallible rule of faith and practice. And, 4. There seems to be a real "necessity" of such a rule in the present state of things; and, indeed, a divine revelation was necessary to Adam, in a state of innocence; how, otherwise, should he have known anything of the manner of his creation; of the state and condition in which he was created, after the image and in the likeness of God; the extent of his power and authority over the creation; by what means his animal life was to be supported; in what manner God was to be served and worshipped by him, especially the parts of positive and instituted worship, both as to matter, time, and place; and particularly the will of God, as to abstinence from eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil? And if our first parents stood in need of a divine revelation, as a rule and guide to them in their state of integrity; then much more we in our present state of ignorance and depravity. And after the fall, it was owing to divine revelation, that man had any knowledge of the way of his salvation, by the woman’s seed; and of the appointment, nature, import, use, and end of sacrifices; and though this revelation was for a time unwritten, and was handed down by tradition to the patriarchs before the flood, and for some time after, while the lives of men were of a long continuance, and it required but few hands to transmit it from one to another; but when mens’ lives were shortened, and it was the pleasure of God to make further and clearer discoveries of his mind and will, and to frame new laws and rules of worship, in different dispensations; it seemed proper and necessary to commit them to writing, both that they might remain, and that they might be referred to in case of any doubt or difficulty about them; and particularly that the ends before mentioned might be answered by them, which it was intended should be; namely, the learning and instruction of men in matters of faith and practice, their peace, comfort, and edification,Romans 15:4;2 Timothy 3:15-17and the rather, since nothing else was, and nothing less than the Scriptures are, a sufficient rule and guide in matters of religion; even not the light of nature and reason, so much talked of, and so highly exalted; and since it has been set up as such against divine revelation, it may be proper to show the insufficiency of it. Now the light of nature or reason, is not to be taken in an abstract sense, or considered only in theory, what it has been, may be, or should be, but not subsisting in men or books; as such it can be no rule or guide at all to have recourse unto; and besides, reason in such sense is not opposed to revelation; there is nothing in revelation contrary to reason, though there are things above it, and of which it is not a competent judge, and therefore can be no guide in such matters; but it must be considered as it is in fact, and as it subsists, either in single individuals, or in whole bodies of men, and these unacquainted with, and unassisted by divine revelation; and then its sufficiency, or rather insufficiency, will soon appear. If it is considered as in individuals, it may easily be observed it is not alike in all, but differs, according to the circumstances of men, climate, constitution, education, &c. some have a greater share of it than others; and what is agreeable to the reason of one man, is not so to another; and therefore unless it was alike and equal in all, it can be no sure rule or guide to go by: let one of the most exalted genius, be chosen, one of the wisest and sagest philosophers of the Gentiles, that has studied nature most, and arrived to the highest degree of reason and good sense; for instance, let Socrates be the man, who is sometimes magnified as "divine," and in whom the light of nature and reason may be thought to be sublimated and raised to its highest degree, in the Gentile world, without the help of revelation; and yet, as it was in him, it must be a very deficient rule of faith and practice; for though he asserted the unity of the divine Being, and is said to die a martyr for it; yet he was not clear of the heathenish notions of inferior deities, and of worship to be given them; for one of the last things spoken by him was, to desire his friends to fulfil a vow of his, to offer a cock to Esculapius, the god of health; and he is most grievously slandered, if he was not guilty of the love of boys in an unnatural way; and besides, he himself bewails the weakness and darkness of human nature, and confessed the want of a guide. If the light of nature and reason be considered in large bodies of men, in whole nations, it will appear not to be the same in all. Some under the guidance of it have worshipped one sort of deities, and some others; have gone into different modes of worship, and devised different rites and ceremonies, and followed different customs and usages, and even differed in things of a moral nature; and as their forefathers, guided by this light, introduced and established the said things; they, with all their observations, reflections, and reasonings on them, or increase of light, supposing they had any, were never able, by the light of nature and reason in them, to prevail over, and demolish such idolatry, and such profane and wicked practices that obtained among them; and the insufficiency thereof, as a rule and guide in religion, will further appear by considering the following particulars. 4a. That there is a God may be known by the light of nature; but "who" and "what" he is, men, destitute of a divine revelation, have been at a loss about. Multitudes have gone into polytheism, and have embraced for gods almost everything in and under the heavens; not only the sun, moon, and stars, and mortal men, they have deified; but various sorts of beasts, fishes, fowl, creeping things, and even forms of such that never existed: and some that have received the notion of a supreme Being, yet have also acknowledged a numerous train of inferior deities, and have worshipped the creature besides the Creator; whose folly is represented in a true and full light by the apostle,Romans 1:19-25and though the unity of the divine Being, is the voice of reason as well as of revelation; yet by the former, without the latter, we could have had no certain notion, if any at all, of three divine persons subsisting in the unity of the divine essence; and especially of each of the parts they have taken in the economy of man’s salvation; for as for what Plato and others have been supposed to say concerning a Trinity, it is very lame and imperfect, and what was borrowed from eastern tradition. 4b. Though the light of nature may teach men that God, their Creator and Benefactor, is to be worshipped by them; and may direct them to some parts of worship, as to pray unto him for what they want, and praise him for what they have received; yet a perfect plan of worship, acceptable to God, could never have been formed according to that; and especially that part of it could not have been known which depends upon the arbitrary will of God, and consists of positive precepts and institutions; hence the Gentiles, left to that, and without a divine revelation, have introduced modes of worship the most absurd and ridiculous, as well as cruel and bloody, even human sacrifices, and the slaughter of their own children, as well as the most shocking scenes of debauchery and uncleanness. 4c. By the light of nature men may know that they are not in the same condition and circumstances they originally were; for when they consider things, they cannot imagine that they were made by a holy Being subject to such irregular passions and unruly lusts which now prevail in them; but in what state they were made, and how they fell from that estate, and came into the present depraved one, they know not; and still less how to get out of it, and to be cured of their irregularities: but divine revelation informs us how man was made upright, and like unto God: and by what means he fell from his uprightness into the sinful state he is in; and how he may be recovered from it, and brought out of it by the regenerating and sanctifying grace of the Spirit of God, and not otherwise. 4d. Though, as the apostle says, the Gentiles without the law, "do by nature the things contained in the law; and are a law to themselves, which show the work of the law written on their hearts; their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing, or else excusing one another,"Romans 2:14-15and so have some notion of the difference between moral good and evil; yet this is not so clear and extensive, but that some of the greatest moralists among them gave into the most notorious vices, and allowed of them, and recommended them; Chrysippus allowed of incest; Plato commended community of wives; Socrates a plurality of wives, and which he enforced by his own example; Cicero pleaded for fornication; the Stoics, a grave set of moralists, for the use of obscene words, and recommended suicide as becoming a wise man, and as his duty to commit in some cases. So dim was this light of nature in things of a moral kind! 4e. Though in many cases reason taught them that certain vices were disagreeable to God, and resented by him, and he was displeased with them, and would punish for them; and they were very desirous of appeasing him; but then how to reconcile him to them, and recommend themselves to his favour, they were quite ignorant; and therefore took the most shocking and detestable methods for it, as human sacrifices, and particularly burning their innocent infants. But revelation shows us the more excellent way. 4f. Men may, by the light of nature, have some notion of sin as an offence to God, and of their need of forgiveness from him; and from a general notion of his mercy, and of some instances of kindness to them, may entertain some faint hope of the pardon of it; but then they cannot be certain of it from thence, or that even God will pardon sin at all, the sins of any man; and still less how this can be done consistent with his holiness and justice: but through divine revelation we come at a clear and certain knowledge of this doctrine, and of its consistence with the divine perfections. 4g. The light of nature leaves men entirely without the knowledge of the way of salvation by the Son of God. And even without revelation, angels of themselves would not be able to know the way of saving sinful men, or how sinful men can be justified before God; wherefore, in order to know this; they "desire to look into it,"1 Peter 1:12. Some have thought that Socrates had some notion of it; who is made to say, “It is necessary to wait till some one teaches how to behave towards God and men:” but then this respects only a man’s outward conduct, and not his salvation: nor does the philosopher seem to have any clear notion of the instructor, and of the means he should use to instruct, and still less of the certainty of his coming; and besides, the relator of this, Plato, might receive this as a tradition in the East, where it is well known he travelled for knowledge. But the divine revelation gives an account of this glorious person, not merely as an instructor of men in the way of their duty, but as a Saviour of them from their sins; and in what way he has wrought out salvation, by his sacrifice, blood, and righteousness. 4h. The light of nature is far from giving any clear and certain account of the immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the body, and a future state of happiness and misery: as for the immortality of the soul, the heathens rather wished it to be true than were fully satisfied of it; they that were for it made use of but mean arguments to prove it; and they themselves believed it only "fide dimidiata," as Minutius Felix expresses it, with a divided faith; they did, as it were, but half believe it; and as for the resurrection of the body, that was denied, as Tertullian says, by every sect of the philosophers: and in what a low manner do they represent the happiness of the future state; by walking in pleasant fields, by sitting under fragrant arbours or bowers, and cooling shades, and by shelter from inclement weather; by viewing flowing fountains and purling and babbling streams; by carnal mirth, feasting, music, and dancing: and the misery of it, by being bound neck and heels together, or in chains, or fastened to rocks, and whipped by furies, with a scourge of serpents, or doomed to some laborious service. But not the least hint is given of the presence of God with the one, nor of his absence from the other; nor of any sensation of his love or wrath. Let us therefore bless God that we have a better rule and guide to go by; "a more sure word of prophecy to take heed unto": let us have constant recourse unto it, as the standard of faith and practice; and try every doctrine and practice by it, and believe and act as that directs us, and fetch everything from it that may be for our good, and the glory of God. [1] See Gale’s Court of the Gentiles. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 76: OF THE NAMES OF GOD ======================================================================== OF THE NAMES OF GOD GILL: Being about to treat of God, and of the things of God, it may be proper to begin with his names: the names of persons and things are usually the first that are known of them; and if these are not known, it cannot be thought that much, if any thing, is known of them; and where the name of God is not known, he himself cannot be known; and the rather the consideration of his name, or names, is worthy of regard, because they serve to lead into some knowledge of his nature and perfections; and therefore a proper introduction to such a subject. Indeed, properly speaking, since God is incomprehensible, he is not nominable; and being but one, he has no need of a name to distinguish him; and therefore Plato says, he has no name; and hence he commonly calls him to on, "Ens," "The Being.” So when Moses asked the Lord, what he should say to the children of Israel, should they ask the name of him that sent him to them, he bid him say, "I am that I am;” that is, The eternal Being, the Being of beings; which his name Jehovah is expressive of: nevertheless, there are names of God in the Scriptures taken from one or other of his attributes, which are worthy of consideration. The names of God, as Zanchy observes, some of them respect him as the subject, as Jehovah, Lord, God: others are predicates, what are spoken of him, or attributed to him, as holy, just, good, &c. Some respect the relation the divine Persons in the Godhead stand in to each other, as Father, Son, and Spirit: others the relation of God to the creatures; and which are properly said of him, and not them, as Creator, Preserver, Governor, &c. some are common to the Three divine persons, as Jehovah, God, Father, Spirit; and some peculiar to each, as the epithets of unbegotten, begotten, proceeding from the Father and the Son: some are figurative and metaphorical, taken from creatures, to whom God is compared; and others are proper names, by which he either calls himself, or is called by the prophets and apostles, in the books of the Old and New Testament; which are what will be particularly considered. 1. "Elohim" is the first name of God we meet with in Scripture, and is translated God,Genesis 1:1and is most frequently used throughout the whole Old Testament; sometimes, indeed, improperly of creatures, angels, and men, and of false deities,Psalms 8:5;Psalms 82:1;Psalms 82:6;Jeremiah 10:11but properly only of God. Some derive this word from a root, which signifies to curse and swear; but as to the reasons why this name is given to the divine Being on that account, it is not agreed; some[1] of late, have given this as a reason, because the three divine Persons, as they in a shocking manner express it, bound themselves with an oath, under a curse, to redeem mankind; which, to say no worse of, is indecent and unworthy of the dignity and majesty of God, "who is blessed for evermore;” for to bind himself with an oath, and that under a conditional curse; which is no other than to imprecate a curse upon himself, if his oath and covenant are not fulfilled; is so harsh, if not something worse, as is not to be endured: and though Christ agreed to redeem men, and to be made a curse for them, that they might receive the blessing; yet he was not accursed through any failure of his oath and covenant; but on another account, being the Surety of his people; nor is he ever called Eloah on that account, and still less the other two persons: besides there are other and better reasons to be given for this name of the divine Being, supposing it to be taken from the word signifying as above; as, because he adjures and causes others to swear, and binds them with an oath to himself; in which sense the word is used of men,1 Samuel 14:24;1 Kings 8:31and is the business of judges; by which oath men are bound to God, and not he to them; and so, according to the Jewish writers, the word is expressive of God as a judge; in which they are followed by some learned men: or, because he pronounces a man accursed who breaks his law, and neglects and despises the sacrifice and righteousness of Christ; so Cocceius: or, because he is the object men must swear by, whenever they swear at all; seeDeuteronomy 6:13;Isaiah 65:16. Though this word Elohim cannot be derived from the word so signifying, because it has the immoveable and immutable h, as appears from the point "mappick," in its singular Eloah, and from the construction of it, which that word has not; and besides, that is never used of God when he is said to swear, but always another. The word Elohim may be better derived from a word in the Arabic language, which signifies to "worship," as is thought by many learned men and so is a fit name for God, who is the sole object of religious worship and adoration; not idols of gold, silver, &c. nor living men, nor persons deified after death, nor angels; but the Lord God only,Matthew 4:10. It is a word of the plural number; and though it has a singular, which is sometimes used, yet it is most frequently in this form; and being joined with a singular verb, as inGenesis 1:1it is thought to denote a plurality of persons in the unity of the divine essence; and certain it is, that three persons, Father, Son, and Spirit, appeared, and were concerned in the creation of all things,Genesis 1:1-3; Psalms 33:6. 2. Another name of God is "El;” and which may be observed in the word Beth-el, which signifies, "The house of God,"Genesis 12:7-8. Both the singular and plural, El Elim, the God of gods, are used inDaniel 11:36and the word is left untranslated inMatthew 27:46"Eli, Eli; my God, my God.” It is commonly rendered, by Junius and Tremellius, the strong or mighty God; an epithet that well agrees with the divine Being,Job 9:4;Job 9:19;Psalms 89:8;Psalms 89:13and is one of the names of the Messiah,Isaiah 9:6. Hillerus takes this to be a part of the word Eloah, the singular of Elohim; which, according to him, signifies the first in essence; being the first and the last, the beginning and the end,Isaiah 44:6;Revelation 1:8it is expressive of the power of God. 3. The next name of God we meet with is "Elion," the most high,Genesis 14:18-20;Genesis 14:22. So Christ is called "The son of the Highest," and the Spirit, "the power of the Highest,"Luke 1:32;Luke 1:35and which name God has either from his habitation, the highest heavens; which is his palace, where he keeps his court, and which is his throne; in which high and holy place he, the high and lofty One, dwells,Isaiah 57:15;Isaiah 56:1or from his superiority, power, and dominion over all creatures, over the highest personages on earth, and the highest angels in heaven,Psalms 83:18;Psalms 97:9see alsoEcclesiastes 5:8or from the sublimity of his nature and essence, which is out of the reach of finite minds, and is incomprehensible,Job 11:7-8. This name was known among the Phoenicians, and is given to one of their deities, called Elioun, the most high; it is expressive of the supremacy of God. 4. Another name of God is "Shaddai": under this name God appeared to Abraham,Genesis 17:1and to which reference is had,Exodus 6:3we translate it Almighty in both places, and in all others, particularly in the book of Job, where it is often mentioned; and it well agrees with him whose power is infinite and uncontrollable, and appears in the works of his hands, creation and providence. Some choose to render it "sufficient," or "all-sufficient" God; having a sufficiency in and of himself, and for himself, to make himself completely and infinitely happy; nor does he need, nor can he receive any thing from his creatures to add to his happiness; and he has a sufficiency for them; he can, and does, supply all the wants of his people, temporal and spiritual; "his grace is sufficient for them." Others render it "Nourisher;" deriving it from a word which signifies "a breast;” that being what creatures nourish their young with; and is made mention of when this name of God is spoken of,Genesis 49:25. God not only fills mens’ hearts with food and gladness, but "he opens his hand, and satisfies the desire of all creatures, and gives them their meat in due season,"Acts 14:17;Psalms 145:15-16. Hillerus derives it from a word which signifies to pour out, or shed; and it well agrees with God, who pours forth, or sheds his blessings, in great plenty, on his creatures; and which flow from him as from a fountain; to which he is often compared: though others give a very different etymology of it; deriving it from a word[2] which signifies to "destroy;” to which there seems to be a beautiful allusion inIsaiah 13:6. "Destruction from Shaddai, the destroyer," who destroyed the old world, Sodom and Gomorrah, the firstborn of the Egyptians, and Pharaoh and his host: though God is so called, previous to most of these instances; indeed he is "the lawgiver, that is able to save and to destroy;” even to destroy body and soul in hell, with an everlasting destruction. And some render the word the "Darter," or "Thunderer;"[3] whose darts are his thunderbolts,Job 6:4;Psalms 18:13-14. The heathens called their chief god, Jupiter, "Tonans, The Thunderer": and, perhaps, from another etymology of this word before given, from dv "a breast.” Some of their deities are represented as full of breasts; so Ceres, Isis, and Diana. This name seems to be expressive of the all-sufficiency of God, and of the supply of his creatures from it. 5. Another of the names of God is, the "Lord," or "God of hosts;” it is first mentioned in1 Samuel 1:3;1 Samuel 1:11but frequently afterwards; and is left untranslated inJames 5:4where the Lord is called, "the Lord of Sabaoth," not "Sabbath," as it is sometimes wrongly understood; and as if it was the same with "Lord of Sabbath,"Matthew 12:8for though the words are somewhat alike in sound, they are very different in sense; for "Sabbath" signifies "rest," and "Sabaoth" means "hosts" or "armies": the Lord is the God of armies on earth, a man of war, expert in it; that teacheth mens’ hands to war, and their fingers to fight, and is the generalissimo of them, as he was particularly of the armies of Israel, as they are called,Exodus 7:4which he brought out of Egypt, and went at the head of them, and fought their battles for them; seeExodus 14:14;Exodus 15:3and who gives success and victory on what side soever he takes: and he is the Lord of the hosts of the starry heavens; the sun, moon, and stars, called the host of heaven,Genesis 2:1;2 Kings 21:3;2 Kings 23:5and by this military term, because under the Lord they sometimes fight as the stars did against Sisera,Judges 5:20and also of the airy heavens; and the locusts that fly there are his army,Joel 2:7;Joel 2:11and the meteors, thunder and lightning, snow and hail, which are laid up by him against the day of battle and war, are the artillery he sometimes brings forth against the enemies of his people; as he did against the Egyptians and Canaanites,Job 38:22-23;Exodus 9:24-25;Joshua 10:11the angels also are the militia of heaven, and are called "the heavenly host,"Luke 2:13see1 Kings 22:19the place where the angels of God met Jacob, was called from thence Mahanaim,Genesis 32:1-2two hosts or armies, one going before him, and the other behind him; or the one on one side him and the other on the other, to guard him; hence they are said to "encamp" about them that fear the Lord,Psalms 34:7. These are the creatures of God by whom he is adored and served; they are at his command, and sometimes employed in a military way, to destroy his and his peoples’ enemies; see2 Kings 19:35. This name is expressive of God’s dominion over all his creatures, and the several armies of them. 6. Another name of God is "Adonai," or "Adon,"Genesis 15:2and is commonly rendered Lord. Hence the Spanish word "don" for "lord.” God is so called, because he is the Lord of the whole earth,Zechariah 4:14. Some derive it from a word which signifies the basis, prop, or support of any thing.[4] So a king in the Greek language is called basileuv, because he is the basis and support of his people: and so God is the support of all his creatures; "he upholds all things by the word of his power;” he bears up the pillars of the earth; all men move and have their being in him; and "he upholds his saints with the right hand of his righteousness;” and even his Son as man and mediator,Isaiah 41:10;Isaiah 42:1. Some think it has the signification of a judge; "God is the judge of all the earth;” and is a righteous one, protects and defends good men, and takes vengeance on the wicked; and will judge the world in righteousness at the last day. Though, perhaps, Hillerus is most correct in rendering it "the Cause," from which, and for which, all things are; as all things are made by the Lord, and for his will, pleasure, and glory, seeRomans 11:36;Hebrews 2:10;Revelation 4:11. Adon is used in the plural number of God,Malachi 1:6and so Adonai is used of the Son, as well as of the Father,Psalms 110:1and of the Holy Spirit,Isaiah 6:8compared withActs 28:25. Hence Adonis, with the heathens, the same with the sun, their chief deity, according to Macrobius, by whom Bacchus is called Ebon, or rather Edon; who, he says, is also the same with the sun. 7. The famous name of God is "Jehovah;” this is a name he takes to himself and claims it,Exodus 6:3;Isaiah 42:8and is peculiar to him; his name alone is Jehovah, and incommunicable to another,Psalms 83:18because this name is predicated of God, as a necessary and self-existent being, as a learned Jew observes, which no other is; for though it is sometimes spoken of another, yet not singly and properly, but with relation to him. So the church is called "Jehovah-shammah," because of his presence with her,Ezekiel 48:35. The Jews, from a superstitious abuse of it, assert it to be ineffable, and not to be pronounced, and even not to be read and written, and therefore they substitute other names instead of it, as Adonai, and Elohim. This might arise, originally, from their very great awe and reverence of this name, according toDeuteronomy 28:58but every name of God is reverend, and not to be taken in vain, nor used in common, nor with any degree of levity,Psalms 111:9. It is written with four letters only; hence the Jews call it "tetragrammaton," and is very probably the tetraktuv of the Pythagoreans, by which they swore; and it is remarkable, that the word for God is so written in almost all languages; denoting, it may be, that he is the God of the whole world; and ought to be served and worshipped, and his name to be great and had in reverence in the four quarters of it; it takes in all tenses, past, present, and to come: the words of the evangelist John are a proper periphrasis of it; "which is, and which was, and which is to come,"Revelation 1:4or, "shall be," as inRevelation 16:5it comes from the root hyh or hwh which signify, "to be," and is expressive of the essence of God; of his necessary and self-existence, for God naturally and necessarily exists; which cannot be said of any other: creatures owe their being to the arbitrary will of God; and so might be, and might not be, as he pleased; but God exists in and of himself, he is a self-existent and independent Being, as he must needs be, since he is before all creatures, and therefore cannot have his being from them; and he is the cause of theirs, and therefore must be independent of them; and yet, when we say he is self-existent, it must not be understood as if he made himself; for though he exists, he is not made. He is the Being of beings; all creatures have their beings from him and in him, "the heavens, earth, and sea, and all that is in them;” he is the former and maker of all things; he is eminently "the Being," and all in comparison of him are mere non-entities; "all nations," and the inhabitants of them, "are as nothing before him; yea, less than nothing, and vanity,"Isaiah 40:17. 8 "Jah" is another name of God, which is mentioned inPsalms 68:4;Psalms 150:6;Isaiah 26:4though it may be only an abbreviation or contraction of the word Jehovah, and may signify the same; according to Cocceius, it comes from hayJeremiah 10:7and signifies "decency," or what is meet and becoming. 9. "Ejeh" is a name God gave as a name of his to Moses, when he sent him to the children of Israel; and is translated "I AM that I AM,"Exodus 3:13-14and may be rendered, "I shall be what I shall be," and what I have been; so the Jews interpret it; "I am he that was, I am he that is now, and I am he that is to come, or shall be." It seems to be of the same signification with Jehovah, and to be derived from the same word, and is expressive of the same things; of the being and existence of God, of his eternity and immutability, and of his faithfulness in performing his promises: our Lord has a manifest respect unto it, when he says, "Before Abraham was I AM,"John 8:58. Hillerus renders it "I remain," that is, always the same. 10. The names of God in the New Testament are these two kuriov and yeov, the one is usually rendered Lord and the other God. The first is derived either from kurw, "to be,”[5] and signifies the same as Jehovah, to which it commonly answers, and denotes the essence or being of God; or from kurov,[6] "power and authority;” and agrees with God, who has a sovereign power and authority over all creatures, having a property in them, by virtue of his creation of them; it is generally used of Christ, "who is Lord of all,"Acts 10:36;1 Corinthians 8:6;Ephesians 4:6. The etymology of yeov, "God," is very different; as either from a word which signifies "to run," or from one that signifies "to heat," or from one that signifies "to see;” which seem to be calculated by the heathens for the sun, the object of their worship, applicable to it, for its constant course, being the fountain of light and heat, and seeing all things, as they affirm: though each of them may be applied to the true God, who runs to the assistance of his people in distress,2 Chronicles 16:9;Psalms 46:1is light itself, "the Father of lights," and "a consuming fire,"1 John 1:5;James 1:17;Hebrews 12:29and sees all men, their ways and works, and even their hearts, and the thoughts of them,Job 34:21-22;1 Samuel 16:7. Some derive it from a word which signifies to dispose; and which agrees with God, who disposes of, and orders all things "in the armies of the heavens, and among the inhabitants of the earth, according to the council of his will," and to answer the purposes of his own glory, and the good of his creatures. Though, perhaps, it may be best of all to derive it from a word which signifies "fear,"[7] and so describes God as the object of fear and reverence; who is not only to be stood in awe of by all the inhabitants of the earth,Psalms 33:8but more especially is to be feared with a godly fear by his saints,Psalms 87:7;Hebrews 12:28and fear sometimes takes in the whole worship of God, both internal and external; and so the true God, in distinction from others, is called, "the fear," that is, the God of Isaac,Genesis 31:53, and alxd "fear," is sometimes used in the Targum for the true God, as it sometimes is of idols. From all these names of God we learn that God is the eternal, immutable, and almighty Being, the Being of beings, self-existent, and self-sufficient, and the object of religious worship and adoration. [1] Called Hutchinsonians; see Catcott’s Sermon, called The Supreme and Inferior Elahim, p. 8. [2] ddv "vastavit," Buxtorf. [3] So Schmidt inJob 6:4. [4] ynda "foundations," "bases,"Job 38:6. often rendered sockets in Exodus. [5] kurei, "est, existit," Suidas: kuriw, "sum," Scapula. [6] kurov, "autoritas;” kuriov, "autoritatem habens," Scapula; so Philo, quis rer. divin. Haeres, p. 484. [7] apo tou yeein, "currere," so Plato in Cratylo, p. 273. Clem. Al. protrept. p. 15. vel ayein "adurere, accendere," vel yeasyai, "cernere," vel a yw "dispono;” so Clem. Al. Stromat. in fine, Herodot. Euterpe, c. 52. vel a deov "timor," Philo ut supra. These several etymologies may be seen in Zanchy de Natura Dei, l. 1. c. 16. Alsted. Lexic. Theolog. p. 8. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 77: OBEDIENCE ======================================================================== Obedience by Elder Gregg Thompson What must have been the feelings of Christ when, as an obedient son, he could look up to his Father, and say, "I have glorified thee on earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was." There is a sweet reward felt in the soul of the obedient child of God that is worth more than all the joys of earth. This was felt by the dying Stephen, and by Paul and Silas in the prison at Philippi, and will be felt and enjoyed by all in the way of obedience. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 78: PAYING TITHES ======================================================================== PAYING TITHES You talk with a lot of Christians today about biblical giving and most people today in Christian circles will say some form of the tithe is still required. Aside from Jesus teaching the Jews who were still under the law, find that for me in the New Testament. You won’t. There are probably about 3 rules of New Testament giving. Number 1 - it is regular - on the first day of every week. That’s how often people went to church then - at minimum. If you’re paid at the end of the week, the first thing you do is set aside money that you’re going to give for the service and honor of God. You don’t say "I want to pay for the new car and I want to pay for the new recreational vehicle and I want to pay for this and I want to pay for that, I don’t have much left for church, so I just won’t give much this month." No, that priority is all upside down. The first thing in your budget, not the last thing is what you give to the service of God and for kingdom use. So, it’s regular and is joyful. The Lord loves a cheerful giver. From Paul’s writings to the Corinthian church - I love it - look up that word in New Testament Greek - hilarion SGreek: 2431. hilaros - you got it. The Lord loves a hilarious giver. Let the deacons get up and say "we’re a little short on money folks, we need to stop and think about what we are giving. We have some needs that are not being met" and see how many people respond with hilarity. But that’s a New Testament model! And, finally - it is to be sacrificial. If you give out of convenience and just enough to keep your giving painless, you’re not giving according to New Testament direction. Until you give until it hurts, you’re not giving biblically. Well, preacher you’ve started meddling. Well, I won’t meddle, I’ll let Paul meddle for me and with me - it’s biblical! Elder Joe Holder See WebbSr: PAYING TITHES ======================================================================== CHAPTER 79: PEACE AND CONTENTMENT ======================================================================== PEACE AND CONTENTMENT by Elder Joe Holder Peace and contentment with self and with God never comes from outside circumstances, never comes from my pursuit of self-assurance of my salvation, never comes from the scales on which I weigh myself to see if I’m fully assured or not. Peace and contentment comes from within, from a heart that is at peace with God and is trusting in God. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 80: PERSEVERANCE AND PRESERVATION ======================================================================== PERSEVERANCE AND PRESERVATION Someone has said that perseverance and preservation are two sides of the same coin. I agree with that statement. Preservation means that none of the elect will finally be plucked from the hand of God. This is sometimes referred to as the doctrine of ETERNAL SECURITY. It is sometimes defined as ONCE SAVED, ALWAYS SAVED. This is definitely a beautiful and comforting Biblical truth. Perseverance is the other side of the coin. What I understand this to mean is that the elect will persevere in some degree of faith and holiness. When people hear this they sometimes run backwards, because they think that those who hold to this doctrine are teaching perfectionism. But this is not true. When I say that the elect will continue in some degree of faith and holiness, I am simply saying that their faith will not totally and finally fail. Someone has already given the example of Christ praying for Peter that his faith would not fail. Peter certainly had a grievous lapse of faith, but the Lord interceded for him and his faith was not totally and finally overthrown. In fact the Scripture teaches this in1 John 5:4, where it is said "For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." When I say that the child of God will persevere in some degree of holiness, I simply mean that there is a difference in one who is spiritually alive and one who is spiritually dead. A child of God cannot live permanently in gross sin and be happy in it. We get no credit for our perseverance. It is the work of God in us. As Paul said in1 Corinthians 15:10, "But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me." Paul did not take one iota of credit for his zealous works on behalf of Christ. I appreciate the statement by 96 year old Brother Morris Oakley of Little Rock, AR. He told me, "Brother Guess, I give God 100% of the credit for anything I have ever done that is good. I take 100% of the blame for all the bad that I do." In my humble opinion, that is sound theology! I like to picture the relationship between preservation and perseverance in this way. Often I have climbed steep places with one of my very small children. As we climb, I grasp the tiny hand in my big hand. I grip them with my strength and bring them to safety. They have no real strength, but instinctively they grip my hand with all their might. In reality their grip really does not get the job done, mine does. Nevertheless, they hold on to me. God’s big hand is the one that holds me, gets me to safety, and never lets me go. However, conscious of my weakness, and aware of the danger about me, I hold on to Him. Sometimes my grip gets very weak. Sometimes I get so distracted by the things of this world, I may for a time forget to hold on. Praise God, He continues to hold on. People usually sing what they believe. Old Baptists love the song titled PRESERVATION. If you closely examine that and similar songs you will see elements of what our forefathers called perseverance. PRESERVATION Now in Thy praise, eternal King, Be all my tho’ts employed; While of this precious truth I sing, ‘Cast down, but not destroyed;’ Oft the united powers of hell My soul have sore annoyed; And yet I live this truth to tell, ‘Cast down, but not destroyed;’ In all the paths thru which I’ve pass’d What mercies I’ve enjoyed; And this shall be my song at last, ‘Cast down, but not destroyed,’ When I with God in heav’n appear, There shall I Him adore; Destroyed shall be my sin and fear, And I cast down no more. Perseverance is not works salvation. It is simply the outworking in our lives of what God has worked in us. This doctrine has been of great practical value to me. When I have been back slidden and away from God, Satan has tried to make me give up, to tell me that it is of no use, and that I might as well lie there and die in my self-pity. Then I can take the sword of the Spirit and drive Satan away. I can quote himPhp 1:6which says, "Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:" The fire of eternal life will never go out in the heart of a child of God. Sometimes it may seem to be out, but when we stir the ashes of our heart and put the kindling of God’s word and the kerosene of the Holy Spirit on it, we feel like traveling on! God bless each of you precious saints to lift up the hands that hang down and strengthen the feeble knees. Remember that He that is in you is greater than he that is in the world. Hallelujah! Briefly stated, this truth means that all the elect will be preserved and will persevere in grace and will finally be in glory forever with God. None of them shall be lost. These five points that we have studied really comprise one unified system of Biblical doctrine. Each point necessarily follows the other. They stand or fall together. If the other four points are true, this fifth point has to be true. For example, according toEphesians 1:4, election is sure. If that is true, it necessarily follows that there must be preservation of the saints. Deny preservation, and election means nothing. This is also true concerning particular redemption. If those for whom Christ died could fall from grace, to that extent Christ would have died in vain. From Two Perspectives Why do we refer to this truth as both Preservation and Perseverance? We do so because from God’s perspective it is Preservation. God’s people persevere in grace only because they have been preserved in Christ Jesus. From man’s perspective it is Perseverance. If a person is truly saved he will give evidence of his salvation. He will not completely lose his faith and die in a finally impenitent state. Only the wicked will die in his sins. {John 8:21} The combined truth of Preservation and Perseverance is clearly seen inPhp 2:12-13: "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." The London Confession To study this doctrine, let us examine the London Confession of Baptists of 1689. We will include one of the articles on Perseverance in this study sheet and other articles later on: 1. Those whom God hath accepted in the beloved, effectually called and sanctified by His Spirit, and given the precious faith of his elect unto, can neither totally nor finally fall from the state of grace, but shall certainly persevere therein to the end, and be eternally saved, seeing the gifts and callings of God are without repentance, whence he still begets and nourisheth in them faith, repentance, love, joy, hope, and all the graces of the Spirit unto immortality; {John 10:28-29;Php 1:6;2 Timothy 2:19;1 John 2:19} and though many storms and floods arise and beat against them, yet they shall never be able to take them off that foundation and rock which by faith they are fastened upon; notwithstanding, through unbelief and the temptations of Satan, the sensible sight of the light and love of God may for a time be clouded and obscured from them, {Psalms 89:31-32;1 Corinthians 11:32} yet He is still the same, and they shall be sure to be kept by the power of God unto salvation, where they shall enjoy their purchased possession, they being engraved upon the palm of his hands, and their names having been written in the book of life from all eternity. {Malachi 3:6;1 Peter 1:5} 2. "This perseverance of the saints depends not upon their own free will, but upon the immutability of the decree {Romans 8:30;Romans 9:11;Romans 9:16} and union with Him, the {Hebrews 6:17-18} oath of God, the abiding of His Spirit, and the {1 John 3:9} seed of God within them, and the nature of the {Jeremiah 32:40} covenant of grace; from all which ariseth also the certainty and infallibility thereof." 3. "And though they may, through the temptation of Satan and of the world, the prevalence of corruption remaining in them, and the neglect of the means of their preservation, fall into grievous {Matthew 26:70;Matthew 26:72;Matthew 26:74} sins, and for a time continue therein, whereby they incur {Isaiah 64:5;Isaiah 64:9;Ephesians 4:30} God’s displeasure, and grieve His Holy Spirit, come to have their graces and {Psalms 51:10;Psalms 51:12} comforts impaired, have their hearts hardened and their consciences wounded, {Psalms 32:3-4} hurt and scandalize others, and bring temporal judgments {2 Samuel 12:14} upon themselves, yet they shall renew their {Luke 22:32;Luke 22:61-62} repentance and be preserved, through faith in Christ Jesus, to the end." Of Assurance of Grace and Salvation from the London Confession We will examine the London Confession section entitled "Of Assurance of Grace and Salvation." This subject of assurance of salvation is intimately connected with the truth of perseverance. As a child of God perseveres in faith and holiness he becomes more and more assured of his salvation. 1. Although temporary believers and other unregenerate men, may vainly deceive themselves with false hopes and carnal presumptions of being in the favor of God, and (in a) state of salvation, {Job 8:13-14;Matthew 7:22-23} which hope of theirs shall perish; yet such as truly believe in the lord Jesus, and love him in sincerity, endeavoring to walk in all good conscience before him, may in this life be certainly assured {1 John 2:3;1 John 3:14;1 John 3:18-19;1 John 3:21;1 John 5:13} that they are in the state of grace; and may rejoice in the hope of the glory of god, which hope shall never make them {Romans 5:2;Romans 5:5} ashamed. 2. This certainty is not a bare conjectural and probable persuasion, grounded upon {Hebrews 6:11;Hebrews 6:19} a fallible hope, but an infallible assurance of faith, founded on the blood and righteousness of Christ {Hebrews 6:17-18} revealed in the gospel; and also upon the inward {2 Peter 1:4-5;2 Peter 1:10-11} evidence of those graces of the Spirit unto which promises are made, and on the testimony of the {Romans 8:15-16} Spirit of adoption, witnessing with our spirits that we are the children of God; and as a fruit thereof, keeping the heart both {1 John 3:1-3} humble and holy. 3. This infallible assurance doth not so belong to the essence of faith, but that a true believer may wait long, and conflict with many difficulties, before he be {Psalms 88:1-18;Psalms 77:1-12} partaker of it; yet being enabled by the Spirit, to know the things which are freely given him of God, he may without extraordinary revelation in the right use of means {1 John 4:13;Hebrews 6:11-12} attain thereunto; and therefore it is the duty of everyone to give all diligence to make his calling and election sure, that thereby his heart may be enlarged in peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, in love and thankfulness to God, and in strength and cheerfulness in the duties of obedience, the proper {Romans 5:1-2;Romans 5:14;Romans 5:17;Psalms 119:32} fruits of this assurance; so far is it {Romans 6:1-2;Titus 2:11-12;Titus 2:14} from inclining men to looseness. 4. True believers may have the assurance of their salvation divers ways shaken, diminished, and intermitted; as {Song of Solomon 5:2-3;Song of Solomon 5:6} by negligence in preserving of it, by {Psalms 51:8;Psalms 51:12;Psalms 51:14} falling into some special sin, which woundeth the conscience and grieveth the Spirit, by some sudden or {Psalms 116:11;Psalms 77:7-8;Psalms 31:22} vehement temptation, or by God’s withdrawing the {Psalms 30:7} light of his countenance, and suffering even such as fear him to walk in darkness and to have no light; yet are they never destitute of the {1 John 3:9} seed of God, and life {Luke 22:32} of faith, that love of Christ and the bretheren, that sincerity of heart and conscience of duty, out of which, by the operation of the Spirit, this assurance may in due time be {Psalms 42:5;Psalms 42:11} revived, and by the which in the mean time they are {Lamentations 3:26-31} preserved from utter despair. It is important to remember that the child of God will overcome the world by his God-given Faith: "For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." {1 John 5:4} This does not mean that the saint will never commit sin. It means that the Spirit of God in him will not suffer him to always live in sin but will work Godly sorrow in him and will bring him to repentance.1 John 3:9means that the born-again person will not continually and habitually live in sin as a way of life. The child of God may backslide temporarily and fall into much sin, but he will not live in it permanently in an unrepentant state. See alsoMatthew 7:21-23;James 2:20;1 John 2:4;1 John 2:15;1 John 3:3;1 John 4:15. One of the ways that God causes His people to turn from their sins and to persevere in holy living is chastisement. See1 Corinthians 11:32;Hebrews 12:6. Arguments That Are Used Against This Truth There are many Scriptures that people who believe that a child of God can fall from grace use to support their arguments. Most of the arguments can be refuted by the principle taught in1 John 2:19, "They went out from us but were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us; but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us." There are those who make a profession of faith, who seem to show some fruits of the Spirit temporarily, but who are not truly regenerated. In time they show their true colors and manifest their true nature. There is a possibility that some of these hypocrites never openly reveal their true nature in this life. SeeMatthew 13:30. These false professors, who have made a profession of religion, who may have outwardly reformed their lives, but who have no grace in their hearts, are described in such passages asMatthew 12:43;2 Peter 2:20-22. Other Scriptures that the opponents of Preservation use to bolster their arguments, are not talking about falling out of relationship with God, but out of fellowship with Him. When David sinned he did not lose his salvation; he lost the joy of salvation. {Psalms 51:12} It is possible for a child of God to so walk for a time that he may appear to have lost his salvation, but no one who has truly been saved can ever be lost. The Comfort of This Doctrine This is a very useful and comforting doctrine. It helps the child of God to live close to the Lord. It encourages him to repent when he falls into sin. Satan tries to throw a child of God into despair when he falls into sin. He tries to keep him down. But the saint remembers that "he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." {Php 1:6} He knows the Lord is not through with him. He does not depend on his own faithfulness, but on the faithfulness of God for and in him. This truth gives hope to one who has fallen into sin. He remembers that David committed some horrible sins: adultery, murder, numbering the people. These are only some of the more prominent sins of David. There was a time when David was overwhelmed because of the burden of his sins. {Psalms 32:3-4} For a time he lived in an unrepentant state until the prophet of God came to him. God faithfully delivered David from his sin and granted him repentance. All the saints in the Bible had their sins, sometimes grievous sins, but they were forgiven; and these saints are with the Lord. Nothing can change that fact. The one who truly believes this does not serve God from a sense of slavish fear-afraid that he can be saved today and lost tomorrow. He serves God out of a heart filled with gratitude to God for His great faithfulness. I would like to further study the relationship between Preservation and Perseverance. To state again the doctrine of Preservation, we say that this means that of all for whom Christ died, none shall finally fall away and be lost. Nothing can pluck them out of the hands of God. None of them can ever lose his salvation. Some Scriptures which prove this areJohn 6:37-39;John 10:27-30;Romans 8:28-39;Jude 1:24;1 Peter 1:4-5, andPhp 1:6. This is a glorious truth which has been precious to the temptation-tossed saints all through the ages. To restate the doctrine of Perseverance, we say that this means that all of the saints shall persevere in faith and holiness. They will never permanently and fundamentally repudiate their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. While troubled by their sinful natures, they will nevertheless show evidences of their being alive in Christ. Grace in one’s heart does not lead to a life of careless, licentious living. We believers in grace have been accused of believing it is okay to "continue in sin, that grace may abound." But we say, along with the Apostle Paul, "God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?" {Romans 6:2} The truth of Preservation and Perseverance does not make robots of the saints of God. This truth, properly understood, does not make the saints lazy. In this wonderful truth we see the meshing of the doctrines of God’s Sovereignty and Man’s Responsibility. Preservation and Perseverance really represent two sides of the same coin. They inseparably go together. To give a natural example that may shed some light the relationship between Preservation and Perseverance: I have several very small children. Sometimes I take a walk with one of them over some rough places. As we go over the rough places the little hand in mine grips ever so tightly. But what really provides safety to the child is the fact that my hand securely holds the small hand of the child. The gripping power of the little hand is so weak that it would soon be jerked out of my hand unless I was doing some gripping also. The child may think that his safety depends on his little grip, but not so. Compare my big hand to God’s Preservation, and the child’s little hand to our Perseverance and you begin to see the relationship between the two. But, remember, the little child doesn’t cease to grip hard- he does so instinctively. And the child of God doesn’t stop trying to persevere- he does to instinctively because of the life of God which has been placed in his heart! Many, many Scriptures teach the doctrine of Perseverance and show the relationship between Preservation and Perseverance. One of these is1 Corinthians 15:10. There Paul says, "But by the grace of God I am what I am." (Preservation). "And his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all." (Perseverance). "Yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me." (Preservation). Notice that Perseverance is dependent on Preservation. Notice also that God gets full credit for it all. God’s children are responsible for doing good works, but when they are blessed to perform them, they must give all the glory to God for His enabling grace. Another passage which shows the relationship of these doctrines isPhp 2:12-13: "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." (Perseverance). "For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." (Preservation). These truths are also found in1 John 3:2-3. "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." (Preservation). "And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure." (Perseverance). Every Bible believer who has much light knows that election took place before the foundation of the world. {Ephesians 1:4;2 Timothy 1:9} Nothing can change the fact whether one is elect or not. Yet Peter in2 Peter 1:10says, "Brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure." This is Perseverance! There was a song a few years back that said, "Love and Marriage, love and marriage, go together like a horse and carriage." This I tell you brother, you can’t have one without the other. Well, that’s the way it is with Preservation and Perseverance. According to the Scriptures, you can’t have one without the other. Appendix Preservation and Perseverance as Sung by the Saints Introductory note: it is a very interesting phenomenon that in religion the songs that people sing usually reflect their beliefs. This is as it should be. To believe one thing and to sing another would be inconsistent. The Baptist forefathers believed, taught and sang the truths contained in the doctrine of Preservation/Perseverance. Following are a few examples from several standard, widely-used hymnals: "Lone Pilgrim," #150 in Old School Hymnal Ye pilgrims of Zion, and chosen of God, Whose spirits are filled with dismay, Since ye have eternal redemption thru blood, Ye cannot but hold on your way. As Jesus, in covenant love did engage, A fullness of grace to display, The powers of darkness in malice may rage, The righteous shall hold on his way. This truth, like its Author, eternal shall stand, Tho’ all things in nature decay; Upheld by Jehovah’s omnipotent hand, The righteous shall hold on his way. They may on the main of temptation be tossed, their sorrows may swell as the sea; But none of the ransomed shall ever be lost; The righteous shall hold on his way. Surrounded with sorrows, temptations and cares, This truth with delight we survey, And sing as we pass thru this valley of tears, The righteous shall hold on his way. Adoration, verse five, #33 in Old School Hymnal Twas all of grace we were bro’t to obey, While others were suffered to go The road which by nature we choose as our way, Which leads to the regions of woe. Grace ‘Tis a Charming Sound, verses four and five, #184 in Old School Hymnal Grace led my roving feet to tread the heavenly road; And new supplies each hour I meet, while pressing on to God. Grace taught my heart to pray, and made mine eyes o’erflow; Twas grace that kept me to this day, and will not let me go. Broad Is The Road, #235 in the Good Old Songs; also found in the Old School Hymnal and in the Primitive Baptist Hymnal. Broad is the road that leads to death, and thousands walk together there; But wisdom shows a narrow path, with here and there a traveler. Deny thyself and take thy cross, is the redeemer’s great command; Nature must count her gold but dross, if she would gain this heavenly land. Lord, let not all my hopes be vain; create my heart entirely new, Which hypocrites could ne’er attain, which false apostates never knew. No. 157, verse three, in Good Old Songs. If e’er I go astray, He doth my soul reclaim And guides me in His own right way, For His most holy name Palms of Victory, #232 in Old School Hymnal is an entire song describing the perseverance of a child of God. "Never Alone," #201 in Old School Hymnal is a song of Perseverance and Preservation. This is only a very small sampling of the songs in our hymnals which describe the Preservation and Perseverance of the children of God. Brethren, our faithful fathers sang these truths. They believed them. They preached them. They lived them. Let us do the same, by the grace of God! Further Notes The actual word "perseverance" is used only one time in the Bible, inEphesians 6:18. However, there are other theological concepts, such as the Trinity, that we teach even though the actual word "Trinity" is not in the Bible either. I did not coin the theological term "perseverance." Our Baptist forefathers did. I believe what the great body of Primitive Baptists in the United States believed about perseverance in 1900 as they expressed it in the Fulton Confession of faith. I came to this doctrine by a careful study of the Scriptures. However, it was very comforting to me to find that this was where my forefathers had stood. This brings me to another point, that is the use of history. We can go to the ditch on either side in our use of church history. We can make either too much of it or too little of it. We make too much of it when we idolize the forefathers and what they believe and take their word above the Bible. When we substitute their traditions above the word of God, we have misused history. We Old Baptists rightly claim that the Scriptures are our only rule of faith and practice. We get our doctrine and practice from the Bible. On the other hand, we can make too little of history. We should respect the Lord’s dealings with our people in the past. We could and should learn much from those who have gone before. Really, to ignore or to denigrate the past, reveals an arrogance and pride in ourselves. We are saying that we know it all and that we can learn nothing from our forefathers. That is why I get nervous when I see people express no interest in or repudiate some of the confessions of faith that our Old Baptists have drawn up in the past. We may learn something they did not know, but we had be very careful about that. Those confessions are not perfect, but they deserve a careful reading and certainly should not be dismissed out of hand. We do not need any ad hoc, "homemade" doctrine among Old Baptists. We must be very studious and prayerful when we think we have discovered something different from what they taught. I am grieved by the fact that many of our people know almost nothing but hearsay about our past. Many of our young preachers have never read the Black Rock Address, the Kehukee Declaration, the London and Fulton Confessions of Faith, and so on. That is why that people sometimes accuse people of bringing in something new, when they are really teaching what our people all over this country regarded as standard. I am almost 59 years old, and I feel a great burden to spend some of my remaining time in acquainting all that I can of our precious doctrinal and practical heritage. I would also like to take this occasion to say something about "time salvation." That is also not a Bible expression. Different people mean different things by it. There are some extremists among us, who believe that you can completely separate eternal salvation and time salvation. They believe that a person can have eternal salvation and not have a lick of time salvation. Some even believe that a person can live like hell and still go to heaven. All they lose by their gross and repeated disobedience to God is a little loss of joy and peace in this life, but then they die and go to heaven. I strongly deny that the Bible teaches this. A tree is going to bear some fruit. There are going to be some signs of life. There is going to be some difference between a live man and a dead one. I know that the forefathers taught this. I know that the Bible teaches this. There may be others who have gone too far in the other direction. I believe the reason why some people react to the teaching of perseverance is because they think we are teaching perfectionism. That is not the case. Sinners can and do fall every day. However there is a fundamental difference in one who has been born again and one who has not. Even though I do not care for the term "time salvation" very much, I do believe what some who advocate it are teaching. I believe most definitely that there are blessings in obedience and chastisement in disobedience. If people want to call these blessings "time salvation" that is okay with me. I do not want to make a brother an offender for a word. One more thing I object to about the common teaching of time salvation is that we "earn" our time salvation. I do not believe this. I believe that, even in my obedience, God should receive 100% of the praise and credit for it. Even in this realm our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. Even "time salvation" is all of grace. I do not say that God is persevering, we are doing the persevering, but only because God is preserving us and is giving us the desire and power to persevere. I think that Paul made this very clear in1 Corinthians 15:10"But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me." Paul gives the proper balance here. We ought to try to serve God with all our might, and then we should give God all the credit for it. We may get some blessings in obedience, but, given the imperfect nature of our obedience, even our "time salvation" is all of grace. I am not saying that we are robots in our obedience. Really, it is impossible for us to completely understand how God works all this out. However, we know that it is impossible for us to give God too much credit and it is impossible for us to abase ourselves too low. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 81: PLURALITY OF ELDERS ======================================================================== PLURALITY OF ELDERS Consider the benefits each of you derive both by preaching and listening to preaching at associations. Does not the brotherhood of elders encourage you? Does it not stimulate you to good works? Does it not challenge you to be on the plumb line which the Holy Writ shows us? This is not to say you do not endeavor to stay on the plumb line all the time. However, do you not feel just a bit more motivated knowing your laboring brethren are weighing each word spoken? Do you not even feel a certain freedom that correction is near should you step off the mark? Do you not think we should feel that freedom, that "protection" in numbers if you will? Would it not then benefit each local congregation to have a plurality of elders? "Pray the Lord of the harvest send..." What if He did? What if the Lord sent multiple gifted brethren into your midst? Would you welcome them to labor alongside you, feeding the flock? Consider how lovely it would be to be able each Sunday morning to both hear and to preach. To be able to both feed and be fed. Consider how precious the feeling that when you got up first in the stand and felt no liberty that you could step down, trusting that the Lord had planted in your laboring brother’s heart and in his tongue the "Word of the Lord" for today. Or perhaps to not even get up if you were to go second and say, brother I have not the word of the Lord today, you take the rest of the time if you like, knowing that the sheep have been and might continue to be fed? Oh the sweet rest in Jesus that all his ministers might feel if this were the case. Brethren, have we prayed diligently that the Lord of the harvest would send laborers? Do we continue diligently to do so? ======================================================================== CHAPTER 82: PREDESTINATE ======================================================================== PREDESTINATE By "predestinate" I mean that God fore-ordains or forelimits all events such that nothing takes place contrary to His eternal plan, and though men devise sinful things in their own hearts and act voluntarily to accomplish them, even these acts were purposed by God to take place, as the very crucifying of our saviour: "The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ. For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done." {Acts 4:26-28} and Joseph’s brothers sending him to Egypt unknowingly through jealously..." But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive." {Genesis 50:20} and David numbering Israel (which he was later held accountable for)..." And again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah." {2 Samuel 24:1} and The Hivites going to battle against Israel..." For it was of the LORD to harden their hearts, that they the hivites should come against Israel in battle, that he might destroy them utterly, and that they might have no favour, but that he might destroy them, as the LORD commanded Moses." {Joshua 11:20} Many more similar passages could be referenced. [i]The scriptures are also abundant with more general statements of God’s all-encompasing will and purpose: " For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist." {Colossians 1:16-17}[ii] "I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel stand, and I will do all my pleasure."[iii] {Isaiah 46:9-10} "Lord, Thou wilt ordain peace for us; for Thou also hast wrought all our works in us." {Isaiah 26:12} [iv] Indeed, the very surety of our predestination to salvation is grounded in the truth that God works all things after the counsel of His will: "In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will." {Ephesians 1:11} If the "all things" under consideration only extends to the predestination of his children to salvation, then Paul’s argument for the assurance of this fact is groundless and the verse should might have read something like...according to the purpose of Him who worketh these things after the counsel of His own will. Also, chance is precluded even from events we would normally attribute to chance: "The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the LORD." {Proverbs 16:33} When it speaks in scripture of things occuring that are " of the Lord" this seems to signify that It was the Lord’s purpose and intention that it would come to pass. As shown above, this kind of language is even applied at times to events that involved the sinful actions of men, like waging of wars and Joseph being sent to Israel. Many times good people are zealous to free God up from anything that might seem to attribute sin or guilt to God, and in the minds of some, saying that He intended it to take place is just as bad as Him doing it Himself. But we must remember that this is God who is purely Holy and cannot sin. There is no law or judgement above Him to which He can be accountable, nor is there a single sinful aspect in His being. He does all things well and cannot sin. What I am advocating is that we submit to the scriptures and recognize that God has revealed about Himself that His will is accomplished. In heaven, it is accomplished willingly and knowingly. That is why we pray "thy will be done as in heaven, so on earth." On earth, His will is accomplished by working all things together for good ie. men devise and invent wickedness in their own evil hearts, but God works it all together for the accomplishment of His purposes so that we never must fear our enemies or what they can do to us, but fear God alone who has power over the hearts of men, both to renew or to harden as He sees fit.[v] -these scriptures humbly submitted for the brethren to consider, [i] It is a fallacy of logic to reason from the specific to the general. I reject extreme limitations on God’s providence that cannot embrace these passages. I also reject the false logic that catapults these passages, against logic, to a universal conclusion. [ii] The question of creation and of predestination are distinct issues. I doubt that any Primitive Baptist would question God’s creation of all things. I certainly do not. [iii] We can safely unite against neo-orthodox heresy that limits God’s knowledge, including any foreknowledge. Knowing and causing are distinct issues. This passage affirms God’s unrestricted omniscience. It does not address the question of the extent of His "pleasure." {22} {22} The problem I perceive with the above statement is how does God have knowledge of something that He did not intend eternally? {25} God is perfect and has all knowledge, so how can he gain knowledge of events that he did not purpose? Also, I respectfully disagree that your interpretation of the verse is complete. It says that God declares the end from the beginning. What can make something more certain than God declaring it to be so? Moreover, if it is only talking about foreknowledge, why is the verse ended with "my counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure?" {25} The question has been asked something to the effect: How can God know something He did not eternally predestinate? To say that God has to predestinate something in order for Him to know it, is limiting the knowledge of God. His foreknowledge it would seem would be no great thing, if He only knows about what He has predetermined to occur. I like a statement that I first heard from Elder S. T. Tolley many years ago. This may not be a direct quote, but it goes something like this: Not only does God know all that has been and all that will be, but He also knows all that might have been but will never be. [iv] This verse comfortably agrees with1 Corinthians 14:33. We’d have a problem if it stated that God ordained both peace and confusion. [v] I agree that we should wrestle with Scripture and seek clearer and deeper understanding of its teachings. I offer that the author of this thesis has presented a position that conflicts with a number of passages; the ones that I cited above as only a few examples. When Scripture presents us with “apparent” conflict or contradictions, I believe its Author is challenging us to take long, reflective thought regarding the points and to find a reconciling interpretation that embraces both passages without contradiction. I do not embrace the finite limitations imposed by some of our folks on God’s predestination and/or providence. I equally do not embrace the idea that God is the cause of sin, of sinful acts, of lust, of pride, etc. The fact that God “predestinated” the circumstances of our Lord’s crucifixion is another example of fallacious logic, reasoning from the specific to the general. Scripture states one point; it rejects the other. {23} {23} What do you mean by saying you do not embrace the finite limitations imposed on God’s predestination and/or providence? I do not believe that God is the cause of sin, sinful acts, or sinful thoughts either. However, in response to the above, I wish to add, the scriptures say that Herod, Pilot and others united together to do all that God had determined before should be done. It might not say "predestinate" but the idea is the same and I believe the greek word is the same or similar. If these wicked acts were necesary to accomplish what God had determined before should take place, than how are these acts contrary to God’s plan? {34} {34} Theology and semantics often overlap. I suspect that many times, particularly among our own beloved people, issues of semantics have improperly been labelled as theological and used to foment war among saints. In this piece I will address only two points, one related to your post and one related to the need for all of us to guard our communications. In the Isaiah passage in which God states that He declares the end from the beginning and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, it appears that you are saying that God can only declare the end from the beginning if he positively causes all things. In the next point I will raise this issue again and question this conclusion. We "declare" the gospel, but we certainly don’t claim any causative role in the redemption of sin-cursed men. To declare is to state a fact on the basis of knowledge. We know many things that we had no hand in causing. I grant that this illustration cannot in all points be imputed onto God, but I offer it simply to make the point that knowing and declaring do not necessitate causing. God can know without being the active or causative agent of all acts and events of human history. The passage attributes declaring to God, but not causative necessity. When I read your piece to which I responded, I gathered the distinct impression that you believe that God caused sin and all acts of evil men. Your latest post seems to stop distinctly short of that conclusion. If I correctly understand your latest post, then we need a dialogue on semantics, not theology. Perhaps we also need a dialogue on the necessity of clear communications. It is easy for us to assume that people to whom we speak or write are on the same page with us. However, in any area of major significance we may assume too much in such a conclusion. I learn, sometimes painfully, that in clear communications I must study my audience to know where they are. Then I frame my communications to reach them where they are, not ignore them and communicate to myself so that I understand what I’m saying. Biblical example; when Paul preached in a synagogue, he reasoned from the Jewish (Old Testament) Scriptures. When he preached to Greek philosophers at Mars Hill, he reasoned from ancient Greek philosophers and poets. He reached out to his audience and started where they were, not where he was. In both cases he ended up at Calvary and an empty tomb. I believe this example instructs us far more than any of us often heed. It is a safe assumption, I believe, to say that most contemporary Primitive Baptists view predestination as altogether positive and causative. From your latest post, I gather that you view it from two perspectives. On one hand, the causing of our salvation and of good works, you view it as causative. On the other hand, the matter of sin and evil, you view it as permissive and limiting, not causative. Thus, if I understand you correctly, you do not believe that God is the cause or author of sin. {35} When I talk with people outside the PB camp regarding salvation, I find myself increasingly asking a central question, "From your theological perspective, which comes first, faith or regeneration?" If they respond that faith comes first, then I know that we have a theological difference. If they respond that regeneration comes first, I give them a hearty "Amen," and try to build common ground between me and them. Our differences may be more semantic than theological. {36} On the question of predestination, I am likewise inclined. If a person states, as several specific individuals have done who professed to be Absolute Predestinarian PBs, that they believe that God is the active cause of sin and of all evil among mankind, then we have a theological problem. If they deny that God is the cause of sin, then I believe that we have a semantic problem. {37} Regarding the question of "time salvation," I believe our folks made a legitimate effort to communicate their distinctives to non-PBs by introducing this term. I wouldn’t demean the men who framed the footnotes to the London Confession in Fulton, KY around the beginning of the twentieth century. I believe it is likely that Beebe and Trott attempted a similar task with their terminology. As some who now attack the "time salvation" terminology do in ignoring the underlying intent, however ill-conceived or poorly the term has accomplished its objective, I believe that Beebe and Trott should have taken note of the schism and misunderstanding that their terminology was causing. Both they and perhaps our contemporaries who use the "time salvation" term would communicate far more clearly to return to Biblical terminology and Biblical definitions of those terms, for ever forsaking embellished terms that do not appear in Scripture. {42} Agree or not, if we know that most of our folks view the word predestination as being exclusively causative, then it is incumbent on us to follow Paul’s model. Start with their understanding, define our terms in ways that they understand to avoid unnecessary misunderstanding. Never say or write anything that leaves the potential open for anyone to falsely conclude that we believe that God is causative in sin. {38} In my personal struggle to deal with the various Scriptures that use the terms save, saved, salvation, etc., I have formed the idea that the Biblical concept of salvation is comparable to a logical continuum. It begins in eternity past, flows through all of time, and concludes in eternity "future." Rather than introducing artificial terms to deal with any aspect of salvation, I try to locate the use of the word in my study passage on the salvation continuum. Granted, the pot is calling the kettle black! Scripture doesn’t use the term continuum, does it? Rather than trying to reframe terminology, I’m trying to communicate the Biblical concept in contemporary terms so that people, PBs and non-PBS alike, will truly understand what I’m trying to teach. We may have friendly locker-room dialogue regarding the advisability of using the term "time salvation," or, for that matter, the term "predestination," but our objective should be to communicate clearly-above the realm of easily misunderstood terms or intentional obfuscation-what we truly believe. I believe the same obligation falls with equal weight on those among us who use the term "absolute predestination." If you know that our folks have a pre-conceived definition of predestination as altogether causative, start with a clear definition of the term as you use it. Make sure they understand that you do not hold-that you whole-heartedly reject-the idea that God is in any way causatively involved in sin. {39} The English translation of the NT uses the terms of predestination four times, but the same Greek word appears two additional times in the NT, both related to the sufferings and crucifixion of our Lord at the hands of evil men. A reasonable interpretation of those two passages might posit that God, in this concept of "predestination," limited, rather than caused, what these evil men did. From this footing, we might more clearly communicate our true beliefs and avoid the false and acrimonious charges of holding that God causes sin. I painfully listen to a tape of every sermon I preach at the church I pastor. My objective is to spot points that I do not communicate clearly, and there are few sermons indeed that I hear that I don’t critique fairly severely. Please understand that my suggestions for clear communication are not intended to sound preachy. This challenge haunts every one of us and demands constant improvement, and constant effort to stay in touch with our congregation to know where they are so that we can talk to them understandably and move them to where they should be. {35} I heartily agree with the essence of what you are saying. I realize now that perhaps I approached the issue using my terminology in a different way than some brethren among the PBs may understand it. I admit that I am new among the PBs. I have read quite a bit though, of PBs and others, so much of my terminology comes from how I have heard it described in the writings of the past, rather than from discussion with primitive baptists today. See my comments interspersed and maybe we can continue to clear up the semantical differences...{ 41} I think that your statement is an accurate assesment of my belief in predestination. {36} I like this approach. It is often hard to explain to Arminians, Calvinists, or any other non-PB what we believe about salvation. Beginning with regeneration and faith is something that people can understand without getting bogged down in semantics. I ought to try this sometime. {37} There are really PBs who believe that God is the active cause of sin and evil among mankind? I did not realize this. I thought perhaps that there were a few rare cases where someone actually claimed God was the cause of sin, but did not think that this view ever could really prevail among biblical baptists. I do not believe that God is the cause or author of sin. In reading old "absoluters" like Beebe and Trott, and in reading reformers like Zanchius, I have found that they all are certain to assert that God is not the direct or effectual cause or author of sin. They used terms like "predestinated to permit," in order to differentiate between God’s predestining of sin (not causative) and His predestination of his positive acts (causative). Whether or not the term "predestinate to permit" is a good term is not what I want to debate. I just wanted admit that I have never heard anyone teach that God is the author of sin and didn’t realize that anyone was actually teaching that. {38} Here is my dilemna. I read a lot of Beebe, Trott, and others, before I ever even knew many real PBs. I got acquanted with PB doctrine through reading more than through hearing preaching, at least at first. Now, I have read Oliphant, Newman, Hassell, and others as well, and realize that they didn’t always use the same language. However, I never came across any unbiblical explainations in Beebe or Trott’s writings. I generally found that they were very sound and didn’t pull an punches or water down the truth. Same with Oliphant and the others. If Beebe and Trott are at fault, it must be, in my opinion, only in their choice of words, because I have always found their explainations to be very faithful to the biblical record. {39} I have seen why the term "absolute predestination" can be a problem. I sometimes just wish that those who do not like the term would read Pink’s "The Sovereignty of God," or "Absolute Predestination" by Beebe, or "Predestination" by Hassell, or "Absolute Predestination" by Zanchius. Because I think they would find that even those who might be labeled "absoluters" are explaining the sovereignty of God in very similar ways as "non-absoluters" like Oliphant and Hassell did. It comes down to semantics again, and perhaps both "sides" are guilty of inventing or misusing some terms. For example, I have read some articles by "absoluters" that railed on conditional time salvation. Indeed, the doctrine they were railing against did seem pretty odious and probably has been taught, however, I have also heard some very biblical explainations of "conditional time salvation." It can be quite confusing! 547 {41} I must commend your gracious and insightful response. Having learned more of your personal history from your latest note, I can understand your original post more clearly. If you don’t know an extreme view exists, you don’t know that you need to take measures to avoid being interpreted as holding it! I too have read Pink and Zanchius and treasure both works, along with Hassell of course. Elder David Pyles is in process of developing a manuscript, hopefully for eventual publication, in which he attempts to define some of the nuances of difference between Primitve Baptists and Calvinists. Of course, there are numerous areas of common ground. Typical of what I’ve seen of this brother, he takes great pains to find balance in his presentation, perhaps more than some extremists would approve. I became aware of this work when he sent it to me for editorial comments. One of the delightful surprises in this work is a rather extensive section that deals with Beebe and Trott, including a significant number of quotes from them. His conclusion is precisely what yours is. He makes a good case that they never believed or intended to teach that God is the author or cause of sin. Brother, I am thrilled to discover that our apparent difference is far more a matter of semantics that theological. Praise God for constant blessings. I have a thought that would be interesting reading for me, perhaps also for others in the group. Knowing that there really are some folks out there who attribute the positive cause of sin to God, how would you word your original thesis to make sure that no one interpreted you as standing in that camp? {48} I grew up in northern Mississippi among Primitive Baptists, so I, unlike you, have spent my whole lifetime among them. This can be simultaneously a delightful blessing and a curse. We both are witnesses from different perspectives of God’s loving grace and mercy. However, from my earliest memories our folks labored to avoid the idea that they believed that God authored or caused sin. I recall many conversations with my elder ministers regarding Biblical lessons on God’s providence. After listening to my novice explanations, they’d frequently caution that they understood and agreed with my views, but "You must always be careful not to leave the impression that you believe that God causes sin." This caution intimidated me against developing any cohesive view of God’s providence till years later. To finally be able to read a passage involving God’s wondrous intervention among men and to embrace it with joyful conviction has been liberating and joyful for me. Elder Bradley was a significant instrument in the Lord’s hand to help me come to terms with this truth, one of a very long list of reasons that I thank God for him. I do not discount the caution of those older men who lived in an era where the extreme view was perhaps more common. Their caution has been affirmed in specific instances in which I have engaged in personal conversation with men who claim Beebe and Trott’s tradition, but who interpret their use of predestination so as to make God the active cause or author of all things, sin included. They do not make the distinctions that you made in your latest post. 522 {42} Question: I appreciate both the tone and substance of your post. The statement above, however, puzzles me. May I ask, in lieu of this suggestion that we "forsake embellished terms that do not appear in Scripture," would you also reject the term "Trinity" to describe the tripersonal nature of God, since it is not a Biblical term? What about the expression "Total Depravity" to describe the post-fall nature of man, an embellished term that does not appear in Scripture? Further, does the same reasoning apply to the term "Sovereignty of God," since the term "sovereignty" is conspicuously absent in the Bible? {44} In my opinion, it is no more confusing to employ the "time salvation" terminology, since the concept is clearly Biblical, than it is to speak of the "Trinity," "total depravity of man," or "sovereignty of God". As long as some modern evangelicals promote the "lordship salvation" paradigm (and terminology), there will be a need to continue to teach the Biblical concept of "time salvation," whatever terminology is employed to teach it. As already noted, Hassell and Oliphant and the Fulton brethren used the expression without apology. If we abandon the interpretive habit of distinguishing between eternal and temporal salvation (as the Fulton brethren referenced), opting instead to interpret every reference to the verb "to save" as part of a "continuum" of salvation, then how should we explain verses like1 Timothy 4:16; 1 Peter 3:21; Mr 16:16;1 Corinthians 1:21;1 Corinthians 15:1-3;1 Timothy 2:15(and a plethora of other verses that employ the verb "to save" in a conditional sense) lest we confound monergism and synergism and repeat the error of those who attempt to mix Divine sovereignty and human responsibility in eternal salvation? On a personal note, because the concept is Biblical, I am not inclined to abandon the terminology of a "salvation" that consists of temporal blessings in obedience for "lordship salvation," any more than I am inclined to reject the terminology "Trinity," "sovereignty" or "total depravity," for these concepts are likewise thoroughly Biblical. I believe that we ought to use terms consistent with their Biblical, not creedal, usage (vis a vis "perseverence" and "preservation") but that does not necessarily preclude the use of extra-canonical terms to classify a specific theological emphasis (vis a vis "Trinity;" "total depravity;" etc). The terminology of "time salvation" surfaced because of the need to properly interpret passages that use the verb "to save" as a contingency of man’s act of believing, repentance, baptism, etc., in lieu of the gospel affirmation that salvation is "not of works lest any man should boast." The popular solution to this dilemma, of course, is the claim for synergism, i.e. that both God’s sovereignty and man’s works are involved in salvation and since the paradox cannot be reconciled, we must simply accept it as a mystery. PB’s, however, have tended to reject that popular formula as a logically flawed hermeneutic. Instead, our people have insisted that the correct way to understand the apparent antithesis between verses that speak of salvation as "all of grace" and those that assert that man must do something in order to be delivered is to distinguish between sonship and discipleship, union and communion, relationship and fellowship, or, if you please, eternal and temporal salvation. I think that our people have been right "on target". Someone once said, "Never take down a fence until you discover why it was erected in the first place." In all candor, until I am given a better way to explain the passages that say "Save yourselves from this untoward generation" and "... by which also you are saved, if you keep in memory what I have preached unto you," etc., without resorting to the logical fallacy of synergism, I will continue to use the same terminology I’ve heard our brethren use from my earliest childhood, for I am convinced that the Primitive Baptist habit of distinguishing between sonship and discipleship is logically and hermeneutically consistent, as well as thoroughly Biblical. {44} Good thoughts brother, I offered my thoughts as a personal reflection, not as a rule to be imposed on anyone else. In the case of Trinity, Total Depravity, Substitutionary Atonement, and any number of other extra-biblical terms we are dealing with terms that have gained a long-standing historical and theological meaning within the broad conservative Christian community. Our term "time salvation" is unique to our own culture. I suspect (don’t have any specific historical basis, just a hunch) that our forefathers developed the term with the intent of improving communication regarding our unique distinctives from other theological perspectives that tend to force every salvation passage in the Bible in some way into the eternal-theological setting. My concern with the term is personal and simple. When I’ve tried to use it to explain our unique views to non-PBs, it tended to further confuse them, not clarify the issue for them. Another thought that will reveal my age, when I was young in years and in the faith, our folks stood nearly alone on the grace side of the theological "continuum." Today MacArthur, Sproul, and several other people have become notable in their general defense of the doctrines of grace, though they and we don’t share all ideas in common. Perhaps when we stood alone the term time salvation more effectively communicated our uniqueness. A term developed to communicate in a given era, unlike the timeless terminology of Scripture, may outlive its effectiveness. If so, it should die a quiet and peaceful death. I have no problem with the concept of discipleship and faithfulness with accompanying blessings that our folks refer to when they use this term. Thus I have no theological battle with them over the term. My single point lies in this matter of effectively communciating accurately and understandably what we want people to know about us. I struggle with replacement terms and must confess that I haven’t found a really good one yet. You and I are fully on the same page regarding the example passages that you mentioned. If anyone has better, or more communicative, and Biblical, terms to suggest, I’m all ears. {45} {45} Your explanation makes sense, but I’m not sure that I agree that the terminology was developed with an apologetic or evangelistic purpose. I tend to think that the terminology served to safeguard the distinction between the gift of eternal life and the duty of practical godliness. Could it be that our old brethren practiced the discipline of "rightly dividing the word" because of their conviction to achieve an accurate and consistent hermeneutic? If I understand you correctly, it appears that you would at least endorse the legitimacy of the concept, i.e. that the Bible sometimes employs the verb "to save" to describe deliverances that have temporal as opposed to eternal ramifications, even though you find the terminology unfortunate. It seems to me that behind much of the antipathy expressed against "time salvation" in the past few years, however, is a genuine distaste for the concept itself. My point is simply: If a person jettisons the legitimacy of the concept, regardless of what we call it, then he must of necessity interpret every reference to "salvation" in eternal terms. Such a hermeneutic makes for a very strange theological soup! As for any "better, or more communicative, and Biblical, terms to suggest," how about "Now Salvation" ("... baptism doth also now save us, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God"1 Peter 3:21)? {46} {46} As I tried to state, I have no problem with the concept that the word "salvation" appears in Scripture in a wide diversity of settings, unquestionably including issues related to our discipleship and blessings that we experience in the here and now. Sometimes the word relates to discipleship, as with the passages that you mentioned and many more. Sometimes, even within that scope, it is used far more restrictively yet. For example, the woman who is "saved in childbearing" is saved to a valued teaching role. She is forbidden from teaching in the role of pastor or teacher in the public gathering of the church, but she is saved to a respected teaching role if her children validate her skill as a teacher by remaining steadfast in their own faith. I must confess that to some extent I do not understand the tension that is presently going on over this term. When we get them beyond semantics to the core of what they believe, I have not met more than a precious few PBs who do not embrace the concept of "salvation" within the perameters of discipleship and attendant blessings, as well as eternal salvation with our Savior in heaven. My part, at least (I can’t speak or write for others.), is purely semantic. It seems a bit incredible to me that a PB would even attempt to force every single mention of the word salvation and its derivatives in Scripture into the eternal and theological construct. Call me naive after nearly fifty years of preaching; I simply haven’t encountered them. The word and concept, either in Greek or English, implies ideas that we must derive from the context by sound hermeneutics. Saved is generally agreed to mean the equivalent of "delivered." Okay, what is implied? Delivered from what? Delivered to what? We cannot interpret and apply the passage till we answer those questions. Of all people, I once heard R. C. Sproul in a radio broadcast making these very points. In his thoughts, when someone asks if you are saved, you have every right to respond with a question, "Saved from what? Saved to what?" Their question is too open-ended to make logical sense, either linguistically or theologically. I hope these thoughts clarify my theological perspective, {48} Thanks again for your comments and I praise the Lord as well to find common ground. I will try now to re-word my original message with a better understanding and more careful use of terminology: (I will use some of the same scriptures and attempt more clarity in my explaination. A statement was made that God’s predestination does not extend to all events. Instead of trying to agree or disagree with this statement, I want to examine what the Bible teaches about the relationship of God’s decrees to the events that take place in time. This will avoid arguing about the definition of "predestinate," since this term is used in the bible, exlusively in the context of God’s plan of redemption. First of all, I want to state clearly that I believe God hates sin and has no fellowship with it. He is not the direct cause of sinful acts, {49} nor does He positively work a sinful nature in people. Even when he "hardens" I believe it is through withdrawing his restraining influence or as a just punishment for disobedience. In no way does it make God a doer of sin. When the sun withdraws its light from the day, darkness is created. However, the sun cannot be justly called the cause of darkness. Even more so can God not be called the cause of sin simply because he withholds his restraining or redeeming power. Moreover, I believe that God did not create the reprobate primarily to damn them. His primary purpose in creating both the reprobate and the redeemed was for his own glory. God’s purpose to choose a people for redemption was not a secondary plan concieved by God in reaction to the fall, but rather it was a plan as eternal as his foreknowledge of the fall of man. In choosing the elect to salvation, there is also in that choice a necessary passing over of the rest. So God’s choosing a people, inevitably ensures that the rest will not be saved, since God, in His foreknowledge, recognized that they would fall and would not be able to save themselves. However, I would note that their own sins, and not their not being chosen, is the cause of their condemnation. God was under no obligation to choose them. With that said, I will go on. I believe that although God is not the cause of man’s sin, God has such power, such sovereignty, over mankind and the universe, that nothing can take place beyond what his will allows. Though men devise sinful things in their own hearts and act voluntarily to accomplish them, even these acts were purposed by God to take place, as the very crucifying of our saviour: "The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ. For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done." {Acts 4:26-28} and Joseph’s brothers sending him to Egypt unknowingly through jealously... "But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive." {Genesis 50:20} and David numbering Israel (which he was later held accountable for)... "And again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah." {2 Samuel 24:1} and The Hivites going to battle against Israel... "For it was of the LORD to harden their hearts, that they the hivites should come against Israel in battle, that he might destroy them utterly, and that they might have no favour, but that he might destroy them, as the LORD commanded Moses." {Joshua 11:20} Many more similar passages could be referenced. Though God does not cause the sin to manifest in these men’s hearts, you can tell by the tone of the scriptures that God does not merely "permit" these events, but that they serve some purpose in his divine plan. Ultimately, his glory. Sin, in and of itself, does not glorify God. However, as a result of man’s sin, God is glorified through the magnification of his justice, his wrath, his longsuffering, and his mercy. These are some of his most important traits that we would never see manifest if not for the entrance of sin into the world. The scriptures are also abundant with more general statements of God’s all-encompasing will and purpose: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist." {Colossians 1:16-17} "I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel stand, and I will do all my pleasure." {Isaiah 46:9-10} "Lord, Thou wilt ordain peace for us; for Thou also hast wrought all our works in us." {Isaiah 26:12} Indeed, the very surety of our predestination to salvation is grounded in the truth that God works all things after the counsel of His will: "In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will." {Ephesians 1:11} If the "all things" under consideration only extends to the predestination of his children to salvation, then Paul’s argument for the assurance of this fact is groundless and the verse should might have read something like...according to the purpose of Him who worketh these things after the counsel of His own will. Also, chance is precluded even from events we would normally attribute to chance: "The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the LORD." {Proverbs 16:33} When it speaks in scripture of things occuring that are "of the Lord" this seems to signify that it was the Lord’s purpose and intention that it would come to pass. As shown above, this kind of language is even applied at times to events that involved the sinful actions of men, like waging of wars and Joseph being sent to Israel. "Sovereignty" is a term that is not in scripture, yet the concept is abundant. Consider a king ruling over a kingdom. In this kingdom there are both good and bad, just and unjust, and it is the kings power and right to restrain the wicked and direct events of the kingdom. This is sovereignty. It is a king’s rule over his kingdom. When a man committs a crime, it is the king’s power to punish him, jail him, or restrain him in some other way. However, sometimes criminals can get away with things without being caught or punished or restrained. Now, it is similar with God’s creation which he rules, except there are no limits to God’s ability to restrain wickedness, so that any wicked acts that occur can only occur through his permission. This permission is not in any way because God sees the act as good, but it is a permission in respect of his glory. For, as I have already noted, the entrance of sin helps to manifest God’s attributes, and also because it is God’s good purpose to create free, moral, rational beings. The consequence is the possibility of their disobedience. There is a scripture that says somethings like...the wrath of man will praise you and the remainded of wrath thou wilt restrain. God has full power and knowledge to intervene in the affairs and even in the hearts of men. The extent to which he does so is simply a matter of his own will and desire because he is limited by no other factor. Since God is not limited by time, I believe God determined from before time all that he would do, this includes just how much sin he would permit, among other things. Therefore, I believe in a sense that "all things" are fixed and sure and could be no other way than they are. For those who would take issue with this, I would counter that all events, good and evil, are as sure as God’s foreknowledge of them. Does this leave any room for them to be different than they are? I don’t think, however, that this undermines the idea of conditionality. How much sleep I get tonight is certainly conditional on when I finish writing this post. In seriousness, the workings of the universe and the mind of God are far too complex to reduce to a bleak, fatalistic system. Scripture and experience quickly tell us it isn’t Song of Solomon 547 {49} Is God the indirect cause of sin? I most definitely think not myself. If God is the indirect cause of sin, He is still involved with sin, right? We’d have to say that God is the creator of all things and that He made everything out of nothing but then He’d of necessity be the first, second, third, and umpteenth cause in creation. However, to lay to the charge of God that He created creatures as second causes of anything (especially sin) is to slam the charges right back to Him. If He is the first CAUSE of anything then why is the blame put on the second cause? God created everything that is and although He did not just wind up everything and turn it loose yet He is in no respect the CAUSE of everything, especially of sin- first or second/ direct or indirect. None of this in any way robs God of His sovereignty. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 83: PREDESTINATION - ITS EXTENT ======================================================================== PREDESTINATION - ITS EXTENT Central to the historical question is the extent of predestination. Does it apply to all events and actions of all men, including sin and righteous acts? Or is it in some way limited by Scripture? It seems that Scripture clearly defines that God does not cause all actions of men and all events in human history. Jeremiah repeatedly reminds his readers that God didn’t command child sacrifice to pagan gods, "... neither did it enter my mind..."Jeremiah 19:5;Jeremiah 32:35. Paul {1 Corinthians 14:33} specifically rejects that God is the author of confusion. Sadly, most of us who have spent many years in ministry have spent our seasons in or serving churches where confusion existed-in some cases, prevailed. John {1 John 2:16} names three categories of human conduct, sin, that is not of the Father, but of the world. Therefore the question, "Does God cause all things?," seems necessarily to require a negative answer, for these passages all name certain things not caused of God. Inherent, both in Scripture and in historical confessions, is the foundational truth that God is not the author, or cause, of sin. Supralapsarian theologians will attempt to hold to their all-encompassing view of predestination and still deny this premise, but they are universally unconvincing in their efforts. I will offer two examples from Scripture in which our interpretation must respect this essential premise, or we endanger the holy character of God. In the case of Joseph’s life, particularly his comment to his brothers inGenesis 50:1-26that they meant "it" for evil, {Genesis 50:20} but God for good, many commentators will leave the question of "it" vague. Did God inject Himself into a godly family of brothers who loved each other and force, or otherwise cause, them to become jealous of Joseph? I answer no indeed. If we allow the Genesis narrative to guide us, we will discover that the brothers nursed a long-standing envy of their brother, a matter not helped by a doting father who showed partiality to Joseph. As the brothers saw Joseph approaching them, they immediately began plotting his death. Had they fulfilled their evil desires, never attributed to God in the passage, they would in fact have killed him on the spot. I suggest that God intervened so as to preserve Joseph’s life through Judah’s softening spirit toward his brother. The same principle, I believe, holds true with Potiphar’s wife, and with Joseph’s time in prison. In any one of these instances Joseph could well have been killed, but God intervened and saved him alive. Factually, the envious brothers would have gladly done far more than they did were it not for God’s intervening providence. We need not impose sin (causatively) onto God at any juncture in this lesson in order to honor the final assessment spoken by Joseph to his brothers. The other frequent Biblical example favoring universal predestination deals with the crucifixion of our Lord. First of all, we read more often in the Passion Week narrative than anywhere else in Scripture, that events occurred "that the Scripture might be fulfilled."Matthew 27:18makes a fascinating observation, that the Jews delivered Jesus up to crucifixion "for envy." A reasonable, not to mention consistent with God’s holy character, case can be made that throughout the events of Passion Week the Jewish leaders would have done far more to our Lord than they did had it not been for the restraining providence of God. The Greek word- SGreek: 4309. proorizo -translated in the various forms of "predestinate" in the NT is a compound word, pro-horizo; pro in advance, and horizo, the root for our English word "horizon." The basic meaning is to set the limit in advance. The above scenario comfortably fits within that definition and does not ever cross the line of compromising God’s holy character by making Him the cause of sin. Regardless of one’s theological position,Romans 8:28contains some form of limitation. I offer one simple example. Can we imply from the passage that all things work together for good to them that hate God, who are not called according to His purpose? Paul observes an interesting interplay with the term "all things" in this context. In some cases he specifically refers to "these things." In other cases he specifically refers to "all things." I suggest thatRomans 8:32also qualifies the "all things" of verse 28, limiting them to things given to us through the merit of Jesus’ atonement. Some (myself included at one time in the past) will attempt to limit the "all things" ofRomans 8:28to the five things that Paul mentions inRomans 8:29-30. I believe that this view excessively limits the language and will not stand under scrutiny, linguistic or theological. Jesus purchased and gives us many things not specifically or clearly named in these five things.[i] Again, my objective is to be sufficiently open to Biblical language, but not excessively open so as to cross the boundary and compromise God’s holiness. To make God, directly or logically and necessarily, cause sin by excessively enlarging predestination violates the passages with which I started this note, in addition to hopelessly and irredeemably compromising God’s holiness. I am not dogmatic on the details of predestination unless someone attributes sin causatively, directly or indirectly, to God. [i] Compare2 Peter 1:3 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 84: PRESERVATION OF THE SAINTS ======================================================================== PRESERVATION OF THE SAINTS The blood of Christ is sufficient both to procure and secure salvation of all for whom it was shed. Therefore, all of the elect will finally be saved. John 1:1-3; "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life and the life was the light of men." The word procure means (among other things) to attain or to set in order. I can think of no better place to begin to consider the sufficiency of Christ to set in order our salvation than the opening verses of His Gospel as recorded by John. Where, you may ask, is the blood in consideration of these verses. ConsiderGenesis 9:4when God told Noah "But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat." I understand that in this particular instance God was giving a command concerning how they were to eat; nonetheless, there is great power in the statement that the life is in the blood (which I hope to come back to shortly). So in the beginning we see the Word (which was made flesh and dwelt among men, or, in other words, Jesus Christ) with God and BEING God and all things were made by Him. In this "all things" I believe that it embraces things terrestrial and things celestial, things temporal and things eternal. One of these eternal things was the divine PURPOSE to bring about the salvation of all His children. Our Lord, being God, and then being made flesh and dwelling among us made Him uniquely suited to procure our salvation. Because there was life in Him that was (and is) the light of men, and the life being in the blood (as it applies and is applied to us) there was no one else who could possibly set in order (procure) salvation for those that are sanctified by His blood. God himself declared in Isaiah that he "looked, and there was none to help" so he brought salvation with His "own arm", again having reference to Christ. Having then procured our eternal salvation He also secured that salvation by the shedding of His blood. Blood was shed often in sacrifice under the law that God gave to Moses but it could never make the comers thereunto perfect (Hebrews 10:1). Since the blood that was available under the law sacrifice could not appease God it did not put away sin. As a matter of fact it did just the opposite; it brought into remembrance their sin year after year and they had to continually make offerings and sacrifices for a brief atonement. Then, in the fullness of time, a Lamb came of which John the Baptist bore record saying "Behold, the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world." This Lamb (Jesus, the Christ) declared that he did not come to do His own will, but the will of the Father who had sent Him (John 6:38) and He further declared that "this is the Father’s will, that of all which He hath given me I should lose nothing, but raise it up again the last day." (John 6:39) The scriptures tell us that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin; without the remission of sin we could not stand in God’s eternal presence because He cannot look upon sin. In the blood of this Lamb was found the thing that the law could never do......literally take away our sin. Not just cleanse us for a year, but forever make us spotless! In the blood of this Lamb was power sufficient to cause God to declare that He does not remember our sin or our iniquity but has cast it "into a sea of forgetfulness, NEVER to be remembered against us again."Whereas He told Noah not to eat the flesh with the life thereof (the blood) our spotless Lamb instructed us to eat of His flesh and drink of His blood. The statement that God made to Noah is still true....the life is in the blood. Our life is hid with Christ in God, because His blood has covered our sin and clothed us with His righteousness. It is manifest that the Father was pleased with all that His son Jesus did in the fact that there is an empty tomb where He lay for a brief time. God, raising up Jesus from the dead, did in essence raise us up with Him because we have been made accepted in the beloved. The blood of Jesus could not fail to procure and secure our eternal salvation because He is God and by His very nature can not fail. Rejoice that He has declared that He has done whatsoever He has pleased. Rejoice that it has pleased Him to love us with an everlasting love. Rejoice that God who can not lie has left us the witness of His Holy Spirit that He sees us only through the shed blood of Christ, the last and final offering that God ever required for sin. Rejoice that the Lamb has declared "because I live, ye shall live also." Elder Mike McGrady ======================================================================== CHAPTER 85: PROPHECIES OF CHRIST AND MYTH ======================================================================== PROPHECIES OF CHRIST AND MYTH by Elder Joe Holder There are so many prophecies in the Old Testament, the holy writings of the Jews, that predict not only what Messiah would do but when He would come.Daniel 9:1-27gives a very precise prediction of exactly when He would come and it WAS the time when Jesus came. Paul reasons from fulfilled prophecy. There are so many phophecies that were fulfilled in Jesus, it is impossible to explain that fact without believing that God Himself was involved in the coming of Jesus. According to the historical record in the gospels, eye-witness accounts, one by one began with a group of women. You know, if MYTH developed this tradition (of the resurrection) after-the-fact as the skeptics would say today then why did myth create the fact that the first witnesses of Jesus’ resurrection were women who were not accepted in legal courts at that time as a credible witness? Why? Because that’s what happened. That’s the fact. These people are not creating a fabricated idea, they’re reporting what really happened and if women saw the resurrected Jesus first and were eyewitnesses then that’s the way it should be reported. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 86: PLAN OF GOD VS PURPOSE OF GOD ======================================================================== Plan of God vs Purpose of God I have concerns about the words "plan of salvation" for in those words I am made to wonder at God having a plan. Men have plans because they want to design and order their work using a pattern so that they can complete their purposes. However, I have a problem considering that He who knows the end from the beginning, Who never learned anything, having to have a plan in order to so order His work that he can complete His purpose. To say that God did anything without purpose though is not right IMO. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 87: PRAYER ======================================================================== Prayer by Elder Gregg Thompson Christ kneeled down and prayed, and taught his disciples to pray, that ye enter not into temptation; Christ has set us the example to pray, and 0, what a privilege it is! When the soul is overwhelmed with sorrow and distress, we can carry it all to God in prayer. When Christ prayed there appeared unto him an angel, strengthening him, and 0, what strength and comfort has often been felt by the poor, distressed, and afflicted child of God, at the throne of grace! To that throne let us often go. Your prayers must be sanctified by the blood of Jesus, or God will not accept them. You can’t be whole enough; you can’t be devout enough; you can’t be repentant enough; you can’t be contrite enough for your sins to make your prayers acceptable to God. Your prayers must be sanctified by the blood of Christ. If you don’t feel the conviction of sin and the blackness of what sin does to your conscience, you won’t appreciate Hebrews and you won’t appreciate your priest. If you come before God as a sinner, sensibly feeling the sting of sin in your life, you’ll appreciate Hebrews like you never thought possible. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 88: REGENERATION ======================================================================== REGENERATION Regeneration is taught in the scriptures, being one in the same with the "new creation," "new birth," "being born again" and "resurrection." It has to do with the imparting of life to the elect individual, chosen in Christ before the world began, {Ephesians 1:4} secured in Christ by the merit of God the Father’s sovereign choice, lost and corrupted in Adam, sinners by nature and practice, dead in trespasses and sin, {Ephesians 2:1} void of good, aliens from God {Ephesians 4:18} in mind, heart, soul, spirit, and body, unable to know God or be taught of Him, not subject to His law or can be, {Romans 8:7} can not receive of the things of the Spirit of God, {1 Corinthians 2:14} yet beloved of God in Christ, heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ, {Romans 8:17} covenant children (although not pre-existing) in the purpose and pleasure of God, asked for by the Son, kept in Christ and preserved, {Jude 1:1} atoned, redeemed, justified, sanctified, saved, delivered, purchased possessions of God by the legal, literal, spiritual, effectual work of Christ Jesus at Calvary, on the cross, in the dark before God alone, as sacrifice, substitute, Saviour, High Priest, Lamb, Lion, seed of the woman, Son of God, Son of Man, through His blood, in His body, being made sin for them {2 Corinthians 5:21} (the elect) and obtaining victory, pardon, eternal life, forgiveness of sin, fellowship, communion, freedom, acceptance and citizenship by His blood out of every nation, kindred, tongue, and people in all ages of time from Adam to the end. {Revelation 5:9} This work of the Son is made vital, real, personal, experiential, effectual, lasting, complete, by the Holy Ghost, Spirit by the sovereign power of the voice of God as He speaks to the dead in Adam, {John 5:25} chosen of God, purchased by Christ and says to them "LIVE!" They are not made willing to respond nor can they respond on their own, but by the power of God, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead, these are born again, created anew, resurrected from the death inherited from Adam to a new life in Christ Jesus their Lord. No means is used to bring this to pass, nor is this a process that is begun in them and is completed in time or eternity. God does not procreate His children by taking of the old man, flesh, carnal nature and starting in them a process to be worked out by them by the gospel or obedience. It is a complete, perfect work by God alone in the inner, new man. The body of sin is not changed, but is purchased and adopted and awaits the time of change to that perfect image of Christ at the resurrection or His coming. The old nature remains in that body with the several lusts thereof. The abilities of the old man, outer man, the flesh, the carnal man are still intact and working. Yet, within them is new life in the inner man. A new nature exists with heart, mind, character, ability, attributes, spirit and soul of it’s Father and that is God. It is born of God and can not sin because His seed remains in him. {1 John 3:9} Both of these beings are wrapped up in the same body of flesh and struggle for dominion of the earth, body, flesh. Thus the war rages! It is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. {John 6:63} This union will continue as long as this life, existence lasts in this world. But, at death here that inner man returns to God and the old man is swallowed up, the body awaits the resurrection when it too will be changed for eternity. If still here when the Lord returns, it will be changed in a moment, a twinkling of the eye. {1 Corinthians 15:52} It shall be raised incorruptible {1 Corinthians 15:52} and reunited with the soul and spirit of the elect child to dwell eternally with God in glory. {1 Thessalonians 4:17} Until that day that person is bound to this earth by a body of death, yet longs for and can have fellowship with God and Saviour through the Spirit that dwells with them here. Their prayers are heard and interpreted by the Holy Ghost and nothing in this world or the one to come can separate them from the love of Christ Jesus our Lord. {Romans 8:39} No trial is too great, no test too hard, and the joy of that soul is to serve God out of love not law. They love God’s word and seek His presence and the fellowship of kindred souls in this world. They are children of light and find light {2 Timothy 1:10} of and for their lives in the word of God, the gospel of Jesus Christ. By the gospel and their acceptance of it and it’s principles they find freedom, liberty, salvation, and abundant life in following the Great Shepherd of the sheep into the rich pastures of this life. By their lives they give testimony and witness to Him who is their life and evidence to who they are, not to make them who they are or more of who they are. They find strength, meat and drink, in this life, His life, as they have been reconciled, they are reconciled by the ministry and word of reconciliation. If blessed to find the assembly of fellow saints, they can be a world changing force. Their privilege is to be mother to thousands of millions as they reach our and fill the world with the message of their God and Husband. Their influence can be seen through the body and in the world. Though sin will bring the body down at last, they are more than conquerors through Christ. {Romans 8:37} They can do all things through Him. {Php 4:13} They may not always be found in right paths in the flesh, but the soul is never lost. {John 10:28} Misunderstood and rejected as their Lord in this world, yet loved and preserved of God, zealous of good works, yet plagued by sin in the old man. Poor and afflicted in this world, yet rich in God. Free of law, but never without law to Christ, {1 Corinthians 9:21} who is their life {Colossians 3:4} and all in all. For by Him, through Him, and to Him are all things. {Romans 11:36} For in Him they move and have their being. {Acts 17:28} ======================================================================== CHAPTER 89: REGENERATION VS JUSTIFICATION ======================================================================== REGENERATION vs JUSTIFICATION The Gospel-means position confuses the doctrine of Regeneration with the doctrine of Justification by Faith. InRomans 4:1-25, Paul employs the experience of Abraham to teach the great doctrine of justification by faith: "Abraham believed God, and it was accounted unto him for righteousness." Most proponents of the gospel-means position use this verse to teach that the sinner must believe the gospel in order to be saved, or, if you please, born again. But is this verse talking about regeneration? No, it’s talking about justification. Justification is a legal term. It speaks of something that takes place in a court room. Regeneration, on the contrary, is a biological term. It speaks of something that takes place in the delivery room. To useRomans 4:1-25to teach that a sinner can be saved if he will believe the gospel is to ignore this important fact. Of the three times that Abraham’s experience is cited in the New Testament as an example of the life of faith, {Romans 4:1-25} {Hebrews 11:1-40} {James 2:1-26} not one can be employed to suggest the idea that he was born again by his act of believing.Romans 4:1-25describes an experience in the life of Abraham that is recorded inGenesis 15:1-21. {Genesis 15:1-21} of course, occurred several years after Abraham initially left Ur, by faith. {Genesis 12:1-20} DoesRomans 4:1-25teach that a sinner may receive eternal salvation when he believes the gospel? No. Why not? Because the example the writer cites for justification by faith, Abraham, had been walking by faith for several years before the experience described in this chapter. In other words, Abraham was already a regenerate man before "he believed God and it was accounted unto him for righteousness." ======================================================================== CHAPTER 90: REGENERATION, IMMEDIATE ======================================================================== REGENERATION, IMMEDIATE The New Testament writers develop three metaphors to describe the mysterious work of God, which is regeneration. First, it is a birth. {John 3:3-8;John 1:13;1 Peter 1:23-25;1 John 3:9;1 John 5:1} Secondly, it is a creation, {Ephesians 2:10;2 Corinthians 5:17;Ephesians 4:24} the Divine act of speaking into existence that which previously did not exist. Thirdly, it is a resurrection, {Ephesians 2:1;1 John 3:14;John 5:24} the Divine act of giving life to one who is dead in trespasses and in sins. All three images demonstrate the immediacy of God’s work of grace in the soul. Does the baby play an active role in his own birth, or is he a passive party in the work of external factors? What about creation? Did man help God in the creation of the universe or was creation the work of God alone? What about resurrection? Can man raise the dead to life? Does the corpse play an active role in his own resurrection? No, God and God alone is active. He is the only Creator. Just as the universe is the product of special creation, not evolution, so the work of God in the soul is a work of Divine creation, not spiritual evolution. Further, only God can give life to the dead. He and He alone has resurrection power. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 91: REGENERATION-QUESTIONS OF AGENCY OR MEANS ======================================================================== REGENERATION-QUESTIONS OF AGENCY OR MEANS Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. {1 Peter 1:23-25} Perhaps the most significant differences of interpretation in this lesson relate to the identity of the “Word of God.” Does the term refer to Jesus (as inJohn 1:1-51)? Does it refer to the gospel, the preached word? Does it refer to Scripture, the written word? Or could it refer to the word of God in some other way? Our answers to these questions will dictate our theological course in almost all other areas of our faith. Asked in another way, in regeneration does God work directly or through one or more intermediate agents? John Gill wrestles with these questions rather directly. In the end he favors the position that God works directly in causing the new birth; that the “word of God”in this passage refers to Jesus, the Word of God. [i] The responsible Biblical teacher should avoid any thought or teaching that in any way diminishes the authority and power of both Scripture and the preached word. To depreciate either leads directly into antinomianism and a careless, thoughtless abandonment of Biblical authority and instruction. All too often those who advocate the direct work of the Holy Spirit in regeneration blend arrogant rejection of any power or effective function to Scripture and the gospel into their teaching. This unbiblical teaching will devote long, technical sermons from such passages asRomans 1:16, devoted to what the gospel cannot do. In this manner they wholly ignore what Paul taught inRomans 1:16, a statement of the gospel’s power, not a disclaimer against any power whatever in the gospel. Antinomian rejection of the gospel and of lives that are truly transformed by God’s power in the gospel inevitably follow this unsound teaching. If we readRomans 1:16as our text for a sermon, we must then preach a positive message regarding the gospel’s power, not deny the passage by teaching its mirror opposite. Advocates of gospel agency often accuse believers in the Holy Spirit’s direct and immediate regeneration of holding to anti-evangelism. Frequently, the advocates of immediate regeneration gladly accommodate the accusation by a callous indifference toward Biblical evangelism. Having offered my obvious concerns against antinomianism and the excesses that often accompany the view that the Holy Spirit works directly and immediately in regeneration, I also offer that I believe the Holy Spirit works precisely in this manner in accomplishing the new birth. My concerns deal with heartless doctrinal perspectives that refuse to follow the full Biblical model and the exciting balance that grows out of the whole Scriptural teaching in this area. We can, and should, hold to God’s absolute sovereignty in regeneration, including his working directly rather than through an intermediate agent. From that position, we must also practice enthusiastic and informed evangelism and personal discipleship that is tenderly sensitive to the teaching of Scripture in all areas of faith and conduct. How does Scripture refer to God’s “word”?The whole first chapter of Genesis provides details regarding God’s creation of the universe. At each crucial point, Moses introduces the next step in creation with “And God said...” Later in Old Testament Scripture David records a poetic reference to creation with these words, “By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth”.{Psalms 33:6} Several generations later Isaiah {Isaiah 55:10-11} recorded a similar reference to God’s personal speech, his “Word.”“ For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” Consistently, these passages refer to God’s personal speech, his word, in terms of His will and the certain accomplishments that God intended by speaking His words. In the New Testament, writing almost certainly to Diaspora Jews (Jews dispersed throughout the Roman Empire, rather than Jews still living in their native land), John devotes the prologue of his gospel to Jesus, God’s living Word. The writer of the Hebrew epistle follows this same pattern, {Hebrews 1:1-2} “God...hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son...” Peter {1 Peter 1:23-25} includes an Old Testament quote fromIsaiah 40:6thew:6 hew:6. Isaiah exposes the futility of man’s pursuits apart from God. Like a tender flower in the hot sunshine, man’s greatest glory will wither before the glory of God. If Peter had intended to teach that man in any way contributes, even indirectly, to regeneration, he chose a passage that confronts, rather than supports, the idea, not a reasonable strategy. I offer that Peter’s intent in verse 25 {1 Peter 1:25} is to establish the convincing truth that God’s personal voice, his Word, {John 5:25} accompanied by His sovereign power, accomplishes our regeneration. To interpret the Word of God in this verse as either Scripture or as the gospel implies more purity than facts will support. In2 Corinthians 2:17Paul specifically warns that the “word”of God, referring to the gospel, can be corrupted. “For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ.” A brief study of Biblical manuscripts will readily reveal that many false Christians have equally corrupted the written word of Scripture. To qualify the Word of God by which we are born again as incorruptible, Peter directs us emphatically to the sovereign Word of God, not to Scripture or to the gospel. Verse 24 {1 Peter 1:24} begins the citation fromIsaiah 40:1-31; the citation ends in the beginning of verse 25, {1 Peter 1:25} “But the word of the Lord endureth for ever.” In the context ofIsaiah 40:1-31we discover that these words predicted the substance of John’s gospel, the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Peter’s concluding commentary on this lesson, “And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you,” refers to the citation from Isaiah, not to the word of verse 23. {1 Peter 1:23} Grammatically and contextually, this interpretation weighs more heavily than any other alternatives. A pronoun requires an antecedent. Grammatically, the antecedent is ordinarily the nearest, not a more remote noun. [ii] If we reconstruct the whole lesson Peter has set before us, it flows logically from1 Peter 1:22. Obedient believers in God take revealed truth seriously. They obey it and purify their lives through its influence. Rather than rationalize why they shouldn’t apply Scripture to their personal conduct, they gladly seek its wisdom for their lives. Not interested in personal glory, they honor the purifying impact of the gospel as a work of the Holy Spirit. Hardness of heart and other personal sins will promote cynical and critical attitudes toward other believers, the fault-finding spirit personified. Sensitive obedience to God will promote both brotherly love and self-sacrificing love toward other believers. The foundational cause of such noble Christian conduct is discovered in the new birth and God’s incorruptible seed, His life, created in us by the personal Word of God, God’s will and speech, directing the course of His saving grace. While flesh fades under the heat of day, and its glory wrinkles under the rays of God’s glory, the words of God, revealing His will and power, becomes the heartbeat of the gospel. Whether preached by John before Jesus’ public appearance, or by preachers since John, the word of the gospel must remain faithfully the same in all these essential areas of divine truth. This Word preached, bears witness to God’s personal speech of mercy and love for his people, most perfectly personified in the Incarnation, the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in flesh, and for our sins. To Him be the glory! [i] Body of Divinity, Gill’s systematic theology text. Throughout his commentaries, Gill favors the idea of regeneration through the agency of the gospel. In Body of Divinity, the chapter dealing with the method by which God effects regeneration, Gill begins with his typical view favoring gospel agency. Then he offers one of his typical “Or it could be...” comments, after which he develops the idea that Jesus Himself could be the Word of God in this passage. After developing this alternate thought, Gill seems to end the chapter favoring the idea of direct, or immediate, regeneration, Jesus, God’s Living Word, being the “word of God”in this passage. [ii] Then, would it not be that the antecedent/noun relationship would require that "this" word which by the gospel is preached unto you would be making reference to the "word" of the Lord that endureth for ever right there in the same verse?1 Peter 1:25| ======================================================================== CHAPTER 92: REVELATION: THE BIG PICTURE ======================================================================== REVELATION: THE BIG PICTURE by Elder Michael Gowens "Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand."Revelation 1:3 No portion of God’s word has evoked more conjecture, diversity of opinion, and general confusion among professed Christians than the Book of Revelation. Without question, believers today are not a little skeptical about Revelation. In fact, contemporary attitudes toward Revelation are dangerously close to, shall I say, irreverence. Many modern Christians have concluded that Revelation is incomprehensible; consequently, they tend to avoid it and treat it as if it doesn’t exist. Why do we distrust this particular book? Why are we so hesitant to study and attempt to understand it? What is it about Revelation that has led to this contemporary paranoia and allergy? I fear that modern attitudes toward the final book of the Bible are largely reactionary. The myriad of weird and eccentric interpretations coupled with the dogmatism with which proponents of a particular position have promoted their views has left many Christians, I believe, convinced that Revelation is not only hard, but impossible to understand. Disillusioned by the scare tactics of those who exploit Revelation to frighten little children into making a decision for Christ; disenchanted by the religious charlatans who have capitalized financially on the public’s natural intrigue with the prophetic; frustrated by the date setters who have used the book to make specific predictions that never came to pass; and weary with those who postulate an entire theology from this eschatological book, modern Christians have opted for a philosophy of despair concerning Revelation. I don’t believe, however, that the Book of Revelation was providentially canonized just to keep people guessing. Like the other sixty-five books of the Bible, the Book of Revelation is "profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness." In fact, I believe that as the return of our Lord nears, and as conditions in the modern world increasingly parallel the environment in which the Christians in Asia Minor lived, Revelation will assume a new level of relevance and meaning. Moreover, Revelation is the only book in Scripture that promises a specific "blessing" to those who hear and obey its message. {Revelation 1:3} With such a promise, the study of this book must be as much of a priority as the study of Romans, Ephesians, or the Gospel of John. Four Views Revelation is one of four books written by the apostle John, [i] the Christological champion of the New Testament. Like his Gospel and three epistles, Revelation is concerned with the person and work of Jesus Christ. While John’s Gospel, however, focuses on the identity of the Lord Jesus as the Divine Son of God, Revelation focuses on His post-resurrection glory and His ultimate and certain return. The ascended Christ is both the source and the subject of this important book. {Revelation 1:1} Revelation is, admittedly, unusual. The world of Revelation seems strange and foreign to those of us who live in the modern world. There are no automobiles, microwave ovens, grocery stores, schools, or televisions in this book. Revelation, on the contrary, describes a world of angels, demons, lambs, lions, horses, and dragons. Two monsters emerge from its pages, one with seven heads and ten horns who rises from the sea, and the other with the horns of a ram and the voice of a dragon who rises from the earth. It portrays a world of thunder, lightning, hail, fire, smoke, and blood. Such dramatic imagery is unconventional, to say the least. But Revelation is God’s word. It is imperative, therefore, that believer’s study its pages and digest its principles. The quest to understand Revelation is honorable. In fact, it is as basic and fundamental to healthy discipleship as a passion to understand Genesis, Isaiah, or First Peter. Students of the Scripture disagree concerning the proper interpretation of Revelation. Though interpretations vary considerably even within the different categories, there are basically four interpretive views. (1) THE PRETERIST VIEW: Preterists believe that the book was written near the end of the reign of Nero (A.D. 54-68). They tend, consequently, to ascribe fulfillment of the prophecies to the destruction of Jerusalem (A.D. 70), the fall of the Roman Empire, or both. The "preterist" view argues that the phrase "... things which must shortly come to pass" {Revelation 1:1} makes an immediate fulfillment essential. Early dating (A.D. 67-68) is crucial to the preterist’s argument. The preterist view, furthermore, asserts that the book was written to encourage believers who were suffering persecution in the early church period. Although preterists apply the fulfillment of Revelation’s prophecy to A.D. 70, they believe that the principles of conflict and encouragement presented in the book have a wider application to Christians in subsequent eras. The primary argument against the Preterist position concerns the dating of the book. Was it written in A.D. 67-68 during Nero’s reign, or, as most Bible students and church historians agree, in A.D. 81-96 during the reign of Flavius Domitian? In the light of the fact that John’s Gospel and three Epistles were written near the end of the first century (A.D. 90’s) and the fact that Paul’s apostleship, not John’s, was in the fore during Nero’s reign, the argument for the later date seems more plausible. Obviously, if Revelation was written in A.D. 96, then it could not have been fulfilled a quarter century earlier in A.D. 70. Substantial arguments can be made for both dates, but the sheer discrepancy and uncertainty of the autographic date should give the believer pause before he embraces the preterist view dogmatically. Personally, I struggle with the idea that a prophetic book like Revelation {Revelation 1:3} has no future relevance. Yes, there are Old Testament books aplenty that must be interpreted only in terms of past history (with, of course, an application of spiritual principles to every successive era-Romans 15:4), but the tone of those books is primarily historical. The tone of Revelation, on the contrary, is prophetic. Seeing the prophetic nature of this book, is it reasonable to assume that the last book of the Bible has no direct relevance to believers who lived after A.D. 70? Though I do not mean to imply that all preterists who consign Revelation to the past are reacting against man’s natural fascination with the future, on the one hand, and man’s natural fear of the unknown, on the other hand (such an implication would be to disregard the substantive arguments of preterism), yet it is possible that some have opted for the preterist view simply in reaction to the weird and frightening way some Bible teachers have explained the book. Whether or not this position is hermeneutically accurate, I can understand the psychological attraction of the preterist view. (2) THE FUTURIST VIEW: While the preterist relegates the events of the book to the past, the "futurist" puts the majority of the book in the future. He believes that chapters four to twenty-two describe events that will be rapidly fulfilled at the Second Coming of Christ. The futurist expects a final crisis at the end of time. This view is popular among those who subscribe to some form of Dispensationalism. Distinguishing between "the things that must shortly come to pass" (chapters one to three) and "things which must be hereafter" (chapters four to twenty-two), this is probably the most pervasively popular view in mainstream Christianity today. The futurist view, however, has several inherent problems. First of all, it fails to make an immediate application to the believers to whom John wrote. The futurist’s "out there" interpretation (with nineteen of the book’s twenty-two chapters to be fulfilled in the future) seems remote to the immediate needs of the Christians in Asia Minor. Secondly, because the book describes future events through the use of symbolism and unusual imagery, and because the book is by its very nature "prophetic," {Revelation 1:3;Revelation 22:18} it is difficult, if not impossible, to speak with absolute certainty and dogmatism. These two factors- i.e. that the book is written in the language of symbolism, not history, and that the book deals with the future, not the pasttend to make me cautious about swallowing what appears to be someone’s particular opinion. For example, someone may say, as I have heard, that the ten horns represent the ten nations that compose the European Common Community, or that Babylon represents the resurrected Roman Empire, etc. They proceed to insinuate that interpretation into the entire book, constructing an elaborate system of end-time social, political, economic, and religious events. Are they correct? Maybe. Or, maybe not. The sheer uncertainty of such a grid constructed outside of Divine Revelation and imposed upon the text gives me pause to accept it "lock, stock, and barrel." I don’t know if the ten horns represent the ECC. They very well might. But they might not. As long as I’m unsure, I personally hesitate to be dogmatic. This danger of sensationalism and speculation is intrinsic to the futurist view. Sadly, the sensational and intriguing appeals to popular culture. Most people want a Bible teacher to tell them what all of the images and symbols mean, to paint the symbolic in concrete historical terms. But because the future hasn’t happened yet, it is unwise to be dogmatic. (3) THE HISTORICIST VIEW: The "historical" view contends that the book of Revelation chronologically describes human history from the ascension to the Second Coming of Christ. Some historicists divide the book into three distinct sections, according to John’s three visions: (a) Chapters 1-3 (Revelation 1:1-20;Revelation 2:1-29;Revelation 3:1-22describe ecclesiastical, or church, history from the first century to the return of the Lord; (b) Chapters 4-11 (Revelation 4:1-11;Revelation 5:1-14;Revelation 6:1-17;Revelation 7:1-17;Revelation 8:1-13;Revelation 9:1-21;Revelation 10:1-11;Revelation 11:1-19describe social and environmental events between the two advents of Christ; (c) Chapters 12-18 (Revelation 12:1-17;Revelation 13:1-18;Revelation 14:1-20;Revelation 15:1-8;Revelation 16:1-21;Revelation 17:1-18;Revelation 18:1-24describe political and economic history between the ascension and the Second Coming. Though the historical view is fascinating, it, too, has inherent difficulties. Like the futurist view, the historical view cannot speak in concrete historical terms. Historians are unable to identify specific historical events corresponding to the symbols of the book. Just the possibility that one has not considered all of the historical options, prohibits one from speaking with absolute certainty. It is impossible to know exactly where we are on the historicists timeline. (4) THE IDEALIST VIEW: This view is also called the symbolic or allegorical view. The "idealist" sees Revelation as a panorama of the cosmic conflict between good and evil over the span of human history, with good triumphing in the end. This view contends that Revelation is written in symbolic language not because it is a secret code to be unlocked or an esoteric puzzle to be solved, but because it is concerned to teach general spiritual principles regarding the spiritual warfare in which the believer is involved. These principles had a specific application to the seven churches in Asia Minor. They also have a wider application to believers in every age who find themselves in the throes of spiritual conflict. This universal warfare between the kingdom of God and the kingdoms of this world will be consummated when the Risen Christ returns, "riding a White Horse," {Revelation 19:11} to vanquish His foes and bring everlasting peace and safety to His people. What are the problems inherent to the idealists approach? In all honesty, very few. Though Dispensationalists argue that this approach errs because it doesn’t interpret the text literally, I respectfully beg to differ. Literal interpretation does not necessarily mean "physical" interpretation. The idealist view, as a matter of fact, is true to the principles of grammatical and historical interpretation and consistent with the symbolic and prophetic nature of the book. I concede that a potential danger intrinsic to the idealist view is the tendency to spiritualize excessively. The futurist expresses a legitimate concern when he rejects this allegorical approach to the book on the basis that it encourages exaggerated spiritualization. For example, the individual who proceeds to make the rainbow, the sea of glass, the gems, etc., represent certain spiritual truths has taken liberties to read meaning into the text (eisegesis) instead of allowing the text to speak for itself (exegesis). The rainbow John saw was, we must assume, a rainbow; the sea of glass, a sea of glass, not "the sea of God’s love." When the Holy Spirit gives editorial comment on a metaphor or symbol, the Bible student has the right to insert a definition on the imagery; when He doesn’t, we must not venture into speculation and conjecture. For example, it is appropriate to say that the "lake of fire" is the eternal abode of the wicked. Revelation 20:1-15teaches that categorically. It is not appropriate to say, however, that the "sea of glass" represents the attributes of God. Scripture gives no such indication. Certainly, all four views have merit, and a combination of the four may be closer to the truth than any one view by itself. Regardless of the particular view one adopts, the book of Revelation describes certain general principles that speak to all believers alike. Understanding this "big picture" is the key to interpreting Revelation. The Goal of Revelation The book of Revelation was not written to satisfy man’s curiosity of the future, but to give strength and hope to God’s persecuted people. John’s goal is to encourage the weary Christians in Asia Minor to persevere in faith in the face of tremendous external opposition. Consider his greeting: "I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ."Revelation 1:9 Notice three facts inherent in John’s words. (1) Notice where he was. He was in Patmos, a small rocky island about sixty miles off the coast of Asia Minor in the Agaean Sea. Patmos was a Roman penal settlement where prisoners who were considered dangerous to civil order were exiled. (2) Notice why he was there. John had been exiled to Patmos "for the word of God, and the testimony of Jesus Christ." He was suffering, in other words, persecution for Christ’s sake. He was being punished for his convictions. (3) Notice how he refers to himself. He calls himself "your...companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ." Two phrases are especially significant: the phrase "companion in tribulation" and the phrase "patience of Jesus Christ." The word "companion" is koinonia, translated elsewhere in the New Testament by the word "fellowship." It means "to share in common." John shared something in common with the believers in Asia Minor. What did he share? "Tribulation," one of the key words of the book. These members of the seven local Christian assemblies in Asia Minor were suffering severe persecution in their respective communities. They were experiencing reprisal and recrimination because of their refusal to worship idols, to glorify Caesar, and to participate in the pagan rituals that were such a viable part of social life. John said, "I, too, am suffering for the cause of Jesus Christ. I share your struggles." Exiled to Patmos for the word of God, John shared tribulation in common with these early believers. John shared something else with the saints in Asia. He shared the benefits of kingdom living with them, and the common commitment to Jesus Christ as the Lord and King of His kingdom, as the phrase "the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ" discloses. The word "patience" (hupomone) means perseverence, steadfast commitment, faithfulness, and endurance. This word will also resurface frequently throughout the book. {Revelation 13:10;Revelation 14:12} By employing the word "patience" in his greeting, John gives us a clue regarding his purpose in writing to these persecuted Christians. He is concerned to encourage them to persevere in the face of very intimidating opposition. The phrase "the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ" is both a subtle reminder of the commitment they had made to be true and loyal to the Lord Jesus and an encouragement to persevere in view of the fact that he was in the battle with them. I am, he said, "your companion in tribulation" viz. "I share your trouble" and "your companion in patience" viz. "I share your commitment". What was the nature of their tribulation?Revelation 2:9-10, the message to the church of Smyrna, defines it in terms of "persecution." Smyrna was a microcosm of the greater regional conflict. The believers there had already suffered persecution in the form of "poverty" and slander ("blasphemy"). More intense sufferings, Christ informs them, were coming: "Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days; be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life." {Revelation 2:10} Persecution took the forms of boycott and unemployment, {Revelation 13:17} slander, incarceration, physical torture, and martyrdom. Because early Christians refused to burn incense before the bust of the Emperor and say "Caesar is Lord," they became the objects of the most inhumane treatment. Some were even used as human torches to illumine Nero’s gardens and made sport for the gladiators and lions. In fact, a member of the church at Pergamum named Antipas had actually died at the time of writing. {Revelation 2:13} The environment in which these early Christians sought to live out their faith was openly hostile and antagonistic toward Christianity. The pressure to conform to popular culture was great; the penalty for resisting was greater still. So Revelation is book for the persecuted saints of God. The late Elder Len Dalton summarizes the purpose of Revelation in the following helpful paragraph: "The chief value of the book seems to lie in its testimony to the faith and hope of persecuted Christians and in the comfort and inspiration it has brought to sorrowing and oppressed souls in every age of the church. It points up to the fact that there will be an end to the sorrow and conflict, that the enemies of the saints will be punished, and that the followers of the Lamb will be blessedly rewarded." (The Divine Library, p. 143). So, John, exiled on Patmos Island for Christ’s sake, writes the Christians of Asia Minor who were also in the trenches of spiritual conflict and encourages them to persevere in the faith. Understanding this basic setting of background information is essential. But how does he encourage them? A Heavenly Perspective John encourages the weary saints of Asia Minor by giving them a heavenly perspective on their sufferings. He helps them to rise above the details of personal struggle to see "the big picture" that God had shown him. Revelation is, in other words, a window into the invisible yet real world of heaven, an unveiling of the mysterious for the comfort and encouragement of those who are in the fray of the battle now. In the book of Revelation, John describes the mysterious world that God had shown him. Such a view into heaven had given John a fresh perspective on his own sufferings. But God had not given John this supernatural experience for his own benefit, but for the persecuted and weary saints of God. Because of the tendency to exaggerate troubles and to lose one’s focus, the Lord uncovered the window s of heaven and permitted his servant John to peer inside and describe the eternal dimension to those weary Christians embroiled in termporal conflict. Revelation is essentially a window into the unknown for the benefit and encouragement of those who are confined to the realm of the tangible. In more specific terms, the encouragement John has to offer these weary first century believers is expressed in the five major themes of the book: (1) The Glory of Christ; (2) The Sovereignty of Christ; (3) The Worship of Heaven; (4) Spiritual Warfare; (5) The Second Coming of Christ. When these five dominant themes are put together, the big picture emerges. The following is a distillation and crystallization of the "big picture": Revelation is the drama of the Risen Christ, ruling His world, worshiped by His creatures, vanquishing His enemies, vindicating His church, and bringing them everlasting rest in His immediate presence. Each of the respective parts of that summary will unfold as we proceed. Such a vision would inevitably instill courage and infuse strength into the hearts of the foot soldiers in Christ’s kingdom. Theme 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10;1 Thessalonians 2:1-20;1 Thessalonians 3:1-13;1 Thessalonians 4:1-18;1 Thessalonians 5:1-28states the unequivocal theological truth that Jesus Christ was resurrected from the dead and is alive today. Revelation illustrates that truth. The book is a Christological gem. Read the description of the glory of Christ inRevelation 1:13-16. Who is this man among the lampstands? "Look ye saints, the sight is glorious; see the Man of Sorrows now; From the fight returned victorious, every knee to Him shall bow." To encourage these beleagured and tired soldiers of the cross, John reminds them, first of all, that the Lord Jesus is alive. He was not the victim of the cross, but the Victor! Calvary was not the ultimate tragedy, but the unequivocal triumph! Further, in His risen glory, He moves among the candlesticks, superintending the affairs of each local church. He knows all about each one- both in terms of their respective virtues and vices. He is mindful of their suffering, their condition, and their needs. Though the early believers knew theologically that Christ was alive, it would be easy for them, in the trenches of persecution, to lose a sense of the reality and the relevance of that truth. They needed a new awareness of the Lord Jesus Christ in His risen glory. They needed the reassurance that He was indeed alive, the conqueror of death and the grave. Revelation was the Lord’s prescription for their need. Theme 2 Thessalonians 1:1-12;2 Thessalonians 2:1-17;2 Thessalonians 3:1-18; et al.} is in absolute control. What a comforting reminder to these persecuted saints! So long as Christ was in ultimate control, they could persevere. Theme #3 The Worship of Heaven Revelation portrays the Risen Christ, reigning upon His throne, receiving worship from His creatures. Among the many other things that it is, the book of Revelation is a manual for worship. It contains five separate worship scenes {Revelation 4:8-11;Revelation 5:8-14;Revelation 7:9-17;Revelation 11:15-19;Revelation 19:1-9} in which John witnesses the worship of angels and disembodied souls made perfect. All heaven is jubilant before the Lamb that was slain. This glimpse into heaven, can’t you see, is carefully calculated to expand the perspective of these battle-scarred, road-weary Christians. By lifting their gaze heavenward, John brings perspective to their current plight, and, in the process of sharpening their focus on the eternal, gives them the incentive and the direction they need in order to stand unflinching in the face of social pressure. "The Christ whose name you wear," John says to these believers, "is both alive from the dead and active in the world. Furthermore, all heaven bows in adoring worship to Him." Such a reminder would serve to prompt the early saints to renew their commitment to worship Him, both through verbal praise and through the offering up of the entire life in His service. Such a worthy Savior deserved the honor and praise they could render. Theme #4 Spiritual Warfare Let’s add the next theme to the emerging "big picture." Revelation is the drama of the Risen Christ, ruling His world, worshiped by His creatures, and vanquishing His foes and the enemies of His church. Warfare, or spiritual conflict, is a dominant theme of Revelation. Of the sixteen times the word "war" appears in the New Testament, nine are in the book of Revelation. The very tone of conflict is intrinsic to Revelation. Who can read the book and fail to notice the tension between good and evil, Christ and the dragon, the kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness? Obviously, Revelation depicts a battle. But what battle does it depict? Futurists define it in terms of a final crisis called Armageddon. There may very well be a final crisis, but to define the warfare motif of Revelation in terms of that one future clash misses the more general principle that believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are engaged in a spiritual warfare of cosmic proportions against "principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." {Ephesians 6:12} John wants the persecuted saints of Asia Minor to know that the societal opposition they have endured is more than a personal vendetta or culture war. He wants them to view their persecution in terms of the larger universal clash of righteousness versus unrighteousness, a conflict that is being played out on the theater of human experience. Revelation 12:1-17outlines this warfare dynamic vividly. It is a panorama of the cosmic conflict of the ages between the "Seed of the woman" and the serpent. {Genesis 3:15} Let’s develop the warfare theme ofRevelation 12:1-17. Verse one sets the context of battle in the spiritual dimension (i.e. the "heavenlies" ofEphesians 6:12): "And there appeared a great wonder in heaven..." What did John see? He saw "a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars." This woman is Israel, i.e. the Jewish nation, from whom the Messiah was born. {Revelation 12:2;Revelation 12:5} Israel "brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne." {Revelation 12:5} Notice John also sees "a great red dragon" who "stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born." {Revelation 12:4} Do you remember Herod’s plot to slay the newborn King? It was more than one man’s dimented and paranoid attempt to protect the stability of his throne. Herod’s plot was an infernal attempt to sabotage the fulfillment of God’s eternal purpose. In other words, this event, like the temptation in the wilderness {Matthew 4:1-25} and Peter’s rebuke of the Lord Jesus, {Matthew 16:21-23} was a supernatural ploy to derail the Lord from His covenant assignment. When Jesus said to Peter, "Get thee behind me Satan, for thou art an offence lit. a stumblingblock unto me," {Matthew 16:23} He recognized the same diabolical logic in Peter’s words that He had endured at the hands of the devil for forty days in the wilderness. The bottom line is simply this: The cosmic conflict between Good and evil, between Righteousness and unrighteousness, between the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness, between God and the devil, is played out on the theater of human existence. The dragon used Herod as his pawn to attempt to devour the Messiah at his birth. Was he successful? No; the woman’s man child was "caught up to God and His throne." The ascension of Christ (which, by the way, is one of the dominant themes of Revelation) is the ultimate proof that Jesus was victorious at the cross. Israel, subsequently, "fled into the wilderness" where God had prepared for her temporary protection. {Revelation 12:6} This speaks of the Lord’s providential care of the early church. Divine providence and supernatural intervention in the life of the church is the only explanation for the perpetuity of the kingdom of Christ in the hostile enemy territory that is the world. Next, the scene shifts back from the terrestrial to the celestial: "And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon...."{Revelation 12:7} It is a mistake, in my opinion, to attempt to applyRevelation 12:1-17to any one historical occurrence. This chapter describes the cosmic conflict of the ages. Satan has, since he was deposed from his created position, waged war against the kingdom of God. It has always been his strategy to sabotage God’s program. Since he was unsuccessful in his attempt to exterminate the Messiah, he proceeds to make war with Messiah’s "brethren" and to deceive the whole world, knowing that he has but a short time. {Revelation 12:9-17} This is the story of human history: God sending His Son through the nation of Israel; Satan attempting to destroy the Messiah; The Lord Jesus ascending to the throne of the universe; the devil deceiving the nations, persecuting Israel, {Revelation 12:13} and declaring war with "the remnant of her seed" i.e. the New Testament Church who "keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." Will he be successful? Not ultimately, for Messiah has won the war at the cross: "Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down which accused them before our God day and night." {Revelation 12:10} Praise be to God, Satan is a defeated foe! But though he has lost the war, he now intensifies his efforts against the kingdom of God, for "he knoweth that he hath but a short time." {Revelation 12:12} In his fury, Satan unleashes contemporary assaults against those who "have the testimony of Jesus Christ" from his infernal arsenal. {Revelation 12:15-17} Lest Christians should be intimidated, however, John is careful to note that the Risen Christ intervenes on behalf of his church (see verses fourteen and sixteen). In fact, John says, early believers "overcame him." How? By "the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony." Pleading the blood of Christ and wielding the sword of the spirit, these Christians achieved victory by faith over the devil. They were so committed to Christ that they were willing to die as martyrs for His name: "... they loved not their lives unto the death." They knew that even if Satan killed the body, he couldn’t exterminate the soul. Consequently, they stood faithful and resolute in the face of the most severe forms of persecution. Why does John develop the warfare dynamic so vividly? Because he wants the believers in Asia Minor and in all subsequent eras to learn to interpret the world’s antagonism to the gospel in terms of the greater universal fray between the Supernal and the infernal. He also wants them to know that the war has already been won. Jesus met the enemy head-on at the cross, dealt the death-blow to the serpent’s head, {Genesis 3:15;Habakkuk 3:13;1 John 3:8;Hebrews 2:14} and emerged victorious from death. He now reigns as the Sovereign King of kings. One day He will return, riding a "white horse" with the armies of heaven following, to vanquish His foes (and ours) forever. With that understanding, persecuted Christians gain perspective on their sufferings and incentive to persevere faithful to the end, regardless of the cost. That brings us to the final theme. Theme #5 The Return of Jesus Christ Revelation is a climactic book. It is the capstone of Special Revelation. It describes the drama of the risen Christ, ruling His world, worshiped by His creatures, vanquishing His foes, and bringing everlasting rest to His people. Set in the context of earthly tension, it rises to the climax of the Second Coming. The return of our Lord will be the apex of human history. It is the momentous event, the grand finale. When the Risen and Glorified Christ makes His triumphal entry, He will ride, not a "colt the foal of an ass" as He did in His first advent, but a great white horse. Then, every knee shall bow and every tongue will confess that He is Lord and King. {Php 2:9-11} Then, every eye shall see Him. {Revelation 1:7} Then, "in His times," God will "show who is the only Potentate, King of kings, and Lord of lords." {1 Timothy 6:15} Then, He will come "without sin unto salvation." {Hebrews 9:28} Then, shall be brought to pass the saying, "Death is swallowed up in victory." {1 Corinthians 15:54} Then, He will vindicate His righteous name and put to silence all of the "hard speeches that ungodly sinners have uttered against Him." {Jude 1:25} Then, when the last trumpet sounds, "the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign forever and ever" (Revelation 11:15; cf.Daniel 2:44). What a day that will be! The book of Revelation both begins and ends with a reference to the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. {Revelation 1:7;Revelation 22:20} The response of the persecuted saints of God to this blessed hope has been for twenty long centuries, "Even so, come Lord Jesus!" What does the Second Coming mean to those in the trenches of the fight of faith? It means rescue from "great tribulation:" "These are they that are come out of great tribulation...."{Revelation 7:14} It means transport to a city which hath foundations whose builder and maker is God. {Revelation 21:1-27} It means everlasting peace, joy, and repose in the immediate presence of King Immanuel. It means no more pain, nor death, nor sorrow or crying. It means no more death, nor sickness, nor disease, nor fighting. It means no more Satan and no more sin. It means the Beatific vision, for we shall see Him "face to face." It means, blessed be the name of the Lord, eternal rest. Ah, rest; what a glorious prospect! The hymnwriter said it poignantly: "Mid toil and tribulation and tumult of her war, She waits the consummation of peace forevermore; Til with the vision glorious her longing eyes are blest, And the great church victorious, shall be the church at rest." That’s the message of Revelation. Summary The purpose of Revelation, "the big picture," is to encourage the persecuted followers of the Lamb to persevere faithful to the One who is alive forevermore in an environment that is antagonistic to Him. Through John, who himself was suffering reproach for Christ’s sake, the Holy Spirit offers this encouragement by drawing the curtains of heaven and permitting them to see into the invisible world of spiritual realities. This heavenly perspective has the effect of enlarging the vision of those who live in enemy territory, giving them the incentive to keep going. By reminding them of the end of the story, the Spirit of God encourages them to endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. By allowing them to hear the redeemed throng of heaven singing the triumphant chorus of praise to the Lamb, they are encouraged to continue to praise Him on earth. By giving them a preview of coming attractions, the chief of which being the Second Coming of the Mighty Conqueror, they are motivated to be faithful unto death. Revelation helps our unbelief. It corrects our slide down the slippery slope of discouragement by reminding us that the Living Lord is in control of our difficult situation. Revelation bids us to "hold the fort." After General Sherman had besieged Atlanta, General Hood, of the Confederacy, made a noble stand against Sherman’s troops at Alatoona Pass. As Sherman watched the battle from nearby Kenessaw Mountain, he noticed that General Hood began to prevail. To encourage his troops, Sherman heliographed a message down to his tired and beleagured army. The message read, "Hold the fort, for I am coming." As the General’s message passed from soldier to soldier, the army rallied to victory. This story became the motivation for one of Phillip Bliss’ most famous hymns: "Hold the fort, for I am coming," Jesus signals still; Wave the answer back to heaven, "By thy grace, we will." Revelation, the final chapter of Divine Revelation, is our Captain’s message to His beleagured troops, "Hold the fort, for I am coming." May you and I today take courage from his promise, waving the answer back to heaven in a new commitment to be faithful to Him, "By thy grace, we will." [i] He wrote, "Revelation is one of four books written by the apostle John." Bro. Gowens listed the four other books besides Revelation, making this one of "five" books written by John ( 1). The Gospel of John (2). The First Epistle of John ( 3). The Second Epistle of John (4). The Third Epistle of John (5). The Revelation of Jesus Christ ======================================================================== CHAPTER 93: RIGHTEOUSNESS' MEASURING STICK ======================================================================== RIGHTEOUSNESS’ MEASURING STICK by Elder Joe Holder For the believer in Christ what is right is not measured by self, personal preferences or private opinions but is what is measured right and declared so by God. Whether it relates to our legal standing with God, whether our sins have been taken away from us, and the imputed righteousness of Christ replacing it in our legal standing with God that will secure our home in heaven exclusively or whether it be if we are living in good consciousness before God in terms of the law of God or not, the measure of right standing is not self but God. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 94: REPLY TO CONDITIONAL TIME SALVATION BY 516 ======================================================================== Reply to Conditional Time Salvation by 516 SEE PBtop: TIME SALVATION, CONDITIONAL See PBtop: Reply to Conditional Time Salvation by 517 I will bring to you a classic example of "Conditional Time Salvation." This lesson has absolutely nothing to do with "Eternal Salvation." It has only to do with a "Conditional Time Salvation." I will not go into a lot of details. I will merely present the lesson and let you think about it and consider it from all angles with as many questions as you may desire to ask. This lesson has reference to a deliverance that is described in the book of Jonah. Do you believe that the salvation of all the people of Nineveh means that 100% of those people had eternal salvation? [i] Is there anything that suggests that eternal salvation for the people of Nineveh is involved in the book of Jonah? [ii] The salvation of Nineveh was UNIVERSAL. Every one of them was delivered from a timely destruction. Every one of them fulfilled the condition of repenting (and this was a "natural" repentance). The deliverance (salvation) was for time only and had absolutely nothing to do with eternal salvation. Every one of the inhabitants of Nineveh did experience this timely deliverance and everyone of them had to fulfill the CONDITION in order to have the salvation from a natural destruction. I do not believe that spiritual activities were involved-these were altogether natural activities that were involved in achieving this natural deliverance. There may be spiritual activities in some situations, but I do not believe that every single Ninevehite was involved in a spiritual manner. I do not believe that every Ninevehite that experienced this deliverance was necessarily a child of God--the subject in this lesson has nothing to do with eternal life or being saved in heaven. Hence, I do not believe that the saving grace of God was being active in this deliverance--this deliverance was strictly obtained by a timely fulfilling of the condition that had been exacted and that condition was a repentance of the ENTIRE city. Study this lesson carefully. It is a proof of CONDITIONAL TIME SALVATION. There is no proof that all of these will be eternally saved in heaven--in fact, there is certainly no proof that every single Ninevehite had eternal salvation. But there is absolute proof that Nineveh experienced a 100% CONDITIONAL TIME SALVATION. It occured in time and was not eternal--it depended upon fulfillment of the condition that was named. (REPENT) This lesson from the book of Jonah does teach CONDITIONAL TIME SALVATION. It is not related to the final ETERNAL SALVATION of anybody. [i] No sir. 516 [ii] Nothing that I recall. I may be wrong but I agree with you except that I still believe that salvation in time is by grace ONLY as it was by grace ONLY that Nineveh was spared. 516 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 95: REPLY TO CONDITIONAL TIME SALVATION BY 517 ======================================================================== Reply to Conditional Time Salvation by 517 SEE PBtop: Reply to Conditional Time Salvation by 516 Having read a bit on the subject I have heard what seem to be both biblical and unbiblical explainations of "conditional time salvation." On the biblical side, I have read people advocating the simple truth that God is true to his promises and full of mercy toward the repentant, i.e. the example of Ninevah given in the email I am responding to. On the unbiblical side, I have heard explainations that seem to do a number of things: 1. Advocate a works based time salvation. 2. Undermine God’s all-encompasing predetermination of all things.[i] 3. Create a semi-arminian theology that aknowledges predestination, grace, and God’s sovereignty in our eternal salvation, but denies predestination, grace, and God’s sovereignty in our temporal salvation.[ii] This "conditional time salvation" seems to be a new thing among primitive baptists, since I do not find it in any of their old writings, nor was this kind of talk to be found among any but professed arminians until recent years. Elders of the past like Samuel Trott and Gilbert Beebe (writers of the black rock address), Syvester Hassell (one of the writers of "The History of the Church of God," the best primitive baptist history available), and later preachers like J.H. Oliphant and Silas Durand [iii] [iv] [v] [vi] [vii] [viii] [ix] all advocated views of predestination that indicate they believed that God’s predetermination extended to all events in such a way as to preclude chance or a self-determined free will from having any say. SEE PBtop: ABSOLUTE PREDESTINATION by Primitive Baptist’s prior to 1900? In short, they believed God purposed all things that come to pass and though that sometimes was in the way of "permission,"[x] God’s dealing with sin was "not merely permissive." The doctrine of "conditional time salvation" in its unbiblical form was not to be found among them, nor have I yet to see this expression or view advocated by any primitive baptists prior to the civil war. It is evident from the scriptures that there is a salvation or salvations that occur in time. It is also sometimes conditional upon the children of God obeying the commands of God. If that is true, there should be no harm or no violence to the truth in stating that there is a conditional time salvation. Whether or not it is wise to use the term in discussions with those who know not the truth regarding sovereign grace is debatable. Peter exhorted the people on the day of Pentecost to "Save yourselves from this untoward generation." {} Did the response to this command save those who took the appropriate action in time or eternality? Did their positive response bring about their deliverance from sin or cause them to be born of the Spirit? Was not the salvation that took place conditional upon their receiving the preached word and obeying it by repenting and being baptized? Isaiah brought the following messag e from God: "If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: But if ye refuse and rebel ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it" (Isaiah 1:19-20). Was this not dealing with a possible salvation or deliverance? Was it conditional upon their obedience? Was it not in time and dealing with timely consequences? There are some things regarding the foreknowledge and predestination or foreordination of God that we are not able to understand. However, it is evident that knowing something does not cause it to be or to happen. If I see a ball roll off the roof of a house, I know it will hit the ground. But my knowing this had no effect on what was occurring. God has made man subject to vanity. Otherwise, man would be as a puppet and God would not receive the honor that comes about when His born-again children obey Him. Ultimately, God will overrule every sinful act of men and devils to His own glory, but not in every case in this present world. According to the revealed word of God, there are many things that occur in this present world that are displeasing to God. Yet for His own reason He does not intervene to stop it in all cases. Does this mean that even though God has expressed His displeasure, He really desires that sin and evil occur? Absolutely not. Yes, God works His will and does all His pleasure. But that does not mean that God is the active cause of all that takes place. Here are a few things I think we should consider in this ongoing conversation. First, the ones who some of us have conversed with who believe that God predestinates everything that comes to pass really do believe that God is NOT the author of sin. They say it. We should believe that they believe it that way even though we cannot see that they could in their believing that God predestinates everything that comes to pass. I think where they miss it is in the way they understand the text inRomans 8:28in the statement and belief that all things work together for good to them who are the called of God. However, the scripture says it.2 Peter 1:3(According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:) should be considered along withRomans 8:28. Are all things in1 Peter 4:11to be considered all things by the elect and by the non-elect alike? I think not. Is God in "all things" (including murder, incest, rape) glorified? I think not. Does1 Timothy 6:17mean that murder, lying, stealing are included in the "all things" that God has given us richly to enjoy? I think not again. Is sin, deceit and all evil works part of the "all things" that godliness is profitable unto in1 Timothy 4:8? Are we to prove that adultery is either good or bad for us as1 Thessalonians 5:21tells us to prove "all things?" I think I could find more examples for consideration. It seems this is enough though. "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose." Does spiritual adultery, unfaithfulness, and multiple sins by the child of God, even after regeneration, work together with anything for good to the child of God? No, no, a thousand times no. Is there anything the child of God does that works together for his own good? I think not. I know myself -it has never, no never been so with me. Does the predestination, foreknowledge, election, preservation of God work together for my good? I would have to say that it is ONLY those things that God does and performs and works that work together for my good. If it were not for those things nothing would work together for my good any more than nothing works together for good to any who do not love the Lord? The promise is just not there where it states that God works anything for the dead alienated sinner. If God does not begin the work, it will never be begun. If God does not continue the work it would never be seen through to perfection. 544 [i] InRomans 8:29we read "... For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate..."- since God did not foreknow all of the human race that indicates to me that God did not predestinate everything.Amos 3:2says "You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities." These "only" that He foreknew were predestinated. To say that He predestinated any other to anything IMHO is going beyond the scriptures even though I am aware that inActs 2:23that Christ was delivered by the determinate (ordained, marked out) counsel of God and inActs 4:27-28that the Gentiles and the people of Israel, etc. were gathered together for to do whatsoever God’s hand determined before to be done. We have bitten off more than we can chew if we try to take the scriptures and prove that God predestinated everything that comes to pass. Sin is something that came to pass -surely God did not predestinate sin. 516 [ii] I think this is a mis-understanding of the position taken by the "conditional time salvation" believers. They would deny IMO that God’s predestination is involved in time salvation but I don’t believe any would deny that God’s sovereignty and grace are involved in time salvation. [iii] I’d like for us to try to stick to scripture in the answering of things contained in this discussion. {iv} Regie [iv] I think there is plenty of scripture to support what I believe and will provide some here at your request. I was referencing some historical primitive baptist elders from different camps in order to see if there is any evidence that the "conditional time salvation" doctrine existed prior to the late 1800s among our people. I have not found any evidence that it did. {v} A statement was made that God’s predestination does not extend to all events and I believe that the scriptures clearly teach contrary. I believe His eternal purpose extends to all things and that he works all things after the counsel of His will. Not some things, but all. 547 {vi} [v] When attempting to communicate clearly, especially in areas where people do not fully understand each other, it is essential for us to define our terms. What is the intended meaning of “ conditional time salvation?” I have never personally heard a Primitive Baptist within my circle of travels and communication use that precise term. Are we creating paper tigers to attack? {vii} If so, we are not improving communication. As a matter of practice, I have ceased to use the more frequently used term, "time salvation." It appears that our folks developed this term in a futile attempt to communicate more clearly their distinction in belief from Arminian-leaning Baptists after the 1832 separation. The briefest interaction with most people outside the Primitive Baptist camp will reveal that the term confuses; it certainly doesn’t communicate anything more clearly. Elder David Pyles has made a convincing case that Elders BeeBe and Trott developed their unique terminology with a similar desire in mind, but their terminology was not clearly understood by their own folks. David’s thesis, well documented, supports the idea that neither of these men ever intended to teach that God authored or caused sin in His predestination. Both unfortunate situations demonstrate a point that we should have learned well by now, but our humanity interferes with spiritual discernment. We should be cautious in our choice of terms. [vi] Is there a distinction between God’s predestination and His purpose? The author seems to make them interchangeable. They may relate, but Scripture does not appear to make them synonymous. Did God predestinate every event, every act, and every unfolding episode of human history? The author seems to affirm this point strongly. We have all had intense discussions with Arminian advocates regarding the seemingly universal terms in Scripture. {John 3:16;1 Timothy 2:4, etc.} Rather than engage the question on a philosophical ground, I will offer specific Scriptures that contradict what it appears that this brother believes. If he has not clearly stated his views, I offer my apologies for misunderstanding him, but it seems that he has gone to significant length to make the point indisputable. {viii} Hardly all the Scriptures that challenge his views will be listed, but I will offer sufficient and sufficiently clear passages to make the point that the idea that God’s predestination indiscriminantly includes every act of every human being is not Biblically correct. Jeremiah 7:31Rebellious people practiced child sacrifice, an abominable sin that God clearly states that He didn’t command; neither did it come into his heart. Jeremiah 11:8God specifically says that He commanded His people to do some things that they did not do. Jeremiah 14:14False prophets spoke lies, though God did not send them, nor command them to speak. Jeremiah 19:5Again, the people practiced child sacrifices, something that God specifically states that He did not command; " neither came it into my mind." I do not limit God’s foreknowledge, a fatal error of neo-orthodoxy. However, I cannot interpret this passage so as to make it compatible with God’s predestination of all things. Can He predestinate something that doesn’t come into his mind to command? Can He command something that He says He didn’t command? He cannot lie. {ix} Jeremiah 23:32God neither sent nor commanded the false prophets. Jeremiah 29:23Sinful people committed villainy and adultery, and spoke lying words, which God states that He did not command. [vii] I am not attempting to create a paper tiger. I had not heard of any of our preachers using the term "conditional time salvation," until recently. Perhaps I understood wrong, but certain doctrines were being advocated that I had not heard before among our people, including the idea that the large majority of the human race is elect, but probably will know nothing of it in this life, and will not have obedience or faith. [viii] I hope I can make clear what idea I was trying to defend. By predestination I do not mean that God is the direct cause of all things nor that He is the "doer" of all things, but rather that all things that occur were his purpose to do (in the case of his acts) or to allow(in the case of sinful acts). I use predestinate in the same way Trott, Beebe, Zanchius, and others did. To indicate a fore-limiting, so that God acts, saves, commands, all His good works, and he restrains, limits, and turns for His own glory all the sinful works of men. [ix] I think it is important to distinguish between different kinds of "commanding." For example, there are powerful and undeniable commands of creation. God commands the waters to divide and they divide. The elements cannot disobey. It is like that with our regeneration and eternal salvation. God commands and it is so. We cannot, as Arminians attest, reject God’s grace. These are the commands that God does not allow the possibility of them not comming to pass. On the other hand, there are other things that God commands that, in some sense, do not come to pass. For example, all of the exhortations to obedience given to God’s people through the ages have not been perfectly obeyed by them. (They have been perfectly obeyed in them, through Christ, but not in themselves) So, I believe that God can in fact purpose to come to pass (or "predestinate") something that he did not command to human beings. For example, God commanded Pharoah to let his people go. Yet, scripture reveals that God hardened Pharoah’s heart and intended to use Pharoah’s own disobedience for his further glory. God is on one hand commanding Pharoah to do the right thing (let his people go), yet allowing Pharoah’s disobedience for a time in order to bring himself glory. If God desired, he could have "commanded" that his people be let go and had them miraculously removed without Pharoah’s cooperation, but his purpose was different, and it included the disobedience of Pharoah to God’s command. [x] God giving permission to sin is beyond me. I just cannot fathom it. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 96: SANCTIFICATION ======================================================================== SANCTIFICATION by Elder P. T. Oliphant According to the best lexicographers, the word "Sanctification" signifies to make holy, or to set apart for holy use. The word as used in the New Testament is from the Greek (hagiasmos) SGreek: 38. hagiasmos agiasmov, and is defined separation, a setting apart; as used in the Old Testament, is from the Hebrew (quadeski) (SHebrew: 6942. qadash), and signifies to be separate, set apart, as Moses sanctified the peopleExodus 19:14; as the priests and altar were sanctified by anointing with holy oil.Exodus 28:41;Exodus 29:36In fact, almost all things connected with the temple and tabernacle were sanctified by anointing with holy oil; hence we read of an evangelical anointing, "But the anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in you."1 John 2:27"Now He which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God; who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts."2 Corinthians 1:21-22As the anointing with the holy oil anciently set apart the priests to holy service, even so the spiritual anointing above set apart the Corinthians to holy service. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 97: SCRIPTURE ALONE ======================================================================== SCRIPTURE ALONE Biblical students use a term to refer to one’s source of authority, epistemology. While most conservative Bible students think of their epistemology as being Scripture alone, few indeed live up to that claim. When people quote profusely from respected writers from the past, or from other sources outside the Bible, particularly when they use these quotes to defend or to assert their views, they in fact reveal that they have broadened their "epistemology" to include writings other than Scripture. If we are to gain any success in resisting error, particularly insidious error such as that outlined by Peter in2 Peter 2:1-22and2 Peter 3:1-18, we must ground our "epistemology" in Scripture alone. The historical writings of Christians from past generations should be respected, for our faith, the things that we believe, are indeed historical. If we invent new ideas or doctrines, we cannot claim to stand on the shoulders of past saints. My uncle was a respected minister for some forty-five years. More than once since his death I have heard men who knew him cite him as an authority for their interpretation of a particular passage of Scripture, or for a particular doctrinal view. If they had known this godly man half as well as they claim, they would know that the last thing that he would have approved was anyone referring to him as an authoritative source. He knew commentators, ancient writers, and church history, but when he stood in the pulpit and preached his convictions, he did so from Scripture, not from these other sources. If we respect such heroes of the faith in our past, we should follow their example, not exalt them above what they would have claimed for themselves during their lives. Personal experiences often appear in the "epistemology" of sincere believers. "I cannot deny what I experienced." If anyone could claim experience as part of his authority, Peter could certainly do so, but when he developed the foundation on which his readers must build their defense of divine truth, he actually relegated his experience on the mount of transfiguration to a secondary role, not to a primary epistemological role. We have no way of verifying our interpretation of personal experience. Peter does not establish personal experience and Scripture in this lesson; he affirms Scripture alone. May we follow Peter and look to Scripture alone for our authority. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 98: SERVING OTHERS & SERVING GOD ======================================================================== SERVING OTHERS & SERVING GOD Do not overlook the ultimate design of God’s mercy, "to show forth the praises of Him." {1 Peter 2:9} The professing Christian who struggles with self denial in the service of others over self will also struggle with serving God. Whether we consider our role of serving others or of serving God, we must rise above the consuming desire to serve self before we are capable of either function. Despite the many failures of churches, God established community worship in the New Testament with a purpose. We grow in spiritual stature as we learn in community to serve others above ourselves. The struggles and schisms that often mar the harmony of churches grow out of the human desire to rule, to control others, and eventually to gain honor to self. We may attempt to justify our efforts to control others by claiming that we merely intend to nudge them to do their best, but in the end our failure to serve and our vain attempts to dominate others will manifest our sinful self-centeredness. The worshipping community of believers, presented in the New Testament under the captions of either disciples or churches, calls us to rise above self and to serve others. We readily give lip service to this idea. It is so fundamental to New Testament Christianity that we could hardly avoid it. However, in personal conduct we seldom live up to the words. Put yourself in the setting of a local church faced with simple daily decisions. They need not be life or death issues. What color do we paint the walls of the sanctuary? How will we arrange the furniture? The decision process requires that people voice their preference. Biblical Christianity appears after that point. Will we graciously defer to others of a different opinion than ours? Or will we work to convince others that our ideas are superior and should be implemented? In such mundane settings as these we will either display our genuine Christian spirit, or we will exhibit the residue of our old sinful nature that seeks dominance over others. Whether we serve God or other believers, we must first grow above the consuming desire for self. As a Scriptural concept, self-denial is not accomplished by personal determination and willpower. We discover the ability to deny self in direct proportion to our realization of God’s faithful provision of all our legitimate needs. Only as we realize His faithfulness in our lives will we find the security to devote ourselves to others and to God. We need not work to gain what we need or wish. If the need is legitimate and right for us, God will see that we have it. Trust Him, serve Him in the only way you can in this life-serve others. As you invest your life and energy in the service of others, God will invest Himself in supplying your needs. How liberating! Now we are free to show forth His praises, to invest every ounce of energy in magnifying Him with less and less concern for ourselves. God never disappoints His people who put such unrestrained trust in Him. Are you willing to put His promises to the test? ======================================================================== CHAPTER 99: SPIRITUAL DRY SEASONS ======================================================================== SPIRITUAL DRY SEASONS When have been the most miserable times in your christian experience? Have they not been when you became stagnant as far as growth was concerned? Have they not been when you became complacent and indifferent. You weren’t spending much time in the word, you weren’t diligent in prayer, you weren’t ministering to other people, love was not abundantly flowing through your life to others. You may have lost the joy of your salvation. When has the joy been there in it’s fulness? Has it not been in those times when you did confess to the Lord, "Lord thy love for me is great?" and as the hymnwriter says, "my love in return to you is terribly faint and weak," and then the Lord strengthens you and opened up His word to you and touched your heart by a gospel message. He lifted you up above your doubts and your fears and the troubles of life and you saw and knew the greatness and beauty and glory of Jesus Christ. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 100: SUFFERING ======================================================================== SUFFERING -2 Thessalonians-Divine Judgment Never Sleeps So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure: Which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer: Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; {2 Thessalonians 1:4-6} Why suffering for godly people? This question frequently surfaces in terms of a September 11, 2002 event, but it no less appears when an individual believer comes face to face with a catastrophic personal crisis. Sadly many who otherwise demonstrate reasonable faith crumble under pressure and use the event as an excuse for a major pity party. Still other believers struggle a bit more with the problem. "God is testing me. What does he want me to learn?" Not a bad way to view your problem, but this reaction too falls short of Paul’s primary point in our passage. No doubt God intends to teach us through trials. While we would be quite content with the status quo, he intends to grow us stronger in our faith and in our fellowship with him. Is this the primary purpose for which God allows suffering in our lives, or is it a side benefit to a greater purpose? It is amazing that we sometimes fall into the "God is testing me" syndrome on the premise that God wants to see how strong we are, how much we can endure. Out of our theological mindset we freely proclaim God’s omniscience, his all-knowingness. Then out of our experiential and sentimental mindset we say that God is testing us with the obvious implication that he actually doesn’t know for sure just how faithful or strong we are in our faith. So which is it? Does he know everything, or doesn’t he? If he is omniscient, he fully knows precisely how strong or weak we are in our faith. He has no need to put us to the test to know our standing. This dichotomy serves as a perfect example of the dangers of sentimental Christianity rather than Biblical Christianity. We freely criticize the New Age movement, and with good reason, but then we fall into the same error of relativistic sentimental religion on which the New Age ideas stand. One need only read briefly in Irenaeus’ Against Heresies, a classical second century work that refuted the contemporary gnostic claims to Christian roots. Irenaeus as a youth is reported to have learned his Christian foundations from Polycarp, himself a disciple of the apostle John. In many ways to read the gnostic errors that this giant of our faith confronted echoes much of the modern New Age philosophy’s foundations, further corrupted only by its incorporation of Hindu teachings. Irenaeus’ commentary regarding the exclusive source of Christian truth in the public writings of the apostles and a few men close to them, the canon of Scripture, not from a spurious secret verbal source or "revelation," stands out as a timeless appeal to Scripture alone as the believer’s source of spiritual knowledge and authority. So if God has no need to learn how faithful or strong in faith we’ll be in trial, and if his primary design in suffering is not to teach us greater depth in Biblical truth, why does he allow it in our lives? In2 Thessalonians 1:4Paul commends the Thessalonians for their patience and faith in their intense trials. We cannot overlook that first century Christians lived under almost constant threat against their lives and property due to their public faith. "I’m a Christian, but I don’t talk about it" would have shocked these giants in the faith, shocked them with shame that their pretended successors in the noble faith of their Lord Jesus Christ would live in timidity of faith or in ignorance of their Biblical obligation to serve as beacons of spiritual light in a dark world. Let’s try something novel! Let’s grab Paul by the hand and allow him to lead us where he wants us to go with this nagging question. Which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God. What is it that serves as this token, this proof of God’s righteous judgment? And to whom does it serve as a "token" or proof of his righteous judgment? The text flows; it isn’t broken up into bite-size verses that, proverbs-like, stand alone and apart from their contextual setting. It seems that the context of the passage leads us to consider that suffering Christians are not allowed to endure their trials to enable God to learn something he doesn’t already know. Rather he allows suffering to enable us to learn the power of his grace in our lives. Whether it be Abraham in the Old Testament or you and me today, God sends or allows trials and testing so as to instruct us in the weight of his incredible power. Patience and faith aren’t the ordinary human response to suffering! They only appear when God is working in the trial and when we respond to him, not to the trial! Pause and spend a few hours reading the book of Job and considering particularly the first few chapters where we listen in on a conversation between God and Satan, a conversation that Job never knew about. From the beginning God knew how Job would respond to trial. It was Satan, not God, who doubted his faith. Without a question God taught Job many things that he didn’t know before his suffering began. However, what is the point of Scripture with Job’s experience?James 5:11cuts through forty two chapters of the Old Testament narrative and gives us the divine perspective in one simple sentence! God intended the Job-experience to reveal to us his tender compassion upon his people. In our lesson it is not the mere presence of suffering that becomes a direct evidence of divine judgment and justice. It is rather the way faithful believers respond to that suffering that magnifies God and gives glory to him! Had the Thessalonians plunged into a sentimental pity-party, wallowing in self-pity and complaint, would their suffering still have applauded God’s righteous judgment? I think not. What does this lesson teach us? When suffering or unpleasantness invades your life, and rest assured that it will, how will you react? Don’t wait till it happens and then react with shock and disillusionment. Prepare for it every day with intense time in Scripture and in absorbing meditation on its relevance to your life. Don’t merely use the Bible to put yourself to sleep at nights. Use it to wake yourself up in the morning as well! Don’t try to build your whole life outside the light of Scripture with the excuse that it is no longer relevant or sufficiently clear in its message to teach you anything about how to really deal with life. Get so close to it with your mind and your heart, with you intellect and your emotions, that spiritual osmosis will occur. It will work its way through the pores of your soul into the deepest fabric of your being. Allow its refreshing moisture to revive the dry bones of life lived only for self-gratification. {Psalms 32:1-11} The message in this passage startles and challenges us. Perhaps more than at any other time in our lives, when suffering and trials invade our life, we have a golden opportunity to demonstrate God’s grace and righteous judgment. Instead of complaining, "Why would God allow such a thing to happen to me?" respond to your suffering with patience and faith. When Christians face difficulty, the whole world watches! How will we react in the moment of test? Will we abandon every tenet of our faith and join the self-centered and the godless in their "It isn’t fair" complaint? Or will we react in patient faith so that onlookers will be amazed and refreshed by our faithful endurance? Suffering will come in our life. Don’t doubt it. We can’t know when or what form it will take. We may live as if the Garden of Eden never occurred and react with amazement when trials surprise us. Or we may spend daily time absorbing the Biblical worldview that prepares us for suffering when it inevitably comes. So what is the major purpose in our suffering? While divine instruction no doubt should occur, God has a far greater design than our instruction. He intends to use our learning in suffering to proclaim his glory! Instead of responding to suffering so that weak Christians and unbelievers react with "How could a good God allow.?" we have the incredible opportunity to respond to it so that they will be amazed at God’s tender goodness. You see, we may face our suffering in our own weakness, or we may face it in God’s strength! One reaction will feed the fires of unbelief. The other will urge people to consider the incredible power and goodness of God. When your trial comes, how will you react? Don’t know? Well today is the best time to change. Build the habit of living so close to God that osmosis, the wondrous absorption of his power and vitality into your life, will transform you into a living demonstration of his power and of his righteous judgment. May He be praised in our suffering! ======================================================================== CHAPTER 101: SOVEREIGNTY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT ======================================================================== Sovereignty of the Holy Spirit by Elder Lee Price This message deals with the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit. That the Holy Spirit works sovereignly in all things is a very broad subject, so this article is limited to His work in giving spiritual life to the people of God. I think Jesus gave us the best passage of scripture on this subject inJohn 3:8. "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit." (KJV). This passage says a lot about the new birth, but I will limit comments to sovereignty. The blowing of the wind where it "listeth" means that it blows where it pleases or intends, and it is not left to the mind of man. Then Jesus said, "so is every one that is born of the Spirit." He said in those few words that the Holy Spirit works sovereignly and without any influence of man. To sum Jesus’ words, He seemed to say that man cannot control the Holy Spirit any more than he can control the wind. It seems rather obvious that being born of the Spirit is the sovereign work of God, excluding any means. There are common terms in the Bible that show us God’s sovereignty in giving spiritual life to His people. One of them is new birth. A number of years ago I had the privilege of attending a meeting of the Powell Valley Association with Elder Charles Taylor. The first speaker, Elder Spurgeon Thompson, looked over at me and asked if I did anything to be born into the Price family and of course I told him no. I write this, because the new birth is a birth. Since it is a birth, it means the person being born is passive. This indicates that the Holy Spirit is sovereign in this great work. For another common language term, consier the Word of God inEphesians 2:5. "Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)" (KJV). This verse says that those addressed by Paul in the Ephesian epistle were once dead in sins, but they no longer were, because they were "quickened," which means they were made alive. Who has the power to give life? I think very few people would say anyone but God has that power. Therefore, this also shows that giving of spiritual life is the sovereign work of God. One more common word I will mention is found inEphesians 2:10. "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." (KJV). The word is "created." "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."Genesis 1:1(KJV). What existed to help God create the heaven and earth? Nothing! Who existed to give help? No one! This process of giving life is also creation, and man can no more create spiritual life any more than he can create anything else. Men can make things from something, but only God can make something from nothing. That is what the natural creation was, and what the spirtual creation is. I will make one more comment, and this is not for controversy. Jesus came into the world to show the Father. Not wishing to glorify Himself, He said, "so is every one that is born of the Spirit." Jesus said, after He went away, the Spirit would come, and would not testify of Himself, but would testify of Jesus. "But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:"John 15:26(KJV). Since the Spirit did and does not testify of Himself, He inspired the Apostle Peter to write, "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever."1 Peter 1:23(KJV). I believe the Word of God, by whom we are born again, is Jesus Christ, The Living Word of God. We could argue whether we are born of the Spirit or by Jesus Christ, the mediator, but the important fact is that God does it. Whether the Son or the Spirit, God does it. Concerning which Word of God is under consideration, it is the Word, "which liveth and abideth for ever." I believe that is the Living Word, Jesus Christ. I believe what I have written is the truth, and that God is indeed sovereign in all things, including the new birth. Since this is the sovereign work of God, He alone should be praised for it. "But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen." 2 Peter 3:18(KJV). ======================================================================== CHAPTER 102: SYLLABUS OF STUDY IN BOOK OF HEBREWS ======================================================================== Syllabus of Study in Book of Hebrews Introduction and Overview God has Spoken-Hebrews 1:1-3 Angels-Hebrews 1:4-14 Angels-Hebrews 2:1-4 Christ’s Supremacy to Angels-Hebrews 2:5-18 Beware: The Hard Heart of Unbelief-Hebrews 3:1-19 Unbelief: The Thief that Steals our Rest-Hebrews 4:1-13 Our Compassionate High Priest-Hebrews 4:14-16;Hebrews 5:1-10 Don’t Be a Spiritual Baby-Hebrews 5:11-14;Hebrews 6:1-3 Warning to the Backslider-Hebrews 6:4-8 The Diligent Pursuit of Assurance-Hebrews 6:9-20 Who is Melchisedec?-Hebrews 7:1-10 Characteristics of Christ’s Priesthood-Hebrews 7:11-28;Hebrews 8:1-6 The New Covenant vs. The Old Covenant-Hebrews 8:6-13;Hebrews 9:1-10 Nothing But the Blood of Jesus-Hebrews 9:11-22 What did the Death of Jesus Accomplish-Hebrews 9:23-28 Salvation: God’s Will or Man’s Will?-Hebrews 10:1-18 Drawing Near to God-Hebrews 10:19-25 Sinning against Knowledge-Hebrews 10:25-31 Never, Never, Never Give Up-Hebrews 10:32-39 A Catalog of Our Faithful Brethren-Hebrews 11:1-7 A Catalog of Our Faithful Brethren-Hebrews 11:8-22 A Catalog of Our Faithful Brethren-Hebrews 11:23-29 Passing the Baton of Faith-Hebrews 11:30-40 Endure Like Jesus/Endure Through Jesus-Hebrews 12:1-4 Our Father’s Child Training Program-Hebrews 12:5-11 Refuse Not Him That Speaketh-Hebrews 12:12-29 Sacrificial Christianity-Hebrews 13:1-6 Sacrificial Christianity-Hebrews 13:7-19 Summary-Hebrews 13:20-25 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 103: TEMPORAL "SALVATION" ======================================================================== TEMPORAL "SALVATION" Temporal "Salvation" A Bogus or Biblical Concept? "Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world..."Galatians 1:4 Stretch your mental muscles for a moment. Is there a difference between reality and a person’s perception of that reality? If I fail to perceive the reality, does my subjective failure to understand what is real affect whether or not it is real? Let me be a little more specific. Does the objective fact of redemption by Christ depend on man’s subjective perception or understanding of that fact? If so, then wouldn’t it be true that perception determines reality? [i] The Bible teaches both that God has redeemed sinners and that He has revealed redemption in the gospel. {Ephesians 1:7-8} My question is, "Does a person’s ability to understand the message of the gospel determine whether or not he is really redeemed? Does perception determine reality?" I maintain that the gospel is a declaration of something that is a reality. By its very nature, the gospel dispenses information indeed, "good" news of the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. I insist, therefore, that the gospel and man’s subjective response to it is not God’s vehicle for making salvation an objective reality. Christ’s death alone is the means of redemption. Through His finished work on the cross, redemption has been accomplished for all of the elect. If I am correct that perception does not determine reality, then what is God’s purpose in revealing the fact of redemption in the gospel, if it is not to make salvation a reality? His purpose in reporting the good news of redemption accomplished is to call upon those He has redeemed to respond in grateful and believing obedience so that He might be glorified even now. In other words, the gospel informs the mind of the objective fact of redemption so that the believer may render the worship and service to God in this present life that He so justly deserves. Yes, the true gospel does indeed "save" the believer, but this "deliverance" does not have eternal consequence. It is a deliverance, asGalatians 1:4says, "from this present evil world." In no uncertain terms,Galatians 1:4teaches that there is not only an eternal but also a present, or if you please, a temporal, benefit in the cross of Christ. Look Past the Label to the Concept Labels tend to prejudice, and prejudice tends to blindness. Recently, I have witnessed the validity of this principle on different occasions in which people have said to me, "I do not believe in ‘time salvation’. The very term is odious to me." [ii] Well, I concede that the "label" is unfortunate, for it is not a Biblical term. The terms "Divine sovereignty," "total depravity," and "trinity," by the way, are not Biblical terms either, but no true Bible believer would deny that Scripture teaches these concepts. This visceral antagonism to the label of "time salvation" is intense enough, however, to close the minds of those who dislike it to every legitimate argument for it as a Biblical concept. Indeed, labels tend to prejudice, and prejudice tends to blindness. When someone denies that Scripture teaches such a thing as "temporal salvation," I generally respond, "If you discount the validity of this concept, then, of necessity, everything must have eternal consequence and everything must determine eternal destiny. Such a view compels you to believe that right now counts forever-that every word I speak and every thought I have and the way I raise my children and spend my money and service my car and treat my pets will somehow affect my salvation. If right now counts forever, then what other conclusion is possible?" Seldom does my detractor appreciate such a statement of the obvious, but logic demands it. Once a person disavows the fundamental practice of categorizing doctrine into its different phases,[iii] he will necessarily and inevitably embrace contrary theological positions as equally true. Deny the validity of the discipline of "rightly dividing the word of truth" and Bible doctrine becomes self-contradictory. Such fine distinctions are crucial to a coherent hermeneutic. Let me explain. The Interpreter’s Challenge The goal of the Bible interpreter is to interpret God’s word so that it fits together consistently and uniformly. In2 Timothy 2:15, Paul stresses the importance of "rightly dividing the word of truth." That clause is a tentmaker’s expression meaning, "to cut straight." Like a tentmaker who cuts two pieces of canvass so that they may be sewn together, the student of Scripture faces the challenge of interpreting the Bible with a view toward consistency. Sadly, many Bible students reject this discipline. Some, having no concept of systematic theology, never even consider how the position they take on a certain verse of Scripture might harmonize with other passages. Others ignore context, taking instead the popular definition of a word and inserting that definition every place the word is found in the Bible. They decry the very idea that a doctrine may have various categories, aspects, or phases. But every key word of Christianity is used in a variety of contexts in the Bible. For example, the Bible teaches the doctrine of Justification. The person who refuses to "rightly divide" the subject, however, will be confounded when he reads in one place that we are justified by grace {Romans 3:24} and in another that Abraham was justified by works, {James 2:24} seeing thatRomans 11:3says that grace and works are mutually exclusive. His confusion will be compounded even further when he reads that the publicans and sinners "justified God." {Luke 7:29} No, I’m not trying to be clever, but to illustrate the need to determine the particular nuance of the doctrine of Justification in each context. The doctrine of Sanctification is no exception. The Bible says both that sinners were "sanctified by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all" {Hebrews 10:10} and that they are "sanctified by God’s word." {John 17:17} Which is it? The death of Christ or the word of truth? Again, this subject is complicated by Peter’s command to "sanctify the Lord God in your hearts." {1 Peter 3:15} Surely, any fair-minded person can see that Bible terms frequently appear in various contexts. The context, then, not the dictionary, must determine the interpretation. The practice of "plugging in" the popular definition of a word when it is found in various contexts, furthermore, produces an absurdity. Take, for instance, the word "perish." Does "perish" always mean "eternally perish?"[iv] Should it be always interpreted by the popular definition? When Jesus said to his disciples, "Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish," {Luke 13:3} does He mean that repentance is a condition to eternal salvation? Many Bible students would say "yes." But, doesn’t the word "likewise" suggest the thought that context will define the meaning of the word "perish?" In context, Jesus speaks of the slaughter of Galileans under Pilate and of the physical death of eighteen people on whom the tower of Siloam fell. The nature of the "perishing" under consideration in the context is certainly physical, not eternal, death. If "perish" must always be interpreted to speak of an “eternal”perishing, then I ask in all due respect, was Peter praying for eternal salvation when he cried to Jesus in the midst of the storm, "Lord, save or I perish?" Was Esther afraid of eternal punishment as she resolved to approach the king unsummoned, saying, "If I perish, I perish?" And does one believer’s abuse of Christian liberty threaten the eternal welfare of a person with a weak conscience, for Paul warned that "through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died?" {1 Corinthians 8:11} Obviously, once a Bible student rejects the interpreter’s discipline of "rightly dividing" Scripture, he does not simplify but complicates and confounds the plain sense of the text. Perhaps the premier illustration of this principle is the use of the verb "to save" in Scripture. The individual who assumes that the word "salvation" always refers to deliverance from eternal punishment faces an embarrassing hurdle when he attempts to reconcile the verse that says salvation is by God’s grace, not man’s works, {Ephesians 2:8-9;Titus 3:5;2 Timothy 1:9} with the verse that says "Save yourselves from this untoward generation," {} with the further text "Woman shall be saved in childbearing." {1 Timothy 2:15} If the verb "to save" is interpreted in terms of its popular usage, then1 Timothy 2:15makes childbirth a condition to eternal salvation. Though there is a group in Utah that teaches such a thing, I don’t know of many professing Christians who would endorse the notion. In fact, the verb "to save" generally conveys the thought of "deliverance." Sometimes, it is employed to speak of deliverance from physical or moral danger. Sometimes, it is used in reference to deliverance from the unbelief of wicked men. Sometimes, it speaks of deliverance from the intellectual bondage of false teaching. And, yes, sometimes the verb speaks of deliverance in this ultimate sense, from the penalty, the power, or the presence of sin. It is interesting to note that the Bible uses the verb "to save" in a tripartite way: we "have been" saved (in the past tense), "are being" saved (in the present tense), and "shall yet be" saved (in the future tense). SeeTitus 2:11-14;2 Corinthians 1:10;Hebrews 9:24-28, etc. for illustrations of this three-fold use of the concept of "salvation." Clearly there are passages in which an "eternal" interpretation of the verb "to save" confounds the truth of unconditional salvation. Consider, for instance,1 Corinthians 15:2where Paul conditions salvation on whether or not the believer keeps the gospel in memory: "By which also you are saved, if you keep in memory what I’ve preached unto you." If Paul is thinking about "salvation" with eternal consequence, then, pray tell, how does his conditional "if" square with his claim that "God hath saved us, not according to our works." {2 Timothy 1:9;Titus 3:5;Ephesians 2:9} I know of no way to reconcile such a potentially glaring contradiction except to interpret his use of the verb "to save" in this passage as a deliverance with present, not eternal, ramifications. Consider also the reference inJames 5:19-20. James is speaking to "brethren," not unbelievers. He asserts that a "brother" can "err from the truth." He further affirms that another believer may be the instrument of his "conversion." When one "converts the sinner from the error of his way," he "saves a soul lit a life from death" and "hides lit. prevents a multitude of sins." If the references to "salvation," "conversion," and "death" are interpreted in an eternal context-that is, in regard to ultimate deliverance from eternal punishment-then, of necessity, we face the uncomfortable dilemma of explaining how a "brother" who was once saved might lose his eternal salvation so that he needs conversion and salvation again. An understanding that James is thinking in terms of time, not eternity, however, removes the possibility of an interpretive dilemma. Am I simply playing verbal gymnastics by insisting that context must govern the meaning of a particular verse? No. The habit of seeking the particular nuance of these important terms is exactly what Paul means when he exhorts Timothy to "rightly divide the word of truth". A ‘Primitive Baptist’ Grid? In the discussions referenced above, the complaint was raised that I tend to interpret the Bible through a preconceived ‘Primitive Baptist’ grid. My friends mean that it appears to them that I take a distinctively Primitive Baptist mindset-a way of thinking that distinguishes between ‘sonship’ and ‘discipleship’,or between that which has eternal consequence and that which has only temporal ramifications-and impose it on the text. Well, I admit that I do believe that making such distinctions are both valid and essential to accurate Biblical interpretation (I’ll present a case for my conviction momentarily). But I insist that this practice of making such fine distinctions is not a grid for interpretation imposed on the text from without, but a grid that arises from the text itself. Let me illustrate. One of the primary topics of our recent discussion is Paul’s doctrine of "Justification by Faith" in Romans and Galatians. My friends argue, consistent with Calvin’s view of "Saving Faith," that it is "through our faith in Christ that the righteousness of Christ is credited to our eternal bank account." By "our faith in Christ," they mean our act of believing in Jesus Christ through the gospel. This position, then, makes evangelical or gospel faith necessary to eternal salvation. I argue, however, that the context of the discussion prohibits an "eternal" interpretation. Consider this compelling fact. When Paul discusses the subject of Justification by Faith in Romans and Galatians, he does so through the grid of the Abrahamic, not the Everlasting, Covenant. Of all the covenants in Scripture, only two are ancient enough to take into consideration the "eternal" destiny of all men-the Adamic (made with the "First" man shortly after his creation) and the Everlasting (made with the "Second" Man, before the foundation of the world). The Abrahamic Covenant was not inaugurated until circa 2000 A. M. (Anno Mundo). If it has eternal consequence, then those who lived during the 2000 years previous to its inauguration could not have been included; consequently, they are either abandoned to eternal destruction or saved by a different method. [v] The Abrahamic Covenant, together with the Noahic, Davidic, and Mosaic-i.e. all covenants made with men in time- "reveal" aspects and features of these two "eternal" Covenants (that is, the Adamic & Redemptive), but do not "determine" destiny. It is significant to note the different grids Paul employs inRomans 4:1-25andRomans 5:1-21. When he discusses the objective FACT of redemption, he does so in terms of these two "eternal" Covenants -seeRomans 5:12-20where he states that the first Adam "made men sinners" the Adamic Covenant, but the second Man, the Lord Jesus Christ "made men righteous" the Covenant of Redemption. But when he discusses the REVELATION of redemption and the believer’s subjective and experiential awareness of this fact, he does so in terms of the Abrahamic Covenant. How does it all fit together? Paul teaches that all of the elect have been "made" righteous by Christ’s imputed righteousness at the cross. {Romans 3:24} Furthermore, God "declares" those Christ has "made" righteous to be righteous in the gospel. { Romans 1:17: "Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel present and afterward receive me to glory future, whom have I in heaven but thee, and there is none on earth that I desire beside thee." In this passage, Asaph focuses not only on the life to come, but on the present benefits of God’s word and present joys of God’s presence. B.Galatians 1:4: "Who gave himself for us that he might deliver us from this present evil world." It is significant that Paul begins his defense against legalism by emphasizing the concept of a temporal salvation-i.e. a deliverance from this present evil world. Inevitably, the view that denies this concept repeats the Galatian heresy of turning the gospel of grace into the law. C. : "And with many other words did he testify; and exhort saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation." Peter did not call his hearers to save themselves from eternal punishment, but from the perversions of the world. They could indeed "save themselves," in this temporal sense, by obeying the gospel call. D.1 Peter 3:21: "The like figure whereunto baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ." In language that would be difficult to misunderstand, Peter says that there is a "now salvation" in baptism. He qualifies the kind of "saving" in the parenthetical clause "not the putting away of the filth of the flesh," that is, baptism does not remove indwelling sin, "but the answer of a good conscience toward God," that is, baptism delivers a burdened subject by giving an existential sense of peace and assurance. E.Galatians 2:20: "... and the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me." Paul’s present life was a life of faith. Note his focus is on the “now-ness”of his existence. F.1 Peter 4:17: "For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?" Peter’s point, in context, is that the time for judgment is now for the righteous the whole of this present life is a time of suffering and being purified. Whereas the wicked will escape judgment until their day of reckoning, the people of God are chastened with frequent afflictions in this life (see alsoLuke 16:25;Isaiah 10:12;Jeremiah 25:29). G. To this agree the words ofRomans 8:18in which Paul speaks of "the sufferings of this present time" in contrast to "the glory which shall be revealed;"Hebrews 12:11in which the writer speaks of a "present chastening;"1 Peter 1:6in which the saints are said to be "in heaviness now, for a season" though they anticipate their eternal inheritance at the Savior’s return; and1 Peter 1:8in which they continue to live by faith though Christ is unseen now. H. Jesus teaches that now is the time of absence {John 13:36} and the time of sorrow. {John 16:22} Paul teaches that now is the time of mitigation but then shall be a time of fruition: "Now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face; now we know in part, but then shall we know even also as we are known." {1 Corinthians 13:13} I {Hebrews 2:8} "For in that He hath put all in subjection under him; he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him." The writer clearly distinguishes between the objective fact of Christ’s mediatorial authority and our subjective awareness of that fact. Now, that is, in this present world, it is not yet visibly apparent that He is Lord of all. J {2 Peter 3:18} b: "... to whom be glory both now and forever..." Peter is concerned about the glory of Christ in both this world and the next. K1 Timothy 4:8"... but godliness is profitable unto all things, having the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come." Notice Paul’s carefulness to highlight both the present and the future dimensions of our existence. Notice also that he employs the present participle "having," a word that means "possessing." His point is clear. The person whose aim in life is devotion toward God (i.e. godliness) possesses God’s gracious promise of blessing now, and gives evidence of God’s promise of eternal blessedness later. L.2 Corinthians 1:10: "Who hath delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver, and in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us." Paul expresses his confidence in the God who had delivered him in the past, and who would deliver him in the future, as the God who does deliver in the present. The preponderance of Biblical evidence cited above is so thoroughly compelling that it seems to me that the individual who denies the concept of a timely deliverance for the believer is arguing against the obvious and wresting the clear and apparent sense of Holy Scripture. 2. This concept reconciles the tension of contrary Biblical principles and promotes consistency in Biblical interpretation. Consider the fact that the Bible speaks of both unilateral (i.e. one-sided) and bilateral (i.e. two-sided) covenants. Can it be possible that both types of covenants have eternal consequence? Absolutely not. How can eternal salvation both depend totally on God and depend partially on man at the same time? Either salvation is of the Lord or it is a cooperative work between God and the sinner, but it cannot be both. Further, the Bible employs both unconditional and conditional language. In one text we are told that salvation is "ordered in all things and sure;" in another that a person is saved "if he keeps in memory what was preached." {2 Samuel 23:5;1 Corinthians 15:2} How can the same object be both unconditional and conditional simultaneously? How can it both depend on man and not depend on man at the same time? Obviously, the only legitimate way of interpreting these kinds of apparently contrary ideas is to understand that not every "salvation" verse is talking about salvation in the ultimate sense. The denial of the concept of a "salvation" with timely consequences and an attempt to interpret every Scripture in the light of "eternal" salvation produces inevitable contradictions. The story is told, for instance, that C. H. Spurgeon claimed that the gates of heaven will read on the front side, "Whosoever will, let him come" and on the back side, "For whom He did foreknow, them he also did predestinate..." Well, in all due respect to the memory of that pious man, I must admit that such a statement trips my mental circuit breakers. I agree with the minister who replied: "It would take two people to believe what he believed." Similarly, this penchant for framing every Bible reference in an eternal context (that is, as something that affects or determines final destiny) leads to logical absurdities like the assumption, "The Bible teaches that both God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility are involved in man’s salvation." I recently heard a popular Bible teacher say, "Don’t even try to understand it; just accept it." Again, I must admit that my brain cannot compute such a notion, and since I do not believe that the Eternal Logos is illogical, I cannot simply "accept it". I agree that the Bible teaches both Divine sovereignty and human responsibility, but deny that both are involved in man’s eternal salvation. The challenge facing the Biblical interpreter, I say again, is to reconcile the two contrary concepts by "rightly dividing the word of truth." Understanding the difference between "sonship" and "discipleship" provides the grid for consistency in Biblical interpretation. Consider, for instance, that God’s children are "many", {John 14:2;Matthew 26:28;Hebrews 9:28;Revelation 7:9} but his true followers on the narrow way of Christian discipleship are “few”.{Matthew 7:13-14} The only way to reconcile the tension between the two is to recognize a distinction between regeneration and gospel conversion.1 Timothy 4:10explicitly affirms the two categories, stating that Jesus is "the Savior of all men, especially those that believe." If all the saved will necessarily believe the true gospel, then why is Paul’s distinction in the text even necessary?[vi] It is critical to proper Biblical interpretation to recognize the difference between monergism and synergism. Salvation for heaven is clearly monergistic-i.e. the work of One. It is a work of free and sovereign grace from start to finish. Man is the passive beneficiary, not the active participant, of God’s gift of life. The Christian life, however, is clearly synergistic-i.e. the work of more than one. "We are laborers together with God," says the apostle. He exhorts the Philippians to "work out their own salvation...for it is God that worketh in you..."{Php 2:12-13} Christian discipleship is a partnership-a team effort in which God works and man works. Eternal salvation, on the contrary, is a solo flight in which God alone is active. If a person at once abandons the legitimacy of making such distinctions, how can he consistently subscribe to salvation by grace alone? Such is the slippery slope that results from the hermeneutical bias that attempts to always interpret the verb "to save" in objective terms, and refuses to consider that there is such a thing as an experimental application of the concept in the New Testament. Does Scripture, in fact, apply truth experientially? Yes, indeed. Consider, for instance, the publican inLuke 18:1-43-a passage in which the Lord Jesus, Himself, defined the doctrine of "justification by faith."[vii] Did the publican go to the temple to pray in a state of spiritual death and return a regenerate man? No, he went a burdened sinner who needed assurance, and he went home "justified by faith;" that is, with peace in his conscience that God had propitiated and pardoned his sins by His free and amazing grace. {Luke 18:9-14} Indeed, the very purpose of the gospel is to deliver such burdened souls from the pain of a guilty conscience. Like Bunyan’s pilgrim, the believer experiences relief and blessed assurance when, by faith, he looks to the cross and the burden falls from his back. Try to tell such a person that there is no present salvation in the gospel message and he will know at once that you are a stranger to true Christian experience. 3. This concept agrees with God’s chief end in creating the universe. [viii] God does everything (whether in creation, providence, redemption, or judgment) with a supreme sell-regard to the glory of His own name. {Proverbs 16:4} In fact, the glory of God was the motivation for the first of all His decrees-the decision to create the universe.Revelation 4:11says, "... for Thy pleasure, they are and were created." Glory is a composite attribute of God. J. I. Packer defines “the glory of God”as God in self-display. In His decision to create, God purposed to make a theatre in which He might display His glory-that is, all of His attributes-to the end that He might be glorified by His creatures. I argue that God’s purpose to be glorified in the realm of time precedes (so far as man can attribute sequence to an Eternal Being who transcends chronology) even His purpose to redeem fallen sinners. Allow me to explain. The order or sequence of the Divine decrees is the subject under consideration when theologians discuss supra- vs. infra-lapsarianism. These big words simply answer the question, "Which decree came first-Redemption or the Fall of Man?" The supra-lapsarian position says that God first decreed to redeem sinners and in order to set the stage for redemption, He decreed the Fall. This view, the classic position of Reformed Theology, is known as "double predestination" or the doctrine of reprobation. I reject it simply because it makes God the author of sin and His eternal decree, rather than man’s wicked works, the cause of final condemnation.[ix] The infra-lapsarian position says that God first decreed to permit (not cause) the Fall of man and foreseeing man’s fallen state, decreed the remedy of redemption.Romans 9:22-23supports the infra-lapsarian position, for Paul employs the passive indicative when he speaks of the plight of the wicked-"the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction"[x] -but the active indicative when speaking of the privilege of the righteous-"which He had afore prepared unto glory". I’ve digressed just a bit in order to frame a powerful point.Romans 9:22-23indicates that God’s motive in dealing with both the wicked and His elect is the display of His attributes. His goal, says Paul, is to "make known" (or reveal) His wrath, power, and the riches of His glory. Why does He seek to display His Divine attributes? So that He might be glorified for who He is. But redemption was necessary because the entrance of sin marred God’s original intent to be glorified in creation: "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God." {Romans 3:23} Even before God determined to redeem fallen sinners for His own glory, in other words, He had determined to create the universe for His own glory. In a word, the realm of time was made not for the purpose of determining destiny, but for the glory of God. My point is simply that the realm of time is not an afterthought; rather, it is integral to God’s passion for His own glory. Foreseeing the way that sin would sabotage His purpose to be glorified in the world He had made, God formulated a plan by which He would be glorified both in this world and the next. He would not only redeem a people for His name, but would also reveal redemption so that He might be worshiped and praised right now. Breaking this down into its respective parts, the logic of the argument goes like this: A. First, God determined to make a world for His glory. {Revelation 4:11} B. Second, foreseeing sin’s entrance into that world, God made a covenant in which He determined to save a portion of fallen humanity for His glory. {Ephesians 1:4-6} C. Third, God actually created the world and revealed Himself generally in nature {Psalms 19:1} ff D. Fourth, Adam sinned and the consequences of rebellion permeated creation so that man glorified Him not as God {Romans 1:18} ff E. Fifth, God took Abraham from idolatry and "created" a nation who would be dedicated to His glory. {Isaiah 43:1;Isaiah 43:7;Isaiah 43:15;Isaiah 43:21} To Abraham and the Jewish people, God revealed himself specially so that they might worship and serve Him in the earth. F. Through Abraham, further, God promised to send the Redeemer, Abraham’s seed, through whom God’s eternal purpose would be executed, insuring His glory for all eternity. {Galatians 3:16} G. Through Jesus Christ, further, the Father’s eternal purpose was revealed to "all nations" for God’s glory in the church through all ages. He "manifested the Father’s name to the men given to him out of the world." {John 17:6} H. Now, following in the steps of that same faith of our father Abraham, believers hear God’s special revelation in the gospel and worship and serve the true God in the New Covenant. This is the message of Romans-namely, that in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed so that the just may live, right now {cf.Galatians 2:20"the life I now live in the flesh..."} by faith. In a word, God’s purpose in creating-whether a world, a nation, or the new creation-is to reveal Himself as glorious so that He might, in turn, be glorified. That goal-that He might be glorified-is achieved not only in redemption but also in the revelation of His wonderful works to men in time. All mankind exists for Him right now. The view that rejects an emphasis on the realm of time inevitably minimizes God’s concern for His own glory in the world. The view that makes the present life conditional to one’s future happiness likewise threatens God’s glory by mistaking the law for the gospel. The Lord Jesus Christ has purchased a family who will praise Him by and by. That is a fact. You and I fulfill the purpose of our existence when we praise and honor Him right now, for the glory of God is the chief end of man. How thankful we should be that God has not only accomplished redemption for us but has also "abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence having made known unto us the mystery of His will." {Ephesians 1:7-8} This leads to the next argument... 4. This concept promotes a high view of the church in the Divine economy. Primitive Baptists have historically maintained a high and robust ecclesiology (or doctrine of the church). In fact, some would say "too high," but I disagree. The growing popularity of dispensationalism with its inherent tendency to belittle the importance of "the Church Age" has exercised a negative influence, in my opinion, on contemporary attitudes toward the church. The church was not an afterthought in God’s program-a spare tire to be used until the kingdom could be established. Rather, it was God’s plan from the beginning to call out (ekklesia) a people for His name. {Acts 15:13-18} When God initially made covenant with Abraham, he indicated that the benefits of that covenant would be international in scope, not restricted to the Jewish people- "... in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed" {Genesis 12:3} In language that must have sounded very strange to the Jews, the prophet Isaiah anticipates the day when "the Gentiles would come to the Jews light" and "the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee" (Isaiah 60:3;Isaiah 60:5; see alsoIsaiah 9:1-2;Isaiah 11:10;Isaiah 49:6;Isaiah 49:22-23;Isaiah 42:1;Isaiah 42:4;Isaiah 56:6-8;Isaiah 62:2;Isaiah 65:1). {cf.Romans 9:25-33;Romans 10:20} Now, Paul says, the “blessing of Abraham has come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ”{Galatians 3:14} and they have received "the promise of the Spirit through faith" {Galatians 3:14} cf.Matthew 8:11-12. {Acts 2:38-41} The New Testament teaches, then, that instead of the popular notion that the church is peripheral to Israel in God’s plan, the church is the fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant. Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are the true "circumcision who worship God in the spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh." {Php 3:3} To the church, Peter applied the language of God to Old Testament Israel: "But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light." {1 Peter 2:9} Those who walk according to the rule of the new creature are "the Israel of God." {Galatians 6:16} Those who "keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ" are identified as the remnant of the "woman’s seed." {Revelation 12:17} It is no wonder, then, that Paul concludesEphesians 3:1-21-a chapter devoted to defining God’s grace in giving gospel privileges to the Gentiles-with the benediction, "Unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen." {Ephesians 3:21} The Lord Jesus Christ established His church for the very purpose that God would be glorified in the theater of this present world. No, the church is not cosmetic in God’s plan. It is God’s "building project" in the earth for His own praise and honor in human history. {1 Peter 2:5;Ephesians 2:19-22} 5. This concept is a corollary to the truth that believer’s experience timely judgments for disobedience, though they are never in danger of eternal judgment. A good question to ask those who dismiss as invalid the concept of a temporal salvation is: "Do you believe that the child of God ever incurs judgments in this life-judgments that do not have eternal consequence?" Even the most superficial and cursory reading of the Bible indicates "the Lord shall judge His people." {Hebrews 10:30;Psalms 50:4-15} [xi] If then, there are timely judgments for our disobedience, does it not seem reasonable that the "flip-side" is also true-namely, that there are timely deliverances promised to the obedient?Isaiah 1:18puts it succinctly: "If ye be willing and obedient ye shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured with the sword." Of course, the child of God is never in danger of eternal judgment, for Jesus Christ has already been judged in his place: "If His children forsake my laws and walk not in my judgments; if they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments; then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from Him nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not break nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips" {Psalms 89:30-34} cf.1 John 4:17-18. The believer has no cause to fear God’s judicial gavel, for he incurs judgments in relation to God as Father, not as Judge. The Father’s timely judgments toward His children are corrective chastisements, not punitive judgments. Even so, God’s rewards and blessings in obedience have temporal, not eternal, ramifications. Jesus said, "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me that is, in a manifest sense: and he that loveth me shall be loved by my Father again, in a manifest sense, as he proceeds to explain, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him"John 14:21. God promises to those who separate themselves from the world that He will "be a Father unto them and they shall be His sons and daughters." {2 Corinthians 6:17-18} Again, He means that He will manifest Himself to them as a Father, not that their sonship (or relationship to God) is conditioned on their obedience. 6. This concept provides a framework for understanding the constant vein of application in the epistles. Bible writers never proclaim truth abstractly. A constant vein of practical application pervades their letters. They are never content simply to state that something is true. Rather, they relentlessly bring truth to bear on the lives of their readers, forcing them to ask the question, "What does this mean to me at this point in my personal history? How does this truth challenge my thinking? What changes are in order?" The eternal truths of God’s word, in other words, are intended to exercise a transforming influence on the believer’s life right now. Consider, for instance, Paul’s tactic inRomans 8:1-39-a "rhapsody," as Charles Hodge called it, "of Christian assurance." The theme ofRomans 8:1-39is "Divine Sovereignty." Paul insists that God is both sovereign over sin (i.e. His sovereign grace) and over suffering (i.e. His sovereign providence). Throughout the chapter, he affirms the ongoing ministry of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. Then, he applies these great truths to his readers: "What shall we say then to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth..." etc. These truths, Paul argues, are intended to be used to foster assurance in the hearts of believers right now. Even though the fact of Christ’s death, love, and justifying grace have secured for us eternal happiness, the revelation of these truths is meant for the present comfort of God’s suffering children. The New Testament contains extensive material concerning the believer’s daily life and behavior. There are lengthy passages concerning subjects like marriage, child training, the role of government, sexual purity, interpersonal relationships, spiritual gifts, godly attitudes, and Christian ethics. Are we to conclude that these practical instructions determine eternal life, or are they intended as temporal directives for godly living in this world? Obviously, God has given His people a book that is sufficient for "life and godliness" even now. 7. This concept provides a context for interpreting the exhortatory and evangelistic notes in the Christian gospel without contradicting the message of salvation by grace alone. The charge is frequently raised, "If the gospel is intended for the temporal benefit of God’s children, instead of as the instrument of their eternal salvation, then such a view necessarily discourages evangelism and exhortations to repentance." In fact, many are perplexed that someone who believes as I do would even be concerned about preaching the gospel.[xii] But far from destroying zeal for evangelism, I insist that an understanding that the gospel does indeed exercise a "saving power" {Romans 1:16} in the life of the believer provides the only context in which true evangelism may occur. The Bible contains numerous exhortations. "Come out from among them and be ye separate" is a call to repentance. {2 Corinthians 6:16} "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved" is a call to faith. {Acts 16:31} "Today, if you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts" is an exhortation to respond to God’s word. Indeed, exhortatory preaching is not only appropriate, but indigenous to the nature of the gospel. I long to see people repent of their sins and turn to Christ, confessing that their trust is in His merit alone. I have a burning passion to make "disciples," to baptize them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, then to disciple the disciples in the life of the church-"...teaching lit. discipling them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you..."{Matthew 28:19-20} I do indeed yearn to see Christ’s cause and kingdom expanded and His little "sheep" brought into the gospel fold. I desire to be used by God to "open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith" in Christ Jesus. {Acts 26:18} And I do, in fact, feel a responsibility to call upon men to "repent and believe the gospel". But I understand that the gospel call is a call to service, not a call to life. Man’s will is involved in the gospel call-“Today, if you will hear His voice...”- but God’s will is determinative in the effectual call-“The dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God...” Only God’s Divine fiat gives life, but the gospel informs the mind and shines the light of revelation on the life that God has given. {2 Timothy 1:9-10} Those who respond to the gospel call give evidence of eternal life-"Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God" (1 John 5:1; cf.1 Thessalonians 1:4). They also find, through that gospel, a delivering power for their present experience. Because the truth has made me free, I am constrained by gratitude for His grace to attempt to bring its liberating influence to others and to call upon them to bow the knee of submission to Christ as Lord. Does this gospel, in fact, save the believer now? If you doubt it, attend a funeral service some time. I’ve watched families march into the chapel hopeless and grief-stricken. They wondered if there was any reason yet to live. Then, as the minister proceeded to proclaim the good news-that Christ had voluntarily divested Himself of His Divine prerogatives, assumed human nature, and subjected Himself to the most ignominious kind of death imaginable-the death of the cross; that He bore the sins and sorrows of all His people on the cross and died in their place, as the sinner’s Substitute, satisfying God’s justice and fulfilling God’s holy law for them; that He rose victoriously from death and lives, never to die again; that at this moment He lives as our Great High Priest, making intercession for us; that He has promised His perpetual presence to His children and His sufficient grace for all their trials; that He can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; that to be absent from the body is to be at home with the Lord; and that one happy day, He will return to gather the entire redeemed family to Himself in a world that knows no sorrow or sad ‘farewell’-I’ve watched as light returned to their eyes and hope to their hearts. The new spring in their step as they exited the sad place bespoke a new reason to live. Because He lives, they can face tomorrow. Indeed, the gospel saves the believer now. Abuses A legitimate criticism of this view of a temporal "salvation" is that it is vulnerable to excesses and extremes in Biblical interpretation. I agree with the critique and proceed to highlight two particular areas of abuse by way of warning. 1. This concept is vulnerable to antinomianism. The term "antinomian" means "against law." As a theological label, the word is less than flattering. The charge that someone is an "antinomian" means that he/she believes that grace is a license to sin and that there are no restraints or restrictions on a person’s freedom in Christ. The opposite of an "antinomian" is a "legalist," another less than flattering label. The "legalist" believes that a life of law-keeping is the condition of final salvation. He/she imposes many restrictions and restraints to the gospel lest freedom lead to sin. Historically, Christian people have found it no small feat to navigate the narrow path of discipleship without falling into the ditch of antinomianism, on the one side, and legalism, on the other. When people accuse those who believe in a temporal salvation of promoting antinomianism, though, it is usually because of a disproportionate emphasis on "the disobedient child of God." Now, is it possible that a child of God may be disobedient to God? Well, both Holy Scripture and personal experience answer "yes." The Holy Spirit tells us that Lot was a "righteous man," {2 Peter 2:9} but one would never known it by reading his Old Testament narrative. The portrait that emerges in Genesis is of a compromiser who chose the best land for himself, flirted with the wicked city of Sodom, offered his own daughters to the men of that city in order to protect his guests, and seemed to his children as one that mocked (i.e. a hypocrite). Had the Holy Spirit not specifically said that Lot was a "just" man, most people would have judged him to be wicked. We must be careful, though, lest we make cases like Lot’s the rule. I am reasonably certain that the Holy Spirit put his case in the Bible to remind us that we are not the final arbiters of whether or not someone is "saved." Cases like his are meant to remind us of how amazing is the grace of God and of how wrong we are to sit around and try to determine who’s saved and who isn’t.[xiii] The Lord knoweth them that are His. I do not believe that cases like Lot or the Rich Young Ruler supercede the preponderance of Biblical evidence regarding the radical change that takes place when a person is born again. Scripture teaches that regeneration changes a person. When God writes his law in the heart, a transformation occurs m the life. {2 Corinthians 5:17;Php 1:6} How should we define the change that occurs? I believe it is primarily an ethical (or behavioral) change.Romans 7:1-25describes the internal warfare between the "flesh" and the "spirit"-a conflict that occurs at the emotive, not necessarily the intellectual, level. Paul felt these two competing "laws" vying for attention to govern his behavior. Romans 2:14-15} I footnoted the word "some" and explained further: "Notice that I emphasize the word ‘some.’ The degree of faith and holiness is arguable. But the alternative-i.e. that they will continue in no degree of faith and holiness -is, in my opinion, unthinkable. I tend to define the issue in ethical and moral terms, not necessarily in terms of doctrinal orthodoxy." I am as concerned as some of my brethren at the creeping antinomianism that has plagued our people. But I must admit that I am also concerned at the subtle danger that legalism poses to God’s wonderful grace. I cannot survive long in an environment in which people are constantly judging my salvation by the degree of sanctification I manifest. Painful personal experience has made me gun­-shy of those who would judge my liberty by their conscience. Nevertheless, let us be careful that we handle Scripture with integrity lest we repeat the old "hollow log" distortion that a person may be born again and show no sign of it. That is certainly not true. 2. This concept is vulnerable to universalism, or the "no-hell" heresy. Closely tied to the previous abuse is the false notion that everything is limited to this temporal world. Unfortunately, some brethren over the years have so distorted the concept of a temporal application of truth that they have utterly rejected the doctrines of a final bodily resurrection, last judgment, and the eternal punishment of the wicked. To apply all "judgment" passages to the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 is interpretively (well) mistaken (if not downright dishonest). If hell is the grave, then the Rich Man inLuke 16:1-31was buried alive, for "in hell he lifted up his eyes and saw Lazarus in Abraham’s bosom." The resurrection is not past already, nor is every rotten sinner just a disobedient child of God. Yes, sadly, these excesses rally from time to time within the circles of those who understand that it is appropriate to interpret some passages in temporal, as opposed to eternal, terms. Indeed, this view is susceptible to abuse. To be forewarned is to be forearmed. But so is every doctrine subject to abuse. The abuse of a principle is not necessarily a valid reason for its rejection. I fear that some who once professed this view but now reject it are simply reacting in the extreme to these abuses. Others are embarrassed, I think, by the relative absence of this emphasis in traditional "Calvinistic" literature and circles of influence. Whatever the motive, the disregard of this distinction between sonship and discipleship will necessarily produce a doctrine of salvation that confounds evidences and conditions and makes man’s cognitive understanding of the gospel a vital link in the chain of his eternal salvation. Answers One of the questions I am asked when I insist on the validity of this concept is, "if this is true and it is appropriate to interpret Scripture in the consideration that the gospel is for believers now, where is the historical precedent for your view? Why don’t any of the Confessions of faith support your view?" I will try to answer in a couple of ways. First, I think it is possible that the need to make these fine distinctions arose as the "Christian" community became increasingly splintered and variant views were proliferated. Controversy tends to refine theological precision. Secondly, I think it is also possible that literary documentation of this position is scarce because the majority of Christian literature from antiquity comes from the institutionalized church. In his excellent chapter entitled Pastoral Ministry in History,[xiv] Professor James Stitzinger writes, "Many church historians have dismissed as heretics those churches that opposed the institutionalized church-a campaign often called ‘The Free Church Movement’.Though some of these groups struggled with doctrinal purity, a closer look reveals that the heretical label in most cases was primarily due to their un-willingness to be loyal to the received tradition of the fathers, not to significant doctrinal weakness. A thorough investigation of these independents is difficult, because, for the most part, only the works of those who wrote against them have survived...Such groups include the Montanists (ca. A.D. 156), Novatians (ca. A.D. 250), and Donatists (ca. A.D. 311)." emphasis mine Later, Stitzinger editorializes: "Much true biblical ministry in recent years occurs in smaller denominations or churches that have continued the Free Church tradition. The nature of such ministry is obscure and often difficult to identify because of a lack of adequate documentation."[xv] emphasis mine. What about the creedal or confessional statements to which Primitive Baptists have subscribed? Why do they all tend to favor the Reformed doctrine of sola fide? In his well-documented and compellingly researched book titled Welsh Succession of Primitive Baptist Faith and Practice, Elder Michael Ivey frames the context in which Baptist confessions were drafted. The Fulton Confession of 1900 is taken verbatim (with explanatory footnotes) from the Philadelphia Confession of 1742. The Philadelphia was drafted from the London Confession of 1689. The 1689 London Confession was drafted almost verbatim from the Westminster Confession of Presbyterians. Ivey presents a cogent case for the fact that the London brethren sought religious toleration from a body politic that favored Presbyterianism, and drafted a document that was virtually identical to the Westminster for the sake of religious expediency.[xvi] This certainly explains why the Fulton Confession of Primitive Baptists conveys the tone of the Magisterial Reformation, instead of the more accepted Baptistic tone of the Welsh Midland Confession of 1655. Personally speaking, I could not categorically endorse any uninspired document as the authority over my faith. All uninspired documents, even the Confessions with which I substantially agree, are prone to error. Hence, it is my conviction that creedal statements must be subordinate to the right of private judgment concerning the meaning of Scripture in matters of faith and life. The role of confessional documents, in other words, is primarily an apologetic, not a judicatory, role. My interpretation of "justification by faith" in experiential, as opposed to eternal, terms does find some support in George Ella’s helpful biography on John Gill. [xvii]Though he was called a "hyper-calvinist" and an "antinomian," Gill battled the "duty-faith" idea the bulk of his ministry. Ella quotes Gill: [xviii] "Those places of scripture which speak of justification by or through faith, do not militate against nor disprove justification before faith...For if there was no justification before faith, there can be none by it without making faith the cause or condition of it." [xix] emphasis mine And again: "Faith is the sense, perception, and evidence of our justification..."[xx] emphasis mine And again: "I assert that there is no knowledge of justification, no comfort from it, nor any claim of interest in it, until a man believes- no man is evidently and declaratively justified until he believes." [xxi] emphasis mine These statements are very similar to my conviction that justification by faith is concerned with the believer’s own experience of grace, something primarily subjective and existential.[xxii] Ella also quotes from John Bunyan’s book The Pharisee and the Publican: "A man may be justified before God, even when himself knoweth nothing thereof, {Isaiah 40:2thew:2 hew:2;Matthew 9:2} and so when, and while he hath not Faith about it, but is ungodly." Ella adds, "Bunyan distinguishes between being justified in the divine decree, which he calls ‘justification before God’...and ‘Justification to the Understanding and conscience; referring to the approbation of faith...In fact this was the established view of the eighteenth-century Evangelical Revival marred only by the denial of this teaching by Baxter at its beginning and Fuller’s metaphorical reinterpretation toward its end."[xxiii] emphasis mine Again, this is basically the distinction I make between the legal fact of Christ’s imputed righteousness and the personal appropriation of that fact in the believer’s conscience-between, that is to say, the reality and the perception of reality. Finally, in answer to the question of historical precedent for my convictions, I refer the reader to the late Elder Charles H. Waters sermons, edited by R. H. Pittman. In a message entitled "Believers Justified Through Christ" preached in May 1915, Dr. Waters quotesActs 13:39and says, "It does not say all who will believe, will get to be justified by their belief...But ‘all that believe ARE justified...’ Your believing is evidence to you."[xxiv] The "Appendix" to Dr. Waters’ book contains his testimony at the trial concerning the legal ownership of the church property in Luray, Virginia. The litigation arose as a result of a doctrinal dispute necessitated by the influence of a preacher named Mr. Ed Burnam. Burnam insisted that God uses means in the eternal salvation of sinners, claiming that his position was the original position of the church. Dr. Waters was called to testify as a contestant to Burnam’s claim. What follows are brief excerpts from his testimony: Q. Upon what grounds did that division i.e. Baptist division of 1832 take place? A. Upon the ground of practicing conditionalism where they pretend to hold unconditional salvation... Q. Was there any subsequent division in the Old School Baptist church? A. As there was a large number who went off upon these Arminian doctrines in the beginning, so there was, at intervals along during the history of the Baptists, individuals who would arise, not being satisfied with the teachings of the Old Baptists, and repeat history...in their desire for progress in the direction of humanly devised means and instrumentalities, to increase, what they term, salvation of the people. Q. Do you know whether in this section of Virginia there was such a division? A. There were men among us who were held in restraint and did not give an outbreak, did not separate themselves from us and were not cut off but were tolerated along until there came an influx from the West, principally headed by Ed Burnam, who insisted on the very same propositions of progress and getting the Old Baptists out of their ruts...and then when we had begged them, labored with them, to let these questions alone which were liable to make discord and disruption in the ranks, they refused to do it; and finally, they being in practice, identical with what was then known as the Missionary Baptists, we had to declare non-fellowship for them. Q. What was the faith and practice and doctrine of the Mt. Cannel church in Luray during the time you preached there? A. Their doctrine was that God used no means or instrumentalities whatever in the regeneration of the sinner... Q. Now on the other hand, what is the belief of Mr. Burnam and the people who follow his teachings? A. It is a matter of record that they have asked the question in print, "Can it be proven that any man was ever saved without hearing the gospel?" That is answer enough. Q. Doctor, Mr. Burnam has testified in this case that you denied that faith was necessary to salvation, and that your contention along that line was the starting of the anti-means party. Will you please state whether or not that is true, and whether or not you believe that one may be saved in heaven without faith in Christ? A. No man, woman or child has ever been saved or will be saved in heaven without being in the faith of God’s elect. Q. Did you ever state in written debate with Elder Burnam that one may be saved without faith in Christ? A. Elder Burnam took the position that believing was living spiritually; that is, that there is no distinction between a child of God being alive...and his believing in Jesus Christ as his Saviour. I objected to that position. I contended that that would cut out all infants; it would cut out all idiots; that an individual might be quickened into spiritual life, as unquestionably John the Baptist was, in his mother’s womb...So, in the sense of faith being simply belief they were without believing in that sense of faith; but cannot be saved without being in the faith of God’s children. And I want to further state that that is the position of the Old Baptists now, and has been, according to their history, in all generations. [xxv] Though I would invariably express myself a bit differently concerning God’s gift of faith to all of His people (see endnote vi), yet I unashamedly echo Dr. Water’s conviction against the use of means in the eternal salvation of His children. Where Scripture describes the use of means or instrumentalities, it speaks in terms of living the Christian life (something temporal) and enjoying daily fellowship with the Lord, not in terms of eternal salvation. Applications Is the idea of a temporal "salvation," then, a bogus or a biblical concept? I insist that it is thoroughly Biblical. In fact, I admit to the need for God’s deliverance in my own life every day. I want to be saved from false teachers and worldly philosophy. I want to be saved from sexual temptation, marital infidelity, and moral impropriety. I need salvation every day from depression, fear, anxiety, discouragement, sinful anger, jealousy, pride, self-righteousness, selfish ambition, covetousness, and love for the world. I need God’s daily deliverance lest I fall to Satan’s deception and give him the advantage in my life. I want my marriage to be saved from divorce and my children to be saved from danger both on a physical and a moral level. I want to be saved from despair and suicide, cynicism and callousness, bitterness, resentment, and non-forgiveness. I need salvation from humanism, secularism, materialism, hedonism, pragmatism, pluralism, syncretism, and the wisdom of this world. I want deliverance from the fear of man and from a seared conscience. I want to be saved from every attitude, behavior, or erroneous belief that might jeopardize my home in the church and the fellowship of my brethren. To those who cannot understand my confession of need for daily deliverance, I can only reply that it is evident that we speak a different language. This is my experience and I believe it resonates with the teaching of God’s word. The word of God and the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ are the resources God has provided for such daily deliverances in the lives of His people. How thankful we should be that the God who secured our eternal felicity has not abandoned His children in this present evil world! [i] The view that something is only real if one perceives it to be real is known as existentialism. My favorite illustration of existentialism is from the cartoon in which the coyote chases the roadrunner and accidentally overruns the edge of the cliff. Strangely, however, he doesn’t fall until-what? He doesn’t fall until he looks down and perceives no ground beneath his feet. At once, when he understands there is nothing beneath his feet, he creates his own reality by his perception. Wile E. Coyote is the quintessential existentialist. [ii] The primary subject of these recent discussions centers around John Calvin’s view of "Saving Faith." The discussions arose as a result of a friend’s insistence that "God uses the gospel minister as His instrument in the eternal salvation of the elect," that "repentance and faith are conditions to eternal salvation," and that "a certain amount of Christian orthodoxy is necessary to final salvation." I understand the emotive dislike for the term "Time Salvation," for I react similarly to the unbiblical label "Saving Faith." I argue, however, for the importance of getting past the hurdle of the "labels" in order to consider the concepts. It is my opinion that the heart of this controversy is rooted in a dislike of the doctrine of a " temporal" salvation, that is, the idea that some passages of Scripture should be interpreted in primarily experiential, as opposed to eternal, terms. My argument is that if one jettisons the habit of interpreting Scripture in context, he will inevitably adopt a self-contradictory position. [iii] e.g. Scripture depicts the subject of "spiritual union," for instance, in several categories, such as a covenant union with Christ, {Ephesians 1:4} a legal union at the cross, {Romans 6:6-8} a vital union in regeneration, {2 Corinthians 5:17;Ephesians 2:5-6} a practical union in discipleship, {Colossians 2:6-7} and a perfect union in glorification. {John 17:24} [iv] Of course, someone might ask, "Do you think ‘perish’ ever means ‘eternally perish’?"I answer, "Yes, without a doubt." John regularly uses the term in its ultimate sense in his gospel. I fear, however, that the angst of many against the view that some passages have a temporal, rather than an eternal, application is a reaction against the extremes and excesses to which some have taken this idea. Yes, my view is open to abuse, especially the abuse of the no-hell heresy. We’ll discuss this momentarily. But it is always a mistake to assume a reactionary posture to the abuse of a concept. Yes, "perish" does indeed sometimes mean " perish eternally." But it does not always mean that. My point is that context, not the popular definition of the religious world, must govern each particular passage. [v] Of course, this dilemma is the catalyst for the soteriological discontinuity of dispensationalism. [vi] I do believe that all who are regenerated will and do have faith, but deny that the "faith"-that is, the believing response to God-is in all cases "cognitive" or "informed" faith-for cognitive faith necessarily depends on hearing the rational proclamation of the gospel; rather, I do not hesitate to affirm that it is, in all cases, below the level of consciousness Lazarus-like, the sinner responds believingly to Christ in response to His Divine fiat in regeneration, being made willing in the day of His power, believing according to the working of His mighty power, and coming to Christ in "vital" relationship. {Psalms 110:3;Ephesians 2:8;Ephesians 1:19;John 6:37;John 6:44} Cognitive faith is indeed present in some, but the gift of faith is present in all of God’s children; hence, I concur that no one goes to heaven without faith, but deny that no one goes to heaven without rational knowledge of the truth. A teaching does indeed take place in the new birth, for God teaches the heart directly and immediately to know Him. {John 6:65} Cognitive faith, however, must necessarily come after this initial work of grace in the soul, for it depends on the instrumentality of the preached word. Obviously, if such cognitive (or evangelical) faith is necessary to eternal salvation, then every infant who dies in infancy and every individual without average mental capacities would miss salvation. But my position-i.e. the position that defines "saving faith" (if I must use the term) as that faith that is given to the soul in the work of regeneration-is adequate to include every potential case in which a person is in need of salvation. By the same token, I do believe that the ultimate evidence that a person possesses salvation is an evangelical faith in the Lord Jesus Christ-a faith that expresses itself in voluntary obedience to Christ. Where such faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is present, a person gives indisputable evidence of salvation. [vii] The passage begins with the question, "When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth" and ends with the affirmation, "This man went down to his house justified rather than the other." It is significant that in the only place the Lord Jesus Christ personally spoke of "justification by faith," he framed the doctrine in experiential, not eternal terms. Justification by faith concerns the assurance of, not the application of, redemption. It is a "blessedness" (that is, a blessed or happy frame) that comes on believing Gentiles as well as believing Jews. {Romans 4:6-9} The cross was "the work of righteousness" which made "peace;" the report of the cross i.e. the gospel brings "the effect of righteousness, which is quietness and assurance forever." {Isaiah 33:17-18} [viii] This is a technical, but I believe, very compelling argument. I am basically arguing that God’s interests are not restricted to the next world alone, but also to this world. [ix] There are really only three basic views regarding the condemnation of the wicked and the salvation of the righteous. The "free-will" view says that both condemnation and salvation is man’s choice. The "supra-lapsarian" view says that both condemnation and salvation is God’s choice. The "infra-lapsarian" view says that condemnation is man’s choice but salvation is God’s choice. I opt for the third position. The wicked will be judged on the basis of their works, but the righteous will be saved on the basis of God’s grace. [x] Note that he simply states that they are "fitted to destruction." Paul does not say that "God" fitted them to destruction. When speaking of the righteous, however, he plainly says that "God" prepared them to glory before the foundation of the world. [xi] It is significant to note the difference inPsalms 50:1-23between God’s judgment of "his people" {Psalms 50:1-15} and His judgment of "the wicked." {Psalms 50:16-22} To "His people" he says, "I will not reprove thee" {Psalms 50:8} a, meaning, "I will not enter into a covenant lawsuit against you." But to "the wicked" he says, "I will reprove thee" {Psalms 50:21} b. [xii] One man wrote, "If you don’t really think that God uses your ministry for any eternal purpose, then you probably won’t be very passionate about ministry. I certainly doubt that you will have the strength to persevere in the face of severe persecution." [xiii] When I encounter someone who is stuck in the mode of judging other people’s salvation, I tend to think, I’m just glad that he/she doesn’t have the final word concerning my case. [xiv] Rediscovering Pastoral Ministry, John MacArthur, ed., p.45. [xv] Ibid. p.51 [xvi] This is not to say that the London brethren were dishonest. No doubt, they agreed substantially with the content of the Westminster, but the question still remains why they did not compose their own but virtually copied the Presbyterian document. [xvii] I hesitated to include this point because just as soon as I name someone in support of my position, any who might take issue with my views may find two quotes by the same man for the alternate position. Nevertheless, I include the quotes in order to suggest that some do get it right every once in awhile. [xviii] Ella writes, "A Hyper-Calvinist, Gill’s critics say, does not believe that God calls indiscriminately all who hear about Christ to believe in him. They say this because they believe that man is obliged as a matter of duty to trust in Christ as a condition of salvation, or, as they put it, to trust savingly in Christ...This idea of saving faith...reached its fullest expression in 1785 with the publication of Andrew Fuller’s notorious book The Gospel Worthy of All Acceptation." The debate engendered by the book, Ella writes, "tore Baptist churches apart". [xix] George Ella, John Gill and the Cause of God and Truth, p.165. [xx] Ibid., p.164. [xxi] Ibid. pp.167-8. [xxii] In Gleanings of Primitive Baptist Writings (Volume I), Elder Mark Green writes about experimental religion and what I believe the Bible means when it talks about "justification by faith." As you read, consider the experience he describes in the light of the Publican who went down to his house justified: " When a man is born again, he is given eyes to see spiritual truth, which he did not have before. The truth that is closest to him, even in his very heart, is his wretched sinfulness. If that man then comes under the sound of faithful, powerful gospel preaching, declaring the holiness and justice of God, the inevitable effect is a feeling of condemnation. Now assuming that this feeling of condemnation comes powerfully to the conscience of the awakened sinner, with the accompanying feeling of horror and desperation, the logical next step is that the man will begin scrambling to find some way-any way-to remedy the situation, and until Grace is revealed to him, the only thing he knows to do is to sew fig leaves-to resort to his own efforts. If he is under severe condemnation of soul, it cannot be assumed that he will just sit casually as he perceives hell looming under him. Since the feeling of condemnation is so strong, the effort at self-justification will likewise be determined. There is no justification by the works of the law, however, and in time the sinner discovers that the fig leaves will not hide him from the wrath of God, and finds his case is now hopeless. Despair sets in. He has tried everything, resorted to his very best efforts, only to avail nothing. Then, when Christ is finally revealed to his heart, it is not difficult to imagine what a time of rejoicing and heavenly relief is then experienced! This... is called an experience of grace..."( p.25). [xxiii] Ella, p.166. [xxiv] A Book of Sermons, p.128. [xxv] Ibid. pp. 166-176. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 104: TEN COMMANDMENTS ======================================================================== TEN COMMANDMENTS GILL: What a compendium or body of laws is the "Decalogue" or "Ten Commands," drawn up and calculated more especially for the use of the Jews, and suited to their circumstances! a body of laws not to be equalled by the wisest legislators of Greece and Rome, Minos, Lycurgus, Zaleucus, and Numa; nor by the laws of the Twelve Roman Tables, for order and regularity, for clearness and perspicuity, for comprehensiveness and brevity; being divided into two tables, in the most perfect order; the first respecting the worship of God and the duties owing to him, and the other respecting men and the mutual duties they owe to each other. As prayer is a very principal and incumbent duty on men with respect to God, our Lord has given a very compendious directory, as to the matter of it, in what is commonly called the "Lord’s Prayer"; which consists of petitions the most full, proper, and pertinent, and in the most regular order. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 105: THE ATTITUDE OF THE CHRISTIAN ======================================================================== THE ATTITUDE OF THE CHRISTIAN TOWARD CIVIL GOVERNMENT Introduction At this writing there is much apparent reason for gloom and pessimism when we consider the state of our civil government. We can see almost no statesmanship being demonstrated. We are not ruled by statesmen, but by politicians. It has been well said that while a statesman bases his actions on what is best for the future, the politician bases his actions on what will cause him to be reelected. Elected officials today are much more interested in public opinion poll results than in what is right and decent. Open lying and immorality are tolerated in even the highest political office in our nation. When an elected official does try to do what is right he is often viciously attacked by the media and by the entertainment industry elite. There has been an almost complete abandonment of what used to be commonly accepted moral values which had their roots in our Judeo-Christian heritage. We are operating under the "postmodern" philosophy that there is no absolute right and wrong. The primary value today seems to be material prosperity. The only "sin" today seems to be in criticizing someone for doing wrong. These things are reminiscent of what was said long ago inIsaiah 5:20-23“Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink: Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him!” All this is very disturbing, even frightening. A French visitor to our nation in the 1800’s, Alexis de Tocqueville, said that America was great, because America was good. He said that when we ceased to be good we would cease to be great. A great statesman once said that when a people ceased to govern themselves (by governing, he meant exercising self-control), they would be governed by tyrants. Considering these sobering and ominous events, what should the attitude of a true Christian be? Mourning A very appropriate response would be to deeply mourn. It is not befitting for us to ignore the circumstances. However, this is exactly what people are tempted to do when faced with very unpleasant situations. I appreciate what Patrick Henry said in his Call To Arms in 1775: “It is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth-Are we disposed to be of the number of those, who, having eyes, see not, and having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern our temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst and provide for it.” We must face the present condition of our land, and as we do we will be compelled to acknowledge our deep sorrow. Righteous people have always done this. Solomon said inProverbs 29:2“When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.” David was so grieved when he saw the conduct of the ungodly that he said inPsalms 119:136“Rivers of waters run down mine eyes, because they keep not thy law.” He said further inPsalms 119:158“I beheld the transgressors, and was grieved; because they kept not thy word.” Sometimes, when a loved one dies, some people put off mourning for awhile. It takes them time to actually grasp the fact of the great loss. Sooner or later, however, for their own emotional health, they must acknowledge the crushing loss. They must face the unpleasant facts. Then they can give themselves to weeping and mourning. In doing so, they often experience healing and find great comfort and strength in God’s consolation. Have you yet grieved for the desperate situation of our nation? If not, I would suggest that you seek to do so. Pour out your grief before our great God. He is mindful of those who are broken hearted. Not Our Real Home Another thing that Christians must do is to realize that this earthly existence is not our permanent home. We must be good and loyal citizens, but our everlasting abode is not of this world. I love the United States. I am thankful to have been born here. I often get misty-eyed when I sing or hear played God Bless America and other patriotic songs. One of my favorite hobbies is to read American history. George Washington, Robert E. Lee, and other men and women of integrity who have helped shape our nation, are among my favorite heroes and heroines. However, this kind of patriotism can only go so far. Our nation has never been perfect. We have had a precipitous decline in our values and in our decency in recent years. No one knows what the future holds for our nation, but the signs are anything but encouraging. However, this should not send us into dismay. We were not designed to live in the present condition forever. This is a very temporary mode of existence. The Bible believer knows that we are just traveling through this life to our permanent and glorious heavenly kingdom. This is very evident from several Scriptures. Speaking of Old Testament saintsHebrews 11:13says “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.” It also says of these saints inHebrews 11:16“But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly...” Peter admonishes the saints on this same basis in1 Peter 2:11“Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.” It is well to insert here that there is a vast difference between a pilgrim and a vagabond. A pilgrim is away from home, but he has a goal, a destination. A vagabond, on the other hand, is an “aimless wanderer.” The Christian knows that he is not at home in this present state of affairs. However, he knows where he is going. He is heading toward his heavenly home. This gives him a great deal of hope when conditions become very difficult and unpleasant in his present situation. He knows that, sooner or later, he will be home and all will be well. Even though our government is very corrupt and there is much cause for sadness, we must remember that the people of God have often lived in even worse situations. The Roman Empire was very corrupt in the times of the Apostle Paul. Some of our leaders are very corrupt, but they are not any more corrupt than was Nero, who eventually had Paul executed. Living under these conditions, however, did not dampen the zeal and enthusiasm that this great man had for the cause of Christ. Paul did not spend his days in depression. He had great energy and joy as he preached the message of salvation. One of the reasons for this was because he knew that he was not really home. Now Paul was a Roman citizen. This was a great privilege which got him out of serious trouble on more than one occasion. I am sure that Paul valued his Roman citizenship. This meant nothing to him, however, in comparison to his heavenly citizenship. He wrote inPhp 3:20“For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.” The word translated “conversation”here is politeuma which means “citizenship.” Yes, Paul’s citizenship is in heaven. So is the permanent citizenship of every other child of God. The realization of this will help us to keep the proper perspective as our society likely plunges further and further into darkness. God is in Control Another thing that the child of God must constantly keep in mind is the fact that God has not relinquished the control of the universe which He created. We may not understand why He allows certain things to go on, but He has a purpose in it all. God is not disturbed like we sometimes are. There is a very interesting and comforting passage inPsalms 2:2-4, “The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.” This Scripture teaches us that the Lord of heaven and earth is going to “have the last laugh.” God, for His own inscrutable but wise purposes, often allows wicked men to do some reprehensible things, but even then He is ultimately in control. The wise man made this very plain inProverbs 21:1when he said “The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.” The universe of human affairs is not spinning out of control. It is just as true today as it was in the day that Nebuchadnezzar spoke it inDaniel 4:35, "And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?" God raised Pharaoh up and He destroyed him when it suited His purpose. Sennacherib made great and obscene boasts against Judah. He seemed to be invincible. He was defeated by an angel of God and had to return home in shame. His own sons slew him as he was worshipping his pagan god in Assryia. {See2 Chronicles 32:1-33} Wicked Haman was determined to destroy God’s chosen people. God so directed affairs that this evil man was hanged in his own yard on the gallows he had built for the purpose of murdering another man. The Lord said inProverbs 8:15“By me kings reign, and princes decree justice.” Yes, God is in control. Daniel said inDaniel 2:21of the book that bears his name “he removeth kings, and setteth up kings.” Yes, we must remember that no matter how dark the situation may seem, our Omnipotent God is the Mighty King Who is really running this universe! God Sometimes Uses the Wicked Another comforting fact is that throughout history our sovereign Lord has sometimes used those who were not His children to do those things that benefited His people. One of the most dramatic examples of this is Cyrus, king of Persia. He always remained a pagan and never embraced the true religion of Jehovah, but he was used of God in a very interesting way on behalf of His people. The entire episode of the case of Cyrus greatly magnifies the sovereignty of God over the affairs of men. Speaking through Isaiah, God called Cyrus by name some 150 years before he was even born! {Isaiah 44:28} He predicted that Cyrus would rebuild the Temple, even though the Temple had not yet even been destroyed as Isaiah wrote! Reading2 Chronicles 36:23;Ezra 1:1-4, we learn that Cyrus permitted the Jews to return to Jerusalem, and issued a decree authorizing the rebuilding of the Temple. What a mighty God that we serve. He even uses the wicked for His own purposes. Other pagans have been used by God for the good of His people. The Pharaoh who reigned when Joseph rose to prominence in Egypt permitted the children of Israel to live in the land of Goshen. God can still work like that today. We would prefer to have believers in the Lord Jesus Christ to rule over us, but God can and does direct the hearts of those who are not. Strategic Positions of the Saints Not only does God sometimes dispose pagans to help His people, He often places His own children in positions of influence. There are many examples of this in Scripture and in history. One of the most prominent is that of Joseph. Every Bible reader is familiar with the dramatic way in which Joseph was elevated to the second most important position in Egypt, which was the greatest political power on earth at that time. God’s omniscience, particularly His foreknowledge, is gloriously seen here. Joseph was a member of an obscure tribal community located in Palestine, a far cry from the throne of Egypt. He was a young man of great integrity. The Lord required him to go through thirteen very hard years as He molded him for the job He wanted him to do. When Joseph finally came into a position of power he was in a unique position to help his people. We must remember that this is not just a beautiful story. This is an actual historical account. God can still place some of His people in important positions from which they can assist His children. As the song has it: “He’s just the same today. He’s just the same today. The God who lived in the olden times is just the same today.” Another Old Testament saint who found himself in a unique position from whence he could help God’s people was Nehemiah. He was a cupbearer to King Artaxerxes. Nehemiah received permission from the king to go to Jerusalem. He supervised the rebuilding of the city walls, even using timbers that were donated from the royal forests. Still another Old Testament saint who was placed in a very vital position from whence she could help her people was Esther, who became Queen of Persia. When the Jews in the Persian Empire were threatened with extermination, Esther was able to save them. Many more examples could be given from the Old Testament of God’s children who were put in positions of power and influence in pagan governments. We will give one example of this from the New Testament. The Apostle Paul was under household arrest in Rome. He was incarcerated in a location very near the heart of government. He boldly preached the gospel and constantly witnessed to everyone he met. Evidently some very important people were converted to Christianity. When Paul was closing his letter to the church at Philippi, he said inPhp 4:22“All the saints salute you, chiefly they that are of Caesar’s household.” It does not take much imagination to realize that the servants of Caesar were in a very good position from which to assist the cause of Christ. The Power of a Godly Life Most, if not all of those who will be reading this are just average people. We are not in positions from which we can exert much influence. What can we do in these turbulent times? Well, the answer is that there is a lot that we can do that is very important. One of the most effective things that we can do is to live lives in obedience to the Word of God. As we do this we will inevitably have a good influence on the society about us. This is at least a part of what Jesus meant when He said inMatthew 5:16to "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." We may not think we are doing much good, but people are always watching us. We will have a great influence by our consistent, day-after-day examples of personal godliness. In this way we can exercise as "the light of the world," and as the "salt of the earth." However, as important as this influence on others is, much more importantly God is watching us! As is said inProverbs 15:3“The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.” Does it make any difference what kinds of lives we live? We can learn the answer by observing Abraham talking with the Lord over the destiny of Sodom. Abraham pled with God to not destroy the righteous with the wicked. God very graciously allowed Abraham to discourse with Him and agreed to not destroy the city if as few as ten righteous were found there. Sadly not even that small number of righteous individuals were found, and God utterly destroyed the place. I am convinced that one of the reasons the Lord has not already totally destroyed our nation is because He knows there are some righteous people here. Ironically, the wicked continually harass the righteous, not knowing that the averting of terrible judgment is owing to their existence here. I encourage each of you who read this to renew your commitment to walking with God in obedience. The very best way to be a good citizen is to be an obedient Christian. Prayer One of the most potent weapons in our spiritual arsenal is prayer. Prayer for civil government should be a very high priority for God’s children. Paul instructed us in1 Timothy 2:1-3“I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour...” We have no idea how important it is to pray for those who rule over us. There are some good men who are in high positions of government. They are under pressures that very few of us can even imagine. We live in a day when the media viciously and dishonestly assaults those public figures who make public stands for Biblical or even decent standards. These good men and women need our prayer support. There are still a few good people left in office. I was thrilled to read the statement of a good man from a western state who recently made a very unpopular stand for what was right. His political enemies have vowed to make sure he loses his political office. I would like to give a few of his comments concerning this situation: I wanted my little girls to know that when the roll was called their father served with colleagues who counted it a privilege to risk political fortunes in defense of the Constitution. Today, I am more resolute in that opinion. From the time I was a little boy, it was my dream to one day serve in the Congress of the United States. My dream was fulfilled two years ago-The pundits keep telling me that my stand on this issue puts my political fortunes in jeopardy. So be it. That revelation produces from me no flinching. There is a simple reason why: I know that in life dreams come and dreams go. But conscience is forever. I can live with the concept of not serving in Congress. I cannot live with the idea of remaining in Congress at the expense of doing what I believe to be right. There are good, decent men and women in government who covet and deserve our prayers. How diligent are you in regularly praying for them? When we pray for those who rule over us we are engaging in spiritual warfare. There is a very vivid example of this in the Book of Daniel. God’s people were in captivity. The prophesied time of their release was near at hand. Daniel understood this and began to pray. Gabriel, a high-ranking angel appeared and told him that the Lord had heard Daniel’s prayers. There was some difficulty in the spirit world. The “prince of Persia”who was probably a demon, was doing everything he could to prevent the release of God’s people from captivity. This demon prince was working on the mind of the king who held God’s chosen people captive. There was a titanic struggle going on in the spirit world. Of course, right eventually prevailed and the captivity came to an end. The prayers of Daniel and others played a very important part in this great spiritual struggle. Does this sound a little weird? Does it sound a little far fetched. If it does, get your Bible out and carefully readDaniel 9:1-27andDaniel 10:1-21. I am convinced that if we could see into the spirit world around our nation’s capital, we would be amazed at what we saw. The Apostle Paul was speaking of things like this when he said inEphesians 6:12“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” I encourage each of you who read this to be more diligent in prayer for those who rule over us. This should be a high priority. Conclusion We must not despair. We must not be cynical. We must not be spiritually lazy. We must not “put our heads in the sand.” We must do what we can and refuse to worry about what we can’t do. The stakes are high. The issues are great. Our whole way of life is changing before our eyes. What will the future hold for the nation in which our children and grandchildren must live? How long will we enjoy the religious liberty that we so much take for granted? If we do lose our freedoms will we have a guilty conscience because we were spiritually lazy and did not do what we could while we still had the opportunity? ======================================================================== CHAPTER 106: THE BIBLE SPEAKS TODAY ======================================================================== THE BIBLE SPEAKS TODAY "Today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts..."Hebrews 3:7 The Battle for the Bible In a very real sense, Christianity is the religion of a book- a book, however, of no mere human origin, but a book that is a Divine production. Apart from that revelation, the Christian faith is nothing more than another school of philosophical thought or human speculation. Take this book away from the church and she ceases to be the church. For that reason, the integrity of the Bible is a crucial issue. Everything we believe about God, Christ, sin, salvation, life, death, heaven, and hell finds its basis in the Bible. Christians are people who believe and affirm that Holy Scripture, both the Old Testament and the New, is divinely inspired, the very word of God, and the only rule or standard of faith (what one believes) and life (how one behaves). Historic Christianity is consistent in its attestation to the authority of the Bible. Until the 18th century, Biblical authority was more or less universally accepted among professed Christians. The advent of the scientific revolution, however, changed much of that confidence. In the face of modern advances, many now took great pangs to reconcile the Bible with new knowledge and "Science" became the supreme authority. Assaults on the integrity of the Bible were in vogue. Higher Criticism emerged within scholastic circles as a school of thought that presumed to sit in judgment on the truthfulness of Scripture’s historical claims. Rudolph Bultmann, one of the leading scholars of Form Criticism in this century (he died in 1976 at age 92), utterly rejected the possibility of miracles. Operating from this anti-supernatural bias that science has proved that miracles cannot occur, Bultmann argued that the references to the supernatural in the Old Testament indicated that the Bible is a collection of myths and legends; consequently, it is historically untrustworthy. He believed that we must treat science as our only source of knowledge about the external world. The purpose of the Bible, to Bultmann, was to give people a new "self-understanding." One of the original proponents of this school of thought was Julius Wellhausen. In his book Israel and the Jewish God, he ridiculed the account of the miracles at Sinai (Exodus 20:1-26ff) asking, "Who can seriously believe all that?" In 1895, he refined a hypothesis (known as "the Documentary Hypothesis") that promoted the idea that the Pentateuch was not written by Moses, but was compiled years after Moses died from four different documents and authors known anonymously as J, E, D, and P. For those who subscribed to this school whose aim it was to demythologize the Bible, the men and the women in the Pentateuch were not actual human beings, or at best, idealized heroes. In the light of Darwin’s Origin of the Species and theories of "natural selection," these scholars dismissed the Genesis account of creation as a mere legend. In fact, the Wellhausen theory called into question the credibility of the entire Old Testament and cast a shadow of suspicion on Biblical inerrancy from which modern man has still not recovered. This theory was accepted by many seminaries and textbooks on the Old Testament and is still popular in many (but not all) academic institutions and curricula of Biblical studies. Even in places where the ideas of Higher Criticism have been discarded, the effects of its blatant unbelief can still be witnessed in the skeptical attempts to tone down the Bible and soft-peddle its more unpopular concepts (e. g. the wrath of God, the depravity of man, etc.). In fact, though it is impossible to accurately measure, I believe that the skepticism concerning the authenticity and credibility of the Bible spawned by these 19th century rationalists has had (and still has) a debilitating effect on the contemporary church. Our culture virtually bombards us with doubts and not-so-subtle innuendo regarding the trustworthiness of the Bible. Many professed believers and regular church-goers have long since bought the lie that science has disproved the claims of the Bible. Television and other forms of media constantly attack belief in the Bible, ri ignorant, naïve, and credulous. Behind it all is the Serpent who deceived the woman with a question that held God’s word suspect: "Yea, hath God said..." Because Adam hearkened to his wife (who listened to the Devil) instead of to God, he was banished from Paradise. The issue today is still, "To whom will we listen- God or the Devil?" The Battle for the Bible is still the primary conflict in which the church is engaged. God Has Spoken (Is the Bible the Word of God?) The loss of confidence in the integrity of the Bible and, consequently, loss of emphasis on the absolute authority of Holy Scripture has created a situation in which there is today "a famine of hearing the words of the Lord." {Amos 8:11} J. I Packer lists a number of ways in which skepticism about the Bible has weakened the church. First, it has undermined preaching. Where doubt exists concerning the Bible as the verbal revelation of God, preaching loses its authority. It ceases to be the means by which God communicates His will to man, and becomes instead a form of entertainment in which self-proclaimed experts proffer their own private opinions. Second, it has weakened faith. Without a trustworthy word from God, there is no basis for faith. Faith is then sheer mysticism or positive thinking. Third, it has hidden and obscured the true Christ. Where confidence in the reliability of the Bible is held in question, the Jesus of history is discarded for the Jesus of existential experience. The popular movement known as "the Jesus Seminar" is a classic example. In the face of these modern problems, renewed confidence in the authenticity and Divine authority of the Bible is vital. Why does Biblical trustworthiness and authority matter? Because once we entertain the notion that Scripture cannot be fully trusted, we will have no standard to determine what to believe and what to deny. Only truth can have final authority and Scripture cannot have such authority further than it is true. Two convictions, then, are indispensable for Christians today: (1) The conviction that God has spoken; (2) The conviction that God still speaks through what He has spoken. How common it is to hear people today deny these basic propositions. "The Bible is not the word of God," someone says, "but it contains the word of God: we must look for the basic message in the Bible but we can afford to ride loosely to the facts." Is the Bible the word of God? The Lord Jesus himself demonstrated total confidence in Scripture. "Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth" he prayed. {John 17:17} InJohn 5:46andLuke 24:44, Jesus shows that he accepts the whole of the Old Testament as Scripture. He believed the Genesis account of creation and acceptedGenesis 1:1-31;Genesis 2:1-25;Genesis 3:1-24as literal history, including the historicity of Adam and Eve as actual persons: "... have ye not read that He which made them at the beginning made them male and female..."{Matthew 19:4-emphasis mine} Three times in the wilderness, Jesus quoted from the Book of Deuteronomy in response to Satan’s temptation: "It is written...It is written...It is written..."{Matthew 4:1} ff. He affirmed the inerrancy and total trustworthiness of the Old Testament when he said, "The Scripture cannot be broken." {John 10:35} If Jesus affirmed the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch, the historicity of Adam and Eve, and the Genesis account of Creation, can a person who denies these things truly be classified as a follower of Jesus Christ, i.e. a Christian? Let God be true and every man a liar! The issue that modern man faces is simply this: Am I going to believe Christ or the critics? Christ or the critics? What will it be: Christ or the critics? The question "Is the Bible the word of God?" is a question that involves the following essential doctrines. A. Revelation Revelation is the affirmation that ‘God has spoken’.The term refers to "the initiative that God has taken to make Himself known." It is a very humbling word because man would have never known Him apart from revelation: "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath entered into the heart of man the things that God hath prepared for them that love Him, but God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit, for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea the deep things of God." {1 Corinthians 2:10-11} Left to himself, man would have never arrived at a knowledge of God by the sheer power of his intellect. {Job 11:6-7} In His grace, however, God has taken the initiative to make Himself known. He has spoken! {Hebrews 1:1-3} If He had not spoken to reveal Himself, we would not dare to speak, for any attempt to describe the Almighty apart from what He has revealed is mere conjecture and human speculation. His revelation is a complete and sufficient word. He has spoken once and for all. Nothing remains to be added, nor needs to be removed. Everything we need to know about God’s character and covenant, His ways and His will, for time and eternity, has been once and for all revealed. He is not now giving further revelation. Revelation, like redemption, is a "finished work." {John 17:4} Yes, God has spoken. The Bible is His very own word. "But the Bible," someone says, "was written by forty different men. How can it be the word of God and the word of man at the same time? How do you explain this dual authorship." It is true that God used men to write the Bible. Not only did God speak, but men also spoke: "... holy men of old spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." {2 Peter 1:21} That brings us to next important doctrinal tenet regarding Biblical Authority. B. Inspiration & Inerrancy Inspiration is "the process by which God has made Himself known by speaking through the Biblical authors." Notice2 Peter 1:21again: "... holy men of old spoke as they were moved lit. carried or borne along by the Holy Ghost." Did God employ men in the writing of the Bible? Yes. Were the words they wrote their own words? Yes again, as the fact that their writings bear the stamp of their own respective personalities (e. g. Peter said Paul wrote things "hard to be understood") demonstrates. They were not mere automatons or robots channeling words dictated from heaven. Someone objects, "Well, then, here is the weak link in the chain. Because they were men, and because men are fallible creatures, the Bible cannot be totally trusted. If man participated in the process, then the outcome must of necessity be flawed." It is precisely here that the doctrine of inspiration comes into play. Yes, God used human writers as the means by which He made himself known, but these men were supernaturally and providentially directed! In fact, they were carried along by the Holy Spirit! Inspiration is the vehicle by which revelation was given. It is verbal, that is, the very words of the Bible are inspired, and it is plenary, that is, every word is inspired. The whole Bible is the word of God. 2 Timothy 3:16says, "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works." Theopneustos, the word translated "inspiration" literally means "breathed out from God." The written word that is the Bible, in other words, is the very spoken revelation of God. The implications of this fact are simply staggering. If you and I could hear God speak today, He wouldn’t say anything more or less than what He has already said in His word! Because it is inspired, the Bible is inerrant, that is, it is totally true and trustworthy in all that it says, for God cannot lie. By the way, to those who suggest "Only the original autographs are inspired, but not the copies," I would encourage consideration of the verse immediately preceding2 Timothy 3:16. There Paul says that Timothy, from a child, had known "the Holy Scriptures." Then, immediately, he adds, "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God..." Question: If only the original autographs are inspired, {2 Timothy 3:16} did Timothy and his family have access to an original manuscript from Moses or Isaiah or David, or did they have a copy? Any reasonable person must answer "a copy." Notice, then, that Paul called the copies of the Old Testament to which Timothy’s mother and grandmother taught him "Holy Scripture"! So, in Augustine’s formula, we must say, "What Scripture says, God says." When the Biblical authors spoke, in other words, they were so superintended by the Holy Spirit that the words they uttered and subsequently penned were the very words God would have them to say. "Behold, I have put my words into thy mouth" God told Jeremiah. {Jeremiah 1:9} InRomans 9:17andGalatians 3:8, Paul prefaces a quotation from the Old Testament by saying, "For the Scripture saith..." The original passage is very clear, however, that God uttered the words under consideration. Thus, Paul equates the testimony of Scripture with the word of God. 1. Proofs of Inspiration The internal testimony of Scripture is conclusive in its claim to inspiration. The Bible claims to be inspired over 3800 times. Consider, for example the following verses:2 Samuel 23:2;Psalms 45:1;Jeremiah 36:2;Acts 4:23;Acts 1:16; Mr 12:36;Acts 28:25;Hebrews 4:7;Revelation 2:7;Revelation 14:13, etc. Scripture is "the word of the Lord" as prophets declared over 1200 times. Consider several further proofs for the "divine nature" of the Bible. a. The Indestructibility of the Bible- The longevity of the Bible argues for its Divine authorship. Very few books survive fifty years; still fewer are in circulation one hundred years. Just a very small percentage of books survive one thousand years. The Bible, however, has outlived all other books. The God who inspired it has also promised in His providence to preserve it. In fact, even the words in the word are kept by God. {Psalms 12:6-7;Matthew 24:35;Matthew 5:18} Though modern skeptics and critics have, like King Jehoiakim cutting Jeremiah’s roll with his pen knife and burning it in the fire, cut and sliced at the Bible with the pen knife of "Higher" scholarship, the word lives on long after they have returned to the dust from whence they came. The Roman Emperor Flavius Diocletian once thought he had rid the earth of the sacred volume. After the final mighty bonfire, he ordered a medal to be struck and inscribed with the words "The Christian religion is destroyed and the worship of the gods restored." Little did he know that one can burn every known copy of the Holy Scriptures, but cannot exterminate it, for God has promised to preserve it. Without an army to defend it, a bank account to finance it, a government to protect it, or a company to promote it, God’s Holy Word survives! b. Fulfilled Prophecy -Perhaps the most convincing proof for the Divine authorship of the Bible is the fulfillment of predictive prophecy. There are over 2000 predictive prophecies in the Old Testament alone. Each is very specific and precise. Peter Stoner, a mathematician, says that the probability that 8 prophecies would be fulfilled by coincidence in one in 10 to the 16th power. For 40 prophecies, the probability is one in 10 to the 70th power. What would be the probability that all 2000 would be fulfilled to the most minute detail? Predictions concerning Tyre and Sidon, {Ezekiel 28:21-23} Samaria, Babylon, Edom, Ninevah, Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum have all been fulfilled with an exactness that defies mere coincidence. Other proofs such as the honesty and integrity of the Bible writers, the unity of the Bible, and the dramatic influence of the Bible in human history could also be cited. 2. Historical Accuracy and Reliability of the Bible "But hasn’t science disproved many of the historical claims of the Bible?" someone asks. In fact, it has not. Even though the Bible makes no claim to be a science textbook, not one claim that Scripture makes that can be tested in the realm of science has proven scientifically inaccurate.Psalms 8:4-8, for example, refers to the existence of systematic ocean currents (’ the paths of the seas’). Matthew Maury, the father of oceanography, claimed that his research was inspired by that phrase inPsalms 8:1-9;Isaiah 40:22hew:22 ew:22 plainly asserts that the earth is a sphere.Ecclesiastes 1:7describes the hydrologic cycle, andJob 26:7, the gravitational field. Furthermore, manuscript evidence argues for the historical accuracy of the Bible. There is more manuscript evidence to sustain the proposition that the Bible has been preserved intact from its original autographs to the present than any ten pieces of classical literature combined. Perhaps the most convincing proof for the historical reliability of the Bible is the abundance of archaeological evidence. Jesus once said, "If these should hold their peace, the rocks would immediately cry out." Interestingly, at the same time that "Higher Criticism" began its assault on the integrity of the Bible, the archaeologist’s spade began to unearth relic after relic, and artifact after artifact that verified the historical claims of the Bible. It is worthy of note that no single archaeological discovery has ever contradicted the testimony of the Bible. The preponderance of evidence asserts without hesitation, "Christian, you can trust the Bible." C. Authority So, the Bible is the word of God. It is God’s Revelation, given by Inspiration, preserved by Providence. It is, consequently, authoritative. Biblical Authority is the touchstone issue of the day. To say that Scripture is authoritative is to say that we believe, affirm, and obey all Biblical teaching, and submit every human opinion to the judgment of that teaching. A Christian is someone who believes that the word is truth- not pop-theories and ideas. Any idea that does not correspond to its teaching must be discarded. And every controversy or difference must be settled by an appeal to "thus saith the Lord." The buck stops here! That which is authoritative has the right to govern. God, therefore, exercises His government over His people through His revealed word. The case for Biblical Authority is worked out like this: 1. God’s authority over men is grounded in the fact that He is our Creator. 2. It is further based on the fact that He is our Savior God, who died and rose again, being invested with "all authority exousia in heaven and in earth." 3. He exercises that sovereign authority over His people through the Bible. The forms that authority takes in "Christendom" are three. The first two, however, are illegitimate forms of authority. 1. The Church as "authority" -This is the idea that is prominent in Roman Catholicism that views the "Church" as infallible. The Church in this instance is the interpreter of Scripture. The question intrinsic to this ecclesiastical form of authority is "What is the position of the Church?" 2. The Individual as "authority" -Liberal theology claims that the Bible is a mixture of wheat and chaff; therefore, man’s reason and subjective understanding is the final court of appeal. Experience is viewed as infallible. The word of God is defined according to this paradigm as "that which speaks to you." The question intrinsic to this kind of authority is "What do you feel?" People who subscribe to this mode of thinking tend toward a kind of relativism that says, "You determine what is true for you and I’ll determine what is true for me and we’ll both be right." 3. The Bible as "authority" -This is the position of historical Christianity. God’s inspired and inerrant word is the only rule for faith and life. The Bible sits in judgment on the church and on my own understanding. It has the last word. It is the supreme judge by which all controversies of religion are to be determined, and all opinions, ideas, and creeds are to be examined by it. Sola Scriptura! Scripture Alone! Scripture, and Scripture alone is the canon (measuring rod or standard) of faith and practice. D. Canonicity It is at this point that we need to address the question, "But how do we know that the Bible as we have it is the word that is intended to be authoritative? How do we know that the Apocryphal books, or the epistle of Barnabas are not Holy Scripture? Should these be included in the Bible? Is it possible that some of the books that are included in the canon of Scripture are not, in fact, inspired?" These are legitimate questions. By what criteria did the Bible as we have it today come to be? Who determined what is Scripture and what is not Scripture? Should other writings perhaps be included as authoritative? The Lord Jesus Christ conferred authority on His apostles. He rules His church, therefore, by and through the apostles. The test of "apostolicity," then, is the criteria by which New Testament books were judged by the early church. Whether or not a book was judged to be apostolic, whether directly from an apostle or indirectly from one who was in the inner circle of the apostles (i.e. John Mark, Luke, etc.), was the test. How did the "canon" then emerge? Over a period of several centuries, "through a gradual, un-coordinated, seemingly haphazard and erratic process...," the various churches "came to recognize the extent and limits of the God-given canon, by checking and cross-checking the pedigree and contents of the many books that bore apostolic names, or were alleged to proceed from the apostolic circle, to find out which of them could make good their claim to be genuine apostolic products, embodying the revealed truth of which the apostles were trustees" (J. I Packer, God Has Spoken, p. 119). "Apostolicity" was determined by examination of the various books to see if they were indeed products of the pen of one of the apostles (or again, one in the inner circle of the apostles). After three centuries of inquiry, there was consensus among Christians regarding which books possessed intrinsic authority. The Bible, as we have it, then, was commonly received and accepted by the early church. Could the early church’s verdict, however, be flawed? Textual criticism has been interested to answer that question for the past fifteen hundred years. The evidence that Paul was actually the author of his letters, Peter of his, John of his, etc., is so conclusive that the answer to the question must be "no." When one further remembers the Lord’s promise to providentially preserve His word, all uncertainty dissolves. Since the "church" agreed regarding which books were canonical and which books were not, does the "church" have authority over the Bible? Roman Catholicism says ‘yes.’ But the "church" did not give us the Bible, any more than Sir Isaac Newton gave us the law of gravity. Newton merely recognized the law of gravity that God had created; moreover, the "church" merely recognized which books were "apostolic" and hence, inspired and authoritative, but God is the giver of Scripture. The real question is not "Do we have evidence to accept the canon as the Word of God?" but "Do we enough reason not to?" This brings us to the second conviction with which we must approach the Bible. Not only do we affirm that "God Has Spoken," once and for all, we also believe that: III God Still Speaks Through What He Has Spoken (Is the Bible Contemporary?) The Bible is not just a collection of ancient documents, a faint echo from a distant past, but a living message to living people from the Living God. It moves with the times and continues to address each generation with fresh and contemporary relevance. "His Spirit floweth free, high surging where He wills: In Prophet’s word He spoke of old, He speaketh still..."- From the Yigdal by Daniel ben Judah God’s word has an abiding application across all ages. A. The Contemporary Voice of God Hebrews 3:7-8warns, "Today, if you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts." That verse is a quotation from Psalms 95:1} By the same token, the congregation’s conviction that the words they are hearing are more than a mere "sermon" from the preacher, but an actual word from God, is equally indispensable: "... when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe." {1 Thessalonians 2:13} It is crucial that preacher and people alike develop the habit of approaching the proclamation of the word with the eagerness, anticipation and expectation that God will speak today through His word. "We come to hear Jehovah speak, to hear the Savior’s voice; Thy face and favor, Lord we seek; Now let our hearts rejoice." "What will the Lord say to me today through the preaching of His word?" is the proper approach to public worship. That sense of the (may I coin a word?) "today-ness" of His word is, it seems to me, one of the greatest needs of the hour: "Today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your heart." It is a fact that we must serve the Lord in the day and age in which we live. We must serve our own generation. Though I once thought I would have liked to have lived 100 years ago, I didn’t, and I don’t, and I never will. Our Christianity must be contemporary so that we, like David, can "serve our own generation by the will of God." {Acts 13:36} In the providence of God, we live today. The battles we fight, consequently, must be the battles of today, not the battles of fifty years ago or one hundred fifty years ago. Martin Luther wrote: "If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the battlefield besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point." C. Knowing the Times {Romans 13:11} We are living in truly momentous times. One has the sense that we are at a turning point in human history. Of course, people have always tended to exaggerate the importance of the age in which they lived, but, in my opinion, the dramatic changes we have witnessed in our lifetime are unprecedented in human history. This century alone has witnessed two world wars. In the realm of transportation, the horse, the fastest mode of travel in the 19th century, has been replaced by the locomotive, the automobile, the jet airplane, and the space shuttle in the 20th century. Knowledge is literally exploding as the cybernetics revolution brings new technologies into the public domain virtually every day. Politically, we are witnessing a radical reshaping of the world’s governments. In our own country, one wonders if we are not witnessing the last days of the America in which we were born. Scientifically, genetic research and the neurosciences are almost daily taking giant steps forward as modern man continues to build his tower to the sky. In the church, these are also remarkable times. Today we are witnessing great religious turmoil both within and without the church. At times, it appears that conditions are ripe for a mighty revival, a fresh visitation of the Spirit of God. At other times, one wonders if the creeping spiritual apathy and malaise that has set in upon us will be reversed. All appears to be in a state of flux and change and uncertainty. Neo-Pentecostalism is making steady advances into mainline denominations; the spirit of ecumenism has revived under the accord between Evangelicals and Catholics and through movements known as "Promise Keepers." Ancient Gnosticism with its mystical emphasis on "feeling" is making a comeback, both in society, disguised as "The New Age Movement," and in "Christendom," under the canopy of popular psychology. We are living at a truly significant and exciting time in the history of the world. These are indeed days of darkness and distress. The parallels between the modern situation and the pre-flood world in the days of Enoch and Noah are striking. But as the night of time darkens, the dawn of a new day is at hand: "Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us who are of the day be sober..." In the light of these tremendous times, how can God’s servants remain contemporary? Do we have a message for today’s man or woman? What does it mean to be a mouthpiece for God at the close of the 20th century? Three particular emphases, it seems to me, are vital and fundamental to the times. 1. The Evangelistic Note in Preaching The preachers most basic task, that is, the work of proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ the Lord, is one dimension in which the preacher speaks as a mouthpiece for God. God still speaks through the preached gospel to urge the hearer to repent, believe, and acquiesce to Him: "Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us; we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God;" {2 Corinthians 5:20} "At the times of this ignorance God winked at, but now he commandeth all men everywhere to repent." {Acts 17:30} As long as people are sinners, they need to hear the basic gospel message. The Bible speaks today to those whose who "feel after Him," {Acts 17:27} whether Jew or Gentile, male or female, bond or free, whether in the West or the East, to "turn to God from idols to serve the living and the true God." {1 Thessalonians 1:9} The preaching of the gospel message is supremely relevant today. What does the Christian "evangel" involve? It involves: a. An Biblical View of Man Man is not "the master of his fate and the captain of his soul." He is, in fact, totally depraved. It is only the Gospel that depicts man as he really is -born in chains, antagonistic to God and his fellow man. Freud taught that man is the victim of his environment and consequently, not culpable for his behavior. Carl Rogers said that man has all the answers to life prepackaged in himself and is "at the core of his being essentially good." B. F. Skinner teaches that man is nothing more than an animal. It is only the Christian gospel, however, that presents a Biblical anthropology. Man is not an animal, but a being created in the image of God. Evolutionary sociology suggests that man is just an advanced animal, a body without a soul (By the way, much modern psychology attempts to explain human behavior in strictly physiological terms, i.e. the claim that homosexuality or alcoholism is a genetic tendency. In its attempt to treat "spiritual" problems with chemicals, it confuses the human "brain," a physical organ in the body, with the human "mind," the spiritual dimension of man, and consequently, discounts the spiritual dimension of man’s makeup.). Hinduism and neo-Gnosticism teaches that man was intended to be a soul without a body and that the body is evil and the spirit is good. Ultimate salvation, therefore, is defined in terms of release from the physical and union with the mystical. But Jesus taught that man is both "body and soul," composed of both a material or physical and immaterial or spiritual side {Matthew 10:28} and that both body and soul have been infected by sin. Man’s problem, therefore, is not that he is socially underprivileged but that he is corrupt at the very core of his being: "Out of the heart proceed murders, evil thoughts, adulteries, lasciviousness, coveteousness, and abominable idolatries." You see, it is only the gospel that explains human behavior. Modern psychology fails to even consider man’s sinful nature as a possible explanation of human behavior. Could it be that people steal not because they were mis-nurtured, but because they have a sinful and fallen nature? Could it be that people commit adultery not because they are genetically predisposed to multiple partners like their animal ancestors, but because they are born with a rotten heart? Could it be that trouble in marriage arises not because two people are temperamentally incompatible, but because each is by nature a prisoner in what Malcolm Muggeridge called "the dark little dungeon of my own ego?" The Christian "evangel" speaks today because it is the only message that describes man accurately: Made in God’s image, but now born in sin and predisposed to evil and righteousness. b. A Lofty View of God It is only the gospel, furthermore, that paints an accurate picture of the character of God. It is not uncommon to hear people say today, "‘ When I think of God, I don’t think of the angry, wrathful, jealous God of the Old Testament, but as a kindly, benevolent ‘grandfather’ in the sky’; or, ‘I believe in a God of love, not a God who would punish sin’. "Until one understand, however, the truth of the Holiness of God, he will never appreciate the message of God’s Grace and Love. God is Sovereign and Holy, Great in Glory and Great in Grace. He is "the High and Lofty One that inhabiteth eternity whose name is Holy." He dwells in the "High and Holy Place." Until one grasps the truth of His transcendence, the next phrase will have no meaning: "He dwells...with him also that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and that trembleth at his word." {Isaiah 57:15} Because man is a sinner, He is under God’s wrath. That is a message for today! c. A Glorious View of Christ The Christian "evangel" begins with the tragic view of man in sin under God’s wrath. Then it points the hearer, stripped of his self-righteousness and intellectual pride, to the only solution for sin -the Blood of Christ. It says, "He is your wisdom, your righteousness, your sanctification, and your redemption. Christ is an all-sufficient Savior. In Him, you are justified. In Him, you are holy. In Him, you are free from the penalty of sin and the curse of the law." This is a word for our day! Sinners still need to hear the glad tidings of "Christ crucified." 2. The Prophetic Note in Preaching Although preachers are not prophets in the sense that they receive "direct" revelation from God, neither do they have the capacity to predict future events beyond the parameters of Holy Scripture, they do indeed "prophesy" {1 Corinthians 14:1} ff. {1 Thessalonians 5:20} Prophesying is the act of speaking or declaring God’s revelation intelligibly. Not the same as the sign gift of prophetic utterance, post-apostolic ‘prophesying’ is the Spirit-given ability to proclaim God’s word already revealed. "Despise not prophesying" {1 Thessalonians 5:20} means "don’t look down with contempt on any utterance coming from gifted men that is in agreement with God’s word." So, every preacher who teaches the Scriptures is, in this sense, a prophet. The "prophetic note" to which I refer here, however, is something different. I am talking now about a Jeremiad kind of ministry that speaks unusually direct, specific, and probing messages that have a particular relevance to the times. Writing to his wife about the spiritual needs of his congregation after World War II, Martyn Lloyd-Jones said, "I feel that there is a tremendous opportunity for preaching. At the moment what is wanted is the comforting note to help people over the shock. But, following that, the need will be for the prophetic note to awaken the people." Prophets say things such as "Today if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts." They bring a message of warning. The prophets commission is "Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins." {Isaiah 58:1} Let me give a more specific definition. The "prophetic note" is the act of exposing current trends and conditions among God’s people to the reality of God’s law (or word), thereby bringing people face to face with the spiritual consequences of their behavior and hence, to the crisis of decision. It is the kind of preaching that cries "Woe unto them that go down to Egypt for help" and that laments "O why will you die, O house of Israel." It is the kind of preaching a Hosea, or Amos, or Isaiah, or Jeremiah, or Joel, or Zechariah, or Malachi would do. Prophetic preaching is preaching that seeks to awaken slumbering consciences. It is preaching that emphasizes that God deals personally and individually with people and that He does not respect any man’s person. It is preaching that searches the hearts and consciences of the hearers, calling upon them to explore their hearts and lives through the discipline of self-examination. It is preaching with a note of authority- a "Thus saith the Lord." It is preaching that brings people to the awareness that God is real, that He is holy, and that He is jealous for His own glory. It is preaching that exposes sin, and then, attempts to persuade people to respond in repentance. The prophet first probes the wound and reveals the problem, then urges the people to amend their ways. In both the major and the minor Old Testament "prophets," there is a double theme. The somber tone of Divine judgment upon the disobedient rings loud and clear. But there is another theme in every Old Testament book. It is the promise of renewal, restoration, and revival in the event that God’s people turn from the evil of their doings and seek Him with the whole heart. This double theme is "the prophetic motif." The prophetic word, therefore, also emphasizes the promise of revival. It forecasts the future of God’s people either in terms of God’s judgment or His restorative grace, contingent on their response to His message. This kind of preaching is sorely needed today. 3. The Pastoral Note in Preaching The relevance of God’s word to our times also takes the form of "pastoral" preaching. We are living in a day not only when people need the basic gospel message, and the stern prophetic warning couched in the prospect of spiritual renewal, but also when they need direction and encouragement and help to live their daily lives to the praise of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible speaks today in terms of the fact that it has the answer to the searching questions of life with which ordinary people struggle. What is the purpose of my existence? Does life have meaning? Is my life worth living? What really matters in this world? These are the questions with which people struggle, and these are the questions to which the Bible and the Bible alone has the answer. The Bible gives counsel and direction to the burdened soul weighed down with a guilty conscience, pointing him to the blood of Christ which continually cleanses the conscience from all sin. The Bible speaks to our fears and gives us courage to face the future by reminding us of the promises of God {seeIsaiah 41:10;Isaiah 43:2;Hebrews 13:5} ff, etc. It is the Bible that enables the confused and despairing soul to regain a heavenly perspective on his troubles by reminding him that God is in sovereign control of his life and that He has promised "grace sufficient" for every trial. The Bible speaks today to the burdened pilgrim saying, "Lift up your head, for your redemption is drawing nigh; Jesus lives as your great High Priest, ever living to make intercession for you. He has pledged to return one day in all of his regal glory to finally make an end of all adversity, sin, and Satan." Is that a message needed today? The Bible speaks today, encouraging us in our weariness that there is hope for restoration.2 Corinthians 6:1-2reminds us that "now" and "today" God is hearing prayer and coming to the aid of His people. This pastoral note of comfort and encouragement is the order of the day. Summary In these momentous times, a renewed conviction that we hold in our hands the very word of God, inspired, inerrant, and authoritative, and that this word is timeless in its relevance and powerful in its application is crucial to the preacher of the word. May we commit ourselves anew to the diligent study, faithful exposition, and courageous and gentle proclamation of this word. "Remember," said Lloyd-Jones to some brethren in the ministry, "that He is taking special interest in you. He will be with you in some lonely village, and when the end seems to have come, remember that you are preaching a Savior who rose again: ‘Remember that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead’..."(p311, The Fight of Faith). ======================================================================== CHAPTER 107: THE CHURCH ======================================================================== THE CHURCH by Elder Joe Holder It may well be that the tabernacle in the wilderness not only depicted the Person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s true priest, but also the principles of worship for all time. God gave detailed instructions to Moses and directed him to build every segment of the tabernacle and its furniture according to the pattern that he saw on Mt. Sinai. Whole books of the Old Testament deal with the details of tabernacle worship, not to mention a whole book in the New Testament, Hebrews. Given all the details of the tabernacle, one should find it worth noting that none of these detailed descriptions ever mention a word about the floor of the tabernacle-not a word. The tabernacle had no floor; it was erected on the sand of the wilderness. Such a heavenly mission unfolded on the common sand of the wilderness. New Testament Christian worship should follow that example. We have a truly heavenly mission. It has been set forth in vivid details in the New Testament. We have no authority for variance of any degree. Everything must be done according to revealed Scripture. However minuscule the variation, as soon as we allow, much less rationalize, variance, we have lost touch with the divine origin of our faith. However, that heavenly revelation and mission are to be taken to the people around us with faithfulness and with humility. The Christian who claims to be "so heavenly minded as to be of no earthly good" has lost the Biblical vision of the faith. Can we read the book of Acts and miss this truth? From nearly uncivilized and isolated villages to the most respected centers of learning, the apostles and early Christians took their faith into the world and proclaimed it in word and deed with such conviction and evidence as to turn the world upside down. The evil Roman emperor Caligula fiercely attacked the Christians, hoping to stamp them out of existence. On his deathbed he is reported to have whispered the words, "Thou, Galilean, has conquered." ======================================================================== CHAPTER 108: THE CHURCH IN PERSECTUION ======================================================================== THE CHURCH IN PERSECTUION by Thomas Fuller from "Treasury of David" The church in persecution is like unto a ship in a tempest; down go all their masts, yea, sometimes for the more speed they are forced to cut them down: not a piece of canvas to play with the winds, no sails to be seen; they lie close knotted to the very keel, that the tempest may have the less power upon them, though when the storm is over, they can hoist up their sails as high, and spread their canvas as broad as ever before. So the church in the time of persecution feared, but especially felt, loseth all gayness and gallantry which may attract and allure the eyes of beholders, and contents itself with its own secrecy. In a word, on the work days of affliction she weareth her worst clothes, whilst her best are laid up in her wardrobe, in sure and certain hope that God will give her a holy and happy day, when with joy she shall wear her best garments. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 109: THE DEITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT ======================================================================== THE DEITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT A Brief Study A Brief Study PBtop: WILL, MIND, WAY, PLEASING of the HOLY TRINITY PBtop: The Sovereignty of the Spirit of God The three Divine Persons in the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, are co-essential, co-eternal, and co-equal. In this writing, we address the Sovereignty and Deity of the Holy Spirit of God. The Spirit of God was instrumental in the creation of the universe, the inspiration of the Scriptures, the formation of the humanity of Christ Jesus, the regeneration, and sanctification of the elect. Therefore, the Holy Spirit is God and, consequently, Sovereign. Paul said in2 Corinthians 3:17, "Now the Lord is that Spirit." We find inActs 5:3-4the following language: "But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land? Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? And after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? Why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God." It is, therefore, concluded that the Holy Spirit must be God. Paul says in1 Corinthians 3:16, "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" Paul here equates the Spirit of God with the very essence of God. Again, in1 Corinthians 6:19-20, Paul speaks of the Spirit as being God: "What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s." In2 Corinthians 6:16, Paul calls the Holy Spirit "the living God".Also, in2 Thessalonians 3:5, Paul equates the Holy Spirit with God by saying, "And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ." He calls the Holy Spirit "the Lord". In certain Scriptures, the Holy Spirit is referred to as Jehovah. This term can only be applied to the Supreme Sovereign God.Luke 1:68;Luke 1:70teaches that the Lord God of Israel (Jehovah) spake by the mouth of His holy prophets which have been since the world began. Recapturing this very thought, Peter records in2 Peter 1:20-21that those same prophets spake by the Holy Spirit. Notice the reading: "Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." Observe that the Spirit of God actively and sovereignly did this "moving". According toPsalms 78:17-18, David says that Israel tempted Jehovah in the wilderness: "And they sinned yet more against him by provoking the most High in the wilderness. And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust." This correlates withIsaiah 63:10, when he used the terminology, "But they rebelled, and vexed his Holy Spirit: therefore he was turned to be their enemy, and he fought against them." These two verses, together, teach that the Holy Spirit is God.Deuteronomy 32:12tells us, "So the LORD alone did lead him",whileIsaiah 63:14reads, "... the Spirit of the LORD caused him to rest: so didst thou lead thy people, to make thyself a glorious name." Both Moses and Isaiah equate the Spirit of God as being the LORD Jehovah Himself. Thus, the Holy Spirit is taught in God’s inspired word as being equivalent to, and co-essential, co-eternal, and co-equal with the Supreme Sovereign God. All the attributes and perfections of God are "intrinsic" properties of the Spirit of God, according to the Scriptures. The Spirit possesses absolute holiness- thus the title "Holy Spirit". This third Person in the Trinity is called "the Spirit of Holiness"and is here equated with the Son of God. {Romans 1:4} This language refers to the holiness of the Spirit’s nature and the Deity of His Person. Paul says the Spirit of God is eternal. {Hebrews 9:14;Psalms 139:7-10} teaches that the Spirit is omnipresent:" Whither shall I go from thy spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, Thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, Thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold me." The Spirit is also omniscient: "But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God".{1 Corinthians 2:10-11} The Spirit is omnipotent: "And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee".{Luke 1:35} The Deity of the Spirit in His Godhead reveals His absolute sovereignty and supremacy. In creation, The Spirit sovereignly moved upon the waters: "And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." {Genesis 1:2} Note that rather than the Spirit being "moved", He sovereignly did the "moving".As proof of His Deity, the Spirit of God was not only concerned in the creation of all things, garnishing the heavens, and moving upon the face of the waters on the earth; but also in the formation of man. Consider that Elihu said to Job, "The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life".{Job 33:4} Elihu calls the Spirit of God "the Almighty".The Spirit of God functioned in His sovereignty when He "came upon Saul when he heard those tidings..." {1 Samuel 11:6} The Spirit of God also acted sovereignly in1 Samuel 19:20when, "The Spirit of God was upon the messengers of Saul and they also prophesied." The Spirit of God also officiated sovereignly when He "came upon Azariah the son of Oded".{2 Chronicles 15:1} The Spirit also was not dependently "directed"when He "came upon Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest, which stood above the people, and said unto them, Thus saith God, Why transgress ye the commandments of the LORD, that ye cannot prosper? Because ye have forsaken the LORD, he hath also forsaken you".{2 Chronicles 24:20} Ezekiel, speaking of the sovereignty of the Spirit, said, "Afterwards the spirit took me up, and brought me in a vision by the Spirit of God into Chaldea, to them of the captivity..." {Ezekiel 11:24} As we now turn to the New Testament, we find the Holy Spirit functioning within the bounds of His own sovereignty. It is recorded inMatthew 3:16: "And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him." At this solemn occasion, the Spirit condescended within the sphere of His own sovereignty without being directed by any external source or force, as He sanctioned the baptism of Jesus Christ, the very One Whom the Spirit had Himself Fathered in the Son’s humanity. {Luke 1:35} Jesus was led up of the Spirit into the wilderness. {Matthew 4:1} The Divine Person of the Holy Spirit had the right to direct and lead the Lord Jesus, and to Whom Jesus submitted. InJohn 3:8, Jesus speaks of the Spirit’s sovereignty when He used the analogy between the wind and the operations of the Holy Spirit in regenerating the elected objects of His love. I do not believe it can be stated more accurately than has been written by Elder Michael Gowens in his pamphlet Born Again, The Doctrine of Effectual Calling, pages 7 and 8: "... Salvation by God’s sovereign grace through the direct work of the Holy Spirit upon the heart is a method of salvation that will reach the infant, the infidel, the heathen, the mentally deficient, the Old Testament Jew, and the individual who has all the privileges of New Testament Christianity available to him. All are born again in precisely the same way, by the sovereign and mysterious operation of the Holy Spirit within the soul." Elder Michael Gowens continues by saying: "So what is the method by which men are born again? It is nothing more or less than the sovereign and direct work of the Holy Spirit. Regeneration is immediate. God does not use the works of the sinner, on the one end, neither the efforts of the gospel preacher, on the other end, as either the basis or the method for imparting life to the soul. Faith is the gift of God in regeneration. {Ephesians 2:8} What does that mean? It means that the sinner responds to the life giving voice of the Lord Jesus Christ {John 5:25} like Lazarus responded to the command of Jesus inJohn 11:1-57. It is an involuntary response, below the level of consciousness, a perfect obedience to the Divine imperative of Jesus. The Lord God is the active cause; the sinner is the passive recipient. This is irresistible grace! The gift of faith enables the new born soul to function in the spiritual realm, an ability he did not have prior to his quickening..."{John 3:3;John 3:5;1 Corinthians 2:14} These are Biblically based statements to which we agree. When Jesus said inJohn 3:8, "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit",He meant that the wind blows sovereignly where it pleases, not being at the disposal or direction of any creature. In other words, Jesus was saying, "the Spirit sovereignly operates in the new birth as He pleases." This is in harmony with the testimony of Paul inColossians 2:11-14: "In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead. And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross." Paul said in1 Corinthians 12:13: "For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit." This is spiritual baptism, occasioned only by the Sovereign Spirit of God. InJohn 6:63, we read, "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." It is scripturally obvious that all the Divine operations in the management of salvation proceed from the Father, are through the Son, and are executed by the Spirit. Quickening is the Holy Spirit’s initial work in the elect. It is by the sovereign and supernatural act by which He brings His elect out of the depravity of spiritual death by resurrecting them to righteousness in Christ Jesus. In this "Spiritual Creation",the Holy Spirit sovereignly imparts a principle of grace and habit of holiness, which is a communication of the life of God to the soul. {2 Corinthians 5:17} The elect become God’s "workmanship"through the quickening "Omnipotency"of the Holy Spirit. {Ephesians 2:10} In this work, the Spirit of God does not act capriciously, or without reason or motive, but acts as a "Sovereign".This means that He is above any obligation to, and is uninfluenced by the creature in all that He does. The Spirit extends mercy to whom He will, for Paul says inRomans 9:16, "So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy." As the Quickening Spirit and Agent from Heaven, He is absolutely free to work sovereign grace in whom He pleases. None of the fallen offspring of Adam have the slightest claim upon Him, nor can any influence Him in any manner. It is an act of amazing and sovereign grace for the Spirit to give a new heart to the object of His love. This act of "quickening"is by the instantaneous and invincible operation of the Almighty Spirit. Consider also that the Spirit of God even raised the body of Jesus from the grave: "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit." {1 Peter 3:18} The question is sometimes asked, "Does the Spirit have a mind and/or a will?" In1 Corinthians 12:11, Paul, in speaking of the diversities of gifts communicated to men, recorded, "But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He will." This verse teaches that the Person of the Holy Spirit has a "will." This "will" resides in, and is synonymous with, the mind of the Spirit. Yes, the Person of the Spirit does have a "mind": "And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God." {Romans 8:27} The "mind of the Spirit" and the "will of the Spirit" speak expressly to the fact that the Holy Spirit, as God, possesses supremacy, authority, and sovereignty. In this brief study and in our feebleness, we cannot begin to exhaust the Biblical teachings of the Sovereign Deity of the Holy Spirit of God. As a necessary conclusion to this inexhaustible subject, consider that, by His Sovereign Deity, the Holy Spirit of God "inspired the Scriptures," "creates," "quickens," "enlightens," "convicts," "comforts," "draws," "works faith," "unites to Christ," "sanctifies," "indwells," "teaches," "cleanses," "leads," "assures," "witnesses," "seals," "assists," "intercedes," "transforms," "preserves," "confirms," and "endows with His many gifts;" all of this, in addition to the many other things of which I have no cognizance even to mention. With a view to these many things, we should all be convinced that the Holy Spirit of God is indeed sovereign. May we always honor the Sovereign Deity of the Holy Spirit of God. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 110: THE EFFECTUAL CALL ======================================================================== THE EFFECTUAL CALL See also PBtop: COMPARISON BETWEEN THE EFFECTUAL CALL & THE GOSPEL CALL The effectual call, on the contrary, is not an external appeal to the mind, but an inward creative act in the soul. The effectual call is a call, in Augustine’s words, by "Divine Imperative." It is an act of creation in exactly the same way that the origin of the universe was an act of creation. How did God create the universe? By the sheer power of His command, His creative fiat: "And God said, Let there be..." and there was. "Let there be" is a command, an imperative. In the beginning, "God commanded the light to shine out of darkness." It was a command, a fiat. By the mere utterance of His voice, galaxies, solar systems, planets, oceans, mountains, trees, rocks, air, atoms, and molecules were called into existence out of nothing. What awesome power! The effectual call is also a creation. {Ephesians 2:10;2 Corinthians 5:17} It is the creation of spiritual life where no life existed by the power of God’s command. When He speaks, it is done. When He commands, it stands fast. By the mere utterance of His voice, the dead sinner comes to life. Divine imperative is the thought conveyed in1 Peter 1:23-25, a text frequently employed by those who teach gospel agency: "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever...This is the word, which, by the gospel is preached unto you." When Peter says we are born again by the word of God, does He mean that the gospel is the means God uses to quicken the dead sinner? No. The word by which we are born again is not the Bible, nor the gospel, but the spoken voice, the creative fiat of God. Think of1 Peter 1:23in terms ofPsalms 33:6: "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth." Does that mean that the universe was created by the Bible, or by the gospel? No. It means it was created by the sheer power of God’s command. The same God who called the widow’s son, Jairus’ daughter’ and Lazarus to life, still calls sinners who are ‘dead in trespasses and in sins’ to life in Christ. That is the power of Divine imperative. The gospel, then explains what has happened. {1 Peter 1:25} ======================================================================== CHAPTER 111: THE GOSPEL AND FAITH ======================================================================== THE GOSPEL AND FAITH The gift of faith enables the newborn soul to function in the spiritual realm, an ability he did not have prior to his quickening. {John 3:3;John 3:5;1 Corinthians 2:14} It also gives the individual the ability to believe, or, if you please, "ears to hear." {Revelation 2:7;Revelation 2:11;Proverbs 20:12;Matthew 11:15} The gospel is, subsequently, addressed to the regenerate, {Acts 2:39;Acts 13:16;Acts 13:26} for the unregenerate cannot believe. {John 8:43;John 10:26;Romans 3:10-18} ======================================================================== CHAPTER 112: THE IDENTITY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT CHURCH ======================================================================== THE IDENTITY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT CHURCH Christ Set Up His Church The first thing to establish is that the Lord Jesus set up His church while He was here in person. He did this out of material baptized by John the Baptist. This was prophesied in the Old Testament.Malachi 3:1says, “Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple...” This messenger, all commentators agree, is John the Baptist.Isaiah 40:3thew:3 hew:3 says, “The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” Among several other places in the New Testament we read of the fulfillment of this inLuke 1:17, “And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” These disiciples that John baptized Jesus formed into what we today call a “church.” The word translated “church”in the New Testament is the Greek word ekklhsia (See SGreek: 1577. ekklesia). It means the “called out,” and both before and during the New Testament period had the basic meaning of a “called out assembly.” In fact in many translations it is translated “assembly.” I do not know the exact time that Jesus formed these disciples into an assembly, but it was definitely while He was still here on earth. Many people today, believe the church was begun on the Day of Pentecost, but that is not correct. There are many proofs that the church existed before Pentecost. She already had the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. She had a business meeting and voted on a very important matter in theActs 1:1-26. She was already preaching the gospel. She was having prayer meetings. 120 believers were there on Pentecost andActs 2:41says, “Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.” It is made plain who the “them”are inActs 2:47where it is said that they were “Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.” The church was in existence before the great Pentecost. On that day the church was baptized in the Holy Spirit. Jesus Promised Perpetuity to His Church This church that Jesus built He promised perpetuity to. One of the places where He plainly did this was inMatthew 16:18. There He was speaking to Peter and He said, “And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” There are several things that I would like to notice about this verse. First He was talking about His church as a local assembly. Some have tried to make this verse teach that the word “church”here refers to all the family of God or to some nebulous entity known as the “universal church.” It is easy to show that this is not so, by simply looking at the way that the Lord Jesus Christ Himself used the word ekklhsia (See SGreek: 1577. ekklesia), which is translated “church.” Jesus Himself used this word 23 times in the New Testament. In 22 of those times there is absolutely no question as to what He meant. He meant a local assembly of saints. He used this word twenty times in the Book of Revelation. In these uses He often spoke of “churches”in the plural. It is obvious that these were local bodies. The other times in this book, He referred to specific churches by their names, such as the church at Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, or Laodicea. The other three times Jesus used this word are in the Gospel of Matthew. Two of these instances are inMatthew 18:1-35, and in both instances it is perfectly obvious that the reference has to be to a local body of saints. This passage, which concerns church discipline, in found inMatthew 18:17and reads, “And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.” This is very obviously a local body. This leaves the passage inMatthew 16:18the only one in which the meaning can be disputed. It is plain that the Lord used the word ekklhsia (See SGreek: 1577. ekklesia) here with the same meaning He used it elsewhere. To do otherwise would have been to obscure the meaning. The word “church”here is used in the institutional or generic or abstract sense. To illustrate this usage of a word we read inEphesians 5:23, “For the husband is the head of the wife...” What this obviously means is that each particular husband is the head of his particular wife. There is not some gigantic “universal husband”who is the head of a huge “universal wife!” Another illustration can be found in1 Timothy 3:12, “Let the deacons be the husbands of one wife...” Here, the word “wife”is used in the generic sense. This verse plainly teaches that each deacon is to have one wife. It does not mean that all the deacons are married to one “universal”wife! So when Christ says that He will build His church, He is using this word in the generic or institutional or abstract sense. The church is actualized only in local congregations. The abstract concept of the church only becomes concrete in visible, local congregations. He is saying, “I will build my local congregations and the gates of hell shall not prevail against them.” Another passage in which Jesus promised perpetuity to His assembly isMatthew 28:18-20, which reads, “And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” Here Jesus Christ is commissioning His church to carry on in His physical absence. He promised to be with them to the “end of the world.” The word translated “world”here is aiwn (See SGreek: 165. aion). It means “age.” The Lord promised to be with them till the end of this age or the end of time. Who did the Lord promise to be with? He promised to be with His apostles as they were considered in their capacity as foundation stones in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is made plain as He speaks to the saints in Ephesus inEphesians 2:19-20, “Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone...” Some people insist that this commission was given to the apostles, but we must remember that the apostles were in the church, not separate from it. We learn in1 Corinthians 12:28that, “God hath set some in the church, first apostles...” It is obvious that this commission was given to the church through the apostles. The Lord promised to be “with you”till the end of the age. The apostles died long ago, but the Lord is still with His church as He promised to be. It is very interesting that those who believe that this commission expired on the death of the apostles nevertheless still use the formula for baptism given here. They still baptize “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost...” The only place in the New Testament where that formula is given is inMatthew 28:19. The question might be asked of those who deny the relevance of this commission in the present day as to which part is inoperable. Are we still to teach (make disciples), baptize, and teach those things the Lord has commanded us to do? If so, in which way is the commission no longer in force today? Another Scriptural passage that teaches perpetuity concerns the Lord’s Supper. Speaking of the Lord’s Supper Paul said in1 Corinthians 11:26, “For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come.” Here he plainly teaches two wonderful truths. He promises that the Lord is coming again. This clearly refers to the Second Coming of Christ. He also teaches that someone is going to be showing forth the Lord’s death until that time. The Corinthian saints to whom this was written died about 2000 years ago. It is plain that the “ye”refers to God’s church that will be perpetuated until the Second Coming. The Role of History Some people may base their doctrine of church perpetuity on uninspired history. There is indeed a great deal of history which shows that a very large number of people have existed down through the centuries who were never in what became the Roman Catholic Church. There is much evidence that various groups of these people had a direct link to each other. However, to be honest, it is impossible to actually trace a chain link between churches all the way from the apostolic era to the present time. For reasons known only to Himself, the Lord has so allowed the historical record to be obscured that this is impossible. Many records of God’s churches have been destroyed by their enemies. Often the churches were so grievously persecuted that they had to hide out and deliberately left no records. The role that uninspired history must play in studying church perpetuity is the same role that Creation Science must play in the Creation/Evolution debate. Bible believing Christians are very thankful for the rise of Creation Science in the last few decades. These scientists provide us with much evidence and with much comfort that the earth was created just like God said it was in the Bible. They show evidence of the great flood that occurred in Noah’s time. We thank God for their diligent work that leaves unbelievers and scoffers without excuse. However, the work of the creation scientists is not the reason that Bible believing Christians believe that God created the heavens and the earth in six days, and that a flood covered the earth in the days of Noah. We believe those things simply because the Bible says they happened and, because we are born again, we believe the Bible. We identify with the truth taught inHebrews 11:3, which says, “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” Our God-given faith gives us the ability to believe what the Bible says. The Lord said that He created the universe by the Word of His mouth, so we just believe it. We would believe it even if there were no creation science. Believing in church perpetuity works the same way. Just as the creation scientists give us much comfort, so does church history give much comfort and encouragement for those of us who believe what the Bible plainly teaches about church perpetuity. Even if all the historical records were destroyed, we would still believe that Christ has preserved unbroken not only the truth, but also the divine institution, which He calls “the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.” {1 Timothy 3:15} Let me give a homely illustration of how church history is a comfort to those who believe the Bible doctrine of church perpetuity. Let us suppose that we are standing high up on a mountain and watching a blue 1971 Plymouth Valiant (one of the best cars I have ever owned!) going down the mountain on a winding road. Suppose that the little car enters a long tunnel and we don’t see it for a while. Now let us imagine that at the other end of the tunnel we see a blue 1971 Plymouth Valiant emerge. A reasonable assumption would be that we have seen the same automobile enter one end of the tunnel and come out at the other end. We cannot be absolutely sure, but this is a valid assumption. Applying this illustration to church history, we can find groups of people who taught and practiced the truth of the Bible in various countries of the world. Sometimes they were driven from view by persecution. A period of time elapses and we see a group with another name, but teaching and practicing essentially the same things in a country that is fairly close to the one in which they disappeared from view. It would be a valid assumption to surmise that these were essentially the same people and that truth had been passed from one group to the other. We do not have conclusive proof that the two groups are connected, but this is the most viable assumption. However, much as this abundant historical evidence comforts us that is not why those of us who believe in the Biblical doctrine of church perpetuity believe in it. We have much surer grounds than this. Since the Bible is our sole rule of faith and practice, we could not use history as a basis for our practice even if that history were conclusive as to our succession. Church Perpetuity Divinely Demonstrated The Lord gave us several decades of inspired history in the Acts of the Apostles in which He plainly showed us how He perpetuated His church. As one gives the book of Acts a fair reading the inevitable conclusion must be that each of the churches begun there had a connection with another one. There is not a single instance of a church just suddenly coming into existence with no connection with previously baptized believers. We have already seen that the apostles were foundation stones in the New Testament church. Speaking to them in this capacity, He said to them inActs 1:8, “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” It is true that individual Christians are to be witnesses for the Lord, but here He obviously is giving His commission to them in a corporate church capacity. The apostles as such would not live long enough to spread the gospel to the uttermost part of the earth. Jesus Christ was commissioning His ministers through the church to do this. InActs 2:1-47the Holy Spirit came to the church and empowered her to do what she had been commissioned to do. The people that were baptized that day and added to the church were baptized by the ministers of that church. Not just any baptismal administrator would have been acceptable. The church continued at Jerusalem and many people were added to her. Eventually the church at Jerusalem was persecuted and many of the members were scattered abroad throughout Judaea and Samaria. When they were scattered abroad they preached the word everywhere they went. {Acts 8:1;Acts 8:4} When we next hear of these scattered saints they had been formed into churches as we can see fromActs 9:31, “Then had the churches rest throughout all Judaea and Galilee and Samaria, and were edified...” The connection they had with the church at Jerusalem is obvious. One of those scattered abroad was Philip who went down to the city of Samaria, preached, and baptized those who believed. There was a connection here with the church at Jerusalem, because Philip came from that church. This connection is also seen in the fact that when the apostles, who had remained in Jerusalem, heard that that the gospel had been preached in Samaria, they sent Peter and John to investigate the matter. When they had done this they returned to Jerusalem, and “preached the gospel in many of the villages of the Samaritans.” {Acts 8:25} Any churches formed in Samaria then had a link with the church at Jerusalem through the work of Peter and John. This was obviously a partial fulfillment ofActs 1:8. Also in we have the account of Philip preaching to the Ethiopian eunuch and baptizing him. The eunuch went on his way to Ethiopia, rejoicing as he went. There is a great likelihood that he started a church in Ethiopia. If so, that church had a link with the church at Jerusalem through Philip. It is also a certainty that the disciples in Damascus had a knowledge of and no doubt a connection with the church at Jerusalem. Ananias baptized Paul in Damascus. Where would he have learned of the ordinance of baptism except from the apostles or from others who had been under the teaching of the apostles? FromActs 9:19;Acts 9:25it seems certain the disciples, as Christians are often referred to in the Acts, were banded together in a church capacity. When the Lord opened the door of the gospel to the Gentiles, He sent Peter, who was from the church at Jerusalem, to Caesarea, to baptize Cornelius. The pattern holds true here-a man from an existing church, going and baptizing others. There is a link here between the church at Jerusalem and the believers in Caesarea. Another indication that there was a very close link between the church at Caesarea and the one at Jerusalem is the fact that many in the church at Jerusalem very closely questioned Peter about what had happened at Caesarea. They were satisfied when Peter told them what had happened. One of the most prominent and evangelistic churches in the entire Acts is the one at Syrian Antioch. This church very definitely had a link with the one at Jerusalem, because it was formed of those who were scattered abroad at the time of the persecution of Stephen. SeeActs 11:19-21. The church at Jerusalem was so interested in hearing of the formation of this church they sent Barnabas to see what had happened. Barnabas was thrilled at what the Lord was doing there and sent to Tarsus for Paul to come and help in the work. It is also interesting to note here that even though the Scriptural teaching is that each church is autonomous before God and that no church can lord it over another, there should be, nevertheless, a close love and cooperation among sister churches. The church at Antioch took up a collection to help the brethren in Judea, who were experiencing difficult times because of impending famine. When we come toActs 13:1-52we see a great increase in evangelistic activity. The church at Antioch, acting under the control of the Holy Spirit, and under the influence of her leaders, sent Paul and Barnabas on a journey to preach the gospel. It is very interesting that both the expressions “they sent them away,” and “they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost,” are used. The assembly at Antioch was following the directions of the Holy Spirit. The Case of the Synagogues Here, we make a very interesting discovery. The first place Paul and his companions always preached in, when one was available, was a synagogue. These religious gatherings of Jews were found throughout the Mediterranean world. Many times God had caused the Jews to be dispersed among divers places. Almost invariably these dispersed people would organize a synagogue in which to worship. If there had been any place where the conditions were right for a church to just be spontaneously formed without a connection with a previously existing church it would have been in a synagogue. In these assemblies the Old Testament was preserved. These Jews guarded the doctrine of monotheism in the midst of a pagan, polytheistic world. They were looking for the promised Messiah. However, there is not a single instance in the entire book of Acts where a church was spontaneously formed from a synagogue. In every instance where a synagogue was involved in Acts, preachers from already existing churches preached there and formed churches from those who were gathered out of the synagogues by the preaching of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ! Paul and Barnabas preached in synagogues on the island of Cyprus. From Cyprus they went to Asia Minor and preached in the synagogue at Pisidian Antioch. Here “many of the Jews and religious proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas.” {Acts 13:43} They next went to Iconium and spoke to the people there. Then, being driven out by persecution, they went to Lystra. They then preached the gospel in Derbe. They returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Pisidian Antioch, “confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith.” It is plain that they organized churches in each of these cities, because it is said inActs 14:23, "And when they had ordained them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed." They then ended this particular evangelistic journey by returning to Syrian Antioch and told all that the Lord had done through them. How plain it is to see how God perpetuated His churches. Some of those from the church at Jerusalem had been scattered by persecution, and had gone to Antioch and formed a church. Then some from this church went out and formed other churches. In not one instance did a group of people just spontaneously "spring up" and organize a church with no connection to a previously existing church. When we come toActs 15:1-41it is clear that the churches had a connection with each other. When a problem arose there was a meeting between members of the churches of Syrian Antioch and Jerusalem. Admittedly this was still the era in which the apostles lived and they had authority that no man or set of men have today. Nevertheless it is very plain that no churches were involved here who had just "sprung up" on their own with no connection with already existing churches. After the council meeting at Jerusalem Paul and Silas went out from the church at Antioch of Syria to visit the churches that had previously been founded in South Galatia. They attempted to go into the province of Asia, but were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to do so. When they came to the city of Troas on the eastern shoreline of the Aegean Sea Paul had a vision in which he was directed to enter Macedonia, the extreme southern tip of the continent of Europe. They were blessed to gather a church in Philippi. Their next stop was Thessalonica, where they formed a church from Jews whom they had gathered from a synagogue. Through the preaching of the gospel there were believers also in Berea and Athens. Nothing is said for certain about churches being formed in these places. From Athens Paul traveled overland to Corinth, where he stayed for about eighteen months. Here Paul again gathered believers out of the synagogue and formed a Christian assembly. He then went to Ephesus on his way home to Syrian Antioch, where he shared his good news about his evangelistic work with the church there. Let us note that each of the churches established on this journey had a connection with the church at Antioch, from whence Paul had started and let us also note that no church just began, with no connection with another one. On several occasions churches were formed from people who had been gathered out of synagogues. The Lord plainly shows from this book of Acts how He has perpetuated His churches. On Paul’s third evangelistic journey he departed again from Antioch. His primary purpose on this journey was to strengthen the churches he had already established. He spent more than two years at Ephesus while on this journey and many of the churches of Asia were formed during this time. It is commonly believed that during this time the church at Colosse was formed by some of Paul’s assistants, principally by Epaphras. {Colossians 1:7;Colossians 4:12-13} Paul was later arrested, spent some time in prison at Caesarea, and was finally sent to Rome. When Paul arrived in Rome there were believers formed into a church or churches already in existence. In fact, in the epistle to the Romans that Paul had previously written, he had mentioned many of the believers in Rome by name and evidently knew a great deal about them. The Roman saints had heard of Paul and were eager to greet him as he came to their city. A reading ofActs 28:14-15makes this very evident. We do not know for sure how or by whom the church at Rome had been established. However, it is only reasonable to assume that this church had a connection with other churches. These Roman saints had a definite correspondence with the other churches that had been formed by Paul. This is the only viable assumption, since we have incontrovertible proof how the other churches in the book of Acts were founded. The book of Acts shows the establishment of believers into churches from Jerusalem all the way to Rome. There is a definite connection between these churches. These churches all had a baptismal or institutional connection. They were not merely connected in agreement on doctrine and practice. In Summary Even though we have much secular history to demonstrate that a very large group of believers existed outside of what became the Roman Catholic Church, we do not rely on this history to establish the doctrine of Church Perpetuity. This doctrine is based on the Scriptures. The Lord Jesus Christ promised perpetuity to the church He personally set up during His earthly ministry. The divinely inspired book of the Acts of the Apostles shows how this perpetuity occurred. It is plain from this inspired history that as the churches were perpetuated, they had a connection with one another. The truth was perpetuated through a succession of churches. While much historical evidence does exist that supports this doctrine it is readily admitted that no one can conclusively trace their particular church all the way back to the apostolic era. This doctrine is based on faith. But this is not a blind, subjective “faith.” Faith accepts what is taught in the Bible. Faith believes in church perpetuity because this doctrine is both taught and demonstrated in the Bible. All we are obligated to do is to trace our assembly back as far as we can. If we can see our origins were sound, we can assume that we have been perpetuated by the grace of God. If, however, we find that our origins are unsound, by either profoundly significant doctrinal or practical error, we need to find a church that is sound. This is not bigotry; this is trying to be faithful to what is taught in the Scriptures. Institutional Perpetuity Some folks will admit to perpetuity of truth, but will not admit to the unbroken perpetuity or succession of the church as an institution. This view of perpetuity is not an adequate interpretation of the Scriptures. We have already seen this by looking at the perpetuation of not only the truth, but also of the institution of the church as we went through the Book of Acts. The Lord gave His gospel to the church as an institution. This is what He was doing in the commonly called Great Commission inMatthew 28:18-20. This is also the plain reading of1 Timothy 3:15, where the apostle Paul says, “But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.” Here the word “church”is used in the generic, institutional or abstract sense. The church here that Timothy was to behave in found concrete manifestation only in particular local assemblies. To further demonstrate how Paul is using the word translated “church”in this epistle it is only necessary to refer to verse five of this same chapter. {1 Timothy 3:5} Speaking of a bishop or pastor Paul asks, “If a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?” Obviously each pastor is to take care of the particular local assembly over which the Holy Spirit places him. The institution of the church is to be the “pillar and ground”of the truth. The church is to uphold and support the truth. Of course, there is a real sense in which the truth upholds and supports the church, but here the inspired Word of God emphasizes that the truth is supported in the God-ordained local assemblies that derive from the one Christ personally set up while He was here on earth. Christ is the ground of the truth in the highest sense. The apostles are foundations in a secondary sense. As we have already seen fromEphesians 2:20the church is "built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone..." The ministerial gifts that Christ gave were in His church. The ascended Christ gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers.. {Ephesians 4:11} Where did He place these gifts? Did he give the gifts to individual Christians in their roles as individual believers or did He give the gifts to people to be used in the context of His church? The question is plainly answered in1 Corinthians 12:28where it is clearly taught, "God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers..." This institutional, physical perpetuity of the church can also be seen in2 Timothy 2:2where Paul instructs Timothy, "And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also." Here we see the truth passed on from generation to generation, from older man to younger men. This is done, however, within the context of the institution of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul and Timothy were both members of the New Testament church. It is obvious that these “faithful men”were gifted members of the church. This very book from which this passage is taken is rightly called one of the Pastoral Epistles. This provides a look at how the Lord set up ministerial training in His churches. There is not even a hint at a seminary for the training of ministers in the New Testament. God’s method for the training of ministers, as shown here, is the apprenticeship method of younger men apprenticing under established, older ministers of the Word. In this day of disrespect for the church, when many so-called “para-church”organizations try to usurp the authority and functions that Jesus Christ personally gave to His church, we should jealously and zealously defend the prerogatives that many well-meaning people try to arrogate to individuals or to organizations that are not authorized by the Lord of the church. Christians should seek out and join themselves to the assembly that not only did Christ set up, but the one of which He and the apostles were members themselves! I want to be in the church that had as her first and best pastor, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself! The church is entrusted with the business of maintaining the truth, of defending it from the assaults of error, and of transmitting it to future generations Post-Apostolic History Even though those of us who believe that Christ will perpetuate the church He personally set up while on earth and will do this till His Second Coming primarily because we believe the Scriptures teach this, do appreciate the light that is thrown on this subject by historical investigation. Here I will not be detailed nor exhaustive, but will consider the subject by giving a general overview. Obviously when Christ founded His church she was only one. There were no separate denominations when the church was set up. Gradually corruption entered some of the churches. Over a period of time certain pastors began to usurp authority over other pastors and churches. Some men became influential over large territories and claimed unscriptural authority to themselves. Those who held to the Scriptural pattern resisted this and were often ostracized. Eventually many of the most corrupt churches and ministers evolved into what eventually became the Roman Catholic hierarchy. They ultimately achieved a union with the secular powers and thus formed an unholy alliance between church and state. Those who held to the Biblical pattern were looked on as heretical and were in many cases outlawed and persecuted. The Catholics were in the seats of power and became the “official” church in most of the Western world. Those who parted ways with the Catholic errors lacked official sanction and often had to hide out to avoid persecution. Historians readily admit that there were hundreds of thousands of these “heretics”who existed outside the Roman Catholic Church. These were sometimes collectively known as the “Anabaptists”because they refused to receive Roman Catholic baptism and “rebaptized”those who came to them from “Mother Rome.” The Catholics hated them because of this. The Anabaptist movement was a broad and diverse movement. There were many types of doctrine and practice that were advocated among them. Some of them were heretical. It has been common among both Catholics and Protestants to take the very worst elements of the Anabaptists and to extrapolate their errors to all the Anabaptists. This tactic is not fair and does not promote truth. There is ample historical evidence that there were many groups among the Anabaptists who essentially held the doctrines and practices advocated by many Primitive Baptists of today. There is also good evidence that many of these groups had connections with one another and it is reasonable to assume that the church of the Lord Jesus Christ was perpetuated without interruption through some of these Anabaptists. We make this assumption because the truth of perpetuity is taught in the Scriptures. To reinforce us in this belief there is much evidence that the perpetuity occurred among these Anabaptists. The Corruption of the Roman Catholic Church and the Protestant Reformation Eventually the corruptions within what had become the Roman Catholic Church became so horrendous and obvious that even many of her adherents were greatly repulsed by them. Several very brave and able men among her ranks began to protest these abuses. They wanted to reform the Roman Catholic Church, and to rid her of the most flagrant abuses. These men had no intention of leaving the Catholic Church. They believed that she was the true church that had gone into error. By contrast the Anabaptists had long since denounced the terribly corrupt Roman Catholic Church as a false church. Many regarded her as a manifestation of Antichrist. The men who tried to reform the Roman Catholic Church from within were unable to do so. Instead they were excommunicated from her and had to leave. In many cases they started their own “churches.” John Calvin is the father of the Reformed Churches. John Knox is the father of the Presbyterians. Henry VIII broke away from the Roman Catholic Church and is the father of the Church of England. These reformers chose rather to start their own “churches”than to seek for a home among the true churches found among some of the Anabaptists. The reformers did rid themselves of the most flagrant abuses of the Roman Catholic Church. They became purer in their understanding of some Biblical doctrines. However, they did not go far enough. They never broke the unholy union of church and state. They did not repudiate the heresy of baptizing infants and of replacing the obvious Biblical mode of immersion with sprinkling for baptism. At one time the Swiss reformer, Zwingli (1484-1531) came to the correct conclusion that infant baptism had no Biblical warrant. Later, for political reasons, he gave up this correct view and began to persecute the Anabaptists. The Anabaptists refused to recognize these “Protestant”churches. The only baptism they had was from “Mother Rome.” The Anabaptists, who eventually began to be called Baptists, regarded the Protestant churches as “Daughters of Rome.” Some of them, such as the Methodist Church, which was founded by John Wesley, who was a priest in the Church of England, was regarded as a “grand-daughter of Rome.” To summarize, there are only two groups which make a claim to antiquity that goes all the way back to Christ and the apostles. Loosely speaking we will refer to these groups as the Catholics and the Baptists. All other denominations were formed long after the close of the apostolic era and know who their human founders were. The Baptists claim that the only human founder they had is the God-Man, the Lord Jesus Christ! True Baptists do not claim to be Protestants. They claim they were never in Mother Rome. Sad to say, many modern-day Baptists have forsaken their Biblical and historical heritage and refer to themselves as Protestants. Historically this is a very recent position. For many different reasons the Roman Catholic Church for centuries periodically persecuted the Baptists. They tortured, banished, and killed them. They burned their writings and tried to drive them out of existence. The Protestants in many instances also persecuted the Baptists. A sad example is found in Switzerland with Ulrich Zwingli. At first he was very sympathetic to them. However, when intense political pressure was put on him, he became their enemy. In 1526 the council of the city of Zurich decided to punish the advocacy of Anabaptist views by drowning those who held them. Church Confined to the Baptists For the above reasons, Baptists have historically claimed that the church of Jesus Christ existed only among them. They have often been vilified and misunderstood because of this honest claim. What they claim has also often been distorted. Some have called them intolerant bigots, but this is not true. Of course there may be a few “bad apples”among the Baptists like there are in all other groups, but the Baptists as a whole are not motivated by bigotry. They are honest contenders for what they fervently believe to be the truth. The Baptists do not believe that only Baptists are Christians. They believe there are many devout, sincere Christians in many Christian denominations. They believe that all true Christians are in the kingdom of God. This is not the place for an extensive discussion on the subject of the kingdom of God, but it should suffice to point out that in most cases in the New Testament the words “church”and “kingdom”are not synonymous. Usually the word “kingdom”has a much broader connotation than does the word “church.” The concept of “kingdom”in the Bible is that of “the rule and reign”of God. This rule is manifested in different degrees under different circumstances. In a very real sense, even now, God rules over all. However, in the glorious heavenly kingdom, the rule of God will be consummated and every creature there will do the will of God perfectly and willingly. All born-again people are in the kingdom of God. This is plain to see from such passages asJohn 3:3, “Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” However not all born-again Christians are in the church of God. Baptists readily acknowledge that they have many Protestant friends who are in the kingdom of God. But they do not acknowledge that they are in the New Testament Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. How could they be? The only authority and baptism their founders had was from the exceeding corrupt and apostate Roman Catholic Church. Moreover the Protestant churches hold to the very unscriptural practice of “baptizing”infants. It is also true that Protestants do not even practice aright the initiatory rite of entrance into the church, which is baptism. Sprinkling and pouring do not constitute baptism. So the Protestants unchurch themselves by a false origin, false practices, and in many cases, false doctrines. Yet it is beyond dispute that many Protestants obviously love Jesus Christ and demonstrate in their lives that they have spiritual life. We can and desire to have Christian fellowship with them, but it is impossible to have church fellowship with them. Within the Baptist Family At one time most Baptists were more or less in church fellowship with most other Baptists. This was not altogether true, because there have been some serious doctrinal differences. The old General Baptists held to a general atonement. They taught that Christ died for each and every member of the human family to give each of them an opportunity to be saved. On the other hand the old Particular Baptists held to the doctrine of Particular Redemption. They taught that Christ made a sure and infallible atonement for a particular people, who were His elect. However, most of the Baptists walked together in church fellowship. There was a serious challenge to this fellowship both in England and in the United States, in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. An English Particular Baptist preacher, Andrew Fuller (1754-1815), began to advocate doctrines that were new to the Particular Baptists. In the view of many of them he began to compromise the doctrine of Particular Redemption. He said that the atoning death of Christ on the cross was sufficient to save every human being, but efficient only to the elect. The staunch old heads among the Particular Baptists rightly saw this as deceitful “double talk.” The real question was concerning those for whom the atonement was designed. The Scriptures made plain that the Lord Jesus did not die for each human being. The Father did not choose or elect the entire human family to be saved from their sins. There was much agitation on this and related questions. The controversy spilled over into the United States. The two sides gradually grew farther and farther apart on questions of doctrine and related questions of practice. They coexisted uneasily for a few decades. Finally those who followed the ideas of Andrew Fuller, and who were called “Fullerites”became so unsound in their doctrines and practices that the Baptists who were more in line with the ideas of the distinguished English theologian John Gill and were sometimes called “Gillites,” came to the conclusion that they must part ecclesiastical ways with the Fullerites. They made statements to this effect in 1827 (the Kehukee Declaration) and in 1832 (the Black Rock Address). Those who adhered to historic Particular Baptist doctrines became known as Old School or Primitive Baptists. The ones who adopted the novel doctrines and practices of the Fullerites became known as New School or Missionary Baptists. The Primitive Baptists were not bigots. They sincerely believed that the New School Baptists, with their view of an atonement that was dependent on the will of the sinner to make it effective, was a gross departure from the gospel. If a church had ceased preaching the gospel, the Primitives simply believed it was wrong to receive their official actions, such as baptism. They regarded many of the New School Baptists as true Christians. They just believed they were in sufficient error to warrant not recognizing their official ecclesiastical actions as valid. Denominationalism Sometimes, when Primitive Baptists insist that those who come to them from other religious denominations submit to baptism administered by Primitive Baptists, others look upon this as unscriptural and unwarranted. They point out that “rebaptism”is non-existent or very rare in the New Testament. First, it must be noted that so-called “rebaptism”did take place in the New Testament era. The classic case is recorded inActs 19:1-5. This is not the place for an extensive discussion of this incident, but a careful reading will show that Paul did, indeed, “rebaptize”these converts who had been previously immersed while having significant deficiencies in their knowledge of the Word of God. It is also worth noting that “rebaptism”was a rarity in New Testament times, because there were no Christian denominations then. All the churches taught and practiced essentially the same things. No Christians in those days tried to substitute sprinkling for baptism. No Christians then believed in the baptism of infants. Congregational church government was the rule and there were no presbyterian (rule by elders) or episcopal (rule by bishops) or Catholic (rule by the Pope) churches in those days. There were no churches then who had human founders. The only Founder of His church was the Lord Jesus Christ. The doctrine of the early churches was pure salvation by grace. Works salvation (forms of what later became Arminianism) was denounced by the Apostle Paul as “another gospel: Which is not another...” {Galatians 1:6-7} In subsequent centuries, as Satan has tried to corrupt both the church and the gospel, it has been necessary to make stands based on truth. Denominations have been the inevitable result. It is very sinful to engage in unnecessary division; it is also very sinful to not divide when truth is at stake. Jesus Christ brought division while He was on earth. Speaking of HimJohn 7:43records, “So there was a division among the people because of him.” Coming to a Knowledge of the Truth Sometimes people who have been steeped in false doctrine and/or practice are blessed to come to a knowledge of the truth. Sometimes this may happen to an entire church body. If this is the case, what should they do? Should they just reorganize, perhaps call themselves by a different name, and go on? The answer is “no,” they should not do this. If they have been in substantial error, there is a great likelihood that their official acts, such as baptism, have been invalid. After all they were no doubt baptized in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. However, which Father was this? The one who had a sincere desire for the salvation of all, even though He knows that many will not be saved, or the One Who chose His people in Christ before the world began and will infallibly bring them to salvation? Which Son are we talking about? The one who died to make provision for the salvation of the entire human race without actually securing the salvation of any, or the One Who paid the entire sin debt for each and every one of His elect children, thus assuring them of eternal salvation? Which Holy Spirit are we considering? The one who is wooing each human being and trying to get them to accept Christ or the One Who irresistibly brings salvation to each of the elect? What one believes at baptism is very important. When individuals or churches who have been in substantial error come to the truth, they should seek out a true church of the Lord Jesus Christ and seek to be joined to her. There have been times when entire church bodies were rebaptized and reorganized. This was the case with the Cincinnati Primitive Baptist Church over 40 years ago. In doing this they showed their respect to the institution that God had preserved down through the ages in fulfillment of His sacred promise. The Nature of Baptism There have been many people who were baptized while believing significant error. In many cases they felt a great sense of blessing in their baptism. They then have come to a fuller understanding of the truth of the Scriptures. They realize that the "church" they have been a member of is not preaching the gospel of the Sovereign Grace of God. They discover a Primitive Baptist church which does preach this true gospel and which also strives to adhere to Biblical practices. What should they do? Should they try to join themselves to a Primitive Baptist church without being "rebaptized" or should they submit to baptism administered by Primitive Baptists by one of their ministers. They should willingly and gladly submit to baptism for several sound reasons. First, it is not surprising that many people who have been "baptized" while in error received a sense of God’s approval when they did so. Presumably they were doing the best they knew to follow the Lord when they were so baptized. We serve a merciful and gracious God. When we walk in what light we have He blesses us. However, when we receive more light He expects us to be obedient to that. I have personally known many people who received a great subjective blessing when they were baptized into "churches" which were in great doctrinal error. As far as feelings were concerned they were "satisfied" with their "first baptism." However, in a desire to be obedient to God, they were willing to submit to baptism as entrance into the church that was preaching the truth of Sovereign Grace that they had come to believe and love. Some people, on the other hand, with commendable sincerity, have said something like this: "I refuse to be baptized again. I believed in Jesus Christ when I was baptized. Baptism is a very personal issue between the Lord and me. I would be violating my conscience if I were to submit to baptism." Admittedly this may be commendable sincerity but it is based on some fundamental misunderstandings of what constitutes true Christian baptism. Four Necessary Elements According to the teaching of the New Testament there must be four elements to constitute true Christian baptism. To be valid baptism there must be the proper candidate, the proper mode, the proper design, and the proper administrator. If any of these elements is lacking a true New Testament baptism has not been performed. Candidate In the New Testament the only people who were baptized were believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. A genuine believer is one who has been born again and has professed a belief in the Lord Jesus. There is not one single instance in the New Testament of an infant or of one too young to know what he was doing being baptized. Infant baptism, which is practiced by the Roman Catholic Church and by her Protestant daughters, was an error that was brought into Christendom long after the death of the apostles. This is not the place for a full discussion of this, but in the so-called “household baptisms” in the New Testament any infants have to be included by inference or guesswork. Infant baptism was an error in practice that was contrived to accommodate the doctrinal error of baptismal regeneration. So-called “churches”which practice infant baptism are not true New Testament churches. Mode The only proper mode of baptism in the New Testament is immersion. In fact, the word translated “baptize”in our New Testament means to immerse. This is a well-known fact. The New Testament Greek word translated “baptize”is baptizw (See SGreek: 907. baptizo). To cite only one reference to this word, W. E. Vine in his An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words writes, “to baptize, primarily a frequentative form of baptw (See SGreek: 911. bapto), to dip, was used among the Greeks to signify the dyeing of a garment, or the drawing of water by dipping a vessel into another, etc.” A person has to try hard to get around this meaning of baptism. Speaking of John the Baptist, it is recorded, “And John also was baptizing in Aenon near to Salim, because there was much water there: and they came, and were baptized.” {John 3:23} “Much water”is not needed for sprinkling or pouring! When Philip baptized the Ethiopian Eunuch, “... he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him.” {Acts 8:38} This would have been totally unnecessary if baptism could have been performed by pouring or sprinkling. Baptism is called a “burial”inRomans 6:4. A person is not buried by sprinkling or pouring a little dirt over him. In fact, baptism portrays the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a very serious matter to distort this God-ordained picture by changing the mode. The church of the Lord Jesus Christ is not a legislative body. She does not have the authority to change the laws that Christ gave to His church or to legislate new ones. The church is merely an executive body. She only has the authority to execute or practice the directions the Lord gave to His church. The Roman Catholics, the Reformers, and some others violate this sacred principle. For example, John Calvin, the learned and famous father of some of the Reformed churches, acknowledged, “it is evident that the term baptise means to immerse, and that this was the form used by the primitive Church.”( Book Four, Chapter 15, Section 19 of his Institutes of the Christian Religion.) (Institu: 4,15,19) However, even with this acknowledgment, he said, “Whether the person baptised is to be wholly immersed, and that whether once or thrice, or whether he is only to be sprinkled with water, is not of the least consequence: churches should be at liberty to adopt either...” This is very serious departure from the Word of God. The false practice of pouring or sprinkling as an alternative to the God-mandated immersion is not baptism and cannot be accepted by a true, Bible-believing, Bible-practicing church. As stated earlier, there are many acknowledged Christians in organizations that sprinkle babies. Primitive Baptist can and should have Christian fellowship with them, but not church fellowship. They have perverted the very initial church ordinance. Design We must be correct on what the purpose of baptism is for it to be valid. Many denominations believe in baptismal regeneration. They teach that when a person is baptized that is when they become the actual recipients of salvation. There is no eternal salvation without baptism, they affirm. This is not what the Bible teaches. Salvation is alone by the finished work of Christ on the cross for those who were given Him in covenant by the Father before the foundation of the world. This salvation is brought to them infallibly by the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit. Salvation is in no way gained by works or by "sacrament" or by ritual. This is plainly taught in1 Peter 3:21, "The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ..." A. T. Robertson, the eminent American New Testament Greek scholar, comments on this verse as follows: "The saving by baptism which Peter here mentions is only symbolic (a metaphor or picture as inRomans 6:2-6), not actual as Peter hastens to explain...Peter here expressly denies baptismal remission of sin." The design of baptism is to portray the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and to provide the means whereby the recipient of baptism avows belief in this finished work of Christ and publicly identifies his allegiance to Jesus Christ and to His church. Authority Not just anyone or just any institution is authorized by God to perform baptism. Some people have such a loose view of baptism that they think that two individuals upon coming to the knowledge of the truth could just “baptize”each other. This is not the case. No one has the right or authority to baptize unless it is given to them from God. Baptism is an ordinance of the New Testament church. Believer’s baptism was not practiced under the Jewish theocracy. The first man who received authority to baptize was, of course, John the Baptist. We have already seen fromMalachi 3:1and fromIsaiah 40:3thew:3 hew:3 that the Lord sent him “to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” {Luke 1:17} John said of himself, “And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water...” {John 1:33} John was sent of God to baptize. Jesus Christ recognized this authority and in doing so set a good example for all to recognize God-given authority. If the matter of authority were indifferent, Jesus would no doubt have been baptized by someone in Nazareth. Instead He walked approximately 60 miles, from Galilee to Judea, to be baptized by John. We read of this in Mr 1:9, “And it came to pass in those days, that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized of John in Jordan.” A close reading of the gospels will plainly show that Jesus Christ gathered his disciples from those who had been baptized by John. Evidently, as long as he was alive, John continued to have the authority to baptize. It seems plain that John, and the baptized disciples of Jesus were baptizing in the same time frame.John 3:22-23reads, "After these things came Jesus and his disciples into the land of Judaea; and there he tarried with them, and baptized. And John also was baptizing in Aenon near to Salim, because there was much water there: and they came, and were baptized." It also seems plain that Jesus was not actually performing baptism Himself, but His disciples were doing so under His authority. This is apparent fromJohn 4:1, "When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, (Though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples,)..." The point here is that there was no one just taking the authority on himself to baptize. As long as Jesus was on earth, He and the disciples under Him had the heaven-given authority to baptize. Who did He give this authority to after He went back to heaven? Did He give it to believers in their capacity as believers? The answer is “no.” As we have seen earlier, the risen Christ, who was about to ascend to the Father, gave the authority to baptize to His apostles as they were considered in their capacity as foundation stones in the New Testament church. We have also seen from the Book of Acts that only authorized representatives from New Testament churches practiced baptism. So baptism is more than a mere transaction between an individual and his Lord, irrespective of the administrator to whom Christ gave the authority to baptize. The Identity Question Considering what has been written above, it should be the paramount aim of pious individuals to carefully identify the institution that God has authorized to perform baptism today. God has given baptism to His church. How are we to identify that church? There seem to be two major identifying marks: the mark of succession, and the mark of truth. Succession or Perpetuity We have already examined how God has perpetuated His church over the centuries. He promised perpetuity to her and the inspired book of the Acts of the Apostles shows us how He carried out His promise. We see an actual institutional perpetuity there. The churches in the divinely inspired Acts had actual connections with one another. God perpetuated not only the truth but also the “pillar and ground”of the truth. While the doctrine of church perpetuity or church succession is not very popular today, and many people call adherents of this doctrine anachronistic bigots, it is plainly taught and demonstrated in the New Testament. Truth Another identifying mark of the church is whether or not she preaches and practices the truth as set forth in the Word of God. The Roman Catholic Church claims perpetuity, but she has gone so far from the truth, both in doctrine and practice, that she blatantly invalidates her claims. Baptists have historically claimed perpetuity, but many of them have gone so far a field from both doctrinal and practical truth that they, too, have nullified their claims. Judgment Calls In the final analysis, some things are plain and some are not as clear. We all have to make Biblically informed judgment calls. Only God knows for sure whom He considers as true churches. Every denomination that I know anything about draws the line somewhere on the issues we have been discussing. Baptists have not considered the Roman Catholic Church or her Protestant daughters to be true churches. They have serious errors in both doctrine and practice. Some of these, such as baby sprinkling, have been pointed out. Particular Baptists and Primitive Baptists do not consider Arminianism to be the gospel, so they are not willing to acknowledge that institutions that espouse Arminianism to be real churches. Even some churches, which consider themselves to be preaching grace, are not sound enough in the estimation of some to be preaching the pure gospel. Primitive Baptists do not consider the Fullerite errors, which provide a halfway house to Arminianism, to represent the pure gospel of grace. We do not think it wise to fellowship the inconsistent and contradictory “well-meant free offer of the gospel.” We believe we are right in rejecting the error of “gospel regeneration.” We hold to regeneration being a direct and immediate work of the Holy Spirit without the use of any human means. We think it would be an error to receive baptisms from groups that hold to such error. Every organization calling themselves a church also has to decide how much doctrinal and practical error they will tolerate before they are ready to part ecclesiastical ways. Everyone makes such judgment calls. For example, each group has some qualifications as to whom can administer baptism. Most denominations will not allow a woman to baptize. I am sure that very few would allow a homosexual to baptize. Even those groups, who receive some into their organizations from other denominations, usually draw some distinctions. Many “Baptistic”groups will not receive the baptisms from the “Church of Christ,” which was established by Alexander Campbell. This is because the followers of Campbell teach the gross error of baptismal regeneration and the “grace”they preach is a thin veneer for works salvation. However, an acquaintance of mine, who pastors an independent sovereign grace group, will accept Campbellite baptism, simply because it is performed by immersion. I think this is greatly in error, and I would not want the church I pastor to receive the baptisms that are performed by the group he pastors. Receiving Baptism From Others Considering that baptism is not done in isolation from the assembly that does the baptizing, we must consider an important fact. When one group receives the baptism that has been administered by another group, they are legitimizing and recognizing that group. To be perfectly plain, if a Primitive Baptist church receives the baptism of a Reformed Baptist church, they are recognizing that the Reformed Baptist church is as much a church as they are. Even if a particular Reformed Baptist church was originally Arminian in theology, and had come to a certain knowledge of grace, but had merely reorganized and changed its name, with no regard to the fact that all they had was Arminian baptism. The Primitive Baptist church would be recognizing that the Reformed Baptist group is indeed a church even if she deviated on some fundamental points from the Primitive Baptists in doctrine. The Primitive Baptists would be recognizing the legitimacy of the other group even if she held to the errors of gospel regeneration, and the so-called “well-meant, free offer of the gospel.” The Primitive Baptists would be endorsing the Reformed Baptist church even if the latter held to the same “Fullerite”view of the atonement that the forefathers of the Primitive Baptists had roundly rejected approximately two hundred years ago. Where I Stand Each Christian is obligated to be obedient to His God the best he can as he diligently studies the Scriptures. He must have some Bible-based convictions. He must be humble as he follows these convictions and he must do so in love. This is what I am trying to do. Based on what I have written above, I fervently believe that Jesus Christ set His own church up while He was here in His human nature. I believe He promised that church would not be destroyed, but that it would continue as an institution in an unbroken line until He returns again. I believe on examining the Scriptures and secondarily by studying church history, that His church has been continued as far as I can discern in the Baptist family. I believe that since the early 1800s the church at least in the United States has been primarily represented by the Primitive Baptists. I do not believe that “Mother Rome”is a church of Jesus Christ nor are her Protestant daughters. I acknowledge that there may be some real churches in the Baptist family besides Primitive Baptist churches, but I do not know of any at this time. If I could be shown them, I am ready to be convinced. In the meantime, I believe the only proper course is to receive official work only from Primitive Baptist churches. I agree with the Grace Chapel Primitive Baptist Church Rules of Decorum- #6, which states: “A brother or sister who hasn’t been a member of the Primitive Baptist faith must be received into our body by baptism. Others may be received by letter or by other means, so designated by the church.” I will strongly teach and lead the church to follow this principle so long as I am blessed to be her pastor. If I am not totally deceived I do all this out of a love for God, His truth, and His people, both those who are Primitive Baptists and those who are not. I desire, have, and enjoy Christian fellowship with many for whom I do not have church fellowship. I base my convictions on my understanding of the Scriptures. I know that I am not perfect and may be wrong on some points. I know that I stand where the majority of Primitive Baptists have stood on these matters. I know that I am willing to change my ideas if I can be shown my errors conclusively from the Word of God. However, I would have to be totally convinced that I am wrong before I made a change. To my mind, the Scriptures are clear on these issues. If I did not believe the Primitive Baptists were essentially right on these important matters, I would be looking for a church which is more correct. However I sincerely believe that my dear father in the ministry, Elder Hassell Wallis, who has gone to be with the Lord, was right when he said, “Brother Zack, I realize that the Primitive Baptists are not perfect, and that we must constantly be examining ourselves by the Scriptures. However, I still believe the best place to be on the top side of this old earth, is in a good, Primitive Baptist church!” I agree with him. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 113: THE MINISTRY OF BURDEN BEARING ======================================================================== THE MINISTRY OF BURDEN BEARING by Elder Michael Gowens Real people who live in a real world have real problems. My heart breaks to witness the great trouble that sin has brought into the world. Some of God’s children are called upon to endure some truly nightmarish circumstances. Here is a family whose beautiful teenage daughter was tragically killed just months before her high school graduation. Here is a loving mother called by God to spend her days ministering to the needs of a severely handicapped child. Here are the parents of a daughter whose husband has abused and betrayed her and escaped without apparent consequence. Here is the couple who cannot seem to communicate with civility or the spouse who has just been told the other no longer wants to be married. And here is the individual who discovers that the individual they thought they knew has been addicted to drugs or alcohol for many years. Regardless of the particular circumstances, every problem touches many of the same spiritual issues. Whether a person has suffered the tragic loss of a loved one, the pain of personal failure and sin, the trauma of marital discord, the fear and anxiety associated with persecution or mistreatment, or the paralysis of depression and discouragement, the pastoral ministry is one of God’s gifts to His children to aid in sorting through the rubble of problematic circumstances in order to address the spiritual issues and work toward a Biblical solution by applying the eternal principles of God’s holy word. But ordained ministers are not the only people charged with the responsibility of helping those who hurt. Everyone whose heart has been tendered by Divine grace and whose mind has been educated by the word of God are both called and qualified to "admonish" (the word noutheteo means "to put in mind") others. {Romans 15:14} The need for this kind of ministry is great, but, currently, the laborers are few. Basic Principles Whenever someone approaches me and says "Pastor, I’m depressed," I understand that, generally speaking, the sad and hopeless emotions he has described are merely symptoms of a deeper cause. Depression is simply the surface issue. Of course, my friend just wants to feel better-to be happy again. But I am concerned to address the root of the problem. Now, as a Christian friend, I can do one of three things for him: (1) I can flatter him and say, "Ah, you’re a good person-nice looking, intelligent, articulate. Don’t be so hard on yourself. Things will get better in time..." Such an approach, if my conscience allowed it, might make him "feel better" momentarily, but would merely palliate symptoms-soon the misery would return, for the cause of the depressed feelings had not been explored and exposed. Indeed, there is a place for giving hope, but hope is rooted in the God of hope, {Romans 15:13} not flattery or positive thinking. (2) I can recommend this person to someone who might lawfully prescribe medication. Indeed, there is a connection between soul (psyche) and body (soma)-vis a vis "psychosomatic problems." For example, it is a fact that stress, anxiety, depression, fear, etc. -essentially spiritual issues, in other words-can cause stomach ulcers, high blood pressure, colitis, headaches, heart disease, stroke, and other physiological or organic problems. The brain does indeed send messages to the ductless (or endocrine) glands to release chemicals into the body under different circumstances. For instance, the emotion of fear or anger generates the release of adrenaline that affects the physical body in very distinct ways. A person who regularly experiences fear, or depression, or anxiety, or deep-seated anger, therefore, will inevitably have physical symptoms of these essentially spiritual problems. Medicine does help to alleviate the symptoms. Lithium or some amine like nor-epinephrine introduced into the body does indeed make the depressed person "feel better" and aids in "coping with daily life." But medicating a person for problems that are essentially spiritual (as opposed to physical) is only a form of "therapy"-it only treats the presentation problem or surface issue-it never addresses the root cause of the anger, or the depression, or anxiety, etc. The solution it offers, therefore, is ultimately illusory. Like an aspirin that gets between "the pain and the brain," short-circuiting the nervous system and making the person feel better, so medication may bring temporary relief; however, once the aspirin wears off, the pain returns for the root cause of the disease has not been directly addressed. The danger in using chemicals as the ultimate solution to spiritual problems is that it plays to the natural tendency to be slothful-to look for the quick fix and to neglect the deeper danger. In the final analysis, alchemy as a solution to life problems is only a "bandaid on a cancer." (3) The Biblical method of helping a person who presents a problem such as depressed feelings or anger is to attempt to diagnose the root of these unpleasant emotions by tracing these symptoms to the underlying causes, then to attempt to sort through each respective area, addressing each one specifically with the appropriate Scripture passages and practical directions concerning how to implement these Biblical principles in real life situations. As a person sorts through the rubble and identifies patterns of thinking and behavior that need to be changed, he can make amazing progress toward restructuring his life. Such a specific approach builds real hope-it gives the sense that one is actually working on the cause of his/her problems. Further, accountability to another believer provides the context necessary to produce real change. The goal of such a context is not to make one person perpetually dependant on the pastor or another believer, but to provide the setting necessary to restore order, both externally and internally, to the complex and seemingly formidable problems that currently exist. In time, the believer will become stronger, growing in holiness, until he/she is eventually self-controlled and able to "keep himself in the love of God" {Jude 1:21} by using the resources that God has given for a disciplined life, i.e. public preaching, Christian fellowship, personal prayer and Bible reading. Such an experience, further, equips the believer to minister to and help others-to "comfort them which are in any trouble with the comfort that we ourselves have received from the Lord." {2 Corinthians 1:3-5} It is important to note that there is nothing magic about such a setting. Pastors do not have a magic wand or a particular incantation they can utter to make problems disappear. No, instead pastoral ministry is primarily a context in which education in Biblical principles with its corresponding practical application can occur. As an individual learns to think Biblically about problems and about life in general, he grows in his ability to sort through the issues and move toward the appropriate godly solution. Understanding the Role of Divine Sovereignty Without exception, the first order of business in the ministry of helping is to sharpen focus on the Sovereignty of God. A high view of God is the ultimate solution to every complexity of life. Faith falters and flesh prevails when people lose a Biblical perspective on the character of God. To be reminded that He is "in His holy temple," ruling and reigning in sovereign majesty, ordering and superintending the affairs of His world with actual hands-on management so that a sparrow falls not to the ground without His notice, is the food that strengthens faith. How salutary is the reassurance that "my times are in His hand!" {Psalms 31:15} My good times and my bad times; my happy times and my sad times; my times of employment and times of unemployment; times of popularity and times of persecution; times of health and times of sickness; times of wealth and times of want; times of companionship and times of loneliness- all are "in His hands". How vital it is for suffering souls to think clearly about the God they trust! He is a righteous God who will not suffer an injustice to continue forever. He is a faithful God who always keeps His promise. He is a merciful God whose compassions fail not. He is an omnipotent God and nothing is too hard for Him. Through His overruling providence, He is able to turn even the wicked actions of men to the good of His children and the glory of His name. {Psalms 76:10;Genesis 50:20} Indeed, helping hurting souls starts here. Understanding the Principle of Human Nature Another basic principle for Biblical problem solving is the ability to think Biblically about human nature. People are complex beings. They are comprised of both a physical and a spiritual dimension-a body and a soul. The "inner man," or the soul, is not the same as the internal organs, i.e. liver, heart, gall bladder, lungs. The physical brain is not the same as what the Bible calls "the mind." If a surgeon were to open your body, he would see a muscle called the heart and an organ called the brain, but he would not see the intangible, yet very real, part of you that the Bible calls "the inner man." Jesus talked about this dual composition of human nature inMatthew 10:28: "Fear not them that can kill the body...but rather fear Him which after he hath killed is able to cast both soul and body into hell." He also said, "man shall not live by bread alone, but by every work that proceeds out of the mouth of God." {Matthew 4:1-25} What does he mean? He means that man’s needs are not only physical, but also spiritual. He needs food for his soul, just like he needs food for his body. Most people are only concerned with the physical dimension of life. Like the "Rich Fool" inLuke 12:13-21, they think only in terms of the body, forgetting their soul. But, people are not mere animals, bodies without souls; neither are they angels, souls without bodies. They are body and soul-composite beings. Grasping this basic truth lays the foundation for understanding human nature and behavior. Why are people as they are? At least four different components affect human behavior. First, people are temperamentally and constitutionally different. Some people are more shy, timid, and reserved by the sheer nature of their personality, and some are more assertive and confident by nature. Some people are physically stronger and more resilient than others, e.g. "Jack Sprat could eat no fat; his wife could eat no lean." Most parents would agree that no two children in the family are exactly alike. Each has his/her own particular strengths and weaknesses, temperamentally speaking. Add to this natural bent of personality the fact that everyone has a fallen nature. The Biblical story of man is a story of "good gone wrong." The sin nature is predisposed to wrong-bent toward evil. It tends to minimize, or perhaps I should say distort, one’s natural personality strengths, turning them into monstrous substitutions for what God intended for man (e.g. think of how Adam’s natural headship and leadership of the woman in God’s created order tends to tyranny and despotism-Genesis 3:16), and to maximize one’s natural areas of weakness. Because of sin, man naturally chooses "the path of least resistance" when it comes to life choices. Add to this natural personality bent and sin nature, the experiences that a person has had in life. Every person met, movie watched, book read, sermon heard, etc., has exercised an influence on the person you are today-either positively or negatively. Early home life, parental attitudes toward life, methods of solving problems and reacting to life, etc.-each are factors in the equation of an individual’s current thought patterns. Every person is trained by example in this way. The purpose of highlighting this particular feature is not to justify "pinning blame" but to help a person to understand his/her own tendencies and proclivities. It doesn’t help anyone to pin blame- we must look for solutions! Teachers in school, interaction with classmates, relationships with siblings-all of these inputs affect the way a person perceives his/her world. We learn to think of life and react to it by what we witness in others. Finally, a person who has been born again has a further component in his/her composition that affects the way he lives, thinks, and behaves. The new nature that God implants within the soul loves God and godliness, wants to please God and glorify God, and desires to grow in its knowledge of and relationship with Him. Understanding the Principle of Warfare These principles explain why people are as they are. Based on their natural tendencies, coupled with the sinful nature and the experiential inputs and examples in life, people develop habits of reacting to life. What is the "knee-jerk" reaction to an insult, for example? Early on, people habituate themselves to react to an insult in one of two ways: (1) They learn to "clam up," internalizing their anger; or (2) They learn to "blow up," ventilating their frustration. They may either try to protect themselves by sinking into a despondent frame of mind or by defending their sense of honor. Hebrews 12:1-29depicts this dynamic as a warfare between the "flesh" (that is, the old person) and the "spirit" (the new person). It is a continual and irreconcilable war played out in the theater of the inner man (i.e. the mind and emotions). All of God’s people are in a battle. It is the fight of our lives. It will never cease to be a fight as long as we are in this world. Satan wins the war when he can get a person to sink in despair so that they give up the daily fight. His ultimate lie is "What’s the use; it’s too hard; you’re not making any progress; it’s not going to work; you can’t control the power of the flesh; just give in; quit; do what comes naturally." Many, many people have become casualties on the landscape of history simply because they listened to him instead of listening to God and living by faith. Proverbs says that the secret to success is getting up each time you’ve been knocked down and trying again: "The just man falleth seven times, but riseth again." Defeat is defined in terms of desertion, and in a very subtle way, giving up the fight may very well be an act of rebellion against God. Though it is painful to hear, the Christian life will always be a battle. It’s hard to live a godly life in an ungodly world. It’s hard to resist what comes naturally and to follow Jesus Christ. G. K. Chesterton once said, "Christianity has not been tried and found wanting, but has been found difficult and left untried." The most frequent metaphor NT writers employ to describe the nature of the Christian life is the image of warfare-"Fight the good fight of faith...Endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ...Put on the whole armor of God that you maybe able to stand against the wiles of the devil" etc. Every day, I have to fight-against my attitudes, moods, natural tendencies, ego, passions, etc. The world makes it more difficult to be faithful on the battlefield of life, for it bombards us with ideas, icons, and opportunities for indiscretion that feed the old nature. Like the elderly gentleman, the believer’s attitude toward sin must be tenacious. "I’ll bite the devil ‘til my teeth fall out; then I’ll gum him to death for the rest of my life." When the Bible says "Be strong in the Lord," he must hear that as an imperative to-dare I say it-toughen up. Now, granted, most people don’t feel very tough. But we’re in a battle, whether we like it or not. That’s the nature of living in a sin-cursed earth. The hope before us is heaven-a world that knows no sin- ah, blessed thought! The challenge we face now is to be faithful soldiers of the One who is the "Captain of our salvation." Learning to view our struggles in terms of a spiritual warfare is essential to gaining victory over them. How does one resist the natural tendency to do what comes naturally and to follow Jesus Christ. Paul says, "Walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh." {Galatians 5:17} The secret to living in the Spirit is to learn to live proactively instead of reactively. To "plan ahead" for each day by feeding the mind and heart with good inputs-to "prepare in advance" for each day so that we can "respond" to life instead of merely "reacting" to it. Understanding the Role of Thought Patterns We are living in a "feeling-oriented" society, but it is essential to remember that feelings are not reliable. Emotions are untrustworthy. They are like the ebb and flow of the tides. They change with the circumstances. When pressure is great, or you awaken with a headache, or if you happen to encounter one of those difficult people that God has strategically placed throughout the world, or if the skies have been overcast and dreary for four days running with no glimpse of the sun-all of these kinds of circumstances affect a person emotionally. How should a Christian respond to adverse circumstances like these? Well, if he/she lives by feeling-that is to say, if a person allows circumstances to control his/her mood and makes no deliberate effort to gain control and master his/her mood-then there will be no spiritual stability and consistency in that persons life. A quaint poem illustrates the principle: Three men went up on top the wall-Feeling, Faith, and Fact; Feeling had an awful fall, And Faith was taken back. Faith was so close to Feeling That when he stumbled, Faith stumbled and fell too. But Fact remained and held Faith up And that helped Feeling too. The Christian is a person who is governed not by his circumstances but by the truth that he knows. He does not look within himself to monitor his emotional state. He/she does not ask himself, "Am I happy? Do I really have pleasant feelings for my marriage partner? Am I enjoying life?" This is precisely the error that most people make in life. They are so introspective and turned in upon themselves that they become preoccupied with themselves. They are constantly analyzing their own attitudes and problems and relationships and circumstances, asking themselves questions like "Am I really happy in this relationship? Do I or do I not really love the Lord? Have I really forgiven this person or not?" What these people really need to do is to forget about themselves and quit thinking about themselves and redirect their focus to their God: "Whatsoever things are true...just...pure...honest...of good report, if there be any praise and if there be any virtue, think on these things and the God of peace will be with you." {Php 4:8-9} The late Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones said, "We are so subjective, and we live in this unhealthy ‘psychological’ generation that starts with man and ends with man. Most of our troubles are due to that." He believed that the Christian who is in a constant state of defeat is there because he is being controlled by his subjective feelings instead of by an understanding of the truth. Deliverance from this condition depends on a total change in approach: Christians are to look not at themselves and their problems but at what God has done for them. The following example, cited in Iain Murray’s biography of his life entitled The Fight of Faith, illustrates Dr. Lloyd-Jones’approach: "Joan Hougham...gives this statement of the counsel she received from ML-J: ‘His five-word prescription was unbelievably simple, though he well knew it was the hardest thing for me to do. Refuse to think about yourself. I felt like Naaman shattered by his instructions from Elisha, but like him, as I obeyed, I found release...I saw the Doctor several times; his humility was such that on one occasion he told me that my experience and struggles had helped him in his preaching. He encouraged me to write to him, each letter was answered personally, written in his own hand, and enclosed a repeat prescription. Never shall I forget his kindness and encouragement." The fundamental need is to see the relevance of Christian doctrine to the practical problems of daily life. People need to learn to take the great "facts" of the word of God (e. g. The Sovereignty of God, the Priestly Intercession of Christ, the Promise of His presence, the Hope of Eternal Glory, etc.) and to then preach the gospel to themselves by reminding themselves that these things are true. This art of learning to reason from the facts of Scripture to the circumstances of life will strengthen Faith, and that will help Feeling too. Therefore, in order to control the thought life, we must regularly feed our minds with the word of God. Reading and meditating on Scripture is a spiritual necessity, not a luxury! "Commit thy ways unto the Lord, so shall thy thoughts be established." {Proverbs 16:3} A person’s thought life is the single most crucial area of life. How vitally important it is to think God’s thoughts after Him-to adopt His perspective on life and the world. "God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." Let’s get more specific. How should a believer think about the issue of changing circumstances? How does a Christian respond when health changes, or when he suffers the loss of a job, or when a relationship breaks up, or when he must relocate, leaving old friends and familiar surroundings, or when kids grow up and leave the nest, or when he stands at the graveside of someone who is dear to his heart? What does it mean to think Biblically about change? It means that instead of dwelling on the pain of change, and giving in to the temptation to roll these thoughts over and over in your mind, the believer deliberately alters his perspective by reminding himself that life in this world was never intended to be permanent. A pain-free and trouble-free existence is an optical illusion-it’s not realistic. Like the ancient Hebrews, we are like nomads or bedouins in the desert. We should not put our tent pegs down too deeply, but be ready to move when God in His providence determines to lead us to the next step in the journey. He does indeed weave change into the fabric of daily life in order to remind us of the pilgrim character of our lives in this world. We belong to the next world, and part of the process of sanctification is learning the lesson that He and He alone is changeless. "Thru life and all its changing scenes, and all the grief that intervenes; Tis this supports my fainting heart, That Thou my Sanctuary art." What about mistreatment? How should a Christian think about the issue of injustice and mistreatment? The natural reaction is to fight back, to get even, to take up for ourselves. But the Christian is a person who does not have unrealistic expectations. He knows that in a sin-cursed world, he will inevitably be misunderstood, falsely accused, or victimized. Even our Savior suffered the pain of mistreatment.1 Peter 4:19says, "Let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to Him in well doing as unto a faithful Creator." also helps us to think Biblically about mistreatment. The Christian remembers that just one glimpse of Him in glory will more than compensate for every perceived injustice down here. Well, perhaps these examples will suffice to illustrate what I mean about the need to think Biblically. That’s the challenge we all face. That’s where the battle is fought-in the theater of our thought patterns. Understanding the Dynamics of Positive Change Under this heading, I will develop the following sequence of thought: 1. People develop habits of reacting to life. God calls upon us to recognize sinful habits and to repent. 2. Change involves "putting off" old habits of thinking and living, (Scripture calls this "the mortification of sin"), and "putting on" new habits, or replacing the natural tendency to react with the Biblical and godly alternative. This is called "consecration." 3. The key to effecting this kind of positive change, or character transformation into Christ-likeness, is rooted in what one feeds into his/her mind. It doesn’t happen by magic. Making progress in holiness is a matter of "abiding in Christ" through the spiritual disciplines of prayer, Bible intake, Christian fellowship, meditation, public worship, etc. Let’s address each area separately. 1. People develop habits of reacting to life. Horace Mann said, "Habit is a cable; we weave a thread of it every day until at last it is so strong, we cannot break it." I agree with the analogy, but disagree with the conclusion. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, life-dominating habits-what old writers termed "besetting sins"-can be broken.Php 4:13should be the motto for every believer: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Learn to say to yourself, "Yes, I can be a nice person; I can control my temper; I can handle the pressures of the day; I can forgive my brother; etc. ‘through Christ who strengthens me’." But still, Mann is correct about the formation of a habit-every day we weave a strand until it becomes a cable. There are four basic characteristics of a habit. A habit is something that a person does: Ø automatically (like tying shoe laces) Ø unconsciously (like which sock a person puts on first, the left or the right) Ø skillfully (like driving an automobile) Ø comfortably (like the way a person folds his arms, i.e. whether he puts left over right or right over left depends on which is most comfortable). The point is that early in life, people learn what will maximize personal comfort and they begin to do things in the same way each day without consciously thinking about their actions. Can you imagine how long the simplest tasks in life would take if we didn’t have this capacity for habit and had to consciously think about each little step to take? This capacity for habit also touches the emotional dimension of life. People develop habits of thinking, behaving, and reacting to life based on many different influences-e. g. the way they observed their parents reacting to various situations, defense mechanisms arising from personal fears or unpleasant experiences in the past, etc. But at the root, these habits of thinking and living arise from the sin nature within us. The most "comfortable" reaction to any given situation is the course of action to which a person is naturally inclined. Just as water naturally follows the path of least resistance and flows to the lowest point, so people naturally react to life situations in the way that is the most natural. But there’s the rub-man’s "natural" reaction is a sinful one. Man has been habituated as a sinner. Let me illustrate. When someone criticizes me, it gives me personal pain and distress. I don’t like pain and distress, so I’ve developed a natural habit of reacting to criticism in order to protect myself-I retaliate. That’s a sinful habit. Now here’s how the dynamic works. The pain over past criticisms makes me fear future criticisms and guilt over those times that I’ve retaliated in kind causes me to fear the confrontation even more. So, in a very subtle way, I develop another habit of tailoring my action so as not to subject myself to criticism in the first place. This either takes the form of compromise or a total paralysis of action. For instance, criticism over things I’ve written makes me fear future criticism, tempting me either not to write at all or to write in an attempt to please my readers. Do you see how the dynamic works? That’s just one of a myriad of different illustrations that could be cited to show how man’s sinful nature habituates his approach to life. InEphesians 4:22-32, Paul identifies certain behaviors as instinctive habits to a person’s "former conversation (or lifestyle)." That brings us to the second point. 2. Change involves dehabituation, or "putting off" old habits of thinking and living, and rehabituation, or "putting on" new godly habits in their place. The theological terms employed to speak of these activities are "mortification" and "consecration." These are the two sides of the coin the Bible calls "sanctification."Ephesians 4:22-24states the general principle, thenEphesians 4:25-32make specific application of this "put off/put on" dynamic. The "old man" is the fallen nature-the sinful person you were before God called you into new life. The "new man" is the new nature that God has created in the soul. The point of Paul’s admonition is clear: "You are a new man in Christ; now live like it by deliberately rejecting the habits that characterized your old life and by replacing them with new habits." Notice he does not say "taper off" or "cut down gradually"-He says "Stop it!" Let him that stole, steal no more. This takes a conscious and deliberate decision to quit sinning. For the person who drinks, that means making the determination not to drink again. Now here’s where many people go wrong. They make it easy to fall back into the sinful behavior by "making provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof." {Romans 13:14} But the only way to make positive change is to take drastic steps with sin-whether it be a sinful behavior, like drunkenness, or a sinful attitude, like self-pity or pouting. Drastic maladies call for drastic remedies. One doesn’t treat cancer with a bandaid. This is precisely Jesus’ point inMatthew 5:29-30: "If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out; if thy hand offend thee, cut it off..." Jay Adams calls this "the doctrine of radical amputation." Jesus is saying, "Take radical steps to deal with the steps that lead you to sin." If alcohol is a problem to you, he says, then cut the process short by getting rid of every drop of alcohol in your home and refusing to go into an establishment that offers it for sale. "Mortify" -the word is the root of our noun "mortician," meaning "to put to death" -your members: "fornication, uncleanness...covetousness" (Colossians 3:5; see alsoRomans 8:13). Nail the flesh to the cross every day! That’s the meaning of Christ’s call to discipleship: "If any man will be my disciple, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me." Putting off the old man, or mortification, involves saying "No" to the natural inclinations. Now this is admittedly painful. Jesus compares it, again, to the plucking out of an eye or the cutting off of a limb. The flesh will scream "bloody murder" and say, "No, I want that!" It will not die passively or quietly. But self-denial is basic to Christian living. We don’t need training to quit sinning. We just need to quit. But we do need training to be godly. NoticeIsaiah 1:16-17: "Cease to do evil; Learn to do well." Every day, we must put off the attitudes and thought patterns that arise spontaneously from the sinful nature and learn new godly biblical habits of thinking and living in their place. ConsiderEphesians 4:22-32again. Paul says, "Stop lying; then make a decisive effort to tell the truth. Don’t allow anger to turn into ill-will and resentment, but close-out the anger account each day and refuse to carry the balance over from one day to the next. Stop stealing; start working and commit yourself to giving to others; Stop speaking biting sarcasms and acid comments and concentrate on speaking words that will be to the benefit of others...," etc. Someone said that it takes approximately 40 days of regular work to establish a new habit. I think that’s probably accurate. But even then, because the old nature will never be completely eradicated this side of the grace of glorification, we must be aware that it is always on the lookout for an opportunity to reclaim its lost territory and to reestablish its former dominance. 3. The secret to change is "renewing the mind". It is important to notice that betweenEphesians 4:22(’Put off’) andEphesians 4:24(’Put on’) isEphesians 4:23("And be renewed in the spirit of your mind"). What does this mean? It means that a Christian must feed his mind with good thoughts if he will have the resources necessary to break old habits and replace them with new ones. If a person will be self-forgetful instead of self-absorbed, great-hearted instead of narrow-spiritied, patient instead of quick-tempered, gentle instead of abrasive, courageous as opposed to timid, hopeful as opposed to cynical, pleasant instead of sour, etc., he must take in the kind of information necessary to feed the new man on a daily basis. He must "Think again!" The common quip is true even in a spiritual sense: "Garbage in/Garbage out." But it is also true to say, "Nothing in/Garbage out," because by nature we are predisposed to sinful attitudes and behaviors. If I do not read God’s word every day, I am operating in the energy of the flesh. It’s comparable to trying to run my car on water instead of gasoline. It’s just a matter of time before the engine locks and ceases to function at all. Personally, I need constant input and stimulation. I am not a "self-starter" and in all candor, though I’ve met people who claimed they were, I do not believe that there is any such creature. No one is automatically or spontaneously spiritually-minded. I require daily Bible intake, preaching tapes, good literature, singing tapes, fellowship with believers, and regular public worship just to keep my mind in the right frame. I wish I was more spiritual than that, but I’m not. I am growing in this area, though. I am developing new habits, if you please, in terms of the fact that it is generally easier to control my attitudes and moods now than it was several years ago-and growth, not a quantum leap or second blessing, is the Biblical metaphor for transformation in Christian character. Interestingly, the word "renewed" inEphesians 4:23is the Greek word ananehao. It means "to think youthfully." Paul is saying, "Remind yourself of who your God is and what He has done for you and all of the cynicism and scar-tissue built up through years of disappointment, frustration, and battle fatigue will fade away, and the carefree and hopeful perspective of youth will return." There is indeed a "fountain of youth." {Psalms 103:5} When people drink from this "living water," they can be forever young. {John 4:14;John 7:37-39} Even in old age, they will still bear fruit. {Psalms 92:13-14} In a day like ours when "even the youths" are cynical, still those who "wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint." {Isaiah 40:29-3129-31129-31} How can a person drink from this fountain of living waters? By staying connected to the life supply-the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the vine and we are the branches. {John 15:1-27} Severed from the vine, the branch cannot bear fruit. There will be no "love, joy or peace," no "longsuffering, goodness or faith," no "gentleness, meekness or temperance"-no fruit of the Spirit manifested in the person’s life who has been disconnected from Jesus Christ. {Galatians 5:22} Instead of producing fruit, the individual who allows himself to be distracted from the moment-by-moment habit of fellowship with Christ will only produce the "works of the flesh." {Galatians 5:19-21} Such will be the natural and inevitable outcome of a Christless life. He will not have to try to manifest these-the works of the flesh will spontaneously manifest themselves, for people are habituated as sinners. But by "abiding in Christ," the Christian can bear fruit. Perhaps you wonder, "But how do I abide in Christ? How do I stay connected to the vine so that His life can flow through me and produce love, and faith, and joy, and kindness?" By practicing the spiritual disciplines of prayer, Bible intake, Christian fellowship, Biblical meditation, public worship, etc. God has given us resources like prayer, the Bible, other believers, the assembly of the saints, etc. not as a spiritual luxury but as a spiritual necessity. I must utilize these resources or I die. I cannot live without them. The key, then, to successful discipleship is living proactively instead of reactively. Instead of waiting for a crisis to arise and then reacting "off the cuff," we should plan ahead for all eventualities-preparing in advance for each day by drawing close to Christ in the morning. A person who does not spend time in the word of God and in prayer every day, feeding good thoughts into his mind and heart, simply cannot live a godly life. It is an impossibility. Apart from me, says Jesus, you can do nothing. Summary How do you help someone who is reeling beneath the burdens and difficulties of life? You say, "There is lifting up." {Job 22:29} You point that individual to the principles of the word of God and exhort them to trust in the God of the word. Will all be benefited by such an attempt to minister help to them? No. Only the individual who humbly submits to Scripture and commit himself/herself to obeying it: "When men are cast down, then thou shalt say, ‘There is lifting up’,and He shall save the humble person" emphasis mine. Tom Landry once entered the dressing room of the Dallas Cowboys after a humiliating defeat. He told his players, "Men, I told you how to win the game. You didn’t do what I told you. That’s why you lost." Then he made his exit. It is vital to a "helper’s" sanity to remember that the person he/she is trying to help is ultimately responsible for implementing the counsel of Scripture. In the final analysis, we cannot control whether or not another person submits to the help God gives in His word. People have a will of their own. None of us can be God in someone else’s life. The individual who resists and rebels against the principles of Scripture, opting instead to follow his own impulses, will not be helped. But we are not responsible for the results. We are simply responsible to faithfully sow the seed. We are merely the "stretcher bearers" who, by faith, bring our paralyzed friends to the Master, even if we must tear a hole in the roof to get to Him. Jesus alone is Jehovah-rapha, the Lord our Healer. Perhaps when He sees your faith, He will be merciful to your friend, forgiving his sins and saying to him, "Rise, take up thy bed and walk." ======================================================================== CHAPTER 114: THE MINISTRY...A MICROCOSM OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE ======================================================================== THE MINISTRY...A Microcosm of the Christian Life "But be thou an example of the believers..."1 Timothy 4:12"In all things showing thyself a pattern of good works..."Titus 2:7 When the Lord Jesus ascended to the right hand of God the Father, He conferred gifts of public ministry upon men. {Ephesians 4:8} He made some men apostles. Others He made prophets. To some, He gave the gift of evangelism. Still others, He equipped to be pastor/teachers. {Ephesians 4:11} The four types or classifications of gifts are similar in terms of the fact that each is concerned with the public ministry of God’s word. They differ, however, in the sense that the first two, i.e. apostles and prophets, were "foundational" {Ephesians 2:20} and temporary, though the last two, i.e. evangelist and pastor/teacher, were intended to be ordinary and perpetual in all ages of the church. Why did Jesus give gifts of the public ministry of the word to men?Ephesians 4:12specifies three reasons: (1) The Perfecting of the Saints- Preaching is intended to facilitate spiritual growth and maturity among believers; (2) The Work of the Ministry- Preaching is intended to equip the saints for ministry; (3) The Edifying of the Body of Christ- Preaching is the means God has chosen to encourage, affirm, and build up the church. Notice again the second item above. The public ministry of the word was given, says Paul, for the work of the ministry. Is this a redundancy? Has Paul fallen into the trap of circular reasoning? Is he saying that preachers have been given to the church so that they can preach? No, that is obvious. Everyone understands that preachers are supposed to preach. Rather Paul is saying that gifts of public ministry have been given for the purpose of equipping the saints for their ministry. It would not be wrong to read verse twelve, "For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the saints’ ministry..." Preaching, in other words, is not an end in itself, but a means to an end. A Biblical sermon aims at the mobilization of every believer in true Christian ministry. How many ministers do you have in your church? The answer to that question should be equivalent to the number of names on the church roll. The rediscovery of the Biblical emphasis on every member ministry in the Body of Christ is, in my opinion, one of the most positive dimensions of church life in recent years. The Modern Mood Toward "Ministry" Unfortunately, the "every member ministry" idea has been (and still is, in some cases) the exception, not the rule, in the contemporary church. Instead, many have substituted the unBiblical and unhealthy model that separates the pulpit from the pew by distinguishing between the "clergy" and the "laity." In fact, it is possible that the practice of segregating between the clergy, as the superior and spiritual ecclesiastical caste, and the laity, as the inferior and part-time class in the church, was a major component of the first century group known as the Nicolaitanes. The word ‘Nicolaitane’ literally means "victory over the people." Perhaps the Nicolaitanes were a Gnostic sect within the church who attempted to dominate the faith of the "laity" by imposing a form of hierarchical rule by the clergy. This type of governmental hierarchy reached its zenith in medieval and pre-Reformation Roman Catholicism. The "laity," in many (perhaps most) cases, was not permitted to read the Bible. The common man, the priests maintained, could not understand the spiritual mysteries of Scripture, but must rely on the "clergy" to interpret it for him. To approach God, the people must employ the services of the priest, an official of "the church." It was unthinkable for the "laity" to presume to approach God personally and directly. At the mass, only the priests were permitted to sing. The "laity" were essentially passive observers, spectators of Divine worship, not participants. It was against this historical backdrop that the Reformers reaffirmed the Biblical emphasis concerning the priesthood of every believer. This idea was a breath of fresh air to a "laity" that was suffocating in the stagnant air of passive Christian living. Some, however, like the Quakers, reacted to the opposite extreme. From the strict exclusivity of Catholicism, Quakerism adopted an unqualified inclusion that had the effect of disregarding that there was any such office as "evangelist" or "pastor/teacher" given to the church. At their public meetings, these "New Lights" (as they were called) virtually opened the floor for anyone to speak who might feel the nudge of the Spirit or who might have a word from God. Since women were stereotypically more spiritually-minded than men, they frequently assumed the active role of teaching in public worship. Arguably, all semblance of liturgy and structure and verbal exposition of Scripture by an ordained minister of the gospel was replaced by a kind of "free-for-all" approach to worship, in the spirit of "every member ministry." I maintain that both the Catholic and the Quaker paradigms of "ministry" are lopsided and extremist. On a positive note, the Catholic position does recognize (and properly so) that there is an office of ministry in the church, an office Christ established to be filled by men He has called and the church has recognized through ordination. These are men who have the right and the responsibility to assume the role of spiritual leadership in the local church over which the Holy Ghost has made them overseers, {Acts 20:28} "taking the oversight, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind," {1 Peter 5:2} not as lords over the faith of the people, but as helpers of their joy. In the Catholic emphasis on the office of the ministry, however, it loses the equally valid Biblical emphasis regarding the ministry of every believer. Quakerism, on the other hand, recognizes the need (and properly so) of every member ministry in the Body of Christ, but disinherits the equally valid Scriptural truth of an official role of public ministry in the church. I fear that the modern mentality toward this subject in the church is a kind of strange mixture of the two ideas. In some cases, the people have developed an unnatural paranoia of ministers who attempt to assume their God-given role of leadership. Because of the potential that he might abuse his authority and become a dictator, legislating the idiosyncracies of his conscience upon them, some Christians have successfully divested their ministers (and some ministers have divested themselves) of the responsibilities of their office. Of course, the fear of a ministerial hierarchy is valid, but resistance to true Biblical leadership of a man of God is not. That’s the Quaker side of the modern mindset toward ministry, a devaluing of the office that Christ gave to His church. {1 Thessalonians 5:12-13;Hebrews 13:7;Hebrews 13:17} What about the "clergy/laity" distinction? Does that mentality exist today? Well, strangely enough, it frequently co-exists with the anomaly I’ve just mentioned. Somewhere along the line, people began to think that the preacher was given to study the Bible for them, to interpret the Bible for them, and to be religious for them. Sound far-fetched? Then try this simple test. Ask yourself this question: "Is your consuming passion, that is, the object of your every waking thought, the ambition of your life, the desire to be totally and completely in love with Jesus Christ and in perpetual communion with Him? Would you like for all of your friends, peers, and contemporaries to think of you as a holy person?" Think about that for a moment, especially that last question: "Do you want, above anything else, the people who know you to think of you as a holy person?" Be honest, now. I’ll wait while you examine your heart. Perhaps some of my ruthlessly honest readers have come to this conclusion: "I want people to know that I go to church regularly and that I believe in God, but I don’t want them to think of me as some kind of ‘holy Joe.’ I don’t want them to be afraid that every time they talk to me I will automatically steer the conversation to God o religious fanatic. After all, I’m not a preacher." WAIT! TIME OUT! What did he say? "After all, I’m not a preacher." In other words, "Only preachers are supposed to be holy. I don’t have to be holy, because I have a preacher to be holy for me." Now I know that there may be an element of hyperbole in my analysis of the modern Christian mentality. But if my basic assumption is accurate (namely, that some Christians think that because they are not preachers, they are not obliged to attend church as regularly, think as spiritually, study as seriously, or pray as fervently) then the "clergy/laity" double-standard is alive and well, at least at a subconscious level. Perhaps this "clergy/laity" double-standard is the dynamic behind the entertainment mentality that pervades Christendom today. When God’s people divorce in their minds the message to which they are listening from the daily lives they are living, they lose the sense of the relevance of God’s word, and slowly, but surely, begin to think of themselves as spectators, watching a show, rather than participants, receiving practical instruction for living. For example, the preacher may preach on the need to maintain the spiritual disciplines of Bible reading and prayer, but the individual who listens to that message with the presupposition that there is a different standard for preachers than for people will inevitably conclude that, however enjoyable the message was to listen to, it, nonetheless, did not apply to him. Consequently, no effort to change is made by the hearer. The Biblical Model of "Ministry" If both views, i.e. the view that exaggerates and the view that devalues the office of the ministry, are aberrations, then what does the Bible teach regarding the proper role of the gospel ministry in the church? Where is the balance between the two extremes? The answer is found in the two "pastoral" epistles of Paul. To a preacher named Timothy, Paul said, "Be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity." {1 Timothy 4:12} To Titus, Paul exhorted, "In all things showing thyself a pattern of good works: in doctrine showing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, sound speech, that cannot be condemned..."{Titus 2:7-8} The gospel minister is to live as "an example of the believers," "a pattern of good works." In other words, the Lord Jesus Christ gave the ministry to the church as a living example of what it means to be a Christian, an object lesson in discipleship. The ministry is Christianity in miniature. It is a microcosm of the Christian life. Through their ministry, the rank-and-file believer is instructed, inspired, and invested with the resources necessary to fulfill his ministry in the name of Jesus Christ. Discipleship in Microcosm Let’s explore the ramifications of this thought. What does it mean to say that the ministry is a microcosm of Christian discipleship? First of all, it means that preachers must model the message that they preach in daily life. When a believer looks at his pastor, he should see someone who personifies in his life, as closely as is possible in a fallen world, the very gospel he verbally proclaims on the Lord’s day. Not only does our gracious God tell His church to live a life that is consistent with the gospel of Christ, but He also shows them how to live that life through the ministers He has given them. "Be an example of the believers" in your life, says Paul to Timothy. Now, of course, the supreme "example" of Christian living is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. The gospel minister, because he is a man influenced by indwelling sin, is unqualified, in and of himself, to be the standard by which believers are measured. Only Jesus Christ is a perfect example. But it is not wrong for Christians to take their cues from the ministry, so long as the ministry is following Christ: "Be ye followers lit. imitators of me, even as I also am of Christ." {1 Corinthians 11:1} The kind of life a minister leads will directly affect the effectiveness of the gospel he preaches. The Thessalonians received Paul’s preaching "in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance." Notice, however, the key to Paul’s powerful message-"For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power... as ye know what manner of men we were among you for your sake." {1 Thessalonians 1:5-emphasis mine} Paul’s gospel preaching concerning Jesus Christ took on a relevance and a credibility because of his own godly life and example that it would not have had otherwise. What was the result? They "became followers lit. imitators of us, and of the Lord..."1 Thessalonians 1:6The right to occupy a role of leadership in the church of Jesus Christ does not depend primarily on charisma (that is, a person’s giftedness) but on character (that is, a person’s Christian integrity). The late Robert Murray M’Cheyne once said, "My people’s greatest need is my personal holiness." Why would he make such a surprising statement? Because he knew the connection between ministerial success and a holy lifestyle. It is for precisely this reason that prayer for the moral integrity of God’s servants is supremely important in the church today. Satan knows that if he can cripple and make caricatures out of pastors, then the church cannot be what she is supposed to be. Because preachers are the pace setters for the church, they are the special targets of the adversary. If the wicked one can tempt them to compromise theologically, ethically, or morally, he has delivered a strategic blow to the progress of Christ’s kingdom in the earth. Then pray for your pastor, dear reader. Let your voice rise like a fountain night and day to God for His ministers. Pray for their family life, their personal attitudes, their financial needs, their moral strength. Pray that God would give them Biblical insight, understanding, guidance, and power when they stand to preach. The need is indeed urgent. Let’s get painfully practical. Combining the texts in1 Timothy 4:1-16andTitus 2:1-15, Paul lists seven categories in which a minister’s life should be exemplary. (1) Speech-"Be an example of the believers in word..." Preachers should be exemplary in their speech habits. Because the ministry is a microcosm of the Christian life, pastors should model self-discipline in the use of the tongue. Critical, sarcastic, abrasive and unkind words from a minister set a precedent within a community of faith for the same. When a preacher gossips, slanders, belittles, and casts doubts upon the integrity of his members or fellow ministers, he opens the floodgates for the compounding of tongue sins within the body of Christ. James warned, "My brethren, be not many masters lit. leaders, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation. For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body." {James 3:1-2} In this age of mass communication, the need for recovery of the Biblical speech ethic among gospel ministers is great. (2) Conduct- "Be an example of the believers...in conversation..." Conversation means "lifestyle, behavior, conduct." Ministers are intended to lead the way for the Lord’s people in terms of godly conduct. They should regularly pray for wisdom to know how to conduct themselves in every given situation. Whether we realize it or not, unbelievers form their opinions of the Lord based on what they see in Christian people, and since believers tend to emulate their ministers, it is imperative for pastors to set the pace for godliness by an exemplary demeanor. (3) Attitude- "Be an example of the believers...in charity..." Agape, the Greek word translated "charity," was virtually a Christian invention. The word was seldom if ever used in classical and secular Greek literature prior to the New Testament. Agape is essentially "a self-sacrificial commitment to another’s welfare." Love, in other words, in the New Testament sense of the term, is not an emotional infatuation or attraction, but an unselfish willingness to give something up for the benefit of someone else. The epitome of agape is the cross. But ministers should also embody the agape attitude of preacher preach the importance of sacrificing one’s time to serve Jesus Christ? Then he should model his message by waiving his rights to personal liesure and recreation when it conflicts with the service of his Lord. Does he preach the priority of financial sacrifice to the church? Then he should be willing to set the pace by regular, sacrificial giving himself. Does he warn the people he serves against covetousness, and encourage them to be content with God’s promise to provide the necessities of life, then he should set the example by learning to be content with God’s provision, whether he is rich or poor. Does he teach married couples that self-denial is the key to a happy Christian marriage, then he must practice it himself. Does he preach about the gracious Savior’s compassion to the walking wounded, then he must personify that same compassion to others who fall. Love, the greatest Christian doctrine, must be the dominate characteristic of his life. Inevitably, those under his ministry will follow suit. (4) Disposition- "Be an example of the believers...in spirit..." A gospel minister is called to be a living illustration of the difference Jesus Christ can make in a person’s general temperament. Though people are born with certain temperamental bents (e.g. sanguine, phlegmatic, melancholic, and choleric), Christ, through the Spirit’s sanctifying influence, can change those tendencies. He can take a person prone to irritability and crankiness and make him patient, kind, considerate, and gentle. He can transform cynics into encouragers and those prone to depression into cheerful, joyful Christians. Solomon said, "A man of understanding is of an excellent spirit." {Proverbs 17:27} A preacher’s insight into the truth should manifest itself in an exemplary disposition. A pastor who has a humble, gentle, servant’s heart, will infect the church he serves with the joy germ. (5) Devotion- "Be an example of the believers...in faith..."" Faith" is essentially a metaphysical concept. It deals with the question, "What is real?" To most people, reality is defined by the tangible world. Skyscrapers, freeways, automobiles, material possessions, other people- these are the things of which reality is made to most people. In other words, most people "live by sight." The Christian, on the contrary, is called to "live by faith." {Habakkuk 2:4;Romans 1:17;Galatians 2:20;2 Corinthians 5:8} To the Christian who lives by faith, God, heaven, and angels are just as real as the tangible realities of earthly existence. Prayer, worship, and other devotional activities are supremely practical and realistic. Ministers must model such a conviction of God’s reality by maintaining the spiritual disciplines of prayer, meditation, and Bible intake. In other words, pastors are called to be "an example of faith," an object lesson that God is real. Because the ministry is Christianity in miniature, preachers should think of themselves, first and foremost, as Christians: "The husbandman that laboreth must be first partaker of the fruits." {2 Timothy 2:6} Perhaps one of the greatest temptations in the ministry is the temptation to substitute work in the service of Christ for devotion to the person of Christ, or to confuse one’s position with his identity. All true service for the Lord must begin in personal communion with the Lord. I have discovered in my own experience that it is virtually impossible for me to preach in an edifying way about the cross when I am not living close to the cross. "Be an example of faith" means live as if God is real: "... for he that cometh to God must believe that He is..."{Hebrews 11:6} Many professed believers live like practical atheists, as if God is disconnected and unconcerned about life. Preachers are called to set the pace for the people for a daily relationship with the Lord. In keeping with this thought, the ministry should be a microcosm of spiritual growth. Paul employs an intriguing word picture in1 Timothy 4:15: "Give thyself wholly to them that thy profiting may appear to all." The Greek word translated "profiting," means "pioneer advance." The verb form means "to go forward; to cut through." The word was originally a nautical term meaning "to forge ahead and to make headway." Paul wanted Timothy to develop a pioneer spirit, an insatiable desire to forge ahead into new territories of spiritual growth and personal maturity. Paul’s point is that others will notice Timothy’s spiritual growth and will be stimulated to godliness by his example. Christian people who see their pastor growing spiritually are encouraged by that example to greater levels of spiritual maturity themselves. I’ve never known a church that was growing spiritually whose pastor was not blazing the trail before them by his own spiritual progress. When ministers cease to prioritize personal spiritual growth, churches will also. "Be an example of faith" also means "show others by your patience under trial and faithfulness in times of persecution that God is trustworthy and that his promises are reliable." The words of Eliphaz to Job have, from time to time, stung me a little: "Behold thou hast instructed many, and thou has strengthened the weak hands. Thy words have upholden him that was falling, and thou hast strengthened the feeble knees. But now it is come upon thee, and thou faintest; it toucheth thee, and thou art troubled." {Job 4:3-5} These words arrested John Newton as he struggled with self-pity and despair at the bedside of his invalid wife. He thought to himself, "I’ve preached that God is faithful, that faith must take hold of His promise in the time of trouble. Now is the time to prove that God is able to sustain those who put their trust in Him." He pulled himself together and proceeded to care for her and maintain his rigorous schedule, trusting in God. He preached on the day of her death, and even subsequently preached his own wife’s funeral. He was an example to the believers of faith in God. (6) Morality- "Be an example of the believers...in purity..." Because I’ve already addressed this subject earlier, I’ll not do so again. (7) Theology- "Showing thyself a pattern...in doctrine, showing uncorruptness...."{Titus 2:7} The ministry must be an example to the church of theological integrity. If ministers do not submit reverantly to the teaching of Scripture, even those subjects that may be personally unpalatable to them, they will encourage a surge of all kinds of weird and eccentric ideas. The church is not a forum for public debate concerning the essentials of the Christian faith. The sin of unbelief within the gospel ministry fuels the promotion of unbelief within the body. Ministers must never be deceptive, dishonest, or vague in the way they handle God’s word. Because of his position of influence, the minister must resist the maverick desire to be novel and different, lest he derail those under his care. Sound doctrine preached by a man concerned with theological integrity will produce healthy Christians who can minister to the glory of Christ Jesus our Lord. Finally, to say that the ministry is a microcosm of the Christian life means that God’s people must learn to think of their ministers as patterns to be emulated, not substitutes to be observed. Is the minister called to full-time Christian service? Then the rank-and-file Christian is too! Is the minister supposed to put the Lord first in his life? Then every believer is too. Is the pastor supposed to be totally committed to the Lord Jesus Christ? Then the ordinary church member is too. Is he supposed to be present at public worship every Lord’s day? Then you are too. We must once and for all dispel the notion that the preacher is a religious professional whose career is church life and whose hobbies may be secular, while believers are people whose careers are primarily secular and whose hobbies may be religious. Every believer, preacher and people alike, is called to devote his/her entire life and energy to the Lord Jesus. All of life is sacred and all, consequently, must be lived under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. The pastor does not serve the Lord for the people. Rather, he serves his Lord by serving his Lord’s people, and they, in turn, serve their Lord by vain thing for you to serve the Lord, for it is your life. Thanks be to God he has given us gospel ministers who teach us His word, and then model that word in their own lives as a living illustration of Christianity. May we follow their lead, and then, mobilize to minister to others in the name of our blessed Lord. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 115: THE OLD OAKEN BUCKET? ======================================================================== THE OLD OAKEN BUCKET? An empty bucket is a convenient receptacle for anything someone wants to pitch into it. Let’s consider the mind as a vessel or container-a bucket. The mind is similar in many ways to a bucket or any type of holding vessel. When one is born into this world, his mind contains no knowledge. It is as an empty bucket; ready to receive whatever information is put into it. Some kinds of buckets have lids. If I have a bucket, and do not want anything put into it, I just clamp the lid on: sometimes we do that with our mind. I may be very selective about the kind of material that is put into my bucket, and place a filter on it. This may be especially true if I am putting material that I wish to keep free of foreign matter into my bucket. Similarly, I may filter the material which goes into my mind. If undesirable material is getting into my bucket, I may need to use a finer filter: so it is with the mind. Now, consider some ways in which the mind is not similar to a bucket. In some cases, if something gets into my bucket which I do not want in it, all I have to do is just take it out, and there is no problem. With the mind, it is not that easy. Once a bit of information or an idea is implanted in the mind it is almost impossible to get it out. If the material in a bucket becomes so contaminated that it is not useful, we may just empty the bucket, wash it out, and start over. We can not do that with the mind. Therefore, great care must be taken with that which goes in. Being surrounded with so much good and useful information, it seems that we would have no trouble filling our bucket (mind) with such. But, in spite of our best efforts, undesirable things slip through our filter. What shall we do? Use God’s word as a filter. If my mind is filled with God’s word, undesirables are blocked out. “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word. With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments. Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.” When Jesus was tempted by Satan, He answered each temptation with, “It is written.” Satan can not penetrate this barrier. It is not necessary for us to view everything with a closed mind (a lid on our bucket). The proper filter (the word of God) is all sufficient. “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.” Romans 12:21 Romans 15:13-14;Colossians 1:9-10;Php 1:9-11;Php 3:8;James 3:13;2 Peter 1:2-4 OH! Let my bucket be not empty, but filled with the knowledge of the good things of God, that it be not a catch-all for vile words and thoughts. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 116: THE ORDER OF GOD'S HOUSE ======================================================================== THE ORDER OF GOD’S HOUSE by Elder J. M. Bullard Booneville, Mississippi PREFACE This perhaps should be an explanation as to why I am offering a pamphlet bearing this caption. I trust that my only motive is to seek out the ordered path that the Church should travel in, and to sight some errors of its procedures. The Church of Jesus Christ has the greatest mission of any other organization on earth. Christ gave her the orders, the laws, the commands, to carry out that mission. The mission of the Church was not to populate heaven; not to prepare the alien hearts of men for the glory world; not to bring about a spiritual birth; but its mission was, and is, to prepare the Lord’s people for service in the kingdom here in the world. It is to do this in perfect harmony with the teachings of God’s inspired Word that orders her in the way of righteousness. When she observes the laws of her Master, she is a bright and shining light. There is no light in the world today like this glorious light. But if that light which is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness! Hence, the need to study the order of God’s house that we may walk as children of light. INTRODUCTION In making an introduction, it is necessary to call attention to at least some of the contents that are to follow. This subject is a broad one indeed, and can be treated upon from many phases. The title itself gives scope for a long needed discussion. When I speak of God’s house, I mean God’s Church-His Organic Kingdom, which was established here in the world, and which has ever continued to function somewhere ever since its establishment. I shall not speak of this Church as embracing all of the redeemed family of God, but only comparatively few of them. There are strict requirements and qualifications for entering into the Lord’s house, and there are strict requirements to stay there. My main objective in writing this little pamphlet is to try to show why the Church today is in the state of coldness and indifference that it is. There is a reason why the Church is in a state of confusion and perplexity. Is that the way our Master intended for it to be? Did He design that she should have her seasons of refreshing showers, and enjoy the felt-presence of the Lord for a while, and then become cold, careless and hard-hearted? Some have spoken of her in this way. I had a good Old Baptist preacher to tell me that the cold, lifeless state of the Church was just as needful as the winters that God gave the winter that we may more fully appreciate the spring; that He gives us the dark, gloomy weather that we may more fully enjoy the sunshine. But is the Church governed by these same immutable laws? I think not. She is under commands to her Lawgiver, and can obey or disobey ‘those commands. She can walk in order or in disorder, I do not say she has a right to walk in disorder, but sometimes we have power to do things that we don’t have a right to do. I maintain that a church can, and does, engage in disorderly things, but without a right to do so. No sovereign has a right to do wrong. So we shall try as best we can to discuss what the Church has a right to do, and some things she does not have a right to do. I am mindful that I am a poor, fallible man, and doubtless will make many mistakes, but Intrust it’s the love I have for the kingdom of my Master that has prompted me in writing this little book. The Order of God’s House God’s House should be an orderly house. It has orders to abide by, and laws to govern its activities. Those who occupy it are authorized to keep it in order. Notice! Keep it so. It was given as an orderly Church. Now YOU keep it that way. But how are we to know what is an orderly house? Sometimes there are so many ready to give orders, and declare order and disorder, that many poor little children of God become so confused that they do not know where they are, nor what to do. If they decide to abide by the order of some one, very soon another instructs them that that procedure is wrong and that they are in disorder. Hence, they change their course and follow this instructor. But, alas, another soon points out that that way is wrong, and any one following that way is in disorder and will soon be cut off, "unless you adopt MY WAY." Lord, have mercy upon such vain instructors! No man, or set of men, on earth today has a right to give one law to govern the Church of God. The giving of orders was never in the hands of men since the days of the apostles. The laws that are to govern the activity of the Church in every age were given, and no place can ever be found to change them in the least. God saw her in every age, under every condition, and supplied her with everything that she will ever need. But God did not supply her with the blind guides afore mentioned. They have supplied themselves for no man who has the cause of our Master at heart, has a desire to be a "boss" in the kingdom, or to give orders for its operation. God did, and does, supply teachers and various instructors in the kingdom. But they are to instruct IN the WORD-not out of it. I don’t think much of an instructor for a church, unless he speaks in the language of the apostles. When we do that, we speak the mind of the Spirit, because they were inspired to write when they were giving the orders to the Church. Too often some of us forget that human tradition and custom are not inspiration. Human custom can be practiced for hundreds of years and be wrong. But any practice that is in keeping with the inspired Word of God, can never be wrong, though it might be against some custom. So let’s forget custom; forget men as law-givers; forget selfish zeal, and look to the blessed old Book for our guide; abide by her sacred orders, and you can not go wrong. Study the commands that it gives you, and always be satisfied to take it in preference to orders given by men, regardless of how pious they may be. God has given, as I have stated, everything that she needs, and no more. You can as safely, bring in some new thing as you can leave off some required thing. Now, let’s use the measuring line a little. One of the first orders given to those who occupy a place in the Church is: "Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together." Another: "Let brotherly love continue." Again: "See that you love one another with a a pure heart fervently." Again: "Be kindly affectioned one toward another." Again: "Let each of you lay by him in store on the first day of the week, as the Lord has prospered him." Now, there are a few of the things that are positively ordered. Is it all right to neglect such orders and disregard the authority of the Holy Spirit to give these orders? I ask, can we afford to overlook such binding commands, and then at the sign of the first thing that enters the church without authority, begin to howl "disorder?" What’s wrong? If it’s wrong to bring in new things (and it certainly is), is it not equally wrong to leave off some of the required things? It looks like a quarrel between the kettle and the pot, as to which is black. I have in mind just at this time a preacher, the pastor of a church where not over twenty percent of the membership attend the services, and not over twenty percent of them ever give a dime for the expenses of the church, and some at variance with one another; yet, this church answers in PEACE and ORDER at each conference. But along comes a preacher full of zeal for the cause-preaching all the time-laboring to instruct the Lord’s poor, tempest tossed children in their duties toward the Master. But before this preacher fills his appointment, it is known, by some strange instinct (perhaps suspicion) that somewhere down the line he has been thrown in company, and has preached with, with a preacher who affiliates with secret orders. So this preacher begins to cry LONG and LOUD to warn his flock to flee from such disorder. Well, fine! Now, why not begin to warn them to flee from the ungodly disorder of "neglect" in their own assembly? God pity! May we at least be consistent! It is a serious thing to bring strange gods into the Church! It is also a serious thing to Isavs off required things! I know that the principles of truth were given to the Church, and they belong there now. In making a rude comparison of the Church and our natural homes, we may have all kinds of nice, useful and valuable things in our home, and use them as we should, we will have a comfortable, happy place in which to dwell; but unless we exert some effort to keep the house cleaned up and things placed where they belong, and keep them where they will serve their usefulness, we better not have them. They are in the way, and we will likely stumble over some of the things and get hurt. Well, suppose I have a neighbor whose home is as described above, and I go over and order the occupants to get that house set in order right now, or I’ll never neighbor with them again, would I not be assuming too much? Would it not be more fitting for me to point out how beautiful that home would be if certain pieces of furniture were arranged differently? How amazingly it is to see how rudely we sometimes treat a brother! God is the one who said for us to keep our house in order. We are amenable to Him. How needful it is for His children to study His Word; study His laws, and abide by them, regardless of tradition or custom. In studying the way some Old Baptists behave in the Church reminds me of what I observe in some homes. Sometimes parents will leave their children and go away from home for a while. They leave their laws and order to govern them in their absence. But sometimes there is a big, over-grown boy who assumes the job of "bossing" until the parents return. This big boy is always very smart. He gives orders and demands obedience. He is usually uncompromising and harsh. The younger children must act in strict obedience to what he commands. This is often contrary to the parental law that they are duty-bound to obey. But for fear of the torture and abuse of the big brother they yield to do what he says. Therefore, when the parents return they find the family disturbed, things out of order, and their laws disregarded. Do not some of us preachers resemble this big boy? Do we not too often give the Lord’s family our own Orders instead of the orders of our Master? Will our kind Master not look with disfavor upon such procedure? Won’t we have to face Him in shame when we must give account for our stewardship? Instead of this big boy abusing and exercising such authority over the family, he should have been a kind protection for them. The ministry was given as a kind of protection for the Church; at least, they are watchmen, to warn of approaching dangers. But, too often in this age of the Church, there is sometimes more danger in the watchman than there is in the enemy he is watching. So there is little protection in such a case as that. I mention this without reference to any individual. It is a dangerous ravine into which any of us might fall, and a watchman must necessarily be closer to the enemy than the ones for whom he is watching, because he is to see it first, and either subdue it, or warn the flock of its approach. Then they are either to flee or fight, depending upon which is necessary. Sometimes it’s better to flee than to fight; and always so, unless you have a brave and true leader. God’s house is to ever be protected by the providence and power of God, and will stand forever.Daniel 2:44There has never been any danger in the respect of destroying it; but that which pertains to its usefulness here, is in the hands of those who occupy it. The orders that are to govern it have never been altered or changed. However, men have at different times made alterations and additions, but the laws that God gave her remain the same. They can not be changed without serious injury to those affected. Christ, when He went away, solemnly gave some practices to be engaged in until He comes back. He was leaving a great possession, and it is His yet. If it is not functioning just as He authorized it, it is not because of His failure to instruct her; because He did not leave her here in this cold, unfriendly world with no knowledge of how to behave. But He tells us how we OUGHT to behave ourselves. Read1 Timothy 3:2;Titus 2:3;Psalms 101:2. Now I wish to call attention to some things that must be heeded, and it is a neglect," rather than a bringing in of something "new." Notice: "Unto the church at Ephesus, write: I know thy labor and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them that are evil, and thou hast tried them who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars, and has borne, and hast patience, and for my name’s sake hast labored and hast not fainted. Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, for thou hast left thy first love," etc.Revelation 2:2-4. What was the matter? Left her first love! Neglect! What was the denunciation? "Remember from whence thou art fallen, repent, and do thy first works," etc.Revelation 2:5. Another thing required: "To the Church which is at Sardis write: I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead. Be watchful to strengthen the things that remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God."Revelation 3:1-2. Here we see a church is to be engaged in working if it is looked upon as an orderly church. How diligent we should be to be engaged in the works which He commands! Why is it that a church can drag on, and die, and no one will ever utter a word? But when a church gets too smart, and drags in some new or unscriptural practice, everybody is ready to howl "DISORDER!" Well, some might want to ask me what I think of the new measures and new practices in the Church. I am bitterly opposed to every unscriptural practice. I have no patience with it, and I am just as severly opposed to the unscriptural neglect of doing what is required. I had just as soon see one die running after the devil as to see him sit down in the fire the devil had made. I can’t see any difference. There is no difference. Anything not authorized in the scriptures is dangerously wrong to practice. Anything that is authorized in the scriptures is equally dangerously wrong to leave off. This is my main, objective in writing on this subject. I have seen churches that would tolerate covetousness, drunkenness, lying, negligence in church attendance, or almost any other ungodly practice; but they want the preachers to abuse Sunday schools, Bible classes, and any other new thing, but don’t say anything about US -we’re all right(?) Well, what about that? Are you in favor of Sunday schools, etc.? NO! NO NO! strongly emphasized, and here’s my reason: It is unscriptural, and I oppose the other things mentioned for the same reason. Sometimes we find a church that wants the preacher to "land on" a salaried ministry, and "give it down the country," when that church is not even paying its pastor’s expenses to go and preach for them. "Well," you ask, "are you in favor of paying the preacher a salary?" No, because it is unscriptural to do so; and it is equally unscriptural for you to neglect to support your ministry as the Bible directs. One is just as guilty as the other. Both are wrong, because they fail to go by the directions or order of the New Testament. God loves an orderly house; and in order or us as His children to please Him, we must abide by the order which He has given. No man has any authority to change the order of God’s house. Why should we want to indulge in something that He forbids? Why should we want to leave off something that He has commanded? How can we claim to be in order and do either? If we leave off doing what our Master has commanded, how can we condemn those who bring in things unauthorized? Lord, pity! and give us courage to continue on a little longer in the Master’s kingdom. May we have courage to fight, and strength to win in every fight for the right. May we love one another. May we pray for one another, and ever regard the Old Church as being more precious to our hearts than all the things of this ungodly world. May each and every one who reads this, even after I am silenced by death, be moved to a stronger desire to abide by the plain commands of the Word of God, and be satisfied with it just as He gave it; not trying to go farther, nor stop this side of doing what He has ordered. May we ever be mindful of our responsibility, and our mutual interest in His kingdom-the greatest organization in the world. Let each and every one be glad to withdraw from all who walk disorderly. That is what our Lord said about it. We must forget persons and personalities and abide alone by what our Master has said for us to do, and not to do. Why should we desire to walk along with some one, and at the same time know that Jesus Christ would not walk with him? There are some things that He refused to countenance when He was here. He tells His Church to do as He did. And as we journey along here amidst the wickedness of this world, and in the environment of worldly mindedness, we must continue to seek for the good old way and walk therein. Refrain from modernism at the first sight. Be careful about letting new things take root, and be equally careful to do as your Lord commands. Follow Christ in everything! Live in peace. Strive for peace, and all the demons of hell can not keep your light from shining. How the Old Church would flourish if we would all abide in the commands of our Law-giver! We would have an orderly home in which to live, and it would surely be an inviting place for the poor, tired pilgrims who are tired and homeless, out in a cold, friendless world. May the light of our beloved Zion send her beams of light to such as are of a pure heart, and may they be guided to a place of refuge from the storms and perils of this life. May this dear home be a home free from men’s designs and orders, and one which is governed by love. May we by patient and untiring efforts help with the affairs and duties and responsibilities of our home, and always be willing to be children and realize that each occupant is an equality. There is no need for a "boss," but so much need for cooperation. May the grace of our Lord sustain each of you, is my prayer. Submitted in love for the kingdom of God. J. M. BULLARD. APOLOGY I feel that I should offer some apology at the close of this pamphlet. I confess that the work is very lightly touched, and realize that I shall be sorely criticised. I know the arrangement is imperfect. There are perhaps many grammatical errors, but I did not have literary excellency in mind. I am willing for the reader to criticise anywhere that criticism is due. But I beg you, kind reader, to consider the contents and measure it by the Word of God. I realize further that we have so many able writers who could have given the reader a much better idea on the subject. But "what I have written I have written." I shall be responsible for it. May I have an interest in your prayers. -J. M. B. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 117: THE PLACE OF PAIN IN THE PLAN OF GOD ======================================================================== THE PLACE OF PAIN IN THE PLAN OF GOD by Elder Michael Gowens "My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into diverse temptaions; knowing that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing."James 1:2-4 "Never morning wore to evening but some heart did break." It’s true, isn’t it. Ours is a world of pain. Broken dreams, the tragic loss of a child, a sudden disaster, unemployment, divorce, cancer, an illegitimate pregnancy, the death of one’s life companion, child abuse, bankruptcy, personal failure, loneliness, misunderstandingthese things intrude into our lives startling us with painful surprise like a blow in the solar plexus. The pain, most of the time, seems to us indescribably savage and brutal. It is an unwelcome thief, come to steal our joy and rob us of our peace. We hate it. We despise it. We will do anything, virtually anything, to get away from it. We have a right, we are told, to a pain-free existence. No one should have to suffer. We are living in the "aspirin age." It’s an era in which the pursuit of personal comfort and pleasure is the supreme good, and the temporary alleviation of discomfort is valued above the radical cure of the disease. Hedonism, this "Disneyland mentality," produces a kind of short-term approach to life, a "live-for-the-moment" perspective, that makes self-gratification the goal of existence. Modern western man, in other words, is soft and overly sensitive to pain. As he has lost the Biblical emphasis on God’s holiness and a personal sense of his own sins, he has come to expect VIP treatment from God all the time. He, in the words of J. I Packer, cherishes "shockingly strong illusions about having a right to expect from God health, wealth, ease, excitement, and sexual gratification." When he receives, on the contrary, pain, instead of pleasure, he reacts in bitterness toward the Almighty, takes an aspirin to block the pain, and proceeds in his own mad rush to pleasure and self-fulfillment. The cause of the pain is never discovered. That would require too much time and effort. He instead opts for the quick-fix; then it’s "back on the road again." To minds conditioned to think in pleasure-oriented terms, the words of James sound admittedly strange, maybe even convoluted and repugnant. James challenges his readers to welcome pain as a friend, rather than to resent it as an intruder: "Count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations." He then counsels them further that once they have welcomed suffering, they should resist the urge to cut the process short, to escape the pain: "But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing." Such advice goes cross-grain to our natural inclinations, doesn’t it? By nature, the initial reaction to pain is the desire to escape from it. No one likes to hurt. Personal discomfort is not pleasant. But James encourages the Christian to allow the process to continue to completion, not asking the question "How can I get out of this trouble?" but "What can I get out of this trouble?" On what basis would he advise a person to endure the pain? Was James some chirpy optimist, like Carlyle said of Emerson, who "standing well back out of the least touch of the spray, throws chatty observations on the beauty of the weather to a poor soul battling for his life in huge billows that are buffeting the breath and the life out of him, wrestling with mighty currents that keep sweeping him away?" Did James, like proponents of "mind over matter," suggest that pain was merely an illusion, a figment of the imagination? No. Rather James is a realist, a realist whose realism springs from faith in God. He did not deny the reality of pain and suffering. Real people who live in a real world have real problems. Neither did he minimize their troubles, attempting to convince these believers that suffering is pleasurable. It isn’t. But neither did he lose sight of the reality of God, the God who stands in back of our pain and uses it as His school of spiritual maturity. Undoubtedly, like James, the poet knew something of the spiritual benefit of suffering: I walked a mile with Pleasure. She chattered all the way, But left me none the wiser For all she had to say. I walked a mile with Sorrow, And ne’er a word said she; But, oh, the things I learned from her, When Sorrow walked with me! As foreign as it sounds to our comfortable culture, pain is beneficial. God uses it as a means to very valuable ends. Even in a strictly natural sense, pain is something positive. Pain is a human being’s natural defense mechanism against potentially harmful external stimuli. Pain is a God-given signal that danger is near. What would happen to a little child who touched a hot stove, for example, if he could feel no pain? The sensation of pain triggers a reaction that literally spares the child from serious personal harm, maybe even death. The pain of a scraped knee, fingers pinched in a door or cut by a knife, and a stumped toe all serve to promote caution and self-discipline in a child as he grows older. Head pain, muscle pain, joint pain, chest pain, and back pain are all signals of a more serious problem. The pain is intended to alert its victim to the unhealthy activity or harmful disease that is behind the pain so that steps can be taken to remove the stimulus. Even emotional pain is healthy. The pain of a failing grade is intended to help a child learn to complete his homework assignments. The pain of embarrassment and public exposure may halt a child’s bent to mischief. All forms of godly and biblical discipline operate on the principle that there is such a thing as "healthy pain." Used properly, it can produce beneficial changes. Maybe that’s what my seventh grade track coach meant at the completion of each lap, when he said with unmerciful sarcasm, "Hurt’s sooo good!" Though we are tempted to cry out "Lord, take away pain," we need to ask ourselves, would we want a world devoid of heroes? Were there no pain, there would be no hero rising from the desperation to triumph in faith. Would we want a world devoid of compassion? Were there no pain, there would be no pity that knit heart to heart in tender sympathy for the sufferer. Would we want a world without love? Were there no pain, there would be no need for self-sacrifice, the very essence of love. Would we want a world without hope? Were there no pain, there would be nothing better to hope for. Would we want a world without the cross of Christ? Were there no pain, there would be no need for the cross. Granted, heaven will be a world without pain, {Revelation 21:4-Ah! wonderful prospect!} but until sinful mortals are glorified, we cannot conceive of glory except in contrast to suffering. The pain of life, consequently, "with it’s solemn, unsmiling, and sometimes deeply-lined face, is a great servant of God" teaching us some of the most valuable lessons of life. God will not allow suffering in our lives to exceed His sovereign control, {1 Corinthians 10:13} but will use it to our good and His greater glory in several ways. God Uses Our Pain to Build Christlike Character James says a desire to endure rather than escape the trial produces spiritual maturity: "But let patience i.e. patient endurance have her perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire i.e. fully mature, wanting nothing." Paul teaches the identical truth inRomans 5:3-4: "And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also; knowing that tribulation worketh patience i.e. endurance or perseverance, and patience experience i.e. character, and experience hope." Grace, like the roots of a tree, grows best in the winter, albeit such character development is obscured from the observers gaze. Even so, the pressures of life provide an opportunity to persevere. In such patient endurance under pressure, the roots of Christian character strike an equivalent beneath the soil to the visible portions of the tree on the topside of the earth. As character develops, so does hope. The writer to the Hebrews explains this principle further in terms of the pain of Divine chastening: "If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure, but He for our profit that we might be partakers of His holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them who are exercised thereby." {Hebrews 12:7;Hebrews 12:10-11} Why would a parent cause pain to a child? Because the parent was cruel? No, on the contrary, because of love. Parents who really love their children discipline them, that is, they train them to grow up to duplicate the parents behavior. By the same token, the Father disciplines His children, both from a loving motive and in a loving manner, so that "we might be partakers of His holiness." The parent/child relationship is a discipling dynamic in which the parent not only tells the child what is expected but demonstrates the teaching by example, thus training the child to be like him. This is frequently a painful process, involving time, energy, ingenuity, exertion, sweat, tears, and correction. But the gain in the end is worth the pain: "... nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness" to those who submit to the lesson. Why does God permit His children to suffer pain? So that they might produce fruit: "Every branch in me that beareth fruit, He purgeth it that it might bring forth more fruit." {John 15:2} It is through the sufferings of our lives, the discipline of endurance (as well as through the other spiritual disciplines of Scripture intake, prayer, fasting, worship, etc.), that the Holy Spirit makes us into loving, joyful, peaceful, gentle, kind, faithful, self-controlled, and self-forgetful people. {Galatians 5:22} It is in the school of suffering that we learn, like our Savior learned, obedience. {Hebrews 5:8} In what sense did Jesus "learn obedience by the things that He suffered?" He learned both the practice and the cost of it. Even so, we learn the value of obedience to God, making it the priority of our lives, through our pain: "Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now have I kept Thy word...It is good for me that I might be afflicted that I might learn Thy statutes." {Psalms 119:37;Psalms 119:71} I maintain that the heart of every compassionate person was forged in the furnace of pain. Those who live without great pain are strangers to empathy, kindness, patience, and understanding. The "Greathearts" in Christ’s kingdom were once in the ranks of the walking wounded whom they now serve. Perhaps A. W. Tozer had this in mind when he wrote, "I seriously doubt that God will ever use anyone greatly, until He has allowed that person to be hurt deeply." Pain produces character. Pain Reminds Us of Our Weakness & His Strength Someone once said, "Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity." Paul knew this fact firsthand: "Because of the abundance of revelations, there was given unto me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure" {2 Corinthians 12:7} ff. That Paul was in some kind of pain (probably physical pain by virtue of the use of the word "flesh") is evident by the metaphor he selects- "a thorn in the flesh." If you were to ask Paul, "What does it feel like?," he would have responded, "Like a sharp thorn in my body." What did Paul do about it? He prayed, not once, nor twice, but three times, that God would remove the pain. Did God remove the pain? No, but He gave Paul "grace sufficient" to bear his infirmity. Paul says, "His strength is made perfect in my weakness...I will most gladly therefore glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me." Paul’s pain taught him his own weakness. Strange, isn’t it, that we need to learn and be reminded of our own frailty: "Lord, teach me to know my end, the measure of my days, that I may know how frail I am." {Psalms 39:4} That’s an appropriate prayer. Why is it important to remember our own weakness? Because it is only in our weakness that God will demonstrate His strength. Paul’s pain was an opportunity for God to exhibit His power. Every time that He sustains someone under the burdens of grief, physical illness, family strife, financial reversal, or persecution, the cause of Christ is advanced. It was in terms of the promotion of Christ’s gospel that Paul viewed his own sufferings and imprisonments: "Therefore I endure all things for the elect’s sake, that they may also obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory;" {2 Timothy 2:10} "But I would that ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel..."{Php 1:12-13} As others watch us under trial, they deduce either that Christ and His power to sustain is real, or that He is not, depending on how we react to our pain. God seeks, through pain, to wean us from the tendency to cling to the earth, to seek our all in Him. One by one He took them from me All the things I valued most, Til I was empty-handed, Every glittering toy was lost. And I walked earth’s highways, grieving, In my rags and poverty; Until I heard His voice inviting, ‘Lift those empty hands to Me.’ Then I turned my hands toward heaven, And He filled them with a store Of His own transcendent riches Til they could contain no more. And at last I comprehended With my stupid mind, and dull, That God cannot pour His riches Into hands already full. Pain Prepares Us to Minister to Others In His providence, God frequently either brings or allows pain to touch His children, not only to correct yesterday’s errors, but to prepare for tomorrow’s role of ministry. Experience equips suffering saints to enter into the sufferings of others in a way that others of us cannot enter.2 Corinthians 1:3says, "God comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort others which are in any trouble, with the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God." Those who have passed down the valley of suffering themselves command a right to be heard by those who are presently there. Pain Drives Us to Seek Relief As painful as it is to experience physical infirmity, financial collapse, social ostracization, or interpersonal conflict, perhaps the most acute kind of pain is the pain of a guilty conscience. To sense your own failure, the embarrassment of a public fall -to know to some degree that you disappointed those who trusted you and seriously impaired your credibility with them -to feel the weight of guilt before God and the awareness that you have despised his goodness and mercy to you through your blatant sin- the pain of this experience is unparalleled. David describes it inPsalms 32:1-11: "When I kept silence my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture lit. vitality is turned into the drought of summer." {Psalms 32:3-4} Aching bones, a sense of heaviness every moment of the day, a lack of energy and sense of general fatigue- these are the kinds of things a guilty conscience feels. How should we react to such pain? We should allow it to drive us to the throne of grace in confession and repentance: "I acknowledged my sin unto thee...and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin...Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble..."{Psalms 32:5;Psalms 32:7} Notice the change of tone after verse five. Repentance brings wonderful relief. Many people attempt to rationalize sin, or pretend that they did nothing wrong, or shift the blame on to someone else. Modern psychiatry frequently suggests that guilt is not good, that this kind of pain is harmful. It is only harmful if you do not heed the warning. Pain of conscience is God’s alarm signaling that you have broken His law. There is only one thing for you to do when you feel such inward pain. In the same way that physical pain drives the sufferer to seek relief, let the pain of a convicted conscience drive you to admit your sin and apply for forgiveness through the blood of Christ. You will find unspeakable peace in His mercy. Pain Makes Us Appreciate Heaven Romans 5:3says that tribulation leads to patience, which leads to experience, which issues in hope. Paul’s point is that the pain of life here enhances our desire for the life hereafter. Suffering has a way of helping us to see the transitory nature of earthly things, and the converse weightiness of eternal glory: "For our light affliction worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory while we look not at the things that are seen but at the things which are not seen..."{2 Corinthians 4:18} Pain helps us to learn to live in the light of eternity, drawing present comfort from our hope of glory. Pain sharpens one’s sense of the reality of heaven and the preciousness of living with Christ forever. The whole creation is pictured inRomans 8:22as "travailing in pain, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our bodies." Travail is the pain of labor. Labor pain is a different kind of pain. It is a pain that is bearable because of the expectation that something good will come from the pain. Labor pain is the pain of expectation. Likewise, the believer suffers severely here, but he focuses on the glorious day of Christ’s return, and consequently, is able to bear the pain in hope. What basis do we have for hope? Is hope just a pipe dream, mere wishful thinking? No, says Paul, "and hope maketh not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us." {Romans 5:5} The believer is not ashamed to look through his pain to a brighter day in the future, regardless of the hecklers and mockers who ridicule his faith. He is not ashamed because God has given him a witness within, a confirmation through the Spirit that he is loved by God, and that confidence that he is loved, despite the pain he must endure now, gives him the strength to persevere until the end. One hymnwriter put it like this: "Our troubles and our trials here will only make us richer there." Another said, "Just one glimpse of Him in glory will all the toils of life repay." I can’t wait. Can you? Summary When Jesus came to this earth, he was moved with compassion at the pain and suffering he saw. He eased that suffering by healing the sick, cleansing the lepers, unstopping deaf ears, opening blind eyes, strengthening impotent limbs, and raising the dead to life. But his primary mission was not to alleviate pain. He came to do away with the cause as well as the symptom. At the cross, he suffered the most excruciating kind of pain man or angel has ever known, the pain of separation from God, because of our sin. Through that pain, he conquered and removed our sin. Hence, the day is coming when God will forever shut the doors to His school of pain. But until then, He uses it to educate His children in holiness. In a sermon entitled "Wearing the Thorns as a Crown," James S. Stewart summarized the proper reaction to pain in the following terms. May we all learn to think this clearly about our pain: "No, God knows best; and the true Christian reaction to suffering and sorrow is not the attitude of self-pity or fatalism or resentment; it is the spirit which takes life’s difficulties as a God-given opportunity, and regards its troubles as a sacred trust, and wears the thorns as a crown." Do you have any thorns? Wear them as a crown to the glory of the One who did the same for you. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 118: THE PURPOSE OF THE GOSPEL ======================================================================== THE PURPOSE OF THE GOSPEL If the gospel is not the means God uses in regeneration, what is the purpose of the Gospel? I offer for the reader’s consideration the following answer. 1. The Gospel Delivers the Believer from the Practice of Sin. Romans 1:16calls the gospel "the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth." It is the power of God. God uses it to transform the thinking and the behavior of His people. {Romans 12:2} The Holy Spirit applies it as a means of spiritual growth into Christ’s likeness: "But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into Him in all things, who is the Head, even Christ." {Ephesians 4:15} In what specific terms does the gospel deliver the believer?Acts 26:18suggests at least five ways. First, it delivers them from ignorance to understanding- "To open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light." {Romans 1:18} (a) Secondly, it delivers them from Satan’s power, that is, from his strangle-hold upon their lives "and from the power of Satan unto God." {Romans 1:18} (b) The individual who comes to gospel understanding has a resource in the truth that equips him to "stand against the wiles of the devil," {Ephesians 6:10} to "resist the devil," {James 4:7;1 Peter 5:9} and to "overcome the devil." {Revelation 12:10} Thirdly, it delivers them from the pressing bondage of guilt- "that they may receive forgiveness of sins" {Romans 1:18} c. It brings a peace to the heart and the conscience that nothing else can provide. This peace of conscience, this justification by faith, {Romans 5:1} such as the Publican received inLuke 18:1-43, may very well be the dominant utility of the gospel. Fourthly, it delivers them from a life of lonely selfishness into the warmth of Christian fellowship with other believers- "that they may receive an inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith" {Romans 1:18} {d} Fifthly, it delivers them from spiritual immaturity to a life of growth and progressive conformity to the image of Christ -"sanctified by faith that is in me" {Romans 1:18} c. The gospel is spiritual food for the believer’s growth. {1 Peter 2:2} God, through the gospel, can transform attitudes, mend broken relationships, encourage the downcast, comfort the bereaved, strengthen the weak, and change the lives of those who hear. The gospel is heaven’s powerful resource for living the Christian life. 2. The Gospel Informs the Mind and Instructs the Understanding: It’s purpose is to illumine: {Psalms 119:130} "The entrance of thy words give light; it giveth understanding to the simple."2 Timothy 1:10says that the gospel brings "life and immortality to light." Note it does not give "life and immortality" but it brings it to "light," that is, to manifestation. It is God’s means of imparting knowledge, guidance, and counsel to His people. {Jeremiah 3:15;Psalms 25:5;Psalms 119:24} 3. The Gospel is the Instrument of Conversion. 1 Corinthians 4:15says, "For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel." Paul was the father of the Corinthians in the same sense that Timothy and Titus were described as "his sons in the faith." {1 Timothy 1:2;Titus 1:4} He was, in other words, instrumental in bringing them to a knowledge of the truth and in their early spiritual development. They came to gospel understanding under his ministry. The ministry is like parenting {1 Thessalonians 2:7;1 Thessalonians 2:11} in this sense. God uses his word to change a person’s mind. {Psalms 119:25} That is conversion. 4. The Gospel is God ‘s Means of Giving Hope, Joy, and Peace to the Soul. What good does it do to believe the gospel?Romans 15:13says, "Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost." Joy, peace, and hope come through believing. 5. The Gospel is God ‘s Means of Nourishing the Inner Man. Three times Jesus commanded Peter to "feed my sheep." The chief business of the pastor to the flock is to preach the word unto them. "Feed the flock of God which is among you," urged Peter. {1 Peter 5:1} Paul said, "Feed the church of God which He bath purchased with His own blood." {Acts 20:28} The gospel is food for the hungry soul, the bread of life, the means by which believers "taste the good word of God." {Hebrews 6:3} 6. The Gospel Liberates the Believer from the Oppressive Yoke of Legalism. Jesus said, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free..."{John 8:32} The proclamation of God’s grace to sinners in Jesus Christ has an emancipating effect on the heart. Jesus is the ultimate Liberator. {Galatians 5:1} 7. The Gospel Heralds and Proclaims Christ’s Finished Work. In2 Corinthians 5:18-20, Paul distinguishes between the "work of reconciliation" and the "word or ministry of reconciliation." The work of reconciliation has already been accomplished. It is finished. {John 19:30} It is an objective fact. The gospel is the report of that fact, the publication of redemption accomplished and applied: "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that publisheth peace, that publisheth salvation, that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth." {Isaiah 52:7} The Gospel is the victory cry of a successful Savior. 8. The Gospel Urges Men to Turn from Idolatry and to Worship the True God. The Thessalonians responded to Paul’s preaching by "turning to God from idols to serve the living and the true God." {1 Thessalonians 1:9} The call to repentance is inherent in the gospel message. The gospel not only proclaims Christ’s finished work, but calls upon the hearer to respond to that message by believing it, obeying it, and committing himself to a life of godliness, out of gratitude for God’s grace. The gospel summons men to a life of good works, not in order to gain salvation, but in order to glorify the God of our salvation. The relationship that exists between God’s immediate and effectual work in regeneration, and man’s subsequent responsibility to believe and obey the gospel, is said by the poet better than I could say it: I will not work my soul to save, For this my Lord has done; But I will work like any slave, For love of God’s dear Son. That, dear reader, is the message of sovereign grace! ======================================================================== CHAPTER 119: THE QUEST FOR THE HISTORICAL JESUS ======================================================================== THE QUEST FOR THE HISTORICAL JESUS by Elder Michael L. Gowens “ Every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.”1 John 4:3 Does it really matter what a person thinks about Jesus? Yes, it does. In fact, whether or not Jesus is the Son of God is a truth that changes everything. Talk show host Larry King understands the significance of the issue. When Barbara Walters asked, “If you could interview anyone in history, who would it be?”, King spoke with unguarded honesty. “Jesus of Nazareth,” he replied. Her next question was, “If you could ask him one question, what would it be?” After a brief pause, he responded, “I think I would like to ask him, ‘Were you truly virgin born?’, because if he was, that would change everything.” It wasn’t long after his earthly history before skeptics began to reconfigure the facts about Jesus. By the end of the first century, a new Christology called Docetism-a view that denied the human nature of Jesus Christ on the basis of the belief that matter is evil-threatened the integrity of historical Christianity. It is interesting to note that the heresies that troubled the Christian church during the first four centuries were primarily “Christological”departures (i.e. ideas about the Person and Work of Jesus Christ that were inconsistent with God’s special revelation in Scripture). Docetism, a teaching promoted by Marcion and the Gnostics, was contemporaneous to John’s first epistle. The Docetists said that the body of Jesus was a “phantom”body merely giving the appearance of human nature. It is likely that John has this particular doctrinal deviation in mind when he writes, “Every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God.” Others attempted to separate the human from the divine nature of Jesus, asserting that the “Christ spirit”came on Jesus at his baptism, but left him at the cross. Most modern revisions of the Doctrine of Christ {2 John 1:13} affirm his human nature but deny his divine nature, but as the influence of Eastern religions becomes more prominent in the West, the trend to once again define “Christ”in the mystical terms of a “Christ consciousness”or a “Christ spirit”is once again gaining momentum. This kind of language is, at its root, a duplication of the Docetist idea that “Jesus Christ is not come in the flesh.” What Think Ye of Christ? Several months ago, a local newspaper ran a syndicated article about the historicity of Jesus. The article led with the question, "Is Jesus the embodiment of God and the key to the world’s salvation-or was he merely one of many wise human teachers?"[i] The writer quotes Marcus Borg, a professor at Oregon State University, who defines the debate that rages within ‘Christian’ circles in alarming terms: What’s at stake is both the nature of the Bible and the future of Christianity. Two very different understandings of Christianity are emerging. One is associated with the more conservative wing of Christianity and stresses that Christianity is about believing: believing in the Bible...and believing that Jesus died for our sins and rose from the dead...But the newer understanding that’s emerging stresses what’s really important is entering into a relationship with God and following the spirit of Jesus’ teachings. It’s about realizing that our understanding of the Bible is still developing. And it may lead people beyond a conventional belief in Jesus. [ii] The author proceeds to say: Liberal scholars, such as Borg, believe there are many factual errors in the gospel stories because they were written decades after Jesus’ death by writers who were convinced that Jesus was God’s son. Many details probably were revised to portray Jesus that way, these scholars argue. For example, Borg claims that it is unlikely that Jesus’ body actually rose from the dead. Other ancient literature shows that most people living around Jerusalem at the time of Jesus’ death did not believe in bodily resurrection. The biblical accounts of Jesus’ body disappearing from a tomb on Easter morning probably were intended as metaphors to show that Jesus’ spirit continued to exist after his death, Borg said.[iii] Further reference is made to New Jersey Episcopal Bishop John Spong’s new book Why Christianity Must Change or Die. He contends that it is unlikely that Jesus body was physically resurrected. Spong refers to Jesus as a spirit person: a human being with a deep sense of God guiding his life. Spong writes, This is a time when we need to offer people a chance to think about Jesus in new and different ways...Jesus differs from us as humans not in kind, but in the degree of the presence of God in his life. Jesus is essential to my Christian spirituality, but I can’t say Jesus is the only way that God reaches people. [iv] The Jesus Seminar One would naturally expect this kind of skepticism from the secular world, but, sadly, these attempts to redefine Jesus by deconstructing Biblical authority have come from within the professing ‘Christian’ community. Perhaps the most organized attempt to reinterpret orthodox Christianity has come from a group of seventy-four New Testament ‘scholars’ known as the Jesus Seminar. The Jesus Seminar is the modern form, within liberal theological circles, of a two-hundred year old quest to redefine Christianity. With the advent of the scientific revolution, many religious leaders took great pangs to reconcile the Bible with new knowledge and modern science became the supreme authority. Assaults on the integrity of the Bible were in vogue. Higher Criticism emerged within scholastic circles as a school of thought that presumed to sit in judgment on the truthfulness of Scriptures historical claims. Rudolph Bultmann, one of the leading scholars of Form Criticism in this century (he died in 1976 at age 92), utterly rejected the possibility of miracles. He stated, It is impossible to use electric light and the wireless and to avail ourselves of modern medical and surgical discoveries, and at the same time to believe in the New Testament world of spirits and miracles. [v] Operating from the anti-supernatural bias that science has proved that miracles cannot occur, Bultmann believed that we must treat science as our only source of knowledge about the external world. The purpose of the Bible, according to him, was to give people a new self-understanding. He claimed that we can know little about Jesus beyond the basic fact that he once lived. Like Bultmann, the Fellows of the Jesus Seminar reject the Gospel references to the supernatural out-of-hand. They claim that the Jesus depicted in the Gospels is a fictitious figure fabricated by overly zealous disciples-an embellishment of the real Jesus. Of course, to sustain this premise, they must argue that the Gospel narratives are not credible-that they are fraught with exaggerations and legends-and that is precisely the claim they make. The Seminar states that "Eighty-two percent of the words ascribed to Jesus in the Gospels were not actually spoken by him."[vi] To support the presumption, the Seminar introduces a fifth Gospel, and it dates this apocryphal Gospel of Thomas, an essentially Gnostic codex discovered just after World War II at Nag Hammadi in Egypt,[vii] prior to the canonical Gospels. But there is compelling data to verify that Matthew, Mark, and Luke were composed within thirty years of the crucifixion of Jesus and that the Gospel of Thomas could not have been written earlier than A.D. 150. [viii] Instead of the incredible scenario that the Gospel writers borrowed from Thomas, as the Seminar Fellows suggest, it is more likely that the Gospel of Thomas took material from the canonical Gospels and edited it to fit Gnostic teaching. The Jesus depicted in the Gospel of Thomas is a wise sage offering ambiguous insights about non-resistance and neighbor love, but making no claims to Deity and working no miracles. He is essentially a great man, but not God manifest in the flesh. Robert Funk, founder of the Jesus Seminar, says, Jesus was a secular sage who satirized the pious and championed the poorJesus was perhaps the first stand-up Jewish comic. Starting a new religion would have been the farthest thing from his mind. It seems incredible, however, that the insipid Jesus of the Jesus Seminar would have engendered the strong opposition that eventually led to his crucifixion. The bottom line is that the Jesus Seminar argues from the "stacked deck" of philosophical naturalism instead of demonstrating historical objectivity. But historicity must be determined by the reliability of the evidence, not by what a person thinks is possible or likely. [ix] Christ of Faith or Jesus of History? The Jesus Seminar insists that a distinction must be made between “the Christ of faith”and “the Jesus of History.” They contend that the historical Jesus was simply a peasant sage, not the second Person of the Trinity. Because these professors believe that science has discredited belief in the supernatural world of miracles like the virgin birth and the bodily resurrection of Christ, they argue that the facts make very little difference. What really matters is an experience with Christ, not the historical details. Their emphasis is mystical-focusing on the spiritual and metaphorical significance of Jesus’ life-instead of classical-deducing theological significance from historical fact. Marcus Borg, for example, explains the resurrection appearances of Jesus as metaphors that signify the continuing presence of Jesus in the lives of his followers.[x] Such a blanket dismissal of historical facts in favor of the spiritual interpretation is frighteningly similar to ancient Gnosticism. The Gnostics (from the Greek gnosis, meaning knowledge) believed that matter is evil and only spirit is good. They denied the deity of Jesus Christ for they could not conceive of God assuming a physical body. To them, Jesus was simply one of many emanations from God, but not God manifest in the flesh. Further, they defined salvation in terms of liberation from the physical realm through special spiritual experiences. The knowledge and insight given to them during these spiritual experiences made them, they believed, spiritually superior to those whose knowledge was limited to what could be gained from Scripture alone. Anything with form and structure that appealed to the mind, e. g. verbal revelation in Scripture, was deemed sub-spiritual. The heart and emotions took precedence over the intellect. Experience, not God’s word, became the litmus test of truth. In the Introduction to his History of the Church of God, Sylvester Hassell identifies Gnosticism (with Judaism) as one of the two formidable threats to Christianity in the early church. [xi] The letter to the Colossians and the epistle of First John are direct apologetic thrusts at this dangerous heresy. In his first epistle, John applies a doctrinal test to Christian profession: Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world. {1 John 4:2-3} The test is simply this: Does a particular teacher say the same thing i.e. confess about Jesus Christ that God says about Jesus Christ?1 Corinthians 12:3teaches that the Spirit of God always glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ; {cf.John 15:26;John 16:13-14} therefore, no one whose teaching is inconsistent with the word of God is actuated by the Holy Spirit. Simply put, John asserts that any teaching that confesses the reality of the Incarnation and the two natures of Christ subsisting in one person is from God. Any teaching that denies this basic and fundamental truth is the spirit of antichrist. What does a person say about Jesus? This doctrinal test is crucial to authentic Christianity. The identity of Jesus is the most basic principle of the Christian faith-the bedrock of the church. {Matthew 16:13-18} Where the answer given to that question is a departure from the word of God, a person has no right to claim to be a Christian. What Do Men Say? "Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?" Public opinion in the first century concerning Jesus of Nazareth was varied. Some people said that he was John the Baptist; others, that he was Jeremiah, Elijah, or one of the prophets. There was little public consensus about his true identity. Some things never change. Even today, public opinion polls are unreliable barometers of truth. Two millennia later, misconceptions about the identity, the teaching, and the activity of Jesus still exist. Modern man is still skeptical about this most intriguing historical figure. He is willing to allow that Jesus was a sage, especially gifted with wisdom and kindnessone of historys great teachersor that he was a charismatic leader with ambitions to lead a revolution against Rome, or even a religious genius. But was he God? Such a claim sounds offensive to scientific minds. What Do You Say? Indeed, public opinion has always been sketchy and inconclusive about the true identity of Jesus. The ultimate issue, however, is not "Whom do men say that I am" but "Whom say ye that I am?" Peter knew that Jesus was indeed a wise, deeply spiritual, teacher who said things that had significant social and political implications, but he also knew that Jesus was more than that. He replied, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. {Matthew 16:16} Like Peter, true Christians are people who acknowledge both that the Jesus of History is the Christ of Faith and that the Christ of Faith is the Jesus of History. They identify the historical figure named Jesus as the Christ of God because he is the only key in all the universe that fits the infinitely complicated lock of Messianic prophecy. [xii] They are people who know that the Jesus who once lived still lives, and that His bodily resurrection from the dead is the ultimate proof that He was the Son of God. {Romans 1:4} They are people who believe that there is compelling evidence for the reliability of the Gospels and that the four evangelists present a harmonious and historically accurate account of Jesus. The Jesus depicted in these Divinely-inspired narratives still ministers to His people from His heavenly throne. They know that the Man of sorrows can still be touched with the feeling of our infirmities in His ascended glory, {Isaiah 53:2;Hebrews 4:15} that the Man that executed Gods counsels is today the one mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus. {Isaiah 46:11;1 Timothy 2:5} The Jesus of history is our Man in heaven.. The identity of Jesus of Nazareth as the only begotten Son of God is the watershed issuethe line of demarcationthe Great Divide between Christianity and Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Unitariansim, Secularism, and every other worldview. It is one of the great non-negotiables of our faith {1 Timothy 3:16} a. It is an issue about which the church cannot afford to give any latitude. It is not open for debate. Charles Lamb was once involved in a discussion of the question, Who is the greatest literary genius of all time? Two names emergedWilliam Shakespeare and Jesus of Nazareth. Lamb put an end to the debate when he said, Ill tell you the difference between these two men. If Shakespeare walked into this room right now, we would all rise to greet him, but if Christ came in, we would all fall down and worship. Larry King was correct. If the account of the virgin birth and the bodily resurrection of Jesus is true, then it changes everything. It means that He was more than a man; consequently, His words are absolutely authoritative. It means that what He said about life and death, God and the devil, sin and salvation, and heaven and hell is true. It means that history has significance and that life has purpose. It does matter what a person thinks about Jesus. What will you do with Jesus? Will you dismiss him as an optical illusion, reinvent him in terms you can live with, or fall down before him and believingly confess with Thomas, My Lord and My God? [i] Lexington Herald Leader, July 3,1999, Section C, pp. 7,10. [ii] Ibid. [iii] Ibid. [iv] Ibid. [v] Quoted in The Historical Jesus: Ancient Evidence for the Life of Christ, Gary R. Habermas, p. 123. [vi] Habermas, p. 122. [vii] Jesus Under Fire: Modern Scholarship Reinvents the Historical Jesus, Michael J. Wilkins & J. P. Moreland, p. 23. [viii] Ibid., pp. 23, 29. [ix] Ibid., p. 5. [x] Habermas, p. 136. [xi] History of the Church of God, C. B. & S. Hassell, p. 7. [xii] Ibid., p. 180. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 120: THE RULE ======================================================================== THE RULE Recorded in the minutes of nearly every Primitive Baptist Church and every Primitive Baptist Association will be an article of faith stating the following truth, “We believe that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testatments are the inspired word of God and the only rule of faith and practice.” The members of the church must acknowledge the rule of scriputure and should always desire to know the teaching of scripture and to live in harmony with the practical aspects of the scripture. Let us now notice some scriptures that mention the word, “rule”: Hebrews 13:7“Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation.” Hebrews 13:17“Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.” Hebrews 13:24“Salute all them that have the rule over you, and all the saints...” In addition to these three verses from the same chapter in Hebrews, there are a few other quotations that we should consider: Php 3:16“Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.” Galatians 6:15“And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.” 2 Corinthians 10:13“But we will not boast of things without our measure, but according to the measure of the rule which God hath distributed to us, a measure to reach even unto you.” 1 Timothy 5:17“Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labor in the word and doctrine.” I do ask the readers to keep these verses mentioned above in mind as they read the comments that follow. First, consider the word, rule, in relationship with a straight line, for a measuring rule such as yardstick or footruler. The scriptures are the final authority for what the church is to believe and practice. The preacher is to hold the rule over the church only as he upholds the teachings of scripture. He never has the liberty to make up his own rules or put forward his own ideas. The preacher must be sure that his teachings measure exactly with what the Bible says. The members of the church are to obey them (the preachers) that have the rule (the scriptures) over them. The power is not in the preacher but in the inspiration of the scriptures. The preacher, himself, is under the same rule as the members. This is a point that needs to be carefully noted. Too many of the Lord’s people are ready to heap honour upon the preacher without any regard to measuring him as to whether he has labored in the “word and doctrine.” A minister is to be honoured only in relationship to his faithfulness in holding forth the scriptures which feature the principles of doctrinal truth and practical living. The minister is also subject to being measured, not only by the congregation, but also by the Lord. The minister is measured as one who must give account of his watching over the souls of those who are under his oversight. {Re-readHebrews 13:17, to see this connection.} However, there are some big unanswered questions. There are hundreds of different religious groups that claim the Bible to be their “only rule of faith and practice.” These different religious groups have a great variety of doctrinal views and practices. Is it possible that the Bible really upholds all these differing and conflicting views of doctrine and practice? The way to answer these questions is to do some measuring with the “straight-edge” and to really find out how the “yardstick” and the “footruler” are used. Read the scriptures carefully and let the scriptures be their own interpreters. It is my humble prayer that every reader will study the scriptures memtioned in this article and regard them as everyone should. I will adopt the language of the inspired Apostle Paul as my closing thought (and pray that it may be fulfilled in every reader)---2 Timothy 2:7, “Consider what I say, and the Lord give thee understanding in all things.” ======================================================================== CHAPTER 121: THE WITNESS OF A STABLE LIFE ======================================================================== THE WITNESS OF A STABLE LIFE by Elder Michael Gowens "Let your moderation be known to all men. The Lord is at hand."Php 4:5 Whether we realize it or not, the unbelieving world around us forms its opinion of our Lord based on what it sees in us. The believer’s behavior, language, and general attitude conveys a message to the watching world that is either consistent or inconsistent with his claim to follow Jesus Christ. Witnessing, in other words, is a matter of the walk as well as the talk. Consistent discipleship, in the warp and woof of daily life, is a powerful testimony to the world that the Lord Jesus Christ is real and that He has the ability to bring order and stability to life. Silent, or perhaps I should say ‘non-verbal’,witnessing also takes another form. The Christian also witnesses to the world by the manner in which he reacts to problems and difficulties in his life. Others watch us to see if our God is sufficient to sustain us in the midst of affliction. The king asked "Daniel, O Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God, whom thou servest continually, able to deliver thee from the lions?" {Daniel 6:20} Again, whether we realize it or not, the way that we respond to troubles suggests an unmistakable answer to this question in the minds of those who observe us. If we react in swoons of depression and anxiety, the concept of a personal God degenerates in the minds of the onlookers (albeit, imperceptibly) into a religious abstraction. If we respond in spiritual stability and triumphant faith, the skeptic is now forced to deal with a kind of realism, at least at an intellectual level, that is quite inexplicable to him. Whatever our response, we cannot escape the fact that the attitudes we manifest, the deportment we exhibit, and the words we communicate in times of crisis send a silent message to those outside the Christian community concerning the credibility of our faith. The question "How should a believer respond when he encounters difficulties?" is the implied question inPhp 4:1-9. Paul answers that he should "stand fast." {Php 4:1} He should be joyful, not depressed, {Php 4:4} prayerful, not anxious, {Php 4:6} thankful, not resentful, {Php 4:6} and obedient, not rebellious. {Php 4:9} In a word, he should demonstrate "moderation." {Php 4:5} I must admit that initially, I thought verse five was out of place in the context: "Let your moderation be known to all men. The Lord is at hand." It seemed to be disconnected and remote from the flow of thought in the passage. I have since come to see that this verse is crucial to the synthesizing of the context. I suggest that rather than being "out of place," it is the key verse in the passage, the hinge on which the whole thought turns. Paul is concerned to teach the Philippians that their response to problems, whether in stability or defeat, is a demonstration of their faith to the world: "Let your moderation be known to all men." What does he mean by "moderation?" The Greek word expresses more than any single English word will convey. For that reason, commentators and linguistic scholars differ widely on the correct interpretation. Some suggest it means "forbearance." Others say it means "gentleness." Still others say, "humility, magnanimity, sweet reasonableness, graciousness, tolerance, contentment, kindness, meekness" or some other concept. May I suggest that the word really describes a dynamic, not a single concept. It expresses at least three distinct thoughts that, when put together as a unit, form a dynamic of responding to problems in a manner that will witness to others of the sufficiency of God’s grace in Jesus Christ. BALANCE & STABILITY: The word "moderation" speaks, first, of spiritual balance and stability, like a "moderator" brings balance to two opposing sides in a discussion. "Let people see you respond to your problems," Paul means, "even those that blindside you, with spiritual stability. Keep your spiritual equilibrium by trusting your adequate God. Don’t give in to despair or the nervous fear of anxiety." Spiritual stability is the ability to maintain calm inner peace and composure, regardless of circumstances, to resist becoming overwhelmed by stress, and to rise above feelings. How one responds to problems, be they daily tribulations, worldly enticements, Satan’s temptations, financial pressures, debilitating illnesses, or unpleasant persecutions, is a testimony to others. SELF-CONTROL: Not only does the word refer to balance, but a balance that demonstrates itself in the ability to control oneself. "Moderation" means self-control or self-restraint. What is the natural tendency when one is blindsided by trouble? How would you be prone to react if someone said something harsh and unkind to you? The most natural reaction is to demand one’s own rights, to assert oneself, to defend oneself. Most people "fly off the handle," or "fall to pieces," or "blow up," or "lose control." The verbal assault bruises the ego. The victim feels violated, hurt, and offended. He may either retreat within himself and nurse his wounds in self-pity, or he may retaliate in an agressive display of self-will and self-protection. The Christian, on the contrary, must demonstrate self-control, not self-assertiveness. He must respond in self-forgetfulness, not self-interest and self-absorption, for self-denial is the essence of discipleship. {Matthew 16:24} Self-denial, the ability to say "no" to self, is the product of self-control. Concerning self-control, Solomon said, "He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down, without walls" {Proverbs 25:28} and "He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city." {Proverbs 16:32} The believer does not have to be victimized by his emotions. He does not have to give into his natural proclivity to self-pity, or self-defense, or self-justification. He demonstrates spiritual stability by restraining these emotions. MAGNANIMITY: Thirdly, the word "moderation" suggests magnanimity, big heartedness, and gracious forbearance. In other words, moderation is a matter of responding to problems, not in self-interest, but in humility that rises above the insult or injury and demonstrates graciousness and kindness to the offender. The Christian should demonstrate strength under control, such strength that he is able to actually "bless them that curse him and pray for them that despitefully use him." The individual who can respond with such selfless magnanimity and such humble graciousness to conflict is a powerful testimony to the world of the stabilizing power of Christ in the lives of those who put their trust in Him. Synthesizing all three thoughts, Paul’s imperative, "Let your moderation be known to all men," means, "Witness to the world the sufficiency of your God by maintaining your spiritual balance in adversity, through an attitude of graciousness and humility, not self-will." That is spiritual stability. Someone wonders, "How is such stability developed? How can I learn to respond to problems in this way?" By praying about everything that worries you, {Php 4:6} filling your mind with the objective truths of God’s word instead of the subjective fancies of emotion, {Php 4:8} and living in obedience to the truth that you know even though you may not have all the answers. {Php 4:9} In a word, stability is a matter of faith, and faith is essentially "God-centered thinking." Spiritual stability is a product of the way one thinks about God. "Rejoice" in your God, Paul commands. {Php 4:4} "Think on things that are true, just, lovely, and virtuous" {Php 4:8} by immersing your mind in the word of God. {Psalms 1:1-3} "But," someone else objects, "if I refuse to assert my own will and defend my own rights, then others will take advantage of me. I don’t have the strength to stand firm." Paul answers, "The Lord is at hand." He is near. Remembering that simple but profound fact is both the incentive to trust Him and the means by which the believer will be equipped to stand fast. What will be the result when the believer responds to problems in Christian moderation? In his own heart, God’s peace will abide. {Php 4:7} In the world, the name of Jesus Christ will be glorified through the unique and unconventional example of one who dared to trust God and obey His word and found Him sufficient to sustain him in times of trial. "Almighty God, forgive us for our little faith, our selfish concern, and our ambivalent hearts. We thank Thee for Thy sufficient grace which is able to make us stand. Help us to grow in understanding of who Thou art, and to develop such a close walk with Thee that we will become spiritually stable, unmoved by error, persecution, or tribulation. And so, use us as witnesses to the watching world whereby others will be encouraged to lean on Thee and honor Thy name. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we make our prayer, Amen." ======================================================================== CHAPTER 122: THE WORK OF THE TRINITY ======================================================================== THE WORK OF THE TRINITY IN THE SALVATION OF SINNERS "But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father."Galatians 4:4-6 The Bible, because it is the word of the eternal, righteous, and immutable God, never contradicts itself. When properly understood, there is an amazing symmetry and consistency in the historical facts it cites, the ethical standards it upholds, and the theological truths it champions. Whenever an apparent contradiction occurs, the disharmony is not in God’s book, but in man’s mind. The interpreter’s challenge, consequently, is essentially a matter of synthesizing each verse with its immediate context, then with the particular book in which it appears, then with the other inspired writing of that same human author, and finally, with the many other claims the Bible makes as a whole. He does this by comparing scripture with scripture. When a level of consistency is achieved so that the truths fit together in a unified way, like the many pieces of jigsaw puzzle go together to form a big picture, then he can be reasonably certain that his view is correct. Admittedly, accurate interpretation is not easy. But neither is it impossible. Divine help notwithstanding, the more you know- the better grasp you have of the big picture-the easier it will be to understand how all the theological pieces fit together. Remember, the goal is to understand every truth in the light of every other truth so that a kind of theological unity, consistency, harmony, and symmetry prevails. With that premise, I proceed to state a hypothesis which I will then endeavor to prove: The Biblical doctrine of the Trinity makes the doctrines of unconditional election, particular redemption, irresistible grace, and eternal security a necessity. In other words, "the doctrine of grace" is the only theology of salvation that is consistent with the revealed truth that God is triune. That’s my hypothesis. Let’s attempt to establish it Scripturally. God is Tripersonal Scripture teaches unequivocally that God is triune. The Godhead is composed of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit: "For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one." {1 John 5:7} Few tenets of the Christian faith have come under greater attack than the doctrine of the Trinity, and few verses of Scripture have been the subject of greater technical scrutiny that1 John 5:7, no doubt because it is so unmistakably clear.1 John 5:7defines the Trinity in terms of "three Persons within the unity of one God:" "There are three that bear record in heaven...and these three are one." God is, therefore, triune, for "trinity" means "tri-unity." This doctrine is, in Pauline language, a Divine mystery. There is more to it than finite minds can comprehend. From passages likeMatthew 28:19, however, where the Lord commissions the church to baptize "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost," a formula for expressing this mysterious doctrine emerges. Note the distinction between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost implied by the use of the conjunction "and:" "... in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." The language implies that there is a distinction of persons in the Godhead. The Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Spirit, and the Spirit is not the Father. They are distinct, the one from the other. Now note that the word "name" is singular. Jesus did not say "in the names of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Spirit," but "in the name...," singular. This suggests that there is a unity of essence within the Godhead. From this verse, the Christian faith derives the formula expressing the doctrine of the Trinity in terms of "a distinction of Persons but a unity of essence." In other words, there is within the Godhead three Divine Persons- the Father, the Son, and the Spirit -who are one in mind, in attribute, in design, in purpose, in ability, and in glory. The Father Isaiah 100% God; the Son Isaiah 100% God; and the Spirit Isaiah100% God. Yes, that is a mystery, not unlike the mystery of the two natures of Christ who was at the same time God of very God and man of very man, not half God and half man. Formulae like this are not intended to explain everything so that no mystery remains, but to safeguard the mystery so that God is not misrepresented by those who speak in His name. Both oneness and threeness are basic to the being of God. When Christians say they believe in the Trinity, they are not saying that there is one Person in the Godhead who wears three masks, like comedian Red Skelton playing his three famous characters- Klemm Kididdlehopper, Freddie the Freeloader, and The Mean Little Kid -all in the same skit. It is not that God sometimes plays the role of the Father, then decides to be the Son, and then puts on the mask of the Spirit. That’s unitarianism! The unitarian model fails to explain how there could be interaction within the Godhead as expressed inJohn 14:16: "I the Son will pray the Father and He will send the Comforter, that He may abide with you forever;" andPsalms 110:1: "The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand till I make the enemies thy footstool." God is not a unit, but a unity. Neither are they saying that they worship three Gods. That’s tritheism! But they are saying that there are three Persons in the Godhead, but one God; {1 Corinthians 8:4-7} cf. {Deuteronomy 6:4;John 10:30;2 Corinthians 3:17} Biblical and Historical Christianity is unquestionably trinitarian. {Luke 1:35;John 14:16;John 15:26;Ephesians 2:18;Matthew 28:19;2 Corinthians 13:14;1 John 5:7;Revelation 1:4-5} Salvation is the Work of God So, God is a trinity. That’s premise one. Now let’s establish a second premise from Scripture, namely, that salvation is God’s work, not man’s: "Salvation is of the Lord;" {John 2:9} "so then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy;" {Romans 9:16} "God who hath saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began." {2 Timothy 1:9} What does it mean to say that salvation is God’s work? It means that God works alone, apart from man’s assistance in the salvation of sinners; therefore, all glory goes to God: "But of Him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is make unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: that, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord." {1 Corinthians 1:30-31} It also means that the three Persons of the Godhead work together in the salvation of simmers. "Salvation is of the Lord" means that salvation is the work of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, for God is Tripersonal. Theologians employ a special phrase ("the economy of the Godhead") to describe the united operation of the three Persons. In whatever activity God engages, the three Divine Persons move in perfect unity, harmony, and cooperation. For example, Creation was the work of the Father {Genesis 1:1} by the Son {Colossians 1:16;Hebrews 1:2} through the agency of the Spirit. {Genesis 1:2} Compare alsoGenesis 1:26-27. There was no conflict, difference of opinion, or disunity within the Godhead in the work of Creation. The combined operation of the Godhead is also displayed in the resurrection of Jesus. Scripture attributes Christ’s resurrection to the Father, {Acts 2:24;Acts 13:30} the Son, {John 2:19;John 10:18} and the Spirit. {Romans 1:4;Romans 8:11;1 Peter 3:18} Although the three Persons of the Godhead have their respective offices and distinct identities, yet a marvellous oneness and unanimity prevails. The economy of the Godhead shines most brilliantly in the work of salvation. Note the Divine cooperation expressed in verses likeIsaiah 48:16, "The Lord God and His Spirit hath sent Me..," and2 Corinthians 5:19, "..God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself.." Nowhere is this scene more vivid than in rich theological passages likeEphesians 1:1-23andRomans 8:1-39, where Father, Son, and Spirit are pictured as a Divine Team in their respective covenant activities. The covenant of grace was planned by the Father, {Ephesians 1:4-5;Romans 8:28-29;Romans 8:33;2 Timothy 1:9} executed by the Son, {Ephesians 1:7;John 6:37} and applied by the Spirit. {Romans 8:2;Romans 8:9;Romans 8:15} From start to finish, salvation is of the Lord, without the slightest hint of inconsistency or incongruity within the Godhead. Three New Testament passages express the economy of the Godhead in salvation concisely. By comparing them with one another, we can sharpen the focus on the respective roles of each Divine Person in the Work of salvation. The first,Galatians 4:4-6, heads this essay. The second is1 Peter 1:2; "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.." The third isJude 1:1: "Jude...to them that are sanctified by God the Father, preserved in Jesus Christ, and called.." Do you see the references to Father, Son, and Spirit in each of the above verses? By putting these verses together, a composite picture of Trinitarian cooperation in salvation emerges. (1) The Work of the Father -the passages in Peter and Jude present the Father as the Orchestrator of salvation in the covenant. Election, Foreknowledge {1 Peter 1:2} a, and Sanctification {Jude 1:1} a refer to the initial act of God whereby He chose those whom He loved and set them apart to salvation before the foundation of the world. Each term refers to God’s covenant activity. Contrary to popular interpretation, "foreknowledge" is not synonymous with the attribute of God’s omniscience, but a relational term expressing the idea of covenant love {Cf.Genesis 4:25;Matthew 7:23;John 10:27} b. In other words, the word does not refer to rational knowledge, but relational knowledge, not to information but to intimacy. In this sense, God foreknew people, not events: "For whom He did foreknow." {Romans 8:29} a. God’s choice of a people before the world began was based on His own initiative to establish a covenant relationship with those whom He loved: "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God.." Those whom He loved and chose, He also set apart for Himself, that is, He sanctified them {Jude 1:1} a. Again, the reference to sanctification as a work of the Father must be understood in terms of the covenant of redemption before the world began. In the same way that the Father "sanctified" the Son (i.e. set Him apart in the covenant of grace) and sent Him into the world, {John 10:36} He also sanctified His people {again, He set them apart in the covenant as His own special people} and "sent redemption" to them: "He sent redemption to His people: He hath commanded His covenant for ever: holy and reverend is His name." {Psalms 111:9} It was precisely this group of people, i.e., those set apart in the covenant, who were redeemed by Jesus Christ: "For by one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified." {Hebrews 10:14} The Galatians passage presents God the Father as the great Choreographer of salvation, dispatching (sending) the Son {Galatians 4:4} and the Spirit {Galatians 4:6} at the precise and appropriate time, in order to bring us into his family as His adopted sons. The Father who initiated the covenant also orchestrates and deploys the covenant requirements for salvation. cf. {Ephesians 1:5} (2) The Work of the Son-Galatians 4:4-5presents the Son as the Redeemer. The verb "to redeem" means to buy back by paying a price. It presupposes prior ownership, for one cannot "buy back" what one never owned. By definition, then, the doctrine of redemption is inseparably connected to the doctrine of election. Are you beginning to see a kind of continuity in the plan of salvation? The Father sent redemption to His people, and the Son carried out the Father’s plan completely, securing redemption for them all. The Son did not merely make men redeemable, savable, or reconcilable. He actually redeemed. {1 Peter 1:18} He accomplished salvation. {John 19:30} He reconciled! {Colossians 1:21} When he ascended back to the Father’s right hand, He had "obtained eternal redemption for us." {Hebrews 9:12} In Christ, all the elect "have redemption through His blood."Ephesians 1:7;1 Peter 1:2presents the Son as the Purifier, the One who by the sprinkling of His blood cleansed "His own People" from their sins. {Hebrews 13:12;Revelation 1:5} This is definitive sanctification.Hebrews 2:11;1 Corinthians 1:2;Jude 1:1presents Him as the Warden, who guards the souls He has redeemed. Tereo, the Greek word translated "preserved" means "to keep an eye on; to guard like a warden guards a prisoner." Because they are guarded by the Good Shepherd, no man is able to pluck the sheep from Christ’s hand.John 10:27 The Work of the Spirit {Galatians 4:6} presents the Holy Spirit as the Divine Resident of the soul. The Father sends the Spirit to indwell the same people for whom the Son was sent in redemption: "Because you are sons that is, by adoption God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." {Galatians 4:6} When he takes up residence in the soul, the Holy Visitor promotes spiritual desire for God comparable to a child’s intuitive desire for its parent. Through this "Spirit of adoption" we cry "Abba, Father."Romans 8:9;1 Peter 1:2pictures the Spirit as the Sanctifier, the One who personally applies the blood of Christ to the soul, individually and vitally cleansing the heart from personal sin. In contrast to the Father’s sanctifying work, which we called "covenant sanctification," and the Son’s sanctifying work, which we called "definitive sanctification," the Spirit’s work of sanctification in respect to eternal salvation might be expressed by the term "vital sanctification." When a person is born again, he is cleansed and washed within by the Holy Spirit. {Ephesians 4:24;Titus 3:5;John 13:10} Jude presents the Spirit as the Voice, the One who calls the chosen and redeemed individual, though personally dead in sins, into new life by His sovereign, life-giving voice. {John 5:25} The Spirit only calls those whom the Father elected: "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose." {Romans 8:28} But, He calls them everyone: "For whom He did foreknow, them He also did predestinate...moreover, whom He did predestinate, them He also called..."{Romans 8:29-30} Do you see the unity and consistency that prevails in God’s plan of salvation? Interestingly, the word kletos, translated "called" in these texts speaks of the power, force, and Divine greatness of the call. The word does not speak of an invitation, like "the call of the wild," but of a creative fiat, a Divine imperative. The call of God in regeneration is an effectual call, accomplishing God’s intended objective every time. Application My hypothesis states that the Biblical doctrine of the Trinity makes the doctrines of unconditional election, particular redemption, irresistible grace, and preservation of the saints a necessity. There is no other school of soteriological thought that is consistent with the revelation of the Godhead. If one accepts what the Bible says about the Being of God, he is forced to the conclusion of sovereign grace, if he will be consistent. On what basis can I make such bold (and some may say, dogmatic) claim? On the basis of this fact: Every other position regarding how sinners are saved disrupts the unity of the Godhead. Take, for instance, the idea of general atonement (i.e. Christ died for all men without exception and offers salvation freely to all who will repent, believe, accept, etc.). I ask, will all for whom Christ died ultimately be saved? General atonement says, "No, for only those who accept His offer will be born again by the Spirit." This position disrupts the unity of the Trinity, for it teaches that the Son died for all, but the Spirit will only call some. What about the popular belief that God chose those He forenew would believe in Him, although He loved the entire human race and made salvation available to them all at the cross? By defining election in terms of the foreseen faith of the believer, a consistency is reached between the work of the Father and the work of the Spirit, but what about the work of the Son? This position says that the Father chose some, the Son died for all, and the Spirit will call some. Again, there is disunity. Many Christians, I venture to say, believe that God the Father loves all people equally, that God the Son died for all people equally, but that the Spirit will only call those who respond in faith to the gospel. Again, this position introduces an element of inconsistency into the Trinity. The idea that some who have been redeemed can backslide to the point that they lose their salvation also interjects an element of uncertainty and incongruity into the Godhead. Whatever form it takes-the Father chose all, the Son died for all, but the Spirit will only call some; the Father chose some, the Son died for all, but the Spirit will only call some-the interjection of a human element into the work of salvation contradicts the Biblical testimony concerning the harmony and unity of the Trinity and makes the outcome of salvation vague and uncertain. The old adage puts it succinctly: A chain is no stronger than its weakest link. Is salvation uncertain?2 Timothy 2:19says, "The foundation of God standeth sure having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are His..."2 Samuel 23:5says that God’s covenant is "ordered in all things and sure..."Matthew 1:21says that Jesus "shall save His people from their sins." Language of certainty like this is unintelligible so long as salvation depends on man at any level. The "doctrine of grace" is the only model of salvation that preserves the unity of the Trinity by maintaining consistency and harmony from start to finish. God the Father chose a people. God the Son redeemed that precise people. God the Holy Spirit calls that same people from death in sin to life in Christ. Not one shall be lost. Everyone the Father intended to have with Him will be with Him. One day Jesus will say, "Behold I and the children that Thou hast given me," {Hebrews 2:13} not some of the children or most of the children, but every one the Father loved, the Son redeemed, and the Spirit called. From start to finish, Salvation is of the Lord, by His free and sovereign grace. Few verses more plainly demonstrate the consistency and continuity of the work of salvation thanRomans 8:29-31. Trace the "whom’s" and the "them’s" in the passage: "For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He did predestinate, them He also called: and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified. What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?" Because salvation is God’s work, the "glorified" at the end of verse thirty are precisely the same people designated as the "foreknown" at the beginning of verse twenty-nine. Salvation is of the Lord, by free and sovereign grace! No other school of thought harmonizes with the other Bible doctrines. No other missing piece fits the puzzle. The doctrine of the Trinity makes belief in the doctrine of grace the only option for those who would be true to the word of God. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 123: THEOLOGY ======================================================================== THEOLOGY GILL: "Theology" is a Greek word, and signifies a discourse concerning God and things belonging to him; it was first in use among the heathen poets and philosophers, and so the word "Theologue". Lantantius says, the most ancient writers of Greece were called "Theologues"; these were their poets who wrote of their Deities, and of the genealogies of them; Pherecydes is said to be the first that wrote of divine things; so Thales says, in his letter to him, hence he had the name of "Theologue;" though some make Museus the son of Eumolphus, the first of this sort; others give the title to Orpheus. Pythagoras, the disciple of Pherecydes, has also this character; and Porphyry, by way of eminence, calls him "the Theologue"; and who often in his writings speaks of the "Theologues;" and this character was given to Plato; also Aristotle makes mention of the "Theologues," as distinct from naturalists, or the natural philosophers; and Cicero also speaks of them, and seems to design by them the poets, or the authors of mystic Theology. The Egyptians had their Theology, which they communicated to Darius, the father of Xerxes; and so had the Magi and the Chaldeans; of whom Democritus is said to learn Theology and Astrology. The priests of Delphos are called by Plutarch, the "Theologues" of Delphos. It is from hence now that these words "Theology" and "Theologues" have been borrowed, and made use of by Christian writers; and I see no impropriety in the use of them; nor should they be thought the worse of for their original, no more than other words which come from the same source; for though these words are used of false deities, and of persons that treat of them; it follows not but that they may be used, with great propriety, of discourses concerning the true God, and things belonging to him, and of those that discourse of them. The first among Christians that has the title of "Theologue," or "Divine," is St. John, the writer of the book of the Revelation; for so the inscription of the book runs "the Revelation of St. John the Divine." In the Complutensian edition, and so in the King of Spain’s Bible, it is "the Revelation of the holy Apostle and Evangelist, John the Divine." Whether this word "Theologue" or "Divine," was originally in the inscription of this book, I will not say; but this may be said, that Origen, a very early Christian writer, gives to John the title of the Divine, as it should seem from hence; and Athanasius, in his account of the sacred writings, calls the book of the Revelation, "the Revelation of John the Divine;" and who also styles him, "John the Evangelist and Divine." These words "Theologue" and "Theology," are to be met with frequently in the ancient Fathers, in following ages, and in all Christian writers to the present times. Upon the whole, it appears that "Theology," or "Divinity," as we call it, is no other than a science or doctrine concerning God, or a discoursing and treating of things relating to him; and that a "Theologue," or a "Divine," is one that understands, discourses, and treats of divine things; and perhaps the Evangelist John might have this title eminently given to him by the ancients, because of his writing concerning, and the record he bore to Christ, the logov, the essential Word of God, to his proper Deity, divine Sonship, and distinct personality. Suidas[1] not only calls him the Divine and the Evangelist, but says, that he wrote "Theology"; by which he seems to mean the book of the Revelation, which book some have observed contains a complete body of Divinity. Here we are taught the divine authority and excellency of the sacred scriptures; that there is but one God, and that he only is to be worshipped, and not angels; that God is the Triune God; that there are three Persons in the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; that God is eternal, the Creator, and Preserver of all things; that Christ is truly God and truly man; that he is Prophet, Priest, and King; that men are by nature wretched, blind, naked, poor, and miserable; that some of all nations are redeemed by the blood of the Lamb; and that they are justified and washed from their sins in his blood; the articles of the resurrection of the dead, the last judgment, the sad estate of the wicked, and the happiness of the saints may be observed in it. And as we are upon this subject, it may not be amiss if we take a brief compendious view of the state of Theology; or, if you please, Divinity, from the beginning of it to the present time. Theology may be considered either as "natural," which is from the light of nature, and is attained unto through the use and exercise of it, or "supernatural," which is come at by divine Revelation. "Natural" Theology may be considered either as it was in Adam before the fall, or as in him and his posterity since the fall. Adam, before the fall, had great knowledge of things, divine as well as natural, moral and civil; he was created in the image of God, which image lay in knowledge, as well as in righteousness and holiness; before he came short of this glory, and lost this image, or at least was greatly impaired and obliterated in him by sin, he knew much of God, of his nature and attributes, of his mind and will, and the worship of him; he had knowledge of the persons in God, of a Trinity of persons who were concerned in the creation of all things, and in his own; and without which he could have had no true knowledge of God, nor have yielded the worship due to each divine person: not that all the knowledge he had was innate, or sprung from the light of nature within himself; but in it he was assisted, and it was capable of being increased by things without, as by symbols, the tree of life in the midst of the garden, &c. by positive precepts relating to the worship of God, and obedience to his will, as the prohibition to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, the institution of marriage, &c. and through a constant and diligent contemplation of the works of creation: nor can we suppose him to be altogether without the benefit and advantage of divine Revelation; since he had such a near and immediate intercourse and converse with God himself; and some things he could not have known without it: as the creation of the world, the order and manner of it; his own formation out of the dust of the earth; and the formation of Eve from him, that she was flesh of his flesh, and bone of his bone, and was designed of God to be his wife, and an helpmeet to him, and who should be the mother of all living; with other things respecting the worship of God, and the manner of it, and the covenant made with him as a federal head to all his posterity that should spring from him. These, with many other things, no doubt, Adam had immediate knowledge of from God himself. But this kind of Theology appeared with a different aspect in Adam after his fall, and in his posterity; by sin his mind was greatly beclouded, and his understanding darkened; he lost much of his knowledge of God, and of his perfections, or he could never have imagined that going among the trees of the garden would hide him from the presence of God, and secure him from his justice. What a notion must he have of the omnipresence of God? and what also of his omniscience, when he attempted to palliate and cover his sin by the excuse he made? And he immediately lost his familiar intercourse with God, and communion with him, being drove out of the garden: and as for his posterity, descending from him by ordinary generation, they appear to be in the same case and circumstances, without God in the world, without any true knowledge of him, and fellowship with him; they appear to be in the image of the earthly and sinful Adam, and not to have the image of God upon them; they are alienated from the life of God, and their understandings darkened as to the knowledge of divine and spiritual things; and though there are some remains of the light of nature in them, by which something of God may be known by them, even his eternal power and Godhead, by considering the works of creation, or else be inexcusable; yet whatever they know of him in theory, which does not amount to a true knowledge of God, they are without a practical knowledge of him; they glorify him not as God, and serve the creature more than the Creator; yea, what knowledge they have of God is very dim and obscure; they are like persons in the dark, who grope about, if happily they may feel after him, and find him; and what ridiculous notions have they entertained of Deity? and what gods have they reigned for themselves? and have fallen into impiety and idolatry, polytheism and atheism: being without a divine Revelation, they are without the true knowledge of the worship of God; and therefore have introduced strange and absurd modes of worship; as well as are at a loss what methods to take to reconcile God, offended with them for their sins, when at any time sensible thereof; and what means and ways to make use of to recommend themselves to him; and therefore have gone into practices the most shocking and detestable. Being destitute of a divine Revelation, they can have no assurance that God will pardon sin and sinners; nor have they any knowledge of his way of justifying sinners by the righteousness of his Son; which are doctrines of pure Revelation: they can have no knowledge of Christ as Mediator, and of the way of peace and reconciliation, of life and salvation by him, and so can have no true knowledge of God in Christ; "for this is life eternal, to know the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he has sent." There is no saving knowledge of God without Christ; wherefore the light of nature is insufficient to salvation; for though by it men may arrive to the knowledge of a God as the Creator of all things, yet not to the knowledge of Christ as the Saviour of men; and without faith in him there can be no salvation: and though men may by means of it know in some instances what is displeasing to God, and what agreeable to him, what to be avoided, and what to be performed; in which knowledge they are yet deficient; reckoning such things to be no sins which are grievous ones, as fornication, polygamy, suicide, &c. yet even in the things they do know, they do not in their practice answer to their knowledge of them; and did they, they could not be saved by them; for if by obedience to the law of Moses none are justified and saved, then certainly not by obedience to the law and light of nature; none can be saved without faith in Christ, and his righteousness; there is no pardon but by his blood; no acceptance with God but through him: things that the light of nature leaves men strangers to. But of the weakness and insufficiency of natural Theology to instruct men in the knowledge of divine things, destitute of a divine revelation, perhaps more may be said hereafter, when the Theology of the Pagans may be observed. "Supernatural" Theology, or what is by pure Revelation, may be next considered, in its original rise and progress; and as it has been improved and increased, or has met with checks and obstructions. The state of this Theology may be considered as it was from the first appearance of it, after the fall of Adam, to the flood in the times of Noah, or throughout the old world. What gave rise unto it, and is the foundation of it, is what God pronounced to the serpent: "It (the seed of the woman) shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel": these words contain the principal articles of Christian Theology; as the incarnation of the Messiah, the Saviour of men; who should be "the seed of the woman," made of a woman, made flesh, and become a partaker of the flesh and blood of those he was to save: and this seems to be understood by our first parents; hence it is thought that Eve imagined that this illustrious person was born of her, when she brought forth her firstborn, saying, "I have gotten a man the Lord," as some choose to render the word; as Enos, the son of Seth, afterwards was expected to be the Redeemer of the world, according to the Cabalists; and therefore was called Enos, "the man," the famous excellent man; as they say. Likewise the sufferings and death of Christ in the human nature, by means of the serpent Satan; treading on whom, he, like a serpent, would turn himself, and bite his heel; wound him in his human nature, his inferior nature, called his heel, and so bring him to the dust of death. When the Messiah, by his sufferings and death, would "bruise" his "head," confound his schemes, destroy his works; yea, destroy him himself, the devil, who had the power of death; and abolish that, and make an end of sin, the cause of it, by giving full satisfaction for it; and so save and deliver his people from all the sad effects of it, eternal wrath, ruin, and damnation. This kind of Theology received some further improvement, from the coats of skin the Lord God made and clothed our first parents with, an emblem of the justifying righteousness of Christ, and of the garments of salvation wrought out by his obedience, sufferings, and death; signified by slain beasts; and which God puts upon his people, and clothes them with, through his gracious act of imputation; and hence they are said to be "justified by blood": and to which may be added the hieroglyphic of the cherubim and flaming sword, placed at the end of the garden, to observe or point at the tree of life; representing the prophets of the Old, and the apostles and ministers of the New Testament, being placed and appointed to show unto men the way of salvation by Christ the tree of life. And what serves to throw more light on this evangelical Theology, are the sacrifices ordered to be offered up; and which were types of the sacrifice of Christ; and particularly that which was offered up by Abel, who, "by faith" in the sacrifice of Christ, "offered up a more excellent sacrifice than Cain"; which also was a lamb, the firstling of his flock, and pointed at the Lamb of God, who by his sacrifice takes away the sins of his people. Within this period of time men seem to have increased in light, as to the worship of God, especially public worship; for in the times of Enos, the grandson of Adam, men "began to call upon the name of the Lord". Prayer to God, and invocation of his name, were, no doubt, used before; but men increasing, and families becoming more numerous, they now met and joined together in carrying on social and public worship: and though there were corruptions in practice, within this period of time; wicked Cain, whose works were evil, and who set a bad example to his posterity, he and they lived together, separate from the posterity of Seth, indulging themselves in the gratification of sinful pleasures; and it is said, that in the times of Jared, some descended from the holy mountain, as it is called, to the company of Cain, in the valley, and mixed themselves with them, and took of their daughters for wives; from whence sprung a race of giants and wicked men, who were the cause of the flood. Lamech gave into the practice of bigamy; and Pseudo-Berosus says, that Ham lived a very vicious and profligate life before the flood; yet there does not appear to have been any corruption in doctrine and worship, or any idolatry exercised. Some indeed have pretended that in the days of Enos images were invented, to excite the minds of creatures to pray to God by them as mediators; but this is said without any foundation. The next period of time in which supernatural Theology may be traced, is from the flood, in the times of Noah, to the giving of the law to Israel, in the times of Moses. Noah was instructed in it by his father Lamech, who expected great comfort from him; and, as some think, in spiritual as well as in civil things,Genesis 5:29however, he instructed him in the true religion, as it was received from the first man, Adam; and it was taught by Noah, and the knowledge of it conveyed to his posterity, partly in the ministry of the word by him; for he was a "preacher of righteousness," even of evangelical righteousness, "of the righteousness of faith"; of which he was an heir, and therefore no doubt preached the same to others: and partly by the sacrifices he offered, which were of clean creatures he had knowledge of the distinction of; and which sacrifices were of a sweet savour to God, and were typical of the purity of Christ’s sacrifice for sin, and of the acceptance of it to God, which is to him of a sweet smelling savour. Moreover, the waters of the flood, and the ark in which Noah and his family were preserved, were a type of an evangelical ordinance, the ordinance of baptism; which is an emblem of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ; by which men are saved: for Noah and his family going into the ark, where, when the fountains of the great deep were broken up below, and the windows of heaven opened above, they were like persons covered in water, and immersed in it, and as persons buried; and when they came out of it, the water being carried off, it was like a resurrection, and as life from the dead; "the like figure," or antitype "whereunto," the Apostle says, "even baptism, doth also now save us, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ" signified thereby,1 Peter 3:21likewise the rainbow, the token of the covenant; which, though not the covenant of grace, yet of kindness and preservation; was an emblem of peace and reconciliation by Christ, the Mediator of the covenant of grace; and may assure of the everlasting love of God to his people, and of the immoveableness of the covenant of his peace with them,Isaiah 54:9-10. In the line of Shem, the son of Noah, the knowledge of this kind of Theology was continued: Noah’s blessing of him is thought by the Cabalists, to contain his earnest desire that he might be the Redeemer of men. However, God was the Lord of Shem, known, owned, and professed by him; and he was the father of all the children of Eber. According to the Jews Shem had a divinity school, where the sons of Japheth, becoming proselytes, dwelt; and which continued to the times of Isaac; for he is reported to go thither to pray for Rebecca. Eber also, according to them, had such a school; where Jacob was a minister, servant, or disciple; and so had Abraham in the land of Canaan; and his three hundred trained servants are supposed to be his catechumens; and also in Haran, where Abraham, it is said, taught and proselyted the men, and Sarah the women: however, this we are sure of, that he instructed and commanded his children, and his household after him, to keep the way of the Lord, and to do justice and judgment,Genesis 18:19. Moreover, as the gospel was preached unto Abraham,Galatians 3:8there is no doubt but that he preached it to others; and as he had knowledge of the Messiah, who should spring from him, in whom all nations of the earth would be blessed, and who saw his day and was glad; so his grandson Jacob had a more dear and distinct view of him, as God’s salvation, as the Shiloh, the peace maker and prosperous one, who should come, before civil government was removed from the Jews; and when come, multitudes should be gathered to him,Genesis 49:10-18. Idolatry within this period first began among the builders of Babel: some say in the days of Serug; it was embraced by the Zabians in Chaldea, and obtained in the family of Terah, the father of Abraham. The worship of the sun and moon prevailed in the times of Job, in Arabia; who lived about the time of the children of Israel being in Egypt, and a little before their coming out of it; who do not appear to have given into the idolatry of that people. As for Job and his three friends, it is plain they had great knowledge of God and divine things; of the perfections of God; of the impurity of human nature; of the insufficiency of man’s righteousness to justify him before God; and of the doctrine of redemption and salvation by Christ,Job 14:4;Job 25:4-5;Job 19:25-26;Job 33:23-24. The next period is from the giving of the law to Israel, by the hand of Moses, to the times of David and the prophets; in which supernatural Theology was taught by types; as the passover, the manna, the brazen serpent, and other things; which were emblems of Christ and his grace, and salvation by him: and by the sacrifices instituted, particularly the daily sacrifice morning and evening, and the annual sacrifices on the day of atonement; which besides all others, were typical of, and led the faith of men to the expiation of sins, to be made by the sacrifice of Christ: the whole ceremonial law, all that related to the priests, their garments, and their work and office, had an evangelical signification; it was the Jews’ gospel, and which led them to Christ, and to an acquaintance with the things of Christ; and to what make him, his grace and righteousness, necessary to salvation; as the evil nature of sin; the insufficiency of men to make atonement for it; to fulfil the law, and bring in a righteousness answerable to it: Moses wrote of Christ, of his prophetic, priestly, and kingly offices, either by type or prophecy: the song of Moses inDeuteronomy 32:1-52and of Hannah,1 Samuel 2:1-10very clearly speak of the perfections of God, of his works of providence and grace, and of the Messiah. According to the Jews, there was a divinity school in the times of Samuel. Naioth in Ramah is interpreted an house of doctrine, or school of instruction, of which Samuel was president; where he stood over the prophets, teaching and instructing them,1 Samuel 19:18-19Such schools there were in later times, at Bethel, and Jericho and Gilgal; even in the times of Elijah and Elisha; where the sons or disciples of the prophets were trained up in the knowledge of divine things,2 Kings 2:3;2 Kings 4:38in such a college or house of instruction, as the Targum, Huldah, the prophetess dwelt at Jerusalem,2 Kings 22:14. There were within this time some checks to the true knowledge and worship of God, by the idolatry of the calf at Sinai; of Baalpeor, on the borders of Moab; and of Baalim and Ashtaroth and other deities, after the death of Joshua, and in the times of the Judges. The period from the times of David including them, to the Babylonish captivity, abounds with evangelic truths, and doctrines of supernatural Theology. The Psalms of David are full of spiritual and evangelic knowledge; many intimations are given of the sufferings and death of Christ, of his burial, resurrection from the dead, ascension to heaven, and session at the right hand of God; and on which many blessings of grace depend, which could never have been known but by divine revelation. And the prophets which followed him speak out still more clearly of the incarnation of Christ; point out the very place where he was to be born, and the country where he would preach the gospel, to the illumination of those that sat in darkness. They plainly describe him in his person, and offices, the sufferings he should undergo, and the circumstances of them, and benefits arising from them; they bear witness to the doctrines of pardon of sin through him, and justification by him; and of his bearing sin, and making satisfaction for it: in short, a scheme of evangelic truths may be deduced from the prophetic writings; and, indeed, the great apostle Paul himself said no other things than what the prophets did. There were some sad revolts from the true God, and his worship, within this compass of time, in the reigns of some of the kings of Israel and Judah; as the idolatry of the calves in the reign of Jeroboam, and others of the kings of Israel; and the idolatries committed in the times of Ahaz, Manasseh, and Amon, kings of Judah, which issued in the captivities of both people. The period from the Babylonish captivity to the times of Christ, finish the Old Testament dispensation. At the return of the Jews from captivity, who brought no idolatrous worship with them, there was a reformation made by Ezra and Nehemiah, with the prophets of their time; or who quickly followed, as Haggai, Zachariah, and Malachi; who all prophesied of Christ the Saviour, and of the salvation that should come by him; with the several blessings of it; and speak of his near approach, and point at the time of his coming, and the work he should do when come. But after the death of these prophets, and the Holy Spirit departed, and there was no more prophecy, supernatural Theology began greatly to decline; and the truths of revelation were neglected and despised; and the doctrines and traditions of men were preferred to the word of God, that was made of none effect by them. The sect of the Sadducees, a sort of free thinker, rose up; who said there was no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit: and the sect of the Pharisees, a sort of free willers, who set up traditions as the rule of mens’ worship, and which rose to an enormous bigness in the times of Christ, who severely inveighed against them; and which in later times were compiled and put together in a volume, called, the "Misnah," their "Traditional," or Body of Traditions: and this, in course of time, occasioned a large work finished in Babylon and from thence called the "Babylonian Talmud"; which is their "Doctrinal," or Body of Doctrine; full of fables, false glosses and interpretations of scriptures; and which is the foundation of the erroneous doctrines and practices of the Jews to this day. And here I shall take leave to transcribe the interpretation of the vision inZechariah 5:6-11. given by that learned man. George Eliezer Edzard, it being very ingenious and uncommon, and much to our present purpose. This learned man observes that the preceding vision of the "flying roll," describes the sad corruption of manners among the Jews, in the three or four former ages of the second temple; doctrine remaining pretty sound among them; which corruption of manners was punished by the incursions of the Lagidae and Seleucidae, kings of Egypt and Syria, into Judea, as the vision represents. The following vision of a woman sitting in an Ephah, and shut up in it, and then transported by two other women into the land of Shinar; he thus interprets: by the "woman," who, by way of eminency, is called "wickedness"; is to be understood the impious and false doctrine devised by the Pharisees and Sadducees; and other corrupt doctors of the Jews in the latter times of the second temple, and handed down to posterity; compared to a woman, because it had nothing manly, nothing true, nothing solid in it; and moreover, caused its followers to commit spiritual fornication, and allured to it by its paints, flatteries, and prittle prattle: and it is called "wickedness" because not only the less fundamentals, but the grand fundamentals, and principal articles of faith, concerning the mystery of the Trinity, the Deity of the Son of God, and of the holy Spirit, the person and office of the Messiah, were sadly defiled by it; and in the room of them were substituted, traditions, precepts, and inventions of men; than which greater impiety cannot be thought of; and which issued in the contempt and rejection and crucifixion of the Messiah, sent as the Saviour of the world; and in the persecution of the preachers of the gospel, and putting a stop to the course of it, as much as could be; and which drew with it a train of other sins. The Ephah, he thinks, designs the whole body of the people of the Jews, throughout Judea, Samaria, and Galilee; which Ephah was first seen as "empty,"Zechariah 5:6and this being a dry measure, with which wheat and such like things were measured, the food of the body, a proper type of the heavenly doctrine, the food of the soul: by the emptiness of the Ephah, is intimated, that sound doctrine, about the time of the Messiah’s coming, would be banished out of Judea, and the neighbouring parts; and most of the inhabitants thereof would be destitute of the knowledge of the pure faith. And the wicked woman "sitting in the midst of the Ephah," and filling it, not a corner of it, but the whole; and is represented not as lying prostrate, but sitting; denotes the total corruption of doctrine, its power and prevalence, throughout Judea, Samaria, and Galilee; obtaining in all places, synagogues, schools, and seats, and pulpits, and among all sorts of inhabitants; the few being crushed who professed the sound doctrine of the Trinity, and of the person and office of the Messiah. And whereas a "talent of lead" was seen "lifted up"; this signifies the divine decree concerning the destruction of the Jews and their polity by the Romans; which should be most surely executed on them, for their corruption of doctrine, and for sins that flowed from thence. The "lifting" up of the talent not only prefigured the near approach of the judgment, but the setting it before the eyes of the people, to be beheld through the ministry of Christ, and his apostles, before it was executed; that while there was hope, if it might be, some might be brought to repentance, and to the acknowledgment of the true Messiah; but this failing of success, the talent was "cast into the ephah," and upon the woman in it, signifying the destruction of the Jews; of which the angel that talked with Zachariah the prophet, and who was no other than the Son of God, was the principal author; Vespasian, and the Roman army under him, being only ministers and instruments. Not that hereby the woman, or the corrupt doctrine, was wholly extinguished; but it was depressed, and weakened, and reduced, and was among a few only, great numbers of the doctors and disciples of it being slain, and many of both classes being exiled; the temple and city burnt, heretofore the chief seat of it, and the schools throughout Judea destroyed, in which it was propagated. But in process of time the Jews restored some schools in Palestine, as at Jabneh, Zippore, Caesarea, and Tiberias, in the last of which R. Judah Hakkadosh compiled the "Misnah," about A. D. 150. and after that came out the "Jerusalem Talmud," A. D. 230. and. after the death of the above Rabbi, his chief disciples went into Babylon, and carried with them the greatest part of the doctors and their scholars out of Palestine: so that doctrine by little and little disappeared in Judea, and entirely about the year 340, when R. Hillell died, the last of those promoted doctors in the land of Israel: and after this scarce anything was heard of the schools and wise men of Palestine; but schools continued in Babylon for many ages; and this is what is meant, in the last part of the symbolic vision of Zechariah, by the Ephah being carried by two women into the land of Shinar, that is, Babylon: by these "two women" are meant the Misnic and Gemaristic doctors; the two heads of which were Raf and Samuel, who went into Babylon a little after the death of R. Judah, the saint, and carried the woman, false doctrine, along with them, these are said to have" wings like storks," fit for long journeys, to fly with on high, and with swiftness, into remote parts; and fitly describes the above persons transporting their false doctrine into the remote parts of Babylon, far from Palestine; carrying great numbers from thence, which they did without weariness, and with as much celerity as they could: and "the wind" being "in their wings," denotes the cheerfulness with which the Jewish Rabbins pursued their studies till they had finished their design, the Talmud, which they could not perfect without the impulse and help of an evil spirit, signified by the wind. And here in Babylon they "built an house" for their false doctrine, erected various schools, in which it was taught and propagated; and so it was "established" and "set on its own base," and continued for eight hundred and twenty years or more. This is the sense which this learned man gives of the vision; on which I shall make no more remarks than I have done, by saying it is ingenious and uncommon, and suits with the subject I am upon, which introduced it, and opens the source of the corruption of doctrine among the Jews, and shows the continuance of it, and the means thereof. Having traced supernatural theology, or divinity, to the times of Christ; let us a little look back upon the theology of the Pagans before we proceed any further. At, or a little after, the building of Babel, and the dispersion of the people, idolatry began to appear; the knowledge of the true God was greatly lost, and the worship of him neglected. Some say this began in the days of Serug, but perhaps it might be earlier: the first objects of it seem to be the sun and moon; which it is certain obtained in the times of Job; and then their kings and heroes, whom they deified after death; and which at length issued in a multiplicity of gods throughout the several nations of the earth; and what of truth remained among them was disguised with fables; or, to use the apostle’s phrase, they "changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator"; their foolish hearts being darkened. The theology of the Pagans, according to themselves, as Scaevola and Varro, was of three sorts. 1. Mystic, or Fabulous, which belonged to the poets, and was sung by them. 2. Physic, or Natural; which belonged to the philosophers, and were studied by them. 3. Politic, or Civil, which belonged to princes, priests, and people; being instituted by the one, exercised by the other, and enjoined the people. The "first" of these may well be called Fabulous, as treating of the theogony and genealogy of their deities; in which they say such things as are unworthy of deity; ascribing to them thefts, murders, adulteries, and all manner of crimes; and therefore this kind of theology is condemned by the wiser sort of heathens as nugatory and scandalous; the writers of this sort of theology were Sanchoniatho, the Phoenician; and of the Grecians, Orpheus, Hesiod, Pherecydes, &c. The second sort, called Physic, or Natural, was studied and taught by the philosophers; who, rejecting the multiplicity of gods introduced by the poets, brought their theology to a more natural and rational form; and supposed that there was but one supreme God, which they commonly make to be the sun; at least as an emblem of him; but at too great a distance to mind the affairs of the world, and therefore devised certain demons, which they considered as mediators between the supreme God and man: and the doctrines of these demons to which the apostle is thought to allude in1 Timothy 4:1were what the philosophers had a concern with, and who treat of their nature, office, and regard to men; as did Thales, Pythagoras, Plato, and the Stoics. The third part, called Politic, or Civil, was instituted by legislators, statesmen, and politicians: the first among the Romans was Numa Pompilius; this chiefly respected their gods, temples, altars, sacrifices, and rites of worship, and was properly their idolatry; the care of which belonged to the priests; and this was enjoined the common people, to keep them in obedience to the civil state. Thus things continued in the Gentile world, until the light of the Gospel was sent among them: the times before that were "times of ignorance," as the apostle calls them; they were ignorant of the true God, and of the worship of him; and of the Messiah, and salvation by him: their state is truly described,Ephesians 2:12that they were then "without Christ, aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world". And consequently, their theology was insufficient for the salvation of them. But to return to supernatural theology, where we left it, having traced it to the times of Christ; at whose coming, and through whose ministry, and that of his forerunner, and of his apostles, it revived, and lift up its head, and appeared in all its purity, splendour; and glory. John was a man sent from God to bear witness to the light that was just rising, even the Sun of righteousness, the Dayspring from on high; the great Light, that should lighten those that sat in darkness with a supernatural light; he declared the kingdom of heaven, or Gospel dispensation, was at hand, and just ushering in; and preached the baptism of repentance for the remission of sin, and administered that Gospel ordinance. "God, who at sundry times, and in divers manners, had spoke to the fathers by the prophets, now spoke to men by his Son:" Christ his only begotten Son, who lay in his bosom, came and declared him; who and what he was, and what was his mind and will: he brought the doctrines of grace and truth with him; and spoke such words of grace, truth, and wisdom, as never man spoke; his doctrine was not human, but divine; it was not his own as man, he received it from his Father, and delivered it to his apostles; who having a commission from him to preach it, and being qualified for it, with the gifts and graces of his Spirit in great abundance, they went into all the world and preached the Gospel to every creature; and diffused the savour of his knowledge in every place; they had the deep things of God revealed unto them; things which could never have been discovered by the light of nature; nor were revealed in the law of Moses; things "which eye had not seen nor ear heard, nor never entered into the heart of man"; which the reason of men could never have descried; "they spoke the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our glory." In the books of the New Testament are written, as with a sunbeam, those truths of pure revelation, the doctrines of a Trinity of divine persons in the Godhead; of the eternal Sonship, distinct personality and Deity of Christ, and of his several offices as Mediator; and of the distinct personality and Deity of the Holy Spirit; and of his operations of grace upon the souls of men; of the everlasting and unchangeable love of the Three divine Persons to the elect; of the predestination of them to the adoption of children; and of their eternal election in Christ to grace and glory; of the covenant of grace made with them in Christ, and the blessings of it; of redemption by Christ, full pardon of sin through his blood, free justification from sin by his righteousness, and plenary satisfaction for it by his atoning sacrifice; of regeneration, or the new birth; effectual calling; conversion, and sanctification, by the efficacious grace of the Spirit; of the saints’ final perseverance in grace to glory, and of the resurrection from the dead, and of a future state of immortal life and happiness: all which are brought to light by the Gospel of Christ. And these are the sum and substance of supernatural theology, and the glory of it. And while the apostles continued, and other ministers of the word raised up in their times, these doctrines were held fast, and held forth with great clearness and perspicuity; but, as the historian says, after the holy company of the apostles had ended their lives, and that generation was gone, which was worthy to hear the divine wisdom, then a system of impious error took place, through the deceit of false teachers; false doctrine was attempted to be introduced, in opposition to the truth of the Gospel, which had been preached; not one of the apostles remaining to oppose it. The doctrines of divine revelation, Satan, by his emissaries, set himself against to undermine and destroy, were the doctrines of the Trinity; the Incarnation of Christ of a virgin; his proper Deity, as by some, and his real Humanity, as by others; his eternal Sonship, or his being begotten of the Father before all worlds. The school at Alexandria, from whence came several of the Christian doctors, as Pantaenus, Clemens, Origen, &c. served very much to corrupt the simplicity of the Gospel; for though it mended the Platonic philosophy, it marred the Christian doctrine; and laid the foundation for Arianism and Pelagianism, which in later times so greatly disturbed the church of God. As many of the fathers of the Christian Church were originally Pagans, they were better skilled in demolishing Paganism than in building up Christianity; and indeed they set themselves more to destroy the one than to illustrate and confirm the other: there was a purity in their lives, but a want of clearness, accuracy, and consistence in their doctrines: it would be endless to relate how much the Christian doctrine was obscured by the heretics that rose up in the latter part of the first century, and in the second, as well as after, by Sabellians, Photinians, Samosatenians, Arians, Eutychians, Nestorians, Macedonians, Pelagians, &c. though God was pleased to raise up instruments to stop their progress, and preserve the truth, and sometimes very eminent ones; as Athanasius against the Arians, and Austin against the Pelagians. The Gospel in its simplicity, through the power of divine grace attending it, made its way into the Gentile world, in these first centuries, with great success; and Paganism decreased before it; and which in the times of Constantine received a fatal blow in the Roman empire; and yet by degrees Pagan rites and ceremonies were introduced into the Christian church; and what with them, and errors in doctrine, and other things concurring, made way for the man of sin to appear; and that mystery of iniquity, which had been secretly working from the times of the apostles, to show its head openly; and brought in the darkness of Popery upon almost all that bore the Christian name. In the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries, flourished a set of men called "Schoolmen"; these framed a new sort of divinity, called from them "Scholastic Theology"; the first founder of which some make to be Damascene, among the Greeks; and others Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, among the Latins; though generally Peter Lombard is reckoned the father of these men; who was followed by our countryman Alexander Hales; and after him were Albertus Magnus, Bonaventure, and Thomas Aquinas; and after them Duns Scotus, Durandus, and others; their divinity was founded upon and confirmed by the philosophy of Aristotle; and that not understood by them, and wrongly interpreted to them; for as they could not read Aristotle in his own language, the Greek, they were beholden to the Arabic interpreters of him, who led them wrong. Their theology lay in contentious and litigious disputations; in thorny questions, and subtle distinctions; and their whole scheme was chiefly directed to support antichristianism, and the tenets of it; so that by their means popish darkness was the more increased, and Christian divinity was banished almost out of the world; and was only to be found among a few, among the Waldenses and Albigenses, and the inhabitants of the valleys of Piedmont, and some particular persons and their followers, as Wickliffe, John Huss, and Jerome of Prague; and so things continued till the reformation begun by Zuinglius and Luther, and carried on by others; by whose means evangelical light was spread through many nations in Europe; the doctrines of the apostles were revived, and supernatural theology once more lift up its head; the reformed churches published their confessions of faith, and many eminent men wrote common places, and systems of divinity; in which they all agreed in the main, to support the doctrines of revelation; as of the Trinity, and the Deity of the divine persons in it, those of predestination and eternal election in Christ, of redemption by him, pardon of sin by his blood, and justification by his righteousness. But Satan, who envied the increasing light of the Gospel, soon began to bestir himself, and to play his old game which he had done with so much success in the first ages of Christianity; having been for a long time otherwise engaged, to nurse up the man of sin, and to bring him to the height of his impiety and tyranny, and to support him in it: and now as his kingdom was like to be shook, if not subverted, by the doctrines of the Reformation; he, I say, goes to his old work again; and revives the Sabellian and Photinian errors, by the Socinians in Poland; and the Pelagian errors, by the Arminians and Remonstrants in Holland; the pernicious influence of which has been spread in other countries; and, indeed, has drawn a veil over the glory of the Reformation, and the doctrines of it. And the doctrines of pure revelation are almost exploded; and some are endeavouring to bring us, as fast as they can, into a state of paganism, only somewhat refined: it is a day of darkness and gloominess; a day of clouds and of thick darkness; the darkness is growing upon us, and night may be expected; though for our relief it is declared, "that at evening time it shall be light." Almost all the old heresies are revived, under a fond and foolish notion of new light; when they are no other than what have been confuted over and over; and men please themselves that they are their own inventions, when they are the devices of Satan, with which he has deceived men once and again; and when men leave the sure word, the only rule of faith and practice, and follow their own fancies, and the dictates of their carnal minds, they must needs go wrong, and fall into labyrinths, out of which they cannot find their way: "to the law, and to the testimony, if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." Let us therefore search the Scriptures, to see whether doctrines advanced are according to them or not, which I fear are little attended to. Upon the whole, as I suggested at the beginning of this Introduction, I have but little reason to think the following Work will meet with a favourable reception in general; yet if it may be a means of preserving sacred truths, of enlightening the minds of any into them, or of establishing them in them, I shall not be concerned at what evil treatment I may meet with from the adversaries of them; and be it as it may, I shall have the satisfaction of having done the best I can for the promoting truth; and of bearing a testimony to it. [1] In voce Iwauuhs et in voce Nouuas ======================================================================== CHAPTER 124: THEOLOGY AND DAILY LIVING ======================================================================== THEOLOGY AND DAILY LIVING by Elder Joe Holder Sometimes we try to isolate our theology, our belief about God and the way we live into tidy little isolated boxes. It never works that way. What you believe about God will bleed over into the way you live- how you face life, particularly when you face it’s stressful and trying times -it can’t help but do so. I believePsalms 4:1-8gives us a beautiful example of how the two (our view of God & our view of life and the way we deal with life) integrate quite well together. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 125: THINKING BIBLICALLY ABOUT LOVE ======================================================================== THINKING BIBLICALLY ABOUT LOVE by Elder Michael Gowens Everyone is a philosopher when it comes to love. Definitions are "a dime a dozen." Love is, says one person, a many, splendid thing. Another sings, "love is a rose," fragrant and beautiful, but thorny and painful, and another suggests that "love means never having to say you’re sorry." Shakespeare wrote in Merchant of Venice, "love is blind." Gilbert said, "it’s love that makes the world go round," and Tennyson suggested that it is "better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all." I am convinced, however, that most people, if forced to define "love," could do no better than Thomas Middleton: "Love indeed is anything, yet indeed is nothing." The modern mind thinks of love in vague, nebulous, existential, and non-definable terms. "It’s something that happens to you," people say, "not something that you can define." This emotional, feeling-oriented, brand of "love" is promoted not only in music and literature, but by the popular media culture. Television promotes the "love as romance/passion" model so relentlessly, that even many Christians are confused about this important subject. In fact, Hollywood has so successfully infiltrated the Church with its view of romantic love, that the person who questions it or attempts to suggest an alternative position is suspect as an unrealistic, unfeeling odd-ball, if he is even understood. I am aware of that risk as I write. As I proceed to expose the unbiblical notions people have concerning "love," and attempt to reprogram the reader’s mind to think about this subject Scripturally, I expect someone will begin to feel sorry for my wife, or say, "I’m sure glad I’m not married to you." But I proceed, because of a deep conviction that misunderstanding about love is at the heart of most relational problems. Old Wives’ Fables Misconceptions about love are commonplace, even among professed Bible believers. The need for clear-headed, Biblical thinking about love in this day of disintegrating families, pandemic divorce, and domestic redefinition cannot be exaggerated. Let’s highlight some of the most popular myths and "old wives’ fables" regarding love. Fable 1: Love is something one "falls into," something out of one’s control, something that cannot be helped. Most people, like poor Woody Allen, are miserable because they look for love in all the wrong places. Like the impotent man by the pool of Bethesda, they spend their days "waiting for the moving of the water," waiting for something to happen to them magically and suddenly, waiting for their "ship to come in," oblivious to the fact that the only One who can truly transform a life stands in their midst, ready to bless those who will trust and obey Him. {John 5:1-47} Like the impotent man, most people think of love magically, as something that happens to them, over which they have no control. For example, a man "falls in love" with a woman. It is "love at first sight." Five years later, he decides that he doesn’t love her anymore, and in fact, wonders if he ever "truly" loved her at all. So, he leaves, justifying his actions by the "I-can’t-help-how-I-feel" excuse. Society agrees that he is right to leave since he no longer feels anything for her, and even commends his bold step as an act of self-honesty: "If he is telling the truth for the first time, then he’s to be commended for stepping forth and living a lie no longer. Life is too short to spend it with someone you don’t love. His wife must realize that you can’t make another person love you." According to the secular mentality, this husband would be a hypocrite if he stayed with his wife. Better to be honest with oneself, it rationalizes, than to live in hypocrisy. It sounds logical, doesn’t it? I mean, if he doesn’t love her anymore, what else can he do? Right? Wrong! Contrary to the popular definition, hypocrisy is not action contrary to one’s feelings (i.e. feeling one way but doing another) but action contrary to one’s profession (i.e. saying one thing but doing another). "If we say we have fellowship with Him, but walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth" says John. {1 John 1:6} "He that saith, I know Him, but keepeth not His commandments, is a liar." {1 John 2:4} Hypocrisy is the failure to practice what you preach, not the denial of some inner emotion. When Jesus called the Pharisees "hypocrites," was He saying that they were not being honest with themselves? Did He accuse them of living contrary to their feelings? No, He accused them of giving lip service to the Law of God while refusing to practice its tenets. Society conditions us to think of feelings as the ultimate guide to behavior. "It can’t be wrong when it feels so right," a song popularized in the 1970’s suggested. Somehow, we have come to believe that emotions are indicators of reality and, to contradict them is tantamount to hypocrisy. Someone says, "I would have been at church yesterday, but I didn’t feel very spiritual and I didn’t want to be a hypocrite." May I suggest that the person who has "named the name of Christ" in public profession acts hypocritically by staying home, not by contradicting his emotions, because his action is inconsistent with the profession he made to follow Jesus Christ. The prevalent idea that a behavior orientation (i.e. doing right because it is right) toward life is sub-spiritual and that only a feeling orientation (i.e. doing right only if you feel like it) is pleasing to God is unbiblical. Undoubtedly, because this husband had promised, before God, to love his wife until death, his hypocrisy was in the act of deserting his wife, not in staying with her and fulfilling his marriage vows. The world says, "at least he was honest." God’s word says, "he was supremely dishonest, for he broke the vow he had made before God." Have you ever thought about such a familiar scenario as I’ve described from this Biblical perspective? I’m convinced many people have not. In fact, many Christian’s would be surprised to know that the Bible says nothing about a kind of love one "falls into." Fable 2-Romantic love is the basis for marriage. Without question, most people believe that it is wrong to get married when romantic love is absent. In Biblical times, however, marriages were frequently arranged by parents. On many occasions, a husband never laid eyes on his wife until he removed the veil on the wedding day. Granted, such practices are difficult for people in a culture like ours to conceive. I am personally grateful that I had a choice in the selection of a life partner; nevertheless, the pre-arranged relationships of eastern cultures were just as viable, if not more, than modern marriages in the west. It may surprise the reader to know that people actually once covenanted in marriage though they were not romantically involved and proceeded to develop a fulfilling, durable, and enjoyable relationship. How did they do it? They learned to love one another. Learned to love? Yes, learned to love. This does not sound nearly so foreign when one remembers the structure of the traditional wedding ceremony. During the ceremony, the minister does not attempt to discern whether the couple loves one another. He asks each to promise and to vow to love the other. He does not ask, "Do you really feel love, true love, for each other?" He insists that they consider love as an obligation of marriage: "Will you promise to love...until death do you part?" Promise to love? You may wonder, "How can someone ‘learn’ to have a feeling? How can someone promise to feel a certain way until death?" That’s exactly the point: he can’t. Emotions are by their very nature unsteady, inconsistent, and ambivalent. They vacillate with the ebb and flow of circumstances. But love, according to God’s definition, is not primarily a feeling, but an action. Biblical love is not the victim of one’s emotions, but the servant of one’s will. Marriages are predicated, consequently, on each partners pledge to commit themselves to act toward the other in a certain way, the way God’s word calls "love." Even if the warm fuzzies of romance are absent; even when the novelty of the relationship has lapsed into the familiar; even when the initial emotional intensity has leveled off, a couple can still cultivate a loving, satisfying, and God-honoring relationship that is based on a mutual commitment to the other’s welfare and obedience to the word of God. In fact, that is the marital ideal, according to the Bible. Fable 3 -Loving oneself is basic and fundamental to a happy, stable life. It was once generally accepted that man’s greatest problem was pride, an inordinate self-interest. Now society tells us that man’s greatest problem is that he thinks, not too highly of himself, but too lowly. He has "low self-esteem." Virtually every vice, from disruptive behavior to murder, is interpreted as an expression of low self-esteem. Interpreting human behavior through the philosophical grid of "victimism," psychotherapists suggest that the perpetrator cannot really be blamed for his conduct. He is merely reacting to circumstances that displease him because he has no inner sense of significance and personal worth. What he needs, they say, before he can function properly in a social context, is a new appreciation for his own uniqueness, a new sense of his own importance and dignity. Once he has developed this "love of self," we are told, he will have the motivation to resist drugs, make good grades, and overcome the feelings of despair that come with life’s inevitable disappointments. Pop singer Whitney Houston promotes the gospel of self-love in a contemporary song: I believe that children are our future; Teach them well, and let them learn the way; Teach them all the beauty they possess inside; Give them a sense of pride... The message is subtly packaged in a beautiful musical arrangement, accented by Houston’s captivating voice. She continues: I determined long ago, never to walk in anyone’s shadow, If I fail, if I succeed, at least I’ll live and die, believing, No matter what they take from me, They can’t take away my dignity; Because the greatest love of all, is happening to me; Learning to love yourself is the greatest love of all. Is "the gospel according to Whitney" consistent with the gospel according to Jesus? What did Jesus say was "the greatest love of all?" Learning to love yourself? Absolutely not! According to the Lord Jesus Christ, "Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." {John 15:13} The Lord interprets love in terms of self-sacrifice, or if you please, unselfishness, not self-centeredness and self-concern. Far from producing happiness and stability, self-love breeds heartache and confusion. Marriages disintegrate, not thrive, when selfishness prevails. The moment each partner begins to prioritize self before the other, the relationship is destined to fail. What would happen to a family of five if every member adopted a self-absorbed mentality? If each lived for himself and not for the other, what would become of the family? Sadly, the answer to that question is all too apparent in the demise of the home in western culture. "I’m not getting what I want out of this relationship," one mate says to another. "I don’t think I love you anymore." I suggest that this person has not even started to understand the meaning of love. In fact, I maintain that many people who say "I love you" are really saying, in the words of the automobile commercial, "I love what you do for me." Self-love is not missing; love is. "I don’t think I love you anymore" means "You don’t do for me what you once did and I love myself too much to stay here any longer." Self-love, expressing itself in self-protection, self-defensiveness, self-assertiveness, and self-righteousness destroys relationships. It doesn’t build them. Christianity, on the other hand, expressing itself in self-denial, self-humbling, self-forgetfulness, and self-sacrifice provides a rock-solid foundation for a marriage that sings. People do not have to "learn" to love themselves. Because man was created in the image of God, he is a self-conscious creature. Sin has perverted and distorted this natural self-awareness, however, so that fallen man tends to idolize and deify the self, devoting his every energy and affection to the service of the self. "No man ever yet hated his own flesh" argues Paul. {Ephesians 5:29} If a man has a headache, he takes an aspirin, because he loves himself too much to allow his body to hurt. If he is fatigued, he rests, because he loves himself too much to allow himself to be uncomfortable. On the basis of this principle, Paul argues that men should love their wives like they love their own bodies. In other words, a man should take the same pains to relieve his wife’s burdens and promote her welfare that he takes for his own body. His primary interest should be her well being, not his own comfort. That is real love -selfless, sacrificial behavior that "esteems others more important than self." {Php 2:3} This kind of love must be "learned" and developed, for it doesn’t come naturally. But in a fallen world, it is the only kind of love that will produce the happiness that comes from a stable relationship. Three Kinds of Love What then is the Biblical view of love? It is expressed by the Greek word agape. Interestingly, agape was virtually a Christian invention. Prior to the New Testament, agape was used rarely in Greek literature. The New Testament elevates agape to prominence as the single concept that best expresses the meaning of love. Agape is the God-kind of love. It is a brand of love that is virtually unknown to modern man. Instead, people think of love in terms of two other Greek nouns, eros, passionate or romantic love, and phileo, friendship or brotherly love. (1) Eros -Romantic Love: When most people think of "love," they think in terms of eros (from which we derive the English "erotic"). Kittel’s Theological Dictionary of the New Testament says concerning the Grecian concept of eros: "This is the passionate love that desires the other for itself. The god Eros compels all but is compelled by none...eros masters us and confers supreme bliss thereby...the original idea is that of erotic intoxication." (p. 7) This passionate, self-centered, uncontrollable, intoxicating "love" is promoted by virtually every sector of our society. Romance novels, motion pictures, floral companies, and record labels feed on the public appetite for eros. Does such a thing as eros, that is, romance, really exist? Why, certainly. But it is not synonymous with Biblical love. In fact, eros is love in its crudest and lowest form. The high and noble concept of Biblical love is something entirely different. Yet when most people "look for love," claim to be "in love," or express love to someone else, they are thinking in terms of eros. To them, romance is life’s supreme glory and matrimony’s supreme achievement. When a couple possesses eros, they believe that they have finally secured that rarest of all gems, the priceless jewel of "love." They have "arrived." They fail to realize, however, that this romantic attraction is, first of all, not very rare, and secondly, only the beginning, not the point of arrival, of a godly relationship. Eros is the kindergarten of love. It is the phase in a relationship when two people are attracted to one another, physically, emotionally, and/or intellectually with a magnetic fascination. It is the same kind of natural attraction that motivates a female bird to select one mate above several rivals, each vying for her attention. That is not to say that eros is strictly a form of animal passion, for, in contrast to animals, people may very well experience an attraction at the intellectual and emotional levels, as I mentioned previously. But, like the bird, different people have different personal preferences and what appears attractive to one person may not appeal to another. This attraction manifests itself by an unusual preoccupation with another person. When separated, the heart longs for his company. When together, the stomach flutters, the palms become clammy, and the couple becomes oblivious to everything around them. This is the kind of experience that makes young people "cow eye" and makes old people "feel young again." I don’t deny that such a phenomena as eros exists. Further, I concede that most relationships begin at this level. But this is not love-not Biblical love, at least. Because so many people mistake romance for love, it is no wonder that married people "fall out of love" as quickly as they "fell into" it. Once the novelty and the sense of mystery is gone; once the initial excitement has been replaced by the routine of daily responsibilities; once one knows the other person through and through; once one becomes utterly familiar with the faults, foibles, and idiosyncrasies of one’s partner, those mellow, dreamy feelings can all too easily slip away. Neither is it a wonder when one partner suddenly announces that he has "fallen in love" with someone else and, in fact, has not been "in love" with his spouse for years. "How can these things happen?" someone asks. Why do people "lose that loving feeling?" Because they mistake eros for love. The individual who convinces himself that "love" lost in one relationship can be recaptured in an adulterous relationship will eventually leave that relationship for yet another, and that for another, for he is living by his feelings, and the intensity of romance inevitably wanes as the sense of mystery fades into the realm of the utterly familiar. Just because someone may seem interesting, fascinating, or attractive to you does not mean that you are "in love" with him. In fact, everyone will periodically come into contact with others who possess characteristics that intrigue and attract attention. The individual who loves his/her spouse Biblically, however, will recognize this magnetism for what it is, an untrustworthy, temporary, and potentially destructive emotion, and will permit it no entrance into his thoughts. Sadly, most people make the discovery and perpetuation of eros the goal of their relationship. Even in Christian circles, romance is frequently exalted as the marital ideal. Christian books on marriage often emphasize the "love as romance" model, suggesting that "the honeymoon doesn’t have to end." Is this a legitimate emphasis? Perhaps. But the point is that romance is not, in and of itself, the essential ingredient of a marriage that glorifies God and brings fulfillment to each respective partner-love is. (2) Phileo -Friendship Love: Recognizing society’s misdirected emphasis on eros, some married couples have aspired to a higher level in their relationship and have redefined the marital ideal in terms of "enjoying the other’s company." ‘My husband is my best friend,’ says one wife. ‘We just enjoy being together. We can talk to each other about anything and everything. Not only do we love, we also like each other.’ The Greek word phileo, translated ‘love’ in the New Testament, conveys the thought of friendship love. English words philanthropy (love of mankind), philosophy (love of wisdom), and philharmonic (love of harmony) are compounds of phileo, as is the proper name Philadelphia (brotherly love). The word means "to treat somebody as one’s own relative" and is used in common Greek for love between spouses, between parents and children, between employers and employees, and between friends. Phileo conveys the idea of a common interest. Like eros, it is a concept that involves the feelings. The word carries various emotional nuances, including "to be content with," "to have warm affection for," and "to like or value." Unlike the Greek term eros, which never appears in Scripture, phileo appears some thirty times in the New Testament. Is the friendship kind of love important in a relationship? Yes. In fact, God gave marriage, first and foremost, to satisfy man’s need for companionship: "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a help meet for him." {Genesis 2:18} Togetherness, consequently, is essential to a godly marriage: "For this cause shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh." {Ephesians 5:31} The "one-flesh" nature of the marital relationship makes the cultivation of a friendship between husband and wife a priority. It is imperative, therefore, that couples take time to communicate, spend time together, make eye contact, and be attentive to each other. By nothing more than mere negligence, many people lose that person-to-person contact that is so necessary to maintain a viable marriage. He becomes preoccupied with work, cutting the grass, servicing the car, and paying the bills, and she tends to throw all of her energies into cooking the meals and taking care of the children, until they one day awaken to the fact that they are virtual strangers to each other. Togetherness is the key word here, not mere geographic togetherness (though physical presence is important), but a sharing of the blessings and burdens, laughter and tears, hopes and disappointments, of every day experience as a team and a unit. In the harried pace of daily life-in the mad rush to fulfill family responsibilities, husbands and wives who do not take time to maintain and improve interpersonal contact between themselves will soon discover a distance between them that seems impossible to bridge. Such a relationship is not consistent with the Biblical mandate to "cleave" to one another in a covenant of companionship. Perhaps a wife who feels neglected or a husband who feels overlooked is reading my words. You can say a hearty "Amen" to the previous two paragraphs. This is the message you have been trying to get across to your mate over the past few months. You are dying for his/her attention. You feel unloved because your mate seems to have no time for you. Your marriage lacks, not passion, but friendship. This is, in your mind, your greatest desire in marriage. If you could just experience this kind of friendship with your spouse, a real relationship, not a mere coexistence, then you would have found "true love." Well, as important as phileo is in a marriage, it is still not the essence of Biblical love. It is not the ideal. It is not God’s goal for us. May I make a startling statement? Even in relationships devoid of romance and friendship, a couple may still learn to love. In other words, a successful marriage is not ultimately dependent on either eros or phileo. Even if you and your mate have long since lost the intensity of romantic passion, and even if you scarcely know one another any more, you can still cultivate a loving relationship through the practice of agape. A marriage without eros and phileo is not destined to fail, but a marriage without agape is. (3) Agape -Sacrificial Love: I’m convinced that most people do not think about love Biblically. What we mean when we talk about "love" and what God means when He talks about "love" are two different things. In fact, the eros and phileo concepts are so deeply ingrained into our intellectual grid of life that agape may be, upon first glance, somewhat repugnant to us. After all, it sounds so "unromantic." "It is so contrary to what I’ve always thought," someone says. But agape is the word the Holy Spirit employs (and in fact, virtually coins) to define "love" over two hundred fifty times in the New Testament. What is this foreign kind of love known as agape? It is the kind of love that God has for His elect. God does not love His people because He is attracted to them, for there is nothing attractive in them. God determined to love them in spite of their sin: "God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." {Romans 5:8} God’s love is an act of the will, not of the emotions. It is something He decides to do, not something He passively feels. Further, he expressed his love by voluntarily giving His own Son to die for those whom He had purposed to redeem. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son..."{John 3:16} He covenanted, unilaterally, to do everything necessary for their salvation. God the Son committed himself to bear their iniquities and to suffer the wrath of God in their stead. Voluntarily, He divested Himself of His divine prerogatives, subjecting Himself to death, even the ignominious death of the cross. John writes, "Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren." {1 John 3:16} Love, the God-kind of love, is defined by the cross. There we learn that agape involves a commitment to the welfare of another without any consideration of worthiness in the loved one. Agape is a love that gives to others, not that desires for oneself. It is self-sacrifice with an aim to make the loved one great. In a word, agape is selflessness. The key words in the definition are "commitment," "others," "giving," and "self-sacrifice." In simple terms, love is a way of behaving toward another person, not a nebulous, mystical emotion. In Scripture, love is a command. We are commanded to love God and love our neighbor. {Matthew 22:37|} Jesus said, "A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another." {John 13:34} Note he does not say, "Husbands, feel affectionate and romantic toward your wives." No, feelings cannot be commanded, but love can, for love is an act of the will, something that one makes up his mind to do and then he does it. Paul’s words, written in the imperative mood, express a command that husbands are obliged to obey. Husbands are under an obligation to sacrifice their own comforts and "needs" for the benefit of their wives, in the same way that the Lord Jesus Christ sacrificed Himself for the church. Likewise, Jesus issues the imperative, "Love your enemies." {Matthew 5:43} Does Jesus want us to drum up pleasant emotions for those who have abused us? Obviously not. He commands us to love them by choosing to show them favor and goodwill. The Profile of Agape In specific terms,1 Corinthians 13:4-7profiles the characteristics of Biblical love: Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth. Did you notice that Paul does not describe what love is, but what love does? He does not use adjectives to describe love. He does not say "Love is beautiful" or "Love is wonderful." Instead, he uses verbs, words of action, to describe love: "Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous, self-promoting, proud, rude, selfish, angry or suspicious..." If you really love someone else, says Paul, you will treat them with patience, kindness, and unselfishness. Do you realize what that means? That means that when one is impatient, unkind, jealous, and rude to someone else, he does not love that other person. The profile of love in1 Corinthians 13:1-13can be summarized in four categories: (1) Love’s Heart {1 Corinthians 13:4} a to {1 Corinthians 13:5} c -The person who loves another behaves in kindness, patience, and tenderness. Every action is born from a sincere desire for the happiness of the loved one. Love does not have a short fuse ("is not easily provoked") but is "slow to wrath," suffering long with the faults and imperfections of the loved one. Love is the act of showing patience, not irritability, when others falter, and kindness, which is the proof of patience. Love doesn’t nitpick at petty annoyances. Do you love your mate? Let me rephrase the question. Do you respond to your spouse’s little quirks and annoyances in patience and kindness? If not, start now, for God commands you to love. (2) Love’s Attitude {1 Corinthians 13:4} b to {1 Corinthians 13:5} b -Love displays itself by a commitment to unselfish living. Notice the emphasis on "self" in verses four and five: "Charity envieth not i.e. is not self protecting; charity vaunteth not itself i.e. is not self-promoting, is not puffed up i.e. is not self-inflated, doth not behave itself unseemly i.e. is not self-glorifying, seeketh not her own i.e. is not self-seeking." In a word, love is not selfish. Analyze the next argument you have with your spouse. How many times did each of you use the word "I?" Nine times out of ten, selfishness is at the root of marital conflict. Pride, self-interest, and egotism are the antitheses of love. Love is never rude or jealous. It esteems the other more important than itself. Do you love your spouse? Let me rephrase the question. Are you denying yourself for your partner’s benefit? If not, then start now, for God commands you to love. (3) Love’s Judgment {1 Corinthians 13:5} d to {1 Corinthians 13:6} -These two expressions, i.e. love thinks no evil and love rejoices not in iniquity but in the truth, express what might be termed "the judgment of charity." Love involves giving another the benefit of the doubt and assuming the best possible motives, not the worst. Love does not keep a record of past offences. It "thinketh no evil." It’s judgment therefore is not colored by resentment. It does not take into account past wrongs. How many married partners have so allowed past hurts to fill their hearts with resentment that they automatically assume the worst motive when the other speaks. Instead of listening to what is said, they become very artful at "reading between the lines." They constantly ask each other, "What did you mean by that statement?" If the other replies, "I meant nothing more than what I said," they react, "Sure, I know what you were really saying." They are more inclined to believe the worst than to believe the truth. Conversation filled with innuendo is a destructive habit for couples to develop. But so is the attitude that insists on reading the worst motives into the things that one’s partner says and does. It is, in fact, very unloving. Do you love your spouse? Let me rephrase the question. Do you automatically give him/her the benefit of the doubt and assume the best of motives? If not, then start now, for God commands you to love. (4) Love’s Tenacity {1 Corinthians 13:7} to {1 Corinthians 13:8} a -The final five statements suggest that love does not cease. Like the rabbit on the battery commercial, it keeps on going, and going, and going. In other words, it is impossible for love to die. Do you believe that statement? Think about it carefully. I didn’t say that it’s impossible for romance to die, or for happiness to die, but for love to die. Neither did I say that it is impossible for a person to cease to be committed to the other. But where commitment is present, it is impossible to destroy that relationship. Heavy burdens cannot destroy it, for love ‘beareth all things.’ Suspicion cannot destroy it, for love ‘believeth all things.’ Discouragement cannot destroy it, for love ‘hopeth all things.’ Difficult trials cannot destroy it, for love ‘endureth all things.’ In fact nothing can destroy it, for love ‘never faileth,’ that is, it never ceases. "Many waters cannot quench love." When one person is committed to self-sacrifice for the benefit of another, no burden will be too heavy. Love is the willingness to bear all burdens, to trust your partner implicitly, to expect the best, and to endure the worst. Love is the commitment to keep on keeping on regardless of circumstances around you, feelings within you, and consequences ahead of you. Charity never faileth. Do you love your spouse? Let me rephrase the question. Are you committed to unselfish living for the long haul? Is that commitment the sole factor in the future of your relationship? If not, then start now. Take the initiative to be kind. Bear insult and injury meekly. Go out of your way to make your partner happy. Forget about receiving anything in return. Commit yourself to a life of serving your mate. Away with rude remarks, biting sarcasms, irritability, judgmental criticism, and petty egotism. Sacrifice your own happiness for the happiness of your companion. Focus on being the kind of person God requires you to be and don’t attempt to make your mate hold up their side of the bargain. After all, you promised to love, until death, period. Regardless of your spouse’s behavior, you vowed to love. This is the kind of love that God commands. On the authority of God’s word, I guarantee that every couple who lives like this will never meet a problem that will kill their relationship, because charity never faileth. Furthermore, as a by-product of sacrificial love, the warm feelings of romance and the quiet contentment of friendship will resurface, sporadically at first, and more regularly as your years increase- together. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 126: THREE THINGS TO DO IN TIMES OF TROUBLE ======================================================================== THREE THINGS TO DO IN TIMES OF TROUBLE Introduction God’s people are often in troubles of one sort or another. Trouble is just a fact of life in this sin-cursed world. It was truly said long ago inJob 5:7, “Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward.” Job himself said inJob 14:1, “Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.” Some of the godliest people seem to suffer some of the most severe troubles. David, a man after God’s own heart, stated inPsalms 34:6, “This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.” Concerning the fact that the righteous do experience trouble, David said inPsalms 34:17, “The righteous cry, and the LORD heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles.” It is easy to serve the Lord when everything is going smoothly in our lives. We then know that God is smiling on us and we are so thankful for His blessings. However, when trouble comes Satan begins to whisper in our ear that perhaps God does not love us after all. We experience anguish of soul and think that perhaps life is not worth living. The song departs from our lips. The spring disappears from our step. The twinkle is no longer in our eye. The future appears sometimes unbearably dark and foreboding. We sometimes feel very lonely and isolated. We think that perhaps we are the only ones who are in such trouble. Elijah felt this way. He remonstrated with the Lord inRomans 11:3, “Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and digged down thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life.” Of course, this was not true, but Elijah, in his depression, thought that it was. Job’s Troubles I believe that if we look at the individual in the Bible who probably experienced more trouble than anyone else recorded in its pages with the exception of our Lord Jesus Christ, we can learn some valuable lessons on how to behave ourselves and how to think when trouble comes. The Lord, in His marvelous providence, allowed an amazing array of troubles to afflict Job. The Lord did this to demonstrate the awesome power of the faith that He places in the heart of each child of God in regeneration. When God causes one to be born from above He puts faith in the heart and He sustains that faith so that it will never totally fail. That faith may be severely tried by troubles, and it may appear to grow weak and almost non-existent occasionally, but it will never totally fail. This is made plain by1 John 5:4, “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” It will be instructive and edifying to examine the trials that came upon Job and how he was blessed of God to react to them. Let us remember that Job was an actual historical figure. He was a real person like we are with the same human limitations and frailties. Loss of Material Possessions Our material possessions are very important to most of us. Most people would be quite distressed to lose virtually all that they possess. Many an individual goes through quite a period of depression with the loss of a job. Well, Job had been a very wealthy man and he lost all his riches in a very short period of time. Much of his wealth was embodied in oxen, sheep, camels, and asses. He lost all these in one day. It would be hard enough for a poor man to lose everything that he had, but for a wealthy individual to suddenly be reduced to abject poverty would be quite a trial indeed. This is exactly what happened to Job. Deprived of His Children My dear wife and I have suffered the loss of one child and it was hard even though we only had her for a few hours. It would be almost impossible to imagine the shock of losing ten grown children at once! This is what Job suffered. He had seven sons and three daughters. They were taken from him in one blow. His Wife When we go through terrible difficulties it is such a blessing to have a faithful wife or husband to go through them with us. When everyone else has forgotten or when no one else understands, our life’s companion is there to be a great comfort. Job was deprived even of this. Instead of pointing him to the Lord and praying with and for him, she counseled him to curse God and die. Job had to refer to her as a foolish woman. Loss of Health We usually do not appreciate what a tremendous blessing good health is until we lose it. We usually take for granted the blessings of being free from pain, of not being disfigured by disease, etc. Job suffered multiple painful and disfiguring maladies. He was smitten with boils all over his body. He was so disfigured by his disease that he appeared grotesque to his friends when they came to comfort him. In fact, he looked so bad that they were with him for a full week before they even spoke to him. {Job 2:12;Job 13:1-28} He said of his condition that “My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust; my skin is broken, and become loathsome.”(Job 7:5). He said inJob 30:17-18, “My bones are pierced in me in the night season: and my sinews take no rest. By the great force of my disease is my garment changed: it bindeth me about as the collar of my coat.” He also said inJob 30:30“My skin is black upon me, and my bones are burned with heat.” Obviously Job was a very sick man. He was disfigured and he was in discomfort and pain. Misunderstood by Friends True friends are usually very helpful when we are in trouble. They can comfort, console, and reassure us. This was not the case with Job. His so-called friends made all kinds of false and cutting accusations against him. They accused him of engaging in secret sin and thus of bringing all these troubles on himself. {Job 4:7-8;Job 8:6} They accused him of being a liar. {Job 11:3} He was falsely accused of cheating people, of abusing the poor, and of being heartless toward widows and orphans. {Job 22:5-9} His friends, kinfolk, and even young children despised him. {Job 19:14-19} It is sometimes amazing when human beings, like vultures, will attack an individual when he is down. This happened to Job. Deprived of the Manifestation of God’s Presence Perhaps worse than any other of Job’s very great troubles was the fact that he could not feel the comforting presence of his God. This must have been devastating. Come what may, as long as a child of God can feel the reassuring presence of the Lord he can bear his troubles. However, to be assaulted from without and to not feel God’s presence within, is almost unbearable. Job tried diligently to experience God’s presence, but to no avail. We find this recorded inJob 23:8-9, “Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him: On the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him: he hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him...” Job looked for God in every direction but He was not to be found. Would he now just give up in despair? Would he become bitter and turn away from the Lord? Would he follow his wife’s advice and just curse God and die? A Crucial Time When real troubles come we often face a crisis. This is a time when people usually turn to the Lord or turn away from the Lord. Satan is always there tempting us to forsake the Lord. He whispers to us that it is no use to serve the Lord. God has forsaken us and we should abandon Him. He will tell us that God doesn’t love us anyway or He would not allow us to get into so much trouble. To my sorrow, I have seen several people who really seemed to love the Lord forsake Him and His people when difficulties entered their lives. Thankfully this has been only a temporary forsaking in some cases. Happily, I have seen excruciating troubles draw some people ever nearer the Lord. As a pastor of over thirty years I have come to be amazed at how some of God’s people have become sweeter in spirit and stronger in faith as their troubles have mounted and mounted. I have seen beds of the sick and dying become blessed Bethel spots, houses of God and gates to heaven. These people have learned to properly respond to times of agonizing trouble. The Three Things We have entitled this article Three Things to Do in Times of Trouble. This is based on the three things that Job did when he could not find God, no matter how hard he looked for Him. Remember that Job had experienced an incredible array of external difficulties. He had lost his wealth, his family, fellowship with his wife, his health, the loyalty of his friends, the great respect that he had enjoyed from others. He had lost just about everything worth having. On top of all these things he could not find manifest fellowship with God. What was he to do? He did not depend on his feelings. Feelings and emotions are very important, but we cannot base our actions on them. We must walk by faith; that is, we must wholly rely on the truths revealed to us in God’s Word. That is what Job did. There are three very important things that Job did when he was at the height of his troubles. Let us look at those three things. The Word of God One of the indispensable things that Job did was to be in constant reading and study of God’s word. He probably did not feel like reading the word, but he did it anyway. He did not “hit and miss” or behave spasmodically when he read. He placed a great priority on the reading and study of that Word. He expressed himself in this way inJob 23:12, “I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.” This is a remarkable statement from one who has just revealed that he did not feel God’s comforting presence. Usually we tend to shy away from God’s word when we are in a period of spiritual depression. We should, however, do the opposite. When we are down we are usually under Satanic attack. One of the most potent weapons we have against this enemy of our souls is “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” {Ephesians 6:17} Job must have spent much time in the word of God to esteem it more than his necessary food. He must also have read the word with much regularity. When we are in depression, we need light and guidance.Psalms 119:130says, “The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.” David said inPsalms 119:105“Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” When we are drooping in spirit we need personal revival. One of the most encouraging Scriptures concerning this is found inPsalms 119:50“This is my comfort in my affliction: for thy word hath quickened me.” The word translated “quicken”here is (haya) and among the meanings given for it are “revive from sickness, discouragement, or even death.”( Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, p. 644). So, dear reader, when you are in trouble spend much time in God’s word. Walk in Obedience A time of trouble and discouragement is potentially a very dangerous time in the life of a believer. Satan whispers to us that God does not love us, so why should we be obedient to Him. The prophet remonstrated thus with Israel inMalachi 3:14, “Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the LORD of hosts?” When Asaph was depressed because he saw the prosperity of the wicked he said inPsalms 73:13, “Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency.” Yes, this is a very dangerous time for a child of God. In times of trouble we must put a double guard on our souls and strive to walk before God in obedience. We may not feel the presence of God, but we must exercise faith and believe His word. Faith tells us that there is great value in being obedient. Speaking of the commandments of the Lord David said, “in keeping of them there is great reward.” {Psalms 19:11} I have known of one man who sadly left the path of obedience when his mother died. I know another young man who temporarily fell into grievous sin when a girl he loved rejected him. When we are in trouble we must do what Job did. He said “My foot hath held his steps, his way have I kept, and not declined. Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips...” Trust the Lord I have many times exhorted God’s children with the following words, “God has never said to understand Him, but He has told us to trust Him.” There are several things that are involved in trusting God. First, we must believe that He is all-wise. If He is indeed omniscient, then He knows what is best for us. We think that we know what is best for us but we do not, because we are very limited in our understanding. For example, we may be in danger of being lifted up in pride and may not even be aware of this. God, in His infinite wisdom, knows that this would destroy us, so He mercifully sends chastisement our way to purge us of this pride. We must also believe that God is all-powerful. If He is omnipotent, then He has the ability to do for us what needs to be done. Often we would like to do certain things for the welfare of our children, but we don’t possess the necessary resources. There is no similar problem with God. His resources are infinite. Finally we must believe that God actually loves us and is vitally interested in our welfare. This is very necessary, because even if He is wise enough to know what we need, and is powerful enough to provide, He must have a loving disposition toward us to motivate Him to deliver us from all our troubles. Satan makes a point of trying to dim the spiritual eyes of God’s children so that they do not realize the incomprehensible love that God has for all His children. Paul prayed that the saints at Ephesus “May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge.” {Ephesians 3:18-19} He demonstrated that God gave the ultimate proof of His love for His people when He sent His only begotten Son into the world to suffer and die for them. InRomans 8:32he pointed out that “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” Job manifested his trust in God even though he was mystified by the details of his sufferings. He knew that God was in sovereign control of his life and that these trials were for his ultimate good. Admittedly Job did not always feel this way but he certainly did inJob 23:10, when he said, “But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.” Job trusted God. He said in another place “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.” {Job 13:15} Conclusion There would be no better way to close these exhortations than to give an unadorned passage from the inspired word of God: James 5:10-11“Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience. Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.” ======================================================================== CHAPTER 127: TIME SALVATION ======================================================================== TIME SALVATION Even though I do not care for the term "time salvation" very much, I do believe what some who advocate it are teaching. I believe most definitely that there are blessings in obedience and chastisement in disobedience. If people want to call these blessings "time salvation" that is okay with me. I do not want to make a brother an offender for a word. One more thing I object to about the common teaching of time salvation is that we "earn" our time salvation. I do not believe this. I believe that, even in my obedience, God should receive 100% of the praise and credit for it. Even in this realm our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. Even "time salvation" is all of grace. I do not say that God is persevering, we are doing the persevering, but only because God is preserving us and is giving us the desire and power to persevere. I think that Paul made this very clear in1 Corinthians 15:10"But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me." Paul gives the proper balance here. We ought to try to serve God with all our might, and then we should give God all the credit for it. We may get some blessings in obedience, but, given the imperfect nature of our obedience, even our "time salvation" is all of grace. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 128: TIME SALVATION, CONDITIONAL ======================================================================== TIME SALVATION, CONDITIONAL Conditional Time Salvation SEE PBtop: Reply to Conditional Time Salvation by 516 Do you consider time salvation to be anything beyond the peace of mind that a child of God has while walking in obedience to God? [i] We read of some who were tortured, not accepting deliverance. Would you think they had time salvation even though they were physically tortured and were not delivered physically? They did obtain a better resurrection. I can see some things in the scriptures that teach that through obedience we eat the good of the land {Isaiah 1:19} and I certainly believe that through obedience through the Spirit that we reap and enjoy the things of God in this life and I do believe that it is time salvation and that it IS contingent upon our doing it. Therefore it is conditional. Both eternal and time salvation though are of grace and that is the part wherein I think some are critical of the phrase "conditional time salvation" for they are thinking that those who advocate it are saying that time salvation is of works whereas eternal salvation is of grace. To me, time salvation is of grace for if it were not for God working in us to will and to do of His pleasure, none of us would be obedient to the conditional things which He requires for our deliverances of peace in this life. [i] I, myself, consider time salvation in the child of God to be the peace of mind experienced by the child of God. However, I do indeed see the answer to be correct given by the good brother who answered the question with reference to the Ninevehites but I do not take this as being the same type deliverence given to Nineveh. God is good indeed to the worldly man for He gives rain upon the land of the unjust as He does on the land of the justified. {Matthew 5:45} As to the matter of time salvation even though they were physically tortured and were not delivered physically my answer is this: As pertaining to eternal salvation, I do think they had time salvation in the sense of peace with God. As pertaining to time salvation or deliverance in this life, they did not have it while they were suffering under the tortue. It would seem the tormenters (tormentors)? were the ones experiencing physical time deliverance (physically and in time they were the victors) but eternally the situation was a reverse unless the Lord later delivered those tormentors from themselves. Regie ======================================================================== CHAPTER 129: TIMELESS IDOLATRY-TIMELESS DISCIPLESHIP ======================================================================== TIMELESS IDOLATRY-TIMELESS DISCIPLESHIP by J. C. Philpot "O the hope of Israel, the Savior thereof, in time of trouble." But you may say perhaps, "What bearing has all this upon our case? Doubtless it had a bearing upon the case of old, upon the peculiar state and condition of the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem which you have been describing, for neither would Jeremiah, as the prophet of the Lord, have used the words, nor would we find them recorded in the Bible. But those days are gone by and that state of things has passed away. We have among us no worshipers of Tammuz, or of the queen of heaven. The text therefore does not apply to modern times and still less to us." I will not dispute the point with you as to particular instances of idolatry; but an idol is an idol, whether worshiped inwardly in heart, or adorned outwardly by the knee. But waiving this, have you thought for a moment what conclusion must follow from such an argument, and that it would set aside a large part of the word of God? If the words of our text have no bearing upon any other case or any other circumstances, except those when it was first delivered, why is it still a part of God’s word? why does it stand, and why has it stood imperishable for ages in the inspired page but because it has a bearing upon the Church of God throughout all time? In this sense we may explain the words of the apostle, that "no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation." {2 Peter 1:20} The word "private" means that it is not limited to, or exhausted by the peculiar circumstances (as the expression private signifies), under which the prophecy was first delivered, but has a public and more expansive interpretation. We may illustrate this explanation from a passage in the Epistle to the Hebrews, where we find the apostle thus speaking- "Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as you have-for he has said, I will never leave you, nor forsake you." {Hebrews 13:5} Now if you observe, he grounds his exhortation to contentment upon a promise. But to whom was that promise made? To Joshua; as we read, "I will not fail you nor forsake you." {Joshua 1:5} He thus expands the promise given to Joshua, enlarges its private interpretation as first spoken to him, and makes it so far public as to embrace all the family of God. If it were not for this enlargement of the Scripture, and its application beyond the circumstances of the time when it was first delivered, the greater part of the word of God would be practically useless. But its grand characteristic is, that it is a "living" word ("the word of God is quick," that is, living "and powerful;") {Hebrews 4:12} and the reason is, because it is the word of Him who lives forever and ever. But has our text no bearing upon our time? Was there ever a day when there was more practical ungodliness in the nation at large? Was there ever a day when there was more false religion rife and rampant on every side? Was there ever a day when vital godliness was lower in the Church? Was there ever a day when the truth of God was either more despised and trampled under foot, or more perverted and abused? I fully grant that good men in all ages have ever made similar complaints; but that very circumstance only proves the truth of what I have advanced as to the bearing which our text has upon all periods. It has then a bearing upon this day, and I trust I shall be able to show that it has also a bearing upon you now before me-a bearing upon your heart, and in some measure a description of the experience of your soul, so far as you are under the teachings of the Holy Spirit. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 130: TO THE SHEPHERDS ======================================================================== TO THE SHEPHERDS by Elder Euther Climer TO THE SHEPHERDS OF ISRAEL "Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves: should not the shepherds feed the flocks."Ezekiel 34:2. To my mind this is something of great importance for the growth and welfare of the Lord’s people. Have you ever stopped to think, my yokefellows, that you have the greatest calling on earth? You occupy the highest seat of all men on earth. You are called of God for a special purpose, as a watchman unto the house of Israel; not only a watchman, but a comforter of Israel. "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins."Isaiah 40:1-2ew:1-2 w:1-2. "Feed my sheep, feed my lambs," said our Lord to Peter. The comforting words of our Lord spoken in love by His shepherds are food to the hungry little lambs of God. They are born into the kingdom of which you are overseers. The work of making sheep belongs to the King, God. Your work is to feed them; and the right kind of food is of great importance. If they are to grow up into strong, healthy sheep, they need the sincere milk of the word while they are young and tender. Then they need strong meat (doctrine). This will help them to be strong and established in the truth of God. Then they are not easily carried away by the doctrines of men. Feed the flock of God. And if you see a wolf come into the flock, fight him, my brother, with the sword of truth; but be very careful that you do not fight your fellow-laborer. If you begin to fight each other, you are sure to scatter the sheep, and you are almost sure to cause some precious little lamb to flee. By fighting each other we cause some to stray off in the desert (for their nature is not to fight), and there in the desert many of them will die, away from the fold. Woe to the shepherd that scatters the sheep! "Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against the shepherds and I will require my flock at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the flock; neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more; for I will deliver my flock from their mouth, that they may not be meat for them."-Ezekiel 34:10. God has not called us, my brother, and appointed us overseers of the flock that we might only be fed and clothed with the wool of the flock, but to feed them, to strengthen the weak, pour the oil of gladness into the hearts of the sick, bind up those that are broken with tender words of His everlasting goodness and mercy; and if we should see a lamb or sheep that has been driven away from the fold, go after such a one with brotherly kindness and use the tender cords of love to lead it back into the fold. Go after those, my brother, that are out in the cold, bleak world, lost, wandering in darkness from place to place, seeking food and shelter and finding none. Gently and tenderly show them where they can feed and shelter under the wings of God’s love by going home to the old church and their friends, where there is rest as in the shadow of the rock in a weary land, and food and drink to quench their thirst, away from the glaring lights of a sad and sinful money-mad world. May the God of love give us grace to stand at our places on the walls of Zion as watchmen of Israel, is the prayer of this poor little servant who does not want the blood of Israel on his hands. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 131: TRIALS IN SERVICE TO GOD ======================================================================== TRIALS IN SERVICE TO GOD AND IN OBEDIENCE TO CHRIST Brother Talley tells a story about the stradivarius violin - that the wood that they made that violin out of - (now I don’t know whether this is true or not) - it certainly fits in with what I am going to say. He said that they took the wood off a tree that had withstood the greatest stress. They took it off the side of the tree that was under the greatest stress because it was that wood that would enable the violin to make the sweetest music. I think that’s true in the life of God’s child. I think it’s the trials, the afflictions that we pass through in our obedience to Christ. I don’t mean to say the trials that we experience because of our sin. But the trials and the conflicts, etc. we experience in our obedience to Christ that enables us also to sing the sweetest music and glorify God. But Walter sent me an email recently about the birth of a butterfly. It described a man watching a butterfly come out of the cocoon and there was just a small opening in that cocoon for the butterfly to come out and he watched the butterly struggle and struggle and struggle to try to get out that narrow opening and it finally just gave up the struggle. Of course what he was doing was resting. But the man was going to help that butterly out of the cocoon and he took a pair of scissors and cut the opening larger so the butterfly could slide out. He said when the butterly slid out that it had a huge body but little spindly wings. He watched the butterly crawl around on the ground and he expected any time for that fluid in the body to spread out into the wings so the butterfly could fly but it never did. There was something about the struggle to come through that small opening that caused the fluid in the body to spread out into the wings that when the butterly came out that it could fly. Well, beloved, it’s the stress and the trials and the difficulties we go though in our service to God that enables us to soar. Many times because of our comprimising, our failing to face those trials (we try to skirt around them) we just kind of scratch around on the ground in the earth. But, beloved, those that have not skirted those difficulties but have passed through them, they’re the ones who have been blessed to soar. I tell you - soar with God. So, although none of us would ever go out and say "bring on the trials, bring on the conflicts, bring on the suffering" yet in the course of our obedience to Christ we’re going to face them. They’re going to come in life but they’re going to be that which God is going to use to make us a vessel of great use to Him. And, what other purpose on earth is there for us than to be a vessel that God would use for His glory. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 132: TRINITY ======================================================================== TRINITY TRINITY The Spirit of God (this "Wind" of God, if you will) is as sovereign in His Personal work of effectually calling (regenerating, borning-again-from above, translating, etc.) one of God’s elect from the death-state in sin to the divine life in Christ as was God the Father in foreknowing, electing, and predestinating that object of God’s love, and as was God the Son in accomplishing eternal redemption (expiating sin) and propitiation (satisfying Divine wrath) in His death, burial, and resurrection. The eternal salvation of God’s people requires (in agreement with and in view of God’s will and purpose) the cooperative workings and efforts of the power and unity of all Three Persons in the Godhead. Eternal salvation cannot occur by any One of the Three without the Other Two Persons; that is to say that God is not a "Unit," but a "Unity." A "unit" would properly be described as one person with three personalities; whereas, a "unity" would properly be defined as three persons with one personality. The plurality of Persons in the Godhead is a "Unity," not a "Unit" -these Three are One. 1 John 5:7 506 In the discussions lately there may seem to be indications that some believe that each person in the trinity operates sovereignly in the work that each does independently. Three of us engaged in this work here might be in 100% agreement on some points. However, we three are each subject to change. We are fickle. On our own, operating independently, the three of us are very likely to blow our unity all to pieces. There is no such problem in the Holy Trinity. There is such unity in the trinity that although there is sovereignty in each Member yet none operate independently aloof from the Others. Therefore, I think there is actually unity between the seemingly opposing views of the brethren who have written each article. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 133: TWO-SEEDISM & MAT_13:1-58 ======================================================================== TWO-SEEDISM &Matthew 13:1-58(PARABLE OF THE SOWER) by Elder Joe Holder In the nineteenth century in American christianity - (it actually was broader than our own fellowship,) but among Primitive Baptist’s an error errupted called "Eternal Two-Seedism" and those who advocated this view interestingly used this parable as their primary proof text. (Lesson to be had - first of all, never build proof for a primary doctrine on a symbolic lesson, let the literal passages interpret the symbolic and not vice-versa.) Their idea - God has and scripture is replete with this truth - (error always builds on partial truth, not on total error,) God has an eternal seed, He has chosen them in Christ -Ephesians 1:1-23;Romans 8:1-39;Romans 9:1-33, you could go to multiple scriptures, (this is true) but then the error appears - Satan also has had an eternal seed. Where do you get that from this passage? The seed don’t exist from the same time frame. They are not sown at the same time. This totally misses the point of the lesson. I believe this idea grew out of confusion between the Christian world view and an Eastern mystical world view. In the Eastern mystical world view you have, whether you call it yin yang or whatever you call it, what do you have? Opposites are eternally interlocked and balanced against each other. Eternally good and evil are at opposition and opposing each other in the conflict of the world, neither one ever wins. Does that sound like a Christian world view? Do you believe Jesus and Satan are locked in an eternal stalemate? - that’s not biblical Christianity! What’s the message of the book of Revelation? I’ll not get involved in all the horns and the hogs and the faces, what’s the bottom-line message of the book? We win through Christ! That doesn’t sound like an eternal balance of good and evil opposing each other and neither ever winning out, does it? That’s the biblical view. God wins and what does this mean for us? Beginning inGenesis 3:15the human race has been identified as two kinds of seed. God is talking in #Genesis 3:15\ to Satan. Isn’t it interesting how God chooses His audience in such a bizarre manner? "I’ll put enmity between thee and the woman, between thy seed and her seed. Thy seed shall bruise his heel, her seed shall bruise thy head." Most biblical scholars, and I agree, believe that this is the first biblical promise of a Savior Redeemer who would come. It is not the seed of a man but the seed of the woman. In natural reproduction, in biblical terminology the seed is contributed by the man, the egg by the woman and you have reproduction but in this case, perhaps a hint, I wouldn’t take it too far, but perhaps a hint of virgin birth - the seed of the woman and look at the nature of the wounds imposed. The seed of the serpent, his children, who imitate him and who act like him. Not that they are eternally existent, only God has eternity as an inherent attribute of His being. Neither Satan nor his children are eternal. You can discuss all day any way you want the origin of Satan but you’d better end up with at least one conclusion, he is not eternal, he is not co-eternal with God. The seed of the serpent imposes a bruise or a wound on the heel of the woman’s seed. What happens in crucifixion? They drive nails either through the wrist or through the hand, the Greek word gives you this much latitude, so it doesn’t create a problem either way and they drive a big spike through the ankle, right through the heel or the base of the foot. How did Jesus die? He dies by crucifixion. In the book of Acts and in the New Testament epistles that follow, wicked men, the seed of Satan are blamed for killing the Lord of glory and the Prince of Life. Satan imposed the mortal blow, the greatest blow he could upon the Son of God, but he only bruised His heel. What did Jesus do? Is it yin yang, is it a conflict that is eternally balanced between good and evil? No, the blow that Jesus imposed on the serpent at Calvary was a blow to the head. Mortal, deadly blow! Satan is spoiled and defeated. It’s an aside to this point and I won’t spend a lot of time with it but I believe the extraordinary amount of demonic activity that we see in the four gospels, it was not common in the Old Testament, it is not that common after that period of time. Why was it so common then? I believe that Satan knew the clock of God’s prophecy, he knew the time was coming for the Messiah to appear and he wanted to do everything he could and he opened the gates of hell and turned all his legions loose to try to prevent Christ from His success and he failed. Satan’s method has always been imitation. What does he say to Eve in the garden, "God knows that if you eat this fruit, you shall be as what? Gods. But wait a minute, this is in the garden of Eden. Is there pagan worship? Is there false worship in the garden of Eden? No! Get a Hebrew dictionary and look up the Hebrew word translated "gods" in the English language and you’ll be surprised, it’s the Hebrew word "elohim" - the very name of God. You know what Satan is saying? you can become like the very God of creation if you’ll just eat this fruit. Imitate God, appeal to the pride and you’ll just be like God. Didn’t happen, did it? Oh, it didn’t happen. But Satan plants the seed of thought and creates an imitation. He has ever since that time succeeded most effectively by imitation. He will imitate. What does Paul say to the Corinthians, "it’s no wonder, Satan is transformed to an angel of light so is it any wonder if his servants, his messengers, are transformed into ministers of the gospel. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 134: THE CLOSET LIFE OF A PASTOR ======================================================================== The Closet Life of a Pastor I It is assumed in the New Testament that pastors will be men of prayer.Acts 6:4, "But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word." Jesus taught that we would have a closet prayer life.Matthew 6:6, "But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly." II Jesus Christ, the first pastor of the church, set the example of closet prayer:Matthew 14:23, "And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone."** Mr 1:35, "And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed."**Luke 6:12, "And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God."**Luke 9:28, "And it came to pass about an eight days after these sayings, he took Peter and John and James, and went up into a mountain to pray."**Luke 11:1, "And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples."**Luke 5:16, "And he withdrew himself into the wilderness, and prayed." **SeeMatthew 26:36-44for His intense prayer in Gethsemane. **See His high-priestly prayer inJohn 17:1-26. There is a song in the Old School Hymnal, #432, He Prayed, that beautifully depicts the prayer life of our dear Savior. III The eminent apostle, Paul, was a man absolutely given to prayer: He prayed for churches and he prayed for individuals. He prayed for people he was acquainted with and he prayed for people and churches he had not yet met. Even in Acts he is seen as a man of prayer:Acts 16:16;Acts 16:25. His epistles abound with his prayer life. SeeRomans 1:9;1 Corinthians 1:4;2 Corinthians 13:7;Galatians 6:18;Ephesians 1:16;Php 1:3-4;Colossians 1:3;1 Thessalonians 1:2;2 Thessalonians 1:3;2 Timothy 1:3;Philemon 1:4. He also prayed some of the most wonderful prayers recorded in the Bible. In fact, one of the best ways to learn to pray better is to study the prayers of Paul. One of my favorite books on prayer is, Gleanings From Paul: Studies in the Prayers of the Apostle, by Arthur W. Pink. In this book he examines thirty-two passages in Paul’s writings which are prayers. I have memorized several of these prayers and prayed them myself to my great edification. I have memorized the prayers recorded inPhp 1:9-11;Ephesians 1:15-23;Ephesians 3:14-21. I would suggest a study of the prayers of Paul as a wonderful way to enhance your own prayer life and that of the people you are ministering to. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 135: THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SPIRIT OF GOD ======================================================================== The Sovereignty of the Spirit of God See PBtop: THE DEITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT A Brief Study See PBtop: WILL, MIND, WAY, PLEASING of the HOLY TRINITY I will here present my view of the application of God’s Sovereignty as that each Triune Person does, in fact, relate sovereignly to all of creation. Therefore, to specifically define the view that I give concerning the Sovereignty of God according to my understanding of the Scriptures, let me briefly present the following: There is a Trinity of Persons in the Godhead: 1. THE FATHER: The Father is God. 2. THE WORD (or SON): The Word (or Son) is God. 3. THE HOLY SPIRIT: The Holy Spirit is God. There are NOT three Gods, but ONE only true and living God, composed of three separate and distinct Persons as they are named above. {cf.1 John 5:7} These three distinct Persons make One in the “Unity” of the Godhead; therefore, One God. “These Three are One.” In various Scriptures of Holy Writ, each of the Three Persons (Father, Word, and Holy Spirit) is referred to as being God. Thus, each Person bears the same characteristics as do the other two; i.e. as each bears relationship to the other, they are co-essential, co-eternal, and co-equal in ALL attributes. That is to say, that all attributes that belong to the one Person in the Trinity also belong reciprocally to each of the other Persons; albeit that each, in agreement with the Covenant provisions, performs different acts as pertaining to the salvation of the elect (e.g., The Father chose, The Son redeemed, and the Holy Spirit applies). If the attributable properties and characteristics of the Godhead are not realistic and do not reside as an essence in each Person therein, then all three Persons are not co-essential or co-equal, and the Unity of the Godhead would not agree as to the virtues of each constituent Party. And, consequently, these Three could not then be “One”.This is to say that if any or all of the distinct Persons of the Godhead are without the attribute of sovereignty (for instance), then neither can the “Unity”of the Godhead possess that essence of sovereignty and be One God. Even so, consummately, as is each Person in essence and substance, so is the “Unity”or “Oneness”of the Godhead. Consequently, as regarding the attribute of “Sovereignty”, we conclude the following: 1. God the Father is Sovereign. 2. God the Word is Sovereign. 3. God the Holy Spirit is Sovereign. This is to say that, individually and distinguishably, if the Father is not sovereign, and the Word is not sovereign, and the Holy Spirit is not sovereign co-essentially and co-equally, neither can be the consummate “Unity” of the Godhead. In the absence of this individual “essentiality” and “equality,” the Trinity could not be in Oneness. The essential nature of the Godhead in “Unity” cannot consist of any qualities of which any or all of the individual Persons that make up the Godhead may be lacking. So far as my limited knowledge extends, the composite of anything, essence-wise, cannot be more or less than the total substance of its constituent parts. I know this to be true mathematically, and I assume this principle to be true psychologically. Applying this concept to the Godhead, we conclude, then, that because the Father is sovereign, and the Word is sovereign, and the Spirit is sovereign, the oneness of the True Living God is sovereign. However, any one individual Person in the Godhead is not sovereign at the expense, either more or less, of any other of the remaining Persons. So, the attribute of the Sovereignty of God is not asserted in the sense as one Person in the Godhead may relate competitively to any other of those Persons; but as the Sovereignty of God, whether in His Oneness or in the distinctive offices and intrinsic characteristics of the Three Persons of the Trinity, is of such essence and magnitude that God is both eminently and inherently in absolute, supreme, and permanent control over all of creation. Therefore, the contextual application of Scripture, when dealing with the principle of God’s Sovereignty, should be such as God, in fact, relates sovereignly to all of creation. John 3:8gives the sense in which Jesus applies the paradigm of the wind as it relates to creatures, not as the wind relates to the Spirit as its prototype. Jesus is not using the wind as a metaphor to designate the Spirit of God, for the one is only natural with its natural qualities, but the other is supernatural with the Divine qualities possessed of the very wisdom of God. The former is but an element of the earth’s created atmosphere; whereas the latter is the very God of the Universe Who created the wind. The Apostle Paul, with this same inspired knowledge, would retreat within the inadequate asylum of man’s wisdom and proclaim in pondering astonishment at the manifold wisdom of God, as he did inRomans 11:33, “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!” With inspiration of Spiritual Wisdom, Paul teaches that the preaching of the Gospel is to proclaim these great truths: “For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” {1 Corinthians 1:19-21} In what sense, then, is Jesus using the paradigm of the wind inJohn 3:8? Jesus is using the wind as a symbol of power, authority, and, consequently, as exercising its forces "sovereignly" over the creatures of the earth. Creatures of the earth cannot control the wind. They cannot start it, stop it, change its direction, or dominate influence over it in any way. The wind blows where it desires, where it wills, where it pleases; i.e., where it "listeth." In this context, the wind appears and functions sovereignly as it relates to living creatures. Just as creatures of the earth cannot usurp authority and control over the blowings, the comings, and goings of the wind; even so, the elect of God, who are being regenerated by the Holy Ghost, have absolutely no authority or control over the operations of the Spirit of God to cause His comings, to induce or attract His activities, or to entice His goings. Consequently, the Spirit is "sovereign" over His elect creatures so that He might change their nature by regenerating them, notwithstanding their particular or individual depraved conditions and circumstances. In this manner, the new birth is immediate (without any external means of any creature), instantaneous (occurring without a process or delay), irresistible (having an overpowering authority, impossible to resist), and perpetual (ceaseless and enduring for eternity). This is the precise context ofJohn 3:8. So, we conclude, contextually, that this sovereign quality of the Spirit speaks not of that feature as it relates to the metaphor of the wind, but rather speaks of that Divine attribute of the Spirit as it relates to the creature who is being born again. In this manner,John 3:8teaches that just as creatures of the air and earth cannot direct or control the wind, neither can the creatures of God’s elect direct or control the Spirit of God. Just as the wind is "sovereign" in its relationship and view to man and beast, so is the Spirit of God "sovereign" in His relationship and view to God’s elect in regenerating them. "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit."John 3:8 Every one that is born of the Spirit canst not tell whence the Spirit of God cometh and whither He goeth, because His functionality is “Sovereign”.Nevertheless, in one’s new birth, the elect hears the sound of the Spirit. He then responds and answers that effectual call. Thus, God’s elect are made “willing”in the day of His power. {Psalms 110:3} The “eternity,” the “omnipresence,” the “omniscience,” and the “omnipotence”of the Holy Spirit of God are all, individually and collectively, indicative of His Sovereignty. All one has to do to believe this is to read with alert comprehension the passage of Scripture found inPsalms 139:7-10: "Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me." ======================================================================== CHAPTER 136: UNCONDITIONAL ELECTION ======================================================================== UNCONDITIONAL ELECTION Primitive Baptists believe that just as God had a covenant people which He chose out of the seed of Abraham, He also has a covenant people chosen in Christ Jesus. Unconditional election signifies that God chose a people in Christ and that choosing was not conditioned on any good which they would do. But, he determined their final condition based on what Jesus Christ would do for them. Let us study carefully some passages found in Ephesians chapter 1: "According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world..."{Ephesians 1:4} The word chosen in the Greek- SGreek: 1586. eklegomai -is eklegomai. It is made up of two primary Greek words: (1) ek; -SGreek: 1537. ek -a primary preposition denoting origin (the point from where and when motion or action proceeds); from out of place, time or cause; literally or figuratively, direct or remote. (2) lego; -SGreek: 3004. lego -to lay forth, i.e. relate in words usually of systematic or set discourse. From these two Greek words we find the word chosen denotes that God from out of place, time, or cause did lay forth a systematic or set plan for our Salvation.Ephesians 1:4gives us a divine expression by God concerning our election, or choosing us to glory. If indeed this was from before the foundation of the world (and it was), then it could not be because of any good thing in us. But, being chosen in Christ, our Salvation is based upon His righteousness being substituted for our lack of righteousness. There was also a purpose for this systematic, or set way: "that we should be holy and without blame before him in love." {Ephesians 1:4}b We could never stand before Him justified in our lost and ruined condition inherited from our first father, Adam. Being dead in the ruins of sin, we were unable to do anything. If we were to ever be made holy and without blame, the doing of it must be a condition met in Jesus Christ. Therefore, God unconditionally elected a people and gave them to Christ. He further determined that these same people would be holy and without blame before Him in love. Some people say election is not fair! But what if God had chosen to leave you in a condition of eternal separation? (This was God’s sovereign right). Would this be fair? That system which sets anyone in a state of righteousness is said to be by grace which is called unmerited favor. Someone has asked the question, "What do you do with the passage found in2 Peter 1:10" This certainly merits our attention. "Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence..." If this were the end of the statement, without any qualifications, then it would seem that something must be done on our part to assure this election! But we find the writer did not end the passage upon these words. He added, "... for if you do these things, ye shall never fall." {2 Peter 1:11} "For so and entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." The phrase "... for if ye do these things..." refers to the former verses 5-7. {2 Peter 1:5-7} "Add to your faith..." We notice that faith is presupposed! "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it (faith) is the gift of God." {Ephesians 2:8} If we have faith already existing, we are born of God. By adding to this faith, we assure ourselves that we are chosen (elected) of God. Otherwise, grace would have ceased and works would be the means instead of the shed blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. One more passage before leaving this subject. Paul wrote to the brethren at Thessalonica: "knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God." {1 Thessalonians 1:4} Again, we are pointed forward to find the qualification for this knowledge: "For our gospel came not unto you in word only, But also in power and the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance, as ye know what manner of men we among you for your sake. And ye became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost: So that ye were ensamples (examples) to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia." {1 Thessalonians 1:5-7} These brethren were fulfilling that grand purpose stated inEphesians 1:4b "that we should be holy and without blame before him in love." Only this adding to faith and practicing a holy walk before men by example will assure us of our election. But let the word of God again stress the fact that when we find these things abounding in ourselves, we have already received the effects of election. This is called unconditional election. May God establish this in your heart and minds. Only this will give you joy and peace through Jesus Christ our Saviour. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 137: WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY ABOUT SPEAKING IN TONGUES? ======================================================================== WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY ABOUT SPEAKING IN TONGUES? WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY ABOUT SPEAKING IN TONGUES? INTRODUCTION This is a subject to which I have given a great deal of thought for almost thirty years. When I was twenty years old, I was drafted and sent to Europe, where I lived for the next two years. I met some people there who told me that if I had not spoken in tongues, I was not born again. Well, it did not take a rocket scientist to see through that from the Scriptures. Others told me that I had not experienced the fullness of the Holy Spirit if I had not spoken in tongues. Now that truly troubled me. I knew that I loved God and wanted to serve Him more than anything else in life, so if there was more of God to be had that I did not have, I wanted it. The Bible did talk about being filled with the Spirit, and it did talk about speaking in tongues; so, I embarked on an open-minded search for the truth in this matter. I sincerely begged God (ask my poor wife, if you don’t believe me!) to let me experience all of Him that there was- all the time searching the Scriptures. After several months of seeking God’s face and studying the word of God, I came to several basic conclusions then, and they have grown in strength in my heart in the thirty years since: 1. The gift of speaking in tongues was a supernatural ability to speak languages which one had not previously learned. 2. Being filled with the Spirit was not primarily an experience, but a way of living. 3. The gift of tongues fulfilled three main purposes: A. A sign to the Jews that the kingdom of God was now extended to the Gentiles B. To facilitate the spread of the gospel into all the world C. To validate the ministries of the Apostles 4. The sign gifts (including tongues) have ceased, according to the Bible and verified by history. This paper, then, will be concerned with examining these conclusions to see if they have any Biblical validity. I would encourage the reader to do as I hope I have done. Take your Bible and carefully examine this doctrine, and may God guide us into all truth. WHAT IS SPEAKING IN TONGUES? We shall now examine the question of what is speaking in tongues. What happened in the New Testament when people spoke in tongues? To answer this question, we will go to the occasion of its first appearance inActs 2:1-47. Two Greek words are translated "tongues" in this passage. They are "glossa"( SGreek: 1100. glossa) and "dialektos"(SGreek: 1258. dialektos). Glossa is used in describing the speaking {Acts 2:4} and hearing {Acts 2:11} and dialektos is used to describe the hearing. {Acts 2:6;Acts 2:8} They are used synonymously, and both refer to known human languages (dialektos is even translated "languages" inActs 2:6). Under the influence of the Holy Spirit, the Apostles were preaching the gospel in languages (glossa) they had not previously learned, and men from foreign countries heard them speak in their own native language (dialektos). There are two other instances of the manifestation of this miraculous gift in the book of Acts-Acts 10:46andActs 19:6. In both instances Jews were dealing with Gentiles who were not conversant in Aramaic, so God manifested this gift of tongues for the breaking down of language barriers and to confirm to the Jews that these Gentiles are also included in the new covenant. Only the Greek word "glossa" is employed in these passages. A similar episode is recorded inActs 8:17. In all four passages the Holy Spirit fell upon them, but inActs 8:17this supernatural gift of speaking in tongues was not manifest. Why? Simply because there was no language barrier here; they all basically spoke the same language. Let us take a closer look at these two words, "glossa" and "dialektos" to show that they mean nothing more or less than either the instrument of speech located on one’s mouth or a known human language. It would be a good exercise for the reader to consider every place in the New Testament in which these words are used. I shall only refer to a few. "Glossa" when not referring to this supernatural gift always is either referring to the instrument of speech located in one’s mouth as in this passage: Mr 7:35 And straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue (glossa) was loosed, and he spake plain, or a foreign language as in this passage:Revelation 5:9And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue (glossa), and people, and nation. "Dialektos" only refers in Scripture to a human language as in this passage: And when he had given him licence, Paul stood on the stairs, and beckoned with the hand unto the people. And when there was made a great silence, he spake unto them in the Hebrew tongue (dialektos). Now, let us expositorily examine the use of "glossa" in the only New Testament passage which deals with this supernatural gift-1 Corinthians 12:1-31;1 Corinthians 13:1-13;1 Corinthians 14:1-40This lengthy discussion is obviously necessitated by the abuse of this gift in the Corinthian church (I shall deal later with the fact that in later writings of Paul concerning spiritual gifts in Ephesians and Romans, there is not even a mention of the gift of tongues, which shows that it either was not a problem in these places, or it had already begun to go out of existence). It seems that men to whom God had given this gift in the early church had the ability to exercise it at will. This must have been a truly exhilarating experience! Imagine being able to declare the works of God in a language you had never learned. It must have filled the soul with wonder and praise! Indeed, he is said in1 Corinthians 14:2to be speaking the mysteries of the kingdom to God, much to the edification and exaltation of his own soul. {1 Corinthians 14:4} However, therein lay the problem. While this was all well and good for him, no one else was being edified by hearing the gospel proclaimed in an unknown language. Yea, it seems that he, himself, did not always know what he was saying (thus the demand for an interpreter), but he was sure having a good time. While Paul wished that they could all personally experience this exhilarating experience, he severely limited its use in the church because of it intrinsically selfish nature. He strictly forbids its use unless interpreted and discourages its use at all with these pointed words in1 Corinthians 14:19, "Yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand in a tongue." (The word "unknown" used in this entire passage is never found in the Greek and is only and always supplied by the translators to imply that this language is previously unknown to the speaker.) He concludes this by saying in1 Corinthians 14:26, "Let all things be done unto edifying." While I am here, let me say a word about two other prohibitions made concerning the use of the gifts of the Spirit in this passage. First he says to never speak more than one at a time, whether it be in an unknown tongue or the language which is commonly spoken. I have seen episodes where everyone spoke or "prayed" at the same time. Paul calls this confusion in verses1 Corinthians 14:27and1 Corinthians 14:31, and so it is. There should never be a time in the public worship of God where more than one person is speaking at a time! Second, he instructs them that women should never exercise these gifts (specifically speaking in tongues or prophecy- preaching) in the public worship of God. He concludes the whole section with these words: "Let all things be done decently and in order." I shall have more to say later about this passage, but what I have written here is to show plainly that "glossa" always is used to speak of languages. Some have argued that1 Corinthians 13:1shows that there are angelic languages. In every place in the entire Bible where angels have spoken, it is in the language of the hearer, or else someone was present who could translate. Let the word of God just say what it plainly says! FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT Let us now consider what it is to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Does the Bible teach that speaking in tongues is the evidence of being filled with the Spirit? Does the Bible indicate that this miraculous manifestation always or even usually attends being filled with the Spirit? Well, when we consider that the phrase "filled with the Spirit" or "filled with the Holy Ghost" appears ten times in the New Testament, and in only one of these ten times is speaking in tongues mentioned, the answer to these questions must be a resounding, no! The one and only place where being filled with the Spirit and speaking in tongues is mentioned in the same context isActs 2:4. In this passage the church is receiving the fulfillment of the prophecy of John the Baptist and the Lord Jesus Christ that there was coming a day in which they would be baptized with the Holy Ghost and fire. On this glorious day, the church of God received its promised power to carry out its great work of taking the gospel into all the world. {Acts 1:8} The true church of Christ is still operating under this blessed power. There is absolutely no indication that any other assembly should seek this baptism, much less that individuals should seek it. It was given to the church once and for all time. However, we are commanded in the Bible to be filled with the Spirit inEphesians 5:18, in which passage (or the entire epistle, which deals at some length with spiritual gifts in chapter four) there is no mention of speaking in tongues. So, how does one obey the command to be filled with the Spirit?Ephesians 5:1-33tells us plainly: be a loving husband, be a submissive wife, be an obedient child, be a faithful parent, do not get drunk, be a good employee/employer, esteem the church of God, and all the other things mentioned in this epistle. One is filled with the Spirit by obeying God’s word! It is not an emotional experience to be sought after, but a holy way of life. The reason the church was filled with the Spirit on the day of Pentecost is simply this: they were obeying Christ’s command to wait in Jerusalem for the power of the Holy Spirit to come upon them. One is filled with the Spirit and the power of that Holy Spirit only as he walks in obedience to God’s word, and absolutely nowhere in the Bible is one commanded to speak in tongues. We fear that the modern tongues movement is a device used by Satan to counterfeit God’s true command to be filled with the Spirit. It is a shortcut to holiness. I have arrived because I speak in tongues. I am filled with the Spirit because I speak in tongues. Dear reader, nothing could be farther from the truth! One is filled with the Spirit when he is obeying God’s word. THE PURPOSE FOR TONGUES We now turn our attention to why the gift of tongues was given. We have already asserted that it as well as all the sign gifts were given for three reasons: as a sign to the Jews that the kingdom of God was now extended to the Gentiles, to facilitate the spread of the gospel into all the world, and to validate the ministries of the Apostles. The Bible is especially clear on this first point, for in1 Corinthians 14:21-22we read, "In the law it is written, With men of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people; and yet for all that will they not hear me, saith the Lord. Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not: but prophesying serveth not for them that believe not, but for them which believe." Now, this passage tells us plainly that tongues are given for a sign, but to whom? It is a sign to the Jewish nation according to the prophecy that is quoted. God will speak to the Jews (them that believe not), but they will not listen. This is also why tongues appeared on the day of Pentecost, at Cornelius’ house, and at Ephesus. It confirmed to the Jews that the Gentiles are also included in this new covenant. Notice Peter’s defense of his actions at Cornelius’ house inActs 11:15-18, "And as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the beginning. Then remembered I the word of the Lord, how that he said, John indeed baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost. Forasmuch then as God gave them the like gift as he did unto us, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ; what was I, that I could withstand God? When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life." When Peter declared that these Gentiles received the gift of the Holy Spirit in the same manner in which they had in the beginning (Pentecost), he knew that this was from God. Even these Jewish Christians had to have powerful and convincing proof of this incredible truth, and the unbelieving Jews refused to accept it regardless of the miraculous proofs, even as they did in the personal ministry of Jesus himself. While we will address this more particularly later, let me say here that this is one reason that the Bible teaches that tongues will cease. When the Jewish nation ceased to exist with the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, so also did this sign for their benefit cease. Secondly, this sign gift existed for the purpose of facilitating the spread of the gospel in the Apostolic age. At Pentecost, men from fifteen different nations heard the gospel in their native languages from as far away as Rome. The Bible and church history tell us that from this one episode, there sprang up churches in all of these places. Indeed, inRomans 10:18we read these words: "But I say, Have they not heard? Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world." We are told of the amazing spread of the gospel, even before the end of the Apostolic age. This was made possible in part by this extraordinary gift of tongues. Now, please think with me on this verse in Mr 16:15-18: "And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." Here, our Lord Jesus is commanding his Apostles specifically {Mr 16:14} to carry the gospel to every creature. These signs were given to them (notice tongues here) to facilitate this commission. In the phrase, "These signs shall follow them that believe," the word "believe" is in the aorist tense in the Greek. Notice this definition of the aorist tense: The aorist tense is characterized by its emphasis on punctiliar action; that is, the concept of the verb is considered without regard for past, present, or future time. There is no direct or clear English equivalent for this tense, though it is generally rendered as a simple past tense in most translations. The events described by the aorist tense are classified into a number of categories by grammarians. The most common of these include a view of the action as having begun from a certain point ("inceptive aorist"), or having ended at a certain point, ("cumulative aorist"), or merely existing at a certain point, ("punctiliar aorist"). The categorization of other cases can be found in Greek reference grammars. Forgive me for being somewhat technical here, but the point is this: these "sign gifts" (including tongues) were given specifically to the Apostles or to those who have believed (and so it is more properly rendered in the New American Standard Bible) and not to those who will believe. In other words, the signs are not perpetual. They are not promised to those who will believe, but to those who have believed that is, the Apostles to whom this is specifically addressed. Notice the highly respected Greek authority, Spiros Zodhiates’ comment on this verb: "It should be noted that these signs were not for believers of generations to come, but for previous believers since the participle pistersasi (believe) is in the aorist tense indicating those who at some time in the past had believed." These gifts were given to validate the ministries of the Apostles and facilitate the spread of the gospel. Why, might you ask, are they no longer needed? We shall speak to that in the last section of this paper, but let me briefly say here, that we now have something that even the Apostles did not have, by which men may judge whether or not we speak the word of God. Dear friend, we have the complete Bible! Lastly, consider this passage of Scripture with regard to the purpose of tongues inHebrews 2:3-4: "How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?" This passage tells us two very important things: the purpose for sign gifts (including tongues) and to whom these gifts were given. The "them" in this verse is clearly the Apostles, as we notice also the "was confirmed" is in the past tense. The sign gifts validated their ministries, and ended with them. Notice that the writer does not say that they should stand in fear of God’s judgment based on what we say or do, but on what they (the Apostles) said and did. In2 Corinthians 12:12the sign gifts are specifically called, "Signs of an Apostle." That is, signs that identified one as an Apostle. Some may claim to be Apostles in our day. If he can meet the qualifications given inActs 1:1-26, I will follow him as an Apostle myself! However, none of the men who lived immediately after the Apostles and received the gospel directly from them claimed to be an Apostle or have that special authority, and it is heaven-daring presumption for any man to claim it today! TONGUES SHALL CEASE Finally, let us think together concerning what the Bible says about tongues ceasing. The Bible plainly says that tongues shall cease as we see in1 Corinthians 13:8: "Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away." Now, we are clearly told that tongues shall cease, but when, and why? This same passage gives us the answer to both of these important questions. Notice the two other gifts which are specifically mentioned in this context, prophecy and knowledge. They are said to be at that time operating "in part," but when "that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away." Now, what is the Apostle saying? He is saying that prophecy (the telling forth of God’s will) and knowledge (the telling forth of God’s word or revelation) was only being done "in part" or an incomplete manner in his lifetime. When that which is perfect (fully mature and full grown) shall come, that which is in part shall be done away. What? Is the great Apostle saying that the power, the glory of the Apostolic era was not full grown or fully mature? Indeed, that is precisely what he is saying. In fact, he likens it in verse eleven to a childhood as compared to adulthood. What is the "perfect" of which he speaks? Consider what the Apostle Paul did not have that came at a later time. He did not have the complete (perfect) word (knowledge) of God in the Bible. Much of the New Testament had not even been written when Paul wrote this letter, and some of it was not written until after his death. So, if you were in an early first century church, and a man came in to you and said that he had a word of knowledge from God, and based on this knowledge, here is God’s will (here is the prophecy and knowledge spoken of in this passage), how could one know that this man was truly from God? He could work miracles, speak languages he had never learned, and work other "signs of an Apostle." One can easily see how this might be abused by someone who pretends to "speak in tongues" or engage in other emotional activities. So, what is the "perfect" which shall come? It is simply the full revelation of God in the Bible![i] How can one today tell if a man is preaching the truth of God? He must search the Scriptures! Error can only creep in when men are ignorant of all the counsel of God in the Holy Bible. One might ask, "Is there not prophecy and knowledge in our day?" Not in the manner in which it existed in the times of the Apostles. They received revelation directly from God and preached based upon that to the people and proved their calling from God by working signs and miracles. Today, however, there is no direct revelation of new knowledge from God, because "that which is perfect" is come- the word of God in the Bible. How does one prove his calling from God today? He preaches the Bible. Dear reader, it is vitally important for you also to know the word of God, so that you may test what you hear by this heavenly standard- is it what the Bible says? The Scriptures warn us of the latter days in which men will claim heavenly revelations and will deceive many. Do not be one of them! Men will claim to have visions or speak to angels or to even Christ, Himself. Do not be deceived. The Bible is a "perfect" and thorough furnisher unto every good work. {2 Timothy 3:15-16} Even though Jesus did many miracles and showed many signs and wonders, that was not the focus of His ministry. InMatthew 12:39Jesus said, "An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign..." In1 Corinthians 1:22the apostle Paul decries the fact that the Jews require a sign. He goes on to emphasize the importance of preaching the gospel. It is a sure evidence of a false "gospel" that today must have signs to accompany it or validate it, for we now have "that which is perfect." Some who read1 Corinthians 13:1-13seem to think that Paul is saying that when we all get to heaven we will not need prophesying, tongues, and knowledge. They say the "that which is perfect" (remember, this word simply means mature or fully grown) is heaven. However, such a simplistic interpretation ignores the context. Paul is not talking about heaven here, for1 Corinthians 13:1-13is a part of the larger discussion of spiritual gifts including1 Corinthians 12:1-31;1 Corinthians 13:1-13;1 Corinthians 14:1-40Surely in heaven we will have the fullness of the revelation of God, but that is not under consideration in this passage. So, when did tongues cease? When the revelation of God in the Bible was complete. Also consider what we have previously noticed in1 Corinthians 14:21-22, where we are told that tongues were for a sign to the Jews that the kingdom of God is also for Gentiles. When the Jewish nation ceased to exist in 70 AD with the destruction of Jerusalem, the purpose for the sign also ceased to exist. Actually, the sign gifts seem already to be fading toward the end of the apostolic era. First Corinthians was one of the first letters written by Paul; but in his letters which came nearer to the end of his life (Ephesians and Romans), there is once again an extensive discussion about spiritual gifts, but neither mention (nor are they mentioned anywhere else by any other writer) the sign gifts, which, of course, includes speaking in tongues. Also, none of the men who came directly after the apostles make any mention of speaking in tongues, and the fourth century writer, Chrysostom, said that they had gone out of existence. The honest and objective student, then, must assert that the gift of tongues ceased with the apostolic age. Some counter this indisputable fact by saying that, yes, they did cease, but have reappeared at the end of the age. I would ask, upon what Scripture would one assert such a thing. Dear reader, many people make the claim that they have uncovered either new revelation (such as Jehovah’s Witnesses or Mormons) or old truth which has been lost to the ages (such as the Charismatic movement or the Campbellites). Always beware of such claims! The faith was once and for all delivered to the saints in the days of the Apostles, {Jude 1:3} and the true church of Jesus Christ has kept and defended this truth in every age according to the prophecy of Jesus when He said inMatthew 16:18, "And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." The Apostle Paul also calls the church the "pillar and ground of the truth." No, beloved, God has always kept His true witness in the earth in His church. FINAL THOUGHTS I will end this discussion with some thoughts fromLuke 10:1-42andLuke 11:1-54. InLuke 10:1-42, Jesus sent out the seventy disciples to preach the kingdom of God throughout the land. They came back and joyfully reported that even the devils were subject unto them. Jesus said they would receive even greater manifestations of the power of God, but then he tells them something even more important. He said that they should not rejoice that spirits are subject to them, but rather rejoice that your names are written in heaven. He is in essence saying, do not set your focus on the miraculous or supernatural, but rather the blessing of being a child of God. InLuke 11:27, a woman cried out that the mother of Jesus was such a blessed woman. Jesus said that there are those who are more blessed than she- they who hear the word of God and keep it. Jesus is telling us in these two instances that the most important thing in the kingdom of God is not the amazing or glamorizing, but the simple and that into which every little child of God can freely enter. The modern emphasis on speaking in tongues and miracles by some should be rejected by the student of Scripture who understands that he should rejoice that he is a child of God and has been bought with the blood of the Lamb and seek with all his heart to hear and do God’s word. Let us all strive for that which is clearly before us instead of straining for some subjective standard of holiness. Amen. [i] I see that our conclusions about "that which is perfect" differ somewhat. I see the completion of the canon as a part of a larger whole; the "perfect" refers to the completion of the transition from the old covenant age to the new covenant age of the Spirit. The coming of the "perfect" coincides with the end of the Mosaic age as determined by the destruction of the temple {Matthew 24:1} ff. Obviously, the completion of the written Word played a vital role in this. Only here do we find the full revelation of the mystery of God hidden from the ages-that believing Jews and Gentiles should be partakers of one body. 545 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 138: WHO IS THE ENEMY? ======================================================================== WHO IS THE ENEMY? Something dawns on me this morning. Satan has distracted us again. We are doing what Israel and Jerusalem did in 70AD. Our enemies have us surrounded and we are destroying ourselves. False doctrine is not an enemy, but a tool of the enemy. Satan is the true enemy of Christ and His church. The antichrist spirit has been among us since the first century and has shown itself in many ways. There are some clear manifestations of this in religion that is obviously ungodly and totally denies Jesus as the Son of God. We know them well. But, for some reason we have turned our attention and strength inward to brethren that have taken up a name for themselves instead of Jesus. Neither Arminianism nor Calvinism are the enemy, they are the tools of the enemy. And he is using them well. They have all but destroyed the people that should be coming together to fight the forces of the enemy without. Why are brethren that profess to be preachers of the gospel more concerned with name over their doors instead of the name in their hearts, unless they differ? Some of our brethren have in the past reduced the gospel to a sweet song to pacify the complacent and lazy. Some have misused it as an aide to produce children for the God who neither needs nor asks for assistance in this instant and sovereign act of the Holy Spirit. I understand the zeal of some who are attempting to right the wrongs by preaching Jesus as all important, yet have pushed the limits of our belief to again an assistant of God as a part of a process of birth. May I remind us all, God does not procreate children, He creates them. I understand the need for some to prove their roots. God has surely given us a great heritage. But, our focus must be ahead to Christ and not backward to men. What is the proof of our forefathers but the truth of Jesus Christ? That has to be the standard of our lives and ministries today. We have become so cautious and perhaps overzealous that we will write a brother off for a word before we hear his message. Who among us does not make mistakes in even the delivery of sermons? Which one of us is infallible? But, before you judge me or others an heretic, make sure the scriptures so say and not history. And, by the way, where are the first and second admonitions? Why do we think the salvation of erring brethren is beneath us? Or a waste of our time? Some of us are too afraid to have our positions challenged to confront what we are sure is heresy. We have a sure and certain threat to not only us but our nation and we, the ones who should know, are asleep at the wheel again. Remember the Lord said that it is while men slept that the enemy sows the tares. God help us to wake up! The obvious pagan religion of Islam has been sown among us in this country and it’s weeds are creeping farther and farther. Brethren, we better take heed and began to blow the trumpet of King Jesus again. We are wasting time with fences and infighting. If we really love the Lord Jesus Christ and His cause, it is time to put down our differences and unite in the common cause and common salvation of the faith once delivered. I verily believe that God is calling on His remnant to stand up together and be heard. God help us all if we do not! I have been so convicted that I have not been brave enough to speak the name of Jesus in public. I compromise at home and on the job. It is time to stop and know He is God. Lift the banner of the true gospel of Christ and Him alone again. Yes, count the cost if you do. But, consider the loss if you don’t. We are at war. The enemy has been identified and we have been called. Arm yourselves with Christ and His word and stand in your places lifting up the light of the glorious gospel of Jesus, OUR LORD! Do any of you know what I mean? Join me! Stop fighting each other and seek peace among brethren that we might unite against the real enemy of truth and God and the one who seeks to destroy us all. He almost has! God grant us all grace and courage to listen to [sic] Him and not ourselves. Show us our sins and those of our fathers. Direct us to not fall there again, but use us for your glory and deliverance of your people, your church, this nation and our families. Amen. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 139: WILL OF GOD, SECRET ======================================================================== WILL OF GOD, SECRET WILL OF GOD, SECRET God has a secret will and a revealed will. (See PBtop: GOD IS SOVEREIGN) This term of the "secret will" is foreign to me. Here is some research on this matter that I have done: 1. Secret will OR revealed will as a phrase cannot be found in the scriptures -not KJV anyway. [i] 2. I do find some things that were kept secret: Matthew 13:35That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world. [ii] Romans 16:25Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, [iii] I do not see the implication in either of the above 2 texts that this pertained to a secret will but yet on the other hand could we consider that the things that were kept secret were not in the will of God? Would God have brought those things to pass if they had not been His will? Do you follow my line of thinking here? As an additional thought here though should we consider that everything that is done on earth is the will of God? I think not myself but I may be wrong. If everything done on earth is the will of God then I do not understand why we are told to pray that Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth inLuke 11:2. [iv] 3. In some scriptures I think we find where God reveals what He in His providence provides for His people when He had determined things that He was going to bring to pass for the benefit of His children even such things as in1 Kings 21:1-29and1 Kings 22:1-53which I posted this morning. He makes these things known unto His servants. Example: Amos 3:7Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets. Psalms 25:14The secret of the LORD is with them that fear him; and he will shew them his covenant. This is even supported IMO in: Deuteronomy 29:29The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law. Now, it seems also that decretive will is not to be found in the KJV scriptures either. However, would we not say that God decreed such things as the death of Ahab there in1 Kings 21:1-29&1 Kings 22:1-53? Would that not be God’s decretive will? [v] (ANSWER)[vi] [i] Amen, and that is enough for me to raise a "RED" flag. [ii] Yes, but once uttered, they are no longer secret. [iii] True, but no longer is. [iv] I do not believe that every thing done in the world, on this earth, is God’s will. As you said these texts do not teach or even mention a "secret will." They have to do with the fulfillment of God’s will through Christ and in us. How these things would be accomplished had been withheld from men and prophets of old, but was revealed by Christ’s entrance into the world and the indwelling of the Holy Ghost in the regenerate soul. These things are no longer secret.Colossians 1:25-29 [v] According to the "Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles" Decree means (One of God’s appointments whereby events are foreordained. 1570). Now, when you get into foreordaining, you are real close to predestinating. For me to believe that the events that led to Ahab’s death, or any one else’s for that matter, were foreordained of God is to be fatalistic. {vi} While I understand that there are no events of past, present, or future that surprise the sovereign God of heaven and earth, I do not limit Him or think Him so "short sighted" as to have to decree all things before they happen to know that they will happen. I believe and am confident that He is able to intercede at any point He chooses to control the actions of men and He himself stay the course. Without a doubt our lives and the lives of all men would be far better if in line with the ways of God. But, it is not decreed that we or they will always walk in them, and there are serious consequences if we do not, even death! [vi] To me there is a difference between foreordination, prescience & predestination. I agree with you that foreordination and predestination are closely linked but they’re not the same thing either. As far as God ordaining, IMHO it applies to things in this life as well as things pertaining to eternal life. Through God’s prescience (knowing things before they happened) He knew what was going to be the case with Ahab. To say that God ordained and/or predestinated this before the world is not proper though IMHO. To say that God did ordain it though at some time here on the earth though is correct IMHO. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 140: WILL, MIND, WAY, PLEASING OF THE HOLY TRINITY ======================================================================== WILL, MIND, WAY, PLEASING of the HOLY TRINITY See PBtop: THE DEITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT A Brief Study (See PBtop: THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SPIRIT OF GOD God the Father has a WILL Daniel 4:35;John 1:13;John 4:34;John 6:37-40Romans 12:2;1 Corinthians 1:1;2 Corinthians 1:1;Ephesians 1:1;Ephesians 1:9;Ephesians 5:17;Ephesians 6:6;Colossians 1:1;1 Thessalonians 4:3;Hebrews 10:36;1 Peter 4:2;1 John 2:17 God the Father has a MIND Romans 11:34;1 Corinthians 2:16 God the Father has a WAY Isaiah 55:8-9;Romans 11:33 God the Father PLEASES Himself Psalms 115:3;Psalms 135:6;Isaiah 53:10;Matthew 3:17;Matthew 17:5;1 Corinthians 12:18;2 Peter 1:17;Revelation 4:11 God the Son has a WILL John 6:38 God the Son has a MIND Php 2:5 God the Son has a Way John 14:6 God the Son Pleases the Father Matthew 3:17;Matthew 17:5;John 8:29;Romans 15:3 God the Holy Spirit has a WILL 1 Corinthians 12:11 God the Holy Spirit has a MIND Romans 8:27 God the Holy Spirit has a WAY Ecclesiastes 11:5 God the Holy Spirit PLEASES the Son John 14:17-18;John 21:25;John 15:26;John 16:7-15 Comments: God the Father is not subservient to the Son or the Spirit, but does fully cooperate with, depend in and utilizes the Harmony, Agreement and Unity of the Son and the Spirit, and conversely, also, so does the Son and The Spirit toward God the Father. The SOVEREIGNTY reigns only in the UNITY and HARMONY of the TRINITY, not separately. Even when only ONE PERSON of the Godhead it mentioned, the other two are implied. That is called a Synecdoche. We also notice that the Holy Spirit is always performing by commission and with the absence of omission the Will, Mind, Way and Pleasure of the Son. The Son, likewise is always performing by commission and without the absence of omission the Will, Mind, Way and Pleasure of God the Father. Further, let us amplify the fact that the SON does not do his OWN WILL, but the Will of the Father. The Son does NOT please himselfRomans 15:3. The Son does ALWAYS do the things that PLEASES the FatherJohn 8:29. The Father is always PLEASED with the actions and executions of His SonMatthew 3:17;Matthew 17:5. This is a SHARED LINE or LINKS of HARMONY and UNITY in the issue of, or the name of SOVEREIGNTY. And without doubt, the Holy Spirit has, is and does only those things that pleases the Son. So this LINK OF HARMONY and UNITY is equally shared in the name of SOVEREIGNTY within the Absolute Sovereignty of the Holy Trinity, and no single (or one person) in this Holy Trinity is separately functional independently. Yes, there is DEITY in the SOVEREIGNTY of ONLY THE HOLY TRINITY as a UNIT of HARMONY- always. The Holy Spirit inJohn 3:8is not separately functional independently in its BLOWING, and cannot act sovereignly nor independently AS IT PLEASES, but is always PLEASING THE SON, because the Holy Spirit in Creativity and the Holy Ghost in Cultivating are of the SAME WILL, MIND, WAY and PLEASURE only concerned with the WILL, MIND, WAY and PLEASURE of the Son-John 16:7-15This COMPARATIVE of the WIND BLOWING relating to the SAME procedure of the action of the New Birth of the Spirit, must always be in harmony as such is THE VOICE OF THE SON OF GODJohn 5:25;John 6:63. Would the Son have ONE SET of entities or items on His Agenda, and then with His Voice SPEAK that which is contrary or in conflict with Himself? Conversely would the Holy Spirit have ONE SET of entities or items on His Agenda, and then engage in action separately as he PLEASES, without the unity of The Son, as such would be that which is contrary or in conflict with Himself? This very premise is illustrated by Divine Inspiration in the COMPARISON of the Wind blowing inJohn 3:8. A careful study of Meteorology and the Rules of Weather as designed by God Himself as within the confines of the HOLY TRINITY, sets forth the actions of the wind blowing, but only ACCORDING to "God’s Laws of Weather." Therefore the Wind blows according to the parallel harmony and unity of the "weather structure" as any given time. Only within the confines of "God’s Rules of Weather" does all the various components of the Weather Structure at any given time in any particular geographic location, and especially the WIND BLOWING, and never violating such directing, and the SOVEREIGNTY of God’s Rules of Weather AS A UNIT-STRUCTURAL-COMPONENT, acts, executes and performs therein, without any independent or separate "stray black sheep factor" running off in a tangent "as it pleases." Now for the phraseJohn 3:8-"...and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth..." We will use this current "hurricane season" and illustrate such phenomena. Out in the Atlantic Ocean during this time of year (of the September-October Zone) -there is a spawning of the embryonic seeds of a LOW PRESSURE AREA, with the Warm Waters, and other factors, such counter-clock-wise circulation begins, and then it begins to move in varying directions, and as it grows, it is generated into more intensity, from the INFLUENCE OF THE LOW PRESSURE, and the TEMPERA-TURE of the Water, as a "package unit," and this is what directs the wind. We cannot tell from where, or when, such begins, nor WHERE it is going to go? Mortal men who are trained meteorologists miss their predictions and forecasts continuously, even with their "cutting edge" of high technology. It must also be observed; that the WIND has never arbitrarily exercised its WILL, MIND or WAY, to think, "Well, I believe I’ll just start and initiate a hurricane, and start blowing counter-clock-wise and cause all these other factors and elements necessary for such a ‘weather system’ to become a reality." The wind has never decided to do anything, just because it "pleases" to. No, No, No. "SO IS EVERYONE that is born of the Spirit." Likewise, we know not where, or when, or who is going to be born of the Spirit. This Spirit is THE ACTIVE VOICE OF THE SON OF GOD. Next and moreover, I stress and magnify the teachings ofJohn 16:7-15 The Weather naturally functions along the same procedural lines as this Spiritual entity. That confirms the validity of this COMPARISON. Please also hold in your conscious awareness that JESUS HIMSELF, the Son of God is doing the speaking herein. John 16:7"Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you." The Comforter which is the very Spirit of Christ, { John 14:18-"And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment." We further note that the only "open door" for the Spirit to come is because he is SENT BY the Son. John 16:9"Of Sin, because they believe not on me;" The Spirit’s actions of reprove is found in the confines of Jesus Himself NOT being believed on. Thus the Spirit, again, is not Sovereign herein. John 16:10"Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more;" Continuing, we find that the Spirit reproves OF Sin also, because Jesus is not believed on, especially, that of His Ascension back to the Father, and will not be visible on earth at that point. John 16:11"Of Judgment, because the prince of this world is judged." Clearly, the Spirit reporves also of Judgment, not because of its (his) sovereignty, but influenced because Satan himself is judged. John 16:12"I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now." Jesus firmly announces that he must withhold valuable information from them because they are NOT able to bear (deal with, assemble, handle with logic, reasoning and rationale) such, so Jesus does not ALLOW the Spirit herein to reprove them further, at this point of their ignorance. The Spirit is certainly not sovereign herein. John 16:13-"Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall NOT SPEAK OF HIMSELF; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things come." How can there be any doubt or confusion herein. Jesus tells these disciples herein that the Spirit is come (because He Sent him), and his assignment (not sovereignty) is to shew these men "things to come," and further GUIDE YOU into all truth for the Holy Spirit (John 14:26-The Holy Ghost- The Comforter, which is Christ Himself in Spirit-John 14:18) WILL NOT SPEAK OF HIMSELF nor of his Will, Mind, Way or Pleasing, but only that which he hears (is assigned to speak, not necessarily audibly) that and that only SHALL HE SPEAK, and in such communicating, you will become aware of "things to come"-1 Corinthians 2:10 John 16:14"He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you." The Spirit herein clearly is energized BY THE SON. as he RECEIVES his instructions, power, mind-set, will and way according to the PLEASING of The Son, and therein delivers such wondrous direction, guidance, and navigation to the disciples. Only as the Spirit receives, can and does he respond accordingly, in dissemination. No sovereignty independently or separately, by the Spirit, apart from the Son herein. John 16:15"All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you." In summary we find the LINKS OF TRUE HARMONY & UNITY in the Holy Trinity of THE FATHER GOD, the SON OF GOD and the HOLY SPIRIT are operating smoothly, orderly, functionally, in harmonious and loving unity, each respecting each of the THREE PERSONS of this Trinity, and only as a TRINITY are they TOTALLY SOVEREIGN and absolute. Even as Paul states in-1 Timothy 6:15-that the Lord Jesus Christ, at his appearing {1 Timothy 6:14} shall shew who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and the Lord of lords, and who ONLY hath immortality, to whom is honour and power everlasting. Now this finality does not negate nor diminish one iota the TOTAL SOVEREIGN of all three persons of the Holy Trinity, even though in these verse, only the Son is magnified. Again, remember the "synecdoche." I will close with this thought, that in all these Scriptures where ONE ONLY PERSON of the Godhead is mentioned, such does not reduce or negate the ABSOLUTE TOTAL SOVEREIGNTY of all three as a Unit, wherein there has always been complete peace. Wisdom, Power, Truth, Justice, Mercy, Love and Holiness are continuously abiding everlastingly and eternally. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 141: WIND ======================================================================== WIND WIND [NOTE: For the FULL text of what Eld. Bass has written please email him at hulbass@thrifty.net John 3:8-“The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and wither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit.” The first time wind is mentioned in God’s Holy Word (K.J.T.) is found inGenesis 8:1-“And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters asswaged.” Exegesis would require us to conclude that the wind is not sovereign nor independent, as God Himself caused the rules of the weather -meteorology -and thereby “caused the wind to pass over.” Wind is mentioned all through the O.T. and also in the N.T. The wind is not independent nor sovereign. “The wind bloweth where it listeth.” Comment: The Holy Spirit, as the Voice of the Son of God, is directed by Jesus Christ Himself, according to the Will of His Father, and in the execution thereofJohn 3:8;John 4:34;John 5:25;John 6:37-39;John 6:63The wind is in the same stance. WIND The following is my understanding of the “Wind” as it is used by Jesus to refer to the Spirit of God inJohn 3:8: The Wind- The Spirit of God John 3:8“The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.” In this verse, Jesus uses the wind metaphorically to refer to the Holy Spirit and to teach the functionality of this Person of the Holy Ghost in His act of regenerating an elect object of God’s love. Both “wind”and “Spirit”are translated from the same Greek word, pneuma SGreek: 4151. pneuma, and refer to the Third Person of the Triune Godhead. This Third Person in the Trinity, sometimes called in Scripture The Spirit, Holy Ghost, Spirit of God, Spirit of the Lord, My Spirit, Spirit of truth, and Spirit of Christ, is coequal and coeternal with the Father and the Son. The Spirit of God is sometimes referred to in a way which emphasizes His personality and character (the Holy Spirit) and is sometimes referred to in a way which emphasizes his work and power (the Spirit of Truth). In Scripture, He is never referred to as a depersonalized force. The Person of the Holy Spirit, in His absolute sovereignty and power, is the vital force by which the soul of God’s elect is “animated”with Divine, Spiritual, and Eternal Life. It is by reason of this empowerment of spiritual life in a regenerate, that he or she is possessed with the power of knowing, desiring, deciding, and acting within the spiritual realm of godliness. The sovereign influence of the Spirit of God is that principle which fills and governs the inner-most soul of God’s child. In a word, the sovereign Spirit of God is the efficient and vital source of any spiritual power, spiritual affection, spiritual emotion, and spiritual desire that ruminates within the regenerated soul of an elect of God. The Spirit of God (this “Wind”of God, if you will) is as sovereign in His Personal work of effectually calling (regenerating, borning-again-from above, translating, etc.) one of God’s elect from the death-state in sin to the divine life in Christ as was God the Father in foreknowing, electing, and predestinating that object of God’s love, and as was God the Son in accomplishing eternal redemption (expiating sin) and propitiation (satisfying Divine wrath) in His death, burial, and resurrection. The eternal salvation of God’s people requires (in agreement with and in view of God’s will and purpose) the cooperative workings and efforts of the power and unity of all Three Persons in the Godhead. Eternal salvation cannot occur by any One of the Three without the Other Two Persons; that is to say that God is not a “Unit”,but a “Unity”.A “unit”would properly be described as one person with three personalities; whereas, a “unity”would properly be defined as three persons with one personality. The plurality of Persons in the Godhead is a “Unity”,not a “Unit”-[these Three are One]. {1 John 5:7} InJohn 3:8, the words “bloweth”,“listeth”,“hearest”,and “goeth”are all in the present tense, active voice, and indicative mood. The word “cometh” is in the present tense, middle voice, and indicative mood. (Note that the middle voice is almost always translated as being in the active voice.) All these words agree with Jesus’ saying inJohn 5:25, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.”” The hour is coming, and now is...” In this verse, the “Voice”of the Son of God is referring to the Third Person in the Trinity, indicating the “Unity”of agreement in God’s will and purpose. The word “listeth” inJohn 3:8does not denote the condition of “where it is directed” as though the wind were “passive” in selecting its chosen course of action. That view would defy or challenge the “sovereign” activities that flow directly from the “wind’s attributes” and, thus, would disharmonize the otherwise sovereign “unity” of the Three Persons in the Trinity. The word “listeth,” as translated from the Greek thelo SGreek: 2309. thelo (in the active voice), carries the strength of “actively choosing to take for one’s self,” “to will with the determined intent of resolving and purposing in accord with his sovereign desire and purpose.” I agree with John Gill when he says of the wind and the Spirit ofJohn 3:8: “... the Spirit of God is a free agent in regeneration; he works how, and where, and when he pleases; he acts freely in the first operation of his grace on the heart, and in all after influences of it; as well as in the donation of his gifts to men, for different purposes; see1 Corinthians 12:11; and this grace of the Spirit in regeneration, like the wind, is powerful and irresistible; it carries all before it; there is no withstanding it; it throws down Satan’s strong holds, demolishes the fortifications of sin; the whole posse of hell, and the corruptions of a man’s heart, are not a match for it; when the Spirit works, who can let?” God the Father is sovereign. God the Son is sovereign. Likewise, God the Holy Spirit is sovereign. Each of the Three Persons is a Sovereign as He functions in His respective personal office work. Thus, all Three Persons are sovereign in the Unity of the Godhead and work in unison: in will, in purpose, in covenant, in wisdom, in power, in holiness, in justice, in truth, in mercy, and in love, as well as in all other attributes of the Trinity. So, in all the actions of the One, the Others eternally agree in unison. WIND & HOW IT BLOWS After having heard much good preaching on the experience that the apostle Paul had on the Damascus road, who was suddenly and dramatically changed from one who vehemently hated Christ and Christianity into one who ardently loved and served the Lord Jesus, the precious brother who baptized me on July 18, 1954, Elder E. C. Holder, had a similar experience. He had been a rough neck. He had been a brawler and drinker who cared nothing for the things of God. In his early twenties he had a dramatic experience of grace while plowing in a field. Suddenly he saw his sins, was granted repentance, and his life was immediately and drastically changed. He became an ardent lover and follower of the blessed Lord Jesus. When he would preach he would tell of this experience and just weep with tears of joy and thanksgiving. I enjoyed his telling this, but it began to bother me because I had not had such a dramatic experience of grace. I knew that I loved the Lord, or thought that I did, but I had not had a dramatic change in my life that I was aware of. One Sunday Brother Holder was preaching fromJohn 3:8about the wind blowing where it pleases. That Scripture says that “so is everyone that is born of the Spirit of God.” Brother Holder said, “Folks, sometimes the wind blows with hurricane force. That is the way it was with me and with the Apostle Paul. At other times the wind blows so gently it is almost imperceptible. That is the way it was with John the Baptist. However, it is the same wind.” That greatly relieved me. Some of you have had dramatic experiences of grace and some of you have had experiences of grace that were not so dramatic. The experience is not what we should focus attention on. The comfort comes from seeing the evidences of the Spirit of God working in our lives. Where are some good places in the Scriptures to go to look for these evidences? I would suggest several: 1. Look at the Beatitudes inMatthew 5:3-12. Those with these characteristics are pronounced “blessed” by our Lord Jesus Christ. 2. Look atGalatians 5:22-23. It is very comforting to us if we can see the fruit of the Holy Spirit in our lives. If we see the fruit of the Holy Spirit in our lives we can be assured that we have been given spiritual life by this same precious Holy Spirit! 3. Do we enjoy the gospel? Does it come with power to us? Then, according to Paul in1 Thessalonians 1:4-5, we can be assured that we are in the number of God’s elect family. 4. The wonderful epistle of 1 John {1 John 1:1-10;1 John 2:1-29;1 John 3:1-24;1 John 4:1-21;1 John 5:1-21} abounds in evidences that identify God’s children. In fact, this book was specifically written that God’s people might gain assurance. What are some of the identifying marks of God’s people in this great letter? A. Obedience to the commands of Christ-1 John 2:3, “And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.”1 John 2:29, “If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him.” B. Loving the brethren “In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.”1 John 4:7, “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.” C. Believing in Jesus Christ-1 John 5:10, “He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.” May our dear Lord give us the great assurance of our salvation as we see the evidences of grace in our lives. I know that we will stumble and fall many times but even then He has made gracious provision that our fellowship with Him can be restored. One of my favorite and most often practiced Bible verses is1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” May God bless these thoughts to His glory and to the comfort of his people. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 142: WOMEN IN THE CHURCH ======================================================================== WOMEN IN THE CHURCH When I consider the godly women in this assembly who, like Tryphena and Tryphosa inRomans 16:12, work hard in the Lord, my soul is made to truly rejoice in the Father of all grace. I can even feel personally grateful for those women who, like Mary, {Romans 16:6} bestowed much labor on us, and those women who, like Euodius and Saytyche, {Php 4:3} labored with me in the gospel. Women truly have a wonderful place in the church of Christ, and in this paper I will seek to explore exactly what that place is. Godly women, like godly men, rejoice to understand their proper sphere of labor in God’s kingdom. I trust this paper will help you do just that. God’s children are never happier than when they are doing God’s revealed will. May God bring much joy to the women of this assembly in living the revealed will of God. There are four major scriptures which deal with the place of the woman in the church. They are1 Timothy 2:11-15;1 Corinthians 14:34-35;Titus 2:3-5|, and 1 Corinthians 11:3-34;1 Corinthians 12:1-31;1 Corinthians 13:1-13;1 Corinthians 14:1-401 Corinthians 15:1-58;1 Corinthians 16:1, we find that order of authority listed thus: God Christ Man Woman This speaks nothing concerning spiritual superiority or inferiority of persons. {seeGalatians 3:28} It only speaks of submission and authority. In the church of Christ it is given, by divine wisdom, to the men to be the leaders. Concerning matters of business or spiritual direction, the men must take the responsibility of directing the affairs of the church under Christ and His word. That is not to say that the women have no voice or vote, for they rightly do. However, that voice, rather than being heard publicly, should be expressed to husbands or leaders in the assembly privately. These men would act foolishly to esteem lightly the wisdom and desires of the sisters in the church. This principle is clearly seen in the Scriptures; for the women are prohibited from speaking words of exhortation in the assembly. {see1 Corinthians 14:3;1 Corinthians 14:34} So, in the area of ruling in the assembly, it falls totally to the men under their pastors to lead the assembly. With this in mind, let us consider the wisdom of scripture in the specific extent to which women may speak in the assembly. First we shall consider1 Timothy 2:11-15. These verses plainly teach us that, concerning the public ministry of God’s word in the assembly, the women should remain silent in recognition of God’s wisdom in establishing His order of authority. They may not teach publicly or take in any way the leadership responsibilities that men are given. This would prohibit women from being pastors or teachers in the assembly of the saints. This is clearly seen in the next chapter where the qualifications of pastors are given which women could not possibly meet. In addition to the fact that all the pronouns are masculine (he, not she), a pastor, bishop, or elder (used interchangeably in the New Testament) must be the husband of one wife, {1 Timothy 2:2} and rule his house well. For a woman to meet either of these qualifications would be clear violation of Scripture. {Ephesians 5:22-23;Romans 1:26} We now come to the question of whether or not it is permitted for women to speak at all in the assembly. We have seen the Bible clearly forbid women to speak in a way that would usurp men’s God given responsibility of leadership in business or spiritual affairs of the church. {1 Corinthians 11:1-34} We have also seen the woman forbidden to teach in the church, but may she speak at all? Does the Scripture forbid her to share an experience, give a testimony of God’s grace, ask for prayer, confess Christ verbally, ask for a song to be sung, or say amen or other exclamations of praise? Let us begin to answer this question by turning to1 Corinthians 14:34-35. These verses are rather straight-forward in asserting that a women should, "Keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak...for it is a shame for a woman to speak in the church." If one divorces these verses from their context, the answer to the above question is a resounding "No." However, neither these verses not any other verses should be interpreted without due regard to the context. To do so would violate one of the most fundamental principles of Biblical interpretation. The broader subject under consideration in these verses is the proper use of prophecy and "unknown" tongues in the church. The verses under consideration are simply guidelines for the proper exercise of these gifts. They are teaching that women may not prophesy or speak in tongues or interpret these languages in the church. To broaden the meaning beyond this would be to blatantly disregard the context. So what are these verses saying to us. Since tongues have ceased, {1 Corinthians 13:8} we will limit ourselves to prophesy. While prophesies have failed (literally, become idle or inoperative), they continue in another form today. Men take the Scriptures and expound upon them. According to1 Corinthians 14:3, they minister to the congregation in order to "Speak to men for their upbuilding or strengthening, encouragement or exhortation, and comfort or consolation." Women in the assembly must refrain from speaking in such a way as to prophesy. The sisters in this church are exhorted, therefore, to carefully weigh their words so as to obey this explicit command in the Bible. For instance, if she tells of some way God has dealt with her in her life or has spoken to her out of some verse of Scripture, she must be careful to avoid using such phrases as, "So I think we should...," or "We ought to..." Be most careful not to exhort or prophesy. It can be somewhat of a fine line. We believe that these verses basically say the same thing as1 Timothy 2:11-15. By this we conclude that where the church is taught of God to speak to one another in the assembly, the sisters may partake except in these areas which are clearly and specifically prohibited. She may confess her sins and pray, {James 5:16} speak in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, {Ephesians 5:19} give an answer to everyone a reason for the hope that is in you {1 Peter 4:15} and any other verbal expression of praise not prohibited by the Word. I want to note here a specific prohibition. Women are not permitted to ask questions publicly concerning the prophesying (preaching or teaching). She is specifically taught to ask any questions she might have about the public teaching of her husband. Several benefits may clearly be seen in this. First, it reduced possible confusion in the church meetings. Secondly, it would promote spiritual conversations between husbands and wives. It could even prompt the men to seek deeper spiritual understanding from either the Scriptures or their pastors. If a sister has no husband, or is married to an unbeliever, she of course would have to speak privately to the pastor concerning any questions. I want to say a particular word next about public prayer. When the church meets for worship, in accordance with the Scripture, the men should lead in every aspect, whether it be teaching, singing, praying, or business. However, when the church meets for the specific purpose of prayer, the women may join in public prayer as well as the men. There are several instances of the church coming together specifically for prayer, especially in the book of Acts, {seeActs 1:14;Acts 12:5;Acts 12:12-15} where women were certainly present and the inclusive pronoun "they" is used, and women are undeniably part of the antecedent. In1 Corinthians 11:5} clarified and prohibited. Women are nowhere forbidden to pray. I will however give a word of caution. They should be careful not to "preach" in their prayers. The sisters should be careful to pray in such a way that would not violate the Biblical prohibition to prophesy, teach, or usurp authority. While women may pray in the specified prayer meetings, still the weight of responsibility to pray falls to the men. Women may pray and men are commanded to pray. {see1 Timothy 2:8} Men, not women, should take the aggressive leadership. Let us consider now the teaching which the Bible commits to the sisters. Though a woman may not teach publicly in the assembly, she certainly has teaching responsibilities in the kingdom of God. InTitus 2:4-5the older women are commanded to teach the younger women the principles of self-control, to love their husbands and their children, to be pure, to stay at home, and be submissive to their husbands. How the church of God needs this important ministry! Here, women who have something to say may say it. Obviously this is done in a private setting and not in the assembly. I encourage all the godly women in this church to seize every opportunity to encourage one another in these virtuous ways. InActs 18:26, we find a preacher whose understanding of the gospel was incomplete. We find a godly couple who took him aside privately, and they expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly. I have personally been so blessed by the wise words of godly sisters in the church who have privately helped me understand some Biblical truth more perfectly. Any preacher who feels himself above learning from a woman in undoubtedly puffed up and knows nothing as he ought. Philip had four virgin daughters who prophesied. {Acts 21:9} While they did not do so in the assembly (because the Scripture clearly forbids it), they edified, exhorted, and comforted the saints {1 Corinthians 14:3} with their words in other settings. Paul speaks on several occasions about women who were his helpers, {Romans 16:3} and labored with him in the gospel. {Php 4:3} He thanked God for the godly labors of the sisters in furthering the cause of Christ. {Romans 16:3;Romans 16:6;Romans 16:9;Romans 16:12} The Scripture exalts those women who were full of good works. {Acts 9:36} The sisters who have labored hard in the kingdom of God are even entitled to church support in their old age under certain conditions. {1 Timothy 5:3-16} InProverbs 1:8the godly instruction of a mother is like a beautiful piece of jewelry to the son who obeys. InProverbs 31:1-4, the king remembers and recites the holy prophesies of his dear mother, whose virtuous life inspired this Proverb. Yes, the sisters in God’s church have a vast area of teaching ministry under God’s authority. The women of this assembly are strongly encouraged to fulfill all this ministry as God enables and according to the gifts He has given to you, remembering to do so in the manner which is clearly specified in His Word. May you be like Mary and Joanna, whose love and labor aided the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ. {Luke 8:1-3} Amen. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 143: WOMEN TEACHING? ======================================================================== WOMEN TEACHING? Dear _______ I wanted to ask you something .. i’m sure you can answer it. It concerns the scripture below. I know it’s not right for a woman to preach the gospel or to teach in church .. but what about outside of it .. such as this list. I don’t mean preaching or teaching ... just glorifying God .. praising His name. Is that wrong? I don’t want to usurp authority over man and hope I haven’t done that in anyway in the past. I just love talking about the Lord and saying what is on my heart. That’s all .. I don’t have the knowledge and understanding of the bible the way all of you do. It’s so hard not to say anything about the Lord .. I love Him so much. I wish I were a man .. i would preach like crazy. Anyway can you give me your thoughts on this? Sis _____ 1 Timothy 2:12 "But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man; but to be in silence;" Dear Sister __________ I find this interesting for when I looked up the text I noticed that the two words "usurp authority" are from one Greek word. I’d never known that before as best I remember. The Greek word according to the Online Bible definition of Strongs 831 SGreek: 831. authenteo shows the 2nd definition of "one who acts on his own authority, autocratic" and this corresponds to approximately the same thing I had in mind for the meaning of this text to start with. All put together I think the verse is saying that the woman is not to act on her own authority. As long as a sister is not speaking privately with another person (or on a list like this) and acting authoratatively nor beligerant then I think she is entitled to do so and even write articles for our papers, etc. such as has been done in the past by a lot of sisters. When she gets to the point that she thinks though that it is ok for her to publicly preach then she has become one who is trying to usurp authority over the man - authority which the LORD never gave the woman. A companion scripture with this one is1 Corinthians 14:34"Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law." I think this scripture can be run into the ground. This IMHO should be taken with1 Timothy 2:12and would mean that the woman is not to speak in a teaching way thereby usurping authority over the man who is the only one that God ever calls to preach as the ministerial qualifications lay out one thing that a sister can never fulfill in1 Timothy 3:2"A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach;" Maybe other brethren will go ahead and post their thoughts on your question also. They are free to peacefully voice opposition to the things which I have written and I invite them to do so. Bro ________ .. thank you for your response. Here is an example of a woman praising and glorifying God. That’s all I want to do .. praise honour and adore Him for what He has done for me. God is worthy to be praised. Psalms 18:3... I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies. My only desire is to serve and please the Lord for the remainder of my days here on earth. I know I can’t do it to perfection because of this flesh but I’m going to make a great effort of praying to the Lord for grace to do the very best I can. We are blessed. :) Sis _______ Luke 1:46-49 And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord, And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. For he that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is his name. 1 Thessalonians 5:19- Quench not the Spirit. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 144: WORRY ======================================================================== WORRY Take Therefore No Thought Matthew 6:25, "Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life..." Matthew 6:31, "Therefore take no thought, saying, what shall we eat? we drink...be clothed" Matthew 6:34, "Take therefore no thought for the morrow" There are times that the Lord uses the expression, "Take therefore no thought" as in the latter part of the sixth chapter of Matthew. {Matthew 6:34} It must then, be important enough that we pay special attention. The Lord has just uttered His memorable words "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you" inMatthew 6:33. What our Saviour is saying is that if we understand this passage ofMatthew 6:33, then we have no need to worry about the other things -they "shall be added unto you." God is telling us that He will do the looking after that we require.Matthew 6:34Nor should we worry about tomorrow, for it shall take care of itself. "Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." There is a question that needs to be asked aboutMatthew 6:34. Why would Jesus finish such positive declarations with a negative statement? There must be a very good reason for doing so. When we begin to examine it closely, we will find that it is really just an extension of His teaching. It is not mere repetition, but is the continuation of His earlier teachings. Jesus has been dealing with problems that face us in the immediate present. Now, he addresses the future concerns as well. The Lord here shows His profound understanding of human nature and of the problems with which we are confronted in this life. One of the chief of these problems appears to be that of worry. Worry is a definite powerful force in the life of God’s children in addition to everyone upon the face of the earth. We have not begun to understand it until we realize what a tremendous power it is. We often think of the condition of worry to be negative, a failure on our part to do certain things. Actually, it is a failure to apply our faith. If we do not realize the power of worry we are certain to be defeated. It cannot help us to be overly anxious and burdened to the point of being borne down by the state and condition of things that are actually confronting us, it will take us to the next step. Worry will then go on into the future. Let us see how our Lord deals with this problem of worry that goes on into the future. He shows us the folly of being anxious about things to come, "the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." If the present is bad enough as it is, why go to meet the future? To go on from day to day is enough in and of itself. We are to be content with that. It is a waste of energy for anyone to worry about tomorrow because we cannot do anything about it. The real question then, is how are we to face the situations which are causing the concern? According to our Lord, the vital thing is not to spend every day of your life in adding up the grand total of everything that has happened, everything that is going on now, and everything that happens in the future that causes us distress and concern. We must learn to realize that the God who helps us today will be the same God tomorrow, and will help us on tomorrow. His mercy and truth will sustain us along with his mercy. Consider how the Apostle Paul puts it in1 Corinthians 10:13, "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape." We must now take this one step further. We must never allow our thoughts of, worry of, or concern about tomorrow inhibit in any way our usefulness in the present. There are people so concerned about tomorrow that they are unable to live useful, fruitful lives today. Take the great statement of David, "I have been young, but now I am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread." {Psalms 37:25} The Lord is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. {Hebrews 11:6} Worry is always a failure to apply our faith. Faith does not work automatically; you have to apply it. The Psalmist put it this way inPsalms 42:5;Psalms 43:5, "Why art thou cast down, O my soul and why art thou disquieted within me?" This is how faith works. It can not be unused or quiet within us. Faith must be exercised for it to grow. To use our Lord’s analogy, you have to dig round and about it, and pay attention to it. Then, and only then will you see it begin to grow. Finally, we must just refuse to worry or to allow it to get the best of us. One of my favorite or pet scriptures over the years has been to "... cast our cares on Him, for he CARETH for us." When we count our blessings, we can see how God has taken care of us in the past. When we stop for a little while and view the handiwork of God, we are able to say; "Surely He is watching over us today." Then, and only then, are we able to leave the future in the hands of an almighty God. One that is Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. May God bless your ability to guard against worry as we add to our faith in one that is worthy of being praised. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 145: WRATH ======================================================================== WRATH Wrath is the carrying out of action resulting from anger. God has a perfect right to carry out His wrath. We know that whatsoever He does, it is perfect, it is righteous, it is correct. Not so with us. It is true that there are times for righteous indignation and wrath to be exercised against the enemies of God and righteousness. But, too often, our judgment is faulty and we find our anger and wrath has been brought about due to things going against our personal, selfish interests. Some of the most grievous sins are committed out of anger. James tells us under inspiration of God to be slow to wrath. {James 1:19} "For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God." {James 1:20} Paul tells us in the letter to the church at Colose: "But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy..."{Colossians 3:8} In his letter to Titus Paul states that a bishop must "not (be) soon angry." {Titus 1:7} May the Lord give us special grace to control our anger and wrath. It will keep us from many hurtful sins and many broken relationships. Remember, "He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls." {Proverbs 25:28} ======================================================================== Source: https://sermonindex.net/books/primitive-baptist-topics/ ========================================================================