To Preach like the Devil

“Oh that our prelates would be as diligent to sow the corn of good doctrine, as Satan is to sow cockle and darnel!”

Hugh Latimer
From, The Sermon of the Plough
January 1548
Paul’s Cross

GOD’S PROVIDENCE GOVERNS ALL

And truly God claims, and would have us grant him, omnipotence —
not the empty, idle, and almost unconscious sort that the Sophists
imagine, but a watchful, effective, active sort, engaged in ceaseless
activity. Not, indeed, an omnipotence that is only a general principle of
confused motion, as if he were to command a river to flow through its
once-appointed channels, but one that is directed toward individual and
particular motions. For he is deemed omnipotent, not because he can
indeed act, yet sometimes ceases and sits in idleness, or continues by a
general impulse that order of nature which he previously appointed; but
because, governing heaven and earth by his providence, he so regulates all
things that nothing takes place without his deliberation. For when, in The
Psalms, it is said that “he does whatever he wills” [Psalm 115:3; cf.
Psalm 113: 3, Vg.], a certain and deliberate will is meant. For it would
be senseless to interpret the words of the prophet after the manner of the
philosophers, that God is the first agent because he is the beginning and
cause of all motion  for in times of adversity believers comfort
themselves with the solace that they suffer nothing except by God’s
ordinance and command, for they are under his hand.
But if God’s governance is so extended to all his works, it is a childish
cavil to enclose it within the stream of nature. Indeed, those as much
defraud God of his glory as themselves of a most profitable doctrine who
confine God’s providence to such narrow limits as though he allowed all
things by a free course to be borne along according to a universal law of
nature.  For nothing would be more miserable than man if he were
exposed to every movement of the sky, air, earth, and waters. Besides, in
this way God’s particular goodness toward each one would be too
unworthily reduced. David exclaims that infants still nursing at their
mothers’ breasts are eloquent enough to celebrate God’s glory [Psalm
8:2], for immediately on coming forth from the womb, they find food
prepared for them by his heavenly care. Indeed, this is in general true,
provided what experience plainly demonstrates does not escape our eyes
and senses, that some mothers have full and abundant breasts, but others’
are almost dry, as God wills to feed one more liberally, but another more
meagerly.
Those who ascribe just praise to God’s omnipotence doubly benefit
thereby. First, power ample enough to do good there is in him in whose
possession are heaven and earth, and to whose beck all creatures are so
attentive as to put themselves in obedience to him. Secondly, they may
safely rest in the protection of him to whose will are subject all the
harmful things which, whatever their source, we may fear; whose
authority curbs Satan with all his furies and his whole equipage; and upon
whose nod depends whatever opposes our welfare.  And we cannot
otherwise correct or allay these uncontrolled and superstitious fears,
which we repeatedly conceive at the onset of dangers. We are
superstitiously timid, I say, if whenever creatures threaten us or forcibly
terrorize us we become as fearful as if they had some intrinsic power to
harm us, cor might wound us inadvertently and accidentally, or there were
not enough help in God against their harmful acts.
For example, the prophet forbids God’s children “to fear the stars and
signs of heaven, as disbelievers commonly do” [Jeremiah 10:2].
Surely he does not condemn every sort of fear. But when unbelievers
transfer the government of the universe from God to the stars, they fancy
that their bliss or their misery depends upon the decrees and indications of
the stars, not upon God’s will; so it comes about that their fear is
transferred from him, toward whom alone they ought to direct it, to stars
and comets. Let him, therefore, who would beware of this infidelity ever
remember that there is no erratic power, or action, or motion in creatures,
but that they are governed by God’s secret plan in such a way that
nothing happens except what is knowingly and willingly decreed by him.

John Calvin

Hints of a Better World

Sometimes a random act of kindness takes one by surprise. That’s exactly what happened to my son and me today. We were enjoying an afternoon lunch, he had a burger and fries, and I had, well, the waitress didn’t let me have the steak I really wanted, instead she recommended the chicken sandwich. Did I say she is my wife? No, that was not the random act, though she would definitely see it that way. In fact, it was a total stranger that took my ticket, and paid for my lunch. That was the unexpected bit of grace. Receiving a gift is sometimes very difficult. This was not a major purchase, but a simple meal for two, but the gratuity of such a gesture reminds me that there is a better world than what most of us experience most of the time. I did not earn the lunch and I did not pay for it either. All I could do was gratefully extend my thanks. It was an object lesson for my boy that grace comes in various ways in our lives. For me, it was a reminder that despite all the ugliness and suffering this world holds out for so many, random acts of kindness are truly hints of a better world. A world where grace is all and God is the author.

TZ

Hyper Abounding Grace

A Friend of mine sent me this link:

http://wordoftheday.reclaimingthemind.org/blogs/2009/10/04/hyper-calvinism/

When I clicked on it, I found the following:

“Hyper-Calvinism is a pejorative designation for those who are believed to go beyond historic Calvinism in their doctrine. Although there is no one way to designate a Calvinist as “hyper,” there are many extremes that might carry such a designation. Among these extremes: the belief that we do not need to evangelize, the belief that God is the author of evil and sin, the belief that God does not love the non-elect, the belief that God actively elected people to go to hell (the reprobate) before he created them (superlapsarianism), the belief in meticulous sovereignty (that God is the immediate cause of all things), and/or that true Christians will always be Calvinist. All of these are not defining characteristics of historic Calvinism.”

This has become a theological sport of sorts: to challenge those who are sterner in their Calvinism than you are to reject their obvious hyperism.

Hyper Calvinism is considered a deadly enemy to the truth.

But is it not just as fair to question those who are advocates of the alternate positions to those depicted as hyper, positions which we might designate hypo-Calvinism, with the hypo meaning beneath or lesser than?

When my view is designated “superlapsarianism” as per the quote above, I am made aware that I am dealing with people who have very little true knowledge of the subject.
The correct designation is supralapsarianism. This doctrine concerns the logical order of the separate units of God’s eternal decree. Some speak of it as the doctrine of the divine decrees in logical arrangement. Each designation of such views as supra or sub- lapsarianism has to do with the position of the decree of election in relation to the decree for the fall (lapse). Hence supra, meaning in Latin, above, has the decree of election prior to the decree of the fall. Infra or sub-lapsarian theology asserts that election comes below or under the decree to “permit” the fall. This latter language itself about permitting is so suspect in itself, and anyone who wants to know what Calvin Himself said about “bare permission” of things to occur in this universe, they had better re-visit the Institutes where Calvin makes it abundantly clear that God is the ultimate cause of all things, sin included! On second thoughts they might be right, this is a “super” doctrine!

Back to the definition. First, we have established that these folks who are afraid of the big bad Calvinist, are really not consistent Calvinists themselves but have a measure of compromise with Arminianism. If God loves the non-elect salvifically and does not hate them, then how does one account for verses that speak of God’s hate (Pss. 5, 11; Amos, Romans)? Furthermore, Jesus stated of some that will be turned away on the last day that “He Never Knew Them.” All good Calvinists, as they are Biblicists realize that this means an intimate loving relationship with these people. Christ in essence is declaring that He never loved them. Christ, therefore must be a hyper Calvinist or is it rather that He is a consistent theologian, of the Calvinist variety?

Second, what is the opposite of meticulous providence anyway? When the Lord speaks about a sparrow falling or the very hairs of our heads, is that not meticulous enough? What would a non-meticulous providence provide God, in His governance of the world? Could it be one in every fifty hairs, or one in every five hundred hairs? Or is it all those hairs that do not fall off my head by their free will?

Whatever hairs have not fallen and suffered eternal perdition, however, will be upon the heads of Calvinists alone, for in the new heaven and new earth only such will dwell there. Not all the Calvinists that live there will claim a pure heritage. Some will have been converted to Calvinism before they died, others will burn or bury their Arminian sentiments at the great assize. Either way, all citizens will embrace the true gospel in the eternal kingdom as being the doctrines of grace unadulterated. Who would wish it to be otherwise?

Furthermore, to assert the desirability of a non-meticulous providence is to court disaster in the doctrine of God. Do you really want to take a risk on a deity that has partial sovereignty?

Let’s stop this nonsense. Go to the scriptures and see what they declare! At the end of the day, it is not our fidelity to historical Calvinism that is the issue, it is our fidelity to historic Christianity, and that, according to the Bible, is more reminiscent of a consistent Calvinism than the all too shallow hypo version promoted by so many today!

Where sin abounded, Grace hyper-abounded!

TZ.

My mind is on the blink!

My mind is on the blink!

The suggestion that Christianity is about how one feels is so popular today, that any suggestion to the contrary is met with severe scorn. Christianity is not even about religion as such. Most people think that being a Christian is a matter of choosing one’s preference of religious conviction much like one chooses a particular brand of cereal in the supermarket.

The problem with this, is that all it results in is our choosing our own method of poison. Many religious brands are available for the spiritual shopper. It is not about making the right pick, but something far more fundamental. At the end of the day Christianity is about truth. It is those of the truth that hear Christ, who is the Absolute Truth with a capital T. Some are tempted to the solution that sounds something like this: “if it is about the truth then what I make true in my life is what really matters.” What a deception this is; people choosing their own truths! Doesn’t this sound so innocent? Again, it is a deadly delusion.

Think about what Jesus said for a minute. Those who are of the truth, hear Him. Hearing Christ is not about our choosing to, it is about our relation to the truth. Our prior relation to the truth is the reality that makes our Christianity the real deal or not. Many fill church buildings today just as many flock to varieties of religious temples or experiences around the globe, yet it means nothing. The person they are “hearing” is not the voice of truth but the mimicking voice of a hireling, that is deceiving and deadly. E.M. Bounds once spoke about sermonettes that killed their listeners. That is what is promoted today, and those who are of the lie are flocking to these christian cathedrals in droves.

Religious preference, whether it is a choice between Hinduism over Buddhism, or Methodism over Presbyterianism, has nothing to do with one’s eternal salvation. It is God’s decision to make you of the truth, and that is entirely His doing. Of His will we have been begotten by the Word of truth. Christianity is about the Truth that precedes all our choices, and that Truth is made ours by divine will alone. So I must acknowledge that my mind is on the blink when it comes to religious preferences. Anything I choose will lead to destruction because I live and breathe in darkness and death!

TZ

Calvin on the Atonement!

In this passage we see Calvin is clearly in the particular redemption camp.

The discussion concerns the Lord’s Supper, so the incidental arguments

are most telling.

“He [Heshusius] asks Calvinists with what faith they can approach the Supper —

whether with a great or a little faith? It is easy to give the answer furnished

by the Institutes, where I distinctly refute the error of those who require a

perfection which is nowhere to be found, and by this severity keep back

from the use of the Supper not the weak only, but those best qualified to

receive it. Nay, even our children, by the form which is in common use, are

fully instructed how to refute the silly calumny. It is vain for him

therefore to display his loquacity by running away from the subject. That

he might not plume himself by his performance in this respect, we think it

proper to insert this much by the way. He says the two things are

diametrically opposed, viz., forgiveness of sins and guilt before the

tribunal of God; as if the least instructed did not know that believers in the

same act provoke the wrath of God, and yet by his indulgence obtain

favor. We all condemn the craft of Rebecca in substituting Jacob in the

place of Esau, and there cannot be a doubt that in the eye of God the act

was deserving of severe punishment; yet he so mercifully forgave it, that

by means of it Jacob obtained the blessing. It is worth while to observe in

passing, with what acuteness he disposes of my objection, that Christ

cannot be separated from his Spirit. His answer is, that as the words of

Paul are clear, he assents to them. Does he mean to astonish us by a

miracle when he tells us that the blind see it? It has been clearly enough

shown that nothing of the kind is to be seen in the words of Paul. He

endeavors to disentangle himself by saying, that Christ is present with his

creatures in many ways. But the first thing to be explained is, how Christ

is present with unbelievers, as being the spiritual food of souls, and, in

short, the life and salvation of the world. And as he adheres so doggedly to

the words, I should like to know how the wicked can eat the flesh of

Christ which was not crucified for them? and how they can drink the

blood which was not shed to expiate their sins? (italics mine). I agree with

him, that Christ is present as a strict judge when his Supper is profaned. But it is

one thing to be eaten, and another to be a judge. When he afterwards says

that the Holy Spirit dwelt in Saul, we must send him to his rudiments, that

he may learn how to discriminate between the sanctification which is

proper only to the elect and the children of God, and the general power

which even the reprobate possess. These quibbles, therefore, do not in the

slightest degree affect my axiom, that Christ, considered as the living bread

and the victim immolated on the cross, cannot enter any human body

which is devoid of his Spirit.”

John Calvin (1561).

The Word Spread.

The Bible is a book. It has many manifestations in many versions and is produced on differing materials. The book in and of itself is not the important aspect of the Bible; the Word is! I ask my children to try to take care of the Bibles we own, and we understand that if we lay the bible on the floor or if it is brought into the bathroom, there is no sin in this per se. However, we stress the importance of the Word. It is a word sharper than any two-edged sword. It is like a compass to the navigator. It is more precious than gold. Its precepts teach the way of wisdom and safety. It is a living Word. Though the occasional nature of the documents has interested scholars for the historical insight they provide, Christians are one up on the scholars; they recognize the deep spiritual nature of this word and love the God who breathed it out.

In Acts chapter 6:7 we are told that “the Word of God spread.” In the original Greek the term used is huxanen so the notion is one of growth and multiplication. This unusual imagery was literally true in the sense that many were embracing the truth as God added to the church daily. This same hope of seeing the Word increase is ours as we place before the world an unadulterated message of God’s Word in its wholeness and its holiness. May we see a harvest of truly saved sinners that have tasted and seen that the Lord is good as they have been made alive by the Spirit of God using the Word of God.

tz

God on Mute!

Editing the Bible does not take away from God’s stature. Thomas Jefferson muted much of the New Testament leaving a very slender Jefferson Bible. Critical scholars have long been at work claiming that many portions of the Old Testament were in reality a description of an evolving religious consciousness, certainly not the Revealed Word of God. In our very recent history the infamous Jesus Seminar has voted out many of Jesus’ sayings with little basis in factual history, but with mountains of subjective opinion.  Yet one thing remains in all of this: God is unscathed!

The silencing of the word was attempted by many throughout history. Perhaps, one of the most ironic twists of “fortune” one may suggest, is the fascinating account of Voltaire. He was known as one of the philosophes. Not a philosopher in the contemporary sense, but a writer of essays, a political activist, and satirist extraordinaire.  It is reputed of Voltaire that he once sought to disprove the reality of Jesus Christ as God and ridiculed the content of the Bible quite openly. Having definite deistic beliefs, the sarcastic Voltaire, allowed for the “idea of God,” but spoke against the Catholicism of his day.  “With god,” he would retort, I have no problem. But with monsieur le son and his mother, well that is another story.” He really and truly detested the Christian faith. He spoke against the Scriptures with audacious claims that the Bible would become obsolete. A few years after Voltaire’s demise and death, his home in Paris was purchased by the French Bible Society, and it became a headquarters from whence the holy Word of God, which Voltaire despised, was circulated throughout the world. In a volume, some time ago, I read a commentary on Voltaire, which, referred to a second hand set of eight volumes of Voltaire’s writings that could be bought with as little as a dollar and ninety cents. The Bible, however, remains the number one best seller, ever. God, indeed, has a sense of humor. No matter what men say, Our God is in Heaven and He does whatever He pleases. Men may try to silence God. Even as the famous Nietzsche once quipped, “God is dead,” to which a student at a prestigious university posted on a bulletin board the following:

“Nietszsche is dead.”

God.

He, as the Lord God creator and Sustainer of the universe, will always have the last say!

TZ

Prepared Before

More to the point concerning the debate between Calvinism and Arminianism is the matter of when God blessed His saints. There is a reality to our having been blessed before the foundation of the world. And if that blessing is not some generic goodwill that all people without exception will necessarily benefit from, then, it must be a gracious giving of salvation to a select group. The when, should settle all controversy. What does Scripture say?
Two passages will suffice to explain this phenomenon. Both texts are in the NT.
1. Matthew 25: 34. In context the judgment described in this passage results in eternal life and eternal death. It is the famed account where the sheep and goats are separated. On the right will be the sheep, and to them alone Christ says, “Come you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”
2. 2 Timothy 1:9. Here Paul encourages young Timothy to endure through the ordained suffering appointed to servants of the gospel. In the midst of this pastoral counsel, Paul reminds Timothy of the single most important piece of information that would spur him on to full and final devotion: the Eternal Grace of God. “He is the one who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not based on our works but on His own purpose and grace, granted to us in Christ Jesus before time began.”
It should be evident that both passages confirm the traditional doctrines of grace that are prominently highlighted in none other but Reformed theology. Salvation is a gift, by grace alone. Not based on our works but clearly testified to in our works. This blessing is a pre-temporal assignment given to the select group, the sheep. Any clear reading of these passages in their contexts will yield nothing other than a Calvinistic soteriology. Attempts to make the blessing dependent on something the sheep do, even in the context of Matthew 25, can be seen for what it really is: It is special pleading that flies in the face of these clear affirmations of our Lord. We have been blessed with salvation all because God has prepared for us before the foundation of the world to be so saved. This temporal life, therefore, is not about the uncertainties of who might be saved, but of the revelation of those eternally given to Christ that will inevitably come to Christ. Our eternal redemption has been prepared before. Glory to God Alone!

TZ

“By Faith You Have Been Saved.”

It is a well-known maxim that we are saved by faith. The problem that is sweeping popular Evangelicalism, however, is that this is taken to mean we are saved because of faith. That is not the Gospel according to Scripture. I used to preach this myself for so many years. It seemed to be the correct meaning of the way of salvation: God did everything He could. Now it was up to us! Well our contribution could not be works because that was expressly forbidden as a means of salvation. But faith, that was different! We could believe that we are saved because of faith and it sounds so innocent, so true, so believable, so Biblically faithful. But wait just a second. There is a deception here that requires an unearthing. The Bible really teaches that we are saved by grace. We are saved by Christ. We are saved by His death, burial, resurrection, ascension, intercession and rule. That is a different proposition altogether. But one may ask, don’t I have to believe this? Absolutely. But, when one does one is saved on the occasion of faith: at the time of faith. That is the true meaning of being saved by faith. It is not a faith in faith. It is not a believing in belief. One is saved when one believes not because one believes. One is saved because of Christ. Furthermore, faith is the gift of God so no one can boast. Faith is a means. But faith is a God-appointed and God-granted means of salvation. Christ in grace is the sole ground of salvation. Next time someone asks you “how were you saved?” you won’t be tempted to say, ” because of faith” but clearly claim: “because of Jesus!”

tz