To
Rescue the American Spirit, Teddy Roosevelt and The Birth of a Superpower by Brett Baier with Catherine
Whitney succeeds in its intention of rescue.
If the
story of the asthmatic child who became American president is not enough to get
the armchair politician up off his seat to pensively pace the room, surely the
tales of Teddy the American ‘Rough Rider’, the African safari hunter, the
Amazon jungle explorer, and the many other ‘Boys’ Own’ testosterone fuelled adventures
described in the book will get the reader to saddle up and go west young man.
Books
aplenty have been written about President Teddy Roosevelt. But in an age when
young men face taunts of 'toxic masculinity’ simply just for being born male,
this book is a must read.
Teddy
Roosevelt exemplifies the spirit of that which made America great: Loving
husband and doting father, family man, loyal and forgiving friend, overcomer of
flaws and failures, fearless defender of freedom at home and abroad, lover of
God and country, a true patriot indeed!
Baier
quotes from the eulogy Henry Cabot Lodge delivered upon the death of his friend:
“This is not the place to speak of his private
life, but within that sacred circle no man was ever more blessed in the utter
devotion of a noble wife and the passionate love of his children. The absolute
purity and beauty of his family life tell us why the pride and interest which
his fellow countrymen felt in him were always touched with the warm light of
love. In the home so dear to him, in his sleep, death came to him, and – So Valiant-for-Truth
passed over and all the trumpets sounded for him on the other side.”
Valiant-for-Truth was the courageous hero in The
Pilgrim’s Progress, a literary reference loved by Roosevelt. Pgs. 351-2
(hardback).
Well done
Teddy Roosevelt and well done Brett Baier and Catherine Witney for providing
such a readable account of this remarkable man’s inspiring life and legacy.
When
it comes to God, the term ‘ignorance of law excuses no one’ is
especially true, and ‘ignorance is bliss’
is especially untrue. According to the Bible, everyone knows God’s law because
He has written it on humanity’s heart. Our consciences constantly remind us of
such. The Gentiles ‘show that the requirements of the law are written on their
hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes
accusing them and at other times even defending them.’ (Rom. 2:15). Therefore, no
one is ignorant of God’s law. It is part of our being created in His image and
likeness (Gen. 1:27; James 3:9). In short, God has written His Ten Commandments on our hearts, first as revelation of Himself and secondly as an expression of
His character which we are to emulate on earth.
God’s law has to do with love. Its summary is that each
of us is to love God and our neighbour as ourselves. It is in this love aspect
of God’s law that we all have gone awry. For, contrary to how God designed us,
no one loves God and neighbour perfectly. Indeed, here we may say that some
love ignorance more than God. ‘The fool has said in his heart, there is no God’
(Psa. 14:1). However, this feigned ignorance is no excuse. ‘For the wrath
of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can
be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For
His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine
nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in
the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they
knew God, they did not honour Him as God or give thanks to Him, but
they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were
darkened’ (Rom. 1:18-21). We see then the truthfulness of ‘ignorance of law excuses no one’, and, in this context, the
untruthfulness that ‘ignorance is bliss’.
Bliss, even eternal bliss, as opposed to wrath,
eternal wrath, only comes through having a loving relationship with God, which
relationship comes through a saving knowledge of God. At its most basic ‘saving
knowledge’ comes through a correct understanding of Jesus Christ, as in who He
is and what He came into the world to do. He is God, and He came into the world
to save sinners. It is precisely at this basic level that so much ignorance has
crept in like a stray black cat on a moonless night. The Bible is very clear
that Jesus is God (John 1:1), and that He is God the Son, the middle Person in
the Trinity (Matt. 28:19). However, like people with cat allergies, so humanity
is allergic to the living and true God – unless and until the Spirit of God
opens our eyes to Him. To do this, ordinarily, the Spirit works with the Word;
yes, through pulpit preaching and teaching, Bible reading and study, and word
of mouth via Christian contact.
Like darkness being darkest just before the dawn, so is our
ignorance of God just before we encounter Jesus, the Light of the world.
Only then do we realise that we have been set free from the dank and dark
dungeon of our own sin. The Father says of His Son, who became flesh and dwelt
among us, ‘I will keep You and will make You to be a covenant for the people and
a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from
prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness’ (Isa. 42:6b-7).
Don’t make ignorance your excuse. Show that you love
God by calling out to Jesus to set you free from you self-imposed ignorance.
For
the director of music. A psalm of David. When the prophet Nathan came to him
after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba.
1 Have
mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great
compassion blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash
away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For
I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.
4 Against
you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight;
so
you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge.
5 Surely
I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
6 Yet
you desired faithfulness even in the womb; you taught me wisdom in that secret
place.
7 Cleanse
me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Let
me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
9 Hide
your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity.
10 Create
in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
11 Do
not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore
to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
13 Then
I will teach transgressors your ways, so that sinners will turn back to you.
14 Deliver
me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, you who are God my Saviour, and my
tongue will sing of your righteousness.
15 Open
my lips, Lord, and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 You
do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in
burnt offerings.
17 My
sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you,
God, will not despise.
18 May
it please you to prosper Zion, to build up the walls of Jerusalem.
19 Then
you will delight in the sacrifices of the righteous, in burnt offerings offered
whole; then bulls will be offered on your altar.
Introduction
Psalm 51 is David’s prayer for restoration with God. It
is fairly well-known among Christians. However, I wonder how many of you know
that it is a basic “Repent and believe in the Gospel” message? By basic, I mean
that David gets convicted by God’s Law and then he seeks the forgiveness
promised in the Gospel.
By God’s Law we mean His Ten Commandments and by God’s
Gospel we mean the righteousness that God grants to the sinner through faith.
Therefore, Psalm 51 is a Gospel presentation in which Nathan the Prophet
illustrates to us how to do it.
You’ll notice how Psalm 51 is introduced: “For
the director of music”? Obviously, this Psalm is meant to be
sung! But let’s look at the words: “A psalm of David. When the prophet
Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba.”
So, there’s the context. The title of my message is Gospel
Guidance. There is so much we could look at in this psalm, but we’ll
restrict ourselves to three points: 1 The Commandments, 2 TheConfrontation,
and 3 The Conversion.
1.The Commandments
In
any basic Gospel presentation, you need to assume that the other person is a
sinner, that they have broken God’s Law. “Everyone who sins breaks the law; in
fact, sin is lawlessness” (1 John 3:4). So, we’re talking about God’s Law here,
the Ten Commandments, the Decalogue.
David
is feeling the weight of His sins as the Holy Spirit works with His Word in
David’s heart. David says in verse 8, “Let me hear joy and gladness; let the
bones you have crushed rejoice.”
When
I pastored a church in Central Queensland, I learned what a “cattle-crusher” is.
The “cattle crush” was a kind of metal squeeze box, a huge clamp, that held the
bull, cow, or steer, in place so that you could brand it or administer whatever
to it. Because of his sin and his awakened conscience, David has been caught in
the Holy Spirit’s “sinner-crusher” so hard that he feels as if his bones are
being crushed by God!
Image from Web
Like
someone the morning after the night before! We’ve got no sympathy for you
David! Ya brung it on yourself! It was self-inflicted David!
Now, as you know, the Gospel is about us being saved from
God’s punishment for breaking His Law. That’s what Jesus was doing. He lived a
perfect life by keeping God’s Law perfectly on behalf of all who trust in Him
alone for salvation. He paid the penalty that believers each owe God for
breaking His Commandments.
Christ receives our sins and we believers receive His
righteousness. This transaction happens when we, by the grace of God, do what
Jesus commands us to do when He says, “Repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark
1:15). This is essentially what’s going on in with David Psalm 51. He has
broken God’s Law. He has repented and he has believed in the good news.
So, we need to paint a bit of a background. Most
Christians have heard the story about David and Bathsheba. You can read all
about in 2 Samuel chapters 11 and 12.
In brief, Bathsheba is taking a bath on the rooftop of
her house, as you do! And King David, who was supposed to be out fighting the
enemies of Israel with his men, was at home instead with a pair of binoculars voyeuring!
OK, he didn’t have a telescope or binoculars, but you are getting the picture.
So, which Commandment, at this point, was he breaking?
He’s watching Bathsheba. “You shall not covet your neighbour’s house. You shall
not covet your neighbour’s wife…” etc. The 10th Commandment (Exod.
20:17).
So, Bathsheba is splish, splash, she is taking a bath,
and David likes what he is seeing. He is coveting, sexually desiring, he is
lusting after Bathsheba. She is what you call beautiful! Don’t go there in your
mind! It’s kryptonite! Jesus says, “But I tell you that
anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her
in his heart” (Matt. 5:28).
David is told that Bathsheba is “the daughter of Iliam
and the wife of Uriah the Hittite” (2 Sam. 11:3). Not to let a little thing
like marriage get in the way, he sends for her. The plot thickens.
Bathsheba has just finished her time of monthly uncleanness.
So, she comes to David, and they sleep together. And, unlike the Highland
Fling, “it takes two to Tango” as they say. Bathsheba didn’t play hard to get. And
David at this point already has three wives. Anyway, after this encounter, this
tryst, we are told that “The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, ‘I
am pregnant’” (2 Sam. 11:5).
They’ve both broken the 7th Commandment, ‘You
shall not commit adultery” (Exod. 20:14), which itself back then was worthy of
the death penalty. And now David is planning on breaking the 6th
Commandment, ‘You shall not murder” (Exod. 20:13). Which is another death
penalty Commandment! Oh, and David has also stolen Uriah’s wife. So, he
has also broken the 9th Commandment, ‘You shall not steal” (Exod.
20:15).
What a mess! As the old song says, “Just one look,
that’s all it took, just one look!” David should’ve done what Job did. “I
made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a young woman” (Job
31:11). And Jesus says, “For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that
evil thoughts come – sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery,
greed” (Mark 7:21-22). Which Commandments has David broken? The Theft, Murder,
Adultery, and Greed Commandments. And from where do these evil thoughts come. “It
is from within, out of a person’s heart.”
So,
David has broken God’s Commandments, and his conscience has been bothering him.
The weight of his sin has been crushing him so painfully he feels as if his
bones have been broken, crushed.
The
Spirit working with the Word has done His job of convicting David. God’s Law
has made him ready for, nay, God’s Law has made him cry out with tears of
repentance for God’s mercy. And where do we find the mercy of God? – In His
Gospel.
Enter
Nathan, the Lord’s Prophet.
2
The Confrontation
Now,
some Christians think that giving a Gospel presentation means that you tell
people that the fires of Hell await them. That they must “turn or burn”. This
is what you might call a “sledgehammer” approach to evangelism! Others go for
the softer approach and tell people that God has a great plan for their life if
only they would invite Jesus into their heart!
I
remember before I was a Christian being evangelized by some Jehovah’s
Witnesses, who don’t believe in Hell. I said to them, “You mean that I can rape
and pillage, rob banks, live a debauched life, and nothing happens to me when I
die?” “But don’t you want to live forever on the new Earth?” So, the choice
they gave me was “lights out forever”, which just seems like something an
atheist would be happy with, or “soul sleep and wake up in Paradise.” Sin all
you like because there’s no Judgment Day or slavishly try to be good enough so
that God might perhaps possibly let you into Paradise? None of this has to do
with the Gospel!
Here's
what was happening with David. Verses 3 & 4, “For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and
done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified
when you judge.”
There’s
a verse from the Book of Numbers that applies here, “You may be sure that your
sin will find you out” (Num. 32:23b). Yeah, it applies to us too!
David
coveted a woman, stole his neighbour’s wife, committed adultery with her, and had
her husband killed. And now she is with child, his child. This is when the Word
of God comes to him via Nathan the Prophet.
Nathan
doesn’t tell David to “turn or burn”! Nor does he tell David to just to work
really hard at trying to be good and then God may take a shine to him. No! Nathan
tells David a wee story, a story that David can relate to. That’s how Nathan
presented the Gospel to David.
Nathan
engages David with something David knows a great deal about. That’s how we
should do it. Now, we acknowledge that there’re certain major differences
between God sending His prophet to His backslidden king and you and me
attempting to share the Gospel with someone. However, the general principle is
much the same.
We
should engage people where they’re at, with things they know about through
life’s experience. The butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker! Oh, you’re a
butcher? How hard would it have been for Abraham to cut those animals in half
when God cut a covenant with him? What covenant? And off you go with the
Gospel.
Oh,
you’re a baker? What is the difference in leavened and unleavened bread where
Jesus says, “Take, eat, this is My body broken for you”? And off you go with
the Gospel.
A
candlestick maker? Well, you might need to Google that one! But Jesus says that
we are not to hide our light under a bushel. And off you go with the Gospel
about Jesus coming into the world and being the light of the world. It’s not “rocket
surgery”. Just engage the person in conversation on what they know about,
because that’s what they’re interested in.
A
more confrontational approach might be: Mr Butcher. Have you ever dressed
mutton up as lamb? Mr Baker, what’s a baker’s dozen? In other words, have you
ever shortchanged anyone? Have you ever stolen? Have you ever told a lie? So,
it’s not hard to use God’s Commandments in evangelism.
Ray
Comfort says, “Knowing that God has seen your thought-life and every deed done
in darkness, will you be innocent or guilty on Judgment Day? You know you will
be guilty. So, will you end up in heaven or hell?
“The
Law brings individuals to a point of seeing that they have sinned against God –
that His wrath abides on them. It causes them to see that their own “goodness”
can’t save them. It stops their mouth of justification (Romans 3:19), and
prepares the heart for the good news of the gospel.”Ray Comfort, The
Evidence Bible, 50.
It’s
all to do with the Spirit working with His Word in the individual’s conscience.
God’s Commandments convict and God’s Gospel of forgiveness is the balm, the
ointment that soothes the convicted conscience and heals the feelings of crushed-ness
and broken bones.
Nathan
knew he was dealing with a sinner when he was confronting David. And we know
that we too are dealing with sinners anytime we try to Gospelise anyone. So,
whether they are backslidden Christians or just your basic unbelievers always
remember that Jesus is the Saviour of sinners. Therefore, people need to
know what they are being saved from – the death and Hell penalty for breaking
God’s Law.
Yes,
the Gospel is confrontational.
3
The Conversion
Nathan
tells David a story which leads David to repent of his sins and believe in the
Gospel. He tells David a parable about a poor family that owned a pet lamb. The
lamb would eat with them and sleep in the same bed with them. A rich neighbour
with large flocks sees the lamb, steals it, and has it slaughtered just to feed
some of his guests.
David,
what should happen to the man who did this? David gets all self-righteous. It
says in 2 Samuel, “David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan,
‘As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this must die! He
must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no
pity.’” (2 Sam. 12:5-6).
O
David! O David! “Then Nathan said to David, ‘You are the man!’” (2 Sam. 12:7f.).
Then Nathan lists all the things that that Lord had done for David. Among other
things Nathan says that the Lord says, “I gave your master’s house to you, and
your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you all Israel and Judah. And if all
this had been too little, I would have given you even more” (2 Sam. 12:8).
The
penny drops with David. The Spirit with the Word has convicted David in his
heart. He has shown David his hypocrisy. The self-righteous mask has been torn
from David’s face. He has been exposed. His sin has found him out. So, he
“fesses” up. Then “David said to Nathan, ‘I have sinned against the Lord.’
God’s
Law has done its job of conviction. So, here comes the Gospel. So, because of
David’s repentant attitude, Nathan replied, ‘The Lord has taken away
your sin. You are not going to die” (2 Sam. 12:13).
This
means, of course, that David will not receive the death penalty. However, this
is because God has forgiven him his sins, which also means that he won’t
receive the Hell penalty! He has been granted everlasting life!
So,
what we have here in Psalm 51 is David’s confession of his guilt and his plea
for mercy. He does what we all are supposed to do, as Jesus commands us
to do, where He says, “Repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15).
Therefore,
if and when your conscience bothers you, when the Word of God convicts
you, even if you are a Christian, do what David did, “Repent and believe in the
Gospel.”
God’s
Law is about justice and God’s Gospel is about mercy. David cries out to God
for mercy not justice! He says, in verses 1 and 2, 1 “Have
mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great
compassion blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash away all
my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.”
Image from Web
Back
in 1990, when I had just newly arrived in Australia, a couple of guys from
church invited me to go for a walk through the bush. I thought it would be a
great way to see the flora and fauna of Australia. I walked into a huge
spider’s web strung between two gumtrees! I remember thinking, “What size are
your spiders?”
David
has entangled himself in his own web of sin woven by the spider that dwells in
David’s own heart. The heart spins a web of deceit. James says, “Each person is
tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and
enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin,
when it is full-grown, gives birth to death” (James 1:14-15). David wants the Lord
to remove the sticky web of sin from him.
My
wife laughs when I refer to the Internet as the Interweb! Whether it’s a net or
a web be very careful with it. Don’t let it entangle you in sin!
David
goes from being self-righteous, like the Pharisee in the Parable of the Tax
collector, to being like the humble tax collector.
“The
Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: “God, I thank you that I am not like
other people – robbers, evildoers, adulterers – or even like this tax
collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.” ‘But the tax
collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat
his breast and said, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” (Luke 18:11-13).
Speaking
of marriage, I once sent into Births, Deaths, and Marriages the marriage
details of a marriage I had conducted. I got told off for using whiteout to
cover a mistake I had made. Apparently, the whiteout flakes off after a few
years.
In
verses 1 and 9 David wants his transgressions and iniquities blotted out. Are
you like me? Do you think that you’d need more than whiteout to blot out your
sins? A few pails of whitewash paint? Well, like David, we need the blood of
Christ to cleanse us of all our iniquities. “What can wash away my sin? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus.”
This
is what David means in verses 2 and 7 where he says, “2 Wash
away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin” and “7 Cleanse
me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.”
In the Old Testament, like a long paintbrush, the hyssop was to be dipped in
the blood of the lamb and was used for ritual cleansing and purification.
At
the first Passover, Israel was to “slaughter the Passover lamb. Take a bunch of
hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top
and on both sides of the door-frame” (Exod. 12:21-22). And no doubt Moses used
it in Exodus 24, “Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and
said, ‘This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with
you in accordance with all these words” (Exod. 24:8).
This
blood-sprinkling is spoken of in the New Testament where it says, e.g., “Let us
draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith
brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and
having our bodies washed with pure water” (Heb. 10:22) and “Chosen according to
the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the
Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood” (1 Pet. 1:2).
So,
when David says to the Lord, “Cleanse me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash
me, and I shall be whiter than snow” he is not talking about having whiteout
applied to his sin, or buckets of whitewash covering his iniquities. He is
talking about the blood of Christ cleansing his heart by blotting out his sins
and giving him a clear conscience.
That’s
what happens whenever someone like David or you or me repents and believes in
the Gospel!
Conclusion
Remember,
David wrote this psalm, Psalm 51, so that we could all sing God’s praises about
the time he repented of his sins and believed in the Gospel. Therefore, if you
or I or anyone you know were to repent of our sins and believe in the gospel,
we too would have the blood that Christ shed on the cross sprinkled over all
your sins blotting them out forever.
Today is January 1. Dear Christian, as you are putting on
the whole armour of God (Eph. 6:11-17) to face the day and the year ahead, think
of Patrick donning his breastplate…
The Westminster
Standards are the documents that were drawn up by the Westminster Assembly
in 1643–1649. The Westminster Confession of Faith, the Westminster Larger
and Shorter Catechisms, the Directory of Public Worship, and the Form of Church
Government are all included. These Standards were to do with Christian doctrine
and church polity, which formed the basis for uniformity of religion for the United
Kingdom of the 1600s, and by extension, the whole of the British Empire from
that time forward.
The following from The Westminster Directory for Publick (sic) Worship,
(Of Public Prayer before the Sermon) is very relevant in a day in which
militant Islam is brazenly and unashamedly attacking and even killing Jews in relatively
peaceful places such as Australia. Note that we are to pray for “the conversion
of the Jews” and deliverance from the cruel Turk (i.e., Islam), yes, and we are
even to pray for Australia! and for the removal of heresy, heresy being that
which does not conform to the Westminster Standards.
“To
pray for the propagation of the gospel and kingdom of Christ to all nations;
for the conversion of the Jews, the fulness of the Gentiles… for the
deliverance of the distressed churches abroad from the tyranny of the
antichristian faction, and from the cruel oppressions and blasphemies of
the Turk; for the blessing of God upon the reformed churches, especially upon
the churches and kingdoms of Scotland, England, and Ireland, now more strictly
and religiously united in the Solemn National League and Covenant; and for
our plantations in the remote parts of the world: more particularly for that
church and kingdom whereof we are members, that therein God would… prevent
and remove heresy, schism…” (Abbreviated.)
We see that, unlike Islamism,
which is called blasphemy, there is special place for Jews. In accordance with
the Westminster Standards, we are to pray for their conversion. We would
contend that the reformed churches have been somewhat slack in this regard. The
attack of militant Islamists killing fifteen Jews and wounding even more on the iconic Bondi Beach, Australia on the Lord's Day (Sunday, 14th December 2025) has left us
wanting.
In some ways in Western nations
the Jews have become “the canary in the coalmine.” As has been illustrated too many
times to deny, “the cruel oppressions and blasphemies of the Turk [i.e., Islamists]”
have an especial hatred toward the Jews. Yet, we are to “pray for the
conversions of the Jews.” Why are we to pray for the deliverance from the
cruel oppressions and blasphemies of militant Islam while praying for the
conversion of the Jews? The answer lies in the Bible. However, in brief, the former are
the oppressors while the latter are oppressed. Christianity is, or ought to be, a buffer zone between.
Christian countries,
while praying for the conversion of Jews, should offer them protection from
persecuting forces such as militant Islam. However, many Christian churches do
not pray for the conversion of the Jews, believing instead that they already
are “Gods chosen people”, and as such, do not need to be converted to Christ!
This, of course, means that we ought also to be praying that “God would… prevent
and remove heresy, schism…” To know what constitutes “heresy” we would therefore
need to (re)familiarise ourselves with the much neglected Westminster
Standards!
Let us revisit that which
we have already noted is in The Directory of Public Worship, only this time as
it is stated in the Westminster Larger Catechism.
In its exposition of The
Lord’s Prayer, the Westminster “Divines” wrote:
Q.
191. What do we pray for in the second petition?
A.
In the second petition (which is, Thy kingdom come,) acknowledging
ourselves and all mankind to be by nature under the dominion of sin and Satan, we
pray, that the kingdom of sin and Satan may be destroyed, the gospel
propagated throughout the world, the Jews called, the fulness of the
Gentiles brought in… (Abbreviated)
So, again we see that
included in The Lord’s Prayer is that we are to pray for the Jews to be called.
The “prooftext” appended to this line is Romans 10:1, “Brethren, my heart's
desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.” For the
related, “the fulness of the Gentiles brought in,” is included the “prooftext”
Romans 11:25-26, “For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this
mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is
happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all
Israel shall be saved: as it is written, there shall come out of Sion the
Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.”
Commenting on the words “the
Jews called” in the Westminster Larger Catechism, GI Williamson puts his
finger on the confusion in the churches today where he says,
It
is very important that a clear distinction be made between the return of many
Jews to the land of Palestine and the return of many Jews to the God of the
Bible. It is true, of course, that in God’s providence there is again – after nearly
2,000 years – a Jewish state in Palestine. It is for this reason that many
Fundamentalist Christians refer to the Jews as “God’s people” and their return
to the land as a fulfillment of Bible prophesies. But it is not true that Jews
who reject Jesus as the promised Messiah are God’s people. No, the true Israel
of God is the Christian church. It is that people who believe in Jesus as the
Christ of God. In the early days of the church’s history it was predominantly
Jewish (as the Book of Acts shows). Into that Jewish church the Gentiles were
engrafted, becoming “fellow citizens with the saints and members of the
household of God" (Eph. 2:19). It is only when the Jews – whether individually
or en masse – return to the Messiah of God that we can rightly speak of them as
“the people of God.”[1]If
If we are to pray for “the
conversion of the Jews” it would be good to know who the Jews are. How does one
become a Jew? Is it through birth or conversion or both? If Atheist Jews are
still Jews, then it must be through birth, but if you or I can become a Jew,
then it must be through conversion. However, what does any of this have to do
with the nation of Israel that was founded in 1948? If you or I convert to
become a Jew, apparently, we would qualify to become citizens of Israel. Therefore,
being a Jew is about birth and conversion. David E. Holwerda speaks of the difficulty
of decerning who we are to pray for where he says,
Who
is a Jew? The answers vary greatly and contradict each other. Some claim that a
Jew is one who is born a Jew, while others assert that no one can be born a Jew
because being a Jew is a matter of decision, a matter of religion or of
fulfilling a messianic purpose. Defining “Israel” or “Jew” is, then, an
extremely difficult task.[1]
If the Gentiles have been
engrafted into the same Jewish “olive tree” (Rom. 11:17) and have become
“fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God” (Eph.
2:19), then there truly is “no distinction between Jew and Greek” (Rom. 10:12;
cf. Gal. 3:28) and truly “He has made both one, and has broken down the middle
wall of separation” (Eph. 2:14). Therefore, whoever the Jews are for whom we
pray to God to convert, they would have to be natural branches regrafted back
into the “olive tree” from which they had been broken off.
Image from Web
Of these lopped off
branches Paul says, “But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy,
salvation has come to the Gentiles” (Rom. 11:11b). The idea seems to be that
the Jews are supposed to become jealous seeing Gentiles being engrafted into
what is/was their “olive tree”. Therefore, the question is: Have and are we
Christians doing a good job of making Jews jealous of our “salvation”?
Before we as Christians begin
to beat ourselves up for our failure to make the Jews jealous of our being
included in God’s plan for Israel, we ought first to acknowledge that it is God’s
plan not ours. It is God’s doing. Throughout Old Testament times He sought to
shield His people from the evil influences of the world like a parent homeschooling a child. However, now that His people have come of age, now that they have graduated,
His people have been sent into the world to gather, as it were, branches, not
for firewood but for engrafting into the mature olive tree. Beforehand the tree
was too immature to sustain the Gentiles. But now, not only can the “olive tree”
accommodate the Gentiles, it can also give life support to those Jewish
branches that were broken off to accommodate the Gentiles.
When did the pruning of
the olive tree take place? Included in the Westminster Standards is the
familiar Westminster Confession of Faith. Speaking of Old Testament Israel in
relation to the giving of His Decalogue to them, the Confession says,
3. Besides this law, commonly called
moral, God was pleased to give to the people of Israel, as a Church under age,
ceremonial laws, containing several typical ordinances, partly of worship,
prefiguring Christ, His graces, actions, sufferings, and benefits; and partly
holding forth divers instructions of moral duties. All which ceremonial laws
are now abrogated under the New Testament.
4. To them also, as a body
politic, He gave sundry judicial laws, which expired together with the state of
that people, not obliging any other, now, further than the general equity
thereof may require.[2]
Like a child with crooked teeth being
restricted in what she could eat and drink because of metal braces, when those
braces are removed, the teeth are straight, and all the food and drink
restrictions are gone. No longer a child, all grownup and mature, she is now
free to go out into the world and woo it with her “million-dollar” smile. As a horticulturist,
her job now is the business of grafting.
The branches that were
broken off are those that were that had made idols of mere signposts, the
ceremonial and judicial laws of Old Testament Israel. Like those who worship
the elements in the Lord’s Supper, they have mistaken the symbol for what it signified.
These are the broken branches. They can be regrafted should God be pleased to
do so. As Paul says, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the
increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters,
but God who gives the increase” (1 Cor. 3:6-7).
Since it was God who
broke off the branches and it is God who regrafts, what then is left for His
Church to do? As Adam was mandated to “tend and keep” the Garden in Eden, in
time even to extend its borders to encompass the whole world, so the bride that
the Father has chosen for His Son, now fully mature, is to plant and water till
the Garden till it has grown worldwide. Then the Groom returns to wed His smiling
bride. Therefore, praying for “the conversion of the Jews” is simply Christians
asking God to give the increase.
The ”olive tree” is the
bride of Christ. The tree is now mature but just as it takes engrafted branches
time to take and for the life-giving sap to flow throughout, so we wait for the new branches to bear fruit.
How do we Christians go about the business of
attracting the Jews? We do so by being attractive. This is where we have fallen
down. The Jews have been shunned by nation after nation down through the
centuries climaxing in the horrors of the Nazi holocaust. We are to be praying for the
conversion of the Jews, not their extermination!
As difficult as it may be
to determine who exactly qualifies as a Jew, let us not let that put us off
from praying that God would convert them. Meanwhile, let us make the Jews jealous.
[1]GI
Williamson (Editor) commenting in The Westminster Larger Catechism: A
Commentary by Johannes G. Vos, (P&R Publishing, Phillpsburg, New
Jersey, 2002), 552-3.
We
thought we should give you a bit of guidance before you start reading.
We
subscribe to the interpretation of the Bible as formulated in the classic
Reformed Confessions,
while honouring the Scriptures as the Word of God as supreme standard for
faith and life. God has intentionally revealed Himself because human beings,
created in
His image, have capacity to receive and understand that revelation, their minds
being illuminated
by the Holy Spirit. The unity of Bible originates from the Triune God as the
Divine author. God determined to use ordinary people to write the different
books of
the Bible. He used their backgrounds, culture, historical settings, and
individuality to write what He wanted them to convey. The Holy Spirit inspired their minds, therefore, God’s
Word is authoritative, inerrant, and infallible.”[1]
Although
we came from two different backgrounds (Canada and South Africa) we adopted
Australian spelling conventions, which accounts for the discrepancies between English
and American spelling. We followed the practice of the New King James Versionto
refer to the Person of God in capitals (He, His, Him). We took care to not
alter the
original spelling of quoted resources.
For
the duration of this project, we were separated by more than a thousand,
sometimes two
thousand, kilometres. Australia is a big country!
This
is our third book. Our first collaboration is “The Unfaithful Bride and the
Faithful Groom”.
In November 2024 we published “The Kingdom of God, Every square Inch.” The latter
is fairly voluminous. So, we thought to present an abridged version. The result
is this
book, “God’s Kingdom What! On earth?”
“The
kingdom is the LORD’s, and He rules over the nations” (Ps. 22:28)
I’m a member of multiple groups on Facebook. Some
overtly Christian, others not so much. I was looking at one group called Authors
Supporting Authors when someone rolled out the old tired and boring mocking
trope about Christians worshipping an invisible God. It reminded me of ye olde
tv series called House, in which the House character played by Hugh
Laurie would mention the Christian’s “invisible friend”, (a.k.a. "imaginary friend"), which I took to be him
mocking Christianity.
There’s an old YouTube video from around thirty years
ago called One of Us by Joan Osborne in which she sings the line, “What
if God were one of us?” Have House, those Christ mockers on the Authors
Supporting Authors, Joan Osborne never heard of Christmas? Christmas is
about Christians celebration the incarnation of God, i.e., God becoming one of
us, yes, the invisible being made visible. “And the Word became flesh and dwelt
among us, and we beheld His glory” (John 1:14a). What part of God becoming
human does these and suchlike people not understand?
The whole Bible talks about this climactic event, from
the promise in Genesis, “And I will put enmity between you and the
woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise His heel” (Gen. 3:15) to Isaiah, “For unto us a Child is
born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His
shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace”
(Isa. 9:6), to Luke, “For there is born to you this day in the city of
David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the
sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.” (Luke 2:11-12). Verse of Scripture could be multiplied, each
showing either the promise of God becoming one of us and the fulfilment of that
promise, i.e., when the Christian’s so called invisible friend became visible.
Could
it be that these simply choose to supress the truth about God because it doesn’t
fit their Godless prior assumptions? “For the wrath of God is revealed from
heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress
the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest
in them, for God has shown it to them (Rom. 1:18-19). Every
Christmas they are reminded of that they are suppressing the truth that they
are suppressing, yet the mockers keep on mocking. Speaking of Christianity, as
the old adage says. “Don’t mock it till you’ve tried it” I used to mock
Christianity. But now it’s, “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, That saved a
wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see” (John Newton).
Until
God by His grace opens up your eyes you will continue to tamp down His revelation
of Himself, the visible will remain invisible. However, as Christians we
believe the eyewitness accounts.
Image from Web
As
the Apostle John says, “That which was from the beginning, which we have
heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon,
and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life— the
life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare
to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to
us— that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have
fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the
Father and with His Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:1-3). As the Apostle Paul
testifies, “He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the
greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. After that He
was seen by James, then by all the apostles. Then last of all He was
seen by me also, as by one born out of due time” (1 Cor. 15:6-8).
Yes,
the invisible was made visible on Christmas Day. Merry Christmas to one and
all! (even to you mockers out there!).
