To all of my family and friends, who think that I have become too religious, fanatical, or that I am one of those Christians who push their religion down everyone’s throat’s, please consider this; If I truly believe what the Bible says about Hell, if I believe all people who have not repented of sin and put their faith in Christ are going to spend eternity in Hell, having the wrath of God poured out on them forever, and I just live my happy little life without warning you of the Hell to come for you, how is that loving? I would be actively hating you and not obedient to God. My love for Him and you compels me to warn you! Wake up! A faith in God is fine. Everyone believes in God. Even the devil and the demons believe in God so you are in the company of demons, congratulations. The Faith that saves is more than just an intellectual affirmation that God exists and you believe in Him. You might even affirm that Jesus is God and that He died for your sins, that won’t save you either. Many people sit in Church on Sunday and say they believe, but they have not been crucified with Christ. They have not been born again as a new person. They don’t even understand what that means, because it hasn’t happened to them. They think they are, but they can’t know until God has regenerated them, and justified them, granting them true faith and repentance that leads to life. You can believe in God and live the same life you were before, because you don’t truly believe what He says, or what He has done. Truly believing in God means you will believe what He says and live life according to His truth. So what you do will seem strange to everyone who does not trust what He says in His word. If I explain to you how a parachute works and how you are to use it, but if you act as if you don’t truly believe me or trust me, or the parachute, when the airplane is in trouble, you will sit in your seat and hope for the best as you plummet to your death. If what I had told you changed your thinking towards the parachute, you will put it on and use it. Faith applied in action is true faith. It must change you. You must behave as it is true. If I were the only one who could truly see that there was a pit of fire in front of millions of people and they were all about to fall in, even if I warned them, they would insist I was crazy, but what if I wasn’t? What if they were just blind to it? Christians truly see what is actual, because God has opened their eyes. If you are not truly saved you are blind to the hell to come. We simply love you too much to not warn you. Repent, turn away from your sins, let them go, don’t hold on to any remnant of your old life, let the old man be killed and buried, be born anew as a servant of God. Believe Him and His work on the cross. Jesus is God and He has shed His precious blood to pay for your sins. Believe in and on Him for your salvation and live out the new life He has brought you into.
Tag: Jesus
It is Time to Stop Praying for God to Bless America, Now What?
As the satanists in Detroit go to celebrate the unveiling of a 9 ft. tall 1 ton idol of their god, we have to see this against the backdrop of everything else that is happening in our once great nation. The picture below is of a statue of baphomet or satan. You can see the little children there looking up at him, the goat head, horns, and pentagram on his forehead.
At least half of us Americans want gay marriage to be legal and moral, are fine with abortions as long as they are safe for the mother, want drugs to be legal and moral, are fine with divorce and bluntly don’t see the need for such an antiquated notion like marriage. After all, most of us, myself and perhaps a few of you, were raised by a single mother. We also want to not work and have everything free to us. I wonder, if this is what people want when they exercise their free will, if there isn’t a better way? I say, “Let’s all be slaves of Christ and give up our sinful wills!” This illusion that we are somehow basically good is nonsense! Without God restraining us from being as evil as we could be, it would be like the days of Noah, but worse. Just look around and see how it is now!
So my solution, the only one I see, is that we as Christians start praying for God to violate everyone’s will in this country. I want Him to discipline us as sons. I want Him to crush the proud and humble them. I want Him to bring all the sinners to repentance and faith in Him. After all, He is the only one, true, and living God. So let’s pray for God to discipline America as a nation. Let’s pray for Him to make us repent. Don’t let us have a choice, because we know what we would choose, just like the Israelites chose the gold calf and orgies when God used Moses to bring them forth from Egypt. We would choose the same. So, we don’t want a choice for America! No, we want God’s will for America! We want all of us, as a nation to repent and believe upon Jesus Christ as our Lord, Master, Creator, and Savior!
God and Man, How does that work? The Hypostatic Union… Duh!
God and Man, How does that work? The Hypostatic Union… Duh!
I remember pondering how Jesus could be man and God without having being changed. I also used to wonder how Jesus could be God and die on the cross. After all, God can’t die. If He could He wouldn’t be God. Well, I’m glad to say that more brilliant men than I have studied long and hard to explain my problems away. So let’s take advantage of what these men, who have come before us had figured out. The doctrine of the hypostatic union is pretty simple to understand, but has some very profound implications.
ὑπόστασις hypostasis, is a Greek word that for our purposes means, substance or subsistence. When we speak of this in regards to Jesus, we are explaining how the God nature and the man nature are joined. I used to have an extremely basic understanding of Jesus. I thought that Jesus was God incarnate, and that’s where it ended. I didn’t understand past that idea. We know that Jesus was not always incarnate. We also know that He is not a demigod. For instance the mythical Hercules was believed to be a demigod. He was said to be the physical product of a carnal relation between Zeus and Alcmene. Zeus was a mythical god of the Greeks. Alcmene was his human mother, whom Zeus had relations with, according to Greek mythology. Thus, Hercules was understood to be the mingled half natures of god and man. That is what a demigod is. Jesus is not a demigod. He is 100% fully God and 100% fully human, perfectly joined, without mingling the two distinct natures. It is very important that we understand this.
Jesus was always God and will always be God. At the incarnation, some people make the false, heretical statement that God changed in nature via the incarnation. This error is because they don’t understand the immutable nature of God or they don’t affirm it. They struggle to justify Jesus being man and God. They lack the tools to see how both can be true. We know from God’s word that it is all true and if there is a seeming conflict between what we see as mutually exclusive statements, the problem has to be with our limited understanding and not God’s word. If we start with that as our presupposition we can approach the Bible in faith and accept what has been said. I accepted the trinity on faith for a long time, until it started making more sense to me. Now I affirm it with reason that has been reformed by God in addition to faith.
If Jesus always existed as the eternal Son, who had no human body, then by the power of God, a body was made for Him in the womb of Marry, and at that moment His God nature was forever joined to His human nature, being 100% God and 100% man, perfectly joined, without mixing, having two complete distinct natures, then He could fulfill the work that was ahead of Him. Only a man could represent other men. Only a man could die. It is impossible for God to die or be killed. Only a man could experience life and temptation as a man. Man had inherited death from Adam. Only Jesus broke that chain, by being born of the virgin and power of God via the Holy Spirit. Only God could live a sinless life. Only God could fulfill all righteousness. Only God could survive the punishment on the cross until it was paid for. All of the eternities of torment in Hell, owed by all the sinners who would be saved, was poured out on Jesus during the crucifixion. Think about it. We cannot conceive of eternity, let alone an eternity of punishment. He didn’t just survive for one person, but all that would be saved. A human could not have survived the punishment of his own sins, not to mention anyone else’s. It was necessary for Jesus to be God and man. Not only is it necessary, but it makes absolute sense when we think about it.
Jesus speaks of Sovereign election in John 6
“All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. “This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. “For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.”
(John 6:37-40 NASB)
“No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. “It is written in the prophets, ‘AND THEY SHALL ALL BE TAUGHT OF GOD.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me.
(John 6:44-45 NASB)
“But there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who it was that would betray Him. And He was saying, “For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father.”
(John 6:64-65 NASB)
So Jesus said to the twelve, “You do not want to go away also, do you?” Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. “We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.” Jesus answered them, “Did I Myself not choose you, the twelve, and yet one of you is a devil?” Now He meant Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray Him.
(John 6:67-71 NASB)
The Worship of the Pseudo-god Called Love.
There are many people who refer to themselves as Christians, who elevate love to the supreme arbiter of what is good and evil. Sure they confess belief in God, but they have made an all permissive god to worship. These people cast down all doctrines and theology that would threaten their pseudo-god. They do this in the name of love. The problem is that they themselves do not really know what true love is. They have never experienced it. If they had, they surely would not act and believe the way they do.
God is love that is for certain, but love is not God. Many of us have heard this axiom and concur with it. It is obvious to people who have truly experienced God’s love. People who haven’t, who argue for their type of love being imposed on their concept of God, can’t possibly wrap their minds around true love. They cannot, because they don’t understand their complete sinful corruption in contrast to the complete and perfect holiness of God.
God is love yes, but not at the exclusion of His holiness, righteousness, goodness, justice, knowledge, or any of His other many attributes which He is the perfection of. When these theologically liberal types come around espousing a loving benevolent god who has no requirements of man other than being vessels of His love, we need to remind them that they are wrong. They fail to see how bad their sin is compared to how good God is. They can’t fathom the gap. In their minds, they deserve a loving god who would condescend to save them, where they are at without repentance. After all they, aren’t that bad compared to those orthodox bullies, who insist on adhering to the word of God.
It is true that God condescended, to leave majesty in the personage of Christ, with the purpose of making atonement for sin, to justify men to Himself. This work cost God greatly. It came in the form of suffering. Christ suffered the wrath that we had coming to us. He was also cut off from the Father at that moment on the cross. God’s grace is not free in that sense. He paid a great price to redeem His elect.
We, as the elect must count the cost of being born again. As the elect, we are the only ones who count the cost as worthwhile. The unrepentant sinner will count the cost as too steep. He won’t be able to put the proper value on it. This is due to his high view of himself and his low view of God. This leads to a rejection. They reject everything from God that requires them to be completely surrendered to His will as expressed in His word.
Some will lead people to a false faith, that has no cost for them. They don’t preach the personal cost of true repentance and submission in surrender to their Lord and Master. When one comes to a knowledge of their personal guilt before the one true and Holy God, they can see how utterly lacking they are in the ability to be good enough. They can’t measure up. It is impossible. Only God is or could be good enough to satisfy the requirements of God. This leaves the left crying, “That’s not fair! The god I worship would never make the requirements so very unattainable. They would be correct, because the true God is not the god that they worship.
They worship a god that is purported to love all people unconditionally, instead of a God who loves people to such a degree that He satisfies the conditions for them perfectly. The type of love that God has for us will not leave us in our sins, unrepentant. It changes a person. Those He has predestined, He will grant true faith and repentance that leads to salvation.
The liberal group sees no need to preach about sin and repentance. They just preach that we should love everyone and accept them just the way they are. They preach that god does the same. Before I go on, God does love people who are not friends of the world. He does have a love for His creation, albeit not the same love He has for His elect. He loved us while we were yet sinners. The difference is, that the one who is truly loved by God, begins to understand how depraved they are. They begin to see how good He is. They see the price He paid on the cross for them. They feel true remorse and are humbled. They begin to hate their sin and love Him more than their own will. They pray for Him to do away with their will, for it only brings sorrow to them. They desire for His will to become their will. This means that all things that He hates, they begin to hate and all things He loves they begin to love. This is a product of His sanctifying work after He has justified them.
So a person, who rejects the will of God in favor of their fallen, sinful, concept of love, stays in their sins and under condemnation. They haven’t experienced true love that saves and sanctifies. To follow them seems right to men. So in the name of love and tolerance they accept abominations upon abominations. When those who have been justified by God’s amazing grace attempt to share the true good news with them they are decried as intolerant, bigots, haters, Pharisees, and homophobes.
If your spouse, or children agree with you all of the time, and that is why you love them, then you don’t love them. You love your beliefs.
If your spouse, or children agree with you all of the time, and that is why you love them, then you don’t love them. You love your beliefs.
I saw this sentiment on fb last night. It got me thinking. How many of us predicate our love for others based on what they believe? I find myself only wanting to associate with people who believe the same as I do. It is easier. There are less arguments and troubles. I guess that is why God is clear in His word that we should as believers only marry other believers. Inside Christianity there are divergent beliefs, that aren’t necessarily unorthodox. We disagree about eschatology, freewill, complimentarianism vs. egalitarianism and so on. If you find yourself not loving a person because they don’t agree with you down the line, I would say that you have a big problem. You do only love your beliefs and not the people God has brought into your life. If beliefs don’t matter in regards to how you love someone, then your love begins to look more like the converting love of God. God loves the unregenerate sinner whom He has sovereignly elected, not on the basis of what they believe about Him, but according to His will. He changes their beliefs out of His love for them. He makes them able to believe in Him. When we love our children, we need to realize that they are not little clones of us. They will develop their own beliefs and ideas. We can’t stop loving them when they stop agreeing with us. Most parents will understand this and agree. Others will not. Our spouses one day might express a sentiment that catches us off guard. We might even wonder if they are the same person we have been married to for all of those years. Don’t let that stop you from loving them. Your love is not for their beliefs, it is supposed to be from the excess of God’s love, that you love others. Love them not on their merit, but because God has commanded it and it is who you are now. Love as fully, selflessly, and cheerfully as you possibly can. Of course beliefs matter. They matter in many different ways. If we believe incorrectly about who Jesus was then we are not saved. I’m not saying beliefs don’t matter. I am saying they shouldn’t be why you love your kids, spouse, or others. Love doesn’t mean giving up your beliefs. Love doesn’t mean you have to agree with them. Love will compel you to share your heart for the truth as you know it. You will lovingly share the truth with them. They can agree or disagree, but we still need to love them, not their beliefs.
A prayer from the penitent heart.
A prayer from the penitent heart.
Dear Lord, I did, “it” again. I feel so pathetic and weak. I hate that I don’t even fight that hard against, “it.” I hate that I do, “it” over and over again. Each time I come to you in my failure, asking your forgiveness again. I don’t even think about your suffering on the cross when I do, “it.” If it does come to mind I push it out. I let the temptation take hold. Then it rushes into my mind to fill it. It becomes a compulsion. I can’t stop, “it” from being my only consuming thought. At the time, I know, “it” is not good, and I willfully choose to do, “it” anyway. I have a mortal idea of what, “it” cost you on the cross, but I disgustingly disregard it so the sinful compulsion can run its course. I know that after, I’ll come groveling to your feet again like some worm, some unreasoning beast, who has no self-control. Why don’t I have victory? Why can’t I stop, “it?” Is it because I am trying in my own power? Is there a lesson I’m supposed to be learning? Am I being humbled? Is this sin to keep me from being proud? Or am I truly saved? Am I a false convert? How can I have assurance? None of my Christian friends are dealing with, “it.” They all have it together. I never see them struggle. Lord! Help me! I’m so sick with, “it.” Sick of, “it.” I’ve prayed and prayed for you to take, “it” away from me, yet, “it” remains. I can’t take, “it” anymore. I just want to be completely obedient to you, but I can’t. “It” won’t let me. It keeps assaulting me over and over. I keep giving myself to, “it” when all I want is to be yours. Please forgive me again?
Have you ever felt like this? Replace, “it” with whatever sin it is that you are constantly being overcome by. We hear lots of things as Christians that can cause us doubt. Many different voices speak into our lives. Some of those are lying, some are accusers, some are genuine convictions. There is unhealthy shame and there is good shame. One shame leads to a legalistic self-flogging over and over again that is never good enough. One leads you to the feet of the one Who took the floggings and the wrath that you deserve. He can justify you once and for all time. He can make right every, “it” you’ve committed, and every, “it” you will commit. I it sounds weird to think about Jesus paying for sins you haven’t even thought of committing yet. He is God in the flesh. Like it says in John 1:1-14, He created everything there is and ever will be. Don’t you think that God would know everything that you would do?
Justification is a fancy theological word that means God has made your record clean for all time. He paid for all of your sins. On judgment day, He will see His own perfect righteousness when He looks at you, instead of your, “it” that you are so ashamed of. That, “it” is gone! That is what you are free of. He has nailed it to the cross and by faith you have been crucified with Him. Your old self loved the, “it” all the time. You never gave God a single thought. You didn’t care what He thought. If you have come to a place where you do care, where you have been broken over how disgusting, “it” is, where you care about Jesus’ suffering for you on the cross, and it has caused you to hate the, “it” like the person praying that prayer above, if you have turned from your love of all the, “its” in your life, to love Jesus for His work to save you from the punishment that all the, “its” make you deserving of then through repentance and faith in the work of Jesus who loves you, you are justified! You are saved, once and for all, and Jesus will keep you saved, He will keep saving you like a cleansing rain pouring over you continuously, for the rest of your life. What He makes clean never gets dirty again. He is God and can’t loose what He has hold of. He has hold of you. Your grip might be weak, and your grip will fail, but His never will.
Sometimes we let our failures become His failures. This doubt and lack of faith usually comes from listening to the voice of the accuser and not listening to God’s word. Sanctification is another fancy theological word that just means, God is maturing you. He is separating you from your old love of the, “its” and is helping you to love Him more instead of all the sin. This process takes the rest of our lives. It is only finished when we go to Heaven. I’m not telling you to go on sinning and letting the, “its” run your life. If we love Jesus we won’t do that. We will fight against them. Some of them will fall easily and others will make us feel like an ant punching an elephant’s toe. Keep in mind when the giant, “it” squashes you, that Jesus has already won the war. Your little battle doesn’t determine who the victor is in the war. There is no power anywhere that could defeat our Savior. We fight because we love Him. Even if our efforts seem like they are pathetic and useless. We carry on, knowing that He has justified us and will keep sanctifying us. Just have faith and love Jesus more. Turn from the, “its” at all costs. Fight them with all the strength of Heaven at your disposal. When you fail, know that He has got the victory for you and cling to Him who saves you.
The Cost of Sin, Then and Now.
During my reading of Leviticus I noticed the personal cost associated with sin under the sacrificial system. Of course this is only one aspect of the sacrificial system to learn about. There are others, but this one struck me today. The notion that there is a price to be paid, a sacrifice that has tangible personal expense, that must be paid. A bull, one that is perfect, a ram that is perfect, a lamb that is perfect, these creatures were meaningful to their owners. They were a source of many staples. They had a value to them. They were not easy and free. They could not be easily replaced. It took work to replace them. It took work to sacrifice them. It took faith to believe that it was efficacious. On this side of the incarnation it is something we can look back at and marvel. We can appreciate the sovereignty of God more when we see His plan in the past and the perfection of it in the crucifixion of Christ. We live in a new covenant with God. The old covenant magnifies Christ Jesus. Let us do the same in thought, word, deed, and prayer.
A Review of Todd Friel’s Book, “Jesus Unmasked: The Truth Will Shock You”
The title of this book is pretty indicative of the subject matter. The author succeeds at explaining who Jesus was and is. He teaches that Christ is the focus of the Bible in its entirety. He demonstrates how Jesus is the fulfillment of the prophecies, shadows and types. All of this is done with simple terms when possible. When it is not possible Mr. Friel explains the nomenclature for the laymen.
I have to make a small disclaimer here. I am a big fan of, “Wretched Radio.” It is a radio show and podcast. Todd Friel is the host/on-air personality. I have learned a lot, a lot, a lot, from the show over the years. My review will be from the perspective of a Reformed Baptist and a fan of the show. So don’t expect much in the way of negativity. I honestly agree with all of what is said in the book. I find it to be Biblically sound and interesting to read. It is a, “must read” for everybody. If you’ve just been born again or if you’ve been 50 years into the sanctification process this book will edify you.
In the first chapter the author deals with world views, specifically post-modernism. This was a great place to start as a philosophy class on epistemology would not be beneficial for the target audience. This is a short chapter that sets the tone for the rest of the book. You get a look at the serious subject matter and a look at some of Todd’s humor that makes him such an interesting fellow to listen to. It is obvious that he has a level of mastery of the subject matter without coming off as an aloof overlord.
The following chapters flesh out some basics of Christian theology in simple terms. Then he gets down to the bulk of the work, which is highlighting Christ from the beginning of the Bible to the end. Vary rarely in Christian books of around 200 pages do we get such a complete and profound picture of Jesus. Most of the books I’ve reviewed in the recent past have been theological fluff, Christian cotton candy, hardly worth reading at all. You know how you feel after eating junk for a month? Yep! That’s how most “Christian books” leave me feeling after reading them. They were time killers with not nutritional value. I probably would have got more out of them if I’d eaten them. Well, that is not so of this work. I would rank it up there with, “The Holiness of God” by R. C. Sproul, or maybe, “Crazy Love” by Francis Chan.
The main way that the author highlights Christ throughout the entire Bible is by expounding on the prophecies, shadows, and types, that Jesus fulfills. This can be a bit tricky. I’ve seen some pretty bad attempts that only make the Bible look disjunct. When done correctly, as in this case, the Bible comes alive. The harmony of scripture sings to the heart and mind of the believer who sees the richness and majesty of the true faith established once and for all by God. Being able to see the ark Noah built and understand that it is a look forward to Jesus. Seeing the rock that sprang forth lifesaving water in the desert for the Israelites, and how Jesus is the better fount. Seeing the Sabbath, from our perspective, looking back to recognize rest in Christ’s work. These and many more examples fill the pages of this book. The gospel is fleshed out fully and explicitly. You won’t find a list of, “do’s” to check off, and you won’t find some silly, formulaic, “pray this prayer.” You will understand who Jesus is, what you are, what He has done, and how you should respond. If you have loved ones who aren’t saved, get them this book. If you have friends or family who are young in their faith, get them this book. If you have become a crusty old codger, get yourself this book. It will blow the carbon out of the old exhaust and get you fired up again.
You can buy this book from the wretched store.
You can pick up a copy at Christianbook.com
You can purchase it from the publisher Newleaf
or you can get it on Amazon in different formats including audio.
What about those shepherds?
OK friends so check this out. Abel was a shepherd. Abraham was a shepherd and led the people out according to the promise of God. Moses was a shepherd in Midian and led the people out of bondage according to God’s will. They rebelled and he led them around the wilderness. David was a shepherd boy who became a King and led the people. God sent an angel to reveal to shepherds where the Christ was born. The shepherds led us to the Baby Jesus in the manger. Jesus is our shepherd who leads us out of bondage to sin according to God’s will. Cool…
Snyder's Soapbox 