Today I had the privilege of guest hosting another Dividing Line broadcast and brought what I believe to be an important teaching on first order and second order doctrines. As the quote attributed to Augustine says, “In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; and in all things, charity.”
We experienced some audio difficulties during the first two minutes of the show but after that there were no further sound issues.
Article: R. C. Sproul (original source here)
Does prayer make any difference? Does it really change anything? Someone once asked me that question, only in a slightly different manner: “Does prayer change God’s mind?” My answer brought storms of protest. I said simply, “No.” Now, if the person had asked me, “Does prayer change things?” I would have answered, “Of course!”
The Bible says there are certain things God has decreed from all eternity. Those things will inevitably come to pass. If you were to pray individually or if you and I were to join forces in prayer or if all the Christians of the world were to pray collectively, it “would not change what God, in His hidden counsel, has determined to do. If we decided to pray for Jesus not to return, He still would return. You might ask, though, “Doesn’t the Bible say that if two or three agree on anything, they’ll get it?” Yes, it does, but that passage is talking about church discipline, not prayer requests. So we must take all the biblical teaching on prayer into account and not isolate one passage from the rest. We must approach the matter in light of the whole of Scripture, resisting an atomistic reading. Again, you might ask, “Doesn’t the Bible say from time to time that God repents?” Yes, the Old Testament certainly says so. The book of Jonah tells us that God “repented of ” the judgment He had planned for the people of Nineveh (Jonah 3:10, KJV). In using the concept of repentance here, the Bible is describing God, who is Spirit, in what theologians call “anthropomorphic” language. Obviously the Bible does not mean that God repented in the way we would repent; otherwise, we could rightly assume that God had sinned and therefore would need a savior Himself. What it clearly means is that God removed the threat of judgment from the people. The Hebrew word nacham, translated “repent” in the King James Version, means “comforted” or “eased” in this case. God was comforted and felt at ease that the people “had turned from their sin, and therefore He revoked the sentence of judgment He had imposed.
When God hangs His sword of judgment over people’s heads, and they repent and He then withholds His judgment, has He really changed His mind? The mind of God does not change for God does not change. Things change, and they change according to His sovereign will, which He exercises through secondary means and secondary activities. The prayer of His people is one of the means He uses to bring things to pass in this world. So if you ask me whether prayer changes things, I answer with an unhesitating “Yes!”
It is impossible to know how much of human history reflects God’s immediate intervention and how much reveals God working through human agents. Calvin’s favorite example of this was the book of Job. The Sabeans and the Chaldeans had taken Job’s donkeys and camels. Why? Because Satan had stirred their hearts to do so. But why? Because Satan had received permission from God to test Job’s faithfulness in any way he so desired, short of taking Job’s life. Why had God agreed to such a thing? For three reasons: (1) to silence the slander of Satan; (2) to vindicate Himself; and (3) to vindicate Job from the slander of Satan. All of these reasons are perfectly righteous justifications for God’s actions.
By contrast, Satan’s purpose in stirring up these two groups was to cause Job to blaspheme God—an altogether wicked motive. But we notice that Satan did not do something supernatural to accomplish his ends. He chose human agents—the Sabeans and Chaldeans, who were evil by nature—to steal Job’s animals. The Sabeans and Chaldeans were known for their thievery and murderous way of life. Their will was involved, but there was no coercion; God’s purpose was accomplished through their wicked actions.
The Sabeans and Chaldeans were free to choose, but for them, as for us, freedom always means freedom within limits. We must not, however, confuse human freedom and human autonomy. There will always be a conflict between divine sovereignty and human autonomy. There is never a conflict between divine sovereignty and human freedom. The Bible says that man is free, but he is not an autonomous law unto himself.
Suppose the Sabeans and Chaldeans had prayed, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” I’m absolutely certain that Job’s animals still would have been stolen, but not necessarily by the Sabeans and Chaldeans. God might have chosen to”answer their prayer, but He would have used some other agent to steal Job’s animals. There is freedom within limits, and within those limits, our prayers can change things. The Scriptures tell us that Elijah, through prayer, kept the rain from falling. He was not dissuaded from praying by his understanding of divine sovereignty.
No human being has ever had a more profound understanding of divine sovereignty than Jesus. No man ever prayed more fiercely or more effectively. Even in Gethsemane, He requested an option, a different way. When the request was denied, He bowed to the Father’s will. The very reason we pray is because of God’s sovereignty, because we believe that God has it within His power to order things according to His purpose. That is what sovereignty is all about—ordering things according to God’s purpose. So then, does prayer change God’s mind? No. Does prayer change things? Yes, of course. The promise of the Scriptures is that “The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working” (James 5:16). The problem is that we are not all that righteous. What prayer most often changes is the wickedness and the hardness of our own hearts. That alone would be reason enough to pray, even if none of the other reasons were valid or true.
In a sermon titled “The Most High, a Prayer-Hearing God,” Jonathan Edwards gave two reasons why God requires prayer:
With respect to God, prayer is but a sensible acknowledgement of our dependence on him to his glory. As he hath made all things for his own glory, so he will be glorified and acknowledged by his creatures; and it is fit that he should require this of those who would be subjects of his mercy . . . [it] is a suitable acknowledgement of our dependence on the power and mercy of God for that which we need, and but a suitable honor paid to the great Author and Fountain of all good.
With respect to ourselves, God requires prayer of us . . . Fervent prayer many ways tends to prepare the heart. Hereby is excited a sense of our need . . . whereby the mind is more prepared to prize [his mercy] . . . Our prayer to God may excite in us a suitable sense and consideration of our dependence on God for the mercy we ask, and a suitable exercise of faith in God’s sufficiency, so that we may be prepared to glorify his name when the mercy is received.
(The Works of Jonathan Edwards [Carlisle, Pa.: Banner of Truth Trust, 1974], 2:116)
All that God does is for His glory first and for our benefit second. We pray because God commands us to pray, because it glorifies Him, and because it benefits us.
Theology in Dialogue with R.C. Sproul and Derek Thomas
On Friday, January 15, Dr. Sproul was joined by Ligonier teaching fellow Dr. Derek Thomas for a relaxed and informative evening of theology and dialogue. These notable theologians and pastors answered questions submitted through social media and from a live audience at Saint Andrew’s Chapel in Sanford, FL. The topics addressed included God’s nature, Islam, finding a local church, Scripture, and more.
1. Does God choose not to lie, or does His nature dictate that He cannot lie? (02:58)
2. What’s the greatest challenge to biblical Christianity today? (03:19)
3. Can Christians truly have assurance of salvation? (03:51)
4. Were Adam and Eve saved? (04:31)
5. Why does the church argue against head coverings using first-century culture when Paul argues from Genesis? (05:06)
6. What is your favorite hymn and why? (07:13)
7. How did they determine approximate dates for various books in the Bible? (08:00)
8. Was the average Old Testament Jew able to gain a complete understanding of the Trinity? (10:35)
9. Do you believe that we are headed to a point in which the government will require churches to perform “same-sex” marriages? (13:10)
10. Why is wisdom personified as female? (16:10)
11. Do Muslims and Christians worship the same God? (16:50)
12. Do you believe that Christians need to do a better job of defending their faith (especially as it relates to Islam)? (19:00)
13. Is there any support for complementarianism in the creation account prior to the fall? (20:23)
14. Did Jesus, during His earthly ministry, have the ability to sin? (22:40)
15. Does Scripture provide hope for a child who turns away from Christ as a young college student? (25:24)
16. If the reformers like Calvin and Luther didn’t state explicitly their end times views, what would be their presumed view in your eyes? (28:38)
17. Have either of you changed your eschatological views? (31:45)
18. If you had a moment with one of today’s prosperity preachers, what would you say? (32:40)
19. What doctrine in the Bible do you find the most difficult to accept and why? (33:31)
20. Are both of you hopeful for another awakening in our age? (35:36)
21 In Acts 2:38 it says that baptism is for the forgiveness of sins. What do you believe about this and why? (37:49)
22. What makes a church good and how do you find one? (39:36)
23. Does the incarnation mean that God has changed in space and time from that point on? If not, why and how do we respond to the question? (43:59)
24. Did the death of Jesus accomplish anything for the non-elect? (46:31)
25. What would you say to a Christian who doesn’t believe in the inerrancy of Scripture? (48:14)
26. What is blasphemy of the Holy Spirit? (49:43)
27. Can good theology and sound doctrine become an idol? (52:53)
28. How have the truths from your series “Surprised by Suffering” been a comfort for you as you have dealt with health issues? (56:19)
Article: Kevin DeYoung – Does God Have Regret? (original source but they asked anyway. So God gave them what they wanted—an impressive human king, just like the other nations had. His name was Saul, and he didn’t last long. He disobeyed the divine command, infuriating the prophet-judge Samuel and upsetting the Lord God.
The word of the Lord came to Samuel: “I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments.” (1 Samuel 15:10-11)
In 1 Samuel 15:35, we see a similar statement:
And Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death, but Samuel grieved over Saul. And the Lord regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel.
Strong words. And surprising too. What does it mean for God to say “I regret”? Can God change his mind? Can we thwart God’s plans? Is God ignorant about the future? Is God just like us in that he makes honest mistakes and sometimes look back at his decisions and says, “Golly, I wish I could do that one over again”? It seems like our God makes mistakes and is forced to change course.
And yet, we know this is not the right way to understand God’s regret because of what we read a few verses earlier in 1 Samuel 15:
And Samuel said to him, “The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day and has given it to a neighbor of yours, who is better than you. And also the Glory of Israel will not lie or have regret, for he is not a man, that he should have regret.” (28-29)
We must keep in mind one of the great principles of biblical interpretation: the author was not completely stupid. We have no reason (other than our own biases) to think verse 29 was inserted by a later scribe and no reason to think verse 29 cannot cohere with verses 11 and 35. Clearly, if we are going to be wise, consistent students of Scripture we have to allow that in some sense God can regret, while in another sense God would not be God if he did regret.
The author of 1 Samuel–not to the mention the Author behind 1 Samuel–is trying to teach us something about God. On the one hand, our God is not static, monotonous, and lifeless. As a personal, relational Being, God’s activity in the world is subject to change and allows for all the dynamism we have in our personal relationships. There was always bound to be conflict in covenantal history between God and human beings, but this does not mean there is conflict within God’s inner being (see Horton, The Christian Faith, 240-241). As God’s ways appear to us, there will be change and variation, but as God is in his character and essence there can be no variation of shadow due to change (James 1:17; cf. Mal.3:6; Heb. 13:8; 2 Tim. 2:13).
When God reflects on the disobedience of Saul, he uses a word that makes sense to us: the word “regret.” But this doesn’t mean God was ignorant about Saul’s sin or caught off guard by his rebellion. As John Piper points out, God is quite capable of lamenting a state of affairs he himself foreknew and brought about. In other words, God’s regret is not analogous in every way to our regret. This seems to be the point verse 29 is explicitly making. God can look back at Saul and say “I’m grieved that he sinned; it’s time to find another king” while still maintaining, “I never change my mind.”
It is the nature of our covenantal relationship with God to know God as one who responds and reacts, which ought to appear to us all the more amazing because it is the nature of our covenant keeping God never to lie, repent, or change his mind (Num. 23:19).
[Adapted from Everyone’s a Theologian by R.C. Sproul]
Christianity is not based on speculative philosophy; it is a revealed faith. The basic claim of the Christian faith is that the truth we embrace comes to us from God Himself.
Christianity makes a distinction between general revelation (in creation) and special revelation (in the Bible).
God is the Source of all truth
God is the source of all truth, not only religious truth. We as creatures could not know anything were it not that God has made knowledge possible for us. Even those with perfect vision, if they were placed in a room filled with beautiful objects, could not see any of the beauty, if the room were immersed in darkness. So, when scientists seek to discern truth in their laboratories while belittling us for our claim to trust in revelation for the content of our religious faith, we can simply point out that they could learn nothing from a test tube were it not for the Creator’s revelation and His gift of the ability to learn through a study of nature.
General Revelation
God’s general revelation is called general because it is given to every human being in the entire world. It is given in and through nature and through the human conscience (which is why it is sometimes called “natural revelation”). “The heavens declare the glory of God” (Psalm 19:1). God has given all human beings a sense of right and wrong (Rom. 2:14-15). General revelation does not reveal God’s work as Redeemer, only His work as Creator. One cannot study a sunset and see the heavens declaring God’s plan of salvation; which is precisely why God’s special revelation in the Bible is necessary for salvation.
Generally speaking, according to Romans 1:18-21, the knowledge that human beings gain through general revelation is knowledge of God’s “invisible attributes,” specifically, “His eternal power and Godhead.” This revelation is plain. But it is our nature as sinners to suppress that revelation in unrighteousness.
Unbelievers attempt to excuse their refusal to come to God by claiming that God has failed to provide sufficient proof of His existence, but the Bible is clear that God’s revelation of Himself in nature and in the human conscience provides us with true and clear knowledge of His character. Our sinful suppression of that revelation does not erase the knowledge of God that He has given us through nature and in our hearts. Therefore, everyone needs the gospel, because everyone has been judged guilty – not for rejecting Jesus, of whom many have never heard, but rejecting God the Father, who has revealed Himself plainly to every human being.
Special Revelation
Special Revelation is found (ever since the completion of the Canon) only in the Bible.
In OT times, God spoke to people directly on occasion: through dreams, signs, the casting of lots, and theophany, which is a visible manifestation of the invisible God. The best-known theophany is the burning bush; also the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire. Continue reading
Article: by John Piper – original source – http://www.desiringgod.org/messages/why-god-created-the-world
Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you. I will say to the north, Give up, and to the south, Do not withhold; bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth, everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.” (Isaiah 43:5–7)
One of the most important questions any human being can ask is: Does God exist?
In answer to this question, God gives himself a personal name in the Scriptures. The name was so sacred that the Jews did not pronounce it. The generally substituted the word Adonai or Master. Today we usually pronounce the name Yahweh. Sometimes Jehovah. It is used for God over six thousand times in the Old Testament. It is usually translated LORD in our English Bible with all capital letters.
God gave himself this name in order to make sure that his absolute existence would be affirmed every time we used his name.
The Only Absolute Reality
You can see this in Exodus 3:13–14 where Moses explains how the name came into being.
Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”
The name Yahweh is built on the Hebrew word for I am. So every time God’s personal name was used — over six thousand times — the point was, and is, I exist absolutely. My existence does not depend on anyone else’s existence. I am — who I am.
I am not defined by any other reality. Nothing determines who I am or what I am like. I did not come into being. Nothing was before me. And so nothing created me, or gave rise to me. I am not in the process of becoming. I am complete.
All other reality is dependent on me. Everything that exists outside of me, exists because I made it. Therefore, I give meaning to everything. I decide whether anything exists, and why everything exists. I am the only absolute reality. “I am who I am.” “Moses, tell Israel, ‘I AM’ has sent you. That is my name.”
But for me, the next question is just as significant as the question, Does God exist? It has shaped my life and ministry even just as profoundly as the existence of God. Namely, the question: Why did this absolute God — who was complete and lacking in nothing — create the world? If you answer that question the way God does, it will affect everything you think, everything you feel, everything you do.
The short answer that resounds through the whole Bible like rolling thunder is: God created the world for his glory.
We’ll talk in a moment about what that means, but let’s establish the fact first. Continue reading
Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones:
Listen to the original sermon who first trusted in Christ. In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.’ – Ephesians 1:11–14
We continue our discussion of the Apostle’s great statement. He has announced that the great secret which God has revealed concerning His purpose is that in this present age, and in Christ, He has reunited the discordant parts, the separate parts, into which sin has divided the world and the whole cosmos. God is restoring the original harmony, in heaven and on earth, and He is doing so in and through our Lord Jesus Christ. In the dispensation of the fulness of times it is His purpose that He might ‘gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in him.’ In these verses we are considering the ways in which God is doing this, and have already given attention to the first, and indeed in many senses the chief way, namely, the formation and the growth of the Christian Church. The Church is the new Israel, the spiritual Israel, the true seed of Abraham, and she consists of Jews and Gentiles. But the unity is established, as we have seen, by making these different people Christians, and the Apostle incidentally tells us a number of things about the Christian. We have already considered two of them.
Now we come to consider, in the third place, the way in which all this has happened to us, how this has ever become true of us, knowing ourselves as we do. How does anyone become a Christian? How does anyone enter into this position in which he is ‘in Christ’ and a ‘joint-heir’ with Christ? Fortunately the Apostle deals with that subject also. He is not content with saying that this is true of us, he tells us how it has become true. And he does so, of course, because this was something at which he never ceased to wonder. As we proceed we find Paul using a number of terms which we have already encountered. We met them in verses 4 and 5. They include certain great terms and phrases which are to be found throughout the New Testament, terms which are absolutely essential to a true and ultimate understanding of the Gospel: ‘In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.’ In verses 4 and 5 we find: ‘According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself.’ Such are the terms. We are here face to face with high doctrine, with some of the great profundities of the Christian faith and the Christian messages. Someone may ask: Why does the Apostle repeat these terms here, having already used them in verses 4 and 5? The explanation is not only simple but very important. In verses 4 and 5 the Apostle was taking a general view of God’s purpose, he was looking at it, as it were, from that eternal standpoint. Now he is not merely looking at it in general, but also in its particular application to us. There, it was the great scheme itself; here, it is the scheme as applied to us. But he still uses the same terms as he used there. They apply not only to the thought but also to the application.
Many Christian people never study these terms, never dwell on them, never turn them over in their minds. Let me prove that contention by asking a question. How often have you heard anyone going slowly, and term by term, through this great chapter? Or, how often have you read them yourself in this way? Are we not in danger of avoiding these great terms because of certain associations which they have? This is something of which we, as Christian people, need to be very wary at this present hour, for certain aspects of New Testament truth are just not being considered at all because of an element of controversy attached to them. Large numbers of Christian people are totally ignorant of prophetic truth, for instance, because their attitude to it is determined by the fact that it leads to argument and wrangling about various theories. They imagine that that is a wise and sound position to take up. But what they are actually doing is deliberately to ignore God’s Word; they are deliberately by-passing certain aspects and elements of God’s revealed Truth. God means us to study and to face everything in His word whether it is difficult or simple, whether involved in controversy of otherwise. To say ‘peace at any price’ at the expense of God’s revealed truth is surely an insult to God. These matters have to be faced, whether it is the truth concerning prophecy of whether it be the truth concerning these high matters of doctrine which the Apostle puts before us in these verses, as he has already done in verses 4 and 5. Continue reading
Article: Dr. Sam Storms – “10 Things You Should KNow About the Immutability of God” – (original source and ultimately unworthy object of our affection and worship. It is imperative, therefore, that we proceed cautiously, and yet with conviction, in articulating these ten truths about divine immutability.
(1) To say that God is immutable is to declare that his character is eternally consistent. Immutability means that God is consistently the same in his eternal moral being. He will never get “better” than he has been for eternity. He will by no means ever get “worse”.
(2) This affirmation of unchangeableness, however, is not designed to deny that there is change and development in God’s relations to his creatures. We who were once his enemies are now by the grace of Christ his friends (Rom. 5:6-11). Divine immutability must never be interpreted in such a way that the reality of the “Word became flesh” is threatened (John 1:14). We must acknowledge that he who is in his eternal being very God became, in space-time history, very man. Yet the Word who became flesh did not cease to be the Word. The second person of the Trinity has taken unto himself or assumed a human nature, yet without alteration or reduction of his essential deity. He is now what he has always been: very God. He is now what he once was not: very man. He is now and forever will be both: the God-man.
(3) To say that God is immutable is not to say that he is immobile or static, for whereas all change is activity, not all activity is change. It is simply to affirm that God always is and acts in perfect harmony with the revelation of himself and his will in Scripture. Continue reading
K. Scott Oliphint is professor of apologetics and systematic theology at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia and author of Covenantal Apologetics: Principles and Practice in Defense of Our Faith.
Article: Mystery Is the Lifeblood of Worship (original source someone told me that the primary problem with Calvinism is that it puts God in a logical box. But the more I was exposed to the central teachings of the Reformation, within the Reformed understanding, God’s majesty shines brightest, bursting all boundaries and exceeding all expectations. When a biblical understanding of God takes root in our hearts and minds, it inevitably and everywhere points to the infinitely majestic mystery of his character.
Dutch theologian Herman Bavinck writes, “Mystery is the lifeblood of dogmatics” (29). This is a perfectly apt metaphor. Any thinking about God, any theology, that does not have the lifeblood of mystery flowing through its veins will be, by definition, dead. Far from attempting to contain God in a logical box, true and lively thoughts of God will always, happily, and majestically, bump up against his mysterious incomprehensibility. It is that very incomprehensibility, the glorious and magnificent mystery of God’s character, that should motivate the praise and worship of every Christian.
There are three central truths attached to the majestic mystery of God’s character.
1. Mystery Is Infused with Knowledge
A biblical view of mystery is the polar opposite of mysticism. Mysticism focuses on experience; it demeans and depreciates knowledge. Mysticism at times has knocked on the door of Christianity, but it can never find its home there — because knowledge is central to biblical Christianity. Continue reading
The following are a series of lectures from Dr. James Dolezal on such doctrines as Divine simplicity, the unity of the Trinity, impassibility, immutibility, etc.
Divine Simplicity and the Grammar of Classical Christian Orthodoxy
Theistic Personalism and the Erosion of Classical Christian Theism
Divine Simplicity and Its Modern Detractors
Divine Eternity and the Challenge of Creation
Substantial Unity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit