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A DISPENSATIONAL VIEW OF THE GOSPELS IN SMALL CHUNKS (17)

March 31, 2020 HEAVENLY REMNANT MINISTRIESLeave a comment

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CHAPTER V (CONTINUE)

The Middle Galilean Period (Continue)

J. Warnings: Matt. 7:15-27. The Sermon ends with a two-fold warning. The first is against false prophets, and the second against a poor foundation. No doubt in the coming Tribulation period there will be a rash of false prophets as indicated in Matt. 24:21-24, but even now they are increasing in number. Just because a man preaches about Jesus and claims to work miracles in the name of Jesus does not mean he is a true prophet.

Jesus said: “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out demons? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” In the light of these words, one should employ great discernment when viewing the growing charismatic movement. It is altogether possible that this movement is preparing the religious world for the host of false prophets who will arise after the Rapture of the Church to work their deceiving miracles as predicted by Jesus.

The other warning is the parable of the two houses, or more accurately, the two foundations. Regardless of the workmanship in the houses, their ability to stand the test depends not upon the beauty of their furnishings, but upon their foundations. The lives of some unconverted men may appear to be more noble, philanthropic, gentle, industrious than that of some Christians, but the one will be swept away in the flood of God’s judgment and the other will stand. Luke’s account adds that the wise man dug deep and laid his foundation upon the rock, and Paul tells us that other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Christ Jesus (1 Cor. 3:11). Jesus was speaking about the importance and the character of the foundation. Paul starts with the only true foundation and speaks of the importance and character of the building. The Christian’s life and ministry is the building. Paul laid the foundation for this dispensation as a wise master- builder, and we are to take heed how we build. We may build with wood, hay, and stubble, or with gold, silver, and precious stones. God’s fire will test the building and all that is worthless will be burned away. The building is not the person. The building may be destroyed, but the person will be saved, because man is not saved by his building but by faith.

4. Healing of the Centurion’s Servant References: Matt. 8:5-13; Lk. 7:1-10

A comparison of Matthew’s and Luke’s account of this incident is most enlightening. If we had only Matthew’s account, we would suppose that the Centurion came personally to Jesus, but when we read. Luke, we understand that certain of the Jews acted as intermediaries. The centurion did not consider himself worthy to have Jesus come under his roof, and apparently, he didn’t feel worthy to even speak to Him personally. Or perhaps he had enough discernment to know that Jesus ministered only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. This incident is one of the two recorded cases where Jesus ministered to a Gentile while He was on earth.

We think of Roman soldiers as hard, cruel, unconscionable men. But this man was different. To begin with, Luke tells us that this critically ill servant was “dear unto him.” He loved this servant enough to go to the trouble of getting a delegation of Jews to go to Jesus to intercede for him. The second and almost unbelievable thing about this centurion was that he also loved the nation of Israel and had demonstrated his love by building a synagogue for the Jews. This Roman is a foreshadowing of Gentile salvation to the children of the tribulation saints in the Millennial Kingdom. God had promised Abraham long ago that He would bless those who blessed Abraham’s seed and curse those who cursed his seed. One cannot help but wonder whether there was any connection between this centurion and centurion Cornelius in Acts 10.

Jesus went with this delegation of Jews and when they were not far from the house, the centurion probably saw them coming and sent some friends to tell Jesus not to go to the trouble of coming to his house. All He needed to do was to speak the word and his servant would be healed. When Jesus heard this, He said to all those about Him, “I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.” The friends upon returning to the house found the servant healed. One cannot help but wonder whether the centurion ever met Jesus face to face.

5. Raising of the Widow’s Son at Nain Reference: Lk. 7:11-17

This miracle is recorded only by Luke. Nain is located about 16 miles S.W. of Capernaum and about five miles S.E. of Nazareth where Jesus grew up. As He and His disciples and the crowd that was following Him approached the gate of the city, a funeral procession was passing through the gate. It was that of a widow’s only son, and when Jesus saw the situation, He had compassion on the woman. He stopped the procession and commanded the dead man to arise. And the dead man sat up and began speaking and Jesus restored him to his mother. One commentator feels that the compassion of Jesus is proof of His true humanity, and surely His command “to arise” manifested His Deity. The people all feared and said, “A great prophet has arisen among us.” He was a great Prophet, as Moses had predicted, but apparently that was all the people saw in Him. They did not recognize Him as the Son of God and the Savior from sin.

6. John in Prison Sends Disciples to Question Jesus References: Matt. 11:2-30; Lk. 7:18-35; 10:21, 22; cf. Lk. 16:16

We learned earlier that Jesus left Judea when He heard that John the Baptist had been thrown into prison. The reason for his imprisonment is given in Matt. 14:3-5; Mk. 6:17,18; Lk. 3:19,20. We do not know whether it was John personally or his disciples who had doubts about Jesus. Something seemed to be going amiss if Jesus was the promised deliverer and His forerunner was languishing in prison. When they asked Jesus if He was the One who was to come or should they look for another, He did not answer them directly but told them to go back and tell John what they had seen, that is, the various kinds of miracles being done. Miracles are not necessarily a divine accreditation, for Satan can work miracles also. But John would know the Scriptures and he would know that Isaiah had stated specific works which would identify the Messiah. These were the very works they beheld Jesus doing. See. Isa. 29:18; 35:4-6; 60:1-3.

After John’s disciples had departed Jesus began to question the people about John. What kind of a man was he? He was not a men-pleaser, a reed shaken with the wind. Neither was he a self-indulgent person living in worldly pleasure. He was a prophet the other prophets had predicted should come, (Mal. 3:1) to prepare the way for the Messiah. There was no one greater than John, according to Jesus, but interestingly enough, he that is least (or lesser) in the Kingdom of heaven is greater than John. Jesus did not mean that the lesser one in the Kingdom was personally or morally better than John, but that John belonged to a dispensation that was inferior to the new Kingdom dispensation which was now at hand. The Old Covenant dispensation contained promises of the new, but John died before experiencing the new. Note the contrasts between the old and the new in Jer. 31:31-35 and 2 Cor. 3:6-16. The spiritual benefits of the New Covenant sealed with the blood of Christ are shared both by the Church in this present dispensation and Israel in the coming Kingdom dispensation (Rom. 15:27).

Jesus continued speaking about John: “From the days of John till Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.” There is a similar statement made on a different occasion in Lk. 16:16: “The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it.” The word “presseth into” is the same Greek word translated “suffereth violence” in Matthew. Translators and commentators differ widely in their interpretation of these passages; mainly over the word violent, whether it refers to violent opposition to John and Jesus, or to the eager, enthusiastic thronging of the multitudes to get in on the blessings of this new dispensation. Interpreting the statement in the light of the immediate context it appears that Jesus is contrasting the period before John with the then present period. The law and the prophets were until John. The Kingdom of heaven was as yet only a promise. Now it is here, close at hand. It is being preached and multitudes are flocking to hear about it. The great multitudes who thronged Jesus are mentioned over 80 times in the Gospels. They would even have taken Him by force to make Him king (John 6:15, where “force” is the same Greek word translated “force” in Matt. 11:12). This does not mean that all of these multitudes became saved individuals, for many were like the “stony soil in the parable of the Sower” (Matt. 13:20,21): “the same is he that heareth the word, and immediately with joy receiveth it, yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while, for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, immediately he is offended.” The multitudes were outwardly pressing into the Kingdom for the physical blessings which were being offered in the form of miraculous healings and supply of food, even though later on some of them would cry out: “Away with Him, crucify Him.”

There is yet another point that needs clarification about the words: “The law and the prophets were until John.” There are certain of the Baptist persuasion who teach that the new dispensation in which we now live began with John the Baptist; that he was the first Christian and the founder of the Baptist Church. If John was the first Christian and the founder of the Church, it is strange that the lesser one in the new arrangement is greater than John. But more importantly, Christ was not contrasting the law and the prophets with the Body of Christ Church of this dispensation, but with the Messianic Kingdom which will be set up on this earth at Christ’s second coming. Everything about John the Baptist and the Kingdom was predicted by the prophets of old, but none of the prophets predicted anything about the Body of Christ, for it was at that time a secret hidden in God Himself.

There was a big “IF” in the ministry of Jesus, and it is here expressed in Matt. 11: 14: “And if ye are willing to receive it, this is Elijah which is to come.” The establishment of the Kingdom was contingent upon lsrael’s receiving of it. Had they received it, John the Baptist would have been the Elijah who was to come, but Israel did not accept John or Jesus and the Kingdom economy was set aside.

Jesus seemed to be at a loss for words to describe the generation in which He lived, and we might say that the character of succeeding generations has not changed. He asked, “Whereunto shall I liken this generation?” He then gives the similitude or parable of the children in the marketplace playing games of weddings and funerals. Children were accustomed to putting on skits in the marketplace and were disappointed when people did not dance or lament in response to their plays. So John came preaching repentance and the people did not lament, and Jesus came preaching the abundant life and the people did not dance. They accused John of being demon possessed and Christ of being a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. But Jesus said, “Wisdom is justified of or by her children,” which is usually understood to mean that God’s wisdom is justified or proved right by its results. Christ is the wisdom of God personified (1 Cor. 1:24) and those who believed in Him were the children of wisdom. They repented at John’s preaching and understood the mercy and grace of Jesus in eating and drinking with publicans and sinners.

The cities around the Sea of Galilee were the most privileged cities of the world, Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum where Jesus made His headquarters and where so many of His mighty works were done. And yet they rejected the Light and nothing but judgment awaits them. Here we see the foreknowledge of the Lord Jesus, one of His divine attributes. He knew that the cities of Tyre and Sidon and Sodom would have repented if the same mighty words had been done in them. Therefore, it will be more tolerable for them in the day of judgment than for the cities in which Jesus ministered.
Jesus then turned away from this scene of rejection and judgment and turned to His Father in heaven thanking Him that He had hidden these truths from the wise and the prudent and had revealed them unto babes, for so it seemed good or was well pleasing in His sight. The wiseacres of this world are foolishness with God. Paul states: “For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of the thing preached to save them that believe,” (1 Cor. 1:21). Jesus did not thank the Father in the usual sense of that word. He confessed or acknowledged the fact, for that is what the Greek word means. The word “babes” in this context does not mean actual infants but those who are humble and lowly in their attitude to God. When the Son came into the world the Father delivered all things to the Son and no one fully knows the Son but the Father, and no one fully knows the Father but the Son and the one to whomsoever the Son wills to reveal Him. There are a number of different words for knowing in the N.T. Here it means full or complete knowledge. It also bears the sense of relationship, as when it is stated that Joseph did not know Mary until she had brought forth her firstborn child (Matt. 1:25), or when Jesus professes, “I never knew you” (Matt. 7:23). The unsaved man knows about God, but he doesn’t know God; he has never come into a saving relationship with Him. He can know about God as revealed in nature, but he can never come into a living relationship with God by any natural means. This knowledge of God does not come by education but by revelation. The Spirit of God must reveal God to us for us to know Him in this relationship.

Jesus concludes this section with the invitation for all who labor and are heavy laden to come to Him for rest. The invitation to come is made to both sinner and saint. After coming to Him we are told to take His yoke upon us. A yoke is not made for one animal or person, but for two. It is that which couples two together to pull a load. We thus become yokefellows with Christ Himself. Yokefellows must have the same objectives and must pull in the same direction. When yoked with Christ the burdens and work of the ministry” become easy and light.

7. Jesus Anointed in the House of Simon the Pharisee Reference: Lk. 7:36-50

This story involves a parable of grace. We have pointed out before that Luke in his association with Paul must have imbibed the spirit of grace from this apostle of grace, for whereas the word grace does not even appear once in Matthew or Mark, it appears eight times in Luke, and the verb for showing grace appears three times more in this present incident.

Simon apparently wanted to learn more about this Rabbi who was creating such a stir, so he invited him to dinner. There was a woman also, who is simply described as a sinner, who had heard that Jesus was dining with Simon and she took advantage of the situation to meet Jesus. She came with a gift, an alabaster box of ointment. Apparently, she had listened to the teaching of Jesus, had been convicted of her sin and had repented of it, and brought this gift to show her gratitude. It is difficult for us to visualize this scene since we eat sitting up with our feet under the table. The orientals reclined on couches around the table and theft feet were thus extended to one side. It was the servant’s duty to wash and anoint the feet of guests, as seen from the story of Abigail (1 Sam 25:41). Thus, this woman took her place as a servant of the Lord. Instead of water, she washed His feet with her tears, tears which manifested a true sorrow for her past sinfulness, and then anointed His feet with the perfume.

While all of this was going on Simon sat back trying to figure out what kind of a Rabbi this was. Surely if Jesus was a prophet, He would have known that this woman was a common sinner and would never had let her touch Him. Jesus, being a prophet, not only knew what kind of woman this was, He also knew what was going through Simon’s mind. So, He related a little parable to Simon which was designed to make Simon himself pass judgment upon himself. It is one thing for a teacher to tell others of their sins; it is another thing to have the person tell himself he is a sinner, and this is what Jesus forced Simon to do, although he did it unwittingly.

A certain creditor had two debtors. One owed 500 pence and the other 50. Neither of them had a penny to his name, so the creditor frankly forgave them both. “Frankly forgave” is literally: “engraced them,” did something for them they did not deserve. “Now Simon, which one will love him most?” Simon answered, “I suppose that he, to whom he forgave most?” And Jesus agreed: “Thou hast rightly judged.” Then Jesus turned to the woman and began telling Simon that she had performed all of the social amenities toward Him that Simon had failed to do. Then He said concerning the woman, “Her sins which were many are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.” And He said to her, “Thy sins are forgiven.”

Probably if Simon ever came to the place of admitting he was a sinner at all, and was the one who owed but fifty pence and unable to pay one penny, he would have been further convicted of his sin of self-righteousness, hypocrisy, and lovelessness and would have seen himself as sinful as the woman. This parable is, to our way of thinking, one of the clearest presentations of salvation by grace. If there is such a thing as big and little sinners, this story puts them all in the same fix; they are all morally and spiritually bankrupt. They can’t do one little thing to pay their debt of sin. And while they are in this hopeless condition, the Lord freely engraces them and cancels their debt, taking the loss upon Himself. Simon answered correctly. If he stuck by his answer he had to admit that he had very little love either for God or his fellow man. John says: “If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?” (1 John 4:20).

(Main Source: Understanding The Gospels – A Different Approach – Charles F. Baker)

NOTE: Dear friends, we wish to expand the ministry, Lord willing, and to distribute tracts to the Zulu people in the area in South Africa where we live.
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A DISPENSATIONAL VIEW OF THE GOSPELS IN SMALL CHUNKS (16)

March 22, 2020 HEAVENLY REMNANT MINISTRIESLeave a comment

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CHAPTER V (CONTINUE)

The Middle Galilean Period (Continue)

D. Riches: Matt. 6:19-24. There are two great principles enunciated in this section: “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also,” and “No man can serve two masters.” The Bible contains many warnings about worldly riches. Here the warning is about the uncertainty of such riches. And even if a man succeeds in amassing a fortune, he may be like the rich fool of Lk. 12:20, whose soul was required of him and he could not take any of his riches with him. The believer can transmute base earthly labor and money into heavenly treasure and have it kept safe on deposit awaiting his arrival in glory.

Paul’s main comments on riches, and they that would be rich are to be found in 1 Tim. 6:6-10. James has some scathing remarks about the rich in Ch. 5:1-6 of his epistle. God has entrusted some of His faithful people with worldly riches, and Paul has a word for them in 1 Tim. 6:17-19.

The parable of the Eye as the Light of the Body in vs. 22 and 23 seems to be related to the location of one’s treasure as well as the serving of two masters. The eye that is single is an eye that is focused upon just one object, not on a complex mixture of objects. We should have an eye single to the glory of God (Eph. 6:5). Likewise, our eye should be focused upon the Lord who is Light, otherwise the light that is in us becomes darkness.
“No man can serve two masters.” “Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” Mammon is an Aramaic word meaning property or wealth, and is here personified, as it is in Lk. 16:13. People try to serve both masters, but their loyalties are divided.

E. Anxiety: Matt. 6:25-34. Anxiety is a sin; it not only demonstrates a lack of faith (and whatsoever is not of faith is sin, Rom. 14:23), but is also injurious to health. The A.V., “Take no thought,” is a very poor translation for today, although it was a good translation in 1611 when the word thought meant anxiety, as can be seen from Shakespeare’s usage in Hamlet: “The native hue of resolution is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought.”
All six of the “take no thoughts” of this passage should be translated, “Don’t be over anxious.” Jesus did not mean a reckless neglect of the future, but uneasiness and worry and anxiety about the future. While many of the principles in this section can be applied equally to the Kingdom and to the Church, we believe there is a distinct difference in some of the Kingdom promises and those for us today. Kingdom promises include material blessings. The Kingdom disciples formed a kind of commune in which they shared all their possessions in common, and we read: “Neither was there any among them that lacked” (Acts 4:34), but a few years later, after the Kingdom program had been set aside in favor of the new Pauline dispensation, we read of these same people that they had become destitute, insomuch that Paul had to take up a collection from his Gentile churches for the poor saints at Jerusalem (Rom. 15:26). Since apostolic days numerous attempts have been made to establish Christian communism, but they have all failed.

Paul condemns anxiety, just as Jesus did (Phil. 4:6), but he encourages industry and the laying aside of funds and the right use of money. He doesn’t condemn the rich but tells them to be rich in good works. He warned those who willed to be rich, for this was an indication of the love of money, which is the root of all kinds of evil.

Matt. 6:33 is often misapplied. Two questions need to be asked: What does it mean to seek the Kingdom of God, and, Are all these other things automatically added? The Kingdom of which Jesus spoke was still future, for He had just instructed His disciples to pray for its coming into being. They were to seek it as a future expectation. This expectation is ours today only in a secondary sense.

Our expectation is the Rapture and to be manifested in glory with Christ. We are already in the spiritual Kingdom of His dear Son (Col. 1:13). We are not seeking the Millennial Kingdom as the disciples of Jesus were. Even if we interpret seeking the Kingdom to mean, putting God first in our lives, does this automatically guarantee that all of these material things will be supplied? We have known people who have gone out as foreign missionaries who believed on the basis of this verse that God would add to them all of these earthly needs. They surely put God first in their lives. Some took no health precautions, thinking this promise took care of all such things, but they came down with malaria, dysentery, and parasites and had to be brought home.

We today must remember that the disciples were living in a dispensation under which they had power over all manner of diseases and even over poisonous serpents. We are not living in that dispensation. Putting God first involves putting His Word first, and that means following His instruction to rightly divide His Word, so that we know which part is for our obedience. In so doing we may learn that putting God first means industriousness, “for if any will not work, neither shall he eat” (2 Thes. 3:10); and the use of remedies for sickness (1 Tim. 5:23); and bodily exercise (1 Tim. 4:8 – it is profitable for a little, not profiteth little). God works according to a plan and He expects us to have a plan for our lives. We can make such plans without becoming anxious or worried. He gives us common sense and He expects us to use it. In every dispensation God and His glory should be put first, but the promises of physical blessings flowing from such actions may vary from dispensation to dispensation. Paul surely put God first in his life, but read of some of his privations in 2 Cor. 11:24-33.

F. Discernment: Matt. 7:1-6; Lk. 6:37-42. The commands in the Bible about judging can be very confusing unless we use discernment. The command here, “Judge not,” seems to say that we should never judge. But that could not be so, for Jesus also said: “Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment” (John 7:24). And Paul instructs believers to pass judgment upon those in the Church who are misbehaving, and he asks: “Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you? no, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren?” (1 Cor. 6:5). And in another place Paul says: “Yea, I judge not mine own self” (1 Cor. 4:3) and in the same epistle, “if we would judge ourselves we should not be judged” (11:31). These are not contradictory statements.

The context must determine the meaning. In Matt. 7:1 Jesus is saying, “If you don’t want to be criticized, don’t criticize others, for others will criticize you by the same standards you use in judging others. The measure you give will be the measure you get.” And He says, before finding fault with others be sure you don’t have the same or even greater fault. He illustrates this with exaggeration. How can you see to remove a speck from your brother’s eye when you have a big log in your own eye? Getting the log out of our own eye is self-judgment. The meaning of these verses seems clear, but what did Jesus mean in Matt. 7: 67?

“Give not that which is holy unto dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you?” This surely, does not mean to refrain from preaching the gospel to the unsaved, for this is the only message the Christian has for those outside of Christ.

In the figure which the Lord uses, the word “holy” refers to the meat of the animal sacrifice of which no unclean person could eat (Lev. 22:6,7,10,14,15,16). Dogs were unclean animals, a term which the Jews applied to Gentiles (Matt. 15:26). Early Christians applied this similitude of the holy things to the bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper, which should not be administered to the unsaved.

The other similitude has a different character. Pearls have a resemblance to peas and acorns which are given to swine, but if thrown to swine, upon discovery that they are inedible they will trample them underfoot and turn upon the donor in anger. There is truth in the Bible intended for the unsaved, and there is truth intended for only the saved. To minister a heavenly diet to the unsaved is like trying to feed swine on pearls. The unregenerated mind cannot tolerate spiritual food. It is, as Paul says, foolishness unto him. When God gave the heavenly manna to the Israelites they treated it with contempt and lusted for the leeks and garlic and the fleshpots of Egypt (Num. 11:4-6).
In the corresponding portion in Luke “the measure” is enlarged upon. If you, as a merchant, fill the measure, press it down, and shake it down further and then fill it to overflowing, your customers will deal in like fashion with you. If you give a skimpy measure, you will get the same in return. This principle applies also to our relation to God, (cf. 2 Cor. 9:6).

Luke also adds the parable of the blind leading the blind. If you have a log in your eye you are blinded and cannot see to lead another who is blind. Also, the disciple or learner is not equal to his master. One must study long to become perfected as a teacher, and then he becomes equal with his master. As the poet has said, “A little learning is a dangerous thing.” Some people learn the meaning of a few Greek words in the N.T. and go about posing as authorities. They can easily lead others astray by conclusions based upon their ignorance of the language as a whole.

G. Encouragements: Matt. 7:7-21; Lk. 11:9-13. The encouragement is based upon prayer and the fact that if parents who are themselves evil know how to give good things to their children who ask, will not the heavenly Father rather give good things to those who ask Him? Asking, seeking, and knocking indicate varying degrees of earnestness in prayer. There is no promise of getting any or every request of a selfish nature (cf. Jas. 4:3). Parents have to be very unwise to give their children everything for which they ask. God gives good things, not requested things which would be for the hurt of the child. The comparison of bread and stones and fish and serpents might seem odd, but there can be a resemblance between these objects.

Lk. 11:13 has a variation on the Matthew rendering: “How much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” In the O.T. the Holy Spirit came upon kings and prophets for special types of empowerments and might later leave them. The Holy Spirit was taken away from Saul because of his sins of disobedience. David prayed that God would not take His Holy Spirit from him (Ps. 51:11). The New Covenant promised that God would put His Spirit in the hearts of the children of Israel (Ezek. 36:27; 37:14).

Christ told His disciples that the Holy Spirit was dwelling with them, and that later on He would be in them (John 14:17). John explains that when Jesus spoke of rivers of living water flowing out of one’s innermost being, “He spake this of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified” (John 7:39). Whereas in that dispensation people had to pray for the Holy Spirit to come and dwell with them, and at Pentecost the Holy Spirit was given after repentance and water baptism, in the present dispensation the Holy Spirit is given upon believing (Eph. 1:13, where “after believing” as in the A.V., should be translated, “upon believing,” for it is a present participle).

H. The Golden Rule: Matt. 7:12. Many people have the impression that to become a Christian one must try to keep the Golden Rule. But the Golden Rule is not a means of salvation. When Christ gave it He said: “For this is the Law and the Prophets.” Scripture is clear that no flesh will ever be justified by keeping the Law. The law demanded that you do unto others what you would have them do unto you. There is nothing especially Christian about this rule. Confucius taught it 500 years before Christ and probably all religions contain the general idea. It is actually a part of natural law. But no man, aside from Jesus Christ, ever consistently lived up to this rule. But through the operation of the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, God is able to fulfill all of the righteous requirements of the moral Law in the believer (Rom. 8:24). There is nothing wrong with the Golden Rule or with the Law. Man’s sinful nature is at fault (cf. Rom. 7:12-18).

I. Alternatives: Matt. 7:13,14. Religionists often say that there are many roads that lead to heaven, but Jesus spoke of only two roads, and one of them led to destruction, leaving only one road that leads to life. In John 14:6 Christ speaks of Himself as the only Way by which men can come to God. In John 10:9 He spoke of Himself as the Door, through which if any man enter he shall be saved. In the passage before us the two gates and the two ways seem to refer more to the choices men make in life as they travel through this world.

A better translation of these two verses would be: “Enter in through the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many are the ones going through it: Because narrow is the gate and constricted is the way that leads to life, and few are the ones finding it.” Notice the comparisons. One gate is very wide, the other very narrow; one way is broad and spacious, the other uneven and difficult to travel; one leads to disaster and destruction, the other leads to life everlasting.

If we isolate these verses from the remainder of Scripture we might get the impression that Jesus is teaching that in order to be saved one must by his own efforts overcome all of the obstacles and difficulties of the narrow way, that he must climb up to heaven by his own strength. But, of course, that is not at all what He is saying. When one enters through the narrow gate he is saved, but from there on the way will not be easy. Over and over Jesus told those who would be His disciples that they would suffer persecution and tribulation (John 16:33; Matt. 10:22; John 15:18), and the same is true in our present dispensation (2 Tim. 3:12; 1 Thes. 3:4). In Jesus’ day, as the opposition from the rulers mounted, it became more and more difficult to make the choice of going through the narrow gate, and the way became more and more straitened and difficult. On the other hand, it seems that the gate is so wide and the road is so broad which leads to destruction, that the unsaved are unaware of having gone through a gate. But they are aware of the bright lights and high life of Broadway, not realizing what is at the end of that road.

(Main Source: Understanding The Gospels – A Different Approach – Charles F. Baker)

NOTE: Dear friends, we wish to expand the ministry, Lord willing, and to distribute tracts to the Zulu people in the area in South Africa where we live.

We humbly ask for any donations, no matter how small. Should you feel led to donate, donations can be made to our PayPal account.

https://heavenlyremnantministries.blog/paypal-donations/?

A DISPENSATIONAL VIEW OF THE GOSPELS IN SMALL CHUNKS (15)

March 14, 2020 HEAVENLY REMNANT MINISTRIESLeave a comment

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CHAPTER V (CONTINUE)

The Middle Galilean Period (Continue)

In this part, we are looking at the second and third of the ten divisions of the Sermon on the Mount.

B. Moral Standards: Matt. 5:17-48; Lk. 6:27-36. The scribes and Pharisees were very meticulous in observing the Law of Moses outwardly. Paul had been a Pharisee and he could say that he was blameless in its observance (Phil. 3:4-6), but this observance produced only self-righteousness. To enter the Kingdom one must have a better righteousness than that. It must be an inward righteousness.

As long as a man did not actually commit adultery, the Mosaic Law on sex could not touch him, even though he may have lived daily with a burning desire for another man’s wife. But according to the higher law which Christ enunciated, such a man was an adulterer before God. In vs. 28, “whosoever looketh on a woman,” looketh is in the present tense and therefore has the idea of continuous action, “keeps on looking and lusting after her.” When Jesus spoke these words the people of Israel were still under the dispensation of Law, as borne out by the fact that Jesus spoke of bringing their gifts to the altar (vs. 23-26).

Jesus quoted from two of the Ten Commandments which deal with the foundations of society: “Thou shalt not kill,” and “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” and explained how the fulfillment depended upon the inner condition of purity of the heart.

He next quoted two laws which have a very wide application in the inner-relationships of men. One deals with truth and the other with justice. Lev. 19:12 is first quoted: “Thou shalt not forswear thyself,” that is “Thou shalt not swear falsely, but perform unto the Lord thine oaths.” But Jesus says, “Swear not at all . . . let what you say be a plain yes or no. Anything more than this has a taint of evil.” If a man has to swear an oath to prove he is telling the truth, it may well be doubted that he is trustworthy.

Jesus next quoted Ex. 21:24, “An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.” This is strict justice, but Jesus tempers justice with mercy. He tells His disciples to give to others more than they deserve. Instead of love your neighbor and hate your enemy, Jesus says, “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you.”

We believe Jesus was speaking metaphorically when He spoke of cutting off one’s hand or foot or other bodily member. God forbad actual mutilation of the human body, and besides such mutilation would be equivalent to suicide, for one would probably bleed to death. There are those who believe that Jesus intended this instruction to be carried out literally, but if so, we have no record of anyone obeying the command. Nor do we believe Jesus intended that His disciples give away all they possessed to anybody for any reason. Even Jesus under certain circumstances did not turn the other cheek (cf. John 18:23). We are sure Jesus did not mean that if a robber entered the house of a disciple he should gladly give him all of his worldly possessions and permit his loved ones to be sexually abused and then give him a kiss of brotherly love and send him on his way rejoicing.
When Jesus spoke of a person having a beam or a big log in his eye, we understand He was using hyperbole, for how could one get the whole trunk of a tree in his eye? Paul likewise tells us to “mortify, that is, put to death our bodily members which are upon the earth” (Col. 3:5). Do we take this literally, or do we understand it to mean that since we were crucified and put to death together with Christ, we are therefore to reckon ourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God?

One needs only to read Rom. 12:17-13:10 to see that Paul gives almost identical instructions to members of the Body of Christ as Jesus gave to His Kingdom disciples. Listen to just a few of his Words: “Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head… Love worketh no ill to his neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.”

Notice how Luke renders Matt. 5:45-48 in Lk. 6:32-36. Luke says, “If ye love them that love you, or do good to them that do good to you, or lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye?” The Greek reads: “What grace is there in that?” We have previously pointed out the seeming influence of Paul upon Luke’s writing, and here we see it again.
C. Righteous Acts: Matt. 6:1-18. The word translated “alms” in vs. 1 should read “righteous acts.” Alms, Prayer and Fasting are here included as righteous acts.

Alms: Alms is a word which comes from the Anglo-Saxon, a word having the same meaning as eleemosynary, which is a transliteration of the Greek word used in our text. It is derived from the word mercy and means showing mercy or compassionateness. God can reward only that which is done from the heart and for His glory. A man might give all of his money to feed the poor, and if he did it to promote his own prestige, Jesus says whatever prestige he received would be his full reward. This same principle holds for any kind of so-called humanitarian or religious good works (cf. 1 Cor. 13:1-3).

Prayer: The Lord’s Prayer, which might better be called the Disciple’s Prayer, is related also in Luke 11:1-4, but on an entirely different occasion. The prayer was doubtless intended to be a sample or model for prayer: not a prayer to be memorized and repeated word for word, over and over again. Jesus warned against using vain repetitions in prayer. When God has answered our requests we do not continue to ask for that thing. If He has supplied not only our bread for today but for a week or month in advance, we should thank Him for the supply; not continue to petition Him. There is progressive revelation concerning prayer which must also be considered. It should be noted that the “Our Father” prayer makes no mention of the name of Jesus. Toward the end of Jesus’ ministry He gave further instructions for prayer. He said, “Hitherto (that is, up to the present time) have ye asked nothing in my name.” Now, He says: “Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you,” (John 16:23,24). Asking in His name means to ask in His behalf, or for His sake. It is easy to end a prayer with the words, “in Jesus’ Name” without having analyzed whether the petition is really for the glory of Christ. With these introductory thoughts in mind, let us look at each element of the prayer.

“Our Father, which art in heaven.” Many Jews could not have ‘prayed this prayer, for Jesus said, “Ye are of your father the Devil,” (Jn. 8:44). It is most important to recognize the fact that the disciples were children of God, both as far as the prayer is concerned and as far as the following context is concerned. Otherwise we may become confused on the matter of the security of the believer. All prayer should begin with praise and worship of God.

“Hallowed be thy name.” The word “hallow” means to be holy, to sanctify, to make a person or thing the opposite of common. God’s name stands for God Himself. That is why God commanded that we should not take His name in vain, or lower His name to the base and commonplace things of this world. This is a petition, which means that the one praying is asking for God’s name to be hallowed in his own personal life.

“Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” These two requests are very closely tied together, for when the Kingdom comes God’s will shall be done in earth as it is done in heaven. This request is another evidence that the Kingdom in the Gospel accounts is the yet future Messianic Kingdom which shall be established here upon the earth. As we have seen, the Kingdom was near at hand but it had not yet come. It is a strange anomaly that many Christians who do not believe that Jesus will ever come back to establish a Kingdom on earth, often pray this prayer for the coming of the Kingdom, even in public service or at their churches. Even though Israel rejected Him and had Him crucified, He prayed for their forgiveness and a new opportunity was given them in the early chapters of Acts to repent, but they again rejected Him and the Kingdom establishment was postponed until God’s hitherto secret purpose concerning the Church is fulfilled.

“Give us this day our daily bread.” There has been much controversy over the exact meaning of the word translated “daily.” We have already commented on the inconsistency of praying for that which we already have. However, there are millions of hungry people in the world who could consistently pray such a prayer. But to place the prayer in its proper context of the coming Millennial Kingdom which will be preceded by the Great Tribulation, this request takes on added meaning. We know that when the Beast comes to power in that day no man will be permitted to buy or sell unless he has submitted to the Beast and received his mark in his right hand or upon his forehead, (Rev. 13:17). We can well imagine the awful plight of the godly Jewish remnant in that day, and how they will have to pray in earnest this prayer for daily bread. While we believe the prayer will have special significance for Israel in the time of Jacob’s trouble, it is surely a legitimate prayer for God’s people at any time in a state of emergency. Some understand the word “bread” to refer to spiritual, rather than physical sustenance. Christ is the Bread that came down from heaven (Jn. 6:33). “Bread” also relate to basic needs as it is wrong to pray for luxurious things we do not actually need.

“And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” Often this verse is placed in contrast to Eph. 4:32, where we are told to forgive one another, even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven us. It is said that in the Kingdom order one had to forgive others in order to be forgiven by God; whereas today we are to forgive others because we have been forgiven. We do not think this distinction is justifiable. In the prayer as recorded by Luke this request reads: “And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us.” Besides this, the tense of the verb “forgive” in Matthew should be rendered as a perfect, and practically all of the other English versions render the Matthew passage: “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” The forgiveness in this passage is the Father’s forgiveness of His child, and not the once for all judicial forgiveness which one receives when he becomes a child of God. We will have more to say on this point when commenting on the verses which follow the prayer.

“And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.” Here we must stop and ask whether God ever leads any one into temptation? Does not James state: “Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man,” (Jas. 1:13). The solution to the problem lies in the proper understanding of the word translated “temptation.” This word does not necessarily mean a solicitation to sin. The word means a trial or test of any kind. Notice how the word is used in the following passages. When Jesus asked Philip, “Whence shall we buy bread, that these (5,000) may eat?” we read that Jesus said this “to prove him.” Here Jesus was testing Philip’s faith; not tempting him to sin (John 6:5,6). When the Jewish leaders tried to trap Jesus with the question of whether it was lawful to give tribute to Caesar or not, Jesus answered: “Why tempt ye me?” (Lk. 20:23). Jesus surely did not mean that these Jews were tempting Him to commit sin. They were putting Him on trial. When Peter at the council in Jerusalem asked: “Why tempt ye God, to put a yoke on the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?” (Acts 15:10), it is evident that he did not mean that they were tempting God to sin. When we read, “By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac,” (Heb. 11:17), we understand that the word in this context means that God was testing or trying Abraham’s faith: not that He was tempting him to sin.

Also the word “lead” us not into temptation has in it the connotation of seducing or enticing to sin. The Greek word means “to bring into.” The American Standard version translates it: “And bring us not into temptation.” Today’s English version has it, “Do not bring us to hard testing.” The New English Bible reads, “And do not bring us to the test.”
While it is true that God never tempts any one to sin, He does sometimes bring us into situations where our faith is sorely tested, and in such situations there is the possibility of yielding to temptation to choose our own way and thus transgress God’s way. But James is quick to point out that “every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed,” (Jas. 1:14). It is not God who entices us to evil, but our own sinful lusts. Thus, this petition is to keep us out of situations in which it would be beyond our strength to keep from sinning. We cannot live in such a world as ours without confronting tests and temptations to evil daily, but we have the promise that “God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it,” (1 Cor. 10:13).

The negative part of the petition is, “Don’t bring us into severe tests.” The positive part is, “But deliver us from evil,” or as many translate, “Deliver us from the evil one.” Satan is ever on the job of enticing people to sin, but in the coming Tribulation period when he is cast out of heaven into the earth, we read, “Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time,” (Rev. 12:9-12). Since the primary interpretation of this prayer belongs to the Kingdom disciples who are destined to go through the Tribulation, we can see the special significance of praying to be delivered from the evil one.

“For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.” This final statement is omitted from the prayer as given in Lk. 11, and it is also omitted from certain of the Greek manuscripts of the prayer in Matthew. Most modern English versions also omit it. Whether these words were spoken by Jesus or added later by a scribe to complete the prayer we may not be sure, but the ascription of power and glory to the Father is true.

After giving the prayer to the disciples, Jesus continues to speak of forgiveness. He says: “But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” Does this mean that one who does not forgive his fellow man will lose his salvation? or that one who does forgive, as in the previous verse, will gain salvation by forgiving? It is a serious mistake to equate forgiveness with salvation, since forgiveness is only one of the many facets of salvation. It is also a mistake to equate the Father’s forgiveness of His child with the judicial forgiveness of the sinner at the moment of salvation. When one is saved the judicial penalty is forgiven once for all. After one becomes a child of God he still has the possibility of sinning, and such sin has to be dealt with, either by the child of God or by the Father. If the child confesses it to the Father, it is forgiven, (1 John 1:9). If the child does not confess it, then the Father must settle the matter, and He does this through judging the sin Himself and this results in chastening of some kind. Paul says, “If we would judge ourselves (confess our sins), we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world” (1 Cor. 11:31,32). Always remember, that a child of God will not lose his salvation but sin and bad works may impact his rewards.

An analogy might help at this point. A man may break into a store and steal merchandise. He is arrested and brought before the judge. He receives a penalty of punishment for a certain period of time in jail. On the other hand, a child may steal some money from his father’s purse. What does the father do? Take the child to court and have him sent to jail? Of course not. The father knows what his son has done and he waits to see if he will recognize that he has done wrong and will come and own up to what he has done. Until the son confesses his wrong there is a strained relation on the part of the son to the father. But if the son does not come voluntarily to set matters right, then the father must take the matter in hand and administer some kind of chastisement. The sin of a Christian is just as sinful, if not more so, than that of the unsaved person, but God deals differently with the sin of the unsaved and that of those who are His beloved children.
Fasting: Fasting has never been commanded by God, but when it is done the same rule applies as in the case of almsgiving and prayer. It should be done in secret before God and not before man. It is perhaps one of the most difficult things a minister of the Word has to contend with, when he receives the praise of his fellow-Christians, to give all of the glory to God and not to feel a little pride in what he has done.

(Main Source: Understanding The Gospels – A Different Approach – Charles F. Baker)

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THE RAPTURE SERIES 5: ISRAEL’S ROLE

March 13, 2020March 13, 2020 HEAVENLY REMNANT MINISTRIESLeave a comment

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THE RAPTURE SERIES 5: ISRAEL’S ROLE

Israel is God’s chosen nation but will not be raptured.

Our Blessed Hope

The Rapture is an orthodox doctrine which cannot be denied. The purpose of this part of our series is to encourage the Church to believe in the words of Jesus, “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself that where I am, there ye may be also ” (John 14:1-3) Therefore, we joyfully await the Lord! The apostle Paul warns believers to be “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13). Therefore, based on the Scripture, we believe in the immanency of the Rapture!

The Necessity Of Faith

Some claim that since you cannot humanly explain something, it does not exist. Such conclusions are faulty because the Bible says, “While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2nd Corinthians 4:18).

The Bible is a book of faith, and only to the extent that we are willing to subject our intellect to the authority of the Holy Scriptures are we able to understand its message. Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” This verse speaks in scientific and legal terms: Faith is “substance” and “evidence.”

For this very reason, it is futile to argue the doctrine of the Rapture with those who deny the absolute authority of the Holy Scriptures. The apostle Paul wrote to the Thessalonians in the simplest of terms and listed only one condition when he described the coming Rapture, “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again…” (1st Thessalonians 4:14). Therefore, if we do not believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus, we cannot be born again. As a result, we will not be raptured.

Israel: The End time Sign

When we talk about the Rapture, we must realize that this is not an isolated event concerning only the Church of Jesus Christ, nor is it a doctrine established only in the New Testament. That is far from the truth. We notice from many passages, Romans 11 in particular, that the Church of Jesus Christ mainly consists of Gentiles and is actually part of Israel; we are organically one. The Bible clearly supports the position of the Gentiles with the following words, “… wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?” (verse 24). Verse 17 gives further clarification, “…thou, being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in among them, and with them par-takest of the root and fatness of the olive tree.”

Since the olive tree represents Israel, the Gentiles who believe in Jesus have been joined with Israel, making us one. When the Rapture takes place, it will undoubtedly affect Israel, as we will see later on.

This organic unity is also emphasized in Ephesians 2:12, “That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.” And of course, we must not forget to mention Ephesians 3:6, “That the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel.” Therefore, if part of the promise was addressed to the Church from among the Gentiles, we can conclude that Israel must be the greatest end-time sign for the Church and that the Rapture is close at hand. With that in mind, let us take a closer look at Israel.

Israel To Be Separate

Very few seem to realize that the union of the Jews and Gentiles clearly violates God’s order. According to Deuteronomy 14:2, Israel cannot be integrated into the nations of the world, “For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God, and the Lord hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth.” God set the Jews apart, “above all other nations.” They are chosen for God’s purpose. If Satan, the prince of this world, who is also called the god of this world, is successful in mixing the Jews with the Gentiles, then he can eradicate the Jews, dissolving them in the ocean of Gentiles, ruining God’s promises. We know from the Bible that in the end, Satan will not succeed. The Lord will see to it that Israel will be saved out of this terrible coming day, the Great Tribulation.

Israel Failed To Separate

From reading the Old Testament, we know that Israel failed to completely fulfill this commandment of God. For as long as Joshua lived, the people followed the Lord’s instruction to destroy their enemies. However, after Joshua died, we read over and over in the book of Judges that the tribes of Israel did not completely drive out the enemies from within their allotted territory. We arrive at this conclusion based on the following examples:

• Judah and Simeon “… could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley…” (Judges 1:19).
• “And the children of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites that inhabited Jerusalem…” Judges 1:21)
• “Neither did Manasseh drive out the inhabitants of Bethshean…” (Judges 1:27).
• “… when Israel was strong… they put the Canaanites to tribute, and did not utterly drive them out” (Judges 1:28).

Israel failed to execute God’s commandment. This has carried over to the present problem in the Middle East and is nothing other than the result of Israel’s disobedience, even thousands of years ago! Israel deliberately refused to separate herself from the nations and has continuously allowed some degree of integration.

Israel Failed To Receive The Kingdom Of God

In the fullness of time, Jesus, Son of God and Messiah came and proclaimed that the kingdom of God was at hand. Finally, Israel had the opportunity to be a unique nation above all others as a visible testimony to the heathen.

John the Baptist, the herald of the coming Messiah, proclaimed,
“…Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:2). John did not come out with this statement of his own initiative, but quoted the prophetic Scripture, “For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight” (Matthew 3:3). When Jesus was baptized by John, we hear the heavenly Father’s confirmation, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17).

Fulfilled Prophecy

It is fascinating to notice that all of these events took place in accordance with the prophetic Word, “… that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet…” (Matthew 1:22). Even the religious people who in reality did not wait for the coming of the Messiah had to confess, “…for thus it is written by the prophet” (Matthew 2:5). In verse 15 we read, “… that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet….” And in verse 17, “Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet…”When His parents had settled in Nazareth, we read, “… that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene” (Verse 23). Jesus came to fulfill the perfect will of God the Father. The New Testament repeatedly testifies of His works as being the fulfillment of prophecy.

The scribes, the Pharisees, and the other religious authorities should have recognized that Jesus was the Messiah, but they did not. Why not? Because prophecy had to be fulfilled. Matthew 13:14-15 bears witness that, “…in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.” The Prince of Peace, the Lord Jesus Christ, was in their midst! However, Israel stumbled, and the Jews fell deeply into unbelief because they had wanted the kingdom and the king on their own terms!

Israel Isolated Through Judgment

After the children of Israel refused to obey God and keep His commandments, which would have separated them from the heathen nations around them, God used the nations as a tool of judgment to separate the Jews from their land and scatter them across the entire world!

Since the destruction of the Temple by the Roman forces in A.D. 70, the Jews have been severely persecuted throughout the world.

Volumes have been written about the horrible suffering of the Jewish people during the course of the last 2,000 years.

God ordained them to be distinctly identified, isolated, and separated: not for the purpose of uniqueness in a positive sense, but often for discrimination, oppression and even death.

Israel’s Miraculous Birth

Through Hitler’s Nazi killing machine, more than six million Jews perished, not because of any crime or wrongdoing on their part, but simply because they were Jews. They were different!

It is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to understand why God permitted such horrifying judgment upon His chosen people. Many have asked the question without receiving a definite answer. All we know is that Israel arose immediately after the Holocaust and became a nation. The horrible injustices suffered by the Jewish people contributed to the United Nations’ decision to grant them the right to establish a homeland in the territory named by the British-Palestine.

At the beginning the Jews and Arabs lived together in relative harmony in the Holy Land. However, with the founding of the state of Israel on May 14, 1948, and the wars that followed as a result, Israel became divided from her Arab neighbors. The division of these two groups caused the world to pressure Israel into compromise regarding the coexistence between them and the Arab-Palestinians.

Even today, Israel still desires peaceful coexistence with all the Arabs, and undoubtedly, this division will be dealt with in a democratic fashion so that one day Israel will live in peace with all of her Arab neighbors. It must be stressed, however, that this peace will only be temporary because it is a false peace.

Israel’s Uniqueness

We deliberately emphasize Israel’s position in relation to the Church and the Gentile nations so that we may understand why it is necessary in these end times to expect a supernatural intervention. God must fulfill His Word; “For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God, and the LORD hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth” (Deuteronomy 14:2). How can God make Israel a special, chosen people above all the nations of the world if they are expected to become one with the world?

Now that we are witnessing the integration of the Jews with the nations of the world, we are forced to ask, “How much longer will it be until God must supernaturally interfere in order to maintain the national identity of His chosen people?”

Israel: The Origin Of The Church

Many readers might be asking, “Does Israel have a direct relationship with the Church and the Rapture?” The answer is “yes” because Israel has been given to us as an example. Therefore, we must also analyze the Church in regard to her chosen position as a separate identity, using Israel as our pattern! This will be done in part 6 of our series.

(MAIN SOURCE: The Great Mystery of the Rapture – Arno Froese – 1999)

A DISPENSATIONAL VIEW OF THE GOSPELS IN SMALL CHUNKS (13)

February 28, 2020 HEAVENLY REMNANT MINISTRIESLeave a comment

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CHAPTER IV (CONTINUE)

The Early Galilean Ministry (CONTINUE)

6. A Full Day of Miracles at Capernaum
References: Matt. 8:14-17; Mk. 1:21-34; Lk. 4:31-41

It will be noted that we have skipped over the three chapters in Matthew on the Sermon on the Mount, which seems to have been given later after Jesus had ordained His Twelve Apostles.

In comparing these three accounts it will be seen that Mark and Luke are almost identical. Matthew omits completely the preaching in the synagogue and the casting out of the unclean demon, but he does give substantially the same stow as Mark and Luke on the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law, and of the miraculous events at the end of the day.
Regarding the synagogue at Capernaum it is interesting to note that the ruins of this synagogue may be seen today and the inscription on the middle wall forbidding Gentiles to cross over on pain of death has been unearthed. It was here that Jesus taught on that Sabbath day when a man with an unclean spirit cried out: “What have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? Art thou come to destroy us? I know thee, who thou art: the Holy One of God.” Luke says the man had a spirit of an unclean demon. This is the only occurrence of this expression. Mark speaks of unclean spirits eleven times, Luke six times and Matthew twice. Neither Matthew nor Mark speak of unclean demons. Spirits are called evil and dumb, as well as unclean, and once one is spoken of as a spirit of infirmity.

There are 76 references to demons in the N.T., always rendered “devil” or “devils” in the Authorized Version. Demon possession was especially prevalent at the time of Christ and will be again at the end of the age. We know very little about the nature of demons, only that they are evil spirits which apparently seek embodiment in human beings. The Bible reveals some of the effects of demon possession, although some of these effects may be simply physical or psychosomatic diseases. Demons may cause Dumbness (Matt.9:32,33); Blindness (Matt. 12:22); Lunacy (Matt. 17:15); Super-human strength (Mk. 5:1-4); Sickness (Lk. 13:12,16); Divination (Acts 16:16); Immorality or uncleanness (Matt. 10:1); Nudity (Luke 8:27); Free-love (1 Tim. 4:3); Maniac behavior (Mk. 5:2-5).

Whereas demons almost always produce degrading behavior and are under the control of the Devil, Satan himself and his ministers transform themselves into angels of light and ministers of righteousness (2 Cor. 11:13-15), working lying signs and wonders, deceiving the very elect if that were possible (Matt. 24:24; Rev. 12:9; 13:14). In apostolic times a special gift of discerning of spirits was given which made it possible to recognize demon possession. Demons still exist and doubtless there are cases of demon possession, and Christ and His gospel are powerful enough to overcome any demon or Satanic powers.

The demons recognized Jesus as the Holy Son of God and they trembled in His presence, even if mankind did not. They knew they were under condemnation and someday would be judged. When Jesus commanded the unclean demon spirit to come out of the man, and it obeyed, convulsing him as it did, the people were amazed at the authority of Jesus and His fame spread throughout the region.

Leaving the synagogue, He entered the house of Simon and Andrew where He found Simon’s mother-in-law sick with a fever. He rebuked the fever and it left her and immediately she arose and ministered unto them.

The news had spread and, in the evening, a great multitude came bringing all of the diseased and demon possessed and He laid hands upon everyone and healed them all. This healing was vastly different from that of so-called faith healers today, where some claim to be healed and the majority go away disillusioned. It is Matthew again who links up this healing ministry with prophecy, for he says that Jesus healed them “that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses” (Isa. 53:4). This passage deserves very careful exposition, since there are many today who are claiming divine healing on the basis that Christ bore our sicknesses just the same as He bore our sins, and we have just as much right to claim healing of the body as we do salvation of the soul. We believe there are at least six answers to this.

• It is plainly stated that Christ fulfilled this prophecy in bearing sicknesses two years before He died on the Cross where He made atonement for sin. Therefore, the healing was not in the atonement.
• The verbs for bearing sin and bearing sickness are entirely different. The word for bearing sin is “anaphero,” and is used in such passages as I Pet. 2:24; Heb. 9:28; and Isa. 53:12 (Septuagint). The word for bearing sickness is “bastazo” and is used in such passages as Matt. 3:11, “whose shoes I am not worthy to bear;” Gal. 6:2, “bear ye one another’s burdens;” Rom. 15:1, “bear the infirmities (same word as sicknesses in Matt. 8:17) of the weak;” Isa. 53:4, “surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.” Thus Christ bore sins in an altogether different way from bearing sicknesses.
• If healing is in the Atonement as is claimed to the same extent as salvation, then one possesses salvation only to the extent he has perfect health. But since all saints in the past have died, most from disease, this would prove that all had lost their salvation, for they surely lost their health.
• The Apostle Paul gloried in his infirmities (the same word as used in Matt. 8:17). See 2 Cor. 11:30; 12:9,10. If having sickness is necessarily out of the will of God then Paul gloried in being out of the will of God, and it was God’s grace that taught him to do it.
• Healing in the Atonement denies such Scriptures as Rom. 8:23: “but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.” Our final salvation includes a redeemed body, but not in this world, where Paul tells us we have a body of humiliation.
• Finally it should be noted that God has promised health to Israel, along with all other physical and material blessings. See Deut. 28:1-14. God revealed Himself to Israel as “Jehovah-Ropheca,” the Lord that healeth thee (Ex. 15:26). This is the reason we find that physical healing was the prominent part of Christ’s earthly ministry to Israel. Healing was one of the credentials of the Messiah, by which Israel could recognize Him when He came on the scene.

7. Jesus Prays and Goes On a Mission Throughout All Galilee
References: Matt. 4: 23-25; 8:1-4; Mk. 1:35-45; Lk. 4:42-44; 5:12-16

Mark alone tells us that Jesus arose long before daybreak and went out into a desert place to pray. It is very difficult for us to understand the prayer life of our Lord, how or why it was necessary for the very Son of God to pray to the Father. He was God Himself and why should God have to pray? But He was also Man, and as such He humbled Himself and submitted Himself to the will of the Father. There is much of the prayer life of our Lord in the Gospels. Here, before starting out on a preaching tour throughout Galilee, He communes with the Father and doubtless asks the Father’s blessing upon this undertaking.

The disciples arose later and went out looking for Him and when they found Him they told Him how the multitudes were waiting for Him. Many others who followed the disciples also begged Him to continue His ministry with them, but Jesus told them He must move on and preach in all of the other towns because He was sent for this purpose. And so we read that Jesus went throughout all Galilee teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the Kingdom, and healing all manner of disease and sickness.
One particular healing miracle is singled out in this section, that of a leper. Leprosy was considered an incurable disease and any healing of it to be a working of the power of God. The loathsomeness of this disease and its hopelessness is doubtless a picture of the nature of sin. Leprosy separated its victim from the remainder of society (Lev. 13:44-46), just as sin separates from fellowship with God.

Matthew also records the cleansing of this leper, but he places it right after Jesus comes down from delivering the sermon on the mount, (ch. 8:1-4). Luke states it was while He was in one of the cities the event took place. The leper kneeled before Jesus, worshipping Him (an expression of Christ’s Deity), and saying: “Lord if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.” Jesus stretched forth His hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be thou made clean.” Jesus had to come in contact with the leprosy of sin, a contact which would have made a clean person unclean; He had to take upon Himself man’s sin in order to cleanse man from his defilement. After cleansing the leper Jesus charged him to say nothing to any man about the healing but to go and show himself to the priest and offer the sacrifices Moses commanded for a testimony unto them (Lev. 14). Although the priesthood in Israel was corrupt and would finally condemn Jesus to death, He recognized that He was still under the divinely established dispensation of Law, and was always obedient to it and instructed His disciples to do whatsoever Mosaic leaders commanded (cf. Matt. 23:1-3).

In what way would this leper give a testimony to the priest? The priest was the one who had pronounced him to be a leper. The priest knew that only God could cure leprosy. This fact is clearly seen in the story of 2 Kings 5 when the king of Syria sent a message to the king of Israel saying his army general had leprosy and he was sending him to the king with gifts for the king to heal him of his leprosy. When the king read the letter, he rent his clothes and said, “Am I God, to kill and make alive, that this man doth send unto me to recover a man of leprosy?” Of course, there was in Israel at that time a prophet of God who performed the miracle on Naaman. Therefore the priest in our present case would have to admit that Jesus was God, or at least was doing the works of God. Thus, by going to the priest the man’s healing was authenticated. Had the man not gone to the priest for an official bill of health others might have said, “We don’t believe you ever had leprosy.” We think this is the reason Jesus told the man to say nothing to others but go straight to the priest. He was not saying, “I do not want you ever to tell anyone about your healing, ”but rather,” don’t tell others until you have gone to the priest.” The fact is, that after he had gone to the priest he told so many people about Jesus that Jesus could no longer openly enter into the city because of the crowds, but had to retire to a desert place and minister to those who came to Him.

Modern drugs have been found which will arrest the disease of leprosy, but these drugs have no ability to cure the patient of the effects of the disease. If fingers or toes or other parts of the body have been sloughed off, the drug cannot restore these members. The victim is still a pitiable creature. When Jesus healed the leper he was completely restored. It is stated in the case of Naaman, “and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean” (2 Kings 5: 14). The same principle works in God’s salvation. When He saves a person He does not merely patch up the old man with all of his deformities and scars: He creates a new man (cf. Col. 3:9,10).

8. Paralytic Let Down Through the Roof
References: Matt. 9:2-8; Mk. 2:1-12; Lk. 5:17-26

We learn from Matthew that Jesus entered a boat and crossed the lake of Galilee and came to “his own city.” Mark tells us that this city was Capernaum. This is where Jesus made His headquarters in Galilee. Matthew omits the part about removing the tiles from the flat-topped roof so they could lower the paralytic man in the presence of Jesus, but Mark and Luke both give this detail. Mark gives the further detail that the paralyzed man was carded by four other men. Luke tells us that on this occasion Pharisees and doctors of the law from every village of Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem had gathered to observe Jesus and that the Power of the Lord was with Jesus to perform healing.

If leprosy with its defilement speaks of sin, then palsy or paralysis represents powerlessness or inability of the sin nature toward God. Paul brings out this aspect of our nature in Rom. 5:6: “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.” The sinner must come to the place where he sees himself as morally and spiritually paralyzed, unable to move himself and therefore dependent one hundred percent on the grace of God for salvation. The leper and the paralytic both illustrate Israel’s spiritual condition, and their healings illustrate the regeneration which will take place when Christ returns as Israel’s Savior and King.

The four men represent the soul-winner: we cannot save souls; all we can do is to bring men to Christ. And these four personal workers manifested great industry, if they couldn’t get the man to Christ by the usual means of going through the door, they used a very unusual means of tearing a hole in the ceiling and lowering him through the hole. We need to use every means at our disposal to reach men for Christ.

The man in the story had two diseases. The Lord healed the most important one first. Seeing the man’s faith He said, “Thy sins are forgiven thee.” This immediately stirred up the Jewish religious leaders present, for they said, “Who is this that speaketh blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?” Only God could cleanse the leper and restore his flesh like new, and only God can forgive sins, but Jesus did both, which proves that Jesus was God. Then Jesus asked, “Which is easier to say, Thy sins are forgiven thee, or to say, Arise and walk?” But to prove He had power to forgive sins He said to the paralyzed man, “Arise and take up thy couch, and go unto thy house.”

The spectators were amazed when the cripple got up, picked up his pad and started home glorifying God. All they could say was, “We have seen strange things today,” and others said, “We never saw it on this fashion.” Is it not strange, almost unbelievable, that the sinful hearts of these unconverted religionists could witness such evidences of the Deity of Christ, and still rebel in their minds and seek some means of putting Jesus to death? It is no wonder Paul says that the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God; neither indeed can be (Rom. 8:6-8).

9. The Call of Matthew
References: Matt. 9:9-13; Mk. 2:13-17; Lk. 5:27-32

Mark and Luke call Matthew, Levi, and Mark adds that he was the son of Alphens. He was a publican or tax collector for the Roman government and was naturally hated by the people. He was seated at the tax office or toll house when Jesus passed by and said, “Follow me.” Luke tells us that Levi made a great feast at his house for Jesus and invited a great many publicans and others to the feast. Then the Pharisees began complaining to the disciples, as they did in Lk. 15, that Jesus received sinners and ate with them. Jesus’ answer was two-fold: “People who are healthy have no need of a physician, but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” Thus, those who refused to come to Jesus affirmed that they were healthy and righteous: they had no need of Jesus. But the other answer He gave was: “But go ye and learn what this meaneth, I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.” The reference is to Hos. 6:6. The prophet was not saying that God never commanded the people to bring sacrifices; for He did, but that He desired mercy and the knowledge of God more than burnt-offerings. The Pharisees were punctilious in the religious observances but their hearts were far from God. They honored Him with their lips but denied Him by their works.

(Main Source: Understanding The Gospels – A Different Approach – Charles F. Baker)

NOTE: Dear friends, we wish to expand the ministry, Lord willing, and to distribute tracts to the Zulu people in the area in South Africa where we live.

We humbly ask for any donations, no matter how small. Should you feel led to donate, donations can be made to our PayPal account.

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“PAULINE CHRISTIANITY”

February 26, 2020 HEAVENLY REMNANT MINISTRIESLeave a comment

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Pauline Christianity is a term applied by those who claim that Jesus taught one thing, and Paul taught something completely different. They believe that the Christianity of today has little to do with Jesus’ teachings; rather, it is the product of Paul’s corruption of those teachings.

In short, according to them, Paul was a charlatan, an evangelical huckster who succeeded in twisting Jesus’ message of love into something Jesus himself would never recognize. It was Paul, not Jesus, who originated the “Christianity” of today.

We on the other hand, believe that the New Testament is a unified whole: the Gospels present the life and work of Jesus the Messiah; the Epistles explain the meaning and scope of Jesus’ work and apply it to daily living. For example, Matthew 28 narrates the fact of Jesus’ resurrection, and 1 Corinthians 15 explains the significance of His resurrection. The same Holy Spirit who inspired the Gospels also inspired the Epistles to give us a fuller understanding of God’s plan of salvation.

Commonly, many of those who hold to the negative theory about Paul, also believe the following:
1) Jesus was not divine. He never claimed to be God, and he never intended to start a new religion.
2) The Bible is not an inspired book and is riddled with contradictions. None of the Bible, except possibly the book of James, was written by anyone who knew Jesus. There are fragments of Jesus’ teachings in the Gospels, but it is difficult to discern what he really said.
3) Paul was never a Pharisee and was not highly educated. His “conversion” was either a personal hallucinogenic experience or an outright fraud. His claims to be an apostle were attempts to further his own authority in the church.
4) Pauline theological “inventions” include a) the deity of Jesus; b) salvation by grace through faith; c) salvation through the blood of Jesus; d) the sinless nature of Jesus; e) the concept of original sin; and f) the Holy Spirit. None of these “new doctrines” were accepted by Jesus’ true followers.
5) The Gnostic Gospels are closer to the truth about Jesus than are the traditional four Gospels of the Bible.

The concept of “Pauline Christianity” represents an outright attack on the Bible as the Word of God. Adherents of the “Pauline Christianity” theory are truly misrepresenting Jesus’ teachings. They choose to believe His words on love but deny His teachings on judgment (such as Matthew 24). They insist on a human Jesus, denying His divinity, although Jesus plainly taught His equality with God in passages such as John 10:30. They want a “loving” Jesus without having to accept Him as Lord and Savior.

Interestingly, Paul’s credentials as an apostle were attacked, even in his own lifetime, by those who desired to lead the church into legalism and other errant ideologies. Paul defends himself from the spurious attacks of false teachers in 1 Corinthians 9; 2 Corinthians 12; and Galatians 1.

Paul’s apostleship is attested to by the miracles he performed (Romans 15:19), the training he received (Galatians 1:15-20), and the testimony of the other apostles. Peter, far from being Paul’s enemy, wrote this about him: “Our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction” (2 Peter 3:15-16).

(The above are extracts from an article by GotQuestions.Org – https://www.gotquestions.org/Pauline-Christianity.html )

Don Stewart, from The Blue Letter Bible gives us some clarity about Paul:

What evidence do we have to call Paul’s writings Scripture?

WHO WAS PAUL?

We have no physical description of Saul of Tarsus given to us in Scripture. Early tradition says that he was a small man with a bald head. No matter what he looked liked, his writings have become part of the Word of God as found in the New Testament.

He was born Saul of Tarsus – a city which is in modern-day Turkey. Tarsus had been part of the Greek world for some time. Although the family of Saul were Jews, Saul himself was a Roman citizen.

While still a young man Saul travelled to Jerusalem to train as a Rabbi. In Jerusalem, he became acquainted with a group of people who believed Jesus of Nazareth to be the Messiah. Saul relentlessly persecuted these people while all the time thinking that he was serving God.

THE CONVERSION OF SAUL OF TARSUS

While heading for Damascus to further jail believers in Jesus, Saul had a blinding vision that knocked him to the ground. The voice that spoke to Saul identified Himself as Jesus of Nazareth – the one whom he had been persecuting. Thus, began one of the great turnarounds in history. The greatest antagonist of the Christian faith – Saul of Tarsus – became its greatest missionary – the Apostle Paul. During his lifetime he penned thirteen different works that have become part of the New Testament. It is impossible to overestimate the influence that Paul played in the spread of the Christian faith.

HE BELIEVED HIS MESSAGE TO BE DIVINE

The first thing that must be noticed is that Paul believed his message to be divine. He wrote:

“If anyone thinks himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things which I write to you are the commandments of the Lord” (1 Corinthians 14:37).

He wrote to the church at Thessalonica:

“And for this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received from us the word of God’s message, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe” (1 Thessalonians 2:13).

PAUL SPOKE OF “MY GOSPEL”

Paul spoke of “my gospel.” He said the preaching of Jesus Christ had been kept secret but now had been revealed.

“Now to him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past, but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations, leading to obedience of faith” (Romans 16:25,26).

However, believing to have a divine message does not make it so. What evidence do we have of this message having been sent from God?

PAUL RECEIVED DIRECT REVELATION FROM THE LORD

The Bible teaches that Paul received direct revelation from God. Paul wrote:

“Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord?” (1 Corinthians 9:1).

After an encounter with the ascended Jesus on the Damascus road, Paul had it explained by Ananias:

“The God of our fathers has chosen you that you should know his will, and see the Just One, and hear the voice of his mouth. For you will be his witness to all men of what you have seen and heard “ (Acts 22:14,15).

DISOBEYING HIS WRITINGS BRINGS DISCIPLINE

Paul said that anyone who disobeyed his writings was to be disciplined by the local church. He wrote:

“If anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, take special note of that person and do not associate with him, so that he will be put to shame” (2 Thessalonians 3:14).

To the Corinthians he wrote:

“I already gave you a warning when I was with you the second time. I now repeat it while absent: On my return I will not spare those who sinned earlier or any of the others, since you are demanding proof that Christ is speaking through me. He is not weak in dealing with you, but is powerful among you” (2 Corinthians 13:2-3).

Paul also wrote:

“If anybody thinks he is a prophet or spiritually gifted, let him acknowledge that what I am writing to you is the Lord’s command. If he ignores this, he himself will be ignored” (1 Corinthians 14:37,38).

HIS WRITINGS WERE CONSIDERED SCRIPTURE DURING HIS LIFETIME

The final point is that the New Testament recognized Paul’s writing as Scripture. Peter wrote:

“Our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which some things are hard to understand, which those who are untaught and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the rest of the Scriptures” (2 Peter 3:15,16).

The writings of Paul complete the New Testament. He was the chosen instrument to explain the meaning of the two comings of Jesus Christ.

SUMMARY

Saul of Tarsus was a great enemy of the church. However, he was converted on the road to Damascus while in the midst of persecuting Christians. He became the Apostle Paul – the greatest missionary the church has ever seen.

Paul was given the task of explaining the ministry of Christ to the Gentile (non-Jewish) world.

We find that he received direct revelation from the Lord. Paul also believed his message to be divine. The Apostle Peter confirmed Paul’s words as Scripture. He was God’s chosen instrument to reveal much about the central truths of the Christian faith. Paul also explained the necessity of the two comings of Christ.

(Source: https://www.blueletterbible.org/faq/don_stewart/don_stewart_1242.cfm )

HOW TO HAVE A TRACT MINISTRY

February 24, 2020 HEAVENLY REMNANT MINISTRIESLeave a comment

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WHAT IS A TRACT?

A tract is a short, simple presentation of the gospel message, printed in convenient pocket size, designed for easy distribution and use. There is probably no easier, more convenient way to share the Good News of Jesus Christ than through the use of gospel tracts. Many people have been led to Christ in this way. Consider these features of such a ministry:

1. There is no certain time or amount of time required – just whenever the opportunity arises.
2. Tracts can be left anywhere or shared with almost anyone.
3. There are tracts for every occasion, for every need, and for every type of person.
4. Tracts can be distributed by anyone, regardless of age, sex, race, or education.
5. Tracts provide an easy way to “break the ice” or “open the door” to witness.
6. Tracts eliminate the problem of forgetfulness or uncertainty of what to say.
7. The message, since it is printed, can be taken home, re-read and studied.
8. Tracts can be passed along, and can, therefore, be used over and over again.
9. Tracts can be mass distributed easily.
10. Tracts are inexpensive and can be handed out liberally.

KEYS TO SUCCESS IN TRACT EVANGELISM

1. Success in witnessing is simply sharing Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit and leaving the results to God. There is no substitute for prayer.
2. Always have a variety of tracts available and be prepared to use them.
3. Look for opportunities to use tracts. Take advantage of every situation.
4. As in all things, be pleasant and polite in representing the Lord Jesus Christ.
5. Do not become discouraged if you see few decisions at first. Remember: “So shall My Word be that goeth forth out of My mouth: it shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” Isaiah 55:11. “And let us not be weary in well doing; for in due season we shall reap if we faint not.” Galatians 6:9. “One soweth, and another reapeth.” John 4:37.
6. Distribute tracts plentifully and persistently. “He who soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly, and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.” 2 Corinthians 9:6.
7. Be sure to answer mail and telephone responses. Follow-up is an essential part of evangelism. “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” Mark 16:15

HOW TO USE TRACTS

1. The preferred method is to personally hand a tract to a person and at the same time to witness with words like “May I share something with you?” or “Let me ask you just one question.” A few words of testimony may be helpful. Simply reading the tract to a person will often be the best approach.
Give tracts to friends and acquaintances everywhere; strangers in restaurants and grocery stores, bag boys and gas station attendants. Don’t forget the person on the bus or plane, the taxi driver, the parking lot attendant, and the mail carrier. Include also the bank teller and door-to-door salesman.
2. For one reason or another, it may not be possible to talk with a particular person. In such a case, just hand them a tract and ask them to read this special message at their own convenience.
3. Tracts can be handed out in shopping malls, parks, at sporting events and other places where people congregate.
4. Place tracts in all mail, including personal and business letters, bills, statements, bank deposits, greeting cards, and packages. Send them to persons known to be lost, those hospitalized and habitual church absentees. Also include people who have lost loved ones, newlyweds and new arrivals. Include God’s Word in every occasion.
REMEMBER OUR GOAL
Reach as many people as possible with the gospel, for “… repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His Name among all nations…” Luke 24:47. “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” Romans 10:17.
Many, many who would never attend church nor open the Bible, will, in fact, read a tract. They will thereby hear the Word of God, and many will be saved.

DID YOU KNOW THAT:

1. If one thousand people would each put out just fifty tracts per week, in one year over 2.6 million tracts would be distributed!
2. If one person would be saved for every one thousand tracts, 2600 souls would be won to Christ during that year!
3. Just minutes per day per person is required to hand out this many tracts!
“As My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you.” John 20:21.

SUGGESTIONS FOR CONDUCTING A CHURCH OR GROUP TRACT MINISTRY

1. Elect a Director of Tract Evangelism to supervise the program.
2. Encourage workers to make definite commitments to this ministry.
3. Conduct initial training for all workers in how to witness with tracts.
4. Conduct regular prayer sessions for the program.
5. Obtain a wide variety of tract samples from different sources. There is a host of tracts for every occasion and every kind of spiritual need. Select appropriate tracts from among these and maintain sufficient quantity.
6. Set aside funds on a continuing basis, if possible, to assist in the ongoing expense of printing tracts or buying them.
7. Stamp all tracts with address and telephone number for follow-up.
8. Develop a follow-up, discipleship program for new Christians.
9. Acquire an attractive tract rack and place it in a heavy traffic area. Keep it well stocked.
10. Have periodic meetings of all workers to share results and experiences. Keep records of decisions made “for Christ”.

“Then saith He unto His disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few; pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He will send forth laborers into His harvest.” Matthew 9:37-38

(Written by Joe Segree)

NOTE: Dear friends, we wish to expand HEAVENLY REMNANT MINISTRIES, Lord willing, by distributing tracts to the Zulu people in the area in South Africa where we live. This will be our first step to bring the gospel to some of the poorest of the poor in our country.

We humbly ask for any donations, no matter how small, to enable us to start with this project. Should you feel led to donate, donations can be made to our PayPal account.

https://heavenlyremnantministries.blog/paypal-donations/?

DID MUHAMMAD EXIST?

February 23, 2020February 23, 2020 HEAVENLY REMNANT MINISTRIESLeave a comment

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The book, “Did Muhammad Exist?” by Robert Spencer is highly recommended, should you be interested in understanding Islam’s obscure origins. Islam is more of a patched ideology, rather than a religion.

Go to a high-street or online bookstore, and one can find numerous biographies written about Muhammad — the reputed founder of Islam — by the likes of Karen Armstrong and Tariq Ramadan. These works — generally apologetic in nature — wholly rely on the traditional Islamic accounts of the Prophet’s life, and if they ever delve into the question of the reliability of those sources, it is only in the hope of explaining away incidents in Muhammad’s life that might come across as unsavory to modern readers.

Such an approach, however, simply will not do for genuine historical research. One cannot adopt a pick-and-mix method to determining what aspects of Muhammad’s life actually occurred on moralistic grounds. It is in this respect that Robert Spencer’s latest book differs from the writings of Armstrong and Ramadan.

Without indulging in polemics or pushing a partisan political agenda, the author simply investigates the question of whether we can really trust the traditional Islamic accounts for the life of Muhammad and the supposed early days of Islam during the Arab conquests.

So, did Muhammad exist? As a prophet of the Arabs who taught a vaguely defined monotheism, he may have existed. But beyond that, his life story is lost in the mists of legend, like those of Robin Hood and Macbeth. As the prophet of Islam, who received (or even claimed to receive) the perfect copy of the perfect eternal book from the supreme God, Muhammad almost certainly did not exist. There are too many gaps, too many silences, too many aspects of the historical record that simply do not accord, and cannot be made to accord, with the traditional account of the Arabian prophet teaching his Qur’an, energizing his followers to such an extent that they went out and conquered a good part of the world.

A careful investigation makes at least one thing clear: The details of Muhammad’s life that have been handed down as canonical—that he unified Arabia by the force of arms, concluded alliances, married wives, legislated for his community, and did so much else—are a creation of political ferments dating from long after the time he is supposed to have lived. Similarly, the records strongly indicate that the Qur’an did not exist until long after it was supposed to have been delivered to the prophet of Islam.

In light of this evidence, there is compelling reason to conclude that Muhammad the messenger of Allah came into existence only after the Arab Empire was firmly entrenched and casting about for a political theology to anchor and unify it. Muhammad and the Qur’an cemented the power of the Umayyad caliphate and then that of the Abbasid caliphate. That is the most persuasive explanation for why they were created at all. And once legends about Muhammad began to be elaborated, his story took on a life of its own: One legend begat another, as people hungered to know what their prophet said and did regarding issues that vexed them. Once Muhammad was summoned, he could not be sent away. One pious legend fabricated for political purposes would lead to another, and then another, to fill in holes and address anomalies in the first; then those new stories would lead in turn to still newer ones, until finally the faithful Muslims were able to fill wheelbarrows with volumes of hadiths, as is the case today.

As long as the oddities, inconsistencies, and lacunae exist in the traditional Islamic narratives and the records of early Islam, there will arise people with the courage to seek answers to the questions we have considered here. Up to now, however, those brave scholars have been relatively few in number. This is both unusual and unfortunate. It is unusual in that the world’s other major religions have undergone thorough historical investigation; the “quest for the historical Jesus,” a parallel to inquiries into the historical Muhammad, has been a prominent field of scholarship for two centuries. It is unfortunate in that the lack of interest in examining Islam’s origins, among Muslim and non-Muslim scholars alike, robs everyone of access to the truth.

To be sure, many fervent believers in Islam resist such historical investigation. Even raising the question of whether Muhammad existed challenges the very premise of their belief system. No Muslim authorities have encouraged such scholarship, and those who have pursued this line of inquiry often labor under threat of death. But scholarly examinations of the origins of Christianity and Judaism have gone forward even as some Christians and Jews, including high religious authorities, condemned these historical inquiries as attempts to undermine their faith. Of course, other authorities have actually approved and even welcomed the inquiries. Islam, however, has remained largely exempt from such scrutiny.

For some fourteen hundred years, Islam has profoundly shaped the history and culture not only of the Near East but also of the entire world. At one point, the Islamic Empire stretched as far west as Spain and as far east as India, as far south as Sudan and as far north as the Caucasus. Over the centuries Islamic forces have repeatedly clashed with Western powers, whether it was in the initial wave of conquests that created the Islamic Empire, the clashes with the Crusaders of the Byzantine Empire over Christian holy lands, or the Ottoman Empire’s fierce efforts to control the Mediterranean in the sixteenth century. More recently, of course, the nature of the conflict has changed: No longer are traditional powers facing off on the battlefield; instead, Islamic jihadists are terrorizing unbelievers and seeking in various ways, including nonviolent subversion and the electoral process, to impose sharia law.

This long history of conflict demonstrates that there are pronounced differences between the Islamic tradition and the Judeo-Christian tradition of the West. And yet despite those differences, few have bothered to investigate how the Islamic tradition emerged and what those origins might tell us about the “clash of civilizations” that has been a defining feature of world history for well over a millennium.

Did Muhammad exist? The full truth of whether a prophet named Muhammad lived in seventh-century Arabia, and if he did, what sort of a man he was, may never be known. But it would be intellectually irresponsible not to ask the question or consider the implications of the provocative evidence that pioneering scholars have assembled.
Contrary to the common assumption, Islam and its supposed prophet did not emerge in the “full light of history.” Now, more than ever before, historical investigators have the opportunity—in fact, the responsibility—to usher Islam’s origins out of the shadows and into the light.

After the investigations of the book, “Did Muhammad Exist?” by Robert Spencer, here is what we know about the traditional account of Muhammad’s life and the early days of Islam:
• No record of Muhammad’s reported death in 632 appears until more than a century after that date.
• A Christian account apparently dating from the mid-630s speaks of an Arab prophet “armed with a sword” who seems to be still alive.
• The early accounts written by the people the Arabs conquered never mention Islam, Muhammad, or the Qur’an. They call the conquerors “Ishmaelites,” “Saracens,” “Muhajirun,” and “Hagarians,” but never “Muslims.”1
• The Arab conquerors, in their coins and inscriptions, don’t mention Islam or the Qur’an for the first six decades of their conquests. Mentions of “Muhammad” are nonspecific and on at least two occasions are accompanied by a cross. The word can be used not only as a proper name but also as an honorific.
• The Qur’an, even by the canonical Muslim account, was not distributed in its present form until the 650s. Contradicting that standard account is the fact that neither the Arabians nor the Christians and Jews in the region mention the Qur’an until the early eighth century.
• During the reign of the caliph Muawiya (661–680), the Arabs constructed at least one public building whose inscription was headed by a cross.
• We begin hearing about Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, and about Islam itself in the 690s, during the reign of the caliph Abd al-Malik. Coins and inscriptions reflecting Islamic beliefs begin to appear at this time also.
• Around the same time, Arabic became the predominant written language of the Arabian Empire, supplanting Syriac and Greek.
• Abd al-Malik claimed, in a passing remark in one hadith, to have collected the Qur’an, contradicting Islamic tradition that the collection was the work of the caliph Uthman forty years earlier.
• Multiple hadiths report that Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, governor of Iraq during the reign of Abd al-Malik, edited the Qur’an and distributed his new edition to the various Arab-controlled provinces—again, something Uthman is supposed to have done decades earlier.
• Even some Islamic traditions maintain that certain common Islamic practices, such as the recitation of the Qur’an during mosque prayers, date from orders of Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, not to the earliest period of Islamic history.
• In the middle of the eighth century, the Abbasid dynasty supplanted the Umayyad line of Abd al-Malik. The Abbasids charged the Umayyads with impiety on a large scale. In the Abbasid period, biographical material about Muhammad began to proliferate. The first complete biography of the prophet of Islam finally appeared during this era—at least 125 years after the traditional date of his death.
• The biographical material that emerged situates Muhammad in an area of Arabia that never was the center for trade and pilgrimage that the canonical Islamic account of Islam’s origins depends on it to be.

In short, the lack of confirming detail in the historical record, the late development of biographical material about the Islamic prophet, the atmosphere of political and religious factionalism in which that material developed, and much more suggest that the Muhammad of Islamic tradition did not exist, or if he did, he was substantially different from how that tradition portrays him.

(Source: “Did Muhammad Exist?” – Robert Spencer)

A DISPENSATIONAL VIEW OF THE GOSPELS IN SMALL CHUNKS (11)

February 18, 2020 HEAVENLY REMNANT MINISTRIESLeave a comment

0 Dispensationalism

CHAPTER III (CONTINUE)

THE EARLY JUDEAN MINISTRY (CONTINUE)

3. John’s Testimony to Jesus at Aenon
Reference: John 3:22-36

By way of review it will be remembered that Jesus went from Nazareth to the Jordan River, possibly near Bethabara to be baptized by John, then spent forty days in the wilderness of Judea in His temptation by the Devil. After that He returned to Galilee and called several disciples from the area of Bethsaida and then went to Cana where He attended the wedding and performed His first miracle. From Cana He went to Capernaum and then went to Jerusalem at the feast of Passover. There He cleansed the temple and had the discourse with Nicodemus. Then He left Jerusalem and went a little to the north in Judea with His disciples and was engaged in baptizing disciples. John the Baptist was also in this vicinity baptizing at Aenon near Salim. The first part of this section deals with the question of baptism and the latter with John’s testimony about Jesus.

A. The Question About Baptism. We read first of all that John was baptizing at Aenon because there was much water there. Those who claim that baptism means a complete submergence of the body often quote this text as proof of their teachings. However, the “much water” does not mean a lake or other large body of water. Aenon means “springs!” There were many springs there. Jewish washing ceremonies required either a large body of water, or living, running water, in order that the water would not become polluted. (Cf. Lev. 11:36. Also see Lev. 14:5,6,50,51,52; 15:13). The fact that John baptized where there were many springs in no way proves any particular mode of baptism.

We read that a question arose between John’s disciples and a Jew over purifying. We are not told what the question was, but it was probably brought about by the fact that both John and Jesus were baptizing and Jesus was baptizing more disciples than John; in fact it is stated that “all were coming to Jesus.” The question may have been about why both John and Jesus were baptizing, or whether one baptism was more efficacious than the other, or perhaps even why John was continuing to baptize after Jesus began His public ministry. All we are told is that the question was about purification. This establishes the fact that baptism was understood to effect a cleansing, or washing, or purification. This is a very important point to remember when studying the subject of water baptism. There are those who contend that baptism represents death, burial and resurrection. They get this idea from a misreading of Rom. 6:3,4. The baptism there is not a ceremony but the work of the Spirit of God in identifying the believer with Christ, so that the believer shares in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.

B. John’s Testimony About Jesus. We have commented earlier on John’s witness: “He must increase, but I must decrease.” John made it very plain that he never claimed to be the Messiah, but that he had been sent before the Messiah to prepare the way for Him. He then illustrated his relation to Christ as that of the best man (friend of the bridegroom) to the bridegroom, an illustration which is just as meaningful today as it was then. The best man is usually the best friend of the groom. It is not his business to glorify himself, but to do everything possible to help the groom and give him his rightful place of honor. His joy is fulfilled in seeing the happiness of the groom. The bride and groom relationship is used in the O.T., in the Gospels, in Paul’s epistles with the Church, and in the future Kingdom with Israel (cf. Isa. 62:4,5; Rom. 7:4; 2 Cor. 11:2; Eph. 5:31,32; Rev. 21:9; 19:7-10).

Vincent remarks that the change in style between vs. 30 and 31 indicates that John the Baptist’s words end with vs. 31, and the Evangelist John’s words begin in vs. 32. The contrast between the heavenly and the earthly in vs. 31 is similar to that in 1 Cor. 15:45-49.

The expression in vs. 33: “hath set to his seal” is old English legal terminology. It means that he has solemnly attested and confirmed the statement that God is true, or that he has affixed his seal to the document.

It will be noticed in vs. 34 “unto him” is in italics, which means it is not in the Greek text. The question arises, does God give the Spirit without measure to Christ, or does Christ give the Spirit to His disciples? We know of course that the Spirit was not given to the disciples until Christ ascended, but we believe these words were written by John many years after Pentecost. It seems evident that the Spirit was given in His fulness to Christ at His baptism, but here it is stated in vs. 35 that the Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into His hand. Giving things into His hand means not only possession, but authority or disposal (cf. Heb. 10:31 ). Therefore it would seem that John means that Jesus gives the Spirit to His disciples without measure.

In vs. 36 the A.V. fails to distinguish between two verbs: “The one believing on the Son has eternal life; the one not believing (not trusting or obeying) the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains upon him.” The second verb is peitho, which is variously translated: obey, trust, persuade, yield, have confidence. The usual word for believe, pisteuo, which occurs in the first part of the verse is derived from peitho. Actually the second verb has the alpha privative, which gives it a negative meaning, disobey, untrusting, unbelieving. This is the only time the word is used in John. The word shows that faith is more than mental assent to a fact. It involved committal, trust, obedience, or a lack of these qualities in the negative. John 3:36 is one of the favorite texts on assurance of salvation.

4. The Two Day Ministry in Samaria
Reference: John 4:1-42

A. The Reason Jesus Left Judea, 1-3. The reason given is that Jesus knew that the Pharisees had heard that He made and baptized more disciples than John. But why would this be a reason for Him to leave? Probably because of the hatred which had been generated by His action in cleansing the temple. The Pharisees could not tolerate another religious group which threatened their power in Israel. John was a big enough cause of trouble for the Pharisees, but if Jesus was becoming more popular than John, then they would have to do something drastic to get rid of Jesus. Jesus was not fleeing from trouble because of fear, but He had to finish His ministry in other regions and it would be soon enough when He would come back to Jerusalem to endure the wrath of the Pharisees. He had taught His disciples, “when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another” (Matt. 10:23).

A very interesting sidelight is given us here that when we read about Jesus baptizing disciples, it does not mean that Jesus Himself performed the actual baptizing, but that His disciples did this work. There may have been several reasons for this. In contrast to John or others who were baptizing with water, Jesus was to be set apart as the One who baptized with the Holy Spirit. Possibly if the same trouble developed as did at Corinth over baptism (cf. 1 Cor. 1:11-17), those who had been baptized by Jesus personally, if Jesus had done it Himself, would have thought themselves far superior to those who had been baptized by mere disciples. It would seem also from this usage that when Paul said he had baptized so few at Corinth it did not mean that he personally had baptized so few, leaving that work to his fellow-workers, but that under his preaching of the gospel he and his fellow-workers as a group baptized very few of the converted, simply because Christ had not sent him to baptize, as He had the Twelve, but to preach the Gospel.
Notice that John refers to Jesus in vs. 1 as “the Lord.” John recognized Jesus as Jehovah, the name most often translated LORD in the O.T. There is no doubt about the Deity of Christ in John’s Gospel.

B. He Must Needs Go Through Samaria, vs. 4. The most obvious reason He had to go through Samaria was that Samaria lay between Judea and Galilee, although Jews could go to the east of Jordan through Perea to avoid Samaria. However, there was another reason: to have this unusual ministry with the Samaritans. His action here may seem strange, since He forbad His disciples to minister to any city of the Samaritans or to the Gentiles (Matt. 10:5). Samaria was a splitoff from the nation of Israel, when the northern ten tribes rebelled and established their idolatrous nation under Jeroboam (1 Kgs. 12, 13). In the days of Christ it had a mixture of nationalities, since the king of Assyria had carried away many captives and had transplanted foreigners in their place.

It seems that God in His sovereignty often makes exceptions to His rules. Jesus not only ministered to these Samaritans but also to a Syrophenician woman and to a Roman centurion, but all of these were unusual circumstances. In accordance with prophecy, Israel had to be established and blessed before any blessing could go to the Gentiles. For that reason Jesus limited His earthly ministry to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. In time Samaria was to hear the Gospel of the Kingdom as well as the Gentiles (Acts. 1:8).
The Samaritans had their own copy of the five books of Moses, but apparently did not recognize any of the prophetic books. There still exists today a small community of Samaritans at Nablus and they still have their Samaritan Pentateuch.

C. The Woman At the Well, vs. 5-26. Jesus and His disciples stopped at noon at Jacob’s well, just outside the town of Sychar, where He rested while the disciples went into town to buy food. Sychar is mentioned only this once in the Bible. It is identified by some as the same as Shechem. Joseph’s tomb was in the area, and near by were the two mountains, Ebal and Gerizim, from which were pronounced the blessings and the cursings of the Law (Deut. 11:29; 27:12,13; Josh. 8: 33).

In a sense Jesus did not go to the Samaritans. He had to pass through Samaria and this woman actually came to Him. She was surprised when Jesus asked her for a drink of water, for she said the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. We get an example of the regard the Jews had for the Samaritans in John 8:48, when the Jews expressed their utter disrespect for Jesus by saying: “Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil?”

Although we see the true humanity of Jesus in the fact that His body was weary from the long journey and he was thirsty, yet we see also His Deity both in His claims of being able to give living water resulting in everlasting life, and in His knowledge about this woman, so that she had to say to the people of the city: “Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?”

There is a parallel between this woman and Nicodemus. Both show the inability of the natural mind to understand spiritual truth. Nicodemus asked, “How can a man enter the second time into his mother’s womb and be born again?” The woman asked: “Give me this living water so I won’t have to come in the heat of the day to draw water out of this deep well and carry it back to the village.”

When a person gets under conviction it is natural for him to change the subject. After Jesus had revealed her true character by telling her about her many husbands and her adultery, she changes the subject to where is the right place to worship God. Jesus did not exactly answer her question, but pointed out that true worship of God was not so much a matter of place but of heart. God is Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship in Spirit and truth. Jerusalem at the time was God’s appointed place: salvation is of the Jews. The Samaritans had departed so far from true worship that they didn’t really know what they were worshipping. Jesus said, “We know what we worship.”

The woman did possess a vital bit of knowledge. She said she knew that when Messiah comes, who is called the Christ, He will tell us all things. Whereupon Jesus confessed: “I that speak unto thee am he.” She must have believed at this point, for she left her waterpots and rushed back into town to tell everyone the good news.

D. The Reaction of the Disciples, vs. 27-38. The disciples were amazed to find Jesus talking to a woman, and a Samaritan at that, but they were afraid to ask Him why He was talking to her. So they set out the food they had bought and said, “Let’s eat.” But Jesus said, “I have food to eat that you don’t know about.” Again we see the insensibility on the part of the disciples to spiritual truth. Their minds were always on the level of the material. “Did someone bring Him food while we were gone to buy food?” Jesus then explained that His meat was to do the will of the Father and to finish the work He had given Him to do.

Jesus, as so often He did, pointed to something in nature at hand to illustrate His point. Looking over the green fields of grain, He said, “You will say, in four months it will be harvest time.” (This statement dates the season at which this event occurred.) And no doubt just about this time there could be seen streaming down the road the crowd of Samaritans coming to see this Man who had told the woman everything she ever did, who she said was the Christ. Jesus told the disciples to lift up their eyes and behold the fields which were already ripe for the harvest. But fields are not ripe for harvest unless the seed has been sown. Vs. 37 is a truth every servant of the Lord should remember:

“One soweth and another reapeth.” When souls are won to Christ it is because someone first sowed the seed. We may take credit for winning so many to Christ, but our efforts would have been in vain had not someone witnessed before. God often sends us to reap that whereon we bestowed no labor: others labored and we entered into their labors. These principles of seed sowing are inter-dispensational in nature. Whether it is the Gospel of the Kingdom or the Gospel of the Grace of God: one sows and another reaps (1 Cor. 3:6-8).

E. The Samaritans Come to Jesus, vs. 39-42. The Samaritan woman was probably the first woman preacher, and an unordained one at that. She got the whole city to turn out to hear Jesus. Many believed in Jesus because of her testimony and others said, “Now we believe, not because of your testimony; for we have heard him ourselves, and know this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.” This story should be compared with Acts 8:5-25, where Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached. This, of course, was after the death and resurrection of Christ, while the Kingdom Gospel was still being preached. The unusual thing about this experience is that many of the Samaritans believed and were baptized but did not receive the Spirit until Apostles came down from Jerusalem and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. At this point we need to turn back to Ezek. 37:15-28, to the sign of the two sticks. Samaria, or Ephraim as it was called in the O.T., had seceded from Judah and the true religion at Jerusalem in the days of Rehoboam and Jeroboam and from that time to the then present the nation was divided into two parts, represented by the two sticks. God had the prophet bind the two sticks together to make one stick, showing that God would some day bring the twelve tribes back into one nation. Doubtless, if Israel had been obedient and acknowledged Jesus as their Messiah and King, this union would have taken place. In Acts 8 Samaria is reached with the Kingdom Gospel, but it required the presence and authority of the Apostles to seal this ministry, and make the reception of the Samaritans official.

(Main Source: Understanding The Gospels – A Different Approach – Charles F. Baker)

QUESTIONS ABOUT THE FALL OF ADAM

February 17, 2020February 17, 2020 HEAVENLY REMNANT MINISTRIESLeave a comment

0 0 FALL OF ADAM 2

BACKGROUND

The Scriptural account of the fall provides an adequate explanation of man’s present fallen state and the evil that surrounds us. It is also upon this dark background that the bright glories of God’s mercy and grace appear. Only to the degree that we understand the tragedy of Adam and his condemnation can we comprehend something of the glories of Christ and His Gospel.

In any study of the fall, we are faced with some of the most important and complex theological questions in all of Scripture: the origin of evil, the nature of human freedom, the sovereignty of God, and His eternal purpose. Although what we know about these issues will always be mingled with a certain degree of mystery, it is necessary that we endeavour to know what we can. We will address the following questions below:

Did God ordain the fall?

What is God’s eternal purpose in the fall?

The Scriptures affirm that the fall was not due to any fault of the Creator. All God’s works are perfect (Deuteronomy 32:4), He cannot be tempted by sin (James 1:13), nor does He tempt others with sin (James 1:13). The blame for the fall rests squarely upon the shoulders of Adam. As Ecclesiastes 7:29 declares, “Behold, I have found only this, that God made men upright, but they have sought out many devices.”

This truth presents one of the greatest theological problems in all the Scriptures: how is it possible that a creature created in the image of God came to choose evil and sin? Adam and Eve had a true inclination toward good, and there was nothing corrupt or evil in them to which temptation might appeal. How such righteous beings could choose evil over good, and choose the words of a serpent over the commands of their Creator, is beyond human comprehension.

There have been numerous attempts throughout history to explain the fall of Adam, but none of them is without its limitations. We must therefore be content with the simple truth of Scripture that although God made man righteous and holy, he was finite and mutable (i.e. subject to change) and capable of making a choice contrary to the will of God.

DID GOD ORDAIN THE FALL?

The word ordain means to put in order, arrange, or appoint. To ask if God ordained the fall is to ask if He put it in order, arranged it, or appointed that it to occur. Other words that carry similar meaning are: “decree,” “predetermine,” and “predestine.” Did God determine beforehand or decree that the fall should occur? The answer to this question is “yes,” but we must be very careful that we understand what this does and does not mean.

God’s ordaining of the fall does not mean that He forced Satan to tempt our first parents, or that He coerced them to disregard His command. What God’s creatures did, they did willingly. God is holy, just, and good. He does not sin, cannot be tempted by sin, and He does not tempt anyone to sin.

God’s ordaining of the fall does mean that it was certain to happen. It was God’s will that Adam be tested, and it was God’s will to let Adam both stand and fall alone without the divine aid which could have kept him from falling. God could have hindered Satan from laying the temptation before Eve, or in the face of such temptation He could have given Adam special sustaining grace to enable him to triumph over it. From the testimony of the Scriptures, we understand that He did not.

God’s ordaining of the fall also means that it was a part of His eternal plan. Before the foundation of the world, before the creation of Adam and Eve and the serpent that tempted them, before the existence of any garden or tree, God ordained the fall for His glory and the greater good of His creation. He did not merely permit our first parents to be tempted and then wait to react to whatever choice they made. He did not merely look through the corridors of time and see the fall. Rather, the fall was a part of God’s eternal plan and He predetermined or predestined that it should and would happen.

At this point a very important question arises:

“Is God the author of sin?”

This question can and should be answered with a strong negative. God is not the author of sin, nor does He coerce men to sin against Him. Although He predetermined that the fall should and would happen, He also predetermined that it should happen through the willing actions of Satan, Adam, and Eve. Although our finite minds cannot fully comprehend how God can be absolutely sovereign over every event of history and over every individual act without destroying individual freedom, the Scriptures abound with examples that demonstrate this to be true. Joseph was sold into slavery as a result of the willful sin of his brothers, and yet when the final story was told, Joseph declared, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive” (Genesis 50:20). The Son of God was crucified as a result of man’s willful sin and hostility toward God, and yet God had ordained or predetermined the death of Christ before the foundation of the world. In the Scriptures we read:

“… this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death.” -Acts 2:23

“For truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur.” -Acts 4:27-28

From the Scriptures, we see that God does ordain or predetermine an event to occur and yet brings it to pass through the willful sin of men. He does this without being the author of their sin or coercing them to do that which is against their will. Godless men willfully nailed Jesus Christ to the cross and were responsible for their actions, but the entire event was according to the predetermined plan of God. The fall of Satan, and the later fall of the human race through Adam and Eve, were the results of their own sin for which they alone were responsible, and yet the events came to pass according to the ordained, predetermined, predestined plan of God. God has decreed a great eternal purpose for His creation and has ordained every event of history by which that purpose is being fulfilled. Nothing, not even the fall of man or the death of God’s Son, occurs apart from the sovereign decree of God.

“Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For “who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor?” Or “who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to Him again?” For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.” -Romans 11:33-36

“… In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will….” -Ephesians 1:10-11

WHAT IS GOD’S ETERNAL PURPOSE IN THE FALL?

Having demonstrated that the fall was the result of the creature’s willful disobedience and yet also according to the eternal purpose of God, it is now necessary that we endeavor to know that eternal purpose. In light of the evil and suffering that has resulted from the fall, it may seem difficult to accept that there can be any good purpose in it. Nevertheless, God’s Word assures us that there is such a purpose.

We know from the Scriptures that the creation of the universe, the fall of man, the nation of Israel, the cross of Christ, the Church, and the judgment of the nations have one great and final purpose. It is that the fullness of God’s attributes be revealed to His creation and that all creation know Him, glorify Him, and fully enjoy Him as God.

THE FULL REVELATION OF GOD ’S ATTRIBUTES

God created the universe to be a theatre upon which He might display the infinite glory and worth of His being and attributes, that He might be fully known, worshipped, and enjoyed by His creation. It has been said by many that the fall of man is the pitch-black sky upon which the stars of God’s attributes shine with the greatest intensity of glory. It is only through the fall and the advent of evil that the fullness of God’s character may truly be known.

When the Christian worships God, what are the attributes that seem most dear to him? Are they not God’s mercy, grace, and unconditional love? Are these not the divine attributes most exalted in all the great hymns of the Church? Yet how could these attributes be known except through the fall of man?

Unconditional love can only be manifest upon men who do not meet the conditions. Mercy can only be poured forth from the throne of God upon men who deserve condemnation. Grace can only be granted to men who have done nothing to earn it. Our fallenness is our doing, for which we are obliged to take full responsibility. Yet it is through the dark theatre of our fallenness that the grace and mercy of God takes the centre stage and shine forth upon an audience of both men and angels. It is in the salvation of fallen man that the wisdom, grace, and mercy of God are revealed, not only to man but also to every created being in heaven, earth, and hell.

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” -Ephesians 2:4-7

“To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things; so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.” -Ephesians 3:8-10

THE FULL REVELATION OF THE GLORIES OF CHRIST

The greatest work of God is the death and resurrection of the Son of God for the salvation of God’s people. However, if man had not fallen there would have been no Calvary and no Savior. The very thing that most explains God (John 1:18), draws us to Him (John 12:32), and causes us to love Him (I John 4:10, 19) would be gone.

What would take its place? What other means could have been used to demonstrate the immeasurable mercies of God? Christ crucified is the great theme of every worthy Christian hymn, sermon, conversation, and thought. Without the fall, redemption would be unknown to us. We would be like the angels, longing to look upon something that we would never and could never experience (I Peter 1:12).

It is wrong, and near blasphemy, to even hint that the cross of Christ was a mere Plan “B” that was employed only because of Adam’s wrong choice in the garden. The cross is the main event to which every other work of God’s providence points. All things stand in its shadow. In one sense, the cross was necessary because of the fall, but in another sense, the fall was necessary so that the glories of God in the cross of Christ might be made fully known.

THE FULL REVELATION OF THE CREATURE’S DEPENDENCE

One of the most awe-inspiring and humbling truths about God is that He is absolutely free from any need or dependence (Acts 17:24-25). His existence, the fulfillment of His will, and His happiness or good pleasure do not depend upon anyone or anything outside of Himself. He is the only being who is truly self-existent, self-sustaining, self-sufficient, independent, and free. All other beings derive their life and blessedness from God, but God finds all that is necessary for His own existence and perfect happiness in Himself (Psalm 16:11; Psalm 36:9).

The existence of the universe requires not only the initial act of creation but also the continued power of God to sustain it (Hebrews 1:3). If He were to withdraw His power for even one moment, all would turn to chaos and destruction. This same truth may be applied to the character of moral beings, whether angels or men. Adam in paradise and Satan in heaven, although created righteous and holy, could not stand apart from the sustaining grace of an Almighty God. How much less are we able to stand and how much more quickly would we fall apart from the same sustaining grace? The fall, therefore, provides the greatest example of our constant need for God. If we cannot continue our existence beyond our next breath except for God’s preservation, how much less are we able to maintain any semblance of righteousness before Him apart from His grace (John 15:4-5; Philippians 2:12-13)?

(SOURCE: THE TRUTH ABOUT MAN – PAUL WASHER)

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