Category Archives: Bible Reflection

The Boat Journey

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The story is told of a man in England whose lifetime ambition was to take a trip to the United States of America. One day, and overwhelmed by the generosity of his friend, the man realized his dream was soon to come true.

On boarding the ship, the man’s joy could be seen by all. Yet one thing differentiated him from the others on board. During meal times, the rest of the passengers went into the dinner lounge to enjoy sumptuous gourmet meals. Instead, this man went back to his cabin and opened the little bag he carried with him on board containing crackers and cheese, and day by day, he consumed the contents, alone.

Undeterred, the man, if it was possible, was only growing in excitement. He knew that in a short time, he would see America for the first time. In fact, he understood that there would be relatives waiting to meet him at New York harbor. The long sea crossing from England seemed a short one to him, because of the wonders he knew were awaiting him at the journey’s end.

The day finally came when the ship reached New York. The man could hardly contain himself. Here he was, fulfilling his dream.

When it came time to disembark, the Captain of the ship made it his duty to shake hands personally with each of the passengers. One by one, the people came and expressed their thanks to the captain for the good job he had done in bringing them safely to the harbor.

But when the man in our story came, the Captain looked at him and said, “I’m sorry, I don’t remember seeing you before. I don’t recall seeing you in the dinner lounge. Was something wrong? Was the service satisfactory?”

The man responded, “Well Captain, there’s no need to be concerned. I did see the dinner lounge and the wonderful food laid out. But sir, I am a poor man, and am only here because someone gave me a ticket. There was no way I could afford those luxurious meals, and I knew it. So what I did was pack some crackers and cheese with me in my suitcase, and each day, I went back to my cabin at meal times, and enjoyed the food I brought… and Captain, this is the best day of my life! Hey, I think I can even recognize some folk that are waiting for me on the harbor. Thank you so much Captain. I am extremely grateful for all you have done.”

The Captain looked very perturbed, and said, “Sir, its been our pleasure to have you on board, yet I am deeply saddened to hear your story. You tell me you didn’t come in for the meals because you could not afford them. Sir, I am so sorry. Did you not read the ticket? If you had read the back of your ticket, you would have known that all your meals were included.”

This story illustrates how many Christians live far below their privileges in Christ. There are many things that wait for us in heaven – things that will make all of life’s trials worth it all. The sufferings of this present life are not worthy to be compared to the joy that awaits us there in heaven. But Christianity is more than simply pie in the sky when we die. It is also steak on the plate while we wait!

We as Christians, saved by grace alone, through faith alone because of Christ alone, need to stop and read our tickets (so to speak). We have already been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ (Eph. 1:3).

We may not have been born equal. Some have more privileges in life than others. However, we were all born again equal. Every Christian has received the exact same inheritance in Christ. Each of us are declared justified by faith (Romans 5:1); have received the complete righteousness of God as a gift (Rom. 5:17; 2 Cor. 5:21); are more than conquerors through Christ (Romans 8:37); and we stand complete in Him (Col. 3:10). Each of us have access by faith into this grace in which we stand (Romans 5:2); and this amazing privilege allows us to gain deep intimacy with the Lord Himself.

Are we taking advantage of this wonderful inheritance?

Are we seeing answered prayer (Mark 11:24)?

Are we praying with expectancy (John 14:13, 14)?

Are we accessing His peace, even in the midst of life’s storms (Phil. 4:6, 7), and casting all our care on to the Lord (1 Peter 5:7)?

The man who lived on crackers and cheese did not lose His inheritance because of his lack of knowledge of what a gift of grace had provided; but he did live far below his privileges. Let not that be true of us. Let us enjoy all that Christ has provided for us, His children here, by His amazing grace that comes through the cross of Christ. The joys of intimacy with Christ are ours now, and yet will be fully realised when we see Him face to face. Amen. Come Lord Jesus!

“And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.” – Acts 20:32

When A Tsunami Comes

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“Whatever the Lord pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps.” – Psalm 135:6

When it comes to God and His Sovereign right to do all He pleases in heaven and on earth, such is the depravity of mankind that we take our seat in the court of human opinion as both the jury and the Judge. We want answers! We feel we have a right to answers. God owes us an explanation (we think). So we schedule an immediate trial. God Himself must answer to us. He must be put in the dock. We demand that He answer the charges made against Him of injustice. And He had better come up with an adequate explanation. He had better be convincing, for we are more than ready to find Him guilty as charged for violating our moral sense of “goodness.”

Yet, though we schedule the court hearing, hiring the best prosecution attorneys to act on our beahlf, God does not show up for the trial. This makes us all the more angry of course. But from His perspective, He feels no need or obligation to explain Himself.

You will remember, I am sure, that Job asked a whole lot of questions as to why calamity had struck him and his family and never once did he receive an answer. God felt no obligation to explain Himself, but instead asked Job “where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?” Job is stunned into silence as God asked question after question, none of which he could answer.

When devastation occurs, many wish to point their cannons Godward, demanding that He explain Himself to us. Many are doing exactly this as the events of the last few days have unfolded. Some Christians and even some preachers, feeling the weight of the questions posed against God, resort to very unscriptural concepts of God to try to shield Him from scrutiny. They say “God is just as upset as you are. Once the tsunami occurred, God was weeping in heaven, knowing the calamity would strike. There was nothing He could do. If only there were something. See His tears, as He weeps!”

Really? Is that an explanation? God was powerless to prevent it? Really?
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The Song of Solomon

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Pastor John, I am trying to make sense of the Song of Solomon. I recently went to a Bible study where the teacher was saying that it is a book about Christ and His Bride (the Church). Is this true?

I am very familiar with this view of the Song of Solomon. The concept stems from what theologians call the “allegorical” method of interpretation, which ignores the historical background and the actual subject matter under discussion in the text, to instead look for a “deeper” or “hidden” meaning, spiritualizing every word and detail to seek to make application to Christ. Though the method has noble motivation, the fact remains that Christ and His Church are never mentioned in the book.

Actually the book is about romance and love, even erotic love between Solomon and his bride. I am told that in Hebrew society, young boys are not permitted to read the book until their “bar mitzvah” when they “come of age” so to speak, and are considered fully adult men by their community. That is because the Jews understood the book to be something of a handbook for marriage.

It might be something of a disappointment to some when they come to understand this, but the facts are clear. In all actually, it is a wonderful book, so amazingly rich in beauty. How women must wish to be cherished in this way – how captivating is the love the husband has for his beautiful lady, and how wonderfully that love is returned to her husband by his bride. Its what every heart dreams of when they enter into marriage – true and deep intimacy and the reckless mutual abandonment of body, soul and spirit to one another.

The book is a romantic love story as Solomon remembers his courtship with the lady of his dreams; the early days of his first marriage, and then the maturing relationship that developed between this royal couple through the ebbs and flows and the ups and downs of their daily marital life.

It is amazing to consider just how widespread the allegorical interpretation is, as we note many ancient hymns which speak of Christ as “the lily of the valley” and the “rose of Sharon” but once again, these words were beautiful and rich words of love and romance, originally spoken between a husband and wife in the context of marriage.

Are there parallels between Solomon and his bride and Christ and his Church? Perhaps there are. Certainly Christ loves His Church with deep affection and we, the people of God, love Christ, the husband. But it must be pointed out that nowhere does Scripture speak of Christ as our Solomon or of the Church as Solomon’s bride.

I agree wholeheartedly with Dr. John MacArthur when he writes, “The Song has suffered strained interpretations over the centuries by those who use the “allegorical” method of interpretation…. A more satisfying way to approach Solomon’s Song is to take it at face value and interpret it in the normal historical sense, understanding the frequent use of poetic imagery to depict reality… The metaphoric and euphemistic nature of the book is designed by God to veil the private intimacy of marriage. Its beautiful expressions of romantic love are purposefully shrouded in poetic language – intended only to give general insight into the joys of passion, desire and romance. In this way, the Song expresses the wonders of marital love while distancing itself from anything crass or explicitly sensual. Interpreters of this book must be careful to maintain the dignified character of the book, and must not read anything into it that is not actually there.” (The MacArthur Study Bible notes)

Understanding this, I would encourage you to pick up the book again and just start reading. Chapter one starts out as follows:
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Paul, to the Galatians

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When Paul wrote to the Galatian Church to warn of the Judaizing heresy, he did not mention the fact that the Judaizers embraced Christ as Messiah and were probably in all other ways fully orthodox.

I am sure they believed all the Old Testament. Perhaps they would even affirm the true humanity and full deity of Christ. Perhaps even Christ’s substitutionary death for sinners on the cross, and even His resurrection from the grave… on and on we could go.

Yet the Apostle Paul never mentioned any of this in his letter to the Galatians. Why not? For the simple reason that there was no need to do so. That was because in spite of all the many vital doctrines the Judaizers would affirm, they added one thing to the biblical gospel (it happened to be circumcision in this case) and the gospel is not something anyone can mess with. Jesus + circumcision is not the gospel.

Paul’s reaction, and I might say, his Holy Spirit inspired reaction, was to warn of the false doctrine in no uncertain terms calling it for what it was, “a different gospel.”

Galatians 1: 6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7 not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. 9 As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

10 For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant (slave) of Christ.

Imagine what the reaction would have been when Paul’s letter to the congregation was read out loud to the people. Certainly, there would have been Judaizers present in the services when the words were heard in the various Christian meeting places in Galatia. Its no real stretch of the imagination to say that we can be sure that Paul would have been hated by many.

The Apostle Paul could not have been more clear. He pronounced the eternal curse of God on anyone preaching another gospel, even if the one preaching it was Paul himself or even a heavenly angel.

I can imagine people saying, “Where is the love Paul? Do you not recognize the wonderful things the Judaizers have brought to our congregation? They can teach us so much about God’s law. They can show us how Christ fulfills all the types and shadows and even the Feasts of Israel. We have been so enriched by all they have taught us. What’s wrong with you for being so short sighted Paul? If you had heard ALL these men have been teaching you would not write in this way….”

But what Paul wrote – every word of it – was inspired by the Holy Spirit, even when he called the perpetrators of the false doctrine “false brothers.” (Gal 2:4)

The same Apostle Paul, speaking to the elders of Ephesus said (in Acts 20:26), “Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all of you, 27 for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. 28 Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. 29 I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; 30 and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. 31 Therefore be alert….”

Brothers and sisters, heresy is not a victimless crime. There are such things as “damnable heresies” (2 Peter 2:1) – doctrines, which if believed, damn the soul.

If one of God’s leaders witnesses false doctrine in such magnitude and then would remain silent, failing to warn God’s people, it is nothing but an act of cowardice (yes, doing nothing can indeed by an action in and of itself), and cowardice is something which ought to have no place whatsoever amongst the leaders of God’s people. Leadership is not for cowards. His precious sheep need their God appointed shepherds to protect them from the wolves.

Selah. (Stop, pause, meditate)

The Satanic Power of a Question

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The first attack on the human race did not come from outer space. No alien fleet of space ships. No downloaded virus into a vein to ultimately kill, steal and destroy. It was not even a physical attack; no swords, clubs, guns or bombs. But O, the devastation it caused.

For those who know their Bibles, you will know I am referring to the attack on the first parents of mankind in a Garden called Eden, when the serpent attacked Adam and Eve… with a question. That was all it was. A simple question.

Oh it was a loaded question. The question spoke volumes about how God could not be trusted – how His word was not to be believed. It spoke of how God did not really have their best interests at heart – that He was holding out on them – that if God really did love them, then things would be different. Built into the question was an undermining of God, His word and His love; and more than that, an insinuation that God did not want them to achieve the most beautiful thing possible – the ability to be like God.

Think of it from the devil’s perspective (and I mention the devil because there are passages in Scripture which tells us clearly that it was the devil who entered into the serpent in the garden). If you were the devil, how would you tempt a perfect man and woman who were living in a perfect environment?
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The Book

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“It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible.” – George Washington

“England has become great and happy by the knowledge of the true God by Jesus Christ. This is the secret of England’s greatness.” – Queen Victoria

“The Bible is more than a book. It is a living being within an action, a power which invades everything that opposes its extension.” – Napoleon

“I have known 95 of the world’s great men in my time, and of these, 87 were followers of the Bible.” – W. E. Gladstone

As Christians, we believe the Bible is inspired by God, the very word of God, without error, the sole infallible rule of faith for all Christian life, practice, and doctrine. The word “Bible” means “the book.” Its very title makes the claim that irrespective of whatever else you read, only the Bible is ‘THE BOOK’ because of its Divine authorship.

2 Timothy 3:16 says, “All Scripture is God breathed…”

Jesus Himself had this high view of Scripture. In quoting from the book of Genesis, Jesus said, “…have you not read what was spoken to you by God…” (Matt. 22:31)

But… the Bible would say this kind of thing, wouldn’t it?

All religions and cults claim that their sacred book is inspired. Is there any objective evidence we can point to that would show the Bible to be of a supernatural origin, or certainly more than a book filled with the thoughts and opinions of mere mortal men?

Here’s just a couple of evidences that support the Bible’s claim to being the Word of God, so that we can believe it, beyond doubt.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

Most of the Old Testament was written 3,000 – 4,000 years ago. The New Testament was written nearly 2,000 years ago. Interestingly, the other major religious books were written about the same time. For example:

The Koran – written approx. 1400-1500 years ago

Buddhist writings – written approx. 2,000 years ago

The Hindu Vedas – written approx. 3,200-3,500 years ago

HISTORICAL SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE

It is important at the outset to remind ourselves that people have not always believed what we now believe about our world. There is no doubt that scientific knowledge has taken giant leaps forward in the last 2,000 to 4,000 years.

Now this is where it gets interesting. If we read the books of other religions, they all show the scientific thinking of their day – thinking that has huge fundamental errors. For example, the Hindu Vedas teach that the earth is held up on the back of four elephants. When this was written, this indeed was the thinking of the day. The earth was a very heavy object and something strong had to be holding it up. The biggest creatures around who could carry the biggest weights were the elephants.. so the scientific conclusion was obvious wasn’t it? .. elephants were holding the world up… and earthquakes occurred whenever the elephants shivered. When they shook, the earth shook. Obviously! Whenever someone asked, “who or what is holding the elephants up?” the answer was “a huge turtle which carries the elephants on its back while it swims in a gigantic lake.”

I think you will agree with me that science has found this claim to be an inaccurate one! The Hindu Vedas got it wrong.

The Hindu Vedas also teaches that the moon is 1500 miles above the sun, and that it (the moon) shines with its own light, and that the earth is flat and triangular in shape. All of these statements have proven to be false scientifically.

As another example, among many that could be quoted here, was the belief of the Greeks, that a man called Atlas held the earth on his shoulders.

Every other religious book contains statements which, when they were written, were accepted as correct, but have since been proved to be incorrect… every religious book, except the Bible. And here’s where it gets exciting; the Bible contains no such nonsense Scriptures. Even though when the Bible was written most people believed these wild theories, there is no mention of them in the Bible whatsoever… no elephant theory.. no turtle theory.. no moon shining with its own light theory.. no earth is flat and triangular theory..

What does the Bible say…?
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Total Security

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The quest for security springs from a craving in every human heart. Insurance, Security Services, Social Security, even military security – none of them individually or even all of them collectively can provide total security.

In spite of man’s efforts and expenditures, there are many ways in which he is ultimately powerless to achieve real security.

It would be foolish to build our lives on something that does not provide that which is necessary. To look for total and permanent security merely by human effort and achievement is to build a house on the sand – it’s a house that will one day be swept away by calamity.

Though man by his own efforts cannot achieve total and permanent security there is another source of security that does, though it is different in both nature and what it offers. That source is God Himself, His word and His wisdom.

Matt 7: 24 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”

Prov 1: 20 Wisdom cries aloud in the street, in the markets she raises her voice; 21 at the head of the noisy streets she cries out; at the entrance of the city gates she speaks: 22 “How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge? 23 If you turn at my reproof, behold, I will pour out my spirit to you; I will make my words known to you. 24 Because I have called and you refused to listen, have stretched out my hand and no one has heeded, 25 because you have ignored all my counsel and would have none of my reproof, 26 I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when terror strikes you, 27 when terror strikes you like a storm and your calamity comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you. 28 Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently but will not find me. 29 Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the LORD, 30 would have none of my counsel and despised all my reproof, 31 therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way, and have their fill of their own devices. 32 For the simple are killed by their turning away, and the complacency of fools destroys them; 33 but whoever listens to me will dwell secure and will be at ease, without dread of disaster.”

Verse 33 – total security – the offer of God’s wisdom. The passage shows that although wisdom makes the offer, there are not many who take it up.

Are you prepared to listen – to heed the voice of wisdom? The key to security is listening to the right voice.

THREE MAJOR KEYS FOR OBTAINING GOD’S WISDOM

(1) Focus on the eternal rather than the temporary:

2 Cor 4:17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

How can we look at that which is unseen? (A Paradox) – The only way is through faith
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Is God’s Love Unconditional?

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Rev 19:11 Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. 12 His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. 13 He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. 14 And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. 15 From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. 16 On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.

God elects His own people unconditionally (as Romans 9:6-13 makes clear) as those dead in trespasses and sins can fulfill no spiritual conditions anyway… and what God demands, Christ provides for all His people, including providing repentance and faith as a gift (2 Tim 2:26; Phil 1:29; Eph 2:8,9, Heb 12:2).

However, many preachers in our day speak of God loving all people “unconditionally.” When the non Christian hears the phrase “God loves you unconditionally” he immediately interprets this to mean that though he has no interest in God, and no interest in making Christ his Savior and Lord, he can breathe a great sigh of relief and can relax as far as God is concerned because he is under absolutely no threat of Divine judgment. If God in fact loves him unconditionally, that would certainly be the case. He does not have to DO anything – God loves him without any conditions at all. However, the Bible makes it clear that this is not true in any way at all.

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men…” Rom 1:18

“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.” – John 3:36

1 Thess. 1:9 For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.”

Wrath is coming on every soul who does not come to Christ for salvation and this wrath (God’s just and righteous anger against sin) will last for eternity. When Jesus returns, He comes back full of wrath which will be poured out on all those who have not sought refuge in Him as Savior.

That message is totally lost when people use the phrase “God’s unconditional love” and say that God has this kind of love for ALL people. I am not entirely sure I used the phrase “God loves you unconditionally” when preaching the gospel to people, but many years ago I made a conscious determination never to do so. Its not a biblical phrase and it conveys an unbiblical message. More than that, it gives the false impression that there is no danger for any soul who rejects the message of salvation. It is a false message. It is not true biblical Christianity.

Concerning this, John Piper writes:

There is such a thing as unconditional love in God, but it’s not what most people mean by it.

It’s not a saving love that he has for everybody. Else everybody would be saved, since they would not have to meet any conditions, not even faith. But Jesus said everybody is not saved (Matthew 25:46).

It’s not the love that justifies sinners since the Bible says we are justified by faith, and faith is a condition (Romans 5:1).

It’s not the love of working all things together for our good because Paul says that happens “to those who love God” (Romans 8:28).

It’s not the love of the most intimate fellowship with the Father because Jesus said, “He who loves me will be loved by my Father” (John 14:21). And James said, “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you” (James 4:8).

It’s not the love that will admit us into heaven when we die because John says, “Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life” (Revelation 2:10). And faithfulness is a condition.

How then does God love unconditionally? Two ways (at least):

He loves us with electing love unconditionally. “He chose us in him before the foundation of the world . . . for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 1:4-5).

He does not base this election on foreseeing our faith. On the contrary, our faith is the result of being chosen and appointed to believe, as Acts 13:48 says, “As many as were appointed to eternal life believed.”

He loves us with regenerating love before we meet any condition. The new birth is not God’s response to our meeting the condition of faith. On the contrary, the new birth enables us to believe.

“Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been [already!] born of God,” (1 John 5:1). “[We] were born, not . . . of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:13).

Let us pray that thousands of people who speak of the unconditional love of God would discover the biblical meaning of what they say. If that happened many would find their feet on solid ground.

O Lord, give me poverty of spirit

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“O Lord, make me poor in spirit.” That’s not a prayer I have heard uttered in a long, long time. That is a sad fact. What is even more sad and to my shame is the fact that it is not a prayer I have heard myself pray in quite some time. That’s because poverty of spirit is quite possibly the underlying root cause difference between the Christian whose life is marked by seeking God and the prayerless saint. To be poor in spirit is to recognize utter and complete dependance upon the Lord. It is to say “Lord, I am nothing without You and I need You desperately.”

In our culture, to be independent is a virtue. Yet in the kingdom of God, the more we are aware of our need of God, the more our spiritual life can grow.

I believe poverty of spirit has two major components to it. First of all there is a recognition of the seriousness and vile nature of sin. John Wesley described it in the following way, “He has a deep sense of the loathsome leprosy of sin which he brought with him from his mother’s womb, which overspreads his whole soul, and totally corrupts every power and faculty thereof.”

The second component is this attribute of dependence upon God. Kent Hughes writes, “Just as no one can come to Christ without poverty of spirit, no one can continue to grow apart from an ongoing poverty of spirit. Poverty of spirit is foundational because a continual sense of spiritual need is the basis for ongoing spiritual blessing. A perpetual awareness of our spiritual insufficiency opens us to continually receiving spiritual riches. Poverty of spirit is something we never outgrow. In fact, the more spiritually mature we become, the more profound will be our sense of poverty.” (The Sermon on the Mount [Crossway, 2001], 22)

As you read these words today, join me in asking God for this poverty of spirit, to rid the heart of human pride and to realize the depth of our need of Him. There is no merit in praying such a prayer for this is merely a recognition of reality. We need Him more than we realise. Understanding this is foundational for life in the kingdom of God. Indeed, it is the first of the Beattitudes, for Jesus “opened his mouth and taught them, saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven…” (Matt 5:3)

This poverty of spirit is illustrated in this testimony here: From a 2008 interview with Bob Kauflin, published in The Power of Words and the Wonder of God (pp. 149-151). Hopefully, most of us will not have to go to such low depths to discover just how much we need Him:

I helped plant a church in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 1991. I began to feel increasing anxiety at different times when we first planted the church. Then in January of 1994 my wife and I were at a couple’s house for dinner, and I cracked. My life fell apart. Mentally I had no connection with what I was doing, no connection with the past, no connection with the future. I didn’t know why I existed. These were the thoughts that went through my brain. That began a period of maybe three years where I battled constant hopelessness. I would wake up each morning with this thought: “Your life is completely hopeless,” and then I would go from there. It was a struggle just to make it through to each step of the day. The way I made it through was just to think, What am I going to do next? What will I do? I can make it to there.

It was characterized by panic attacks. For the first six months I battled thoughts of death. I’d think about an event that was three months away: Why am I thinking about that? I’m going to be dead by then. I had feelings of tightness in my chest, buzzing and itching on my arms, buzzing on my face. It was a horrible time. And in the midst of that I cried out to God, and I certainly talked to the pastor that I served with and other pastors that I knew—good friends—trying to figure out what in the world was going on with my life.

Five or six children at that time, a fruitful life, a fruitful ministry. And this is what I discovered: although I’d been a Christian for twenty-two years (since 1972) I was driven by a desire to be praised by men. And I wasn’t succeeding. When you plant a church, you find out that there are a lot of people who don’t agree with you. People who came to plant the church left. All of that assaulted my craving to be admired and praised and loved and worshiped and adored and applauded. God, I believe, just took his hand from me and said, “Okay, you handle this your way.” I knew the gospel, but what I didn’t know was how great a sinner I was. I thought the gospel I needed was for pretty good people, and that wasn’t sufficient to spare me from the utter hopelessness I felt during that time.

I would read Scripture. It didn’t make sense to me. It didn’t affect me. I remember lying at bed at times just reciting the Lord’s Prayer to myself over and over and over, hoping that would help. I couldn’t sleep; then at times all I wanted to do was sleep. I remember saying this early on: “God, if you keep me like this for the rest of my life but it means that I will know you better, then keep me like this.” That was the hardest prayer I’ve ever prayed.

During that time I read an abridged version of John Owen’s Sin and Temptation and Jerry Bridges’s The Discipline of Grace.

About a year into the process I talked to a good friend, Gary Ricucci, whom I am now in a small group with at Covenant Life Church. I said, “Gary, I feel hopeless all the time.”

He said, “You know, Bob? I think your problem is that you don’t feel hopeless enough.”

I don’t know what I looked like on the outside, but on the inside I was saying, “You are crazy. You are crazy. I feel hopeless.”

He said, “No, if you were hopeless, you would stop trusting in yourself and rely completely on what Jesus Christ accomplished for you.”

That was the beginning of the way out. And I remember saying to myself literally hundreds of times—every time these feelings of hopelessness and panic and a desire to ball up in a fetal position would come on me—“I feel completely hopeless because I am hopeless, but Jesus Christ died for hopeless people, and I’m one of them.”

Over time I began to believe that. And today when I tell people that Jesus is a great Savior, I believe it, because I know that he saved me. That’s where my joy comes from. My joy comes from knowing that at the very bottom, at the very pit of who I am, it is blackness and sin, but the love and grace of Jesus goes deeper.

The Pelagian Captivity of the Church

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I believe this post (which is more lengthy than normal) will be extremely enlightening to many people. Written by Dr. R. C. Sproul, this article is reproduced from Modern Reformation, Vol 10, Number 3 (May/June 2001), pp. 22-29.

Shortly after the Reformation began, in the first few years after Martin Luther posted the Ninety-Five Theses on the church door at Wittenberg, he issued some short booklets on a variety of subjects. One of the most provocative was titled The Babylonian Captivity of the Church. In this book Luther was looking back to that period of Old Testament history when Jerusalem was destroyed by the invading armies of Babylon and the elite of the people were carried off into captivity. Luther in the sixteenth century took the image of the historic Babylonian captivity and reapplied it to his era and talked about the new Babylonian captivity of the Church. He was speaking of Rome as the modern Babylon that held the Gospel hostage with its rejection of the biblical understanding of justification. You can understand how fierce the controversy was, how polemical this title would be in that period by saying that the Church had not simply erred or strayed, but had fallen — that it’s actually now Babylonian; it is now in pagan captivity.

I’ve often wondered if Luther were alive today and came to our culture and looked, not at the liberal church community, but at evangelical churches, what would he have to say? Of course I can’t answer that question with any kind of definitive authority, but my guess is this: If Martin Luther lived today and picked up his pen to write, the book he would write in our time would be entitled The Pelagian Captivity of the Evangelical Church. Luther saw the doctrine of justification as fueled by a deeper theological problem. He writes about this extensively in The Bondage of the Will. When we look at the Reformation and we see the solas of the Reformation — sola Scriptura, sola fide, solus Christus, soli Deo gloria, sola gratia — Luther was convinced that the real issue of the Reformation was the issue of grace; and that underlying the doctrine of solo fide, justification by faith alone, was the prior commitment to sola gratia, the concept of justification by grace alone.

In the Fleming Revell edition of The Bondage of the Will, the translators, J. I. Packer and O. R. Johnston, included a somewhat provocative historical and theological introduction to the book itself. This is from the end of that introduction:

These things need to be pondered by Protestants today. With what right may we call ourselves children of the Reformation? Much modern Protestantism would be neither owned nor even recognised by the pioneer Reformers. The Bondage of the Will fairly sets before us what they believed about the salvation of lost mankind. In the light of it, we are forced to ask whether Protestant Christendom has not tragically sold its birthright between Luther’s day and our own. Has not Protestantism today become more Erasmian than Lutheran? Do we not too often try to minimise and gloss over doctrinal differences for the sake of inter-party peace? Are we innocent of the doctrinal indifferentism with which Luther charged Erasmus? Do we still believe that doctrine matters?1

Historically, it’s a simple matter of fact that Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, and all the leading Protestant theologians of the first epoch of the Reformation stood on precisely the same ground here. On other points they had their differences. In asserting the helplessness of man in sin and the sovereignty of God in grace, they were entirely at one. To all of them these doctrines were the very lifeblood of the Christian faith. A modern editor of Luther’s works says this:

Whoever puts this book down without having realized that Evangelical theology stands or falls with the doctrine of the bondage of the will has read it in vain. The doctrine of free justification by faith alone, which became the storm center of so much controversy during the Reformation period, is often regarded as the heart of the Reformers’ theology, but this is not accurate. The truth is that their thinking was really centered upon the contention of Paul, echoed by Augustine and others, that the sinner’s entire salvation is by free and sovereign grace only, and that the doctrine of justification by faith was important to them because it safeguarded the principle of sovereign grace. The sovereignty of grace found expression in their thinking at a more profound level still in the doctrine of monergistic regeneration.2

That is to say, that the faith that receives Christ for justification is itself the free gift of a sovereign God. The principle of sola fide is not rightly understood until it is seen as anchored in the broader principle of sola gratia. What is the source of faith? Is it the God-given means whereby the God-given justification is received, or is it a condition of justification which is left to man to fulfill? Do you hear the difference? Let me put it in simple terms. I heard an evangelist recently say, “If God takes a thousand steps to reach out to you for your redemption, still in the final analysis, you must take the decisive step to be saved.” Consider the statement that has been made by America’s most beloved and leading evangelical of the twentieth century, Billy Graham, who says with great passion, “God does ninety-nine percent of it but you still must do that last one percent.”

What Is Pelagianism?

Now, let’s return briefly to my title, “The Pelagian Captivity of the Church.” What are we talking about?
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