Authority of Scripture: Our Only Hope for (Any) Knowledge

“We accept this God upon Scriptural authority. In the Bible alone do we hear of such a God. Such a God, to be known at all, cannot be known otherwise than by virtue of His own voluntary revelation…. The frank acceptance of our position on authority, which at first blush, because of our inveterate tendency to think along non-Christian lines, seems to involve the immediate and total rejection of all philosophy–this frank acceptance of authority is, philosophically, our very salvation.” – Cornelius Van Til, Common Grace, 8.

Filed under: Uncategorized , Apologetics, Calvinism, Christianity, Cornelius Van Til, Evangelism, Presuppositionalism, Theology

God’s Sovereignty in Ephesians 2:10

“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” – Ephesians 2:10

How Ephesians 2:10 reveals God’s sovereignty in salvation:

1. We are His workmanship - in this is implicit that man is not playing any active role, but that God is the one who is doing the working. To be God’s workmanship literally means to be made by Him. Now, in this context the reference is not to physical creation alone, but (as is evidenced by the passage) spiritual rebirth. This is evident in the next fragment of the sentence, namely, “created in Christ Jesus.” The synergistic view, that man participates with God, or cooperates with God in order to be saved is debunked here. The idea of the regenerate man as God’s workmanship means that he is God’s creation. Just as Adam and Eve were created without their prior consent (for that is in itself an impossibility) and just as newborn babies are not born because of their own agreement to be born, so the regenerate Christian is changed in heart because he is God’s workmanship. Salvation by God’s monergistic work alone presupposes total depravity, that man, on his own, will never seek God, being dead in sins and separate from the life of God. And if our spiritual rebirth is not according to our own righteousness but according to God, then His election must be unconditional, not based on any merit in us, but based solely on His good pleasure.

2. We are created in Christ Jesus – This specifies how God has made us. In what sense are we God’s workmanship? In that we are created in Christ Jesus. A thing created is completely subjected to its Creator. Thus if God desires to create us, we will be created. “So then, it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy” (Rom 9:16). The necessity of God’s monergistic work, that is, His work in us without our prior consent is evidenced here. The necessity of Christ Jesus as our mediator is also seen. If it were not for the atoning work of Christ, reconciling sinful man to God we could have no hope of being reborn. For God, in his holiness, is both just and justifier of those who have faith in Christ. We cannot be God’s workmanship unless we are created in Christ Jesus. Thus, we see here that it is absolutely necessary for Christ’s atonement to be for the elect and completely saving, not simply making salvation available.

3. We are created in Christ Jesus for good works – The fact that we are created for good works displays God’s sovereignty not only in regeneration (the changing of our hearts to love Him) and justification (our right standing before God through Christ) but also in our sanctification. God is sovereign over the end, that is salvation to Himself, and also the path that we take to get there. This is one reason why historic Protestant Christianity holds the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. For those who were called and chosen by God were called and chosen to good works, to perseverance and will not fall away. Therefore, God’s absolute sovereignty in delivering sinful man from condemnation as well as from the bondage of sin is herein seen. And it is also evidenced that God could not have chosen us based on works since He created us for good works. Thus, good works are the result, not the cause of God’s election. The Arminian notion of foreseen faith is then also debunked.

4. Good works are a result of grace, not our own efforts -Now God prepared the good works that we would perform in Christ beforehand. That is, we are God’s workmanship as are our good works. Thus, it is the case that no one can boast. And He prepared these so that we “would” walk in them. Not that we “could,” but there is an inevitable obedience that is shown in the life of the elect of God. Had God not prepared such good works, it would be utterly impossible for us to walk in them. For we, in ourselves, are absolutely helpless. Paul describes us as “dead” in transgressions, but now in Christ we have life.

“For by grace you have been saved, through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” – Ephesians 2:8-9

Filed under: Uncategorized , Arminianism, Assurance, Calvinism, Christianity, Definite Atonement, Eternal Security, Imputation, Justification, Limited Atonement, Lordship, Particular Redemption, Perseverance of the Saints, Suffering, Theology, Total Depravity, TULIP

Presuppositionalism Simply Put

“I was brought up on the Bible as the Word of God. Can I, now that I have been to school, still believe in the God of the Bible? Well, can I still believe in the sun that shone on me when I walked as a boy in wooden shoes in Groningen? I could believe in nothing else if I did not, as back of everything, believe in this God. Can I see the beams underneath the floor on which I walk? I must assume or presuppose that the beams are underneath. Unless the beams were underneath, I could not walk on the floor.” – Cornelius Van Til

“If you cannot believe in God, then you cannot logically believe in anything else.” – Greg L. Bahnsen, Van Til’s Apologetic, p.121

Filed under: Uncategorized , Apologetics, Cornelius Van Til, Evangelism, Greg L. Bahnsen, Orthodoxy, Presuppositionalism, Theology

The Root of Unbelief

“And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, that you send him to my father’s house— for I have five brothers—in order that he may warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’ But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ But he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!’ But he said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.’” – Luke 16:27-31

Many non-Christians refuse to believe the truth of Christianity or the Bible because according to them, there is simply not enough evidence. Of course, this is understandable, isn’t it? False religions abound, there have been countless men who have come and gone claiming to be Christ or some sort of savior. And now, more than ever, all religions are presented to the non-believer as different perspectives of the same God. How then can he be expected to choose Christianity over the rest? Many are even hostile to the arrogant confidence of Christians claiming to have the “one true way” amongst all these other equal claims. We are bigots for holding what we believe as so certain. How do we know that the events in Scripture actually took place? How do we know whether the manuscripts that make up the Bible weren’t messed around with? How are we certain that the eye-witnesses were being honest and not involved in some sort of conspiracy? Where are miracles? Only if miracles can be shown to exist today, only then will those miracles in Scripture be accepted as true. The unbeliever usually concludes that unless he witnessed such events with his own eyes, he cannot believe it. And even if the original Bible was accurate, he cannot know with certainty that the one we have today is the same as the original.

Upon consideration, however, one wonders whether this really would satisfy the non-Christian’s desire? What sort of evidence do they want? Many want God to show Himself directly through a clear, divine sign.

Has Scripture anything to say about this?
This is nothing new. The crowds who followed Christ were called wicked and adulterous for seeking after signs. And this same attitude is found in the Pharisees as well. They demanded that Christ show them a sign from heaven. After all, He was making a bold claim, it should have been warranted with a bold sign… right? Israel’s history was wrought with false prophets and pagan kings who blasphemed God and incurred God’s wrath. Many false Christ’s came and left misleading the people of God. Thus, it was only right that, unless this Jesus could warrant His claims with signs from heaven, divine signs, He should not be believed. Sound familiar?

Yet once we consider the context, the relationship that the Pharisees and the crowds had with Christ, we must ask ourselves whether their demand for signs was warranted. The Pharisees saw the healings, the crowds saw Christ take some loaves of bread and a couple of fishes and multiply them to feed over ten thousand people. They saw before their eyes people who had been bind, lepers, lame, diseased all healed instantly upon Christ’s command. They were witnesses, yet they were not satisfied.

Is the problem evidence? It does not seem it. After all, the non-Christian has all of creation to testify of God’s power and splendor. We have the Bible which clearly testifies of those things that happened. And as if that is not enough, historically speaking, it is a dependable book. It is not as if it came out of nowhere. More than this, the word of God testifies to itself that it is His word, that it speaks truth. No contradictions in Scripture have been found (only ones that are contradictory on non-Christian presuppositions, which do not say much) and all that Scripture states, especially in relation to the human heart and its deceitfulness are evidently true. There are even eyewitness accounts to the events of Scripture outside of the Bible by non-Christians. All these things and more testify to God’s patience. Yet the non-Christian remains in unbelief. He would believe anything, come up with the most intricate theories of the creation of the world, than to believe that the God of Bible, YHWH, did all these things.

What is the problem if it is not evidence? The problem is the human heart. It is deceitful above all things, who can know it? The disbelieving heart will find every reason not to believe. If a miracle did occur before the eyes of an unbeliever they would come up with a way to explain it through science. If God were to appear to them, they would call it hallucination. There is absolutely nothing that can be done to convince them that the God of the Bible is real while their hearts remain hardened. The problem is not the evidence; there is plenty of evidence if they would but open their eyes. Yet they use unbelieving presuppositions to cover their disbelief, like Christ said, “they have eyes but cannot see, ears but cannot hear.” They ask for signs, but any sign given will immediately be dismissed as an exception to their laws, and they will come up with outrageous theories to explain those things. What hope do they have then? None, they must be born again. Their hearts must be changed first through the power of the gospel before they will be saved. Otherwise, no matter of evidence will have any effect.

They suppress the truth in unrighteousness. And the ultimate consequence for their unbelief is God’s wrath. They have no excuse because they have before their eyes all the evidence they could ever demand. Their evil and adulterous craving for signs will never be satisfied. Indeed, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.

It seems, then, that the heart of the human problem, is the problem of the human heart.

Filed under: Uncategorized , Calvinism, Christianity, Evangelism, Presuppositionalism, Total Depravity

Strangers and Pilgrims

“It is in the nature of faith to mortify, not only corrupt and sinful lusts, but our natural affections, and their most vehement inclinations, though in themselves innocent, if they are any way uncompliant with duties of trial of the sincerity and power of faith. Our lives, parents, wives, lawful objects of our natural affections. But when they, or any of them, stand in the way of God’s commands, if they are hindrances to the doing or suffering any thing according to His will, faith doth not only mortify, weaken and take off that love, but gives us a comparative hatred of them” – John Owen

“David professeth himself to be a stranger and a pilgrim, not only when he was hunted like a partridge upon the mountains, but when he was in his palace, and in his best estate. We are not to renounce our comforts, and throw away God’s blessings; but we are to renounce our carnal affections. We cannot get out of the world when we please, but we must get the world out of us. It is a great trial of grace to refuse the opportunity; it is the most difficult lesson to learn how to abound, more difficult than to learn how to want, and to be abased; to have comforts, and yet to have the heart weaned from comforts; not to be necessarily mortified, but to be voluntarily mortified.” – Thomas Manton

“It is easy to be good when we cannot be otherwise, or when all temptations to the contrary are out of the way. All the seeming goodness there is in so many, they owe it to the want of a temptation and to the want of an opporuntiy of doing otherwise.” – Thomas Manton

“It is not the absence of temptation, but the resisting of and prevailing over them which evidences the efficacy of indwelling grace. ” – Arthur W. Pink

“We are hence to conclude that there is no place for us among God’s children except we renounce the world, and that there will be for us no inheritance in Heaven except we become pilgrims on earth.” – John Calvin

Filed under: Uncategorized , Arthur W. Pink, Christianity, John Calvin, John Owen, Perseverance of the Saints, Puritans, Suffering, Thomas Manton

Love, Love, Love: The Uses and Abuses of 1 Corinthians 13

1 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, 5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, 6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part; 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. 11 When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. 13 But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.
- 1 Corinthians 13

The above passage, 1 Corinthians 13, is perhaps one of the better-known passages in Scripture, and this is not without reason. Paul describes love as the chief virtue and as greater than even faith and hope. There is very little obscurity then, as to what sort of value Paul places on love. Yet, I believe that, as with most oft-quoted passages, it is many times misused, or even abused to convey a message contrary to the gospel. Thus, I will briefly seek to show what the passage first, does not mean, and secondly what is does mean.

First, it is important not simply to look at particular words, or even sentences (though it is not always a bad thing). One must always be aware of the surrounding context of the passage. And context is a relative term, it could be the sentence, paragraph, chapter, book or the whole Bible. And so we must be aware of all the degrees of context. Knowing that, according to 1 Timothy 3:16, all Scripture is God-breathed, and so if we come out with an interpretation contrary to other parts of Scripture, either our interpretation of the passage in view is incorrect, or the interpretation of the other verses are incorrect. There may be apparent contradictions, which may be settled (Romans 4 & James 2) but there are no real contradictions in Scripture.

Onto the passage then:

Brief Context: Paul is writing to the Corinthian church, a church undergoing much strife and division within the body (1:10), there is a great party spirit (1:12-15), a desire to be viewed as wise in the world’s eyes (1:26), spiritual immaturity (3:1), ignorance of who they are in God (3:16), wise in their own eyes (3:18), judging the Lord’s servants (4:3), boasting (4:7), selfishness (4:8), arrogance (5:2), lack of church discipline (5:9-13), lawsuits within the church (6:1), stumbling one another (6:12), sexual immorality (6:18), abuse of Christian liberty (8:1), abuse of spiritual gifts (12:1), undue pride with regard to spiritual gifts (12:12).

Now, it is in the context of this last part, namely spiritual gifts that Paul seeks to show forth the greatest of these gifts. Having mentioned the various roles that God has appointed to the church: apostles, prophets, teachers, miracles, gifts of healing, helps, administrations, and tongues, Paul admonishes the believers that gifts are appointed by God and will be varied within the church, that God has appointed specific times and people to receive these various gifts. But past all these gifts Paul exhorts that the Corinthians seek something more excellent, what is called “the greater gifts.” And this is love.

Having set the stage then for chapter 13 of Corinthians I will endeavor to first show, negatively, what it does not mean. Or to put it another way, the abuses of the passage.
Its Abuses – Some use it to undermine faith itself, or the object of our faith as unnecessary. Such a love as described in 1 Corinthians 13 presupposes a spiritual rebirth and a faith in the proclaimed gospel. It is impossible the Scripture will undermine the rest of Scripture. It does not mean that faith does not matter, love is the fruition of true faith, but it does not itself replace faith. Faith is still absolutely necessary for salvation, and it is faith alone that saves.
1. Paul is not undermining all these things that he is naming. Tongues, prophecy, knowledge, faith, giving, martyrdom, these are not being undermined at all. What Paul is doing here is showing that these things are nothing if they are lacking in the necessary quality, that is, love. The things mentioned are to be sought after and desired (in agreement with the rest of the book) but they are all meaningless if they are devoid of love. Thus, rather than undermine these things, Paul is saying that their value is derived from the love by which it is motivated. For in the latter part of the passage it is said that all these things will be done away with when “the perfect comes”. Yet this does not mean that these things are unimportant. All these things are necessary, but only when done from a heart of love.
2. A common abuse of this passage is to show that doctrine or theology goes against the spirit of Scripture. No doubt, there are some unessential doctrines that are often blown out of proportion and serve to cause schisms within the body, which is to be regretted and corrected. Yet, there are certain doctrines that are central to the gospel: those doctrines for which Paul stood up and “opposed Peter to his face” (Galatians 2:11), and those that are not to be compromised even if an angel brings a different message (1:8-9). Paul says that anyone, himself included, bringing a different gospel is to be accursed! Thus, to use this passage of Scripture against those essential doctrines is to abuse the passage. To do so would be to redefine love in a manner that does not accord with Scripture. Love, as defined by Christ, is obedience to His commandments (John 14:15).
3. Thus, the passage is clearly not intending to say that faith is unnecessary. The meaning of words ought to be defined by context, and faith here (v.2) clearly does not speak of justifying faith, but a seeming faith. Just as there are two sorts of sorrows (one leading to repentance the other leading to death, 2 Cor. 7:10) so there are two sorts of faith. One is a mere professing faith (James 2, 1 Cor. 13:2, which is by word only, and another that is a true justifying faith (Romans 4, Eph. 2:8,9). The apparent contradiction in the two passages (Rom. 4, justified by faith not works and 1 Cor. 13, faith is nothing without love) is solved by noting this difference between apparent faith and true justifying faith: an apparent faith will not culminate into the sort of love described by this passage, whereas a true justifying faith will.

How ought we to view 1 Corinthians 13? Or, what are its proper uses?
Its Uses - To show what true faith consists of, that faith without works is dead. True love to God is not an abstract thing but ultimately obedience to His word (John 14:15).
1. It shows us the true nature of justifying faith. That it does not consist in external deeds. “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt. 7:21) The implications of this is startling and ought to cause us to examine ourselves. This means that we can prophecy, speak in tongues, have an apparent faith, give all things to the poor, and yes, even be martyred and still not know Christ.
2. It shows us the use of faith, that for the time being we see dimly, but if we persevere in faith, then it will one day become sight. Thus, our faith is not in vain, but if we do see in ourselves this chief virtue of love, we can be more assured of our faith, that it is justifying, and that we are not deceived. For true faith is the ground of true love, which is shown in verses 4-6.
3. This love that never fails is not an abstract sense of love, but true obedience, in the sense that delight for God and His Law are not absent. There is no use for spiritual gifts, for external deeds, for miraculous healings, or professed faith where true love to Christ and God are lacking. True love to God is demonstrated by obedience to His word. The Pharisees were able to keep the external part of the Law, but failed to look at the heart. Here Paul shows that love is more than a matter of external deeds and that God desires true heart obedience not external sacrifice.

Filed under: Uncategorized , Christianity, False Teaching, Heresy, Humility, Love, Theology