Monthly Archives: August 2016

Faith and the Sovereignty Factor

Posted on by
Reply

faithMany in our day equate bold faith with a kind of claiming that does not allow for God’s Sovereignty regarding the outcome; the idea being that real faith will ALWAYS produce the most desirable results, namely healing, promotion, deliverance, rescue and financial gain.

There is no doubt that many scriptures promise such things. However, we must always understand that even with those promises, we should factor in the Sovereignty of God, knowing that He is Lord over exactly when these promises are fulfilled.

For some of God’s precious saints, the deliverance and rescue will be experienced in this world. How we thrill when this happens! What mercy and favor we see in this!

For others, physical deliverance will not take place this side of glory. Their rescue will be seen in the world to come.

There, in heaven, we will be free of all pain, hurt and insufficiency.

There, no blindness or short-sightedness will affect us. Our eyes shall see the full beauty of our Lord Jesus Christ in all His regal and majestic splendor.

There, no deafness will diminish our ability to hear Christ’s soothing voice calm our inner-most fears.

There, no physical restriction will afflict us. No blood bought saint in heaven will be confined to their bed or wheelchair for even a moment. Each of us will dance for joy in the presence of the King. As the hymn writer put it, “what a day of rejoicing that will be!”

All of these earthly and heavenly blessings were purchased by the Lord Jesus Christ as part of our great salvation and redemption, and He is the One who determines when this should take place in the life of each believer.

Think of the three Hebrew children, in Daniel chapter 3. Sentenced to the fiery furnace for their refusal to bow before the image of Nebuchadnezzar, we read, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.” (v. 16-18)

Did you catch that? They were saying (in so many words), “God WILL deliver us. We believe He will protect us miraculously even in the fire, but here’s the deal…. EVEN IF HE DOES NOT we will not bow to the image.”

That is biblical faith in operation – clinging to the promises He has made while at the very same time, leaving the results completely in God’s Sovereign hands.

We see the exact same thing in Hebrews 11 in what is sometimes called “the faith hall of fame.” These are the champions of the faith. But notice what their faith did for them.

For some: GOOD THINGS

“who through faith conquered kingdoms (good), enforced justice (good), obtained promises (good), stopped the mouths of lions (good), quenched the power of fire (good), escaped the edge of the sword (good), were made strong out of weakness (good), became mighty in war (good), put foreign armies to flight (good). Women received back their dead by resurrection (good).” (v. 33-35)

For others: HARD THINGS

Some were tortured (hard), refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life (hard). Others suffered mocking and flogging (hard), and even chains and imprisonment (hard). They were stoned (hard), they were sawn in two (hard), they were killed with the sword (hard). They went about in skins of sheep and goats (hard), destitute (hard), afflicted (hard), mistreated (hard)— of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts (hard) and mountains (hard), and in dens and caves of the earth (hard). (v. 35-38)

Those who endured the harder things IN NO WAY possessed a lesser faith than those who experienced the good things. In both cases, their great faith in God is noted and applauded. Faith allowed some to see dramatic and positive answers to prayer, even the miraculous, while others endured the harshest possible experiences of life and even the cruelest kinds of death, with their trust and hope in God still intact.

That, my friends is true, biblical faith. That is why Revelation 12 reads the way it does. Faced with the threat of martyrdom, a direct result of the devil’s opposition, we are told that the believers “conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.” Rather than being delivered and rescued in this world, their faith kept them true to Christ, even when it meant certain death. They were not defeated. This was a massive victory. They overcame the devil even at the cost of their lives. What a testimony to the keeping power of God!

God answers every prayer that is based on His promise to us. Sometimes His answer is “yes”, sometimes “no” and sometimes “wait a while.” When we see immediate answers to our prayers, we rejoice in God’s provision. When no immediate answer seems to come and we are therefore asked to wait, it is with faith and patience we inherit the promises (Heb. 6:12).

In 2 Corinthians 12, we read of Paul’s thorn in the flesh. We are told that in order for Paul to not be filled with excessive pride a messenger of Satan (a satanic angel) was sent to buffet him. God allowed this in order to fulfill His purpose for Paul – character being more important to Him than temporal comfort. Whatever the exact nature of the “thorn in the flesh”, obviously Paul did not like it one bit. He repeatedly asked God for deliverance from it. We read:

“So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (v. 7-10)

When sometimes, the answer is “no”, as was the case here with Paul’s thorn, may we look to the Lord Jesus Christ in faith, and find all the strength and grace we need to endure. The Christian knows that in every situation, good and bad, God is working out His purposes for our good and His glory (Romans 8:28), and His grace to us is sufficient, whatever it is we encounter in this world. All things occur through the loving sieve of His Sovereignty. True faith believes that, and therefore endures, seeing Him who is invisible, who is always watching over His word in order to perform it.

Truly God answers all our prayers. He delivers us from all our afflictions. But as to exactly when He fulfills His promise, faith leaves in His Sovereign hands and remains content to do so.

General Revelation

Posted on by
Reply

storms“10 Things You Should Know About General Revelation” – Dr Sam Storms (original source Special Revelation), we often tend to ignore the other ways in which God has made himself known more generally to all mankind. Theologians call this General Revelation. What is it and why is it important that we understand what is meant by it?

(1) General Revelation refers to the truth that God has made himself known in the observable design and majesty of natural or physical creation. In Romans 1:18-20 we read:

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse” (Rom. 1:18-20).

The invisible is made visible via creation or nature. Divine wisdom, power, eternity and goodness, for example, are not in themselves visible, but their reality is undeniably affirmed and apprehended by the effects they produce in nature. See also Psalm 19:1-6; 8; 29; 93; 104; Acts 14:15-17; 17:22-31.

(2) General revelation in natural creation makes available to all mankind a true knowledge not only that God exists but what kind of God he is. What exactly is the content of that revelation about God made known in nature and conscience? Ronald Nash (What About Those Who Have Never Heard? [IVP, 1995], p. 67) identifies seven elements: (1) God exists; (2) this God created the physical universe; (3) this God is loving; (4) this God is personal, since love cannot characterize an impersonal deity; (5) this God is a moral being; (6) we have violated the moral law and thus are guilty; and (7) we have displeased the morally perfect God who is the source of the moral law.

Bruce Demarest extends this by appealing to other texts as well. Scripture, he says (General Revelation, pp. 242-43), suggests that all human beings know more or less the following about God from the light of universal general revelation:

God exists (Ps. 19:1; Rom. 1:19); God is uncreated (Acts 17:24); God is Creator (Acts 14:15); God is Sustainer (Acts 14:16; 17:25); God is universal Lord (Acts 17:24); God is self-sufficient (Acts 17:25); transcendent (Acts 17:24); immanent (Acts 17:26-27); eternal (Ps. 93:2); great (Ps. 8:3-4); majestic (Ps. 29:4); powerful (Ps. 29:4; Rom. 1:20); wise (Ps. 104:24); good (Acts 14:17); righteous (Rom. 1:32); God has a sovereign will (Acts 17:26); God has standards of right and wrong (Rom. 2:15); God should be worshiped (Acts 14:15; 17:23); man should perform the good (Rom. 2:15); God will judge evil (Rom. 2:15-16).

(3) The truth of general revelation means that there is no such thing as an honest atheist! All people know God. We see this in Romans 1:21: Note well: “For although they knew God” (v. 21a). Again, “what can be known about God is plain to them” (v. 19; not hidden, obscure, uncertain, but disclosed, clear, and inescapable). There is a distinction, of course, between a cognitive apprehension of God, i.e., knowing that there is a God and that he is worthy of obedience, worship, gratitude, and a saving or redemptive knowledge of God. All people experience the former whereas only the redeemed experience the latter. Continue reading →

Can We Trust the Bible?

Posted on by
Reply

john-piperIf the Bible Has Been Added To, Can We Trust It?

A listener to the podcast writes in. “Pastor John (Piper), how can I trust the Bible if there have been so many add-ins, such as Mark 16:9–20 and John 7:53–8:11 and 1 John 5:7–8. If these verses have been added into the Bible, and should not have been, how do we know other things have not been added into the Bible as well?”

The answer precisely to the question as it is posed is that we use the same criteria to know about other passages that we used to know that these three texts were additions. In other words, if there is a science that can spot these three texts that he mentioned as not part of the original biblical manuscripts, then that same science, in the same way, can perform the same function for all the other passages. There is the answer.

Now, let’s step back and paint the larger picture. The Bible was written in Hebrew and Greek centuries before the printing press. The printing press was invented about 1450 AD. The first original language biblical manuscript was printed 1516. That means that these handwritten documents called manuscripts were handed down — by human copying — for centuries. And the question, really, is: Do we have today the same Greek and Hebrew texts in front of us to translate into English or whatever language or to read in Greek or Hebrew, do we have the same texts that correspond essentially with the original documents that God inspired when they wrote them down?

The science of textual criticism — there is the phrase, textual criticism — that is what this branch of scholarship is called. That science is devoted to answering that question. It specializes in comparing thousands of Greek and Hebrew manuscripts and deducing from those comparisons where there are differences between two or more dozen documents and, where there are differences, which reading is the more likely to be original. Which one is original?

Here is the reason we may have strong confidence that the science of textual criticism is successful in discerning the original wording of the manuscripts: There are over 5,800 Greek manuscripts. Leave out the Old Testament for a moment and just think Greek. There are 5,800 Greek manuscripts — either whole New Testament books or fragments. This is incredible if you know your manuscript history. In other words, when the text critics sit down to do their work, they are not comparing three or four or 50 manuscripts which might leave us wondering what the original wording was. They have thousands of texts from different places in different types that function as confirmations of what the original wording was.

So, here is the way Daniel Wallace, who was a very prominent text critic, puts it:

New Testament scholars face an embarrassment of riches compared to the data of classical Greek and Latin scholars have to contend with. The average classical author’s literary remains number no more than twenty copies. We have more than 1,000 times the manuscript data for the New Testament than we do for the average Greco-Roman author. Not only this, but the extant manuscripts of the average classical author are no earlier than 500 years after the time he wrote, but for the New Testament, we wait a mere decades for surviving copies.

But here is the real clincher. And this, I think, is the bottom line answer to the question. Even where there remains some uncertainty about which wording in a particular text, which wording is original and which is not — and they are very few — they don’t have any effect on the essential truths of the Christian message. So, listen to Paul Wegner. And I would recommend his book. It is called, A Student’s Guide to Textual Criticism of the Bible. And here is what he said: “It is important to keep in perspective the fact that only very small part of the text is in question, approximately 10% of the Old Testament, 7% of the New Testament. And of these, most variance make little difference to the meaning of any passage.”

Daniel Wallace, who has debated Bart Ehrman, who is quite skeptical about the reliability of the New Testament, says this: “For more than two centuries, biblical scholars have declared that no essential affirmation of Christian doctrine has been affected by the variance. Even Ermen,” he says, “has conceded this point in three debates that I have had with him.”

Don Carson sums it up like this: “What is at stake is a purity of text of such a substantial nature that nothing we believe to be doctrinally true and nothing we are commanded to do is in any way jeopardized by the variance.”

So, the real question becomes, then — and here is where I would leave us — the real question becomes not, Do we have the original words of the biblical authors? Virtually all of us agree that we do with the variance that we are not sure about affecting no manner of doctrine or ethics. The question now is: Do you see the peculiar glory of God shining through those words and confirming to your own mind and heart that these are the very words of God? That is the crucial question