Why God-Centeredness is so Important

November 10, 2007

What is the main issue with Calvinism as it is termed? It is supposed to be centered upon God. However, when the teachings of Calvinism are twisted or turned to where they are taken from the core of God-centeredness, then historical Calvinism which was based on God-centeredness becomes much like Arminian thinking and the differences are not seen as that great. Historical Calvinism rested completely on Soli Deo Gloria which means to God alone be the glory. The doctrine of depravity will never be truly understood apart from that teaching. The doctrine of unconditional election and all other doctrines will never be understood apart from that basic biblical teaching. God exists in triune love and He does all out of love for Himself and His glory.

Surely it can be seen that the doctrine of depravity will be totally different if it is man-centered than if it is God-centered. All other doctrines are the same way. For example, if we look at depravity from a man-centered way, we think of sin as what one human being does to another. We will think that if we are outwardly kind and nice or simply refrain from doing evil to other human beings and doing some good we are good people. However, a thorough centeredness on God changes all of the above. We will begin to see that we cannot do good works for people apart from the love that God works in human beings for Himself and we cannot love a human being apart from love for God. We begin to see that even our outward acts we normally think of as good are not good at all apart from a concern for other people’s souls and the glory of God in them.

An important text that will help us to understand this is from I John 4: “7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” Verse 7 tells us that believers are to love each other for love is from God. All those who truly love are born of God and know God. Verse 8 tells us that those who do not love do not know God. Here we see the line drawn. The reason that the believer is able to love is because the believer is born of God and knows God. The reason the unbeliever does not love is because the unbeliever does not know God. The word “know” here denotes more than just a bare knowledge gained by the intellect, but an intimate love. It comes from being one with Christ and in that sense knowing God through Christ. No matter what the unbeliever does in the way of doing good acts will not be from love because the unbeliever has no source of true love because the only true source of love is God. In other words, I Corinthians 13:1-3 is set out for us. Nothing that an unbeliever does will ever be considered good because it is without true love. That is what looking at things from a God-centered perspective will do. It gives one a more biblical view of things.

Another way this helps us to see the depravity issue is it helps us to see what it means to be dead in sins and trespasses. The unbeliever is dead in sins and trespasses and has no spiritual light or life. That unbeliever has no love for God or any other human being because s/he has no love for God. Whatever the unbeliever does is an act of spiritual death because there is no eternal life or love in the person. What can the act of the will of a dead person do? Does a person that is spiritually dead have a free will in spiritual things? Can a person that is apart from the love of God in Christ and the power of the Spirit act with love which is found in Christ by the Spirit alone? True faith works by love according to Galatians 5:6. As long as there is no love, there will never be true faith. The doctrine of total depravity from a God-centered perspective teaches us that faith and love cannot come from a human being by an act of the will but can only come from God Himself. Evangelism from a God-centered perspective, therefore, must always take this into account. A human being that is dead in sins and trespasses can never move him or herself to love God apart from God working that in a human being. It can never come from the human being as an act of his or her will since true love can only come from God and His work.

As we look at the real differences between Calvinism and Arminianism, we can see that a bridge that is built between the two apart from a God-centeredness is not a bridge that will take one into the truth for either side. We live in a day where God and theology is thought of and looked at through the lenses of academia and man-centeredness. We live in a day where both Calvinists and Arminians have been swept up into forms of man-centeredness. While there may be peace between theological Arminians and theological Calvinists, there can never be a true peace between man-centeredness and God-centeredness. There is no bridge that will bridge the gap between man-centeredness and God-centeredness. The only bridge between the two is Christ and that is the Gospel which is God-centered and takes man-centered humans and converts them to God-centered ones.

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Beatitudes 50: Persecute 4

November 8, 2007

“Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:10-12).

Last week we looked at Christ and how people wondered at His gracious words until He applied the Word to them. Then they wanted to kill Him. Then we looked at men like Jon Huss and William Tyndale. Both men were burned because they stood for Scripture and would not give in to the pressure of Roman Catholicism to conform to it. They caused trouble and they would have been considered rude and crude in our day. They would have been accused of being divisive and of calling names in our day. In their own day they were considered as those who were causing disunity and bringing trouble to the Church, and they would have been accused of the same in our day. However, without Jon Huss there might have been no Martin Luther. Without William Tyndale our world would be different without the Bible in the English language that molded men and history.

If we look at men in Scripture and of the history of the Church, those that God used to change history were men who were not liked and caused trouble. As we look at more of those who were either martyred or heavily persecuted for their faith, we see a pattern emerge. God uses those with faith in Him and who love Him enough not to take the standard path of those around them to bring true change. We must always remember that when people try to bring change by something less than a firm standing for the truth that they themselves are the ones that are changed. This is something that is far different than just being a person that is stubborn or being a troublemaker, but this is something that God must put in a person and comes from a deep conviction that is moved from a fire for the truth and glory of God. Those that desire true change in our day will also be called names and will suffer insults and persecutions done in the name of religion and perhaps orthodoxy.

George Wishart was a preacher in Scotland who became infected with the Reformation teaching. He was forced into exile in 1538 after charges of heresy put his life in danger. He returned to Scotland in 1544 and was in Dundee ministering to those afflicted with the plague that had consumed the city. While there, Wishart was preaching and a priest under the orders of Cardinal Beaton confronted Wishart with a cloaked dagger. Wishart noticed the dagger and the intent of the priest and said, “My friend, what would you have?” The man was terrified and fell to his knees pleading for forgiveness. Those in the congregation of the sick were ready to do harm to the would-be assassin, but Wishart protected him.

Cardinal Beaton caught up with Wishart in December of 1545. Wishart was accused and put on trial for the following teachings:

  1. For refusing to accept that a confession was a sacrament.
  2. For denying free will.
  3. For rejecting the idea that an infinite God could be comprehended in one place between the priests hands. Instead, he said that the true Church was where Christ’s Word was truthfully taught.

Wishart dedicated his life to bringing Reformation to Scotland. He once said that “with the hazard of my life I have remained among you; and I must leave my innocence to be declared by my God.” He was burned in March 1, 1546 while Cardinal Beaton watched from a castle window. In the last minutes of his life he was like his Lord who prayed for the forgiveness of those who were responsible for his death. Wishart could have saved his own life if he would have given in to the teaching that a confession was a sacrament and to uphold free will. Today we think of free will as a rather small issue. Luther wrote in the Bondage of the Will that it was the heart of the Gospel. George Wishart thought the denial of free will was worth dying for. Wishart would have wept to see our day.

“Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:10-12).

Felix Manz became enamored with the teachings of Ulrich Zwingli in 1519 and became associated with that reform movement. Within two years, however, he was wondering if Zwingli was compromising over the baptism issue. Despite Zwingli’s teaching, Manz and a few others could not find infant baptism in the Bible. If something is not in the Bible, they reasoned, it must have been invented by human beings. Sound faith cannot be based on things that are the result of human invention. The small group continued to dissent even after the Zurich City Council found in favor of Zwingli’s ideas. Four days later Manz and a small group met to pray over this issue. They ended up baptizing each other which was a crime against the state.

After two years Manz was arrested and put in prison. He was ordered to cease his radical reforms but he could not deny his faith. Manz was not even thirty years old when he was martyred by other reformers. On January 5 of 1527 he was placed in a boat and taken out on the Lammat River. He was bound and weighted with the intent to throw him into the river and drown him as was thought appropriate for a Baptist. On his way to the boat his mother and brothers urged him to remain strong. His faith endured and he was thrown into the river where he drowned. He left these words in prison: “I praise thee, O Lord Christ in Heaven, that Thou dost turn away my sorrow and sadness…already before my end has come, that I should have eternal joy in Him.”

“Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:10-12).

Michael Sattler was born in 1495 and eventually became a monk. Eventually he broke his oath of celibacy and married a nun named Margarita. They became part of the Anabaptist movement. At one point Michael renounced his beliefs in order to avoid imprisonment, but he returned with strengthened convictions in 1526. He began to preach in a strongly Catholic area of Austria. In 1527 the Anabaptists met in a small town in Germany and wrote out Seven Articles of Faith. Michael Sattler was one who helped to write this founding document. While traveling home from this meeting both Michael and Margarita were captured and their documents confiscated. They were tried before a judge in May of 1527. The charges against them were various violations of doctrine and practice, but the most serious were the charges against the Eucharist, baptism and the veneration of the saints. The court ordered that Michael would be taken to the square and have his tongue cut out and then chained to a wagon where his body was to be torn twice with hot tongs there and then five times at the gate. His body was to be burned to powder as an arch-heretic. While Michael cried “Almighty eternal God, Thou are the way and the truth, the sentence was carried out. Eight days later the same sentence was carried out on Margarita.

“Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:10-12).

Whereas Wishart was burned because he would not recant his belief that the doctrine of free will was false and of issues on the sacraments, Manz was drowned in icy water over the issue of Baptism. Michael and Margarita Sattler were tortured and killed for their beliefs against the Roman Catholic way of salvation. There were others who died too and understood that they were not their own and were as sheep to be slaughtered. They understood that their first love was to Christ and so they did not seek an easy peace in order to live easy lives. They were willing to be insulted, persecuted and die for their love for the truth of God and His glory. The issues of free will and of baptism were not considered minor things, though today many think that they are. Luther suffered much over his denial of free will and the Gospel and certainly appeared ready to die for it. Wishart did die for his denial of free will as the essence of the Gospel was at stake. In our day in the United States we don’t face trials, tortures and then burnings for our denial of free will and of baptism. Maybe that is why we don’t see them as all that important any longer. We might get kicked out of a church or face some denominational ridicule at most if we really stood up. Some think it is foolish to cause disturbances within churches and denominations over free will. Nevertheless, we will all stand before the judgment seat of God for how we treat Him and the one Gospel of grace alone. The Gospel is not by grace and free will, but of grace alone. Love for Him should give us all that we need to stand firm. We will see.

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Depravity & the Judgment of God

November 8, 2007

We have continued to look at the issue of depravity and how it is so different when one looks at it from a God-centered perspective rather than from a man-centered perspective. Another way to look at the depravity of man from a God-centered perspective is to realize that sin itself is a punishment from God. It is true that when we sin more punishment comes as a result of that sin, but our present sin is the result of past sin as well. We are now sinning as punishment for past sin which means we will have even more sin as a punishment for our present sin. While this sounds backwards to people, that is only because they are locked into a sight of sin and of God from a man-centered perspective. Let us look at three texts of Holy Scripture.

Isaiah 63:17 – “Why, O LORD, do You cause us to stray from Your ways And harden our heart from fearing You? Return for the sake of Your servants, the tribes of Your heritage. 18 Your holy people possessed Your sanctuary for a little while, Our adversaries have trodden it down. 19 We have become like those over whom You have never ruled, Like those who were not called by Your name.”

Isaiah 64:7 – “There is no one who calls on Your name, Who arouses himself to take hold of You; For You have hidden Your face from us And have delivered us into the power of our iniquities.”

Romans 1:18 – “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness…Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them…26 For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural… 28 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper.”

With just these few texts there should be enough light to show us what is going on. Isaiah 63 tells us that the Lord hardens hearts so that people do not fear Him. As a result of that the nation of Israel had become just like those over whom God had not ruled. But notice the causal relation that the text gives. The reason that the people had become like everybody else is because God had hardened their hearts. As we look upon the SBC today and notice that for the most part the SBC is just like the world, what do we attribute that to? Usually we will go back and tell people to attend church more, tithe more, pray more and evangelize more. But we almost always forget to look behind why people are not doing those things and have become like the world. It is because God has withdrawn and has hardened their hearts. We must wake up before we slide into even greater sin and judgment.

Why does spiritual lethargy reign in the United States and the SBC today? Is it because we don’t have enough programs or because we are not committed enough? Why did the liberals take over for so long and now why does the truth still languish? Could it be that God has hidden His face from us and has delivered us into the power of our iniquities? Could it be that we have identified sin as homosexuality and abortion instead of looking at the whole of sin from the Bible? While those things are sin, we must stand against them in a biblical way and we must understand that sin is of the heart. We must understand that we can be against those things and still hate God while we fight those things. Why are those things sin? The answer is because those things are against the Word and character of God. Why do people commit those sins? Because God has turned them over to hardened hearts and has left them to their sin. But there are many other things that are against the Word and character of God. There are many other sins that God turns people over to as well. He turns people over to coldness in worship and the desire for peace at the cost of truth and love for His glory. He turns people over to gossip and dissension. He turns people over to a love for sports where they spend more money, time and affection on those things than Him. Could it be that the United States is under the judgment of God? Could it be that the SBC is under the judgment of God too? How are we to return to God? First we must see that God is at the center of everything and understand that the reason we are going down is because God is turning us over to our sin. Liberalism in theology and practice is a terrible blight on any denomination, but moralism and legalism are not corrections but are different blights.

If we do not wake up the United States and the SBC will fall under the irrevocable judgment of God. It is to be hoped that we are not there yet, but surely at the rate we are going down it is not far away. We have been turned over to sin by God and we don’t even know it. That is a severe judgment. We are under judgment because of our lack of love for God and the truth. This is seen in our unwillingness to stand up for the real truth and preach it in true love for God and others. If we continue to focus on the outward sins and give lip service to the issues of the heart, then God will punish our man-centered ways of morality and lukewarmness and continue to hand us over to more and more sin. If we continue to waffle on our theology God will not stand with the theology we have.

We must begin to wake up and see how much depends on God granting us repentance. We must cry out to God to wake us up and begin to teach people the true nature of depravity. Those who love the truth must begin to see that moralism and legalism are as bad as liberalism. Roman Catholicism and Mormons have moralism and legalism, but neither have the truth of the Gospel of the glory of God in Christ. Both moralism and legalism, regardless of who holds it (Roman Catholic, Calvinist, Arminian, Fundamentalist), deny the truth of the Word of God and God has abandoned both of those in history and will continue to do so. We must wake up and realize that there will never be peace between those who hold to the doctrine of depravity in all of its horror from a God-centered view and those (regardless of creed) who see things from a man-centered way. Until people are truly broken from the sin of their selfishness, self-love, self-centeredness and pride, there is no real difference other than a few semantics between Roman Catholicism, Calvinism, Arminianism and even Pelagianism. The real difference between truth and error is God-centeredness versus man-centeredness. Without God-centeredness all we do is not out of love for God. With man-centeredness, regardless of our theology or practice, what we do is idolatry.

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God-centeredness Essential in Understanding Depravity

November 6, 2007

We have been looking at the doctrine of depravity and how importance it is to teach it from a God-centered perspective and not a man-centered one. A man-centered perspective can have the appearance of orthodoxy and still have the poison of man-centeredness. We can teach that sin is bad and yet only because of the influence it has on human beings. We must show how heinous sin is because of the fact that it is against God and His glory. It is true that sin has clouded man’s reason, affections and choices. But to what extent has that occurred? We can teach that human beings are fallen and that they are tainted with sin, but the truth demands that we teach that man is dead in sins and trespasses and violates the Greatest Commandment with every single thing that s/he does. Not only is it the bad things and the so-called neutral things, but our very acts of righteousness are as very used menstrual cloths (Isaiah 64:6). Not only that, but our orthodox beliefs, practices and even our acts of mercy and outward love are as very used menstrual cloths to God without love. Our orthodox preaching is as menstrual cloths to God without true love which can only come from Him.

It is so hard to get people to see the true extent of their depravity. In fact, it is impossible for human beings to get others to see it. That is another aspect of depravity that we so often forget. The Holy Spirit alone can convict of sin and of righteousness though He uses the means of preaching and the Word to do so. There is nothing that a human being can do or not do that is something other than excrement and trash before a holy, holy, holy God unless it is moved from love for God and is intended as love for God. We even sin in refraining from sin because we refrain from selfish reasons and not out of love for God. The doctrine of depravity is not a clean and sterile teaching for a society that desires cleanness and sterility. It will make people upset and perhaps many will leave churches and our company if we teach it. But of course our books on how to “grow the church” will tell us to do otherwise. We are left with the choice of whether to honor God or human beings.

Isaiah 64:7 goes on, however. It tells us that “there is no one who calls on Your name, who arouses himself to take hold of You.” Here we see another great evil of depravity. Human beings get involved in efforts to bring relief to the poor. Human beings get involved in great efforts to do good works in many places. Human beings spend much effort to develop creeds and articulate things to believe. But how many arouse themselves to take hold of God? How many have such a love for God that they seek Him in truth with longings and cravings of soul? How many know God as the well of living water? How many long for Him as a deer longs for water in a dry land? It is much easier to do good works and set out creeds. But the doctrine of depravity teaches us that no one seeks for God and no one does any real good apart from love for God. This is hard for those who are proud of their own righteousness and perhaps proud of their works or religion, but God opposes the proud and especially when it is spiritual pride.

The doctrine of depravity teaches us about sin from a God-centered view. Sin separates from God. The greatest good is God and the greatest non-good is when God withdraws and leaves us to our own devices, selfishness and pride. Isaiah 59:2 says this: “But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.” Ezekiel 14:7 goes on to show another part of this: “For anyone of the house of Israel or of the immigrants who stay in Israel who separates himself from Me, sets up his idols in his heart, puts right before his face the stumbling block of his iniquity, and then comes to the prophet to inquire of Me for himself, I the LORD will be brought to answer him in My own person.”

The two texts above might not scare the unbeliever or professing believer on the face of it, but when those things are drawn out the utter horror of sin will be sin. God is the only One that keeps each person out of hell each moment. God is the only one that keeps people from sin by His restraining grace. When God turns from a person or a people, that person or people are being turned over to a hardened heart and being opened up to all sorts of evil. This also means that they are now unprotected from the evil one. Who can turn God back to a person? Only God can. Once the sin has been committed, it makes a person subject to physical and eternal death. Each sin the unbeliever commits makes that person a partaker of darkness and death a little more. Professing believers must understand the nature of sin from a God-centered perspective or they will only see sin as that which is bad for them in an earthly way. But if we try to be gracious and winsome on these things, we will not have done what true love for God or man requires. Without the God-centered aspect of the depravity of man in our modern day we have degenerated into a low form of man-centeredness. Without this truth we don’t see the true need for the cross or the true need of grace, nor do we even understand grace hardly at all. Some will also try to make peace with those who deny the true teaching of depravity because they themselves only hold to it from a man-centered version. This is what happens when God turns a people over to their creeds without being centered upon Him. Without seeing the doctrine of depravity in light of the glory of God we only see it from a man-centered perspective. Regardless of the creed, if man is at the center most creeds will be pretty much the same. We must have God or we will perish.

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Building Bridges May Hide the Real Issues

November 4, 2007

We are now looking at issues within Calvinism that might give us a hint at problems that will actually be masked by seeking peace between those who believe in the five-points and those who don’t. True Christianity is at a very low level in the United States and it could be that the issues between Calvinists and Arminians are actually hiding the real problems that are within Christianity. If we continue in our man-centeredness, though we may hide behind Reformed creeds or talk about God, we will never get at the deceitful and hateful hearts of human beings who do not believe but are able to deceive themselves and others within the confines of Christendom. While we may be content with setting out a loving and gracious God at all times, we must be careful to set out the full extent of God’s love. His love is not focused on human beings as if He is in heaven weeping over the state of human affairs. God’s love is focused on Himself and within His triune Being. He loves holiness and justice which means He loves Himself since He is a holy and just God. Let us look at some verses that are not mentioned much in our modern but diluted version of Christianity.

Psalm 5:4 – For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness; No evil dwells with You. 5 The boastful shall not stand before Your eyes; You hate all who do iniquity. 6 You destroy those who speak falsehood; The LORD abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit.

Psalm 7:11 – God is a righteous judge, And a God who has indignation every day. 12 If a man does not repent, He will sharpen His sword; He has bent His bow and made it ready. 13 He has also prepared for Himself deadly weapons; He makes His arrows fiery shafts.

Psalm 90:5 – You have swept them away like a flood, they fall asleep; In the morning they are like grass which sprouts anew. 6 In the morning it flourishes and sprouts anew; Toward evening it fades and withers away. 7 For we have been consumed by Your anger And by Your wrath we have been dismayed. 8 You have placed our iniquities before You, Our secret sins in the light of Your presence.

Proverbs 6:16 – There are six things which the LORD hates, Yes, seven which are an abomination to Him:
17 Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, And hands that shed innocent blood, 18 A heart that devises wicked plans, Feet that run rapidly to evil, 19 A false witness who utters lies, And one who spreads strife among brothers.

Hosea 9:15 – All their evil is at Gilgal; Indeed, I came to hate them there! Because of the wickedness of their deeds I will drive them out of My house! I will love them no more; All their princes are rebels.

Matthew 25:41 – Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels;

John 3:36 – He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.

God is not a warm ball of fuzz in the sky who is harmless to sincere people regardless of their lives. God does not wink at sin and heresy. We are not like God and we do not proclaim the truth of God when we do not talk about sin and God’s hatred for sin. Psalm 5:5 tells us that God hates all who do iniquity which is surely saying the same thing that those who don’t obey the Son have the wrath of God abiding upon them (John 3:36). The doctrine of man’s depravity is very deadly and serious not because it makes human beings unhappy and causes things to happen they don’t like, but because God hates all who do iniquity and His wrath abides upon them. If God loves His own glory and all things that reflect His glory, it must be true that His love for His own glory will move Him to hatred and wrath for those things that hate what He loves most. While people shudder at the thought of a sermon by Jonathan Edwards that speaks of God bending His bow and aiming His arrow at the hearts of men, women and children, he drew that imagery straight from Holy Scripture. It is a manifestation of God Himself that He hates and aims His bow at sinners ready to make his arrow drunk with the blood of sinners. To be ashamed of that is to be ashamed of God and of Holy Scripture despite our protestations that we believe in inerrancy. Is it a wonder God is not blessing us with Himself since we are ashamed of Him? It is also true that we don’t truly love human beings if we are willing to leave them in their sin and God’s wrath by saying sweet and gracious things to them.

If we think that God’s love is such that He must love evil and evil human beings, we have not begun to understand the love of God. While it is true that there is a benevolence of God that is upon all human beings, we must balance that with the hatred and wrath of God since God has revealed those things in Scripture as well. If we ignore this part of God’s love for His glory, we also don’t understand the true nature of depravity or of the character of God. Sin is not just a little wrong that humans do, but sin is a horrible evil, which is an act of hatred against God and His glory. All sin is directly against God no matter what it does to human beings (Psalm 51:4). Sin is the worst thing that a human being can do because it is an act of hatred against God who is the God of love. Sin is like the devil and takes his side against God. Sin is to use the image of God (all are created in His image) and what He has made for the purpose of His glory and use it to be like the devil in self-love, self-sufficiency and pride.

It is true that people have to water down the biblical teaching on sin to have peace with those who profess Christ within any denomination and without. It is not, however, true love, though it will make others happy and give the appearance of being nice and like Christ. While it may be easy to hold something of a belief in depravity, it is a very hard thing to believe it and teach it as it really is with conviction. In fact, it requires true love to teach depravity in all of its horrors and we know that true love has its origin only from God. If the wrath of God indeed abides upon all who do not profess faith in Christ and upon all who profess faith in Christ but do not have Him in reality, it is not love to be gracious and winsome within churches, denominations or Christendom. True love must speak as there is no love in that which is not true. Orthodoxy can be attained in our day by assenting to a creed, but that is not the same as loving the truth as the glory of God shines in and through it.

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The American Church & Pleasing God

November 2, 2007

If I am correct that the theology and methodology taught and practiced in the American aspect of the visible church is horrendously man-centered, then the wrath of God is upon us now. We are being handed over to judgment and God is hardening out hearts toward Him. We can see this from Romans 1:18-32. This passage is not just for pagans who have never heard of God, but for all who suppress the truth about Him in unrighteousness. God hardens hearts and turns people over to their own selfish and self-centered hearts and lives. That describes the American aspect of the visible church very well. 2 Timothy 3 describes this very well too: “But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these” (vv. 1-5). These verses also describe the visible church in America very well. A whitewash of the five-points of Calvinism will not cover this rotten and godless wall of religious profession. Notice that in verse 5 these people are said “to hold to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power.” People are given over to being lovers of self, lovers of money, and are boastful and arrogant. That sure describes a lot of people within the visible church in the United States today.

The two main problems continue to come up no matter where we look. People are man-centered rather than God-centered and therefore they have a low view of the depravity of man. It matters little what theology a person holds if s/he has not felt the weight of sin on the heart and has been broken by it. This is why I keep saying that the disagreement over the five-points of Calvinism may be hiding the real issues. Until a person has been broken in the depths of the heart in reality an understanding of the truth of the doctrine of depravity has not been reached. Until a person has been broken from all of his or her strength in self and collapses in helplessness before God, crying out for mercy, that person does not understand the doctrine of depravity from a God-centered perspective.

Romans 8:6-8 is a classic statement on the depravity of humanity and the total inability of mankind: “For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” This text cannot be twisted and turned as a wax nose, but it must be faced up to. The unbeliever is not a person that can please God in any way and has no ability to do so. The unbeliever has a mind set on the flesh and that is death. That mind that is set on death is not just uncaring about God, but it is actually hostile toward Him and cannot (has no ability to) please God in any way. Aligned with that is Ephesians 2:1-3 which tells us that before men are converted they are dead in their sins and trespasses. What ability does a dead person have to raise him or herself from the dead?

If we take those two passages and look at them from a man-centered way, though some might think it is God-centered, we find a way out of the obvious meaning. We will say that the person can make a choice and God will give grace for the person to get out of the bind that s/he is in. A modern Reformed person will say that the person needs to hear the Gospel over and over again and God will give the person faith. Both sound plausible enough and even somewhat focused on God. However, the texts do not say those things. Both texts declare God’s view of mankind. Both texts tell us that human beings are dead in sin. Both texts show the utter inability and helplessness of human beings in sin. Why won’t modern evangelists tell people they are evangelizing these things? A dead person cannot please God in any way so why do we think a dead person can believe which does please God? A dead person is dead to spiritual things and is totally focused on the flesh and is hostile to God. If we water these things down enough to get a dead person to pray a prayer, we have not told that person the truth about him or herself and we have not told them the truth of the character of God. Their prayer and moral reformation would have come from the flesh and they are now convinced they are on their way to heaven while the wrath of God abides on them and they are still hostile toward Him. We have become those who cry “peace, when there is no peace.” A whitewash of the five-points of Calvinism over a rotten wall is not enough to undeceive all those who are perishing. They need to see who the true God is and who they really are. They need to be delivered from the true nature of their depravity into the true kingdom of the living God. Instead of trying to please men we must be those who please God. After all, that is what is truly good for men. It is not true love to please men without seeking to please God first and foremost.

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Is Reformed Theology Harmful?

October 31, 2007

We must beware that in our theology and evangelism that we don’t go around declaring “Peace, when there is no peace” (Ezekiel 13:10). We are so prone to assuming that if a person says nice words about Christ that person is converted. We think that if a person shows some sorrow for sin or makes a moral reformation that person is surely converted. We have confidence that a person is converted if that person agrees with us theologically. But if it is true as some leaders have said that a vast majority of professing believers in America are not converted, then there are certainly many people practicing false evangelism and are calling “peace, when there is no peace.” The SBC is not immune to this either and it may be that it is as bad or even worse at this than others. The Reformed people are also not immune to this especially since they generally practice the same evangelism as do the Arminians.

Imagine this scenario. Person X visits a church or attends a home study of some sort. Person X hears about sin and knows that s/he is a sinner. Person X hears about hell (not taught a lot in our day) and becomes a bit frightened. If person X does not hear about hell then person X might hear about how wonderful Jesus is in giving us a great life now. Then person X hears about how Jesus died for him or her and this brings tears and so person X prays a prayer. Person X now attends church services, makes a moral reformation and begins to study theology. In most Arminian churches person X would have been thought to have been saved from the earliest prayer. Reformed people might have watched to be sure that there was a change in life. Reformed people would have been especially delighted and assured if the person began to study theology. But we must know that a person can do everything mentioned above and even more from an unregenerate heart. The Pharisees did all the above and a lot more.

“Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD, “Because you have spoken falsehood and seen a lie, therefore behold, I am against you,” declares the Lord GOD. 9 “So My hand will be against the prophets who see false visions and utter lying divinations. They will have no place in the council of My people, nor will they be written down in the register of the house of Israel, nor will they enter the land of Israel, that you may know that I am the Lord GOD.
10 “It is definitely because they have misled My people by saying, ‘Peace!’ when there is no peace. And when anyone builds a wall, behold, they plaster it over with whitewash; 11 so tell those who plaster it over with whitewash, that it will fall. A flooding rain will come, and you, O hailstones, will fall; and a violent wind will break out. 12 “Behold, when the wall has fallen, will you not be asked, ‘Where is the plaster with which you plastered it?'” 13 Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD, “I will make a violent wind break out in My wrath. There will also be in My anger a flooding rain and hailstones to consume it in wrath. 14 “So I will tear down the wall which you plastered over with whitewash and bring it down to the ground, so that its foundation is laid bare; and when it falls, you will be consumed in its midst. And you will know that I am the LORD. 15 “Thus I will spend My wrath on the wall and on those who have plastered it over with whitewash; and I will say to you, ‘The wall is gone and its plasterers are gone, 16 along with the prophets of Israel who prophesy to Jerusalem, and who see visions of peace for her when there is no peace,’ declares the Lord GOD” (Ezekiel 13:8-16).

If my analysis is at all correct, it can be seen what is going on in the churches of America. There is a huge problem with Arminian theology and practices and so some think that a little whitewash of Reformed theology will cure the problem. The wall of Arminian theology with its Pelagian practices is not strengthened by a whitewash of Reformed theology, but all it does is hide the corruption and impending storm of wrath from some people. The wall that is being built in America is rotten to the core because it is man-centered in its theology and practices. Reformed whitewash is nothing but whitewash if it is not thoroughly God-centered in all ways. Many offer fine words of praise for theologians now dead but actually do not like what they really taught. We must go back to our Bibles and focus on the living God. We must also focus on what depravity really is. We may not have much time.

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Persecution 3 & Reformation Day

October 30, 2007

“Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:10-12).

We live in a nation where we think little of suffering for Christ. But the promises of persecution are as certain as other promises of God. We are not suffering because we are not living godly in Christ: “Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Timothy 3:12). This nation is more civil than it was before and more civil than other nations have been. But maybe the problem is the “Church” being less godly rather than the nation being more tolerant. Perhaps we are wrong on what it means to be godly and so what we think of as godly is really being like the world and not the godliness found in Christ Jesus. Our forefathers thought godliness included telling unbelievers the truth about God and their sin even if it offended and brought persecutions. This article will come out the day after Reformation Day, and so is an effort to remind us of what true godliness is. In our day we think that we have to be gracious and speak of moral defects rather than sin to be godly. We think we have to be “kind and gracious” to heresy. Biblical godliness and kindness teach the truth about God, sin and repentance. Unbelievers truly hate God and if they are comfortable with what we teach we are doing something wrong. The enmity toward God will come out if we are teaching the truth as godliness demands of us.

Another thing we need to recognize is that persecution usually comes from religious people. Let us not deceive ourselves into thinking that we will escape insults and persecution from denominational leaders if we stand for truth. Let us not think that if we are accused of heresy and of being unkind that we are in fact being unbiblical. If men and women during the time before the Reformation and the time of the Reformation would not have thought the Scripture and the truth were worth getting kicked out of their pulpits and the “church” as a whole, the Reformation would not have happened. Until we get over the fact that being gracious and winsome is not the instrument of bringing true revival we will have been trapped with the mindset of false religion and the world.

I would like to bring short stories from Reformation and Scripture to remind us what is really needed if true revival and reformation in our day is going to happen. Let’s look at the example of Jesus in Luke 4. He went into the desert to be tempted and He was full of the Holy Spirit. He returned and began to teach the Word of God:

“15 And He began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all. 16 And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read.17 And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book and found the place where it was written, 18 “THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME, BECAUSE HE ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR. HE HAS SENT ME TO PROCLAIM RELEASE TO THE CAPTIVES, AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND, TO SET FREE THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED, 19 TO PROCLAIM THE FAVORABLE YEAR OF THE LORD.” 20 And He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him. 21 And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” 22 And all were speaking well of Him, and wondering at the gracious words which were falling from His lips; and they were saying, “Is this not Joseph’s son?”

What we notice is that when He was teaching He was praised by all (v. 15). On a Sabbath day He went into the synagogue and read the Word of God. All were still speaking well of Him and wondering at the gracious words He spoke (v. 22). Notice that the text tells us at this point all were praising Him and were wondering at His gracious words. But notice what happened very shortly if you keep reading the text in Luke: “28 And all the people in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things; 29 and they got up and drove Him out of the city, and led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city had been built, in order to throw Him down the cliff.” What happened between verse 22 and verse 28? Did Jesus stop being love itself? Did He suddenly stand up and say obnoxious things to these people? No, he applied the word of God to their false religion. Applications of the Word of God will make people mad. Again we notice that this is in a religious setting. Religious people get very angry when their basis for righteousness or salvation is disturbed. It has always been that way and it always will be. The Word of God tells us that. An effort to make peace may be an effort to keep the truth of God’s Word quiet.

“Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Timothy 3:12). “Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. 12 “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:11-12).

Jon Huss was born in Bohemia (modern day Czech Republic where the Karaseks minister). He began to see the truth of the Word of God and spoke fiery words against the priests and their sinful practices. He was outraged at the sale of indulgences and when asked to quiet down he replied like this: “Shall I keep silent? God forbid.” Four times he was excommunicated and once was in exile for two years. He was invited to the Council of Constance in October 1414 by Pope John XXIII. He was arrested within one week despite being promised safe conduct. He was accused of being a wicked man and a heretic. On July 6, 1415 with shouts and jeers “the church” committed his soul to the devil. He was pushed by a crowd through the streets of Constance and wrapped by the neck to a stake. It was then set ablaze and he died singing these words: “Jesus, Son of the living God, have mercy on me.”

Was Huss killed for being like Christ or not? We are told in our day that we are to be like Christ and admonished to be gracious and winsome at all costs. Huss would certainly have been accused of being unlike Christ in our day, and yet when we compare his life and death with that of Christ we can see that Huss was the one like Christ. When Huss spoke with fiery words against the doctrine and the practices of the religious elite of his day, he was condemned by them and yet he was like Christ who spoke fiery words against the religious elite of His day. We must wonder if people today are being like the modern version of Christ or like the One set out in Scripture.

“Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Timothy 3:12). “Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. 12 “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:11-12).

William Tyndale was born around 1494 in England. Just ninety years before his birth “the Church” had banned the only English Bible in the world. That translation was the work of John Wycliffe and to have a copy of it was a crime. Tyndale decided to translate the Bible from the original languages into English so that it could be read by all and that all Englishmen could hear the voice of God in it. He had to leave England as this was dangerous. He went to Germany where he possibly studied under Martin Luther for a time and then finished the New Testament in 1525. He went on to Antwerp where he finished the first five books of the Old Testament. In Belgium he met up with some English merchants. It was here that he was betrayed and was taken to a cell in a castle for eighteen months where he suffered a lot in the cold. He was charged with maintaining that faith alone justifies and believing that forgiveness of sins and the mercy of God were in the Gospel and was all that was needed for salvation.

Tyndale knew that he would die and that it was just a matter of time. However, despite his body shaking from the cold and with poor light for writing, he worked to complete the English Bible. In August of 1536 he was condemned as a heretic and defrocked. Then in early October he was led from prison to the stake. Fastened to the stake and surrounded by brush and logs Tyndale prayed this: “Lord, open the King of England’s eyes.” The final prayer was heard when two years after Tyndale’s death King Henry authorized the distribution of a Bible which was primarily Tyndale’s work. Tyndale’s dream and prayer had come true.

There will be no true revival or reformation in our time until God raises up men and women who are ready to stand for God’s Word with their reputations and lives. The Bibles we have in our possessions have in one sense been brought to us by the blood of the martyrs. The true Gospel has been brought to us by a succession of men who either died or paid dearly for preaching and standing for the Gospel. We must know that until we love God and His glory enough to be slandered and accused by the world and religious leaders alike we will not see the power of God come down in our day. If we are so focused on being winsome and gracious as the way of being peacemakers we will never see what it truly means to be like Christ. True revival and true reformation are brought about when men and women grow weary of being nice and from holding in the fire that is in their hearts and bones and they began to proclaim the Word of God regardless of the accusations. We need the fire of God to come down on us so that when we speak men will not wonder at our gracious words but want to kill us. That is to be like Christ.

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Total Depravity & Evangelism

October 29, 2007

Last time I spoke of dealing with “T” (total depravity) and ran out of space before I got to it much at all. Total depravity does not mean what the caricatures set it out to mean, but is instead the doctrine of how depraved man is in light of who God is. We must never forget that the reason we show human beings the true nature of their depravity and sin is not to make them feel bad, it is to show them that they must be broken of their pride and despair of anything within themselves in order that God may give them life by grace. If we continue with the focus on human beings, we have fallen far short of what we are to do. A person will desire to escape hell and will never be delivered from his own strength and so believe in his own strength and be damned. Sinners must see their depravity in the light of the glory of God in order to be delivered from their own strength and then by the work of the Spirit hope in God and His glory through Christ and Christ alone.

Romans 5:6 tells us this about depravity: “For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.” Whatever language people use when describing depravity we can know that human beings are helpless and without strength. Sinners are helpless and without strength and so Christ died for them as the ungodly. When does the Holy Spirit come to them and make them alive? It is while they are dead in sins and trespasses (Eph 2:1-7). So Christ died for sinners while they were helpless and without strength and the Spirit makes them alive when they are dead in sins and trespasses. In our evangelism we must take these things into account. Sinners are spiritually dead and so have no strength in the spiritual realm. What are we to tell them to do? What is being done today is that we tell people to do what they cannot do and yet we don’t tell them anything about the fact that they cannot do it. To put this in different words, when a person is spiritually dead and does not understand that and another comes along and tells the person to do something without telling the person that s/he is dead, that person will respond with a work of the flesh and think that s/he has in truth believed. The “T” is not a theological point that is just there to fit with tulip, but it is a vital truth about human beings. If we do not get the “T” right in theology and evangelism, we will not practice biblical evangelism and we will not teach people the truth about the work of the Holy Spirit in regeneration and the new birth. Being God-centered is at the heart of all of this.

We go out and do evangelism without God at the center of it and think we are doing the will of God. That can be something like the Pharisees who traveled over land and sea to make converts and made them twice the sons of hell that they were (Mat 23:15). Where is God in our evangelism and in all the other things we do? Do we really believe in sola scriptura any longer? If so, where do we find a Scriptural mandate for what we are doing? Could it be that those within Calvinistic circles who are professing Calvinists and hold to the five-points of Calvinism actually practice evangelism with the same methods and virtually the same theology as the Arminians do? How could that be? Where is the God-centeredness in that type of evangelistic methodology? If you are following the flow of thought, you will see something very important. It is that the heart of Arminian evangelism which is based on Arminian theology and view of the Gospel can be virtually the same as that practiced by the modern Calvinists. In fact, there are Calvinists who use the evangelistic programs of Arminians. There is no wonder, then, that many modern Calvinists can be at peace with Arminian teachings and practice the same evangelism. The reason is that their Reformed theology is not applied at this point and so there is virtually no difference with the Arminian view at that point. But if there is no difference at that point, where is the real difference? Where is God in reality in what Calvinists and Arminians are doing other than the use of His name at a few points? If the doctrine of total depravity is virtually set aside in evangelism, then the work of the Holy Spirit in conversion will be virtually ignored and the emphasis will all be on what the sinner must do. Of course some might give lip service to this but unless we teach men that they are dead in sin we will not teach them what it means to be helpless and without strength. We will then not teach them what is needful for them to be broken and trust in Christ alone.

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Calvinistic & Arminian Evangelism: Is there a Difference?

October 27, 2007

The real differences between Calvinism and Arminianism will not be seen if the five points are the focus of the discussion unless one looks at the heart of the issue. In our day the issues have become more academic rather than practical. One way of noticing the real differences is to look at a similarity like evangelism. The Arminian way of evangelism ends in telling the sinner to make a decision. The theology behind that is that the sinner by his or her free-will and choice applies Christ to him or herself. That would be denied in words yet it is the logical conclusion of that practice. But modern Reformed people do the same thing. The theory is said to be different in that the Calvinist says that God works in the sinner who then chooses. However, other than the statement that God works in the sinner there is no real difference in the way evangelism is done. Both camps, then, practice evangelism in essentially the same way. If the theology and practice of evangelism points to what a person really believes, one is led to suspect that the doctrine of depravity between the Arminians and the Calvinists of our day is not much different despite what the creeds say. This makes it much easier to have peace at this level.

Surely we can see something is wrong when one person claims to be a five-point Calvinist and another claims to be an Arminian and both practice essentially the same type of evangelism. Let us start with the “T” (total depravity) of Tulip and see if this can be in truth. It may be that a professing Arminian really agrees with the “T” or it may be that the professing Calvinist does not really agree with the “T.” But the case is quite clear that people who disagree on this issue cannot practice evangelism in the same way. If the historical way of approaching this is true, then the inability of man is an important teaching that would greatly influence the way evangelism is done. Christ did not die and leave the rest up to man, but what we see in Scripture is that if the Holy Spirit does not apply salvation to man the death of Christ would be to no avail. The Reformed person that is consistent with historical theology and Scripture does not leave salvation up to the prayer or choice of man to apply salvation to him or herself. It took God in human flesh to purchase salvation and that takes God the Spirit to apply it.

Notice at this point what has happened. If the evangelist is man-centered (regardless of whether s/he is a Calvinist or an Arminian) the evangelist will look at sin from a man-centered way (you have done wrong), present the work of Christ with a man-centered focus and then give the person something to do from a man-centered focus. A God-centered focus will focus on sin as a crime against God’s law and against God Himself. A person’s problem with sin is not that he has done something to make himself unhappy, but that he has sinned against God. The real issue with the cross and work of Christ is that it is focused on God and not man. The cross is all about the glory of God and only when it is taught as all about the glory of God is there any hope for man. Then the application of salvation must be by the Holy Spirit and not the person himself. A professing Calvinist that is man-centered will never teach the truths of depravity beyond a surface level and therefore the God-centered nature of repentance and grace will not be seen. A person can profess the five-points of Calvinism and stand for them against and still be man-centered. Man-centeredness cuts out the heart of Reformed and biblical doctrine and virtually destroys it.

If we want to be like Christ in truth, then we must get back to a God-centered theology and practice in all things. Christ taught the depravity of human beings without shame and without equivocation. He did that because He was God-centered in all that He believed and did. The heart of being like Christ is to be God-centered in theology and practice. The heart of being Reformed is a breathing forth after God and panting after the display of His glory in the world. Without it Reformed theology becomes Arminian in practice and Arminian theology becomes Pelagian in practice. What the world needs now is churches full of the living God and not those who are man-centered in theology and practice whether they are professing Calvinists or Arminians. We must repent of man-centeredness in our theology and practice. After all, God is still God-centered in His theology and practice.

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