The Fundamental Blog

I was amazed when I had the opportunity to reach out to a man, (Ted,) who had just gone through the process of having a life-saving procedure completed on his heart, only to find that he was no more awed by the power of God after the event than he had been before hand. We exchanged several letters wherein I tried to emphasize that it was only by the power and providence of God that he was still alive and mightn’t it be that God had something in mind for him to do. Ted insisted that it was science and technical skill, (obviously obtained from someplace other than God), that was responsible for the success of the procedure. As the exchange was approaching the, “pearls before swine,” stage, he said something that seemed odd. He thought that if there were a god, that he should have allowed us to live longer; he thought that 500 years would be enough.

Now Ted is a fairly reasonable man by the standards of the world, but he is convinced that God is a mere fantasy, a crutch for those who are unwilling to accept responsibility for themselves, and that unless God can be proved, there is nothing to convince him otherwise. I asked the un-answered questions; “If you are not happy with the 70 or 80 years that God has given you now, what makes you think that you will be satisfied with 500? Won’t you say, when you get to 497, that you still wish for a few more years past 500? Don’t you realize that you are only putting off the same inevitable death with the same fears that you have now?” By this point the conversation was drawing to a close and I knew that it was simply not his time to hear what the Lord was setting before him, but given an open door in the future, I’ll undoubtedly try again.

You see, science can never do anything toward providing us with proofs for the divine. A.W. Tozer states, “The realm of the Spirit is closed to the intellect … … You see the spirit is the organ by which we apprehend divine things, and the human spirit is dead because of sin. Therefore, the human intellect is not the organ by which we apprehend divine things.” He goes on to point out that the divine is revealed by the Holy Spirit, that there is no other way that we may have any understanding of spiritual things. We can never know God unless His Spirit says to our spirit, “Here He is, come and see.”

The reason that so many people wish for more time is, (I believe), not so that they can do more stuff, finish writing that great novel or even work longer to save the world from this or that. No, they are only trying to run away from the death they know is coming and that they somehow understand that they are not ready for what comes next. Even if they think that all that’s next is eternal darkness and the big dirt-nap, they know they aren’t ready for it. In Romans 1, Paul explains that men are without excuse because the invisible qualities of God were made known to them but, “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator - who is forever praised. Amen.” v25. It’s as though the image of God, in which we are all created, knows that there is judgment to face, and that one bit of truth gnaws away at their gut telling them that they have a real reason to be afraid.

If the case could be made that the Bible is the reliable Word of God that Christians believe it to be, then we could show that there explanations to what happens when we, “fall asleep,” and that there is an eternal plan. 500 years is a drop in a bottomless bucket of years when viewed from the biblical perspective. But in order to understand that point you have to be willing to accept that science can not answer the questions of faith. If miracles could be proved then they would not be miracles! The skeptic wants scientific proof of the Divine and that’s impossible. We, finite beings that we are, can not wrap our minds around eternity much less the God who created time, how can we expect to even begin to understand the limitlessness of God? If 500 years seems to be an acceptable amount of time, wouldn’t forever be that much better? What’s more; wouldn’t eternity in the utopian vision that is Heaven be better than the prolonged misery of living in a fallen world for 500 years?

I met two brothers in a VBS program aged 9 and 11. They weren’t all that interested in the whole, “Jesus,” thing and as I struggled for a way to reach them, the Spirit gave me just the thing. I asked the two of them, “What if I could show you that you would live forever?” The older boy said, “Yeah I know, if ya believe in Jesus and do good stuff, right?” “No,” I answered. “No matter what, good or bad, you would live forever, what would you say to that?” “Nah, even my Grandma who went to church and all that stuff died,” Was the response. “OK,” I said, “but if it were true, wouldn’t you want to know?” “Well yeah, I guess so.” Then I sat them down and huddled up like it was a secret that I was about to share and we looked up two verses of Scripture. We read John 3:16 and discussed what the words, “eternal life,” meant for a bit and then we looked at Revelation 20:10 and talked about what, “forever and ever,” meant. I told them that the life we have now, will some day be different, but that it really doesn’t end. It’s all a matter of location; if we trust in Christ to save us from the judgment of God we spend forever in Heaven and if we don’t, we spend it somewhere a lot less fun.

500 years is nothing when its stacked against the Word of God. But as long as we want to claim to run our own lives, that there is no God to give us moral direction, that we can hold out until science proves everything that we need to know; we will continue to live lives in fear of what is next. The fear of the unknown is a terrible thing but it doesn’t have to be unknown; God has explained exactly how the plan unfolds. We are looking at a battle, a war that’s already been fought and decided and we know who wins; all we have to do is decide which side we want to be on! How hard is that? I don’t know about you, but given the choice, I’ll take the winning side, thank you very much!

Returning to Tozer for a moment; I want to share an anecdote from his book, “Mystery of the Holy Spirit.” If you want to argue that science must bear out faith before it’s valid, then consider this for a moment. “There were two scientists talking together and they concluded, ‘We have investigated, searched into, weighed and measured and have determined that the story of the donkey speaking is all false. [Numbers 22:28] The larynx of a donkey could not possibly articulate human speech.’ A Scotsman had been listening and having had all he could take went up to them and said, ‘ Mon, you make a donkey and I’ll make him talk.’” There is a reason that they are called miracles, they occur outside of scientific proofs. And you know, if that Scotsman did manage to make the donkey talk, I bet it would say something that ended up being…


All for the Glory of Christ

A man I know came to me and asked if we might not begin a discussion about biblical principals and the teachings to be found therein. Since we lived in different cities , I agreed to do this in writing because I have the opinion that writing requires more thought than a phone conversation, and it leaves a traceable history in the event of later dispute. Being agreeable to this idea, we began and it didn’t take long to see that the whole reason for wanting to have the discussion was to convince me that Sabbath keeping was a requirement for the church today. When it comes to the, “Law of Moses,” I have some very definite opinions so I knew this was going to get interesting in a hurry!

The long-story-short of it was that neither of us were moved by the other’s arguments but I thought, “How many others are there who are bound by legalism trying to be saved by their own hand?” I want to begin by stating, EMPHATICALLY, I have NO problem with anyone who wishes to attempt to keep the law, the law is a good thing and is necessary to each of us. Where I DO have a problem is when the proponents of law-keeping insist that one’s salvation depends upon the keeping of the law. You see, if it were possible to have kept the law, then the world would not have needed Christ in the first place. If we could have earned our salvation through the law, then the life, death and resurrection of Jesus was little more than a colossal waste of time and energy!

First, let’s have a go at the apparent contradiction between Matthew 5:17-18, and the teachings of Paul. The immediate response of some is to discount anything that Paul says in favor of the actual words of Christ, but don’t be too hasty. The words of Paul ARE the words of Christ. Paul is speaking through the Holy Spirit and he tells us in Galatians 1:11-12 that he received his knowledge by direct revelation from Jesus Christ, (I go into this deeper in “Validating the Preaching of Paul.”). In Matthew we read, “… I have not come to abolish them, [the law and the prophets], but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the law …”; Paul says in Romans 10:4, “Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.”

Is this a contradiction? No. This is a case where we have to be sure we understand the meanings of the words being used and the context in which we find them. The Bible can not contradict itself and God can not make mistakes. There is nothing wrong with the law. Paul says as much when he remarks that when we recognize sin, we admit that the law is good. So it is no surprise that the law will stand until heaven and earth pass away, the law is essential for its purpose. But what is the purpose of the law? That’s the question! The law is the operator that points us to the need for salvation. We know that no one can live perfectly under the law; since the beginning, atonement has been made for the transgressions of man, (but there were no transgressions until there was a law to transgress).

Paul is adamant concerning the fact that salvation is through grace and that by faith in Christ Jesus. This is a remarkable thing considering Paul’s beginnings. Paul, recalling who he used to be, states in Philippians 3:5-6, “… a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.” Paul claims that he was faultless under the law, (this can only mean that his sins were paid by the sacrifices required according to the law because otherwise he would have been a sinless man himself). This same Paul, now being new in Christ, turns his former views on their head saying, “For we, [Paul and his followers], maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.” Romans 3:25. And just a moment earlier, in verse 20 of the same chapter he declares, “… no one will be declared righteous in His sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.”

Back in the book of Acts, we read where, “Some men came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the brothers, ‘Unless you are circumcised according to the custom taught by Moses, you can not be saved.’” this is exactly the same as supposed Christians who stipulate that in order for salvation to be genuine, we must worship on the Sabbath. They are attempting to add to the finished work of Jesus on the cross something done by man. Whenever we find a sect proclaiming, “Jesus and… anything,” alarms should be ringing in our heads. Jesus and circumcision, Jesus and Sabbath keeping, Jesus and indulgences, Jesus and absolutely anything, are all signs that there is something wrong with the Gospel that is being taught.

I want to visit one of those congregations someday to see if they are concerned with keeping all of the law, or simply cherry picking one aspect to suit themselves. I have never heard of a Sabbatarian denomination that burned sacrifices on the altar or stoned adulterers. James states that violating the law at one point is the same as violating all of it! Where does the line get drawn? Again, let me restate; law keeping in any congregation is fine as long as a person’s ability to keep the law, (or lack thereof), does not hang their salvation in the balance. Seriously, if the command says that we are not to bear false witness, how can any of us stand? By the age of 2 we all coveted something, usually something that a sibling or friend had. Maybe we answered, “Not me!,” to the parent’s question, “Who did this?” We broke something and played stupid and - BAM - we’re sinners, we broke the law.

The law was not given so that by following it we might earn favor with God and win salvation. The law was given so that we would see that none of us were capable of maintaining God’s standards and understand that we need a Saviour to reconcile our sinful natures with God’s perfection. When Jesus died on the cross He not only took away the sin of the world for all who would believe, He also made it possible for us, the wretched sinners we are, to receive His righteousness! Salvation is a 2-part deal; we lose the sin debt, and we gain the righteousness of Christ, but never because we deserve it; rather, because God grants it through His grace!

God wants us to believe what He has told us, to come to Christ Jesus for the salvation which is only through Him, not show up at the judgment seat and say, “I deserve to get in because I worshipped on Saturday,” of some equally fragmented tidbit of legalistic rhetoric. Law keeping is fine and it should even probably be more of a goal for all of us, but it is apart from the requirement for salvation. Even baptism is not a deal breaker when it comes to the question of whether or not someone is saved. Yes, we all need to make our public confession of faith and be baptized as a witness to the faith, but the criminal hanging on the cross next to Jesus was saved though he was neither immersed, nor sprinkled.

We should be obedient and do good works, help the poor and pray for the disadvantaged, not because by doing these things we can be saved, No; but because we are saved already by the completed work of Christ on the cross. When it comes to salvation, works are as useless as circumcision. We are called to be witnesses for Jesus and if we insist that there is some work that completes saving grace, if we maintain that we must, “Ice the cake,” of the gift of God, then how can we expect that to look like it’s…


All for the Glory of Christ