Dr. Sam Gipp has uploaded the fourth episode in his series presenting KJV Onlyism, this time dealing with the archaic language in the KJV. Here is Dr. James White’s measured response:
KJV Onlyism – A Response to Sam Gipp’s Episode 4
Reply
Monthly Archives: November 2012
Friday Round Up
(1) There’s a variety of resources in this week’s Friday Ligonier $5 sale worth considering. They can be found “Bare assent to the gospel, divorced from a transforming commitment to the living Christ, is by biblical standards less than faith, and less than saving; and to elicit only assent of this kind would be to secure only false conversions.”
James Boice, “The idea that one can be a Christian without being a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ is a tragic error. It reduces the gospel to the mere fact of Christ’s having died for sinners, requires of sinners only that they acknowledge this by the barest intellectual assent, and then assures them of their eternal security when they may very well not be born again. This view bends faith beyond recognition and promises a false peace to multitudes that have given verbal assent to this reductionist Christianity but are not truly in God’s family.”
Martin Luther (1483-1546), “When we have thus taught faith in Christ, then do we teach also good works. Because you have laid hold upon Christ by faith, through whom you are made righteous, begin now to work well. Love God and your neighbor, call upon God, give thanks to Him, praise Him, and do good to your neighbor. These are good works indeed, which flow out of this faith.”
George Whitefield wrote in his journal on Aug 6, 1739, “Good works are the fruits of faith. Good works cannot put away our sins or justify us, yet they follow after justification, and do spring out necessarily of a true and lively faith, insomuch that by them a lively faith may be as evidently known as a tree is discerned by the fruit.”
Augsburg Confession (1530), “It is necessary to do good works, not that we may trust that we deserve grace by them, but because it is the will of God that we should do them. By faith alone is apprehended remission of sins and grace. And because the Holy Spirit is received by faith, our hearts are now renewed, and so put on new affections, so that they are able to bring forth good works. For thus saith Ambrose: ‘Faith is the begetter of a good will and of good actions.’”
Preaching: Moral of the Story v. The Gospel of Jesus Christ
Tim Keller explains the difference between a moralistic reading of the Bible and a Jesus-Centered reading of the Bible:
We have said that you must preach the gospel every week-to edify and grow Christians and to convert non-Christians. But if that is the case, you cannot simply ‘instruct in Biblical principles.’ You have to ‘get to Jesus’ every week.
For example, look at the story of David and Goliath. What is the meaning of that narrative for us? Without reference to Christ, the story may be (usually is!) preached as: “The bigger they come, the harder they’ll fall, if you just go into your battles with faith in the Lord. You may not be real big and powerful in yourself, but with God on your side, you can overcome giants.”
But as soon as we ask: “how is David foreshadowing the work of his greater Son”? We begin to see the same features of the story in a different light. The story is telling us that the Israelite’s can not go up against Goliath. They can’t do it. They need a substitute. When David goes in on their behalf, he is not a full-grown man, but a vulnerable and weak figure, a mere boy. He goes virtually as a sacrificial lamb. But God uses his apparent weakness as the means to destroy the giant, and David becomes Israel’s champion-redeemer, so that his victory will be imputed to them. They get all the fruit of having fought the battle themselves.
This is a fundamentally different meaning than the one that arises from the non-Christocentric reading.
There is, in the end, only two ways to read the Bible: is it basically about me or basically about Jesus? In other words, is it basically about what I must do, or basically about what he has done? If I read David and Goliath as basically giving me an example, then the story is really about me. I must summons up the faith and courage to fight the giants in my life. But if I read David and Goliath as basically showing me salvation through Jesus, then the story is really about him. Until I see that Jesus fought the real giants (sin, law, death) for me, I will never have the courage to be able to fight ordinary giants in life (suffering, disappointment, failure, criticism, hardship). For example how can I ever fight the “giant” of failure, unless I have a deep security that God will not abandon me? If I see David as my example, the story will never help me fight the failure/giant. But if I see David/Jesus as my substitute, whose victory is imputed to me, then I can stand before the failure/giant. As another example, how can I ever fight the “giant” of persecution or criticism? Unless I can see him forgiving me on the cross, I won’t be able to forgive others. Unless I see him as forgiving me for falling asleep on him (Matt.27:45) I won’t be able to stay awake for him.
In the Old Testament we are continually told that our good works are not enough, that God has made a provision. This provision is pointed to at every place in the Old Testament. We see it in the clothes God makes Adam and Eve in Genesis, to the promises made to Abraham and the patriarchs, to the Tabernacle and the whole sacrificial system, to the innumerable references to a Messiah, a suffering servant, and so on.
Therefore, to say that the Bible is about Christ is to say that the main theme of the Bible is, “Salvation is of the Lord” (Jonah 2:9).
Baptism – Missing the Entire Point
Miscellaneous Quotes (55)
“A Pharisee is hard on others and easy on himself, but a spiritual man is easy on others and hard on himself.” – A.W. Tozer
“The problem with socialism is that government finally runs out of other people’s money.” – Margaret Thatcher
“To restore man, who had been laid low by sin, to the heights of divine glory, the Word of the eternal Father, though containing all things within His immensity, willed to become small. This He did, not by putting aside His greatness, but by taking to Himself our littleness.” – Thomas Aquinas, Compendium of Theology
“The doctrines of grace create a culture of grace, a social environment of acceptance and hope and freedom and joy.” – Ray Ortlund
“Those who run from God in the morning will scarcely find Him the rest of the day.” – John Bunyan
“The saving power [of the cross] does not depend on faith being added to it; its saving power is such that faith flows from it.” – J. I. Packer
“He should be in no doubt that any ability he has and however much he has derives more from his devotion to prayer than his dedication to oratory; and so, by praying for himself and for those he is about to address, he must become a man of prayer before becoming a man of words. As the hour his address approaches, before he opens his thrusting lips he should lift his thirsting soul to God so that he may utter what he has drunk in and pour out what has filled him.” – Saint Augustine, On Christian Teaching (Oxford University Press, 1997), 121
“As the minister speaks to the ear, Christ speaks, opens, and unlocks the heart at the same time; and gives it power to open, not from itself, but from Christ…. The manner of working of the reasonable creature, is to work freely by a sweet inclination, not by violence. Therefore when he works the work of conversion, he doth it in a sweet manner, though it be mighty for the efficaciousness of it.” – Richard Sibbes
“As has often been remarked, the stone at the mouth of the sepulcher was rolled to one side, not to let our Lord out of the sepulcher but to allow the witnesses to enter and behold that empty tomb.” – Albert N. Martin
“A man is not saved against his will, but he is made willing by the operation of the Holy Ghost. A mighty grace which he does not wish to resist enters into the man, disarms him, makes a new creature of him, and he is saved.” – C. H. Spurgeon
“Be masters of your Bibles, brethren. Whatever other works you have not searched, be at home with the writings of the prophets and apostles….” – C. H. Spurgeon
“We should not have so much disputing against the doctrine of election, or hear it condemned (even by good men) as a doctrine of devils. For my own part, I cannot see how true humbleness of mind can be attained without a knowledge of it. And though I will not say, that everyone who denies election is a bad man, yet I will say . . . it is a very bad sign. Such a one, whoever he be, I think cannot truly know himself. For if we deny election we must, partly at least, glory in ourselves. But our redemption is so ordered that no flesh should glory in the Divine presence. And hence it is, that the pride of man opposes this doctrine because according to this doctrine and no other, ‘he that glories, must glory only in the Lord.’ But what shall I say? Election is a mystery that shines with such resplendent brightness that, to make use of the words of one who has drunk deeply of his electing love, it dazzles the weak eyes even of some of God’s dear children.” – George Whitefield, ‘Christ the Believer’s Wisdom, Righteousness, Sanctification, and Redemption,’ in The Sermons of George Whitefield (Crossway, 2012), 2:214-25
“We often learn more of God under the rod that strikes us, than under the staff that comforts us.” – Stephen Charnock
“The wicked freely strut about when what is vile is honored among men.” – Psalm 12:8
“We tend to be most vulnerable to temptation when we’re tired, isolated, lonely, discouraged, depressed, angry, or struggling in our relationships; especially with our mate. Don’t think for a moment demons don’t know this or will hesitate to pounce on us in those very times. “When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left Him until an opportune time” (Luke 4:13).” – Randy Alcorn
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just share your own riches but to show him his own.” – Benjamin Disraeli
“I have never once feared the devil, but I tremble every time I enter the pulpit.” – John Knox
“The mystery of iniquity is at work in the world during this interim time, and it is not always clear how its malignant work is being checked, overridden, or woven into the glorious purposes of God. We need to remember, though, that while Judas betrayed Christ, and woe to him for doing so, it was God’s plan that Christ was thus betrayed. Evil by its very nature opposes the purposes of God, but God, in his sovereignty, can make even this evil serve his purposes.” – David F. Wells, The Courage to Be Protestant
“Silence in the face of evil is itself evil; God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.” – Dietrich Bonheoffer
2 Corinthians 1:9: Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.
John Piper: Adversity by its very nature is the removal of things on which our comfort and hope have rested and so it will either result in anger toward God or greater reliance on him alone for our peace. And his purpose for us in adversity is not that we get angry or discouraged, but that our hope shift off earthly things onto God. God’s main purpose in all adversity is to make us stop trusting in ourselves or any man.
The Mountain of God
In broad terms, one could summarize every religion under the sun (except one) as God being at the summit of the mountain, with man languishing at the bottom. Yet by means of following the tenets of the faith man seeks to climb the mountain to one day meet God, face to face.
Of course, the requirements differ from one religion to the next, but each action man takes, allows him to ascend further and further up the mountain.
The one exception to all this in our world is the Christian gospel, where God, on top of the mountain, by His own love initiative comes down to the valley below (in the Incarnation) and finds only dead corpses there, breathes the breath of life into many of these God hating rebels, giving them new hearts that would see and bask in His beauty, and He carries each one of them on His shoulders, safely up to the top of the mountain, that they may enjoy His vast riches for ever.
There are more details to be sure, not the least of which is the sinless life of the Son of God and His substitutionary death for sinners on the cross, as well as His triumphal resurrection. These gospel facts are center stage in the history of redemption. However, the basic analogy holds true.
The religions of the world tell their advocates that if they will adhere strictly to the tenets, they can climb the mountain of God. Christianity says, we could never make it up there, nor would we even wish to do so, for by nature, we hate the God on top of the mountain. Therefore, God came down, and by His own power, opened up our eyes and brought life out of death and raised us up to be with Him.
Here then we see the two basic types of religion in our world today; the religion of ascension (man climbing up) vs. the Gospel of descension (God climbed down); a religion of do, do, do vs. the Gospel of done, done, done!
Ephesians 2:1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
The Fiscal Cliff Explained
Today’s Headline from www.foxnews.com: Democrats and Republicans appear closer to compromise on deficit deal — with closing tax loopholes for highest earners in US emerging as middle ground — as economists warn country could go over ‘fiscal cliff’ when tax cuts for many expire, $1T federal cuts begin.
In the video below, Wall Street Journal’s David Wessel explains the issue in easy to understand terms.
Bottom Line: For love of country, its time to put party politics aside and find a workable solution. We desperately need an outbreak of leadership and soon!
Predestination Destroys Legalism
My friend John Hendryx writes:
Predestination destroys legalism. If salvation is by Christ alone, it leaves no room for boasting or trusting in ourselves, even a little. It strips us bare and forces us to abandon all hope in our efforts or rules … man-made rules non-predestinarians tend to make to demonstrate they are more worthy than others of God’s grace (an oxymoron). The Scripture declares: “It is because of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” (1 Cor 1:30-31)
This is not to say that Reformed people cannot be legalistic. Human beings find any way possible to do so, Reformed included. It means to say, rather, that if UNDERSTOOD CORRECTLY the doctrine of Grace ALONE in Christ ALONE will have the real effect of stripping us of legalism etc. Again only God’s grace can do so. This likewise was not an attempt to show Reformed superiority but the effect of a true understanding of the Bible will have on someone who beholds the majesty of God and is struck down by the fact that God will have mercy on whom he will have mercy.
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After I wrote this, I had the following discussion ensue which I believe worth posting:
Visitor: Please explain to me what you mean by God will have mercy on who he will have mercy on. Would you try to say that God would send someone to hell without a choice of accepting and serving Him?
Response: Thank you for your question. First, “He will have mercy on whom he has mercy” are not my words but a direct quote from Scripture (Romans :9:15, 16). That being settled, let me answer your question…. everyone who hears the gospel are presented with the command or summons to believe. But according to the Bible, no one would ever respond positively to the gospel of Jesus Christ apart from the work of the Holy Spirit. Left to himelf, man is in bondage to his corruptions and does not understand or desire the true God and thinks that the gospel is folly (1 Cor 2:14). Only God can open his eyes, ears and heart to the gospel. Man’s moral inability to believe the gospel on his own does not alleviate him of the responsibility to do so. We owe a debt we cannot repay … but this does not make God change his standard for us. The debt MUST be repaid. So Jesus does for us what we are unable to do for ourselves.
Visitor: Thanks for your response. I would agree that the Holy Spirit convicts you of your need for Christ. But I find nowhere in the Bible that people are predestined to hell. God chose us in past eternity, Christ saved us at the cross, the Holy Spirit convicts us of our helpless state and need for salvation. If we don’t accept Christ as the only way to Heaven then we are doomed.
Response: Thank you.I would encourage you to read 1 Corinthians 1 & 2. Those who do not have the Holy Spirit, by nature, hate Spiritual truth. The Spirit merely convicting someone, as you say, does not make him love or trust in Christ. According to the Bible more needs to take place. His nature needs to be changed for this to even be a possibility, according to 1 Cor. So God has no need to actively predestine them to hell. They do very well choosing to go there themselves. That is the natural choice of everyone apart from God renewing their heart.
Jesus said “The Spirit gives life, the flesh counts for nothing …no one can come to me unless God grants it” (John 6:63, 65) and “all that the Father gives to me will come to me” (John 6:37).
These two statements made in the same discussion plainly show that no one can believe in Jesus unless God grants it through the quickening work of the Spirit …and all to whom he grants will believe.
It does not say some of those the Father gives Jesus will believe, but “all”. Also it clearly shows that they do not believe unless God first gives them to the Son. Jesus is not ambiguous here.
“The greatest judgement which God himself can, in the present life, inflict upon a man is, to leave him in the hand of his own boasted free-will.” – Augustus Toplady
Visitor: As you said you choose to go to hell but when convicted by the Spirit that you can’t get to Heaven without the free gift of Christ. You make a choice. I realize our flesh doesn’t naturally want Jesus. You hear the word the Holy Spirit shows you your need but there is free choice.
Response: I believe you are basing this idea on your assumptions and not on the text of Scripture. Can you from Scripture show where the Bible teaches free will anywhere?
God gives commands and imperatives, yes. But what we ought to do is not the same thing as what we are able to do. You speak as if God is under some kind of obligation. But God would be perfectly just if he decided to save no one. God gives either justice or mercy to people in this life, but no one gets injustice.
You have not interacted with any of the Scripture I showed you. You have only made orphaned assertions. Show me how you interpret John 6:63, 65, 37 and how my understanding is wrong. It says that the Spirit gives life or quickens and that no one can believe in Christ unless God grants this quickening. Not merely conviction.
Visitor: I don’t have the Bible in front of me to read the verses you gave. I didn’t say God was obligated to do anything. And I don’t seem to be wording things just right for you. So we may have to agree to disagree. As Warren Wiersbe said some things of God are a mystery. I don’t have the time or inclination at my time in life to argue such things when I can better spend my time worshiping and serving our Lord.
I would ask one more question did Adam and Eve choose to sin of their free will?
Response: Thanks again for you note…. Although I asked it of you, I see you were unable to provide any Scriptural evidence for your view of free will. You would think if it were true you would be able to come up with something off the top of your head since the Bible is such a voluminous work of God’s revelation to us. At least in a few places. Doesn’t that strike you as a little odd? If you cannot provide solid biblical evidence, we can only reason that you have built an entire view of Christianity based on a human tradition, not explicit ideas from Scripture. You are therefore basing your view of salvation on unaided assumptions, are you not?
Likewise, the passages I posted are not mystery but revealed Scripture. The Scripture speaks of these things plainly, so this is not about opinions or something God has left to mystery. I agree that there are mysteries in the Scripture but the doctrine of unconditional election and monergistic regeneration are not one of them since they are both revealed doctrines. I think if you are honest before God you would take the time in the Texts I posted to you to see what it says there and let them shape you. If Jesus thinks it is important enough to put in Scripture, that we are to read, then obviously it is not something he meant for us to avoid.
Finally, your question about Adam and Eve reveal that you have not really understood what is being said here. Adam and Eve were not in bondage to corruption. When we say men have no free will we are talking specifically about the state of man after the fall … Jesus said he who sins is a slave to sin. And that which is a slave is not free. Only Christ can set us free. Thus when we say men have no free will we are not speaking of coercion… that God somehow coerces us to reject him. The history of this doctrine is about the nature of man. He is not free because, by a necessity of his fallen nature, he is in bondage to sin. He is dead in sin, without the Holy Spirit, so he rejects Christ of necessity, not because God forces him to reject Him.
Augustine once said, “Through freedom man came to be in sin, but the corruption which followed as punishment turned freedom into necessity.” In other words, before the fall men were “able to sin and able not to sin” – . After the fall, men are “not able not to sin.” So the question you are asking misunderstands the question at hand. Those who are not able not to sin have no free will to believe the gospel. Left to themselves men hate Christ and will not come into the light (See John 3:19, 20)
Hope this helps and clarifies.
JWH
When a Boy Becomes a Man
Crawford Loritts, from the foreword to Dennis Rainey’s book, Stepping Up: A Call to Courageous Manhood (Family Life, 2011):
When I was twelve years old, I experienced a “defining moment.” Don’t get me wrong; it wasn’t some uncommon extraordinary experience. It wasn’t a brush with death. I hadn’t contracted some debilitating disease. Neither had I been traumatized by some predator. It was what my father did and what my mother stopped doing that marked me deeply for the rest of my life. And it happened in less than five minutes.
It all had to do with painting. The family who rented a property my parents owned moved out, and there was some “fixing up” and painting that needed to be done before the new tenets moved in. My father thought this would be a great project for the entire family to tackle, so on a Saturday morning, my dad, my mother, my two older sisters, and yours truly reported for duty. Mom and my sisters were working on the first floor, and my job was to help Pop paint on the second floor. And that was the problem. I never did like to paint. I didn’t then, and I don’t now. So I had to somehow figure out a way to be free of what I thought was an unnecessary burden. My “ace in the hole” was my mother. Mom was always more sympathetic to her precious little boy than Dad was, and I knew that if I pressed the right buttons, she would rescue her one and only son from spending his Saturday doing something he didn’t want to do. So under the guise of having to use the bathroom, I went downstairs and began to complain to Mom.While I was in the middle of convincing my mother that I needed to take off and play with my friends, Pop showed up.
As I write these words, I am vividly remembering and reliving that momen.My mother said to my father, “Crawford, CW (my childhood nickname) is only twelve years old, and he doesn’t need to be here with us all day. He needs to be enjoying himself with his friends.”
Then my father said, “Sylvia, I got this. That boy one day is going to be somebody’s husband and somebody’s father. There are going to be people depending on him. He has got to learn how to do what he has to do and not what he wants to do.”
To my mother’s credit, she looked at me and then at my father, nodded in agreement, and turned away. Pop then turned to me and said, “You take yourself upstairs and paint until I tell you to stop.”
And I did.
Even at twelve years old, I knew that something important had just happened. It wasn’t that I had just lost a little skirmish, and this time I wasn’t going to get my way. The words “somebody’s husband . . . somebody’s father” and “He has got to learn how to do what he has to do and not what he wants to do” kept replaying in my mind.
Of course I wasn’t fully aware of the weight of what had happened. In fact, it would be years before I fully appreciated the significance of that Saturday morning. But I did have the sense that what just happened was a game changer.
My mother knew that in order for her boy to become a man, the most important man in his life needed to shape him. Pop knew that in order for his son to provide leadership and stability to those who would count on him one day, “CW” needed to embrace core lessons in manhood, obligation, and responsibility.
A transition took place that day, and I’m so glad it did. In a very real sense, it was what some would call a “rite of passage.” My dad knew that in order for me not to become a fifty-year-old adolescent, I needed to make some intentional steps toward manhood. I can’t tell you how grateful I am to God for the gift of Pop’s courage, and that he wasn’t passive when it came to my development.
HT: JT
Does Bacteria ‘Evolve’?
Ken Ham writes:
Over the years, I have found that many students have been brainwashed into believing evolution because their teachers and professors supposedly showed them that bacteria evolve. Sadly, most students don’t know the right questions to ask in response, and most teachers and professors themselves don’t understand the nature of what is really happening at a molecular level with bacteria.
AiG molecular geneticist Dr. Georgia Purdom recently wrote a blog post to follow up on articles she has written on this topic. Because she knows the right questions to ask, Dr. Purdom is able to show that when one truly understands what is happening at a molecular level in regard to changes observed in bacterial function, it is easy to see that this has nothing—nothing—to do with molecules-to-man evolution. Reading through this article will also help you understand why young people can be so easily brainwashed into evolutionary thinking by their professors.