11/15/2023 Yesterday Tomorrow
Acts 7 - 8
Acts 7
Stephen’s Speech
Acts 7:1 And the high priest said, “Are these things so?” 2 And Stephen said:“Brothers and fathers, hear me. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, 3 and said to him, ‘Go out from your land and from your kindred and go into the land that I will show you.’ 4 Then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran. And after his father died, God removed him from there into this land in which you are now living. 5 Yet he gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot’s length, but promised to give it to him as a possession and to his offspring after him, though he had no child. 6 And God spoke to this effect — that his offspring would be sojourners in a land belonging to others, who would enslave them and afflict them four hundred years. 7 ‘But I will judge the nation that they serve,’ said God, ‘and after that they shall come out and worship me in this place.’ 8 And he gave him the covenant of circumcision. And so Abraham became the father of Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day, and Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs.
9 “And the patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt; but God was with him 10 and rescued him out of all his afflictions and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who made him ruler over Egypt and over all his household. 11 Now there came a famine throughout all Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction, and our fathers could find no food. 12 But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers on their first visit. 13 And on the second visit Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Joseph’s family became known to Pharaoh. 14 And Joseph sent and summoned Jacob his father and all his kindred, seventy-five persons in all. 15 And Jacob went down into Egypt, and he died, he and our fathers, 16 and they were carried back to Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.
17 “But as the time of the promise drew near, which God had granted to Abraham, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt 18 until there arose over Egypt another king who did not know Joseph. 19 He dealt shrewdly with our race and forced our fathers to expose their infants, so that they would not be kept alive. 20 At this time Moses was born; and he was beautiful in God’s sight. And he was brought up for three months in his father’s house, 21 and when he was exposed, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son. 22 And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in his words and deeds.
23 “When he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel. 24 And seeing one of them being wronged, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian. 25 He supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand, but they did not understand. 26 And on the following day he appeared to them as they were quarreling and tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers. Why do you wrong each other?’ 27 But the man who was wronging his neighbor thrust him aside, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? 28 Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ 29 At this retort Moses fled and became an exile in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.
30 “Now when forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in a flame of fire in a bush. 31 When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight, and as he drew near to look, there came the voice of the Lord: 32 ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob.’ And Moses trembled and did not dare to look. 33 Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. 34 I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their groaning, and I have come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send you to Egypt.’
35 “This Moses, whom they rejected, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’ — this man God sent as both ruler and redeemer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush. 36 This man led them out, performing wonders and signs in Egypt and at the Red Sea and in the wilderness for forty years. 37 This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.’ 38 This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and with our fathers. He received living oracles to give to us. 39 Our fathers refused to obey him, but thrust him aside, and in their hearts they turned to Egypt, 40 saying to Aaron, ‘Make for us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who led us out from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ 41 And they made a calf in those days, and offered a sacrifice to the idol and were rejoicing in the works of their hands. 42 But God turned away and gave them over to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets:
“ ‘Did you bring to me slain beasts and sacrifices,
during the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?
43 You took up the tent of Moloch
and the star of your god Rephan,
the images that you made to worship;
and I will send you into exile beyond Babylon.’
49 “ ‘Heaven is my throne,
and the earth is my footstool.
What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord,
or what is the place of my rest?
50 Did not my hand make all these things?’
The Stoning of Stephen
54 Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. 55 But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” 57 But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. 58 Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59 And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.Acts 8
Saul Ravages the Church
Acts 8:1 And Saul approved of his execution.And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. 2 Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him. 3 But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.
Philip Proclaims Christ in Samaria
4 Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word. 5 Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ. 6 And the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip, when they heard him and saw the signs that he did. 7 For unclean spirits, crying out with a loud voice, came out of many who had them, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. 8 So there was much joy in that city.Simon the Magician Believes
9 But there was a man named Simon, who had previously practiced magic in the city and amazed the people of Samaria, saying that he himself was somebody great. 10 They all paid attention to him, from the least to the greatest, saying, “This man is the power of God that is called Great.” 11 And they paid attention to him because for a long time he had amazed them with his magic. 12 But when they believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. 13 Even Simon himself believed, and after being baptized he continued with Philip. And seeing signs and great miracles performed, he was amazed.14 Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, 15 who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, 16 for he had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 17 Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. 18 Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money, 19 saying, “Give me this power also, so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” 20 But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! 21 You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. 22 Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you. 23 For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity.” 24 And Simon answered, “Pray for me to the Lord, that nothing of what you have said may come upon me.”
25 Now when they had testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel to many villages of the Samaritans.
Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch
26 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert place. 27 And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship 28 and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. 29 And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.” 30 So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 31 And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32 Now the passage of the Scripture that he was reading was this:“Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter
and like a lamb before its shearer is silent,
so he opens not his mouth.
33 In his humiliation justice was denied him.
Who can describe his generation?
For his life is taken away from the earth.”
What I'm Reading
Why Would Anyone Get a Degree In Apologetics?
By J. Warner Wallace 6/24/2014
I feel honored to be a very small part of the faculty at Biola University (where I serve as an Adjunct Professor in the Master’s Degree program in Christian Apologetics). Two weeks ago I taught a class covering the material in Cold-Case Christianity and began by asking the seventy-four students in my class why they wanted an advance degree in apologetics. Thirty of these students said they were taking the class to grow in their faith. The remaining forty-four said they were either teaching apologetics locally or planned on teaching apologetics in the future. This latter group saw the Biola graduate degree as an important step of preparation. Not everyone agrees.
In fact, some people in the Christian community think an advanced degree in apologetics is largely a waste of time. Two people I deeply admire have come out publicly with this assertion: Max Andrews (of the Sententias Blog) and Glenn Peoples (of the Right Reason Blog) both wrote blog posts this year entitled, “Don’t Get a Degree in Apologetics”. Andrews and Peoples believe an academic degree in an advanced, specific discipline (i.e. biblical studies, history, historiography, theology, philosophy, physics, chemistry, etc.) is a far better choice than a broad degree in apologetics. Andrews writes:
“My advice is to pick a discipline and excel in that discipline. All the greatest apologists have a discipline: Gary Habermas, Mike Licona, William Lane Craig, NT Wright. etc. Don’t be a jack of all trades. Be a master of one and be skilled in many.”
Peoples agrees:
Think about those who have reputations as being the best apologists out there (whether they use the word “apologetics” or not). Everyone’s list will be slightly different, but the list will probably include names like C. S. Lewis, Alvin Plantinga, Richard Swinburne, Ravi Zacharias, William Lane Craig, John Lennox, Peter Kreeft, Richard Bauckham and others. Do you want to be a great apologist? Great. Do you think these people are / were great apologists? I agree. OK, now ask yourself what all of these people – along with probably every other person you might add to this list – lack. They probably lack a whole lot of things, but one of the things they lack is a degree in apologetics.
James "Jim" Warner Wallace (born June 16, 1961) is an American homicide detective and Christian apologist. Wallace is a Senior Fellow at the Colson Center for Christian Worldview and an Adjunct Professor of Apologetics at Biola University in La Mirada, California. He has authored several books, including Cold-Case Christianity, God’s Crime Scene, and Forensic Faith, in which he applies principles of cold case homicide investigation to apologetic concerns such as the existence of God and the reliability of the Gospels.
Is the Human Form Riddled With Bad Design? No, But This Darwinist Argument Is.
By Jonathan Witt 10/8/2016
King David had it right. The human body really is fearfully and wonderfully made.
“You have no idea how awful the human body is,” Matan Shelomi begins in a recentMedical Daily article. He goes on to argue that the human body is badly designed in many ways, and that this shows we’re the product of blind Darwinian trial-and-error evolution.
“To say that humans were ‘intelligently designed’ by a ‘creator’ is to insult God,” Shelomi writes, “because our bodies show no intelligent design at all.”
Wow, our bodies show no intelligent design at all? Even most atheist biologists grant that living things, including human beings, appear intelligently designed. Professional atheist Richard Dawkins, for instance, went so far as to define biology as the study of things in nature that have the appearance of having been designed for a purpose.
And it’s now common knowledge in biology that the human genome is such a sophisticated information-processing system that it makes our most powerful computers look like a Roman abacus by comparison.
Jonathan Witt is former managing editor of The Stream and now a senior fellow with Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture. He is the co-author of A Meaningful World: How the Arts and Sciences Reveal the Genius of Nature.
Do You Have to Like God’s Commands?
By Sam Allberry 11/14/2016
A friend of mine once confessed she had a verse in the Bible she would gladly remove if given the choice. Which verse this happened to be was less interesting to me than the notion itself.
If we had the opportunity, would we happily remove any parts of the Bible?
This conversation came to mind recently when I heard someone say that while they obey what the Bible said about sexual ethics, they certainly don’t like it. And this wasn’t a fledgling believer but an established leader. It raises the question: Do we have to like the things God says in the Bible? Is it enough to just grit our teeth and obey, even when we’re really not happy with what we’re obeying?
While discipleship obviously requires obedience, it also behooves us to understand what we’re obeying and why we’re obeying it.
UNDERSTANDING GOD’S RATIONALE
Sam Allberry is an editor for The Gospel Coalition, a global speaker for Ravi Zacharias International Ministries, and a pastor based in Maidenhead, UK. He is the author of a number of books, including Is God Anti-Gay? (Good Book, 2013), James For You, and most recently Why Bother with Church. He is a founding editor of Living Out, a ministry for those struggling with same-sex attraction. You can follow Sam on Twitter.
How Do I Give Wisely?
By Dr. Timothy Warren 12/29/14
n a 2012 Christianity Today article, “Cost-Effective Compassion,” economist Bruce Wydick laid out what his research suggested were the best use of funds for the poor. In order of effectiveness the top five are as follows:
Wydick concluded, “Whether one chooses to give money or work with the poor directly, what is important is to care enough about the poor to understand the effect of actions we take on their behalf.”
Caring and Understanding
Caring and understanding are at the heart of Dr. Timothy Warren’s advice. The senior professor of Pastoral Ministries had this to say on the topic: “Giving wisely results from relationship. I give to the individuals and organizations with whom I have some level of relationship. The better I know people, the closer I am to their values, and the more I share their mission, the more likely I am to give.
“The opposite of that is that I don’t give to individuals or organizations with whom I have no relationship. If I don’t have some knowledge of their trustworthiness, there’s no chance I will contribute. For example, if people on the street ask me for money for food or a bus ride home, I will give only when I walk into a restaurant with them, or watch as they get on the bus. Otherwise, I don’t trust that my gift will be used as implied.
Timothy S. Warren | Senior Professor of Pastoral Ministries | BA, Cedarville College, 1969; MA, Bowling Green State University, 1973; ThM, Dallas Theological Seminary, 1977; PhD, Ohio State University, 1987.
When Dr. Warren teaches pastoral ministries he draws from decades of personal experience. After serving as a chaplain's assistant in the U.S. Army and the Texas Air National Guard, he pastored churches in Texas and Ohio. He has held the position of adult ministry associate at his home church for twenty-five years, has taught a men's Bible study at the Cooper Aerobic Center for more than thirty years, and maintains an active speaking, writing, and teaching schedule.
A Professor’s Journey from Scientology to Christ
By Michael J. Svigel 12/29/2014
I was born in Minnesota to a working-class family of typical blue-collar workers like what you see in the “let’s-make-fun-of-Minnesota” movies. I grew up in a congregation that was a merge of liberal churches. My hometown of Keewatin couldn’t sustain two Protestant churches, so they got together. They sang what to me were the same indecipherable hymns and recited the same incomprehensible creeds. They smoked cheap cigarettes and drank weak coffee after worship. Neither church seemed to care all that much about the Bible, theology, or liturgy, so they merged to create Congregation of the Good Shepherd Church.
My parents were nominally Christian, and they didn’t pressure us kids to conform to any rigid standards. I sometimes went to church, often went to Sunday school, and generally engaged in only as much overt immorality as I could get away with and still judge my neighbors.
In my preteen years I clearly rejected Jesus Christ. I had watched enough of Garner Ted Armstrong’s The World Tomorrow (Worldwide Church of God cult propaganda) to conclude that the Trinity was a false doctrine and Jesus wasn’t really God. I had some Jewish atheist friends, too, who tried to convince me that there was no God. I never bought that. I needed to believe in some kind of God to help explain how anything could exist. But I kept him at a distance. The idea of God was as irrelevant to me as the idea of black holes or tachyon particles. Yet I had made some theological “progress”: I decided Jesus was only a moral teacher and that the Christian religion couldn’t possibly be true because it focused too much on that one man.
Dianetics and Dent
Without any kind of conviction, I embraced all kinds of crazy New Age philosophies, rebelled against my family, and got involved in unhealthy relationships. I take full responsibility. God bless my parents and friends for trying to snap me out of it. And bless those poor, deluded psychologists and counselors who tried to talk me (or drug me) out of it. But it just wasn’t going to work in my case, because the root of my problem wasn’t social, medical, mental, or emotional. It was spiritual. I was a dirty, rotten, selfish, indulgent sinner. Now, I knew that. And God knew that. But nobody else seemed to know it.
Dr. Michael J. Svigel (rhymes with “eagle”), department chair and associate professor of Theological Studies, has written numerous resources for Christian lay audiences. His book titles include RetroChristianity: Reclaiming the Forgotten Faith and Heroes and Heretics: Solving the Modern Mystery of the Ancient Church. He is also co-editor of the Exploring Christian Theology series. Many of Dr. Svigel’s written works, from scholarly to theological humor, can be found online at retrochristianity.org and bible.org.
The Raising Of The Young Man Of Nain
By Alfred Edersheim September 1883
For our present purpose it matters little, whether it was the very ‘day after’ the healing of the Centurion’s servant, or ‘shortly afterwards,’ that Jesus left Capernaum for Nain. Probably it was the morrow of that miracle, and the fact that ‘much people,’ or rather ‘a great multitude,’ followed Him, seems confirmatory of it. The way was long — as we reckon, more than twenty-five miles; but, even if it was all taken on foot, there could be no difficulty in reaching Nain ere the evening, when so often funerals took place. Various roads lead to, and from Nain; that which stretches to the Lake of Galilee and up to Capernaum is quite distinctly marked. It is difficult to understand, how most of those who have visited the spot could imagine the place, where Christ met the funeral procession, to have been the rock-hewn tombs to the west of Nain and towards Nazareth. For, from Capernaum the Lord would not have come that way, but approach it from the north-east by Endor. Hence there can be little doubt, that Canon Tristram correctly identifies the now unfenced burying-ground, about ten minutes’ walk to the east of Nain, as that whither, on that spring afternoon, they were carrying the widow’s son. On the path leading to it the Lord of Life for the first time burst open the gates of death.
It is all desolate now. A few houses of mud and stone with low doorways, scattered among heaps of stones and traces of walls, is all that remains of what even these ruins show to have been once a city, with walls and gates. The rich gardens are no more, the fruit trees cut down, ‘and there is a painful sense of desolation’ about the place, as if the breath of judgment had swept over it. And yet even so we can understand its ancient name of Nain, ‘the pleasant,’ which the Rabbis regarded as fulfilling that part of the promise to Issachar: ‘he saw the land that it was pleasant.’ From the elevation on which the city stood we look northwards, across the wide plain, to wooded Tabor, and in the far distance to snow-capped Hermon. On the left (in the west) rise the hills beyond which Nazareth lies embosomed; to the right is Endor; southwards Shunem, and beyond it the Plain of Jezreel. By this path, from Endor, comes Jesus with His disciples and the great following multitude. Here, near by the city gate, on the road that leads eastwards to the old burying-ground, has this procession of the ‘great multitude,’ which accompanied the Prince of Life met that other ‘great multitude’ that followed the dead to his burying. Which of the two shall give way to the other? We know what ancient Jewish usage would have demanded. For, of all the duties enjoined, none more strictly enforced by every consideration of humanity and piety, even by the example of God Himself, than that of comforting the mourners and showing respect to the dead by accompanying him to the burying. The popular idea, that the spirit of the dead hovered about the unburied remains, must have given intensity to such feelings.
Putting aside later superstitions, so little has changed in the Jewish rites and observances about the dead, that from Talmudic and even earlier sources, we can form a vivid conception of what had taken place in Nain. The watchful anxiety; the vain use of such means as were known, or within reach of the widow; the deepening care, the passionate longing of the mother to retain her one treasure, her sole earthly hope and stay; then the gradual fading out of the light, the farewell, the terrible burst of sorrow: all these would be common features in any such picture. But here we have, besides, the Jewish thoughts of death and after death; knowledge just sufficient to make afraid, but not to give firm consolation, which would make even the most pious Rabbi uncertain of his future; and then the desolate thoughts connected in the Jewish mind with childlessness. We can realise it all: how Jewish ingenuity and wisdom would resort to remedies real or magical; how the neighbours would come in with reverent step, feeling as if the very Shekhinah were unseen at the head of the pallet in that humble home; how they would whisper swings about submission, which, when realisation of God’s love is wanting, seem only to stir the heart to rebellion against absolute power; and how they would resort to the prayers of those who were deemed pious in Nain.
But all was in vain. And now the well-known blast of the horn has carried tidings, that once more the Angel of Death has done his dire behest. In passionate grief the mother has rent her upper garment. The last sad offices have been rendered to the dead. The body has been laid on the ground; hair and nails have been cut, and the body washed, anointed, and wrapped in the best the widow could procure; for, the ordinance which directed that the dead should be buried in ‘wrappings’ (Takhrikhin), or as they significantly called it, the ‘provision for the journey’ (Zevadatha), of the most inexpensive, linen, is of later date than our period. It is impossible to say, whether the later practice already prevailed, of covering the body with metal, glass, or salt, and laying it either upon earth or salt.
And now the mother was left Oneneth (moaning, lamenting) - a term which distinguished the mourning before from that after burial. She would sit on the floor, neither eat meat, nor drink wine. What scanty meal she would take, must be without prayer, in the house of a neighbour, or in another room, or at least with her back to the dead. Pious friends would render neighbourly offices, or busy themselves about the near funeral. If it was deemed duty for the poorest Jew, on the death of his wife, to provide at least two flutes and one mourning woman, we may feel sure that the widowed mother had not neglected what, however incongruous or difficult to procure,
might be regarded as the last tokens of affection. In all likelihood the custom obtained even then, though in modified form, to have funeral orations at the grave. For, even if charity provided for an unknown wayfarer the simplest funeral, mourning - women would be hired to chaunt in weird strains the lament: ‘Alas, the lion! alas. the hero!’ or similar words, while great Rabbis were ‘wont to bespeak for themselves a warm funeral oration’ (Hesped, or Hespeda). For, from the funeral oration a man’s fate in the other world might be inferred; and, indeed, ‘the honour of a sage was in his funeral oration.’ and in this sense the Talmud answers the question, whether a funeral
oration is intended to honour the survivors or the dead.
But in all this painful pageantry there was nothing for the heart of the widow, bereft of her only child. We can follow in spirit the mournful procession, as it started from the desolate home. As it issued, chairs and couches were reversed, and laid low. Outside, the funeral orator, if such was employed, preceded the bier, proclaiming the good deeds of the dead. Immediately before the dead came the women, this being peculiar to Galilee, the Midrash giving this reason of it, that woman had introduced death into the world. The body was not, as afterwards in preference, carried in an ordinary coffin of wood (Aron), if possible, cedarwood - on one occassion, at least, made with holes beneath; but laid on a bier, or in an open coffin (Mittah). In former times a distinction had been made in these biers between rich and poor. The former were carried on the so-called Dargash - as it were, in state - while the poor were conveyed in a receptacle made of wickerwork (Kelibha or Kelikhah), having sometimes at the foot what was termed ‘a horn,’ to which the body was made fast. But this distinction between rich and poor was abolished by Rabbinic ordinance, and both alike, if carried on a bier, were laid in that made of wickerwork. Commonly, though not in later practice, the face of the dead body was uncovered. The body lay with its face turned up, and his hands folded on the breast. We may add, that when a person had died unmarried or childless, it was customary to put into the coffin something distinctive of them, such as pen and ink, or a key. Over the coffins of bride or bridegroom a baldachino was carried. Sometimes the coffin was garlanded with myrtle. In exceptional cases we read of the use of
incense, and even of a kind of libation.
We cannot, then, be mistaken in supposing that the body of the widow’s son was laid on the ‘bed’ (Mittah), or in the ‘willow basket,’ already described (Kelibha, from Kelubh). Nor can we doubt that the ends of handles were borne by friends and neighbours, different parties of bearers, all of them unshod, at frequent intervals relieving each other, so that as many as possible might share in the good work. During these pauses there was loud lamentation; but this custom was not observed in the burial of women. Behind the bier walked the relatives, friends, and then the sympathising ‘multitude.’ For it was deemed like mocking one’s Creator not to follow the dead to his last resting - place, and to all such want of reverence Prov. xvii. 5 was applied. If one were absolutely prevented from joining the procession, although for its sake all work, even study, should be interrupted, reverence should at least be shown by rising up before the dead. And so they would go on to what the Hebrews beautifully designated as the ‘house of assembly’ or ‘meeting,’ the ‘hostelry,’ the ‘place of rest,’ or ‘of freedom,’ the ‘field of weepers,’ the ‘house of eternity,’ or ‘of life.’
We can now transport ourselves into that scene. Up from the city close by came this ‘great multitude’ that followed the dead, with lamentations, wild chaunts of mourning women, accompanied by flutes and the melancholy tinkle of cymbals, perhaps by trumpets, amidst expressions of general sympathy. Along the road from Endor streamed the great multitude which followed the ‘Prince of Life.’ Here they met: Life and Death. The connecting link between them was the deep sorrow of the widowed mother. He recognised her as she went before the bier, leading him to the grave whom she had brought into life. He recognised her, but she recognised Him not, had not even seen Him. She was still weeping; even after He had hastened a step or two in advance of His followers, quite close to her, she did not heed Him, and was still weeping. But, ‘beholding her,’ the Lord ‘had compassion on her.’ Those bitter, silent tears which blinded her eyes were strongest language of despair and utmost need, which never in vain appeals to His heart, Who has borne our sorrows. We remember, by way of contrast, the common formula used at funerals in Palestine, ‘Weep with them, all ye who are bitter of heart!’ It was not so that Jesus spoke to those around, nor to her, but characteristically: ‘Be not weeping.’ And what He said, that He wrought. He touched the bier - perhaps the very wicker basket in which the dead youth lay. He dreaded not the greatest of all defilements - that of contact with the dead, which Rabbinism, in its elaboration of the letter of the Law, had surrounded with endless terrors. His was other separation than of the Pharisees: not that of submission to ordinances, but of conquest of what made them necessary.
And as He touched the bier, they who bore it stood still. They could not have anticipated what would follow. But the awe of the coming wonder - as it were, the shadow of the opening gates of life, had fallen on them. One word of sovereign command, ‘and he that was dead sat up, and began to speak.’ Not of that world of which he had had brief glimpse. For, as one who suddenly passes from dream-vision to waking, in the abruptness of the transition, loses what he had seen, so he, who from that dazzling brightness was hurried back to the dim light to which his vision had been accustomed. It must have seemed to him, as if he woke from long sleep. Where was he now?
who those around him? what this strange assemblage? and Who He, Whose Light and Life seemed to fall upon him?
And still was Jesus the link between the mother and the son, who had again found each other. And so, in the truest sense, ‘He gave him to his mother.’ Can any one doubt that mother and son henceforth owned, loved, and trusted Him as the true Messiah? If there was no moral motive for this miracle, outside Christ’s sympathy with intense suffering and the bereavement of death, was there no moral result as the outcome of it? If mother and son had not called upon Him before the miracle, would they not henceforth and for ever call upon Him? And if there was, so to speak, inward necessity, that Life Incarnate should conquer death - symbolic and typic necessity
of it also - was not everything here congruous to the central fact in this history? The simplicity and absence of all extravagant details; the Divine calmness and majesty on the part of the Christ, so different from the manner in which legend would have coloured the scene, even from the intense agitation which characterised the conduct of an Elijah, an Elisha, or a Peter, in somewhat similar circumstances; and, lastly, the beauteous harmony where all is in accord, from the first touch of compassion till when, forgetful of the bystanders, heedless of ‘effect,’ He gives the son back to his mother - are not all these worthy of the event, and evidential of the truth of the narrative?
But, after all, may we regard this history as real - and, if so, what are its lessons? On one point, at least, all serious critics are now agreed. It is impossible to ascribe it to exaggeration, or to explain it on natural grounds. The only alternative is to regard it either as true, or as designedly
false. Be it, moreover, remembered, that not only one Gospel, but all, relate some story of raising the dead - whether that of this youth, of Jairus’ daughter, or of Lazarus. They also all relate the Resurrection of the Christ, which really underlies those other miracles. But if this history of the raising of the young man is false, what motive can be suggested for its invention, for motive there must have been for it? Assuredly, it was no part of Jewish expectancy concerning the Messiah, that He would perform such a miracle. And negative criticism has admitted, that the differences between this history and the raising of the dead by Elijajh or Elisha are so numerous and great, that
these narratives cannot be regarded as suggesting that of the raising of the young man of Nain. We ask again: Whence, then, this history, if it was not true? It is an ingenious historical suggestion - rather an admission by negative criticism - that so insignificant, and otherwise unknown, a place as Nain would not have been fixed upon as the site of this miracle, if some great event had not occurred there which made lasting impression on the mind of the Church. What was that event, and does not the reading of this record carry conviction of its truth? Legends have not been so written. Once more, the miracle is described as having taken place, not in the seclusion of a chamber,
nor before a few interested witnesses, but in sight of the great multitude which had followed Jesus, and of that other great multitude which came from Cana. In this twofold great multitude was there none, from whom the enemies of Christianity could have wrung contradiction, if the narrative was false? Still further, the history is told with such circumstantiality of details, as to be inconsistent with the theory of a later invention. Lastly, no one will question, that belief in the reality of such ‘raising from the dead’ was a primal article in the faith of the primitive Church, for which - as a fact, not a possibility - all were ready to offer up their lives. Nor should we forget that, in one of the earliest apologies addressed to the Roman Emperor, Quadratus appealed to the fact, that, of those who had been healed or raised from the dead by Christ, some were still alive, and all were well known. On the other hand, the only real ground for rejecting this narrative is disbelief in the Miraculous, including, of course, rejection of the Christ as the Miracle of Miracles. But is it not vicious reasoning in a circle, as well as begging the question, to reject the Miraculous because we discredit the Miraculous? and does not such rejection involve much more of the incredible than faith itself?
And so, with all Christendom, we gladly take it, in simplicity of faith, as a true record by true men - all the more, that they who told it knew it to be so incredible, as not only to provoke scorn, but to expose them to the charge of cunningly devising fables. But they who believe, see in this history, how the Divine Conqueror, in His accidental meeting with Death, with mighty arm rolled back the tide, and how through the portals of heaven which He opened stole in upon our world the first beam of the new day. Yet another - in some sense lower, in another, practically higher - lesson do we learn. For, this meeting of the two processions outside the gate of Nain was accidental, yet not in the conventional sense. Neither the arrival of Jesus at that place and time, nor that of the funeral procession from Nain, nor their meeting, was either designed or else miraculous.
Both happened in the natural course of natural events, but their concurrence (συγκυρͺα) was designed, and directly God-caused. In this God-caused, designed concurrence of events, in themselves ordinary and natural, lies the mystery of special Providences, which, to whomsoever they happen, he may and should regard them as miracles and answer to prayer. And this principle extends much farther: to the prayer for, and provision of, daily bread, nay, to mostly all things, so that, to those
who have ears to hear, all things around speak in parables of the kingdom of Heaven.
But on those who saw this miracle at Nain fell the fear of the felt Divine Presence, and over their souls swept the hymn of Divine praise: fear, because God had visited His people. And further and wider spread the wave - over Judæa, and beyond it, until it washed, and broke in faint murmur against the prison - walls, within which the Baptist awaited his martyrdom. Was He then the ‘Coming One?’ and, if so, why did, or how could, those walls keep His messenger within grasp of the tyrant?
A Crisis of Discourse—Part 2: A Problem of Gender
By Alastair Roberts 11/17/2016
In my previous post (which I have renamed so that this flows more clearly from it), I observed a growing crisis for progressivism, as people across the political spectrum are rejecting its form of discourse. Within this post, I will venture into far more controversial territory. I will speak directly about some issues that we commonly politely skirt. It is not my intent to give offence, although I appreciate that may easily be taken. For this reason, I request your patience and charity. If we never talk directly about such issues, we will forever be falling into the same problems and little progress will be made.
There is an elephant in the room of our social discourse, one salient fact that goes a long way to explaining the tensions between different forms of social and political discourse and their relative sites and means of power and influence. However, this fact is a fact that progressive discourse necessarily dissembles, because it is taboo:
Men and women are different and their differences have an immense impact upon the climate of our social and political discourse.
Jonathan Haidt, writing on Heterodox Academy, describes a striking experience he had when addressing high school students about the importance of open and challenging discourse in the educational environment.
The discussion began, and it was the most unremittingly hostile questioning I’ve ever had. I don’t mind when people ask hard or critical questions, but I was surprised that I had misread the audience so thoroughly. My talk had little to do with gender, but the second question was “So you think rape is OK?” Like most of the questions, it was backed up by a sea of finger snaps—the sort you can hear in the infamous Yale video, where a student screams at Prof. Christakis to “be quiet” and tells him that he is “disgusting.” I had never heard the snapping before. When it happens in a large auditorium it is disconcerting. It makes you feel that you are facing an angry and unified mob—a feeling I have never had in 25 years of teaching and public speaking.
Welcome to Alastair’s Adversaria. I previously blogged at alastair.adversaria and 40 Bicycles. This blog will provide a home for my occasional and various thoughts, links, and notes on my reading. While you may struggle to find a unifying theme here, my thoughts will frequently return to the subjects of biblical theology, the sacraments, and Christian ethics.
My name is Alastair Roberts. I currently reside in the north of England. In addition to the subjects mentioned above, I am passionate about word games, English cricket, cathedral cities, long walks, and second hand bookstores.
Read The Psalms In "1" Year
Psalm 119
119 TAW119:169 Let my cry come before you, O LORD;
give me understanding according to your word!
170 Let my plea come before you;
deliver me according to your word.
171 My lips will pour forth praise,
for you teach me your statutes.
172 My tongue will sing of your word,
for all your commandments are right.
173 Let your hand be ready to help me,
for I have chosen your precepts.
174 I long for your salvation, O LORD,
and your law is my delight.
175 Let my soul live and praise you,
and let your rules help me.
176 I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek your servant,
for I do not forget your commandments.
Acts 7
By Don Carson 7/20/2018
The Old Testament historical Psalms offer plenty of examples in which writers review the shared history of the Israelites for some special theological or ethical purpose. Something similar occurs when 1 and 2 Chronicles retell 1 and 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings, so as to focus on the southern kingdom and on certain theological perspectives. This form of address continues in certain New Testament sermons. Paul in Pisidian Antioch begins the historical recital with the Exodus, and aligns his storytelling priorities to show that Jesus really is the promised Messiah (Acts 13:16ff). Here in Acts 7, Stephen, the first Christian martyr, begins with Abraham.
What are the advantages of this approach? And what does Stephen, in particular, set out to prove?
One of the advantages is that historical recital gains the attention of the audience — and in this case the audience was overtly hostile and needed calming. Their personal identity was bound up with their national history; initially, at least, this recital was bound to be soothing, to establish common ground, to show that Stephen was within the pale.
A second advantage lay in the fact that the shift that Stephen was trying to establish in the minds of his Jewish audience was big enough that it could only be adopted within the framework of a changed world-view. In other words, not only Jesus’ identity, but even more, his death and resurrection, could not finally be accepted by thoughtful Jews unless they perceived that this is what Scripture teaches — and this point could not easily be established unless it was anchored in the very fabric of the Old Testament storyline. So the story had to be told and retold so as to highlight the most important points.
One of the points that Stephen makes as he retells the story emerges slowly at first, then faster and faster, and then explosively. That point is the repeated sin of the people. When Stephen begins the story, at first there is no mention of Israel’s evil. Then the wickedness of Joseph’s brothers is briefly mentioned (Acts 7:9). Corporate wickedness re-surfaces in Moses’ day (Acts 7:25-27, 35). Now the pace quickens. The people refused to obey Moses “and in their hearts turned back to Egypt” (Acts 7:39). The golden calf episode is brought up, and likened to idolatry in the time of Amos (Acts 7:42-43). We skip ahead to David and Solomon, and the insistence that God cannot be domesticated by a building. Finally there is the explosive condemnation not only of past generations of Israelites who rejected God and his revelation, but also of all their contemporary Spirit-resisting descendants (Acts 7:51-53).
What bearing does this point have on the lessons we should draw from the biblical history?
Don Carson is research professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois, and co-founder (with Tim Keller) of The Gospel Coalition. He has authored numerous books, and recently edited The Enduring Authority of the Christian Scriptures (Eerdmans, 2016).
Don Carson Books | Go to Books PageActs 8
By Don Carson 7/21/2018
The Conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:26-40) marks an important extension of the Gospel across several barriers.
We need to understand who he was. He was “an important official in charge of all the treasury of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians” (Acts 8:27). Candace was a family name that had become a title, quite like Caesar in Rome. In certain matriarchal governments, it was not uncommon for the highest officials, who would have had ready access to Candace, to be eunuchs (whether they were born that way or castrated), for the obvious protection of the queen.
This man was equivalent to U. S. Secretary of the Treasury or the like. But although he was an honored and powerful political figure at home, he would have faced limitations in Jerusalem. Since he had gone up to Jerusalem to worship (Acts 8:27), we must assume that he had come across Judaism, had been attracted to it, and had gone up to Jerusalem for one of the feasts. But he could not have become a proper proselyte, since from the Jewish perspective he was mutilated. The Word of God had seized this man, and he had traveled for several weeks to see Jerusalem and its temple.
In the sheer providence of God, the passage the eunuch was reading, apparently out loud (Acts 8:30 –a not uncommon practice in those days) was Isaiah 53. He asks the obvious question (Acts 8:34): Who is the Suffering Servant of whom Isaiah speaks? “Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus” (Acts 8:35).
Thus the Gospel reaches outward in the book of Acts. All the first converts were Jews, whether reared in the Promised Land or gathered from the dispersion. But the beginning of Acts 8 witnesses the conversion of Samaritans — a certain people of mixed race, only partly Jewish, joined to the mother church in Jerusalem by the hands of the apostles Peter and John. The next conversion is that of the eunuch — an African, not at all Jewish — sufficiently devoted to Judaism to take the pilgrimage to Jerusalem even though he could never be a full-fledged proselyte; a man steeped in the Jewish Scriptures even when he could not understand them.
Small wonder that the next major event in this book is the conversion of the man who would become the apostle to the Gentiles.
Don Carson is research professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois, and co-founder (with Tim Keller) of The Gospel Coalition. He has authored numerous books, and recently edited The Enduring Authority of the Christian Scriptures (Eerdmans, 2016).
Don Carson Books | Go to Books PageFox's Book Of Martyrs
By John Foxe 1563
CHAPTER XI | An Account of the Persecutions in the Netherlands
The light of the Gospel having successfully spread over the Netherlands, the pope instigated the emperor to commence a persecution against the Protestants; when many thousand fell martyrs to superstitious malice and barbarous bigotry, among whom the most remarkable were the following: Wendelinuta, a pious Protestant widow, was apprehended on account of her religion, when several monks, unsuccessfully, endeavored to persuade her to recant. As they could not prevail, a Roman Catholic lady of her acquaintance desired to be admitted to the dungeon in which she was confined, and promised to exert herself strenuously towards inducing the prisoner to abjure the reformed religion. When she was admitted to the dungeon, she did her utmost to perform the task she had undertaken; but finding her endeavors ineffectual, she said, "Dear Wendelinuta, if you will not embrace our faith, at least keep the things which you profess secret within your own bosom, and strive to prolong your life." To which the widow replied, "Madam, you know not what you say; for with the heart we believe to righteousness, but with the tongue confession is made unto salvation." As she positively refused to recant, her goods were confiscated, and she was condemned to be burnt. At the place of execution a monk held a cross to her, and bade her kiss and worship God. To which she answered, "I worship no wooden god, but the eternal God who is in heaven." She was then executed, but through the before-mentioned Roman Catholic lady, the favor was granted that she should be strangeled before fire was put to the fagots.Two Protestant clergymen were burnt at Colen; a tradesman of Antwerp, named Nicholas, was tied up in a sack, thrown into the river, and drowned; and Pistorius, a learned student, was carried to the market of a Dutch village in a fool's coat, and committed to the flames.
Sixteen Protestants, having receive sentence to be beheaded, a Protestant minister was ordered to attend the execution. This gentleman performed the function of his office with great propriety, exhorted them to repentance, and gave them comfort in the mercies of their Redeemer. As soon as the sixteen were beheaded, the magistrate cried out to the executioner, "There is another stroke remaining yet; you must behead the minister; he can never die at a better time than with such excellent precepts in his mouth, and such laudable examples before him." He was accordingly beheaded, though even many of the Roman Catholics themselves reprobated this piece of treacherous and unnecessary cruelty.
George Scherter, a minister of Salzburg, was apprehended and committed to prison for instructing his flock in the knowledge of the Gospel. While he was in confinement he wrote a confession of his faith; soon after which he was condemned, first to be beheaded, and afterward to be burnt to ashes. On his way to the place of execution he said to the spectators, "That you may know I die a true Christian, I will give you a sign." This was indeed verified in a most singular manner; for after his head was cut off, the body lying a short space of time with the belly to the ground, it suddenly turned upon the back, when the right foot crossed over t he left, as did also the right arm over the left: and in this manner it remained until it was committed to the flames.
In Louviana, a learned man, named Percinal, was murdered in prison; and Justus Insparg was beheaded, for having Luther's sermons in his possession.
Giles Tilleman, a cutler of Brussels, was a man of great humanity and piety. Among others he was apprehended as a Protestant, and many endeavors were made by the monks to persuade him to recant. He had once, by accident, a fair opportunity of escaping from prison and being asked why he did not avail himself of it, he replied, "I would not do the keepers so much injury, as they must have answered for my absence, had I gone away." When he was sentenced to be burnt, he fervently thanked God for granting him an opportunity, by martyrdom, to glorify His name. Perceiving, at the place of execution, a great quanity of fagots, he desired the principal part of them might be given to the poor, saying, "A small quantity will suffice to consume me." The executioner offered to strangle him before the fire was lighted, but he would not consent, telling him that he defied the flames; and, indeed, he gave up the ghost with such composure amidst them, that he hardly seemed sensible of their effects.
In the year 1543 and 1544, the persecution was carried on throughout all Flanders in a most violent and cruel manner. Some were condemned to perpetual imprisonment, others to perpetual banishment; but most were put to death either by hanging, drowning, immuring, burning, the rack, or burying alive.
John de Boscane, a zealous Protestant, was apprehended on account of his faith, in the city of Antwerp. On his trial, he steadfastly professed himself to be of the reformed religion, which occasioned his immediate condemnation. The magistrate, however, was afraid to put him to death publicly, as he was popular through his great generosity, and almost universally beloved for his inoffensive life, and exemplary piety. A private execution being determined on, an order was given to drown him in prison. The executioner, accordinly, put him in a large tub; but Boscane struggling, and getting his head above the water, the executioner stabbed him with a dagger in several places, until he expired.
John de Buisons, another Protestant, was, about the same time, secretly apprehended, and privately executed at Antwerp. The numbers of Protestants being great in that city, and the prisoner much respected, the magistrates feared an insurrection, and for that reason ordered him to be beheaded in prison.
A.D. 1568, three persons were apprehended in Antwerp, named Scoblant, Hues, and Coomans. During their confinement they behaved with great fortitude and cheerfulness, confessing that the hand of God appeared in what had befallen them, and bowing down before the throne of his providence. In an epistle to some worthy Protestants, they expressed themselves in the following words: "Since it is the will of the Almighty that we should suffer for His name, and be persecuted for the sake of His Gospel, we patiently submit, and are joyful upon the occasion; though the flesh may febel against the spirit, and hearken to the council of the old serpent, yet the truths of the Gospel shall prevent such advice from being taken, and Christ shall bruise the serpent's head. We are not comfortless in confinement, for we have faith; we fear not affliction, for we have hope; and we forgive our enemies, for we have charity. Be not under apprehensions for us, we are happy in confinement through the promises of God, glory in our bonds, and exult in being thought worthy to suffer for the sake of Christ. We desire not to be released, but to be blessed with fortitude; we ask not liberty, but the power of perseverance; and wish for no change in our condition, but that which places a crown of martyrdom upon our heads."
Scoblant was first brought to his trial; when, persisting in the profession of his faith, he received sentence of death. On his return to prison, he earnestly requested the jailer not to permit any friar to come near him; saying, "They can do me no good, but may greatly disturb me. I hope my salvation is already sealed in heaven, and that the blood of Christ, in which I firmly put my trust, hath washed me from my iniquities. I am not going to throw off this mantle of clay, to be clad in robes of eternal glory, by whose celestial brightness I shall be freed from all errors. I hope I may be the last martyr to papal tyranny, and the blood already spilt found sufficient to quench the thirst of popish cruelty; that the Church of Christ may have rest here, as his servants will hereafter." On the day of execution, he to0ok a pathetic leave of his fellow prisoners. At the stake he fervently said the Lord's Prayer, and sung the Fortieth Psalm; then commending his soul to God, he was burnt alive.
Hues, soon after died in prison; upon which occasion Coomans wrote thus to his friends: "I am now deprived of my friends and companions; Scoblant is martyred, and Hues dead, by the visitation of the Lord; yet I am not alone, I have with me the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob; He is my comfort, and shall be my reward. Pray unto God to strengthen me to the end, as I expect every hour to be freed from this tenement of clay."
On his trial he freely confessed himself of the reformed religion, answered with a manly fortitude to every charge against him, and proved the Scriptural part of his answers from the Gospel. The judge told him the only alternatives were recantation or death; and concluded by saying, "Will you die for the faith you profess?" To which Coomans replied, "I am not only willing to die, but to suffer the most excruciating torments for it; after which my soul shall receive its confirmation from God Himself, in the midst of eternal glory." Being condemned, he went cheerfully to the place of execution, and died with the most manly fortitude, and Christian resignation.
William of Nassau fell a sacrifice to treachery, being assassinated in the fifty-first year of his age, by Beltazar Gerard, a native of Ranche Compte, in the province of Burgundy. This murderer, in hopes of a reward here and hereafter, for killing an enemy to the king of Spain and an enemy to the Catholic religion, undertook to destroy the prince of Orange. Having procured firearms, he watched him as he passed through the great hall of his palace to dinner, and demanded a passport. The princess of Orange, observing that the assassin spoke with a hollow and confused voice, asked who he was, saying that she did not like his countenance. The prince answered that it was one that demanded a passport, which he should presently have.
Nothing further passed before dinner, but on the return of the prince and princness through the same hall, after dinner was over, the assassin, standing concealed as much as possible by one of the pillars, fired at the prince, the balls entering at the left side, and passing through the right, wounding in their passage the stomach and vital parts. On receiving the wounds, the prince only said, "Lord, have mercy upon my soul, and upon these poor people," and then expired immediately.
The lamentations throughout the United Provinces were general, on account of the death of the prince of Orange; and the assassin, who was immediately taken, received sentence to be put to death in the most exemplary manner, yet such was his enthusiasm, or folly, that when his flesh was torn by red-hot pincers, he coolly said, "If I was at liberty, I would commit such an action over again."
The prince of Orange's funeral was the grandest ever seen in the Low Countries, and perhaps the sorrow for his death the most sincere, as he left behind him the character he honestly deserved, viz., that of father of his people.
To conclude, multitudes were murdered in different parts of Flanders; in the city of Valence, in particular, fifty-seven of the principal inhabitants were butchered in one day, for refusing to embrace the Romish superstition; and great numbers were suffered to languish in confinement, until they perished through the inclemency of their dungeons.
Foxe's Book of Martyrs
The Continual Burnt Offering (1 Timothy 3:16)
By H.A. Ironside - 1941
November 15
1 Timothy 3:16 Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness:He was manifested in the flesh,
vindicated by the Spirit,
seen by angels,
proclaimed among the nations,
believed on in the world,
taken up in glory. ESV
Of the vast universe of bliss,
The centre Thou,and Sun;
Th’ eternal theme of praise is this,
To Heaven’s beloved One—
Worthy, O Lamb of God, art Thou
That ev’ry knee to Thee should bow.
- The Council of
Florence
- Christ
Transfiguration
- Luther:
Life and Legacy
#1 Luke 19:45-48 | University of Nottingham
#2 Andreas Andreopoulos | University of Nottingham
#3 Various | Ligonier
Devotionals, notes, poetry and more
Why go to church?
(Nov 15) Bob Gass
‘Christ loved the church.’
(Eph 5:25) 25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, ESV
The story’s told of a mother, who woke her son one Sunday morning and said, ‘Get up – you’re late for church!’ He replied, ‘I don’t want to go. I’ve no friends there, the music’s awful, and the sermons are boring!’ The woman replied, ‘You’ve got to go – you’re the pastor!’ Seriously, why should you go to church? Because ‘Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish’ (vv. 25-27 NIV 2011 Edition). Pastor and President Emeritus of Taylor University Dr Jay Kesler gives us five reasons for going to church: 1) It’s the only organisation that still deals with issues like salvation, death, judgment, grace, purpose, heaven, and hell. 2) It adds value and dignity to human life. We live in a secular culture that contributes to our sense of inner worthlessness. The church counteracts this negative message by preaching God’s love and acceptance. 3) It provides a moral and spiritual compass. Society has revised, resisted, and rejected absolutes, embracing relativism, but the church stands on the timeless bedrock of God’s Word. 4) It’s where you find compassion, healing, and community. There – we’re all on par. There – God’s Spirit is working to knit us together as believers, guaranteeing us all ‘equal access to the Father’ (Ephesians 2:18 MSG). 5) Unlike other institutions, it has motivated the most lasting, unselfish, essential, courageous endeavours on earth. Things like missions, schools, hospitals, food pantries, rehab centres, and orphanages. Why go to church? Because Jesus loves the church – and so should you.
James 4
UCB The Word For Today
by Bill Federer
A member of the Continental Congress, he was the only clergyman to sign the Declaration of Independence, and he lost two sons in the Revolutionary War. He was President of Princeton and taught nine of the men that wrote the Constitution, including James Madison. He served on over one hundred and twenty Congressional Committees. His name was Reverend John Witherspoon, and he died this day, November 15, 1794. Rev. Witherspoon wrote: “A Republic must either preserve its virtue or lose its liberty…. Whoever is an avowed enemy of God, I scruple not to call him an enemy of his country.”
American Minuteby C.S. Lewis
Reflections on the Intimate Dialogue
Between Man and God
Chapter 6
I can’t remember exactly what I said about not making the petition for our daily bread too "religious," and I'm not quite sure what you mean-nor how ironically-by asking if I've become "one of Vidler's young men"!
About Vidler. I never heard the program which created all that scandal, and naturally one wouldn't condemn a dog on newspaper extracts. But I have now read his essay in Soundings and I believe I go a good deal further with him than you would. Much of what he quotes from F. D. Maurice and Bonhoeffer seems to me very good; and so, I think, are his own arguments for the Establishment.
At any rate I can well understand how a man who is trying to love God and his neighbor should come to dislike the very word religion; a word, by the way, which hardly ever appears in the New Testament. Newman makes my blood run cold when he says in one of the Parochial and Plain Sermons that Heaven is like a church because, in both, "one single sovereign subject-religion-is brought before us." He forgets that there is no temple in the new Jerusalem.
He has substituted religion for God-as if navigation were substituted for arrival, or battle for victory, or wooing for marriage, or in general the means for the end. But even in this present life, there is danger in the very concept of religion. It carries the suggestion that this is one more department of life, an extra department added to the economic, the social, the intellectual, the recreational, and all the rest. But that whose claims are infinite can have no standing as a department. Either it is an illusion or else our whole life falls under it. We have no non-religious activities; only religious and irreligious.
Religion, nevertheless, appears to exist as a department, and, in some ages, to thrive as such. It thrives partly because there exists in many people a "love of religious observances," which I think Simone Weil is quite right in regarding as a merely natural taste. There exists also-Vidler is rather good on this-the delight in religious (as in any other) organization. Then all sorts of aesthetic, sentimental, historical, political interests are drawn in. Finally sales of work, the parish magazine, and bell-ringing, and Santa Claus.
None of them bad things. But none of them is necessarily of more spiritual value than the activities we call secular. And they are infinitely dangerous when this is not understood. This department of life, labeled "sacred," can become an end in itself; an idol that hides both God and my neighbors. ("When the means are autonomous they are deadly.") It may even come about that a man's most genuinely Christian actions fall entirely outside that part of his life which he calls religious.
Compiled by Richard S. Adams
Mere heathen morality,
and not Jesus Christ,
is preached in most of our churches.
--- George Whitefield
ISBN-13: 978-1619700611
In some circles, God has been abridged, reduced, modified, edited, changed and amended until He is no longer the God whom Isaiah saw, high and lifted up.
--- A.W. Tozer
ISBN-13: 978-0875093673
God has a master plan for your life, and that master plan does not change either. It is a plan designed specifically for you. It is a plan that God intends for you to live out fully, beginning at the moment of your birth and never ending until the moment of your death. --- Charles Stanley
ISBN-13: 978-0785285571
Sirach 2:1 My child, when you come to serve the Lord,
prepare yourself for testing.
--- NRSV
In the end, the church will either declare the truth of God's Word, or it will find a way to run away from it. --- Al Mohler ISBN-13: 978-0718032487
... from here, there and everywhere
by D.H. Stern
not knowing that want will overtake him.
Complete Jewish Bible : An English Version of the Tanakh (Old Testament) and B'Rit Hadashah (New Testament)
What is that to thee?
Lord, what shall this man do?… What is that to thee? Follow thou Me. --- John 21:21, 22.
One of our severest lessons comes from the stubborn refusal to see that we must not interfere in other people’s lives. It takes a long time to realize the danger of being an amateur providence, that is, interfering with God’s order for others. You see a certain person suffering, and you say—‘He shall not suffer, and I will see that he does not.’ You put your hand straight in front of God’s permissive will to prevent it, and God says—“What is that to thee?” If there is stagnation spiritually, never allow it to go on, but get into God’s presence and find out the reason for it. Possibly you will find it is because you have been interfering in the life of another; proposing things you had no right to propose; advising when you had no right to advise. When you do have to give advice to another, God will advise through you with the direct understanding of His Spirit; your part is to be so rightly related to God that His discernment comes through you all the time for the blessing of another soul.
Most of us live on the borders of consciousness—consciously serving, consciously devoted to God. All this is immature, it is not the real life yet. The mature stage is the life of a child which is never conscious; we become so abandoned to God that the consciousness of being used never enters in. When we are consciously being used as broken bread and poured-out wine, there is another stage to be reached, where all consciousness of ourselves and of what God is doing through us is eliminated. A saint is never consciously a saint; a saint is consciously dependent on God.
the Poetry of R.S. Thomas
Semi-Detached
I am given to slum
clearance; I have thrown my images
outside where they accumulate
in a huge pile. It is not true
I am the house of prayer.
I am neither a voice
asking, nor is there an ear
that attends. If the best they can do
is to say I am the ghost
in the machine, I will lay
that ghost.
The facts are
these: I live in a contemporary
dwelling in country that
is being consumed. Nature regards
me with a distrust that is
well-founded; there is no room
for us both. Small and compact
the house I occupy sustains
pressures as of the air's
fathoms, but I am not
at the bottom of them. I am
neither down here, nor
up there. I am where
I am, a being with no
view but out upon the uncertainties
of the imperatives of science.
Maimonides: Torah and Philosophic Quest
Maimonides supports his understanding of sacrifices by showing how the Bible gave expression to different levels of religious worship:
I return to my subject and say that, as this kind of worship—I mean the “sacrifices”—pertain to a second intention, whereas invocation, prayer, and similar practices and modes of worship come closer to the first intention and are necessary for its achievement, a great difference has been made between the two kinds. For one kind of worship—I mean the offering of sacrifices—even though it was done in His name, may He be exalted, was not prescribed to us in the way it existed at first; I mean to say in such a way that sacrifices could be offered in every place and at every time. Nor could a temple be set up in any fortuitous place, nor could any fortuitous man offer the sacrifice: “Whosoever would, he consecrated him.” On the contrary, He forbade all this and established one single house [as the temple], “to the site that the Lord will choose,” so that sacrifices should not be offered elsewhere: “Take care not to sacrifice your burnt offerings in any place you like.” Also only the offspring of one particular family can be “priests.” All this was intended to restrict this kind of worship, so that only the portion of it should subsist whose abolition is not required by His Wisdom. On the other hand, invocation and prayers are made in every place and by anyone whoever he may be.
The Bible weaned man from his attachment to idolatry by restricting the first form of worship—sacrifices—to the specific location of the temple and to specific persons—the priests. Along with communal worship by animal sacrifices there also existed verbal prayer practiced by individuals able to transcend pagan forms of worship. Since the restrictions of place and persons only applied to sacrifices and not to verbal prayer, Maimonides inferred that at the time of the Bible verbal prayer represented a higher form of worship.
Maimonides states in the Mishneh Torah that verbal prayer was individualistic and spontaneous during the biblical period. It lacked the formal structure of fixed times and texts which would have enabled verbal prayer to become a communal form of worship.59 After the exile of the community from its land, verbal prayer became formalized and emerged as the system of worship for community. The same relationship between communal and individual forms of worship which was present in the biblical period is present also when verbal prayer becomes the dominant mode of communal worship. In the Guide, Maimonides only claims that it would be as difficult for the prophet, in his time, to demand of the members of community that they serve God in contemplative prayer as it would have been for the prophet, during the biblical period, to insist on verbal prayer. At this stage in history, Maimonides suggests, the individual who can transcend the communal form of worship gives expression to his spiritual capacities through silent, contemplative prayer. Such silent, contemplative prayer at the time of exile reflects the same capacity of unique individuals to transcend the influence of their social environment as did verbal prayer at a time when the community was habituated to offer sacrifices.
Maimonides’ description of communal prayer in the Mishneh Torah suggests that the core element of verbal prayer is petitional:
The first three blessings consist of praises of God, the last three of thanksgiving to Him. The intermediate benedictions are petitions for the things which may stand as categories of all the desires of the individual and the needs of the community.
The thirteen petitional blessings reflect the needs of community and the outpourings of the Jew who turns to God out of crises. The important concern of the rabbinic period was to sustain the community’s relationship to God in spite of political exile and suffering; petitional prayer reinforces rabbinic refusal to interpret Jewish history from the secular perspective of brute power. Teshuvah and petitional prayer give expression to the belief that God has not abandoned Israel and that He is responsive to its suffering.
November 15
Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” --- John 20:27.
How are we to deal with those who are in intellectual difficulty? Classic Sermons on Faith and Doubt
First, we make all the concessions to them that we conscientiously can. When doubters first encounter you, they pour out a deluge of abuse of churches and ministers and creeds and Christians. Nine-tenths of what they say is probably true. Make concessions. Agree with them. It does them good to unburden themselves of these things, and they are startled to find a Christian who almost entirely agrees with them. We are of course not responsible for everything that is said in the name of Christianity—a person does not give up medicine because there are quack doctors, and people do not have a right to give up their Christianity because there are spurious or inconsistent Christians. We ask them to accept Christ and the facts about Christ and the words of Christ. These people are in revolt against the kind of religion that we exhibit to the world—against the cant that is taught in the name of Christianity. And if they have never seen the real thing—if you could show them that, they would receive it as eagerly as you do.
Second, beg them to set aside, by an act of will, all unsolved problems such as the origin of evil, the problem of the Trinity, and so on—problems that have been investigated for thousands of years without result—as insoluble. In the meantime, just as a person who is studying mathematics may be asked to set aside the problem of squaring the circle, let them go on with what can be done and what has been done and leave out of sight the impossible. That will relieve the skeptic’s mind of a great deal of unnecessary cargo that has been in the way.
Third, talking about difficulties only aggravates them. Entire satisfaction to the intellect about any of the greater problems is unattainable, and if you try to get to the bottom, there is no bottom there; therefore you make the matter worse. Say what is known and what can be honestly, philosophically, and scientifically said about one or two of the difficulties that doubters raise, just to show that you are not merely groping in the dark yourself, but you have found whatever basis is possible. It would be a pity if all these problems could be solved. The joy of the intellectual life would be largely gone, and the whole intellectual world would be stale and unprofitable if we knew everything.
--- Henry Drummond
November 15
His Utmost
Oswald Chambers wrote one of Christianity’s greatest books, but he never knew it.
He had early displayed the gifts of an artist, and his future seemed assured by a scholarship to the leading art centers of Europe. But, being won to Christ by Charles Spurgeon, he declined the scholarship and enrolled in Dunoon Bible Training College, telling his family, “Do not be sorry that I cannot go for a university curriculum, maybe I shall be best without it. I will to the limit of my power educate myself for His sake.” He further explained in his diary: “From my childhood the persuasion has been that of a work strange and great, an experience deep and peculiar.”
While at Dunoon, Chambers heard Dr. F. B. Meyer speak about the Holy Spirit. He returned to his room feeling he knew nothing of spiritual power, and he was miserable. “Nothing but the grace of God and the kindness of friends kept me out of an asylum,” he said. “I knew that if what I had was all the Christianity there was, the thing was a fraud.”
Then he found a verse of Scripture—Luke 11:13: As bad as you are, you still know how to give good gifts to your children. But your heavenly Father is even more ready to give the Holy Spirit to anyone who asks.
“I claimed the gift of the Spirit in dogged committal on Luke 11:13,” he said. “I had no vision of heaven or angels. I was dry and empty as ever, no power or realization of God. Then I was asked to speak at a meeting, and forty souls came to the front.” Chambers had found a power and peace in ministry that impacted the world both during and after his life.
He died suddenly in Egypt on November 15, 1917 while serving British troops during World War I, and was buried in Cairo under a headstone bearing the words of Luke 11:13. Only later did his widow, Gertrude Hobbs, compile his manuscripts, notes, lectures, and sermons into the classic My Utmost for His Highest, a book that challenges Christians to this day.
Which one of you would give your child a scorpion if the child asked for an egg? As bad as you are, you still know how to give good gifts to your children. But your heavenly Father is even more ready to give the Holy Spirit to anyone who asks.
--- Luke 11:12,13.
Daily Readings / CHARLES H. SPURGEON
Morning - November 15
“The Lord’s portion is his people.” --- Deuteronomy 32:9.
How are they his? By his own sovereign choice. He chose them, and set his love upon them. This he did altogether apart from any goodness in them at the time, or any goodness which he foresaw in them. He had mercy on whom he would have mercy, and ordained a chosen company unto eternal life; thus, therefore, are they his by his unconstrained election.
They are not only his by choice, but by purchase. He has bought and paid for them to the utmost farthing, hence about his title there can be no dispute. Not with corruptible things, as with silver and gold, but with the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord’s portion has been fully redeemed. There is no mortgage on his estate; no suits can be raised by opposing claimants, the price was paid in open court, and the Church is the Lord’s freehold for ever. See the blood-mark upon all the chosen, invisible to human eye, but known to Christ, for “the Lord knoweth them that are his”; he forgetteth none of those whom he has redeemed from among men; he counts the sheep for whom he laid down his life, and remembers well the Church for which he gave himself.
They are also his by conquest. What a battle he had in us before we would be won! How long he laid siege to our hearts! How often he sent us terms of capitulation! but we barred our gates, and fenced our walls against him. Do we not remember that glorious hour when he carried our hearts by storm? When he placed his cross against the wall, and scaled our ramparts, planting on our strongholds the blood-red flag of his omnipotent mercy? Yes, we are, indeed, the conquered captives of his omnipotent love. Thus chosen, purchased, and subdued, the rights of our divine possessor are inalienable: we rejoice that we never can be our own; and we desire, day by day, to do his will, and to show forth his glory.
Evening - November 15
“Strengthen, O God, that which thou hast wrought for us.” --- Psalm 68:28.
It is our wisdom, as well as our necessity, to beseech God continually to strengthen that which he has wrought in us. It is because of their neglect in this, that many Christians may blame themselves for those trials and afflictions of spirit which arise from unbelief. It is true that Satan seeks to flood the fair garden of the heart and make it a scene of desolation, but it is also true that many Christians leave open the sluice-gates themselves, and let in the dreadful deluge through carelessness and want of prayer to their strong Helper. We often forget that the Author of our faith must be the Preserver of it also. The lamp which was burning in the temple was never allowed to go out, but it had to be daily replenished with fresh oil; in like manner, our faith can only live by being sustained with the oil of grace, and we can only obtain this from God himself. Foolish virgins we shall prove, if we do not secure the needed sustenance for our lamps. He who built the world upholds it, or it would fall in one tremendous crash; he who made us Christians must maintain us by his Spirit, or our ruin will be speedy and final. Let us, then, Evening by Evening, go to our Lord for the grace and strength we need. We have a strong argument to plead, for it is his own work of grace which we ask him to strengthen—“that which thou hast wrought for us.” Think you he will fail to protect and sustain that? Only let your faith take hold of his strength, and all the powers of darkness, led on by the master fiend of hell, cannot cast a cloud or shadow over your joy and peace. Why faint when you may be strong? Why suffer defeat when you may conquer? Oh! take your wavering faith and drooping graces to him who can revive and replenish them, and earnestly pray, “Strengthen, O God, that which thou hast wrought for us.”
November 15
DOXOLOGY
Thomas Ken, 1637–1711
I will praise You, O Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify Your name forever. (Psalm 86:12)
The lines of the “Doxology” have been the most frequently sung words of any known song for more than 300 years. Even today nearly every English-speaking Protestant congregation unites at least once each Sunday in this noble overture of praise. It has been said that the “Doxology” has done more to teach the doctrine of the Trinity than all the theology books ever written.
Instead of being merely a perfunctory hymn that is sung each week, the “Doxology” should be regarded by Christians as an offering or sacrifice of praise to God for all of His blessings in the past week (Hebrews 13:15). True worship always involves an offering. In the Old Testament period, Levitical priests offered blood sacrifices to God on behalf of their people. In this New Testament era, God wants our sacrifice of praise. Other sacrifices desired by God of New Testament believer-priests include: Our bodies (Roman 12:1); the service of our faith (Philippians 2:17); our material gifts (Philippians 4:18); our good works and communication (Hebrews 13:16).
The author of this text was a bold, outspoken 17th century Anglican bishop named Thomas Ken. Ken’s illustrious career in the ministry was stormy and colorful. He served for a time as the English chaplain at the royal court in the Hague, Holland. He was so outspoken, however, in denouncing the corrupt lives of those in authority at the Dutch capital that he was compelled to leave after a short stay.
Upon his return to England, he was appointed by King Charles II to be one of his chaplains. Ken continued to reveal the same spirit of boldness in rebuking the moral sins of his dissolute English monarch. Despite this, Charles always admired his courageous chaplain, calling him “the good little man.” The king rewarded Thomas Ken by appointing him to the bishopric of the Bath and Wales area. The historian Macaulay gave this tribute to Bishop Ken: “He came as near to the ideal of Christian perfection as human weakness permits.”
Praise God, from whom all blessings flow; praise Him, all creatures here below: praise Him above, ye heav’nly host; praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Amen.
For Today: Psalm 97:1; 100; 150:6
It has been said that a Christian’s theology must become his doxology. As a believer-priest, are you offering to God the sacrifices that He desires? Give Him your praise even now as you sing the “Doxology” ---
Stephen Charnock
Prop. II. God’s holiness is not blemished by enjoining man a law, which he knew he would not observe.
1. The law was not above his strength. Had the law been impossible to be observed, no crime could have been imputed to the
subject, the fault had lain wholly upon the Governor; the non-observance of it had been from a want of strength, and not from a
want of will. Had God commanded Adam to fly up to the sun, when he had not given him wings, Adam might have a will to obey it,
but his power would be too short to perform it. But the law set him for a rule, had nothing of impossibility in it; it was easy to be
observed; the command was rather below, than above his strength; and the sanction of it was more apt to restrain and scare him
from the breach of it, than encourage any daring attempts against it; he had as much power, or rather more, to conform to it, than to
warp from it; and greater arguments and interest to be observant of it, than to violate it; his all was secured by the one, and his ruin
ascertained by the other. The commands of God are not grievous (1 John 5:3); from the first to the last command, there is nothing
impossible, nothing hard to the original and created nature of man, which were all summed up in a love to God, which was the
pleasure and delight of man, as well as his duty, if he had not, by inconsiderateness, neglected the dictates and resolves of his own
understanding. The law was suited to the strength of man, and fitted for the improvement and perfection of his nature; in which respect, the apostle calls it “good,” as it refers to man, as well as “holy,” as it refers to God (Rom. 7:12). Now, since God created man a creature capable to be governed by a law, and as a rational creature endued with understanding and will, not to be governed, according to his nature, without a law; was it congruous to the wisdom of God to respect only the future state of man, which, from the depth of his infinite knowledge, he did infallibly foresee would be miserable, by the wilful defection of man from the rule? Had it been agreeable to the wisdom of God, to respect only this future state, and not the present state of the creature; and therefore leave him lawless, because he knew be would violate the law? Should God forbear to act like a wise governor, because he saw that man would cease to act like an obedient subject? Shall a righteous magistrate forbear to make just and good laws, because he foresees, either from the dispositions of his subjects, their ill-humor, or some circumstances which will intervene, that multitudes of them will incline to break those laws, and fall under the penalty of them? No blame can be upon that magistrate who minds the rule of righteousness, and the necessary duty of his government, since he is not the cause of those turbulent affections of men, which he wisely foresees will rise up against his just edicts.
2. Though the law now be above the strength of man, yet is not the holiness of God blemished by keeping it up. It is true, God hath
been graciously pleased to mitigate the severity and rigor of the law, by the entrance of the gospel; yet where men refuse the terms of
the gospel, they continue themselves under the condemnation of the law, and are justly guilty of the breach of it, though they have no
strength to observe it. The law, as I said before, was not above man’s strength, when he was possessed of original righteousness,
though it be above man’s strength, since he was stripped of original righteousness. The command was dated before man had
contracted his impotency, when he had a power to keep it as well as to break it. Had it been enjoined to man only after the fall, and
not before, he might have had a better pretence to excuse himself, because of the impossibility of it; yet he would not have had
sufficient excuse, since the impossibility did not result from the nature of the law, but from the corrupted nature of the creature. It
was “weak through the flesh” (Rom. 8:3), but it was promulged when man had a strength proportioned to the commands of it. And
now, since man hath unhappily made himself incapable of obeying it, must God’s holiness in his law be blemished for enjoining it?
Must he abrogate those commands, and prohibit what before he enjoined, for the satisfaction of the corrupted creature? Would not
this be his “ceasing to be holy,” that his creature might be unblameably unrighteous? Must God strip himself of his holiness, because
man will not discharge his iniquity? He cannot be the cause of sin, by keeping up the law, who would be the cause of all the
unrighteousness of men, by removing the authority of it. Some things in the law that are intrinsically good in their own nature, are
indispensable, and it is repugnant to the nature of God not to command them. If he were not the guardian of his indispensable law, he
would be the cause and countenancer of the creatures’ iniquity. So little reason have men to charge God with being the cause of their
sin, by not repealing his law to gratify their impotence, that he would be unholy if he did. God must not lose his purity, because man
hath lost his, and cast away the right of his sovereignty, because man hath cast away his power of obedience.
3. God’s foreknowledge that his law would not be observed, lays no blame upon him. Though the foreknowledge of God be
infallible, yet it doth not necessitate the creature in acting. It was certain from eternity, that Adam would fall, that men would do such
and such actions, that Judas would betray our Saviour; God foreknew all those things from eternity; but, it is as certain that this
foreknowledge did not necessitate the will of Adam, or any other branch of his posterity, in the doing those actions that were so
foreseen by God; they voluntarily run into such courses, not by any impulsion. God’s knowledge was not suspended between certainty
and uncertainty; he certainly foreknew that his law would be broken by Adam; he foreknew it in his own decree of not hindering him,
by giving Adam the efficacious grace which would infallibly have prevented it; yet Adam did freely break this law, and never imagined
that the foreknowledge of God did necessitate him to it; he could find no cause of his own sin, but the liberty of his own will; he
charges the occasion of his sin upon the woman, and consequently upon God in giving the woman to him (Gen. 3:12). He could not
be so ignorant of the nature of God, as to imagine him without a foresight of future things: since his knowledge of what was to be
known of God by creation, was greater than any man’s since, in all probability. But, however, if he were not acquainted with the
notion of God’s foreknowledge, he could not be ignorant of his own act; there could not have been any necessity upon him, any kind
of constraint of him in his action, that could have been unknown to him; and he would not have omitted a plea of so strong a nature,
when he was upon his trial for life or death; especially when he urgeth so weak an argument, to impute his crime to God, as the gift of
the woman; as if that which was designed him for a help, were intended for his ruin. If God’s prescience takes away the liberty of the
creature, there is no such thing as a free action in the world (for there is nothing done but is foreknown by God, else we render God of
a limited understanding), nor ever was, no, not by God himself, ad extra; for whatsoever he hath done in creation, whatsoever he
hath done since the creation, was foreknown by him: he resolved to do it, and, therefore, foreknew that he would do it. Did God do it,
therefore, necessarily, as necessity is opposed to liberty? As he freely decrees what he will do, so he effects what he freely decreed.
Foreknowledge is so far from intrenching upon the liberty of the will, that predetermination, which in the notion of it speaks
something more, doth not dissolve it; God did not only foreknow, but determine the suffering of Christ (Acts 4:27, 28). It was
necessary, therefore, that Christ should suffer, that God might not be mistaken in his foreknowledge, or come short of his determinate
decree; but did this take away the liberty of Christ in suffering? (Eph. 5:2)
“Who offered himself up to God;” that is, by a voluntary act, as well as designed to do it by a determinate counsel. It did infallibly
secure the event, but did not annihilate the liberty of the action, either in Christ’s willingness to suffer, or the crime of the Jews that
made him suffer. God’s prescience is God’s provision of things arising from their proper causes; as a gardener foresees in his plants the
leaves and the flowers that will arise from them in the spring, because he knows the strength and nature of their several roots which
he under ground; but his foresight of these things is not the cause of the rise and appearance of those flowers. If any of us see a ship
moving towards such a rock or quicksand, and know it to be governed by a negligent pilot, we shall certainly foresee that the ship will
be torn in pieces by the rock, or swallowed up by the sands; but is this foresight of ours from the causes, any cause of the effect; or can
we from hence be said to be the authors of the miscarriage of the ship, and the loss of the passengers and goods? The fall of Adam was
foreseen by God to come to pass by the consent of his free will, in the choice of the proposed temptation. God foreknew Adam would
sin, and if Adam would not have sinned, God would have foreknown that he would not sin. Adam might easily have detected the
serpents fraud, and made a better election; God foresaw that he would not do it; God’s foreknowledge did not make Adam guilty or
innocent: whether God had foreknown it or no, he was guilty by a free choice, and a willing neglect of his own duty. Adam knew that
God foreknew that he might eat of the fruit, and fall and die, because God had forbidden him; the foreknowledge that he would do it,
was no more a cause of his action, than the foreknowledge that he might do it. Judas certainly knew that his Master foreknew that he
would betray him, for Christ had acquainted him with it (John 13:21, 26); yet he never charged this foreknowledge of Christ with any
guilt of his treachery.
Prop. III. The holiness of God is not blemished by decreeing the eternal rejection of some men.
Reprobation, in its first notion, is an act of preterition, or passing by man is not made wicked by the the act of God; but it supposeth
him wicked; and so it is nothing else but God’s leaving a man in that guilt and filth wherein he beholds him. In its second notion, it is
an ordination, not to a crime, but to a punishment (Jude 4): “an ordaining to condemnation.” And though it be an eternal act of God,
yet, in order of nature, it follows upon the foresight of the transgression of man, and supposeth the crime. God considers Adam’s
revolt, and views the whole mass of his corrupted posterity, and chooses some to reduce to himself by his grace, and leaves others to
he sinking in their ruins. Since all mankind fell by the fall of Adam, and have corruption conveyed to them successively by that root,
whereof they are branches; all men might justly be left wallowing in that miserable condition to which they are reduced by the
apostasy of their common head; and God might have passed by the whole race of man, as well as he did the fallen angels, without
any hope of redemption. He was no more bound to restore man, than to restore devils, nor bound to repair the nature of any one son
of Adam; and had he dealt with men as he dealt with the devils, they had had, all of them, as little just ground to complain of God; for
all men deserved to be left to themselves, for all were concluded under sin; but God calls out some to make monuments of his grace,
which is an act of the sovereign mercy of that dominion, whereby “he hath mercy on whom he will have mercy” (Rom. 9:18); others
he passes by, and leaves them remaining in that corruption of nature wherein they were born. If men have a power to dispose of their
own goods, without any unrighteousness, why should not God dispose of his own grace, and bestow it upon whom he pleases; since it
is a debt to none, but a free gift to any that enjoy it? God is not the cause of sin in this, because his operation about this is negative; it
is not an action, but a denial of action, and therefore cannot be the cause of the evil actions of men. God acts nothing, but withholds
his power; he doth not enlighten their minds, nor incline their wills so powerfully, as to expel their darkness, and root out those evil
habits which possess them by nature. God could, if he would, savingly enlighten the minds of all men in the world, and quicken their
hearts with a new life by an invincible grace; but in not doing it, there is no positive act of God, but a cessation of action. We may with
as much reason say, that God is the cause of all the sinful actions that are committed by the corporation of devils, since their first
rebellion, because he leaves them to themselves, and bestows not a new grace upon them,—as say, God is the cause of the sins of those
that he overlooks and leaves in that state of guilt wherein he found them. God did not pass by any without the consideration of sin; so
that this act of God is not repugnant to his holiness, but conformable to his justice.
Prop. IV. The holiness of God is not blemished by his secret will to suffer sin to enter into the world. God never willed sin by his
preceptive will. It was never founded upon, or produced by any word of his, as the creation was. He never said, Let there be sin under
the heaven, as he said, “Let there be water under the heaven.” Nor doth he will it by infusing any habit of it, or stirring up inclinations
to it; no, “God tempts no man” (James 1:13). Nor doth he will it by his approving will; it is detestable to him, nor ever can he be
otherwise; he cannot approve it either before commission or after.
1. The will of God is in some sort concurrent with sin. He doth not properly will it, but he wills not to hinder it, to which, by his
omnipotence, he could put a bar. If he did positively will it, it might be wrought by himself, and so could not be evil. If he did in no
sort will it, it would not be committed by his creature; sin entered into the world, either God willing the permission of it, or not willing
the permission of it. The latter cannot be said; for then the creature is more powerful than God, and can do that which God will not
permit. God can, if he be pleased, banish all sin in a moment out of the world: he could have prevented the revolt of angels, and the
fall of man; they did not sin whether he would or no: he might, by his grace, have stepped in the first moment, and made a special
impression upon them of the happiness they already possessed, and the misery they would incur by any wicked attempt. He could as
well have prevented the sin of the fallen angels, and confirmed them in grace, as of those that continued in their happy state: he might
have appeared to man, informed him of the issue of his design, and made secret impressions upon his heart, since he was acquainted
with every avenue to his will. God could have kept all sin out of the world, as well as all creatures from breathing is it; he was as well
able to bar sin forever out of the world, as to let creatures be in the womb of nothing, wherein they were first wrapped. To say God
doth will sin as he doth other things, is to deny his holiness; to say it entered without anything of his will, is to deny his omnipotence.
If he did necessitate Adam to fall, what shall we think of his purity? If Adam did fall without any concern of God’s will in it, what
shall we say of his sovereignty? The one taints his holiness, and the other clips his power. If it came without anything of his will in it,
and he did not foresee it, where is his omniscience If it entered whether he would or no, where is his omnipotence (Rom. 9:19)? “Who
hath resisted his will?” There cannot be a lustful act in Abimelech, if God will withhold his power (Gen. 20:6); “I withheld thee:” nor a
cursing word in Balaam’s mouth, unless God give power to speak it (Num. 22:38): “Have I now any power at all to say anything? The
word that God puts in my mouth, that shall I speak.” As no action could be sinful, if God had not forbidden it; so no sin could be
committed, if God did not will to give way to it.
2. God doth not will directly, and by an efficacious will. He doth not directly will it, because he hath prohibited it by his law, which
is a discovery of his will: so that if he should directly will sin, and directly prohibit it, he would will good and evil in the same manner,
and there would be contradictions in God’s will: to will sin absolutely, is to work it (Psalm 115:3): “God hath done whatsoever hes
pleased.” God cannot absolutely will it, because he cannot work it. God wills good by a positive decree, because he hath decreed to
effect it. He wills evil by a private decree, because he hath decreed not to give that grace which would certainly prevent it. God doth
not will sin simply, for that were to approve it, but he wills it, in order to that good his wisdom will bring forth from it. He wills not sin
for itself, but for the event. To will sin as sin, or as purely evil, is not in the capacity of a creature, neither of man nor devil. The will of
a rational creature cannot will anything but under the appearance of good, of some good in the sin itself, or some good in the issue of
it. Much more is this far from God, who, being infinitely good, cannot will evil as evil; and being infinitely knowing, cannot will that
for good which is evil. Infinite wisdom can be under no error or mistake: to will sin as sin, would be an unanswerable blemish on
God; but to will to suffer it in order to good, is the glory of his wisdom; it could never have peeped up its head, unless there had been
some decree of God concerning it. And there had been no decree of God concerning it, had he not intended to bring good and glory out
of it. If God did directly will the discovery of his grace and mercy to the world, he did in some sort will sin, as that without which there
could not have been any appearance of mercy in the world; for an innocent creature is not the object of mercy, but a miserable
creature and no rational creature but must be sinful before it be miserable.
3. God wills the permission of sin. He doth not positively will sin, but he positively wills to permit it. And though he doth not
approve of sin, yet he approves of that act of his will, whereby he permits it. For since that sin could not enter into the world without
some concern of God’s will about it, that act of his will that gave way to it, could not be displeasing to him: God could never be
diseased with his own act: “He is not as man, that he should repent” (1 Sam. 15:29). What God cannot repent of, he cannot but
approve of: it is contrary to the blessedness of God to disapprove of; and be displeased with any act of his own will. If he hated any act
of his own will, he would hate himself, he would be under a torture every one that hates his own acts, is under some disturbance and
torment for them. That which is permitted by him, is in itself, and in regard of the evil of it, hateful to him: but as the prospect of that
good which he aims at in the permission of it is pleasing to him, so that act of his will, whereby he permits it, is ushered in by an
approving act of his understanding. Either God approved of the permission, or not; if he did not approve his own act of permission, he
could not have decreed an act of permission. It is inconceivable that God should decree such an act which he detested, and positively
will that which he hated. Though God hated sin, as being against his holiness, yet he did not hate the permission of sin, as being
subservient by the immensity of his wisdom to his own glory. He could never be displeased with that which was the result of his
eternal counsel, as this decree of permitting sin was, as well as any other decree, resolved upon in his own breast. For as God acts
nothing in time, but what he decreed from eternity, so he permits nothing in time but what he decreed from eternity to permit. To
speak properly, therefore, God doth not will sin, but he wills the permission of it, and this will to permit is active and positive in God.
4. This act of permission is not a mere and naked permission, but such an one as is attended with a certainty of the event. The
decrees of God to make use of the sin of man for the glory of his grace in the mission and passion of his Son, hung upon this entrance
of sin. Would it consist with the wisdom of God to decree such great and stupendous things, the event whereof should depend upon an
uncertain foundation which he might be mistaken in? God would have sat in counsel from eternity to no purpose, if he had only
permitted those things to be done, without any knowledge of the event of this permission.
God would not have made such provision for redemption to no purpose, or an uncertain purpose, which would have been, if man had
not fallen; or if it had been an uncertainty with God whether he would fall or no. Though the will of God about sin was permissive,
yet the will of God about that glory he would promote by the defect of the creature, was positive; and, therefore, he would not suffer
so many positive acts of his will to hang upon an uncertain event; and, therefore, he did wisely and righteously order all things to the
accomplishment of his great and gracious purposes.
5. This act of permission doth not taint the holiness of God. That there is such an act as permission, is clear in Scripture (Acts 14:16): “Who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways.” But that it doth not blemish the holiness of God, will appear, 1st. From the nature of this permission.
1. It is not a moral permission, a giving liberty of toleration by any law to commit sin with impunity; when, what one law did
forbid, another law doth leave indifferent to be done or not, as a man sees good in himself. As when there is a law made among men,
that no man shall go out of such a city or country without license, to go out without license is a crime by the law; but when that law
is repealed by another, that gives liberty for men to go and come at their pleasure, it doth not make their going or coming necessary,
but leaves those which were before bound, to do as they see good in themselves. Such a permission makes a fact lawful, though not
necessary; a man is not obliged to do it, but he is left to his own discretion to do as he pleases, without being chargeable with a crime
for doing it. Such a permission there was granted by God to Adam of eating of the fruits of the garden, to choose any of them for food,
except the tree of “knowledge of good and evil.” It was a precept to him, not to “eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and
evil;” but the other was a permission, whereby it was lawful for him to feed upon any other that was most agreeable to his appetite
but there is not such a permission in the case of sin; this had been an indulgence of it, which had freed man from any crime, and,
consequently, from punishment; because, by such a permission by law, he would have had authority to sin if he please God did not
remove the law, which he had before placed as a bar against evil, nor ceased that moral impediment of his threatening: such a
permission as this, to make sin lawful or indifferent, had been a blot upon God’s holiness.
2. But this permission of God, in the case of sin, is no more than the not hindering a sinful action, which he could have prevented.
It is not so much an action of God, as a suspension of his influence, which might have hindered an evil act, and a forbearing to
restrain the faculties of man from sin; it is, properly, the not exerting that efficacy which might change the counsels that are taken,
and prevent the action intended; as when one man sees another ready to fall, and can preserve him from falling by reaching out his hand, he permits him to fall, that is, he hinders him not from falling. So God describes his act about Abimelech (Gen. 20:6); “I withheld thee from sinning against me, therefore suffered I thee not to touch her.” If Abimelech had sinned, he had sinned by God’s permission; that is, by God’s not hindering, or not restraining him by making any impressions upon him. So that permission is only a withholding that help and grace, which, if bestowed, would have been an effectual remedy to prevent a crime; and it is rather a suspension, or cessation, than properly a permission, and sin may be said to be committed, not without God’s permission, rather than by his permission. Thus, in the fall of man, God did not hold the reins strict upon Satan, to restrain him from laying the bait, nor restrain Adam from swallowing the bait: he kept to himself that efficacious grace which he might have darted out upon man to prevent his fall. God left Satan to his malice of tempting, and Adam to his liberty of resisting, and his own strength, to use that sufficient grace he had furnished him with, whereby he might have resisted and overcome the temptation. As he did not drive man to it, so he did not secretly restrain him from it. So, in the Jews crucifying our Saviour, God did not imprint upon their minds, by his Spirit, a consideration of the greatness of the crime, and the horror of his justice due to it; and, being without those impediments, they run furiously, of their own accord, to the commission of that evil; as, when a man lets a wolf or dog out upon his prey, he takes off the chain which held them, and they presently act according to their natures. In the fall of angels and men, God’s act was leaving them to their own strength; in sins after the fall, it is God’s giving them up to their own corruption; the first is a pure suspension of grace; the other hath the nature of a punishment (Psalm 81:12): “So I gave them up to their own hearts’ lusts.” The first object of this permissive will of God was to leave angels and men to their liberty, and the use of their free will, which was natural to them, not adding that supernatural grace which was necessary, not that they should not at all sin, but that they should infallibly not sin: they had a strength sufficient to avoid sin, but not sufficient infallibly to avoid sin; a grace sufficient to preserve them, but not sufficient to confirm them.
3. Now this permission is not the cause of sin, nor doth blemish the holiness of God. It doth not intrench upon the freedom of men, but supposeth it, establisheth it, and leaves man to it. God acted nothing, but only ceased to act; and therefore could not be the efficient cause of man’s sin. As God is not the author of good, but by willing and effecting it, so he is not the author of evil, but by willing and effecting it, but he doth not positively will evil, nor effect it by any efficacy of his own. Permission is no action, nor the cause of that action which is permitted; but the will of that person who is permitted to do such an action is the cause. God can no more be said to be the cause of sin, by suffering a creature to act as it will, than he can be said to be the cause of the not being of any creature, by denying it being, and letting it remain nothing; it is not from God that it is nothing, it is nothing in itself. Though God be said to be the cause of creation, yet he is never by any said to be the cause of that nothing which was before creation. This permission of God is not the cause of sin, but the cause of not hindering sin. Man and angels had a physical power of sinning from God, as they were created with freewill, and supported in their natural strength; but the moral power to sin was not from God; he counselled them not to it, laid no obligation upon them to use their natural power for such an end; he only left them to their freedom, and not hindered them in their acting what he was resolved to permit.
The Existence and Attributes of God
John MacArthur
Acts 7:1–17
Stephen’s OT Defense of Christ 1
Acts 7:18–53
Stephen’s OT Defense of Christ 2
Acts 7:54-8:1
Stephen’s Victorious Death
Acts 8:1–8
The Power of Persecution
Acts 8:9–24
The First False Convert
Acts 8:25–40
Saving Power of Scripture
Jon Courson
Acts 6:1-7
Finding And Focusing Your Gifts
Jon Courson
click here
03-15-1992
Acts 6:1-5
The Church: A Place For Programs?
Jon Courson
click here
03-22-1992
Acts 6:1-7:21
Jon Courson
click here
03-25-1992
Acts 8:5-39
Avoiding An Unexpected End
Jon Courson
click here
03-29-1992
Acts 7:22-60
Jon Courson
click here
04-15-1992
Acts 8:1-8
Jon Courson
click here
4-22-1992
Acts 8:8-40
Jon Courson
click here
05-06-1992
Acts 6-7
Jon Courson
click here
07-11-2018
Acts 8
Jon Courson
click here
07-18-2018
Andy Woods
Acts 3:1-12
Instantaneous Healing
Andy Woods
04-26-2023
Acts 3:13-18
Israel Rejects Her King
Andy Woods
05-03-2023
Acts 3:19a
What Does ‘Repentance’ Really Mean?
Andy Woods
05-10-2023
Skip Heitzig
Acts 7
Skip Heitzig
Acts 8
Skip Heitzig
Skip Heitzig | Calvary Chapel
Gary Hamrick
Acts 8
From Bitter to Better
Gary Hamrick
April 17, 2023
Paul LeBoutillier
Acts 6:9 thru chapter 7
The Martyrdom of Stephen
Paul LeBoutillier
Acts 8
The Gospel Comes to Samaria
Paul LeBoutillier
Acts 8 Part Two
Learning to Hear God's Voice
Paul LeBoutillier
Acts 9:1-32
The Conversion of Paul
Paul LeBoutillier
Acts 9:32-43
The Ministry of Peter
Paul LeBoutillier
Brett Meador | Athey Creek
Brett Meador | Athey Creek
Synopsis | Stephen’s profound sermon begins with a brief history of Israel. This Sunday’s teaching allows us a chance to examine the history of God’s chosen people from Abraham to present-day Israel. God’s faithfulness and His promises are evident as we take time to consider the miraculous preservation of the Jewish people throughout the course of human history and the incredible plans He has for their future.
Palestine or Israel?
Acts 7:2-8
s1-490 | 06-06-2010
Only audio available | click here
Synopsis | As we take a look at the first portion of Stephen’s sermon, we see him delve into the history of the Jewish people and their frequent disobedience. However, he also takes time to highlight the many ways the Lord showed Himself faithful to His people in the midst of their rebellion.
Acts 7:1-43
m1-505 | 06-09-2010
Only audio available | click here
Synopsis | Stephen is a wonderful example of a New Testament believer whose life was drastically changed as he grew in his faith. With this in mind, Pastor Brett offers some practical suggestions for those of us who long to see the Lord bring about real transformation in our own lives as well.
Just Like Jesus
Acts 7:59-60
s1-491 | 06-13-2010
Only audio available | click here
Synopsis | The conclusion of this chapter is packed with important truths: the conclusion of Stephen’s Spirit-filled sermon, his death at the hands of the Sanhedrin and the profound impact his death had on the church. We are also introduced to a young man named Saul, who will have a central role to play in the continuing story of the church and the spreading of the Gospel.
Acts 7:37-8:3
m1-506 | 06-16-2010
Only audio available | click here
Synopsis | Acts 8 takes a good look at Philip the evangelist. Rather than setting forth a ‘formula’ for witnessing, we see Philip’s dependence on the Holy Spirit and his enthusiastic obedience, which resulted in powerful, fruitful evangelism.
Philip the Evangelist
Acts 8:26-40
s1-492 | 06-20-2010
Only audio available | click here
Synopsis | This chapter gives us a closer look at four main characters and what we can learn from each of them: Saul - the zealous persecutor, Philip - the faithful evangelist, Simon - the clever deceiver and the Ethiopian man - a concerned seeker.
Acts 8
m1-507 | 00-00-0000
Only audio available | click here
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