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An Anticipated Argument Pointing to Predestination

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Romans 9 is one of those chapters of the Bible that carries with it a ton of theological weight. This is true especially regarding the doctrine of election. In the middle of his conversation about the people of Israel and how some are saved while many rejected the Messiah, Paul begins to talk about the sovereignty of God in some fairly radical terms.

Paul talks in Romans 9 about God choosing Jacob and rejecting Esau, even before either had been born. The point was that God made his choice of which twin would carry the line of blessing and promise, and that choice is not based on the relative goodness or badness of either boy. God picked Jacob. God let Esau go his own way.

Then Paul talked in even stronger terms about Pharaoh in the Exodus. Pharaoh’s heart was against God. God hardened Pharaoh’s heart as well. A look back at chapter 1 of this book would remind us that God has, in times of judgment, handed people over to their own desires and allowed them to become as evil as they wanted to. This is a great example of what hardness would look like.

As the argument builds, it looks more and more like what Paul is saying is that God elects some to follow him, predestining them to salvation. It also looks like God hardens some, leaving them to their own sinful ways that will turn them more and more against him. It looks like Paul is telling us that all who are saved are saved because God chose to save them and acted on their hearts. It looks like those who are not saved are not saved because they opposed God and God left them to themselves. It looks, well, Calvinistic.

What is most convincing to me that Paul is teaching the doctrine of election here the way that reformed believers claim is what comes next. Paul anticipates the objection to what he has just written. This is something that Paul has done a couple of times already in Romans. Paul will write for a bit, and then he will show you what those who oppose biblical teaching will claim.

So, watch the objection Paul anticipates. Ask yourself if Paul’s anticipated objection and his response to that objection tells you that Paul is turning away from a doctrine of sovereign election or if he is in fact telling us, “Yes, that is what I’m saying.”

Romans 9:19-24 – 19 You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” 20 But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? 22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— 24 even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?

Look at the objection Paul anticipated. People will ask how sovereign grace can possibly be fair. After all, nobody can overpower God. Nobody can resist God’s will. So how can it be right for God to judge people for rejecting him if he never elected them to eternal life?

Paul anticipates that objection. And if Paul was not teaching sovereign election, Paul would have said, “No, you misunderstand me.” But Paul does not say this. Instead, Paul responds with a reminder that we, as sinful creatures, have no right to question the way of salvation and sovereignty of the Lord. We are clay, and the potter who shapes the clay is the one who has the final say so as to what the clay will be. The potter does not exist for the clay, but the clay exists for the potter. And if there is any question as to who must be more free, the potter must be more free than the clay that the potter is using to shape things for the potter’s glory.

My point is not to remove all discomfort from this passage. Nor is my point to unpack its implications. But, I believe that it is important that we see that the anticipated objection that Paul speaks in verse 19 is a proof that what he was saying in the prior verses is exactly what it looks like; it is the doctrine of sovereign election. And we need to see that Paul’s response to the objection does not turn away from sovereignty to emphasize human autonomousfree-will. Instead, Paul doubles down on the fact that the freedom of God is ultimate.

If you want to put all this together, there are two truths you have to hold. If any person is saved, they are saved because God elected them, converted them, and saved them. If any person is lost, they are lost because they, in their sin, have never wanted to love and follow God. For the saved, God moves to overcome their natural rebellion against him, changing their desires so they come to him. For the lost, God allows them uninterrupted freedom, and they will always use that freedom to choose against God. In no case does God do anything here to treat any human being unjustly. In every case, every human life will glorify the Lord by either demonstrating his sovereign mercy or his perfect justice.

The Golden Chain and Foreknowledge

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The Bible teaches election and predestination. No Bible-believing Christian can deny this, since the words are used in multiple texts. What Christians often disagree on is how God elects.

Many Christians have been taught that God elects people to salvation based on his knowledge of their future choices and actions. These believe that God elected people to salvation before they were born by looking forward, seeing whether or not they would choose to follow Christ, and then electing those he foresaw would do so. But others would say that God elects based on his own will and not based on his knowledge of future right choices in people.

Interestingly, we sometimes see both groups attempt to explain predestination or election with the same passage.

Romans 8:29-30 – 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

If Romans 8:29 stood alone, it would appear that God predestined people to salvation, perhaps simply based on his knowledge of their future choices. Foreknowledge in that verse could be taken as simple information that God possessed beforehand. But, when these two verses are kept together, when the passage is handled fully, we see that such cannot be the case.

This passage is called by some the Golden Chain of Redemption. These two verses establish a set of unbreakable links that lead from God’s foreknowledge to eternal glory. But notice, and be sure to take seriously, the fact that the verses are clear that from step to step in this chain, all who were part of each prior step are also part of the next step. No person, not a single one is lost in the flow.

It will help if we start at the end, “and those whom he justified he also glorified.” Is there any possibility that God might justify a person, granting them total forgiveness because of Christ, and not ultimately glorify that same person? Can God lose a fully and clearly saved person? By no means. Later in this chapter, Paul will point out that nothing at all can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.

Stepping back, “those whom he called he also justified.” Who are justified? Those whom God called are justified. Be careful here. Paul does not say that some of those he called are justified any more than he said that some of those who were justified are glorified. No, this is all-inclusive. The call here seems to be a call that is effective. The called are justified.
None are dropped from the chain.

 

Who are called? Paul tells us, “those whom he predestined he also called.” Again, this has not proved whether or not predestination is based on the choices of the saved or the choice of God primarily. But we see that all who are predestined are called. All who are predestined are called in an effective way so as to see all of them justified so as to see all of them glorified.

 

So, who is predestined? Verse 29 says, “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son.” Who is predestined? Those God foreknew are predestined. All of those God foreknew are predestined. There is no reason to see a break in the chain here. The Golden Chain tells us that all God foreknew are predestined, are called, are justified, are glorified.

 

But if this chain is all-inclusive on every step, then the word foreknew cannot be a reference to simple information had by God beforehand. Why? God foreknows every human being in that way. God knows all people who will exist. God knows all who will come to him and all who will not. But the text indicates no break from those he for knows and who will be predestined for salvation. Thus, if the word foreknowledge here only means data, then it would suggest that all people will be saved because all are foreknown.

 

However, a more faithful and biblical understanding here would be that to foreknow here is to know in a special way. It is to know so as to place his love upon certain people. It is for God to elect based on God’s desires and not based on simple data that he had beforehand.

 

If you study Scripture thoroughly, you will find that, when God talks about knowing someone, it is synonymous with a relationship and not merely with data. In Amos 3:2, God said that Israel is the only nation he has known. How could that be? God knows all nations intellectually. But, in the Old Testament, Israel is the only nation God chose for himself.

 

In Matthew 25, Jesus says he will tell the lost to depart from him. Why? He says he will tell them, “I never knew you.” How could that be. There is no human being about whom Jesus does not have data. But there will be people who never entered into a saving relationship with Jesus. Those he says he never knew.

 

The Golden Chain uses foreknew in the same way that those verses use knew. All God chose beforehand for a relationship with him are predestined, are called, are justified, and are glorified. There is no break in the chain. This is the only way to allow these verses to say all that they intend to say. Yes, there are implications. Yes, we who are focused so much on man’s independence will naturally balk here. But at the end of the day, this verse simply shows us that God is more sovereign than man and God’s purposes are not thwarted. God has chosen to save a people for himself, and he will accomplish his design.

Suffering and an Eternal Mindset

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In Romans 8, Paul speaks to us about hardships. He knows that people in this present age are suffering. Christians are facing and will face persecution. Believers will, at different seasons of history, be impoverished by their inability to participate in sinful activities in the lands in which they live. And, of course, believers, like all other people, face the hardships of living in this world: crime, disease, natural disasters, war, poverty, etc.

How are we to deal with knowing that this life is often so hard? Note what Paul said in his letter.

Romans 8:18 – For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

One answer to surviving the hardships of this life is what we see Paul say right here. The suffering we face, sufferings that are real and tremendously painful, are not worth even comparing to the glories to come. We have here a simple analysis of the pain of the present as compared to the glory and peace of the future. And Paul tells us, God tells us through Paul, that the glories to come will so far outstrip the pain of today that there is simply no comparison.

If your pain could be measured on a scale, it might reach some pretty high numbers. Let us pretend that there is a scale for human suffering that tops out at 100 points. You may have experienced some 75 point pains. Some of you may have reached something near the top of the scale. Others of you may have barely hit a 10.

Now imagine that there is a glory scale where one point of glory is equal in value to a point of suffering. What would it mean, when you look at your suffering score, to know that a million points of joy and glory are yours in the future? What would it mean that the score is even greater, a billion, a trillion, an infinity worth of joy and peace and life? This is what God wants you to get. No matter how much pain you face in the here an now, that pain will be dwarfed by the immeasurable joy and life you will have with God.

Christians are a supernatural people. When we think properly, we have our minds set on the eternity to come far more than on the pain of the present. We do not pretend that pain in this life is not real. But, when we get it right, we also remember that there is no pain in this life that can even put a dent in the joy of eternity. We live for the joy of the infinite glory of God. We are promised that we will experience his heart-filling, joy-inducing, perfect presence forever as we live lives of absolute bliss after this life is over. Our hope is there, not here. And when we have our minds properly set there, the pains of this life, though very real, fall into perspective and we survive in hope of what is to come.

A Brief Look at Total Inability

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Calvinism is often represented by the acronym T. U. L. I. P. Those five letters stand for five points which are the five doctrines that opponents of Calvin’s teachings could not tolerate, but which students taught by Calvin proclaimed to be biblical and thus true. They are by no means the only things Calvin taught. They are, instead, the points of controversy related to the doctrines of grace, of salvation.

The T in TULIP  stands for total depravity, or sometimes total inability. The point of the doctrine is that mankind, without God enacting a change in the sinfully dead heart will never desire God. The doctrine states that, apart from a supernatural work done by God on the heart of a person, that person will never desire to come to God, they will not want God.

One passage that speaks to this doctrine is one I read this morning in my daily reading. In Romans 8, Paul says a few things that show us that lost man does not come to God on his own.

Romans 8:7–9 –  7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

Notice three things in this little section. First, what does the word of God say about how a person will desire to come to or know God? The heart set on the flesh is hostile to God. An unconverted heart is by its very nature hostile to God. This is not God pushing the unconverted person away. It is the person rejecting God and running from him because their desire is the flesh, an all-encompassing term for the sinful life. The lost heart desires not God but what opposes God.

Second, notice that the mind set on the flesh will not submit to the law of God. Why not? Paul says that it cannot. Cannot here is a word that clearly indicates a lack of ability. This is not because God is commanding the impossible. It is not as if the Lord is telling a man to leap over the Grand Canyon. Instead, it is a total lack of ability to submit to God because the unconverted person quite clearly does not desire to do so.

Thirdly, and this is the part that I think is often skipped in this discussion, note what is required for a person to have this inability, this hostility to God that leads to them not even being able to want him, changed. It is the Spirit of God that is required to make this change. Paul points out that those who are not described by the inability of verse 7 and 8 are changed, not because they changed themselves, but because of the work of the Spirit of God. It is the supernatural work of God’s Spirit that moves a person from hostility against God, from inability to submit to God, to a desire for God, for salvation, and for the things of God. The cause of this change is God, not the man who cannot desire such a change because of his enslavement to sin and hostility to the Lord.

Do not be confused by the term total depravity. That phrase does not mean that men who do not know God are as totally evil as they could be. What the phrase means is what the Bible teaches us here. When we are unconverted, we are in the flesh. Our hearts are hostile to the things of God so that we cannot submit to him. Why can we not submit? We cannot submit to him because, as we already saw, our fleshly hearts are hostile to him and his ways. We cannot submit because of our own choice of sin. For that to change, a work of the Spirit of God must bring to life a dead heart, turning our desires from being hostile to God to desiring God. And then, when the Spirit does that work, when he moves our hearts to wanting God, we will come to the Lord because of the new desire he has given us just as surely as we could not submit to him earlier because of our old desires against him.

You Need Friends in the Church

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Do you have friends? No, I do not mean to ask you if you have people who know your name and will smile at you as you pass by. Do you have real friends? Are there people to whom your life is tightly connected? Are there people in your local church who know you inside and out, who speak truth into your life, who encourage you when you hurt, and who kick you in the pants when you need it?

When Paul wrote to the Romans, he shared a particular desire with them that speaks to us about our need for the church.

Romans 1:11-12 – 11 For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you— 12 that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.

Paul was an apostle. IN so many ways, we think of Paul as the apostle. Paul is the man who God used to take the gospel to the gentiles. In Acts, it appears that Peter fades into the background as the ministry work focuses on Paul as the book moves forward. Paul personally wrote 13 of our New Testament letters. Paul’s influence is clear in the life of Luke, and thus Paul’s fingerprints are on Luke-Acts. And though I do not think Paul wrote the letter to the Hebrews, his teaching oozes from the pores of that book too. If there was a titan of the early church, a man used by God to shape the growing body of believers in the first century, it would be hard to settle on any single figure more than Paul.

Thus, it is no surprise to us that Paul would want to get to the Christians in Rome so that he could encourage them. Of course he would want to do this. Of course Paul would know that those folks needed his teaching.

What is a surprise, however, is that Paul said that he wanted to be mutually encouraged. He wanted to be strengthened by the faith of the Romans as much as he wanted to give of his own faith to the Romans. Paul saw both that he needed to go to Rome for the good of that church and he needed the Romans for the good of his own soul.

Let me say to you, dear Christian, that you are not wiser or stronger than Paul. And if Paul needed the church, so do you. If Paul needed to get himself to be with other believers for two big reasons, so do you.

You need the church in two big ways, no matter how strong and self-sufficient you think you are. You need the church to encourage your soul. You need the people of the church to challenge your thinking, to teach you truth, to encourage your heart, to test your patience, to bring about your repentance, to prod at your sanctification, to show you love, to help you to forgive, to live out the biblical “one another” commands, and so much more. You cannot live the Christian life that God commands you to live without the help of the other believers you find in a local church.

And you need to be a part of a local church so that you can do for others the very things you need others to do for you. If you are a brainy Christian, you need to help other believers understand the truths that God has gifted you to learn. You need to encourage the weak. You need to give kindly to others. You need to show compassion. You need to train up believers who are younger than you in the faith. You need to encourage and strengthen older believers. You need to grow the church as you love others in Christ with truth, mercy, compassion, grace, love, joy, and so much more.

You cannot be a faithful Christian and not connect in the church. You cannot be a faithful Christian without friends in the church. You need friends in the church whether you think you do or not. You need people that you can hurt with your words so that you can learn to temper your words and seek forgiveness when you fail—this is good for your humility. You need other Christians who will drive you nuts with their weaknesses, as this will teach you to love them as Christ loves them and gave himself for them. You need Christians who are smarter than you to remind you that your thoughts are not the best thoughts ever thought by thinking thinkers. You need Christians who can barely make themselves read a book but who put you to shame with their deep seasons of prayer and their gloriously sweet hearts to serve others, hearts you would do well to learn to imitate.  You need kind Christians who teach you not to be a jerk. You need jerky Christians to help you to be compassionate toward sinners as God has been compassionate toward you even as you participate in their sanctification.

At the end of the day, if you are a believer, you need the church. So do not disconnect. Find a body of believers. It will not be perfect. Find a place where the gospel is preached faithfully. Find a place where believers walk through life together, sometimes getting it right, often getting it wrong, but always wanting to glorify God. Find a local church and dive in. Love the people. Care for the people. Help the weaker grow. Learn that you are also the weaker and people help you grow. Obey Christ and love his church. You need this.

A Resurrection Focus

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It seems that, in modern church culture, we focus much on the sacrifice of Jesus, maybe on his life, and seldom on his resurrection. When I hear gospel presentations or apologetic discourses, I hear a good deal about Jesus’ claims and his crucifixion, I even hear a good deal about the prophecies that Jesus fulfilled in his life, but it seems that those are often followed up with the resurrection as an, “O, by the way…,” afterthought.

But the writers of Scripture, inspired by God’s Holy Spirit, are most certainly focused on the resurrection. It is the fact that Jesus walked out of the tomb that is the key to their being convinced of the true identity of Jesus and the fact of his promises.

Look here at Paul’s greeting in Romans.

Romans 1:3-4 – 3 concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh 4 and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord,

How does Paul know that Jesus really is who he says he is? Jesus was declared to be the Son of God in power through his resurrection. The fact that Jesus rose from the grave proves that all the other claims about Jesus are true. The fact of the resurrection is at the core of our belief.

 

I wonder, then, why we do not spend more of our energy in modern discussions talking about the resurrection. I have debated with people the morality of predestination, the righteousness of God’s commands, the philosophical rationale for belief in a Creator, the significance of the age of the universe, the historical reasoning for the reliability of Scripture, and so many other things. And in general, I believe those discussions to be good things. But at the end of the day, whether talking to a struggling believer or a disinterested agnostic, there is really one truth that is at the center of our belief. The important question is, “Did Jesus rise from the dead?”

 

Did Jesus rise from the dead? If he did, then what do you do with him? If Jesus walked out of the tomb, then he is different than any other human being. In fact, if Jesus walked out of the tomb, he is the very God he claims to be. If Jesus walked out of the tomb, he is the Son of God who gave his life as a sacrifice for the sins of God’s children. If Jesus gave his life as the only sacrifice for sins that can make a person right with God, then we are responsible to get under that grace or be lost. We are responsible to obey God’s command to repent of sin and believe in Jesus. We are responsible to call Jesus our Lord and find our life in him.

 

Perhaps, the next time a friend or family member wants to debate religion with you, it would be good to start with the question of the resurrection. Ask them what they do with the fact that Jesus rose from the dead. The resurrection is the proof of Jesus’ identity and authority. 

Stop Assuming What God Cannot Do

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We live in a hard world. We know people who seem as though their hearts are far too hardened against the Lord ever to be saved. And we assume that the situation we face will always remain the same. In that assumption, we declare, perhaps silently, that God cannot change a certain set of circumstances.

In truth, we do not have a guarantee of what God will or will not change. WE do not know who will turn from hating God toward salvation. We do not know what changes may come to bring about the repentance of a family, a city, a state, or a nation. But we should not let ourselves fall into the folly of believing that there are any of these that the Lord cannot change.

As an example, consider the completely impossible circumstances that faced Gideon in the book of Judges. Gideon started with an army of 32,000 men, and the Lord whittled that number down to 300. That 300 faced an established army of 135,000. This is an impossible task. No way can anything be done to change this circumstance, right?

Judges 7:9-14 – 9 That same night the Lord said to him, “Arise, go down against the camp, for I have given it into your hand. 10 But if you are afraid to go down, go down to the camp with Purah your servant. 11 And you shall hear what they say, and afterward your hands shall be strengthened to go down against the camp.” Then he went down with Purah his servant to the outposts of the armed men who were in the camp. 12 And the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the people of the East lay along the valley like locusts in abundance, and their camels were without number, as the sand that is on the seashore in abundance. 13 When Gideon came, behold, a man was telling a dream to his comrade. And he said, “Behold, I dreamed a dream, and behold, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian and came to the tent and struck it so that it fell and turned it upside down, so that the tent lay flat.” 14 And his comrade answered, “This is no other than the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel; God has given into his hand Midian and all the camp.”

The night the battle was to begin, God sent Gideon down into the camp of his enemies. Gideon was still afraid and could not imagine how the Lord could give victory to his tiny little band of men facing such an army. But what Gideon found out was that the Midianites were having bad dreams, dangerously bad dreams. The people in the camp were having dreams that were telling them that the Lord was going to give victory to Gideon and the Israelites. The Midianites were terrified.

Thus, we get the story of Gideon and the army winning a victory that would not have happened had they faced the enemy on an open battle field. Gideon and his men are placed around the perimeter of the enemy camp. At one signal, they blow trumpets, shatter pottery, and reveal torches. The Midianites wake up from nightmares to hear loud sounds and see bright lights from every side. The sleepy and frightened men grab swords and start swinging at anything that moves. And just like that, the Lord gives victory to Israel, as the Midianites cut one another down in the battle.

The point that I think we should grasp today is that, when we assume that we know what God can or cannot do, will or will not do, as it regards things we think are impossible, we need to stop and think again. The Lord can do things we cannot imagine. The Lord can impact human hearts in ways that we might not see until the change is made.

Get practical here. You know somebody you want to hear the gospel. But you assume they are so harsh against the faith that they will never hear or never respond well. But what do you not know? You do not know what God may be doing in their hearts. You do not know what God may be doing behind the scenes to prepare them for the gospel. Perhaps they are hurting in their soul in a way that you cannot see. Maybe they have been having frightening thoughts of falling under the judgment of God, even if they have not told anybody about their secret fears. Maybe they have had bad dreams of being crushed by a barley loaf. I do not know what may be going on, but we must not assume that God is not at work in ways we cannot see.

So, the point is that we need to trust the Lord and know that he can make changes in lives that we cannot see. So we need to pray, be faithful, and share the gospel. WE need to recognize that God changes hearts, not us. We just need to be faithful, trust God, and stop assuming what he cannot do.

Pessimism as Practical Atheism

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Many people live as practical atheists. Though they say that they believe in God, or a god of some sort, they live as though the existence or lack of existence of a deity is irrelevant to their lives. They expect that no difference will be made in the world in which they live by the divine being they claim to worship.

But this should not be a true thought for Christians. We, of all people, should believe that the Lord acts. We should know that the Lord moves to change things. The Lord moves nations. The Lord moves kings and kingdoms. The Lord gives victories. And the Lord brings judgment.

Consider the call of Gideon in judges 6. At the time of Gideon’s call, he was hiding in a winepress threshing grain. That, by the way, is exactly the wrong way to thresh grain. When you thresh, you are supposed to do it on top of a hillside in the breeze. But Gideon was hiding in a hole in the ground so as not to be seen by the oppressive Midianites.

When God sends his angel to speak to Gideon, the Lord promises that he will deliver Israel through the leadership of Gideon. But look at how Gideon responds.

Judges 6:14-16 – 14 And the Lord turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?” 15 And he said to him, “Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.” 16 And the Lord said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.”

Gideon cannot believe that his life and his actions can effect change. Gideon says that he is the weakest man in his weak little clan in a weak half-tribe in Israel. Gideon knows he cannot be used of God to make a difference. Gideon is too small. Social and political issues in Israel have gone too far to be changed.

But God’s words to Gideon in two places ought to get our attention. These words are the ones that ought to ring in our ears. The Lord says, “Do not I send you,” and “But I will be with you.” Those are the words that prove that the work of Gideon, this weak little man from a weak little clan, will make a difference in the world around him. Gideon’s life will matter. This is not because Gideon is special. Rather, it is because the God of the universe has sent him and will be with him.

We, as Christians, find ourselves in a world that looks unchangeable. It is so easy to become so pessimistic about our culture. It looks like the culture wars have long since been lost. It looks like the slide of political power could well lead to oppression and even persecution of Christians.

But remember, if the Lord so chooses, he can turn our culture. God moved a nation and threw off oppression by using a wimpy man who he met hiding in a hole in the ground. This was not because Gideon was strong. It was not because the Midianites were weak. It was because God said he was going to take action, he was sending Gideon, and he was going with Gideon. The presence of the Lord changed the world, a world that looked impossible to change.

I have no idea what the Lord will do in our culture. We deserve the wrath of God for our repeated attacks on the Lord and his ways. But maybe the Lord will act. Maybe the Lord will change things. And if he so decides, he will succeed. No nation can stand against the Lord. God defeats nations at his whim. God changes the hearts of nations when he chooses. And we must live with the knowledge that, whatever comes, the Lord is acting and the Lord is able to accomplish all he wills.

At the end of the Great Commission, Jesus reminded us of the same thing that the Lord said to Gideon. Jesus said to us that he will be with us always, to the very end of the age. God is with us. God sends us out on mission. God sends us out to see the world changed as we serve him and make disciples. May we not live as those who are only pretending to believe this. Instead, may we know that the Lord is with us and he will not leave us or forsake us. As the Lord wills to use us, he will do all he desires. Nothing in this world is too hard for God to change.

A Warning from Judges

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When my annual Bible reading plan takes me through Judges, I cannot say I am excited. This book is dark and painful to read. WE watch as the nation of Israel turns their back on God time and time again. No matter how great are his warnings, the people keep fighting against him.

What hit me, as I began this reading for this year, is the fact that this dark feeling, this pressing warning, is just as much for us today as it was for the people who originally read it. No, I do not expect that we should think a lot about the land promises discussed in the book. But we are to live as the people of God and be careful not to turn from him.

Judges 2:10-13 – 10 And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel.

11 And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals. 12 And they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went after other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed down to them. And they provoked the Lord to anger. 13 They abandoned the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth.

It was only 1 generation after Joshua when the people abandoned God and began to worship idols. IT took only one generation for those who should have followed the Lord to turn their backs. One generation, and the people provoked the Lord.

Before we take this and try to make some sort of political statement about our nation, how about we take this and see in it the need for intense warnings in our own families. Our children will worship someone or something. That is simply true. And it is wise for us as parents to help them to see that the only acceptable way to worship is to worship the Lord. The only way to worship the Lord is to come to him in faith and repentance, believing in Jesus and turning our backs on our sin in this life. We must trust Jesus and yield ourselves to him.

And we should warn our families that, to turn away from Jesus and ignore him is really the very same thing we see in Judges. To turn against Jesus is to bow to one idol or another. This is to provoke the Lord and to dishonor his name.

I don’t know if I’m getting across the depth of emotion that needs to come here. We either worship the Lord, or we bow to Baal, figuratively speaking. We either surrender to Jesus, or we do war against the Lord our God. This is an extremely significant truth, and I wonder if, in our desire to be kind and gentle and to appear open-minded, we might be softening the blow of this hard truth. May we not do so. May we find the grace of Jesus, a sweet Savior and gentle Master. May we not instead turn against him and find him the holy Judge.

Cults and Math

pastortravislv

With the recent Secret Church 18 presentation on cults and counterfeit gospels, I remembered this clever little trick for identifying a cult. I heard it in a sermon presented by Danny Akin, who is an author and who serves as president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. I know I will not have his illustration word-for-word, but the main point will still come through.

You can always tell a cult, because a cult always does math. They will always either add, subtract, multiply, or divide.

Cults will add an extra-biblical source of authority. This source might be a book, prophet, or something else, but they will have something that is authoritative along with the scriptures.

Cults will subtract from the person and the works of Jesus Christ. Generally, this will be to deny the deity of Jesus, but could also include denying the sufficiency of the atonement or other Christological issues.

Cults will multiply the requirements for salvation. No cult keeps the message of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.  They will all add something else (works based) that is required to get into heaven.

Cults will divide your loyalty. They will tend to present a human leader to whom they call you to be loyal along with Jesus.  This new leader is often presented as a new mediator or prophet between God and the group.

I do not know why, but ever since I heard this little pithy explanation, it has stuck with me. If you find a group adding an extra-biblical source of authority or subtracting from a biblical understanding of Christ, watch out. If you come across a group that multiplies for you a set of good works to do to get into heaven or divides your loyalty from Christ and his word to share that loyalty with a modern prophet or leader, get away. This is how knowing that cults do math can help you evaluate a religion’s claim to be either true or false.