God doesn't yank His people out of trouble, He preserves them in the midst of trouble.
How the flood narrative relates to redemptive history and shows us the judgment of God on the unbelieving world and His saving grace provided for His own.
Sunday, September 5, 2021
Friday, September 3, 2021
The Temple Myth
by Stuart Brogden
Many think David was commanded by
God to build a temple. What sayest Scripture? Let's look at several places
where building the Temple is discussed.
2 Samuel 7:4-7 (HCSB) But that night the word of the LORD came to Nathan: “Go to My servant
David and say, ‘This is what the LORD says: Are you to build a house for Me to
live in? From the time I brought the Israelites out of Egypt until today I have
not lived in a house; instead, I have been moving around with a tent as ⌊My⌋ dwelling. In all My journeys with all the Israelites,
have I ever asked anyone among the tribes of Israel, whom I commanded to
shepherd My people Israel: Why haven’t you built Me a house of cedar?’
2 Samuel 7:11b-16 (HCSB) “‘The LORD declares to you: The LORD Himself
will make a house for you. When your time comes and you rest with your fathers,
I will raise up after you your descendant, who will come from your body, and I
will establish his kingdom. He will build a house for My name, and I will
establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be a father to him, and he
will be a son to Me. When he does wrong, I will discipline him with a human rod
and with blows from others. But My faithful love will never leave him as I
removed it from Saul; I removed him from your way. Your house and kingdom will endure before Me
forever, and your throne will be established forever.’”
In the first passage above, YHWH
asks the rhetorical question, "Why haven't you built Me a house?" The
clear implication of verses 4 - 7 is that YHWH never asked for a permanent
house; He had commanded the tabernacle be constructed. In verses 11-16 YHWH
declares that He will make a house, not mere man. He grounds this in the
promise of the Messiah, who will be a son of David; His kingdom will be forever.
Many get sidetracked by the
second part of verse 14: When he does
wrong, I will discipline him with a human rod and with blows from others. How
could this be true of the Son? While Jesus had no sin, God made Him Who knew no
sin to BE SIN for us (2 Cor 5:12); in 1 Peter 2:24 we see that Jesus bore our
sins in His body. Peter also told us, He
was delivered up according to God’s determined plan and foreknowledge, you used
lawless people to nail Him to a cross and kill Him. For, in fact, in this city both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the
Gentiles and the people of Israel, assembled together against Your holy Servant
Jesus, whom You anointed, to do whatever
Your hand and Your plan had predestined to take place. (Acts 2:23 and
4:27-28)
It was the Father's plan that His
Son would build His house and that the Son would be punished as if He had done
wrong, punished by the blows of men.
But there's more. In 1 Chronicles
22, David makes preparations to build the temple, saying in verse 5, “My son
Solomon is young and inexperienced, and the house that is to be built for the
LORD must be exceedingly great and famous and glorious in all the lands."
Then this:
1 Chronicles 22:6-10 (HCSB) Then he
summoned his son Solomon and instructed him to build a house for the LORD God
of Israel. “My son,” David said to Solomon, “It was in my heart to build a
house for the name of Yahweh my God, but the word of the LORD came to me: ‘You
have shed much blood and waged great wars. You are not to build a house for My
name because you have shed so much blood on the ground before Me. But a son will be born to you; he will be a
man of rest. I will give him rest from all his surrounding enemies, for his
name will be Solomon, and I will give peace and quiet to Israel during his
reign. He is the one who will build a
house for My name. He will be My son, and I will be his father. I will
establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel forever.’
Nowhere in Scripture do we see
hint of God telling David what he tells Solomon here. What we see here is a
misapplication of what Nathan told David in 2 Samuel 7, with David declaring
Solomon is the son promised to build the house for God, whose kingdom will
never end. One thing Nathan told David that makes it impossible for Solomon to
be the son is When your time comes and
you rest with your fathers, I will raise up after you your descendant, who will
come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. Solomon was an adult
when David died - the son spoken of would come from David's lineage after David
rested with his fathers in the grave.
David, a man after God's own
heart, was still only a man. His fatherly affection and his heartfelt desire to
build a glorious temple for the glorious God blinded him to the truth. David
changed some of what Nathan had told him and David added to what Nathan had
told him; and David told Solomon things that did not apply to him.
It is clear that God commanded
the infant nation of Israel to build the tabernacle, using material plundered
from the Egyptians (Ex 25:1-6 & Ex 12:33-35); He gave them explicit
instructions for every detail of the tabernacle (Ex 25 - 28). This was because
the tabernacle - not the stone temple - was patterned after the heavenly things
(Heb 8:1-5). In 1 Chron 3 - 5:1 we see the details of the temple Solomon built;
no record that God gave instruction to him for this building. It would appear
that David and Solomon, like most Jews, had an earthly view of the kingdom and
missed the glorious view of the eternal, spiritual kingdom that Abraham
searched for and found, that was revealed to Isaiah.
But there's more. In 2 Chronicles
7, after Solomon has built the temple and dedicated it, YHWH consumed the
sacrifices offered and His glory filled the temple. YHWH appeared to Solomon in
a dream, telling him that He had chosen that place as a temple of sacrifice;
that His eyes, heart, and name would be there forever (verses 1, 12, 16). YHWH
then tells Solomon, As for you, if you
walk before Me as your father David walked, doing everything I have commanded
you, and if you keep My statutes and ordinances, I will establish your royal
throne, as I promised your father David: You will never fail to have a man
ruling in Israel (verses 17, 18), and However,
if you turn away and abandon My statutes and My commands that I have set before
you and if you go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will uproot Israel from the soil that
I gave them, and this temple that I have sanctified for My name I will banish
from My presence; I will make it an object of scorn and ridicule among all the
peoples (verses 19, 20).
Please note: YHWH keeping His
name in the temple forever was conditional upon Solomon keeping His statutes
and commands. God condescended to honor Solomon and identify with the temple if
Solomon was faithful. Solomon did not keep YHWH's statutes and commands, he did
turn away and abandon them. 1 Kings 11 reveals Solomon loved many foreign women
that YHWH had told him not to do (verses 1, 2); he followed other gods, was not
completely devoted to YHWH, and he built high places and altars for many idols
(verses 4 - 8). The LORD was angry with
Solomon, because his heart had turned away from Yahweh, the God of Israel, who
had appeared to him twice. He had
commanded him about this, so that he would not follow other gods, but Solomon
did not do what the LORD had commanded. Then the LORD said to Solomon, “Since
you have done this and did not keep My covenant and My statutes, which I
commanded you, I will tear the kingdom away from you and give it to your
servant." (verses 9 - 11)
Solomon did as national Israel
had done - broken YHWH's statutes and commands. YHWH tells Solomon the kingdom
will be TORN from him and given to his servant - which would be Jeroboam and
ultimately Jesus. There is no natural son of David who fits the bill Nathan
announced to David, who would be pleasing to the Father in all He did. When
Jesus came, He said His food was to do the Father's will (John 4:34); in John
6:38 He said He came from heaven to do His Father's will. And in Matt 7:21 we
read that those who do the Father's will are the ones who inherit heaven; And this
is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes
in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day
(John 6:40). Jesus said to the leaders of Israel, "See, your house has been left to you desolate." (Matt 23:38)
The kingdom that will truly last forever is the kingdom Jesus was announcing
throughout His earthly ministry, the kingdom which rules the New Covenant. This
rule is among us as inaugurated; will be consummated when He returns to judge
the nations, gather His people, and make all things new.
The temple Jesus is building is what Peter spoke of: Like newborn infants, desire the pure spiritual milk, so that you may grow by it for ⌊your⌋ salvation, since you have tasted that the Lord is good. Coming to Him, a living stone—rejected by men but chosen and valuable to God— you yourselves, as living stones, are being built into a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 2:2-5) Paul likewise spoke: So then you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints, and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the cornerstone. The whole building, being put together by Him, grows into a holy sanctuary in the Lord. You also are being built together for God’s dwelling in the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:19-22) Like His kingdom, His temple is spiritual, not temporal and carnal.
Sunday, August 1, 2021
Tuesday, July 27, 2021
Not Under Law!
Not Under Law
Reading Zanchius' Absolute Predestination, he observes that Abram didn't think ill of
God's command to slay his son (Gen 22), though mankind knew such an act was
evil (Gen 4). Abram knew the expressed will of God was better than the
prohibition against taking a life without cause. Similar to the order to
plunder Egypt (Ex 3) contrasted with the word to not steal (Ex 20). Is God of
two minds? Perish the thought. His purpose and plan are often hidden from us,
but ever being worked out to bring Him glory and do good for His own.
We read time and again how Jesus came to do
the Father's will - echoing Abram! In John 4:34 Jesus said His food was to do
the Father's will; in John 6:38 He said He came from heaven to do His Father's
will. And in Matt 7:21 we read that those who do the Father's will are the ones
who inherit heaven; For I have come down
from heaven, not to do My will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the
will of Him who sent Me: that I should lose none of those He has given Me but
should raise them up on the last day. For this is the will of My Father: that
everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have eternal life, and I will
raise him up on the last day.” (John
6:38-40). God desires mercy, not the sacrifices demanded by the law. The One
Who made a pleasing sacrifice on our account gives us His righteousness and
provides mercy, day-by-day. As our call
to worship reminds us, Moses was faithful as a servant in the house but Jesus
is a Son over His own house. When Peter asked Him about paying the temple tax
(Matt 17:24-27), Jesus said strangers pay the tax but the sons are free. God
the Father was not subject to the Mosaic Law; the Son is Lord over His house
and is free. All the sons and daughters are free! When Jesus began His public
ministry, He was showing people a better way, revealing a covenant built on
better promises. He did not lead people to the Old Covenant, He led people away
from it as it was being brought to its end. He left the Old Covenant to show us
the way to the New.
We also read of God violating laws of nature
that He established, making the sun stand still (Joshua 10:13) and giving life
to that which was dead (John 11). He cured leprosy with dirty water (2 Kings 5).
God is not bound the laws He gives man!
It was against the Mosaic Law for a healthy
person to touch one with leprosy (Lev 5:3 - page 127). Some lepers were healed in the Old Covenant
era, but the lepers were not touched. They were not touched when declared clean
by the Levitical priests. Jesus was sending a message by touching this man.
When Jesus began His kingdom ministry, He was no longer under the Mosaic Law as
He was as a minor child, else He would not have touched the man. He was working
to show the Jews that their Messiah was greater than Moses, even God in the
flesh, bringing a new and better covenant founded on better promises to His
spiritual people. In Luke 8:19-56 Jesus touched a dead child and raised her to
life; touching the dead was prohibited by the law (Num 19:11). The Mosaic Law
forbade spitting on a person: Num 12:14 declares one unclean who has been
spit-on; Deut 25:9 refers to spitting in in another's face as a curse on the
person. Jesus spit on the ground, made clay to apply to a blind man's eyes to
bring healing (John 9:6); He spit on a mute man's tongue to heal him (Mark
7:33); and He spit in a blind man's eyes to heal him (Mark 8:22-25), contrary
to Mosaic Law. Jesus declared all foods clean (Mark 7:15, 19), contrary to the
Levitical law; He healed a paralytic on the Sabbath (John 5:7-10), for which
they wanted to kill Him (John 5:18), for He not only violated their Sabbath, He
made Himself equal with God. In Matt 12, Jesus defended His disciples plucking
grain on the Sabbath, positioning Himself as greater than David (who had eaten
bread meant only for priests) and greater than (Lord of/over) the Sabbath. In
this instance, He cites Hosea 6:6, "For
I desire mercy and not sacrifice." While the law was not full of
mercy, it provided no specific exceptions to the weekly Sabbath for acts of
mercy. Healing was required in the law but no provision for doing so on the
Sabbath was given. Circumcision was required on the 8th day, which sometimes
happened on a Sabbath. Jesus pointed out the priests broke the Sabbath to keep
the law of circumcision. I think these points of tension were there to lead the
Jews to seek guidance from YHWH, but they built up a system of rules that they
thought they keep and be pleasing to God. Of old He told them, "I desire mercy and not sacrifice."
God is not bound the laws He gives man - He is Lord over both man and law!
Friday, July 16, 2021
Saturday, July 10, 2021
Sanctification
Sanctification
There are some Christians who teach that saints are totally depraved, with no difference in our being than before we were redeemed. Some of these seem genuinely concerned that we do not hold to infusion of grace into our flesh; and that is a legitimate concern.
It's not our flesh that has been made new by our new life in Christ. It's our soul that has been made alive. The soul of the unregenerate is dead - unable to move his flesh in a way pleasing to God. The saint has a soul that is alive to God, with the Spirit of God willing and making him able to do things that ARE pleasing to God (Phil 2:13). This is what I think we are taught in various places, including Romans 12:1-2 (HCSB) Therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.
Note this: the way we avoid being conformed to this age is by being transformed by the renewing of our minds. The soul of the saint has been translated from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of His glorious light (Col 1:13) and we are seated with Christ in the heavenlies (Eph 2:6). Obviously this is not speaking about our physical being, but our spiritual being.
It should also be obvious that our mind, which is part and parcel of our soul, controls our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. We are not told that our flesh gets better with time, but we are told to control our thoughts, words, and deeds; we are not to walk as reprobates do, but as children of God:
Ephesians 5:6-11 (HCSB) Let
no one deceive you with empty arguments, for God’s wrath is coming on the disobedient because of these things.
Therefore, do not become their partners. For you were once darkness, but now ⌊you are⌋ light in the Lord. Walk as children of light— for the fruit of the light ⌊results⌋
in all goodness, righteousness, and truth— discerning what is pleasing to the Lord.
Don’t
participate in the fruitless works of darkness, but instead expose them.
Did you notice: a command to walk as children of light, which will bear fruit of that light which will reveal itself in goodness, righteousness, and truth – which means we can discern what’s pleasing to the Lord. Why would He give us such discernment if we have NO ability to influence our thoughts, words, and deeds? Why tell us NOT to take part in works of darkness if we are depraved and unable to say no to sin?
None of us will be without sin while we inhabit these bodies of death; but none who have been born from above by the Spirit of God are without a Helper who wills and equips us to do that which is pleasing to Him. We have an Intercessor who will make a way of escape (1 Cor 10:13) so that sin will not have dominion over us, but allow us to run away from it, as Joseph did so long ago. This is the consistent teaching of Scripture.
Romans 6:16-23 (HCSB) Don’t you know that if you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of that one you obey—either of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness? But thank God that, although you used to be slaves of sin, you obeyed from the heart that pattern of teaching you were transferred to, and having been liberated from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness. I am using a human analogy because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you offered the parts of yourselves as slaves to moral impurity, and to greater and greater lawlessness, so now offer them as slaves to righteousness, which results in sanctification. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free from allegiance to righteousness. So what fruit was produced then from the things you are now ashamed of? For the end of those things is death. But now, since you have been liberated from sin and have become enslaved to God, you have your fruit, which results in sanctification—and the end is eternal life! For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
That transforming renewal of our minds works its way out in our patterns of what we think, what we speak, and what we do. We have been liberated from sin and enslaved to God, which results in sanctification – the end of which is eternal life. Sort of sounds like sanctification is one of those essential things God works in us that we cannot do without.
2 Corinthians 7:1 (HCSB) Therefore, dear friends, since we have such promises, let us cleanse ourselves from every impurity of the flesh and spirit, completing our sanctification in the fear of God.
We work at completing this sanctification by cleansing ourselves from impurities of the flesh and our fleshly desires. We should not think we can cleanse ourselves by our effort and we should not think God will sanctify us no matter what we do; both are ditches we need to avoid. It’s analogous to being so afraid of works righteousness that we do not tell people to repent and believe or being convinced we can save sinners by our clever words. Both are wrong thinking.
1 Thessalonians 4:3-8 (HCSB) For this is God’s will, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality, so that each of you knows how to control his own body in sanctification and honor, not with lustful desires, like the Gentiles who don’t know God. This means one must not transgress against and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger of all these offenses, as we also previously told and warned you. For God has not called us to impurity but to sanctification. Therefore, the person who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who also gives you His Holy Spirit.
Here is a very specific area of sanctification – sexual purity. Ouch! But look what we’re told: God wills our sanctification so we will know and be able to control our bodies in an honorable way. How anyone can say we are no different from unregenerate people confounds me. There is no teaching of perfectionism, but there is clear teaching that we are to grow in grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus so we won’t be led astray by lawless people (2 Pet 3:17 & 18).
Read the qualifications of elders and deacons in 1 Tim 3 and see sanctified life described in action terms: sensible, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, not a drunkard, not quarrelsome or greedy. No different from depraved reprobates?
2 Thessalonians 2:13-15 (HCSB) But we must always thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God has chosen you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and through belief in the truth. He called you to this through our gospel, so that you might obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions you were taught, either by our message or by our letter.
We are chosen by God for salvation through sanctification. Not that we are sanctified and then saved, but that just as repentance and faith are separate but inseparable, so is salvation and sanctification. And this sanctification is the work of Spirit through the Word of Truth. And we finish this passage with the exhortation to behave rightly and think rightly, as taught by the apostolic records in Scripture. The Christian’s life IS DIFFERENT than the unregenerate’s life.
I have come to the conclusion that while justification (salvation, redemption) is monergistic, sanctification (perseverance, preservation) is not. But it’s not synergistic, either. That term conveys the notion that both elements or parties are required for the process to function. Even a casual read through the Bible will reveal the fact that God bids us to obey (Galatians 6:9) and enables to do so (Hebrews 13:20 & 21), He commands us to press on for the prize that will not tarnish and sustains us in the doing (Hebrews 12:1 & 2), and reminds us that apart from Him we do nothing (John 15:5). This is the essence of Augustine’s famous prayer that ignited the controversy with Pelagius: “God, command what you will, grant what you command.” The Christian will want to obey God and trust Him to bring it to completion. Yet He also works to conform us to His Son when we rebel and are not careful to walk as children of the light (1 Corinthians 5:9-13; Hebrews 12:3-11; James 1:2-4 & 12). Brothers, this should not be the case, we should not kick the goads; but it is comforting (and convicting) to embrace a God Who is not dependent on us!
So I conclude that God can work to sanctify us without our active participation, yet we cannot work towards growing in likeness to Christ without His active participation (John 15:5). We take 100% responsibility for the sin in our lives, we give God 100% of the credit for the good thoughts, words, and deeds we do. His Spirit in us works so that we pray effectively (Romans 8:26), without Him we can do nothing.
Sanctification. If it’s not part of your life, you need to examine yourself to see if you be in the faith (2 Cor 13:5).
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