Inverted Planet

Non-negotiable Doctrines

2012-01-14T22:47:00.003-05:00

by Bruce Mills
Which doctrines are so crucial that if someone denies any one of them, he cannot be considered to be a true Christian? I’ve given some thought to that, and here is my list.

1. The inerrancy and authority of the Bible.
2. The virgin birth of Christ.
3. His complete divinity.
4. His substitutionary atonement.
5. His bodily resurrection.
6. His physical return for His people.
7. Man’s fallen, sinful condition and his inability to save himself.
8. Salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

There are other doctrines which others may argue should be added to this list, but these are what I believe are the absolute, fundamental, non-negotiable doctrines which all true Christians must believe. Other doctrines which are not specifically listed may “fit into” one of these doctrines; i.e., the doctrine of the humanity of Christ can be seen to be a part of our understanding of His virgin birth.

While believers may disagree on the details of certain doctrines, belief in the doctrines listed above is non-negotiable. If anyone claims to be a Christian, yet does not hold to these truths, there is solid reason to question the validity of his/her claim.

I do not mean that there might, at times, be differences of opinion regarding certain details about the doctrines listed above (such as whether Christ’s atonement was limited in scope or unlimited in scope, or the timing of His return for the church), but anyone who denies any of these basic beliefs cannot legitimately claim to be a true believer and follower of Christ.

Responding to Laws We Don’t Like

2011-12-01T20:27:00.004-05:00

by Bruce Mills

A few days ago a Christian friend of mine received a traffic citation for not wearing his seat belt when driving his car. He was incensed, giving the usual complaints about the enforcement of such safety laws as a waste of law enforcement’s time (“they should be catching true bad guys instead of harassing fathers taking their children to the park”) and being a violation of a driver’s freedom of choice (“this is the land of the free, isn’t it?”). Another Christian friend (and lawyer) interacted with him very effectively regarding the legal aspects of his offense and why it is important to have such laws and to enforce them, but I think there is a much bigger issue at stake here than most believers ever realize.

The point is that there are many laws about which there is disagreement as to their validity or their enforcement. But whether the government should enforce certain laws and not others is not the issue. The issue is that obedience to those laws is not an option for the believer. Christians are to willingly and joyfully submit to those laws, even if they disagree with them. Why? Because the government which passed those laws is ordained by God (Rom. 13:1) and anyone who resists the government’s authority is living in disobedience to God (Rom. 13:2). The apostle Paul goes on to say that it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of what actions the government might take against us, but also for the sake of our conscience (Rom. 13:5). In other words, we are not to obey the law only because we might get caught, but also because doing so violates our God-given conscience which helps us discern right and wrong. Disobedience to the law is an act of non-submission to God-ordained authority over us and thus, a sin. Only when the government commands us to do something which violates something God has commanded us in His Word to do are we ever authorized to disobey the law (Acts 5:28-29).

But what about my friend’s argument that law enforcement should utilize their assets more effectively by apprehending “true bad guys” instead of nabbing fathers driving their children to play time at the park? Again, the issue is not whether we disagree with how the government is spending the tax dollars it receives. No matter what law you may pick, you can always find someone who thinks it is a waste of time to enforce it. And there are many expenditures which the government makes which I personally believe are a waste of resources which could be better used elsewhere. However, we must return to the point that Christians are called to submit to our government and obey its laws—even those with which we disagree or those which we believe are unimportant. Our submission to those laws provides us the opportunity to demonstrate to a watching world that followers of Jesus Christ are not shrill, disrespectful whiners who want our own way and think the laws are good for others, but not for us. The apostle Peter instructed us that obedience to every authority and law is “the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men” (1 Peter 2:15). In other words, we should put those who oppose and attack us to shame by our example of submission and obedience to the law. And we need to recognize that when we violate those laws, we deserve the consequences of the government’s decision to enforce those laws.

Now, let me give credit where credit is due to my friend. After he received his citation, he explained to his children right in front of the officer that daddy had violated the law and was being rightfully punished for his actions. He took advantage of a tremendous opportunity to teach his children to respect law enforcement officers, and the fact that even daddy is not spared from being corrected when he violates the law. He made such an impact on his children that when they got home, they offered him the money in their piggy bank to help pay the fine and made a “thank you” card for the officer that said "Dear Policeman, thank you for telling us about seat belts."

I’m thrilled that he taught his children such a valuable lesson and did not verbalize his complaints in their hearing like he did with his adult friends. Now if he will only teach those same truths to his own heart…

Thoughts on Complacency about the Third World

2011-10-18T17:43:00.001-04:00

by Bruce Mills

As I write this, I am sitting in a beautiful mountain lodge home in the mountains of north Georgia, looking out over a sun-drenched vista filled with autumn leaves of spectacular colors, with temperatures hovering in the middle 70s. I am living the American dream…a wonderful wife and family, a nice job which provides me with an adequate income to own my own home, modern appliances and technological devices that make life much easier (i.e., dishwasher, clothes washer & dryer, central heat and air, computers, smartphones, etc.), as well as the opportunity to periodically take vacations in lovely locations. I can afford to visit the doctor and dentist for regular checkups, to buy the medications I need to maintain my health. I can get in my nice car and drive wherever I need to go, whenever I want to. I attend a church, which even though the building is aging, still has nice pews, carpeting, as well as a modern sound system with video screens, and air conditioning.

Meanwhile in Honduras, the second poorest country in Central America, there is a young pastor who spends each day working the ground on his small plot of land, subsistence farming, hoping the weather will be favorable so he can raise enough beans and corn to help feed his family as well as sell some at the local open air market. He plows and hoes his crops all day, every day, struggling to provide enough for his family to survive. His pregnant wife carries the little bit of clothing their family owns down to the river to wash and scrub it in the water and then dries it in the sun. She also walks a half mile each way to the nearest well to fill her water jug in order to have enough water to last for the day, then carries it all the way back home. She will repeat this every day. She then works to prepare the evening meal for the family, one of only two they will have that day. The family is fortunate at the present time; there are times when they only have one meal per day. This woman has had no pre-natal care for her unborn child and their other two living children have never had a shot to immunize them against any of the many childhood diseases which can quickly claim a life in a nation with poor medical care. In fact, last year their two-year old daughter died after contracting measles.

Every night, after finishing his work in his field and eating a small bowl of rice and beans for dinner, this young pastor spends time reading a tattered paperback copy of the Bible which he received from some missionaries who used to minister in the area, through whom he first heard the gospel of Jesus Christ when he was just a young teenager. It is the only book he owns. He studies it intently, trying to learn all he can about the Christian faith, but he is limited because he has no formal instruction and no other theological commentaries or reference books to help him understand the flow of Scripture or how the gospels and the epistles fit together. Each Sunday, this man stands before a small congregation in a hot, humid building, where only a few of the others own a Bible, and attempts to teach the people there what he has found in God’s Word that week.

Who is this young pastor? Well, I admit that he is fictitious man of my own imagination, but there are many pastors around the Honduran countryside just like him. Meanwhile, I sit here in my comfortable surroundings, thinking about my extensive theological library back at my home in Florida, and the opportunity I had to attend seminary to receive advanced theological training, and the joy I experience from studying the Scriptures and my books each week before standing to teach my Sunday School class of about 45 people in a comfortable, air-conditioned building. Those Honduran pastors have never experienced any of those things, and cannot imagine ever having such opportunities. But they continue faithfully teaching their little flocks of believers, even though they hardly know more about the Bible than do those who attend their churches.

Why am I thinking about these matters? Because I am reading David Platt’s excellent book, Radical, which challenges my thinking about such issues, and I am embarrassed by my complacency toward men such as this fictitious young Honduran pastor. Christ commanded us to go to all the nations and make disciples. That includes building up the men who will shepherd the flock there in those nations. I went to El Salvador in 2002 to teach at a church leadership conference, but I have not done such since then. I am ashamed of my indifference toward these men who live their lives with the goal of shepherding God’s flock, but do not have the training and resources to do so effectively.

But I also know that I can do something about this. As one of the pastors of my church, I will have the opportunity to go to Honduras within the next year or so to minister to pastors and other church leaders in that impoverished nation. The pastors of our church have agreed to minister in conjunction with S.O.S. Ministries to some of the evangelical church leaders in Honduras in order to help them better understand and teach the Scriptures. We will also provide them with Spanish language resources for study. Some of our pastors went there in July, and others are scheduled to go in December. I’m not certain when I will be scheduled to go, but I will eventually go, Lord willing.

My question for those reading this is: Are you as concerned about making disciples and building them up as Jesus commands us to be? We often use excuses about not feeling called to go to those in other nations, which is, in reality, nothing more than a cover-up for our unwillingness to get out of our satisfied, comfortable, American dream lifestyle and go to the third world and reach both those who need to both hear the saving gospel of Jesus Christ and those who need to be built up in the faith. I’m guilty of thinking that way…what about you? The Great Commission is not a call to complacency and the satisfied life; it is a call to engage the enemy on the battlefield in the war for the souls of men. May we repent of our sinful thinking and get busy in the work of reaching the world!

An Outstanding Response to Pat Robertson

2011-09-20T20:45:00.003-04:00

Posted by Bruce Mills

This past week, Pat Robertson made headlines when he stated that Alzheimer’s disease is the equivalent of death and an individual who is married to an Alzheimer’s victim is justified in divorcing their spouse under such circumstances. I thought about writing a post in response to his horrific declaration, but I believe Dr. Russell Moore, Dean of the School of Theology and Senior Vice-President for Academic Administration at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, has answered Robertson far better than I ever could. So I have copied his blog post on this issue for your edification. If you wish to read more of Dr. Moore’s blog posts, you will find them at his blog, Moore to the Point, at www.russellmoore.com.

Christ, the Church, and Pat Robertson

By Russell D. Moore

This week on his television show Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson said a man would be morally justified to divorce his wife with Alzheimer’s disease in order to marry another woman. The dementia-riddled wife is, Robertson said, “not there” anymore. This is more than an embarrassment. This is more than cruelty. This is a repudiation of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Few Christians take Robertson all that seriously anymore. Most roll their eyes, and shake their heads when he makes another outlandish comment (for instance, defending China’s brutal one-child abortion policy to identifying God’s judgment on specific actions in the September 11 attacks, Hurricane Katrina, or the Haiti earthquake). This is serious, though, because it points to an issue that is much bigger than Robertson.

Marriage, the Scripture tells us, is an icon of something deeper, more ancient, more mysterious. The marriage union is a sign, the Apostle Paul announces, of the mystery of Christ and his church (Eph. 5). The husband, then, is to love his wife “as Christ loved the church” (Eph. 5:25). This love is defined not as the hormonal surge of romance but as a self-sacrificial crucifixion of self. The husband pictures Christ when he loves his wife by giving himself up for her.

At the arrest of Christ, his Bride, the church, forgot who she was, and denied who he was. He didn’t divorce her. He didn’t leave.

The Bride of Christ fled his side, and went back to their old ways of life. When Jesus came to them after the resurrection, the church was about the very thing they were doing when Jesus found them in the first place: out on the boats with their nets. Jesus didn’t leave. He stood by his words, stood by his Bride, even to the Place of the Skull, and beyond.

A woman or a man with Alzheimer’s can’t do anything for you. There’s no romance, no sex, no partnership, not even companionship. That’s just the point. Because marriage is a Christ/church icon, a man loves his wife as his own flesh. He cannot sever her off from him simply because she isn’t “useful” anymore.

Pat Robertson’s cruel marriage statement is no anomaly. He and his cohorts have given us for years a prosperity gospel with more in common with an Asherah pole than a cross. They have given us a politicized Christianity that uses churches to “mobilize” voters rather than to stand prophetically outside the power structures as a witness for the gospel.

But Jesus didn’t die for a Christian Coalition; he died for a church. And the church, across the ages, isn’t significant because of her size or influence. She is weak, helpless, and spattered in blood. He is faithful to us anyway.

If our churches are to survive, we must repudiate this Canaanite mammonocracy that so often speaks for us. But, beyond that, we must train up a new generation to see the gospel embedded in fidelity, a fidelity that is cruciform.

It’s easy to teach couples to put the “spark” back in their marriages, to put the “sizzle” back in their sex lives. You can still worship the self and want all that. But that’s not what love is. Love is fidelity with a cross on your back. Love is drowning in your own blood. Love is screaming, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.”

Sadly, many of our neighbors assume that when they hear the parade of cartoon characters we allow to speak for us, that they are hearing the gospel. They assume that when they see the giggling evangelist on the television screen, that they see Jesus. They assume that when they see the stadium political rallies to “take back America for Christ,” that they see Jesus. But Jesus isn’t there.

Jesus tells us he is present in the weak, the vulnerable, the useless. He is there in the least of these (Matt. 25:31-46). Somewhere out there right now, a man is wiping the drool from an 85 year-old woman who flinches because she think he’s a stranger. No television cameras are around. No politicians are seeking a meeting with them.

But the gospel is there. Jesus is there.

Guaranteeing a Debt: A Biblical View on Surety

2011-09-07T20:25:00.003-04:00

by Bruce Mills

Recently, a man in our church who ministers to college students wrote the following question to the elders: “I was teaching my guys accountability group out of Proverbs 6:1-5. I have always taken this passage to mean that Solomon is against us becoming a surety for another person’s debt. Because I deal with college students, the question came up about parents cosigning for student loans or for their first apartment. I would appreciate input into this matter. Basically, is the teaching of Proverbs and thus the Bible that we should not become a surety for anyone else's debt regardless of our relationship to them and does this include cosigning on loans?”

Two elders shared their perspective on this matter, and because there may be others who wonder about what the Bible says about this situation, I decided to post the two responses here on the blog. The first response is from Curt Sharbaugh, who serves on our staff as one of our Associate Pastors. Curt received his undergraduate degree from the Moody Bible Institute and his graduate degree from Wheaton College. He writes:

Here’s my two cents on this. I would say that there’s a danger in reading Proverbs as a list of prohibitions and commands. There’s a difference in terms of genre between proverbs and law. When a proverb says, “don’t” it doesn’t necessarily mean “never.” Take for example the interpretive guide to the book found in Proverbs 26:4 and 5: “Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes” (ESV). If the Proverbs were meant as commands in every case, we’d be in big trouble at this point. The writer has purposefully included these two opposing and yet harmonious proverbs next to each other to illustrate the fact that different situations may call for different courses of action. It’s interesting that a few verses later, it says, “Like a lame man's legs, which hang useless, is a proverb in the mouth of fools… Like a thorn that goes up into the hand of a drunkard is a proverb in the mouth of fools.” (Proverbs 26:7, 9 ESV). The writer is warning against the misuse of proverbs, while in that same context giving us a clue as to how they work. They’re wise sayings that guide us toward wise living. In some cases, they tell us foundational truths about the wisdom of God, such as “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Sometimes, they do rephrase commands from the Mosaic Law in the form of a proverb (e.g. Deut. 19:14 and Prov. 22:28), but at other times, they simply tell us what is “generally speaking” the best course of action to take or what is “generally” true.
As far as I can tell, Proverbs 6:1-5 is of the latter, and is giving us a warning of the danger of becoming legally liable for someone else’s debt. It does not mean that one can never do this. Clearly this is a concern of Proverbs as similar ideas are mentioned throughout. Sometimes the emphasis is on the foolishness of doing this with a “stranger”, that is, a foreigner (20:16). Sometimes it is more generally stated to include “neighbors,” that is, fellow Israelites (17:18). Here in Proverbs 6 it is stated comprehensively and includes anyone (notice the merism “neighbor” and “stranger”, i.e. everyone). I would say it’s teaching us that, generally speaking, it’s not wise to become liable for someone else’s debt. It could wreck you financially. But I would not say this proverb is saying that it is sinful to do so. What I think helps confirm this is that it does not appear to be a restatement of a Mosaic prohibition. Of course, even if it was, we may still need to evaluate it’s setting within the Old Covenant.
Proverbs 6:1-5 would seem to be a general warning against taking on liability for someone else’s debt, but not without exception. Were we to go back to the setting of ancient Israel and ask about whether we could apply this to a father and his son, I think we’d hear an exception, but proverbs do not generally state exceptions. They’re just pithy statements of wisdom. Plus a son or daughter would not generally be referred to as a “neighbor” much less a “stranger,” so it’s even more likely they would not have been included in this general principle. Proverbs 6:1-5 is not a treatise on right and wrong business practices; it’s a short poetic discourse on the dangers of financial irresponsibility. So I would not conclude that cosigning a child’s loan, or one for someone who was like family for that matter, would be wrong. There may be other situations where this would not be wrong. In general, however, it’s wise to stay away from debt, and it’s unwise to take on others’ debt.

I was the other elder who shared his thoughts on this matter, and while my response is not as technical or analytical as Curt’s, here is what I had to say:

I would concur with Curt's explanation that the Proverbs are not designed as absolutes. The book of Proverbs is a guidebook for godly conduct, consisting of practical principles for righteous living. In his commentary on the Proverbs, Jay Adams states, "...the proverbs warn, instruct, expose folly, point the way to wisdom, tell you what to expect in life (describing what it is like), show you how to live life in ways that please God and give you an idea of how things tend to work out without always being absolute about it."
I agree with Curt's analysis and interpretation of Prov. 6:1-5, so I will not repeat what he has said. However, let me add a couple of other observations. In studying the practices of lending that were permitted and not permitted under the Law, it is clear that there was to be no interest charged to a poor person. But it was permissible to charge interest to others. However, usury (the charging of exorbitant interest rates) was prohibited. In Nehemiah 5, there is discussion of the people mortgaging their houses, fields, vineyards, etc. in order to buy food. And in verses 10-11, Nehemiah orders the rulers to stop charging usury to the people which was apparently 1% per month (12% per annum). Just like today, if someone had a mortgage that they were paying 12% APR on, we would all agree that it was exorbitantly high, particularly when mortgage rates are around 4% right now.
My point is that many commentators believe Prov. 6:1-5 is warning against cosigning for someone on a loan on which the interest rate is so high as to be usury and you find yourself trapped by the agreement. Notice the conditional aspect in verse 2: "if you have been snared." But if a parent is financially capable of assisting their child in obtaining a student loan or an auto loan or an apartment lease agreement by cosigning for them, and the interest rate is low and affordable, then I do not believe Proverbs is absolutely prohibiting them from doing so. However, there is still the warning that something might go wrong and the parents would become responsible to pay back that loan, and then they may become trapped by their agreement to pay. In such cases, Proverbs advises them to plead with the creditor to release them from the agreement or modify it so as to be affordable.
Another interpretation of this passage is that it is warning against making rash agreements to become surety for another which may trap the individual in something they haven't really thought through. Since the Proverbs are written to young sons as a means of instruction, this would warn young men of the danger of making rash agreements that they have not thought through or about which they have not received any wise counsel. Charles Bridges, one of the most famous commentators on the Proverbs, points out that there are some examples of becoming surety for another that were apparently okay (Reuben and Judah for Benjamin in Gen. 42:37, 43:9, 44:32-33; Paul for Onesimus in Philemon 18-19). So while we think of surety as applying to financial arrangements, the Scriptures do not carry that limited meaning or understanding. The concept of surety is that of a guarantee to be liable for someone else, whether for his debts, damages, or default. To bring it up to today, a parent who carries their child on their auto insurance policy has agreed to become the surety for that child's actions while driving the family vehicle. The principle of Proverbs would apply in that situation just like they do in your example of co-signing a loan. So if you are going to consistently apply your understanding that Proverbs is absolutely prohibiting surety for another (including your children), then a parent would be prohibited from including the child on their auto insurance policy (even though the insurance company requires such while the child is still living at home), merely because to do so is to be surety for that child. I'm not certain you would want to take the principle that far.
So, as Curt stated, the principle of Proverbs is to avoid debt if possible. If a child or close friend needs the money and it is within the individual's ability, they should give them the money or they can loan the money to them at no interest. But if they don't have the money that is needed, and the child has not yet reached the stage in life where they have the ability to get the loan (or auto insurance) themselves, the principle from Proverbs is BE EXTREMELY CAUTIOUS ABOUT CO-SIGNING FOR ANYONE OR BECOMING SURETY IN ANY WAY FOR THEM, BECAUSE YOU MIGHT GET TRAPPED. But because the Proverbs are not absolute edicts, I do not believe you can take it to mean that co-signing or becoming surety in some other way is absolutely prohibited. It may not be wise (particularly if it is an apartment lease agreement), but it is not prohibited.

Our Current Economic Situation

2011-08-09T20:11:00.001-04:00

by Bruce Mills

I have a good friend, Grant Wolf, who for many years served as the Executive Director of the Fellowship of Christian Peace Officers. Grant spent many years in the insurance industry and has been involved in financial counseling for both believers and unbelievers who are struggling with dire financial straits. He sent me a copy of an email he sent out to folks on his email distribution list. The principles are just what Christians need to hear during these difficult economic times, so I am posting it here for your edification.

Our Current Economic Situation

by Grant Wolf

Perhaps you are one of millions of Americans who find yourself severely affected by the current economic crisis. Our nation is in serious trouble, and it will take serious remedial action to get us back on track.

Many now find they owe more on their homes than the current selling price, and that their investments – 401K or otherwise – have taken sharp hits.

As Christians, how do we react?

First, we must keep strong our faith in God and his overarching protection. Isaiah 31:1-3 says: What sorrow awaits those who look to Egypt (government, men) for help, trusting their horses, chariots, and charioteers and depending on the strength of human armies instead of looking to the Lord, the Holy One of Israel. In his wisdom, the Lord will send great disaster; he will not change his mind. He will rise against the wicked and against their helpers.

Second, we need to make certain we are serving God and not money. (Matthew 6:24 - You cannot serve both God and money.)

Third, we are not to worry about the morrow. (Matthew 6:34 – Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for today are its own troubles.

Fourth, we need to count our blessings. (Matthew 6:30-32 – Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear? For after all these things the Gentiles (unbelievers) seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.)

Finally, God is able to make up for our financial loss. In 2 Chronicles 25:6-9, King Amaziah of Judah “paid about 7,500 pounds of silver to Israel to hire 100,000 experienced fighting men in order to prop up his own army. But a man of God came to him and said, ‘Your Majesty, do not hire troops from Israel, for the Lord is not with Israel.’ Amaziah asked the man of God, ‘But what about all that silver I paid to hire the army of Israel?’ The man of God replied, ‘The Lord is able to give you much more than this!’”

I read a “letter to the editor” the other day from a woman who said their house was now worth less than what they owed. However, she said it didn’t make any difference. They liked their home, the mortgage was in line with their ability to pay, and the sale or mortgage values made no difference. They were “just figures on paper.”

For many, the value of homes, stocks, bonds or other assets are “just figures on paper” and do not affect day-to-day living. So we just go forward rejoicing, as a country gospel song goes, “Looking forward to the City coming down, not the cities going up!”

Selah!

A Ministry that Honors Jesus Christ

2011-08-07T23:15:00.002-04:00

by Bruce Mills

I taught on John 3:22-36 in my class today, and as I studied this passage in preparation to teach it, I noted an important principle to which all ministers of the Gospel today should pass close attention. It has to do with how one should deal with the envy and jealousy that can so easily arise in a minister’s heart over the success of someone else’s ministry, and what the focus of every minister’s heart should be in order to honor the Lord in his ministry.

The passage is dealing with the transition from John the Baptist’s ministry to Jesus’ ministry. It is a very important overlap. John the Baptist was initially the guy who was drawing the big crowds, but Jesus began His ministry and little by little, the people start moving over to Jesus. It took a period of about six months, but over that time, John’s crowds thinned out, and Jesus’ crowds grew. But that was a great blessing to John, because that was the whole point of his ministry; to get them over there to where Jesus was.

John is a fabulous example of humble faithfulness for us. He wasn’t fretting over how things were going, saying, “Oh, my ministry is crumbling. The crowds are getting smaller. I need to figure out some method of enticing them back. Maybe we ought to give away an iPhone to whoever brings the most people or put a Starbucks in the lobby.” No, he wasn’t into gimmicks. He was a man of humble faithfulness.

So many pastors measure the success of their ministry on how many bodies they have coming each week. And there is a terrible tendency in the American church culture to assume that a big crowd means you must be doing something right. But you see, the success of a ministry is not measured by the number of people who it attracts, but rather the success of a ministry is measured by the spiritual impact in the lives of those who are there.

And so by that standard John’s ministry was totally successful because his crowds were diminishing and going to Jesus, and that’s exactly what he wanted them to do. He wasn’t trying to get a crowd, he was trying to get rid of a crowd. And John is a tremendous example of humility. There he was, simply ministering and pointing people to Christ, and the people were leaving and he was just carrying on.

In John 3:27, when John said, “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven,” what he was saying was, “If I’ve been successful, it was because God made me successful. If my ministry is over, then God is the One who is turning it off. If people are leaving my ministry and going to Jesus, it’s because God is sending them there. I don’t need to stand back and be jealous of what God is doing. No one ever received anything except that which God gave to him. So you can’t make me jealous of that.” What incredible character this man had!

This principle applies to every one of us. God’s sovereign authority grants the extent of one’s ministry. That’s the way it is. Paul put it this way in 1 Cor. 4:7--“For who regards you as superior? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?” Everything you have is God’s gift to you. In 1 Cor. 15:10 Paul says, “…by the grace of God I am what I am…” It’s all a gift. If you have a successful ministry, it’s the grace of God. Whether it is teaching a class of adults or a class of second graders, or preaching to a church filled with hundreds or thousands, it’s all of the grace of God. God is the One who sovereignly determines the size and the success of a ministry.

Notice how John illustrates this in John 3:28. He says, “You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but, ‘I have been sent ahead of Him.’” In other words, “Listen, I’ve been telling you all along that I am not the Christ and that you need to go see Jesus. He’s the Lamb of God. So why are you trying to stir up jealousy in my heart? I’ve been telling you all along He’s the one.”

Do you know how to tell the character of any great minister? Not by how many people follow the minister, but how many people follow Jesus Christ because of his ministry. Any time you run into a ministry where people are constantly attached to the minister, be careful of that ministry, because something is wrong. Any God-blessed, God-given ministry makes disciples of Jesus Christ, not disciples of some man. And John’s ministry was a joyous ministry because he had sent a whole nation to Jesus Christ. Once they got to Him, they had a lot of problems, but John had done his job.

John was a wonderful example for all true ministers of God that they should not seek after personal fame and should not worry about how big the crowd is that is following them. Instead they should just keep pointing the people to Jesus Christ, because He is what it is all about. Pastors and leaders who fret over the size of their church and what they can do to attract and keep a crowd have missed the point that their mission is only to faithfully teach the Word and point people to Jesus Christ. If they do that, God will bless that ministry.

I don’t mean that a pastor or teacher shouldn’t strive to improve and to be an excellent expositor and teacher of the Word, because he should. And I’m not saying that church leaders shouldn’t give consideration to how to improve the various ministries in their church so that they become known for their excellence. But when a minister chooses business marketing and corporate growth techniques to build his church instead of faithfully following the Word of God and teaching the sheep God has given him responsibility to shepherd, he has turned the church into a business rather than a ministry. More pastors need to be like John the Baptist and see themselves only as caretakers who introduce people to Jesus Christ and help them grow deeper in their understanding of Him and His Word, and stop worrying about how big the crowd is that shows up on Sunday. God will take care of those things if the church leaders are godly men who are obedient to the Word.

God’s Marvelous Provision

2011-07-30T19:10:00.002-04:00

by Bruce Mills

Several months ago, my son and daughter-in-law decided that they would start the long and involved process of adopting a child. This was a decision they made after suffering the sorrow of multiple miscarriages. This was a particularly difficult experience for my daughter-in-law, as many of her friends were experiencing the joy of having children while she was unable to do so. But the Lord has used it as a means of spiritual growth for them as they have learned more about the sovereignty of God and His love for them than they ever would have otherwise.

But they decided to pursue adoption as a means of adding a child to their family. They began the process of saving and fundraising to pay for this extremely expensive process. At the present time, the cost to adopt a child is between $18,000 and $20,000, all of which must be paid before the child is taken home by the adoptive parents. So it is a monumental task to gather that kind of money in a relatively short period of time.

After saving some of their own money and raising additional money through a large garage sale and t-shirt sales, they were doing well in gathering funds, but were nowhere near what they required. Suddenly and unexpectedly, their adoption coordinator called them and asked them if they were interested in pursuing the placement of a little girl due to be born on August 16th. There were some good reasons to pursue this particular child, particularly the fact that the mother had no addiction issues which almost always cause lifelong problems for the child. They were extremely surprised but decided that they would attempt to see if they could raise the additional funds they needed in the one month they had before the baby would come. Plus they had to get an entire nursery ready, including painting and obtaining all the furniture and other supplies normally associated with caring for a baby.

After checking how much money they had accrued, they determined that they were $7,000 short. Using a new means of fundraising recommended to them by friends who have adopted, they began a Facebook-a-thon, seeking donations from friends and family to help bring this little girl home to a loving family. That is when the amazing love of God’s people began to be demonstrated at a level that I must admit I didn’t expect. In less than two weeks, God used His people to generously give all $7,000 of the funds they needed! My faith was certainly far too small, as I never expected them to raise more than a couple of thousand dollars at the most. But God marvelously worked in the hearts of people to give far more abundantly than I could ever ask or think (Eph. 3:20). All the glory goes to God alone, who has used His children to provide the opportunity for a sweet little girl who needs a family that will love her with the love of Christ to be able to bring her home.

Now, all we have to do is wait for this young birth mother to give birth, and pray that the baby is healthy and that the mother does not change her mind at the last minute. Please pray with us to that end.

Widows, Orphans, & Aliens

2011-07-03T23:02:00.002-04:00

by Bruce Mills

Scripture repeatedly discusses three groups of people for whom God has a special love and concern. They are widows, orphans, and aliens. There are ten verses in the Bible in which God emphasizes His love for all three groups (Deut. 10:18; 14:29; 24:17, 19, 20, 21; 26:13; 27:19; Jer. 7:6; Mal. 3:5). There are many more verses which express God’s concern for only one or two of those groups. It is clear that those who find themselves in one of these categories are very special to our Lord. He demands that they be given justice, that they are provided with the food and other needs which they require, and no one must ever cheat any such individual out of any money that belongs to them.

The question which arises is, what are some of the implications of these divine commands for us as we interact with those who are widows, orphans, or aliens?

In regard to widows, it means that we are to insure that the widows in our churches receive special attention in terms of financial support if necessary, assistance with maintenance and upkeep of their homes, transportation to medical appointments and grocery shopping if needed, and visits to their homes to encourage them that we care for them. This may seem like a “no brainer,” but I personally know of a church in which it took a friend of mine about a year to convince the church leadership that a ministry that provides such assistance for the widows in the church was a good and godly thing to do. He was told over and over that such a ministry was unnecessary. It was as though they were oblivious to the biblical instruction regarding the believer’s responsibilities to widows. It was only after he managed to get approval to give such a ministry a “test run” that the church’s leaders saw the value of reaching out to the widows in that church.

In regard to orphans, it means that we encourage Christians to adopt those orphaned children, and attempt to provide means by which potential adoptive parents can raise the funds needed to pay for an adoption. It means that we hold up adoption to our congregation as an important way to advance God’s kingdom by adopting and raising those children in homes in which honoring and glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ is the consuming passion of life. Providing adoption seminars to help the couples in our churches to understand how precious orphans are to the heart of God and providing assistance with the paperwork and home study are effective methods of encouraging believers to consider adoption.

In regard to aliens, it means that we evangelize and provide for the needs of aliens who live in our communities. Whatever one’s thoughts on illegal immigration, the fact is that God calls believers to treat those aliens living around us with compassion and generosity. That means that we do not take advantage of them in any financial or business transaction, such as paying a lower wage than we would pay someone else to do the same job, simply because we believe we can get away from it because the alien will not complain to anyone. It means that churches should consider sponsoring ESL classes to assist aliens in learning the English language, which provides an opportunity to evangelize them. It means that churches consider establishing live translation of services into the language of the primary people group living in the area, thereby providing a means by which those aliens can hear the Word of God and be evangelized.

There are certainly more ways by which believers can provide practical assistance to widows, orphans, and aliens. These are just a few ideas. God has made it very clear that all three groups are very special to Him and thus, they should be very special to us. We need to be obedient to Scripture and care for them in a way which brings glory to God and tangibly demonstrates His love for them.

Eternally Secure

2011-05-29T17:23:00.004-04:00

by Bruce Mills

I had the tremendous privilege of preaching this morning on the eternal security of the believer. My text was Romans 8:29-30. It is a passage filled with deep, rich truths regarding the doctrine of predestination and election. The debate over the security of the believer’s salvation has been debated throughout the history of the church. It is an issue which has split the whole of Christendom into two camps. One group believes that salvation is eternal and no true believer can lose his salvation, but the other side believes that salvation is not necessarily eternal, but can be forfeited by sin.

The truth is that this is an unnecessary debate because the Word of God is so abundantly clear on the matter of the believer’s security. In fact, Romans 8:28-30 presents the clearest and most powerful statement of security in all of Scripture. These verses guarantee without deviation, variation, or exception that all those who are genuinely saved will enter into final glory.

The purpose of God in our salvation, according to Romans 8:29-30 is to conform us to the image of His Son. God didn’t predestine His elect only to the beginning of our salvation but also to the end of it which is to be conformed to the image of His Son. When we’re finally in glory, we’ll be like Jesus Christ and so our predestination is to our eternal glory when we are completely conformed to His image. So God’s intent is to bring us all the way to glory. Believers aren’t saved just to help us temporarily in this life if we can hang on to it by our own power. We were saved in order that we might be finally brought into the surpassing riches and glory of His grace in the ages to come. And since it isn’t a matter of works to get saved, it’s not a matter of works to stay saved. It was grace that saved us, it is grace that keeps us, and it will be grace that brings us to glory.

I don’t mean to shock you too badly, but contrary to what most modern evangelism methods seem to teach, the purpose of salvation is not primarily for you. The purpose of salvation was not primarily to deliver you from hell and take you to heaven. That’s a wonderful benefit, but it is a secondary benefit. No, the purpose of your salvation was so that you could be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.

What does that mean? It means that God’s plan in salvation was to make those He saved like His Son. Forgiveness of sin…that’s a wonderful benefit. Removal of guilt, the granting of peace and joy and love…all of those are a part of salvation, but the primary goal is to make you like Jesus Christ. Salvation cannot stop short of that, or it’s not the salvation God planned. It cannot just stop with calling; that is, that God just calls and then hopes. It cannot end with justification; that is, He justifies but then He just kind of hopes that those individuals get to glory.

No, the plan and purpose of God, the kind intention of His will, is that we will be “conformed to the image of His Son,” and that includes the glory that His Son now has. We have been saved in hope, and the hope in which we’ve been saved is that someday we’ll be like Christ.

And the passage in Romans 8:29-30 tells us that those whom God predetermined and foreordained to love eternally, He marked out (that is, predestined) to go all the way to glory and be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. And in time, He has been effectually calling those who God has predestined to salvation. And all those whom He has ordained, hear that call and believe.

And none of them are going to fall through the cracks between their calling and their eternal glory. The doctrine that you can lose your salvation is a frightening aberration of Scripture. God came, and He awakened those He has chosen from the dead, shone light into their darkness, and convicted them of sin and righteousness and judgment. They felt the weight of their sin and the pain of isolation and alienation from God. And that awakening came upon hearing and understanding the gospel.

They might hear it from a pastor, a teacher, a book, from the pages of Scripture, from the witness of a friend or family member, but the response of the heart with a conviction of sin, the desire for righteousness, a comprehension of the need for forgiveness, and an understanding of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, only comes about by the call of God.

As I studied these things in preparation for teaching, I thought about those who believe they can lose their salvation because of some sin in their life. My own grandmother went to her grave believing that all it took was to die with some unforgiven sin on her account and she would be condemned to an eternity in hell. As I thought about such people, I was struck by how paralyzing and frightening it must be to live with such a belief. To think that all it takes is one sin committed just prior to a fatal accident or heart attack and one would lose their salvation and be condemned to hell—how incredibly frightening that must be! How can one ever experience the joy of their salvation when they truly believe they can lose their salvation at any moment?

But I also realized that there is another consequence of believing that one can lose his or her salvation because of sin, and that is that in order to maintain any kind of sense of sanity and normalcy in one's life, he must reduce sin to a level in which it is far less of an offense against God than it actually is. After all, if those who believe that sin will cause them to lose their salvation truly understood the seriousness of sin as God portrays it in Scripture, they would know that it includes not only outward actions, but also inward motivations and attitudes. That was Jesus’ whole point throughout the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). He repeatedly stated that it wasn’t just an outward, external sin that offends God, but it was the internal attitude of the heart. But those who think sin can cause them to lose their salvation don't usually think so-called "minor" sins such as attitudes and motives can cause them to lose their salvation. They think only so-called "big" sins result in such a loss. Their view is strikingly similar to that of the Pharisees whom Jesus was confronting. But that was not our Lord's viewpoint on sin. He saw all sin, including internal attitudes and motives, as offending a holy God, thus requiring His grace in order to be forgiven. Because all of us are continuously battling against sin in our hearts and minds, we can only be assured of going to heaven when we die because God’s grace is being continuously poured out, guaranteeing the security of our salvation.

Another issue with believing that one can lose his or her salvation is that it leaves man in charge of his eternal salvation and makes God a lesser god; a diminished deity who sits in heaven wringing his hands, hoping that the people He created will exercise their will to choose Christ, incapable of guaranteeing their salvation apart from their own sovereign choice over the matter. My friends, that is not the God of the Bible!

So, God determined in eternity past to bring us to glory. And in that process, no one gets lost. It’s not our choice of God that matters, but rather God’s choice of us. It’s not our effectual faith, but His effectual call. It’s not our ability to persevere, but the fact that He has determined beforehand to persevere with us to the very end. And the only response we should have is continual praise to our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, because of His glorious grace.

The Consequences of Camping

2011-05-24T21:52:00.002-04:00

by Bruce Mills

Harold Camping demonstrated without any doubt (in case anyone still happens to think he might have some validity) that he is a false prophet. Deuteronomy 18:22 is very clear about how to detect a false prophet. It says, “When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not come about or come true, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.” There is no doubt that Camping claimed to speak for the Lord, predicted the rapture (which didn’t happen as he predicted), and thus, no one should pay any attention to him. His brazen claim to predict the date of the rapture is also in direct conflict with Jesus’ statement regarding the apocalypse in Matthew 24:36 where He said, “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.” If even Jesus in His incarnation didn’t know the timing of the Lord’s return, why would Harold Camping think he was capable of determining the day and time of that event?

And now that he has been proven wrong, he has done exactly as I expected—he has come up with another bizarre explanation that May 21st was an “invisible judgment day” and that the physical judgment day for the world will be October 21st. The question is, what will he say if judgment day does not occur on October 21st as he has predicted? Let me predict now that if such is the case, he will once again come up with some cockeyed explanation and a new date for the Lord’s return. And I will also predict that there will still be a few idiots out there who will believe him.

But I think the issue that bothers me the most about this whole disheartening incident is the unabated ridicule that has been directed toward anyone who believes that Christ will one day return physically and rapture His church, followed by a period of tribulation of a like which the world has never seen. Camping’s fraudulent date-setting has opened the gates for talk-show hosts, news anchors, journalists, and even our next door neighbors to heap scorn and disdain on anyone who would proclaim the truth of Scripture regarding Christ’s return. As I listened to a radio talk show host scoffing and trash-talking anyone who would believe Camping, he sounded exactly like those who the apostle Peter described in 2 Peter 3:3-4 where he said, “Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.’” Had Camping taught the truth of the Scriptures rather than violating Scripture by engaging in setting dates, the scoffers would still be there, but not the extreme intensity that we now see.

The only positive thing which Camping’s actions have accomplished is that his true colors have now been revealed to a much greater percentage of true Christians. I cannot count how many times through the years I have been approached by believers with questions about Camping’s teaching, and I had to explain to them why he is a false teacher. They often replied, “But he sounds so convincing.” Many of those people left, saying they appreciated my explanation, but I could tell they had doubts about what I told them and were still wondering if there was a possibility that Camping was a legitimate Bible teacher. But now Camping himself has removed any doubts in the minds of most Christians about who and what he is. Now if we can just get back to watching for our Lord’s imminent return as we should—by simply believing and proclaiming, “Perhaps today!”

A Great New Book

2011-05-14T23:01:00.003-04:00

by Bruce Mills

In connection with my prior post, I wanted to follow up with information regarding Pastor Steve Kreloff’s newest book, Timeless Truths from a Faithful Shepherd. This book is an anthology of some of his landmark sermons selected from his thirty years of ministry as the pastor of Lakeside Community Chapel. He truly is one of the outstanding verse-by-verse Bible teachers of our time. Pastor Steve Kreloff's careful exposition opens up the Scriptures with clarity and accuracy. He is as skilled and comfortable in Moses' Law and the book of Esther as he is in the Beatitudes. Whether you are familiar with a given text or not, you will gain fresh insights from these messages. The book is available on Amazon.com for only $12.47, or if you are around Lakeside, it is available at our book table for only $10.00. Buy yours today and start reading! Truly it will encourage your heart and challenge your thinking about how to apply these truths to your daily walk.

30 Years of Faithful Ministry

2011-04-30T21:34:00.003-04:00

by Bruce Mills

Tomorrow, May 1st, Lakeside Community Chapel in Clearwater, Florida will celebrate the 30th anniversary of its Pastor-Teacher, Steve Kreloff. Steve has actually been on staff at the church since 1976, but became the pastor in May 1981. In a day when the average tenure of a pastor in the United States is six years, that is simply astounding. The emphasis of his ministry has always been, and continues to be, the verse-by-verse teaching of the Word of God.

Steve is a Jewish Christian who, while a student at the University of South Florida, received Jesus as his Messiah, Lord and Savior. He is a graduate of Moody Bible Institute and Tampa Bay Theological Seminary (now known as Dallas Theological Seminary’s Tampa Bay Extension). He is the Bible teacher on the Verse-by-Verse Ministries radio broadcast, heard daily in the Tampa Bay area on Salem Communications radio station WTBN.

Lakeside will celebrate by having Steve’s best friend since the days they attended Moody Bible Institute together—Phil Johnson—speak in both morning services and briefly in the evening service. Phil is the executive director of Grace to You (the media arm of Dr. John MacArthur’s ministry) and the founder of Pyromaniacs, one of the most widely read blogs in the Christian blogosphere. There will also be other speakers and special presentations in the evening service, followed by a reception.

I have had the privilege of being Steve’s friend since my wife and I began attending Lakeside shortly after we were married in 1976. He was our Sunday School teacher at the time, and the Minister of Evangelism at the church. We are the same age; our birthdays are less than a month apart, but he is older! He took me under his wing and we began a year long one-on-one discipleship relationship. We worked our way through theological, family, and ministry issues. We were both learning and growing spiritually. We developed a friendship which has stood the test of time.

When I became an elder at Lakeside, it was Steve who recommended me to the other elders as being qualified for the position. It was Steve who stood by me when I went through a particular difficulty in ministry that shook me to the core. We suffered together through difficult church budgets and church discipline issues, saw other church leaders come and go, but Steve has continued to serve faithfully and diligently. His character is impeccable and his heart to teach God’s Word so that people grow and change to be more like Christ has never wavered. Our children grew up together, our wives served in various church ministries together, and we grew old together.

As I said earlier, Steve has always made the verse-by-verse exposition of the Scriptures a priority of his ministry. To do that effectively, his sermons are typically 50-55 minutes in length. Each sermon is a model of how to open up a passage so that the listener goes away with a thorough understanding of what the Bible writer intended when he originally wrote the passage. It’s hard to be bored or concerned with the length of time he is speaking when you are truly listening, because he opens up the Word in a way that holds your attention and deepens your understanding of the Scriptures. Because of his skill in teaching God’s Word, he has taught courses on expository preaching to other pastors all over the world. Only eternity will reveal how many people have benefited from Steve selflessly teaching other men how to do what he does with the text of God’s Word.

Steve is a model of what a pastor should be for his congregation. His greatest desire is to please His Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and to minister to his flock in the same way that Jesus would. It has been my privilege to serve with him since 1983 as one of the elders at Lakeside. I pray that the Lord will give us many more years together.

The Glory of the Incarnate Word

2011-04-22T11:38:00.001-04:00

by Bruce Mills

“And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). Jesus Christ displayed His glory to the fullest degree in His death, burial, and resurrection. By that act, He reconciled lost sinners to Himself, turning them from slaves of sin into His children. Praise His glorious name this Easter!

A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

2011-04-19T11:35:00.013-04:00

by Joe Trofemuk

This past Saturday, as I was preparing my lesson for the adult Sunday School class I lead, I took a break to check the mail. As I pulled out the new issue of Time magazine I immediately noticed the cover story dealt with religion. This gripping headline graced the cover "What If There's No Hell?".

The article which spawned the headline dealt with a very popular pastor, Rob Bell, and his new bestselling book "Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived." The underlying premise of the book is predictable. Bell casts doubt on the very notion that there is an eternal punishment for those who reject Jesus Christ.

People far more capable than I am have dissected Rob Bell and the book Love Wins. I refer you to John MacArthur's insightful views on Rob Bell, http://www.gty.org/Blog/B110418 (note the related links on the topic), and Frank Turk's open letter to Bell at Pyromaniacs which contains excellent insight on Love Wins http://teampyro.blogspot.com/2011/03/open-letter-to-rob-bell.html. I have followed this controversy for the last month or so and there are many other similar excellent critiques. Yet staring at the magazine in my hand, I knew the time had come for me to address the issue.

What struck me as I looked at the cover was how this evangelical controversy (Bell has self-identified himself in the past as an evangelical) had attracted the attention of the mainstream media. Here was a purely secular magazine devoting its cover and significant article space to a religious issue. Controversy sells, and such a provocative attack on traditional evangelical belief was apparently too much to pass up, even for Time.

As I pondered things my mind immediately began rethinking my Sunday School message. I had been planning on giving an exhortation on being a doer of the Word from James 1:22. However as I read the cover headline and underlying article, my mind was drawn to the protective shepherding duty set forth by the Apostle Paul to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20:28-31. Even though this is the controversy of the day, it is part of a larger epic battle that has been waged by Satan from the beginning. The ultimate issue is not really about Rob Bell or his book. Rather the ultimate issue is the authority of the Bible and the truthfulness of God.

Attacks on God's Word are at their source Satanic. Satan's initial attack against mankind recorded in Genesis 3 was an attack on the accuracy and authority of God's Word. Satan questioned God's Word in Genesis 3:1 and called God a liar in Genesis 3:4. What is being done by Rob Bell and others is nothing new, but it is equally as wicked. All such lies share a common source. Jesus Himself made it clear: Satan is a liar and the father of lies (John 8:44). The arguments of Bell and others are merely perverted offspring of a truly wicked progenitor.

Furthermore, the attacks we see today on Scripture are not happenstance. They are part of a planned and orchestrated program of deception that God's Word warned about thousands of years ago. The Apostle Peter warned believers to prepare themselves so that they would not be carried away by the errors of unprincipled men who distort Scripture (2 Peter 3:14-18). Paul likewise, in the aforementioned exhortation to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20:28-31, warned that from within the church savage wolves would arise seeking to destroy the flock of God by speaking perverse things. These perverse things would lead people to become disciples of the wolves rather than the Great Shepherd.

These planned Satanic attacks, in their myriad forms over the centuries always attack eternal truths. Satan from the beginning lied about the effects of sin on humanity. Rob Bell's claim that perhaps there really is no eternal punishment for sin is remarkably similar to Satan's attack in Genesis 3:4. Paraphrased to line up, one can almost hear the sweet sounding lie, "if you reject Jesus Christ you surely will not be punished." Again, God's Word showed this relationship early on. Jesus in Matthew 7:15 warned of false prophets He called ravenous wolves who would come in sheep's clothing. Interestingly this warning following Jesus' teaching that there was a wide and broad way leading to destruction, and a narrow way that leads to life. I don't believe it is an accidental context for such a warning. Satan wants everyone on the broad way leading to destruction. It is only natural that the ravenous wolves he sends out disguised as sheep would attack the foundational reality of eternal punishment in hell for those who reject Jesus Christ. Masking the true nature of the wide and broad road to hell is perhaps the best way to insure that the road remains crowded and well traveled.

What makes the current controversy involving Rob Bell so dangerous is that he is a very capable and persuasive source. He is a gifted communicator and skilled writer which makes his deceptions sound all the more enticing. Someone like a David Koresh is immediately recognized by most as a lunatic who will never draw more than a few dozen followers. But a gifted and talented person like Rob Bell can reach millions. His church according to multiple sources draws 7,000 plus each week. His books have sold hundreds of thousands, if not millions of copies and are best sellers. Furthermore, even the mainstream media, like Time magazine, pays attention when he speaks. Sadly and more tragically, thousands upon thousands of true believers will give Bell a voice, and may perhaps be lead astray by his persuasive lies. Yet what so many regard as highly intellectual and thoughtful opinions uttered by a great thinker (in this case on the issue of hell) are shown by Scripture to be the thoughts of one who does not even understand the most basic truths of God's Word.

I recently preached a sermon on Hebrews 6:1-3. The writer of Hebrews was rebuking his hearers for their spiritual immaturity in Hebrews 5:11-14. Then he exhorted these immature believers to, in essence, grow up and move on to maturity. As part of this exhortation he described what he considered to be the basic abc's of Christianity. Part of what he described as elementary principles, or milk fit for infants, was "the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment" (Hebrews 6:2). These "new" and "profound" musings of Bell that will attract so many are really devoid of any depth at all. Rather, they reflect on a spiritual level a lack of knowledge that even a spiritual kindergartner is expected to possess.

Yet Bell consistently makes his foolish statements sound appealing and self evident, which makes them all the more dangerous. One illustrative example stands out from the Time article. The writer notes that Bell has embraced a theology that says the most important thing for you is the here and now, not eternity. He then quotes Bell ‘When we get to what happens when we die, we don’t have any video footage,’ says Bell. ‘So let’s be honest that we are speculating, because we are.’

What an appealing statement to our modern minds. And of course there is truth in the statement. We do not possess video footage of hell. But the statement upon reflection is neither true or appealing; it is a lie and damning. The very premise of the statement is unbiblical and false, namely that if we don't have video footage of something, i.e., if we cannot see it, then we cannot know if it is real. As a pastor I worry that many will accept this reasonable sounding (but false) proposition without thinking it through in light of Scripture.

Jesus gives us a much more reliable picture of eternal punishment than any video when He describes the reality of the afterlife for the rich man and Lazarus, including the very real agony and torment of the rich man (Luke 16:19-31). But even without such a real and compelling image from Christ, we are never told to only believe what we see. In fact, after Jesus' resurrection, the Apostle Thomas for a brief time adopted the "I will believe only what I can see" approach proffered by Bell when he was told by the other disciples that Jesus was raised from the dead (John 20:25). After seeing Jesus however, he immediately realized the folly of his doubt (John 20:28). But what is most telling and enlightening for believers tempted to adopt Bell's approach is what Jesus said next at verse 29: Jesus said to him, "Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed."

Rather than needing video proof to know truth, we have God's Word. The absence of a video or other such "evidence" hardly makes the clear teaching of Scripture on life after physical death mere "speculation" as Bell so arrogantly claims. Rather believing God's Word on faith receives Jesus' commendation and blessing. Bell's paradigm of "seeing is believing" is all the more troubling given that he claims to be a believer. God's Word affirms without hesistation that true believers walk by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). Bell's approach to understanding hell finds no warrant or support in God's revealed Word.

The warning of Paul to the church at Colassae seems a fitting conclusion and exhortation. Paul was concerned that those peddling "persuasive arguments" would delude the saints, which of course is the same danger posed by the likes of Rob Bell. Paul in such a context gave the church this warning:

6 Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, 7 having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude. 8 See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.

Paul, through the Holy Spirit, has given every believer the tools needed to avoid being ensnared by the Satanic inspired deceptions of false teachers like Rob Bell. May God give us the wisdom and discernment to stand firm against the devil's schemes.

The True Light

2011-04-16T13:45:00.003-04:00

by Bruce Mills

As we come to the Easter season, when we recall the single greatest event in the history of mankind—the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ—we need to remember why Jesus came to this world. He didn’t come primarily to be a great example (though He was the perfect example), He didn’t come primarily to be a good Teacher (though He was the greatest teacher), and He didn’t come primarily to perform wonderful acts of kindness (though He was the most compassionate person who ever lived). His primary purpose in coming was to bring Light and life to a sin-darkened world and save His elect children from their sins.

In John 8:12, Jesus is recorded as stating, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.” And earlier in the Gospel of John we are told that John the Baptist came as the forerunner of Christ, so that he could testify about that Light (John 1:7-8). Now, there is something very important to consider here. Since when does someone have to testify about light? Why would anyone have to tell you “this is light”?

Several years ago, our family was on vacation and we stopped at Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. The tour guide took our tour group through the cave, pointing out various points of interest, and when we were far back in the cave, he turned out the lights and let us stand there in the darkness. And no matter how long we stood there, our eyes never got accustomed to the dark so that we could see anything. It was pitch black and no matter how long one might stand there, it will stay just like that. After we had stood there a while, the tour guide turned on a flashlight. And not one person in that cave said, “Where’s the light? Where’s the light?” When that flashlight went on, everybody knew the light was on. Nobody said, “Hey, look over there; there’s the light.” If you lit a match in that place, everyone would have seen that match. Nobody had to point out the light. But do you know what John came to do? He came to point out light to people living in blackness. So that begs the question, “Who needs light pointed out to them?”

There’s only one kind of person who needs to be pointed to the light. What kind? Blind people. And do you know what? Everyone in this world is blind. 2 Cor. 4:3 says, “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.” Now here comes verse 4; watch this truth: “in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”

That’s why Satan blinded them; so that they can’t see the light, and so God’s pastors and evangelists and proclaimers of His truth have to come along and say, “Look! Take my hand and let me show you the Light.” It’s pathetic that the sin darkened world hasn’t even got the sight to see the light. This is one reason why the apostle John includes the story of the blind man who Jesus healed in John 9. He was a blind man who could see the Light, and the unbelieving Pharisees were men who could physically see but were spiritually blind and missed the Light.

All unbelievers are like those fish in Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico that have been underground so long that their eyes are gone and all they have are empty sockets. Someone can turn the light on, but they can’t see it anyway. And so the Light came, blazing the brilliant, glorious Light of God into this world, and people couldn’t see it because they were blind and John the Baptist had to be the first one to take them by the hand and say, “There’s the Light.” And even then, it is only those who God heals their spiritual eyes and gives them the ability to see the true Light who will be saved.

This is what every preacher of God’s truth who has ever lived does. This is what you do when you witness to others about Christ. Our task as Christians, as witnesses, is to take people by the hand in their blindness, as they stumble around in darkness and show them the Light, because they can’t see it. And then it is God’s responsibility to open the spiritual eyes of those whom He has chosen from before the foundations of the world so that they see that Light.

During this Easter season, when men and women are more aware of the origin of Easter, take opportunities—as God provides them—to lead people to the true Light that enlightens every man.

Does Love Win or Does the Truth Lose?

2011-03-26T09:32:00.004-04:00

by Bruce Mills

For all of those out there who have heard of Rob Bell’s new book, Love Wins, and wonder whether or not it is worth the money to buy it and the time to read it, here is a thorough analysis and explanation of the book and the theological basis behind it from the pen of Dr. Al Mohler, President of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. There is no way that I could write as well or as thoroughly as Dr. Mohler, so I am posting this link to his blog post on this highly publicized book which is creating so much stir in evangelical circles. http://bit.ly/h43YSC

Why Five Smooth Stones?

2011-03-11T12:00:00.002-05:00

by Bruce Mills

I recently received a question from a friend who told me that another individual had told him that he had learned why David chose five smooth stones when he prepared to fight Goliath. The individual went on to tell my friend an interesting story that was alleged to answer why David did such. My friend commented to me that he could find no support for the story he was told, but wanted to know if I could tell him whether or not there was any theological significance regarding David’s selection.

My observation through the years is that there are a lot of people who seek to explain every detail in Scripture with a novel interpretation or explanation that will somehow make those details seem to be theologically significant. I don’t deny that when the Holy Spirit inspired the Scriptures, every word was inspired and included for a reason. However, I do not believe that there is some grandiose explanation for each of those details.

Let me explain. There is a lot of speculation over why David chose five stones. Some of the explanations defy any reason or logic. For example, one writer says they stand for faith, obedience, service, prayer, and the Holy Spirit. The writer argues that the stones represent those characteristics because David displayed those traits in his life. Hogwash! David may have displayed such characteristics, but to state that the stones represent those characteristics is an exotic view and stretches the rules of biblical interpretation to the breaking point.

A far more common explanation (which might be considered the traditional explanation) is an anecdotal story based on 1 Samuel 21:18-22, which makes an assumption that David knew Goliath had four brothers and was prepared to fight them once he defeated Goliath. However, the problem with that assumption is that there is absolutely NOTHING in the story of David and Goliath found in 1 Samuel 17 that tells us that David knew Goliath had four brothers. In fact, the details of the story seem to argue that David knew nothing about Goliath except that he was challenging and insulting the God of Israel and David was indignant that anyone would do such. As one reads the story, David is seen asking questions to learn what is going on and what the plans are to deal with Goliath. Remember, David was the youngest son who was left at home to tend the sheep while his older brothers went to war. His father sent him to see his brothers to take food to them and determine how they were doing. So David would have had no idea about Goliath or his family history at the time he arrived on the scene.

I think that rather than trying to find novel explanations for vague details such as the five stones, we need to notice the big contrast between David’s display of complete trust in Yahweh to defeat Israel’s enemy, and Saul’s dismay and complete lack of trust in God to deliver Israel. There is also contrast of David choosing to trust God to give victory by using a shepherd’s sling, a weapon which no one would have ever considered the appropriate weapon to fight a giant, rather than trusting in man’s wisdom and methods, as seen in Saul’s offer to David to wear his armor. That is a key point in the story—David’s trust in Yahweh rather than man’s wisdom.

When I attended seminary, I encountered many other guys who were always seeking to find novel explanations for such details in stories, but unless it is possible to back up an explanation with Scripture that is clear and unequivocal, we need to be very careful about being dogmatic about such explanations. Many people do the same thing with types in the Old Testament. Some people will see a type of Christ in every event and story in the Old Testament, but to do so they have to abandon the literal-historical-grammatical method of biblical interpretation for an allegorical method of interpretation which is speculative at best. So my position is that unless a type is clear and unequivocal, supported by Scripture and the overwhelming body of orthodox, historical theology, I do not give them much credence.

My advice is that when you are dealing with narrative passages in the Bible, particularly those in the Old Testament, don’t bother yourself with concerns about highly speculative, exotic explanations for details such as the five smooth stones, but rather focus on those details of which the meaning is clearly evident.

So why did David choose five smooth stones? Perhaps the simplest explanation is the best. He was prepared and ready to reload again and again and again. If he missed, he would run while reloading and fire again. David was simply going into the fight with Goliath as prepared as possible, using the skills God had given him with a shepherd’s sling. David was righteously indignant at Goliath’s insults against the name of Yahweh and was willing to defend that Name at any cost. He demonstrated his complete trust and reliance upon God for victory, and God demonstrated that David’s faith and trust in Him was well-founded.

Lessons in God’s Sovereignty from a Little Girl

2011-02-24T20:53:00.005-05:00

by Bruce Mills

I have been studying and teaching on the life of Elisha, the Old Testament prophet. I have arrived at 2 Kings 5 which records the story of the healing of Naaman the leprous Aramean (Syrian) military commander. As I began studying the story, I encountered one of the characters in the story who I have never heard anyone talk about to any significant degree, yet this person plays a significant role in the story. This person is found in 2 Kings 5:2 and it is the unnamed little Jewish slave girl who informs Naaman’s wife about Elisha being able to heal Naaman of his leprosy. She had been taken captive during one of the many raids which the Arameans had carried out against Israel. She was selected to be the slave girl in waiting for Mrs. Naaman.

Now think about this. Here we have an incredible story of God’s sovereignty at work. This little girl had been forcibly taken away from her home and her parents and forced to work as a slave for the top military commander’s wife in a foreign land. Who knows—perhaps her parents were even killed by the Aramean raiders when they went pillaging through Israel and captured her! So she had, at a very young age, become a slave. The text doesn’t tell us how old she was when she was taken captive, but she was probably there for at least a year or two because she had apparently learned the Aramean language, as she was able to express to her captors the information about Elisha.

Here we have God’s sovereignty at work again in what seems to us to be a negative manner. After all, God could have protected this little girl from being captured and carried away from her parents and put into service as a slave in Naaman’s household. But He didn’t. He let her be captured and hauled away. He certainly doesn’t seem like a God of mercy and love when you look at it that way. But God doesn’t look at things like we do (cf. Isaiah 55:9). Her story is very similar to that of Joseph, whose brothers sold him into slavery in Egypt, and years later when he has risen to be the prime minister of Egypt, he is reunited with his brothers and tells them, “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive” (Gen. 50:20).

So here is this little girl—young, far from home, enslaved to serve Naaman’s wife—and yet she maintains a positive attitude of humble submission to those over her. This is seen in her statement to Naaman’s wife regarding Naaman’s leprosy. She says, “I wish that my master were with the prophet who is in Samaria! Then he would cure him of his leprosy” (2 Kings 5:3).

Now you might think, “Hmm, I’ve never heard of someone who had been captured and enslaved, speak with such thoughtful, kind terms about her captors. Instead of saying, “I wish my master would die of his disease. After all, he deserves to, since he snatched me away from my home and made me a slave. I wish God would help me escape and get back home to my family,” she says, “I wish that my master were with the prophet who is in Samaria! Then he would cure him of his leprosy.”

This is clearly the work of God in her life. She had a positive attitude despite her circumstances. She cared for her master and had his best interest at heart. There is no hint of dissatisfaction or discontent with her situation in life. Even at her young age, there was a maturity beyond her years in terms of understanding that God had sovereignly placed her in her circumstances and had a purpose in doing so.

Now, someone might argue, “Well, perhaps her circumstances in Syria as Naaman’s slave were better than her family’s circumstances back in Israel. Maybe that’s why she didn’t complain.” I will admit that it is certainly possible that her circumstances as a slave may have been better than her life had been back in Israel, but it is also true that in general the circumstances of the average African slave here in America in the 1800s was better than the average African living in Nigeria at that time. Yet those slaves yearned and longed for freedom from their slavemasters. You see, when you take away a person’s freedom, it doesn’t matter how much better their circumstances may be. Apart from an understanding of God’s sovereign work in their lives, they will rebel against that slavery; if not outwardly, at least internally. Yet in this young girl’s words we see the desire of her heart that her master would be healed by God’s prophet Elisha back in Samaria. No complaining about her own situation; just concern for her master’s situation.

Iinterestingly, this story doesn’t have a Hollywood happy ending for this little girl. There is no reward of freedom for her after Naaman is healed. We would like for there to be a verse thrown in somewhere in the chapter which tells us that when Naaman got home, he set the little girl free and sent her home to live with her parents back in Israel. After all, she is the one who brought up the possibility of Elisha healing Naaman, but after verse 4, this little girl is never mentioned again in the story. She may have spent the rest of her life as a slave, working for Naaman’s wife.

What this teaches us is the need to be content in our circumstances, because they may never change. In fact, they may even get worse from a human perspective. But no matter what happens, we must rest in the truth of the doctrine of the sovereignty of God. Do you remember what Paul said in Phil. 4:11-12? He wrote: “Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need.” The writer of Hebrews instructs us, “Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, ‘I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you’” (13:5).

Far too often we behave sinfully when the providence of God goes against our will and we find that God has placed us in situations which we hate and dislike. But God is trustworthy to stand with us in those difficult circumstances, no matter what they may be. He promises to never desert us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5), so it doesn’t matter how bad our circumstances may be, He has promised to be with us every step of the way. Therefore, we can be content in that situation, knowing that God is in control and will not permit us to suffer more than we are able to endure.

In this case, God intended and sovereignly placed that little girl in Naaman’s household so that He could use her as the link in the chain that led to the healing of Naaman’s leprosy and the magnification of God’s glory as He is seen reaching out to the Gentiles and providing cleansing and salvation from the awful condition of sin. What tremendously important lessons about how to respond to the seemingly negative circumstances of our lives we can learn from this young unnamed slave girl. The next time you begin to complain about your particular situation, remember that God has sovereignly placed you in that situation, and He has done so for His glory and your good.

A Lesson in True Integrity

2011-01-31T22:36:00.003-05:00

by Bruce Mills

In the movie “The Legend of Bagger Vance” released in 2000, Matt Damon plays Rannulph Junuh, a former golfing great. One of the final scenes of the movie demonstrates personal character and integrity in a way rarely seen in today’s secular films.

Junuh, who has been greatly impacted by his experiences in World War I, is living as an alcoholic bum until Bagger Vance becomes his caddy and helps him regain his golf swing as well as teaching him several important life lessons. Once Bagger sees that Junuh has learned those lessons, he disappears from the scene and a young boy named Hardy takes his place as Junuh’s caddy.

At the end of the movie, Junuh is playing in a two-day tournament against Bobby Jones and Walter Hagen, two of the greatest golfers to ever pick up a club. On the final hole of the match, the three golfing rivals are all neck and neck. Junuh is preparing to chip onto the green when he reaches down to remove a twig from beside his ball. As he picks up the twig his ball moves slightly. The young caddy Hardy was the only one to witness the ball move.

Junuh reveals tremendous courage as he admits, “The ball moved.”

Hardy immediately begs him not to say anything, as he is sure it would mean defeat. Hardy tells him, “No one saw it move but me and you. I promise I will never tell. No one will ever know.”

Junuh displays even more resolve and courage as he instructs Hardy, “I’ll know and you will know.”

Naturally, the movie ends happier than we can always expect in real life, but the message is clear that our response should be the same regardless of the outcome. Many times in life—whether at work, school, home, or in the marketplaces of our society—we have opportunities to cut corners or get ahead because our actions go unnoticed, but to live a life of integrity requires faithfulness in the small things. If we don’t practice our integrity when alone, we will be less likely to do the right thing when someone else is watching.

Jesus said it best in Luke 16:10, “He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much.” What about in your workplace, classroom, or home? Have you had any balls move lately that you haven’t told anyone about? Do what is right even when no one else is doing it, and never do wrong, even when everyone else is doing it.

An Open Letter to Brian McLaren

2011-01-23T14:36:00.003-05:00

Posted by Bruce Mills

This link is to a post of an open letter by Frank Turk over at Pyromaniacs to Brian McLaren, one of the founders and primary protagonists of the Emergent Church movement. It is lengthy, but it hits the spot so perfectly, I just had to link to it for others to read. Thanks, Frank, for calling things as they truly are.

http://teampyro.blogspot.com/2011/01/open-letter-to-brian-mclaren.html

A Man Named Elisha

2011-01-14T22:04:00.002-05:00

by Bruce Mills

After almost three years, I finally finished teaching through the book of Romans in my adult Sunday School class. It was a massive undertaking which I thoroughly enjoyed. Before I jump into my next major undertaking (the Gospel of John), I am taking out a few weeks to study the life and ministry of Elisha, one of the Old Testament’s great prophets. As I’ve been studying this week, I found that there is much about Elisha’s call to ministry that is important for all believers to understand.

Elisha’s call to the prophetic ministry is found in 1 Kings 19:15-21. The text reads as follows:

The Lord said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus, and when you have arrived, you shall anoint Hazael king over Aram; and Jehu the son of Nimshi you shall anoint king over Israel; and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah you shall anoint as prophet in your place. It shall come about, the one who escapes from the sword of Hazael, Jehu shall put to death, and the one who escapes from the sword of Jehu, Elisha shall put to death. Yet I will leave 7,000 in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal and every mouth that has not kissed him.”
So he departed from there and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, while he was plowing with twelve pairs of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth. And Elijah passed over to him and threw his mantle on him. He left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, “Please let me kiss my father and my mother, then I will follow you.” And he said to him, “Go back again, for what have I done to you?” So he returned from following him, and took the pair of oxen and sacrificed them and boiled their flesh with the implements of the oxen, and gave it to the people and they ate. Then he arose and followed Elijah and ministered to him.

Now notice that here, as always, God takes the initiative. Elisha was not seeking Him, but the Lord through Elijah sought out him. It wasn’t because Elisha was already prepared to be a prophet, but because God in His sovereignty chose him and called him. God would take care of the preparation after he called him. But once again, we see the doctrine of the sovereignty of God coming into play here. God is the one who selected Elisha and set him apart for ministry. And He continues to do the same thing today. He selects men and sets them apart to do his work.

In this passage, we see two misconceptions which overtake many people in ministry: (1) the feeling that they are the only person who is standing for the truth and (2) that they are indispensible. Elijah was no different. Earlier in this chapter, he had fled from Jezebel who was out to kill him, and he lays down under a juniper tree and pleads with God to take his life (19:4). But instead God provides an angel to cook him some food and Elijah goes on for 40 days on the strength that the food provided him. But when God questions him as to why he is hiding out in the mountains, Elijah says in verse 10, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the sons of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars and killed Your prophets with the sword. And I alone am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.” He had concluded that he was the only person who was still faithful to God. But God reveals Himself to Elijah in a gentle breeze and basically says, “Elijah, it’s time to get to work. You’re not the only one left—there are 7,000 people who haven’t bowed the knee to Baal. And another thing, Elijah, you’re not indispensible. In fact, I’m going to have you appoint your replacement.” So many times men in ministry begin to listen to and believe all the accolades that come their way as they preach and teach. And when they see all the moral failures and false teachers that are assaulting the church around them, they begin to think that they are the only people who are standing for the truth.

Another problem many pastors experience is never planning for their replacement. By that, I don’t mean that they need to handpick their successor. But I do mean that they need to be discipling men and teaching men what to look for in a pastor, so that if they suddenly die or become gravely ill, there are other men who are able to step in and take over the teaching and leadership responsibilities. But many pastors believe they are indispensible and that the church simply can’t get along without them. Well, that may be true of their specific church, if they haven’t trained and developed other leaders who are capable of teaching the Word. But in terms of the church universal, Jesus said that such will never be the case. No one person is so crucial to God’s work that the church will collapse if they are not there. The church, the body of Christ, will continue and even the gates of hell cannot overwhelm it.

But this does raise the point that every local church ought to be developing leaders for the future. Men who meet the biblical qualifications for elder should be identified and then trained. Training does not have to include Bible college or seminary, although those are beneficial. But a man who has a heart and passion to learn and teach the Word should be taught and exposed to the ministry in such a way that he learns what is involved and what is expected of a pastor as a teacher and shepherd of the flock. He needs to be placed in a position of exposure to the ministry in which he spends time learning how to respond biblically to crisis situations so that the elders can observe whether his approach to problems is biblical or not. He should be given teaching opportunities so the elders can listen and confirm whether or not he is sound in the faith and able to communicate truth clearly. He should be required to write and defend his doctrinal position in every major area of theology. This process is so crucial because the protection of the flock is at stake. Pick a man who is a wolf in sheep’s clothing and the church can be divided and destroyed.

Well, that’s just a little bit of what I will be teaching this next Sunday on the calling of Elisha. As I dig into the Old Testament narrative about him, I am amazed at how much our great God communicates to us through Elisha’s life. I’m looking forward to what God has to teach me over the next several weeks.

Unworthy Slaves

2011-01-02T15:20:00.002-05:00

by Bruce Mills

It’s been quite a while since I last posted anything, but I’ve been tied up with some other projects and the busy-ness of the Christmas season made it impossible to find the time to sit down and write something worth reading. But I hope to get back into the swing of things and hopefully challenge your thinking about biblical and theological issues and how they impact our daily Christian walk.

It is the matter of our Christian walk that I want to write about today. In my daily quiet time, I recently came across Luke 17:10 and it challenged my own thoughts about how I serve the Lord. Jesus had just finished teaching His disciples about forgiveness, faith, and having a slave’s mentality, and He concludes the passage with these words: “So you too, when you do all the things which are commanded you, say, ‘We are unworthy slaves; we have done only that which we ought to have done.’ ”

As I thought about that verse, I was struck by how many times I have often found myself focusing on how busy I am for the Lord, and I start defining and evaluating my ministry, faithfulness, and even who I am by how much I am doing. After all, it feels good to have my hard work recognized. It’s nice to see my “to do” list getting shorter and shorter. I’ve even been known to think to myself, “Just look at how much I am doing for the Lord and the church.”

But this verse puts a new twist on my service for the Lord and others. Do I consider that I am actually undeserving of any recognition and honor, even though I’m so busy and do so much at my church? Do I see myself as an unworthy slave who is only doing what I ought to do for my Master, and not someone who deserves any special treatment? Do I see my service and faithfulness to the Lord as my expected duty as His slave?

Truth is a hard pill to swallow and no one else can take it for us. Be courageous, swallow hard, and let God’s Word begin to do its work on your heart disease called “self.” See yourself as an undeserving, unworthy slave who is only doing what you ought to do for your Lord. So chew on this verse and call on the Great Physician in the morning.

The Hole in Our Holiness

2010-11-24T19:11:00.001-05:00

Posted by Bruce Mills

It’s been quite a while since I posted anything because I’ve been involved in another project which has been taking up all of my available free time. However, I read this article after Phil Johnson over at Pyromaniacs tweeted about it. It is well worth the time to read it. Kevin DeYoung is a great young pastor who has authored several great books, including titles such as Why We’re Not Emergent, Just Do Something, and Why We Love the Church. So rather than write an article of my own, here’s one for you to read that I wish I had written.

The Hole in Our Holiness

What’s New About the New Calvinism

2010-10-20T21:13:00.003-04:00

by Bruce Mills

Three of the sharpest minds in evangelicalism today, Al Mohler, Kevin DeYoung, and Ligon Duncan, are featured in this video produced by The Gospel Coalition. The subject is the resurgence of Calvinism among young Christians. These men explain why this movement is rising in strength and power, and make excellent suggestions about where it needs to go from here. The video is almost 12 1/2 minutes long, but it’s well worth your time if you want to understand what’s behind the New Calvinism and what it means for the church. Just click on the link below and listen carefully as these three outstanding Christian leaders explain this issue.

The Gospel Coalition video on the New Calvinism

A Misunderstanding of God

2010-10-07T20:53:00.006-04:00

by Bruce Mills

I read with interest a USA Today article on the results of a new study about Americans' view of God. You can read it here. As I considered how the researchers from Baylor University, a private Baptist university, categorized the understanding of God by Americans into four views, I was struck by the absence of biblical terms to describe God. There was no use of words such as sovereign, holy, righteous, gracious, loving, faithful, or merciful. Instead, we are left with Authoritative, Benevolent, Critical, and Distant. Also, as the reader drills down into the description of each category, one finds that there is no category which accurately reflects the biblical description of God. God, as described from a comprehensive overview of Scripture, is certainly authoritative, benevolent, and critical as the researchers use those terms. He most certainly isn’t distant, but the fact that almost one out of four Americans see Him as such is not unexpected. But my point is that God cannot be described accurately if one tries to fit Him into any one of the categories listed in the study. He is infinite in every aspect and attribute. Thus, to attempt to fit a biblical Christian’s view of God into one of four categories is questionable at best.

I recognize that one can argue that the researchers are simply reporting the outcome of their surveys, but that would ignore the fact that the researchers are the ones who design the questions and then determine how to describe the categories into which they place the answers of the survey respondents. Consequently, they describe those who recognize God’s judgment of sinners and His active involvement in our daily lives as believing in an authoritative God. But that dismisses, or at the very least minimizes, the fact that a biblical Christian also sees God as infinitely gracious, merciful, kind, and loving—all elements which would characterize a benevolent God. Yet there is no category for those who understand God to be both authoritative and benevolent. Is that only because the vast majority of survey respondents believe in either an authoritative or a benevolent God, but not a God who infinitely encompasses attributes that are found in both descriptions? Or is it the result of a questionnaire that is designed to fit the researchers’ preconceived notions?

In conclusion, this survey may, in fact, accurately describe the ways in which the vast majority of Americans see God, given that they are unregenerate and worship a god of their own design. I am reminded of the apostle Paul’s statement in Romans 1:22 regarding those who alter God’s image to fit their view of what He should be like—”Professing to be wise, they became fools.” So we should not expect those who do not believe in God as He is revealed in Scripture to respond in any way that accurately describes Him. However, none of the individual categories described in this survey fully and accurately presents the God which those who are biblical Christians worship. We need to steadfastly hold to the revealed truth of God’s Word about who God is and what He is like, regardless of how those around us imagine Him to be.

The Real Jesus

2010-09-11T12:46:00.002-04:00

by Bruce Mills

This video is a repost of a video which Frank Turk at the Pyromaniacs blog put on that site. Frank is one of the foremost Christian bloggers in our country, and is always “spot on” when it comes to theological issues. This video was originally part of the Nines, an online seminar sponsored by the Leadership Network. He does a wonderful job of reminding us that the reality of the Christian faith is Jesus Christ.

Christians and Book Burning

2010-09-10T22:59:00.002-04:00

by Bruce Mills

For the past week, the world has watched with extreme interest as a pastor of a very small church in Gainesville, Florida has garnered international attention for his plans to burn a couple of hundred copies of the Quran on September 11th. In the office where I work, on the radio stations I listen to, and the TV stations I watch, it has been a topic of discussion, with everyone asking the question—What purpose is achieved by burning Islam’s religious book and inciting millions of Muslims to protest, riot, and possibly kill American missionaries and members of the military? As of the time of this writing, this event has been called off, and the pastor—a previously unknown leader of a cult-like group—has managed to achieve celebrity status, albeit negative in nature.

The pastor, Terry Jones, and his followers have been repeatedly referred to as Christians, because they claim to ascribe to the basic tenets of the Christian faith—that Jesus Christ is God and is the Savior and Lord of the world. Thus, many have asked, “What would Jesus do in such a situation? Would He condone the burning of the Quran?” Even though I have serious doubts about the legitimacy of Pastor Jones’ claim to being a Christian in the biblical sense of that term, the question is a legitimate one—Would Jesus condone the burning of the Quran, or for that matter, any other religious symbol in order to show one’s contempt for that religion?

The answer is no, He would not. I base my answer on Jesus’ behavior during His earthly ministry. While opposing the hypocrisy of the Jewish religious leaders, He did not spend His time attacking the many pagan gods and idol worship that took place throughout the Roman Empire. He simply focused on calling sinners to repent and proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom. I believe we who are believers need to follow the example of our King and spend our time doing the same things He did—calling sinners to repentance and proclaiming the gospel of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.

I am not in any way diminishing the awfulness of the Islamic religion. It is a false, works-based religion which ends in eternal judgment for its adherents. But our role as Christians is not to go around destroying the external symbols of other religions, whether it be Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, or any other group. Rather, our role is to be missionaries for our Lord in a very dark world. We are to to follow His example of showing love, mercy, and compassion to the hurting and poor, but we are be unwavering and unapologetic for the message of the gospel—that Jesus is the only way, the only truth, and the only life that leads to eternal life (cf. John 14:6). We must inform people that they are sinners in rebellion against God, that they are doomed to eternal hell apart from faith in Christ, and then call them to repent and trust Christ alone for their eternal salvation. When those who are God’s elect are drawn to saving faith by the Holy Spirit, we are to baptize them in Christ’s name and teach them to follow and obey Him (cf. Matt. 28:19-20).

Those are to be the activities of followers of Christ. When we spend our time burning books or other religious symbols, we play into the hands of the enemy, who uses such opportunities to make us look like the fools we are.

Heresy

2010-08-17T20:34:00.001-04:00

by Bruce Mills

The video I have included below definitely is NOT my style of music, but I know that many of the younger generation like it. However, the style of music isn’t the issue or the reason I have posted it here; the message of the lyrics is the issue. This video is tremendous in exposing many of the false teachers who are filling the airwaves of our world with their doctrinal heresy, bilking the unsuspecting of their finances, and claiming to do it all in the name of Christ.

I’m sure that some would argue that Rick Warren should not be included in the plethora of individuals which the musician, Jovan Mackenzy, identifies as false teachers and heretics. I’m not sure that I would agree with branding him a heretic, as I think the jury is still out on that. But I would say that Warren plays fast and loose with the content of the gospel message, watering it down to a very tepid version of “easy-believism.”

Anyone who carefully reads Warren’s mega-bestseller, The Purpose Driven Life, will find that nowhere in the book are readers told that sinners are under the wrath and curse of God unless they believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and his atoning sacrifice on the cross. Instead, Warren retools the Gospel message to appeal to the unregenerate. Apparently he does not believe that God's purposes are declared in his revealed Word, but rather teaches that the unsaved should go on a journey of self-discovery in order to locate God's purposes for their lives.

Warren has never publicly affirmed the historic, orthodox, reformed understanding of the gospel; probably because for him to do so would mean that he would immediately lose his power and influence in our society and among its politicians. A pastor I greatly respect, John Piper, has stated that Warren has privately affirmed to him that he holds to the reformed doctrine of the gospel, but Warren has never stated such himself publicly. That bothers me greatly, because it seems that he is more concerned about his standing with men than his fidelity to God and His truth.

So while I would not necessarily lump Rick Warren in with the rest of the people in this video whose doctrine is clearly heretical, I understand how Jovan Mackenzy can reach the conclusion that Warren belongs in the mix. So listen carefully to the lyrics of the music because it has never been more important for us to identify false doctrine and those who are teaching it so that we can both avoid them and warn others who may be deceived into following them to their final destruction. Enjoy…that is, if you enjoy this style of music!

Honor Your Father and Mother

2010-08-13T16:26:00.002-04:00

by Bruce Mills

As I write this, I am sitting in a hospital room with my mom and dad. My dad just went through colon cancer surgery yesterday and is now lying in a hospital bed, still feeling the lingering after-effects of the anesthesia. It is strange to see him there—helpless, weak, and unable to do anything for himself—because he has always been a man of vigor and strength. Even though he is 79 years old, he recently spent several months helping another family in their church remodel their home. He has served his church as sort of a one-man “building and grounds” committee, using his incredible talent with his hands to install, fix, and repair the church facilities. Now he lies in a bed, having gone through major surgery, unable to even sit up without assistance. And my dear mother, as desirous as she is to help her husband of almost 60 years, is unable to render much help because of her limited strength and mobility.

So what am I to do? The Scriptural imperative which keeps ringing in my mind is Exodus 20:12—“Honor your father and mother.” The same command is repeated in Deut. 5:16 and then quoted six times in the New Testament by Jesus and the apostle Paul (Matt. 15:4, 19:19; Mark 7:10, 10:19; Luke 18:20; Eph.6:2). The thought that has been running through my mind is, how is that command to work itself out in practical ways in my interaction with my parents?

In Mark 7, the Pharisees confronted Jesus about His disciples not following the Jewish religious tradition of ceremonially washing their hands before eating. Jesus responded by asking them why they violated God’s commandment to honor their parents. What they were doing was refusing to assist their needy parents by claiming that the possessions they owned which might be used to help their parents were actually dedicated to God. Jesus condemned such ungodly behavior, stating that it invalidated the word of God (Mark 7:13).

Clearly then, a part of honoring our parents is using our own earthly possessions and finances to assist them when they have needs. It is not enough to merely say words of respect and honor to them or about them. Our honor must find its feet in the use of our own resources to physically help them. The apostle John went so far as to say that those who have this world’s goods yet refuse to assist those around them in need, have no right to claim that God’s love abides in them (1 John 3:17). And in the context of that passage, he explains that those who are truly born again love others, and those who do not love are still unregenerate (John 3:14). So anyone who refuses to use his possessions for the benefit of his parents cannot claim to be a genuine Christian.

But possessions are not merely money and physical items. Rather, they include such things as the physical strength God has given me to help lift my sick father out of bed and help him to the bathroom or to a chair so he can sit up for a while. It includes doing the daily housework that my mom needs help with since she is physically limited and the stress of this situation is sapping her strength even more. It includes using the paid vacation leave that my employer gives me so I can spend time at my parents’ home assisting them with their daily needs rather than taking a vacation that I might enjoy much more.

It’s good that I demonstrate my respect for my parents with words that express my love for both of them, but I have not truly fulfilled the requirements of God’s word until I honor them by putting my words into action and do all that I can to assist them both financially and physically. May God grant me the willingness, desire, and strength to honor my father and mother in a way which brings Him the most glory. Pray that I will do so during the coming days.

Calvinistic vs. Arminian Gospel

2010-08-02T21:19:00.006-04:00

by Robert Fraire

A couple of weeks ago at Lakeside Chapel we had a Q & A with the elders. One of the questions that was asked and answered was: "Is there (or should there be) a marked difference in the way a Calvinist evangelizes the lost as opposed to an Arminian?"

First I will give the briefest of descriptions of some important issues that bear on this question. Both groups understand that all men have sinned and are guilty before God. They also believe that Jesus paid the price for sin and that a person's true faith in the payment of Christ is sufficient for salvation.

Where the differences come to bear in the area of evangelism is first and formost a difference in understanding of the spiritual state of man. The Arminian believes that all men have something within themselves that is able to hear, understand, and respond positively to the gospel message. The Calvinist believes that when Ephesians 2 says that men are dead in their sins, it means that men DO NOT posses the ability to understand and respond positively to the gospel.

This doctrinal difference has many practical ramifications. For the Arminian, the goal of Evangelism is to convince a person of the truth of the gospel. To present the gospel in a way that appeals to a man and causes him to exercise his ability to place his faith in Christ. This has lead to the honing of particular methods to persuade people of their need for Jesus Christ. On the other hand, the Calvinist believes that the main purpose of Evangelism is to speak the truth of the gospel as clearly as possible. The Calvinist believes that no man is able to believe the gospel on his own. Instead, the Holy Spirit must do the work of regeneration in the heart of a man in order for that man to believe. And everyone whom the Spirit regenerates WILL believe the gospel message.

A couple of specific areas where we see this difference in belief in action is in the area of altar calls and the grounds of assurance of salvation.

The altar call is a common practice of many/most Arminian churches. I grew up believing that this was "The Way" evangelism was done. After a gospel message was preached, the evangelist would call, and goad, and exhort and persuade as many people as possible to come forward in a service. They would repeat after the evangelist then were told that they had become Christians. At Lakeside we do not do altar calls. The reason is because our understanding that the Spirit will regenerate those whom He has called and they will believe. We are called to plead with men to come but not to attempt to manipulate emotions to gain a "decision".

The second area I will address is the ground of assurance of salvation. Arminian teaching is that when someone prays a prayer of salvation he must write down the date is his Bible, so that whenever he doubted he could look at that date and be sure. I remember a pastor preaching that when he had a rough stretch he would go out to his garden where he had a rock engraved with the date he prayed to receive Christ. At Lakeside we call people to examine their lives to see if the Spirit of God is changing them. Do they love God, love believers and strive to obey Him? These are the tests of 1 John that is the ground for the assurance of salvation.

Finally let me say that another practical ramification of our doctrinal beliefs is in the responsibility of the Christian in evangelism. I read a book from an Arminian author that argued that churches must do everything with professional quality. Why? Because if the unbeliever got a bad impression of Jesus from the church, he may be forever turned off from the gospel. By extension, each believer could be the reason someone spends eternity in hell or heaven. But we believe that since the Spirit regenerates who He wills, our responsibility is to faithfully proclaim the gospel, but understand that salvation is exclusively the work of God.

This is a brief note and much more can be said about this topic. Please let me know if you would like me to continue on this topic.

The Importance of the Gospel

2010-07-25T16:56:00.005-04:00

by Bruce Mills

Apart from the gospel, nothing else matters.

Don’t read that statement and make the assumption that I am just using hyperbole. I am not. No human achievement of any kind will matter when you stand before God. The only thing that will matter is who is going to pay for your sins. It will either be you—by spending eternity in the everlasting torment of hell, away from the presence of God—or it will be paid by Jesus Christ, who alone is able to satisfy God’s holy demands and provide the righteousness you so desperately need. Only He is able to bear both the responsibility of perfect obedience to the Law and the weight of God’s just wrath against you.

Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. He didn’t come to save the self-righteous and those who don’t consider themselves in need of help. He didn’t come to save those who believe they can satisfactorily obey His Law through their own ability. No, He came to save sinners; those who recognize their sin and their own inadequacy to satisfy God’s holy and righteous standards, who place their faith and trust in Him and Him alone for forgiveness of their sins and for eternal life.

Make sure you communicate that truth clearly to your children, your family, your friends, and anyone who will listen to you. That is the primary responsibility of Christians. It is our job to boldly go into a dark, hostile, God-hating, Christ-rejecting world and share the good news that Jesus Christ is mankind’s only hope for eternal life.

There won’t be very many who receive that message. In fact, most will reject it and will persecute those who proclaim that message. But that doesn’t change the fact that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the truth and the only way by which anyone can have an eternal, personal relationship with God.

Apart from the gospel, nothing else matters.

The Lamb Who Would Be King

2010-07-19T18:59:00.002-04:00

My son and daughter-in-law recently attended the Resolved Conference in Palm Springs, California. The 3.000+ attendees heard great Bible teachers such as John MacArthur, Steve Lawson, C. J. Mahaney, and Rick Holland. The conference theme was Jesus Christ, and each speaker gave messages on various aspects of the person and work of Christ. But the message which stood out to them above all the others was from Al Mohler, the president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. The title is The Lamb Who Would Be King and it deals with Christ’s return. I listened to it today and I agree…it is an incredible message. So click on the link below and listen for yourself. It’s just under an hour in length, but it’s worth your time.

http://media.resolved.org/2010/Resolved_2010_Session_10-128.mp3

Martin Luther on the Purpose of the Law

2010-07-17T11:22:00.001-04:00

“As long as a person is not a murderer, adulterer, or thief he would swear that he is righteous. How is God going to humble such a person except by Law? The Law is the hammer of death, the thunder of hell, and the thunder of God’s wrath to bring down the proud and shameless hypocrites. When the Law was instituted on Mount Sinai, it was accompanied by lightening, by storms, by the sounds of trumpets to tear to pieces that monster called Self-Righteousness. As long as a person thinks he’s right, he’s going to be incomprehensibly proud and presumptuous. He’s going to hate God, despise His grace and mercy, and ignore the promises in Christ. The Gospel, the free forgiveness of sins through Christ, will never appeal to the self-righteous. This monster of self-righteousness, this stiff-necked beast needs a big axe, and that’s what the Law is, a big axe.”

From his Commentary on St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians.

Limited or Unlimited Atonement? A Restatement

2010-07-13T10:33:00.001-04:00

by Bruce Mills

I have recently been involved in examining the teachings of the Church of the Nazarene denomination because of the decision of a family member to join that church. That denomination is, as are many others, blatantly Arminian in its doctrine, even stating such in its Statement of Faith. As I thought about the implications of that denomination's position, I decided to re-post the following article which I originally wrote and posted in November 2007. Perhaps it can clarify some things for anyone who is confused about the debate on this issue.

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I want to write about the most difficult issue I have ever wrestled with in the development of my theology and doctrinal position. For many years I have made no apology for being a Calvinist in my understanding of Scripture. It is clearly the most biblically consistent and logical theological position. However, until a few years ago if you asked me to what degree I was a Calvinist, I would have told you that I was a “Four Point Calvinist.” The point on which I balked is what is known as “Limited Atonement” or “Particular Redemption.” I couldn’t see how John Calvin arrived at such a conclusion when the Scriptures contained statements such as “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

But a few years ago, a close pastor friend informed me that he had become a “Five Point Calvinist.” I began studying the issue to try to prove to him that he had made a mistake. As I began to read and think about the issue, I upgraded my response to say that I was a “Four-and-a-half Point Calvinist.” By that, I didn’t mean that I only half-way believed in Particular Redemption; rather, what I meant was that I believed that the Scriptures taught both Limited and Unlimited Atonement, and so it was sort of a paradox. I thought both viewpoints were true, so I called it “Four-and-a-half Point Calvinism” to indicate my acceptance of both views.

Finally, my son-in-law, a pastor in Kansas, challenged me to study the issue in depth. I remember him telling me, “There simply is no other way logically that it can be anything but Limited Atonement.” I set out to read all I could from both sides of the issue in an attempt to settle, once and for all, what I believed about that issue. After spending about a year in study—sometimes very intense, sometimes superficial—I finally concluded that the correct understanding is that of Limited Atonement or Particular Redemption. So I would like to explain why I believe that this is the correct biblical position.

Now, I understand that it is somewhat dangerous to venture into this territory because it is quite controversial among evangelical Christians. In fact, some friends of mine left our church because we were just “too Calvinistic” for them. But studying this issue is necessitated by the many texts of Scripture that we read which cause us to wonder which is correct. I just finished studying 2 Peter 2:1, in which Peter comments that false teachers who secretly introduce destructive heresies into the church also deny “the Master who bought them.” For years, I understood that passage as many other people do. I took it to mean that Christ actually has purchased redemption in full for all people, even false teachers. It is commonly thought by many (if not most) people that Christ died to pay in full the penalty for everyone’s sins, whether they ever believe or not. The popular notion is that God loves everyone, wants everyone saved, so Christ died for everyone.

This means that His death was only a potential sacrifice or atonement that becomes an actual atonement when a sinner repents and believes the gospel. In this view, the believer’s role in evangelism is to convince sinners to receive what has already been done for them. All can believe and be saved if they will, since no one is excluded in the atonement.

However, if you take that viewpoint to its logical conclusion, it ends with hell being populated with people whose salvation was purchased by Christ on the cross. Thus, the lake of fire is filled with damned people whose sin Christ fully atoned for by bearing the punishment they deserved to receive under God’s wrath.

On the other hand, in the Unlimited Atonement view, heaven will be populated by people who had the same atonement provided for them, but they are there because they received it. In this view, Christ died on the cross for the damned in hell the same as He did for the redeemed in heaven. The only difference between the fate of the redeemed and that of the damned is the sinner’s choice.

This perspective says that the Lord Jesus Christ died to make salvation possible, but not actual. He did not absolutely purchase salvation for anyone. He only removed a barrier for everyone, which merely makes salvation potential. The sinner ultimately determines the nature of the atonement and its application by what he does. As one Bible teacher has stated, according to this perspective, when Jesus cried, “It is finished,” it really should be rendered, “It is stated.”

But the interpretational difficulties and fallacies arising from that view stem from the misunderstanding of two very important biblical teachings: the doctrine of total depravity (perhaps absolute inability would be a better term) and the doctrine of the atonement itself.

Correctly understood, the doctrine of total depravity says that all people are dead in trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1), separated and alienated from the life of God (Rom. 1:21-22), doing only evil from desperately wicked, deceitful hearts (Jer. 17:9), completely incapable of understanding the things of God (1 Cor. 2:14), blinded by the love of sin and by Satan (2 Cor. 4:4), doing only the will of their father the devil, unable to seek God, and unwilling to repent (Rom. 3:10-23). So, since that is the condition of mankind, answer me this: How is the sinner going to make the right choice to activate the atonement on his behalf?

Clearly, salvation comes wholly and only from God. He must give light, life, understanding, repentance, and faith. Salvation comes to the sinner from God by His will and power. Since that is true, when coupled with the doctrine of sovereign election, the conclusion must be that God determined the extent of the atonement.

So then, for whom did Christ die? He died for all who would believe because they were chosen, called, justified, and granted repentance and faith by the Father. The atonement is limited to those who believe, who are the elect of God. Unless an individual believes in universal salvation, he must believe that Christ’s atonement is limited to some degree—either limited by the sinner who is sovereign, or by God who is sovereign.

Those who hold to an unlimited atonement position are simply mistaken. If one asserts that sinners have the power to limit the application of the atonement, then the atonement by its nature is limited in actual power and effectiveness. With that understanding, it is less than a real atonement and is, in fact, merely potential and restricted by the choice of fallen human beings. But in truth, only God can set the atonement’s limits, and He extends the atonement to all who will believe because they have been chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.

Those who hold to the unlimited view must affirm that Christ actually atoned for no one in particular but potentially for everyone without exception. Whatever He did on the cross was not a full and complete payment for sin, because sinners for whom He died are still damned. Hell is full of people whose sins were paid for by Christ—sin paid for, yet punished forever.

Of course, such thinking is completely unacceptable. God limits the atonement to the elect, for whom it was not a potential atonement, but an actual and real satisfaction for sin. God provided the sacrifice of His Son, which actually paid for the sins for all who would ever believe, who are those chosen by Him for salvation.

It was that issue that finally convinced me of the necessity of a limited atonement. This question kept going through my mind: “To what degree do you believe Christ’s death was propitiatory?” The conclusion that I came to was, if I believe that Christ’s death was satisfactory and sufficient to propitiate God’s holy demand for the punishment of sin, then either all men will be saved because God’s wrath against their sin has been satisfied, or else Christ must have died only for the elect. I could not get around that conclusion with any other satisfactory answer, and thus I came to believe in Particular Redemption.

David Clotfelter has written a wonderful book titled Sinners in the Hands of a Good God. He makes these observations:

From the Calvinist point of view, it is Arminianism that presents logical impossibilities. Arminianism tells us that Jesus died for multitudes that will never be saved, including millions who never so much as heard of Him. It tells us that in the case of those who are lost, the death of Jesus, represented in Scripture as an act whereby He took upon Himself the punishment that should have been ours (Isa. 53:5), was ineffective. Christ has suffered once for their sins, but they will now have to suffer for those same sins in hell.
The Arminian atonement has the initial appearance of being very generous, but the more closely we look at it, the less we are impressed. Does it guarantee the salvation of any person? No. Does it guarantee that those for whom Christ died will have the opportunity to hear of Him and respond to Him? No. Does it in any way remove or even lessen the sufferings of the lost? No. In reality, the Arminian atonement does not atone. It merely clears the way for God to accept those who are able to lift themselves by their own bootstraps. The Calvinist does not believe that any fallen person has such power and so he views the Arminian atonement as unsuited to the salvation of sinners and insulting to Christ.

So how do we deal with the matter of the many passages in Scripture (such as John 3:16) which speak of God’s love for the world? First of all, we must understand that words such as “all” and “world” are not always used in their comprehensive sense. We don’t even use them that way in our speech, so why do we expect such in the Bible? Rather, they often refer to a particular class of people rather than to people universally. Several verses in Scripture use the words “all” and “world” in that sense; specifically, John 1:29, John 12:19, 2 Corinthians 5:19, and Romans 5:18. And every other verse which does use the word “world” in regard to Christ’s atonement has a reasonable explanation for how it does not necessarily carry the universal sense of the term. If you are interested in further reading on this specific issue, I recommend James Montgomery Boice and Philip Graham Ryken’s book, The Doctrines of Grace. They give a wonderful explanation of this issue, relating it to specific verses.

Now, I do not believe, as some Calvinists seem to imply, that God hates sinners. Rather, the Scriptures tell us that God does love all men, but that He has set His affection on some, electing them before the foundation of the world for salvation. But His wrath does abide on those who reject Him. Just as one of my children’s disobedience may have incurred my wrath, at the same time, their rebellious actions did not remove or diminish my love for them. I still had to punish their sin, but I still loved them. So too, while God’s wrath abides on unbelievers and those who reject His Son will be eternally punished in hell for their sin, He demonstrates His love toward mankind through His wonderful gifts of health, food, sunshine and rain, and countless other blessings. A god who hated unrighteous man would not be so benevolent, kind, and gracious as is our loving heavenly Father.

Now some people’s objection to limited atonement comes at the point of the presentation of the Gospel. This was the point of concern of one of the couples who left our church. They objected to the Calvinist positions on election and particular redemption and said, “But how do you present the Gospel to someone if you can’t tell them that ‘Christ died for your sins’?”

I believe J. I. Packer has given the best response to that issue. He points out that the phrase “Christ died for you,” which has become so common in today’s presentations of the Gospel, simply cannot be found in any of the sermons recorded in the Bible. In his book Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God, he writes these words:

The fact is that the New Testament never calls on any man to repent on the ground that Christ died specifically and particularly for him. The basis on which the New Testament invites sinners to put faith in Christ is simply that they need Him, and that He offers Himself to them, and that those who receive Him are promised all the benefits that His death secured for His people. What is universal and all-inclusive in the New Testament is the invitation to faith, and the promise of salvation to all who believe…. The gospel is not “believe that Christ died for everybody’s sins, and therefore for yours,” any more than it is, “believe that Christ died only for certain people’s sins, and so perhaps not for yours.” The gospel is, “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, who died for sins, and now offers you Himself as your Saviour.” This is the message which we are to take to the world. We have no business to ask them to put faith in any view of the extent of the atonement; our job is to point them to the living Christ and summon them to trust in Him.

Well said. We only need to present the Gospel and then allow God, in His sovereignty, to draw to Himself “as many as [have] been appointed to eternal life” (Acts 13:48). Calvinists have often been accused (and sometimes justifiably) of showing little concern for the lost. But it should never be that way. We have no idea who the elect are, and Christ has left us with the responsibility to share the Gospel and then trust Him to call those to Himself whomever He chooses to call. We must be obedient in doing so.

Also, we must be gracious and kind to our Arminian brothers and sisters in Christ who disagree with us on these matters. Truth divides, but we must not be harsh, unfriendly, or unloving, even though we disagree with them. We should pray for them to study the Word, think seriously about such matters, and hopefully they will gain greater understanding of the truth; just as happened in my own situation.

Adopted by God’s Grace

2010-06-23T10:26:00.001-04:00

by Bruce Mills

This past Sunday, I preached on Romans 8:14-17a, which is one of the great passages in Scripture on the believer’s spiritual adoption. It says, “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, ‘Abba! Father!’ The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.”

This passage is rich in theological truth, but it becomes even more incredibly rich to us when we understand what Paul’s Roman readers would have understood when they heard those words. I am convinced that an understanding of the historical setting into which Scripture was written will greatly aid in our understanding of what the author was communicating to his readers, and this passage is a perfect illustration of that. Specifically in regard to this passage, understanding the Roman adoption process sheds tremendous light on these few precious verses. I know that many of those who heard my sermon on Sunday expressed to me that learning the procedures and consequences of an adoption in ancient Rome brought them fresh understanding regarding this biblical expression of our relationship to God.

In the first century when Paul was writing this, adopted children were, in many cases, more honored than natural children. In virtually all cases, it was seen as an act of honor to be adopted, because that child—who was born into a world filled with illegitimate children and orphaned children—that child could say, “I was chosen by someone. I wasn’t just born into a family where what you get is what you get…I was chosen.”

So being adopted was a noble thing. An adopted son was deliberately chosen by the adopting father to perpetuate that father’s name and to inherit that father’s estate. And when a father in the Roman world didn’t have a son, he would go find the noblest available son and adopt him and give him all the rights and privileges of a natural born son.

The adopted son was in no way inferior. In fact, he may have been chosen because he was deemed to be superior to the natural born son. There were many Roman fathers who had sons who, in their eyes, didn’t measure up to their qualifications to inherit their estate, so they went out and found one that did. So an adopted son may have received more affection from his father than a naturally born son and he may well have represented his father’s moral standards more perfectly than that man’s natural sons.

And that’s the whole point of biblical adoption, which is that we become children of God by sovereign divine choice. We are the preferred choice of God. On the basis of free and voluntary election, God has chosen us to be adopted as His sons. We will never be condemned because God has chosen us to be His children forever by His free grace and His uninfluenced sovereignty. He will never disinherit us. We have been lifted to this place of honor and He will fulfill in us His good purposes.

Let me explain some more about adoption in the Roman world. The process of adoption was far more serious and more difficult due to the Roman law known as Patria Potestas, a Latin phrase meaning “the father’s power.” And under Roman law, the father had absolute power over his family, including the power of life and death. When a child was born, if the father did not want the child, he would abandon the infant outside, to be exposed to the weather, which, depending on the time of the year, may kill the child within a few hours. In fact, the early church took to heart the biblical instruction about caring for orphans in their distress (James 1:27) and began to take in the abandoned babies from around the city—a large number of which were girls because every Roman father wanted a son to whom he would pass on his inheritance.

But please don’t think that all Roman fathers were so callous and heartless. Most female babies were raised in their own homes by their natural parents, but among those babies who were abandoned, virtually all of them were females or were deformed in some way. So Roman fathers had the absolute power of disposal and control within their family, and there was absolutely no recourse that could be taken against him.

Also, in regard to his father, a Roman son never came to age. No matter how old he was, he was still under Patria Potestas, as were the daughters also. No matter how old they were, they were still under the absolute control of the father.

This made adoption into a family a very difficult and very serious matter unless the person was an illegitimate child or an orphan, because Roman law provided that a man could adopt the son of another man only if the natural father agreed to allow that to occur. And because the father maintained his Patria Potestas over his son for life, he could give up his son for adoption at any age—even well into adulthood.

For example, if a wealthy man saw a boy or young man that, for whatever reason, he wanted to adopt as his own son, and that son belonged to another father (usually a poor man), he had to go through a very formidable operation to get that person to pass out from under the Patria Potestas of the natural father into the Patria Potestas of the adoptive father.

There were two steps. The first one was called Emancipatus, from which we get our English word “emancipation.” It is a compound word consisting of the Latin prefix ex- meaning “out of” and the Latin word mancipium meaning “ownership” or “slavery.” In other words, “out of ownership” or “out of slavery.” And Emancipatus was carried out as a symbolic sale of sorts. If the natural father would agree to let his son be adopted by another man, there was a ceremony in which there was a symbolic sale of the son to the other man. They used scales and coins in the process, and they went through the ceremony three times. Twice the father symbolically sold the son and twice he bought him back, and then the third time he didn’t buy him back and the natural father’s Patria Potestas over that son was broken.

After the sale there was ceremony called Vindacatus, which is a Latin word meaning “to lay claim to.” The adopting father went to the Roman magistrate and presented a case for the actual legal transference of the person to be adopted into his own Patria Potestas. And when all of this was complete, the adoption was official.

Now there were four main consequences to a Roman adoption:

1. The adopted person lost all rights in his own family and gained all rights in his new family. He gained all the rights of a fully legitimate son in his new family.

2. He became full heir to his new father’s estate even if there were other natural sons. If there were no other sons at the time of his adoption, but other natural sons were born afterward into the family, it did not affect his right as the primary son. He could not be disinherited; his rights were inalienable.

3. According to Roman law, the old life of the adopted person was completely wiped out. If he had any debts, they were cancelled. If he had any record of crime it was abolished. They wiped out all the records as if that person had never existed; as if he had never been born. And the adopted person was regarded as a new person entering a new life with no past.

4. In the eyes of Roman law, the adopted person was literally and absolutely the son of his new father in every sense.

Now, when we think of our adoption into God’s family in those terms, it’s a marvelously wonderful thing. We have lost all the rights and all the claims of our past and we’ve gained all the rights and privileges of our new family. We have become heir to our Father’s estate. Our past life is obliterated, blotted out, and wiped away and we are literally, absolutely, and permanently the sons of God.

Throughout the New Testament we see this imagery over and over again that when a person becomes a Christian, he enters into the family of God. He did nothing to earn it, he did nothing to deserve it, he did nothing to choose it. God the Father, in His amazing love and mercy, has taken the initiative to reach out to him and to draw him into His family and wipe out his past and give him a new life.

I think the reason that the New Testament uses this imagery of adoption as an illustration of what has happened to us in salvation is because adoption was such a remarkably lofty thing. To say that you have been born into the family of God is very special, but to say that out of all the people in the world, God Himself chose you, wiped away the record of all of your sin, and gave you full status as a son and joint heir with His Son Jesus Christ, and you will be permanently and forever in that status…that is special beyond our ability to express it. Praise God for His unsearchable riches in Christ Jesus!

Recognizing a Savage Wolf

2010-06-15T09:28:00.001-04:00

by Bruce Mills

In Acts 20:29-30, the apostle Paul warned the elders of the church at Ephesus—and by extension, churches through the years since—with these words: “I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.” Those are extremely serious words, because they inform us that there are those men whose desires are to ravage the church. They seek to divide and destroy.

Jesus also warned about such men in Matthew 7:15 when He said, “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” The spiritual leaders of His day wore wool robes (“sheep’s clothing”), so this warning concerned those men who would come, offering spiritual direction and guidance, appearing to be one thing on the outside, when they are actually seeking to devour the flock of God.

So how do we recognize such men so that we can guard the church from their destructive activities and teachings? Let me give you some guidelines that are helpful in identifying them.

1) First of all, Jesus said we can recognize them by their fruits (Matthew 7:16, 20). In other words, do they produce the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23) in their lives, or do they produce the fruit of the flesh (Gal. 5:19-21)? They may not display every one of the fruit of the flesh, but they will produce certain ones; particularly such characteristics as “strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions” (Gal. 5:20).

2) They put great effort into promoting themselves. Like Diotrophes (3 John 9), they desire to gain a position of prominence and power in the church and will do whatever it takes to do so (3 John 10).

3) They handle the Word of God deceitfully, adulterating its truth to match their own message (2 Cor. 4:2-3). They invariably reinterpret the Scriptures to justify their fleshly desires and ungodly teaching.

4) They see the Word of God as a means of financial gain (2 Cor. 2:17, 1Tim. 6:5). Rather than focusing on teaching people the Word in order that the Holy Spirit might apply it to their hearts and they are changed into the image of Christ, these men continually focus on money. They press their listeners (many of them financially strapped) to give to their ministry, promising that God will grant special miracles to those who have sufficient faith.

5) They reject sound doctrine which promotes godliness (1 Tim. 6:3), choosing rather to promote what Scripture calls “doctrines of demons” (1 Tim. 4:1). That doesn’t mean that they knowingly promote beliefs which are demonic in origin. In fact, they would be appalled if someone suggested that their doctrines originate from Satanic forces, but in reality, that is the source of anything they teach which does not concur with Scripture. Their teachings promote self, and encourage their followers to engage in activities which characterize the fallen flesh.

6) They will exploit their followers with destructive heresies and sensuality to such a degree that the way of the truth is maligned (2 Peter 2:1-3). The watching world loves to criticize Christians as a bunch of hypocrites and these evil men provide the perfect means for the world to paint all believers with the label of hypocrisy.

7) They use smooth, flattering speech to deceive the hearts of those who are naive and unsuspecting (Rom. 16:18). In other words, they are smooth talkers. They sound convincing. So how is a believer to know whether or not what they are saying is true? By following the pattern of the Berean Christians in Acts 17:11, who examined the Scriptures daily to see if the things which Paul and Silas were teaching them matched up with God’s Word. If a man’s doctrine does not match up with Scripture, he is to be rejected.

There are a lot of savage wolves who are ravaging the flock of God. Be on guard! Never assume that because a man is or claims to be a pastor or an evangelist that he is a man of God. He may be one of Satan’s agents, seeking to destroy God’s people. Study the Word, and if what that man teaches does not concur with sound doctrine, turn away from him. Listen and follow only those men whose doctrine matches up with Scripture, and thus promotes holy and godly behavior.

The Pastor’s Continual Struggle

2010-06-03T11:48:00.001-04:00

By Bruce Mills

I can honestly say from experience that Spurgeon was absolutely correct. There is never a time when the faithful pastor who desires to impart the truth of God’s Word feels that he has an adequate grasp of the overwhelming sea of living water which it contains. Rather he feels that because of his own sinfulness and limitations, he can hold only a few small droplets that he has gathered from his studies. But even then, God’s Spirit compels him to share those miniscule drops with those who listen.

Marketing the Church

2010-05-27T15:41:00.001-04:00

by Bruce Mills

One of my significant concerns about the American evangelical church is that it has no idea what the purpose of the church as a body is to be. It has largely abandoned the method which Jesus and the apostles used; namely, preaching the truth of the gospel, teaching the Scriptures, and exhorting believers to obedience. Instead, it has chosen to adopt the world’s marketing methods to determine what its message will be and how it will be presented.

Afraid to offend the listeners and choosing rather to entertain them, many pastors have decided that preaching in a lecture-listener format is too old fashioned and boring for the educated, erudite American ear. Thus, they believe it is necessary to use drama, skits, movie and television clips, popular secular musicians, and a watered down presentation of the gospel which is devoid of any serious mention of sin, judgment, repentance, or the lordship of Christ.

Going to church is now supposed to be entertaining and, seemingly, only superficially enlightening about one’s human interpersonal relationships, rather than instructive on what God has to say in His word about who He is, what He commands, how we are to relate to Him, and what we need to do in order to grow and change to be more like Christ. Moral absolutes are out; subjective recommendations on how to live are in.

I am now re-reading John MacArthur’s book, Ashamed of the Gospel, which has just been updated and released in a third edition. The following is an excerpt which I found particularly pertinent regarding today’s American church culture and I decided to share it with you.

Having absorbed the world’s values, Christianity in our society is now dying. Subtly but surely, worldliness and self-indulgence are eating away the heart of the church. The gospel usually proclaimed today is so convoluted that it offers believing in Christ as nothing more than a means to contentment and prosperity. The offense of the cross (cf. Gal. 5:11) has been systematically removed so that the message might be made more acceptable to unbelievers. The church somehow got the idea it could declare peace with the enemies of God.
When on top of that punk rockers, ventriloquists’ dummies, clowns, knife-throwers, professional wrestlers, weight lifters, bodybuilders, comedians, dancers, jugglers, ringmasters, rap artists, actors, and show-business celebrities take the place of the preacher, the gospel message is dealt a catastrophic blow. “How are they to hear without someone preaching?” (Rom. 10:14).
I do believe we can be innovative and creative in how we present the gospel, but we have to be careful to harmonize our methods with the profound spiritual truth we are trying to convey. It is too easy to trivialize the sacred message. And we must make the message, not the medium, the heart of what we want to convey to the audience.
Don’t be quick to embrace the trends of the high-tech megachurches. And don’t sneer at conventional worship and preaching. We don’t need clever approaches to get people saved (1 Cor. 1:21). We simply need to get back to preaching the truth and planting the seed. If we’re faithful in that, the soil God has prepared will bear fruit.

I don’t think anyone could have said it any better. Many within the American evangelical culture have decided that it takes a skit and a slick, market-driven “conversation” to win Christ-followers. Such a view completely ignores the fact that no one ever comes to Christ unless the Holy Spirit draws that person, and when He does, His effectual call will result in that individual coming to Christ in saving faith, no matter how “out-dated” the method of sharing the gospel may be.

Responding to Our Enemies

2010-05-17T11:25:00.001-04:00

by Bruce Mills

At the request of a special friend who was unable to attend my class on Sunday, I am posting the basics of my lesson on Romans 12:17-21 which dealt with the Christian’s response toward those who are his enemies. This is a subject which I predict will become more and more important to those who desire to live faithfully for our Lord in a culture which is increasingly hostile toward believers.

It is quite characteristic of the American culture for people to feel like they are in the right to take vengeance upon their enemies. Movies and television shows glorify striking back at those who unjustly attack others and consequently, many Christians think such behavior is acceptable and right. It is a classic case of adopting the culture’s viewpoint rather than a biblical viewpoint.

But that is not what Paul teaches in this passage to be the standard for believers. First of all, he says, ”never pay back evil for evil to anyone.” Now, someone is bound to think, “But what about the OT law that said ‘eye for an eye, tooth for tooth’ (Ex. 21:24)? Isn’t that authorizing revenge?” No, it isn’t. That law pertained to civil justice, not personal revenge. Not only that, but its major purpose was to prevent the severity of punishment from exceeding the severity of the offense. In other words, someone guilty of destroying another person’s eye could not be punished with any greater penalty than that of forfeiting one of his own eyes.

A few verses later, in Rom. 13:4, Paul declares that civil authority “is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil.” But that authority, which is not only divinely permitted but divinely mandated for civil government, is divinely forbidden for personal purposes.

Paul gave this same instruction to the Thessalonian believers in 1 Thess. 5:15—See that no one repays another with evil for evil, but always seek after that which is good for one another and for all people.

Peter echoes this same truth in 1 Peter 3:8-9—To sum up, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kindhearted, and humble in spirit; not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead; for you were called for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing.

So that old adage, “I don’t get mad, I get even,” isn’t biblical. Be very careful about your attitude in seeking revenge toward those who harm you.

Closely related to not returning evil for evil is the second exhortation about how to behave toward our enemies. Paul says, “Respect what is right in the sight of all men.” If we genuinely respect others, including our enemies, we will have a “built in” protection against angrily repaying them evil for evil and will be predisposed to doing what is right toward them.

The word “respect” literally means “to think beforehand.” Louw-Nida’s Greek-English Lexicon, a highly respected lexicon of biblical Greek, says that the idea is “to think about something ahead of time, with the implication that one can then respond appropriately.” And because “respect” is in the present tense, the idea is that of continually thinking ahead of time.” So it is valid to translate this word as “be preoccupied with thinking about that which is right.”

That kind of respect will help us develop the self-discipline necessary to prepare ourselves beforehand for responding to evil with what is good instead of with what is bad. Believers should respond instinctively and spontaneously with what is pleasing to God and beneficial to others.

The word “right” is the word kalos, which refers to that which is intrinsically and morally good, proper, and honest. It also carries the idea of being visibly, obviously right “in the sight of all men.” Paul is not speaking of hidden feelings but of outwardly expressed goodness. Our forgiving, gracious behavior toward our enemies should commend us to them and to others who witness that behavior.

One problem we face in our culture is that there has been a redefining of “right” and “wrong” so that many people struggle to know what things are inherently right and what is inherently wrong. For the believer, that’s easy. If the Bible commends something, it is right; if it condemns something, it is wrong. So we do what the Scriptures say and trust that the internal moral law which God has placed in the hearts of all mankind will be challenged by our behavior and acknowledge its “rightness.”

The next of Paul’s exhortations is conditional in terms of its fulfillment, in that it partly depends on the attitudes and responses of our enemies. In verse 18 he writes: “If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.”

By definition, a peaceful relationship cannot be one-sided. But our responsibility as believers is to make sure that our side of the relationship is right, that our inner desire is genuinely to “be at peace with all men,” even the meanest and most undeserving.

From the perspective of the believer, there is to be no breach of peace. Short of compromising God’s truth and standards, we should be willing to go to great lengths to build peaceful bridges to those who hate us and harm us. We must forsake any grudge or settled bitterness and fully forgive from the heart all who harm us.

But this must also be qualified by the fact that the Christian is to bear witness to the truth and to live by Christian principles. Peace at the price of sacrificing the truth or compromising principle is never to be done. This means that there will be times, in our sin-fallen world, when it will be impossible because the unbelievers in our lost world will be unwilling to live in peace with us. But there must never be a reason why they can legitimately place the blame on us for being unwilling to be at peace with them.

Keep in mind that the principle of being at peace with others does not just mean that we only tolerate them on the outside and endure being around them, but rather that we are truly at peace with them as far as it is possible to be so. Now, I’ll admit that that isn’t always easy, but that is what this verse calls us to do. So we must guard our hearts against any kind of internal feelings of bitterness, hate, or disrespect toward them. If there is any kind of problem between us and those who oppose us, it must be entirely of them and none of our doing.

The last two characteristics Paul lists here are both reiterations. He again denounces returning evil for evil, stating, “Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God.” If a wrong has been done to us, no matter how serious and harmful it may have been, we are never qualified for or have a right to render punishment for the offense ourselves.

Why aren’t we allowed to take revenge for ourselves? Because, Paul says, “leave room for the wrath of God.” Now you may have noticed in your Bible (if you have an NASB) that the words “of God” are italicized, meaning that they are not found in the original language. This has caused some to interpret this as referring to the wrath of our evil persecutors, or to our own wrath, or to the wrath of the government in executing judgment on our behalf. But most interpreters, including virtually all modern Bible translations, see that it is clearly God’s wrath that is in view here because Paul then quotes Deut. 32:35, saying, “for it is written, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord.”

It is not our job to execute justice on evil people; that is God’s prerogative, and He will visit His wrath on such people when He deems it right to do so. In his commentary on Romans, Bible teacher Gerald Cragg says that when we try to take the law into our own hands, “we are inept bunglers in a region where we do not belong.”

Perhaps the best biblical example we have of not taking our own revenge is David, who had two opportunities (1 Sam. 24, 26) in which it seemed like God had delivered Saul into his hands and it would have been easy for him to kill Saul. But instead David refused to take advantage of his enemy, recognizing that God had sovereignly placed Saul upon the throne of Israel, and decreed that he would not be the one who stretched forth his hand against him. He even said, “As the Lord lives, surely the Lord will strike him, or his day will come that he dies, or he will go down into battle and perish” (1 Sam. 26:10). He allowed the Lord to execute justice on his behalf rather than taking things into his own hands.

Another example is Jesus Himself, when the authorities came to arrest Him in the garden, and Peter had his moment of bravado and cut off the high priest’s servant’s ear. Jesus stopped Peter and said, “Put your sword back into its place; for all those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword. Or do you think that I cannot appeal to My Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels?” (Matt. 26:52-53). But instead of defending Himself and taking His own revenge on them, He willingly submitted to the Father’s will and let them take Him into custody. And throughout His trial before Herod and Pilate, He refused to defend Himself or fight against them.

So then, if we are not to take our own revenge, and must wait for the Lord to take revenge—which may not even take place in this lifetime—how then are we to respond to the evil things that our enemies do to us? Well, the answer is in verses 20 and 21, where Paul says overcome evil with good.

You see, merely not returning evil for evil does not fulfill our responsibility. And sometimes doing the positive thing that honors the Lord is the more difficult thing to do. To withhold vengeance is one thing; it requires only doing nothing. But to actually return good for evil is quite another. Yet that is our obligation if we desire to be godly in our behavior. In verse 20 Paul quotes from Prov. 25:21-22, “But if your enemy is hungry, feed him, and if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.”

Now the question which arises from everyone is, what does it mean to “heap burning coals on his head”? Well, this has been debated for many years, and several interpretations have been offered. Perhaps one of the more common interpretations is that this statement figuratively describes doing good that results in the conviction and shame of the enemy.

The expression supposedly alludes to the old custom of carrying burning coals in a pan. When one’s fire went out at home, a person would have to go to a neighbor and request hot coals that he or she would then carry home in a pan on the head. Carrying the coals demonstrated to others in the community that the individual who had to get coals from his neighbor was irresponsible (in that he let his fire go out) and thus he was shamed for his irresponsibility. At the same time, they were the evidence of his neighbor’s kindness and goodness.

In the same way, the person who receives good for evil demonstrates to others around them that he has behaved badly and he is shamed by the kindness of his enemy who was willing to do good to him even when it was not deserved.

That’s one interpretation and perhaps it is the most common interpretation. But I think there is a better interpretation. I take the burning coals as a figure of God’s judgment that will come on the enemy if he persists in his antagonism. The figure of “coals of fire” is used consistently in the OT to refer to God’s anger and judgment (cf. 2 Sam. 22:9, 13; Ps. 11:6; 18:13; 140:9-10; Prov. 25:21-22). Thus the meaning would be that the Christian can return good for evil with the assurance that God will eventually punish his or her enemy if he continues in his unrepentant behavior.

So what Paul is saying here is, “Keep doing what is good and kind, even to your enemies. Let God handle the business of executing vengeance. Your responsibility is to keep doing good to them, and if you keep on doing that, God will take care of executing judgment on them, and it won’t be pretty for them in the end. In fact, if you respond the way you should—with kindness and goodness to them—but they keep up their evil actions toward you, their judgment will heap up to an even greater degree.”

Paul concludes with these words in verse 21: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” The first part of this verse—“do not be overcome by evil”—has two meanings and applications. First, we must not allow the evil done to us by other people to overcome and overwhelm us. We must rest in the fact that “greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4), and we need to remember that “Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him” (James 1:12).

Second, and even more important, we must not allow ourselves to be overcome by our own evil responses. An evil response to an evil action only brings about more evil. Evil can overcome us when we allow the pressure put on us by a hostile world to force us into attitudes and actions that are out of keeping with the transformed life of God’s children. And our own evil is infinitely more detrimental to us than is the evil done to us by others. In each case, it is the evil itself that must be overcome, and that can be accomplished only with good. That is what Christ did, and we must do the same. When we display Christ-like character to a watching and skeptical world, we “overcome evil with good.”

Partiality and Our Ministry to Outcasts

2010-05-10T00:16:00.001-04:00

by Bruce Mills

I just taught through Romans 12:16 in my adult Sunday School class. The first half of that verse reads: “Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly.” As I studied and prepared to teach my class, the implications of this particular verse had a significant impact on me personally.

The virtue which is expressed in the words “be of the same mind toward one another” is that of impartiality. The original Greek text literally says, “Thinking the same things toward one another.” So it isn’t saying that we have to all have the same viewpoint on every issue, but rather that we are to display the same attitude toward all other people, whatever their social, ethnic, or economic status.

The most explicit New Testament teaching on impartiality is given in James 2:1-4. It says, “My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism. For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes, and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes, and say, “You sit here in a good place,” and you say to the poor man, “You stand over there, or sit down by my footstool,” have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives?” And then James 2:9: “But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.”

I recently had an illustration in my own life of how easy it is to fall into this sin. I had just read this passage in my own personal quiet time and so it was fresh in my mind. I was serving communion one Sunday evening at my church and there was a man sitting at the end of a pew as I was serving who was wearing filthy clothes and had strong body odor. I almost had to hold my breath as I passed by him. My first thought was so sinful. I thought, “Oh my, why is he here? Couldn’t he take a bath?” And then I realized where I was, what I was doing, and what God’s Word had to say about this situation. Here I was, an elder in the church, serving communion, and at that very moment, I was guilty of the sin of partiality which James condemned. I immediately confessed my sin and repented, and when I went by him again, I looked at him as a man who was there to remember the Lord’s death and I mentally thanked the Lord for that.

We are to think the same things toward one another. Our attitude toward others should be the same regardless of their skin color, their economic status, or their social status. We shouldn’t allow ourselves to set up our own mental caste system, such as exists in India. We are to recognize that every human being who exists, exists because of the grace of God and therefore, He cares about them. So we need to care about them too and look at them as He looks at them. And according to Scripture, “there is no partiality with God” (Rom. 2:11). So since He is impartial, we are to be impartial.

That means no prejudice, no bias, no hatred. Not against blacks, not against whites, not against yellow, red, or any other color. Not against rich, not against poor, not against uneducated, not against highly educated. There is to be no partiality among believers.

Closely related to not being partial is Paul’s next prohibition in Rom. 12:16 about not being “haughty in mind.” It translates a Greek phrase which literally says, “do not think highly” (or “arrogantly”).

Partiality is closely related to a reluctance to show respect for, or even to “associate with the lowly,” such as the “poor man in dirty clothes” in the James passage. The idea is not that we should avoid associating with those in high positions of wealth or influence. But as far as our service to them is concerned, we typically have more obligation to “associate with the lowly,” not because they are more important, but because they are more needy.

And the word translated “lowly” refers to that which is really low; down in the dirt lowly. We are to get down in the gutter with the lowly. It doesn’t mean you ignore those who are the high and mighty; that is, the wealthy, the politically powerful, the influential, the highly educated and erudite. Rather, it means you don’t pursue, chase after, or concentrate on that.

I thank the Lord for those genuine believers who are friends of mine who are highly regarded professional people of wealth and achievement, who are both significant in the world of men and significant in the Kingdom of God. But I also praise the Lord for friends of mine who live right down on the ground level, who seek to please the Lord in their lives, ministering to me, and enriching my life. Believe me, there are a lot more of them than there are of the powerful, mighty, and wealthy. And what Paul is saying is that we are to not be ashamed to identify with those who are poor and needy.

Our feelings are to be so much in line with those who are lowly that we are perfectly at home with people who never rise above ground level. Paul’s point is that there’s no place for aristocracy in the church. There’s no place for an upper crust. We are to be at home with the lowly as well as the rest.

This principle is marvelously illustrated for us in Luke 14:12-14. Jesus is at a dinner and He sees how the guests are seeking after places of honor at which to sit. Apparently the host had invited the wealthy and powerful to attend, so look at what Jesus tells him, beginning in the middle of verse 12: “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, otherwise they may also invite you in return and that will be your repayment. But when you give a reception, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, since they do not have the means to repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

He says, “You want to know something? You invite the rich, the rich will pay you back. But if you bring over the poor, guess who will pay you back? The Lord will pay you back.” So the question is, who do you want your reward from? From the rich or from God? It’s nice when you have folks over and they respond and have you over or give you a gift. But their gift can’t match what the Lord will give, so next time you have a dinner, call the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind who could never have you over, who could never pay you back. And learn to be at home, to be carried away with those people who are of low status by the world’s standards.

The truth of the matter is the idea of low estate has nothing to do with spirituality. It is not to say they are low-level spiritually; it is to say that on the social scale they’re at the bottom rung. And I have found from experience that very often some of those people who are low on the social scale are very, very high on the spiritual scale.

If you are to treat everyone equally, there are two things you’re going to have to realize. First, in the church there is to be no social aristocracy, and second, there is to be no intellectual aristocracy. Don’t say to yourself, “Well, I’m so wise I wouldn’t want to have a whole house of fools over, what would I say to them? After all, I need to have people who are at my level.” No, that’s the wrong attitude. There is no social aristocracy and there is no intellectual aristocracy. There is no caste system in the body of Christ. That’s the way it ought to be.

Never, ever get caught up in the trap of saying, “I’m want to attend the church where the rich and powerful people in town go; where there are no money problems, where everyone else looks like me, wears the same quality of clothes I wear, drives the same fancy car I drive, and where I can rub elbows with the movers and shakers of the community.” That is such an ungodly attitude. It runs counter to what Paul is saying here in this verse. Yet I have heard believers who expressed exactly such desires.

Now let’s extend this out further to the unbelieving world. Don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty by ministering to the poor, the lowly, and the needy. They need someone who will show them the love and compassion of Jesus.

In biblical times, leprosy was the worst of all diseases. When a man was diagnosed with leprosy, he was immediately isolated from everyone else in society. He became an outcast. Unless he was someone like King Uzziah who could live in a separate house, apart from everyone else, most lepers were doomed to living in the local trash dumps, scavenging for food scraps, banned from going near to anyone else. When they walked down the road and someone approached, they were required to call out, “Unclean, unclean, unclean,” so that the other people would turn away and avoid contact with them.

But look at what Jesus did. In Matthew 8:1-3 we have the story of Jesus and a leper, and it was such an amazing incident that all three of the synoptic gospels--Matthew, Mark, and Luke—record this event. The text says, “When Jesus came down from the mountain, large crowds followed Him. And a leper came to Him and bowed down before Him (incidentally, Luke tells us this man was covered with leprosy; he had a very severe case), and said, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.”

Did you notice what happened? Jesus didn’t have to touch this man to heal him. In fact, later on Luke tells us that He healed ten lepers at one time and didn’t touch any of them. But here, in front of this large crowd, while everyone is watching, “He stretched out His hand and touched him.” Why did Jesus do that? Because He wanted everyone to see. He didn’t move in close to the guy so that no one else could see and just sort of brush up against him. He didn’t just speak to him like He did with many others whom He healed. Instead, He stretched out His hand and He placed it right on that man who was covered with that horrible disease and He healed him. He was demonstrating His love and compassion for those who were the worst of all outcasts in Israel. He was willing to touch them. He was willing to “associate with the lowly.”

You say, “But Jesus was God; He wouldn’t catch that man’s leprosy. If others had touched him, they may have caught it. So if I start ministering to people who are lowly and have diseases, I might catch something terrible.” Well, I’m not saying that you shouldn’t take reasonable precautions, such as wearing gloves when necessary, and using hand sanitizers and a surgical mask, and washing your hands regularly. But don’t let the excuse of potentially catching something be the reason you refuse to obey Christ and follow His example in ministering to those who are infected with terrible diseases.

Let me just add, that if that is a problem for you, then you also have a problem with the doctrine of the sovereignty of God. Because I will admit that there is always the possibility that even if you take steps to prevent yourself from catching some terrible disease, you might still catch something that will leave you very sick or even kill you. But that’s where God’s sovereignty comes in. He is the One who determines how and when you will die, and until then, He wants your obedience in serving Him and those who are in need. He is sovereign over your life and your death, so until He calls you home, be obedient in ministering to those who are the lowly, the poor, the needy, the outcasts.

One more thing—you will never have a problem sharing the gospel with the downtrodden and the outcasts. Generally they are very willing to listen. They understand that they are sinners; they know they’ve blown it. The rich and the wealthy and the powerful—they are all consumed with themselves and believe that they have gotten their power, wealth, and fame by their own strength, and so they are almost impossible to reach. Jesus even said that “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” (Luke 18:25). But the lowly, the downcast—they know what rotten sinners they are; they know they deserve judgment. So they are usually very willing to listen to the gospel of God’s saving grace through Jesus Christ, and they are far more willing to receive it. So go “associate with the lowly” and bear fruit for the kingdom of God.

Suffering, Pain, & God’s Sovereignty

2010-04-28T13:21:00.001-04:00

by Bruce Mills

As I write these words, I am sitting in a recliner with my left leg locked in a brace, unable to move it. I suffered a serious fracture of my patella (knee cap) and had to undergo surgery to repair it. Now I am living with pain almost every moment of every day, and I am faced with many months of rehabilitation before I will ever be able to walk on it again without a brace and either a wheelchair, crutches, or a walker. I am dependent upon my family members to help me bathe, go to the bathroom, and get dressed. It will be about eight weeks before I am able to return to work in a limited capacity. There is much about my situation that is humbling and humiliating.

I have already experienced the depression that comes periodically in such situations, as Satan tempts me to despair that my circumstances will never get better, that my pain will never go away, that my rehab will be too much for me to bear. I admit that it is a daily struggle. So when those dark times of depression and anxiety come, I have decided to follow my own counsel; the advice that I have given many other believers through the years who were going through some difficult time of suffering in their lives, and that is to rest in the sovereignty and trustworthiness of God.

I really don’t think there is a more comforting doctrine in times of suffering, pain, and physical limitation than God’s sovereign control over such matters. When I contemplate the fact that He has absolute control over everything in the universe, and foreordained from before the world began that I would go through this experience in order that His glory might be magnified, it brings a sense of purpose and comfort to my soul.

Ephesians 1:11 declares that God in Christ “works all things after the counsel of His will.” The Greek word for “works” is energeō, which indicates that God does not merely carry all of the universe’s objects and events to their appointed ends, but that He actually brings about all things in accordance with His will. In other words, it isn’t just that God manages to turn the evil, harmful, and hurtful aspects and events of our world to good for those who love Him (Rom. 8:28); rather, it is that He Himself ordains and orchestrates these terrible, painful, difficult events for His glory and His people’s good.

Consider that He proclaimed to the Pharaoh of Egypt that the only reason God had brought him to the place he was and allowed him to remain in power was so that as God rained down plague after plague upon the Egyptian people, God’s name and power and glory would be proclaimed throughout all the earth (Exodus 9:13-16).

Consider the man in John 9 who was born blind—who lived perhaps 20-25-30 years in darkness—forced to beg in order to survive. Yet Jesus said that the reason those awful events took place in that man’s life were “so that the works of God might be displayed in him” (John 9:3).

So when I consider that Scripture teaches that God goes to such lengths to bring pain and misery upon His creation in order to display His glory, the fact that He will cause me to suffer a serious injury to my knee and leave me dependent on others for the most basic functions of daily life means that He is working to accomplish His glory through me and my situation. That is a marvelously encouraging thought, especially when I am hurting and weak and incapable. Because when I recognize that He is accomplishing His purposes in me and magnifying His glory through me, it is staggering to my feeble mind. Ultimately, my injury is not about me; it is about God’s glory.

But since God has called me to this purpose, what might He be doing in my life? Well, as I said at the beginning of this post, there is much about my circumstances that are both humbling and humiliating, and since God knows my sinfully prideful heart, He knows that I need to be broken of that pride. One way is to forcibly rid me of my own self-sufficiency by making me completely dependent upon others. In the wonderful book, Suffering and the Sovereignty of God, a collection of essays on the subject of suffering in the life of the believer, edited by John Piper and Justin Taylor, Joni Eareckson Tada writes:

Do you know who the truly handicapped people are? They are the ones—and many of them are Christians—who hear the alarm clock go off at 7:30 in the morning, throw back the covers, jump out of bed, take a quick shower, choke down breakfast, and zoom out the front door. They do all this on automatic pilot without stopping once to acknowledge their Creator, their great God who gives them life and strength each day. Christian, if you live that way, do you know that James 4:6 says God opposes you? “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
And who are the humble? They are people who are humiliated by their weaknesses. Catheterized people whose leg bags spring leaks on somebody else’s brand-new carpet. Immobilized people who must be fed, cleansed, and taken care of like infants. Once-active people crippled by chronic aches and pains. God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble, so then submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil, who loves nothing more than to discourage you and corrode your joy. Resist him and he will flee you. Draw near to God in your affliction, and he will draw near to you (James 4:6-8).

It’s too early to know what all the lessons are that God wants me to learn over the next several months, but one obvious one is to rip away some of my pride and teach me humility. And as I learn that lesson, God is glorified. So it looks like the next several months will be an adventure, albeit a painful one, as God works through my disabling circumstances to bring about His glory and my good. I pray that I will “consider it all joy…knowing that the testing of [my] faith produces endurance” (James 1:2-3).

The Problem with Forgiving Yourself (Part 2)

2010-04-07T21:34:00.001-04:00

by Bruce Mills

In our last post, we examined the commonly held view that those who are struggling with guilt over some past sin need to learn to forgive themselves, and we noted that such a viewpoint is never found in Scripture. Rather, the Bible discusses vertical forgiveness (God forgiving man) and horizontal forgiveness (a man forgiving another), but the concept of forgiving oneself is not found anywhere in the Scriptures.

We also discussed two reasons why some individuals may struggle with a seeming inability to forgive themselves and the remedy for those problems. We will now continue with a discussion of this matter and look at three more reasons why some individuals can’t seem to overcome guilt and only focus on self-forgiveness.

3. The person who says, “I just can’t forgive myself,” may be venting his regrets for failing to achieve a certain cherished desire.

In essence, this individual is saying, “I had the opportunity to get something I really wanted, but I threw it all away! I can’t forgive myself.” The desire may have been to get rich, be married, receive the approval of their boss, have children who respect them, or even to see a dying relative come to faith in Christ.

So the individual will say, “Because of my sin, I’ve blown it…” And they add something such as, “I lost my money in a bad investment,” or “I embarrassed my boyfriend and he broke up with me,” or “I made a mistake that lost a big account for our company,” or “I was still afraid to speak up for Christ to my dad and now he’s gone.” And then they add, “And now I can’t forgive myself for squandering the opportunity to get what I always wanted. I was that close to being happy and I blew it!”

This person is behaving as though he or she could control the world and guarantee getting what they want. When their desires are thwarted, the result is self-reproach and a lingering case of “if only I had…” This individual is blind to his underlying urge to control his own happiness.

Such an individual needs to hold up the mirror of Scripture and see the deceptiveness and power of his ruling desires. It is nothing more than idolatry. He has decided that his desire to have whatever “thing” he wants is so important that he can’t be happy without it, and when that takes place, he has created an idol of the heart. What he needs to do is recognize it as idolatry, confess it as sin, turn from it, and begin to cultivate a relationship with God that sees Him as sovereignly causing all things—including what he believes are bad things—to work together for good in his life (Rom. 8:28).

4. The person who says, “I just can’t forgive myself,” may be trying to establish his own standards of righteousness.

In this case, the statement “I can’t forgive myself” is equivalent to saying, “I haven’t lived up to my own perfect standards” or “I haven’t lived up to other people’s expectations.” This individual’s longing for self-forgiveness arises from his failure to measure up to his own standards of performance, his own image of how good he is or ought to be.

In essence such an individual has proudly erected his own law or even embraced someone else’s law. He is chasing not only “a righteousness of [his] own” (Phil. 3:7-9) but a righteousness of his own against a standard of his own. But the Bible tells us that God is the only One we must please. His law must be our sole standard of self-measurement.

Advocates of “self-forgiveness” rightly observe our tendency to criticize ourselves and the fact that this is a problem. But the answer is not self-forgiveness; rather, it is to stop our God-playing propensity to erect and obey our own laws.

For example, the person who can’t forgive himself when he makes a mistake on the job has erected an unbiblical standard: “I must be a perfect worker.” He is playing God by rejecting God’s law and establishing his own. Yes, we are to be hard workers who strive for excellence. But we are not to place a false standard upon ourselves which replaces God as the only sovereign qualified to rule over our lives. Similarly, the woman who can’t forgive herself because, in her words, “If only I had persuaded my husband to go to the doctor, he wouldn’t have died,” is assuming God’s role.

5. The person who says, “I just can’t forgive myself,” may have ascended to the throne of judgment and declared himself to be his own judge.

In this case the expression “I can’t forgive myself” is the equivalent of “I’m the one in the role of judge and I will dispense forgiveness as I decide.” Such a person has convened the court, rendered a guilty verdict upon himself, and now believes that he must grant the needed pardon! But the Bible declares that God alone is both judge and forgiver, as well as penalty-bearer for those in Christ!

This role issue is important. What is the person actually saying when he speaks of forgiving himself? Has “he” sinned against his “self,” or has his “self” sinned against “him”? Who is the “he” who forgives his “self”? And who is the judge who determines that guilt even exists? This whole notion of self-forgiveness proposes that one individual as the offender, judge, and forgiver. The only Person who can stand in all three of those roles is Jesus Christ. So when someone else does it, he or she is playing God. They are usurping Christ’s role. It is very important that this person look away from self and to Christ alone as the only judge and forgiver.

In conclusion, what do we say then when someone says to us, “I just can’t forgive myself?” First, we should recognize that he or she has a true problem of guilt. We should take that statement seriously and respond to that person compassionately. But we must help them see that they have mislabeled their problem and how the Bible provides the only accurate, helpful diagnosis and solution.

When the person who is struggling with guilt begins to understand the depth of God’s love and grace, grasping the fact that God alone is in sovereign control over the circumstances of our lives, and only He retains the right to both judge and forgive us, that individual will begin to see that their thinking patterns which require self-forgiveness are unnecessary, self-centered idols of the heart. He can then confess and forsake his sin, with an understanding that God retains absolute authority as both righteous judge and gracious forgiver, making self-forgiveness an unneeded concept.

The Problem with Forgiving Yourself (Part 1)

2010-03-27T16:39:00.001-04:00

by Bruce Mills

I recently came across a great article written many years ago in The Journal of Biblical Counseling titled “I Just Can’t Forgive Myself”: A Biblical Alternative to Self-Forgiveness. The author is Robert D. Jones who was, at the time the article was written, a pastor in Hurricane, West Virginia. I thought the article was so thought provoking that I decided to write a two part article which is based upon and adapted from that article.

I think this is a particularly relevant topic because it is not uncommon these days in evangelical circles to hear about Christians who are struggling with guilt over a particular sin from their past, and well-meaning friends, counselors, or even their pastors will say these words: “You just need to learn to forgive yourself.” Unfortunately, the question that most Christians never ask is, “Is such a concept biblical?” If we say that we believe that the Scriptures are the final and sufficient authority for all faith and practice, we need to ask that question about every suggestion, recommendation, and supposed answer that we encounter in life. The biblical Christian—the serious follower of Jesus Christ and His Word—is never content to drift in the wind and waves of the world’s philosophy. He hungers to know what God says about this and every other matter. Nothing less satisfies.

What does the Bible say about forgiving yourself? It may surprise you to hear that it says nothing about it! You can search the Word of God from cover to cover and you will not find the concept of self-forgiveness taught anywhere in it—not by direct statement, not by example, not by precept. The Bible speaks of vertical forgiveness (God forgiving a person) and horizontal forgiveness (one person forgiving another), but it says nothing about internal forgiveness (a person forgiving himself).

Now, there are many Christian teachers and counselors who use various biblical passages to support their view that the Scriptures do, in fact, teach such a concept. However, when one examines the texts which they purport to teach self-forgiveness, what will be found is that the context of every passage is speaking of either vertical or horizontal forgiveness.

This is important, because what it tells us is that the idea of self-forgiveness is not the result of careful exegesis of the Scriptures, but from some other source. That other source is secular psychology which focuses on the “felt needs” of the counselee. Then so-called Christian psychologists have claimed that certain Bible verses support the self-forgiveness idea and thus, many Christians have been bilked into believing it is a biblical concept. Another problem with this approach is that it neglects to carefully determine what is going on inside of those individuals who are struggling with their past sin. It takes their experience at face value rather than exploring why they say “I can’t forgive myself.”

So what is the believer who is struggling with his or her past sin to do? Are such individuals powerless to overcome their problem unless they forgive themselves? Not at all! Their struggle with self-recrimination is a real problem. But rather than misdiagnosing their problem as an inability to forgive themselves, we need to instruct them in what the Scripture says is the proper approach to solving their forgiveness problem. So how does God’s Word address this issue that is commonly misdiagnosed as an inability to forgive oneself? There are five possible reasons why such an issue exists in an individual’s life. We will only deal with two of them in this post and take up the others in a subsequent post.

1. The person who says “I just can’t forgive myself” may be expressing an inability or unwillingness to grasp and receive God’s forgiveness.

This is the most common explanation behind the “self-forgiveness” concept. The person says he can’t forgive himself because he really doubts that God has forgiven him. So being unsure of a solution, he proposes a need for self-forgiveness to satisfy his lingering guilt or to supplement God’s insufficient forgiveness.

This may come about because the individual has failed to see his sin as a direct offense against God, so his conscience isn’t quiet because he has underestimated the heinousness of sin. He fails to see the magnitude of his sin. It is as an infinite crime against an infinitely holy God and thus, a finite creature can never do anything to forgive such a crime. So he reduces it a mere “mistake” rather than a treacherous assault against his Creator and King. Consequently, he is not driven to seek God’s grace for his sins, but rather he continually ponders on his “mistakes.”

It may be that the individual has not yet grasped the width and depth of God’s forgiving grace and power. He doesn’t truly believe that God can forgive even the worst of sinners. Holding to a view of such a limited God, he sees his sin as unforgivable. In effect, he reduces the value of God’s grace to a level that it is “cheap grace,” which is incapable of breaking the hold of sin in his life.

Another possibility is that the individual has experienced on-going failure with a particular besetting sin, and because he has failed to grow in the grace of putting off the old self and putting on the new self (Eph. 4:22-24), he comes to doubt God’s forgiveness because he keeps repeating the sin. So eventually, he subtly accepts defeat and surrenders to the idea that victory over that sin will never come, and the expression of that surrender is found in the words, “I just can’t forgive myself.”

The remedy to such a problem is to properly understand, believe, and live out the gospel. Grasping God’s forgiveness in Christ undercuts these errors and removes the risk of misdiagnosing our true problem (which is the need for deliverance from sin’s guilt and power) as “self-forgiveness.” We need to replace our thought processes which focus on our past sin with thought processes that focus on the amazing love and forgiveness of Christ.

2. The person who says “I just can’t forgive myself” may not see or be willing to acknowledge the depth of his depravity.

When a person says the words “I just can’t forgive myself,” what he often means is “I still can’t believe I did that!” Such a statement is not evidence of low self esteem, but rather it is actually a form of high self esteem; that is, a form of pride in which we think that we are incapable of such evil deeds. The so-called inability to forgive oneself is often an expression of an underlying problem of self-righteousness. We may think others are capable of doing such a horrible thing, but not us! But the truth is, we are totally corrupted by sin and thus, we are not above doing the most deceitful and desperately wicked acts (Jer. 17:9, 1 Cor. 10:6-12).

Our ability to do utterly wicked deeds shouldn’t surprise us, especially if we understand the depth of depravity that reigns as king in the unbeliever and still remains as a deposed but subversive enemy in the believer. James 1:13-15 portrays the power of our corrupt desires to bring us to spiritual ruin. It was the great Puritan theologian John Owens who observed that any kind of sin carries within itself the seeds of total apostasy.

So a second remedy to the false concept of self-forgiveness is to recognize the depths of our depravity and the wretchedness of which we are capable. And rather than adopting a prideful attitude that denies the awfulness of our behavior, we must prostrate ourselves before Christ and receive His gracious, merciful forgiveness.

In my next post, I will take up the remaining three reasons why many people feel that they cannot forgive themselves, and what the proper biblical approach is to such ideas.

Those Dangerous Calvinists!

2010-03-15T22:57:00.001-04:00

by Bruce Mills

Recently another of the elders at the church I serve called my attention to information posted on Pastor Tom Ascol’s blog, Founders’ Ministries Blog, regarding documents that are circulating among Southern Baptist Churches in western Tennessee. These documents are intended to teach people in those churches how to determine if any of their church staff are Calvinists and then get rid of any that they may find. You can view them here. This information is apparently being spread by individuals who consider the doctrines of grace to be heresy.

The first document is titled "Reformed Red Flags" and it contains a list of 16 "behaviors" to look for when seeking to determine who the Calvinists pastors may be. Some of these “behaviors” are quite surprising. Included on the list are:

“Use of the ESV Study Bible” – This is simply another way of promoting the KJV Only position. Prior to the emergence of the ESV, most of the KJV Only proponents directed their assault on the NIV, but now that the ESV has become widely accepted among reformed evangelicals, they are now redirecting their slander on this fine translation.

“Moving the church to be under Elder Rule” – Perhaps these folks should go back and read Titus 1:5 where Paul clearly instructed Titus to appoint elders in the churches in the cities of Crete. Apparently God, who inspired Paul to write that instruction, believes that elders are to be the leaders of the church rather than the congregation.

“Focusing on creating the ‘true’ church” – Clearly this is aimed at Grace Life Church of the Shoals in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, a strongly Calvinistic Southern Baptist church which holds an annual “True Church” conference. Closely related is another statement regarding the use of church discipline. The unknown author considers the purpose of church discipline to be an attempt to purge the church of anyone who is not part of the “true” church. While that is never the primary intent of church discipline, the purification of the church is a secondary result. Apparently those circulating these documents consider that to be a bad thing.

“Look for the men they quote in their sermons; do they mainly quote Calvinists such as John Piper, R. C. Sproul, James White, Jonathan Edwards, and others?” – Wow! Some of America’s greatest theologians and teaching pastors whose ministries have led countless hundreds and thousands to saving faith in Jesus Christ are persona non grata to these people.

“Tendency toward a highly logical systematic theology…” – I think it’s clear that they prefer a highly illogical disorganized theology in which anything and everything is up for grabs.

The second page of the document purports to explain the theological differences between what the author describes as “Traditional Southern Baptists” and “Extreme Calvinists.” For me, the most interesting statement had to do with God’s knowledge. The writer states: “Traditional Baptists believe in an all knowing God, but they are not determinists, because they do not believe God has planned everything that happens (emphasis mine). Through His eternal foreknowledge, He knows what is going to happen, but He doesn’t over-ride man’s freewill.”

This statement clearly shows that the distance from Arminianism to Open Theism is very short! I’m not sure what they believe the things are that God has not planned, because He stakes claim to both the good and the bad events of our lives and this world (Amos 3:6, 4:6-13; Job 1:12-22; Isaiah 45:7; Lamentations 3:38). So the writer’s view isn’t significantly different than the Open Theist whose God sits in heaven, captive to the decisions of man, reacting only after man has exercised his sovereign freewill.

Notice that the writer says that man has the ability to exercise freewill and that God knows what man will choose, but doesn’t override it. The problem with such a view is that unregenerate man’s will is not free; it is enslaved to sin (Romans 6:6-20). So man’s “freewill” really isn’t free. And since the pursuit of sin is his nature, he will pursue sin. A pig acts like a pig because it is the nature of a pig to do so. And the same principle applies to sinful man. And unless God steps in and overrides man’s will, drawing him to Christ, that man would never choose to believe.

So what’s my conclusion? Simply this: It’s very, very sad when churches reach the point that their greatest concern is not making sure the Gospel of Jesus Christ is proclaimed, souls are rescued from eternal hell, and God is glorified, but rather that they root out the dangerous Calvinists who might be lurking in their pulpits! I pray that God will protect other churches and believers who might be tempted to fall into the same dangerous trap as have these men.

Philippe, the Postmodern Evangelist

2010-03-05T12:49:00.001-05:00

by Bruce Mills

In my many ramblings around the cyberworld of evangelical blogs, I occasionally encounter something which is so rich that it is worthy of being reposted. What follows is the text of an article by Krista Graham which was first posted on “The Sacred Sandwich” blog. This is a great rework of the biblical story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch as it would have been if Philip had taken a post-modern approach to evangelism and the gospel. I don’t know why Ms. Graham spells Philip’s name with a French spelling, but that is how she does it, so I have reposted it exactly as she wrote it. Enjoy!

Once there was a man named Philippe. He was a spiritual guide in an emerging community. One day he decided to go on a journey. So, he did. As he was walking along the road, focusing on the journey and not the destination, he found himself alongside the chariot of an African official. The man in the chariot was reading from a parchment scroll. He was reading aloud, so Philippe was able to overhear what the man read.

“He was led like a sheep to the slaughter,
and as a lamb before the shearer is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
In his humiliation he was deprived of justice.
Who can speak of his descendants?
For his life was taken from the earth.”

Philippe caught up to the chariot and said, “You read that text beautifully. It made me feel significant and connected to ancient traditions to hear you read it.”

“I just wish I could understand it,” the man replied.

“Understand it? You don’t need to understand it. Just to experience it. Read it again, more slowly this time. I want to hear the poetic forms and imagine myself in the context of the ancient tradition,” said Philippe.

“Who is he talking about?” the man persisted. “Is the prophet writing about himself or about someone else?”

“I think he is writing about all of us,” said Philippe. “I think we are all a part of the larger story.”

“But what story?” asked the official. “It seems to me that the writer is talking about something in particular, and I sense that it is important. I just wish I knew what it was. What exactly does this mean?”

“What do YOU think it means?” asked Philippe.

“I don’t know. That is why I am asking YOU.”

“Well, it is true that I am a Christ-follower, and my tradition does impose certain meanings on this text. But I would not want to force my truth claims on you. Your truth claims would be equally valid. As you see, we are both on a journey; and we both find ourselves on the same road. So, it follows that our destination is also the same. So, let’s just enjoy this time of community and not divide ourselves by discussing meanings and dogma,” said Philippe.

After awhile, they came to a pool of water by the side of the road. There was also a fork in the road at this point, and the official chose the road to the right. Philippe planned to take the road to the left, but first he sat down by the edge of the pool to journal his experiences of the day. He was delighted that he had had an unique opportunity to engage in a dialogue with a person of a culture so diverse from his own.

Meanwhile, the African official went on his way, still searching for the meaning of the text that could have brought him eternal life.

Global Warming and God’s Word

2010-02-27T21:55:00.001-05:00

by Bruce Mills

As I have watched the weather reports this year—storm after storm dumping record amounts of snow in the eastern US, unprecedented long periods of cold weather in Florida, unusually warm weather in the northwest—I understand how many people are led to question the validity of the global warming claims. But the truth is that a single extra long and cold winter does not prove that global warming is a myth anymore than an excessively hot summer proves its validity. Climate patterns are established over lengthy periods of time, not by a single year’s weather.

However, I admit that I find the science behind the claims of man’s impact on the world’s climate to be highly questionable at best and completely bogus at worst. The recent revelations that the Nobel Prize winning organization, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), went to great length to manipulate the data, to marginalize opposing viewpoints, and to mask the truth about the lack of global warming over the past fifteen years by destroying the records, has intensified the criticism of the claims of the climate change scientists.

But the primary reason why I do not worry about global warming and its alleged impact on our future environment is because God has clearly stated in Scripture that nothing will alter His created climate until He chooses to alter it. Genesis 8:22 says, “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.” Clearly, God intends to sustain this earth and its climate until He destroys it all at the end of the age (2 Peter 3:12).

Believers need to understand that the great reformational statement, Sola Scriptura (Scripture alone), is essential to our faith when we are faced with the so-called “scientific evidence” that contradicts what God has said. We must never allow man’s wisdom to be given greater credence than God’s wisdom. He has revealed His truth in His Word, and for Christians, God’s Word must be given the supremacy in every conflict with man’s scientific claims. This is particularly true with such issues as evolution and global warming.

So when your unsaved friends (and even some of your saved friends) buy into the world’s philosophy and alleged “scientific proof” that climate change is in the process of destroying our world, don’t buy it! Remember: God has clearly said that He will sustain the environment just as it is until the day that He chooses to destroy the earth. So trust Him and His Word more than you trust man and his science!

The Danger of Falling Away

2010-02-13T23:26:00.001-05:00

by Bruce Mills

Sometime back a good friend approached me, concerned that it might be possible that a true believer in Jesus Christ might be able to lose his salvation. His concern arose after reading one of the most misunderstood passages in all of Scripture, Hebrews 6:4-6. This passage says, “For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.”

Admittedly this is one of the most difficult passages in Scripture to interpret properly. Numerous views have been postulated as to how to best understand this difficult passage. But the key issue to keep in mind is that whatever view one takes, it must be consistent with the rest of Scripture.

After studying this passage and the various views that have been proposed to explain it, I have concluded that the individuals who are discussed in this passage are those who were never genuine believers, but who participated in the activities of the church, understood the message of the gospel with full understanding of its impact on their lives, shared in the blessings which came from the Lord upon those who were genuine believers, and yet never genuinely trusted in Christ as Savior and Lord, but instead chose to turn their back on him.

While the terms used in Hebrews 6:4-6 can be used of genuine believers, they are terms which can also be used of those who participate in the fellowship of the church but who have never genuinely received the forgiveness that Christ offers and submitted their lives to His authority. They have been partakers of some of the benefits that the Holy Spirit gives, but only in a peripheral sense; that is, because of their affiliation with genuine believers, they have seen what the Holy Spirit does in the life of a true believer, they have understood the gospel with full comprehension of its implications for their lives, they have received the “overflow” of the blessings which come from the Holy Spirit’s work within a group of true believers, and they have understood the message of God’s Word and the power of the coming age. But despite having all those benefits and that full revelation of the truth, they reject and walk away from it to their eternal perdition.

So let’s go through and examine each part of these verses and see if we can determine what they mean.

First, it says that the Jews whom the writer is addressing were “those who have once been enlightened.” That term does not conclusively mean “born again” or “made righteous.” None of the normal New Testament terminology for salvation is used. The enlightenment here has to do with intellectual perception of spiritual and biblical truth.

When Jesus first began His ministry, Matthew’s gospel tells us that this was to fulfill Isaiah 9:1-2 which says, “The people who were sitting in darkness saw a great light.” All who saw and heard Jesus saw this “great light,” but not all who saw and heard were saved. They were enlightened, but they were not transformed by that light. They had natural knowledge; that is, factual knowledge about Him. They experienced firsthand the power of His message and His miracles, yet they rejected the truth of who He was and His claim on their lives. The light of the gospel had personally broken in on their darkness, but most of them did not genuinely believe in Him.

The same is true of those being discussed in Hebrews 6:1-8. They were enlightened but not saved. Consequently, they were in danger of losing all opportunity to be saved and, instead, of becoming apostates. They are just like those Peter discussed in 2 Peter 2:20-21—For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment handed on to them.

Next, the writer says that this group had not only seen the heavenly light, but had “tasted of the heavenly gift.” There is an interesting Greek word, horaō, which is translated in our English Bibles as “to see.” But the implication of this word is more than just “to see.” It is better understood as “to see with understanding”; that is, to see something with comprehension as to the meaning and purpose. In Hebrews 3:7-11, another warning passage which is parallel to the Hebrews 6 passage under discussion, the writer uses horaō in describing how the Israelites in the wilderness responded to the Lord. Here was a group of people who were led by God’s Shekinah glory in the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. They had the blessings of God given to them via manna from heaven and water from a rock. They were the beneficiaries of all of God’s blessings upon them. Yet the writer warns his Hebrew readers: “Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me, as in the day of trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tried Me by testing Me, and saw (horaō) My works for forty years. Therefore I was angry with this generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart, and they did not know My ways’; as I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.’”

So here was a group of people who were enlightened by God and received all of His blessing. They saw and understood His works for forty years! That means they understood that what they saw was God at work. They understood His purposes and meaning for them, and yet they still rejected His leadership and authority over them. And the sad result is that God killed all of them in the wilderness and none of them entered into His rest. After forty years, they still did not believe and trust Him; they only followed Him for the blessings He gave them.

And the writer of Hebrews concludes that warning passage in chapter 3 with these words: “Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God” (3:12). That is the same message as that found in Hebrews 6:1-8. The writer is saying, “Don’t be like those who were enlightened and tasted God’s heavenly gift (a parallel to the manna), and partook in the pouring of blessings from the Holy Spirit (a parallel to the water from the rock; i.e., the Holy Spirit is often compared to water in the NT; examples: Luke 3:16, Acts 2:33), heard the message of God, and saw the demonstrations of His power, yet walked away. If you do, you will never be able to repent.”

So these verses do not teach that a true believer can lose his or her salvation. Instead, they serve to warn those who, with full knowledge and understanding of who Jesus Christ is, what He has done, and have been the beneficiaries of His blessings by their association with believers, continue to reject Him as their Lord and Savior.

How Many Angels Are There?

2010-02-06T12:29:00.000-05:00

by Joe Trofemuk

How many angels are there? The answer is 5,000,000,014..... Just kidding.

We do not know from Scripture an exact number of angels. But we do know that there are thousands upon thousands upon thousands from verses like Deuteronomy 33:2. The term “ten thousand” could be translated “myriads.” Or “ten thousands”.

This is what we find in Psalm 68:17. This psalm is talking about the armies of the Lord being so mighty, and it references chariots. But the likely occupants of God’s chariots would be the angels of God. This is certainly the picture painted in 2 Kings 6:15-17 when Elisha’s servant was given a glimpse of God’s army protecting Elisha.

Jesus himself alluded to the twelve legions of angels at His disposal in Matthew 26:51-53. A Roman legion often had around 6000 troops. Jesus was probably speaking merely of a large number, but in a practical sense He is saying He could, in an instant, have 72,000 angels at His disposal.

All this establishes that there are massive numbers of angels who did not rebel against God. This angelic number is often referred to as the host of heaven, as in 2 Chronicles 18:18 and Jeremiah 33:22. There is a large army of angels ready to do the bidding of the Lord.

Perhaps the most expansive description of the vast number of angels that exist is found in Revelation 5:11-12. Myriads and myriads of angels, thousands and thousands of angels.

One other note on this point. It seems best to understand from the totality of Scripture that the number of angels existing today is the same number that existed at the time they were originally created. This is an inference from a contrast Jesus made between humans and angels in Matthew 22:30, Mark 12:25, and Luke 20:34-36. These verses seem to show a fundamental difference between the nature of humans and angels. Humans marry, in part, to procreate. Angels don’t marry at all. It is a reasonable inference that this means that unlike humans with flesh and blood bodies, angels do not reproduce.

There is not even any reference in Scripture to angels having different sexes. Humans are male and female, created that way by God. There is no such reference regarding angels. In fact despite all the feminine angels present as Christmas decorations and in popular art, there is not a single instance in Scripture where an angel is specifically noted to have appeared in the form of a female. But this is not likely an indication that all angels are actually males. It is more likely that angels are altogether different creatures. Their taking on human form is more likely God enabling them to be seen by humans so that God’s will is carried out, such as in Hebrews 13:2.

How many angels are there? We simply cannot say with certainty. There are likely millions, if not billions of angels. God alone knows the exact number.

The Chuck Norris Bible

2010-02-06T08:58:00.001-05:00

by Bruce Mills

Many thanks to my good friend and fellow blogger, Josh Waulk, (www.waulkthisway.blogspot.com) for pointing this out. It is hilarious! Please, don’t take this serious; it’s a joke! But there is a sense in which it is good commentary on the extreme ridiculousness of some people in the American evangelical movement, particularly the KJV Only types.

Rejoice

2010-02-04T20:41:00.000-05:00

by Robert Fraire

Philippians 3:1

In this letter the Apostle Paul is writing to the church at Philippi that is undergoing real suffering for their faith. In addition they have to deal with the bad news that Paul has been arrested and may be executed. Also they have the knowledge that their beloved friend Epaphroditus had been sick to the point of death.

On top of these things there are false teachers in the church that are causing arguments and apparently trying to gain prominence at the expense of Paul. And finally two godly women in the church (Euodia and Syntyche) were at odds with each other.

So what is Paul's message to this church beset by persecution from outside and turmoil from within? He commands them to rejoice in the Lord! Is Paul advocating the power of positive thinking? NO! Was he telling them that if they had enough faith God would bring them prosperity and a life of ease? NO!

Then on what basis could Paul approach these people with a message of joy and rejoicing? And how can we face the trials and tribulations of life while continuing to rejoice? Paul's answer is both simple and profound. It is lofty and it is completely practical: Philippians 1:29 tells us,

For to you it has been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for His sake.

To make this perfectly clear: Paul's message of rejoicing in the Lord in times of trial (as well as time of ease) is based on the fact that we are exactly at the place where the only wise God granted for us to be. He caused it. God is the one that orchestrated your circumstances.

Is this a foreign concept to you? It is not to the Bible. Remember that Job was a godly man whom God used to demonstrate His power and glory. And how did God bring that about? By letting Satan wreak havoc on the life and family of Job. Killing his children and destroying his property in order to demonstrate the glory of God.

Remember Joseph, who was sold into slavery by his brothers, falsely accused by his master's wife, forgotten by the cup bearer then finally raised to an exalted position in Egypt. Why did this happen to him? Random chance? NO! Did God just try to make the best of a bad situation? NO! Genesis 50:20 tells us:

As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about the present result, to preserve many people alive.

God meant it for good... God had a purpose for Joseph and He brought about the pain and mistreatment that Joseph faced in order to preserve many people alive.

Jesus was born as a man for a purpose. He lived a life of obedience to the father with complete sinless perfection for a purpose, He gave his life on the cross and rose from the dead for a purpose! But what about Herod, and the Jews and Pilate, they were essential parts of this history. Was it their desire to assist Jesus in fulfilling his purpose? NO! But Acts 4:27-28 tells us they gathered against Jesus, but acted EXACTLY how God had predestined them to act.

Now maybe you are thinking that God did these things only to those select people but that your life is different. You are the victim of random acts and your purposeful actions. If you thought that you are wrong. God declares the end from the beginning and all things pass through him and his purpose is always accomplished. So what can you make of the pain in your life?

James 1:2-4 tells us that as believers we can know that every trial that comes into our lives is from God for the purpose of our spiritual growth. Therefore it only makes sense to face it with JOY! This is an opportunity for spiritual growth, designed by God himself for you. Rejoice!

Going back to the opening passage Philippians 3:1, Paul describes his call for the Philippians to rejoice as being a safeguard for them. When we face trials with the truth that they are from the hand of God it safeguards us from the sin of anger towards God or the sin of doubting God's goodness. When we think correctly about God we can walk in faith in Him. Really, would you want to walk any differently?

Therefore I say to you, Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all the Lord is near.

The Essential Doctrine of the Trinity

2010-01-24T23:00:00.001-05:00

by Bruce Mills

I was recently asked to teach on the doctrine of the Trinity to a men’s discipleship group. As I prepared for the lesson, I realized that there is, perhaps, no doctrine which causes as much general confusion among Christians as the doctrine of the Trinity. Most Christians will very quickly tell you that they believe in the Trinity, but they haven’t the foggiest idea as to what it teaches or how to explain it. In fact, when they try to explain what they believe this doctrine teaches, they often end up unwittingly falling into one of the many heresies that have arisen throughout the history of the church, such as modalism or Arianism.

Now, I will admit that the doctrine of the Trinity is an infinite mystery which is incomprehensible to the human mind, but the essential elements of the doctrine can be known based on their revelation in Scripture. Every mature Christian ought to be able to explain the Trinity to a new Christian or an unbeliever. Scripture calls us to be “ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15). If we can’t even give a limited, but accurate, explanation of the Trinity, then we are not obedient to the imperative to defend and explain the faith.

So what are the essential elements of the doctrine of the Trinity? The Bible reveals several:

There is one, and only one, true and living God.
This one God eternally exists in three persons--God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
Each of these three persons is of the same divine essence, and is not inferior or superior to the others in divine essence or attributes.
While each person is fully and completely God, the persons are not identical.

The following diagram gives a pictorial representation of the above four propositions.

Let’s biblically analyze each proposition.

There is one, and only one, true and living God. The classic Biblical passage to establish this claim can be found in Deuteronomy 6:4--“Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!” With that statement, the ancient Israelites established themselves as monotheistic. This would set them apart from all of their neighbors who were polytheistic.

The monotheism of Israel is a strict monotheism; i.e., there is only one God and He is Yahweh (“I am the LORD, and there is no other; Besides Me there is no God” [Isa. 45:5]). It is clear that Yahweh is claiming to be the one and only true and living God.

This one God eternally exists in three persons-God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. This monotheistic God exists in three persons. The key to understanding this is balance between unity and distinction within the divine being. There is a unity in essence and a distinction in person (or function).

The best example found in Scripture of the plurality of persons within the Godhead is at the baptism of Jesus. As Jesus is being baptized, we see the Spirit descending on him in the form of a dove and the voice of the Father speaking from heaven declaring his approval of the Son. Other NT examples of plurality are the many uses of the Trinitarian formula in the epistles (e.g., 2 Cor. 13:14). Finally, we have the famous baptismal formula used in the Great Commission in Matt. 28:20--“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”

Each of these three persons is of the same divine essence, and is not inferior or superior to the others in divine essence or attributes. By this we mean that within the Godhead, there is a unity of substance or essence, so that each person is equal in every way to one another. When theologians speak of God, they often refer to God’s attributes; those qualities of God that can be ascribed to him and define him. Some examples of God’s attributes would be omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, holiness, justice, goodness, wisdom, knowledge, etc. When we say that the three persons of the Trinity denote a unity in essence, we mean that they each fully possess attributes that can be predicated of God.

Since each member of the Godhead is wholly and completely equal in essence and attributes, this means that no member is intrinsically subordinate to any of the others. All three persons of the Godhead are completely and eternally equal in every way. The Son is divine in the same way and to the same extent as the Father, and this is true of the Holy Spirit as well.

While each person is fully and completely God, the persons are not identical. This speaks to the distinctions within the Godhead. The distinctions in the Godhead relate to function, not essence. The function of one member of the Trinity may, for a time, be subordinate to one or both of the other members, but that does not mean He is in any way inferior in essence. Each of the three persons of the Trinity has had, for a period of time, a particular function unique to Himself. This is to be understood as a temporary role for the purpose of accomplishing a given end, not a change in His status or essence. The Son did not become less than the Father during His earthly incarnation, but He did subordinate Himself functionally to the Father’s will. Similarly, the Holy Spirit is now subordinated to the ministry of the Son as well as the will of the Father, but this does not imply that He is less than they are.

We see this hierarchy of function demonstrated in various ways. In creation we see that God the Father speaks forth the creation, God the Son is the agent of creation (John 1:1-3) and that God the Holy Spirit superintends the creation (Genesis 1:2). In salvation, it is God the Father who elects us unto salvation, it is God the Son who provides the atonement for salvation, and it is God the Holy Spirit who sanctifies those who have been elected and atoned for.

There are some common errors that arise in regard to the doctrine of the Trinity. In general, all errors concerning the doctrine of the Trinity originate from an over-emphasis of one of the four points discussed above to the expense of the others. Each of these four truths must be held with equal conviction in order to avoid error.

The first error to avoid is tritheism. This error comes from an over-emphasis on the function of each of the three persons within the Godhead at the expense of their absolute equality. In essence, tritheism asserts that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are three distinct gods. This clearly contradicts the first proposition; namely, that there is one, and only one, true and living God.

The second error to avoid is called modalism. This is the opposite extreme of tritheism. Modalism is an over-emphasis of the unity of God at the expense of the distinction of persons within the Godhead. Modalism will teach that there is one and only one God who manifests himself at various times as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

The third and final error is Arianism (named after the 3^rd century monk, Arius). This error denies the third proposition by making the Son and Holy Spirit lesser created deities. This is the heresy which is held by the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

In conclusion, the doctrine of the Trinity is not an easy doctrine to understand. As I mentioned earlier, it cannot be completely comprehended by our finite human mind. However, that doesn’t excuse us from our responsibility to gain as much of an understanding of this doctrine as is humanly possible. The doctrine of the Trinity is an essential doctrine. It is a revelation of God’s divine and mysterious nature, and we are commanded to worship the God who is and who reveals himself in Scripture. In other words, to deny the Trinity is to fall outside the sphere of Christian orthodoxy and a failure to worship the true and living God.

Does God Love All People?

2010-01-17T22:32:00.001-05:00

by Bruce Mills

Sometime within the past few months a close friend wrote me with this question: When presenting the gospel to an unbeliever, can we legitimately say "Jesus loves you" when we know that there are many who will ultimately die, still at war with God, and will thus experience His judgment and wrath for all of eternity? This question naturally leads to a follow-up question as to whether or not we can also say to the unbeliever, “Jesus died for your sins,” since many who hear the gospel will reject it, die, and spend eternity in hell?

I have dealt with the second question in a post on 11/22/07, and my fellow team member, Robert Fraire, posted regarding that question on 7/17/09. So I would refer anyone interested in that question to locate those posts in the blog archive and read them.

However, the first question regarding whether or not we can legitimately tell an unbeliever to whom we are presenting the gospel that “God loves you” is not one which I have specifically dealt with in the past, so that will be the subject of this post.

This question is interesting because there are passages which sound like God does not love sinners. Perhaps the most direct statement is found in John 3:36 where Jesus said, “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” At the same time, we have those great passages such as 1 John 4:8, 16 which state that “God is love.”

So what is the answer? The answer is that it depends on whether we are speaking of God’s general love for all His creation, or His redeeming love which is given only to those whom He has elected and chosen to love in a redemptive way. If we are speaking of His general love for His creation, we can tell every person “Jesus loves you” or “God loves you.” He demonstrates that love by sustaining His creation and providing for the needs of His creatures. Jesus said that God “causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matt. 5:45). It is that rising sun and falling rain which provide the necessary food for mankind, and thus our Lord meets the needs of everyone, regardless of their relationship to Him. Therefore, His general love for mankind is demonstrated by His care, generosity, and benevolence in meeting man’s physical needs.

God also demonstrates His love for mankind in general by His provision of the opposite sex. When God created Adam, He said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him” (Gen. 2:18). God understood that man needed a companion who would complete him emotionally, in addition to providing physical intimacy. So He showed His love for mankind by providing Him with a partner of the opposite sex who could meet those needs.

But if we are speaking of God’s redemptive love which takes the rebellious sinner and draws Him to Jesus Christ, then regenerates him to new life and grants him the faith to believe in Christ’s substitutionary death, then we cannot say “God loves you” to everyone in that sense, because that love is placed only on the elect. So we must be careful that we don’t go too far and make it sound like God loves all people redemptively because He does not. And those who remain in their rebellion against Him are those of whom Jesus was speaking when He made the statement in John 3:36 that I mentioned earlier—“the wrath of God abides on him.” So while God does love the unbeliever in a generic, general sense, He does not love the unbeliever in a redemptive sense.

Now, someone might say, “But doesn’t Romans 5:8 tell us that ‘God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us’? Doesn’t that mean that God loves everyone the same?” No, it doesn’t. This particular verse speaks of both God’s love for “us” and Christ dying for “us.” Obviously, it is important to answer whether or not the “us” is a general statement regarding all mankind or a statement regarding only those who are the elect. The answer is found in the context of the verse. Even a superficial reading of the passage reveals that when Paul says “us,” he is speaking to those who have “been justified by faith" (Rom. 5:1). So Rom. 5:8 is not a statement regarding either God’s love or Christ’s death for all sinners. In fact, it is the opposite; it is a statement regarding God’s relationship with the elect. So one cannot appeal to that verse to support the position that God loves all sinners equally.

So the answer to the question is, Yes, God does love all sinners in a general sense, but He loves only a certain limited number of sinners (those who have been elected to eternal salvation) with a redemptive love. The rest of the sinners who are not elected to eternal salvation are the objects of His eternal wrath.

What are Angels?

2010-01-03T15:35:00.000-05:00

by Joe Trofemuk

Note - I apologize in advance for the length of this post. There was no natural dividing point for making multiple posts, and I believe the length is necessary to lay the proper foundation for the posts which follow.

What are angels? This may seem to be an overly simplistic question with which to start this series. But it is crucial, because in our modern world it is very common to hear people, even those who are not Christians, discussing angels. Depending on what movie or television show is on, angels may be drunkards, slap stick comedians, chubby cherubs, or irreverent rebels. Or they may be nothing more than wobbly guards on automobile dashboards, a cosmic insurance policy against careless driving.

Of course society’s views are not where one turns to determine truth about angels. The only relevant question is “What does the Bible say?.”

So what does the Bible say? The word translated from Hebrew as angel means messenger. The Greek word translated as angel also means messenger.

So in terms of basic word meaning, the word angel means a messenger. But we learn much more by looking at what Scripture says about angels, rather than merely looking at the dictionary type meaning of the word.

And even on this foundational point we have to be cautious. Because everything the Bible says about angels is really as an aside to some other topic. The Bible does not have an encyclopedia entry on angels. Rather Scripture is the unfolding revelation of God and His plan of redemption through His Son. Angels are always presented in Scripture as part of this broader story line. They are never the focus, in and of themselves.

Even in Hebrews Chapter 1, which gave rise to the instant study, the focus is not on angels. The focus is on Jesus, God’s Son. It just happens that because of people’s wrong view of angels, they were viewing Christ wrongly.

So as the true starting point for this discussion on angels, I am going to go beyond the root meaning of a Hebrew or Greek word. I am going to start with a biblical definition found in a current theology textbook, which I have chosen because of its biblical accuracy.

The definition comes from Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology: “Angels are created, spiritual beings with moral judgment and high intelligence, but without physical bodies.”

We will look at each aspect of this definition in more detail to insure this is truly a biblical definition upon which to build our study.

a. Angels are created beings

The Bible makes clear that angels are merely created creatures.

Colossians 1:16 For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities-- all things have been created through Him and for Him.

This makes clear, with the exception of God Himself, everything that exists was created by God the Son. This truth is further affirmed in John 1:3 3 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.

And this clearly includes the angels.

Nehemiah 9:6 6 "You alone are the LORD. You have made the heavens, The heaven of heavens with all their host, The earth and all that is on it, The seas and all that is in them. You give life to all of them And the heavenly host bows down before You.

Psalm 148:1-6 Praise the LORD! Praise the LORD from the heavens; Praise Him in the heights! 2 Praise Him, all His angels; Praise Him, all His hosts! 3 Praise Him, sun and moon; Praise Him, all stars of light! 4 Praise Him, highest heavens, And the waters that are above the heavens! 5 Let them praise the name of the LORD, For He commanded and they were created. 6 He has also established them forever and ever; He has made a decree which will not pass away.

Angels were created by God. This is the clear teaching of Scripture.

To suggest otherwise would be to make angels eternal. And this is not the case. Only God is eternal. 1 Timothy 6:15-16 15 which He will bring about at the proper time-- He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen.

Another question might be asked on this same issue: When were angels created?

While this cannot be answered with pinpoint certainty, we know it occurred within the 6 days of creation described in Genesis. And an argument can be made that they may have been created early on the very first day of creation. Let’s review for a moment what we find in Genesis.

Genesis 1:1-5 1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. 3 Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.

In Genesis 2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts.

These verses make clear that all that was created by God was created in 6 days. So clearly by the end of the 6 days of creation all angels were in existence.

But we see something else about angels and the time of their creation when we look at another portion of Scripture. It appears that angels were witnesses to God's creative work on the earth.

Job 38:4-11 4 "Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding, 5 Who set its measurements? Since you know. Or who stretched the line on it? 6 "On what were its bases sunk? Or who laid its cornerstone, 7 When the morning stars sang together And all the sons of God shouted for joy? 8 "Or who enclosed the sea with doors When, bursting forth, it went out from the womb; 9 When I made a cloud its garment And thick darkness its swaddling band, 10 And I placed boundaries on it And set a bolt and doors, 11 And I said, 'Thus far you shall come, but no farther; And here shall your proud waves stop '?

If the angels (described here as morning stars and sons of God) witnessed God laying the foundations of the earth and these other creative acts, it would imply that they were created early on day 1 and thus able to witness the remainder of God's creative acts (i.e., the rest of days 1-6).

But this is in the end speculation. We do not know for sure the exact time of their creation. But the Scriptures prove without a doubt that angels are created beings.

b. Angels are spiritual beings, i.e., they do not have physical bodies

The definition by Grudem claims angels are spiritual beings. Is this scriptural? Absolutely.

Hebrews 1:13-14 13 But to which of the angels has He ever said, "SIT AT MY RIGHT HAND, UNTIL I MAKE YOUR ENEMIES A FOOTSTOOL FOR YOUR FEET "? 14 Are they not all ministering spirits, sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?

Likewise fallen angels are referenced as spirits in the NT.

Matthew 8:16 16 When evening came, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed; and He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were ill. So it is clear all angels are created spirits.

That means that if they are spirit, they do not have flesh and blood bodies. Again we see this by extension elsewhere in Scripture.

Luke 24:37-43 37 But they were startled and frightened and thought that they were seeing a spirit. 38 And He said to them, "Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? 39 "See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; touch Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have." 40 And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet. 41 While they still could not believe it because of their joy and amazement, He said to them, "Have you anything here to eat?" 42 They gave Him a piece of a broiled fish; 43 and He took it and ate it before them.

If angels are spiritual beings (and they are) this means that we as humans do not normally see the angels around us. This is one of the things I believe Paul was alluding to in Colossians 1:16 For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities-- all things have been created through Him and for Him.

And there are numerous biblical examples of angels being invisible as well. One of the clearest examples involves the OT prophet Elisha.

2 Kings 6:15-17 15 Now when the attendant of the man of God had risen early and gone out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was circling the city. And his servant said to him, "Alas, my master! What shall we do?" 16 So he answered, "Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them." 17 Then Elisha prayed and said, "O LORD, I pray, open his eyes that he may see." And the LORD opened the servant's eyes and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

So angels are spirits; they do not have physical bodies, and are normally not visible.

c. Angels have moral judgment

Angels are not morally neutral. They are capable of knowing right from wrong, and they at least at some point in time were capable of sinning. We know this because all angels were originally created good, but some of them sinned, incurring God’s judgment. So they must be capable of moral judgment.

How do I know that all angels, which would include every current demon and Satan, were originally created good?

God’s Word says so. Genesis 1:31 - 2:1 31 God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. 2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts.

Yet by Genesis Chapter 3 Satan is tempting Eve to Sin.

When did angels sin? It had to be sometime after Genesis 1:31, before Genesis chapter 3. We cannot pinpoint this any further, because Scripture does not specifically say.

But all of this means that angels made moral judgments. Some chose to obey. Some chose to be disobedient. That division between “good” or “holy” angels, and “bad” or “fallen” angels continues to this day.

Those who obeyed still obey.

Mark 8:38 38 "For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels."

In fact, as I read one commentator, even the Lord’s prayer makes clear that angels are obedient.

Matthew 6:9-10 9 "Pray, then, in this way: 'Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. 10 'Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.

So angels who are still with God do His will to this day.

Sinning angels will be addressed in more detail later. But for now it is suffice to note their moral choice. 2 Peter 2:4 4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment;

d. Angels are personal beings, i.e., they have individual personalities

It is clear from Scriptures that angels are not mere robots. Nor are they some type of collective consciousness. They have individual personality. Partly we know this because at least two angels have names; Gabriel and Michael.

And we know angels are curious, and are capable of rejoicing.

1 Peter 1:12 12 It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven-- things into which angels long to look.

Luke 15:7 7 "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.

Luke 15:10 10 "In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."

Finally, Scripture shows that angels interact on an individual basis at times with humans. Revelation 22:8-9 8 I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed me these things. 9 But he said to me, "Do not do that. I am a fellow servant of yours and of your brethren the prophets and of those who heed the words of this book. Worship God."

Angels are not a collective consciousness. They are personal beings.

e. Angels are highly intelligent beings

We know angels have intelligence. In fact they have the capacity, as noted above, to be curious about things that they do not know and understand. 1 Peter 1:12 12 It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven-- things into which angels long to look.

Angels do not know everything. But they apparently know more than humans know. We see this by implication in Jesus’ teaching.

Matthew 24:36 36 "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.

Jesus is saying that lest any human think he can figure out the hour or day of Jesus future coming, not even the angels in heaven know that information. This argument only makes sense if angels are much more knowledgeable than we humans are, which implies that they are highly intelligent creatures.

So even though angels do not know everything, they are intelligent creatures.

Conclusion

Let’s look back at the definition we started with.

“Angels are created, spiritual beings with moral judgment and high intelligence, but without physical bodies.”

I believe that this definition is not just the thought of a wise man (and Wayne Grudem is undoubtedly that). I believe we have seen that this definition reflects the teaching of Scripture. And this definition will be the foundation upon which the further posts in this series build. This is a good and biblical answer to the questions "What are angels?."

A Biblical Look at Angels - Introduction

2010-01-03T14:09:00.000-05:00

by Joe Trofemuk

I am currently teaching through the book of Hebrews in the FaithBuilders Sunday School class at Lakeside Community Chapel. Chapter 1 of Hebrews establishes the superiority of Jesus Christ over every other thing in the universe. The book begins with an unapologetic declaration that Jesus Christ is God’s perfect revelation (1:1-2), God’s perfect representation (1:3a), creation’s perfect sustainer (1:3b) man’s perfect Redeemer (1:3c), and God’s perfect Son (1:4).

Owing no doubt to strands of Jewish theology which carried over into the church, the recipients of Hebrews apparently not only needed encouragement and teaching regarding the character of Jesus Christ, they also needed correction regarding angels. Some apparently had elevated angels to a status equal to, or perhaps even higher than, the Son of God.

As such the writer of Hebrews spends the majority of chapter 1 (verses 4-14) arguing that Jesus as God’s Son is far superior to the mere created beings which are angels. The chapter concludes with an intriguing statement regarding the nature of angels: 1:14 Are they not all ministering spirits, sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?

After completing Chapter 1, I did a five part series on angels in FaithBuilders, examining the biblical teaching on this important topic. I wanted to add depth to the statement of verse 14, while also providing a corrective to our society’s consistently wrong portrayal of angels. A chubby cherub with a bow and arrow, for example, does not do justice to the truth regarding angels which is set forth in Scripture. For my first substantive postings on Inverted Planet I have decided, over the course of several posts, to provide a summary of those teachings on angels.

A couple of caveats/disclaimers are in order (the fact that I was formerly an attorney will likely be obvious in my posts…I cannot escape caveats and disclaimers). The following posts are distillations of my own teaching but I do not pretend to have any original thoughts on angels. After thousands of years of biblical history, I am at best standing on the shoulders of men much more capable than I would pretend to be. I readily acknowledge the value of numerous commentaries and theologies, as well as a very helpful and concise summary on angels I found by Phil Johnson (of Pyromaniacs fame).

Also, my material is merely a summary, presented in what I hope is a logical order. I am not going to quote every verse on every topic related to angels. I did a non-scientific Bible search using some Bible research software. I found the word angel in 188 verses, the word angels in 89 verses, the word demons in 42 verses, and the word demon in 18 verses. All told this shows at least 337 Bible verses that touch on angels. Obviously this is far more than I could ever cover in detail in this format.

So bear with me. I may not mention a verse that pops to your mind on a particular point. And it may have relevance. I am merely trying to give a biblical overview of angels, not recreate a theological treatise.

Finally, a preview of what to expect is in order. The following questions will be addressed in these posts on angels:

1. What are angels?

2. How many angels are there?

3. How are angels organized?

4. What do “good” angels do?

5. Who or what is Satan?

6. Who or what are demons?

Christians and Climate Change

2009-12-21T20:20:00.001-05:00

by Bruce Mills

Over the past couple of weeks, many people in our world have focused on Copenhagen, Denmark where representatives from 183 countries met to try to come to agreement on how to best reduce mankind’s “carbon footprint” on our world. By now I’m sure you are aware that the summit was largely a failure, as developing countries became greedy in their demands for money from developed countries (primarily the United States and western Europe) to help them meet the standards that would be imposed under the proposed accord. In addition, they demanded greater reductions from the United States than our nation was willing to do, and China played the old “bait-and-switch” game with their numbers on how much they would reduce their carbon output.

As I listened to the various news stories about the events in Copenhagen, I noted that the world’s perspective on global warming and climate change is based on an entirely humanistic, evolutionary, God-denying approach which sees no place for divine revelation and preservation in the climate change equation. In their minds, biblical truth about creation (Gen. 1:1-31) and God sustaining the world (Gen. 8:22) until the day He sovereignly chooses to destroy it by fire in order to create a new earth (2 Peter 3:7-13; Rev. 21:1) are mere myths and fables which have no place in the climate change debate.

Many evangelicals have become caught up in the whole global warming environmental discussion, often adopting the same perspective as the secular world, sometimes even reinterpreting biblical texts to give them a “green” interpretation rather than what God intended those passages to say and mean. For example, some bible teachers have tried to say that Isa. 24:4-6, which talks about the distress of the earth and then states, “The earth is also polluted by its inhabitants,” is referring to air and water pollution rather than moral pollution which is clearly the meaning when the overall context of the passage is considered.

All such an approach does is change the focus of scripture from one which deals with man’s sin against a holy, righteous God, and how that sin can be forgiven and man’s relationship to his Creator restored, to one which deals with peripheral, temporal issues which have no eternal consequence for man’s soul. This is borne out by the approach of such influential men as Rick Warren, pastor of California’s Saddleback Church, and Duane Litfin, president of Wheaton College, who have endorsed the “Evangelical Climate Initiative,” a movement which focuses on stopping global warming in order to demonstrate our appreciation of God’s creation and our love for our fellow man. Instead of focusing on evangelizing the lost souls of countless millions who will spend eternity in hell if they do not hear the good news of Jesus Christ’s substitutionary death for sinners and forgiveness through faith in Him, they focus on a social agenda which includes everything but moral sin. In fact, this has become a pattern with Warren, to the point that before he interviewed Barack Obama and John McCain when they were running for President of the United States, he was described in Time magazine as shifting the focus away from sin issues such as abortion and gay marriage to the issues which he felt united people, including “poverty, HIV/AIDS, climate change and human rights” (Time, 8/7/08).

So what should believers think about the issue of global warming, climate change, and environmental protection? Any answer to that question must be grounded in biblical truth. Thus, we should appreciate the creation and glorify the God who made it, but we must also be careful not to adopt the secular, naturalistic, evolutionary mind-set that characterizes the world. We turn nature into an idol when conserving it is given a higher priority than obeying the clear commands of scripture, starting with the greatest commandment, which is to love the Lord God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength (Mark 12:29-30).

According to Scripture, the world was created for man, and not vice versa. God told man that he should be fruitful and multiply and subdue the earth (Gen. 1:28). He went on to tell man to cultivate the earth (Gen. 2:15) and to use both plants and animals for food (Gen. 1:29; 9:1-3). Therefore, any environmental position which imposes population growth restrictions, unduly limits the cultivation of the earth for food, or attempts to prohibit the eating of meat should be rejected. If we claim to believe the Bible to be the inspired, inerrant, sufficient Word of God, then we must not allow ourselves to be distracted from obedience to its commands by the world’s humanistic perspectives. As Christians, we are not called to focus our resources on preserving this planet. Rather, the responsibility upon which we are to focus our time and resources was articulated by Jesus in what we call the Great Commission:

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age (Matt. 28:19-20).

So, instead of being distracted by attempts to save our broken planet, we should focus on the primary mission God has given to the church.

We must keep in mind that God has revealed in His Word that one day He will bring devastation to this planet like no man has ever seen. During the Great Tribulation which is spoken of in the book of Revelation, there will be world-wide plagues and destruction of such extent that millions of people will die. There will be famine and disease; there will be cosmic cataclysms which cause vast destruction; a large celestial body will strike earth and one-third of all fresh water will become poisonous, causing many deaths (Rev. 8:8-11); and there will be droughts and devastation at a level which no one can comprehend. And ultimately, after His millennial reign and mankind’s final Satan-led rebellion against Him, God will destroy the world with fire before He creates a new heaven and earth (2 Peter 3:10-13). So this world is a temporary planet, but one which will last and which God will sustain just as it is now (Gen. 8:22) until He finally comes and brings about ultimate climate change as He moves forth in His wrath to accomplish His purposes.

So we are called to be good citizens and submit to our government (Rom. 13:1-7), to love our neighbors as ourselves (Matt. 22:39, Rom. 13:8), and to wisely use those resources which God has entrusted to us (Luke 16:10-13), but we must not become distracted or preoccupied with political agendas or concerns which distract us from our primary mission in this world, which is to win lost souls to Jesus Christ. To do anything else is to deny the truth of His Word and to bring dishonor to His name.

Looking Forward to Being a Contributor

2009-12-07T10:05:00.000-05:00

by Joe Trofemuk

I have read and enjoyed many of the posts on Inverted Planet posted by my good friends and fellow elders Bruce and Robert (to be clear, I have enjoyed all that I have read…I simply have not read them all). Quite some time ago Bruce extended to me an invitation to turn an evening message I had preached into a post for the blog. For a variety of reasons (all mine) it did not occur.

However I now hope to begin to contribute to Inverted Planet on a semi-regular basis. I have nothing new or uniquely insightful in mind (after 2000 years of Christianity, I have no illusions that any of my thoughts are original). Yet through my current study and teaching of the book of Hebrews in the adult fellowship group I lead, I am struck over and over by how much our current American muddled state of evangelical Christianity is detached more and more from the exclusive truth claims of Scripture.

My hope by contributing to this blog is to continue to build on the work done by Bruce and Robert. If by God’s grace people are challenged or helped then God will receive the glory. If no one ever reads a single entry God will still be worthy of glory, and my own thinking will be stimulated and challenged as I seek to clearly articulate truths to add to this ongoing discussion.

Announcing a New Team Member

2009-12-03T21:22:00.001-05:00

by Bruce Mills

I am happy to announce the addition of another member to the Inverted Planet blog team. Joe Trofemuk is the Administrative Pastor at Lakeside Community Chapel in Clearwater, Florida. As administrative pastor, Joe has oversight over the various ministries of the church. He also teaches and shepherds the FaithBuilders adult Sunday School class.

Joe grew up in Perry, Florida and attended Florida State University, earning an Associate of Arts Degree. Thereafter, he earned Bachelor of Science in Laws and Juris Doctor degrees from Western State University College of Law in San Diego, CA. After graduation, Joe was a practicing attorney in California for over 14 years. As he became involved in ministry in a lay capacity in the local churches with which he was affiliated during that time, he felt the call of God on his heart to prepare for full-time vocational ministry. Joe began studies at The Master’s Seminary in Sun Valley, CA in 2000, graduating in 2004 with a Masters of Divinity degree.

During his seminary years and for a few years after graduation, he led Bible studies in the college ministry and an adult fellowship group at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California where Dr. John MacArthur is the senior pastor. In 2007, Joe assumed his current position at Lakeside Community Chapel. God has gifted Joe with the gifts of teaching and leadership, which he uses to serve the church. He truly has a servant's heart. I was greatly privileged to speak at his ordination service earlier this year.

Joe will be posting articles on the blog periodically. Take time to read them. They come from the heart of a man who loves the Lord and faithfully serves Him.

Liars and Lying

2009-12-02T22:14:00.001-05:00

by Bruce Mills

I was reminded this week of how intrinsic lying is to the fallen human nature. First, there was the story of the global warming scientists who manipulated and destroyed climate and temperature data in order to support their position that global warming is getting more and more severe and will eventually destroy the planet if drastic steps are not taken to curb human activities that allegedly cause the increased temperatures. Their emails, which were leaked to the media, revealed that they systematically did all they could to prevent viewpoints which contradicted theirs from ever being presented or published, and deliberately manipulated the data to make it appear that their position was the correct one. Of course, there were billions of dollars in research grants at stake from which they would benefit if they were successful in convincing the world's governments that they were right.

Then there was Tiger Woods, undoubtedly the finest golfer who has ever picked up a golf club. He is a man who seemed to have it all--over a billion dollars in earnings and endorsements, a trophy wife, and the finest life that wealth can buy. He is a man who outwardly seemed to be in complete control of his life and his golf game. But he was living a lie. He was cheating on his wife and when discovered, he lied to cover his sin until he was faced with incontrovertible evidence that revealed to the world that he was lying. Only then did he admit the truth.

Lying has been a part of a corrupt nature since the Garden of Eden. Satan lied to Eve, telling her that she and Adam would not die if she ate of the fruit (Gen. 3:4), even though God had clearly said that they would (Gen. 2:17). Shortly thereafter Cain lied to God about murdering his brother (Gen. 4:9), and the same pattern of lying and deception continues to be seen throughout the book of Genesis. Abraham encouraged Sarah to lie about being his wife in order to save his own skin (Gen. 12:10-20), Jacob and Rebekah lied in order that Jacob would receive Isaac's blessing rather than Esau (Gen. 27:19), and Joseph's brothers told their father that he had been killed by wild animal rather than admit that they had sold him into slavery (Gen. 37:31-34). In fact, in addition to these examples, there are no less than five more incidents of lying recorded in the book of Genesis alone (Gen. 18:5, 20:2, 26:7, 29:18-24, 39:17). You can easily find many more examples throughout the rest of the Scriptures. Jesus bluntly said that lying originates from Satan and those who are characterized by it are his children (John 8:44).

At the same time, the Bible is clear about God's requirement that men and women be honest and truthful under all circumstances. In the list of the seven deadly sins found in Prov. 6:16-19, lying is specifically mentioned in two of them. Prov. 12:19 says, "Truthful lips will be established forever, but a lying tongue is only for a moment." Prov. 19:5 proclaims that "A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who tells lies will not escape." A few verses later in Prov. 19:9, Solomon reiterates the same idea with these words: "A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who tells lies will perish."

For the believer, lying is never sanctioned. Eph. 4:25 tells us, "Therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbor, for we are members of one another." Col. 3:9 says, "Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices." In other words, since we are a part of the same family and are new creatures with a new nature which does not practice sin, we are to stop lying and tell the truth.

I think a lot of Christians today have adopted the world's perspective that lying isn't really a big deal. But God doesn't see it that way. In His infinite mind, it is a very big deal. It is so important because He Himself never lies and is incapable of doing so (Titus 1:2, Heb. 6:18). Since we are called to be imitators of God (Eph. 5:1), lying is not to be found in a believer's character. Jesus said that we are to "let [our] statement be, ‘Yes, yes’ or ‘No, no’; anything beyond these is of evil" (Matt. 5:37). In other words, we shouldn't have to take an oath in order to confirm the validity of what we are saying. We should be so characterized by truth-telling that those around us will know that they can implicitly trust what we are saying.

Think about this issue in your life. Do others know that everything you say can be trusted to be the truth? Or are you characterized by fudging the truth; stretching it to fit the circumstances you are in so that you look good, avoid getting into trouble, or profit from the outcome? Psalm 15 describes the righteous man who will dwell with God, and one of the things which characterizes him is that "He swears to his own hurt and does not change" (Ps. 15:4). In other words, he tells the truth, even if telling the truth will mean difficulty for himself.

I recognize that this is a high standard. But I'm not the one who set the bar this high; God did. Everyone of us has failed in this area; sometimes very badly. But those of us who claim the name of Jesus Christ must turn from this sin and live godly lives which are characterized by truthfulness. Not so that we will be considered to better than others, but so that when others are amazed at our honesty (and believe me, they will be), we will be able "to give an account for the hope that is in [us]" (1 Peter 3:15).

The Manhattan Declaration

2009-12-02T21:07:00.000-05:00

by Robert Fraire

The following is a link to a document called the Manhattan Declaration. It is a document written and signed by Protestants, Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Catholics. The document is found at this link:
http://demossnews.com/manhattandeclaration/press_kit/manhattan_declaration_signers

In the document the writers and signers pledge to stand united on three areas under attack in the United States today. Those areas under attack are: the sanctity of life, the definition of marriage, and freedom of religious expression.

The document says many things that I agree completely with and I do think that the Christian church in America will face governmental persecutions in each of these areas in the near future.

Some godly men like Al Mohler have signed this document. Dr. Mohler gives his reasons at this site: web site

One small quote from his article says this: "I signed The Manhattan Declaration because it is a limited statement of Christian conviction on these three crucial issues, and not a wide-ranging theological document that subverts confessional integrity. I cannot and do not sign documents such as Evangelicals and Catholics Together that attempt to establish common ground on vast theological terrain."

I respect Dr. Mohler making that statement clear, and his actions and teaching clearly back that statement up.

That being said, I don't believe Protestants should sign this agreement. My reasoning can be summarized in 2 Corinthians 6:14
Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness?

You see while we share many common moral stands with Catholics of all types, the fact is unmistakable that the teaching of the Catholic Church is a false gospel. We can not stand in spiritual unity with them on these issues because those that rely on the false gospel taught by the Catholic church for their salvation are unbelievers.

In a practical sense how could this play out? Well take for instance the area of same-sex marriage. The only way we can be successful in defending God's definition of marriage is to proclaim the truth of scripture and call on the people of this nation to repent. And it is at the point of repentance that the gulf between us and Catholics becomes apparent. If people want to repent; to which gospel do we lead them? In order to stand united must we say that it isn't important whether you choose salvation by grace through faith alone (Protestant gospel), or salvation by grace and maintained by godly works and the sacrements (the Roman Catholic gospel)? It is clear to me that we must call me to repentance and the true gospel message of grace by faith alone.

Because of that we must stay independent of all false religion even if they support our moral stance important issues such as life, marriage and religious freedom.

The Birth of God Incarnate

2009-11-29T20:28:00.001-05:00

^{Luke 2:1-20 (NASB)}

¹Now in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth. ²This was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. ³And everyone was on his way to register for the census, each to his own city. ⁴Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, ⁵in order to register along with Mary, who was engaged to him, and was with child. ⁶While they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth. ⁷And she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

⁸In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. ⁹And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. ¹⁰But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; ¹¹for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. ¹²“This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” ¹³And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, ¹⁴“Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.”

¹⁵When the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds began saying to one another, “Let us go straight to Bethlehem then, and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us.” ¹⁶So they came in a hurry and found their way to Mary and Joseph, and the baby as He lay in the manger. ¹⁷When they had seen this, they made known the statement which had been told them about this Child. ¹⁸And all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds. ¹⁹But Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart. ²⁰The shepherds went back, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, just as had been told them.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ

2009-11-23T23:06:00.001-05:00

by Bruce Mills

In my last post, I said that I would explain how a person avoids God’s wrath and eternal condemnation. What follows comes from a recent funeral service I conducted for the mother of a close friend. He specifically requested that I present the gospel to those who attended, and this is the gospel message I gave. I have only edited it to remove specific, personal references to the deceased.

That lady was just like every other person on the face of the earth—she was a sinner. She wasn’t perfect—she struggled and suffered the natural outcome of sin’s impact in her life. Every one of us does. Death itself is the ultimate and most obvious consequence of sin, as we are told in the Bible in Romans 5:12 where it says that “just as through one man—Adam—sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.”

So, every one of us is a sinner and some day, if Christ doesn’t return first, we are all going to die. And that means that we have a problem. In fact, it is the most serious problem that anyone will ever face. Our problem is that God is absolutely holy and righteous. He cannot allow sin into His presence. In fact, His required standard for anyone to enter heaven is absolute perfection. In Matt. 5:48, Jesus put it very bluntly when He said, “You are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” And since none of us is perfect, that means we are all unrighteous, and that means we all justly deserve God’s eternal condemnation in hell.

In fact, the Bible tells us that over and over again. In 1 Cor. 6:9 it says, “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?” And in Eph. 5:5 it says, “For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.” So then, none of us is perfect. So the question is, how can we be certain that we will go to heaven. Well, the answer has nothing to do with Jeanne. It has everything to do with Jesus Christ.

You see, Jesus Christ was not merely a man—He was God in human flesh. That’s who He claimed to be. He said, “I and the Father are One” (John 10:30). He said, “He who has seen Me, has seen the Father” (John 14:9). As C. S. Lewis put it, you cannot call Him a good teacher or a great prophet or a good man, but deny that He is God. You must decide whether or not He was telling the truth when He claimed to be God. If you conclude that He was not God, then you are saying that He was either a liar or a lunatic. If He was a liar, then He wasn’t a good man. If He was a lunatic, then He cannot be considered to be a great teacher. But if He is who He claimed to be; that is, God in flesh, then we owe Him our every allegiance and all obedience.

And so God sent His Son, Jesus, to the earth and He took upon Himself the sins of every person who would ever believe and He died to pay the penalty for those sins. Those sins deserved eternal judgment, and so only someone who was absolutely perfect could pay that penalty. And Jesus was the perfectly righteous God-man who paid the price for sin. And then He rose again, defeating death and sin. And now He offers forgiveness from sin and eternal life to everyone who repents of their sin and trusts in Him as the only mediator between God and man.

Once again, Jesus left us with no other options. He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). That is a very exclusive claim. But again, if we believe He was who He claimed to be, then He has every right to make such a statement.

And in Acts 4:12, we are told that “there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.” Jesus Christ is the only way to God. That’s not something I came up with; that’s what God Himself says.

And those who come to Jesus through faith alone in Him find that God forgives all their sin, and credits the righteousness of His perfect Son to their account, so that when He looks at them, He sees the perfection of Jesus and no longer sees their sin. And that makes them eternally acceptable to enter and live in heaven forever and ever.

It was that gospel which my friend’s mother came to understand and believe. And because she placed her faith and trust in Jesus Christ alone for her eternal salvation, she is at this very moment, in the presence of her Lord and Savior.

And I am convinced that if she could be here with us today, she would tell you, “Believe in Christ. Turn your back on your sin, and turn to Jesus Christ and trust Him and Him alone for your eternal salvation. That is the most important decision you will ever make.”

She would want everyone to recognize their sin for what it is—an offense against a holy and righteous God. It is the corruption that separates man from God, and which destroys everything that is good. And as long as a man or woman remains in their sin, they are dead spiritually.

And she would tell you that the only way to receive forgiveness for your sin is to come to Jesus Christ, repenting of that sin, and place your complete trust and faith in Jesus Christ alone for your salvation. And she would tell you that when you do that, Jesus will cleanse you and forgive you, remove the penalty of eternal death, and give you the free gift of eternal life in heaven with Him.

And then, when that day comes—as it does for all of us—that you pass through death’s door, you will find Jesus there, along with every person who has placed his or her faith in Jesus Christ alone for salvation from sin and death.

Now, someone might say, “But I’m too old for that stuff. I’ve wasted my life. It’s too late for me.” Let me just urge you to consider the claims of Jesus Christ, regardless of how old you are or how you have lived your life. Age or the trials and struggles and sinfulness of your life should never be an excuse. In fact, those who come to faith late in their lives are simply demonstrations of the greatness of God’s grace and His willingness to forgive sin and bring peace and hope into one’s life.

I hope anyone who reads this who does not know Jesus Christ will repent of their sin and turn to Him in saving faith. That is the only way that anyone will avoid God’s wrath and eternal condemnation, and enjoy eternal life in heaven.

Dead Men Walking

2009-11-09T15:49:00.001-05:00

by Bruce Mills

“And you were dead in your trespasses and sins" (Ephesians 2:1). In those nine words, there is perhaps no clearer statement in Scripture on the sinfulness of man apart from Christ. In the original Greek text, it literally says “And you, being dead in your trespasses and sins.” In other words, man does not become spiritually dead because he sins; he is spiritually dead because by nature he is sinful. Except for Jesus Christ, that is the condition of every human being since the Fall, including every believer before he is saved. It is the past condition of believers and the present condition of everyone else.

Now contrary to most modern thinking, including such esteemed theologians as Oprah Winfrey and Dr. Phil, man’s basic trouble is not being out of harmony with his heritage or his environment, but being out of harmony with his Creator. His principal problem is not that he cannot make meaningful relationships with other human beings, but that he has no right relationship to God, from whom he is alienated by sin.

His condition has nothing to do with the way he lives; it has to do with the fact that he is dead even while he is alive. He is spiritually dead while being physically alive. Because he is dead to God, he is dead to spiritual life, truth, righteousness, inner peace and happiness, and ultimately to every other good thing.

One of the first indications of physical death is the body’s inability to respond to stimulus, no matter what it might be. The simple fact is that a dead person cannot react. He no longer responds to light, sound, smell, taste, pain, or anything else. He is totally insensitive because there is no life in him.

That is the way of spiritual death as well. A person who is spiritually dead has no life by which he can respond to spiritual things, much less live a spiritual life. No amount of love, care, and words of affection from God can draw a response. A spiritually dead person is alienated from God and therefore alienated from life. He has no capacity to respond. Apart from God, men as spiritual zombies, the walking dead who do not know they are dead. They go through the motions of life, but they do not possess it.

This is the primary reason why I am convinced that Calvinism is correct and Arminianism is wrong. According to what this passage says, men and women are “dead in…trespasses and sins”—they cannot possibly respond on their own to the Gospel apart from the work of God to raise them to spiritual life.

But Arminianism teaches that the fall of man was not total, maintaining that there was enough good left in man for him to will to accept Jesus Christ unto salvation.

Arminians believe that election is based on the foreknowledge of God as to who would believe. Man’s “act of faith” is seen as the “condition” or his being elected to eternal life, since God foresaw him exercising his “free will” in response to Jesus Christ.

The founder of Arminianism, Joseph Arminius, held that redemption was based on the fact that God loves everybody, that Christ died for everyone, and that the Father is not willing that any should perish. The death of Christ provided the grounds for God to save all men, but each must exercise his own “free will” in order to be saved.

He also believed that since God wanted all men to be saved, He sent the Holy Spirit to “woo” all men to Christ, but since man has absolute “free will,” he is able to resist God’s will for his life. He believed that God’s will to save all men can be frustrated by the finite will of man. He also taught that man exercises his own will first, and then is born again.

He even said that a man cannot be saved by God unless it is man’s will to be saved, and a man cannot continue in salvation unless he continues to will to be saved. In other words, he can lose his salvation.

In other words, man’s salvation depends on his own ability and will to stay saved. I find such teachings to be absolutely incompatible with this passage. Before we were saved, we were like every other person who is apart from God—“dead in…trespasses and sins.”

The Greek case indicates the sphere or realm in which something or someone exists. It tells us where we were before our salvation. We were in the sphere of being dead in trespasses and sins. We were not dead because we committed sins, but because we were in sin.

A person does not become a liar when he tells a lie; he tells a lie because he already is a liar. He does not become a thief when he steals; he steals because he already is a thief. And so also with murder, adultery, covetousness, and every other sin.

Committing sinful acts does not make us sinners; we commit sinful acts because we are sinners. Jesus confirmed this when He said, “The things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders” (Matt. 15:18-19).

Now, someone might ask, "Do you mean that because all men are equally dead in sin that they are all equally corrupt and wicked?" No; twenty corpses on a battlefield might be in many different stages of decay, but they are uniformly dead. The manifestation of death occurs in many different forms and degrees, but death itself has no degrees. Sin manifests itself in many different forms and degrees, but the state of sin itself has no degrees. Not all men are as evil as they could be, but all fail to measure up to God’s perfect standard.

As a state of being, a sphere of existence, sin has more to do with what is not done than with what is done. God’s standard is for men to be perfect just as He Himself is perfect (Matt. 5:48). God has never given any standard for man but perfect holiness.

It is because of that perfect standard of holiness that men apart from God cannot be anything but sinful. Because he is separated from God, he cannot do anything but fall short of God’s standard. No matter how much good he does or attempts to do, the standard of never doing or never having done evil at all is unattainable.

Because I live on the Gulf of Mexico, let me give you an illustration I have used many times. Let’s suppose that all of us decided we would go down to the beach, and we all lined up and took turns trying to jump across the Gulf of Mexico. Some of us might jump only a couple of feet, but others might jump 8 or 10 feet out before we landed in the water. Even if we brought in a professional broad jumper, he might be able to jump 25 or 26 feet. But no one would be able to jump to the other side of the Gulf. Our degrees of success would vary only in relation to one another, but in relation to achieving the goal, we would all be equal failures.

That is the same way it is with attempting to achieve God’s holiness. Every unbeliever is an equal failure. That’s why the morally good, helpful, kind, considerate, self-giving, generous person needs salvation as much as the serial killer on death row.

The person who is a good parent, a loving spouse, an honest worker, and a civic humanitarian needs Jesus Christ to save him or her from the eternal condemnation of hell just as much as the drug-addicted prostitute or the heartless terrorist. They do not lead equally sinful lives, but they are equally in the state of sin, equally separated from God, and equally estranged from spiritual life.

Jesus once said, “If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same” (Luke 6:33). On another occasion He said, “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?” (Luke 11:13). What He was saying is that a person apart from God can do humanly good things.

But as the Lord points out in both of those statements, the person is still a sinner, still evil by nature, and still operating on a motive less than that of glorifying God. A sinner’s doing good is good, but it cannot change his nature or his basic sphere of existence, and it cannot reconcile him to God.

There is one more passage which states this principle, which I personally think is the most frightening passage of Scripture in the Bible. It’s found in Matt. 7:22-23. Jesus is concluding the Sermon on the Mount, and he tells the listening crowd what it will be like at the Great White Throne Judgment, and He says, “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’”

In other words, there will be many people who will stand before the Lord and try to justify themselves on the basis of their wonderful works of power, and their wonderful teaching done in His name, and He will send them to hell because they never had a personal relationship to Him.

Being good and kind to other people pleases God. You might even say it is a step in the right direction. The only problem is that 100,000 such steps cannot bring a person any closer to God because it is a sinner’s condition of sinfulness and not his particular sins that separate him from God, his particular acts of goodness cannot reconcile him to God.

So, man is in an impossible situation. He is spiritually dead and entirely unable to extricate himself from that situation. How then, is he supposed to have a relationship with God? How will he ever be able to avoid God's wrath and just condemnation to an eternal hell? We'll examine the answer in our next post.

The Sin of Loving the World

2009-10-26T10:42:00.001-04:00

by Bruce Mills

I have been reading a great little book titled Worldliness: Resisting the Seduction of a Fallen World which was written by C. J. Mahaney and other pastors from the staff of Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, Maryland. The first chapter is titled "Is This Verse in Your Bible?" and it is based on the premise that like Thomas Jefferson who physically cut out the verses and passages of the Bible that he didn't agree with, we believers do the same thing with 1 John 2:15, which states, "Do not love the world nor the things in the world." While we would not physically cut it out of our Bibles like Thomas Jefferson did, we practically live as though we have cut it out.

As I thought about this matter of our attachment to the world rather than to Jesus Christ and His Kingdom, I asked myself, What exactly does John mean when he says, “Do not love the world nor the things in the world”? The word for "world" which John uses here has a wide range of meaning, but its most common use in Scripture and the most significant use in John's writings is to refer to "the world system." So it is not specifically referring to the physical world and the physical things that make up our environment. Rather, John is referring to the world of men in rebellion against God. And the things in the world system that we are to refuse to love are its values, pleasures, and goals. Our attitudes toward those things is to be radically different than the world. So while John didn't mean the physical world specifically, he does mean that we are not to be attached to the things which the physical world values. And that does include many physical things.

The world says, “Gain all the wealth and things that you can.” Jesus said, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth…but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven…you cannot serve God and wealth” (Matt. 6:19-20, 24).

The world says, “You better look out for yourself—number one—because no one else will.” The Scriptures say, “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others” (Phil. 2:3-4).

John says, “You better not love those things.” And then he goes on in 1 John 2:16 to specify what things he means. The first one he lists is “the lust of the flesh.” While word that is used here for “lust” includes sexual lust, it means more than just that. It refers to an evil craving for satisfaction that finds its fill in the things that please the flesh. It is any kind of craving to gain anything which the flesh desires. You could say that it refers to moral corruption, because the things which are sought corrupt one morally.

I don’t normally recommend William Barclay as a commentator, except for historical background, at which he is superb, but on this point, he really nails it. He writes these words to describe what John is talking about:

It is to live a life which is dominated by the senses. It is to be gluttonous in food; effeminate in luxury; slavish in pleasure; lustful and lax in morals; selfish in the use of possessions; regardless of all the spiritual values; extravagant in the gratification of worldly, earthly, and material desires. The flesh’s desire is forgetful of, blind to, or regardless of the commandments of God.

John says that those things appeal to our flesh and we can easily crave them, but we are to avoid them.

The second thing he lists is “the lust of the eyes.” What does that refer to? Again, I think we can easily mistake this phrase as referring to sexual lust. But it goes far beyond that. The basic idea behind this phrase is covetousness. It refers to the desire to possess things, to have all the toys that our society throws at us, to achieve status and fame. It is the appeal of Madison Avenue with its advertising which is designed to make us dissatisfied with what we have. It can include sexual lust of looking on a woman and desiring to have her for oneself, but it goes far beyond that kind of temptation.

What John is saying when he says we are not to lust with our eyes is that we are to be content with going without those things that reflect success and achievement. In other words, being willing to be overlooked for a promotion because to do so might diminish the time we have to serve the Lord; to do without the external symbols of success in order to be able to give more to the Lord’s work; to be thought of as unsophisticated or unglamorous if need be in order to accomplish the Lord’s purposes for which he has appointed for us.

Now, I’m not saying that we have to go around looking like we are wearing clothes from the 1950’s and living in a shack that we never spruce up. But we are not to allow the desire for things to control us.

This idea has particular significance for us as we will be entering the Christmas shopping season in just a matter of days, and we will be bombarded with advertisements shouting at us what we absolutely must have if we are going to be cool and up-to-date. Resist the temptation to have your desires controlled by the unregenerate minds of advertising executives who are only consumed with getting you to spend your money on their stuff.

Finally, John says we are to avoid “the boastful pride of life.” This is the attitude which says, “Look at what I have achieved. Pay attention to me. Look at how great I am.” That attitude can be based on the gaining of possessions, education, power, fame, or status. It may even be based on intellect, which is something the person didn’t do anything to gain more of than anyone else. Yet, within the world system, those who have more of something than others have, will flaunt their position and display their pride and arrogance, demanding that others defer to them.

John is saying, “True believers avoid that kind of attitude. They don’t boast about what they have achieved because the true believer considers himself to be lowly and unworthy, because he recognizes that he was destined for eternal hell apart from God sovereignly reaching down and drawing him to Christ.”

If you look back at these three phrases, you can summarize them in this way. “Lust of the flesh”“Lust of the eyes” refers to corruption of the next higher part of man’s nature; his desires for that which is otherwise good and pleasant and nice to have. But “the boastful pride of life” refers to the highest corruption of a man’s heart, because it is the exaltation of man himself. By sensuality man sinks to the level of animals; by covetousness, he competes on the level of men; by pride, he tries to reach to the heights of God. refers to corruption of the lowest, basest parts of a man’s nature.

The world accepts and prizes these values, but they are opposed to true Christianity. To love God is to move away from such values. To love the world is to increasingly drift away from love for God and thereby also lose love for others.

John wraps up this great passage in 1 John 2:17 by giving us another reason why Christians are not to love the world. It is that all that is in the world is transitory and headed for destruction. Everything that is a part of the world system is going to be destroyed.

So, does anything remain? John says, “Yes, 'the one who does the Father’s will abides forever.'” Because the good works a believer does are an aspect of his love for the Lord and find their source in God, the believer will abide forever because he is a possessor of eternal life and an heir to all of God’s riches in Jesus Christ.

When we are called to love God, we must turn from all lesser loves and loyalties. To fail to do this does not mean that we lose our relationship to God, but it does mean that we are unfaithful to Him and disgrace our calling.

It is like a marriage. Adultery does not change the legal status of the marriage, but it destroys the fellowship and is dishonorable. As Christians, we are married to Christ. Therefore, we must not dishonor that relationship by adultery with, or even by flirting with, the world.

The Future of Israel

2009-10-18T22:42:00.001-04:00

by Bruce Mills

I recently finished listening to a six-part sermon series by John MacArthur titled Why Every Calvinist Should Be A Premillennialist. I highly recommend it to all my Calvinist friends who are amillennial. All the sermons are available as free downloads at http://www.gty.org/resources/sermons.

I followed that up by reading an article titled "The Future of National Israel" by Dr. H. Wayne House in the October-December 2009 edition of Bibliotheca Sacra, the theological journal published by Dallas Theological Seminary, my alma mater. I also recommend that article as an excellent summary of the various theological positions regarding ethnic Israel.

The reason I focused so much attention on this subject is because I am currently teaching through Romans 9-11 in my Sunday School class. Most reformed commentators are amillennial in their eschatology and hold to either a covenant theological position or a replacement theological position regarding Israel. Neither position sees a future for national Israel. The covenant position sees the only Israel that will ever be saved and experience the kingdom as those believing Jews who are a part of the "one people of God" who make up the church. The replacement position says that because of Israel's rejection of Jesus as its Messiah, it has been replaced by the church, which then becomes the beneficiaries of all of God's promises and blessings to that nation. Consequently, because the covenant and replacement theologians do not believe in a future for national, ethnic Israel, they take some strange approaches to the clear teaching of Romans 9-11 regarding God's eternal relationship to that nation.

Because I hold to a historical, literal, grammatical approach to the interpretation of Scripture in which biblical language is to be understood in its normal sense, I must conclude that the numerous promises which God made to Israel in the Abrahamic covenant (Gen. 12:1-3), the Davidic covenant (2 Sam. 7:12-16), and the New Covenant (Jer. 31:31-37) clearly teach that God promises a future day of salvation and a physical kingdom for ethnic Israel. Based on the language which God used in giving those covenants, they were unconditional, unilateral, and irrevocable.

Therefore, when Paul says in Romans 11:1-2, "I say then, God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be!...God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew," and in verse 11, "I say then, they (Israel) did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be!" and in verse 26 which says "all Israel will be saved," I must conclude that the clear meaning of the language is that national Israel has not been eternally rejected or replaced, and that there will be a future day when salvation will come to the nation as ethnic Israel bows the knee to Jesus as its Messiah.

Finally, let me pass along one final recommendation for those who wish to study this issue in great depth. Perhaps the most comprehensive treatment of this subject is Future Israel by Barry Horner. It is 400 pages long, which may sound intimidating, but John MacArthur calls it “the best treatment of Israel’s future" he has seen. He further states, "Future Israel should be required reading for every pastor, seminarian, and student of Bible prophecy.” I personally hope to get my own copy soon as a resource for my future studies.

In conclusion, I urge all Bible students to be consistent when interpreting the Scriptures. If you are going to use the historical, literal, grammatical approach to the interpretation of Scripture when it comes to the doctrines of sovereign grace and salvation, then be consistent and maintain that same approach when studying eschatalogical passages relating to the nation of Israel and the millennial kingdom.

The Revelation of God in Creation

2009-10-09T20:04:00.001-04:00

by Bruce Mills

I have returned from vacation in the mountains of north Georgia. I stood on the top of Brasstown Bald, the tallest mountain in Georgia, and looked out over four states. The leaves were changing into brilliant reds, yellows, and oranges. The skies were deep blue, the breezes were cool, and the temperatures were hovering in the 70s. The sunsets on some evenings were gorgeous.

As I took in all of this glorious beauty, I was reminded that all of this beauty came into existence by the Word of God (John 1:3, 2 Peter 3:5), that it continues to existence by His power (Heb. 1:3), and that it exists for Him (Col. 1:16). But what strikes me as being most important about enjoying the beauty of God’s creation is recognizing that it’s purpose is to reveal God’s eternal power and divine nature (Rom. 1:2). Creation’s beauty should tell us how infinitely beautiful He is. Creation’s glory tells us how infinitely glorious He is. Creation’s intricacy and detail should tell us how infinitely powerful He is. And when we see all of that glory, majesty, and power revealed in what has been made, we should conclude that it could only happen by the actions of an infinitely mighty and glorious God.

Most of our society imagines that all this created glory came into existence on its own through a long evolutionary process which took place entirely by accident. Why do they draw such a conclusion? Because, according to Rom. 1:18-25, mankind suppresses the innate knowledge of God which has been revealed in creation, choosing instead to worship the creation rather than the Creator. They consider themselves to be wise, but in reality, they are fools. Rejecting the revelation of God’s glory that comes through creation, they develop futile speculations, and descend into darkness. Their actions bear out the truth that is stated in John 3:19—“men loved darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.”

Now I understand that the only reason I am able to fully appreciate God’s revelation of Himself is because the Spirit of God has called me to be one of His children, and for that I am eternally grateful. But all mankind is capable of observing nature and recognizing God’s eternal power and divine nature in what has been created. That is what theologians refer to as “general revelation,” and all people are capable of understanding that aspect of God’s revelation of Himself. But the fact that most people willfully reject that revelation simply reveals the depths of their depravity. Oh, how I wish all people would look at the glory of God revealed in creation and seek to know the Creator who is our glorious Lord and Savior! Because when man looks at the “general revelation” of creation with an eye to genuinely know the One who created it, God provides that person the opportunity to receive knowledge of His “special revelation,” who is Jesus Christ.

So be amazed at creation. Marvel at its intricacy, its beauty, its glory. All of it exists to reveal the glory of the God who created it. And the more you desire to know Him, the more of Himself that He will reveal to you. And knowing Christ and marveling at His beauty is the greatest treasure of all.

Why God Allowed Sin to Enter His Creation

2009-09-28T12:57:00.001-04:00

by Bruce Mills

Yesterday I taught on Romans 9:14-24, a passage which clearly deals with God’s sovereignty in election. In verse 22, Paul states, “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?” Now, I have dealt with that verse in a previous post on the doctrine of reprobation (2/18/08) so I will not rehash that issue.

However, one issue which we discussed yesterday dealt with God’s sovereignty in relationship to sin. This is a very serious issue in theology, because after all, if we have no answer for the horrendous things which take place around us, we might conclude either that God is impotent and incapable of dealing with such matters, or that He is a mean and vindictive tyrant who enjoys inflicting pain on His subjects.

So why does God permit evil in His creation? Why does He allow such events as a deranged gunman killing 32 students and faculty members on a college campus in Virginia in April 2007? What about mass genocide as has taken place in Bosnia and Rwanda within the past few years? What about radical Islamic terrorists flying commandeered airplanes into towers, killing thousands?

And why didn’t God simply wipe out Lucifer (Satan) at the very beginning when he rebelled? After all, He has the right and power to do that. In fact, Revelation 20:10 says he is will do just that someday. So why didn’t God cast him into the Lake of Fire the day after he rebelled? Why let him rampage through humanity for centuries?

What possible answer does Christianity have for such questions? Using material that I gleaned from both John Piper and John MacArthur, let me see if I can answer that.

The ultimate answer is that “all things have been created through [Christ] and for [Christ]” (Col. 1:16). Clearly God knew all that Satan would do if He created him and permitted him to rebel. So in choosing to create him, God was choosing to fold all of that evil into His purpose for creation. His purpose for creation was the glory of his Son. All things, including Satan and all his followers, were created with this in view. God created them knowing what they would do, and that knowledge was taken into account in God’s decision to create them. Therefore, the evil that Satan and his demonic forces do is simply one aspect of how God’s greatest and perfect purpose will be accomplished.

And in Romans 9:22, we learn that the entrance of sin into the world was necessary so that God could display His wrath, judgment, holy anger, vengeance, and justice. That’s why it says God was “willing to demonstrate His wrath.” His wrath is just as much an attribute of God’s nature as any other of His attributes. And so God allowed sin to enter into His perfect creation in order that He could display His holy wrath, because if there was no sin, He would have had no reason to display His wrath, and without His wrath, the fullness of the glory of God would not have been revealed.

Satan’s fall and ongoing existence are for the glory of Christ. Ultimately, Jesus Christ will be more highly honored, more deeply appreciated, and more deeply loved because He defeats Satan—not the moment Satan fell, but through millennia of enduring him and those who follow him “with much patience”--and decisively through His own death. A single, sudden, and infinitely holy display of power to destroy Satan immediately after his fall would have been a glorious display of power and righteousness. But it would not have been the fullest possible display of the full glory of the Son and the Father. God chose an infinitely wise way of displaying the full magnificence of divine glory by letting Satan fall and do his work for thousands of years.

The glory of Christ reaches its highest point in Christ’s obedient sacrifice on the cross where Jesus triumphed over the devil (Col. 2:15). Jesus said in that final hour of his own sacrifice, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him” (John 13:31). Paul said that the crucifixion of Christ is the point where we see his wisdom and power most gloriously displayed: “But we preach Christ crucified…the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1:23–24).

Satan, with all the evil and misery he brings to this planet, serves to magnify the power and wisdom and love and grace and mercy and patience and wrath of Jesus Christ. We would not know Christ in the fullness of His glory if He had not defeated Satan in the way He did.

Now, I understand that that’s not an easy answer to accept for many. But that’s the answer God gives us in Romans 9:22. Had there been no Satan and no sin, God couldn’t have displayed His wrath against sin and we wouldn’t have known that aspect of His nature. And because that aspect of His nature wouldn’t have been put on display, the full revelation of God’s glory would have been lost. So God created Satan and allowed and endured sin for the purpose of revealing His holy wrath in its judgment and its punishment. And it had to be so in order for God’s character to be fully revealed.

The text also says, “and to make His power known.” Here is another reason why God created Satan and permitted sin to enter His creation. First of all, He did it so that He could show His wrath. Secondly, He did it so that He could show His power.

How does God show His power in relationship to sin? First of all, in His judgment of sin. The closing chapters of the book of Revelation reveal the power of God in judging sin. If you read them, you will see the devastating plagues that He will one day send on the earth. You will see the great fiery judgments that He will bring upon men. And you will see Jesus Christ return as the conquering Lord, riding on a white horse, carrying a sword, wearing blood splattered garments as He comes to defeat Satan, his demonic forces, and the armies of the world and take the earth for His own possession so He can establish the millennial Kingdom. And after the final rebellion, you will see all of unredeemed humanity collected before the Great White Throne because God has the power to bring them out of the graves so that He can bring them before His judgment bar and then send them into the Lake of Fire forever. That is truly a demonstration of His unlimited power to judge sin.

And so, Satan and sin exist in order that God may fully glorify Himself and His Son, and demonstrate that part of His nature which is holy and reacts in violent wrath against sin and evil. And God created Satan and allowed sin in order that He could demonstrate His tremendous power as well as His vengeance, and His power is seen in its ability to conquer all that attempts to conquer Him.

Evangelism

2009-09-24T21:34:00.000-04:00

by Robert Fraire

When a believer thinks about his responsibilities as a Christian, one that comes to the top of the priority list should be the need to evangelize the lost.

In this post I am going to look at what the Bible tells us is occurring as someone hears the gospel and responds. I am going to do this from two perspectives. First I will talk about how it looks to the people involved, then I'm going to look at what the Bible tells us is happening theologically during this event.

First we see that the Christian loves his friend and wants him to know the Lord Jesus Christ. His heart is heavy with concern over the prospect of his friend living his whole life and then dying where he will face judgement.

In Biblical terms the Christian's concern is well founded as scripture tells us that all men have sinned and therefore will face the wrath of God if they die in that condition. The Christian knows that this is true because he believes that the Bible is the written Word of God and he wants to please his Lord and savior by being obedient to him. But it isn't a forced obedience, because as a Christian he is indwelt by the Holy Spirit. And God constantly is transforming him to think and have the passions that Jesus did. This is the process of sanctification, the beautiful Lord Jesus is irresistible to him and he must tell his friend of this treasure. This passion also demonstrates that this man is truly redeemed.

So the Christian begins to tell the man how God changed his life. That the Bible states clearly that everyone including his friend is a sinner. And that God is just and righteous and so He must punish sinners.

What is the spiritual state of the unbeliever? Ephesians 2:1 tells us that men before salvation are spiritually dead in their sins. "Dead" means that men apart from God are NOT ABLE to please God in a spiritual realm. In fact men would be without any hope of pleasing God if not for a substitutionary work of Jesus Christ. It is essential that the person to whom we are proclaiming the gospel, be told this truth. As the Bible says, only the sick need a doctor: only the hopeless understand their need for a savior.

Now the friend begins to ask the Christian about these strange things he is saying and the Christian responds with the truth of scripture.

Romans 1:16 tells us that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. That God's will is that people will be saved through the hearing of the gospel. Another important point to consider is: how does this spiritually dead man understand the spiritual truth of the gospel? The Bible tells us that this occurs through God's action of regeneration. (John 3:5) And without God's action the friend will despise the gospel message and reject it.

The Christian tells his friend of the work of Christ on the cross and His resurrection. He then tells him that he must repent of his sin, desire to turn away from his sin and toward obedience to God. To trust that God is able and is willing to save him.

Luke 9:23-24: Jesus says that we must deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow him. This is what the Bible means by calling on the name of the Lord, or as John 3:16 says: "Believe in him" Salvation is of God, and God decreed that he would bring His chosen people to himself through faith in Jesus Christ. If this friend is chosen of God and it is the time God has chosen to draw him, then God will regenerate the man, and the man will understand the gospel and love the gospel message and the mercy of God.

The friend hears the truth and believes that it is true. He asks his friend: "how can I be saved?" And the Christan sets his focus on Christ and His finished work.

Saving faith is required by God. There are types of faith that do not save. The emotion based faith with die out, the fear based faith will cool. But when God draws the man, he will possess true faith.

The man prays asking God to save him. He then asks his friend how can he know that he is saved? The Christian opens the Bible to show him 1 John and tells him that those who love God will obey him, love fellow Christians, and repent of their sins.

Scripture never points men to rely on a "remembering the day you prayed to receive Christ"
The man who possesses true faith will live out that faith in obedience to Christ. James 2:17 tells us that true faith will have good works. It is a life characterized by walking in obedience to God that gives us assurance of salvation.

The evangelist operates in the human realm. We cannot see whether God has chosen the man to which we are preaching. But it doesn't matter because God knows who are His. We cannot see with our eyes whether the Holy Spirit has given the hearer new life to understand the gospel, but it doesn't matter because we are commanded to proclaim the truth, God will bring His people to himself.

Sometimes we want to have a fool proof way of knowing who is called. And we want a fool proof way of knowing if a person's profession of faith is real, but God, in His wisdom has said that we will not be able to know, therefore we trust God and worship Him as the sovereign Lord of Salvation.