“Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment” (John 7:24)
He who justifies the wicked, and he who condemns the just, both of them alike are an abomination to the LORD” (Proverbs 17:15).
“And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them” (Ephesians 5:11).
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This is a short excerpt from an Al Mohler commentary found here.
“Courage is far too rare in many Christian circles. This explains the surrender of so many denominations, seminaries, and churches to the homosexual agenda. But no surrender on this issue would have been possible, if the authority of Scripture had not already been undermined.
Liberal churches have redefined compassion to mean that the church changes its message to meet modern demands. They argue that to tell a homosexual he is a sinner is uncompassionate and intolerant. This is like arguing that a physician is intolerant because he tells a patient she has cancer. But, in the culture of political correctness, this argument holds a powerful attraction.
Biblical Christians know that compassion requires telling the truth, and refusing to call sin something sinless. To hide or deny the sinfulness of sin is to lie, and there is no compassion in such a deadly deception. True compassion demands speaking the truth in love–and there is the problem. Far too often, our courage is more evident than our compassion.”
Again, the the complete article is here.
Christians and pastors of Christian churches have been accused of spending too much time talking about homosexuality, and not giving ‘equal time’ to other issues they (Christians and Christian pastors) consider sinful. There is probably a measure of truth in that, but what that measure is – who knows? One could also argue that to the degree that homosexual agenda is thrust upon us (crammed down the throats of all Americans) such an imbalance is completely and logically warranted.
As believers we would do well to adopt, as a principle for discussion, the mantra “No Truth Without Love, No Love Without Truth”.
“And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.” (Acts 13:48 ESV)
At least 25 Bible versions, produced over a period of almost 400 years, either use the word appointed, ordained, destined, pre-destined, marked out by God, or chosen. Bible versions examined translations from the Greek, formal equivalence, dynamic equivalence, expanded, and paraphrase type of versions, and were produced by Protestants, Catholics, conservatives, and liberals. Every possible type of English translation/version of the Bible is represented.
Since “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. . .” (2 Tim 2:4), and since this short verse is part of ALL scripture, it would be good to examine it a bit further. Rather than include the results of a lot of study here, I would like ask two questions:
1) What does this verse tell us about the sovereignty of God in salvation?
2) How does a person’s decision to trust Christ as Lord and Savior relate to God’s sovereignty?
This is not a personal ‘position statement’ other than to assert that God is sovereign and man is responsible. Assuming those two assertions as fact, how do they mesh, and preserve the integrity of scripture?
“The church’s engagement with the culture involves a host of issues, controversies, and decisions–but no issue defines our current cultural crisis as clearly as homosexuality. Some churches and denominations have capitulated to the demands of the homosexual rights movement, and now accept homosexuality as a fully valid lifestyle. Other denominations are tottering on the brink, and without a massive conservative resistance, they are almost certain to abandon biblical truth and bless what the Bible condemns.” Al Mohler
There are three aspects of the salvation of those who have believed in and trusted Christ as Lord and Savior.
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” (Rom 1:16-17)
The gospel is the power of God for salvation because (‘For in it. . .’) in it (the gospel) the righteousness of God is revealed.
I don’t know about anyone who reads this blog, but it is impossible for this old soldier to honestly consider the righteousness of God without being faced with my own unrighteousness. By that I don’t mean the difference between God’s standard of righteousness and man’s, but my total and utter lack of any righteousness in the face of God’s perfect, holy, and just righteousness.
In order for us to be accepted and welcomed by God into His presence we must possess perfect righteousness. Because of our sin(s) we cannot and will not ever. on our own merit, possess the righteousness that God demands to enter His presence. Therefore, because of His great love and mercy, God gives to those who believe in Christ the very righteousness the He himself demands.
What does that have to with ‘being’ saved?
Well, it occurred to me this morning that the moment I believed in Christ I was saved from the just penalty of sin; experiencing the wrath of God that sin deserves. It also occurred to me that in my humanness I sin every day, and therefore every day deserve the wrath of God against that sin, no matter what it is. The sin I commit ‘today’ deserves God’s wrath ‘today’.
Having said that, is it appropriate to suggest that while I was saved when I first believed, I am also ‘being’ saved on a daily basis, by the same ‘power of the gospel’ and because of the imputed righteousness of Christ?
Can we say that the ‘power of the gospel’ is the bedrock of the assurance of our salvation as believers?
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you. Through faith you are shielded by God’s power until the coming of salvation…” (1 Peter 1:3-5)
I invite your comments.
“Adventures in Missing the Point?”
Some time ago there was a Battle Cry post called Satan’s Gambit that suggested that the Enemy’s chief tactic for wreaking havoc and causing dissension in the church is to attack the inspiration and authority of Scripture. To anyone who observes trends in Christianity, as an insider or outsider, it seems that it’s a highly successful strategy. There are however, those who just won’t fall for the gambit and maintain that Scripture is what it says it is – the inspired written word of God, and the final authority for all matters of faith and practice of the Christian faith. For those sorts of folks, the enemy has another tactic.
Where believers simply refuse to put down theirBibles to follow the latest Christian fads engineered by wolfishly clever ‘evangelical’ snake oil salesmen, the enemy has another tactic that works quite well. He merely leads us into what can be called ‘adventures in missing the point”. We get to keep our Bibles and even continue with our ‘sola scriptura’ affirmations. As long as we spend our time discussing anything and everything that misses the main point of explicit themes and teaching, and would rather spend our time with secondary, tertiary, and issues foreign to the text of scripture, the enemy is satisfied.
Think about it. . .
“I think it’s a serious mistake to evaluate answers to difficult questions by imagining whether a non-believer is likely to respond positively or not. Jesus never did that. He simply proclaimed the truth. That’s the same approach we need to take. If unbelievers reject the answer anyway (and some always will, regardless of the cleverness of our strategies), then that’s not necessarily an indication of failure on the ambassador’s part.” – Phil Johnson
Some of us old geezers remember the popular television series “Dragnet”, especially the lead-in phrase that the upcoming story was true, but the names had been changed to protect the innocent. There’s a twist to that theme that is extremely popular in evangelical (I use the term loosely) circles these days. It’s not about changing the names of people, however, but changing the names of essential elements of the Biblical Gospel message for which we are accountable, and that we are charged to faithfully proclaim.
If you haven’t yet figured out what ‘names’ I’m talking about yet, they are repent (in all it’s forms), and sin (and all direct references to it). When Jesus announced that the Kingdom was near, He told his listeners to ‘repent and believe’ (Mark 1:15). When the Apostle Paul found it necessary to remind believers in Corinth of the contents of the Gospel message, he told them that the Gospel IS that Christ died for our sins, and was raised, according to scripture (1 Cor 15:1-4). He also reminded believers in Galatia that different messages than that were ‘another gospel’ (Gal 1:8-9).
We don’t use those terms very much these days. We tell folks Jesus died for their pain, broken heart, in order to have an abundant life, and a number of other reasons, but we don’t lay the cards on the table and tell them that Christ died for their sins. We have all sorts of ways to ‘soften’ the message and ‘short-sheet’ the Holy Spirit.
We don’t tell them they need to repent and believe the Gospel, we tell them they can come to Jesus for spiritual Band-Aids to smooth out the raw ‘stuff’ of life. If we did use the ‘R’ word as we ought, we would have to explain why repentance was necessary and that would necessitate using the dreaded ‘S’ word.
People can’t/don’t ‘repent’ from a broken heart, painful experiences, or lives that aren’t as abundant as they would like them to be. Those are all things that can be understood as outside of oneself, and there is no need repent of that which you are not personally accountable. If we are somehow responsible for anything it’s a poor decision, bad judgment call, or personal misstep, but never in any way the result of ‘sin’. We don’t like to use that word.
So I have to ask myself – Why don’t we tell it like it is, – define the issue using scriptural terms and definitions? Here’s my short list of why we don’t use the ‘S’ word.
As for me, I think the first 9 are the ways we soften/disguise the real reason, #10.
Your comments, additions, deletions, and whatever else you want to throw at me, even the occasional rotten egg or tomato. I can take it!
“Most of those who are disturbed about same-sex marriage are not as exercised about preserving heterosexual marriage. That’s because it doesn’t raise money and won’t get them on TV. Some preachers would rather demonize gays than oppose heterosexuals who violate their vows by divorcing, often causing harm to their children. That’s because so many in their congregations have been divorced and preaching against divorce might cause some to leave and take their contributions with them.”
Read more here. . .
The Battle Cry 