A VERY DIFFICULT QUESTION

A professor of theology made an astute observation when he said that Calvinists read only their own books and works, but don't read the opposition's. If they did, they'd run into questions that are very difficult, albeit it, impossible to answer. Before we get to one of those questions, let's back up.

WAIT. WHAT?

The Calvinist says that fallen man is so depraved that he has to 1) be regenerated by God, and then 2) be given the gift of faith by God to believe in Christ. That's what R. C. Sproul of Ligonier Ministries says: "Where does that faith come from? And this question probably more than any other is what defines the essence of reformed theology. If there’s one phrase that captures the essence of reformed theology, it is the little phrase, regeneration precedes faith."

To the Calvinist's way of thinking, God chose to regenerate you, but you have no idea why; He chose you as one of the ones He regenerated and to whom He gave the faith to believe, that leaves billions and billions He chose not to regenerate and therefore, to be consigned to the Lake of Fire.

HOLD ON!

Yet, we read of God's desire: "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." (II Peter 3:9) Yet, according to the Calvinist, in spite of His desire that none should perish, He deliberately chose billions to do just that, perish. This means that God chose to do something against His will. What?

Gordon Olson, a non-Calvinistic scholar, writes: ". . . Calvinists put the new birth before faith, since they believe that spiritually dead humans cannot exercise faith and, therefore, need to be born again before they can believe.”

There are (at least) two Scriptures which rise up to smite this teaching that regeneration precedes faith: Romans 10:17: "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." Faith comes by hearing; faith does not therefore, come by being regenerated.

We find the second text in Acts 16:29-31: "Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?  

"And they said, 'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, and your house.'"

Paul's answer was not, "Be regenerated and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ . . ." 

HOW DID THEY GET THERE?

So, why does the Calvinist say, "Regeneration precedes faith?" Because the system that he's imposing on the Bible is forcing him to do it. It's not that he's found a verse that says, "Regeneration precedes faith." The part of his system that's making him do that is the first part of Calvinism, "Total Depravity," which he pushes way, way too far. 

THE QUESTION

So, we proceed and pose the question: According to the Calvinist position as stated above, "How does one know if his faith is the faith given by God, or his own faith, one not given by God, which would then be a spurious faith?" How does he tell the difference? 

If the reply is, "His works will show it," then "How many works, of what quality must they be, and how long must they be done?" 

The result is that the believer has lost his assurance of salvation, a salvation God wants the believer to know he possesses: "These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that you may know that ye have eternal life . . ." (I John 5:13) He's lost his assurance because he can't know in this life if God were the One who gave him the faith, or if the faith came from himself.

WHY PASTORS DON'T TEACH PROPHECY

Prophecy conferences? Where are they? Biblical teaching on prophecy? Why aren't we hearing it? The whole field of eschatology, where'd it go? Better yet, why did it leave the building?

Listen to one pastor when he's asked about why he doesn't say anything about prophecy: "People ask me why I don't preach more on prophecy.  I say, 'Why? Nobody knows.  I could get up here and make some good guesses but they'd all be speculation.  Jesus said, 'Nobody knows when it's going to happen.'” (Rick Warren)

But prophecy doesn't have to be speculation. One quarter to one-third of the pages of the Bible are on prophecy; teaching prophecy is part of preaching the whole counsel of God. People who are asking about prophecy are asking about the rapture, God's future for Israel, the Great Tribulation, the anti-Christ, and the aspects of the millennial kingdom. Those knowledgable aren't asking him to set a day, month, and year for any of those. 

The truth is that he, like a host of other pastors, avoid prophecy. The cause of that avoidance appears to lie deeper. Let's examine why.

To teach prophecy would mean that their sermons wouldn't lead to touchy-feely-all-is going-to-come- up-roses-presentations. That's because prophecy tells us that world conditions are going to get worse, much worse (II Tim. 3:13). Prophecy tells us that the world is going to grow progressively more and more hostile to the faith and those who hold it, hostile to the point of "If they hated Me (Christ), they will hate you." Prophecy tells us that the church will not emerge triumphant. 

And to teach those things would be the death knell of what Warren has proposed in his "PEACE plan." The PEACE plan is his call for a billion people from the churches to unite to bring an end to various "giants," those problems so complex and ingrained that "even the United Nations can't solve them, but the church united can." Really?

Two of those giants the UN can't solve are poverty and ignorance. But, to borrow the words of a famous politician, "Yes, we [in this case the untied church with the PEACE plan] can!" Under the PEACE plan, the church can do eliminate those giants from the face of the earth with its billion slingshots. But check out Matthew 26:11.

But biblical prophecy says, "No you can't." Prophecy tells us that the church will sink into apostasy. Prophecy says that only the Second Advent of Jesus Christ will bring about that kind of environment, it also tells us that no human government, no election, and certainly not the church will do so.  

Warren and others like him are presenting the church as the answer to solve the world's problems; the Bible tells us that without Jesus Christ's coming back to the earth there will be no answer to these problems, they'll only increase. 

In spite of all the pep rallies to whip up the troops by well-known pastors, the church has no command to transform the world or even to try to transform the world  Such pep rallies calling on believers to get there and change the world may get the troops all fired up for an hour or two but then, when the pulsating music and the sermons are over and the Christian is facing the fallen world, the reality hits: we're not going to reverse the curse. There's no way for the church or a government to get us back to Eden.

Now we can see why any pastor who falls in line with the PEACE plan won't teach prophecy: it doesn't fit with the plan, in fact, it's diametrically opposed to the plan. Prophecy doesn't jive with rah-rah-feel-good-and-get-out-there-and-change-the-world-sermons. One thing is for certain: if they won't listen to the Bible, they will one day have to listen to the impact of reality hitting them in the face and the PEACE plan will wither and die. And within a short time, people will be asking, "The PEACE plan, what was that?"

 

 

CHAOS FROM OREGON TO GEORGIA TO ENGLAND

Reports are coming in from Oregon, Wisconsin, Georgia, and from places far, far away, like England: there's chaos in the classrooms worthy of dedicating the evening news and special programming to examine the phenomenon. Students are disrupting classes to the extent that the other students are in danger. They're overturning desks, running all over the building, screaming, and even throwing desks through windows. Not after school, but during school.

They're hitting other students, choking other students, throwing things at them, destroying laptops by slamming them on their desks over and over again. But it's not just their fellow students--they're hitting and slapping the teachers, calling them every name you can think of and then one more. Teachers are daily enduring bite marks, scratches, punches. The students steal from the teacher, taking the supplies she's bought for them, things like pencils and whatever else she has in her desk.

In Oregon, there's a protocol--the teacher can't put his or her hands on the disruptive and the rebellious student, no matter what he's doing. There's no expulsion. If they have to be escorted to the principal's office, it's not long before they're back in the same class and the chaos continues without penalty, without consequences. In some instances, the destruction of the classroom is so bad that it looks like a Texas tornado has come through the room--every desk overturned, bulletin boards ripped down, and the paraphernalia of the classroom on the floor and all over the place.

You might be saying, "I knew it was bad but not that bad in our high schools." But you'd be wrong, wrong, wrong. What you've just read isn't a description of our high schools. We're talking elementary schools in Oregon, Wisconsin, Georgia, and England. As a matter of fact, it's all over the map and all under-reported, swept under the rug and hushed up. And the teachers say the chaos happens every day without fail. They're having to deal with a pattern they see every working day. They're quitting in droves.

Oh, they've had meetings trying to figure out what to do. The solutions they've come up with always involve "We need more money to place more people trained to deal with such behavior, more people in the classroom than just the teacher." Their solutions don't mention the spiritual.

Could it be that what's going on is a Romans 1 situation? In Romans 1, Paul says that when a society has rejected God, very bad things will start showing up in that culture and one of those things is that the children will become "disobedient."

What we're seeing is just what Paul said and it's chaotic. 

YOU MEAN I CAN'T SAY "HELLO?"

II John 1:10-11 are warnings against a traveling teacher who does not bring the doctrine John has reiterated in I and II John. The believer is not to give any encouragement to the traveler. In the culture in which the first century Christians lived, there were those teachers and philosophers who made their living by traveling around and recruiting students who would then support him financially. The church had its traveling teachers as well, mostly evangelists. (Such teachers needed to be supported, as John will say in III John.)

John warns the readers not to support, help, or encourage any purported teacher who does not proclaim the truth about Christ. Since “you” and “your” are plural in the Greek, John is addressing the congregation. At the very least, “your house” refers to not giving a false teacher a meal or a place to stay. Even to invite them in gives the appearance of hospitality which violates the spirit of the text.

Verses 10-11 sound rude. Can’t we even say, “Hello”? How could “Hello” be a participation in his evil deeds? We find the answer in the Greek word for “greeting” that John used.

The standard greeting in the Greek John is using is the same as our saying, “Good luck,” or “Have a nice day.” The word John uses for "greeting" was standard in his day and literally meant, “Rejoice.” It was a perfunctory expression. Here is a reminder to the believer not to be superficial and insincere with our words, even words of greeting. There should be nothing hypocritical, fake, or insincere about the Christian, even in how we greet people.

If a false teacher had a “good day,” that would be a day that was bad for the truth. To wish the false teacher good luck or a nice day would be to participate in his destructive deeds.

Some biblical scholars are so offended by John’s remarks in this text that they say he didn’t write it. It’s true that this verse runs counter to the atmosphere of our day of multiculturalism because it is so judgmental. This text is pictured as a lack of love.

We live in a day when everyone’s ideas should be held as “true,” except the beliefs of the Bible-believing Christian. The question for the believer is just how much he’s been affected by the world-system. Do we offer a measure of respect and toleration for those we know to be false teachers? Check out your church libraries. Is false teaching tolerated there and a “welcome” given to authors who are false teachers?

This text reminds us to watch our casual remarks, even a greeting which can carry a measure of acceptance to a false teacher. If our remarks do that, then we become enablers of a false teacher’s desire to be liked and accepted. Please note, John is talking about the false teachers, not our relationship to those who have been deceived by them. Those deceived need rescuing (Jude 23).