Hear Grace Audio Books

The Mortification of Sin in Believers, by John Owen

2011-11-18T19:54:00.001-08:00

"The Mortification of Sin" was written by John Owen, one of the best known of the Puritans. In "The Mortification of Sin," John Owen insisted on the importance of the Christian dealing effectively with their sinful tendencies and attitudes. He believed that God, through his Word and Spirit, had provided the guidelines and the power for this to be achieved. In "The Mortification of Sin," John Owen effectively dismisses various excuses for not engaging in self scrutiny and yet avoids the current trend of self absorption. In so doing he provides principles to help believers live lives of holiness. As with all of Owen's writings, "The Mortification of Sin" continues to be widely read and greatly appreciated to this day.

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Released 17 November 2011
Narrated and Produced by Michael Spotts:. for www.heargrace.com

Welcome! What is this place?

2009-08-07T15:24:00.000-07:00

Perhaps you learned of this site after reading a free gospel card, or maybe you've wandered here from somewhere online. Either way, welcome to the Lamp for Dark Times (LDT). What began as a place to organize my own beliefs has become a resource to help answer questions for others regarding the biblical Christian faith. Amongst other things, you'll find audio books and articles, sermons and music, and all of it is free.

Can this site help you?

There are only three types of people, as it regards Christianity: Outright unbelievers, false converts, and those who have been truly born again by the Spirit of God. You are one of these, and which type you are when you die will determine your eternal fate. Boast of your health now; you'll live one, ten, fifty more years, but from death on is forever.

Jesus said that unless you are born again of the Holy Spirit you cannot enter the kingdom of God (John 3:5-7). If you aren't living a holy life now, you have the first clue that you haven't been born of God, because His children are created after His image. The content of this site is organized to help each of the two former types of people see their need to become the third.

You may say, "Christianity isn't for me, it's not even true." By God's grace perhaps I can help you to see otherwise, because unless you are born again you will perish forever. Or maybe you say as I once did, "I already believe in Jesus. I said a prayer, and now I go to church and pray. I read my bible often and witness to others. I don't curse or watch terrible movies. If anyone is saved, I definitely am." I warn you that the very nature of false conversion is to not perceive your lostness. There is a far cry of difference between what is accepted in the Western Church as "true faith", and faith which saves.

May the information on this site help you to "work out your salvation with fear and trembling", "making your calling and election sure." (Phil.2:12, 2Pet.1:10) For God's sake and the sake of your soul, browse the articles, audio files, and links. May God's Holy Spirit grant light to your path by the grace of Christ.

- Michael Spotts:. [view my complete profile]

2 Samuel 22:29 / Psalm 119:105 / Proverbs 6:23 & 13:9 / Isaiah 62:1

Early Rising - James Alexander

2009-07-17T07:48:00.000-07:00

from MY BROTHER'S KEEPER

Letters from James Alexander (1804-1859) to his younger brother, on the virtues and vices, the duties and dangers of youth.

Early Rising

My dear brother,
In the course of my reading I am always glad to meet with anything which strikes me as suitable for your instruction. This morning I opened upon a page of Mr. Jay's daily devotional books, in which he speaks of early rising, and his thoughts are so excellent, that I shall make free use of them, and mingle them with my own.

"The habit of early rising, if ever formed, is commonly established in childhood or youth. If one has wasted the delightful morning hours of fifteen years in bed, he will not readily learn to deny himself as an adult. Therefore, I wish you now to learn to enjoy,

The cool, the fragrant, and the silent morn,
To meditation due, and sacred song."

Perhaps you are ready to ask, "How much sleep is necessary?" This cannot be answered in a word. Some need more than others. But Mr. Jay says, "It is questionable whether they require much more. Yes, it may be questioned whether they require any more, as to length. What they need more of, is better sleep; and the quality would be improved by lessening the quantity." This remark used to be often made by the celebrated and excellent Dr. Benjamin Rush. Try the experiment of shortening your slumbers; you will have fewer dreams, fewer turnings and tossings but more solid repose, more refreshment.

But you must shorten your rest at the right end; not by sitting up late at night—but by rising early in the morning. Physicians say that one hour's sleep before midnight is worth more than two hours after it. However this may be, one hour of study before breakfast is certainly worth two after supper. The mind is more fresh and cheerful, and the health is less injured. And then, how much more delightful are the early hours! The poet says truly,

"Sweet is the breath of morn, her rising sweet,
With charm of earliest birds."

In the delightful months of spring, summer, and autumn, you should be up at sunrise. When the morning haze begins to disperse, you will observe all nature bedewed with sweetness. Fresh odors breathe from the woods, and fields, and gardens. A thousand birds are singing in the branches. The morning walk among such scenes is as useful to the health as it is pleasing to the taste.

It is time that you should begin to care for your health, and take measures to secure strength for future usefulness. The advantage of early rising, as it regards this, will be apparent in your vigor, your appetite, your nerves, your spirits, and even your complexion. Ask your physician. Is there a medical man on earth that would risk his reputation by a contrary opinion? Dr. Sinclair, in his volumes on health and long life, remarks, that though those who lived to a very great age differed in many things, they all resembled each other here. There was not one who did not rise early.

Whatever business you may ever be engaged in, will be furthered by early rising. What an advantage has a student from this habit in planning and arranging his pursuits for the day! And in having leisure for any incidental engagement, without putting everything else into disorder! While another is disposed to cry out, "A little more sleep, and a little more slumber," and who begins at ten what he should have begun at six, is thrown into hurry and confusion; and bustles about trying to remedy his situation. He feels himself a drudge all day; and at night is weary, without having accomplished his task. All this is so well known. Among all businessmen, a man's reputation suffers from the want of this virtue.

The heathen used to say, 'Morning is the friend to the muses.' It surely is a friend to the graces. If it is the best time for study, it is also the best time for devotion. When prayer and praise are neglected in the morning, they are commonly neglected all day; and if you let the world get the start of your soul in the morning, you will seldom overtake it all day. Morning devotion sweetens every succeeding hour, pours a balm on the conscience, gives a pleasant savor to business, locks the door against wicked thoughts, and furnishes matter for pious reflection. It is better to go from prayer to business—than from business to prayer. Fellowship with God prepares for fellowship with our fellow creatures, and for every event, whether pleasing or painful.

Boerhaave, celebrated physician, rose early in the morning, and through his life, his practice was to dedicate an hour each morning for private prayer and meditation. Colonel Gardiner, even when in camp, used to spend two hours of the early morning in pious exercises. The great Judge Hale, also, rose early for prayer, and read a portion of God's word, without which, he said, nothing prospered with him all day. Howard, the philanthropist, was an early riser. John Wesley usually slept five hours; and for many years, he, and all the first Methodist preachers, had a public service at five in the morning. President Dwight of Yale, was in the habit of studying Scripture before day. And there was in one of our southern States, a laboring man who, by devoting two hours of every morning to study, before he went to his work, became a learned theologian.

If you have already acquired the disgraceful habit of lying in bed late, break it off now, not gradually—but at once. Do not regard the little unpleasant feelings you may have to endure for a few weeks. Go forth, and inhale the fragrance of the charming spring and autumnal mornings; it will be a cordial to your body and your mind. And in the summer, the season from early dawn until breakfast is the only time you available, when you can enjoy a book, a walk or ride in the open air.

I have written to you more than once, concerning the example of our adorable Savior; and I wish the chief object of these letters may be, to set His blessed example more fully before you. Now, what do you suppose was our Lord's practice? Just imagine to yourself, the way in which he spent his morning hours. Can you for an instant suppose that he passed them in slumbers upon his couch? When the hum of business began among the laborers of Judea or of Galilee, and the sun shone warmly on the fields and villages—was the Redeemer asleep? Is it possible for you to think so? No, it is not. On a certain occasion, we read, "And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed"—and yet he had been greatly occupied the whole of the day preceding this.

We think little of time—but he never passed an idle hour. The language of the whole of his life was, "I must work the works of him who sent me, while it is yet day—the night comes, when no man can work." Yet he was really a man. He took our infirmities, and wearied nature required repose. But he distinguished between what was necessary and what was needless. It may be also said of his whole life, "He pleased not himself."

Your affectionate brother,
James

FAMOUS RAPTURE WATCHERS !

2009-03-26T15:24:00.000-07:00

Editor's Note: This compilation reads something like a who's who of Church history. That's why I found it so interesting, even compelling, to note the continuity of belief throughout 1800 years. In fact, it was this list which first caused me to reconsider whether my own eschatology was the product of my upbringing and surroundings or a legitimate result of sound exegesis. If you miss the significance of any of the quotes, just factor whether the statements picture the Church as enduring the tribulation until a final "catching up" at Jesus' return, or being "raptured" before things get ugly.

Famous Rapture Watchers
Dave MacPherson

(The following quotes - to which a couple more have been added - were first circulated in a little-known , non-copyrighted paper of mine in the 1970's. While noting how Rev. 3:10 has been interpreted by the greatest Greek experts, can you determine the rapture view of each of the leaders herein?)

Barnabas (40-100): "The final stumbling-block (or source of danger) approaches...for the whole [past] time of your faith will profit you nothing, unless now in this wicked time we also withstand coming sources of danger....That the Black One [Antichrist] may find no means of entrance..." (Epistle of Barnabas, 4).

Clement of Rome (40-100): "...the Scripture also bears witness, saying, 'Speedily will He come, and will not tarry'; and, 'The Lord shall suddenly come [Matthew 24:30 coming] to His temple, even the Holy One, for whom ye look'" (I Clement, 23).

Hermas (40-140): "Those, therefore, who continue steadfast, and are put through the fire [of the Great Tribulation that is yet to come], will be purified by means of it....Wherefore cease not speaking these things into the ears of the saints..." (The Pastor of Hermas, Vision 4).

Polycarp (70-167): "He comes as the Judge of the living and the dead" (Epistle to the Philippians, II).

Justin Martyr (100-168): "The man of apostasy [Antichrist], who speaks strange things against the Most High, shall venture to do unlawful deeds on the earth against us the Christians..." (Dialogue With Trypho, 110).

Melito (100-170): "For with all his strength did the adversary assail us, even then giving a foretaste of his activity among us [during the Great Tribulation] which is to be without restraint..." (Discourse on the Resurrection, i, 8).

Irenaeus (140-202): "And they [the ten kings who shall arise] shall lay Babylon waste, and burn her with fire, and shall give their kingdom to the beast, and put the church to flight" (Against Heresies, V, 26).

Tertullian (150-220): "The souls of the martyrs are taught to wait [Rev. 6]...that the beast Antichrist with his false prophet may wage war on the Church of God..." (On the Resurrection of the Flesh, 25).

Hippolytus (160-240): "...the one thousand two hundred and three score days (the half of the week) during which the tyrant is to reign and persecute the Church, which flees from city to city, and seeks concealment in the wilderness among the mountains" (Treatise on Christ and Antichrist, 61).

Cyprian (200-258): "The day of affliction has begun to hang over our heads, and the end of the world and the time of the Antichrist to draw near, so that we must all stand prepared for the battle..." (Epistle, 55, 1).

Victorinus (240-303): "...the times of Antichrist, when all shall be injured" (Commentary on the Apocalypse of the Blessed John, VI, 5).

Lactantius (240-330): "And power will be given him [Antichrist] to desolate the whole earth for forty-two months....When these things shall so happen, then the righteous and the followers of truth shall separate themselves from the wicked, and flee into solitudes" (Divine Institutes, VII, 17).

Athanasius (293-373): "...they have not spared Thy servants, but are preparing the way for Antichrist" (History of the Arians, VIII, 79).

Ephraim the Syrian (306-373): "Nothing remains then, except that the coming of our enemy, Antichrist, appear..." (Sermo Asceticus, I).

Pseudo-Ephraem (4th century?): "...there is not other which remains, except the advent of the wicked one [Antichrist]..." (On the Last Times, the Antichrist etc., 2).

Cyril of Jerusalem (315-386): "The Church declares to thee the things concerning Antichrist before they arrive...it is well that, knowing these things, thou shouldest make thyself ready beforehand" (Catechetical Lectures, 15, 9).

Jerome (340-420): "I told you that Christ would not come unless Antichrist had come before" (Epistle 21).

Chrysostom (345-407): "...the time of Antichrist...will be a sign of the coming of Christ..." (Homilies on First Thessalonians, 9).

Augustine (354-430): "But he who reads this passage [Daniel 12], even half asleep, cannot fail to see that the kingdom of Antichrist shall fiercely, though for a short time, assail the Church..." (The City of God, XX, 23).

Venerable Bede (673-735): "[The Church's triumph will] follow the reign of Antichrist" (The Explanation of the Apocalypse, II, 8).

Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153): "There remains only one thing----that the demon of noonday [Antichrist] should appear, to seduce those who remain still in Christ..." (Sermons on the Song of Songs, 33, 16).

Roger Bacon (1214-1274): "...because of future perils [for the Church] in the times of Antichrist..." (Opus Majus, II, p. 634).

John Wycliffe (1320-1384): "Wherefore let us pray to God that he keep us in the hour of temptation, which is coming upon all the world, Rev. iii" (Writings of the Reverend and Learned John Wickliff, D.D., p. 155).

Martin Luther (1483-1546): "[The book of Revelation] is intended as a revelation of things that are to happen in the future, and especially of tribulations and disasters for the Church..." (Works of Martin Luther, VI, p. 481).

William Tyndale (1492-1536): "...antichrist preacheth not Peter's doctrine (which is Christ's gospel)...he compelleth all men with violence of sword" (Greenslade's The Work of William Tindale, p. 127).

Menno Simons (1496-1561): "...He will appear as a triumphant prince and a victorious king to bring judgment. Then will those who persecute us look upon Him..." (Complete Writings..., p. 622).

John Calvin (1509-1564): "...we ought to follow in our inquiries after Antichrist, especially where such pride proceeds to a public desolation of the church" (Institutes, Vol. 2, p. 411).

John Knox (1515-1572): "...the great love of God towards his Church, whom he pleased to forewarn of dangers to come, so many years before they come to pass...to wit, The man of sin, The Antichrist, The Whore of Babylon" (The History of the Reformation..., I, p. 76).

John Fox (1516-1587): "...that second beast prophesied to come in the later time of the Church...to disturb the whole Church of Christ..." (Acts and Monuments, I).

Roger Williams (1603-1683): "Antichrist...hath his prisons, to keep Christ Jesus and his members fast..." (The Bloody Tenent, of Persecution, p. 153).

John Bunyan (1628-1688): "He comes in flaming fire [as Judge] and...the trump of God sounds in the air, the dead to hear his voice..." (The Last Four Things: Of Judgment).

Daniel Whitby (1638-1726): "...after the Fall of Antichrist, there shall be such a glorious State of the Church...so shall this be the Church of Martyrs, and of those who had not received the Mark of the Beast..." (A Paraphrase and Commentary, p. 696).

Increase Mather (1639-1723): "That part of the world [Europe] was to be principally the Seat of the Church of Christ during the Reign of Antichrist" (Ichabod, p. 64).

Matthew Henry (1662-1714): "Those who keep the gospel in a time of peace shall be kept by Christ in an hour of temptation [Revelation 3:10]" (Commentary, VI, p. 1134).

Cotton Mather (1663-1728): "...that New Jerusalem, whereto the Church is to be advanced, when the Mystical Babylon shall be fallen" (The Wonders of the Invisible World, p. 3).

Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758): "...continuance of Antichrist's reign [when the Church is persecuted] did not commence before the year of Christ 479..." (A History of the Work of Redemption, p. 217).

John Wesley (1703-1791): "'The stars shall...fall from heaven,' (Revelation, vi. 13)....And then shall be heard the universal shout...followed by the 'voice of the archangel,'...'and the trumpet of God'...(I Thessalonians iv. 16)." (The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, A.M., Vol. V, p. 173).

George Whitefield (1714-1770): "...'while the bridegroom tarried,' in the space of time which passeth between our Lord's ascension and his coming again to judgment..." (Gillies' Memoirs of Rev. George Whitefield, p. 471).

David Brainerd (1718-1747): "...and I could not but hope, that the time was at hand, when Babylon the great would fall and rise no more" (Memoirs..., p. 326).

Morgan Edwards (1722-1795): "[Antichrist] has hitherto assumed no higher title than 'the vicar general of Christ on earth'..." (Two Academical Exercises etc., p. 20).

John Newton (1725-1807): "'Fear not temptation's fiery day, for I will be thy strength and stay. Thou hast my promise, hold it fast, the trying hour [Revelation 3:10] will soon be past'" (The Works of the Rev. John Newton, Vol. II, p. 152).

Adam Clarke (1762-1832): "We which are alive, and remain...he [Paul] is speaking of the genuine Christians which shall be found on earth when Christ comes to judgment" (Commentary, Vol. VI, p. 550).

Charles G. Finney (1792-1875): "Christ represents it as impossible to deceive the elect. Matt. 24:24. We have seen that the elect unto salvation includes all true christians." (Lectures on Systematic Theology, p. 606).

Charles Hodge (1797-1878): "...the fate of his Church here on earth...is the burden of the Apocalypse" (Systematic Theology, Vol. III, p. 827).

Albert Barnes (1798-1870): "...he will keep them in the future trials that shall come upon the world [Revelation 3:10]" (Notes on the New Testament, p. 94).

George Mueller (1805-1898): "The Scripture declares plainly that the Lord Jesus will not come until the Apostacy shall have taken place, and the man of sin...shall have been revealed..." (Mrs. Mueller's Missionary Tours and Labours, p. 148).

Benjamin W. Newton (1805-1898): "The Secret Rapture was bad enough, but this [John Darby's equally novel idea that the book of Matthew is on 'Jewish' ground instead of 'Church' ground] was worse" (unpublished Fry MS. and F. Roy Coad's Prophetic Developments, p. 29).

R. C. Trench (1807-1886): "...the Philadelphian church...to be kept in temptation, not to be exempted from temptation..." (Seven Churches of Asia, pp. 183-184).

Carl F. Keil (1807-1888): "...the persecution of the last enemy Antichrist against the church of the Lord..." (Biblical Commentary, Vol. XXXIV, p. 503).

Henry Alford (1810-1871): "Christ is on His way to this earth [I Thessalonians 4:17]..." (The New Testament for English Readers, Vol. II, p. 491).

John Lillie (1812-1867): "In his [Antichrist's] days was to be the great----the last----tribulation of the Church" (Second Thessalonians, pp. 537-538).

F. L. Godet (1812-1900): "The gathering of the elect [Matthew24:31]...is mentioned by St. Paul, 1 Thess. 4:16, 17, 2 Thess. 2:1..." (Commentary on Luke, p. 452).

Robert Murray McCheyne (1813-1842): "Christians must have 'great tribulation'; but they come out of it" (Bonar's Memoirs of McCheyne, p. 26).

S. P. Tregelles (1813-1875): "The Scripture teaches the Church to wait for the manifestation of Christ. The secret theory bids us to expect a coming before any such manifestation" (The Hope of Christ's Second Coming, p. 71).

Franz Delitzsch (1813-1890): "...the approaching day is the day of Christ, who comes...for final judgment" (Commentary on Hebrews, Vol. II, p. 183).

C. J. Ellicott (1819-1905): "[I Thessalonians 4:17] 'to meet the Lord,' as He is coming down to earth..." (Commentary on the Thessalonian Epistles, p. 66).

Nathaniel West (1826-1906): "[The Pre-Trib Rapture] is built on a postulate, vicious in logic, violent in exegesis, contrary to experience, repudiated by the early Church, contradicted by the testimony of eighteen hundred years...and condemned by all the standard scholars of every age" (The Apostle Paul and the "Any Moment" Theory, p. 30).

Alexander Maclaren (1826-1910): "He will keep us in the midst of, and also from, the hour of temptation [Revelation 3:10]" (The Epistles of John, Jude and the Book of Revelation, p. 266).

J. H. Thayer (1828-1901): "To keep [Revelation 3:10]:...by guarding, to cause one to escape in safety out of" (A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, p. 622).

Adolph Saphir (1831-1891): "...the advent of the Messiah...to which both the believing synagogue and the church of the Lord Jesus Christ are looking..." (The Epistle to the Hebrews, Vol. I, p. 96).

M. R. Vincent (1834-1922): "The preposition ['from'] implies, not a keeping from temptation, but a keeping in temptation [Revelation 3:10]..." (Word Studies..., p. 466).

William J. Erdman (1834-1923): "...by the 'saints' seen as future by Daniel and by John are meant 'the Church'..." (Notes on the Book of Revelation, p. 47).

H. Grattan Guinness (1835-1910): "...the Church is on earth during the action of the Apocalypse..." (The Approaching End of the Age, p. 136).

H. B. Swete (1835-1917): "The promise [of Revelation 3:10], as Bede says, is 'not indeed of your being immune from adversity, but of not being overcome by it'" (The Apocalypse of St. John, p. 56).

William G. Moorehead (1836-1914): "...the last days of the Church's deepest humiliation when Antichrist is practicing and prospering (Dan. viii:12)..." (Outline Studies in the New Testament, p. 123).

A. H. Strong (1836-1921): "The final coming of Christ is referred to in: Mat. 24:30...[and] I Thess. 4:16..." (Systematic Theology, p. 567).

Theodor Zahn (1838-1933): "...He will preserve...at the time of the great temptation [Revelation 3:10]..." (Zahn-Kommentar, I, p. 305).

I. T. Beckwith (1843-1936): "The Philadelphians...are promised that they shall be carried in safety through the great trial [Revelation 3:10], they shall not fall" (The Apocalypse of John, p. 484).

Robert Cameron (1845-1922): "The Coming for, and the Coming with, the saints, still persists, although it involves a manifest contradiction, viz., two Second Comings which is an absurdity" (Scriptural Truth About the Lord's Return, p. 16).

B. B. Warfield (1851-1921): "...He shall come again to judgment...to close the dispensation of grace..." (Biblical Doctrines, p. 639).

David Baron (1855-1926): "(Tit. ii. 13), for then the hope as regards the church, and Israel, and the world, will be fully realised" (Visions of Zechariah, p. 323).

Philip Mauro (1859-1952): "...'dispensational teaching' is modernistic in the strictest sense...it first came into existence within the memory of persons now living..." (The Gospel of the Kingdom, p. 8).

A. T. Robertson (1863-1934): "In Rev. 3:10...we seem to have the picture of general temptation with the preservation of the saints" (A Grammar of the Greek New Testament in the Light of Historical Research, p. 596).

R. C. H. Lenski (1864-1936): "...it [Philadelphia] shall be kept untouched and unharmed by the impending dangers [Revelation 3:10]" (The Interpretation of St. John's Revelation, pp. 146-146).

William E. Biederwolf (1867-1939): "Godet, like most pre-millennial expositors, makes no provision for any period between the Lord's coming for His saints and His coming with them..." (The Second Coming Bible, p. 385).

Alexander Reese (1881-1969): "...we quite deliberately reject the dispensational theories, propounded first about 1830..." (The Approaching Advent of Christ, p. 293).

Norman S. MacPherson (1899-1980): "...the view that the Church will not pass into or through the Great Tribulation is based largely upon arbitrary interpretations of obscure passages" (Triumph Through Tribulation, p. 5).

The politically incorrect truth about Kwanzaa

2008-12-31T14:47:00.001-08:00

Marcia Segelstein - OneNewsNow Columnist - 12/16/2008 6:30:00 AM

Maybe your child's "holiday" concert at school includes Kwanzaa songs these days. Our elementary school did. One grade each year was assigned that holiday, with a young student offering a brief explanation of what Kwanzaa is about, dressing in appropriate Kwanzaa accessories, and singing Kwanzaa songs.

Maybe your child's preschool teacher is reading aloud one of the many children's books on Kwanzaa which you also probably see displayed at your local library. Maybe as a craft, your little one is making a construction paper "kinara," the Kwanzaa candle holder.

Perhaps your children have been taught about Kwanzaa's seven principles: unity, self-determination, collective responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and faith.

Maybe you think that's all innocuous enough, right? Well, if your children are being taught what most of us have been led to believe -- i.e. that Kwanzaa is an ancient African tradition, celebrated at harvest time, and observed by blacks around the world -- they're being taught lies.

Visit Marcia Segelstein's blog -- she values your comments and ideas!

Despite the fact that it's now de rigueur for U.S. presidents to offer up an official Kwanzaa message annually, and for greeting card stores to display their Kwanzaa lines each year, and for the U.S. Postal Service to issue Kwanzaa stamps, and for children to assume Kwanzaa's up there with Christmas and Chanukah in terms of important holidays during this season, there's probably a lot you don't know about Kwanzaa.

Kwanzaa was invented in 1966 by black radical and ex-convict Ron Karenga, now known as Dr. Maulana Karenga. Karenga has an interesting history. He helped to found a radically anti-white organization called the United Slaves, because he believed that the Black Panthers were insufficiently violent.

Over the years, Kwanzaa has "evolved" from its original incarnation. Back in 1999, the official Kwanzaa website declared that the celebration was intended to foster "conditions that would enhance the revolutionary social change for the masses of Black Americans." Karenga created a black, red and green flag, along with a pledge to go along with it: "We pledge allegiance to the red, black and green, our flag, the symbol of our eternal struggle, and to the land we must obtain; one nation of black people, with one G-d of us all, totally united in the struggle, for black love, black freedom and black self-determination." The website's been cleaned up considerably since then. All that radical talk can't be good for selling Kwanzaa cards and "kinaras."

Those seven principles your children are learning about are the same seven principles of the Symbionese Liberation Army. Do you remember the famous photo of Patricia Hearst with the SLA banner in the background? Each head of that seven-headed cobra (the SLA symbol) represented one of the principles which today define the meaning of Kwanzaa.

In case you were wondering what the fourth principle of cooperative economics means, by the way, one of the many children's books on Kwanzaa offers an explanation: "Buying from each other is a good way to make a community strong." So be sure to check the skin color of that store owner before you spend your money.

And what about faith, the seventh priniciple? Does Kwanzaa have anything to do with religion or God? Uh, no. That helpful children's book clarifies it. "People can have faith in themselves, in their parents, in their teachers, and in their race." Anita Hill is pictured with the caption: "Law professor Anita Hill displays the imani [faith] principle by having faith in herself. Jesse Jackson is pictured with the caption: "Kwanzaa is a good time to study African-American leaders, such as Jesse Jackson." Not surprisingly, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas didn't make the cut.

Did I mention that it's a holiday based on race? According to one of the many Kwanzaa websites, "The celebration of Kwanzaa is a means for Black people to reaffirm their commitment to themselves, their families, their community, and the black struggle for equality." As it says in another of the many children's books on Kwanzaa, "It celebrates a whole race of people." After one holiday concert, my then second-grader asked if we could celebrate Kwanzaa. I decided to save lengthier discussions for later, and gave the short answer: "No, because we're not black." Can you imagine schools, the media, and the culture in general embracing a holiday based on being white?

Despite what the official Kwanzaa website states, there is absolutely no evidence that the holiday is "celebrated by millions throughout the world African community." Nor is it "ancient," as the website declares. I doubt that most Africans have ever even heard of it, because it has no African roots. There is no harvest celebration in Africa in December.

Kwanzaa is a fraud. It is a holiday based on skin color. It is the invention of a former black nationalist and ex-convict.

And we are like the townsfolk in the story of The Emperor's New Clothes, afraid to say that he's just plain naked.

The Cause of God and Truth - John Gill

2008-09-01T21:05:00.000-07:00

Many thanks to pbminitries.com

PART 1. - EXAMINATION OF

PART 2.

CHAPTER 1. OF REPROBATION - A VINDICATION OF.

CHAPTER 2. OF ELECTION.

CHAPTER 3. OF REDEMPTION.

CHAPTER 4. OF EFFICACIOUS GRACE.

Introduction

SECTION 1. - Ephesians 1:19, 20

SECTION 2. - 2 Corinthians 5:17

SECTION 3. - John 3:5

SECTION 4. - Ephesians 2:1

SECTION 5. - 1 Corinthians 2:14

SECTION 6. - 2 Corinthians 3:5

SECTION 7. - John 15:5

CHAPTER 4. OF EFFICACIOUS GRACE. (cont.)

SECTION 8. - John 6:44

SECTION 9. - Acts 9:18

SECTION 10. - Acts 14:14

SECTION 11. - Jeremiah 31:18

SECTION 12. - Jeremiah 31:33

SECTION 13. - Ezekiel 36:26

SECTION 14. - Philippians 2:13

SECTION 15. - 1 Corinthians 4:7

SECTION 16. - Ephesians 2:8, 9

CHAPTER 5. OF THE CORRUPTION OF HUMAN NATURE, AND THE IMPOTENCE OF THE WILL TO MAN TO THAT WHICH IS SPIRITUALLY GOOD.

CHAPTER 6. OF PERSEVERANCE.

PART 3.

PART 4.
Introduction

CHAPTER 1. OF PREDESTINATION

CHAPTER 2. OF REDEMPTION.

CHAPTER 3. OF ORIGINAL SIN, THE IMPOTENCE OF MAN’S FREE WILL, ETC.

CHAPTER 3. OF ORIGINAL SIN, THE IMPOTENCE OF MAN’S FREE WILL, ETC. (CONT.)

CHAPTER 4. OF EFFICACIOUS GRACE

CHAPTER 5. OF PERSEVERANCE.

CHAPTER 6. OF THE HEATHENS.

For Pastors Only - Prayer of a Minor Prophet

2008-05-13T20:24:00.000-07:00

By A. W Tozer

This is the prayer of a man called to be a witness to the nations. This is what he said to his Lord on the day of his ordination. After the elders and ministers had prayed and laid their hands on him he withdrew to meet his Saviour in the secret place and in the silence, farther in than his well-meaning brethren could take him. And he said:

O Lord, I have heard Thy voice and was afraid. Thou hast called me to an awesome task in a grave and perilous hour. Thou are about to shake all nations and the earth and also heaven, that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. O Lord, our Lord, Thou has stopped to honor me to be Thy servant. No man takes this honor upon himself save he that is called of God as was Aaron. Thou has ordained me Thy messenger to them that are stubborn of heart and hard of hearing. They have rejected Thee, the Master, and it is not to be expected that they will receive me, the servant.

My God, I shall not waste time deploring my weakness nor my unfittedness for the work. The responsibility is not mine but Thine. Thou hast said, “I knew thee—I ordained thee—I sanctified thee,” and Thou has also said, “Thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak.” Who am I to argue with Thee or to call into question Thy sovereign choice? The decision is not mine but Thine. So be it, Lord. Thy will, not mine, be done.

Well do I know, Thou God of the prophets and the apostles, that as long as I honor Thee Thou wilt honor me. Help me therefore to take this solemn vow to honor Thee in all my future life and labors, whether by gain or by loss, by life or by death, and then to keep that vow unbroken while I live.

It is time, O God, for Thee to work, for the enemy has entered into Thy pastures and the sheep are torn and scattered. And false shepherds abound who deny the danger and laugh at the perils which surround Thy flock. The sheep are deceived by these hirelings and follow them with touching loyalty while the wolf closes in to kill and destroy. I beseech Thee, give me sharp eyes to detect the presence of the enemy; give me understanding to distinguish the false friend from the true. Give me vision to see and courage to report what I see faithfully. Make my voice so like Thine own that even the sick sheep will recognize it and follow Thee.

Lord Jesus, I come to Thee for spiritual preparation. Lay Thy hand upon me. Anoint me with the oil of the New Testament prophet. Forbid that I should become a religious scribe and thus lose my prophetic calling. Save me from the curse that lies dark across the face of the modern clergy, the curse of compromise, of imitation, of professionalism. Save me from the error of judging a church by its size, its popularity or the amount of its yearly offering. Help me to remember that I am a prophet; not a promoter, not a religious manager—but a prophet. Let me never become a slave to crowds. Heal my soul of carnal ambitions and deliver me from the itch for publicity. Save me from the bondage to things. Let me not waste my days puttering around the house. Lay Thy terror upon me, O God, and drive me to the place of prayer where I may wrestle with principalities and powers and the rulers of the darkness of this world. Deliver me from overeating and late sleeping. Teach me self-discipline that I may be a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

I accept hard work and small rewards in this life. I ask for no easy place. I shall try to be blind to the little ways that I could make my life easier. If others seek the smoother path I shall try to take the hard way without judging them too harshly. I shall expect opposition and try to take it quietly when it comes. Or if, as sometimes it falleth out to Thy servants, I shall have grateful gifts pressed upon me by Thy kindly people, stand by me then and save me from the blight that often follows. Teach me to use whatever I receive in such manner that it will not injure my soul nor diminish my spiritual power. And if in Thy permissive providence honor should come to me from Thy church, let me not forget in that hour that I am unworthy of the least of Thy mercies, and that if men knew me as intimately as I know myself they would withhold their honors or bestow them upon others more worthy to receive them.

And now, O Lord of heaven and earth, I consecrate my remaining days to Thee; let them be many or few, as Thou wilt. Let me stand before the great or minister to the poor and lowly; that choice is not mine, and I would not influence it if I could. I am Thy servant to do Thy will, and that will is sweeter to me than position or riches or fame and I choose it above all things on earth or in heaven. Though I am chosen of Thee and honored by a high and holy calling, let me never forget that I am but a man of dust and ashes, a man with all the natural faults and passions that plague the race of men. I pray Thee therefore, my Lord and Redeemer, save me from myself and from all the injuries I may do myself while trying to be a blessing to others. Fill me with thy power by the Holy Spirit, and I will go in Thy strength and tell of Thy righteousness, even Thine only. I will spread abroad the message of redeeming love while my normal powers endure.

Then, dear Lord, when I am old and weary and too tired to go on, have a place ready for me above, and make me to be numbered with Thy saints in glory everlasting. Amen.

A Baptist Catechism

2008-05-12T22:51:00.000-07:00

(Adapted by John Piper)

A Catechism?

I. What is a catechism?

In 1 Corinthians 14:19 Paul says, "In the church I would rather speak five words with my mind, in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue." In Galatians 6:6 he says, "Let him who is taught the word share all good things with him who teaches." Acts 18:25 says that Apollos "has been instructed in the way of the Lord."

In each of these verses the Greek word for "instruct" or "teach" is katecheo. From this word we get our English word "catechize". It simply means to teach Biblical truth in an orderly way. Generally this is done with questions and answers accompanied by Biblical support and explanation.

II. What is the history of this catechism?

This is a slightly revised version of "The Baptist Catechism" first put forth by Baptists in 1689 in Great Britain. It was adopted by the Philadelphia Baptist Association in 1742. It is patterned on the well-known reformed Westminster Catechism. The few comments in the earlier questions are meant to help parents make things plain to their children.

III. Is there a Biblical pattern of doctrine?

Several texts teach that there is. For example, in Romans 6:17 Paul gives thanks that "you have become obedient from the heart to the pattern of teaching to which you were committed." 2 Timothy 1:13 says, "Follow the pattern of sound words which you heard from me." Acts 2:42 says, "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching." 2 Thessalonians 2:15 says, "Stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught by us." And Acts 20:27 says, "I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God."

So it appears that there was a body of authoritative instruction and even a way of teaching it in the early church.

IV. Why is it important?

1) We are required to "continue in the faith, stable and steadfast" (Col. 1:23).

2) We are urged to "attain to the unity of the... knowledge of the Son of God...so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine" (Eph. 4:13-14).

3) There are many deceivers (1 John 2:26).

4) There are difficult doctrines "which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction" (2 Peter 3:16).

5) Leaders must be raised up who can "give instruction in sound doctrine and also confute those who contradict it" (Titus 1:9).

V. How shall we begin?

Make them part of your family routine or just use them for yourself. I am excited about being a partner with you in building a "stable and firm" generation who hopes in God.

Learning and teaching with you,
Pastor John

The Catechism

Sometimes there are other ways to express a true answer to these questions. Feel free to use Scripture to formulate other true answers where possible and helpful. The aim of a catechism is not to be exhaustive but to give a solid tease from which to "keep growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 3:17).

Question 1: Who is the first and best of beings?

Answer: God is the first and best of beings.

Scripture: Isaiah 44:6; Psalm 8:1; 96:4; 97:9, 1 Samuel 2:2

Question 2: What is the chief end of man?

Answer: Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 10:31; Psalm 16:11; 37:4; 73:25-26; Isaiah43:7.

Comment: "Glorify” does not mean make glorious. It means [to] reflect or display as glorious. Other words you could use for "end" are "goal" or "purpose".

Question 3: How do we know there is a God?

Answer: The light of nature in man, and the works of God, plainly declares that there is a God; but his word and Spirit only, do effectually reveal him unto us for our salvation.

Scripture: Romans 1:18-20; Psalm 19:1-2; 2 Timothy 3:15; 1 Corinthians 1:21-24; 2:9, 10; Matthew 11:27.

Comment: The question distinguishes two kinds of knowledge: one is natural and comes from conscience ("the light of nature in man") and from the works of God in nature; the other is spiritual or saving, and comes from the recognition of the true value of God and the beauty of his character. Natural knowledge is possessed by all people and thus makes all people accountable to honor and thank God. Spiritual knowledge is possessed only by those whose natural blindness has been overcome by the Spirit of God. (1 Cor. 2:14-16). Our children must come to see the difference between these lest they think they are saved by much natural knowledge about God—which the devils also have James 2:19).

Question 4: What is the Word of God?

Answer: The Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, being given by divine inspiration, are the Word of God, the only infallible rule of faith and practice.

Scripture: 2 Peter 1:21; 2 Timothy 3:16, 17; Isaiah 8:20; Matthew 5:17- 18; 1 Corinthians 2:13; Psalm 19:7-8.

Comment: "Scriptures" is a special word for the "writings" of the OT and NT. Perhaps you will want to explain that the OT deals with God's word that came before Jesus was born; and the NT is the word of God that came after Jesus was born. "Infallible" means it will never lead us astray in what it teaches. It is true and does not err. It can be trusted. "Faith" refers to right thinking and feeling; and "practice" refers to right doing. We measure our thoughts and emotions and actions by the rule of the Bible. "Inspiration" means that it is God-breathed: by his Spirit he guided his spokesmen to speak his word in their language.

Question 5: How do we know that the Bible is the Word of God?

Answer: The Bible evidences itself to be God's Word by the heavenliness of its doctrine, the unity of its parts, and its power to convert sinners and to edify saints. But only the Spirit of God can make us willing to agree and submit to the Bible as the Word of God.

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 2:6-7,13-16; Psalm 19:7-9; 119:18,129; Acts 10:43; 26:22; 18:28; Hebrews 4:12; Romans 15:4; John 16:13,14; 1 John 2:20-27; 2 Corinthians 3:14-17; 4:4, 6.

Comment: "Heavenliness" refers to the fact [that] the teachings of Scripture are of such a nature that they cannot be explained by mere human resources. They bear the marks of the supernatural. "No man ever spoke like this man" (John 7:46). The "unity of its parts" has to do especially with the way all Scripture points to Christ. "To him all the prophets bear witness" (Acts 10:43). There are detailed and scholarly historical arguments for the reliability of the Bible, but these are generally beyond the acquaintance of ordinary Christians, and so do not serve as widespread support for Scripture. They are needed, however, in the scholarly arena. [See "Is the Bible a Reliable Guide to Lasting Joy" in Desiring God by John Piper (Multnomah Press, 1986).]

Question 6: May all men make use of the Scriptures?

Answer: All men are not only permitted, but commanded and exhorted, to read, hear, and understand the Scriptures.

Scripture: John 5:39; Luke 16:29; Acts 8:28-30; 17:11.

Question 7: What do the Scriptures mainly teach?

Answer: The Scriptures mainly teach what man is to believe about God and what duty God requires of man.

Scripture: 2 Timothy 3:16, 17; John 20:31; Acts 24:14; 1 Corinthians 10:11; Ecclesiastes 12:13.

Question 8: What is God?

Answer: God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.

Scripture: John 4:24; Psalm 89:14; 90:2; 147:5; James 1:17; Revelation 4:8; Exodus 34:6, 7; 1 Timothy 1:17; Numbers 23:19.

Comment: Ask what "infinite" means (there is no limit to how great he is!). What does "eternal" mean? (He never had a beginning and will never have an ending!) Talk about how God can respond to us and yet not be "changeable." (His character never changes; he acts consistently on the same principles always. Even his responses to us are known and planned long before so that his purposes are unchanging.)

Question 9: Are there more Gods than one?

Answer: There is only one living and true God.

Scripture: Deuteronomy 6:4; Jeremiah 10:10; Psalm 96:4-5.

Comment: There are "gods" which are idols, but they are not "living". And there are "gods" which are angels or demons, but they are not "true" God, that is they are not eternal, infinite and unchanging. Only one God is living and true.

Question 10: How many persons are there in the Godhead?

Answer: There are three persons in the Godhead: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one God, the same in essence, equal in power and glory.

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 2:11; 8:6; John 1:1; 10:30; 14:9; 20:28; Acts 5:3,4; Matthew 28:19; 2 Corinthians 13:14; Colossians 2:9; Hebrews 1:3.

Comment: The word "Godhead" is needed because we shouldn't say that there are three persons in God. No, there are three persons who are God. Nor should we say that there are three Gods. There is one God. They are distinct persons with special roles in creation and redemption. But they are in perfect harmony and are (in ways beyond our comprehension) perfectly One God. (See The Pleasures of God, by John Piper, Multnomah Press, pp. 38, 42-44 for one explanation of the Trinity.)

Question 11: What are the decrees of God?

Answer: The decrees of God are his eternal purpose, according to the counsel of his will, whereby for his own glory, he has foreordained whatsoever comes to pass.

Scripture: Ephesians 1:11; Romans 11:36; Daniel 4:35; Isaiah 46:10; Psalm 115:3; Amos 3:6.

Comment: You might shorten it to: "God's decrees are his own plans for history. And they always happen." His purpose for the world is eternal because there never was a time when he didn't know what he was going to do. His purpose accords with the counsel of HIS will--that is he did not consult anyone else. He thought it ALL up. All plans were made in order to maximize the display of his glory. NOTHING falls outside the decrees of God.

Question 12: How does God execute his decrees?

Answer: God executes his decrees in the works of creation and providence.

Scripture: Genesis 1:1; Revelation 4:11; Matthew 5:45; 6:26; Acts 14:17: Proverbs 16:9, 33; 19:21; 20:24; 21:1, 31.

Comment: Instead of "execute" you can say "perform" or "accomplish" or "bring about". The word "providence" will be taken up in a later question. For now it refers to the way God preserves and governs all his creatures and all their actions (like the fall of a bird or the election of a president). It refers to God's general rule over the world he has created.

Question 13: What is the work of creation?

Answer: The work of creation is God's making all things [out] of nothing, by the word of his power and all very good.

Scripture: Genesis 1:1, 31; Hebrews 11:3; Exodus 20:11; Romans 4:17.

Comment: Before creation there was only God in the holy fellowship of the Trinity. Therefore his creation is always different from ours: we start with something.

Question 14: How did God create man?

Answer: God created man male and female, after his own image, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, with dominion over the creatures.

Scripture: Genesis 1:27-28; Colossians 3:10; Ephesians 4:24.

Comment: In saying that we were created after his image "in knowledge, righteousness and holiness," we do not mean we know all God knows, nor that we are a fountain of righteousness and holiness the way he is. We mean that we were capable of sharing his knowledge and righteousness and holiness in a relationship of trust and love unlike any other creature under the angels.

Question 15: What are God's works of providence?

Answer: God's works of providence are the holy, wise, and powerful acts which he preserves and governs all his creatures, and all their actions.

Scripture: Nehemiah 9:6; Colossians 1:17; Hebrews 1:3; Psalm 103:19; Matthew 10:29-30.

Comment: It would be helpful to discuss this with your child in relation to the common concept of "luck." Is there such a thing as luck in a world ruled by the providence of God? "The lot is cast into the lap, but the decision is wholly from the Lord" (16:33). You will also need to stress that many of God's acts of providence may not look "holy and wise" (like storms that kill thousands of people). But then stress that God has his secret purposes (Deut. 29:29) that we are never great enough to see, and the Judge of all the earth always does right (Genesis 18:25).

Question 16: What special act of providence did God exercise towards man when he was first created?

Answer: When God had created man, he made a covenant with him that he should live and enjoy all the benefits of creation, but that he would die if he forsook the obedience that comes from faith. God commanded him not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and thus forsake his child-like dependence upon God for all things.

Scripture: Genesis 2:15-17; Galatians 3:12; Romans 5:12.

Comment: The "knowledge of good and evil" is the ability to judge independently what is beneficial (good) and harmful (evil) for yourself. What God is forbidding is that man should choose to be independent from God in his evaluation of things. He is commanding man to walk by faith in the wise and loving care of his heavenly Father. (See the use of this phrase in Gen. 3:5, 22; 2 Sam. 14:17; Is. 7:15; 2 Sam 19:35.)

Question 17: Did our first parents continue in the glad obedience for which they were created?

Answer: No, but desiring to be like God, our first parents forsook the obedience of faith, ate of the forbidden tree, sinned against God, and fell from the innocence in which they were created.

Scripture: Genesis 3:1-7; Ecclesiastes 7:29; Romans 5:12.

Question 18: What is sin?

Answer: Sin is transgression of the revealed will of God which teaches that we are to act in perfect holiness from a heart of faith to the glory of God.

Scripture: 1 John 3:4; Romans 5:13; 14:23; 1 Peter 1:16; Matthew 5:48; 1 Corinthians 10:31.

Comment Simplified: Sin is any attitude or desire or action that explicitly breaks a commandment of Scripture, or comes from a heart of unbelief or is not done for the glory of God.

Question 19: What was the sin whereby our first parents fell from the estate wherein they were created?

Answer: The sin whereby our first parents fell from the estate wherein they were created, was their eating the forbidden fruit

Scripture: Genesis 3:6, 12, 13.

Question 20: Did all mankind fall in Adam's first sin?

Answer: All mankind, descending from Adam by ordinary generation, sinned in him, and fell with him in his first sin.

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 15:21-22; Romans 5:12, 18-19.

Comment: God considered all mankind as being in Adam so that when Adam went bad we all went bad in him. The nature that we have by virtue of belonging to Adam's race is morally corrupt. We are under the wrath of God "by nature" (Ephesians 2:3) from the time we were conceived in the womb. This is why conversion and salvation must be much more than a "decision" for Christ. It must be a new creation, a rebirth, an exchange of hearts.

Question 21: Into what condition did the fall bring mankind?

Answer: The fall brought mankind into a condition of sin and misery.

Scripture: Psalm 51:5; Romans 5:18-19; 7:18; Isaiah 53:6; 64:6; John 3:6-7; Ephesians 2:1-3; 1 Corinthians 2:14.

Question 22: What is the sinfulness of that condition into which all mankind has fallen?

Answer: The sinfulness of the condition into which all mankind fell is the guilt of Adam's first sin, the lack of original righteousness, and the corruption of our whole nature (which is commonly called original sin), together with all actual transgressions which come from this nature.

Scripture: Romans 5:19; 3:10; Ephesians 2:1; Isaiah 53:6; Psalm 51:5; Matthew 15:19.

Comment: The Bible says that "in Adam all die" (1 Cor. 15:22) and that "one transgression yields condemnation for all men" (Rom. 5:18) and that "one man's disobedience made many sinners" (Rom. 5:19). These statements lead us to conclude that God, in a way beyond our comprehension, established a unity between Adam and his posterity which makes it just for us to receive the imputation of his guilt and corruption. He was in some sense our representative head. We sinned in him and fell with him.

Question 23: What is the misery into which all mankind fell through Adam's first sin?

Answer: All mankind, by their fall, lost communion with God, are under his wrath and curse, and so made liable to all the miseries of this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell forever.

Scripture: Genesis 3:8, 24; Ephesians 2:3; Galatians 3:10; Romans 6:23; Matthew 25:41-46; Psalm 9:17.

Comment: Keep in mind that "liable to" means that these miseries will indeed befall all people unless a special work of God's grace intervenes.

Question 24: Did God leave all mankind to perish in the condition of sin and misery?

Answer: God, out of his mere good pleasure, from all eternity, having chosen a people to everlasting life, did enter into a covenant of grace, to deliver them out of the condition of sin and misery, and to bring them into a condition of salvation, by a Redeemer.

Scripture: Ephesians 1:3-4; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; Romans 5:21; 8:29-30; 9:11-12; 11:5-7; Acts 13:48; Jeremiah 31:33.

Comment: The term "covenant of grace" is filled with sweet and precious hope. It refers to the free decision, commitment and oath of God to employ all his omnipotence and wisdom and love to rescue and glorify his people from sin and misery. It is wholly initiated and carried through by God. It cannot fail.

It is valid for all who believe. WHOSOEVER WILL MAY COME AND ENJOY THIS GRACE! And, since this "believing" and this "willing" is a work of God's sovereign grace, those who believe and come are the elect, "chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world" (Eph. 1:4). Thus the covenant was sealed in the heart of God before the world was.

This "covenant of grace" is the cry of victory over all the battle strife in missions. THE GRACE OF GOD WILL TRIUMPH! He is covenant-bound, oath-bound to save all those who are foreordained to eternal life (Acts 13:48)! "Jesus died for the nation (of Jews), and not for the nation only, but to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad" (John 11:52).

The battle cry of missions is, "The Lord has other sheep that are not of this fold: He MUST (covenant-bound!!) bring them also. They WILL (sovereign grace!!) heed his voice!" John 10:16.

Question 25: Who is the Redeemer of God's elect?

Answer: The only Redeemer of God's elect is the Lord Jesus Christ, who, being the eternal Son of God, became man, and so was and continues to be God and man, in two distinct natures and one person, forever.

Scripture: Galatians 3:13; 1 Timothy 2:5; 3:16; John 1:14; Romans 9:5; Colossians 2:9.

Question 26: How did Christ, being the Son of God, become man?

Answer: Christ, the Son of God became man by taking to himself a true body and a reasonable soul. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary, and was born of her, yet without sin.

Scripture: Hebrews 2:14; 4:14; 7:26; Matthew 26:38; Luke 2:52; John 1:14; 12:27; Luke 1:31, 35; 2:52; Colossians 2:9.

Comment: I am typing this on a Personal Computer. I have virtually no idea how it works. That it works I am certain: I have typed hundreds of sermons on it. So it is with the "incarnation"--the "how" is (as the old theologians used to say) "ineffable". We believe it because the Scriptures teach it and because it "works" to make sense out of God's whole redemptive plan.

Question 27: What offices does Christ perform as our Redeemer?

Answer: Christ, as our Redeemer, performs the offices of a prophet, of a priest, and of a king, both in his condition of humiliation and exaltation.

Scripture: Acts 3:22; Hebrews 5:6; Psalm 2:6.

Question 28: How does Christ perform the office of a prophet?

Answer: Christ performs the office of a prophet, in revealing to us, by his Word and Spirit, the will of God for our salvation.

Scripture: John 1:18; 14:26; 15:15.

Question 29: How does Christ perform the office of a priest?

Answer: Christ performs the office of a priest by once offering himself as a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice, and to reconcile us to God; and by making continual intercession for us before God.

Scripture: 1 Peter 2:24; Hebrews 2: 17; 7:25; 9:28; Ephesians 5:2; Romans 8:34.

Question 30: How does Christ perform the office of a king?

Answer: Christ performs the office of a king, in subduing us to himself, in ruling and defending us, and in restraining and conquering all his and our enemies.

Scripture: Psalm 110:1-2; Matthew 2:6; Luke 1:32-33; 1 Corinthians 15:25.

Question 31: What do we mean by Christ's humiliation?

Answer: By Christ's humiliation we mean that he was born, and that in a low condition; that he was made under the law, and underwent the miseries of this life, the wrath of God, and the cursed death of the cross; that he was buried, and continued under the power of death for a time.

Scripture: Luke 2:7; Galatians 4:4; Isaiah 53:3; Luke 22:44; Matthew 12:40; 27:46; Philippians 2:8; Mark 15:45-6.

Question 32: What do we mean by Christ's exaltation?

Answer: By Christ's exaltation we mean his rising again from the dead on the third day, ascending up into heaven, sitting at the right hand of God the Father, and coming to judge the world at the last day.

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 15:4; Acts 1:11; Mark 16:19; Acts 17:31.

Question 33: How are we made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ?

Answer: We are made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ, by the effective application of it to us, by his Holy Spirit.

Scripture: John 3:5, 6; Titus 3:5, 6.

Question 34: How does the Spirit apply to us the redemption purchased by Christ?

Answer: The Spirit applies to us the redemption purchased by Christ, by working faith in us, and thereby uniting us to Christ in our effectual calling.

Scripture: 1 John 5:1; Philippians 1:29; Ephesians 2:8; Acts 16:14; 18:27; John 3:8; 6:64f.

Question 35: What is effectual calling?

Answer: Effectual calling is the work of God's Spirit, to convince us of our sin and misery, to enlighten our minds in the knowledge of Christ, to renew our wills, and thus persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ, freely offered to us in the gospel.

Scripture: 2 Timothy 1:9; John 6:44, 45; 16:8-11; Acts 2:37; 26:18; Ezekiel 36:26; Romans 8:30; 1 Corinthians 1:24; 12:3.

Question 36: What benefits do those who are effectually called receive in this life?

Answer: Those who are effectually called receive in this life justification, adoption, sanctification, and the several benefits which in this life accompany or flow from them.

Scripture: Romans 8:30-32; Galatians 3:26; 1 Corinthians 1:30; 6:11; Ephesians 1:5.

Comment: We must distinguish effectual calling from the general call of the gospel. Not all who hear the gospel believe. But all who are effectually called by God do believe. The call creates what it commands.

Question 37: What is justification?

Answer: Justification is an act of God's free grace, by which he pardons all our sins, and accepts us as righteous in his sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and received by faith alone.

Scripture: Romans 3:24; 5:19; Ephesians 1:7; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Philippians 3:9; Galatians 2:16.

Question 38: What is adoption?

Answer: Adoption is an act of God's free grace, by which we are received into the company of God's children and have a right to all the privileges of his sons.

Scripture: 1 John 3:1; John 1:12; Romans 8:16, 17.

Question 39: What is sanctification?

Answer: Sanctification is the work of God's free grace by which we are renewed in the whole person after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin, and live unto righteousness.

Scripture: 2 Thessalonians 2:13; Ephesians 4:23, 24; Romans 6:11.

Question 40: What are the benefits which in this life do accompany or flow from justification, adoption, and sanctification?

Answer: The benefits which in this life do accompany or flow from justification, adoption, and sanctification, are, assurance of God's love, peace of conscience, fellowship with Christ, joy in the Holy Spirit, increase of grace, the privilege of prayer, and perseverance therein to the end.

Scripture: Romans 5:1-5; 14:17; Proverbs 4:18: 1 Peter 1:5; 1 John 5:13; 1 Corinthians 1:9; John 15:7.

Question 41: What benefits do believers receive from Christ at death?

Answer: At death the souls of believers are made perfect in holiness, and immediately pass into glory. Their bodies rest in their graves till the resurrection.

Scripture: Hebrews 12:23; Philippians 1:23; 2 Corinthians 5:8; Luke 23:43; 1 Thessalonians 4:14; Isaiah 57:2; Job 19:26.

Question 42: What benefits do believers receive from Christ at the Resurrection?

Answer: At the resurrection, believers are raised up in glory; they shall be openly acknowledged and acquitted in the Day of Judgment, and made perfectly blessed in the full enjoyment of God to all eternity.

Scripture: Philippians 3:20, 21; 1 Corinthians 15:42, 43; Matthew 10:32; 1 John 3:2; 1 Thessalonians 4:17.

Question 43: What shall be done to the wicked at death?

Answer: The souls of the wicked shall at death, be cast into the torments of hell, and their bodies lie in their graves till the resurrection and judgment of the great day.

Scripture: Luke 16:22-4; Daniel 12:2; John 5:29; Revelation 20:11- 15.

Question 44: What shall be done to the wicked at the Day of Judgment?

Answer: At the Day of Judgment, the bodies of the wicked, being raised out of their graves shall be sentenced, together with their souls, to unspeakable torments with the devil and his angels forever.

Scripture: Daniel 12:2; John 5:28, 29; 2 Thessalonians 1:9; Matthew 25:41; Revelation 20:14-15.

Question 45: What is the duty which God requires of man?

Answer: The duty which God requires of man is the obedience that comes from faith.

Scripture: Galatians 5:6; 1 Thessalonians 1:3; 2 Thessalonians 2:11; Romans 1:5; 16:26; 15:18.

Comment: See questions 16-18.

Question 46: What did God at first reveal to man for the rule of his obedience?

Answer: The rule which God at first revealed to man for his obedience was the moral law.

Scripture: Rom. 2:14; 15; 5:13, 14.

Question 47: Where is the obedience of faith given in summary form?

Answer: A summary form of the obedience of faith is given in the Ten Commandments.

Scripture: Hebrews 3:18-19; 4:2; Exodus 34:28; Deuteronomy 10:4; Romans 9:32.

Question 48: What is the sum of the Ten Commandments?

Answer: The sum of the Ten Commandments is to love the Lord our God, with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength, and with all our mind; and to love our neighbor as ourselves.

Scripture: Matthew 22:36-40; Mark 12:28-33.

Question 49: What is the preface to the Ten Commandments?

Answer: The preface to the Ten Commandments is, "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage."

Scripture: Exodus 20:2.

Question 50: What does the preface to the Ten Commandments teach us?

Answer: The preface to the Ten Commandments teaches us that because God is the LORD, and our gracious Redeemer, his commandments are for our good and he does not will for us to depend on ourselves in keeping them, but to trust his grace and power.

Scripture: Deuteronomy 10:13, 16; 30:6.

Question 51: Which is the first commandment?

Answer: The first commandment is, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me."

Scripture: Exodus 20:3.

Question 52: What is required in the first commandment?

Answer: The first commandment requires us to know and acknowledge God to be the only true God, and our God, and to worship and glorify him accordingly.

Scripture: Joshua 24:15; 1 Chronicles 28:9; Deuteronomy 26:17; Psalm 29:2; Matthew 4:10.

Question 53: What is forbidden in the first commandment?

Answer: The first commandment forbids us to deny or not to worship and glorify the true God as God and our God; and to give that worship and glory to any other, which is due unto him alone.

Scripture: Joshua 24:27; Romans 1:20-21, 25; Psalm 14:1.

Question 54: What are we especially taught by these words, "before me," in the first commandment?

Answer: These words "before me," in the first commandment teach us that God, who sees all things, takes notice of, and is much displeased with the sin of having any other God.

Scripture: Deuteronomy 30:17, 18; Psalm 44:20-21; 90:8.

Question 55: Which is the second commandment?

Answer: The second commandment is, "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them; for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments."

Scripture: Exodus 20:4-6.

Question 56: What is required in the second commandment?

Answer: The second commandment requires the receiving, observing, and keeping pure and entire, all such religious worship and ordinances, as God has appointed in his word.

Scripture: Deuteronomy 12:32; 32:46; Matthew 28:20.

Question 57: What is forbidden in the second commandment?

Answer: The second commandment forbids the worshipping of God by images, or any other way that draws the heart away from his glory rather than toward his glory.

Scripture: Romans 1:22, 23; Deuteronomy 4:15, 16; Colossians 2:18; 3:17; 1 Corinthians 10:31.

Question 58: What are the reasons added to the second commandment?

Answer: The reasons added to the second commandment are God's holy jealousy for his name, and the zeal he has for his own worship.

Scripture: Exodus 20:4-6; Exodus 34:14; 1 Corinthians 10:22.

Question 59: Which is the third commandment?

Answer: The third commandment is, "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain."

Scripture: Exodus 20:7.

Question 60: What is required in the third commandment?

Answer: The third commandment requires the holy and reverent use of God's name, titles, attributes, ordinances, words, and works.

Scripture: Psalm 29:2; 111:9; 138:2; Deuteronomy 32:1-4; 28:58-59; Matthew 6:9; Ecclesiastes 5:1; Job 36:24; Revelation 4:8; 15:3, 4.

Question 61: What is forbidden in the third commandment?

Answer: The third commandment forbids all profaning and abusing of anything whereby God makes himself known.

Scripture: Exodus 20:7; Malachi 1:6, 7; Leviticus 20:3; 19:12; Matthew 5:34-37; Isaiah 52:5.

Question 62: What is the reason annexed to the third commandment?

Answer: The reason annexed to the third commandment is, that however the breakers of this commandment may escape punishment from men, yet the Lord our God will not suffer them to escape his righteous judgment.

Scripture: Exodus 20:7; Deuteronomy 28:58, 59; Malachi 2:2.

Question 63: Which is the fourth commandment?

Answer: The fourth commandment is, "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it."

Scripture: Exodus 20:8-11.

Question 64: What is required in the fourth commandment?

Answer: The fourth commandment requires the keeping holy to God such set times as he has appointed in his word, expressly one whole day in seven to be a holy Sabbath to himself.

Scripture: Leviticus 19:30; Deuteronomy 5:12.

Question 65: Which day of the seven has God appointed to be the weekly Sabbath?

Answer: From the creation of the world to the resurrection of Christ, God appointed the seventh day of the week to be the weekly Sabbath; and the first day of the week ever since, to continue to the end of the world, which is the Christian Sabbath.

Scripture: Genesis 2:3; John 20:19; Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:1, 2; Revelation 1:10.

Question 66: How is the Sabbath to be sanctified?

Answer: One day in seven should be especially devoted to corporate worship and other spiritual exercises that restore the soul's rest in God and zeal for His name. It should provide physical refreshment and fit one for a week of devoted service to Christ.

Scripture: Leviticus 23:3; Isaiah 58:13, 14; Matthew 12:1-14; Mark 2:27; Romans 14:5-6.

Question 67: What is forbidden in the fourth commandment?

Answer: The fourth commandment forbids dishonoring the Lord's Day by actions or thoughts that divert the soul from spiritual refreshment, or deprive the body of renewed energy or distract the mind from its special Sabbath focus on the Lord.

Scripture: Ezekiel 22:26; 23:38; Jeremiah 17:21; Nehemiah 13:15, 17; Acts 20:7; Mark 2:23-28; Romans 14:5-6.

Question 68: What are the reasons attached to the fourth commandment?

Answer: The reasons attached to the fourth commandment are, God's creating the world in six days and resting on the seventh and his blessing the Sabbath day.

Scripture: Exodus 20:9-11; 31:16, 17; Genesis 2:2, 3.

Question 69: Which is the 5th commandment?

Answer: The fifth commandment is, "Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God gives thee."

Scripture: Exodus 20:12.

Question 70: What is required in the fifth commandment?

Answer: The fifth commandment requires that we preserve the honor and perform the duties which belong to every one in their various roles as authorities, subordinates or equals.

Scripture: Leviticus 19:32; 1 Peter 2:17; Romans 12:10; 13:1; Ephesians 5:21-22; 6:1, 5, 9; Colossians 3:19-22; 1 Thessalonians 5:12; Hebrews 13:7, 17.

Question 71: What is forbidden in the fifth commandment?

Answer: The fifth commandment forbids neglecting or offending the honor and duty which belongs to every one in their various places and relations.

Scripture: Proverbs 30:17; Romans 13:7, 8.

Question 72: What is the reason added to the fifth commandment?

Answer: The reason added to the fifth commandment is a promise of long life and prosperity (as far as it shall serve God's glory and their own good), to all who keep this commandment.

Scripture: Exodus 20:20; Ephesians 6:2, 3.

Question 73: What is the sixth commandment?

Answer: The sixth commandment is, "Thou shalt not kill."

Scripture: Exodus 20:13.

Question 74: What is required in the sixth commandment?

Answer: The sixth commandment requires all lawful efforts to preserve our own life and the life of others.

Scripture: Ephesians 5:29, 30; Psalm 82:3, 4; Proverbs 24:11, 12; Acts 16:28.

Question 75: What is forbidden in the sixth commandment?

Answer: The sixth commandment forbids the taking of our own life, or the life of our neighbor unjustly, including whatever acts tend to this loss.

Scripture: Genesis 4:10, 11; 9:6; Matthew 5:21-26.

Question 76: Which is the seventh commandment?

Answer: The seventh commandment is, "Thou shalt not commit adultery."

Scripture: Exodus 20:14.

Question 77: What is required in the seventh commandment?

Answer: The seventh commandment requires that we preserve our own and our neighbor's chastity, in heart, speech, and behavior.

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 6:18; 7:2; 2 Timothy 2:22; Matthew 5:28; 1 Peter 3:2.

Question 78: What is forbidden in the seventh commandment?

Answer: The seventh commandment forbids all unchaste thoughts, words and actions.

Scripture: Matthew 5:28-32; Job 31:1; Ephesians 5:3, 4; Romans 13:13; Colossians 4:6.

Question 79: Which is the eighth commandment?

Answer: The eighth commandment is, "Thou shalt not steal."

Scripture: Exodus 20:15.

Question 80: Which is required in the eighth commandment?

Answer: The eighth commandment requires that we pursue lawful and useful work to provide for our needs and for those unable to provide for themselves.

Scripture: Ephesians 4:28; Proverbs 27:23; Leviticus 25:35; Deuteronomy 15:10; 22:1-4.

Question 81: What is forbidden in the eighth commandment?

Answer: The eighth commandment forbids whatever would unjustly withhold or diminish a person's possessions or attainments.

Scripture: Malachi 3:8; Ephesians 4:28; Romans 13:7.

Question 82: Which is the ninth commandment?

Answer: The ninth commandment is, "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor."

Scripture: Exodus 20:16.

Question 83: What is required in the ninth commandment?

Answer: The ninth commandment requires that we maintain and promote truth between persons and that we preserve the good name of our neighbor and ourselves.

Scripture: Zechariah 8:16; Acts 25:10; Ecclesiastes 7:1; 3 John 12; Proverbs 14:5, 25.

Question 84: What is forbidden in the ninth commandment?

Answer: The ninth commandment forbids whatever dishonors truth, or injures our own, or our neighbor's good name.

Scripture: Ephesians 4:25; Psalm 15:3; 2 Corinthians 8:20, 21.

Question 85: What is the tenth commandment?

Answer: The tenth commandment is, "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his man servant, nor his maid servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's."

Scripture: Exodus 20:17.

Question 86: What is required in the tenth commandment?

Answer: The tenth commandment requires contentment with our own condition, with a right and charitable frame of spirit towards our neighbor, and all that is his.

Scripture: Hebrews 13:5; 1 Timothy 6:6; Romans 12:15; 1 Corinthians 13:4-7; Leviticus 19:18.

Question 87: What is forbidden in the tenth commandment?

Answer: The tenth commandment forbids all murmuring over our own condition and all envying or grieving at the good of our neighbor, and all inordinate affections for anything that is his.

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 10:10; James 5:9; Galatians 5:26; Colossians 3:5.

Question 88: Is any man able perfectly to keep the commandments of God?

Answer: No mere man, since the fall, is able in this life, perfectly to keep the commandments of God, but daily falls short of inward and outward perfection.

Scripture: Ecclesiastes 7:20; Genesis 6:5; 8:21; 1 John 1:8; James 3:2, 8; Romans 3:23; 7:15; Philippians 3:12.

Question 89: What then is the purpose of the law since the fall?

Answer: The purpose of the law, since the fall, is to reveal the perfect righteousness of God, that his people may know the path of faith that leads to life, and that the ungodly may be convicted of their sin, restrained from evil, and brought to Christ for salvation.

Scripture: Psalm 19:7-11; Romans 3:20, 31; 7:7; 8:13; 9:32; 12:2; Titus 2:12-14; Galatians 3:22, 24; 1 Timothy 1:8; Luke 10:25-28.

Question 90: Are all transgressions of the law equally heinous?

Answer: Some sins in themselves and by reason of several aggravations are more heinous in the sight of God than others.

Scripture: Ezekiel 8:13; John 19:11; 1 John 5:16.

Question 91: What does every sin deserve?

Answer: Every sin deserves God's wrath and curse, both in this life, and in that which is to come.

Scripture: Ephesians 5:6; Galatians 3:10; Proverbs 3:33; Psalm 11:6; Revelation 21:8.

Question 92: What does God require of us, that we may escape his wrath and curse, due to us for sin?

Answer: To escape the wrath and curse of God due to us for sin, God requires of us faith in Jesus Christ, repentance unto life, with the diligent use of all the outward and ordinary means whereby Christ communicates to us the benefits of redemption.

Scripture: Acts 20:21; 16:30, 31; 17:30.

Question 93: What is faith in Jesus Christ?

Answer: Faith in Jesus Christ is saving grace, whereby we receive and rest upon him alone for salvation, trusting him to forgive our sins, and guide us to eternal joy, on the basis of his divine power and atoning death.

Scripture: Hebrews 10:39; John 1:12; 6:35; Philippians 3:9; Galatians 2:15-16, 20; Matthew 14:31.

Question 94: What is repentance unto life?

Answer: Repentance unto life is a saving grace, by which a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin, and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, does, with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it to God, with full purpose of, and endeavor after, new obedience.

Scripture: Acts 2:37; Joel 2:13; Jeremiah 31:18, 19; 2 Corinthians 7:10, 11; Romans 6:18.

Question 95: What are the outward and ordinary means by which Christ communicates to us the benefits of redemption?

Answer: The outward and ordinary means by which Christ communicates to us the benefits of redemption are his ordinances, especially the Word, Baptism, the Lord's Supper and Prayer; all of which are made effectual to the elect for salvation.

Scripture: Romans 10:17; James 1:18; 1 Corinthians 3:5; Acts 14:1; 2:41, 42.

Question 96: How is the Word made effective for salvation?

Answer: The Spirit of God makes the reading, but especially the preaching of the Word, an effectual means of convincing and converting sinners, and of building them up in holiness and comfort, through faith unto salvation.

Scripture: Psalm 19:7; 119:11, 18; 1 Thessalonians 1:6; 1 Peter 2:1, 2; Romans 1:16.

Question 97: How is the Word to be read and heard that it may become effective for salvation?

Answer: That the Word may become effective for salvation we must attend to it with diligence, preparation and prayer, receive it in faith and love, lay it up in our hearts and practice it in our lives.

Scripture: Proverbs 8:34; 1 Peter 2:1, 2; 1 Timothy 4:13; Hebrews 2:1, 3; 4:2; 2 Thessalonians 2:10; Psalm 119:11; James 1:21, 25.

Question 98: How do Baptism and the Lord's Supper become effective means of salvation?

Answer: Baptism and the Lord's Supper become effective means of salvation, not from any virtue in them or in him that administers them, but only by the blessing of Christ, and the working of his Spirit in those who by faith receive them.

Scripture: 1 Peter 3:21; 1 Corinthians 3:6, 7; 12:13.

Question 99: How do Baptism and the Lord's Supper differ from the other ordinances of God?

Answer: Baptism and the Lord's Supper differ from the other ordinances of God in that they were specially instituted by Christ to represent and apply to believers the benefits of the new covenant by visible and outward signs.

Scripture: Acts 22:16; Matthew 26:26-28; 28:19; Romans 6:4.

Question 100: What is Baptism?

Answer: Baptism is a holy ordinance, in which immersion in the water in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, signifies our being joined to Christ and our sharing the benefits of the covenant of grace, and our engagement to be the Lord's.

Scripture: Matthew 28:19; Romans 6:3-5; Colossians 2:12; Galatians 3:27.

Question 101: To whom is Baptism to be administered?

Answer: Baptism is to be administered to all those who actually profess repentance towards God, faith in, and obedience to our Lord Jesus Christ; and to no other.

Scripture: Acts 2:38; 8:12, 36; 10:47, 48; Matthew 3:6; Mark 16:16.

Question 102: Are the infants of professing believers to be baptized?

Answer: The infants of believers are not to be baptized; because there is neither command nor example in the Holy Scriptures, nor implication from them to baptize such. But baptism is made an expression of faith.

Scripture: Colossians 2:12; 1 Peter 3:21; Galatians 3:26, 27.

Question 103: How is Baptism rightly administered?

Answer: Baptism is rightly administered by immersion, or dipping the whole body of the person in water, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Scripture: Matthew 3:16; John 3:23; Acts 8:38, 39.

Question 104: What is the duty of those who are rightly baptized?

Answer: It is the duty of those who are rightly baptized to give themselves to some visible and orderly church of Jesus Christ, that they may walk in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.

Scripture: Acts 2:46, 47; 9:26; 1 Peter 2:5; Hebrews 10:25; Romans 16:5.

Question 105: What is the visible church?

Answer: The visible church is the organized society of professing believers, in all ages and places, wherein the gospel is truly preached and the ordinances of Baptism and the Lord's Supper administered in true faith.

Scripture: Acts 2:42; 20:7; 7:38; Ephesians 4:11, 12.

Question 106: What is the invisible church?

Answer. The invisible church is the whole number of the elect, that have been, are, or shall be gathered into one under Christ the head.

Scripture: Ephesians 1:10; 1:22, 23; John 10:16; 11:52.

Question 107: What is the Lord's Supper?

Answer: The Lord's Supper is a holy ordinance of the church. By eating bread and drinking the cup according to Christ's appointment we show forth his death. Those who eat and drink in a worthy manner partake of Christ's body and blood, not physically, but spiritually in that by faith they are nourished with the benefits he purchased, and grow in grace.

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; 10:16.

Question 108: What is required to the worthy receiving of the Lord's Supper?

Answer: It is required of those who would worthily (that is, suitably) partake of the Lord's Supper, that they examine themselves--of their knowledge, that they discern the Lord's body; their faith, that they feed upon him; and their repentance, love, and new obedience; lest, coming unworthily, they eat and drink judgment to themselves.

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 5:8; 11:27-31; 2 Corinthians 13:5.

Question 109: What is Prayer?

Answer: Prayer is an offering up of our desires to God, for things agreeable to his will, in the name of Christ, with confession of our sins and thankful acknowledgment of his mercies.

Scripture: 1 John 5:14; 1:9; Philippians 4:6; Psalm 10:17; 145:19; John 14:13, 14.

Question 110: What rule has God given for our direction in prayer?

Answer: The whole Word of God is of use to direct us in prayer, but the special rule of direction is that prayer, which Christ taught his disciples, commonly called the Lord's Prayer.

Scripture: Matthew 6:9-13; 2 Timothy 3:16, 17.

Question 111: What does the preface of the Lord's Prayer teach us?

Answer: The preface of the Lord's Prayer, which is, "Our Father, who art in heaven," teaches us to draw near to God, with holy reverence and confidence, as children to a father, able and ready to help us, and that we should pray with and for others.

Scripture: Matthew 6:9; Luke 11:13; Romans 8:15; Acts 12:5; 1 Timothy 2:1-3.

Question 112: What do we pray for in the first petition of the Lord's Prayer?

Answer: In the first petition, which is "Hallowed be thy name," we pray that God would enable us and others to glorify him in all of life, and that he would dispose all things to his own glory.

Scripture: Matthew 6:9; Psalm 67:1-3; Romans 11:36; Revelation 4:11; 1 Corinthians 10:31.

Question 113: What do we pray for in the second petition of the Lord's Prayer?

Answer: In the second petition, which is, "Thy kingdom come," we pray that Satan's kingdom may be destroyed, and that the kingdom of grace may be advanced; that ourselves and others be brought into it, and kept in it; and that the kingdom of glory may be hastened.

Scripture: Matthew 6:10; 9:37,38; Psalm 68:1-18; Romans 10:1; 2 Thessalonians 3:1; Revelation 22:20.

Question 114: What do we pray for in the third petition of the Lord's Prayer?

Answer: In the third petition, which is, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven," we pray that God, by his grace, would make us able and willing to know, obey, and submit to his will in all things, as the angels do in heaven.

Scripture: Matthew 6:10; Psalm 103:20, 21; 25:4, 5; 119:26.

Question 115: What do we pray for in the fourth petition of the Lord's Prayer?

Answer: In the fourth petition, which is, "Give us this day our daily bread," we pray that of God's free gift, we may receive a competent portion of the good things of this life and enjoy his blessing with them.

Scripture: Matthew 6:11; Proverbs 30:8, 9; 1 Timothy 6:6-8; 4:4, 5.

Question 116: What do we pray for in the fifth petition of the Lord's Prayer?

Answer: In the fifth petition, which is, "And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors," we pray that God, for Christ's sake, would freely pardon all our sins; which we are rather encouraged to ask, because by his grace we are enabled from the heart to forgive others.

Scripture: Matthew 6:12; 18:35; Psalm 51:1, 3, 7; Mark 11:25.

Question 117: What do we pray for in the sixth petition?

Answer: In the sixth petition, which is, "And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil," we pray that God would either keep us from being tempted to sin, or support and deliver us when we are tempted.

Scripture: Matthew 6:13; 26:41; Psalm 19:13; 1 Corinthians 10:13; John 17:15.

Question 118: What does the conclusion of the Lord's Prayer teach us?

Answer: The conclusion of the Lord's Prayer, which is, "For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever, Amen," teaches us to take our encouragement in prayer from God only, and in our prayers to praise him, ascribing kingdom, power, and glory to him; and in testimony of our desire, and assurance to be heard, we say AMEN.

Scripture: Matthew 6:13; Daniel 9:18, 19; 1 Chronicles 29:11-13; 1 Corinthians 14:16; Philippians 4:6; Revelation 22:20.

The Lord's Prayer
(Matthew 6, RSV)

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Amen.

The Apostles' Creed

I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth: and in Jesus Christ his only Son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; he descended into hell; the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit; the holy Christian Church; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. Amen.

The Ten Commandments
(Exodus 20, RSV)

And God spoke all these words, saying, "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or served them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work; but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your manservant, or your maidservant, or your cattle, or the sojourner who is within your gates; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which the Lord your God gives you. You shall not kill. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant, or his maidservant, or his ox, or his ass, or anything that is your neighbor's.

Christian Fools - Arthur W. Pink

2008-05-08T00:32:00.001-07:00

“Then He said unto them, O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.”

Luke 24:25

Those of you who read the religious announcements in the newspapers of yesterday would see the subject for my sermon this evening is “Christian Fools.” Possibly some of you thought there was a printer’s error and that what I really meant to announce was “Professing Christian fools.” The paper gave it quite correctly. My subject tonight is “Christian Fools.” Probably some of you think that this is a most unsuitable title for a servant of God to give to his sermon, and yet I make no apology whatever for it. It fits exactly my subject for tonight: it expresses accurately what I am going to speak about: and—“what is far more to the point—it epitomizes our text: “Then He said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.”

Those words were spoken by Christ on the day of His resurrection: spoken not to worldlings but to Christians. That which occasioned them was this. The disciples to whom He was speaking were lopsided in their theology: they believed a certain part of God’s truth and they refused to believe another part of the truth that did not suit them; they believed some Scriptures but they did not believe all that the prophets had spoken, and the reason they did not was because they were unable to harmonize the two different parts of God’s truth. They were like some people today: when it comes to their theology; they walk by reason and by logic rather than by faith.

In the Old Testament there were many prophecies concerning the coming Messiah that spoke of His glory. If there was one thing the Old Testament prediction made plain, it was that the Messiah of Israel should be glorious. It spoke of His power, His honor, His majesty, His dominion, His triumphs. But on the other hand, there were many prophecies in the Old Testament that spoke of a suffering Messiah, that portrayed His humiliation, His degradation, His rejection, His death at the hands of wicked men. And these disciples of Christ believed the former set of prophecies, but they would not believe in the second: they could not see how it was possible to harmonize the two. If the coming Messiah was to be a glorious Messiah, possessing power and majesty and dominion: if He would be triumphant, then how could He, at the same time, be a suffering Messiah, despised, humiliated, rejected of men? And because the disciples could not fit the two together, because they were unable to harmonize them, they refused to believe both, and Christ told them to their faces that they were fools. He says, “O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.”

I suppose some of us have wondered how it was possible for these disciples, these followers of Christ, who had been privileged to be with Him during His public ministry and those who had been so intimate with Him, had been instructed by Him, had witnessed His wonderful miracles; how it was possible for such men to err so grievously and to act so foolishly. And yet we need not be surprised; the same thing is happening all around us today. Christendom tonight is full of men and women who believe portions of God’s truth, but who do not believe all that the prophets have spoken. In other words, my friends, Christendom tonight is full of men and women that the Son of God says are “fools” because of their slowness of heart to believe.

Now very likely, the sermon tonight will make some of my hearers angry: probably they are the ones who most need the rebuke of the text. When a servant of God wields the sword of the Spirit, if he does his work faithfully and effectively, then some of his hearers are bound to get cut and wounded: and, my friends, that is always God’s way. God always wounds before He heals. And I want to remind you at the outset that this text is no invention of mine. These are the words of One who never wounded unnecessarily, but they are also the words of the True and Faithful Witness who never hesitated to preach the whole truth of God, whether men would receive it or whether they would reject it. I know it is not a pleasant thing to be called a fool, especially if we have a high regard for ourselves and rate our own wisdom and orthodoxy very highly—it wounds our pride. But we need to be wounded, all of us. We need to be humbled; we need to be rebuked; we need to have that word from the lips of Christ which is as a two-edged sword.

Now notice, dear friends, that Christ did not upbraid these disciples because they did not understand, but because of their lack of faith. The trouble with them was they reasoned too much. Very likely they prided themselves on their logical minds and said, Well, surely we are not asked to believe impossibilities and absurdities: both of these cannot be true; one is true and the other cannot be. Either the Messiah of Israel is going to be a glorious and a triumphant Messiah, or else He is going to be a rejected and a humiliated one: they cannot both be true. That is why Christ said to them—not because of their failure to understand, but because of their lack of faith—“O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.”

I am afraid that today there are many who only believe what they can understand, and if there is something else that they cannot understand, they do not believe it. If they have devised to themselves a systematized theology (or more probably they have adopted someone else’s system of theology), and they hear a sermon (no matter how much Scripture there may be in it) which they cannot fit into their little system of theology, they won’t have it. They place a higher value on consistency than they do on fidelity. That is just what was the matter with these disciples: they could not see the consistency of the two things and therefore they were only prepared to believe the one.

The same thing, my friends, is true today with many preachers. There are multitudes of preachers in Australia tonight whose theology is narrower than the teaching of this Book. Then away to the winds with theology! —I mean human systems of theology which are narrower than Scripture. For example, there are men today who read God’s Word, and they see that the gospel is to be preached to every creature, and that God commands all who hear that gospel to believe in Christ; then they come across some texts on election, predestination:—“Many are called but few are chosen,” and they say, Well, I cannot harmonize this, I cannot see how it is possible to preach, unhampered, a gospel to every creature, and yet for election to be true. And because they cannot harmonize the two things, they neither believe the two nor will they preach both. They cannot harmonize election with a gospel that is to be preached to every creature, and so the Arminians preach the gospel but they leave out election.

Yes, but there are many Calvinists who equally come under the rebuke of our text. They believe in the sovereignty of God, but they refuse to believe in the responsibility of man. I read a book by a hyper-Calvinist only a few weeks ago, by a man whose shoe-latchet the present speaker in many things is not fit to stoop down and unloose—a man of God, a faithful servant of His, one from whom I have learned not a little—and yet he had the effrontery to say, that responsibility is the most awful word in the English language, and then went on to tirade against human responsibility. They cannot understand how that it is possible for God to fix the smallest and the greatest events, and yet not to infringe upon man’s accountability—men themselves choosing the evil and rejecting the good—and therefore because they cannot see both they will only believe in one.

Listen! If man were nothing more than clay in the hands of the Potter there would be no difficulty. Scripture affirms in Romans 9 that man is clay in the hands of the Potter, but that only gives you one aspect of the truth. That emphasizes the absoluteness of God’s control over all the works and creatures of His hands; but from other Scriptures we learn that man is something more than lifeless clay. Man has been endowed with understanding; man has been given a will. Yes, I freely admit that his understanding is darkened; I fully allow that his will is in bondage; but they are still there; they have not been destroyed. If man was nothing more than a block of wood or a block of stone, it would be easy to understand how that God could fix the place that he was to occupy and the purpose that he was to fulfil; but, my friends, it is very far from easy to understand how that God can shape and direct all history and yet leave man fully responsible and not infringe upon his accountability.

Now there are some who have devised a very simple but a most unsatisfactory method of getting rid of the difficulty, and that is to deny its existence. There are Arminians who have presented the “free-will” of man in such a way as to virtually dethrone God, and I have no sympathy whatever with their system. On the other hand, there have been some Calvinists who have presented a kind of fatalism (I know not what else to term it) reducing man to nothing more than a block of wood, exonerating him of all blame and excusing him for his unbelief. But they are both equally wrong, and I scarcely know which is the more mischievous of the two. When the Calvinist says, All things happen according to the predestination of God. I heartily say Amen, and I am willing to be called a Calvinist; but if the Arminian says that when a man sins the sin is his own, and that if he continues sinning he will surely perish, and that if he perishes his blood is on his own head, then I believe the Arminian speaks according to God’s truth; though I am not willing to be called an Arminian. The trouble is when we tie ourselves down to a theological system.

Now listen a little more closely still. When the Calvinist says that faith is the gift of God and that no sinner ever does or can believe until God gives him that faith, I heartily say Amen; but when the Arminian says that the gospel commands all who hear it to believe, and that it is the duty of every sinner to believe, I also say Amen. What? you say, You are going to stand up and preach faith-duty-duty-faith? I know that is jolting to some of you. Now bear with me patiently for a moment and I will try and not shock you too badly. Whose is the gospel? It is God’s. Whose voice is it that is heard speaking in the gospel? It is God’s. To whom has God commanded the gospel to be preached? To every creature. What does the gospel say to every creature? It says, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.” It says, “Whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” It says, “The gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth.” God commands, not invites. God commands every man, woman and child that hears that gospel to believe it, for the gospel is true; therefore it is the duty of every man to believe what God has said. Let me give you the alternative. If it is not the duty of every sinner to believe the gospel, then it is his duty not to believe it—one or the other. Do you mean to tell me it is the duty of an unconverted sinner to reject the gospel? I am not talking now about his ability to believe it.

Some of you say, Well how can it be his duty to believe it, when he cannot do so? Is it his duty to do an impossibility? Well, listen! Is my duty, is my responsibility measured by my ability, by my power to perform? Here is a man who has ordered a hundred pounds’ worth of furniture; he receives it, and he is given thirty days’ credit in which to pay for it; but during the next thirty days he squanders his money, and at the end of the month he is practically bankrupt. When the firm presents their bill to him, he says, “I am sorry but I am unable to pay you.” He is speaking the truth. “I am unable, it does not lie within my power to pay you.” Would the head of that business house say, “All right, that ends the matter then: sorry to hear that you do not have the power, but evidently we cannot do anything.” No, my friend, ability does not measure our responsibility. Man is responsible to do many things that he is not able to do. You that are Christians are responsible to live a sinless life, for God says to you, “Awake to righteousness and sin not,” and in the first Epistle of John we read, “These things write I unto you, that ye sin not.” God sets before you and me a standard of holy perfection. There is not one of us that is capable of measuring up to it, but that is our responsibility, and that is what we are going to be measured by when we stand before the judgment-seat of Christ.

Now then there are many Arminian preachers who are afraid to preach sermons on certain texts of the Bible. They would be afraid to stand up and preach from John 6:44—“No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw him.” They would be afraid to stand up and preach from Romans 9:18—“Therefore hath He mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will He hardeneth.” Yes, and it is also true that there are many Calvinist preachers who are equally afraid to preach from certain texts of the Scriptures lest their orthodoxy be challenged and lest they be called Freewillers. They are afraid to stand up and preach, for example, on the words of the Lord Jesus: —“How often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!” Or on such a verse as this: —“The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force;” or “Strive (agonize) to enter in at the Strait Gate.” And to show you that I am not imagining things, I am just going to read you three lines. Listen! “At the meeting at. . . [I will leave out the name] on January 15th last, the question was asked to the effect: Had not some of our ministers for the sake of orthodoxy abstained from preaching from certain texts, and the answer was in the affirmative.” I am reading now from a Strict Baptist magazine! That was a meeting of Strict Baptist preachers and they were honest enough to admit, themselves, that because they were afraid of their orthodoxy being challenged, they were silent on certain texts of Scripture. O may God remove from all of us the fear of man.

Some of you perhaps are thinking right now in your own minds, Well, Brother Pink, I do not see how you are consistent with yourself. My friends, that does not trouble me one iota, and it won’t cause one hair in my head to go gray if I am inconsistent with any Calvinistic creed: the only thing that concerns me is to be consistent with the Holy Spirit, and to teach as the Holy Spirit shall enable, the whole counsel of God; to leave out nothing, to withhold nothing, and to give a proportionate presentation of God’s truth. Do you know, I believe that most of the theological errors of the past have grown out of, not so much a denial of God’s truth, as a disproportionate emphasis of it. Let me give you a simple illustration. The most comely countenance with the most beautiful features would soon become ugly if one feature were to grow while the others remained undeveloped. You can take the most beautiful baby there is in the world tonight and if that baby’s nose were to grow while its eyes and its cheeks and its mouth and its ears remained undeveloped, it would soon become unsightly. The same is true with every other member of its face.

Beauty is mainly a matter of proportion and this is true of God’s Word. It is only as truth is presented in its proper proportions that the beauty and blessedness to it are maintained in the hearts and lives of God’s people. The sad thing is that almost everywhere today there is just one feature of truth being disproportionately emphasized.

And listen again! If God’s truth is to be presented proportionately and effectively then each truth of God’s Word must be presented separately. If I am speaking upon the humanity of Christ, if I am seeking to emphasize the reality of His manhood, how that He was made like unto His brethren in all things, how that He was tempted in all points as they were—sin excepted—I would not bring into my sermon a reference to His Godhood; and if you were to hear me preach the next twelve Sunday nights on the manhood of Christ and never refer to His Deity in those sermons, I hope none of you brethren would be so foolish as to draw the conclusion, Oh dear me, Brother Pink no longer believes in the Godhood of our Savior.

Again, if I am preaching on the wrath of God, the holy hatred of God for sin and His vengeance upon it, I would be weakening my sermon to bring in at the close a reference to His tenderness, mercy and love, for in my judgment that would be to blunt the point of the special truth I was seeking to press on the unconverted. And, in the same way, if I am pressing on the unconverted their need, their duty and importance of seeking the Lord, calling upon, coming to and believing on Him for themselves, I would not bring in or explain the work of the Holy Spirit in conversion.

Each truth needs to be presented separately that it may have its clear outline presented to the heart and to the mind. And after all, my friends, we are not saved by believing in the Spirit, we are saved by believing in Christ. We are not saved by believing in the work of the Spirit within us (no man was ever saved by believing that); we are saved by trusting in the work of Christ outside of us. O may God help us to maintain the balance of truth. There is something more in this Book, brethren and sisters, beside election, particular redemption and the new birth. They are there, and I would not say one word to weaken or to repudiate them, but that is not all that is in this Book. There is a human side. There is man’s responsibility. There is the sinner’s repentance. There is the sinner’s believing in Christ. There is the pressing of the gospel upon the unsaved; and I want to tell you frankly that is a church does not evangelize it will fossilize: and, if I am not much mistaken, that is what happened to some of the Strict Baptist Churches in Australia. Numbers of them that once had a healthy existence are now no more; and some others are already dead but they are not yet buried; and I believe one of the main reasons for that is this—they failed at the vital point of evangelism. If a church does not evangelize it will fossilize. That is God’s method of perpetuating His work and of maintaining His churches. God uses means, and the means that the Holy Spirit uses in His work is the preaching of the gospel to the unconverted, to every creature. True, the preaching will avail nothing without the Spirit’s blessing and application. True, no sinner will or can believe until God has quickened him. Yet he ought to, and is commanded to.

Now I meant, if time had allowed me, to come back again to the text and give you a few striking examples of where many have failed in holding the balance of God’s truth. Take for example the Unitarians. I have met numbers of Unitarians who believe this Book is God’s word, and believe that they can prove their creed from this Book. They appeal to such Scriptures as Deuteronomy 6:4—“The Lord our God is one Lord.” Their creed is the unity of God and they argue that if there be three divine persons there must be three Gods; they cannot harmonize them, they cannot reconcile three persons with one God; so what do they do? Well, they hold fast to the one and they let go the other. They say the two won’t mix—either God is one or else He is three; He cannot be both. When they come to the Person of Christ they emphasize such passages as—“He grew in wisdom.” Well, they say, if He was a divine person, how could He grow in wisdom? They emphasize such passages as “He prayed,” and they say it is an absurdity to think of God praying to God. They say, He died—how could God die? No, He cannot be divine: He is a good man; He is a holy man; He is a perfect man; and because they cannot reconcile the two classes of Scriptures they believe the one and reject the other. And Christ says to them, Ye are fools because ye are slow of heart to believe all.

Take the Universalists. I have met numbers of Universalists—several here in Sydney. I was going to say that I have less suspicion of the reality of their own salvation than I have of some of yours. At any rate they seem to give such evidence in their daily walk that they commune with Christ that it really makes one wonder where they are. Well now, the Universalists are staggered by the doctrine of eternal punishment. They say “God is love.” “The mercy of God endureth forever.” God is good: how can a merciful, loving God send any to eternal suffering? The Universalist say they cannot both be true: if there is such a thing as eternal punishment, then God can’t be love: if God is love, there cannot be such a thing as eternal punishment. You see what they are doing? They are reasoning: they are walking by logic: they have drawn up their own scheme and system of theology and that which they cannot fit exactly into that scheme, somewhere, well, away with it!

But the Unitarians and the Universalists and the Arminians are not the only ones who are guilty of that. I am sorry to say that it is equally true, in some respects, of many Calvinists. They are unsound when it comes to the gospel. They are all at sea when it comes to the matter of believing. I am not going to keep you very much longer, but listen closely now. There are many Calvinists who say, Believing is an evidence of our salvation, but it is not a condition or the cause of salvation. But, my friends, I make so bold as to say that those who so teach take issue with this Book. Now I want you to turn with me to four passages in the New Testament. I am not asking you to take my word for anything. You turn with me now to four passages in God’s own word. First of all Romans l:16-17—“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation.” The power of God unto salvation to whom? —“the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth.” Now I have no hesitation whatever in saying to every grown-up person in this room tonight, if you had read that verse just now for the first time in your life, and had never read a page of either Calvinistic or Arminian literature; if you read that verse without any bias one way or the other, it would only mean one thing to you.

Now turn to Romans 13:11—“And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep, for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.” The salvation that is spoken of there is the salvation of the body, the glorification of the believer, the final consummation of our redemption: but what I want you to notice is where the Holy Spirit Himself puts the starting point. “Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.” THAT is when it begins, so far as our actual experience is concerned.

Now turn to Hebrews 10:39, and you have one there that is plainer still—that is outside the realm of debate—that has no ambiguity about it: “But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.” You cannot get around that if you live to be a thousand years old. “Them that believe to the saving of the soul.” The sinner’s believing does have something to do with his salvation: God says so! If you deny it you are taking issue with God. “Believe to the saving of the soul.”

Now turn to Luke 7:50—“And he said to the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee.” He did not say thy faith is an evidence that you have been saved. “Thy faith hath saved thee.” Now in the light of those last two verses I make this assertion, that believing in Christ is the cause of the sinner’s salvation. But listen closely to this qualification. It is neither the meritorious cause nor is it the effectual cause! You must put these three things together to get the complete thing. The blood of Christ is the meritorious cause of salvation; the regenerating work of the Spirit is the effective cause of salvation; but the sinner’s own believing is the instrumental cause of his salvation. We believe to the saving of the soul. I repeat that. The blood of Christ is the meritorious cause: without that all the believing in the world could not save a soul. The regenerating work of the Spirit is the effectual cause: without this, no sinner would come or will believe with the heart. But the believing of the sinner in Christ is the instrumental cause—that which extends the empty hand to receive the gift that the gospel presents to him—and where there is no personal trust in Christ there is no salvation—“I did not say “quickening.”

Now I want to make this very plain and I am going to weigh my words. If instead of you trusting in the sacrificial blood of Christ, you are trusting in something that you believe the Spirit has done in you, you are building your house upon the sand, which in time of testing will fall to the ground.

“On Christ the solid Rock I stand, All other ground is sinking sand.”

If you are building your hope for eternity on what you think or feel that the Spirit of God has done in you, instead of putting your trust in what Christ did for sinners, you are building your house on the sand. And that may apply to some church-members here tonight. O my friends, the gospel of God does not invite you to look inside and pin your faith to what you think the Holy Spirit has done in you; the gospel of God commands you to look outside of yourself, away from all your feelings and frames, to what the Lord Jesus Christ did on the cross for sinners as sinners.

Now my last word tonight is directed to the unconverted, for my text also applies directly to them. Last Sunday evening I said a good deal about the necessity of being quiet, of standing still, of waiting upon God; but I want to supplement those remarks in concluding tonight by saying that those are all admonitions that are given to the converted, and that the Holy Scriptures speak in very different terms to those of you who are unconverted. The Bible does not bid you to sit still, to wait and be quiet; the Bible commands you to flee from the wrath to come. It bids you to strive to enter in at the strait gate. I am quoting Scripture now. It bids you seek the Lord. It bids you come unto Him. It bids you believe in Him, and if you do not you will be damned, whoever you are.

I am very much afraid that there are some here tonight who entertain the notion that all they have to do is just to sit still and wait until God comes and saves you. My friends, I do not know of a single promise of God that He will do so. I do not know of a single line in this Book that encourages you to continue in your sinful inactivity. I am going to speak very plainly now. The devil will tell you there is no cause for you to be concerned: there is not a bit of need for you to worry: if your name is in the Lamb’s Book of Life you will be saved, whether you believe or no. That is the devil’s lie! It is not God’s truth. The devil will tell you that if you have been elected to salvation there is not a bit of need for you to be alarmed, disturbed or exercised; no need at all for you to seek and search after the Lord; that when God’s good time comes He is going to do it all for you: not a bit of good for you to read the Bible and cry out to Him: and if He has not elected you, well, there is no need for sure, for it’s useless.

Yes, the devil will speak in those tones and terms and he will come quoting Scripture to you. But there is no salvation for the sinner apart from his believing in Christ. I close with this quotation—2 Thessalonians 2:13, “God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through—Through what? “Sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.” That is how God saves. That is how God carries out His purpose—by the sanctification of the Spirit and by your belief of the truth.

And my friends, I have not limited God. God could, if He so chose, make the fields to grow crops without the farmer plowing them and sowing the seed, but that is not His way; that is not the method He selects. God could keep us in health and strength without our taking any food at all or wasting time in sleeping if He so chose, but that is not His way. And God could save every sinner on earth tonight without them believing if He wanted to, but it is not His way! I am not limiting God, I am describing to you the plan and method that God Himself has set forth in His Word, and if you would be saved, sinner, you have got to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ for yourself. I say it reverently: the Holy Spirit won’t believe for you. The Holy Spirit may put it into your heart and give you the desire to believe. If you have the desire it is because He has put it there, but He won’t believe for you: believing is a human act. It is the sinner himself, in all his wretchedness and need, coming to Christ, as a drowning man clutches a straw, and as the old hymn says—“Just as I am without one plea, But that thy blood was shed for me.”

O sinner, Christ is saying to you tonight, “O fools and slow of heart to believe all.” You do believe much as you sit there. There are some of you who believe that Jesus is the Son of God. There are some of you who believe that He is the only Savior who can save any sinner. You believe that, then why not believe all? Why not believe in Him for yourself? Why not trust His precious blood for yourself; and why not tonight? God is ready to save you now if you believe on Him. The blood has been shed, the sacrifice has been offered, the atonement has been made, the feast has been spread. The call goes out to you tonight, “Come, for all things are now ready.” And I say again, the devil will tell you as you are sitting there, “There is no need for me to come tonight; I will just wait till God gets ready to come and save me.” How do you know that while you are waiting death may not come and smite you down. “Boast not thyself of tomorrow for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.” The Holy Spirit saith, “Today if ye will hear His voice harden not your hearts.” Yes, man can “harden” his heart: God says so; and God calls to you: “Harden not your heart.” That is something you do yourself—not the devil—you do it. God is speaking to you through His Word tonight. O may His grace forbid that He shall say our text to any of you after you have left this room—O God forbid that you should be among those “fools” who believe not all. You do believe that Christ is God’s appointed Savior for sinners, why not your Savior? O may the Spirit draw you by the cords of love to that One who has said, “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.”

Preached by Arthur W. Pink in Sydney, Australia—1927.

Almost a Cessationist

2008-05-07T21:07:00.000-07:00

Almost A Cessationist-The Gifts, Cessationist Versus Sensationalism. By Kevin Williams (with responses)

Regarding the Sign Gifts, there are two extremes; the cessationist view that the practice of the sign gifts ceased at the end of the Apostolic Age, and at the other extreme what is known as Charismatic Chaos or what I have called here Sensationalism, in that the sign gifts are not only for today but they are practiced in a circus like fashion.

So what do I mean when I say that I’m “Almost A Cessationist”? Well I need to be careful here as these are slippery terms that mean different things to different people. In fact I know of people who would describe their view as “cessationist” and another as “the gifts are for today”, who both share my view. So the best way of properly understanding what I mean by an “almost a cessationist” is to read this whole article. But in a nutshell, I believe that God can do what He wants, when He wants, but I believe virtually all of what is claimed are Gifts of the Spirit in use today are counterfeit gifts masquerading under the name of Christianity.

What Are the ‘Sign Gifts’?

Now first of all let me clarify what do we mean by “the sign gifts,” as I’ve heard some say that you can not differentiate between different categories of gifts? Well basically when we speak of the ‘sign gifts’ we are referring to the “Signs and Wonders” gifts, i.e. the miraculous. And there is a noticeable difference. For instance neither the gifts of teaching or helps are miraculous. But someone speaking in an untaught foreign language or raising someone from the dead is miraculous. Now people often say of someone who “helps” that “she’s a miracle worker,” and just like society uses the words “Divine” and “Heavenly” today for things like chocolate, the term miracle is also used very loosely, so we need to first clearly define what a miracle is:

What Is A Miracle?

When someone has a baby we often say “it’s a miracle”. Now whilst the creation of a newborn baby is incredibly and irreducibly complex far, far beyond anything the scientific mind of man has achieved, nevertheless humans were designed by God to have babies and this is a perfectly normal occurrence, so it is not a miracle. However “a virgin birth” is a miracle. Jesus walking on water is a miracle. Jesus making a man who was born blind see at the command of His voice is a miracle. There is a clear difference between the natural and supernatural.

So here we will look at three of the miraculous Sign Gifts of Healing, Tongues and Prophecy.

The Gift of Healing.

Now we often hear things like “the gift of healing is for today because we see it all the time, I prayed for my Grandma who had a cold and two weeks later she got better.” Now the first thing we need to look at here is are the healings we see today the same as those in the Bible?

Supposing a hospital tells a man there is nothing more they can do, and so he must just go home and in a few weeks die. And so some Christian friends pray for him and then in a few weeks he is not only alive, but the doctors can find no trace of his disease. Is this miraculous? Well no, because this happens a lot, where people just get better from seemingly terminally ill situations.

This is an example of God’s providence. God knows the end from the beginning and works all things together for the council of His will. We pray and God works events together to answer our prayer. No miracle here is needed.

But what about in a situation like this: Shortly before my mother died, she had one dose of a trial chemotherapy drug, and as a result she went from looking her age 50 years old to about 130 years, and it is quite horrific seeing your mother look like a zombie from a bad movie. One by one her organs were ceasing to function and she eventually died. Now supposing I had prayed for her in this state, and she not only recovered, but she was eventually in better health than she’d ever been. Would that be miraculous? Again the answer is no, because people, often unbelievers without a prayer in their life, recover and get “better than ever” from the worst situations, many even worse than this. Of course, when it happens, give Glory to God as it is another example of His providence.

But, supposing that the moment I prayed, my mother jumped out of the bed, took all her wires off herself, all the old skin dropped off and she now had skin like a baby, and was “immediately” in full health and better than ever. Now that would be a miracle and that is the type of miraculous healing we see in the Bible.

Another example of the miraculous like we see in the Bible would be if supposing I drove with a friend to a funeral, and when we got there, there was nobody there. So we knocked on the old vicarage and was told “Sorry, you’re a bit late for the funeral, he was burred four days ago.” But then my friend went back to the car and took a spade out of the boot and walked to the grave and started digging. And I said “You can’t dig there, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days.” And the man in the grave rose from the dead. Now that would be a miracle just like we see in the Bible. But we don’t see that today.

So as we can clearly see, there is a marked difference between the healings we see in the Bible making men who have been born blind see, raising the dead etc, than what we see in the modern church. That said, I still believe God can do what He wants and when He wants and if God so wills He can choose to do this today. It may well be that in a church one day whilst the Pastor is telling people “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life” someone gets offended and cuts the Pastor’s ear off. But then by the miraculous gift of healing someone holds the ear to his Pastors face and it is miraculously restored. A rather wry example I know, but I thought I’d make the point that not only are what are claimed to be the gifts of the Spirit today radically different to what we see in the Bible, but also the message preached is also radically different and watered down. And I don’t doubt that in other cultures where real Christianity is practiced and the real offensive Gospel preached, rather than American 20th Century humanistic pseudo pop-Christianity, I don’t doubt that maybe God has at sometimes so willed to do miraculous healings and other supernatural gifts.

Now of course I still think it is good to pray for the sick, as God may choose them to be healed through the workings of His Divine providence, and who knows? Maybe even a miracle. But I agree with Paul Washer in that while it’s good to pray for the sick you have to question whether we should be spending the majority of our prayer time praying saints out of Heaven, rather than praying sinners into Heaven.

The Gift of Tongues.

Church History and Cessationism.

Now whilst I am only an “almost a cessationist,” it must be noted that by enlarge church history supports the cessationist view. In the Bible The gift of tongues is mentioned briefly in Acts and 1 Corinthians as the Gospel message was being newly proclaimed. However, Paul wrote at least twelve epistles after 1 Corinthians and never mentioned tongues again. Peter, James, Jude and John never mentioned tongues. And once the church was established, tongues disappeared. In fact the last recorded miracle in the Bible in Acts 28:7-10, happened around AD 58, and whilst I don’t doubt for a second that there were more miracles in the Apostolic Age, and that they are just not all recorded for us, it becomes apparent that from the end of the Apostolic Age the sign gifts rapidly faded out and then apart from claimed appearances in heretical non-Christian sects from time to time, they were absent for almost 2000 years. (The non-Christian cult of Mormons actually claim to speak in tongues).

But is the “Gift of Tongues” as practiced today the same as it is in the Bible?

And the short answer is no. And a look at the writings of the early church fathers, the interpretations from respected theologians down throughout church history and a proper examination of the Scripture reveals that tongues as practiced today are radically different than that of the New Testament.

Tread With Grace. If Everything is Done Decently And In Order.

Now it also must be stressed at this point that we can be graceful here with our more charismatic brothers and sisters who have the modern view of tongues, if everything is done decently and in order. I am not overly concerned about a brother who goes off to a quiet room to pray in tongues. I have friends in the Calvary Chapel movement who believe the sign gifts are for today but also that all things are to be done decently and in order, and if tongues are practiced in their services only one at a time can speak, and there must be an interpreter, as Scripture commands. As a result, in their services no one speaks in tongues. To be honest I am more concerned with Calvary Chapel’s opposition to Calvinism, rejection of Lordship Salvation, and their obsession with altar calls and decisional regeneration. But that’s another matter.

So what is the Gift of Tongues as revealed in the Bible?

Well the word Glossa translated as tongue simply means language. As it did in English when the King James was translated in 1611. We still hear the expression today “Your mother’s tongue” meaning the language she spoke. So in a nutshell, the gift of tongues as revealed in the Bible is the supernatural ability to suddenly speak in an unlearned, real and intelligible human language.

In the Book of Acts we see three outpourings of the Holy Spirit that resulted in people speaking in an untrained human language. In Acts 2:1-13 tongues were given as sign to unbelieving Jews for part fulfilment of an Old Testament prophecy Joel 2:28-32.
Here in Acts 2, we are told which languages/tongues they spoke in Acts 2:8-11: “And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? 9 Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, 11 both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.”

And then in Acts 10:44-48 tongues were given to the first Gentile converts as a sign to the believing Jews to show them that Gentiles were now part of the church.

Then in Acts 19:1-6, tongues are given to a third group, this time the Old Testament Saints who were disciples of John the Baptist.

Languages of Angels?

Now the fact that tongues as revealed in the Bible are clearly real human languages leaves a problem for the charismatics, as today when they ‘speak in tongues’ none of them speak in an intelligible language, but rather in ecstatic babble, and so they claim they are speaking in the language of angels. And they are quick to point to 1 Cor 13:1 “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.” But it is important to note that the Apostle Paul writing here, is not giving us a “how to” manual on speaking in tongues, and that he is clearly speaking hypothetically. Note the “IF”, “IF I speak in the tongues of men and of angels”. And to end any doubt that Paul is speaking hypothetically here to illustrate a point, we only have to look at the next verse: “And if I have … all knowledge.” Was Paul claiming to be omniscient and have all infinite knowledge and therefore be God? Of course not! Paul was speaking hypothetically to illustrate a point that even IF he spoke in the languages of men and angels and even if he had all the knowledge in the universe it would be nothing without love.

Also proponents of the view that the gift of tongues is unintelligible ecstatic babbling are quick to point to Romans 8:26 “Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” They seem to miss here the last part of this text “cannot be uttered.” These groanings of the Spirit cannot be said or heard by us.

Now charismatics also mostly hold the view that tongues can be turned on and turned off as and when the speaker likes and are a “private prayer language,” in fact the appalling Message mistranslation even misinterprets the word tongues as such. It translates it as “a private prayer language.” However to quote Martyn Lloyd Jones who charismatics will often turn to in order to get respectable support for their view that tongues has not ceased, despite they completely miss that Lloyd Jones does not share their view of what tongues is as revealed in Scripture, and also that he was never satisfied that any of the ‘tongues’ he heard in his day were real:

MLJ: “So Paul is saying, 'I thank my God that I speak in tongues more frequently than ye all'. Now if speaking in tongues is something that people can do whenever they like then I see no point whatsoever in that statement of the apostle because all he is saying is that he decides to speak more frequently than anybody else.
But if he means that he finds himself taken up by the Spirit and speaking in tongues, if it is a kind of spiritual ecstasy into which he has been lifted - not something he has decided to do but something which he has been given - then there is point in him claiming he knows more about it and does it more frequently than any one of them - ... they are always given, they are always initiated by the Spirit".

One may then ask, well if tongues can not be practiced at will, then why does Paul insist in 1 Corinthians 14:27 on one at a time and no more than two or three at one meeting? Well the short answer is: If there are more than one speaking in ‘tongues’ at once then we can quickly identify that there is a counterfeit version of the gifts in process.

Let All Things Be Done Decently and in Order.

Now where I said we can be graceful, there is an IF, and that IF is IF it is done decently and in order. There is a limit to what we can agree to differ on here.

In 1 Corinthians 14:27-28 Paul lays out some clear instruction: “If anyone speaks in a tongue, let there be two or at the most three, each in turn, and let one interpret. 28 But if there is no interpreter, let him keep silent in church, and let him speak to himself and to God.”

Now if you walk into a church and many people are chanting in ecstatic babble then, this is a clear violation of Scripture and we need to open up our Bibles with them and show them their error. Lord willing they should repent, but if not we need to go through the normal procedure of church discipline.
And if there is still no repentance, and they are unwilling to yield to the authority of Scripture, then we can assume that they are like the tax collector and the prostitute, i.e unsaved. Now this may seem a bit harsh and I realize that every case is different and so I am not laying out absolute instruction here for every scenario, but I think you will find that for most churches who are unwilling to submit to Biblical authority in 1 Corinthians 14:27-28, it is only part of a much deeper problem and they are rebellious in other areas: such as Women Teachers despite the clear commands of Scripture:

1 Corinthians 14:33b-35 “As in all the churches of the saints, 34 the women should keep silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the Law also says. 35 If there is anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church.”

There are often attempts to view this Scripture through the lens of 20th Century feminism and claim it is only applicable to the Corinthian culture, but it clearly says “As in ALL the churches of the saints”

And 1 Timothy 2:12 12 “I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet.”

Now despite the doctrinal gymnastics to try and get out of this one. We are given the reason why a woman should not be teaching and having authority over a man, in the very next verse:
“13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve; 14 and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. 15 Yet she will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control.”

In fact in Titus 2:5 Paul commands that women are: “to be discreet, chaste, homemakers” which is really not difficult to interpret.

Now back to our topic in hand:

Has the Gift of Tongues Really “Ceased”?

Now as I said I’m only “an almost a cessationist” but full cessationists claim that 1 Corinthians 13:8 teaches that “tongues will cease”
“Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away.”

Now it is pointed out by cessationists that in the Greek Paul uses a different word “cease” for tongues, rather than “done away with”. But is Paul really giving us an insight here that tongues will “cease” at the end of the Apostolic Age? Well if he is, he is hiding it in secret code that is unclear to even the best Greek scholar. Sure there are different words used, but Paul was a Hebrew and the Old Testament is full of Hebrew parallelism where one thing was said, and then in the next line it was said again, but in a different way. And I have no doubt that is what Paul is doing in 1 Corinthians 13:8. It must also be noted that words are used interchangeable in Greek like they are in English. For example you hear many people say, “I’m going on a diet in the new year” and they may say to someone else “I’m starting a new diet in the new year.” Now do “going on” and “starting” mean different things? The answer is yes, but it is clear that that person meant the same things, and it is the same in Greek. So this is another reason why I’m only “an almost a cessationist.”

Now before we move on to the gift of prophecy it is worth pointing out at this point as Phil Johnson does that everyone is a cessationist to some extent. For instance, apart from some extreme whacko charismatics, who self-title themselves as Apostles, and ‘prophetesses’ that even many charismatics stay well clear off, we all believe that there are no Apostles today. And we also believe that the Cannon of Scripture is now closed. And whereas people often note Revelation 22:18-19 “I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, 19 and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.” and whilst it may be significant that that is at the end of the Bible, there can be no doubt that it is talking about the Book of Revelation itself.

Last But Not Least- The Gift Of Prophecy.

Now when the Word of God is proclaimed it should be prophetic in the sense that it clearly teaches people the warnings and promises of God. And many times a sermon will meet the person right where they are at. In fact I will often read Charles Spurgeon’s excellent Morning and Evening Devotional, which was written in the 1800’s, and it’s as if he knew everything about my life for that day, and many others have the same experience. But it is important to note, that this isn’t miraculous, but rather it is God’s providence. And this isn’t what we mean today by the Gift of Prophecy in the modern sense.

My first taste of the ‘the Gift of Prophecy’ in it’s modern interpretation, was in a church where a lady was invited to share for a few minutes about her experience at a woman’s conference. She told how she went for counselling, and the lady councillors prayed with her and then opened the Bible, and gave her a verse and a meaning. Now I’d never seen this before and thought it was strikingly odd, why they didn’t just open their Bibles and give her, in context sound Biblical council. But rather what they did, was to take a verse, maybe even at random, and ripped it completely out of it’s context and meaning. What is practiced today is often akin to an attempt at fortune telling, which is clearly forbidden by God.

I’ve heard people say ‘the Bible is dynamic and it means something different every time you read it.’ Now whilst, there are some deep texts, that can indeed mean and be applied to different things, they always mean all of those things that was intended, and we can not just presuppose a meaning on a text that isn’t there, even in the slightest principle. Especially so, and this so often happens, when the spin someone puts on a Bible text, contradicts what is elsewhere taught in Scripture. God is not the author of confusion, and does not contradict Himself. The way to interpret a text, is grammatically and in its historical context of the surrounding verses and the whole Bible.

It is very silly for instance, as people so often do, to try and discern God’s will by opening the Bible and putting your finger on a random verse. And when people do this they are not consistent as for instance nobody who does this would stand on the following “verses for the day”:
‘I’ll just open my Bible and find God’s verse for me for today. Here we are:’
“Therefore Saul took his own sword and fell upon it”
‘Oh wait a minute that’s Old Testament’ I’ll look for one in the New Testament instead:
“And Jesus said “Go and do likewise”. So people only pick and choose when to adhere to this tragic method if they like it’s results.

Now a very dangerous practice today is when I hear a pastor say “Well I’m just wired up to God, and He sends the message down, and I’m just the mouth piece.” And in the same way a worship leader will say “the Holy Spirit gave me this song”. In fact a lady asked once asked me if I’d put some music to her lyrics that she said “God had given her”, and when I read them, saying things like “I had too much to drink last night,” it was quickly apparent they wasn’t from God.

But when a Pastor or song writer does claim this, what they are doing is putting their words on par with Scripture.

In Scripture there is no such thing as this fallible gift of prophecy, which is practiced today. God does not speak and sometimes get it wrong, or sometimes even say things that are heretical. Either God speaks or He doesn’t. And if God speaks, then His Word is infallible, and it is on par with Scripture. The Scriptural standard for a true Prophet of God is that their prophecies are always 100% accurate. In fact if they get 999 right and one wrong, then they are to be stoned to death as a false prophet. Even if, what they say is accompanied by miraculous signs and wonders, but contradicts Scripture then again the penalty is being stoned to death as a false prophet. But most are slow to take heed today when Jesus said “For every careless Word a man speaks he will give an account of it on the Day of Judgement.”

So there can be no mistaking that the sign gifts as practiced today are clearly not the sign gifts of the Bible. But as I said at the beginning, God can do what He wants when He wants, and if He so wills, can use the real sign gifts whenever He likes.

Kevin Williams. www.PuritanFellowship.com .

17 comments:

Matt Haney said...: Hey Kevin,

I do enjoy your blog... I think we see eye to eye on a lot of things. I am not a sensationalist (I am more like John Piper, Wayne Grudem or D.A. Carson) but have you considered 1 Corinthians 1:7, "...so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ..." Paul clearly thought the gifts at Corinth would be around until Christ came back. True, maybe not at the same rate as with the Apostles, but still existent. This is brought up again in 13:8-12.

Also, have you heard of Grudem's view on N.T. prophecy... there are texts that show that the N.T. prophet (which is different from the O.T. prophet) can give fallible interpretations of what God spoke to him, thus God never gave a fallible message. These prophecies are about circumstantial things, not doctrinal things, that is key. We see this in Acts and with Timothy.

1 Th. 5:20-21 shows that not all prophesy is to be trusted, ‘Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good.’ He says to test every prophecy, which he never would have said of the Scriptures and then he says to hold fast what is good (meaning either only accept the good prophecies or only keep the good part of the prophecy). 1 Cor. 14:29 says similar things, ‘Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said.’ When a real N.T. prophet gets up to speak, what he says is always to be weighed by the other prophets, thus his words are not on the level of Scripture. In 1 Cor. 14:30 he says, ‘If a revelation is made to another sitting there, let the first be silent.’ The one previously speaking is either saying more than God wanted him to say or the other prophet needs to interpret or explain what was said. This would not make sense if prophecy was simply preaching the Gospel or had the same authority as Scripture.

Paul says, ‘we prophesy in part’ what does that mean if Prophecy is on the same level as Scritpure? When Paul says, ‘we prophesy in part’ he means our prophecies must be weighed, they lack perfection. I would support this by verse 11, ‘When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.’ I could say that prophecies not on the level of Scripture could have some aspect to them that is not perfect, but compared to being childish. In no way can Scripture quality revelation be compared to being childish. Verse 12 says, ‘For now we see in a mirror dimly’, this would apply to my view of prophecy, but for a view that says N.T. prophecy is at Scripture quality, Paul's description sounds odd, like it is of poor inferior content.

Nowhere do we have a command to accept whatever a N.T. prophet said, but all over the place we are told the Scriptures have absolute authority (2 TI 3:16 and 2 Pe 1:19-20). What we do have is places in the N.T. where what N.T. prophets said should be weighed and tested, thus showing they did not function like Scriptures. If it did function like Scripture, why were women able to do it? In 1 Corinthians 11:5 it says, ‘but every wife who prays or prophesies…'

This can be a really long exchange, which I don't want to get into, but just wanted you to check out Grudem's view (if you hadn't) and consider 1 Corinthians 1:7.

In Christ,
matt haney; 31 December 2007 23:26
The Seeking Disciple said...: I agree with your previous comment and in fact was going to point out the solid contributions to the debate from the likes of charismatics such as Dr. John Piper, Dr. Wayne Grudem, Dr. Gordon Fee, Dr. Jack Deere, and such charimatic Calvinist movements like Sovereign Grace Ministries.

I would argue that I am not a cessasionist but I do often agree with non-charismatics arguments for balance. I think most godly charismatics would agree. Too often the charismatic debate turns ugly because many would like to point to Benny Hinn as the typical prototype of the charismatic movement but this is simply untrue and misleading. Even Pentecostals disassociate themselves from Hinn, Copeland, Price, Hagin, etc (see Gordon Fee's book THE DISEASE OF THE HEALTH AND WEALTH GOSPEL). The debate should focus first on the fact that charismatics and non-charismatics can be brothers and sisters in Christ and then debate the issues at hand from the Scriptures and not just from personal (or lack thereof) experiences.

Great blog by the way! Happy New Year to you in England from across the sea!; 01 January 2008 02:17
Puritan said...: Hi Matt thanks for your comments,

In 1 Corinthians 1:7 I do not believe that Paul is necessarily referring to the supernatural gifts. The same word charisma translated as gifts does not always mean the supernatural gifts, for instance it is used twice in Rom 5:16-17 and is clearly there referring to the gift of salvation “But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. 16 And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification."

In 1 Cor 13:8-12 Paul is not giving us instruction of when the gifts will be in operation and end, but is merely illustrating a point on love, (if I thought he was, I think the full cessationist position on this text has far less problems than the 'gifts-in-full-operation', which as I explained in the article I reject).

If God speaks about “circumstantial things” then it is still infallible.

MH: “1 Th. 5:20-21 shows that not all prophesy is to be trusted, ‘Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good.’ He says to test every prophecy which he never would have said of the Scriptures”
-- Which is and which is not Scripture is not clear for the Thessalonians as the Thessalonians did not have the NT yet. So he would have said to test regarding any type of teaching or proclamation.

MH: “and then he says to hold fast what is good (meaning either only accept the good prophecies or only keep the good part of the prophecy).
--When Paul says hold fast to what is good, he is talking about how we conduct our lives, as in the next verse: “22 Abstain from every form of evil.”
We quench the spirit by v17 not praying without ceasing, v18 not giving thanks in all circumstances. V16, not rejoicing always, v15, by repaying evil for evil and not seeking to do good.

And so 1 Cor. 14:29 is in a different context.

Regarding “‘we prophesy in part’”, how you interpret that text depends entirely on your presuppositions. But if we say “prophecies not on the level of Scripture could have some aspect to them that is not perfect” Then we have to remember that the Corinth church did not have the New Testament. In fact it is likely that they only had this letter 1 Corinthians at this stage, and so instruction/prophecy, in this case, is to be tested whether it is from God or not, until the perfect revelation of Scripture comes.; 01 January 2008 16:22
Garrett said...: Hi Kevin,

I haven't had the time yet to read your entire post, but I did want to let you know of an article on these issues that was very helpful to me at one point in time:

Cessationism vs. Continuance by Charles Leiter

I don't know if the article will be of any help or not, but I thought I would mention it.

gh; 01 January 2008 23:56
Puritan Lad said...: I once had a charasmatic faith healer tell me that the reason I didn't get my healing was because "God wasn't ready". Apparently God was caught off guard by my request, and had to go away and think about it for a few days in order to make up His mind.

BTW: I am a former Assemblies of God minister. Been there and done that.; 02 January 2008 02:53
Puritan Lad said...: Matt,

If New Testament proephecy can be fallible, then how can we trust the New Testament? Maybe the writers made mistakes in the message that God game them.; 02 January 2008 02:55
Garrett said...: Puritan Lad,

This is from the article I linked to above, which says it better than I think I can:

At the same time, we need to be careful not to take this argument to an unbiblical extreme, as some have done. Not all of these seasons of special visitation were related to the giving of a new body of revelation. They occurred at other times as well, according to God’s good pleasure, as in the days of Elijah and Elisha. Though Biblical miracles were especially profuse at the time of great revelatory events in Scripture, they were by no means lacking at other times. As Jeremiah 32:17-21 makes clear, God not only “set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt”, but “even to this day both in Israel and among mankind” (v.20) He continued to perform the miraculous. The idea that miracles were given primarily to accredit certain men (such as the Apostles) is simply not in line with the Scriptural evidence. As noted above, the various gifts are given “for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ.” Rather than limiting miraculous powers to a few leaders (men such as Moses or Paul), the biblical desire is to see the Spirit of prophecy spread as broadly as possible amongst the people of God: “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the LORD'S people were prophets, that the LORD would put His Spirit upon them!” (Num 11:26-29) “Now I wish that you all spoke in tongues, but even more that you would prophesy.” (1 Cor 14:5) [Such prophesying in Old Testament times was no threat to the authoritative revelation given once-for-all by God through Moses. Neither was the prophesying at Corinth any threat to the authoritative teaching given through the Apostles. These utterances were never, even in the early church, received as being on par with Scripture, but rather were
to be “judged” (1 Cor 14:29) and “examined carefully.” (1 Thes 5:21) Anything that did not line up with apostolic teaching was to be rejected. (1 Cor 14:37-38; 1 Tim 6:3-5) The same was true of “signs and wonders” in the days of Moses. (Dt 13:1-5) Thus, the argument that the gifts of the Spirit have ceased because the canon of Scripture is complete (or that a continuing manifestation of the gifts would threaten the authority of Scripture) is not a valid one.]

Let me know your thoughts on this quote, and then I can perhaps respond with some of my own.

gh; 02 January 2008 16:02
Puritan Lad said...: Garrett,

There is a lot here, but the heart of the question is the nature and purpose of prophecy. Whether or not true prophecy threatens the canon is a secondary issue. In prophecy, God is the speaker. Anything else, by definition, is not prophecy.

My main problem with this new kind of "prophecy" is that there is really no biblical warrant for it. You correctly proclaim that "These utterances were never, even in the early church, received as being on par with Scripture, but rather were
to be “judged” (1 Cor 14:29) and “examined carefully.” (1 Thes 5:21) Anything that did not line up with apostolic teaching was to be rejected. (1 Cor 14:37-38; 1 Tim 6:3-5)."

First, I would ask how we are to examine and judge these utterance. How do we determine whether or not they line up with the apostlic teaching? If you are in agreement that the Bible is the "whole counsel of God", then we are both in agreement that prophecy is no longer needed. ALl the prophecy that a Christian would ever need is to be found within the pages of the Holy Writ.

I would disagree with the statement that "These utterances were never, even in the early church, received as being on par with Scripture". Even New Testament Prophecy was inerrant, infallible, and authoritative, ie. the Word from the Lord that was immediately to be obeyed, as I can give several Scriptures to support. If you don't agree, then I refer back to my original question. How can we trust the New Testament?

As a former proponent of the comtinuation of sign gifts, I am open to correction here. I now, for a variety of reasons, see the sign gifts appearing in Scripture main during the inauguration of Covenants (old and new), and are only meant for temporary use. (For most of Bible history, there is a remarkable lack of miracles.) My experiences with those who claim to have these gifts have only strengthened that belief. The proof is in the pudding, so to speak.; 02 January 2008 19:55
Puritan said...: Although I'm only an "almost", as I said in the article. Here are some quotes from Church History which clearly are in favour of the cessationist view:

John Chrysostom (c. 344–407):

This whole place [speaking about 1 Corinthians 12] is very obscure: but the obscurity is produced by our ignorance of the facts referred to and by their cessation, being such as then used to occur but now no longer take place. [1]

*****

Augustine (354–430):

In the earliest times, “the Holy Ghost fell upon them that believed: and they spake with tongues,” which they had not learned, “as the Spirit gave them utterance.” These were signs adapted to the time. For there behooved to be that betokening of the Holy Spirit in all tongues, to shew that the Gospel of God was to run through all tongues over the whole earth. That thing was done for a betokening, and it passed away. [2]

*****

Theodoret of Cyrus (c. 393–c. 466):

In former times those who accepted the divine preaching and who were baptized for their salvation were given visible signs of the grace of the Holy Spirit at work in them. Some spoke in tongues which they did not know and which nobody had taught them, while others performed miracles or prophesied. The Corinthians also did these things, but they did not use the gifts as they should have done. They were more interested in showing off than in using them for the edification of the church. . . . Even in our time grace is given to those who are deemed worthy of holy baptism, but it may not take the same form as it did in those days. [3]

*****

Martin Luther (1483–1546):

[Rather than acknowledging the availability of the miraculous gifts of the Spirit, as the spiritual enthusiasts of his time did, Luther (in his Large Catechism) defined the Holy Spirit’s gifts as:]

· the holy Christian Church,
· the communion of saints,
· the forgiveness of sins,
· the resurrection of the body, and
· the life everlasting[Thus in the Large Catechism, he writes:]

Learn this article, then, as clearly as possible. If you are asked, What do you mean by the words, “I believe in the Holy Spirit”? you can answer, “I believe that the Holy Spirit makes me holy, as his name implies.” How does he do this? By what means? Answer: “Through the Christian church, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.” In the first place, he has a unique community in the world. It is the mother that begets and bears every Christian through the Word of God. The Holy Spirit reveals and preaches that Word, and by it he illumines and kindles hearts so that they grasp and accept it, cling to it, and persevere in it” [4]

[As The Encyclopedia of Religion concludes: “Both Luther and Calvin wrote that the age of miracles was over and that their occurrence should not be expected.”]

*****

John Calvin (1509–1564):

Though Christ does not expressly state whether he intends this gift [of miracles] to be temporary, or to remain perpetually in the Church, yet it is more probable that miracles were promised only for a time, in order to give lustre to the gospel while it was new or in a state of obscurity. [5]

“…the gift of healing, like the rest of the miracles, which the Lord willed to be brought forth for a time, has vanished away in order to make the preaching of the Gospel marvellous for ever.” [6]

*****

John Owen (1616–1683):

“Gifts which in their own nature exceed the whole power of all our faculties, that dispensation of the Spirit is long since ceased and where it is now pretended unto by any, it may justly be suspected as an enthusiastic delusion.” [7]

*****

Thomas Watson (c 1620–1686):

“Sure, there is as much need of ordination now as in Christ’s time and in the time of the apostles, there being then extraordinary gifts in the church which are now ceased.” [8]

*****

Matthew Henry (1662–1714):

What these gifts were is at large told us in the body of the chapter [1 Corinthians 12]; namely, extraordinary offices and powers, bestowed on ministers and Christians in the first ages, for conviction of unbelievers, and propagation of the gospel. [9]

The gift of tongues was one new product of the spirit of prophecy and given for a particular reason, that, the Jewish pale being taken down, all nations might be brought into the church. These and other gifts of prophecy, being a sign, have long since ceased and been laid aside, and we have no encouragement to expect the revival of them; but, on the contrary, are directed to call the scriptures the more sure word of prophecy, more sure than voices from heaven; and to them we are directed to take heed, to search them, and to hold them fast, 2 Peter 1:29. [10]

*****

Conyers Middleton (1683–1750):

We have no sufficient reason to believe, upon the authority of the primitive fathers, that any such powers were continued to the church, after the days of the Apostles. [11]

*****

John Gill (1697–1771):

[Commenting on 1 Corinthians 12:9 and 30:]

Now these gifts were bestowed in common, by the Spirit, on apostles, prophets, and pastors, or elders of the church, in those early times: the Alexandrian copy, and the Vulgate Latin version, read, “by one Spirit”. [12]

No; when these gifts were in being, all had them not. When anointing with oil, in order to heal the sick, was in use, it was only performed by the elders of the church, not by the common members of it, who were to be sent for by the sick on this occasion. [13]

*****

Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758):

In the days of his [Jesus’] flesh, his disciples had a measure of the miraculous gifts of the Spirit, being enabled thus to teach and to work miracles. But after the resurrection and ascension, was the most full and remarkable effusion of the Spirit in his miraculous gifts that ever took place, beginning with the day of Pentecost, after Christ had risen and ascended to heaven. And in consequence of this, not only here and there an extraordinary person was endowed with these extraordinary gifts, but they were common in the church, and so continued during the lifetime of the apostles, or till the death of the last of them, even the apostle John, which took place about a hundred years from the birth of Christ; so that the first hundred years of the Christian era, or the first century, was the era of miracles. But soon after that, the canon of Scripture being completed when the apostle John had written the book of Revelation, which he wrote not long before his death, these miraculous gifts were no longer continued in the church. For there was now completed an established written revelation of the mind and will of God, wherein God had fully recorded a standing and all-sufficient rule for his church in all ages. And the Jewish church and nation being overthrown, and the Christian church and the last dispensation of the church of God being established, the miraculous gifts of the Spirit were no longer needed, and therefore they ceased; for though they had been continued in the church for so many ages, yet then they failed, and God caused them to fail because there was no further occasion for them. And so was fulfilled the saying of the text, “Whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.” And now there seems to be an end to all such fruits of the Spirit as these, and we have no reason to expect them any more. [14]

Of the extraordinary gifts, they were given in order to the founding and establishing of the church in the world. But since the canon of Scriptures has been completed, and the Christian church fully founded and established, these extraordinary gifts have ceased. [15]

*****

George Whitefield (1714-1770):

[After being accused of practicing the miraculous gifts of the Spirit, said:]

I never did pretend to these extraordinary operations of working miracles, or speaking with tongues [since] the karismata, the miraculous gifts conferred on the primitive church . . . have long since ceased. [16]

*****

James Buchanan (1804-1870):

The miraculous gifts of the Spirit have long since been withdrawn. They were used for a temporary purpose. They were the scaffolding with God employed for the erection of a spiritual temple. When it was no longer needed the scaffolding was taken down, but the temple still stands, and is occupied by his indwelling Spirit; for, “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you” (I Cor. 3:16). [17]

*****

Robert L. Dabney (1820–1898):

After the early church had been established, the same necessity for supernatural signs now no longer existed, and God, Who is never wasteful in His expedients, withdrew them. . . . Miracles, if they became ordinary, would cease to be miracles, and would be referred by men to customary law. [18]

*****

Charles Spurgeon (1834–1892):

[The believers mentioned in the book of Hebrews] had attained the summit of piety. They had received “the powers of the world to come.” Not miraculous gifts, which are denied us in these days, but all those powers with which the Holy Ghost endows a Christian. And what are they? Why, there is the power of faith, which commands even the heavens themselves to rain, and they rain, or stops the bottles of heaven, that they rain not. There is the power of prayer, which puts a ladder between earth and heaven, and bids angels walk up and down, to convey our wants to God, and bring down blessings from above. There is the power with which God girds his servant when he speaks by inspiration, which enables him to instruct others, and lead them to Jesus; and whatever other power there may be—the power of holding communion with God, or the power of patient waiting for the Son of Man—they were possessed by these individuals. [19]

The works of the Holy Spirit which are at this time vouchsafed to the Church of God are every way as valuable as those earlier miraculous gifts which have departed from us. The work of the Holy Spirit, by which men are quickened from their death in sin, is not inferior to the power which made men speak with tongues. [20]

[Speaking of the office of the apostles,] an office which necessarily dies out, and properly so, because the miraculous power also is withdrawn. [21]

*****

George Smeaton (1814–1889):

The supernatural or extraordinary gifts were temporary, and intended to disappear when the Church should be founded and the inspired canon of Scripture closed; for they were an external proof of an internal inspiration. [22]

*****

Abraham Kuyper (1837–1920):

Many of the charismata, given to the apostolic church, are not of service to the church of the present day. [23]

*****

William G. T. Shedd (1820–1894):

The supernatural gifts of inspiration and miracles which the apostles possessed were not continued to their ministerial successors, because they were no longer necessary. All the doctrines of Christianity had been revealed to the apostles, and had been delivered to the church in a written form. There was no further need of an infallible inspiration. And the credentials and authority give to the first preachers of Christianity in miraculous acts, did not need continual repetition from age to age. One age of miracles well authenticated is sufficient to establish the divine origin of the gospel. In a human court, an indefinite series of witnesses is not required. “By the mouth of two or three witnesses,” the facts are established. The case once decided is not reopened. [24]

*****

Benjamin B. Warfield (1887–1921):

These gifts were not the possession of the primitive Christian as such; nor for that matter of the Apostolic Church or the Apostolic age for themselves; they were distinctively the authentication of the Apostles. They were part of the credentials of the Apostles as the authoritative agents of God in founding the church. Their function thus confined them to distinctively the Apostolic Church and they necessarily passed away with it. [25]

*****

Arthur W. Pink (1886–1952):

As there were offices extraordinary (apostles and prophets) at the beginning of our dispensation, so there were gifts extraordinary; and as successors were not appointed for the former, so a continuance was never intended for the latter. The gifts were dependent upon the officers. We no longer have the apostles with us and therefore the supernatural gifts (the communication of which was an essential part of “the signs of an apostle,” II Cor. 12:12) are absent. [26]

[1] John Chrysostom, Homilies on 1 Corinthians, 36.7. Cited from 1–2 Corinthians, ACCS, 146 in reference to 1 Cor 12:1–2.

[2] Augustine, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, 6.10. Cited from Schaff, NPNF, First Series, 7:497–98.

[3] Theodoret of Cyrus, Commentary on the First Epistle to the Corinthians, 240, 43. Cited from 1–2 Corinthians, ACCS, 117 in reference to 1 Cor 12:1, 7.

[4] Martin Luther, Large Catechism, Tappert-edition (Fortress, 1959), 416.

[5] John Calvin, Commentary on the Synoptic Gospels III, 389.

[6] John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, IV:19, 18.

[7] John Owen, Works IV, 518.

[8] Thomas Watson, The Beatitudes, 140.

[9] Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary, in reference to 1 Corinthians 12:; emphasis added.

[10] Matthew Henry, Preface to Vol. IV of his Exposition of OT & NT, vii.

[11] Cited from Ron Wallace, “The Biblical View of the Gift of Languages: The History of the Gift of Tongues”; online source: http://biblefragrances.com/studies/tonghistory.html.

[12] John Gill’s commentary on 1 Corinthians 12:9.

[13] John Gill’s commentary on 1 Corinthians 12:30.

[14] Jonathan Edwards, Sermon entitled, “The Holy Spirit Forever To Be Communicated To The Saints, In The Grace Of Charity, Or Divine Love” on 1 Corinthians 13:8; online source: http://www.jonathanedwards.com/sermons/Charity/Charity%2015.htm.

[15] Jonathan Edwards, Charity and its Fruits, 29.

[16] George Whitefield, "Second Letter to the Bishop of London," Works, Vol. IV, 167.

[17] James Buchanan, Office and Work of the Holy Spirit, 34.

[18] Robert L. Dabney, “Prelacy a Blunder,” Discussions: Evangelical and Theological, Vol. 2, 236-237.

[19] Charles Spurgeon, sermon entitled, “Final Perseverance” on Hebrews 6:4–6; online source: http://www.spurgeon.org/sermons/0075.htm; emphasis added.

[20] Charles Spurgeon, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit 1884, Vol. 30, 386–387.

[21] Charles Spurgeon, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit 1871, Vol. 17, 178.

[22] George Smeaton, The Doctrine of the Holy Spirit, 51.

[23] Abraham Kuyper, The Work of the Holy Spirit, English Edition, 1900, 182.

[24] W. G. T. Shedd, Dogmatic Theology, Vol. 11, 369.

[25] Benjamin B. Warfield, Counterfeit Miracles, 6.

[26] Arthur W. Pink, The Holy Spirit, 179).; 02 January 2008 20:20
Matt Haney said...: Hey Puritan,

You have shown that it is possible for "gifts" to refer to something else besides the spiritual gifts in 1 Cor. 1:7, but you have not even suggested from the context why it would mean something else.

As in other letters Paul wrote, in the introduction of the letter in chapter 1 he will bring up many of the issues that he will address later. In verse 1 Paul is defending his apostleship, “Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus.” This is an issue he will address in Chapter 4 and 9. In verse 2 he addresses their immoral problems, “to those sanctified in Christ Jesus”. He will address this issue in chapter 5 and the last part of chapter 6. In verse 2 he also addresses their spiritual pride, thinking they are in a league of their own, “called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours.” This is addressed later in such passages as 14:36. In verse 13 Paul asks, “Is Christ divided?”. This is an issue addressed in 12:12-31.

Now are we to believe that 1:4-7 is to be brought up and not addressed again later in the letter? The issue is the spiritual gifts lasting until Christ comes back. This is clearly brought up in 13:8-12. Anyone who approaches these texts without any bias will instantly see a connection between them. Instead of using basic hermeneutics, like they would with any other passages, some would rather do theological gymnastics to avoid the obvious implications of these 2 texts.

1 Corinthians 1:4-9, “4I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, 5that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge-- 6even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you-- 7so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 8who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”

The first thing I want to draw attention to is the fact that Paul says in verse 7 that there are some spiritual gifts that will remain until Jesus Christ comes back.

To find out which gifts these are lets look at verse 5 and 7, “5that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge… 7so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ”. The spiritual gifts that they will not be lacking in until the return of the Lord Jesus have to do with “speech” and “knowledge”.

The Greek word for “speech” in verse 6 is “logos”. Logos is a very broad word and can refer to almost any kind of speech, discourse or anything reported in speech. The Greek word for “knowledge” in verse 6 is “gnosis”. Because this is in the very introduction of Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, it most likely that he is introducing a major theme of the letter in which he will enlarge upon later. When we get to chapters 12 – 14 it is obvious that this was a major theme of his letter.

In 1 Corinthians 12:8 we see both words, logos and gnosis, “To one is given through the Spirit the utterance [logos] of wisdom, and to another the utterance [logos] of knowledge [gnosis] according to the same Spirit”. So we see that these words can be used in reference to the spiritual gifts such as the utterance of wisdom and the utterance of knowledge.

Both logos and gnosis are also found in 2 Corinthians 8:7, “But as you excel in everything--in faith, in speech [logos], in knowledge [gnosis], in all earnestness, and in our love for you--see that you excel in this act of grace also.” Paul is summarizing the spiritual gifts that the Corinthians had and what two words does he choose to use? Logos and gnosis. The ESV Reformation Study Bible with R. C. Sproul as its general editor (who is a cessationist), suggests that in these verse Paul is referring to their many spiritual gifts that can be found in 1 Corinthians 12-14.

Logos is used in 1 Corinthians 14:9 as well, “So with yourselves, if with your tongue you utter speech [logos] that is not intelligible, how will anyone know what is said? For you will be speaking into the air.”

Logos is used 1 Corinthians 14:19, “Nevertheless, in church I would rather speak five words [logos] with my mind in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words [logos] in a tongue.”

Gnosis is used in 1 Corinthians 13:2, “And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge [gnosis]…”, so this knowledge [gnosis] can be referring to the knowledge that is given to prophets.

Most importantly we see Gnosis used in 1 Corinthians 13:8, “Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge [gnosis], it will pass away.”

We also see gnosis used in 1 Corinthians 14:6, “Now, brothers, if I come to you speaking in tongues, how will I benefit you unless I bring you some revelation or knowledge [gnosis] or prophecy or teaching?”

The 2nd passage I want to look at is 1 Corinthians 13:8-12, “8Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.”

The Greek word for “comes” in verse 10 is “erchomai.” This same word is used in 1 Corinthians 4:5, “Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes [erchomai], who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God.”

Erchomai is used again in 1 Corinthians 11:26 to speak about the Lord’s return, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes [erchomai].” So we see this Greek word “erchomai” is commonly used to refer to the Lord’s 2nd coming.

Not only does Paul begin this book talking about the return of the Lord but he ends it with the same theme, “Our Lord, come!” (1 Corinthians 16:22). Although the Greek here is “maranatha” and not “erchomai”, it still shows that this is a consistent theme in this letter.

In Christ,
matt haney; 03 January 2008 00:26
Puritan said...: Hi Matt,

As I’ve said above I do not think 1 Cor 13:8-12 is giving us a timetable on when the gifts will be present or not. If I did, then if we take into the context that this epistle is likely the only piece of New Testament Scripture the Corinthians had at the time, then the Cessationist position that the sign gifts will cease at the completion of the NT cannon makes perfect sense. Although I do not agree with either position on this text.

1 Cor 13:9 “we know in part and we prophesy in part,” is not saying we have fallible gifts, but rather we don’t have a perfect view of Heaven and Jesus yet.

We can argue about does the Scripture say the sign gifts have ceased just like we can argue does Scripture teach that the NT cannon of Scripture is complete. I would argue that the answer to both are a resounding no. Yet we all believe that the Cannon is closed.
But the key here is, are the sign gifts the same today as practiced as revealed to us in Scripture.

As I have noted in my article, tongues and healing are radically different. I have recently read accounts from brothers I trust, about a lot of healings in India that are passed off as miracles, but each time I’d excitedly read, as I read through I would find what they termed a ‘miracle’ was really an example of God’s providence, and different to the miracles of the Bible.

As I said in my article I believe God can do what He wants, when He wants, and so I have no problem if God chose to do a healing or the gift of tongues as it is revealed in Scripture today. But we just do not see these.

But there is also just no Scriptural warrant for this “fallible” gift of prophecy. When Paul says “test,” he is not saying test whether God has got it wrong, but rather has man really spoken to God.

I’m not a cessationist, I’m an “almost”. For instance I have no problem that sometimes it will be true when someone is convinced God wants him to be in outer Mongolia, next month. But I think that by far the majority of these claims are not from God at all, for instance, it is rather strange that God would send someone to evangelize another country when this person can’t even be bothered to proclaim the Gospel to his neighbours on his own street, because he’s to busy watching things on TV he shouldn’t be watching. A general example, but much of what we see happening is very similar.

When we say “on par with Scripture” we are not saying that if God speaks then it should be in the Cannon, but that if God speaks it is infallible. I am sure Jonah, Enoch, Samuel and the other OT prophets prophesised more than what is recorded for us in the Bible, but every word they prophesised must have been 100% accurate otherwise they would be false prophets.

Another thing I often see is people walking around saying “the Lord put this verse on my heart for you” when what in most cases I think they mean is that they quickly searched through the Bible to give them a verse. Now I have nothing against brethren giving each other verses of Scripture, but I would just rather people (often ones in my experience who are at the same time regarding iniquity in their heart) would not try to pass it off as a supernatural gift.

I’ve seen lives messed up by this ‘fallible gift of prophecy’. Because the problem is, if you believe in this gift of prophecy as it is today, and someone approaches you and gives you a ‘prophecy’, then so long as it doesn’t contradict Scripture, (i.e. God would not tell someone to convert to Catholicism) then you have no way of testing whether or not it is of God.

MH: “The first thing I want to draw attention to is the fact that Paul says in verse 7 that there are some spiritual gifts that will remain until Jesus Christ comes back.”

---But he didn’t. He rather said while they are waiting for “as you wait for”

The Greek word “erchomai” occurs hundreds of times and is not nearly always linked with His coming. Myself and my four year old daughter will say ““erchomai” in the supermarket and we‘re not talking about the 2nd Comimg. The idea in our case is, if we speak the language now, she will pick it up naturally without making an effort to learn. Although at the moment we instead speak Polish (or at least I try my best) as there are a massive influx of Polish people where we live who don’t speak much English, so I thought it would be wise to learn the language to witness to them. But “erchomai” come, came, coming etc is just a common word. If they are going to talk about Jesus’ 2nd coming then of course they are going to use the word for come.

Incidentally, are you the same Matt Haney who is the ex-JW? If so, we are putting your testimony on a CD to give to JW’s where we live. You’re in our prayers, so it’s good to speak to you.; 03 January 2008 11:59
Matt Haney said...: Hey Kevin,

I am the same Matt Haney that is an Ex-JW. Thank you for your prayers. If you want, I can mail you a CD copy of the original recording.

The problem with saying 1 Cor. 13 is about the completion of the N.T. Canon is verse 12, "For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face." We simply do not have a perfect vision of God, that is face to face, simply because we have the Bible. This is speaking of seeing Him in heaven, perfectly. Otherwise, we are saying we see God better than the Apostle Paul did.

By the way, I am weary of anyone that gets "a word from the Lord" that tells someone else what to do (which is Grudem's position too). I also think experiences should not be our hermeneutic. I could list an abuse of any doctrine, but that does not take away from the truth of that doctrine.

In Christ,
matt haney; 03 January 2008 14:13
Garrett said...: Puritan Lad,

I'm sorry it has taken me so long to respond. My work level tends to fluctuate from day-to-day, and I'm never quite sure when it will take an up-swing. Anyhow, here are a few brief comments to your most recent post.

First, I would ask how we are to examine and judge these utterance. How do we determine whether or not they line up with the apostlic teaching? If you are in agreement that the Bible is the "whole counsel of God", then we are both in agreement that prophecy is no longer needed. ALl the prophecy that a Christian would ever need is to be found within the pages of the Holy Writ.

I think we both agree that we would judge all things by the Word of God in the Scriptures. However, you seem to assume that the kind of prophecy we are talking about only pertains to doctrinal issues. But that is decidedly not the case. Even in the NT, it appears that people didn't just prophesy regarding doctrinal issues, but about the lives and situations of individual people. Consider 1 Cor. 14:24-25:

"But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or an ungifted man enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all; the secrets of his heart are disclosed; and so he will fall on his face and worship God, declaring that God is certainly among you."

Notice that in this case, Paul expected the prophesying that was taking place to cause the secrets of men's hearts to be exposed. Apparently this wasn't prophesying about doctrinal matters, but about the situations of individuals.

I would also ask you to consider cases of prophecy as seen in the lives of such men as John Knox, George Wishart, Robert Bruce, John Welch and Alexander Peden, who were all from a Scottish Reformed background. I can provide quotes from their lives if necessary, as I think they are particularly illustrative.

I would disagree with the statement that "These utterances were never, even in the early church, received as being on par with Scripture". Even New Testament Prophecy was inerrant, infallible, and authoritative, ie. the Word from the Lord that was immediately to be obeyed, as I can give several Scriptures to support.

If all prophetic utterances in NT times were considered inerrant and infallible, then how could Paul exhort believers to "test" them and to "hold fast to that which is good" (1 Thess. 5)? How could he counsel to "Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others pass judgment" (1 Cor. 14)? Would he counsel believers to pass judgment over other prophets, e.g., Isaiah, Jeremiah, etc.? And why would Paul say that "if a revelation is made to another who is seated, the first one must keep silent" (1 Cor. 14)? Are you telling me Paul is saying that, even though someone is speaking inerrant and infallible revelation on par with Isaiah or Ezekiel, that they are to be quiet and sit down if someone else receives a revelation? Seems strange that he would want to silence anyone who was speaking infallible revelation on par with Scripture.

I now, for a variety of reasons, see the sign gifts appearing in Scripture main during the inauguration of Covenants (old and new), and are only meant for temporary use.

How do you determine what is a sign gift, and what is not? Where does the Bible delineate between "sign" gifts and other kinds of gifts?

My experiences with those who claim to have these gifts have only strengthened that belief.

Yes, these things have been abused, but that should not keep us from acknowledging the truthfulness of Scripture on these points, which I'm sure you would agree to.

gh; 05 January 2008 22:50
Puritan said...: Hi Garret,

If all prophetic utterances in NT times were considered inerrant and infallible, then how could Paul exhort believers to "test" them and to "hold fast to that which is good" (1 Thess. 5)? How could he counsel to "Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others pass judgment" (1 Cor. 14)? Would he counsel believers to pass judgment over other prophets, e.g., Isaiah, Jeremiah, etc.?

In OT times God also commanded people to test prophets and prophecies to see whether they were from God and that includes Isaiah and Jeremiah. We have to remember, they didn’t have the whole Bible as we do.

If someone came today claiming to have a New book of the Bible, then we shouldn’t just accept it. Now I believe that the Cannon has ceased, but I can’t give you a Bible verse that says so, without taking Scripture out of context.

I do not think every prophecy from God is Scripture. As I said above I expect Jonah, Enoch and Samuel prophesised much more than what was written down. However the Bible clearly states that all their prophecies (not just what we have for us recorded as Scripture) must be inerrant and infallible. If God speaks, He speaks and it is infallible.

When we talk about the sign gifts, we mean the miraculous, I.e. signs and wonders. There is a clear difference between the miraculous than gifts like teaching, giving or helps, and also between God’s working of all things together providentially.; 06 January 2008 10:19
Garrett said...: Kevin,

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I think the NT texts on prophecy imply two things:

1. It's possible for someone to give a prophecy that is only partially correct: each prophecy must be tested, and we are to "hold fast to that [part] which is good." That's how I understand that verse anyway... See Grudem's work for further support.

2. It's possible for someone to give a prophecy (in the NT sense) that is off, and then for that same person to give a prophecy later on that is correct. In OT times, the one wrong prophecy would have disqualified this person from ever speaking forth a revelation again. But it seems to me that the situation under the new covenant is different. That's the feel I get when I read through 1 Cor. 11-14.

Also, the distinction between "sign gifts" and "non-sign gifts" might be clear in your mind, but where does the Bible itself ever make a clear distinction between the two? Especially such a distinction that would imply that some would cease existing only a few years after they began to be in operation?

Thanks for the interaction,

gh; 06 January 2008 13:12
Garrett said...: Kevin,

Just a heads-up, Matt actually covered most of what I'm trying to say about prophecy in the very first comment on this post. Just thought I'd mention that, since it's easy sometimes to forget about what was said before, since the comments all appear in a running order.

gh; 06 January 2008 13:15
webbo6 said...: As an ex-pente who now runs from anything charismatic I found this post to bring me some needed balance. Thank You; 08 January 2008 11:33

"She is a common sewer!" - Thomas Watson

2008-05-06T03:09:00.000-07:00

(Thomas Watson, "The Ten Commandments". Though it particularly addresses adultery, it easily applies to any kind of immorality.)

"You shall not commit adultery."
(Exodus 20:14)

This commandment is set up as a hedge to keep out impurity; and those who break this hedge—a serpent shall bite them! The fountain of this sin is lust. God is a pure, holy being, and has an infinite antipathy against all impurity. We must take heed of running on the rock of impurity, and so making shipwreck of our chastity. The meaning of the commandment is not only that we should not stain our bodies with immorality—but that we should keep our souls pure. To have a chaste body—but an unclean soul, is like a beautiful face with a cancerous heart. "Be holy, for I am holy." 1 Peter 1:16.

There is a mental adultery. "Whoever looks on a woman to lust after her, has committed adultery with her already in his heart." Matthew 5:28. As a man may die of an inward bleeding—so he may be damned for the inward boilings of lust, if it is not mortified. That I may deter you from the sin of adultery, let me show you the great evil of it.

(1) Adultery is a thievish sin. It is the highest sort of theft. The adulterer steals from his neighbor, that which is more than his goods and estate; he steals away his wife from him!

(2) Adultery debases a person. It makes him resemble the beasts; therefore the adulterer is described like a horse neighing. "Everyone neighed after his neighbor's wife." Jeremiah 5:8. It is worse than brutish; for some creatures which are void of reason—yet by the instinct of nature, observe some decorum and chastity. The turtle-dove is a chaste creature, and keeps to its mate. And the stork, wherever he flies, comes into no nest but his own. Naturalists write that if a stork, leaving his own mate, joins with any other, all the rest of the storks fall upon it, and pull its feathers from it. Adultery is worse than brutish, it degrades a person of his honor.

(3) Adultery pollutes. The devil is called an unclean spirit. Luke 11:24. The adulterer is the devil's first-born; he is unclean; he is a moving quagmire. He is all over ulcerated with sin; his eyes sparkle with lust; his mouth foams out filth; his heart burns like mount Etna, in unclean desires. He is so filthy, that if he dies in this sin, all the flames of hell will never purge away his immorality! And, as for the adulteress, who can paint her black enough? The Scripture calls her a deep ditch. Proverbs 23:27. She is a common sewer! The body of a harlot is a walking dung-hill, and her soul a lesser hell!

(4) Adultery is destructive to the body. "Afterward you will groan in anguish
when disease consumes your body." Proverbs 5:11. Immorality turns the body into a hospital, it brings foul diseases, and eats the beauty of the face. As the flame wastes the candle, so the fire of lust consumes the body. The adulterer hastens his own death. "So she seduced him with her pretty speech. With her flattery she enticed him. He followed her at once, like an ox going to the slaughter or like a trapped stag, awaiting the arrow that would pierce its heart. He was like a bird flying into a snare, little knowing it would cost him his life!" Proverbs 7:21-23.

(5.) Adultery is a drain upon the purse; it wastes not the body only—but the estate. "Keeping you from the immoral woman, from the smooth tongue of the wayward wife. Do not lust in your heart after her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyes, for the prostitute reduces you to a loaf of bread, and the adulteress preys upon your very life!" Proverbs 6:24-26. Whores are the devil's horse-leeches, sponges that suck in money. The prodigal son spent his inheritance, when he fell among harlots. Luke 15:30. The concubine of King Edward III, when he was dying, got all she could from him, and even plucked the rings off his fingers.

(6) Adultery destroys reputation. "But the man who commits adultery is an utter fool, for he destroys his own soul. Wounds and constant disgrace are his lot. His shame will never be erased!" Proverbs 6:32, 33. Wounds of reputation—no physician can heal. When the adulterer dies, his shame lives. When his body rots underground, his name rots above ground. His bastard children are living monuments of his shame.

(7) Adultery impairs the mind. It steals away the understanding; it stupefies the heart. "Whoredom and wine take away the heart." Hosea 4:11. It eats all purity out of the heart. Solomon besotted himself with women, and they enticed him to idolatry.

(8) Adultery incurs temporal judgments. The Mosaic law made the penalty for adultery, to be death. "The adulterer and adulteress shall surely be put to death;" and the usual death was stoning. Lev 20:10; Deut. 22:24. The Salons commanded people guilty of this sin, to be burnt. The Romans caused their heads to be stricken off. Like a scorpion—this sin carries a sting in its tail. "For jealousy arouses a husband's fury, and he will show no mercy when he takes revenge!" Proverbs 6:34. The adulterer is often killed in the act of his sin. "Lust's practice is to make a joyful entrance—but she leaves in misery." I have read of two in London, who, having defiled themselves with adultery, were immediately struck dead with lightening from heaven. If all who are now guilty of this sin were to be punished in this manner, it would rain fire again, as on Sodom.

(9) Adultery, without repentance, damns the soul. "Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor homosexual offenders . . . will inherit the kingdom of God!" 1 Corinthians 6:9-10. The fire of lust, brings to the fire of hell. "God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral!" Hebrews 13:4. Though men may neglect to judge them—yet God will judge them! He will judge them assuredly; they shall not escape the hand of justice; and He will punish them severely. The harlot's breasts keeps from Abraham's bosom! "The delight lasts a moment—the torment an eternity!" Who for a cup of pleasure—would drink a sea of wrath! "Her guests are in the depths of hell." Proverbs 9:18. The harlot is perfumed with powders, and lovely to look on—but poisonous and damnable to the soul! "She has cast down many wounded, yes, many strong men have been slain by her." Proverbs 7:26.

(10) The adulterer does all he can, to destroy the soul of another—and so kills two at once! He is worse than the thief; for, suppose a thief robs a man, yes, and also takes away his life— the man's soul may be happy; he may go to heaven as well as if he had died in his bed. But he who commits adultery, endangers the soul of another, and does all he can, to deprive her of salvation. What a fearful thing it is—to be an instrument to draw another to hell!

(11) The adulterer is abhorred of God. "The mouth of an adulteress is a deep pit; he who is abhorred by the Lord, will fall into it." Proverbs 22:14. What can be worse than to be abhorred by God? God may be angry with His own children; but for God to abhor a man—is the highest degree of hatred! The immoral person stands upon the threshold of hell; and when death gives him a push—he tumbles in! All this should sound a warning in our ears, and call us off from the pursuit of so damnable a sin as immorality. Hear what the Scriptures say: "Her house is the way to hell." Proverbs 7:27.

I shall give some directions, by way of antidote, to keep from the infection of this sin.

(1) Do not come into the company of a whorish woman; avoid her house, as a seaman does a rock. "Run from her! Don't go near the door of her house!" Proverbs 5:8. He who would not have the plague, must not come near infected houses; every whore-house has the plague in it. Not to avoid the occasion of sin, and yet pray, "Lead us not into temptation," is, as if one should put his finger into the candle, and yet pray that it may not be burnt!

(2) Look to your eyes. Much sin comes in by the eye. "Having eyes full of adultery." 2 Pet 2:14. The eye tempts the imagination, and the imagination works upon the heart. A lustful amorous eye, may usher in sin. Eve first saw the tree of knowledge—and then she took. Gen 3:6. First she looked—and then she loved. The eye often sets the heart on fire; therefore Job laid a law upon his eyes. "I made a covenant with my eyes—not to look with lust upon a young woman." Job 31:1.

(3) Look to your lips. Take heed of any unclean word which may enkindle unclean thoughts in yourselves or others. "Evil communications corrupt good manners." 1 Cor. 15:33. Impure discourse, is the bellows to blow up the fire of lust. Much evil is conveyed to the heart by the tongue. "Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth!" Psalm 141:3.

(4) Look in a special manner to your heart. "Guard your heart with all diligence." Proverbs 4:23. Every person has a tempter in his own bosom! "Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, adultery, all other sexual immorality." Matthew 15:19. Thinking of sin, makes way for the act of sin. Suppress the first risings of sin in your heart. As the serpent, when danger is near—guards his head, so keep your heart, which is the spring from whence all lustful motions proceed.

(5) Look to your attire. We read of the attire of a harlot. Proverbs 7:10. A wanton dress is a provocation to lust. A painted face, and half-naked breasts, are allurements to immorality. Where the sign is hung out—people will go in and taste the liquor. Jerome says, "those who by their lascivious attire endeavor to draw others to lust, though no evil follows—are tempters—and shall be punished, because they offered the poison to others, even though they would not drink."

(6) Take heed of evil company. Sin is a very contagious disease; one person tempts another to sin, and hardens him in it. There are three cords which draw men to immorality: the inclination of the heart, the persuasion of evil company, and the embraces of the harlot. This threefold cord is not easily broken. "A fire was kindled in their company." Psalm 106:18. The fire of lust is kindled in bad company.

(7) Beware of going to theaters and plays. A play-house is often a preface to a whorehouse. "Plays furnish the seeds of wickedness." We are bid to avoid all appearance of evil; and are not plays the appearance of evil? Such sights are there, which are not fit to be beheld with chaste eyes. A learned divine observes, that many have on their death-beds confessed, with tears, that the pollution of their bodies has been occasioned by going to plays.

(8) Take heed of mixed dancing. "Dances are instruments of lust and wantonness." From dancing, people come to dalliance with another, and from dalliance to immorality. "There is," says Calvin, "for the most part, some unchaste behavior in dancing." Dances draw the heart to immorality—by wanton gestures, by unchaste touches, and by lustful looks. Chrysostom inveighed against mixed dancing in his time. "We read," he says, "of a marriage feast—but of dancing there—we read not." Matthew 25:7. Many have been ensnared by dancing. "Dancing is not the conduct of a chaste woman—but of the adulteress," says Ambrose. Chrysostom says, "Where dancing is, there the devil is!"

(9) Take heed of lascivious books and pictures, which provoke to lust. As the reading of the Scripture stirs up love to God, so reading vile books stirs up the mind to wickedness. To lascivious books I may add lascivious pictures, which bewitch the eye, and are incendiaries to lust! They secretly convey poison to the heart.

(10) Take heed of excess in diet. When gluttony and drunkenness lead the van, immorality and wantonness bring up the rear. "Wine inflames lust." "Sodom's sins were pride, laziness, and gluttony." Ezekiel 16:49. The foulest weeds grow out of the fattest soil. Immorality proceeds from excess. "When I had fed them to the full, everyone neighed after his neighbor's wife." Jer. 5:8. Get the "golden bridle of temperance." God allows the refreshment of nature, and what may fit us the better for his service; but beware of surfeit. Excess in temporal things—clouds the mind, chokes good affections, and provokes lust. "I discipline my body and bring it under strict control." 1 Cor. 9:27. The flesh pampered—is liable to immorality.

(11) Take heed of idleness. When a man is idle, he is ready to receive any temptation. The devil sows most of his seeds of temptation in fallow ground. Idleness is the cause of sodomy and immorality. "Sodom's sins were pride, laziness, and gluttony." Ezekiel 16:49. When David was idle on the top of his house, he espied Bathsheba, and committed adultery with her. 2 Samuel 11:4. Jerome gave his friend counsel to be always well employed in God's vineyard, that when the devil came, he might have no leisure to listen to temptation.

(12) To avoid fornication and adultery, let every man have a chaste, entire love to his own wife. Ezekiel's wife was the desire of his eyes. Ezekiel 24:16. When Solomon had dissuaded from immoral women, he prescribed a remedy against it. "Rejoice with the wife of your youth." Proverbs 5:18. It is not having a wife—but loving a wife— which makes a man live chastely. He who loves his wife, whom Solomon calls his fountain, will not go abroad to drink of muddy, poisoned waters. Pure marital love is a gift of God, and comes from heaven; but, like the vestal fire, it must be nourished, so that it does not go out. He who does not love his wife, is the likeliest person to embrace the bosom of a harlot.

(13) Labor to get the fear of God into your hearts. "By the fear of the Lord, men depart from evil." Proverbs 16:6. As the embankment keeps out the water, so the fear of the Lord keeps out immorality. Such as lack the fear of God, lack the bridle which should check them from sin! How did Joseph keep from his mistress' temptation? The fear of God pulled him back! "How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God!" Genesis 39:9. Bernard calls holy fear, "the door-keeper of the soul." As a nobleman's porter stands at the door, and keeps out vagrants, so the fear of God stands and keeps out all sinful temptations from entering.

(14) Take delight in the Word of God. "How sweet are your words unto my taste." Psalm 119:103. Chrysostom compares God's Word to a garden. If we walk in this garden, and suck sweetness from the flowers of the promises, we shall never care to pluck the "forbidden fruit." "Let the Scriptures be my pure pleasure," says Augustine. The reason why people seek after unchaste, sinful pleasures—is because they have nothing better. Caesar riding through a city, and seeing the women play with dogs and parrots, said, "Surely, they have no children." So those who sport with harlots, have no better pleasures. He who has once tasted Christ in a promise, is ravished with delight; and he would scorn a temptation to sin! Job said, that the Word was his "appointed food." Job 23:12. No wonder then, that he made a "covenant with his eyes."

(15) If you would abstain from adultery, use serious consideration.

[1] Consider that God sees you in the act of sin! He sees all your curtain wickedness. He is totus oculus—"all eye." The clouds are no canopy, the night is no curtain—to hide you from God's eye! Whenever you sin—your Judge looks on! "I have seen your detestable acts—your adulteries and your neighings." Jer. 13:27. "They have committed adultery with their neighbors' wives. I know it and am a witness to it! declares the Lord." Jer. 29:23.

[2] Consider that few who are entangled in the sin of adultery, ever recover from the snare. "None that go to her return again." Proverbs 2:19. This made some of the ancients conclude that adultery was an unpardonable sin; but it is not so. David repented. Mary Magdalene was a weeping penitent; upon her amorous eyes which sparkled with lust, she sought to be revenged, by washing Christ's feet with her tears! Some, therefore have recovered from this snare. "None that go to her return," that is, "very few." It is rare to hear of any who are enchanted and bewitched with the sin of immorality, who recover from it. "I find more bitter than death the woman who is a snare, whose heart is a trap and whose hands are chains. The man who pleases God will escape her, but the sinner she will ensnare." Eccl. 7:26. Her "heart is a trap," that is, she is subtle to deceive those who come to her; and "her hands are chains," that is her embraces are powerful to hold and entangle her lovers. This consideration should make all fearful of this sin. Soft pleasures, harden the heart.

[3] Consider what Scripture says, which may lay a barricade in the way to this sin. "I will be a swift witness against the adulterers." Malachi 3:5. It is good when God is a witness "for us", when He witnesses to our sincerity, as He did to Job's; but it is sad to have God as a "witness against us." "I," says God, "will be a swift witness against the adulterer." And who shall disprove God's witness? He is both witness and judge! "God will surely judge people who are immoral and those who commit adultery." Hebrews 13:4.

[4] Consider the sad farewell, which the sin of adultery leaves. It leaves a hell in the conscience. "The lips of an immoral woman are as sweet as honey, and
her mouth is smoother than oil. But the result is as bitter as poison, sharp as a double-edged sword. Her feet go down to death; her steps lead straight to hell." Proverbs 5:3-5. The goddess Diana was so artfully drawn, that she seemed to smile upon those who came into her temple—but frown on those who went out. So the harlot smiles on her lovers as they come to her—but at last, they come to the frown and the sting! "Until an arrow pierces his liver." Proverbs 7:23. "Her end is bitter."

When a man has been virtuous, the labor is gone—but the comfort remains; but when he has been wicked and immoral, the pleasure is gone—but the sting remains. "He gains momentary pleasure—but after that, eternal torment," says Jerome. When the senses have been feasted with unchaste pleasures, the soul is left to pay the reckoning. Stolen waters are sweet; but, as poison, though sweet in the mouth, it torments the conscience. Sin always ends in tragedy! Sad is that which Fincelius reports of a priest in Flanders, who enticed a young girl to immorality. When she objected how vile a sin it was, he told her that by authority from the Pope, he could commit any sin; so at last he drew her to his wicked purpose. But when they had been together a while, in came the devil, and took away the harlot from the priest's side, and, notwithstanding all her crying out, carried her away! If the devil should come and carry away all who are guilty of immorality in this nation—I fear more would be carried away, than would be left behind!

(16) Pray against this sin. Luther gave a lady this advice, that when any lust began to rise in her heart, she should go to prayer. Prayer is the best armor against sin; it quenches the wild fire of lust. If prayer will "cast out the devil," it will certainly cast out those lusts which come from the devil.

O let us labor for soul purity! To keep the soul pure—have recourse to the blood of Christ, which is the "fountain open, to cleanse from sin and impurity." Zech. 13:1. A soul steeped in the briny tears of repentance, and bathed in the blood of Christ—is made pure! Say, "Lord, my soul is defiled! I pollute all I touch! O purge me with hyssop—let Christ's blood sprinkle me, let the Holy Spirit anoint me. O make me pure, that I may be taken to heaven—where I shall be as holy as You would have me to be—and as happy as I can desire to be!"

- Thomas Watson
(1620—1686)

Audio Book - Hudson Taylor's Spiritual Secret

2008-04-18T22:21:00.000-07:00

Narrated by Still Waters Revival Books

Hudson Taylor's Spiritual Secret is the famous biography of the most influential foreign missionary to China. So far as literature goes, time could scarcely be been better spent than to listen to his account. Historian Ruth Tucker summarized his life as follows: "No other missionary in the nineteen centuries since the Apostle Paul has had a wider vision and has carried out a more systematized plan of evangelizing a broad geographical area than Hudson Taylor."

Hudson's story is shaming, yet equally enlightening and inspiring. Here was a man committed to lay his life down as a test of God's faithfulness to answer prayers. Similar to George Mueller, the Bristol preacher and friend of Taylor who established orphanages without once soliciting for funds, Taylor threw himself entirely upon the provision of God to supply the needs of his mission. Determined and disciplined by devotion to the Savior, Taylor saw no work too excessive if done for Jesus.

Directions:
To download each .mp3 file, simply right click on the file name and choose save as in the appropriate folder. To listen to the files immediately, just click a link to open the player in a little window.

Each part is about 45 minutes long.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10

Audio Book - The Sovereignty of God - A. W. Pink

2008-04-18T14:58:00.000-07:00

Narrated by Still Waters Revival Books
Read this book online at CRTA - Pink - The Sovereignty of God

This was the first book I ever read by Pink, and I'm thankful I did. There are few books or resources which so powerfully call together the scriptures in support of God's good control over all things. Here's the review from Monergism.com,

This early book by Pink lays Scripture end to end to prove God's control over all persons and events. It is uncompromising, and as such it raises the hackles on the necks of many new students of this doctrine. Persons who knew Pink seldom objected to anything he taught, because he could literally quote hundreds of verses of Scripture verbatim on the subject under discussion. This book may be overwhelming, but it is certain that its many printings have been used of God to convince people of His sovereignty. His doctrinal belief is that that God both elects and reprobates, as Romans 9:21-23 clearly teaches. It is an important stone to guide the steps of those who are not yet convinced of God's absolute sovereignty over all persons and events.

Directions:
To download each .mp3 file, simply right click on the file name and choose save as in the appropriate folder. To listen to the files immediately, just click a link to open the player in a little window.

Each part is about 45 minutes long.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9

The Prayer of a Minor Prophet - Tozer

2008-04-16T11:29:00.000-07:00

The Prayer of a Minor Prophet
and His Covenant as a Preacher

Aiden W. Tozer

Oh lord, I have heard your voice, and was afraid.You have called me to an awesome task in a grave and perilous hour. You are about to shake all nations, and the Earth, and also Heaven,that the things that cannot be shaken may remain.

Oh Lord, my Lord, you have stooped to honor me to be your servant. No man takes this honor upon himself, save he that was called by God, as was Aaron. You have ordained me , your messenger to them that are stubborn of heart and hard of hearing. They have rejected you , the Master, and it is not to be expected that they will receive me, the servant.

My God, I will not waste time deploring my weakness, nor my unfittedness for the work. The responsibility is not mine, but Thine. You have called me by name, and I have loved you much,but only because you have loved me, the God Who is love.You have said, "I knew you, I have ordained you, I sanctified you" and you have also said, " You shall go to all that I shall send you".

"Whatsoever I command you ,you shall speak."

Who am I to argue with You, or to call into question your Sovereign choice? The decision is not mine, but yours.So be it Lord. Your will, not mine, be done. Well do i know, Oh god of the prophets and Apostles, that as long as I honor you, you will honor me. Therefore help me!Help me to take a solemn vow to honor You in all of my future life and labors, whether by gain or loss, by Life or Death, to keep that vow unbroken, while I live.

It is time Oh God, for You to work, for the enemy has entered into your Pastures! Your sheep are torn and scattered, and false shepherds abound who deny the dangers, and laugh at the perils which surround your flock! The sheep are deceived by these hirelings, and follow them with touching loyalty, while the Wolf closes in to kill and destroy!

I beseech you , Oh Lord, Give me sharp eyes to detect the presence of the enemy, and understanding with this sight , and courage to report what I see faithfully. Make my voice so like your own, that even the sick sheep will recognize it, and follow you. Lord Jesus, I come to You for Spiritual preparation. LAY YOUR HAND UPON ME. ANNOINT ME WITH THE OIL OF A NEW TESTAMENT PROPHET.

Forbid that I should become a religious scribe, and thus lose my Prophetic calling. Save me from the curse that lays dark across the face of modern clergy; THE CURSE OF COMPROMISE, OF IMITATION, OF PROFESSIONALISM.

Save me from the error of judging a church by it's size, it's popularity, or the amount of it's yearly offering.Help me to remember that I am a prophet, not a promoter, not a religious manager, but a prophet.

Let me never become a slave to crowds. Heal my soul of carnal ambitions, and deliver me from the fear of man, and the honor of man, and remind me that they are often cut from the same cloth. Save me from the bondage of things.

Let me not waste my days puttering around the house. Lay your TERROR UPON ME OH GOD! Drive me to the place of prayer, where I might wrestle with Principalities and powers, and the rulers of darkness of this world!

Deliver me from over-eating, and late sleeping.Teach me self discipline that I might be a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

I accept hard work and small rewards in this life. I ask for no easy place. I shall try to be blind to the little ways that make this life easier. If others seek the smoother path, I shall try to take the hard way without judging them too harshly.

I shall accept opposition and try to take it quietly when it comes, or if as it sometimes falls to your servants, I shall have grateful gifts pressed upon me by your good people, stand by me then, and save me from the blight that often follows. Teach me to use whatever I receive in such manner, that will not injure my soul, nor diminish my spiritual power.

If by permissive Providence honor should come to me from your Church, let me not forget that in that hour, I am unworthy of the least of your mercies, and if man knew me as intimately as I know myself, they would with hold their honors, and bestow them upon others more worthy to receive them.

I consecrate my remaining days to You, Lord of Heaven, and Lord of Earth, be they many or few, as You will. Let me stand before the great, or minister to the poor and lowly; That choice is not mine, and I would not influence it. I remember your Holy Word to me, that you are not a respecter of persons.

I AM YOUR SERVANT TO DO YOUR WILL, AND THAT WILL IS SWEETER TO ME THAN POSITION, OR RICHES, OR FAME, AND I CHOOSE IT ABOVE ALL THINGS ON EARTH OR HEAVEN.

Though I am chosen by you and honored by you in a high and holy calling, let me never forget that i am but a man, with all of the natural faults and passion and pride that plague the race of men. I pray, my lord and Redeemer, SAVE ME FROM MYSELF!

Let me die, and fall into the ground as your Holy Seed that I would be raised a blessing to others with Your power; that I would go and tell of Your righteousness only, and Your Redeeming love only.

THEN IN YOUR TIME, WHEN MY RACE IS OVER, MAKE ME TO BE NUMBERED WITH YOUR SAINTS IN GLORY!

Practical Wisdom For Calvinists

2008-03-30T23:00:00.000-07:00

Written by Darryl M. Erkel (1998)

Practical & Theological Guidelines for Those
Who Embrace the "Doctrines of Grace"

The following practical and theological items, although they apply to every believer regardless of their particular theological tradition, are especially directed to those who adhere to Reformed/Calvinistic theology.

I. Recognize that Salvation is Broader than the Calvinist Camp.

1. All of us, at one time or another, were Arminian in our thinking. A professing Arminian may be just as unregenerate as a professing Calvinist, but one’s adherence to Arminian theology does not necessarily exclude them from the kingdom of God. It is disturbing to hear some Calvinists assign all Arminians to the lowest abyss while conveniently forgetting that they too, at one time, were Arminians. Although the great 18th century evangelist, George Whitefield, had his differences with the staunch Arminian John Wesley, he was able to see the hand of God in Wesley’s ministry and count him as a brother in Christ. Thus, we must be patient with our brethren and recognize that both ethical and theological maturity takes time. In fact, there are some truths that, for whatever reason, we may not yet be ready to receive – as Jesus told His own disciples, "I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now" (John 16:12).

2. God commands us to accept one another in Christ, in spite of our differences (Romans 14:1; 15:7). If Christ has accepted our Arminian brethren, who are we to reject them? The 19th century Baptist preacher, C.H. Spurgeon, once said:

We give our hand to every man that loves the Lord Jesus Christ, be he what he may or who he may. The doctrine of election, like the great act of election itself, is intended to divide, not between Israel and Israel, but between Israel and the Egyptians – not between saint and saint, but between saints and the children of the world. A man may be evidently of God’s chosen family, and yet though elected, may not believe in the doctrine of election. I hold there are many savingly called, who do not believe in effectual calling, and that there are a great many who persevere to the end, who do not believe the doctrine of final perseverance. We do hope that the hearts of many are a great deal better than their heads. We do not set their fallacies down to any willful opposition to the truth as it is in Jesus, but simply to an error in their judgments, which we pray God to correct. We hope that if they think us mistaken too, they will reciprocate the same Christian courtesy; and when we meet around the cross, we hope that we shall ever feel that we are one in Christ Jesus (New Park Street Pulpit [London: Passmore & Alabaster, Vol.6] p.303).

In another place, he also said:

Far be it from me to imagine that Zion contains none but Calvinistic Christians within her walls, or that there are none saved who do not hold our views (cited in Iain Murray, The Forgotten Spurgeon [Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1966] p.65).

3. Most Arminians reject the Doctrines of Grace out of gross ignorance, misunderstanding, or misrepresentation on the part of sincere, but misinformed Calvinist’s. Thus, often they are not rejecting genuine Calvinism, but distortions of it. One’s heart may be right, while one’s head may be wrong.

4. Calvinism is not the Gospel. One is not saved by a proper understanding of election, Divine sovereignty, or the extent of the atonement. These issues, no doubt, are important, but they are not the core of the Gospel; they indirectly relate to the Gospel (as do many other Biblical teachings), but are not the essence of it. The puritan, John Bradford, stated: "Let a man go to the grammar school of faith and repentance, before he goes to the university of election and predestination." In the same way that it is wrong to detract from the Gospel message, so it is wrong to add to the Gospel message one’s particular theology. Once again, this is not to deny that the five-points of Calvinism are not important matters; but simply to point out that the minute one makes mandatory for salvation a correct understanding of election, effectual calling, or the extent of the atonement (regardless of how true they might be), they are guilty of adding to the Gospel. This is usually the error of young, zealous Calvinists (although not always), but to use the words of James, "My brethren, these things ought not to be this way" (James 3:10).

II. Don’t Make the Mistake of Accepting Everything "Reformed" or "Calvinistic."

1. Scripture alone is the final standard of authority for doctrine and practice (Isaiah 8:20; Acts 17:11; 1 Thessalonians 5:21), not Luther, Calvin, Owen, or any other great Reformed theologian. This is not to deny that these men – and men from other theological traditions – have made great spiritual contributions to the church, but only that they are not the final arbiters of truth. I know that many Reformed people would assent to this, but how many truly practice it? If we accept everything under the banner of "Reformed" or "Calvinistic," without serious scriptural investigation, are we truly practicing "Sola Scriptura"? Let us not make a pope out of Calvin, Luther, or any other mere mortal (Jeremiah 17:5).

2. Be very careful about accepting entire systems of theology (e.g., Covenant theology, Dispensationalism). Most often, the truth is found somewhere in the middle – and usually, a system of theology contains a part of the truth, but not the whole of it. It appears that God has spread His truth throughout various theological traditions (Baptist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, etc.) so that we might not put our trust in men or institutions, but in the testimony of God’s Word.

3. The truth is, some aspects of Reformed theology are erroneous.

A. Infant Baptism. For a thorough evaluation and refutation of this doctrine, see Paul K. Jewett, Infant Baptism & The Covenant of Grace (Grand Rapids: Wm.B. Eerdmans, 1978); T.E. Watson, Baptism Not For Infants (Worthing, England: Henry E. Walter, 1962); Alexander Carson, Baptism: Its Mode and Subjects (Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications [Reprint]); Greg Welty, A Critical Evaluation of Infant Baptism (Fullerton, CA: Reformed Baptist Publications, n.d.).

B. The Covenant of Grace. For a critique of this view, see Jon Zens, "Is There A ‘Covenant of Grace’?" Baptist Reformation Review (Autumn – 1977, Vol.6/No.3), pp.43-53; Richard L. Mayhue, "Hebrews 13:20: Covenant of Grace or New Covenant: An Exegetical Note," The Master’s Seminary Journal (Fall – 1996, Vol.7/No.2), pp.251-257.

C. The Reformed View of the Law. For an evaluation and critique of the traditional view of the Law and its relationship to the believer under the New Covenant, see Douglas J. Moo, "The Law of Christ as the Fulfillment of the Law of Moses: A Modified Lutheran View," [Chapter 5] in The Law, The Gospel, and the Modern Christian (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1993); "‘This is My Beloved Son, Hear Him!’: The Foundation for New Covenant Ethics and Ecclesiology," [ed. Jon Zens] Searching Together (Summer – Winter, 1997, Vol.25/1,2,3); Fred G. Zaspel, "Divine Law: A New Covenant Perspective," Reformation & Revivial [Journal] (Summer – 1997, Vol.6/No.3); Stephen Westerholm, Israel’s Law and the Church’s Faith (Grand Rapids: Wm.B. Eerdmans, 1988); John G. Reisinger, Tablets of Stone (Southbridge, MA: Crowne Publications, 1989).

D. Theonomy. In fairness, not everyone who is Reformed accepts Theonomy or Christian Reconstructionism. I have noticed, however, that many who embrace the Doctrines of Grace, make the unfortunate mistake of accepting Theonomy. For a critique of this unscriptural system, see Jon Zens, "Moses in the Millennium: An Appraisal of Christian Reconstructionism," Searching Together (Vol. 17:2,3,4 – 1988); [eds. William S. Barker & W.R. Godfrey] Theonomy: A Reformed Critique (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1990).

E. The Protestant Reformers Persecuted the Anabaptists and Catholics as Well as Sanctioned the Use of the Sword Against their Opponents. The Reformers had no scriptural authority to malign, persecute, and even kill such groups as the Anabaptists and Roman Catholics. While this is no longer a practice among those who are Reformed, there were many prominent Reformation theologians who thought it was perfectly acceptable – even to the point of citing Scripture for its justification (e.g., Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, et al.). This, once again, demonstrates how important it is to not accept everything that comes from the pen of our Reformation heroes since, not only did they err in their interpretation of Scripture at points, but they sometimes engaged in great acts of sin. The late historian, William Warren Sweet, was correct when he said:

There is a widespread notion among Protestant groups that the separation of church and state, and thus religious liberty, was one of the immediate products of the Reformation, that the early Protestants were advocates of a large tolerance, and that religious liberty was but the logical development of the principles held by all the Reformers. Just where this notion arose is difficult to say, and no reputable historian of our times would endorse it. The fact is that the rise of Protestantism was accompanied by an unprecedented outburst of intolerance (Religion in Colonial America, p.320).

J.C. Ryle, a favorite author among many Reformed people, was quite candid in stating:

Any religion, like that of Mahomet, who made converts with the sword, is not from above but from beneath. Any form of Christianity which burns men at the stake, in order to promote its own success, carries about it the stamp of an apostasy. That is the truest and best religion which does most to spread real, true peace (Expository Thoughts on the Gospels [Vol.4], pp.387-388).

In light of these statements, one wonders what Ryle, and even Reformed people today, would think of Calvin, who had Michael Servetus burned at the stake, or of Zwingli’s complicity in the drowning of the Anabaptists? These men, indeed, should have known better than to commit such evil deeds against other humans – particularly in the name of the Prince of Peace! But, as the old adage goes, "The best of men are men at best." For more on this, see Leonard Verduin, The Reformers and Their Stepchildren (Grand Rapids: Wm.B. Eerdmans, 1964); Leonard Verduin, The Anatomy of A Hybrid (Grand Rapids: Wm.B. Eerdmans, 1976); William R. Estep, The Anabaptist Story (Grand Rapids: Wm.B. Eerdmans [Revised], 1996).

F. Rigid Clericalism/Unscriptural Ecclesiology. The Protestant Reformers as well as most Reformed churches today, have been unable to break with the strict clericalism which they have inherited from both Rome and Constantine. The Reformers were right in their soteriology (doctrine of salvation), but wrong in their ecclesiology (doctrine of the church). They rediscovered the Gospel, but were unable to fully recover the ecclesiology of the New Testament. Thus, in many respects, the Reformation was only a partial reformation. Not only did the Reformers fail to break with the rigid clericalism of their past (including the error of infant baptism), but church attendance in Protestant territories was compulsory. Thus, believers and unbelievers were forced to gather together under the same church membership:

It is one of the incredible paradoxes of history that the Reformers, who so boldly and effectively recaptured the Gospel of grace from its medieval distortion and restored the central message of justification by faith, should have retained the mass church of the mixed multitude, the territorial church of the Constantinian compromise, in which real faith was not a requirement for membership (H. Bender, These Are My People, p.70).

Unfortunately, much of the ecclesiology within our historic Reformed denominations is fraught with practices and cherished traditions which run counter to the New Testament. For further study, see Alexander Strauch, Biblical Eldership (Littleton, CO: Lewis & Roth Publishers, 1986); William A. Beckham, The Second Reformation (Houston, TX: Touch Publications, 1995); Greg Ogden, The New Reformation (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1990); Frank A. Viola, Rethinking the Wineskin (Brandon, FL: Present Testimony Ministry, 1997); Alex R. Hay, The New Testament Order for Church and Missionary (Published by the New Testament Missionary Union, 1947).

III. Don’t View Any Period of Church History as Perfect (e.g., the Protestant Reformation of the 16th Century), Nor Any Particular Group of Christians (e.g., the Reformers, Puritans, Anabaptists).

1. We must value the spiritual contributions of different men and different periods of time within church history, but never idolize them.

2. We must be willing to look at both the good as well as the faults of our spiritual and theological heroes.

3. We must seek to guard ourselves from the error of a party-spirit as well as from making a virtual pope out of Calvin or Luther – something which, by the way, the apostle Paul explicitly told us not to do (1 Corinthians 1:10-13; 3:1-6; 4:1).

4. When we fail to realize the faults of our spiritual/theological heroes, or when we are guilty of idolizing the past, we end up:

A. Making man the measure or standard of righteousness, instead of the Lord Jesus Christ.

B. We fail to see the progression of church history and end up chained to the past – not recognizing that each period of history has its own unique contribution and blessing (including ours in the twenty-first century).

C. Romanticizing the past ("the good-old days"). We end up viewing history from a romanticized perspective, rather than from reality, which includes both great achievements as well as great down-falls. If even the Bible records the failures and sins of the greatest saints (e.g., David, Peter, et al.), why should we then ignore the faults of lesser saints throughout church history (e.g., Calvin, Luther, et al.)? Perhaps one of the major reasons why God allowed the failures of various biblical characters to be recorded, is so that we would not idolize such persons nor form theological parties around them. For those willing to look at the faults of our Reformation and Puritan heroes – not for the purpose of discrediting them, but for the purpose of seeing a true picture – I recommend the following: Thomas N. Smith, "The Perils of Puritanism," Reformation & Revivial [Journal]: Puritanism I (Spring – 1996, Vol.5/No.2), pp.83-99; Jon Zens, "What Can We Learn From Reformation History?" Baptist Reformation Review (Autumn – 1978, Vol.7/No.3), pp.1-13; Leonard Verduin, The Reformers and Their Stepchildren (Grand Rapids: Wm.B. Eerdmans, 1964).

IV. Because We Have Been Given Greater Scriptural Insight, Calvinists Should Be the Model of Humility and Love.

1. Consider the grace and blessings which God has lavished upon you: He could have chosen to create you into a mouse or even a cockroach but, instead, chose to make you into a member of the human race; He could have chosen to plant you in the most remote and harshest place on this planet but, instead, chose to plant you in the free and prosperous land of America; He could have left you in sin and darkness but, instead, chose to redeem you and adopt you as His child through Christ Jesus; And He could have left you in your Arminian confusion but, instead, chose to graciously reveal the Doctrines of Grace to you. Therefore, do you have any excuse for pride or arrogance toward others – particularly toward our Arminian brethren? As the apostle Paul says, "For who regards you as superior? And what do you have that you did not receive? But if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?" (1 Corinthians 4:7).

2. Because of the tendency to become prideful over the Doctrines of Grace (1 Corinthians 8:1), we must continually remind ourselves of the words of our Lord: "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:34-35; cf. John 15:12,17; Romans 12:3,10; 1 Corinthians 13:4,13; Ephesians 4:1-3,32; Philippians 2:1-4; Colossians 4:6; 1 Peter 3:8; 1 John 3:14-18; 4:11). For further study, I highly recommend: Jonathan Edwards, Charity and its Fruits (Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust [Reprint], 1969).

3. Seek to cultivate and improve such spiritual characteristics as patience, kindness, and non-retaliation. Robert Chapman, whom Spurgeon considered to be the most saintliest man he ever knew, once said: "There are many who preach Christ, but not so many who live Christ. My great aim will be to live Christ" (Robert L. Peterson, Robert Chapman: A Biography [Neptune, NJ: Loizeaux Brothers, 1995] p.29). This, likewise, should be the goal of the Calvinist (or any believer for that matter).

4. The only way to reverse the common assumption that Calvinists are haughty and proud, is to simply not behave in this way.

5. Although those who adhere to the precious Doctrines of Grace should be ready always to articulate and explain their beliefs, we must be careful to not go looking for debates or disputes with our Arminian brethren – as Paul reminds us in Philippians 4:3, "being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." Let us also remember that we do not always have to have the last word, nor is it necessary to always "win the debate" – as Spurgeon wisely warned his own students at The Pastor’s College:

In all probability, sensible conversation will sometimes drift into controversy, and here many a good man runs upon a snag. The sensible minister will be particularly gentle in argument. He, above all men, should not make the mistake of fancying that there is force in temper, and power in speaking angrily. A heathen who stood in a crowd in Calcutta, listening to a missionary disputing with a Brahmin, said he knew which was right though he did not understand the language – he knew that he was in the wrong who lost his temper first. For the most part, that is a very accurate way of judging. Try to avoid debating with people. State your opinion and let them state theirs. If you see that a stick is crooked, and you want people to see how crooked it is, lay a straight rod down beside it; that will be quite enough. But if you are drawn into controversy, use very hard arguments and very soft words. Frequently you cannot convince a man by tugging at his reason, but you can persuade him by winning his affections (Lectures to My Students [Grand Rapids: Baker Book House Reprint, 1977] Vol.1, p.188).

6. Christian love, however, does not exclude a proper and humble boldness. Proverbs 28:1 reminds us that "the righteous are bold as a lion" (cf. Acts 4:29,31; Philippians 1:14).

V. Don’t Major on the Minors. Be very Careful Where You Plant Your Flag.

1. There are some issues or controversies not worth getting involved in – at least not to the point of disrupting the unity and peace of the church.

2. If you end up majoring on things not truly essential, you will either ignore those that are important and worthy of your efforts – or – people will tend to not take you seriously on vital matters because of your propensity to make a big deal over insignificant issues. This would be the spiritual or theological counterpart of "crying wolf." I am amazed at how many Christians are obsessed with reclaiming America as a "Christian Nation" or who spend most of their available time warning other Christians of the threat of secular humanism or the latest conspiracy theory, yet cannot define the doctrine of justification (Martin Luther believed that justification was the article by which the church stands or falls). Many of these same people want the Ten Commandments to be the moral basis for our country, yet cannot even name them! Quite frankly, if the Devil can divert you to endlessly chase unedifying or non-essential issues, he has won the day.

3. Don’t allow others to drag you into their personal theological controversies.

4. In many cases, those who are in constant friction with others over relatively minor theological issues, do so because: (1) They are spiritually immature; (2) Lack discernment in recognizing what is essential or non-essential; and (3) They engage in unimportant disputes because they’re not truly engaged in genuine spiritual warfare. It’s akin to soldiers, during peace-time, who concentrate on the relatively petty details of shining shoes or making certain that their uniforms are always starched because there’s no real war to fight. Thus, they spend much of their time concentrating on insignificant duties. Actually, the Christian who pursues "fruitless discussions" (1 Timothy 1:3-7) stands under the disciplining hand of God since, unlike the soldier who serves during peace-time, our war is not over, but continues to rage on until Christ returns (2 Corinthians 10:3-4; Ephesians 6:10-18; 1 Peter 5:8-9).

VI. Recognize That You Can Learn From Those Who Are Outside of the Reformed Camp.

A number of years ago, a young Calvinist fellow told me, "I only read Reformed authors!" My immediate response was, "Why limit yourself?" Apparently, he thought that God only teaches those who are Reformed or that they are the only ones who have anything worthy to say. The truth is, God can use the lowliest or most uneducated saint to teach us His truth – including our Arminian brethren. This doesn’t necessarily mean that we have to agree with everyone we converse. It does mean, however, that we must be willing to listen to those outside of our theological tradition and to accept that which agrees with Scripture and reject that which doesn’t. Don’t limit the avenues which are available for your instruction and sanctification.

VII. Seek to Be A Man/Woman of the Text of Scripture.

That which separates the men from the boys, theologically speaking, is the ability to define and defend one’s theology from the biblical text. Some Christians argue their case from philosophy or general theological assumptions, but the Christian who is able to articulate his views from Scripture itself will stand head over everyone else because, not only does he have a proper starting-point, but his arguments will carry greater weight because they come from God’s Word. Instead of speaking in vague generalities about spiritual or theological matters, they are able to precisely and exegetically support their opinions because they are daily studying the contents of Scripture. To his own students, Spurgeon wisely advised:

There is one book which you all have, and that is your Bible; and a minister with his Bible is like David with his sling and stone, fully equipped for the fray. No man may say that he has no well to draw from while the Scriptures are within reach. In the Bible we have a perfect library, and he who studies it thoroughly will be a better scholar than if he had devoured the Alexandrian Library entire. To understand the Bible should be our ambition; we should be familiar with it, as familiar as the housewife with her needle, the merchant with his ledger, the mariner with his ship. We ought to know its general run, the contents of each book, the details of its histories, its doctrines, its precepts, and everything about it . . . A man who has his Bible at his fingers’ ends and in his heart’s core is a champion in our Israel; you cannot compete with him: you may have an armory of weapons, but his Scriptural knowledge will overcome you; for it is a sword like that of Goliath, of which David said, "There is none like it" (Lectures to My Students [Vol.1], pp.195-196).

VIII. In Purchasing Books, Be Selective and Purchase Only the Best.

A man’s library is a good indicator of his thinking and theology. The wise believer, therefore, should not waste his money or time on the sensational and shallow. Although the words of Solomon in Ecclesiastes 12:12 are true ("the writing of many books is endless, and excessive devotion to books is wearying to the body"), this does not undermine the value of securing profitable books which help to inform our minds and clarify the meaning of Scripture (2 Timothy 4:13).

IX. The Calvinist, Above All Others, Should Seek to Be Productive in His Walk For Christ.

1. Knowledge brings accountability. The more knowledge that one has of the Word of God, the more accountable they are to live in obedience to it and to manifest the fruits which spring from that knowledge. Thus, there is no excuse for an unproductive and lazy Calvinist. Don’t be a spiritual fat cow!

2. Don’t settle for low levels of grace within your life. Seek to excel in your Christian walk – as Paul urges us in Romans 12:11, "not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord" (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:58; 1 Thessalonians 4:9-10; Hebrews 6:10-12).

3. Practice disciple-making. It amazes me how many people grow in the Doctrines of Grace and who excel in their grasp of God’s revelation, but who never make any effort to disciple others. Think of the many experienced and older Christian men who never impart their wisdom and knowledge to younger men. In my opinion, this is a waste of the rich spiritual and intellectual resources which God has given to each one of us, as well as disservice to the body of Christ. For more on mentoring and disciple-making, see Paul D. Stanley & J. Robert Clinton, Connecting (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 1992); Bill Hull, The Disciple Making Church (Grand Rapids: Fleming H. Revell, 1990).

4. Be optimistic about your future and service unto Christ – as was William Carey, the founder of modern missions, who said: "Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God."

5. The Calvinist should seek to be the model of hospitality and charity (Romans 12:13; 1 Peter 4:9).

6. Be generous and liberal in your giving to others (Deuteronomy 15:10; 2 Corinthians 8:1-4; 9:7). William S. Plumer, "He who is not liberal with what he has, does but deceive himself when he thinks he would be more liberal if he had more." Henry Ward Beecher, "In this world it is not what we take up but what we give up that makes us rich."

X. Develop A Theology of Listening.

1. So often, when we converse with other believers, we tend to talk past each other because we have not learned the value and discipline of listening. James 1:19 tell us, "But let everyone be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger."

2. I am persuaded that most of our doctrinal controversies throughout church history could have been solved or perhaps eased had Christians been more willing to listen carefully to one another.

3. Learn to be patient with the verbal blunders of others – "For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well" (James 3:2).

4. As hard as it may seem, learn to value the criticism that you receive from others. Spurgeon wisely advised his own students at the Pastor’s College in London to not view criticism as necessarily a bad thing:

You must be able to bear criticism, or you are not fit to be at the head of a congregation; and you must let the critic go without reckoning him among your deadly foes, or you will prove yourself a mere weakling. It is wisest always to show double kindness where you have been severely handled by one who thought it his duty to do so, for he is probably an honest man and worth winning . . . The best of people are sometimes out at elbows and say unkind things; we should be glad if our friends could quite forget what we said when we were peevish and irritable, and it will be Christ-like to act towards others in this matter as we would wish them to do towards us . . . A sensible friend who will unsparingly criticize you from week to week will be a far greater blessing to you than a thousand undiscriminating admirers if you have sense enough to bear his treatment, and grace enough to be thankful for it. When I was preaching at the Surrey Gardens, an unknown censor of great ability used to send me a weekly list of my mispronunciations and other slips of speech. He never signed his name, and that was my only cause of complaint against him, for he left me in a debt which I could not acknowledge. I take this opportunity of confessing my obligations to him, for with genial temper, and an evident desire to benefit me, he marked down most relentlessly everything which he supposed me to have said incorrectly. Concerning some of these corrections he was in error himself, but for the most part he was right, and his remarks enabled me to perceive and avoid many mistakes. I looked for his weekly memoranda with much interest, and I trust I am all the better for them (Lectures to My Students [Vol.2], pp.169-170,175).

5. Criticism Will:

A. Keep you humble. Criticism helps to deflate swollen-egos.

B. Inform and educate you.

C. Keep you dependent upon your heavenly Father.

D. Help to confirm that you are not a man-pleaser – as Jesus warned His own disciples: "Woe to you when all men speak well of you" (Luke 6:26).

XI. Don’t Allow Your Past Failures to Hinder Your Service to God.

1. It’s important to remember that the greatest of men within redemptive history have had their short-comings and failures, yet we still used by God. Therefore, "Let us press on to maturity" (Hebrews 6:1; cf. Philippians 3:12,14).

2. Don’t allow yourself to fixate on the failures and sins of your Christian life, but look to the greater work of sanctification that God is doing in your life. Soldiers don’t quit! John Owen, "Think of the guilt of sin, that you may be humbled. Think of the power of sin, that you may seek strength against it. Think not of the matter of sin . . . . lest you be more and more entangled."

3. While it is granted that a Christian may act hypocritical at times, a genuine believer will not continuously live a life of hypocrisy (1 John 3:9-10). Henry Scudder, in his classic work, The Christian’s Daily Walk, writes:

Uprightness being part of sanctification, is not fully perfect in this life; but is mixed with some hypocrisy, conflicting one against the other. It has degrees, sometimes more, sometimes less . . . A man is not to be called an upright man, or a hypocrite, because of some few actions wherein he may show uprightness or hypocrisy: for a hypocrite may do some upright actions, in which he does not dissemble, though he cannot be said to do them in uprightness; as Jehu destroyed the wicked house of Ahab, and the idolatrous priests of Baal, with all his heart (2 Kings 10). And the best man may do some hypocritical and guileful actions, as in the matter of Uriah, David did (1 Kings 15:5). It is not the having of hypocrisy that denotes a hypocrite, but the reigning of it, which is, when it is not seen, confessed, bewailed, and opposed. A man should judge of his uprightness rather by his will, bent, and the inclination of his soul, and good desires, and true endeavors to well doing in the whole course of his life, than by this or that particular act, or by his power to do. David was thus esteemed a man according to God’s own heart, no otherwise; rather by the goodness of the general course of his life, than by particular actions: for in many things he offended God, and polluted his soul, and blemished his reputation (pp.159-160).

XII. Recognize That Your Greatest Power is Found in Prayer.

E.M. Bounds once said, "To give prayer the secondary place is to make God secondary in life’s affairs." In his book, The Weapon of Prayer (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House Reprint, 1991), he further stated:

The men to whom Jesus Christ committed the fortunes and destiny of His church were men of prayer. To no other kind of men has God ever committed Himself in this world. The apostles were preeminently men of prayer. They gave themselves to prayer. They made praying their chief business. It was first in point of importance and first in results. God never has, and He never will, commit the weighty interests of His kingdom to prayerless men, who do not make prayer a conspicuous and controlling factor in their lives. Men who do not pray never rise to any eminence of piety. Men of piety are always men of prayer. Men who are not preeminently men of prayer are never noted for the simplicity and strength of their faith. Piety flourishes nowhere so rapidly and so rankly as in the closet. The closet is the garden of faith (p.33).

Modesty Survey

2008-03-30T01:32:00.000-07:00

http://www.therebelution.com/modestysurvey/

Cornelius Pronk mini-series on the Doctrines of Grace in Salvation

2008-02-08T20:58:00.000-08:00

Don't have time right now to listen to all 21 hours of Paul den Butter's wonderful series on the Doctrines of Grace? I suggest listening to this excellent introductory mini-series by Cornelius Pronk from the Banner of Truth. Each episode is less than fifteen minutes and more than answers the majority of common questions.

[Right click and save .mp3s]

Subjection of the Will to ones' Nature
Definite Atonement
Predestination I
Predestination II
Victorious Grace
Perseverance and Preservation of the Saints

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Horatius Bonar - Audio - Words to Winners of Souls

2008-02-01T22:23:00.000-08:00

I love solid preaching that peals off the stale winter bark. The first time I read this book I was prompted to write,

"I feel that I am among the most criminal of all Christians. My laziness is criminal, my coldness is murderous, my outward duties too often fraudulent. Yet God can wring glory from the most barren rags. Lord, twist service from my dry heart!"

Go, labor on while it is day,
The worlds dark night is hastening on.
Speed, speed thy work, cast sloth away-
it is not thus that souls are won.

Greg Gordon's review "I highly recommend this audio book to listen to especially for pastors and those in ministry and spiritual leadership. Oh may we hear and heed this old divines words to use to labor on for our Lord for the night cometh when no man can work."

Words to Winners of Souls
Part 1 (Audio Book) - .mp3
Part 2 (Audio Book) - .mp3

Spurgeon, "The Two Effects of the Gospel"

2008-01-24T23:46:00.000-08:00

The Arminians tell us that a man may receive spiritual life, and yet may die eternally.

That is to say, a man may be forgiven, and yet be punished afterwards; he may be justified from all sin, and yet after that, his transgressions can be laid on his shoulders again; a man may be born of God, and yet die in his sins; a man may be loved of God today, and yet God may hate him tomorrow.

Oh! I cannot bear to speak of such lies. As for me, I so deeply believe in the immutable love of Jesus that I suppose that if one believer were to be in hell, Christ himself would not long stay in heaven, but would cry, "To the rescue!"

Oh! if Jesus Christ were in glory with one the gems lacking in his crown, and Satan had that gem, Satan would say, "Aha! prince of light and glory, I have one of your jewels!" and he would hold it up, and then he would say, "Aha! you died for this man, but you had not strength enough to save him; you loved him once--where is your love? It is not worth having, for you then hate him afterwards!"

And how would Satan chuckle over that 'heir of heaven', and hold him up, and say, "This man was redeemed; Jesus Christ purchased him with his blood!" And plunging him in the waves of hell, he would say, "There 'purchased one' see how I can rob the Son of God!" And then again he would say, "This man was forgiven, behold the justice of God! He is to be punished again after he is forgiven. Christ suffered for this man's sins once, and yet" says Satan with a malignant joy, "I have him now; for God exacted the punishment twice!"

Shall that ever be said? Ah! no! Arminian, go away with your vile gospel. My Master said, "I give unto my sheep ETERNAL life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hands."

Let the Arminian go and preach his 'gospel'. Let them go and tell poor sinners, that if they believe in Jesus they may be damned after all, that Jesus Christ will forgive them and yet the Father may afterwards send them to hell.

Arturo Azurdia III - The Doctrines of Grace .mp3

2008-01-15T23:26:00.000-08:00

Many thanks to Monergism.com for hosting these very useful files. I recommend this audio series by Arturo Azurdia III for those unfamiliar with the so-called Five Points of Calvinism, better received as the Doctrines of Grace. All files are in .mp3 format. Right-click to save them.

The Doctrines of Grace Part 1 - Total Depravity

The Doctrines of Grace Part 2 - Unconditional Election

The Doctrines of Grace Part 3 - Limited Atonement

The Doctrines of Grace Part 4 - Irresistible Grace

The Doctrines of Grace Part 5 - Perseverance of the Saints

The Doctrines of Grace Q&A Part 1

The Doctrines of Grace Q&A Part 2

The Doctrines of Grace Q&A Part 3

The Tamed Lion

2008-01-15T20:11:00.000-08:00

By John Newton
More poems by Newton, here.

1 A Lion, though by nature wild,
The art of man can tame;
He stands before his keeper, mild,
And gentle as a lamb.

2 He watches, with submissive eye,
The hand that gives him food,
As if he meant to testify
A sense of gratitude.

3 But man himself, who thus subdues
The fiercest beast of prey,
A nature more unfeeling shows,
And far more fierce than they.

4 Though by the Lord preserv'd and fed,
He proves rebellious still;
And while he eats his Maker's bread,
Resists his holy will.

5 Alike in vain, of grace that saves,
Or threat'ning law, he hears;
The savage scorns, blasphemes, and raves,
But neither loves nor fears.

6 O Saviour! how thy wondrous pow'r
By angels is proclaim'd,
When in thine own appointed hour,
They see this lion tam'd.

7 The love thy bleeding cross displays,
The hardest heart subdues;
Here furious lions while they gaze,
Their rage and fierceness lose.

8 Yet we are but renew'd in part,
The lion still remains;
Lord, drive him wholly from my heart,
Or keep him fast in chains.

Doctrines of Grace mp3 series

2007-10-24T17:05:00.000-07:00

The History and Theology of Calvinism
Dr. Curt Daniel - 75 .mp3's - An excellent beginner-level series on the history and theology of Calvinism. Dr. Daniels has a gift for making the information understandable, memorable, and meaningful. The course is divided into two main groups - History and Theology. The course notes for the entire series - complete with diagrams, quotation references, and verse addresses - are available as a .PDF file.

Rev. Paul den Butter - 21 .mp3's

John Reisinger - 6 .mp3's

Arturo Azurdia III - 8 .mp3's

They are never separated

2007-10-17T10:55:00.000-07:00

- Thomas Watson, "The Lord's Prayer"

"You were sanctified, you were justified."
1 Corinthians 6:11

Justification and sanctification are not the same.

Justification is without us--sanctification is within us. The one is by righteousness imputed--the other is by righteousness imparted. Justification is once and for all--sanctification is gradual. One person is sanctified more than another--but one cannot be more justified than another. One has more grace than another--but he is not more justified than another.

The matter of our justification is perfect, namely, Christ's righteousness; but our sanctification is
imperfect, there are the spots of God's children. Our graces are mixed with sin, our duties are defiled.

Thus justification and sanctification are not the same. Yet, for all that, they are never separated. God never pardons and justifies a sinner--but He also sanctifies him. "This is He who came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ." 1 John 5:6. Christ comes to the soul by blood, which denotes remission of sin; and by water, which denotes sanctification. Let no man say he is pardoned, who is not made holy! This I urge against those who talk of their sin being forgiven, and having a part in Christ--and yet remain unconverted, and live in the grossest sins!

Where God pardons, He purifies. Whoever God forgives, He transforms. Let no man say his sins are forgiven--who does not find an inherent work of holiness in his heart.

"I will place My Spirit within you and cause you to follow My statutes and carefully observe My ordinances." [Ezekiel 36:27]

The Sum of Christian Religion

2007-10-17T01:23:00.000-07:00

- by Thomas Shepherd (1605-1645)

THE FIRST PRINCIPLES
OF THE ORACLES OF GOD.

IN WAY OF QUESTION AND ANSWER

Heb. v. 12. – “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.”

Question. What is the best and last end of man?

Answer. To live to God. (Rom. Vi. 10, 11. Gal. iii. 9. 2 Cor. v. 3, 15.)

Q. How is man to live unto God?

A. Two ways. First, by faith in God. (Ps. xxxviii. 3.) Secondly, by observance of God. (Eccl. xii. 13.)

Q. What is faith in God?

A. It is the first act of our spiritual life, whereby the soul believing God believeth in God, and there resteth, as in the only author and principle of life. (Heb. iv. 3; x. 38; xi.13. John iii. 33, 36. Rom. iv. 3. Deut. xxx. 20.)

Q. What is God?

A. God only knoweth himself; no man can so know him and live. Yet he hath manifested himself unto us in his back parts, according to our manner or measure of knowing things; and we need know no more than these, that we may live. (1 Tim. vi. 16. Ex. xxxiii. 19, 23.)

Q. What are God’s back parts?

A. They are two. First, his sufficiency. (Ps. 36. 9.) Secondly, his efficiency. (Rom. 4.21.)

Q. What is God’s sufficiency?

A. It is his perfect fullness of all good, whereby he is all-sufficient for us in himself. (Ps. xvi. 13. Gen. xvii. 1.)

Q. Wherein stands and appears God’s sufficiency?

A. First, in his essence. (Ps. lxviii. 19.) Secondly, in his subsistence or persons. (2 Sam. vii. 20, 25.)

Q. What is God’s essence?

A. Whereby he is that absolute first being. (Rev. i. 8. Is. xliv. 6. Ex. iii. 14.)

Q. Can you sufficiently conceive of the glory of this one most pure essence by one act of faith?

A. No; and therefore the Lord hath manifested it unto us by divers attributes. (Deut. xxix. 29. Ex. xxxiv. 6,7.)

Q. What are God’s attributes?

A. That one most pure essence divinely apprehended of us, as it is diversly made known to us. (1 John iv. 16. Is. xliii. 25.)

Q. How many kinds of attributes are there?

A. There are two sorts of them. First, some showing what God is. Secondly, some showing who God is.

Q. By what attributes know you what God is?

A. By these: God is a Spirit living of himself. (John iv. 24; v. 26.)

Q. By what attributes do you understand who God is?

A. By his essential properties, which show to us, First, how great a God he is. (Ps. lxxvii. 13.) Secondly, what a manner of God he is. (Matt. vi. 17.)

Q. What attributes show how great a God he is?

A. First, his infiniteness, whereby he is without all limits of essence. (2. Chron. ii. 5,6.) Secondly, his eternity, whereby he is without all limits of beginning, succession, or end of time. (Ps. cii. 25-27. 1 Tim. i. 17.)

Q. What are those attributes which show what a manner of God he is?

A. His qualities, whereby he acteth with, are of two sorts. First, his faculties, whereby he is able to act. (Is. lx. 16; lxiii. 1.) Secondly, his virtues of those faculties, whereby he is prompt and ready to act. (Ps. lxxxvi. 5.)

Q. What are his faculties?

A. First, his understanding, whereby he understandeth together and at once all truth. (Heb. iv. 13. Acts xv. 8.) Secondly, his will, whereby he purely willeth all good. (Ps. cxix. 68.)

Q. What are the virtues of those faculties?

A. First, they are intellectual; the virtues of his understanding, as wisdom, knowledge, and the rest. Secondly, moral; the virtue of his will, as love, holiness, mercy. In the acting of both which consists God’s happiness.

Thus much have you seen of God’s sufficiency, in regard of his essence. Now follows his subsistence.

Q. What are his subsistences or persons?

A. That one most pure essence, with its relative properties.

Q. What are those relative properties?

A. They are three. First, to beget. Secondly, to be begotten. Thirdly, to proceed from both.

Q. How many persons learn you from hence to be in God?

A. Three. First, the first is the Father, the first person in order, begetting the Son. (Ps. ii. 7.) Secondly, the Son, the second person, begotten of the Father. (John iii. 6. Heb. i. 3.) Thirdly, the Spirit, the third person, proceeding from them both. (John xv. 26.)

Q. Are these three persons three distinct Gods?

A. No. For they are that one pure essence, and therefore but one God. (John i. 1. Rom. ix. 5. 1 Cor. vi.16; ii. 10.)

Q. If every person be God, how can they be distinct persons and not distinct Gods?

A. Yes; because one and the same thing may have had many relative properties and respects of being, which in the Godhead makes distinct persons. As one and the same man may be a father in one respect, a master in another respect, and a scholar in another respect.

Q. If these three persons be but one God, what follows from hence?

A. That all the three persons are coequal, coeternal, subsisting in, not separating from each other, and therefore delighting in each other, glorifying each other. (Prov. viii. 30.)

Thus much concerning God.

Now concerning the works of God.

Q. Thus much concerning God’s sufficiency. What is his efficiency?

A. Whereby he worketh all things, and all in all things. (Rom. xi. 36. Is. xlv. 7.)

Q. What of God shines forth, and are you to behold, in his efficiency?

A. Two things. First, God’s omnipotency, in respect of his essence. Secondly, the cooperation and distinct manner of working of the three persons. (Rom. i. 20. John v. 17.)

Q. What is God’s ominipotency?

A. It is his almighty power, whereby he is able to bring to pass all that he doth will, or whatever he can will, or decree. (2 Chron. xx. 6. Phil. iii. 21. Matt. iii. 9. Ps. cxv. 7.)

Q. What is God’s decree?

A. It is his eternal and determinate purpose concerning the effecting of all things by his mighty power, according to his counsel. (Eph. i. 11.)

Q. What attributes or glory of God appear in his decree?

A. First, his constancy, whereby his decree remains unchangeable. (Num. iii. 19.) Secondly, his truth, whereby he delivereth nothing but what he hath decreed. (Jer. x. 10.) Thirdly, his faithfulness, whereby he effecteth whatever he decreeth according thereunto. (Is. xlvi. 10.)

Q. What is God’s counsel?

A. His deliberation, as it were, for the best effecting of every thing according to his wisdom. (Acts iv. 24. Ps. xl. 24)

Q. What is God’s wisdom?

A. It is the idea or perfect platform of all things in the mind of God, which either can be known, or shall be done, according to the good pleasure of his will. (Heb. xi. 3. Prov. viii. 12,13.)

Q. What is the good pleasure of God’s will?

A. It is the most free act of his will, whereby he willeth himself directly, as the greatest good, and all other things for himself, according to his good pleasure. (Matt. xi. 25 Prov. xvi. 4)

Q. What learn you from hence?

A. That God’s good pleasure is the first and best cause of all things. (Ps. cxv. 3; xxxiii. 8-11.)

Q. What is the cooperation of the three persons in God’s efficiency?

A. Whereby they work the same thing together unseparably. (John v. 17, 19, and xvi. 13, 14.)

Q. If they work the same thing together, how is it that some works are attributed to God the Father, as creation; some to the Son, as redemption; some to the Holy Spirit, as application?

A. This is not because the same work is not common to all three persons, but because that work is principally attributed in Scripture to that person whose distinct manner of working appears chiefly in the work.

Q. What is God the Father’s distinct manner of working?

A. His working is from himself by the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. (Ps. xxxiii. 6. John i.3.) And hence the beginning, and so the creation of all things is attributed to him.

Q. What is God the Son’s manner of working?

A. His working is from the Father, by the Holy Ghost, (John xiv. 16;) and hence the dispensation of all things, and so redemption is attributed to him.

Q. What is the Holy Ghost’s manner of working?

A. His working is from the Father and the Son, (John xiv. 26,) and hence the consummation of all things; and so application is attributed unto him.

Q. Wherein doth God’s efficiency or working appear?

A. In two things. First, in his creation of the world. Secondly, in his providence over the world. (Is. xxxvii. 16.)

Q. What is his creation?

A. It is God’s efficiency, whereby he made the whole world of nothing, originally exceeding good. (Ps. xxxiii. 9. Gen. i. 31.)

Q. Did the Lord make the world in an instant?

A. No, but by parts, in the space of six days, described at large by Moses. (Gen. i.)

Q. When did the Lord make the third heaven, with the angels their inhabitants?

A. In the first day, in the first beginning of it. (Gen. i. 1. Job xxxviii. 6,7.)

Q. What is the creation of the third heaven?

A. Whereby he made it to be the heaven of heavens, a most glorious place, replenished with all pleasure which belongs to eternal happiness, wherein his majesty is seen face to face, and therefore called the habitation of God. (2 Chron. ii. 5,6. Ps. xvi. 11; lxiii. 15.)

Q. What is the creation of the angels?

A. Whereby he created an innumerable number of them, in holiness, to be ministering spirits, with most acuteness of understanding, liberty of will, great strength, and speedy in motion, to celebrate his praises and execute his commands, specially to the heirs of salvation. (Heb. xi. 22. John viii. 44. Heb. i. 14. 2 Sam. xiv. 20. Jude 6. 2 Pet. ii. 11. Is. vi. 2. Ps. cxxx. 20.)

Q. When did God create man?

A. The sixth day. (Gen. i. 27.)

Q. How did God create man?

A. He made him a reasonable creature, consisting of body and an immortal soul, in the image of God. (Gen. ii. 7; i. 28.)

Q. What is the image of God, wherein he was made?

A. That hability of man to resemble God, and wherein he was like unto God, in wisdom, holiness, righteousness, both in nature, and in his government of himself and all creatures. (Col. iii. 10. Eph. iv. 24. Gen. i. 26.)

Q. What became of man, being thus made?

A. He was placed in the garden of Eden, as in his princely court, to live unto God, together with the woman which God gave him. (Gen. ii. 15.)

Thus much of God’s creation.

Q. What is his providence?

A. Whereby he provideth for his creatures, being made, even to the least circumstance. (Ps. cxlv. 16. Prov. xvi. 33.)

Q. How is God’s providence distinguished?

A. It is either, First, ordinary and mediate, whereby he provideth for his creatures by ordinary and usual means. (Hos. ii. 22.) Secondly, extraordinary and immediate, whereby he provides for his creatures by miracles, or immediately by himself. (Ps. xxxvi. 4. Dan. iii. 17.)

Q. Wherein is his providence seen?

A. First, in conversation, whereby he upholdeth things in their being and power of working. (Acts xvii. 28. Ps. civ. 29, 30. Neh. ix. 6.) Secondly, in gubernation, whereby he guides, directs, and brings all creatures to their ends. (Ps. xx. 10; xxxiii. 11.)

Q. Doth God govern all creatures alike?

A. No; but some he governs by a common providence, and others by a special providence, to wit, angels and men, to an eternal estate of happiness in pleasing him, or of misery in displeasing him. (Deut. xxx. 15, 16.)

Q. What of God’s providence appears in his special government of man?

A. Two things. 1. Man’s apostasy, or fall. 2. His recovery, or rising again.

Q. Concerning man’s fall, what are you to observe therein?

A. Two things. 1. His transgression, in eating of the forbidden fruit. (Gen. ii. 17.) 2. The propagation of this unto all Adam’s posterity.

Q. Was this so great a sin, to eat of the forbidden fruit?

A. Yes, exceedingly great, this tree being a sacrament of the covenant; also he had a special charge not to eat of it; and in it the whole man did strike against the whole law, even when God had so highly advanced him.

Q. What are the causes of this transgression?

A. The blameless cause was the law of God. (Rom. v. 13.) And hence, as the law did it, so God did it, holily, justly, and blamelessly. (Rom. vii. 10-12.)

Q. What are the blamable causes?

A. Two, principally. 1. The devil abusing the serpent to deceive the woman. (Gen. iii. 1.) 2. Man himself, in abusing his own free will, in receiving the temptations which he might have resisted. (Eph. vii. 29.)

Q. What is the devil?

A. That great number of apostate and rebellious angels, which, through pride and blasphemy against God, and malice against man, became liars and murderers of man, by bringing him into that sin. (Luke xi. 18. 1 Tim. iii. 6. 1 John iii. 12; viii. 44.)

Q. What are the effects and fruits of this transgression?

A. They are two. 1. Guilt, whereby they are tied to undergo due punishment for the fault. (Rom. iii. 19.) 2. Punishment, which is the just anger of God upon them for the filth of sin. (Rom. i. 18.)

Q. What are the particular punishments inflicted on the causes of this sin?

A. Besides the fearful punishment of the devils, mentioned Jude vi., and that of the serpent and the woman, (Gen. iii. 14, 16,) the punishment of man was, First, sin original and actual. Secondly, death. (Gen. v. 5.)

Q. What is sin?

A. The transgression of God’s law. (John iii. 4.)

Q. What is original and actual sin?

A. First, original sin is the contrariety of the whole nature of man to the law of God, whereby it, being averse from all good, is inclined to all evil. (Eccl. viii. 11. Gen. vi. 5. Rom. vi. 20.) Secondly, actual sin is the continual jarring of the actions of man from the law of God, by reason of original sin, and so man hath no free will to any spiritual good. (Is. lxv. 2, 3. James i. 14, 15. Is. i. 11.)

Q. What death is that God inflicts on man for sin?

A. A double death. 1. The first death of the body, together with the beginnings of it in this world, as grief, shame, losses, sicknesses. (Deut. xxviii. 21, 22, 25.) 2. The second death of the soul, which is the eternal separation and ejection of the souls after death, and soul and body after judgment, from God, into everlasting torments in hell.

Q. Is there no beginning of this death, as there is of the other in this life?

A. Yes, at first security and hardness of heart, which can not feel sin its greatest evil. 2. Terrors of conscience. (Heb. ii. 15.) 3. Bondage of Satan. (Eph. ii. 2.) 4. The curse of God in all blessings, whereby they are fitted for destruction. (Rom. ix. 22.)

Q. What of God’s attributes shine forth here?

A. His holiness, whereby he, being pure from all sin, can not away with the least sin in the best of his creatures. (Heb. i. 13.) 2. His justice, whereby he, being most just in himself, can not but punish man for sin, as well as reward him for well doing. (2 Thess. i. 6.) 3. His patience, whereby he useth pity, patience, and bounty to his creatures offending. (Rom. ii. 3.)

Q. Is this sin, and the punishment of it, derived to all men’s posterity?

A. Yes. (John iii. 3. Eph. ii. 3.)

Q. How is it propagated?

A. By the imputation of Adam’s sin unto us, and so the punishment must needs follow upon it. (Rom. v. 13.)

Q. Why should Adam’s sin be imputed to all his posterity?

A. Because we were in him as the members in the head, as children in his loins, as debtors in their surety, as branches in their roots, it being just, that as if he standing, all had stood, by imputation of his righteousness, so he falling, all should fall, by the imputation of his sin.

Q. Thus have you seen man’s apostasy from God. What is his recovery?

A. It is the return of man to the favor of God again, merely out of favor, and the exceeding riches of his free grace. (Eph. ii. 12, 13. Rom. v. 8.)

Q. How are we brought into favor, and what are the parts of this recovery?

A. Two ways. First, by redemption. (2 Cor. v. 19, 20.) Secondly, by application hereof. (Tit. iii. 6.)

Q. What is redemption?

A. The satisfaction made, or the price paid, to the justice of God for the life and deliverance of man out of the captivity of sin, Satan, and death, by a Redeemer, according to the covenant made between him and the Father. (1 Cor. vi. 20. Luke i. 74. Is. lv. 10, 11.)

Q. Who is this redeemer?

A. Jesus Christ, God and Man. (Matt. i. 23. John i. 14. Col. ii. 19)

Q. Why is he God-Man?

A. That so he might be a fit Mediator, to transact all business between God and man, in the execution of his three offices, whereunto he was anointed of the Father. (1 Tim. ii. 5. Is. xlii. 12.)

Q. What are those three offices of Christ?

A. 1. His prophetical office, whereby he doth reveal the will of the Father. (Acts iii. 22. Col. ii. 3.) 2. His priestly office, whereby he makes full atonement with the Father for us. (Col. i. 20.) 3. His kingly office, whereby he governs his people whom he had taught and reconciled, subduing their enemies, and procuring their eternal peace. (Ps. ii. 6. Is. ix. 6.)

Q. How hath Christ Jesus made satisfaction?

A. By his humiliation, whereby he was made subject, throughout his whole life and death, to the strict justice of God, to perform whatever the same might require for the redemption of man. (Gal. iv. 4, 5.)

Q. What did God’s justice require of man?

A. 1. Death, for the breach of the law, and that Christ tasted, in his bitter sufferings, both of body and souls, by being made sin, and so abolishing sin; and this is called his passive obedience. (Heb. ii. 9. Eph. i. 7. 2 Cor. v. 21. Gal. iii. 13.) 2. Perfect obedience, in fulfilling the law perfectly, both in his nature and actions, for the procuring and meriting of life; and this is called his active obedience. (Heb. vii. 26.)

Q. What follows Christ’s humiliation?

A. His exaltation, which is the glorious victory and open triumph over all his and our enemies, sin, Satan, and death, in the several degrees of it. (Luke xxiv. 26. Phil. ii. 8, 9. 1 Cor. xv. 5, 7.)

Q. What is the first degree of Christ’s exaltation?

A. His resurrection the third day, whereby his soul and body, by the power of the Godhead, were brought together again, and so rose again from death, appearing to his disciples for the space of forty days. (1 Cor. xv. 4. John ii. 19. Acts i. 3.)

Q. What is the second degree of Christ’s exaltation?

A. His ascension into heaven, which was the going up of the manhood into the third heaven, by the power of the Godhead, from Mount Olivet, in the sight of his disciples. (Acts i. 11, 12.)

Q. What is the third degree of his exaltation?

A. His sitting at the right hand of God, whereby he, being advanced to the fullness of all glory, in both natures, governeth and ruleth all things, together with the Father, as Lord over all, for the good of his people. (Mark vxi. 9. Ps. cx. 1. 1 Cor. xv. 25. Eph. i. 20-22. 1 Pet. iii. 22.)

Q. What is the fourth and last degree of his exaltation?

A. His return to judgment, which is his second coming into this world with great glory and majesty, to judge the quick and the dead, to the confusion of all them that would not have him rule over them, and to the unspeakable good of his people. (Matt. xix. 28. 2 Tim. iv. 1. Acts xvii. 31. 2 Thess. i. 1, 7-9.)

Q. Thus much of redemption, the first part of his recovery. What is application?

A. Whereby the Spirit, by the word and ministry thereof, makes all that which Christ, as Mediator, hath done for the church, efficacious to the church as her own. (John xvi. 14 Tit. iii. 5-7. John x. 16. Rom. x. 14, 17. Eph. v. 25, 26.)

Q. What is the church?

A. The number of God’s elect. (Heb. xii. 23. John xvii. 9-11; x. 16. Eph. i. 22, 23.)

Q. How doth the Spirit make application to the church?

A. 1. By union of the soul to Christ. (Phil. iii. 9, 10.) 2. By communion of the benefits of Christ to the soul.

Q. What is this union?

A. Whereby the Lord, joining the soul to Christ, makes it one spirit with Christ, and so gives it possession of Christ, and right unto all the benefits and blessings of Christ. (1 Cor. vi. 17. John xvii. 21. Rom. viii. 32. 1 John v. 12.)

Q. How doth the Spirit make this union?

A. Two ways. 1. By cutting off the soul from the old Adam, or the wild olive tree, in the work of preparation. (Rom. xi. 23, 24.) 2. By putting or ingrafting the soul into the second Adam, Christ Jesus, by the work of vocation. (Acts xxvi. 18.)

Q. What are the parts of the preparation of the soul to Christ?

A. They are two. 1. Contrition, whereby the Spirit immediately cuts off the soul from its security in sin, by making it to mourn for it, and separating the soul from it, as the greatest evil. (Is. lxi. 1, 3. Jer. iv. 3, 4. Matt. xi. 20, 28.) 2. Humiliation, whereby the Spirit cuts the soul off from self-confidence in any good it hath or doth; especially by making it feel its want and unworthiness of Christ, and hence submitteth to be disposed of as God pleaseth. (Phil. iii. 7, 8. Luke xvi. 9; xv. 17-19.)

Q. What are the parts of vocation of the soul to Christ?

A. 1. The Lord’s call and invitation of the soul to come to Christ, in the revelation and offer of Christ and his rich grace. (2 Cor. v. 10.) 2. The receiving of Christ, or the coming of the whole soul out of itself unto Christ, for Christ, by virtue of the irresistible power of the Spirit in the call; and this is faith. (Jer. iii. 32. John vi. 44, 45; x. 16. Is. lv. 5.)

Q. Thus much of our union. What is the communion of Christ’s benefits unto the soul?

A. Whereby the souls possessed with Christ, and right unto him, hath by the same Spirit fruition of him, and all his benefits. (John iv. 10, 14.)

Q. What is the first of those benefits we do enjoy from Christ?

A. Justification, which is the gracious sentence of God the Father, whereby for the satisfaction of Christ apprehended by faith, and imputed to the faithful, he absolves them from the guilt and condemnation of all sins, and accepts them as perfectly righteous to eternal life. (Rom. iii. 24, 25; iv. 6-8; viii. 33, 34.)

Q. What difference is there between justification and sanctification?

A. Justification is by Christ’s righteousness, inherent in Christ only; sanctification is by a righteousness from Christ inherent in ourselves. (2 Cor. v. 21. Phil. iii. 9.) 2. Justification is perfected at once, and admits of no degrees, because it is by Christ his perfect righteousness. Sanctification is imperfect, being begun in this life. (Rev. xii. 1. Phil. iii. 11.)

Q. What is the second benefit next in order to justification, which the faithful receive from Christ?

A. Reconciliation, whereby a Christian justified is actually reconciled, and at peace with God. (Rom. v. 1. John ii. 12.) And hence follows his peace with all creatures.

Q. What is the third benefit next unto reconciliation?

A. Adoption, whereby the Lord accounts the faithful his sons, crowns them with privileges of sons, and gives them the Spirit of adoption – the same Spirit which is in his only- begotten Son. (1 John iii. 2. Rom. viii. 11, 14-17.)

Q. What is the fourth benefit next to adoption?

A. Sanctification, whereby the sons of God are renewed in the whole man, unto the image of their heavenly Father in Christ Jesus, by mortification, or their daily dying to sin by virtue of Christ’s death; and by vivification, their daily rising to newness of life, by Christ’s resurrection. (1 Thess. v. 23. Eph. iv. 24. Jer. xxxi. 22. Rom. vi. 8.)

Q. What follows from this mortification and vivification?

A. A continual war and combat between the renewed part, assisted by the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and the unrenewed part, assisted by Satan and this evil world. (Rom. vii. 21-23.)

Q. What is the fifth and last benefit next unto sanctification?

A. Glorification, which hath two degrees – the one in this life, and the other in the world to come.

Q. What is the first degree of glorification in this life?

A. A lively expectation of glory, from the assurance and shedding abroad God’s love in our hearts, working joy unspeakable. (Rom. v. 2, 5. Tit. ii. 13.)

Q. What is the second degree in the world to come?

A. Full fruition of glory, whereby being made complete and perfect in holiness and happiness, we enjoy all that good eye hath not seen, nor ear hath heard, in our immediate and eternal communion with God in Christ. (Heb. xii. 23. 1 Cor. xv. 28.)

Thus much of the first part, of living to God by faith in God.

Q. What is the second part, viz., our observance?

A. It is the duty that is to be performed to God of us, through the power of his Holy Spirit, working in us by faith, according to the will of God. (Eph. vi. 6,7. Ps. cxxxix. 24. Rom. vi. 1. Luke i. 74.)

Q. Wherein consists our observance of God?

A. It is either moral or ceremonial.

Q. Wherein consists our moral observance of God?

A. In two things. 1. In suffering his will, whereby a believer, for the sake of Christ, chooseth rather to suffer any misery than to commit the least sin. (Heb. xi. 26. Acts xxi. 13.) 2. In doing his will, whereby a believer, in sense of Christ’s love, performeth universal obedience to the law of God. (Rom. vii. 22. 1 John v. 3. Luke i. 6. Phil. iii. 12.)

Q. Is there any use of the law to a Christian?

A. Although it be abolished to a Christian in Christ, as a covenant of life, (for so Adam and his posterity are still under it,) yet it remains as a rule of life, when he is in Christ, and to prepare the heart for Christ. (Rom. vi. 14, 15. Matt. v. 17-20. Ezek. x. 11. Rom. ix.)

Q. Why is not a Christian so under the law as a covenant of life, so as if he breaks it by the least sin, he shall die for it?

A. Because Jesus Christ hath kept it perfectly for him. (Rom. viii. 3, 4; v. 20, 21.)

Q. Can any man keep the law perfectly in this life?

A. No, for the unregenerate, wanting the Spirit of life, can not perfect an act of life in obedience to it. The regenerate, having the Spirit but in part, perform it only imperfectly. (Rom. viii. 7; vii. 21.)

Q. What befalls the unregenerate upon their disobedience unto it?

A. The eternal curse of God for the least sin, and the increase of God’s fierce and fearful secret wrath as they increase in sin. (Gal. iii. 10. Rom. ii. 5.)

Q. What befalls the regenerate after their breach of the law, and imperfect obedience unto it?

A. The Lord may threaten and correct them, but his loving kindness (in covering their sins in their best duties by Christ, and accepting their meanest services so far as they are quickened by his Spirit) is never taken from them. (Ps. lxxxix. 31-33. Zech. iii. 1-8. Is. lvi. 7. Rom. vii. 20.)

Q. What is the imperfect obedience of believers which is accepted?

A. When they observe the will of Christ, as that therein, - 1. They confess and lament their sins. (1 John i. 9. Rom. vii. 24.) 2. They desire mercy in the blood of Christ, and more of his Spirit. (Phil. iii. 9-11.) 3. They return him the praise of the least ability to do his will. (Ps. l. 23. 1 Cor. xv. 10.)

Q. How is the law or ten commandments divided?

A. Into two tables. The first showing our duty to God immediately, in the four first commandments. The second, our duty to man, in the six last commandments.

Q. What rules are you to observe to understand the moral law?

A. These: 1. That in whatsoever commandment any duty is enjoined, there the contrary sin is forbidden; and where any sin is forbidden, there the contrary duty is commanded. 2. That the law is spiritual, and hence requires not only outward, but inward and spiritual obedience. 3. Where any gross sin is forbidden, there all the signs, degrees, means, and provocations to that sin are forbidden also, and are in God’s account that sin. And so, where any duty is commanded, there all the signs, means, and provocations to that duty are commanded also. 4. That the law is perfect, and therefore there is no sin in all the Scripture but is forbidden in it; nor no duty required (if moral) but it is commanded in it.

Thus much of our moral observance of God.

Q. What is our ceremonial observance?

A. The celebration of the two sacraments, baptism and the Lord’s supper.

Q. What is a sacrament?

A. It is a holy ceremony, wherein external sensible things, by the appointment of Christ, are separate from common use; to signify, exhibit, and seal to us that assurance of eternal life by Christ Jesus, according to the covenant of his grace. (gen. xvii. 9, 10.)

Q. Which are the sacraments?

A. They are two, baptism and the Lord’s supper.

Q. What is the external sensible part of baptism?

A. Water. (John iii. 23.)

Q. What is the inward and spiritual part of baptism, signified, exhibited, and sealed thereby?

A. Christ’s righteousness and his Spirit. 1. Washing away our sin, and so delivering us from death. 2. Presenting us clear before the Father, and so restoring us again to life. (Rom. iv. 1 Cor. ii. 11. Matt. iii. 11.)

Q. What follows from hence?

A. 1. That it is a sacrament of our new birth, and ingrafting into Christ. (John iii. 5.) 2. That as we are perfectly justified at once, and being new born once, shall never die again. Hence this seal is to be administered but once.

Q. What is the external and sensible part of the Lord’s supper?

A. Bread and wine, with the sacramental actions about the same.

Q. What is the inward and spiritual part of it, signified, sealed, and exhibited thereby?

A. The body and blood of Christ crucified, offered and given to nourish and strengthen believers, renewing their faith unto eternal life. (1 Cor. xi. 24. John vi. 54, 55.)

Q. What follows from hence?

A. 1. That it is the sacrament of our growth in Christ, being new born, because it is food given to nourish us, having received life. 2. That therefore it is to be administered and received often, that we may grow. 3. That children and fools, and wicked, ought not to partake of the sacrament, because they can not examine themselves, and so renew their faith. (1 Cor. xi. 28.)

Q. Ought not the sacrament to be administered to carnal people, if they have been baptized?

A. No, because such as are not within the covenant have no right to the seal of the covenant.

Q. Where are believers, who have right unto this sacrament, to seek fruition from it?

A. Because it ought not to be administered privately, (as the Papists would;) hence God’s people are to seek to enjoy their right to it in some particular visible church, in joining with them, as fellow-members of the same body. (1 Cor. xi. 20, 22. 1 Chron. x. 17. Acts ii. 42.)

Q. What members ought every particular visible church to consist of?

A. Christ being head of every particular church, and it his body, hence none are to be members of the church but such as are members of Christ by faith. (1 Cor. i. 2. 1 Thess. i.)

Q. But do not hypocrites, and no true members of Christ, creep in?

A. Yes; but if they could have been known to be such, they ought to be kept out; and when they are known, they are orderly to be cast out. (Matt. xxv. 1. 2 Tim. iii. 5. Rev. ii. 20. Tit. iii. 20.)

Q. Are these members bound only to cleave to Christ, their head, by faith?

A. Yes; and to one another also by brotherly love, which they are bound to strengthen and confirm (as well as their faith) by a solemn covenant. (Eph. iv. 15, 16. Col. i. 4. Jer. l. 4. Is. lvi. 45. Zech. xi. 14. Zeph. iii. 9. Ps. cxix. 106.)

Q. What benefits are there by joining thus to a particular church?

A. 1. Hereby they come to be under the special government of Christ in his church, and the officers thereof. (Is. xxx. 20.) 2. Hereby they have the promise of special blessing, and on their children also. (Ps. cxxxiii. 3. Exod. xx. 6) 3. Herein they have the promise of God’s special presence: 1. Revealing unto them his will. (Ps. xxvii. 4; lxiii. 2, 3.) 2. Protecting them. (Is. xliv. 6.) 3. Hearing all their prayers. (Deut. iv. 7. Matt. xviii. 19.)

Q. Are there not some who never find these benefits?

A. Yes. Because many knowing not how to make use of God’s ordinances, not feeling a need of God’s presence only in them, their sin also blinding, and partly hardening their hearts, and polluting God’s house, they then become worse when they have best means. (Matt. xi. 23. Jer. xvii. 5, 6. Heb. vi. 8. 1 Sam. v. 8, 9. Ezek. xiv. 4. 1 Kings viii. 21.)

Q. What are the miseries of those who carelessly and willfully despise, and so refuse to join to God’s church?

A. Besides the loss of God’s presence in the fellowship of his people, it is a fearful sign (continuing so) God never intends to save their souls. (Acts ii. 47. Is. lx. 12. Rev. ii. 23, 24.)

Q. What therefore ought people chiefly to labor for, and to hold forth unto the church, that so they may be joined to it?

A. A threefold work. 1. Of humiliation, under their misery, death, and sin, as their greatest evil. (Acts ii. 3. Matt. iii. 6.) 2. Of vocation, or their drawing to Christ, out of this misery, as to their greatest and only good. (Acts i. 38, 41.) 3. Of new obedience; how they walked in Christ since called. (Acts ix. 26, 27. Matt. iii. 8.)