Category Archives: Doctrine

Trojan Horses

Posted by Dan C. on

Even if you haven’t read much classic literature, you probably know the story of the destruction of the city of Troy. they have made several movies, one in the not too distant past. Christianity has had it’s own Trojan Horses throughout history, and like the original, great destruction has resulted, inside the walls of Christianity.

The early Romans were polytheists. They had a god for hunting, they had a god for buying, they had a god for selling, they had a god to protect them on a journey. They had all these gods. Well once Christianity was declared the religion of the Roman Empire, it was necessary to dispense with all of this in some way but rather than take a strong stand against idolatry and such superstition, the church simply assigned those responsibilities that once belonged to Roman deities to dead saints. For example, instead of a god to protect you on journeys, St. Christopher took over that responsibility. And you had the merging of Roman pagan superstitious idolatry with Christianity. The Trojan horse of Roman religion was allowed to remain inside the walls, as it were, of Christianity, it infiltrated and destroyed the Christian faith.

In the eighteenth century rationalism came to Europe. During the time of rationalism, which is also known as the enlightenment, coming out of the Dark Ages man believed that he could solve all problems with his own mind. He began to worship his mind. He felt that he had the mental capacity to understand everything and solve all problems. God, it was believed, didn’t interfere in the affairs of men when men were so supremely intelligent they could handle their own affairs. At best, God created the world and just let it go. And now it was up to man. And so they decided that since the mind of man was ultimate, anything that the mind of man could not conceive or understand wasn’t true. And so they went to the Bible and anything that didn’t seem rational, reasonable, logical, intellectual was eliminated and thus all the miracles in the Bible were denied. And then they began to deny the great supernatural spiritual truths about God and Christ and the Holy Spirit and theological liberalism was the product. What happened, the church opened the doors and pulled in the Trojan horse of rationalism, intellectualism and the enlightenment and they came out, opened the gates and the place was flooded until the church lost its faith totally and European Protestantism became liberal and dead.

Today the church is still opening the gates and pulling in more Trojan horses filled with deceitful and devastating enemies. And the world is seeping into the church in myriads of ways. We could mention the erosion of moral values, the acceptance of the break up of the family and divorce as normal, the selfish pursuit of money and status even now has a gospel identified with it, the prosperity gospel. We could mention the Trojan horse of pragmatism or psychology. We could mention the Trojan horse of mysticism, intuitive pursuits of truth. The church has pulled in a myriad of Trojan horses and they are letting the armies of enemies in to run rampant in the church.

There is a tolerance today for every kind of aberration in the church and it is therefore full of Trojan horses, letting the invading armies in to confuse and destroy. The only way to defeat a Trojan Horse is to recognize it early and not let it inside the walls. That’s called discernment. Discernment is separating Divine truth from lies and half truths. It’s not open lies that destroy from within, it’s half truths – the lies that roll through the gates of the city inside the Trojan Horse.

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NOTE: Above adapted from the sermon series A Call to Discernment by John MacArthur.

Do We Need MORE?

Posted by Dan C. on

“His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.” –  2 Peter 1:3-4

Questions asked and answered in the above passage:

Q: What has God granted believers?

A: All things that pertain to life and godliness.

 

Q: How do we find all things that pertains to life in godliness?

A: Through the knowledge of Him.

 

Q: Why has God granted us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him? 

A: So that we become partakers of the divine nature, and are able to escape from the corruption in the world.

This short Q&A came to mind after reading the passage and pausing after each comma, and placing stronger emphasis on the words immediately following the  punctuation mark. That little exercise is quite profitable. Once those three sink in, you can’t help but ask one more question: Where is the knowledge of Him to be found?

The answer is found in another passage:

“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.” – 2 Timothy 3:16-17

To frame it like the first three questions:

Q: Where is the knowledge of Him to be found?

A: In  Scripture.

So I ask again, with slightly different emphasis:

DO we need more?

Christ our Substitute – C.H. Spurgeon

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“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.”—2 Corinthians 5:21

I had no idea that there would come out a divinity, which would bring down God’s moral government from the solemn aspect in which Scripture reveals it, to a namby-pamby sentimentalism, which adores a Deity destitute of every masculine virtue.

We have lived to see a certain sort of men. . .who seek to teach now-a-days, that God is a universal Father, and that our ideas of his dealing with the impenitent as a Judge, and not as a Father, are remnants of antiquated error.

Sin, according to these men, is a disorder rather than an offence, an error rather than a crime. Love is the only attribute they can discern, and the full-orbed Deity they have not known.

Some of these men push their way very far into the bogs and mire of falsehood, until they inform us that eternal punishment is ridiculed as a dream.

In fact, books now appear, which teach us that there is no such thing as the Vicarious Sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. They use the word Atonement it is true, but in regard to its meaning, they have removed the ancient landmark.

They acknowledge that the Father has shown his great love to poor sinful man by sending his Son, but not that God was inflexibly just in the exhibition of his mercy, not that he punished Christ on the behalf of his people, nor that indeed God ever will punish anybody in his wrath, or that there is such a thing as justice apart from discipline.

Even sin and hell are but old words employed henceforth in a new and altered sense. Those are old-fashioned notions, and we poor souls who go on talking about election and imputed righteousness, are behind our time.

These are the new men whom God has sent down from heaven, to tell us that the apostle Paul was all wrong, that our faith is vain, that we have been quite mistaken, that there was no need for propitiating blood to wash away our sins; that the fact was, our sins needed discipline, but penal vengeance and righteous wrath are quite out of the question.

Well, brethren, I am happy to say that sort of stuff has not gained entrance into this pulpit. I dare say the worms will eat the wood before there will be anything of that sort sounded in his place; and may these bones be picked by vultures, and this flesh be rent in sunder by lions, and may every nerve in this body suffer pangs and tortures, ere these lips shall give utterance to any such doctrines or sentiments.

We are content to remain among the vulgar souls who believe the old doctrines of grace. We are willing still to be behind in the great march of intellect, and stand by that unmoving cross, which, like the pole star, never advances, because it never stirs, but always abides in its place, the guide of the soul to heaven, the one foundation other than which no man can lay, and without building upon which, no man shall ever see the face of God and live.

Excerpted from a sermon delivered on  April 15th, 1860, by the REV. C. H. Spurgeon At New Park Street, Southwark.

“Strive to Enter in at the Strait Gate”

Posted by Dan C. on

From A Sermon by Charles Hodge
[at the College of New Jersey, May 14th, 1856]

There are two modes of representation which run through the Bible, apparently at variance with each other. According to the one, the plan of salvation is represented as simple. Believe and be saved, touch and be healed, look and be made whole.

According to the other, salvation is represented to be very difficult. We must strive to enter in at the straight gate. We must work out our salvation. We must run as in a race where the prize is our life. We must fight the good fight. Many who seek shall not enter in. Even the righteous are scarcely saved.

Both these modes of representation are of course correct. They refer to different things. The former relates to the meritorious and efficient cause of salvation. We have not to work out a righteousness of our own, nor are we to attempt the work of regeneration or sanctification in our own strength. The whole work of meriting salvation has been done for us. We have nothing to do but to accept the righteousness which is offered to us, to trust in what Christ has done.

So, too, with regard to sanctification. It is the work of God. We are renewed by the Spirit after His image. It is not a natural process carried on by natural laws, but by the power of God, attending the use of the appropriate and appointed means. In one sense we are the passive recipients of salvation. On the other hand, however, the difficulty of bringing our hearts to a simple, constant and entire reliance on Christ, and the difficulty of avoiding the grieving and resisting the Holy Ghost, is unspeakably great. So that it is hard to be saved.

The Bible says expressly that no drunkard, or unclean person, or covetous man, no one who loves the creature more than the Creator, no one that is carnally-minded, no one who is not converted and made as a little child, can enter the kingdom of God. To these and other forms of destructive evil we are impelled,

  1. By the corruption of our own nature.
  2. By the allurements of the world.
  3. By the influence of evil companions.
  4. By the temptations of Satan.

These are formidable enemies, not to be overcome without effort.

Therefore,

  1. Lay it to heart that salvation is a difficult work. You cannot float to heaven.
  2. That a constant use of the means of grace, of secret and social prayer, of public worship, the reading of the Scriptures, and the use of the sacraments is absolutely necessary.
  3. That constant watchfulness against sin, avoiding temptation, company, associating with the people of God, are all necessary.
  4. That constant effort to advance in piety is the only way to avoid declining, and declension leads to apostasy.
  5. That with all these means should be united a constant sense of danger and constant dependence.
  6. At the same time, the spirit of the gospel is not a fearful desponding spirit, but a spirit of filial confidence and joy. The great thing is to remember that safety is only to be found in a lively and growing state of piety in the heart.

Another Perspective of Calvin’s TULIP

Posted by Dan C. on

“T”  represents man the sinner.

“U”  represents God the Father.

“L”  represents God the Son.

“I”  represents the God the Holy Spirit.

“P” represents man the saint.

If you are familiar with what doctrinal point each letter represents, it will be easy to see the connection. It you are not familiar with the TULIP, here’s an opportunity to learn a little history of the Protestant Reformation.

And by the way, Calvin did not invent the TULIP. Most folks ascribe it to him, just as they think he invented the underlying doctrine. But that’s another bit of Protestant church history I leave you to discover for yourself, if you haven’t already .

"Salvation is of the Lord."-Jonah 2:9

Posted by Dan C. on

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: “Salvation is of the Lord.”  – Charles Haddon Spurgeon

“You must be born again.”

Posted by Dan C. on

Regeneration is absolutely necessary to qualify you to do any thing really good and acceptable to God. While you are not born again, your best works are but glittering sins; for though the matter of them is good, they are quite marred in the performance. Consider:

1. That without regeneration there is no faith, and “without faith it is impossible to please God” (Heb 11:6). Faith is a vital act of the new-born soul. The evangelist, showing the different entertainment which our Lord Jesus had from different persons, some receiving Him, some rejecting Him, points at regenerating grace as the true cause of that difference, without which never any one would have received Him. He tells us, that “as many as received him” were those “which were born—of God” (John 1:11,12,13). Unregenerate men may presume; but true faith they cannot have. Faith is a flower that grows not in the field of nature. As the tree cannot grow without a root, neither can a man believe without the new nature, whereof the principle of believing is a part.

2. Without regeneration a man’s works are dead works. As is the principle, so must the effects be: if the lungs are rotten, the breath will be unsavory; and he who at best is dead in sin, his works at best will be but dead works. “Unto them that are defiled and unbelieving, is nothing pure—being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate” (Titus 1:15,16). If we could say of a man, that he is more blameless in his life than any other in the world, that he reduces his body with fasting and has made his knees as horns with continual praying, if he is not born again, that exception would mar all. As if one should say, There is a well-proportioned body, but the soul is gone; it is but a dead lump. This is a melting consideration. You do many things materially good; but God says, All these things avail not, as long as I see the old nature reigning in the man (Gal 6:15), “For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.” – Thomas Boston 1676-1732

No Truth Without Love, No Love Without Truth

Posted by Dan C. on

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”.

"Appointed" to eternal life?

Posted by Dan C. on

“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?