Is Mercy In Harmony With The Law?

When I was a 12-year-old “bad boy” I learned how to receive mercy. Two friends got me to join them in raiding a Lays Potato Chip van. My two buddies grabbed some bags of chips and took off running. I followed a little late and got caught by a teenage neighbor that was a track star. I broke down in contriteness and begged him to take the chips and not tell my parents. He said he would if I would get my friends to return their chips. I agreed, so he showed mercy and let me go. My contriteness seemed to satisfy his sense of justice.

Mercy never works without satisfying God’s law. It always operates in harmony with God’s law. There is no mercy without satisfying God’s law. Mercy never runs from the law. Someone on Face Book said “Run from the Law of Moses that condemns you, into the city of Refuge who is Jesus Christ!” No one gets mercy by running from God’s law. The way to get mercy is by siding with God’s law against self. Jesus said, “Agree with your adversary quickly… lest your adversary deliver you to the judge” (Mat 5:25).

Mercy does not triumph over the law. James says it triumphs over judgment. Running to the City of Refuge is not running from the law. It’s running from the judgment of the law. Nobody can outrun the Law. The City of Refuge is a provision of the law. Mercy only comes by making satisfaction in accord with the law. Only the merciful receive mercy. The law itself requires mercy. The merciful are those who are taught by the law that they need mercy and do not deserve it. That’s why they can forgive others.

To excuse sin is not the same as mercy. In order to receive mercy, the law must be satisfied. God cannot be in harmony with His holy nature and excuse sin at the same time. That would violate His sinless nature. God forgives in accord with His holy nature, and so do the merciful. Satisfaction must be made.

The law of aerodynamics does not triumph over the judgment of gravity by eliminating the law of gravity. Gravity is God’s law. Aerodynamics does not triumph over gravity. It triumphs over the judgment of gravity in harmony with it. The judgment of the law of gravity is “what goes up must come down.” When the plane crashes, that is the judgment of the law. Mercy does not triumph over the law; it triumphs over judgment.

Satisfaction is called propitiation or atonement. Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness (Heb 9:22). Christ “Himself is the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 2:2). He made satisfaction available for the whole world, but until personal satisfaction is made also, there is no forgiveness. David said, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart” (Ps 51:17). Both God and the merciful do not have mercy on those who are in denial. Satisfaction must be made. But if we confess our sins God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. That’s when mercy triumphs over judgment.

You Can’t Legislate Morality?

Some Christians see no need to make an effort to change public policy because, they say, “You can’t legislate morality.” They argue that before the hippy movement of the sixties, people were hypocritically doing the same things under cover that the hippies were doing openly. True. But it was not openly acceptable before that. In one sense it is also true that you can’t legislate morality. Only God can change the heart. The hippies argued that their parents were doing the same things in the “underworld,” so they might as well do them openly, so they belched out of the bottomless pit into the open.

The law restrains evil. So the new morality threw off the restraints. Let me illustrate how that works. I did not know it at the time while growing up, but my mother was committing adultery with a man for about ten years. If it had been socially acceptable she would not have covered it up. That would have caused me to lower my standard. If I had thought it was okay, I would not have believed the Holy Spirit’s effort to convince me of sin, righteousness and judgment as easily. Because I feared my dad’s displeasure, I would have unleashed my urge to fornicate. That, in turn, would have would have enslaved me even more. That also would have led to my corrupting many young girls and damaging them for life. I could give other examples. The law is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. The law can’t save us but without the Holy Spirit using the law to bring us to Christ, there would be no salvation.

When the restraints of public standards (God’s laws) are taken away, less people will come to Christ and lawlessness will abound. Examples: When Alfred the Great and others established overt Christian laws and governments, the result was conversion to nominal Christianity. The establishment of America is another example. That, in turn, resulted in more born again Christians. The law cannot save, but without it, there is no salvation. Without being convinced of sin, righteousness, and judgment no one will come to Christ. Without that conviction no one would see the need for the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. And because every true convert has been convinced of his depravity, it is impossible for him to think he is a good person.

Unbelievers do not see that need because they are not totally convinced they are bad enough to need the Savior. Thus, they are by nature hypocrites. But to avoid being hypocritical, the hippies did openly what they had been doing (or wanted to do) under cover. They think that keeps them from being hypocrites. They think it is hypocritical to resist temptation.

When the little boy was forced to sit down in church, he was still standing up inside. But I am glad for it. “Fake it ‘til ya make it.” It will make a more lawful and peaceful society.

This brings us to another reason why some see no need for an effort to change public policy. It is the idea that the nominal “unconverted” church or society is not relevant. The idea is that only true converts matter. But we see from the Old Testament pattern that nominal Israel was important. The vast majority of Israelites were probably not saved. But they were still under the covenant shelter. They were circumcised in the flesh, but not in the heart, but God still had a covenant with them that brought great blessings and true salvation to many at that time and later to the whole world. Just because common grace is not enough does not mean common grace is bad. Common grace is good and special grace is better. The flesh concludes that because nominal Christians under common grace are hypocrites, that therefore common grace is bad.

To separate the secular from the sacred is dualism. Jesus Christ demands that all governments come under the Lordship of their King. The purpose of redemption is not to take us all to heaven. The purpose of redemption is to bring heaven to earth. “Thy will be done on earth.” But to demand perfection now is to demand utopia. There will be no utopia until Jesus comes. But the path of the just is as the shining light that shines more and more to the perfect day. We have seen that progress in history.

The U.S. Constitution is not perfect, but it is the result of the Gospel. If we do what our Puritan fathers did we will see even greater results. But if we don’t even vote or get involved in politics, America will continue to decline into even more decadence. Christians are the salt to preserve nations.

Martin Luther said, “If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, then I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Him. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved; and to be steady on all the battle front besides is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point.”

Daniel’s Sixth Kingdom

In Daniel chapter two, King Nebuchadnezzar dreamed a dream and Daniel gave the interpretation. He saw a statue with

1. a head of gold (Babylon),

2. arms and breast of silver (Medo/Persia),

3. belly of brass (Greece),

4. legs of iron (Rome),

5_. and feet part iron & part clay (Rome as it crumbled).

6. The 6^th kingdom (God’s kingdom): As he watched, a little stone cut out of a mountain (without hands), flew thru the air and struck the image on the feet. The whole thing crumbled to dust and the wind blew it away. Then the little stone grew and grew till it became a great mountain that filled the whole earth. This is the kingdom of God that eventually destroyed Rome and became Christendom.

Daniel said, “And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever…” (2:44). Daniel clearly reveals the timing of when the Kingdom Of God would be set up: “In the days of those kings.” Just before Christ went to the cross He said, “ “Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out” (John 12:31). Christ then ascended in the clouds to the Ancient of Days (Dan 7:13) and sat down at the right hand of the Father “on the throne of the LORD as king instead of David his father” (1Chron 29:23). “For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet” (1Cor 15:25). When Jesus came in the clouds to the Ancient of Days (Dan 7:13) “a judgment was made in favor of the saints of the Most High, and the time came for the saints to possess the kingdom” (Dan 7:22) “in the days of those kings” (Dan 2:44). Jesus said that judgment was made just before He went to the cross: “Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out” (John 12:31). The judgment was made at that time, and the execution of that judgment “till He has put all enemies under His feet” (1Cor 15:25). The Little Stone is still growing.

The Greek poet Hesiod, who lived 100 years before Daniel, also envisioned a sixth kingdom. He believed history started with a golden age and steadily deteriorated from gold to silver to brass to iron. He believed he was in the iron-age and that there would be a return to the golden age. Hesiod placed a 5th age of heroes before the age of iron.

Plato, who came 100 years after Daniel, also believed in a sixth government: his Republic. He taught that there are five types of government that deteriorate into anarchy and result in tyranny. 1. First is the golden monarchy. In the golden monarchy there is true justice & love for one’s neighbor.

2. The golden monarchy deteriorates into a timocracy. Timo means honor. A timocracy is ruled by men whose motive is honor. 3. Because honor leads to prosperity, the timocracy deteriorates into an oligarchy ruled by a few whose motive is riches. Riches produce libertine children who want fun. They call it freedom.

4. It’s called democracy: the rule of every man doing what is right in his own eyes. It’s the rule of fleshly passions. It’s the French Revolution and the hippies belching out of the Bottomless Pit.

5. The comes tyranny. According to Plato, pure democracy results in anarchy (lawless liberty). Then, to bring order out of it all, they vote for a tyrant. This is what happened in Germany with Hitler, in France with Napoleon, & in Russia with Lenin. Solomon said, “That which has been is what will be, That which is done is what will be done, And there is nothing new under the sun” (Ec 1:9).

Bojidar Marinov writes about Isidore of Seville and the Birth of Europe as the Rule Of Christ (http://americanvision.org/3452/isidore-of-seville-and-the-birth-of-europe-as-the-regnum-christi/).

Isidore (born in AD 560) was Spanish. He based his life’s ministry on Augustine’s theology by accepting Augustine’s six-ages view of history. Isidore was sure that the “sixth age” was the time when he lived, and that was a special age, the age following the Redemption of Jesus Christ, under the power of Jesus Christ, regnum Christi. All previous ages existed only to provide the background for that most important age in history. All previous human achievements in knowledge, wisdom, technologies, social development, philosophy, existed only to be used in the right way in the regnum Christi. The whole world found its fulfillment only in the Incarnation of Christ, and now it was a Kingdom of Christ, under Christ’s royal rule, destined to become one Christian civilization, under Christ, where all authorities and powers will submit to the King of kings and the Lord of lords.

This total authority of Christ in this age of regnum Christi will make all the nations become limbs of Christ. Isidore said nations would be judged by a moral standard, just like individuals, and the greatest of them would be those that live – as societies – most clearly in accordance with the Christian faith. All aspects of the life of a nation must become harmonized with the teachings of Christ, from the personal life of the individuals to the government policies and international relations of the rulers. Those that fail to abide by the Law of Christ will be judged in history. Those that obey will prosper and grow.

Therefore Isidore saw the role of the Church in teaching everyone – from the lowest peasant to the highest court officials – their duties in the new age of regnum Christi. He wrote an encyclopedia and His teaching spread all over Europe until all of Europe became Christendom.

This happened to Europe but Europe has turned away just like Israel did. I predict that was only a foretaste of what will happen to the whole world. We are in Babylonian captivity now, but there shall be a return and a re-building of the New Jerusalem in all the nations of the world.

God promises a time when this will happen not just to Europe, but to the whole world (Micah 4:1-4).

The Current CultureWar And The Scottish Covenanters

The Covenanters formed an important movement in the religion and politics of Scotland in the 17th century. In religion the movement is most associated with the promotion and development of Presbyterianism (representative government) as a form of church government favored by the people, as opposed to Episcopacy, favored by the crown. In politics the movement saw important developments…

The name derives from biblical bonds or covenants. The National Covenant of 1638 takes as its point of departure earlier documents of the same kind and is chiefly concerned with preserving the Reformation settlement free from crown innovations. Its sister document, the 1643 Solemn League and Covenant, is also concerned with religion, but its chief importance is as a treaty of alliance between the Covenanters in Scotland and the Parliament of England, anxious for help in the increasingly bitter civil war with Charles I.

James VI of Scotland (James I of England) was opposed by the Covenanters in his attempt to bring the Anglican Church into Scotland. He ousted the Covenanters from their pulpits and homes saying that he was the head of the church. The Covenanters said, “No. Christ is the head. We will preach in the fields.” Later King Charles II and his brother King James II indulged certain ministers and allowed them to pastor churches where Anglican pastors could not be found. But to do this, they had to compromise with the king’s state church. Covenanters like Richard Cameron railed against these compromisers as being dead and without God’s power.

The Lion Of The Covenant

Richard Cameron (1648? - 1680) was a leader of the Presbyterians who resisted the Stuart monarchs. The life & ministry of Richard Cameron was among the first of a series of events that led to the Glorious Revolution (1888) and the end of the reign of the House of Stuart. His followers took his name, the Cameronians, which ultimately formed the nucleus of the Scottish regiment of the same name.

He was initially a parish schoolteacher and then a highly successful field preacher of the strict Presbyterian school, a Covenanter. He spent some years in exile in the Netherlands when the authorities demanded that all preachers submit to the Crown's religion. He was ordained there and sent back to Scotland with the prophecy by Rev. M’Ward that he would be martyred for the cause of Christ.

He returned to Scotland in 1680 and issued with others such as Donald Cargill the Sanquhar Declaration, calling for war against the king, Charles II and the exclusion of his brother (James II) from the succession. He was killed in a skirmish with government troops, at Airds Moss near Cumnock, later the same year, in a government attempt to suppress the Covenanters. This period was later given the title of "the Killing Time" because hundreds, if not thousands of Presbyterians were persecuted and martyred for holding Cameronian views. However, after the accession of William III (in the Glorious Revolution) his followers were pardoned and incorporated into the British Army as the Cameronian Regiment.

When hands were laid on Richard Cameron at his ordination in Holland, the one hand of Mr. M’Ward remained and M’Ward cried out, “Behold, all ye beholders, here is the head of a faithful minister and servant of Jesus Christ, who shall lose the same for his Master’s interest, and it shall be set up before sun and moon, n the view of the world.” And so it was that his hands and head were put on display at the gate of the Edinburgh for all to see. One of his enemies said, “There’s the head and hands of a man who lived praying and preaching, and died praying and fighting.”[1]

Before this was done, his hands and head were delivered to his father in prison to add grief to his former sorrow. Taking his son’s head and hands, which were very fair, he kissed them, and said, “I know – I know them; they are my son’s – my own dear son’s. It is the Lord – good is the will of the Lord, who cannot wrong me nor mine, but has made goodness and mercy to follow us all our days.”[2]

Eighteen days before Cameron was killed, he prophesied from the pulpit that there would not be a crowned King of the name of Stuart in Scotland. This was fulfilled eight years later in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. He also prophesied “A man shall ride a day’s journey in the shires of Galloway, Ayr and Clydesdale, and not see a reeking house nor hear a cock crow, ere ye get a right Reformation; and several other shires shall be little better.” He also prophesied in the same sermon, “The rod that the Lord will make instrumental in this, will be the French and other foreigners, together with a partying this land joining them; but ye, that stand to the testimony in that day, be not discouraged at the fewness of your number; for when Christ comes to raise up His own work in Scotland, He will not want men enough to work for him.”[3] This prophecy of slaughter was fulfilled 66 years later in 1746 at Culloden.

In 1746 the Stuart Prince Charles, with the help of the French, Spain, and others, invaded Scotland where many Highlanders joined him and marched toward London. At Culloden the English and other Scots slaughtered them. The slaughter did not end there. Genocide by the English in the highlands followed.

Description Of The Ethnic Cleansing

A little after 12:30 that afternoon the Prince’s side fired what canon they had and waited for the return volley - which came swiftly. His troops were cut down in the dozen by the onslaught of Cumberlands artillery. Disemboweled by the flying balls of 4lb steel, arms legs and heads were scattered amongst the bunched up and freezing Jacobites. It all lasted for minutes and when the smoke cleared all that was left to do was to run or charge - the Jacobites outnumbered by at least 2 to 1 charged on the right flank of Cumberland’s lines. For a brief spell the Duke's troops on the right were scattered, but soon closed ranks on the charging Highlanders and began the massacre, in turn scattering the Highlanders across 'Cumberland’s Bloody Killing Field'.

By 1:00, only 30 minutes later, it was all over and those Highlanders, who could, ran for cover and back to their homes. By Cumberland’s own estimate, some 2,000 Highlanders lay dead on Culloden Moor. These figures have never been seriously challenged and neither has the figure of 300 dead and injured from his side. A more exact figure has been put forward of 1,500 Highlanders but still only 300 of the Dukes men.

The memories of Culloden still run deep in the blood of Highlanders the world over because this battle was not the end - it was just the beginning!

Cumberland gave orders for "No Quarter Given": in other words 'none shall live'. His army marched on and killed every wounded Highlander left on the field - and then made his way to Inverness to carry on the fight. Raiding homes looking for Jacobites, all were labeled as one and swiftly put either to the end of a musket - bayonet – hangman’s rope or burnt alive in their homes. Women, children, old and young, his orders were "No Quarter Given" - and none was.

The slaughter did not end there on that day, and this is the significance of the Jacobite's in Scottish history: particularly Highland history. For months his army moved around the Highlands clearing out any threat once and for all that Highlander should ever pick up a Broadsword against England. It can be quoted from English parliament in reply to Cumberland’s reports that they sent message saying "It will be no great mischief if all should fall." the support for Cumberland’s ethnic cleansing was total.

5 months passed and it was decided that the hunt for the Jacobites, (which by this time there were more than likely none left as well as every other Highlander who wasn't even there), should be calmed down and this is when the Prince made his escape back to France.

In London they celebrated the defeat of the Highland people once and for all, and the German composer Handel wrote one of his most famous works 'See the conquering hero come' - referring to The Duke of Cumberland.

The Highland people were wiped out. Over the coming years they were cleared out of their homes to make way for their lands to be used for profitable sheep farming. For 4 generations the Highlanders were scattered to the corners of the world - Europe, India, and the New World 'America'. Sold as slaves they worked on the lands in the southern parts of America, and one account even tells us that in Barbados a ship load of Highlanders were traded for 10 tones of Sugar.

Their culture was demolished, their native language - Gaelic - was banned and marked as a hanging offence if spoken, the wearing of tartan was also made a hanging offence and even the Bible was not allowed to be learnt in their own language, never mind written.

These times are known to us who are still here as the 'Highland Clearances'. English schools were put in place and the process of conversion began. Finally the English dream of a conquered Scotland was theirs.[4]

Many of those Scots who were exiled came to America where the encouragement of Richard Cameron’s prophecy was fulfilled when they fought along with George Washington and received encouragement in final victory. A high percent of Washington’s officers were Scots. Cameron had prophesied, “…but ye, that stand to the testimony in that day, be not discouraged at the fewness of your number; for when Christ comes to raise up His own work in Scotland, He will not [lack] men enough to work for him.”

And you, the Christian right of America, be not discouraged at the fewness of your numbers; for when Christ comes to raise up his own work in America, He will not lack men enough to work for him.

What does all this have to do with us? This struggle in Scotland and England led first to the Glorious Revolution in England and later to what the English called the “Presbyterian Scots-Irish Revolt” in America (The American Revolution).

Eighteen days before Cameron was killed, he prophesied from the pulpit that there would not be a crowned King of the name of Stuart in Scotland. This was fulfilled eight years later in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. He also prophesied “A man shall ride a day’s journey in the shires of Galloway, Ayr and Clydesdale, and not see a reeking house nor hear a cock crow, ere ye get a right Reformation; and several other shires shall be little better.” He also prophesied in the same sermon, “The rod that the Lord will make instrumental in this, will be the French and other foreigners, together with a partying this land joining them; but ye, that stand to the testimony in that day, be not discouraged at the fewness of your number; for when Christ comes to raise up His own work in Scotland, He will not want men enough to work for him.”[5] This prophecy of slaughter was fulfilled 66 years later in 1746 at Culloden.

In 1746 the Stuart Prince Charles, with the help of the French, Spain, and others, invaded Scotland where many Highlanders joined him and marched toward London. At Culloden the English and other Scots slaughtered them. The slaughter did not end there. Genocide by the English in the highlands followed.

Description Of The Ethnic Cleansing

A little after 12:30 that afternoon the Prince’s side fired what canon they had and waited for the return volley - which came swiftly. His troops were cut down in the dozen by the onslaught of Cumberlands artillery. Disemboweled by the flying balls of 4lb steel, arms legs and heads were scattered amongst the bunched up and freezing Jacobites. It all lasted for minutes and when the smoke cleared all that was left to do was to run or charge - the Jacobites outnumbered by at least 2 to 1 charged on the right flank of Cumberland’s lines. For a brief spell the Duke's troops on the right were scattered, but soon closed ranks on the charging Highlanders and began the massacre, in turn scattering the Highlanders across 'Cumberland’s Bloody Killing Field'.

By 1:00, only 30 minutes later, it was all over and those Highlanders, who could, ran for cover and back to their homes. By Cumberland’s own estimate, some 2,000 Highlanders lay dead on Culloden Moor. These figures have never been seriously challenged and neither has the figure of 300 dead and injured from his side. A more exact figure has been put forward of 1,500 Highlanders but still only 300 of the Dukes men.

The memories of Culloden still run deep in the blood of Highlanders the world over because this battle was not the end - it was just the beginning!

Cumberland gave orders for "No Quarter Given": in other words 'none shall live'. His army marched on and killed every wounded Highlander left on the field - and then made his way to Inverness to carry on the fight. Raiding homes looking for Jacobites, all were labeled as one and swiftly put either to the end of a musket - bayonet – hangman’s rope or burnt alive in their homes. Women, children, old and young, his orders were "No Quarter Given" - and none was.

The slaughter did not end there on that day, and this is the significance of the Jacobite's in Scottish history: particularly Highland history. For months his army moved around the Highlands clearing out any threat once and for all that Highlander should ever pick up a Broadsword against England. It can be quoted from English parliament in reply to Cumberland’s reports that they sent message saying "It will be no great mischief if all should fall." the support for Cumberland’s ethnic cleansing was total.

Five months passed and it was decided that the hunt for the Jacobites, (which by this time there were more than likely none left as well as every other Highlander who wasn't even there), should be calmed down and this is when the Prince made his escape back to France.

In London they celebrated the defeat of the Highland people once and for all, and the German composer Handel wrote one of his most famous works 'See the conquering hero come' - referring to The Duke of Cumberland.

The Highland people were wiped out. Over the coming years they were cleared out of their homes to make way for their lands to be used for profitable sheep farming. For 4 generations the Highlanders were scattered to the corners of the world - Europe, India, and the New World 'America'. Sold as slaves they worked on the lands in the southern parts of America, and one account even tells us that in Barbados a ship load of Highlanders were traded for 10 tones of Sugar.

Their culture was demolished, their native language - Gaelic - was banned and marked as a hanging offence if spoken, the wearing of tartan was also made a hanging offence and even the Bible was not allowed to be learnt in their own language, never mind written.

These times are known to us who are still here as the 'Highland Clearances'. English schools were put in place and the process of conversion began. Finally the English dream of a conquered Scotland was theirs.[6]

Many of those Scots who were exiled came to America where the encouragement of Richard Cameron’s prophecy was fulfilled when they fought along with George Washington and received encouragement in final victory. A large percent of Washington’s officers were Scots. Cameron had prophesied, “…but ye, that stand to the testimony in that day, be not discouraged at the fewness of your number; for when Christ comes to raise up His own work in Scotland, He will not [lack] men enough to work for him.” The “work in Scotland” was fulfilled in America, the new Scotland, where there are five times as many Scots as there are in Scotland. America became Scottish in culture.

And you, the Christian right of America, be not discouraged at the fewness of your numbers; for when Christ comes to raise up his own work in America (the New Scotland of the “Scots-Irish Presbyterian Revolt”), He will not lack men enough to work for him.

For the earth will be filled

With the knowledge of the glory of the LORD,

As the waters cover the sea

(Hab 2:14).

Churchofthekingmcallen.com

http://ronsmithmission.blogspot.com/

---

[1] Howie, John. The Scots Worthies, Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust, 1995

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

[4] The Rise & Fall of the Jacobite Rebellion By Mark Monaghan.at http://www.highlanderweb.co.uk/culloden/jacobite.htm

[5] Ibid.

[6] The Rise & Fall of the Jacobite Rebellion By Mark Monaghan.at http://www.highlanderweb.co.uk/culloden/jacobite.htm

Name It And Claim Presbyterians And Other Evangelicals

Name It And Claim It Presbyterians And Other Evangelicals
In case you don’t know what “name it and claim it” means, it refers to those modern Charismatics that pick something they want God to give them and then say they are believing God to give it to them. For example, if they want a Cadillac or healing or whatever, they ask God for it and then proceed to speak it into existence. They teach that you must not say that you are sick because that might make you sick. They say that is a negative confession. When they get sick they deny it and say they just have the symptoms, but not the disease. Unfortunately, many have died of the symptoms.
We have all heard of the examples that hit national news. Parents, for example that had a child with a disease that the parents refused to treat because they were “believing for” healing. Then the child died. I knew a couple that was trained in the name it and claim it system and the wife got cancer. She asked me what the “formula” for healing would be. When I told her there is no formula and that “true faith believes nothing can happen to you unless God lets it happen; and if He does, it is for your good, even unto death. There is no promise that you will be healed unless God speaks it. True faith trusts God to make that judgment. But you do have the guarantee that God loves you and whatever He decides will be for your good, even unto the worst scenario.” She said, “Horrors! No! I dare not admit of death!” She thought it all depended on naming and claiming it.
John Owen said, “Take heed to not tell yourself that you have peace with God before God Himself says it.” I have seen “Name it and claim it” Calvinists and Arminians do the same when it comes to salvation. The sinners’ prayer is the “formula,” or pointing to a proof text. They dare not admit of death.
I once assigned a reading on “True and False Conversion” to a seminary class and one pastor said (in effect), “Horrors! My people would doubt their salvation if I taught that!” My question is this: “What is wrong with that? Does not God command us to make our calling and election sure and to examine ourselves to make sure we are in the faith. Many evangelicals seem to think that faith in faith is what saves.

Believing you’re going to heaven does not make it so.
Believing God is what makes you know.
Believing you’re okay does not make it true.
Believing God is what carries one through.

John Owen asks, “How can we know it is God speaking and not we ourselves?” He says we must be careful to not justify ourselves before God does. “It is God that justifies” (Rom 8:33). “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (Jn 10:27). Don’t worry. You will know when Christ speaks. He is the Amen, the True and Faithful Witness. But the danger is to mistake His voice for your own. Don’t name it and claim it.

Are Porn Addicts Hell-bound?

I hear there are many Christian men that are enslaved by pornography. Why? Could it be a symptom of a false conversion? There are two kinds of Christians: true converts and false ones. If one is addicted to porn, for example, he might better question whether he is a true convert. Anybody dominated by sin has a good reason to doubt his salvation. Which is more dangerous, to presume you are okay or to doubt it? If he presumes it he will not bother to examine himself to see if he really believes. But if he doubts it he will not be more likely to make his calling and election sure?
A bad tree can’t give good fruit. A good tree does not bear bad fruit. Do not marvel that I say, “You must be born again.” With men this is impossible, but be of good cheer. There is hope. With God’s mercy & grace all things are possible. As long as one is addicted to scandalous sin, he is still under the condemnation of God’s law. But God’s grace sets men free. Dealing simply with symptoms a new tree will not make.
Are you addicted to pornography, for example? Pornography involvement is symptomatic of a far greater problem. Don't you feel the condemnation of a secret life that only God knows about? Do you have a desire to quit? Trying to quit has not worked in the past for you, so why do you now think you can will yourself away from such a damaging influence in your life? A man, like a tree is known by the fruit it bears. What kind of person are you? Do you need a new beginning?
John Owen shows that it is possible to be addicted to sin and still go to heaven. I agree. But I would not count on it. But the point is not about heaven. Why would the preacher want to assure someone he’s going to heaven if he is under the condemnation of both his own conscience and God’s law? Just to make him feel good? His salvation is held in doubt as long as he has no victory. (I am not talking about dealing with the symptom. I am talking about getting rid of the cause of the symptom.) If the argument is that I might discourage him and he will quit serving God because he now thinks he might be hell-bound, it seems to me that he would have had good reason to doubt. When one is truly converted, he does not serve God for fire insurance. He serves God like Job did… for nought, and not on the condition that he be allowed to go to heaven. Or, if the argument is so he can have peace, I ask, “Why should he have peace as long as he is in bondage?” Would that not be like saying, “Peace, peace, when there is no peace?” What’s heaven got to do with victory now? Should the preacher tell him he should have victory, but he will be saved anyway? He may or may not be going to heaven, only God knows that, but why does he need that assurance when he is living in scandalous sin? How can I possibly make that judgment (of whether he is saved or not)? The secret things belong to God. The point is, he is under condemnation now, and that is not a secret. The question of heaven or hell is irrelevant.
If comfort is what we want for him, the best way to comfort him is:
(1.) to encourage him to believe that God can and will deliver him.
(2.) to confess his sin and bring it into the light by having an accountability partner.
What is happening to the professing Christian in bondage to habitual addiction to scandalous sin is that he feels guilty, cries for forgiveness, and trusts God to forgive. Let me tell the story of Wally.
Wally was the produce manager in an independent grocery store. While standing in the produce aisle he told me his story of how God delivered him several years previously. He had been an alcoholic. His wife “got saved” and he followed her, got baptized, and joined the church. He quit drinking but still had the physical compulsion to drink. After several months of resisting he lived in misery constantly resisting the physical compulsion. But pressure was building up inside until it was ready to explode. He knew he could not resist much longer.
One night Wally went home and went to bed with an impossible urge to drink. But he knew that if he did he would lose his job and his family. He was at the end of his rope. He was now fully persuaded only God could deliver him with a miracle. He clearly saw that short of a miracle his life was over. As he lay there he suddenly heard a voice that said, “Wallace! NOW I am going to do something for you.” The physical compulsion left and he no longer wanted to drink. As we stood there in the produce aisle with customers walking by, he burst out weeping as he shared. It still brings tears to my eyes.
I fear that many modern so-called converts are simply awakened and not truly converted. The Puritans specialized in the doctrine of saving conversion. They taught that there are four kinds of sinners: careless sinners, awakened sinners, convicted sinners, and converted sinners. Wally’s deliverance is an example of true conversion. While he struggled to resist the physical compulsion to drink he was still under the law. He was trying and trying to not sin. But it was a miserable effort. It was not until he was thoroughly convinced of sin, righteousness, and judgment that God said, “Wallace! NOW I am going to do something for you.” No longer did he try and try. Salvation is of the Lord and not of self-effort. The Holy Spirit had convinced him that he could not save himself.
Saving conversion comes in the twinkling of an eye, but the work of humiliation usually takes time because man’s pride dies hard.
Does this mean that after one like Wally is delivered that he is no longer tempted? No. He could still be tempted, but now he had power to resist. Before he did not. His bias was changed. He now had a new proclivity. He became a new tree, a new creature. Does that mean that the true convert no longer sins? “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1John 1:8). But “the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor 6:9-10).


Faith In Faith Will Not Do
Believing you’re going to heaven does not make it so.
Believing God is what makes you know.

Believing you’re okay does not make it true.
Believing God is what carries one through.

Believing we’re not so bad can take us to hell.
Realizing we’re sick can make us well.

Faith in faith cannot deliver.
But faith in God will fail you never.

When we see God we cry, “Woe is me!”
And that transforms us to the image we see.

As in a glass God’s glory beholding,
A new vessel now the Potter is molding.

Then those who escape will remember their ways,
Now loathing themselves for the evil of those days.

The “Not-Seen” City That Has Foundations

The City that Abraham looked for was not heaven.

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going… [10] For he was looking for the city that has foundations, whose builder and Maker is God (Hebrews 11:8-10).

The next chapter goes on to say that Abraham looked forward to that city, but that we Christians have come to it now. It’s the City of God, the bride of Christ.” What was Abraham looking for? It was not heaven!!! It was a place on earth. Heaven is not even mentioned in the text.
A city is a government. The Greek word for city is polis, from which we get the word politics. Anyone looking for a city (a government) is involved in politics. Someone heard me on the radio and called. They said, “You’re just a politician” and hung up. I inherited it from our father… Abraham.
There are two basic governments on earth: the City of God & the City of Man. The City of Man has no foundation. “For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1Co 3:11). Every government that is not built on that foundation will crumble like the Tower of Babel did. The same is true of individual government and family government.
Before God called Abraham the world spoke one sole language. To save themselves, they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city… and let us make a name for ourselves.” This is the pattern of man’s fallen nature. And this is what man has done ever since. But it always ends the same way. God rejected all the nations at Babel because they made a name for themselves instead of for God. But God so loved his enemies that He chose one man…Abraham and promised that all the nations would be blessed thru him.
In the very next chapter after Babel (Gen 12:1) God said to Abraham, “Get out of your country, … To a land that I will show you.” So Abraham set out to look for that city, that government whose builder and Maker was God. At that time Abraham was living in Ur of the Chaldees. Ur was a socialist state that owned all the property, all the animals, all the souls, and even all the tools. God said, “Get out.”
Later God told Abraham his descendants would go down to Egypt and live there for 400 years. This was the work of preparation to build His government. “Ya gotta go down before you can go up.” Pharaoh had ended up with the same socialist power that Ur of the Chaldees had had. God sent a famine so the people sold their animals to get grain from the government. When the grain ran out, they sold their land to get food from the government. When the food ran out, they sold their souls as slaves to Pharaoh. America is headed that way, too, in an effort to build another Tower of Babel.
After 400 years in Egypt, God sent Moses to put God’s law for His City in writing. The law is our school-master to bring us to the land of promise. “Tell Pharaoh, Thus says the Lord, ‘Let My people go.’” Go and do what? Go & look for the City of God.
God’s people today are becoming slaves to statism just like Israel in Egypt. God keeps telling the kings of history, “Let my people go.” Freedom from state control! “Get out.” Statism has no foundation, no absolutes. No rule of law. They make up their own laws that change with their mood swings. God’s law is written in stone. It is unchangeable & absolute. Jesus did not come to abrogate it. He came to fulfill it (Mat 5:17ff).
During the American War of Independence, what the English called, “the Scots Irish Presbyterian Revolt,” God was saying to the king of England, “Let My people go.” God still says, “Let My people go and build a city based on God’s law.” Raabi Daniel Lapin says, “the knowledge of God is one of the most conspicuous Berlin Walls dividing our cultural landscape.” I say, “Mr. Obama, tear this wall down.” …. It’s time for another tea party.
Modern Babel Builders
Statists keep changing their politically correct rules every time they have a period! (And men have them, too.) They have no foundation. Nothing but feelings. Democrat Congressman Dick Durban said he wanted to remake America into the kind of America liberals want. They hate the kind of America the founding fathers wanted. These Big Brother builders of Babel reject God’s Law because it interferes with their vision of America. They think the Constitution is silly. They’re looking for a city whose builder and maker is man. Which is sillier? The Constitution or silly men?
Plato’s Republic groped for an ideal city also, but not like the one Abraham “looked for. The king of Babylon even made a tall image of man to represent the City of Man, and demanded that the whole world bow to it. Men still do it today. These Big Brothers want to save the people with handouts like Obamacare. To look to the government for security is to take the mark of the beast. It’s like saying, “We have no king but Caesar. Crucify Him and give us insurrectionists like Barabbas.”
But now, since Jesus came, believers have come to the City of the Living God. John saw it coming down. The Head is in heaven and the feet are on earth (Heb 12:22). This was the vision of Abraham. The foundation of God’s City is the Rock, Christ Jesus. God demands that the governments of men be built on that foundation. John heard “loud voices in heaven, saying, ‘THE KINGDOMS OF THIS WORLD HAVE BECOME THE KINGDOMS OF OUR LORD AND OF HIS CHRIST’” (Rev 11:15)!
The progressives have their loud voices demanding a vision of the utopian city they are looking for: the great society like Egypt and Ur of the Chaldees. God says, “Get out … To a land that I will show you” (Gen 12:1). And that city was not heaven! God demands that human governments have one altar to that same God. “In that day there will be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt” (Isa 19:19). Not just in heaven.
That’s why early Christians established explicitly Christian nation states. Armenia was the first, then Georgia around 300 AD, then Rome, then the Franks, and later Charlemagne, then England with Alfred the Great, then, all of Europe became Christendom. After the Reformation, Saxony, Scandinavia, Geneva, Holland, Scotland, and the Massachusetts Bay Colony established explicitly Christian governments. America was the result. God made a decree for the church: “Kings shall be your foster fathers, And their queens your nursing mothers” (Isa 49:23). So God chose governments like Cyrus the Great, Constantine, and the U.S. Constitution as foster fathers and nursing mothers for His people. “That which has been is what will be” (Ec 1:9).
This is still the goal of Abraham’s children: Christian nation states built on God’s law. Why? Well, why not? Because Jesus taught us to pray, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
God so loved the world that He gave His only son to save it. God’s plan is to save the world.

All the ends of the world Shall remember and turn to the LORD, And all the families of the nations Shall worship before You. For the kingdom is the LORD’S, And He rules over the nations... A posterity shall serve Him. It will be recounted of the Lord to the next generation, They will come and declare His righteousness to a people who will be born, That He has done this” (Psa 22:27-31).

“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations…” (Mat 28:19-20). The duty of government is to be the nursing mother of the church. The City that has foundations is not just in heaven. It must manifest itself on the earth.
Jesus prayed, “I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one” (John 17:15). “Go therefore and disciple all the nations” (Mat 28:9-20).
God said Abraham’s descendants would possess the gate of their enemies (Gen 22:17). The gate of ancient cities is where the seat of the governments was. The Cities of Man are the gates of hades (the entrance to the place of the dead). The end result of statism is death. Look at the millions of aborted babies. For Jesus, Jerusalem was the gate of hades. He went there and was killed. But He promised, “I will build My church and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” He destroyed it forty years later.
The City of Man seeks to take away our God-given rights of life, liberty and property. Just as Ur of the Chaldees and Pharaoh owned all the property, and all the souls, so the City of God also demands our property and our souls. The difference is slavery for one and freedom for the other. If the City of Man can give you rights, they can take them away. If the City of God can give you life, liberty, and property, “The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord” because it was His in the first place. But the City of Man can only take away because the god of this world comes to steal property, kill life, and destroy liberty.

Not Under Law But Under Grace

Not Under Law But Under Grace.

When the apostle said, “You are not under law but under grace” (Rom 6:14) he was talking to believers. All unbelievers are still under the law and its condemnation. The law is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. Moses, the lawgiver, can bring us to the border of the Promised Land only. And only the Greater Joshua (Christ) can take us in. But no one will enter without the law bringing us to the border because men will see no need for a Savior until the law convinces them they cannot save themselves.
The natural man hates God’s law “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be” (Rom 8:7). For the unbeliever the law is an external threat written in stone. But at saving conversion God puts His law internally in the heart (Jer 31:33). The believer then says, “Oh, how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day” (Psalm 119:97). He meditates in it day and night (Psalm 1). He now sings both the song of Moses and the Lamb (Rev 15:3). “Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus” (Rev 14:12).

Enlightenment Hermeneutics

Enlightenment Hermeneutics
By R.D. Smith
The second point of the covenant asks, “Who is in charge?” Peter Enns says in his book, Inspiration And Incarnation, that the method of the apostles in interpreting the Old Testament seems odd. He says, “The New Testament writers do some odd things by our standards.” (Maybe we need to change.) He cites several examples of how the New Testament writers seemed to quote Scripture out of context. They did not seem to use our so-called “more enlightened” method. Where did they get the authority to do that?
He even thinks Jesus used an odd (odd to we who are influenced by Enlightenment rationalism) method of proving the resurrection of the body. He quoted what God said to Moses. “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” Why would that seem odd? What kind of a God would be the God of men who are dead and gone and will never arise from the dead? He would be the God of the dead. That sounds like the devil. He might as well be the God of cockroaches. His answer certainly stopped the mouths of His adversaries. No one dared to ask more.
The apostles learned from Jesus how to interpret the Scriptures. On the Mount of Transfiguration, God said, “This is My Son. Hear Him.” Hebrews 1:1 says God spoke to us in old times by the prophets but now speaks through His Son. After Jesus arose, He expounded from all three divisions of the Old Testament on the Scriptures that spoke of His passion and resurrection. He taught them how to interpret Scripture. Paul said that the mystery that had been hidden from the ages was now revealed through Christ. Jesus said that “life” from the Old Testament is from those Scriptures that speak of Him.
The method that was taught was that the things in the historical account of the Scriptures were types, copies, and shadows of things that are fulfilled in Christ. The Second temple culture was somewhat familiar with allegorizing, but men like Philo of Alexandria and others were quite fanciful with that method. However, the Alexandrians with whom Stephen debated had no trouble understanding the analogies made by Stephen. He compared Joseph’s rejection and the rejection of Moses to Christ’s rejection. He called the Tabernacle of God the “Tabernacle of Moloch” and implied that the same was true with the temple.
Matthew shows that Christ is the true Israelite when he seems to quote Hosea out of context. “I called my Son out of Egypt.” Hosea was not referring to Christ, he was referring to the nation of Israel. But Matthew is showing us that Israel is a type of Christ. He quotes Isaiah 7:14 about a virgin conceiving and bearing a son, and applies that to Christ. Isaiah was talking about his own son as a sign to King Ahaz. How did he make that connection? It was by way of analogy. When Jesus was taken to Nazareth, Matthew says the prophet said, “He shall be a Nazarite.” Where is that found? This was said to Samson. Evidently Matthew (actually the Holy Spirit) saw Samson as a type of Christ in the same way that Jesus said, “There is one greater than Solomon here. There is one greater than Jonah here. There is one greater than the temple here.” The same logic would make Jesus the greater David, the greater Moses, the greater Joseph, etc.
Where did the apostles get this authority to interpret Scripture this way? “As the Father has sent Me, so send I you.” “What you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven.”
The first church council in Acts 15 decided on circumcision. Evidently some of the believers in Jerusalem could not make the analogy that this was a type of baptism. We still have that problem with many believers today. Paul tells us that these things were written as types (Gr tupos). Since Jesus was circumcised, and believers are baptized into the body of Christ, that must mean that believers are also circumcised. They are circumcised by means of being baptized into Christ.
In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead (Col 2:11-12 NIV).

So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ (Col 2:16-17 NKJV).

Using this method, Paul saw the Old Testament history and ceremonial law as types of things that were fulfilled in Christ. The unclean foods were gentiles (Acts 10). Hebrews shows us that Christ is our high priest. He is our temple (Rev 21). He is our Passover Lamb, etc.
The prophets, Peter tells us, did not always understand what they were prophesying (1 Peter 1:10-11). The reason they did not was because the Holy Spirit inspired them. The Spirit simply spoke through them and bypassed some of their understanding. Even the High Priest did realize he was prophesying when he said that someone must die for the nation. On the Day of Pentecost the disciples prophesied in unknown tongues (unknown to the speakers). The people gathered from the nations, however, did understand them speaking in their languages in psalms and prophecies. In referring to the gift of tongues, Paul said, “I will pray with the spirit and also with the understanding.” This shows how the Holy Spirit can speak through men while bypassing the understanding. The fact that Isaiah, for example, did not understand that the Spirit was not only referring to Isaiah’s wife bearing a son (Isa 7:14), but was at the same time referring to Christ, also illustrates this. How did Matthew know this? He had been taught by Jesus this method of types, the “already/not yet” motif of prophecy, and was also inspired by the Holy Spirit.
Peter Enns asks, “Should we handle the Old Testament the way the apostles did?” Well, if we do not, we certainly will not understand it the way it should be understood. We are their heirs. We should honor our parents. We are told to not be like the mule that needs a bridle; but to understand the ways of the Lord. If we do not understand the apostolic method of interpretation, we certainly will not understand the Lord and His word. It is obvious that Peter Enns’ Enlightenment rationalism was not the apostolic method of interpretation.