Seek, and ye shall find....

Seeker sensitive churches.  Seeker movements.  Seeking God.  Seeking faith.  Frankly, I didn't know that any of those things were hiding.  Today, let us dwell for a moment on the idea of seeking.  Who seeks and what does the action of seeking imply to your theology; these are the questions that need to be asked of all these seekers.  This post is in response to a question that was asked of me some two weeks ago.  I have been overlong in answering and this reply may not be read at this point, but here at last is my reply.  Let's start in the Pentateuch and work forward.  

Notice Deuteronomy 4:29.  On first glance, this is looking good.  From there, you will seek God and you will find Him, if you search with all your heart and all your soul.  OK, let's wait just a second.  There are about four problems for seekers in that one sentence.  From where?  If you read the whole section, this is not looking so good.  From where is from exile if you, Israel, break the Law.  So, basically, Israel is in the position of having already suffered the curses from disobedience of the Law. "If."  Ouch! "If" tends to mean more conditions, more blessings and more curses.  Search with all your heart and all your soul.  Seekers are feeling better at this point.  They have an imperative and they think they can accomplish it.  Never mind that the whole section implies failure on this point, Israel is given a second chance, so that means it must be doable.  Kant's philosophy is the gift that keeps on giving, poisoning the minds of the current seekers to think that they can do what Israel failed to do.  What do we know about our heart?  Jeremiah and Isaiah will tell us about our heart later.  All our hearts and all our souls sounds a bit like perfection to me, does it sound like perfection to you?  

Proverbs gives seeking a review.  Proverbs 1 is so good, it really speaks for itself.  Seeking is down in verse 28, but read the whole thing.  If you still think Solomon thinks you can successfully seek after reading that, go back and try it again.  Who are the fools?  More importantly, who is wisdom?  This is a key passage because the Gospel will refer back to it.  Everyone should see themselves in the group called fools.  Wisdom is from Jesus, and He will lay claim to that attribute later in redemptive history.  Proverbs 8 is more of the same.  Wisdom was with God from the beginning.  Those who seek will succeed.  But look at those last 5 verses.  We are looking at blessings and curses.  Make no mistake about it.  When we are reading the Law, you will fall on one side or the other.  Perfection is the standard according to Jesus.  Can you be a perfect seeker?

Ecclesiastes 8:17 bursts the seeker bubble pretty thoroughly.  Sometimes, you can back up and encompass more of the passage for more context, and all it does it make the situation more vivid.  Notice this referenced passage of Proverbs 25.  It is clear that God has no intention of sharing everything with His creatures.  And so, not only do we have to be perfect seekers to find God, if we can qualify as such, we should expect some disappointment.

In Jeremiah 5:1, the question is asked whether one can be found who seeks the Truth and does justice.  The answer as Jeremiah tells us is no.  In chapter 29, notice that this has swung to the imperative mood with blessings and curses.  This story is about an event that will occur at the time of that writing, has already occurred, and didn't really go the way that Israel would have liked at the end of it all.  So, the question remains: who seeks the Truth?

Amos 8 makes for fascinating reading.  Verses 9-10 sort of describe a particular weekend, one that we annually remember, it might rhyme with Good Friday.  I include it here mostly because the seekers come up short, but this passage is an incredible bit of prophesy fulfilled at Golgotha.  

Matthew 7:7-8 This is my fifth or sixth trip back into the sermon on the mount, and the theme of this sermon has to be put back into the discussion to handle this passage in context.  Remember that this sermon is all about Law.  Each time we discuss this sermon, we have to go back and get the key verses from chapter 5.  The passages in chapter 7 are a set of imperatives.  Moving down to the end of chapter 7 is the imperative that sums up this section:  if you do this, your house will be build on solid rock, but if you don't....  That is the point.  Jesus has set up the imperatives.  He has described the standard.  Jesus has explained the letter of the Law, and it is unattainable.  All of the imperatives within this sermon must be put in this context.  If you do this, you will live; but who can accomplish it?  The answer is that there is only One.  

Luke takes these passages of Matthew out of this context, but the theme of the Covenant of Law versus the Covenant of Grace runs throughout the Bible, particularly Jesus' teachings.  Therefore, it behooves us to view all Law passages in this light, as Jesus is fairly consistent on this point.  But then in chapter 15, Luke turns it around.  It is God who does the seeking here.  Adding the prior section on the lost sheep to the discussion, this is definitely about God who seeks.  Over and over, it is God who seeks his lost sheep.

In John 7 when Jesus tells the officers that they can seek him, but they cannot find him, are we to take this at face value?  Where is Jesus now that we can not longer find him?  Is this a part of the overarching redemptive theme or just a few words for officers who seek to arrest him?  If Jesus is just playing hide and seek with officers, why include it in the Gospel?  The point is that Jesus is going someplace where the rulers of this world have no dominion.  No one can find Him when He is in that place.  He is there right now, from Golgotha until the Second Coming.  Seekers will fail.  It is God who seeks His sheep. 

At last, we come to the defining book on seeking: Romans.  Paul is crystal clear on the subject of seeking.  I have recently done the Building Blocks post on election, and it bears repeating here.  In the classic first half of Romans 3, Paul states that no one seeks God, no one even tries.  He is summarizing the Psalter and it convicts like no other passage in the Bible.  There are no seekers.  Then in Chapter 9, it is God who elects and God who seeks.  

This is difficult for Americans in particular to handle.  We are, by and large, all Arminians.  When we are not Arminians, we have become Pelagians.  We always want to have a part to play.  We think we can contribute to our own salvation.  We are egalitarians by politics and this has made us Unitarians by religion.  The problem is that while this may be spiritual, it is not Biblical.  The Bible is very clear on this point.  We contribute nothing to our own salvation.  Romans 3-5 talks about justification by faith alone.  Paul is exceedingly clear on this point.  We contribute absolutely nothing to this formula.  We receive the gift.  "...and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed."  This is from Acts 13:48.  Predestination is part of the doctrines of Calvin and Luther, but more importantly here, we have no part to play in our own salvation.

When God seeks you, how do you know that you have been found?  You know because you believe.  That is the gift of the Holy Spirit that is in all believers.  That is what the Holy Spirit does.  The Holy Spirit is the Seeker who was sent by Jesus to collect His sheep.

--Troll-- 

St. Patrick's Day thoughts

Not for the first time, our Tuesday homily was about a saint, this time about the patron saint of Ireland, St. Patrick.  We learned some very interesting facts about Patrick.  To begin, Patrick wasn't Irish.  It seems that he was abducted from England by Irish raiders while a young teen and help captive in Ireland for six years until making his escape at the age of about 20.  But I do not wish to focus on Patrick.  His parents are far more interesting.


The history of the church in the British Isles is germaine to all Anglicans, Episcopalians and Presbyterians, as we trace our roots back to those islands.  Patrick was Roman.  His parents were Romans sent to England to deal with the Pelagian heresy by the church in Rome.  This is all taking place in the fifth century.  The great debate between Augustine and Pelagius and its aftermath subsequent to Pelagius' death was burning strongly in Rome.  The fact that Patrick's parents were sent to England for this reason speaks to just how widespread this problem had become for the church.  This heresy that infests the protestant churches of our time was the reason for Patrick's presence in Ireland in the first place.  It is shameful that we have come to the point that history has erased the most important legacy of Patrick's family, that of putting down the Pelagian heresy.


Happy St. Patrick's Day.  Isn't it nice to know that God chose you?

--Ogre--

What is faith?

The arguments for faith have been damaged by the Second Great Awakening.  Through Kant and Kierkegaard, we have ideas of faith that separate faith from the world of rational thought.  This legacy is in stark contrast to the Biblical idea of faith, faith of three parts that we will develop below.  The Biblical notion of faith is far from the blind leap that characterizes post awakening thinking.

The nineteenth century was to philosophy what the sixteenth century was to theology and Christology.  In large part due to Kant and Kierkegaard, philosophy headed down pathways that eventually lead to Modernity and Postmodernism.  Between Kant's idea that anything that God specifies that you can't do necessarily means that it can be done, and Kierkegaard's idea that subjectivity is separate from objectivity, philosophy eventually moved to the idea that faith was subjective and independent of objective fact.  What is interesting in reading both Kant and Kierkegaard is that at times they managed to describe Christian doctrines very well, and then would use them in bizarre manners to prove discordant theories of self.  There can be no doubt that both were very familiar with the Bible and the work of the Reformers.

Biblical faith is described in a very different way.  Old Testament faith can be seen as obedience or adherence to the Law.  In this way faith is very much tied into the idea of faithfulness, which is obedience.  This notion is expanded by the ministry of Christ in much the same way that He expanded our understanding of many things.  Jesus expanded our understanding of the Temple, of the Sacrificial system, of Law, of Obedience, of every aspect of Old Testament religion.  Therefore, the notion of faith is likewise expanded to encompass this growth in knowledge as revealed by Jesus in the scripture.

What is the faith of the Centurion in Matthew 8 and Luke 7?  Is his expectation based upon some abstract idea that Jesus is a basically good guy who teaches ethical truths?  No, his faith comes from the knowledge that Jesus is actually the Lord, that Jesus is the Word.  The Centurion equates Jesus' Word with the creative force, the healing force, of God.  This faith is completely grounded in the knowledge that Jesus is the Lord.  This is why Jesus makes such an example of this man's faith.  The Centurion recognizes the authority of Jesus.

Similarly, in the next chapter, why are the scribes so upset by this pronouncement by Jesus?  Jesus did not just say you are healed, instead He said "your sins are forgiven." This was recognized as the role of God by the scribes, which is why they considered this blasphemous.  Jesus is claiming authority in this passage.  The faith of the paralytic is equated with the knowledge of Jesus as the Son of Man, or the messiah.

In Acts 3, Peter spells it out plainly, giving the whole formula of faith.  This is an incredible passage.  Peter first gives witness to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus to the very people who had Him killed.  Next Peter places all authority in the name of Jesus.  Finally, Peter grounds the certain knowledge of the person and divinity of Jesus in the Scripture and particularly in the Prophets.  This is a knowledge based argument.  Peter is appealing to an argument that everyone who is listened that day will clearly understand.  They may not have faith, but it can not be said that their lack of faith is independent of reason.  Peter makes his appeal completely upon a rational connection of points from the prophets, through the life of Jesus and concluding in His resurrection.  This is what Peter calls faith.

And now we come to Paul.  The letter to the church in Rome is Paul's great doctrinal statement.  The whole letter is about defining faith.  The letter begins with praising the Romans for their faith, and then goes ahead and defines it for them, to be sure that there is no mistake in understanding what that faith is that Paul is praising.  Starting with the second half of Romans 3, this is the formula for the reformed understanding of faith.  Faith in Jesus unlocks all that Paul discusses in that passage.  Faith is the knowledge that Who Christ is will unlock what Christ has done for us.  We could go on with Paul, but just read Romans, all of it.

So what is faith?  1.  Faith begins with the intellectual knowledge of the historical facts of Christianity as revealed by scripture.  2.  There must be intellectual agreement with these facts.  3.  Finally, through the Grace of God by the action of the Holy Spirit, there must be belief in these facts.  It has not been my purpose in this particular post to argue the Arminian-Calvinist debate.  I will come to that soon in another post.  Both sides of that debate would agree with this definition of faith.

Therefore, Biblical faith is not a blind leap.  Biblical faith is not some amorphous fuzzy feeling.  Biblical faith is not some endorphin or adrenaline laden experience.  Biblical faith is knowledge of the person and work of Jesus Christ, and belief in that knowledge.

--Troll-- 

Online Book Recommendation

I was amazed that this entire book was available in the public domain.  This book is considered one of the true classics in debunking Modernity in the early part of the twentieth century.  For you readers who have an hour here or there, this will take longer; but not as long as you think.  This is actually very short for a book.  It is more like 6 long blog posts.  Please take your time and read this gem.  It was recommended to me as a must read, and it is as such that I recommend it to you.

Christianity and Liberalism by J. Gresham Mechan

--Ogre--

Tithes and Offerings

It should not come as a surprise that churches use Malachi 3 as their justification for tithing.  There are plenty of OT references to tithing, particularly in the Pentaneuch, but Malachi has several important features going for it that cements its place as the Law passage par extraordinaire on tithing.  We will look at the issue of giving under the Covenant of Law and then under the Covenant of Grace.

The issue of tithing begins in Leviticus 27.  This passage is during the time where Moses is laying down the Law, with Blessings and Curses depending on Obedience or Disobedience to the Law.  Numbers 18 is more law as Aaron is given instruction as a priest on the collection for God.  Deuteronomy 12 and 14 provide more of the same, particularly the latter portion of 14.  Deuteronomy 26 is yet another exhortation to tithe.  By this time, as we come to the end of the Pentaneuch, it is clear that the tithe is a clear and important portion of the temple Law, even though it does not appear in the Ten Commandments specifically.

Is there a difference between the rabbinical Law and the Commandments?  Rabbinical Law refers to the over 600 other laws contained within the Torah concerning ceremonial law, social law and ethical law.  When Jesus says that he did not come to erase one dot of the Law in Matthew 5:18, to which is He referring?  Most likely He meant all of it.  Notice the way He ends verse 18:  until all is accomplished.  This clearly means that there is an end point.  Many will understand that He is talking about His death, resurrection and ascension.  But what many miss is that He is also talking about the Law.  The Law must be fulfilled, accomplished, in order that His sacrifice is complete and ultimately sufficient for all of His elect.  After the Law is fulfilled, and His work on the cross is completed, there will be a New Covenant in effect, instead of the Covenant of Law.  At that point, the rabbinical Law will serve no purpose.

The types and shadows of the OT were always intended to point towards the coming of the messiah.  The sacrificial system was set up as a model to help us recognize and understand the work on the cross.  Once we have the true sacrifice, the old sacrificial system, with its temple and rabbinical laws, is no longer required.  The Commandments, however, are a different matter.  Love God and Love your neighbor sound simple enough.  But as we have discussed before, the measure of Love is Law to the Nth power.  Therefore, the loss of rabbinical law, while leaving us with less specific instruction, actually imposes a far greater responsibility upon Christians.

Giving, as described in the OT sacrificial system, is logically ended, as useless and meaningless as the temple.  The fact that so many churches today discuss tithing and giving in terms of rabbinical law is nothing less than Judaizing.  The whole model for giving is completely different in light of the New Covenant of Grace in Christ Jesus.  The Malachi 3 appeal to stealing from God, complete with blessings and curses, is exactly from what the New Covenant liberates us in terms of the Covenant of Law.  To apply threats of this sort is clearly Law and not Grace.  This is not the motivation for giving that appears in the New Testament.

Looking at Paul’s appeal to the Corinthians we see, intermixed with some arm twisting, the New Covenant ideas on giving.  The main issue here is that the two ledgers of the Law still exist, but we obey the Law in a different context.  After being liberated from the bondage of sin and from the Covenant of Law, we subsequently obey the Law out of obedience to Christ in gratitude for our Salvation through His gift of Grace.

The two ledgers of the Law then are Love God and Love your neighbor.  Luther said that we have nothing to give that God needs, so give to your neighbor.  The point here is not that the church is unimportant, the point is relative to the OT sacrificial system.  The needs in this world should be met as they are identified.  At times, need will best be met by contributions to church.  But the needs that are met directly, outside the context of church, are no less important or less valid in the eyes of God.  The parable of the Good Samaritan begs this point. 

The mood of the giver is described by Paul in 2 Corinthians 9 as cheerful.  It is important to understand the barter system described here.  Many times this reward received by the giver is twisted to mean worldly wealth.  The prosperity gospel that we have all heard reeks of this misrepresentation.  The idea of sowing a seed that returns worldly wealth is abused nightly on some programs and networks.  This has been described as a false gospel Ponzi scheme.  The true reward for the cheerful giver is the certain knowledge that his eternal status with Christ is assured.  While it is true that these rewards are certain for the true believer, it is the true believer who will by definition be that cheerful giver.  There is no category for a true believer who does not demonstrate the fruits of the spirit, such as being a cheerful giver.  There is no category of antinomianism in Paul’s mind.

While Paul says much about giving in 2 Corinthians 8, let’s focus on verse 9.

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.

This statement is as much about redemptive history and the mission of Christ Jesus as it is about giving.  This is a clear statement of the Covenant of Grace.  Christ was rich in that He was in heaven on His throne seated with the Father and the Holy Spirit and then condescended to become human, thus He became poor, placing Himself under the Covenant of Law so that, by His Grace and perfection, the Covenant of Law might be fulfilled, thereby making His elect rich in the fullness of His righteousness, heirs to His eternal kingdom.  The fullness of His poverty was in His suffering and death upon the Cross.  The fullness of our richness is realized on Easter at His resurrection, foretelling the measure of our inheritance in Christ on the Last Day.

And so we live, as resurrection people, as members of the New Covenant in Christ Jesus, rich in the knowledge of our inheritance, giving generously and cheerfully in this world, hopeful only for the opportunity to offer the Gospel to our neighbor as we aid him in his worldly needs.

Finally, there is the issue of giving to the church, or when the opportunity presents itself, or both.  There is no doubt that the NT model for the church includes an office that proclaims the Word to its people, and administers the sacraments to His people.  This office is variously called preachers, priests or pastors.  While it can be argued that all of us have some responsibility to evangelize in accordance with the Great Commission, it is this office of preacher that must be honored and maintained.  When a preacher speaks on the Word of God faithfully, it is as if God Himself were speaking, directly imparting His Grace on the congregation.  The maintenance of this office is the primary purpose of giving to the church.  Whether ministries of various types are the specific calling of the church is for another conversation, but in so far as preaching the Word and administration of the Sacraments in concerned, there can be no doubt that the corporate entity of the church requires our support. 

There is no specific reference to tithing in terms of New Covenant giving.  The expectation of Paul is that such a legal application is unnecessary to New Covenant members.  So, give cheerfully, and Love your neighbor; not because it is commanded, but rather because it is what you will logically want to do.

--Ogre--

Messianic Jews?

This article is an extraordinarily good effort in debunking the case for the so-called Messianic Jewish movements.  Without even citing Galatians, perhaps the most direct Pauline censure of Judaizing, the author develops an iron tight argument against Judaizing.  The argument is a covenant argument, the most clear and direct argument for this issue. 

--Troll--

Torah Observance Redux

On the Language of Faith

It has been shown repeatedly, by such diverse sources as Time Magazine and Modern Reformation, that the people of this country are essentially illiterate when it comes to the Bible.  This Biblical illiteracy extends not just to the facts, historical accounts and doctrines contained in the Bible, but to the vocabulary of the faith.  Words like justification and imputation, words central to the understanding of the Gospel, pass over the heads of people as if they were a foreign language.  How did this happen?  Who is at fault?  Can this be remedied?  What is the solution?

The Institutes of Calvin, an abbreviation for the full title of that book, was written in the sixteenth century.  Today, this book is considered a book for seminary training, but not at all seminaries.  This book is considered too lofty and entrenched in dogma and doctrine to be accessible even for garden variety parish priests and pastors.  It is considered impractical and not relevant to today.  Calvin wrote this book as a primer on Christianity for the layman. It is we who have relegated its usage and status to a top shelf, out of reach tome, to be found only in the library of the more venerable seminary academician.  How did this happen?

Rather than spend prose here discussing Charles Finney, the First and Second Great Awakenings, John Wesley, Modernism and Postmodernism, let us focus on the logical connection of these people and movements.  At the time of Calvin, the printed word was still a novelty.  The Gutenberg press had been in existence for less than a century, since the mid 1450s.  The Bible had just begun to be propagated in the masses.  The story of the Gutenberg Bible and the printing press makes for a fascinating read.  But one of the results of this technological advance was a sharp increase in the Biblical literacy of the masses.  The Reformation was not possible prior to the fifteenth century because of the low levels of literacy in the masses and the lack of availability of mass produced books.  Understand that by masses in fifteenth century standards, we are still talking about aristocracy and mercantile class citizens.  Nonetheless, the impact of this event was profound.  All of the great theologians of the sixteenth century owe in part their scholarship to this technological achievement.

Because of this increase in Biblical literacy, books like The Institutes could have a more public and wide readership.  Ideas became accessible to the masses.  The theology of the church became open to scrutiny.  No longer were papal abuses able to be hidden from the rest of the church.  When Luther posted his 95 theses, as an invitation to debate within the monastery, he didn’t expect much interest.  To his surprise, when he arrived to debate, the room was packed.  This could not have happened without a population that was Biblically literate and theologically sophisticated, at least enough to have a working theological vocabulary that was represented in the vernacular of the day. 

The sum of the impacts of the next four centuries is that this theological vocabulary had been wiped out of the vernacular of our day.  Philosophy has ironically imploded on its own thoughts.  In an era where words are viewed as unnecessary and inadequate to describe emotions and feelings, even philosophy suffers.  What has really happened is that intellectual slothfulness has resulted in a loss of precision in word usage for describing anything less concrete than a piece of furniture.  As we lose the vocabulary, we lose also the ability to communicate.  The first place to realize this loss will necessarily be the masses.  The halls of academia, whose sacred task is to preserve and advance thought, have become crippled by the generational dilution of their ranks by this less sophisticated populace.

How many generations does it take to lose the language of our faith?  Many have argued that it only took two generations.  The first generation stops trusting in words.  The second generation loses touch with the ideas behind the words, and logically loses interest and leaves the church.  Where is the fault?

The movements that so regularly pass through our churches are a reaction to this loss of Biblical literacy.  We have Happenings and Promise Keepers and Acquire the Fire and who knows what other dozens of movements come…and go.  The shelf life for each of these movements seems to be about a decade.  They are grounded in spirituality and not in historical fact.  They are the result of the ever present Gnostic impulse of our culture’s Greek heritage.  But not being grounded in the historical facts, they wither and blow away in time, as people lose utility from that particular pietistic or spiritual formula.  The ideas that are behind the faith can no longer be articulated.

Jesus’ great church shrinkage seminar in John 6 makes the point that the church was never about absolute numbers.  The church is about getting the message right.  Jesus did not come to feed the masses; He came to fulfill prophesy and save His elect people.  Notice the first third of John 1.  Jesus isn’t the warm fuzzy feeling or the tear laden experience.  Jesus is the Word.  He is the Word made flesh.  The church has failed us by not teaching us the Word, not teaching us the vocabulary, not developing the doctrines that result from these Words.  If you do not know the vocabulary of the faith, the fault, initially, is not yours.  The fault is with your pastors, priests and teachers.  Admonitions to teachers in the Bible are stern, epic and everlasting.  But now that you know that your education is lacking, what are you to do?

When I realized the depth of my ignorance, I started reading.  It was a tough go.  For months, I was looking up words in dictionaries, searches and eventually books, until I could actually read the Bible and a commentary on a particular passage straight through.  I spent more time looking stuff up than I did reading.  This is a foreign language to us now.  It will require work to learn it.  When I starting writing about this stuff a year or more ago, some ideas were still a bit fuzzy.  It takes effort to learn when your teachers, in whom you have entrusted your faith, fail you in such epic proportions.  You must learn to do the legwork yourselves and you must find better teachers.

I do not presume to be anything more than what I am.  I am like the student who tutors on the side.  You get what you pay for.  I am not the better teacher that you need to find.  The purpose of this blog has been to try and bring some of you along with me on this journey to recover our faith.  We need first to understand the vocabulary and next the doctrines that make up our faith.  We need to be consistent and understand how the Bible is consistent.  If you spend 15 or more hours a week watching television, cannot you find at least 5 hours a week to learn something useful?

Our teachers have failed us.  We must learn the faith and then we must reclaim it from those who would lead us all to hell, singing loudly songs without meaning, and preaching words without doctrine.

--Ogre--

Worth dying?

This morning, the question that was raised concerning certain Christian martyrs was: what exactly is it that would be worth your life?  I want to build up the idea from scratch until it reaches a minimum threshold to be worth my life.

The starting point was faith.  Is faith worth my life?  Well, faith in what?  Is all faith the same?  The word faith in the Bible has a very specific meaning, but that word has been usurped by the culture and stripped of its textual richness, made bland by liberals and ecumenical movements.  What faith means now is belief in something, anything.  That something could be a naturalistic view of spirituality, where divinity resides in all things, including rocks and air.  That faith could be in humanity in general or the self specifically.  The word has lost its Biblical context.  No, I would not die for faith.

Faith needs an object, so it would seem.  Let’s try this one:  Faith in Jesus.  I have faith in Jesus…to do what?  To just be there for me?  To make the sun rise?  To endow me with blessings in this world?  To be my own personal advisor?  I’m sorry, but none of those things are big enough for my life.  Jesus has to do a whole lot more than be my own personal counselor, advisor, physician and spiritual mentor.  I can get all of those things without going to Jesus; therefore, this faith in Jesus is not enough for my life.

What if Jesus were the Son of God?  I’ve read in the Bible, in the synoptics in fact, that demons and the devil himself know that Jesus is the Son of God, the second part of the Holy Trinity.  This knowledge does not seem to alter their behavior.  Is this enough to alter mine?  Let’s assume that this is true.  So, what does this mean to me?  Is this fact worth my life?  No, not yet, but at least you have my attention.

What if Jesus was the Son of God who died, was buried, and on the third day, rose from the dead, and is seated at the Right hand of the Father, reigning in heaven?  OK, that’s spectacular news.  What does it have to do with me?

What if Jesus died to save sinners?  If He died, how did He save anyone?  Is Jesus a great example that I’m supposed to follow?  Do I have to die a martyrs death for salvation?  No, I’m not buying that one either.  Christianity wouldn’t have survived for 2000 years if the only road to salvation was martyrdom.  Perhaps there is a connection between this death and resurrection of Jesus and my own salvation.

What if Jesus died for me, as a sacrifice on my behalf to a justly angry and Divine God, to expiate my sins, to reconcile me to the God of the Universe, to provide for me righteousness so that I may join Him justly on the Last Day?  What if the Holy Spirit gave me the knowledge of this transaction through the testimony of witnesses to Jesus’ life, death and resurrection as recorded in scripture, and the belief that this account was True?  What if I had faith, or belief, in this knowledge of Christ’s work on the Cross for me as revealed in the Bible, with knowledge also of all of the richness, fullness and nuance of this transaction, would that be enough for my life?  Would that be enough for your life?

Jesus is the Son of God, the second part of the Holy Trinity.  He did condescend to temporarily leave His heavenly throne and become incarnate as both fully God and fully man, thereby taking on the burden of the Law, so that He could fulfill the Law as no other man had done, and no other man could do since the fall of Adam.  By fulfilling the Law, He became a worthy sacrifice to a just God, Himself, being all parts of the drama for us.  He was the priest who made the sacrifice.  He was the sacrifice.  He was God to whom the sacrifice was made.  He sent the third part of the Holy Trinity afterwards, to reveal to His elect, to those who would belief, the truth of the knowledge contained in the scripture, the knowledge of the work of Jesus on the Cross.  He has ascended back to heaven, where He sits until He comes again in Glory to judge the living and the dead.  The only hope of me or any man for salvation is faith, faith in all of this and more as revealed in the Bible.

Yes, that is enough.  For that truth, for that faith, I would become a martyr.  When we take the shorthand instead of spelling out the whole formula, it is important that at least we know that it is shorthand, and that we know for what the word is shorthand as well.  Is this enough for you?

--Ogre--

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

This is reprinted from the source cited in the right column, all the way at the bottom.  Enjoy.  --Troll--

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758)

Enfield, Connecticut
July 8, 1741
"Their foot shall slide in due time""
Deuteronomy 32:35

In this verse is threatened the vengeance of God on the wicked unbelieving Israelites, who were God's visible people, and who lived under the means of grace; but who, notwithstanding all God's wonderful works towards them, remained (as verse 28.) void of counsel, having no understanding in them. Under all the cultivations of heaven, they brought forth bitter and poisonous fruit; as in the two verses next preceding the text. -- The expression I have chosen for my text, their foot shall slide in due time, seems to imply the following things, relating to the punishment and destruction to which these wicked Israelites were exposed.

1. That they were always exposed to destruction; as one that stands or walks in slippery places is always exposed to fall. This is implied in the manner of their destruction coming upon them, being represented by their foot sliding. The same is expressed, Psalm 72:18. "Surely thou didst set them in slippery places; thou castedst them down into destruction."
2. It implies, that they were always exposed to sudden unexpected destruction. As he that walks in slippery places is every moment liable to fall, he cannot foresee one moment whether he shall stand or fall the next; and when he does fall, he falls at once without warning: Which is also expressed in Psalm 73:18,19. "Surely thou didst set them in slippery places; thou castedst them down into destruction: How are they brought into desolation as in a moment!"
3. Another thing implied is, that they are liable to fall of themselves, without being thrown down by the hand of another; as he that stands or walks on slippery ground needs nothing but his own weight to throw him down.
4. That the reason why they are not fallen already and do not fall now is only that God's appointed time is not come. For it is said, that when that due time, or appointed time comes, their foot shall slide. Then they shall be left to fall, as they are inclined by their own weight. God will not hold them up in these slippery places any longer, but will let them go; and then, at that very instant, they shall fall into destruction; as he that stands on such slippery declining ground, on the edge of a pit, he cannot stand alone, when he is let go he immediately falls and is lost.

The observation from the words that I would now insist upon is this. -- "There is nothing that keeps wicked men at any one moment out of hell, but the mere pleasure of God." -- By the mere pleasure of God, I mean his sovereign pleasure, his arbitrary will, restrained by no obligation, hindered by no manner of difficulty, any more than if nothing else but God's mere will had in the least degree, or in any respect whatsoever, any hand in the preservation of wicked men one moment. -- The truth of this observation may appear by the following considerations.

1. There is no want of power in God to cast wicked men into hell at any moment. Men's hands cannot be strong when God rises up. The strongest have no power to resist him, nor can any deliver out of his hands. -- He is not only able to cast wicked men into hell, but he can most easily do it. Sometimes an earthly prince meets with a great deal of difficulty to subdue a rebel, who has found means to fortify himself, and has made himself strong by the numbers of his followers. But it is not so with God. There is no fortress that is any defense from the power of God. Though hand join in hand, and vast multitudes of God's enemies combine and associate themselves, they are easily broken in pieces. They are as great heaps of light chaff before the whirlwind; or large quantities of dry stubble before devouring flames. We find it easy to tread on and crush a worm that we see crawling on the earth; so it is easy for us to cut or singe a slender thread that any thing hangs by: thus easy is it for God, when he pleases, to cast his enemies down to hell. What are we, that we should think to stand before him, at whose rebuke the earth trembles, and before whom the rocks are thrown down?
2. They deserve to be cast into hell; so that divine justice never stands in the way, it makes no objection against God's using his power at any moment to destroy them. Yea, on the contrary, justice calls aloud for an infinite punishment of their sins. Divine justice says of the tree that brings forth such grapes of Sodom, "Cut it down, why cumbereth it the ground?" Luke 13:7. The sword of divine justice is every moment brandished over their heads, and it is nothing but the hand of arbitrary mercy, and God's mere will, that holds it back.
3. They are already under a sentence of condemnation to hell. They do not only justly deserve to be cast down thither, but the sentence of the law of God, that eternal and immutable rule of righteousness that God has fixed between him and mankind, is gone out against them, and stands against them; so that they are bound over already to hell. John 3:18. "He that believeth not is condemned already." So that every unconverted man properly belongs to hell; that is his place; from thence he is, John 8:23. "Ye are from beneath:" And thither he is bound; it is the place that justice, and God's word, and the sentence of his unchangeable law assign to him.
4. They are now the objects of that very same anger and wrath of God, that is expressed in the torments of hell. And the reason why they do not go down to hell at each moment, is not because God, in whose power they are, is not then very angry with them; as he is with many miserable creatures now tormented in hell, who there feel and bear the fierceness of his wrath. Yea, God is a great deal more angry with great numbers that are now on earth: yea, doubtless, with many that are now in this congregation, who it may be are at ease, than he is with many of those who are now in the flames of hell. So that it is not because God is unmindful of their wickedness, and does not resent it, that he does not let loose his hand and cut them off. God is not altogether such an one as themselves, though they may imagine him to be so. The wrath of God bums against them, their damnation does not slumber; the pit is prepared, the fire is made ready, the furnace is now hot, ready to receive them; the flames do now rage and glow. The glittering sword is whet, and held over them, and the pit hath opened its mouth under them.
   
5. The devil stands ready to fall upon them, and seize them as his own, at what moment God shall permit him. They belong to him; he has their souls in his possession, and under his dominion. The scripture represents them as his goods, Luke 11:12. The devils watch them; they are ever by them at their right hand; they stand waiting for them, like greedy hungry lions that see their prey, and expect to have it, but are for the present kept back. If God should withdraw his hand, by which they are restrained, they would in one moment fly upon their poor souls. The old serpent is gaping for them; hell opens its mouth wide to receive them; and if God should permit it, they would be hastily swallowed up and lost.
6. There are in the souls of wicked men those hellish principles reigning, that would presently kindle and flame out into hell fire, if it were not for God's restraints. There is laid in the very nature of carnal men, a foundation for the torments of hell. There are those corrupt principles, in reigning power in them, and in full possession of them, that are seeds of hell fire. These principles are active and powerful, exceeding violent in their nature, and if it were not for the restraining hand of God upon them, they would soon break out, they would flame out after the same manner as the same corruptions, the same enmity does in the hearts of damned souls, and would beget the same torments as they do in them. The souls of the wicked are in scripture compared to the troubled sea, Isa. 57:20. For the present, God restrains their wickedness by his mighty power, as he does the raging waves of the troubled sea, saying, "Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further;" but if God should withdraw that restraining power, it would soon carry all before it. Sin is the ruin and misery of the soul; it is destructive in its nature; and if God should leave it without restraint, there would need nothing else to make the soul perfectly miserable. The corruption of the heart of man is immoderate and boundless in its fury; and while wicked me live here, it is like fire pent up by God's restraints, whereas if it were let loose, it would set on fire the course of nature; and as the heart is now a sink of sin, so if sin was not restrained, it would immediately turn the soul into fiery oven, or a furnace of fire and brimstone.
7. It is no security to wicked men for one moment, that there are no visible means of death at hand. It is no security to a natural man, that he is now in health, and that he does not see which way he should now immediately go out of the world by any accident, and that there is no visible danger in any respect in his circumstances. The manifold and continual experience of the world in all ages, shows this is no evidence, that a man is not on the very brink of eternity, and that the next step will not be into another world. The unseen, unthought-of ways and means of persons going suddenly out of the world are innumerable and inconceivable. Unconverted men walk over the pit of hell on a rotten covering, and there are innumerable places in this covering so weak that they will not bear their weight, and these places are not seen. The arrows of death fly unseen at noon-day; the sharpest sight cannot discem them. God has so many different unsearchable ways of taking wicked men out of the world and sending them to hell, that there is nothing to make it appear, that God had need to be at the expense of a miracle, or go out of the ordinary course of his providence, to destroy any wicked man, at any moment. All the means that there are of sinners going out of the world, are so in God's hands, and so universally and absolutely subject to his power and determination, that it does not depend at all the less on the mere will of God, whether sinners shall at any moment go to hell, than if means were never made use of, or at all concerned in the case.
8. Natural men's prudence and care to preserve their own lives, or the care of others to preserve them, do not secure them a moment. To this, divine providence and universal experience do also bear testimony. There is this clear evidence that men's own wisdom is no security to them from death; that if it were otherwise we should see some difference between the wise and politic men of the world, and others, with regard to their liableness to early and unexpected death: but how is it in fact? Eccles. 2:16. "How dieth the wise man? even as the fool."
9. All wicked men's pains and contrivance which they use to escape hell, while they continue to reject Christ, and so remain wicked men, do not secure them from hell one moment. Almost every natural man that hears of hell, flatters himself that he shall escape it; he depends upon himself for his own security; he flatters himself in what he has done, in what he is now doing, or what he intends to do. Every one lays out matters in his own mind how he shall avoid damnation, and flatters himself that he contrives well for himself, and that his schemes will not fail. They hear indeed that there are but few saved, and that the greater part of men that have died heretofore are gone to hell; but each one imagines that he lays out matters better for his own escape than others have done. He does not intend to come to that place of torment; he says within himself, that he intends to take effectual care, and to order matters so for himself as not to fail. But the foolish children of men miserably delude themselves in their own schemes, and in confidence in their own strength and wisdom; they trust to nothing but a shadow. The greater part of those who heretofore have lived under the same means of grace, and are now dead, are undoubtedly gone to hell; and it was not because they were not as wise as those who are now alive: it was not because they did not lay out matters as well for themselves to secure their own escape. If we could speak with them, and inquire of them, one by one, whether they expected, when alive, and when they used to hear about hell, ever to be the subjects of misery: we doubtless, should hear one and another reply, "No, I never intended to come here: I had laid out matters otherwise in my mind; I thought I should contrive well for myself -- I thought my scheme good. I intended to take effectual care; but it came upon me unexpected; I did not look for it at that time, and in that manner; it came as a thief -- Death outwitted me: God's wrath was too quick for me. Oh, my cursed foolishness! I was flattering myself, and pleasing myself with vain dreams of what I would do hereafter; and when I was saying, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction came upon me."
   
10. God has laid himself under no obligation, by any promise to keep any natural man out of hell one moment. God certainly has made no promises either of eternal life, or of any deliverance or preservation from eternal death, but what are contained in the covenant of grace, the promises that are given in Christ, in whom all the promises are yea and amen. But surely they have no interest in the promises of the covenant of grace who are not the children of the covenant, who do not believe in any of the promises, and have no interest in the Mediator of the covenant.

So that, whatever some have imagined and pretended about promises made to natural men's earnest seeking and knocking, it is plain and manifest, that whatever pains a natural man takes in religion, whatever prayers he makes, till he believes in Christ, God is under no manner of obligation to keep him a moment from eternal destruction.

So that, thus it is that natural men are held in the hand of God, over the pit of hell; they have deserved the fiery pit, and are already sentenced to it; and God is dreadfully provoked, his anger is as great towards them as to those that are actually suffering the executions of the fierceness of his wrath in hell, and they have done nothing in the least to appease or abate that anger, neither is God in the least bound by any promise to hold them up one moment; the devil is waiting for them, hell is gaping for them, the flames gather and flash about them, and would fain lay hold on them, and swallow them up; the fire pent up in their own hearts is struggling to break out: and they have no interest in any Mediator, there are no means within reach that can be any security to them. In short, they have no refuge, nothing to take hold of; all that preserves them every moment is the mere arbitrary will, and uncovenanted, unobliged forbearance of an incensed God.

Application

The use of this awful subject may be for awakening unconverted persons in this congregation. This that you have heard is the case of every one of you that are out of Christ. -- That world of misery, that take of burning brimstone, is extended abroad under you. There is the dreadful pit of the glowing flames of the wrath of God; there is hell's wide gaping mouth open; and you have nothing to stand upon, nor any thing to take hold of; there is nothing between you and hell but the air; it is only the power and mere pleasure of God that holds you up.

You probably are not sensible of this; you find you are kept out of hell, but do not see the hand of God in it; but look at other things, as the good state of your bodily constitution, your care of your own life, and the means you use for your own preservation. But indeed these things are nothing; if God should withdraw his hand, they would avail no more to keep you from falling, than the thin air to hold up a person that is suspended in it.

Your wickedness makes you as it were heavy as lead, and to tend downwards with great weight and pressure towards hell; and if God should let you go, you would immediately sink and swiftly descend and plunge into the bottomless gulf, and your healthy constitution, and your own care and prudence, and best contrivance, and all your righteousness, would have no more influence to uphold you and keep you out of hell, than a spider's web would have to stop a falling rock. Were it not for the sovereign pleasure of God, the earth would not bear you one moment; for you are a burden to it; the creation groans with you; the creature is made subject to the bondage of your corruption, not willingly; the sun does not willingly shine upon you to give you light to serve sin and Satan; the earth does not willingly yield her increase to satisfy your lusts; nor is it willingly a stage for your wickedness to be acted upon; the air does not willingly serve you for breath to maintain the flame of life in your vitals, while you spend your life in the service of God's enemies. God's creatures are good, and were made for men to serve God with, and do not willingly subserve to any other purpose, and groan when they are abused to purposes so directly contrary to their nature and end. And the world would spew you out, were it not for the sovereign hand of him who hath subjected it in hope. There are the black clouds of God's wrath now hanging directly over your heads, full of the dreadful storm, and big with thunder; and were it not for the restraining hand of God, it would immediately burst forth upon you. The sovereign pleasure of God, for the present, stays his rough wind; otherwise it would come with fury, and your destruction would come like a whirlwind, and you would be like the chaff of the summer threshing floor.

The wrath of God is like great waters that are dammed for the present; they increase more and more, and rise higher and higher, till an outlet is given; and the longer the stream is stopped, the more rapid and mighty is its course, when once it is let loose. It is true, that judgment against your evil works has not been executed hitherto; the floods of God's vengeance have been withheld; but your guilt in the mean time is constantly increasing, and you are every day treasuring up more wrath; the waters are constantly rising, and waxing more and more mighty; and there is nothing but the mere pleasure of God, that holds the waters back, that are unwilling to be stopped, and press hard to go forward. If God should only withdraw his hand from the flood-gate, it would immediately fly open, and the fiery floods of the fierceness and wrath of God, would rush forth with inconceivable fury, and would come upon you with omnipotent power; and if your strength were ten thousand times greater than it is, yea, ten thousand times greater than the strength of the stoutest, sturdiest devil in hell, it would be nothing to withstand or endure it.

The bow of God's wrath is bent, and the arrow made ready on the string, and justice bends the arrow at your heart, and strains the bow, and it is nothing but the mere pleasure of God, and that of an angry God, without any promise or obligation at all, that keeps the arrow one moment from being made drunk with your blood. Thus all you that never passed under a great change of heart, by the mighty power of the Spirit of God upon your souls; all you that were never born again, and made new creatures, and raised from being dead in sin, to a state of new, and before altogether unexperienced light and life, are in the hands of an angry God. However you may have reformed your life in many things, and may have had religious affections, and may keep up a form of religion in your families and closets, and in the house of God, it is nothing but his mere pleasure that keeps you from being this moment swallowed up in everlasting destruction. However unconvinced you may now be of the truth of what you hear, by and by you will be fully convinced of it. Those that are gone from being in the like circumstances with you, see that it was so with them; for destruction came suddenly upon most of them; when they expected nothing of it, and while they were saying, Peace and safety: now they see, that those things on which they depended for peace and safety, were nothing but thin air and empty shadows.

The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked: his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire; he is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in his sight; you are ten thousand times more abominable in his eyes, than the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours. You have offended him infinitely more than ever a stubborn rebel did his prince; and yet it is nothing but his hand that holds you from falling into the fire every moment. It is to be ascribed to nothing else, that you did not go to hell the last night; that you was suffered to awake again in this world, after you closed your eyes to sleep. And there is no other reason to be given, why you have not dropped into hell since you arose in the morning, but that God's hand has held you up. There is no other reason to be given why you have not gone to hell, since you have sat here in the house of God, provoking his pure eyes by your sinful wicked manner of attending his solemn worship. Yea, there is nothing else that is to be given as a reason why you do not this very moment drop down into hell.

O sinner! Consider the fearful danger you are in: it is a great furnace of wrath, a wide and bottomless pit, full of the fire of wrath, that you are held over in the hand of that God, whose wrath is provoked and incensed as much against you, as against many of the damned in hell. You hang by a slender thread, with the flames of divine wrath flashing about it, and ready every moment to singe it, and burn it asunder; and you have no interest in any Mediator, and nothing to lay hold of to save yourself, nothing to keep off the flames of wrath, nothing of your own, nothing that you ever have done, nothing that you can do, to induce God to spare you one moment. -- And consider here more particularly,

1. Whose wrath it is: it is the wrath of the infinite God. If it were only the wrath of man, though it were of the most potent prince, it would be comparatively little to be regarded. The wrath of kings is very much dreaded, especially of absolute monarchs, who have the possessions and lives of their subjects wholly in their power, to be disposed of at their mere will. Prov. 20:2. "The fear of a king is as the roaring of a lion: Whoso provoketh him to anger, sinneth against his own soul." The subject that very much enrages an arbitrary prince, is liable to suffer the most extreme torments that human art can invent, or human power can inflict. But the greatest earthly potentates in their greatest majesty and strength, and when clothed in their greatest terrors, are but feeble, despicable worms of the dust, in comparison of the great and almighty Creator and King of heaven and earth. It is but little that they can do, when most enraged, and when they have exerted the utmost of their fury. All the kings of the earth, before God, are as grasshoppers; they are nothing, and less than nothing: both their love and their hatred is to be despised. The wrath of the great King of kings, is as much more terrible than theirs, as his majesty is greater. Luke 12:4,5. "And I say unto you, my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that, have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom you shall fear: fear him, which after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell: yea, I say unto you, Fear him."
2. It is the fierceness of his wrath that you are exposed to. We often read of the fury of God; as in Isa. 59:18. "According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay fury to his adversaries." So Isa. 66:15. "For behold, the Lord will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire." And in many other places. So, Rev. 19:15, we read of "the wine press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God." The words are exceeding terrible. If it had only been said, "the wrath of God," the words would have implied that which is infinitely dreadful: but it is "the fierceness and wrath of God." The fury of God! the fierceness of Jehovah! Oh, how dreadful that must be! Who can utter or conceive what such expressions carry in them! But it is also "the fierceness and wrath of almighty God." As though there would be a very great manifestation of his almighty power in what the fierceness of his wrath should inflict, as though omnipotence should be as it were enraged, and exerted, as men are wont to exert their strength in the fierceness of their wrath. Oh! then, what will be the consequence! What will become of the poor worms that shall suffer it! Whose hands can be strong? And whose heart can endure? To what a dreadful, inexpressible, inconceivable depth of misery must the poor creature be sunk who shall be the subject of this! Consider this, you that are here present, that yet remain in an unregenerate state. That God will execute the fierceness of his anger, implies, that he will inflict wrath without any pity. When God beholds the ineffable extremity of your case, and sees your torment to be so fastly disproportioned to your strength, and sees how your poor soul is crushed, and sinks down, as it were, into an infinite gloom; he will have no compassion upon you, he will not forbear the executions of his wrath, or in the least lighten his hand; there shall be no moderation or mercy, nor will God then at all stay his rough wind; he will have no regard to your welfare, nor be at all careful lest you should suffer too much in any other sense, than only that you shall not suffer beyond what strict justice requires. Nothing shall be withheld, because it is so hard for you to bear. Ezek. 8:18. "Therefore will I also deal in fury: mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity; and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet I will not hear them." Now God stands ready to pity you; this is a day of mercy; you may cry now with some encouragement of obtaining mercy. But when once the day of mercy is past, your most lamentable and dolorous cries and shrieks will be in vain; you will be wholly lost and thrown away of God, as to any regard to your welfare. God will have no other use to put you to, but to suffer misery; you shall be continued in being to no other end; for you will be a vessel of wrath fitted to destruction; and there will be no other use of this vessel, but to be filled full of wrath. God will be so far from pitying you when you cry to him, that it is said he will only "laugh and mock," Prov. 1:25,26,&c.
   How awful are those words, Isa. 63:3, which are the words of the great God. "I will tread them in mine anger, and will trample them in my fury, and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment." It is perhaps impossible to conceive of words that carry in them greater manifestations of these three things, viz. contempt, and hatred, and fierceness of indignation. If you cry to God to pity you, he will be so far from pitying you in your doleful case, or showing you the least regard or favour, that instead of that, he will only tread you under foot. And though he will know that you cannot bear the weight of omnipotence treading upon you, yet he will not regard that, but he will crush you under his feet without mercy; he will crush out your blood, and make it fly, and it shall be sprinkled on his garments, so as to stain all his raiment. He will not only hate you, but he will have you in the utmost contempt: no place shall be thought fit for you, but under his feet to be trodden down as the mire of the streets.
   
3. The misery you are exposed to is that which God will inflict to that end, that he might show what that wrath of Jehovah is. God hath had it on his heart to show to angels and men, both how excellent his love is, and also how terrible his wrath is. Sometimes earthly kings have a mind to show how terrible their wrath is, by the extreme punishments they would execute on those that would provoke them. Nebuchadnezzar, that mighty and haughty monarch of the Chaldean empire, was willing to show his wrath when enraged with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego; and accordingly gave orders that the burning fiery furnace should be heated seven times hotter than it was before; doubtless, it was raised to the utmost degree of fierceness that human art could raise it. But the great God is also willing to show his wrath, and magnify his awful majesty and mighty power in the extreme sufferings of his enemies. Rom. 9:22. "What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction?" And seeing this is his design, and what he has determined, even to show how terrible the unrestrained wrath, the fury and fierceness of Jehovah is, he will do it to effect. There will be something accomplished and brought to pass that will be dreadful with a witness. When the great and angry God hath risen up and executed his awful vengeance on the poor sinner, and the wretch is actually suffering the infinite weight and power of his indignation, then will God call upon the whole universe to behold that awful majesty and mighty power that is to be seen in it. Isa. 33:12-14. "And the people shall be as the burnings of lime, as thorns cut up shall they be burnt in the fire. Hear ye that are far off, what I have done; and ye that are near, acknowledge my might. The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites, " &c. Thus it will be with you that are in an unconverted state, if you continue in it; the infinite might, and majesty, and terribleness of the omnipotent God shall be magnified upon you, in the ineffable strength of your torments. You shall be tormented in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb; and when you shall be in this state of suffering, the glorious inhabitants of heaven shall go forth and look on the awful spectacle, that they may see what the wrath and fierceness of the Almighty is; and when they have seen it, they will fall down and adore that great power and majesty. Isa. 66:23,24. "And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord. And they shall go forth and look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against me; for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched, and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh."
   
4. It is everlasting wrath. It would be dreadful to suffer this fierceness and wrath of Almighty God one moment; but you must suffer it to all eternity. There will be no end to this exquisite horrible misery. When you look forward, you shall see a long for ever, a boundless duration before you, which will swallow up your thoughts, and amaze your soul; and you will absolutely despair of ever having any deliverance, any end, any mitigation, any rest at all. You will know certainly that you must wear out long ages, millions of millions of ages, in wrestling and conflicting with this almighty merciless vengeance; and then when you have so done, when so many ages have actually been spent by you in this manner, you will know that all is but a point to what remains. So that your punishment will indeed be infinite. Oh, who can express what the state of a soul in such circumstances is! All that we can possibly say about it, gives but a very feeble, faint representation of it; it is inexpressible and inconceivable: For "who knows the power of God's anger?"

How dreadful is the state of those that are daily and hourly in the danger of this great wrath and infinite misery! But this is the dismal case of every soul in this congregation that has not been bom again, however moral and strict, sober and religious, they may otherwise be. Oh that you would consider it, whether you be young or old! There is reason to think, that there are many in this congregation now hearing this discourse, that will actually be the subjects of this very misery to all eternity. We know not who they are, or in what seats they sit, or what thoughts they now have. It may be they are now at ease, and hear all these things without much disturbance, and are now flattering themselves that they are not the persons, promising themselves that they shall escape. If we knew that there was one person, and but one, in the whole congregation, that was to be the subject of this misery, what an awful thing would it be to think of! If we knew who it was, what an awful sight would it be to see such a person! How might all the rest of the congregation lift up a lamentable and bitter cry over him! But, alas! instead of one, how many is it likely will remember this discourse in hell? And it would be a wonder, if some that are now present should not be in hell in a very short time, even before this year is out. And it would be no wonder if some persons, that now sit here, in some seats of this meeting-house, in health, quiet and secure, should be there before tomorrow morning. Those of you that finally continue in a natural condition, that shall keep out of hell longest will be there in a little time! your damnation does not slumber; it will come swiftly, and, in all probability, very suddenly upon many of you. You have reason to wonder that you are not already in hell. It is doubtless the case of some whom you have seen and known, that never deserved hell more than you, and that heretofore appeared as likely to have been now alive as you. Their case is past all hope; they are crying in extreme misery and perfect despair; but here you are in the land of the living and in the house of God, and have an opportunity to obtain salvation. What would not those poor damned hopeless souls give for one day's opportunity such as you now enjoy!

And now you have an extraordinary opportunity, a day wherein Christ has thrown the door of mercy wide open, and stands in calling and crying with a loud voice to poor sinners; a day wherein many are flocking to him, and pressing into the kingdom of God. Many are daily coming from the east, west, north and south; many that were very lately in the same miserable condition that you are in, are now in a happy state, with their hearts filled with love to him who has loved them, and washed them from their sins in his own blood, and rejoicing in hope of the glory of God. How awful is it to be left behind at such a day! To see so many others feasting, while you are pining and perishing! To see so many rejoicing and singing for joy of heart, while you have cause to mourn for sorrow of heart, and howl for vexation of spirit! How can you rest one moment in such a condition? Are not your souls as precious as the souls of the people at Suffield, where they are flocking from day to day to Christ?

Are there not many here who have lived long in the world, and are not to this day born again? and so are aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and have done nothing ever since they have lived, but treasure up wrath against the day of wrath? Oh, sirs, your case, in an especial manner, is extremely dangerous. Your guilt and hardness of heart is extremely great. Do you not see how generally persons of your years are passed over and left, in the present remarkable and wonderful dispensation of God's mercy? You had need to consider yourselves, and awake thoroughly out of sleep. You cannot bear the fierceness and wrath of the infinite God. -- And you, young men, and young women, will you neglect this precious season which you now enjoy, when so many others of your age are renouncing all youthful vanities, and flocking to Christ? You especially have now an extraordinary opportunity; but if you neglect it, it will soon be with you as with those persons who spent all the precious days of youth in sin, and are now come to such a dreadful pass in blindness and hardness. -- And you, children, who are unconverted, do not you know that you are going down to hell, to bear the dreadful wrath of that God, who is now angry with you every day and every night? Will you be content to be the children of the devil, when so many other children in the land are converted, and are become the holy and happy children of the King of kings?

And let every one that is yet out of Christ, and hanging over the pit of hell, whether they be old men and women, or middle aged, or young people, or little children, now hearken to the loud calls of God's word and providence. This acceptable year of the Lord, a day of such great favour to some, will doubtless be a day of as remarkable vengeance to others. Men's hearts harden, and their guilt increases apace at such a day as this, if they neglect their souls; and never was there so great danger of such persons being given up to hardness of heart and blindness of mind. God seems now to be hastily gathering in his elect in all parts of the land; and probably the greater part of adult persons that ever shall be saved, will be brought in now in a little time, and that it will be as it was on the great out-pouring of the Spirit upon the Jews in the apostles' days; the election will obtain, and the rest will be blinded. If this should be the case with you, you will eternally curse this day, and will curse the day that ever you was born, to see such a season of the pouring out of God's Spirit, and will wish that you had died and gone to hell before you had seen it. Now undoubtedly it is, as it was in the days of John the Baptist, the axe is in an extraordinary manner laid at the root of the trees, that every tree which brings not forth good fruit, may be hewn down and cast into the fire.

Therefore, let every one that is out of Christ, now awake and fly from the wrath to come. The wrath of Almighty God is now undoubtedly hanging over a great part of this congregation. Let every one fly out of Sodom: "Haste and escape for your lives, look not behind you, escape to the mountain, lest you be consumed."

Parallel lines

The Gospels tell us stories that seem to repeat.  We all realize that the Synoptics tell many of the same tales from slightly different perspectives.  You have heard Troll tell how the whole book of Revelation is the story of redemptive history told from seven different perspectives, seven being the number of God.  Today, Troll will look at two parallel passages in Luke.  The first passage concerns a debate over who is the greatest disciple.  The second concerns the sending of the disciples out in pairs.  This was the subject of last week’s homily.  Sorry, we are just getting to it today.  Troll was busy eating rocks and water buffalo last week.

Let’s start with Luke 9:46-48.  Notice first of all, that these three verses seem to be just stuck into the narrative randomly.  But this passage echoes throughout the Gospels.  See the same or similar in Matthew 18:1-5, 20:20-28 and Mark 9:33-37, 10:35-45.  What is it about being a child that is so important?  Or, if we follow the latter citations, what is it about being a servant that is so important?

Nothing, that isn’t the point.  We need to let go of our legalistic and pietistic lenses and remember that Jesus is talking about something else entirely.  It is not being innocent like a child or humble like a servant.  Those ideas turn this passage into an imperative.  The issue here is that the disciples are asking the wrong question.  Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven?  The background of that question is in the Jewish political expectations of the messiah.  The disciples still believe that Jesus is going to create His Kingdom on earth right then.  As His lieutenants, they are thinking in terms of the honor and glory attached to being in the vanguard of the messiah.  They are completely off base.

Check out the Luke verse that precedes this.  Jesus foretells his death, for the second time in that chapter.  The apostles just don’t get it.  That is why they ask this question.  That is also why the apostles and disciples don’t understand His answer.  Serve the least among you.  Be as a servant to the least.  Jesus came into the world to be a servant of man.  His whole life, death and resurrection was a Ministry of Reconciliation.  He came to provide all of the components of our external righteousness in Him.  He is prophet, priest and king.  He is the perfect sacrifice that expiates and reconciles us to God, to Himself.  He condescended to us.

The imperative here is the ledger of the Law under the heading of Love your neighbor.  As we know, the Law has two components.  Jesus is answering this question with the implied imperative to follow the second ledger of the Law.  At this point in the redemptive story, the disciples just don’t get it.  The parallel later passage in Luke is 22-24-27.  This time, Jesus tries to help them unlock the code.  This is occurring just after the introduction of the Last Supper.  But still the Apostles do not get it.  It is interesting that Jesus offers the glimpse of Redemptive history in the next verses, telling the Apostles of their thrones of judgment over the twelve tribes.  But this is not his point concerning the greatest.  Again, He reminds them His life was in service to them and all of His elect.

Now let’s back up a bit in the same chapters and look at Jesus sending out first his apostles, and then 70 or 72 disciples, in pairs, to preach the Gospel.  Starting with Luke 9:1-6, Jesus gives instructions to go out and take nothing with them.  This is echoed in Matthew and Mark in similar passages.  In Luke 10:1-12, Jesus expands the mission to 70 or 72 disciples.  The discussion of wiping off sandals and shaking out the garments is an OT reference to judgment from Nehemiah 5:13.  And so we see that there will be judgment upon those who forsake the messengers of God.  The importance of the 70 witnesses may be to represent the number of nations represented in Genesis 10.  But the real issue is the going out in pairs.  This is the prescribe method of giving witness.  (Have you ever noticed that Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons travel in pairs?  They do get that part right.  That is the danger of their apostasy, that they mimic the scripture in some things, while denying it in crucial places.) The issue of witnessing is described in Deuteronomy 17 and 19, although it is in the context of testifying in crimes, similar to the Matthew passage we looked at last week.

So, what is the difference between Luke 9 and 10 and this passage in Luke 22?  Now, the instruction is changed.  What has happened?  First, we are in a very different moment in redemptive history.  Jesus is no longer training his disciples to have faith in Him to provide.  He is warning them, on Maundy Thursday, that the big event is looming.  Be prepared.  Things are about to get very bad for all of you.

Another interpretation is that Jesus is saying that it is time to be armed spiritually.  Take up arms figuratively to defend the faith.  Since he tells Peter to put down his sword a few minutes later, this more spiritual interpretation may be appropriate.

Whichever, it is clear that the time for training is over.  The time for preparation is upon us.  The Great Commission is coming.  It is upon us now.

--Troll--