“The Bible is the Word of God, which errs.” From the advent of neoorthodox theology in the early twentieth century, this assertion has become a mantra among those who want to have a high view of Scripture while avoiding the academic liability of asserting biblical infallibility and inerrancy. But this statement represents the classic case of having one’s cake and eating it too. It is the quintessential oxymoron.
Let us look again at this untenable theological formula. If we eliminate the first part, “The Bible is,” we get “The Word of God, which errs.” If we parse it further and scratch out “the Word of” and “which,” we reach the bottom line:
“God errs.”
The idea that God errs in any way, in any place, or in any endeavor is repugnant to the mind as well as the soul. Here, biblical criticism reaches the nadir of biblical vandalism.
How could any sentient creature conceive of a formula that speaks of the Word of God as errant? It would seem obvious that if a book is the Word of God, it does not (indeed, cannot) err. If it errs, then it is not (indeed, cannot be) the Word of God.
To attribute to God any errancy or fallibility is dialectical theology with a vengeance.
Perhaps we can resolve the antinomy by saying that the Bible originates with God’s divine revelation, which carries the mark of his infallible truth, but this revelation is mediated through human authors, who, by virtue of their humanity, taint and corrupt that original revelation by their penchant for error. Errare humanum est (“To err is human”), cried Karl Barth, insisting that by denying error, one is left with a docetic Bible—a Bible that merely “seems” to be human, but is in reality only a product of a phantom humanity.
Who would argue against the human proclivity for error? Indeed, that proclivity is the reason for the biblical concepts of inspiration and divine superintendence of Scripture. Classic orthodox theology has always maintained that the Holy Spirit overcomes human error in producing the biblical text.
Barth said the Bible is the “Word” (verbum) of God, but not the “words” (verba) of God. With this act of theological gymnastics, he hoped to solve the unsolvable dilemma of calling the Bible the Word of God, which errs. If the Bible is errant, then it is a book of human reflection on divine revelation—just another human volume of theology. It may have deep theological insight, but it is not the Word of God.
Critics of inerrancy argue that the doctrine is an invention of seventeenth-century Protestant scholasticism, where reason trumped revelation—which would mean it was not the doctrine of the magisterial Reformers. For example, they note that Martin Luther never used the term inerrancy. That’s correct. What he said was that the Scriptures never err. Neither did John Calvin use the term. He said that the Bible should be received as if we heard its words audibly from the mouth of God. The Reformers, though, not using the term inerrancy, clearly articulated the concept.
Irenaeus lived long before the seventeenth century, as did Augustine, Paul the apostle, and Jesus. These all, among others, clearly taught the absolute truthfulness of Scripture.
The church’s defense of inerrancy rests upon the church’s confidence in the view of Scripture held and taught by Jesus himself. We wish to have a view of Scripture that is neither higher nor lower than his view.
The full trustworthiness of sacred Scripture must be defended in every generation, against every criticism.
After a brief introduction, starting around the 9 minute mark, Dr. Sinclair Ferguson attempts to provide an overview of the book of Romans in 40 minutes:
I remember as a new Christian looking around during communion and wondering what everyone was doing. Everyone looked like they were doing something. I didn’t know. Because of this, I’m always happy to answer the question when asked, “What should I think about during the Lord’s Supper?”
The Lord’s Supper is loaded with meaning. It is an ordinance or command, instituted by Jesus to remind his disciples that forgiveness and fellowship are at the heart of the church’s life together. It has been said before that in baptism the new Christian goes public with their profession of faith. In baptism, we are saying publicly, “I am with Jesus and his people.” In the Lord’s Supper, we are pledging our ongoing faithfulness to Christ and his people. We are saying that we are still needy of God’s grace in Christ; we are committed to loving Christ and his people; we are saying we are still with Jesus and one another. Baptism then is the front door along with church membership, and the Lord’s Supper is the dining room table where we renew our vows of faithfulness to Christ’s Word. Naturally, then, the Lord’s Supper is for those who profess faith in Christ. The Supper is a sign of fellowship with Christ and his people.
How should you take communion? I’m not talking about the form of being served, but what should be going on in our hearts and minds as we partake?
Here are some things to consider. Let’s call them the five looks.
Look Up — Since God has invited us to his table, it is appropriate for us to acknowledge he is central. He invites us to his table through Christ. When you celebrate the Lord’s Supper with your church family, look up and consider who God is. He is the unchanging God who is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. He is the God who has loved even you and me.
Look In — When we look up at who God is, then we have a better view of ourselves. The supper affords us this opportunity. In 1 Corinthians Paul gives instructions for the church when they take the Supper. We see several warnings for those who would come, take and eat.
Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. (1 Cor. 11:27–28)
Consider if there are sins to confess before the Lord. We don’t live a secret life; the Lord sees it all. To pretend that you are living in a bubble is to act like there is no God. And to be guilty concerning the body and the blood means to eat in a way that dishonors Christ. Therefore when you come to the Lord’s Supper, it is a time to consider your own heart before the Lord. It is a time to clear accounts and confess sin. It’s a time to make sure you that you are genuinely clinging to Christ for your righteousness. There is a need for self-examination.
Look Back — But there is another look. The Lord’s Supper points us back. You’ll notice in the Last Supper that Jesus uses the elements to instruct us about the cross (Matt. 26:17-30). He uses the simple elements of bread and the cup to show that he has broken his body and spilled his blood for us. Jesus says “this is the blood of the covenant.” It’s a vivid image. Jesus is saying that through his death he will bring in the benefits of the New Covenant. Look at Jeremiah 31:31-33.
Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
The promised new covenant is here. God forgives sinners through the new covenant. It has a better priest and a better sacrifice. The blood of the lamb is sufficient to save sinners like you and me. The cup looks to the cross.
You know in the Passover meal this would have been the third cup of wine, the cup of blessing. Jesus is saying that his blood on the cross is the cup of blessing. At the Lord’s Supper, we partake of this blessing. We are regularly reminded that through the body and blood of Christ, on the cross, he secured our standing in a New Covenant. The Lord’s Supper makes us look back.
Look Around — The Lord’s Supper also makes us look around. We read in 1 Corinthians 11:28-29:
Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.
Paul is dealing with an issue in the Corinthian church. There’s a lot of selfishness. And we know that selfishness is the root of all sin. He is warning the church to examine their hearts and lives together. There is a need to discern the body. This means to know that you are part of a church family. This local church together is composed of different people with different experiences and various issues. But at least two things are in common: We are sinners, and we are united together by faith in Christ. Therefore, if there are outstanding relational issues, they need to get worked out. We don’t just bury stuff under the rug. We have to deal with it. If it’s a sin, then it needs to be dealt with biblically. If there are issues of disagreement, we need to do our best to work it out. The Lord’s Supper is the regular reminder that we are good with Jesus and that we are good with one another. If one or both of these is not true, then we should not take the Supper. If we are, then we are to enjoy this meal as we look around together, acknowledging the bond of unity.
Look Ahead — Did you notice that Jesus anticipates another meal? He says that he will not drink this cup again until he does in the coming kingdom with his people. He’s anticipating another meal. And when we take the Lord’s Supper, we are too. We are looking ahead to another meal with Jesus and his people. We are looking forward to the great marriage supper of the lamb when the entire church is gathered together to boast in the great saving work of Christ. In Revelation 19:6-9 we read of this great multitude gathered together from all nations and all time. And we will rejoice and exult and give him the glory!
When you take the Lord’s Supper, consider these five looks:
Look Up — God has prepared the feast
Look In — self-examination
Look Back — at the cross
Look Around — at your fellow church members
Look Ahead — to the marriage feast
As we do we’ll be reminded again that forgiveness and fellowship are at the heart of our lives together as Christians.
This version authorized by the Canadian and American Reformed Churches)
Introduction
The Heidelberg Catechism was written in Heidelberg at the request of Elector Frederick III, ruler of the most influential German province, the Palatinate, from 1559 to 1576. This pious Christian prince commissioned Zacharius Ursinus, twenty-eight years of age and professor of theology at the Heidelberg University, and Caspar Olevianus, twenty-six years old and Frederick’s court preacher, to prepare a catechism for instructing the youth and for guiding pastors and teachers. Frederick obtained the advice and cooperation of the entire theological faculty in the preparation of the Catechism. The Heidelberg Catechism was adopted by a Synod in Heidelberg and published in German with a preface by Frederick III, dated January 19, 1563. A second and third German edition, each with some small additions, as well as a Latin translation were published in Heidelberg in the same year.
The Catechism was soon divided into fifty-two sections, so that a section of the Catechism could be explained to the churches each Sunday of the year. In The Netherlands this Heidelberg Catechism became generally and favorably known almost as soon as it came from the press, mainly through the efforts of Petrus Dathenus, who translated it into the Dutch language and added this translation to his Dutch rendering of the Genevan Psalter, which was published in 1566. In the same year, Peter Gabriel set the example of explaining this catechism to his congregation at Amsterdam in his Sunday afternoon sermons.
The National Synods of the sixteenth century adopted it as one of the Three Forms of Unity, requiring office-bearers to subscribe to it and ministers to explain it to the churches. These requirements were strongly emphasized by the great Synod of Dort in 1618-19. The Heidelberg Catechism has been translated into many languages and is the most influential and the most generally accepted of the several catechisms of Reformation times.
1. Q. What is your only comfort in life and death?
A. That I am not my own,[1] but belong with body and soul, both in life and in death,[2] to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ.[3] He has fully paid for all my sins with His precious blood, and has set me free from all the power of the devil.[5] He also preserves me in such a way[6] that without the will of my heavenly Father not a hair can fall from my head;[7] indeed, all things must work together for my salvation.[8] Therefore, by His Holy Spirit He also assures me of eternal life[9] and makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live for Him.[10]
[1] I Cor. 6:19, 20 [2] Rom. 14:7-9. [3] I Cor. 3:23; Tit. 2:14. [4] I Pet. 1:18, 19; I John 1:7; 2:2. [5] John 8:34-36; Heb. 2:14, 15; I John 3:8. [6] John 6:39, 40; 10:27-30; II Thess. 3:3; I Pet. 1:5. [7] Matt. 10:29-31; Luke 21:16-18. [8] Rom. 8:28. [9] Rom. 8:15, 16; II Cor. 1:21, 22; 5:5; Eph. 1:13, 14. [10] Rom. 8:14.
2. Q. What do you need to know in order to live and die in the joy of this comfort?
A. First, how great my sins and misery are;[1] second, how I am delivered from all my sins and misery;[2] third, how I am to be thankful to God for such deliverance.[3]
[1] Rom. 3:9, 10; I John 1:10. [2] John 17:3; Acts 4:12; 10:43. [3] Matt. 5:16; Rom. 6:13; Eph. 5:8-10; I Pet. 2:9, 10.
3.Q. From where do you know your sins and misery?
A. From the law of God.[1]
[1] Rom. 3: 20;
4. Q. What does God’s law require of us? A. Christ teaches us this in a summary in Matthew 22: You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.[1] This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.[2]
[1] Deut. 6:5. [2] Lev. 19:18.
5. Q. Can you keep all this perfectly?
A. No,[1] I am inclined by nature to hate God and my neighbour.[2]
[1] Rom. 3:10, 23; I John 1:8, 10. [2] Gen. 6:5; 8:21; Jer. 17:9; Rom. 7:23; 8:7; Eph. 2:3; Tit. 3:3.
6. Q. Did God, then, create man so wicked and perverse?
A. No, on the contrary, God created man good[1] and in His image,[2] that is, in true righteousness and holiness,[3] so that he might rightly know God His Creator,[4] heartily love Him, and live with Him in eternal blessedness to praise and glorify Him.[5]
[1] Gen. 1:31. [2] Gen. 1:26, 27. [3] Eph. 4:24. [4] Col. 3:10. [5] Ps. 8.
7. Q. From where, then, did man’s depraved nature come?
A. From the fall and disobedience of our first parents, Adam and Eve, in Paradise,[1] for there our nature became so corrupt[2] that we are all conceived and born in sin.[3]
[1] Gen. 3. [2] Rom. 5:12, 18, 19. [3] Ps. 51:5.
8. Q. But are we so corrupt that we are totally unable to do any good and inclined to all evil?
A. Yes,[1] unless we are regenerated by the Spirit of God.[2]
[1] Gen. 6:5; 8:21; Job 14:4; Is. 53:6. [2] John 3:3-5.
9. Q. Is God, then, not unjust by requiring in His law what man cannot do?
A. No, for God so created man that he was able to do it.[1] But man, at the instigation of the devil,[2] in deliberate disobedience[3] robbed himself and all his descendants of these gifts.[4]
[1] Gen. 1:31. [2] Gen. 3:13; John 8:44; I Tim. 2:13, 14. [3] Gen. 3:6. [4] Rom. 5:12, 18, 19.
10. Q. Will God allow such disobedience and apostasy to go unpunished?
A. Certainly not. He is terribly displeased with our original sin as well as our actual sins. Therefore He will punish them by a just judgment both now and eternally,[1] as He has declared:[2] Cursed be every one who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, and do them (Galatians 3:10).
A. God is indeed merciful,[1] but He is also just.[2] His justice requires that sin committed against the most high majesty of God also be punished with the most severe, that is, with everlasting, punishment of body and soul.[3]
12. Q. Since, according to God’s righteous judgment we deserve temporal and eternal punishment, how can we escape this punishment and be again received into favour?
A. God demands that His justice be satisfied.[1] Therefore full payment must be made either by ourselves or by another.[2]
A. Certainly not. On the contrary, we daily increase our debt.[1]
[1] Ps. 130:3; Matt. 6:12; Rom. 2:4, 5.
14. Q. Can any mere creature pay for us?
A. No. In the first place, God will not punish another creature for the sin which man has committed.[1] Furthermore, no mere creature can sustain the burden of God’s eternal wrath against sin and deliver others from it.[2]
15. Q. What kind of mediator and deliverer must we seek?
A. One who is a true[1] and righteous[2] man, and yet more powerful than all creatures; that is, one who is at the same time true God.[3]
[1] I Cor. 15:21; Heb. 2:17. [2] Is. 53:9; II Cor. 5:21; Heb. 7:26. [3] Is. 7:14; 9:6; Jer. 23:6; John 1:1; Rom. 8:3, 4.
16. Q. Why must He be a true and righteous man?
A. He must be a true man because the justice of God requires that the same human nature which has sinned should pay for sin.[1] He must be a righteous man because one who himself is a sinner cannot pay for others.[2]
[1] Rom: 5:12, 15; I Cor. 15:21; Heb. 2:14-16. [2] Heb. 7:26, 27; I Pet. 3:18.
17. Q. Why must He at the same time be true God?
A. He must be true God so that by the power of His divine nature[1] He might bear in His human nature the burden of God’s wrath,[2] and might obtain for us and restore to us righteousness and life.[3]
[1] Is. 9:5. [2] Deut. 4:24; Nah. 1:6; Ps. 130:3. [3] Is. 53:5, 11; John 3:16; II Cor. 5:21.
18. Q. But who is that Mediator who at the same time is true God and a true and righteous man?
A. Our Lord Jesus Christ,[1] whom God made our wisdom, our righteousness and sanctification and redemption (I Corinthians 1:30).
[1] Matt. 1:21-23; Luke 2:11; I Tim. 2:5; 3:16.
19. Q. From where do you know this?
A. From the holy gospel, which God Himself first revealed in Paradise.[1] Later, He had it proclaimed by the patriarchs[2] and prophets,[3] and foreshadowed by the sacrifices and other ceremonies of the law.[4] Finally, He had it fulfilled through His only Son.[5]
[1] Gen. 3:15. [2] Gen. 12:3; 22:18; 49:10. [3] Is. 53; Jer. 23:5, 6; Mic. 7:18-20; Acts 10:43; Heb. 1:1. [4] Lev. 1:7; John 5:46; Heb. 10:1-10. [5] Rom. 10:4; Gal. 4:4, 5; Col. 2:17.
20. Q. Are all men, then, saved by Christ just as they perished through Adam?
A. No. Only those are saved who by a true faith are grafted into Christ and accept all His benefits.[1]
[1] Matt. 7:14; John 1:12; 3:16, 18, 36; Rom. 11:16-21.
A. True faith is a sure knowledge whereby I accept as true all that God has revealed to us in His Word.[1] At the same time it is a firm confidence[2] that not only to others, but also to me,[3] God has granted forgiveness of sins, everlasting righteousness, and salvation,[4] out of mere grace, only for the sake of Christ’s merits.[5] This faith the Holy Spirit works in my heart by the gospel.[6]
A. All that is promised us in the Gospel,[1] which the articles of our catholic and undoubted Christian faith teach us in a summary.
[1] Matt. 28:19; John 20:30, 31.
23. Q. What are these articles?
A. III.1.I believe in God the Father almighty, III.1. Creator of heaven and earth. III.2.I believe in Jesus Christ, III.2.His only begotten Son, our Lord; III.3.He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, III.3.born of the virgin Mary; III.4.suffered under Pontius Pilate, III.4.was crucified, dead, and buried; III.4.He descended into hell; III.5.On the third day He arose from the dead; III.6.He ascended into heaven, III.6.and sits at the right hand III.6.of God the Father almighty; III.7.from there He will come to judge III.7.the living and the dead. III.8.I believe in the Holy Spirit; III.9.I believe a holy catholic Christian church, III.9.the communion of saints; III.10.the forgiveness of sins; III.11.the resurrection of the body; III.12.and the life everlasting.
24. Q. How are these articles divided?
A. Into three parts: the first is about God the Father and our creation; the second about God the Son and our redemption; the third about God the Holy Spirit and our sanctification.
25. Q. Since there is only one God,[1] why do you speak of three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?
A. Because God has so revealed Himself in His Word[2] that these three distinct persons are the one, true, eternal God.
[1] Deut. 6:4; Is. 44:6; 45:5; I Cor. 8:4, 6. [2] Gen. 1:2, 3; Is. 61:1; 63:8-10; Matt. 3:16, 17; 28:18, 19; Luke 4:18; John 14:26; 15:26; II Cor. 13:14; Gal. 4:6; Tit. 3:5, 6. God the Father and Our Creation
26. Q. What do you believe when you say: I believe in God the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth?
A. That the eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who out of nothing created heaven and earth and all that is in them,[1] and who still upholds and governs them by His eternal counsel and providence,[2] is, for the sake of Christ His Son, my God and my Father.[3] In Him I trust so completely as to have no doubt that He will provide me with all things necessary for body and soul,[4] and will also turn to my good whatever adversity He sends me in this life of sorrow.[5] He is able to do so as almighty God,[6] and willing also as a faithful Father.[7]
[1] Gen. 1 and 2; Ex. 20:11; Job 38 and 39; Ps. 33:6; Is. 44:24; Acts 4:24; 14:15. [2] Ps. 104:27-30; Matt. 6:30; 10:29; Eph. 1:11. [3] John 1:12, 13; Rom. 8:15, 16; Gal. 4:4-7; Eph. 1:5. [4] Ps. 55:22; Matt. 6:25, 26; Luke 12:22-31. [5] Rom. 8:28. [6] Gen. 18:14; Rom. 8:31-39. [7] Matt. 6:32, 33; 7:9-11.
27. Q. What do you understand by the providence of God?
A. God’s providence is His almighty and ever present power,[1] whereby, as with His hand, He still upholds heaven and earth and all creatures,[2] and so governs them that leaf and blade, rain and drought, fruitful and barren years, food and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty,[3] indeed, all things, come not by chance[4] but by His fatherly hand.[5]
28. Q. What does it benefit us to know that God has created all things and still upholds them by His providence?
A. We can be patient in adversity,[1] thankful in prosperity,[2] and with a view to the future we can have a firm confidence in our faithful God and Father that no creature shall separate us from His love;[3] for all creatures are so completely in His hand that without His will they cannot so much as move.[4]
[1] Job. 1:21, 22; Ps. 39:10; James 1:3. [2] Deut. 8:10; I Thess. 5:18. [3] Ps. 55:22; Rom. 5:3-5; 8:38, 39. [4] Job 1:12; 2:6; Prov. 21:1; Acts 17:24-28.
29. Q. Why is the Son of God called Jesus, that is, Saviour?
A. Because He saves us from all our sins,[1] and because salvation is not to be sought or found in anyone else.[2]
[1] Matt. 1:21; Heb. 7:25. [2] Is. 43:11; John 15:4, 5; Acts 4:11, 12; I Tim. 2:5.
30. Q. Do those believe in the only Saviour Jesus who seek their salvation and well-being from saints, in themselves, or anywhere else?
A. No. Though they boast of Him in words, they in fact deny the only Saviour Jesus.[1] For one of two things must be true: either Jesus is not a complete Saviour, or those who by true faith accept this Saviour must find in Him all that is necessary for their salvation.[2]
[1] I Cor. 1:12, 13; Gal. 5:4. [2] Col. 1:19, 20; 2:10; I John 1:7.
31. Q. Why is He called Christ, that is, Anointed? Return to the Top
A. Because He has been ordained by God the Father, and anointed with the Holy Spirit,[1] to be our chief Prophet and Teacher,[2] who has fully revealed to us the secret counsel and will of God concerning our redemption;[3] our only High Priest,[4] who by the one sacrifice of His body has redeemed us,[5] and who continually intercedes for us before the Father;[6] and our eternal King,[7] who governs us by His Word and Spirit, and who defends and preserves us in the redemption obtained for us.[8]
[1] Ps. 45:7 (Heb. 1:9); Is. 61:1 (Luke 4:18; Luke 3:21, 22. [2] Deut. 18:15 (Acts 3:22). [3] John 1:18; 15:15. [4] Ps. 110:4 (Heb. 7:17). [5] Heb. 9:12; 10:11-14. [6] Rom. 8:34; Heb. 9:24; I John 2:1. [7] Zach. 9:9 (Matt. 21:5); Luke 1:33. [8] Matt. 28:18-20; John 10:28; Rev. 12:10, 11.
32. Q. Why are you called a Christian?
A. Because I am a member of Christ by faith[1] and thus share in His anointing,[2] so that I may as prophet confess His Name,[3] as priest present myself a living sacrifice of thankfulness to Him,[4] and as king fight with a free and good conscience against sin and the devil in this life,[5] and hereafter reign with Him eternally over all creatures.[6]
[1] I Cor. 12:12-27. [2] Joel 2:28 (Acts 2:17); I John 2:27. [3] Matt. 10:32; Rom 10:9, 10; Heb. 13:15. [4] Rom. 12:1; I Pet. 2:5, 9. [5] Gal. 5:16, 17; Eph. 6:11; I Tim. 1:18, 19. [6] Matt. 25:34; II Tim. 2:12.
33. Q. Why is He called God’s only begotten Son, since we also are children of God?
A. Because Christ alone is the eternal, natural Son of God.[1] We, however, are children of God by adoption, through grace, for Christ’s sake.[2]
[1] John 1:1-3, 14, 18; 3:16; Rom. 8:32; Heb. 1; I John 4:9. [2] John 1:12; Rom. 8:14-17; Gal. 4:6; Eph. 1:5, 6.
34. Q. Why do you call Him our Lord?
A. Because He has ransomed us, body and soul,[1] from all our sins, not with silver or gold but with His precious blood,[2] and has freed us from all the power of the devil to make us His own possession.[3]
[1] I Cor. 6:20; I Tim. 2:5, 6. [2] I Peter 1:18, 19. [3] Col. 1:13, 14; Heb. 2:14, 15.
35. Q. What do you confess when you say: He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary?
A. The eternal Son of God, who is and remains true and eternal God,[1] took upon Himself true human nature from the flesh and blood of the virgin Mary,[2] through the working of the Holy Spirit.[3] Thus He is also the true seed of David,[4] and like His brothers in every respect,[5] yet without sin.[6]
[1] John 1:1; 10:30-36; Rom. 1:3; 9:5; Col. 1:15-17; I John 5:20. [2] Matt. 1:18-23; John 1:14; Gal. 4:4; Heb. 2:14. [3] Luke 1:35. [4] II Sam. 7:12-16; Ps. 132:11; Matt. 1:1; Luke 1:32; Rom. 1:3. [5] Phil. 2:7; Heb. 2:17. [6] Heb. 4:15; 7:26, 27.
36. Q. What benefit do you receive from the holy conception and birth of Christ?
A. He is our Mediator,[1] and with His innocence and perfect holiness covers, in the sight of God, my sin, in which I was conceived and born.[2]
[1] I Tim. 2:5, 6; Heb. 9:13-15. [2] Rom. 8:3, 4; II Cor. 5:21; Gal. 4:4, 5; I Pet. 1:18, 19.
37. Q. What do you confess when you say that He suffered?
A. During all the time He lived on earth, but especially at the end, Christ bore in body and soul the wrath of God against the sin of the whole human race.[1] Thus, by His suffering, as the only atoning sacrifice,[2] He has redeemed our body and soul from everlasting damnation,[3] and obtained for us the grace of God, righteousness, and eternal life.[4]
[1] Is. 53; I Tim. 2:6; I Pet. 2:24; 3:18. [2] Rom. 3:25; I Cor. 5:7; Eph. 5:2; Heb. 10:14; I John 2:2; 4:10. [3] Rom. 8:1-4; Gal. 3:13; Col. 1:13; Heb. 9:12; I Pet 1:18, 19. [4] John 3:16; Rom. 3:24-26; II Cor. 5:21; Heb. 9:15.
38. Q. Why did He suffer under Pontius Pilate as judge?
A. Though innocent, Christ was condemned by an earthly judge,[1] and so He freed us from the severe judgment of God that was to fall on us.[2]
[1] Luke 23:13-24; John 19:4, 12-16. [2] Is. 53:4, 5; II Cor. 5:21; Gal. 3:13.
39. Q. Does it have a special meaning that Christ was crucified and did not die in a different way? A. Yes. Thereby I am assured that He took upon Himself the curse which lay on me, for a crucified one was cursed by God.[1]
[1] Deut. 21:23; Gal. 3:13.
40. Q. Why was it necessary for Christ to humble Himself even unto death?
A. Because of the justice and truth of God[1] satisfaction for our sins could be made in no other way than by the death of the Son of God.[2]
A. His burial testified that He had really died.[1]
[1] Is. 53:9; John 19:38-42; Acts 13:29; I Cor. 15:3,4.
42. Q. Since Christ has died for us, why do we still have to die?
A. Our death is not a payment for our sins, but it puts an end to sin and is an entrance into eternal life.[1]
[1] John 5:24; Phil. 1:21-23; I Thess. 5:9, 10.
43. Q. What further benefit do we receive from Christ’s sacrifice and death on the cross?
A. Through Christ’s death our old nature is crucified, put to death, and buried with Him,[1] so that the evil desires of the flesh may no longer reign in us,[2] but that we may offer ourselves to Him as a sacrifice of thankfulness.[3]
44. Q. Why is there added: He descended into hell?
A. In my greatest sorrows and temptations I may be assured and comforted that my Lord Jesus Christ, by His unspeakable anguish, pain, terror, and agony, which He endured throughout all His sufferings[1] but especially on the cross, has delivered me from the anguish and torment of hell.[2]
[1] Ps. 18:5, 6; 116:3; Matt. 26:36-46; 27:45, 46; Heb. 5:7-10. [2] Is. 53.
45. Q. How does Christ’s resurrection benefit us?
A. First, by His resurrection He has overcome death, so that He could make us share in the righteousness which He had obtained for us by His death.[1] Second, by His power we too are raised up to a new life.[2] Third, Christ’s resurrection is to us a sure pledge of our glorious resurrection.[3]
[1] Rom. 4:25; I Cor. 15:16-20; I Pet. 1:3-5. [2] Rom. 6:5-11; Eph. 2:4-6; Col. 3:1-4. [3] Rom. 8:11; I Cor. 15:12-23; Phil. 3:20, 21.
46. Q. What do you confess when you say, He ascended into heaven?
A. That Christ, before the eyes of His disciples, was taken up from the earth into heaven,[1] and that He is there for our benefit[2] until He comes again to judge the living and the dead.[3]
[1] Mark 16:19; Luke 24:50, 51; Acts 1:9-11. [2] Rom. 8:34; Heb. 4:14; 7:23-25; 9:24. [3] Matt. 24:30; Acts 1:11.
47. Q. Is Christ, then, not with us until the end of the world, as He has promised us?[1] A. Christ is true man and true God. With respect to His human nature He is no longer on earth,[2] but with respect to His divinity, majesty, grace, and Spirit He is never absent from us.[3]
[1] Matt. 28:20. [2] Matt. 26:11; John 16:28; 17:11; Acts 3:19-21; Heb. 8:4. [3] Matt. 28:18-20; John 14:16-19; 16:13.
48. Q. But are the two natures in Christ not separated from each other if His human nature is not present wherever His divinity is?
A. Not at all, for His divinity has no limits and is present everywhere.[1] So it must follow that His divinity is indeed beyond the human nature which He has taken on and nevertheless is within this human nature and remains personally united with it.[2]
49. Q. How does Christ’s ascension into heaven benefit us?
A. First, He is our Advocate in heaven before His Father.[1] Second, we have our flesh in heaven as a sure pledge that He, our Head, will also take us, His members, up to Himself.[2] Third, He sends us His Spirit as a counter-pledge,[3] by whose power we seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God, and not the things that are on earth.[4]
[1] Rom. 8:34; I John 2:1. [2] John 14:2; 17:24; Eph. 2:4-6. [3] John 14:16; Acts 2:33; II Cor. 1:21, 22; 5:5. [4] Col. 3:1-4.
50. Q. Why is it added, And sits at the right hand of God?
A. Christ ascended into heaven to manifest Himself there as Head of His Church,[1] through whom the Father governs all things.[2]
51. Q. How does the glory of Christ, our Head, benefit us? Return to the Top
A. First, by His Holy Spirit He pours out heavenly gifts upon us, His members.[1] Second, by His power He defends and preserves us against all enemies.[2]
[1] Acts 2:33; Eph. 4:7-12. [2] Ps. 2:9; 110:1, 2; John 10:27-30; Rev. 19:11-16.
52. Q. What comfort is it to you that Christ will come to judge the living and the dead?
A. In all my sorrow and persecution I lift up my head and eagerly await as judge from heaven the very same person who before has submitted Himself to the judgment of God for my sake, and has removed all the curse from me.[1] He will cast all His and my enemies into everlasting condemnation, but He will take me and all His chosen ones to Himself into heavenly joy and glory.[2]
[1] Luke 21:28; Rom. 8:22-25; Phil. 3:20,21; Tit. 2:13, 14. [2] Matt. 25:31-46; I Thess. 4:16, 17; II Thess. 1:6-10.
53. Q. What do you believe concerning the Holy Spirit?
A. First, He is, together with the Father and the Son, true and eternal God.[1] Second, He is also given to me,[2] to make me by true faith share in Christ and all His benefits,[3] to comfort me,[4] and to remain with me forever.[5]
[1] Gen. 1:1, 2; Matt. 28:19; Acts 5:3, 4; I Cor. 3:16. [2] I Cor. 6:19; II Cor. 1:21, 22; Gal. 4:6; Eph. 1:13. [3] Gal. 3:14; I Pet. 1:2. [4] John 15:26; Acts 9:31. [5] John 14:16, 17; I Pet. 4:14.
54. Q. What do you believe concerning the holy catholic Christian church?
A. I believe that the Son of God,[1] out of the whole human race,[2] from the beginning of the world to its end,[3] gathers, defends, and preserves for Himself, [4] by His Spirit and Word,[5] in the unity of the true faith,[6] a church chosen to everlasting life.[7] And I believe that I am[8] and forever shall remain a living member of it.[9]
[1] John 10:11; Acts 20:28; Eph. 4:11-13; Col. 1:18. [2] Gen. 26:4; Rev. 5:9. [3] Is. 59:21; I Cor. 11:26. [4] Ps. 129:1-5; Matt. 16:18; John 10:28-30. [5] Rom. 1:16; 10:14-17; Eph. 5:26. [6] Acts 2:42-47; Eph. 4:1-6. [7] Rom. 8:29; Eph. 1:3-14. [8] I John 3:14, 19-21. [9] Ps. 23:6; John 10:27, 28; I Cor. 1:4-9; I Pet. 1:3-5.
55. Q. What do you understand by the communion of saints?
A. First, that believers, all and everyone, as members of Christ have communion with Him and share in all His treasures and gifts.[1] Second, that everyone is duty-bound to use his gifts readily and cheerfully for the benefit and well-being of the other members.[2]
[1] Rom. 8:32; I Cor. 6:17; 12:4-7, 12, 13; I John 1:3. [2] Rom. 12:4-8; I Cor. 12:20-27; 13:1-7; Phil. 2:4-8.
56. Q. What do you believe concerning the forgiveness of sins?
A. I believe that God, because of Christ’s satisfaction, will no more remember my sins,[1] nor my sinful nature, against which I have to struggle all my life,[2] but He will graciously grant me the righteousness of Christ, that I may never come into condemnation.[3]
[1] Ps. 103:3, 4, 10, 12; Mic. 7:18, 19; II Cor. 5:18-21; I John 1:7; 2:2. [2] Rom. 7:21-25. [3] John 3:17, 18; 5:24; Rom. 8:1, 2.
57. Q. What comfort does the resurrection of the body offer you?
A. Not only shall my soul after this life immediately be taken up to Christ, my Head,[1] but also this my flesh, raised by the power of Christ, shall be reunited with my soul and made like Christ’s glorious body.[2]
[1] Luke 16:22; 23:43; Phil. 1:21-23. [2] Job 19:25, 26; I Cor. 15:20, 42-46, 54; Phil. 3:21; I John 3:2.
58. Q. What comfort do you receive from the article about the life everlasting?
A. Since I now already feel in my heart the beginning of eternal joy, [1] I shall after this life possess perfect blessedness, such as no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived– a blessedness in which to praise God forever.[2]
[1] John 17:3; Rom. 14:17; II Cor. 5:2, 3. [2] John 17:24; I Cor. 2:9.
59. Q. But what does it help you now that you believe all this?
A. In Christ I am righteous before God and heir to life everlasting.[1]
[1] Hab. 2:4; John 3:36; Rom. 1:17; 5:1, 2.
60. Q. How are you righteous before God?
A. Only by true faith in Jesus Christ.[1] Although my conscience accuses me that I have grievously sinned against all God’s commandments, have never kept any of them,[2] and am still inclined to all evil,[3] yet God, without any merit of my own,[4] out of mere grace,[5] imputes to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ.[6] He grants these to me as if I had never had nor committed any sin, and as if I myself had accomplished all the obedience which Christ has rendered for me,[7] if only I accept this gift with a believing heart.[8]
61. Q. Why do you say that you are righteous only by faith? Return to the Top
A. Not that I am acceptable to God on account of the worthiness of my faith, for only the satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ is my righteousness before God.[1] I can receive this righteousness and make it mine my own by faith only.[2]
[1] I Cor. 1:30, 31; 2:2. [2] Rom. 10:10; I John 5:10-12.
62. Q. But why can our good works not be our righteousness before God, or at least a part of it?
A. Because the righteousness which can stand before God’s judgment must be absolutely perfect and in complete agreement with the law of God,[1] whereas even our best works in this life are all imperfect and defiled with sin.[2]
[1] Deut. 27:26; Gal. 3:10. [2] Is. 64:6.
63. Q. But do our good works earn nothing, even though God promises to reward them in this life and the next?
A. This reward is not earned[1]; it is a gift of grace.[2]
[1] Matt. 5:12; Heb. 11:6. [2] Luke 17:10; II Tim. 4:7, 8.
64. Q. Does this teaching not make people careless and wicked?
A. No. It is impossible that those grafted into Christ by true faith should not bring forth fruits of thankfulness.[1]
[1] Matt. 7:18; Luke 6:43-45; John 15:5.
65. Q. Since then faith alone makes us share in Christ and all His benefits, where does this faith come from?
A. From the Holy Spirit,[1] who works it in our hearts by the preaching of the gospel,[2] and strengthens it by the use of the sacraments.[3]
[1] John 3:5; I Cor. 2:10-14; Eph. 2:8; Phil. 1:29. [2] Rom. 10:17; I Pet. 1:23-25. [3] Matt. 28:19, 20; I Cor. 10:16.
66. Q. What are the sacraments?
A. The sacraments are holy, visible signs and seals. They were instituted by God so that by their use He might the more fully declare and seal to us the promise of the gospel.[1] And this is the promise: that God graciously grants us forgiveness of sins and everlasting life because of the one sacrifice of Christ accomplished on the cross.[2]
67. Q. Are both the Word and the sacraments then intended to focus our faith on the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross as the only ground of our salvation?
A. Yes, indeed. The Holy Spirit teaches us in the gospel and assures us by the sacraments that our entire salvation rests on Christ’s one sacrifice for us on the cross.[1]
[1] Rom. 6:3; I Cor. 11:26; Gal. 3:27.
68. Q. How many sacraments has Christ instituted in the new covenant?
A. Two: holy baptism and the holy supper.[1]
[1] Matt. 28:19, 20; I Cor. 11:23-26. Holy Baptism
69. Q. How does holy baptism signify and seal to you that the one sacrifice of Christ on the cross benefits you?
A. In this way: Christ instituted this outward washing[1] and with it gave the promise that, as surely as water washes away the dirt from the body, so certainly His blood and Spirit wash away the impurity of my soul, that is, all my sins.[2]
[1] Matt. 28:19. [2] Matt. 3:11; Mark 16:16; John 1:33; Acts 2:38; Rom. 6:3, 4; I Pet. 3:21.
70. Q. What does it mean to be washed with Christ’s blood and Spirit?
A. To be washed with Christ’s blood means to receive forgiveness of sins from God, through grace, because of Christ’s blood, poured out for us in His sacrifice on the cross.[1] To be washed with His Spirit means to be renewed by the Holy Spirit and sanctified to be members of Christ, so that more and more we become dead to sin and lead a holy and blameless life.[2]
[1] Ez. 36:25; Zech. 13:1; Eph. 1:7; Heb. 12:24; I Pet. 1:2; Rev. 1:5; 7:14. [2] John 3:5-8; Rom. 6:4; I Cor. 6:11; Col. 2:11, 12.
71. Q. Where has Christ promised that He will wash us with His blood and Spirit as surely as we are washed with the water of baptism?
A. In the institution of baptism, where He says: Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19). He who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he who does not believe will be condemned (Mark 16:16). This promise is repeated where Scripture calls baptism the washing of regeneration and the washing away of sins (Titus 3:5; Acts 22:16).
72. Q. Does this outward washing with water itself wash away sins? Return to the Top
A. No, only the blood of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit cleanse us from all sins.[1]
[1] Matt. 3:11; I Pet. 3:21; I John 1:7.
73. Q. Why then does the Holy Spirit call baptism the washing of regeneration and the washing away of sins?
A. God speaks in this way for a good reason. He wants to teach us that the blood and Spirit of Christ remove our sins just as water takes away dirt from the body.[1] But, even more important, He wants to assure us by this divine pledge and sign that we are as truly cleansed from our sins spiritually as we are bodily washed with water.[2]
[1] I Cor. 6:11; Rev. 1:5; 7:14. [2] Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38; Rom. 6:3, 4; Gal. 3:27.
74. Q. Should infants, too, be baptized?
A. Yes. Infants as well as adults belong to God’s covenant and congregation.[1] Through Christ’s blood the redemption from sin and the Holy Spirit, who works faith, are promised to them no less than to adults.[2] Therefore, by baptism, as sign of the covenant, they must be grafted into the Christian church and distinguished from the children of unbelievers.[3] This was done in the old covenant by circumcision,[4] in place of which baptism was instituted in the new covenant.[5]
[1] Gen. 17:7; Matt. 19:14. [2] Ps. 22:11; Is. 44:1-3; Acts 2:38, 39; 16:31. [3] Acts 10:47; I Cor. 7:14. [4] Gen. 17:9-14. [5] Col. 2: 11-13.
75. Q. How does the Lord’s Supper signify and seal to you that you share in Christ’s one sacrifice on the cross and in all His gifts?
A. In this way: Christ has commanded me and all believers to eat of this broken bread and drink of this cup in remembrance of Him. With this command He gave these promises:[1] First, as surely as I see with my eyes the bread of the Lord broken for me and the cup given to me, so surely was His body offered for me and His blood poured out for me on the cross. Second, as surely as I receive from the hand of the minister and taste with my mouth the bread and the cup of the Lord as sure signs of Christ’s body and blood, so surely does He Himself nourish and refresh my soul to everlasting life with His crucified body and shed blood.
[1] Matt. 26:26-28; Mark 14:22-24; Luke 22:19, 20; I Cor. 11:23-25.
76. Q. What does it mean to eat the crucified body of Christ and to drink His shed blood?
A. First, to accept with a believing heart all the suffering and the death of Christ, and so receive forgiveness of sins and life eternal.[1] Second, to be united more and more to His sacred body through the Holy Spirit, who lives both in Christ and in us.[2] Therefore, although Christ is in heaven[3] and we are on earth, yet we are flesh of His flesh and bone of His bones,[4] and we forever live and are governed by one Spirit, as the members of our body are by one soul.[5]
[1] John 6:35, 40, 50-54. [2] John 6:55, 56; I Cor. 12:13. [3] Acts 1:9-11; 3:21; I Cor. 11:26; Col. 3:1. [4] I Cor. 6:15, 17; Eph. 5:29, 30; I John 4:13. [5] John 6:56-58; 15:1-6; Eph. 4:15, 16; I John 3:24.
77. Q. Where has Christ promised that He will nourish and refresh believers with His body and blood as surely as they eat of this broken bread and drink of this cup?
A. In the institution of the Lord’s supper: The Lord Jesus on the night when He was betrayed took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, “Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes (I Corinthians 11:23-26). This promise is repeated by Paul where he says: The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread (I Corinthians 10:16, 17).
78. Q. Are then the bread and wine changed into the real body and blood of Christ?
A. No. Just as the water of baptism is not changed into the blood of Christ and is not the washing away of sins itself but is simply God’s sign and pledge,[1] so also the bread in the Lord’s supper does not become the body of Christ itself,[2] although it is called Christ’s body[3] in keeping with the nature and usage of sacraments.[4]
[1] Eph. 5:26; Tit. 3:5. [2] Matt. 26:26-29. [3] I Cor. 10:16, 17; 11:26-28. [4] Gen. 17:10, 11; Ex. 12:11, 13; I Cor. 10:3, 4; I Pet. 3:21.
79. Q. Why then does Christ call the bread His body and the cup His blood, or the new covenant in His blood, and why does Paul speak of a participation in the body and blood of Christ?
A. Christ speaks in this way for a good reason: He wants to teach us by His supper that as bread and wine sustain us in this temporal life, so His crucified body and shed blood are true food and drink for our souls to eternal life.[1] But, even more important, He wants to assure us by this visible sign and pledge, first, that through the working of the Holy Spirit we share in His true body and blood as surely as we receive with our mouth these holy signs in remembrance of Him,[2] and, second, that all His suffering and obedience are as certainly ours as if we personally had suffered and paid for our sins.[3]
[1] John 6:51, 55. [2] I Cor. 10:16, 17; 11:26. [3] Rom. 6:5-11.
80. Q. What difference is there between the Lord’s supper and the papal mass?
A. The Lord’s supper testifies to us, first, that we have complete forgiveness of all our sins through the one sacrifice of Jesus Christ, which He Himself accomplished on the cross once for all;[1] and, second, that through the Holy Spirit we are grafted into Christ,[2] who with His true body is now in heaven at the right hand of the Father,[3] and this is where He wants to be worshipped.[4] But the mass teaches, first, that the living and the dead do not have forgiveness of sins through the suffering of Christ unless He is still offered for them daily by the priests; and, second, that Christ is bodily present in the form of bread and wine, and there is to be worshipped. Therefore the mass is basically nothing but a denial of the one sacrifice and suffering of Jesus Christ, and an accursed idolatry.
[1] Matt. 26:28; John 19:30; Heb. 7:27; 9:12, 25, 26; 10:10-18. [2] I Cor. 6:17; 10:16, 17. [3] Joh. 20:17; Acts 7:55, 56; Heb. 1:3; 8:1. [4] John 4:21-24; Phil. 3:20; Col. 3:1; I Thess. 1:10.
A. Those who are truly displeased with themselves because of their sins and yet trust that these are forgiven them and that their remaining weakness is covered by the suffering and death of Christ, and who also desire more and more to strengthen their faith and amend their life. But hypocrites and those who do not repent eat and drink judgment upon themselves.[1]
[1] I Cor. 10:19-22; 11:26-32.
82. Q. Are those also to be admitted to the Lord’s supper who by their confession and life show that they are unbelieving and ungodly?
A. No, for then the covenant of God would be profaned and His wrath kindled against the whole congregation.[1] Therefore, according to the command of Christ and His apostles, the Christian church is duty-bound to exclude such persons by the keys of the kingdom of heaven, until they amend their lives.
[1] Ps. 50:16; Is. 1:11-17; I Cor. 11:17-34.
83. Q. What are the keys of the kingdom of heaven?
A. The preaching of the holy gospel and church discipline. By these two the kingdom of heaven is opened to believers and closed to unbelievers.[1]
[1] Matt. 16:19; John 20:21-23.
84. Q. How is the kingdom of heaven opened and closed by the preaching of the gospel?
A. According to the command of Christ, the kingdom of heaven is opened when it is proclaimed and publicly testified to each and every believer that God has really forgiven all their sins for the sake of Christ’s merits, as often as they by true faith accept the promise of the gospel. The kingdom of heaven is closed when it is proclaimed and testified to all unbelievers and hypocrites that the wrath of God and eternal condemnation rest on them as long as they do not repent. According to this testimony of the gospel, God will judge both in this life and in the life to come.[1]
[1] Matt. 16:19; John 3:31-36; 20:21-23.
85. Q. How is the kingdom of heaven closed and opened by church discipline?
A. According to the command of Christ, people who call themselves Christians but show themselves to be unchristian in doctrine or life are first repeatedly admonished in a brotherly manner. If they do not give up their errors or wickedness, they are reported to the church, that is, to the elders. If they do not heed also their admonitions, they are forbidden the use of the sacraments, and they are excluded by the elders from the Christian congregation, and by God Himself from the kingdom of Christ.[1] They are again received as members of Christ and of the church when they promise and show real amendment.[2]
[1] Matt. 18:15-20; I Cor. 5:3-5; 11-13; II Thess. 3:14, 15. [2] Luke 15:20-24; II Cor. 2:6-11.
86. Q. Since we have been delivered from our misery by grace alone through Christ, without any merit of our own, why must we yet do good works?
A. Because Christ, having redeemed us by His blood, also renews us by His Holy Spirit to be His image, so that with our whole life we may show ourselves thankful to God for His benefits,[1] and He may be praised by us.[2] Further, that we ourselves may be assured of our faith by its fruits,[3] and that by our godly walk of life we may win our neighbours for Christ.[4]
[1] Rom. 6:13; 12:1, 2; I Pet. 2:5-10. [2] Matt. 5:16; I Cor. 6:19, 20. [3] Matt. 7:17, 18; Gal. 5:22-24; II Pet. 1:10, 11. [4] Matt. 5:14-16; Rom. 14:17-19; I Pet. 2:12; 3:1, 2.
87. Q. Can those be saved who do not turn to God from their ungrateful and impenitent walk of life?
A. By no means. Scripture says that no unchaste person, idolater, adulterer, thief, greedy person, drunkard, slanderer, robber, or the like shall inherit the kingdom of God.[1]
[1] I Cor. 6:9, 10; Gal. 5:19-21; Eph. 5:5, 6; I John 3:14.
88 Q. What is the true repentance or conversion of man?
A. It is the dying of the old nature and the coming to life of the new.[1]
[1] Rom. 6:1-11; I Cor. 5:7; II Cor. 5:17; Eph. 4:22-24; Col. 3:5-10.
89. Q. What is the dying of the old nature?
A. It is to grieve with heartfelt sorrow that we have offended God by our sin, and more and more to hate it and flee from it.[1]
[1] Ps. 51:3, 4, 17; Joel 2:12, 13; Rom. 8:12, 13; II Cor. 7:10.
90. Q. What is the coming to life of the new nature?
A. It is a heartfelt joy in God through Christ,[1] and a love and delight to live according to the will of God in all good works.[2]
[1] Ps. 51:8, 12; Is. 57:15; Rom. 5:1; 14:17. [2] Rom. 6:10, 11; Gal. 2:20.
A. Only those which are done out of true faith,[1] in accordance with the law of God,[2] and to His glory,[3] and not those based on our own opinion or on precepts of men.[4]
[1] Joh. 15:5; Rom. 14:23; Heb. 11:6. [2] Lev. 18:4; I Sam. 15:22; Eph. 2:10. [3] I Cor. 10:31. [4] Deut. 12:32; Is. 29:13; Ezek. 20:18, 19; Matt. 15:7-9.
92. Q. What is the law of the LORD?
A. God spoke all these words, saying: I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 1. You shall have no other gods before Me. 2. You shall not make for yourself a graven image, 2. or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, 2. or that is in the earth beneath, 2. or that is in the water under the earth; 2. you shall not bow down to them or serve them; 2. for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, 2. visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children 2. to the third and fourth generation 2. of those who hate Me, 2. but showing steadfast love to thousands of those 2. who love Me and keep My commandments. 3. You shall not take the Name of the LORD your God 3. in vain; 3. for the LORD will not hold him guiltless 3. who takes His Name in vain. 4. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 4. Six days you shall labour, and do all your work; 4. but the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your 4. God; 4. in it you shall not do any work, 4. you, or your son, or your daughter, 4. your manservant, or your maidservant, 4. or your cattle, 4. or the sojourner who is within your gates; 4. for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, 4. the sea, and all that is in them, 4. and rested the seventh day; 4. therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day 4. and hallowed it. 5. Honour your father and your mother, 5. that your days may be long 5. in the land which the LORD your God gives you. 6. You shall not kill. 7. You shall not commit adultery. 8. You shall not steal. 9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour. 10. you shall not covet your neighbour’s house; 10. you shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, 10. or his manservant, or his maidservant, 10. or his ox, or his ass, 10. or anything that is your neighbour’s.[1]
[1] Ex. 20:1-17; Deut. 5:6-21.
93. Q. How are these commandments divided?
A. Into two parts. The first teaches us how to live in relation to God; the second, what duties we owe our neighbour.[1]
[1] Matt. 22:37-40.
94. Q. What does the LORD require in the first commandment?
A. That for the sake of my very salvation I avoid and flee all idolatry,[1] witchcraft, superstition,[2] and prayer to saints or to other creatures.[3] Further, that I rightly come to know the only true God.[4] trust in Him alone,[5] submit to Him with all humility[6] and patience,[7] expect all good from Him only,[8] and love,[9] fear,[10] and honour Him[11] with all my heart. In short, that I forsake all creatures rather than do the least thing against His will.[12]
[1] I Cor. 6:9, 10; 10:5-14; I John 5:21. [2] Lev. 19:31; Deut. 18:9-12. [3] Matt. 4:10; Rev. 19:10; 22:8, 9. [4] John 17:3. [5] Jer. 17:5, 7. [6] I Pet. 5:5, 6. [7] Rom. 5:3, 4; I Cor. 10:10; Phil. 2:14; Col. 1:11; Heb. 10:36. [8] Ps. 104:27, 28; Is. 45:7; James 1:17. [9] Deut. 6:5; (Matt. 22:37). [10] Deut. 6:2; Ps. 111:10; Prov. 1:7; 9:10; Matt. 10:28; I Pet. 1:17. [11] Deut. 6:13; (Matt. 4:10); Deut. 10:20. [12] Matt. 5:29, 30; 10:37-39; Acts 5:29.
95. Q. What is idolatry?
A. Idolatry is having or inventing something in which to put our trust instead of, or in addition to, the only true God who has revealed Himself in His Word.[1]
96. Q. What does God require in the second commandment?
A. We are not to make an image of God in any way,[1] nor to worship Him in any other manner than He has commanded in His Word.[2]
[1] Deut. 4:15-19; Is. 40:18-25; Acts 17:29; Rom. 1:23. [2] Lev. 10:1-7; Deut. 12:30; I Sam. 15:22, 23; Matt. 15:9; John 4:23, 24.
97. Q. May we then not make any image at all?
A. God cannot and may not be visibly portrayed in any way. Creatures may be portrayed, but God forbids us to make or have any images of them in order to worship them or to serve God through them.[1]
[1] Ex. 34:13, 14, 17; Num. 33:52; II Kings 18:4, 5; Is. 40:25.
98. Q. But may images not be tolerated in the churches as “books for the laity”?
A. No, for we should not be wiser than God. He wants His people to be taught not by means of dumb images[1] but by the living preaching of His Word.[2]
[1] Jer. 10:8; Hab. 2:18-20. [2] Rom. 10:14, 15, 17; II Tim. 3:16, 17; II Pet. 1:19.
99. Q. What is required in the third commandment?
A. We are not to blaspheme or to abuse the Name of God by cursing,[1] perjury,[2] or unnecessary oaths,[3] nor to share in such horrible sins by being silent bystanders.[4] In short, we must use the holy Name of God only with fear and reverence,[5] so that we may rightly confess Him,[6] call upon Him,[7] and praise Him in all our words and works.[8]
[1] Lev. 24:10-17. [2] Lev. 19:12 [3] Matt. 5:37; James 5:12. [4] Lev. 5:1; Prov. 29:24. [5] Ps. 99:1-5; Is. 45:23; Jer. 4:2. [6] Matt. 10:32, 33; Rom. 10:9, 10. [7] Ps. 50:14, 15; I Tim. 2:8. [8] Rom. 2:24; Col. 3:17; I Tim. 6:1.
100. Q. Is the blaspheming of God’s Name by swearing and cursing such a grievous sin that God is angry also with those who do not prevent and forbid it as much as they can?
A. Certainly,[1] for no sin is greater or provokes God’s wrath more than the blaspheming of His Name. That is why He commanded it to be punished with death.[2]
[1] Lev. 5:1. [2] Lev. 24:16.
101. Q. But may we swear an oath by the Name of God in a godly manner? Return to the Top
A. Yes, when the government demands it of its subjects, or when necessity requires it, in order to maintain and promote fidelity and truth, to God’s glory and for our neighbour’s good. Such oath-taking is based on God’s Word[1] and was therefore rightly used by saints in the Old and the New Testament.[2]
[1] Deut. 6:13; 10:20; Jer. 4:1, 2; Heb. 6:16. [2] Gen. 21:24; 31:53; Josh. 9:15; I Sam. 24:22; I Kings 1:29, 30; Rom. 1:9; II Cor. 1:23.
102. Q. May we also swear by saints or other creatures?
A. No. A lawful oath is a calling upon God, who alone knows the heart, to bear witness to the truth, and to punish me if I swear falsely.[1] No creature is worthy of such honour.[2]
[1] Rom. 9:1; II Cor. 1:23. [2] Matt. 5:34-37; 23:16-22; James 5:12.
103. Q. What does God require in the fourth commandment?
A. First, that the ministry of the gospel and the schools be maintained[1] and that, especially on the day of rest, I diligently attend the church of God[2] to hear God’s Word,[3] to use the sacraments,[4] to call publicly upon the LORD,[5] and to give Christian offerings for the poor.[6] Second, that all the days of my life I rest from my evil works, let the LORD work in me through His Holy Spirit, and so begin in this life the eternal sabbath.[7]
[1] Deut. 6:4-9; 20-25; I Cor. 9:13, 14; II Tim. 2:2; 3:13-17; Tit. 1:5. [2] Deut. 12:5-12; Ps. 40:9, 10; 68:26; Acts 2:42-47; Heb. 10:23-25. [3] Rom. 10:14-17; I Cor. 14:26-33; I Tim. 4:13. [4] I Cor. 11:23, 24. [5] Col. 3:16; I Tim. 2:1. [6] Ps. 50:14; I Cor. 16:2; II Cor. 8 and 9. [7] Is. 66:23; Heb. 4:9-11.
104. Q. What does God require in the fifth commandment?
A. That I show all honour, love, and faithfulness to my father and mother and to all those in authority over me, submit myself with due obedience to their good instruction and discipline,[1] and also have patience with their weaknesses and shortcomings,[2] since it is God’s will to govern us by their hand.[3]
105. Q. What does God require in the sixth commandment?
A. I am not to dishonour, hate, injure, or kill my neighbour by thoughts, words, or gestures, and much less by deeds, whether personally or through another;[1] rather, I am to put away all desire of revenge.[2] Moreover, I am not to harm or recklessly endanger myself.[3] Therefore, also, the government bears the sword to prevent murder.[4]
106. Q. But does this commandment speak only of killing?
A. By forbidding murder God teaches us that He hates the root of murder, such as envy, hatred, anger, and desire of revenge,[1] and that He regards all these as murder.[2]
[1] Prov. 14:30; Rom. 1:29; 12:19; Gal. 5:19-21; James 1:20; I John 2:9-11. [2] I John 3:15.
107. Q. Is it enough, then, that we do not kill our neighbour in any such way? A. No. When God condemns envy, hatred, and anger, He commands us to love our neighbour as ourselves,[1] to show patience, peace, gentleness, mercy, and friendliness toward him,[2] to protect him from harm as much as we can, and to do good even to our enemies.[3]
108. Q. What does the seventh commandment teach us?
A. That all unchastity is cursed by God.[1] We must therefore detest it from the heart[2] and live chaste and disciplined lives, both within and outside of holy marriage.[3]
[1] Lev. 18:30; Eph. 5:3-5. [2] Jude 22, 23. [3] I Cor. 7:1-9; I Thess. 4:3-8; Heb. 13:4.
109. Q. Does God in this commandment forbid nothing more than adultery and similar shameful sins? A. Since we, body and soul, are temples of the Holy Spirit, it is God’s will that we keep ourselves pure and holy. Therefore He forbids all unchaste acts, gestures, words, thoughts, desires,[1] and whatever may entice us to unchastity.[2]
[1] Matt. 5:27-29; I Cor. 6:18-20; Eph. 5:3, 4. [2] I Cor. 15:33; Eph. 5:18.
110. Q. What does God forbid in the eighth commandment?
A. God forbids not only outright theft and robbery[1] but also such wicked schemes and devices as false weights and measures, deceptive merchandising, counterfeit money, and usury;[2] we must not defraud our neighbour in any way, whether by force or by show of right.[3] In addition God forbids all greed[4] and all abuse or squandering of His gifts.[5]
[1] Ex. 22:1; I Cor. 5:9, 10; 6:9, 10. [2] Deut. 25:13-16; Ps. 15:5; Prov. 11:1; 12:22; Ezek. 45:9-12; Luke 6:35. [3] Mic. 6:9-11; Luke 3:14; James 5:1-6. [4] Luke 12:15; Eph. 5:5. [5] Prov. 21:20; 23:20, 21; Luke 16:10-13.
111. Q. What does God require of you in this commandment? Return to the Top
A. I must promote my neighbour’s good wherever I can and may, deal with him as I would like others to deal with me, and work faithfully so that I may be able to give to those in need.[1]
[1] Is. 58:5-10; Matt. 7:12; Gal. 6:9, 10; Eph. 4:28.
112. Q. What is required in the ninth commandment?
A. I must not give false testimony against anyone, twist no one’s words, not gossip or slander, nor condemn or join in condemning anyone rashly and unheard.[1] Rather, I must avoid all lying and deceit as the devil’s own works, under penalty of God’s heavy wrath.[2] In court and everywhere else, I must love the truth,[3] speak and confess it honestly, and do what I can to defend and promote my neighbour’s honour and reputation.[4]
[1] Ps. 15; Prov. 19:5, 9; 21:28; Matt. 7:1; Luke 6:37; Rom. 1:28-32. [2] Lev. 19:11, 12; Prov. 12:22; 13:5; John 8:44; Rev. 21:8. [3] I Cor. 13:6; Eph. 4:25. [4] I Pet. 3:8, 9; 4:8.
113. Q. What does the tenth commandment require of us?
A. That not even the slightest thought or desire contrary to any of God’s commandments should ever arise in our heart. Rather, we should always hate all sin with all our heart, and delight in all righteousness.[1]
[1] Ps. 19:7-14; 139:23, 24; Rom. 7:7, 8.
114. Q. But can those converted to God keep these commandments perfectly?
A. No. In this life even the holiest have only a small beginning of this obedience.[1] Nevertheless, with earnest purpose they do begin to live not only according to some but to all the commandments of God.[2]
[1] Eccles. 7:20; Rom. 7:14, 15; I Cor. 13:9; I John 1:8. [2] Ps. 1:1, 2; Rom. 7:22-25; Phil. 3:12-16.
115. Q. If in this life no one can keep the ten commandments perfectly, why does God have them preached so strictly?
A. First, that throughout our life we may more and more become aware of our sinful nature, and therefore seek more eagerly the forgiveness of sins and righteousness in Christ.[1] Second, that we may be zealous for good deeds and constantly pray to God for the grace of the Holy Spirit, that He may more and more renew us after God’s image, until after this life we reach the goal of perfection.[2]
[1] Ps. 32:5; Rom. 3:19-26; 7:7, 24, 25; I John 1:9. [2] I Cor. 9:24; Phil. 3:12-14; I John 3:1-3.
116. Q. Why is prayer necessary for Christians?
A. Because prayer is the most important part of the thankfulness which God requires of us.[1] Moreover, God will give His grace and the Holy Spirit only to those who constantly and with heartfelt longing ask Him for these gifts and thank Him for them.[2]
[1] Ps. 50:14, 15; 116:12-19; I Thess. 5:16-18. [2] Matt. 7:7, 8; Luke 11:9-13.
117. Q. What belongs to a prayer which pleases God and is heard by Him?
A. First, we must from the heart call upon the one true God only, who has revealed Himself in His Word, for all that He has commanded us to pray.[1] Second, we must thoroughly know our need and misery, so that we may humble ourselves before God.[2] Third, we must rest on this firm foundation that, although we do not deserve it, God will certainly hear our prayer for the sake of Christ our Lord, as He has promised us in His Word.[3]
[1] Ps. 145:18-20; John 4:22-24; Rom. 8:26, 27; James 1:5; I John 5:14, 15; Rev. 19:10. [2] II Chron. 7:14; 20:12; Ps. 2:11; 34:18; 62:8; Is. 66:2; Rev. 4. [3] Dan. 9:17-19; Matt. 7:8; John 14:13, 14; 16:23; Rom. 10:13; James 1:6.
118. Q. What has God commanded us to ask of Him?
A. All the things we need for body and soul,[1] as included in the prayer which Christ our Lord Himself taught us.
[1] Matt. 6:33; James 1:17.
119. Q. What is the Lord’s prayer?
A. Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; And forgive us our debts, As we also have forgiven our debtors; And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.[1]
[1] Matt. 6:9-13; Luke 11:2-4.
120. Q. Why has Christ commanded us to address God as Our Father?
A. To awaken in us at the very beginning of our prayer that childlike reverence and trust toward God which should be basic to our prayer: God has become our Father through Christ and will much less deny us what we ask of Him in faith than our fathers would refuse us earthly things.[1]
A. These words teach us not to think of God’s heavenly majesty in an earthly manner, [1] and to expect from His almighty power all things we need for body and soul. [2]
A. Hallowed be Thy Name. That is: Grant us first of all that we may rightly know Thee,[1] and sanctify, glorify, and praise Thee in all Thy works, in which shine forth Thy almighty power, wisdom, goodness, righteousness, mercy, and truth.[2] Grant us also that we may so direct our whole life– our thoughts, words, and actions– that Thy Name is not blasphemed because of us but always honoured and praised.[3]
[1] Jer. 9:23, 24; 31: 33, 34; Matt. 16:17; John 17:3. [2] Ex. 34:5-8; Ps. 145; Jer. 32:16-20; Luke 1:46-55, 68-75; Rom. 11: 33-36. [3] Ps. 115:1; Matt. 5:16.
123. Q. What is the second petition?
A. Thy kingdom come. That is: So rule us by Thy Word and Spirit that more and more we submit to Thee.[1] Preserve and increase Thy church.[2] Destroy the works of the devil, every power that raises itself against Thee, and every conspiracy against Thy holy Word.[3] Do all this until the fulness of Thy kingdom comes, wherein Thou shalt be all in all.[4]
[1] Ps. 119:5, 105; 143:10; Matt. 6:33. [2] Ps. 51:18; 122:6-9; Matt. 16:18; Acts 2:42-47. [3] Rom. 16:20; I John 3:8. [4] Rom. 8:22, 23; I Cor. 15:28; Rev. 22: 17, 20.
124. Q. What is the third petition?
A. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. That is: Grant that we and all men may deny our own will, and without any murmuring obey Thy will, for it alone is good.[1] Grant also that everyone may carry out the duties of his office and calling[2] as willingly and faithfully as the angels in heaven.[3]
[1] Matt. 7:21; 16:24-26; Luke 22:42; Rom. 12:1, 2; Tit. 2:11, 12. [2] I Cor. 7:17-24; Eph. 6:5-9. [3] Ps. 103:20, 21.
125. Q. What is the fourth petition?
A. Give us this day our daily bread. That is: Provide us with all our bodily needs[1] so that we may acknowledge that Thou art the only fountain of all good,[2] and that our care and labour, and also Thy gifts, cannot do us any good without Thy blessing.[3] Grant therefore that we may withdraw our trust from all creatures, and place it only in Thee.[4]
[1] Ps. 104:27-30; 145:15, 16; Matt. 6:25-34. [2] Acts 14:17; 17:25; James 1:17. [3] Deut. 8:3; Ps. 37:16; 127:1, 2; I Cor. 15:58. [4] Ps. 55:22; 62; 146; Jer. 17:5-8; Heb. 13:5, 6.
126. Q. What is the fifth petition?
A. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. That is: For the sake of Christ’s blood, do not impute to us, wretched sinners; any of our transgressions, nor the evil which still clings to us,[1] as we also find this evidence of Thy grace in us that we are fully determined wholeheartedly to forgive our neighbor.[2]
[1] Ps. 51:1-7; 143:2; Rom. 8:1; I John 2:1, 2. [2] Matt. 6:14, 15; 18:21-35.
127. Q. What is the sixth petition?
A. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. That is: In ourselves we are so weak that we cannot stand even for a moment.[1] Moreover, our sworn enemies– the devil,[2] the world,[3] and our own flesh[4]– do not cease to attack us. Wilt Thou, therefore, uphold and strengthen us by the power of Thy Holy Spirit, so that in this spiritual war[5] we may not go down to defeat, but always firmly resist our enemies, until we finally obtain the complete victory.[6]
[1] Ps. 103:14-16; John 15:1-5. [2] II Cor. 11:14; Eph. 6:10-13; I Pet. 5:8. [3] John 15:18-21. [4] Rom. 7:23; Gal. 5:17. [5] Matt. 10:19, 20; 26:41; Mark 13:33; Rom. 5:3-5. [6] I Cor. 10:13; I Thess. 3:13; 5:23.
128. Q. How do you conclude your prayer?
A. For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. That is: All this we ask of Thee because, as our King, having power over all things, Thou art both willing and able to give us all that is good,[1] and because not we but Thy holy Name should so receive all glory for ever.[2]
[1] Rom. 10:11-13; II Pet 2:9. [2] Ps. 115:1; Jer. 33:8, 9; John 14:13.
129. Q. What does the word Amen mean?
A. Amen means: It is true and certain. For God has much more certainly heard my prayer than I feel in my heart that I desire this of Him.[1]
Article: Life Has No Meaning? 9 in 10 Young People in the UK Believe That by Ken Ham
A recent poll ( https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/08/02/poll-9-10-young-britons-believe-their-lives-have-no-purpose/ ) in the United Kingdom revealed that 89%—nearly 9 in 10—of young people, aged 16 to 29, “believe that their lives have no meaning or purpose.” This saddening statistic is explained with a corresponding statistic shared in the same article—only 1% of this age group identifies as belonging to the Church of England, the largest denomination in the UK, meaning that very few young people in the UK hold to any semblance of Christianity (half of UK residents are atheists). This is being reflected in decreasing church attendance. In England, such attendance is down to less than 5%.
The study also found that 30% of these young people say they are “stuck in a rut,” and 84% don’t believe they are living “their best life.” But if there is no meaning or purpose to life, what makes you “stuck in a rut” or not stuck in a rut? What is your “best life”? In this worldview, there is no way even to define these things, apart from arbitrary feelings and opinions.
This belief that life has no meaning or purpose is the outworking of the religion of evolutionary secularism that permeates the education system and the media throughout the UK, and here in the United States. When you adopt the religion of atheism, you have to deal with the consequences—and one consequence is that ultimately there’s absolutely no meaning or purpose to life!
Now, many atheists get all emotional about this and say they have purpose here and now (i.e., being happy or making others happy). And yes, they can subjectively decide what purpose and meaning to believe they have now, but the fact is that they know they will die—everyone will! They know it, but I believe they really refuse to accept it, even though it’s inevitable. And, in their present existence, they have to borrow from the Christian worldview to even talk about purpose and meaning!
Atheists just don’t want to face the fact their worldview means, as Bill Nye said to me, “when you die, you’re done.” In other words, an atheist has to admit that when they die, that’s the end of them since everything is purely material in that worldview. So ultimately, nothing matters! More and more the younger generations, who have been indoctrinated in evolutionary naturalism (atheism), are realizing the hopelessness and purposelessness of the naturalistic worldview.
But as God’s Word teaches in Romans 1, God has made it evident to all that he exists, and so everyone is without excuse. God’s Word clearly teaches where we came from, what our problem is (sin), and what the solution is—Jesus Christ.
And the incredible inconsistency is that, from an atheistic perspective, eventually everyone dies, the whole universe dies, and no one will know they ever existed. So, why do so many of them get so emotional over fighting Christians/creationists? The fact that they get so emotional about it is because it’s a spiritual battle, and in their heart, they know they’re rebelling against God. Otherwise, they wouldn’t care! It shows their hypocrisy and utter insecurity in their ultimately meaningless and purposeless existence in the here and now that, to them, is doomed to become. . . nothing!
Where do meaning and purpose come from? It comes from our Creator! It comes from having a proper perspective on the history of the universe and humanity—one that starts with God’s Word. We’re not accidents, the result of millions of years of random, chance processes. We’re fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14) in the image of our Creator (Genesis 1:27). He has given us his Word, which clearly tells us our purpose and meaning. As Ecclesiastes puts it, “Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man” (Ecclesiastes 12:13). We’re created to bring glory to our Creator and enjoy him forever. That’s ultimate meaning and purpose.
We can only find this purpose, and the joy that comes from walking in it, when we repent and put our faith and trust in Christ alone for salvation. When this happens, we die to our old selves and our old ways of thinking and living, and we are remade to live for him (2 Corinthians 5:17)—and we find great joy in doing so (Psalm 119:162–168)! If you want true meaning and purpose in your life, turn to Christ. He alone satisfies (Matthew 13:45–46; Isaiah 61:10; 1 Peter 1:8–9).
Two Resources:
1. Stuart Olyott (b. 1942) became pastor of Belvidere Road Church in Liverpool after training at London Bible College and receiving his first degree from the University of London and has received several other degrees since.. The Liverpool pastorates occupied the periods 1967 to 1982 and 1991 to 1999. The intervening years were spent preaching the gospel in French in Lausanne, Switzerland, and pioneering new churches in both France and Switzerland. Since 1999 Stuart has spent his time lecturing in seminaries, pastoring pastors in Wales, and helping churches in trouble. Now semi-retired, Stuart has been married to Doll since 1970 and they have eight sons, as well as grandchildren too numerous to count!
Dear Aunt Tracy: The Great End Time Debate Clarified for Busy Homemakers and Teens
Actually, Aunt Tracy is my sister-in-law. However, she is indeed a busy (and most excellent) homemaker. For that reason—and also because she was delving into Isaiah at Ladies Bible Study Fellowship—she once asked me to write her something SHORT on the question of the millennium (i.e., the “1000” years of Revelation 20). Now, if you know me at all, you know I don’t do short. Nevertheless, I trust that the following letter—which was short by MY standards—proved helpful to her. I post it here in hopes that it will also be helpful to anyone else who is looking for a brief introduction (and proposed solution) to the Great End Time Debate.
———–
Dear Aunt Tracy,
Thanks for asking me about the millennium, and about how to interpret OT prophecies of the coming Kingdom of God. Your question is both a challenge and an opportunity. It’s a challenge because this debate can get pretty complicated; and it’s an opportunity because explaining the gist of it in an uncomplicated manner could be quite helpful, not only to you, but also to many others who are unlikely to wade into big theological tomes on eschatology.1 So—keeping “short” ever before my eyes—I’m eager to begin.
Millennial Views
The question of the millennium is like the tip of an iceberg: All sorts of interesting materials lie hidden beneath the surface. This becomes especially clear when we take a quick look at the three main views of the end times popular among Christians today: Historic Premillennialism, Dispensational Premillennialism, and Amillennialism.
1. Historic Premillennialism
In Latin, “pre” means “before.” In Latin, “millennium” means “1000 years.” So premillennialism is the view that Christ will come again BEFORE a future 1000 year reign upon the earth with his saints (Rev. 20).
Why do premillennarians look for such a reign? It’s because they feel it is important to interpret the OT prophecies of a coming Messianic Kingdom more or less literally. So if Isaiah and Micah speak of a day when the nations will worship God at a temple in Jerusalem on top of Mt. Zion, premillennarians look for a day when this will happen: literally (Isaiah 2, Micah 4). But since the NT doesn’t institute that kind of worship, and since we know that physical temple worship will not be the norm in the New Heavens and the New Earth, they conclude that Revelation 20 must be giving us a special stage in world history when all such prophecies will be fulfilled. Note carefully what this means. It means that premillennarians believe the Kingdom of God enters history in three separate stages: 1) The present Church Era of Gospel Proclamation, 2) the Millennium, and 3) the eternal World to Come (the New Heavens and the New Earth).
Now, try not to panic, but here’s where things get a bit complicated. After centuries of Christian thinking and theorizing, we now have two kinds of Premillennialism: Historic and Dispensational. What’s more, we have two kinds of Historic Premillialism: New Covenant and Old Covenant. I’ll explain them as simply and briefly as I can.
A. New Covenant (or Christian) Historic Premillennialism (NCHP)
This view was held by some of the early church fathers, such a Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, and Tertullian. It has popped up from time to time throughout Church History. Today quite a number of theologians embrace it, men like Craig Blomberg, Wayne Grudem, Jim Hamilton, George Ladd, and John Piper.
According to NCHP, the Church is at the center of the millennial scenario. Here there is little or no emphasis on ethnic Israel, or on a millennial return to OT institutions such as Temple worship, animal sacrifices, and the observance of Feast Days, etc. Brothers of this persuasion believe that when OT prophecies seem to predict such things, they are actually speaking “mysteriously” (i.e., symbolically, figuratively) of life under the New Covenant, where there is neither Jew nor Gentile, but Christ is all and in all; where the various OT forms of worship are all fulfilled in Christ and give way to the NT worship of God in spirit and truth (John 4). I said above that premillennarians interpret Kingdom prophecies “more or less” literally. These brothers are in the “less” camp.
Still, they are definitely looking for a literal 1000 year reign of Christ upon a partially transformed earth, usually centered in an earthly Jerusalem. So here is their version of the end times and the Second Coming of Christ: After a brief season of great tribulation, Christ will return to the earth to destroy the Antichrist and his followers, and to confine Satan to the abyss. Then he will resurrect both the OT and NT saints, transform the living saints, partially lift the curse from the world of nature, and then welcome his glorified Church into the millennium, where she will rule with him for a literal 1000 years in a new (earthly) Jerusalem. His subjects will apparently be the children of believers and/or unbelievers who were allowed to enter the millennium. Many will love and serve the Lord, but some will not. Therefore, at the end of the millennium Satan will be released to test the nations, and will succeed in stirring up a brief rebellion against Christ and the saints. But God (or Christ) will step in to destroy such enemies, after which comes the second resurrection (of the wicked), the Last Judgment, and the creation of the World to Come, the eternal home of the redeemed.
Sound complicated? That’s because it is. But hold on, there’s hope!
B. Old Covenant (or Jewish) Historic Premillennialism (OCHP)
Put these folks in the “more literal” camp. For in this kind of Historic Premillennialism ethnic Israel is very much at the center of things. Here the OT prophecies of a coming theocratic kingdom are interpreted quite literally, with the result that Christians of this school anticipate great things for the Jews: They will be converted in large numbers prior to (or at) Christ’s second coming, and then exalted to a special status in their Messiah’s millennial kingdom. Also, there will be a return to various OT ordinances. For example, an enormous millennial temple will be built, priests will offer animal sacrifices commemorating the work of Christ, and all nations will observe the various Jewish Feasts. This view became quite popular in the 19th century, and was defended by men like David Baron, George Peters, Charles Spurgeon, and Nathaniel West. Apart from this special emphasis on God’s plan for the Jews, it pictures the wrap up of Salvation History in much the same way as the proponents of NCHP.
Hopefully, Aunt Tracy, you are noticing that Historic Premillennarians have trouble deciding how to interpret OT prophecies of the Messiahs future kingdom. When, how, and how much should we interpret them literally, in terms of ethnic Israel and the nations; when, how, and how much should we interpret them figuratively, in terms of Christ, the New Covenant, and the Church? Trust me, in the Great End Time Debate, this is the THE crucial question!
Well, not to despair. Help is on the way. But first . . .
2. Dispensational Premillennialism
Now brace yourself, because things are about to get even more complicated! That’s because since around 1850, a brother by the name of Charles Darby developed a new “dispensational” form of premillennialism. Through the influence of his denomination (the Plymouth Brethren) and their many prophetic conferences this view has come to the roost among many smaller Protestant churches and denominations. Famous dispensational premillennarians include John Hagee, David Jeremiah, Tim La Haye, Hal Lindsey, John MacArthur, Chuck Smith, Charles Stanley, Charles Swindoll, and John Walvoord.
Like it’s birth mother (Old Covenant Premillennialism), Dispensationalism interprets OT Kingdom prophecies quite literally, and therefore shows a similar interest in the future of ethnic Israel. However, this system goes even further, teaching that God actually has two different plans for two different peoples: an earthly plan for ethnic Israel, and a heavenly plan for his (largely Gentile) Church. Some dispensationalists even teach that this distinction will continue throughout all eternity!2
This understanding affects their view of the wrap up of Salvation History (i.e., the story of God’s saving acts from the Fall to the Consummation), since it requires them to further multiply the great end time events. Thus, dispensationalists teach that the glorified Christ will return THREE times: once at “the secret Rapture” (when Christ removes his heavenly people, the Church, to their heavenly home above); a second time at the end of a literal seven year tribulation (after which he introduces the millennium, where God’s plans for his earthly people Israel are fulfilled at last); and a third and final time at the end of the millennium (when Christ administers the Last Judgment and brings in the new heavens and the new earth). Note carefully: In order to make all this work dispensationalists are forced to envision THREE separate resurrections and THREE different judgments! (For a diagram of dispensational eschatology, click here). If, then, God intended our blessed hope to be clear, simple, and sheep-friendly, I’m thinking this cannot possibly be it.
A Brief Time Out
Now, let’s pause for a moment and think about premillennialism in general. If you’ve been reading your NT carefully, you’ve got to be puzzled by these premillennial scenarios. I know they puzzled me, for they were all telling me that in the future millennium we are going to go backwards: backwards to the OT Law, and to what life was like in OT times!
But surely this is not the NT view; in fact, it explicitly teaches the opposite! For example, the NT repeatedly says that the Mosaic Law has been fulfilled and rendered forever obsolete by Christ and the New Covenant (Mt. 9:14-17, Heb. 8:13). It tells us that from now on God’s people will not worship him on Mt. Zion, or in earthly Jerusalem, or in a temple made of stone, but in spirit and in truth (John 4:15-26); that they are now citizens of the Jerusalem above (Gal. 4:26, Heb. 12:22f). It tells us that the Israelite theocracy has given way, once and for all, to a spiritual Kingdom in which there is no longer any distinction between Jew and Gentile (Gal. 3:28, Eph. 2:14f, Col. 1:13). It tells us that the reign of the Messiah promised in the OT now emanates from heaven above, and not from the earth beneath (Acts 2:29ff, Col. 3:1f). It tells us that we need the NT to understand the Old (Mt. 13:10-17). It tells us that there is a veil over the OT, and over our eyes as well, which only the NT and the Holy Spirit can remove (2 Cor. 3). If, then, the NT tells us to interpret OT prophecy figuratively, and if it tells us that we are NOT going back, then surely we are NOT going back!
Also, believers whose minds are saturated in the NT cannot help but feel that to a great or lesser degree all forms of premillennialism needlessly complicate the true biblical picture of Consummation. Why? Because they teach that the Kingdom of God enters history in three stages, rather than two. But this in turn forces premillennarians to multiply (sometimes two-fold, sometimes three) the comings, resurrections, judgments, and transformations of nature that are biblically associated with the return of Christ at the end of the age. Happily, as you study the NT you will find that it actually teaches a far simpler view of the Consummation. That view is called Amillennialism.
3. Amillennialism
From the very beginning of the NT era this has been the majority view of the Christian Church, especially since the days of Athanasius and Augustine. It appears in the most of the ancient creeds (e.g. the Apostle’s Creed, the Nicene Creed, the Athanasian Creed) and the doctrinal standards of all the major denominations: Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran, Reformed, Anglican, and Methodist. Though it is presently the minority position among evangelical Protestants, the current revival of interest in classic Protestant theology is definitely causing its stock to rise! Modern amillennial Bible teachers include Greg Beale, Mark Dever, Anthony Hoekema, Dennis Johnson, Kim Riddlebarger, and Sam Storms.
The word amillennialism means “no millennium.” In a way, the term is unfortunate, since, as we shall see, amillennialism does not deny the existence of a millennium, only that it is a future, literal 1000 year reign of Christ on earth. For this reason some prefer to call it Realized Millennialism, or Present-Millennialism. The big idea here is that we’re living in the millennium now!
Well, Aunt Tracy, this is where you finally get some relief. For it turns out that amillennialism is very easy to understand, and very easy to defend from the NT. I’ll introduce it to you briefly, first by giving you it’s idea of the Kingdom of God, and then of the Consummation.
Amillennialism teaches that the Kingdom of God is a distinctly spiritual reign of God and Christ, entered by the new birth through faith in Christ and the Gospel (Mt. 13:1f, John 3:1f, Rom. 14:17, Col. 1:13). As we learn from the parable of the wheat and the tares and many other NT texts, this reign enters into the world in just two stages: 1) the present heavenly reign of the exalted Son of God over his born-again children, and 2) the future eternal kingdom of God the Father (and his Christ) in the new heavens and the new earth. A great many NT passages explicitly represent the Kingdom in this simple, two-fold way, and all NT teaching about the end times assumes it (Mt. 24-25, Luke 19:11f; 1 Cor. 15:20-28; Eph. 1:15-23; Col. 3:1f; etc.). For a diagram illustrating the two-staged Kingdom of God, click here.
But here is the part I love, the part where my heart comes home at last. For what is it that separates the two stages of the Kingdom. What is the hinge on which the world swings out of this present evil age and into the glorious eternal age to come? It is the one Consummation of all things (Mt. 24:14, 1 Cor. 15:24, 1 Pet. 4:7). And at the center of this momentous event is the coming again of the glorified Lord Jesus Christ, both to judge and to redeem, consummately. At that time Christ will descend from heaven bodily, in great power and glory, to raise the dead, transform the living saints, gather all sentient beings (both men and angels) before his throne in the air, judge the world in righteousness, destroy the earth and its works with fire, and then settle his beloved Bride in the new heavens and a new earth, the eternal home of the redeemed. It is very impressive to see how many NT passages consistently anticipate this single majestic coming again of the Lord Jesus Christ (Mt. 13, 24-25, 1 Cor. 15, Phil. 3:17-21, 1 Thess. 4, 2 Thess. 2, 2 Pet. 3). (For a list of all the major NT texts dealing with the Consummation, click here; and for a chart showing that all the great end-time events occur at Christ’s Second Coming, click here.)
I sincerely hope, Aunt Tracy, that you will take some time to read all the Scriptures cited above. And as you do, I also hope and pray that the Holy Spirit will open your wondering eyes to the simplicity, beauty, power of the amillennial understanding of the Kingdom of God.
Making Sense of the Millennium
But if the Kingdom of God comes in just two stages, what are we to make of the millennium? The solution is not difficult. As a close reading of Revelation 20 will show, John is not speaking of a future earthly reign of Christ, but rather of the era of his present heavenly reign. He is speaking of the Church era, the time between Christ’s first and second advents.
The Structure of the Revelation
One important way to see this is to understand the structure of the Revelation as a whole, and especially chapters 6-20. (For a helpful chart, click here) This large section of the Revelation is aptly entitled The Course of the Heavenly King’s Reign. As many commentators have observed, here Christ’s heavenly reign is described six separate times, in six parallel large-scale visions that draw heavily upon OT language and imagery to express NT truth.
They are: 1) The Six Seals (chapter 6, followed by a sneak preview of the World to Come in chapter 7); 2) The Seven Trumpets (chapters 8-11); 3) The Woman and the Dragon (chapters 12-14); 4) The Seven Bowls (chapters 15-16); 5) The Fall of the Dragon’s Helpers (chapters 17-19); and 6) The 1000 Years (chapter 20).
That this is the true structure of the Revelation is easily seen from the fact that towards the end of each of these six visions we often receive a symbolic description of the Last Battle (i.e., the final conflict between Christ and Satan, the Church and the World), and always receive a depiction of the resurrection and/or last judgment at Christ’s return.
Now, bearing this in mind, let’s take a quick look at the sixth and final vision of this section of the Revelation, the vision of The 1000 Years (Rev. 20). Again, be sure to remember that all through the Revelation the Holy Spirit was pleased to use OT ideas and images to convey important truths about the course and character of Christ’s spiritual kingdom under the New Covenant.
Revelation 20:1-3: The Binding of Satan for “1000” Years
Here John tells us that at the beginning of the Church era Satan is bound FROM DECEIVING THE NATIONS ANY LONGER. Prior to Christ’s first coming, those nations were largely in his grip (Luke 4:6). Now, however, the fullness of time has come; now Christ has died and risen again; now God’s redemptive activity can finally overflow the borders of Israel; now the gospel can go forth to all nations; now Satan can be cast out, and God’s elect children brought in, without fail (John 12:20-36).
So then: The message here is carefully circumscribed. During the period between Christ’s two advents, Satan is not swept off the stage of history into the abyss. Rather, he will indeed remain present and active in the world, but with respect to the progress of the gospel among the elect, he is completely bound, for his authority over them has been completely shattered (Mt. 12; John 12; Rev. 12). Yes, at the end of the age, he will be released for a little while in order to deceive the inhabitants of the earth once again. But here too he is bound: Until that time comes, God will keep him from gathering the nations together against the Church for the Last Battle.
As for the duration of the era between the two advents of Christ, the Holy Spirit here represents it as “1000 years”. This number, like all the numbers in the Revelation, is symbolic. It symbolizes both magnitude and divine completeness (10 x 10 x 10). In other words, in giving us this number the Holy Spirit wanted the saints to know that Christ will not return quickly; that there will be a long time between his first and second advents. But he also wanted us to know that this longish time will be purposeful and fruitful, for in it the triune God will complete the ingathering of his Church through the preaching of the Gospel, which the exalted Christ himself spearheads from his throne above (Mt. 28:18f, Acts 2:1f, Rev. 6:1-2).
Revelation 20:4-6: The Reign of the Saints for “1000” Years
Concerning the reign of the saints spoken of here, notice first that John sees the souls of faithful saints ruling with their Lord. This is not an earthly reign, but a heavenly. These saints are “reigning in life” with Christ (Rom. 5:17); that is, having completed their earthly course victoriously, they now reign victoriously in heaven over all the dark powers that formerly accosted them on the earth. This is the meaning of “the first resurrection.” At the moment of their death, faithful saints, already risen to newness of life in Christ (John 11, Rom. 6), now rise to the perfection of that life in heaven. Also, once in heaven, “judgment is given to them,” not in the sense that they henceforth share in Christ’s present heavenly reign over the nations (and certainly not that they will reign with him on the earth in a future millennium). Rather, at his coming they will participate in the final judgment of the world (Dan. 7; Rom. 16:20; 1 Cor. 61f; Rev. 3:26-27, 19:11-15). In sum, the great purpose of this portion of Revelation 20 is to encourage the Church Militant to be faithful until death, at which time great blessings await them in heaven, blessings that include a central role in the Last Judgment at Christ’s return.
Revelation 20:7-11: The Last Battle and the Judgment of Satan at the End of the “1000” Years
At the end of the “1000 years” (i.e., the end of the Church era and the present evil age), the devil will be released to deceive the nations one final time, thereby inciting a final battle between Satan and Christ, the world and the Church (Gen. 3:15). This solemn theme pervades the Revelation and is found in other portions of the OT and NT as well (Rev. 11:7-10, 16:12-16, 19:17-21; Dan. 9; Ezek. 38-39; Zech. 11-12; Mt. 24; 2 Thess. 2). Every text in which this theme appears makes it clear that the Last Battle will brief, cut short by the coming again of Christ in power and glory to rescue his own. According to the apostle Paul, this is one of the two or three great signs by which latter day believers may know that Christ’s return is very near, even at the door (2 Thess. 2).
Revelation 20:11-15: The Last Judgment of All Mankind at the End of the “1000” Years
As the NT teaches pervasively, the return of Christ leads immediately to a general bodily resurrection of the dead, after which comes the Last Judgment. Christ himself will administer it, seated upon his throne in the air above the earth. Here, as elsewhere in the NT, we see all men (and angels) gathered before him. While all are judged according to their works, salvation itself is by God’s sovereign grace, through faith in Christ. All who who have trusted in the High King of Heaven will find their names written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. Gladly and gratefully, they will descend with him to a glorious new earth, the eternal home of the redeemed (Revelation 21:1f).
Understanding OT Kingdom Prophecy
We have seen that the NT does not leave room for a third, millennial stage of the Kingdom. We have also seen that the NT declares the Mosaic Law—now fulfilled in Christ—to be obsolete. What then are we to make of the many OT Kingdom prophecies that seem to predict an eternal, universal Mosaic theocracy?3
Christ and the apostles themselves point the way.
On the one hand, they teach us what the Kingdom really is: the direct spiritual reign of God, through Christ, by the Spirit, over a redeemed people who, through faith, have been transferred from the Domain of Darkness into the spiritual Kingdom of God’s beloved Son. This reign that appears in two stages, separated by a single Parousia of Christ at the end of the age (Mt. 13:36-43; John 3:1f; Col. 1:13).
On the other hand, having revealed to us the true nature of the Kingdom, Christ and the apostles implicitly tell us what the Kingdom is not: It is not an eternal Mosaic theocracy. For the Mosaic theocracy was simply a temporary picture or “shadow” of the Christ-centered spiritual Kingdom that now has come, and soon will come in its fullness (Col. 2:16-17; Heb. 9:1f).
Therefore, it is clear that we must interpret OT Kingdom prophecy figuratively, or “typologically.” That is, we must understand that in former times the Spirit of God moved the prophets to speak in “types and shadows”; to use language and imagery drawn from the history and institutions of the Mosaic Law in order to depict the two-fold spiritual Kingdom introduced and unveiled by Christ and the New Covenant.
Accordingly, when we come across a particular OT Kingdom prophecy, we must put on our NT glasses and see it as fulfilled either in Christ’s heavenly reign, or in the new heavens and new earth, or in both. As the NT itself makes abundantly clear, this is exactly what Christ’s writing apostles did.4
To get a feel for how this works let’s look very briefly at a couple such prophecies.
Psalm 2
Imagine you’re a Jew living in the time of King David, or in the days prior to Pentecost. You read Psalm 2 and conclude, naturally enough, that one day soon the LORD will raise up a mighty Israelite king, install him on the earthly Zion, and grant him such military success that in the end all nations will either humble themselves before him and his God, or perish. In this way God’s coming Messianic king will extend the reign of the LORD (and the Law of the LORD) over the whole earth.
When, however, you read the NT, you realize from any number of passages that David’s prophecy actually has a heavenly fulfillment in Christ and his Church (Acts 13:33; Heb. 1:5, 5:5). God the Father, having exalted the incarnate Christ to his own right hand, has “begotten” him as the First-born Son over the whole household of God; indeed, over the whole creation itself (Heb. 1:1f, 3:6). Even now Christ reigns, not upon the earthly Zion, but the heavenly (Heb. 12:22). Even now, through the preaching of the Gospel, God is giving him the (believing) nations as his inheritance (Rev. 5:9). Therefore, even now all kings—and all peoples—are wise to “kiss” the Son in faith and obedience, before he returns in judgment to shatter the rebels like vessels of clay (Rev. 2:37, 12:5, 19:15).
Like the Jews of old, premillennarians interpret Psalm 2 basically literally, believing that God said exactly what he meant. Like the apostles, amillennarians interpret it spiritually, in terms of Christ, the Gospel, and the Church. They affirm that God did indeed mean what he said, but also that he did not say all that he meant. To understand Psalm 2 we need to see through “New Covenant Eyes”, as amillennarians strive to do.
Psalm 110
As with Psalm 2, so here: Take it at face value and you must conclude that in days ahead God will raise up a Royal Priest who, having gathered to himself a mighty army of zealous young warriors, will extend the reign of the LORD from Zion over all nations—leaving no impenitent enemy to survive.
When, however, we consult the NT, we repeatedly learn that the fulfillment of this prophecy is not earthly and physical, but heavenly and spiritual. When the exalted Christ entered heaven, God the Father sat him down at his own right hand, making him the eternal King and High Priest of his believing people. Through the work of the Spirit and the preaching of the Gospel, these believers will “volunteer freely” to serve their Lord in “the Day of his power” (i.e., throughout his heavenly mediatorial reign). When at last their mission is accomplished, Christ will come again in judgment to “shatter the head over a broad country” (i.e., Satan), and place every other spiritual and physical enemy under his feet, including death itself.
Psalm 110 is, then, still another picture of the course, character, and consummation of Christ’s heavenly reign, couched in the language of the OT Law (Acts 2:34-35, 3:19-24; 1 Cor. 15:20-28; Eph. 1:15-23).
Isaiah 11:1-9
Premillenarians enthusiastically claim this famous Kingdom prophecy for their own, arguing that it gives us a picture of world conditions during a future millennial reign of Christ on earth. However, here Isaiah says nothing about Christ living upon the earth, nor anything about his ruling for 1000 years. With eyes schooled by the NT, we can, however, see in verses 1-5 the entire course of Christ’s redemptive mission, from his incarnation, to his heavenly reign, to his second coming, at which time he will judge the world in righteousness by the rod of his mouth and the breath of his lips (see 2 Thess. 2:8). Then, in verses 6-9, we find the Spirit using OT images of divine blessing to picture the second stage of the Kingdom, the new heavens and the new earth that Christ himself will create. In picturesque language that would resonate in the hearts of his OT saints, God is pleased to call this glorious new world “all My holy mountain” (Phil. 3:21; Isaiah 65:25; Heb. 12:18-24; Rev. 14:1-5, 21:10).
Micah 4:1-4 (Isaiah 2:1-4)
Here is another favorite among premillenarians. And it must be admitted that a strictly literal reading of this prophecy bids us look for a (BIG) latter day temple, situated upon an earthly Mt. Zion, to which Gentile nations will stream, and from which the Mosaic Law will somehow go forth until, at last, the final judgments of the LORD bring in his perfected kingdom.
But again, the NT invites us to adopt a deeper, more spiritual understanding.
Seeing, for example, that the events predicted here are set in “the last days,” we know that they pertain to the things of Christ (Heb. 1:11; Pet. 1:10-12). Likewise, we understand from the NT that the OT temple was merely a picture of the eternal habitation of God: Christ and his Body, the Church (John 2:19; Acts 7:48-50, Eph. 2:21-22). From this we conclude that the “law” (or instruction) that goes forth from Zion is really the gospel, sent down by Christ from the Jerusalem above, and disseminated by his gospel heralds in such a way that many nations of believing peoples “go up” in spirit and in truth to worship him there (John 4:21-24). One day soon he will return in judgment, so that ever after his peace-loving children may sit, each under his own vine and under his own fig tree, in the beautiful, fruitful new world to come.
Does God’s Use of Figurative Language Make Him a Deceiver?
Does it seem strange to you that in OT times God veiled his truth about the coming King and Kingdom in “mystical” or typological language drawn from the Mosaic Law under which ethnic Israel was then living (2 Cor. 3; Col. 2:16f; Heb. 8:1f)? It does to many premillenarians, who reject the very thought of it, feeling that this would make God a deceiver.
But is not God at liberty to bring his truth to his people in a form that pleases him? What if it pleased him somewhat to veil the truth of the coming Kingdom so as to reserve for his Son the honor of drawing back that veil himself (2 Cor. 3:7-18); the honor of disclosing the “true truth” about the Kingdom (Mt. 13); the honor of illuminating the minds of the saints once for all (Luke 24:44-45); and the honor of opening their eyes to the deep, underlying substance of the Law and the Prophets: the Person and work Christ (John 5:39, 45-46)?
While we may not fully understand all of God’s ways in the OT, we definitely know enough from the NT not to quarrel with them. (For more on this important question, please click here.)
Conclusion
Aunt Tracy, just in case this letter is too short, let me add a few final words of encouragement.
I definitely get it that eschatology is a bit complicated and a lot controversial. But that’s because it is deep, important, and potentially life-changing. If so, you can be sure the devil will do everything in his power to keep us in the dark about it.
Do we want to understand God’s plan of salvation? Do we want to behold the true course and character of Salvation History? Do we want to understand and enjoy the Old Testament? Do we want a clear, inspiring picture of our Blessed Hope: the Coming again of Christ, and all the amazing, awesome, wonderful things he will do when he comes?
If so, we’ve got to wrestle with eschatology. Here then, in a summary paragraph, are my concluding thoughts on the whole matter:
I believe that the mystery of the spiritual, two-staged Kingdom of God introduced by the New Covenant—the mystery that God planned before the foundation of the world, and that Jesus and his apostles unveiled to us all (Mt. 13)—is the Master Key that will one day fully resolve the Great End Time Debate. That’s because it opens up just about everything of importance in the study of eschatology: the proper interpretation of OT Kingdom prophecy, the structure and theme of the Revelation, the meaning of the millennium, and the nature and purpose of the Consummation at the end of the age.
Small wonder, then, that in teaching us about these mysteries, our Lord himself said, “Blessed are your eyes, because they see. For many righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it; and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it” (Mt. 13:17).
So then: Let us ponder these things often and with great care, understanding that in them Christ has indeed placed a precious key in our hands; a key that turns ordinary folk like us into NT scribes, so that we might bring out of his great treasury of divine wisdom things both old and new—and so feed and enrich the world.5
Notes
1. Eschatology is the study of “the last things.” As a rule, the focus of biblical eschatology is on “the last days;” on the wrap up of God’s saving plan and activity set to occur at the end of the present evil age. But technically “the last days” began with the incarnation of God’s Son, and will last for all eternity. For a list of books dealing with biblical eschatology, see note 5 below.
2. However, the NT disagrees. Christ himself declares that henceforth and forever elect Jews and Gentiles are one flock with one shepherd (John 10). The apostle Paul says that God has broken down the middle wall of partition between the two peoples once and for all (Eph. 2:11-18), and that together they constitute a single olive tree in His sight (Rom. 11). John, in the Revelation, depicts the OT and NT people of God as one woman: the Mother of the Living and the Bride of Christ (Rev. 12). Here is excellent material for further study among Good Bereans!
3. One major problem with premillennial views is that the OT prophecies of a coming theocratic Kingdom do not limit it to 1000 years, but instead depict it as enduring forever (Is. 65:18; Jer. 17:25; Ezek. 37:25, 43:7). Therefore, the millennial solution is really no solution at all.
4. Here is a list of NT texts in which we find Christ’s apostles interpreting OT Kingdom prophecies in terms of Christ, the New Covenant, and the Church. I put those of special interest in bold. Acts 2:33-35, 7:44-50, 13:46-47, 15:12-21; Rom. 9:19-26, 10:12-13, 11:25-27; 2 Cor. 6:1-2, 14-18; Gal. 4:26-27. Of very special importance is Jeremiah 31:31f, cited in Hebrews 8. Here God and the prophet caution Israel (and us Christian interpreters) against anticipating the presence of the Mosaic Law in the days of the Kingdom. This, in turn, should incline us to adopt a more figurative approach to the entire OT, an approach that sees the New Covenant mystically foreshadowed in the Old. In the book of Hebrews, the inspired author consistently does this very thing.
5. For further study on eschatology, see my book The High King of Heaven, and also the excellent work by Anthony Hoekema, called The Bible and the Future (Eerdmans). For an inspiring exegetical and devotional commentary on the Revelation, see William Hendriksen, More Than Conquerors (Baker). For further study of amillennialism, click here.
Jesus uses an analogy to expose the false teachers of Israel who come to kill, steal and destroy, in contrast with His self identification as the Good Shepherd who lays His life down for the sheep.
What may be the most famous chapter in all of western literature portrays the appeal of a “therapeutic gospel.”
In his chapter entitled “The Grand Inquisitor,” Fyodor Dostoevsky imagines Jesus returning to sixteenth century Spain (The Brothers Karamazov, II:5:v). But Jesus is not welcomed by church authorities. The cardinal of Seville, head of the Inquisition, arrests and imprisons Jesus, condemning him to die. Why? The church has shifted course. It has decided to meet instinctual human cravings, rather than calling men to repentance. It has decided to bend its message to felt needs, rather than calling forth the high, holy, and difficult freedom of faith working through love. Jesus’ biblical example and message are deemed too hard for weak souls, and the church has decided to make it easy.
The Grand Inquisitor, representing the voice of this misguided church, interrogates Jesus in his prison cell. He sides with the tempter and the three questions the tempter put to Jesus in the wilderness centuries before. He says that the church will give earthly bread instead of the bread of heaven. It will offer religious magic and miracles instead of faith in the Word of God. It will exert temporal power and authority instead of serving the call to freedom. “We have corrected Your work,” the inquisitor says to Jesus.
The inquisitor’s gospel is a therapeutic gospel. It’s structured to give people what they want, not to change what they want. It centers exclusively around the welfare of man and temporal happiness. It discards the glory of God in Christ. It forfeits the narrow, difficult road that brings deep human flourishing and eternal joy. This therapeutic gospel accepts and covers for human weaknesses, seeking to ameliorate the most obvious symptoms of distress. It makes people feel better. It takes human nature as a given, because human nature is too hard to change. It does not want the King of Heaven to come down. It does not attempt to change people into lovers of God, given the truth of who Jesus is, what he is like, what he does.
THE CONTEMPORARY THERAPEUTIC GOSPEL
The most obvious, instinctual felt needs of twenty-first century, middle-class Americans are different from the felt needs that Dostoevsky tapped into. We take food supply and political stability for granted. We find our miracle-substitute in the wonders of technology. Middle-class felt needs are less primal. They express a more luxurious, more refined sense of self-interest:
I want to feel loved for who I am, to be pitied for what I’ve gone through, to feel intimately understood, to be accepted unconditionally;
I want to experience a sense of personal significance and meaningfulness, to be successful in my career, to know my life matters, to have an impact;
I want to gain self-esteem, to affirm that I am okay, to be able to assert my opinions and desires;
I want to be entertained, to feel pleasure in the endless stream of performances that delight my eyes and tickle my ears;
I want a sense of adventure, excitement, action, and passion so that I experience life as thrilling and moving.
The modern, middle-class version of therapeutic gospel takes its cues from this particular family of desires. We might say that the target audience consists of psychological felt needs, rather than the physical felt needs that typically arise in difficult social conditions. (The contemporary “health and wealth” gospel and obsession with “miracles” express something more like the Grand Inquisitor’s older version of therapeutic gospel.)
In this new gospel, the great “evils” to be redressed do not call for any fundamental change of direction in the human heart. Instead, the problem lies in my sense of rejection from others; in my corrosive experience of life’s vanity; in my nervous sense of self-condemnation and diffidence; in the imminent threat of boredom if my music is turned off; in my fussy complaints when a long, hard road lies ahead. These are today’s significant felt needs that the gospel is bent to serve. Jesus and the church exist to make you feel loved, significant, validated, entertained, and charged up. This gospel ameliorates distressing symptoms. It makes you feel better. The logic of this therapeutic gospel is a jesus-for-Me who meets individual desires and assuages psychic aches.
The therapeutic outlook is not a bad thing in its proper place. By definition, a medical-therapeutic gaze holds in view problems of physical suffering and breakdown. In literal medical intervention, a therapy treats an illness, trauma, or deficiency. You don’t call someone to repentance for their colon cancer, broken leg, or beriberi. You seek to heal. So far, so good.
But in today’s therapeutic gospel the medical way of looking at the world is metaphorically extended to these psychological desires. These are defined just like a medical problem. You feel bad; the therapy makes you feel better. The definition of the disease bypasses the sinful human heart. You are not the agent of your deepest problems, but merely a sufferer and victim of unmet needs. The offer of a cure skips over the sin-bearing Savior. Repentance from unbelief, willfulness, and wickedness is not the issue. Sinners are not called to a U-turn and to a new life that is life indeed. Such a gospel massages self-love. There is nothing in its inner logic to make you love God and love any other person besides yourself. This therapeutic gospel may often mention the word “Jesus,” but he has morphed into the meeter-of-your-needs, not the Savior from your sins. It corrects Jesus’ work. The therapeutic gospel unhinges the gospel.
THE ONCE-FOR-ALL GOSPEL
The real gospel is good news of the Word made flesh, the sin-bearing Savior, the resurrected Lord of lords: “I am the living One, and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore” (Rev. 1:18). This Christ turns the world upside down. The Holy Spirit rewires our sense of felt need as one prime effect of his inworking presence and power. Because the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, we keenly feel a different set of needs when God comes into view and when we understand that we stand or fall in his gaze. My instinctual cravings are replaced (sometimes quickly, always gradually) by the growing awareness of true, life-and-death needs:
I need mercy above all else: “Lord, have mercy upon me”; “For Your name’s sake, pardon my iniquity for it is very great”;
I want to learn wisdom, and unlearn willful self-preoccupation: “Nothing you desire compares with her”;
I need to learn to love both God and neighbor: “The goal of our instruction is love that comes from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith”;
I long for God’s name to be honored, for his kingdom to come, for his will to be done on earth;
I want Christ’s glory, lovingkindness, and goodness to be seen on earth, to fill the earth as obviously as water fills the ocean;
I need God to change me from who I am by instinct, choice, and practice;
I want him to deliver me from my obsessive self-righteousness, to slay my lust for self-vindication, so that I feel my need for the mercies of Christ, so that I learn to treat others gently;
I need God’s mighty and intimate help in order to will and to do those things that last unto eternal life, rather than squandering my life on vanities;
I want to learn how to endure hardship and suffering in hope, having my faith simplified, deepened, and purified;
I need to learn to worship, to delight, to trust, to give thanks, to cry out, to take refuge, to hope;
I want the resurrection to eternal life: “We groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body”;
I need God himself: “Show me Your glory”; “Maranatha. Come, Lord Jesus.”
Make it so, Father of mercies. Make it so, Redeemer of all that is dark and broken.
Prayer expresses desire. Prayer expresses your felt sense of need. Lord, have mercy upon us. Song expresses gladness and gratitude at desire fulfilled. Song expresses your felt sense of who God is and all that he gives. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound. But there are no prayers and songs in the Bible that take their cues from the current therapeutic felt needs. Imagine, “Our Father in heaven, help me feel that I’m okay just the way I am. Protect me this day from having to do anything I find boring. Hallelujah, I’m indispensable, and what I’m doing is really having an impact on others, so I can feel good about my life.” Have mercy upon us! Instead, in our Bible we hear a thousand cries of need and shouts of delight that orient us to our real needs and to our true Savior.
GOOD GOODS, BAD GODS
Properly understood, carefully interpreted, the felt needs make good gifts. But they make poor gods. Get first things first. Seek first the Father’s kingdom and his righteousness, and every other good gift will be added to you.
This is easy to see in the case of the three particular gifts offered by the Grand Inquisitor’s therapeutic gospel. It is a good thing to have a stable source of food, “bread for tomorrow” (Matt. 6:11, literally). All people everywhere seek food, water, and clothing (Matt. 6:32). Our Father knows what we need. But seek first his kingdom. You do not live by bread alone, but by every word out of his mouth. If you worship your physical needs, you will only die. But if you worship God the giver of every good gift, you will be thankful for what he gives; you will still have hope when you suffer lack; and you will surely feast at the endless Banquet.
A sense of wonder and mystery is also a very good thing. But the same caveat, the same framework, applies. God is no wizard of Oz, creating experiences of wonder for the sake of the experience. Jesus said “no” to making a spectacle of himself in the midst of temple crowds. His daily faithfulness to God is a wonder upon wonder. Get first things first. Then you’ll appreciate glory in small ways and large. In the end you will know all things as wonders, both what is (Rev. 4) and what has happened (Rev. 5). You will know the incomprehensible God, creator and redeemer, whose name is Wonderful.
Similarly, political order is a good gift. We are to pray for the authorities to rule well, so that we may live peacefully (1 Tim. 2:2). But if you livefor a just society, you will always be disappointed. Again, seek first God’s kingdom. You’ll work toward a just social order, enjoy it to the degree it’s attainable, have reason to endure injustice. In the end, you will know unutterable joy on the day when all persons bow to the reign of the true King.
Of course, God gives good gifts. But he also gives the best gift, the inexpressible Gift of gifts. The Grand Inquisitor burned Jesus at the stake in order to erase the Gift and the Giver. He chose to give people good things, but discarded first things.
The things offered by the contemporary therapeutic gospel are a bit trickier to interpret. The odor of self-interest and self-obsession clings closely to that wish list of “I want_____.” But even these, carefully reframed and reinterpreted, do gesture in the direction of a good gift. The overall package of “felt needs” is systematically misaligned, but the pieces can be properly understood. Any “different gospel” (Gal. 1:6) makes itself plausible by offering Lego-pieces of reality assembled into a structure that contradicts revealed truth. Satan’s temptation of Adam and Eve was plausible only because it incorporated many elements of reality, continually gesturing in the direction of truth, even while steadily guiding away from the truth: “Look, a beautiful and desirable tree. and God has said that the test will reveal both good and evil, with the possibility of life not death arising from your choice. Just as God is wise, so you the chooser can become like God in wisdom. Come now and eat.” So close, yet so far away. Almost so, but the exact opposite.
Consider the five elements we have identified with the therapeutic gospel:
1. “Need for love”? It is surely a good thing to know that you are both known and loved. God who searches the thoughts and intentions of our hearts also sets his steadfast love upon us. However all this is radically different from the instinctual craving to be accepted for who I am. Christ’s love comes pointedly and personally despite who I am. You are accepted for who Christ is, because of what he did, does, and will do. God truly accepts you, and if God is for you, who can be against you? But in doing this, he does not affirm and endorse what you are like. Rather, he sets about changing you into a fundamentally different kind of person. In the real gospel you feel deeply known and loved, but your relentless “need for love” has been overthrown.
2. “Need for significance”? It is surely a good thing for the works of your hands to be established forever: gold, silver, and precious stones, not wood, hay, and straw. It is good when what you do with your life truly counts, and when your works follow you into eternity. Vanity, futility, and ultimate insignificance register the curse upon our work life – even midcourse, not just when we retire, or when we die, or on the Day of Judgment. But the real gospel inverts the order of things presupposed by the therapeutic gospel. The craving for impact and significance – one of the typical “youthful lusts” that boil up within us – is merely idolatrous when it acts as Director of Operations in the human heart. God does not meet your need for significance; he meets your need for mercy and deliverance from your obsession with personal significance. When you turn from your enslavement and turn to God, then your works do start to count for good. The gospel of Jesus and the fruit of faith are not tailored to “meet your needs.” He frees from the tyranny of felt needs, remakes you to fear God and keep his commandments (Eccl. 12:13). In the divine irony of grace, that alone makes what you do with your life of lasting value.
3. “Need for self-esteem, self-confidence, and self-assertion”? To gain a confident sense of your identity is a great good. Ephesians is strewn with several dozen “identity statements,” because by this the Spirit motivates a life of courageous faith and love. You are God’s – among the saints, chosen ones, adopted sons, beloved children, citizens, slaves, soldiers; part of the workmanship, wife and dwelling place – every one of these in Christ. No aspect of your identity is self-referential, feeding your “self-esteem.” Your opinion of yourself is far less important than God’s opinion of you, and accurate self-assessment is derivative of God’s assessment. True identity is God-referential. True awareness of yourself connects to high esteem for Christ. Great confidence in Christ correlates to a vote of fundamental no confidence in and about yourself. God nowhere replaces diffidence and people-pleasing by self-assertiveness. In fact, to assert your opinions and desires, as is, marks you as a fool. Only as you are freed from the tyranny of your opinions and desires are you free to assess them accurately, and then to express them appropriately.
4. “Need for pleasure”? In fact, the true gospel promises endlessly joyous experience, drinking from the river of delights (Ps. 36). This describes God’s presence. But as we have seen in each case, this is keyed to the reversal of our instinctive cravings, not to their direct satisfaction. The way of joy is the way of suffering, endurance, small obediences, willingness to identify with human misery, willingness to overthrow your most persuasive desires and instincts. I don’t need to be entertained. But I absolutely NEED to learn to worship with all my heart.
5. “Need for excitement and adventure”? To participate in Christ’s kingdom is to play a part within the Greatest Action-Adventure Story Ever Told. But the paradox of redemption again turns the whole world upside down. The real adventure takes the path of weakness, struggle, endurance, patience, small kindnesses done well. The road to excellence in wisdom is unglamorous. Other people might take better vacations and have a more thrilling marriage than yours. The path of Jesus calls forth more grit than thrill. He needed endurance far more than he needed excitement. His kingdom might not cater to our cravings for derring-do and thrill-seeking, but “solid joys and lasting treasures none but Zion’s children know.”
We say “yes” and “amen” to all good gifts. But get first things first. The contemporary therapeutic gospel in its many forms takes our ‘gimmes’ at face value. It grabs for the goodies. It erases worship of the Giver, whose greatest gift is mercy towards us for what we want by instinct, choice, enculturation, and habit. He calls us to radical repentance. Bob Dylan described the therapeutic’s alternative in a remarkable phrase: “You think He’s just an errand boy to satisfy your wandering desires” (from When You Gonna Wake Up?). Second things are exalted as servants of Number One.
Get first things first. Get the gospel of incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, and glory. Live the gospel of repentance, faith, and transformation into the image of the Son. Proclaim the gospel of the coming Day when eternal life and eternal death are revealed, the coming Day of Christ.
WHICH GOSPEL?
Which gospel will you live? Which gospel will you preach? Which needs will you awaken and address in others? Which Christ will be your people’s Christ? Will it be the christette who massages felt need? Or the Christ who turns the world upside down and makes all things new?
The Grand Inquisitor was very tender-hearted towards human felt need—very sympathetic to the things that all people everywhere seek with all their heart, very sensitive to the difficulty of changing anyone. But he proved to be a monster in the end. There is a saying in mercy ministries that runs like this, “If you don’t seek to meet people’s physical needs, it’s heartless. But if you don’t give people the crucified, risen and returning Christ, it’s hopeless.” Jesus fed hungry people bread, and Jesus offered his broken body as the bread of eternal life. It is ultimately cruel to leave people in their sins, captive to their instinctive desires, in despair, under curse. The current therapeutic gospel sounds tender-hearted at first. It is so sensitive to pressure points of ache and disappointment. But in the end it is cruel and Christ-less. It does not foster true self-knowledge. It does not rewrite the script of the world. It creates no prayers or songs.
We must be no less sensitive but far more discerning. Jesus Christ turns human need upside down, creating prayer. He is the inexpressible Gift of gifts, creating song. And he gives all good gifts, both now and forever. Let every knee bow, and let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
The
heart of the Reformed faith—the heart of biblical Christianity—is God-centeredness:
the conviction that God Himself is supremely important. We define all our
doctrine in a God-centered way. Sin is horrible because it is an affront to
God. Salvation is wonderful because it brings glory to God. Heaven is heaven
because it is the place where God is all in all. Hell is hell because it is the
place where God manifests His righteous wrath. That God-centeredness is the
distinctive feature of the Reformed faith. A Christian may say lots of true
things, say, about sin (sin is damaging, sin leads to wretchedness, etc.), but
if there is not the God-centered perspective, the most important emphasis of
all has been missed.
I
remember how struck I was years ago, reading an essay by Leon Morris, asking,
“What is the most common word in Romans?” (I presume he’s omitting
such words as “the”—I’m not sure.) What would you guess? Grace?
Faith? Believe? Law? No—the most frequent word in Romans is “God.”
Just
skim through the opening chapters and you will see it immediately. All the
great theological statements in Romans have God as their subject: “God
gave them over” (1:24, 26). “God ‘will give to each person according
to what he has done’ ” (2:6). “God will judge men’s secrets
through Jesus Christ” (2:16). “God set [Him] forth as a
propitiation” (3:25 NKJV). “[God] justifies the ungodly” (4:5
NKJV). “God has poured out His love into our hearts” (5:5). “God
demonstrates His own love for us in this” (5:8).
We
can preach things that are true… but if we lose that “from Him and through
Him and to Him are all things” (11:36) awareness, then we’ve lost the
heart of Christianity.
God-centered
doctrine must work itself out in God-centered piety. Again, this is the
distinctive note of Reformed Christianity. We are obsessed with God Himself. We
are overwhelmed by His majesty, His beauty, His holiness, His grace. We seek
His glory, we desire His presence, we model our lives on His attributes.
Other
Christians may say that evangelism, or mission, or revival, or reconstruction
is their great concern. But we have only one concern—God Himself—to know Him,
to mirror Him, to see Him glorified. We refuse to absolutize any other
objective. The salvation of the lost is only important to us insofar as it
leads to the hallowing of His name and the coming of His kingdom. The purifying
of society is important to us only insofar as it leads to the doing of His will
on earth as in heaven. Bible study and prayer are only important to us insofar
as they lead us into communion with Him.
This
has been the great hallmark of Reformed Christianity down through the
centuries. Whether you’re reading the journals of Presbyterians like Andrew
Bonar, or the letters of Anglicans like John Newton, or the sermons of Baptists
like Charles Spurgeon, this is the note that comes throbbing through. They are
obsessed with God Himself. They live their lives and do their theology and
fulfil their ministry in passionate admiration for God Himself. Everything else
flows out of their awed worship of God and their trembling love for Him.
Reprinted
(with slight editing) from Banner
of Truth magazine (August 2, 2000)
