The Command has Been Given

Acts 17:30-31 (New American Standard Bible)

 Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.”

I need to ask everyone reading this a question and you in turn need to ask your friends and loved ones.  If you were to stand before Christ the Righteous Judge, whether through death or His return, what would His reaction and judgment be?  Every knee will bow before Him and give an account of the works done in the flesh, the talents we had, and the wasted opportunities that litter our lives, but will your bowing be with grace to the Lord who has redeemed you or will it be in continued rebellion against the One who created you?

I am not into silly sentimental revivalistic rhetoric with the pleading organ playing while false converts line the aisles, but I am into the command of God for all men everywhere to repent for He will no longer overlook the  ignorance as  in times past but will judge everyone according to the One He has raised from the dead ( Acts 17 ).  Pray to God that He would have mercy on you and grant you the faith to believe unto repentance.  Give God the glory as He softens your heart and causes the Word to take root and grow.  Do not harden your own heart with the deceitfulness of sin but rather call on Him while He may be found.

Where will you stand on the day of Judgment?

Quick Thoughts

Just a few quick thoughts today.

1. Should Harold Camping be held accountable for the violent crimes committed by those trying to avoid the Tribulation?
2. Should Camping and Family Radio reimburse the money given to them by their Rapturites?
3. Do not get drawn into a debate with non-believers over End Times scenarios.  Why would they believe in the return of the one they refuse to believe in?
4. Present the Gospel to them instead.  You plant the seed, let someone else, water, and God will give the increase.
5. Know that the Gospel is the Power of God unto Salvation and not numerology and carnival side-show prognostications
6. If you were foolish enough to believe Camping this time learn from your mistake and don't listen to date setters.
7. If you don't believe in Christ fall on your face before God today and beg Him for forgiveness.
8. Fellow Believers, when all else fails, Love the Lord your God with All Your Heart, Soul, Mind, and Strength.  That is our goal.

The Scripture and Harold Camping

Matthew 24:36

"But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.

Much has been said recently about Harold Camping and his once merry band of followers in the recent days and because of this I have been personally leery of commenting further so as not to prolong the man's infamy. This is not because I have not thought, pondered, and offered the offhand conjecture but rather because both the secular and Christian media have beaten this dead horse again and again and in that saturated market I was not sure I could add anything to the discussion. However, here I am forging ahead and offering one more voice to the sea of madness.
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In Christ Alone

The Exclusivity of Christ

I am the Way, and The Truth, and The Life; no one come to

the Father but through ME.

John 14:6

The choices are not limited.  There simply is no other choice. There is no way to the Father but through Jesus.  PERIOD!! 

• HE has taken our debt and nailed it to the cross- Colossians 2:4
• While enemies, through Christ's death alone, and not others, we who believe were reconciled- Romans 5:10
• Christ alone offered Himself without blemish to God to cleanse your conscience- Hebrews 9:14

He alone, through His death, paid the debt we could not pay.

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The Transforming Gospel: Man's Best Effort or God's Grace?

Rich in Mercy and Grace

Previously we explored  how  man's efforts at moralism is a bankrupt system and the difficulties that come from trying to earn a priceless gift.  Every false religion ranging from Buddhism to New Age, Jehovah's Witness to Mormonism, or any derivative of the Social Gospel and Moralism are either man's best effort at appeasing God or a corruption of the doctrines of grace.  The false assumption that anything we can do apart from God's grace is no Gospel at all, but a misplaced trust in the goodness of man.
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The Gracious Gospel or Man's Moralism?

Romans 11:6

But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace.

There is something we as humans find comforting and satisfying about working to find ourselves approved. From the initiations of secret societies and fraternities to the jocularity of locker rooms and backyard grills we strive and labor to fit in and find forgiveness when wrongs occur. We often go to great lengths to gain the knowing nod from our peers signifying that we are finally " in ",  and when we fall into disfavor the efforts are doubled to work our way back into the good graces of those that matter most to us.

Do we approach God the same way?

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The Powerful Gospel and the Resurrected Christ

Romans 1:4 (New American Standard Bible)

who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord.

1 Corinthians 15:1-6 (New American Standard Bible)

The Fact of Christ's Resurrection

Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, 2by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. 3For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the Good News that
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The Prosperity Gospel: Or Blessings for Bucks?



Galatians 1:6-8 (New American Standard Bible)

Perversion of the Gospel

 I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel;

 which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed!

What is the Gospel is a question I have been asking and trying to answer and will continue to do so in the coming day.  Last time I explored the relationship of the Gospel and the Kingdom, here, and four things that were revealed through Scripture which are:

1. The Gospel and the Kingdom are here now.
2. The Kingdom is within us.
3. It is a future reality.
4. It ultimately is in accordance with God's authority and Jesus' Kingship.

With that in mind and moving on I want to discuss what the Gospel is not: It is unequivocally not a prosperity message based on the faulty reading of Scripture resulting in the giving-to-get fallacy.  The hucksterism and carnival-like atmosphere found in the name it and claim crowd is antithetical to the true Gospel and the faith that many, both past and present, hold dear.  This false Gospel of greed and seed must be exposed for what it is: a cancer in the Body of Christ.
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The Good News Kingdom

From the outset of the Church through the times we now live in there has been much discussion and confusion over what the Gospel is.  Is it a works based salvation with strict adherence to the law?  Can it be equated with libertarian free-will and cheap grace?  Is everyone forgiven and on the road to Heaven because the Gospel is an all inclusive, all loving, and all forgiving mantra of post-modern subjectivity?  Or is the Gospel of Jesus Christ a life changing message that extends far beyond the moment of salvation into the lives of believers?  These questions and more we will discuss in the coming days as we bring the Gospel to the forefront of our thinking.
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King James' Birthday

This week marked the 400th anniversary of the best known English translation of the Bible: The King James Version of 1611.  This translation brought the Bible wholesale to English speaking people by building upon earlier English translations and continues to this day to be a best seller.

A recent poll of Americans conducted by Lifeway Research, uncovered some pretty interesting facts:

1. 62%  of Americans own a KJV  Bible
2. 82% of regular readers of the Bible own a KJV
3. 76% those 55 yrs and older who own the KJV
4. 67% those 35-54 yrs old who own the KJV
5. 27% claim to have never read the KJV for themselves
6. 89% of Americans own at least one Bible
7. Women read the Bible more than men
8. Southerners are more apt to consider the language  beautiful

What do you think? Which translation is your favorite and why?  Is one version more God inspired than another?

What is your Focus?

 

Has the cross came into focus for you?

Have you knelt in humble submission to the One who died there?

Has the Resurrected Lord of Glory called you?

What value does your sin and disobedience hold for you 

The Compassion of the Lord

For the LORD will vindicate His people, And will have compassion on His servants,When He sees that their strength is gone,And there is none remaining, bond or free.

Deuteronomy 32:36

One of the great questions often brought up during times of adversity is whether God really cares, is He truly compassionate?  Is He the compassionate, loving, and kind God presented by Modern Christianity or is He a stern, authoritarian, and unapproachable deity reigning from on High?  God does care, He is Love, and His compassion will never fail.

God’s compassion and Love are not like or own in that His love is perfect and complete needing nothing to add to it.  Within Himself, that is the Godhead, He has both the capacity to love and be loved.  This is
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Solus Christus-Saviour and Mediator

Solus Christus in a very easy way to define and comprehend that Christ Alone is the only Mediator and Saviour between God and man without negating His divinity. It is differentiated from Soli Deo Gloria because its main thrust is of Christ as mediator and not in contrasting Him with the other members of the Godhead.
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Sola Gratia-The Grace that Saves

Grace, as defined by Merriam-Webster, is the unmerited Divine assistance given humans for their regeneration or sanctification.

All other world religions are man’s efforts to reconcile himself to God(s),  others, work out their karma, or any other various prescripton that fallen man has invented to to assuage his guilt.  They all have this in common and to some varying degree employ our ability to appease these unseen forces.  The great difference in historic Christianity and all else is our belief that God alone is able to save: It is only by His grace that we can truly live again and have a right relationship with Him.  One of the most important distinctives of the Reformation was the concept of Salvation by Grace Alone:  Dr. R.C. Sproul states it so:

“ Monergistic regeneration means that regeneration is accomplished by a single actor, God…all forms of semi-pelagianism assert some sort of synergism in regeneration…usually God’s assisting grace is…dependent on human cooperation for its efficacy. “

Augustine, when debating the original Pelagian heresy, said:

“…he  ( Pelagius ) says grace is bestowed according to worthiness.  For when he speaks about people deserving reward because they make a good use of their free will, so that they merit the Lord’s grace, he asserts in fact that a debt is paid to them. “ The Grace of Christ and Original Sin 1:34

John Calvin, who relied heavily on Augustine, stated that:

“ the human will does not obtain grace by freedom, but freedom by grace. “  Institutes II.III

It should be known that all we add to our redemption is our sin and the inability to change.  We are sinful creatures not only prone to badness, but infected with the disease that touches every aspect of our lives: From our thoughts, motives, deeds, relationships, etc  we are wholly incapable of any meritorious work that would commend us to God  ( Rom 3:9-18 ).  Our righteousness is filthy and our sins drive us like a ship torn by the wind ( Isaiah 64:6 ) and we are very much dead and unable to will ourselves any differently (Ephesians 2:1 ).  Paul rightly said, “  For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. “ ( Rom 7:18 ) when he described his condition with regards to the power of his will.

We are completely sinful, totally depraved, and unable by any device of our own to come to a Holy God. The disciples, in Matthew 19:24-26, when confronted with the difficulty of human ability or merit to enter Heaven exclaimed, “ who then can be saved? “  Jesus replied to them that with man it was impossible but that with God all things were possible.

This grace was a foundation of the Gospel that was preached by the Apostles and the early church.  These first Christians, mostly of Jewish descent, were well acquainted with trying to earn their salvation through the works of Law.  Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles, knew that in the flesh he had nothing to boast of                  ( Philippians 3:3-7 ) and that all He had was counted as loss.   Paul could boast, not in himself, but because he was justified as a gracious gift from God and that through the redemption he now had in Jesus Christ he could stand. 

It is this free grace, at least to us, that saves as it is not  based on our works and any other message is a false gospel.  Grace and faith are inextricably tied together in Ephesians 2:8 as it is the grace of  God that even allows the gift of faith to manifest itself in our heart.  This grace was given us in Christ ( 1 Cor 1:4 ) and it is through His blood that we have redemption ( Ephesians 1:7 ).  If we were in any way able to earn our salvation or even add to it the Christ would have died in vain. 

It quite simply is foundational to Historic Christian belief that salvation is by grace alone.  That is the Gospel message: that God saves undeserving sinners by His grace through the riches found in Christ Jesus.  If you are trying to earn your salvation it is a futile effort as your works will never absolve you from your sin nor commend you to a holy God. Seek Him today while He may be found and may He grant you repentance unto salvation.

For further reading click below

Proverbs 3:34

Zechariah 12:10

John 1:17

Acts 20:24

Romans 6:14

Jonathan Edwards Treatise on Grace

Justification by Grace

The Faith of Justification

Sole Fide

"It is not faith that saves, but faith in Jesus Christ.... It is not, strictly speaking, even faith in Christ that saves, but Christ that saves through faith. The saving power resides exclusively, not in the act of faith or the attitude of faith or in the nature of faith, but in the object of faith."
- B. B. Warfield

We are saved ( justified ) through faith and this doctrine is one of the Five Solas that form the basis of the Protestant Reformation.
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Sola Scriptura

Solely Scripture??

What do those two little words mean and what impact have they had on the course of Christendom over the last five hundred years?  Quite simply Sola Scriptura means that the Bible is the only inspired and authoritative Word of God and is accessible to all (that is, perspicuous and self-interpreting) and that Holy Tradition is not needed to interpret it as administered through the Roman Catholic Church and its Magisterium.
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