When did it change?

Posted by Dan C. on

When did the Gospel message change from telling others of the need to ‘personally’ recognize one’s sinful condition and believe in Christ as savior to telling them they need to ‘accept Him as their ‘personal’ Savior? One concept is founded in and specifically presented in scripture and the other is not. One focuses on God and what He has done to save sinners and the other on a person’s decision. One presents the sovereignty of God while the other makes the individual’s decision the final event in the chain of events leading to salvation, which would mean that God shares His sovereignty with man (even if it’s just a decision).

No scripture here yet, just the question “When did it change?”, followed by the next logical question “WHY did it change?”

"What Does This Verse Mean to Me?" Bible Study – What’s the Harm?

Posted by Dan C. on

This was originally published almost a month ago here and the only comment was a pingback from another post here that referenced it. I am pasting it to the front page because I think it a serious issue. Although Dt. MacArthur is speaking as a pastor to pastor’s, it applies to all of us who name the name of Christ, and especially to those of us who share our beliefs with the world via the Internet.

From this John MacArthur article:

“That’s a fashionable concern, judging from the trends in devotional booklets, home Bible study discussions, Sunday-school literature, and most popular preaching.

The question of what Scripture means has taken a back seat to the issue of what it means “to me.”

The difference may seem insignificant at first. Nevertheless, our obsession with the Scripture’s applicability reflects a fundamental weakness. We have adopted practicality as the ultimate judge of the worth of God’s Word. We bury ourselves in passages that overtly relate to daily living, and ignore those that don’t.

Practical application is vital. I don’t want to minimize its importance. But the distinction between doctrinal and practical truth is artificial; doctrine is practical! In fact, nothing is more practical than sound doctrine.

Too many Christians view doctrine as heady and theoretical. They have dismissed doctrinal passages as unimportant, divisive, threatening, or simply impractical. A best-selling Christian book I just read warns readers to be on guard against preachers whose emphasis is on interpreting Scripture rather than applying it.

There is no danger of irrelevant doctrine; the real threat is an undoctrinal attempt at relevance. Application not based on solid interpretation has led Christians into all kinds of confusion.

True doctrine transforms behavior as it is woven into the fabric of everyday life. But it must be understood if it is to have its impact. The real challenge of the ministry is to dispense the truth clearly and accurately. Practical application comes easily by comparison.

No believer can apply truth he doesn’t know.”

How well I remember this sort of Bible study! I have not always been as adamant about first finding out what scripture actually SAYS, and then applying it, as I am these days. Not only have I learned NOT to trust my feelings, I sincerely believe that there is more than enough to apply from what Scripture SAYS to keep me from trying to get something ‘special’ just for little old me. If there is something I need as a personal admonition, encouragement or application, I am confident I will receive a much clearer message studying what is plain from reading and inductive study than ‘comtemplating’ until I get some ‘deeper revelation’.

A”ll 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

It’s scripture that is breathed out by God, NOT my interpretation, my insight, or my feelings. I can trust the plain teaching of scripture 100% of the time and, unlike what’s in my head and in my heart, I don’t have to figure out who’s really ‘speaking’.

Contemplative Prayer and the Voices we Hear in our Heads

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There is a very insightful article, Encountering Voices in the Silence of Contemplative Prayer by Pastor Larry DeBruyn  here . The article discusses the teachings of the Contemplative Prayer Movement (CPM) leader Richard Foster concerning discerning whose voice we are listening to in the midst of our ‘contemplation’ and compares Foster’s teaching in the light of scripture. Early in the article Pastor DeBruyn quotes Foster:

“Learning to distinguish the voice of God . . . from just human voices within us . . . comes in much the same way that we learn any other voice. Satan pushes and condemns. God draws and encourages. And we can know the difference.” [1]

If the voice is negative it’s Satan. If it’s positive and affirming, it’s God. Foster apparently doesn’t offer any advice for discerning whether or not we are listening to our own voice. I guess if we are truly ‘spiritual’ we don’t talk to ourselves in the silence of contemplating God. Later in the same article the author discusses the voice of the Holy Spirit – God’s ‘voice’ in the life of the believer:

“We live in the age of the Holy Spirit and His spiritual communication and communion with the soul of the believer. But the Spirit’s communication is not always pleasant. Of the Holy Spirit’s communication Jesus predicted, “And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin, and righteousness, and judgment” (John 16:8). Even the Comforter does not always comfort. Sometimes He convicts, and conviction of soul is not pleasant to experience. It upsets. None of us likes criticism. We do not like to be told we are wrong. Yet without the voice of the Spirit’s conviction, we would continue in sin, pursue unrighteousness, and deny we are accountable to God for our behavior. So when, for legitimate reasons, the Spirit’s conviction comes over them, will Christians be so deluded by the positivity and feel-good mindset that saturates today’s evangelical church that they will ignore the Spirit’s conviction, or worse, that they will assign godly conviction to be the bullying voice of Satan?” (Emphasis mine)

A dear Christian friend I met here in Blogland emailed me some time ago wanting to know if she was to only speak positive things all of the time. Apparently other believers in Blogland, or maybe in her church, were telling her that she should. Those who offer such ‘counsel’ are likely among the deluded Christians spoken of in the previous paragraph, because such advice runs counter to Scripture. Nothing personal intended here – I don’t know of a single believer who is immune from the enemy’s deception.

I also don’t know anyone in these blogs who is personally involved in the sort of contemplative prayer that runs dangerously close to the pagan mysticism of Eastern religions. So why make a fuss? I have a few good reasons.

  • I’ve been there and back – all the way there and back.
  • I can’t think of any ‘personal word’ from God to this guy that could not be traced to something read or taught from Scripture that the Holy Spirit has brought to mind.
  • Claiming that the work of the Holy Spirit, who works in all believers similarly, is God speaking specially to ‘ME’ serves to feed fleshly pride.
  • Once pride takes hold and begins to germinate, I won’t be satisfied with mere ‘special insights’. The enemy will use the seed of pride to tempt me to ‘deeper/higher’ levels of spirituality. Satan’s ‘operational tempo’ seems to always be perfectly matched to the growth rate of the individual believer. He will never tempt us with something he knows we will scoff at, only that which could be appealing.

To believers reading this, please receive it as a word of caution. Yes we serve a God who is personal, loves us personally, even chose us by name – just don’t get too personal.

Endnote:  [1] Michelle McKinney Hammond, “Fear of Silence,” Be Still (DVD © 2006 Twentieth Fox Home Entertainment LLC).

________

I also encourage examining other discernment resources available at Discernment Ministries.

Quote of the Day

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“We cannot blink the fact that gentle Jesus, meek and mild, was so stiff in His opinions and so inflammatory in His language, that He was thrown out of church, stoned, hunted from place to place, and finally gibbetted as a firebrand and a public danger. We have very efficiently pared the claws of the Lion of Judah into a household pet for pale curates and pious old ladies.”

Dorothy L. Sayers

Where is Jesus Now?

Posted by Dan C. on

A Sunday School teacher of preschoolers was concerned that his students might be a little confused about Jesus Christ because of the Christmas season emphasis on His birth. He wanted to make sure they understood that the birth of Jesus occurred for real. He asked his class, “Where is Jesus today?”

Steven raised his hand and said, “He’s in heaven.” Mary was called on and answered, “He’s in my heart.” Little Johnny, waving his hand furiously, blurted out, “I know, I know! He’s in our bathroom!!!”

The whole class got very quiet, looked at the teacher, and waited for a response. The teacher was completely at a loss for a few very long seconds. Finally, he gathered his wits and asked Little Johnny how he knew this. Little Johnny said, “Well…every morning, my father gets up, bangs on the bathroom door, and yells, “Good Lord, are you still in there?!”

That’s an old joke, but the question is quite valid. Where IS Jesus now? I fear there are some who might be confused in this matter. Scripture tells us exactly where He is now:

Hebrews 12:2

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Philippians 2:8-9

And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:

John 17:5

And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.

John 1:1-3

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

Ephesians 3:9

And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:

Hebrews 1:1-3

God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,  Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;  Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high:

At this very moment, Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father, His majesty and glory restored, awaiting the command from His Father to come to earth a second time, but as judge, not as Savior – that work was finished at the Cross.

The work of God on Earth and in the life of the believer is in and through the Holy Spirit, whose sanctifying work is ever conforming us into the image of God’s Son. It is the Holy Sprit who brings comfort and peace when we are troubled or weary, but who also brings conviction and guilt when we sin.  The love of God ‘shed abroad in our hearts’ is the Holy Spirit at work. The peace that surpasses all understanding is the Holy Spirit at work in our lives. And the list goes on. . .

If Jesus is sitting in majesty and glory at the right hand of the Father, and the Holy Spirit is now working on earth, where did all this “Jesus is my dance partner” mushy romanticism come from? More importantly, where in scripture is such a view of the Lord of the universe presented in scripture? Can anyone out there tell me?

Satan’s Gambit

Posted by Dan C. on

In the world of chess, a gambit is a chess opening in which the first player risks or sacrifices material, usually a pawn, with the hope of achieving a resulting advantageous position. One article I found that contained a list of twenty opening gambits, including one colorfully named the Fried Liver Attack. Not included in the list was Satan’s Gambit.   Perhaps that’s because in the world of chess there isn’t an opening gambit with that name – at least I didn’t find one.

So what do I mean by Satan’s Gambit, and to what game does it apply? I’m glad you asked those questions – we’ll address them in reverse order.

Satan’s Gambit is not about a game, but about our Christian faith, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” (Eph 6;12), and Satan is the enemy’s CINC (Commande in Chief).  In the art of spiritual warfare, Satan’s opening gambit has always been to attack the authority of inspired Scripture, since the days of the New Testament church. The Apostle Paul specifically addressed ‘other gospels’ that had corrupted the pure Gospel of Christ.

The latest form of Satan’s Gambit would probably reside in the philosophy of the Emergent church, and the leaders of the ‘conversation’ whose passion for the uncertainty of scripture has been heard from their own lips and thoroughly documented, as have strong connections to the ‘contemplative prayer movement’ . As novel and appealing as their ideas might be, they lack a truly original thought.  The Emperor of Uncertainty has new clothes but he’s still running around naked.  Dr. John MacArthur had this to say in an insightful interview with Phil Johnson:

The bottom line, I think, in the movement is that it is a denial of the clarity of Scripture. It is a denial that we can know what the Bible really says. And as I said, it’s amorphous because there’s a mish-mash of approaches to this and a mish-mash of styles and things like that. But they have embraced this mystery as if it’s true spirituality. And so, it becomes celebration of mystery, a celebration of ignorance, a celebration that we can’t really know. I think it’s just another form of liberalism. I think it’s just another form of denying the clarity of Scripture. And I think there’s a motive behind it…it’s just another philosophy.

Post-modernism is another bad philosophy. Modernism was a bad philosophy. Post-modernism is another bad philosophy. But in both cases, they assault the Scripture. Modernism made reason, human reason, the king. Reason was supreme in modernism. Thomas Payne, The Age of Reason, The Enlightenment, all of those things, the Renaissance. Out of that came the worship of the human mind and the mind trumps God. Now mystery trumps the Bible. The human mind trumps the Bible in modernism, mystery trumps the Bible in post-modernism. It is at the foundation an unwillingness to accept the clear teaching of Scripture. (Online source) (Emphasis mine.)

However dangerous to the church the Emergent movement might be, there is a deceptive variant of Satan’s Gambit that is far more dangerous to the spiritual growth of the individual believer. Rather than openly doubting the authority of scripture, this version of the gambit is far more subtle. While seeming to allow for adherence to biblical doctrine, the variant assigns more importance to personal insights and feelings about scripture than the clear teaching of scripture itself. There is even an online university that advertises a book ‘Hearing God’s Voice – Guaranteed!’. The book teaches that the best way to hear God’s voice is through our ‘spontaneous thoughts, feelings and insights’. To test the validity of these ‘journaled’ spontaneous thoughts, they are given to three others who ‘discern’ whether or not it was God speaking.

I am not saying that God doesn’t ever speak, or isn’t involved in our thoughts and emotions. The test of their validity,however, should be the light of Scripture, not the ‘third party’ discernment described above. What we have here is a form of mysticism that teaches the gullible how to be false prophets to themselves! The authority and light of Scripture is supplanted by subjective internal feelings and experiences. Sound rather ridiculous? It should!

You might be asking “How do sincere believers fall for this kind of false teaching?”  Well, there are probably several ways, but I know of a perfect ‘training ground’ that the enemy uses to slide the gullible (usually believers young in their faith) right into it! I speak from experience because I’ve been there and back. What I am referring to is popular What Does this Verse Mean “to ME”? form of Bible study.

This highly subjective approach to scripture lets the individual interpret the text by what he/she ‘feels’  God is saying. When this is the accepted/preferred form of studying the Bible, all sorts of ‘wonderful insights’ are obtained and self-congratulation abounds, accompanied by considerable fawning over everyone else’s ‘insights’. I remember many such Bible studies in which no one was really growing in grace and discipleship, but we sure felt good about ourselves! Can you see the progression here?

  • Reading the Bible but spending more time discussing how one ‘feels’ about the text instead of inductive study to learn what it says in context and applying it.
  • Progressing to a deeper level of ‘hearing’ God’s voice and receiving ‘personal words’ of prophesy for one’s self and others, outside of scripture.
  • Doubting the very certainty of the truth of scripture and embracing forms of mysticism as the best or only way to really hear God.

While there may be other, smaller steps from innocent appearing Christian fellowship to complete apostasy, these three can almost always be observed in the process and all three attack the certainty and authority of scripture, almost invisibly at first, but sometimes resulting in embracing the heretical.

So there you have what I call Satan’s Gambit. Similar to a well played game of chess, there is an initial move that is not necessarily harmful, but that can escalate and end in disaster. Experienced chess players study various opening gambits and how to counter the advance of the enemy. How much more crucial it is for believers to be able to recognize the enemy of our souls and counter his subtle attacks!

There are NO true Atheists!

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I say again…there are NO true atheists, and add that the religion of atheism is Humanism. ‘Self’ is the god of atheismn.

If you are reading this as a ‘professing’ atheist, listen closely. Sir/Madam Atheist, you are your own God. I do compliment you for your sense of morality. Where did you obtain it, by the way? Where did any sense of morality come from? It came from the God of the Bible. Your sense of morality is based on ‘borrowed capital’. You borrow from God’s moral law to have a moral system, yet you desire to deny His existence. You either make it up as you go along, deciding what is ‘moral’ based on your own desires, or you claim the moral values of the system of humanism that denies God.

The only difference between the two sources of morality is the amount of self-pride resident in choosing of one over the other!

Here is a bit of Scripture for you:

Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?  The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.”He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. – Psalm 2:1-4

Unlike God’s attitude toward those who “take counsel against God and His Anointed” I am not laughing.

I pray that God will pour out His mercy and grace upon you, draw you to Himself, and bring you into His glorious kingdom! If my flesh rises up in anger against you personally, I pray that God will accuse me of my own self-righteousness, and pray that He will replace that anger with tears – and He does. I pray that my zealousness in this matter is for His Kingdom and not for MY thoughts or opinions – they don’t amount to a hill of beans.

One last bit of Scripture for you, and for those who might believe in a god, but not the God of Scripture:

“Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” – John 3:18, from Jesus’ own lips. . .

Salvation, Free Will and Assurance

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Is it possible to believe in the complete free will of man in choosing Christ and certain assurance of salvation once saved? I don’t think so. It’s not logical. If I believe that I exercised my ‘free will’ in choosing Christ, that same ‘free will’ goes flying out the window if I believe I have any assurance of my salvation. On the other hand, if I believe that God exercised His complete sovereignty in my salvation, I can also believe that the God who saved me will also keep me, something that is promised in His word.

I had that one figured out even before I believed in the doctrine of God’s sovereign election. I never exactly believed I could lose my salvation, like dropping my wallet on the sidewalk and never seeing it again, but I had to believe that since I had free will to choose Christ, I must also have the free will to turn from Christ, should I choose to do so. The closest I came to having assurance of my salvation during those years was that the longer I served Him, the less likely it would be that I should deny Him. There is no other logic of the matter!

Think about it. . .

God’s Sovereignty Defined – A.W. Pink

Posted by Dan C. on

“Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is Thine; Thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and Thou art exalted as Head above all” (Chronicles 29:11).

“THE Sovereignty of God is an expression that once was generally understood. It was a phrase commonly used in religious literature. It was a theme frequently expounded in the pulpit. It was a truth which brought comfort to many hearts, and gave virility and stability to Christian character. But, today, to make mention of God’s sovereignty is, in many quarters, to speak in an unknown tongue. Were we to announce from the average pulpit that the subject of our discourse would be the sovereignty of God, it would sound very much as though we had borrowed a phrase from one of the dead languages. Alas! that it should be so. Alas! that the doctrine which is the key to history, the interpreter of Providence, the warp and woof of Scripture, and the foundation of Christian theology, should be so sadly neglected and so little understood.

The sovereignty of God. What do we mean by this expression? We mean the supremacy of God, the kingship of God, the godhood of God. To say that God is sovereign is to declare that God is God. To say that God is sovereign is to declare that He is the Most High, doing according to His will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth, so that none can stay His hand or say unto Him what doest Thou? (Daniel 4:35). To say that God is sovereign is to declare that He is the Almighty, the Possessor of all power in heaven and earth, so that none can defeat His counsels, thwart His purpose, or resist His will (Psalm 115:3). To say that God is sovereign is to declare that He is “The Governor among the nations” (Psalm 22:28), setting up kingdoms, overthrowing empires, and determining the course of dynasties as pleaseth Him best. To say that God is sovereign is to declare that He is the “Only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords” (1 Timothy 6:15). Such is the God of the Bible.

How different is the God of the Bible from the God of modern Christendom! The conception of Deity which prevails most widely today, even among those who profess to give heed to the Scriptures, is a miserable caricature, a blasphemous travesty of the Truth. The God of the twentieth century is a helpless, effeminate being who commands the respect of no really thoughtful man. The God of the popular mind is the creation of a maudlin sentimentality. The God of many a present-day pulpit is an object of pity rather than of awe-inspiring reverence. To say that God the Father has purposed the salvation of all mankind, that God the Son died with the express intention of saving the whole human race, and that God the Holy Spirit is now seeking to win the world to Christ; when, as a matter of common observation, it is apparent that the great majority of our fellow-men are dying in sin, and passing into a hopeless eternity: is to say that God the Father is disappointed, that God the Son is dissatisfied, and that God the Holy Spirit is defeated. We have stated the issue baldly, but there is no escaping the conclusion. To argue that God is “trying His best” to save all mankind, but that the majority of men will not let Him save them, is to insist that the will of the Creator is impotent, and that the will of the creature is omnipotent. To throw the blame, as many do, upon the Devil, does not remove the difficulty, for if Satan is defeating the purpose of God, then, Satan is Almighty and God is no longer the Supreme Being.To declare that the Creator’s original plan has been frustrated by sin, is to dethrone God. To suggest that God was taken by surprise in Eden and that He is now attempting to remedy an unforeseen calamity, is to degrade the Most High to the level of a finite, erring mortal. To argue that man is a free moral agent and the determiner of his own destiny, and that therefore he has the power to checkmate his Maker, is to strip God of the attribute of Omnipotence. To say that the creature has burst the hounds assigned by his Creator, and that God is now practically a helpless Spectator before the sin and suffering entailed by Adam’s fall, is to repudiate the express declaration of Holy Writ, namely,

“Surely the wrath of man shall praise Thee: the remainder of wrath shalt Thou restrain” (Psalm 76:10).

In a word, to deny the sovereignty of God is to enter upon a path which, if followed to its logical terminus, is to arrive at blank atheism.

_________________________________________

The above is excerpted from A.W. Pink’s work The Sovereignty of God, first published in 1918. Some who read this, if there are any, will never have heard of A.W. Pink. Others might recognize his name and frown in distaste, believing him to be a radical fundamentalist of some sort, in the ‘horrible’ tradition of those ‘awful’ Calvinists who hold to such things as predestination and election. Still others will recognize that the sovereignty of God falls into the category of ‘doctrine’ and dismiss it outright, since we don’t really need doctrine, only Jesus.

My earnest desire is that you will have read this and will have been greatly blessed by it. On the other hand, if you have read it and dismissed it or even hated it, that you have read it is a good thing. If you have read it and are earnestly seeking after truth, God will impress His truth upon your heart, if indeed truth exists in this short article.

If you perceive, by the grace of God, His truth in this article and it somehow conflicts with your current beliefs, please continue to seek truth until God settles the matter from His written word.

If you have been blessed by this article, or even if you have hated it, submit a quick comment and let me know. And by the way, have a blessed day!