WHEN YOU NEED ENCOURAGEMENT IN THE FAITH

There is a conversation Jesus had with a desperate father whose son has been terrorized and controlled by a particularly vicious demon that had attempted to kill him through convulsions during which he tried to burn him to death or drown him. The poor father had been having to deal with this malignant spirit since the youth's childhood. 

He first encountered Jesus; disciples who, one one occasion, Jesus had given them His authority to cast out demons but this time they had been humiliated--they failed. Jesus arrives, meets the father and demands that they bring the boy to Him. The following conversation ensues: 

"They brought the boy to Him. When he saw Him, immediately the spirit threw him into a convulsion, and falling to the ground, he began rolling around and foaming at the mouth. ²¹ And He asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. ²² It has often thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!” ²³ And Jesus said to him, “‘If You can?’ All things are possible to him who believes.” ²⁴ Immediately the boy’s father cried out and said, “I do believe; help my unbelief.”

And there is that wonderful verse of encouragement: "I do believe; help my unbelief!" We live in a fallen world in which perfection is not within our grasp. From the father's statement we learn that our faith will never be perfect in this life. As the hymn writer, Arthur A. Luther, wrote, 

"Earthly friends may prove untrue,
Doubts and fears assail;
One still loves and cares for you,
One who will not fail."

The world, the flesh, and the devil may cause us to fear and doubts may assail, but our salvation based on Christ alone thorough faith alone, imperfect and wavering that faith may be, we are kept by the One who loves us still, the One who cannot fail. 

The rest of the story? 

"Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You deaf and mute spirit, I command you, come out of him and do not enter him ^[c]again.” ²⁶ After crying out and throwing him into terrible convulsions, it came out; and the boy became so much like a corpse that most of them said, “He is dead!” ²⁷ But Jesus took him by the hand and raised him; and he got up."

When fears and doubts assail, wrap yourself in Mark 9:24-27.   

JUDAS AND LORDSHIP SALVATION

 Before Judas went out and hanged himself, he checked the boxes required for salvation according to those who hold to the position known as Lordship Salvation. We know this because we have the record of his activities before he tied the noose around his neck and attached it to that dry branch. 

Consider:

1. Judas felt sorry for his sin. The record says, "Then when Judas, who had betrayed Him, saw that He had been condemned, he felt remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.” Feeling sorry for one's sins isn't biblical repentance; "feeling sorry" and "repent" are two different Greek words. The former means "regret," "sorrow," the latter means, "a change of mind."

2.  Judas made restitution for his sin. The betrayer returned the money with a forceful gesture. This was a good deed on his part. 

3. He mended his ways. He loved money so much that he stole it from the other disciples since his duty was to care for the money given to their ministry. He who loved money came to hate 30 pieces of silver.

But he never did the only thing required for salvation: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved." His sorrow for his sin, his moral act, his believing Jesus to be innocent and not deserving the death penalty were not faith alone in Christ alone. 

A lady once said, "God will not forgive you unless you say you're sorry." Judas was sorry. Thomas Jefferson believed that Jesus was innocent in the sense that He exhibited and taught the highest ethical system in the history of mankind. 

But the record states the final, accurate assessment of Judas: "The Son of Man is to go, just as it is written of Him; but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.” and, Jesus prayed to the Father "While I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me; and I guarded them and not one of them perished but the son of perdition, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled."

Judas checked the boxes required for salvation among those who hold to Lordship salvation, boxes which put the spotlight on us and our works, not on Christ and His finished work. 

One of the leading advocates of Lordship salvation, John MacArthur, writes that the following text, James 4:7-10, is a clear presentation of the gospel, and therefore, there are ten things that a person must do to be saved:

"Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. ⁸ Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. ⁹ Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. ¹⁰ Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you."

Ten things? That's strange because in the most famous verse in the Bible, we don't find those ten requirements: "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life." 

I can't find those ten in Acts 16:30-31: "And after he brought them out, he said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?³¹ They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”

In the Gospel of John, written to tell a person how to be saved, those ten aren't there; "believe" is, 99 times. 

Therefore, there are none of his or any lordship salvationists' books that I would recommend because, although they may be correct on  other doctrine, if they are wrong on the gospel, they are wrong on the most important thing (I Cor. 15:3): "For I delivered to you as of first importance [the gospel]."

Do you find lordship salvation authors on your book shelves or in your church library? Why? Paul is very clear on this: Read and heed Galatians 1:8-9. 

 

 

HAVE YOU SEEN ROMANS 8:28-29?

 The problem with some is that when they look at Romans 8:28-29, they see something that's not there and consciously or unconsciously, they read that something into the text. Here's Romans 8:28-29: "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. ²⁹ For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren."

Upon reading the word, "called," we see that in this text, Paul does not inform the reader concerning how God calls them, also He doesn't say that God only called them. He explains how God calls by the the gospel in other texts: II Thessalonians 2:14; Galatians 1:6-7; Romans 1:15-16; 10:17. To say that this "call" is irresistible or that there are two types of calling is to see what's not there in the text. 

Who are the ones Paul is talking about: "those who love God"? What are they per-appointed to? "To be conformed to the image of Christ." To say that they were pre-appointed to salvation is to see something that's not in the text. The two, loving God and salvation are not the same. Those who respond positively to "the call" of the gospel are per-appointed "to be conformed to the image of Christ."

When will the ones who responded to the call be conformed to the image of Christ? Not in this life but when they are resurrected from the dead. Jesus is said to be the firstborn through His resurrection (vs. 30). The reader is in a resurrection context, an eternal security context. God's calling and pre-appointment all depend, according to vs. 28, on whether a man loves God, not on some decisions made in eternity past as to what few go to heaven and the majority of those who have ever lived go to hell, all decided before they were ever born, according to the philosophical system of Calvinism. To say that this text is saying that is to see what's not there

God's foreknowledge is not an act of God; God's foreknowledge is an attribute of God. One should also notice that regeneration is not in the list given in the verses.

Once a person responds positively to the gospel God pre-appoints him to be conformed to the image of Christ at the resurrection. as I John 3:2 promises, "Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.

RAHAB AND THE GOVENOR OF MINNESOTA

 It's been an on-gong discussion, all centered on the record of Joshua 2: "And the king of Jericho sent word to Rahab, saying, “Bring out the men who have come to you, who have entered your house, for they have come to search out all the land.” ⁴ But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them, and she said, “Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they were from. ⁵ It came about when it was time to shut the gate at dark, that the men went out; I do not know where the men went. Pursue them quickly, for you will overtake them.” ⁶ But she had brought them up to the roof and hidden them in the stalks of flax which she had laid in order on the roof.^"

^{She was a believer in Jericho, a Gentile, who protected the Jewish spies from being captured, tortured, and executed. The discussion focuses on the fact that she lied to save them and lying is a sin. There are those who would say, "It's always a sin to lie; she should have turned them over to the authorities and certain death. Not only that, but she disobeyed an order of the government and believers are supposed to submit to the government, aren't they? Yes, that's what Romans 13 says.} 

^{This position holds that when the Nazis came knocking on the door where Anne Frank and her relatives were hiding, the home owners should have turned that little girl and her family over to those monsters to do whatever their evil and perverted minds wanted because, to say, "No Jew is here," is lying. Lying is a sin.}

^{What about this scenario instigated by the man who wants to be the Vice President of the United States, Tim Walz? In March of 2020, Walz, the governor of Minnesota,} launched a tip line for Minnesotans to call to report their neighbors if they were breaking the government's COVID guidelines. "In October 2020, the tip line was used to alert authorities to a Lutheran church service that didn’t fit with the governor’s 'legal requirements.' This type of complaint was not uncommon."

If you were a Christian and a member of that church, would you have turned the church into the authorities for what it was planning. It was a government directive to do so.

Let's examine Rahab's lying through her teeth from the Scriptures, and when we do, we'll find some surprising facts. Lets start in Exodus 2:15-19: 

 "Then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other was named Puah; ¹⁶ and he said, “When you are helping the Hebrew women to give birth and see them upon the birthstool, if it is a son, then you shall put him to death; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.” ¹⁷ But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt had commanded them, but let the boys live. ¹⁸ So the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this thing, and let the boys live?” ¹⁹ The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife can get to them.”

This king is a precursor of Hitler in his order to these women to commit genocide! They lie. They disobey. And what was the result?

Exodus 1:20: "So God was good to the midwives."

David lies to a priest about why he and his men have come to the Tabernacle. They're hungry and on the run from Saul. The priest gives them the bread that the Law said was only for the priests and David  lives to fight another day.

Daniel's 3 companions refuse a government order to bow before the image, God blesses them. The same government orders Daniel and every one not to pray to god other than the king; Daniel does so openly in rebellion against the 30-day statute and survives the den of hungry lions by divine protection

Going against the principle of Romans 13, Peter and John who were ordered not to say, "Jesus" violated the edict. 

What's going on? Is this situational ethics? No. Because each truth holds as absolute in its own area. But when one truth overlaps into another such as, "Thou shalt not lie," collides with "Obey those who have the authority over you, the government, the believer makes the choice based on the question, which decision will cause the less harm? 

The less harm comes by lying to save human life whether it's the lives of the spies, the babies, or Anne Frank. The higher principle is, only God can take human life, not the king of Egypt or King Herod whose demand the Magi disobeyed and went home without reporting back to him as he had told them to do.

 

 

PUT THE COOKIES ON THE BOTTOM SHELF

The title of this article reflects a popular platitude, one directed at pastors, a saying that has become trite. For decades (at least) it has been given as homiletic advice to pastors and other teachers of the Word of God. The intent of the bromide can be summarized: "Whether speaking or writing, do so in such a way that the youngest, simplest person can understand what you're trying to say." 

However, Dr. Charles Ryrie, author of the Ryrie Study Bible, et al. reacted strongly against the platitude. It connotes the idea that the Bible contains simple material, is easy to understand, but the truth is, there are portions of the Good Book that are deep and in need of serious study; the Bible is not "Dick and Jane Go to the Farm." 

Dr. John F. Walvoord, the second president of Dallas Seminary, told the students, "The Bible is going to take all the intellect you've got and more. Every student learned the truth of those words in his classes!

The apostle Peter wrote about Paul's epistles, "As also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction." (II Peter 3:16)

There were statements Jesus made in His teaching that were not on the bottom shelf: "So Jesus said to them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves.He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink.He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.'" 

In order to understand much of the New Testament, the teacher must be a student of  the 1st century Roman Empire to delve into Galatians 4:4, Galatians 3:24; Matthew 8:22 et al. In addition, the teacher must study the Koine Greek, for example word  "to" in Galatians 3:24 needs exposition. What about the problem of divine sovereignty vs. free will? Instead one pastor advised other ministers, "Don't teach Romans 9-11," meaning it's too hard.  

What about the great doctrines of the faith: the doctrines of the hypostatic union, unlimited atonement, pneumatology, eschatology, the essence of God? What about the four covenants given to Israel: the Abrahamic, Palestinian, Davidic, and the New Covenant. Instead, people sit and listen to "How to have growing bank accounts, upward mobility, and radiant health." Easy: Just name it and claim it. Yeah, right.

We often hear those who rail against the dumbing down of  America and we agree that they have a point but what about the dumbing down of the American church member with sermonettes? (Sermonettes are for Christianettes.) 

In the great-used-to-be, a 1st grade teacher divided her students into three reading groups: the Blue Birds, the Red Birds, and the Yellow Birds. Each group, when called, would come to the front of the room, sit at a table with their book, and go around in the circle learning to read, then reading to the teacher while the other students would sit quietly at their desks doing the assigned work for the day. 

The Blue Birds were the best readers, the Red Birds were in the middle, and the sad Yellow Birds were the poorest and needed serious help in learning how to read.

The tragedy would be for a Yellow Bird to remain a Yellow Bird, never advancing, never growing to become a Red Bird, then a Blue Bird. Putting the cookies on the bottom shelf assures that believers won't grow and that they will be Yellow Birds all their lives, as the pastor chirps out sermonettes Sunday after Sunday to the assembled Yellow Birds. 

Peter's last words to the church were, "Grow in grace."

 

THE LIFE AND DEATH OF RAVI ZACHARIAS

 On May 19, 2020, CNN reported:

"Ravi Zacharias, who spent his life defending Christianity through books and lectures, has died. He was 74.

"Zacharias died at his home in Atlanta on Tuesday, Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM) said, 'He was a leading figure among Christian Apologists'"– a branch of Christian theology that defends Christian doctrines against objections.

"Zacharias founded Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in 1984, and 'launched a global team of nearly 100 Christian scholars and authors who continue to speak, resource, train and address the questions of millions around the world,' a news release said."

“(Ravi) saw the objections and questions of others not as something to be rebuffed, but as a cry of the heart that had to be answered,” said Michael Ramsden, president of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries."

Shortly after his death, allegations of instances of the apologist's moral failures began to surface. RZIM, which was carrying on his worldwide ministry, became concerned as more details of impropriety continued. The organization hired the law firm of Miller and Martin to investigate the complaints. 

The report of the firm destroyed the ministry which issued the following statement: "We are devastated by what the investigation has shown and are filled with sorrow . . ." The statement also said that the ministry would call for "organizational repentance."

On March 10, 2021, "Christianity Today" quoted Zacharias' daughter:

“RZIM cannot and should not continue to operate as an organization in its present form. Nor do we believe we can only rename the organization and move forward with ‘business as usual,” said Davis, who has led the ministry since his death.

"RZIM’s speakers have had invitations rescinded since allegations against Zacharias were reported in September. Over the past several months, donations slowed to the $35 million–$40 million ministry as it investigated and ultimately confirmed abuse by its late founder.

"The investigation found 'guilt beyond anything that we could have imagined,' Davis acknowledged on Wednesday."

The multi-layered scandal then ignited a dilemma for Calvinists to whom people looked to answer the question, "Where is Ravi Zacharias?" In one video posted on YouTube, leading Calvinists met to discuss the matter. What was causing the question and the meeting was a single letter in the alphabet, "P," as used in the Calvinist anacronym, TULIP, the Perseverance of the Saints. 

Calvinist Robert Rothwell summarizes the "P:" 

"All those who have truly believed in Him will not finally fall away from faith. True believers in Christ might seem to abandon Him for a time, but if they have truly believed in Him, they will always come back to Him. Those who profess faith but then fall away finally, never actually believed in Christ in the first place."

There are several problems with the above definition: How long is "for a time?" How is "truly/actually believed" defined? The Bible never uses the term, "truly/actually believe," a person either believes or he does not believe. And what about the fact that we have the record of the outrageous and scandalous final years of the life of Solomon, the author of Proverbs, Song of Solomon, and Ecclesiastes? 

The summary of the end of the king's life is one of an apostate: "He had seven hundred wives (!), princesses (!), and three hundred concubines (!), and his wives turned his heart away. For when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods; and his heart was not wholly devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been!" I Kings 11:3-4. Was Solomon never "actually" a believer? According to the "P," the author of those books was not.

The question of, "Where is Ravi Zacharias?" prompted the making of a YouTube video in which three Calvinists questioned the salvation of the world-famous apologist. John MacArthur, Abner Chou, and Justin Peters discussed question, "Is Ravi Zacharias in hell?

MacArthur started the conversation by asking, "Can a Christian behave like that? Can we question his salvation?" Chou answered, "Zacharias was not repentant and wasn't fighting against the sin." STrike 2.

MacArthur said that he wanted to add something: "In order to live that way, you have to be sinning on multiple levels; lying, hiding, living a false life, all massive sins." Strike 2.

Chou spoke again: "If someone came to you and admitted those sins in his life, would you tell him he was going to hell? Yes." Strike 3. He's out.

MacArthur and Justin Peters echoed each other by saying, "He never quoted the Scriptures; they were not a part of his life, and that was a dead give-away."

In another video, Peters said about Zacharias, "I never did like him; he was always traveling, traveling, traveling, never sitting under the teaching of the Word. He was an Armenian and ecumenical."

OK. Let's take a look at this. Notice that the comments are heavily involved with an examination of Zacharias' behavior, not his beliefs. As MacArthur said during the discussion, "The fruit speaks." Two of the participants kept pointing to I John (without quoting any verse in it) using it incorrectly as containing tests for salvation whereas John, right up front, says that he's going to be writing about fellowship with God, not tests to see if his readers are saved. (cf. I Jn. 1:3)

The comments during the discussion focused on the wrong issue--works. Once that occurred, the ship is sailing on the deep and wide Sea of Subjectivity, the assurance of salvation vanishes when we comment the next sin, which we will (I Jn.1:8). Our assurance disappears when we say to God, "I'll never do that again!" and then we all prove ourselves to be liars because we "do that again." 

The issue is Zacharias' belief, not his behavior. The points the three raised have to do with sanctification, not salvation. In a discussion about sanctification, the points they raised are valid ones, that is, by traveling, traveling, traveling all the time, Mr. Zacharias was not under a regular and consistent ministry of the Word by a Bible-teaching pastor. This is a common snare for a Christian celebrity, as Zacharias was. But it's a trap for a Christian businessman as well.

At some point in his life, Ravi Z may have trusted Christ alone as the Son of God who died for his sins and rose from the dead. If so, he trusted in the "Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." If so, he believed that "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him might have eternal life." 

If so, we can say with Paul, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved."

 

 

THE OLYMPICS AND II TIMOTHY 3:13

 "But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse." (II Timothy 3:13)

The rebellion of fallen humanity against God is not static; it will continue to metastasize as time passes. The message Paul writes to Timothy is, paraphrased, "Cheer up; things are always going to get worse on this planet until Christ returns." 

People who study history have an annoying habit: when someone mentions some current event, here comes the history major to intone, "Yes, but that's not the first time that's happened," and then he'll proceed to give us a lecture to cure our ignorance. But when it comes to II Timothy 3:13, he can't lecture us because the growing rebellion has never been as evil as it is and will be as each day goes by. So, our over-educated and rude historian friend must fall silent.

In the times in which we live, this predicted rebellion gets worse with daily outrages. For example, has the opening of the recent Olympics in Paris ever been as rebellious as it was in 2024? The opening "ceremony" was so disgusting that to describe it is, in and of itself, an exercise in depravity.

Has the so-called pride flag ever been carried and proudly displayed with relished ostentation in outer space to be televised as it orbits the earth in the space station as it was in December 2021?. 

Have children as young as kindergarten age ever  been taken by their proud parents to sit and listen to a story time of perversion as given by depraved people in a public library? Has the People's House (aka the White House) ever been bathed in "pride colors" on the day the president signed the Respect for Marriage Act. (Notice the misnaming of the bill.) 

 Going back and referring to the Olympic Games' opening ceremony, a reporter went out on the street to get the opinions of the ceremony of passersby. Their response? "It was a beautiful ceremony." "It was so wonderfully inclusive." "I liked it." Each of those responses summed up all of those shown, a further indication that France is dead spiritually.

Has any opening ceremony featured a participant reclining on a dinner platter in an attempt to imitate Dionysus, the pagan god of drunkenness and orgies? 

From a news article after reviewing the reaction to the ceremony, we read this: "First lady Jill Biden had high praise for the opening ceremony at the Paris Olympics. She called the opening ceremony 'spectacular.' Biden remarked that the U.S. would have to work hard to top Paris' opening ceremony when the games are held in Los Angeles in 2028."

But now for the rest of the story. As has been the tradition going back to the 1990s in Atlanta, the worldwide audience must sit still and listen with reverence to the worst song ever written, "Imagine" by John Lennon. (One noted author and commentator called it a Communist song. Therefore, in this case Lennon is like Lenin.) At it's core, the song is like the aforementioned ceremony, it's a secular hymn of rebellion. 

Speaking of the French, they are considered to be the most anti-Christian nation in Europe. Annually, there are three anti-Christian attacks everyday in France, an average of 1,095 per year!

The sad part of that stat is that France is part of the West and the civilization of the West was built on Christianity. Ingrates, one and all.

According to the Bible, all of this rebellion will grow until it will climax as predicted in II Thessalonians 2:3-4: the anti-Christ in the Temple declaring himself deity. He will be the ultimate rebel in the human race. All of the rebellion that outrages us today is the preparation for the coming of the anti-Christ whom the world, minus the raptured Christians, will welcome with open arms and adoring eyes.

But for blessed relief from reading all of the above, cleanse your eyes out with I Thessalonians 4:13-18.