LETTER TO A DEAR BROTHER ON TINA TURNER AND THE END OF THOSE WHO FOLLOW BUDDHISM
My dear Brother John, Thank you for your recent letter and the questions you have asked concerning Tina Turner and the Salvation of those who follow the Buddhist path. I am not surprised that you being a newly converted Christian asked me such a question. But do not the words of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ settle that question once and for all, dear Brother? For He bluntly said,
“I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but BY ME!” [John 14:6]
And His disciples after Him reiterated the same truth by asserting, “Neither is there salvation in ANY OTHER: for THERE IS NONE OTHER NAME UNDER HEAVEN given among men, whereby we must be saved.” [Acts 4:12]
I understand that there are a lot of folks on Social-media who are praising Tina Turner and all the good that she has done etc, saying that “she is in a better place now” blah blah. And as far as I know, only one prominent Christian writer, Ray Comfort spelled out the facts on Twitter, saying – “The Queen of rock ‘n’ roll passed into eternity today. All the money that Tina Turner possessed, all her fame, all her awards, and accolades now mean nothing. The only thing that matters, is “Were her sins forgiven?”
Oh, brother that sure stirred a hornet’s nest amongst the ungodly, with people bashing this man right, left and center . . . you know why? It’s because he was coming against their idol, and in exposing HER he was exposing THEIR OWN GODLESS LIFESTYLE AND THEIR INEVITABLE END, if you will. It happens every time you speak out exposing the wrath of God that awaits those who know not Christ, celebrity or not.
Our Lord stated that in no uncertain terms, “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but THE WRATH OF GOD ABIDETH ON HIM!” [John 3:36]
So, what of Tina Turner and her faith? WHAT did she believe and practice? While Tina Turner is heralded as a Rhythm n Blues and Rock icon, her Buddhist faith was the soul that drove her eventful life and career.
She often credited the Buddhist religion with helping her find the strength to leave her abusive relationship with her husband Ike Turner in 1976. In the years since, Turner was known to recite Buddhist chants daily, even chanting on national television on Larry King’s CNN show in 1997, a practice she continued until her death on Wednesday, at 83, in her home in Küsnacht, near Zurich, Switzerland, where she had kept her own Buddhist shrine.
Here’s what she said concerning her Buddhist faith, “Chanting helped me to go within myself and open deep sources of happiness and wisdom in my own heart and mind,” she revealed. “Soon, I realized that I already had within me everything I needed to change my circumstances and create a truly happy life. We all have that, and I want everyone to know it. I’ve met people from all over the world, from many cultures and faiths, and I believe that all religious traditions share the same basic aspirations at their core—to experience everlasting joy by aligning with the positive forces of the universe. We may describe this ultimate reality as Jehovah, God, Allah, Jesus, Hashem, Tao, Brahma, the Creator, the Mystic Law, the Universe, the Force, Buddha nature, Christ consciousness, or any number of other expressions.”
Read that again, John, she said that she “already had within me everything I needed to change my circumstances and create a truly happy life.” Oh, how different from the apostle who said, “For I know that in me [that is, in my flesh,] dwelleth no good thing!” [Rom 7:18]
Any ‘Christian’ who knows Tina’s lifestyle and beliefs and thinks that “she is in a better place now” needs to be Born-again! And for those who argue that such ungodly sinners could have repented on their death-beds, A.W. Pink’s words are appropriate –“What insanity is it that persuades multitudes to defer the effort to repent till their deathbeds? Do they imagine that when they are so weak that they can no longer turn their bodies they will have strength to turn their souls from sin? Far sooner could they turn themselves back to perfect physical health.”
Coming back to Tina Turner, she was deluded into thinking that all religions “share the same basic aspirations at their core—to experience everlasting joy by aligning with the positive forces of the universe” She is dead wrong!
As we have said in many of our posts, there are basically only TWO RELIGIONS in the world. One says, “IF YOU WILL do such and such, God will graciously bestow His blessing upon you.” The thousand and one varieties of this religion differ only on what the “such and such” is that you must be willing to do. One variety says bathe in a sacred river, another bids you to sit and chant mantras for hours on end, while another beckons you to kiss the sacred rock located in the holy city, still another says be baptized or some similar rite, and in distinctly evangelical circles this religion emphasizes, “IF YOU WILL OPEN YOUR HEART, THEN GOD WILL etc . . .”
Now the second religion is the message of the Bible. It is the gospel of FREE GRACE. It does not look to God for the PROVISION and then turn to man for the POWER, but it boldly proclaims that the same sovereign grace that planned salvation for helpless sinners also furnishes them with the ability to desire and receive it. This second religion not only starts at a different place, it works on a different principle, and moves toward a different goal. In short, it is a totally different religion.
The religion based on free will which include Hinduism, Buddhism, Mohammedanism, and Roman Catholicism [i.e., Arminianism in general – If you will …], and that based of free grace [i.e., Calvinism — God makes us willing …] are two very distinct and opposite religions that differ on every theological point at which they meet.
But since your question concerns Tina Turner and her Buddhist faith, let us briefly examine the religion she followed.
Buddhism teaches that man has to work in order to find salvation from suffering. He does this by following the ‘Noble Truths’: Right Understanding, Right Thought, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Awareness, Right Meditation.
This is just the proud error that man has believed since the beginning: self-salvation. The Buddhist does not believe that he is a sinner and needs to be saved from the guilt, punishment and pollution of sin. Buddhists do not have a correct view of sin: the transgression of the holy law of God. Buddhists have no understanding of original sin: that all people are born totally depraved because they sinned ‘in Adam’. They believe that man is basically good and can achieve ‘enlightenment’ by his own efforts. However, all the supposed good works man does are eloquently described in Scripture as ‘dung’ [Phil. 3:8] and ‘filthy rags’ [Isaiah 64:9].
The Christian on the other hand does not want to be found in his own righteousness, but to be found in Christ. Paul [who was a Pharisee before his conversion] says this: ‘But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and I do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith’ [Phil 3:7-9]. When God saves a person, all glory must go to Him. No sinner can boast in God’s presence that he attained salvation in any sense by his own efforts. Any sinner who believes that salvation is by works is lost, no matter how sincere and outwardly nice he is. That includes all Buddhists.
PEACE IS TO BE FOUND IN CHRIST ALONE:
Peace comes not from relentlessly chanting Buddhist chants or Rosaries, but from having one’s sins forgiven in the blood of Jesus Christ. When a sinner knows, really knows, that he has eternal life, trusting that Jesus Christ bore the curse and guilt of his sins, he has peace. How can a Buddhist have peace? He never knows if he has done enough to achieve salvation. He can never tell if on his death he will cease to exist [which is the ultimate goal of Buddhism!], come back as a worse or better form of life, or awake in hell. What a torment that is!
The child of God however knows peace: ‘I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for Thou, LORD, only makest me dwell in safety’ [Ps. 4:8]; ‘Great peace have they which love Thy law: and nothing shall offend them'[Ps. 119:165]. Christ is called the ‘Prince of Peace’ [Isa. 9:6]; and ‘the chastisement of our peace was upon Him’ [Isa. 53:5], meaning that the punishment which brought peace to sinners was upon Him. Only by satisfying God’s justice on the cross could Christ make peace for sinners with God. However, to the wicked ‘there is no peace’ [Isa. 57:21] because they ‘have not known the way of peace’ [Rom. 3:17].
To His followers Christ says, ‘Peace I give unto you’ [John 14:27]. Many of the Epistles start with the greeting of peace [Rom. 1:7 etc.]. The fruit of the Spirit is peace [Gal. 5:22]. Christ’s work brings peace: ‘Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ’ [Rom. 5:1]. ‘For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us'[Eph. 2:14]. He ‘made peace through the blood of his cross’ [Col. 1:20]. All who reject the peace-making Atonement of Christ on the cross are lost, including all Buddhists.
I trust that answers your query briefly. And in closing let me add that all who have abandoned the Faith of their fathers, [I am speaking here specifically of Hollywood and Contemporary music and sports celebrities] for a faith or a god other than the one the Bible proclaims are LOST, PERIOD!
“O LORD, the hope of Israel, all that forsake Thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from Me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living waters!” [Jer 17:13]
with much Love thy Brother for whom Christ died Brother Mike
“In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you.” Mortimer J. Adler
“The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them.” Mark Twain
“. . . Of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.”Ecclesiastes 12:12b
“. . . Give attendance to reading. . . .” I Timothy 4:13a
Have you started to read a good Reformed book yet? If not, find one and get started! If you have, keep at it! As we pointed out in our initial article, we want to encourage our Standard Bearer readers to become greater readers, that is, to read more books and to read better books.
In this article encouraging you to read, we want to explore the “WHY” of good reading. That is, why should you as a Reformed Christian want to become a greater reader? Or, to put it another way, what are the reasons for reading solid Reformed/Christian books? We believe there are many reasons that may be given; we will highlight a few of them in this article.
First of all, we begin with the most important reason, the THEOLOGICAL reason (where all good Calvinists should begin!): We should read good books because GOD wants us to! Why do we say this, and how do we know this? We have several points in mind under this reason. First, God wants/expects/calls us to read as His people because He gave us the greatest book to read—His Holy Word, the Scriptures!
When God chose to communicate to us, His covenant friends, He chose to do so in WORDS. It is true that these words were initially given ORALLY (and in some cases VISUALLY—cf. the visions of Ezekiel and John), that is, out of God’s mouth through the mouths of His spokesmen (prophets, apostles, etc.). But in the end God committed these spoken words to writing and had them placed in His Book, the Bible (cf.Ex. 24:7; I Sam. 10:25; Neh. 8; Luke 3:4, 20:42; II Tim. 3:15, 16; II Pet. 1:20, 21; Rev. 1:11), or scripture (Mark 12:10, 24; Rom. 1:2, 15:4).
And therefore, this holy Book God charges His people to READ (cf. Neh. 8; Is. 34:16). That means that we must first and foremost be readers of this Book! Not just any book under the sun, but the Bible must be the first book we turn to! Every Christian must be devoted to reading the word of God, like the Bereans of old searching the Scriptures daily (Acts 17:11). This is chiefly what Paul meant when he instructed Timothy to “give attendance to reading” (I Tim. 4:13). And what was true for that young pastor is to be true of every member of God’s covenant. God wills that we be readers because He gave us this marvellous Book of His words!
Second, and closely related to this, is the truth that this chief and fundamental book God gave us to read centers in His Son, Jesus Christ. The most important Word God gave us to read was His Son, the living and abiding Word of God (John 1:1, 14; Heb. 1:1, 2; I Pet. 1:23). Everywhere we go in the Scriptures we must read “Jesus Christ” the “Word of God.” That is true not only in the New Testament portion of the Bible, but also in the Old Testament (cf. Ps. 40:7; Luke 24:27; John 5:39). This is why the Scriptures are able to make us “wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” (II Tim. 3:15). This is why they are “profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,” so that we may be complete and mature Christians (II Tim. 3:16). But only if this word be read! So read, people of God! Read the Bible chiefly and diligently! Set yourself to do so faithfully in this new year! Let SOLA SCRIPTURA be the motto we live by in 2015! Indeed, God wants us and calls us to be readers, because He gave us this holy Book, centered in His Son, our Savior.
There are more reasons why we should be and become better readers. And we may confidently say that the other reasons we will now list are all rooted in that first one. The fact that God gave us His Book to read is the principle that governs all our other reasons for reading. This will become plain as we proceed.
So then, why should we read? In the second place, because reading is vital to the growth of our faith and walk in godliness. God in His sacred Book calls us to spiritual growth. II Peter 3:18, e.g., states, “But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (cf. also Eph. 4:15; I Pet. 2:2; Jude 20). Earlier in that same epistle Peter wrote that we should be “giving all diligence” to “add to your faith virtue; and to virtue, knowledge; and to knowledge, temperance; and to temperance, patience; and to patience, godliness” (I Pet. 1:5, 6). And how are we going to do this? By reading! By reading (and hearing!) the Scriptures, of course (cf. I Pet. 2:2). But also by reading other sound Reformed/Christian books that teach us and encourage us to spiritual growth.
So then, are you tired of not being as strong in your faith as you should be and could be? Are you frustrated by the fact that your walk with God is not as close as it ought to be? Do you struggle with being spiritually mature and wise in handling trials and temptations in your life? Then READ. Yes, again, read the BIBLE, so that your faith becomes more grounded in Jesus Christ and your walk is brought closer to the Lord! But also read the books that your fellow believers have written to help you grow in faith and godliness! They stand with you and support you in this calling to grow. They have wisdom and experience to share with you as we walk the common path of the Christian in this world. Our fellow Reformed Christians have written books because of their own struggles and hardships. Let us read them to benefit from them; to enhance our own spiritual life; to become stronger in faith and more holy in life! This too is why we must read!
In the third place, we should read good Reformed/Christian books because it is important to defend our faith and abide in the truth of God’s word. We are talking about the area of APOLOGETICS, the defense of the Reformed-Christian faith and walk. In this present world there are always threats to our faith and life. The devil and his hosts walk about as a roaring lion seeking to devour us with lies and deception (I Pet. 5:8). The world of unbelief with its “lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” seeks to lead us astray from the Father (I John 2:16).
False prophets and teachers in the church “bring in damnable heresies” and “pernicious ways,” trying to overthrow “the faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 3; I John 4:1ff.; II Pet. 2:1ff.). And, yes, our own sinful nature is still inclined to and tempted by all these lies and errors and ungodliness. We are Christian soldiers, called to be on the defensive against all these spiritual dangers (Eph. 6:10ff.). We are exhorted to resist doctrinal lies and remain steadfast in the faith (I Pet. 5:9). We are admonished to abide in godliness and stay obedient to our Savior, suffering accordingly (I Pet. 3, 4).
And how shall we be able to do this? By READING! Yes, again, by reading the Scriptures (Eph. 6:17). But also by reading good Reformed books that lead us and help us in the battle for the truth and for godliness! By reading we stay abreast of dangerous trends in the church and in the world. By reading we are informed of and warned about wolves in sheep’s clothing. By reading we are encouraged by the courageous stands of our fellow believers in other times and places. By reading we are urged to be faithful when the majority fall away into error and lawlessness. Yes, we must read for this reason too! Do you see the need for reading, especially now in these last days? Will you become a greater reader with this in mind too? We pray that you will, for the honor of Christ and His word, and for the safety of your own soul.
Finally, we have a very practical reason for reading good Reformed/Christian books. That is that by reading such books we set a good example for our children and young people. This too is so important, especially in the world in which we now find ourselves. As we mentioned in our opening article, we and our children are exposed to so many temptations and hindrances to good reading.
We are in constant competition with TV, video games, the Internet, iPods, etc. But when our children and young people see us as adults taking time to read, to read the Bible and to read books that make us grow in our faith and walk, we provide a great example and encouragement for them to do the same. Then we are better able to gain their respect when we tell them to read good books. And, of course, at the same time, when we have on our shelves and on our tables (and in our hands!) good Reformed/Christian books that we are reading, we provide them with the very materials we want them to read too! And THAT is a win-win situation!
“Truly my soul waiteth upon God: from Him cometh my salvation” [Psalm 62:1].
Blessed posture! Waiting truly and only upon the LORD. Be this our condition all this day and every day. Waiting His leisure, waiting in His service, waiting in joyful expectation, waiting in prayer, and content. When the very soul thus waits, it is in the best and truest condition of a creature before his Creator, a servant before his Master, a child before his Father. We allow no dictation to God, nor complaining of Him; we will permit no petulance and no distrust. At the same time, we practice no running before the cloud and no seeking to others for aid: neither of these would be waiting upon God. God, and God alone, is the expectation of our hearts.
Blessed assurance! From Him salvation is coming; it is on the road. It will come from Him and from no one else. He shall have all the glory of it, for He alone can and will perform it. And He will perform it most surely in His own time and manner. He will save from doubt, and suffering, and slander, and distress.
Though we see no sign of it as yet, we are satisfied to bide the LORD’s will, for we have no suspicion of His love and faithfulness. He will make sure work of it before long, and we will praise Him at once for the coming mercy.
A SEAT IN HEAVEN IS NOW THINE, BUT A CHAIN IN HELL WOULD HAVE BEEN THINE HAD NOT GOD’S SOVEREIGN GRACE MADE THE DIFFERENCE
C.H. Spurgeon
Look upon this, believer.
“What was there in thee to merit esteem, Or give the Creator delight?”
Yea, look upon thyself as thou art now. Doth not thy conscience reproach thee? Do not thy thousand wanderings stand before thee, and tell thee that thou art unworthy to be called his son? Does not the weakness of thy mental power, the frailty of thy moral power, thy continual unbelief, and thy perpetual backsliding from God, tell thee that thou art less than the least of all saints? And if He hath made thee any thing, art thou not thereby taught that it is grace, free, sovereign grace, which hath made thee to differ?
Should any here, supposing themselves to be the children of God, imagine that there is some reason in them why they should have been chosen, let them know, that as yet they are in the dark concerning the first principles of grace, and have not yet learned the gospel. If ever they had known the gospel, they would, on the other hand, confess that they were less than the least—the offscouring of all things—unworthy, ill-deserving, undeserving, and hell-deserving, and ascribe it all to distinguishing grace, which has made them to differ; and to discriminating love, which has chosen them out from the rest of the world.
Great Christian, thou wouldst have been a great sinner if God had not made thee to differ. O! thou who art valiant for truth, thou wouldst have been as valiant for the devil if grace had not laid hold of thee. A seat in heaven shall one day be thine; but a chain in hell would have been thine if grace had not changed thee. Thou canst now sing his love; but a licentious song might have been on thy lips, if grace had not washed thee in the blood of Jesus. Thou art now sanctified, thou art quickened, thou art justified; but what wouldst thou have been to-day if it had not been for the interposition of the divine hand?
There is not a crime thou mightest not have committed; there is not a folly into which thou mightest not have run. Even murder itself thou mightest have committed if grace had not kept thee. Thou shalt be like the angels; but thou wouldst have been like the devil if thou hadst not been changed by grace. Therefore, never be proud; all thy garments thou hast from above; rags were thine only heritage. Be not proud, though thou hast a large estate, a wide domain of grace; thou hadst once not a single thing to call thine own, except thy sin and misery. Thou art now wrapped up in the golden righteousness of the Saviour, and accepted in the garments of the beloved; but thou wouldst have been buried under the black mountain of sin, and clothed with the filthy rags of unrighteousness, if He had not changed thee.
“And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, What is the vine tree more than any tree, or than a branch which is among the trees of the forest?” [Eze 15:1,2]
And art thou proud? Dost thou exalt thyself? O! strange mystery, that thou, who hast borrowed every thing, should exalt thyself; that thou, who hast nothing of thine own, but hast still to draw upon grace, shouldst be proud; a poor dependent pensioner upon the bounty of thy Saviour, and yet proud; one who hath a life which can only live by fresh streams of life from Jesus, and yet proud! Go, hang thy pride upon the gallows, as high as Haman; hang it there to rot, and stand thou beneath, and execrate it to all eternity; for sure of all things most to be cursed and despised is the pride of a Christian. He, of all men, has ten thousand times more reason than any other to be humble, and walk lowly with his God, and kindly and humbly toward his fellow-creatures. Let this, then, humble thee, Christian, that the vine-tree is nothing more than any other tree, save only for the fruitfulness which God has given it.
“By the grace of God I am what I am!” [1Cor 15:10]
Whatever truth I contend for is usually the truth which God has been showing me all along progressively, either from His Word or from my own personal experience as a preacher. For instance, I was sovereignly taught by the Lord concerning Election and Predestination long before I ever picked up any book by Calvin or A.W. Pink! Even though in my initial years I sat amongst ‘Arminians’, I always knew in my heart that I had not chosen Him, but that HE had chosen me! [John 15:16] Come now, how could I have chosen Him, when I was a hardcore Satanist who took pleasure in burning Bibles and campaigning for Satan for all those years I spent in the Occult!
So, when a few years following my Regeneration I finally ran into some Calvinists/Monergists or whatever you want to call them, it was like finding your family after many years of separation! I knew I had found the fold where I belonged! It mattered little what language they spoke or what color they were; what mattered most was that God had ALREADY revealed to them, what he was now revealing to me!
And that is – that Salvation is “not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy!” and the very reason I had come to believe in the Gospel was not because I had carefully weighed the pros and cons and made a ‘decision’ to ‘accept’ Christ, but only because, I was “chosen in Him before the foundation of the world, so that I should be holy and without blame before Him . . . in love He had predestinated me unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory, not of my supposed ‘free-will’ or decision, but of His sovereign grace, wherein He had made me accepted in the beloved!”
When God first revealed to me the truth of His election and predestination, man I was blown! I just flipped out! To think that God had passed by so many of my good and moral religious relatives and friends, (not to mention the drunkards, drug-addicts and blasphemers who were my bosom buddies) and had chosen ME just blew my mind. I could weep with David, “Who am I, O Lord GOD that Thou hast brought me hitherto?!” [2Sam 7:18]
And ever since, Election and Predestination have been my cause for rejoicing. Here are some technical or doctrinal reasons as to why –
ELECTION ENSURES THAT THE PURPOSE OF GOD WILL STAND – “For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of Him that calleth; it was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger.” (Rom. 9:11-12)
ELECTION ENSURES THAT MY SALVATION DEPENDS NOT ON ME BUT GOD’S MERCY: “So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but OF GOD that showeth mercy” (Rom. 9:16).
ELECTION PRODUCES IN ME HUMILITY, MAINTAINING THE CREATOR-CREATURE DISTINCTION: “Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth He yet find fault? For who hath resisted His will? Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?” (Rom. 9:19-21)
ELECTION GUARANTEES MY GOOD IN THIS LIFE AND MY GLORIFICATION IN THE NEXT:
“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. 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.” (Rom. 8:28-30).
“But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning CHOSEN you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: Whereunto He called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thes. 2:13-14).
ELECTION ENSURES MY BLAMELESS JUSTIFICATION: “Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth!” (Rom. 8:33).
ELECTION GUARANTEES THAT MY GOD WILL BE WORSHIPPED : “God hath not cast away His people which He foreknew. Wot ye not what the scripture saith of Elias? how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying, Lord, they have killed Thy prophets, and digged down Thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life. But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to Myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant ACCORDING TO THE ELECTION OF GRACE.” (Rom. 11:2-5).
“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: That we should be to the praise of His glory, who first trusted in Christ” (Eph. 1:11-12).
ELECTION ESTABLISHES GRACE: “And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.” (Rom. 11:6).
ELECTION OBTAINS THE SALVATION I SEEK: “What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for ;but THE ELECTION HATH OBTAINED IT, and the rest were blinded (According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day.” (Rom. 11:7-8).
“But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning CHOSEN YOU TO SALVATION through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth” (2 Thes. 2:13).
It is worth noting that God’s Election here is specifically to SALVATION, and not just for ‘service’ as some haters of election propose!
ELECTION MAKES THE GIFTS AND CALLING OF GOD IRREVOCABLE: “For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance, (i.e., irrevocable).” (Rom. 11:28-29). A man may at times be sorry that he chose to marry a certain woman or adopted a certain child from an orphanage, etc. But the great God never feels sorry or regrets having chosen someone for Salvation. What’s more He knew full well what they would turn out to be and how they would behave long before He chose them. (Isaiah 48:8,9)
ELECTION EXPRESSES ITSELF WITH THE FATHER’S LOVE TOWARD ME IN ADOPTION: “According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will. . . ” (Eph. 1:4-5).
ELECTION COINCIDES WITH THE SANCTIFYING WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT: “Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied” (1 Pet. 1:1-2).
“But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth” (2 Thes. 2:13).
ELECTION PROVIDES THE GROUND FOR MY PERSEVERANCE IN GOSPEL MINISTRY: “Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace: For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city. And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the Word of God among them.” (Acts 18:9-11).
“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 Tim. 2:10).
There are many more reasons as to WHY the truth of Election is sweet music to my ears – the main one being I happen to be one of them. Come now, it stands to reason that only God’s elect can rejoice in the truth of Sovereign Election, just as only the ‘redeemed’ can rejoice in the truth of Redemption.
I do not expect the non-elect or the reprobate to either understand it, receive it or rejoice in it. They can only stop their ears to it, cavil against it and persecute those who preach it. In other words they can only behold it, wonder about it and perish! As it is written “BEHOLD, ye despisers, and WONDER, and PERISH: for I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in NO WISE BELIEVE, though A MAN DECLARE IT UNTO YOU”. [Act 13:41]
As John Kay said long ago, “Men are greatly deceived in religion. They think thus that there is no mystery in religion; whereas, TRUE RELIGION IS THE VERY MYSTERY OF GOD. “The mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.” (Rev. 10:7) “It is given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom.” (Matt. 13:11; Luke 8:10)
For my part, I bless God that it was early in my religion laid on my mind to pray; to pray in reading the Scriptures; to pray in everything; for I became gradually persuaded that there was a secret, a mystery, “a deep couching beneath”; something hidden; something the non-elect were never to know; something hidden from the eyes of all naturally living; something “sealed”; something running under ground, as it were, in religion. And O the deeps! for who hath known the mind of the Lord? “Then I beheld all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun (of righteousness); because, though a man labour to seek it out, yet he shall not find it; yea, farther, though a (supernaturally) wise man think to know it, yet shall not he be able to find it,” (Eccl. 8:17) by thinking merely, reading, hearing, or speculation. It is “not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts.” [Zech 4:6]
“I am thoroughly convinced that one of the chief hindrances today to many of the Lord’s people enjoying their inheritance is that they are in their WRONG PLACE, they are where Christ is not: he is on the outside of EVERYTHING CORPORATE.
To be where he is not is to miss the place of blessing, is to have our peace disturbed, and is to be corrupted by those who are not walking with Him. I am more firmly convinced today than I was 14 months ago that our place is on the ‘outside of the camp’. That is the place of reproach, loneliness, and of testing; but as it is the place where CHRIST is, it is, necessarily, the place of blessing, peace and joy”. [A.W. Pink in his letter to the Colemans. Quoted from ‘The Life of Arthur W. Pink’ – Iain H. Murray]
“COME OUT FROM AMONG THEM, AND BE YE SEPARATE, SAITH THE LORD! [2 Corinthians 6:17].
And what will follow when this Divine command is obeyed? Why, then we shall prove the truth of those words of Christ: “If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world HATETH you (John 15:19). WHICH “world” is specifically in view here? Let the previous verse answer: “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.”
WHAT “world” hated Christ and hounded Him to death? The RELIGIOUS world, those who pretended to be most zealous for God’s glory. So it is now. Let the Christian turn his back upon a Christ—dishonoring Christendom, and his fiercest foes and most relentless and unscrupulous enemies will be those who claim to be Christians themselves!
“Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you… for My sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad” (Matthew 5:11,12).
Ah, my brother, it is a healthy sign, a sure mark that you are profiting from the Word, when the religious world hates you. BUT IF, ON THE OTHER HAND, YOU STILL HAVE A “GOOD STANDING” IN THE “CHURCHES” OR “ASSEMBLIES” THERE IS GRAVE REASON TO FEAR THAT YOU LOVE THE PRAISE OF MEN MORE THAN THAT OF GOD! [Profiting from the Word]
Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, AND TOUCH NOT the unclean thing.” [2Cor6:14,17]
O my Christian reader, seek grace to obtain the uncompromising spirit of Moses. When urged to worship God in “Egypt” (i. e. the white-washed “churches” OF THE WORLD), say it is impossible, for “what communion hath light with darkness!” when pressed to leave your children in a worldly Sunday School, to be instructed by those who have not the fear of God upon them, refuse, when invited to at least retain your membership in the HOLY SPIRIT-DESERTED “CHURCHES” and contribute of your means to their upkeep, decline to do so.
That going forth to meet the Lord is to be understood as expressing both external and internal action. Externally, it signifies separation from the world, especially its pleasures, for Christ will not be met with while we waste our time engaging in them. “Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers… come out from among them” (2 Corinthians 6:14-17) must be heeded if we would “meet the Bridegroom.” More particularly, their going forth denoted a turning of their backs upon the apostate ECCLESIASTICAL SYSTEM: Christ had informed His disciples that he had abandoned a Judaism which had rejected Him (Matthew 23:37, 38), so if they would meet with Him, they too must “go forth unto Him outside the camp” (Hebrews 13:15). THE SAME IS TRUE NOW. [Practical Christianity]
[Writing to Lowell Green, September 2, 1934] My earnest advice is for you to have little or NOTHING TO DO with the people of the religious world today. They CANNOT help you spiritually, and where they help not they are bound to HINDER! Be much in prayer and on your guard against a holier-than -thou attitude. if we are not very watchful, separation soon leads to self- righteousness. On the other hand, association with empty professors soon corrupts and paralyzes true spirituality.
Prayer, reading and meditation will do far more for your soul – with God’s blessing on the same – than attending meetings and being active in ‘Christian service’
There are basically only two religions in the world. One says, “IF YOU WILL do such and such, God will graciously bestow His blessing upon you.” The thousand and one varieties of this religion differ only on what the “such and such” is that you must be willing to do. One variety says bathe in a sacred river, another bids you kiss the sacred rock located in the holy city, still another says be baptized or some similar rite, and in distinctly evangelical circles this religion emphasizes, “IF YOU WILL OPEN YOUR HEART, THEN GOD . . .”
Notice carefully the three key words IF YOU WILL. (1) God’s forgiveness is possible IF ….. (2) God’s forgiveness is possible if YOU… (3) God’s forgiveness is possible if you WILL. . . .
The ultimate success or failure of this religion is determined solely by the will of man. Everything depends on an “if,” and on “you,” and on “your willingness” to do your part. Redemption is always CONDITIONAL since it depends on man’s cooperation for success. The great work of salvation is not actually accomplished until God can find someone who is willing to “cooperate with Him.” Our forefathers called this “if you will” system the “religion of works.” It was also called “Arminianism” and “semi-Pelagianism” since these were the men who originally caused division in the church by introducing this error of free will. Regardless of the name attached to it by friend or foe, the distinguishing marks are always the same — the IF, the YOU, and YOUR WILL are the decisive factors that make the plan of salvation work.
This religion offers a wonderful plan of salvation that is able to do mighty things if YOU WILL ONLY LET IT. The God of this free will religion can only desire and offer to save sinners. He is helpless to secure, by His own power, what He longs to do. The goal of redemption cannot be reached unless man, of his own free will, chooses to permit God to accomplish His purposes.
The false religion of free will, or works, is based upon several unbiblical doctrines. The most basic of these is THE UNIVERSAL AND INDISCRIMINATE REDEMPTIVE LOVE OF GOD. God is said to love all men in the same way and to the same degree. He loved Judas the same as Peter, Esau like Jacob, and the goats as much as the sheep. Since His love is universal then the greatest gift of His love, Jesus Christ His Son, must have been given to provide a universal atonement, meaning for every individual without exception, in His death. The objects of the Son’s atonement must be equal to the objects of the Father’s love, so both must include every man. If the Father loves all men equally, and the Son redeemed every man without exception, it follows that the Holy Spirit must convict every man or else the Trinity is not working together toward the same end in the task of redeeming lost men.
It should be amply clear that this religion of works, or free will, based on a universal love and universal atonement, makes God’s whole scheme of redemption depend on man for its success. God’s love will prevail IF MAN will let it. Christ’s atonement will actually redeem only IF MAN will let it. The Holy Spirit will apply redemption’s purchased benefits IF MAN will allow Him. No wonder C. H. Spurgeon, that great soul winner, called free will “utter nonsense,” and universal atonement a “monstrous doctrine akin to blasphemy.”
Now the second religion is the message of the Bible. It is the gospel of FREE GRACE. It does not look to God for the PROVISION and then turn to man for the POWER, but it boldly proclaims that the same sovereign grace that planned salvation for helpless sinners also furnishes them with the ability to desire and receive it. This second religion not only starts at a different place, it works on a different principle, and moves toward a different goal. In short, it is a totally different religion. The religion based on free will (Arminianism – If you will …), and that based of free grace (Calvinism — God makes us willing …) are two very distinct and opposite religions that differ on every theological point at which they meet.
Any individual who piously says, “It is really not important, it is merely a question of EMPHASIS,” is either deliberately dishonest or completely ignorant of Bible doctrine in church history. The Synod of Dort and the Council of Trent clarified forever the vital importance of the issue once and for all time. I challenge any man to read Dr. J. I. Packer’s introduction to the DEATH OF DEATH IN THE DEATH OF CHRIST by John Owen, and then talk about emphasis. Packer clearly shows that free will and free grace are totally different religions, and furthermore, that they are irreconcilable enemies.
WHO WEARS THE CROWN?
As you can see, the real battle ground is the nature of man, and the prize to be won is the Crown of Credit for making redemption’s plan actually work. Is free grace, given sovereignly by the Father, the decisive factor that causes the elect to believe in the first place, or is man’s will, exercised sovereignly by the individual, the decisive factor that causes God to choose these whom He “foresees” are willing to believe? Who wins the right to wear the crown of glory, God or man? And by what power was that right won — free will or free grace?
The basic difference between these two opposing religions can also be summed up by asking another question, a question vitally related to the first one. Instead of asking how any man can perish, and being told that, “the man would not do his part which was to simply believe,” we now ask, “Why are SOME men saved?” How is the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit’s work able to succeed in some cases but not in others? The religion of free will humbly (?) answers that “MAN MADE IT ALL POSSIBLE BY BEING WILLING TO OPEN HIS HEART AND GIVE GOD A CHANCE!” It does not matter if we are speaking of those who perish or those who are saved, we always come back to that IF YOU WILL.
Actually, the gospel based on free will can never be more than a gospel of mere POSSIBILITY. It is a plan of redemption that cannot truly redeem by its own power, but can only effect real salvation when it finds someone who make themselves willing to do “their part.” It is not a question of whether a man must, or does, become willing before he can be saved, we all believe that, but WHO AND WHAT POWER makes the sinner willing? Does man, of himself, choose to become willing, or does God, by His sovereign power, make His elect willing “in the day of His power” (Ps. 110:3)? It seems both logical and judicially necessary to crown with glory the individual who made the plan of salvation actually work, and the free willer does not hesitate to reach for the crown and place it on the head of the sovereign and free will of man.
Some folks may feel we are laboring this point to an extreme, but actually this is the heart of the matter. Who really deserves all the glory for man’s salvation? It cannot be both God and man, nor can it be, as many would imply, half and half. Either God saves sinners by “making them willing in the day of His power,” or they save themselves by making themselves willing in the “day of their free will decision.”
And Romans 9:16 settles the matter once and for all – “So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy!”
10 THINGS I DID NOT UNDERSTAND BEFORE I WAS REFORMED
Les Lanphere
I, like so many others in my generation, was a Christian for a long time before being confronted with the doctrines of grace. Why does this matter? What difference do these doctrines make in the Christian life?
There is a solid Christianity that has been fought for, that people have died for. There have been Church councils and controversial men who stood up to revolt against corrupt practices and unbiblical doctrines. We aren’t left in the dark to figure Christianity out all over again. The truth has been opened and passed down to us by Saints past.Not only has reformed theology opened my eyes to new things, it’s cleared up so many things that I already believed but failed to understand.
MY SIN
I knew I was a sinner. I knew I needed to be forgiven. But just how much of a sinner, I had no idea. Sometimes I would say, “Wow, I didn’t sin much this week.”
Now I know that it’s quite possible that I have never, for a second, obeyed the command “Love the Lord, your God, with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength.”. I never took seriously Jesus’ words that looking at a woman with lust is to commit adultery, or that hating a man in your heart is murder. I ignored the fact that Jesus said “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” -Matthew 5:48
I finally understand that I sin every day, every hour… on some level I sin every moment of my life. This is how sinful I am. But God! Oh, how merciful He is to such a sinner.
GOD WORKS ALL THINGS FOR MY GOOD
This seemed like a nice idea – God works stuff out in the end. I don’t need to worry too much, because God can clean up the messes and put it back together.
But once I understood sovereignty, it all changed. God doesn’t just react to what people are doing or the messes that pop up in life. He is “working all things” for the good of His people. Because He orchestrates everything, my life isn’t left to chance for a split second. Nothing surprises Him, not because He knows it all but because He’s actually in control.
WHY WE PRAY FOR THE LOST
This is something everyone does. We pray for our family and friends to be saved. We say things like “soften their hearts” or “reveal yourself to them”. It’s not something I ever thought about as incosistent with my beliefs, but now I see how strange it really was.
If God couldn’t override people’s free will, how could He save them? How could He do anything different than the 100% He was already giving everyone, waiting fo them to make their decision. What does it mean to “soften a heart” other than “do more than You are doing to change their mind”?
Now I can pray fervently for God to override a family member’s sinful will, because I know that this is their only hope. If God can’t touch our wills, we all go to Hell. God, destroy their will, and MAKE them love You, so they can be saved from Hell!
THERE IS THEREFORE NOW NO CONDEMNATION
I was always on the fence on the “can we lose our salvation?” question. I’d seen and heard of epic backsliding and people who walked completely away from faith. So it only seemed logical that there were certain sins that could push us too far away from God.
The Bible says nothing in all of creation can separate us from the love that is in Christ, let alone the very thing he died to forgive. The gospel teaches that everything past, present, and future is forgiven. So what could undo the work of Jesus and make us accused again?
Now I understand that sins aren’t counted against me anymore. God convicts me to cease from sinning, but the condemnation and marks against me have been paid for. I’m truly free.
JESUS TOOK MY PLACE
The idea that Jesus was in my place on the cross was another nice thought, and was truly my object of faith. But I believed He took everyone’s place on the cross, even people who would wind up in Hell. What kind of assurance can I find in a substitution that doesn’t help such a large number of people it took the place of? What does it mean to die in someone’s place, if not that they are pardoned?
I understand, now, that Jesus was laying His life down for His sheep… perfectly. Not one of the people who’s place He took on the cross will be in Hell. Those who do find themselves in Hell were never atoned for. Jesus truly, perfectly, and finally took my sins on Himself not because I applied His blood to myself, but because the Father placed my sins, specifically, on His Son.
THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER
I used to pray. I would pray especially hard when I messed up, or when something was completely out of my control. When I knew there was nothing I could do about a situation, then I’d give it over to God. Other than that I’d pray very generally that God would help me in my life.
Reformed theology has opened my eyes to the truth that I am completely helpless. I’m one-hundred percent at God’s mercy. God could, if He wanted, take the faith out of my heart tomorrow. I’d wake up, shake my head, and say, “Wow, that Christianity phase was weird.” and get right back to my sinful life. God promises to never do that, but that’s how much we are at His mercy.
I NEED God to live, I need him in every area because I’m powerless without Him. He’s the power that makes me flee from sin, help people, open His word, and even pray. Yes, we should pray that God would give us the desire to pray. God is truly our strength, so we must pray without ceasing. Anything less would be relying on our powerless flesh.
BEING BORN AGAIN
When I look back, I don’t even know how I would have defined being born again. I knew it was a change, maybe a feeling. I definitely knew that you needed to be born again to be saved, and I even knew the moment that it happened to me. What it was, though, I’d be hard pressed to answer.
Oh boy! I could tell you now. It is the supernatural change of a God-hater into a God-lover. It’s the work of God to change a man’s entire nature. We are set free from slavery to sin, and made slaves of righteousness. We are new creations. Without it man cannot believe the gospel or repent. Praise God for this free-will smashing new birth!
THE HOLY SPIRIT
What a mystery the Holy Spirit was. I believed in the Trinity. Father – The one who calls the shots. Son – The One who came to earth to die for sin. Holy Spirit – um… it’s like a mist, that like… is everywhere. Kinda like the wind, I guess. And it… helps us.
Praise God for His Holy Spirit! The third Person of the Trinity that works in God’s people. He’s IN me! It’s amazing! He’s the One that produces the fruit, the One that makes me understand the Bible, the One that makes me cry “Abba, Father!” The Holy Spirit confirms to my spirit that I’m in Christ. He perfects my broken prayers and praises. Without God’s Spirit inside us, we’d never know God.
THE NECESSITY OF THE GOSPEL
I would, from time to time, share my faith. I would talk about how Jesus died, but the most important thing I was seeking was a decision. Offensive parts of the gospel, about sin and wrath… those don’t make people want to accept, so I’d minimize them. I would let people know that Jesus wanted to make them happier and fulfill their lives – certainly not that He demands their submission and will take away their rights.
Now I know that apart from the clear and complete gospel, nobody can be saved. Anybody who has signed a decision card or said a prayer based solely on a promise of, “The Bible tells us that we can know where we go when we die. Come to Jesus and He’ll forgive you.”, is not going to heaven. They were deceived. People must hear about their sinfulness, the forgiveness on the cross, and the repentance God requires. This is how we are saved, through the gospel.
THE MEANING OF LIFE
God’s creation, I would have guessed, was an experiment in free will. How will people respond to God becoming a man and dying? God was trying His hardest to save as many people as possible, yet inevitably some would go to Hell since it was their decision. Jesus died to make salvation possible, and God was going to be eternally frustrated by all the people that He loved who would be in Hell for eternity. In the back of my mind, I always had a theory that God would forgive them all and bring them into Heaven in the end, and we’d all rejoice.
Oh, how glorious God’s plan truly is. God’s number one priority is to show off His majesty and be glorified. God is beautiful, and when we see His beauty and respond in worship, we are fulfilling our entire purpose. When we fail to love God, we are spitting in this glorious King’s face, and we will be punished.
The purpose of this creation is for God to demonstrate His power and mercy. The fall of Satan and Adam are all part of this amazing story. God’s righteous hatred toward sinners will display His awesome power for eternity. God became a man and redeemed mankind from His own wrath. All who He has mercy on will worship Him for eternity because of this amazing love displayed on the Cross. Heaven will be the most amazing pleasure imaginable, fulfilling the very purpose of creation. We will worship God forever because we’ll know what we have been saved from. He displayed love beyond our comprehension! Praise God!
The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” [Jn 1:29]
John the Baptist commands a beholding of the sin-taking-away Lamb. What do we see in this beholding? How exactly does Jesus take away our sin?
Here are six things Jesus does with sin:
HE CONDEMNS IT.
Jesus puts a curse on sin. He marks its forehead.
“For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.” [Romans 8:3]
Jesus says to sin in no uncertain terms, “Sin, you’re going to die.”
HE CARRIES IT.
Like the true and better scapegoat, Jesus becomes our sin-bearer.
“Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.” [1Peter 2:24]
“For He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”
HE CANCELS IT.
He closes out the account. (Even better, He opens a new one, where we’re always in the black, having been credited with His perfect righteousness.)
“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 (or is not resentful).” [1Cor 13:4,5]
That word resentful is more directly “to count up wrongdoing,” which is why some translations of this text say that “Love keeps no record of wrongs.”
“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.” [Colossians 2:13,14]
HE CRUCIFIES IT.
“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.” [1Peter 3:18]
At the cross, Jesus dies and takes our sin with Him. Only the sin stays dead.
HE CASTS IT AWAY.
Jesus takes the corpse and chucks it into the void.
“He will turn again, He will have compassion upon us; He will subdue our iniquities; and Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.” [Micah 7:19]
“As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us.” [Psalm 103:12]
HE CHOOSES TO UN-REMEMBER IT.
Jesus is omniscient. He is not forgetful. But He wills to un-remember our sin.
“And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord : for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord : for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” [Jer 31:34]
“For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.” [Hebrews 8:12]
“And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.” [Hebrews 10:17]
Astonishing. We bring our sin to Him, repentant and in faithful confession, and He unconditionally forgives and forgets them.
THIS is how Jesus forgives sin: He condemns it, carries it, cancels it, kills it, casts it, and clean forgets it. If we’ll confess it.
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” [1John 1:9]
We are people of “The Book”! We don’t look to the stars, to tea leaves, to palm-readers or to astrologers. We aren’t looking for additional revelations or manifestations. We aren’t followers of new apostles or prophets. God has provided His revelation in His time and His way. He gave prophets for a particular period and apostles as the front line to bear the message of Christ. That day has passed and we have “The Book”. The proper name Bible means book. It has sixty-six books but it is one Book. It has numerous writers but one Author, the Holy Spirit. It’s as relevant in the twenty-first century as it was in the first century.
Jesus was a man of “The Book” [its very subject and content]. Again and again He challenged His generation with these words “have you not read?” He spoke of Moses and David, of Isaiah and generally of the prophets. He referred to Jonah as a type of Himself. He said He came to establish righteousness by fulfilling every jot and tittle of the law. Where do we find that law? In “The Book”!
Peter was a man of “The Book”. On the day of Pentecost, he quoted the prophet Joel and the psalmist David (Acts 2:14). Philip was a man of “The Book”. How did he deal with the questioning Ethiopian? He “began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus” (Acts 8:35).
Timothy and Paul were men of “The Book”. Paul said to his younger counterpart: “from a child you have known the holy scripture, which are able to make you wise unto salvation…” (2 Timothy3:16). Paul instructed him: “Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, and doctrine” (I Timothy 4:13).
[Don’t quote philosophers, thinkers and geniuses of the world my friend . . . . quote THE BOOK . . . Thus saith the Lord! End of argument! – M.J.
FALSE TEACHERS WHO DENY THE EXISTENCE OF A SINFUL NATURE IN MAN
Compiled by Michael Jeshurun
This morning I happen to click on a Youtube video titled, “Democrats Don’t Have a Sinful Nature” a ‘Christian’ teaching video by Michael Pearl of “No Greater Joy Ministries” Tennessee. His wife Debi and Michael have written many books on Child-training which are quite popular amongst unwary Christians.
This short write-up however is not concerning his views on ‘child-training’ but his attack on the ‘the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.’ [Jude 1:3]. As I listened through this Youtube, it quickly became clear that it had very little to do with Democrats, but was a vicious attack on the theology and doctrine which we hold so dearly – The Doctrines of Grace.
For the uninitiated we must first define who a ‘Pelagian’ is and what Pelagianism teaches – Pelagianism is a Christian theological position that holds that the original sin did not taint human nature and that humans by divine grace have free will to achieve human perfection. Pelagius (c. 355 – c. 420 AD), an ascetic and philosopher from the British Isles, taught that God could not command believers to do the impossible, and therefore it must be possible to satisfy all divine commandments. He also taught that it was unjust to punish one person for the sins of another; therefore, infants are born blameless. Pelagius accepted no excuse for sinful behaviour and taught that all Christians, regardless of their station in life, should live unimpeachable, sinless lives.
In this video I mentioned above, Pearl starts off by saying, “There’s no such thing as a sinful nature, not anywhere in the universe, nor will there ever be such an entity, as a sinful nature does not exist. In fact, it’s an impossibility!”
Michael Pearl does not believe in the imputation of Adam’s sin to all human beings. (He does not believe in the Total Depravity of Man.) He is a proponent of the false teaching of ‘The age of Accountability’. He writes, “When a descendant of Adam reaches a level of moral understanding (sometime in his youth) he becomes fully, personally accountable to God and has sin imputed to him, resulting in the peril of eternal damnation.” Pearl adds, “When man reaches his state of moral accountability, and, by virtue of his personal transgression, becomes blameworthy, his only hope is a work of grace by God alone, etc.”
This seems like a minor quibble, but it is profound. And from there on Pearl goes on to attack Augustine, Calvin and especially Martin Luther and his take on ‘The Bondage of the Human Will’ and Calvinists in general.
Whatever else Michael Pearl may believe and teach, his denial of the existence of a sinful nature in man and his ‘Bondage of the Will’ and Total Depravity is enough to throw this man’s teaching in the TRASH where it belongs!
We cannot do better here than quote that faithful servant of God A.W. Pink –
“They (the Pelagians/Arminians) deny the Total Depravity of Man, for they insist that he possesses a free will and can accept Christ and be saved by a decision of his own; thus directly repudiating God’s word, as found in John 1:13; 6;44; 8:36; Rom 9:16, and other passages. And where any teacher or preacher is unsound on these BASIC TRUTHS, no confidence must be placed on him on any other subject. IF HE IS ALL WRONG AT THE FOUNDATIONS, HIS SUPERSTRUCTURE IS BOUND TO BE FAULTY!”
Pastor Henry Mahan said in one of his sermons – “Sin and death came upon all men.” Is that what the Word teaches? Then, it is so! That is doctrine! That is original sin, and that is what man has to straighten out OR HE WILL BE MESSED UP ALL THE WAY THROUGH IN HIS DOCTRINE. What happened in the Fall, determines what happened on the Cross. What happened on the Cross, determines what happens in a sinner when God saves him. What happens in a sinner when God saves him, determines where a man is going to spend eternity”.
“If you have never felt the weight of original sin, do not call yourselves Christians. I am verily persuaded that original sin is the greatest burden of a true convert; this ever grieves the regenerate soul, the sanctified soul. The indwelling sin in the heart is the burden of a converted person; it is the burden of the true Christian. He continually cries out, “Oh, who will deliver me from this body of death,” this indwelling corruption of my heart? This is that which disturbs a poor soul most. And therefore, if you never felt this inward corruption, if you never saw that God might justly curse you for it, indeed, my dear friends, you may speak peace to your hearts, but I fear, nay, I know, there is no peace”. – George Whitfield
Incidentally, Pearl teaches the false doctrine of ‘Sinless perfection’. Just Google – “Michael Pearl sinless perfection’ and do your own research. Pearl’s heresy of ‘sinless perfectionism’ is perhaps why he is comfortable preaching in Assemblies of God congregations and at times holds seminars for them.
Continuing with quotes from trusted theologians on the doctrine of Total Depravity here is another one from William G. T. Shedd from his ‘Theological Essays’ –
“Though written many decades ago, the following quotation is an admirable expression of the continuing concern of Reformed thinkers for the doctrine of total depravity.
If the church and the ministry of the present day need any one thing more than another, it is profound views of sin; and if the current theology of the day is lacking in any one thing, it is in that thorough-going, that truly philosophic, and, at the same time, truly edifying theory of sin, which runs like a strong muscular cord through all the soundest theology of the church. (William G. T. Shedd, Theological Essays)
John Gerstner expresses the same perennial Reformed interest epigrammatically when he says to the contemporary world,
One cannot think of God’s holy ways without thinking of our unholy ones. We cannot think of ourselves without thinking of our sin. Sin is the most important conviction any man can have. It is a bad theology which thinks man good. Any good theology must start with man as bad. (John Baillie, Our Knowledge of God (London: Oxford Press, 1939), p. 32.)
Gerstner and Shedd make remarkable assertions: “a good theology must start with man as bad”; the church needs a “truly edifying theory of sin.” Can any good thing come out of a consideration of sin? Reformed theology, going back through classical theology to the Scriptures, answers earnestly, “yes.” To be saved is to be saved from sin. If sin means Total Depravity, and if Total Depravity means hell, then salvation can really mean amazing grace.” – Thomas Gregory
Let us close by saying that the study of the doctrine of “Original Sin” and the ‘Sinful nature’ inherent in Adam’s progeny is the proper foundation to be laid in the study of God’s Word, and as A.W. Pink stated above, “where any teacher or preacher is unsound on these BASIC TRUTHS, no confidence must be placed on him on any other subject. IF HE IS ALL WRONG AT THE FOUNDATIONS, HIS SUPERSTRUCTURE IS BOUND TO BE FAULTY!”
“And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire A STILL SMALL VOICE.” [1kings 19:12]
The lightning flamed over the whole Heaven, attended by peals of thunder such as the man of God had never heard before. From crag to crag leaped the live lightning till the whole firmament blazed with the fire of God! Yet we do not find that the Prophet was in the least cowed or dismayed. His was a brave spirit—calm amid the storm. As the eagle mounts in the centre of the lightning and rises on the wings of the storm, so did it seem with Elijah’s spirit—he was awakened by the fury of the elements, but he was not afraid. And now the thunder ceased and the lightning was gone. The earth was still, the wind was hushed and there was a dead calm.
And out of the midst of the still air there came what the Hebrew calls, “A VOICE OF GENTLE SILENCE,” as if silence had become audible! There is nothing more amazing than an awful stillness after a dread uproar. Even the noise of the wind and of the storm which could not cow Elijah were not so terrible as the still small voice by which Jehovah called His servant near. Then the Prophet covered his face and went to the mouth of the cave and stood to listen, for the still small voice had won the solemn attention of his soul. It had done for him what all the rest could not do—for this reason that the Lord was not in the wind, nor in the earthquake, nor in the fire—but the Lord was in the still small voice and Elijah knew it and was awed and prepared himself to hear what God, the Lord, would speak.
What is the lesson of this? May God the Holy Spirit help us this morning to learn it and to teach it.
First, I call your attention to THE CHOSEN AGENCY.
Notice at the outset what it was not. It was not the terrible, it was not the tremendous, it was not the overwhelming, but something the reverse of all these. It was not a grand display of power, for God was in none of those great things which Elijah saw and heard. That which conquered Elijah’s brave heart was not whirlwind, was not earthquake, was not fire—it was the still small voice! That which effectually wins human hearts to God and to His Christ is not an extraordinary display of power. Men can be made to tremble when God sends pestilence, famine, fire and others of His terrible judgments—but these things usually end in the hardening of men’s hearts, not in the winning of them.
The still small voice succeeds where “terrible things in righteousness” are of no avail. “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord.” [Zech 4:6] Crash after crash the orator’s passages succeed each other! What a tremendous passage! The hearers must surely be impressed. Wind! And the Lord is not in it! And now everything seems to shake, while, like a second John the Baptist, the minister proclaims woe and terror and pronounces the curse of God upon a generation of vipers! Will not this break hard hearts? No! Nothing is accomplished. It is an earthquake, but the Lord is not in the earthquake. Another form of force remains. Here comes one who pleads with vehemence! All on fire, he flashes and flames! Look at the brightness of his sensational metaphors and anecdotes! Yes, fire! Might we not say fireworks? And yet the Lord does not work by such fire. The Lord is not in the fire!
The furious energy of unbridled fanaticism, the Lord does not use. He may employ great and terrible things as preliminaries to His soul-saving work, but they are only preliminaries—the work, itself, is done in the secret silence of the heart. As they were in Elijah’s case, so are these things in the cases of others—they startle and arouse, but they cannot convince and convert. That which is to quicken, enlighten, sanctify and really bless is the still small voice of gentle silence! This sounds like a paradox, but the sense is clear to him who knows the Truth of God by experience. The voice which is not heard outside is Omnipotent within.
We have sufficiently shown the negative side of it—God’s work stands not in the power of the creature. What, then, does God use to touch the heart? Our heavenly Father generally uses that which is soft, tender, gentle, quiet, calm, peaceful—A STILL SMALL VOICE. In the work of real conversion—of bringing the soul to decision and complete obedience to God—the calling voice is often so gentle that it is quite unperceived by others except in its results. Yes, frequently so gentle that it is almost unperceived by the man who is the subject of it! He may not even be able to tell exactly when the voice came and when it went. The gentle zephyr refreshes the fevered brow, but the sufferer scarcely knows that it has passed through the sick chamber and is gone, so soft is its Heaven-given breath.
In reconciliation there are no blows, nor beats of drums, nor bolts of tempests—love is the captain of this bloodless war! There is little display of physical or mental force and yet there is more real power than if force had been used! We observe that where there was a display of power, as in wind, earthquake and fire, we read afterwards, “God was not in it,” but here, in this still small voice in which there was no display of power, God was at work! Here, then, we see THE WEAKNESS OF POWER, but we learn also THE POWER OF WEAKNESS and how God often makes that which seems most resistible to be irresistible—and that which we would suppose to be easily waved away, weaves about a man fetters from which he never can escape!
Softly and gently works the Holy Spirit, even as the breath of spring which dissolves the iceberg and melts the glacier. When frost has taken every rivulet by its throat and held it fast, spring sets all free. No noise of hammer or of file is heard at the loosening of the fetters, but the soft south wind blows and all is life and liberty. So is it with the work of the Spirit of God in the soul when He actually comes to set the sinner free! He works effectually, but no voice is heard.
Now, whatever the soft and gentle instrumentality may be, it is, in every case, if it saves the soul, worked by the Holy Spirit’s Presence. And the Holy Spirit, though He can be “a rushing, mighty wind” when He wills for He comes ac-cording to His own Sovereign pleasure. Yet, usually, when He comes to bring to man the peace of God, descends as the dove, or as the dew from Heaven—all peace, gentleness and quiet. Satan can set the soul on fire with agony! Doubts and fears and terrors rend it like an awful earthquake! The whole man is in trouble and confusion, as the whirlwind of the Law sweeps through his soul! But the Spirit comes in tender love, revealing Christ, the Gentle One, setting up the Cross of the Savior before the sinner’s tearful eyes and speaking peace, pardon and salvation.
Brothers and Sisters, this is what we need—the work of the Spirit of God in His own manner of living love! I have said that He works usually to the salvation of the soul by revealing the love of Christ and it is so, not only at our first conversion, but afterwards. All along, His operations are after the same quiet and effectual kind. As we grow in sanctification, it is by tender revelations of the Father’s love. What has such influence over any of us as the infinite, overflowing Grace of God in our Lord Jesus Christ?
Thus, like the silent morning light, Grace works upon the man. Its processes are carried on by love. There is not a touch of terror or bondage in the great reconciling deed within. The Gospel, with its glad tidings, leaps out of the heart of God and enters into the heart of men—and rest and sacred gratitude follow. God may devour His enemies with lions, but His friends He wins with love! Those that are obdurate He will break as with a rod of iron, dashing them in pieces like potters’ vessels—but for His own—when He comes to save them, He touches them with the silver sceptre of mercy! Grace works with the oiled feather. Love is the chariot of Omnipotence when it comes into the world of mind. This, my dear Friends (to close this first head), coming quietly home to us, to each one of us individually, without animal excitement—this it is which unites us to Jesus by faith!
Elijah was calm and quiet when he heard that still small voice of God! He neither fell down in horror, nor danced for joy, yet his whole nature was touched, his inmost heart was convulsed. The silence which God had caused to be heard within him, thawed his soul. THIS is how conversions are worked. When the Truth of God comes right home to the heart; when the man perceives that the message of Grace belongs to him—when he grips and grapples with that Truth and that Truth with him—then without help from the outside, he seeks and finds eternal life! The still small voice within the conscience is God’s chosen instrumentality to effectually convert and comfort the souls of men!
The Kingdom of God comes not with observation (Lk 17:20)—but in the secret chamber, man is brought near to God.
Notice THE CHOICE EFFECTS of this chosen mode of working. The first effect of it upon Elijah was that the man was subdued. I have gone over this before. He who could confront the raging wind. He who was not terrified by the lightning, nor made to tremble at the earthquake the moment he was in that in that stillness and heard that gentle voice—wrapped his face in his sheepskin robe and went outside the cave like a child obedient to the call of his heavenly Father. And when the Spirit of God comes in His gentle power upon any of you, then you will resist no longer—you will be subdued and conquered by His soft and tender touch.
The first thing Elijah did, I said, was to wrap his face in his mantle, therein imitating the angels who cannot stand unveiled in that awful Presence. He did his best to hide his face, like one ashamed—ashamed of having doubted his God, of having played the coward—ashamed of being found away from the place of his service. When the Holy Spirit deals with men and women, this is an early effect upon their minds—shamefacedness and humiliation cover their faces— They cannot speak in the same bold tones as they were known to do! All boasting is excluded. For some time, at any rate, they have to learn how to behave themselves in the Divine Presence—for walking in the Light as God is in the Light is not easy for newly-converted sinners—their eyes are weak and tender and, therefore, they have to cover them from the blaze of the eternal light. Love is the triumphant power! Where mere power and thunder fail, it leads the heart in glad captivity.
Those who hear the voice of the Lord are sure to cry, “Lord, show me what you would have me to do.” When that voice wins the willing ear, it creates a ready foot to go where God bids us. Our desire is to know the Lord’s will and promptly to fulfil it, for the heavenly whisper has for its burden—“Follow Me.” And now that Elijah has come out into the clear air, the next effect upon him is that he has personal dealings with God. The voice says to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” It is a home enquiry, made to himself, alone. He knows that God is speaking with him and, there-fore, he feels the force of every word which searches him. Then he pours out the bitterness of his grief and tells the Lord what ails him.
The Spirit is surely at work with you when your converse is with the Lord alone. When you want nobody to hear what you have to say, but are glad to enter into your closet and shut the door and pray to your Father, who sees in secret, this is real work, the work of God! When you feel every line of the Word of God as you read it as if it were written for you, and you, alone—when you think that nobody else in the world can enter so fully into it, in your judgment, as you now do, for the sentences seem shaped for you and there are little words dropped into the threat and the promise exactly adapted for you—then it is that the still small voice is executing its sacred office! This is a main point, this contact of the soul with God—this breaking down of the barriers of things visible, this closing in with God, the Unseen.
Oh, it is a sight such as angels delight to behold when a man bows before the Most High and listens to his great Father’s voice and then tells out to Him all his heart without attempting to hide anything from Him! This is never produced by whirlwind, fire, or earthquake—it is the effect of the voice of gentle silence, for God is in it! Vain are eloquence, argument, music and sensationalism—the Spirit works all holy things and He, alone—and this He works in the solemn silence of a soul subdued by love!
“What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called the Christ?” [Matt 27:22]. This is the most important question that has ever been asked. It is also the question you must ask yourself. What will be YOUR decision concerning Christ?” – Billy Graham
Like old Billy, most Arminian preachers in the land have a sermon on the words of Pilate, “What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ?” [Matt 27:22]. They use it to try and prove to the sinner that the salvation of his soul rests entirely in his deciding for or against Jesus. But very few preachers ever are fair enough to preach on the reply Jesus made to these words of Pilate. Jesus said to Pilate, “Thou couldst have no power at all against Me, except it were given thee from above” [John 19:11].
In other words, just like Pilate of old “what you do with Jesus” is not in YOUR power! Sure, it is in your sinful choice TO REJECT HIM, which ALL the sons of Adam inevitably do; but to believe in Him and confess Him as Lord and Saviour lies not within your power!
The apostle said, “. . . no man CAN say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.” [1Cor 12:3] And the Holy Spirit, which enables one to confess Christ, is One who is sovereignly given to a man at regeneration. “Hereby know we that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because He hath GIVEN US OF HIS SPIRIT.” [1Jn 4:13]
THAT is what it means to be ‘born of the Spirit’. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born-again.” [Jn 3:6,7]
In regeneration one of God’s elect is the SUBJECT, and the Spirit of God is the sole AGENT. The subject of the new birth is WHOLLY PASSIVE: he does not ACT but is ACTED UPON. The sovereign work of the Spirit in the soul precedes all holy exercises of heart- such as sorrow for sin, faith in Christ, love toward God… This great change is not a gradual and protracted process, but is INSTANTANEOUS: in an instant of time the favored subject of it passes from death unto life.
Make no mistake, until THIS first takes place there is no believing or ‘accepting’ Jesus. And THIS only happens to those whom God hath ordained to eternal life before time began. [see 2Tim 1:9] Following Paul’s preaching, it is written, “and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.” [Acts 13:48]
We who have believed in Christ, believe not because ‘we weighed the pros and cons’ of accepting or rejecting Christ and then made ‘the RIGHT CHOICE’. God forbid! But we believed BECAUSE OF GOD’S WORKING! [Eph 3:20; 1Thes 2:13]
Read this verse carefully and meditate on it, “For unto you IT IS GIVEN in the behalf of Christ, not only TO BELIEVE ON HIM, but also to suffer for His sake!” [Phil 1:29]
Read that again, you ‘believe on Him’ because it is ‘GIVEN’ to you! To those who reject Him “it is not given.” Get it? [see Mark 4:10-12]
Again, “IT IS BECAUSE OF HIM ye are in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.” [1Cor 1:30,31]
Men in general do with Christ what Pilate of old did because they are dead in trespasses and sins as was Pilate. If they must make a choice contrary to Pilate they MUST be quickened by God’s Spirit. In the heart of man, there dwelleth no good thing, nothing which finds Christ attractive. To the unregenerated Jew, the Gospel is a ‘stumbling block’ and to the gentile it is mere foolishness! It is only to those who are THE CALLED that the Gospel preached is both the power of God, and the wisdom of God. [see 1Cor 1:23,24]
No man whether dead in sin or dead in a profession ever seeks after the discriminating God of the Bible. [see Rom 3:11]
It is God’s sovereign regeneration or being ‘born-again’ which changes all that!
When God told Adam, “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die,” He signified, first, die SPIRITUALLY, that is be alienated from the source of Divine life. Second, in due course, die PHYSICALLY: “thy body shall go to corruption and return to the dust.” Third, die ETERNALLY, suffer “the second death” (Rev. 20:14), be cast into the lake of fire, there to suffer forever, unless a miracle of grace redeems and delivers thee—of which there is no record anywhere in Holy Writ.
“And so death passed upon ALL MEN” because of THEIR COMPLICITY in the one man’s sin. It is not that “death” as a principle of evil gained admittance and polluted the nature of his offspring, but that the penal sentence of death was pronounced upon them. Having been charged with his transgression they must suffer the consequence of the same. The Apostle’s design was to show the connection between the one man’s sin and the resultant misery of the many. By his disobedience ALL MEN were constituted sinners—guilty criminals before God—and therefore sharers of the sentence passed upon Adam. “In Adam all die” (1 Cor. 15:22). Those words explain the “by man came death” of the preceding verse, and show that all die by virtue of THEIR RELATION to the covenant head of our race—die because of their legal union with him. Even physical death is far more than “nature’s debt,” or the inevitable outcome of our frail constitution: it is a penal affliction, a part of sin’s “wages.” We are subject to mortality because we were “in Adam” by federal representation—we partake of his fallen nature because we are partners of his guilt and punishment.
We are born into this world neither as innocent creatures nor to enter upon our probation: rather do we come into it AS CULPRITS CONDEMNED TO DEATH by the Divine Law. Every man, woman and child is adjudged guilty before God. The ground of our condemnation is something OUTSIDE OF OURSELVES. Inward corruption and alienation from God are the CONSEQUENCES and not THE CAUSE of our condemnation. Antecedent to any personal act of ours (as such), we stand accursed by the Divine Law. Since “death” came as the result of “sin,” since it is the penal sentence upon it, that sentence cannot be passed upon any save those who are guilty. If, then, death was “passed upon all men,” IT MUST BE BECAUSE ALL ARE GUILTY, ALL PARTICIPATED LEGALLY IN ADAM’S OFFENCE. Clear and inevitable as is that inference, we are not left to draw it ourselves. The Apostle expressly states it in the next words: “for that ALL HAVE SINNED”—“for that” or “because,” in consequence of.
Here then is the Divinely given reason WHY the death penalty is passed upon “all men”—BECAUSE “all have sinned,” or, as the margin and the R.V. more accurately render it, “in whom all sinned.” The Apostle is not here saying that all men sinned PERSONALLY, but REPRESENTATIVELY. The Greek verb “sinned” is in the aorist tense, which always looks back to a past action which has terminated. The curse of the Law falls upon us, first, not because we are sinful, but because we were FEDERALLY GUILTY when our covenant head sinned.
In Romans 5:12, the Apostle was not referring to the corrupting of man-kind. It is true that as a result of our first parents’ sin the springs of human nature were polluted; but THIS IS NOT what Paul was writing of. Instead he went behind that, and dealt with the cause of which moral depravity is but one of the effects. A corrupt tree can indeed produce nothing but corrupt fruit, but why are we born with corrupt hearts? Such is more than a terrible calamity: it is A PENAL INFLICTION visited upon us because of our PRIOR CRIMINALITY. Punishment presupposes guilt, and the punishment is given to ALL because ALL ARE GUILTY, and since God accounts all guilty, then they must be participants in Adams offence. Well did George Whitefield say, “I beg leave to express my surprise that any person of judgment should maintain human depravity, and not immediately discover its necessary connection with the imputation, and how impossible it is to secure the justice of God without having recourse to it; for certainly the corruption of human nature, so universal and inseparable, is one of the greatest punishments that could be inflicted upon the species . . . . Now if God has inflicted an evident punishment upon a race of men perfectly innocent, which had neither sinned personally nor yet by imputation; and thus while we imagine we honour the justice of God by renouncing imputation, we in fact pour the highest dishonour upon that sacred attribute.”
Death, penal death, has been passed upon all men because all sinned in Adam. That the “all have sinned” cannot signify their own personal transgressions is clear: because the manifest design of Romans 5:12, is to show that Adam’s sin is the cause of death; because physical death (a part of sin’s wages) is far more extensive than personal transgression—AS APPEARS FROM SO MANY DYING IN INFANCY; and because such an interpretation would destroy the analogy between Adam and the One of whom he was “the figure,” and would lead unto this comparison: as men die because they sin personally, so all earn eternal life because they are personally righteous! Equally evident is it that “all have sinned” cannot mean death comes upon men because they are depraved, for this too would clash with the scope of the whole passage: if our subjective sinfulness be the ground of our condemnation, then our subjective holiness (and not Christ’s merits) is the ground of our justification. It would also contradict the emphatic assertion of verse 18: “by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation.” Thus we are obliged to understand the “all have sinned” of verse 12 as meaning ALL SINNED IN ADAM.
If the federal headship of Adam and the imputation of his sin unto all his posterity be repudiated, then what alternative is left us? Only that of the separate testing of each individual. If the race were not placed on probation in the first man, then each of his offspring must stand trial for himself. But the conditions of such a trial make success impossible, for each probationer would enter upon it in a state of spiritual death!
The human family is either suffering for the sin of its head or it is suffering for nothing at all!
“Man is born unto trouble,” and from it there is no escape. What then is the explanation of the grim tragedy now being enacted on this earth? Every effect must have a previous cause. If we be not born under the condemnation of Adam’s offence, then WHY ARE WE “BY NATURE THE CHILDREN OF WRATH” (Eph. 2:3)? “Now either man was tried and fell in Adam, or he has been condemned without trial. He is either under the curse (as it rests upon him from the beginning of his existence), for Adam’s guilt, or for no guilt at all. Judge which is more honouring to God: a doctrine which, although profoundly mysterious, represents Him as giving man an equitable and most favourable probation in his federal head, or that which makes God condemn him untried, even before he exists” (R. L. Dabney).
The black Angus bull, one of the most expensive and heavy-boned bulls in the trade.
Imagine how terrifying it would be to face one such angry bull which is determined to gore you to death!
It reminds you of the well bred ‘bulls of bashan’ which encircled our Lord while He suffered on the Cross. He says there were ‘many’ such bulls apart from the ‘dogs’ which surrounded Him in His greatest hour of suffering.
“Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion.” [Psalm 22]
“For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet. Deliver My soul from the sword; My darling from the power of the dog.” [Psalm 22]
To interpret these deadly beasts to mean just the gentile wicked and the murderous pharisees is to miss the point. 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. [Eph 6:12]
And THIS was THEIR HOUR i.e., the power of darkness! [Lk 22:53]
Here is clearly displayed the Sovereignty of God in granting or withholding wisdom and knowledge from His creatures. [see James 1:5]
As subtle, cunning and smart as the Devil is, he had this knowledge withheld from him – i.e., in crushing the Son of God physically, he would be fatally crushing his own head spiritually! He was digging the proverbial pit into which he himself would fatally fall.
For had he known this, he would not have crucified the Lord of glory and sealed his own fate!
The apostle declared, “And having spoiled (or disarmed) principalities and powers, He made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.” [Col 2:15]
Our great captain has won the contest. The seed of the woman has bruised the head of the seed of the serpent (Gen. 3:15).
While not as familiar to us, Colossians 2:15 was beloved in earlier periods of Christian history. It is also regularly invoked in academic theology to support a certain understanding of Christ’s atonement known as the “Christus Victor” model, which argues that Christ’s saving work consists in defeating the evil powers that afflict and enslave humanity.
Unfortunately, some go on to argue that this way of looking at Christ’s atonement excludes other important aspects of His work, particularly His satisfaction of divine justice on our behalf.
As we shall see, properly understanding Colossians 2:15 can help us avoid this error by rightly affirming Christ’s victory over evil in and through His sacrificial death on the cross.
Colossians 2:15 states that Christ “disarmed the rulers and authorities.” To whom does this phrase refer? The combination of “rulers and authorities” appears elsewhere in Paul’s writings in reference to human authorities (Titus 3:1), but more often it applies to spiritual powers (Eph. 3:10; 6:12). When we compare Colossians with Ephesians (its parallel epistle), we see that “thrones, dominions, rulers, and authorities” are obviously spiritual entities, whether angels or demons (Eph. 1:21; 2:2; 3:10; 6:12).
We can safely conclude that the enemies Christ triumphed over in Colossians 2:15 are the spiritual beings who were at war against Him.
But if Christ disarmed Satan and his demons and took away their power, HOW exactly did He do it? He did it by nailing Satan’s Chief Weapon to the Cross!
Colossians 2:15 isn’t talking about some war in the underworld as some suppose, but of Christ’s victorious work on the Cross. In the prior verses, Paul speaks about the “legal debt” sinners were under. Christ has now “set this aside” by “nailing it to the cross” (Col. 2:14). Because of this, no one can condemn us (Col. 2:16).
THIS is how Jesus has disarmed the powers. He has taken away Satan’s power to hold sinners to the debt of their sins and trespasses.
Indeed, accusation is the chief activity for Satan. He attempted to undermine God’s righteous verdict over Job (Job 1:9–10), stood ready to accuse Joshua the high priest (Zech. 3:1), and accused all believers before God day and night (Rev. 12:10). The power of sin is the law (1 Cor. 15:56), and Satan attempted to use the demands of the law to destroy God’s people. But Christ, in taking the law’s curse on himself (Gal. 3:13), has wrested this weapon from Satan.
He has disarmed him and triumphed over all the forces of evil precisely in His sacrificial death on the cross. As John Calvin put it, “There is no tribunal so magnificent, no throne so stately, no show of triumph so distinguished, no chariot so elevated, as is the gibbet on which Christ has subdued death and the devil, the prince of death.”
This understanding also explains the nature of Satan’s defeat. He hasn’t yet been so utterly destroyed or defanged that he can’t do battle against the believer. But he cannot hurt us spiritually or bring a successful charge against us (Rom. 8:33). We’re now free to wrestle against the spiritual forces of evil knowing we will get the victory. In the words of John Davenant, “Those who are vanquished are always more angry than powerful.” While Satan and his minions rage, they can only express frustration that their fate is sealed.
Indeed, Satan was made a spectacle in the cross. Believing that Jesus had been defeated, Satan made his grandest boasts. And yet, the death of Christ was the greatest victory. The cross crushed Satan’s head for good. His boasting became foolishness and his glory shame, as the justification of all God’s Elect now makes plain.
You and I beloved, are fighting a defeated foe, and hence the assuring promise, “And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under YOUR feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.” [Rom 16:20]
ROMANS CHAPTER 9 – THE TIGER THAT DEVOURS ‘FREE-WILLERS’
“Romans 9 is like a tiger going about devouring free-willers like me. That was the end of my love affair with human autonomy and the ultimate self-determination of my will. My worldview simply could not stand against the scriptures, especially Romans 9. And it was the beginning of a lifelong passion to see and savor the supremacy of God in absolutely everything.” – John Piper
“I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is NOT of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but OF GOD that showeth mercy.” [Romans 9:15,16]
“Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated!” [Romans 9:13]
“Nothing can more clearly manifest the strong opposition of the human mind to the doctrine of the Divine sovereignty, than the violence which human ingenuity has employed to wrest the _expression, ‘Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.’ By many this has been explained, ‘Esau have I loved less.’ But Esau was not the object of any degree of the Divine love … If God’s love to Jacob was real literal love, God’s hatred to Esau must be real literal hatred. It might as well be said that the phrase, ‘Jacob have I loved,’ does not signify that God really loved Jacob, but that to love here signifies only to hate less, and that all that is meant by the _expression, is that God hated Jacob less than he hated Esau. If every man’s own mind is a sufficient security against concluding the meaning to be, ‘Jacob have I hated less,’ his judgment ought to be a security against the equally unwarrantable meaning, ‘Esau have I loved less’ … hardening [is] a proof of hatred” (Romans, pp. 456, 457).” – Robert Haldane
“‘Thou hatest all workers of iniquity’—not merely the works of iniquity. Here, then, is a flat repudiation of present teaching that, God hates sin but loves the sinner; Scripture says, ‘Thou hatest all workers of iniquity’ (Ps. 5:5)! ‘God is angry with the wicked every day.’ ‘He that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God’—not ‘shall abide,’ but even now—‘abideth on him’ (Ps. 5:5; 8:11; John 3:36). Can God ‘love’ the one on whom His ‘wrath’ abides? Again; is it not evident that the words ‘The love of God which is in Christ Jesus’ (Rom. 8:39) mark a limitation, both in the sphere and objects of His love? Again; is it not plain from the words ‘Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated’ (Rom. 9:13) that God does not love everybody? … Is it conceivable that God will love the damned in the Lake of Fire? Yet, if He loves them now He will do so then, seeing that His love knows no change—He is ‘without variableness or shadow of turning!’” (A.W. Pink – The Sovereignty of God, p. 248).
“Therefore hath He mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will He hardeneth!” [Romans 9:18]
“Every person who has ever lived or will ever live must glorify God, either actively or passively, either willingly or unwillingly, either in heaven or in hell. You will glorify God. Either you will glorify him as the object of his mercy and glory, which will be seen in you. Or you will glorify him in your rebellion and unbelief by being made the object of his wrath and power at the final judgment”. – J.M. Boice
John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
This is perhaps the most oft-quoted, and least understood verse in the Bible.
This verse is used by many to teach that God loves all men the same, has provided salvation for all men the same, and it is up to man to do something with it.
THIS VERSE TEACHES NO SUCH THING!
The emphasis in this verse is not the QUANTITY of God’s love, but the QUALITY!
Whether the whosoever refers to one man, or one billion men, it has no bearing on the meaning.
If only one person was converted by this Gospel, it would not be any less glorious than if one billion people were converted by it.
The point of wonder is that “God SO loved the world ….. that He gave…..His only Begotten Son…..that whosoever ….. believeth in Him…..should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
The times in which the prophet Jeremiah lived and the message God gave him to preach can be compared to the times in which we are living in.
Jeremiah lived in a time of great apostasy! And are we not living in such times? We are living in a time when men are most religious and claim to know the God of the Bible, but are in truth actually worshipping ‘another Jesus’! On one hand we have the deadly error of Arminianism which has pervaded almost all recognized denominations and on the other hand we have those who claim to believe in the Sovereign God and the Sovereignty of God in salvation and yet live an antinomian life – Like the men in the days of Jeremiah God says of them that they – “come and stand before Me in this house, which is called by My name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations?” [Jer 7:10]
Another thing worthy of notice is that Jeremiah was pretty much a ‘lone voice’ in the midst of a compromised people! And is this not so in OUR day! How many do we find who are zealous for the Sovereign God of the Bible and desire to see His people brought back to the worship of the true God? Hardy a handful!
And the commission which God gave the prophet Jeremiah is the same commission to US! And WHAT is that commission? This – “Then the LORD put forth His hand, and touched my mouth. And the LORD said unto me, Behold, I have put My words in thy mouth. See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant!” [Jer 1:9,10]
Now meditate very carefully on this following commission. The instruction to the prophet is to ‘build and to plant’ but before he can do that he needs to “root out, and pull down, destroy, and throw down!” Is that not this the SAME commission which God has given us?! People always ask us WHY we spend so much time attacking heresies and false doctrines and not just preach Jesus and His love for all! Well now you know!
Before one can build he needs to clear the ground! Before we establish in a man’s mind that Jehovah is absolutely Sovereign we must show him how depraved and helpless he is! Before we can tell a man of the perfect holiness and righteousness of the Son of God we need to show him that all man’s righteousness are as filthy menstrual rags in God’s sight! And therefore we preach not only the truth but spend a great deal of time exposing the Lie!
“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]
And the commission given to Jeremiah is not an easy one that can be carried out in the flesh or in human strength. And therefore the Lord assures the prophet of his election by grace; telling him that this is no ‘happen-chance’ but that he (Jeremiah) was a chosen vessel for this commission long before he was even born! “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!” [Jer 1:5]
But Jeremiah is not an angel from Heaven, but flesh and blood like you and me, and is overwhelmed by the task at hand and therefore tries to shirk off the responsibility by appealing to his inexperience – for he says, “Look for someone else God because I am a child”. But what is the answer of the Holy one unto him? This – “Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak. Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the LORD.” [Jer 1:7,8]
And did not our Master assure US with these very same words? “For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist. And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for My name’s sake. But there shall not an hair of your head perish. In your patience possess ye your souls!” [Luke 21:15-19]
All that to say, history does repeat itself and the Word of God in the Old testament is as relevant to US as it was to the people to whom it was originally intended. “Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come!” [1Cor 10:11]
There is lot more to be said about Jeremiah and his message. But more later . . . .
DOES ‘PREDESTINATION’ MEAN THAT GOD IS A ‘RESPECTER OF PERSONS’
A “respecter of persons” is one who, acting as judge, does not treat those who come before him according to their character, but who withholds from some what is justly theirs and gives to others what is not justly theirs – one who is governed by prejudice and sinister motives, rather than by justice and law. The Scriptures deny that God is the respecter of persons in this sense; and if the doctrine of Predestination represented God as doing these things, we admit that it would charge Him with injustice.
In the Scriptures God is said to be no respecter of persons, for He does not choose one and reject another because of outward circumstances such as race, nationality, wealth, power, nobility, etc. When the Scriptures say that God is no respecter of persons THEY DO NOT MEAN that He treats ALL PEOPLE ALIKE, but that the reason for His saving one and rejecting another is not that one is a Jew and the other a Gentile, or that the one is rich and the other poor, etc.
GOD DOES NOT TREAT ALL PEOPLE ALIKE; HE GIVES TO SOME WHAT HE WITHHOLDS FROM OTHERS
It is a fact that in His providential government of the world God does not confer the same or equal favors upon all people. The inequality is too glaring to be denied. The Scriptures tell us, and the experiences of everyday life show us, that there is a greatest variety in the distribution of these,—and justly so, for all of these are of GRACE, and not of debt. The Calvinist here falls back upon the experienced reality of facts. It is true, and no argument can disprove it, that men in this world find themselves unequally favoured both in inward disposition and outward circumstances. One child is born to health, honor, wealth, of eminently good and wise parents who train him up from infancy in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and who afford him every opportunity of being taught the truth as it is in the Scriptures. Another is born to disease, shame, poverty, of dissipated and depraved parents who reject and ridicule and despise Christianity, and who take care to prevent their child from coming under the influence of the Gospel. Some are born with susceptible hearts and consciences, which makes lives of innocence and purity natural for them; others are born with violent passions, or even with distinct tendencies to evil, which seemingly are inherited and unconquerable. Some are happy, others are miserable. Some are born in Christian and in civilized lands where they are carefully educated and watched over; others are born in complete heathen darkness.
As a general rule the child that is surrounded with the proper Christian influences becomes a devout Christian and lives a life of great service, while the other whose character is formed under the influence of corrupt teaching and example lives in wickedness and dies impenitent. The one is saved and the other is lost. And will anyone deny that the influences favorable to salvation which are brought to bear upon some individuals are far more favorable than those brought to bear upon others? Will it not be admitted by every candid individual that if the persons had changed places, they probably would have changed characters also? – That if the son of the godly parents had been the son of the infidels, and had lived under the same corrupting influences, he would, in all probability, have died in his sins?
In His mysterious providence God has placed persons under widely different influences, and the results are widely different. He of course foresaw these different results before the persons were born. These are facts, which no one can DENY and EXPLAIN AWAY. And if we are to believe that the world is governed by a personal and intelligent Being, we must also believe that these inequalities have not risen by CHANCE or ACCIDENT, but through purpose and design, and that the lot of every individual has been determined by the Sovereign good pleasure of God. “Even Arminians,” says N. L. Rice, “are obliged to acknowledge that God does make great differences in the treatment of the human family, not only in the distribution of the temporal blessings, but of spiritual gifts also,—a difference which compels them, if they would be consistent, to hold the doctrine of election . . . . If the sending of the Gospel to a people, with the divine influence accompanying it, does not amount to a PERSONAL ELECTION, most assuredly the withholding of it from the people amounts generally to reprobation”.
In Matt 11:25 we read of a prayer in which Jesus said, “I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in Thy sight.” In those words He thanked the Father for doing that very thing which Arminians exclaim against as unjust and censure as partial. When the Arminian admits that Christ died not for fallen angels or demons, but only for fallen men, he admits limited atonement and in principle makes the same kind of a distinction as does the Calvinist who says that Christ died for the elect only.
GOD’S PARTIALITY IS PARTLY EXPLAINED BY THE FACT THAT HE IS SOVEREIGN AND THAT HIS GIFTS ARE OF GRACE
It cannot be said that God acts unjustly toward those who are not included in this plan of salvation. People who make this objection neglect to take into consideration the fact that God is dealing not merely with creatures but with SINFUL creatures who have forfeited every claim upon His mercy. Augustine well said: “Damnation is rendered to the wicked as a matter of debt, justice and desert, whereas grace given to those who are delivered is free and unmerited, so that the condemned sinner cannot allege that he is unworthy of his punishment, nor the saint vaunt or boast as if he were worthy of his reward. Thus in the whole course of this procedure, there is no respect of persons.
They who are condemned and they who are set at liberty constituted originally one and the same lump, equally infected with sin and liable to vengeance. Hence the justified may learn from the condemnation of the rest that that would have been their own punishment had not God’s grace stepped into their rescue.” And to the same effect Calvin says, “The Lord, therefore, may give grace to whom He will, because He is merciful, and yet not give it to all because He is a just Judge; may manifest His free grace by giving to some what they never deserve, while by not giving to all He declares the demerit of all.”
“Partiality,” in the sense that objectors commonly use the word, is IMPOSSIBLE in the SPHERE OF GRACE. It can EXIST only in the SPHERE OF JUSTICE, where the persons concerned have certain CLAIMS and RIGHTS. We may give to one beggar and not to another for we do not OWE anything to either. The parable of the talents was spoken by our Lord to illustrate the doctrine of Divine sovereignty in the bestowment of UNMERITED gifts; and the regeneration of the soul is one of the greatest of these gifts.
The central teaching in the parable of the labourers in the vineyard is that God is sovereign in the dispensation of His gifts. To the saved and the unsaved alike He can say, “Friend, I do thee NO WRONG . . . . Is it not lawful for Me to do what I WILL with mine own? Or is thine eye evil, because I am good?” Matt. 20:13-15. It was said to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion”; and Paul adds, “So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but OF GOD that sheweth mercy . . . .So then He hath mercy on WHOM HE WILL and whom He will He hardeneth,” Rom. 9:15-18. He will extend mercy to some, and inflict justice on others, and will be glorified by all.
Just as a man may give alms to some and not to others, so God may give His grace, which is heavenly alms, to whom He pleases. Grace, from its own nature, must be FREE and the very INEQUALITY OF ITS DISTRIBUTION demonstrates that it is TRULY GRATUITOUS. If any one could justly demand it, it would cease to be grace and would become of debt. If God is robbed of His sovereignty in this respect, salvation then becomes a matter of debt to every person.
Hence, then, to the objection that the doctrine of Predestination represents God as “partial,” we answer it certainly does. But we insist that it does not represent Him as UNJUSTLY partial.
[Paraphrased and quoted from – Lorraine Boettner – ‘The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination’]
His mercies are new EVERY MORNING and fresh EVERY EVENING!
WHO can know the number of His benefits, or recount the list of His bounties? Every sand which drops from the glass of time is but the tardy follower of a myriad of mercies. The wings of our hours are covered with the silver of His kindness, and with the yellow gold of His affection. The river of time bears from the mountains of eternity the golden sands of His favour. The countless stars are but as the standard bearers of a more innumerable host of blessings.
WHO can count the dust of the benefits which He bestows on Jacob, or tell the number of the fourth part of His mercies towards Israel? How shall my soul extol Him who daily loadeth us with benefits, and who crowneth us with loving-kindness? O that my praise could be as ceaseless as His bounty! O miserable tongue, how canst thou be silent?! Wake up, I pray thee, lest I call thee no more my glory, but my shame. “Awake, psaltery and harp: I myself will awake right early.”
DID CHRIST GO TO THE CROSS TO MAKE CERTAIN THE SALVATION OF ALL HIS SHEEP, OR MAKE SALVATION POSSIBLE FOR ANY AND ALL WHO MIGHT BELIEVE OF THEIR OWN FREE-WILL?
Michael Jeshurun
A.W. Pink said, “Christ died not merely to make possible the salvation of all mankind, but to make certain the salvation of all that the Father had given to Him. Christ died not simply to render sins pardonable, but “to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself” (Heb. 9:26). As to whose “sin” (i.e., guilt, as in 1 John 1:7, etc.) has been “put away,” Scripture leaves us in no doubt-it was that of the elect, the “world” (John 1:29) of God’s people!”
THIS we believe is the dividing line between the Arminian and the Calvinist! While the former believes that Christ went to the Cross to make Salvation a ‘possibility’ to all who may believe, the latter holds that His death actually ‘secured’ the Salvation of all whom He represented.
To the Arminian the words of the Saviour, “It is finished!” mean that Christ finished 99% of all that pertains to Salvation while leaving 1% for the sinner himself to do – i.e., to believe and appropriate what the Saviour finished. All said and done, the saved sinner now hath ‘whereof to glory’ at least for having believed. And in the final analysis it is the sinner who makes himself to differ from another, and not GOD who made the difference.
According to the Arminian, God FIRST calls the sinner and THEN saves him, IF he believes, while the Calvinist correctly understands the ‘Ordo salutis’ or ‘order of Salvation’ as God first sovereignly saving the sinner and then calling him. Thou wilt then say unto me “If God has already saved the sinner then why does He bother to call him?” We answer that God calls the one whom He hath saved to show him what he is now a possessor of – i.e., life and immortality!
“Who hath (first) saved us, and (THEN) called us with an 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, but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought LIFE AND IMMORTALITY TO LIGHT through the Gospel.” [2Tim 1:9,10]
God first regenerates the sinner by the sovereign operation of the Holy Ghost and THEN sends a preacher to preach the Gospel and show this regenerated sinner WHAT has actually happened to him in regeneration.
There are times when conversion immediately follows regeneration so that the recipient may be misled into thinking that he is now saved BECAUSE he believed. But the order never changes – Regeneration FIRST, THEN faith, repentance and good works following as a fruit of that regeneration!
Salvation has always been and still is “of the LORD”, and man hath no part nor lot in it! [Jonah 2:9]
“Who hath (first) saved us, and (THEN) called us with an 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!” [2Tim 1:9]
And all this that “no flesh should glory in His presence. . . . . That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord!” [1Cor 1:29-31]
We have come across not a few who contend that the ‘doctrine of Election’ though it may be true is not for us to know. Election and predestination are ‘God’s business’ and we need not break our heads over it.”
Is that what the BIBLE teaches?
Here’s what the Scripture says – “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.” [Deut 29:29]
Read that again – “but those things WHICH ARE REVEALED belong unto us and to our children!”
And WHAT has God revealed apart from the who He is and what He expects of man . . . why, He has revealed to us that He is a DISCRIMINATING GOD who has mercy on whom He will and hardens whom He will! [Romans 9:18]
THE BIBLE EXPLICITLY TEACHES ELECTION in both the old and the new testaments and those who fail to see it are either men who are spiritually BLIND who must be born again or just plain REBELLIOUS men who willfully reject the teaching of God’s word because it is NOT AGREEABLE to their feelings and plausible to their understanding. Every Christian MUST believe in some kind of election, for the great God hath chosen to ‘REVEAL IT’ in His Word! And while the Scriptures leave unexplained many things about the doctrine of Election, they make very plain the FACT that there HAS BEEN AN ELECTION!
“What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the ELECTION HATH OBTAINED IT, and the rest were blinded!” [Rom 11:7]
The most eminent apostle of them all who wrote more than half the New Testament, towards the end of his ministry confessed to the Ephesian Church – “I KEPT BACK NOTHING THAT WAS PROFITABLE UNTO YOU, but have showed you, and have taught you publickly, and from house to house.” [Acts 20:20]
And WHAT was one of those ‘profitable’ doctrines which he did not keep back from the Ephesians? Why ELECTION and PREDESTINATION!
“According as He hath CHOSEN US IN HIM BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love: Having PREDESTINATED US unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will etc” [Ephesians 1:4,5]
And Paul was not the only one who taught Election and Predestination, but so did ALL OF THE APOSTLES! It is either expressly stated, strikingly illustrated, or clearly implied!
The Apostle Peter starts off his very first letter thus – “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus . . . ELECT ACCORDING TO THE FOREKNOWLEDGE OF GOD THE FATHER, through sanctification of the Spirit . . .” [1Pet 1:1-3]
And John that apostle of love was so full of the doctrine of election that he even addresses a sister in Christ as “the Elect lady” [2John 1:1] You can’t get more ‘Reformed’ than that!
GOD WANTS HIS PEOPLE TO KNOW THE TRUTH OF HIS ELECTION AND SOVEREIGN GRACE or He had not filled the pages of His Book speaking about it!
“but those things WHICH ARE REVEALED belong unto us and to our children!” [Deut 29:29]
And the reason why God has revealed the doctrine of Election in His Book is because as all other Biblical doctrines the Doctrine of Election and we might add the Doctrine of Man’s Total Depravity are profitable to us!
“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.” [2Timothy 3:16,17]
The doctrine of Election which we hold and contend for gives God ALL the glory and puts man where He belongs – i.e. in the dust! And the Holy Spirit has seen fit to reveal it in His Word and holy men of God through the ages have contended for it and in some cases have even laid down their lives for it!
Such a precious truth as this must not be neglected or set aside! It must be preached from the rooftops!
“What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that PREACH YE UPON THE HOUSETOPS!” [Matt 10:27]
BUT TRUTH IS NEVER POPULAR and this is especially so with the truth of Election! It is not taught to gain favour with men. The preacher whose goal is to ‘win friends and influence people’ must needs AVOID this doctrine or explain it away to the satisfaction of the religious goats who warm his pews! . . . and sadly many have done just that!
In fact, to mention it before some, is like shaking the proverbial red flag before an enraged bull. It arouses the fiercest passions of their nature, and brings forth a torrent of abuse and calumny. But, because men have fought against it, or because they hate it, or perhaps misunderstand it, is no reasonable or logical cause why we should turn the doctrine adrift, or cast it behind our backs. The real question, the all-important question, is not “How do men receive it? But, IS IT TRUE?”.
“It is the duty of every theologian to subordinate his theories to the Bible, and teach not what SEEMS TO HIM TO BE TRUE OR REASONABLE, but simply WHAT THE BIBLE TEACHES. The question as to whether Election and Reprobation are true, is not to be decided by ascertaining which is more agreeable to our feelings or the more plausible to our understanding, but which is consistent with the doctrines of the Bible and the facts of experience.” (Dr. Charles Hodge).
“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.” [Deut 29:29]
“A false balance is abomination to the LORD”! [Prov 11:1]
This principle applies in the study and preaching of the Bible too!
If any doctrine be preached exclusively it is distorted. There is a BALANCE to be preserved in our presentation of the truth; while no part of it is to be suppressed, no part of it is to be made unduly prominent. It is a great mistake to harp on one string only. Man’s responsibility must be enforced as well as God’s sovereignty insisted upon. If on the one hand the minister must not be intimidated by Arminians, on the other he must not be brow-beaten by hyper-Calvinists, who object to the calling upon the unconverted to repent and believe the gospel” [Mark 1:15]. [A.W. Pink]
A brother recently wrote – “No. Some Calvinists are not Calvinists or Christians at all but antinomians, saying that grace won’t be grace if we obeyed”.
Oh how true this is!
Antinomianism is a very real threat, or godly men had not written against it.
If he could, the Antinomian would tear the book of James out of the Bible, for in it are contained verses which clearly expose his hypocrisy!
“But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? 2:21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? 2:22 Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? 2:26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
But there is a Scripture which aptly describes the Antinomian, it is in Titus 1:19 – “They profess that they know God; but IN WORKS THEY DENY HIM, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate”!
This is one reason a lot of ‘Calvinists’ don’t like A.W. Pink very much. For he maintained a proper balance in his preaching! Unlike many, he refused to harp on one string only!
It is indeed sad to see many preachers in our day who should know better being ONE-SIDED in their preaching? I speak with regards to the ‘PRECEPTIVE’ part of the Word of God. When was the last time you heard a preacher (especially those of the Reformed camp) preach a searching message on God’s precepts. Or how many ‘Sovereign Grace’ websites do you know that have even a single sermon or article on the precepts?
“They preach a lot on doctrine, often on experience, but life conduct receives the scantiest notice. It is not too much to say that they seem to be afraid of the very word “duty.” They preach soundly and beneficially on the obedience which Christ gave to God on behalf of His people, but they say next to nothing of that obedience which the Lord requires from those whom He has redeemed”! [A.W. Pink]
But what is one of the primary things which the “grace of God’ teaches the Christian? Why, this: “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, TEACHING US that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world”! [Titus 2:11,12]. Those who contend earnestly for the truth of ‘Limited Atonement’ need to bear in mind that one of the reason that Christ atoned for them is this – “Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, ZEALOUS OF GOOD WORKS”! [Titus 2:14]
Do ‘good works’ or ‘holy living’ add anything to our salvation or our favour with God? ABSOLUTELY NOT! But they give US the assurance that we are indeed who we claim to be! The Apostle constantly admonished his hearers to ‘examine themselves’ as to whether they were in the faith! [2Cor 13:5] And how does one do this, but by searching his heart as to whether he is following a course of sin or righteousness!
Sadly, very little is spoken in ‘Reformed circles’ concerning the Christian’s war with sin and self! And I am here referring here to the ‘Precepts’!
Please allow me to quote J.C. Philpot here – “It is almost become a tradition in some churches professing the doctrines of grace to disregard the precepts and pass them by in a kind of general silence. Consider this point, ye ministers, who Lord’s day after Lord’s day preach nothing but doctrine, doctrine, doctrine; and ask yourselves whether the same Holy Spirit who revealed the first three chapters of the epistle to the Ephesians did not also reveal the last three? Is not the whole epistle equally inspired, a part of that Scripture of which we read, “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, thoroughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Timothy 3:16, 17)?
To the same effect, he declared:
“To despise, then, the precept, to call it legal and burdensome, is to despise not man, but God, who hath given unto us His Holy Spirit in the inspired Scriptures for our faith and obedience…. Nothing more detects hypocrites, purges out loose professors, and fans away that chaff and dust which now so thickly covers our barn floors than an experimental handling of the precept. A DRY DOCTRINAL MINISTRY DISTURBS NO CONSCIENCES. The loosest professors may sit under it, nay, be highly delighted with it, for it gives them a hope, if not a dead confidence, that salvation being wholly of grace they shall be saved whatever be their walk of life. But the experimental handling of the precept cuts down all this and exposes their hypocrisy and deception”
May the Lord deliver us from Antinomianism and a ‘False Balance’ in our preaching and reading of God’s Holy Word!
Easter has little to do with real Christianity. Does that surprise you? It should not. For example, Easter was not popular with the Puritans or the Pilgrim settlers in America. Neither Puritans or Pilgrims had use for ceremonies associated with religious festivals invented in either pagan history, or reinvented by Roman Catholicism. In actuality, here in the America’s only after the bloodshed Civil War did Easter “begin again” to be accepted. As Walsh states in his “Holy Time and Sacred Space in Puritan New England” (Walsh, American Quarterly, Vol. 32, No. 1 (Spring, 1980), pp. 79-95) “The New England [Pilgrims] like Reformed Protestants everywhere, rejected traditional Roman Catholic and Anglican beliefs and practices that organized time around consecrated churches, railed-off altars, holy shrines, miraculous wells, and that supposed the flow of time to be an irregular succession of holy days and sacred seasons. The Reformers argued, what was intended as a crutch for others had become a cast for Christians who willingly accepted the obligation of constant worship. They for whom all days are holy can have no holidays.” (See, for example, The Sermons of John Calvin Upon the Fifth Book of Moses called Deuteronomie, trans. Arthur Golding (London: H. Middleton, 1583).
The Post Reformation pastors and theologians of the day, following the Reformers, abolished Easter, among other things. In June 1647, England Parliament, headed by the Puritans at Westminster, passed legislation abolishing Christmas and other holidays: “Forasmuch as the feast of the nativity of Christ, Easter, Whitsuntide, and other festivals, commonly called holy-days, have been heretofore superstitiously used and observed; be it ordained, that the said feasts, and all other festivals, commonly called holy-days, be no longer observed as festivals; any law, statute, custom, constitution, or canon, to the contrary in anywise not withstanding.” (Daniel Neal, The History of the Puritans (London, 1837; rpt. Minneapolis: Klock , p. 45).The Puritans “proposed a stricter observance of Sundays, the Lord’s Day, along with banning the immoral celebration of Christmas — as well as Easter, Whitsun and saints’ days.” (Patino, Marta, The Puritan Ban on Christmas). The reason the puritans denied the celebration of any holy days was a biblical foundation to deny the “dressing up” of any other day than what God had specifically prescribed in Lord’s Day worship. “Holy days’ have no such prescription — there is no Scriptural command, approved example, or good and necessary inference, which warrants tying specific acts of redemption to ‘holy’ days of our own choosing.” (Chris Coldwell, The Religious Observance of Christmas and ‘Holy Days’ in American Presbyterianism) (I would encourage the reader to read the entire article that Coldwell has at that link which covers not only Easter, but other holidays.)In “The Quest for Purity: Dynamics of Puritan Movements” by Walter E. a Van Beek, he states, “Because Easter invariably fell on a Sunday, this was a problem for Puritan preachers who were consistent with their repudiation of of the traditional calendar. The usual solution was to preach a sermon that had no direct connection with Easter.” (Page 77.) How would a congregation today take a non-Easter sermon on Easter Sunday? What would your reaction be, reader?
Rightly so, the Westminster Confession states in the appendix entitled, “An Appendix, Touching Days and Places for Public Worship,” the following, “The key clause of interest to this study is, “Festival days, vulgarly called Holy-days, having no warrant in the word of God, are not to be continued.” Later Presbyterian theology followed suit. While people “say” they adhere to the Confession, they dip hardboiled eggs into food coloring, and buy Easter Baskets for their children. Robert Dabney states in abolishing Easter, “The objections are: first, that this countenances “will-worship,” or the intrusion of man’s inventions into God’s service; second, it is an implied insult to Paul’s inspiration, assuming that he made a practical blunder, which the church synods, wiser than his inspiration, had to mend by a human expedient; and third, we have here a practical confession that, after all, the average New Testament Christian does need a stated holy day, and therefore the ground of the Sabbath command is perpetual and moral.” (Robert Lewis Dabney “The Christian Sabbath: Its Nature, Design and Proper Observance”, Discussions: Theological and Evangelical (Richmond: Whittet and Shepperson, 1890) 1. 524-525. See also, “The Sabbath of the State,” 2.600.)
What do we find when entering into Roman Catholicism’s “borrowing” of paganism? John Gill states, “Popish festivals were observed very early, long before the Pope of some arrived to the height of his ambition. The feast of Easter was kept in the second century, as the controversy between Anicetus and Polycarp, and between Victor and the Asiatic churches, shews.” (John Gill, Sermon 57: A Dissertation on the Rise and Progress of Popery, page 17; Ages Ultimate Library, 2004). We find their continued alliance with breaking the regulative principle, and the replacement of true worship, with worshipping that which is unholy. They institute unscriptural burdens such as Lent, fast days, sacred rites that control their kingdom with superstitions and false religion guised in the cloak of “authority” and hide the truth from people to damn them for all eternity. One such deception is their introduction of the “Christian festival of Easter.” Look around and you will see the world-wide acceptance of the chocolate bunny and hardboiled egg. It is harmless, right?
What does one find when looking at the celebration of Easter? The term “Easter” is certainly not Christian, and is of Chalcedonian origin. Easter is nothing else than Astarte, one of the titles of Beltis, the queen of heaven, whose name, as pronounced by the people at Nineveh, was evidently identical with that now in common use today. That name, as found by Layard on the Assyrian monuments, is Ishtar – the devil or Satan.[1]
Worship of the devil in this way was introduced to the English people through the Druids who worshipped the devil through nature.
Take a moment and note that Romanism or Druidism for that matter, would not openly say “they are worshipping the devil.” Of course they would deny it. However, the Scripture is exceedingly clear that any doctrine not brought to men through the Triune Godhead, and the Savior Jesus Christ, is a doctrine of demons and therefore, a worshipping of the devil. This certainly applies not only to the contemporary church when it introduces destructive heresies, or twists Paul’s words to their own destruction, as Peters states, but also applies to false religious ideas that pull people away from the one true Savior and only God Jesus Christ. One cannot introduce false religion without partaking of demonic influences and devil worship in that light.
As a result of Druidic worship, and influences that have penetrated into Romanism, contemporary Christendom of almost every flavor still has those influences lingering today in their worship, and their Sunday morning bulletins around the time of Easter. The Druids would worship in lighting a fire in the center circle and each worshipper putting in a “bit of oat-cake in a shepherd’s bonnet; they all sit down, and draw blindfold a piece from the bonnet. One piece has been previously blackened, and whoever gets that piece has to jump through the fire in the centre of the circle, and pay a forfeit. This is, in fact, a part of the ancient worship of Baal, and the person on whom the lot fell was previously burnt as a sacrifice.” Scripture deems this “walking through the fire” or “fire sacrifice.” God condemns the practice of making children walk through the fire in Leviticus 18:21, “You shall not give any of your children to offer them to Molech, and so profane the name of your God: I am the LORD.”
Easter, then, traces back through Astarte was also worshipped in ancient times, and that from the name Astarte, whose name in Nineveh was Ishtar, the religious workings during the month of March and April, as now practiced in most of Christendom, are called by the name of Easter. In ancient times the pagans called this time of the year Easter-monath.
Even Socrates, the ancient philosopher, describes the different ways in which Easter was observed in different countries in his time during the fifth century. He states, “Thus much already laid down may seem a sufficient treatise to prove that the celebration of the feast of Easter began everywhere more of custom than by any commandment either of Christ or any Apostle.” (Hist. Ecclesiast.) Even Socrates, the philosopher of the 5th Century (not the pagan 5th century BC philosopher) knew Easter was not a Christian doctrine.
Socrates Scholasticus (aka Socrates of Constantinople) said, “Neither the apostles, therefore, nor the Gospels, have anywhere imposed the ‘yoke of servitude’ on those who have embraced the truth; but have left Easter and every other feast to be honored by the gratitude of the recipients of grace. Wherefore, inasmuch as men love festivals, because they afford them cessation from labor: each individual in every place, according to his own pleasure, has by a prevalent custom celebrated the memory of the saving passion. The Saviour and his apostles have enjoined us by no law to keep this feast: nor do the Gospels and apostles threaten us with any penalty, punishment, or curse for the neglect of it, as the Mosaic law does the Jews. It is merely for the sake of historical accuracy, and for the reproach of the Jews, because they polluted themselves with blood on their very feasts, that it is recorded in the Gospels that our Saviour suffered in the days of ‘unleavened bread.’ The aim of the apostles was not to appoint festival days, but to teach a righteous life and piety. And it seems to me that just as many other customs have been established in individual localities according to usage. So also the feast of Easter came to be observed in each place according to the individual peculiarities of the peoples inasmuch as none of the apostles legislated on the matter. And that the observance originated not by legislation, but as a custom the facts themselves indicate” (Schaff, P. (1997). The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers Second Series Vol. II. Socrates, Sozomenus: Church Histories. (130).)
Where did people begin worshipping “gods” on Easter? Hislop explains, “The forty days’ of fasting during the Romanist Lent was directly borrowed from the worshippers of the Babylonian goddess. Such a Lent of forty days, “in the spring of the year,” is still observed by the Yezidis or Pagan Devil-worshippers of Koordistan, who have inherited it from their early masters, the Babylonians. It was held in spring by the Pagan Mexicans, for thus we read in Humboldt, where he gives account of Mexican observances: “Three days after the vernal equinox…began a solemn fast of forty days in honor of the sun.” Such a Lent of forty days was observed in Egypt which was held expressly in commemoration of Adonis or Osiris, the great mediatorial god. At the same time, the rape of Proserpine seems to have been commemorated, and in a similar manner; for Julius Firmicus informs us that, for “forty nights” the “wailing for Proserpine” continued; and from Arnobius we learn that the fast which the Pagans observed, called “Castus” or the “sacred” fast, was, by the Christians in his time, believed to have been primarily in imitation of the long fast of Ceres, when for many days she determinedly refused to eat on account of her “excess of sorrow,” that is, on account of the loss of her daughter Proserpine, when carried away by Pluto, the god of hell. As the stories of Bacchus, or Adonis and Proserpine, though originally distinct, were made to join on and fit in to one another, so that Bacchus was called Liber, and his wife Ariadne, Libera (which was one of the names of Proserpine), it is highly probable that the forty days’ fast of Lent was made in later times to have reference to both.
Among the Pagans this Lent seems to have been an indispensable preliminary to the great annual festival in commemoration of the death and resurrection of Tammuz, which was celebrated by alternate weeping and rejoicing, and which, in many countries, was considerably later than the Christian festival, being observed in Palestine and Assyria in June, therefore called the “month of Tammuz”; in Egypt, about the middle of May, and in Britain, sometime in April. To conciliate the Pagans to nominal Christianity, Rome, pursuing its usual policy, took measures to get the Christian and Pagan festivals amalgamated, and, by a complicated but skilful adjustment of the calendar, it was found no difficult matter, in general, to get Paganism and Christianity–now far sunk in idolatry–in this as in so many other things, to shake hands. The instrument in accomplishing this amalgamation was the abbot Dionysius the Little, to whom also we owe it, as modern chronologers have demonstrated, that the date of the Christian era, or of the birth of Christ Himself, was moved FOUR YEARS from the true time.
Whether this was done through ignorance or design may be matter of question; but there seems to be no doubt of the fact, that the birth of the Lord Jesus was made full four years later than the truth. This change of the calendar in regard to Easter was attended with momentous consequences. It brought into the Church the grossest corruption and the rankest superstition in connection with the abstinence of Lent. Let anyone only read the atrocities that were commemorated during the “sacred fast” or Pagan Lent, as described by Arnobius and Clemens Alexandrinus, and surely he must blush for the Christianity of those who, with the full knowledge of all these abominations, “went down to Egypt for help” to stir up the languid devotion of the degenerate Church, and who could find no more excellent way to “revive” it, than by borrowing from so polluted a source; the absurdities and abominations connected with which the early Christian writers had held up to scorn. That Christians should ever think of introducing the Pagan abstinence of Lent was a sign of evil; it showed how low they had sunk, and it was also a cause of evil; it inevitably led to deeper degradation. Originally, even in Rome, Lent, with the preceding revelries of the Carnival, was entirely unknown; and even when fasting before the Christian Pasch was held to be necessary, it was by slow steps that, in this respect, it came to conform with the ritual of Paganism. What may have been the period of fasting in the Roman Church before sitting of the Nicene Council does not very clearly appear, but for a considerable period after that Council, we have distinct evidence that it did not exceed three weeks.”
So we have the history of “Easter” and its popular observances today confirm the testimony of history as to its Babylonian character, such as the hot-crossed buns that are so tasty.
The hot cross buns of Good Friday, and the dyed eggs of Easter Sunday, figured in the Chaldean rites just as they do now. The “buns” were used in the worship of the queen of heaven, the goddess Easter, as early as the days of Cecrops, the founder of Athens–that is, 1500 years before the Christian era. Jeremiah 7:18 states, “The children gather wood, the fathers kindle fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven. And they pour out drink offerings to other gods, to provoke me to anger.” Jeremiah uses the word “bun” which is where the concept was derived. The Hebrew word was pronounced Khavan, which in Greek became sometimes Kapan-os. The Hebrew shows how Khvan, pronounced as one syllable, would pass into the Latin panis, “bread,” and the second how, in like manner, Khvon would become Bon or Bun. The hot cross buns are not now offered, but eaten, on the festival of Astarte; but this leaves no doubt as to where the original idea came from.
What about the Ishtar Eggs? Where do we get bunnies and eggs in baskets and egg hunts during a Christian holy-day? The origin of the Paschal eggs is just as pagan. The ancient Druids bore an egg, as the sacred emblem of their order. Hislop says, “In the Dionysiaca, or mysteries of Bacchus, as celebrated in Athens, one part of the nocturnal ceremony consisted in the consecration of an egg. The Hindo fables celebrate their mundane egg as of a golden color. The people of Japan make their sacred egg to have been brazen. In China, at this hour, dyed or painted eggs are used on sacred festivals, even as in this country. In ancient times eggs were used in the religious rites of the Egyptians and the Greeks, and were hung up for mystic purposes in their temples. From Egypt these sacred eggs can be distinctly traced to the banks of the Euphrates. The classic poets are full of the fable of the mystic egg of the Babylonians.” Hyginus, the poet states, “An egg of wondrous size is said to have fallen from heaven into the river Euphrates. The fishes rolled it to the bank, where the doves having settled upon it, and hatched it, out came Venus, who afterwards was called the Syrian Goddess”–that is, Astarte, or Easter. So the Easter Egg became one of the symbols of Astarte, and its occult meaning had reference to the ark during the time of the flood, in which the whole human race were shut up, as the chick is enclosed in the egg before it is hatched.
The egg, then, became used as a symbol for the whole world as Noah and his family, after the destruction was the “whole world” floating on the waters of the flood. Hislop states, “The coming of the egg from heaven evidently refers to the preparation of the ark by express appointment of God; and the same thing seems clearly implied in the Egyptian story of the mundane egg which was said to have come out of the mouth of the great god. The doves resting on the egg need no explanation. This, then, was the meaning of the mystic egg in one aspect. As, however, everything that was good or beneficial to mankind was represented in the Chaldean mysteries, as in some way connected with the Babylonian goddess, so the greatest blessing to the human race, which the ark contained in its bosom, was held to be Astarte, who was the great civiliser and benefactor of the world. Though the deified queen, whom Astarte represented, had no actual existence till some centuries after the flood, yet through the doctrine of metempsychosis, which was firmly established in Babylon, it was easy for her worshippers to be made to believe that, in a previous incarnation, she had lived in the Antediluvian world, and passed in safety through the waters of the flood. Now the Romish Church adopted this mystic egg of Astarte, and consecrated it as a symbol of Christ’s resurrection. A form of prayer was even appointed to be used in connection with it, Pope Paul V teaching his superstitious votaries thus to pray at Easter this specific prayer, “Bless, O Lord, we beseech thee, this thy creature of eggs, that it may become a wholesome sustenance unto thy servants, eating it in remembrance of our Lord Jesus Christ…” (Scottish Guardian, April, 1844).
That Semiramis, under the name of Astarte, was worshipped not only as an incarnation of the Spirit of God, but as the mother of mankind, we have very clear and satisfactory evidence. There is no doubt that “the Syrian goddess” was Astarte (LAYARD’S Nineveh and its Remains). Now, the Assyrian goddess, or Astarte, is akin to simply worshipping the devil. Astarte is not Jesus Christ, is not the Triune Godhead, is not biblical, but everything that God prohibits. The bunny with its fertility connotations and the ancient pagan festivals that used rabbits as symbols of fertility in Babylonian times or the use of eggs, or the use of candy (which derived from the use of pomegranates and oranges that were also used in ancient times of pagan rituals) is identified as devil worship by any thinking Christian. It is no wonder that the use of the symbol of the dove itself as a Christian symbol did not come from the idea of the Spirit resting as a dove upon Christ during His baptism, but as a representative of the Mother of the gods, in whom that Spirit was said to be incarnate, was celebrated as the originator of some of the useful arts and sciences. And we find very readily in Greek mythology that the character attributed to the Minerva, whose name Athena as a synonym for Beltis, the well known name of the Assyrian goddess. Athena, the Minerva of Athens, is universally known as the “goddess of wisdom,” the inventress of arts and sciences.
We have Rome borrowing pagan rituals to change the date of Christ’s entrance into the world by 4 years to compensate amalgamating the celebration of devil worship with Christianity; the adoption of Ishtar, or Astarte, Easter, as a Papist degradation of worship; the violation of the regulative principle in deeming a day to be worshipped as such, the entrance of eggs from Druidic worship, or pomegranates and oranges that turned into chocolate bunnies and Ishtar eggs for a candy basket to give on Easter Sunday, and the Babylonian influences of pagan rituals through every aspect of Easter and we find you, reader, going out this week to apply this all to little Johnny and little Debbie because everyone else is doing it at church.
If you want to be a Papist, then call yourself a Papist, or a Druid, or a Grecian worshipper of the devil. Don’t call yourself Christian by upholding a blatantly obvious demonic holy-day that God abhors. When you partake of such wicked schemes, God’s anger is aroused, and He states in Deuteronomy 32:17, “They sacrificed to demons that were no gods, to gods they had never known.” When you give your child their Easter basket, recall God’s words, and heed the Psalmist in Psalm 106:37, “They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons.” Know that you serve the same blasphemies that Romanism has brought into Christendom, and that the Scriptures rightly warns the covenant people of God that they should abstain from such things and be separate.
1 Timothy 4:1 states, “Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons.” When you worship using the devil’s teachings, you give heed to demonic influences and introduce them to your children. You might say, “Hey, come on. It’s just a chocolate bunny, some jelly beans and a few hardboiled eggs right?” No. It is a giving of your mind, heart and family over to the trinkets of the devil and the worship of his holy-day that has been resurrected and founded on demonic influences and teachings – it is devil worship. If you celebrate Easter, you spit in the face of Jesus Christ who is to be worshipped not on one day in the year on “Resurrection Sunday”, but all the days of all your life – for He is the Redeemer of the Covenant people of God every day. One should not desire to carry parts of the package of Romanism following papist theological ideas with Lent, Good Friday, Palm Sunday, Easter, etc. The Romanist Holy Week is the culmination of events marking the final days of Jesus before Easter Sunday. These are the days:
Palm Sunday – The Sunday before Easter Sunday recalling Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem a week before dying on the cross.
Holy Monday – Jesus’ cleansing of the temple and turning over the tables of the money changers to purify the house of worship.
Holy Tuesday – Jesus’ talk with his disciples on the Mount of Olives about the soon to come destruction of Jerusalem.
Holy Wednesday – The day Judas decided to betray Jesus in exchange for 30 pieces of silver.
Maundy Thursday – The Last Supper of Jesus and his time in the garden with his disciples who would not stay awake before his arrest.
Good Friday – The day Jesus died on the cross.
Holy Saturday – The final day of Lent and the Holy Week.
Easter Sunday – The resurrection of Jesus.
However, we have been delivered through the Scriptures from following such man-made things.
There is a great difference between the works of the devil and the works of the Triune God. The devil deceives by subtle manipulation (Hey, Easter is not all bad; or – redeem it for God!), and the Triune Godhead commands nothing more than perfect obedience to His will and Word (Thou Shalt not worship any other gods, nor shall you worship God according to the commandments of men). The devil wants you to worship Jesus Christ in the manner that demonic teachings lay out Easter. God commands you to worship Him as His Word dictates. Deuteronomy 4:2 states, “You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you.” The devil is the father of lies and wants you to believe the lie that Easter is a Christian holiday, like Lent and Christmas. But our true Father is in heaven who commands us today, as Acts 17:30-31 states, “to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead,” who is Jesus Christ. You should talk about that day and wonder, Christian, if you will stand when He appears. There is safety in appearing in the righteousness of Christ on the Day of Judgment. But there is no safety in any degree of comprises for the sake of a few jelly beans.
POST SCRIPT
I do not want Christians to be leery of buying a bag of jelly beans or eating a Cadbury Egg. It is not that jelly beans or chocolate bunnies are evil in and of themselves. Buy some jelly beans during the 4th of July and have at them. Make some chocolate bunnies and eat them up during January or September. But do not associate yourself or your family with the Romanist amalgamation of pagan rituals during the March-April time of Lent, Good Friday, Palm Sunday and Easter. Those associations are in direct violation of God’s commands, and those associations overrule your plea to Christian Liberty because God is very clear about His worship. As Revelation 19:10 states, “Worship God.”
[1] See Alexander Hislop’s work, “The Two Babylons” which outlines the history behind these pagan origins in great depth.
Salvation is the work of God. It is HE ALONE who quickens the soul “dead in trespasses and sins,” and it is He also who MAINTAINS THE SOUL in its spiritual life. He is both “Alpha and Omega.” “Salvation is OF THE LORD.” If I am prayerful, GOD makes me prayerful; if I have graces, they are God’s gifts to me; if I hold on in a consistent life, it is because HE upholds me with His hand.
I DO NOTHING WHATEVER TOWARDS MY OWN PRESERVATION, EXCEPT WHAT GOD HIMSELF FIRST DOES IN ME.
WHATEVER I have, all my goodness is of the Lord alone. Wherein I sin, THAT IS MY OWN; but wherein I act rightly, THAT is of God, wholly and completely. If I have repulsed a spiritual enemy, the Lord’s strength nerved my arm. Do I live before men a consecrated life? It is not I, but CHRIST who liveth in me.
Am I sanctified? I did not cleanse myself: God’s Holy Spirit sanctifies me. Am I weaned from the world? I am weaned by God’s chastisements sanctified to my good. Do I grow in knowledge? The great Instructor teaches me. All my jewels were fashioned by heavenly art. I find in God all that I want; but I FIND IN MYSELF NOTHING BUT SIN AND MISERY. “He only is my rock and my salvation.”
Do I feed on the Word? That Word would be no food for me unless the Lord made it food for my soul, and helped me to feed upon it. Do I live on the manna which comes down from heaven? What is that manna but Jesus Christ himself incarnate, whose body and whose blood I eat and drink? Am I continually receiving fresh increase of strength? Where do I gather my might? My help cometh from heaven’s hills: WITHOUT JESUS I CAN DO NOTHING.
As a branch cannot bring forth fruit except it abide in the vine, no more can I, except I abide in Him. What Jonah learned in the great deep, let me learn this morning in my closet:
It is so sad to watch people start their Christian testimony with the words – “I was searching for the truth. I was seeking for God in all the wrong places and then one day . . blah blah.”
Fact is no fallen child of Adam ‘SEEKS FOR GOD OR THE TRUTH”! Period! God is his sworn enemy and the ‘truth’ is something which he was born hating! So why would he seek for either?!
There is NONE there is none that seeketh after God! [Rom 3:11]
But here is the amazing thing – “Blessed is the man whom THOU CHOOSEST, and CAUSEST to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in Thy courts”! [Psa 65:4]
Watch carefully, that God not only ‘CHOOSES’ but ‘CAUSES’ the one chosen ‘TO APPROACH’ Him. In other words, or in the words of our Lord “DRAGS HIM’ to Himself!
“No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me DRAW him”! [John 6:44] The word ‘DRAW’ in the Greek literally means to DRAG! Its first occurrence is here in John 6:44. Here it is the power of God overcoming the enmity of the carnal mind. It occurs again in John 18:10 – “Then Simon Peter having a sword DREW it, and smote the high priest’s servant.”
Here the term signifies that Peter laid FIRM HOLD of his sword and PULLED IT OUT of its sheath. It is found again in John 21:6, 11, “Simon Peter went up and DREW the net to land full of great fishes.” Here it signifies the putting forth of strength so as to DRAG AN INANIMATE AND HEAVY OBJECT. It is used (in a slightly different form) in James 2:6, “Do not rich men oppress you and DRAW YOU before the judgment seats?” Here it has reference to the IMPELLING OF UNWILLING subjects.
Hence from its usage in the New Testament we are therefore obliged to understand that fallen man if he is to ‘come to God’ at all, he MUST BE DRAWN OR DRAGGED BY THE POWER OF OMNIPOTENCE! In raising the sinner from spiritual death to eternal life God employs the same power which He put forth in raising Christ from the dead! [Eph 2:4-6]
This is why when the apostles exclaimed – “WHO then can be saved”? The Lord replied – “With MEN IT IS IMPOSSIBLE, but not with God: for WITH GOD ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE”! [Mark 10:27] Hallelujah!
But it is a known fact that God the Father does not draw EVERYONE to Christ! WHY?!
BECAUSE HE DOES NOT LOVE EVERYONE!
The love of the father is a DISCRIMINATIVE love! It CHOOSES whom to love and whom to hate. “Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated”! [Rom 9:13]
In the same line He chooses on whom He will have mercy and whom He will harden! [Rom 9:18]
If God was dealing with a bunch of ‘INNOCENT’ men and women this would seem unjust! But God is dealing with a fallen bunch of God haters who are His enemies (Rom 5:10), and if there is anything He owes them it is HELL!
So out of this ‘Hell-Deserving’ bunch or ‘lump’ He chooses to display His UNCONDITIONAL MERCY on some and the rest He ordains to eternal damnation which they rightly deserve!
These are the facts! You’ve got to put it in your pipe and smoke it whether you like it or not!
If the Father was choosing everyone and drawing everyone as some suppose, then, scriptures like these make no sense – “Blessed is the man whom Thou choosest, and causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in Thy courts”! [Psa 65:4]
Notice that these few whom the Father loves, He not only ‘CHOOSES’, but ‘CAUSES’ to approach unto Him!
Fallen man is so depraved that just ‘choosing him’ is not going to save him!! God must ‘CAUSE’ him to approach! In other words, the Father must not only choose or elect those whom He loves, but He must DRAW them to Christ!
And He does not draw ALL, because He has not chosen ALL. And He has not chosen ALL, because He has not loved ALL!
I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, “Wherein hast Thou loved us”? Was not Esau Jacob’s BROTHER? saith the LORD: YET I LOVED JACOB, AND I HATED ESAU, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness”! [Malachi 1:2,3]
HOW do I know that God loves ME and that I am one of His elect?
Why, I look around me and see so many of my own family who are morally better off than me, who are either lost in unbelief or in a false religion, and that God has loved me and DRAWN ME to Himself and taught me truths which ‘angels desire to look into’ [1Pet 1:12], by this I KNOW I am one of His elect!
“The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: THEREFORE with loving kindness have I DRAWN THEE”! [Jer 31:3] Hallelujah!
If you are not familiar with Fullerism, or wonder how Calvinism + Arminianism = Fullerism, then this article will attempt to explain this little known doctrine which has wrought great havoc on the churches of God. For our purposes we will define Calvinism as believing in Particular Redemption and Arminianism as believing in the General Atonement.
If you are a believer in Particular Redemption you may ask yourself, “How is it possible to combine Particular Redemption with the General Atonement? Are they not mutually exclusive?” The answer is found with a man named Andrew Fuller.
Andrew Fuller was an 18th Century Particular Baptist preacher in England. The Particular Baptists he associated with are the same ones the Colonial American Baptists and later Primitive Baptists would trace their church ancestry through in the United States. Andrew Fuller was a very able preacher and was well known and widely regarded by the Baptists of his day. The origin of Missionary Societies among Baptists are traceable directly to Fuller and likewise the motivation for modern Sunday Schools. The reason why is found in his doctrine. Let us first consider Fuller in his own words.
Andrew Fuller quoted in “Particular Redemption” by William Rushton
“Concerning the death of Christ, if I speak of it irrespective of the purpose of the Father and the Son as to the objects who should be saved by it, referring merely to what it is in itself sufficient for, and declared in the gospel to be adapted to, I should think I answered the question in a scriptural way in saying, It was for sinners as sinners. But if I have respect to the purpose of the Father in giving His Son to die, and the design of Christ in laying down His life, I should answer, It was for His elect only.” “Particular Redemption”, Rushton pg 18 quoted from the third part of Fuller’s “Dialogues, Letters and Essays” on the Atonement
“In short, we must either acknowledge an objective fullness in Christ’s atonement, sufficient for the salvation of the whole world, were the whole world to believe in him; or, in opposition to Scripture and common sense, confine our invitations to believe to such persons as have believed already.” [Emphasis mine – JT] “Particular Redemption”, Rushton pg 18 quoted from the third part of Fuller’s “Dialogues, Letters and Essays” on the Atonement
“If satisfaction was made on the principle of debtor and creditor, and that which was paid was just of sufficient value to liquidate a given number of sins, and to redeem a given number of sinners, and no more, it should seem that it could not be the duty of any but the elect, to rely upon it; for wherefore should we set our eyes on that which is not? But if there be such a fullness in the satisfaction of Christ as is sufficient for the salvation of the whole world, were the whole world to believe in him; and if the particularity of redemption lie only in the purpose or sovereign pleasure of God to render it effectual to some rather that than other, no such consequence will follow,” etc. [Emphasis mine – JT] “Particular Redemption”, Rushton pg 18, quoted from the third part of Fuller’s “Dialogues, Letters and Essays” on the Atonement
I hope that every believer of Particular Redemption will sense something amiss in Fuller’s statements. To put it succinctly Fuller believed the death of Christ is efficient to save the elect and sufficient to save the whole world if they will only believe. In other words he did not deny election outright. Nor did he deny that Christ died to save the elect particularly. What Fuller is saying is not only will all the elect be definitely saved but the death of Christ is sufficient to save every one else if they will only believe. Therefore he makes the death of Christ both Particular and General at the same time. I think most Primitive Baptists will recognize this as nothing more than backdoor Arminianism because that’s exactly what it is.
Consider how seductive and appealing Fuller’s doctrine is. Fullerism, like Arminianism, makes faith and belief a condition to be met and therefore a good work instead of the fruit of the spirit and the fruit of the gracious state of salvation. It robs God of his glory by making man the decision maker of his salvation rather than God and puts man in control of his destiny rather than the Sovereign Almighty God who “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?” Daniel 4:35
However, Fuller knows better than to give an outright rejection of election and Particular Redemption. To carnally minded believers of election and Particular Redemption, Fuller’s heresy is almost irresistible. To their minds he gives them the best of both worlds.
The Biblically minded person gives God the full glory for saving his elect and only his elect through the Particular Redemption that is in Christ Jesus. We give God all the glory because he hath “chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,” Eph. 1:4-5.
We give the Lord all the glory further knowing that “that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth; It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy,” Rom. 9:11-16.
Frankly, believers of Fullers doctrine are believers in heresy just as bad Arminianism. In some ways Arminianism is to be preferred because that system is more honest about its logical consequences than Fuller’s doctrine, which ultimately leads to a denial of election and Particular Redemption. In fact the ultimate denial of election and Particular Redemption is exactly what happened to those who followed Fuller’s teachings.
As we said before, Fuller introduced Missionary Societies to the Baptists. This also led to the drive for modern Sunday Schools. These unscriptural innovations had never been heard of among Baptists before Fuller’s doctrine. Why did Fuller introduce them? The answer is simple. If the death of Christ is sufficient to save the whole world if they will only believe, then the more efficiently we can convince people to believe in Christ then the more people we will have to populate heaven. The end justifies the means. (Justifies – The doctrine of Justification is also tied up in this but we won’t delve into that now.)
What was the final outcome of Fuller’s doctrine? It was rather devastating. His system arrived in the United States around 1800. All of the Baptists, including many which become known as Primitive Baptist, were strongly swayed by Fuller’s practice and by his doctrine. Finally, small groups of Baptists throughout the United States began to see through the error and began to reject as heretical the doctrine and practice that had been introduced by Andrew Fuller. They became known as the Primitive Baptists.
Sadly, the majority of Baptists, which had been sound in the faith regarding Particular Redemption, could not see through the error and did not repent. At the time the split took place between what was known as the Old School and New School Baptists most if not all the New School Baptist confessions of faith retained their Particular Redemption statements. But the damage was done. The combination of the error in practice and its attendant error in doctrine now known as Fullerism slowly but surely became the actual doctrine of those churches. Finally, all of the New School churches followed Fuller’s Doctrine to its logical conclusion and denied election and Particular Redemption altogether and simply became Arminians.
Are there any followers of Fullers doctrine today? Yes there are. They are mostly found in what are known as Sovereign Grace churches. Much of what they say is sound. Indeed if you were to read Andrew Fuller, much of what he said was sound. But it only takes one rotten apple to spoil the barrel. Some well-known examples of Sovereign Grace preachers who have followed Fuller’s teaching regarding the atonement are John MacArthur and John Piper. Both of them have a lot of very good teaching but it only takes a little leaven to leaven the whole lump.
[Editor’s note: Since first publishing this article it has come to my attention that MacArthur’s views regarding the atonement have changed substantially. Although MacArthur admits not wanting to be dogmatic about it, as of 1997 he has evidently come to a closer understanding, if not outright belief , of Particular Redemption. Five of his ‘Answers’ beginning with the one below and spanning 1978 to 1997 are given here. Although the Primitive Baptists would probably not be completely satisfied with all of his later answers, they are much more sound doctrinally. His statement from 1978 is left here for informational purposes only. However, every preacher should be accorded the opportunity for his views to change and mature as we hope is the case with MacArthur.] JT
John MacArthur states in “Questions and Answers” circa 1978,
“I find in my own mind and in my own study of Scripture a strong case for a “General Atonement,” for a “Universal Atonement,” for an “All Encompassing Provision.” For Jesus dying as the propitiation for our sins–and not for ours only but for the sins of the whole world, tying it in particularly with John, chapter three, “God so loved. . . .” What? “The world”–not the elect. “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” It seems to me that the giving of the Son was in response to the loving of the world, and that the propitiation which Christ was, was sufficient for the sins of all the world. So, I would say, that I believe, and I think this is maybe one way to understand it–I believe that the atonement of Christ was sufficient for the world, but is efficient for those that believe. I believe in, I guess what you could call a “Limited and Unlimited Atonement.” It is unlimited in the sense that it was sufficient to cover the sins of the whole world–it is limited, in that it is applied only to those who believe. I don’t like to get pushed beyond that, but I don’t like to just take the title of believing in “Limited Atonement” or “Particular Redemption,” that Jesus died only for the elect, because I think that that has some exegetical problems. I think you would have problems explaining certain passages of Scripture, but I admit to you that it is a very difficult issue, because there are many passages that apply His redemptive work “only to the elect,” “only to those who believe.” But I believe, compared with other passages, His redemption encompasses, in its sufficiency–the world.”
John Piper states in “The Duty: Faith” December 18,1994
“Today we focus on the third “D”—the duty that we have to believe. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him might not perish.” Let me focus our attention on this act of believing from several different angles.”
“Believing is our link with the love of God. Notice how Jesus speaks of God’s love-rescue: God so loved the world so that believers will not perish. One of the ways to express this is that the Love of God is sufficient to save the world, but efficient to save those who believe. Efficient means his love actually saves believers. It is effective in saving them from perishing. The love of God does not have this effect in the lives of those who do not believe. They perish.” [Emphasis mine – JT]
In “The Reformed Faith and Racial Harmony” January 19, 2003 Piper states,
The main point of the doctrine of limited atonement is not to assert that Christ did not die for everyone in the sense that John 3:16 says he did: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” That is absolutely true: Christ died so that whoever believes in him will have eternal life. Christ’s death is sufficient for all, and should be offered to all as gloriously sufficient to save them if they will believe. “Limited atonement” does not deny any of that. [Emphasis mine – JT]
Having looked at statements from Fuller, MacArthur and Piper let us now consider extracts from the 1646 and 1689 London Confessions of faith followed by the Aberdeen Primitive Baptist Church articles of faith which deal with Particular Redemption. Notice how precise the language is, clearly stating the truth of God’s sovereignty in salvation.
The First London Baptist Confession of Faith 1646 Edition
And God hath before the foundation of the world, foreordained some men to eternal life, through Jesus Christ, to the praise and glory of His grace; [having foreordained and] leaving the rest in their sin to their just condemnation, to the praise of His justice. All the elect being loved of God with an everlasting love, are redeemed, quickened, and saved, not by themselves, nor their own works, lest any man should boast, but, only and wholly by God, of His own free grace and mercy, through Jesus Christ, who is made unto us by God, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, and all in all, that he that rejoiceth, might rejoice in the Lord. Jesus Christ by His death did purchase salvation for the elect that God gave unto Him: These only have interest in Him, and fellowship with Him, for whom He makes intercession to His Father in their behalf, and to them alone doth God by His Spirit apply this redemption; as also the free gift of eternal life is given to them, and none else.
The 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith Chapter III: Of God’s Decree
By the decree of God, for the manifestation of his glory, some men and angels are predestinated, or foreordained to eternal life through Jesus Christ, to the praise of his glorious grace; others being left to act in their sin to their just condemnation, to the praise of his glorious justice. These angels and men thus predestinated and foreordained, are particularly and unchangeably designed, and their number so certain and definite, that it cannot be either increased or diminished. Those of mankind that are predestinated to life, God, before the foundation of the world was laid, according to his eternal and immutable purpose, and the secret counsel and good pleasure of his will, hath chosen in Christ unto everlasting glory, out of his mere free grace and love, without any other thing in the creature as a condition or cause moving him thereunto.
As God hath appointed the elect unto glory, so he hath, by the eternal and most free purpose of his will, foreordained all the means thereunto; wherefore they who are elected, being fallen in Adam, are redeemed by Christ, are effectually called unto faith in Christ, by his Spirit working in due season, are justified, adopted, sanctified, and kept by his power through faith unto salvation; neither are any other redeemed by Christ, or effectually called, justified, adopted, sanctified, and saved, but the elect only.
The doctrine of the high mystery of predestination is to be handled with special prudence and care, that men attending the will of God revealed in his Word, and yielding obedience thereunto, may, from the certainty of their effectual vocation, be assured of their eternal election; so shall this doctrine afford matter of praise, reverence, and admiration of God, and of humility, diligence, and abundant consolation to all that sincerely obey the gospel.
Articles of Faith Aberdeen Primitive Baptist Church, Aberdeen, MS
That by God’s sovereign grace and mercy, elect sinners are predestined to eternal life and are redeemed and justified by the blood of Christ alone. That Jesus Christ died for the sins of His people alone and they shall all be regenerated in time by the Holy Spirit, enabled to hear the Gospel of their salvations and caused to have faith in Christ as their Savior.
The Lord had blessed us with the great truths of His sovereign saving love. Let us continue to hold forth the truth of God’s Word.
The names in the ‘Lamb’s Book of Life’ were written before the foundation of the world by the finger of God! No further names are either added or deleted in time! And because in a sense those names are written with the very blood of Jesus, THEY CAN NEVER BE BLOTTED OUT!
To the question – “Is your name written in the Book of Life”? all kinds of answers are given, such as – “I am working on it”, “I hope so”, “I will know only when I die” etc.
But the Scripture testifies that whosoever’s names are written in the ‘Book of Life’ were written there BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD!
“And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him (the Antichrist), whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world”. [Rev 13:8]
What I may do or not do in time does not determine whether my name will be written in that book! The names of those who are written in the Lambs Book of Life are not written there because God either foresaw or knew that they would someday ‘choose Him’ as ‘personal saviour’!
A MAN BELIEVES IN CHRIST IN TIME BECAUSE HIS NAME WAS WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF LIFE BEFORE TIME BEGAN!
If your name is written in this ‘Book of Life’, then you are among the chosen or the elect of God. And that is the reason you believed the gospel when you heard it – i.e. because you were ordained to eternal life! “And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and AS MANY as were ordained to eternal life believed”. [Acts 13:48] Notice, not any more or any less, but AS MANY as were ORDAINED TO ETERNAL LIFE – BELIEVED!
These whose names are written in this “Book of Life” become true believers and followers of Christ by and by not by their ‘own free-will’ but because GOD has chosen them to be His own! As the Lord said- “ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you”! [John 15:16]. And the Apostle reiterates this when he says, “But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath FROM THE BEGINNING CHOSEN YOU TO SALVATION through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth”! [2Thes 2:13]
All that to say, if God has written your name in the ‘Lamb’s book of Life’ then you are ETERNALLY SECURE and will be preserved and kept faithful till the end! The Lord Jesus is the author of your faith and He is the ‘finisher’ too! (Heb 12:2). It is He who began a good work in you, and it is He who will finish it, and to Him shall be ALL the glory! (Phil 1:6)
But there are objectors to the doctrine of eternal security who often ask “Do not the words of our Lord in Rev 3:5 imply the possibility of our names being blotted out of the Book of Life?” For there the Lord says, “He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I WILL NOT BLOT OUT HIS NAME OUT OF THE BOOK OF LIFE, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels”.
Does the above verse imply that one’s name CAN be blotted out of the “Book of Life”? We answer certainly not! When we study the Bible carefully we discover that God maintains many books and among these are TWO BOOKS OF LIFE. One from the CREATION vantage point and the other from the vantage point of the NEW CREATION. The former is the Book of Life containing all the names of every one whom God created and brought into the world. This is the book that is in view in Exodus 32: 31-33. And again this is the book in view when David said “Thine eyes did see my substance yet being unperfect and in Thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.” Ps 139: 16.
Praying against his enemies, David said “Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous.” Ps 69:28. Here again the book in view is the Book of Life from the creation vantage point. Surely those whom the Father has not chosen to eternal life, those for whom Christ has not died and those whom the Holy Spirit has not made alive shall indeed have their names blotted out of this Book of Life.
But those whose names are written in the LAMBS BOOK OF LIFE are those who are loved of the Father with an everlasting love and ransomed by Christ who has paid their debt in full and made alive by the Holy Spirit with an everlasting life. These shall NEVER have their names blotted out of the Book of Life but are eternally secure in Him who has said “Rejoice not that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because YOUR NAMES ARE WRITTEN IN HEAVEN!” [Lk 10: 20]. Hallelujah!
1. Are all men both saint and sinner free agents? If so, is not the sinner as free as the saint?
2. If a sinner cannot come to Christ of his own free will, is he a free agent?
3. If all sinners possess will and power to come to Christ, why did Christ say (John 6:44), “No man can come unto Me except the Father which hath sent Me draw him?”
4. Has any man the power to refuse to come to Christ when the Father draws him?
5. Are those characters free agents that shall do wickedly and none of them shall understand? (Dan. 12:10)
6. Were those free agents that Peter said (H Peter 2:12), were made to be taken and destroyed, and should utterly perish?
7. Were those free agents who were before of old ordained to this condemnation? (Jude 4.)
8. Are those free agents that Jesus says (John 5:25), shall hear, and they that hear shall live?
9. Are those free agents of whom God says (Heb. 8:10-11), “I will be to them a God and they shall be to Me a people; and they shall not teach every man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying know the Lord?”
10. Could not a free agent believe, notwithstanding Jesus said, (Acts 13:41), “I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you?”
11. Would not the doctrine of free agency make man the cause of his own salvation?
12. Can man be a free agent and God be a sovereign?
13. Is any one free that is a servant?
14. Are not all men the servants of sin until they are made free by the Son?
(John 8:34-36.)
15. Is the sinner free to wig, free to choose, free to love, free to become a Christian, or, free to let it all alone?
16. If we are saved by our free will, is it not a fact that the only difference between the saved and the lost is that the saved made a better use of their will?
17. Has one the power over his will to incline it to good or to evil?
18. How many different effects can arise from the same cause?
19. Are we made free from sin before we become servants of God, or do we have to serve Him in order to be made free from sin?
20. Do we have to obey God in order to become a child of God?
21. Does a child have to obey its parents in order to become a child of its parents?
22. If God only wills to save those that are willing to be saved, is not God’s will dependent upon man’s will?
23. Does God work all things after the counsel of His own will (Ephe- 1:1 1), or does He work some things after the will of the sinner?
24. Is the unchangeable God (Mal. 3:6), changed by the will of the sinner?
25. Does salvation or damnation depend upon the use that a man makes of his will?
26. Does a sinner have the will to do God’s will prior to being born again? If so, is his will changed in the spiritual birth?
27. Has man the power to resist God and the devil at the same time?
28. If man’s will is controlled by the influence of another, is it free?
29. Does God begin the work of grace in the sinner independently, or is the sinners
will first consulted?
30. Is the wig and act of the sinner changed before God works in him to will and to do of his good pleasure? (Phn. 2:13)
31. Does Christ have to get the consent of the sinner before He can save him?
HOW ARE SINNERS SAVED?
32. Does the sinner have to accept Christ in order to be saved, and reject Him to be lost? If so, is not Christ limited in the work of salvation to what the sinner sees fit to do?
33. Is belief a condition of salvation, or is it an evidence of salvation?
34. Do we have to believe in order to be saved or is the believer already in possession of eternal life?
35. Did Paul tell the truth when he said sinners are saved by grace and not of works (Ephe. 2:8-9)? If so, why do men preach otherwise?
36. If Christ saves sinners by grace (Ephe. 2:8), did He not know from eternity whom He would save by grace?
37. If sinners are saved by grace alone (Ephe. 2:8), why such ado about sending missionaries to save the heathens?
38. Does Christ save sinners or do sinners save themselves, or is salvation a partnership work?
39. If sinners are saved otherwise than by grace alone, Will some one please cite the chapter and verse which says so?
40. If God purposed to save all men and changes not, will not all be saved? If not, why not?
41. If God works all things after the counsel of His own will (Ephe. 1: I 1), was it His will to save those that will not be saved?
42. If Christ came to save sinners and did not do it (I Tim. 1:15), is not Christ a failure?
43. If Christ is a failure, upon what does the Christian’s hope depend?
44. If grace is favor bestowed upon an unworthy object, does not grace stop where worthiness begins?
45. If the salvation of sinners depends upon their acts, is it not their bad acts, as there are none that doeth good? (Rom. 3:12)
46. Can a sinner dead in sin act in a spiritual capacity previous to being quickened by the Spirit? (Ephe. 2:1)
47. When a sinner is quickened by the spirit, is he not in possession of eternal life?
48. Is there any intermediate space between life and death?
49. Do we have to act in order to live, or does life always precede action?
50. Did Christ come to seek and to save sinners (Luke 19:10), or to save those that seek Him?
51. If sinners have to seek God in order to be saved, and none seek Him (Rom. 3:1 1), will any be saved?
52. Does not the saving of sinners come before the calling, and does not God do both, and are we either saved or called according to our works? (II Tim. 1:9)
53. If God saves sinners according to His own purpose (H Tim. 1:9), is not the plan of salvation as old as God’s purpose?
54. If Christ came to save sinners (I Tim. 1:15), and finished the work (John 19:30), what is left for the preachers and sinners to do in the work of salvation?
55. Were the different gifts for the salvation of sinners, or for the edifying of the body of Christ? (Ephe. 4:11-12)
56. Could there be an effect without a cause?
57. Is the first cause of salvation the work of God (Phil. 1:6), or the work of the sinner?
58. Do good works produce the Spirit, or does the Spirit produce good works?
59. If Christ only made salvation possible and the sinner makes it sure by his acts, which deserves the more praise?
60. If belief a condition of salvation, is it not a cause of salvation?
61. Is belief a voluntary act of the creature, or do we believe according to the working of God’s mighty power? (Ephe. 1: 1 9)
62. Does not the word convert mean to change?
63. If you do not believe a thing, do you not have to be converted before you can believe it? If so, does not conversion come before belief?
64. Is the work of man in any sense the cause of the work of the Spirit in the heart?
65. If God is certain, can the destiny of any man be uncertain?
66. Is the proclamation of the gospel the means of salvation? If so, can sinners be saved unless the means are used?
67. Can we use the means without works? If not, is salvation by grace and not of works? (Ephe. 2:9)
68. If means must be used in order to salvation, are not the means the cause of salvation?
69. Can anything be the means of doing a thing it does not do?
70. Does a means of doing a thing always accomplish the end when used? If not, does it not cease to be a means?
71. If the preaching of the gospel is the means of salvation, why is it foolishness and a stumbling block to the unbeliever?
72. Does the preaching of the gospel save those that it is foolishness to , or those it is power and wisdom to?
73. Will a sinner accept a proposition while it is foolishness to him?
74. If it took Christ and what He did to save sinners, will a proclamation of that fact reach their case?
75. If sinners are sent to hell for rejecting the gospel, would it not have been better for sinners if the gospel had not been preached?
76. If Christ could not damn sinners without giving them a chance for heaven, is it not a pity that He ever gave them a chance?
77. Would not a chance system damn more souls than it would save?
78. If God gives every body a chance for heaven, does He not call every body?
79. Are not the called justified and glorified? (Rom. 8:30)
80. Are we not sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Christ Jesus before we are called? (Jude 1)
81. Can Christ be an equal Saviour of all the race of man and a special Saviour of part of the race? (I Tim. 4: 1 0)
82. Can we know Christ except by revelation? (Matt. 11:27)
83. Can flesh and blood reveal Christ to a sinner? (Matt. 16:17)
84. Is not the Spiritual birth called in the Bible a creation? (Ephe. 2:10)
85. Can man create or can he assist the Lord in the least in creation?
86. Does not God work as independently in salvation as in creation?
87. Is the reward reckoned of grace to him that worketh, or to him that worketh not? (Rom. 4:4)
88. Is it work or faith that is counted for righteousness? (Rom. 4:5)
89. Is it in man that walketh to direct his steps? (Jer. 10:23)
90. Will not a sinner go the way the strongest influence is brought to bear on his mind?
91. If the Lord desires the salvation of all men and the devil the damnation of all; will not the one get them that can bring the strongest influence to bear upon their mind?
92. Can we confess with the mouth before we believe with the heart? (Rom. 10:10)
93. Can we believe on Christ before the heart is changed? If so, and all believers are saved, what is the necessity of the change of heart?
94. Is belief the cause of salvation, or is salvation the cause of belief? (John 5:24)
95. If there was grace given us in Christ before the world began (11 Tim. 1:9), was not our salvation purposed of God before the world began?
96. If we work for a thing, is it a gift, or do we make it a debt? (Rom. 4:4)
97. Did God either purpose or try to save those that go to hell?
98. Did God ever try to do anything?
99. Is not our nature such that if we had the power, we would save all men?
100. Is not our nature such that if we had the power, we would deliver the millions of suffering humanity that are in the world; and has not God the power and does not do it?
101. Would parents see their children put to death in the cruel ways God’s children have been if they had the power to prevent it, and yet is not God’s love greater than ours?
102. Is not the plan of salvation perfect?
103. If God’s work is perfect (Deut- 32:14), can we add anything to it?
104. Is anything perfect that is performed by man?
105. If God works all things after the counsel of His will (Ephe. 1:11), and it is His will that all men be saved, will any be lost?
106. Do we obtain salvation by our obedience, or by the appointment of God?
(I Thes. 5:9)
107. If God chose His people unto salvation from the beginning (Thes. 2:13), what do they have to do with the choice?
108. Does a goat have to believe on Christ in order to become a sheep, or do they believe not because they are not sheep? (John 10:26)
109. Is not Christ under obligation to the Father to give eternal life to as many as the Father gave Him? (John 17:2)
110. Is Christ under obligation to sinners to save them?
111. Can sinners by their obedience bring Christ under obligation to save them?
112. Are the Scriptures the truth if they are not fulfilled?
113. Would the Scriptures have been fulfilled if the son of perdition had not been lost? (John 17:12)
114. Is it possible for all men to be saved and the Scriptures be the truth, if some had to be lost in order to the fulfillment of the Scriptures?
115. If God knows all things (I John 3:20), does He not know who will be saved and who lost?
116. Can anything be different from the way God knew it would be?
117. If Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not (John 6:64), did He not know from the beginning who they were that would believe?
118. If the Lord can do everything (Job 42:2), can He not save a sinner without help?
119. Is Christ our Saviour before He saves us?
120. Do we have to believe on Christ before He will save us? If so, do we have to believe He is our Saviour?
121. If we believe that Christ is our Saviour when He is not, do we not believe a lie?
122. Does not every one that denies eternal life being the gift of God make God a liar?
123. Is a person required to obey anything before being born in order to be born?
124. Is there not a begetting and a travail before we are born of God?
125. Does the thing begotten have anything to do with the begetting, the travail or the birth? If so, what?
126. Does a natural work produce a spiritual birth? If not, does the natural man have anything to perform in order to the spiritual birth?
127. Did Christ ever command a sinner to be born again?
128. Does it take an external work to change the heart from natural to spiritual?
129. Can a birth be conditional upon the part of the thing to be born?
130. Is obedience required before or after the birth?
131. If the gifts and calling of God are without repentance (Rom. 11:29). do we have to repent in order to receive them?
132. If Christ gives repentance (Acts 5:31). what do we have to do in order to receive the gift?
133. Was Christ exalted a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance and remission of sin to any but Israel? (Acts 5:31)
134. Is repentance the act of the creature or the gift of God? (Acts 5:31)
135. If whatsoever is not of faith is sin (Rom. 14:23). and we pray for the salvation of all men without faith to believe all will be saved, do we not commit sin?
136. Does godly sorrow ever fail to work repentance unto salvation? (1 Cor. 7:10)
137. Are the Arminians as confident as Paul was that when a good work is begun in you it will be performed until the day of Jesus Christ? (Phil. 1:6)
138. If the object in making Christ to be sin for us was to make us the righteousness of God in Him (II Cor. 5:21), are we not as certain to be made the righteousness of God as Christ was made to be sin for us?
139. Is faith the act of the creature, or the fruit of the spirit? (Gal. 5:22)
140. If faith is the fruit of the spirit, can it be a condition to be complied with in order to receive the spirit?
141. Is not Christ the author and finisher of our faith? (Heb. 12:2)
142. Have all men faith? (11 Thes. 3:2)
143. Can we please God without faith? (Heb. 11:6)
144. Does the preached word profit any except those that have faith? (Heb. 4:2)
145. If temperance is the fruit of the spirit (Gal. 5:22-23), do those that have the spirit need temperance societies?
146. If belief comes by the will or choice of man, why does he ever believe that which he had rather not believe?
147. If belief is the cause of election, and all believers are in possession of eternal life (John 5:24),
what are we elected to?
148. Are we elected according to our works, or according to God’s foreknowledge?
149. If man by his works procure his own election, is it not of works instead of an election of grace? (Rom. 11:5)
150. If the choice before the foundation of the world (Ephe. 1:4), embraced only the twelve apostles, why did Paul include himself in the number chosen?
151. Did God ever purpose in time to do anything, or is all He does according to His eternal purpose? (Ephe. 3:1 1)
152. If God is in one mind (Job 23:13), did He not have a mind in eternity to do everything that He does in time?
APOSTASY
153. If what God doeth shall be forever (Eccle. 3:14), did He convert those who apostatize?
154. If it is not the will of the Father that one of these little ones should perish (Matt.18:14), will the Father’s will be done?
155. If the Lord Knew before He converted a sinner that he would fall from grace and go to hell, why did He convert him?
156. Does the dog turning to his vomit and the sow to her wallowing prove apostasy?
157. Were the children of God ever known by the appellation of dog or sow?
158. How can a child cease to be the child of its parents?
159. Can a child be born and then be unborn?
160. Will all Israel be saved (Rom. 11:26), if a part of Israel apostatize and are lost?
161. Can we fall away and be renewed again? (Heb. 6:4-6)
162. If God can cease to love a saint on earth, can He not do the same in heaven?
163. If one saint can apostatize and be lost, would not all be lost if heaven was not secured to them by their works.
164. If the Christian lives because Christ lives (John 14:19), will the life of the Christian cease while Christ lives?
165. Did Jesus tell the truth when He said, “I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish?” (John 10:28)
166. If the preachers say that they can and do perish whom Jesus says shall never perish, which shall we believe? Jesus or the preachers?
167. If the Lord made all things for Himself (Prov. 16:4), will not all things answer the purpose for which He made them?
168. Did God ever do any thing in vain?
169. If God from the foundation of the world prepared a kingdom in heaven for all of the blessed of the Father (Matt. 25:34), and one falls to get there, who will inhabit it?
170. Will any enter in except those for whom the kingdom was prepared from the foundation of the world? (Matt. 25; 34-46)
171. Why were the names of some persons written in the book of life from the foundation of the world and others were not? (Rev. 17:8)
172. Why was one of Abraham’s sons born after the flesh and another by promise? (Gal. 4:22-23)
173. If the Lord’s portion is His people (Deut. 32:9), will He get His portion and will He take any more?
174. Does not God bless, choose, and cause men to approach unto Him? (Psa. 65:4)
175. Does belief come by the will or choice of man, or through the force of evidence?
176. If divine power has given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness (II Pet. 1:3), does anything pertaining to Life and godliness depend upon man?
177. If salvation depends upon the volition of human will, how can the idiot be saved?
178. If man is excused or saved on account of ignorance, why send missionaries to enlighten the heathen?
179. Does the Son quicken whom He will (John 5:2 1), or,, who will let Him?
180. Does a sinner have to mourn in order to be blessed, or is the mourner already blessed? (Matt. 5:4)
181. If Jesus saves His people according to the testimony of the angel (Matt. 1:21), are they not His before He saves them?
182. Were they not given to Christ by the Father (John 10:29), before they were saved or redeemed?
183. If Jews and Gentiles are all under sin (Rom. 3:9), are not infants born under sin, or are they neither Jews nor Gentiles when they are born?
184. If the gospel was preached to every creature (Col. 1:23), to the extent of the command, why spend more than one hundred million dollars annually to accomplish that end?
185. Will not a true witness testify to the truth without money and without price?
186. When the gospel was preached to the poor (Matt. 11:5), was it not done without money?
187. If money is the motive for preaching, is not the preaching apt to be done in a way to please the most people?
188. If we seek to please men, are we the servants of Christ? (Gal. 1:10)
189. Does not the world believe what the Arminian preachers preach?
190. Did the world believe what the apostles preached?
191. If the Arminians preach the truth and the unconverted believe it, why do they want them converted?
192. If convert means to change and sinners believe the truth and you convert them, will they believe the truth then?
193. Cannot the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots just as easily as those can do good who are accustomed to do evil? (Jer. 13:23)
194. Is a work acceptable with God except it be “righteous work”?
195. Can any perform a righteous work except they be born of God? (I John 2:29)
196. Does a sinner have to accept spiritual life in order to live spiritually?
197. Did Adam have to accept natural life in order to live naturally?
198. Does a sinner have to bear good fruit in order to be made alive spiritually?
199. If a tree begins to bear fruit, is it an evidence that it will be alive or is it evident that it is already alive?
200. Do we have to hunger and thirst after righteousness in order to become righteous?
201. Does a person hunger and thirst after that which nourishes a life that he does not live, or that which nourishes the life that he does live?
202. Do we not have to live a spiritual life before we can hunger and thirst after spiritual things?
203. Does the seed sown prepare the ground, or does the seed have to fall into good ground in order to bring forth fruit? (Matt. 13:23)
204. Is the Father, Son and Holy Spirit a sovereign? If so, how can the sinner be a co- willer or coworker in the work of regeneration?
205. If the carnal mind is enmity against God (Rom. 8:7), are not the works of the carnally minded the same?
206. Can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit (Matt. 7:18), or must the tree first be made good?
207. If a corrupt tree can bring forth both evil and good fruit without being changed, how can we know a tree by its fruit? (Matt. 7:16)
208. Is heaven assured to man in consequence of the work of man or the work of Christ?
209. If Christ has done all that He can do and sinners are not saved, is Christ the Saviour of sinners?
210. Does a sinner’s salvation depend upon his obedience to either law or gospel?
211. Will a sinner come to Christ while he is destitute of the love of God?
(John 5:40-42)
212. Is not every one that loveth born of God? (I John 4:7)
213. Is not God’s love everlasting (Jer. 31:3), and is not His power equal to His love?
214. If it is God’s will to save all men, is not His love and power equal to His will?
215. Did not God love us when we did not love Him? (I John 4:10)
216. Did not God love us when we were dead in sins, and did He not quicken us because of that love? (Ephe. 2:4-5)
217. Is not God’s love to us the cause of our love to Him (I John 4:19)? If so, will He not cause every one to love Him that He loves?
218. If we love God because He first loved us, will the effect cease as long as the cause exists?
219. If whosoever is born of God cannot sin (I John 3:9), how can they apostatize and be finally lost; or can one apostatize without sinning?
ELECTION AND THE ATONEMENT
220. Did not Jesus love us before He washed us from our sins in His own blood? (Rev.1:5)
221. Is not redemption the fruit of God’s love? (Isa. 63:9)
222. Does not the word atone mean “at one”?
223. Is not He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified all of one? (Heb. 2:11)
224. Will any be lost that are with Christ?
225. If God loved His people as He loved Christ, and He loved Christ before the foundation of the world (John 17:23-24), did He not love His people before the foundation of the world?
226. If God loved sinners when they were dead in sins, will His love ever cease toward those who refuse to repent and obey the gospel?
227. If the goodness of God leadeth to repentance (Rom. 2:4), will not His goodness lead all to repentance that are embraced in His eternal love?
228. If God changes not (Mal. 3:6), did He not love every object in eternity that He loves now or ever will love?
229. Are we by the blood of Christ redeemed to God (Rev- 5:9), or just part of the way?
230. If all men are redeemed to God, how can any of them get away from Him if they are kept by His power? (I Pet. 1:5)
231. If Christ died for all men and all men are not saved, did not Christ die in vain?
232. If Christ died for all men and rose for their justification, are not all justified?
233. If the justified are lost, who will be saved?
234. Will not all be saved that are justified? (Rom. 5:9)
235. Did Christ give Himself for the world or for the church? (Ephe. 5:25)
236. Did Christ give Himself for the church to give it a chance for heaven, or that it should be holy? (Ephe. 5:27)
237. Did not Christ love the church before He gave Himself for it? (Ephe. 5:25)
238. Are not some persons greater sinners than others? If so, is not the greater sinner forgiven the most (Luke 7:41-47)? If so, is not the atonement personal?
239. If Christ did not know every man and every act of man, how could He atone for the sins of those who lived a thousand years after His death?
240. Was the atonement made for man before he believed, or is it made for him after he believes?
241. Did Christ die for the godly, or for the ungodly? (Rom. 5:6)
242. Did not Christ redeem His people from all iniquity? (Titus 2:14)
243. If Christ has redeemed all men from all iniquity, for what does God send a man to hell?
244. Is a sinner sent to hell for the same sins for which Christ died?
245. Did Christ atone for all of the sins of all men and then say there were some sins which should not be forgiven unto men? (Matt. 12:31)
246. Do not all have forgiveness of sins who have redemption through the blood of Christ? (Ephe- 1:7)
247. Will God punish man after all his sins are forgiven?
248. Did Christ lay down His life for the goats, or the sheep? (John 10:15)
249. Did Christ die for those that were in hell at the time He died and give them a chance for heaven?
250. Why are not all Universalists who believe that Christ died alike for all men?
251. Does the Bible positively teach that all men will not be saved (Matt. 25:46)? If so, does it teach the possibility of all being saved?
252. If the Lord redeemed His people (Luke 1:68), were they not His before He redeemed them?
253. If we become righteous by obedience to a law, is there such a thing as imputed righteousness.
254. Does not God impute righteousness without works? (Rom. 4:6)
255. Can sinners satisfy justice by their obedience?
256. Are sinners made righteous by their obedience, or by the obedience of Christ? (Rom. 5:19)
257. If a man was redeemed and placed back as he was before he sinned, is he a sinner?
258. Was the world that God loved (John 3:16), and the world that wondered after the beast (Rev. 13:3), the same world?
259. Did not all wonder after the beast whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world? (Rev. 17:8)
260. Does the whole world that lieth in wickedness include those that are of God? (I John 5:19)?
261. Were those that Christ said should weep and lament included in the world which he said should rejoice? (John 16:20)
262. Did not Christ say, “I pray for them, I pray not for the world?” (John 17:9)
263. If Christ prayed for His people and did not pray for the world, were they included with the world under consideration?
264. Were not all of the component parts of man taken from the dust of the earth?
265. When man became a living soul, was he a mortal or an immortal soul?
266. When man transgressed the Law of God, did he die in whole or only in part?
267. If man only died in part in the transgression, would the Bible be the truth when it says there is no soundness in him? (Isa. 1:5-6)
268. Is man in possession of a divine principle prior to the new birth? If so, can he be a natural man?
269. Did not Paul say the first man was of the earth earthy? (I Cor. 15:47)
270. Is not the damnation of sinners just?
271. Are we damned for unbelief?
272. Is unbelief sin?
273. Is unbelief a violation of law? If so, what law?
274. Is unbelief an act, a condition, or the effect of a principle?
275. Is man damned for an act, or a principle?
276. Did not God put the principle in man which he had before the violation of the law?
277. Did the violation of the law put a new principle in man?
278. Does the act of man change his principle, or does he act from principle?
279. Is not predestination a Bible truth?
280. Is not predestination a purpose previous to the performance of an act?
281. Does not every sane person purpose previous to acting? If so, is not every sane person a predestinarian?
282. Is not God a predestinarian? (Gen. 1:26)
283. Does not God save sinners according to predestination? (II Tim. 1:9)
284. Is not the same man resurrected that sinned in Adam, that was redeemed by Christ, born of corruptible seed, born of incorruptible seed and dies corporally.
“And they gave Hebron unto Caleb . . . and he expelled thence the three sons of Anak.” (Judges 1:20)
About eighty years ago a book was written entitled “Nuts for Arminians to Crack.” In this box are just a few questions from that book.
“Did Christ come to seek and to save sinners (Luke 19:10), or to save those that seek Him?”
“If sinners have to seek God in order to be saved, and none seek Him (Romans 3:11), will any be saved?
“If Christ came to save sinners (1 Timothy 1:15), and finished the work (John 19:30), what is left for the preachers and sinners to do in the work of Salvation?”
“Were the different gifts for the salvation of sinners, or for the edifying of the body of Christ?” Ephesians 4:11-12)
“Do good works produce the Spirit, or does the Spirit produce good works?”
“If Christ only made salvation possible and the sinner makes it sure by his acts, which deserves the more praise?”
“Is belief a voluntary act of the creature, or do we believe according to the working of God’s mighty power?” (Ephesians 1:19)
Satan deceived Eve, telling her that if she ate of the tree, she “would not surely die.” Today, Satan tells Eve’s children: “You are not surely dead!”
GOING BACK, when Moses sent the 12 spies into the land of Canaan to spy out the land that was to be the inherited Land of Promise for Israel, this was approximately a year from the time of the crossing of the Red Sea on the Exodus Route. The shortest route could have been accomplished in less than 40 days, but we must remember that God has His reasons for NOT taking the shortest route. Beside, He had them camping long periods of time. Remember, even when Moses was sent up Mt. Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments, he was on the Mount 40 days. That was a long encampment for the children of Israel not to be moving at all.
Some will SCOFF that the record of the wilderness journey taking 40 YEARS, completely disregarding the CAUSE of this. As stated above, the children of Israel reached the edge of the promised land in approximately a year. At that point, Moses sent 12 spies into the land to check out the lay and the ways of the land. Ten of the spies, lacking faith, came back with an evil report, striking FEAR in the children of Israel. Only Joshua and Caleb, among the spies, were faithful-actually FULL of FAITH, ready to move forward. But the fearful people would not listen, walking in UNBELIEF and FEAR. Think about that. They were on the edge of the Promised land. They could not blame God for not letting them in. They LACKED the FAITH to enter. So God was determined the judgment for their UNBELIEF would be that they could not EVER enter. They had to DIE in the wilderness.
That meant that ALL the unbelieving adults who had left Egypt, due to their rank unbelief and lack of FAITH even after seeing with their own EYES the many miraculous WORKS of God, that God was not going to reward such unbelief. He is sovereign and what He does is right. So only a NEW generation could enter, plus Joshua and Caleb, even Moses, though so faithful a leader and prophet, at age 120 was not allowed to enter.
Scoffers in unbelief scoff at what they call an impossible long journey. But we see in Joshua 14 that when Moses sent Caleb in as a spy, he was 40 years old. When he requested Mt. Hebron as his inheritance, he was 85 over 40 years later, and near the beginning of the actual conquest through battle of the Promised land. Yet he said he was as STRONG as he was when they were required to depart away from Canaan to wander in the wilderness until the end of 40 years! Caleb says, to Joshua, in making his request,
“And now, behold, the Lord hath kept me alive, as He said, these forty and five years, even since the Lord spake this word unto Moses, while the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness: and now, lo, I am this day fourscore and five years old (85). As yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me: as my strength was then, even so is my strength now, for war, both to go out, and to come in. Now therefore GIVE ME THIS MOUNTAIN, whereof the Lord spake that day; for thou heardest in that day how the Anakims were there [the enemy giants], and that the cities were great and fenced: if so be the Lord will be with me, then I shall be able to drive them out, as the Lord said.”
“And Joshua blessed him, and gave Caleb the son of Jephun-neh, Hebron for an inheritance … because he wholly followed the Lord God of Israel.”
Mt. Hebron may look like a simple mountain, inviting a good enjoyable hike, but giants had long lived there and they had been fought before. But in their fenced cities, Caleb still had some giant-fighting to do. “CIVE ME THIS MOUNTAIN!’
Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, tells us that if we have FAITH, we can move mountains. In this world today we can see many mountains. Moun-tians of evil, mountains of Satanic deception and errors that oppose the TRUE GOSPEL OF GOD! These, too, are “giants in the land”!
Do we have the faith of Joshua and Caleb? Do we not only have that faith IN the Lord but the faith OF the Lord, with His power and strength? Is our spirit as strong as Caleb’s? Without Him, the Lord tells us, “We can do nothing.” I ask you, whatever truth you believe, and whatever ERROR you are aware of, does it not bother you that there are other children of God being duped by Satan, and they have for generations been taught by deceiving giants, even by Satan himself, the master-twister of Scripture and the evil counterfeiter? If some of you have error, even believing IT is truth, would you want someone to come to your aid and help to deliver you from anything that is opposed to God and His truth?
The GIANTS are still in their fenced cities on the mountain. They, under Satan’s domain, are even holding captive some children of God, even blinding their eyes so they cannot “see the way more perfectly” Are YOU satisfied just to remain in your safety zone down in the valley, away from the FIGHT? Will you do as King David did when he and his men returned from battle and found the enemy had burned their city of Ziklag, and robbed by kidnapping their wives, children and cattle? He went after them and got them back. He was not a man known to be idle in his “comfort zone” while others were in danger. Faithful Abraham lived by the same spirit.
No one else wrote as much as did Paul of the New Testament. And he warned about no other evil as vehemently, as zealously, and as faithfully as he did the great errors in “another gospel.” He did not discard or separate himself from those early Christians who were being DECEIVED into falling away from THE TRUE GOSPEL OF GOD’S GRACE! He with love, compassion and charity went to them and told them they were being deceived and that the instigator of “another gospe!” was Satan himself. The false message is Satan’s popular counterfeit, so-called gospel. We might call it the reign of the giants to even capture the minds of some of the very elect children of God. Are we going to make appeal to OUR heavenly Joshua, our Lord Jesus Christ, to “GIVE US THIS MOUNTAIN”? There are GIANTS living there?
Some children of God in these cities have not only been deceived by trusted mentors, but some of those mentors themselves were also deceived, calling ERROR “truth.” How can the land be captured if we won’t fight for it? How can saints and sinners be led out of their captivity if we don’t go to battle FOR them?
Lord Jesus, God the Father, by the Holy Spirit, “GIVE US THIS MOUNTAIN.” Father, in the Name of our Lord Jesus, by His blood give us the victory. Enable us to overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony. Amen.
Note any and all who have ERROR: We ALL see “as through a glass, darkly.” We ALL know only “in part.” None are absolutely without error.
But know this: What the Lord by His Holy Spirit has given and taught faithful men in past ages, some even leading revivals and showing the foundational truths of the Bible and the Gospel, even in what has historically come to be called “the five points,” know that any other points you care to add, in relaying the vast realm of God’s Truth, those great points MUST be in harmony with “those five,” (TULIP) that are so soundly and plainly taught in the Word of God. Every doctrine must be in full harmony with the Written Word of God In many cases scripture interprets itself. It just takes bowing to it and believing it. Our belief MUST harmonize with it. Don’t try to make your private interpretation agree with the Bible when it differs.
Battle Strategy for Spiritual Battles on the spirit hills of Hebron
When Caleb was but forty years old, and he and Joshua went with the other ten spies into Canaan to spy out the land, the report came back that compared to the many GIANTS there, they themselves appeared as grasshoppers (Numbers 13).
The ten spies promoting the evil, fearsome report did not count God in the Battle, but Joshua and Caleb, being full of faith said, “We can take them.”
So, here we are now with the giants still at Mt. Hebron. Like Caleb, we are spying out the land yet again because the giants are holding some “grasshoppers” captive who happen to be some at least -God’s children. We have found that the giants have blinded their captives to reality through brainwashing, if not plucking out their eyes. In our work, to our horror, we see that even the captives have become satisfied in their day-by-day living with the giants, not too much aware of the chains of bondage. In fact, it would appear they are wearing those chains as necklaces around their necks. The giants are KNOWN to “call good evil and evil good” and we find that the captive children are still much aware of EVIL and unholy living, but the giants have tainted and blinded them to reality in aspects of their religion, their “theology of Redemption,” striking them in this area with spiritual blindness. Yet, for what they DO know of truth, they are holding up the Word of God, still. To their fellow-captives, crying out to them, “READ THE WORD. “THIS BOOK IS THE HIGHEST AUTHORITY!” “GOD IS SOVEREIGN and HE WILL DO WHAT HE WANTS to do WHEN HE WANTS to do it.” “WE HAVE THE VICTORY BECAUSE CHRIST THE VICTOR LIVES IN US.” Also, even in bondage, these “just shall live by faith,” perhaps more than any others in the realm.
As we look on with Caleb, in spirit, we have hope in the captives being set free, as long as they are telling people to look to Christ Jesus, put their trust in Him, lead holy lives, and READ the WORD! We await the day when remaining chains will drop off their necks and then knowing the TRUTH will set them free indeed.
In the meantime, our battle strategy must be in the strength of the Spirit of God, by the power of the blood of Christ Jesus and His Holy Word, which is the power of God unto Salvation to all that believe. This is the “faith of God’s elect.”
But even God’s elect are but fallible men. One large giant looks down at his small captives and says, LOOK AT ME; see how big and strong I am. My father gave be a good name. You little grasshoppers can call me “Natural Free Will,” for I have the key to your freedom. You just have to turn the key the right way and trust the ability I give you. I can GET you that NEW BIRTH you like to talk about. So put your trust in ME.”
That message is SOOO enticing to the captives! It SOUNDS right, because they know the “will” is involved somewhere in salvation. So just maybe this free-will giant knows what he is talking about.
“BUT READ THE WORD.” The power is in the Word and God promises that WORD will not return unto Him void. So, what does that Word say about that the natural will of man? It says THIS:
John 1:12-13, “But as many as received Him, [Christ Jesus], to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.” (See, right here, if the giant, “Natural Free Will” is listening to the Word being read, he is quick to say, “SEE, I TOLD YOU THAT YOU COULD TRUST ME!”
But wait, don’t interrupt me. That is not the end. It continues, “which were BORN“-not GOT or “GET” born, Mr. Giant, by natural free will!]- “NOT by blood, NOR of the will the flesh, NOR of the will of man, BUT OF GOD.”
So, Mr. Giant, with THAT Word, and what follows, you can crawl back in your hole in this mountain and cry out for the mountain to fall in on you. You have no part in this matter.
So captive child of God, look further. Look at 1 Corinthians 2:14, « . . . The natural man receivethNOT the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he KNOW them, because they are spiritually discerned.”
But there is more God has to say about it.
Romans 9:15-16, “For He saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have com-passion. So then, it is NOT of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, BUT OF GOD that showeth mercy.”
“But what about the will, the will, the WILL?”
Just wait, we will get to that. At this point you must see that what counts is GOD’S will, and we are BORN again by HIS will, not our own, child of God!
Matthew 11:25, the very words of the Lord Jesus Himself, “I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth,because Thou hast HID these things from the wise and prudent, and hast REVEALED them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight.”
And our Lord lesus told His disciples that for one to BELIEVE is the “work of God.” (John 6:29)
Further in Matthew 13:13-14, He says, “Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive. . . . Verse 16, But blessed are YOUR eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.” In John 10:26-27, speaking to certain Jews, Jesus says, “But ye believe not, because ye are not of My sheep . . . My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.”
Uh oh! Here come another giant. Let’s get behind this rock, Caleb, and listen to what he has to say.
“Good morning. How are my little captive grasshoppers this morning? I want you to know that my name is “Jesus Fails.” My great grandfather was Goliath who was killed by your King David by a rock from his sling-shot, for, as young grasshopper David said, “for defying the living God of Israel.” Well, I am here to tell you that I defy your God too. That is why my name is “Jesus Fails.” You wonder why He fails? I will tell you, and our job is to make you understand why. It is this. You must and you DO tell your people that your God loves everyone the same, not being “a respecter of persons,” Never mind that in using that phrase your Bible is not really saying what you captive grasshoppers say it means. Anyway, we would have you teach, and you DO teach that your God purposes, wills, desires, and even promises to save every child of Adam. That must even mean us giants, for we are born of woman, coming from Adam’s wife. Ha! Ha! You fools, who think we need salvation. That is but foolishness to us. Go cry in your beer! I have no sympathy for your tears. You have such a short memory. My name is “Jesus Fails.” He wants and desires to save every child of Adam and yet billions will end up in hell-or what you call hell, if there is such a place. Ha! Ha! Ha! So since God can’t transgress the Natural Free Will by the way, that is the name of the giant you just talked to your God’s “will'” is powerless to save. Ha! Ha! “Jesus Fails” is my name. Don’t ever forget it, grasshoppers! Ha! Ha!”
“Hey, Caleb, that was some kind of tirade. That giant “Jesus Fails” must be every bit as evil as old Goliath ever was!”
Oh that these captive children could get the blinders removed from their eyes, even burned off by the bright light of our resurrected Lord lesus like He blinded the natural sight of Saul of Tarsus, planted in him the NEW BIRTH, healed his eyes, removing the scales, and left him with a new heart a brand new WILl, a willing will by His resurrection POWER according to Psalm 110:3.
We KNOW JESUS NEVER FAILS! He is not willing that any shall perish that the Father gave Him to save in Eph. 1 and elsewhere. He creates them all anew as His own creation, as in Eph. 2, quickening them to new spiritual life with a new will with power to believe AFTER the giving of the LIFE.
Our Lord Jesus who never fails also tells us who they ARE that He wills and PROMISES they shall never perish. It is plainly seen in 2 Peter 3:9 and also it is seen by the Lord’s own words in John 10:26-30. They are His sheep, for whom He voluntarily laid down His life to accomplish their Redemption for all the Father gave Him to redeem as the bride of Christ, called the members of His own body. He says in John 6 and in John 10 that He will LOSE NONE, but will raise every one of them at the last day. Read it for yourselves. We can gladly see that giant “Jesus Fails” destroyed, along with the giant “Natural Free Will,” What deceptive creatures they are! Read the Word and preach it!
As for that “giant-lie” that God cannot and will not TRANSGESSS THE WILL OF MAN, if He did not, then NO ONE would ever be saved! This is proved even by the regeneration and conversion of Saul of Tarsus, changing him into the great apostle Paul. His natural free will was bent and determined to go into Damascus and imprison more Christians. It was not that he as was as evil at those giants, for Saul actually THOUGHT he was serving and pleasing God by doing what he was doing. But then, thank the Lord, the resurrected Lord Jesus DID TRANSGRESS Saul’s natural, fallen, depraved will and gave him a NEW heart and a NEW will. Tie in together the salvation of Paul with John 3 and Psalm 110:3. THERE you see what WILL it is that is willing_ by the POWER of God. When it came upon Saul (Paul), immediately we see he then has ANOTHER will. He still had the old man, but he has the NEW man, with a NEW WILL to go along with his NEW LIFE!
But there is yet another GIANT on the hills of Hebron. He is the elder brother of the other two. His name is “Natural PRIDE“‘ His job is to relay this natural PRIDE to mankind, making them think, by Satanic deception, that MAN is even sovereign over the power of God when it comes to getting himself saved. He says that GOD is dependent on MAN for God’s own success. In that way, God is at the mercy of MAN instead of MAN being at the mercy of God. Completely opposite from what the TRUE Gospel of God teaches! This giant even says a DEAD sinner can take STEPS to GET himself “born again. What a demonic giant!
What? You don’t believe this is true? Then all three GIANTS are leading you around by the nose. They teach that “Natural Free-Will’ has inherent ability, natural to every man or woman ever born. We have seen that the natural will does nothing to help a sinner to move God-ward for it is “at enmity against God, running away from Him, not to Him. It is ONLY when he has been born again, and has NEW life, that HE gains spiritual understanding and a NEW WILl that is able to love and act and move toward God. It is ONIY that sinners with new life that God draws nigh to Himself, according to John 6:44. DEAD MEN can’t love, obey and take steps toward God? Period. Don’t let the giants dupe you into trusting yourself or your natural will to any degree whatso-ever. Christ Jesus requires 100% trust, none left for man at all. It is GOD that replaces DEATH with LIFE. “Salvation is of the Lord.” All glory belongs to GOD.
We have dealt with THREE GIANTS!
We have faced them and exposed them with the Word of God as our weapon.
Come to think of it, old Israel had to fight many giants. When Caleb at age 85 asked Joshua for Mt. Hebron, “GIVE ME THIS MOUNTAIN,” there were still some giants there to be conquered. The Bible says,
“And Caleb drove thence the three sons of Anak, She-sha, and Ahi-man Tal-mai, the children of Anak.
Let me say this right up front that if you already know the origins of ‘Shrove Tuesday’, Ash Wednesday, the Forty days of Lent and Easter Sunday but still stubbornly insist on observing them, then you show yourself to be nothing but a nominal ‘Christian’ like the Roman Catholics, The Church of England or any one of the majority of ‘Baptist’, Methodist and Presbyterian Churches who have a name that they live but are dead! [Rev 3:1] [Note: Not all Baptists observe these Pagan Practices]
For those real Christian Brethren who have just come to know the Lord and are searching their Bibles diligently to find whether these things be so [Act 17:11], I must tell you that you will not find them in the BIBLE. Neither the Apostles nor the Early Church observed these things. So WHERE do they come from?
‘Shrove Tuesday’ or Mardi Gras as it is commonly known literally means “Fat Tuesday” in French [called Pancake Tuesday in England] and is associated with the Roman Catholic custom of Lent. But is it taught in the Bible? Would God want Christians to observe it?
The idea behind Mardi Gras or carnival celebrations is that people overindulge before giving up something for Lent, which begins the following day with Ash Wednesday. [Lent is the 40 weekdays from Ash Wednesday to Easter observed by the Roman Catholic, Eastern and some Protestant churches as a period of penitence and fasting.]
Lent was a time of penance, of fasting, of abstinence. Folks abstained from all sorts a good stuff including meat. They also gave up eggs and dairy products. So on Tuesday, the day before the start of the Lenten fast, folks cleared out their cupboards of all the foods they could not have for the next 40 days. They cooked them up and ate like pigs. In essence THEY FEASTED BEFORE THE FAST.
Unlike New Year’s, Christmas, Halloween, St. Valentine’s Day and other pagan holidays that are celebrated by the secular, non-religious world, the Lenten season is observed by dedicated religious believers.
From Ash Wednesday to Easter, many solemnly mark their foreheads with ash, “fasting” [or abstaining from certain foods or physical pleasures] for 40 days. This is done to supposedly imitate Jesus Christ’s 40-day fast in the wilderness [Matt. 4:1-2]. Some give up smoking. Others give up chewing gum. Still others give up over-eating or cursing. People vow to give up anything, as long as it prepares them for Easter.
People who observe Lent may be religious, dedicated and sincere—BUT THEY ARE SINCERELY WRONG!
Let us examine Lent, its practices and customs, its historic and religious origins, and its true meaning from the Bible’s perspective, not from the “traditions of men” [Mark 7:7-9].
The Purpose of Lent
According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, “the real aim of Lent is, above all else, to prepare men for the celebration of the death and Resurrection of Christ…the better the preparation the more effective the celebration will be. One can effectively relive the mystery only with purified mind and heart. The purpose of Lent is to provide that purification by weaning men from sin and selfishness through self-denial and prayer, by creating in them the desire to do God’s will and to make His kingdom come by making it come first of all in their hearts.”
On the surface, this belief sounds sincere. However, IT DOES NOT AGREE WITH THE BIBLE, GOD’S HOLY WORD, the only source of true spiritual knowledge and understanding [John 17:17]. God, through the apostle Paul, commands Christians to “continue you in the things which you have learned and have been assured of, knowing of whom you have learned them; and that from a child you have known the holy scriptures, which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 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, thoroughly furnished unto all good works” [II Tim. 3:14-17].
First, understand that the “celebration of the death and Resurrection of Christ” to which the preceding quote refers is so-called “Good Friday” and “Easter Sunday”— HOLIDAYS DEEPLY ROOTED IN ANCIENT PAGANISM. They were instituted by mainstream Christianity in order to counterfeit and replace the Passover season.
Second, the Bible says that we are purified—cleansed, set apart and made pure in God’s sight—by the shed blood of Jesus Christ [Heb. 9:11-14, 22; 13:12]. This, along with faith [Acts 15:9] and humbly submitting to and obeying God [James 4:7-10] through His truth and prayer [John 17:17; I Tim. 4:5], makes us clean before God. NO AMOUNT OF FASTING, ABSTAINING FROM PHYSICAL PLEASURES OR ANY OTHER FORM OF SELF-DENIAL CAN PURIFY US!
Pagan Origins of Lent
Lent was never observed by Christ or His apostles. He commanded His disciples to “Go you therefore, and teach all nations…teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you” [Matt. 28:19-20]. And Lent or Easter was not one of them!
Alexander Hislop wrote in his book The Two Babylons: “The festival, of which we read in Church history, under the name of Easter, in the third and fourth centuries, was quite a different festival from that now observed in the Romish Church, and at that time was not known by any such name as Easter…That festival [Passover] was not idolatrous, and it was preceded by no Lent. Lent was not observed by the first century Church! It was first addressed by the church at Rome during the Council of Nicea in A.D. 325, when Emperor Constantine officially recognized that church as the Roman Empire’s state religion. Any other form of Christianity that held to doctrines contrary to the Roman church was considered an enemy of the state.
Today, Lent is used for “fasting from sin and from vice…forsaking sin and sinful ways.” It is a season “for penance, which means sorrow for sin and conversion to God.” This tradition teaches that fasting and employing self-discipline during Lent will give a worshipper the “control over himself that he needs to purify his heart and renew his life.”
However, the Bible clearly shows that self-control—temperance—comes from having God’s Holy Spirit working in the life of a converted mind [Gal. 5:16, 17, 22]. FASTING—OF AND BY ITSELF—CANNOT PRODUCE GODLY SELF-CONTROL.
Paul warned against using self-denial as a tool to rely on your own will. He called it “will worship.” “Wherefore if you be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are you subject to ordinances, [touch not; taste not; handle not; which all are to perish with the using;] after the commandments and doctrines of men? Which things have indeed a show of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body: not in any honor to the satisfying of the flesh” [Col. 2:20-23].
GOD DID NOT DESIGN FASTING AS A TOOL FOR PENANCE, “BEATING YOURSELF UP” OR DEVELOPING WILL POWER: “Is it such a fast that I have chosen? A day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the Lord? Is not this the fast that I have chosen? To loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke? Is it not to deal your bread to the hungry, and that you bring the poor that are cast out to your house? When you see the naked, that you cover him; and that you hide not yourself from your own flesh?” [Isa. 58:5-7].
God’s people humble themselves through fasting in order to draw closer to Him—so that they can learn to think and act like Him—so that they can live His way of life in all things. Notice what the prophet Jeremiah wrote: “Thus says the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: but let him that glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord which exercise loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, says the Lord” [9:23-24]. Fasting [and prayer] helps Christians draw closer to God.
Coming from the Anglo-Saxon Lencten, meaning “spring,” LENT ORIGINATED IN THE ANCIENT BABYLONIAN MYSTERY RELIGION. “The forty days’ abstinence of Lent WAS DIRECTLY BORROWED FROM THE WORSHIPPERS OF THE BABYLONIAN GODDESS…Among the Pagans this Lent seems to have been an indispensable preliminary to the great annual festival in commemoration of the death and resurrection of Tammuz” [The Two Babylons].
Tammuz was the false Messiah of the Babylonians—a SATANIC COUNTERFEIT OF JESUS CHRIST!
The Feast of Tammuz was usually celebrated in June [also called the “month of Tammuz”]. Lent was held 40 days before the feast, “celebrated by alternate weeping and rejoicing.” This is why Lent means “spring”; it took place from spring to early summer.
The Bible records ancient Judah worshipping this false Messiah: “Then He brought me to the door of the gate of the Lord’s house which was toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz” [Ezek. 8:14-15]. THIS WAS A GREAT ABOMINATION IN GOD’S EYES!
But why did the church at Rome institute such a pagan holiday?
“To conciliate the Pagans to nominal Christianity, Rome, pursuing its usual policy, took measures to get the Christian and Pagan festivals amalgamated, and, by a complicated but skillful adjustment of the calendar, it was found no difficult matter, in general, to get Paganism and Christianity—now far sunk in idolatry—in this as in so many other things, to shake hands” [The Two Babylons].
The Roman church replaced Passover with Easter, moving the pagan Feast of Tammuz to early spring, “Christianizing” it. Lent moved with it.
“This change of the calendar in regard to Easter was attended with momentous consequences. It brought into the Church the grossest corruption and the rankest superstition in connection with the abstinence of Lent” [The Two Babylons].
Before giving up personal sins and vices during Lent, the pagans held a wild, “anything goes” celebration to make sure that they got in their share of debaucheries and perversities — WHAT THE WORLD CELEBRATES AS MARDI GRAS TODAY.
Pagan Abomination masked as Christianity!
God is not the author of confusion [I Cor. 14:33]. He never instituted Lent, a pagan observance connecting debauchery to the supposed resurrection of a false Messiah.
God commands His people TO FOLLOW HIM—NOT THE TRADITIONS OF MEN. God’s ways are higher, better than man’s [Isa. 55:8-9]. Men cannot determine for themselves right from wrong or how to properly worship God. Why? Because “the heart [mind] is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” [Jer. 17:9], and “the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man who walks to direct his own steps” [10:23]. God designed us and gave us life. He knows how we are supposed to worship Him.
To be a Christian and properly serve God, you must live “by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” [Matt. 4:4], recognizing that His Holy Scriptures “cannot be broken” [John 10:35].
GOD COMMANDS CHRISTIANS TO FLEE FROM THE PAGAN TRADITIONS AND CUSTOMS OF THIS WORLD [REV. 18:2-4], CURRENTLY LED AND DECEIVED BY SATAN THE DEVIL [II COR. 4:4; REV. 12:9].
Lent may seem like a sincere, heartfelt religious observance. But it is deeply rooted in pagan ideas that counterfeit God’s plan.
God hates allpagan observances [Jer. 10:2-3; Lev. 18:3, 30; Deut. 7:1-5, 16]. They cannot be “Christianized” or made clean by men. That includes Lent.
If you are a true Christian you would say with David- “Through thy precepts I get understanding: THEREFORE I HATE EVERY FALSE WAY”! [Psalm 119:104]
IF THE GOD YOU WORSHIP ‘REPENTS, REGRETS AND HAS REMORSE’ OVER HIS ACTIONS OR PLANS, YOU’VE GOT ANOTHER GOD OTHER THAN THE SOVEREIGN GOD OF THE SCRIPTURES
A man recently wrote us stating, “Why did God wish he had never made man at the time of Noah? (Gen 6) Couldn’t he see out into the future and decide to not make man and save the regret? God decided to destroy his people and Moses pleaded with him and God repented or changed his mind. How can God change his mind if he knew he was going to? I conclude he didn’t know.” etc
“Why does Genesis 6:6 say ‘it repented the LORD that he had made man’ if he knew in advance how sinful man would get?” etc
Let us take an honest look at these verses and rightly divide the Word of truth –
You may be thinking that the word “repent” there means God REGRETTEDHe made man, and my dictionary says “regret” can mean “a looking back with dissatisfaction.” This cannot be the meaning here, however, for it is not possible that God would be dissatisfied with anything He has done.
Like all words, REPENTcan have different meanings. My dictionary defines it as “to feel pain, sorrow, or regret for something one has done.” The word “or” here suggests that God didn’t REGRETmaking man, He rather felt pain and sorrow for having done so. The way the verse is worded makes this clear. It doesn’t say THE LORD REPENTED making man, as it would if He regretted it. It says IT REPENTED THE LORD, it pained Him, for their sin caused Him sorrow. The rest of the verse verifies this interpretation when it explains, “and it grieved Him at His heart.”
Sin STILLgrieves the Lord, even after we are saved, so “grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption” (Eph. 4:30).
Some texts in the Bible, if isolated from the rest of Scripture, challenge us. To overcome problems in our understanding we need to know a few things:
1. What did the original words mean to those to whom they originally were written? – basic grammatical meaning – literary use of the expressions common to the original readers – historical references meaningful at the time of the writing
2. What is the whole context of the portion in question? – local context: the flow of thought in the rest of the book in which it is found – theological context: what God has revealed in the other inspired books – historical context: how much God had revealed about his redemptive plan at that time.
IN ABOUT 30 PLACES IN THE BIBLE GOD IS SAID TO “REPENT”.
Genesis 6:6-7 is a prime example, “And it repented the LORD that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. 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.”
Did God regret something he had done? Did he really repent as if he had made a mistake? Did God have to change his plan from what he had formerly wanted it to be? If so, then he is not the God we read about in the rest of the Bible. A careful study of these passages removes the apparent conflict.
First we need to take a look at the larger context. What do clear Bible passages teach about God’s nature?
GOD’S NATURE IS “IMMUTABLE” (HE DOES NOT CHANGE).
The answer to Westminster Shorter Catechism question 4 “What is God?” is, “God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.”
If this is true, God can never regret, make errors, or change his plans. He answers to nothing greater than himself, therefore he is perfect and needs no improvement. God’s knowledge is perfect. It includes all things that ever will happen, there can be no reason to ever change or modify his plans.
James makes a direct statement in his epistle in James 1:17, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is NO VARIATION OR SHADOW OF TURNING.”
With God the Father there is “no variableness” (parallagae, παραλλαγη). This is an astronomical term. From it we get the word “parallax,” a term still used in astronomy. Even in those ancient times they could see that constellations appeared in different places as the seasons changed. Some dots of light move from constellation to constellation, we now know these “wandering stars” as planets. Some objects in the night sky change their brightness regularly. However, there is no such change with God. There is no variableness like that which we see in the night sky.
With God there is “no shadow of turning” (tropaes aposkiasma, τροπης αποσκιασμα). This is another astronomical term, It has to do with changes in shadows cast by the sun and moon. As the sun and moon change their positions in the sky during the day or night, there is an observable change in the length and direction of the shadows they cast. This word was also used in reference to the eclipses of the sun and moon where darkness took over parts of them. With God the Father there is no such change. He is a steady and reliable light.
There is a direct statement in Psalm 102:26-27, “They will perish, but You will endure; Yes, they will all grow old like a garment; Like a cloak You will change them, And they will be changed. But You are the same, And Your years will have no end.” This reminds us that though the earth and heavens perish and wear with time. God does not change.
There are many texts where God’s inability to change is made clear. For example, Numbers 23:19, “God is not a man, that He should lie, NOR A SON OF MAN, THAT HE SHOULD REPENT. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?” And Malachi 3:6, “For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.”
God has all things under his sovereign control as it says in Psalm 135:6, “Whatever the LORD pleases He does, In heaven and in earth, In the seas and in all deep places.”
Ephesians 1:11-12 says, “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: That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.”
God even controls the directions of the plans of humans. Proverbs 21:1, “The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will. .” and Proverbs 19:21, “There are many devices in a man’s heart; nevertheless the counsel of the LORD . . . that shall stand.”
Open Theism teaches that God is open to change and adjusts his plans to new circumstances. Those promoting this view reject the classic attributes of God (immutable, omnipotent, omniscient …). They say there are philosophical contradictions in the belief systems that accept the infinite and unchangeable understanding of God. However, their claims of contradictions are based upon total misstatements and misunderstandings of the actual historical and biblical doctrines. They often quote the verses about God repenting as if he adjusts to things outside of himself.
SO THEN, HOW DOES AN UNCHANGEABLE GOD REPENT?
The word here for “repent” is nakham (נחם). It is translated many ways in the Bible depending upon the context. Most often it is translated either “to repent” or “to comfort”, two seemingly very different words. The Brown Driver and Briggs Hebrew Lexicon (BDB) defines it this way: “to be sorry, to be consoled, to be moved to pity, to have compassion, to be comforted, to be relieved.”
A study of the primary uses of this Hebrew word show that it describes the reaction of a person to some sorrowful event, and the person either finds comfort from the sorrow, or grieves over the tragedy of the event. The focus of the word is upon the impact some disturbing thing has upon him. The word does not fit with our English words “repent” or “regret” as we commonly use those words today.
When WE repent over our sins, our response is grief over the offense they cause to God. When GOD repents, he has nothing to regret in himself. He has nothing for which to be sorry. God answers to no one but himself and to his own perfect and eternal plan. However, the sins of mankind offend him deeply. He has decreed that they would occur for his own good reasons. They are used to display his justice in his judgments, and his mercy in redemption. These sorrowful occurrences are used by God as means to accomplish all the things he has purposed to happen. When God observes these tragic outworkings of evil, he is morally offended. The word nakham (נחם) beautifully conveys this response.
To communicate to us the offense toward God which is produced by the sins of his creatures, the Bible uses a human response we all understand. We often experience grief, sorrow, and a need for consolation. When a human emotion is used to explain how God responds to something, we call it an “anthropopathism.”
We are probably more familiar with the term, “anthropomorphism.” That is when some physical part of man is used to represent something about God. The Eternal God has no physical body. He is revealed as spirit. However, the Bible speaks of God’s hands, eyes, feet, wings, feathers, … etc. These communicate to us that he controls, sees, comforts, etc.
In an “anthropopathism” some emotion or feeling of man is used to explain something about God. God’s spirit nature is very different in comparison with our human soul. Yet to know how much God is offended by sin and rebellion, these human terms are used to approximate his response in the best way possible for us.
Changes in how God treats people are based upon changes in them, not upon changes in God. It shows how God reveals his unfolding decrees to us in time. For example, in Eden before the fall, God is seen blessing man in his innocence. Then he casts man out for his sin and deep offense. In the time of Noah, he warned that the whole human race deserved destruction. By grace he chose Noah and preserved the human race beyond the flood.
All of these events of history were carried out according to God’s decree. The plan included allowing man to sin. God’s judgments show no change neither in God’s mind, nor in his plan. His repentance shows us the affront of sin to his holiness.
The changes in the relationships of persons with God reflect the Creator’s eternal and immutable decree as it unfolds. His plan takes into account human rebellions which accomplish his goal, even though that means enduring great offense from men’s sins.
NOW WE APPLY THIS TO THE TEXT IN GENESIS 6:6-7
Genesis 6:6-8, “And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. 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. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.”
REGRET HAS NO PLACE HERE AT ALL. It could not be the meaning intended, since God cannot regret or make mistakes. Even the grief of God in verse 6 is not the same as human grief. God’s eternal blessedness is never interrupted even though in time God permitted sin. In Romans 1:25 God is said to be “blessed forever.” Dr. Charnock points out that grief as we know it is inconsistent with undefiled blessedness. His blessedness cannot be impaired or interrupted.
This language is an accommodation to our “limited creaturely capacity” to understand. God’s intentions are always perfect and infinite, ours are not.
Genesis 6:6 reflects a change in God’s treatment of mankind. It fulfills his unchanging promise and resolution to punish justly, and it shows how he detests sin. The need in God is not for external comfort, but to satisfy his own justice as his decree unfolds. If he regretted, or admitted that his plan did not turn out as he intended, it would be contrary to direct statements where God tells us that he is totally Sovereign, and that he has foreseen all that will come to pass.
Other similar passages are handled in the same way.
1. Consider what God has directly stated elsewhere. This rules out what the passages cannot mean. Since God is perfect and his plan is unchangeable, NO PASSAGE OF THE BIBLE CAN TEACH THAT GOD REGRETS OR REPENTS AS WE DO.
2. Discover what the original words mean, and how they were commonly used. The word translated as “repent” is not equivalent to our word “regret”. It includes mainly the discomfort that is connected with sorrowful things.
3. Consider the attitude of God described in these passages. In an anthropopathism we need to understand what the human emotion might represent in an infinite and unchangeable being of God. God is offended by sin. It appalls him, and causes what was created in a blessed state to be treated at a later time with judgment and contempt.
GOD’S IMMUTABILITY IS BOTH A SOBER WARNING, AND A COMFORTING ASSURANCE.
God’s true nature is an uncomfortable fact for those who remain unredeemed by Christ. For those brought into the family of God by grace, it is a wonderful truth. God cannot go back on his promises, nor can his plan fail in any way. His blessings and judgments are sure.
“And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for He is not a man, that He should repent.” [1Sam 15:29]
[Post compiled from ‘Geneva Institute for Reformed Studies’ by Bob Burridge, and other sources by Michael Jeshurun]
Though the writer has passed the sixtieth milestone of life and completed a quarter of a century’s hard but happy work on this magazine—yet he feels that “GO FORWARD!” [Exodus 14:15] is the Lord’s pressing word unto him at this time. If he should have acquired any laurels, he certainly does not wish to rest upon them; nor does he—while health and strength are granted—intend to moderate his own studies or relax in his efforts.
It has long been his desire to WEAR out—rather than RUST out; or, to express it in Scripture language, to “very gladly spend and be spent” [2 Corinthians 12:15] in endeavoring to serve the Lord and minister to His beloved people. Nor could he warrantably look for any measure of realizing that desire, if he slackened; rather should he seek to “Go forward” with increased earnestness and diligence, “redeeming the time, because the days are evil” [Ephesians 5:16]. The more evil the days—the grander the opportunity for proving the sufficiency of God’s grace, and the greater the privilege in serving His children.
“GO FORWARD!” Is not this a TIMELY WORD for each of us as we enter a new year? Is not this a suitable motto for us to keep in mind as we journey through [if God permits] 1947? We need to clearly realize there is no such thing as remaining STATIONARY in the spiritual life: if we do not progress—we inevitably retrograde. How that solemn fact should search our hearts! Christian friend, your history this year will be either one of going forward—or backsliding. This New Year will mark either an increased fruitfulness in your soul and life—to the glory of Him whose name you bear; or increased leanness and barrenness—to His reproach! It will witness either a growing in grace—or a decline in your spirituality. It will record either an increased love for the Word, use of the Throne of Grace, strictness of walk and closer communion with Christ—or a growing coldness and a following of Him afar off.
O Christian reader, before reading any further, will you not now close your eyes and lift up your heart in earnest prayer for yourself and for all your brethren and sisters in Christ?
“GO FORWARD!” The HISTORIC OCCASION on which those words were uttered is noteworthy, and a brief consideration of the same the better enables us to make application of them unto ourselves. The situation confronting Israel was a hopeless one, so far as they were concerned; and had not the Lord intervened, they had undoubtedly perished. After their exodus from Egypt, Pharaoh at the head of a great military force pursued and overtook them. With impassable obstacles on either side, the Red Sea in front, and the enemy in the rear—that company of ex-slaves with their wives and children were in a truly desperate plight, and death was all they expected [Exodus 14:10, 12]. Then it was that Moses said, “Do not be afraid. Stand still—and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today—you will never see again. The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.” [Exodus 14:13-14].
Those words, “stand still—and you will see the deliverance of the Lord,” have been grossly carnalized and grievously wrested by those who foster a FATALISTIC INERTIA. “Stand still” obviously has the force here of “be not dismayed, do not panic, keep calm,” as the “you need only to be still” shows. Then followed, “and you will see the deliverance of the Lord,” which signified, Lift up your hearts and eyes in the exercise of faith. But faith must have a foundation to rest upon, even the Word of Him who cannot lie; and hence, the sure promise was given, “which the LORD will bring you today…The Lord shall fight for you.” Previously, they had “lifted up their eyes” and beheld Egyptians [Exodus 14:10]; and in consequence, were sore afraid. But there was something else and some One else for faith to “see”—namely, the promised salvation or deliverance of Jehovah, which was not yet visible to outward sight! If their faith were steadfastly occupied with that, their trembling hearts would be stilled, and strength obtained for the performance of duty or the discharge of their responsibility.
Then came the Divine order to Moses, “Speak unto the children of Israel, that they GO FORWARD” [Exodus 14:15]. That was a challenge to faith. To carnal reason, compliance appeared suicidal. To “Go forward” meant walking into the Red Sea—which, at that time, presented an unbroken mass of water. Ah—but they had been promised Divine deliverance. Yes—but God required them to lay hold of that promise and act on it. And they did: “By faith they passed through the Red sea as by dry land” [Hebrews 11:29]. If “by faith,” then certainly not “by sight”—the two things being opposed the one to the other [2 Corinthians 5:7]. Not until they stepped out with confidence in God’s Word—did He appear for them and begin to open the waters; and as they continued onward—He continued to open a way for them. It is in response to the actings of faith, that God works, for He never sets a premium on unbelief. Here—then, is the first signification of this word for us: “Go forward” with your heart resting on the sure promises of God—and with the eyes of faith steadfastly fixed upon Him.
“Go forward!” Second, this was a call to obedience—namely, the obedience of “faith” [Romans 1:5].
There was a COMMAND annexed to the promise—to prove them and show whether or not they had received the promise sincerely. There are certain grand benefits which God gives to His people without imposing any condition—such as the providing of a Redeemer who took our nature, fulfilled the Law, satisfied God’s provoked justice on our behalf, and merited grace sufficient for our salvation. But having laid this glorious foundation, God treats with us as MORAL AGENTS, propounds to us a covenant which requires our cordial consent or agreement. Repentance and faith are required of us—in order to the forgiveness of our sins. All through the Christian life, our concurrence is necessary. God requires from us FAITH in each of His promises—and OBEDIENCE to the commands annexed to them. Obedience is the path He has appointed, and in which His blessing is to be found. We must follow the course He has prescribed, if we would have Him show Himself strong on our behalf. If we honor His precepts, He will honor us. “Go forward,” then, in complete subjection to His revealed will, and walking according to His Word.
“Go forward!” Third, this was a command to advance. It was so to Israel; it is so unto us. Onward Christian soldiers! Steadfastly persevere along the path of duty, walking in that narrow way which the Divine precepts have marked out for us. No matter what is your condition and circumstances, what obstacles may confront you, what RED SEA OF DIFFICULTY OR DANGER is before you, “Go forward” is your marching orders.
Raise no objections. “The slothful man says: There is a lion outside, I shall be slain in the streets!” [Proverbs 22:13], let no such idle excuse issue from your lips. Rather say, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” [Philippians 4:13]. When your heart fails, when your soul is well-near overwhelmed by the problem or task facing you, do not panic, but lift up the EYES OF FAITH unto the Lord, realize He it is who bids you advance. Go forward depending on His promise—and you will not be confounded.
Christ’s oft-repeated “follow me” is but another form of “Go forward.” So too is every exhortation for us to “grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord” [2 Peter 3:18]. We are ever in need of such a word of exhortation, for we are prone to relax and take things easy—the more so as old age creeps upon us. Rest not satisfied with your present knowledge and apprehension of the Truth—but seek for a deeper and fuller one. Be not content with your present spiritual attainments, for “there remains yet very much land to be possessed!” [Joshua 13:1].
The manna you gathered yesterday—will not suffice for today. “Be not weary in well doing” [2 Thessalonians 3:13]. “No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back—is fit for the kingdom of God” [Luke 9:62]. Let the prayerful resolve of each of us be: “Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus!” [Philippians 3:13-14]. Beg God to write this word in your heart!
I ASK you a plain question at the beginning of a New Year: ARE YOU READY?
It is a solemn thing to part company with the old year. It is a still more solemn thing to begin a new one. It is like entering a dark passage: we know not what we may meet before the end. All before us is uncertain: we know not what a day may bring forth, much less what may happen in a year. Reader, ARE YOU READY?
Are you ready for SICKNESS? You cannot expect to be always well. You have a body fearfully and wonderfully made: it is awful to think how many diseases may assail it.
“Strange that a harp of thousand strings Should keep in tune so long!”
Pain and weakness are a hard trial. They can bow down the strong man and make him like a child. They can weary the temper and exhaust the patience, and make men cry in the morning, “Would God it were evening,” and in the evening, “Would God it were morning.” All this may come to pass this very year. Your reason may be shattered, your senses may be weakened, your nerves may be unstrung: the very grasshopper may become a burden. Reader, if sickness comes upon you, ARE YOU READY?
Are you ready for AFFLICTION? “Man,” says the Scripture, “is born to sorrow.” This witness is true. Your property may be taken from you, your riches may make themselves wings and flee away, your friends may fail you, your children may disappoint you, your servants may deceive you; your character may be assailed, your conduct may be misrepresented: troubles, annoyances, vexations, anxieties, may surround you on every side, like a host of armed men; wave upon wave may burst over your head; you may feel worn and worried, and crushed to the dust. Reader, if affliction comes upon you, ARE YOU READY?
Are you ready for BEREAVEMENTS? No doubt there are those in the world that you love. There are those whose names are graven on your heart, and round whom your affections are entwined: there are those who are the light of your eyes, and the very sunshine of your existence. But they are all mortal: any one of them may die this year. Before the daisies blossom again, any one of them may be lying in the tomb. Your Rachel may be buried, your Joseph may be taken from you, your dearest idol may be broken: bitter tears and deep mourning may be your portion. Before December you may feel terribly alone. Reader, if bereavement comes upon you, ARE YOU READY?
Are you ready for DEATH? It must come some day: it may come this year. You cannot live always. This very year may be your last. You have no freehold in this world, you have not so much as a lease: you are nothing better than a tenant at God’s will. Your last sickness may come upon you, and give you notice to quit, the doctor may visit you, and exhaust his skill over your case, your friends may sit by your bedside, and look graver and graver every day: you may feel your own strength gradually wasting, and find something saying within, “I shall not come down from this bed, but die.” You may see the world slipping from beneath your feet, and all your schemes and plans suddenly stopped short. You may feel yourself drawing near to the coffin, and the grave, and the worm, and an unseen world, and eternity, and God. Reader, if death should come upon you, ARE YOU READY?
Are you ready for the SECOND COMING OF CHRIST? He will come again to this world one day. As surely as He came the first time, 1800 years ago, so surely will He come the second time. He will come to reward all His saints, who have believed in Him and confessed Him upon earth. He will come to punish all His enemies, the careless, the ungodly, the impenitent, and the unbelieving. He will come very suddenly, at an hour when no man thinketh: as a thief in the night. He will come in terrible majesty, in the glory of His Father, with the holy angels. A flaming fire shall go before Him. The dead shall be raised, the judgment shall be set, the books shall be opened! Some shall be exalted into heaven: many, very many, shall be cast down to hell. The time for repentance shall be past. Many shall cry, “Lord, Lord, open to us!” but find the door of mercy closed forever. After this there will be no change. Reader, if Christ should come the second time this year, ARE YOU READY?
O reader, these are solemn questions! They ought to make you examine yourself. They ought to make you think. It would be a terrible thing to be taken by surprise. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
But shall I leave you here? I will not do so. Shall I raise searchings of heart, and not set before you the way of life? I will not do so. Hear me for a few moments, while I try to show you the man that is ready.
He that is ready has A READY SAVIOUR. He has Jesus ever ready to help him. He lives the life of faith in the Son of God. He has found out his own sinfulness, and fled to Christ for peace. He has committed his soul and all its concerns to Christ’s keeping. If he has bitter cups of affliction to drink, he knows they are mixed by the hand that was nailed to the cross for his sins. If he is called to die, he knows that the grave is the place where the Lord lay. If those whom he loves are taken away, he remembers that Jesus is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother, and a husband who never dies. If the Lord should come again, he knows that he has nothing to fear. The Judge of all will be that very Jesus who has washed his sins away. Happy is that man who can say, with Hezekiah, “The Lord was ready to save me” (Isa 38: 20).
He that is ready has A READY HEART. He has been born again, and renewed in the spirit of his mind. The Holy Ghost has shown him the true value of all here below, and taught him to set his affections on things above. The Holy Ghost has shown him his own deserts, and made him feel that he ought to be thankful for everything; and satisfied with any condition. If affliction comes upon him, his heart whispers, “There must be a needs be. I deserve correction. It is meant to teach me some useful lesson.” If bereavement comes upon him, his heart reminds him that the Lord gave and the Lord must take away, whenever He sees fit. If death draws near, his heart says, “My times are in Thy hand: as Thou wilt, when Thou wilt, and where Thou wilt.” If the Lord should come, his heart would cry, “This is the day I have long prayed for: the kingdom of God is come at last.” Blessed is he who has a ready heart.
He that is ready has a HOME READY FOR HIM IN HEAVEN. The Lord Jesus Christ has told him that He is gone “to prepare a place” for him. A house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, awaits him. He is not yet come to his full inheritance: his best things are yet to come. He can bear sickness, for yet a little time he shall have a glorious body. He can bear losses and crosses, for his choicest treasures are far beyond the reach of harm. He can bear disappointments, for the springs of his greatest happiness can never be made dry. He can think calmly of death: it will open a door for him from the lower house to the upper chamber, even the presence of the King. He is immortal till his work is done. He can look forward to the coming of the Lord without alarm. He knows that they who are ready will enter in with Him to the marriage supper of the Lamb. Happy is that man whose lodging is prepared for him in the kingdom of Christ.
Reader, do you know anything of the things I have just spoken of? Do you know anything of a ready Saviour, a ready heart, and a ready home in heaven? Examine yourself honestly. How does the matter stand?
Oh, be merciful to your own soul! Have compassion on that immortal part of you. Do not neglect its interest, for the sake of mere worldly objects. Business, pleasure, money, politics, will soon be done with forever. Do not refuse to consider the question I ask you, ARE YOU READY? ARE YOU READY?
Reader, if you are not ready, I beseech you to MAKE READY WITHOUT DELAY. I tell you, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that all things are ready on God’s part for your salvation. The Father is ready to receive you, the Lord Jesus is ready to wash your sins away, the Spirit is ready to renew and sanctify you, angels are ready to rejoice over you, saints are ready to hold out the right hand to you. Oh, why not make ready this very year?
Reader, if you have reason to hope you are ready, I advise you TO MAKE SURE. Walk more closely with God, get nearer to Christ, seek to exchange hope for assurance. Seek to feel the witness of the Spirit more closely and distinctly every year. Lay aside every weight, and the sin that so easily besets you. Press towards the mark more earnestly. Fight a better fight, and war a better warfare every year you live. Pray more, read more, mortify self more, love the brethren more. Oh that you may endeavour so to grow in grace every year, that your last things may be far more than your first, and the end of your Christian course far better than the beginning!
AS A SAVED CHRISTIAN GOD NOW COMMANDS YOU TO REPENT OF OBSERVING PAGAN HOLIDAYS OF CHRISTMAS AND EASTER
That’s right! It’s that awkward time of the year that I almost wish didn’t come around. The time to tell Christians that the Christmas they’ve been celebrating all along has nothing to do with either the Jesus they worship or the Bible they claim to follow. It’s that time when nominal colors really begin to show, when compromising Christian folk will use all kinds of arguments and sickening excuses to justify their little Christmas idol. But as an iconoclast I have to smash it . . . . even at the cost of losing some ‘friends’ and family! So help me God!
THIS is what sets me apart from your average run of the mill preacher, beloved! I am not here to ‘win friends and influence people’ . . . I tell it like it is and let the chips fall where they may! – Michael Jeshurun
“For what peace in the Church without Truth? All conformity to anything else is but the agreement of Herod and Pilate to destroy Christ and His Kingdom”. And again, “An agreement without truth is no peace, but a covenant with death, a league with hell, a conspiracy against the Kingdom of Christ and a stout rebellion against the God of Heaven”. [John Owen]
God does not want His church to take pagan days, and those pagan and popish rites and paraphernalia that go with them and adapt them to Christian use. He simply commands us to abolish them altogether from the face of the earth forever. YOU may not be offended by the Easter eggs and the Easter bunnies and the selection of a pagan day to celebrate Christ’s resurrection, but GOD is offended! God commands us to get rid of the monuments and paraphernalia of paganism!
If your wife was promiscuous before you married her would you be offended if she had pictures of her old boyfriends on her dresser? Would it bother you if she celebrated the various anniversaries relating to her past relationships? Would you be offended if she kept and cherished the various rings, jewelry and mementos given to her by her old boyfriends? Of course you would be offended! The Lord God is infinitely more zealous of His honor than you are; He is a jealous God. Could Israel take festival days to Baal, Ashteroth, Dagon and Molech and alter them to make them pleasing to God? Of course not! The Bible makes very clear which kings of Judah pleased God the most. God is pleased when idols, their temples, their religious dress, earrings, sacred houses, sacred trees, poles, ornaments, rites, names and days are utterly cut off from the earth, never again to be restored.
God wants His bride to eliminate forever the monuments, the days, the paraphernalia and the mementos of idolatry. “Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. For the customs of the people are vain” (Jer. 10:2-3). “Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God: for every abomination to the LORD, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods” (Deut. 12:31).
Christians must not only put away the monuments of past idolatry but also everything associated with present idolatry. Easter like Christmas is one of the most important holy day in Roman Catholicism. The term ‘Easter’ is not of Christian origin. It is another form of Astarte, one of the titles of the Chaldean goddess, the queen of heaven. The festival of Pasch [Passover and the Feast of Unleavens] was a continuation of the Jewish [that is, God’s] feast….from this Pasch the pagan festival of ‘Easter’ was quite distinct and was introduced into the apostate Western religion, as part of the attempt to adapt pagan festivals to Christianity.” (W.E. Vine, Merrill F. Unger, William White, Jr., Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, article: Easter, p.192)
The Roman Catholic Church hates the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Roman church uses human inventions, such as Christmas and Easter, to keep millions of people in darkness. The fact that millions of Bible-believing Protestants are observing a Roman Catholic holy day which has not been commanded anywhere in God’s Word reveals the sad state of modern Evangelicalism.
“We cannot conform, communicate, and symbolize with the idolatrous Papists, in the use of the same, without making ourselves idolaters by participation.” Our attitude should be that of the Protestant Reformer Bucer who said, “I would to God that every holy day whatsoever besides the Lord’s day were abolished. That zeal which brought them first in, was without all warrant of the Word, and merely followed corrupt reason, forsooth to drive out the holy days of the pagans, as one nail drives out another. Those holy days have been so tainted with superstitions that I wonder we tremble not at their very names.”
The common objection against the argument that pagan monuments must be abolished is that these things occurred so long ago as to be harmless to us. But this is totally untrue. Not only do we have the present idolatry of Romanism, but there is a revival going on at this very moment in Europe and North America of the old pagan European religions. The radical feminist movement is presently reviving the fertility goddesses and gods of the ancient Near East. God’s law-Word says to get rid of the monuments to idolatry. God’s law is not rendered null and void with the passage of time.
The ONLY day that God has authorized as a holy day is the Lord’s day. If the church wants to please Jesus Christ and honor Him, then it should do so by keeping His day and by setting an example to the outside world. When Christians make Easter or Christmas more special than the Lord’s Day, they disobey the teachings of Christ and dishonor His day!
ARE SOME OF OUR ‘PASTORS’ DUMB DOGS THAT CANNOT BARK?!
Michael Jeshurun
“His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, THEY ARE ALL DUMB DOGS, THEY CANNOT BARK; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. they are GREEDY DOGS which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter.” [Isaiah 56:10,11]
The dog is a faithful animal which is known and valued to guard that which is entrusted to it and warn the shepherd of the prowling wolves! Likewise God expects and has commissioned His ministers to not only feed His flock but to guard them as well. And those who fail to do so he chides them as being ‘Dumb Dogs’! [Isaiah 56:9-11]
Here is what Daniel E. Parks had to say. In fact he said this back in 2004 but they reprinted it in one of his current Newsletters –
MY THOUGHTS REGARDING CHRISTMAS
I am not overly fond of the manner in which the world has traditionally celebrated Christmas. I certainly do not recognize it as the birth date of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Nor do I find in Holy Scriptures any exhortation to celebrate His birth, nor any intimation that it occurred on the date men have appointed for it. I recognize that much associated with Christmas has no real connection to Jesus Christ, and that much that is presently associated with it arose out of paganism.
But neither am I a Scrooge regarding Christmas. I delight in having the holiday so that I may spend time with my loved ones. I delight in the feasts and fellowship we enjoy during that season. I delight in giving and receiving gifts, and in seeing the wide eyes of children as they open theirs. I delight in the sales merchants provide during that season. I delight in the spirit of good cheer so prevalent in our society during that season – but wish it prevailed also during the rest of the year. I delight in knowing that many people who very rarely attend a worship service will indeed be present on the Sunday of that season. I delight in that rare opportunity to present the gospel of Christ to them, and hope for another such opportunity before Easter.
I am amused at the paranoia regarding Christmas presently and increasingly exhibited in certain “politically correct” sections of our society. Cities and towns are forbidding from their parades floats displaying a Christian theme. Schools are forbidding students to utter the name of Christ in their programs. Some retail stores have begun forbidding the Salvation Army to collect money for the needy in its Christmas pots – and I am boycotting such stores. Christmas itself is being excluded in an attempt to make the holiday inclusive.
I refuse to exclude Christ from the Christmas season. However, I will not make more of Him during this season than I would at any other time.
I therefore will celebrate during this season not only the birth of Jesus Christ, but also His death, burial, resurrection, and exaltation to glory. And I will exhort people to believe and obey the truth regarding Christ’s first coming, for He will at His second coming judge them according to whether or not they have done so (Acts 10:34-43). – Daniel E. Parks, (December 7, 2004)
Another compromiser Charles Woodruff says –
“There is a lot about Christmas activity for the true Christian not to like. Much that we cannot partake of, in good conscience. Remember, the Puritans did not celebrate Christmas, as well as many other Christians of the past, and the situation was not as extreme as it is now. Be that as it may, I am not writing this to condemn Christmas. It likely would do no good; it is here to stay. But if we are going to observe any of it, we should know what it purports to represent. I hope to stir your conscience to put Christ first”.
This is nothing but the old excuse of the compromising lukewarm ‘Pastor’ exhorting his flock to ‘put Christ back into Christmas’! A repetition of the history of Saul justifying his sin! When Samuel asked Saul- “What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear? Saul justified his sin saying – “They have brought them from the Amalekites: for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God”! [1Samuel 15]
Let’s put Christ back into Christmas! Jesus is the reason for the season! etc
Hogwash! Plain rubbish! The stench of a dead lion in God’s nostrils! “For a living dog is better than a dead lion”. [Ecc 9:4]. But these are all dumb dogs, that cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. [Isa 56:10].
What? Put the Holy Lord Christ back into a satanic, pagan, Babylonian Christ-MASS?! ‘What communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial’? [2Cor 6:14,15]. And don’t tell me that these ‘Pastors’ are ignorant of the origins of Christ-MASS! It is their bounden duty to try the spirits, test all things and expose that which is an abomination to God! [1Thes 5:21]
As Woodruff above admits –“the Puritans did not celebrate Christmas, as well as many other Christians of the past! Be that as it may, I am not writing this to condemn Christmas. It likely would do no good; it is here to stay”.
Yea while you’re at it why not put Christ into sodomy, abortion and Rock music also?! Because it would do no good condemning them either! They are here to stay too!
“Dumb dogs” is the blunt term Isaiah used to describe those of his day who failed in their duty of guarding the flock of God—”dumb dogs, they cannot bark.” (Isa. 56:9-11) In this scene Isaiah pictures the helplessness of the flock when they, because of the failure of the guarding dogs, are exposed to the wild beasts of forest and field. The dog is a faithful animal which guards that which is entrusted to its care! But a dumb dog is a false sentinel, an ally of the Wolf!
A consideration of the present Christ-MASS justification in the Church brings Isaiah’s scathing rebuke to mind. For it is very apparent that the church is seriously threatened and is in real danger because of the silence of many of her preachers. Too many preachers in the pulpits are “dumb dogs”, ignoring the ominous threat of error and evil; too many in the pew are praising these “dumb dogs” for their very silence and are heaping contempt upon those who raise the alarm.
Our “adversary, the devil as a roaring lion goeth about seeking whom he may devour.” Sobriety and vigilance are required of every Christian. Let no one be deceived; the enemy will avail himself of every opportunity afforded by the silence of the watchman. To fail to give warning when danger appears is simply criminal.
The barking of the faithful watch dog will be annoying, not only to the one who desires to devour in peace, but also to the complacent and blind shepherds who are “dreaming, lying down, loving to slumber.” The enemies of the flock are just as ravenous today as ever. Their tactics are to lull with a smile, or to cow with a sneer of arrogance. They get by the “dumb dogs” with the smooth and fair speech of the of the modernist.
Blindness
The failure of the dumb dogs to sound the warning is ascribed by Isaiah to several causes. One of them is blindness. “His watchmen are blind; they are all without knowledge.” They may have the “wisdom of the world” but they do not have the wisdom that enables them to discern the approach of evil. And there is no excuse for their blindness, for they could have that knowledge. It is accessible to them.
We need not think it strange to discover learned men who are mute when they should be raising their voices in warning. Paul speaks of those who were “ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (II Tim. 3:7) Care must be exercised always to avoid such blindness; discernment must be developed.
Complacency
Another factor contributing to the dumbness of the watch dogs was complacency. Their complacency is pictured by the prophet in these words, “dreaming, lying down, loving to slumber.” Complacency and laziness go hand in hand. Dreaming, indifference, and spiritual lethargy on the part of the watchers provide the devourer with his best opportunity for wreaking havoc with the flock. Certainly it is not easy to jeopardize one’s position, especially when that position is one of ease and “all men speak well of you.” It is so much easier to murmur, “peace, peace,” and to doze off again than it is to come out with a roaring bark, disturbing the whole neighborhood, antagonizing many, and disturbing one’s own dreamy nap.
Greedy Dogs
If this combination of words, “greedy dogs” hurts some oversensitive ears, the best we can suggest for you is an examination of your hearing apparatus. You may find that the cause of your super sensitivity is a bad case of the itch—”itching ears.” it was God’s prophet Isaiah, who wrote, “Yea, the dogs are greedy, they a never have enough; and these are shepherds that cannot understand they have all turned to their own way—each to his own gain.”
If some should count such language unrefined as offensive, yet even they must admit that it fitly describes the one who would withhold warnings of danger for fear of losing some temporal advantage. Any man who “turns to (his) own way—each to his own gain” automatically disqualified as a watchman. He, like greedy dog, will take a bribe from the devil. In Isaiah’s figurative presentation he charges that the silence of the dogs was due in part to their greediness. Greedy dogs like greedy preachers, are dumb when their silence is calculated to bring them some selfish gain. Surely, this Great Shepherd of the sheep has no place in his service for the “dumb dogs” who are motivated by such base desires.
“I am not writing this to condemn Christmas. It likely would do no good; it is here to stay”. [Charles Woodruff]
One thing for sure! It would surely do no good to your profession as a preacher! Now that you have gathered a large flock of ‘Calvinist goats’ who have no regard for the whole counsel of God, you might as well continue to amuse them lest they cast you out of their synagogue as Jesus said they would! [see John 16:2]. Surely you cannot afford to wind up as men like A.W. Pink without a ‘Ministry’! If you made it your aim to only feed the sheep and expose the wolves, where would your ‘Ministry’ be?! You would wind up like your Master, ‘a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief’!
“I delight in knowing that many people who very rarely attend a worship service will indeed be present on the Sunday of that season. I delight in that rare opportunity to present the gospel of Christ to them, and hope for another such opportunity before Easter”. [Daniel E. Parks]
Why wait for Christ-MASS till they come to ‘Church’? Why not go and knock on their doors with the gospel before that? Maybe if you knocked on their doors long before Christmas and told them why you refuse to join the compromised Christians in celebrating this Pagan festival, they might perk up and listen. Then while you’re at it you could not only present Christ, but the whole truth about true and false Christianity!
Much more could be said concerning these dumb dogs (as the prophet terms them) and their silence! But suffice it to say, if you are still a part of a Church that is either celebrating this Pagan Romish festival or is silent about it with its ‘in the sand’, then confront your pastor about it! If he heeds your word and repents, you have won a brother, but if he justifies it and wants to continue in it; then GET OUT OF THAT CHURCH ASAP!
“And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities”! [Rev 18:4,5]
“For in the hand of the LORD there is a cup, and the wine is red; it is full of mixture; and He poureth out of the same: but the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them.” [Psalm 75:8]
It is of this CUP, that we this day wish to speak to you. It gives an alarming, awakening view of our God and Savior. It is not “God in Christ reconciling the world to Himself,” but God the JUDGE, Christ the Judge. It is not the King with the golden scepter, inviting all to draw near — it is the KING RISEN UP IN WRATH, in the evening of the day of grace, to “judge all the wicked of the earth.”
Oh, there is a Hell, an endless Hell, awaiting the ungodly! The Judge warns us of it — in order that none of us may be cast into that tremendous woe! Say not in your hearts, “God is too LOVING and MERCIFUL ever to condemn a soul to such woe.” If you continue in sin, you shall know too late that the Judge does condemn; not because He is not infinitely loving, but because your sin compels Him so to do. Listen to what is written, and you will every unbeliever shall drink of this wine of God’s indignation.
God’s wrath shall be given forth in a MEASURED PORTION, deliberately and fairly considered. There shall be nothing of caprice, nothing arbitrary, in God’s judgment on sin; all shall be fairly adjusted. Here are the SINS— there is the CUP, of a size proportioned to the sin, and FULL. God’s perfections direct and dictate the filling of it. It is “a cup of red wine.” He elsewhere calls it “The wine of my fury;” and Revelation 16:19, it is “Wine of the fierceness of His wrath.” In the East, red wine was usually the strongest; but besides, the fiery nature of the contents is indicated by the color.
This “red wine” is pressed out of the grapes by the divine attributes. It must be the CONCENTRATED ESSENCE OF WRATH; no weak potion, but one like that in Jeremiah 25:16, where they “drink, and are moved, and are mad;” or that in Ezekiel 23:32, 33, “A cup deep and large; it contains much; a cup of astonishment and desolation, filled with drunkenness and sorrow.”
It is “mixed with spices.” This signifies that the wine’s natural quality has been strengthened; its force has been INTENSIFIED by various ingredients cast into it. Such is the sense of “mingled wine” in Isaiah 5:22, and in Proverbs 9:5, “Come… drink of the wine which I have mingled.” We must distinguish this from the expression “without mixture,” in Revelation 14:10, where the speaker means to say, that there is no infusion of water to weaken the strength of the wine.
Here in Psalm 95, there is everything that may enhance the bitterness of the cup; and let us ask, WHAT may be these various ingredients? From every side of the lost sinner’s nature, forms of misery shall arise. The BODY, as well as the SOUL, shall be steeped in never-ending anguish, amid the unceasing wretchedness of eternal exile and lonely imprisonment. Further, each attribute of Godhead casts something into the cup!
RIGHTEOUSNESS is there, so that the rich man in Hell (Luke 16) dare not hint that his torment is too great. MERCY AND LOVE stand by and cast on it their ingredients, testifying that the sinner was dealt with in longsuffering, and salvation placed within his reach. O the aggravation which this thought will lend to misery. OMNIPOTENCE contributes to it; the lost man in the hands of the Almighty is utterly helpless, as weak as a worm! ETERNITY is an ingredient, telling that this wrath endures as long as God lives. And TRUTH is there, declaring that all this is what God spoke, and so cannot be altered without overturning His throne.
Yet more! While shame and contempt, and the consciousness of being disowned by every holy being, fiercely sting the soul — there are ingredients cast in by the SINNER HIMSELF. His CONSCIENCE asserts and attests that this woe is all deserved, and the man loathes himself. MEMORY recalls past opportunities and times of hope despised. SIN goes on increasing, and passions rage; cravings gnaw the unsatisfied soul with eternal hunger! It may be that EVERY PARTICULAR SIN will contribute to the mixture — a woe for lusts gratified; a woe for every act of drunkenness, and every falsehood and dishonesty; a woe for every rejected invitation, and every threatening disregarded. Who can tell what more may be meant by the words: “mixed with spices?”
It has “dregs” in it. The dregs lie at the bottom, out of sight, but are the BITTEREST. Do these mean HIDDEN WOESnot yet conceived of by any? Such as may be hinted at in the words, “Better he had never been born!” Such as Christ’s woes seem to speak of? These shall be the REVERSE of the saved man’s joys, “which never have entered the heart” to imagine!
God “pours out of the same.” “The wicked shall DRINK it down to its very dregs!” They are not meant to be merely shown; this is not a cup whose contents shall only be EXHIBITED and then withdrawn. No, the wicked MUST “drink it” and cannot refuse. “God pours out,” and the guilty soul “shall drink it down to its very dregs!”
We would not leave you merely contemplating the terrors of that wrath. We go on, in connection with it, to speak of one whose history has a strange bearing on our case.
There has been only One who has ever “drunk this cup to its very dregs!”
Cain has been drinking it for 5,000 years and finds his punishment greater than he can bear, but has not come to the DREGS.
Judas had been drinking it for some 2000 years, often crying out with a groan that shakes Hell, “Oh that I had never been born! Oh, that I had never seen or heard of the Lord Jesus Christ!” But he has not reached the dregs.
The FALLEN ANGELShave not come near the dregs: for they have not arrived at the judgment of the Great Day.
The only One who has taken, tasted, drunk, and wrung out the bitterest of the bitter dregs — has been the JUDGE HIMSELF, the Lord Jesus!
You know how often, when on earth, He spoke of it. “Are you able to drink the cup that I shall drink of?” (Matthew 20:22). “The CUP which My Father has given Me, shall I not drink it?” (John 18:11). The universe saw Him with it at His lips. It was OUR cup of trembling; the cup in which the wrath due to the “multitude which no man can number” was MIXED. What wrath, what woe! A FEW DROPSmade Him cry, “Now is my soul deeply troubled!” In the garden, the SIGHT of it wrung out the strange, mysterious words, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death!” though God-man, He STAGGERED at what He saw, and went on trembling.
The next day, on Calvary, He drank it ALL! I suppose the three hours of darkness may have been the time when He “was drinking down the dregs”; for then arose from His broken heart the wail which so appealed to the heart of the Father, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me!” As He ended the LAST DROP, and cried out, “It is finished!” we may believe angels felt an inconceivable relief — and even the Father Himself! So tremendous was the wrath and curse! — the wrath and curse due to OUR SIN!
In all this, there was nothing TOO MUCH. Love would protest against ONE DROP TOO MUCH; and never do you find God exceeding. Did He not hasten to stay Abraham’s hand, when enough had been done on Moriah? and at that same spot again, David’s day, when Justice had sufficiently declared the sharpness of its two-edged sword — did He not again hasten to deliver, crying, “It is enough!” How much more then, when it was His beloved Son!
He sought from Him, all that was needed by JUSTICE. And so we find in this TRANSACTION, what may well be good news to us. For Jesus drank that cup as the substitute for “the great multitude,” His innumerable people, given Him of the Father; and thereby freed THEM from ever tasting even ONE DROPof that fierce wrath, that “cup of red wine, mixed with spices,” with its dregs — its unknown terrors.
Now, this One, this One alone, who so drank the whole — presents to the sinners of our world, the EMPTIED Cup — His own Cup emptied! He sends it round the world, calling on mankind — sinners to take it and offer it to the Father as satisfaction for their sins. Come, O fellow-sinner, grasp it and hold it up to God! Plead it, and you are acquitted!
Yes, if you are anxious at all to be saved and blessed, take up this EMPTIED cup. However cold your heart, however dull your feelings, however slight your sorrow for sin — take this EMPTIED cup. Your appeal to this EMPTIED CUP arrests judgment at once. Do not think you need to endure some anguish of soul, some great sorrow — to take some SIPS of the red wine, far less to taste its DREGS— before you can be accepted. What thoughtless presumption — imitating Christ in His atoning work! If Uzziah, the king, presenting incense when he ought to have let the priest do it for him, was smitten for his presumption — take care lest you be thrust away, if you presume to bring the imagined incense of your sorrow and bitter tears. It is the EMPTIED cup which is offered us, not the cup wet with OUR TEARS, or its purity dimmed by the breath of OUR PRAYERS. Feelings of ours, graces of ours, can do nothing but cast a veil over the PERFECT MERITSof Christ!
Children of God who have used this cup — keep pleading it always. Ever make it the ground of your assurance of acceptance. Examine it often and well — see how God was glorified here, and how plentifully it illustrates and honors the claims of God’s righteousness. Full payment of every claim advanced by Justice is here; and so, you, in using it, give good measure, pressed down and running over! What then remains but that you render thanks and take this salvation, often singing —
“Once it was mine, that cup of wrath, And Jesus drank it dry!”
Many Americans will celebrate ‘Thanksgiving’ this month. Some will sincerely thank the Lord for all that He is to them and all that He has done for them, while the majority will only be concerned about the ‘roast Turkey’, the booze and the revelry.
I just wanted to share in a few words what the word ‘Thanksgiving’ itself means to me personally.
The Pharisee in the temple prayed, “God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers …etc.” Truth is, I too many times pray thus, but not in pride or self-righteousness, but in humility and a deep sense of thankfulness! For by the grace of God I am what I am! And by that same grace I have been taught and established in the doctrine of the ‘Absolute Sovereignty of God’ to realize full well that but for God’s sovereign choice I could have been the Pharaoh, Saul or Judas or any one of the ‘many’ vessels of wrath prepared afore for destruction! And I would have had no say in the matter whatsoever. A contemplation of this truly makes me shudder at who Jehovah really is!
On the other hand I look around me and see people who are so morally good and religiously faithful (unlike me), but notwithstanding are lost; my heart melts with gratitude and thankfulness for the God who CHOSE ME to be His son! As the apostle said- “Behold, WHAT MANNER OF LOVE the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. [1John 3:1] And again, “NOT by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to HIS MERCY he saved us! [Titus 3:5].
The objector to God’s Sovereign grace questions God saying “why hast Thou made me thus”? And the Apostle rightly rebukes him for this! But I too often times find myself asking this very question. Not in rebellion or hatred to God’s sovereignty, but in sheer awesomeness and awareness of my own unworthiness! As the Psalmist exclaimed , “Who am I, O Lord GOD? and what is my house, that Thou hast brought me hitherto”? [2Sam 7;18] Or as Mephibosheth after him, “What is thy servant, that thou shouldest look upon such a DEAD DOG AS I AM”? [2Sam 9:8]
Spurgeon commenting on this verse says –
“If Mephibosheth was thus humbled by David’s kindness, what shall WE be in the presence of our gracious Lord? The more grace we have, the less we shall think of ourselves, for grace, like light, reveals our impurity. Eminent saints have scarcely known TO WHAT TO COMPARE THEMSELVES, their sense of unworthiness has been so clear and keen. “I am,” says holy Rutherford, “a dry and withered branch, a piece of dead carcass, dry bones, and not able to step over a straw.” In another place he writes, “Except as to open outbreakings, I want nothing of what Judas and Cain had.”
I believe we shall never grasp the awesomeness of what it means to be saved until we grasp the awesomeness of what it means to be LOST FOR ETERNITY. So terrible is this that the Master said, “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the WHOLE WORLD, and lose his OWN SOUL? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul”? [Mark 8:36,37] And again – “it had been good for that man if HE HAD NOT BEEN BORN”. [Mat 26:24]. As an ex-Satanist I have had some horrific experiences with demons, and to think that the one who is damned to Hell will spend an eternity with them is more frightening and fearful than tongue can tell! [See Matt 25:41]
And when I begin to understand that I of my own free will would have never chosen the Lord and on the contrary was enmity itself toward Him, it breaks and melts my heart beyond measure so that I realize my unworthiness and exclaim with Peter, “Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord”. [Luke 5:8].
Another comforting thought and experience in my Christian walk is that not only has He saved me but KEEPS ME SAVED! Oh how oft have we provoked him and grieved Him with our sins. Both sins of omission and sins of commission. And that in spite of a sound knowledge of the Word! But praise His Name He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities [Psa 103:10]. But as a father pitieth his children he pitieth us remembering that we are dust! As the grand old hymn says –
His love has no limit, His grace has no measure, His power has no boundary known unto men, For out of His infinite riches in Jesus, He giveth and giveth and giveth again. [Hallelujah!]
Once again I look around and see men schooled in some of the best Universities and Theological Seminaries money can afford, and yet for all that they are as blind as a bat and deaf as an adder concerning the knowledge of God and His ways. And here I am the dumbest in my family and with not so much education as most of them had , and yet the Lord Jesus has come and given me an understanding of who the Mighty Jehovah is and His ways, all because He sovereignly chose to do so!
Even when many Christians who claim to know Him are deluded with the devil’s lies, speaking of ‘the free will of man’ and ‘creature ability’ – Christ has chosen to teach me the true doctrine of my Total Depravity and His Absolute Sovereignty and what the plan of God is concerning His dealings with men. A knowledge known and understood ONLY by Divine revelation. Oh I am not worthy of this. Thank you Jesus!
Again how thankful should we be for the Holy Spirit who comes to us again and again in our times of discouragement and despair, when we no longer feel the presence of God because of some disobedience. In times like these the Spirit comes to us and assures us that WE ARE STILL GOD’S CHILDREN and brings to mind every verse we know on assurance; assuring us that God will never leave us nor forsake us and that He hath inscribed us on the palms of His hand!
Oh Beloved, He is not called the Comforter without a good reason. Many a time this is the only comfort we ever get! Friends, theologians and well-meaning loved ones most often turn out to be like Job’s comforters! [see Job 16:2]. But our Lord has ALWAYS been our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble!
Dearly Beloved, I wrote all this because I just wanted to share with someone what God has done for my soul and how gracious He has been to me in healing my backsliding and loving me freely [Hosea 14:4]. Yes many a time I have become quite bitter and exclaimed with Jeremiah- “I will not make mention of Him, nor speak any more in His Name. But His word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay”. [Jer 20:9] ‘Let the redeemed of the Lord say so whom He hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy! [Psa 107:2]
“They that trust in the Lord shall be as mount Zion.” The emphasis lies upon the OBJECT of their trust, namely, Jehovah the Lord. What a privilege to be allowed to repose in God! How condescending is Jehovah to become the confidence of His people! To trust elsewhere is vanity; and the more implicit such misplaced trust becomes the more bitter will be the ensuing disappointment; but to trust in the living God is sanctified common sense which needs no excuse, its result shall be its best vindication. There is no conceivable reason why we should not trust in Jehovah, and there is every possible argument for so doing; but, apart from all argument, the end will prove the wisdom of the confidence.
The result of faith is not occasional and accidental; its blessing comes, not to some who trust, but to ALL who trust in the Lord. Trusters in Jehovah shall be as fixed, firm, and stable as the mount where David dwelt; and where the ark abode. To move mount Zion was impossible, the mere supposition was absurd.
“Which cannot be removed, but abideth forever.” Zion was the image of eternal steadfastness—this hill which, according to the Hebrew, “sits to eternity,” neither bowing down nor moving to and fro. Thus does the trusting worshiper of Jehovah enjoy a restfulness which is the mirror of tranquility; and this not without cause, for his hope is sure, and of his confidence he can never be ashamed.
As the Lord sits King forever, so do His people sit enthroned in perfect peace when their trust in Him is firm. This is, and is to be our portion; we are, we have been, we shall be as steadfast as the hill of God. Zion cannot be removed, and does not remove; so, the people of God can neither be moved passively nor actively, by force from without or fickleness from within. Faith in God is a settling and establishing virtue; He who by His strength sets fast the mountains, by that same power stays the hearts of them that trust in Him. This steadfastness will endure “forever,” and we may be assured therefore that no true believer shall perish either in life or in death, in time or in eternity. We trust in an eternal God, and our safety shall be eternal.
“As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about His people from hence forth even forever.” [Ps 125:2] The hill of Zion is the type of the believer’s constancy, and the surrounding mountains are made emblems of the all-surrounding presence of the Lord. The mountains around the holy city, though they do not make a circular wall, are, nevertheless, set like sentinels to guard her gates. God does not enclose His people within ramparts and bulwarks, making their city to be a prison; but yet He so orders the arrangements of His providence that His saints are as safe as if they dwelt behind the strongest fortifications.
What a double security are verses 1-2 of Psalm 125! First, we are ESTABLISHED, and then ENTRENCHED: SETTLED, and then SENTINELED: made like a mount, and then PROTECTED as if by mountains. This is no matter of poetry, it is so in fact; and it is no matter of temporary privilege, but it shall be so FOREVER!
Date when we please, “from henceforth” Jehovah encircles His people: look on us as far as we please, the protection extends “even forever.”
Note, it is not said that Jehovah’s power or wisdom defends believers, but HE HIMSELF is round about them: they have His person for their protection, His Godhead for their guard. We are here taught that the Lord’s people are those who trust Him, for they are thus described in the first verses: the line of faith is the line of grace, those who trust in the Lord are chosen of the Lord. Verses 1-2 together prove the eternal safety of the saints: they must abide where God has placed them, and God must forever protect them from all evil. It would be difficult to imagine greater safety than is here set forth. Amen!
KNOWING CHRIST IN THE HEAD AND KNOWING HIM IN THE HEART – THERE’S A DIFFERENCE
C.H. Spurgeon
“I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.” [Phil 3:8]
Spiritual knowledge of Christ will be a personal knowledge. I cannot know Jesus through another person’s acquaintance with Him. No, I must know Him myself; I must know Him on my own account. It will be an intelligent knowledge – I must know Him, not as the visionary dreams of Him, but as the Word reveals Him.
I must know His natures, divine and human. I must know His offices – His attributes – His works – His shame – His glory. I must meditate upon Him until I “comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge.”
It will be an affectionate knowledge of Him; indeed, if I know Him at all, I must love Him.
An ounce of heart knowledge is worth a ton of head learning!
Our knowledge of Him will be a satisfying knowledge. When I know my Saviour, my mind will be full to the brim – I shall feel that I have that which my spirit panted after. “This is that bread whereof if a man eat he shall never hunger.” At the same time it will be an exciting knowledge; the more I know of my Beloved, the more I shall want to know. The higher I climb the loftier will be the summits which invite my eager footsteps. I shall want the more as I get the more. Like the miser’s treasure, my gold will make me covet more.
To conclude; this knowledge of Christ Jesus will be a most happy one; in fact, so elevating, that sometimes it will completely bear me up above all trials, and doubts, and sorrows; and it will, while I enjoy it, make me something more than “Man that is born of woman, who is of few days, and full of trouble”; for it will fling about me the immortality of the ever living Saviour, and gird me with the golden girdle of his eternal joy. Come, my soul, sit at Jesus’s feet and learn of him all this day. Amen!
MAN’S ABILITY TO CREATE – PROOF THAT HE IS MADE IN THE IMAGE OF GOD
Michael Jeshurun
The lion in the photo is created from a collection of nothing else but plain driftwood.
In the first book of the Bible we read, “So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them.” [Genesis 1:27]
One of the undeniable proofs that man did not ‘evolve’ from an ape but was rather created in the image of God like the Bible says he was, is his creativity or his ability to ‘create’.
Though he can never create something out of nothing like God can, he sure can create some amazing masterpieces using what the great God has already created and that notwithstanding his Fall.
None of the other created beings possess this talent or gift save the one created in His image and likeness. (Genesis 1:26; 5:1)
The Psalmist does not say, “I will praise Thee; for I have fearfully and wonderfully evolved!” But rather “I will praise Thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully MADE!” [Psalm 139:14]
i.e. made by YOU O Lord God – Creater of ALL THINGS!
For “All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made!” [John 1:3]
And again, “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.” [Col 1:16,17]
“In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you.” Mortimer J. Adler
“The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them.” Mark Twain
“. . . Of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.”Ecclesiastes 12:12b
“. . . Give attendance to reading. . . .” I Timothy 4:13a
Have you started to read a good Reformed book yet? If not, find one and get started! If you have, keep at it! As we pointed out in our initial article, we want to encourage our Standard Bearer readers to become greater readers, that is, to read more books and to read better books.
In this article encouraging you to read, we want to explore the “WHY” of good reading. That is, why should you as a Reformed Christian want to become a greater reader? Or, to put it another way, what are the reasons for reading solid Reformed/Christian books? We believe there are many reasons that may be given; we will highlight a few of them in this article.
First of all, we begin with the most important reason, the THEOLOGICAL reason (where all good Calvinists should begin!): We should read good books because GOD wants us to! Why do we say this, and how do we know this? We have several points in mind under this reason. First, God wants/expects/calls us to read as His people because He gave us the greatest book to read—His Holy Word, the Scriptures!
When God chose to communicate to us, His covenant friends, He chose to do so in WORDS. It is true that these words were initially given ORALLY (and in some cases VISUALLY—cf. the visions of Ezekiel and John), that is, out of God’s mouth through the mouths of His spokesmen (prophets, apostles, etc.). But in the end God committed these spoken words to writing and had them placed in His Book, the Bible (cf.Ex. 24:7; I Sam. 10:25; Neh. 8; Luke 3:4, 20:42; II Tim. 3:15, 16; II Pet. 1:20, 21; Rev. 1:11), or scripture (Mark 12:10, 24; Rom. 1:2, 15:4).
And therefore, this holy Book God charges His people to READ (cf. Neh. 8; Is. 34:16). That means that we must first and foremost be readers of this Book! Not just any book under the sun, but the Bible must be the first book we turn to! Every Christian must be devoted to reading the word of God, like the Bereans of old searching the Scriptures daily (Acts 17:11). This is chiefly what Paul meant when he instructed Timothy to “give attendance to reading” (I Tim. 4:13). And what was true for that young pastor is to be true of every member of God’s covenant. God wills that we be readers because He gave us this marvellous Book of His words!
Second, and closely related to this, is the truth that this chief and fundamental book God gave us to read centers in His Son, Jesus Christ. The most important Word God gave us to read was His Son, the living and abiding Word of God (John 1:1, 14; Heb. 1:1, 2; I Pet. 1:23). Everywhere we go in the Scriptures we must read “Jesus Christ” the “Word of God.” That is true not only in the New Testament portion of the Bible, but also in the Old Testament (cf. Ps. 40:7; Luke 24:27; John 5:39). This is why the Scriptures are able to make us “wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” (II Tim. 3:15). This is why they are “profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,” so that we may be complete and mature Christians (II Tim. 3:16). But only if this word be read! So read, people of God! Read the Bible chiefly and diligently! Set yourself to do so faithfully in this new year! Let SOLA SCRIPTURA be the motto we live by in 2015! Indeed, God wants us and calls us to be readers, because He gave us this holy Book, centered in His Son, our Savior.
There are more reasons why we should be and become better readers. And we may confidently say that the other reasons we will now list are all rooted in that first one. The fact that God gave us His Book to read is the principle that governs all our other reasons for reading. This will become plain as we proceed.
So then, why should we read? In the second place, because reading is vital to the growth of our faith and walk in godliness. God in His sacred Book calls us to spiritual growth. II Peter 3:18, e.g., states, “But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (cf. also Eph. 4:15; I Pet. 2:2; Jude 20). Earlier in that same epistle Peter wrote that we should be “giving all diligence” to “add to your faith virtue; and to virtue, knowledge; and to knowledge, temperance; and to temperance, patience; and to patience, godliness” (I Pet. 1:5, 6). And how are we going to do this? By reading! By reading (and hearing!) the Scriptures, of course (cf. I Pet. 2:2). But also by reading other sound Reformed/Christian books that teach us and encourage us to spiritual growth.
So then, are you tired of not being as strong in your faith as you should be and could be? Are you frustrated by the fact that your walk with God is not as close as it ought to be? Do you struggle with being spiritually mature and wise in handling trials and temptations in your life? Then READ. Yes, again, read the BIBLE, so that your faith becomes more grounded in Jesus Christ and your walk is brought closer to the Lord! But also read the books that your fellow believers have written to help you grow in faith and godliness! They stand with you and support you in this calling to grow. They have wisdom and experience to share with you as we walk the common path of the Christian in this world. Our fellow Reformed Christians have written books because of their own struggles and hardships. Let us read them to benefit from them; to enhance our own spiritual life; to become stronger in faith and more holy in life! This too is why we must read!
In the third place, we should read good Reformed/Christian books because it is important to defend our faith and abide in the truth of God’s word. We are talking about the area of APOLOGETICS, the defense of the Reformed-Christian faith and walk. In this present world there are always threats to our faith and life. The devil and his hosts walk about as a roaring lion seeking to devour us with lies and deception (I Pet. 5:8). The world of unbelief with its “lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” seeks to lead us astray from the Father (I John 2:16).
False prophets and teachers in the church “bring in damnable heresies” and “pernicious ways,” trying to overthrow “the faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 3; I John 4:1ff.; II Pet. 2:1ff.). And, yes, our own sinful nature is still inclined to and tempted by all these lies and errors and ungodliness. We are Christian soldiers, called to be on the defensive against all these spiritual dangers (Eph. 6:10ff.). We are exhorted to resist doctrinal lies and remain steadfast in the faith (I Pet. 5:9). We are admonished to abide in godliness and stay obedient to our Savior, suffering accordingly (I Pet. 3, 4).
And how shall we be able to do this? By READING! Yes, again, by reading the Scriptures (Eph. 6:17). But also by reading good Reformed books that lead us and help us in the battle for the truth and for godliness! By reading we stay abreast of dangerous trends in the church and in the world. By reading we are informed of and warned about wolves in sheep’s clothing. By reading we are encouraged by the courageous stands of our fellow believers in other times and places. By reading we are urged to be faithful when the majority fall away into error and lawlessness. Yes, we must read for this reason too! Do you see the need for reading, especially now in these last days? Will you become a greater reader with this in mind too? We pray that you will, for the honor of Christ and His word, and for the safety of your own soul.
Finally, we have a very practical reason for reading good Reformed/Christian books. That is that by reading such books we set a good example for our children and young people. This too is so important, especially in the world in which we now find ourselves. As we mentioned in our opening article, we and our children are exposed to so many temptations and hindrances to good reading.
We are in constant competition with TV, video games, the Internet, iPods, etc. But when our children and young people see us as adults taking time to read, to read the Bible and to read books that make us grow in our faith and walk, we provide a great example and encouragement for them to do the same. Then we are better able to gain their respect when we tell them to read good books. And, of course, at the same time, when we have on our shelves and on our tables (and in our hands!) good Reformed/Christian books that we are reading, we provide them with the very materials we want them to read too! And that is a win-win situation!
[Of all the New Year ‘resolutions’ we generally make, let us resolve that by God’s grace and enabling the coming year 2015 would be a year given to much reading and meditation of God’s Holy Word! – M.J.]
“I believe that every particle of dust that dances in the sunbeam does not move an atom more or less than God wishes – that every particle of spray that dashes against the steamboat has its orbit as well as the sun in the heavens – that the chaff from the hand of the winnower is steered as the stars in their courses.
The creeping of an aphid over the rosebud is as much fixed as the march of the devastating pestilence – the fall of sere leaves from a poplar is as fully ordained as the tumbling of an avalanche. He that believes in a God must believe this truth.”
If God’s eye is on that tiny insect and seemingly insignificant bird, then we know He’s watching over us too. Hallelujah!
O LORD, Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, Thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, Thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid Thine hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it. 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. . . . . [{Psalm 139:1-10]
ONE OF THE REASONS GOD COMFORTS YOU IS TO MAKE YOU A COMFORTER TO OTHERS
Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the GOD OF ALL COMFORT; Who comforteth us in ALL our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. [2Cor 1:3,4]
“I have long perceived the truth of what the apostle says in 2 Corinthians 1:4 – It is God’s way to take His people, AND ESPECIALLY HIS SERVANTS, through trying and painful experiences, in order that they may USE to His glory the consolation wherewith He has comforted them.
It is those who know most of the plague of their own heart, who are best fitted to speak a word in season to weary souls. It is out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh, and it is he who has passed through the furnace who can best deal with those now in the fire.”
[Quoted from A.W. Pink’s – “Studies in Saving Faith”]
The glory of the cross is this, He shall save his people. Not, He will TRY to save them. Not: He is willing, if you are willing. Because we do not will until the power of Immanuel has touched us, but He shall save His people because He is a complete Savior; He will save them to the very end. This is a blessed gospel. Believe in that name, and you will never be put to shame.
JESUS according to the Scriptures actually and fully saves. He is Jesus, not because He OFFERS salvation or created a chance of salvation, but because He really accomplishes our salvation. Jesus according to the Scriptures actually SAVES, not all, but His people, the elect given to Him by the Father from before the foundation of the world. This Jesus according to the Scriptures must, indeed, be preached to the ingathering of the elect and the condemnation of the powers of darkness; but He cannot be hawked (OFFERED).
As far as the proclamation of the gospel is concerned, it can never be an offer of salvation. The gospel is the glad news God gives us of His promise. It must therefore be preached, proclaimed. It can never be offered!” – Herman Hoeksema
“What a far-cry is this from the majority of ‘gospels’ preached in the land!
“Jesus wants to save you my friend. . . He is knocking at your heart’s door waiting for you . . . Oh Christ is pleading for you . . . Oh He has done all that He can, if only you will open the door of your heart and let Him in . . . . blah blah blah”
Sorry! Not MY Jesus!
The Jesus of the Bible makes His people willing in the Day of His power! [Psalm 110:3] He draws His sheep with a force that when He does they will run after Him! [Sos 1:4]And that which He began in His Elect He will surely finish! [Phil 1;6] Not ONE single sheep of all that the Father gave Him shall be lost! And on that great Day when He stands before the Father His cry shall be “Behold I and the children which God hath given Me!” [Heb 2:13]
And if you are one of His sheep you shall be in that number praising God!
It is so sad to watch people start their Christian testimony with the words – “I was searching for the truth. I was seeking for God in all the wrong places and then one day . . blah blah.”
Fact is no fallen child of Adam ‘SEEKS FOR GOD OR THE TRUTH”! Period! God is his sworn enemy and the ‘truth’ is something which he was born hating! So why would he seek for either?!
THERE IS NONE THAT SEEKETH AFTER GOD! THEY ARE ALL GONE OUT OF THE WAY! [Rom 3:11,12] But here is the amazing thing – “Blessed is the man whom THOU CHOOSEST, and CAUSEST to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in Thy courts”! [Psa 65:4]
Watch carefully, that God not only ‘CHOOSES’ but ‘CAUSES’ the one chosen ‘TO APPROACH’ Him. In other words, or in the words of our Lord “DRAGS HIM’ to Himself!
“No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me DRAW him”! [John 6:44] The word ‘DRAW’ in the Greek literally means to DRAG! Its first occurrence is here in John 6:44. Here it is the power of God overcoming the enmity of the carnal mind. It occurs again in John 18:10 – “Then Simon Peter having a sword DREW it, and smote the high priest’s servant.” Here the term signifies that Peter laid FIRM HOLD of his sword and PULLED IT OUT of its sheath. It is found again in John 21:6, 11, “Simon Peter went up and DREW the net to land full of great fishes.” Here it signifies the putting forth of strength so as to DRAG AN INANIMATE AND HEAVY OBJECT. It is used (in a slightly different form) in James 2:6, “Do not rich men oppress you and DRAW YOU before the judgment seats?” Here it has reference to the IMPELLING OF UNWILLING subjects.
Hence from its usage in the New Testament we are therefore obliged to understand that fallen man if he is to ‘come to God’ at all, he MUST BE DRAWN OR DRAGGED BY THE POWER OF OMNIPOTENCE! In raising the sinner from spiritual death to eternal life God employs the same power which He put forth in raising Christ from the dead! [Eph 2:4-6]
This is why when the apostles exclaimed – “WHO then can be saved”? The Lord replied – “With MEN IT IS IMPOSSIBLE, but not with God: for WITH GOD ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE”! [Mark 10:27] Hallelujah!
But it is a known fact that God the Father does not draw EVERYONE to Christ! WHY?! BECAUSE HE DOES NOT LOVE EVERYONE!
The love of the father is a DISCRIMINATIVE love! It CHOOSES whom to love and whom to hate. “Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated”! [Rom 9:13]
In the same line He chooses on whom He will have mercy and whom He will harden! [Rom 9:18] If God was dealing with a bunch of ‘INNOCENT’ men and women this would seem unjust! But God is dealing with a fallen bunch of God haters who are His enemies (Rom 5:10), and if there is anything He owes them it is HELL!
So out of this ‘Hell-Deserving’ bunch or ‘lump’ He chooses to display His UNCONDITIONAL MERCY on some and the rest He ordains to eternal damnation which they rightly deserve!
These are the facts! You’ve got to put it in your pipe and smoke it whether you like it or not!
If the Father was choosing everyone and drawing everyone as some suppose, then, scriptures like these make no sense – “Blessed is the man whom Thou choosest, and causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in Thy courts”! [Psa 65:4] Notice that these few whom the Father loves, He not only ‘CHOOSES’, but ‘CAUSES’ to approach unto Him!
Fallen man is so depraved that just ‘choosing him’ is not going to save him!! God must ‘CAUSE’ him to approach!
In other words, the Father must not only choose or elect those whom He loves, but He must DRAW them to Christ!
And He does not draw ALL, because He has not chosen ALL. And He has not chosen ALL, because He has not loved ALL!
I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, “Wherein hast Thou loved us”? Was not Esau Jacob’s BROTHER? saith the LORD: YET I LOVED JACOB, AND I HATED ESAU, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness”! [Malachi 1:2,3]
HOW do I know that God loves ME and that I am one of His elect?
Why, I look around me and see so many of my own family who are morally better off than me, who are either lost in unbelief or in a false religion, and that God has loved me and DRAWN ME to Himself and taught me truths which ‘angels desire to look into’ [1Pet 1:12], by this I KNOW I am one of His elect! “The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: THEREFORE with loving kindness have I DRAWN THEE”! [Jer 31:3] Hallelujah!
Here’s an old Christian joke . . . . A very wealthy man is distressed that he can’t take his wealth to Heaven. So, in his retirement, he spends many years praying to God – beseeching God to make an exception and allow him to take his wealth with him when he dies.
Finally, God responds to the man’s fervent prayers and says. “OK, in your case, I will make an exception – you can bring one bag of wealth with you.”
The man is jubilant and, when he dies, he has a bag full of gold bars placed in his coffin.
When he arrives at the Pearly Gates, he has a bag of gold bars by his side.
St Peter stops him and says “Sorry, but you can’t bring anything from earth into Heaven.”
The man replies. “It’s OK; I’ve got a special exception”. St Peter goes and makes a few phone calls, and comes back to say. “OK, I can see you have an exception, but I still need to check all your hand-luggage.”
St Peter looks in the man’s bag, and says “very good, but why did you bring pavement with you?” (Rev 21:21)
The ‘moral‘ of this old Christian joke is not that Heaven is so glorious that even the streets are paved with gold, but rather that the things men so highly esteem here below are reputed as nothing up above.
And the error in this joke is that the man who is truly Heaven-bound has no regard for silver or gold or the myraids of other earthly treasures. Yes, on and off such an one may (and will) get tripped off and hanker for the husks of the pig pen , but when He cometh to himself he desires but one thing and one thing only – Jesus Christ!
“Evermore the worldling’s cry is, “Who will show us any good?” He seeks satisfaction in earthly comforts, enjoyments, and riches. But the quickened sinner knows of only one good. “O that I knew where I might find HIM!” When he is truly awakened to feel his guilt, if you could pour the gold of India at his feet, he would say, “Take it away: I want to find HIM.”
It is a blessed thing for a man, when he has brought his desires into a focus, so that they all centre in one object. When he has fifty different desires, his heart resembles a pond of stagnant water, spread out into a marsh, breeding miasma and pestilence; but when all his desires are brought into one channel, his heart becomes like a river of pure water, running swiftly to fertilize the fields. Happy is he who hath one desire, if that one desire be set on Christ!” – C.H. Spurgeon
“Whom have I in heaven but Thee ? And there is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee.” [Psalm 73:25]
“But I said, HOW SHALL I PUT THEE AMONG THE CHILDREN, and give thee a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the hosts of nations? And I said, Thou shalt call Me, my Father; and shalt not turn away from Me.” [Jer 3:19]
Back in 1985 Michael Jackson and his cohorts got on stage and yelled out a song titled – “We are the World” which was top of the charts for a long time. And part of the lyrics to that song read – “We’re all a part of God’s great big family!”
THAT’S A LIE FROM THE PIT OF HELL!
ALL men and women are NOT a part of God’s great big family! Only those whom He has chosen to be His children comprise this ‘great big family’! Our Lord told the unbelieving Jews of His day plainly that IF they were Abraham’s seed then they would love Him. But now they sought to kill Him, the One who had told them the truth – clearly manifesting that they were NOT the seed of Abraham but THE SEED OF THE SERPENT! Our Lord didn’t mince words either, but put it quite bluntly when He said – “Ye are of your father the Devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him!” [John 8:44]
And whether men will receive it or not, truth is: that the human race is divided into but TWO GROUPS – the Children of God and the Children of the Devil, the Children of Light and the Children of Darkness, the Children of the Day and the Children of the Night!
Ain’t no such thing as ‘the brotherhood of man’!
“But Jesus answered and said, WHO is My mother? And WHO are My brethren? And He stretched forth His hand toward His disciples, and said, BEHOLD My mother and My brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of My Father which is in heaven, the same is My brother, and sister, and mother!” [Matt 12:48-50]
“He says, “How shall I put thee among the children and give thee a pleasant land and a goodly heritage of the hosts of nations?” This has been your very enquiry? How should Jehovah put such a vile sinner amongst his children? Why, I should disgrace the whole family, and be only a by-word amongst them. Such are your thoughts, but let us hear what the Father of the family says on the matter; “And I said, thou shalt call Me my Father; and shalt not turn away from Me.”
What, not make me a little better, and more fit for the company of the saints ? No, no! our God will have you just as you are, that He may teach you, and instruct you, and show you what love He has got for His little children, and how He can bear with their manners in the wilderness.” [J.C. Philpot]
“But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His Name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God!” [John 1:12,13]
Hallelujah!
“Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not!” [1John 3:1]
“And He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and TEACHERS; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ”! [Ephesians 4:11-13]
A.W. Pink in writing to his friend the young Rev. R. Harbach, writes –
“I was very glad to hear from you again and quite pleased with your letter as far as it went. May I offer a comment – not in the way of criticism, but of instruction – on your statement: “not that I would esteem the writings of men greater than the Scriptures themselves.” You need to be careful at that point lest you draw a wrong antithesis – the writings of some men might profit you more than your personal reading of the Scriptures!
The Holy Scriptures are indeed in a class all to themselves, and claim a reverence, veneration and submission which no other writings do or can. But “the writings of men” needs defining. The expositions of Scripture by God’s own servants also occupy an unique place – in the realm of human literature – and have a special claim upon our attention! It is God’s method to use human instrumentality, and He has called and equipped a few of His servants to be teachers (not merely “preachers”) – specially gifted by Him to “open” His Word, and they are to be highly esteemed for their work’s sake” [1Thes 5:12,13]
You are likely to get more real help and enlightenment from one hour’s careful perusal of say, Goodwin on Ephesians 1or Manton on Psalm 119 than if you spent ten (10) hours in reading and studying either chapter directly for yourself! And that statement is NOT disparaging to the Scriptures, but simply illustrates the method which God is pleased to employ in the instructing of the rank and file of His people.
True you need to read regularly the Scriptures themselves and thoroughly familiarize yourself with their contents – as you also need to test by Scripture (1Thes 5:21) so far as you are able (and at present that is very little) what each expositor says. Yet I feel strongly that it is also true that you need to spend much more time now and in the near future (D.V.) to study the writings of the true servants of God. Only then will 2Timothy 2:15 become yours.”
[Quoted from “Letters to a Young Pastor” – by A.W. Pink]
But “Oh” says someone, “does not the Scripture say, ‘the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things . . .” [1Jn 2:27]
Is there a discrepancy here? Between the verses which inform us that God has appointed teachers in His Church [Eph 4;11-13], and admonishes us to teach others [2Tim 2:2], and chides some saying, “For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat”?! [Heb 5:12]
NOT AT ALL!
John’s letter is aimed at the false teaching that would come to be known as the gnostic error. The context of the passage containing 1Jn 2:27 is the false teaching coming from those who were spreading this heresy.
In leading up to his comment about not needing anyone to teach us, John warned us to “see that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you.” (1 John 2:24) He was talking about God’s Word. He continued on saying that if we hold true to it then by the anointing we have received we won’t need anyone to teach us whether something we hear is true or false because we’ll be able to compare it with the source of Truth, the Bible.
So John wasn’t saying we didn’t need teachers, because that would conflict with the portions of Scripture which speak of the necessity of teachers, and would contradict what John himself was doing right then – teaching! He was saying that we don’t need teachers to tell us whether something is right or wrong because we can test all teaching against the Word of God. This is exactly what Paul said in Acts 17:11.
‘Teaching’ then is an integral part of the ministry of the Church! It is GOD who has appointed these teachers. For there is much in Scripture which is ‘hard to be understood’ (2Pet 3:16) and which unless opened to us by an anointed teacher who can give us the ‘sense of it’, we could wrest it to our own destruction!
“ . . . and the Levites, caused the people to understand the law . . . So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and GAVE THE SENSE, AND CAUSED THEM TO UNDERSTAND THE READING”. [Nehemiah 8:7,8]
I have been a student of the Word of God and an ardent reader of Theology for a good twenty nine years now, and yet there are times when I run into portions of Scripture which baffle me; and I have to ask myself – “Understandest thou what thou readest”?! [Acts 8:30]
And the only answer is – “How can I, except some man should guide me”? [Acts 8:31]
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