The Sovereignty of God: Part IV

Due to varying perceptions of the Calvinistic mis-defining of “sovereignty,” several theological systems developed. First is Covenant theology–which teaches that God has determined in an unchanging way, unalterable way in continuity through both the Old and New Testaments; the Mosaic laws still apply, ie. the Sabbath; the Church is spiritual Israel and all promises to Old Testament Israel are being /will be fulfilled through the New Testament Church. In direct contrast to Covenant theology, Dispensational theology teaches God has determined to keep His promise to a particular racial and national people–the Jews. Of the two, Dispensationalism is certainly the one favored by Scripture. While some hyper-dispensationalists have taken the theology too far, “Dispensationalism” is mostly in line with the plain, literal teaching of Scripture. 1. Covenant theology on the other hand takes the sovereignty definition of Calvin and applies it to the Scriptures in ways which make the theology synthetic. The Jews are cast aside and replaced by the Church–something never taught in Scripture and definitely a cause of antisemitism in Reformed circles. 2.

The chief problem with the disproportionate attention given to the Calvinistic definition of God’s sovereignty is the theological concepts imposed upon Scripture. We would all do well to let the Bible speak for itself and not to snap the Scriptures to a man-made grid. Because of the Reformed emphasis on Calvinistic sovereignty, the concept has become one of idolatry. Examine this quote by A. W. Pink.

“The doctrine of God’s sovereignty …is the centre of gravity in the system of Christian truth – the sun around which all lesser orbs are grouped. It is the golden milestone to which every highway of knowledge leads and from which they all radiate. It is the cord upon which all other doctrines are strung like so many pearls, holding them in place and giving them unity. It is the plumbline by which every creed needs to be measured, the balance in which every human dogma must be weighed. It is designed as the sheet-anchor for our souls amid the storms of life. The doctrine of God’s sovereignty is a Divine cordial to refresh our spirits. It is designed and adapted to mould the affections of the heart and to give a right direction to conduct. It produces gratitude in prosperity and patience in adversity. It affords comfort for the present and a sense of security respecting the unknown future. It is, and it does all, and much more than we have just said….”

Any Spirit-filled believer should be able to see the uncalled for attention and value placed on this man-made definition of sovereignty. Reformed theologians have given a Bible doctrine a man-made definition and elevated that ill-defined point of doctrine above all others.

This uncalled for elevation has brought about several erroneous philosophies. Here are just a few:

Determinism - God has predetermined all things to be from eternity past, including the eternal destiny of souls to either Heaven or Hell.

religionism, authoritarianism, absolutism, perfectionism, universalism, covenant theology, legalism,

Fatalism – what will happen is predestined and nothing can change it. (The logical conclusion of Calvinism.)

and finally, Sacramentalism - the sacraments of baptism and communion can incur grace and are mystic experiences of a higher spiritual nature. 3.

So at the end of all this discussion on the right and wrong definitions of God’s sovereignty, how can we use the term “God’s sovereignty?” The term is legitimate if referring to the control of God over the universe, Christ’s lordship, and the perfect will of God. We cannot use the term to refer to men or man-made definitions of God’s character.

As it is almost impossible to use the term “sovereignty” without implying some degree of Calvinism, we must be careful how we use the term and be clear our listeners understand the correct meaning. This term is one only to be used in reference to God; it is reserved exclusively for Him and must therefore be treated with caution and not flippantly used.

I hope this “mini-series” of posts has been informative and helpful.

kw

1. Many conservative Bible scholars debate the concept of the pre-tribulation rapture, due to its later arrival in the 1800′s.

2. Both the Roman Catholic Church and the Protestant reformers violently persecuted and reviled the Jews–blaming them personally for the death of Jesus Christ. As a result of Martin Luther’s vicious polemics against the Jews, Adolf Hitler used Luther’s writings as a manual to implement his Holocaust. Luther, Martin. “Table Talk“

3. The word sacrament means “sacred act that incurs grace.” We know from the Bible that baptism and communion are strictly memorial, pictorial acts of obedience and do not incur grace or involve any mystic experience. This error is descendant directly from the Roman Catholic Church by the combining of pagan mysticism with Catholic dogma ie. Constantinople.  Cruz and Gerberding, “Medieval Worlds: An Introduction to European History, 300-1492. pg. 104.”

Holiness Series: Part 1

The other day I was looking through my dad’s old library and I found a book of topical references written by A. W. Tozer. I thought that book book would make a great resource for doing topic studies.  Hopefully I will have time to write out my own personal findings and thoughts on each of the several dozen references on HOLINESS.

Here are the first two references.

Romans 8:29  For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

This passage is a great companion passage to the one below. I hope to discuss Ephesians 1:4 in more detail.

Ephesians 1:4  According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:

Note: This is a “proof” text for Reformed theologians who argue for unconditional election and predestination.

Though I once believed that, I am convinced now that the emphasis is on what we as God’s chosen children are chosen to: “that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.” If I simply and objectively read this text, I cannot come up with unconditional election or double predestination, but I can say without doubt or question that you and I as God’s children were predestined to be holy and without blame before him in the love of Jesus Christ. Even in the Geneva Bible’s notes, the Reformed commentators note plainly that the ultimate point of this text is to emphasize our choseness unto holiness.

I am convinced even more that the Reformed doctrine of predestination double takes the point away from the holiness and Christlikeness God’s forknown children are to have and shifts the focus to elect or reprobate. I don’t see God in this passage as choosing one to Hell and one to Heaven; I see God knowing all those who would come to Him in response to His free gift of salvation for all and then predestinating them unto holiness and becoming conformed into the image of Jesus Christ.

What a precious truth! God has not chose some unto life and others unto death! He has freely offered eternal salvation unto all. He has also predestined those who will come unto Him to be conformed to Christ and live holy lives.

Please don’t be angry at me for saying this, but I see a trend in modern Reformed circles on trying to focus on people being reprobated or elected and not preaching on practical holiness and separation from the world.  I realize that many in the Baptist Church could also be accused of not being holy or separate, and that is a shame and a disgrace both to the historic Baptist Church and to Christ, but I am saying that I see a general and typical lack of holiness and practical separation from the Reformed and a shift of focus to the doctrines of “Grace.” I try not to offend you if you are Reformed, but my point is that they are not focusing on the point of the issue of predestination and are focusing on the invented doctrine of Augustine–who was neither right doctrinally or regenerated.

I trust that we as God’s children will focus not on man-made doctrines but on the fact that God has offered salvation unto all and has predestined all those who come to Him to be holy and separate from this vile world.

This call to holiness is one that convicts and challenges me every day. I wish I was as obedient as I want to be and know I should be. I am humbled and shamed at times. Oh that God would give us a holy dissatisfaction with the things of Earth and an insatiable desire for holiness unto Christ. Amen.

Separated Unto The Gospel of Christ – K.D.W.

“Separated unto the Gospel” Tis a phrase we don’t hear too often now days in our modern-day churches. What does this phrase mean? Turn to 2 Corinthians 6. In verse 3, Paul starts right into his thrust of separation by beginning with the reason we must be separated from the World. It is because we must be “separated unto the gospel.” Look in Verse 3. “Giving no offense in any thing, that the ministry be not blamed.” Now, the word “offense” does not refer to offending someone by preaching the truth and them not liking it. This is of course the first thing liberal-minded Christians, if you wish to use such an oxymoron phrase, would believe and teach. The Scriptures refer here to causing someone to stumble; doing something that violates their conscience; more bluntly, not living what you say you teach and believe.
Next, in verse 4, “But in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God.” I like William Tyndale’s 1534 translation, “But in all things let us behave ourselves as the minsters of God.” True, this passage is speaking expressly to minsters and Spiritual leaders, but a wider application is perfectly fitting. Whether a preacher or not, a Christian, one bearing Christ’s name, should live in a way that does not damage the name, cause, or message of Jesus Christ. And we should be deeply ashamed whenever we do anything that might damage His precious name.
Now in verses 5-10, Paul gives a comparative list between good and bad circumstances and declares that whatever set we find ourselves in, we are to live as testimonies for our LORD and Savior Jesus Christ. Regardless of our condition. [read the list for yourself.]
After laying the foundation: doctrine and logic of why we must be good examples of Christ in this world–as to not offend or mislead the lost–Paul moves on to the powder-keg of his sermon. He tells in verses 11-13 that he has a real burden for them and preconditions his “bomb-shell” with love. In verse 14, He tells us “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial [Satan]? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?” This unequal yoke is often interpreted as marriage, but it goes farther than that. Marriage with an unbeliever should be a given. Our friends whom shape us should be believers. Acquaintances may not always be believers, but people whom we choose to spend significant amounts of time with should be believers. I know someone out there is going to say “how do we reach the lost?” but that is not what I am talking about here. I am referring to your companions. Paul uses examples: Righteousness and Unrighteousness, Christ and Satan, light and darkness, believer and infidel, and finally, temple of God with idols. Now the first 4 are obvious, but Paul spends more time with the last one: Verse 16, “And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” Christian people ,WE ARE THE TEMPLES OF THE ONE LIVING GOD!!!
We have the Holy Ghost dwelling in our souls; how can we mix the presence of the God with that of the wickedness of the World? This is what Paul is driving at. How can we profess Christ and live just like the people who hate and denounce him? It is insanity to claim we can do both. We either “love the one or hate the other.” We have to choose one. God does not play the “walking the fence line game.” God does not play the kind of games the Church of Modern America plays. We serve a Holy God, yet we are so foolish to think we can be a Child of God and play in the sin and wicked filth of the world! He is our God; we are His people.
Therefore…verse 17, “come out from among them [the lost] and be ye [saved people] separate [labeled, set apart], saith the LORD, and touch not the unclean thing: and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters saith the Lord Almighty.” We are to be set apart from the lost people in this wicked world. Yes we must witness and reach them, but this is not done through being just like them! God help our churches and pastors who have bought into this lie of Satan that says by being like, looking like, acting like, sounding like the world, we can reach them. NO NO NO! This is a lie! The reason we must live separate from the World is so we can reach them for Christ. They must see, and hear a difference in us and therefor be drawn to find what that difference is.  Many modern church movements and New Evangelical or Neo-Calvinistic leaders have twisted and ignored this doctrine of Separation. We are to be salt and light in a rotten and dark world.
I am not being hard and judgmental, I am just speaking the truth! How can the world ever come under conviction for their sins if God’s people are living just like them? They can’t.

Remember what this passage teaches. Apply its truth to your heart and life. Give no offense to any man. Live a separated life that God may be honored and that lost people may come to Christ. Do we really realize how serious a sin being worldly is? It is damning thousands upon thousands every day, and it is often OUR fault!

May God have mercy upon us is we live not Separated unto the Gospel. Amen

KDW

Hated For His Sake – by Ken Willis

In Acts 4, verses 1-21, we are presented with an account of the disciples teaching and preaching in the midst of the religious leaders of Israel. As people were hearing the sound of the gospel, getting under conviction, and being illumined unto the light of salvation, these religious leaders are filled with anger and lay hands on, [or seize] the disciples. Why the anger? Why the violence? Why seize these men of God? They were not teaching heresy or errant doctrine, and the scribes knew this; the disciples were simply preaching Christ to the unsaved people of Israel. After they held them in captivity for a time, they questioned them saying, “by what authority do you teach these things?” This question has to be taken for the significance it presents. By asking whose authority, the leaders revealed their knowledge that the message was not man made. The Lord Jesus has been ascended into heaven for approximately 2 or 3 days; He had been crucified around 45 days earlier. The whole of Jerusalem knew this, and they knew he had died. Not many believed in his resurrection, except the disciples, the remaining eleven, and the soldiers and Pharisees involved in the cover up over the tomb. When the religious leaders hear the disciples preaching Christ, the resurrected Savior, they must have felt some perplexity. Now, given some may have been in this previous category, many of them knew Christ had risen, but refused to believe on Him and accept Him. Their hearts were hardened unto damnation; hardened to the point of no hope.

Now, when Peter is asked this question–by this hostile bunch of hypocritical gurus–he does not simply give the simple answer “Jesus” he begins to preach with the bold power of the Holy Ghost. The Book says “Peter, being filed with the Holy Ghost.” I believe that this phrase “filled with the Holy Ghost” is significant, I’ll show you why in just a few moments, but let us see that it was the Spirit of the LORD empowering and emboldening Peter in the face of great rejection and possibly even death. These same men just plotted against the LORD Jesus; surely this is going through Peter’s mind. But what does Peter do? He proclaims the gospel of Christ with power, with clarity, with fervor, knowing he may be ending his own life. When he preaches to them the message of Christ, they immediately marvel because even though Peter and John are laymen, they have authority and boldness and the religious leaders recognize that they were Jesus’ Disciples and that they spent time with the LORD. Now here is a sermon within itself. The scribes were not astounded by Peter’s rhetoric or by his logic; they knew he had authority that could only come from having been in Christ’s presence and from sitting at His feet. Oh that preachers would preach, having sat at Jesus’ feet! Would to God that people would hear our message and know that we had been with the LORD!

After hearing Peter’s miniature sermon, the leaders conferred with each other on how to silence these men whom they knew were telling the truth. This goes to show the hardness of their own hearts to the gospel of Christ. They charged Peter and John not to preach the name of Jesus again. Peter and John then give a wonderful response. “Whether it be right to obey men than God, decide ye, but we must preach what we know to be, for we have heard and seen it for ourselves.” They are saying in essence, regardless of what you think, we know this is the message of the Son of God; we are witnesses of it and therefore we must proclaim it as such. Praise God for men who are deeply grounded in the message of truth, who know and are convicted of it and therefore fear not man, and proclaim it regardless of the consequences. Peter and John were faced with deadly opposition and chose instead of folding under pressure, to stand firm and be counted for the name and cause of Christ. Their example should be the same as our lives.

Now, after that rather long introduction, I would like to come to the main thrust of the message: that is, How did these disciples arrive at such boldness and loyalty in the midst of this opposition and even danger? We find the answer in the latter half of Matthew 10. Starting in verse 17 and reading through verse 28, we have an intimate lesson from the mouth of the Savior to the Disciples. Christ’s words in verse 17, I believe are prophesies of his disciples of every generation, but also of the disciples sitting at His feet then and there. I can’t help but imagine Christ seeing Peter and John before the scribes, even as He teaches. In verse 18, the LORD gives a simple, yet profound promise that is the greatest comfort to the preacher and the greatest terror to the enemy of the Gospel: “For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.” It’s not your words, but mine. The Spirit of God will speak through you. When preachers speak from the pulpit, the Spirit of God is using them as mouthpieces for His message. Never fall into that trap of thinking that the preacher is preaching his own message. The message is the LORD’s. This puts quite a different level of importance to the preaching of the Word, because it is not man’s message, but God’s.

Then Christ goes on to point out a very solemn fact: “The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord.” If they hated the LORD, the God of heaven, how much more will they hate those that follow Him and worship Him. We can expect no better treatment than Christ was given, which was rejection, mockery, blasphemy, beating, and murder. We read about persecution as if it were a foreign and unnatural, heinous thing. It is simply to be expected. Now Christ does not end the sermon there. He goes on to say
“Fear not.” “What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops. And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in Hell.” These are loaded verses. Christ tells us that we are not to fear, but to preach, to witness, to proclaim boldly what He has told us. Preach it in the open, even on rooftops. The idea here is that we are not to be fearful and ashamed of the message. We are to shout it out in a world of darkness. Fear not the enemies of God; Christ is teaching us to be more afraid of Satan, the one who will destroy the lost if we preach not the gospel of Christ. Fear not those human enemies of God who can only destroy our bodies. Preach boldly that men and women and children may escape the one who really can destroy them in Hell. This is why preachers must be bold and refuse to be silent. The eternal state of millions hangeth in the balance. The consequence of fearing men is the eternal damnation of souls! When we are rejected, scorned, and even abused, we are not the target of aggression, our LORD is. It is not us the world hates, but Christ whom dwells within us. Let’s get this down. They hate the God that lives within us. We have given them no reason to hate us. “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood.” It is rather a spiritual conflict that we physically feel the repercussions of. When we get this fact that Jesus himself presented His disciples, we will be bolder, more courageous, and more passionate in living the Gospel before the lost world.

So fellow brothers and sisters, take great comfort in the promise of Christ that because the world hates us, we are identified with Him and are lifted up before the throne of the Father. Be not shocked when the world rejects you and despises you; be not amazed when men falsely accuse you and spread lies about you. It happens to those who stand and proclaim the Word of the LORD. From non-believers and believers, we will face opposition. Don’t be afraid of this rejection. It is the norm for the believer. Even as the insults, accusations, and stones fly, you are faithfully representing the King of Kings and the LORD of Lords. May the Lord impart the message of His holy Word to each of our hearts, Amen

KW