MARRIAGE

MARRIAGE

(See Westminster Confession of Faith chapter 24 paras 1-4)[xxxi]

Introduction

It’s claimed that chimpanzees are genetically 98% the same as human beings. In our day when men are marrying men, and women women, what’s to stop a man marrying a chimp?

Marriage seems to be on the rocks at the moment. As the Theory of Evolution is more and more rammed down the throats of each successive generation at school, is it any wonder that the marriage manual is being rewritten? If the universe got here, not by God but by accident, as children at State schools are now being taught, then there is no rhyme or reason to it. Take this belief system to its logical conclusion and why shouldn’t a man take a monkey in marriage? A monkey can be great little helper about the house!

If you believe that the universe is simply the result of random processes, if you believe in the evolutionary marriage of time and chance, then marriage is whatever you want it to be. Therefore, for you, same sex marriages are okay – not to mention man and monkey marriages.

But, the universe does have a purpose. And every aspect of man – spirit/soul/body, including our adenoids and our appendix etc. – has a purpose. The purpose, the chief end of man, i.e., the whole and complete man, is to wholly and completely glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

At the very beginning, when God, in six days, formed the heavens, the earth, the sea and all that is in them, He gave man a purpose and a duty to fulfil. In Genesis 1:26-28 we read: “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him, male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’” This is the Cultural Mandate.

The aspect of the Cultural Mandate we’re looking at in the following is called Marriage.

Marital Restrictions

Part of the clear instructions God gave to man in the beginning was the command to “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it.” Multiplying and filling the earth has to do with replicating the image of God. God made man in His own image. Man is to spread the image of God throughout all the earth.

How does man do this? Well, regardless of how amazing it is what they can do nowadays in a petri dish in the science lab, it takes a man and a woman to come together sexually before replication can occur. This is the way God designed it from the beginning. A man and a man cannot produce an offspring the way God designed it. And neither can a woman and a woman, nor a man and a monkey for that matter. It takes one man and one woman to reproduce. Therefore, a marriage will not progress into a family unless the marriage consists of one man and one woman.

Now, let’s not confuse a marriage with a family. A family is an outworking of a marriage. But a marriage is still a marriage even when there are no children. Take Adam and Eve as the prime example. Adam was created first, and then Eve. In Genesis 2:7 we read: “And the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.”

So, there was a time when there was only one single human being on the earth. And the LORD God had that one single human being observe and name all the living creatures that He had also formed out of the ground. Genesis 2:20, “So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him.”

When Adam viewed all the animals he knew exactly what they were, which is to say that for Adam, naming the animals meant that he had studied, classified and catalogued them. He could see that God had formed each species according to its kind. In other words, Adam could see and understand the very essence of the living creatures.

The words “But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him” mean primarily that there was no other creature with which Adam could reproduce his own kind. Apes might be good at aping, but apes cannot ape man when it comes to reproduction. Only man (male with female) can replicate man, because only man is made in the image of God.

Adam could see how special he was when he considered all the living creatures God had made. “And the LORD God said, ‘It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him’” Genesis 2:18. What was the helper, that God was going to make, to help Adam with? The helper was to help fulfil the Cultural Mandate, part of which was being fruitful, multiplying, and filling the earth. That restricts things a great deal, doesn’t it? It shows us that the man needs a woman.

Genesis 2:21-24: “And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed the flesh up in its place. Then the rib which the LORD God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. And Adam said: ‘This is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.’ Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”

Now, just as Adam knew what all the living creatures were, so he knew exactly what woman was. None of the living creatures were ‘bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh’ – only Eve. Literally this woman was part of Adam. She had been taken out of his side. Therefore the two literally were one flesh.

Adam was to love his own wife as if she were part of his own body. And Eve was to love her own husband as if he were part of her own body. The Apostle Paul puts it like this in Ephesians 5:28-33: “So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.”

So we see then, that marriage is restricted to being between one man and one woman. God did not take ten of Adam’s ribs and make ten women – He made only one wife for Adam. Therefore it is not lawful for the man to have more wives than one at the same time, or for the woman to have more than one husband at a time. And neither did God take ten ribs and make one woman and nine children. Therefore marriage is still marriage even when there are yet no children.

Now, speaking of children produced by marriage, a common question asked by unbelievers is, where did Cain get his wife? Cain, of course, was Adam and Eve’s second son – right after Abel their first. Calvin, in his commentary on Genesis suggests the Cain and Abel were twins. But that is neither here nor there for what we’re considering.

Now, the reason people ask about Cain’s wife is because of the way we view things nowadays. First off it’s often thought that Adam and Eve only ever had two sons, viz., Cain and Abel. Then, when it is pointed out that Genesis 5:2 tells us that Adam had sons and daughters, therefore Cain married one of his sisters, the accusation of incest is put forth. However, it’s not until you get to the time of Leviticus 18-20 that marital restrictions are spelled out. We see that marrying your own sister is indeed forbidden in Leviticus – which was roughly 2,500 years after Cain married his own sister.

Now, all sorts of sexual immorality is forbidden in Leviticus 18-20, including bestiality. Apes and monkeys are beasts. However, we’re mainly concerned with the restrictions placed upon the marriage between blood relatives and those of affinity in law. (By affinity in law we mean that marriage is forbidden not only between brothers and sisters, fathers and daughters, and mothers and sons, etc., but also between brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law etc.). Even after the death of his wife, the man may not marry any of his wife’s relatives nearer in blood than he may of his own relatives, nor the woman of her husband’s relatives nearer in blood than her own.

Now, you might have felt shock and horror well up within you when you thought about Cain marrying his own sister. But if you keep in mind that Adam married his own rib, so to speak, you won’t go too far wrong. Adam said of Eve, “This is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh…” This is even closer than marrying your own sister! And yet we were not shocked when we thought about this. Why? Well, it’s because we have become accustomed to the restrictions God, 3,500 years ago, placed upon marrying blood relatives. Up until that point God permitted certain marriages He forbids in Leviticus 18. Abraham was permitted by God to marry Sarah, his half sister – with God’s blessing! However, part of the instructions in the Cultural Mandate was to multiply. When mankind had sufficiently multiplied, God placed restrictions on eligible marriage partners.

Now, we’ll mention in passing an apparent exception to the affinity in law restriction. We read in Deuteronomy 25:5 that if a wife’s husband dies, then the dead man’s unmarried brother had the duty to marry the widow. This was to give her a child that her dead husband’s name “may not be blotted out of Israel.” We see this very thing acted out in Genesis 38:8. Therefore it must have been in place long before the Law was given to Moses. But in Genesis 38:8 we read: “And Judah said to Onan, ‘Go in to your [dead] brother’s wife and marry her, and raise up an heir for your brother.” Of course Onan didn’t exactly comply with the whole thing, but that’s another story. The point being made at this point is that it would appear that it may be permissible for a man to marry his dead brother’s wife.

Now, it makes for great common sense for Christians to marry only in the Lord. Not to mention that there are all those verses of Scripture about not being unequally yoked, etc. But we need to be careful not to enter into marriage with anyone who holds to destructive heresies. Therefore, for example, a Reformed Christian, such us we are, is asking for trouble should he enter into marriage with a Roman Catholic. Roman Catholicism believes the Reformed understanding of the Gospel to be anathema!

We must put the Lord first in all things, including marriage. He would have believers marry only believers. Now, this is not to say that marriages between believers and unbelievers, or even marriages between unbelievers are not true or legitimate marriages. However, it is to say that the Lord would have His people be obedient to Him, even in marriage.

Marital Roles

When we talk about marital roles we are simply talking about men being men and women being women, and not so much about who should do the dishes and who should take out the garbage. Marriage was ordained for the mutual help of husband and wife. And it was ordained to increase the human population with a legitimate issue and furnish the church with a holy offspring. And it was ordained for the prevention of moral impurity.

Now, to talk about things such as a “legitimate issue” and the “prevention of moral impurity” is to suggest that the world we live in is not the same as when God first formed Adam and Eve. Indeed this has been the case ever since Adam, through the ready help of his wife, ate the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. Eve was to be Adam’s helper. She was to help Adam stay obedient to God’s commandments. Instead, she helped him disobey God. And now we live in a fallen world. Therefore, because of the moral impurity of men and women, children have been conceived and born into this world outside of marriage.

Now, even though marriage was ordained by God before the Fall of man, it still remains a major part of the Cultural Mandate – which mandate still remains in full force. However, if you’ve ever walked through “The House of Mirrors” and seen your own reflection bend and twist out of shape, so we should expect to see distortions in humanity (the image of God) this side of the Fall of Man.

Man no longer perfectly images God his creator. We’ve noted already that the institution of marriage is under attack in our own age. And therefore it necessarily follows that so are marital roles. It stands to reason that if people think a marriage may comprise of a same-sex couple, then marital roles must be up for grabs too. It means that people haven’t understood the very essence of marriage. Nor have they understood and believed the very essence of a man and the very essence of a woman.

We’ve already noted the very essence of marriage. When discussing the love of a husband for his wife the Apostle Paul, under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, says in Ephesians 5:32, “This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.”

Marriage is a picture of Christ and His Bride, the Church. To revise and rewrite the marriage manual (as some today are trying to do) is to tamper with a creation ordinance. Put another way, to redefine marriage so that anything other than one man and one woman may be married at any one time is to break the Law of Nature. Clearly it’s to break the Law of God – for sin is the breaking of God’s Moral Law.

However, God instituted marriage. Therefore He wrote the manual for it. And God is the One who put the sexual desire in men and women that marriage is designed to satisfy. So, when sinful men rewrite the book of marriage to accommodate sinful aberrations, (i.e., sexual deviations) they are disobeying the Cultural Mandate to provide a legitimate issue for God. (Not to mention the fact that they are tampering with the very essence of humanity)

Homosexual marriage is a culture of death, not life. It takes a man and a woman to bring forth offspring. If Adam had been given another man for a companion instead of Eve, where would we be today? The human race would have died out!

Now, we know that amazing things can be done in test-tubes and petri dishes in science labs. But marriage is about the two becoming one flesh, which includes sexual intimacy. To be sure, a marriage is still a marriage even when not (Roman Catholically) consummated by the sex act. For Adam was really married to Eve before he “knew” her on their honeymoon.

However, it is through the husband and wife sharing their bodies with each other that produces the legitimate offspring that God wants us to produce. Therefore nature itself rules out same-sex marriage, regardless of the wonders of modern science.

The husband has the role of husband to his own wife, and the wife has the role of wife to her own husband. As Paul says to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 11:8&9, “For man is not from woman, but woman from man. Nor was man created for the woman, but woman for the man.” Feminists hate the fact that God made Eve so that she could be Adam’s helper. But this is simply to confuse the roles of husbands and wives in marriage. For marriage is for mutual help for husband and wife. In other words, the “helper” aspect of marriage is two-way.

We’ve mentioned already that one of the reasons God instituted marriage was for the prevention immorality, or moral impurity – including sexual immorality. God did not create Adam and Eve as infants or children (i.e., without sexual desire), but as mature adults. Mankind was created with God’s Law written on their hearts (Romans 2:14&15), including the 7^th Commandment. “Thou shalt not commit adultery” was written of course in positive terms, such as “Be pure and loyal.” Only adults are able to commit adult-ery. Children are not adults.Therefore children cannot commit adultery.

Not committing adultery or being pure and loyal means also being sexually pure and sexually loyal. Therefore every husband is to be sexually pure and sexually loyal to his own wife. And every wife is to be sexually pure and sexually loyal to her own husband. Therefore this rules out sex outside of marriage and even sex before marriage. How so? Well, it’s because God has ordained marriage for the mutual help of a husband and wife.

Part of that mutual help includes satisfying the sexual desires God has given us. And to try to satisfy those sexual desires outside of the marriage as God has instituted it, is to engage in morally impure thoughts and behaviour. In short, it is to sin; which is to break God’s Moral Law. So, for marriage to work the way God designed it, there needs to be one man and one woman in the marriage at any one time. The male is the husband and the female is the wife.

Now, we hear lots of Christians nowadays brag about having gifts of healing, speaking in tongues, and that kind of thing. Be that as it may, but have you ever heard of any Christian brag that he has the gift of celibacy? We believe that the Apostle Paul, who was probably a widower, had the gift of celibacy. For he says in 1 Corinthians 7:7-9: “For I wish that all men were even as myself. But each one has his own gift from God, one in this manner and another in that. But I say to the unmarried and to the widows: It is good for them if they remain even as I am; but if they cannot exercise self control, let them marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion.” (Albert Barnes comments: “The word unmarried… may refer to those who had never been married, or to widowers.” Barnes’ Notes on the New Testament).

So, there are some adults whom God has given the gift of celibacy, which is to say that they are like little children again, in that they are free from sexual desire, i.e., burning with passion. The gift of celibacy is a good gift for a husband and wife to have for those times when they are apart for a spell, such as when one of them is on an overseas trip, and that kind of thing.

But regarding one of the main reasons for marriage the Apostle says in 1 Corinthians 7:2: “Nevertheless, because of sexual immorality, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband.”

Neither the husband nor the wife wants the gift of celibacy when they are together, unless perhaps there is some physical problem where sexual intimacy has become impossible. And there might of course be times such as that mentioned in 1 Corinthians 7:5. There are times when couples will forgo sexual intimacy, such as for fasting and prayer.

Now, if you keep in mind what marriage is a picture of, you won’t go too far wrong when you try to understand the role of the husband and the role of the wife in marriage. The Apostle Paul in Ephesians 5 spells out the roles in terms of Christ and His Bride, the Church. Wives are to submit to their own husbands, as to the Lord, he says in Ephesians 5:22. Then he explains why: “For the husband is the head of the wife, as also Christ is the head of the church, and He is the Saviour of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let wives be to their own husbands in everything” Ephesians 5:23&24. So you see then, that in order to understand marriage, and even the roles of husband and wife in marriage, you must understand the role of the church in the world. Christ and the church is what marriage is all about.

Therefore the godly wife is a picture of the church. And the godly husband is a picture of Christ. For Paul goes on to say in Ephesians 5:25f. “Husbands ought to love their wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.”

Have you got that? It is the role of the husband to give himself for his wife, which is to say that he is to be about the business of presenting her to the Lord without any spot or wrinkle, i.e., without any moral impurities. In simple terms, the role of the husband is to sanctify and cleanse his own wife with the washing of the Word. The role of the wife is to encourage and let her husband do this. In other words, she’s to treat her husband as if it were the Lord Himself who is teaching her. For is that not the way it is in the Lord’s church? Are we not to be submit ourselves to the Word of Christ as we hear it taught and proclaimed?

Some people think that ecclesiology and church polity are of little significance – “Not a Gospel essential!” is what they say. Well, I put it to you that marriage is a “Gospel essential”. And I say that because the Bible says it! We’ve just briefly noted that one of the reasons God ordained marriage was to furnish the church with a holy offspring. Speaking of a husband and his wife it says in Malachi 2:14b & 15a, “Yet she is your companion and your wife by covenant. But did He not make them one, having a remnant of the Spirit? And why one? He seeks godly offspring.”

Christ and His Church are one. A husband and his wife are one. Christ seeks a holy and godly offspring (also 1 Corinthians 7:14). Therefore marriage is a “Gospel essential.” For godly marriages producing holy and godly offspring is every bit as important as the conversion of non-Christians to Christianity. Are not both about the extension of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth? Both are about the Church submitting to Jesus Christ, her Husband, in the Cultural Mandate of which the Great Commission is the latter day fulfilment

Conclusion

Marriage is a wonderful thing that has been ordained by God. Therefore it needs to be entered into with both eyes wide open. It is lawful for all sorts of people to marry – even non-Christian people! But only those who are able to give their reasoned consent should marry. This rules out chimpanzees!

When is a child able to give its reasoned consent? In other words at what age should people be allowed to marry? Well, that will vary, won’t it? Are there any Biblical reasons why those who have reached child producing and child bearing age should not marry? – i.e., those having reached adult-hood?

Culturally we think fourteen-year-olds shouldn’t marry because they’re too young. Surely the Lord would wish only that a couple be able to give their mature reasoned (i.e., adult) consent. Sixteen is young, but perhaps old enough? Eighteen and over sounds about right? Is there a Biblical basis for this, a precedent? Adam and Eve weren’t even a day old when God married them! But they both were mature adults. Even so, that was a special instance, wasn’t it? But the institution of marriage began with God marrying Adam and Eve. Therefore that’s where we need to begin our study in order to fully understand the essence of marriage.

SPACE & TIME

Space & Time

The title sequence of the old Star Trek television series began with the words, ‘Space, the final frontier.’ The Starship Enterprise’s Captain James T. Kirk was to be to outer-space as were Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett to the American frontier! But what is space, this ‘final frontier’?

The Bible refers to space as ‘the heavens’, e.g. ‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth’ and ‘The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows His handiwork’ Genesis 1:1 & Psalm 19:1. We see then that space is something that God made and we see that He made it in the beginning of time. Thus, both time and space are creatures that God created. Unlike God, neither is eternal. Time began the very moment God created space into which He placed matter.

Vincent van Gogh putting his The Starry Night on canvas is a faint reflection of God creating the heavens and the earth in space and time. ‘He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name’ Psalm 147:4. Truly the heavens do declare the glory of God, ‘“To whom will you compare Me? Or who is My equal?” says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls forth each of them by name. Because of His great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing’ Isaiah 40:25-26. But why did God create space and time?

We’ve already seen that God created the heavens for His own glory. However, Scripture reveals that God is also the great ‘Watchmaker’. ‘Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years…”’ Genesis 1:14. Therefore to explore outer-space is to explore the inner-workings of God’s great cosmic clock! Is the ‘final frontier’ a cuckoo clock then? Or is it like William Paley’s old fob-watch with Roman numerals on its face? Or a LED (Light Emitting Diode) digital watch perhaps? As you trek the starry night does the ‘final frontier’ contain other planets capable of sustaining alien life-forms? On your happy trails will you wrestle a ‘Martian’ as Davy Crockett wrestled a bear?

As you ride the ridges of space keep the following verse in mind, ‘The highest heavens belong to the LORD, but the earth He has given to mankind’ Psalm 115:16. Plant a flag on the moon, on Mars, and fly ‘to infinity and beyond’, but always remember who made the ‘final frontier’ and who owns it. Joseph said, ‘Look, I have dreamed another dream. And this time, the sun, the moon, and the eleven stars bowed down to me’ Genesis 37:9b. One greater than Joseph is here! Everything bows before Him. ‘Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.’ Philippians 2:9-11. ‘But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman’ Galatians 4:4. Jesus is the ‘heavenly Man’ 1 Corinthians 15:48.  He said, ‘I am from above … I am not of this world’ John 8:23.

Space and time belong to Jesus. Nay, Jesus is space and time! He is the ‘final frontier’. Explore Him!

MUSIC

Music

During worship tone-deaf church congregants find solace in the words, ‘Make a joyful noise unto the LORD’ Psalm 100:1a. ‘Noise’ here means calling out loud. According to Scripture the angels did something like this when they worshipped God as He was busy forming creation: ‘Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? … when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy’ Job 38:4a;7. One would expect angels to be tuneful at this point in time! But let us note that music began with the beginning of creation and that it was used first to worship God. Among these ‘morning stars’ or ‘sons of God’ who joyfully praised God was the angel who subsequently would fall and become known as Satan (i.e., the Accuser).

Like human beings, angels are not eternal beings. Thus they are creatures of creation. Scripture does not tell us upon which of the six days of creation they were made. Clearly, however, they were created before God made Adam on the sixth day. Though translations of the original Hebrew differ, the following verse is believed to refer to Satan: ‘You were in Eden, the garden of God … the workmanship of your timbrels and pipes was prepared for you on the day you were created. You were the anointed cherub who covers’ Ezekiel 28:13-14a. If ‘timbrels and pipes’ is an accurate translation, then ‘the anointed cherub who covers’ took his ‘timbrels and pipes’ and began using them for something other than praising God! What influence he had on ‘Jubal … the father of all those who play the harp and flute’ (Genesis 4:21) one can only guess.

Paul calls Satan, ‘the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient’ Ephesians 2:2. Does this mean that all songs and music that do not directly praise God are under the influence of the evil one? Well, all musical compositions ought to glorify God. However, this is not to say it all must outwardly mention God. But it does mean that all music ought to be within God’s moral parameters. In other words, music ought never be used to promote evil!

Many years ago the ‘timbrels [or ‘tabrets, i.e. tambourines] and pipes’ passage was utilised by one section of the church to pushback against those who began installing organs in churches to accompany congregational singing. To this day some (i.e. Exclusive Psalmodists) believe that only items from the 150 Psalms of the Bible ought to be used in worship services – accompanied by no musical instruments whatever. Others would counter this view and advocate for inclusion of other appropriate songs with musical accompaniment by using such as the following verse (that refers to those presently in Heaven), ‘And I heard the sound of harpists playing their harps. They sang as it were a new song before the throne’ Revelation 14:2b-3a.

And did the church shift her focus from directing worship to God when it began ‘singing the Gospel’? Are God’s people singing the Gospel vertically to God or are they singing it horizontally to their neighbour?

It has been said that ‘the devil is in the detail.’ We ought to be careful that he’s not in the music too! But know that Jesus, the Mediator between God and man, is able to transform and to make perfect every flat note of praise that comes from the mouths of His people as it rises from earth and filters through Him unto ‘our Father, which art in Heaven’!

Jesus & A Donkey

The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the king of Israel!” Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, as it is written: “Do not be afraid, Daughter Zion; see, your king is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt.”

At first his disciples did not understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realize that these things had been written about him and that these things had been done to him. Now the crowd that was with him when he called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to spread the word. Many people, because they had heard that he had performed this sign, went out to meet him. So the Pharisees said to one another, “See, this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him!” John 12:12-19.

JESUS & A DONKEY

Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey, a young donkey. They call this “The Triumphal Entry.” This is when the people, not the religious people who wore fancy robes and hung around the Temple at Jerusalem, but the everyday common people, proclaimed Jesus to be their King: “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the king of Israel!”

Why were the common people so enamoured with Jesus? Well, why wouldn’t you be? You’d be waving palm fronds as a sign of praise before Him too if you had seen or heard about Him raising Lazarus from the dead! It says, “Now the crowd that was with Him when He called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to spread the word. Many people, because they had heard that He had performed this sign, went out to meet Him.” 

So here’s a Man, Jesus, who can raise people from the dead, even people who have been dead as long as four days, as was Lazarus. They were calling Jesus the King of Israel. But wait a minute? What’s this? “See, your king is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt.” A king riding on a donkey, not even a full-grown donkey, a donkey’s colt! For it says, “Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it.” 

I like donkeys! P liked donkeys too! She liked Eeyore from the Winnie-the-Pooh stories. A.A. Milne was the author of the Winnie-the-Pooh stories in which Eeyore the donkey featured. He got the idea for Winnie-the-Pooh from his son’s teddy-bear. 

A.A. Milne’s son, Christopher Robin Milne, had named his toy bear after Winnie, a bear he used to see at the London Zoo. (Pooh apparently was a swan he met when he was on holiday.) Anyway, Winnie, the bear in the London Zoo, had come from a place in Manitoba, Canada, called Winnipeg – my three children were born there! Winnipeg was shortened to Winnie, Winnie-the-Pooh.

We probably all can each relate to at least one of the characters who make up Winnie-the-Pooh’s friends. Maybe it’s Winnie-the-Pooh himself, where you just bumble along through life but there’s always a golden honey-pot at the end. Or maybe you’re a bit like Piglet, a bit afraid of everything. Or maybe Tigger, all bouncy and bubbly, and there’s Kanga and Roo, Owl and Rabbit and others, including P’s favourite, Eeyore the donkey.

I don’t know what it was about Eeyore that P could identify with. Eeyore the donkey had a detachable tail and he would invariably lose it somewhere and all his friends would have to help him find it again. Then Christopher Robin would pin the tail on the donkey.

And here’s a quote I found that illustrates how Eeyore thought about things: “The old grey donkey, Eeyore stood by himself in a thistly corner of the Forest, his front feet well apart, his head on one side, and thought about things. Sometimes he thought sadly to himself, ‘Why?’ and sometimes he thought, ‘Wherefore?’ and sometimes he thought, ‘Inasmuch as which?’ and sometimes he didn't quite know what he was thinking about.” 

So we see that sometimes Eeyore would think sadly to himself, “Why?” We ask questions like that at times like this – Why? We don’t always have a ready answer.  Eeyore would most probably say as he often says, “O well – Thanks for noticin’ me.”

But more importantly, what would Jesus say? Well, as He entered Jerusalem on the back of a donkey, the people were certainly noticing Him! And He’d say what He said to Martha, the sister of Lazarus who He raised from the dead, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in Me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in Me will never die.” 

We’ve already read: “At first his disciples did not understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realize that these things had been written about him and that these things had been done to him.”

Are any of us able to understand all of this, any of it? Are you able, as it were, to pin the tail on the donkey? Here’s a Man who can raise people from the dead! Here’s a Man who raised Himself from the dead! Here’s a Man who is promising to resurrect you from the dead just for believing in Him! No wonder the common people are calling Him “King”! 

The Bible teaches that Jesus is God in the flesh, that God the Son became a human being. Here’s God, the King of kings riding on a lowly donkey! He’s not riding on a white charger or in a golden chariot. He is “seated on a donkey’s colt.” He’s a humble and gentle Saviour of all who put their trust in Him. If you draw near to Him He will comfort you in your grief.

(Eeyore picture from web)

CORRECTING CALVIN’S CRITICS

CORRECTING CALVIN’S CRITICS

If you have or have ever had any enemies, you will know that they tend to tell lies about you and invariably paint you in a bad light. John Calvin (1509-64) had and still has lots of enemies. No doubt some hate this man merely because they have listened to some of the lies that have been spread about him.

One of the old canards constantly trotted out by Calvin haters involves a man called Michael Servetus a contemporary of Calvin. As do modern day so-called Jehovah’s Witnesses Servetus followed Arius’s (256-336) view of a non-divine Jesus. In other words, Servetus was in denial that Jesus Christ was the middle Person of the Trinity now in human flesh.

Says John Eidsmoe in footnote 9 on page 1044 of his Historical and Theological Foundations of Law, Volume III Reformation and Colonial, (Nordskog Publishing Inc.) – see:

 https://www.nordskogpublishing.com/product/historical-and-theological-foundations-of-law/

“Calvin’s critics claim he engineered the execution of Servetus, but as J. Steven Wilkins demonstrates, the Geneva city council tried, convicted, and sentenced Servetus without Calvin’s involvement. Servetus had already been sentenced to death in France but had escaped; Calvin had warned Servetus not to come to Geneva, telling him he would not leave the city alive. Several Catholic cities wanted to try Servetus for heresy, and when the Geneva authorities gave him a choice of being tried in Geneva or being sent to Vienna, Servetus chose Geneva. The council found him guilty of denying the Trinity and teaching and printing other false doctrines and sentenced him to be burned at the stake. Calvin tried unsuccessfully to persuade the council to commute the sentence from burning to beheading; failing in that, he visited Servetus in his last hours and prayed with him. Significantly, Servetus was the only heretic to be burned in Geneva during Calvin’s lifetime, while thousands of heretics were executed elsewhere. J. Steven Wilkins, Calvin v. Servetus (1998); William Wileman, Calvin and Servetus.

          Francis Nigel Lee writes of the same Servetus incident,

“Servetus had blasphemously described the most blessed Trinity as a three-headed dog and a monster from hell! Yet even at a time when the Catholic Inquisition was seeking to slay Servetus and every Protestant city in Europe had expelled him or condemned him, Calvin corresponded with him and sent him a copy of his Institutes. For Calvin sought to win Servetus to Christ!

“Knowing full well that Calvin favoured the punishment of exile for heretics and the death penalty for blasphemers, the wretched Servetus arrogantly made his way to Geneva planning to overthrow Calvin and de-christianize the city. Put on trial by the civil magistrates of Geneva (and not by Calvin who was neither a judge nor a citizen of that city) Servetus was found guilty of blasphemy and sedition and sentenced to death by burning. Calvin unsuccessfully tried to get Servetus to recant his errors. When Servetus would not recant, Calvin pleaded for a milder form of punishment. And later still, Calvin also pleaded with Servetus in his death cell to get right with God and accept the Divine Christ as his Lord and Master!

“Rarely in the annals of history has so much evangelical concern ever been shown to such a monstrous miscreant, as Calvin showed to Michael Servetus, enemy of Christ and Christianity and of public law and order! Even during that highly intolerant age, the gentle Calvin tenderly yet firmly presented Christ and His salvation to the very man who had sought to destroy him!” – Francis Nigel Lee, John Calvin True Presbyterian, Jesus Lives Series, pp. 17-18.

          Gerald Christian Nordskog made the very observant connection between Calvin visiting Servetus in jail and Dr Lee (just quoted above) visiting his father’s murderer in jail! Says Gerald,

“As our dear brother Francis Nigel Lee was so compassionate and loving to his dad’s murderer, leading the man to Christ while he was in jail....... he obviously was touched by this Calvin pursuing the evil man even in jail. Dr. Lee had the same characteristics in this regard as the great theologian of Calvin's Institutes.” (In an email to me.)

(See Gerald Christian Nordskog’s Christian Books Website at Nordskog Publishing Inc.: https://www.nordskogpublishing.com/

(See Dr. Lee’s Brothers Because of Bloodshed at: http://www.dr-fnlee.org/brothers-because-of-bloodshed/

And Dr. Lee’s The Sovereignty of God in the Salvation of my Father’s Slayer at: http://www.dr-fnlee.org/the-sovereignty-of-god-in-the-salvation-of-my-fathers-slayer/

          So, far from being the flaming-torch wielding burner of heretics as portrayed by Calvin-haters and the ignorant, Calvin was instead a lover of all God’s image-bearers, including those who vehemently disagreed with him such as Servetus, and evangelically and compassionately sought their humane treatment and, if not more, just as importantly, their salvation.

Allen Guelzo says in a review of Alister E. McGrath’s A Life of John Calvin: A Study of the Shaping of Western Culture,

“There is no sense in which McGrath’s Calvin could be mistaken for a Geneva Jim Jones: Calvin had little personal authority with the city council and no legal political standing or following (as a foreigner, he had no vote or voice in Genevan politics), and could rely only on the persuasiveness of his own ideas and preaching to carry his reforms forward. In making these points, McGrath clearly throws the notorious arrest and execution of Michael Servetus into the lap of Geneva’s secular leadership at a time when that leadership was hardly more sympathetic to Calvin than it was to Servetus; and he rightly stresses (as other biographers have not) that Servetus’ execution was due as much to his anarchical Anabaptism as to disagreements with Calvin on the Trinity.” (A Life of John Calvin: A Study of the Shaping of Western Culture by Alister E. McGrath, Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1990) Reviewed by Allen Guelzo. See: 

http://www.touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=05-04-038-b

Says Professor Roy Clouser,

“Re the execution of Servetus: Since Calvin is often accused of ordering Servetus be burned at the stake, I think it apropos to mention that it is one of the many lies about the Reformers that has been repeated over & over.

“First, it is important to note that Calvin never held a political office in Geneva. Indeed, as a foreign national and not a Swiss citizen, he was not even eligible for office. Geneva was ruled by a town Council, which hired Calvin to perform certain duties. One of these was to interview Servetus after he’d been asked to leave Geneva & refused. I have read (a translation of) the letter that Calvin wrote to the Council following the interview. In it he confirms that Servetus is a heretic, but recommends that ‘the sentence not be carried out’. I also found the letter he wrote to the Council after it condemned Servetus to be burned. In it Calvin said that if they insisted on executing Servetus it should not be by burning ‘which is a cruel and inhumane method of execution’. The council again ignored Calvin.

“BTW, I’ve also read accusations about how Calvin was supposed to have used state power to enforce church attendance. The fact is, however, that he opposed the political party that wanted to make the church of Geneva (in which he was a pastor) the state church. When that party was elected anyway, Calvin left Geneva for 6 years in protest and returned only after it was voted out. He regarded such a law was an intolerable intrusion of the state into matters that belonged properly to the church.

“There is a fine recent book on the Reformation that I’ve found helpful titled ‘The Reformation World’, Ed Pettegree London: Routledge, 2000). (The letters were contained in a multi-volume set titled ‘Calvin’s Correspondence’ which I found in the library of Princeton Theological Seminary.)” Letter (10 Oct 2003) from Prof Roy Clouser on ‘Thinknet’ Dooyeweerdian discussion forum.

          In a day when there is so much “Fake News” being bandied around, it is a good and honourable thing to seek the truth of the matter rather than lazily listening to the haters. Always remember that Satan is the father of lies and that Jesus Christ is the Truth. Honour Him!

(Photo of two unashamed Calvinists)

Compassionate Calvin

(Excerpted from my The Nexus: The True Nature of Nature, which compares and contrasts Darwin's view of nature with that of Calvin): 

https://www.amazon.com/NEXUS-True-Nature-ebook/dp/B006WHGINI/ref=la_B006NTVAWY_1_13?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1500685189&sr=1-13&refinements=p_82%3AB006NTVAWY

John Calvin (1509-64) systematized the Christian Religion at the time when the Church that had become very deformed under the papacy and Roman Catholicism, was being reformed. Reformed Christianity, to which I adhere, began at the time of the great Reformation – a time of getting back to what the Bible really teaches.

Perhaps you have been inoculated against Reformed Christianity and the Christian worldview. Perhaps some portion of misinformation propagated by anti-Christians such as Michel Onfray or Richard Dawkins has so gotten stuck in your craw that it causes you to spit whenever you hear Calvin’s name mentioned! A small sample of the teeth gnashing and vitriol spewing that the name of Calvin causes in some can be found in the following caricature of Calvin 

and some of his Biblical understandings, as painted by the Darwinist and ‘journalist’ Christopher Hitchens,

"According to the really extreme religious totalitarians, such as John Calvin, who borrowed his awful doctrine from Augustine, an infinity of punishment can be awaiting you even before you are born. Long ago it was written which souls would be chosen or ‘elected’ when the time came to divide the sheep from the goats. No appeal against this primordial sentence is possible, and no good works or profession of faith can save one who has not been fortunate enough to be picked. Calvin’s Geneva was a prototypical totalitarian state, and Calvin himself a sadist and torturer and killer, who burned Servetus (one of the great thinkers and questioners of the day) while the man was still alive. The lesser wretchedness induced in Calvin’s followers, compelled [them] to waste their lives worrying if they had been ‘elected’ or not…"

              Hitchens goes on to state that he has had some crazy people phone him ‘with hoarse voices condemning me to death or hell or both’ … And of ‘the eternal blackening of my name by religious frauds and liars.’ Crazy people are crazy whatever their worldview, but, in the interest of truth, sanity, and the un-blackening of the name of John Calvin, Francis Nigel Lee sets the record straight,

"Servetus had blasphemously described the most blessed Trinity as a three-headed dog and a monster from hell! Yet even at a time when the Catholic Inquisition was seeking to slay Servetus and every Protestant city in Europe had expelled him or condemned him, Calvin corresponded with him and sent him a copy of his Institutes. For Calvin sought to win Servetus to Christ!

"Knowing full well that Calvin favoured the punishment of exile for heretics and the death penalty for blasphemers, the wretched Servetus arrogantly made his way to Geneva planning to overthrow Calvin and de-christianize the city. Put on trial by the civil magistrates of Geneva (and not by Calvin who was neither a judge nor a citizen of that city) Servetus was found guilty of blasphemy and sedition and sentenced to death by burning. Calvin unsuccessfully tried to get Servetus to recant his errors. When Servetus would not recant, Calvin pleaded for a milder form of punishment. And later still, Calvin also pleaded with Servetus in his death cell to get right with God and accept the Divine Christ as his Lord and Master!

                "Rarely in the annals of history has so much evangelical concern ever been shown to such a monstrous miscreant, as Calvin showed to Michael Servetus, enemy of Christ and Christianity and of public law and order! Even during that highly intolerant age, the gentle Calvin tenderly yet firmly presented Christ and His salvation to the very man who had sought to destroy him!" 

TEENAGERS

Teenagers

Should parents brace themselves and expect trouble when their children become teenagers? Well, first off it shocks me to hear parents say that they are trying to raise their children without outwardly influencing them, so that they can ‘decide for themselves’ which religion or what they want to believe when they are older! However, the Bible makes it plain that Christian parents are to ‘Train up the child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it’ Proverbs 22:6. To paraphrase in broad terms: ‘Catechise the child on which way you want them to go, and when he starts to sprout a beard or when she begins to menstruate, he or she will continue to obey what you have taught them.’ Thus, Christian parents ought not to expect that little Johnny or Jenny will automatically ‘go off the rails’ at puberty or beyond!

But what are teenagers faced with in the ‘real world’? Promiscuity and pregnancy, drug and alcohol-dependency, bawdy-songs? or, as they say, ‘sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll!’? Teens ought not to be left to experiment and make up their own minds about these things. For obviously this simply is asking for trouble. Sex is not evil. Neither are drugs. The same way that not all rock ‘n’ roll consists of bawdy songs! Rather than an outright condemnation of ‘sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll’, the Bible simply sets the parameters. Parents are to train up their children in these areas, i.e., warn them of the dangers of the illicit use and abuse of sex and drugs (and drink), and how a lot of modern pop-music accompanies and encourages and even glorifies an ungodly life-style.

If the old adage is true that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, then teenagers must be impressionable! If older people get ‘set in their ways’, then we must point our children in the way they should go during their formative years. Teenagers apparently love to leave the church in droves. How should we retain our youth? Introduce rock ‘n’ roll sounding bands? ‘The Scriptural formula for keeping teenagers in Church is to catechize them as infants.’ Richard Bacon.

Presbyterians have been making good use of the Westminster Shorter Catechism for well over three hundred years to train up their children in the way they should go. In a series of 107 questions and answers it simply teaches what the Bible has to say about each question raised. E.g., Westminster Shorter Catechism 9: ‘Quest. What is the work of creation? Ans. The work of creation is, God’s making all things out of nothing, by the word of His power, in the space of six days, and all very good.’ I chose this example to illustrate something of the problem teenagers face today. Did God create everything out of nothing? Did He simply command things into being? Did He do it over the space of six days? And was everything ‘very good’ in the beginning? The untrained and unequipped, i.e., the un-catechised teenager, will have all their bones broken in pieces and will be eaten alive if he or she falls into the lion’s den of non-Christian education! But Daniel said, ‘Praise be to the name of God forever and ever; wisdom and power are His… He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning. He reveals deep and hidden things… You have given me wisdom and power.’ Daniel 2:20-23.

           Teenagers need to know how to negotiate life’s journey. Therefore, let us teach them how to glorify God and enjoy Him forever