Monthly Archives: September 2015

We Must Believe More Than the ABCs

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In an article entitled, “Stripping Down the Gospel: We Must Believe More Than the ABCs” Jason A. Van Bemmel writes:

What must I do to be saved? The Philippian jailer asked this question in Acts 16. Paul’s answer was simple and powerful: “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household (Acts 16:31, ESV).”

But what does it mean to believe in the Lord Jesus? For the Philippian jailer, coming to Christ meant turning from polytheistic paganism to belief in one true God. Believing in Jesus meant believing the truth of who Jesus is, what He has done, what He is doing now and what He will do in the future.

Right after Paul’s simple response to the jailer in verse 31, we’re told in verse 32, “And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house.” Paul didn’t just make a simple statement and immediately lead the jailer in The Sinner’s Prayer. He taught him and his whole household the word of God.

As the early church grew, they developed a creed that would contain all of the vital information. The Apostle’s Creed has, for centuries, been the standard creed of Christianity for all denominations and traditions on all continents. The Heidelberg Catechism, which belongs to the Reformed Protestant tradition, affirms the Apostle’s Creed’s central place as the summary of what Christian must believe to be saved.

Q. 22. What is then necessary for a Christian to believe?

A. All things promised us in the gospel, which the articles of our catholic and undoubted Christian faith briefly teach us.

Q. 23. What are these articles?

A.

1. I believe in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth:
2. And in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord:
3. Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary:
4. Suffered under Pontius Pilate; was crucified, dead, and buried: He descended into hell:
5. The third day he rose again from the dead:
6. He ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty:
7. From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead:
8. I believe in the Holy Ghost:
9. I believe a holy catholic church: the communion of saints:
10. The forgiveness of sins:
11. The resurrection of the body:
12. And the life everlasting.

The true content of the Gospel, which must be understood and believed, cannot really be reduced from these twelve articles contained in the Apostle’s Creed. It is necessary (not optional) that we believe these truths, and it is necessary that we understand what each of these twelve articles is asserting in order for our belief to be meaningful.

We live in an increasingly pluralistic and pagan age, and so our culture is becoming more like the culture of the ancient Roman Empire. Fifty years ago, we may have been able to rely on a cultural consensus and collective understanding that was generally monotheistic and Judeo-Christian. Today, that’s simply not the case. Unbelievers’ understanding of the nature of truth, the existence and nature of God, the historicity of the Gospels, etc. is all really shaky and unknown. We need to take more time to understand people and their understandings and to carefully explain what it is we believe and why we believe it.

How different is this approach from the quick, drive-by evangelism common in many evangelistic programs and Gospel presentations? One common evangelism tool is based on ABC:

Admit that you are a sinner.
Believe that Jesus died for your sins.
Confess Jesus as your Lord and Savior.

This simple formula runs the risk of being simplistic and of missing so much that someone must believe in order to be a Christian. For example, Jesus is more and did more than just die for our sins:

1. He is the only begotten Son of God who was born of a virgin.
2. He lived a sinless life.
3. He suffered humiliation and rejection and died on the cross for our sins, being buried and remaining under the power of death for a time.
4. He rose again from the dead on the Third Day.
5. He ascended into heaven and sits at God’s right hand.
6. He is coming again to judge the living and the dead.

We need to be able to share a simple Gospel message with our non-Christian friends, family members and neighbors. But a simple Gospel is not a stripped down, simplistic Gospel that leaves holes in the essential truths we believe and would leave people confused and conflicted.

Denying Self and Following Christ

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lloyd-jones2_12Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones

In this chapter I want again to consider verses 38-42. We have already studied them twice. First, we looked at them in -general, reminding ourselves of certain principles which govern the interpretation. Then we considered the statements one by one in detail, and saw that our Lord’s concern is that we should be set free from all desire for personal revenge. There is nothing which is so tragic as the way in which many people, when they come to this paragraph, become so immersed in details, and are so ready to argue about the rightness or wrongness of doing this or that, that they completely lose sight of the great principle here expressed, which is the Christian’s attitude towards himself. These illustrations are used by our Lord simply to bring out His teaching concerning that great central principle. `You’, He says in effect, `must have a right view of yourselves. Your troubles arise because you tend to go wrong at that particular point.’ In other words, our Lord’s primary concern here is with what we are, rather than with what we do. What we do is important, because it is indicative of what we are. He illustrates that here, and says: `If you are what you claim to be, this is how you will behave.’ So we must concentrate not so much upon the action as upon the spirit that leads to the action. That is why, let us repeat it again, it is so essential that we should take the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount in the order in which it is given. We have no right to consider these particular injunctions unless we have already grasped, and mastered, and have submitted ourselves to, the teaching of the Beatitudes.

In this paragraph we have our attitude towards ourselves presented in a negative manner; in the paragraph that follows it is presented positively. There our Lord goes on to say: `Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.’ But here we are concerned with the negative, and this teaching is of such central importance in the New Testament that we must consider it once more. Continue reading →

Defining Spiritual Inability

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vos_0Does the spiritual inability of man consist of the loss of his free will, Ph.D, D.D.

This question should be answered in different ways. If by “free will” one means the spontaneity that the soul works from itself without compulsion, this characteristic is inseparably connected with the concept of will. An unfree, enslaved will, then, is a contradictio in adjecto, something that never has existed and never can exist.

If, however, by “free will” one means the abstract possibility that the will of man turns from good to evil or from evil to good, then this liberum arbitrium existed before the fall but no longer after the fall. This is also what theologians meant when they listed the loss of the liberum arbitrium as one of the consequences of sin. Man did possess the capacity to make evil from good, but not the capacity to make good again from evil. The latter, the bringing about of something good as well as the abolishing of something evil, is the exclusive prerogative of the omnipotence of God. And inasmuch as now, after his fall, man must always do evil contrary to the testimony of his conscience, and sin hinders the development and free movement of all his powers, one may speak in this sense, too, of a lack of freedom and bondage in which he exists as sinner.

How can you prove this teaching of the inability of man for doing spiritual good?

It is proven:

a) From the fact that Scripture nowhere ascribes to fallen man any capacity to do good of himself.
b) From the express declaration of Scripture that the opposite is the case. Compare John 15:4, 5; 6:44; Romans 8:7; 1 Corinthians 2:14.
c) From the form in which Scripture presents to us the doctrine of original sin. In this connection two features especially must be noted. The natural condition of sinful man is portrayed as a condition of death and as a fleshly condition. The point of comparison in both of these images includes the utter inability for spiritual good. As little as a dead person can stir or lifeless flesh can achieve an expression of life, just so little can the natural man do what is good toward God.
d) From the explanation of Scripture that man is not only negatively dead toward God and fleshly passive but also, moreover, that in this death lurks a principle of development and of hostility against God. Man, therefore, is not shackled in total inability by a single bond, but by two bonds.
e) From the necessity that the favor and fellowship of God are indispensable for man if he will produce spiritual good. As long as the wrath of God rests on him, nothing in his life can prosper. The consciousness of the judgment under which he lies, without having yet reckoned with other things, cuts off every good deed at the root.
f) From the necessity of the immediate working of grace by the Holy Spirit in regeneration. This is the other side of what was said under c). Everywhere the Holy Spirit is presented as the one who awakes life and the source of life. Nowhere in Scripture does the human soul appear as a self-changing subject, but always as an object that becomes changed from the outside by affecting grace. Hence there is spoken of a new birth, a new creation, a resurrection from the dead.
g) From the experience of the children of God. None will assert that he is capable of doing what the law demands of him. The awareness of guilt of an awakened sinner also includes, among other things, the conviction that he is bound by sin and cannot save himself. This sense of helplessness is precisely the characteristic of true repentance. Inasmuch, then, as the latter is nothing other than a coming to be aware of the real condition of man, we can infer from it that this in fact is a condition of inability.

Which objections have been advanced against this doctrine of total inability? Continue reading →