tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-202074602024-03-07T00:22:41.522-08:00COMING TO KNOW CHRISTThis blog includes "writings" prepared by a believer in his quest to know Christ. The writings are based on extensive readings of Christian Commentaries, Systematic Theologies, Histories and other relevant books pertaining to God's inspired revelation in the Holy Scriptures, the Bible. This work will hopefully lead and edify the reader, nonbelievers and believers alike, in understanding the writer’s journey in Coming to Know Christ.Otis Page's Blogshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14932733213884103183noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20207460.post-1136142165451608082006-01-01T11:02:00.000-08:002009-08-01T08:59:21.857-07:00INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND<span style="font-size:130%;">This blog is prepared with a specific objective to “open the door” in presenting the mystery of God’s revelation to people who do not believe in Him.<br /><br />It is intended to be a gift of a believer to one who does not believe.<br /><br />It is also intended to possibly stimulate the thoughts of those who do believe in witnessing to others.<br /><br />ABOUT THE WRITINGS USED IN THIS BLOG<br /><br />The basis for the blog is a number of papers written with the objective to come to know God. Each subject area dealt with questions the writer wished to understand.<br /><br />The following briefly describes the chronology and context of some of these works.The first composition dealt with understanding <em><strong>Belief and the gift of Faith.</strong></em><br /><br />It was initiated about one year after being reborn in the Spirit on July 23, 1985.<br /><br />The paper addresses the profound question as to how and why one comes to be chosen by Him, to have Belief and what Belief and Faith mean.<br /><br />An other introductory effort is the Theater Analogy, (<strong><em>A Script for Life</em></strong>) which emphasizes the role of the Bible as a “script for life”: “Oh, how nice it would be if we had a little manual that gave us a generalized script about life and the future.”<br /><br />Faith and Belief was followed by a work on the famous, beloved historian, <strong><em>Will Durant</em></strong>. It provides a perspective on the agnostic/atheist view.<br /><br />This effort logically stimulated a work on <strong><em>Skepticism</em></strong>, detailing the erroneous view of nonbelievers.<br /><br />Durant’s History of Civilization, and its specific references to Christianity, became a part of the “intellectual fabric” that contributed to the writer’s awakening of the truth of God’s existence.<br /><br />The doctrine of the <strong><em>Gift of Righteousness</em></strong> was the subject of the next effort. It was cast in a perspective framed by the Father’s, Jesus Christ’s, the Holy Spirit’s and the believer’s witness as made evident in His Word, the Bible.<br /><br />The next paper, <strong><em>The Pelagian Inclination</em></strong>, speaks to the doctrines of mankind, sin and salvation as framed by the little known, yet awesome 5th century Pelagian - Augustinian confrontation.<br /><br />This contest dealt with the evolution of the issue of God’s sovereignty versus mankind’s supremacy, an issue that continues to plagues Christian religions today.<br /><br />The <strong><em>Hidden Doctrine of God’s Wrath</em></strong> delves into the “functioning” of God’s Wrath by examining the cause of His anger and its specific “consequential manifestations” for the nonbeliever.<br /><br />This was followed by the paper on <strong><em>Unrighteousness, A Different View of Sin.</em></strong> It specifies the difference between the applications of unrighteous sin in the lives of nonbelievers and believers.<br /><br />This was followed by <strong><em>Judging and Forgiveness</em></strong>, a paper that exemplifies the simplist sin problems in the Christian life.These papers present, in some instances, a different view of traditional teachings.<br /><br />The writer has not attended Seminary and has no formal training in religion or Bible study. His sole education has been his extensive readings over twenty years, as led and inspired by the Holy Spirit.<br /><br />Therefore, these views are his findings on the walk in coming to know God. <strong>They are not intended to be a dogmatic presentation of theology or doctrine.</strong> They are the writers conclusions.<br /><br />They are meant to encourage the reader to reach their own decisions on what is the most important consideration in one’s lifetime. For to know God is an eternal consideration that breaches all concepts of time and the life as we all know it.Considering this, the writer hopes you, the reader, will enjoy the entries in this blog, a journey in Coming to Know Christ.<br /><br />THE BLOG’S SOURCES<br /><br />This blog borrows from many sources. Appropriate credits are given where obviously required. But this work depends, to a great extent, on His Word, as made manifest in the New American Standard (NAS) Open Bible.<br /><br />One may ask why the extensive quotes from the Bible when a reference would suffice.The writer hopes that by having direct quotes available, the reader’s creative thought process will also be enhanced.Furthering this hope, God says it best! His inspired authors are the best writers.<br /><br />The continued fact that the Bible is the world’s first printed book and all time best seller is solid proof of this fact.<br /><br />Even the most hard-hearted atheist cannot disagree with that success!<br /><br />THE WRITER’S CREDENTIALS<br /><br />The writer’s only credential, as such, in preparing this “work” is that he was a serious nonbeliever for fifty four years of his life!<br /><br />He possesses an expertise on the subject of sin that exceeds the knowledge and understanding of the greatest divines and the great majority of all who believe in God.<br /><br />Yes, the writer knows what it means to be a nonbeliever, to be unrighteous, to be lost and lonely, and to know God’s Wrath.<br /><br />The writer welcomes comments and criticism of the works on this blog with the sincere hope that something more may be gained, hopefully a greater understanding in the walk with the Holy Spirit.<br /><br />For that is the cost of His discipline, the great hope in growing in Christ, the price and prize of coming to know God, in knowing His love.<br /><br />THE WRITER’S PERSONAL TESTIMONY<br /><br />I often contemplate today how different life would have been if I had been a true Christian early in life. I am blessed having a great family, a beautiful and loving wife, four outstanding children with eleven grandchildren. And most important of all, a growing relationship with Jesus Christ, a relationship guided by His Holy Spirit.<br /><br />I became a true Christian in July 1985 at the age of 54! Before that time I was a Christian only in a social/heritage sense.<br /><br />My oldest son, Otis III, who played football at USC, had talked to me “long and hard” about Christ. That and other incidents led to an extraordinary experience:<br /><br />My wife’s sister, Barbara Love Bartlett (now with Christ) came to Southern California to attend a Christian International Renewal Conference on the division of Christ’s Church at the University of Southern California. In an attempt to help her summarize what she had learned at the conference, I asked her what was the Trinity? I didn’t know!<br /><br />In explaining the Trinity she told me of His Holy Spirit. I didn’t know who the Holy Spirit was! I knew of Jesus and God the Father, but I didn’t know about the Holy Spirit!<br /><br />She told me about the Holy Spirit. I asked her about the word and concept of the Trinity and where could I find that term in the Bible. She told me the word was not in the Bible. I then asked how the word Trinity came to be, and she couldn’t tell me.<br /><br />I struggled with this consideration of the Holy Spirit and the concept of the Trinity for two days. It was a perplexing struggle for me.Finally, I sat down with my wife’s sister and told her that the answer should be in the Bible. I then opened the Good Book. I opened the Bible and my eyes fell on Matthew 10: 16-20, and at that moment I was baptized in the Spirit!<br /><br />It happened as simply as that. Yes, I knew something extraordinary had happened. I was flooded with joy. I was amazed and full of wonder. I knew the Holy Spirit had entered my life.I was a very confused fellow for quite awhile after that experience.At first, I didn’t know or really believe in the Bible. I was elated, but I didn’t understand what was happening. I was on the start of a long and vigorous inquiry: why and how did He choose me?<br /><br />The Bible clearly substantiates that by His grace He chooses us, and while we may be inclined to think the opposite, that is, that we choose Him, His Holy Spirit really coordinates the “call.”<br /><br />THE FUN BEGINS<br /><br />When the Holy Spirit came into my life, that’s when the fun really started! For me, one of the interesting repercussions in being a born-again Christian is the perplexing reaction of people who knew me in my prior life:<br /><br />· My brother, Cleve, fears that I will come stomping through Maine with Bible in hand, preaching the “good news,” sullying his reputation as a confirmed agnostic.<br /><br />· Another reaction occurred at a party at the Stanwich Club in Greenwich, Connecticut. A number of very close friends recoiled in shock when I told them of my relationship with Jesus Christ. Many asked me questions, in a delicate matter, as though they were examining some one from the lunatic asylum. “Do you really believe the Genesis account of the creation? “ I replied, “Certainly. It is symbolic, yet who but God could have ordered it!” One person, upon hearing this, offered the observation that, “Man created God. God did not create Man.” I was not surprised or distressed by these reactions.<br /><br />· When learning of my conversion, my old business associates react with a dismissive, condolent disregard, harboring secret conclusions that they knew it all along: “Otis is really unstable and has always been.”<br /><br />· Two very close friends visited us at our home about a year after my becoming a Christian. Both are native Californians with advanced degrees from Stanford. They kindly observed that it was such a nice thing for me to be dignifying Western civilization’s greatest myth. They were honestly perplexed by my belief. And they were grateful that I didn’t impose a “hell and brimstone” attitude towards their educated atheism. I told them not to worry about me, that if God wanted them, they would be His. They were troubled by the threat of this possibility!<br /><br />It is unfortunate that nonbelief is the accepted social position of the cultured, the educated, the financially affluent classes of society. Their collective witness is the denial of God. I know, for that was my story for fifty four years!That is the world we live in, the world that has always existed in terms of its attitude towards God! But for the "choosen", those elect of God there is <strong><em>His Amazing Grace,</em></strong> the final paper in this blog dedicated to you the reader.</span>Otis Page's Blogshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14932733213884103183noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20207460.post-1135978951043580432005-12-30T13:41:00.000-08:002006-01-05T21:08:17.116-08:00AMAZING GRACE<span style="font-size:130%;">Grace is a profound concept and reality that is fundamental to understanding and knowing God. Its consideration is important</span> <span style="font-size:130%;">in coming to know the many gifts provided by belief in Jesus Christ and understanding His love for the believer as manifested in His Grace.<br /><br />Romans 5:5 “…<strong><em>the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through His Holy Spirit who was given to us.”</em></strong><br /><br />It is a wonderful hymn. The song and lyrics express the sentiments and beliefs of millions of Christians. The message bears the truth of many who say, <strong><em>“I Thank God, I Thank God for His choosing me!!”</em></strong> There can be no more fitting introduction on the subject of Grace that the contemplation of these verses.<br /><br />AMAZING GRACE<br /><br /><strong><em>“Amazing Grace! how sweet the sound - That saved a wretch like me! I once was lost but now am found, Was blind but now I see. </em></strong><br /></span><strong><em><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">‘Twas Grace that taught my heart to fear, And Grace my fears relieved; How precious did that Grace appear The hour I first believed.<br /><br />The Lord has promised good to me, His Word my hope secures; He will my shield and portion be As long as life endures.<br /><br />Thru many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come; ‘Tis Grace hath brought me safe thus far, And Grace will lead me home.<br /><br />When we’ve been there ten thousand years, Bright shining like the sun, We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise Than we’d first begun.”<br /><br />“One thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.”<br />John 9:25</span></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /></em></strong><br />The importance of the word, Grace, goes beyond a simple definition since it embraces a concept that is powerful and far reaching. That concept goes directly to who God is, as He is revealed to us in the Bible.<br /><br />The word and concept of Grace evolved from the Greek “charis” meaning a gracious favor or benefit bestowed. Webster states it is “unmerited divine assistance given mankind for his regeneration and sanctification.” </span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><br />The definition “unearned gift” is commonly used. All these descriptions fall short, in this writer’s humble judgment. Like an innocent sin, they miss the mark. The major passage that substantiates the Christian doctrine of grace recognizes the realization of one of God’s greatest attributes; that this attribute is to be universally displayed by the means of the Church of Jesus Christ.<br /><br />Ephesians 4:4-7 “<strong><em>But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up in Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places, in Jesus Christ, in order that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness towards us in Jesus Christ.</em></strong><br /><strong><em></em></strong><br /><strong><em>For by grace you have been saved though faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast.” </em></strong><br /><strong><em></em></strong><br />The doctrine of God’s grace is proclaimed to bring the gift of salvation to all and a specific instruction to those who by Belief are saved:<br /><br />Titus 2:11-14 <strong><em>“For the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus; who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.” </em></strong><br /></span><strong><em><br /></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Chafer advises us that even though God’s grace is proclaimed to all, the instructions of grace are never intended to be imposed on those who do not believe except by the example of those who do believe and in the event when His Holy Spirit preveniently leads the lost nonbeliever to Belief. God’s grace is, truly, His overwhelming expressions of love for those who believe.<br /></em></strong><br /><strong><em>"The concept that Grace employs provides a startling contrast to the normal relationship a nonbeliever typically visualizes with God, a “wrath breathing” strong and difficult subservience laced with a burdensome obedience with curses being the reward for failure. The contrast is held in the divine realization that human beings are helpless in this world. They are locked in sin and their only end is death. </em></strong><br /><br /><strong><em>Grace declares God is merciful and loving. That he is waiting to embrace the nonbeliever and to assist the believer in answering every need. Grace promises that the seeking nonbeliever will be saved and that he/she will have eternal life. The message of the Gospel - the good news - is that God came to the world, to mankind, to demonstrate His great love through Grace, by acting in Jesus Christ to provide forgiveness and a new life through His teachings and atoning sacrifice on the cross. The good news is that this is reality for those who choose to believe. </em></strong><br /><br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><em>Grace not only provides a perfect salvation and eternal keeping for one who believes in Christ, it also provides the instruction for the daily life of the one who is saved."<br /></em></strong><br />LAW OR GRACE ?<br /><br />A doctrinal dispute occurred between the Apostles during the early, formative period of Christianity. This dispute was concerned with the question of whether the traditional Law or Grace furnishes the governing principle of religious practice and individual Christian conduct.<br /><br />If any distinction is to be understood with respect to the difference between Israel’s privileges under the Mosaic system of the Law and the present privileges of the Church under Grace, distinction must be made between the Law as a rule of life, which none were able to keep perfectly, and the Law as a system which not only set forth high and holy demands upon personal conduct but also provided complete divine forgiveness through the sacrifices.<br /><br />The final standing of any Jew before God was not based only on the observance of the Law; it also contemplated the sacrifices as a part of gaining forgiveness. In either distinction, forgiveness was based on human effort (works) that resulted in an overall primary focus on the means of worshiping God instead of understanding His Grace, the overwhelming expression of God’s love for those who have Belief.<br /><br />THE PROVISIONS OF GOD’S GRACE<br /><br />Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, is rightfully accredited by theologians for the development of Grace as a theological term. Jesus’ teachings, that follow, demonstrate the basis supporting the doctrinal theme of God’s Grace.<br /><br />God’s Grace provides a loving and comforting invitation to the nonbeliever. For Jesus lovingly and tenderly encourages us:<br /><br />Matthew 11:28-30 <strong><em>“Come to me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My load is light.” </em></strong><br /></span><strong><em><br /></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;">God’s Grace provides for compassionate consideration and ignores improper religiosity:<br /></em></strong><br />Matthew 12: 1-8 <strong><em>“At that time Jesus went on the Sabbath through the grainfields, and His disciples became hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, ‘Behold, Your disciples do what is not lawful to do on a Sabbath.’ </em></strong><br /><strong><em></em></strong><br /><strong><em>But He said to them, ‘Have you not read what David did, when he became hungry, he and companions; now he entered the house of God, and they ate the consecrated bread, which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those with him, but for the priests alone? Or have you not read the Law, that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple break the Sabbath and are innocent? </em></strong><br /><strong><em></em></strong><br /><strong><em>But I say to you, that something greater than the temple is here. But if you had known what this means, I DESIRE COMPASSION, NOT A SACRIFICE you would not have condemned the innocent. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.’”</em></strong><br /><br />God’s Grace provides mercy at all times:<br /><br />Matthew 12:9-13 <em><strong>“And departing from there, He went into the synagogue. And behold there was a man with a withered hand. And they questioned Him, saying, ‘Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?’ - in order that they might accuse Him. And he said to them, ‘What man shall be there among you, who shall have one sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will he not take hold of it and lift it out? </strong></em><br /><em><strong></strong></em><br /><em><strong>Of how much more value then is man than a sheep!’ So then it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath. Then He said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand’. And he stretched it out, and it was restored to normal, like the other.”</strong></em><br /><br />God’s Grace provides forgiveness:<br /><br />Matthew 18:21,22 <em><strong>“Then Peter came and said to Him. ‘Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times? Jesus said to him, ‘I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.’” </strong></em><br /></span><em><strong><br /></strong></em><span style="font-size:130%;">God’s Grace has and gives no priority of the believer over one seeking the Lord:<br /></strong></em><br />Matthew 20:1-16 <strong><em>“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. And when he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard. </em></strong><br /><strong><em></em></strong><br /><strong><em>And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the market place; and those he said, ‘You go too into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.’ And so they went. Again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour, and did the same thing. </em></strong><br /><strong><em></em></strong><br /><strong><em>And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing; and he said to them, ‘Why have you been standing idle so long?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You too go into the vineyard.’ </em></strong><br /><br /><em><strong>And when evening had come, the owner of the vineyard said to the foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last group to the first.’ And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each one received a denarius. And when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more; and they also received each one a denarius. </strong></em><br /><em><strong></strong></em><br /><em><strong>And when they received it they grumbled at the landowner, saying, ‘These last men have worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the scorching heat of the day.’ But he answered and said to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what is yours and go your way, but I wish to give to this last man the same as you. </strong></em><br /><em><strong></strong></em><br /><em><strong>Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own? Or is your eye envious because I am generous?’ ‘Thus the last shall be first, and the first last.’” </strong></em><br /></span><em><strong><br /></strong></em><span style="font-size:130%;">God’s Grace is extended to the sinner who believe in Him:<br /></strong></em><br />Luke 7:36-50 <strong><em>“Now one of the Pharisees was requesting Him to dine with him. And He entered the Pharisee’s house, and reclined at the table. And behold, there was a women in the city who was a sinner; and when she learned that He was reclining at the table in the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster vial of perfume, and standing behind Him at His feet, weeping, she began to wet His feet with her tears, and kept wiping them with the hair of her head, and kissing His feet, and anointing them with perfume. </em></strong><br /><strong><em></em></strong><br /><strong><em>Now when the pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he said to himself, ‘If this man were a prophet He would know who and what sort of person this women is who is touching Him, that she is a sinner.’ </em></strong><br /><br /><strong><em>And Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Simon, I have something to say to you.’ And he replied, ‘Say it teacher.’ ‘A certain moneylender had two debtors: one owed five hundred denari, and the other fifty. When they were unable to repay, he graciously forgave them both. Which of them will love him more?’ Simon answered and said, ‘I suppose the one whom he forgave more.’ And He said to him, ‘You have judged correctly.’ </em></strong><br /></span><strong><em><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">And turning toward the women, He said to Simon, ‘Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave Me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears, and wiped them with her hair. You gave Me no kiss; but she, since the time I came in, has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint My head with oil, but she anointed my feet with perfume. For this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little.’ </span></em></strong><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><em>And He said to her, ‘Your sins are forgiven.’ And those who were reclining at the table with Him began to say to themselves, ‘Who is this man who even forgives sins?’ And He said to the woman, ‘Your faith has saved you; go in peace.’”<br /></em></strong><br />THE BIBLICAL AGES<br /><br />Looked at another way, in a historical context, Chafer teaches that there are three Biblical ages: that of Law, that of Grace, and that of the Kingdom.<br /><br />Each age defines a requirement of human conduct defining the relationship of man/woman to God. The conduct-regulating requirements of each are also differentiated by the role of the Holy Spirit.<br /><br />The Mosaic system of Law is void of the enablement, for the unsaved and those who have attained Belief, administered by the Holy Spirit in the Age of Grace.<br /><br />The Age of Grace presents superhuman ideals supported by the indwelling and filling of the believer by the Holy Spirit.<br /><br />The implementation of the superhuman ideals are directions and “divine beseechings”. They are not commands, but the polite, considerate expression of persuasion extended to those for which it is rightfully expected since they are sponsored by the believer’s Belief on the sanctifying walk with the Holy Spirit.<br /><br />Romans 12:1 <strong><em>“I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.” </em></strong><br /></span><strong><em><br /></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Ephesians 4:1,2 <strong><em>“I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, entreat you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing forbearance to one another in love.” </em></strong><br /></em></strong></span><strong><em><br /></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;">There is a fundamental difference between these directions, “beseechings” and the teachings of the Mosaic Law which imposed a curse on those who failed.<br /></em></strong><br />Deuteronomy 28:15 <strong><em>“But it shall come about, if you will not obey the Lord your God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes which I charge you today, that all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you.” </em></strong><br /></span><strong><em><br /></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;">(The curses are specified in verses 16 through 68)<br /></em></strong><br />God’s Grace, for those with Belief in Jesus Christ, provides an incredibly different life under grace compared to life under the Law:<br /><br />Romans 8:1,2 <strong><em>“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Jesus Christ. For the Law of the Spirit of life in Jesus Christ has set you free from the Law of sin and death.” </em></strong><br /></span><strong><em><br /></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;">God’s grace provides that there can be no separation of the believer from the love of God.<br /></em></strong><br />Romans 8: 38,39 <strong><em>“For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, not things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”</em></strong><br /><br />THE MEANING OF GRACE<br /><br />The concept that Grace employs provides a startling contrast to the normal relationship a nonbeliever typically visualizes with God, a “wrath breathing” strong and difficult subservience laced with a burdensome obedience with curses being the reward for failure.<br /><br />The contrast is held in the divine realization that human beings are helpless in this world. They are locked in sin and their only end is death. Grace declares God is merciful and loving. That he is waiting to embrace the nonbeliever and to assist the believer in answering every need.<br /><br />Grace promises that the seeking nonbeliever will be saved and that he/she will have eternal life. The message of the Gospel - the good news - is that God came to the world, to mankind, to demonstrate His great love through Grace, by acting in Jesus Christ to provide forgiveness and a new life through His teachings and atoning sacrifice on the cross.<br /><br />The good news is that this is reality for those who choose to believe.<br />Grace not only provides a perfect salvation and eternal keeping for one who believes in Christ, it also provides the instruction for the daily life of the one who is saved.<br /><br />THE OFFER OF SALVATION<br /><br />All God does is offer His hand to save you, to help you. Like an old fisherman leaning from his dory, extending his hand to a drowning slave to sin wallowing in the sea of disbelief.<br /><br />God proceeds like a loving parent coming to offer wondrous gifts, gifts such as Salvation, Righteousness, Faith, Love, Eternal Life, and the further gift of understanding this benevolence by the revelation of His Word.<br /><br />And He shows you the Way by the “good news” provided by someone we can identify with, His Son, Jesus Christ. And He gives us His Holy Spirit so that we may be comforted in the conviction of our sins and the sanctifying walk through life.<br /><br />To be saved means to grasp the fisherman’s hand; to have the offered gifts means they should be humbly received with some measure of gratefulness. But that hand must be grasped, the gifts knowingly received.<br /><br />And it is all absolutely a free gift by His grace! As one humble believer said, "The only thing free in this life is Jesus Christ!<br /><br />Are these analogies meaningful? Does any of this mean anything to you the reader? That meaning is the hope of this message!</span>Otis Page's Blogshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14932733213884103183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20207460.post-1135978830640313932005-12-30T13:39:00.000-08:002006-01-03T08:54:30.353-08:00FORGIVENESS AND JUDGING<span style="font-size:130%;">TWO PILLARS OF CHRISTIAN CONDUCT<br /><br />Forgiveness and Judging are two fundamental doctrines of the Christian Church. They are two major areas where the Christian’s conduct is apparent before all, Christian and non Christian alike. They are simple yet complex teachings. For anyone can understand them.<br /><br />The Bible’s instructions on each are very clear. Yet they become stumbling stones for the believer. They are easily comprehended but not easily practiced. They exemplify the difference between the understanding of a doctrine and being able to follow it.<br /><br />A great lesson results from one of the easiest yet most complex personal issues bearing on how we relate to others. This is the simple practice of righteousness as we deal with other people in the every day experience. It is a simple example of the presence or absence of the Christian fruit as exercised in the Christians daily life.<br /><br />This, then, is a simple teaching of God. It is a teaching that reaches into the complex human nature and defines what that nature must do when conformed by faith to a righteous Christian perspective through a transformed Christian nature guided by the Holy Spirit on a walk to glorify Jesus Christ.<br /><br />Judging and forgiving represent two fundamental areas of activity involving personal interrelationships, whether between husband and wife, parent and child, relatives, friends, people in social groups of all types, individuals in business, churches, schools, wherever people converse and associate with each other.<br /><br />The two pillars of Christian conduct - Judging and Forgiveness - turn the world upside down in terms of how a Christian looks at things as compared to a nonbeliever. You will not judge! You will forgive! How can this possibly make sense to judgmental, unforgiving, nonbelieving mankind, whose ignorance and prejudice is shaped by being blind to the evident reality of God’s existence? (Rom 1:18-22)<br /><br />What follows places a major consideration in coming to understand what Scripture teaches about the separate yet intertwined concepts of two minor conduct issues regarding human relations in secular society dominated by nonbelievers, but, two dominant and major doctrines of the Christian Church that proclaims the love, peace and righteousness of Jesus Christ.<br /><br />FORGIVENESS<br /><br />There are three primary domains of forgiveness:<br /><br />One is the act of God forgiving the sins of new and existing believers. This includes the forgiveness needed for salvation and the receiving of the gifts of Faith, Righteousness and Eternal Life.<br /><br />The second involves the pardon of personal offenses occurring between Christians, so that we may be free from personal hurts, anger and bitterness.<br /><br />The third are those occasions where one Christian reproves another for a general, non personal sin.<br /><br />Of all these applications of forgiveness, the tying of the doctrine of Judging to the doctrine of Forgiveness comes home by the linking of God’s love.<br /><br />The new covenant relationship with God is through Jesus Christ. The new commandment given by Jesus is simply stated and is awesome considering its simplicity:<br /><br />John 13:34,35 <strong><em>“A new commandment I give you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” </em></strong><br /></span><strong><em><br /></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Forgiveness is always based on love. This is exemplified by God’s love to the believer, the basic reason for His forgiveness of those - -<br /></em></strong><br />· Who turn away from the world.<br /><br />· Who turn from their old sinful state.<br /><br />· Who knowingly turn away from their old nature as nonbelievers.<br /><br />· Who turn to Jesus Christ.<br /><br />Love is the motive that encourages discernment when personal offenses occur between individuals. It removes the “rough edges” of our awkwardness in relating to each other. It presents the reality of the Holy Spirit’s involvement.<br /><br />Love is the basis for correction by reproof of others who are experiencing misconduct problems, the sins of a believer. It is the catalyst that reminds us that His Scripture is there to guide us. It is the continuing inspiration for good feelings that dampen and eliminate emotions cultivated and magnified by anger and bitterness.<br /><br />The attitude of love is pervasive and provides the “locking in step” with the Holy Spirit on these vital issues of believer relations. For God is love. (1John 4:8)<br /><br />Luke 7:47 <strong><em>“For this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little.” </em></strong><br /></span><strong><em><br /></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;">SCRIPTURE’S TEACHINGS<br /><br />God’s forgiveness of the believer is established by belief in Jesus Christ.<br />Acts 10:43 <strong><em>“Of Him all the prophets bear witness that through His name everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins.”</em></strong><br /></em></strong><br />And anyone who believes in Him will certainly confess and repent of their sin. For God has commanded us to repent. The first command came from John the Baptist:<br /><br />Matthew 3:1,2 <strong><em>“Now in those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’”</em></strong><br /><br />What is repentance? It is the turning from the life of the world to God, turning from unrighteous sin to God’s righteousness, turning from disbelief to belief, from mistrust to Faith in God, as manifested in the persons of the Father, the Son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit.<br /><br />The command to repent was taken up by Jesus Christ:<br /><br />Mark 1:14,15 <strong><em>“And after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’” </em></strong><br /></span><strong><em><br /></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Matthew 4:17 <strong><em>“From the time Jesus began to preach and say, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”</em></strong><br /></em></strong><br />And His disciples took up the command in their preaching:<br /><br />Mark 6:12 <strong><em>“And they went out and preached that mankind should repent.” </em></strong><br /></span><strong><em><br /></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Acts 2:38 </span><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><em>“And Peter said to them, ‘Repent and let each one<br />of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the<br />forgiveness of your sins;’”</em></strong><br /><br />For repentance provides three great blessings: 1) being baptized in the name of Jesus; 2) the forgiveness of sin; 3) the salvific gifts of Faith and Righteousness.<br /></em></strong><br />Acts 2:38 <strong><em>“And Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’”</em></strong><br /><br />Acts 3:19 </span><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><em>“Repent therefore and return, that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord;”<br /></em></strong><br />Repentance, therefore, is a basic decision by the new believer to accept God, and to show the fruit of that acceptance by a change in one’s life.<br /><br />And that decision is the basis of His forgiveness, a forgiveness patiently sought by God by His leading of the new believer to the truth:<br /><br />Romans 2:4 <strong><em>“Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?” </em></strong><br /><br />Once repentance is established, God’s forgiveness is a profound, redeeming act, for it is by Jesus’ blood that we are forgiven and saved by His grace:<br /><br />Ephesians 1:7 <strong><em>“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the richness of His grace.” </em></strong><br /><br />Colossians 1:13,14<strong><em> “For He delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”</em></strong><br /><br />Colossians 2:13,14 <strong><em>“And when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having cancelled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.” </em></strong><br /></span><strong><em><br /></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;">We know from what has been said that he forgives us. That repentance is required. We know that we are to be forgiving of others. He also commands us to confess our sins so that we may be cleansed.<br /></em></strong><br />1John 1:9 <strong><em>“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” </em></strong><br /><br />THE COMMAND TO FORGIVE<br /><br />Having been commanded to repent, we are also commanded to forgive, as we have been forgiven. Each time a believer recites the Lord’s Prayer, we ask for forgiveness and we commit to God that we will forgive others!<br /><br />Matthew 6:11 <strong><em>“And forgive us our debts</em></strong> (our trespasses/ transgressions ), <strong><em>as we also have forgiven our debtors”</em></strong> (those who transgress/trespass against us).<br /><br />But even though we make this commitment to God, we may broach this promise by being unforgiving. This is a major sin, for which we should seek forgiveness from God.<br /><br />Yet the sin turns on itself because we do not forgive others, in violation of our oath given in the Lord’s Prayer. So, where we seek forgiveness from God, we are sinful and violate His forgiveness by our not being forgiving of others:<br /><br />Matthew 6:14-15 <strong><em>“For if you forgive men for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men, then your heavenly father will not forgive your transgressions.” </em></strong><br /></span><strong><em><br /></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Mark 11:25 <strong><em>“And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone; so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your transgressions.” </em></strong><br /></em></strong></span><strong><em><br /></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Often times instead of being forgiving we become judgmental. We are then thrown into double jeopardy, falling back to the practices of nonbelievers who exercise unforgiving, judgmental traits through subdued anger, bitterness and viciousness.<br /></em></strong><br />So God commands us to be forgiving, to be discerning, to have an attitude founded in love of being forgiving.<br /><br />Colossians 3:12,13 <strong><em>“And so, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just at the Lord forgave you, so also you should.”</em></strong><br /><br />Ephesians 4:32 <strong><em>“And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ has forgiven you.”</em></strong><br /><br />But knowing this, are there situations where our discernment leads us to manage our forgiveness so that the effect may be more meaningful?<br /><br />FORGIVING OTHERS<br /><br />Following God’s Biblical teaching of repentance and confession, does one who has offended another have an obligation to repent and confess their sin before forgiveness is granted by the offended party?<br /><br />Put another way, should one who has been offended wait to hear the confession of error and apology before granting forgiveness? These are simple questions, yet there is no clear answer in Scripture except by considering how God forgives.<br /><br />God expects confession and repentance. He expects this from a contrite, sincere expression of the heart. So, why shouldn’t we expect the same? The command to forgive must assume, in most instances, the request to be forgiven by the offending party. This request is typically a confession of guilt, of being wrong.<br /><br />First of all, Scripture teaches that repentance and confession is required before God grants forgiveness. That Jesus Christ personally reproves the believer:<br /><br />Revelations 3:19 <strong><em>“Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; be zealous therefore, and repent.”</em></strong><br /><br />Second, Scripture also commands believers to be unconditionally forgiving.<br /><br />Matthew 18:21,22</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><em> “Then Peter came and said to Him, ‘Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.’”<br /></em></strong><br />Yet personal repentance and confession are conditions before forgiveness is given by God.<br /><br />John 1:9 <strong><em>“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness.” </em></strong><br /><br />Should a Christian ask another Christian, who is in a general sin state, to confess and repent?<br /><br />This appears to be the right course, for that is the provision of reproving the brother and sister in Christ. These are questions the believer must answer in a discerning attitude walking with His Spirit. For spiritual discernment is required. To be meaningful, a contrite heart must appreciate the benevolent spirit of the one who is forgiving.<br /><br />The act of forgiveness must be measured by the intent of the attempt to reconcile, by the healing that is required, by the remedy needed to salve the wound. For when Jesus said, <strong><em>“Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”</em></strong> (Luke 23:34), He sought a forgiveness of a specific offense. He did not request a general forgiveness of sins of all people without the obligation and necessity of individual confession and repentance.<br /><br />JUDGING IN THE LIFE OF A BELIEVER<br /><br />In considering our obligation to forgive others, we often enter into a mode of thinking where we become judgmental, where we confuse the issue of judging with forgiveness. Judging is an important concept that all Christians must understand. It is a broad subject with many applications.<br /><br />The six applications of judging in the Christian’s life deal with:<br /><br />1) The primary role of God as judge (James 4:12; Psalms 96:10-13).<br /><br />2) The specific ministry of Jesus Christ (John 5:22).<br /><br />3) That role relegated to secular governing institutions (Romans 13:1).<br /><br />4) The everyday exercise of judgment in working with others in the secular domain and in performing normal daily domestic and work tasks.<br /><br />5) The corporate Biblical responsibility of the Church (Matthew 18:15-17).<br /><br />6) The personal judging of others by Christians, the principle subject of this paper.<br /><br />It is important that we understand the general concepts that deal with judging, and the specific focus concerning what Scripture teaches us and how it relates to forgiveness.<br /><br />In a general context, judging embroils the deep seated deliberations of knowledge, understanding and wisdom. It concerns the intellectual appetite guided by God in exercising discernment, that acuteness of perception that leads to sound determinations. It scrutinizes the necessity to investigate, to examine, to evaluate, to distinguish between alternatives, to prefer, to approve, to select, to decide.<br /><br />Judging demands integrity of both the thought and the process by which the thought is derived, no matter how trivial or complex the issue. And personal judging of others is a complex issue, despite how simple it seems. Its apparent simplicity betrays us and leads us into sin and away from the teachings on forgiving.<br /><br />Personal judgment of another person is a loaded gun with a hair trigger. The mechanism of judgment is totally reliant on the tenuous, feeble moral-instinct of the one with the finger on the trigger. There is no going back once the trigger is pulled.<br /><br />Once the judgment is made and stated, the potential damage is realized. Ruined friendships, destroyed relationships between love-ones, neighborly disruptions, even good feelings in professional standings result from misjudging others. Why is this true? Because our judging others is born of an imperfect motive, a motive impelled and based on our own imperfection.<br /><br />Even though judging should be deliberate, in the great majority of instances of personal judgment, it is not. That is the reason the act of personally judging others is so precarious. In most circumstances, judging should be embraced in a system of authority. It does require a maturity of knowledge, understanding, wisdom and introspection, the examination of one’s own thoughts and feelings.<br /><br />Judging implies finality, and if the judgment is wrong, the results can be devastating. Instead of being forgiving, we often become trapped in a judgmental attitude.<br /><br />The analogy expands when we understand that each of us have the gun in our hand. That, we often pull the trigger accidentally, inadvertently, inappropriately, sometimes premeditatedly, as a reaction to a hurt, as a compulsion to control, as a defense against another’s actions, as a pronouncement of our own self-righteousness, for many wrong reasons.<br /><br />Judging should be the result of well-thought-out convictions, the mental process of becoming assured, of becoming certain about basic ideas of life, living and relating to others. In a general way, the process of arriving at a conviction asks how we justify claims to know, whether we can be wrong about what we know, whether we really have the facts when we believe that we know something. And, importantly, by what standards and authority do we base our knowing.<br /><br />It is important to understand the strength of the conviction upon which the judgment relies. Is it an opinion, a finding of belief, a specific knowledge? Certainly, opinion is the weakest conviction, followed by belief, followed by knowing.<br /><br />To illustrate, the Christian concept of judging evolves around when to apply and withhold personal judgment of others. One may have an opinion that a brother or sister is in sin, and that opinion is the basis for a conviction that the person is sinning. But, that opinion may be strengthened by the corroborating testimony of another that the person is in sin.<br /><br />The opinion may now be strengthened to the point of being a conviction of belief because of the testimony supported by two witnesses. History has proven that such belief may be seriously erroneous, however. Evidence supporting the belief is certainly required. The opinion or belief may become a reliable conviction based on knowledge when one actually sees the person sin. For seeing the sin is knowledge based on evidence.<br /><br />But, as will be seen by that which follows, even this provision will lead to error if the judgment of another is not based on Spiritual discernment with a loving attitude based on a motivation of forgiveness.<br /><br />THE BIBLE’S WARNING ON JUDGING<br /><br />One of the quests of our Christian duty relates to understanding the Scripture’s teaching on judging. Judging becomes a mirror of our character, a sharpening stone by which we learn about ourselves from our own conduct.<br /><br />We can tweak a bit of understanding from the old saying, “The fault we see in others oft times exist in ourselves.” For we know that both the Old and New Testaments affirm God as the only qualified judge. James confirms this while instructing us that the judgment of others can be considered slander and a misuse of the Law:<br /><br />James 4:11-12 <strong><em>“Do not speak against one another, brethren. He who speaks against a brother, or judges his brother, speaks against the law, and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge of it. There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and destroy; but who are you who judge your neighbor?”</em></strong><br /><br />One lesson here is that the Law is a teacher of the individual; it is not the standard by which we judge others. It is the measurer of our own personal conduct. It doesn’t prohibit one’s conduct; it provides an understanding of conduct, as Paul has taught us in Romans 3:20, .... “<strong><em>for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin”,</em></strong> and Galatians 3:24 <strong><em>“Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ....”</em></strong> But James is very specific that we are not to judge our neighbor. He is very specific in telling us <strong><em>“there is only one Lawgiver and Judge.”</em></strong><br /><br />We know that Scripture teaches us that we must not lightly assume the right to judge and condemn others. For we must consider seriously his directions in Matthew 7:1-5:<br /><br /><strong><em>“Do not judge lest you be judged. And why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and behold, the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.”</em></strong><br /><br />After warning us about judging our neighbor James also warns us, as Matthew has, that judging another will sponsor God’s judgment:<br /><br />James 5:9 <strong><em>“Do not complain brethren, against one another, that you yourselves may not be judged; behold the judge is standing right at the door.” </em></strong><br /></span><strong><em><br /></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Luke instructs us that other’s faults are a call for forgiveness:<br /></em></strong><br />Luke 6:36,37 <strong><em>“Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. And do not judge and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon, and you will be pardoned.”</em></strong><br /><br />But, what is this? What has been said here? <strong><em>“And do not judge and you will not be judged;”</em></strong> and <strong><em>“For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.”</em></strong><br /><br />The Bible clearly warns us to avoid judging. But if we are to judge, we will be judged in turn. Further, that in the way we judge, we will be judged. For if we judge with an unforgiving heart, that judgment is self-seeking, quenching the Holy Spirit. (1Thes 5:19)<br /><br />The warning continues. Paul reminds us in Romans 2:1-3, to pass judgment on matters that certainly require discernment, such as the blatant, hostile acts of nonbelievers (Romans 1:18-32) may lead to error, especially when we commit the same sins we see and judge in others.<br /></span><strong><em><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">“Therefore you are without excuse, every one of you who passes judgment, for in that you judge one another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same thing. And we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things. And do you suppose this, O’ Man, when you pass judgment upon those who practice such things and do the same things yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God?” </span></em></strong><br /><strong><em><br /></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;">What are those “same things?” A careful reading and thoughtful understanding is required of these “things.” They are explained in profound detail in Romans 1:24-32. Drink deep of this revelation of His Word:<br /></em></strong><br /><strong><em>“Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, that their bodies might be dishonored among them...... For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also men abandoned the natural function of the women and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their errors. </em></strong><br /></span><strong><em><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and, although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but give hearty approval to those who practice them.”</span></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /></em></strong><br />What are these sins? They are based on the primordial sin of disbelief. Because of this disbelief, and the resulting distrust of God, specific manifestations of His Wrath take the form of sin in the nonbeliever’s life!<br /><br />These are the sins that Paul warns about judging, when they appear as unrighteous conduct in the life of the believer. And for good reason! If a believer practices such things, that person is probably judged already, since that individual is acting like a nonbeliever!<br /><br />Besides this, Paul points to an attitude of judging in these passages that tends to breed other sins, such as the assumption of moral superiority, that which is called the Pharisaic attitude (Matthew 23), where we look down our noses at others with disdain, with an unloving attitude, with a silent yet pervasive sense of offensive disgust, all of this being veiled in a cloak of “righteous” hypocrisy.<br /><br />OTHER LESSONS ON JUDGING<br /><br />In terms of judging, we are not to be concerned about nonbelievers, for they are judged already and subject to His Wrath (1Corinthians 5:12,13; Romans 1:18). The believer’s task is a different one in aiding the Holy Spirit’s convicting work in leading nonbelievers to Christ.<br /><br />Teaching the lessons of Romans 14:1-18 regarding judging differences of doctrinal conviction, the often divisive point that separates Christians of one religion from another, Lawrence O. Richards helps us understand. He teaches, <strong><em>“Paul says we must see Jesus as sole Lord and each other as His servants. So each believer is responsible to the Lord, not to the conscience of other Christians.”</em></strong> That, <strong><em>“Christian unity is based on (1) the freedom of each individual to be responsible to Jesus; (2) a nonjudgmental approach to differences of conviction; (3) a willingness to consider others when deciding whether or not to use one’s freedom to follow one’s own convictions.”</em></strong><br /><br />What wonders would accrue between different Christian sects and religions if we truly understood and practiced Richard’s teaching.<br /><br />JUDGING AND FORGIVENESS<br /><br />All of the verses quoted before impose a dilemma for the believer, for it is easy to be confused about the Bible’s teachings concerning the judging of others. For we are guided to seek Christian discernment as contrasted to a judgmental attitude, which suggests thinking and proceeding in a careful, deliberate way:<br /><br />1Kings 3:9 <strong><em>“So give Thy servant an understanding heart to judge Thy people to discern between good and evil.”</em></strong><br /><br />We are commanded to restore others in sin, which means we must exercise our powers to be first of all discerning, yet assertive when there is error:<br /><br />James 5:19,20 <strong><em>“My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth, and one turns back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from error of his way will save his soul from death, and will cover a multitude of sins.” </em></strong><br /></span><strong><em><br /></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;">We are commanded to be spiritual and gentle in restoring others in sin:<br /></em></strong><br />Galatians 6:1 <strong><em>“Brethren, even if a man is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a person in a spirit of gentleness, lest you too be tempted.” </em></strong><br /><br />We are to proceed sensitively, deliberately:<br /><br />Matthew 18:15-16 <strong><em>“And if your brother or sister sins, go and reprove in private; if he or she listens to you, you have won your brother or sister. But if he or she does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that BY THE MOUTH OF TWO OR THREE WITNESSES EVERY FACT MAY BE CONFIRMED.”</em></strong><br /><br />Understanding these directions and the warnings stated before, what then are we to do?<br /><br />In a large sense, the Bible’s revelation is provided to help us make judgments. It provides the guideline of coming to and implementing sound conclusions about others. Discernment, which may be applied in all things, demands the knowledge and understanding of God’s standards as we relate to other human beings, especially to sisters and brothers in Christ.<br /><br />For the Christian, the greatest errors in judging appear to be:<br /><br />- Making the judgment to ignore or deny God, and by that judgment, to ignore and deny His teachings.<br /><br />- The personal judgment of others in contradistinction to what He teaches in Scripture.<br /><br />- Not accepting and understanding the balance between discernment and judging in relating to Christian brothers and sisters.<br /><br />- Proceeding without a loving attitude and spirit of forgiveness.<br /><br />- Proceeding with a technical understanding of what the Bible teaches in absence of the very personal, very real revelation and counsel of the Holy Spirit secured by prayer!<br /><br />To know, understand and be wise about such matters is the result of a deep commitment to God and the seeking of His guidance. For the prevalent attitude of mankind is to be critical in judging others as a measure of one’s personal standard, a standard that is typically warped by an individual’s predilections, personal problems and spiritual immaturity.<br /><br />The Spiritual believer seeks His counsel in the continuing walk with His Holy Spirit. The following prayer is relevant:<br /><br />Psalm 119: 66 <strong><em>“Teach me good discernment and knowledge, For I believe in Thy commandments.”</em></strong><br /><br />X. WHAT ARE WE TO CONCLUDE ?<br /><br />To complete the gun analogy, the inclination to be judgmental should be compromised by a discerning, forgiving and loving heart.<br /><br />There is no gun here!<br /><br />Instead, we have Christ and the indwelling Holy Spirit in us, the capacity to discern, and by discernment, to take the initiative to act in love and forgiveness, where the energy of judgment is transferred to the miracle that discernment, forgiveness and love derives, as a sanctifying step with the Holy Spirit in glorifying Jesus Christ (John 16:14).<br /><br />But we are commanded to hate and avoid evil that compromises and occasionally obliterates God's love!<br /><br />Rom 12:9 <strong><em>"Let love be without hypocricy. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good."</em></strong><br /><br />What may we conclude from all of this? When we come to the point where we wish to judge others, we must understand a few things about ourselves and our relationship with God.<br /><br />· We must understand that we cannot make another person righteous. That is a gift of God (Romans 5:17).<br /><br />· We cannot convict another of their sins. That determination is a lonely decision by each called individual as guided by His Holy Spirit (John 16:8).<br /><br />· We cannot give another or even ourselves Faith. That is also another gift of God (Ephesians 2:8).<br /><br />· We cannot forgive sin. Only God can do that (Mark2:5-10). Following this, we cannot confess Christ for another. That is another singular experience between an individual and God (Romans 10:9, 10).<br /><br />· We cannot give another the determination called Belief;<br />God does not and will not give this as a gift, as far as we know. Belief is a conviction preveniently obtained by the individual on the walk coming to know God and in accepting Jesus Christ (Romans 1:19).<br /><br />· And even our omniscient God cannot confess sin for an individual, although He knows what those sins are (1John 1:9).<br /><br />· Yet, we can forgive, but only in a sense of love, for even this act is guided by the intervention of His Holy Spirit.<br /><br />· So much as God cannot make an individual confess love for Him (1John 4:7-10). For that is a human responsibility, an individual determination, the magnificent acknowledgment of our God given free-will to choose, no matter how restricted or confined that capability is prior to coming to know Him.<br /><br />With these truths what power, authority, justification do we have to judge and forgive separate from God? None!<br /><br />We may lead, we may suggest, we may encourage, we may witness by example, but all of this is done through the power of His Holy Spirit.<br /><br />Yes, we can even forgive, but this action is also compelled by our new nature in Christ, the new nature defined in relationship to His Holy Spirit (Romans 8). If it is the discipline of a brother or sister, we act through His Spirit in love (Hebrews 12). If it means reproving, it is done through the keen sense of walking with and being filled by His Holy Spirit (Galations 6:1).<br /><br />Richards advises us, <strong><em>“Human beings are not competent to call another’s motives or practices into question. Even when actions are clearly wrong, forgiveness, not condemnation, is the appropriate response.”</em></strong><br /><br />So we are wrongheaded, offensive, and ineffectual when we judge apart from the Spirit. More particularly, we are deeply in sin when we attempt to judge without Spiritual discernment and a forgiving heart.<br /><br />The following version of Galatians 6:1 comes from a new edition of the New testament, authored by Eugene H. Peterson, Professor of Spiritual Theology at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia. The book is titled “The Message.” It is written in a contemporary idiom. You may wish to compare it with the quote stated before from the NAS Open Bible (Page 15).<br /><br /><strong><em>“Live creatively friends. If someone falls into sin, forgivingly restore him, saving your critical comments for yourself. You might be needing forgiveness before the day’s out. Stoop down and reach out to those who are oppressed. Share their burdens, and so complete Christ’s law. If you think you are too good for that, you are badly deceived.”</em></strong><br /><br />Apart from where we are guided by Scripture, we are free from the responsibility of judging others. Our obligation is to relate to others in love and a spirit of forgiveness.<br /><br />The personal measurement of our discernment, the barrier to our impulsive judgment, the prevailing wisdom imparted to us from God to be forgiving, all of this suggests that our relationship with others evolves as a function of our growth in Christ, our walk with His Holy Spirit, our coming to understand and know His love.<br /><br />AN IMPOSSIBLE OBLIGATION<br /><br />Returning to the subject of theology, all theologians bow to the practical lessons contemplated in Scripture on how one Christian relates to another, no matter what religious order or doctrinal persuasion exists.<br /><br />The study of God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, including the branches of Systematic Theology embraced in Angelology (Angels), Anthropology (Mankind), Hamartiology (Sin), Soteriology (Salvation), Ecclesiology (the Church), Christology (Jesus Christ), Pneumatology (the Holy Spirit) and the various other fields including Natural, Exegetical, Biblical, Dogmatic, Historical and Practical Theology, all fall into the background when considering the very simple issue defined by the attitude beheld in the act of judging and forgiving others.<br /><br />We can surrender all study and worship those Christian Saints who understand and practice God’s teaching on this easily-understood but difficult-to-follow subject. For even though theology’s main emphasis is based on how mankind relates to God, the essence of our relationship to God is defined in terms of how we relate to others.<br /><br />The two pillars of Christian conduct - Judging and Forgiveness - frame an almost impossible obligation for the believer. Asking a believer to be forgiving and nonjudgmental of others rubs against the grain of the normal instinct of the human nature.<br /><br />This teaching proposes the destruction of the nest of ruinous ways that promote gossip, bitterness, infractions, jealousy, envy, disputes, anger, hostility, mean-spiritedness - conduct issues more typically identified with the nonbeliever.<br /><br />The following of these doctrines provide a personal test of one’s walk with His Holy Spirit, a measure of one’s progress in being sanctified, being set aside from the world and being made holy. It provides a verification of how much a believer has come to know and understand Christ’s commandment, as stated before to love others. (John 13:34,35) In a larger sense, it provides a standard by which one who professes love for God shows the miracle of God’s grace, love and righteousness in the believer’s transformed nature.<br /><br />Besides the inherent natural inclination to ignore or deny these teachings, they are difficult doctrines. They impose a certain attitude as to the way we look at ourselves in terms of our personal relationships. They provide a continuing reflection as to the way believers succeed and fail in fulfilling the obligation of being a Christian.<br /><br />Truly, the doctrines of Judging and Forgiveness has given the believer a severe test in understanding the relationship and walk with His Holy Spirit as measured by what Christ would have us do in our relationship with others.</span>Otis Page's Blogshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14932733213884103183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20207460.post-1135978732188011632005-12-30T13:37:00.000-08:002006-01-10T10:34:42.936-08:00THE PELAGIAN INCLINATION<span style="font-size:130%;">THEOLOGY AND THE BIBLE<br /><br />The evolution of the Christian Bible begins with the Hebrew Scriptures, which are characterized in Romans as being the “Law and the Prophets,” the Old Testament (Rom 3:21). The reason for this is the simple fact that Christians were first of all Jews. But the new Church was not founded on the Hebrew Scriptures; it was established on the distinctive being of a person - to Jesus of Nazareth, crucified, dead and buried, but “designated Son of God in power ... by His resurrection from the dead.” (Rom 1:4)<br /><br />Jesus wrote no book. His teachings were conveyed by word of mouth and personal example. What Jesus said, the word-of-mouth conveyance of His teachings, the historical events pertaining to what He said, were lovingly recollected and documented by His hearers, His Apostles and Disciples. These early writings became with various letters the eventual “confession of Faith,” the inspired written Word which now comprises the New Testament. The exalted process leading to the formalization of the Canon of Scripture evolved over the first four hundred years of Christian history.<br /><br />The Bible was held as an exclusive intellectual property of the Church, until the coincident development of the printing press and the explosive generation of the Protestant movement in the early 16th century, a period of twelve hundred years. Nevertheless, the Bible served as the foundation for the developing theology of the Church during this extensive time period by a small number of thoughtful, literate theologians who studied the Word and used it as a foundation for their speculations on what it taught.<br /><br />CHRISTOLOGY AND THE TRINITY<br /><br />The first major resolutions in the developing theology of Christianity dealt with two mighty struggles regarding the nature of Christ and the Trinity. These struggles are characterized as the Trinitarian and Christological controversies. They vigorously evolved during the second, third, fourth and fifth centuries (400 years!), including the Catholic and Greek Orthodox Churches as we know them now.<br /><br />The Trinitarian definition dealt with the relationship of Jesus Christ, the Son, and the Father as persons. It determined that Christ was of the same essence as the Father and not subordinate to Him. The Trinity, as a Biblical doctrine, came into effect recognizing this Truth while, at the same time, determining the Spirit as the third person of one God in essence.<br /><br />The start of the resolution of the Trinitarian conflict, at the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D., marked a major event in the Church’s and Western civilization’s histories. It initiated the reconciliation of the informal structure of the Christian Church and the formalized secular institution of the Roman Empire through the remarkable leadership of the Emperor Constantine, who was not overly religious, whose political power became a significant instrument of the Holy Spirit in exercising this stage of God’s plan for mankind and His Church. </span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">The result of this was the eventual structuring of the Roman Catholic Church, where the Church and the Roman Empire joined as partners in the conquering, subjugation and conversion of the European nations and peoples. The resolution of the conflict was finalized at the Council of Constantinople in the year 381, and resulted in the following doctrine within the Niceno - Constantinopolitian Creed:<br /><br /><strong><em>“We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father;” </em></strong><br /></span><strong><em><br /></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;">The formulation of the Trinitarian doctrine framed the definition of the complex person of Jesus Christ. The famed reformed theologian, Louis Berkoff, instructs us in his History of Christian Doctrines,<br /></em></strong><br /><strong><em>“The decision to which the trinitarian controversy led, namely, that Christ as the Son of God is consubstantial with the Father and therefore very God, immediately gave birth to the question of the relation between the divine and the human nature in Christ.”</em></strong><br /><br />The Christological events dealt with the person of Jesus Christ and the logical contradiction suggested by one having both a divine and human nature, a problem that still bothers some religions today, religions that either deny Christ being the Son of God (Joshua’s Witnesses; Islam, 7th Day Adventist, Mormonism) or deny His divine and human nature. As with the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D., the Council of Chalcedon in the year 451 provided the beginning for the final resolution of the Christological definition by the issuance of the following specific statement of the doctrine of the person of Christ:<br /><br /><strong><em>“We then, following the holy Fathers, all with one consent, teach men to confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in Godhead and also perfect in manhood; truly God and also truly man, of reasonable soul and body; consubstantial with us according to manhood; in all things like unto us, without sin; begotten before all ages of the Father according to the Godhead, and in these latter days, for us and for our salvation, born of the virgin Mary, the Mother of God, according to the manhood; one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, to be acknowledged in two natures, inconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably, the distinction of natures being by no means taken away by union, but rather the property of each nature being preserved, and concurring in one Person and one subsistence, not parted or divided into two persons, but one and the same Son, the Only-begotten, God the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ; as the prophets from the beginning have declared concerning Him, and the Lord Jesus Christ Himself has taught us, and the Creed of the Holy Fathers has handed down to us.”</em></strong><br /><br />The Christological and Trinitarian disputes were fundamental events that brought the Church to a point of understanding itself, in a very important sense. The developing doctrines pertaining to God (Theology Proper), Jesus Christ (Christology), the Holy Spirit (Pneumatology) and the Church (Ecclesiology) found their beginnings in the Spirit inspired consensus facilitated by these centuries of Spirit led dialectics.<br /><br />THE DOCTRINES OF MANKIND, SIN AND SALVATION<br /><br />At a later time, starting in the fifth century, another important controversy immerged that dealt with what now relates to the doctrines of Mankind, Sin and Salvation. This controversy eventually became the basis for the evolving definition of Anthropology (The doctrine of mankind), Hamartiology (The doctrine of sin), and Soteriology (the doctrine of salvation) within the discipline of Systematic Theology as studied today.<br /><br />These theological disciplines evolved exclusively in the Roman Church as a result of a momentous confrontation between the ideas of an English monk named Pelagius and the revered promulgator of Christian theology, Augustine.<br /><br />This confrontation specifies an important contrast in the theological priority and interpretation of God’s Grace, as Grace interacts with mankind’s freedom and ability to choose.<br /><br />The confrontation was so intense on the issues of Human Freedom and Grace that it appeared to subordinate His greatest gift, the gift of Jesus Christ as a propitiation for mankind’s sin, allowing the alleviation of the Adamic heritage, by providing the gifts of righteousness, the conviction called Faith, and eternal life through the guidance of His Holy Spirit.<br /><br />Following, and in a sense summarizing, the rationalism of the Gnostic heresies that occurred at the beginning of Christianity, the Pelagian conflict provided a prominent dialectical arena in a historic framework that has pulled on theology’s intellectual coattails for over fifteen hundred years regarding Sin, Salvation, mankind’s freedom to choose, Predestination and Grace!<br /><br />The answers for many questions remain confused today regarding the relationship of God and humanity as we know and understand it. The peculiar, antagonistic, substantial differences between various Christian religions, as to how and why they celebrate God and view His purpose in Salvation, have their delineated heritage from the Pelagian/Augustinian conflict.<br /><br />THE PELAGIAN CONFLICT -- A DEFINING MOMENT IN HISTORY<br /><br />The soul of the Pelagian thesis and its system of thought is human freedom, emphasizing mankind’s moral adequacy and capability in seeking and achieving the ethical life and God, as opposed to the Augustinian system which acknowledges the totality of mankind’s depraved nature and concludes that it is by God’s Grace, and only by God’s Grace, that Salvation and true freedom is attained.<br /><br />The confrontation evolved on the intrinsic, inherent, constitutional nature of Sin and Grace, doctrines that, heretofore, had not been defined and resolved in the deliberations of the Church.<br /><br />This 5th Century event, therefore, was an intellectual frontier, one of those defining moments of history which would establish new directions and change the course of Christian thought forever!<br /><br />Louis Berkoff reminds us, <strong><em>“The Holy Spirit was guiding the Church, often through shame and confusion, into the clear atmosphere of truth.”</em></strong><br /><br />The Pelagian/Augustinian confrontation was to have a lasting impact on the evolving teachings of Catholic and Protestant Christianity. It provides the answers to many questions, such as is redemption a primary work of God or of mankind? Is it by the initiative of an individual that Belief and Faith are obtained? Or is Belief and Faith a complete gift of God’s Grace, a gift predestined by Him? What is the meaning of the Adamic heritage? Is God truly the Sovereign? What is the roll of mankind’s God-given free will?<br /><br />THE ANTITHESIS OF SIN AND GRACE<br /><br />The Pelagian/Augustinian conflict turns on the antithesis of Sin and Grace. Their consideration deals with historic, fundamental doctrines that are as important to the believer and the Church today as when they were first evolved in the 5th Century.<br /><br />· Human freedom.<br />· The fall of mankind.<br />· The regeneration and conversion of mankind.<br />· The eternal purpose of redemption.<br />· The nature and operation of the Grace of God.<br /><br />Pelagius believed that Adam was created by God sinless, and entirely competent to all good, with an immortal spirit and a mortal body. He was endowed with reason and free will. With his reason he was to have dominion over irrational creatures; with his free will he was to serve God.<br /><br />Freedom, Pelagius held, is the supreme good, the honor and glory of mankind. Freedom is the sole basis of the ethical relation of mankind and God, who would have no unwilling service. It consists of the <strong><em>liberum arbtrium</em></strong>, the freedom of choice and the equal ability to do good or evil.<br /><br />The initial reaction by many is that this argument and line of reasoning has a great appeal, an appearance of truth. On the surface, Pelagius presents an ideal philosophic overview that appeals to the ego, the sense that freedom is goodness, the satisfaction that results from dominance thinking, the natural gratification derived from having control of decisions, especially controlling decisions regarding religion.<br /><br />Pelagius was a 5th century monk from that precious island region now known as England, where freedom, honor, and chivalry were considered virtues in the legendary mytho/historic court of King Arthur, of the same approximate time and place; where, eventually, the highest secular standards were to evolve in the governing of peoples.<br /><br />Although history accords him no special honor, his inquiry prompted one of the great dialectics of all time, a debate whose heritage lasts with us today.<br /><br />He became a cause of Augustine’s greatness, a cause that excited the development of key Church doctrines, a cause for understanding the other inclinations of believers, such as the natural inclination to favor their own opinions, speculations, judgments, while ignoring God’s guidance as provided in His Word (Gal 3:1-3).<br /><br />MANKIND’S FREEDOM OF CHOICE<br /><br />Pelagius prescribes that the ability to do good necessarily belongs to freedom, because mankind cannot will good without at the same time being able to will evil. Without the power of contrary choice, the choice of good itself would lose its freedom, and therefore its moral value.<br />He maintained that the right use of the freedom of choice leads to a state of holiness; the abuse of it, to a state of bondage under sin. The state of the will is affected by its acts, and settles towards a permanent character of good and evil. Every act goes to a moral state or habit; and habit is in turn the parent of new acts.<br /><br />Perfect freedom is one with moral necessity, in which mankind no longer can do evil because he will not do it, and must do good because he wills to do it. The finite will is united with the divine in joyful obedience, and raised above the possibility of apostasy.<br /><br />Refuting the essential lesson in Romans 1-8, Pelagius holds that the sin of Adam consisted in a single isolated act of disobedience to the divine command. This single excusable act of transgression brought no consequences, either to the soul or body of Adam, still less to his posterity, who all stand or fall for themselves. There is, therefore, according to the Pelagian system, no original sin, and no hereditary guilt. Sin is not born with mankind; it is not a product of nature, but of the will. Mankind is born both without virtue and without vice, but with the capacity for either. Mankind’s corruption is ascribed solely to the habit of evil, which grows in power the longer it works and the further it spreads. The universality of sin must be attributed to the power of evil example and evil custom.<br /><br />AUGUSTINE’S RESPONSE<br /><br />The Pelagian thesis is theologically speculative while the Augustinian system is based on Scripture and, therefore, represents <strong><em>“the weight of divine wisdom inherent in the Word.”</em></strong> (Philip Schaff)<br /><br />In contrast and in rebuttal to Pelagius, a simple summary statement teaches us that the Augustinian system gives full prominence to the Biblical teachings of Sin, Grace and Salvation as taught in Romans and Ephesians:<br /><br />· The individual is lost in sin and rebellion against God as a function of the heritage from Adam and will not seek God.<br /><br />· His fallen will is so corrupted that he cannot seek salvation, that salvation and the turning to the way, Jesus Christ, is completely based on God’s Grace.<br /><br />A major Scriptural passage supporting Augustine’s rebuttal is the often recited verses from Romans 5:15-21:<br /><br /><strong><em>“But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by transgression of the one many died</em></strong> (Adam’s initial sin of disobedience), <strong><em>much more did the Grace of God and the gift by Grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to many.</em></strong><br /><br /><strong><em>And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned</em></strong> (Adam); <strong><em>for on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression</em></strong> (Adam’s fall) <strong><em>resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the free gift</em></strong> (of Righteousness) <strong><em>arose from many transgressions resulting in justification. For if by the transgression of one</em></strong> (Adam’s disobedience), <strong><em>death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of Grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. </em></strong><br /></span><strong><em><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">So then as through one transgression</span></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;"> (Adam’s) <strong><em>there resulted condemnation to all men</em></strong> (the Adamic Sin heritage), <strong><em>even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. For through the one man’s disobedience </em></strong>(Adam’s) <strong><em>the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous.</em></strong><br /></em></strong><strong><em></em></strong><br /><strong><em>And the Law came in that the transgression might increase; but where sin increased, Grace abounded all the more, that, as sin reigned in death, even so Grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” </em></strong><br /></span><strong><em><br /></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Augustine further prescribes that the reason that some are saved and others are not is based on God’s purpose, His eternal decree that some sinners are saved and others are left in sin according to the important and controversial doctrine of Predestination as cited in Romans 8:28-29:<br /></em></strong><br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><em>“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren;”<br /></em></strong><br />Put yourself in Augustine’s place, fifteen hundred years ago. Given that you believe in His Word, how would you decide considering the Pelagian thesis?<br /><br />The Pelagian thesis reveals the natural inclination to think of the mass of humanity as being good, favoring an idealistic view of mankind that ignores its underlying propensity for selfism and pride, the Adamic heritage, the initial disobedience.<br /><br />A SUMMARY OF POSITIONS<br /><br />The following summary juxtaposes the Pelagian and Augustinian positions before considering the evolution of Semi-Pelagianism and other compromises developed over fifteen hundred years on the question of God’s Grace versus Man’s/Woman’s freedom as provided by their free will.<br /><br />Augustinian Divine Monergism: The doctrine that regeneration is the work of the Holy Spirit alone, and that the human will, having no inclination to holiness, is incapable of assisting or co-operating. Advanced by Augustine, divine Monergism gives God all the glory and makes freedom itself a result of Grace.<br /><br />Pelagian Human Monergism: Ascribes the chief merit of conversion to mankind, and reduces Grace and the role of the Holy Spirit in relationship to the initiative determined by mankind’s will in achieving regeneration.<br /><br />The Pelagian thesis was condemned at the synod of Diospolis in 415 A.D., approximately sixteen hundred years ago!<br /><br />THE EVOLUTION OF THE PELAGIAN ISSUE<br /><br />SEMI-PELAGIANISM<br /><br />Semi-Pelagianism is a reaction against Augustine’s developed teachings that put down the Pelagian thesis and its system of thought. Because of the dialectical quality of the Augustine/Pelagius confrontation (i.e.: The Pelagian thesis versus the Augustinian antithesis), Semi-Pelagianism represents a biased synthesis swaying the argument from:<br /><br />· the totality of Grace and election, as the determiner in bringing nonbelievers to Belief (the Augustinian antithesis),<br /><br />· to a greater balance in favor of the freedom and moral quality of mankind to consciously believe and repent (a “swaying” to the Pelagian thesis).<br /><br />Semi-Pelagianism establishes a compromise whereby Divine Grace and the human will jointly accomplish the work of conversion and sanctification, and that mankind must take the first step because the individual has the free will to decide.<br /><br />The Semi-Pelagian system rejects:<br /><br />· The moral soundness of mankind as advocated by Pelagius, but admits his moral ability to choose.<br /><br />· The Augustinian teaching of the entire moral corruption and bondage of unbelieving mankind to sin.<br /><br />· The Pelagian conception that Grace is an external auxiliary and not a principle efficacious attribute of God’s will.<br /><br />· The Augustinian teaching of the sovereignty, irresistibleness and the limitation of Grace to the elect, those predestined by God.<br /><br />All of this suggests a returning to the essential teaching called Greek Synergy. The Greek Church held that the human will and divine Grace were coordinated in the work of conversion. That is simplistic enough, but the obvious question arises where is the emphasis? Is the conversion experience a result of the human will or of God’s Grace? How big a factor is the sin nature? How does the Holy Spirit interact with the nonbelieving soul if it interacts in any event? Who directs the coordination, the human will or the Holy Spirit? Or is believing merely a psychic quirk where the believer to be takes the initiative to believe, independent from the inspired leading of His Holy Spirit?<br /><br />GOTTSCHALK and DOUBLE PREDESTINATION<br /><br />The Semi-Pelagianists were quick to make clear that the major problem with the Augustinian stance on predestination is that it leads to the inevitable and not unreasonable conclusion, by logical deduction, that while some are elected and saved others are reprobated by God to be left in sin, even though there is no Scripture stating directly that some (nonbelievers) are predestined by God to be lost.<br /><br />This conclusion is fundamental to the anti-Pelagian, anti-semi-Pelagian findings of Gottschalk, a Benedictine monk who lived in the period 803 - 869.<br /><br />He revived the Augustine teaching on predestination by emphasizing the concept of “double predestination” as a result of an intense study of Augustine. His view was that:<br /><br />· God foreordains those he wishes to heaven and hell.<br />· God does not will that all are to be saved.<br />· Christ died for the elect.<br /><br />Gottschalk’s view was not well received! Not relenting from his belief, Gottschalk was condemned at the Synod of Mainz in 848, beaten until almost dead and imprisoned for life.<br /><br />He confirmed that a number of believers sincerely accepted the conclusion that Double Predestination was a fundamental dogma of God, to the extent that they willingly became martyrs in its defense.<br /><br />Christian history pays a small tribute to this man by its recollection of this event. Such love and conviction has been the infrequent but sincere testimony of many true believers, a number of whom were judged as heretics by their contributions to the evolution of a maturing Christian doctrine.<br /><br />For it is by placing Scriptural facts against speculative idealism, Biblical knowledge against wishful philosophy, that sound doctrine is developed.<br /><br />Acknowledging this, history shows that Pelagius’ error was that he didn’t understand Romans. Gottschalk’s problem was that he knew that Augustine did!<br /><br /><strong><em>Like a beacon, it shines; guiding fools and scholars alike. A beacon of the Truth; by which heretics stumble; false doctrines expire; correct doctrines flourish. God’s standard of Righteousness, so that we can know ourselves, His Son, His Spirit, His Truth. So that we may, by personifying His Grace, be resolved in glorifying Him. Romans!</em></strong><br /><br />GREAT THEOLOGIANS OF HISTORY<br /><br />PETER THE LOMBARD/SEMI PELAGIAN LEANINGS<br /><br />Peter the Lombard died in 1164. He was the father of Systematic Theology. His teachings included the Four Books of Sentences treating the Triune God, Created Beings and Sin, the Christian Virtues, the Decaloge (the Ten Commandments), and the Sacraments with some questions in Eschatology. They were the fundamental discipline for students of theology from the 12th through the 15th centuries when superseded by Calvin’s Institutes in Protestant Christianity.<br /><br />He originated the Catholic religious practice of seven sacraments. These were confirmed by the Council of Florence in 1439, almost three hundred years after his death on the eve of the Reformation!<br /><br />Firmly of the Augustine tradition, he, nevertheless, was accused of some semi-Pelagian sentiments, probably because he held the Sacrament to be not only a “visible sign of a visible Grace” (Augustine) but also the effective cause of that Grace. This became a critical issue when the Reformists insisted on two Sacraments, Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, which are the general religious practice in Protestant Churches today. These two Sacraments are Bible based. The other five practiced by the Catholic Church are held to be devised thus tainted by the Pelagian imperative honoring mankind’s initiative. Other noted teachings of Lombard are:<br /><br />· By the fall, mankind suffered injury as from a wound, but not deprivation of all virtue (A Semin-Pelagian leaning).<br /><br />· God knew mankind would fall, but we do not know why He did not prevent it.<br /><br />· The root of Sin is concupiscence (selfism, sexual desire). Original Sin is handed down by the medium of the body and becomes operative on the soul because of the body.<br /><br />· God’s predestination of the elect is the cause of good in the elect. It is not based on any foreseen goodness that they may have.<br /><br />THOMAS AQUINAS, THE PRINCE OF SCHOOLMEN<br /><br />Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) is considered to “the most eminent divine” after Augustine. He retains this distinction today in the Roman Catholic Church. His works are replete with reference to the works of Augustine. On matters pertaining to Sin and Grace, he was considered a Semi-Pelagian by the protestant Christian historian, Philip Schaff.<br /><br />The reason for this accusation probably lies in the fact that Aquinas was the “prince” of the scholastic Schoolmen, whose penchant for speculation, rationalization and intellectual “reachings” far surpassed the standard of Pelagius with the very important exception that they tended to respect Scripture and the teachings of Augustine.<br /><br />But the speculations, rationalizations and reachings did incline towards abstractions that tended to obfuscate and deny many real problems and excesses affecting the Church. Therefore, there was the Semi-Pelagian charge that suggested a drifting away from the solid standard admired by the Protestant Reformists.<br /><br />Schaff informs us, “<strong><em>The protestant reformers, in their indignation against the Scholastic theology, could not do justice to Thomas Aquinas. Luther went so far as to call his ‘Summa’ the quintessence of all heresies, meaning Papal doctrines. He spoke of him as ‘the fountain and original soup of all heresy, error, and Gospel havoc, as his book bears witness.’”</em></strong><br /><br />We must remember that Luther did not lack an enthusiasm for diatribe when motivated. Don’t forget that he didn’t exactly admire Calvin either!<br />The present historical estimate is much more kind, for Aquinas was an extraordinary man who measures with the standard of relevance accorded Augustine, Luther and Calvin following the teachings of Paul.<br /><br />Aquinas acknowledged that the cause of Adam’s fall, the original Sin was self love, Pride. As an acknowledged teacher, Calvin probably incorporated his views as an extension of Augustine’s teachings.<br /><br />A number of Aquinas’ teachings follow. They speak for themselves as a follow-on, a bridge from the Gottschalk controversy to the expansive Augustinian based theologies of Luther and Calvin. They are framed by the theological influence of Peter the Lombard and John Duns Scotus, who follow. From his Treatise on Grace:<br /><br />· For the knowledge of any truth whatsoever mankind needs Divine help.<br /><br />· Mankind needs God’s help, God’s Grace, to move mankind to love God.<br /><br />· Without Grace mankind cannot merit eternal life.<br /><br />· The preparation of the will by Grace is twofold: to be right and enjoy God; to prepare the will to receive Grace.<br /><br />· Mankind’s turning to God is by free choice, but only when by His Grace that He turns it.<br /><br />· Mankind can do nothing unless moved by God.<br /><br />· Mankind by himself can in no way rise from Sin without the help of Grace.<br /><br />· Mankind’s corrupt nature needs Grace to heal its nature.<br /><br />Regarding perseverance:<br /><br />· Perseverance is sought even by those who are hallowed by Grace.<br /><br />· Mankind, when possessed by Grace, needs perseverance to be given to it by God.<br /><br />· After anyone is Justified by Grace through Faith, that person must beseech God for the gift of perseverance.<br /><br />· By the Grace of Christ many receive the gift of Grace whereby they may persevere, and the further gift of persevering. Thus Christ’s gift is greater that Adam’s fault.<br /><br />Regarding God’s providence, in respect to predestination and reprobation, especially regarding mankind’s eternal salvation:<br /><br />· All the good that is in things has been created by God.<br /><br />· All things are subject to Divine providence.<br /><br />· For it belongs to Divine providence to order all things.<br /><br />· Predestination presupposes election in the order of reason, and election supposes God’s Love.<br /><br />· Predestination presupposes God wills the salvation of the elect and is a part of God’s providence.<br /><br />· He wills this good to some in preference to others, sinceHe reprobates some.<br /><br />· There is no distinction between what flows from free choice and what is of predestination. That which flows from free choice is also of predestination.<br /><br />· He predestines by means of His mercy, in sparing them; and in respect of others, whom He reprobates by means of His justice, in punishing them.<br /><br />· Why He chooses some for glory and reprobates others has no reason except the Divine will.<br /><br />DUNS SCOTUS, THE AUTHORITY of the CHURCH<br /><br />Accused by Luther of reviving Pelagianism by emphasizing the freedom of the will and the natural powers of mankind, John Duns Scotus, a Scotsman, D.1308, was one of the last of the scholastic theologians of the Medieval period starting with Lombard, reaching its pinnacle with Aquinas. Contrary to any Pelagian leaning, he held that:<br /><br />· The controlling element in the divine nature is the will of God.<br /><br />· To submit to the will of God is the highest goal the human can reach.<br /><br />· The will of God determines the salvation of mankind.<br /><br />· The predestination of the elect is an act purely of God’s determination (and His Grace).<br /><br />· The non-elect are reprobated in view of their foreseen demerit.<br /><br />Luther’s criticism may have been inspired by the fact that Duns Scotus taught that the Scriptures contain what is to be believed, but the authority of the Church, controlled by man, establishes what Truth is. In other words, Belief in the Scriptures rests ultimately on the authority of the Church.<br /><br />This is a major division point between Catholicism and the Protestant Churches, which holds the Scriptures to be the supreme authority, not man, or traditions created by man.<br /><br />Further, he was the father of the Immaculate Conception doctrine.<br /><br />He did differ with Augustine in holding that the human will is free and that, more importantly, Adam’s sin was not passed to his descendents - a certain Pelagian error.<br /><br />Don Scotus’ wisdom and attitude on predestination is confirmed by the following story:<br /><br /><strong><em>“On one occasion he stopped to speak to an English farmer on the subject of religion. The farmer, who was engaged in sowing, turned and said, ‘Why do you speak to me? If God has foreknowledge that I will be saved, I will be saved whether I do good or evil.’ Duns replied: ‘Then, if God has foreknowledge that grain will grow out of this soil, it will grow whether you sow or withhold your hand. You may as well save yourself the labor you are at.’”</em></strong><br /><br />CALVIN AND PREDESTINATION<br /><br />John Calvin (1509-1564) was a Frenchman, a scholar, a studious Catholic who fathered what is now called the Reformation. His doctrinal system combined predestination with the certainty of salvation, in contradiction to the Catholic dogma, which does not promise this comfort. In this sense, Calvin carried the doctrine beyond the teaching of Augustine, who subscribed to the uncertainty of salvation as an incentive for pursuing holiness.<br /><br />The question on what is the constitution, the predicate of salvation is a significant question that divides the Christian Church today. Are believers saved when they come to Belief and are given the gift of Faith? Is this salvation secure? Does the Holy Spirit’s sealing make salvation secure? Or, must the believer persevere independent of God’s Grace? Is salvation a later event that must be earned? Is there some middle ground such as taught by many, that there is an initial salvation followed by a progressive phase that leads to a final salvation? If salvation is obtained under any teaching, can it be lost?<br /><br />The hard view of Calvin’s teaching, like Gottchalk’s followed by Aquinas’, means God’s judgment is that some are predestinated to eternal life while others to death. It concludes a twofold decree where some are elected into holiness and salvation and others are reprobated into death because of sin and guilt.<br /><br />Calvin was very definite on the question of salvation. One was elected and that election was never to be lost because of God’s predestined plan. As noted, Aquinas did not subscribe to this thesis, stating explicitly that perseverance was not assured!<br /><br />The doctrine of predestination is a hard teaching for many believers, those who are saved (or, are being progressively saved!) and do not have the problem of not being saved. They feel that it is difficult to understand why God would deny anyone the opportunity to know Christ.<br /><br />The predestination teaching flies in the face of the evangelical instinct to convert nonbelievers that includes the theoretical majority who are not chosen, not elected, not ordained by God to be His.<br /><br />Of course, this question creates no regard or uncertainty on the part of nonbelievers who, by choice, do not care and are not concerned about their salvation, who, in fact, think that such interest on their behalf by believer’s is “foolishness” (1Cor 1:18).<br /><br />Contrasting this hard interpretation of Paul shared by Augustune, Aquinas and Calvin, a moderate and contemporary Arminium view provides a softer, compromised teaching on predestination, rationalizing the importance of God’s foreknowledge:<br /><br />· God in His omniscience has foreseen how all individuals will respond to the offer of the gospel.<br /><br />· He has predestined to eternal life those whom he has foreseen responding in Faith and obedience.<br /><br />What is the Truth? Those who defend double predestination with its doctrine of reprobation cite the important teaching in Romans 9: 10-24. It is the same Scripture guiding Augustine, Aquinas, and Calvin!<br /><br /><em><strong>“And not only this, but there was Rebekah also, when she conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac; for though the twins were not born, and had not done anything good or bad, in order that God’s purpose according to His choice might stand, not because of works, but because of Him who calls, it was said to her, ‘THE OLDER WILL SERVE THE YOUNGER.’ Just as it is written, ‘JACOB I LOVED, BUT ESAU I HATED’ (Mal 1:2).</strong></em><br /><br /><strong><em>What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! For He says to Moses, I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION.’ So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs but on God who has mercy.</em></strong><br /><br /><strong><em>For the Scripture says to Pharoah, ‘FOR THIS VERY PURPOSE I RAISED YOU UP, TO DEMONSTRATE MY POWER IN YOU, AND THAT MY NAME MIGHT BE PROCLAIMED THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE EARTH.’</em></strong><br /><br /><strong><em>So He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires. You will say to me then, ‘Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?’</em></strong><br /><br /><strong><em>On the contrary, who are you O man and woman who answers back to God. The thing molded will not say to the molder, ‘Why did you make me like this, will it?’ Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make the same lump one vessel for honorable use and the other for common use?</em></strong><br /><br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><em>So what if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And He did so in order that He might make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, even us, whom He also called, not from among the Jews only, but also among the Gentiles.”<br /></em></strong><br />THE AGUSTINIAN HERITAGE FROM PAUL<br /><br />CALVIN AND LUTHER<br /><br />The Aquinarian, Calvinistic and Lutherean systems of theology are based on the teaching of the revered Augustine. Because of this fact, the four systems of theology are closely allied, with the important qualification by Luther on the priority of the doctrine of predestination, a primary teaching of Augustine and Aquinas which was elaborated and enhanced by Calvin.<br /><br />While summaries do not do justice to the depth of the teachings of the two great reformers (This document is not intended to be a treatise on Reformation Theology.), Calvin made election, Luther made the justification by Faith, the primary basis for being chosen in terms of God’s predestinated, foreordained plan. Each attempted to improve on the teaching of Augustine and Aquinas.<br /><br />Calvin relied on his view of the unchangeable decree of God on election and predestination. Luther relied on the importance of saving Grace through the righteousness obtained by Faith. Both systems stressed their teachings in an atmosphere of contention and dissatisfaction affecting the Roman Catholic Church, which upheld a practical dogma that de-emphasized Grace and stressed human works.<br /><br />The Church’s teaching on “works” was done with the determined ecclesiastical objective that greatly qualified the doctrine of perseverance, the assurance of being delivered. Protestants maintain this is not Scriptural, and was done to provide a “fearful” incentive for the believer to earn final salvation and to avoid eternal damnation.<br /><br />These four men were intense in their dedication to God. Each made prodigious contributions to Christian thought and knowledge. Each embraced the teaching of Paul in Romans as being the divine guide in the development of the doctrines of Anthropology and Soteriology. And because of this, each stressed the doctrines of Sin and Grace, the impotence of mankind in reaching God, the omnipotence of God and His plan for the ages, the very sinfulness of sin as a heritage from Adam’s fundamental disobedience, and the absolute role of Grace in the regeneration of men and women.<br /><br />They made extraordinary contributions to the intellectual formulation of church doctrine and practice in specific time periods: Augustine from the 5th century to the 16th century; Aquinas from the 14th century; Luther and Calvin from the 16th century to the present age.<br /><br />The heritage is clear: from Paul to Augustine, then Aquinas to Luther and Calvin in the Protestant tradition. It includes Aquinas and ignores Luther and Calvin in the Catholic tradition. The parallel heritage for Pelagius starts with his misinterpretation of Paul. This survived because of anti-Augustinian rancor, which inspired the Semi-Pelagianism rebuttal to Augustine’s powerful doctrines on Grace and predestination. The heritage was finally embraced by Aminianism as an evolved reaction to Calvin. More on Arminius will follow.<br /><br />THEIR TEACHINGS<br /><br />The teaching of these revered men of God may be summarized as follows (it is also Aquinas’ belief!):<br /><br />· God has from eternity foreordained all things that should come to pass, with a view to the manifestation of His glory.<br /><br />· He created mankind pure and holy, and with freedom of choice.<br /><br />· Adam was tried, disobeyed, lost his freedom, and became a slave of sin.<br />· The whole human race fell with him and is justly condemned in Adam to everlasting death.<br /><br />· God in His sovereign mercy elects a part of this mass of corruption to everlasting life.<br /><br />· Without any regard to moral merit, He converts the elect by irresistible Grace, justifies, sanctifies and perfects them.<br /><br />· He thus displays in them the riches of His Grace.<br /><br />· In His inscrutable, yet just and adorable counsel, he leaves the rest of mankind in their inherited state of condemnation.<br /><br />· He reveals in the everlasting punishment of the wicked the glory of His awful judgment.<br /><br />DETERMINING GOD’S PURPOSE<br /><br />Augustine’s system, developed in response to the Pelagian thesis, inspired centuries of theological acrimony and debate. The dialectics of this confrontation, including compromised specifications of Semi-Pelagianism and Semi-Augustinianism, carried down and through the 17th Century heightened by the Gottschalk and Jansenist controversies of 853 and 1653.<br /><br />Calvin’s system, in turn, was effectively opposed by the Arminians, the Quakers, and the Methodist, each opposition sharing and echoing the heritage of the Grace/Sin/Freewill semi-Pelagian heritage, with a stringent disagreement on the doctrine of predestination and election as advocated by Calvin.<br /><br />The principle thesis of the anthropological and soteriological doctrines, as evolved by these giants of the Christian Church, is the universal damnation of the whole human race on the sole ground of Adam’s sin.<br /><br />This conclusion is troubling by itself for those who have a grander view of humanity, and it is particularly repulsive in that it includes innocents, infants and all those in far lands who have never heard of Adam. There is no wonder that it inspired disagreement by those who had a greater hope, and/or an ignorance of what Scripture teaches.<br /><br />The sensible argument is made as to how one reconciles this view with the justice and mercy of God? And why would He decree the damnation of all these souls when with His omnipotence He could persuade them to Belief, Faith, Righteousness and Salvation? This is serious stuff indeed, if one chooses to take it seriously!<br /><br /><strong>As suggested before, the rub lies in the fact that those who do not believe in Him do not care one way or another. It means nothing to them! So like the grass in the field (Psalms 90:5-7), their destiny is a short term on earth ended by death, while those who do believe, and who express the great legitimate concern for those not chosen, have eternal life (Rom 6:23).</strong><br /><br />The Scriptures paint a clear picture of God’s will on these matters. There is no mystery in the fact that He wills as Augustine and Calvin confirm. There is no question that this determination is supported by Scripture:<br /><strong><em></em></strong><br />Isaiah 46:10<strong><em> “I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.”</em></strong><br /><br />This mystery about God’s purpose, when thought out, is often disguised in a reaction of amazement and humble thanksgiving on the believer’s part, for being “called according to His purpose,” elected according to His plan of predestination:<br /><br />Rom 8:29,30 <strong><em>“For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren; and whom He predestined, these He also called; and whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.”</em></strong><br /><br />THE EVOLUTION OF DOCTRINE<br /><br />JANSEN, THE PELAGIAN ISSUE CONTINUES<br /><br />The Dutch Jansenists movement excited continued study of the conflict between Pelagius and Augustine and resulted in the political recognition of an independent bisphoric in the “Old Catholic Church.” In 1653 Pope Innocent X condemned five propositions allegedly extracted from a book title “Augustinus” written by a Dutchman, Cornelius Jansen (1585-1638). These propositions allegedly affirmed that:<br /><br />· God’s commands cannot be fulfilled without Grace. Grace is irresistible.<br /><br />· Fallen mankind is free from coercion, not from necessity.<br /><br />· The Semi-Pelagians’ error was denial of the irresistibility of Grace.<br /><br />· It is Semi-Pelagian to say that Christ dies for all mankind.<br /><br />The battle raged on over centuries, effecting the fundamental precepts of the growing Christian Church, especially the emerging Protestant dominations, but least of all the Eastern Orthodox Church, whose theology was retarded by the Islamic incursion and a propensity for extreme conservatism in ritual and dogma.<br /><br />ARMINIUS, A CHALLENGE OF CALVIN<br /><br />The rise of Arminianism in the early 17th Century (1610) presented the greatest challenge to the Augustine heritage and the pervasive, controversial theology of Calvin. It presented a revival of the one thousand year old fruits of the Pelagian system, recapitulated by Jacob Arminius’ (1560-1609) followers.<br /><br />Like Cornelius Jansen (1585-1638), Arminius was a Dutchman and a contemporary fellow theologian, who preceeded Jansen in this life by approximately twenty five (25) years.<br /><br />The Arminian theology proposed a radical view of predestination on the grounds that it lacked a Christ centered “Christocentric” focus. Since Christ was not the foundation for election, according to the Calvinistic system, but was only a subordinate follow-on to a foreordained salvation, what is the meaning for Christ’s ministry when the elect are to be saved in any event? In other words, why Christ when His elect will be saved anyway? This concern led Arminius to change the priority of election and Grace from the Reformist view that election preceded Grace to the shocking thesis that election followed Grace! The Arminian system held that:<br /><br />· God decrees to save all who repent, believe and persevere.<br /><br />· Election is conditional on mankind’s response, dependent on God’s foreknowledge, mankind’s Faith and perseverance.<br /><br />· The possibility of a true believer totally or finally falling from Grace and perishing is not denied.<br /><br />There is no assurance of ultimate salvation.<br /><br />· Man’s/woman’s will is free. God’s will can be resisted.<br />God gives sufficient Grace so that man/woman can believe if they so will.<br />· Redemptive Grace is universal, offered to all, and is not particular, it is not offered only to the elect.<br /><br />In regards to the predestination thesis, Arminius condemns this by, in effect, concluding that God does not choose anyone but foresees that some will choose Him. This means that God’s chosen choose Him.<br /><br />The confusion continues: The Arminius views were formally developed by His followers in the Remonstrant Articles of 1610, as follows:<br /><br />· Predestination is conditional on a person’s response, being grounded in God’s foreknowledge.<br /><br />· Christ dies for each and every person but only believers are saved.<br /><br />· A person is unable to believe and needs the Grace of God. This Grace is irresistible.<br /><br />· Whether all the regenerate will persevere requires further investigation.<br />These Articles were condemned by the Synod of Dort in 1618-1619:<br /><br />· The Arminians were rightfully accused of adopting a Semi-Pelagian view of Grace.<br /><br />· They were accused of destroying the doctrine of assurance by questioning perseverance.<br /><br />· They were accused of endorsing a conditional gospel message which undermined the doctrines of atonement and justification.<br /><br />Those opposed to Arminianism were rightly concerned over the possible additional erosion in reformist doctrine stimulating further divergence of the protestant movement. Despite this fact, the Arminian thrust became a pervasive influence as Protestantism spread throughout the world. For many, Arminianism became a rebellion against the teachings of Calvin, a reaction to the harsh teaching that spells the terminal fate of reprobates who are not elected of God.<br /><br />JOHN WESLEY, ONE THOUSAND YEARS LATER<br /><br />Arminius and Jansen teach us a great lesson on the vagary of the Pelagian/Augustine controversy, a millennium, one thousand years after it commenced. Arminius, a protestant, held a Catholic leaning in doctrine while Jansen, a Catholic, embraced the Augustinian view that was most closely allied to Calvin’s.<br /><br />We could learn much from this irony.<br /><br />John Wesley (1703-91) and the Methodist movement are credited for the growth of the fundamental precepts of Arminianism. “Wesleyan Arminianism” taught that:<br /><br />· Depravity was total, affecting every facet of man’s and woman’s being.<br /><br />· There was a requirement for God’s Grace if one was to believe.<br /><br />· Synergism, acting for the work of Christ, was related to and could be applied to all of mankind.<br /><br />· Christ may deliver all from Adam’s guilt, providing people appropriate (receive, accept) His Grace.<br /><br />· The possibility of a person falling from Grace was expressly accepted. There can be an assurance of an initial salvation but not of an ultimate salvation.<br /><br />God’s will - mankind’s freedom and free will to choose - the concept of sin - its historic roots with Adam - the loving invitation to attain Belief by Jesus Christ - the characterized love and mercy of God balanced against His wrath - God’s plan for the ages - His rightful determination that He will be glorified - that He will glorify His elect, all of these, and a multitude of other considerations, leads the student of His revelation, the believer in His Word, to read carefully His inspired teachings on all of this.<br /><br />These teachings have been debated through the last fifteen hundred years...with a decisive impact on Church dogma and doctrine of the various Christian religions. Let us summarize what we have learned so far on this important and complex consideration of Sin, Grace, and Salvation:<br /><br />GOD’S PLAN OF SALVATION<br /><br />It should be obvious that Predestination is a real and controversial teaching of the Christian Church. Its teaching is the core of how God’s plan of salvation is administered. It defines the nature and application of God’s grace.<br /><br />The Bible provides extensive guidance in Romans 8:28-30; 9:9-24, Acts 2:23;22:10, and Ephesians 1:3-14; 3:11 on this teaching.<br /><br />Religions do, in a sense, “mask” this teaching for it rips at a central question as to God’s sovereignty compared to mankind’s control of the Church.<br /><br />This doctrine has evolved from the fifth century to the present time, and has been a key theological issue that has divided Christendom in the definition of separate religions. This ancient deliberation may be partially summarized for the reader by considering the theological doctrine called the Covenant of Grace.<br /><br />God’s plan of salvation for mankind - the great redemptive work of Christ - is properly called the <strong><em>Covenant of Grace</em></strong>. That covenant, between God and mankind, is based on the promise of salvation and eternal life, on the part of God, and the condition of belief and obedience, on the part of mankind.<br /><br />It is called a covenant since the plan of salvation is presented in the Bible with parties, mutual promises or stipulations, and conditions.<br />Mankind by its heritage of imputed unrighteousness from Adam, is lost in sin and misery, subject to God’s wrath, and perishes in this state. This state persists except for God’s plan of salvation which is moved by His compassion for the lost. To alleviate this historic tragedy, God sent His Son to assume mankind’s nature with the objective of suffering rejection and experiencing a painful physical death providing forgiveness and the basis for the justifying gift of righteousness and faith in His promises.<br /><br />In summary, the manifestations of God’s Grace take the form of:<br /><br />1) An “unmerited” love by God for troubled nonbelievers, who languish in disbelief, who wish for help, who are not evil, who are willing to confess and repent.<br /><br />2) The supernatural influence of the Holy Spirit in leading nonbelievers to Belief and maintaining the believer’s walk in redemption and a progressive sanctification.<br /><br />3) Spiritual blessings in the form of the fruit of the Spirit in the believer.<br /><br />4) The specific salvific gifts of Faith (Eph 2:8) and Righteousness (Rom 5:17) to the believer through rebirth in Jesus Christ.<br /><br />In considering the Covenant of Grace, as it is applied by various religions, the core debate forming the doctrines of Anthropology (the doctrine of mankind), Harmartiology (the doctrine of sin), and Soteriology (the doctrine of salvation) takes form in the confrontation between Pelagius and Augustine. The net differences of the theological debate represented by the Pelagian thesis as opposed by Augustinianism are:<br /><br />1) The plan of salvation, or covenant of grace, has provision for all mankind (Pelagian) or is particularized to that “ predestined” portion of mankind (the elect) who are actually saved (Augustine).<br /><br />2) It is disputed whether Man (Pelagian) or God (Augustine), determines who are saved and subject to the Covenant of Grace.<br /><br />Historically, the Augustinian system held within the formal Catholic Church starting in the fifth century until eroded and compromised by the Semi-Pelagian influence which became paramount in the Gottschalk tragedy in the ninth century.<br /><br />In the sixteenth century, following the Pelagian influence, the Arminians held that salvation is by works in that mankind must take the initiative to find God by Faith, that the Covenant of Grace assumes mankind’s initiative and is not totally dependent on the moral incapacity of mankind and God’s election.<br /><br />This was a specific reaction to Calvinism within the reformation movement. The sister to the Lutheran reformed movement, Calvinism is consistently and strongly Augustinian holding that God is sovereign.<br /><br />Following this, Wesleyan Arminianism held that the covenant was exercised through the use of the sufficiency of grace extended through the work of Christ and the influence of the Holy Spirit.<br /><br />Lutherans join a consensus that God has the serious purpose to save all mankind; that Christ died equally for all. That salvation and the covenant is joined by those who hear and believe the gospel and are thereby given the gift of Faith. That mankind does not have the power to believe, that they have the power of effectual resistance, and those who resist perish.<br /><br />Charles Hodge states in his Systematic Theology, <strong><em>“the question which of these systems is true is not to be decided by ascertaining which is more agreeable to our feelings or the more plausible to our understanding, but which is consistent with the doctrines of the Bible and the facts of experience.” </em></strong><br /></span><strong><em><br /></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;">The question lies formidably in the understanding of the reader. Who is sovereign, mankind or God? What does the Bible teach us regarding God’s plan of salvation and the Covenant of Grace?<br /></em></strong><br />It is interesting that the Catholic Church and the reformed Churches (represented by Presbyterian, Methodist, Episcopal, Baptist, Congregationalist) share in the heritage of the Pelagian/Augustinian controversy, and the intellectual shaping of doctrines established by its understanding.<br /><br />This sharing, along with the Trinitarian and Christological resolutions, is a formidable base of common “tradition.” These common doctrinal foundations are shared between the Roman Catholic and Protestant Movement. These traditions are not shared by Mormonism, Jehovar’s Witnesses, Christian Science and other cults that renounce these historic doctrines.<br /><br />It is a fitting to quote the great Christian historian, Philip Schraff, as a conclusion to this consideration of the Covenant of Grace:<br /><br /><strong><em>“The subjective principle of Protestantism is the doctrine of justification and salvation by faith in Christ (the Covenant of Grace); as distinct from the doctrine of justification by faith and works or salvation by grace and human merit. Luther’s formula is sola fide (by faith alone). Calvin goes further back to God’s eternal election, as the ultimate ground of salvation and comfort in life and death. But Luther and Calvin meant substantially the same thing, and agree in the more general proposition of salvation by free grace through living faith in Christ (Acts 4:12), in opposition to any Pelagian or Semi-Pelagian compromise which divides the work and merit between God and mankind. And this is the very soul of evangelical Protestantism.”</em></strong><br /><br />THE PARAMOUNT CONCERN<br /><br />It is the writer’s personal observation that the paramount issue is the Pelagian Inclination. And what does that mean? Simply stated, the Pelagian Inclination is a concept that attempts to put into perspective a number of erroneous propensities shared by many individual and collective groups of believers.<br /><br />It can be described as an attraction to a particular activity that represents a leaning away from the Spirit of God. It is the “man-centered” inclination that persisted in the Gnostic heresies of the first and second centuries.<br /><br />In a sense, it is the flavor of thinking that disputed the identity of Jesus Christ as a divine human being because of the human inclination that can not reconcile or identify with both a human and a divine person.<br /><br />It is the predisposition that when “push comes to shove,” “ when the debate is on the line,” “when the issue is in balance,” the natural inclination is to let the human judgment prevail, to literally ignore or override the Will Of God, to seek the comfort of a human rationalization rather that the search for God’s Will on matters of Faith, customs in the home and daily life, practices and conduct regarding Church, school and governmental affairs.<br /><br />MANIFESTATIONS OF THE PELAGIAN INCLINATION<br /><br />One blatant example of the Pelagian Inclination is the conclusion that the believer comes to know God and have His gifts of Faith, Righteousness, and Salvation through the believer’s sole choice and determination.<br /><br />This is an obvious example of the thread of personal human conduct recognized by most true believers as being not right, out of synch, non conforming to most Church standards. But, the Pelagian Inclination would support this mode of thinking. There are many “Christians,” who through ignorance or choice, believe this way.<br /><br />A second manifestation of the Pelagian Inclination reveals the natural inclination of certain believers to think of the mass of humanity as being good, favoring an idealistic view of mankind that ignores its underlying propensity for selfism and pride, the Adamic heritage, the initial disobedience. Many Churches are full of sincere believers who subscribe to this way of thinking.<br /><br />One must recognize that there are many “Christians” who do not know the Bible and are ignorant of Scripture. Wouldn’t one expect that these people would be “inclined” to respect the judgment of men and women who possess a natural or official position of leadership, who are of the Pelagian persuasion, even though they do not know it?<br /><br />A third and most prevalent aspect of the Pelagian Inclination is where the intellectual equilibrium favors man’s or woman’s initiative compared to God’s Will as revealed in Scripture, where the decision balance favors man’s or woman’s will in determining God’s Will in a given problem or situation, where the proverbial straw placed on the camels back is controlled by man, independent from the guiding Spirit of God.<br /><br />This manifestation, a restatement and reemphasis of the man-centered inclination stated before, is the most insidious, the most difficult to ascertain and correct. It crushes the sweet Spirit of Christ, for it quenches and grieves the Spirit.<br /><br />It should be noted that the writer does not propose this concept<br />as a thesis, a lesson or as a sermon. It is his personal<br />observation only. It is contrived to establish a frame of<br />reference to a historic on-going practice by believers within the<br />Church of Christ. The reader may not agree with its premise or conclusion. The writer only asks that the reader consider and respect his point of view given the historic evidence supporting this tendency as defined, formalized and focused by Pelagius.<br /><br />THE INCLINATION’S EFFECT<br /><br />The Pelagian Inclination echoes the ancient Gnostic heiresses, emphasizing mankind’s special knowledge that thrived before the formal Canon of Scripture. It speaks prominently through Pelagius’ thesis in the contest with Augustine through Semi-Pelagianism, Arminianism or any other system that places the emphasis on man or woman, and not on God, as the focal point.<br /><br />It favors theological interpretations that respect mankind’s role and dominance, the historic factor which has on occasion, in the writer’s opinion, driven the Church from the guidance of God’s Will and Grace. It seems to happen to all churches of every denomination, large and small. It has predictable effects on church groups and cliques.<br /><br />It is the cause of major schisms, dissents, heresies and disaffections where either the Church or its members are in error, where to correct the error the Church disciplines the membership, or when the Church is in error, the membership of believers leave the Church. It is a story repeated through history, where the greatest incident was the Reformation. One can call this phenomena by many other names, but the manifestations of the Pelagian Inclination can be clearly seen and defined. Why does this inclination exist?<br /><br />THE CAUSE OF THE PELAGIAN INCLINATION<br /><br />THE PROMINENT SIN BEHAVIOR<br /><br />It appears that the prominent Sin behavior that separates mankind from God, and particularly specifies the Pelagian Inclination, is the artless yet subtle, consistent yet disguised state of ever-present Pride!<br /><br />It is that aspect of the human nature (the Flesh!) which pretends, in many ways, to have some undefined power in an imagined partnership with God, in some alleged form of command about God and God’s plan. It is the writer’s belief that Pride is the manifestation of the Pelagian Inclination. It is the human attribute absolutely lacking in Jesus Christ!<br /><br />When man’s or woman’s will intervenes, the intervention is typically done through the agency and energy of Pride, not in the passive yet overwhelming effect of Love (1Cor. 13). It appears that every act of the believer that concludes some responsibility for what happens with God, is based on the motivation of Pride, the Sin that the Bible teaches drove Satan from Heaven, Adam and Eve from the Garden, the Pharisees from the Truth of Jesus Christ. It excites infractions and divisiveness, a problem that is especially prevalent in church organizations where the Spirit of God does not dominate the will of the membership, for one reason or another. 1st Corinthians teaches this great Truth. Pride is the star of all Sins known to the believer.<br /><br />It is a difficult concept for the active believer to apprehend and understand that his or her efforts in behalf of Christ are the humble exercise of His directions. Pride and pompous authority have no place in the “upside down” reality of God’s order of things, “the first will be last, and the last will be first” (Matt 20:16). The believer is indwelt with the Holy Spirit, Christ and the Father. Believing man’s and woman’s initiative are subject to His Will!<br /><br />THE BELIEVER’S INITIATIVE<br /><br />There are two of events when the believer, by the power of his or her will, exercises an initiative regarding God. The first is when one comes to God and by the exercise of the God given free will attains Belief in God the Father and His Son. Chafer teaches us in his Systematic Theology; Volume III; Soteriology:<br /><br /><strong><em>“It is reasonable to conclude that as man by an act of his own will renounced God at the beginning, in like manner he, by the act of his own will, must return to God. It matters nothing at this point that man cannot of himself turn to God and that he must be enabled to do so. In the end, though enabled, he acts by his own will and this truth is emphasized in every passage wherein salvation is addressed to his will.” </em></strong><br /></span><strong><em><br /></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;">The second event is where the believer exercises its will in the continuing application of Belief. This growing conviction of Belief impounds an increasing knowledge of God the Trinity, guided and confirmed by His Word. The believer becomes one whose conviction is based on a Love and Hope for God, the Father, the Holy Spirit, and the Son, Jesus Christ, who is certain that the Bible is God’s Word, who is convicted of Sin, Justified, made Righteous, and Saved, who is the beneficiary of God’s Grace and has received, among other gifts, the gifts of the conviction of Faith, Righteousness and Salvation, who is filled with and walks with the Holy Spirit.<br /></em></strong><br />THE SPIRIT’S ENABLEMENT<br /><br />The filling and walk with the Spirit truly differentiates the individual believer and protects against the propensity of the Pelagian Inclination.<br />The Bible specifies certain steps a believer should take in order to be filled with the Spirit. A believer should seek to be obedient to the revelation of God regarding the conditions He has set forth in His Word. If the believer meets those conditions, he or she will be filled with the Spirit.<br /><br />Do not grieve the Holy Spirit (Eph. 4:30). What grieves the Holy Spirit is Sin. The cure of the effects of Sin is repentance, which leads to making a genuine confession. (1John 1:6-10) Because sin is a common problem in Christian lives because of the knowledge gained by Belief (Rom 7:7-25, 8:1,2), the Bible suggest three ways it can be prevented: The study of God’s word. Praying for the Spirit’s help. The intercession of Christ as the believer’s High Priest (Heb. 7:25).<br /><br />A believer should not refuse to let the Spirit of God direct his or her lives. <strong><em>“Do not keep on quenching the Spirit of God”</em></strong> (1Thess 5:19). Grieving the Holy Spirit is the effect after a sin is committed, but quenching the Spirit is what leads to sin in the first place. Though this exhortation is included in a series of exhortations, it obviously relates to the central truth of the necessity of being completely yielded to the will of God in order to experience the filling of the Holy Spirit.<br /><br />It is by the Spirit’s enablement that the believer will discern and recognize that the Pelagian Inclination typically manifests itself in a collective social environment, where a group of believers fall into error by consensus. The normal propensity is for a group of people, a group of believers, to decide that the group consensus is in fact the Will of God. This is a special problem for groups of Elders and Deacons! One should understand that there is one test in being filled by the Spirit for the individual (not quenching or grieving the Spirit), it is still another test for a group to dispel pride, formidable group pride, to experience the collective filling of the Spirit so that God’s Will, not the individual or group’s will be done. God must be in control if His Will is to be known and exercised. For the exercise of His Will is through the filling of the Spirit in the individual believer and/or a group compromising individual believers!<br /><br />The true Spirit filled believer knows that God, not mankind, must be in control for the simple reason that the Glory belongs to Him!!! Further, mankind’s glory is derived from God, by God, and only if chosen by Him for His purpose (Rom 8:28-30)! Mankind’s personal and collective glory is only achieved by His Grace!<br /><br />JESUS CHRIST, PRIEST, KING AND LORD<br /><br />As stated in the Introduction of this paper, “These extraordinary theological realities:<br /><br />· The mystery that is God,<br />· God’s Grace and God’s Wrath,<br />· His Holy Spirit, and<br />· The “Way” provided by Jesus Christ in understanding His Church on earth, are a complex of revealed ideas (revealed in the Bible) that are intolerantly considered by nonbelieving man for it is all “foolishness” to him. 1 Corinthians 2:14: </span><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><em>“But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them,”<br /></em></strong><br />Why? Because man thinks he has a “free will” and is an heir to the original sin by Adam in the form of his initial disobedience to God.”<br />It is not lost on the writer, and hopefully not on the reader, that if one is not chosen by God, that person most likely doesn’t care in any event. For it is all, sadly, foolishness in the eye of the nonbelieving individual (1Cor 2:14, above). That person doesn’t believe in Him. How else can we explain that so many who have heard the Gospel do not believe?<br /><br />On the other hand, if one is chosen, and is perturbed because he or she doesn’t have more control (on any problem or situation) in his or her relationship with God, it is the writer’s belief that person is not filled with the Spirit of God and is suffering the consequences of Sin, the result of His Wrath, for that believer hasn’t got the message. God is the boss! Jesus Christ is Priest, King and Lord! And by His Grace we are saved!<br /><strong><em></em></strong><br /><strong><em>“For into this earthly dilemma of man there comes the love of God, and that love of God, by an act of unbelievable free grace, lifts man out of the consequences of sin and saves him from the Wrath he should have incurred.”</em></strong> Phillip Schaff<br /><br />1st Thessalonians 1:10: “<strong><em>and to wait for His Son from heaven whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come.” </em></strong><br /></span><strong><em><br /></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Romans 5:9: <strong><em>“Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.”</em></strong></span>Otis Page's Blogshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14932733213884103183noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20207460.post-1135978589207094852005-12-30T13:35:00.000-08:002006-01-08T08:19:37.540-08:00THE HIDDEN DOCTRINE OF GOD'S WRATH<span style="font-size:130%;">GOD’S WRATH OR</span> <span style="font-size:130%;">GOD’S DISCIPLINE<br /><br />That which follows considers God’s Wrath in the specific context of nonbelief. It does not ask or answer the question regarding the correction of sin in the believer’s life. That issue is presented in the entry on this blog titled “Unrighteousness.”<br /><br />This discussion deals with the consequences of God’s Wrath and the typical manifestation of these consequences as they apply to nonbelievers.<br /><br />Based on the authority of Scripture, the Wrath only applies to nonbelievers. The important distinction is made that the Wrath manifests itself in nonbelief and is founded in God’s anger.<br /><br />While the Wrath is the predominant effect in the nonbeliever’s life, God’s discipline, as compared to His Wrath, is the vehicle for correction of the believer and is differentiated from the Wrath in the important respect that discipline is established in God’s love.<br /><br />The following two verses relate to this conclusion:<br /><br /><strong><em>“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.”</em></strong> (Rom 5:8,9)<br /><br /><strong><em>“For those whom the Lord loves he disciplines.”</em></strong> (Heb 12:6; Prov 3:12; Deut 8:5; Rev 3:19)<br /><br />Romans 1:18-32 establishs the specific basis for belief and the application of God’s Wrath based on nonbelief. Romans 1:18-32 tie these two crucial considerations together. These verses immediately follow this introduction.<br /><br />It should be clearly understood that God’s anger regarding nonbelief proclaims itself in the form of His Wrath. That God’s Wrath is measured in terms of the consequences for the nonbeliever. A simple summary follows:<br /><br />· Nonbelief sponsors God’s anger.<br /><br />· God’s anger sponsors His Wrath towards nonbelievers.<br /><br />· The Wrath determines specific consequences of nonbelief.<br /><br />· The Wrath’s consequences are discerned in general, explicit and implicit manifestations.<br /><br />The outline and substance of the following is faithful to this summary explanation.<br /><br />With this said, an important qualification applies to the explanation given herein, and that pertains to who is really subjected to His Wrath? This raises a number of additional, profound questions, such as, what is a believer?<br /><br />The Christian Church is made up of many people who have “one step in and one step out” in terms of their true belief. The question as to “What is a believer?” in a specific Christian context, is answered in the blog entry on Belief and Faith.<br /><br />One must also recognize that there are many who belong to God who do not have an affiliation with a church or formal religion for various reasons, who are spiritual, who seek and love God in their own quiet, informal way:<br /><br />Romans 2:14 </span><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><em>“For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts,”<br /></em></strong><br />Because of this, one must be reasonably discerning in judging the Wrath’s apparent manifestations in a nonbeliever’s life.<br /><br />With respect to nonbelief only, the counsel in Romans 2:1 is an appropriate warning on being judgmental regarding the appearance of the Wrath’s consequences in a nonbeliever’s life:<br /><br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><em>“Therefore you are without excuse, every one of you who<br />passes judgment, for in that you judge one another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same thing.”</em></strong><br /><br />What are those “same things?” They are explained in Romans 1:18-32, the main Scriptural reference that follows.<br /><br />Certain sections of this verse will be repeated. And the sections underlined, where “God gave them over” are the basis for the presentation of The Wrath’s consequences and manifestations.<br /><br />After consideration of Romans 1:18-32, the narration starts with a brief review of the reasons why the doctrine of Wrath is generally hidden in the teachings of the Church.<br /><br />This is followed by a general summary of the Scripture’s revelation regarding Salvation and God’s Wrath.<br /><br />Since this explanation relies on the revealed testimony in Romans 1:18-32, the question about Belief and the evidence of God is presented, since unbelief is the source of the Wrath.<br /><br />The explanation proceeds to discuss the divergent teachings on the Wrath. It then reconciles three key verses in Romans before presenting the testimony of four outstanding men of God on the Wrath’s consequences, prior to the culminating section, The Wrath’s Manifestations. This is followed by the writer’s testimony.<br /><br />ROMANS 1:18-32<br /><br />These verses are quoted as follows for convenience and edification of the reader. They represent the basis for the teachings of the Wrath as presented in this work.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><em>“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all<br />ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them.</em></strong><br /></span><strong><em><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. </span></em></strong><br /><strong><em><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks; but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.<br /><br />Professing to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four footed animals and crawling creatures.<br /><br />Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, that their bodies might be dishonored among them.<br /><br />For they exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.<br /><br />For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also men abandoned the natural function of the women and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their errors.<br /><br />And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and, although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but give hearty approval to those who practice them.” </span></em></strong><br /></em></strong><strong><em></em></strong><br /></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;">THE HIDDEN DOCTRINE OF WRATH<br /><br />That which follows speaks to a ponderous and awesome subject, the Wrath of God as inspired by disbelief. The Wrath is an incredible doctrine which should deeply concern believers. But it is generally hidden, ignored if not emasculated in the teachings of the Church. Why is this so?<br /><br />First of all, the Wrath appears to be a hard, sober teaching. For, many have extreme difficulty reconciling a loving and angry God. This subject creates anguish and discomfort on the part of believers who wish to avoid the somber, negative attributes of the Wrath’s teaching. This reaction exists even though the Wrath is a certain reality that effects the nonbeliever; and, that it is also an authentic teaching that draws on those who have embraced Faith to understand the Bible’s revealed message, in witnessing, and in coming to know a “right” relationship with God.<br /><br />Second, the thought of an angry and loving God suggests the Gnostic concept of Dualism, Marcion’s heterodox teaching, where a power of good and a power of evil exists in the universe. As will be seen, the apparent paradox of two contradictory faces of God, one expressed in love, and then one in anger, is not Dualistic, nor paradoxical, and is not a contradiction. For one face is turned in love to those who love Him, and the other to those who dismiss Him in an attitude of cynical disbelief, the manifested curse of the Adamic heritage. (Rom 5:12)<br /><br />The loving and wrathful attributes of God confuse the doctrines of Christ’s Church in understanding the difference between people wandering in disbelief, and subject to His Wrath, and believer’s being disciplined for sin through the magnificent agency of His Love. (Heb 12:3-11) It is a subject politely muddled if not avoided.<br /><br />The Wrath seems to be possessed with inherent controversy, unpleasantness, while being possibly overwhelming, and the apparent antithesis to the predominant Christocentric teaching emphasizing love.<br /><br />Third, most believers have seen the tragic, sometimes life-lasting, sometimes life-terminating effects of the Wrath in the lives of many nonbelieving friends and love-ones. These effects are typically expressed in the sufferings caused by the general manifestations of ungodliness, degraded passions, and specific acts of depravity, all of these being the consequences of the primordial sin of disbelief.<br /><br />Many believers have experienced the Wrath imposed in their own lives, during periods when they have wandered from Belief, or prior to that great day when they were “reborn.” They have beheld the human toil, the mortal wreckage, the tale of wrath that unbelief provokes and inspires.<br /><br />As will be seen, the nonbeliever is really abandoned by God because of the choice to ignore Him. Nonbelievers are prodded by His Wrath, while being mislead by the cutting perspective, the assuring lie, the embracement of a cynical, worldly view that denies God, Jesus Christ, and the Bible’s doctrines.<br /><br />Fourth, even members of the Faith do not understand God’s plan as stated in Scripture. Informed and curious nonbelievers skeptically ask, “Why is God angry?” They lamely observe “So He created Adam and he disobeyed. So what?”<br /><br />The broad and profound question as to why He is angry is only answered by an equally profound understanding of His inscrutable plan of the ages. That, according to His divine counsel and eternal purpose, He created mankind and selectively chose those who would be His own over thousands of years of time. (Eph 1:4;1Pete 2:9) That He is angry with those who are not His according to His divine purpose. For this earth is the domain of the Father of Lies (John 8:44), the ruler of the world. (14:30)<br /><br />As a part of God’s plan, the Incarnate Son, Jesus Christ, the distinctive being of a person, “designated Son of God in power...by His resurrection from the dead.” (Rom 1:4), came to make direct revelations about the Triune God, and He did this in His Word, the inspired Writings, the Bible. He made promises of salvation and eternal life. And He was nailed to a Cross, to die a humiliating, torture inflicted, horrible death. He was crucified so that God could be appeased; so that His anger would be propitiated (satisfied with a result), at least as far as those who are His elect in Christ are concerned (Eph 1), those who come to embrace God’s witness that His anger is satisfied by Christ’s death; that the foreboding disobedience, the fathering act of disbelief by Adam is forgiven for those who believe in His Son, Jesus Christ.<br /><br />Yes, he is angry. Why? Because unbelieving mankind continues to reject Him, to reject the Son, to reject His Spirit. Yes, he is angry! <strong>But, oh how He eternally loves His Own, those who believe He exists</strong> (Heb 11:6); <strong>those who love Him.</strong><br /><br />Fifth, besides understanding God’s plan, one must also understand the overall context of His Wrath as applied in His design as revealed in Scripture. It must be made clear that God’s Wrath is central to the reason for:<br /><br />· Adam’s failure and the consequences for mankind of that failure. (Rom 5:12)<br /><br />· Christ’s coming and His ministry; His atoning death on the Cross; His resurrection (Rom 4:25); the gift of the Holy Spirit.<br /><br />· The propitiating aspects of His death, as manifested in the twofold result of:<br /><br />1) the forgiving of the imputed sin from Adam, and<br />2) the pardon and release of:<br /><br />a) the operative Wrath in the daily life of the believer (Rom 1:18);<br />b) the final judgment reserved for nonbelievers (Rom 2:5).<br /><br />This is a basic truth generally ignored by the Church. For, as suggested before, it all appears to compromise His real character in the overwhelming pleasure and security of love.<br /><br />This explanation, therefore, treats the subject of God’s Wrath with the objective of providing an understanding in terms of its relationship to disbelief, the prideful attitude and eternal conviction that separates nonbelieving mankind from Yahweh, Abba Father, the Triune God.<br /><br />A SUMMARY ON THE WRATH<br /><br />The following is a general summary of the Bible revelation regarding Salvation and God’s Wrath:<br /><br />· God created mankind pure and holy, and endowed them with the freedom of choice to have belief or to ignore Him.<br /><br />· Adam was tried, exercised the freedom of choice, disobeyed, lost his freedom, and became a slave of sin.<br /><br />· The whole human race fell with him, is justly condemned in Adam and exposed to His Wrath.<br /><br />· God’s elect are those who acknowledge the evidence of His existence, and by that evidence, have Belief.<br /><br />· Without any regard to moral merit other than by simple Belief, He converts the elect by irresistible Grace, provides the gifts of Righteousness (Rom 5:17) and Faith (Eph 2:8), justifies, regenerates, sanctifies, and perfects them.<br /><br />· In His inscrutable, yet just and adorable counsel, He leaves the rest of mankind in their inherited state of condemnation (disbelief), subject to the Wrath. (Rom 1:18)<br /><br />· He reveals in the everlasting punishment of those that do not believe in Him the glory of His awful judgment.<br /><br />THE EVIDENCE OF GOD<br /><br />Martin Luther advises the Christian Saint, in the introduction<br />of his Commentary on Romans,<br /><br /><strong><em>“Hence Christ calls unbelief the only sin, when he says, in John 16, ‘The Spirit will rebuke the world for sin, because they do not believe in me.’ For this reason, too, before good or bad works are done, which are the fruits, there must first be faith or unbelief, which is the root, the sap, the chief power of all sin.”</em></strong><br /><br />If “unbelief is the only sin” what, then, is the specific biblical authority for Belief in God? For if we are to understand the wrath of God and mankind’s cynicism about God, there must be a solid biblical justification, an explanation that establishes the basis for Belief in God’s existence in the first place.<br /><br />For, if the basis for Belief does not exist, then unbelieving mankind has a right to be cynical about His existence, it has a justification for being cynical about the representations of His revelation. If there is no basis for Belief there is no basis for His Wrath. This consideration, therefore, cuts to the validity of the total question regarding the relationship of God’s Wrath to cynical nonbelief in the anthropological context addressing mankind’s disbelief.<br /><br />The answer to this question is given in Romans 1:18-20. It is a clear statement on the teaching of Belief, led by the words <strong>“evident”</strong> and <strong>“seen”</strong> in the New American Standard (NAS) Open Bible.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><em>“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all<br />ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. </em></strong><br /><br /><strong><em>For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.”</em></strong><br /><br />Romans 1:18-20 doesn’t imply that one accept the “evidence” about God in Faith. It is not a statement that suggests one should “trust” what is known about God. It is a statement which affirms directly, “that which is known about God is evident within them.” <strong>The basis for Belief is a personal knowledge resulting from evidence, from things seen, all directed at God! </strong><br /></span><strong><br /></strong><span style="font-size:130%;">John MacArthur, a prominent pastor, practicing theologian, and author of nearly 20 books advises in his Commentary on Romans 1-8:<br /></strong><br /><strong><em>“No one can find God on his or her initiative or by his or her wisdom or searching. Yet God has never left mankind to its own initiative and understanding but has graciously provided abundant evidence of Himself. He has sovereignly and universally made Himself evident to mankind. No person, therefore, can plead being not informed of God, because, entirely apart from Scripture, God has always revealed Himself and continues to reveal Himself to mankind. </em></strong><br /><br /><strong><em>God is perfectly just and therefore could not rightly condemn those who are totally not informed about Him. As Paul unequivocally asserts (Rom 1:19), no person can rightly claim not being informed of God, and therefore no person can rightly claim God’s wrath as being unjust. </em></strong><br /><strong><em></em></strong><br /><strong><em>While being informed of God, unbelieving mankind’s choice is to proceed in life in ignorance of Him, by literally ignoring God’s existence. Every person is accountable for the revelation of God that may lead one to salvation from the operative wrath in life (Rom 1:18) and the wrath of judgment to come (Rom 2:5).”</em></strong><br /><br />THE DARKENED HEART<br /><br />Another fateful teaching is provided in Romans 1:21<br /><br /><strong><em>“For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks; but they became futile in their speculations and their foolish heart was darkened.” </em></strong><br /></span><strong><em><br /></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Romans 1:18-22, establishes the fact that God’s presence is evident to unbelieving mankind. Further, the result of the real ignorance of God is that nonbelieving mankind’s “heart was darkened.” This leads back to the opening of this passage, 1:18-20 and the ominous warning to nonbelievers, repeated again for edification:<br /></em></strong><br /><strong><em>“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. </em></strong><br /><br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><em>For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.”<br /></em></strong><br />The rest of this famous passage is Romans 1:24-32. It deals specifically with the consequences of disbelief, the Wrath’s Manifestations, in the section by that title.<br /><br />It must be emphasized again that the remarkable verses in Romans 1:18-32 establish 1) the specific basis for belief, and 2) the application of God’s Wrath based on nonbelief. These verses tie the two crucial considerations of Belief and the consequences of nonbelief together.<br /><br />For it is nonbelief which is the source of His anger! As Luther has told us. <strong><em>“For this reason, too, before good or bad works are done, which are the fruits, there must first be faith or unbelief, which is the root, the sap, the chief power of all sin.”</em></strong><br /><br />The real message here is nonbelievers are forewarned: the Wrath of God is a certain force, a stipulated reality in their lives!<br /><br />WHAT IS THIS WRATH?<br /><br />And what is this Wrath? How terrible it seems to be! In understanding the nature of the Wrath it is important to understand God’s conduct in administering his enmity against disbelief.<br /><br />It is the natural reaction to think of God’s anger and the Wrath as spectacularly fearsome, which it can be as God has shown in the Flood (Gen 6-7), Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen 18-19), Pharaoh and his army in the sea (Ex 14).<br /><br />J.I. Packer teaches us as follows in his book, Knowing God:<br /><br /><strong><em>“Thus God’s love, as the Bible views it, never leads Him to foolish, impulsive, immoral actions in the way that its human counterpart too often leads us. And in the same way, God’s wrath in the Bible is never capricious, self indulgent, irritable, morally ignoble thing that human anger so often is. It is, instead, a right and necessary reaction to objective moral evil and irreligion (such as unbelief). God is only angry where anger is called for. Even among mankind, there is such a thing as righteous indignation, though it is, perhaps, rarely found. But all God’s indignation is righteous. </em></strong><br /><br /><strong><em>Would a God who took much pleasure in evil as He did in good be a good God? Would a God who did not react adversely to evil in His world be morally perfect? Surely not. But it is precisely this adverse reaction to evil, which is a necessary part of moral perfection, that the Bible has in view when it speaks of God’s wrath.”</em></strong><br /><br />The Wrath is the “right and necessary reaction to objective moral evil and irreligion such as unbelief....which is a necessary part of moral perfection,” the result of God’s righteous indignation.<br /><br />DIVERGENT TEACHINGS ON THE WRATH<br /><br />Continuing with the hope of understanding this great issue, one must, first of all, recognize that the subject of the Wrath is not widely addressed in Churches or by theologians.<br /><br />It is an uncomfortable subject, a controversial subject, one that is difficult to reconcile with the peace and love of God as exemplified by the witness of Jesus Christ.<br /><br />John MacArthur confirms this inclination in his Commentary on Romans 1-8:<br /><br /><strong><em>“Tragically, even many evangelicals have come to soft-pedal the theme of God’s wrath and judgement. Even so much as a minimum mention of hell has been quietly removed from much preaching. Wrath, when mentioned at all, is frequently depersonalized, as if somehow it is worked out automatically by some deistic operation in which God himself is not directly involved.”</em></strong><br /><br />Second, there is a sincere divergence by many eminent theologians on the doctrine of Wrath, which may have been caused by the tendency to “soft-pedal” the Wrath theme. By way of example, the very respected contemporary theologian, Lawrence O. Richards, author of the widely received and praised Expository Dictionary of Bible Words, instructs us as follows:<br /><br /><strong><em>“In regard to unbelievers, God graciously is holding back expression of deserved wrath, to give everyone opportunity for repentance. Those who will not respond to grace store up wrath, a wrath to be experienced in the day of final judgement. It is clear, then, why the Book of Revelation speaks so often of God’s anger and wrath. It is at history’s end that the anger God now withholds will be fully displayed.”</em></strong><br /><br />Richards implies the Wrath is not operative in the every day life of the nonbeliever, contradicting MacArthur’s statement quoted at the beginning of this writing:<br /><br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><em>“Every person is accountable for the revelation of God that may lead one to salvation from the operative wrath in life (Rom 1:18) and the wrath of judgement to come (Rom 2:5).”<br /></em></strong><br />Richards holds it is “to be experienced in the day of final judgement.” Espousing a very different teaching than MacArthur, Richards seems to dismiss the ominous teaching of Romans 1:18 and is relying on the less threatening, forbearing Romans 2:5:<br /><br /><strong><em>“But because of your stubbornness and unrepentent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgement of God.”</em></strong><br /><br />Another example of the divergent teachings of the Wrath is the theology of an English mystic, Julian of Norwich (1342 - 1416). She is known for her Revelations of Divine Love, which embraced the teaching that there is no Wrath in God. Robert Llewelyn states in his book, Love Bade Me Welcome, <strong><em>“Julian will not allow such a conception; her teaching is that the wrath - which she describes as a perversity and opposition to peace and love - is in us and not in God.”</em></strong><br /><br />As an advocate of Julian’s teachings, Llewelyn also stresses the point that there is no Wrath in God, either directed at believers or nonbelievers, and he cites others who share this belief. His argument is strongly slanted towards the absence of the Wrath in the life of the Christian Saint, which is a truth supported by Scripture.<br /><br />There are other eminent theologians that offer a different view from Richards and Llewelyn, especially when considering the further prophetic truth in Romans 1:18:<br /><br /><strong><em>“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth (about God) in unrighteousness.”</em></strong><br /><br />This Scripture appears to be direct and unambiguous. In the context of the total declaration in Romans 1:18-32, the Wrath is revealed. It is revealed from heaven. It is revealed against all nonbelieving mankind, against all ungodliness and unrighteous practices by nonbelievers, against all nonbelieving mankind that suppress the truth about God in unrighteousness.<br /><br />It should be obvious that Richard’s and Llewelyn’s positions are very different than the writer’s at this point, since he believes Scripture substantiates the Wrath “revealed from Heaven” is active in the nonbeliever’s life.<br /><br />MacArthur and J.I. Packer provide an important insight into what the Scripture really teaches on this question.<br /><br />The following is relevant, a confirming elucidation of the divergence of theologians on the teaching of the Wrath and answers Llewelyn’s postulation that there is no Wrath in God. It is from the book, Knowing God, by J.I. Packer, a very respected theologian and author:<br /><br /><strong><em>“No doubt it is true that the subject of divine wrath has in the past been handled speculatively, irreverently, even malevolently. No doubt there have been some who have preached of wrath and damnation with tearless eyes and no pain in their hearts. No doubt the sight of small sects cheerfully consigning the whole world, apart from themselves, to hell has disgusted many. Yet if we would know God, it is vital that we face the truth concerning His wrath, however unfashionable it may be, and however strong our initial prejudices against it. Otherwise, we shall not understand the gospel of salvation from wrath, nor the propitiatory achievement of the cross, nor the wonder of the redeeming love of God. </em></strong><br /></span><strong><em><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Nor shall we understand the hand of God in history, and God’s present dealing with our own people; nor shall we be able to make head or tail of the book of Revelation; nor will our evangelism have the urgency enjoined by Jude - ‘save some, by snatching them out of the fire’ (Jude 23). Neither our knowledge of God, nor our service to Him, will be in accord with His Word.”<br /><br /></span></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;">The real question is whether His Wrath exists in the present experience of mankind, or is it an event enacted “at history’s end” as specified by Richards. Packer answers decisively:<br /></em></strong><br /><strong><em>“In the first part of Romans 3, Paul carries on his argument to prove that every man, Jew and gentile alike, being ‘under sin’ stands exposed to the wrath of God in both its present and future manifestation. Here, then, is every person in his or her natural state without the gospel; the finally controlling reality in his or her life, whether he or she is aware of it or not, is the active anger of God. But now, says Paul, acceptance, pardon, and peace are freely given to those who hitherto were ‘ungodly’ and ‘enemies of God’, but who now put faith in Christ Jesus, ‘whom God set forth as a propitiation....by His blood.’ And believers know that ‘much more then, being now justified by His blood, shall we be saved from the wrath of God through him’.”</em></strong><br /><br />John MacArthur confirms Packer’s teaching and further helps our understanding of this important consideration in his magnificent 538 page Commentary on Romans 1-8:<br /><br /><strong><em>“The biblical order in any gospel presentation is always first warning of danger and then the way of escape, first the judgement on sin and then the means of pardon, first the message of condemnation and then the offer of forgiveness, first the bad news of guilt and then the good news of grace. The whole message and purpose of the loving, redeeming grace of God offering eternal life through Jesus Christ rests upon the reality of mankind’s universal guilt of abandoning God and thereby being under sentence of eternal condemnation and death. </em></strong><br /><br /><strong><em>Consistent with that approach, the main body of Romans begins with 1:18, a clear affirmation of God’s wrath ‘against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.’ As the apostle points out in his Ephesian letter, all unbelievers are ‘by nature children of wrath’ (Eph 2:3), born unto God’s wrath as their natural inheritance in fallen mankind. With the fall, God’s smile turned to a frown. Moses rhetorically asked God, ‘Who understands the power of Thine anger, and thy fury, according to the fear due Thee?’ (Ps 90:11) </em></strong><br /><br /><strong><em>Paul is determined for us to know that before we can understand the grace of God we must first understand His wrath, that before we can understand the meaning of the death of Christ we must first understand why man’s sin made that death necessary, that before we can begin to comprehend how loving, merciful and gracious God is we must first see how rebellious, sinful, and guilty unbelieving mankind is.”</em></strong><br /><br />With deference and admiration for Lawrence O. Richards and Robert Llewelyn, Scripture clearly teaches the Wrath is an active part of the nonbeliever’s worldly existence, and that the obedient believer is saved from the Wrath by Christ’s atonement on the Cross:<br /><br /><strong><em>“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.”</em></strong> (Rom 5:8,9)<br /><br /><strong><em>“For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.”</em></strong> (1Thes 5:9)<br /><br />ROMANS’ TEACHINGS ON THE WRATH<br /><br />It is important to reconcile the teachings in Romans 1:18, Romans 2:5, and Romans 9:22,23. At the risk of some repetition (1;18; 2:5), each verse follows:<br /><br /><strong><em>“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth (about God) in unrighteousness.”</em></strong> (Rom 1:18)<br /><br /><strong><em>“But because of your stubbornness and unrepentent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgement of God.”</em></strong> (Rom 2:5)<br /><br /><strong><em>“What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And He did so in order that He might make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy which He prepared beforehand for glory.”</em></strong> (Rom 9:22,23)<br /><br />ROMANS 1:18<br /><br />This verse speaks clearly to nonbelievers, the “vessels of wrath prepared for destruction.” This admonition is directed at those who have, and are, ignoring the evident reality of His revelation in nature, in mankind’s conscience, and in Scripture. As surely as a babe seeks the mothers breast, the consciousness of God is an intimate, real presence in the mind of each person.<br /><br />The following testimony provides a poignant example of the individual’s intuitive knowledge of God:<br /><br /><strong><em>“A disease left Helen Keller as a very young girl without sight, hearing and speech. Through Anne Sullivan’s tireless and selfless efforts, Helen Keller learned to communicate through touch and even learned to talk. When Miss Sullivan first tried to tell Helen about God, the girl’s response was that she already knew about Him - she just didn’t know His name (Helen Keller, The Story of My Life).”</em></strong> From MacArthur’s Commentary on Romans<br /><br />It is Skepticism’s argument which culls the ranks of mankind, seeking and selecting converts to atheism and agnosticism, the army of nonbelievers.<br /><br />ROMANS 2:5<br /><br />Romans 2:5 speaks to the final judgement and not the day to day administration of the wrath in the nonbeliever’s life. John MacArthur places this truth in perspective:<br /><br /><strong><em>“To stubbornly and unrepentently refuse God’s gracious pardon of sin through Jesus Christ is the worst sin of all. To do so is to greatly magnify one’s guilt by rejecting God’s goodness, presuming on His Kindness, abusing His mercy, ignoring His grace, and spurning His love. The person who does that increases the severity of God’s wrath in the day of God’s judgement (Rev 20:10-15). When God’s goodness is persistently taken lightly, the result is certain and proportionate judgement.” </em></strong><br /><br />ROMANS 9:22,23<br /><br />These verses speak to the certain truth that His plan is predestined and seeks and fulfills the glorification of those faithful, who are His elect, who believe in Him.<br /><br />The eminent and revered John Walvord, Chancellor of the Dallas Theological Seminary, provides the final authority on this passage in his abridged rendition of Chafer’s Systematic Theology:<br /><br /><strong><em>“The day of divine wrath cannot be escaped except by coming to Christ and trusting His redeeming blood. The Bible does reveal God’s patience towards sinners and His long-suffering in waiting for them to come to himself (Rom 9:22; Peter 3:20; 2 Peter 3:9, 15). The Bible reveals the certainty of judgment on all those who take advantage of divine patience because God is ever holy in character and righteous in His actions, whether in His long-suffering or His judgments (Matt 24:48-51; Rom 2:4-5). </em></strong><br /><br /><strong><em>God by His election has chosen some (Vessels of Mercy) but not all to salvation (Vessels of Wrath). The fact of divine election is clearly stated in the Word of God. The fact that man can only partially understand it does not change the certainty of the truth. These teachings are clear in this teaching (Rom 9:23; Eph 1:4-5; 2Thes 2:14; 1 Peter 1:2). In the very act of divine election are choosing some who are obviously not elected or chosen.”</em></strong><br /><br />Romans 1:18 displays God’s Wrath to nonbelieving mankind.<br /><br />Romans 2:5 warns of the further Wrath to be administered to nonbelievers in the final judgement.<br /><br />Romans 9:22,23 gives the reason why His Wrath is administered to those that refuse Him.<br /><br />A summary outline provides it is God’s will that He display His power and divine authority:<br /><br />· “In order that He might make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy which He prepared beforehand for glory.”<br /><br />· While He “endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction.”<br /><br />· To “demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known.”<br /><br />· So that believers will know and understand His DivineDecree and plan for mankind.<br /><br />The irony of this is these ominous lessons from Scripture have no meaning for nonbelievers, for they consider it “foolishness.” People advocating nonbelief are bemused over and silently ridicule the concerns of believers for their spiritual welfare, all of this being the result and burden of cynicism. After all, as stated in Romans 1:21, <strong><em>“their foolish heart was darkened”</em></strong>, a certain truth confirmed in 1 Corinthians 2:14: <strong><em>“But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them,”</em></strong><br /><br />PAUL’S AGONY<br /><br />Paul’s inspired teachings in the book of Romans instructs the reader about the consequences of the Wrath in human terms (Romans 7:7-25):<br /><br /><strong><em>“For we know that the Law is spiritual; but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. For that which I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not wish to, I agree with the Law, confessing that it is good. So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but the sin which indwells me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the wishing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I wish, I do not do; but practice the very evil that I do not wish. But if I am doing the very thing I do not wish, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wishes to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?”</em></strong><br /><br />Guess who provides freedom from “this body of death?” (Rom 7:25)<br /><br />By his own personal testimony Paul provides a picture of human vagaries that is no different today compared to two thousand years ago, a picture of either being disciplined in love or subject to the Wrath by God.<br /><br />Was Paul suffering the ravages of unbelief even though he was pursuing the intent of the Law? Was God angry with Paul? Was God’s anger put in the form of Wrath? Or was Paul being disciplined by God’s love. Paul’s testimony in 1st Timothy 1:12-15 is appropriately considered at this point:<br /><br /><strong><em>“I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has strengthened me because He considered me faithful, putting me into service even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor. And yet I was shown mercy, because I acted ignorantly in unbelief; and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are found in Jesus Christ. It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all.”</em></strong><br /><br />Clearly Paul, by his admission, was suffering the Wrath of unbelief, for even as a practicing Pharisee, he was judging his own conduct not in terms of the new Faith, but by the standards of the Law, <strong><em>“for the Law brings about wrath....”</em></strong> (Romans 4:15).<br /><br />Philip Schaff establishes the correct perspective on Paul’s agony in Volume 1 of his The History of the Christian Church:<br /><br /><strong><em>“This remarkable section (Romans 7:7-25) describes the psychological progress of the human heart to Christ from the heathen state of carnal security, when sin is dead because it is unknown, through the Jewish state of legal conflict, when sin, roused by the stimulus of the divine command, springs into life, and the higher and nobler nature of man strives in vain to overcome this fearful monster, until at last the free grace of God in Christ gains victory.”</em></strong><br /><br />The human nature is defiled by the sin of disbelief and plagued by His Wrath, and there is no hope that true righteousness may be obtained without first realizing a right relationship with God through Belief in Jesus Christ.<br /><br />THE CONSEQUENCES OF NONBELIEF<br /><br />Martin Luther helps us understand God’s will, and the roll of the Wrath and Satan, in his Commentary on Romans, the culmination of his lectures on this famous Epistle at the University of Wittenberg in 1516.<br />Referring specifically to Romans 1:24: <strong><em>“Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, that their bodies might be dishonored among them’</em></strong>, Luther states as follows:<br /><br /><strong><em>“This giving up</em></strong> (‘God gave them over’) <strong><em>is not merely by God’s permission, but by his will and command, as we clearly see from I Kings 22:22-23, where we are told that God commanded the lying spirit to persuade Ahab to act against His will. The same we learn from II Samuel 16:10 and other passages. To the objection that God prevents what is evil, we reply that this is correct, judged from the viewpoint of divine love. But when God deals with transgressors according to His stern justice, He permits the perverse sinner to break His commandments all the more viciously in order that He might punish him the more severely. Viewed from the standpoint of the sinner who is given up (given over), this is indeed a ‘permission’ on God’s part, since He withdraws His saving hand from him and deserts him. But this takes place according to God’s righteous judgement, for it is the most severe punishment to give up a sinner to him whom He hates most (Satan).” </em></strong><br /></span><strong><em><br /></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;">James Dunn, Professor of Divinity at the University of Durham, England amplifies Luther’s statement in his World Bible Commentary, Romans 1-8:<br /></em></strong><br /><strong><em>“....God gave them over to what they desired; He did not, it should be noted, give them their desires, rather He gave them to what they desired and the consequences of what they desired. God handed them over to the freedom for which they yearned; not their freedom to them, but them to their freedom..........And thus it becomes clearer that God’s wrath is indeed the converse of His righteousness, since both express and bring to effect the world as God intends it to be: righteousness through faithful dependence on the Creator leads to salvation (and eternal life); wrath through self deceitful pride and self-indulgent desire leads to self-destruction (and eternal death).”</em></strong><br /><br />John MacArthur provides additional help in assisting an understanding of this vital question:<br /><br /><strong><em>“...God gave them over simply by withdrawing His restraining and protective hand, allowing the consequences of sin (disbelief) to take their inevitable, destructive course....Not all of God’s wrath is future. In the case of sexual promiscuity - perhaps more specifically and severely than in any other area of morality - God has continually poured out His divine wrath by means of venereal disease. In regard to countless other manifestations of godlessness, He pours out His wrath in the forms of loneliness, frustration, meaningless, anxiety, and despair that are so characteristic of modern society. As sophisticated, self-sufficient mankind draws further and further away from God, God gives them over to the consequences of their spiritual and moral rebellion against Him.”</em></strong><br /><br />J.I. Packer helps us further in understanding the manifestation of the Wrath in the life of the nonbeliever:<br /><br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><em>“The unbeliever has preferred to be himself, without God, defying God, having God against him, and he shall have his preference. Nobody stands under the wrath except those who have chosen to do so. The essence of God’s action in wrath is to give men what they choose, in all its implications: nothing more, and equally nothing less. God’s readiness to respect human choice to this extent may appear disconcerting and even terrifying, but it is plain that His attitude here is supremely just, and poles apart from the wanton and irresponsible inflicting of pain which is what we mean by cruelty.<br /><br />We need, therefore, to remember that the key to interpreting the many biblical passages, often highly figurative, which picture the divine King and Judge as active against mankind in wrath and vengeance, is to ratify and confirm judgments which those whom He ‘visits’ have already passed on themselves by the course they have chosen to follow. This appears in the story of God’s first act of wrath towards mankind, in Genesis 3, where we learn that Adam had already chosen to hide from God, and keep clear of His presence, before ever God drove him from the garden; and the same principle applies throughout the Bible.”</em></strong><br /><br />While rejecting the teaching of God’s Wrath, Robert Llewelyn does make an interesting analogy in the Preface of his book, Love Bade Me Welcome. The writer turns this analogy to the certain consequences of nonbelief, the cultivation of Wrath:<br /><br /><strong><em>“The rain falls ever clear and pure from the heavens but that which alights on poisoned vegetation itself takes on the nature of poison, yet the corruption was not in the rain but in the ground on which it fell. If you choose to call it God’s rain I must at once reply that it is not the rain as it came from God. And the rain, clean and fresh, continues to fall, however poisoned the land may be. The illustration breaks down at this point. The poisoned land is the corrupt heart, which may be open to receive God’s goodness which then becomes a cleansing and renewing agent; or it may close itself, deliberately rejecting the same goodness, which, so long as this attitude persists, works towards a deeper wrath or corruption within.” </em></strong><br /></span><strong><em><br /></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Llewelyn's argument falls in the consideration whether the Wrath is “revealed from Heaven”, as stated in Romans 1:18, or is embedded “within”, in the psyche, in the human makeup of mankind as held by Julian and her advocates.<br /></em></strong><br />Certainly Julian would bow to Scripture. Llewelyn’s truth that “so long as this attitude persists, works towards a deeper wrath or corruption within” certainly applies to nonbelief and its consequences.<br /><br />The Bible substantiates the nature of God’s Grace is an abounding love by God for those who love Him. Conversely, God’s Wrath, in its primordial form, is manifested by the absence of His Love (Rom 5:5), because His love has been rejected, and His existence is ignored by nonbelievers. There is a high price for the rejection of His love and the ignorance of His existence. Rejection of His Love is the basis of His anger. Ignorance perpetuates the Wrath.<br /><br />It appears that God’s Wrath, in reaction to disbelief, is the power of giving lost nonbelievers over to the magnified consequences of their unrighteousness. That while they attempt to rationalize an illusion of bliss and joy of living, their lives are totally subordinated to the long term reality of suffering, indifference and momentary escapes from monotony and unhappiness. For as stated before, the nonbelieving person does not recognize these consequences in the tedious, wearisome daily travails of the life experience. For, they don’t care. They don’t care in any event! Their reality is the consequences of their nonbelief, the consequences of His anger, the Wrath.<br /><br />The bitter fruit of rejection, ignorance and not caring is the unconscious day to day experience of wandering to the grave with a complete disregard of His existence and a total unawareness of the reality of the Wrath visited on nonbelievers as a result of His anger. Many times, if they begin to realize the truth, it is too late. They have been captured in an inescapable trap of life where things are not what they appear, or what they seem to be, or what they should be. The only reality is the vacant cloud of weariness, disappointment, depression and a certain miserable death softened by the ending of it all. They need salvation!<br />Luther, Dunn, MacArthur and Packer specify and confirm the nature of God’s Wrath and its consequences caused by disbelief, which is recounted in detail in Romans 1:24-32:<br /><br />· God’s Wrath is a decisive reaction against disbelief.<br /><br />· Because God’s realizable existence is evident.<br /><br />· Unbelieving mankind rejects God even though His existence is evident.<br /><br />· God abandons unbelieving mankind to everlasting unrighteousness as a consequence, as a measure of His rightful anger over mankind’s rejection.<br /><br />· That, His Wrath is the turning over of unbelieving mankind to:<br /><br />· the consequences of their disbelief;<br />· the general, explicit and implicit manifestations of these consequences;<br />· the prince of this world, “to him whom He hates most (Satan).”<br /><br />THE WRATH’S MANIFESTATIONS<br /><br />A SUMMARY PERSPECTIVE<br /><br />While considering the Wrath’s consequences, what is the real manifestation of God’s Wrath in the life of the nonbeliever?<br /><br />Luther advises us, <strong><em>“He permits the perverse sinner to break His commandments all the more viciously in order that He might punish him the more severely...... But this takes place according to God’s righteous judgment, for it is the most severe punishment to give up a sinner to him whom He hates most (Satan).”</em></strong><br /><br />Dunn instructs us the nature of the Wrath appears in those acts or life practices that nonbelievers <strong><em>“have already passed on themselves by the course they have chosen to follow”,</em></strong> that <strong>“<em>God gave them over to what they desired; He did not... give them their desires, rather He he gave them to what they desired and the consequences of what they desired.... God handed them over to the freedom for</em></strong> </span><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><em>which they yearned; not their freedom to them, but them to their freedom.”<br /></em></strong><br />MacArthur advises that, </span><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><em>“In regard to countless other manifestations of godlessness, He pours out His wrath in the forms of loneliness, frustration, meaningless, anxiety, and despair that are so characteristic of modern society.”<br /></em></strong><br />And Packer confirms: </span><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><em>“The essence of God’s action in wrath is to give men what they choose, in all its implications: nothing more, and equally nothing less.”<br /></em></strong><br />God confirms His abandoning judgment in Psalms 81:11,12:<br /><br /><strong><em>“But My people did not listen to my voice; And Israel did not obey me. So I gave them over to the stubbonness of their heart, to walk in their own devices.”</em></strong><br /><br />Luther’s, Dunn’s, MacArthur’s and Packer’s observations are based on the reading of Romans 1:24-32.<br /><br />MacArthur advises these verses <strong><em>“vividly portrays the consequences of God’s abandonment of rebellious mankind, showing the essence (vv. 24-35), the expression (vv. 26-27) and the extent (vv. 28-32) of man’s sinfulness (in nonbelief). Each of those progressively more sobering sections is introduced with the declaration ‘God gave them over.’”</em></strong><br /><br />Excerpts of Romans 1:24-32 are repeated directly, as follows:<br /><br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><em>“Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, that their bodies might be dishonored among them.... For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also men abandoned the natural function of the women and burned in their desire toward one another.... And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do things which are not proper,.... “<br /></em></strong><br />One may determine a number of manifestations of the Wrath’s consequences from the reading of Romans 1:24:32. The writer has derived three categories from the reading of these verses: General, Explicit and Implicit.<br /><br />GENERAL MANIFESTATIONS OF THE WRATH<br /><br />First of all, God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity: ungodliness, the desire to be unholy, the absence of holiness, the state of being separated from God.<br /><br />Second, God gave them over to degrading passions: homosexuality.<br /><br />Third, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do improper things.<br />Ungodliness, degrading passions, depraved minds that facilitate doing things which are improper by God’s standard. These are the general manifestations of the Wrath.<br /><br />EXPLICIT MANIFESTATIONS<br /><br />a. The Depraved Mind<br /><br />There are two categories of explicit manifestations of the Wrath. The first is where God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do things which are not proper, in the nonbeliever’s life. These manifestations characterize a somber picture of the human nature (Rom 1:29-31):<br /><br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><em>· “Being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil.<br />· Full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice.<br />· They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful.”</em></strong><br /><br />This definition of retched human behavior is complemented by a further specification in Galatians, where Paul juxtaposes the contrast of the old nature, that was subservient to the Law, and the new nature obtained by Belief in Christ and the walk with the Holy Spirit. He first specifies the deeds of the old nature:<br /><br />Galatians 5:19-21 <strong><em>“Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you just as I have forewarned you that those who practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” </em></strong><br /><strong><em></em></strong><br />Some hold the “old nature” is the carnal characterization of a Christian. Others hold this describes a nonbeliever walking in the flesh. In either case, the admonition in Galatians parallels and complements the state of depravity specified in Romans:<br /><br />- immorality, impurity, sensuality,<br />- idolatry, sorcery,<br />- enmities, strife,<br />- jealousy, outbursts of anger,<br />- disputes, dissensions, factions,<br />- envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these.<br /><br />b. Degraded Passions<br /><br />The second category of Explicit Manifestations exists where God gives them over to degrading passions, where women “exchange the natural function for that which is unnatural”, where men abandon the “natural function of the women and burned in their desire toward one another.”<br /><br />This explicit manifestation of disbelief is the human blight of homosexuality.<br /><br />This fact is historically and indelibly recorded in Romans 1:26, 27 and is first characterized in Genesis 19, as follows:<br /><br />Gen 18:20 <strong><em>“And the Lord said, The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is indeed great, and their sin is exceedingly grave.”</em></strong><br /><br />Gen 19:4-8 <strong><em>“Before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter, and they called to Lot and said to him “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may have relations with them.’ But Lot went out to them at the doorway, and shut the door behind him, and said, ‘Please, my brothers, do not act wickedly. Now behold I have two daughters who have not had relations with man; please let me bring them out to you, and do to them whatever you like; only do nothing to these men, inasmuch as they have come under the shelter of my roof.’”</em></strong><br /><br />Gen 19:24 <strong><em>“Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven.”</em></strong><br /><br />And imposed on these instructions and witness is the important direction provided in 1Thessalonians 4:3:<br /><br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><em><strong>"For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality:"<br /></strong></em><br />IMPLICIT MANIFESTATIONS<br /><br />According to the cited authorities, Luther, MacArthur, Dunn and Packer, all who are considered to be outstanding theologians, God gave unbelieving mankind over to the consequences of their disbelief. This is the implied manifestation of God giving them over in the lust of their hearts to impurity: ungodliness, the desire to be unholy, the absence of holiness, the state of being separated from God.<br /><br />As MacArthur states, <strong><em>“He pours out His wrath in the forms of loneliness, frustration, meaningless, anxiety, and despair that are so characteristic of modern society.” </em></strong><br /><br />Reluctantly, the Wrath appears to find a place in the nonbelievers’ suffering, no matter what the cause is of that suffering, typically resulting from a direct or indirect deprivation, such as the bereavement of a lost loved one, the ravages of debilitating and life threatening disease, the calamity resulting from severe accidents, the disappointment in not achieving what one desires, the failure in a relationship, the punishment for doing something wrong.<br /><br />The suffering is not the consequence of the Wrath. It is manifested in the suffering; where the nonbeliever chooses to let the suffering be the source of further suffering, a suffering into itself.<br /><br />The Wrath appears to embrace the horror of addiction, where the compelling desirous attraction to alcohol, drugs, sexual infatuation and disorders of many kinds, eating, work habits, yes - even religion, becomes so powerful the addiction becomes the addiction in the nonbeliever’s life. It is no wonder that “scientific therapy” resorts to the spiritually oriented “Twelve Steps” in the attempt to break this wrathful pattern.<br /><br />The wrath appears to be especially pronounced in the nonbeliever’s personal obsession with self, although this propensity is also a sin problem for immature believers, subject to His most formidable discipline of the believer’s conscience. (Heb 12:6)<br /><br />The wrathful manifestations for the nonbeliever spread from the extreme of abject narcissistic behavior to disdainful pride and arrogance. God throws them over to themselves, to a consistent behavior that is most pronounced in the most gifted, the most intelligent, the most fortunate in worldly terms. They are thrown over to their arrogance so that they can attempt to mollify the hopeless reality of their own suffering.<br /><br />Looking at this in another way, Dunn states, <strong><em>“God handed them over to the freedom for which they yearned; not their freedom to them, but them to their freedom...” </em></strong><br /></span><strong><em><br /></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;">The Wrath appears to settle firmly on the concept that nonbelieving mankind is subservient to the control of suffering instead of being master of and in control of suffering. Here is the great distinction between the nonbeliever subject to the constant ravages of the Wrath and the believer walking with the Holy Spirit, being disciplined in love for moments of disobedience.<br /></em></strong><br />For as Victor Frankel states in his highly regarded work, Man’s Search for Meaning, <strong><em>“If there is a meaning in life at all, then there must be meaning in suffering. Suffering is an ineradicable part of life, even as fate and death. Without suffering and death human life cannot be complete.” </em></strong><br /></span><strong><em><br /></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;">The question becomes in what context does mankind relate to suffering? Is it by being yielded to a freedom that cedes to the control of the wrathful suffering in their lives, a freedom that is not the freedom anticipated? Is this the meaning?<br /></em></strong><br />Or is the freedom where one can confront suffering by having self-control, being the master of life’s suffering reality by the support of His Holy Spirit? What is the answer?<br /><br /><strong><em>“For into this earthly dilemma of mankind there comes the love of God, and that love of God, by an act of unbelievable free grace, lifts man out of the consequences of disbelief and saves him from the Wrath he should have incurred.”</em></strong> (Philip Schaff)<br /><br />To answer Frankel’s observation that, “If there is a meaning in life at all, then there must be meaning in suffering”, the meaning for believing mankind is the freedom to control personal suffering with dignity, self-respect, with the respect of others, and the consoling truth that the individual witness glorifies God!!<br /><br /><strong>It is by God’s Grace that through Belief and Faith one becomes patient in suffering, courageous facing adversity, strong when facing weakness, superior to all circumstance, victorious over evil, a joyful lover of life’s natural order, the laws of nature and His revealed Word, all which verify God’s existence.</strong><br /><br />This is the basis for the formidable witness and reconciling joy of the true believer. Christiandom’s martyrs fully substantiate this truth. (Heb 11:32-40) The Wrath subjects the nonbeliever to the control of suffering, where, as stated before, the suffering becomes a suffering into itself.<br /><br />The believer is given true freedom in joy, and as a witness to others, that the suffering is subordinated and under the believer’s control.<br /><br />Therefore, it generally appears that in the nonbeliever’s life, where God gives “them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity”, the suffering becomes the suffering, the desire becomes the desire, the addiction the addiction, the problem becomes the problem, where there is no control except the subordination of control to the problem, where a freedom sought becomes a constraining burden, where the problem is obsessively held, promoting hideous implications that enforce the propensity for self centeredness and exclusionary social conduct as a function of complaint, indifference, unhappiness, depression and various forms of sickness.<br /><br />It is so sad, for it can all be resolved by the simple love for God. And this solution is absolutely free -- the greatest bargain in this life!<br /><br />These "findings" by the writer appear to be the implicit ravages of the Wrath, the consequence of nonbelief, specified in Romans 1:24-32.<br /><br />THE CONTRAST WITH A BELIEVER<br /><br />Contrasted to all of this, it is really incredible to see and behold the witness of true Christian saints, especially the elders in Christ. Do they sin? Not very often. Are they disciplined (Heb 12:6)? They certainly hope so. Are they chastised by Him? Always in love. Are they subject to His Wrath? Absolutely not. For God loves them! Do they suffer in any way like lost nonbelievers. Only in love, never in anger, and never in the circumstance where suffering creates suffering. Are they in control? With God’s help, they are always in control!<br /><br />Do they have freedom? Yes, by His grace, a very special freedom.<br />These Christian Saints possess the Fruit of the Spirit:<br /><br />Galatians 5:22-24 <strong><em>“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”</em></strong><br /><br />Lewis Sperry Chafer instructs us in his revered eight volume Systematic Theology:<br /><br /><strong><em>“As employed in the passage now being considered, the nine words which denote the fruit of the Spirit represent superhuman qualities of character; they could in no natural circumstances be produced by human ability; they are divine characteristics. Similarly, these nine graces taken together are constituted the one fruit of the Spirit. The singular form “fruit” being used is explained by the fact that these nine graces form an indivisible whole. The Holy Spirit will not produce a few of them and not all of them. If any are present, all will actually be present.”</em></strong><br /><br />THE CONTRAST WITH THE NONBELIEVER’S LIFE<br /><br />The manifestation of the Wrath in the nonbeliever’s life typically yields a diminishment of true love for others, a certain emphasis for the love of self and realizes a way of life where joy is a rare circumstance if it is true joy at all.<br /><br />· Where peace is an abstraction and then only rarely obtained.<br /><br />· Where the test of patience is an effort of will and not a natural inclination in terms of one’s relationship with others.<br /><br />· Where kindness is more often affected rather than being the natural reaction of love.<br /><br />· Where goodness is often contrived rather than being the natural order of life.<br /><br />· Where faithfulness is a test and not a result.<br /><br />· Where gentleness expires with the first challenge.<br /><br />· Where self-control is managed by self-will or anger and not by the guiding Spirit of God.<br /><br />· Where the mind tends to welcome a depraved state.<br /><br />· Where impure sexual lust becomes the primary motivation while excluding the wonder of true love.<br /><br />· Where impurity yields to the compounding of desires in a sense of self-centered gratification.<br /><br />· Where in impurity’s embracement suffering becomes a suffering into itself, a controlling factor, a factor that subordinates a person’s freedom and ability to master and control their own life.<br /><br />Yes, these are apparent if not certain manifestations of His Wrath in the life of nonbelievers, taught in Romans 1:18-32 and as confirmed by Luther, Dunn, MacArthur and Packer.<br /><br />THE WRITER’S TESTIMONY<br /><br />It is certainly appropriate to meditate on the Wrath of God, and the writer does so “experientially” in contemplating the errors of his life:<br /><br />What were the manifestations of the Wrath in this nonbeliever’s life? He certainly exhibited a love of self, a way of life where true joy was rare, and that only occasioned by the love of his wife and children. Where peace yielded to discontent, the test of patience always failed, where kindness was most often affected, goodness was most often contrived, where faithfulness was always a test, where gentleness expired with the first challenge, where self-control was nonexistent. Yes, the good Lord gave this nonbeliever over to his freedom, to the consequences of his desires, where his suffering became a suffering into itself, a controlling factor in his life.<br /><br />I could go on, but I am sure you are saying that I am too hard on myself. No, not really. There is nothing really unusual about me (Gal 5:16-21). It is simply a manifestation of His Wrath (Rom 1:24), for it was my choice that I have had disbelief, to ignore His evident witness in my life, to be ignorant of the revelation in His Word. I have no excuse (Rom 1:20,21). Do you?<br /><br />I thank God that I was delivered from my cynical disbelief, from my ignorance of His revelation in Scripture, from my ignoring others, such as my son, who gave witness to God’s Truth to me. I thank God that I was delivered by my reaching for Him when He reached for me. I thank God that the Wrath has diminished in my life; that His prompting of chastisement to me is now done in Love.<br /><br />The important concept upon which this writing relies is the Bible is Truth and not a lie. If God is evident, and He is, nonbelieving mankind has no excuse in not believing in Him. Further if there is a Wrath, and there is, and if that Wrath is truly operative in the life of the nonbeliever, and it is, it too must be evident, an attestation that goes beyond Scripture, a reality perceived and understood by believers, if not by nonbelievers.<br /><br />J.I. Packer helps this understanding. He captures in a few words what it means to be saved, to be delivered from the Wrath, to be saved from self by being right with God:<br /><br /><strong><em>“If the ‘wrath of God is revealed from heaven (Rom 1:18) against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men’, and a ‘day of wrath’ is coming where God will ‘render to every man according to his deeds’ (Rom 2:5), how can any of us escape disaster? Is there any deliverance from God’s Wrath? There is, for ‘Being now justified by blood, we shall be saved from (God’s) wrath through Him.’ (Rom 5:9) By whose blood? The blood of Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God. If we are Christ’s, through faith, then we are (made righteous) justified through His cross, and the wrath will never touch us, neither here or hereafter, ‘that is ‘Jesus who delivers from the wrath to come’ (1Thes 1:10).”</em></strong></span>Otis Page's Blogshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14932733213884103183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20207460.post-1135961400643725042005-12-30T08:48:00.000-08:002006-01-09T19:00:05.996-08:00UNRIGHTEOUSNESS -- THE MEANING OF SIN<span style="font-size:130%;">THE UGLY TERROR OF UNRIGHTEOUSNESS<br /><br />The question of unrighteousness is very much before us today.<br /><br />Ungodliness, lawlessness, the depravations of wickedness and evil are played out on the stage of life as a daily presentation. The wonder of advanced communications and media technologies excites indiscriminate, thoughtless passions.<br /><br />The heritage of gentleness, kindness, the quest for excellence bow to the immediacy of today's wants and desires dressed in rudeness and anger. It appears we are saturated with the Devil's work in this world, his domain. This is an ancient subject familiar to all who love God, particularly those Christians who believe in His promise to be saved from the ugly terror of unrighteousness.<br /><br />The following is borrowed from many sources, and appropriate credits are given where obviously required. But this work depends, to a great extent, on His Word, as made manifest in the NAS Open Bible.<br /><br />God's Word is the most appropriate expression, the real theology, an explicit philosophy, the statement of the living God.<br /><br />The Word speaks in the heart in rendering the truths and wisdom of God. That a greater understanding may be gained in the walk with the Holy Spirit. For that is the great hope in growing in Christ, the price and prize of knowing His love.<br /><br />THE APPLICATIONS OF SIN<br /><br />God's fundamental righteousness, and the standard of perfection it implies, is the major theme of the Bible in specifying "the Way" for mankind's salvation (Rom 5:1,2,). That salvation has as its objective the provision of relieving mankind's fundamental unrighteousness, the plague of inherited and imputed sin.<br /><br />This theme is wrapped in the story of Adam (Rom 5:12) and continues throughout the Old Testament. It culminates in the timeless victory provided by the atoning sacrifice, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ (Rom 4:25) and the convicting work and sanctifying gifts of His Holy Spirit (John 16:7-11).<br /><br />In reaching an understanding of God the believer and nonbeliever coming to Christ should have knowledge of the negative moral phenomena represented by the differing sin states of believers and nonbelievers, two separate spiritual domains of mankind in terms of God's revelation (Rom 8:9).<br /><br />These sin states include the unrighteousness of nonbelievers (Rom 3:10-18), and the misconduct of believers on the positive walk of righteousness with the Holy Spirit (Gal 5:16; Rom 8:10,11). This, therefore, is a different view of sin, a perspective that proposes to clarify a doctrine that is confused in the teachings of the diverse ministry and theology of Christ's Church.<br /><br />The Bible teaches the moral attributes of mankind are plagued by manifestations of generic sin. The Bible also teaches that the individual understanding of sin exists in the mind as a readily perceived knowledge about the unrighteous state of individuals.<br /><br />For as Paul says in Romans 3:10, "<strong><em>There is none righteous, not even one</em></strong>."<br /><br />A consensus of theological Christian tradition subscribes to the Truth that:<br /><br />- The human being is lost in sin and rebellion against God as a function of the heritage from Adam and will not seek God.<br /><br />- The human being's fallen will is so corrupted that he or she cannot seek salvation, that salvation and the turning to the way, Jesus Christ, is completely based on God's Grace.<br /><br />DIFFERING SIN OF BELEIVERS AND NONBELIVERS<br /><br />The unrighteous manifestations of sin are factually differentiated between believers and nonbeliever's in God's revelation in the Bible.<br /><br />In other words, sin has different applications of unrighteousness in the life of a nonbeliever as compared to a believer:<br /><br />- For the nonbeliever, sin comprises the primary act of unbelief. Unbelief occasionally manifests acts and "mind sets" of rebellion, godlessness, wickedness, lawlessness and evil.<br /><br />- For the believer, sin involves "missing the mark", and issues of misconduct such as pride, doubt, anxiety, anger, lack of self-control, selfish ambition, coveting, bitterness, and reaches beyond these tendencies to the concept of moral intent.<br /><br />These are important distinctions in understanding the non-believer's unrighteousness based on disbelief and the righteousness of the believer, whose righteousness is betrayed by the human tendency of personal misconduct.<br /><br />They are important distinctions in coming to know the Triune God and the specific ministries of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit in the present age and years to come, as we prepare to celebrate the two thousandth anniversary of His birth in the 21st century.<br /><br />It is, therefore, necessary to understand sin’s application in the believer's life as compared with the nonbeliever. Why is this understanding necessary? Why is this important to our understanding and knowledge of God and His revelation in the Bible?<br /><br />At the risk of repetition of what has been said before, the general characteristic of mankind's unrighteousness is that of "sin", the various manifested forms of unrighteous conduct directed against God. In understanding this, we are guided by a fundamental truth and the message of salvation in the Bible.<br /><br />That truth pertains to God's view of sin and mankind's historic<br />propensity to be unrighteous:<br /><br /><strong><em>"Thine eyes are too pure to approve evil, and Thou canst not look on wickedness with favor."</em></strong> (Hab 1:13).<br /><br />Mankind's sin nature is the reason for Jesus Christ's ministry<br />providing the positive "Way" of righteousness. This is the reason for His atoning death and resurrection, where the negative aspects of unrighteousness is forgiven and buried with Christ (Rom 6); where the positive reality of righteousness is born with Him as a function of the miracle of His being raised and ascending to be with the Father.<br /><br />This is the reason for His sending the Holy Spirit to convict the world of righteousness (John 16:8). This provides the explanation of generic sin as revealed in the Bible, of the plague of unrighteousness that mankind has inherited from the initial disobedience of Adam (Rom 5:12), the reason why mankind requires salvation and can obtain salvation through His magnanimous grace (Eph 2:5,8).<br /><br />It is then obvious. Where Christ's work is accomplished, and the Holy Spirit's work continues, is in converting nonbelievers to righteous belief and sanctifying believers on the walk of Salvation (1Pet 1:2).<br /><br />This is the process where God's believers are being made righteous.<br /><br />The nonbeliever, unfortunately, remains in an unrighteous state, not knowing or ignorant of the magnificence, the joy, the peace and wonder of Belief and Faith in God.<br /><br />THE DIVINE NORM OF CONDUCT<br /><br />The word sin has an important Old Testament heritage. Its historic word usage represents a number of specific acts measured against a defined standard. Lawrence O. Richards instruct us in his Expository Dictionary of Bible Words,<br /><br /><strong><em>"Thus, the OT sees sin as involving a person's conscious, responsible choice measured against a known divine standard. But sin is more basic than that; the individual's propensity to react against the divine norm can be traced back to the human nature itself. Helpless, people can only recognize their need and appeal to God for forgiveness, inner cleansing and spiritual power."</em></strong><br /><br />It may be obvious to the reader that Richard's explanation is<br />directed at the believer. Yet, his explanation also has application for the nonbeliever.<br /><br />The preponderant attitude of the nonbeliever is that which is characterized as being "the individual's propensity to react against the divine norm", the witness of the Triune God. He states that this propensity is "traced back to the human nature itself". This is the certain evidence of the Adamic heritage.<br /><br />It is important to understand that nonbelievers, who have made a conscious choice to not believe, think the concept of a "divine norm" is ridiculous mythology. They think this is foolishness.<br /><br /><em><strong>"But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them," </strong>(</em>1Cor 2:14)<br /><br />They further believe that this has nothing to do with the human nature except to say that those who do believe suffer a delusion sustained by the hope for a "crutch" to support their weaknesses in confronting the life experience. For the nonbeliever there is no Law. There is no divine norm. There is therefore no sin. That is all biblical poppycock as far as the nonbeliever is concerned.<br />.<br />From a Biblical vantage, those "known divine standards" are derived from the Mosaic Law, the original Ten commandments. Theologians agree that the Bible teaches sin in its generic sense is a reprehensible action, an offense against God and God's people. It is a state of estrangement from God. Believers know this truth.<br /><br />Sin's complete estrangement, the expression of fundamental unrighteousness, is abject disbelief or ignorance of God. This estrangement is displayed in the general, explicit and implicit consequential manifestations of His Wrath, the penalty of disbelief. (Rom 1:18-32)<br /><br />Juxtaposed with the nonbeliever's sin of disbelief, the general sin in a<br />believer's life may take many forms. Because the believer is<br />indwelled by the Holy Spirit, these sins are principally issues<br />of misconduct derived by the state of the believer's commitment on the sanctifying walk with the Holy Spirit. (Rom 8:11)<br /><br />For the believer, sin occurs when the believer is out of step with Christ's Holy Spirit (Rom 8:2), being out of step on the sanctifying walk to achieve the impossible, in the attempt to achieve that moral goodness and perfection as exemplified by the short life on earth, sacrifice and character of Jesus Christ.<br /><br />The quenching and grieving of the Holy Spirit (1Thess 5:19; Eph 4:30) is the direct result of the believer's misconduct that the Bible describes as generic sin. This misconduct subjects the believer to His loving discipline, a reaction against sin in the believer's life.<br /><br />"<strong><em>FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES,"</em></strong><br />(Hebrews 12:6)<br /><br /><strong><em>"All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness."</em></strong> (Hebrews 12:11)<br /><br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><em>"All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for<br />teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in<br />righteousness, that the man of God may be adequate,<br />equipped for every good work."</em></strong> (2 Timothy 3:16)<br /><br /><strong><em>"For the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation to all mankind, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus; who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds."</em></strong> (Titus 3:11-14)<br /><br />Scripture is very clear in speaking to the discipline and correction of the believer's misconduct, exhorting the denial of "ungodliness and worldly desires" and advocating living "righteously and godly", as opposed to the unrighteousness of nonbelievers based on unbelief.<br /><br />THE GENERAL DEFINITION OF UNRIGHTEOUSNESS<br /><br />Looked at another way, unrighteousness, simply defined, is the lack or want of Righteousness, a gift of God (Rom 5:17), which along with the gift of Faith (Eph 2:8), results in Justification (Rom 5:1).<br /><br />Justification is God's judicial decree which acknowledges believing mankind's accepting and honoring the gifts of Faith and Righteousness. Righteousness is the position in Christ where one has a right standing with God, and, by that position, is on a sanctifying walk with His Holy Spirit in being made righteous (Rom 5).<br /><br />The Biblical characterization of unrighteousness is exemplified<br />and specified by the word sin. Even though the word sin has a specific definition, "to miss the mark" from the Hebrew "chata" and the Greek "hamartano", it is generally applied to cover a large number of word concepts that express various manifestations of nonbeliever's unrighteousness and believer's misconduct. Historically, sin has been described in a generic sense without regard to the distinction of its application between nonbelievers and believers. The following confirms this assessment:<br /><br />According to Strong's Systematic Theology, sin is a "</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><em>lack of<br />conformity to the moral law of God, either in act, disposition, or state</em></strong>."<br /><br />Buswell, in his Systematic Theology, defines it as "<strong><em>anything in the creature which does not express or which is contrary to the Holy Character of the Creator</em></strong>."<br /><br />Chafer borrows and modifies parenthetically, as follows, from the Westminster Larger Catechism in his revered Systematic Theology:<br /><br />"<strong><em>Sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of any law of (or the character of) God, given as a rule to the reasonable creature</em></strong>."<br /><br />Berkhof instructs us in his Systematic Theology,<br /><br /><strong><em>"It is not only a transgression of the law of God, but an attack on the Lawgiver Himself, a revolt against God. It is an infringement of the inviolable righteousness of God, which is the very foundation of His throne (Ps 97:2), and an affront to the spotless holiness of God, which require of us that we be holy is all manner of living (1Pet 1:16).”</em></strong><br /><br />All of these summary descriptions ignore the particular application of sin differentiated between the believer and nonbeliever.<br /><br />Walvoord provides a different and an interesting summarization in his Abridged Edition of Chafer's Systematic Theology:<br /><br /><strong><em>"Sin can be measured by its contrast to the infinite holy character of God. Fallen man does not understand the holiness of God any more than he can understand the depths of human sin. Only by accepting the revelation of what sin is as revealed in the Word of God can man in his limitations partially understand the infinite character of sin against God."</em></strong><br /><br />Walvoord's view is directed at the nonbeliever, the "Fallen man" in the second sentence of this quote. The first and last sentences apply to believers and nonbelievers alike.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>Nevertheless, Walvoord joins all the other theologians in not specifying a difference in the applications of sin between believers and nonbelievers.<br /></strong><br />There is only one major sin for the nonbeliever. That major sin is the primordial sin of nonbelief, where God doesn't exist, where all that exists is the subtle yet ever-present reality of His Wrath. (Rom 1:18-32)<br /><br />Louis Berkhof instructs us in his noted Systematic Theology that,<br /><br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><em>"The fall of man was occasioned by the temptation of the serpent, who sowed in man's mind the seeds of distrust and unbelief."<br /></em></strong><br />When the "prevenient call" is made to the nonbeliever to repent, that repentance, on the part of the called individual, is to turn from a wrathful existence based on nonbelief to the "propitiating truth" represented by Jesus Christ.<br /><br />For Jesus Christ not only provides forgiveness for the imputed<br />and inherited sin from Adam, He also provides a release from the Wrath occasioned by Adam's disobedience.<br /><br />When nonbelievers are on the walk to attain Belief, and by that<br />walk examine themselves in terms of their unrighteous conduct, they are seeing the manifestations of their personal guilt measured by His Wrath.<br />They are seeing the consequence of their disbelief. The desire to repent, to turn away from unrighteous conduct, the "wrongs" in one's life, is a fundamental first step in establishing true righteousness in the life of the new believer in Christ.<br /><br />Prospective converts to Christ begin to see a greater hope and a release from their wrongs, the inherent result of unrighteousness. They begin to apprehend "pardon and peace with God" through the way, Jesus Christ, and the release from God's Wrath. They are beginning to understand the way of righteousness: the walk with the Holy Spirit to glorify God.<br /><br />This is the miraculous process of the "old man", the slave to sin, dieing in Christ while being coincidently reborn as a new person in Christ, and by that rebirth becoming a slave to righteousness (6:6-16).<br /><br />The Scriptures and the new believer's experience fully substantiate the miracle of His profound and magnanimous grace:<br /><br /><em><strong>“Therefore if any person is in Christ, he or she is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”</strong></em> (2Cor 5:17)<br /><br />It then follows that if nonbelief is the primary sin for the nonbeliever, what is the application of sin in the believer's life? This is where the real understanding of sin comes to bear, where we see the practical understanding of sin in a historic and a pragmatic context applying to the believer's life.<br /><br />It is one of the most difficult tasks to lead a nonbeliever to an<br />understanding of their unrighteousness. It is almost an impossibility to place the gospel of Christ in a position where it will be considered. Yet, there is a great need for the message of Truth today. Unfortunately, young people and older people alike seek righteousness through the devil's deceitful tactic of providing a path of sin disguised as an appealing mirage of righteousness.<br /><br />There is hope for the unbelieving reader. Open your heart to<br />this message. For the Holy Spirit is now working the greatest of all miracles in your heart.<br /><br />Romans 10:8-11 </span><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><em>"But what does it say? 'THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART' - that is the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved; for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation."<br /></em></strong><br />So, nonbelievers, exercising their unrighteousness, know the difference between right and wrong, for that moral conscience is an unwritten Law "<strong><em>in their hearts</em></strong>." (Rom 2:13-15) This means the nonbeliever cannot disregard the path of righteousness, nor can they deny or ignore His offer of salvation without being judged, either in this life or when life is ended.<br /><br />JESUS' AUTHORITY<br /><br />Jesus Christ has the authority to grant forgiveness to unrighteous individuals. He gave formidable signs during His short ministry on earth. These signs gave evidence to the fact that He was the Son of Man, the living God.<br /><br />Matthew 9:2-6 <strong><em>"And behold, they were bringing to Him a paralytic, lying on a bed; and Jesus seeing their faith said to the paralytic, 'Take courage, My son, your sins are forgiven.' And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, 'This fellow blasphemes.' </em></strong><br /><strong><em></em></strong><br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><em>And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, 'Why are you thinking evil in your hearts? For which is easier to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Rise and walk'? "But in order that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins' - Then He said to the paralytic - 'Rise, take up your bed, and go home.'"<br /></em></strong><br />WITHOUT BELIEF, DEATH<br /><br /><strong><em>"You shall know the Truth and the Truth shall make you free."</em></strong><br />That is Jesus Christ's promise in coming to know Him on the walk with the Holy Spirit. This leads the nonbeliever from a state of righteousness and eternal spiritual death to righteousness and eternal life in Jesus Christ.<br /><br />John 8:23-32 </span><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><em>"And He was saying to them 'You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world. I said therefore to you, that you shall die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you shall die in your sins.<br /></em></strong><br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><em>And so they were saying to Him, 'Who are You?' Jesus said to them, 'What have I been saying to you from the beginning? I have many things to speak and to judge concerning you, but He who sent Me is true; and the things which I heard from Him, these I speak to the world.'<br /><br />They did not realize that he had been speaking to them about the Father. Jesus therefore said, 'When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on my own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me. And He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him.<br />As He spoke these things, many came to believe Him. Jesus therefore was saying to those who believed Him, 'If you abide in My Word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you shall know the Truth and the Truth shall make you free.'"<br /></em></strong><br />There is a promise that unrighteousness will be forgiven. This<br />is God's promise, a covenant with each believer that he or she<br />is a new person in understanding and following the witness of<br />Jesus Christ. (1John 1:5-10)<br /><br />Hebrews 10_10-16 </span><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><em>"By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; but He, having offered a sacrifice for sins for all time, SAT DOWN AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD, waiting from that time onward UNTIL HIS ENEMIES BE MADE A FOOTSTOOL FOR HIS FEET. For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for saying, 'THIS IS THE COVENANT THAT I WILL MAKE WITH THEM AFTER THOSE DAYS, SAYS THE LORD: I WILL PUT MY LAWS UPON THEIR HEART, AND UPON THEIR MIND I WILL WRITE THEM,' He then says, 'AND THEIR SINS AND THEIR LAWLESS DEEDS I WILL REMEMBER NO MORE.' Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin."<br /></em></strong><br />The reader should be mindful of Jesus Christ's singular act of<br />righteousness: the forgiving of the sinner for his/her unrighteousness while simultaneously bestowing on the sinner the gift of righteousness.<br /><br />Rom 5:6-8 <strong><em>"For while we were still helpless</em></strong> (in our unrighteousness), <strong><em>at the right time Christ died for the ungodly</em></strong> (Christ's righteous act). <strong><em>For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us</em></strong> (God's righteousness), <strong><em>in that we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”</em></strong><br /><br />This is the offer of salvation to all who repent (turn from nonbelief and the unrighteous state) and believe. By this confession of belief (confession: an exclamation of belief) the new believer receives the gifts of Righteousness (Rom 5:17) and Faith (Eph 2:8), is Justified in the sight of God (Rom 5:1), on a beginning walk of sanctification with His Holy Spirit.<br /><br />For, the believer is not perfect as compared to the standard that is Jesus Christ. This is the reason for the new believer's beginning walk to know God, the very personal, experiential, sanctifying wonder of walking with His Holy Spirit. Yes, believing is a miracle; being His is a miracle! And it is absolutely free to those who believe!</span>Otis Page's Blogshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14932733213884103183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20207460.post-1135897862286729412005-12-29T14:52:00.000-08:002005-12-30T13:48:20.040-08:00BELIEF AND FAITH -- COMING TO BELIEVEI. A QUESTION OF MEANING<br /><br />What is the difference between Belief and Faith and Knowledge in a Biblical context? Why should the question be answered, since Faith implies Belief, or since Belief is a constituent of Faith, or because Faith is considered to be synonymous with Belief? After all, the doctrine of an all encompassing, prevailing Faith is presumed in the Church. And knowledge of God appears to be the total sum of Faith and Belief.<br /><br />The question is exemplified in many ways. The following quotation from Luther’s Commentary provides an excellent example:<br /><br />Martin Luther advises the Christian Saint, in the introduction of his commentary on Romans:<br /><br /><strong><em>“Hence Christ calls unbelief the only sin, when he says, in John 16, ‘The Spirit will rebuke the world for sin, because they do not believe in me.’ For this reason, too, before good or bad works are done, which are the fruits, there must first be faith or unbelief, which is the root, the sap, the chief power of all sin.” </em></strong><br /><strong><em><br /></em></strong>Ignoring, for the moment, the substantial truth of Luther’s statement (this will be addressed later) the English translator of Luther’s German uses and juxtaposes the words unbelief and faith, not belief and unbelief, or faith and lack of faith.<br /><br />This wording is repeated in many other Christian writings. What is the reasoning for this usage? The literal usage does not seem sensible. By confusing the words faith and belief there is a possible loss of meaning and understanding of the basis for Christian doctrine.<br /></em></strong><br />This appeared as a fundamental warp in the way believers should think of the majesty and significance of the whole Christian message. It deprives a sense of precision from an intellectual arena where generalizations feed on ethereal speculations regarding the Bible’s message and teachings. It seems to blunt the quest for fundamental understanding, to dull the power of doctrinal discernment.<br /><br />One may think this to be an odd inquiry, considering the New Testament’s total use and application of the word Faith. Does this query make sense? Is it a relevant inquiry?<br /><br />Romans 1:18-20 provides a clear statement on the teaching of Belief!<br /><br />“<strong><em>For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.”<br /></em></strong><br />There it is in God’s Word. If God has not made it “evident” that His “invisible attributes” are “clearly seen”, then the whole Bible is a lie!<br /><br />This statement doesn’t imply that you accept the “evidence” in Faith. It is not a statement that a believer “trust” what is known about God. It is a statement which says directly, “that which is known about God is evident within them.”<br /><br />The basis for Belief is knowledge resulting from evidence, from things seen, all directed at God!<br /><br />II. A DEFINITION OF TERMS<br /><br />EPISTEMOLOGY<br /><br />The major focus of this paper is the question regarding the difference between Faith and Belief, as these two English word concepts are used in understanding God’s revelation in the Bible. It is appropriate to consider a broader philosophical and theological view on this question by considering Epistemology, the study of “the nature and basis for experience, belief and knowledge.”<br /><br />The following quote from the New Dictionary of Theology helps our understanding of Epistemology:<br /><br /><strong><em>“It is concerned to differentiate knowledge from feeling sure or believing. It asks how we justify claims to know, whether we can be wrong about what we know, whether we can be wrong about what we know, if we can know only if it makes sense that we can also not know, and whether we know that we know something.”</em></strong><br /><br />There are many areas of difficulty in knowledge, whether that knowledge deals with knowing one’s self, the past, the future, our relationship with others, with God, etc.<br /><br />A further consideration deals with the difference between word concepts such as opinion, faith and belief, and knowledge. Some scholars hold that opinion is the weakest conviction, followed by faith/belief, followed by knowing.<br /><br />For example, one might have an opinion that it is going to rain tomorrow. That opinion could be considered faith that it would rain if you could site an authority, such as the report of a trusted weatherman. That faith could become a belief if there was evidence of rain, such as the forming of storm clouds. And the belief would become knowledge when tomorrow comes and it is actually raining.<br /><br />The true delineation of opinion, belief, faith, and knowledge is the quest of the student of Epistemology.<br /><br />The main point here is that this query deals with a significant subset of the total consideration dealing with understanding “the nature and basis for experience, belief and knowledge”, as this consideration pertains to Faith and Belief in God. For, knowledge is comprehending truth. So the questions as to what is Belief?, and what is Faith?, are not idle considerations when one fully realizes that each word is a form of conviction, a conviction about a truth, a conviction of truths dealing with coming to understand and know God.<br /><br />III. THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BELIEF AND FAITH<br /><br />God’s revelation to us in His Word has two historic language sources: Hebrew and Greek. The scholar and the serious person seeking the Truth will find many interpretive Bibles seeking a proper translation of the ancient writings representing the Old and New Testaments. But, true scholarship and study is satisfied by the reading and critical examination of the ancient original language texts.<br /><br />The historical meanings of Belief and Faith, in a biblical context, are important. These two word concepts provide the basis for understanding a believer’s convictions, and the lack thereof in the nonbeliever. In a general context, these convictions pertain to God’s existence, one’s trust in God, and the fulfillment of His promises. In a specific sense, they apply to the personal ministries of the Father, the Son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. They also encompass the believer’s trust in the covenant demands and promises of their ministries, as revealed in the New Testament.<br /><br />IV. THE QUEST FOR DEFINITION<br /><br />A Christian believes the Bible is the Truth, the written Word of God. Because of this a Christian, or a nonbeliever, wishing instruction on how and what it means to believe, need only read the Bible to be instructed on the “Biblical definition” of Faith.<br /><br />What is Faith?<br /><br />Hebrews 11: 1: <strong><em>“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”<br /></em></strong><br />If this is Faith, what is Belief?<br /><br />To paraphrase Hebrews 11: 1:<br /><br /><strong><em>Now Belief is the realization of things hoped for, the conviction of things seen.<br /></em></strong><br />The difference between the “assurance” and the “realization” of things hoped for, and the conviction of things “unseen” compared to things “seen,” provides the framework on the considerations and examination of Faith and Belief.<br /><br />Here is the key that unlocks the mystery of how Belief is attained. To obey the First Commandment, to love God, is the first giant step in attaining Belief. But the key is --- this is a result of the call by the Father and the "prevenient" drawing and enlightenment of the nonbeliever by the Holy Spirit of the Way provided by Jesus Christ.<br /><br /><strong>Prevenient drawing means the anticipatory action and coordination of the Holy Spirit to lead the called individual to exercise his or her free-will to believe – to exercise a belief – to come to belief in God. This is the key that unlocks the profound mystery of how a nonbeliever comes to belief!<br /></strong><br />Chafer’s Systematic Theology; Volume III; Soteriology (God’s comprehensive plan of salvation):<br /><br /><strong><em>“It is reasonable to conclude that as man by an act of his own will renounced God at the beginning, in like manner he, by the act of his own will, must return to God. It matters nothing at this point that man cannot of himself turn to God and that he must be enabled to do so. In the end, though enabled, he acts by his own will and this truth is emphasized in every passage wherein salvation is addressed to his will.”<br /><br /></em></strong>It should be noted here the English verb, “believe,” is not derived from the noun, “faith,” while the equivalent Greek words are definitionally related.<br /><br />The Greek word for faith is the same word used for belief:<br /><br />“Pistis.” The verb form of “Pistis” is the Greek word, “pistueo,” with the meaning of the English verb “believe.”<br /><br />It is probable the derivation of the English words “belief” and “faith” evolved from the contextual use of the Greek word “pistis,” as this word was used in terms of a conviction based on the realization of evidence (belief), as differentiated with a conviction based upon trust, or in accepting a promise (faith).<br /><br />The only authoritative definitional reference determined by the writer is found in the revered Systematic Theology authored by Charles Hodge, where he states,<br /><br /><strong><em>“The English word ‘faith’ is said to be from the Anglo-Saxon ‘faegan’ to covenant. It is that state of mind which a covenant requires or supposes; that is, it is confidence in a person or thing as trustworthy. ‘To believe,’ is defined by the Latin ‘credere....’(whence our word credit)".<br /></em></strong><br />Hodge goes on to quote Richardson,<br /><br /><strong><em>“Etymologists do not attempt to account for this important word: it is undoubtively formed of the Dutch Leven; German Leben; the Anglo Saxon Lif-ian, Be-lif-ian....... To believe, then, is to live by or according to, to abide by; to guide, conduct, regulate, govern, or direct the life by; to take, accept, assume or adopt as a rule of life; and, consequently, to think, deem, or judge right; to be firmly persuaded of, to give credit to; to trust, or think trustworthy; to have or give confidence; to confide, to think or deem faithful.”<br /><br /></em></strong>Hodge also quotes Reid from his Essay, On the Intellectual Powers,<br /><strong><em></em></strong><br /><strong><em>“Belief admits of all degrees, from the slightest suspicion to the fullest assurance.....There are many operations of the mind in which....we find belief to an essential ingredient....Belief is an ingredient in consciousness, in perception and in remembrance....We give the name of evidence to whatever is the ground of belief....What this evidence is, is more easily felt than described....The common occasions of life lead us to distinguish evidence into different kinds,....such as the evidence of sense, the evidence of consciousness, the evidence of testimony, the evidence of axioms, the evidence of reasoning....They seem to me to agree only in this, that they are all fitted by nature to produce belief in the human mind.”<br /></em></strong><br />It appears the English noun “believer” finds its root in the verb “believe” which, in turn, is derived from the noun, “belief.” The Greek noun for believer appears to be derived the same way<br /><br />V. TEACHINGS<br /><br />FREE WILL, BELIEF AND FAITH<br /><br />The “first principle” of this paper confirms it is mankind’s free will - not God’s will - which establishes Belief. Further, the continued application of this Belief is to walk with the Spirit and evolve from a “milk fed” to a mature Christian.<br /><br />The certainty which leads to being convinced, the conviction which follows the certainty of being convinced, the process of putting on the full armor of God (Eph 6:10-15) by being certain and being convinced, leads to a maturing conviction evolving the believer from an initial Belief to a mature Belief combined with Faith. The Bible, and the analysis presented in the volumes on Chafer’s Systematic Theology fully substantiate this.<br /><br />It is a further basic premise of this paper that Belief precedes Faith for a number of reasons. The most important reason is the popularly held conviction that Faith is a gift of God (Eph 2:8).<br /><br />Because of this, the writer concludes the attainment of Belief by the believer is a willful first step to receiving God’s many gracious expressions of His overwhelming Love, even though Belief may be preveniently obtained (in anticipation of the believer’s determination to believe) by the enlightening guidance and enabling conduct of His Holy Spirit.<br /><br />But, what about Faith if Belief is so important? The decision to believe (to have Belief) is differentiated from Faith in that:<br /><br />· Belief is a conviction propagated by the Holy Spirit. The called nonbeliever is preveniently drawn and enlightened by the Holy Spirit. But, Belief is finally determined by man’s and woman’s independent free will. It is this human responsibility that attains the conviction called Belief.<br /><br />· Faith is a conviction, or a trust based on conviction, that is a gracious gift from God to the believer. Man/Woman can not attain the conviction called Faith by the exercise of their free will. It is an unearned gracious gift of God: a divine responsibility as compared to a human responsibility. (Eph 2:8) This gift is received when one attains Belief.<br /><br />· Belief is based on the evidence of things seen, the evidence resulting from the realization of the things hoped for and the conviction of that seen in loving God and His Son, Jesus Christ. Belief is the direct, convicting result of the willed, obedient Love for God and the dedication to His glory.<br /><br />· Faith is “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things unseen.” What are these things? They are God’s and Jesus Christ’s many promises. Things that can not be “seen” until they are fulfilled or realized. Faith is trusting God.<br /><br />What this means is since Adam and Eve, by the exercise of their God given free will, were the first to disobey God and, by that act, were the first ones to sin, we, as descendents from Adam and Eve, must exercise the same God given free will to attain Belief in God the Father and His Son.<br /><br />Systematic Theology; Volume III; Soteriology (God’s comprehensive plan of salvation):<br /><br /><strong><em>“It is reasonable to conclude that as man by an act of his own will renounced God at the beginning, in like manner he, by the act of his own will, must return to God. It matters nothing at this point that man cannot of himself turn to God and that he must be enabled to do so. In the end, though enabled, he acts by his own will and this truth is emphasized in every passage wherein salvation is addressed to his will.”<br /></em></strong><br />Is this Truth? Remember, to obey the First Commandment, to love God, is the first giant step in attaining Belief, a result of the call by the Father and the “prevenient” drawing enlightenment of the nonbeliever by the Holy Spirit of the Way provided by Jesus Christ. Belief is the Saint’s foundation; the gift of Faith is the Saint’s sustenance on the regenerating, sanctifying walk with the Holy Spirit to glorify the Triune God.<br /><br />IS THE WILL FREE?<br /><br />Luther believed strongly in the slavery of the human will. He wrote a book on this question in response to a work on “Freedom of the Will” by Erasmus. Luther’s book was titled, “Slavery of the Will.” Schaff explains Luther’s teaching:<br /><br /><strong><em>“He represents the human will as a horse or donkey which goes just as the rider directs it; and that rider is the Devil in the state of the fallen nature, and God in the state of grace. The will has no choice of master; it is God and the Devil who are contending for the wills possession. The Scripture’s exhortations to repentance and holy living must not be understood seriously, but ironically, as if God would say to man: Only try to repent and to do good, and you will soon find out that you cannot do it. He deals with man as a mother with the child: she invites the child to walk, in order that the child will stretch out the arm for help. God speaks in this fashion solely to convict us of our helplessness, if we do not implore his assistance.”</em></strong><br /><br />The reader must decide whether mankind has the actual free-will to choose. The writer believes that mankind does, but that freedom is greatly diminished for a number of reasons.<br /><br />The flicker of initiative that resides in the human will is driven by natural imperatives and conscience. That “flicker” is sufficient to respond to the call. It is also sufficient to decide to take life’s journey in hostile ignorance of the evidence that supports God’s existence, for it is all “foolishness” (Cor 2:14) to the nonbeliever.<br /><br />VI. THE RELATIONSHIP OF BELIEF AND FAITH<br /><br />The great Truth is there are two instances where man/woman exercise their free will in specific relationship to God, no matter how limited or extensive free will is:<br /><br />· When Belief is first attained, and;<br /><br />· When Belief is exercised by the filling with the Holy Spirit.<br /><br />In all other aspects of man’s/woman’s relationship to God, a true believer is totally reliant on and obedient to God’s Will. Any deviance from this reliance and obedience undermines Belief and constitutes sin.<br /><br />An important second principle of this thesis holds that when, by the exercise of free will, man or woman attains Belief, God provides a fantastic free gift of another conviction: Faith in His Son’s many promises made in His revealed Word, the Bible. Examples of these promises (which represent separate, incredible, magnificent gracious gifts) include: Salvation, Eternal Life, the promise to answer prayers, His indwelling, the Holy Spirit’s filling of the believer, Spiritual gifts, The fruit of the Spirit.<br /><br />The result of this second principle bears repeating:<br /><br />· Faith is not attained by the act of free will except that man/woman must first obtain the conviction called Belief.<br /><br />· And, by possessing Belief one receives a gift from God, the gift of Faith, a conviction or trust in His promises.<br /><br />The result of this is:<br /><br /><strong>A Christian BELIEVES because he or she has BELIEF.<br /><br />A Christian has the gift of FAITH because he or she BELIEVES.</strong><br /><br /><br />The God provided conviction, obtained through the initial gift of Faith, strengthens the believer’s conviction attained by Belief, thereby yielding a greater and growing Faith based on Belief.<br /><br />For when the believer’s experience of trust based on Faith yields fruit in the life of the Christian Saint, that fruit is the evidence and proof substantiating a growing Belief.<br /><br />Theoretically, there is a point in the growth of the maturing Christian Saint where regeneration becomes sanctification. That point varies for each believer based on the growing awareness of the reciprocating effects of Belief and Faith in the walk with the Holy Spirit.<br /><br />Put another way, the reciprocating Love of God for the believer and the believer’s Love for God results in a profound application of divine and human responsibility, yielding cross linking convictions based on the believer’s Belief and God’s gracious gift of Faith.<br /><br />So what does the believer have to worry about? He or she must be concerned about believing, having Belief in God and His Son, what it really means to Believe, and being obedient in that Belief! This is the believer’s responsibility.<br /><br />The surrender to God is the “meat” of man’s/woman’s Belief. The conviction derived from Belief, combined with the conviction derived from God’s gift of Faith, establishes an omnipotent cross-linking super conviction assuring God’s grace and the sanctifying walk with His Holy Spirit. It is a true Saving Faith built on Belief!<br /><br />VII. WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS<br /><br />ABRAHAM AND BELIEF AND FAITH<br /><br />Consider the authority of Paul’s inspired teaching on Faith in Romans 4 with the view that, first of all, Abraham had a fundamental Belief in God.<br />And, why shouldn’t he? God talked to him! (Gen 12:1) Talking to God is a formidable experiential sign! There should be no question about the “evident” experience of talking to God! To talk to God must be the “realization of things hoped for, the conviction of things seen.” Abraham did not need the gift of Faith to know God existed.<br /><br />Abraham had Belief in God and Faith in God’s promise he would be the father of nations. (Rom 4:13) But, Abraham’s Faith was not described as Faith in the Old Testament. It is described and fully developed as a pivotal theological concept in the New Testament.<br /><br />Paul’s articulated and inspired theological premise, the literal amplification of the Old Testament Habakkuk 2:4, that man is justified (made right with God) by Faith (Rom 5:1) and not by his works (man’s effort to follow the Old Testament Law, or by performing good works without Faith to be made right with God) separates Christianity from all other religions regarding the practice and realization of Faith, the gift of God’s Grace for those who have Hope and Love for Him.<br /><br />As noted by the writer of Hebrews, the gift of Faith was given to only a few outstanding Jews who believed in God before the Apostolic age. (Heb 11) Otherwise, every Jew would have had the gift despite their legalistic preoccupations. The gentile proselyte Cornelius didn’t have it. The Eunuch didn’t have it. The gift was given to only those who came to believe and trust in Jesus Christ, His resurrection and His promises. Even Paul didn’t have it until his conversion on the Road to Damascus, this great inspired Jew who instructs us Christ is the author of Faith (Heb 12:2), the gift of gifts!<br /><br />VIII. EVIDENCE AND BELIEF<br /><br />What other verses, then, would support the Belief/Faith thesis?<br /><br />Evidence constituting Belief (Romans 1:18-20):<br /><br /><strong><em>“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.”</em></strong><br /><br />The use of the words “evident” and “seen” clearly substantiate the Belief thesis.<br /><br />If God has made it evident to the nonbeliever then it must be evident to the Christian believer, and that evidence constitutes the basis for Belief!<br /><br />Faith for those who believe (Romans 3:21-22):<br /><br /><strong><em>“But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe;”</em></strong><br /><br />Why would the Holy Spirit inspire Paul to write the phrase, <strong><em>“through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe;”</em></strong> if He didn’t wish to make a distinction between Faith and Belief? For it is one conviction to believe He existed. It is another conviction to trust His promises.<br /><br />To believe (Romans 3:22):<br /><br />Again, Chafer provides guidance as follows, <strong><em>“Of the two great salvation books in the New Testament, it may be said of John’s Gospel that it stresses the gift of eternal life, and it may be said of the Epistle to the Romans that it stresses imputed righteousness. Eternal life is defined as ‘Christ in you, the hope of glory’ (Col. 1:27), and imputed righteousness is based on the truth that the believer is in Christ. These two supreme truths are compressed by Christ into seven brief and simple words, when He said: ‘ye in me, and I in you’ (John 14:20). Whether it be the reception of eternal life or of imputed righteousness, but one condition in imposed on the human side, namely, to believe on Christ as Savior (John 3:16;Romans 3:33).”<br /></em></strong><br />This condition “to believe” means to have Belief since it is a condition imposed on mankind. It also means that “to believe” one must also accept the Gift of Faith (Eph 2:8), the acceptance being previently obtained by the guidance of the Holy Spirit along with the Spirit’s conviction of sin. (John 16:8,9)<br /><br />IX. BELIEF AND THE EVIDENCE OF SIN<br /><br />There is no question about one aspect of the Belief/Faith thesis: a prospective believer’s conviction of sin is not based on Faith in one’s sins. It is based on Belief.<br /><br />There is no better example of the believer’s experience than the conviction one obtains, as a result of the Holy Spirit’s leading, that brings the believer into a understanding of the evident reality of personal sin.<br /><br />This personal evidence is the first profound Belief experience the believer has:<br /><br />· Being forgiven for sin, by dieing with Christ on the cross (Rom 6:3,4).<br /><br />· At the time of being resurrected, being reborn in Christ<br />(Rom 6:5-11),<br /><br />· Beginning the sanctifying walk with the Holy Spirit (Rom<br />8:9-11),<br /><br />· Anticipating being glorified in Christ (Rom 8:30).<br /><br />One does not have “faith” in their sins. One does not yield to their promise, or trust them. Yet, the believer must know they are there. The nonbeliever does not acknowledge them in faith. The believer’s knowledge of sin yields a different belief.<br /><br />X. YOU MUST BELIEVE THAT HE IS<br /><br />Returning to the great Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11, one must visit the most difficult and famous of passages which bear on the Belief/Faith thesis, Hebrews 11:6:<br /><br /><strong><em>“And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.”</em></strong><br /><br />The first conclusion one may reach in the reading of this passage is that Faith is Belief in the context “without faith” one would not “believe that He is.”<br /><br />This passage, then, appears to be the possible “Archilles heal” of the Belief/Faith thesis.<br /><br />“On the other hand”....would it not be logical to conclude, providing Faith is a gift of God, that He would be displeased if the offered gift of Faith was refused? As an example, would God have been displeased, after establishing that He was God, if Abraham had not trusted His promises?<br /><br />Although this event is extremely unlikely, considering God’s election and predestination of the believer, (Eph 1) how many lost souls are there who attained, for a short period of time, a tenuous Belief but lost that Belief because they refused God’s gift of Faith? (is this the seed of apostasy?)<br /><br />Does this famous passage (Heb 11:6) suggest one should accept in Faith that Christ exists? That is to say, I’m really not sure, but I will accept in Faith what the Bible tells me, and that my conviction is based on trust and not on Belief that "He is". Jesus Christ’s existence is the pivotal basis for the objective Faith, Christ’s Church on earth. That objective Faith is based on the solid Belief about Christ’s existence, that He was, “that He is.”<br /><br />Schaff states (in his comments on the Schoolmen, a group of 13th century theologians headed by Thomas Aquinas),<br /><br /><strong><em>“Faith manifests itself in three ways, in believing God, trusting God, and believing in God. To believe God is to believe that He is. These two kinds of faith the devils have. To believe God is to love God....”</em></strong><br /><br />This, according to Schaff, is the real test of Faith. The great Truth is one’s Faith is the evidence of Belief in God, it is the evidence we do believe, because we have accepted his gracious gift of Saving Faith.<br /><br />It is the writer’s opinion that there are a minimum of three great acts by God when Belief is attained:<br /><br />· One is the gracious forgiveness for the believer’s conviction of Sin, through Christ’s blood and atoning sacrifice on the Cross.<br /><br />· The second act is the gift of Faith, which acceptance, by the believer, lays the foundation for the third act.<br /><br />· The third is Justification, the result of the believer’s acceptance of the gift of righteousness, based on the believer’s belief in Jesus Christ’s Resurrection.<br /><br />When considering the answer to the questions, look at the problems God had when He came to us as His Son, Jesus Christ. His credibility was never accepted by His chosen people, the Jews. They would not believe Him! Again, consider what Luther instructs in his commentary on Romans:<br /><br /><strong><em>“Hence Christ calls unbelief the only sin, when he says, in John 16, ‘The Spirit will rebuke the world for sin, because they do not believe in me.’”<br /></em></strong><br />Christ had to perform miracles as signs to prove who He was, and even then, only a very few believed! And, even when they believed after seeing the miracles, many did not persevere in their belief, despite the incredible evidence produced by the miracle! He was betrayed in a number ways and on a number of occasions by His disciples. He died a horrible human death and rose gloriously, so there would be Belief, so that there would be a new “right way” to relate to Him in Belief and Faith, so that His judgment on mankind’s sin heritage from Adam would be obtained in a new covenant. (1Cor 11:25)<br /><br />He did this and gave His Holy Spirit to administer His Church on earth, with the mandate to “convict the world concerning sin, and righteousness and judgement,” (John 16:8) by leading the elected nonbeliever to a willful decision to believe, and by sanctifying the maturing Christian through a discipline of gentle obedience on a road to a greater glory.<br /><br />With all this, there are two simplified reciprocal acts between mankind and God to affect their relationship:<br /><br />· Man/woman’s confession of Belief he/she is remorsefully convicted of sin, and God’s forgiveness for that sin, as eternally demonstrated by Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection.<br /><br />· Man/woman’s act of Belief in loving God and accepting Jesus Christ as His or Her personal savior.<br /><br />God’s magnificent reciprocal gifts of Faith and Righteousness in Jesus Christ binds the twofold convictions of Belief and Faith.Otis Page's Blogshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14932733213884103183noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20207460.post-1135717846377683612005-12-27T13:05:00.000-08:002006-01-02T13:09:48.870-08:00GOD'S GIFT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS<span style="font-size:130%;">ROMANS AND THE DOCTRINE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS<br /><br />With the growth of the Church from Palestine into the Roman world, Paul’s inspired teachings laid the foundation for the major theological precepts of Christianity. The foundation for Christian theology is based on Paul’s letter to the Romans.<br /><br />The letter to the Romans recognized the religious Jew’s decent from Abraham and the Jew’s knowledge of the Law in their religious practice in attempting to be “Right with God.” Romans defines major theological concepts regarding the Law, Righteousness, Justification, Faith, Salvation and Grace.<br /><br />Paul’s important teachings in Romans also include the Adamic heritage of sin, the predominate sin nature of nonbelievers; the manifestation of this historical plague of “unrighteousness” which subjects nonbelievers to His wrath, and the new freedom from the blight of sin found in Faith and Beleif in Jesus Christ by the walk with His indwelling Holy Spirit.<br /><br />Of all these ideas, the doctrine of Righteousness is key in understanding God’s Grace in imparting the gift of Salvation through Justification by Faith. (Rom 5:1) The understanding of this is the subject matter of his epistle, the New Testament book of Romans.<br /><br />Righteousness is the central theme of the Bible in terms of:<br /><br />· God’s ethical posture towards man (Rom 3:25),<br /><br />· Jesus Christ’s mission on earth; the meaning of His atonement at His death and resurrection (Rom 3:25 & 4:25),<br /><br />· The Holy Spirit’s mission to convict the world (John<br />16:8),<br /><br />· Man’s Salvation and walk in Christ with the Holy Spirit (Rom 8:16,17).<br /><br />Righteousness: To be right with God; to have a right-standing with Him.<br /><br />Righteousness: To know what God means by being ethically correct; to be morally right as compared to being morally wrong in unrighteous sin.<br /><br />Righteousness: What it really means according to God’s standards.<br /><br />Righteousness: To know what it means to be declared and made righteous by Faith alone.<br /><br />Righteousness: what it means to be right with self as a result of having a right relationship with God!!!!<br /><br />II. PAUL, THE INSPIRED WRITER OF ROMANS<br /><br />The question is asked, how shall a sinner be justified and made righteous? What does becoming righteous really mean in the eyes of the Lord? What does being justified mean? If you are justified does that mean you are right? If you are “right” who are you right with? The “soul” of our relationship with God is found in the answer to these questions. The fundamental message of the Bible and the difference between the Old Testament theology and the New Testament theology is locked in the answer.<br /><br />For the followers of the Old Testament, righteousness meant being conformed to the will of God as expressed in His revealed Law. The Old Testament righteousness implied that eternal life was its reward. The Jews believed it was legalistically obtained by human effort and specific works in obeying the Law. To be justified, and thereby being right with the Law, one must by human effort obey the Law, God’s Law as expressed in the “Law and the Prophets,” the commandments of the Old Testament.<br /><br />In contrast to Old Testament belief, the very “soul” of the New Testament theology is found in Romans, particularly in chapters one through eight (Rom 1-8).<br /><br />The book of Romans presents the technical application of the “Good News” of the Gospel message. The New Testament theology, as proclaimed by Paul, holds that it is by the obedience of simple Belief alone that righteousness is obtained as a gift of God’s Grace (Rom 4 and 5:1,2) (Eph 2:8).<br /><br />Paul, the inspired writer of Romans, pursued the ideal of righteousness first as a believing Jew. He then pursued it as a persecutor of Christians when, as a Pharisee and an agent of the Sanhedrin, he participated in the murder of Stephen (Acts 8:1-3). Finally, he attained it as Jesus Christ’s personal apostle to the world after his conversion on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:3-6). It has been said by the historian Philip Schaff (1890) that, “The honest and earnest pursuit of righteousness is the connecting link between the two periods in Paul’s life. What he had sought in vain by his fanatical zeal for the traditions of Judaism, he found gratuitously and at once by trust in the cross of Christ: pardon and peace with God.” Pardon and peace with God, what it means to be right with Him!<br /><br />Having been justified and “declared right” with God, God also made Paul righteous in his behavior and relationship with others, the work’s resulting from his Faith, as exemplified by his missionary endeavors to convert gentiles to Christianity, his written Epistles providing the basic doctrines of the Church, and his personal martyrdom for Christ, a final witness of His love for God.<br /><br />Mankind’s sin nature is applied to Gentile and Jew alike. There was only one reprieve from this human condition (Rom 5:1,2). It is apparent that God’s answer to this historic problem is His Son, Jesus Christ. But what is not apparent and most surprising is that the answer does not deny the human condition of the lost soul seeking righteousness. God does not free the human, whether Gentile or Jew, from the human condition of the flesh while on earth. His answer is to free the one seeking righteousness from the domination of the flesh, that human sinful nature exemplified by human pride. He has done this for those who believe in and have faith in His Son, Jesus Christ.<br /><br />Remarkably, God forgives the believer for all past sins and all sins confessed by the new transformed human nature. (2Cor 5:17; 1John 1:5-10) Jesus has paid for these sins. He has redeemed the lost by His blood on the Cross. Further, Jesus has provided the indwelling Holy Spirit whose very presence in the believer constitutes a transformed nature, a nature that is not perfect, but a nature that is right with God and righteous in the pursuit of new desires and perspective (Rom 8:3-11).<br /><br />This dispelling of the fleshly sin nature of the sinner, by the new nature compelled by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, is the divine transformation beginning the new nature - righteous in spirit and deed, humble and obedient to God. This new nature is a gift of God to those who believe, the essential manifestation of “righteousness” in the believer’s life (Rom 5:17).<br /><br />Stated another way by John MacArthur of Grace Community Church, the believer does not attain “perfection” the believer receives a righteous “direction” of not being a slave to sin in the walk with the Holy Spirit (Rom 6:17,18). It is this righteous “direction” in the walk with the Holy Spirit that differentiates the old and the new nature of the believer who is born again in Jesus Christ. In this sense, then, it is the “direction” inspired by the “perfection” that becomes the rule of the believer’s life.<br />This transformation is the beginning walk with the Holy Spirit. It is constituted by an immediate initial sanctification leading to a progressive sanctification on a miraculous journey with the Holy Spirit. That journey is a progressive Gift-laden and Fruit-laden spiritual growth promulgated by a very personal relationship the believer has with Jesus Christ through the guidance of the Holy Spirit.<br /><br />The evidence of this righteous miracle, this new direction, soon becomes apparent as God’s Word works developes wisdom and righteousness in the believer’s life. There are millions of Christians who can give and have given witness to this realization.<br /><br />This testimonial evidence constitutes a foundation of fact sustaining a growing Belief and Faith in the believer. This growing Belief and Faith eventually leads through the physical life cycle on earth to the state of ultimate righteousness and sanctification, an ultimate “perfection”: the believer’s physical death and the continuance of an eternal spiritual life with Jesus Christ in heaven. This, then, is the believer’s realization of his hope and faith in Jesus Christ. That is the promise!<br /><br />The following four sections address the Biblical concept of Righteousness by using extensive quotes from the Bible. These quotes are complemented with brief comments and are expressed in the context of Righteousness as the concept applies to God the Father, God the Son - Jesus Christ, the Believer, and God the Holy Spirit. Each section includes quotations from the Old Testament and the New Testament book of Romans.<br /><br />Beloved evangelist John Walvoord instructs the believer on the lessons of righteousness contained in the Bible, in the Abridged Edition of Lewis Perry Shafer’s Systematic Theology:<br /><br /><strong><em>“The ethics of the Bible are the only sure word regarding what is right and wrong in the world. While false religions often elevate immorality to a place of acceptance and morality, only the Bible presents sin as it really is and characterizes humanity as totally and hopelessly depraved apart from the grace of God. Human history in the Bible describes what fallen humans can do in living a life totally contrary to the will of God which can take individuals in all their depravity, sanctify them, and ultimately present them perfect in eternity to come.”</em></strong><br /></span><strong><em><br /></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;">God’s message in His Word is clearly stated. Please be prayerful in reading what follows. And read slowly, contemplatively and meditatively.<br /><br /><br />III. THE FATHER’S RIGHTEOUSNESS<br /></em></strong><br />God the Father’s righteousness:<br /><br />· The gift of righteousness to the believer (Rom 5:17).<br /><br />· As evidenced by The Old Testament and the blood sacrifice of His Son.<br /><br />· As manifested in His gift of Faith as a part of the overall gift of Salvation to those who believe in Jesus Christ.<br /><br />· As explained and manifested in the New Testament Book of Romans.<br /><br />The very character of God the Father is the ultimate standard of righteousness.<br /><br />He is righteous:<br /><br />Ps 4:1 “<strong><em>Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness! Thou hast relieved me in my distress; be gracious to me and hear my prayer.”</em></strong><br /><br />Ps 7:9 <strong><em>“O let the evil of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous; for the righteous God tries the hearts and minds.”</em></strong><br /><br />Ps 71:19 <strong><em>“For Thy righteousness, O God, reaches to the heavens, Thou who hast done great things; O God, who is like Thee?”</em></strong><br /><br />He overviews all with righteous judgment:<br /><br />Ps 9:8 <strong><em>“And He will judge the world in righteousness;”</em></strong><br /><br />Ps 96:13 “<strong><em>For He is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness, and the peoples in His faithfulness.”</em></strong><br /><br />Ps 98:9 “<strong><em>Before the Lord; for He is coming to judge the earth; He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity.”</em></strong><br /><br />He sets the standard of morality:<br /><br />Ps 45:7 <strong><em>“Thou hast loved righteousness and hated wickedness;”</em></strong><br /><br />He is our only righteous Savior:<br /><br />Isa 45:21 <em><strong>“And there is no other God besides Me, a righteous God and Savior; there is none except Me.”</strong></em><br /><br />He delivers us in righteousness:<br /><br />Ps 119:40 <em><strong>“Behold, I long for Thy precepts; Revive me through Thy righteousness.”</strong></em><br /><br />His acts are always righteous:<br /><br />Jr 12:1 <strong><em>“Righteous art thou, O Lord, that I would plead mycase with Thee;” </em></strong><br /><br />Ps 71:24 “<strong><em>My tongue will utter Thy righteousness all daylong;”</em></strong><br /><br />The righteous are protected by Him:<br /><br />Isa 3:10 <strong><em>“Say to the righteous that it will go well with them, for they will eat the fruit of their actions.”</em></strong><br /><br />Righteousness is the basis of His kingdom:<br /><br />Ps 89:14 “<strong><em>Righteousness and justice are the foundations of Thy throne; Lovingkindness and truth go before Thee.”</em></strong><br /><br />God’s righteousness finds expression in his decrees and laws. These decrees and laws are not an end to themselves as a means of reaching God. It is by Belief and Faith that one becomes right with Him, and that Belief and Faith in Jesus Christ represents a fulfillment of His Law because of the new covenant.<br /><br />Dt 4:8 “<strong><em>Or what great nation is there that has statutes and judgments as righteous as this whole law which I am setting before you today?”</em></strong><br /><br />Ps 119:7 “<strong><em>I shall give thanks to thee with uprightness of heart, when I learn Thy righteous judgments.”</em></strong><br /><br />Ps 119:62 “<strong><em>At midnight I shall rise to give thanks to thee because of Thy righteous judgments.” </em></strong><br /><br />Ps 119: 75 <strong><em>“I know, O Lord, that thy judgments are righteous, and that in faithfulness Thou hast afflicted me.”</em></strong><br /><br />Ps 119:106 <strong><em>“I have sworn, and I will confirm it, that I will keep Thy righteous ordinances.”</em></strong><br /><br />Ps 119:138 “<strong><em>Thou hast commanded Thy testimonies in righteousness and exceeding faithfulness.”</em></strong><br /><br />Ps 119:160 <em><strong>“The sum of Thy word is truth, and every one of Thy righteous ordinances is everlasting.”</strong></em><br /><br />Ps 119:164 <em><strong>“Seven times a day I praise Thee, because of Thy righteous ordinances.”</strong></em><br /><br />Ps 119:172 <strong><em>“Let my tongue sing of Thy word, for all Thy commandments are righteous.”</em></strong><br /><br />And as emphasized in the New Testament, God’s anger is directed at those who practice unrighteousness by not believing in Him:<br /><br />Rom 1:18 <strong><em>“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth (about God) in unrighteousness.” </em></strong><br /></span><strong><em><br /></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Does unrighteously suppressing the truth about God nullify the faithfulness of God?<br /></em></strong><br />Rom 2:3-6 <em><strong>“What then? If some did not believe, their unbelief will not nullify the faithfulness of God, will it?” May it never be! Rather, let God be found true, through every man be found a liar....But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? The God that inflicts wrath is not unrighteous is He? May it never be! For otherwise how will God judge the world?”</strong></em><br /><br />Does the Old Testament Law always prevail in proscribing righteousness?<br /><br />Rom 2:11-14 <em><strong>“For there is no partiality with God. For all who have sinned without the Law will also perish without the Law; and all who have sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law; for not the hearers of the Law are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified. For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a Law to themselves.”</strong></em><br /><br />God’s righteousness and love is demonstrated in many ways: - The gift of His only Son, Jesus Christ.- The redeeming atonement, the death and resurrection of His Son.- The forgiveness of unrighteous sins.- The gift of righteousness to those who believe in His Son.- The presence of His Holy Spirit, the executive of Christ’s Church in this world.<br /><br /><br />IV. JESUS CHRIST’S RIGHTEOUSNESS<br /><br />Jesus Christ’s righteousness:<br /><br />· By one obedient act many will be declared and made righteous.<br /><br />· As evidenced by Christ’s death on the cross and His resurrection.<br /><br />The gospel of Jesus Christ is good news, for God through Jesus provides the gift of righteousness. All one has to do to receive this free gift is to have Belief in Him.<br /><br />Jesus hallows those who aspire and defend righteousness:<br /><br />Mt 5:6 <strong><em>“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”</em></strong><br /><br />Mt 5:10 <strong><em>“Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” </em></strong><br /></span><strong><em><br /></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Jesus’ standard of an inner righteousness:<br /></em></strong><br />Mt 5:20 </span><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><em>“For I say to you, that unless your righteousness<br />surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.”</em></strong><br /><br />Mt 5:21 <strong><em>“You have heard that the ancients were told ‘YOUSHALL NOT COMMIT MURDER’ and ‘Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty...”</em></strong><br /><br />Mt 5:27 <strong><em>“You have heard that it was said ‘YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY’; but I say to you, that everyonewho looks on a woman to lust for her has committed adultery with her already in his heart.”</em></strong><br /><br />Mt 5:38 <strong><em>“You have heard that it was said, 'AN EYE FOR ANEYE, AND A TOOTH FOR A TOOTH.’ but I say to you, do not resist who is evil; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also." </em></strong><br /></span><strong><em><br /></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Mt 5:43 <strong><em>“You have heard that it was said, “YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR, and hate your enemies.’ But I say toyou, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you.”</em></strong><br /></em></strong><br />The following is the begining of the heart of the theological message on the meaning of the New Testament. This message continues through the next two sections on man’s and the Holy Spirit’s righteousness.<br /><br />The righteousness of God is revealed in the Gospel.<br /><br />Rom 1:15-17 </span><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><em>“Thus, for my part, I am eager to preach the<br />gospel to you who are also in Rome. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “BUT THE RIGHTEOUS MAN WILL LIVE BY FAITH.”<br /></em></strong><br />God demonstrates His righteousness through Jesus Christ’s blood by being just in His forgiveness for past sinful unrighteousness and by justifying (declaring and making righteous) the sinner as a believer in Christ.<br /><br />Rom 3:21-26 </span><span style="font-size:130%;"><em><strong>“But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe. For there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over sins previously committed; for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus Christ.”<br /><br /></strong></em>And the great Gospel message is pronounced: that righteousness is not established by being obedient to His Laws, but by having faith in Jesus Christ.<br /><br /></span><em><span style="font-size:130%;">Rom 3:28</span><strong><span style="font-size:130%;"> “For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.”<br /><br /></span></strong></em><span style="font-size:130%;">Paul retells the Old Testament story of Abraham, the father of all who have Faith in God, in Romans 4. Paul emphasizes that Abraham’s Faith is the same as our Faith. We share the heritage of Faith that made Abraham righteous before God. The Christian believes in God who raised Jesus from the dead. The Christian believes that Jesus Christ died because of our unrighteousness and He was raised to make us righteous (Herein lies the heart and soul of the Gospel message!).</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><em><strong> </strong><br />Rom 4:22-25<strong> “Therefore also IT WAS RECKONED TO HIM (Abraham) AS RIGHTEOUSNESS (Gen 15:6). Now not for his sake only was it written, that it (righteousness) was reckoned to him, but for our sake also, to whom it will be reckoned, as those who believe in Him who raised Jesus from the dead, He who was delivered up because of our transgressions and was raised because of our justification.” </strong></em><br /></span><strong><br /></strong><span style="font-size:130%;"><em>Jesus Christ died so that unrighteous man could become righteous. </em><br /><br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><em>Rom 5:6-8<strong> “For while we were still helpless </strong>(in our unrighteousness)<strong>, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly</strong> (Christ’s righteous act). <strong>For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us</strong> (God’s righteousness), <strong>in that we were yet sinners, Christ died for us</strong> (and by that righteous act forgiving the sinner for his unrighteousness while, at the same time, bestowing on the sinner the gift of righteousness).”<br /><br /></em>The Bible teaches sin entered the world because of Adam’s disobedience. This unrighteousness is characterized as sin. But, even though man has inherited the sin nature, and a resulting death in and through sin from Adam, sin is not imputed without the Law. The Law is the Old testament Law that is referred to as God’s commandments.<br /><br />Rom 5:12-21 <strong><em>“Therefore, just as through one man (Adam) sin entered the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned - for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no Law.”</em></strong><br /><br />Death reigned after Adam’s unrighteous disobedience.<br /><br /><strong><em>“Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses</em></strong> (whom God gave the Law - the Ten Commandments), <strong><em>even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who was a type of Him to come</em></strong> (Jesus Christ).”<br /><br />But the free gift of righteousness now abounds to many through Jesus Christ.<br /><br /><strong><em>“But the free gift</em></strong> (of righteousness) <strong><em>is not like the transgression</em></strong> (Adam’s unrighteous disobedience). <strong><em>For if by one</em></strong> (Adam) <strong><em>the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift</em></strong> (of righteousness) </span><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><em>by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to many.”<br /></em></strong><br />The free gift of righteousness results in justification by and before God.<br /><br /><strong><em>“And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned</em></strong> (Adam); <strong><em>for on the one hand the judgment </em></strong>(of God) <strong><em>arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation. But, on the other hand the free gift</em></strong> (of righteousness) </span><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><em>arose from many transgressions resulting in justification.”<br /></em></strong><br />Death reigned through the unrighteousness of Adam. But the gift of righteousness through Jesus Christ will reign in life.<br /><br /><strong><em>“For if by the transgression of the one</em></strong> (Adam), </span><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><em>death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.”<br /></em></strong><br />Through Adam’s unrighteous disobedience we were made sinners. But, through the righteous obedience of Jesus Christ (His atonement on the Cross), the Christian is declared and made righteous.<br /><br /><strong><em>“For as through the one man’s disobedience</em></strong> (Adam’s) <strong><em>the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one</em></strong> (Jesus Christ) <strong><em>the many will be made righteous.”</em></strong><br /><br />God gave His chosen people, the Jews, the Law so that their knowledge of disobedience would increase. The Jew became obsessed with the religious practice of obeying the Law as the means of gaining righteousness with God. Because of that fact, disobedience increased as the Law became a religious ritual interfering with the Jewish believer’s Faith in Him.<br /><br />But, God’s grace reigns through the gift of righteousness, for those who have Belief and Faith in His Son, Jesus Christ. Thereby imparting a new righteous nature to the believer.<br /><br />2Cor 5:17 <strong><em>“Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” </em></strong><br /></span><strong><em><br /></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;">And, incredibly, that new nature has eternal life and a resulting victory over the imputed death inherited as a result of Adam’s fundamental disobedience. These are great promises of the Gospel message.<br /></em></strong><br />Rom 5:21,22 <strong><em>“And the Law came in that transgression might increase. But where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, that, as sin reigned in death so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”</em></strong><br /><br />Jesus Christ’s righteousness was manifested in terms of His blood sacrifice by being the vehicle for our sin. Our Belief in this is the basis for God’s forgiveness and justification through the gift of His righteousness, which gift is celebrated by the resurrection of Jesus from the dead (Rom 4:25).<br /><br />V. THE BELIEVER’S RIGHTEOUSNESS<br /><br />The believer’s righteousness:<br /><br />· As manifested by the believer’s righteousness.<br /><br />· As evidenced by the believer’s Faith, the believer’s justification by God, the believer’s Christian nature, and the believers walk with the Holy Spirit<br /><br />When asked which is the great commandment in the Law, Jesus said:<br /><br />Deut 6:5 <strong><em>“And you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”</em></strong><br /><br />Matt 22: 38 <strong><em>“This is the great and foremost commandment.”</em></strong><br /><br />To love God, following His commandment, is a fundamental expression of believing and having Faith and Belief in Him. This is the basic and first righteous act of the believer.<br /><br />We seek His righteousness:<br /><br />Ps 143:2 <strong><em>“Hear my prayer, O Lord, give ear to my supplications! Answer me in Thy faithfulness, in Thy righteousness!</em></strong>”<br /><br />Ps 143:11 <strong><em>“For the sake of Thy name, O Lord, revive me. In Thy righteousness bring my soul out of trouble.” </em></strong><br /></span><strong><em><br /></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Some who were righteous witnesses:<br /></em></strong><br />Ge 6:9 <strong><em>“These are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God.”</em></strong><br /><br />Job 1:1 <strong><em>“There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job, and that man was blameless, upright, fearing God, and turning away from evil.” </em></strong><br /></span><strong><em><br /></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Ge 15:6 <strong><em>“He (Abraham) believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.” </em></strong><br /></em></strong></span><strong><em><br /></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;">God’s command to be righteous:<br /></em></strong><br />Dt 6:25 <strong><em>“And it will be righteousness for us if we are careful to observe all this commandment before the Lord our God, just as He commanded us </em></strong>(Dt 6:1-24).”<br /><br />Dt 6:18 <strong><em>“And you shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that it may be well with you....”</em></strong><br /><br />Righteousness means having a right relationship with Him:<br /><br />Mal 3:18<strong><em> “So you will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him.” </em></strong><br /><br />Ps 33:1<strong><em> “Sing for joy in the Lord, O you righteous ones; praise is becoming to the upright.” </em></strong><br /><br />Ps 64:10 <strong><em>“The righteous man will be glad in the Lord, and will take refuge in Him; and all upright in heart will glory.” </em></strong><br /><br />Ps 68:3<strong><em> “But let the righteous be glad; let them exult before God; yes, let them rejoice in gladness.” </em></strong><br /><br />Ps 140:13 <strong><em>“Surely the righteous will give thanks to Thy name; the upright will dwell in thy presence.” </em></strong><br /><br />Righteousness brings multiple blessings:<br /><br />Ps 5:12 <strong><em>“For it is Thou who dost bless the righteous man, O Lord, Thou dost surround him with favor as a with a shield.” </em></strong><br /><br />Ps 37:17<em><strong> “For the arms of the wicked will be broken; but the Lord sustains the righteous.” </strong></em><br /></span><em><strong></strong><br /></em><span style="font-size:130%;">Ps 92:12<strong><em> “The righteous man will flourish like the palm tree, he will grow like a cedar in Lebanon.” </em></strong><br /><br />Ps 112:6 <strong><em>“For he will never be shaken; the righteous will be remembered for ever.”</em></strong><br /><br />He helps the righteous:<br /><br />Ps 34:19 <strong><em>“Many are the afflictions of the righteous; but the Lord delivers him out of them all.” </em></strong><br /></span><strong><em><br /></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Ps 37:25<strong><em> “I have been young, and now I am old; yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, or his descendents begging bread.” </em></strong><br /></span><strong><em><br /></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Ps 55:22<strong><em> “Cast your burden upon the Lord, and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken.” </em></strong><br /></span><strong><em><br /></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Prov 3:33<strong><em> “The curse of the Lord is on the house of the wicked, but He blesses the dwelling of the righteous.” </em></strong><br /></span><strong><em><br /></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Prov 10:3<strong><em> “The Lord will not allow the righteous to hunger, but He will thrust aside the craving of the wicked.” </em></strong><br /></span><strong><em><br /></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Prov 10:24<strong><em> “What the wicked fear will come upon him, and the desire of the righteous will be granted.” </em></strong><br /></span><strong><em><br /></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Prov 10:29<strong><em> “The way of the Lord is a stronghold to the upright, but ruin to the workers of iniquity.”</em></strong><br /><br />Righteous conduct:<br /><br />Prov 10:2 <strong><em>“Ill-gotten gains do not profit. But righteousness delivers from death.” </em></strong><br /></span><strong><em><br /></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Prov 11:28 <strong><em>“He who trusts in his riches will fail, but the righteous will flourish like the green leaf.” </em></strong><br /></span><strong><em><br /></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Prov 11:8 <strong><em>“The righteous is delivered from trouble, but the wicked takes his place.” </em></strong><br /></span><strong><em><br /></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Prov 10:30<strong><em> “The righteous will never be shaken, but the wicked will not dwell in the land.” </em></strong><br /></span><strong><em><br /></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Being righteous is a basis for confidence in prayer:<br /></em></strong><br />Ps 17:1<strong><em> “Here my righteous plea, O Lord,” </em></strong><br /></span><strong><em><br /></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;">2Sa 22:21<strong><em> “The Lord has rewarded me according to myrighteousness;” </em></strong><br /></span><strong><em><br /></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;">2Sa 22:25<strong><em> “Therefore the Lord has recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to my cleanness before His eyes.” </em></strong><br /></em></strong></span><strong><em><br /></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Ps 7:8 <strong><em>“The Lord judges the peoples; vindicate me, O Lord, according to my righteousness and my integrity that is in me.” </em></strong><br /></span><strong><em><br /></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Ps 18:20<strong><em> “The Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands He has recompensed me.” </em></strong><br /></span><strong><em><br /></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Ps 119:121<strong><em> “I have done justice and righteousness; do not leave me to my oppressors.” </em></strong><br /></span><strong><em><br /></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;">By believing in Jesus Christ, the believer is dead to sin (unrighteousness) and alive in God’s imparted righteousness.<br /></em></strong><br />Rom 6:10-20 <strong><em>“For the death that He died, He died to sin, once for all; but the life that he lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefor do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.” </em></strong><br /></span><strong><em><br /></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;">The sinner is a slave to unrighteousness resulting in death. The believer is under righteous grace, an obedience that results in righteousness.<br /></em></strong><br /><strong><em>“For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under Law but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under Law but under grace? May it never be! Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one you obey, either resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?”</em></strong><br /><br />The believer becomes a slave to righteousness.<br /><br /><strong><em>“But thanks to God that through you were slaves to sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.”</em></strong><br /><br />Righteousness also results in sanctification.<br /><br /><strong><em>“I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.”</em></strong><br /><br />We came to know what unrighteous conduct and sin was through the Law.<br /><br />Rom 7:7-25 <strong><em>“What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, ‘YOU SHALL NOT COVET.’” </em></strong><br /></span><strong><em><br /></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;">But the Law made sin in the sinner, and the sinner became dead in his unrighteousness.<br /></em></strong><br /><strong><em>“But sin taking the opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead. And I was once alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive, and I died (he became dead to sin); and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me; for sin, taking the opportunity through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me.” </em></strong><br /></span><strong><em><br /></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Did the Law become the source of the sinner’s death? No, it is the unrighteousness in the sinner, the sin itself.<br /></em></strong><br /><strong><em>“So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by effecting my death through that which is good, that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.” </em></strong><br /></span><strong><em><br /></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;">So, following the Law, man is sinful. He behaves according to his natural instincts of the flesh, his human nature.<br /></em></strong><br /><em><strong>“For we know that the Law is spiritual; but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin.” </strong></em><br /></span><em><strong><br /></strong></em><span style="font-size:130%;">The Law and man’s nature, therefor, creates a conflict.<br /></strong></em><br /><strong><em>“For that which I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not wish to, I agree with the Law, confessing that it is good.”</em></strong><br /><br />The problem is caused by the fact and knowledge of indwelling sin.<br /><br /><strong><em>“So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but the sin which indwells me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the wishing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I wish, I do not do; but practice the very evil that I do not wish. But if I am doing the very thing I do not wish, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wishes to do good.” </em></strong><br /></span><strong><em><br /></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;">There is real conflict: the law of God, the law of the mind, the law in the body, and the law of sin.<br /></em></strong><br /><strong><em>“For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members.” </em></strong><br /></span><strong><em><br /></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Who will resolve this conflict of these laws?<br /></em></strong><br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><em>“Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.”<br /></em></strong><br />What is the answer to this dilemma? The answer is the greatest gift of all to those who believe in Jesus Christ.<br /><br />But, before we consider this answer, the following quote is presented here as a vital commentary on Romans 7:7-25 and as an introduction to the inspired answer given to us in Chapter 8 of Romans.<br /><br /><strong><em>“This remarkable section (</em></strong>Romans 7:7-25</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><em>) describes the psychological progress of the human heart to Christ:<br />· from the heathen state of carnal security,<br />· when sin is dead because it is unknown,<br />· through the Jewish state of legal conflict,<br />· when sin,<br />· roused by the stimulus of the divine command,<br />· springs into life,<br />· and the higher and nobler nature of man strives in vain to overcome this fearful monster,<br />until at last the free grace of God in Christ gains victory.Some of the profoundest divines - Augustine, Luther, Calvin - transfer this conflict into the regenerate state; but this is described in the eighth chapter (of Romans) which ends in an exulting song of triumph.”</em></strong><br /></span><strong><em><br /></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;">(Footnote 5, Page 299, The Conversion of Paul, Volume 1, The History of the Christian Church, by Philip Schaff.)<br /></em></strong><br />And now the answer, His gift to us of His Holy Spirit!<br /><br />VI. THE HOLY SPIRIT’S RIGHTEOUSNESS<br /><br />The Holy Spirit’s righteousness:<br /><br />· The conviction of the world regarding righteousness.<br /><br />· As evidenced by His leading the nonbeliever to Christ, His indwelling of the believer, His spiritual gifts, His fruit, His sanctifying walk with the believer.<br /><br />The believer is set free from the law of sin and death, as described Romans 7:7-25, through the righteousness provided as a gift by Jesus Christ.<br /><br />Rom 8:1-17 <strong><em>“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Jesus Christ. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin.”</em></strong><br /><br />The requirement of the Law can not be fulfilled by serving the Law. It can only be fulfilled by walking with the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ’s greatest gift to the believer.<br /><br /><strong><em>“He condemned sin in the flesh in order that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God, for it is not even able to do so; and those who are in flesh cannot please God.” </em></strong><br /></span><strong><em><br /></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Instead of being indwelled by the fleshly unrighteousness of sin, as specified by the Law, the believer is indwelled by the Spirit of God.<br /></em></strong><br /><strong><em>“However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. And if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you.”</em></strong><br /><br />Death is the flesh’s reward, for it possesses the inheritance of disobedient unrighteousness from Adam. But the free gift of righteousness results in being justified by God through the conviction called faith, and the believer’s belief in God and His Word. The sanctifying walk with the Holy Spirit gives life, eternal life for those who believe.<br /><br /><strong><em>“So then brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh, for if you are living according to the flesh you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” </em></strong><br /></span><strong><em><br /></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Those who are led by the Spirit are the sons of God the Father.<br /></em></strong><br /><strong><em>“For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, ‘Abba! Father!’”</em></strong><br /><br />Following this great revelation, let us learn from John Walvoord’s instruction on the Holy Spirit in his Abridged Systematic Theology:<br /><br /><strong><em>“The period between the two advents of Christ is often designated ‘the age of the Holy Spirit’ because it is a time when the Holy Spirit of God is resident in the world and especially in the child of God. Christians are indwelt by the Holy Spirit with the special purpose of providing supernatural enablement in all areas of the spiritual life including that of comprehending truth. The Spirit of God can even reveal ‘the deep things of God’ (1 Cor. 2:10). This truth opens up a vast horizon of spiritual knowledge to the spiritual Christian with its corresponding warning to Christians who are not walking with God and who are not being taught by the Spirit. Even as Christ revealed the Scriptures to His companions on the Road to Emmaus on the day of His resurrection (Luke 24:13-35), so today the Holy Spirit can open minds of spiritual Christians to understand and accept the limitless truth of God revealed in the Bible.”</em></strong><br /><br />The point should be established that the Holy Spirit’s ministry is decisive in terms of your being a true Christian, for as Christ said in contemplating His death:<br /><br />John 16:7-11 <strong><em>“But I tell you the truth: It is for your own good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. When He comes, He will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: in regard to sin, because men do not believe in Me; in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer, and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.”</em></strong><br /><br />The main question here, in the context of the theme of this letter, is what is meant by the statement regarding righteousness in terms of the Holy Spirit’s mission? John Walvoord provides an answer pertaining to the unsaved in his Abridged Edition of Systematic Theology:<br /><br /><strong><em>“This righteousness is related to the fact that Christ would ascend into heaven and no longer be present on earth. In other words, while on earth He demonstrated the righteousness of God for all to see. But now with Christ in heaven the Holy Spirit will teach the unsaved the righteousness of God and with it the fact that in the Gospel God is offering His righteousness to sinful men who put trust in Christ. This concept would not be understood by an unsaved person apart from the work of the Spirit.” </em></strong><br /></span><strong><em><br /></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Now as regards the saved person, Lewis Sperry Chafer provides guidance regarding being filled in the walk with the Spirit in his honored Systematic Theology:<br /></em></strong><br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><em>“To be filled with the Spirit is to have the Spirit fulfilling all that He came in the heart to do. This truth is far removed from the notion that the Holy Spirit is to be received as ‘a second work of grace’ or ‘a second blessing.’ The Spirit-filled life is a realization in actual experience of what has been possessed from the moment one is saved. Ephesians 1:3 reveals the truth that every spiritual blessing is secured when one is saved. The verse reads: ‘Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.’<br />Of all five ministries of the Spirit to the believer - regenerating, indwelling, sealing, baptizing, and filling - the last-named is alone commanded and expected of the believer. The implication is that this ministry, unlike the other four, depends upon human cooperation and adjustment. It is clear that beyond the one responsibility of believing on Christ unto salvation, no obligation rests upon the Christian respecting the first four ministries named. The command to be filled by the spirit (Eph 5:18), being addressed to the child of God, not only indicates that it is an experience subsequent to salvation, but the Christian’s own faithfulness determines the degree of filling.”</em></strong><br /><br />It is, therefore, apparent that the key fulfillment of Paul’s message in Romans involves the Christian walk with the Holy Spirit. And the key to that walk involves the awesome concept of <strong><em>“being filled”</em></strong> by the Spirit.<br /><br />Charles C. Ryrie puts Spirit-filling in a precise perspective for both the nonbeliever and the believer in his book on Basic Theology (Page 376, The Filling of the Spirit):<br /><br /><strong><em>“There seems to be two facets to Spirit-filling. The first may described as a sovereign act of God whereby He possesses someone for special activity. This is expressed by the Greek phrase pimplemi pneumatos agiou, and highlights the event of being filled rather than the resultant state of fullness. It occurs in Luke 1:15 (John the Baptist), 41 (Elizabeth), 67 (Zacharias); Acts 2:4 (the group on the day of Pentecost); 4:8 (Peter), 31 (the believers); 9:17(Paul); and 13:9 (Paul). </em></strong><br /><br /><strong><em>The second facet of Spirit-filling may be described as the extensive influence and control of the Spirit in a believer’s life. It evidences an abiding state of fullness rather than the specific event. It produces a certain character of life, and seems to be a close synonym to spirituality. It is indicated by the Greek phrase plere or pleroo pneumatos agiou. It occurs in Luke 4:1 (Christ); Acts 6:3,5 (the first helpers of the apostles); 7:55 (Stephen); 11:24 (Barnabas); 13:52 (the disciples); and Ephesians 5:18 (believers).”</em></strong><br /><br />Considering the importance of being filled by the Spirit, how does the believer become filled so that the gift of righteousness can be maintained? John F. Walvoord provides the important answer in his Systematic Theology (Abridged Edition, Page 273, The Holy Spirit in Relation to Christians):<br /><br /><strong><em>“The works of the Holy Spirit that are related to the believer’s salvation are accomplished once and for all. By contrast the filling of the Spirit relates to believers’ experiences and can be a repeated spiritual condition. The Bible specifies certain steps a believer should take in order to be filled with the Spirit. It is unnecessary to pray for the filling of the Spirit. Instead a believer should seek to be obedient to the revelation of God regarding the conditions He has set forth in His Word. If he meets those conditions, he will be filled with the Spirit. </em></strong><br /><br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><em>1. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit (Eph. 4:30). What grieves the Holy Spirit is sin. The cure of the effects of sin in the spiritual child of God is repentance, which leads to making a genuine confession of sin. Because sin is a common problem in Christian lives, the Bible suggest three ways it can be prevented (the following points are abbreviated):<br />a - The study of God’s word.<br />b - Resist sin by praying for the Spirit’s help.<br />c - The intercession of Christ as the believer’s High Priest (Heb. 7:25).</em></strong><br /></span><strong><em><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">2. Do not put out the Spirit’s fire. A second command which is related to the right relationship between the Holy Spirit and the believer is stated in 1 Thessalonians 5:19, ‘Do not put out the Spirit’s fire.’ Translated literally, the verse reads, ‘Do not keep on quenching the Spirit of God.’ In other words a believer should not refuse to let the Spirit of God direct his life. Grieving the Holy Spirit is the effect after a sin is committed, but quenching the Spirit is what leads to sin in the first place. Though this exhortation is included in a series of exhortations, it obviously relates to the central truth of the necessity of being completely yielded to the will of God in order to experience the filling of the Holy Spirit.”<br /></span></em></strong><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">It may now be apparent that the Holy Spirit, as the executive of Christ’s Church on earth, plays the major role in promoting righteousness outside of the initiative evident in the new nature of the believer. This truth introduces the following consideration of the righteousness imputed and imparted to those who believe.<br /><br />VII. RIGHTEOUSNESS TO EVERYONE WHO BELIEVES<br /><br />With these thoughts about the Holy Spirit put in a “<strong><em>spiritual</em></strong>” perspective, what about the question of Law and Faith?<br /><br />Rom 9:30-33 </span><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><em>“What shall we say then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith; but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but though it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone,”<br /></em></strong><br />Then, what about those who self-righteously followed the Law as a means of religious formalism and forgot about the true righteousness of God?<br /><br />Rom 10:1-12 </span><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><em>“Brethren, my hearts desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not with accordance with knowledge. For not knowing about God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God.”<br /></em></strong><br />And what does this mean to all of us today?<br /><br /><strong><em>“For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. For Moses writes that the man who practices righteousness which is based on law shall live by that righteousness. But the righteousness based on faith speaks thus, ‘DO NOT SAY IN YOUR HEART, WHO WILL ASCEND INTO HEAVEN’(that is, to bring Christ down), or ‘WHO WILL DESCEND INTO THE ABYSS’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).’ But what does it say? “THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH, AND IN YOUR HEART’- that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved; for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation</em></strong>.”<br /><br />The important result in the Christian’s life is that, by Christ’s death and resurrection, all who believe in Him have their sins forgiven and are “DECLARED” righteous (Rom 4:25). This declaration means that believers are “justified”, declared just or, in other words, declared right with God.<br /><br />The second profound manifestation of God’s gift of righteousness results in the believer being “MADE” righteous (Rom 5:17).<br /><br />It is this implementation of God’s gift that causes the displacement of “indwelled sin” by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.<br /><br />VIII. THE GOOD NEWS<br /><br />The way to have a right relationship with God is through Belief in Jesus Christ.<br /><br />His righteousness on the Cross instills God’s gift of righteousness in the believer (Rom 4:25).<br /><br />The gift of righteousness results in a transformed nature that is differentiated from the old nature which was a slave to sin following the heritage from Adam’s disobedience (Rom 8:2).<br /><br />The righteousness of the believer is a result of the indwelling and filling in the walk with His Holy Spirit (Rom 8:9) (Eph 3:16) (1Cor 3:16).<br /><br />The sanctifying walk with the Holy Spirit results in salvation in the sense that the new nature is no longer a slave to sin where the old nature was a slave to sin (Rom 6:16-22).<br /><br />The law’s statement of righteousness is not the rule in the believer’s life. Reliance on His Holy Spirit, not the legal struggle to keep the law, is the basis for the righteous life (Rom 8:2,3).<br /><br />By understanding the standard which is Jesus Christ, by walking with His Holy Spirit, the believer finds the law and all of God’s commandments being expressed in the new nature (Rom 8).<br /><br />It is through the law that the believer senses the holiness of God. The law does not help the believer to be "righteous". To be ""righteous" the believer relies on Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit (Rom 7:7-25).<br /><br />The law and the commandments should be understood. They teach the believer about God and His Will (Rom 3:19,20).<br /><br />Nevertheless, it should be known that the essential teaching of Jesus is that He came to fulfill the law and the Old Testament commandments through His blood of the covenant, the covenant instituted by His death and resurrection (Rom 21-31).<br /><br />The new covenant relationship with God is through Jesus Christ. The new commandment given by Jesus is simply stated and is awesome considering its simplicity:<br /><br />John 13:34,35 <strong><em>“A new commandment I give you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” </em></strong><br /></span><strong><em><br /></em></strong><span style="font-size:130%;">IX. TO BE RIGHT WITH SELF<br /><br />Paul’s inspired teachings in the book of Romans instructs the reader about righteousness in human terms. By his own personal testimony he provides a picture of human vagaries that is no different today compared to two thousand years ago (Rom 7). The human nature is defiled by sin, and there is no hope that true righteousness may be obtained without first realizing a right relationship with God:<br /></em></strong><br />· This omnievident reality holds for the nonbeliever.<br /><br />· It also holds for the believer where faith is subordinated, where the believer is distracted by religious zeal, church infractions and/or religious legalism.<br /><br />· And it holds for the believer who strays, for a number of reasons - some good, some bad, from the walk with and dependence on the Holy Spirit.<br /><br />The anxious cry is heard from many who wish a release from the problem of finding self:<br /><br /><strong>“WHAT MUST I DO?”</strong><br /><br />For many believing Christians and nonbelievers alike, the question becomes centered on, “What must one do to become right with one’s self?”<br /><br />There are thousands of psychological counselors and false religions attempting to satisfy this problem on a personal level, and all this effort bears a great cost in time, money and anxiety, with few if any truly satisfactory results.<br /><br />The response to this questioning is not pleasing for most people, particularly the individuals who do not believe in God, the great majority of people in the secular domain of the world. The problem is a universal one, affecting all mankind.<br /><br />Despite all this, the solution may be simply obtained for the one who wishes the one and only “right” answer.<br /><br />The conclusion is startling considering the overwhelming search today by nonbelievers and Christians alike to “find self” or to enhance the self image:<br /><br />TO BE RIGHT WITH ONE’S SELF ONE MUST, FIRST OF ALL, BE RIGHT WITH GOD.<br /><br />X. BEING RIGHT WITH GOD<br /><br />A right relationship with God is actualized through the way provided by Belief in Jesus Christ and the acceptance of the gift of righteousness by maintaining an obedient relationship with Christ’s greatest gift to us, the Holy Spirit. In this context:<br /><br />· It is the Holy Spirit’s direction to convict the nonbeliever about righteousness and sin, as a part of the nonbeliever’s finding the Way in Jesus Christ.<br /><br />· It is the Church’s responsibility, as guided by His Holy Spirit, to inspire the Christian to be obedient by love and faith, and not by religious zeal and legalism, · to bear fruit in the work to glorify God.<br /><br />· And, it is for the individual Christian to know and understand that Jesus Christ is Lord and that the indwelled Holy Spirit guides the Christian on the sanctifying walk to glory.<br /><br />RIGHTEOUSNESS!</span>Otis Page's Blogshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14932733213884103183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20207460.post-1135710452806332182005-12-27T10:50:00.000-08:002006-01-02T09:10:57.663-08:00MANKIND’S SKEPTICISM AND DISBELIEF<span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:times new roman;">ABJECT SKEPTICISM TOWARDS GOD<br /><br />What is the mind-set of a nonbeliever’s resigned mistrust and disbelief of God, that human attitude that impresses the operative Wrath in the life of the lost? (Rom 1:18-20)<br /><br />The “thoughtful” nonbeliever is typically relegated to a cynical conclusion that God is mythical, and the life on earth is a one time transient existence ended by death. These are facts as far as the nonbeliever is concerned! Because, God doesn’t exist in the nonbeliever’s mind. Inevitable death and subjugation to the Wrath are life’s two certainties for those who reject God.<br /><br />There is little doubt that the “thinking” nonbeliever will acknowledge the following humanistic/philosophic/religious concepts relating to mankind’s existence on earth:<br /><br />· Morality: the conscious judgment and conduct as to what is right and what is wrong.<br /><br />· Love: that attitude or conviction of caring for someone or something more that the caring for one’s self.<br /><br />· Evil: the manifestation of self centeredness, the caring of self before others, the exercise of that which is wrong in terms of conduct regarding others.<br /><br />· Sin: a transgression or offense against a moral law, the act of being morally wrong based upon accepted or imposed norms of conduct.<br /><br />It is also a responsible assumption that the culturally endowed “thinking” nonbeliever who has an informed judgment on most worldly topics -- including religion --will accept that the Bible is, as a minimum:<br /><br />· A historic mythology.<br /><br />· A statement that provides many moral truths and wisdom.<br /><br />· A significant story of human fallibility measured against the ideals represented by the character and teachings of Jesus Christ.<br /><br />· The basis for all true Christian religions and a significant influence on the development and sustenance of Western civilization.<br /><br />Further, most “thinking” nonbelievers - who are critically informed about Christianity and the diversity of Christ’s Church on earth - will acknowledge that the story of Jesus Christ, His teachings, and the teachings of the Apostles represent a high ethical calling for all mankind.<br /><br />This all substantiates a highly probable truth that the thinking nonbeliever may objectively conclude, in a tainted atheistic or agnostic attitude, that the God revealed in the Bible does not exist. Therefore, at best, the Bible is a concocted mythology evolved or devised by mankind for mankind’s mythical purposes. </span><br /></span><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">The essence of this conclusion is that mankind created the God of the Bible. That the God of the Bible did not create mankind. That the tradition of the Trinity is a bogus rationale, that Jesus Christ was not divine.<br /><br />After all, following Durant’s cynical opinion, stated before, the culturally endowed nonbeliever may conclude that, following God’s laws of nature, children are not born of virgins, men do not walk on water, seas are not parted by divine direction, a basket of fish will not feed thousands, people who die do not return to life.<br /><br />Further, in the nonbeliever’s experience, angels do not deliver messages to people. The theory of evolution is scientific and more sensible than Creationism or Divine Intelligence as advocated by the Church. Further, the Church appears to tumble on itself with doctrinal infractions breeding dissension. Many religious apparitions and TV preachers are proven to be fraudulent, and the promise of eternal life is seems impossible and cannot be proven.<br /><br />Critically approved histories and scientific review do not confirm any of the Church’s miracles.The prevailing consensus of many nonbelieving contemporary scholastics is that the Bible is, at best, a mythology of unreal idealism.<br /><br />Following the reverse thread of this conclusion, there is one basis the “thinking” nonbeliever cannot deny if he or she ascribes the Bible to being mythology. It is the ethical ideals and resulting standards provided by God’s Word, especially that Word in the New Testament of Jesus Christ.<br /><br />Why is this so? Obviously, even a mythical Christ is an incredible example and lesson of goodness. That is why most nonbelievers like Jesus - - even to the point of wishing, if not hoping, that the myth about Jesus was true!<br /><br />After all! Many nonbelievers celebrate His birth at Christmas, His resurrection at Easter, and observe Christian ceremonies at times of marriage, birth, death, including occasional prayers at meals or other events consistent with social custom.<br /><br />This indirect acknowledgment, on the nonbeliever’s behalf, gives the true believer the impression that nonbelievers are hedging their bets against the possibility that it is not a myth after all, that the supposive myth could all be true. The certainty of the nonbeliever’s ultimate death, and the finality it implies, is not an encouraging alternative considering the promise of eternal life made by Jesus Christ secured in love!<br /><br />In another sense, it is as to say that the “thinking” nonbeliever chooses to deny the reality suggested by the myth, but he or she cannot deny the ethic that the myth represents. Of course, the myth is not a myth for the believer. It is not a tale merely exceeding the romantic lessons of the knights of King Arthur’s round table, the rumblings of ancient Scandinavian gods, or the obsessive erotic habits of numerous deities of Greek lore. Belief is a reality not only for the ethical standards it imposes but also for the promise it represents, a conviction fulfilled by God’s gifts of Faith and Righteousness. (Eph 2:8; Rom 5:17)<br /><br />SKEPTICISM DEFINED<br /><br />Skepticism literally defined in the context of what follows is the contemptuous distrust of religion including Christianity and the denial of the reality of God.<br /><br />The history of Christianity and Western civilization is inseparable. Throughout the history of Western civilization there have been waves of human Skepticism directed at the Christian Church. In many instances, these cynical periods have been justifiably provoked by excesses attributable to mankind’s occasional self directed exploitation of Church authority.<br /><br />The discussion of Skepticism raises difficult questions that stimulate discomfort and negativity. One can ignore Skepticism. But, by ignoring Skepticism one serves Skepticism’s dual purpose:<br /><br />· To undermine confidence in one’s belief or walk to belief.<br /><br />· To attack Christianity as a defense of one’s choice not to believe.<br /><br />Confronting Skepticism, by understanding its’ thesis and arguments, enhances the foundation to lead the nonbeliever that has a cynical persuasion to an obedient Hope and Love for God. But this is a difficult task, for facing Skepticism’s arguments is a distasteful task for the Christian who wishes to bask in the love and comfort of His Word and the relationship of believing brothers and sisters in Christ.<br /><br />SKEPTICISM’S DIFFICULT QUESTIONS<br /><br />The song of Skepticism is a constant moaning by the lost nonbeliever. These moanings (borrowed and amended from Philip Schaff’s History of the Christian Church) include provocative, difficult questions such as:<br /><br />· Why should God have given his revelation to one small people, the Jews, and let it remain their exclusive possession for four thousand years?<br /><br />· And then send to them a new revelation, in Jesus Christ, that after almost two thousand years is still confined to a small part of the human race?<br /><br />· And why did He, during this time, allow the emergence of Mohammed and the proliferation of Islam, to decimate many places considered holy to Christianity?<br /><br />· What kind of God is this who punishes Adam and Eve for seeking knowledge and then punish all mankind for merely being born?<br /><br />· Why does he use intermediaries such as priests, ministers, and other “holys”, instead of speaking directly to us?<br /><br />· Why is it that even “true believers” rile with each other on the interpretation of God’s Word, breeding an angry diversity within all formal religions and within Christ’s church?<br /><br />· How can He explain why His specially revealed religion has been an engine of persecution, terror, strife, leaving men not better morally, after centuries of this dispensation, than before?<br /><br />· How can a serious witness for God state “the history of the Bible is infallible” when such a teaching defies the progress of knowledge?<br /><br />· How can God - who is omnipotent and prescient according to church teachings - condone the many natural disasters that condemn innocents (Christians and non Christians alike) to suffering and early death?<br /><br />When viewed in total context and considered without thought of intelligent reply, these questions breach and undermine the confidence sustained by Hope. They are malevolent in character and intent. They show a spirit of malice that wishes to place the worst construction on everything, indicating either an ignorance of or a purposeful hate for God.<br />For, in every instance, the inspiration for each question has been a denial of the evident witness of God’s Love for those who believe and the corresponding witness of those who believe in their Love for God. (Rom 5:5)<br /><br />The destruction, denial or elimination of such Love is devastating. For, when Love dies mankind’s Hope, Faith and Belief also die. It is a true statement that God exists for those who Love Him, and He doesn’t for those who don’t.<br /><br />Mankind’s great error has historically been (and it will continue to be) putting itself before God. This was Adam’s and Eve’s fundamental sin. It is the primary sin that caused the prince of this world, Satan, the angel of darkness, to be dispelled from heaven. The manifestation of that sin is Pride. The consequences of this and other sins are many, and the form of these consequences is an expression of His Wrath, His annihilating reaction against unrighteousness sin.<br /><br />IMPORTANT ANSWERS TO SKEPTICISM’S QUESTIONS<br /><br />In contrast to the mean spiritedness of the forgoing questions, the following responses assume a different attitude:<br /><br />· That the questions are not asked with malevolent intent.<br /><br />· That the questioner is sincere in attempting to understand the difficult issues raised by the questions.<br /><br />· That learning about God and His Word may be obtained by their answer.<br /><br />With this attitude in mind, the answers become important for the following reasons:<br /><br />· As an enlightening explanation to the nonbeliever who is on the walk with Holy Spirit to becoming a Christian.<br /><br />· Because of the need for edification of the believer.<br /><br />· So that the believer is “armed” with the Truth when confronting the “lie” of Skepticism when witnessing to others.<br /><br />As stated before, fighting Skepticism, by squarely understanding its’ thesis and arguments, broadens the foundation for Hope and Love for God. The Truth will destroy the lie!<br /><br />There are very good answers to the above cynical questions for the listener with the open mind and heart, the listener who is sincere in seeking an understanding. It should be noted that the careful reader will observe a subtle change in the questions, faithfully repeated here, which “soften” their malevolent overtone.<br /><br />The answers to these questions, that follow, may appear to be as hard, in many respects, as the questions are in the first place. This is so because the reason for a person’s Skepticism is that he or she is looking into the looking glass and seeing their own reflection. For the issues raised by the questions relate to mankind’s conduct, in most instances, revealing humanity’s continuing disobedience of God.<br /><br /><strong><em>· Why did God give his revelation to one small people, the Jews, and let it remain their apparent exclusive possession for four thousand years?</em></strong><br /><br />Abraham, and his descendents through Isaac, loved God. God’s charter to the Jews was that He was the one and only God. The revelation to the “chosen” and the sending of the Law to the Jews was a means to bring mankind to an obedient relationship with God.<br /><br />The fact is that the Jews considered this their “exclusive possession,” in essence a select ecclesiastical heritage. And, because of this attitude, they failed God in evangelizing to others, the Gentiles. They also became so obsessed with their own religion, as exemplified by their legalistic following and propounding the law, that they confused their relationship with God by their ethnically oriented religious practice. And that is the state of the Jew today, a state of continuous disobedience with God, for seeing only themselves in terms of an extended family religion.<br /><br />This status of the ethnic institutional character of the Jewish religion is not unique to the Jews, however. It is replete throughout all religions of every type. The problem for the Jew, and those religions that trace their heritage through Abraham, is that the Jew was the first chosen by God according to revelatory Scripture. (Gen 17:20,21) The Judaic religion not only failed God, it denied Christ. And even today to be a Jew demands a blood heritage and not a heritage by Faith, as identified with Abraham, the father of the Judaic/Christian heritage (Rom 4).<br /><br />It is a tragedy of mankind that Jews have been, and are today, generally disliked for their elitist, differentiated, and bigoted appearance to others. Here are the chosen sons and daughters of Abraham and Sarah subject to the Wrath of the God that gave them the Abrahamic Covenant, for their continuing failures in placing themselves before others and God in their worship. They have taken seriously the sign of circumcision, thinking that it is the sign of their blood heritage, instead of it being the sign of Abraham’s righteousness through Faith (Rom 4). Truly, their religion has been and is their stumbling stone (Rom 9:32).<br /><br />But, the experience of mankind placing religion before God has been and is being repeated in other religions, including Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, the various Protestant Christian religions, and various Christian based sects which do not recognize His divinity. This is so even though the lesson of the Jews is vividly apparent in Paul’s New Testament letter to Romans.<br /><br />This is verified by the incredible wrathful disasters accorded the Jews in the Dispersion in 72 A. D. leading up through the Shoah in World War II and the present controversy encountered in Palestine. Will this same experience be accorded other religions? Of course, that is the lesson of history, where disobedience blinds the individual from the sanctity known only by the walk with Christ's Holy Spirit. (Rom 8:1-9)<br /><br />Nevertheless, the religious Jew must be honored in love by the God fearing Christian, for the Christian believes that God will honor his covenant with the Jews.<br /><br />This is, in a larger sense, the core issue in the United States today on the separation of Church and State. There is an important legal distinction between the reality of God and those religions that serve Him. This is where the marriage issue joins the matter of Church and State. The 1st Amendment of the U.S. Constitution provides “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” In no way does the 1st Amendment conclude there is no God! The 1st Amendment also confirms the “free exercise” of various religions to worship God.<br /><br /><strong>· <em>And then send to them a new revelation, in Jesus Christ, that after almost two thousand years is still confined to a small part of the human race</em></strong>?<br /><br />True Christians believe that God came down to earth in the form of a man, Jesus Christ. He came to us with the singular purpose of giving His life so that mankind could be forgiven and freed from His Wrath, so that His Love could be spread to His chosen, those who choose Him in love. He came to remind mankind that mankind is to love God.<br /><br />And He came to instruct mankind that its order of worship for Him, mankind’s religions, was not to get in the way of the love for Him. He came to give mankind the Truth and the commitment that His Holy Spirit would abide with us and in us if mankind had Hope and Love for Him.<br /><br />He came to shed His blood as a satisfaction of all of mankind’s unrighteousness and disobedience (sin) and to place the Christian in an eternal right relationship with God. The good news is that by having an obedient Hope and Love for Him and His Son Jesus Christ, God Incarnate, believers will receive his free, gracious gifts of Faith and Righteousness, providing a sustaining conviction in a new nature seeking the Christ-like personality promised by the gift of the Holy Spirit’s Fruit (Gal 5:22,23).<br /><br />That message has been the doctrine to billions of people during the past two thousand years (Rom 1:16). And, that message is the most important message being heard today, as mankind advances forward with a burgeoning world population.<br /><br />All of this coincides with the development of earthly devices and techniques combined with environmental and moral abuses which can devastatingly wipe mankind off the face of the earth. It is all so clear and mathematically predictable. The events described in Revelations are approaching.<br /><br />Take heart! Take heart! Christianity generally, and Christian renewal specifically, is a growing, vibrant movement through out the world even though it is being attacked by secularists, pansexuals and religious elements (Islam) that wish to destroy it. The consistency, sufficiency, certainty and authority of the Bible, is repeated in every tongue. It is a beacon of Truth that is the foundation of the promised extension of the Gospel to all of the human race, including those that hate God.<br /><br />Beyond this, the Bible provides the standard that substantiates the true Christian Faith, that objective Faith that is called Christ’s Church, with ancient Church traditions going back to the Apostolic era. This means that His Word ties the traditions of the Roman Catholic, the Orthodox, Lutheran, true Anglicans, and all reformed protestant religions together. In another important sense, considering the full meaning of Romans 4, it also ties all descendents of Abraham through Faith, all those religions that worship God and acknowledge the First Commandment. This includes Islam! With this point made and established, let us consider the next question:<br /><br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><em>· Why did He, during this time, allow the emergence of Mohammed and the proliferation of Islam, to decimate many places considered holy to Christianity?<br /></em></strong><br />Christianity was a significant force in the development of Western civilization. But, even with the historical evolution of Christianity, the growth of various sects and a burgeoning hierarchy in the Roman Church was taking God from mankind and mankind from God. For there was no widely published Word at this time.<br /><br />The Gospel’s dissemination relied on the circulation of hand written copies of the Gospel text and a reliance on an “oral tradition”. The so-called priesthood and the laity, and the general at-large public, were predominantly illiterate. Besides this, the evolution of the formal Bible, as it is constituted today, took shape over the first five centuries, a patient and remarkable gestation guided by His Holy Spirit.<br /><br />Islam is a Christian cult, since Mohammed states Jesus is a prophet second to himself. The Koran is replete with references to Christ, Mary and the Holy Spirit! Mohammed came under the influence of the Nestorian heresy which coincidently questioned the divinity of Christ while inspiring the doctrine of Mary, “the mother of God.”<br /><br />Islam honors Moses and the book of Genesis. Yet Islam ignores the teaching in Genesis 17:18-21:<br /><br />“</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><em>And Abraham said to God, ‘Oh that Ishmael might live before Thee!’ But God said, ‘No, but Sarah your wife will bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; and I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I will bless him, and make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall become the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. But My covenant I will establish with Isaac whom Sarah will bear to you at this season next year.</em>’”</em><br /></strong><br />What is the explanation of Islamic “theologians” regarding this historic Scripture? They say Mohammed did not acknowledge these verses in Genesis even though these verses existed thousands of years before Mohammed!<br /><br />It is established in Matthew 1:1-17 that Jesus Christ is of the line though Isaac. These verses (1:1-17) introduce the record on the birth of Jesus Christ in verses 18-25, Whose’ birth we celebrate each Christmas season. Mohammed came through the line of Ishmael.<br /><br />God has His plan. He is in no hurry. Eternity provides a very different dimension! It discards the temporal perspective of four score years and ten compared to the perspective that is not constrained by concepts of time. And we in the present age are merely a small phase of God’s plan where mankind becomes reconciled to His eternal scheme. This reconciliation necessitates an understanding of believing mankind’s management of His affairs on earth.<br /><br />Unfortunately, the system of mankind’s management of his earthly affairs is to glorify mankind, and this phenomena was starting to effect the Christian churches on earth in the seventh century when Islam started to emerge.<br /><br />This problem of glorifying mankind as contrasted to God continued into the sixteenth century when the Protestant reformation took place. The Christian religions began to suffer the same manifestation experienced by the Jews during the Apostolic age, as a result of the conflict of obedience to the religion versus obedience to God.<br /><br />Religion is a system of order and worship. It is not an end to itself as a de facto substitute for Hope and Love for God the Trinity. This is a hard lesson for all serious and devout Christians: to not let religion become an end to itself by subverting the extraordinary indwelling of the Holy Spirit on a one on one personal basis with the believer. Religion’s purpose is to support the believer in his or her personal, one on one relationship with the Triune God. The Bible is remarkably clear on this truth!<br /><br />The outstanding fact is that while most Christian religions are based on the Bible as the fundamental cannon for church dogma and doctrine, many Christian religions dangerously subvert the Bible to mankind conceived doctrines, represented to be inspired, that either directly conflict with God’s Word in the Bible or that establish independent doctrines that are completely differentiated and irrelevant when compared to God’s Word.<br /><br />The Bible is the fundamental statement of God’s Word. It is ancient and “constitutionally sufficient” for all purposes of Christian guidance: for the church, for the family, and for the individual.<br /><br />The divisions between major God based religions, that share a fundamental and controversial decent from Abraham, are based on Hate today. And Hate is a violent sin subject to God’s punishment by His Wrath. God has demonstrated, throughout history, that He is mercifully tolerant, yet His Wrath may be violently administered:<br /><br />· To peoples who place their religion on the alter to be worshipped instead of Him, and;<br /><br />· Where the religion(s) create strife stimulating Hate between God’s beloved.<br /><br />Christ’s Body, His Church, has been wounded in the past by Christian strife, and the division of His ministry today continues those wounds. Those in church authority, responsible for church dogma and doctrine, that foster division in Christ’s Body and, further, obviate the Truth of God’s Word, bear a heavy earthly responsibility subject to God’s Wrath and Judgment. Such wrathful judgments have always been profound, especially when we consider our own Adamic heritage.<br /><br /><strong><em>· Why did God punish Adam and Eve for seeking knowledge and then punish all mankind for merely being born?</em></strong><br /><br />Whether actually or symbolically considered, the great sin of Adam and Eve is that their seeking of “knowledge” was an expression of disobedience that violated their Love for God by replacing that Love with the love of self!<br /><br />Here is the most fundamental concept that has plagued mankind since the Garden of Eden: mankind now has the choice. The choice is to obediently love God, and by that act, be a beneficiary of God’s Love and His Grace, or to love self. In other words, in another way to “see” this truth, it is a choice between God’s Grace or God’s Wrath.<br /><br />Is this given choice a punishment by God? Many consider the choice to be a punishment, for how else was the question, posed above, (Why did God punish Adam and Eve...?) inspired in the first place?<br /><br />God’s punishment is that mankind has the choice to love Him or to love self, since Adam and Eve disobeyed and denied His Love in the first place. The Bible clearly establishes that all mankind shares in the heritage of this primordial, sinful decision. And, since man and woman are very intelligent, rational individuals with free will and a “human responsibility,” they are given the individual opportunity to choose.<br /><br />God gave man and woman free-will, a concept recognized fully in the fifth century, nearly fifteen hundred years ago! The exercise of their free-will allows the ominous choice of having or not having Hope and Love for God, a choice of accepting or denying God’s Graceful gift of Faith, with the formidable consequence of having Belief or not having Belief in Him. For the constituents of Belief are Hope, Faith and Love where the Hope and Love for God is the human responsibility and Faith is given as a gift of God (Eph2:8) as a part of the overall gift of Salvation.<br /><br />Man and woman’s God given power to think and rationalize gives them the cynical basis to conclude there is no God. This is an obvious factor when one ignorantly considers the earthly tragedies that effect the innocent, the sick, the poor and the larger evils perpetrated by mankind’s inhumanity to itself. This is especially illustrated by the convergence and clashing of the various strata of human power factions that control, and frequently devastate, every level of mankind’s earthly and fleshly destiny.<br /><br />This power of rationalization becomes, in a larger sense, a self fulfilling rationalization leading to agnosticism, atheism, extreme liberal demands to make certain sins accepted moral practice. This rationalization induces “fence setting and backsliding”, not knowing which way to turn, a malady suffered by many who are professed Christians, who do not have a true Saving Faith and resulting Belief.<br /><br />Further, mankind is free to follow or ignore God’s laws, whether the laws are the natural laws characterized and specified by science, or the moral laws that are revealed by Biblical commandments. Mankind’s prerogative, inspired by its free-will, to follow or ignore such rules extends to mankind’s evolving quest for a social moral order politicized by a given society’s secular law. Of course, the violation of any of these secular laws exposes the offender to a penalty. The violation of God’s laws is characterized as unrighteous Sin and subjects the nonbeliever to His Wrath, the consequence unbelief. (Rom 1:18:32).<br /><br />It is truly an incredible thing that mankind’s choice to believe is so completely clouded by the question of whether God exists or not. This is mankind’s escaping rationale, avoiding the “human responsibility” accorded by its free-will, to place the responsibility on someone other, or some factor other, than its God given faculty to look at the obvious evidence and decide for itself. It is as to say, “Well, if I knew He existed I would certainly love Him.” What does the Bible teach us about this?<br /><br /><em><strong>“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.”</strong></em> (Rom 1:18-20)<br /><br />Again, if this is not true, then the whole Bible is a lie! Considering this, mankind can not exercise the choice without exercising the duty to choose well. Not choose well means the invocation of God’s wrath in all of its direct and subtle forms. Mankind ignores this truth in a sometimes cynical and cursory deliberation on the question of establishing a right relationship with God through Jesus Christ.<br /><br />Yet, this same situation applies to a significant part of the constituency of Christians who pay lip service to the social demands of appearing Christian without giving serious thought to the concept that it isn’t the Belief in God that comes first, it is the Hope and Love for God!<br /><br />Hope and Love for God, the primary constituents of Belief, sponsors His free gift of Faith (Eph 2:8).<br /><br /><strong><em>· Why does God use intermediaries, such as priests and ministers, instead of speaking directly to us?</em></strong><br /><br />The Bible instructs the believer that God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, is with and indwells the believer. God does speak directly to and guide the believer. Prayer and meditation is a key channel of this communication. God’s personal, direct revelation is an incredible reality, made to every believer!<br /><br />The following is borrowed from the book, My Church, by Gordon Johnson:<br /><br /><em><strong>“There is no separate priesthood in the New Testament. Jesus broke down the barrier between God and mankind that made the priesthood necessary. His death on the cross rent the veil that separated the priesthood from the people. His death made possible a direct access into the presence of God by all who put their trust in Him.”</strong></em><br /><br />Hebrews 10:19,20: </span><span style="font-size:130%;"><em><strong>“Since therefore, brethren, we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His Flesh”<br /></strong></em><br />Now the only mediator between mankind and God is Christ himself:<br /><br />1Timothy 2:5: <em><strong>“For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”</strong></em><br /><br />No other human mediator is necessary, and none can assume the role. There may be teaching (by the priests and ministers), there may be preaching, but each individual is accountable and has the privilege of direct access to God.<br /><br />This Truth is the key to the lock of Skepticism. The problem is it is a Truth known only by the believer, and it can not be known by the cynic, the nonbeliever. For to know this Truth means that the cynical nonbeliever no longer exists, for the miracle of repentance, conversion, baptism and regeneration in Christ by the Spirit of God is the profound experience in anyone’s life.<br /><br />This rebirth drives a stake in Satan’s heart, cripples and kills “<strong><em>the old man</em></strong>”, buries him, and resurrects a new creature (Rom 6: 1-9) with a special relationship with God through the Holy Spirit (Rom 8:11).<br /><br /><strong><em>· Why is it that “true believers” argue on the interpretation of God’s Word, breeding diversity within Christ’s church?</em></strong><br /><br />One must understand that in matters of religious belief, fraud abounds. The devil is always at work sustaining and maintaining his flock, the unbelieving sheep of this world. A true believer seeks the knowledge of God’s Word, the Bible, in Hope for understanding and with a Love for the Word as it yields a Sanctifying knowledge.<br /><br />Here is one of the most troubling challenges for believers. It is a problem area that delights the informed, nonbelieving cynic. The believer must develop a sense of discernment in understanding Scripture and the doctrines offered by formal religion. That is why “’true believers’ argue on the interpretation of God’s Word, breeding diversity within Christ’s church.”<br /><br />Diversity exists in interpretation and in the practice of doctrine, the teachings where a religious organization reaches beyond what the Bible says, or precludes the reading of the Bible by Church members, or, by precept, ignores the Bible and its’ teachings.<br /><br />There are religious organizations that use versions of the Bible that are purposefully modified with the objective of supporting their own belief and doctrine. These Bible versions are not faithful to the oldest known Greek and Hebrew texts. These religions dangerously subvert the Bible to man conceived doctrines, represented to be inspired, that either directly conflict with God’s Word or that establish independent doctrines that are completely differentiated and irrelevant when compared to the Bible’s teachings.<br /><br />It is important, therefore, to have a correct Bible, and a doctrinal discipline that is Bible based. A “true believer” knows and loves God’s Word. He can answer the above question because it is the simple thesis of a true believer that God’s Word, the Bible, is consistent, without contradiction, sufficient, certain, and authoritative. And, it can be understood, without acrimonious contradiction and misinterpretation, by patient reading, the use of supporting explanatory reading materials, and deliberation with a priest’s, minister’s, or elder’s assistance and teachings - all under the divine support of the Helper, God’s Holy Spirit.<br /><br />It is incredible that the Bible’s Truths have existed over two thousand years, and that these Truths become more meaningful, for all mankind, with each passing year, even though there is diversity and fraud.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><em>· How can a serious witness for God state “the history of the Bible is infallible” when such a teaching appears to defy and retard the progress of knowledge?<br /></em></strong><br />There really is no inconsistency between the progress of knowledge and the Bible’s history. There have been noted failures, by those in authoritative church positions, that has resulted in conflicts between church doctrine and the “progress of knowledge”.<br /><br />An “authentic” Bible is in fact a source of a consistent, sufficient, certain and authoritative knowledge that transcends anything that has resulted from man’s attempts in philosophy and certain branches of science, that pretend to substitute for God’s Word.<br /><br />By way of example, one of the most prevalent “progress of knowledge” controversies is the Creationist versus Evolutionist confrontation. But the Bible’s teachings in Genesis have neither retarded or defeated the Darwinian theory. In fact, many Creationist arguments are scientifically derived.<br /><br />The attempts by Creationist and those advocation Intelligent Design to influence secular law to allow the teaching of Evolution and other theories is inhibited by the reluctance of an apathetic populace regarding the debate in the secular courts and representative legislatures of the law. Creationism and/or the theory of Intelligent Design are not retarding the progress of knowledge in this case; the opposite is true.<br /><br />The infallibility of the Bible is a basic Truth for those who believe. The “progress of knowledge” excites this conclusion to the great benefit of those who have the opportunity to believe and have yet to come to the Faith. The Constitution of the United States protects this possibility not because it is a lie! But, because it preserves God’s Truth, by assuring the religious freedom of each citizen in the fabric of America’s multi racial and religious secular makeup. America! America! In God We Trust!<br /><br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><em><strong>· How do you explain why Christianity has appeared to been used as an engine of persecution, terror, and strife at certain times, which suggests leaving men not better morally, after centuries of this dispensation, than before?<br /></strong></em><br />It is a mistake to characterize Christianity as an “engine of persecution”. First of all, Christianity does not condone, nor can It tolerate the historic excesses by mankind, in the name of Christianity, that have led to specific “persecutions, terror, and strife” by major dominions of Roman Catholic and Protestant authority. Second, in point of fact, these actions violates God’s and Jesus Christ’s commandments to not only love God but to love one another (John 4:7 thru 19).<br /><br />These crimes against humanity, perpetrated in the name of Christianity, are another example of mankind’s human and sinful practice to glorify self by the hate of, not the love of God. This fact is a sobering reminder and exemplification that just because one is a professed Christian does not mean that one has a true Faith and Belief or that one possesses their noble constituents, Hope and Love.<br /><br />The question of mankind’s moral stature, “after centuries of this dispensation”, can be simply delineated. Despite the gross sins of people in authority within the Christian religions on earth, the predominant judgment is that Christianity has been a significant, dynamic, permanent force of “righteousness” and influence that has been the mainstay of Western man’s leadership in the evolving growth of the world during the past two thousand years. Even though there has been evil, there has been, in balance, far, far, far more good because of the inexhaustible force of God’s love and Grace.<br /><br /><strong><em>· How can God, who is omnipotent and prescient according to church teachings, allow the many natural disasters that condemn innocents, Christians and non Christians alike, to suffering and early death?</em></strong><br /><br />It is the world’s natural order that the laws of nature prevail; the laws of nature are God’s laws. These laws are specified by man as a result of his knowledge and understanding through study and scientific observation.<br /><br />One of these laws is the reality that all persons die in an earthly sense. Further, mankind is subjected to physical laws that, if violated, can yield a catastrophic result. There is a high probability that the most pious Christian, jumping from the top of the Empire State building, will meet his or her earthly end. Further, it is a natural result that disease, famine, pestilence. accident and natural disasters may hasten death and cause suffering. This is the world that we live in. It is not the Garden of Eden where suffering and death were unknown.<br /><br />It is because of this temporary, risk filled excursion called life that mankind - these very intelligent individuals with the power of free-will - should be contemplative of the reality of a “<strong><em>higher power”</em></strong> that not only provides a better means for an earthly existence, also promises the reality of a life forever in and with that “power”.<br /><br />The laws of nature do not discriminate between believers and nonbelievers: all men suffer and die in a physical sense.<br /><br />Nonbelieving mankind’s accusative complaint that God condones suffering and death points to the real issue of the Wrath, non believing man and woman’s fundamental ungrateful attitude to think of self first and not recognize a great Truth, to come to know Him in love.<br /><br />After all, shouldn’t unbelieving mankind bow in thanks for the fact that it has the opportunity of the life experience in the first place? This self centered attitude cynically directed at God is the source of misery, confirmed by the fact that mankind’s actions take the form of His Wrath and causes more havoc, suffering, and premature death than all natural catastrophic disorders combined.<br /><br />An illustrative substantiation is there are over 35,000 people killed on the nation’s highways each year. Is this God’s work, or is it mankind’s? Is this a manifestation of the Wrath? No, God’s Wrath is directed at sin, not at innocents.<br /><br />The promise of Jesus Christ is to comfort the many forms of mankind’s suffering by having a Spirit filled, joyful, moral life on earth, and an everlasting life thereafter through Hope, Faith and Love, a Consummate Belief.<br /><br />Mankind’s choice to believe this is the difference between true suffering and death, in one cast of life’s experience on earth, and a patient suffering with earthly adversity combined with a confident knowledge that this life (the very short time on earth) is a transient experience guided by the Holy Spirit on a path to a greater glory, through Jesus Christ, by having a Hope and Love for God.<br /><br />THE DIVERSITY OF RELIGION<br /><br />PROBABLE BARRIERS TO BELIEF<br /><br />One barrier for a thinking nonbeliever coming to belief is the skepticism inspired by the stories of religious events that appear to be mythical. Typical of these are the events described in the Creation story, Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham’s talks with God, Moses, the birth of Jesus, His death, resurrection and ascension.<br /><br />Superimposed on these events are the doctrines of many religions that make assertions and postulations of belief based on certain suppositions and claims by leading prophets. Prominent among these “religious faiths” are the original beginnings of the Jewish religion (Moses), the Christian Catholic Church (Peter and Paul) sustained by miracles and myth, the rise of the Reformation (Luther and Calvin) that did not dispute the miracles and myths of the Catholic system, only rejecting the system’s abuses, the rise of Islam (Mohammed), the incredible rise of Mormonism (Joseph Smith and Brigham Young) and Christian Science (Mary Baker Eddy).<br /><br />Accepting the probability that a religion’s claims are purposefully “imaginative” in terms of the miracles and mythical aspects of the stories told, there, nevertheless, is the reality that when dismissing their claims, much remains. For the constitutional aspects of Scripture is a formidable testament and influence on the progress, moral standards and the intellectual development of mankind. A mythical god of goodness is better than a reality of evil. When stripped of its miracles and myths, the remaining principles of a religion’s goodness and its’ teachings on evil remain as formidable lessons for mankind and, importantly, do not disprove the reality of God.<br /><br />THE CONSTITUTIONAL BASIS OF SCRIPTURE<br /><br />The constitutional aspect of the Scriptures is important as a means to explain and understand the diversity and differences of various religions. That is a hope that is established in the book of Romans. It specifies mankind’s need to reconcile with the message on God’s perfection and righteousness. Romans specifies the issues of sin for both the believer and nonbeliever, the nature of God’s grace manifested in His gifts as a function of a believer’s acceptance of God’s love, and the symbolic manifestation of the myth and miracle of Christ’s testimony and story in the reality of the believer’s life.<br /><br />Here then is then a reliable conclusion, that myth and miracle portrayed in story indisputably establishes truth and meaning in the life of the believer!<br /><br />THE GENESIS BASIS OF SCRIPTURE<br /><br />The constitutional authority of Scripture, relying on the probable assumption that its stories of miracle are mythical, is the historic basis for religions relying on the Genesis story. Yet two major religions defy this constitutional aspect of the Bible Islam and the Church of Latter Day Saints with their two cannons: the Koran and the Book of Mormon.<br /><br />The God of Abraham is the God of the Jews, Christians and Islam. All Jews, Christians and Islam are descended from Abraham who God chose to be "the father of nations".<br /><br />Islam honors Moses and the book of Genesis. Yet Islam ignores the authenticated teaching in Genesis 17:18-21:<br /><br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><em><strong>“And Abraham said to God, ‘Oh that Ishmael might live before Thee!’ But God said, ‘No, but Sarah your wife will bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; and I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I will bless him, and make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall become the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. But My covenant I will establish with Isaac whom Sarah will bear to you at this season next year.’”<br /></strong></em><br />Mohammed came through the line of Ishmael. What is the explanation of Islamic “theologians” regarding this historic Scripture? They say Mohammed did not acknowledge these verses in Genesis even though these verses existed thousands of years before Mohammed!<br /><br />Regarding the Jews, they reject the line through and to Jesus Christ! It is established in Matthew 1:1-17 that Jesus Christ is of the line though Isaac. These verses (1:1-17) introduce the record on the birth of Jesus Christ in verses 18-25, Whose’s birth is celebrated at the Christmas season.<br /><br />The Mormons and many other “Christian religions” reject the teaching of the Trinity, that authenticates that God consists of the Father, the Son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. But the Mormons have the strongest testimony on the existence of the Trinity in the Chapter 7 of The Book of Mormon of any known religious cannon including the New Testament!<br /><br />“</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><em>And he hath brought to pass the ‘redemption of the world, whereby he that is found guiltless before him at the judgment day hath it given unto him to dwell in the presence of God in his kingdom, to sing ceaseless praise with the choirs above, into the Father, and unto the Son, and unto the Holy Ghost, which are one God, in a state of happiness which hath no end.”<br /></em></strong><br />The writer believes formal religion, per se, separates us from a true understanding of His revelation in Scripture. The God of Abraham unites us (Rom 4:13-17), but our uniquely defined religions separate us. No wonder the secularists are justified in pleading for the separation of Church and State.<br /><br />The understanding of this is a beginning wisdom in explaining the diversity of the Christian faiths and the various major demarcations of Islam and the Jewish beliefs with their numerous sects and cults.<br /><br />GOD’S LOVE FOR THE NONBELIEVER<br /><br />THE GREEKS HAD A NAME(S) FOR IT<br /><br />The writer has never studied the Greek language, except in discerning the use of certain words in the Bible. He believes, from his readings, the ancient Greeks sought specificity on philosophic issues, particularly when confronting social relations even though their language sentence structures are considered to have “a field of meaning.” Nevertheless, the concept of love appeared to be the “science” of their day. Where we wrap much meaning in the word “love” the Greeks used distinct terms to define its application.<br /><br />Philia and its derivatives was a common term to express fondness and loving behavior. Agape was used by the writers of the New Testament to express dimensions of God’s love. But, the word Eros, expressing sexual love is not found in the New Testament. The word erotic is derived from the Greek Eros. It captures the intimation of sexual love used in American English. This leaves the writer to his own speculations as to the meaning of the word and concept of love in both a subjective and objective sense.<br /><br />THE WRITER’S CONFESSION REGARDING LOVE<br /><br />As I look back on my experience as a nonbeliever I ask the question, have I ever understood what true love means? I delineate the meaning of love from sexual lust, affectation, friendship, infatuation, desire, fraternal, occupational and parental instincts.<br /><br />There is no question that I loved my mother and father, and that I love my dear wife and children. But was my love a true love or was it a form of expression where I loved because I wanted the psychic reward and comfort of satisfying my own self? In other words, was my love an expression of a self identifying pride, a love that was only a pretension in that I loved others as a form of loving myself?<br /><br />Could I willingly place myself on the Cross, suffer, shed my blood and die for the ones I love as Jesus Christ did for me, let alone His dismissing and forgiving all those in the world who hated Him? (Luke 23:34) Could I do this with the full intention of serving as a sacrifice in love for others and not with a self serving expression of a martyr seeking personal glory?<br /><br />There are many examples of those willing to give their lives as a martyr for personal glory, such as evidenced by the Islamic suicide bomber dieing in the name of Jihad, or the Kamikazes who gave their lives in the name of the Emperor to gain personal glory in WWII. These commitments to martyrdom are not in the name or love! Their deaths were a sacrifice for a cause but with the objective to obtain personal honor with the false promise and hope of personal glory. Such an intent and act may be the realization for one who has become apostate and then knows the error, such a Judas. (Matt 27:3-5) But the act of such sacrificial deaths is never the consummate expression of love for another.<br /><br />I ask these questions and make the above observation as a confession of my ignorance of what true love means in the context of God’s love, in the context of a deeper meaning when the “I” of my love was displaced by the deeper understanding of God’s love for me and the transforming power of that love in coming to understand and enhance my love for others.<br /><br />One should read the extensive testimony in Hebrews 11 that concludes that those who acted in faith, and who died because of their faith, did so knowing, <em><strong>“all these having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us, they should not be made perfect.”</strong></em> (11:39,40) This is the exemplification of God’s love for the believer – to give up one’s life for another -- by faith, and the reciprocal love of the believer for God. For faith is sustained by a love conduced by His Holy Spirit in an eternal time frame. That is the promise!<br /><br />THE LOVE OF GOD, WHICH IS IN JESUS CHRIST<br /><br />One answer to this expression of Christ’s love is the testimony of His ministry. It surpasses all tests and scrutiny on the historic reality of His existence and the truthfulness of His witness.<br /><br />For as the historian Durant concludes about Christ’s disciples, </span><span style="font-size:130%;"><em><strong>“That a few simple men should in one generation have invented so powerful and appealing a personality, so lofty an ethic and so inspiring a vision of human brotherhood, would be a miracle for more incredible than any recorded in the Gospels.”<br /></strong></em><br />There is an answer in Scripture to these questions.<br /><br /><em><strong>“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or famine, or nakedness or peril or sword? Just as it is written, ‘FOR THY SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG; WE WERE CONSIDERD AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUHTERED.’ But in all these things we overwhelming conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, not life, nor angels, nor principalities, not things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.</strong></em> (Rom 8:35-39)<br /><br />The transforming power of Christ’s love is coming to understand how a believer’s love for others is magnified in the context of the deeper understanding of God’s love. The “I” of my love is displaced by the empowerment of Christ’s love through His Holy Spirit.<br /><br />THE NONBELIEVER’S LOVE<br /><br />The writer’s definition of a believer’s Love is the unselfish concern, caring or hope for another, a manifestation of the believer’s deep and abiding relationship with Jesus Christ. That definition is different in terms of God’s love for the believer. That profound love is exemplified by His evidentiary benevolence, the extensive gifts given the believer including Salvation, the Holy Spirit, Faith, Righteousness, and Eternal Life, the absolute proof of God’s existence.<br /><br />What is a nonbeliever’s love? It is more often than not the concern or occupation with self, a manifestation of being “<strong><em>given over</em></strong>” to a self centered narcissistic conceit as a function of God’s wrath. (Rom 1:18-32)<br /><br />But what is God’s love for the nonbeliever? What does Scripture say on this important question?<br /><br />To put the question of God’s love for the unbeliever in context it is helpful to begin with Scripture that deals with the story of Abraham and His love for the believer that is “poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given us.” The subject of God’s love is introduced by the compelling verses in Rom 4:2-25; 5:1-5.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><em>“Therefore also IT (Faith) WAS RECKONED TO HIM (Abraham) AS RIGHTEOUSNESS. (Gen 15:6; Rom 4:3 ‘Abraham believed God’) Now not for his sake only was it written, that it was reckoned to him, but for our sake also, to whom it will be reckoned, as those who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, He who was delivered up because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification.<br /><br />Therefore having been justified by Faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by Faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.<br /><br />And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given us.”</em></strong><br /><br />Immediately continuing after these verses are the equally profound verses that answer the question regarding God’s love for nonbelievers in Romans 5:6-11.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><em>“For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous person; though perhaps for a good man someone would dare even to die.<br /><br />But God demonstrates His own love towards us that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.<br /><br />Much more then, having been justified by His blood, we will be saved by the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled we shall be saved by His life. And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.”<br /></em></strong><br />Does God love nonbelievers? The Scriptures say yes, for <strong><em>“Christ died for the ungodly. While we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son.”</em></strong> This does not say nonbelievers who when given the choice to believe are not judged and condemned. Nor does this excuse the nonbeliever from His wrath. It does mean God acts in love even though the nonbeliever does not in reciprocating for the obvious presence of God and His moral witness. (Rom 1:18,19; 2:14)<br /><br />That <strong><em>“love of God”</em></strong> which is <strong><em>“poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit”</em></strong> (Rom 5:5) is amplified and explained in 1 John 4:7-10.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><em>“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent his only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”<br /></em></strong><br />GOD’S LOVE FOR THE NONBELIEVER<br /><br />John MacArthur’s commentary on Romans 5:5, I John 4: 7-10.<br /><br /><strong><em>“For those who accept His offer of salvation, God takes His indescribable and undeserved love and pours it out within the hearts of those who believe, through His own Holy Spirit who he gives to them….. Paul now reveals that , in Christ, we are also given the subjective evidence of permanent salvation, evidence that God Himself implants within our deepest being, in that we love the one who first loved us.”</em></strong><br /><br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><em>“God’s immense love is supremely demonstrated by Christ’s dying for the ‘ungodly’, for totally unrighteous, undeserving and unlovable mankind. ‘But God demonstrates His own love towards us that while we were yet sinners, Christ dies for us.’ That sought of undeserved love is beyond human comprehension. Yet that is the love that the just and infinitely holy God had ‘toward us’ even ‘while we were yet sinners’.”<br /></em></strong><br />Gods seeks the lost nonbeliever:<br /><br />Luke 15:1-7 </span><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><em>“Now all the tax-gathers and the sinners were coming near Him to listen to Him. And both the Pharisees and scribes began to grumble, saying, ‘This man receives sinners and eats with them.’ And he told them this parable, saying, “What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture, and go after the one which is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulder rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost! I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.”<br /></em></strong><br />God rejoices in the nonbeliever who repents and believes:<br /><br />Luke 15:8-10 </span><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><em>“Or what women, if she has ten silver coins and loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls together her neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin which I have lost!’ In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of Angels of God over one sinner who repents.”<br /></em></strong><br /></span></span>Otis Page's Blogshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14932733213884103183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20207460.post-1135657726673805902005-12-26T20:07:00.000-08:002006-01-02T09:14:07.320-08:00WILL DURANT AND BELIEF IN JESUS CHRIST<span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><strong>WILL AND ARIEL DURANT<br /><br />Will Durant was born on November 5, 1885 in North Adams, Massachusetts. A prominent 20th century historian/ philosopher, he decided as a young man to study for the priesthood. Before fulfilling this calling, he broke with the Catholic Church, abandoning the commitment of intellectual and physical celibacy for the alternative of studies in philosophy and the natural comforts of marriage. </strong></span><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><strong></strong></span><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><strong>Will Durant taught school in New York City where he met his wife, Ariel. They married in 1913 and collaborated in their mutual intellectual endeavors over the next seventy eight years. Their lives ended within weeks of each other in the Fall of 1981, terminating a remarkable relationship memorialized by their commercially successful literary works dedicated to the recapitulation and analysis of history.</strong></span><br /></span><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><strong><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Authors of the “The Story of Civilization”, both Will and Ariel Durant were praised for their efforts in writing what some critics hailed “the most impressive history produced in the 20th century.” The Durants received the Pulitzer prize for “Rousseau and the Revolution”, the 10th volume of their splendid comprehensive work.<br /><br />“The Lessons of History” culminated their lifetime journey in the study of history and philosophy. This journey was commercially popularized by the wide distribution of “The History of Civilization” by the Book of the Month Club.<br /><br />A “reluctant” atheist, Will Durant’s conclusions on Christianity and religion, articulated in a gentle satirical style in his “Story of Civilization” and “Lessons of History,” provide a formidable and authentic view by which one may learn, and possibly understand, the atheistic “persuasion” regarding disbelief in God. This historic view quietly enumerates a philosophic disbelief in God by specifying the collusive role religion and the state have played in controlling humanity. The effect of this domination is the constraint of the individual free will and, as a consequence, individual freedom as actualized by the mesmerization of the civilized masses through the cynical manipulation of power by secular governing institutions.<br /><br />Durant’s writings, as excellent as they are, raise the question as to how objective can a historian be when prejudiced by a philosopher’s calling that concludes that God does not exist in assessing the history of mankind? At least as far as Durant is concerned, the answer to this question has a very interesting resolution, an answer the reader will hopefully discern by the patient reading of the following.<br /><br />The subsequent seven selections of Durant’s writings are accompanied with appropriate rebuttals regarding Durant’s “objective” assessment of history and his conclusions on religion and Christianity.<br /><br />CHRISTIANITY’S DECLINE<br /><br />Selection 1: The Lessons of History; Will and Ariel Durant;<br />1968: Chapter VII; Religion and History; Page 48<br /><br /><em>“The replacement of Christian with secular institutions is the culminating and critical result of the Industrial Revolution. That states should attempt to dispense with theological supports is one of the many crucial experiments that bewilder our brains and unsettle our ways today. Laws which were once presented as the decrees of a god-given king are now frankly the confused commands of fallible men. Education, which was the sacred province of god-inspired priests, becomes the task of men and women shorn of theological robes and awe, and relying on reason and persuasion to civilize young rebels who fear only the policeman and may never learn to reason at all. Colleges once allied to churches have been captured by businessmen and scientists. The propaganda of patriotism, capitalism, or Communism succeeds to the inculcation of a supernatural creed and moral code. Holydays give way to holidays. Theaters are full even on Sundays, and even on Sundays churches are half empty. In Anglo-Saxon families religion has become a social observance and protective coloration; in American Catholic families it flourishes; in upper- and middle- class France and Italy religion is “a secondary sexual characteristic of the female.”</em><br /><br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><em>"A thousand signs proclaim that Christianity is undergoing the same decline that fell upon the old Greek religion after the coming of the Sophists and the Greek Enlightenment.”<br /></em><br />Durant’s thesis is that Christianity, and religion in general, is experiencing a decline as a function of the lessening of man’s dependence on nature resulting from the coincident emergence of knowledge and the industrial society. The evidence of this, Durant concludes, is that Christianity is in decline.<br /><br />Durant’s attitude is historically confirmed, in a verifiable sense, in that it emulates the repeated “moanings” of the nonbelieving intellectual over the past five hundred years, to the effect, that God does not exist.<br /><br />Unfortunately, as will be seen, Durant is betrayed by his own questionable objectivity and admissions that religion per se, and Christianity specifically, is real in terms of the role it plays, and the contributions it has historically made, as a continuing positive influence on mankind and civilization over time (a fact acknowledged by Durant in the following).<br /><br />CHRISTIANITY’S END<br /><br />Selection 2: Chapter XII; Growth and Decay; Page 92 - 93;<br /><br /><em>“As education spreads, theologies lose credence, and receive an external conformity without influence upon conduct or hope. Life and ideas become increasingly secular, ignoring supernatural explanations and fears. The moral code loses aura and force as its human origin is revealed, and as divine surveillance and sanctions are removed. In ancient Greece the philosophers destroyed the old faith among the educated classes; in many nations of modern Europe the philosophers achieved similar results. Protagorus became Voltaire, Diogenes Rousseau, Democritus Hobbes, Plato Kant, Thrasymachus Nietzche, Aristotle Spencer, Epicurus Diderot. In antiquity and modernity alike, analytical thought dissolved the religion that had buttressed the moral code. New religions came, but they were divorced from the ruling classes, and gave no service to the state. An age of weary skepticism and epicureanism followed the triumph of rationalism over mythology in the last century before Christianity, and follows a similar victory today in the first century after Christianity.”</em><br /><br />Durant proclaims Christianity is ended (“in the first Century after Christianity”). He concludes that, within the last one hundred years, industrial civilization has supplanted the needs formerly addressed by religion. This thesis is refuted by the present resurgence of Christian momentum, sometimes callously exploited by misdirected opportunists (The discredited TV evangelists). This fact strongly supports mankind’s continued reaching for and worship of God.<br /><br />Durant’s conclusion suggests that something happened before the emergence of Christianity almost two thousand years ago. And, that happening is being repeated today. Could this suggest a misreading by Durant that the events preceding Christianity, repeated today, presage another event equal to the significance of Christ’s first coming? Could it portend of the prophetic predictions of the Bible telling mankind of the second coming of Christ?<br /><br />Because education spreads, the study of theology may be a smaller fraction of the total of all studies. This does not denote theology is diluted or has less credence. The moral code is no less understood or observed today than yesterday. These sweeping generalizations by Durant can not be defended. They seem to emanate from a tired self serving rationalization offered as casual conversation at a cocktail party rather than being the product of a disciplined academic conclusion.<br /><br />DOCTRINES THAT REASON SMILES AT<br /><br />Selection 3: Chapter VII; Religion and History; Page 45<br /><br /><em>“History has justified the Church in the belief that the masses of mankind desire a religion rich in miracle, mystery, and myth. Some minor modifications have been allowed in ritual, in ecclesiastical costume, and in episcopal authority; but the Church dares not alter the doctrines that reason smiles at, for such changes would offend and disillusion the millions whose hope have been tied to inspiring and consolatory imaginations. No reconciliation is possible between religion and philosophy except through the philosopher’s recognition that they have found no substitute for the moral function of the Church, and the ecclesiastical recognition of religious and intellectual freedom.”</em><br /><br />A great error of all Christian religions is the intransigent position on doctrines that reach beyond the cannon of Scripture. These reachings are sometimes formerly characterized as church traditions. They represent the major doctrinal division points that fractures Christ’s Church on earth. Durant’s conclusion that “reason smiles” at this intransigence bears truth as it pertains to the doctrines evolved by tradition. But this truth does not extend to the basic doctrines that are supported by God’s Word, the Bible. Those critical of this “fundamentalist” conclusion may be intolerant of the fact that the Bible is the complete and only revelation of God.<br /><br />There is no way that any nonbelieving historian, hoisting the flag of reason, can defend his badge of objectivity in judging the “miracle, mystery and myth” of the Church. Why? The nonbelieving historian is not objective! The prejudice and ignorance gained by the lack of belief is, by itself, conclusive. To know the Truth one must believe in the Truth. And if one does not know the Truth how can one judge the truth, especially the Truth held in God’s Word, the Bible. This “truth” holds even for a creditable well loved, well meaning but confused historian/philosopher?<br /><br />Durant concludes, “No reconciliation is possible between religion and philosophy except through the philosopher’s recognition that they have found no substitute for the moral function of the Church, and the ecclesiastical recognition of religious and intellectual freedom.” What does Durant mean by this statement?<br /><br />Is this an admission that there is “no substitute for the moral function of the Church?” Is this the Lesson of History? If this is the conclusion, and the words strongly suggest that it is, Durant is truly an astute historian. He has confirmed the obvious although Marx would differ.<br /><br />Philosophy, simply defined, is man’s definition of the universe and his place in it. Webster instructs that it is based on “an analysis of the grounds of and concepts expressing fundamental beliefs.” The conclusion that “no reconciliation is possible between religion and philosophy” assumes that the philosophy espoused ignores God. Where the philosophy embraces the reality of God’s Word, as revealed in the Bible, no reconciliation is needed.<br /><br />One must understand that Durant is, first and foremost, to be considered a philosopher, that speculative discipline being his first academic love. Writing histories proved more lucrative even though his “<em>The Story of Philosophy,”</em> first published in 1926, was a significant commercial success. Nevertheless, the numbers of philosophers professionally rank behind historians in making a living. And historians rank well behind those professionally serving God.<br /><br />To write history was probably a resolve encouraged by his publisher.<br />Durant’s conclusions on history are biased by his philosophic belief, a condition that suggests a significant impairment to objectively analyze and judge history overall, a particularly critical deficiency when considering the requirement of the objective ability to assess Christianity’s role, status and future utility to mankind. Why is this true?<br /><br />A professed atheist can not make an impartial objective assessment about a Christian God if he denies that God’s existence. Durant’s conclusions on history are biased by his philosophic belief that there is no God. This bias suggests a significant impairment to objectively analyze and judge history overall. It is a particularly critical deficiency when considering the requirement to objectively assess Christianity.<br /><br />There should be no confusion about this in either an academic or intellectual context. There is a serious fallacy here. Why? Objective history turns to speculative, philosophic history when it is based on “an analysis of the grounds of and concepts expressing fundamental beliefs” (Webster) where the “fundamental beliefs” expressed are based on disbelief in God! And when this happens, philosophic history is stripped of all objectivity and becomes an admitted bias founded on disbelief in God. It is supposition, a form of mere presumptive opinion.<br /><br />These blemishes did not deny Durant commercial success or the reverence of critics and scholars no matter how much he missed the mark on certain truths. For, in balance, his contributions have been truly outstanding. But something plagued Durant - perhaps an impediment bread of his youthful Catholic background and aborted quest to become a member of the cloth. Some cracks in the intellectual dike will follow.<br /><br />DOES GOD EXIST?<br /><br />Selection 4: Chapter VII; Religion and History; Page 46<br /><br /><em>“Does history support a belief in God? If by God we mean not the creative vitality of nature but a supreme being intelligent and benevolent, the answer must be a reluctant negative. Like other departments of biology, history remains at bottom a natural selection of the fittest individuals and groups in a struggle wherein goodness receives no favors, misfortunes abound, and the final test is the ability to survive. Add to the crimes, wars, and cruelties of man the earthquakes, storms, tornadoes, pestilences, tidal waves, and other ‘acts of God’ that periodically desolate human and animal life, and the tand apparently haphazard scenes to which we subjectively ascribe order, splendor, beauty, or sublimity. If history supports any theology this would be dualism like the Zoroastrian or Manichaean: a good spirit and an evil spirit battling for control of the universe and men’s souls. These faiths and Christianity (which is essentially Manichaean) assured their followers that the good spirit would win in the end; but of this consummation history offers no guarantee. Nature and history do not agree with our conception of good and bad; they define good as that which survives, and bad at that which goes under; and the universe has no prejudice in favor of Christ as against Genghis Khan.”</em><br /><br />A reluctant negative! Crimes, wars, cruelties! Earthquakes, storms, tornadoes, pestilence, tidal waves, and other acts of God that periodically desolate human and animal life. The good is that which survives; the bad goes under! There is no favor of Christ as against Genghis Kahn?<br />Is this, then, the judgment of History? Durant’s conclusion should come as no surprise, for even the Bible acknowledges that it is a difficult matter for the natural man to believe in God and, therefore, God’s plan of the ages for this world.<br /><br />Corinthians 2:14 “</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><em>An unspiritual man does not accept the things the Spirit of God teaches, for they are nonsense (foolishness) to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are only appreciated by spiritual insight.”<br /></em><br />After understanding and acknowledging this hard view, how does one reconcile the above abject conclusions by Durant with what is to follow?<br /><br />THE HINT OF CONTRADICTION<br /><br />Selection 5: Chapter VI; Morals and History; Page 41<br /><br /><em>“We must remind ourselves that history as usually written is quite different from history as usually lived: the historian records the exceptional because it is interesting - because it is exceptional. If all those individuals who had no Boswell had found their numerically proportionate place in the pages of historians we should have a duller but juster view of the past and of man. Behind the red facade of war and politics, misfortune and poverty, adultery and divorce, murder and suicide, were millions of orderly homes, devoted marriages, men and women kindly and affectionate, troubled and happy with children. Even in recorded history we find so many instances of goodness, even of nobility, that we can forgive, though not forget the sins. The gifts of charity have almost equaled the cruelties of battlefields and jails. How many times, even in our sketchy narratives, we have seen men helping another - Farinelli providing for the children of Domenico Scarlatti, divers people succoring young Haydn, Conte Litta paying for Johann Christian Bach’s studies at Bologna, Joseph Black advancing money repeatedly to James Watt, Puchberg patiently lending and lending to Mozart. Who will dare to write a history of human goodness?”</em><br /><br />How does one reconcile the following apparent contradictory statements from Durant’s Lessons of History? Read and examnine what follows very carefully!<br /><br />Chapter VII; Religion and History<br /><br /><em>“Add to the crimes, wars, and cruelties of man the earthquakes, storms, tornadoes, pestilences, tidal waves, and other ‘acts of God’ that periodically desolate human and animal life, and the total evidence suggests either a blind or an impartial fatality, with incidental and apparently haphazard scenes to which we subjectively ascribe order, splendor, beauty, or sublimity.”</em><br /><em></em><br />Chapter VI; Morals and History<br /><br /><em>“Behind the red facade of war and politics, misfortune and poverty, adultery and divorce, murder and suicide, were millions of orderly homes, devoted marriages, men and women kindly and affectionate, troubled and happy with children. Even in recorded history we find so many instances of goodness, even of nobility, that we can forgive, though not forget the sins. The gifts of charity have almost equaled the cruelties of battlefields and jails.”</em><br /><br />A careful review of Durant’s summary is crucial for an understanding of what appears to be substantial disparities:<br /><br /><em>“We must remind ourselves that history as usually written is quite different from history as usually lived.”</em><br /><br />The above conclusion is the proper introduction for the conflicts that exist in the preceding two paragraphs. But, more follows:<br /><br /><em>“The historian records the exceptional because it is interesting.” </em><br /></span><em><br /></em><span style="font-size:130%;">This conclusion suggests that the turmoil of crimes, wars, cruelties, earthquakes, storms, tornadoes, pestilence, tidal waves, and “<em>other acts of God</em>” are just that: the exceptional event, not the humdrum of the nonexceptional, the <em>“duller but juster view of the past.”</em><br /></em><em></em><br />Durant, by his own statements, suggests that the </span><span style="font-size:130%;"><em>“incidental<br />and apparently haphazard scenes to which we subjectively ascribe order, splendor, beauty, or sublimity”</em> was confirmed to be, in history, over a long period of time, the province of “<em>millions of orderly homes, devoted marriages, men and women kindly and affectionate, troubled and happy with children.”</em> But these facts are largely ignored since, </span><span style="font-size:130%;"><em>"THE HISTORIAN RECORDS THE EXCEPTIONAL BECAUSE IT IS INTERESTING - BECAUSE IT IS EXCEPTIONAL."<br /></em><br />Durant asked the question in the previous section: <em>“Does history support a belief in God?”</em> He concludes that it does not. One could determine, in refutation of Durant’s answer to this question, that those <em>“millions of orderly homes, devoted marriages, men and women kindly and affectionate, troubled and happy with children”</em> were a confirmation of God’s role, particularly as displayed by Christianity during the dramatic growth and continuity of Western civilization. (More will follow on this important point.)<br />Probably rejecting this perspective, Durant would quietly argue that where belief in God does exist, the phenomena is attributable to man’s delusion in seeking a myth that history and agnostic philosophy denies and the state tolerates in its quest to appease the masses (so as not to offend that portion of his reading public who do believe they believe).<br /><br />Durant seems trapped in a mode of rationalism common to most prominent intellectuals. Their power of reason overcomes the truth as made obvious by the evidence of God’s existence. More will come on this when we address the subject of Skepticism.<br /><br />Nevertheless, the leak in the dike is there. And the hole widens:<br /><br />THE EMERGING CONTRADICTION<br /><br />Selection 6: 1968: Chapter VI; Morals and History; Page 51<br /><br /><em>“There is no significant example in history, before our time, of a society successfully maintaining moral life without the aid of religion. France, the United States, and some other nations have divorced their governments from all churches, but they have had the help of religion in keeping social order. Only a few Communist states have not merely dissociated themselves from religion but have repudiated its aid; and perhaps the apparent and provisional success of this experiment in Russia owes much to the temporary acceptance of Communism as the religion (or, as skeptics would say, the opium) of the people, replacing the church as the vendor of comfort and hope. If the socialist regime should fail in its efforts to destroy relative poverty among the masses, this new religion may lose fervor and efficacy, and the state may wink at the restoration of supernatural beliefs as an aid in quieting discontent. As long as there is poverty there will be Gods.”</em><br /><br />The important conclusion that, <em>“there is no significant example in history, before our time, of a society successfully maintaining moral life without the aid of religion”</em> helps the reader further delimit the factual importance of religion, per se, and Christianity specifically, as a stabilizing agent, a strong moral force, aiding those millions of unexciting happy homes and their exploitive secular governing institutions. Certainly, there is nothing in the Bible that contradicts this.<br /><br />But, the troubling prejudice reflected in Durant’s words that, <em>“Russia owes much to the temporary acceptance of Communism as the religion (or, as skeptics would say, the opium) of the people, replacing the church as the vendor of comfort and hope”</em> is allied to a basic Darantian conclusion that ties poverty to belief in God. The supposition is that man’s economic condition may be controlled by the state as a function of man’s propensity for religious delusion. The truth here is that this conclusion is not confirmed history and as history is being developed today.<br /><br />Durant’s comments remind the writer of the pretended ragings of two other great thinkers of the past, Hegel and Marx: one a historical dialectical idealist, the other a historical dialectical materialist. Siding with Marx, Durant’s conclusion appears to be abject Skepticism.<br /><br />We may look to the awakening of the Christian Orthodox Church in Communist Russia for a direction of the sinister intent to exercise religion as a part of its control. Is this a movement by the Russian leaders to console their poor so they may be released in their delusion to be defocused of their troubles? Has this been the lesson learned in Communist Poland or the Ukrain, that the Church has been an unwitting ally of the past atheistic Communistic dictatorship to control the poor? Is this the experience and lesson to be learned in Central and South America? That it wasn’t United Fruit after all, it was the conspiracy between Catholic Bishops and opportunistic dictators.<br /><br />If Durant is right, the experience in Russia is the cynical exercise of state control where the “ <em>state may wink at the restoration of supernatural beliefs as an aid in quieting discontent.”</em> Peristroika/Glastnost and the recent events in Russia appear to be something else. The Russian masses and those peoples in the Eastern Block countries are smoking a different opium than that implied by Marx. Change has taken place and a new world order emerges. Christianity is reasserting itself. The Truth can not be denied. The hole in the dike widens!<br /><br />Judge what follows on Durant’s assessment of the historicity of Jesus Christ and the founding movement by His disciples that lead to the start of the Christian Church and the writing of God’s revelation in the New Testament.<br /><br />THE “LESSONS OF HISTORY”<br /><br />Selection 7: The History of Civilization; Will Durant; 1944:<br />Volume III; Caesar and Christ<br /><br />The following constitutes one of the most amazing and convicting witnesses in history on Jesus Christ. It is especially significant considering what has been said before. It is as though the <em>“truth”</em> in the end seeped forth from a well of denial, that His Spirit finally took charge through the elegant and precise pen and soul of one who, by philosophic reason, denied Him, but, in the end, provided an authenticating witness that Jesus Christ is God and is the savior of mankind.<br /><br /><em>“In summary, it is clear that there are many contradictions between one gospel and another, many dubious statements of history, many suspicious resemblances to the legends told of pagan gods, many incidents apparently designed to prove the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies, many passages possibly aiming to establish a historical basis for some later doctrine or ritual of the Church. The evangelist shared with Cicero, Sallust, and Tacitus the conception of history as a vehicle for moral ideas. And presumably the conversations and speeches reported in the Gospels were subject to the frailties of illiterate memories, and the errors or emendations of copyists.</em><br /><br /><em>All this granted, much remains. The contradictions are of minutiae, not substance; in essentials the synoptic gospels agree remarkably well, and form a consistent portrait of Christ. In the enthusiasm of its discoveries the Higher Criticism has applied to the new testament tests of authenticity so severe that by them a hundred ancient worthies - e.g., Hammurabi, David, Socrates - would fade into legend (Says a great Jewish scholar, perhaps too strongly: ‘If we had ancient sources like those in the Gospels for the history of Alexander or Caesar, we should not cast any doubt upon them whatsoever.’ - Klausner., From Jesus to Paul, 260.). Despite the prejudices and theological preconceptions of the evangelists, they record many incidents that mere inventors would have concealed - the competition of the apostles for high places in the Kingdom, their flight after Jesus’ arrest, Peter’s denial, the failure of Christ to work miracles in Galilee, the references of some auditors to his possible insanity, his early uncertainty as to his mission, his confessions of ignorance as to the future, his moments of bitterness, his despairing cry on the cross; no one reading these scenes can doubt the reality of the figure behind them. </em><br /><br /><em>That a few simple men should in one generation have invented so powerful and appealing a personality, so lofty an ethic and so inspiring a vision of human brotherhood, would be a miracle far more incredible than any recorded in the Gospels. After two centuries of Higher Criticism the outlines of the life, character, and teaching of Christ, remain reasonablyclear, and constitute the most fascinating feature in the history of Western man.”</em><br /><br />In his attempt to define the historicity of Jesus Christ, Durant concludes that the writings of the New Testament are valid and have been subjected to tests of scrutiny so severe that many other conclusions of history, if so tested, would not survive. He makes the authenticating judgment that, “<em>Despite the prejudices and theological preconceptions of the evangelists, they record many incidents that mere inventors would have concealed.”</em><br /><br />Regardless of his prior conclusion in his Lessons of History that God doesn’t exist, Durant states in his History of Civilization, <em>“That a few simple men should in one generation have invented so powerful and appealing a personality, so lofty an ethic and so inspiring a vision of human brotherhood, would be a miracle for more incredible than any recorded in the Gospels.”</em><br /></span><em><br /></em><span style="font-size:130%;">Yes, there is a leak in that dike! This is a statement acknowledging the historicity of Jesus Christ and God even though Durant has concluded in his Lessons of History that God does not exist. It is a statement by an “objective historian” who is not objective in that he can not consistently assess the history relating to God’s existence because he does not share in the belief demanded by philosophic disciplines to ascertain and verify the truth! Durant is caught in a contradictory posture in that he sees the effect but he denies the cause.<br /></em><br />Durant’s prior conclusions state, <em>“Nature and history do not agree with our conception of good and bad; they define good as that which survives, and bad at that which goes under; and the universe has no prejudice in favor of Christ as against Genghis Khan.”</em> Does the above paragraph on Christ support this conclusion? Does it support that <em>“the universe has no prejudice in favor of Christ as against Genghis Kahn?”</em> Is it a valid conclusion that those <em>“million of orderly homes, devoted marriages, men and women kindly affectionate, troubled with happy children”</em> are the bad that goes under or the good that survives? Are they the exploited poor mesmerized by religion?<br /><br />If one was to accept Durant’s challenge, <em>“Who will dare to write a history of human goodness?”</em> Would these millions be in the book? Would Jesus Christ be in the book? Would the author of this human history of goodness consider as a source or reference the Bible?<br /><br />When one strips away Durant’s entertaining literary style and seriously contemplates his philosophic prejudice, one may reach different conclusions than those adduced by this well loved and respected author. It should be obvious to the reader that this writer has.<br /><br />But, of course, one can also challenge the writer’s objectivity since he believes in God. But this really is not the point. What is relevant is that one who believes in God may be objectively and fairly critical of Durant’s conclusions. That stands by itself.<br /><br />The critical assessment, however, is not primarily based on a disagreement with his conclusions even though a basic disagreement is obvious and does exist. The critical and primary assessment is positively framed in the context that Durant does in fact contradict himself! That’s the hole in Durant’s intellectual dike. And since he has departed this life, there is no apologetic finger to plug it.<br /><br />When considering Durant’s contribution of popularizing history, he ends with an arguably sad epitaph (the atheist would disagree).<br /><br />His brilliant gift was limited by a classic veil of rationalized Skepticism that denied God. This limitation was probably shaped by the relative poverty of his youth, his denial of Catholicism as a maturing young man, an elitist professional ambition inspired by his intellectual pursuits, and a commercial opportunism encouraged by both his publishers and the jealousy of his academic peers who begrudgingly acknowledged his success.<br /><br />He wrote for a non-critical, reasonably literate audience that knew no better than to applaud his writings and conclusions as an entertaining historical summary because of their pseudo-intellectual appeal. It was and is an audience of the “world” as the world is known to believers, that is: it is a world of religious fence sitters who either have a marginal belief or affect one for cultural and /or social reasons. It is a world where the thinking nonbeliever’s religious expectation is largely based upon a vacant yet popular thesis that God is a myth or an ignored mystery invented and cultivated by man, a pseudo-metaphysical phenomena to be selectively acknowledge at birth, marriage, death and seasonal family-centered events during the year such as when celebrating Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter.<br /><br />This audience was the predominant buying market for his works, as exemplified by the long-term promotion by the Book of the Month Club in offering a complete set of his History of Civilization as an incentive to prospective new members.<br /><br />Durant’s history, written with an atheistic prejudice, is confused by the reality of God’s historic presence. It is hard to dismiss this truth, this lesson of history!<br /><br />In a very special, a very marvelous sense, his writings are a testimony to the real Truth, that while blindness characterizes the unsaved world, Christians who walk with God know a very different dimension of history and life as compared to the erroneous conclusions articulated by the honored and beloved historian/philosopher, Will Durant.<br /><br />He “reluctantly” chose not to embrace the wonder and truth of God’s magnanimous grace that each true believer knows. He ended in a trap. His attitude and views were caught in a significant contradiction where his true objectivity became compromised by a real hypocrisy.<br /><br />Yet, it is hoped that this assessment is too harsh. That in the final stages of his life the seeds of the contradictions dignified herein may have blossomed into a greater wisdom that finally acceded to God in love and faith. That is certainly the writer’s hopeful prayer.<br /><br />Nevertheless, Will Durant serves the nonbeliever seeking God! Since by knowing the truth regarding these widely held views, one may come to know the real Truth, God and God’s revelations as taught to us by Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit’s inspired teachings articulated by His Apostles in the New Testament.</span></strong></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><br /></strong></span></span>Otis Page's Blogshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14932733213884103183noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20207460.post-1135645133409019942005-12-26T16:54:00.000-08:002006-01-04T15:33:27.690-08:00THE FOUNDATIONS OF CHRISTIANITY<strong><span style="font-family:times new roman;">THE FOUR BASES FOR THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION<br /><br />Christianity appears as a confused mixture of religions ranging from the Roman Catholic to the sect of the Church of Latter Day Saints – the Mormons. Mixed within are churches such as a multitude of “faiths” including various forms of the Anglican and Episcopal, Methodists, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Baptist and Evangelical.<br /><br />Christ’s Church relies on four main determinations that came to be understood in the period following the Reformation. These determinations represent the “essential” Christian Church and the writer believes they are the basis of major precepts for religious practice and governance.<br /><br />- The establishment and tradition of using the Scriptures as the basis for the precepts of religious belief as established during the period of approximately 60 to 200 AD.<br /><br />- The definition of the Trinity and the nature of Christ, starting with the Arian controversy and Council of Nicaea in 325 AD.<br /><br />- The establishment of the Doctrines of Mankind, Sin and Grace as a result of the Pelagius/Augustine confrontation consummated at the Council of Orange in 529 AD.<br /><br />- The confluence of religious understanding and the reconciliation of mankind’s subordination to God’s sovereignty based on Scripture’s revelation in the period 1500 to 1600 AD.<br /><br />A deviance from the lessons of these determinations obstructs the understanding of the wonder and magnificence of the true Christian faith as presented and verified by the Scriptures, the constitutional basis for Christianity.<br /><br />THE EARLY WRITINGS<br /><br />The evolution of the Christian Bible begins with the Hebrew Scriptures, that are characterized in the book of Romans in the New Testament as being the “Law and the Prophets.” (Rom 3:21). The reason for this is the simple fact that Christians were first of all Jews. </span></strong><br /><br /><strong><span style="font-family:times new roman;">But the new Church was not founded on the Hebrew Scriptures. It was established on the distinctive being of a person - to Jesus of Nazareth, crucified, dead and buried, but “designated Son of God in power...by His resurrection from the dead.” (Rom 1:4)</span></strong><br /><br /><strong><span style="font-family:times new roman;">Jesus wrote no book. His teachings were conveyed by word of mouth and personal example. What Jesus said, the word-of-mouth conveyance of His teachings, the historical events pertaining to what He said, were lovingly recollected and documented by His hearers, His Apostles and Disciples.<br /><br />THE CONFESSION OF FAITH</span></strong><br /><br /><strong><span style="font-family:times new roman;">These early writings became with various letters the eventual “confession of Faith,” the inspired written Word which now comprises the New Testament. The exalted process leading to the formalization of the Canon of Scripture evolved over the first four hundred years of Christian history. </span></strong><br /><br /><strong><span style="font-family:times new roman;">The Bible was held as an exclusive intellectual property of the Church, until the coincident development of the printing press and the explosive generation of the Protestant movement in the early 16th century, a period of twelve hundred years. </span></strong><br /><br /><strong><span style="font-family:times new roman;">Nevertheless, the Bible served as the foundation for the developing theology of the Church during this extensive time period by a small number of thoughtful, literate theologians who studied the Word and used it as a foundation for their speculations on what it taught.</span></strong><br /><br /><strong><span style="font-family:times new roman;">CHRISTOLOGY AND THE TRINITY<br /><br />The first major resolutions in the developing theology of Christianity dealt with two mighty struggles regarding the nature of Christ and the Trinity. These struggles are characterized as the Trinitarian and Christological controversies. They vigorously evolved during the second through the fifth centuries (400 years!) within the Catholic and Greek Orthodox Churches as we know them today.</span></strong><br /><strong><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><br />The Trinitarian definition dealt with the relationship of Jesus Christ, the Son, and the Father as persons. It determined that Christ was of the same essence as the Father and not subordinate to Him. The Trinity, as a Biblical doctrine, came into effect recognizing this Truth while, at the same time, determining the Holy Spirit as the third person of one God in essence. </span></strong><br /><br /><strong><span style="font-family:times new roman;">The resolution of the Trinitarian conflict, at the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D., marked a major event in the Church’s and Western civilization’s histories. It initiated the reconciliation of the informal structure of the Christian Church and the formalized secular institution of the Roman Empire through the remarkable leadership of the Emperor Constantine, who is reputed to be not overly religious, whose wife was. Constantine’s political power became a significant instrument of the Holy Spirit in exercising this stage of God’s plan for mankind and His Church.<br /><br />The result of this was the eventual structuring of the Roman Catholic Church, where the Church and the Roman Empire joined as partners in the conquering, subjugation and conversion of the European nations and peoples. The resolution of the conflict was finalized at the council of Constantinople in the year 381, and resulted in the following doctrine within the Niceno - Constantinopolitian Creed:</span></strong><br /><br /><em><strong><span style="font-family:times new roman;">“We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father;”</span></strong></em><br /><br /><strong><span style="font-family:times new roman;">The formulation of the Trinitarian doctrine framed the definition of the complex person of Jesus Christ. </span></strong><br /><br /><strong><span style="font-family:times new roman;">The famed reformed theologian, Louis Berkoff, instructs us in his History of Christian Doctrines, <em>“The decision to which the trinitarian controversy led, namely, that Christ as the Son of God is consubstantial with the Father and therefore very God, immediately gave birth to the question of the relation between the divine and the human nature in Christ.”</em></span></strong><br /><br /><strong><span style="font-family:times new roman;">The Christological events dealt with the person of Jesus Christ and the logical contradiction suggested by one having both a divine and human nature, a problem that still bothers some religions today, religions that either deny Christ being the Son of God (Joshua’s Witnesses; Islam, 7th Day Adventist, Mormonism, Islam) or deny His divine and human nature. </span></strong><br /><br /><strong><span style="font-family:times new roman;">As with the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, the Council of Chalcedon in the year 451 provided the beginning for the final resolution of the Christological definition by the issuance of the following specific statement of the doctrine of the person of Christ: </span></strong><br /><br /><em><strong><span style="font-family:times new roman;">“We then, following the holy Fathers, all with one consent, teach men to confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in Godhead and also perfect in manhood; truly God and also truly man, of reasonable soul and body; consubstantial with us according to manhood; in all things like unto us, without sin; begotten before all ages of the Father according to the Godhead, and in these latter days, for us and for our salvation, born of the virgin Mary, the Mother of God, according to the manhood; one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, to be acknowledged in two natures, unconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably, the distinction of natures being by no means taken away by union, but rather the property of each nature being preserved, and concurring in one Person and one subsistence, not parted or divided into two persons, but one and the same Son, the Only-begotten, God the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ; as the prophets from the beginning have declared concerning Him, and the Lord Jesus Christ Himself has taught us, and the Creed of the Holy Fathers has handed down to us.”</span></strong></em><br /><br /><strong><span style="font-family:times new roman;">The Christological and Trinitarian disputes were fundamental events that brought the Church to a point of understanding itself, in a very important sense. The developing doctrines pertaining to God (Theology Proper), Jesus Christ (Christology), the Holy Spirit (Pneumatology) and the Church (Ecclesiology) found their beginnings in the inspired consensus facilitated by these centuries of Spirit led dialectics.</span></strong><br /><br /><strong><span style="font-family:times new roman;">DOCTRINES OF MANKIND, SIN AND SALVATION<br /><br />At a later time, starting in the fifth century, another important controversy immerged that dealt with what now relates to the doctrines of Mankind, Sin and Salvation. This controversy eventually became the basis for the evolving definition of Anthropology (The doctrine of mankind), Hamartiology (The doctrine of sin), and Soteriology (the doctrine of salvation) within the discipline of Systematic Theology as studied today.<br />These theological disciplines evolved exclusively in the Roman Church as a result of a momentous confrontation between the ideas of an English monk named Pelagius and the revered promulgator of Christian theology, Augustine. </span></strong><br /><br /><strong><span style="font-family:times new roman;">This confrontation specifies an important contrast in the theological interpretation of God’s Grace, as Grace interacts with a man’s or woman’s freedom and ability to choose. The confrontation was so intense on the issues of human freedom and Grace that it appeared to subordinate the witness of Jesus Christ to the intense doctrinal struggle between opposing factions within the Christian Church. The heritage and wounds of this struggle persists to this day. </span></strong><br /><br /><strong><span style="font-family:times new roman;">Following the rationalism of the Gnostic heresies that occurred at the beginning of Christianity, the Pelagian conflict provided a dialectical arena in a historic framework that has pulled on theology’s intellectual coattails for over fifteen hundred years regarding Sin, Salvation, mankind’s freedom to choose, Predestination and Grace! </span></strong><br /><strong><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><br />The answers for many questions remain confused today regarding the relationship of God and humanity as we know and understand it. The peculiar, antagonistic, and substantial differences between various Christian religions, as to how and why they celebrate God, and how they understand His purpose in Salvation, have their delineated heritage from the Pelagian/Augustinian conflict.<br /><br />But there is one aspect of this that is not confussed, and that is Jesus Christ's committment to you, personnaly, if you believe in Him!</span></strong><br /><br /></span></strong>Otis Page's Blogshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14932733213884103183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20207460.post-1135641903032501542005-12-26T16:00:00.000-08:002006-01-02T13:00:39.390-08:00A SCRIPT FOR LIFE<span style="font-family:times new roman;font-size:130%;"><strong>As a boy, I spent many hours at my father's “motion picture” theater located in the humble little village of Damariscotta (Acts 17:34), at the head of the river with the same name. It flows to the Atlantic at a place that separates Christmas Cove from Boothbay Harbor on the coast of Maine.<br /><br />During the 1940s, the Lincoln Theater was a magic place for many. It was a central spot of entertainment and semi-social gathering of the County populace, which numbered less than ten thousand souls when I lived there. The theater resided on the second floor of the Lincoln Hall which was dedicated in the year 1877, when the area flourished in economic success as a result of the intense industry of wooden sailing ship construction. At the time, the Lincoln Hall was the largest building of its type between Boston and Bangor.<br /><br />Seventy years later (1947), the theater remained a prominent place in the quiet life of the main commercial center of Damariscotta, where the stores closed at 6:00 P.M., and the local residents surrendered themselves to the evening meal, conversation, reading a good book, and the radio for entertainment. The exception to all this was the theater, which ran one show each night at 8:00 P.M. --- until I introduced my father to the innovation of running two consecutive shows starting at 6:30 (with marvelous results, I may add).<br /><br />In a special sense, my own education (as true for many) was significantly complemented by the "movies." The traditional format included "short-subjects" and the "News" preceding the main event, the "movie" for the evening.<br /><br />In those days, in that small community, the show changed every two days, with the exception of Saturday, a day dedicated to the marvel of the "Western" gloriously displayed on the theater's "silver screen."<br /><br />I could not wonder then, as I recall today, how the famous actors and actresses of the screen during my younger years (1935-55) possessed such an excellent and confident demeanor in their celluloid presence on the screen. Spencer Tracy, Gary Cooper, Clark Gable, Errol Flynn, and, yes, Carol Lombard, even Katherine Hepburn, the sisters Joan Fontain and Olivia DeHaveland, Betty Davis, all of them, and the many other "Stars," each and every one possessed an air of confidence, a complete posture of assurance, a general certitude of character, a feeling or showing of adequacy and reliance on their personal powers, the appearance of a state of mind where one is free from doubt.<br /><br />No matter the situation - whether it be the confrontation of lions, Indians, bad guys, love scenes, various forms of fights and arguments, even the facing of death - the actor/actress' presence was typically one of supreme confidence, and not the pain and confusion that is the reaction of a normal person when faced with these situations in every day life.<br /><br />Is it any wonder that the movies were and are successful today, given this remarkable aspect of portrayed confidence? Is it any wonder that the viewing public would identify themselves with these august, powerful personalities conquering all while playing to the theme of moral goodness? The good guy eventually won, eventually got the girl, and always did the right thing? Could there be any other result, considering the popular dualistic theme of the ages that good always wins out badness goes under?<br /><br />The great appeal of confidence is a major attribute in our trusting others. And many did trust these characters of the screen, and they do so today.<br /><br />There is a simple explanation for the portrayed confidence of the actor/actress. Their every act and thought was conditioned by the fact that they knew what the next line would be! It is as though they had a crystal ball telling them the future so that they could make every thought and move based on knowing what the future held. Why is this so? For the simple reason that they were following a script, a writing which not only told them what to say but what was to come!<br /><br />Wouldn't it be nice if life was that way, that when we arose for the morning we knew each and every thing that was to happen that day and for the rest of one's life? Imagine having a script telling you every word and thought you would speak, all you would do, every confrontation you would encounter on the "stage of life."<br /><br />This is not to say there couldn't be some downside if one had this knowledge, such as the predictability of those seemingly negative "bad news" events dealing with misfortune, illness, sufferings of various forms, and death. But, there is no question one's confidence would certainly be enhanced if one knew the future in an absolute sense.<br /><br />But, life is not that way, is it? The Tracys, Coopers, Flynns, Lombards and Betty Davis's, when stripped of their scripts, became mere mortals on life's stage. And in many instances their lives became the converse of what was seen on the stage, by being filled with doubt, immorality, tragedy, psychotic disablement, and premature death.<br /><br />How difficult it was for the worshipping fan of a movie giant to see their hero/heroine being decimated in a way contrary to that shown on the screen. Many of these worshipping fans, in their quest to identify, would actually manifest the same symptoms that their idol suffered in real life with the added convulsive reaction of being disillusioned because their star's confident demeanor had either languished or been destroyed.<br /><br />Oh, how nice it would be if we had a little manual that gave us a generalized script about life and the future, so that we all could have an air of confidence, a complete posture of assurance, a general certitude of character, a feeling or showing of adequacy and reliance on our personal powers, the dependence on a state of mind where we are always free from doubt.<br /><br />To a certain extent, our training in youth, our education in life, the support of family and friends, the economic and social heritage of our ancestors, help fortify a basis for confidence in facing life's challenges. But, there is no handy script, no little document which one may read to tell the future so that one's confidence may be assured.<br /><br />Or, could there be such a book?<br /><br />Yes, such a document exists. It evolved over three thousand years in its preparation. The book was finalized nearly two thousand years ago. It became a cannon, the standard of an oral and a written tradition that has been the most potent intellectual and moral force in the history of the world.<br /><br />Even though the book does not provide and exact script for every act and word spoken in life, it empowers the believer in determining a personal illumination for life’s conduct. The book provides a revelation that is not only predictive, it provides wisdom and a promise that what the book says is inspirational in conveying essential truth. It reveals an eternal plan reaching beyond life as it is known on earth. It provides an assurance resulting in an absolute confidence and trust by the grace of the book's real author, God’s Holy Spirit. (2Tim 3:1) It is a guide book on the most basic issues of life.<br /><br />Those who read it learn from it, trust it, and possess a confidence beyond the ages into eternity. This is life's script for eternity, a book centered on the life of one man who came to save us so that we could be confident in all things forever by being right with God!<br /><br />May I suggest that coming to know this book, the Bible, is meaningless unless you try to understand what it says?<br /><br />1Cor 1:18 “For the word of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness, but to us that are being saved it is the power of God.”<br /><br />His Word, life's Eternal Script, the Bible, gives a superior confidence to those who believe in it and its revelation. This is the truth of the ages, a truth that has sustained those who preceded us, those who exist with us today, and those who will follow after we are gone from this place.<br /><br />It is easy to dismiss the analogy presented here, between the actor on the stage, confidence, and the life on earth. It would be a trite conclusion to suggest that you, too, could have the confidence of a Spencer Tracy or a Betty Davis in dealing with<br />the many vagaries of life by following the script of the Bible. But the Bible offers that promise not only to the stage of life as we know it, but off the stage where the traditional actor's script cannot be employed, and for a time period not of this world, forever! That is the promise!</strong></span>Otis Page's Blogshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14932733213884103183noreply@blogger.com0