Bio

Dr. Mike Halsey is the chancellor of Grace Biblical Seminary, a Bible teacher at the Hangar Bible Fellowship, the author of Truthspeak and his new book, The Gospel of Grace and Truth: A Theology of Grace from the Gospel of John," both available on Amazon.com. A copy of his book, Microbes in the Bloodstream of the Church, is also available as an E-book on Amazon.com. If you would like to a receive a copy of his weekly Bible studies and other articles of biblical teaching and application, you can do so by writing to Dr. Halsey at michaeldhalsey@bellsouth.net and requesting, "The Hangar Bible Fellowship Journal."

Comments may be addressed to michaeldhalsey@bellsouth.net.

If you would like to contribute to his ministry according to the principle of II Corinthians 9:7, you may do so by making your check out to Hangar Bible Fellowship and mailing it to 65 Teal Ct., Locust Grove, GA 30248. All donations are tax deductible.

Come visit the Hangar some Sunday at 10 AM at the above address. You'll be glad you did.

Other recommended grace-oriented websites are:

notbyworks.org
literaltruth.org
gracebiblicalseminary.org
duluthbible.org
clarityministries.org

Also:

Biblical Ministries, Inc.
C/O Dr. Richard Grubbs
P. O. Box 64582
Lubbock, TX 79464-4582

Thursday, November 24, 2016

MARK TWAIN THINKS ABOUT THE JEWS



Mark Twain was perplexed and bedeviled to no end when he came to look at the Jews. He wrote eloquently of his bafflement, asking a question at the end which he couldn't answer, but if you have a Bible at the ready, you can.

It's an extended two-paragraph quote, but well worth your time and thought, so . . . read on:

"If statistics are right, the Jews constitute but one percent of the human race. It suggests a nebulous dim puff of stardust lost in the blaze of the Milky way. properly, the Jew ought hardly to be heard of, but he is heard of, has always been heard of. He is as prominent on the planet as any other people, and his commercial importance is extravagantly out of proportion to the smallness of his bulk. His contributions to the world’s list of great names in literature, science, art, music, finance, medicine, and abstruse learning are also away out of proportion to the weakness of his numbers. He has made a marvelous fight in this world, in all the ages; and had done it with his hands tied behind him. He could be vain of himself, and be excused for it.

"The Egyptian, the Babylonian, and the Persian rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded to dream-stuff and passed away; the Greek and the Roman followed; and made a vast noise, and they are gone; other people have sprung up and held their torch high for a time, but it burned out, and they sit in twilight now, or have vanished. The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind. All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?”

Hitler who tried to end their immortality would add a hearty "Amen" to Twain's quote, as would other depots and devils from Pharaoh to Haman. One nation after another, one ruler after another, has tried to crush the Jew, but found him uncrushable, impervious to all attacks, propaganda, persecutions, and Ultimate Solutions. Many have tried; all have failed. As Twain said, as only he can do, "The Jew saw them all, beat them all . . ." But was it the Jews alone who saw them all and beat them all?

Twain isn't the only one to look at the Jews and wonder. Nikolai Berdyaev (1874-1948) was a Russian Marxist who broke with the movement after the Russian Revolution and its aftermath. He became a Christian — he had been charged with blasphemy for criticizing the Russian Orthodox Church in 1913 — and went into exile, eventually living in Paris. In The Meaning of History, he explains his departure from Marxism:

"I remember how the materialist interpretation of history, when I attempted in my youth to verify it by applying it to the destinies of peoples, broke down in the case of the Jews, where destiny seemed absolutely inexplicable from the materialistic standpoint… Its survival is a mysterious and wonderful phenomenon demonstrating that the life of this people is governed by a special predetermination, transcending the processes of adaptation expounded by the materialistic interpretation of history. The survival of the Jews, their resistance to destruction, their endurance under absolutely peculiar conditions and the fateful role played by them in history: all these point to the particular and mysterious foundations of their destiny."

Twain can't answer his own question because of his ingrained bent toward naturalism. He, like all materialists wound up at a dead end, wondering, "How?" "Why?"

There's only one Book, just one and only one,  that can answer Twain's query and, on the other hand, there's only one Book that can tell him the one way the Jews can be destroyed. First things first: the answer to, "What is the secret of his immortality?"

The answer? The coming fulfillment of the Abrahamic Covenant (Gen. 12:1-3). There must be an Israel to receive the fulfillment of God's promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and their descendants; God's Word stands sure--this guarantees their immortality.

The further answer is in the the last of the writing prophets in the Old Testament: "For I, Jehovah, change not; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed." (Malachi 3:6)

But wait. What about the despot's question: "How can I destroy the Jews?" That answer is also in the Bible. Jeremiah 31:35-37:

Thus says the Lord,
Who gives the sun for light by day
And the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night,
Who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar;
The Lord of hosts is His name: “If this fixed order departs
From before Me,” declares the Lord,
“Then the offspring of Israel also will cease
From being a nation before Me forever.”
Thus says the Lord,
“If the heavens above can be measured
And the foundations of the earth searched out below,
Then I will also cast off all the offspring of Israel
For all that they have done,” declares the Lord.

So there it is--God's Word to the anti-Semite is, "If you want to destroy the Jews, then you must first destroy the sun, the moon, and the stars, and only then, according to the promise of God, can the Jews be destroyed." (Arnold Fruchtenbaum) 

The anti-Semite is on the losing side.





Thursday, November 17, 2016

WHEN POLITICS IS YOUR LIFE




Her name doesn’t make any difference, and besides, I’m hesitant to give her any more publicity than she already has, so let’s just call her “Lucy.”  

Lucy awoke chipper as could be on Tuesday November 8, knowing that today was gong to be the perfect day she’d been anticipated and working hard for, for 18 months. Lucy said that those were 18 months of laughing, hugging, and spreading the love she had for Hillary Clinton and her message.

Lucy looked forward to that Tuesday evening, an evening she knew she would celebrate for the rest of her life. She knew that later she'd knock back a glass of champagne and begin to construct the story she’d tell her yet-to -be -born -daughter.  She imagined that she would, on that night of nights, get close enough to Hillary Clinton to give her a hug, and whisper, “Thank you.”

LUCY ON THE MOVE

Lucy had been hyperactive the last several weeks of the campaign, going to North Carolina and Colorado to spread the good word. The people she’d talked to as she campaigned had given her hope, and made her feel “downright high.” Yes, tonight, this Tuesday of Tuesdays, was going to be a night in which she would know the thrill of victory, while those she hated would learn the agony of defeat.

Being in New York for the victory party in the especially reserved Javits Center would be the highlight of Lucy’s life, so off she and her boyfriend went for the long-awaited celebration. As she mingled with the assembled joyous, she and they knew great things were to come.

REALITY

But after three hours, it became apparent to Lucy and the joyous that something was going horribly wrong. She began to see the smiling faces around her turn ice cold.
When the vote count from Florida arrived, Lucy touched her face and realized she was crying. She looked at her boyfriend and realized he was having trouble breathing. Her chin felt odd; she was breaking out in hives. Lucy looked at the woman next to her. She was breaking out in hives too.

Crying, she asked her boyfriend, “Can we please go home?”

As they walked home, a friend called to say, “It’s over.” Lucy froze momentarily. They went to a nearby diner, sat down, and ate a bite or two and realized that no one was speaking, no one in the entire place. Silence. Her boyfriend was crying.

Arriving home, Lucy became hysterical. She mumbled incoherently. Finally, when she got control of herself, she lamented: “It wasn’t supposed to go this way,” she kept repeating.

When she woke up on Wednesday, she’d lost her voice; it was squeaky and raw, and her thirty-year old body ached. Wednesday and Thursday, she said, were days of mourning. The entire week, she was numb.

WHAT GIVES?

A thirty-year old adult carrying on that way? Her boyfriend can’t breathe? He’s  crying too? She’s got hives? She’s hysterical? She’s incoherent? Lucy might listen to David Suissa, writing in “The Jewish Journal:” “The truth is, no politician can make you happy.” Or better yet, Lucy needs to listen to the Bible:

“Thus says the Lord, ‘Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind and makes flesh his strength, and whose heart turns away from the Lord.’”

Then the Bible goes on to describe the life of those who trust in mankind: “For he will be like a bush in the desert . . . in stony wastes in the wilderness, a land of salt without inhabitant.” (Jeremiah 17:5-6) Sounds like where Lucy and her boyfriend were living.

Lucy’s problem is that she’s rejected the Bible and everything in it. And yet, just as in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago, grace is being offered to Lucy: Jesus said, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling.” The gracious invitation is right there in front of Lucy in the Bible she's rejected and continues to do so.

Trusting in man is a miserable way to live. But that's the way it is when politics is your life.



Friday, November 11, 2016

THE ANTI-TRUMP RIOTS

On November 8, 2016, Donald J. Trump was elected President of the United States. The next day thousands took to the streets in Oakland (6,000), Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas, New York (7,000), Chicago, Baltimore, Portland, Philadelphia, Denver, and Atlanta. Thousands blockaded streets, shut down Interstates, smashed car windows with baseball bats, injured policemen, set fires, chanted, displayed placards, some vulgar, others not. 

High school students, walked out of class and marched through downtown Phoenix. High school students in California and Colorado staged the same walk out. A Yale professor canceled midterm exams because of traumatized students. University of Texas students by the hundreds marched through downtown Austin, a few waving the Communist flag. 

A 12-year old girl in Michigan fully expected to wake up and have a President Clinton, and when she woke up, "it was devastating for her,” her dad says. “She had a horrible day." Why would a 12-year old girl be that concerned; she needs to enjoy being a kid.  

The CEO of Grubhub, an online food delivery service, sent a company-wide email suggesting employees who voted for President-elect Donald Trump should resign.

"A professor at University of Michigan postponed an exam after too many students complained about their “very serious” stress. Columbia University postponed midterms . . . a University of Iowa professor canceled classes and a University of Connecticut professor excused class absences — all because their students just absolutely could not function knowing that they’d have to live in a country where their president would not be the president that they wanted.

"And it’s not even just the students — a University of Rochester professor canceled all of his meetings with students the day after the election because he decided he just could not bear to talk about it with them." (National Review)

A group of Hillary Clinton supporters attacked a Chicago man who apparently voted for President-elect Donald Trump, recorded on an online video. One lady became nauseated when she heard the news of her candidate's defeat. One man said that he had the same feeling as when he saw the Twin Towers go down.

"So who's going to assassinate Trump?" came the question on Twitter.

Celebrities chimed in--Chelsea Handler broke down crying on her Netflix talk show on Wednesday night while discussing Hillary Clinton's staggering loss. She began to cry as she explained how she planned to leave the country. '"I want to move to Spain. I really, really want to move to Spain right now," she said. 

Bryan Cranston, Neve Campbell, and Barbara Streisand said they were moving to Canada if their candidate lost the election, but this remains to be seen. Ruth Bader Ginsburg promised us that she would move to New Zealand. Famous people often make that threat (as if anybody cares and and as if Canada would want them; but they don't follow through. We'll see if they keep their word to us.)

Jimmy Kimmel tried to counsel and comfort his late night viewers, just as a grief counselor would--he took them through the five stages of grief, all the way from "Denial" to "Acceptance."The loss of an election is as a death? Yes, read on.

Seth Meyers was moved to tears throughout his opening monologue. As a new father, he said at the top of the show: "I do really feel for the parents who had to explain this to their kids this morning." (How about explaining constitutional government to them?)

Many were so distraught that they couldn't go to work the next morning and took the day off. One man said that he was "terrified," and another said, "I feel unprotected." These are adults we're talking about. (What happened to England's WWII motto, "Keep Calm and Carry On"?)

WHAT'S GOING ON?

All of this is a classic case of anger because of the defeat of their candidate but, at the root is misplaced trust. They trusted their candidate so much that it's the end of the world. If only their candidate had been elected, they would be protected, cared for, fed, and loved. They placed their trust 100% in their candidate and when defeat became apparent, they were inconsolable and angry at the loss of the proposed Utopia their candidate said would come. When their candidate went into the unthinkable jaws of defeat, they had nowhere else to turn, no one else to trust. Their god died a political death. That's why they needed Jimmy Kimmel to lead them through the Five Stages of Grief.

Students trust a candidate for tuition; others trust the candidate for their healthcare, some trust the candidate for food and housing, along with other benefits. When their candidate dies a political death, the person they trusted can't provide for them and they can't handle it. They look to a human being with implicit trust. 

But the reality of all realities is that because of the Fall of man and the curse sin brought into the world, no government, no candidate, no elected candidate is going to "fix it." Never. Never ever. Deal with it.

The Bible warns us against putting our wholesale trust in a man or woman be he (or she) Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, or Green, Trump or Clinton to fix it:

Ps. 118:9: It is better to take refuge in the Lord Than to trust in princes.  
Ps. 146:3: Do not trust in princes, in mortal man, in whom there is no salvation [deliverance].
Ps. 40:4: How blessed is the man who has made the Lord his trust, and has not turned to the proud, nor to those who lapse into falsehood.

No matter who runs for office, no matter who wins, no matter who loses, those three texts hold true. 




Friday, November 4, 2016

THE FIVE LETTER DIFFERENCE

In 1960, Presidential campaign historian Theodore H. White observed that “the largest and most important division in American society was that between Protestants and Catholics.” In 1960, anti-Catholicism was not merely an evangelical phenomenon. It was an American phenomenon. Both secularists and Christians, both evangelicals and non-evangelical Protestants, worried about the universal claims of Rome. The prospect of having a Roman Catholic president frightened many. For this reason, John F. Kennedy’s candidacy in1960 caused a major controversy.

Donald Grey Barnhouse, in an article in Eternity Magazine in Oct. 1960, argued that Kennedy's election would be “perilous.”  He wrote, "The issue is simple. The Roman Catholic Church will not allow Kennedy the right to carry out his own desires. They have made it unmistakably clear that Senator Kennedy must be a Roman Catholic first and a United States president second, where the interests of the Church are concerned."

Is that still true, 56 years later?

The Apostle Paul wrote with a strong quill and an even stronger resolve when it came to false teaching. Not only did he refute it and condemn it, but he also used strong language to describe the believer's relationship to such teaching.

As he wrote to a group of believers, he knew their situation: they were enveloped in the trappings of a pagan society; shrines, idols, and temples everywhere; superstition was rife; there were ubiquitous representations of the gods and goddesses in art; their friends, their family, and their neighbors employed curses, incantations, and rituals to get favor from the gods, and then there was the worship of the emperor that united the Empire. Priests examined the intestines of birds to learn the will of the gods; the flight of birds signaled boon or bane.

The Christians were outnumbered, outgunned, and cut off from power.

With his strong quill, Paul begins to write: "Do not become partners with those who do not believe, for what partnership is there between righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship does light have with darkness? And what agreement does Christ have with Belial? Or what does a believer share in common with an unbeliever? And what mutual agreement does the temple of God have with idols? For we are the temple of the living God . . ."

Another apostle, the one called, "The Apostle of Love," has a strong quill too. He writes about the false teacher: "Do not receive him into your house and do not give him a greeting." To disobey the injunction was to share in the false teacher’s evil deeds (II Jn. 11).

IS THIS CLEAR?

Dr. Robert Lightner writes, "The biblical teaching seems clear enough. The issue of separation from apostasy is settled for those who claim allegiance to the word of God. The believer’s responsibility is not to fellowship with apostasy. And that is not always easy to do, yet God expects his children to obey."

But what God expects his children to do is sometimes not what they do, as in the case of Charles Colson who was the founder and head of Prison Fellowship Ministries. Mr. Colson gained fame and a prison sentence because of Watergate. He was a power player in the Nixon Administration and was in the inner sanctum. He was so devoted to Nixon that he made that famous (or infamous) statement, "I would walk over my own grandmother to get Nixon re-elected."

Back in the 1990's, Mr. Colson and Richard John Neuhaus, a Roman Catholic priest, decided join hands in the task of world evangelism, so they formed an organization called "Evangelicals and Catholics Together" to fulfill the Great Commission. The mission statement of the ECT was endorsed by some heavy hitters in the Protestant world: J. I. Packer, Max Lucado, Pat Robertson, Os Guiness, Elizabeth Achtemeier, and Bill Bright. In addition, an article in Christianity Today praised the ECT for bringing Protestants and Catholics together.

WAIT. WHAT? 

 Protestants and Catholics together? Together? Good grief! What would Luther say? We know what he would say because he said:

"May God punish you, I say, you shameless, barefaced liar, devil’s mouthpiece, who dares to spit out, before God, before all the angels, before the dear sun, before all the world, your devil’s filth.”
[From Against the Roman Papacy, an Institution of the Devil, pg. 349 of Luther’s Works]

“Even if the Antichrist appears, what greater evil can he do than what you have done and do daily?”
[From Why the Books of Pope Were Burned, pg. 393 of Luther’s Works, Vol. 31]

One thing about Martin L., you knew where he stood.

WHY?

Why is it that Protestants and Roman Catholics can't work together? It's because of one little Latin word: "Sola." The word means "alone." Four Latin letters; five English letters.

When the Roman Church met to condemn Luther's (and the New Testament's) teaching that salvation is by faith alone (sola fides), they published their final word on the matter in January 1547:

"Justification is not based only upon some legal imputation that is extrinsic to man."

"Justification refers to the fact that a man is “made righteous” not the fact that he is only “declared righteous."

"Justification requires good works as a necessary condition."

There it is: faith alone, they say, does not save. Thus, in the end, the Roman Catholic view is clearly an individual merit system for salvation. It cannot be harmonized with Paul’s dichotomy: “If by grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace” (Romans 11:6).

LET THE BUYER BEWARE

This is where it gets tricky. Ask the Roman Catholic, "Is a person saved by faith in Christ," and his answer will be, "Oh, my, yes, of course, a person is saved by faith in Christ." (And from his standpoint, he's answering honestly.) But the problem is, the questioner hasn't asked him, "What do you mean by faith?" (The Greek philosopher, Socrates, said, "The beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms.")

For the Roman Catholic, like the lordship salvationist, faith includes works; it's part of his definition of the word. That's what he means by "faith." So, what's happening is that they're talking past each other. That's why the word "alone" is crucial. That's why stating what the gospel is not is so important. The two leave the conversation thinking they're in agreement. The questioner thinks he's found a brother in Christ when he hasn't. Colson would leave the discussion now thinking, "We can cooperate in evangelism."

THERE'S MORE

But that's only one reason that Protestants and Catholics can't and shouldn't work together, and once again, the reason is "Sola." The historic Protestant position has not only been faith alone, but also Sola Scriptura, "Scripture alone." These two words have reference to historic Protestantism's source of authority: the Bible alone, no pope, no priest, no prelate carries such authority.

For Roman Catholicism, the ultimate authority is Scripture plus a mountain of tradition which sits on a level playing field with the Bible. To say it another way, according to Roman Catholicism, the Word of God is the Bible and sacred tradition.

In The Catechism of the Catholic Church, under the heading, "The Relationship Between Tradition and Sacred Scripture," we read,

"Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture, then, are bound closely together, and communicate one with the other. For both of them, flowing out from the same divine well-spring, come together in some fashion to form one thing, and move towards the same goal."

The Catechism continues:

"Sacred Scripture is the speech of God as it is put down in writing under the breath of the Holy Spirit."

"And [Holy] Tradition transmits in its entirety the Word of God which has been entrusted to the apostles by Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit. It transmits it to the successors of the apostles so that, enlightened by the Spirit of truth, they may faithfully preserve, expound and spread it abroad by their preaching."

"As a result the Church, to whom the transmission and interpretation of Revelation is entrusted, "does not derive her certainty about all revealed truths from the holy Scriptures alone. Both Scripture and Tradition must be accepted and honored with equal sentiments of devotion and reverence."

LET THE BUYER BEWARE . . . AGAIN

In our hypothetical conversation between the Protestant and the Roman Catholic, the Protestant asks, "Do you believe the Bible is the Word of God without error in the original manuscripts," the Catholic would answer, "Oh, my, yes, of course." 

As in the above conversation, they're talking past each other because the Protestant has omitted "alone," as in, "Do you believe that the Bible alone is the inerrant Word of God?" Roman Catholicism does not. To them, the Bible AND sacred tradition combine in equal authority to be the Word of God.

Oh, the difference a five letter word makes. Use it. Stand on it. Declare it.