Category: Theology

Classic Arm Chair Theology at its best (or should that read worst?)

Spurgeon on Soul Winning

~ fundyreformed ~ 10 Comments

I came across a post today by Doug Eaton which contains some food for thought. He provides 4 quotes by Spurgeon on different aspects of soul winning. It is a great yet short read.

Apparently abuses in his day were not to dissimilar than abuses in our day. The IFB churches I grew up in, thankfully, had a concern for true conversion in the winning of souls. But I have run across so many IFB churches that sadly emphasize soul winning to the exclusion of everything else, and in so doing often create more apostates than they make disciples.

∼striving for the unity of the faith for the glory of God∼ Eph. 4:3,13 “¢ Rom. 15:5-7

The REAL meaning of 1 Thess. 5:22

~ fundyreformed ~ 17 Comments

1 Thess. 5:22 in the KJV says “Abstain from all appearance of evil.” This is a perfectly acceptable translation. But from the Greek, we know that “appearance of evil” does not mean “any thing that appears to be evil”, but “any appearance that evil makes”. This is why the ESV has “Abstain from every form of evil.” Whatever manifestation evil takes on, this is to be abstained from.

Matt Fitzsimmons pointed out a great post dealing with vs. 22 in its larger context. This opened up to me a greater understanding of this text. Vs. 19 thru 22 are all one sentence in Greek. The issue addressed is quenching the work of the Spirit. Demeaning prophesying (preaching would be a good equivalent today) was one way the Thessalonians were doing that. Rather than despising prophyesying, Paul instructed them to welcome it, yet not indiscriminately. They were to prove each prophesying and reject those that did not pass the test, while clinging to the ones that did. Thus they were to abstain from every manifestation evil would make–even evil in the form of a public prophecy. Such a contextual treatment of vs. 22 makes it emphatically clear that it is not addressing the avoidance of conduct which might appear to be evil.

However most independent fundamental Baptists claim that this verse teaches that we should abstain from any conduct which might be looked upon as evil. It is a favorite proof text against attendance at movie theaters. (See my previous post on that topic.) Yet its applications (in this sense) are numerous. This contributes to an emphasis on external conduct and appearances within the fundamentalist movement, in my opinion (see my comment in this regard here at Matt Fitzsimmons’ blog).

Scripture has much to say about avoiding actually evil behaviors. Romans 7 deals patently with the saved person’s struggle to avoid personal, actual evil. But does any Scripture (besides the above explained 1 Thess. 5:22) demand we avoid behaviors which might only seem evil?

Well, someone might point to Scripture’s teaching that we should not purposely offend a brother or let our behavior become a stumbling block to a weak believer. However, the context of these commands seems to clearly revolve around scenarios in which we are aware that the brother or weak believer is present, and thus liable to being offended with us personally. 1 Cor. 8 and 10 deals with putting meat down for that potentially-offended brother to eat (in our presence, obviously), which he knows to be meat that was offered to idols. Rom. 14-15 again deals with meat and drink and assumes that the brother could be offended by our partaking in their presence, or our interaction with them concerning our beliefs and theirs. Clearly from Rom. 14 Paul does not say we should defer to potential misunderstanding and refuse to partake of meat or drink. He says instead we should have an obliging and loving attitude to everyone who may differ with our firm belief that our practice is God-glorifying and legal. Further, Rom. 14 also deals with days. Some still observed Jewish feasts and kept the Sabbath in a Jewish way, apparently. But this was inherently the weak position. Thus, there was no call to celebrate the sabbath in a Jewish sense, for fear of someone happening to see you passing by with a burden on your shoulder, or something. What is in view is our welcoming one another, and getting along despite differing views on such non-moral issues. (See my earlier post linking to some fantastic sermons on this passage by John Piper.) To stretch the “stumbling block” prohibition into a prohibition of any behavior which might potentially offend a believer who might potentially find out about that behavior in some indirect manner is patently wrong.

The Bible does teach that we should have a war-time mentality, which would lead us to avoid practices which might entagle us in earthly pursuits (2 Tim. 2:4), and to cast off things which might weigh us down in our heavenly race (Heb. 12:1). So I am not saying that Christians should just go out and do every permissible thing they can. And clearly there are some Biblical principles to keep in mind when planning our conduct. But the force of Scripture is behind a concern for personal morality, not a concern as to what others might think about your behaviors. We are judged by God, and must be concerned most with his opinion. And he looks both on our external conduct and on our heart.

UPDATE: The article this post refers to is no longer available online. I have written my own article with a similar title as this post. You can read that here.

1 Thessalonians and Churches’ Greatest Need

~ fundyreformed ~ 16 Comments

Clergy over the laity mindset, excessive pastoral authority, a cultural lack of community, an emphasis on individualism, market-driven church ministry philosophies, a modern consumer mindset to Christianity–all of these and more contribute to what I believe is the greatest need in churches today: the “one another” ministry.

What is the “one another” ministry? It is the mutual encouraging and exhorting, indeed even admonishing, which is to be woven throughout the life of a church. It is the pattern we see over and over in the NT (Acts 2:44-47; 4:32; 18:27; Jn. 13:34-35; Rom. 1:12; 12:10, 16; 13:8; 15:1-7, 14; 1 Cor. 12:25; 14:26, 31; 2 Cor. 13:11; Gal. 5:13; 6:1-2, 6; Eph. 4:2-3, 32; 5:19; Phil. 1:27; 2:2; Col. 3:13, 16; 2 Thess. 1:3; Heb. 3:12-14; 10:24-25; James 5:16; 1 Pet. 1:22; 4:8-11; 1 Jn. 1:7; 3:11). The above list is not exhaustive, either!

I believe this is a great need in most churches. Our church has small groups in part to fulfill the instruction to daily exhort one another in Heb. 3:12-14. Yet even in small groups, intentional encouraging and exhortation can be neglected. It is one thing to believe and another to practice that belief. Our small group is in the process of trying to become more intentional in this regard. (By the way, this still must happen in church-wide contexts too. But small groups definitely can help us fulfill this important feature of church life.) In preparing for a small group meeting, I looked at 1 Thessalonians a little further concerning this “one another” ministry, and want to share my findings with you, briefly.

1) This “one another” ministry is a way God’s Word is intended to Work in us.

2:13 And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.

I believe that God’s Word presently working in the believers, in part, was their living it out through love, encouragement, and exhortation as we will see.

2) This “one another” ministry is needed lest our faith die.

3:5 For this reason, when I could bear it no longer, I sent to learn about your faith, for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you and our labor would be in vain.

with

Heb. 3:12-14 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.

Paul in 3:5 clearly indicates that he feels their faith could have died. This would have made his labor vain. What made him confident this was not the case was their faith and love and mutual love for Paul, which Timothy testified to. Heb. 3:12-14 also indicates that without mutual love, expressed through loving exhortation, our faith might die. This means that this “one another” ministry is vital in helping us persevere.

[Note: I am not claiming that we must produce works to save ourselves. Rather all truly saved people will work good works (Eph. 2:8-10, Titus 2:14), and it is by these works that their faith’s genuineness will be known (Matt. 7:16, James 2:20-26, Rom. 8:13, and especially 1 Jn. 2:19). Since we are admonished that our faith might be in vain (1 Cor. 15:2) and directed to examine ourselves whether we be in the faith (2 Cor. 13:5), and further instructed to make our calling and election sure (2 Pet. 1:10), we must not take our faith for granted. Rather we must with Paul recognize that some have made shipwreck of their faith (1 Tim. 1:19), realize that we ourselves could potentially make shipwreck of our faith (1 Cor. 9:27, Phil. 3:8-14), and so resolve to hold on to faith, and fight that good fight of faith, and thereby take hold of eternal life (1 Tim. 1:19; 3:8; 6:11-12).]

3) We must depend upon God to energize this “one another” ministry in our personal lives.

3:11-13 Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you, and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.

As I said before, we can believe in this, but when the rubber meets the road it is difficult to practice. Thus we must depend on God to “make” us increase in this “one another” ministry. (See also 1 Thess. 5:23-24, set at the end of a series of what I believe are coorporate exhortations .)

4) We need to always abound in this regard and grow, doing “one another” ministry “more and more”.

4:9-10 Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more, [See also 3:12; 4:1; and Heb. 10:25b]

We have never “arrived” when it comes to this or any other ministry. We need to be growing and abounding more and more.

5) This “one another” ministry has many facets.

We are to…

a) love each other [3:12 and 4:9-10]
b) encourage one another [4:18 and 5:11]
c) “be at peace” with one another [5:13b]
d) “admonish the idle” [5:14a]
e) “encourage the fainthearted” [5:14b]
f) “help the weak” [5:14c]
g) “be patient with them all” [5:14d]
h) not seek vengeance (not repay wrong for wrong) [5:15a]
i) “seek to do good to one another and to everyone” [5:15b]
j) “rejoice always” (In context, this is a coorporate command) [5:16]
k) “pray without ceasing” (again, while this certainly applies personally, it is a coorporate command) [5:17]
l) “give thanks in all circumstances” [5:18]
m) let the Spirit move (do not quench the Spirit)[5:19]
n) do not despise the preaching and teaching of the word [5:20]
o) test everything (including sermons and teaching from the context), holding only to what is good [5:21]
p) abstain from all forms of evil (church discipline could be in view with the coorporate context, too) [5:22]

6) This “one another” ministry is clearly a duty of every believer, not merely the church leaders, elders, deacons, or pastors.

5:12-14 We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle,[c] encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all….

From the above verses it is clear that each brother (and the word can refer to men or women) in the church is responsible to follow the commands of vs. 13b (be at peace) and following. Notice that 1 Thess. was addressed to the whole church. If the pastoral staff, elders, and deacons are the only ones needed to minister to us in this encouraging, exhorting, admonishing sense, why is it that most of the NT epistles are addressed to churches (ie the people) rather than just the elders? Phil. 1:1 mentions the saints in Philippi as the primary audience, with the elders and deacons also–not the other way around.

7) This “one another” ministry is indispensable.

4:18 Therefore encourage one another with these words. [See also 5:11]

Notice, Paul’s having written the words to each person in the church was not enough. They were to pick up the book/letter and use its teaching to encourage each other. Just reading the Bible and studying it alone does not cut it. We need the mutual ministry of the Word to be working in us through the mutual encouraging and exhorting, even admonishing, of our fellow believers (along with a weekly sermon from our preacher).

A 21st Century Retelling of Pilgrim's Progress

~ fundyreformed

I ran across an excellent short story spun off of John Bunyan’s masterpiece Pilgrim’s Progress. The story opens your eyes to how potentially damaging the emphasis extreme fundamentalists put on keeping standards really is.

John Bunyan’s original work is filled with truth concerning the Christian life. And what is missing from his work is the modern popular understanding (especially in some fundamentalist circles) that Christian should have received a “get out of jail free card” upon going thru the Wicket Gate and looking on Mt Calvary’s cross. Instead he is given spiritual weapons (along with help from the Holy Spirit) with which to persevere against many deceptive sins which present the real possibility of making permanent shipwreck of his faith, and derailing his trip to the Celestial City.

This story will make you think, and is well worth your time.

∼striving for the unity of the faith for the glory of God∼ Eph. 4:3,13 “¢ Rom. 15:5-7

The Fall and Faith

~ fundyreformed ~ 1 Comment

Here are a few thoughts from my recent reading of Genesis 3.

Concerning the Fall

Gen. 3 teaches us, through the story of the Fall, the deceitfulness and seriousness of sin. Satan’s main deception was to point out that God’s law was unreasonable, and that there was something better to be obtained (pleasure, wisdom, a God-like status) by breaking it. The application I want to draw from this relates to the fact that our own temptations to sin, are temptations to think ill of God or to distrust God, because we are tempted to believe that God’s law against the action or attitude we seek to do or have prevents us from something better which we could enjoy. For us, it is not a tree or some fruit which is “a delight to the eyes“, or that is “desired to make one wise“. Rather it is selfishness, lust, self-pity, laziness, covetousness, anger, ill-will to others, or pride (and many more) which seems so delightful and desirable. It is our pride or self-interest which causes us to accept these pleasures of sin, instead of God’s best for us through obedience. So our succombing to the lie of temptation and knowingly following on into sin is a slap in God’s face. We set ourselves up to know what is best for us. God does not give us laws to gain sinful glee over our misery, he does so for our good.

Think about it, Adam and Eve had the prospect of an eternity without pain, disease, and strife in a perfect paradise with the highest possible communion with God Himself. And they threw it away for some temporary pleasure. Ask yourself what you are giving up, the next time temptation knocks on your door.

Along these lines we need to be reminded of the seriousness of sin. Heb. 3:12-14 teaches that through the deceitfulness of sin our hearts can be hardened to the point of falling away permanently from God by not holding our original confidence firm to the end. Heb. 12:14 speaks of a “holiness without which no one will see the Lord.” So sin is serious! Jesus, speaking of lust said, “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.” (Matt. 5:29) In other words, we need to have a “kill or be (eternally) killed” attitude with sin. John Owen, commenting on Rom. 8:13 said, “…always be killing sin, or it will be killing you.” (pg. 5 of The Mortification of Sin by John Owen [abridged by Richard Rushing], Banner of Truth: Edinburgh, 2004) He also said, “Sin is always acting, always conceiving, and always seducing and tempting….If sin is always acting, we are in trouble if we are not always mortifying.” (pg. 7)

No, I am not advocating the view that we obtain our salvation by works. This is impossible to do, and an unscriptual position to hold (see Rom. 3:28, Rom. 4:1-8; Eph. 2:8-9, Titus 3:5). But Martin Luther speaks the conclusion of all the Reformers when he says, “Justification is by faith alone, but not by the faith that is alone.” In other words, true saving faith is not present without true Spirit-wrought works. Thus, concerning false prophets (obviously ones with a false profession) Jesus says, “You will recognize them by their fruits….” (Matt. 7:16). This is why Abraham is said to be both not “justified by works” (the argument from Rom. 4:1-5), and “justified by works” (James 2:20-26). The justification spoke of in James 2 (“You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone” vs. 24) is a vindication of God’s pronouncement that faith is to be “counted…as righteousness” (for Abraham and for all who follow his faith, Rom. 4:22-25). In other words, good works prove that one has been regenerated and saved by faith. Eph. 2:8-10 teach that we are not saved by our good works, but we are saved to be doing good works. The good works stem from a Spirit-wrought sanctification that Christ ordains for all who are his people by faith (see Titus 2:14). This is why John makes such sweeping statements in 1 John such as “Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning.” (3:7b-8a) And again, “No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God.” (3:9)

Our works prove the genuineness of our faith. It is possible to be self-deceived concerning our faith (Matt. 7:21-23, and 2 Cor. 13:5). We are warned that we could have “believed in vain” (1 Cor. 15:2). So going back to my main point, we must remember the seriousness of sin. Gal. 6:7-8 reminds us, “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.”

I do not want to major only on what we might reap by developing a “practice of sinning“. Also consider the glory of what we miss here and now. We miss God’s presence where “there is fullness of joy“. (Ps. 16:11) God had much pleasure and lasting joy for Adam and Eve, and God has the “abundant life” for you and I. Let us not be deceived by sin’s promise of pleasure right now. Let us follow Moses’ example and choose to endure troubles (denying our self, saying no to temptation, receiving the persecution our culture heaps on believers) rather than “enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin“, because we also “consider the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt (or any promise that sin might offer to us)”. (Heb. 11:24-26)

Concerning Faith

But this is not the only message Gen. 3 has for us, there is a beautiful testimony of faith in our gracious God. If you are like me, when I read verses 14-19 of Gen. 3, I do not see much to be happy about. I can easily imagine Adam and Eve having long faces and drooping shoulders as they walk away from God, now having received their sentence. But this is exactly what did not happen!

Vs. 20-21 follow immediately on the heels of the awful pronouncement of doom. From vs. 22-24 (where God thrusts Adam and Eve out of the garden lest they also eat of the Tree of Life) we must conclude that vs. 20-21 happened very soon after, possibly the same day, as vs. 14-19.

Before you can really see what I do, you must go back and look at vs. 15 again. This is part of God’s judment on the serpent, and in it we find the first promise of a Messiah, a Savior. This is called the protoevangelium (or first gospel). God promises that the woman will have offspring which will “bruise” the serpent’s head, while the serpent will “bruise his heel“. Heb. 2:14 tells us that Christ destroyed Satan on the cross, and Rom. 16:20 teaches that believers also ultimately will “crush Satan” under our feet. So Christ’s future work on the cross is what is foreseen in this promise.

Now back to vs. 20. Adam and Eve have just heard the awful pronouncement. But then Adam immediately names his wife Eve, because “she was the mother of all living”. [My ESV footnote says, “Eve sounds like the Hebrew for life-giver and resembles the word for living.”] So before his wife had given life to any child, Adam names his wife Eve. This was done in faith, I believe. Because God had promised his wife would bear children. This was exciting to Adam and Eve, because one of her children would bruise the Serpent’s head, providing redemption. This is why upon Cain’s birth Eve says, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord” (Gen. 4:1). And later when their third son is born, they name him “Seth” because, as Eve explains, “God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel, for Cain killed him.” (4:25)

So Adam and Eve, received with faith in God’s promise of a deliverer. And immediately thereafter God performed the first animal sacrifices (a picture of the ultimate bloody sacrifice of Christ for sin) in order to clothe them properly in coats of skin. From Rev. 3:5, 7:13-14, and 19:8 we see that the righteousness of those who are saved is pictured by white garments. It is not hard to see that these garments which clothed Adam and Eve, being given to them by God, are a picture of God’s supply of righteousness to those who believe through the imputation of Christ’s righteousness on their behalf.

So we see in Gen. 3 a picture of the deceitfulness and seriousness of sin in the account of the Fall. But we also see the gracious provision of clothing by God to those who believe in His gracious promises. May we too see the glory in God’s promises and believe, rather than seeing the harshness of God’s justice (as expressed often in the continuing misery experienced by all on earth due to the Fall–floods, tsunamis, cancer, car accidents, etc.) and complaining as Cain did in chapter 4.

∼striving for the unity of the faith for the glory of God∼ Eph. 4:3,13 “¢ Rom. 15:5-7