Think Wink.

About a month and a half ago, I was talking to a classmate about different major teachers and how towards the end of their ministries, they begin to go a little crazy. Dr. Dobson is a good guy but is starting to go political. Dr. D. James Kennedy is going way too political. Pat Roberts is calling for assassinations. Why this happens I don’t know. But people begin to take their ministries in wierd and crazy directions. Rick Warren is no exception to this rule, apparently. He is the guy that wrote Purpose Driven Church and Purpose Driven Life. I have read the latter and there is some good stuff in that book. I’m sure we all remember last year, or the year before, when that lady was being held hostage by an escaped convict and so she read him from Purpose Driven Life and he let her go and went back in to the authorities. Warren is a good guy.

But as of lately he has been saying some pretty wierd stuff. First he is saying the Syria is not a bad country but a peaceful country, especially between Muslims and Christians. His arugments for this are completely bogus. I don’t get it. To hear his statements click here. This site has a transcript and two places for audio. But not only is his views of Syria kinda bogus, he seems to be buying into the social gospel. Click here for a video clip of Warren speaking at P.E.A.C.E. Now I am all for humanitarian aid as a means to advance the gospel of Jesus Christ. But if we want people to change, then our preaching needs to become more compelling and winsome and needs to be Gospel-saturated. Only then will the change take place. I feel like he doesn’t quite trust the gospel like he used to, but that is only a feeling and I don’t speak for Rick Warren. To help his humanitarin push, Senator Barak Obama has been speaking from the Saddleback pulpit. That is cool and all, except that Sen. Obama is for abortion and the murder of the unborn. For more on this click here and here.

I like Rick Warren but I could see something like this happening. In my class on ministry at SBU, I remember the prof., Dr. Fuhrman, teaching out of Purpose Driven Church. One of the things that Warren preached against in that book was being a program church. But then came Purpose Driven Life and he turned it into a program. He started to go against his good, sound advice. It wasn’t surprising to me to see this. But still. The man has a large podium to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins and what did he do? He made wierd statments about Syria and preaches about social good and not about sin and redemption. He lets a pro-abortion senator from Illinoise come in to speak on AIDS. This is most unfortunate and I am praying for wisdom to come to Warren so that he might understand and learn from these shortcomings. Will you pray with me?

Matthew vs Mark

Theology and Logic Pt. 2

Apostasy

Last night in my history of Christianity class I had an interstingly brief conversation with one of my class mates.  During that conversation I was being questioned about limited atonement.  He told me that he did not hold to Limited Atonement but rather universal atonement because of John 3:16 and 1 John 2:2.  I told him that I too do not hold to Limited Atonement but that Christ’s death redeemed a particular people that God has chosen to be his own elect people under the New Covenant.  I gave him all of my arguments for why John 3:16 does not defeat Particular Redemption.  But class began before I had the time to address 1 John 2:2.  I had posted upon 1 John 2:2 earlier but did not really give a definitive stance on the text but only hinted at it.  Thus here I go to post on it to give my precise stance on the text.  John writes in 1 John 2:2,

He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

Now I must say from the outset that I would be crazy to say that a person cannot find universal atonement/general redemption in this verse.  This is not like John 3:16 where one has to read into it the “free will” and universality of the efficiency of the atonement (the scope is limited only to believers but is grounded in a universal love).  The language of universal atonement is in 1 John 2:2 and I am not in denial of the language.  My main disagreement comes from the meaning of the terms.  I only ask that you hear me out and weigh what I have to say against the text and make your own decision prayerfully.

Why do I not think this really speaks of universal atonement/general redemption?  First comes from the term propitiation.  It is the Greek term hilasmos.  It literally means the means by which sins are forgiven.  It is a sacrifice in which the wrath of the divine party is appeased.  It is used four times in the New Testament: Romans 3:25; Hebrews 2:17; 1 John 2:2; 1 John 4:10.  In each place Jesus has atoned for the sin in which God would have poured out his wrath upon.  Jesus death paid the penalty so that those sins are forgiven and removed from us.  They have been taken away and we no longer bear them.  That is a propitiation, satisfying the wrath of God against sin; and that is what Jesus’ death did.

The other key term in this text is the words the whole world.  The phrase in Greek literally reads holou tou kosmou, holos means entire and kosmos means world.  The term can mean the whole planet, all of mankind, all of a group of people.  It can mean anyone of these things.  Most people in this particular text take it to mean all of mankind.  For argument’s sake, I will go with this assumption. 

If we take the word propitiation to mean exactly as defined before and the world to mean every single human being, then my question becomes why do people go to hell.  If all of the sin of all humanity has been atoned for, God is no longer angry at those sins and has forgiven them, then why do some people go to hell?  If Jesus died for all of the sins of all people, then that is universalism and no one goes to hell.  Even more so, God cannot send people to hell for sins he has forgiven.  That would mean that Jesus did not atone for those sins or that Jesus’ death was for nothing.  So I conclude that we cannot take either propitiation to mean an atonement and forgiveness for all sins or the world to mean all people.

Second, let us take propitiation to mean all sins but the belief in the Lord Jesus Christ.  Let us just say that is what hilasmos means.  Thus the only way to be saved is the cross and resurrection plus man’s faith.  If that is true, then when Paul says in Ephesians 2:5 “by grace you have been saved” is negated.  It is no longer by grace.  Also, faith is no longer just trusting in God and the work of Jesus but faith itself is a deed.  Faith is something that we must do to be saved in the same way that obedience to the Mosaic Law in the Old Testament.  It is a wage and wages are death (Romans 3:28; Romans 4:4-5; Romans 6:23).  It is no longer a Hebrews 11:1 faith.

Staying in the same line of understanding propitiation as atoning for all sin but faith in Jesus for all people.  Then how do we know that the atonement has fully atoned for the other sins that we have commited?  It is an objection that one must consider: the sufficiency of the cross.  Has God really forgiven all of those sins or not?  Is it all sins of all people or may be some sins of all people?

There is a third line of interpretation for this text in which one limits the scope of propitiation to all sins but belief and limits the scope of the atonement.  The whole world no longer means every single person but is limited to the chosen people of God.  This however makes absolutely no sense with the Bible.  I insert this as more of a parenthesis than an actual argument.  It lacks, in my mind and reading of the Bible, any substance and validity of arugment.  It would argue that the atonement forgives some sins of some people.  Like I said, it doesn’t fit.

Now here is what I would argue: John is saying that Jesus’ death atones for all sin of some people, namely the elect people of Yahweh.  I argue that propitiation truely forgives all sin even the sin of not believing.  But I have more to say about this.  I am arguing that world is not every human being but the people of God throughout the world.  I base this first and foremost upon the parallel of this verse in John’s record of the High Priest’s prophecy in John 11:51-52 after Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead.  John records for us,

51 He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, 52 and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.

John says the prophecy predicts that Jesus would die for the nation of Israel and all of teh children of God who are scattered abroad.  What the High Priest meant was that if Jesus continued to stir up the people, he might lead a revolution that won’t be friendly to themselves or if it fails will end in the utter destruction of Israel by Roman legions, which is bad for themselves.  Now look at how this is viewed.  Caiaphas stated that Jesus died for all of God’s children were scattered into the whold world.  Thus in that sense, Jesus died for the whole world, not each indiviudal but for all of God’s people living in the different parts of the world.  This is the best way to understand what John in saying in our text, 1 John 2:2 when we are to understand the meaning of kosmos.  Thus I argue that Jesus died for all of his people.  John 10:11 records Jesus as saying, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”  Jesus said in John 10:15-16, “I lay down my life for the sheep.  And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.”  One flock in many folds gathered into one.  Only for that flock did Jesus die.  Those who are believers believe because they are the sheep of God, because they are part of that flock (John 10:26).  The four living creatures in Revelation 5:9 says, “for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.”  Here again from out of the whole world were the people of God that Jesus’ blood purchases, but the whole world was not purchased by Jesus’ blood.  His blood did not forgive all of the sin of every human being.  John goes on to refer to these people as a great multitude and the 144,000 in Revelation 7.  These 144,000 that were the great multitude are the redeemed spoken of earlier when they are seen again in Revelation 14:1-5.

The reason I feel that the death of Christ covers all sins is found in Hebrews 10:12, 14.  Here Jesus’ death is portrayed as the only sacrifice for all time to atone for sin.  Also it says that by that one sacrifice “he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.”  The sacrifice has done exactly as it was intended to do, atone and perfect those whom God is making holy.  The propitiation is a real and total atonement for all sin, once for all.

Thus what I conclude to view of this is this: Jesus’ death atones for all sins of some people.  As I said earlier, I am not in favor of ascribing to “Limited Atonement” but to “Particular Redemption/Definite Atonement.”  Jesus’ death definitely accomplished redemption for a certain or particular people, the elect people of God.  When John says the whole world, he means all of the people of God, the flock of God, scattered through out the world.  When John says propitiation he means a true forgiveness of sin, a complete and total atonement and not a partial atonement.

John 3:16

Yeah, Kinda Sad

Stomaching Hard Truths

In two days I will be preaching at a Thanks Giving service in Bunceton.  My sermon will not be some random sermon about being thankful from some text like Luke 17:11-19 and the parable of the ten lepers.  That text really isn’t about thanksgiving but rather about the salvation of the one man who came back.  But instead, I am preaching from Ephesians 2:4-5.  The name of the sermon is “But God, By Grace.”  The first two words of Ephesians 2:4 is “But God.”  The last phrase of 2:5 is “by grace you have been saved.”  Something I have noticed is that many people at Thanksgiving will put the truth of the gospel, the very thing that saves us, at the end of the prayer.  And that end is very cavalier and taking it for granted.  People just want to pray about the food, the house, the family and all of that.  Those things are extremely important and we must be thankful for that (cf. Ephesians 5:20, 1 Thessalonians 5:18).  However the greatest thing we need to be thankful for is the gospel.  Our thankfulness should be a broken and humble thanksgiving, desperate to thank God for that gracious gift.  It should be the first thing in our prayer of thanks and it could be the only thing in that prayer.  I am speaking to my fellow redeemed brothers and sisters in the Kingdom of Christ.  We must be grieved by our sin and completely shattered by God’s grace.  We therefore must be utterly overwhelmed by our status of righteous.  We should be thankful for this most of all on Thursday.  That’s what I ask for this Thankgiving, before you start thanking God for all of those things he gave you in your family, friends, home, food, job, and other possessions and blessings, get your mind around the gospel and be broken by it and be grateful for it.

A Key Term

How’s about a drink?

A Major Prayer Request

I was reading this week’s Taste and See article by John Piper at DesiringGod.  He talks about the shift of Christianity from the North and West to the South and East.  I encourage you to read this article and be as blessed as I am.  I am reminded why I prefer the post-millennial eschatological system, the Great Commission will succeed and as John says in Revelation 7:9,

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands.

Oh what joy there is to be found in this article and in seeing the Lord Jesus spread his gospel to the nations.  Thank you Jesus.

To Fulfill What Was Spoken By The LORD 2/2

A Good Day Today

I AM HE

As I was preparing for Sunday’s sermon, I was reading Luther’s comments on Romans 1:21-23. They were very interesting and stirring to my soul. Luther said concerning the text itself,

Notice the steps or stages of (heathen) perversion. The first step of their idolatry is ingratitude: they were not thankful…Whoever enjoys God’s gifts as though he had not graciously received them, forgetting the Donor, will soon find himself filled with self-complacency. The next step is vanity…In this stage men delight in themselves and in creatures, enjoying what is profitable to them…The third step is blindness; for, deprived of truth and steeped in vanity, man of necessity becomes blind in his whole feeling and thinking, since now he has turned entirely away from God. The fourth step or stage is man’s total departure from God, and is the worst; for when he has lost God there remains nothing else for God to do than to give him up to all manner of shame and vice according to the will of Satan.

To summarize his thoughts on ingratitude Luther further comments,

Ingratitude and love of vanity (love of one’s wisdom, or righteousness, or as it is commonly said, of one’ “good intention”) pervert a man so thoroughly that he refuses to be reproved, for now he thinks that his conduct is good and pleasing to God…Oh how great an evil ingratitude is! It produces desire for vain things, and again produces blindness; and blindness produces idolatry, and idolatry leads to a whole deluge of vices. Conversely, gratitude preserves love for God and the heart remains attached to him and is enlightened. Filled with the light, he worships only the living God and such true worship is followed immediately by a whole host of virtues.

I found this very interesting and it helped me much in my sermon preparation. It was also very convicting of me for I can be very ungrateful for the blessings I have. Many times I forget that all that I have has been given to me. The job with which I have by which I get the money to purchase things was given to me. Life was given to me, both physical and spiritual, by my Maker and Creator, Jesus Christ. Reading Luther’s comments showed me how terrible ingratitude can be and how devastating it is. Madame Blueberry never made so much sense and never appealed to me more than it does now after meditating upon Luther’s words.

Lord Jesus, thank you for you word that you inspired Paul to write. Thank you for such a penatrating word that you have for me this week in sermon preparation. Father I pray that you will bless my message in the pulpit as much as I have been blessed by it in preparation. Father I thank you for your servant Martin Luther. Thank you for the words you showed him in Paul’s letter to Rome. Thank you for inspiring him to write them down and for preserving them throughout the centuries. Thank you for all of the blessings you have given me in my twenty-two years of life. Thank you Father and I bless your name for them. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.

Martin Luther and the Dead Sea Scrolls

This Thanks Giving

Martin Luther and 1 Peter 1:3

Two weeks ago in my Doctrine class, the topic was the nature of the atonement. That was an interesting discussion that led to my last two-part sermon on the cross. I felt that my textbook had not put enough emphasis on expiation to bring forth the idea of propitiation. The reason why the author did this is to remind his audience that Christ suffered the penalty for our sins, not just removed them from us. Thus it is easy to see why he did that. But in that discussion, the extent of the atonement came up. Before we took our fifteen minute break, the teacher said we would cover this area of the atonement: sin of the world vs. sin of the elect; Universal/general vs. particular/definite. When the teacher said this, he and the rest of the class all focused on the outspoken calvinist: me. HEHEHE! I remember this one kid who just absolutely said God cannot send people to hell because it was his eternal predestined plan to do so. It was just impossible. That made me a little upset because that is boxing up God and limiting him to what he can and cannot do. So the whole class told him not to say that. But that was fun because he was putting out his views and we got to respond to him and him to us, to me. Oh the joy.

The next day before chapel, I was sitting outside the chapel reading through Leviticus, picturing in myt mind how I wanted to break down the text and seeing how my sermon would formulate. The prof. came up to me and started talking to me about part of that discussion: what does it mean to be “in Christ.” He was looking it up on the internet and found an interesting source from a hyper-calvinist who would think I am weak in my soteriology. He didn’t really approach any of the other people from the class that was there, just me.

Yesterday in class, we were speaking on the roles of Christ as prophet, priest, and king. At the end of the day, 2 Peter 3:9 came up in the discussion and guess what. Everyone looked to me to make some kind of argument against that text. Next time it comes up I might give my answer to it. But that is only if that is necessary to class discussion. It just wasn’t vital to understand Christ’s offices and my role as fulfilling them in Christ.

I say this to say that this is too much fun and way too flattering. I enjoy debating the five points. I enjoy going against my professor who is not a calvinist. I enjoy my class taking me on in this great debate. I enjoy it thoroughly. This is so because of the fact that I am talking about what Jesus did for me in eternity past, present, and what he will do in the future. I enjoy the discussions of the verses and taking on the class. But I only enjoy it when it is relevant to the issue. Dr. Alber Mohler said that a person is not a try calvinist if he will drive across the state to speak on the five points but will never go across the street to preach the gospel to his neighbor who is lost in sin. This is why I don’t have to preach explicitly about the five points. They will come out but I don’t make it a point. My main focus is the gospel the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. That gives me great joy, calvinism is only a small sliver of that joy.

More From John Owen

Another look into euaggelion

The Missing Piece to the Corinthian Correspondence?

I have always wondered, where in the Holy Scriptures is the doctrine of Free Will explicitly taught.  I have seen many places where predestination, unconditional election, and the will enslaved to sin.  I have seen many places in the Bible where a person has a choice to make.  They are every where.  However, I have yet to see a verse that teaches that man has a free will that is free to chose whatever it so determines.  I have seen philosophical arguments for this idea/concept.  Yet no Scripture can be offered in support of it.  So that is my curiosity.  Where in the Bible does the explicitly, not implicitly, teach that man has self-determining free will and that God has so determined to honor that free choice over his own purposes?

Alex Ross Rocks!

Expositing Revelation Postmillennially

Writing Scripture out

Yesterday was election day, 2006. The Democrats have taken the House and the Senate is up for grabs as of 11:24 am. In the state of Missouri, incumbant Jim Talent lost his seat to Claire MaCaskill. That disappoints me. But the darkest part of the election is not the inevitable shift in power, for the Democrats will slip up and the Republicans will take the Congress back, it is the passing of Ammendment 2: legalizing the idea of man playing God, cloning.

It is dark to me because we have fallen so far as to lose our sense of morality so that we can selfishly live. My grandfather right now is dying of so many ailments right now. He has very little voice, he can’t walk the short distance from his living room to his bathroom without losing his breath–while on oxygen. I do not say this lightly.

It is dark to me because we have sunken to a new low: we are willing to unethically research stem-cells for the possibility of curse several years, if not decades, into the future. We have no guarantee that this will even work. Adult stem-cells work. But we would much rather legalize cloning, create and destroy human life, so that we can create cures when the process is unyielding of any hope. We would rather spend our money on a doomed process than on one that is showing real signs of hope. How backward we as a society we are. We do not treasure life: we treasure being God.

Then, we are going to have the opponents sueing and trying to have laws passed to hold up the implemenation of this ammendment. Which also saddens me, somewhat. It gives us the appearance of being sore losers. But at the same time, this issue is that important. I hope that those who continue to fight the legal battles will do so in a way that will not discourage people from knowing the truth, embracing the truth, and acting upon the truth.

Yet it is at this dark time that I see the glory of God in Jesus Christ the most. It was by God’s sovereign will that this ammendment passed. Therefore I believe that he can and will turn this ammendment into something that brings the greatest glory to himself. I trust in him during this time of distress and distaste. I believe that he is preparing something so great, so grand, so beautiful, so glorious that I can’t wait to see what it is.

Join me in praying that in spite of this set back, God will be made known to the nations and that his glory will shine forth accross the is planet.

Christian Bale on “The Dark Knight”

Dark Reign: The List–Avengers

Captain America vs Agents of Atlas

At Theology for the Masses there is, basically, round 2 of the debate on Original Sin and Total depravity.  I must say this time that I am attempting to debate this in a more calm fashion than the last time.  My Irish temper came out in that last debate and I was too agressive and not very gracious and merciful and understanding.  So now I am just sticking to arguing with the post itself and I also have a limit to how many responses I will make in the post.  My limit is four and I have posted three comments to the site.  This is not comment number four but I do want to examine a problem I am seeing the argument presented.  There is no real grasp of the power of sin over humans.  I want to be careful and state from the beginning that the author of that post knows of the deadly results of sin and the grave situation that sin causes.  But his argumentation has a basic assumption that is contrary to the Bible: we control sin by our decisions and actions, but sin does not control us.

The text I want to highlight is Romans 6:12, “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions.”  Notice what sin does in this verse: it reigns and it causes obedience.  Sin is more than just mere action and thought.  It is deeper than that and its reality is greater than that.  It is a power that controls and rules over people.  Sin isn’t just deeds that we do, it is greater than that.  It isn’t just the thoughts we think, it flows deeper than that.  Sin controls and rules over us.  It causes us to obey it.  It fights dirty too.  Sin is nasty.  It works through desires, hence the word “passions” in the text.  Where do our actions and thoughts flow from?  Our desires, our affections, our passions.  Here the words of Christ in Mark 7:20-23,

20 And [Jesus] said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. 21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

It is from the heart, the seat of the desires of the man that comes forth all of our sinful thoughts and deeds.  It’s more than just willing and running.  It goes down into the very pits of who we are, into the very root of our souls, and sets up its throne to manipulate us.

Now there is a very important exegetical insight I must share in understanding how sin controls us.  Sin is not just desires either.  Our thoughts, our deeds, and our passions are not sinful.  The Greek literally reads, “Let not reign sin in the mortal your bodies into the obedience of the passions of it.”  The pronoun “it” or “its” in Romans 6:12 is a neuter term and modifies passions.  So in the text, the pronoun must agree with a neuter term.  Sin is a feminine term and therefore cannot be modified by “its.”  Thus the passions are not the passions of sin in a direct sense.  The Greek term “body” is a neuter term and is most likely the noun that “its” refers to.  The passions refer to those of the body.  Thus sin rules and forces the bodily passios to become its servant, but the passions are not directly sin’s passions, only indirectly.

Now, we must then realize that sin is not the mere disobedience from the law.  It is greater than that.  Jesus said in John 8:34, “Everyone who sins is a slave to sin.”  Sin is a power that takes people captive and rules over them on the throne of our souls: our hearts and desires.  From there it manipulates our minds to think counter to the will of God.  From there is manipulates our actions to run counts to the law of God.  It is a power that controls.

Puritan Wisdom and Sin

Making Sense of a Cruel World.

Original Sin and Infants

I just heard a song by Nichole Nordamen (I think that is how you spell her name). In this song, “Be Real,” she is talking about God being real to her. There is a line that caught me by surprise: “put away the doctrine and love a little bit more.” I must say I agree with her and yet totally am insulted by this statement.

I agree with this statement because here in America the church is very caught up in doctrinal debate while more of the culture slips into utter sin. My history prof. at the seminary was born in France and he says that there is no debate over Calvinism and election. That is funny because Calvin was French. Why? They don’t have the time or the money to do that. They are so busy trying to preach the gospel that they don’t have time to actually sit around the table and debate this. They know what the Gospel is and they are out sharing with people. To them, that is a secondary issue and not necessary to spreading the Gospel of the Glory of Jesus Christ. We need to remember our purpose as a church: to preach the glory of God in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

But I am utterly insulted by that line in the song because it is the doctrines that makes God come alive. Through the doctrine do we know him and fall in love with him. It is through doctrine that we know that Christ bore the wrath of God in our place. It is the doctrines that tell us that Christ removed our unrighteousness and put in its place his own righteousness so that we might have eternal life. It is doctrine that tells us that we will be raised from the grave when Jesus comes back again. It is because I know that truth that I love Jesus. I know Jesus through the teachings, the doctrines, of the Holy Scriptures. But also, we would not have the correct gospel if it weren’t for the doctrines. Paul warned against false gospels in Galatians 1:8-9 that they would condemn a person to hell. What was wrong with the gospel in Galatia: a misunderstanding of the doctrine of justification. If we aren’t preaching the correct doctrine, we don’t have the right gospel. If we don’t have the right gospel, we are sending people to hell. It is very important to make sure we have right doctrines so that we might know the true Gospel.

Total Depravity is Totally Biblical

Problems with the Sovereignty of God?

Original Sin