Are You Listening to God? Probably not, Few Ever Have

I wonder what would happen if we actually believed the word of God.

Hard to say, not sure we’ve done that.

Oh, we think we are believing His word. We even say we follow Sola Scriptura, that the Bible is our sole authority for life and doctrine.

But I’ve attended church for 50 years, and I’ve read the Bible many times, and well, there’s not a whole lot of listening to God going on.

John 5 has some words we don’t believe. John 5:24 we believe, “whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life.”

But by the time we read John 5:29 we’ve checked out. “those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.” Nope, we’re not going to believe that one.

Why not? Because our tradition has told us works have nothing to do with salvation. All our Sola Scriptura noise has been canceled by our Sola Fide tradition. The Sola Scriptura never teaches Sola Fide (James 2:24).

Yet in my years of experience in the church, the one pointing this out is the heretic.

It’s an astounding thing.

If you listen to the greater context of John 5, Jesus is talking to the religious folk of His day, those who “search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me” (John 5:39).

Most times I’ve heard this verse brought up it’s to warn people not to study the Bible too much, which is totally not His point. His point is that they twist the Scriptures, look for things that prove they have eternal life instead of simply believing what God is saying. They were focused so much on justifying themselves from Scripture, they missed the whole part about the One who would come and justify them!

For instance, their Scriptures of the day were the Old Testament, primarily focused on the books of Moses. Were they studying Moses too much? Were they so studious in reading Moses that they were lost? Hardly.

“For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me” (John 5:46).

They read Moses for justifications, for proof texts, for confirmation bias. They read the Bible like we do: not to understand it and conform to it, but to find verses that back up what we already believe, which is mostly about how we are fine, get off our back.

This is the word of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, in John 5. Every quote above is His words. Words we claim to believe. Words we claim Sola Scriptura to.

Instead of listening to God’s word, we’re busy justifying ourselves and our kids and our grandparents and whoever else. We’re trying to convince ourselves everyone is saved and the only way we can do that is by not listening to the Bible, because if we did that we’d know hardly anyone is saved, which is what the Bible says incidentally.

You know you’re not the judge though, right? Who is the judge? John 5:22 lets you know who the judge is: “the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son.”

John 5 is the word of the Son, the Judge, the Judge of your soul and everyone else’s.

What would it look like if we actually thought these words were true and binding?

You Should Probably be More Concerned About Your Eternity than You Are

I’m always amazed at the flippancy with which Christians talk about salvation.

“Oh yeah, well he’s saved.”

“I know she’s in heaven.”

“I can’t wait to be with Jesus.”

I can’t wait either, but maybe you should examine if that’s actually a real expectation for you.

Whenever I bring up such things I’m always accused of being judgmental. “Who are you, God is the judge.” I know. I understand that.

Here’s the thing though: I’ve read the Judge’s book quite a few times now and He does a lot of explaining about who is saved. One of the points the Judge makes several times is that not many people are.

You wouldn’t know that by how Christians talk. Everyone they know is saved.

I’m fine if a person can’t wait to see Jesus, but I’ve heard this from people who have no desire to listen to Jesus.

If you don’t want to do what He says here, what makes you think you’ll enjoy being with Him there?

Paul says some amazing things in Philippians 3. Several verses in Philippians 3 are said frequently and flippantly by lots of Christians.

Have you ever noticed the phrases in this chapter about Paul seeming a little concerned about his eternity? Have you ever noticed his determination to make sure he is good? No? I’m not surprised.

We all know Paul is saved, he’s an apostle, wrote half the New Testament, of course he’s in, what does he have to worry about?

I don’t know, but he seems a little concerned about it, way more than most of us are concerned about our salvation.

We’re familiar with Philippians 3:10

That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;

Do you remember the next verse?

If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.

Huh, what a verse. If you look this up in commentaries they will very quickly tell you Paul isn’t worried about missing the resurrection. Ok, maybe not. But even if he’s not, he’s still saying something. He’s doing everything he can to be part of the resurrection.

He’s not flippant about it like we are. There’s no, “I know I’ll be resurrected because that whole Damascus Road thing. Just gonna coast in now.”

Yet most Christians I’ve met say they aren’t worried about their salvation because of something they did in the past once. Hm. Weird how Paul is concerned but we aren’t.

Verse 12 says he is following hard after Christ so that he might apprehend what he’s so far been unable to apprehend.

Verse 14 he says he’s pressing toward the mark, stretching out with energy to attain the final goal.

Verse 17 we are told to follow Paul’s example.

Why are we so assured of everything so easily and flippantly? I wonder if we’re missing something. I wonder if on Judgment Day many will be shocked.

If only there were some verses about lots of people being shocked on Judgment Day that they really aren’t saved even though they thought they were.

I’m not here to make people doubt their salvation; I’m here to get people to listen to the Bible that seems way more concerned about our salvation than we are. I imagine that means something.

The Judge awaits you. Will you be ready?

How Much Supernatural Activity Should be in a Christian’s Life?

My answer would be, It depends. What do you mean by “supernatural?”

It also depends on who you ask I guess. I’m reading a book about abuses in the Charismatic church written by someone in the Charismatic church.

He actually uses the Bible and thinks it is authoritative, which is nice. Very rarely, in my experience with Charismatics, is this the case. Most would probably say it, but their insistence that God is revealing things to them undermines their claim.

Even though he uses the Bible, he’s still Charismatic, which means he’s going to use the Bible weirdly at some point. Here’s a prime example:

“The statistics show that one-third of the Book of Acts deals with supernatural activity, and one-tenth of the Book of Acts tells of people who received personal direction for their lives through some supernatural means.

“The Book of Acts was meant to be a pattern book, not just a history book. If this is so, one-third of our Christian life should be comprised of supernatural experiences, and one-tenth of all the personal direction we receive should come from supernatural sources.”

Couple things:

1. Again, I don’t know what “supernatural activity” is. That’s a very squishy term, easily warped into who knows what. I’d like to see his list, which he did not provide. I doubt he includes preaching and teaching as supernatural activity.

2. Exactly who did those statistics and how were they devised? He said nothing about that. Is it by verse, by chapter? I don’t know. Nothing about the method used is revealed.

3. The Book of Acts is about a lot of people, it’s not a book about one person’s life. In no way can these “statistics” from Acts that covers history over many years and many people, be extrapolated into a normative experience for every believer’s individual life.

4. Although he admits that apostles were special people, he never takes the next step that perhaps that had something to do with their supernatural activity (see Acts 2:43, 5:12; 2 Corinthians 12:12), he then makes zero distinction between apostles and you and me or him. To ignore this is pretty careless.

5. The majority of his book is about Charismatics saying and doing completely ridiculous things in the guise of supernatural activity. Telling these people that even more of their life should be supernatural is not going to reduce the amount of ridiculous things Charismatics do.

In the end, I’m not a Charismatic. I am a Cessationist, I believe the sign gifts ceased with the completion of Scripture and the end of the apostolic age.

However, this is an inference, not specifically stated in the Bible. Therefore,I am always concerned about quenching the Spirit due to an inference, so I read Charismatic things every once in a while to see where they are coming from. Their use of Scripture is typically what does me in.

This is another example. This doesn’t mean they are wrong necessarily, but it does mean that they use Scripture terribly and this helps them none at all.

I appreciate the author’s desire to bring the Bible into consideration in the Charismatic church and his desire to correct the wrongs. But when he uses the Bible like this, I can’t imagine how he will end up helping.

He is sincere and I applaud his efforts to a point, but grieve that he appears to be grieving the Spirit in sloppy use of Scripture.

Obey the Gospel

The New Testament speaks three times about obeying the Gospel: Romans 10:16; 2 Thessalonians 1:8 and 1 Peter 4:17.

When people think about receiving the Gospel, most think believing it. Faith is our thing we do to access the Gospel and its benefits. “By faith alone” some have said, in fact.

So what’s up with the Bible talking about obeying the Gospel? I thought we just believed it?

The Greek word translated obey is hupakuou. It’s a compound of two Greek words hupo and akuou. Hupo  means under and akuou means to hear. Put them together and you get to hear under.

Strong’s Definition’s says “to hear under (as a subordinate), that is, to listen attentively; by implication to heed or conform to a command or authority: – hearken, be obedient to, obey.”

Here are a few other times this Greek word is used to give the idea most clearly: Children obey your parents. Servants obey your masters. Obey in these verses is hupakuou. It’s putting yourself under the authority of another person’s words and obeying what you were told.

Brings to mind Jesus’ parable about the father telling his sons to go work in the field. They both heard and one even said he’d go do it! But he never did. The other said he didn’t want to, but later went and did the work. Which one did the will of the father? Which one hupakuoued? The one who did it.

When I told my kids to go do stuff, I didn’t care if their ears registered what I said, that’s not what I was going for. I wanted them to get moving! Go do what I said! That’s hupakuou. Children obey your parents. Amen.

Sure sounds pretty worky. I thought we weren’t saved by works and doing what we were told; I’ve been told my whole life salvation is just faith.

Romans 10:17 says faith comes by hearing. Akuou means to hear. There is no disagreement between obeying the Gospel and believing the Gospel. They are both talking about hearing. And, not just the fact that your ears work, that you’re not deaf, but that you hear, understand, and carry out what you were told.

The problem is not between these verses in the Bible, they fully agree. The problem is when you run this into what Christians say and what the Bible says!

Christians have been saying that faith is basically mental assent. Yeah, ok, I’ll believe the story about Jesus. And then they carry on in their sin. They didn’t understand the Gospel, its implications, and certainly not its commandments (summed up in LOVE).

They just jumped through the hoop. Yeah, I heard it. I nodded my head, get off my back! What else do you want?

Obey it.

This isn’t salvation by works; this is understanding what the Bible means by FAITH.

We’re playing a dangerous game by not getting this right. We’re telling a lot of lost people that they are saved because they nodded their head to the Jesus story. We haven’t told them to obey the implications of the Gospel, to count the cost, to present your body a living sacrifice, etc.

This is what “obey the Gospel” is talking about. It’s not just a story that brings presents later, like believing in Santa Claus. It’s a life-altering power you’re dealing with; it will change you if you truly receive it. People don’t want to change, they don’t want to give up their fun and their sin and selfishness.

So they continue to sin, resting on something they did when they were 6 or whatever when they “believed” the Gospel. This is dangerous ground. If there is no obedience there was no faith. Faith doesn’t stop with your ears; it changes your heart and your whole being. Old things pass away, all things become new. It raises you to new life. You become a partaker of the divine nature. No way all that happening in you won’t produce obedience to that awesome, life-giving Gospel!

If you say you believe the Gospel and yet never obey anything it stands for, you never believed it. You “believed in vain” as 1 Corinthians 15:2 says.

One of the verses that talks about obeying the Gospel puts it right up front for you. Kind of scares ya if you take it seriously. I suggest we all do.

“In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ”

–2 Thessalonians 1:8

Love is a Big Deal for God

For about 500 years the church has been telling people they are justified by faith alone.

The church over the years has tortured these words.

Faith is clearly a huge issue, but there is a huger issue. The huger issue is often ignored or forgotten.

“By faith alone” has warped into “as long as you at one point in your life believed the story about Jesus’ death and resurrection and stuff, you are saved.”

Faith becomes mental assent. A nod of the head in the direction of Jesus. Often this nod of the head is done after great manipulation. “You want to go to heaven don’t you?” “God has a wonderful plan for your life, don’t you want that?”

People nod their head, “Yes, I would like a wonderful life followed by heaven.” Then the manipulator says, “Wonderful, just believe the Jesus story and then you’re saved.”

For 500 years people have done a version of this and assumed they were saved.

But the Bible never says we are justified by faith alone. In fact, there’s a huger thing than faith the Bible talks about repeatedly.

Love.

Even the demons believe. They even tremble. But they don’t love God.

Love is a big deal. Love, according to 1 Corinthians 13, is better than faith.

It is possible to believe someone and not love them. There are many creepy people in the world I do not love, yet I can believe what they say. The demons toward God, is a perfect example.

I do not think it is possible to love someone and not believe them though. 1 Corinthians 13 tells us that love “believes all things.” Faith is a part of love; love is not a part of faith.

Love is tricky too though. Many think love is a mushy gushy feeling. Biblically speaking love is pretty tough. Listen to the words of your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

“If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15).

“He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him” (John 14:21).

“Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me” (John 14:23-24).

I don’t see how it could be any clearer. Jesus repeats Himself to His disciples, almost as if He knows that people will struggle with this teaching.

He concludes John 14 by saying, “But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do” (John 14:31).

Jesus loves His Father. How do we know that? Because Jesus kept the commandment His Father gave Him: namely His suffering and death (John 14:28).

Love pays attention to what the other person is saying and love endeavors to do what that person desires. This is especially true of us toward God, our Savior and Creator.

Faith is easy to pretend; love is not. Love is easily tested; faith is easily faked.

Now abides faith, hope, and love, and the greatest of these is love. If you have all faith that you could move mountains and have not love, it profits you nothing.

Love is huge.

Faith is easy in comparison, which is why the church has decided to major on faith. We’ve decided the level of demons is our ambition rather than sons of God.

It’s a sad thing. It’ll be even more sad on Judgment Day when untold millions will say to Him, “Lord, Lord, look at all the stuff we did for you.” And He will say, “I never knew you. Depart from me you workers of iniquity.”

Don’t fall for Satan’s deception in the church today: that all God desires is a moment of mental assent we call “faith.”

God is love. The proper response to love is love.

Why Your Bible Study Curriculum Is So Lame

I’ve heard many Christians complain about their small group Bible study materials, or their devotionals, or Sunday School and youth group curriculum.

Most people say these materials are shallow, ask stupid questions, and rarely seem concerned about Scriptural faithfulness.

There is a reason for this: money.

Once Christian organizations turn into businesses, their focus on teaching the Word faithfully diminishes and their desire to make money increases.

In order to make money, these materials have to sell to customers with money.

As you might know, Christianity is a tad fragmented and divided. If a Christian publisher wants to have lots of customers so they can make money, they have to pander to the widest audience possible.

Attracting a wide Christian audience means leaving out doctrinal distinctions and controversial takes. In other words–they have to ignore most of the Bible.

Another factor in this is that these publishers have to pander to what is popular in Christianity right now. This might be a shock to you, but deep biblical study is not popular in Christianity.

There is an immediate payoff to selling what’s popular: It works in the short term. Over time, however, all these organizations will go out of business as they continue to sell out. Once they’ve chucked Christian distinctives, there is eventually no point for them being around anymore. I’m sure you can think of once great Christian organizations that are shells of themselves today, or even non-existent.

There are two primary popular influences Christian publishers are selling right now: Calvinism and self-fulfillment.

The Calvinist/Reformed movement gained steam since John Piper and his ilk have gotten popular. It’s still a small part of Christianity, but it’s a cohesive group. It’s still a wide swath of the market.

Self-fulfillment is also popular. What I mean by this is self-help with Jesus. God wants your dreams to come true, for you to be happy, and for you to have health and wealth. It’s the suburban happy shiny people that mega-churches are made up of and another huge swath of the market.

Most modern Christian material is geared for the mega-church stereotypical person. Very little appeals to the rural and poor, because rural and poor don’t have as much money. You have to be a cool, hip suburbanite. All Christian material is geared to them right now.

I firmly believe Christianity should avoid becoming businesses. Keep things small. The local church is the best place to get quality Bible Study. It’s a shame to me when local churches shirk their responsibility to teach the Word and instead farm it out for prepackaged, marketed, curriculum. No one will gain spiritual maturity with a diet of this drivel.

Almost all children’s ministry is farmed out to publishers. Our kids are not learning the Bible. We’ve been doing this for about 50 years now and the results are in. We’ve really messed up.

Para-church organizations have done more to harm the Body of Christ than edify it.

Be careful not to farm out your spiritual growth to people who are in it for money and to maintain their business organization. Instead, do your part to learn the Scripture, edify the Body, and foster a local church environment that encourages people to use their spiritual gifts and grow itself in love.

It took years to ruin the church and it will take years to restore it. Do your part by growing and studying the Word and encourage your church to do the same.

Jesus Did Not Bear Your Cross

I unfortunately heard a praise song the other day. Never a good thing.

I tease, I tease. It’s typically not a good thing, but there are a few exceptions. This one was not an exception.

The problem with praise songs is that they repeat common misconceptions and clichés as though they were biblical truth. I struggle singing them because they routinely don’t say things the Bible says, thus I’m not sure if I’m praising God or just repeating human nonsense.

I also know I’m cynical, so I tell myself to shut up and let people enjoy what they think praise is. See, there’s cynicism again. Anyway, here’s the line:

It was my cross You bore
So I could live in the freedom You died for

Many songs make reference to Jesus bearing my cross or carrying our cross or such things. I find this idea to be unbiblical. Here’s why:

Jesus didn’t bear my cross or your cross according to the Bible. You can confirm this fact by going to biblegateway or some such Bible searching website and search the phrase “my cross” and you will find zero verses mentioning “my cross.”

There are also zero verses mentioning “our cross”or “your cross.”

Here’s the even better part: You will find seven verses mentioning “his cross.”

Colossians 1:20 says Christ made peace by the blood of His cross. It was His cross, not mine or yours, that He carried. And, here’s the even better part, two verses say that they compelled a guy named Simon of Cyrene to carry His cross! Jesus didn’t even carry His cross that much!

Then it gets even better! Four of the verses center on this theme: “Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”

Not only did Jesus not bear your cross, He tells you to take up your cross. You’re supposed to bear your cross!

This is typically where people tell me, “Lighten up. You know what they mean though.” Maybe I do; maybe I don’t. I don’t know who wrote this song. I do know who wrote the Bible though, and the Bible never said that Jesus bore my cross and specifically says I’m supposed to take up my cross.

This cliché or lyric is just a manifestation of the theory that Jesus did everything and we just sit here passively enjoying the benefits with zero responsibility. “He carries the cross and I get freedom! Such a deal!” It’s Calvinistic, Substitutionary Atonement, Easy Believism philosophy in song form.

It’s not biblical and if taken seriously will lead to apathy, laziness, and fruitlessness.

Jesus says taking up your cross is what following Him means. Jesus carried a cross; if you follow Him you will also carry a cross. If you want to follow Him, then take up your cross.

Lots of duty and responsibility. It almost sounds like I’m supposed to do something and maybe Jesus didn’t actually do every single thing while I sit here doing nothing but enjoying perks. You would be correct, and you’d also be flying in the face of modern wimpy Christianity if you speak this out loud.

But I imagine pointing out such things and getting hostile reactions is part of what taking up my cross and following Christ is all about. So, it’s what I’ll do.

Easy Believism, Sanctification, and Rebellious Children

Sanctification is a word that flips some Christians out. Sanctification is the set apartness of the believer, which is seen increasingly over the years of a believer’s life by righteous conduct.

There are several “-tion” words that are part of salvation:

Justification—making and declaring believers righteous.

Regeneration—spiritual rebirth making the believer a new spiritual creation in Christ Jesus.

Reconciliation—brought into right relationship with God.

Redemption—bought out of slavery to sin.

Sanctification—the set apart life that grows in the believer over time.

Glorification—the ultimate step in salvation whereby we are made like Christ when we see Him as He is.

Justification, regeneration, reconciliation, and redemption happen at the exact moment of salvation. Sanctification, being set apart to God, happens at the point of salvation as well, but there is a process of sanctification that begins at salvation and continues through the earthly life of the believer. Glorification is the future hope of our fully redeemed body.

All of these things are part of the package of salvation. You can’t pick and choose; you get them all! This is important to understand.

Easy Believism is the idea that a person can be saved and yet show no fruit or good works as a result. Sanctification is optional. It’s something you should get around to doing, but you don’t have to.

The reason this became a teaching is because of the emphasis on being saved by grace through faith and not by works. If sanctification were a part of salvation, then you should be able to tell if someone is saved. If sanctification is necessary for salvation; doesn’t that mean we are saved by being sanctified?

It’s a legit question. You are not saved because you become sanctified. Sanctification is a thing that happens if you are saved.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God. If you are regenerated, made a partaker of the divine nature, you have the Spirit in you, there’s no way sanctification won’t happen.

In fact, if you look up “sanctification” in your Bible, it’s only used 5 times in the KJV, two of the five verses tie sanctification in with the Holy Spirit. One ties it in with Jesus Christ. If you as a believer are in Christ and the Spirit is in you, sanctification is guaranteed to happen.

This puts people in a bind though. We like to declare people saved. We like to run people through The Prayer and pronounce them good. We especially like doing this with little kids. We tell ourselves all these people are saved now, yet over time we realize their lives are a complete fleshly sinfest.

What to do? Certainly we can’t conclude all our evangelism didn’t work. Certainly we can’t conclude little Billy is on his way to hell. So, instead of admitting any of these common sensical things, we warp the entire doctrine of salvation so we can feel better about little Billy.

Many people who adhere to Easy Believism and make sanctification optional, have kids who walked away from the faith. It’s so common, it appears to be a prerequisite for holding this doctrine.

It also might be that if you raise your kids telling them they are saved because they said a 32-second prayer and now they can do whatever they want and it doesn’t matter, might just be the kind of thing a young sinner will take you up on.

All I know is that there’s a connection between holding Easy Believism and having sin-filled, rebellious, God-rejecting kids.

Easy believism eliminates the power of the Gospel. It tells you that salvation only pays off when you’re dead and are in heaven. It offers no help for life in this present world. It’s ineffective to actually change or transform a life.

That being the case, repentance is usually ignored or dismissed by Easy Believism people when it comes to salvation. The Bible says “repent and believe.” Easy believism says to just believe.

Repentance is turning from your sin, from the way you were going. You reach the bottom of your sinfulness, you hit the rock bottom of terrible sin choices and cry out for a better way. The Gospel says, “Hey! Here’s a better way right over here!”

A person who truly hears the Gospel and knows their sin, will rejoice there is provision to change the road you’re on.

But if the Gospel offers no new life, no true deliverance from the power of sin, no transformation, then why bother repenting? Why bother turning and gong that way if it leaves you in the same spot and turns out to pretty much be the exact same way you were going before?

Sanctification is a thing that is guaranteed to happen with the Gospel. It’s part of what the Gospel is. “But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:30). Sanctification is just as real in Christ as wisdom, righteousness, and redemption.

Sanctification is not you working your way into salvation, or saving yourself. Sanctification is you using what you’ve been given through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. All that Christ has given you and all the power of the Spirit of God dwelling in you.

You can’t be made a new creation in Christ, a partaker of the divine nature, and stay the same person. It’s impossible. Therefore, if no sanctification shows up then you should have no assurance you actually are a partaker of the divine nature. Sorry little Billy, but you need to examine yourself to see whether you’re in the faith!

Jesus Christ and the Serpent in the Wilderness

I was thinking about John 3 where Christ is compared to Moses lifting up the serpent in the wilderness.

Back in the day, Israel rebelled and God sent fiery serpents into the camp to bite people. Moses was told to put a serpent on a pole and anyone who got bit and looked at the bronze serpent on the pole would be healed.

The bronze serpent is a type of Christ. Sinners are told to look to the cross of Christ for spiritual healing.

If Christ is typified by the serpent, and the serpent was a representation of the thing that bit the people, is Christ also the thing that “bit us” so we have to look to the cross?

I know this is probably heretical, but think about it. The serpent on the stick represented the actual serpent judgment from God.

Is there a sense in which Christ on the cross, God in the flesh, also represents the one who cursed Adam and Eve for their sin? When God walked through the Garden looking for them and then cursed them, was this a pre-incarnate Christ? Isn’t He the one then who judged them with a curse and now that He, the one who cursed them, is on the tree, those who look to Him can be cured from the curse?

Biting serpents were a judgment on sin; look to the bronze serpent on the pole for healing.

God cursing humanity was a judgment on sin; look to God in the flesh on the cross for healing.

How far do we take the analogy? I don’t know.

That’s all my brain came up with!

Should Christians Worry About Being No Earthly Good?

Lately I’ve been going on Twitter and getting immediately depressed or annoyed by what I see there. I actually have several accounts, one is mostly Christian stuff while the other is sports and news and hobbies.

I typically only go on the one that follows Christian accounts. Rarely do I check the other one. Can’t take it. Even sports is all about politics and scandals and weird sex stuff.

Unfortunately, most of the Christian feed is filled with this junk too. Either with actual scandals in Christianity, or at least Christians pontificating and giving their “hot take” about the latest worldly news: transgender Bud Light cans to political scandals.

It’s really annoying and gets me down.

I know, the easy answer and the advice I’ll get is: Well, doesn’t happen to me because I don’t go on those sites.

And that’s fine. The problem is I’ve really gained a lot from these sites. I’ve met cool people and been edified repeatedly. I just hate big news days when all the good stuff is covered by the worldly stuff.

It got me to thinking about Colossians 3:2, “Set your affections (sometimes translated “minds”) on things above, and not on things of the earth.”

Great verse. One I quote frequently. I don’t think we’re supposed to know this much about what’s going on in the world. I don’t think it’s healthy.

I looked up “affections” in Strong’s Dictionary. The definitions were fascinating! Here are a few that caught my attention:

to exercise the mind, that is, entertain or have a sentiment or opinion—we’ll see this idea a few definitions down, but note this one is about entertaining opinions, considering them, listening to other people’s opinions! I imagine this includes the Opinion section and the “talking heads” with their jokes and insights.

intensively to interest oneself in (with concern or obedience)—how intensely do you go after worldly information? Being overly concerned with such things makes you concerned and eventually obedient to those issues. Soon the Gospel is lost as a priority because you have so many social fights to arm up for.

Here are a few definitions from Thayer’s Greek Definitions:

to think or judge what one’s opinion is—knowing enough about a subject to develop an opinion about it is too far according to this verse! How many opinions do we have on things we shouldn’t even know about?

to be of one’s party, side with him (in public affairs)—and here’s ultimately where it will lead—you will shack up with your party. You’ll pick sides and Us vs. Them talk and actions will follow.

This verse is making it very clear that Believers should avoid fixations on worldly subjects. We should be ignorant about such things. Remember Paul elsewhere: be simple concerning evil; wise concerning what is good? “Simple” means unmixed, not tainted, no evil is mixed in with your brain activity. Wow.

Now the objection to all this is that we won’t be relevant. We have to know what’s going on around us, how will we ever have discussions with people? Which will inevitably lead someone to quote the old trope, “Christians are so heavenly minded they are no earthly good.”

First, I doubt anyone would ever achieve such heavenly mindedness to not do anything good on the earth. Fearing this prospect seems a waste of time. Second, who says we have to be considered earthly good? Where’s the verse that says our priority is getting the world’s approval?

Heads explode here.

But seriously, do we build bigger barns? Do we go after the things the unbelievers go after, fighting and quarrelling for it, or do we seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness? Why are their wars and fightings, James? Because you’re going after earthly things. No man can serve two masters.

The church has gotten too sucked into earthly things. I think the abortion issue has largely caused this. I’m against abortion and think it is evil, and murder, and a consistent demonstration of the Devil’s devices. I have no qualms about calling it evil and disgusting.

But the abortion issue has been hijacked by politics. So now Christians have to be politically involved. We have to “win the culture war.”  The “culture war” is nothing more than earthly things.

So, what am I saying? Am I saying we just turn our backs on the unborn and on cultural rot?

Nope, I’m saying we confront it appropriately: we become more heavenly minded and live by the Gospel and Jesus Christ and continually present it as the ONE AND ONLY ANSWER TO ALL EARTH’S PROBLEMS.

Politics cannot win this issue or any other issue. The Gospel, the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness are what do any heavenly good and I’m guessing the earth would benefit by default, but the earthly good is not the goal, it’s a mere byproduct.

But instead we’re getting sucked into cultural issues and believing the lie that trust in princes will work better than trust in God.

Study to be quiet, work with your own hands, mind your own business, that you may walk honestly toward them that are without and will have lack of nothing (1 Thessalonians 4:11-12).

So many verses on this subject, you’d think we’d hear about this more. But we don’t because we have to win the next election and get everyone fired up to win the culture war.

Is Worship a Purpose of the Church Gathering?

OK, so, here’s a theory.

I hear Christians say that one of the purposes of church, the gathering of believers, is for worship. What if I said, “Chapter and verse?” Prove from Scripture that one of the purposes of church is worship.

I’m not saying it can’t be done, I am saying that it aint easy! Not nearly as easy as we think it is! Who wouldn’t say a purpose for church is worship? Like, we all know that. Duh.

Right, and those things that “we all know” are my favorite things to analyze.

When you look up the word “worship” in a concordance, one of the first things you’ll notice is that it’s primarily used in the Old Testament.

Another thing you’ll notice is that Paul rarely uses the term.

“Worship” is used 188 times in the KJV; 115 in the OT and 73 in the NT; 9 in the Pauline Epistles including Hebrews.

Let’s just look at Paul’s usages for brevity:

Romans 1:25—heathen scum people worship and serve creation rather than the Creator.

1 Corinthians 14:25—when an unbeliever comes before the spiritual gift of prophecy, he might see his heart and fall down and worship God—this takes place in a church gathering.

Philippians 3:3—we worship in the Spirit not in fleshly demonstrations.

Colossians 2:18—false teachers will lead you to worship angels

Colossians 2:23—will-worship is spoken of in terms of outward, external rule keeping that looks religious.

2 Thessalonians 2:4—antichrist will exalt himself above God and will seek the worship intended for God for himself.

Hebrews 1:6—angels will worship God

Hebrews 10:2—speaks of the worshippers of the Old Covenant in relation to their repeated sacrifices

Hebrews 11:21—Jacob worshipped leaning on his staff blessing Joseph’s kids

These are the Pauline usages of worship. There is only one that talks about worshipping in a church service and that is one heathen scum guy responding to seeing his heart through the use of prophecy.

There is also a word translated in the KJV as “service” that can be translated “worship.” Most famous is in Romans 12:2—your reasonable service, which is not done in church but as a way of life.

Romans 9:4 also uses “service” in relation to Israel being given the service of God, or the worship of God. All the rules and regulations as spelled out in the OT about how the Israelites should worship God. No other nation was given these detailed instructions.

The same word is used in Hebrews 9:1 and 9:6, both in relation to the OT rules about sacrifices and how to worship God.

Which brings this back to the famous conversation between Jesus and the woman at the well.

Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.

–John 4:20-23

I believe this is one of the most important passages if you want to understand worship in the New Covenant! Jesus is clearly saying that worship is not in a place. Worship is not done in a church building. You don’t have to go to a tabernacle or temple. You worship where the Spirit is.

Where is the Spirit? The Spirit indwells the believer, thus no matter where the believer is the Spirit is also there. This then CLEARLY means that I worship everywhere.

This also means that by default, if I as a believer with the Holy Spirit am in church I can indeed worship in church. But no one should ever think that I can only worship in church!

This is the main reason why you will never find any passage in the New Testament telling you that worship is a main point of the church gathering! Because if it said that, then you’d be tempted to think you have to be in that place to worship!

This was true in the Old Covenant because God dwelt in the temple, so you went to the temple to worship. But if God is in you, then you don’t have to go anywhere to worship!

So, yeah, I would not say that one of the purposes of the church gathering is for worship, mostly because the Bible never says that.

Prove me wrong! I’m interested if there are any verses that say worship is for the church gathering or that the church gathering is for worship. Let me know what I’m missing!

Were the Founding Fathers Christians?

One of the subjects I’ve gotten pushback on over the years is that I don’t think America was founded by Christians or as a Christian nation.

Many people think America is pretty much Israel Part II and the Constitution and Bill of Rights are another book of the Bible. Many insist that America was founded for religious freedom.

I’ve read quite a bit of history. I’ve also read the Bible.

The actual formation of America was done contrary to biblical commands. People are supposed to submit to their government and pay their taxes. The Revolution was fought so as to not pay taxes and to overthrow the supposedly oppressive regime. This was not biblical to any degree.

I’m usually in the minority among Christians with this viewpoint and people tend to get hostile about the issue enough to generally make me just shut up.

However, I was recently reading a book by Norman Geisler critiquing humanism in all its forms. I’ve learned several things.

The first thing I learned, which has nothing to do with my main point, is that C. S. Lewis is a Christian Humanist and thought the Old Testament was mythology and not to be taken seriously. He thought many of the Psalms were demonic in origin and thought David only wrote one of them. I had no idea.

The second thing I’ve learned is that I’m not alone in my understanding of American history and Christianity. Geisler also does not buy the idea that America is or was a Christian nation. Here’s a quote:

“Contrary to a myth popular among many American Christians, most of the nation’s founding fathers were not evangelical Christians. . . Actually our nation’s founders were largely humanistic (or deistic). Some prominent men in early American history were even anti-Christian. Thomas Paine for example launched a bitter attack on Christianity in his book The Age of Reason. There were few evangelical Christians among the signers of the Declaration of Independence, John Witherspoon being a notable exception. And when George Washington was asked if the United States was a Christian country, he replied that “the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.” It is these early humanists who saw to it that our nation is committed to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Those three things are not Christian virtues, but they are solidly embraced as humanistic virtues.

Humanists think that religion gets in the way of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. If you don’t think so, feel free to read Geisler’s book Is Man the Measure? It is a fantastic explanation of the dangers of humanism and how we are all part of its satanic lies at this point.

I am grateful to live in America as it has afforded me many opportunities and freedoms I hope to use for God’s glory. At the same time there are many pitfalls, temptations, and dangers wired into its structure. Be aware of them or else you might be one of those who is choked out with the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches.

New Testament Christianity is not compatible with humanism, or with American politics. It just isn’t. We are citizens of heaven with a better country and a better King. We live for heaven. Use what you’ve been given here, but be on guard. Don’t compromise. Don’t conform to the world around you. You can’t serve two masters.

Simplistic, Moralistic Bible Studies and Me

Bible study books with discussion questions are quite popular, but I can’t stand them. The main reason why is because they are one-sided.

Most chapters are short with more time spent answering discussion questions. There is a point the author of the short chapter wants to make. But in order to make it short, only their side is brought up. Chapters have only enough space for the predetermined point the author thinks you need with a handful of proof texts.

Most of the applications (and application is the main part of each short chapter) are moral and simplistic. Typically they are also positive and happy, encouraging you to carry on in your middle class affluent lifestyle with Jesus.

“Love your enemy” might be a chapter. You will have several verses from the New Testament that indeed tell you to love your enemy. Probably something about the Good Samaritan or some other parable will be included.

What won’t be included is the entire Old Testament where Israel kills their enemies. The imprecatory psalms where David wishes his enemies were blotted out of the book of life. There will be zero mention of God, who does love His enemies, but is also the one who casts His unrepentant enemies into hell.

The reason these won’t be brought up is because it would take up too much space to differentiate between the two covenants. It would be too confusing and possibly detrimental to the faith of young believers. Safer and shorter to skip all that and give a one-sided approach.

Then we can answer questions like: When did you love one of your enemies? How did loving your enemy make you feel? How does the Gospel teach us to love our enemies?

None of these questions are bad, they just like, never really help anything. The chapter and questions leave so much unsaid.

In order to really understand how to love your enemy and how unbelievably difficult it is, you have to discuss the Old Testament’s issues and hell. All the stuff left out is what is needed to truly understand the topic.

But, oh well! Next week we’re on to another short chapter about “loving your wife,” which will make jokes about ha, ha women sure are different from men aint they? Silly men can’t even put socks in the laundry basket. How can you love your wife? How does the Gospel show you how to love your wife?

Not once will verses like “unless you hate your wife . . . you cannot be my disciple,” or Paul in Corinthians saying to not live to please your wife but to please the Lord (1 Corinthians 7:29). Nope, you won’t hear any of that. Just a happy little lesson about putting your socks in the hamper because Jesus.

The Bible is a large book. There are few simple answers and plenty of nuance. Discussing the Bible would be way more fun if these books actually used the whole counsel of God and threw in the verses that disagree with their happy, simplistic little points. I’d buy those. But until that happens, I will never voluntarily use these inane “Bible” “studies.”

Does the Bible Teach Infant Baptism?

It seems we’ve hit the time to talk about infant baptism. The reason why it’s the time is because Acts 16 has two verses in it that are used to prove that infant baptism is a biblical thing.

The two verses are:

When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. (Acts 16:15)
At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptized. (Acts 16:33)

These are used as infant baptism proof texts because it says Lydia’s and the jailer’s household was baptized. Surely there were infants in the household.

Yup, that’s the proof text in the Bible for infant baptism. Always be careful when a proof text for a subject never mentions the subject!

To extrapolate from that the idea that infants are baptized to release them from sin, or all the various Lutheran, Catholic, Reformed, and whoever else ideas of infant baptism, is quite the stretch.

Make Baptism Simple Again

Acts 8 is all about Philip. What’s cool about Philip is that he’s merely a deacon in the church. I don’t mean “merely” as an insult, I just mean it in contrast to being an apostle or some other prominent position.

Whether you have a low position or no position in a church, you can still preach the Gospel. Philip is cool. I look forward to meeting him.

After Philip stirs up things in Samaria, he gets in a conversation with an Ethiopian in a chariot. The Ethiopian Charioteer has questions about Isaiah 53, “Is this about the prophet or someone else?”

What a great lead in to evangelism! If only they were all that easy!

Philip informs him about Jesus Christ. Mr. Ethiopian responds,

“Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?” And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him.

Philip and the Ethiopian are apparently the only ones there on a road in a desert.

Why do I bring this up?

Frequently people say that baptism is an outward testimony, it’s “a public profession of faith,” as if that’s all it’s about.

My problem with this is that the Bible never says this once. And, like Acts 8, there is apparently only the baptizer and the baptizee. There is no public display.

I think the church likes to make baptism a display so they can advertise to people how many souls they’ve allegedly converted. And yes, I’m overly cynical. Sue me.

Now, I’m not saying that public baptism is wrong. I am saying be careful not to put the sole emphasis of baptism on something the Bible never once mentions as a part of baptism.

Baptism is between you and the Lord. It also involves the one baptizing you. It’s perfectly fine if they are the only ones aware of it.

I would also go so far as to say that anyone can baptize someone else. We’ve got this notion that only Church Official People can baptize. This thought exists because we’re institutional people and the church likes power. It’s not necessary though.

I think parents can baptize their kids. I think a kid can baptize their parent! I think a friend can baptize you. I do think there should be a relationship there that the person doing the baptism was prominent in helping the one to salvation. I don’t think it should just be some yahoo off the street. “Hey, can you dunk me in water?”

So, anyway, those are some thoughts about Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch. Amazing how many of our practices and understandings have nothing to do with the Bible and quite a bit to do with tradition and institutional power. Be aware of that tendency and fight it!

Baptism and Simon the Sorcerer

Acts 8 about Simon the Sorcerer is another fascinating passage about baptism.

Many people in Samaria followed Simon because they thought he had the power of God. But when Philip comes to town and preaches the Gospel, they have a change of heart.

“But when they believed Philip as he proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.”

Again, for the record, they believed and then were baptized. That’s how it goes!

Simon himself believed and was baptized. He followed Philip, astonished by the great signs and miracles he saw, it was all very cool and exciting.

Peter and John are sent to Samaria to check out the new believers and to make sure everything was as they had heard.

Because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.

Their baptism is spoken of as being partial, only in the name of Jesus. Remember they were to baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. They had a partial message apparently and so got partial benefits.

God Is In Control?

Whenever there is a crisis or uncertainty, Christians plop out the “God is in control” cliche.

I don’t think I’ve ever said this in such times, mostly because I have no idea what people think that means. As far as I can tell, Christians mean at least one of the following things:

1. God ordains everything.
This is the Calvinistic notion of meticulous determination. That every molecule of creation is doing exactly what God tells it to do. Therefore, in the current crisis, God created the coronavirus and is killing who He wants to kill with it, is making ill the people He wants ill, and is curing the people He wants to cure. There’s nothing to do to stop it. It’s God’s ordained plan. Suck it up.

2. God will protect me.
Many Christians have the idea that since they have Jesus (allegedly), they will be free of all diseases. Jesus protects them from any and all viruses. They are safe from all harm. The power of God works better than any vaccine or medication ever invented!

3. Fatalism.
God is in control; I am not, so, like, whatever. I’ll just do my thing and whatever happens, happens. I will do the bare minimum of precautions, mostly to avoid judgment by others, and just let God sort it out. If I perish, I perish; if I live, I live. Que sera sera.

4. God’s promises stay true.
All things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose. The good here is conformity to Christ. No matter what happens in good, bad or indifferent circumstances, God can use it to grow me in Christ. They meant it for evil, but God meant it unto good. Ultimately I will be made like Him when I see Him as He is and nothing will stop that.

If I say such a thing, I mean number 4.

I don’t mean number 1, because then God is just mean and nasty. There’s also no point for there being the Devil, the god of this age, the prince of the power of the air. Then we don’t really wrestle against principalities and powers. And, although God defines Himself as love, boy howdy, if this idea is true, what love is this? When God controls every aspect of life, that will be in the righteousness of the New Heaven and the New Earth, where God’s will is always done. There will be no tears, no death, no Fall. That aint here now.

I don’t mean number 2, because everyone dies. Even we who have the Spirit groan and travail in pain. These same people often wear glasses or have contacts. This view cannot be held with any semblance of logic or consistency and causes one to have to justify away reality.

I don’t mean number 3, because there are plenty of verses that say we have responsibilities down here. Fatalism is not a biblical basis for doing life. We reap what we sow. There are consequences for our actions. God gave us a brain for a reason.

I do mean number 4, because that’s the way God speaks of such things. Romans 8 has a large section about the fact that terrible things will happen down here. But none of these things can separate us from the love of God. All things can help conform us to the image of Jesus Christ and nothing will stop that progression to ultimate conquering. Even if we die, absent from the body is present with the Lord. I will be raised up incorruptible. I will be made like Him when I see Him as He is.

God is in control, but it’s important to understand what that means. A wrong understanding will distort your understanding of who God is and will greatly confuse you about reality on this planet.

Getting it right will fill you with hope and alleviate worry. Getting it right will help you let go of this life and lay hold on eternal life. Help you look for the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. When He fully takes over, what a day of rejoicing that will be!

Aint nothing gonna stop the Wedding Feast that’s coming!

Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

Coronavirus and The End

Let me begin by saying very clearly I do not think the coronavirus is The End, nor is it fulfilling any prophecies or anything like that. It’s not. Because, like, hardly anything is actually happening.

Let me also say I am not an infectious disease expert so my opinion that this is entirely overblown should carry little weight with you.

All that being said, here are a couple thoughts to consider.

–I believe that the next event in biblical prophecy is the rapture, when the Church will be taken to meet the Lord in the air (1 Thessalonians 4:17). After that is a seven-year Tribulation period where the Antichrist will fool people and take over. He will begin by promising health and wealth to everyone and causing a semblance of peace (2 Thessalonians 2:8-11). You will note in this current crisis the following things:

A. Everyone wants health and wealth.
B. Everyone is looking to the government to give them both, or at least blaming the government for the absence of them.

This is setting the stage for an Antichrist figure to waltz right in and take over. He will promise, and apparently for a time, deliver on such expectations. If you are blaming a politician or looking to a politician to save you from disease, you are falling for the trap. The spirit of Antichrist is already at work right now setting this all up (2 Thessalonians 2:7).

–A stunning amount of Christians are falling for this. I am amazed at how many Christians are completely fixated on politicians. Jesus warns about false christs (the Antichrist is obviously the big, finale false christ–“christ” means anointed one and sums up the prophet, priest, and king roles) and the trend for people to fall for human leadership and not God’s leadership as the age goes on. He says the deception will be so great, that if it were possible even the elect would be deceived (Matthew 24:24). It’s happening right in front of you and possibly to you.

–I’m also aware that, thanks to the terrible writing in The Left Behind series, hardly any Christians uphold this view of The End anymore. It’s pretty much a joke and if you believe in a rapture and an antichrist and a tribulation you are an ignorant dork. In other words, the deception is almost complete! Even the Church doesn’t expect any of this anymore. Incidentally, whether you expect it or not changes nothing that God has planned.

–The more of these “crisis” things we go through, the more people will give up their freedoms to the government. We’re even doing it now when there is no discernible crisis. The more we do this, the more the government will take over the economy. Revelation 13:16-17 talks about the Antichrist’s reign on this earth and how he will control buying and selling, limiting it to people with his mark. Again, this 666 thing has been turned into a joke, yet you see the reality of this already at work. Would you follow the Antichrist to buy food, medicine, and more toilet paper?! Careful how you answer, because most will.

–All of these things are steps in that direction, each crisis bumps us closer. I’m not saying the coronavirus is the antichrist or fulfilling prophecy. I’m just saying to watch. All of this stuff is happening before any coronavirus arrived, it’s just pushing the trend along nicely. Notice how smoothly it’s happening, how people are asking for it to happen, practically demanding it. It’s happening in a way that makes complete common sense and I’m the stupid one for questioning it. The Antichrist will step right in to a situation already set up for him. He hardly has to do anything. We’re doing fine work down here for him.

–You don’t have to believe me. I really don’t care if you agree. I’m just sitting back and watching it happen and it’s stunning how it seems to be fulfilling everything the Bible said would happen (if you actually read the words on the page for what they say). I’m not trying to freak anyone out about the coronavirus. I am not freaked out about it. I’m just watching the slow slide of our response that will set up everything. The coronavirus will pass, but human stupidity will remain and continue us down the slope.

I am happy about Jesus returning, but not about the suffering, stupidity, and deception that will ruin souls along the way. Don’t be one of them.

Even so, come quickly.

Annoying Christian Books

I finished reading the short book on Romans 5-8. It was only 90 pages, mostly fluff, and lots of white space.

I was annoyed with it on page four, and became annoyed about every 12 pages throughout.

Many books say things that strike me as “off.” Not wrong, necessarily, just “off.” As in, not exactly what the verses say that you just quoted. For instance:

–the book said we “will all die not because we all sin like Adam, but because we all sinned in Adam.” Then they quote Romans 5:12, “death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” Now the issue of Original Sin is large, not going to rehash it all here, but just note that Romans 5:12 doesn’t say that we all sinned in Adam, it says we die because we all sin. The author of this little book adds words. It annoys me when books add words to verses.

–the book said in relation to Romans 8:16, “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God,” that we know we have the Spirit if we pray to the Father. Seriously? Plenty of people say the Lord’s Prayer (Our Father, who art in heaven) who are not saved. The fact that you pray does not mean you have the Holy Spirit. Prayer might be one thing, but it’s certainly not the whole thing. The emphasis of the chapter is on mortifying sin, doing righteousness, suffering with Christ, and things like that. That’s how you know you have the Spirit, not cuz you pray to the Father. Praying to the Father is much easier than doing those other things, how convenient and coincidental!

–the book talks about “whom He foreknew, them He also predestinated” and says “The difference between foreknowledge and predestination is, perhaps, that God’s electing choice was formed in His mind before He willed it.” I’d emphasize the “perhaps” a little more. That’s not what it means. He foreknew something that He based His predestination on. Saying it’s simply just that God knew what He was going to do before He did it is largely unnecessary to say. When has God ever done anything He didn’t think about doing first? They can’t define foreknowledge as anything to do with us because then our salvation is supposedly dependent on us and he already told us yesterday there’s nothing we can do to get God’s approval. So, let’s change the plain meaning of Scripture into something non-sensical to keep our theories alive.

That’s the kind of stuff. So many things are just slightly off. Even worse, it’s the same slightly off as everyone else says. Anytime people are all saying slightly off things that the Bible isn’t saying, you know people are just listening to people and not the Bible.

Why is it so hard for people to just say what the Bible says? Why do we feel a need to explain things in such a way that makes the Bible not say what it’s saying?

I could go on, but I’m not going to because it’s a beautiful day. Actually, it’s quite cold, but it’s still a day with many more possibilities in it besides me expressing frustration on the internet over dead authors.

Carry on.

Faith and Works, Gospel and Law

I’m about half done with my copy of Luther’s Bondage of the Will. I agree with him that the case Erasmus makes, at least the parts he quotes, isn’t that great. But I also don’t think Luther is doing that great either.

The main issue is over free-will and whether we have it or not. But there are minor issues that come up that are off too.

In the midst of attacking Erasmus’ definition of free-will, Luther says:

As for those things that ‘lead to eternal salvation,’ I suppose they are the words and works of God, which are offered to the human will so that it may apply itself to them or turn away from them. I take the ‘words of God’ to include both the law and the Gospel; the law requires works, the gospel faith.

This one phrase stood out to me: “the law requires works, the gospel faith.”

I think this is a root misunderstanding that leads to lots of trouble.

It is true that some of Israel, like the scribes and Pharisees, felt they had to do works alone for salvation. They felt no need to love God, they just did some stuff God said and called it good. Jesus corrects this, as does everyone else in the New Testament. In fact, most of the prophets are trying to correct that.

But since the Pharisees did that, everyone assumes that’s how people were saved under the law. Paul says in Romans 10:5, “For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them.”

See, there ya go; people under the law were saved by works!

Read the law. Go ahead, I’ll wait.

Show me where, like in the entire book of Deuteronomy, it says anyone was saved by the law. It never says that. The law was a covenant between God and the nation of Israel to stay in their land. If they kept the law they would live and prosper there, if they did not keep the law they would be kicked out.

Never once does Moses say by keeping the law, doing all the works, you will go to heaven and be with the Lord.

When the Gospel comes along, people assume a BIG CHANGE occurred. Instead of doing works, we just have faith. Faith alone. Easy.

What this misses is that anyone who has ever been saved has been saved by grace through faith. There is no other way of salvation. Whether Abraham before the law, David under the law, or us today under the Gospel, everyone is saved by faith (Romans 4).

People under the law who were saved by faith did indeed desire to do the works of the law.

But get this, today people under the Gospel who are saved by faith desire to fulfill the works of the law too! It’s a little thing called “love.”

The idea that people under the law were the only ones who had to do what God said is crazy. What we do is different because the covenants are different. But faith always desires to do what God says.

“Faith without works is dead,” this is true under the law as well as under the Gospel. There is no difference in faith and it’s desire to do what God says. God says to do different things under each covenant, but faith wants to do what God says.

Luther wanted James ripped out of the Bible. Luther, when translating Romans 5, said we were justified by faith alone. Never mind that he added the word “alone” in there.

Anyone remember what the Bible says about people who add or subtract words from the Bible? Anyone? It says nothing good about them. Don’t do that.

Andrew Murray on Unanswered Prayers

Prayer is a misunderstood and totally beaten to death subject.

The Bible is pretty clear about prayer, how it works, and what it does.

The problem Christians have is that our experience does not measure up to what it says. And when push comes to shove, we cling to our experience more than the Bible.

One verse that puts things clearly is John 15:7:

If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.

Every Christian is going to claim that they abide in Christ; yet every Christian must admit they don’t get what they pray for. Jesus seems to say that getting what you pray for is the proof you’re abiding in Christ. We don’t get what we pray for, therefore, Jesus must be wrong.

It is at this point where creativity joins Christianity. How can we justify our ineffective prayers and still feel good about ourselves? Surely there must be another verse we can throw in to loophole our way out of this jam.

Here’s what Andrew Murray has to say about John 15:7

In all God’s relations with us, the promise and its conditions are inseparable. If we fulfill the conditions; He fulfills the promise.

Now, already I can hear certain Christian heads exploding. “That’s Law! That’s a yoke of bondage! Grace just gives promises; we don’t have to do anything. Christ did it all for us!”

I’m inclined to agree with Murray on this one because that is indeed how the Bible presents things, even in the New Testament. All God’s promises will be realized only if we do things the way He says. God is not mocked; you reap what you sow.

Fully abiding in Him, we have the right to ask whatever we want and the promise that we will get an answer. There is a terrible discrepancy between this promise and the experience of most believers. How many prayers bring no answer? The cause must be either that we do not fulfill the conditions, or God does not fulfill the promise. Believers are not willing to admit either and therefore have devised a way of escape from the dilemma.

They put a qualifying clause into the promise that our Savior did not put there–if it be God’s will. This maintains both God’s integrity and their own. If they could only accept it and hold fast to it as it stands, trusting Christ to make it true! And if only they would confess their failure in fulfilling the condition as the one explanation for unanswered prayer. God’s Spirit would then lead them to see how appropriate such a promise is to those who really believe that Christ means it.

The problem with going with Murray’s idea is that the burden is on us. No one likes burdens on them. We like fuzzy notions of grace and happy thoughts.

But we also know we’d really like our prayers to be answered and for our prayer life to be richer. But as long as we hang on to fuzzy happy thoughts don’t count on your prayer life going anywhere.

The issue is not about getting stuff; the issue is about abiding in Christ. As we abide in Christ we will pray better, more informed, God-honoring prayers.

God does not answer our prayers to feed our flesh. He answers prayers so that we grow in Christ. Answered prayer is not a slot machine payout; it’s a proof that we are abiding in Christ.

The Father intends the answer to be a token of His favor and of the reality of our fellowship with Him.

Your experience with prayer falls short of how the Bible speaks of prayer. Instead of chalking it up to fate and some murky idea of “God’s will,” maybe consider the substance of your prayer, the state of your heart in asking, and your growth in Christ overall.

If these things are going well, I’d fully expect more answered prayer and I fully expect people to be ticked about me claiming that.

The Law Cannot Justify

Repeatedly the New Testament tells us that we are not justified by the law.

“Justified” means to declare someone righteous. The law does not declare people righteous.

The law was not designed to make people righteous, nor to declare anyone righteous. The law was written to declare everyone a sinner!

Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
–Romans 3:20

The law tells you what sin is and makes you guilty

Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
–Romans 3:19

The law declares people to be sinners. Paul says in Romans 7 that the law actually stirs up the flesh to sin more. The law makes sin abound.

You can’t be justified by the law because the law could never declare anyone to be righteous. The law points out how unrighteous you are.

The law has NO POWER to make you righteous. If the law can’t make you righteous; then the law can’t declare you righteous.

The only way you can be truly declared righteous in God’s eyes is if something existed that could make you righteous!

That aint the law!

But it is the Gospel!

For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
–Romans 5:19

The Gospel declares you righteous because the Gospel makes you righteous, not just in God’s head or your head, but in actual conduct.

The law cannot do that because the law is weak through the flesh. It has no power to make you do anything right, therefore, it can never declare anyone righteous because before it; no one is righteous.

The law won’t justify you; the Gospel will. Come to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and be made righteous.

But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.
–Romans 6:17-18

Justification is Real

Justification is a word thrown around quite a bit by Christians. Any time Christians throw a word around a lot, expect it to have become battered and bruised.

Justification has become a legal term. It means “to declare someone righteous.” But this is more than a legal term, more than God moving you from the unrighteous column to the righteous column.

Something more is going on.

Unfortunately, for many, justification is synonymous with salvation. The Reformers are talked about “justification by faith.” To the extent that justification now means salvation.

Justification is a part of salvation; it’s not the whole thing.

Justification is a declaration that God makes based on who He has made you.

For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
–Romans 5:19

Romans 5:19 is not talking about declaring you righteous! It says you have been made righteous through Christ’s work on the cross.

 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
–2 Corinthians 5:21

Again, this is not just a declaration; it’s a real thing God has made us. We have been made righteous.

So, get this: The reason why God declares us righteous is because He made us righteous!

The common understanding of justification is that God declares us righteous even though we keep living in sin. God just ignores that. God just pretends we’re righteous even though He, we, and everyone else knows we’re not.

Justification understood this way makes God a delusional liar. Yet this is how most people understand justification.

Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
–1 Corinthians 6:9-11

You were unrighteous and doing unrighteous things, but now you’ve been made righteous. How so?

Because God has washed you [cleansed you from past sin], sanctified you [separated you from the world and called you to holy living different from the world], and justified you [declared you righteous because that’s what He’s made you].

Justification is not a mind game in God’s head. Justification is a declaration based upon what God has made you through the Gospel.

You used to live in sin, but now you’ve been washed, sanctified, and justified and no longer do those things.

Vincent’s Word Studies says about these verses:

Emphasizing the actual moral renewal, which is the true idea of justification. This is shown by the words “by the Spirit,” etc., for the Spirit is not concerned in mere forensic justification.

Justification is not the whole of salvation, nor is it a make-believe scenario. Justification is a declaration of who we are based on who God has made us through the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

God is not a liar. If He calls someone righteous it has to be because they are actually righteous, not just in His head, but in reality.

Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.
–1 John 3:7

What Does “A Means of Grace” Mean?

We are often told that there is nothing we can do to get God’s grace. If there were something to do to get grace, it would no longer be grace. It would be a wage given for services rendered.

Many of the same people who emphasize this point (often under “sola gratia“), at the same time, hold to a belief in there being “means of grace.”

A “means to an end” refers to stuff you do to bring about a result. A “means of grace” is using the word “means” in the same way. “Means of Grace” means: stuff you do to get God’s grace, (which view, ironically enough, is typically held by people who don’t think there’s anything you can do to get grace).

For the majority of the Protestant church, the means of grace are prayer, the preaching of the word, and the sacraments (typically limited to Communion and baptism).

By doing such things, people will receive God’s grace to build up their faith.

If you pray; God will grace you with faith-building stuff. If you receive the preaching of the Word; God gives grace. If you eat and drink the church’s stuff and get wet in church; grace will be given to you.

If you don’t do these things, presumably, you will not be given God’s grace.

I actually agree that there are things you do to get grace. I believe this because the Bible says this. However, the biblical means of grace are different from the standard view.

God gives grace to the humble: you must be humble to get God’s grace. Humility is a means of grace.

We are saved by grace through faith. Faith is a means of grace.

Note how believing and being humble go together, and also note how neither thing requires you to be at church!

The real issue behind the means of grace is that a church hierarchy is telling people they need to come to church in order to get God’s grace. You need our leaders and our rituals to get grace.

It’s a classic way of guilting people into church attendance. That’s what’s behind the means of grace.

Faith and humility are all you need to receive grace. They are the only biblically sanctioned means of grace there are.  You don’t need to be in church to do either of them.

You can do them right now, in fact. Give them a try. They work wonders. Grace is cool. It would be cool to get more! Go ahead and get more; aint nothin stoppin ya.

Paul Calling People Names

Yesterday I posted about Jesus’ tendency to tell things as they are, even if it meant calling people out on their sin.

If we are to follow Christ, it seems as if we should do the same thing.

This does not mean besmirching people’s character, or making up stuff, or being rude for the sake of being rude, but it does mean telling the truth.

If, in an effort to soften our verbiage, we end up lying, we are forsaking love’s delight in the truth.

Not only did Jesus Christ call people out, so did the Apostle Paul. There may be some who defend Jesus’ manner in calling people out by saying, “Well, yeah, He’s the Son of God, of course He can call us wicked and faithless.”

Well, Paul is not the Son of God, he’s a sinner like you and me, in fact, he calls himself the chief of sinners.

He calls himself that because Paul speaks the truth. Not only does he call other people stuff, he calls himself names!

In the book of Titus he says:

One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, the Cretians are alway liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. This witness is true.

In another fascinating passage, Acts 23:3, Paul says to the high priest

Then said Paul unto him, God shall smite thee, thou whited wall: for sittest thou to judge me after the law, and commandest me to be smitten contrary to the law?

Paul calls him a name, judges his performance, and calls upon God to smite him!

Paul later apologized for saying that to the high priest with the supposed defense that he did not know the guy was the high priest!

Paul is rather feisty. Jesus Christ was a tad feisty. People who speak the truth will be feisty, or at least come across that way.

Now, being feisty for feisty’s sake is not the issue. I’m not calling you to be a jerk and call people names.

What I am doing is saying that truth tends to hurt. If you speak the truth you will say things about people that they will not take kindly.

Most resentment and offendedness is a result of guilt. People who know they are sinners don’t like their sin to be pointed out. They want to live in the delusional world that they are sinning and getting away with it and everything is cool.

If you are an easily offended person, that’s because you are not walking in truth and righteousness. If you know you’re doing the right thing, what people accuse you of will bother you very little.

A sign of wisdom is listening to reproof and correction. Stupid people are the only ones who get offended at people correcting them, would be another way to put it.

This is a careful issue and I can easily be taken out of context. Hear what I’m saying.

My point is not that we should be judgmental jerks to people.

My point is to speak the truth and also, as you speak it, make sure you’re hearing it yourself. Start by dealing truthfully with your own sin before taking an interest in everyone else’s sin.

Calling People Names for Jesus

Everyone and their mother is upset right now over being called names, or being labeled and stereotyped.

Sticks and stones break people’s bones, names didn’t use to. Now, apparently they do.

In response to the hyper-sensitivity, we now come down on anyone who ever says anything the slightest judgmental about what someone else is doing.

As much as I agree we need to guard our mouths and be careful not to do unfair, self-righteous judging of others, I would also like to point out that there is a time and a place for labeling people for what they are.

Allow me to illustrate be quoting our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ:

O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.
–Matthew 12:34

But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas:
–Matthew 12:39

Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.
–Matthew 12:45

A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas.
–Matthew 16:4

Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you?
–Matthew 17:17

Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?
–Matthew 23:33

And that’s just Matthew!

Jesus is talking about a large group of people, a generation. Certainly He’s stereotyping and labeling with His generalizations.

Now, I’m not for you going out calling people names or stereotyping people.

I am for a call to reasonableness. At least for calling a spade a spade, rather than calling a spade a “garden implement useful for turning soil.”

Words mean things and need to be used carefully, wisely, and righteously.

We still live in the midst of a crooked, perverse, faithless, and wicked generation of vipers.

We should admit that. We should also admit we are part of that generation and are therefore implicated for our own part.

Sin is sin. Evil is evil. Call it what it is. Sinners sin. Speak the truth and call things what they are. This will protect you and also potentially help others.

BUT, proceed with love, grace, and compassion. Love rejoices in the truth. Don’t fear truth.

Evangelical Christians and Politics

I am reading a book called, The Evangelicals. It is a history of the Evangelical movement within American Christianity, particularly the political involvement they have gotten into over the years.

It’s a 600 page book. The first 200 pages dealt with Wesley through Billy Graham. The last 400 is from Billy Graham to today. It has bogged down tremendously.

One fascinating thing that stands out to me is how ridiculous, from a historical perspective, church leaders look when they get involved in politics.

Politics is driven by fear. There are HUGE problems, so vote for us to solve them. If they solved them; you wouldn’t need them anymore! So, they never get around to solving issues, just changing them and freaking everyone out along the way so they get votes.

When the Church, which is allegedly filled with people with eternal hope, gets involved in temporal squabbles heightened by fear, they look really stupid.

This is especially true when they fall for predictions about the future. There have been so many “threats” to us that should have wiped us out. But none of the major fears ever developed and predictions, predictably (!), fail.

What happened was Evangelicalism, which originally just meant people who were focused on the Gospel (the “evangel” part of Evangelical), got wrapped up with politics. Billy Graham solidified the movement. He thought he was doing the right thing at the time. Richard Nixon broke his heart.

The church got sucked into Republican politics with the Moral Majority and so forth in the 1970’s-90’s. They got carried away and got used, while America continued to remain firmly nowhere near Evangelical ideals.

So, the church learned its lesson. It got tired of being lumped in with rightwing nutjobs. Which brings us to today.

While reading this book about the roaring 70’s-90’s Republican Christian Might, a debate over the Social Gospel erupted.

The Social Gospel, often called Social Justice, Movement is nothing more than leftwing nutjob thinking.

The lesson the church apparently has learned from our losing with the Right, is to join the Left.

I fully expect that in about 40 years all these church leaders fired up over the new leftwing Social Justice stuff will look just as ridiculous as the rightwingers of the 70’s look to us now.

Allow me to posit a theory.

Perhaps the lesson the church should have learned from the disastrous Moral Majority days, is not to shift from the Right to the Left, but rather to stay out of the world’s fray to begin with.

Something like, oh, I don’t know, come out from among them and be separate. What fellowship has light with darkness? Set your affection on things above and not things on the earth. Not falling for the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches that choke out spiritual growth.

Maybe something like that. You know, like, what the Bible says and stuff.

Just a theory.

How to Get Grace

There are some who read that title and are already ticked off!

“There’s nothing you do to get grace! Grace is God’s undeserved favor. If you did something to get it; then it wouldn’t be grace!”

This is the view of Calvinism and the “I” of their TULIP–Irresistible Grace.

Irresistible Grace says the only way you get grace is if God chooses you to get it. If you win the luck of the draw, God will shove His grace down your throat whether you want it or not.

OK, that was my cynical and not very complimentary definition of Irresistible Grace. It is, however, in essence what it is, just without the theological politeness!

Clearly I do not believe in Irresistible Grace. Grace can be resisted; that’s why there are people in hell.

Saying there is something you do to get grace does not mean we earn grace, merit grace, nor that we worked for grace.

Doing something to get grace merely means we met the conditions upon which grace is granted.

There are several conditions the Bible says we meet to get grace.

First, is faith. We are saved by grace through faith. We believe the Gospel, we believe that Jesus Christ is the only one able to save us. When we believe this, we receive the benefits of God’s grace.

Second, is humility. God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. Being humble is not a work of the flesh. Humility is knowing your flesh can’t work anything to save itself.

Third, is love. Here I will quote a little quoted verse, Ephesians 6:24, “Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity.” If you don’t love Jesus Christ sincerely; no grace for you!

None of this says we earn grace or worked for it. Grace is a beautiful thing. God, through the Gospel of Jesus Christ, provides everything we need for salvation. This is offered by His grace.

Our response is a faithful, humble, love that is drawn to the humble love Christ demonstrated on the cross. It’s grabbing on to Jesus Christ for salvation in love and faith, completely appreciating and being humbled by His salvation.

This is not a fleshly work that puffs up the fleshly nature. This is simply a realization of who we are and who Christ is, and our desperate need for Him.

There is a reason why some get God’s grace for salvation and some don’t. It’s not luck of the draw either. It’s based on your humble, faithful, and loving reaction to the grace and love of God.

Go get some grace! You need it!

When the Bible Interferes With Your Doctrine

Occasionally, when you read the Bible, it will become apparent that what you were taught is not what the Bible says.

What to do when the Bible disagrees with your doctrine?

Usually you start by asking your teacher, “Hey, how comes this here verse don’t say what you done told me?”

Your teacher will more than likely explain the verse away, or list 14 other verses that distract the issue, and let you know that there is a perfectly reasonable explanation. They will tell you that the problem, of course, lies with you and your uneducatedness. Good thing you have such a wise teacher!

You will then go back and read the Bible some more and you will come across the same question. You will remember what your teacher told you. You will look up the 14 verses that were listed, which you are now also more familiar with. Sometimes your understanding really was off and the teacher was right.

But other times you will figure out that the answers you were given don’t quite seem to jive with Scripture. In fact, often times, they conflict with verse after verse.

For many years I, along with just about every evangelical, was taught that we are saved by faith alone. I assumed the Bible said this. There are 14 verses people will list to prove that we are saved by faith alone. None of those 14 verses says we are saved by faith alone.

In fact, the only time the Bible mentions being justified by faith only is in James 2, where it clearly says we ARE NOT justified by faith only.

There are volumes written to explain why we are justified by faith alone and how you just don’t understand James, or you don’t understand why you don’t have to listen to James, or some other explanation you don’t understand.

You can hear the answers and have it explained to you 4,000 times and still not be able to get around James saying we are not justified by faith only.

So, at a certain point you have to decide: will I go with the doctrinal gymnastics of my group, or will I simply take the plain language of the Bible and go with that?

Most go with the group.

Some go with the Bible. I recommend going with the Bible.

Take the simplest explanation of each passage, which can only be seen by the context. Pretend that every verse means exactly what it says, stop trying to cancel out one verse with another one, and you’ll be amazed at how much more easy the Bible is to understand.

Stick with that simple message and act as though it were true.

If the simple message of the verses disagrees with your doctrine, make appropriate adjustments to your doctrine. Do not adjust the verses to your doctrine!

Everyone knew what James was talking about until Martin Luther invented justification by faith alone. Ever since then people have been trying to reconcile man’s ideas with James’ inspired message. And this is one example of about 5,000 where our man-made doctrine disagrees with Scripture.

Everything is simplified if you just drop man’s ideas and stick with the God-breathed words of Scripture.

You will be amazed at how consistent and simple the Bible is once you decide to stop defending your doctrinal camp. It’s truly beautiful and I highly recommend it.

Act as though the Bible is true. Do the work to find out what it means based on the context. Put those words into action. Faith comes by hearing God’s Word. If you are following man’s doctrine and not God’s Word, then faith is not what you are doing.

God’s Word is what has life. Don’t let man’s ideas keep you from the living Word of God.

Consequences of Substitutionary Atonement

Substitutionary Atonement (SA) is a flawed understanding of the Gospel, in my opinion. SA says that Christ died in the exact place of every believer so they don’t have to.

The Bible says believers were crucified with Christ. “With” is different than “in the place of.”

As an example, when Christ was crucified, two thieves were crucified too. Listen to how the Bible talks about this:

Then were there two thieves crucified with him, one on the right hand, and another on the left
–Matthew 27:38

These thieves were crucified with Christ. By “with” it is meant that they were also crucified alongside of Christ! In no way would we take “with” here to mean “Christ died in place of those two thieves.”

So, later, when Paul says in Galatians 2:20, “I am crucified with Christ,” there is no way Paul is saying “Christ was crucified in my place so I don’t have to.”

Yet the Church has taught this idea of substitution for about 600 years. Wrong doctrine leads to wrong living. What we believe determines what we do. We want to get our thinking right so our lives are right.

We can now observe trends in the church since SA was invented and has taken root, and quite frankly, I’m not impressed.

SA has led to several flawed outcomes:

1. Calvinism. It is particularly seen in the completely anti-biblical notion of Limited Atonement as we’ve discussed. Calvinism is wrong, and it’s wrong because it’s based on a faulty notion of the Gospel. Calvinism is SA; SA is Calvinism.
2. Easy-Believism. It’s great to talk about how some guy 2,000 years ago did some painful thing for me and all I do is believe it like a fairy tale, and then reap the benefits. If Christ did it all for me and it’s all about Him, then I’m basically inconsequential. Who cares? I believe the story so I’m done.
3. Health and Wealth. Christ took all the bad stuff, all we get are the blessings. Christ did the suffering so we could live it up. My increasing bank balance proves the degree to which I believe in Jesus Christ. Suffering and death are far removed from health and wealth doctrine.
4. Biblical Illiteracy. If Christ did the dying and the raising and I have nothing to do with anything, then in what sense do I need any instruction about anything? Who cares what I do if all that matters is what Christ did? If I’m not crucified with Him, then I am not raised up with Him to new life, so who needs instructions about how to live a new life? The Bible becomes irrelevant.
5. Let Go and Let God. Christ does it all, we passively sit by and let all the stuff Christ did take care of everything. We idly sit by, being stoic and victorious in our happy thoughts. Christ does the suffering; we do the sitting and smiling.

The Bible does not teach that Christ died in your place. The Bible says Christ died for you, and, if you believe His Gospel, you are crucified, buried, and raised up with Christ. This looks like a loss of all things related to your old way of life. It looks like an actual death takes place, old things are passed away. There is then a new life identified with Christ’s resurrection life. We need to be taught this new way of life by the Spirit, who mortifies the deeds of the body and instructs us in what to do so spiritual fruit results.

Today’s evangelical Gospel is completely passive to the believer. It’s all about what some guy did 2,000 years ago and we just sit and soak up the benefits.

The New Testament does not speak this way.

There is a fight to be fought, a race to be won. There is an enemy to resist. There is supposed to be sacrifice, suffering, and cross carrying. There is a life-giving love for others, including enemies. There is a humility and a service, the mind of Christ, that lays down life for the benefit of others.

This new way of life is only possible through the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the power of His Spirit working in us. There is no way we can do this on our own. But this in no way means we don’t have something to do with it! There are tons of commands in the New Testament, things we’re supposed to do, and there’s a coming judgment to assess how we did with what we were given.

SA is a passive understanding of the Gospel: what someone else did in your place that you have no part in. The New Testament speaks of the Gospel as being vital, alive, incredibly active and life-changing. There is power here, power at work in the believer. It’s not simply a historical fact that we intellectually are cool with.

This is life! This is power! This is something exhilarating and life altering! The Gospel makes things happen to you. It rebirths you, raises you up to new life, gives you resources to defeat and put to death the affections and lusts of the old way of life, and come alive to new life in Christ.

There’s so much here, and I think SA completely undermines it and gives believers the idea that the Gospel is just a cute story we believe about some historical figure and since I’m in the club that likes that story, I’ll just carry on like before, happy I’m in the right club.

The Gospel is not a passive acceptance of a story. It’s a new way of life! A life we get by joining in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ!