ELEMENTARY

2 Peter 3 “Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking. 2 I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles.

3 Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. 4 They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” 5 But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water. 6 By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. 7 By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.

8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare

11 Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives 12 as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. 13 But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.

14 So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. 15 Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. 16 He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.

17 Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position. 18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen." (2 Pet. 3:1-18 NIV).

ELEMENTARY

The famous and fictional detective Sherlock Holmes was created by the Scotsman Arthur Conan Doyle. Sherlock wore an Inverness Cape, a deerstalker hat, smoked a pipe and used deductive reasoning to solve mysterious crimes with his offsider, Dr Watson. One of Sherlock’s most famous lines is “Elementary, my dear Watson.”

Now, it’s the job of the preacher to don his deerstalker as it were, grab his pipe and magnifying glass, and study the passage of Scripture he intends to preach on. One of the things the preacher does is interpret the text, noting context, whether historical, literary, and immediate. He also studies the meaning of words in the text among other things.

After all of that is done, then comes the structuring of the sermon for presentation to the congregation. This can be an uncomplicated commentary of the text verse by verse, or it can be preaching the substance or heart of a section of Scripture. And then there are topical sermons where things can be explained using what the whole rest of the Bible says about that subject.

General gist: Will you and your life’s work pass the final exam on Judgment Day?

1.    Elementary School - Learning Your ABCs

It looks like Sherlock is going to need a telescope more than a magnifying glass! We’re looking at the heavens disappearing, and the elements being destroyed and melted by fire. That word “elements” in verses 10 and 12 of 2 Peter 3 is translated as “heavenly bodies” in the English Standard Version (ESV). Elements or heavenly bodies, take your pick.

So, Sherlock looks at the night sky through his telescope. He sees the moon, the stars and maybe a planet or two. Then he picks up his magnifying glass to study the word elements. He looks up the original Greek word that Peter is using here, Stoichea, (στοιχεῖα) and he finds it means things like, “elements (of learning), fundamental principles, even letters of the alphabet, ABCs, something orderly in arrangement, and by implication, fundamental, initial, elementary, rudimentary, from steicho, to arrange in a regular line, to march in military rank, keep step, i.e., figuratively to conform to virtue and piety – to walk orderly.”

What? Sherlock puts down his magnifying glass and says to himself, “By deductive reasoning, I see that Peter wants Christians to walk in an orderly fashion, like an army marching in step with Jesus, yes, like the stars on their courses! That’s what he means by elements here.”

Peter wants his “audience” to behave in a certain way. Verse 11, “Since everything will be destroyed in this way, [i.e., by fire] what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives.” Therefore, Peter wants his listeners “to march in step, i.e., walk in an orderly manner, be like the stars on their courses.”

“But wait!” says Sherlock. “What about immediate context? The word ‘elements’ as it’s used here is in relation to ‘the heavens’ and ‘the earth’ and ‘a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.’”

First primary school & church author attended

What are we to make of this? To be sure, the heavens as we know them, will disappear with a roar, and like the Earth, will be renewed. We need to study this some more.  

Elementary school is primary school. It’s the first part of a child’s education. It’s where children learn their ABCs, and are taught how to get their thinking straight, how to get all their ducks in a row, or in our case, how to get their planets to align! Then comes secondary school where your elementary or primary school teaching is further developed.

2. Secondary School - Studying Your ABCs

Now, Sherlock lights up his pipe. He puffs and he ponders.

I remember attending secondary school in Scotland fifty odd years ago and learning something called The Periodic Table of Elements which gives you all the chemical symbols, you know, H for Hydrogen, Li for Lithium and so forth. Now then, if you were Sherlock, would you deduce that when Peter wrote that word “elements” twice that he had the Periodic Table of Elements in mind? Do you think Peter had nuclear fusion and fission in mind? Nowadays, stoichiometry is the study of chemical reactions.

Peter is saying that “the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.” The ESV says, “the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.”  How is any of this different to what Peter was talking about in his previous letter, in 1 Peter 1:6-7 where he says, “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ”?

In elementary or primary school in Scotland we had to sit our qualifying-exam, the “quali”, to see whether we would be held back or qualify to progress onto secondary school. We had to go through a baptism of fire, i.e., sit that dreaded test, the “quali”. We were “tested by fire” as it were.

John the Baptizer said, “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire” (Matt. 3:11-12). Wheat and chaff, Heaven and Hell.

So where is Peter getting his ideas from? “Aha!” exclaims Sherlock. Peter has Scripture in mind, just as he did when he used apocalyptic figurative language to describe what happened when the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the nations, you know, baptized with the Holy Spirit and tongues of fire at Pentecost (Acts 2).

Perhaps Peter when he wrote 2 Peter 3 may have had Isaiah 34:4 in mind, “All the stars in the sky will be dissolved and the heavens rolled up like a scroll; all the starry host will fall like withered leaves from the vine, like shriveled figs from the fig tree.” Is this type of language figurative or the reality? You wouldn’t want to see the stary night sky fall and hit the earth! Let’s investigate further.

Peter says, “The day of the Lord will come like a thief” (2 Pet. 3:10). Paul says something similar in 1 Thessalonians 5:2-3, “For you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.” We now have something far better than Holmes and Watson, now we’ve got Peter and Paul on the case.

Up ahead in verse 16 Peter says that “[Paul] writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.”

Notice that Peter says Paul is speaking of “these matters.” What matters? As Paul himself says, “For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames” (1 Cor. 3:11-15).

Now, I put it to you that Peter and Paul are speaking of the same matters. In some Bibles, in 2 Peter 3:10, instead of “the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare” as in the NIV, it says, “both the earth and the works in it will be burned up” as in the NKJV. It’s what they call a textual variant.

Paul uses the exact same word where he says, “If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss…” (1 Cor. 3:15). He is, of course, speaking metaphorically, figuratively not literally. In short, he’s saying, make sure the things you do in life are built upon the Jesus of the Bible, because it’s all going to be laid bare, exposed – tested by fire.

Both Peter and Paul speak of “the Day”. Paul says, “the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire”, and Peter says, “the day of the Lord will come like a thief” and “You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.” What Day are they talking about? Yes, the Day is Judgment Day! “The present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly” (2 Pet. 3:6b).

Tron Church, Glasgow

Some Christians believe that the heavens including the earth are all going to disappear forever in a giant nuclear meltdown. And this pessimistic belief holds many of them back from being productive Christians. Why do anything, why care for the Earth, for example, why build great cathedral-like buildings (like they did in the past), if it’s all going to burn up? And so they’re happy to worship in old warehouses and box-like buildings.

Gone are grand majestic structures built to the glory of God. Now it’s “Little boxes, little boxes, all made out of ticky-tacky”, because that’s all you need when it’s all going to be consigned to the flames and totally disappear. But is it?

Are we looking at actual nuclear fission and fusion or are we looking at events being described by highly figuratively language, yes, symbolism. Peter here, like Paul elsewhere, is not easy to understand. That’s why we, as it were, have got Sherlock on the case! So, let’s delve deeper and then look at our findings.      

3. Tertiary School - Applying Your ABCs

As you know, tertiary means third. Primary, secondary, and then if you will “thirdary”. This is where we really need to put on our “thinking caps” as my primary school teacher used to say.

Author's other primary school

But let us don our deerstalkers. A deerstalker, if you don’t know, is a cap with two peaks. One at the front for stalking deer in front of you and one at the back to stalk deer behind you!

Tertiary studies are the kind of thing you do at university or technical college, where you deal with theory and practice (“theory and prac”). There’s little point in having a good head knowledge of something if you’re not going to put it into practice. As Christians we’ve to be doers of the Word and not hearers only. Application of our Christian knowledge in our lives is the key thing.

Sometimes Sherlock and Watson wear double-breasted coats or jackets. There’s an overlapping going on. With this overlapping in mind, consider the fact that both Peter and Paul are talking about the “Day of the Lord”, which means the “Day of Judgment”, i.e., when Christ returns at the end of the present age at Resurrection Day, the very last day of the last days.

Sometimes Bible scholars have difficulties when trying to figure out whether what we are reading in the Bible is referring to the last days of the Old Testament administration or the last days of the new administration with Jesus in the New Testament, ie, the time in which we live. Is it God’s judgment on Jerusalem or is it Judgment Day. Try reading Matthew 24!

For example, the heavyweight Puritan theologian John Owen thinks what we’re looking at was referring to the last days of the old covenant with Israel with the seven years of the fiery tribulation beginning AD 63 and ending with the total destruction of Jerusalem climaxing with the demolition of the Temple in AD70.

Now, Peter agrees with Paul when Paul uses the word elements (steicho) to mean elementary in Galatians 4:3-9 (ESV), “In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”

This was the Old Testament Church coming of age, leaving elementary or primary school to now attend secondary school and even moving onto tertiary studies!

Paul uses the same word in Colossians 2:8 and 2:20. So, both Paul and Peter are using the word elements to mean elementary as in basic, fundamental, rudimentary. It’s the same with the writer to the Hebrews, “In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food!” (Heb. 5:12).

The double-breasted jacket. If you read through the Book of Acts, for example, you’ll see that there is an overlapping of the Old Testament with the New Testament, a transitioning from the one to the other.

Therefore, we can look at the destruction of Jerusalem as a trial run if you will, typological, a practice run for what will happen when Jesus returns this time, not by His Spirit as on the Day of Pentecost, but physically to judge the living and the dead.

Think of the deerstalker hat with its twin peaks, the front peak is for what’s ahead – new heavens and earth, and the rear peak is for what is behind, the end of the old covenant with the destruction of the temple in AD70.

So, like Sherlock’s deerstalker, there is a peak behind and a peak ahead. And like his double-breasted coat, there is an overlapping. Jesus, at His resurrection, was the beginning of the new creation, the firstfruits. The birth pangs of the old creation began when He rose from the dead.

As Paul says, “For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time” (Rom. 8:19-22).

John Calvin looking at our 2 Peter 3 text says, “Of the elements of the world I shall only say this one thing, that they are to be consumed, only that they may be renovated, their substance still remaining the same, as it may be easily gathered from Romans 8:21, and from other passages.”

Robert Letham says, “Peter uses the same language with reference to the world of Noah’s day, which was destroyed by water. That world was not annihilated. The destruction related to the judgment of God on human sin; the earth remained. The human race and the various nonhuman species were preserved. Peter writes in the language of apocalyptic, with graphic visual imagery relating to the judgment of the wicked. The creation is no more to be eradicated than, at the overthrow of Babylon, did the stars cease to emit their light or was the earth shaken off its axis (Isa. 13:9–13).” Robert Letham, Systematic Theology, p. 590.

So, Sherlock deduces that Peter has a double entendre in mind here, a twin peaked deerstalker, a double-breasted jacket. Peter, as it were, is killing two birds with one stone where he uses the word “elements”. He means that the elementary things of this world, which includes the heavenly bodies, will undergo a change.

Just as the rudimentary ABCs of Old Testament times were developed into the sentences, paragraphs, and chapters of our own New Testament times, as it were, so, when the Lord returns physically to dwell with us here on Earth, the last Word of God’s good news story will have been written. What is that last word, or rather Who is that last word? “Jesus our righteousness.”    

So, the conclusion is that on the Day of the Lord, this old Earth is going to be renewed by fire, yes, just like those places in the Australian bush where the fire goes through, burning off the dead stuff so that it can bloom anew!

The basic elements from which everything in the natural world is made is going to undergo a radical change. The curse will be lifted from Creation. Like you and me on Resurrection Day, getting our renewed bodies, the Creation itself will be changed in the twinkling of an eye to accommodate us.

The corruptible will have put on incorruption, the perishable the imperishable, and the earth will become the place “where righteousness dwells.”

Conclusion

Don’t be one of those Christians who think that since the heavens and the earth and the works that are done in it are going to burn up, then why bother with it? Rather be with Peter who asks and answers his own question where he says, “what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God.”

For, as Jesus says, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth” (Matt. 5:5). Therefore, both you and creation, your inheritance, are awaiting full consummation.

Image from Internet

The bad news is that we all have to sit that dreaded quali-exam! That’s what Judgment Day is, it’s when you and I give account to Jesus the Judge for the lives we’ve lived. The good news is that Jesus is the Judge and the Advocate who intercedes for those that trust Him alone for salvation and not in the straw and stubble of their own works, things that will be burned up.

The building in which the creator of Sherlock Holmes was born in 1859 in Edinburgh was demolished in 1970. The only thing remaining is, not a statue of Conan Doyle, but of Sherlock Holmes – the thing that he is known for.

When your life’s work is “laid bare”, what will be the thing that you are known for? I pray that the thing that remains is Jesus Christ, because all your works are being done in, through and for Him. To Him be all the glory, honour and praise.

THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS (Book review)

The Last of the Mohicans, James Fenimore Cooper (1826), Transatlantic Press, Amersham, Bucks, 2012, 464 pages.

James Fenimore Cooper dipped his pen in the inkwell of beautiful prose and painted this series of beautiful water colours and intricate oils for display in his gallery of adventure!

The setting for the highly descriptive tale is the environs around and on “Lake Horican”, or as the French called it, Lac du Saint Sacrement, (which is present day Lake George in upstate New York), during the late 1700s.

The French and the British are going for the other’s jugular as they duel over land ownership. Some Indian tribes aligned themselves with the former, others the latter.

Young British officer Duncan Heyward, Cora and Alice Munro (daughters of the British Commandant of the bombarded Fort William Henry), Chingachgook and Uncas (the Mohican father and son aligned with the British), protagonist “Hawkeye” (woodsman and scout) and antagonist Magua (of the Hurons who side with the French) are the main characters. These, Cooper uses to exemplify human virtue and depict its depravity in vibrant colour with liberal splashes of crimson. The main characters’ actions and interactions are his brushes and the verdant and sylvan countryside, his palette.

As one steps back to view this novel as a whole and then moves in close enough to see the brush strokes, one can see clearly that this is a literary masterpiece. Among the exhilarating canoe chases, the shelling, the smoke and debris, the hand-to-hand combat, the murder and mayhem, yes, the after battle scalping, there runs an unusual calming influence.

David Gamut, the unarmed “psalm-singer”, may easily be overlooked. He may not be as flash and dash or even half as eloquent as “Hawkeye”, but he is dominant, nevertheless. Cooper deftly uses his character to reveal the hearts of men and the Providence of God. At first, he seems to be a burden, slowing down Hawkeye’s male and female party as it tries to escape from Magua and his savage Hurons. However, he helps them find strength and fortitude for the battle turning their loath of him into love. (Think of someone like an army chaplain).

Even the British-hating Huron left David well alone, thinking him soft in the head because he carried only a Bible and would sing psalms to them as he walked among them. “‘And why are you permitted to go at large, unwatched?’ David… meekly replied. ‘Little be the praise to such a worm as I. But, though the power of psalmody was suspended, in the terrible business of that field of blood through which we have passed, it has recovered its influence even over the souls of the heathen, and I am suffered to go and come at will.’ The scout laughed, and tapping his own forehead significantly, he perhaps explained the singular indulgence more satisfactorily when he said: ‘The Indians never harm a non-composser…’” p. 293.  

Yes, this Calvinist brought order to the chaos of 1757 North America – civilization.               

NO CREAM

                                                                                No Cream

Breakfast porridge was a staple in our home when I was growing up in Scotland in the 60s. Unlike nowadays, where I see everything from sugar to bananas, honey to muesli, being added to a bowl of porridge, we simply added a dash salt and a splash of milk. In those days the milkman would deliver milk in glass bottles to our doorstep. Because the cream would rise to the top, it was often a contest to bring in the milk (especially in winter) before it froze and/or the crafty little blue tit birds had beat you to the cream! They would peck through the tinfoil bottle caps. Salt and cold cream on hot porridge, yum! yum! Those were good old days. Or is it just some romantic notion to yearn for the past?

What about the present? What about the future? Why do we tend to think things are always getting worse? Has it something to do with the aging process? I think it may have more to do with the way we look at things. Is the glass half full or half empty? Have the birds eaten the cream for your porridge? Has the past stolen your joy? Have your memories of making daisy chains on a sunny day given way to Shakespeare’s winter of discontent? Where is God in all of this? Was the last petal you plucked from the daisy, the one that says, “He loves me not!”? Have you ended up with no cream for your morning porridge?

Image from Net

By rearranging the letters of ‘no cream’ we get ‘romance’. The Bible becomes God’s love-letter to His bride when your final daisy petal is ‘He loves me!’ The romance is on! Yes, Jesus loved His bride to death! That's what Christ’s cross is all about. For ‘Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her’ (Eph. 5:25b). He promises His bride ‘a land flowing with milk and honey’ (Exod. 33:3). To believe His promises is to have the joy of the Lord in the present, for ‘Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body’ (Prov. 16:24). Yes, ‘no cream’ turns into ‘romance’ by taking the Lord at His word. However, those who didn’t take the Lord at His word, those who love the ‘good old days’ more than Him, died in the wilderness. ‘And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief’ (Heb. 3:17-19). They kept on looking back in unbelief instead looking to the Lord and believing His promises. By rejecting the Lord’s advances, they changed romance back to no cream, and thus they proved that they were not counted as His bride. It was the same when ‘Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt’ (Gen. 19:26).

Christ’s bride includes only those who, like Paul, ‘press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus’ (Phil. 3:14), those who hold the ‘He loves me!’ petal in their hand, i.e., a ‘white stone’. ‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it’ (Rev. 3:2:17b).

Dear reader, has our gracious Lord exchanged that old ‘He loves me not!’ daisy petal that has been troubling you for years, for a ‘white stone’? Have the birds eaten your cream? Has the devil robbed you of your joy? Or has the Lord being wooing you, changing your mind as you learn of the great love He has for His bride? Has your ‘no cream’ been changed into ‘romance’?

BELIEF & DUTY

 

BELIEF & DUTY 

Westminster Shorter Catechism 3

Quest. What do the Scriptures principally teach?

Ans. The Scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man. 

Introduction

James in his Epistle wrote the following words, “You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe and tremble! But do you know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?” (Jas. 2:19-20). The Holy Spirit through these words is teaching us that it is all very well to claim that you believe in God.  He’s saying that belief in God is indeed a good thing, but of itself it counts for nothing with God.

The proof that it counts for nothing is that even the demons believe! And do you know anything more disobedient to God than a demon? Yet demons have profound knowledge of God and His being. So, the point that James makes is that in order for faith or belief in God to be worth anything, it needs to be expressed in works, good works. 

Obedience to God, i.e. any good works the Christian does, is the good fruit of the Holy Spirit working in the regenerated person’s life. It’s the Spirit Who produces produce or “bears fruit” in the Christian. This “good fruit” is expressed as good works. Even faith itself, i.e., true Biblical faith, is part of the Spirit’s produce. Faith is a “fruit of the Spirit’ (Gal. 5:22). Thus good works of obedience don’t produce faith, rather true faith produces good works. In other words, the evidence of a true and living faith is demonstrated by the believer’s obedience to God.  Therefore, faith or belief without the accompanying obedience to God is not true faith – as illustrated by demons. 

So, the Christian not only needs to know what he is to believe concerning God, he also needs to know what he is to do with that belief. And, according to Westminster Shorter Catechism #3 this is the Bible’s primary purpose.

As noted above, the Westminster Shorter Catechism is divvyed up into three main sections: viz., 1^st, Introduction, 2^nd What we are to believe, and 3^rd What we are to do. So, you might say it like this WSC Q & A’s 1-3 are introductory.  Q & A’s 4-38 deal with belief. And Q & A’s 39-107 deal with duty.

We have reached the third and last of the introductory Q & As of the WSC. The third introductory Q & A to the WSC is a concentration of all the rest of the Catechism. As already mentioned, Q & A 4-38 are to do with belief, and 39-107 are to do with duty.

Belief

The Bible primarily teaches us about God and about Man far more than it teaches us about anything else. E.g., the Scriptures teach us something about angels. But angels are not the principal subject of the Bible; God and Man’s duty to God is. The Word of God teaches us a great deal about creation. But creation is not the primary teaching of Scripture. Rather the Scriptures principally teach us about God, and Man’s relationship to God.

We’ve seen already that Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. We’ve seen also that the Scriptures of the Older and Newer Testaments are the only rule given by God to direct us how we may glorify Him and enjoy Him. So, if we would truly glorify God and enjoy Him, we would need to have infallible revelation of what we are to believe concerning God and what He requires of us.  For if the Bible is not really the Word of God, and the Older and Newer Testaments are not really the very Word of God, then how can we be sure that what we believe about God is correct?

If the Bible is not infallible, then our faith is founded upon shifting sand, sinking sand, quick sand! We will all sink down into the pit if the Bible is an unreliable account of God. Why? Well, because the Bible itself claims to be the revelation of God, the God who forgives, the God who does not lie, the God of all truth, etc. 

If the Bible is not infallible and inerrant, then how will we know for sure that God is the Creator of the heavens and the earth? How will we know for sure that He is the God who forgives sinners such as us? How will we know anything for sure, if the Bible is not true revelation of God from God? 

If the Bible is inaccurate, then our beliefs about God will be inaccurate. Therefore, if God cares about His good name and holy character, if He cares about Himself, His glory, He will need to give us an infallible account of what we are to believe concerning Him. Otherwise, Man will manufacture his own beliefs about God from his own fertile but fallen imagination.

For example, the reason for the many religions in the world lies in the heart of man. The multitude of religions comprise of those either denying or distorting what the Bible teaches about God. The Word of God, the Scriptures of the Older and Newer Testaments, the Bible, is what separates believers from unbelievers. For the believer believes what the Bible teaches concerning what man is to believe about God and what duty God requires of man, whereas the unbeliever denies or distorts what God reveals about Himself in Scripture.

Think about it, if you know a man personally and he writes an autobiography, you might disagree with what he has written about himself. The reason you might disagree would need to be on account of any prior true knowledge you have of the man. But let’s say a man with whom you are not familiar writes his autobiography. You’d just have to take him at his word, wouldn’t you?  You might believe all of what he says about himself, or you might believe some of it. Or you might not believe any of what he says about himself, but on what grounds?

Think about it, here’s a man whom you don’t really know. He’s written a book about himself, where he lives, his upbringing, what he does for a living. He’s told you about the colour of his eyes, his hair, his height, his shoe-size, and his temperament. He’s told you his likes and his dislikes. So, why wouldn’t you believe all of what he had written? Then why is it that people are so picky and choosy as to what they believe about God? Why do they try to rewrite bits of the Bible? Why do they ignore many of the things God says about Himself?

Why are people so quick to slice and dice Scripture and mince what God has revealed about Himself in His Word? Well, it’s because if the Bible is telling us what we are to believe concerning God, then everything we believe about God that’s contrary to Scripture is wrong.

But let me ask you who knows more about God? You or God Himself? So, how would you know if what God says about Himself in Scripture is true or not?  Well, it’s all a question of belief, isn’t it? The believer believes what the Bible teaches concerning God. Whereas the unbeliever, depending how you look at it, at best or at worst, picks and chooses what he will believe or not believe. But either way the unbeliever does not believe what God is saying about Himself in Scripture. The unbeliever either adds to, or takes away from, the words of God in Scripture.

Now, the main difference between a man writing his autobiography and God revealing Himself in Scripture is of course the claims made by God. If a man has it written down that he is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent you’d have good reason not to believe him. Why? Because these are not attributes which belong to any man, that’s why! But let’s say the same Person who claimed to create the heavens and the earth, claims He’s omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent, would you have good reason not to believe Him? 

Why would you try to discredit, or disregard any of what God has revealed about Himself in the Older and Newer Testaments? On what grounds would you base your unbelief? Would it be because you believe that you know God better than God knows Himself?  Would it be because you believe that the Scriptures are unreliable?

So, surely the whole point of the existence of the Bible is that it has been given by God to teach us what we are to believe concerning God.  But it has also been given to teach us what duty God requires of us.

Duty

If a nation goes to war, its citizens are usually called upon to do their “duty”. They are called upon to serve their country by upholding and defending their nation’s ideals, i.e., those principles they as a nation believe and hold dear. So, any sense of duty a citizen may have, is inevitably engendered by belief, belief in the nation’s ideals and principles. In other words, a person would need to think hard about what his nation stands for before considering laying down his life in the line of duty. Well, so it is with God and His Kingdom. 

When a person is granted by the grace of God to see who God is and what His kingdom is about, immediately a sense of obligation wells up within his breast, which is to say that his faith, his belief, engenders a sense of thankful duty toward God. It’s as James says in his Epistle “I will show you may faith by my works” (Jas. 2: 18b). Now his desire to do works, good works, is the immediate response to his God-given faith. He who once was a sinner on the broad road to Hell, is now a recruit in the Lord’s army.

Now, when governing authorities on earth start drafting people into the army, there are inevitably those “draft dodgers” who try to flee any conflict. Well, according to the Scriptures, the preaching of the Gospel is God’s calling sinners to repentance, i.e., to stop warring against Him, and to serve Him, to serve under Him in a battle against sin and evil.

God in the Person of Jesus Christ has already won the war against evil upon Calvary’s cross. However, there are still many “clean-up” battles to be fought in your life and mine. However, there are many, many “draft dodgers” from God’s Gospel recruitment drive, aren’t there? They try to avoid their duty, the duty of all mankind, which is to glorify God and to enjoy Him. 

Now, the whole duty that God requires of man is found throughout all the Scriptures. However, this duty is summarized in the form of Ten Commandments, which in turn is summarized by the commandments to love God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind, and your neighbour as yourself. This duty is required of all human beings because this is the reason why God created man in the first place.

God created Man in His own image and likeness. Man originally was a perfect imprint of God on the creaturely level. Man was the imprint of the very moral character of God, which is to say that Man was created with the Moral Law in his heart. However, as you know, Adam, as representative of the human race, declared war on God. He sided with the Devil in rebellion against God’s authoritative rule over us. That is what is called the Fall of Man.

And the indication, even today that Man is a fallen creature is in his resistance to have God rule over every aspect of his life. Some men may pay God lip-service in a church on a Sunday morning, while God is excluded from their family life, their life as a citizen, which is to say that God is given the cold shoulder in every sphere of their lives. However, WSC 3 is reminding us that the Scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man.

And even a cursory reading of the Bible would reveal that God requires us to love Him with all our heart, soul, strength and mind and our neighbour as ourselves. Yet no human being since the fall of Adam is able to fulfil this duty. Indeed, since the rebellion of man in the Garden of Eden, man has done everything in his power to escape this duty. He had tried everything from blatantly ignoring his duty, like the so-called atheist, to attempting to make it much more easy to fulfil, like the scribes and Pharisees of old. But it all amounts to “draft-dodging” from where God sits. 

The duty He requires of us has always been the same from the very beginning. God has always required of man perfect obedience to His revealed will. Today God’s will is revealed to us in all the Scriptures. The difference between the believer and the unbeliever is that the believer believes what the Scriptures teach concerning God and man, whereas the unbeliever doesn’t. Therefore, the response of the believer to what the Scriptures principally teach differs to that of the unbeliever. 

Whereas the believer responds as one hearing good news, the unbeliever responds as one hearing bad news. To the one there is an aroma of life to the other there is a stench of death! Therefore, the unbeliever seeks to either ignore or reinterpret the teaching of Scripture. But the believer delights in his duty; he delights to do the will of God. This is just another way of saying that he, along with the Apostle Paul, delights in the Law of God. To be sure, the believer of himself falls down many times in the line of duty. He cannot do God’s will perfectly. He cannot keep God’s Law without flaw. However, this doesn’t stop him from striving to serve God. Why is this? It’s because of what the believer believes.

He believes that the One revealed in Scripture has forgiven him all his sins. He believes that the One who created the heavens and the earth and all that is in them has sent His only begotten Son to lay down His life as a Man to pay for his sins. He believes that, as the first Adam represented him in his sinful disobedience to God, so the last Adam, Jesus Christ represents him in His perfect obedience to God. In the first man, Adam, all were made imperfect. In the second Man, Jesus, all who believe in Him are made perfect.

When God looks at the fallen imperfect man who by His grace believes what the Scriptures teach about God and himself, God sees that believer as He sees Jesus Christ – perfect! Now, the believer of course sees himself as anything but perfect. The fact is that he sees himself as a sinful wretch saved by the grace of God alone. So what does the true believer do about this? Well, he strives to be what God claims him to be – perfect.

Now, some people have been known to make an erroneous assumption on this point. They assume that when God declares a sinner righteous that that justified sinner is freed from the requirements of God’s Moral Law. Hence, they allege that the justified sinner is placing himself back in bondage by striving to keep God’s Moral Law out of love and gratitude to God for setting him free.

But let me ask: From what has the justified sinner been set free? Has he been set free from the requirements of the Moral Law? Or has he been set free from the penalty for failing to meet the Moral Law’s requirements? The answer from Scripture is clearly that the justified sinner has been set free from the penalty exacted on sinners for failing to meet the Moral Law’s requirement’s – i.e., perfection! For example, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit” (Rom. 8:1).

But how can any fallen, imperfect sinner ever hope to keep God’s Law perfectly? He cannot. The reason Scripture calls fallen man a sinner is that he fails miserably to keep God’s Law. Sin is the transgression of God’s Law (1 John 3: 4). Therefore, all transgressors of God’s Law are sinners. Which is another way of saying that fallen man is in bondage to sin, i.e., sinning against God.

But, when fallen man is declared righteous by God, i.e. justified by God’s grace alone, he is at the same time set free from his bondage to sin, i.e. sinning against God. But for what has the sinner been set free from his bondage to sin? Well, it is so that he can serve God. He has been set free from breaking God’s Law, which is another way of saying what he had been set free to keep God’s Law. Therefore, the redeemed and sanctified sinner is now free to serve God instead of serving sin. 

And how does the redeemed sinner serve God? By glorifying Him and enjoying Him in every facet of life. So, how would the true believer set about glorifying God in worship, for instance? Well, he would do well to listen to WSC Q & A 3, wouldn’t he? He would search the Scriptures to find out what they taught concerning God. And he would also find out what duty God requires of him.

So, he would find out from the Scriptures how God wishes to be glorified in worship, wouldn’t he? And where would be find this laid-out clearly in Scripture? Well, the Ten Commandments, the first four in particular, summarize very well what the Scriptures principally teach about the proper worship of God. 

And where would the redeemed sinner find out the duties God requires of him toward his fellow man? Well, again he would find this taught throughout all the Scriptures. But he would find all the teaching of Scripture on this duty neatly summarized in the last six of the Ten Commandments.

So, it’s nonsense to suggest that there is any human being who is not morally bound to keep God’s Commandments, saved or unsaved. For God is not a God of chaos, but rather is the God of order. His Law brings order. Lawlessness brings, nay, lawlessness IS disorder, even chaos!

Conclusion

Let’s note the perfection of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ alone is the only Man ever to keep perfectly God’s Law in its entirety. It’s His perfect Law-keeping that saves, and not your or my miserable attempt at it. That’s why God in His Word exhorts us to believe in Him alone for salvation. Therefore, keep on believing in Him for salvation from your sins. Keep on turning your back on your sins and keep on believing in Jesus Christ and you will be saved.

But none of us would know any of this if God hadn’t revealed it to us. Nor would we know the type of God He is unless He revealed it to us. Therefore, we need the Scriptures to teach us about God and the duties He requires of us. So, read the Scriptures, believe, and do your duty, and do all to the glory of God. Amen.

HAS THE GOSPEL BEEN UNPLUGGED?

                                            HAS THE GOSPEL BEEN UNPLUGGED?

A friend of mine got me thinking about the Gospel (which can’t be a bad thing!). He had said, “Fact is, antinomianism is the enemy of the Gospel. The unbiblical dichotomy between grace and law seems to necessarily lead to a distortion of the Gospel and might even carry in itself the seeds of Two Kingdom theology.” D, Rudi Schwartz.

Now, Two Kingdom Theology seems to be the latest bout of internecine battles among Christians. It seems to me that this dispute is very similar to the volleys that were fired (with no quarter!) at the Theonomists/Christian Reconstructionists. These boldly and intelligently defended their position by producing a series of great books and articles showing how their covenantal view of applying Scripture to all of life (seven days a week) was indeed what God teaches in His Word, i.e., the sixty-six books of the Bible. Legalists! The Christian Taliban! Stoning infants for disobeying their parents! Every blow of these over-the-top straw-men false accusations was fended off effectively – but not without collateral damage to Christendom. We may be cancelled by some Christians by being “guilty by association” (as my friend Rudi reminded me).  

The following verse of Scripture is usually quoted to show that healthy debate among Christians in Biblical, “Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another” (Prov. 27:17). Essentially the issue is all about God’s Law, what is it? to whom and how does it apply? and what is the Gospel? So, the great Christian debate is about Law and Gospel.

The New Dictionary of Theology gives us the following reminder,

“Historically both Lutheran and Reformed have had trouble maintaining proper balance between law and gospel. Imbalance produces either antinomianism on the one hand or legalism and moralism on the other.”

It seems that some Christians have yet to find a cure for their middle ear infection and are still suffering from loss of balance. Antinomianism is an infection that causes some Christians to walk in circles. It was during the late 90s and early 2000s that I watched the battlements of the Theonomists’ camp get a real pounding. Then the anti-God’s Law for all of life guns seemed to grow quiet. However, I think they were just reloading, as I can hear the same old guns bombarding anyone who believes that Christ’s Kingdom operates anywhere other than inside the four walls of a church (and it’s questionable even there!). That antinomian army has now regrouped but has donned a new and slightly different uniform. However, it’s the same old same old: Law and Gospel.    

Driving to church one Sunday morning I thought, “the gospel is the power of God to salvation” (Rom. 1:16). But the “unbiblical dichotomy between grace and law” is the gospel unplugged. Without the Law the Gospel loses its power! The gospel unplugged might sound nice, ear-tickling, yet the people up the back of the hall cannot hear it. Which may even be a good thing! For how confusing to the ear is a trumpet call when many of its notes are missing?  Yes, when the gospel is unplugged, people certainly will not feel its bass notes vibrating their sternums. Nor will it penetrate them to the depth of heart and soul, convicting and convincing, and cause them sway in sync with its rhythm.

Christ’s Kingdom songs fall on deaf ears when the arena is divided into two kingdoms. That “middle wall of partition” can only be broken down by plugging the Gospel back into the Law. Grace and Law are the harmonious duet that sweetly sing the song of victory, Christ’s victory.

And so, like love and marriage and the proverbial horse and carriage, Law and Gospel, you can’t have one without the other. God’s Gospel without God’s Law is antinomianism and God’s Law without God’s Gospel is legalism and moralism. God’s Law shows us that we are sinners and God’s Gospel shows us that God saves sinners through Christ’s perfect Law-keeping and His atoning death. What does any of this have to do with Two Kingdom Theology? By separating Christ’s Heavenly Kingdom on earth from secular kingdoms, Two Kingdom Theology is providing “safe spaces” and supplying people underground bunkers, i.e., areas on earth that are God’s Law free-zones. Thereby it is quenching the Holy Spirit from using God’s Law to convict non-Christians of their inherent and inherited sinfulness and subsequently their dire need of the Saviour revealed in God’s Gospel.

Because of its denial of the application of God’s Law to civil government, Two Kingdom Theology also opposes Christian Nationalism. But why would any Christian wish to hamper and hinder the discipling of the nations as obedience to the Great Commission? (Matt. 28:16-20). It boggles the mind! The cure for this Marcionistic imbalance is to liberally apply the antibiotics of both Old and New Testaments into both ears! You can’t have one without the other. Joseph Boot reports on some of the serious damage done,

“[T]he antinomian error has cost the church dearly in our day, as biblically illiterate and lawless Christians are left floundering without a guide or anchor in the relativistic and pluralistic confusion of contemporary Western culture. Without a concept of Christian law, and the clear teaching of God’s law in the churches, young people find themselves adopting pagan and humanistic ethical theories and legal frameworks that are not only inferior to, but hostile toward biblical law.” The Mission of God – A Manifesto of Hope for Society, Wilberforce Publications, London, 2016, p. 258.

            The bottom line is that the Gospel without the Law is a Gospel unplugged. How are we to disciple and teach the nations everything Jesus has commanded if the nations are not to be taught Christ’s commands? My old college professor used to have a car bumper sticker which read, “God’s Law or Chaos!” “Christ or Chaos!” means exactly the same thing. If we are to bring order to the chaos of our own day, if we are to heal the nations, yeah, baptize and Christianize them, we will need to plug the Gospel back into the Law. Nigel Lee says,

“New Testament Christians maintained their nationality and taught that others should do the same, while yet working for improved national and international relationships as part of and as a result of their obedience to Christ’s mandate to evangelize all the nations, until all nations have become Christianized and, even after the final judgment, maintain their nationality and live in perfect harmony with the other nations in the new Jerusalem forever with all nations under the Triune God!

So the Christian doctrine of nationality is diametrically opposed to that of Marxism. Nations are a necessary product of man’s creation, not his alienation; Christ’s atonement principally heals the nations; and eschatologically the nations will preserve their nationality unto all eternity, and not lose it in a colorless communist utopia." Dr. Francis Nigel Lee, Communist Eschatology — pgs. 773 – 774.

            The Good News (i.e. the Gospel) is that we win down here. There is only One King and there us only one Kingdom, “Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10).