tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83845677487720617312024-03-13T08:12:34.042-07:00RepentRayshawnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04802656132311800863noreply@blogger.comBlogger48125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8384567748772061731.post-32291815815598016582013-02-18T11:39:00.000-08:002010-11-23T08:55:37.167-08:00The Purpose of Repent<div align="center"><a href="http://lifeafterwcg2.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/theology.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 478px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 307px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://lifeafterwcg2.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/theology.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />The Purpose of this website is <strong>1)</strong> for my own personal study in the things of God.<br />Over the last two years I have been on a journey, almost my own Pilgrim's Progress, in coming into understanding the foundational and doctrinal things of God. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." My quest on the road of theology is not to get some head full of knowledge so that I can become the next Bible Answer man; for knowledge puffs up. The reason I have been drawn to study the old doctrines and foundational principles of theology is purely out of a heart of worship. I desire to know God for everything that He has revealed about Himself to man through the Scripture. It is my desire to seek out who He has revealed Himself to be and then worship Him for that. In the book of Exodus 34:6-8, it says<br /><br /><em>6 And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,<br /><br />7 Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.<br /><br />8 And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped</em><br /><br />Christians must know the God they serve, and understand what the scripture says about the Father, His Son, and the Holy Spirit. Many people run at the word "Doctrine", and many turn off their "ears to hear" when they hear the word "Theology", and as a result we see a malnourised body of believers among us today, hungry for the things of God: miracles, signs, wonders, a "feeling" of power,and a good Word, but not knowing anything about the God they serve and what He stands for. Proverbs tells us<br /><br /><em>"Desire without knowledge is not good,<br />and whoever makes haste with his feet misses his way." -Proverbs 19:2</em><br /><br /><em>Romans 10:2 "For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge."</em><br /><br />The doctrines that the church is founded upon and the study of theology is not to puff up or put a hole in your "bubble of freedom" that so many Christians profess. These things are to encourage you in the faith, strenghten the Christian in His relationship with God and give the believer a genuine understanding of who God is, what His Son Jesus has done on the cross, and understand the amazing regenerating power of the Holy Spirit in transforming and sustaining the Christian on this earth.<br />This is my aim. My journey is not finished, and will never be, I believe.<br />This site is to help me on my journey and perhaps encourage you to begin your own, as you read the articles, watch the videos, and dive into the Scriptures like never before and study them out as the Bereans did in Acts 17:11.<br /><br /><br />The second reason for the purpose of this site is so that it may benefit you, the reader. My prayer is that you may come to know Christ in His fullness like never before. In studying the attributes of God, the Doctrines of Grace, the 5 pillars of the Reformation and the work of Jesus Christ done on the cross, I pray that the Holy Spirit would open your eyes to the truth of scripture and the preciousness of God's grace.</div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8384567748772061731.post-42744659548928871012009-11-06T13:15:00.000-08:002009-11-06T13:23:14.220-08:00God's Providence - Excerpt from "The Crook in the Lot"- Thomas Boston3rdly. He wisely overrules them to some good purpose, becoming the Divine perfections. While the sinful instrument has an ill design in the crook caused by him, God directs it to a holy and good end. In the disorders of David's family Amnon's design was to gratify a brutish lust; Absalom's to glut himself with revenge, and to satisfy his pride and ambition; but God meant by that means to punish David for his sin in the matter of Uriah. In the crook made in Job's lot, by Satan, and the Sabeans and Chaldeans, his instruments, Satan's design was to cause Job to blaspheme, and theirs to gratify their covetousness; but God had another design in this way becoming Himself, namely, to manifest Job's sincerity and uprightness. Did he not wisely and powerfully overrule those crooks made in men's lot, no good could come out of them, hut He always overrules them so as to fulfil His own holy purposes in this way (howbeit the sinner means not so); for His designs cannot miscarry, His "counsel shall stand." So the sinful crook is, by the overruling hand of God, turned about to His own glory and His people's good in the end. According to the word, "The Lord has made all things for Himself. " "All things work together for the good to them that love God. " Thus Haman's plot for the destruction of the Jews "was turned to the contrary. " And the crook made in Joseph's lot, by his own brothers selling him into Egypt, though it was on their part most sinful, and of a most mischievous design; yet, as it was of God's making, by his holy permission, powerful bounding, and wisely overruling it, had an issue well becoming the Divine wisdom and goodness; both of which Joseph notices to them: "As for you, you thought evil against me; but God meant it to good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to keep many people alive. "Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8384567748772061731.post-78002923157775195772009-10-15T18:28:00.000-07:002009-10-31T12:01:05.254-07:00John 1:2-3John 1:2-3 <em>" He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.<br /></em><br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">He was in the beginning with God.</span></strong><br /><br />This 2nd verse speaks of Christ's eternal pre-incarnate state: with God - equal and One with the Father. From eternity past, long before the worlds were made or even thought of, Christ dwelt with the Father in His bosom(John 1:15), at His side. John isnt simply making this up or even exaggerating about who this Jesus was before He cam to this world as a babe. John was with Jesus in the moment recorded in John 17 where Chrst lifts up His eyes to heaven and prays a High-Priestly prayer for those whom the Father had given Him. In the earliest part of Jesus' prayer, just after He declares that the Father has given Him authority over all flesh, so that He might give eternal life to all the Father has given Him, Jesus says these words in John 17:4 "I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.<br />Where was Jesus before the world existed? With the Father, in the presence of the Father. Was he just heaven's version of an average man, sitting on the end of the bench in God's presence, waiting to be put into the game? No. He possessed the very Glory of God...lets think about this. This is the same glory that The Almighty Creator of the universe possesses, the same glory that all the wonderful works of creation sing about in Psalms 19:1-3 and in Psalms 145:1-7. This is the same glory of God that avenged all of His enemies, and those that rebelled against Him (Ex. 14:18) This glory that Jesus previously possessed was the same glory that consumed Mt. Saini in the wilderness, the same glory that passed by Moses in the cleft of the rock and prolaimed “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” (Ex 34:6-7) This glory of God was seen in Isaiah's vision in Isaiah 6:1-4 :<br /><br /><em>"In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” 4 And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. 5 And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”</em><br /><br />The seraphim, the highest, and most brilliant of angels,which remained in the prescence of God daily- always, couldnt even bear to look upon His glory because they would be consumed and therefore they were created with wings to cover their feet and their eyes. This glory of Jehovah shook the posts and foundations of the temple - filled it with unbearable smoke, and the flowing train of the Almighty One filled the temple. This glory was so unbearable, so filling, and so wonderful and glorious, that all the angels could cry out day and night is "Holy, Holy, Holy!!!"<br />The prophet Isaiah cannot think about anything else in the presence of the Lord except how beautiful and mighty is the Lord of Hosts, how high and lifted up is He, and low and sinful, how desestable and unclean Isaiah is. His eyes had seen the King, whose glory fills the earth and whose majesty is forever. Who was this that Isaiah saw? This glory, who did it belong to- the Lord of Hosts, The King of Glory....Psalms 24:8-10 says:<br /><br /><em>"Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. 8</em><a id="essa" name="15912x1"></a><em> Who </em><a id="essa" name="15912x2"></a><em>is </em><a id="essa" name="15912x3"></a><em>this </em><a id="essa" name="15912x4"></a><em>King </em><a id="essa" name="15912x5"></a><em>of </em><a id="essa" name="15912x6"></a><em>glory? The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord, mighty in battle"</em><br /><br />John also gives us a glimpse of who Isaiah saw in his vision - who it was that was High and Lifted up- seated on the Throne. John 12:39-41 quotes Isaiah:<br /><br /><em>"Therefore they could not believe. For again Isaiah said, “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them.”</em><br /><br />Why did Isaiah say these things and what do they have to do with Jesus? John says in verse 41:<br /><br /><strong>"Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him. "<br /></strong><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>All things were made by Him...</strong></span><br /><br />All things were made by God, The Word. Everything that has existence was made by and through the Word, Jesus Christ. In the beginning, God created. God created by His Word. Hebrews 11:3 says that "through faith we understand that the worlds were framed(set up, establoshed, fashioned, and put in order). The "worlds" is aich: age, or time in contrast to kosmos: people or space. Duration or continuation of time. The worlds were formed by the word of God: word in this verse is 'rhema': that which is spoken; a statement or word. Logos is the expression of thought, while rhema would be the subject matter of the expression of thought - or the thing spoken about. All things were created by the Second member of the Trinity: the Logos Word which was with God and was God - all things were made by Him, for Him, in Him and through Him. Rhema was the subject matter of "the worlds" which is spoken about.<br />Jesus Christ is not just a word, or an utterance from the mouth of God. Christ is "The Word". The eternal pre-incarnate Son of God was "ho logos" which means The Word. This means that there is no other Word of God apart from Jesus Christ or outside of Jesus Christ, and there is no other method or way of creation except by and through Jesus Christ- the Word; so when it came to God creating a new work, or a regenerating work in the hearts of men by taking them as fallen corrupted wicked sinners, and then re-creating them to be new creatures- Christ was and is the only way to create. He is the only way by which things will be made. Just as the Word made all things which have been made, speaking of the account of creation in Genesis, and even speaking of Colossians 1:15-17 of thrones, principalities, and dominions, whether for or against Him - God created all in Christ and through Christ and He is esteemed as the first born or first in rank above all things that have been made. His transcendence is equal to God and Christ didnt think this equality and Oneness with Him as robbery (Phil 2:6-7) why? Because of the eternal reality that He is equal to the Father. Jesus Christ is the only One qualified to do a creative work- whether in the act of creating the universe, or in creating a heart of flesh in replacement of a stony heart. Just as in Genesis, God created everything from nothing, so He does the same in Christ, actually even more so in re-creating a man from previously being a corrupt, vile, and atrocious mass of sin. This is the glory of God in Jesus Christ because the Father is glorified through the Son as the Son glorifies the Father (John 17:1). God shows off and demonstrates His love, grace, power, holiness, and justice in the face of Jesus Christ. By Him He created all things which have been made from the smallest nucleus of an atom to the largest galaxy full of trillions and trillions of stars - without Him - none of these things would exist; and God does an even greater work in demonstrating His love in that while this planet was full of rebellious, helpless sinners, God displayed His justice and grace in sending His Son to die for sinners, becomming a wrath absorbing propitiation in carrying away our sins upon Himself and drinking the infinite cup of God's furious wrath upon sin. God also demonstrated His justice in that He counts those who believe on His Son's sacrifice as just and in right standing with Him - not because of anything they have done in themselves, no; but because of the always-pleasing, perfectly acomplishing the will of God- life of the Son of God on this earth - and in that imputation of His righteousness, God is now the justifier of those who were once wicked.<br />God does the greatest work in Christ:1) by creating all things that have been made, 2)and by regenerating men's hearts by the work of the Holy Spirit in seeing the beauty and grace of Jesus Christ.<br />Logical conclusion: Since Christ created everything, if you take away Christ, you take away everything. There would be NOTHING witout Him. Jesus re-affirms this in John 15:5 by saying <em>" I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing."</em> Without the vine branches wouldnt even exist, likewise without Christ, men are nothing, destined for nothingness and separation from everything in the fires and worm eating miseries of Hell. When men take away the Glory of God in creating everthing that is made and in Him being the only Way to life, they end up believing in and living for nothing - given over by God to lust, dishonor and debasement. When you take away Christ, you take away everything....Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8384567748772061731.post-86399039080212560182009-10-12T19:06:00.001-07:002009-10-12T19:06:54.291-07:00<script src="http://www.desiringgod.org/player.js?height=337&width=600&embedCode=g2aGN3OscfH2sj_J4gKHxcmX3puzoziP"></script>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8384567748772061731.post-55843898083468566542009-09-19T07:17:00.000-07:002009-09-19T08:20:41.026-07:00John 1:1<strong>"In the beginning was the Word..."</strong><br />"In the beginning" is also found to be the first words of the Bible in Genesis 1:1. John was making it clear from the beginning of his writings that Whom he was speaking about was, and has been from the beginning. He also gives a similar introduction in 1 John 1:1 "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life". Whom John is speaking about from the begining is not talking about the beginning of one's life or the beginning of His ministry, but from the beginnings of beginnings, the same beginning as previously stated thats found in Genesis 1:1 "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." Just as Genesis could read " God, in the beginning created the heavens and the earth," John 1:1 could read "The Word in the beginning was...". The word beginning in Greek is <em>arche</em>: not referring to a restrictive event, situation or time, but "in the beginning" is absolute, meaning the beginning of any and everything or creation." God existed and had been before the beginning and the Word existed and had been before the beginning. Between Genesis 1:1 and John 1:1 one can see the Holy Trinity clearly and at work in creation. In the beginning God created and there was the Word, and the Spirit of God hovered over the waters.<br /><strong>"was the word..."</strong><br />was is the word <em>en</em> and is the imperfect 3rd person singular of <em>eimi</em>(1510 Strong's)which means "to be", it is the verb of existence, to have existence meaning that the Word had been before and was existing and had existed before there was any beginning, (thereby showing the eternality of the Word and leading to its equality with God.)existing before the beginning of anything - Zodihates (my note in parenthesees) "John 8:50 says 'And I seek not my own glory: <strong>there is </strong>one that seeketh and judges. This means that "There has always been one that seeks and judges (esti)." - Zodihates<br />John 8:58 says " Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am (eimi)" Christ called Himself the One who exists, and the One who has always existed, even before Abraham was (genesomai): which means to come into existence.<br />Christ was before any man was: Christ (en) before any man (genesomai).<br />So, In the beginning, the Word already existed, and had been existing. Jesus Christ is the Word that existed before anything - He existed before anything else had existence - He is outside of time, outside of all things created, outside of space and matter and existed before any of it. I think John's aim in starting this book of in this way is to show the truest genealogy and beginnings of Jesus Christ -namely, that He had no beginnings! Johns Gospel was written after Matthew, Mark and Lukes and two of those gospels outline Jesus' earthly genealogy. John begins with His Divine origins - who this man was before he ever came unto His own. He was the pre-existing, eternal Word of the Living God, Sovereign, free, self-existent, self-sufficient, holy and transcendent. Christ is the Divine Word of God, that expressed His thoughts and created all things. Christ was the Word from eternity and therefore He is God because He possesses, from what we have already seen in just the first few words of this book, the atributes of eternality, infinitude,and transcendence.<br />"Word" (hologos): "Intelligence, Word as the expression of that Intelligence. The pre-incarnate Christ; the Second person of the Godhead; the eternal expression of the divine intelligence and the disclosure of the divine essence. This self - revealing characteristic of God qand utterly achieved for mankind in the incarnation" - Zodihates<br />Just as man's words express out thoughts, The Word of God expressed His thoughts, but the Word was not hust an instrument or means of communication, or a tool to use to do something. <strong>"Word was with God..."</strong><br />This Word <strong>was</strong> (existed, exists, has always existed) with (pros):in nearness to; co-existed in nearness to God; and the Word <strong>was</strong> (existed, exists, and had always existed) God. Christ has always been and had always been a part of the Diety of the Godhead...rather, in Him the fullness of the godhead dwells bodily (Colossians 1:19). Even in His incarnation, He was still God. The Word became flesh, it was still the Word though. Jesus Christ is God and was originally present with God. Christ was not a created being, but the CREATOR, co-existing with the Father and Spirit, and as One- all things were made by Him.<br />This verse of John 1:1 seems to be molded by some to show that Christ was "a god" but this can not be true because John was a monotheistic Jew who held to the view that Jehovah was one (Deut 6:4) . If Christ were "a god" then He could not exist with God, unless those who say these things are polytheistic, and this is contrary to scripture. Scripture clearly defines the attributes of God and Christ possesses all of these divine atributes. Many times He is even spoken of as Jehovah himself in the Old Testament and John would be foolish to ascribe attrubutes of God to anything less than God....unless Christ wasn't less than God (John 5:18; Phil 2:6)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8384567748772061731.post-23090282175236841332009-05-13T09:53:00.000-07:002009-05-13T09:54:09.733-07:00Was Anyone Saved at the Cross? - James WhiteWas Anyone Saved at the Cross?<br />In Reformed Baptist Fellowship on Friday, April 10, 2009 at 10:10 am <br /><br />We say Christ so died that he infallibly secured the salvation of a multitude that no man can number, who through Christ’s death not only may be saved, but are saved, must be saved, and cannot by any possibility run the hazard of being anything but saved. —Charles Haddon Spurgeon<br /><br />There was a time when I called myself a “four-point Calvinist.” There are a lot of people who use that term, and, almost all the time, the one point of the five that they reject is the terrible, horrible, “L”. Limited atonement. There is just something about the term that doesn’t sound right. How can Christ’s atonement be limited? And that is exactly what I said until I began to seriously think about the whole issue. It is my experience that most of those who reject the specific, or limited atonement of Christ, do not *really* believe in the complete sovereignty of God, or the total depravity of man, or the unconditional election of God. Most objections that are lodged against the doctrine are actually objections to one of the preceding points, not against limited atonement itself. The “break” in my thinking came from reading Edwin Palmer’s book, The Five Points of Calvinism. [Edwin H. Palmer, The Five Points of Calvinism (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1980) pp. 41-55.] In doing a radio program on the truth of God’s electing grace, I was challenged by a caller in regards to the death of Christ. “Why would Christ die for the whole world if God did not intend to save everyone?” I looked at my co-host, and he looked at me, and I made a mental note to do more study into that particular question. I grabbed Palmer’s book as soon as I returned home, and began to read the chapter on the atoning work of Christ.<br /><br />I became a full “five-pointer” upon reading the following section:<br /><br />The question that needs a precise answer is this: Did He or didn’t He? Did Christ actually make a substitutionary sacrifice for sins or didn’t He? If He did, then it was not for all the world, for then all the world would be saved. (Palmer, The Five Points of Calvinism, p. 47.)<br /><br />I was faced with a decision. If I maintained a “universal” atonement, that is, if I said that Christ died substitutionarily in the place of every single man and woman in all the world, then I was forced to either say that 1) everyone will be saved, or 2) the death of Christ is insufficient to save without additional works. I knew that I was not willing to believe that Christ’s death could not save outside of human actions. So I had to understand that Christ’s death was made in behalf of God’s elect, and that it does accomplish its intention, it does save those for whom it is made. At this point I realized that I had “limited” the atonement all along. In fact, if you do not believe in the Reformed doctrine of “limited atonement,” you believe in a limited atonement anyway! How so? Unless you are a universalist (that is, unless you believe that everyone will be saved), then you believe that the atonement of Christ, if it is made for all men, is limited in its effect. You believe that Christ can die in someone’s place and yet that person may still be lost for eternity. You limit the power and effect of the atonement. I limit the scope of the atonement, while saying that its power and effect is unlimited! One writer expressed it well when he said,<br /><br />Let there be no misunderstanding at this point. The Arminian limits the atonement as certainly as does the Calvinist. The Calvinist limits the extent of it in that he says it does not apply to all persons…while the Arminian limits the power of it, for he says that in itself it does not actually save anybody. The Calvinist limits it quantitatively, but not qualitatively; the Arminian limits it qualitatively, but not quantitatively. For the Calvinist it is like a narrow bridge that goes all the way across the stream; for the Arminian it is like a great wide bridge that goes only half-way across. As a matter of fact, the Arminian places more severe limitations on the work of Christ than does the Calvinist. (Lorraine Boettner, The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination (Phillipsburg, New Jersey: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 1932) p. 153.)<br /><br />Therefore, we are not talking about presenting some terrible limitation on the work of Christ when we speak of “limited atonement.” In fact, we are actually presenting a far greater view of the work of Christ on Calvary when we say that Christ’s death actually accomplishes something in reality rather than only in theory. The atonement, we believe, was a real, actual, substitutionary one, not a possible, theoretical one that is dependent for its efficacy upon the actions of man. And, as one who often shares the gospel with people involved in false religious systems, I will say that the biblical doctrine of the atonement of Christ is a powerful truth that is the only message that has real impact in dealing with the many heretical teachings about Christ that are present in our world today. Jesus Christ died in behalf of those that the Father had, from eternity, decreed to save. There is absolute unity between the Father and the Son in saving God’s people. The Father decrees their salvation, the Son dies in their place, and the Spirit sanctifies them and conforms them to the image of Christ. This is the consistent testimony of Scripture.<br /><br />The Intention of the Atonement<br /><br />Why did Christ come to die? Did He come simply to make salvation possible, or did He come to actually obtain eternal redemption (Hebrews 9:12)? Let’s consider some passages from Scripture in answer to this question.<br /><br />For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost (Luke 19:10).<br /><br />Here the Lord Jesus Himself speaks of the reason for His coming. He came to seek and to save the lost. Few have a problem with His seeking; many have a problem with the idea that He actually accomplished all of His mission. Jesus, however, made it clear that He came to actually save the lost. He did this by His death.<br /><br />Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst (1 Timothy 1:15).<br /><br />Paul asserts that the purpose of Christ’s coming into the world was to actually save sinners. Nothing in Paul’s words leads us to the conclusion that is so popular today—that Christ’s death simply makes salvation a possibility rather than a reality. Christ came to save. So, did He? And how did He? Was it not by His death? Most certainly. The atoning death of Christ provides forgiveness of sins for all those for whom it is made. That is why Christ came.<br /><br />Christ’s Intercessory Work <br /><br />But because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them (Hebrews 7:24-26).<br /><br />The New Testament closely connects the work of Christ as our High Priest and intercessor with His death upon the cross. In this passage from Hebrews, we are told that the Lord Jesus, since He lives forever, has an unchangeable or permanent priesthood. He is not like the old priests who passed away, but is a perfect priest, because He remains forever. Because of this He is able to save completely those who come to God through Him. Why? Because He always lives to make intercession for them.<br /><br />Now, before considering the relationship of the death of Christ to His intercession, I wish to emphasize the fact that the Bible says that Christ is able to save men completely. He is not limited simply to a secondary role as the great Assistor who makes it possible for man to save himself. Those who draw near to God through Christ will find full and complete salvation in Him. Furthermore, we must remember that Christ intercedes for those who draw near to God. I feel that it is obvious that Christ is not interceding for those who are not approaching God through Him. Christ’s intercession is in behalf of the people of God. We shall see how important this is in a moment.<br /><br />Upon what ground does Christ intercede before the Father? Does He stand before the Father and ask Him to forget His holiness, forget His justice, and simply pass over the sins of men? Of course not. The Son intercedes before the Father on the basis of His death. Christ’s intercession is based upon the fact that He has died as the substitute for God’s people, and, since He has borne their sins in His body on the tree (1 Peter 2:24), He can present His offering before the Father in their place, and intercede for them on this basis. The Son does not ask the Father to compromise His holiness, or to simply pass over sin. Christ took care of sin at Calvary . As we read in Hebrews 9:11-12:<br /><br />When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made, that is to say, not a part of this creation. He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption.<br /><br />When Christ entered into the Holy of Holies, He did so “by his own blood.” When He did this, we are told that He had “obtained eternal redemption.” This again is not a theoretical statement, but a statement of fact. Christ did not enter into the Holy of Holies to attempt to gain redemption for His people! He entered in having already accomplished that. So what is He doing? Is His work of intercession another work alongside His sacrificial death? Is His death ineffective without this “other” work? Christ’s intercession is not a second work outside of His death. Rather, Christ is presenting before the Father His perfect and complete sacrifice. He is our High Priest, and the sacrifice He offers in our place is the sacrifice of Himself. He is our Advocate, as John said:<br /><br />My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:1-2. [This passage is often used to deny the specific atonement of Christ; yet, when the parallel passage in John 11:51-52 is consulted, it is clear that John means the "world" to be taken in the same sense that is explained for us in Revelation 5:9-11, where Christ's death purchases for God men "from every tribe and language and people and nation," that is, from all the world.]<br /><br />Christ’s atoning death is clearly connected with His advocacy before the Father. Therefore, we can see the following truths:<br /><br />1) It is impossible that the Son would not intercede for everyone for whom He died. If Christ dies as their Substitute, how could He not present His sacrifice in their stead before the Father? Can we really believe that Christ would die for someone that He did not intend to save?<br /><br />2) It is impossible that anyone for whom the Son did not die could receive Christ’s intercession. If Christ did not die in behalf of a certain individual, how could Christ intercede for that individual, since He would have no grounds upon which to seek the Father’s mercy?<br /><br />3) It is impossible that anyone for whom the Son intercedes could be lost. Can we imagine the Son pleading before the Father, presenting His perfect atonement in behalf of an individual that He wishes to save, and the Father rejecting the Son’s intercession? The Father always hears the Son (John 11:42). Would He not hear the Son’s pleas in behalf of all that the Son desires to save? Furthermore, if we believe that Christ can intercede for someone that the Father will not save, then we must believe either 1) that there is dissension in the Godhead, the Father desiring one thing, the Son another, or 2) that the Father is incapable of doing what the Son desires Him to do. Both positions are utterly impossible.<br /><br />That Christ does not act as High Priest for all men is clearly seen in His “High Priestly Prayer” in John 17. The Lord clearly distinguishes between the “world” and those who are His throughout the prayer, and verse 9 makes our point very strongly:<br /><br />I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours.<br /><br />When Christ prays to the Father, He does not pray for the “world” but for those that have been given to Him by the Father (John 6:37).<br /><br />For Whom Did Christ Die?<br /><br />There are a number of Scriptures that teach us that the scope of Christ’s death was limited to the elect. Here are a few of them:<br /><br />Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many (Matthew 20:28).<br /><br />The “many” for whom Christ died are the elect of God, just as Isaiah had said long before,<br /><br />By his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. (Isaiah 53:11)<br /><br />The Lord Jesus made it clear that His death was for His people when He spoke of the Shepherd and the sheep:<br /><br />I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep….just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep (John 10:11, 15).<br /><br />The good Shepherd lays down His life in behalf of the sheep. Are all men the sheep of Christ? Certainly not, for most men do not know Christ, and Christ says that His sheep know Him (John 10:14). Further, Jesus specifically told the Jews who did not believe in Him, “but you do not believe because you are not my sheep” (John 10:26). Note that in contrast with the idea that we believe and therefore make ourselves Christ’s sheep, Jesus says that they do not believe because they are not His sheep! Whether one is of Christ’s sheep is the Father’s decision (John 6:37, 8:47), not the sheep’s!<br /><br />…just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God….husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless (Ephesians 5:2, 25-27).<br /><br />Christ gave Himself in behalf of His Church, His Body, and that for the purpose of cleansing her and making her holy. If this was His intention for the Church, why would He give Himself for those who are not of the Church? Would He not wish to make these “others” holy as well? Yet, if Christ died for all men, there are many, many who will remain impure for all eternity. Was Christ’s death insufficient to cleanse them? Certainly not. Did He have a different goal in mind in dying for them? [I am not here denying that the death of Christ had effects for all men, indeed, for all of creation. I believe that His death is indeed part of the "summing up of all things" in Christ. But, we are speaking here solely with the salvific effect of the substitutionary atonement of Christ. One might say that Christ's death has an effect upon those for whom it was not intended as an atoning sacrifice.] No, His sacrificial death in behalf of His Church results in her purification, and this is what He intended for all for whom He died.<br /><br />He who did not spare His own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring a charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us (Romans 8:32-34).<br /><br />The Father gave the Son in our place. Who is the “our” of this passage? The text says that it is “those whom God has chosen,” that is, the elect of God. Again, the intercessory work of Christ at the right hand of the Father is presented in perfect harmony with the death of Christ—those for whom Christ died are those for whom He intercedes. And, as this passage shows, if Christ intercedes for someone, who can possibly bring a charge against that person and hope to see them condemned? So we see what we have seen before: Christ dies in someone’s place, He intercedes for them, and they are infallibly saved. Christ’s work is complete and perfect. He is the powerful Savior, and He never fails to accomplish His purpose.<br /><br />Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13).<br /><br />Are all the friends of Christ? Do all own His name? Do all bow before Him and accept Him as Lord? Do all do His commandments (John 15:14)? Then not all are His friends.<br /><br />While we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good (Titus 2:13-14).<br /><br />Both the substitutionary element of the cross (gave himself for us) and the purpose thereof (to redeem us…to purify) are forcefully presented to Titus. If it was the purpose of Christ to redeem and purify those for whom He died, can this possibly not take place?<br /><br />She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins (Matthew 1:21).<br /><br />Christ will save His people from their sins. I ask what Edwin Palmer asked me before: Well, did He? Did He save His people, or did He not?<br /><br />I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me (Galatians 2:20).<br /><br />This is the common confession of every true believer in Christ. We died with Him, our Substitute, the one who loved us and gave Himself in our behalf.<br /><br />We have seen, then, that the Word teaches that Christ died for many, for His sheep, for the Church, for the elect of God, for His friends, for a people zealous for good works, for His people, for each and every Christian.<br /><br />Perfected and Sanctified<br /><br />One could quite obviously fill entire volumes with a study of the atonement of Christ. [The reader is strongly encouraged to make the effort to read completely a work that stands as a classic in the field: John Owen's The Death of Death in the Death of Christ from Banner of Truth, for a full discussion of the issues surrounding the atonement of Christ.] It is not our purpose to do so here. Instead, we shall close our brief survey of Scripture with these words from Hebrews 10:10-14:<br /><br />And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifice, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.<br /><br />While we have seen many logical reasons for believing in limited atonement, and we have seen many references to Christ’s death in behalf of His people, this one passage, above all others, to me, makes the doctrine a must. Listen closely to what we are told. First, what is the effect of the one time sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ? What does verse 10 tell us? “We have been made holy,” or, another translation would be, “We have been sanctified.” The Greek language uses the perfect tense here, indicating a past, and completed, action. The death of Christ actually makes us holy. Do we believe this? Did the death of Christ actually sanctify those for whom it was made? Or did it simply make it possible for them to become holy? Again, these are questions that cannot be easily dismissed. The writer goes on to describe how this priest, Jesus, sat down at the right hand of God, unlike the old priests who had to keep performing sacrifices over and over and over again. His work, on the contrary, is perfect and complete. He can rest, for by His one sacrifice He has made perfect those who are experiencing the sanctifying work of the Spirit in their lives. He made them perfect, complete. The term refers to a completion, a finishing. Again, do we believe that Christ’s death does this? And, if we see the plain teaching of Scripture, are we willing to alter our beliefs, and our methods of proclaiming the gospel, to fit the truth?<br /><br />What of Faith?<br /><br />One common belief needs to be addressed in passing. Many who believe in a “universal” or non-specific atonement, assert that while Christ died for all, His atonement is only effective for those who believe. We shall discuss the fact that faith itself is the gift of God, given only to the elect of God, in the next chapter. But for now, we defer to the great Puritan writer, John Owen, in answering this question:<br /><br />To which I may add this dilemma to our Universalists:—God imposed his wrath due unto, and Christ underwent the pains of hell for, either all the sins of all men, or all the sins of some men, or some sins of all men. If the last, some sins of all men, then have all men some sins to answer for, and so shall no man be saved; for if God enter into judgment with us, though it were with all mankind for one sin, no flesh should be justified in his sight: “If the LORD should mark iniquities, who should stand?” Ps. cxxx. 3….If the second, that is it which we affirm, that Christ in their stead and room suffered for all the sins of all the elect in the world. If the first, why, then are not all freed from the punishment of all their sins? You will say, “Because of their unbelief; they will not believe.” But this unbelief, is it a sin, or not? If not, why should they be punished for it? If it be, then Christ underwent the punishment due to it, or not. If so, then why must that hinder them more than their other sins for which he died from partaking of the fruit of his death? If he did not, then he did not die for all their sins. Let them choose which part they will. (John Owen, The Death of Death in the Death of Christ, (London: Banner of Truth Trust, 1985) pp. 61-62.)<br /><br />Conclusion<br /><br />Some object to the doctrine of limited atonement on very pragmatic grounds. “The doctrine destroys evangelism, because you cannot tell people that Christ died for them, because you don’t know!” Yet, we ask, is there an advantage in presenting to men an atonement that is theoretical, a Savior whose work is incomplete, and a gospel that is but a possibility? What kind of proclamation will God honor with His Spirit: one that is tailored to seek “success,” or one that is bound to the truth of the Word of God? When the Apostles preached the Gospel, they did not say, “Christ died for all men everywhere, and it is up to you to make His work effective.” They taught that Christ died for sinners, and that it was the duty of every man to repent and believe. They knew that only God’s grace could bring about repentance and faith in the human heart. And far from that being a *hindrance* to their evangelistic work, it was the power behind it! They proclaimed a *powerful* Savior, whose work is all sufficient, and who saves men totally and completely! They knew that God was about bringing men to Himself, and, since He is the sovereign of the universe, there is no power on earth that will stay His hand! Now there is a solid basis for evangelism! And what could be more of a comfort to the heart that is racked with guilt than to know that Christ has died for sinners, and that His work is not just theoretical, but is real?<br /><br />The Church needs to challenge the world again with the daring proclamation of a gospel that is offensive—offensive because it speaks of God saving those whom He will, offensive because it proclaims a sovereign Savior who redeems His people.<br /><br />James WhiteAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8384567748772061731.post-3407387360930468562009-05-06T06:19:00.000-07:002009-05-06T06:22:15.901-07:00Soteriological Heresies<span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>Soteriological Heresies</strong><br /></span>Hebrews 9:12 …by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.<br />The Soteriological heresies (regarding the manner of salvation) listed below, deny or distort at some point, the work of Christ in redeeming men. In each case, either Christ’s work was not good enough, and needed something added to it to complete it, or some part of the work is denied, thereby invalidating the whole of it.<br />The Heresies<br /><strong>Antinomianism-<br /></strong>The heresy of Antinomianism so named in the 16th century by Martin Luther, teaches that because God is gracious and forgiving, a person can go on in whatever sin they desire, presuming on the grace of God for forgiveness. Those who hold to this heresy believe God’s grace gives them a license to live as they wish, partaking in any sin, and in so doing they turn the grace of God into lasciviousness.<br /><strong>Baptismal Regeneration-</strong><br />The heresy of Baptismal Regeneration predates Christianity, originating with the Babylonian harlot, and teaches that one must be baptized in water to be saved. Another angle of it is that no matter what one believes before they are baptized, there is a requirement of water baptism to open the way to make salvation possible. In both views, trust in the atoning work of Christ on the cross alone was not deemed sufficient to redeem the soul.<br /><strong>Deism-</strong><br />The heresy of Deism originated in Old Testament times but did not receive its name until the seventeenth century. It teaches that by natural reason, rational thought or personal experience, man can know all that is needed to know about God, without revelation from God. Deists generally reject the supernatural, rendering the miracles of the Bible as mere stage plays, tricks, or incorrect renderings of man. Deists may believe in one God, but reject the Trinity and the atonement, leaving them without salvation.<br /><strong>Donatism-</strong><br />The heresy originated by Donatus, in the early fourth century was that the validity of the ordinance would be dependant on the character of the one who administered it. For instance, baptisms are considered invalid unless performed by someone who had a character approved by the visible church. If taken to its logical conclusion, with the Bible teaching “there is none righteous, no not one”, that would invalidate all ordinances of any kind.<br /><strong>Gnosticism-</strong><br /><strong>The Gnostic</strong> (Meaning ‘to know’) heresy originated in the first century and may have even been around longer than that in different forms. Gnosticism, which relies on personal religious experience as its primary authority, is dualistic in nature and teaches that salvation comes by special knowledge; yet this knowledge denies the incarnation of God the Son. Freemasonry is Gnostic at its core.<br /><strong>Legalism-</strong><br />The heresy of Legalism has been around nearly as long as mankind, and involves man obtaining salvation through meritorious works of some kind or another. The Pharisees are the most famous of the biblical legalists, but legalism and its exaltation of the superficial finds its way into every branch of dead religion. See Pelagianism.<br /><strong>Modernism-<br /></strong>The heresy of Modernism (AKA Liberalism) only originated in the twentieth century, and involves the picking and choosing of doctrines almost whimsically with little or no basis in scripture but more a tendency towards feeling. As they determine what they will believe as true in God’s word, the ultimate authority for a Modernist is self, making it merely another form of self-deification. Modernists can be very hard to nail down in exactly what they believe, and few will be identical, but the one thing they have in common is that they all blow with the wind and change with the tide. Even further down this road of ever-changing, feelings-based realities is Post-Modernism, which by its very nature is nearly impossible to define.<br /><strong>Montanism-<br /></strong>The heresy originated by the self proclaimed prophet Montanus in the second century, places too much emphasis on spiritual gifts (IE speaking in tongues, prophecies etc.) in a Christian at the expense of basic Christian doctrines, such as the atonement and original sin. Ascetic in nature, they practiced outward holiness because they believed that sins could not be forgiven, they discouraged marriage, and encouraged martyrdom.<br /><strong>Panentheism-</strong><br />The heresy of Panentheism originated in the fifth century B.C. (though not named as such until three centuries ago) and is a variant of Pantheism. It teaches that everything is a part though not the whole of the being of god, yet differs from Pantheism’s everything is god. Though not a heresy belonging to the Christian era per se, yet much of this type of thought has moved into professing postmodernist Christendom. Christ has no place as redeemer of sinful man, nor the Holy Spirit any place at all within Panentheism.<br /><strong>Pantheism-</strong><br />The heresy of Pantheism originated several millennia ago and teaches that everything is god, and that god is everything. Though not a heresy belonging to the Christian era per se,, yet like Panentheism, much of this type of thought has moved into professing postmodernist Christianity. Christ has no place as redeemer of sinful man, nor the Holy Spirit any place at all within Pantheism.<br /><strong>Pelagianism-<br /></strong>The heresy named after Pelagius and originating in the fifth century, teaches that man was basically good and unaffected by the fall. It denies the imputation of Adam’s sin (AKAoriginal sin) on all of mankind, and teaches that man has the ability in and of himself, apart from a work of God through divine grace, to earn eternal salvation. In denying original sin, Pelagianism teaches that a person is born in a state of innocence as Adam was in before the fall, and are thus able to choose God entirely of their own free will.<br /><strong>Semi-Pelagianism-</strong><br />This is a milder form of Pelagianism that does not deny original sin, but teaches that man can make the first move toward God without God having acted on man through grace. This turns God’s grace into a response to the man that has first acted toward God, which is impossible due to man’s condition of rebellion toward God through original sin.<br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Now compare to the biblical position<br /></span>Grace defined-<br /></strong>The effectual working of God on the heart of man, in the bestowing of a totally unmerited mercy.<br /><strong>Salvation-<br /></strong>The salvation of men is entirely the gift of God, bestowed by grace and received by faith in the atoning blood of the Lord Jesus Christ alone. Having trusted Christ alone as the propitiation for our sin, it is by the bodily resurrection of Christ that we can know for certain that our sin debt has been fully paid. At the cross the wrath of God on the believer’s sin was entirely satisfied. Once renewed, the Christian’s desires are changed from loving sin to hating it, the regenerated heart will do all that it is able to do in fleeing from sin through a higher motive than self-preservation. However, along with the new nature imparted in Christ, the old sin nature will still remain and is to be put to death daily until we shed our earthly tabernacles. A Christian is to have a full assurance that they presently have eternal life, and that life being eternal, it can never end. To be without this is to trample on the blood of Christ, and can only mean that one is not honestly trusting that their sin debt has been fully paid. The Christian will grow into higher thoughts of Christ, lower thoughts of self, along with an ever growing measure of power over sin, all made possible by the work of the Holy Spirit. The motive for sanctification of a regenerate soul is at least threefold: 1) Christ having paid their sin debt, out of love for Him they no longer want to heap sin on Him, 2) Having a new Father comes with new desires, chief of which is to glorify God, through which glorifying, the saint will now enjoy but a small taste of heaven, 3) Knowing they are partaking in the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, they take full advantage of all purifications offered by the King, in preparation for the wedding day.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8384567748772061731.post-62714452678047334502009-05-06T06:11:00.000-07:002009-05-06T06:16:44.743-07:00Christological HeresiesChristological Heresies<br /><br /><br />--------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /><br /><br />John 15:26 But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:<br /><br />The Christological heresies (concerning the nature or person of Christ) listed below, deny or distort some particular attribute of the person of Christ which was necessary for Him to make eternal redemption for His Bride. Most of them make their full effect by the denial of the person of Christ on the cross, thereby attempting to dismantle His ability to redeem sinful man. In our depravity, mankind will talk in many generalities about Jesus Christ, and even revere him, just so long as He is not the Jesus Christ so clearly revealed in the scriptures.<br /><br />People often ask, “How much error a person can have and still be saved?” I usually tell them that is the wrong way to approach the matter, a Christian will approach the matter like this, “Having lived in error so long, how much error can I be rid of?” When one considers John 15:26 and Romans 8:9-11, it becomes pretty clear that if a person is saved he will have a right understanding of the person of Christ. If as a new Christian, they have not a full knowledge of these things, yet they will not rebel against them as they are presented.<br /><br />Rom 8:9-11 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.<br /><br /><strong><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">The Heresies</span></strong><br /><br /><strong>Adoptionism-</strong>The heresy of Adoptionism was first introduced in the second century and later revived in the 8th century with the views of Nestorius. It teaches that Christ was not divine at least until after conception, with many regarding the timing to be after his baptism. According to this heresy, Christ was adopted unto Deity, after passing the test of temptation in the wilderness, thus being a man becoming god. With one of the characteristics of God having an eternal existence, adoptionism denies the eternal Sonship of Christ, and ultimately denies the divinity of Christ.<br /><br /><br /><strong>Albigenses-</strong>The heresy of the Albigenses was a variation of Dualism and first introduced in the twelfth century by a Catharist sect in the south of France. It teaches that there were two gods, the evil god of darkness of the Old Testament, and the good god of light of the New Testament. In this particular dualistic view, the evil god of the Old Testament actually was Satan, who was purportedly the creator of all things material. Also known as the Bulgarian heresy or Dualism<br /><br /><br /><strong>Apollinarianism-</strong><br />The heresy originated by Apollinaris, a fourth century bishop, was the teaching that Jesus was a man that did not have a human mind/spirit, but that his mind/spirit was entirely divine. He taught that the divine and human natures of Christ could not co-exist within one person. In this case his teaching had to be justified at the expense of minimizing the human nature of Christ<br /><br /><br /><strong>Arianism-</strong><br />The heresy originated by Arius of Alexandeder in the early fourth century, was the teaching that as a created being, Jesus was merely a man, and not co-equal with God the Father. He taught that Christ was not one in substance was either the Father or the Holy Ghost. Often considered the most serious of the heresies, it almost overran the visible church shortly after it was introduced, and remains very prevalent today.<br /><br /><br /><strong>Docetism-</strong><br />The Docetic (Meaning: ‘to appear’) heresy originated in the first century while the apostles were yet alive, and taught that Jesus was not human but merely appeared to be human. By this understanding it means that Christ did not actually suffer temptation in the wilderness, suffer and die on the cross, or rise from the dead.<br /><br /><br /><strong>Dualism-</strong><br />The heresy of Dualism originated in the fourth century, and teaches that there is a god of light (generally associated with spirit) and a god of darkness (generally associated with the physical). These two gods are equal but opposite, and oppose each other for all time with neither being supreme. The god of light is not able to entirely overpower the god of darkness, and vice-versa. In this situation, evil happens because the god of light is not able to overcome it, rather than evil happens because it is allowed.<br /><br /><strong><br />Ebionism-</strong>The heresy of Ebionism originated in the second century, and similar to Adoptionism denies the eternal Sonship of Christ by teaching that Christ only became divine after his baptism. This heresy divides the life of Christ into pre/post baptism, and even refers to Christ as the son of Joseph. It is a basic continuation of Judaism, exalting the rites and regulation of the Old Testament at the expense of the gospel.<br /><br /><br /><strong>Eutychianism-</strong><br />The heresy originated by Eutyches in the early fifth century, teaches that the human nature of Christ was overcome or absorbed by his divine nature. Similar to Monophysitism and Apollinariansim.<br /><br /><br /><strong>Kenosis-</strong><br />The Kenosis (Meaning ‘to empty’) heresy originated in the nineteenth century with Gottfried Thomasius of Germany, and teaches that Jesus gave up some of his divine attributes (omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence) while on earth. It is dangerous because, if these were given up it would mean that Christ was not fully divine while on earth, rendering the atonement of none effect.<br /><br /><br /><strong>Macedonianism-</strong>The heresy originated by Macedonius in the fourth century, teaches that the Holy Spirit was a created being, thus denying the full divinity and person of the Holy Spirit. Also held was that the Son of God was not one in substance with the Father, but only of similar substance, thus denying the person of Christ as well. (AKA ‘Pneumatomachians’-spirit fighters) They had similar beliefs to the Arians.<br /><br /><br /><strong>Manichaeism-</strong><br />The heresy originated by Mani in the third century, incorporates Gnostic thought, Zoroastrian dualism, with a heavy Buddhist accent and throws in some Christian ideas for good measure. Manichaesism as a prototypical syncretistic system grew into more than just a heresy and has been considered a religion unto itself, overtaking much of Asia before its disappearance sometime before the sixteenth century.<br /><br /><br /><strong>Marcionism-</strong><br />The heresy of Marcionism originated in the third century, and teaches a variation of dualism. According to Marcionism, the God of the Old Testament is a god of law and justice, and cannot be the same God as revealed in the New Testament. This heresy causes its adherents to minimize or even reject the Old Testament scriptures and is alive and well today amongst Modernism.<br /><br /><br /><strong>Modalism-</strong><br />The heresy of Modalism originated in the third century, and teaches that God is a single person who has manifested himself in three persons throughout history. In the Old Testament God was manifest as the Father, during the time of the incarnation of Christ God was manifest as the Son, and after the ascension God was manifest as the Holy Spirit. Though it does not deny the divinity of Christ nor the three persons of the Trinity, yet it teaches that the three persons never co-exist at the same time. It is similar to Sabellianism<br /><br /><br /><strong>Monarchianism-</strong>The heresy of Monarchianism originated in the second century, and teaches that there is only one god manifest in one person, God the Father. Monarchianism denies the divine persons of both the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, and was an errant attempt at defending monotheism against the rising heresy of Tritheism.<br /><br /><br /><strong>Monophysitism-</strong>The heresy of Monophysitism originated in the fifth century, and teaches that Jesus had only a divine nature, and did not have a human nature. To deny the human nature of Christ is to deny the true incarnation of God as man, and produces similar results to Docetism.<br /><br /><br /><strong>Monothelitism-</strong><br />The heresy of Monothelitism originated in the early seventh century, and teaches that Jesus had only one will. It arose out of a disagreement with the Monophysites regarding the nature of Jesus. Though correctly agreeing that Jesus had two natures (divine and human) Monothelitism incorrectly placed its emphasis on the two natures having a singular will. If this was the case and the will was divine, Christ could not have actually been tempted in the wilderness; if the will was only human Christ would have the same desire for sin that a natural man has.<br /><br /><br /><strong>Nestorianism-</strong>The heresy originated by Nestorius in the fifth century, teaches that Jesus was two distinct persons as well as had two distinct natures. This heresy brings no end of problems, culminating in: Which one died on the cross?<br /><br /><br /><strong>Patripassionism-</strong><br />The heresy of Patripassionism originated in the third century, teaches that the Father took on human flesh and suffered on the cross, and in this view it is a form of Modalism. A variation of Patripassionism is that God the Father suffered along with God the Son on the cross.<br /><br /><br /><strong>Quietism-</strong>The heresy of Quietism became popular in the seventeenth century having it roots many centuries earlier, and teaches that intellectual stillness and contemplative prayer, along with annihilation of ones will are all that is necessary for salvation. Quietism denies that the atonement is necessary for salvation, and extends itself into the Buddhist nirvana idea of salvation through self-mortification.<br /><br /><strong><br />Sabellianism-</strong>The heresy originated by Sabellius in the third century teaches that god is a single person capable of manifesting himself as either Father, Son, or Holy Spirit at any given time. It has similar characteristics to Modalism with the exception that the particular person of the Godhead is not limited to manifesting himself in a particular time period, but is able to manifest himself as all three instantaneously yet not simultaneously.<br /><br /><br /><strong>Socinianism-</strong>The heresy of Socinianism (AKA Psilanthropism) originating in sixteenth century Poland, teaches that Jesus was just an extraordinarily good man, not divine in any way. They also teach that God is only a single person, that the Holy Spirit is just the power of God (not a separate person), the annihilation of the wicked, and the corresponding denial of an eternal fiery hell.<br /><br /><br /><strong>Subordinationism-</strong>The heresy of Subordinationism originated in the first century and teaches that Christ and the Holy Spirit are not co-equal with God the Father, but are subordinate to Him, with some also holding to the subordination of the Holy Spirit to Christ. This in essence destroys the unity of the singular Godhead making lesser gods of the Son and the Holy Spirit.<br /><br /><br /><strong>Tritheism-</strong>The heresy of Tritheism originated in the second century and teaches that in the Godhead there are three separate gods, instead of one God in three persons. It comes from a misunderstanding of the Trinity, which man cannot fully comprehend without light from the Holy Spirit. It is a common reaction by monotheistic groups upon the hearing of the pure doctrine of the Trinity to believe it is polytheistic, and yet the proper doctrine of the Trinity is monotheistic.<br /><br />Now compare to the biblical position<br /><br /><strong>Trinity-</strong>There is a single omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent God eternally co-existing in three co-equal persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, commonly known as the Trinity. As individual persons, each one has a will, can reason, can feel independently; and as a single God the three distinct persons work perfectly harmoniously in things like the creation and redeeming the souls of men.<br /><br /><br /><strong>Hypostatic Union-</strong>In the person of Jesus Christ is the perfect merging of God with man, making Him the God-man. Man likes to add and in this case the units will not add up correctly (100% God +100% Man=200% ?), whereas God multiplies, (100% God x100% Man=100% God-man). The scriptural requirement of the propitiatory sacrifice was that it could only be achieved by the 100% God-man, with anything elseAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8384567748772061731.post-54825209848236567372009-04-30T18:41:00.000-07:002009-04-30T18:43:08.090-07:00The Wrath of God by M.L. Jones part 2<span style="font-weight: bold;">The Wrath Of God</span><br /><br />We now come to look at the apostle's final statement about man in sin; and that is, that he is under the wrath of God. In other words Paul deals with sin, as sin affects man's standing before God. He shows what God says and thinks and does about man in that condition which we have already considered: There can be no question at all but that this is the most important aspect of the subject. The others were vitally important, but there is nothing which is as important as this. It is because we so constantly forget this that the world is as it is today - and indeed that the Church is as she is. We are so self-centred and concerned about ourselves that we fail to remember that the most important thing above all else is the way in which God looks down upon it all. That is the subject with which we now have to deal.<br /><br />The apostle puts it like this. He says that "we were all by nature the children of wrath, even as others". Here we have a twofold statement. And there is no doubt at all but that these two matters that we are compelled to look at together are two of the most difficult and perplexing subjects in the whole realm and range of biblical doctrine. That is why they have often led to great misunderstanding, and are subjects which people often in their ignorance not only fail to understand but bitterly resent. There is no subject, perhaps, which has more frequently led people to speak - albeit unconsciously - in a blasphemous manner, than this very matter which we are now going to consider. The apostle says two things: that we are all under the wrath of God; and secondly that we are all under the wrath of God by nature.<br /><br />Why should we examine these things? Someone may well ask that question. Why spend our time on a subject like this, a difficult subject? There are so many other things that are interesting at the present time and attracting attention. Why not deal with them? And in any case, amid all the problems that confront the world, why turn to something like this?<br /><br />Well, lest there be someone who is harbouring some such idea, and is provoked to put such a question, let me suggest certain reasons why it behoves us to consider this matter. The first is that it is part of Scripture. It is here in the Bible and, as we shall see, it is everywhere in the Bible. And if we regard the Bible as the Word of God, and our authority in all matters of faith and conduct, we cannot pick and choose; we must take it as it is and consider its every part and portion.<br /><br />Secondly, we must do so because what we are told here is, after all, a question of fact. It is not theory, it is a statement of fact. If the biblical doctrine of the wrath of God is true, then it is the most important fact confronting every one of us at this moment; infinitely more important than any international conference that may be held, infinitely more important than whether there is to be a third world war or not. If this doctrine is true, then we are all involved in it, and our eternal destiny depends upon it. And the Bible states everywhere that it is a fact.<br /><br />Another reason for considering it is this: that the apostle's whole argument is that we can never understand the love of God until we understand this doctrine. It is - the way in which we measure the love of God. There is a great deal of talk today about the love of God, and yet were we truly to love God, we would express it, we would show it. To love God is not merely to talk about it; to love God, as He Himself points out constantly in His Word, is to keep His commandments and to live for His glory. The argument here is that we really cannot understand the love of God unless we see it in the light of this other doctrine which we are now considering. So it is essential from that standpoint.<br /><br />Let me put it in this way. I suggest that we can never truly understand why it is that the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, had to come into this world unless we understand this doctrine of the wrath of God and the judgment of God. As Christians we believe that the Son of God came into this world, that He laid aside the insignia of His eternal glory, was born as a babe in Bethlehem, and endured all that He endured, because that was essential for our salvation. But the question is, Why was it essential to our salvation? Why did all that have to take place before we could be saved? I defy anyone to answer that question adequately without bringing in this doctrine of the judgment of God and of the wrath of God. This is still more true when you look at the great doctrine of the cross and the death of our blessed Lord and Saviour. Why did Christ die? Why had He to die? If we say that we are saved by His blood, why are we saved by His blood? Why was it essential that He should die on that cross and be buried and rise again before we could be saved? There is only one adequate answer to these questions, and that is this doctrine of the wrath of God. The death of our Lord upon the cross is not absolutely necessary unless this doctrine is true. So, you see, it is a vital matter for us to consider.<br /><br />Lastly, I would put it in a very practical form. This doctrine is essential from the standpoint of a true evangelism. Why is it that people do not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? Why is it that people are not Christians and not members of the Christian Church? Why does the Lord Jesus Christ not come into their calculations at all? In the last analysis there is only one answer to that question: they do not believe in Him because they have never seen any need of Him. And they have never seen any need of Him because they have never realised that they are sinners. And they have never realised that they are sinners because they have never realised the truth about the holiness of God and the justice and the righteousness of God; they have never known anything about God as the judge eternal and about the wrath of God against the sin of man. So you see this doctrine is essential in evangelism. If we really believe in salvation and in our absolute need of the Lord Jesus Christ, we must start with this doctrine. There, then, are the reasons for considering it. The apostle supplies them; I am simply repeating them.<br /><br />Now let us look at the two statements themselves. The first thing the apostle says is that all who are born into this world are under the wrath of God. He says we "were all the children of wrath, even as others"; we were all the children of wrath, as the rest of mankind - that is what "even as others" means. Here we come face to face with this tremendous doctrine which I know full well is not only unpopular at the present time but is even hated and detested. People can scarcely control themselves as they speak about it. The whole modern idea has been for a number of years, that God is a God of love and that we must think of God only in terms of love. To talk about the wrath of God, we are told, is utterly incompatible with any idea of God as a God of love. The way in which it is put is this. They say: Of course that idea of the wrath of God stems from the ancient idea of God as a sort of tribal God. The trouble is that there are still certain Christians who believe in that God of the Old Testament, who was nothing but a tribal God. The gods of mythology were all of that type and of that kind; they displayed their anger and their wrath; but, of course, we know now from the New Testament and from Jesus that this is quite wrong and quite false. We no longer believe in the God of the Old Testament, we believe in the God of the New Testament, in the God and Father of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. You are familiar with the argument. Indeed, some go even further, and say that it is only during the past century that we really have become sufficiently enlightened to understand these matters, and that, until the beginning of this present century, people still believed in the wrath of God, and, therefore, had a completely false conception of God. I remember reading a very learned book in which the author stated that this idea of the wrath of God was nothing but a kind of projection into the character of God of the notion of the typical Victorian father, the stern repressive father who kept his children down and disciplined them severely and punished them. His suggestion was that people just carried that idea over and projected it right into God Himself. But that, he held, was nothing but a false bit of psychology from which we have by now delivered ourselves, and we now know that the idea of wrath in a God of love is something that is self-contradictory.<br /><br />Is there any answer to such contentions? Let me dispose of one preliminary misunderstanding. There are some people who completely misinterpret the very term wrath. They think of wrath instinctively as some uncontrolled manifestation of anger. They cannot think of it apart from the idea of somebody trembling in a rage and pale with passion, who has lost self-control and is speaking in a violent manner and doing violent things. Now that is quite a false and wrong idea of the meaning of wrath. Sinful man, it is true, does sometimes manifest his wrath in this way, but all that does not enter at all into the term as used of God in the Bible. Wrath is nothing but a manifestation of indignation based upon justice. Indeed, we can go further and assert that the wrath of God, according to the scriptural teaching, is nothing but the other side of the love of God. It is the inevitable corollary of the rejection of the love of God. God is a God of love, but God is also and equally a God of justice and of righteousness; and if God's love is spurned and rejected there remains nothing but the justice and the righteousness and the wrath of God.<br /><br />Now let us demonstrate the contention that this is something which is taught everywhere in the Scripture. In the Old Testament it is to be found at the very beginning. When man fell in the garden of Eden, God visited and spoke to him and pronounced judgment upon him. He drove him out of the garden, and there at the eastern gate of the garden He placed the cherubim and the flaming sword. What is the meaning of the flaming sword? It means just this very thing; it is the sword of God's justice, it is God's sword of wrath and of punishment, punishing man for his sin and making it impossible for him to come back and eat of the tree of life and live for ever. There, at the very beginning, is a manifestation of God's righteous judgment and His wrath upon sin. It is to be found running right through the Old Testament: in the story of the flood, the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, and in the various punishments of the children of Israel, whether as a nation or as individuals. The Old Testament is full of this. God has given His law and He has pronounced that if men break it He will punish them - that is His wrath. And when they have done so He has punished them. He has punished individuals, He has punished the nation, even His own chosen people. He punished them, He poured His wrath upon them by raising up the Chaldean army which came and sacked Jerusalem and carried away the people as captives into Babylon. That was a manifestation of the wrath and the righteous judgment of God. It is everywhere in the Old Testament; you really cannot believe the Old Testament unless you accept this doctrine of the wrath of God.<br /><br />When you come to the New Testament, in spite of all that modern critics would have us believe, the doctrine is again present everywhere. The first preacher in the New Testament is John the Baptist. What did he say? He said, "Flee from the wrath to come"; "Repent and be baptised every one of you, flee from the wrath to come". The Pharisees came to be baptised of John, and he looked at them and said, "Who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" It was his great message. Indeed it was the message of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. But, and most surprising of all, we find it in the verse that is generally quoted as the supreme statement of God as a God of love - John 3: 16, "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son". Why did He do so? The answer is "that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life". The alternative to everlasting life is perishing. And it is John 3: 16 that teaches it. But the thirty - sixth verse of that third chapter of John is still more plain, "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him". In other words, all men are under the wrath of God, and unless we believe on the Son of God the wrath of God abides upon us. What can be more plain or explicit? There it is in the Gospel of John the apostle of love.<br /><br />The apostle Paul teaches the same truth equally clearly. Preaching in Athens he says that, "God hath appointed a day in which he will judge the whole world in righteousness by this man whom he hath appointed". judgment! The wrath of God! In Romans 1: 18, we read: "For the wrath of God is manifested [is already revealed] from heaven, against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men". Paul has no gospel apart from this; it is because of the wrath of God that he is preaching the gospel. In this Epistle to the Ephesians which we are considering, in the fifth chapter and the sixth verse, you get exactly the same thing, "Let no man deceive you with vain words", says Paul "for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience". Again, in summarising his gospel to the Thessalonians in the First Epistle and in the first chapter and the last verse, Paul says that the Thessalonians have turned to Christ and await Him from heaven - what for?--well, he says, because He "delivered us from the wrath to come". The same idea is to be found in the Epistle to the Hebrews in several places. And if you go right on to the Book of Revelation you will find it there in a most remarkable phrase. It is a phrase about the "wrath of the Lamb". It seems quite contradictory, quite paradoxical. You think of a lamb in terms of innocence, harmlessness. And yet there is this pregnant phrase, "the wrath of the Lamb". It is the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the whole world who is to judge the world in righteousness. So it is quite clear that the idea that love and wrath are incompatible is a complete denial of the plain teaching of the Scriptures. Indeed I would go so far as to say that unless we start with this idea of the wrath of God against sin we cannot possibly understand the compassion of God, we cannot understand the love of God. It is only as I realise God's wrath against sin that I realise the full significance of His providing a way of salvation from it. If I do not understand this I do not understand that, and my talk about the love of God is mere loose sentimentality which is indeed a denial of the great biblical doctrine of the love of God.<br /><br />The apostle's teaching, then, is that until we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ we are under the wrath of God. And the wrath of God is an expression of God's hatred of sin, an expression of God's punishment of sin. It is a clear statement to this effect, that if we die in our sins we go on to eternal punishment. That is the teaching of Scripture. The wrath of God against sin manifests itself finally in hell, where men and women remain outside the life of God in misery and wretchedness, slaves to their own lusts and desires, selfish and self-centred. The apostle's teaching is that that is the position of all who are not Christians. They are under the wrath of God in this life, they will remain under the wrath of God in the next life. That is the position of the sinner, according to Scripture. If you object to the idea you are objecting to the Scriptures, you are setting up some philosophic idea of your own contrary to their plain teaching. You are not arguing with me, you are arguing with the Scriptures. You are arguing with these holy apostles, you are arguing with the Son of God Himself If you believe that the Bible is divinely inspired, then you must not say, "But I don't understand". You are not asked to understand. I do not understand it, I do not pretend to understand it. But I start from this basis, that my mind is not only finite but is, furthermore, sinful, and that I cannot possibly understand fully the nature of God and the justice and the holiness of God. If we are going to base everything on our understanding, then we might as well give up at this point. For the Bible tell us that "the natural man" and "the natural mind" cannot understand the things of the Spirit of God (see I Corinthians 2). It was the desire to understand that led to the Fall. Intellectual pride and arrogance is the first and the last sin. The business of preaching is not to ask people to understand; the commission of the preacher is to proclaim the message. And the message is that all are under the wrath of God until they believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. But indeed we must go even one step further.<br /><br />That brings us to the second matter. The apostle says that we are all in that condition by nature - "we were all by nature the children of wrath, even as others". What does this by nature mean? We have already shown in a previous study in this series that this has one meaning only, and that is, "by birth". We were all by our very birth the children of wrath even as others. You notice that the apostle does not say that we "become" the children of wrath because of our nature; he says we "were". In other words the apostle, in line with the whole of the Bible, does not teach that we are born into this world in a state of innocence or in a state of neutrality, and that then, because we sin, we become sinners and thereby come under the wrath of God. That is not what he says: he says the exact opposite. He says that we are born into this world under the wrath of God; from the moment of our birth we are already under the wrath of God. It is not only something that is going to happen to us, neither is it something that results only from our actions. There are people who teach that, but that is a blank denial not only of the teaching here but, as we shall see, of the teaching elsewhere in Scripture. He does not say that we are under the wrath of God only because of our nature or because of the manifestation of our nature. He says that we are in that position "by birth".<br /><br />What, then, does this mean? The answer is to be found in the fifth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans where it is argued out in detail and thoroughly from verse twelve to the end of the chapter. What is the argument? Let me summarise it. In that chapter the one great truth the apostle is concerned to prove is that our relationship, as believers to the Lord Jesus Christ is exactly analogous to our relationship formerly to Adam. He keeps on repeating the comparison and goes back and forth. He talks about what was true of us in Adam and then shows what is true of us now in the Lord Jesus Christ. He starts in verse twelve saying, "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all sinned", and so continues. Any careful and unbiased reading of that argument, which is basic to Paul's doctrine of assurance, will compel us to see that all along he says that our relationship to Adam was identical with our present relationship to Christ. If, therefore, we believe that we are what we are in Christ because of what God has imputed to us in Christ, we must also, believe exactly the same on the other side about what was imputed to us in Adam. That is the argument. But the apostle is not content merely to state it generally, he states it in particular also. Let me pick out the important verses. Take verse twelve: "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all sinned . . .". The punishment of sin is death. Adam sinned and death came upon him, yes, but not only upon Adam - upon all men. As a result of Adam's one sin, death passed upon all men. Why? The last part of the verse explains - "all sinned" in Adam. That is the statement which we will expound later.<br /><br />Then take verses thirteen and fourteen of that chapter. Paul introduces a statement in a parenthesis, beginning at verse thirteen, "For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed where there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression". Are you tempted to say, What does all this mean ? I cannot follow it, I want some simple gospel of comfort. That is how we tend to speak, we who think that because we live in the twentieth century we are greatly superior to all generations that have ever lived before us. We pride ourselves on our being so learned and intellectual and able to understand great things, whereas previous generations were primitive. But we do not realise that the apostle Paul wrote these words to people who lived nearly two thousand years ago, and that he meant them to understand them. He was not writing to great philosophers; he was writing to simple Christian believers, many of whom were but slaves, and others soldiers in Caesar's household; and he meant those people to understand these things. Shame on us modern Christians who must be spoon-fed, and who just want something nice and easy and simple. If you do not accept this doctrine, then it is God's Word you are rejecting.<br /><br />I again ask, What does it mean? Paul says that until the law sin was in the world. The law was given through Moses, you remember; but there was that long interval between Adam and Moses, at the least it was. probably a period of some two thousand five hundred years. Now during that whole long period sin was in the world, but sin, he says, is not imputed when there is no law. In other words, if there is not a law to define sin, the sin is not brought home to a man. The business of law is to bring the sin home to man's mind and heart and conscience. If there were no laws, for instance, about parking and about motoring, you and I might still do wrong things, but if there were not a law about these matters we could not be punished. That is what he is saying, "sin is not imputed when there is no law". "Nevertheless", he says, "death reigned from Adam to Moses". Here is the problem: though the law was not given until Moses, nevertheless, from Adam to Moses people died. All the people born into the world died. Why did they die? What is it that produced death in those people though there was no law imputing sin at that period? The apostle's answer is that there is only one explanation; they all died because they were involved in the sin of Adam. There is no other explanation. The only reason why death reigned from Adam to Moses is that that one sin of Adam brought death upon the whole of his posterity. In other words, we are born "by nature the children of wrath".<br /><br />Notice then the next thing, which is still more extraordinary. He says that death reigned from Adam to Moses, "even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression". What can that mean? It means that death reigned even over those persons who had not actually committed an act of sin as Adam did when he fell. Who are they? And there is only one possible answer; they were infants who died in infancy. All other men sinned. Everybody who has lived since Adam has committed deliberate acts of sin. The only people who have not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who have not deliberately sinned, are infants who are too young to exercise their will because they are not conscious. Death reigned, says Paul, from Adam to Moses, even over infants also. Why do infants die? There is only one answer. Infants die because Adam's transgression involves them. "Death passed upon an men, even upon them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression".<br /><br />But going on to verse fifteen we read, "But not as the offence, so also is the free gift; for if through the offence of one many be dead". There it is again. Then he turns to the other side about Jesus Christ. In verse sixteen, we have, "And not as it was by one that sinned so is the gift" - and then, "for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification". The judgment, the condemnation, was by one to condemnation: the one sin of Adam brought this upon the whole of mankind. But conversely, he says, many sins are forgiven in the righteousness of One, even Jesus Christ. Then once more in verse eighteen: "Therefore, as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation". Is not that as explicit as anything could be? "As by the offence of one judgment came upon all men" - no exception - "to condemnation". We are "born the children of wrath". And finally, in verse nineteen, "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners". You and I and all mankind were made or, as a more accurate translation puts it, "constituted" sinners by that one sin of Adam. That is the teaching. We are "all by nature the children of wrath even as others".<br /><br />Ah, you say, I do not understand that, I cannot grasp that, it seems to me almost moral. Of course you do not understand it, Who can understand such things? It is not a question of understanding, it is a question of whether you believe the Scriptures not. For the apostle says exactly the same thing in I Corinthians 15, that great and - wonderful chapter which is read at funeral services, "As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive", and so on. It is precisely the same argument. It is the basis of the Christian faith. Whether we understand it or not, it is the truth. You have to explain the universality of sin; you have to explain the universality of death, and especially the death of infants. And this is the biblical answer. Adam was the whole of humanity and he represented the whole of humanity. He was our federal head. As the Lord Jesus Christ is the Representative of all who are saved, as His righteousness is imputed to us, so Adam was our representative and his sin is imputed to us. We fell in him, we are damned in him and because of his action. In exactly the same way those who believe in Christ are redeemed by Him and saved in Him and righteous in Him because of His action on our behalf That is the argument. If you believe the one side about Christ, you must believe the other about Adam. If you deny this, you are virtually denying that.<br /><br />Let us be careful therefore. There is nothing more tragic than the way in which Christian people bring the relics of their philosophies and their own understanding into the Christian faith. Many who claim to believe the Bible, and who regard it as authoritative, reject it at this point because they do not like the doctrine, or because they cannot reconcile certain matters. But the reconciliation is here before us. Though we were dead in trespasses and sins, hateful and hating one another, polluted by sin, sinful in practice, living in trespasses and sins and under the wrath of God, and absolutely helpless and hopeless, the very God against whom we have sinned, the very God whom we have offended, has Himself provided the way of deliverance for us. He does so in the Person of His own dearly beloved Son, whom He did not spare even from the suffering and the agony and the shame of Calvary and that cruel death. He has offered us, and provides for us, the way of complete deliverance and reconciliation to Himself in spite of the fact that our sin in Adam and our own sins, and our own sinful state deserve nothing but His eternal wrath. That is the love of God! That is the "love so amazing, so divine"! God has done that for us, who deserve nothing but eternal wrath, which we could never have done for ourselves.<br /><br />May God in His grace enable us to receive these things so that we may go on to consider the next verse with its glorious "but". Though all we have been considering was true of us, "God who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ". Blessed be the name of God!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8384567748772061731.post-76624554116983956792009-04-22T09:48:00.001-07:002009-04-27T10:07:50.330-07:004/27/2009 The Decline of African-American Theology by Thabiti AnyabwileThis is an awesome book that I will soon be adding to my library. Here is the first chapter in pdf form called "I once was blind, now I see." I pray that you will be blessed by this book as I have been.<br>Here is the link:<br><a href="http://www.monergismbooks.com/pdfs/declineafrican3.pdf">http://www.monergismbooks.com/pdfs/declineafrican3.pdf</a><br>May the Lamb that was slain recieve the reward of His suffering...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8384567748772061731.post-55084958726642691922009-04-16T10:44:00.001-07:002009-04-30T18:40:47.632-07:00The Wrath of God by M.L. JonesHere is the link for the full article pdf. <a href="http://www.sermonindex.net/modules/articles/index.php?view=article&aid=4315">Click Here to read the full Article</a><br /><br />The Wrath of God <br>Martyn-Lloyd Jones: <br>Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. - Ephesians 2:3 <br>We now come to look at the apostle's final statement about man in sin; and that is, that he is under the wrath of God. In other words Paul deals with sin, as sin affects man's standing before God. He shows what God says and thinks and does about man in that condition which we have already considered: There can be no question at all but that this is the most important aspect of the subject. The others were vitally important, but there is nothing which is as important as this. It is because we so constantly forget this that the world is as it is today - and indeed that the Church is as she is. We are so self-centred and concerned about ourselves that we fail to remember that the most important thing above all else is the way in which God looks down upon it all. That is the subject with which we now have to deal. <br>The apostle puts it like this. He says that "we were all by nature the children of wrath, even as others". Here we have a twofold statement. And there is no doubt at all but that these two matters that we are compelled to look at together are two of the most difficult and perplexing subjects in the whole realm and range of biblical doctrine. That is why they have often led to great misunderstanding, and are subjects which people often in their ignorance not only fail to understand but bitterly resent. There is no subject, perhaps, which has more frequently led people to speak - albeit unconsciously - in a blasphemous manner, than this very matter which we are now going to consider. The apostle says two things: that we are all under the wrath of God; and secondly that we are all under the wrath of God by nature. <br>Why should we examine these things? Someone may well ask that question. Why spend our time on a subject like this, a difficult subject? There are so many other things that are interesting at the present time and attracting attention. Why not deal with them? And in any case, amid all the problems that confront the world, why turn to something like this? <p>Well, lest there be someone who is harbouring some such idea, and is provoked to put such a question, let me suggest certain reasons why it behoves us to consider this matter. The first is that it is part of Scripture. It is here in the Bible and, as we shall see, it is everywhere in the Bible. And if we regard the Bible as the Word of God, and our authority in all matters of faith and conduct, we cannot pick and choose; we must take it as it is and consider its every part and portion. <br>Secondly, we must do so because what we are told here is, after all, a question of fact. It is not theory, it is a statement of fact. If the biblical doctrine of the wrath of God is true, then it is the most important fact confronting every one of us at this moment; infinitely more important than any international conference that may be held, infinitely more important than whether there is to be a third world war or not. If this doctrine is true, then we are all involved in it, and our eternal destiny depends upon it. And the Bible states everywhere that it is a fact. <br>Another reason for considering it is this: that the apostle's whole argument is that we can never understand the love of God until we understand this doctrine. It is - the way in which we measure the love of God. There is a great deal of talk today about the love of God, and yet were we truly to love God, we would express it, we would show it. To love God is not merely to talk about it; to love God, as He Himself points out constantly in His Word, is to keep His commandments and to live for His glory. The argument here is that we really cannot understand the love of God unless we see it in the light of this other doctrine which we are now considering. So it is essential from that standpoint. <br>Let me put it in this way. I suggest that we can never truly understand why it is that the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, had to come into this world unless we understand this doctrine of the wrath of God and the judgment of God. As Christians we believe that the Son of God came into this world, that He laid aside the insignia of His eternal glory, was born as a babe in Bethlehem, and endured all that He endured, because that was essential for our salvation. But the question is, Why was it essential to our salvation? Why did all that have to take place before we could be saved? I defy anyone to answer that question adequately without bringing in this doctrine of the judgment of God and of the wrath of God. This is still more true when you look at the great doctrine of the cross and the death of our blessed Lord and Saviour. Why did Christ die? Why had He to die? If we say that we are saved by His blood, why are we saved by His blood? Why was it essential that He should die on that cross and be buried and rise again before we could be saved? There is only one adequate answer to these questions, and that is this doctrine of the wrath of God. The death of our Lord upon the cross is not absolutely necessary unless this doctrine is true. So, you see, it is a vital matter for us to consider. <br>Page 1/4 <p><br /><br>May the Lamb that was slain recieve the reward of His suffering...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8384567748772061731.post-62821088055186635292008-08-30T11:04:00.000-07:002010-08-30T11:05:44.403-07:00For God So Loved the World by R. Scott ClarkFor God So Loved the World<br /><br />by R. Scott Clark<br /><br />To many, the topics of common grace and atonement would seem to be mutually exclusive, as if we should either hold to common grace or to definite atonement, but not to both. There are, however, good biblical and theological reasons for holding both the Reformed doctrines of common grace and definite atonement.<br /><br />By common grace I do not mean that God has endowed all humans with a universal gift whereby, if they will, they may do what is necessary to obtain salvation. Rather, using the formula adopted by the Christian Reformed Churches in 1924, “common grace” means three things: First, God has a sort of general benevolence toward humanity that is not saving; second, God providentially restrains evil; third, unregenerate persons are able to do “civic” but not “saving” good. In short, it is really a way of speaking about what we traditionally have called “providence.”<br /><br />By atonement, we mean that Christ lived and died as the substitute for His people, putting away their sin and turning away God’s wrath from them, that is, all those whom God chose, in Christ, from eternity out of pure grace.<br /><br />Creation and Redemption <br /><br />How do we reconcile the notion of a limited, personal, substitutionary atonement with a universal non-saving favor? If God is favorably inclined toward all, how can one say that Christ did not die for them? And if Christ did not die for all, how can God be favorable toward them in any way?<br /><br />We say this because creation and redemption are distinct. In creation, God made all that is. In His providence, He sustains and orders all that He made. In redemption, however, He saves His elect image bearers from sin and judgment. Redemption presupposes creation, since there must be a creation (that is, humans) for whom Christ died and whom He redeemed.<br /><br />God’s Saving Favor in Christ<br /><br />When Christ said, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, so that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16), He was not speaking of His providential gifts to His creatures but about His saving work for His people.<br /><br />The term world here is synonymous with the word sinners. In view is not the extent of the atonement, but the degree of God’s love and the quality of those for whom Christ died. How much did God love us? He loved us so much that He gave His only begotten Son. What sort of people did He love? He loved the “world,” or those who, because of their sin and sinfulness, are opposed to God (John 1:10; 15:18; 17:14). This is how John 3:19 defines “world.” The light has come to the “world,” but men loved darkness rather than light.<br /><br />The difference between creation and redemption is evident in the way Scripture describes God’s general favor and the way it speaks of the atonement. The atonement is for particular persons. Christ died “for us” (Rom. 5:8; 1 Cor. 15:3). The Shepherd lays down His life for His sheep, whom He knows (John 10:14–16).<br /><br />In contrast, regarding God’s general providence, Jesus taught that the Father “makes the sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the just and the unjust” (Matt. 5:45). Common grace is general and benefits all people, but the same is not true of the atonement.<br /><br />The Nature of the Atonement <br /><br />Just as there are two parts to common grace (creation and providence) so there are two parts to the atonement, expiation and propitiation. To expiate means to cover sins, which Jesus accomplished in His obedience and death (Heb. 9:22). By His obedience and death, Jesus also turned away God’s wrath from all His people. This is propitiation.<br /><br />Moses’ intercession for Israel (Ex. 32) is a good illustration of propitiation. Having come down from the mountain, Moses said upon seeing their sins, “You have committed a great sin. But now I will go up to the Lord; perhaps I can make propitiation for your sin.” This turning away of God’s wrath from His people becomes even clearer later (vv.14–16) when Moses prayed and Yahweh, “appeased,” became favorable towards His people. All that Moses illustrated, Christ fulfilled in His obedience and death.<br /><br />In Luke18:9–14, the Pharisee congratulated himself for his righteousness. The tax-collector, however, cried out to God saying, “God be propitious to me, I am a sinner.” The apostle Paul spoke clearly about Christ’s propitiating work in Romans 3:25–26: “God presented Him [Jesus] as the place of propitiation, through faith in His blood, for a demonstration of His righteousness, because of the passing over of the sins committed beforehand in the forbearance of God, for a demonstration of His righteousness now in this season in order that He might be righteous, and the one declaring righteous him who has faith in Jesus.”<br /><br />In this passage, Paul is explaining how we are declared righteous by God. (vv. 21–22). In the past, God “overlooked” the sins of the Israelites. It was not that He did not “see” them in His omniscience, or that He is morally sloppy, but He suspended execution of His justice in view of the coming of Christ. In other words, His general providence served His plan of definite atonement.<br /><br />Paul says that now, in Christ’s death, God’s justice is demonstrated and satisfied by Christ’s becoming our place of propitiation (see Heb. 9:5). In His death as our sin-bearer (2 Cor. 5:21), Jesus has become our propitiation and the place and means of propitiation, that we might become “the righteousness of God.”<br /><br />When He died, Jesus actually accomplished expiation and propitiation for sins, but for whom? If Jesus propitiated God for the sins of all, then all are saved. Clearly, however, not all are saved. This is because it was never our Savior’s intention to propitiate God’s wrath for everyone who ever lived. Rather, it was His intention to redeem all of His people completely.<br /><br />Difficult Passages <br /><br />What then do we do with passages such as 1 John 2:2: “He is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the whole world”? It is good to remember the context of this verse. John is encouraging Christians to obedience based on Christ’s atoning work for believers. In context, it makes little sense to read this passage to mean “Christ turned away God’s wrath for all who ever lived.” In this context it makes more sense to read “world” in a qualitative sense (sinners) or to mean “many more folk beyond Asia Minor .”<br /><br />We have a similar case in 2 Corinthians 5:15 where Scripture says that Christ died “for all.” If we stopped there, we might conclude that the Arminians are correct, but if we continue, we see that Scripture says Christ died so that the Christians “might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised” (emphasis added). The “all” of the first part of verse 15 is qualified by the second clause, “for their sake,” to refer to believers who are united to Christ. What seemed at first glance like a universalistic passage actually teaches definite atonement.<br /><br />The usefulness of the doctrine of common grace for our understanding of the atonement becomes clearer in 1 Timothy 4:10 where Paul wrote, “For to this end we labor and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of them that believe” (ASV).<br /><br />Critics ask how we can continue to hold to a definite atonement in the face of such language. The answer is that Paul was not speaking of the atonement here. The Greek noun for “Savior” here is soter. As my colleague Steven M. Baugh has pointed out, in Ephesus there was a statue dedicated to Caesar that proclaimed him a “god” and “the universal soter of the life of men,” referring to Caesar’s gifts to the city. Against this background, Paul is best read to say, “It is not some presumptuous king who is the provider for humanity, but the living God is the provider, and especially to those who believe.” Here, general providence illumines particular grace.<br /><br />In His providence, God gives many wonderful gifts to humanity. We rejoice in the colors of autumn and the joy of music. These gifts are good in themselves, but they are universal and distinct from His particular gift of redemption in Christ Jesus (Rom. 3:24). All humans know God as Creator and Judge (Rom. 1:18–21), but believers know Him as Redeemer. We know that in His love, He sent His Son not merely to make salvation possible, since in that case none would be saved. Rather, Jesus came to earn it for us (Phil. 2:8) by turning away God’s wrath so that, “having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” ( Rom. 5:1).Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8384567748772061731.post-38529033832951326772008-04-30T18:08:00.000-07:002009-04-30T18:20:32.957-07:00The Sufficiency of Scripture<a href="http://www.mountzion.org/fgb/Fall94/FgbF6-94.html">The Infallibility of Scripture</a> - C.H. Spurgeon<br /><a href="http://www.glenwoodhills.org/article.asp?ID=756"><br />The Sufficiency of Scripture</a> - John MacArthur<br /> - <a href="http://www.glenwoodhills.org/article.asp?ID=757">part 2</a><br /><a href="http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/TasteAndSee/ByDate/2005/1282_Thoughts_on_the_Sufficiency_of_Scripture_What_It_Does_and_Doesnt_Mean/"><br />John Piper on the Sufficiency of Scripture</a><br /><a href="http://www.biblicalstudies.org.uk/article_sola_sproul.html"><br />Sola Scriptura</a> - R.C. Sproul<br /><a href="http://homepage.mac.com/shanerosenthal/reformationink/aahsolascrp.htm"><br />Sola Scriptura</a> - A.A. Hodge<br /><a href="http://www.tms.edu/tmsj/tmsj9d.pdf"><br />The Sufficiency of Scripture</a> - The Masters Seminary<br /><a href="http://www.tms.edu/tmsj/tmsj12m.pdf"><br />The Sufficiency of Scripture in Apologetics</a> - The Masters SeminaryAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8384567748772061731.post-9844680626360452772008-03-03T08:55:00.000-08:002009-03-03T09:13:46.166-08:00OmnipotenceGod is Omnipotent. He is all-powerful, and all power is in His hand. He is the source of all life and authority and in Him is all fullness of power. God's power is more diplayed than spoken of in His word and in this case His all-powerful actions speak louder than His words; yet His all powerful actions are not apart from His word, because His word put His actions into existence and His word is all powerful...did you get that? God has all power and authority and there is no one like The Almighty. <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.pbministries.org/books/pink/Attributes/attrib_09.htm">The Power of God</a> - A.W. Pink<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.founders.org/library/boyce1/ch8.html">The Power of God</a> - James Boyce<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.heavendwellers.com/hdt_chapter_12_koh.htm">The Omnipotence of God</a> - A.W. Tozer<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.reformedwitness.org/pmphltlst/Attributes/Omnipotence.html">The Omnipotence of God</a> - D.H. Kuiper<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.puritansermons.com/charnock/charnc10.htm">Discourse on the power of God</a> - Stephen Charnock<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/sermons/bydate/1984/454_My_Name_Is_God_Almighty/">My Name is God Almighty</a> - John Piper<br /><br /><br /><br />Sermons<br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.heartcrymissionary.com/download.php?file=03-Session-3-Paul-Washer-The-Power-of-God.mp3">The Power of God</a> - Paul Washer<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/MediaPlayer/454/Audio/">My Name is God Almighty</a> - John Piper<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://playmp3.sa-media.com/media/84076264/84076264.mp3">The omnipotence of God </a>- A.W. TozerAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8384567748772061731.post-48309807545402158852008-02-24T09:46:00.000-08:002009-02-24T17:26:41.884-08:00Self- ExistenceTo admit that there is One who lies beyond us, who exists outside of all our categories, who will not be dismissed with a name, who will not appear before the bar of our reason, nor submit to our curious inquiries: this requires a great deal of humility, more than most of us possess, so we save face by thinking God down to our level, or at least down to where we can manage Him. Yet how He eludes us! For He is everywhere while He is nowhere, for ”where” has to do with matter and space, and God is independent of both. He is unaffected by time or motion, is wholly self-dependent and owes nothing to the worlds His hands have made.<br /><br />A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of The Holy<br /><br /><br />God is self-existent, God has always been...Our Maker exists in an eternal, self-sustaining, necessary way, necessary, that is, in the sense that God does not have it in Him to go out of existence, just as we do not have it in us to live forever. We necessarily age and die, because it is our present nature to do that; God necessarily continues forever unchanged, because it is His eternal nature to do that. This is one of many contrasts between creature and Creator...God's self existence is basic truth.<br /><br />J.I. Packer , Concise Theology<br /><br /><br />"The God who made the world and everything in it, being(D) Lord of heaven and earth,(E) does not live in temples made by man,[a] 25nor is he served by human hands,(F) as though he needed anything, since he himself(G) gives to all mankind(H) life and breath and everything."<br />Acts 17:24-25<br /><br />"I will not accept a bull from your house<br /> or goats from your folds.<br />10For every beast of the forest is mine,<br /> the cattle on a thousand hills.<br />11(O) I know all the birds of the hills,<br /> and all that moves in the field is mine.<br /><br /> 12"If I were hungry, I would not tell you,<br /> (P) for the world and its fullness are mine.<br />13Do I eat the flesh of bulls<br /> or drink the blood of goats?"<br /><br />Psalms 50:9-13<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.reformedwitness.org/pmphltlst/Attributes/Independence.html">The Self- Existence of God</a> - D.H. Kuiper<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.heavendwellers.com/hdt_chapter_5_koh.htm">The Self-Existence of God</a> - The Knowledge of the Holy: A.W. Tozer<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.e-grace.net/CAMselfexistenceofgod.html">Self Existence and Immensity of God</a><br /><br /><br /><strong>Sermons </strong><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.sermonindex.net/modules/mydownloads/visit.php?lid=2299">The Self- Existence of God</a> - A.W. Tozer<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://playmp3.sa-media.com/media/810081335222/810081335222.mp3">The Relative, Self-Existence of God</a> - Al BoyceAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8384567748772061731.post-87773605631282715752007-09-08T13:11:00.000-07:002010-09-08T13:11:52.270-07:00Unlimited Limited Atonement - by Mark Driscoll<object width="400" height="275"><param name="movie" value="http://www.marshillchurch.org/v/f1x8773u95zp"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.marshillchurch.org/v/f1x8773u95zp" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="400" height="275"></embed></object>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8384567748772061731.post-13413670275699396882007-05-22T17:55:00.000-07:002009-02-22T18:08:28.199-08:00Scriptures on Total Depravity<strong>Genesis 2:17 </strong>"But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."<br /><br /><strong>Genesis 6:5</strong> "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."<br /><br /><strong>Job 14:4</strong> "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one."<br /><br /><strong>Psalms 51:5</strong> "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me."<br /><br /><strong>Psalms 58:3</strong> "The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies."<br /><br /><strong>Proverbs 30:12</strong> "There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness."<br /><br /><strong>Isaiah 1:2-8</strong> "Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. {3} The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. {4} Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward. {5} Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. {6} From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. {7} Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers. {8} And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city."<br /><br /><strong>Isaiah 40:6-8</strong> "The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field: {7} The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the LORD bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass. {8} The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever."<br /><br /><strong>Isaiah 64:6</strong> "But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away."<br /><br /><strong>Jeremiah 13:23</strong> "Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil."<br /><br /><strong>Jeremiah 17:9</strong> "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?"<br /><br /><strong>Matthew 11:25</strong> "At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes."<br /><br /><strong>John 3:3</strong> "Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."<br /><br /><strong>John 3:19</strong> "And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil."<br /><br /><strong>John 8:19</strong> "Then said they unto him, Where is thy Father? Jesus answered, Ye neither know me, nor my Father: if ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also."<br /><br /><strong>John 14:16</strong> "And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;"<br /><br /><strong>Romans 3:10-12</strong> "As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: {11} There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. {12} They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one."<br /><br /><strong>Romans 5:12</strong> "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:"<br /><br /><strong>1 Corinthians 1:18</strong> "For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God."<br /><br /><strong>1 Corinthians 2:14</strong> "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."<br /><br /><strong>2 Corinthians 1:9</strong> "But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead:"<br /><br /><strong>Ephesians 2:1-3</strong> "And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins: {2} Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: {3} Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others."<br /><br /><strong>Ephesians 2:12</strong> "That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:" <br /><br /><br /><strong>A Breakdown of Total Depravity</strong><br /><br /><strong>Is man basically good or basically evil?</strong><br />Ecclesiastes 7:29 - "Behold, I have found only this, that God made men upright, but they have sought out many devices." <br />Romans 5:7-8 - For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. <br />Romans 5:12,19 - through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned... through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners <br />c.f. Job 15:14-16, 25:4-6; Ecclesiastes 9:3<br /><br /><strong>All men? Are there any exceptions?</strong><br />Psalm 143:2 - And do not enter into judgment with Your servant, for in Your sight no man living is righteous. <br />Galatians 3:22 - the Scripture has shut up everyone under sin <br />Romans 11:32 - For God has shut up all in disobedience so that He may show mercy to all. <br />Romans 3:23 - for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. <br />2 Chronicles 6:36 - there is no man who does not sin <br />Isaiah 53:6 - All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; <br />Micah 7:2-4 - The godly person has perished from the land, and there is no upright person among men. All of them lie in wait for bloodshed; each of them hunts the other with a net. Concerning evil, both hands do it well. The prince asks, also the judge, for a bribe, and a great man speaks the desire of his soul; so they weave it together. The best of them is like a briar, the most upright like a thorn hedge. <br />Romans 3:9-12 - What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; as it is written, "There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one. (c.f. Psalm 14:1-3, 53:1-3) <br />1 John 1:8,10 - If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we say we have not sinned, we make [God] a liar and His word is not in us. <br />Mark 10:18/Luke 18:19 - And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone." <br />c.f. 1 Kings 8:46; 116:11, 130:3, 143:2; Proverbs 20:9; Ecclesiastes 7:20; Jeremiah 2:29; Micah 7:2-4, Mark 10:18; Luke 18:19; Romans 5:12-14; 1 Corinthians 5:9-10; James 3:2; etc., etc.<br /><br /><strong>Are people good deep down?</strong><br />Mark 7:21-23 - "For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man." (c.f. Matthew 15:19) <br />Psalm 5:9 - There is nothing reliable in what they say; their inward part is destruction itself. Their throat is an open grave; they flatter with their tongue. <br />Are men totally depraved? Is every faculty of the person corrupted?<br />Heart (Hardened, Deceitful)<br />Jeremiah 17:9 - "The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?" <br />Ecclesiastes 9:3 - the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil and insanity is in their hearts throughout their lives. Afterwards they go to the dead. <br />Matthew 15:19 - "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders." (c.f. Mark 7:21-23) <br />Genesis 6:5 & 8:21 - Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually... from youth. <br />Psalm 36:1-2 - Transgression speaks to the ungodly within his heart; there is no fear of God before his eyes. For it flatters him in his own eyes concerning the discovery of his iniquity and the hatred of it.<br /><br />Matthew 13:14 - "In their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says, 'You will keep on hearing, but will not understand; you will keep on seeing, but will not perceive; for the heart of this people has become dull, with their ears they scarcely hear, and they have closed their eyes, otherwise they would see with their eyes, hear with their ears, and understand with their heart and return, and I would heal them.'" <br />Proverbs 28:26 - He who trusts in his own heart is a fool <br />c.f. Deuteronomy 29:2-4; Psalm 58:4-5; Ecclesiastes 8:11; Ezekiel 11:19, 36:26; Psalm 10:4, 94:11; Mark 7:21-23; Ephesians 4:17-18<br /><br /><strong>Mind (Depraved)</strong><br />Romans 1:28-31 - 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, being... without understanding <br />Titus 1:15-16 - to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled <br />Ephesians 4:17-18 - So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; <br />Jeremiah 10:7-8,14 - For among all the wise men of the nations and in all their kingdoms, there is none like You. But they are altogether stupid and foolish. Every man is stupid, devoid of knowledge <br />c.f. Romans 8:7, 12:2; Ephesians 4:23<br /><br /><strong>Will/Choosing (Enslaved)</strong><br />John 8:34 - "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin." <br />2 Peter 2:19 - by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved. <br />Titus 3:3 - For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. <br />Galatians 4:8-9 - However at that time, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those which by nature are no gods. But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again? <br />Romans 6:6,16,17,19,20 - our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin... Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey...? But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart... For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. <br />Romans 7:14 - For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. <br />Romans 6:20 - For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. <br />2 Timothy 2:25-26 - if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will. <br />c.f. Isaiah 42:6-7; Psalm 51:112; John 8:31-32,36; 2 Corinthians 3:17<br /><br /><strong>Affections/Desires (Perverted)</strong><br />Romans 1:24-27 - Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error. <br />2 Timothy 3:2-4 - 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 <br />Proverbs 21:10 - The soul of the wicked desires evil <br />Isaiah 32:6 - For a fool speaks nonsense, and his heart inclines toward wickedness <br />John 3:19 - "This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil." <br />John 8:44 - "You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father." <br />c.f. Genesis 3:16; Psalm 4:2, 52:3-4 140:8; Proverbs 10:23; 2 Peter 2:13<br /><br />et al (Utter Ruin)<br />Titus 1:15-16 - to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled <br />Romans 7:18 - I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh <br />Isaiah 1:5-6 - The whole head is sick and the whole heart is faint. From the sole of the foot even to the head there is nothing sound in it, only bruises, welts and raw wounds, not pressed out or bandaged, nor softened with oil. <br />Can men change themselves or still do good when they want to?<br />Jeremiah 13:23 - Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then you also can do good who are accustomed to doing evil. <br />Job 11:12 - An idiot will become intelligent when the foal of a wild donkey is born a man. <br />1 Samuel 24:13 - "As the proverb of the ancients says, 'Out of the wicked comes forth wickedness'" <br />Matthew 7:18 - "A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit." (c.f. Luke 6:43) <br />Matthew 12:34 - "how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. The good man brings out of his good treasure what is good; and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil." <br />Romans 8:7 - the mind set on the flesh... does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so <br />Genesis 6:5 & 8:21 - Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually... from youth. <br />Titus 1:15-16 - to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled. They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed. <br />c.f. Job 14:4; Matthew 12:34; John 15:5; Romans 14:23; 1 John 5:18-19<br /><br />Are men at least born pure? What about the "tabula rasa"?<br />Psalm 51:5 - Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. <br />Genesis 8:21 - the Lord said to Himself, "I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent of man's heart is evil from his youth <br />Psalm 58:3 - The wicked are estranged from the womb; those who speak lies go astray from birth.<br /><br />Isaiah 48:8 - "You have not heard, you have not known. Even from long ago your ear has not been open, because I knew that you would deal very treacherously; and you have been called a rebel from birth." <br />John 3:6 - "That which is born of the flesh is flesh" <br />c.f. Proverbs 22:15<br /><br /><strong>What is the natural disposition of man toward God?</strong><br />John 3:20 - "For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed." <br />Romans 8:7-8 - 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. <br />Colossians 1:21 - you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds <br />James 4:4 - You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. <br />c.f. Romans 1:28-30<br /><br /><strong>What is man's relationship to God?</strong><br />Psalm 58:3 - The wicked are estranged from the womb; those who speak lies go astray from birth. <br />Ephesians 2:12-13 - remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. <br />Ephesians 2:3 - Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. <br />c.f. Isaiah 59:2<br /><br /><strong>Can man then do anything to please God?</strong><br />Proverbs 15:9 - The way of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord <br />Proverbs 15:8/21:27 - The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord <br />Proverbs 28:9 - He who turns away his ear from listening to the law, even his prayer is an abomination. <br />Isaiah 64:6 - For all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; <br />Romans 8:7-8 - 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. <br />Hebrews 11:6 - And without faith it is impossible to please [God] <br />c.f. Psalm 50:16; Proverbs 21:4; Isaiah 1:10-15; Amos 5:21-24<br /><br /><strong>Are men at least seeking God?</strong><br />Psalm 10:4 - The wicked, in the haughtiness of his countenance, does not seek Him. All his thoughts are, "There is no God." <br />John 3:20 - "For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed." <br />Isaiah 65:1 - "I permitted Myself to be sought by those who did not ask for Me; I permitted Myself to be found by those who did not seek Me." <br />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. <br />Romans 3:10-12 - "there is none who seeks for God" <br />c.f. Romans 10:20<br /><br /><strong>Can the natural man comprehend the gospel or come to saving knowledge of God on his own?</strong><br />1 Corinthians 2:14 - But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. <br />2 Corinthians 4:3-4 - our gospel is veiled... to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. <br />1 Corinthians 1:18,21-24 - For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness <br />Deuteronomy 29:2-4 - And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, "You have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh and all his servants and all his land; the great trials which your eyes have seen, those great signs and wonders. Yet to this day the Lord has not given you a heart to know, nor eyes to see, nor ears to hear." <br />Matthew 11:27 - "no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.' <br />c.f. Psalm 119:18; Proverbs 4:19; Isaiah 42:6-7; Hosea 14:9; Matthew 16:17; John 8:43; Acts 22:14, 26:18; Ephesians 4:17-19; 2 Corinthians 2:15-16; 2 Corinthians 4:3-4; 1 John 5:20<br /><br /><strong>Can men of themselves accept God's gift of salvation? Do men choose God or come to Him on their own?</strong><br />John 3:27 - John answered and said, "A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven." <br />John 14:16 - "I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him <br />John 1:12-13 - But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. <br />John 6:44 & 64 - "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him;" And He was saying, "For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father." <br />Romans 9:16 - So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. <br />Romans 11:35-36 - Or who has first given to [the Lord] that it might be paid back to him again? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. <br />1 Corinthians 1:30 - But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus <br />Philippians 2:13 - for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. <br />c.f. Jonah 2:9; Zephaniah 3:9; John 15:16; 1 Corinthians 15:10; Philippians 1:6; James 1:18<br /><br /><strong>Who supplies faith/belief/repentance?</strong><br />Romans 12:3 - God has allotted to each a measure of faith. <br />2 Peter 1:1 - Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours <br />1 Corinthians 3:6 - I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. <br />Acts 5:31 - "He is the one whom God exalted to His right hand as a Prince and a Savior, to grant repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. <br />Acts 11:18 - When they heard this, they quieted down and glorified God, saying, "Well then, God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life." <br />Philippians 1:29 - For to you it has been granted for Christ's sake... to believe in Him <br />Acts 18:27 - And when he wanted to go across to Achaia, the brethren encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him; and when he had arrived, he greatly helped those who had believed through grace <br />Acts 3:16 - "And on the basis of faith in His name, it is the name of Jesus which has strengthened this man whom you see and know; and the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect health in the presence of you all." <br />Ephesians 2:8-9 - For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. <br />2 Timothy 2:25 - The Lord's bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, [etc.]... if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth <br />1 Corinthians 12:3 - no one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit <br />2 Peter 1:3 - His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence <br />Romans 11:36 - For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen. <br />1 Corinthians 4:7 - For who regards you as superior? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it? <br />John 3:6 & 6:63 - "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit... It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing;" <br />c.f. 1 Chronicles 29:14; John 5:44; Romans 1:8; Ephesians 6:23; 2 Thessalonians 3:2<br /><br /><strong>Can men do anything to help themselves?</strong><br />Romans 5:6 - For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. <br />Colossians 2:13 - When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions <br />Ephesians 2:1-2 & 4-5 - And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked... But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), <br />c.f. Psalm 49:7-9; Jeremiah 2:22; Ezekiel 16:6, 37:1-3<br /><br /><strong>Who then can be saved?!</strong><br />Matthew 19:26 - Jesus said to them, "With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." <br />c.f. Mark 10:27; Luke 18:27Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8384567748772061731.post-87413884717069986412007-05-21T18:08:00.000-07:002009-02-22T18:10:15.014-08:00Total DepravityWhat Presbyterians really mean by terms such as "Original Sin," "Total Depravity," and "Inability of the Will" is defined by our Confession of Faith, Chapter IX, Section iii: "Man, by his fall into a state of sin, hath wholly lost all ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation; so as a natural man being altogether averse from that good, and dead in sin, is not able, by his own strength, to convert himself, or to prepare himself thereunto."<br />By original sin we mean the evil quality which characterizes man's natural disposition and will. We call this sin of nature original, because each fallen man is born with it, and because it is the source or origin in each man of his actual transgressions.<br />By calling it total, we do not mean that men are from their youth as bad as they can be. Evil men and seducers wax worse and worse, "deceiving and being deceived" (2 Timothy 3:13). Nor do we mean that they have no social virtues towards their fellowmen in which they are sincere. We do not assert with extremists that because they are natural men, therefore all their friendship, honesty, truth, sympathy, patriotism, domestic love, are pretenses or hypocrisies. What our Confession says is, "That they have wholly lost ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation." The worst retain some, and the better much, ability of will for sundry moral goods accompanying social life. Christ teaches this (Mark 10:21) when, beholding the social virtues of the rich young man who came kneeling unto him, "He loved him," Christ could never love mere hypocrisies. What we teach is, that by the fall man's moral nature has undergone an utter change to sin, irreparable by himself. In this sense it is complete, decisive, or total. The state is as truly sinful as their actual transgressions, because it is as truly free and spontaneous. This original sin shows itself in all natural men in a fixed and utter opposition of heart to some forms of duty, and especially and always to spiritual duties, owing to God, and in a fixed and absolutely decisive purpose of heart to continue in some sins (even while practicing some social duties), and especially to continue in their sins of unbelief, impenitence, self-will, and practical godlessness. In this the most moral are as inflexibly determined by nature as the most immoral. The better part may sincerely respect sundry rights and duties regarding their fellowmen, but in the resolve that self-will shall be their rule, whenever they please, as against God's sovereign holy will, these are as inexorable as the most wicked. I suppose that a refined and gently reared young lady presents the least sinful specimen of unregenerate human nature. Examine such a one. Before she would be guilty of theft, profane swearing, drunkenness, or impurity, she would die. In her opposition to these sins she is truly sincere. But there are some forms of self-will, especially in sins of omission as against God, in which she is just as determined as the most brutal drunkard is in his sensuality. She has, we will suppose, a Christian mother. She is determined to pursue certain fashionable conformities and dissipations. She has a light novel under her pillow which she intends to read on the Sabbath. Though she may still sometimes repeat like a parrot her nursery prayers, her's is spiritually a prayerless life. Especially is her heart fully set in her not to forsake at this time her life of self-will and worldliness for Christ's service and her salvation. Tenderly and solemnly her Christian mother may ask her, "My daughter, do you not know that in these things you are wrong toward your heavenly Father" She is silent. She knows she is wrong. "My daughter, will you not therefore now relent, and choose for your Savior's sake, this very day, the life of faith and repentance, and especially begin tonight the life of regular, real, secret prayer. Will you?" Probably her answer is in a tone of cold and bitter pain. "Mother, don't press me, I would rather not promise." No; she will not! Her refusal may be civil in form, because she is well-bred; but her heart is as inflexibly set in her as the hardened steel not at this time to turn truly from her self-will to her God. In that particular her stubbornness is just the same as that of the most hardened sinners. Such is the best type of unregenerate humanity.<br />Now, the soul's duties towards God are the highest, dearest, and most urgent of all duties; so that willful disobedience herein is the most express, most guilty, and most hardening of all the sins that the soul commits. God's perfections and will are the most supreme and perfect standard of moral right and truth. Therefore, he who sets himself obstinately against God's right is putting himself in the most fatal and deadly opposition to moral goodness. God's grace is the one fountain of holiness for rational creatures; hence, he who separates himself from this God by this hostile self-will, shuts himself in to ultimate spiritual death. This rooted, godless, self-will is the eating cancer of the soul. That soul may remain for a time like the body of a young person tainted with undeveloped cancer, apparently attractive and pretty. But the cancer is spreading the secret seeds of corruption through all the veins; it will break out at last in putrid ulcers, the blooming body will become a ghastly corpse. There is no human remedy. To drop the figure; when the sinful soul passes beyond the social restraints and natural affections of this life, and beyond hope, into the world of the lost, this fatal root, sin of willful godlessness will soon develop into all forms of malignity and wickedness; the soul will become finally and utterly dead to God and to good. This is what we mean by total depravity.<br />Once more, Presbyterians do not believe they lose their free-agency because of original sin. See our Confession, Chapter IX., Section 1: "God hath endued the will of man with that natural liberty, that it is neither forced, nor by any absolute necessity of nature determined, to good or evil." We fully admit that where an agent is not free he is not morally responsible. A just God will never punish him for actions in which he is merely an instrument, impelled by the compulsion of external force or fate. But what is free agency? There is no need to call in any abstruse metaphysics to the sufficient answer. Let every man's consciousness and common sense tell him: I know that I am free whenever what I choose to do is the results of my own preference.<br />I choose and act so as to please myself, then I am free. That is to say, our responsible volitions are the expression and the result of our own rational preference. When I am free and responsible it is because I choose and do the thing which I do, not compelled by some other agents, but in accordance with my own inward preference. We all know self-evidently that this is so. But is rational preference in us a mere haphazard state? Do our reasonable souls contain no original principles regulative of their preferences and choices? Were this so, then would man's soul be indeed a miserable weathercock, wheeled about by every outward wind; not fit to be either free, rational or responsible. We all know that we have such first principles regulative of our preferences; and these are own natural dispositions. They are inward, not external. They are spontaneous, not compelled, and so as free as our choices. They are our own, not somebody else's. They are ourselves. They are essential attributes in any being possessed of personality. Every rational person must have some kind of natural disposition. We can conceive of one person as naturally disposed this way, and of another that way. It is impossible for us to think a rational free agent not disposed any way at all. Try it. We have capital illustrations of what native disposition is in the corporeal propensities of animals. It is the nature of a colt to like grass and hay. It is the nature of a bouncing schoolboy to like hot sausage. You may tole the colt with a bunch of nice hay, but not the boy; it is the hot sausage will fetch him when he is hungry; offer the hot sausage to the colt and he will reject it and shudder at it. Now both the colt and the boy are free in choosing what they like; free be cause their choices follow their own natural likings, i.e., their own animal dispositions.<br />But rational man has mental dispositions which are better than illustrations, actual cases of native principles regulating natural choices. Thus, when happiness or misery may be chosen simply for their own sakes, every man's natural disposition is towards happiness and against misery. Again, man naturally loves property; all are naturally disposed to gain and to keep their own rather than to lose it for nothing. Once more, every man is naturally disposed to enjoy the approbation and praise of his fellow-men; and their contempt and abuse are naturally painful to him. In all these cases men choose according as they prefer, and they prefer according to their natural dispositions, happiness rather than misery, gain rather than loss, applause rather than abuse. They are free in these choices as they are sure to choose in the given way. And they are as certain to choose agreeably to these original dispositions as rivers are to run downwards; equally certain and equally free, because the dispositions which certainly regulate their preferences are their own, not some one else's, and are spontaneous in them, not compelled.<br />Let us apply one of these cases. I make this appeal to a company of aspiring young ladies and gentlemen: "Come and engage with me of your free choice in this given course of labor; it will be long and arduous; but I can assure you of a certain result. I promise you that, by this laborious effort, you shall make yourselves the most despised and abused set of young people in the State." Will this succeed in inducing them? Can it succeed? No; it will not, and we justly say, it cannot. But are not these young persons free when they answer me, as they certainly will, "No, Teacher, we will not, and we cannot commit the folly of working hard solely to earn contempt, because contempt is in itself contrary and painful to our nature." This is precisely parallel to what Presbyterians mean by inability of will to all spiritual good. It is just as real and certain as inability of faculty. These young people have the fingers therewith to perform the proposed labor, let us say of writing, by which I invite them to toil for the earning of contempt. They have eyes and fingers wherewith to do penmanship, but they cannot freely choose my offer, because it contradicts that principle of their nature, love of applause, which infallibly regulates free human preference and choice. Here is an exact case of "inability of will." If, now, man's fall has brought into his nature a similar native principle or disposition against godliness for its own sake, and in favor of self-will as against God, then a parallel case of inability of will presents itself. The former case explains the latter. The natural man's choice in preferring his self-will to God's authority is equally free, and equally certain. But this total lack of ability of will toward God does not suspend man's responsibility, because it is the result of his own free disposition, not from any compulsion from without. If a master would require his servant to do a bodily act for which he naturally had not the bodily faculty, as, for instance, the pulling up of a healthy oak tree with his hands, it would be unjust to punish the servant's failure. But this is wholly another case than the sinner's. For, if his natural disposition towards God were what it ought to be, he would not find himself deprived of the natural faculties by which God is known, loved, and served. The sinner's case is not one of extinction of faculties, but of their thorough willful perversion. It is just like the case of Joseph's wicked brethren, of whom Moses says (Genesis 37:4): "That they hated their brother Joseph, so that they could not speak peaceably unto him." They had tongues in their heads? Yes. They could speak in words whatever they chose, but hatred, the wicked voluntary principle, ensured that they would not, and could not, speak kindly to their innocent brother.<br />Now, then, all the argument turns upon the question of fact: is it so that since Adam's fall the natural disposition of all men is in this state of fixed, decisive enmity against God's will, and fixed, inexorable preference for their own self-will, as against God? Is it true that man is in this lamentable state, that while still capable of being rightly disposed toward sundry virtues and duties, terminating on his fellow creatures, his heart is inexorably indisposed and willfully opposed to those duties which he owes to his heavenly Father directly? That is the question! Its best and shortest proof would be the direct appeal to every man's conscience. I know that it was just so with me for seventeen years, until God's almighty hand took away the heart of stone and gave me a heart of flesh. Every converted man confesses the same of himself. Every unconverted man well knows that it is now true of himself, if he would allow his judgment and conscience to look honestly within. Unbeliever, you may at times desire even earnestly the impunity, the safety from hell, and the other selfish advantages of the Christian life; but did you ever prefer and desire that life for its own sake? Did you ever see the moment when you really wished God to subjugate all your self-will to his holy will? No ! That is the very thing which the secret disposition of your soul utterly resents and rejects. The retention of that self-will is the very thing which you so obstinately prefer, that as long as you dare you mean to retain it and cherish it, even at the known risk of an unprepared death and a horrible perdition. But I will add other proofs of this awful fact, and especially the express testimony of the Holy Spirit.<br />There is the universal fact that all men sin more or less, and do it willfully. In the lives of most unrenewed men, sin reigns prevalently. The large majority are dishonest, unjust, selfish, cruel, as far as they dare to be, even to their fellow creatures, not to say utterly godless to their heavenly Father. The cases like that of the well-bred young lady, described above, are relatively few, fatally defective as they are. This dreadful reign of sin in this world continues in spite of great obstacles, such as God's judgments and threatenings, and laborious efforts to curb it in the way of governments, restrictive laws and penalties, schools, family discipline, and churches. This sinning of human beings begins more or less as soon as the child's faculties are so developed as to qualify him for sinning intentionally. "The wicked go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies." Now, a uniform result must proceed from a regular prior cause--there must be original sin in man's nature.<br />Even the great rationalistic philosopher, Emmanual Kant, believed and taught this doctrine. His argument is, that when men act in the aggregate and in national masses, they show out their real native dispositions, because in these concur rent actions they are not restrained by public opinion and by human laws restricting individual actions, and they do not feel immediate personal responsibility for what they do. The actions of men in the aggregate, therefore, shows what man's heart really is. Now, then, what are the morals of the nations towards each other and towards God? Simply those of foxes, wolves, tigers, and atheists. What national senate really and humbly tries to please and obey God in its treatment of neighbor nations? What nation trusts its safety simply to the justice of its neighbors? Look at the great standing armies and fleets! Though the nation may include many God-fearing and righteous persons, when is that nation ever seen to forego a profitable aggression upon the weak, simply because it is unjust before God? These questions are unanswerable.<br />In the third place, all natural men, the decent and genteel just as much as the vile, show this absolute opposition of heart to God's will, and preference for self-will in some sinful acts and by rejecting the gospel. This they do invariably, knowingly, willfully, and with utter obstinacy, until they are made willing in the day of God's power. They know with Perfect clearness that the gospel requirements of faith, trust, repentance, endeavors after sincere obedience, God's righteous law, prayer, praise, and love to him, are reasonable and right. Outward objects or inducements are constantly presented to their souls, which are of infinite moment, and ought to be absolutely omnipotent over right hearts. These objects include the unspeakable love of God in Christ in giving his Son to die for his enemies, which ought to melt the heart to gratitude in an instant; the inexpressible advantages and blessings of an immortal heaven, secured by immediate faith, and the unutterable, infinite horrors of an everlasting hell, incurred by final unbelief, and risked to an awful degree, even by temporary hesitation. And these latter considerations appeal not only to moral conscience, but to that natural selfishness which remains in full force in unbelievers. Nor could doubts concerning these gospel truths, even if sincere and reasonably grounded to some extent, explain or excuse this neglect. For faith, and obedience, and the worship and the love of God, are self-evidently right and good for men, whether these awful gospel facts be true or not. He who believes is acting on the safe side in that he loses nothing, but gains something whichever way the event may go; whereas neglect of the gospel will have incurred an infinite mischief, with no possible gain should Christianity turn out to be true.<br />In such cases reasonable men always act, as they are morally bound to do, upon the safe side, under the guidance of even a slight probability. Why do not doubting men act thus on the safe side, even if it were a doubtful case (which it is not)? Because their dispositions are absolutely fixed and determined against godliness. Now, what result do we see from the constant application of these immense persuasives to the hearts of natural men? They invariably put them off; sometimes at the cost of temporary uneasiness or agitation, but they infallibly put them off, preferring, as long as they dare, to gratify self-will at the known risk of plain duty and infinite blessedness. Usually they make this ghastly suicidal and wicked choice with complete coolness, quickness, and ease! They attempt to cover from their own consciences the folly and wickedness of their decision by the fact they can do it so coolly and unfeelingly. My common sense tells me that this very circumstance is the most awful and ghastly proof of the reality and power of original sin in them. If this had not blinded them, they would be horrified at the very coolness with which they can outrage themselves and their Savior. I see two men willfully murder each his enemy. One has given the fatal stab in great agitation, after agonizing hesitations, followed by pungent remorse. He is not yet an adept in murder. I see the other man drive his knife into the breast of his helpless victim promptly, coolly, calmly, jesting while he does it, and then cheerfully eat his food with his bloody knife. This is no longer a man, but a fiend.<br />But the great proof is the Scripture. The whole Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, asserts this original sin and decisive ungodliness of will of all fallen men. Genesis 6:3: "My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh (carnally minded)." Again, Genesis 6:5: "God saw that every imagination of the man's heart was only evil continually." After the terrors of the flood, God's verdict on the survivors was still the same. Genesis 8:21: "I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth."<br />Job, probably the earliest sacred writer, asks, "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one." (Job 14:4.) David says: "Behold I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me."(Psalms 51:5.) Prophet asks (Jeremiah 13:23), "Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil." Jeremiah says, chapter 17:9: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." What does desperately mean? In the New Testament Christ says John 3:4 and 5), "That which is born of the flesh is flesh;" and "Except ye be born again ye cannot see the kingdom of God." The Pharisees' hearts (decent moral men) are like unto whited sepulchers, which appear beautifully outwardly, but within are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. Does Christ exaggerate, and slander decent people?<br />Peter tells us (Acts 8:23) that the spurious believer is "in the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity." Paul (Romans 8:7): "The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be," (inability of will). (Ephesians 2): "All men are by nature children of wrath.... and dead in trespasses and sins." Are not these enough?<br />—Five Points of Calvinism, The<br />by Robert DabneyAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8384567748772061731.post-68845874458835390752007-05-20T18:16:00.000-07:002009-02-22T18:31:19.397-08:00The GospelAll of these Articles have influenced me greatly in understanding the power and preciousness of the Gospel. Our Lord Jesus Christ has done so much in His work on the cross in saving His people from their sins and re-creating them into the image of God after righteousness and true holiness. I will keep adding to these articles as I come across them. Be blessed.<br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://repentresource.blogspot.com/2005/02/gospel.html"><strong>The Gospel Scripture List</strong></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://repentresource.blogspot.com/2009/02/old-cross-and-new-aw-tozer.html">The Old Cross and The New - A.W. Tozer</a><br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://repentresource.blogspot.com/2005/02/christ-crucified-our-boast-john-piper.html"><strong>Christ Crucified, Our Boast - John Piper</strong></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://repentresource.blogspot.com/2005/02/cross-of-christ-by-paul-david-washer.html">The Cross of Christ - Paul David Washer</a>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8384567748772061731.post-87002240942983494212007-04-28T16:18:00.000-07:002009-04-28T16:21:03.989-07:00Albatrus.org The Soverignty of GodHere is a link from Albatrus.org on some resources on The Sovereignty of God. Be blessed by these resources in knowing that Our God is Sovereign over all things. <br /><br /><a href="http://www.albatrus.org/english/theology/sovereignty/index_sovereignty.htm">The Sovereignty of God</a>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8384567748772061731.post-38646974809902061182007-04-23T09:51:00.000-07:002009-03-01T08:45:43.596-08:00Human InabilityHuman Inability or Total Depravity: All men since the fall of Adam have been born in sin and miss the standard which God had orginally created for man in the beginning. Because all men are sinners, all men miss the mark in meeting God's standards and therefore are out of His purpose for them and all men come into this world contrary to God. Total Depravity does not mean men are as bad as they could be, not meaning all men are Adolph Hitlers' or Idi Amins. Your unsaved grandmother may not be as wicked as Satan himself, but she is in bondage to the same rebellious nature of sin as he is and it affects all parts of her life. Total Depravity or "Original Sin" means that every part of man's being is affected by the nature of sin: body, soul, spirit, and while man may do "good things" at times, he still lives in a nature of sin and is still contrary to God's standard of righteousness and true holiness. Because man is under the bondage of sin as a slave to it, he is totally helpless to deliver hmself from sin's bondage and can only be set free by the power of God in salvation through Jesus Christ. Whom the Son sets free is free indeed!<br /><br />Below are some articles on Total Depravity: I encourage you to not only read the articles but look at and study the scripture verses that support it in the Bible.<br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://repentresource.blogspot.com/2007/05/total-depravity.html?zx=b1eea12874ca034b">Total Depravity </a><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://repentresource.blogspot.com/2007/05/scriptures-on-total-depravity.html?zx=478f63aafdb6fc94"><strong>Scriptures on Total Depravity</strong></a><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Seminars/1727_TULIP/#Depravity"><strong>John Piper on Total Depravity </strong></a><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.salvationbygrace.org/uc/sub/docs/bygracealone.pdf"><strong>By Grace Alone -Jim McClarty </strong>- </a>Pages 23-36<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.spurgeongems.org/tulip-1.pdf">Human Inability (Total Depravity)</a> - Charles Spurgeon<br /><br /><br /><strong>Sermons </strong><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/MediaPlayer/2280/Audio/">John Piper on Total Depravity</a><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/MediaPlayer/2281/Audio/">John Piper on Total Depravity</a> - part 2<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.gty.org/AudioPlayer/Sermons/90-276">John MacArthur on Total Depravity</a><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://playmp3.sa-media.com/media/12109735210/12109735210.mp3">Total Depravity</a> - Dr. Robert J. Cameron<br /><br /><br />What is Total Depravity - R.C. Sproul<br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZCv3_Uo-hiU&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZCv3_Uo-hiU&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /><br />What is Total Depravity Part 2 - R.C.Sproul<br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/h9D9iOKWH74&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/h9D9iOKWH74&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /><br />What is Total Depravity Part 3- R.C. Sproul<br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/u6GpnyKUS1w&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/u6GpnyKUS1w&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8384567748772061731.post-58491813129946139762007-04-13T08:30:00.000-07:002009-04-13T08:52:30.337-07:00The Wrath of GodThe wrath of God is His eternal detestation of all unrighteousness. It is the displeasure and indignation of Divine equity against evil. It is the holiness of God stirred into activity against sin. It is the moving cause of that just sentence which He passes upon evil-doers. God is angry against sin because it is a rebelling against His authority, a wrong done to His inviolable sovereignty.<br /><br />This doctrine is so prevalent as to make even the ministers of the gospel flinch from their duty in declaring the day of wrath. How few there are who will solemnly tell us of the judgment to come. They preach of God's love and mercy as they ought to do, and as God has commanded them; but of what avail is it to preach mercy unless they preach also the doom of the wicked? C.H. Spurgeon<br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.spurgeon.org/sermons/0106.htm">Turn or Burn</a> - Charles Spurgeon<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.pbministries.org/books/pink/Attributes/attrib_16.htm">The Wrath of God</a> - A.W. Pink<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.ondoctrine.com/2edw0101.htm">Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God</a> - Jonathan Edwards<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.ondoctrine.com/2wat0017.htm">The Wrath of God</a> - Thomas Watson<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.pbministries.org/books/gill/Doctrinal_Divinity/Book_1/book1_17.htm">The Wrath of God </a>- John Gill<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByTopic/78/204_Gods_Wrath_Vengeance_Is_Mine_I_Will_Repay_Says_the_Lord/">God's Wrath: Vengence is Mine, I will Repay says the Lord</a> - John Piper<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.gty.org/Resources/Sermons/45-9">The Wrath of God</a> - John MacArthur<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/13560207/Flee-From-the-Wrath-to-ComeCharles-H-Spurgeon">Flee from the Wrath to Come</a> - Charles Spurgeon<br /><br /><br />Sermons <br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.hcmissions.org/download.php?file=13-Session-13-Charles-Leiter-Wrath-of-God.mp3">The Wrath of God </a>- Charles LeiterAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8384567748772061731.post-39319718987776953252007-04-12T13:56:00.000-07:002009-04-12T14:32:47.821-07:00The Mercy of God & The Grace of GodI will make all My goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy" (Ex. 33:19)<br /><br /><br />...the Calvinistical notion of sovereign and arbitrary grace, whereby some, with the very same sincerity of endeavors and the same degree of endeavors and the same use of means, shall have the success which is denied others; and although all things are exactly equal in both cases, both as to their persons and their behavior, yet one has that success by sovereign grace and God's arbitrary pleasure that is denied another - Jonathan Edwards <br /><br /><br /><br />**I recommend these**<br /><br /><a href="http://www.reformedwitness.org/pmphltlst/Attributes/Mercy.html">The Unfialing Mercy of God</a> - D.H. Kuiper<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.pbministries.org/books/pink/Attributes/attrib_14.htm">The Mercy of God</a> - A.W. Pink<br /><br /><a href="http://www.pbministries.org/books/pink/Attributes/attrib_13.htm">The Grace of God</a> - A.W.Pink<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByTopic/2/3394_From_His_Fullness_We_Have_All_Received_Grace_Upon_Grace/">From His Fullness We have All Received Grace Upon Grace</a> - John Piper**<br /><br /><a href="http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByTopic/2/">John Piper Sermons on the Grace of God</a><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.heavendwellers.com/hdt_chapter_18_koh.htm">The Mercy of God</a> - A.W. Tozer<br /><br /><a href="http://www.heavendwellers.com/hdt_chapter_19_koh.htm">The Grace of God</a> - A.W.Tozer<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.anchoredintruth.org/resources/transcript/273">Trophies of Grace</a> - Jeff Noblit**<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.spurgeon.org/all_of_g.htm">All of Grace</a> - Charles Spurgeon**<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.gty.org/Resources/Questions/QA194">The Universal Grace of God</a> - John MacArthur ( common grace ) <br /><br /><br />Sermons<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=51606151439">God's Grace and Mercy</a> - C.H.Spurgeon<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=82807613472">God's Mercy</a> - A.W.Tozer<br /><br /><a href="http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=84075532">God's Abundant Mercy</a> - A.W.Tozer<br /><br /><a href="http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=8290761988">God's Grace Abounding</a> -A.W.Tozer<br /><br /><a href="http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=840755934">The Grace of God</a> - A.W.Tozer**<br /><br /><a href="http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=73107191547">The Mercy of God</a> - A.W. Tozer**<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=6260755158">The Grace and Mercy of God</a> - Paul Washer**Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8384567748772061731.post-17094179368519114292007-04-01T05:25:00.000-07:002009-04-13T06:23:39.375-07:00The Justice of GodAbove we have stated that the Divine justice is far more formidable than man's—and that because of this it is so much dreaded by the guilty. The justice of God is the justice of One who is both omniscient and omnipotent, so that it is impossible we should conceal from Him our offenses, or escape from the execution of His sentence.- A.W. Pink<br /><br />The justice of God differs in no respect from this attribute as seen among his rational creatures; except that his justice must be perfect while theirs is imperfect, and his must be impartial, while theirs is partial. These differences, however, exist in the exercise of justice, and not in the thing itself.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.founders.org/library/boyce1/ch11.html">The Justice of God</a> - Founders Ministries<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.gracegems.org/Pink2/justice_of_god.htm">The Justice of God </a>- A.W.Pink<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.biblebb.com/files/edwards/JE-justice.htm">The Justice of God in the Damnation of Siners</a> - Jonathan Edwards<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.heavendwellers.com/hdt_chapter_17_koh.htm">The Justice of God </a>- A.W.Tozer<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByDate/2003/120_The_Freedom_and_Justice_of_God_in_Unconditional_Election/">Freedom and Justice of God in Unconditional Election</a> - John Piper<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/ConferenceMessages/ByDate/1980_Holiness_and_Justice/">Holiness and Justice</a> - R.C. Sproul<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.gty.org/Resources/Sermons/62-9">Our Divine Defense Attorney</a> - John MacArthur<br /><br /><br /><br />Sermons<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.hcmissions.org/download.php?file=02-Session-2-Michael-Durham-The-Justice-of-God.mp3">The Justice of God </a>- Michael Durham<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=1300518634">Defending the Justice and Goodness of God </a>- Dr. Alan Cairns<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=7210761341">The Justice of God</a> - A.W. TozerAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8384567748772061731.post-63559709015241484542007-03-24T09:05:00.000-07:002009-04-12T13:54:14.396-07:00The Goodness of GodThe goodness of God is the life of the believer’s trust. It is this excellency in God which most appeals to our hearts. Because His goodness endureth forever, we ought never to be discouraged: "The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and He knoweth them that trust in Him" (Nahum 1:7).<br />- A. W. Pink<br /><br />Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you,(A) provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise(B) you too will be cut off. - Romans 11:22<br /><br />On the other hand, the goodness of God may be spoken of as kindness, benevolence, or beneficence towards others, in which it is seen to terminate outside of himself. Thus we speak of him, as being very good to us. Thus the Psalmist says: "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life." Ps. 23: 6.<br />- Boyce<br /><br /><br /><strong>Articles</strong><br /><br /><a href="http://www.pbministries.org/books/pink/Attributes/attrib_11.htm">The Goodness of God</a> - A.W. Pink<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.tecmalta.org/tft140.htm">The Goodness of God</a> - Truth for Today <br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.heavendwellers.com/hdt_chapter_16_koh.htm">The Goodness of God</a> - A.W. Tozer<br /><br /><br />Sermons<br /><br /><a href="http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=7807204121">The Goodness of God</a> - A.W. TozerAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com0