Wednesday, April 29, 2009

"After the Counsel of His Own Will"


"In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:" (Eph.1:11)


When the matter of God's sovereignty arises in a discussion it is usually not long before the question of God's role in regards to evil comes up.
Is God truly in control of all things? Is He also sovereign over evil? If so, what is the purpose of evil being allowed and used by God in His creation?
I believe it is evident in scripture that God is God all the time. He is sovereign over evil as well as good. He has no co-regent in heaven or earth and there is nothing that happens or unfolds apart from His purpose and will.
So if one asserts that God is truly in control at all times, then concerning the matter of evil, what could possibly be the redeeming value and purpose of this ordained evil? Certainly, in and of itself, as an end in itself, evil might be looked upon as having no legitimate place in God's creation. But what if it is not seen or purposed as an end in itself?

While recently reading "Desiring God" by John Piper I was helped to see this very thing. One of the appendixes of this book concerns the topic of God's ordaining of evil and its good purpose.
Piper quotes Jonathan Edwards in this portion and I believe Edward's insight on the "problem of evil" gives much light on this subject. Light that will enable the believer to come to the place of a confident rest in God no matter the outward or inward circumstances.
Piper refers to it as being brought to the place of a "God-entranced world-view."

Edwards comments, "It is a proper and excellant thing for infinite glory to shine forth; and for the same reason, it is proper that the shining forth of God's glory should be complete; that is, that all parts of his glory should shine forth, that every beauty should be proportionably effulgent, that the beholder may have a proper notion of God. It is not proper that one glory should be exceedingly manifested, and another not at all.....
Thus it is necessary, that God's awful majesty, his authority and dreadful greatness, justice, and holiness, should be manifested. But this could not be, unless sin and punishment had been decreed; so that the shining forth of God's glory would be very imperfect, both because these parts of divine glory would not shine forth as the others do, and also the glory of his goodness, love, and holiness would be faint without them; nay, they could scarcely shine forth at all.
If it were not right that God should decree and permit and punish sin, there could be no manifestation of God's holiness in hatred of sin, or in showing any preference, in his providence, of godliness before it. There would be no manifestation of God's grace or true goodness, if there was no sin to be pardoned, no misery to be saved from. How much happiness soever he bestowed, his goodness would not be so much prized and admired....
So evil is necessary, in order to the highest happiness of the creature, and the completeness of that communication of God, for which he made the world; because the creature's happiness consists in the knowledge of God, and the sense of his love. And if the knowledge of him be imperfect, the happiness of the creature must be proportionably imperfect."

Monday, April 27, 2009

"Through the Blood of His Cross"


"For it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell;
And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things on earth, or things in heaven."
(Col.1:19-20)

"The chief aim of the enemy's assaults is to get rid of Christ, to get rid of the atonement, to get rid of his suffering in the place of men. Some say they can embrace the rest of the gospel. But what "rest" is there? What is there left? A bloodless, Christless gospel is fit neither for the land nor for the dunghill. It neither honors God nor converts men." (C.H. Spurgeon)

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Shining Faces


It is amazing how the presence, the indwelling Spirit, and the word and wisdom of God make the faces of His people shine!

"And it came to pass, when Moses came down from mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him.
And when Aaron and all the chidren of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come nigh unto him."
(Ex.34:29-30)

"Who is as the wise man? and who knoweth the interpretation of a thing? a man's wisdom maketh his face to shine, and the boldness of his face shall be changed."
(Eccl.8:1)

"Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business....
And the saying pleased the whole multitude: and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost,....
(Acts 6:3,5)

But the people could not bear this Holy boldness and the light that shone from this man who was full of God's Spirit, so they brought him before their council....

"And all that sat in the council, looking steadfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel." (Acts 6:15)

May we all stand before this present evil world with shining faces that witness to the fact that we are the Lord's people and are the temples of the Holy Ghost!

"That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;"
(Phil.2:15)

Thursday, April 23, 2009

"IS THERE NOT A CAUSE?"


Brothers and Sisters, Is there not a cause in our land today?

I recalled the response of David to his brother as Israel cowered before Goliath, "And Eliab his eldest brother heard when he spake unto the men; and Eliab's anger was kindled against David, and he said, Why camest thou down hither? and with whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know thy pride, and the naughtiness of thine heart; for thou art come down that thou mightest see the battle.
And David said, What have I now done? Is there not a cause?"
(1Sam.17:28-29)

We face giants today that seem to be looked upon with apathy and little concern by most professed Christianity! Our nation is running headlong into destruction and for the most part we continue just plodding along in our day to day activities. Is there no man to stand in the gap?
Where are the Davids, the Elijahs? Where are the Whitefields, the Rowlands and the many other valiant soldiers of the cross? Have we all become statues of stone? Do we not see the degradation, the mockery of God and His word? Where is the holy boldness that filled those in the early church? Where are the preachers in the open fields, the heralds of God who walk the highways and byways of our land thundering out the word of God unapologetically? Is there not a cause?
Are we afraid of the naysayers or of the opposition of this world? Do we fear men more than God? David was accused falsely and belittled by his own brother, nevertheless, he boldly confessed and was willing to stand in the power of the God of Israel! Are we?

Brothers and Sisters, please pray that God would say unto His Elijahs, Arise!

Brothers and Sisters, THERE IS A CAUSE!

Monday, April 20, 2009

Beholding His Glory


There is a Glory that could not be looked upon by sinful man....

"And he said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory.... Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live." (Ex.33:18,20)

If man looks upon the unveiled face and glory of the righteous lawgiver he will surely die!


There is a Glory which sinful man must look upon....

"And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth." (John1:14)

"In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ who is the image of God, should shine unto them..... For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." (2Cor.4:4,6)

"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;" (Heb.1:3)

If man looks upon the face and glory of God manifested in flesh, the Savior full of grace and truth, he shall surely live!

Not only will he live, but he will be changed into the same glorious image!

"But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."
(2Cor.3:18)

What a joyous truth! We are being conformed to the image of the Son! Though often not perceived by us, we are being wrought upon by the Holy Spirit and are being transformed. And, one day soon this transformation will be consummated and complete.... "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." (1John3:2)

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

"OMNIPOTENCE"


"And the LORD said unto Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I of a surety bear a child, which am old?
Is anything too hard for the LORD? At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son."
(Gen.18:13-14)

"Then came the word of the LORD unto Jeremiah saying,
Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh: is there anything too hard for me?"

(Jer.32:26-27)

Our God truly reigns! The declarations in scripture of God's infinite power have often been my refuge in times of gloom and discouragement.
When one looks around today at the state of our world and more specifically the state of our nation it is easy to be overwhelmed with a sense of despair.
But, is anything too hard for the LORD?

This question calls me to gaze to the maker of all things, the creator who spoke and it was done!
Our nation is certainly in a grave state. But, is anything too hard for the LORD?

I see rampant immorality on every hand and a disdain for God and His word, even among those who claim to believe in God. But, is anything too hard for the LORD?

I must admit, I am often guilty of forgetting this truth about God and of leaning to my own understanding. Many times I project, by my demeanor and thoughts, that things are too hard for the LORD.

Can God bring awakening and revival to America? Is anything too hard for the LORD?

Absolutely not! He is the God of all flesh, His arm is not shortened that He cannot save and He rules in heaven and on earth!

I pray to my Almighty God for my nation this prayer: "O LORD, I have heard thy speech, and was afraid: O LORD, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy." (Hab.3:2)

God can revive us and turn us from death unto life! Is anything too hard for the LORD?

Monday, April 13, 2009

"Hath God Said?"

I wanted to share todays post from Albert Mohler's Blog in which he writes concerning an article that continues the relentless attack on the word of God.

Fighting Words about the Bible?

The Monday "On Religion" feature in USA Today is consistently interesting, even if often exasperating. That is what should be expected of an opinion column -- strong opinions in both the column and the reaction it prompts. Well, get ready to form your own opinion about today's feature, for it is likely to make a lot of waves.
Tom Krattenmaker, a Portland, Oregon based member of the paper's Board of Contributors, levels a broadside attack on the unity, inspiration, and veracity of the Bible as the Word of God in his column, "Fightin' Words".

Krattenmaker first celebrates what he describes as "a year of retreat and retrench" for conservative Christianity. Now, he says, "here come more challenges to traditionalist views of the Bible and Christian faith from a lineup of big-name, liberal-leaning scholars and theologians."

First up on Krattenmaker's list is Bart Ehrman of the University of North Carolina. As Krattenmaker explains, Ehrman "mounts evidence against literalist conceptions of the Bible as factual history and a divinely transmitted testament to an afterlife-focused religion called Christianity."

Further:
If the Bible is the literal word of God, Ehrman asks, how could it be inconsistent on so many details large and small? Let's start with an example appropriate to the just-concluded Easter season marking the Savior's death and resurrection: As Jesus was dying on the cross, was he in agony, questioning why God had forsaken him? Or was he serene, praying for his executioners? It depends, Ehrman points out, on whether you're reading the Gospel of Mark or Luke. Regarding Jesus' birthplace of Bethlehem, had his parents traveled there for a census (Luke's version) or is it where they happened to live (Matthew's version)? Did Jesus speak of himself as God? (Yes, in John; no, in Matthew.)

Bart Ehrman has established himself as the media's go-to professor in terms of denying the truthfulness and unity of the Bible, especially the New Testament. Ehrman, who has written several best-selling books seeking to debunk and discredit the New Testament and classical Christianity, is a popularizer for many accusations long alleged against the Bible. He takes passages (such as the passion passages from Mark and Luke) and sees contradictions where the church has always seen complimentary accounts. Christ did indeed utter the cry of God-forsakenness recounted by Mark, but this was itself a citation of the Psalms that points to a much different purpose and meaning than Ehrman implies. Which is the true account, Mark or Luke? It takes very little imagination to understand that, in the crucible of the crucifixion event, Jesus experienced both the agony of the God-forsakenness he experienced (and knew He was meant to experience on behalf of sinners) and the serenity that He also experienced, given his faith in the Father's purposes and power to raise him from the dead.

Of course, if you are coming to the Bible from the perspective of one who has rejected Christianity, you are likely to see the kind of pattern Ehrman alleges. Of course, if he did see the Bible as the perfect and completely truthful Word of God, he would not remain a rejecter of the Christian Gospel.

No one comes to the Bible without presuppositions and a basic intellectual disposition. That is true for Bart Ehrman, and it is no less true for the evangelical believer. In both cases, the presuppositions assign the way each will read the Bible. Krattenmaker simplistically cites Ehrman as his authority for suggesting that Jesus spoke of himself as God in John's gospel but not in Matthew. But this facile assertion, offered without any supporting argument, does not take in to account that throughout the Gospel of Matthew Jesus speaks and acts as God. When Jesus delivers the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, He cites Scripture with the formula, "you have heard it said." When Jesus then continues by saying, "but I say unto you," He speaks as God in a way that any first-century Jewish person would have readily understood. Nature obeys his command, and he performs miracles (even bringing the dead back to life) that show his providential control over the created order.

The believing church has always understood that we need all four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, in order to understand all that we need to know about Jesus, his words, and the events of his earthly life and ministry. What sets the church apart from Bart Ehrman (and others who make such arguments) is that the church sees these four witnesses as complimentary and mutually supportive. Where we have difficulty understanding how one gospel relates to another we face a basic question -- one tied to the presuppositions we bring to our reading of the Bible. We will see the problem as lying either in our inability to understand the Bible or in the Bible's inability to offer a consistent and consistently truthful message.
The crux of Krattenmaker's argument comes here:

Ehrman's book has met with a fierce reaction from some quarters, which is understandable. Who among us isn't inclined to fight back when our deepest, most cherished beliefs are challenged? But there is no need to demonize him as a "wolf" on the prowl against the church, as one critic has. His ideas, like so many other new thoughts and new insights that keep coming around with the surety of the seasons, need not be regarded as insults against God or bids to prove the Bible false.

Krattenmaker argues that Ehrman's efforts to debunk the New Testament, along with other "new thoughts and new insights," "need not be regarded as insults against God or bids to prove the Bible false."

This claim makes sense if, and only if, Krattenmaker does not believe that "false" is the opposite of "true." Ehman openly and extensively makes his claim that the Bible is filled with error -- false information. Krattenmaker may wish to use euphemisms ("varying perspectives and changing interpretations"), but there is no way to reconcile Bart Ehrman's proposals with any claim that the Bible is, in any meaningful sense, true. Just in case anyone missed this point, Krattenmaker circles back to assert that "there is no denying the inconsistencies [Ehrman] surfaces between the various Gospels and letters that form the New Testament."

Krattenmaker also warns that defenders of "the conservative faith" face yet more -- including a new book by Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan. Again, Krattenmaker signals his glib affirmation of the argument put forth by Borg and Crossan by stating that the authors "point out that Paul didn't really write the more conservative teachings attributed to him." Point out? This is the kind of expression appropriate for some settings ( such as "Professor Smith pointed out that deceased people are dead") but not to the simple assertion that these two authors -- both of whom reject classical Christianity -- "point out" that Paul didn't write many of the letters assigned to him.

Borg and Crossan don't like what Paul writes in his letters about the roles of men and women, about homosexuality, and any number of issues. So, they propose that Paul actually didn't write those letters, and that a conservative conspiracy within the early church successfully changed Paul into a conservative himself. Like the infamous Jesus Seminar did with Jesus, Borg and Crossan do with Paul -- they create him in their own image, ready for tenure review at the local college's religious studies faculty.

The agenda of the biblical revisionists is clear. If the Bible is a collection of merely human documents that are internally contradictory, indicating an underlying diversity of conflicting interpretations of Christ and the Gospel, we are left with no authority for knowing what Christianity is. Accordingly, we can now make it in our own image.

USA Today bills the "On Religion" column as a means of "illuminating the national conversation." Well, Tom Krattenmaker's column is certainly illuminating. But what it illuminates is what Tom Krattenmaker, Bart Ehrman, Marcus Borg, and John Dominic Crossan believe about the Bible, and thus about Christianity. Consider yourself illuminated.

www.AlbertMohler.com

Saturday, April 11, 2009

"Because He Lives"


"Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also." (John 14:19)


"The divinity of Christ finds its surest proof in his resurrection (Rom.1:4). Christ's sovereignty also depends on his resurrection (Rom.14:9). Again, our justification hangs on Christ's resurrection (Rom.4:25). Our very regeneration depends on his resurrection (1Pet.1:3). And most certainly our ultimate resurrection rests here (Rom.8:11). The silver thread of resurrection runs through all the blessings, from regeneration onward to our eternal glory, and binds them together."

(C.H. Spurgeon)

Monday, April 6, 2009

Grasping for the World

In reading the "Memoir and Remains of R.M. M'CHEYNE" I was struck by the vivid imagery and concern that is found in a poem that he wrote upon hearing that a family friend had said, "that she was determined to keep by the world".

"She has chosen the world,
And its paltry crowd;
She has chosen the world,
And its endless shroud!
She has chosen the world,
With its misnamed pleasures;
She has chosen the world,
Before heaven's own treasures.

She hath launched her boat
On life's giddy sea,
And her all is afloat
For eternity.
But Bethlehem's star
Is not in her view;
And her aim is far
From the harbour true.

When the storm descends
From an angry sky,
Ah! where from the winds
Shall the vessel fly?
When stars are concealed,
And rudder gone,
And heaven is sealed
To the wandering one.

The whirlpool opes
For the gallant prize;
And, with all her hopes,
To the deep she hies!
But who may tell
Of the place of woe,
Where the wicked dwell,
Where the worldlings go?

For the human heart
Can ne'er conceive
What joys are the part
Of them who believe
Nor can justly think
Of the cup of death
Which all must drink
Who despise the faith.

Away, then-oh, fly
From the joys of earth!
Her smile is a lie-
There's a sting in her mirth.
Come, leave the dreams
Of this transient night,
And bask in the beams
Of an endless light.


Truly, what shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?